One of the first games I played on a computer was Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons.
As a quick introduction, the game starts after you select a character, who will have an affiliation to a naval nation - Portugal, England, Turkey, etc.
The main goal is to complete the character's story by completing story quests, that are typically advanced by gaining fame as an adventurer, pirate, or trader.
All characters are capable of being any of these "professions", though their main stories favour a particular type, and, consequently, each character will have skills and abilities that lean toward that type.
Nevertheless, you are free to buck the trend and fulfil your desire to become Captain Jack Sparrow or Hector Barbossa (you can even target other pirates), become a virtual millionaire by trading exotic goods (or run tried-and-tested local trade routes), even sate your wanderlust by exploring unknown parts of the world.
The maps were fairly accurate and remembering important ports' locations and information (like what goods were sold there and where the market was) helped kickstart my education on Geography.
I particularly enjoyed the free-play aspect of the game and still play it from time to time. As it was a DOS game, I've had to use an emulator - DOSBox - to play it on a modern PC.
If you've played this game before, or any like it, let me know!
A School Senior Asked For My Input
Being asked for input makes a person feel valued.
And being able to see the results of the input contributes tremendously to that feeling.
When I was in Secondary 2, one of my seniors was writing an article for a magazine targeted at teenagers.
He was tasked to visit and write a review about an unusual restaurant that served fried scorpions, ants, and the like. As I understood it, the concept was grounded in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Because he was coming up with questions to ask the owner, he asked if I might be able to come up with one.
I gave him the first question that came to my mind - "Where did the supplies of scorpions and other exotic ingredients come from?"
He said that it was a good question and, if I recall correctly, I saw the question and answer in the published article a couple of months later.
It wasn't some huge accomplishment on my part, but I felt that I had contributed in some small way, and I felt valued because my senior could easily have left it out or not bothered to ask me to begin with.
In part because of this, I frequently ask my students for their thoughts on how to improve their learning experience. If I can, I implement it as soon as possible, so that they can see that their suggestions do make a difference.
What Have You Been Doing With Your Life?
Every 1st day of the month, at 12 noon, the Public Warning System in Singapore plays a chime reminiscent of church bells.
When I was much younger, I wondered which church it was that was able to do that so loudly and so close by.
These days, I refer to it as the "What have you been doing with your life?" bell.
And, in the past year, I can't say I have a very good answer.
It's been quite a roller-coaster ride, and I'm not a fan of roller-coasters.
Some day soon, though, I will have a great answer to that question.
And I look forward to it.
If You Cannot Explain It, You Don't Know Know It Enough.
There was a mentoring programme when I was in Temasek Polytechnic studying Biotechnology.
Senior students were matched with their juniors, who could seek their help in understanding difficult subject concepts.
The programme was meant to benefit both the juniors and the seniors (and, I suppose indirectly, the lecturers as well).
As one of my lecturers put it,
"If you cannot explain your subject to someone else, you don't know it well enough."