Here's a prime example of "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"; offered by an English professor from the University of Colorado for an actual class assignment:

 

The professor told his class one day: "Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right.

 

As homework tonight, one of you will write the first paragraph of a short story. You will e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another copy to me. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story and send it back, also sending another copy to me. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back-and-forth. Remember to re-read what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached."

 

The following was actually turned in by two of his English students:

Rebecca and Gary.

 

==============================================================

 

THE STORY: (first paragraph by Rebecca)

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was out of the question.

 

(Second paragraph by Gary)
Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

 

(Rebecca)
He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspaper to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

 

(Gary)
Little did she know, but she had less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dimwitted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the unilateral Aerospace disarmament Treaty through the congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion, which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.

 

(Rebecca)
This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.

 

(Gary)
Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh, shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some other sort of F--KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do? I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many Danielle Steele novels!"

 

(Rebecca)
As*h@le.

 

(Gary)
B*tch!

 

(Rebecca)
F**K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!!

 

(Gary)
In your dreams, Ho. Go drink some tea.

 

(TEACHER)
A+ - I really liked this one

 

 

Wow .. a week has passed and I don't seem doing something with my holiday plan! Life extremely hectic in office and I've been going back to office on Sat. Felt so satisfied as able to accomplish quite a fair bit of stuff on the quiet sleepy Sat.  Peaceful and no disruptions as compared with normal work days.

 

I changed my mind of going to Cambodia. I don't have the time to research of the place. Alot of homework need to be done as I'll be taking up a Free & Easy Package. Stranded on the cultural-rich-non-very-developed place without knowing what to do is something I want to avoid. I need to re-identify my traveling objectives. I want a hassle free and relaxing break. A place that I can kick off my shoes and laze around without having the stress to do anything. Hrmm .. I've a place in mind, that is Bintan, Indonesia. 45mins ferry trip from Singapore to that small little island. I'm going to hibernate there for a 2 nights. I would bringing my parents along too. Ahhhh ... I can't wait for the day to come.

 

Okay, I need to go back to where I stop. I brought some work back from office. I'm a damned workho-junkie now. hehe ..Till then

 

Oh yea, I'm experiencing problem signing in the MSN, anybody know what happened???

 

Okay, I've shortlisted 2 places tht I want to go. First is Lake Toba in Medan, North Sumatra Indonesia. Second will be Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Initially, I'm very game to visit Lake Toba.

 

After a few search thru the Internet, it seems a splendid place to visit. Lake Toba is the largest lake in SEA that measure up to 100km in length. It is also known to be the deepest lakes in the world! The climate said to be pleasant and cool. ERrrm ..tempting. This is just what I'm needed. A cool, breezy, quiet and peaceful gateaway. However, I'm not really comfortable with the place though. There were earthquakes and recent volcano erruptions. Medan is the 3rd largest city in Indonesia and I'm not sure how safe it is for me to travel to Lake Toba. So, I should listen to my intuition to opt out this place.

 

Okay, Cambodia become my choice of destination now. I'm going to visit this magnificient ancient lost city. To know more, pls visit this link http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/cambodia/angkor_wat.html

 

I'm recruiting travel buddies. To qualify, you have to be open, friendly, adventurous, positive and importantly must be a team player. If you think you fit the bill and interest to explore Cambodia, pls write to me. My email is waterlotusmud[at]yahoo[dot]com  

 

Heard about this? Numerous msgs splashed across all media in the world. No mega concert in this tiny red dot (Singapore), but in many major city across continents.

 

Live Earth is the name for a series of multi-venue concerts of pop and rock music featuring various artists which took place on July 7th 2007 (7.7.07). The concerts aimed to raise awareness about anthropogenic climate change and to encourage people to live greener lives, all the while accepting the need to contribute to a global carbon tax (Source : Wikipedia).

 

In the larger context, we maybe too small to make a difference. However, if everyone make a point to do our tiny part, I'm sure it does make a big difference for saving our now feverish mother earth. There are 7-point pledge for us to note. 

 

I've passed!! I passeddddd my final paper. Pheww .. what a journey I got there. I didn't achieve the First Class Honor but landed on Second Class Honor Upper. No complain, but I think I should able to do better! Yea .. ppl said tht I'm such a pitiful perfectionist.

 

Okay, 1 big project accomplished. It was a 2 years in-making. I'm really glad that I pulled through finally. Many things happened throughout this journey. Firstly, I lost my job when my previous company move to Thailand. I'll face financial burden if I don't get myself a job by then as I've a hefty course fee to pay. Secondly, I was going through a difficult time, trying hard to come to terms of my breakup. It took me a total of 3 yrs to completely get over it and start afresh. Lastly, I've a busy and challenging work. This refering to my current work. A lot is expected from me. Now is worse, I've got heavier roles but with no pay raise!  But still, I love my job!

 

Looked back, I'm very very glad and feel blessed that I survived all these and able overcome all hurdles. Buddha bless me! Along the way I learnt many important lessons and no regret with whatever happened.

 

I've a clear head now of what I want to do, where I want to be and what type of ppl I want to be with. I've many exciting plans in mind. First thing first, I need to buy myself a holiday. Future plan? Ley's talk only when I materialise my holiday plan.

 

I was scheduled to fly to UK for my graduation this month. I've to cancel this trip at last min as it clashes with 1 of my biz trip to Myanmar. So much to do in office. I'll have 4 days holiday during Singapore's National Day. Any suggestion where is nice to visit? Any nice places that worth visiting? Let me know. Thanks. 

 

Baaaaaaaaaaaaad stubborn flu. I thought I recuperate well at home but my condition turned from bad to worse. I sneeze and sniffs .. Glance down, I've whole bucket of tissue papers ... in clump! ewww .. very yucky sight. I'm glad I don't have blocked nose. pheww .. Mood were bad and fuse were short. So, I stay low.

 

I dragged myself out and to the bank on Sat morning. Last day of Jun and also the last day for us, the resident to enjoy the 5% GST before it being raise to 7% on 1st of July. Yeah .. I didn't hear I would be having any pay rise. So, practically I'll be 2% poorer.  Few things are definite in life. 1st is death, 2nd is sickness, 3rd is tax. Can't run away from it. The rich gets richer, the poor gets poorer, the middle class .. get squeeze most of the time. hehehe  Am I complaining? Yes, I am. YOU get taxed wherever you go on this earth! haha

 

I ran to few banks on Sat morning. Tidying up all my finances. Aww .. I didn't realise I'm having drought in my bank accounts! ... pheww .. I hope I'm not running into negative! I hope I'm getting my ROI real fast.