Weekday Movie Session

Earlier tonight, my friends and I went out to watch Madagascar. We planned it for quire sometime liao and chose to watch on weekday because it was quite expensive to watch during the weekends with the price hikes. Anyway, the preview and sneak peeks for Madagascar was very promising. However, after watching the show, the "I like to Move it, Move it" song is still playing in my head but there was a feeling inside that something is missing. The show is trying to show that the friendship and bonding between the characters in the movie is much stronger than *censored*.. But something is missing. Story isn't deep enough. Sure, there were some good humour. I love the cute penguins. They are so 'professional' in what they do.

In my opinion, I feel that if the story was around the penguins' adventure, they might be able to develop something interesting. The Madagascar storyline is actually quite simple. Like how +1 puts it - 'Best suited for children'. Oh well... I guess their intended audience were children in the first place...我们这些老小孩... cheated.

Learning Points from AIESEC conference

For the past two days, I attended the AIESEC conference titled "Succeeding in the Global Arena". Once again, these AIESEC conferences challenges my way of thinking. Despite the similiar topics and themes during the conferences - generally about cultural differences and adapting to them, this conference brought another question to myself about how I live my life. Previously I was already struck down and shocked when I don't know what my passion in life is. During the previous camp, when the facilitator asked me what my passion in life was... all I answered was "er...".. then he quickly stopped me and say "Er? You don't know what your passion is. Go back and carefully think about it." Like I said in my previous posts, this is something that is still stuck in me. I think about it daily which makes me think also "Am I thinking about my passion seriously or am I just daydreaming?"

Anyway, in this conference, there was a session about 'culture changing and shifting viewpoints when one moves to a new environment'. I can reflect upon my life before and after coming to Singapore. There are many changes, some for good, some for worse. The way I think and act, my judgements are shaped by the environment that I am in. I'd like to discuss about some of the issues that were discussed in during the 2 day event but it would be a super long post. In short, something that really hit me hard again was "What do I really want in life?". This question is very similar to the question about my passion in life if not the same. hmmm... suppose to have more to say but I think I lost my thinking again.

The people of Nacirema

Read this. This article describes the interesting cultures of the people of Nacirema. I first read this article during the AIESEC preparation seminar. It was a case study for us to understand the meaning of cultural sensitivity. If you were a tourist, would you like to visit Nacirema? Why or why not? Do you think the people of Nacirema are barbarians because of those "Body Rituals"? Can you tolerate the way they treat each other?

Appreciating diversity is what many people and leaders of the world stress on. Learning the ways and tolerating the differences. We have to first tolerate the behavior of others before we can be sensitive about the way they live? These questions are something that have also been stuck in my head ever since attending the AIESEC conferences. Why is the world so divided and why little issues can lead to great catastrophe? Almost everyday, somewhere around the world, people die because of terrorism. Elsewhere, people suffer from hunger and natural disasters. Sometimes I tell myself that I'm stressed out with my life but thinking about these made me feel grateful and at the same time sad. I struggle and feel stress to do well for my university education, someone else around my age, somewhere around the world is struggling hard to live so that he/she could see the next day. Of course, this doesn't mean that I shouldn't struggle hard because there is no point as in the end I'll also die. It just means that I have learnt to appreciate my life better and do my best so that I'm not wasting my time and opportunity given to me.

A question that I still ask myself - "What is my passion in life?". Once in a while, I feel that my passion is to help people who are in need through volunteering in activities. At the same, I question if this is what I really want? What is my motive in joining these? Altruism? Naiveness? By the way, in economics, there is not such thing as altruism. There is always a motive behind every action. e.g. Being happy is a product of helping others, so seeking happiness means that not altruistic behavior. (Once, my econs tutor was asked the question about the switching costs of mobile phone companies and how he avoided the lock-in and switching costs issue. He said this "I use my sister's hp plan after she got a new one after 4 years." So he enjoys the loyalty benefits (discounts in the plan) of long-term customers. Beware of economists! I don't know how true this is though. Anyway, he's a nice fellow. I like his tutorial lessons. =P)

Hmmm.... what am I saying here? I think I've lost the logic in my post. There doesn't seem to be any logical flow. hahaha... jump from Nacirema to diversity to my passion in life =P... I need sleep.

Lazing around?

When I started this blog, I told myself that I have to update it often. It seems that I can't keep up to that. I would like to say that I'm busy but it's not like I'm really that busy now that I've graduated and looking for jobs. I spent most of my free time the past week gaming. Too much DoTA is bad :S.... addiction is hard to control. Anyway, starting yesterday, I managed to get back on track. Resumed my resume writing (I do have one. I just need to improve on it.) and called the bank to try and settle the account for BINGO. Unfortunately, I couldn't settle the bank account issue again because the lady wasn't at her desk when I called her. Guess I'll have to call again.

Other things that I've been doing the past few days, well, there was Karaoke session yesterday. Karaoke here in Singapore is super expensive. The operators sure do know how to make money. All they have to do is state the basic price and add "++" to it so that it is attractive to customers. A "$58++" can become $98 on the bill just because the fruits and towels are compulsory. Anyway, overall the session wasn't that bad. A little cheated by the initial price quote - yes but still oklah.

I'm also feeling abit lost these days in whether to wait till June where my traineeship application starts or quickly apply for jobs here. I think I should defer my traineeship instead of aiming for it this year. Better to settle all the MOE tuition grant and PR issues before leaving.

Dubious Job Offer

Yesterday, I was able to get hold of the New Straits Times' Classifieds. I went through the list and filtered out some potential work. After making a few calls, I went for a walk-in interview at Bugis. The job as advertised states "Charity fund raising". I was quite happy, thinking "Hey, I get to earn some money while doing some good".

The location of the office is quite 'ulu'. Although I've been to Bugis often, this is the first time I enter Midlink plaza. (For the past few holidays I've been working at Bugis, so am familiar with the area =P) Anyway, first impression on entering is "Freaky Elevator!". I don't like the elevator because the lighting is abit low and yellowish lights with mirrors on three sides. It scares me. Look left, see my reflection but abit dark. Look right, also see my reflection with dark shadings.... Alone in the lift, though is day time but feels like night. I think the idea is to make the place look classy but the lift feels scary rather than classy. As soon as the door opened, I ran out. I didn't dare look at the reflections on the sides. Lucky for the trip down, I had someone else taking the lift. phew~ ... think I think too much liao =P.

The building is filled with offices. The place does look quite classy. On reaching the office, I stood outside examining the surroundings. The other offices have clear windows where you can see what is in their office while this particular office has tinted glasses. I thought "Weird, this doesn't look like any charitable organization". Went inside and saw many empty chairs and a secretary on the phone and application forms. The application form was also 'bad'. It requested for some personal information such as family members, their salary, 3 friends information. I ignored those sections in the form. This is what happens after studying all the privacy issues in NUS... become paranoid =P... Previously, I would be happily filling up information as requested.

After the interview, I went back to check out the website stated on the bookmark. Either I got the website address wrongly or it was a scam. In the afternoon when I checked the website, there was only a banner. At night when I checked it again, new sections were added in. It gave me and uneasy feeling. I don't want to be supporting a dubious organization. The next morning, I tried calling up the company before 11 to tell them I quit but no one answered the phone. Only at around 1105 then the secretary called to ask if I was going. This made me confirmed myself that I should quit.

Traffic Jam

Yesterday was my first time experiencing traffic jam in a 'big city'. It was horrible. Look left, look right, see cars and cars with frustrated drivers in the car. The traffic jam occured on AYE starting from Clemenceau Ave near City Hall and ended at Buona Vista. We took a cab from Bugis. When we reached AYE, we were surprised by the number of cars and the 'stop & go' movement. Initially my feelings were like: "Hmmm... traffic jam, cool!" I looked up at the electronic signboard along AYE and it states "Traffic Jam. Up to B. Vista"... The cab-driver was also feeling very frustrated as he kept "tsk", "tsk" all the time. I felt uneasy and my feelings were elevated to frustrations as well. This occured when after 15minutes into the journey, I saw the sign - AYE 3Km.... Buona Vista exit is AYE 8Km.... which means that after only 15minutes, we travelled less than 1Km on AYE. In fact, the whole journey took about 1hr and 15minutes. >.<"

What's worse is that looking over to the other lane of the expressway towards the City, cars are zooming past as speeds of over 100km/h with our lane, a Ferrari on the right moving very slowly. There was a point where the driver asked if we should exit to Bukit Merah and go from there... Looking at the exit, cars were also quite stuck and we still have to exit to AYE because South B. Vista road is along AYE. So, he chose not to. Aiyah... maybe I should've told him to exit to Keppel Road then go along Pasir Panjang. Would've saved us the trouble of waiting along AYE (>.<"). Oh well, this is a lesson to avoid cab drivers who don't listen to the road report on radio. But then again, thinking about it..... the traffic jam wasn't that bad (only ~6km stretch filled with cars on 4 lanes). Other countries have jams of up to 4-5hours. I wonder how the people handle those. :S

Recess

I just read a letter to the New Straits Times (15th May 2005) regarding the recess time for primary school children to be too short in some schools. According to that letter, 20minutes isn't enough because some teachers will teach and eat into the recess time. This reminded me of my primary school days. Although I seldomly experience teachers taking up much of the recess time. If there are instances such as that, at most 5 to 10minutes to finish up what he/she started teaching BUT rarely. (occurs once like in a few years =P) Anyway, most importantly, I recalled a particular teacher who "likes" giving students detention back then.

Detentions are supposed tactics/scare factors to control a class of noisy students. There was once or twice back in Primary 4 that my entire class was kept back throughout the recess. I remember my feelings back then. I was very angry with the teacher and actually, that was the first time I "survived" through recess without eating anything. It has been a habit for me back then to at least eat something during recess else I'll be starving. Back then, I also couldn't understand how some of my friends can play all through recess without eating anything. Thinking about these puts a smile on my face.

Anyway, back to the story. If I remember correctly, it was because the teacher has already warned us that she'll detain us if we make more noises. Most ignored her warning and she was very angry. She kept the whole class back during recess. I think the entire class was in shock and quite sad. Being primary school children and not playing during recess.... it was a sad moment. Everyone peered outside the window longing to play with friends from other classes. After recess, another teacher took over. We complained our situation to the teacher. Although I don't remember this teacher's exact reaction but I guess she must have felt quite shocked (I'll explain later). She gave us permission to go buy food at the canteen to eat in class. After that day, whenever it was that teacher's turn to have her lessons before recess, I would prepare snacks before hand to eat during detention. Hehehe... sneaky me.

To add on why I say that the teacher felt shock to find out that we were detained - Being a relief teacher for 3 months back in 2002 helped opened my eyes to what goes on behind the scenes. Some parents can be very fussy and nasty at times. Despite trying to discipline their children, they take it that one is abusing. It makes one wonder, some parents leave it to the school to educate their children and expects their children to be disciplined but yet schools no longer have the authority to hand down "magic-stick" punishment (I love this metaphor from the late Dr. Wee Kim Wee's book). This is quite a major issue that even the Japanese TV Drama - GTO tries to address

School life - the best times of our lives? =P

A cold rainy day

It was raining when I woke up around 9am this morning. I was feeling very cold in my room despite having my warm and cozy blanket covering me. I'm glad I bought a blanket this semester. My mom has been chasing me to buy one since my first year. I never did because I never saw the need to use. When it got too cold, all I had to do was wear thicker clothes and switch off the fan. Anyways, was good weather to sleep in but I have slept enough. Today was time for me to do some serious work.

I went out to BINGO room this morning and made a few phone calls to the previous founding members of BINGO to settle the accounts issue. Hopefully can get all these settled by the end of the month as we need the money to do our BINGO projects.

My First Post

Finally!!! My own blog is here! I've been wanting to create a blog of my own for quite sometime now. Although I tried several times previously, I created the blog and deleted without posting anything. This is because I wasn't satisfied with the templates they offered. I wanted to create my own template for the blog. Also, I didn't know what to post in my blog. For the moment, I'll stick with this nice template that was offered. Hopefully, I can get enough inspiration to create a better template.

Now, for my own introduction to this blog. After finishing my exams last week, I have now unofficially graduated from NUS! In this blog, I want to share my life experiences after my academic life. Will I go on to further studies? Will I work in big companies? Will I end up sweeping the 'longkangs' of Singapore to serve my bond? More updates soon. =P