Saturday, August 25, 2007
Hey! Gorgeous
To my follow kpo ocommers who stayed back to take photos of the hosts of "Hey! Gorgeous", we appeared on Dasmond Koh's blog!
Here's the link:
http://www.dasmondkoh.com/hey-gorgeous-nus/Now you know what I mean when I say the 3 girls quite chui =X
Thanks to Elaine for the tip-off!
lowtide blogged @
4:47 pm
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
GREAT day
0000HRS mark the end of 21st August 2007, a first very encouraging and happy day this semester =)
1. Got my last module!
After hearing from Remmy at 12+ that his friend who appealed already got the module and is already balloting for the tutorial, and seeing the non-reply in my mailbox, my heart sank. Here I was, lacking one module, lacking $, lacking a room to stay. Go to the office to kaopeh, that's what they told me, and glad that I did that!
"I'm here to ask about Macro1, about the result of my appeal."
"But Macro1 is full already."
Que Heart Sinking Further.
Hiding my desperation, I continued, "Ok, but I appealed through CORS but have not yet receive a reply. Can you please check it out for me?"
"Please give me your full name"
After 5 agonising minutes,
"They give you the module already, just that we haven't process it"
("they give you already") phew!
"Kin process lah, JI!" I thought.
"Ok, thanks a lot!" I said with a smile.
(It must be the PR training I've received through Oweek)
Phew.
2. Scholarship
After leaving the econs department, I saw Zhijun. She told me the Alvwyn was performing, and I thought " Hmm I thought the voting over already??!?" But I hurried down nonetheless.
Indeed, I saw the filming of the 校花校草追赶跑, I tried to look for familiar faces in the audience, and I saw Tianhao, Cindy, Nana and Yilin, and I sat down.
Still worried about the module, I on-ed my lappie and checked my email, and Tada!
I'm feeling so grateful now =)
3. Dawn Yeoh
During the show, Tienkwan called me.
"Are you at the Forum?"
"Yes I'm sitting in front"
"Dawn Yeoh is here!!"
"Where? Where?"
"The one sitting on the stage lah!!"
OMG entered my mind.
She turned, I saw her face! OMG IT WAS REALLY HER!!
Really thanks to Amanda, Huixiang and the rest, for giving me the courage to ask Dawn to take a photo with us.
4.
What a great day!! =PpPpP
lowtide blogged @
9:55 am
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday
Ok Sunday was a rather uneventful day, with me staying at home the WHOLE day, with the exception of going out twice, once to buy my dinner, and another time to buy some bread for supper.
I watched the National Day Rally on TV, and despite my interest in it every year, it must be said that this year's speech was lacking in content.
This is to be expected, as while this year has been a rather eventful year, with the GST increase, Ministerial and Civil Service Payrise, Change of Constitutional laws to give more power to the PM in appointing the Legal Counsel, the PM will be reluctant to bring these unpopular issues back to the forefront, hence the lack of content.
Basically, all of what has been said is about the planning of support for old-age retired citizens, meaning the age for withdrawing CPF funds will be upped from 62 to 65, plus some proposed legislation here and there.
The plan is to 'help' people plan the finances until they are 85, meaning that the Minimum Sum will be dispersed in instalments until one is 85. In essence, more money locked up in the CPF for a longer period.
The upgrading plans, as flowery as it sounds, doesn't really excite me, as to me they are already ongoing, and the PM is just dragging time by showing the details and wonderfully-misleading artists' impressions of the intended upgrading plans.
The usual 'we've got a crisis now, but we'll unite and solve the challenges head-on' approach is curiously missing, as this Rally did not really 'rally' the people, but like a standard report you'll hear in Parliament speeches.
So yup, other than the 2 points, nothing much has been said.. I'll be curious to find out what the newspapers has to say tomorrow.
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So Blackburn drew 1-1 with Arsenal at home.
People on Msn has been telling me, 'not bad ah', e.g. Desmond, Junwei, Cherie etc, and seriously speaking, expectations has been raised so much that all rovers fans, despite being contented with a point, are still disappointed.
It's amazing how football reports in the media can be so biased, even in this age where information is supposed to transcend borders.
The titles of the reports screamed "Lehmann gifts it to Rovers". While it is certainly true that Jens Lehmann spilled a rather weak David Dunn shot to gift Rovers the goal, what was unreported was the in the 18th minute, Brad Friedal spilled a even weaker lobbed pass to gift Van Persie (he never fails to score against Rovers) the opening goal.
I laughed my ass off when I saw Wenger's complaints about how 'violent' Rovers were, when in the whole game, the likes of Flamini, Fabregas and mainly Van Persie were guilty of over-the-top late tackles and high flying boots.
Blackburn are no angels, but Arsenal were no saints either.
A certain Mr "这样粗!" comes to my mind.
So the impression to everyone reading the reports? Rovers are a dirty team, resorting to 'violence' throughout the game and were desperately lucky to 'earn' one point against a top side, when both sides were equally lucky, and equally 'violent'.
Ok, so Rovers will remain the rough and under-talented thugs, and Arsenal the skillful and elegant angels denied their two points by gangsterish football.
How great it is.
Luckily, there was something to pacify me.
Don't hate me Cherie =P
(P.S. This is the first time the opposition MPs were invited to the rally too, I observed =) )
lowtide blogged @
8:31 am
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Friday
Well, watched 881 in the morning with the ocomm gang, Sandra, Min Joo, Rosni, Juling, Fangling, Xiuwen and Soon Leong, and it was great movie!
Actually initially I was a bit skeptical about it, as the trailers of the movie make it look like a rather lame show, and the previous trauma caused by MIW did not help matters.
But thinking it was Royston Tan, it was sure well worth a go!
The movie is nothing like what it seems in the trailers, and it has wonderful touching plots inside.
Being a fan of anything 'heartlander' and 'Singaporean', the show brought to a place close to my hearts.
It had wonderfully-written hokkien songs, which I believe is purely original, as many of the songs contained Singaporean Hokkien (malay-influenced words) and aspects of Singaporean life.
I'll definitely buy the OST if it ever comes out!
As what I told Soon Leong, my favourite song was the 'Si Pai Pouh' one. Only Singaporeans who heard Hokkien and Teochew before knows that it stands for SGH! The song contained the struggles of a cancer patient, painfully written yet in the simplest fashion, right from the common man's helpless perspective.
I did not cry but I was really touched by the scenes. Liu Ling Ling, the funny actress we saw in "I Not Stupid Too", showcased her powerful acting this time round. Her Hokkien was a pleasure to listen to. Being a real-life getai performer herself, no wonder she did so good! Hitting us with humour and emotions right after one another.
Yeo Yan Yan (of Singapore Dreaming fame, acting as the wife) and Mindee Ong (she's so cute!) acted great in the show as well, bringing us the touching scenes and the gentle yet steely character of getai singers.
Qi Yu Wu acted in an unfamiliar role as a mute person, speaking a grand total of ZERO words in the show, and forever playing with his cock (the real cock haha). I felt he did an OK job, but hey, he's there to pull the ladies!
Anyway we saw him right as we exited the theatre! He just zoomed past us and we're too shocked to even take a photograph with him. Think he was here for this. (
Link)
All in all, a good movie, great for people like me who are still heartlanders in spite of everyday socialisations =)
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After downs and ups, finally...
Suddenly I feel the pressure.
The pressure to maintain definitely feels tougher than the stress to pull up, because the benchmark has been set.
This sem will not be easy, but I'll persevere.
"Success through Perseverance" That was Min Xin Primary School's motto, and I hope I'll live up to it.
Let me fly.
lowtide blogged @
3:30 pm
Thursday, August 16, 2007
First week of school
Times really flies. It seemed not too long ago when in the cold room of AS6, Cikgu Aishah collected the "primary 6-looking" pile of papers from the table I was sitting behind, lifting the stone casted on my mind as well.
While I had a rather eventful 3-month holiday (ICT, Arts Camp, working at Adam Khoo's, preparation for Oweek, Oweek itself) it's back to the mugging season.
Well, the dust and rust collected in my brain is more than I've imagined.
Sitting in a LT quietly and listening to adults talk academically, rather than doing cheers, talking cock or playing stupid games, logging on to the IVLE, printing notes in the library, gathering my concentration back to prevent the disaster of Sem 1 and embarking on the Journey to the West everyday, all these things which I'm doing now remains an alien concept to me, despite having been trained for that in the past year.
Right now, I'm still in the GTM (go through motion) mood, just trying my best not to lag in any sense before the spark of muggerism hits me, granting me the momentum to fly like I did in the last semester.
School still revolved pretty much around Arts Club and the Oweek Ocomm rather than the supposedly-important things we're supposed to focus on once the semester starts. The motivation for going to school has largely been based on the chance to meet familiar people again and going to the newly-opened The Deck. Banner painting for the bash, buying stuff for the bash, going to the booth for the bash and plain slacking in the clubroom are just plain excuses to extend and recollect the friendships made during Oweek.
I love to meet these people, I love to play, I love to talk cock, but somewhere deep down inside I know I need to start focusing on my schoolwork again. Being on the ball, being on the forefront of the concepts being taught, and being able to push my mind towards excellence once again.
But before I can settle my mind down, I need a bloody room! I hope to have good news from the NUS scholarship side (I really really need the money), I hope to get a room (I really really need a room in order for me to fly in my studies), I hope to get my final module (I really really need that module for me to settle down and put my mind to rest) and I hope to settle some miscellaneous yet important emotional thoughts.
Settle these, and I'll fly =)
lowtide blogged @
5:14 pm
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Over
Oweek is finally over!!
Don't know what to make of it though. Now physically and mentally too tired to have any emo time to myself...
Anyway, while quite some sacrifices were made, I'm glad that I've joined this ocomm!!
It's great to know these new cool people in arts club, and I think we've discussed things 'more intensively' than any other groups of friends I had.
It has been an incredible journey, and the ride is certainly far from boring.
There were downs but certainly there were ups, and the downs also serve to make the ups sweeter!
It's amazing how crisis can bond people together, it's again something we learnt in philosophy, the 'alien race' example.
I've learnt a lot in this journey, but will only type them out when I have the energy to do so.
I just wish that I can have at least one week of break before embarking on the lectures-tutorials regime again, but well this is life.
I'll shoulder on. DL DL again!!
lowtide blogged @
9:47 am
Thursday, August 09, 2007
High High Low Low High High Low
Actually yesterday was a really high day.
When people go to the beach, the sun, the sand, and the sea will have that natural impact on people, and people become naturally high when they touch water. Don't ask me why!!
In my eyes, beach games were a success. Despite some confusion at some games, this was the smoothest transition of games I've seen. Perhaps the small area where the game stations were stationed upon did really help facilitate matters.
At the stations, I see sincere laughters having fun, and people really in a competitive mood, trying their best to win games for their OGs without being overly hostile. This is the way it should be!!
As for me, I was happy saboing people to get dunked, and happily getting dunked by people too. For the fun of it, why not? It was just for plain, stupid fun which what orientation is all about =)
I think the camp really had fun, and was really high, and that is all that matters =)
However, the meeting after the camp was dismissed was a big downer for us, at least the ocommers. I dunno how to begin it, but sometimes there is always a dilemma between friendship and principles.
Something like what we studied in philosophy. It's like the "Should you prosecute your father for murder?" dilemma.
These people are my friends. It really hurts for me, and I'm sure the rest of us, to speak directly and pin-point the mistakes, the illogics behind decisions. But on the other hand, if the camp is indeed the priority, decisions need to be discussed, and most importantly, MADE DECISIVELY, and somebody has to take the initiative to MAKE those decisions, and not drag these issues and decisions til the very last minute, until you are left with no choice but to take the easy way out.
This is the situation we're handling here. Everyone wants to do something, but not many wants to move things on, and just wanting to keep harping on the dilemmas. It's something like organising soccer on the weekends, where everybody wants to play. There are always 4 levels of people.
1. People who actually bother to move things on and organise it. I think of Weichern, Junwei and me
2. People who bother to ask us whether there is soccer going on, and will ask friends if this is so. I think of Weide, Rayner, Guoyuan, Sincheng etc
3. People who will just quietly wait for the sms, and reply swiftly to help the organiser get things done. I think of Yaozong, Eeyang etc
4. People who will receive the sms, don't reply, and decide at the very last moment at his own comfort whether to go. Erm Alvin? =P
In every social circle, there are bound to be leaders and followers, no matter from simple things such as organising outings and playing soccer, to complicated operations like in an Ocomm or organising birthday parties. Sometimes, these roles rotate ; sometimes due to people's characters, they don't. Like how the names I mention can rotate up and down, no offence =)
Perhaps due to inherent character differences, when in a casual social group, people fall into these stratas automatically, so leaders and followers are naturally formed.
But when the social circle become such that the 'rank structure' is assigned, regardless of one's innate character, one has to perform not to his/her natural self, but to the position he/she is allocated to.
Like when xiong and I were tasked to organise 08 outings after our birthdays, we dusted off our usual slacking selfs and start the smses and calls to organise the outings.
Another case will be the army, where you see formerly very slack and cannot-be-bothered people rising to the occassions and bring out the 'leader' in them simply because they are assigned that 'rank' to do so.
Sometimes maybe again due to character-rank mismatches, supposed-leaders will turn followers, and supposed-followers will turn leaders.
I'm well-taught in the army enough that one shouldn't behave in a way that surpasses the 'rank' that they are supposed to have. When the commanders are discussing about how to topo to our next location, despite me wanting to help, I step out of their conversations and respect the decisions they make, suppressing the 'leader' in me.
However, as my fellow troopers have known, when things come to a certain boiling point like too much training, unfair treatment compared to other platoons, or simple things like in the field we can't get signal from the coms, we can't find a checkpoint, the commanders are abit confused where to go about scouting the enemy, we step forward to offer the 'leader' in us, offering our inputs.
The only dilemma when being in a 'follower' role is, where do we draw the line?
Do we respectfully accept all decisions made by our leaders even if we think it is not good enough, trustng that they have indeed made all sensible considerations?
Do we scrutinise and question every decision they make, in the mind of perfecting the job, but risk pissing them off at the same time?
Will people mistake our intentions of criticising decisions as criticising them?
Will criticising decisions lead to people criticising you as well? (The "If he can't even do it, why should him be even speaking?" theorem)
Will you be stepping out of your 'supposed' rank if you're overly concerned?
Most importantly, will you iccur the opportunity cost of soured friendships in the process of improving the job?
If any ocommer is reading this, I would like to apologise if I'm overly impatient, pushy, too direct or even rude during the meeting yesterday.
I'm just like that. I respect leadership, but when things go wrong, I can turn into quite a beast and will try to help get things done, even overriding rank sometimes.
P.S. I'm not feeling emo right now, just a little bit philosophical. I'm not angry at anyone, but I'm not sure of the vice versa. I'm still enjoying the process of being in an ocomm, being in an orientation camp. I'm still in a positive, I-want-to-help mood, instead of the negative, I-give-up mood. For people who know me, they'll know exactly how I feel =)
lowtide blogged @
9:56 am
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Oweek Day 1 to Day 3
Ok first 3 days of oweek has finally ended!!
us at the registration booth!
Finally a time to sit down, alone, away from the crowd, and do some mental recuperation.
Or some call stoning =P
How was oweek? As a ocommer, it was a totally different experience. Waking up earlier, sleeping later, and mixing with a totally different group of people, the ocomm.
I'm not sure what to make of it, but the Ocommers are great! I'm always looking for people who are zai yet uncalculative at the same time (something like my foodhunt ocomm), and I think I found them in my Ocomm. People like Cindy, Zhimin, Remmy, Cherie etc give me that feeling, and I love to work with such people =)
Of course in any projects or even anything in life, there are pros and cons to them... The cons of being an Ocommer is that I get less sleep, get seperated from my OG and perhaps always having the unapproachable look (because for me I'll constantly update myself about the lags and pester others why is it so), rendering me seemingly not as fun as I was in Arts Camp.
However, the Pros are being the 'untouchable' PR man, I get to participate in the camp the way I like (thanks Tienkwan and Caleb for that freedom!), joining my OG or taking a more backward role as and when I want to.
Also, I get to renew old friendships and make new ones! People I didn't know as well previously:
Chonghan: my House IC of last oweek when I was a freshie. Really glad to talk to him at a more personal manner! He is still that charismatic leader from last year.
Camy: I roughly knew her in being the 'head facil' in our foodhunt trial run.. Didn't know she was so full of crap! Too bad didn't get to know her beforehand, and we were like so serious in our tutorial group la! Not fun at all =( haha anyway happy for her that she has found her someone too =P
Cindy: Knew her from the foodhunt, when we were follow programmers. She always give people that responsible, nice and calm feeling, and in this ocomm, she did it again! Glad to work again with her again, although she's not my DPD, but the bitching sessions are damn fun!
Remmy: Ok it's still strange to call him Remmy, and my first reaction is that he is Tee Lim. Knew him roughly in TJ (lihui's primary school friend), but this time just got to see his crap side better! =) Glad that he is that someone mentioned above too =P
Ok I think I shouldn't write more names.. can't finish one... also got Michelle, Shuning, Kerching, Carol, Chuan Seng, Soon Leong etc.
Then, I got to know people I didn't get to know at a personal level.. cool people like Zhimin, Shimin, Tienkwan, Hock, Bobby, Cherie etc etc
All in all, suddenly I realised there are so many cool people in Arts Fac!
Also, it's quite good when you're the Ocommer, and people pester you for yohos! After that 2nd day encounter with R and A house in LT8, I was abit gian already =P
It's great when you see the House bond, shouting in unison, doing the actions in the most exaggerated manner they can, simply to impress you! The smiles of their faces really brighten up my and everyone's day. Not to mention that you can look at so many chiobus smiling at you in one glance! WAHAHAHA =P
All these render the previous PR madness worthwhile =)
Ok that's it for now folks! Will post picts if I can find them!
lowtide blogged @
1:52 pm
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
THIS IS MADNESS!
Really shagged out now after two non-stopping days during the PR of oweek..
So sorry to everyone whom I daoed during this period, be it face-to-face, on msn, or on sms.. I'm really too bothered about my stuff to do any 'meaningful' talk cocks with people.
Also sorry if I happened to give you non-replies and even not look at you when talking to you, I'm not pissed or stressed or anything. Just too much PR stuff on my mind, rendering me unable to talk cock to anyone.
Really thanks to Tyler, Kynneth and Tienkwan who stayed overnight together to finish typing the 'data entry' of the freshies' allocation.. this is madness!
This is a trying period, but I'll get over it.
Hoist the colours!
lowtide blogged @
12:06 pm
