Saturday, June 28, 2008
A short word about Arts Camp
I've just came back from the 5-day Arts Camp.
Well, just a short word on it, before I have the time/energy to blog about it.
I'm just glad that I've come forward, to help the people that matter so much to me.
I see myself as the hole filler, and I'm really glad for myself that hopefully I've fulfilled that duty.
This year's Arts Camp was great! Although it was less 'funny' due to the departure of several iconic figures, the camp had more warmth, and something exciting yet relaxing about it.
I thank everyone stepping up for the sake of the camp, to step out of their comfort zones, to do things they have never done before.
This goes out especially to Zhimin and Doris, 2 whom faced huge self-questioning before, and I understand that, cos I've been through that myself.
And sometimes, maybe things not necessarily must come top-down. The level of bottoms-up enthusiasm and initiative was great!
I was also super proud of our oweek videos!! I'm really glad it made people want to come for Oweek, and continue that rapport and Arts spirit we've carefully nurtured.
It was a memorable experience, and I'm really happy I did it with my friends.
It wasn't the smoothest, it was tiring. At the same time, it was fun, it was great having that 苦中作乐 feeling.
But it's worth it all because of one thing. You people.
I did it for you guys, you know who you are.
Thanks for the memories.
lowtide blogged @
8:12 am
Friday, June 20, 2008
Deserve vs Get
Feel like blogging, but I think people are kinda sick of the various 'motivational/philosophical' stuff.
Well, everytime I hear a different person saying the same thing, I get new inspirations and reflections going through my head.
Quite a hectic few days.
Last monday-tuesday: Arts camp pre-camp! Initially, I really didn't know what I was doing there, I glad it got sorted out in the end. Was in kind of a dilemma actually, for reasons I don't really want to put here. But sometimes instead of talking about stuff, we have to have the initiative to take action, and for friends I did. Something still feels wrong. Either I like to be in control/updated, or I'm just overly worried by past experiences. Glad that I learnt a lot though, about everyone else, and myself, of course, so yup! It will gear me up for Oweek.
Last weds: Despite reaching home late on tuesday night, I had to meet a venue sponsor for oweek on this day, so back to the west I went. Meet up at night to discuss oweek's programmes outline with Kaiwei and Joan too. Stayed over in clubroom.
Last thurs: The debrief for pre-camp. And 1000 thanks to Mao Mao, or Oweek's video will not get imported in time. Glad to learn more about my programme too. It was weird sometimes still la. Think people know what I mean. The feeling of execution without full authority to plan.
Last fri: Had a company (AK) gathering at the office. It was good meeting everyone, and go through the 'visualisation' excercise. It was motivating and theraputic to dig deep into why you do what you do =)
Weekend: Oweek video editing! We managed to cut the scenes into days, name them properly, find lots and lots of music. End product: 2 videos out! Look out for it soon. (Ya, do soooooooo many hours only can do out 2 videos. Really siong man)
And I endured through the debacle called Singapore versus Saudi Arabia, and Singapore's play was ATROCIOUS. Simply not our level bah, I guess. Stayed over in the clubroom on sat too.
Mon - Weds: St. Stephen school. Well, first time doing boy school. The boys are extremely NOISY! Glad to discover a new place in the East though. Had the oweek programmers' meeting on Monday, I cabbed down after work, reached at around 7.20. Glad to meet everyone and get things going, but I hope to pick up pace more! Seems like everyone's busy, but at the same time enthusastic about doing things =)
Thurs - Fri: Tampines Pri. It has moved to Bedok though, opposite the swimming pool. Being a coach is much slacker, as you do not need to be on the ball, and the working hours are shorter. Glad to know even more people from the coaching and TA team =) Had a recce for beach games in Sentosa on thursday after work! Glad that we managed to work a new game out, I'm crossing my fingers, I really hope it works. In that case I'll have a break through from these years! Roars. It was nice walking around in Vivocity with Pearl after sooooooo many days trapped in 'schools, schools, schools' environment. And we bought $30 worth of stuff from Deiso! $2 per item just whack ah, don't care, LOL. Yeah and I bought 2 watches from the Tampines cheap cheap watch shop!
I learnt a nice quote that stuck into my head today:
"Even if you think you deserve it, it doesn't mean they will give it to you."
"You have to go and get it."
It's from the movie "Coach Carter". This is what the coach said to the team before the basketball game, which is so true.
Often in life, we thought we've worked hard, and that traditional notion of "hardwork will yield results" got so ingrained into our minds.
It's just a way for our parents/teachers to motivate us, the young little kids, to work hard.
After working hard, we always feel we deserve something out of it. Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don't.
But is it really about hardwork alone?
Going into a boxing match with all strength but no tactics will only get u tired out before the rounds end.
"You have to go and get it." - What does it mean?
To 'get it' means to achieve your goals. How do we 'get it' then?
It's not purely hardwork. Blind toiling will lead to nothing.
Yes, sometimes, we always feel we deserve something, especially when we feel that we've worked really, really hard.
And is putting a lot of time and actions into something really 'working hard'?
"Just spend more time on it, doing it repetitively, and something will just come out of it"
Is this really true?
People often neglect the mental process, i.e. the struggling on the mind (be it on studies or on creating something new).
The planning stage. The meticulous mental picture and talk-through of what's going to happen, and only
after that talk-through, have a
good, specific and well-planned strategy. And
based on that strategy, working hard and carry out actions.
People often skip this step: "Aiya, don't need to think so much lah, do then see lah!"
If you're lazy to think but hardworking on actions, are you working less or more?
What if after the unplanned actions, they fail, and you have to get back to the drawing board? Wouldn't you have to think about it again? This time, you will be forced to think because it failed, and you're back to square one.
Why don't in the first place,
think through it
in detail before the actions, instead of being forced to think
again and again after the unplanned actions fail?
You will just be postponing the thought process, and in the meantime, you have already wasted a lot of time/energy on the futile 'actions' part of things.
Be lazy to think now, and you'll need to pay back extra later, simple as that.
Often, we justify that we've "worked hard" through the actions/time we have taken to do things, and feel that we "deserve" good outcomes.
But "what you get" might be different from what you feel you "deserve", unless the thought process was detailed enough to begin with.
So please, before you cast iron into your plans, think thoroughly. Being lazy to troubleshoot, self-criticise and have a mental image of REAL PEOPLE participating and what will these real people do only leads to you realising it AFTER it has happened. Why skip the thinking, close your eyes and pray, and leave it to chance?
Only after we recognise this reality of life, would we be able to face it, and achieve more success in the future, rather than dwell in the what-I-deserves =)
(PS. I've learnt that all it takes is just a proper sitting down to brainstorm and talk things through, and the 'actions' you'll need to take will be cut down significantly. E.g with Remmy during Bikequest, with the programme team for Foodhunt, with Pearl doing Beach stations, with Taffy before we actually went to test out the new mass games - Skip all that, and 'crisis' will just come. By being hardworking in the mind, we're actually being lazy on the body - which is better? :) )
lowtide blogged @
9:21 pm
Friday, June 13, 2008
Perception vs Facts
I wouldn't call it a popularity contest, that's too serious.
However, people's analysis of situations are often clouded by the pre-conceptions of the people involved in these situations, rather than what goes on in the actual situations.
To put it blantly, when a popular person (due to his/her jovial personality, charisma, coolness) does something that is obviously wrong, he/she gets away with it. Despite all these a-matter-of-factly faults, subconsiously, people would glance past the faults, and mentally mask them under the person's huge personality. From there, the person is still perceived as 'the nice guy'.
For this person, people's mental evaluation of him/her is always "
Although he/she is like that... , he/she
still did ________ too mah, so you can't blame him/her".
But does 'the nice guy' learn anything from it, when nobody points out what he/she did wrong due to the reasons stated above? Everyone loves him/her, and he/she is happy, and will never learn.
On the other hand, when a less lovable person (due to his/her seriousness, less humourous personality, weirder character) does something that is obviously beneficial to all, he/she does not get the credits he/she deserves. Despite all these a-matter-of-factly contributions, subconsiously, people would glance past the credit, and mentally mask them under the person's 'detestable' personality. From there, the person is still perceived as 'the bad guy'.
For this person, people's mental evaluation of him/her is always "Yah,
although he/she did _____ , _____ and _____, but he/she is
still ________, so he/she must improve on it. Haiz".
Does 'the bad guy' learn anything from it then? Nope too, as while people have mountains of criticisms bitched around or kept in their hearts, the failure of pointing it out to 'the bad guy' due to the pre-conception that 'he won't listen' or 'I just can't be bothered to talk to him'. Even when criticisms are thrown directly at him/her, the failure of appreciating what he/she has done credibly makes it hard for 'the bad guy' to swallow the true-yet-biased comments.
Even when 'the bad guy' asks for sincere comments, the pre-conception of 'I don't like him' comes in, so either not-totally-honest or patronising comments come out.
As you can see, I purposely did made the sentences similiar for both cases. This is just to illustrate how for 'popular' people, it's always his/her bad things at the 'although' part, and his/her good things in the 'still' part.
For 'unpopular' people, it's always his/her good things at the 'although' part, and his/her bad things in the 'still' part.
It's just mind games we are playing with ourselves. Change your mindset and exchange the 'although' and 'still' parts for a 'good person', suddenly the person becomes bad. And vice versa, the 'bad person' will suddenly become a 'good person' too.
It's just plain stupid.
Like so many people I heard "I support Obama!" and yet at the same time, they have heard
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of his past offices, healthcare, foreign policy, economic, environmental proposals. Do they know who are they supporting? Nope! He looks damn cool, he's the fashion, he's the trend, he seems so popular, so I support lor.
Wow these are really fantastic, logical, and rational reasons.
Sheeps.
It just further illustrated my point. Who can be totally objective when judging on matters?
Who can really understand that they are naturally and subconsiously biased, and constantly seek to remove that bias when looking at things?
"We're humans what. It's just natural."
If you want to use 'nature' to mask your own shortcomings and remain that sheep in that pool of thousand sheeps, go ahead.
Only those who can go beyond their 'natural' instincts will improve themselves.
Look at facts. Not personalities. Please.
Correct means correct, wrong means wrong. Not A do is correct, B do is wrong.
I hope it's not a popularity contest, really.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I say I'm holding the fort, I mean it. At this stage, have we become complacent after that initial drive and passion? Can we
lead together and at least let me feel we are indeed?
It's not a problem of attitude, it's not a problem of non-understanding. It's about putting things at the forefront of your mind despite all these crazy shit (which everyone is going through) going on, and remind each other along the way, rather than all wait to be reminded by someone.
If we become complacent, not make things happen, and instead, wait for things to happen, we will be the same as Whitley Road.
Mas Selamat will escape and it will become irreversible.
Amongst
people, there are the actives and the passives.
But among
leaders, there should only be the actives and no passives.
Simple as that.
I beg of you. Come on. Make things happen. Initiative. Remind each other constantly and early. Don't leave things til the last minute. Give one another the feeling that despite the urgent matter at hand, we still didn't forget the less urgent yet more important task. Ask. Remind. Care and concern. Proactively update yourself. Not wait for others to update you. Keep showing it's indeed in your mind.
Really. Please. We saw what happened. We don't want it to happen again. It seems far. But if the foresight does not rest on us, noone will have it anymore. Come on, We can do it. And TOGETHER we will do it.
(PS It doesn't matter whom you think I'm trying to refer. I'm covering many, many people. The subject doesn't really matter. What's most important is that YOU (the reader) read about what was just said, and think about whether YOU are like this. And perhaps, the fact that if mentally you are trying to speculate about who is what, you're already acknowledging the presence of such perceptions in your mind, so there is already something to do about it: some tuning of our minds to the objective, instead of the instinctive)
lowtide blogged @
2:43 am
You know you've been in school for too long when in Bedok, you see a white car as you cross the road at night, and all you look out for is whether the words "Campus Security" are written on it.
lowtide blogged @
12:43 am
Friday, June 06, 2008
Up-pu-date-to
Well, I'm really lazy to upload pictures here. Can lah, but I'm really lazy. If you wanna see photos go see my facebook. If you don't have facebook, too bad then. LOL.
What have been up to recently? Actually life is a lot slacker than during the sems, but somehow there is still this lingering sense of busy-ness and things-to-be-done and things-to-be-initiated.
Of course, the 'magical' period called the FOP.
Was working for a short but super long 4 days under AK, but after that I really found myself having nothing to do, except FOP stuff of course.
Involved in much of Oweek's filming, a bit of Arts Camp stuff, and with pre camp looming, things are only picking up and heating up.
Some things are inevitable, like the leaving of Mark Hughes to Man City. Well, I've expected this since he was appointed manager of Blackburn Rovers. That's the problem being a 'small' club. When you do badly, you're not happy. When you do well, you're not happy as well, as you know your best manager, your best players, will all be subject to interest. No matter whether you're good or bad in the short run, it will tend to being 'mediocre' in the long run. Either way, it's bad.
For them, the easy way out to success is to use Rovers as a stepping stone, and leave for a potentially more successful place, and they will have their ambitions matched. Few players will have the drive and hope to stay on, be themselves the good players to drive the club forward, instead of jumping ship at every opportunity. That is why players like Tugay and Friedel are really respected by me, as they have shown tremendous loyalty to the club despite them being really really good.
Where leave the fans then? "Stuck" at this club, no matter whether it does good or bad. Of course, jumping ship to support another club makes 'life' a lot easier, but certain things you don't switch that easily, and perhaps will never at all.
Oh, I've finishing watching all 37 episodes of the Death Note anime series in 3-4 days, and it was good! A lot more developed than the movies, a lot more 'drama rama' intellectual battles, and it really showed how 'bastard' Kira was in achieving his dreams. Just that when Near came in, he was rather a tad too successful in all his analysis, and Kira left too many loopholes for Near to exploit, which kind of spoils the intriguing battles between L and Kira.
Well, I was at the stadium when Singapore lost to Uzbekistan 7-3, what a disaster.
Many of such happenings these days lead me to think about the inevitability of things, like no matter how we 'bluff' ourselves in the short run, things will have to tend to their realistic truths one day.
But on the other hand, from all these motivation thoughts, you only achieve what you 'can't' when you aim atrociously high, as even as you fail, you would be higher than where you were.
Ok in the spirit of this incoherent post, it ends abruptly here.
lowtide blogged @
2:16 pm
