It has Ended, or Has It?

I finally finished settling the accounts, still have a little here and there to do, but a major bulk of the work has been completed. Phew, it was a tiring week, but I'm glad everything turned out ok. Hope I do not get any unpleasant surprises next week.

But wait, I have already received one unpleasant surprise. Just when I thought everything is settled, we received news that we have to move the clubroom to a new location. Oh man, it is the worst of timings. Didn't the school admin think about this factor? The 12th-13th assignments submission week is drawing near, exams are coming soon after, and the only couple of weeks we have left to do all these is now going to be eaten up by the shift of clubroom? For me, it is worse. I spent the whole of last week doing accounts and neglected my school work, and was planning to use the next week to make it all up.

I really needa catch up on my school work. Test and assignments have been pretty ok till this point of the semester, but I just got my results for one test and it wasn't as good as I had expected. Many assignments to come, and time is running out. Really need a break.

One day of Futsal completed, another to go. One more weekend to burn, and another to go. Glad things turned out well yesterday, and hopefully all will go well too for today. Oh, and I so wanna take part in next year's Futsal. Seeing the games reminded me of the many rounds of court soccer I played with my fellow BMT officers and specs, and it was pleasant memories. But hey, it is not only Futsal. I also wana take part in Touch Rugby, Beach Soccer, Food Hunt and many more!

Here I Go Again

Just about 2 entries ago, I remarked about a certain organisation on their service standards, and about how unprofessional I felt they were. In this entry, I shall do the exact same to another organisation. If you all notice, I edited the previous post a little, so as not to include any specific names, and the same shall apply in this post.

I do not know whether is it because I have learnt so much more about public relations, or is it because my mood hasn't been of the best lately, but I seem to be perturbed by the slightest bit of unprofessionalism displayed by organisations. But come to think of it, I am always very disturbed about anyone being unprofessional. Today, a certain organisation, or maybe a certain person from that organisation, has pissed me off badly. Allow me to label this organisation as, Island Sen, the southern island under the sun.

I will not rant as much as I did as the previous post, but I will just say that I am extremely disappointed at how this person from Island Sen has handled the situation. First, we were told at the start of the week that we would receive a document from them. Now that the week is ending, we still have not received it. So we make an enquiry. This very staff of Island Sen says she will check and get back to us. But guess what, it is time to knock off. So she just knocks off, and did not even bother to get back to us. When I called her, her attitude was totally horrible and unacceptable. She claims that the office in charge of that matter is closed. Yes, it is closed the time I called her, but when she was first informed at 5pm of this matter, was it closed yet? Somehow or rather, she has managed to turn her delay in handling this matter into a very good excuse for herself. But I don't buy that. Yes, of course no one likes to be disturbed with office work and commitments after working hours, but hey, if you have not yet delivered what you promised, how in the world can you just throw your work aside like that. Furthermore, Island Sen is in the service industry, and that very response and attitude shown from the staff has just reflected very badly on Island Sen.

Does she not know that her slobbish actions may cause all my hard work the past few days to go down the drain? Can she be accountable for whatever consequences may happen because of this attitude? Of course, I am not expecting her to know all these, but at the very least, I am expecting some basic courtesy and professionalism. I will follow up closely on this tomorrow, as time is running out. And as I said, my mood isn't of the best, so she had better not repeat the same mistake she has made today, or she will feel the wrath within me. I have said this many times before, that I always believe in being respectful to everyone around me. But if I am not given the simple respect any normal human being would get, that don't blame me for heating things up. There is that certain limit within me.

Hmm, watched the much anticipated Mr Bean movie today. I would say I was a little disappointed. It was not as funny as I thought the entire movie would be. Yes, there were some parts here and there which were hilarious, but just only those few parts were really worth watching. I think the old Mr Bean sequels were much funnier.

Neglect

Feeling a little tired and upset. I stayed over the last 2 nights in school, settling reimbursements and balancing accounts. Really feeling very tired, as I have been doing the same things over and over again. I have made many trips to and fro already, in fact 4 trips in all yesterday. I have never taken the internal shuttle buses that many times in a day before. Hmm, I think I must also apologise to everyone who have seen me the last few days, as I am very sure my facial expressions and maybe even my actions have not been the most appropriate the past few days. Also a big thanks to those who have expressed concerns and given encouragements. Very much appreciated.

However, the biggest apologies has to go out to my gf. I have neglected her. In fact I have done so alot of times already because of school, but I am feeling a greater pinch during the last few days. I could not find time to meet up with her, and even worse, I could not even find time at night to speak with her on the phone. Even when I had the time last night, I did not really have the energy to speak with her. She messaged me just now asking when we can meet, and when I told her tomorrow night, her reply was "Okay!!". I could tell that she was really happy that we can finally meet. When I saw that message, I was happy, but at the same time very sad. Dunno why I have such mixed feelings, but seeing how happy she was made me feel very guilty. As the saying goes, it takes two hands to clap. In my case, her hand in reaching very far out just to clap mine, and it should never be like that. Why oh why.

Another reason for wanting to have a more peaceful life next semester. And this is a very strong reason, in which no one can doubt me for.

Not Up to Standards

The comments that I will be making in this post is solely based on personal experience, personal thoughts and perception, and should in no way be used to accurately judge the organisation I will be commenting on.

This semester I have been studying alot about how new media like the Internet and blogosphere can affect the society. I was also shown many examples of how the image and reputation of companies have in one way or another been affected by either blog entries or deliberate post online, and today after the wedding dinner I have attended, one such organization will fall pray to the exact same wrath I was just mentioning about. Just so as not to make it too obvious, I shall just call it, The Shang.

Things started off well. Everything was real nice and real grand. In fact this is the first time I have been to an occasion where there are so many people wearing night gowns and formal suits. Dinner was quite good, and the live performance was excellent, until it came to the very last dish, the haagen daaz ice cream. What happened was that the ice cream was an additional dessert which was not reflected in the table menu, and being typical Singaporeans, many people actually left after the first dessert with the mentality of not wanting to squeeze with the majority of the crowd. And so the waiters served the ice cream.

But guess what, somehow or rather the ice creams were being sent out so slowly that they did not have enough to serve all on the table, and to our surprise, the waiter actually said that "2 person share 1". We were all very shocked. Why? Number 1 is, we know that the host would definitely not have planned for things to be like this, as we are sure they can afford ice creams for everyone individually. Number 2, half of the ballroom was already empty, so how can they not have enough ice creams. Number 3, they did not even provide enough spoons to share the one scoop of ice cream. Number 4, he made it sound like we desperately wanted to eat the ice cream, and to do so you have to make do with sharing. This was really disgraceful. Not only does this reflect very poorly on their service, they may have also unintentionally caused embarassment to the host, who were at the doorway busy thanking the guest for coming, and they were not even aware that something like this was happening.

As I continued to observe the waiters, my guess was correct. That particular waiter who actually told us to share the ice cream did so with his own initiative, seeing that he did not have enough to serve the entire table. In the end, one of the floor managers heard about it, and reprimanded that waiter. But what was even more disappointing was that the after scolding the waiter, the manager went back to stand at where he was, like a wooden block. Did coming to explain the situation and offering an apology to us not ever occur to him. That was real horrible PR on his part, and pardon me but being a current PR undergrad, I just feel that this is intolerable.

Am I being too fussy and, am I expecting too much? Well but then again, you cannot really blame me. It is The Shang, what is suppose to be a top class hotel and one of the best in the country.

I Need a Vacation

Yes, I really do. And not only me, I think the whole MC needs one. So here I go again. The end if this weekend marks the end of yet another 2 events. This sentence just sounds all so familiar. I have so many things to say, but just don't know where to start from. Maybe I will start with the events.

Foodhunt. Did not really help out, and did not get to take part in foodhunt. Kinda sad as I really hate to miss out on any event. Just gives you the 'so lost' feeling, especially next time when people start talking about the event. Why I was not there, I'll touch on later. I only joined the guys at the end point, and yes they all looked really shag. Both the facilitators and participants were all sweating and panting when I saw them at the end point. And this can only be a good sign, one that tells me that the event was a good one, so much so that everyone put in the effort to really run and complete the entire event. My sentiments were confirmed when the crowd responded rather wildly to James when he was mentioning the name of the sponsors. Glad it turned out well. A big pat on the back for Serene, Xinyu, Mich and the rest of the foodhunt committee, well done!

On to Beach Fiesta. I was only there for half of the event, but already felt the heat setting in. Cannot really comment much on it, but from the time I left, everything was going very well, the games were going on well, and the music and dances were getting everyone into the mood. I would say the entire thing was quite impressive, especially with zero MC members in the Beach Fiesta committee. There were many ups and downs along the way, but it is always so satisfying to see the event being carried out itself, and the participants enjoying themselves.

So why I could not be there for foodhunt. Well I had some 'accounting' to settle, and I am really starting to detest it. I am still trying to figure out why that right from the start I said I would not touch such 'accountings' again, but yet here I am struggling. It requires so much brain power to sort everything out, and till this moment some things are still so unconfirmed. Time is really running out, and I am not worried about not being able to meet the deadline, but more of how I will be so busy with this the whole of next week that I neglect my schoolwork. Many project deadlines are nearing. How am I going to answer my group members.

Hmm for those reading this, especially those who are in my committee, really wanna apologise that in some way or another I may have neglected my project in the last 2 weeks or so. I promise that when I am settled with what I'm busy tackling now, I'll bounce right back to do what I have to do. Its been real heartening to see you all working so hard. Thanks so much.

Off to a nap now. Have a wedding dinner to attend later, and guess what. The attire for the occasion is a formal suit! Yes, sound very glam, but its more like troublesome. Actually had to spend a few hours just now settling the problem of whether or not my family had enough suits.

Money Money Money

How horrid can one system get. It has been almost 4 and a half months, more than a third of a year, and more than half of the 27th's term, but yet they still tell me it is unconfirmed? And now, they give me 1 week to settle everything. Duh, and this must happen at one of the busiest time of the month. Don't they realise the difficulties, can't they forsee the problems. Now I cannot confirm anything, I am just doing the minimal possible, and am in a huge mess with stacks of papers, spreadsheets and numbers in and around my very confused state of mind. I never liked accounting, as simple as they may get.

Are We Who We Are?

People always say we live for ourselves and we control our own lives. How true is this statement? To a certain extent it is, but it is also a fact that we are almost always living our lives just for other people. We are always concerned about what others think about us, how others perceive what we say, where we stand amongst everyone else, so if you really notice, what we say and do is never really for ourselves. And that is where all the problem arises from.

We will always behave and react to how we think we should, and yet again shouldn't we actually behave and react to how other people think we should, since they are the main audience? This all points to a simple statement. "Many a times people are wrong, not because they do something wrong, but just simply because they think that they are right." Ok its starting to sound a little complex, but my point is, you will never fully understand people, and people will never fully understand you. All it needs at times is just a little compromise, a little patience, and a little understanding.

It Goes On and On and On

Well the end of this weekend marks the end of yet another 2 major events. Wonder how many times I am gonna repeat this sentence.

The response from open house was not bad. It was my first time at an NUS open house, as I hadn't even heard of an NUS open house before this year. Overall, it was a little messy and I would say the organizers of the whole open house were a little disorganised. I was there the whole of the first day, and I wanted to go down on the second. But at the same time I wanted to lunch with my parents, and had wanted to go out with my gf. In the end, I was so tired I dozed off after lunch until 7pm. Hard on camy and those who had to be there for the whole of both days, and so sorry I was not there for the second day, but great job on the work at open house!

ISIS Charity Dinner was good too! Glad that it turned out well, and I kind of enjoyed myself too. The games part was really funny. Was really good to overhear Brandon from NUSSU exco, speaking to his friend on the phone and saying the event was quite fun, and must really say a big thank you to NUSSU for sending their representatives. I think this kinda inter-club, inter society support is what we all really wanna see, instead of all the usual behind the scenes bad mouthing and competetiveness. Overall, a great job and a big pat on the back to Jingyi and her ISIS committee!

So much has happened during the course of the last week. Although incidents have passed, thoughts still lingers. You know what, this week may prove to be the week that I finally see whats ahead. I just applied for residence stay at ridge view, and hopefully I get it. Am really looking forward to my stay there with Josh, Mich and maybe some others. Looking to the many moments and much fun we will have together. But more importantly, the peace and quietness we will finally have.

Complicating

So many things have been happening around me recently, and some have gotten really messy, complicating and even ugly. These have left me with many mixed sentiments. I would also soon have to do something which I would really hate to do, but then again, it just has to be done.

Some sentiments to add. If you detest being treated in a certain way, then for a start, you would never ever give that same treatment to someone else, knowing how he or she would feel. This would mean that if you hate being threatened, you do not threaten others, if you hate being called stupid, you do not ever call anyone stupid, and if you hate being accused, you should never ever accuse anyone. Just one of my simple life principles I live by, but apparently some people juz fail to see this simple logic.

I am left rather awed and disappointed at something I just heard about. Why can't people just cool down for a while, sit back and think, and consider the rationality of the whole situation. Why is it that many a times in life, people just react at the spur of the moment, and only rationalise after the whole thing is over. I must admit that I too am guilty of this behaviour at times. Think people think, please just open up your minds and be rational!

Long School Hours

I have been in school for more than 50 hours already, and I think I will still be for another 20 plus hours before I can finally make my way home. Yeah this may sound like nothing much for those who stay in hall and residences in school, but hey, I don't have one. Thankfully I have the Arts Club Room. Therefore, I would hopefully be getting myself into Ridge View next semester with many of the others. Can forsee already that if we all get in, it would really be fun!

Staying over these few nights because of all the test I have. Just finished my IT1003 test, and will be having a NM2209 test tomorrow. You know what, I just realised that I made one of the best decisions ever by SUing my IT1003. The test was crap man. To date, it is the worst test I have ever done in NUS. There were 10 questions, 2 I totally left blank, another 2-3 were half or partially done, and the rest I am not even sure if I had answered them correctly. Yup, real screwed up test. At least I am more assured that I utilised my SU wisely. Now I have to ensure that my assignment, class participation, and final exam is good enough to assure me of an S. Think it shouldnt be much of a problem, I hope.

Some Random Thoughts

Apologies to the 27th and Foodhunt Comm for not being able to make it yesterday, as I had other commitments to fulfill. The next few weekends are going to be burnt, and I am not so worried about being busy, about school work, or about mid term, but more of my significant other.

Already gotten back some mid term assignment grades, and so far it has been quite good. Have a couple of major mid term test next week, and I am falling behind on my revision again!

Still on schoolwork, I actually used my first SU option this sem. Was really in a dilema over doing so, but I guess I am feeling happy that I have done so. I think many people fail to realise that it is not a simple matter of whether I will waste my SU if I score well on a relatively easy module, but more of how SUing the module will actually lighten my overall workload for the benefit of my other modules. This is especially so when I have so many other commitments. I am feeling some weight off my shoulders already.

Today is the last day of Lunar New Year, and yesterdae was my first stint at blackjack gambling of the Lunar New Year. I started off with a dollar, and ended with 44 times more. How lucky can one get, especially for someone who is always down in gambling :)

Got myself a new set of speakers from the bazaar, and I am sure that will keep me in my room, and away from the TV room for a few weeks at least. Subwoofer and sound is good for such a cheap deal.

Realised that I should once again be grateful for making it into NUS. My gf and her friends are now all left stuck in a room labelled 'end-of-poly', and this very room has many doors to exit from. However, they are stuck not because they cannot decide which door to exit from, but instead they are wondering which door is actually locked and which doors are left for them to explore. The common dilema shared by most diploma holders, including myself a couple of years back. So where now?

My friends actually went to this career fair at Suntec City, and they were commenting on many IR or casino related courses and diplomas are surfacing these days. Since last year, I was telling my friends that I have huge reservations over this casino job outburst thingy. I feel that the IR will be a big hit and a big success, not to mention a big pool of money, but for jobs which are directly related to casinos, I have my doubts. I just got this feeling that these kinda jobs will soon be assigned to the much cheaper and much more hardworking foreigners. We have already saw this very trend happen in the IT industry, and I just have this feeling it will all happen again. Not that I am a good economist or forecaster, but I think I do make a valid point here. I also feel that the indirectly related professions will stand to gain. Like social workers, the finance sector, the banking sector, media and journalism, the food industry, the tourism industry, and many others.

Jam Aloud!

Another 2 major events have ended today, but you know what, the busy period has just begun. Arts Bazaar and Jam Aloud have been a stunning success. The crowd and the stalls at the bazaar were great, especially the sushi stall. Haha, thumbs up and kudos to Tyler and those hard working bazaar comm members for working their socks off. It has definitely paid off. For Jam Aloud, well well, what can I say. Never have I seen such a big crowd, and such a cool and happening event happening on campus itself. The bands were great, crowd was great, and hell yeah, we even had Eunice Olsen as a judge, and Jonathan Leong as an audience. Beat that! Well done Josh, I really enjoyed myself tonight. We had always believed that things will work out well, and boy did you do us proud by proving us right. Just feeling so happy for you, and for everybody. Cheers PDs!

Its the same thing for every event, whereby I always ask myself why am I getting myself all so busy over these kinda things. But I am always well assured when the event ends, seeing the success of it, feeling the joy and satisfaction, seeing how my friends who have worked so hard smile at the fruit of their success, and of course, to see the whole MC so happily joking and fooling around after the completion of yet another successful event. Here I dare say, where else can you get such euphoria, such joy and such satisfaction? By studying and mugging? No way man!

On a more serious and solem note, I would say that I have seen some not so pleasant things after this event. I am just quite disappointed and disturbed at how a certain committee can lack such professionalism, and not show the required respect. As much as one would always want to push hard for success, I think it is sometimes important to know the position you are in, and not try to push it too far. Despite being a fresh and new public relations student, I could already identify a handful of deadly mistakes they have committed. I would say they are lucky, lucky that their partners are nice enough to tolerate them. But just too bad for them, that they have just lost this precious partner. Three words for them to think about and perhaps learn from. 'Humble', 'Appreciate' and 'Respect'. Think many of you would know whom my reference is to.

On Night Shift

Its 3.15am now, and I am here in the central forum helping to watch over the bazaar stuff. I must say I have been very impressed and happy at how the bazaar and jam aloud has been so far. The crowd is good, the bands are good, and hopefully everything else for the next 2 days will be good. Then again, was also feeling a little uneasy, as everytime the band plays and the life-size speakers blast their way through the whole school, my heart (in fact every MC member's heart) was always in my mouth with the fear of complaints. Lets just hope those people understand that school is not all about peace and studying, and should instead have more of this fun and vibrance. Just look at jam aloud today, I would say this is what a good balance of school life should be like!

In my last entry, I mentioned that photoshop was one of my best friends. I think I will eat my words again, and disagree with what I mentioned in the previous post. Why? Because I had spent the last 4 hours coming up with a poster design, and realised that my creativity level was at rock bottom. Furthermore, there are so many functions of photoshop which I have forgotten and have thrown back to my poly lecturers. I guess I am just an on/off designer, sometimes I can, but mostly I cannot. Then again, since when have I ever been creative.

Praying hard for bazaar and jam aloud, and that everything will go well ...