For reasons you'll know later, I re-visited some of my older blog posts. Some of them really brought back memories, especially the ones about Arts Camp and of course, Hong Kong. Can't believe that it's been 4 months since I have returned. Apart from that, if I applied a tag cloud on the contents of my blog, the word 'school' will probably stand out the most.
Anyway, I was rather fascinated by some of the contents and style of writing I used in some of my older entries. Fast forward to today, and my style has probably changed pretty much. Then again people do change, and I shall just look back at those entries knowing that they are genuine reflections of myself and my style back then.
I would say that this blog has pretty much served its main purpose as a priceless diary of my life since I started blogging. This will be my last entry here.
Just came across this 'Funeral Commercial' on Facebook, and it left such a deep impression on me that I just had to blog about it. Yes, I teared a little while watching it. To evoke such emotions in 3 minutes pretty much highlights the power of the script. The message itself, "Beautifully Imperfect", was beautiful. The directing and photography was excellent too, and to date is one of the most impressive advertisements I have ever came across. Not to mention it's a local production.
The commercial probably 'touched' me more than it would others due what I been through last month. Through all that happened, I have very much learnt to treasure my family much more, and this commercial was a timely reminder of that.
So many things to blog about. First of, yes it's high time I changed my blog skin. In fact, I had plans to do more than just change my blog skin, but work and many other distractions have put my plans on hold.
I'm more than halfway through my internship, and although work has been building up, things have been great. Simply put it, it's true when people say that there's no point really studying so hard, as you really only learn best only when you experience it. It's true, and I'm not sure how this mentality is going to get me through honours year come August.
Blogs and Facebook has been my key to keeping up to date with what's happening in and around school. If there's one thing I have to complain about internship, it's that I no longer get to experience that 'fun' side of school. Have already missed quite abit of activities in the last month due to certain distractions in life.
In many ways, last month was one to forgot. The superstitious side of me is glad that April has come to hopefully wash away all the 'bad' in March. I've been in hospital premises for more times in a month than my lifetime. For one, it felt horrible to lie in the hospital bed myself, but it felt many times worse to see people you know lying there as well. More so if its a loved one. Dad just had an op, and days before, during and after the op was really hard for me personally. Thank goodness he's better now, but it's through this month that I realise how much I've been taking life for granted. I mentioned before how conversations with friends now often linger around work and quarter life crisis, but I soon realised that the one major sign of us aging is when we see our parents starting to age, and in the process experiencing sickness. I've spent much of the last months enjoying myself in Hong Kong and taking life as it is, only to realise that I've perhaps been a little to carefree to assume that things were always to be smooth sailing.
Spent almost the entire day doing housework, something which I usually relied on my Dad to do. I felt a little down with all the chores not because I felt tired, but more because I realised how tough it really is, and how I've relied too much on Dad to handle all of that. It's really time to do my part, instead of just bumming around in front of the computer. Routines at home have changed, and it really is a wakeup call for me.
Been reading much from the web at work lately, especially socio-political sites, and it triggered some thoughts which I thought of penning down.
I must say I am intrigued by the spectrum of views - some being really hilarious and entertaining, some more eye-opening and interesting, while others being too extreme and nonsensical for my liking. I did however come across a common thought on the local mainstream media - or more specifically of it being weighed as too biased and one-sided. Now that's not for me to agree or disagree, but what caught my eye was the reasons people were giving for turning to alternative channels, claiming that they are deviating from mainstream media for better 'unbiased' news. As a communications and media student, I have learnt much about journalistic ethics of reporting from a neutral standpoint and carefully selecting a more 'neutralistic' range of words and expressions. However, despite adhering to these journalistic directives, I question if total unbiasness can really be achieved? Wouldn't alternative media have their own biasness in some sense too? So which entity can ever be considered 'unbiased' and fair?
I tend to enjoy reads of those who write well, but more importantly, those who acknowledge that every issue or argument has two sides (with biasness still involved somewhere of course). Similarly, I prefer those who backs their arguments with quality thoughts for one to consider and ponder about. So it kinda puts me off when some political comments and discussions goes 'Vote the current party off'. Fullstop. My question would be 'Ok after you've done that, then what?' Expect a new (and unexperienced) other-party to come in and do a better job, and think that no one else will complain about new problems? And just to sum my point up, I shall quote Barack Obama in his recent appearance on Jay Leno's show.
" If there are members of Congress who object to specific policies and proposals in, then I ask them to be ready and willing to propose constructive, alternative solutions.
'Just say no' is the right advice to give your teenagers about drugs.
It is not an acceptable response to whatever economic policy is proposed by the other party. " - Source, TNP
The last week was perhaps one of the worst ever in my 24 years. I fell horribly ill during the previous weekend, struggled in bed at home, went to the doctor, struggled another day at home, went to the hospital in the wee hours for outpatient treatment, and struggled another full day at home. Throughout all these, I was running a high fever and had a very bad stomach, with runs to the toilet in between. It finally hit the 'limit' on Monday night when I was admitted to hospital with high fever and some very bad stomach infection. I finally managed to get out today.
It was my first ever admission, and I so want it to be my last. Many times, especially during the start of the week, I felt so painful and horrible that at times I just wanted to ask if there was some kind of jab which could put me to sleep until the pain subsided. Through the few days my life was only about sleeping on the hospital bed or sitting in the hospital toilet, and it felt really miserable. The biggest pain of all would be the cost of this whole saga. This unfortunate incident had cost a bomb, and I'm just feeling really down and upset that I have to burden my parents with all these. I can perhaps tell myself that no one could really predict this, and that such unforseen but necessary expenses will always have to be spent in life, but it's just painful.
The whole thing suddenly brought me to re-think about the whole issue of money, and about how I really want to quickly finish my studies so as to go out to work. Being stuck there in the hospital just gave me so much time to think about anything and everything, and how I could perhaps do so much more with my life. I get upset when I (think I) burden or let my parents down, and am somehow now more determined to work even harder to provide for them in the future.
Of course, I always see the importance of seeing the positives out of the negatives. So despite all the downs, I'm glad I got to experience much love, care and concern during this week. Also, I can count myself lucky that this didn't happen when I was in HK, nor when I am in a full semester in school. Furthermore, it's kind of a hellish period in school now, and what a disaster it would have been if this kept me out for a whole week of school. Although there are only two positives out of the many negatives, I'll just be thankful for them.
Believe it or not, after 2 months of internship I still can't really get used to waking up early in the morning to get myself ready for work. So that is why I cherish the weekends much more now. I slept for at least 12 hours last night, as I woke up in the afternoon today. Then it rained for the whole day, and I just lazed in front of the computer and television. How nice!
Lightning actually struck the Merlion today! That's a first, and it's amazing on many counts. First of all, of all the things, lightning had to strike one of the iconic statues of our country. Secondly, the Merlion wasn't that tall to start of with, so how did that really happen? I'm gonna bet that with all the new media hype lately, this is gonna get much coverage on forums and blogs, with people relating this incident to like 'signs of Singapore being suay' or 'the heavens are telling Singaporeans something' etc. etc.
I probably have to dust off the cob webs in this web space of mine, and to those of you who still drop by here (anyone even?), my apologies for the long absence .... again.
To be honest, tonight was just like any other night, and I didn't exactly have the mood or energy to blog, until I read the news. I noticed a very familiar name, and it was an article about the charge on three NS men who were involved in some bribing and smuggling case. Unless someone else has that very same full name, I have this feeling that news article was refering to an ex-recruit of mine.
Well it may afterall not be him, but one part of me says there's a high chance. He was always a problematic soldier, and I would say he was the one recruit who received my loudest ever scolding during my ns days. The problems he posed could be compiled into one long chapter, but I'm not going there. The point is that towards graduation, things got better, and I saw a change in him. On the last day, he expressed his gratitude for all that was done, and mentioned how he was sorry and has learned from all that has happened.
The one thing which brings me much joy and satisfaction during my ns days was to see my recruits graduating. It felt really good to see them maturing since the first day when they all looked so blur, and the gratitudes and salutes that follow is the icing on the cake. I received the same gratitude and salute from the above mentioned recruit, and I was confident that I helped in making him a better person. Or so I thought.
I can easily attribute the origin and continued presence of this blog to school. I started blogging at a time when school was really busy and thoughts were overflowing in my head, at a time when I learnt that blogging was a good practice for writing in school, and at a time when more and more of my friends started blogging. This relation between school and my blog has been made even clearer in the recent weeks, as my blogging frequency has since dipped, simply because there's no school.
Internship has been really good, and I would say that I have already settled into that working kind of lifestyle. It has however taken a toll on several aspects of my life, including the energy and time left to blog. No doubt blogging ideas and sudden inspirations do consistently surface, but that flow of energy to my mind does to seem to flow all the way down to my hands. So I'm just going to sum up two random thoughts I had for the past few weeks, one about Chinese New Year, another about soccer.
Chinese New Year. It followed a similar trend as the previous years. Lesser hype around it, lesser visitings and in some way lesser meaning to the whole festival. Then again, this is not the case for everyone. However this year, I started to realise that maybe it's not that Chinese New Year or traditions have changed, but it's simply because I have grown older.
During my visits, I looked at some of the kids, and they too are still having a time of their lives, playing with cousins whom they've never met for a year, snacking on the new year goodies, and receiving their red packets before running off to play elsewhere before they get bombarded with questions from the adults. When I looked at them, I was thinking that hey, that used to be me. Hmm, another one of those "I'm growing old" sentiments streaming into me.
Soccer. Disappointing from my point of view, as a rovers fan. Sam Allardyce probably saved us from being this season's table rooting Sunderland or Derby, as despite being unbeaten for many games already, we're still in the trouble zone. Starting to see the irony behind Ince's remark of 'I could have gotten another 5 more games to work something out'. We would have drifted away by then Ince. A loss to Villa yesterday was expected, but what worries me is that the gaps in the bottom half are starting to reappear. That game in hand we have against Fulham is the key now. I definitely have more faith in the new manager, however if you ask me, I'm only about 60-70% confident that we won't go down, simply because we have one of the better squads down there. Then again, as many captains have reminded their squads this season, you're never too good to go down. We'll see, as the table looks really interesting this season. My predictions, with some rovers biasness involved, West Brom, Stoke and Boro to go down.
As for the top, I think I should be able to give a better assessment than any big four fans. Sorry friends, but more often that not have I seen big four fans being either too biased to their clubs, or having sentiments which are just too anti of other big four clubs. Many of you attribute it to passion, but sometimes I just feel it's going waywards beyond passion, and sometimes even ugly for the common good of the game. Ok to the point, Man Utd should clinch it this season, as they are what I would say the most consistent team in the league for many years. Liverpool, well I think too many people are writing them off too easily, again more because of anti-rival sentiments rather than footballing reasoning. Torres is back, and that will do them much good. Chelsea would probably be vying for third spot with Arsenal and Villa, although I got this feeling that Villa will nick it. You only have to look at the two people to understand Chelsea's plight, Drogba and Scolari. They tend to give me this 'loss and dejected' feel everytime I watch them. Arsenal, well I don't think anyone can argue that this season, they just lack the most depth and experience for a big four club. I didn't fancy Adebayor, and then he made me eat my words last season, but now I'm passing them all out again.
Come what may, it's going to be a great season, and soccer during weekend nights definitely give me something to look forward to after those long weekdays.
If there's one big takeaway from this three weeks of internship, it's the amount of knowledge I have gained, especially with regards to new media. Within this short span of time, I have learnt so much more than I would have expected to, and it's only going to get better. In fact, it's ironic how I feel more like a new media student now than when at school.
Of course with ups, there's downs. So the one disappointment which leaves me a little perturbed is my encounter with some people out there who still seem to undermine the power of new media. Being a new media student, I enjoy what I study, and take pride in what I personally think is the next big thing. In fact its THE big thing now already. And who better to prove my point than President Obama. From his elections campaign, to inauguration day, to a new website, and to the best and coolest of them all, the appointment of a new director of new media! Now how is that not making new media the next big thing?
Just watched Red Cliff 2, and it's definitely the next best thing to Lord of the Rings. I am a huge fan of LOTR, and was kinda sad after the 3 part trilogy ended. But Red Cliff kinda allowed me to re-live some of those moments, as I drew parallels between the two. Both were based on good scripts written from elements of history and myths, both were well casted, both had amazing scenery and effects, and both had really good fighting scenes. When I saw how some of them sacrificed themselves jumping into oil barrels to blow up Chao Chao's navy ships, I couldn't help but be reminded of the scene in LOTR The Twin Towers, when the huge Uruk Hai jumped into the walls of Helms Deep to blow it up. Similarly, Zhou Yu's jump from the ship held great resemblance to Aragon and Legolas jumping off the ghost ship in the Return of the Kings.
Having recently taken film classes, I was also better able to appreciate the technicalities of the film. Sure, much of the story was based on history, albeit some a little inaccurate, but you got to admire how the script was continuously pieced together, as each scene seemed to blend in seamlessly with the next. Definitely an intriguing film brimmed with intelligence and bravery, which makes a history-idiot like me want to read up more.
