Monday, August 25, 2008

back to school... back to writing...

well, it's back to school again. well, it's been like that since last tuesday actually, but i've been lazy to write.

and it's a writing module again! woohoo.

this time it's all about broadcast and script writing and it does really give you an insight as to how the people you don't see on the camera write.

i'm actually finding myself analysing what i hear on the telly and radio, even trying to imagine the writing terminology that goes into stringing together a bunch of scenes.

mass comm... it just changes the way you look at all things media.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

the last day syndrome again...

it's been an interesting past week. sunday was ol's fun and food fair fundraiser for divine mercy ie the church that will be right at my doorstep in the near future. while helping liz out once i couldn't find anymore proper food to constitute a proper lunch, i made this pretty neat-looking mini-rosary handphone strap with a san damiano cross.

my only problem is that my phone doesn't seem to have one of them little notches for such little trinkets... bugger.

and after that, i had my first rt session for flunking ippt in june. and having the need to weigh myself, i have officially put myself on a diet.

yes. you read that right. a freaking diet.

i know some people (of which my mom and probably the rest of my family don't belong to this group) say that i'm not fat. well, methinks appearances can be deceiving and the numbers doth not a lie tell.

if i want to be free of the scourge of rt, i have less than a month to prepare for my test, otherwise it's another 6 or so evenings wasted.

and as pull ups are an area i need to improve on, i think losing some of the unneeded kilos would help in that particular area pretty much.

now onto the bit which has to do with the title of this post. tuesday was my last day in the office at ibm as school's gonna pile up like a horrible car accident soon. and it feels like deja vu all over again.

this stint in ibm, while riddled with absences thanks to school, is easily my longest period of time spent with one company. and, like i've noted before in my old blog (yeah, i actually went through my friendster blog...), it's an odd bittersweet feeling.

i'm absolutely thankful i could sleep in and wake up at 9am this (wednesday) morning and slack the day away and then haul myself out of the house and off to ntu for mass (which, on another sidenote, was great to be back for. i missed csa!). i'm glad that i don't have the monotony of work to deal with again.

yet, i left behind an office of some good people that i got to know in my time there. and while the nkf schools department from 2005 still have my heart in terms of working environment, i think it's fair to say that the people in ibm run a close second of three. i appreciate the flexibility i was shown in terms of leaving for long periods for school and i enjoyed the company of those around me.

while i say that i will miss the dosh that i was getting, i think the main source of this bittersweetness is definitely the people.

i just hope that i can be blessed with such good colleagues in the future.

Friday, August 08, 2008

it's not perfect, but it's still home...

i guess this was supposed to come up in the half written entry before the previous one which has been pretty well read judging from all accounts. but i think it deserves a topic on its own.

i've not exactly been an absolute singaporean patriot. yeah, sure, when i was a kid i used to love singing all those national day songs, but as time wore on, cynicism crept in and eventually i stopped singing. and, with my gradual growing disillusion with this country and all it stands for, especially after *that* event in my life, i couldn't look upon the singapore flag with much sense of pride.

a generally ungracious, uncaring, unfriendly and unforgiving city state that was so caught up with status and power and money where life chugs along at an electric pace. the red and white was becoming for me a symbol and cover for all these things that i found messed up with my world.

but wyd came and reminded me that while i have bones to pick with some singaporeans, it doesn't mean the country is entirely at fault or just plain sucks because we can't measure up to other places around the globe. it has its perks and achievements that you just can't find anywhere else.

like for example, i'm all for speaking good and proper english, but it's nice once in a while to indulge in a litle singlish to get a point across lah, especially when some words and situations can only be described with a sprinkle of malay or hokkien.

we may not have a lot of awe-inspiring natural flora and fauna around to marvel at, but we do have clean streets and a good public transport system around.

i found it sad to be at the (hopefully) *last* match at the national stadium that singaporeans were booing the singapore selection xi. i can imagine many brazilian fans around in singapore, but surely it's a little too much when someone in front of you is shouting at the singapore team to "go home."

sure, there are tonnes of things we may not entirely like here, but at least there's enough here to give me semblance on national pride. if not for what we really have achieved, then at least for the wonderful people around me who have shown me their love and care in the past 24 years of my mortal existence.

all because of this tiny little dot in the south china sea.