This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Tuesday, August 28, 2007 |
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In today's competitive society, the kiasu spirit is getting ever the more prevalent - the oddly irrational drive to be the best in every single thing in order to not lose out to those around us. But is this really beneficial to us? Indeed, it is natural for such a human instinct in the survival of the fittest. However, in society today, there is no such room for people. Perhaps in the earlier ages, where education levels were low, there were many vacant roles in the academia and this gave a chance for people like Leonardo da Vinci to sweep them all, with him becoming a prominent scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician and writer. But such people do not exist anymore, for the main fact that there is greater equality now and everyone receives fair education and opportunities. Instead of being reserved for the elite, these slots have opened up for everyone to rise up to them. What this all means is that there is increased competition for the limited amount of spots in the upper hierachies of society. Skill standards and requirements have gone up. It isn't possible anymore to devote like 20% to five areas and expect to excel in all of them, just like in Leonardo's time; a full 101% is required in shaking off the competition. Thus, one cannot be just "quite good" in an area, but really has to focus one's efforts in order to be the best (there ever was) and outshine all the rest. It would be better if one simply worked hard in a certain sector so that one can be an expert in it. Specialists, especially those in the medical field, are one of the top earners today. They don't have to worry about losing their jobs since their expertise is invaluable to their various sectors. They are the ones who gain recognition and attention, not those with multiple PhDs or diplomas which have no relation at all to their work. For example, an engineer who also can do humanities - so what? Sure, it may give him an edge in that he has multi-faceted knowledge and can multi-task or make a switch if he feels like it, but it is unlikely that he would be able to take up multiple jobs at one time. In fact, if you were hiring an engineer, i believe you would rather choose one more skilled in the engineering sector alone over him. Then there are those who constantly take up new things as they come, in attempting to beat others in everything to boost their own egos. These people can be identified from how they always compare their performance with others, constantly jump from one trend to the next as the interests of people change and how they like to show off their new 1337h4x skills to everyone else (and putting them down too.) Heck, they may even take up stuff as diverse as DotA to Rubix cubes to cracking others' fingers, and of course the usual trying to top the class in all subjects, attempting to outdo others in all. *coughshaunthocough* The thing is, it simply won't work out. Sure, they may do better than the newbies who just started out in the fields and have little to no experience at all, but once they meet the pros who have been doing that for a long time already and have honed their skills to near perfection, they are just no match for them. You simply cannot expect to be the best in everything since you stretch out your energies over so many fields, compared to those who focus on just that and mean serious business. If you don't selectively specialise, you'll turn out to be like me, sucking at everything. Gymnastics, wushu, soccer, social life, academics, math, scripting, writing/blogging; all i have tried my hand at, unfortunately to no great success in any of them. Maybe "suck" here is too exaggerated, as its more like being at most above average in all fields, but never performing outstandingly well or even being close to the best in them. I've been having this trend since primary school, in acadmics at least, always having one of the better overall results but never actually topping any of my subjects. And it sucks, i tell you. Maybe if i had had a different mindset and invested my energies in just a single field, my situation now might have been a lot better. Specialisation is essential if one wishes to gain some standing in the field he is in. Since all of one's efforts and resources are channelled towards a single cause, it ensures none of it is wasted in the quest for excellence, compared to if you often switch your focus and end up 半途而废. In conclusion, you're better off just concentrating on one specific field which you have the talent in and work your way up to the top, leaving those which you are not good at for others to excel in. As they say, quality over quantity - don't bother wasting your time with opportunities that are meant for others, stick to one throughout instead. You stand a better chance of actually becoming a someone through being renowned in a single field rather than spreading your efforts thin and being overshadowed by specialists in every field. So for those parents out there who are enrolling their children in every single course they can find, from piano to dance to abacus to wushu, don't waste your money and their time. You may have high hopes of them, but it just won't work out if you force them to go for so much stuff, especially if its against their own interests. |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:31 pm.
| Saturday, August 25, 2007 |
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After going through the Model UN sabbats, ive finally realised what it is. It's about gathering representatives who aggresively uphold the various policies stated by their governments, then have them flame each other politely under the facade of diplomacy and having the parties on the receiving end raise a Point of Order (POO) to demand an apology. Of course, that's pretty exaggerated, but that is the essence of what makes MUNs so interesting. The actual UN does have a lot of power and resources at its command though, so it's much better than nothing. =O And then there's the superlatives at the end of it all, where you vote for the weirdest of awards, like the hottest delegate and the one most liekly to start a war. Guess who got nominated for most spaced-out delegate in the sabbatical though?  That's right, the top two on the list are both from 3N! No wonder the teachers always complain we don't listen to lessons. ;) We eventually gave the award to some guy who came in school uniform even though the rest of us were in formal attire. xD Talking about formal wear, it also gives you an excuse to wear your dad's expensive business suit to school. (Oversized, ftw.)  The whole process of UN debates is very time wasting though, especially in the Security Council, where you can debate for hours on end on tiny details like the word "democracy" before China eventually vetos the entire thing. Which isn't uncommon, considering USA and China both have veto powah and when one supports something, the other would likely oppose it. D: Still, the whole sabbatical was pretty fun, but it would have been better if i wasn't assigned to a country like...*drumroll* Slovakia! The delegate of Slovakia would like to recommend this sabbatical to the peoples of HCI. Furthermore, it encourages you to use laptops (for notes), so delegates can have have a quick game of discreet Minesweeper during lectures if they're bored. And Counter-Strike during breaks, too. xD |
'Twas teh winnar at 3:40 pm.
| Thursday, August 23, 2007 |
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[ previous post deleted after a few hours due to a sudden change in circumstances...=/ ] first off, sorry for not replying to all the tags...been through a fair bit of shit this couple of weeks - no mood to give a light-hearted reply D: still, ive been reading them, so thanks alot for dropping by and leaving your comments ^^ now that the academic stuff's over and done with...its turn for my social self to take a beating. >_< if only i could be free from all these issues once and for all, heh. but im gonna have to deal with it pretty much myself - and im gonna have to take the first step. which is probably the hardest things to do, perma daoing and emoing is so much easier. hopefully nothing backfires. D: but things are finally turning around, and i have faith that happier times will come soon. =) and i shall be free from the dark side's grasp, nyhahahaha! i was trying to spike up my hair today for the MUN sabbat debate thingy. 10 minutes in front of the mirror and getting gel all over my hair and hands later, my hair still refused to obey, simply flopping down 5 seconds after i had pushed it up. i gave up and settled for a messy side parting. =/ suspected reason: I DON'T USE HAIR WAX. you...can give me gatsby...D: so im officially blaming the weak $5 a bottle gel and my thick hair for causing me to arrive in school late this morning. guess im gonna have to stick to my current droopy, sleepy hairstyle for quite some time still. =X |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:36 pm.
| Monday, August 20, 2007 |
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Everyone's falling ill atm, lol - bing and zack are down with sore eyes (o_O), and andre, yi yong, mr bro, my mom and a lot of other people are/were down with fever. Looks like it's my turn now, im getting a sore throat and cough already. >_< Just when i thought i finally had lots of free time this sabbatical week, heh. At least i don't have to worry over HRP, project's day and tests anymore - they're over and done with, wooooot! (After staying up till 4.30 am Anyway, that means my blogging hiatus is over, and ill finally start posting again after last week's inactiveness. Got loads of stuff to share, just need to time to organise my thoughts. =P Get well soon ppl! The class seems so empty now with OB and all the MCs...D: |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:36 am.
| Thursday, August 16, 2007 |
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At the AMK Central bus stop this morning, i saw this blind old man who was tapping on the side of a bus, trying to find the entrance. He proceeded to ask very loudly over the crowd, "What bus is this?" A group of teens behind me who were also boarding the bus promptly replied, "74". His response: "Fuck you lah!" Later, i overheard some of them saying that it was not the first time they had seen that blind guy, and he always acted like that. "Next time, as him what bus he's looking for, then tell him that number lah!" So much for helping the disabled. And now, for the first time in a loong while, it's time to vent my anger as we go: [rant] One of the things that i detest most are arrogant asses who've got an over-inflated ego. And display it prominently in front of others, then picking on their flaws telling them off (even when you don't have the right to do so!) just so you can inflate it even further. And in case you were wondering, im talking about a student here, not a teacher. Though it's not uncommon to have staff in high positions who look down upon others either. Yes, our class management committee may not be perfect, much less the most hardworking, but at least we do our job. We keep the class cooperative, we act as the bridge between the class and teachers, and we handle all the administrative saikang. Thus i find it presposterous - for lack of a better word - when someone comes up to you and says, "Your CMC is just too lan." Especially when you're part of it yourself. Sure, we haven't been hading in our monthly reports - newly introduced this year by krison, our new teacher-in-charge - and we've been told off for it already, both by the teachers themselves and through spamming of countless yahoo egroups reminders. And we KNOW the deadline is by tmr, or else we'll face dire consequences amid threat of bad publicity. (Photos included.) Truth is, we don't really care about those reports. As much as krison wants to make it all resemble a highly-efficient government system with excessive paperwork, we just don't see the value in that - heck, we don't even get paid for it, whereas those professionals with their white shirts earn tons to do that crap. But we've resolved to do it up nevertheless, perhaps for the sake of our dignity. =3 Therefore i see no reason why you, a (fellow?) student have to bother to come up to us to remind us of our plight - complete with a sarcastic tone and even wishing us "good luck, man." Not forgetting your remarks of "you all haven't done it cos you're just too lousy"? Not just once, but twice, with that stupid grin on your face. Adding fuel to the fire, so it is. We don't need your pesky inteference with our class affairs. Just because you've been granted power (by who else but krison?) and managed to get into the ExCO doesn't give you the right to come along and put us down. I won't go so far as to retort "your CMC ain't that good either" cos there are indeed people in there who deserve the praise. (-pokes kenii-) But don't let that ego get too big for your head - even if you need it to cover for your short height, heh. Seriously, its probably the first time in sec school that ive got this pissed and cussed someone so badly - yet meant every single bit of what i said. And bothered to type out a blog post on it afterwards. I swear i would have given you a hard blow to your head to wake you up, if not for the fact that there were so many people around. To draw satisfaction from another person's loss and misery is something that i will not stand for. Especially if you aggravate the situation on purpose for the already depressed guy. So kindly fuck off, Khoo Bo Yan. This world would have been so much better without all these assholes around. As it is, my life's pretty much screwed up thus far already. We certainly don't need people mocking us in their pursuits of increasing the size of their e-penor. [/rant] And there's still lots of work to hand up by tmr - HRP, Project's Day, CMC reports and lots of essays and wroksheets. The fact that most of my night was taken up by a crappy conpumpulsory Chinese Drama Club performance on the life of Ong Teng Cheong doesn't help the situation at all, considering i just got home at 10.30 pm. I wish for deep slumber. And to not wake up to face tomorrow. |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:46 pm.
| Sunday, August 12, 2007 |
Found this "marble game" thingy that my lil bro won recently from this national day celebration funfair event - organised by the town council, no less! >=] So what is this miraculous game that can not only improve your love life, but improves your intellegence and skillz as well...? o_o  (do notice that the green launcher thing doesn't even have a spring...and is already almost breaking lol. xD)MADE IN CHINA. |
'Twas teh winnar at 9:46 pm.
| Friday, August 10, 2007 |
 "The parade of many firsts (in) the city of possibilities." So was the commentary on the NDP, along those lines at least. My only gripe is that the slogan's just so...lame. PossibiCity ftl. Other than that, it was a great show, though did i miss some of the portions in the front part. A performance at the waterfront's certainly much more refreshing than the soccer pitch with a giant tarpulin draped over it. It was also really innovative, what with the water curtain, holograms, colourful kites and all. Of course, ending off with the spectacular fireworks as usual. =D (Though i expect it would probably have cost much more too. Hope the taxpayers don't mind.) My cousin was lucky enough that his uncle (not my father) got a room in Ritz-Carlton for the night, at a hefty price of $750 of course. Apparently he pre-booked it back in December...:O But for the more stingy folk like us, there's always channel 5. It would have been better without the commentary though - they even had to comment on the dancers swirling around with those ribbon thingies..."represents Singaporeans as one swirling towards greater heights". Probably included a lot of impromptu crap. My father and little brother fell asleep halfway through it, at the Parade & Ceremony segment, later giving up again at the taichi performance. Guess some guy up there shouting foreign commands, listening to some random commentary and staring at our ministers' faces just doesn't cut it. D: Too bad the only "live" portion i could see was this - a glimpse of the fireworks in the tiny space between two blocks. >_<  Bing probably sums it all up the best though: "it's always the parade, every national day, that reassures me that i am proud to be singaporean...it's always 9th August that changes my mind. i get this weird feeling when i hear the pledge being sung, the sea of red, sparkling, and the national anthem being played, at the end. "though i hate the 2 theme songs and the singers alike, but it's the nostalgic HOME, WE ARE SINGAPORE, and STAND UP FOR SINGAPORE. those songs are what i call true national songs. not that my music's good, i'm tone deaf and a regular grade C for music, but yeah. you damn cant singalong to CAIRO BOMBAY KWAI and all the KANASAI." ...Especially with the bit about the songs. "Will you"'s not bad, but "There's No Place I'd Rather Be"'s just so unmotivational. It just doesn't sound nor feel...right. Of course, mrbrown offers a different viewpoint, as usual. Guess the organisers did try to spruce up the performances, but kinda failed. Do check out the post though, it's a good read. ;) Here's to 42 years of, um, independence! |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:37 pm.
| Wednesday, August 08, 2007 |
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Well...what can i say, happy 42nd birthday Singapore! xD (Not to forget the four-and-a-half days long break, too. =3) And happy birthday to Shummy too, who was unfortunately born 15 minutes before Separation, resulting in me having to dedicate an extra sentence to him. D: And to commemorate this very very special event, guess what's the school's giving out to all students? Hold your breath...wait for it...wait for it...*gasp* A set of magnetic castanets!  I mean, there's so many things you can do with them - they can be used as body accesories, or you can link them up to form a nice bracelet. Or you can just repeated press both sides to make an irritating click-clack noise. (Yeah, the first thing almost every single teacher who walked into our class said was, "I don't want to hear that thing again, or ill confiscate them!") Man, the national day presents are getting more and more innovative. In primary 3, we got small sling bags; last year, we got tri-colour highlighters; and now, noisy little toys! I must admit though, they're fun to play with, and great to annoy others too. (If you have one of those, try clicking it right beside your ear. You'll see, er, hear.) And im sure playing with magnets will develop a sense of national pride in our Singaporean youth today. =P Other than that, what better way to celebrate national day than with...a performance, lol. First part of the day: March pass after flag raising. Wasn't there, but heard quite a few of the uniform groups screwed up, though. D: And the band looks cute in their toy-soldier costumes, feather and all. Nothing much different from past years, i guess. xD Second part: The completely kickass performance by NCC, wushu, and gym. Lol yeah, im bragging here, but it was great that the organisers got all the cool groups to perform this year, with all the amazing stunts and choreography. xD It was a fair bit of work - had to stay in school till 7.30 pm the day before just to reherse the entire thing over and over again. Though most of the time was spent listening to the emcees and watching 10-year-old videos. Too bad i was only one of the backstage crew members for gym cos im not as 1337 as those pros like akilan. Still, gym ftw! (Though i still can't get over the fact that TeoCM made us perform to the background music of "We are Singapore". I mean, wushu gets the fancy costumes and music, while we use the gym tees and flip to a national song. D:) Third part: Geog lessons and chem retest. Why do teachers like to torment us after all the fun and joy is over?! T_T At least chem retest was pretty easy, since most of the questions were repeated from past papers de. May even get my first ever full marks for chem, though an A1 would be good enough for me le. =O Tomorrow: the real NDP. More about it in due time. ^^ PS if anyone managed to get a photo/video of the gym performance, could you send it to me pls? Thanks =P |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:59 am.
| Friday, August 03, 2007 |
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This morning, just as i woke up, my half-dazed body decided it needed a stretch. I unknowingly complied, neglecting all my tensed up muscles, and...was struck by a sharp cramp from my right thigh muscles. Spent the next few minutes half-curled up in bed, writhing in pain while furiously rubbing the affected muscle in a bid to loosen it up. Eventually managed to hobble out in time to catch the bus. My thigh still feels a little...odd. Like the muscle's constricted. At least it woke up up, though. D: Later in the afternoon, was doing a single-hand handstand in gym when i tilted forward a bit too much, lost my balance...and landed heavily on my left hand supporting me. Even though it was on the soft mat, the resulting impact was so pain that i thought i had broke my hand. Clutching my wrist, i tried to bend my fingers, and to my relief and agony, they (and the nerves) responded. Luckily it wasn't the hard ground, else id probably have fractured a few bones. =X Couldn't clench my fist for the next hour. And even now, im still feeling a nagging pain as i type. And i still can't clench properly - my fingers haven't felt the same since. >_< Ouch. Don't try this at home. |
'Twas teh winnar at 12:00 am.
