Quandary

Something not very nice has just happened at work which caught me in a quandary about working life. While it is not convenient to discuss the details here, it has got something to do with manpower and how opportunities that pass cause people do actions that seem to go against the grail of friendly relations. However in practical sense I empathise with the parties involved, so no hard feelings there. Just hope it won't happen to me...

Sigh~!

The Calling - Our Lives

Is there love, tonight
When everyone's dreaming
Of a better life
In this world
Divided by fear
We've got to believe that
There's a reason we're here
Yeah, there's a reason we're here...

Oh, yeah...

Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives...

See the truth, all around
Our faith can be broken
Our hands can be bound
But open our hearts
And fill up the emptiness
With nothing to stop us
Is it not worth the risk?
Yeah, is it not worth the risk?...

No, yeah...

Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives...

And even if hope was shattered
I know it wouldn't matter
Cause these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives...

We can't go on
Thinking it's wrong to speak our minds
I've got to let out what's inside...

Is there love, tonight
When everyone's dreaming
Can we get it right?
Yeah, can we get it right?...

Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives...

And even if hope was shattered
I know it wouldn't matter
Cause these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives...

Oh, yeah, let's make the best out of our lives...

Oh, yeah, let's make the best out of our lives...

Profile write-up - draft

Profile Write-up – Ned Low Hong Ee

Ned spent a good four years knocking on the doors of professors at the National University of Singapore (NUS) before being shown the door with a Bachelor in Computing (Honours) in Communications and Media. During his second year, he completed a year-long independent and supervised undergraduate research project titled “Case Study of the NUS IVLE (Integrated Virtual Learning Environment) & its Effectiveness to Academic Learning”. In his third year, he saw more of the world when he spent a semester on student exchange with the University of Queensland, Australia and drank half the Pacific Ocean whilst trying to surf. For his Honours year project, he returns to IT with “AttachViz: Visualizing Email Attachments” using Macromedia Flash. With a keen interest in multi-disciplinary thinking, Ned also graduates from the University Scholars Programme that emphasizes critical thinking and effective writing across diverse disciplines.

Engaging hearts and minds has always been Ned’s obsession since young. He survives after seven years of private tutoring with kids aged 7–17 across a wide range of subjects and nationalities. Whenever the opportunity avails, Ned does relief teaching in primary and secondary schools in subjects from English language to Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. He has also extensive experience in teaching IT, such as being a laboratory teaching assistant in Visual Basic Application programming to freshmen in the NUS School of Business for a semester. In coming to Republic Polytechnic, he hopes to explore PBL and perform education research as to how IT can be harnessed for effective learning.

During the times when his only obligation is himself, Ned likes to eat sand whilst playing beach volleyball and reads anything from newspapers to cereal boxes. Ned also swims and plays badminton. He articulates in English, converses in Chinese and gesticulates in Japanese, perpetually nursing an inane curiosity in the Japanese language and culture.

The Calling Albums

Unstoppable - 2/5
Nothing's Changed - 4/5
Wherever You Will Go - 4/5
Could It Be Any Harder - 3/5
Final Answer - 3/5
Adrienne - 5/5
We're Forgiven - 3/5
Things Don't Always Turn Out That Way - ?
Just That Good - 2/5
Thank You - 5/5
Stigmatized - 5/5

One By One - 3/5
Our Lives - 5/5
Things Will Go My Way - 2/5
Chasing The Sun - 3/5
Believing - ?
Anything -5/5
If Only - 4/5
Somebody Out There - 3/5
Surrender - 3/5
Dreaming In Red - 3/5
Your Hope - 3/5
For You - 3/5
London Calling

IMF, East Coast, Mini Golf

As everyone knows by now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently came to Singapore and created a little storm in a teacup when contentious issues such as the unwilling compromise of the Singapore government on protestors raised the irk of the members. Although I agree on one hand about the lack of freedom of expression in Singapore, they should also consider why they chose Singapore in the first place. Isn't security their topmost priority? They should look at the sacrifices we have made as ordinary citizens behind the facade of 4 million smiles. I'm sure the campaign has lost quite a few smiles from its citizendry including the motorists, pedestrians and the traffic policemen who had to juggle with difficult traffic situations:


Oh well, at least that's over. Let's hope Suntec will continue to look as wonderful as it has been during IMF.

My family went to East Coast Park last Saturday for a walk and the weather was alright. We came across the renovated pond in East Coast Park that has now been transformed to a wakeboarding circuit where wakeboarders are pulled by this machinery that traverses around the pond. Price? A whopping $40/hr or $8/round. God forbid the woeful beginner who buys a one-round ticket and falls off on his maiden attempt! Most of the cliente I observed were foreigners which comes as no surprise given the exhorbitant ticket.

We also chanced upon this venture(read: capitalistic) "shop" which sells sandcastle-making mould sets at $30 each. A few pieces of plastic to be used on public sand? Good for corporate activities where the company pays I guess.


So that was last Saturday. This week at work - not many things happened, but I think I am much ready to move on to RP. We finally had a meeting with IT to discuss the scope of the new website which is supposed to be my pet project, and it turns out that my involvement will only be for a pretty minor component. I personally don't see much value in that and it sounds pretty administrative, so I should start counting my calendar down. I've got a response from RP that I can start next year too, so I guess I will do it once it is approved.

We also went for a department lunch yesterday, as a sort of welcome party for me and an excuse to hang out. We went to au Jardin at Botanical Garden, and it is french cusine and very expensive~! It was my first attempt trying foie gras (goose liver), and I almost retched. What an awful experience! However, it was very fun to people-watch. Behind me was this table of tai-tais and according to AGL who was sitting opposite to me and had a clear view, it seemed like a birthday party with them exchanging gifts. Sigh the life of taitais! In front of me was another table of guys in suits which wasn't the most exciting.


In the afternoon after returning from the lunch, it was back to work as usual but the afternoon was cut short when the whole company trooped down to Lilliputt at East Coast for another company get-together. I scored a hole-in-one out of 18 holes, no easy feat! (actually it's luck, really) However, amongst the 18 holes I still threw my face away with a grand total of 100 (so far only one another colleague hit 3 digits, the average being around 80). So paise!

JN of my detail. She's part of the rec team and the impartial scorekeeper.
This is Z from IT. He's a pretty fun guy from what I gathered around in office.
That's M in the background, a New Zealander and Oracle programmer.

That's AT, a colleague who sat in front of me when I was temping in the IT department before I moved over to Communications as a perm on probation.

Another blurry picture.

Benefits are great, perks are great, but I have yet to experience job satisfaction which I think is very important to last long in a job. Sigh.

A birthday celebration

I'm 25, no getting any younger!

It's been quite a good day today. I woke up late around 9.30am, and by the time I finish pottering 'round the house it was around 10.30am and I met QK at Tampines MRT Station Control. We felt like a million dollars, walking through Tampines Mall and Century Square on a lovely weekday without the crowds who will otherwise create a hectic feel to an otherwise peaceful stroll. We had breakfast in Delifrance, where he shared with me his recent escapade of purchasing things that he will need at one go recently during the Great Singapore Sale where he clocks 10x cardpoints which can then become Krisflyer miles. He got himself a free return ticket to Japan, so lucky!

If I am on JET it'd be a dream come true.. but sadly that's not the case but HEY! Maybe I can go with him! Let's KIV yeah?

I was desperately hoping for a dash of of inspiration and I bought the Straits Times today. While rummaging it, I grew more and more despondent as none of it shed light against anything related to my current 1/3-life dilemma, until the last page of CATS recruit. In a half-page spread "Career happiness is child's play", I got what I was looking for.

Thank you.

After the breakfast at Delifrance, we decided to trace our roots by going back to the old MOELC where our friendship first took root and flourished from there. It was a wonderful chat, reminiscing about the past and projecting the future. We miss our Japanese classes! Followed which I had to go back to office as the company has planned an afternoon tour of PowerSeraya power plant on Jurong Island. I managed to meet WT for a very short while, and was pleasantly surprised to receive her gift of an expensive Domanchi belt that is very, very cool.

Thank you very much! You know me so well!

The trip to PowerSeraya was alright, where we saw the infamous 3-josssticks (chimneys to the fuel oil steam generators) and 2 other recent developments. We each received an exquisite set of pens as souvenirs, cool! :)

After coming home, I squeezed a swim at the Tampines Swimming Complex, followed by dinner at home and finally cake-cutting.

A wonderful day? You bet!

A coincidence with the personal occasion of the year, my company organized a site visit to PowerSeraya's power plant on Jurong Island this afternoon. We couldn't take any photograph, so this is the only thing I get. The trip was interesting and sits well with what I've learnt so far about how the electricity market operates from the orientation programme, so it is a motivation of sort.

Relating about myself and what I do with others

This is what my current job lacks, and why I should reconsider.

Thank goodness for the enlightenment.

A nice response from KR of XXX, YY

Good to know you are considering to be part of the XXX gang! Yes you will be involved in other functions on top of facilitating classes. Given your articulate nature (both in the spoken and written word) I can see you really contributing to the network function where your primary responsibility will be to help XXX shape an identity both within and beyond YY. The details of the function will include areas like planning for our International ZZZ Symposium, conceptualizing our newsletter and hosting visitors/ giving presentations on WWW. There are also other functions like training, curriculum, research, student development and educational technology, and we welcome you to poke around these functions and see what tickles your interest. With your IT background perhaps you might want to see how the educational technology function could meet your needs in further developing your IT skills. These functions are not set in stone, and what is more critical is finding a good match between your interest and the department’s functional needs, so the first few weeks of your stay with us would be largely informal and exploratory as you get to meet all the function heads and chat with them

25

I spent the first hour of my twenty-fifth birthday walking home alone after working in the office late into the evening.

As I walked, I thought about what I really want in life and what I am doing currently.

Is it me or am I getting the uncanny feeling that I'm taking a roundabout again?

After a long delay of a few days, I finally got on to the next orientation presentation by a vice-president of another team. She hones a background in investment, and was very clear about her subject matter. She made it simple for a layman without a background in economics like me and I was very impressed by the talk, which incidentally set my mind thinking about my current job and where that will eventually lead me to. While it offers a start into the field of marketing communications, I suddenly realise that communications in the sense of marketing and teaching stands for quite different things. Marketing seems to be more of a very persuasive end where the receiver can be the most unreceptive, but teaching has its hidden rewards when one converts the most obstinate one over. Marketing sees value in dollars and cents, but teaching sees value in the intangible.

At the moment where I am, I can see myself two years later as an experienced communications executive soaked in the art of copywriting, managing a publication design and printing process and purchasing corporate gifts. Not to mention perhaps experience in an evaluative process of identifying and scoping new web sites. Furthermore throw event management in.

I miss the intangible satisfaction of sharing and connecting at a deeper level, the immeasurable warmth in the heart when someone who is truly appreciative walks up to you and thanks you. You know the gratitude is pure and true, and you won't have second doubts about it because you know that you have done something deserving and an appreciation is in order.

Things can never be so simple in the private, corporate environment where the precarious climb (or fall) down the career ladder and the motivation of money keeps everyone on their toes.

Everyone has an agenda. Teaching has a different agenda from the corporate world.

I was originally planning to gain some experience for a couple of years, and depending on the remaining interest level, continue in the field or go (back) to teaching. Having rejected JET was a mistake. Will postponing teaching be a greater issue?

Talk on chado and Tea Gathering

I picked up this brochure yesterday at the ACM where I viewed the public display of a Japanese tea ceremony. This sounds like fun! Maybe we can go for the free lecture and demonstration and we can then walk out into the wonderful Orchard Road and chill out.

Way cool eh? Let's go!

Photographs! - Tuition, CL's birthday, Chado@ACM

I've not been clearing the photographs off my Ericsson phone, so here's an exposition of what other things have been going on in my life for the past week or so.

Yup, that's right, I'm still giving tuition, though this time it's to two cousins of mine CLR and CLN. CLR's sitting for her PSLE in 2 months' time and CLN's trying hard to pass Primary 4, and boy is her mathematics foundation very weak! Here's CLR being camera-shy - I can't help but play with them since I refused to collect tuition fees on the account of relatives (not to mention if I collect, it'll be low and not worth the guilt from being a playful tutor).

Oh it's school holidays this week! CLR and CLN had a chalet from Monday to Wednesday and my siblings were there too, soaking up the sun and having a hell of a time. I went on Wednesday evening after work to eat yummylicious BBQ, and it was CLN's birthday! She had her mother bake her favourite cheesecake and it was delicious even to a cheese-dun-liker like me as the stench of cheese wasn't too strong. Happy Birthday CLN!



Well I didn't realise the effect of not having a flash is so great.. so for the Sony K750i, we should turn on the flash for indoors at night. Never use night mode or the picture will look orangish! That's 'cos of the heavy reliance on the environment light I think.

BN, YT and I met yesterday afternoon to celebrate my birthday and to get me my present - a tote bag that's masculine! However in the morning before we met I saw this advertorial in ST about a Japanese tea ceremony happening in ACM at 2pm in the afternoon and thinking about how I've (hopefully it came across as) playfully complained that an errand to ACM to deliver a cheque for a company event in November was too far, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone by running back to office to grab the cheque and then to ACM to pass the cheque to them and then watch the ceremony. I was pretty late though, but it was quite alright as the ceremony was quite long and a little monotonous at parts as I was feeling especially perky and not in a mood to contemplate about the intricacies of life.

Anyway, I was late to arrive there, having spent some time trying to scrutinize the name tag of the lady whom I passed the cheque to. I missed the beginning which is the flower arrangement part, though from what I see there wasn't much of a flower arrangement in the contemporary sense of the phrase - the vases had only one or two stalks of flowers each. They aren't really poked into some styrofoam base into a fixed pattern, so it was really mind-boggling to a beginner like me on what kind of 'flower arrangement' there was. After that they went the first round to drink the thick tea. It was a very interesting process on how they decide who to go first to boil and serve the tea. They pass this foldable box with tokens inside, and the tokens indicate the order. So after this long token-choosing ritual (5 minutes) with lots of bowing, they shuffled into position and they took turns to serve tea. Examining the cockery, wiping the cockery, and finally beating the tea up into a rich froth took another 5 minutes each, before serving to the person at the right turn. The drinking part was the one that most students of Japanese will be familiar - using your right hand, grab the bowl and put it on the palm of your left hand, then using the right hand, turn it clockwise 2 times, sip 2 times to drain the tea, then turn it anti-clockwise 2 times again before setting the bowl down on the table, all with the right hand.

Finally, towards the end, everything comes together! Apparently, the flower arrangement is supposed to be a literal challenge where during the tea ceremony the participants are required to come up with little couplets or poems to reflect on their choice of flower/s, their "arrangements" and the usual Japanese interest in the weather and other natural occurances. As the ceremony display was done in the spirit of celebrating Singapore-Japan ties, all their couplets had something to do with it. Oh well it was entertaining, though I was a little disappointed I didn't meet anyone I know.







This is it - Republic Plaza, my office!

First week as a Communications Executive on Probation

I guess this is officially Week 1 of my first job being a communications executive! It feels very weird to be moving over to the other side of the office and continuing with whatever I've been doing as a temp website migration coolie but oh well, I guess someone has to finish it up and there doesn't seem to be anyone else around other than me. That's taking quite a bit of my time too, and to be frank I'm quite bored of doing that, not to mention an increasing worry that I'm not in the best place to start developing my career. On the other hand I guess it might be because I don't really know what I want in the first place.

The issue was compounded by a phone call I received on Monday. RP has offered me the position of academic staff with the Centre for Educational Development! From the perspective of financial payout, RP pays slightly better than what I am getting currently. I have a few more days of leave too. Medical benefits-wise they'd give a lump sum for medical expenses (something like allowance?), though they don't provide group insurance like my present company. I'm not sure about the other nitty gritty details though, so I've emailed them for a softcopy of the draft contract. I also emailed the person whom I first talked to in RP for an 'informal chat', asking her if the Centre already has plans for me or do I get to choose the team I will like to be in.

Then today I just had another pep talk with my superior, AGL. It's quite sad 'cos she spent 2 hours and I left with a puzzled mindset - should I trust her or is she trying to put a spin on things? While she, as expected, suggested that I try it out for 3 months or so before making a decision, I can't help but feel that my presence for the next 3 months will be of most benefit as we have a major event happening and a lot of preparation is required. She discussed how unique she felt my experience in IT and marketing communications has been and she thinks it'll be a forte that will shine on my resume if I keep developing along that line. She even lent me some of her Marketing magazine and shared with me the Communications Business Plan... something which I'd have to read sooner or later but she raised it 'cos she wanted to answer my questions..

So should I or should I not? I guess I have until the end of the month to give a responsee, though we should look at the RP contract too. Sigh!

Informative Guides to Communications as a Career

http://www.psu.edu/dept/comm/handbook/guide.htm


http://www.indiainfoline.com/bisc/cgcc.html
An interesting classification of the various subcategories of communications. Perhaps I can use this list to establish which areas my current position as Communications Executive fits and what is lacking.

Specialized fields in Strategic Communications

- Corporate Image & Identity Management:

Family trip to Genting Highlands