Jotwein's World

Tomorrow’s week 8! Run and hide!

It’s gonna be a bad week. And it starts tomorrow. With MM Finance Test. Good golly gee.

Moss is counting down to the holiday and I think I shall too. 13 more days! And then I’ll be off to ye olde Motherland. Been a while since I’ve been back, and only the 2nd holiday I’ve taken since I got my dSLR. I still find it a real pity that I only started on photography at this time. At least I’ve got a whole lifetime of travels ahead of me!

Anyway, I’m out of blogging brain juice. I originally wanted to put the line ‘I am Joshua Tan and I approve this message’ at the end but considering I haven’t really said anything, I’ll save it for another time when I actually write something remotely important. Toodles.

The situation in Bangkok is problematic. If you haven’t heard by now, thousands of People’s Allicance for Democracy (PAD) protestors have blocked out Suvarnabhumi International Airport and caused many international passengers to be stranded in Bangkok.

I wanted to post this, not to say something about the problem, because we all know things are bad, but to say that people can be terrible, even in the most pitiful of situations.

This thought stemmed when I was watching the news yesterday on the bus home. The news segment on that evening’s news was talking about the plight of the passengers stranded in Bangkok due to the issue. There was a scene showing one American passenger scolding one of the airport officials.

The quote that was displayed is as follows: “Do you know how many people’s plans you’ve screwed up because of this cockamamie little protest?”

For those that don’t know, cockamamie means ridiculous or implausible according to the MacBook dictionary.

Now this is something I definitely don’t agree with. Truth of the matter is, this protest is no small protest. It is definitely unfortunate that many people are affected, but the airport officials have no part in the protest, could not have prevented anything, and thus should not be on the receiving end of the scoldings.

Have we become so cold hearted and selfish that we don’t even care that something like this is happening to a country in the world, and especially a country that that particular tourist has been staying in, and I’m sure, has had a good experience in? Instead, that tourist simply worries about his own convenience.

I can’t believe what the world is coming to. How can people be so selfish?

As you can see, I’ve changed my blog theme. Apparently this is one of the most popular themes in the Wordpress arsenal. It caught my eye too. And with a bit of personalisation, I’ve made it my own.

And this is the latest in my overseas excapades (lol). I’ve been confirmed as going to Hong Kong for the 5-month attachment, and Mr Sharpe has informed me that I’ll be going to Business Traveller magazine. In addition, I’ll be taking a little trip this coming 3-week break to go up to the ol’ Motherland, Taiwan.

Cabe, Mum and I will be going up from 13 to 23 December. Pap can’t get 10 free days in a row so unfortunately, he has to stay behind in Singapore. I’ll be taking lots of photos (as usual) because Pap and I are thinking of starting a new travel blog featuring some of the places we’ve been to. We’re planning to start with Asia first, before moving on to other parts of the world.

So okay, I shall keep this post short because it’s raining pretty heavily now, the weather’s nice and cool and I wanna get to sleep soon.

What’s with all this hate? Can’t we all just get along?

The cracks form a crevace, the crevace forms a divide, the divide forms a canyon, the canyon splits us forever.

This age-old problem has plagued MCM-ers for a long time. Hell, since the very day we stepped in even. I don’t remember encountering this problem in my Secondary School days. But I find myself encountering this on a daily basis now in Poly.

Boy, the lecturers weren’t lying when they said we’d really get some industry experience here. The full industry experience it is then, politics and relationship issues, no less.

Are the issues inevitable? I wouldn’t say so. It would be unfair to say that we can’t, in our own capacity, make compromises for the good of the general population. But very often, competitivity gets the better of us. Naturally an ideal situation would be one where everyone gets to work in groups that they are most comfortable in. If only it were so.

Often an unideal group leaves one bitter, cursing the wind for the grave injustice and misfortune that has occured. “We should keep work and personal feelings separate” – a sentence we all wish we could stick to.

Today Adrianna said something truly amazing. And this is a compliment. Really.

“I always have food. Well, not after I’ve eaten it. Hm, but I still have food it’s just not outside.” (Garcia, M. A. J., 2008)

Amazing isn’t she?

I got the Hong Kong attachment. To which company I don’t know yet. But Mr Sharpe called this morning to inform me.

Strange how I get the info before anyone else has. But let’s not talk about that. If you want a story you can come to me straight.

Anyway, I’ve pretty much decided to stick with the OIAP in Hong Kong. I feel it provides a lot more experiences and opportunities for me and considering I already got it, I think it’s safe to go along with it.

I’ve been reading the blogs of the 3 students over in HK right now and it sounds like something I’d enjoy. So I guess I can now say Hong Kong here I come!

This morning I talked to Pap and he weighed my options out for me. I still haven’t made a decision yet, but talking to him did help a lot.

I’ve been talking to various people regarding what I should do and so far I’ve gotten quite a good idea of what IBP is about. Talked to Kai Wen last night and got an idea of how to make my decision.

Today was also quite a blessing in disguise. I took the bus to school, fell asleep, missed my stop and ended up at Sunset Way. On the bus back, I ran into Brian, the editor of hype and I talked to him about IBP and pros and cons and stuff.

I still don’t know what to do though. But I can make my decision soon.

I was pretty set on OIAP. Hell, I even went for the interview. Today I’ve been presented a dilemma. OIAP or IBP? Mr Robin Yee called me personally earlier tonight to ask me to switch to IBP.

I know what you’re thinking, I would be mad to give up OIAP for IBP right? Think again. Here’s my rationale.

While overseas attachment will definitely give me the opportunity to gain ultimate independence by living overseas without my parents for *gasp* 5 months, the fear of being outside alone is very real. My biggest worry of going to Hong Kong is the language barrier and how I’ll cope with that. Honestly if I spoke Cantonese I wouldn’t be as apprehensive as I am.

However, the opportunities presented overseas are pretty great too. I mean, living by myself for 5 months in a country that I’m not familiar with and haven’t been to before. Sounds insanely exciting. Plus (and I said this before going to Wuhan too) I’ve never been away from home for so long before. And this will definitely be an experience.

Yet the degree of control I get in IBP is much higher than outside where I would probably end up as a writer max. Editorial positions are hard no doubt, but I love being editor. Twice in a row would tell you two things: either I’m crazy or I really like it.

But the experiences of overseas are irreplaceable. And it would be almost a first step for me to go overseas to study ‘cos I know that if I go overseas for uni I won’t come back till I’ve gotten my Bachelors’.

I asked Mum about it earlier. She said I should stay in Singapore to firm up my foundation first, instead of “flying around like a hummingbird but only skimming the surface”.

Damn it. I need to do a CBA.

Today, we marked the end of Featwg. Magazine was submitted in style, straight into Mrs Sng’s hands. The feeling was *sigh* sensational.

The submission brings relief on so many levels. It relieves me from one load that pressed on me for so long, it relives my mind from stressing about completion, it relieves me from worrying about the editorial team and whether or not each and every one of them is fine (especially Ali), and most of all, it relieves me from worrying about Featwg so I can go worry about the other modules that I still have to deal with.

Basically I can sleep easier now, and in fact I can actually SLEEP now.

Which brings me to a funny story. Earlier in school I played soccer for the first time in months. After submission of course. It was a satisfying time and I had my fun. After I got home I took a shower, had my dinner and then did what I’ve been doing the past couple of nights. I fell asleep on the massage chair in front of the TV.

Upon waking up, I saw Pap next to me and after he went into his room, I got up and transferred my activities to the bed, only waking up at about 11.30. I effectively only came online ‘cos I wanted to check my email and stuff. Not much other reason really. So yup, that brings an end to this little tirade. I think I might go back to sleep soon.

Today I went back to Barker for my juniors’ relief-of-duty ceremony and I have to tell you, I’m really disappointed. The standard right now is the pits. ROD today was so messy and we didn’t even get much direction. Caine and Jerry were even so busy that we had to skip the buffet dinner to help them out with the campfire setup. There are even thoughts that the unit might close down, something that I hope doesn’t happen and don’t wanna see happen at all.

But what today did for me was it reminded me of all the good times I had back in the day. Back when there weren’t assignments, projects, nothing to worry about. Back when I had 16 brothers who trained, sweat and pull through together with me. Those days I miss. The memories were rekindled today.

They’re basically the same bunch of guys I toiled with from Sec 1 to 4. Not a whole lot has changed and Barker boys will always be Barker boys.

I miss Sec School. I miss Barker. I miss ACNP.