Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I'm going to update livejournal more often now, because I'm starting to like the layout better. For one, the font size is bigger (less straining on my tired eyes), and I'm just too lazy to change the blogspot layout that I'm so sick of.
School has been, school. Don't believe the lies that Junior College is the worst 2 years of your life (because after that you can study what you want to study), if you think JC is stress, Uni's about three times more stress. Making plans everyday because your timetable's not set up for you, organising your life around assignments, tutorials, reports it's extremely hectic. But the brightest side of NUS Business School is my classmates, who have been so supremely awesome. Classmates who have a "dress code Friday", to make the 9am-5pm (with 1 hour break throughout the day) lessons more appealing, who support each other so much and cheer me up throughout lunch and study sessions in the library. I'm extremely thankful.
I was surfing around and this just has to go on my blog, to save it somewhere. I think the write up was amazing and I'm hoping that one day I'll be as witty and intelligent as this guy. Enjoy reading!
The author of The Teenage Textbook ( 1988 ) - Adrian Tan, was the guest-of-honour at a recent NTU convocation ceremony. This was his speech to the graduating class of 2008.
Life and How to Survive It
I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.
My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.
On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.
Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.
And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.
Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.
The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.
You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process”
and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.
The good news is that they’re wrong.
The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.
I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.
You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino . It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.
Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.
So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.
Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.
I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.
After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.
Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.
That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.
If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.
What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.
Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.
What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.
Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.
The most important is this: do not work.
Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.
Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.
here’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.
People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan “Arbeit macht frei” was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.
Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.
Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.
I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction - probably a sports journalist.
So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.
Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.
Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.
In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.
I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.
One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.
The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.
I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.
Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work - the only kind of work that I find palatable.
Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.
Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.
You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.
You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.
Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.
Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.
You’re going to have a busy life. Thank goodness there’s no life expectancy.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Uni life is insane. Loads of fun, great people, but entirely crazy. Check out the workload. Where everything seems quite manageable from the 3-4-0-4-2 description of the module. But when you add everything up it looks something like 15-20-0-20-10. Each week. ):
But went back to strokeyourcat and read all her entries, and then read all the entries at long-islandtea (I don't know where all the time came from), and felt so... encouraged. By how far we've all come. Inspired, by the friendships formed and remembered. And missed the SA3 times, so so much. It's been way too long since our last meet up, and I'd give anything just for a day back in ACJC again, sitting in the void deck discussing interesting random topics that spring out just from about anywhere. For the hilarious GP lessons ("Please do not try to paraphrase 'unsafe sex'!"), for the PE lessons ("Starbucks is healthy for you!"), for the Econs lessons ("Erwin! Gag order!"), for the Math lessons (Her glare wins mine), for the Chem lessons ("What do you mean by 'you fell down'?"), for the PW meetings, rehearsals, assignments, outings, chattings, for the random shopping ("Eh PE today cancelled let's go town!"), for the like-mindedness of the population and for every minute spent together.
I miss you guys. Greatly.
Haven't blogged in ages once again, the posts getting shorter and shorter. NUS has taught me a lot, opened my eyes to a lot, and I've grown a lot from just being in school the past month. No matter how hard it is, no matter how many times I've felt subdued from the new culture, no matter what happens, there's this deep conviction that "yes, I belong in Bizad", and I press on, I don't give up, because ultimately there's a purpose for me here, even though I don't see it right now.
It's hard though, and that 4.5 CAP score seems so, so far away.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
So it's your birthday now, and guess what, I'm finally over you.
Happy birthday.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
This is why the BFF is the BFF.
Cos only she can comfort till the tears stop coming.
Love you Jes.
Friday, July 11, 2008
July 10, 2008
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
Thursday, June 12, 2008
I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Got to make you understand
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Totally dig that song. *tugs on heart strings*
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Thought this special weekend deserved a mention, being the first weekend unemployed. I'm super excited to see what the next couple of months will bring, and then moving on to University. It's like a dream coming true in parts, the most awesome being finally being able to go to school again. Holidays never felt so liberating before. It's so excellent. <3
This is how Sundays are meant to be spent. Church, breakfast at Chopinette with the sisters, and then blasting Westlife, Carrie Underwood, Maroon Five on excellent speakers and reading facebook updates. I feel like I'm living my best life. (:
Upload photos another day, I'm working on a collection of all I've done this holiday and intend to put it all into an album - How Claire's Six-Month Post-As Was Spent - and remember this period for the rest of my life. It's Cameron Highlands coming Wednesday, this was decided last Wednesday when I was randomly surfing in the office and read, "Climate: 15 - 25 deg, low rainfall 170mm." I call Jessie on the office phone and exclaim, "WE'RE GOING." So there. Tour booked and we're leaving for a couple of days. I'm totally living my best life.
Now all I need to do is to clear out the rubbish in my room; I've been piling and piling and piling everything that comes to me on my table, such that the wood is no longer visible. Make space for the University notes - I can't wait to start highlighting references again. I think I'm meant to use my life for studying.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
OMG. I'M GOING TO NUS. IT'S CONFIRMED. I ACCEPTED.
And my heart's beating damn fast.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The merger of blogger and gmail does have its advantages. Lucky me because I totally forgot how to log in to blogger, but whala, I was already in (: It's been a while. A long while.
I'd blame that on my busy schedule. Of extreme insanity, I've been working (and studying) non-stop for five months now. And starting to feel drained, because I don't have leave and this is the longest, longest I've ever worked in my entire life. Even when plunging headfirst into a new term in school, well terms only last about 3 months? Then we all take a one week (or more) break. Now though, that's a different thing. Now, it's workworkworkworkwork for five months straight.
Looking back I won't say that this holiday was a waste, because I've found new limits for myself, and I really think I made the most of this holiday. For now, however, it's 11 more working days, and thereafter open a new door to the wonders of clubbing, sleeping, exercising, skating and everything I couldn't do for the past five months.
11 days can't come fast enough.
Monday, April 14, 2008
I've finally decided that if I want to stay awake during the day, I'd better start sacrificing my nights and sleeping earlier. Being reluctant to sleep before 11pm is a lousy excuse for wrong mark up percentages, forgetting things halfway and the absolute refusal to pick up the office phone.
And the more I think about going back to work, the more I'm certain that my job sucks, in every aspect imaginable. I end up having to go for driving during peak hour anyway, because I'm damn slow at learning and there's no way I'm going to pass my test if I don't practice harder.
So yes, life kinda sucks at the moment, I need like something new to look forward to, rather than the whole routine lifestyle. I need every day to be different, for there to be no such thing as a typical day. I need to go shopping for shoes. The shopping list is pretty specific this time, because it's bugging me that IT'S SPRING SEASON and I'm craving for pretty dresses matched by Manolo Blahniks.
Okay not practical, about the Manolo part. And since I brought up the topic about elite, high-end brands, I've decided that at 18 years old, it's not anything that I should be concerned with. Thinking rationally, any cash I'm spending now is not mine, but provided for by grace by the parents. Hence the stuff I have is technically not mine, and it therefore means that by mathematical calculations I am in an extremely large debt, which is only going to get bigger when I receive the final figure of university fees and my piano diploma fees and my driving.
It bugs me. And therefore, no matter how much I'm lusting over that LV or Coach bag, no matter how much I salivate over a pair of Louboutins, or covet Miss Sixty jeans, I won't get jealous of other people who flaunt them. I won't, I won't. )':
Hah, but one day, I'm going to be able to afford all of that, and when that day comes, I'd be buying those with my own money. And my promise to my mum? That one day, I'll be taking her to the Prada shop.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
You know you need sleep when you can feel your blood pumping just behind your eyes. I'm starting to feel the effects (finally) of having to get up at 6am every morning, for the past three weeks. Unbelievable, really, and I'm seriously so damn tired.
I'm going home to sleep at 7pm tonight. SMU's application could wait till tomorrow. Oh please please, accept my application, School of Business.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
So Sarah sent me this article to my email yesterday, and it kept me laughing for the next five minutes. Singaporeans are so deprived of good weather.
March 27, 2008
Hailstones rain down in central S'pore
By Diana Othman and Sumathi V Selvaretnam
PARTS of Singapore were pelted with hailstones during Thursday's afternoon's heavy downpour.
The weatherman confirmed that these pellets of ice were reported in central Singapore between 3.15pm and 3.45pm.
Roughly three-quarters the size of a Singapore five-cent coin, they caused a stir among those living or working in Bishan and Toa Payoh.
Hailstones, formed in thunderstorm clouds, usually melt before they hit the ground, but strong downward gusts of wind occasionally send them ground-wards before they melt.
A managing director who wanted to be known only as Mr Goh was in his office in a flatted factory building along Braddell Road said that when the hail started falling, he thought it was just raining heavily.
'But the sound of the rain was different - it sounded more like solid things were falling,' he said.
On going out to the corridor in front of his office, he and his staff saw tiny bead-like objects bouncing about on the floor as the rain poured down.
They became excited when they realised the beads were solid pieces of ice which melted as soon as they were picked up.
Mr Goh, who said it was the first time he had seen this weather phenomenon, added that at first, there was 'quite a lot of ice', but as the minutes went by, they petered out and only rain fell.
He reckoned the hailstones fell for about 10 minutes.
Another witness, IT consultant Stuyvesant Lim, 35, was observing a quiet game of chess at a Residents Committee Centre in Bishan East when he heard a commotion outside.
He said: 'I thought it was kids throwing ice from the block. Then we all realised it was falling from the sky.'
He realised one other thing - that had the hailstones been bigger, the windscreens of cars could have been damaged.
Mrs Evelyn Chan, 53, who runs a machine tools business with her husband but was home on Thursday, said the strangely 'hazy' atmosphere made her step out of her kitchen into the backyard of her house in Carmichael Road, off Braddell Road.
She said: 'When I looked at the ground, I saw crystals. I thought it was snow! But when I picked up a piece, I realised it was ice.'
The last time hail fell here was in July last year.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
FACING THE GIANTS
Probably the most inspirational, heart-stopping show to be filmed. Awesome.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Claire says:
yeah i got # As, but lost my boyfriend.
keithh. i can dodge bullets baby. says:
you lost your boyfriend a year ago honey. no time for regrets anymore.
Results.
Did you hear about my nightmare the morning of 7th March? Stupid really, when I say it out loud, but the gist was that they lost my scripts, and my grades weren't computed. Whilst everyone was receiving their results slips, I received an official letter (chopped and signed by Cambridge) asking me to re-submit my A level application along with 2 photos of myself. On the piece of paper where everyone's grades were printed, my column was crossed out.
I woke up when my maid came in to wake my little sister up for school. The first thing that came into my mind was "It's a dream." Immediately after, I yelled in my mind, to God, "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!!!" And as soon as I freaked out, with a less than 1 second interval, God replied, ever so close, ever so bold, ever so strong, ever so calm, "It means, I'm still in charge."
Amazing, really. How it was a voice. I mean, we often speak of how God speaks to us through circumstances, through other people, through His Word... but that morning. It was a voice. A voice.
Spent the afternoon alone, thanking God for His grace. Walked along Raffles City with peace in my heart, a bounce in my steps, a smile on my face.
It was dinner at The Fullerton with the BFFs, treated by the ex-Math tuition teacher (gosh), seafood buffet. It was really really great! Loved the oysters with lemon juice, crayfish, black pepper crab, prawns, cod fish, selection of cheese, and most importantly, the dessert bar, which was awesome to say the least. Walked to Clarke Quay around 10pm, and partied at The Arena (Pure II) till 4am. It was really good, the music was great, dances were great, and it was free-flow housepours. The crowd was just nice (not too cramped and squashed, not too empty) and it was all in all, one of the best nights out.
It's back to another course come Saturday, and this will be the last one for this half of the year. Honestly, I can't wait for it to be over. For now, there're uni apps to be done (I so need to get started), and FTT to pass (it's proving difficult). And as always, work. I want to go on holiday.
Monday, March 3, 2008
GCE A-Level examination results to be released on Friday
By Channel NewsAsia Posted: 03 March 2008 1634 hrs
SINGAPORE: The 2007 GCE A-Level examination results will be released on Friday, 7 March 2008.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) said school candidates may obtain their result slips from their respective schools from 2.30pm onwards on Friday.
Private candidates will be able to obtain their results through the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board's website at www.seab.gov.sg after 2.30pm on 7 March 2008.
They will also be notified of their results by post. -CNA/vm
I can't decide between feeling excited, apprehensive or being bo-chap. God help me.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Barack Obama is attracting jaw-dropping crowds at stop after stop. Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton would be thrilled with her own big turnouts except that his are so much bigger.
Political insiders are unsure what to make of it all: No one has seen these kinds of crowds so long before Election Day...While some major Republican candidates were struggling to draw 800 people just before the Feb. 5 primaries, Obama spoke before 54,000 on a three-stop Saturday. That was approaching the population of Wilmington, Del., where he drew 20,000 the next day, Super Bowl Sunday...
In arena after arena, fire marshals turn people away. Obama briefly speaks to the disappointed groups, in overflow rooms or freezing parking lots, before addressing the big crowds inside.
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said the last politician to draw such "fervent, huge crowds" was Robert F. Kennedy, in 1968. Unlike Obama, she said, Kennedy started with a famous name and legacy, "which makes this even more extraordinary."
Source: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/CsLS
AWESOMEEEEEEEEEE. (:
Yes, Claire supports Mr. Barack Obama.
~*~
And I've been spending my lunch hour on barackobama.com, work's been really great this week cos my supervisor was on leave, and I get her computer and such. (: Super busy though, now I have to complete quotations and enquiries, within deadlines.
Had a lot to write, but Jodi Picoult, Barack Obama, Ice Skating and Piano currently seems more important. And with 4 hours each day, there's simply no time to blog (:
Sunday, February 3, 2008
I am superbly excited about next weekend.
as of Sunday night 10.20pm.
Busy:
1. actively and attentively engaged in work or a pastime
2. not at leisure; otherwise engaged
3. full of or characterized by activity
- dictionary.com
The past week has been unbelievably busy. Just finished a three-day course by Harv Eker, had two reunion gatherings today, and I'm back to work tomorrow after driving in the morning. I shock myself sometimes, and looking back I still don't understand how there's somehow enough time for me to do all I have done.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
"You disappeared, Claire."
This is what it feels like to be left behind.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
I've been doing my calculations, and if I wake up at 6am, leave home at 7am, start work at 8am, end work at 5.30pm, and reach home at 6.30pm...
I'm left with 4 hours to myself, before having to go to bed at 10.30pm, so I can wake up the next morning at 6am.
Pray tell, what do people do in FOUR HOURS of play, relaxing, rest and relationship time???? Completely unbelievable, now that I've grown quite used to the wake up at 9am, and have the next 15 hours flexible, doing whatever's been impromptu-ly planned.
Four hours includes my practice piano time, my give tuition time, my read magazine and books time, my dinner time, my computer time, my talk time etc etc. Here's to the end of 8-hour facebook.com days.
Is everyone's working life this way too?
Monday, January 21, 2008
A best friend is one who will wait 9 months for you to turn 18 so you can club together.
Probably the sweetest birthday present.
I'm at work now, and the office is almost empty. Almost 5 hours later and I still haven't discussed my work hours or my pay with the head of the office. ):
My great grandfather's picture is on the wall on my left. He's looking at me do my work. What work? Binding booklets together, all I've been doing today. Haha, just had lunch and I feel sleepy. I want to ice skate again.
And a best friend is one who would plan your birthday party willingly because you're too lazy to.