BA Alumni Networking Tea Gathering 2006, 9 Dec, Sat @ 2 pm
It's time for tea gathering & networking!!!
Date :9th Dec 2006, Saturday
Time :2.00 to 4.30 p.m.
Venue :Ngee Ann Polytechnic, StaffHub Dance Area, 16-03-011A, Sports Complex
This networking opportunity is opened to all BA alumni from all the diplomas.
We look forward to seeing you !
Would you care for the UNWRITTEN?
Have you ever assumed how an ex-offender would look like? We probably would have, wouldn't we?
Have you ever wondered who you are sitting next to at the bus-stop, at the food centre, or in a movie theatre? We probably wouldn't, would we?
A group of five youths did not just wondered about it.
(Photo: from left to right) Nadiah Kamsir (WIL Alumni, BIT graduate of 2005), Nicholas Goh (Nanyang Polytechnic Final-Year student), Isaiah Das (NUS Final-Year Honours student), Mazuin Khamis (BA CARES Alumni, BS graduate of 2004), and Gladys Wong (BA CARES Alumni, BS graduate of 2005), have come together to write the book, 'Unwritten'.
Their book chronicles the trials and tribulations of the some of those who have served time for crimes such as rioting, theft, underage sex and drug use.
Would you want to read about it? We hope you would.
Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to Andrew & Grace Home for troubled female teens and Ngee Ann Polytechnic's Student Aid Fund. It will be officially launched on 25th November 2006 in conjunction with a 100km run to raise funds for the home. The paperback version will be sold for $10 each and the hardback for a minimum donation of $100. Orders can be placed by e-mailing to unwritten.stories@gmail.com.
Check out their story at http://www.lifemcqs.blogspot.com/.
what makes a winning team?well for me, there are actually two aspects in becoming a winning team.respect and trust.first and foremost, there must be mutual respect in the team itself.everyone have to respect one another as working with people with different personalities and set of thinking different from our own is definitely going be a difficult task to do. if theres no respect amongst team members, egos would in turn rule the way how the team functions and eventually will detour the team away from their objectives and goals. thus respect is fundamental part of a team.one can have all the good qualities in them, but if they never respect others or being respected in return, then all those qualities will come to waste as no matter how much work or effort he put in, it will always be looked down and would never be appreciated. in the end, not only the person suffers, but it also affects the whole team itself as the team would never able to furfill its fullest potential. one may ask, how respect is given? before starting on all that, it is best to respect oneself first as the most important changes to be made is changes to oneself. once you can fully respect and accept the way you are, respecting others will just be a natural progression. you would understand how and why the way the other person is and all the more the respect for that person slowly flow into the team. once you respect someone, you will in due time be respected in return thats for sure. however, in being respected in return has to be earned and not simply given. no one says gaining respect will be much easier than giveing them. but yes, you have to earn ya team members respect before they will fully respect you. how can one expect to be respected when one everytime skived through his work and never perform his tasks the acceptable way? how can one expect to earn the respect of his peers when he himself dont respect themselves as his peers. thus, earning respect from others is indeed important but not to the point of boot-licking. if one respect you, he will accept who or the way you are, appreciate your contributions and efforts and also understand your insecurities or even what you lack of in terms of abilities and personality.another essential aspect i thought about is trust. trust is all the more important especially if you are working with others who dont know you quite well enough. if the other team members have doubts or keep suspecting you of any or future wrong-doings, then the team will forever be clouded in a midst of animosity and this will in turn greatly affects team morale and also will hinder them away from their goals and objectives. you gotta trust your own team mates. trust is important if you ask any businessman. once you dont trust the other party, you wont commit yourself into a business deal with them knowing that in future, they might go against their words and backstab you.trust them to not disappoint you. trust them not to go against their words. trust them to go all the way in doing their work. trust them to give their very best efforts.yes, trust indeed is the most difficult trait one would like to give to others. sometimes they really give a very thorough thought about it cuz trust can be broken that easily as its such a fragile thing. at times, you just have to risked everything to trust the person as thats probably the only way to go. yes, trust can be earned, but most of the times, you just have take the risks with that hope your risks wont backfire on you.but if the other party has already been much respected, then trust is just a natural progression as you already had now not only know of the benefits but also the pitfalls of giving your trust to that person.everyone wants to be in a winning team. but it really takes alot of work to be a winning team. so which do you prefer? being in a already winning team or a team that is in the progression of winning? well, for me i prefer the latter of course!
It's Over!!!
Of all my posts, I'm particularly excited to write this post... It's finally over, our hard work of going to PASS on saturday mornings are now over. However, I have a feeling that I'll be missing everyone be it from BA Cares or from PASS side. I'll be missing Simon and Yung's crap the most. haha. Simon's 'ji pa ban' ( 1 million in hokkien) song really made an impression in me because it's like so crappy la haha. He even called those who went for friday's rehearsal his fans. haha. He's really funny la.
I'm very thankful for yu hong, who volunteered to help out in the slides. He should be given the most credit for the event. There are 3 people whom I think are really going beyond themselves for this event are Yu hong, Charissa and Dzul. These 3 are quiet people but they sure do work. Initially, I thought that Yu Hong was not doing anything but lo and behold, I was surprised by his quality of work, they are good. Now I know why some lecturers prefer business students to BIT students.
Anyway, when the event ended, I was going wild inside, but outside I appeared cool. My inside was like bursting with joy la. It's said that my part is important and before the start of the event, Joyce asked me to follow the slides. However, I need to relate my side of the story. I was with the lighting person at that time, clarying his doubts and relaxing abit. I admit I was wrong because I should have kept an eye on Audrey, knowing that she was not present at yesterday's rehearsal. During the show, my heart skipped a beat when Audrey clicked wrongly.
"Oh man," I thought to myself.
There were 2 occassions when my heart dropped.
1. During the WIL video when Audrey clicked too fast.
2. When the WIL Alumni had to ask us to play the video first
Anyway, I'm happy to say that through this event, I get to work with people with different personalities.
Though the event is over and I'm happy, I do get upset sometimes when I think about the 2 events. One thing about me is that I can't forget things easily, be it pleasant or unpleasant things. The bad part is that if someone offends me, I can forgive, but I can't forget. Not that I don't want to forget, but it's because I can't.
Anyway, what's over is over. I should look straight ahead and concentrate on exams. What got my spirits up is that Mr Chee Hock Hwa said that this event is well run, better than the previous WIL team. I chat with him after the event, at the entrance and he told me that. I went on to ask him,
"Out of 10, how much would you give this event?"
"9" he said, after thinking for a while
"The event is well coordinated, better than the previous groups."
I'm glad that this year, we have lived up to our expectations. This is the first time the WIL ceremony is conducted in the convention center and it turned out to be "well coordinated" as a lecturer put it.
The ceremony soon went on to end off with a bang, though not the bang that was expected, but at least still a bang right? haha
Good old days
At a dilenma, don't know what to do...
2 days to the event and my laptop has got a atapi.sys error ocassionally when loading. I've read that the only way is to reformat. However, if i reformat, all the data will be gone. It's safer not to touch it. Thankfully, last week we used Audrey's laptop to try out. So when a backup laptop has an error, what do you do? Bring another laptop and hope for the best...
Advancement in technology has always provide convenience for a person. However, in my case this is not so. Whenever my laptop shows the blue screen due to some improper installation, my heart will always skip a beat. In my case, technology has made me more stress. I wish to go back in time back to the simple life, not so far back until I have to live in a cave, carrying a club around and write using stones but to a time when laptops are not the trend. Have you ever wondered how life is like during the good old times? I occassionally do have a reminiscent of happier times, when life was in a slower pace. The reminiscent usually occurs when I go back Indonesia, especially on my way to the hillside, I usually see people walking, laughing, disturbing each other and enjoying themselves. From my experience, Indonesians are good jokers.
Unlike most Singaporeans who rush because of the fast pace of life, not bothering to look right or left but rather, deep in thoughts and giving that 'stone' face. My teacher once said that while he was backpacking in Indonesia, the locals there are the ones who first start smiling at him. This shows their friendliness. He went on to say
"You try smiling to any one person you meet on the street in Singapore"
Our whole class roared with laughter
"People will think you are crazy" he went on to say
Actually I do have an experience about the friendliness of Indonesians... Once when I was in an Indonesian community in Singapore, someone actually wanted to shake hands with me (I knew it because of his body language) but I was thinking, "What on earth is that guy trying to do?" I realised he wants to shake hands with me only after I left that event. Sad right? I think I'll have to break that mindset of mine and have a paradigm shift, looking at things in a 'friendlier' way. When I was still a young boy, I remember there was a smiling little lion in red shirt. He's the mascot for the courtesy campaign. Where has it gone to? Courtesy and friendliness is an inborn trait and if a country have to advertise and promote courtesy, obviously the citizens all need to have a paradigm shift.
Actually sometimes the citizens cannot totally be blamed for the troubles. Cost of living in Singapore is so high and the transport companies still want to raise fares. How can the government still expect people to smile when:
1. People still need to pay for their cars
2. Pay for their houses
3. Cannot see their CPF money
These 3 reasons are enough to make one frown. Our leaders start a 4 million smiles campaign to welcome the IMF. Who are they trying to kid?
HOWEVER!!! Fortunately, Singapore has a new generation, which is being labelled as the 'bo-chap' generation (If you remember a news paper article a few years back). You see them in campus everyday, laughing and enjoying themselves. Haha. I think when this new generation enters the workforce, it's time for Singaporeans to really exhibit their smiles. That's when the 4 million smiles campaign will be realised, at long last... And time for the leaders to frown because of the low productivity.
Haha wah, this article makes me sound like I'm shooting people... but please do not read it if you've got no sense of humour. You might end up getting offended when this article is not meant to offend people. I'm just comparing and contrasting...
4 more days...
Wah so happy, 4 more days to the event. However, I do pity some people during this period of time. Dzul is one of the unsung heroes, not receiving credit for changing the programme list and scripts. It must have been frustrating for him to keep seeing the same script over and over just to make some minor changes. I think by now after changing the script and list several times, the list must have been photocopied if not imprinted into his mind. But if one were to look at the bright side of things, it's a form of practise for him.
As for the task on saturday, I'm looking forward to handling the lighting again. Some people may have the wrong idea that I'm down there sitting down beside Audrey to see her do the slides. Far be it from that, my task is to handle the lightings and at the same time help her out in the slides. However, I'm concerned with her doing the slides because from last week's experience, I see her smsing and occassionally going to the toilet. I'm not saying that it's wrong but her heart don't seem to be there. One time, I sat beside her and when the slides were required to change, her eyes and face were on her handphone. I had to remind her to change the slide. The thing that bothers me is that she did not open up the emcees script from my laptop. Hey, in order to do a good job, we need to know the emcees are at which part of their speech.
I need to admit that during some parts of the WIL program, I was abit like her, bochap. But, I'm now a changed person. In Dzul's words, "I guess this ceremony is not only for the RT guys, it's also for us because we all need to give people a second chance to prove themselves". I was given a second chance (though someone tried to take away the chance). I'm thankful in some ways for that second chance and also for an opportunity to work with my teammates because it's from there my limits are redefined. Well, I can't say that it's been a pleasant journey but at least I know how aq team operates.
that silver lining...
the clock is ticking down to the day of reckoning...
it just feels like yesterday when we had our first session with the guys. the ice-breaking session, though it did break the invisible icy wall between us, we are still quite apprehensive regarding the whole session and the more sessions to come. what to teach them? will they be receptive of our lessons? how are we going to teach them when we are students ourselves? so many questions so little time!
but you know what, as the lessons go by, that sense of animosity disappears and so do the guys, literally. the attendance was abysmal as the weeks gone by, lesser and lesser guys came for class and at times, there are more student tutors than the guys themselves. what turned out to be an initial class of 20 plus, in the end, there are so little people coming for class that you can even count them within one hand. it is that bad! so what went wrong??
you can easily put the blame of them not having any interest in the class or the timing of the world cup which deprived people from their much needed sleep. but is that really it? i can’t help but to think, we ourselves are partly to blame for the drastic drop in class attendance. maybe we didn’t prepare the classes attractive or fun enough to entice them to part their time with us, thus making them feel it’s all a waste of time. have we really put enough effort? effort in getting to know them a little more better, effort in getting bonded with them, effort in making the class not feel like a class, effort in preparing the lessons proper with the right topics covered? have we done all that we can to make us worthy enough for them to spend their saturday mornings with?
now i feel how difficult it is to conduct a class. my sympathies to the lecturers of ngee ann polytechnic. hehe...
but at the end of the day, every cloud has a sliver lining. it is definitely not the end of the world when we are teaching to small class. it is much easier to handle and there is certainly more interaction between us and them. the bonding between us is much stronger than we had when the class is around 20 people. and i am sure the rest of the team definitely agrees with me. it also definitely helps us further when every week there are the regulars who attend our classes religiously. a round of applause to them. *claps claps*
there is really no doubts or animosity on their part in getting knowing us, and in turn, us knowing them. the guys also felt the same way too and some even commented they definitely like this class this way. we are practically talking to them just like how we talked to our friends in school. we know longer feel awkward and hesitant like we do when the sessions begin. their past doesnt come into picture anymore. what past is past, simply that!
we see them as people, people who are just like you and me. people, who we can easily strike conversation with, have fun and joke around with. people we can go lunch together. and people who are definitely not strangers now. we in fact have become friends. thus having a small class ain’t that bad after all! *smiles*
and now, our time with spent with them is getting much shorter. the day of reckoning is on our hands… the graduating ceremony!! so many tasks, so little time! *panic and runs around in circles*
