Feeling blessed

As I think about the fellow colleagues who are going to school with me, going to face the uphill climb together.

Feeling really really blessed.

Mobile blogging, again.

Currently seated in lecture hall, words flowing in and out of words. I’ve barely learnt anything through these 3 days because they are really dry, and uninspiring. They even banned us from using laptops today! Shrugs.

However, something good has come out from the sessions. It has properly set me down to think about how I want my career to pan out. Do I want my entire life to be spent in education, or will I want to try my hands at something else; or do I still want to pursue my childhood dreams and attempt to do something else from scratch and this is just bidding my time.

A very key question: do I still have the passion for what I’m about to do? I ponder.

For once in my life, I want to study something that I’m truly keen on and interested in. I think I broke out of the restrictive box the day I threw down my resignation letter at my first employer. I want to live my life with something that I’m passionate for, but I’m still seeking that very thing that I’m truly passionate about.

Truth be told, I still have no idea what I’m truly passionate about. That’s the issue I’ve been struggling with for the last few weeks and swc09 took my mind off it for abit, but it’s back to haunt me with a veangeance.

I’m comfortable with teaching because it’s familar and I think I can do a good job of it. Is it something I can toil at for my next 10 years and be happy in it throughout, I’m not sure.

Friends and colleagues have said some things to me that my mind is still processing, and I’m going to continue to mull on it. In the meantime, don’t worry about me, this is just my personal mission to find myself and what I should live my life for. I’m envious of friends who knew exactly what they wanted out of work and life right from the beginning of adulthood; but it doesn’t mean that I can’t get there too. I’ll reach there someday, I just need a little more time.

I don’t want to go to work simply because I need to work and I’m comfortable with it.

All I want for Christmas

is my two front teeth my working TF10s..

I think this will be my first and last pair of second hand items – it just totally proved me right. Though I have no idea if the problems fall with the cables, or the drivers. I suspect it’s the cables, but I’m not sure.

Sigh. How?

I want a working pair of triple driver earphones, and I want to recable it with either the enyo or the lune cable. And perhaps a Zune HD 32GB to go with it – I was checking it out this morning, and it’s USD289.

Throw in an e-reader, maybe the Nook or the Kindle, and I’ll be happy for christmas.

Demanding, aren’t I?

Exhausted.

I’ve never lost appetite before, but I think when extreme exhaustion hits, I have an extremely small appetite, and it scares me. Okay fine, maybe not a lot, but a teeny weeny little bit.

The weekend of SWC09 is over, but it was soooo (to the power of infinity) much fun ferrying the swimmers, talking to them and handling matters at the secretariat office. I miss my girls (S&E) already! Of course, ST was ever so supporting to everyone and I’m sure he appreciated all our help there, be it real work or just pure entertainment.

I might be in danger of losing a bet and having to treat one of my girls to Royal China dim sum @ Raffles Hotel – but we’ll wait for the day to end before I know if I have officially lost the bet. We just need to wait for the swimmer to fly out of Singapore before the bet officially ends.

BX has been wonderful through this really busy and tiring period, he ferries me (via cab) because I was absolutely in no shape to take public transport home, and he came for the sunday finals where 3 world records were broken! Though he did admit it wasn’t his cup of tea because he’s not involved in it, I really really really loved the fact that he made a point to come down and watch, and to wait around for me while I ran around like a headless chicken trying to coordinate the transport and shuttle services.

Lovesloves to my boy. (:

I am honestly suffering from withdrawal symptoms for SWC09. So tempted to go down and look for them for dinner later, but I’m still really tired. All I want to do is to sleep.

Snores.

Anything beats sitting in this lecture listening to somebody preach about salt intake. Yawns.

Embracing the Internet.

I’m blogging on my laptop as 187 moves from Woodlands to Boon Lay, on my not-that-new broadband device. The thing about having a really light and portable laptop, is that the screen is really thin and flimsy. My screen is flapping as the bus moves up and down, across bumps and humps on the road.

I tweeted this morning and a friend thought my meeting ended earlier than expected in school – he commented on FB about it. But I was nowhere near a computer ( my laptop and dongle were not out in action) – I used my G1. So it then made me realise, I’m truly connected to the Internet at any one time (be it through laptop, when I’m on the move and even through my handphone) – I’m so reliant on it! The internet holds alot of information for me, be it educational or personal, my entertainment and readings are heavily acquired from online resources, and I wonder – what would the world be like if you were to remove the Internet from everybody’s lives?

Not pretending that the Internet never once existed, but removing the Internet now when everyone is so accustomed to it.

We can do so many things online, reading the news, getting in touch with friends, watching videos and even shopping. In the past we had to use several tools and go to different places to do all of the above mentioned. Don’t you wonder, if the Internet was removed from our lives, if we would be at a loss on how to do the above? Perhaps not the shopping for girls – but I’d be stuck on trying to purchase my ickle&Lardee pictorial book from the States! We won’t be able to discover plenty of new information (be it random or educational), and do many other things as well.

Having said that, we all definitely need some time off from the internet to smell the roses (literally!) and stay in touch with the real world outside and enjoying nature as it is, instead of being glued to the computer screen and Internet all the time.

So I need to unglue my fingers from the keyboard, stop forwarding important emails to the secretariat room and remove all thoughts of pulling out the arrows from my back just in one morning. Cryptic, yes – I’ll tell you more when the time is right.

En route to writing..

my 2250 word essay – since the requirement is a 2000 – 2500 word essay, I shall aim for the in between.

I haven’t had the inspiration to write, to write a heartfelt honest sincere essay to our Education Minister, but I think the engine is starting up, really slowly, but it is warming up. I want to do this in a distinctive way – no academic writing, no crazy quotations from journals all over the place. Just a very sincere and heartfelt letter to the Education Minister about the loopholes and problems in our current education system, and why educational meritocracy is an enduring myth. I’ll write as though I’m talking to him as a friend, talking to him through my blog.

That is my assignment – to write a letter to the Minister of Education and I’ll show the professor that academic writing may not always be the way to go. He seems pretty open about bringing creativity into the classroom, so as long as we fulfil the requirements of the essay – his indented points and his word limit.

I shall try and we shall see.

Current word count: 1893/2250

(as at 0455 hours, 16 November 2009)

Along the process, I got distracted by the following:

• Boyce Avenue
• Ghost Trappers
• Fishville
• Riza’s brother’s wedding
• Budak Pantai @ JP Starbucks (!!!!) – more on that after I finish my essay
• Starbucks Java Chip & Blueberry muffin
• Meeting the boyfriend for dinner @ JP Crystal Jade
• An attempt to purchase the Blu-Ray version of Up, with full knowledge that I am unable to play it on any machines at home – which amused the boyfriend plenty
• Home looking at an utterly adorable dress from Fashion Nation (that begs the question – should I get the light blue ruffles dress? I absolutely love it!)
• Watching the short clip on Married Life, in Up
• Chatting with the Roo!
• Sleeping @ 0030 hours, 16 November because I had to wake up 4 hours later…
• Waking up @ 0425 hours, 16 November and sneaking in a few words before my pick up comes…

Bus rides.

Bus rides always make me think, I’ve pretty much know that by now. I was travelling from the far west side of Singapore this afternoon, to the central part of Singapore where I sit and await the arrival of the girls.

Now I’m wondering how much beans should I spill on this open space. It took me a while to admit it to myself, and to blurt it out as a casual statement last night over dinner with the boyf – to which we didn’t say much because I had no idea how to continue down the conversation because it’s kind of a conversation starter, and stopper – which you probably won’t understand because you have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about.

How fun is that, you’d be wondering.

One thing I do know, is that I desperately need to get started on my 2,500 word essay – which all of us decided to make use of the extended one week our tutor decided to kindly give us. He’s hilarious, I must admit, despite all his extremist remarks – I love the one where he insists that a certain group of individuals in our Singaporean society doesn’t pay taxes, to which some of my classmates tried to ascertain the accuracy.

On a lighter note, I’m glad I got to clarify some matters of the friendship with a certain friend and I’m really glad for the short but significant chat that we had this morning (:

I officially have no more lessons, but I am starting to have workshops organised by the ministry before we officially enter the holidays (wheee holidays!) and then, scarily – the school proper.

I think I need to find somebody to have a heart to heart with – I have too many inane thoughts within me that I’ve been thinking about, but unable to verbalise onto the open space. I miss my besties!! I’m seeing the girls later, maybe later.. Mmms.

Oh, speaking of which – I got my Google wave invite from the Google team – talk about finally!

Ghost Trappers!

This has been keeping me up for several nights, keeping me glued to my computer screen and making me not wanting to go sleep – for a simple reason. I stumbled (more like, recently found out) about the value of my seemingly miscellaneous contract parts, hence I stay up to monitor prices for the inventory I have. I find places that sell Nessys, not that I am at the level to use them yet, but now I know I don’t have to continually invite friends to earn Nessys for future hunts and raids.

Wee hours like this, is when the trading market is as active as the stock market. Selling threads are pushed to the 2nd or the 3rd page within matter of minutes and small little sales threads (like mine) disappear into the ocean of threads because my items are not as sellable as they are. However, it makes a huge difference to my currency account as I need the moolah to purchase the next mechanism and magic circles that will allow me to trap higher level ghosts at higher level places.

I wait online, in vain, for sellers to respond, and for people to respond to my sales thread because in this stock market, it’s all about timing. Active sales threads mean your items move fast. If you don’t respond within 5 minutes, there are plenty of other alternatives in the market for other buyers to choose from, at equally competitive prices. It’s similar to how friends ask you out, only when you respond 6 hours later they tell you that the appointment has been filled up.

Undercutting is abound as there are no fixed prices, and with the exception of a rare few contract parts, the rest don’t exactly subscribe to the supply and demand logic. Crazy sellers undercut the prices by pricing it so cheaply that the average, then becomes expensive. How horrid, you’d think – but that’s life, isn’t it.

I really should be sleeping, but as a old school gamer who sticks by the 1st seller she approaches, I’m still waiting in vain for my seller to respond – and take the time to think really, do I really need that black candle parts set right now when my xp level is not high enough for it yet? It’s almost like in real life, when you constantly ask yourself the question – do I really need that new top/facial product/tech toy/bag of the month?

Finally, when the browser feels overworked and refuses to load the trading page as promptly as it should, I know that it is time for me to give up, and to turn in – so that I can feel refreshed to face the challenges of tomorrow, attempting to sell my inventory and trap ghosts all again.

It’s just another cycle, but then again – so is Life.

I’m a Gleek!

The Glee: Music Volume 1 was just launched in the US barely a few days ago and I made it a mission to hunt for an online store that would ship to Singapore. Amazon didn’t, so I was quite put off by that. In the end, I found it available at Barnes & Noble!

I’m actually damn friggin excited – I bought it right off the bat. Well, almost anyway. I almost nearly bought the upcoming DVD launch as well (i.e. pre-order), but I didn’t because I realised (upon a little research) that Fox had extended the original 13 episode season to a 22 episode season, and this DVD box set only had 13 episodes. So I decided to rein myself in and only purchase the 2 music volumes, the 1st that had already been launched on 6 Nov, and the 2nd one launching on 8th Dec.

I figure these babies will reach me by mid December – wooohoo! I had a minor incident with Barnes and Noble though, because my order status stated that the order could not be processed and a number was provided to me on the website for me to call. Hence, I called up the US number and had the chance to talk to the customer service of Barnes and Noble – I must say he sounded really good over the phone. By that I mean, his voice sounded goood, yummilicious in fact. Hurhur.

He was really polite and professional, fixed my problem quickly by double checking my billing address. Now, the order status said its ready to be send on 8th December because I packed them all into one shipment!

I absolutely can’t wait for the arrival of my ickle&Lardee pictorial book, plus my CDs! Don’t worry, the total cost of the CDs+shipping is the same amount as purchasing 2 CDs in our local stores. Perhaps I might start doing all my purchases online and save me tons of money – CDs are cheaper in US, and I found this facial product website that sells TFS products at nearly 30% off the store retail price!

I’m getting absolutely addicted to online purchasing – someone take my credit cards away from me!

Grey skies in the sky..

me likey. (:

Perfect day to just snuggle in bed and sleep the worries away, when the original plan was supposed to be at ToaPayoh, SSA now, to sort out the matters required before next week’s SWC. Class ended late, hence there wasn’t any point in heading all the way to TP when I would probably just end up spending 1-2 hours before heading home for dinner.

I really really like this weather, nice and comfortable. (:

Th impulsive shopper in me bought a top from LRH, and mobile broadband subscription from MobileOne. The M1BB plan that I took was not expensive at all, a mere $19+ every month for the 2mbps plan – the boyfriend felt so tempted that he almost got one himself too. The top from LRH looks really pretty, its a brightly coloured toga – I just hope it fits.

I should be doing work, but evidently I’m not. And after going to Body Worlds yesterday with the boyf, some thoughts have been plaguing me, and I’m still trying to make sense out of those thoughts. A little insight into these thoughts – I have no idea what I truly love to do, and I don’t know what subjects truly interest me. Go figure.

Perhaps I’ll share my thoughts when they make sense to me.

In this weather, only one thing makes sense to me – my bed. And, a book.

Picture obtained from One Love Photo