SNAFU - Situation Normal All FUCKED UP!

I'm pushed to the point of using, unreservedly, the first vulgarity in my blog. I find no point in hiding from people that our diploma course is all so perfect and exclusive and whatnot... relationships in class are getting worser by the day (has it even been good right from Day One?). Perhaps us musicians are full of problems and we'll never ever get along with one another well.

INTER-DIPLOMA Level. You guys already know of our stinking bad reputation - the other diplomas hate us to the core (I've spoken with some of them). It's not because they're just jealous of us, don't keep thinking they're always at fault (and I'm not siding them OK). We have our fair share of responsibility too, whether it be hogging the studios or damaging the equipment. Please don't act so proud and gung-ho as if you're the MASTER of the studios or what cos' we're sharing it with them (no choice, live with it). And please don't keep talking bad about other diplomas OK, for a start, without DMMT, you wouldn't be here in the first place!

INTER-LECTURER Level. I guess our lecturers are freaking pissed at our CBB (Can't Be Bothered) attitude towards lessons in class. For freaking hell and heaven's sake, pay ATTENTION to what he/she is saying! Whole life break break break, even secondary school classes (and I even bet some ITE classes - SHAME on us!) are more focused than us! Are your attention spans so short (like what M Spicer said of 20 minutes) that for whatever lessons longer than that (which is EVERY LESSON), your brain turns OFF? For one thing, the class should be kept smaller (no more than 20) – don’t combine so many students in one class – it’s not conducive for learning. The lecturer goes on speaking while the class does not pay attention (the class is so big that 2 lecturers cannot handle). But that's not the main problem.

OUR PROBLEM. I don't know what's wrong with you guys. Can never be serious is it? Lecturers like M Spicer and Christopher Tan already so kind towards us and you can't even show due respect to them. As if talking in class is not inconducive enough, you people still surf the Net and play your computer games like nobody's business! For all who are reading this, I feel SUPER PROUD to announce of DMAT's superb level of ILL-DISCIPLINE. Almost the whole class is desperately hooked onto one (or two or ALL) of these THREE WOES (which I term) that are common activities in class – anime (waste of time), computer games (USELESS waste of time) and/or BGR problems (DUMB USELESS waste of time!). Few of you can admit that you don't get your hands into even ONE of the Three Woes. I proudly say I DON'T.

COMPUTER GAMES, for one thing, has got so many bloody "blind" people hooked, going crazy about levelling up and completing quests. You sacrifice so much of your precious life playing stupid games like MAPLESTORY that will only give you a temporal sense of satisfaction. What's the DAMN BLOODY FREAKING point?!?!?! Then when it comes to WORK, one by one all laze and slack your way through, worse yet, becoming a FREELOADER who leeches on the hardworking members of the group. Like the Publicity Committee Meeting I just had with you all - how many of you were actually listening to me? Took so damn long to start the meeting properly - please I don't want to scream at you like a crazy idiot because you guys should be MATURE enough to know what is expected of you. The work I asked you all to hand up to me, I will SURELY have to chase you all again and again (and again). You all bloody freaking idiots making me waste my time on you all.

BGR problems. You guys can never grow up, can you? All wearing masks in front of each other, living each day trying to hide your true self. Fighting over childish matters, neither party wanting to give up, when you should be thinking of how to resolve them. For the GUYS: please, there are so many girls out there, if you're desperate for one go grab one out there, don't make so many love quadrangles in class! For the GIRLS: you ladies, please express your feelings towards ANY guy clearly, don't make them misunderstand your intentions toward them.

GROUP WORK. It's only Year 1 Semester 2 Term 3 and some of you all are finding it so hard to work with each other. I find that there are 3 root causes. 1)Misunderstanding/miscommunication, 2)Lack of respect for each other, 3)PURE freeloading/slacking. For me, it's the third one that's the most fucking irritating. I may not show it, but I HATE/ABHOR it when some of you start leeching and freeloading on me. I'm not your servant even if I'm the leader, so just because I complete everything for you doesn't mean that you can take advantage of me. You sick leech. As for my DVPT group, it's WEEK 5 already. Wake up your bloody ideas. You don't want your grades but I do OK! Don't fucking pull me down the drain along with your bloody idea.

I HATE group work. I don't find that I can trust ANYONE totally in class anymore. I just don't know how all these problems in our course will work out (if at all). I doubt so. In fact, I should be bothering about my studies anyway, so to HECK with you guys. Get it in your head that I came here to study for a diploma, and not for friends or relationships or anything else. DMAT sucks (well, at least some of you guys do)!

Priorities & Group Work

I'm entrenched in the same situation I encountered in secondary school now. Shucks, but anyway I expected it. With my uncontrollable mouth that hardly says "No" if someone wants me to do something, I get myself into almost everything. Problem is, I got to get my priorities right. It boils down to commitments - am I more committed to my studies or CCAs?

In terms of studies, my diploma course (Diploma in Music & Audio Technology or DMAT), despite having fewer modules than most other courses (7 in all currently), requires that I commit a huge amount of time. You must realise that assignments alone take up most of my time, but this large amount of time is not just for assignments but for other musical necessities as well, my course being both an Arts and Science course.

In artistic terms, I have to brush up my music theory (workbooksin preparation for Grade 5 next year, regain my electone organ performance skills for Electone Grade 6 exam (then there's my private music lessons I hope to resume sometime soon), attend concerts around once a month (to broaden my perspective and musical knowledge), listen to wide genres of music CDs, and of course, be at endless rehearsals (for upcoming Performance events - graded as part of one of our modules). In scientific terms, I've chosen to read library books on specific issues on related audio technology regularly and browse through manuals on software that I use (in order to get better acquainted with them).

As for CCAs, I'm fairly active in both the Info-Communications Technology (ICT) Club and Campus Crusade for Christ. I'm also part of the Singapore Polytechnic (SP) Ambassadors. Currently, I've the 2006/2007 Freshman Orientation Programme in store for me in ICT Club. For Campus Crusade, there are activities almost every day, but I can only attend so much because I've either got assignments or something else on. (Sorry you guys, I can't be actively involved, you'll start fussing over why I don't put God first but then - what about my studies? Isn't that honoring God too? I can't be very involved, my diploma course just doesn't "allow" the time for it.) For SP Ambassadors, I have to promote my course during the upcoming Courses & Careers Fair and any other open houses.

Think that's all of it? There's still a MAJOR concert coming up that I'm co-planning. It's a concert for our course to promote our course (propaganda!), and my role as the Publicity Committee Head means that the bulk of the work is on me now. Those of you who have planned a concert (I do mean a FULL-SCALE concert) know how I feel (probably). The point is, all this publicity planning takes up another portion of my time.

You certainly don't understand the extent of my situation. EVERY DAY is a mad day occupied with the things listed above. I already don't (even if I wanted to, but I don't) YAK on the phone (don't even have a handphone anyway), LAZE on the couch watching TV/anime (waste of time), or get HOOKED on computer games like perpetually almost all teens are involved in now (whether Maple, RO, DOTA, Warcraft or whatever, you are senselessly wasting your life away). But the amount of work listed above still deprives me of sleep (I'm a useless person myself - need 9 hours of sleep at least every night to function well). Can I NEVER get my priorities right?!

Another thing that I hate to rant about: GROUP WORK. Sorry if I offend anyone by what I blog but I just got to say it 'cos I'm darn sick of it. Can you all PLEASE listen and complete whatever tasks are expected of you? I've already taken the trouble to delegate all our jobs equally but you must realise that if one member is not responsible towards his job, the pressure is piled on to the rest, it's not FAIR! And then when the grading comes, who's going to suffer? ME, OF COURSE... everything's always PUSHED to me - even if it's not I have to START things or it'll never get done! If the whole group gets high grades it's not fair that I got the same as those of you who slacked; if we get low grades then all my efforts are wasted! If you were to be more serious in doing your job, then all would be fine; everyone's happy. So please be COOPERATIVE OK? Don't make me chase you for the stuff you have to hand up. TAKE INITIATIVE. I hate to FORCE you but sometimes I have no choice. PLEASE contribute well as a team member OK...

I'm quite moody these few days, but it's just that I want to get things DONE and NOT WASTE TIME. I really hate slacking... learnt my lesson from secondary school, especially the "holiday" period between the end of 'O' Levels to the start of Polytechnic. There's a lot I have to catch up and improve in terms of music; I can't afford to waste any more time. Call me a nerd if you want to, I don't care - at the end of the day, we'll see who gets where.

ICT Club - Leaders of Tomorrow Camp

25-27 October 2005

This was ICT (Information-Communications Technology) Club's 1st attempt at organising a leadership camp. We got to know our clubmates better - this was essential if we were to work together in future ICT events. Held on the last week of the polytechnic school vacation, it was no wonder that fewer than 20 freshmen attended this camp. We could have slacked that last week at home.

Day 1. After registering my name and having a briefing with my campmates, my group came up with "Synergy" as our group name. We had a flag-painting session where we got painted on by the gamemasters if we didn't freeze when the music paused.

We had station games at various parts of school - the final game "Red Indian" being the most exciting. Two balls were placed in the muddy centre of a designated area on the field. Two teams had to line up back-to-back. At "GO!", we had to run to our group's territory to construct an "Indian tepee" with 4 sandals/slippers. Once the "tepee" was constructed, we ran to the middle, grabbed a ball and attempted to destroy the other team's "tepee". Meanwhile, the "goalkeeper", along with his team players, had to block the incoming ball from destroying the "tepee". My group didn't win - but the game sure was fun.

After dinner was "Water Freshido" where we were blindfolded and led along (holding each other's shoulders) to go through a series of obstacles which ultimately led us to having to crawl, spin and whatnot through water sprays and mats filled with water. We were thoroughly soaked after the whole thing ended. After showertime was "Night Walk". Blindfolded and led all to way to the other end of school, we walked through a path lit with light sticks individually (for the guys) or in pairs (for the girls) - while the seniors attempted to scare us in their various guises. All this - in near pitch-darkness at times. Halfway through the path, we had to search for a piece of paper using a lighted candle in a ladies' toilet to sign our names on and confess any "sin" we had committed. Inside too were scraps of newspaper littered on the floor and at the sink was a baby doll stained with blood complemented with bloody scribblings on the mirror. Near the end of the Walk, we had to search for our faces on burnt-edged papers in a dimly-red-lit lift. Mine appears below.

Day 2. The first thing we had in the morning - Physical Training (PT). It was near-army style in tenacity. Our PT instructors were scolded us and made us run rounds after rounds when our manners did not show. It was a dreaded period of time for everyone. Immediately after that was breakfast - bread with kaya and jam. And Milo. The main event today was an orienteering game where we gained points by searching for clues (coloured strips of paper) at various checkpoints on Bukit Timah Hill and its vicinity. The different colours represented different amounts of points. Our deadline was 4pm; we thought we were late - but we ended up being the first group to have lunch and return to school at around 4.30pm. The other 3 groups came as late as almost 6pm! By the way, here's a photo of my group "Synergy".

They had a food auction for dinner, but I had to leave for a concert. I found out that they bidded for items like canned foods, sausages, Japanese chicken, drinks and oil using the points they collected during the orienteering game. By the time I was back from the concert, they were just starting on Block Catching. We freshies had to run from our seniors over the vicinity of a few floors at two blocks. If we were caught, we were put into "jail" and got "tekan" (made things difficult) by the "jailmasters". At first I got a few sprays of water while I was blindfolded - but the worst was a full bucket of cold water. After some time in jail, we were let out as spies, with a mission to catch the rest of the freshies that had not yet been caught. The game ended with most of us dripping wet.

After a refreshing shower, we planned the steps for our "group dance" and then had Disco Night. Drinks (100-Plus and Milo Dinosaur - a Milo drink with LOTS of Milo powder, very concentrated) were served at the "bar counter". I did not join in the frenzied dancers - I'm not that "type" and besides, I was already worn out by the day's activites. Some of us went back to sleep early, while the rest did not sleep till dawn.

Day 3. We woke up around 9am, had breakfast, then packed up our belongings. Before breaking camp, we had the customary sing-along session, friendship dance and writing of encouragement testimonials on each other's backs. We took group photos in our dri-fit white camp tee (like the one above at the beginning of this post) before bidding farewells to each other. I'll leave you with this photo of glowing light sticks. ICT Club rocks!