Achievers Day

I was procrastinating on what happened on Saturday.

Loads of wonderful things happened.

I went to school to receive an award for topping a module. Just so you know, there were dozens of "achiever"s there too so I was like a face in the crowd as compared to the cream of the crop had numerous awards and vouchers from banks to get.

But the thing was, it was nice to see familiar faces after a two week abscene from my memory.

The lecturers and especially my good ol coursemates which never fail to bring a smile to my face.

We took gazillions (okay fine, around 30 photos but i like that term) of pictures just elated after the event is over.

For the next 2 more months, we will be seperated by the numerous tasks of an intern of taking coffee orders and filing documents dated past 1988. I exaggerate.

It is like the last few chapters of the book, you know it is about to end, where the evil person is slained or put to jail bringing about a happy ending.

It's just lovely how things wrap up the way you see it, the fading months of my final poly life.

"Whacked by a trout on my head"

As I was saying, I have pictures. Achievers Day Photos

After the school function, I met up with the rest of the dreamd8s for the video shoot for TV mobile.

Yes you can find my skunk face now available on all buses with brainwash boxes.

Just to rehash some of the funny moments when I was being interviewed:-

When filming was about to start, they had to adjust my postion, the lighting, the camera positioning and check for reflection or stuff like that.

So, as I sat nicely in the camera frame, HostSara asked me to adjust my seating.

HostSara:" Ben, are you comfortable with your postion?"
Me: "Actually no. (Shift my legs). Better now."
HostSara: " So, you're okay now. Don't move too much when we film you."
Me: "What if I have hand gestures or I might jerk a bit to the side?"
HostSara: "How much do you want to jerk then ?"
Me: (Stunned)
Cameracrew: (Resisted laughing)

For those dirty foul minded people, I'm sure that was funny. For those angelic fellas, time for you to brush up on the world.

Another dumb moment from me:

HostSara: "How's your love life now currently?"
Me: "My love life currently is like .......... (had to think for a minute)
Me: "It's like the fish market, rather stale."
HostSara: (Interrupts)"Fish market sells fresh fish leh."
Me: "Yah hor, lemme think again."
Me: "My love life currently is like .......... (had to think for another minute)
Me: "Newater ....... it's bland and tasteless and ...."
HostSara and Cameracrew: (Cuts me off)

All and all, I think I injected much humour of myself that reflected me on the TVmobile trailer.

If anybody sees it, please do tell me how much of a dumb joker that I look.

Peace out,
Benjamin

The Medieval Ages

The age of chivalry and men wearing chunky metal. The age where the world is flat and life revolve around war in Europe.

Watching Timeline in the movies just a few hours back, the only thing I was rather impressed was the realistic portrayal of costumes and the cinematography. I'm not sorry to say the plot was rather a yawn.

I guess my threshold for more highly intellectual movies have reached a notch as the only movie I wanted to watch "The Butterfly Effect" were fully booked out by secondary school students holiday-movie-hangout-wannabes.

Anyway, the Medieval ages reflect how primitive human emotions were back then.

The giving away of a handkerchief for the man to go to war was a remembrance of the lass who has a place for him in her heart. Love, was not just another word in "I love you", but a language.

Hopeless romantic I am in my daydream fantasies, I hope to sweep a gal off her feet and gallop her into the sunset as we (((censored))).

The world has lost its touch. The touch of the true meaning of love.

Love isn't bought over by a bunch of mere flowers or a wedding ring to profess eternal imprisonment for yours only but Love is about the faith, the heart, and the drive to love another with no regrets for all eternity.

Give me a handkerchief somebody.

Hopeless romantic,
Benjamin

Cliques

The world is full of cliques.

Political parties, trade unions, soccer pals, mahjong khakis and working colleagues.

It is human nature for men to find emotional comfort to conform to the common.

I never liked the idea of cliques. Never did, never will but it subsists in my deluded subconscious mind anyway.

That's because with cliques, there are the outcasts. The nerds. Geeks. Outsiders. Gaijins.

Nobody likes to be left out in anything but as long as you don't fit in a clique of either jocks, hard-working colleagues or stylish metrosexuals, you will never be able to find your innate ability to relate to a group.

I never like to be moulded into one senseless group of people doing something nonsensical without the notion of consequences hitting right back at you in your butt.

A true life example was some of my school mates back then, all of them joined a CCA and I refused to join. Yes, we were close friends but that doesn't mean I don't have a mind of my own.

I was okay with the idea of this CCA they were all interested but I decide to resist and go against the idea of registering with them.

Yes, I confess to being in cliques here and there in school, in work and even in mydreamd8.

In school, I'm close to a certain bunch of people who are my project mates and my mahjong pals. In work, I'm closer to the younger crowd and the account servicing side of the company.

In my dreamd8, I'm closer to people whom I went out with outings because I know them more in reality than what is portrayed on their blog.

The reason why I'm debating my mind with the idea of cliques is that it is unhealthy and it should not be practiced but it can only come under deaf ears.

I don't practice shutting out people I don't "click" with. Instead, I try my best to establish some form of decent conversation with them even though it can be patronising or become a bastard.

Then again, if people choose to shut themselves and choose not to be in a clique. Go for it. I did that once before because I couldn't fit in. But then I realised. It is an endless cycle of struggle and closing up your social circle limits your humanity.

It is a matter of conformity and not a choice.

Unless you love to be in a world of your own.

Then, you're delusional. And you have your own right to be one.

- Benjamin

P.S. I'm being nonsensical again.

My career in advertising

I know it seems that I have a lot to blog today.

I think there should be around 4 posts below so read and find them since I was on a short hiatus away from the blogging world.

I think I mentioned this before but I'm just going to do it again.

Ever since choosing a career path in advertising, I have come to terms of both the positive and negative aspects of this industry.

You don't mean anything to your company. Period.

I think this might apply to all industries but essentially, all the company's board of directors do is care about the bottom line, where their next bowl of Nagoya rice grains will come from.

Therefore, loyalty to the company is as cheap as the dirt you step on.

I always had this notion of being faithful and stay with a company till death do us part. All I come to realise is that all the company wants to do is sap away the quintessence of our soul and make full use of it until we expire or past our usefulness.

It is a sad world out there but I guess these are the harsh realities of the working world that I have to accept.

As a teenager, I used to think that the working world is where you establish yourself and earn your dough. It's fun, energetic and full of experiences. How I wish that was true because it isn't as it is a really dog eat dog world out there.

Being only an intern for the past 2 weeks, I have seen many facades of employees gossiping about one another. It's politics that is unavoidable in any situation.

I guess I have to learn to accept it. The politics, the working environment and the industry that I choose to associate with.

I love the advertising industry because of all the creativity that transpires me and I wish to be any part of this sector be it media planning, creative production or account management.

Not to be oxymoronic here, but the advertising industry has its flip side to fun too. Seeing your work out there, intriguing peoples' minds to think and fulfilling your client's demands, the satisfaction you get from it is limitless.

You don't have a choice in every situation. It is not every situation that you can have the decent half of a burnt cake.

That's life I guess. Swallow it and spit it out.

You need to taste the bad before you can experience the goodness of life.

- Benjamin

Technolust

Everyone loves gadgets.

All things big and small, snazzy to practical, the fuzzy to the vibrating.

Gadgets run our daily life from EZlink card, refrigerator, the brainwashing box in your living room to the device that radiates harmful radioactive waves to our miniscule brain that operates only at 5% all the time.

Without gadgets, I can safely say bring me a spear and I will hunt my own food.

I guess technology has changed our life loads and I recall my first inkling for a gadget.

During the late 90s, everyone was super crazy over pagers and handphones were the sizes of bricks.

From neon to glow in the dark, anything that beeps, is a hit.

I begged, I growled and I moaned. When I finally got a beeper, everyone moved on to another revolution of being a brick-carrier. (note: I was pretty young then)

We all know technology changes faster than I change my underwear and when a new gadget gets into the consumer marker, everyone rushes to get one without their undies.

After a pager, I craved and lusted for a handphone. I guess this was where I got infected by "technolust".

I was bedazzled by what these gadgets can do more than how clean my underwear was. It got to a point where the craving for a better model of cellphone/digital camera/MD player was overpowering.

I guess nobody can get off the hook once they catch on technolust. IT illiterate people are safe from this virus.

Nerds, geeks and technofreaks constanly yearn for what's next.

On my list is an iPod and another cellphone. Yeah, I guess I just belong to the geeks after all.

- Benjamin

P.S. I change my underwear everyday. I think.

Controversy

****This post is regarding my participation in the mydreamd8 competition****

I'm not stirring up any controversy, thank you very much.

Drama ain't any part of my life and I like it to stay that way.

Anyway, some people have confessed to an "alliance" in this mydreamd8 competition. Yes, the "Survivor" plotting of "who's going next." Aka a clique to get themselves further in the competition.

From what I have gathered, I don't really care about some of these people.

Yes, that is a fact.

You want to win this competition, I'm not giving you any, just go ahead and win it from under my nose. Just watch out for my snot.

First of all, why is there even a need for an alliance? The concept is so totally different from "Survivor" or "The Mole". Hell, I wish it was like that so I can "play the game" but as I said earlier, the "money" ain't worth it.

Friendships are more valuable. But one million can drastically change my life, help my family and get me further in my career. But this ain't a competition of a million bucks.

I digress.

I don't like to participate in politics unless it is something worthwhile to fight for.

Not to add more controversy or what, I liked some people as friends here but I don't know who to trust, frankly speaking.

Don't ask me the question whether I trust you totally because there is always the benefit of the doubt.

I love you guys and gals. Seriously. If there wasn't such a political competition, I would form great friendships to some dreamd8ties here. But the fact exist. It is a political competition that we got ourselves in and it is too late to back out.

I just hope for the best that people who vote for me, like my blog and me, to keep me around. That's my motto. Blog my best and let the fans decide the rest.

That's all I ask for. And maybe to meet more friends who are sincere to not care about the money.

- Benjamin

P.S. Somehow I get pulled inside some controversy and people are calling me names. People who know me know that I'm not like that. And I don't wish to pursue it. I just wish eternal damnation to those rumour mongers.

I love Fridays !

I am totally in love with Fridays.

Yes, the exhilaration of a 2 day full sleep at your own freedom without an alarm clock is rather liberating.

You cannot express the amount of joy. I guess this is shared among people working 9-5 and does not have to work on Saturdays.

The end of the work week represents a lot of things to me.

First of all, no more "stare in the air" to differentiate the nitrogen and oxygen molecules floating in the atmosphere.

"No more boredom"

"Screams like the gal in the ad where my tampon will never be soaked and overflowing anymore"

Okay, I'm lame.

I embrace Fridays. The constant looking of the watch for the countdown as though it is the New Year bash. You would be like me when you have finished all your assignments and freezing like a chinchilla in the Artic.

Fridays. Enough said. =)

- Benjamin

Babies and cloning

Babies.

You expect me to get cuddly face or coochie coochie with them.

I'm not a baby person and don't expect me to apologise.

Their small fragile heads and bite size fingers, I'm really afraid I might drop them and be sentenced to jail or the grossness of them just squeezing through a hole the size of 50 cents barely a few weeks back scare me.

I love babies on the contrary, when they are like 12 years older.

That's my take on the baby issue. Now to grow up and stop whining like a baby.

The Singapore government's recent focus on the decline of our population has ablazed our newspaper.

The blame of Singaporean's men sperm not being able to swim fast or that the eggs of Singaporean women are getting the avian flu, I don't wish to pursue that.

Instead, I would like to discuss more about what governement "intervention" is going to do to "interject" whatever "support" to "boost" the "cock" population. All puns intended.

Their policy is, The more "work" you do, the more "bonuses" you will get.

This policy ironically reflects two of governement doing both in the boardroom and the bedroom.

If you work hard and are successful in clinching more profits for your compnay, you get paid more bonuses. If you exert harder and are willing to split your spouse in two during intercourse and make them suffer 9 months, you will get a bonuse too =)

$400 million from our coffers will contribute to compensate the fertility of us Singaporean men. Why don't they just use that amount of money and do research and development which we all are looking forward too and clone men.

Won't that make life easier? A win-win situation if you tell me. No more suffering for the women and the men need not keep up "providing" every night admist the whinings of the mother-in-laws for offspring.

We also can shut up most of the employers since they are so unwilling to grant maternity leave to the papa and the mama. With cloning, we just break ethical issues of all the religions of the world but look on the bright side, we are on the forefront of the biomedical industry. Isn't that what Singapore is striving for?

Babies or clones, whatever they may be, there is still a need for natural sex before all of us human beings will die from the lust that accumulates and eventually die of fits.

I do wish to note, if the women of the world aren't that picky, choose a man wish you can shag and is good to look at in the morning when you wake up(you don't want to wake up from a nightmare to face another one immediately , do you?).

Marriage is an important decision. Having babies and creating life is even more blissful. So ladies out there, stop being choosy, we need you to do your national service !

- Benjamin

P.S. I anticipate a pig head outside my doorstep anytime soon. I live along Sexist street, Block 69 #06-09. If you want to send me an anthrax letter, my postal code is FCUKER.

Long distance relationships

**** There is a section in Mydream d8 blog that I like to bullshit and since I wrote this and it is my thought on how long distance relationships are. I present to you my take on LDR.****

I guess the majority of us here don't have long distance relationships.

We always see our lovers/crushes like everyday that sometimes, we wish it was like some other hot babe/hunk that could replace that image.

When you're spouse/lover goes overseas, you start to have an inkling over him ..... or even love the fact that he is gone.

My half-cocked theory is based on relationships of unmarried couples who are having a long distance relationships (LDR).

LDR will not work. Period. Unless you fantasize and masturbate to your lover overseas to show how much you miss him/her through phone sex or whatever that pleases you 2, a relationship is difficult to maintain through matter of words and emoticons.

There are two types of LDR. One is where two individuals that have met up in real life and then one suddenly has to depart like a Korean drama to save herself in another country because of brain cancer or that she need to go study or her future will be in peril. Usually it's the latter.

Then the 2nd type of LDR where both have not met up in real life before and are just maintaining a connection mostly through the internet be it webcam, email, forums or some form of long distance stringed-paper cups.

My stats which I derived from digging my nose and ear with the same finger that accounts to the results of this study is that 95% of the 1st type will end up as a failure and the 2nd type is 99%.

Why the high failure rate you might ask?

Simple. A relationship is built by 2 individuals in love, trust, faith, commitment and effort.

Some make it a point to call one another to profess their undying love everyday, some just leave their relationships be.

Whatever it maybe, we individuals are all different so we view communication in a bond of love very differently.

My "findings" show that the 1st type of relationship will sustain for an average of 3 months before one falls into the infidelity vortex and eventual communication breakdown.

The other "finding" is more concrete. I have evidence of 1 person. (that's substantial enough for a research, I wish to applaud my Mass Media Research lecturer for imparting "this" much of knowledge) who constantly looks online for love.

That person is my cousin. She has been hopelessly searching online for the past 6 years and did she found anyone with mutual intentions? YES ! but when they meet up in real life, the distance that kept them apart suddenly felt heavy and found out the reality of the gap they bridged.

Love, be it distance that keeps two apart or may it be time to see one another, is a responsibility. Maintanence, passion and the faith for the other's love is what makes a relationship work.

My personal input in this is that if I ever have a scenario of number 1, I would let the person go. I do not wish to burden her or even burden myself because if we are fated together, we will eventually be together. Forever more.

Cocked to you by,
your hopeless romantic,
Benjamin

Alive and well

Yes, the rumours weren't true, I did not die and went to hell.

Instead, I watched Haunted Mansion with Gwenne and so happened to bumped into Wendy and her god-sister.

Eddie Murphy was hilarios but it got a bit too exaggerated in the end. Including the plot but if you are bored and have money to spend, go watch it for a knee jerk laugh.

Updates for the past 4 days. Monday was the movie above, Tuesday was slack, rest and sleepy days, Wednesday was Marche romp courtesy of someone I know whom is about to quit his job and is celebrating it and Today aka Thursday, is a free blogging fest !

You see, I have been blogging for the last 4 days. Technically.

My workstation has no computer and I had to resort to writing a NORMAL journal in my AWFUL handwriting.

And I kept on writing. Note: I was not skivving, I had did all my tasks of the day and have done EXTRA analysis of what I have to do and I wrote on my journal as I waited for my next assignment!

So in the next few posts, you will see what my mind rambles on when boredom hits me.

Cheers,
Benjamin

P.S. Thanks andi for your concern, was just preoccupied with stuff and by the time I reach my comp, I was too drained to blog =)

Words from a Taxi Driver

It's rather humbling to hear from another person's perspective.

Taxi drivers are part and parcel of our daily lives. There is a demand for quick travel and they are there to supply us with this service.

No matter in what country, this job always exist and some might deemed it as a lowly paid job. I see it as a job that encompasses so much more than that.

They had to face the brunt of the SARS. They are the ambassadors for our nations for embarking tourists. They are at our helm with the wave of our hand. They don't save lives or significanly change us but they are here to show us the way.

I wish the cab driver that I conversed with won the Senior Citizens award.

It being a long journey, it was more than idyllic chat as we talked about the education system, the economy, the population decline, maternity leave, threat of other nations on Singapore's territory, the job industry and even our own family.

I shared my views as he shared his. I knew I was endangering my life with him concentrating on his driving (which was unnervingly fast) and with the chat we were having.

The journey was swift and brief but I got so much more from there. He gave me a piece of advice, a quote to face the future.

"Study your best, Expect the worst"

As much as I can study very hard now, whether any employers want me is a totally different ball game. Educational qualifications matter only that much.

Being a natural pessismist, I believe in Murphy's Law. I never place myself too high as I can get knocked down on the perch with one single blow from the government.

Some fantasized government ruling that I have made up to hit me with that single blow would be the following: -

1. Media industry is downsizing. MediaCorp & MediaWorks to merge.

2. Advertising expenditure to decrease for the next millenium.

3. Singapore bans all form of reality shows (including mydreamd8)

That my friend, would be the saddest thing in the whole wide world.

- Benjamin

P.S. I should start considering a career in cab driving.

P.S.S. I have a FREAKING guestbook ! It's about time man. Compliments and Criticism go here >>>>> Guestbook <<<<<

The McBad experience

I'm pretty sure everyone has consumed McDonalds at least once in their lifetime.

Being a typical youth, the Mcperience has been a weekly affair although everyone knows how sinful and unhealthy it is for your taste buds.

So a typical visit to your Golden arches would encapsulate friendly service, heavenly food and exorbitant prices.

Sadly, enough, the only indulgence any part of my body got, was my wallet. It was happily emptying itself galdly in the hands of the ronald crew.

Let me give you a rundown of what happened.

I ordered an upsized quarter pounder plain meal. The cashier serving me gave me a bewildered look as though like I was some Martian, having their virgin encounter at a fast food outlet.

I knew then and there that something kooky will happen to me.

My pal, Aaron, who was at the adjacent counter was requesting for more chilli sauce. His cashier promptly threw 2 packets of it at his tray. Rather rude and abrupt.

We were aghast at how Aaron was being served but we maintained our composure by joking about the 60 seconds hourglass.

For those frequent patrons, 60 seconds entitles you to a free ice-cream or free bar-top dancing by the cashier. Nobody wants to see a pimply teenager or a senior citizen with dangling dentures dance as they puke and they always have the cold delightful vanila cone.

Anyway, the sand in the hourglass maxed out and so, Aaron was evidently pointing to the countdown which had ended. And also looked over at mine and hinted to the cashiers. Both of which, ignored him

For more accurate information, this "promotion" of promise of 60 seconds was between the time of 6 - 8 pm. We ordered our food at approximately 7.45pm. Furthermore, if a company fails to deliver on their promise of efficiency, and does not compensate, what would a customer think of McDonalds ?

I'm not really a fussy customer and I'm not really hard up on having an orgasmic vanila cone although I was tempted to see them dance.

Despite all that, I faced the worst of the worst. My special order of quarter pounder plain was delivered to my hands. It turned out to be an oversized hamburger.

For the uneducated fast food junkie, that's just bread, followed by a big slab of beef patty and then rounded up by another bread. So, WHERE THE HELL IS THE FREAKING CHEESE ? HELLO ?

Faster than you could recite that 5 second Big Mac chant, I revisited the cashiers. Their manager (from the looks of it) served me and told me to wait back at my seat and they will serve it back to me.

They did serve it back to me in record time of 3 minutes. I was shocked at their sudden change of outlet effiency.

Lo and behold, as expected, (I always investigate my Quarter pounder to feast my eyes on the melting cheese ...) the top cheese merely melted lightly with the bun and the bottom cheese was like a slice that you could take from Kraft's package at the Supermarket counter.

Apparently, all they did was warm up the cheese which wasn't very warm and left the burger cold. So during that time, the whole burger is lukewarm.

Aaron wanted me to go face the burger panelists but I was agitated enough and just could not be bother and just ate the half-cold burger as it is. It didn't taste like heaven as it is but halfway to heaven is good enough.

Both of us finished and Aaron wanted to take some medication. I approached the cashier one last time. I asked VERY politely. "Can I have a cup of cold water, please?"

The response. "Only that ah?". My calm reply was a firm "Yes". Her face turned from a beaming cashier to a very haughty face like I'm some sort of cheapskate customer who is here to drink your plain water. She was just plain rude.

After all that I have gone through, I contemplated whether I wanted to jot it all down.

This is one bad experience but there were so many good encounters with McDonalds staff at other outlets. They knew the meaning of Quarter pounder plain, they won't throw chilli sauce in your face and they will gladly dance on the table top just to please you.

I recall my marketing lecturer once said, one bad experience is good enough to destroy the good impression of the organization. I love McDonalds (actually only their Quarter Pounder plain) but my wallet and I are more wary now.

Having been a part-time sales assistant before, I guess you cannot please all customers. Maybe you can deduce I'm a picky customer but after all, I paid my dues at the cashier for a non-McBad experience.

- Benjamin

Creativity

I gave considerable thought of me being in the creative side of advertising rather than in the management side.

Rewind a few years back, our government realise an importance of creative thinking as we have become regurgitators of information and gasp, decide to change the system

Coming back now, slight tweaks have been made but the essence of regurgitating is still relevant and existent.

You can never judge creativity as it is very subjective. That is why I doubt how winners of art and photography competition can win. I have my reservations.

I guess I have no credentials to even comment of what is creative or not. But I can comment that what might seem creative to you might not be the same to others.

People think being creative is different. Like having Afro hair in Singapore or parade around naked on Orchard road swinging your willy.

I beg to differ. Creativity is where you manage to enforce your own way of thinking and the others being able to comprehend whatever shit you have just created.

That's why I seek to be in the creative field. I'm just full of shit and everyone knows it.

- Benjamin

P.S. Don't hate me because I just insulted the creative field of advertising. Instead, hate me because I'm heading your direction next :P

Eavesdropping

I couldn't get to sleep again so I decide to blog.

Before that, I got an offline message from Wendy (Xiaxue), to peep at her blog! Haha, to my horrific hallucinations, she was praising me. Gosh!

Yeah, I know I didn't sent in the best picture of myself even though this competition is half based on looks and half based on personality.

The reason why it is on looks is because people that don't know any of the 40 contestants here, will see, judge and vote on what is here based on first impressions that strike them

Yeah, I admit, I have a bucktooth. Everyone has deficiencies in life they wish to correct. If you're fat, you seek to address the problem by going to a slimming centre.

Same theory applies that if you are in the middle class categoru, you have aspirations of owning the 5 C's. Thus, I resolve to get my teeth fixed one day. For now, I'm just happy the way I am.

Oh! I just remembered.

Whilst I was at work, I discovered that I had a desire to join another line.

Instead of being an account executive, I'm more of a creative person with crazy random thoughts that I like to input. I want to be a copywriter.

I know no ordinary person can be a copywriter but I possess some finesse in the English langage (i think i do at least...) and some wit to spice things up.

Handling clients didn't look so ideal to me after all. This struck me when my supervisor was cracking his head over coming out taglines for print ad for the brand.

His office is right behind me and he likes the open concept of an office so he doesn't closes his door. Hence, as I was browsing through magazines, his rather eccentric voice came thundering and I was an unwilling eavesdropper.

This unwilling eavesdropper turned willing when the frustration from the room behind me vented towards my direction as I could not concentrate reading the fine print of the ads anymore.

Hence, willing eavesdropper jotted down notes. And came up with 12 headlines. It was already 6 in the evening and I pondered whether should I submit it, it might score me some brownie points but also hurt me in the gut knowing the mr "eavesdropper" was listening to some stuff he should have blocked out.

I chose not to. Don't ask me why.

- Benjamin

Ups and Downs of an intern

This is based on what I have gone through the last 3 days.

Being an intern, you are the lowest rung of the entire company ladder. Even the auntie who clears the dustbin is higher than you because of two reasons.

A. Her pay
B. Even the CEO has to greet her warmly or she can threaten to not clear the waste paper bin of confidential information which will then be infested with parasites and infect the CEO with an unkown contagious disease.

As I was saying, an intern basically is to do something out of nothing. As roles and jobs are already assigned to the different people working in their jobs, your prescene there is more of an hinderance than a help.

In all serioushood, this is the case when I approached my supervisor after I had done all the assignments he delegated me to and he had to think for a full 5 minutes before he shooed me out because of a phone call.

I know he is a busy man and my prescene is not needed when he had to attend to so many things except me which I understand.

An intern however is the basic building block of your worklife, you will have to swallow and do all the chit that is thrown to you before you go up to the next rung which is kopi kia.

Everyone starts off as an intern or as some lowly rung position and I am taking my line in place because someday, I know I will climb the ladder eventually.

Until then, I might be best friends with the coffee lady, that is if she accepts me in her "clique".

- Benjamin

First day of work

Back from work.

It was nerve-wrecking as I set off to my internship company.

Not really knowing what to expect, I arrive 10 minutes before the dot and I was introduced to the big shots of the organization.

After which, there was a company meeting to update everyone on what has happened.

My boss is a real nice guy. Although he puts on a strict front, you could see a kind soul (i'm not kissing any boots here ...) within him. He is a really busy busy busy man.

For my time spent there, I cut newspaper ads of the particular brand i'm working for and also did some company background research to know what they do. I'm not naming it here for privacy issues. Sorry peeps.

All said and done, I felt it was an average first day of work. Of course, I wish to be exposed to many things but I had to start from ground zero.

What you learn in school is really child's play. The outside world is so different as I could not comprehend some of the acronymns of the terms they just blabber casually like their slang.

Well, it's only my first day here. I also got briefed about my job scope as an account executive. Basically to sum it all up crudely, you need to know everything, handle everything and if anything goes wrong, you are the blame of everything.

So there you have it. A desire for pain and my passion for it.

What's wrong with me?

- Benjamin

Anticipation & Anxiety

In about 8 hours, I will be at work.

The word "work" has not been in my dictionary for the past 3 years or so.

I've work as a part time sales assistant and data entry but 8 hours later is where I face what I have been studying for the past 30 months or so.

The advertising industry has its reputation. Most of it bad like it being a backstabbing field where people use you to climb up the corporate ladder or it being a very sleazy field.

In addition, if the compnay faces a budget defecit, they will just cut off advertising funds to save costs before looking into any "real" problems.

Hence, the anticipation. Not that I expect the industry to be like what I mentioned above because I that is might be only the bad side. Note: Office politics exist anywhere from boardrooms to toilet cleaners coffee breaks.

I'm anticipating so much more of where the managing, the multi-tasking, the pulling of people's hair, the taste of executive's sacarsm and the never-ending long hours. Yes, I have a high threshold for pain and I'm a sado-masochist.

And then there is the anxiety. The "What ifs" like what if I get to do all the shit work like photcopying my gluteus maximus or poisoning another's colleague. Then, there is also the "What ifs" I screw up or I plain don't know what terminology is being thrown around and I'm expected to know them.

I'm anxious to know what is installed for me and I'm just anxious to get started. If i'm relegated to shredding paper documents, so be it. I'll just read the documents and gain some insider knowledge. "evil"

I foresee the next 3 months as a roller coaster ride. I will have much fear and fun while being an advertising intern. I don't know where I'm heading, I don't know where it is going to curve suddenly or make a sudden drop. I don't know where I need to accelerate or take a breather.

It is a roller coaster ride, and I'm just going enjoy the ride wherever it takes me.

- Benjamin

Face in the crowd

Another reality checkmate today.

Being featured on the New Paper, I know I am not a pseudo-celebrity.

Just another face in the crowd. I could either get defensive or just take it in stride.

Since the reviews were rather neutral, I shall take it as constructive comments.

After all what can you fully reflect a person you know with questions in 15 minutes and column space of barely 400 words.

C'mon. Everyone is not perfect both personality or looks wise.

I admit I have average looks. Or that among your group of friends, there is a "Benjamin" in the crowd. Yeah, so what can i do about it ? Visit the hospital and order new features to improve my looks or blame my parents DNA ?

I might not have the looks but at least I make do with what I have.

I take offence too to the recommendation that I would date "tortoises".

Well, you don't expect me to sleep with a date on the first few dates.

I recalled I said I would love to take things slow but not as slow until I get Alzheimer's Disease. C'mon. It takes time to know another individual fully and it might take more than just a few meetups definitely.

Maybe you like to get into their pants in 15 minutes if I can make assumptions to how you like a "hare-ried" date since you all so love making it.

- Benjamin

P.S. Do take a look at the Esplanade photos., courtesy of PixiePosh =)

Talentime

Entertainment, at the expense of your disgust.

Last day of school. Last day of seeing the school at its worst.

I was one of the main organizers of Talentime last year and I didn't expect any better of what I was about to see.

Frankly, it is just a basic itineary of who is going to sing, the usual stuff with awful emcees (gettting worse by the year) and the usual suprises of winners.

Firstly, the performers are about average and some with above par with good vocal ranges but chose bad songs aka quarter-finalists of American Idol.

Secondly, emcees never seem to warm up the crowd. All they do is announce and introduce the next singers/performers which a luohan fish/goat/camel can also do in a different animalistic language.

Lastly, winners which the audience always expect never turn out to be winners as the judges (from a different generation) sees things from a different point of view. Oh well.

It seems I am only able to pinpoint the negatives of a situation. There are positives too.

1. The buffet table is always cleared by 15 minutes. Exactly.
2. There is always a mess left in the audtiorium once Talentime is over.
3. Every performer always turn out to be winners as coursemates and friends are there to show their support no matter how badly they perform.

Amen to 3.

- Benjamin

P.S. I'm posting on both platforms, here and my dreamd8 site. You can find more nonsensical stuff about me there. Additionally, look at the 24 MMSes. i posted up in the last 24 hours. I'm a maniac !

Last day of school

Technically, today was the last day of school.

After a horrid yet entertaining 2 years and 2 months, the school term has finally expired for us guinea pigs of Diploma in Media & Communication students at SP.

Next Monday, I will be interning at an advertising agency as an account executive which I shall not name for privacy issues. I will lightly blog about my experience there but I shall not lift any names in breach of the corporate policy and anyway, it is so unprofessional to do so.

So, after handing in the last assignment which I ran and panted like hell up the SB hill, I managed to beat the clock and submitted the Neuromancer book review (which I read and vomitted blood and hence my lateness) and an analysis of Diffusion of Innovations theory on digital TV.

To sum up, as much as it is a sigh of relief for no more dreadful lectures, sleepy tutorials and rushing project deadlines, there is a part of me that will miss the entertaining lecturers, inquistive tutorial activties and the adrenalin of beating the dot of project submissions.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned somewhere earlier in this blog that I have learned and matured along the time I spent in SP along with my friend's company and lecturers' guidance.

In truth, I will miss the ever trendy yet blur Miss N, spunky P, affable Miss H, subtlely funny F, strict & motherly L, mr know-it-all L, wacky R and endearing Mr A. All of these lecturers have changed my life one way or another as they have taught me valuable lessons along the way.

In addition, I will not miss the limited variety of foodcourt 6 and look forward to what Raffles Place has to offer for the next 3 months.

I will definitely miss SP. Indefinitely.

- Benjamin
P.S. I promised not to mentioned any lecturer's names hence the alphabets.

Jaded

Well, today sucked.

Final test of my 3 years in poly. Didn't really put in much effort in revising since I practically burn my notes and drank them in some tea.

I'm a realist. A very cynical realist. I remember a few weeks back I was thinking the second most asked question in the world. "What is the meaning of life?"

After all, you come out from your mother's womb, you learn to stand up, you get empowered with knowledge and earn money with that and then all you do is wrinkle and wait to die.

I'm 19 and I already feel like a 91 year old citizen. You may argue that I have not gone through the rituals and tribunals of having to earn my dough or even starting a family.

Well, but it is like a routine that you can observe from your family. Working from 9 to 5 just to earn enough cash to pay the COE and rising ERP and whats more, to top up the CPF.

As for having kids, I already have my fair share of kids that I know that if I ever do start a family, the number 2 should more than suffice even though I am not doing my NS (National Sperm) duty of producing more.

I really wish I was young again. Like being oblivious to all your surrondings, deluded to your responsibilities and just have no care in the world like the youth I once was 4 years ago.

Maturity has sunk in during my poly years and the essence of having a exciting life has dissolved. Because what lies ahead is responsibilites to face society and family, to work, to give birth, to participate in politics, to add more funds to the CPF.

It is a never ending cycle which I'm about to enter and I basically have sum up what life is ahead of me before I reach 91.

I already burned myself out with the sense and sensibilities of life by 19. Am I jaded already?

- Benjamin

P.S. Most asked question in the world for men is "Honey, was I good enough?", for women is "Honey, are my breasts too small?"

Wake-up call

I guess today was a wake-up call that public scrutinity has came knocking upon your door.

The tabloid "The New Paper" centrefold featured all the myDreamD8 contestants and every week, there will be a panel of judges that will feature the interesting people that they interviewed prior to the launch party.

Some comments were rather caustic to Shaun and Wendy, some were complimentary. Either case, it certainly puts one on the spotlight and reflect what you said to them in that short span of 10 minutes to those reporters.

Be it mine good or bad, I responded spontaneously and what was truly said was me. Oh well, shove it. What do i really care about what they say anyway?

What truly matters is what we hold in our own beliefs and values and live life the way we please. No matter what stupid gurggling words came out from my filthy mouth in that 10 minutes isn't gonna affect my life anyway even though i'm still liable under Singapore laws for defamatory remarks.

A-N-Y-W-AY. Test tommorrow, gotta work hard for the final test of the semester. Busily cramming now and just wanted to blog to destress. So there. End of detoxification period.

- Benjamin

Rogue

Rewind to a few days back when it was the launch party.

It was nerve-wrecking yet exciting to be one of the 20 finalists like the American Idol without the adulation.

Pictures of Rogue party

Being in the spotlight, instead of our singing talents, our personality and our looks were showcased to maximum effect to appeal for people to vote for us.

Like I've said earlier, I count my blessings that I'm in it and I just want to gather as much friends from this experience as far as possible. I don't give a damn about the money.

Friendships are priceless.

Yeah, some people say it might be dumb to even consider not winning or giving some challenge to the top contenders but realistically, I know the standards and all I have to reply to that is to give my very best and blog what the real Me.

Seriously, this game is not about backstabbing or political, it is just how well you can reach to your niche, your crowd and your target audience.

With a diverse field out there, who knows what it is based on. If you do not like the mole on my face, you choose not to vote for me. If you think i'm arrogant, you choose to "voodoo" me.

In any case, the criteria that any person is basing on is not like the American idol where it is simply about image, talent and charisma. It also happens to be based on how each individual out there thinks about this blogger writes, express him/herself and his portrayal.

Seriously. If anybody is to narrow it down, I propose it to be a "my dream date" list, where a person has the makings of someone you see as a potential date you can bring home to see your mother or to go clubbing with.

Either case, maybe then it is fair to say the least.

On another note, every of the other 19 finalists has a great personality and it is still anybody's game. I also want to present the gratitiude to my DMC coursemates who came down to support me and Wendy.

- Benjamin

Rejuvenation

Since I was out at school by 10 am today, I decided to have a swim.

Simply put, it was a long time since I swam and the feeling of being the water was just exhilrating because sometimes, you just need to get out of the normal life that you have been regulating towards and just step back and smell the chlorine water.

Being an arrogant ass I am, I swam full 16 laps today. Bite me. Yes, it is uncomparable to what national swimmers go through but it was pretty relaxing and strenuous (yes I know, oxymoronic) as I gritted my teeth and was determined to finish my laps.

A little background thrown in, I'm not really a sporty person and the reason i'm training up is in lieu of the NAPFA test that I am about to take soon so I just wanted to feel energized for the hell that I'm going to go through.

Instead, I didn't feel energized but more rejuvenated. I had initially aimed for 10 laps but I just swam more and more even though I had a leg injury from the past bothering me. I felt like Celine Dion in a KTV bar for 24 hours.

I know. Freaky.

I'm now more determined to gulp more chlorine water and will NEVER procrastinate on my exercises anymore. I have decided to incorporate a daily jog and a swim in my now less busy schedule as school is rounding up and it seems that I can channel more of my timely resources to the physical aspects of my life.

On a sad note though, school is finishing soon and I do not wish to part with it.

On a nervous note, the party is tommorrow and yikes, I seriously do not know what I'm getting myself into.

On a positive note, I smell like chlorine.

- Benjamin

Bowled over by a Beauty

Today, I was at MediaCorp studios to do voice recording for a DreamD8 promotional trailer.

Along with me was John, Wendy, Jase, Janice, Nic and Shaun. I wasn't feeling star struck or anything like that knowing i was going to the country's biggest TV station and all.

We bumped into many celebrities though, one of them was Ah-Do, the construction worker turned singer. I half expected him to be smaller but he has really this oversized broad shoulders look and I wasn't wow over that but it was nice to put a face in real life to the songs I enjoy crooning to once upon a time.

However, I was wowed by the lovely Jamie Yeo. Now, many people have read gossip columns of her being nasty or being demanding and I don't even trust the Singaporean papparrazzi if there was even one because it is so tame that I hardly even hear a whimper from them. Hardly hear equates to hardly trust or to the extent of belief or to any truth at all.

Digressing. Grr.... Jamie Yeo was really so nice. She was affable, she was bubbly and she was gorgeous.

Babe and geek alert

I was a little dumbstruck when I knew she was gonna do the voice recording for her. I never envisioned her as a babe even though she dresses sexily on FHM covers but with her shrinked top and her low waist jeans, ermmm .... yes she would make a perfect Dream Date for me if Singtel ever organizes one for me lol.

Only thing though, I would just melt and freeze up, because you do not want to offend her or say anything to destroy the perfect moment with her as she is like a goddess lol.

Okay, i'm daydreaming, someone kick me in the head because I'm certainly bowled over.
I'm a groupie. Bite me.

- Benjamin

Fads, Fats and Facts

Well it's Feburary 14th again.

What can i say? Saint Valentine did something to make the whole city dedicate this day to him, so it must worth something.

For those single people out there, V day would be one of their most dreadful days. There will be some who will have their dosage of cable TV with snacks and cup noodles to munch up all the loving they need and for some, they will go out there and proclaim the happiness of their singlehood.

These singles call it Friendship Awareness Day (FAD) or Fats Accumulation Time (FAT).

Whatever FAD or FAT, all singles (including me) need to be aware of the FACT that we are single, we do not have a significant other or we just do not like the idea of being tied down.

Acknowledge the prescene of love and your lack of it in your current life. So what if others are holding hands, producing electricity or having sex in the kitchen now as we speak. It is their day of love. (even though I still think it is a marketing ploy)

They also went through a tough time before, they have fallen in and out of love before and have gone through the same as you before, being sad, lonely and miserable of their singlehood and rejoice at being carefree on V day.

It is all about fate. You can either go out and create it or you just wait for the chances to fall on your lap. Either case, love is bound to come a knocking.

For all the single people out there, here is a thought.

Couples or lovebirds, can quarrel all day, every hour for 364 days in their year and try to sweep all of it under the carpet with the pretense of having perfect love on Valentine's Day.

Singles, they can binge on any food they want without a care of their waistline of how their lovers will think of them and their salary is spent exclusively to their own benefits. They can be selfish without being sinful by "not taking consideration of the needs of others" It is only on V day when they have to take a 24 hour hermit hibernation.

Being in love is full of compromises sometimes. There are pros and cons of being attached and being single. Happy 364 days and being miserable on 1 day or Compromise 364 days and deluded 1 day.

You decide.

Happy Miserable Singles Day,
Benjamin

Sheshas

Only 8 of the DreamD8ties came forth on the proclaimed unluckiest day of the world.

Me, John, Janice, Wendy, Selena, Irfan, Jack and Darryl.

We went to Cafe Samar, a pricey Shisha cafe according to Irfan along Arab Street and to some of us, it was an eye opener.

I never tried a Shisha before, but it is just like smoking a fag, only 10 times milder without all the harmful effects like brain tumour and cardiac failure. You will get the hang of it after a few puffs

I had the double apple flavour and to taste it, you had to to suck all the essence from the core which will be filtered through the water, after which you blow it all out like Mount. Vesivus fart. It was just idyllic to just chat and shi-sha as we did for 4 hours or so.

Chat we did indeed. All 8 of us was in a constant barrage of input to share with everyone, allowing us to share a glimpse of another's exciting life experiences.

The disturbing part was we discussed taboo topics which were rather unnerving to me.

Like a pyschotic movie scene to cannibalism to violent rape scenes to religious practices.

John was the storyteller, he has loads of stories to share and some were pretty eerie for me like the tale of the pyramid mystery discoverer who eventually died mysteriously the day before he wanted to reveal his findings.

Irfan was the nice guy, he exudes nice-ness and apologise profusely for being late. The reason he is a nice guy too because he saved me on my cab fare. = P

Wendy, Selena and Janice were the gossipy ones even though they defended themselves by proclaming it as "a sharing discussion". On the way to Arab street from Bugis, the gals glib and glab like chattering monkeys and were a exchanging "how to get flies off my hair" tips.

Somehow, I had a strange feeling that we were all in a reality show of Survivor. I was the geek, Janice was the flowerpot, Jack the busy guy, Darryl the cool buddy, Selena was the sociable one, John was the one who shared alot, Irfan the nice guy and Wendy the horny one.

It is like criminal profiling where each of us has a particular characteristic that appeals to the youth and hence, we're in this reality show like the organizers picked. us for. I do not know how the rest measure up but meeting up with these individuals with different personalities, it is an experience itself to treasure.

It only came to my realization at 12 midnight that I had a mock interview in the wee morning and I wanted to smoke myself over with a sheesha with bliss and not care about it.

I just can't wait for us to meet up again this Thursday. Yikes!

Before I go, the pictures of the Shesha gathering.

- Benjamin

P.S. For those lazy ones, here are some to wheat your appetite.

For the uneducated, a new age version of a clarinet aka Shesha

Irfan, Jack and Me. Proud to be single.

The tribe of Dreamdates.

Shopping for a cause

Well, after knowing where I was placed at my internship, I got down to the nitty and gritty.

I investigated and researched on the corporate culture and their management style to prep myself on what to expect next.

I shall not name my internship for reasons of their privacy.

So, I went shopping for corporate clothes. Having a decent stash of few long-sleeved shirts and one black pants, it wouldn't last me and make a "decent" impression if I am going to last for 3 months without being scorned on.

An advertising executive has to be vibrant and adaptable, assess the situation and make strategic moves. My strategy is to learn as much as possible from my internship and make an impression. I hope to stay on after my 3 months until I get called up by the army but in order to do that, there was a need for vamping up my wardrobe.

Shopping was the natural order of the day. After collecting my phone (a 3650), I went to Marina Square and Suntec. The Metro sales opened the floodgates of my wallet as the prices are really jaw-breaking and G2000 shirts were all so prim and proper and even though my bank account is next to depletion, it is an investment well spent.

Barely 5 hours of pre-dawn clubbing, it was 5 hours of frantic shopping of pre-evening shopping. My legs are surely getting the work out it needs in preperation for the army.

What a sinful day !

- Benjamin

Mambo Dumbo

4.44am. I'm a bimbo in the pubbing scene really.

Was on a virgin encounter at Zouk and it was an astounding eye-opener.

The gyrating hips, the grooving music and the haze of stale smoke air lived up to Zouk reputation from all the gossips that I've heard and finally able to piece it up visually first hand myself.

I'm shagged from the dancing, drinking and inhaling smoke passively. I'm heading to the bed first and I shall return to blog after I return from school tommorrow which starts at 11 am.

I'm so looking forward to it. Sleep, that is.

*********************************************************************************************

9.08 am. Suprisingly, I had no hangover.

I don't normally drink alcohol but I guess I can hold myself, mustering the couage to sip from anoymous bottles of e-33 and unknown jugs of liquids of bourbon coke, vodka lime, vodka ribena and god knows what. I was sober though unlike my cuzzy, Daphne, who became groggy in a little over an hour or so after midnight madness.

I forgot to add on that the blaring music and my constant screaming made me hoarse but screaming like a maniac with the music, there is a sense of liberalism that you do not get often, something like screaming at the Grand Canyon to let all your frustrations out only that in Singapore, there are only 2 places, the beach at East Coast Park and the Grand LongKang at some uullu uullu place.

The music selection was okay, me being here for the first time and furthermore, my friends tease me about my erratic dance moves.

"I gave it (dance moves) my best shot. I have no regrets"

Something to learn from the infamous quote from the famous William Hung. I was half expecting a "She Bangs" version as a climax at 3 am but nope, it was all Mambo no.5.

Amazingly, to conclude, even though I smell like a cigaratte bud, dance like Mr Mr 7up Fido Dido and exhausted myself like a sweating dog till 2 am, it was an overwhelming experience with my pals of Eric, Aaron, Xue Fang, Dawn and Wen Jun as it was truly a night to remember for me.

I don't see myself doing this everyday of course, once in three or four weeks perhaps, to distress myself from any problems. Some people might rant that clubbing is essentially about posers and a waste of your bloody time but I just want to comment that the essence is having a good time.

You only live once. Live it well when you're young.

- Benjamin

Being bugged

In the midst of contemplating to going to school while at the toilet bowl, I decided to skip lecture.

Lecture was at 9, travelling is an hour and I was still making a dump at 8.20 and since there was only 1 lecture today, I decided to be devilish.

Now online in the wee morning where everyone is trudging themselves to work and wearily shifting their body to school, i feel a bit tad bored and decided to make up for my pontang sin.

I decided that i'm going to go get some exercise and breakfast.
Will give you updates at the end of the day.

Something particular happen though, it seems that since yesterday Windows XP has been slowing down and keeps jamming, I downloaded some virus scan to disinfect me but keeps getting slower and slower. I might be infected with some bugs.

It is just strange that 2003 & 2004 are getting notorious of bugs be it the flu, computer virus or those on your bed. It seems that in some wacky way or another, bugs will eventually take over world.

Like genetic mutations where bugs aka flies and mosquitoes will be as big as a tissue box and they suck out blood like a dracula or code modifications where computer viruses become harder to detect and can penetrate any platforms with ease.

It is just worrying that I'm admist this transition of a bug domination which I will predict will take over the cyborgs, clone and artificial intelligence who will be our next upcoming challengers of rulers of the world. Only bugs will survive. C'mon, cockroaches survived the dinosaurs. What are we to them ?

- Benjamin

Feeling Floaty

With a presentation done, all you can do is feel light-hearted.

Like you just handed in your thesis and you will get a Phd tommorrow.

Yeah, that feeling. Relief and ectasy.

So i felt nonsensical and decided to add a crappy section called "half-cocked theories of mine" which is relatively all about stupid thoughts that are combined to a theory. I find it rather amusing myself.

What amused me though was tonight where I watched Duplex. I won't give a movie review and I just like antics even though it was lame but with the flutter of the floaty feeling of getting permanant head damage after a presentaion, I just feel light.

- Benjamin

Project Rush

The last project proposal that I will ever complete in my last three years in Singapore Polytechnic.

And I did in usual fashion. Last minute.

Even though we planned out everything on the platter on which section (information) will be swallowed up and regurgitated out on the proposal, it only took until Friday before the first influx of vomit (rephrased and redrafted text) was emailed to me.

Hence, yesterday and this morning AM was torture for me. That is because for the past 16 hours, I have been rewording, reading and reviewing literature about biometrics which can get too technical and all so boring after the first opening paragraph and all you want to do is tune off.

But no, the report we had was quite well fished out where we built the skeleton and we intend to complete it. Felicia came over on Saturday, stayed for 2 hrs and Aaron came over to stay. It was only 5 am before I finally finished it. And I had to wake up at 6.15am to reach school so as to print it.

I woke Aaron up and after I prepared everything, he was still asleep at 7 am. What a dope !

Suprisingly, even though i had only 1 hour of sleep, I was able to be alert for the time I was at school until I reached home at 1 pm before I plonk into my soft coffin in bliss.

What a roller coaster ride since yesterday ! Coupled with the very fact I had just recovered and placed back on the fast track of project stress, is education worth living for ?

We study so hard, only to end up getting a piece of paper and start off at the bottom. I prefer the idea of starting off as an apprenticeship but no no no, the singapore system is all about academics, memory work and theories.

Although it is diverting off to another path now of creative thinking, is it a bit tad too little too late? I'm not slamming the government but everytime you make a move, you are always either late or just behind someone else.

When can we singaporeans, or even our ownselfs, revolutionize and set the bar ?

- Benjamin

Perks

Still slight sick, with a blocked nose, should recover by tonight unless some pigeon at my window passes me some deadly flu.

Before I go into detail the Singtel competition that I have entered, let me backtracked you a few days back.

I was sick but I had to go down to my school to report on the Courses and Careers Fair. It is an event where the school strips naked and begs for students to explore them and eventually choose them as their first choice.

SP did a fantastic job of stripping. We had the convention centre area, we had a student lifestyle festival, we had the school of busines tours, we had the innovex, we had to concourse and we had so many things for them to do and all of these prospective students were in awe.

I was interviewing some of them and some went to Ngee Ann Poly and Nanyang Poly. Note, I did not fabricate this. It was all entriely the students words.

"There were no lecturers at NP to answer any questions. All they did was throw brochures in front of my face"
"The students in NP were not helpful. Even though there was a CCF going on, they did not guide me the correct way and it was a dud event when I came."

End of quotes. This is just true testimony how SP takes care of their students. EVERYONE i interviewed were more than pleased that lecturers and staff were there to handle all their queries like job opportunities, cut-off points and student-lecturer relationships. I profess, I made the right choice coming here.

Okay back to the Singtel competition. DreamD8
It is reality - blog competition where the public votes and see how good you are as a dream date.
No prizes to those I know where I will end up. I'm too young and the only thing self-promoting is my personality, which isn't much.

Anyway, I'm in it for fun and hope to meet new people. Networking is the key world. I know I won't go anywhere near the prize money which is like S$8,000. The perks of it all are the fringe benefits that you get from joining such a sponsored competition.

In my hands right now is a webcam, a free phone line, free modem and a free dial-up line. Next week, I would be getting a MMS enable phoned. All these are fully sponsored of course but I have to return them in like 3 or 4 months later. I already hear the "Chey!!!" from your side of the computer. But you must admit, these goodies are quite drool-able.

Another part worth mentioning is the Survivor part of this show where the person with the lowest votes will get the boot off the temptation island only filled with measely $8,000. All the other 19 contestants along with me looks game for fun. All of them looks like a cheery bunch. You can see them all on Feburary 14th. DreamD8

Was chatting online with some of the partipants on MSN messenger. Found out that most of us live in east and some are virgoes. Only time will tell what might happen to us next since they say there will be a host, Beatrice Chia, to stir up the pot a bit. For publicity purposes of course.

- Benjamin

Good News, Bad News

Good news is, I got called up and made the final 10.

Bad news is, I'm sick. Really sick, I've never been as sick as this before. BAD BAD FLU.

I've been dripping mucus the whole day. Throat went rusty in the late afternoon. Bad flu sneezers start occuring the whole day. I was suppose to rest but I had to cover the story of Courses and Career Fair in my school. Not in the mood to typed it right now due to hazy medicine and not so uplifting experience as a journalist.

I have used up almost closed to 2 boxes of 200 ply sheets of Softex tissues and still counting. Keep sweating on my forehead and I want to recover soon. A project report is due on Monday morning and I'm taking a break by typing here. A temporary respite to the research online and the compilation I have to do in the next two hours or so.

Don't know how long will I last with the medicine. When I start typing gibberish, I know its time.

- Benjamin

P.S. Don't come near me if you see me. I'm like Oscar the Grouch. With tissues.

Internship placement

Recently, I have been very curious where of I am going to work as a slave for 3 months with peanuts pay.

Final year DMC students have been lurking around the lecturers corridors to jump out from the unsuspecting corners to suprise/give a heart attack to our internship placement lecturer, Mr Ang, so as to choke him until he reveals where he has placed them.

Apparently, EVERYONE i know already knows where they are heading. Except me. Not that i am not not interested where I am going to be placed but I cannot seem to find the right corner to suprise Mr Ang. He somehow has developed an innate ability to avoid my shadow.

I am truly tempted to call or leave an email but it seems so impersonal like i'm a harried bunny who is so impatient that he wants to know the type of carrot he is gonna swallow. I'm ain't no bunny but a calmed and composed tortoise who cannot seem to keep up with the Ang shadow. Deep inside, the heart thumps for the hidden knowledge of where I'm gonna be placed, is breaking me apart softly with anxiety.

My friends have been placed into great attachment companies. Felicia is going to Huntington Communications, an established PR firm. Aaron is going to Maybank Corporate comm department.

I wish I knew mine. Other coursemates are heading to Mediacorp publishing houses, Bates Advertising, MCDS, MITA, SIM, Bates, Gosh, BP and NIE. All of them look pretty good placements that I would love to go of course.

If I end up at a sucky organization, I could either whine about it or I just live and make do with it.

If I ever whine about it, I can put up a very STRONG case to compare with people who went to better internship companies than me with the basis of not only my results, my extra cirriculum activities AND my extra extra cirriculum actitivties related to what I have done. I'm pretty sure what I have done so far can qualify me as top 10 student because I have basically multi-task and take on every possible role I could have in school.

School Newsletter photographer, School Newspaper Journalist, helped freelance desktop publishing on a school booklet plus yearbook designer, director of a course video, public relations co-ordinator cum events management planner for my academic club and leader of a 2nd placed final year project of an integrated communications programme. I've even been on 3 student exchange programmes and have been a hardworking student. Only thing missing to make me robo-student is that I have not gone for any overseas community projects to help the needy.

If the above is not good enough reason, I don't know what will. People have called me names. Freak, Super "Eng" guy and Superman. It is a wonder how I could manage all of the above added on with school projects and CAs in my early poly years.

IF I get a lousy internship placement, I can also choose to accept fate as it is. Just work, slave and essentially try to gather as much as experience you can from that place even though rumours are that you basically charge handphones for the people there, pour coffee and photocopy your glutes during your free time.

Nonetheless, I will make my job of shredding paper as useful as possible by reading all the confidential documents and telling all their competitors. What a hoot to boot if that happens !

For better, or worse. I still don't know where I'm gonna end up. My curiosity has reached its limit and yes, its boiling towards the direction of Mr Ang. Now, if only i know which pillar is he hiding behind in.

- Benjamin

P.S. Thank you for hearing me grunt about my misery of pre-ITP. Thanks goes out to Wen Jun for being my listening ear.

Photos of my new hair that was taken at the interview place just now. It is suppose to be medium brown but nobody notices it, i think it is too mild to be seen perhaps.

The butterflies were trying to escape through my eyeholes

Colgate advertisement that never saw the light of day

Interview

Well, just an hour ago, I was being interviewed to be a dream date.

You must be puzzled. Let me fill you in. 2 months back, I stumble upon a competition called "My Dream Date". It is co-organized by Singtel and Optus (Australian Biggest Telecommunication Provider). It is a blog competition where the public have to vote for you to stay in the competition.

It being a reality show and me a shameless hussy with exhibitionist tendencies, I registered.

Back to the present, I was asked questions like these and my responses were not so good in my opinion. You see, I was selected from among 700 Singaporean contestants and I was 1 out of 21 shortlisted. It will be narrowed down to 10. My chances are slim I tell you after what I went through an hour ago.

You see, I somehow get to this "mode" when I meet strangers who are older and more mature than me. The organizer was asking me questions and although deep inside, I was not composed and frantic to answer, on the exterior, I mustered the most fluent answers I can give. I feel my responses were disorganized, out of place and did not fully answer the question.

I have a bad habit. I always lose my train of thoughts as I always try to push my point or my view towards a certain question until I forgot what the question was.

Question: What is your opinion on sex?
Answer: I think sex exists in many different forms. Mentally and physically. The physical sex as we all know are done by everyone throughout the world and ........ and I strongly feel that protection should be used at all times.

I was not asked this question but I ALWAYS lose what I was initially suppose to answer. I'm afraid next time my potential wife wants me to have babies, the reply would be:

"Babies? Sure, I would like for us to have a kid or two. We can convert the study into a nursery and then paint the whole room ourselves. Won't that be great? I need to remove the computers from the study first of course and I don't want the kids to be electrocuted. Speaking of which, I need to get a laptop .... yadda yadda.

I don't think I have any syndrome or weird speaking disease but next time, anybody ask me a question, please be aware of the following.

I will answer you question, in the first 2 sentences. After which ignore me because I have become totally irrelevant and incoherent to what you were asking. Just keep on nodding your hand as though you agree with me. After which, you ask me another question to throw me off.

Going back to the interview, another reason why I cannot get in is because I think I portrayed myself too arrogantly when I was asked to pitched myself to the viewers out there if I made it to the finals. Then again, it might be taken in as confident.

Argghhh ! I seriously want to participate in this because it looks fun and entertaining, I just don't know whether I survive the 50% cut. Only time will tell. 7 pm Friday. If I don't get in, I wish all the best to my buddy, Wendy, who is confident of her place in it already.

I sound so pessimistic about my chances. I want to downplay myself because if I don't get in, at least I already knew I gave up long ago. I'm a pyscho. Bite me. = P

- Benjamin

Hope

I did something really silly today.

I made an effort to queue up in the endless snake of hopeful singaporeans heartlanders in the dreams of the 10 million jackpot.

Not that I expect to win any of it but while I was in the queue, I looked at all the faces. Aunties with sagging eyebags and droopy chins with large jade bangles, young executives in formal attire shading the boxes discreetly and the Filipino maids who are being nannies to their employees kids, chattering away in a language foreign to me.

There are so many different personalities out there but all of them are in the search of that hope. The hope to win it big. To have a complete makeover, to establish themselves in Shenton Way and to provide material comforts to the family back home.

If hope was suppose to be optimistic, it wasn't showing gamely on the faces of these queuers. Strangely enough, everyone queuing was basically frustrated or impatient, or the fact that all of them look forlorn, or just plain embarrassed of their prescene here to hit the jackpot like everyone else who was equally frustrated, impatient, forlorn and embarrassed. I felt the same way too, I didn't belong here. I just answered the call of my Dad who asked me to "try".

Try as I may, shading 7 out of 45 boxes, what are the chances of me getting the Toto jackpot prize of S$10 million? My chances are like 1 in 10 million but my dad wanted me to take a shot. The auntie, the executive and the maid also wants that shot, that hope, that dream of 10 million bucks. Ever wondered if people did not hope and know the harsh realities of life, what would be life after then when hope is nonexistent?

There would be no more gambling, no more stock market speculations, no more miracles at hospitals. Hope, is the very essence inside of everyone that people draw upon on, but discard when they get lucky in scenarios. Hope is everything to many but in fact, is just a term that reality drags upon and which people pin their expectations on. They can possess all hope in a minute, and lose all hope in a second.

Today, I got a reality check. Friends of close friends that I know of are getting attached like runaway couples without my knowledge. It just reminds me of the misery of what I have not fully experienced yet. Not that i am depressed but I question myself with "What ifs?" towards relationships, and then you will wonder what have I been doing wrong.

I know the hope of being loved by someone is all decided by fate. But I cling on to the hope that fate gets to me faster than those 7 winning numbers that will appear on my Toto ticket.

Money, not love, can be won by a $3.50 piece of paper. Because all it possess is hope.

- Benjamin

P.S. I dyed my hair brown today, it ain't obvious but I will provide photos tomorrow. I hope you won't think it's ugly.

Blonde-blog

After a zombifying sunday, it was a funeralistic monday followed by a mundane tuesday.

Usually, I don't normally blog about what happens to me but since it has been a pretty boring day for me and the very fact that my brain still smells of microwave remains, I shall be blonde-blogging for today.

The definition of a blonde-blog is a blog where people write their daily activities, like eating a salmon burger to visiting the handicap loo at 2 pm and expressing their emotions on their blog, like I feel like eating a salmon burger to I had this curious desire to find out whats the difference between a normal loo and a handicapped loo.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you my blonde-blog day.

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So today, I woke up from a bad dream. It was really bad. It was so bad I couldn't remember what I dreamt. So i went back to sleep again.

I woke up again this time and found that I was late for school. I contemplated over being late and 5 more minutes of bedhaven. I wasted 5 minutes thinking. I went to bathe.

I left my house and press the elevator button. So exciting. I wonder how the elevator works. Before I could think, I reach the ground floor. I must read up on how elevator works or I swear I will climb stairs. I live on the 12th floor.

I was in school 5 minutes late. I wrote a note to myself that I should not waste 5 minutes to think whether I should sleep anot. Instead, I should spend 5 more minutes sleeping so I will not be late again. I was so tired but the lecturer kept on droning about etiquette.

Dinner etiquette ...blah blah .... dinner fork .... blah blah .... eat with your mouth full .... blah blah ... vomit politely ... blah blah ... zzz ...I wanted to sleep for 5 minutes but couldn't. I felt that my legs were too cold. So i stood up. And sat down. I felt a little warm then.
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((((((((( Note: I'm really being a super blonde guy here , I can't believe I'm writing this but then again, I'm so bored and I apologise if this is a waste of your time because I'm writing what happened to me today with loads of exaggerations. I should continue ... ))))))

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Lesson ended. I went to the computer lab to do research on my NCT project. Ended up sleeping in front of the computer. I wonder will I die of radiation. I use my handphone alot. I must go to the doctor tommorrow. I need to scan my brain. Incidentally, my research project is about biometrics which has to do with fingerprint and eye scan.

I wonder if it can scan my brain. Can save money what, must remember to do research before administrator logs me out. I wonder why I booked the computer for 1 hour but I get logged out so fast. Must be my brain got microwaved for one hour and I wasn't aware. I need my doctor. I wanted to use my handphone to book an appointment. I was scared of my handphone as my brain was damaged enough from its radioactive waves. I used my friend's handphone instead. I was so happy I was so smart that I booked my appointment.

I got one more hour to spent until next lesson. I went to play badminton with Richmond. He is my academic club's best pal. He played so lousy today, he kept hitting the shuttlecock over the net. He is so stupid. Don't even know how to play. I kept hitting the feathers under the net. I score so many points. I must tell Richmond that badminton is like soccer, must score under the net.

After badminton, so tired. I sweat until I felt like a monkey. I almost climbed a tree but I didn't. I was late for class. During class, we talked about the use of emails. The textbook reading said that email was evil and wasted alot of peoples' time. I disagreed with the author and my classmates who preferred the days of snail mail.

I feel that emails on how to increase my penis size and me winning a free trip to Nigeria was good. I supported the use of email. I cannot believed that they would support snail mail. I am going to call SPCA for animal abuse. I think they were jealous because they did not have as much spam as me and they have lots of slave snails at home.

I told them I responded to all my spam. I never got a reply back but I was hopeful that my penis would be enlarged and my air tickets to Nigeria was being booked as we speak. I could see they were so jealous. Like green-eyed monkeys or snails. I should spank them till their asses turn green too. Wait a minute. I don't support animal abuse. I only advocate them to people. I don't practice what I preach. I'm so clever. = )

Then, I came home to have a nice shower. It was so invgiorating. I should shower more. Like 4 times a day. This is because I read from my SMS that I need to take care of my private parts. Bird flu is rampant nowadays. I want to praise the person who sent me the SMS to tell everyone to change their underwear at least 4 times a day to protect yourself from bird flu. Prevention is better than cure. I change mine at least 6 times a day.

I need to log off now, I need to change my thong.
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Okay end of blonde-blog. Give me comments on how I wrote. I was bored and being an ass. = P

- Benjamin

Zombified

Before I get to the gist of today's post, I want to apologise for my primary school grammatical and spelling errors in my last few posts, which I promise you that I will try to polish it up because an aspiring writer must have good english , so there.

Okay, I have had a close affair with Mahjong recently. Because on CNY, I had to study for my SATs and filled with exciting orange exchanging days, no mahjong was on the agenda as we cannot get khakis.

I got my fill of mahjong in just one day. The last 24 hours to be precise.

24 hours ago, I arrived at my granduncle's place and I had complained to my father on my lack of touching mahjong tiles and so he propose to the rest of the usual mahjong panel to let the next generation have a taste of what it's like. I was placed on the perch, faced with these 4 vultures discerning my every strategic move at the mahjong table. Although I played only one round, which is about 2 hours or so, I had practically drained myself trying to counter think what the rest of my aunts and granduncle were doing at the table.

In the midst of the game, I got called by my cousins to play mahjong. And there I went.

3 more rounds, which totally seeped whatever ectoplasm that is in my active brain and i knew i became a zombie.

7 am, I had to do something online at 9 am. I was in big trouble but I couldn't think straight. I pushed it to 1 pm and bonk! I went to sleep. It is about 2.50 pm now, I had barely 3 hours of sleep in total and i'm famished.

Horrid Hari Raya Haji to me for a Marvelous Mahjong Maniac.

- Benjamin

Kids

Have not been blogging because nothing much has happened around here.
School takes up most of the scheduled and being shipped from left to right of Singapore to become recipents of red packets is what I can make of this week.

So, what more to talk about is the people i met along the way. One prominent group are kids.

Most of the kids are either my cousins, nephews or nieces.

Two in particular are brothers, and boy do they irritate me to the core.

I don't fancy the idea of spending my time with people younger than me than a decade because we have no common ground to have a normal conversation and often, I have to resort myself to babytalk to smoothen up these kids when I'm forced to be stuck in a room where the more mature adults are having their usual gossipy session on which uncle bought a new car or which far distance relative of theirs got testicular cancer.

Hence, the usual tactic of mine is to be a "monster" scaring away the kids with my antics, playing peek-a-boo and suddenly appear out from a HDB wall with my hands like a clawing cheetah on its hunt. This is normally followed by screams and running footsteps from the kids. The shrill of those screams are so piercing that I consider wearing ear plugs. On the other hand, I won't be able to hear a car aiming for me if I cross the roads. Decisions decisions.

Anyway, not to sidetrack, the 2 kids kept wanting my attention even though "clawing period" and you how kids are, they just only one thing. Attention. They got my attention alright. And my irritation to REALLY claw them after a 2 hour session.

Now, I don't really love kids or really hate them. I don't coo or crinkle at the sight of cute newborns or spit and vomit at any passing strollers. I just have the "shrug shoulders" attitude of their existence. Babies are here for a reason. Cause and effect of having sex > pregnancy > 9 months later > baby.

All my relatives say i'm good with kids. My destiny, my affinity, many of them commented that they were willing to invest funds for me to start a childcare centre. All I could do was just not in assentment even though deep back in my mind, I was just being myself. Maybe I was really a kid at heart, but the adult in me is trying to get out and be serious.

I guess the age of maturity when the adult in me finally takes a place in the core of my brain and the child in me gets demoted to the lower levels of uranus. But the adult in me know one thing, I can't stand the notion of changing diapers yet, so I guess I'm not ready to be a father yet. I do not even dare to look at my own shit much less the shit that my child will create.

Until then, the kid in me will live reality as it is. The expiry date of it is when I reach the age of 25.
Maturity is like shit, it has to come out some day.

- Benjamin

Second Gear

Well, limbo is gone and have shifted the gearstick.

Once again, the busy schedule starts piling in from all directions. Project deadlines are suddenly not around the corners anymore but creeping and chasing you like a second shadow. Tutorial assignments are in check and they are due for inspection. Ah, the life of a 3rd year.

Well, it is barely only 4 weeks before I am rid of the school where we spent more than 2.5 years in.

I don't loathe the school really. In fact, I like the idea of going to school. Call me a geek, nerd, whatever. It has been an enriching experience no matter how insignificant it is I have to travel 2 hours to reach there for an hour lecture only to find out that it is cancelled.

I'll miss it frankly, all the hectic life and you know that there is always a 2 month holiday ahead. You will never be afraid to fail because there is always make-up CAs and sub-paper to back you up. All that security will vanish once I leave this humble abode at Dover. School of Business has always been a second home to me.

Imagine all the friends that I will never ever get to see again. People that I have met along the way and will never really have a sincere farewell. Just an adrupt abscene in their life, never to be seen again and down the road 2 years from now, once familiar faces will be a forgotten figure.

Ahhh, the memories. Not to be illusioned by the future but for the present at the moment, I got a Pes 'B' grading so that means I can do National Service and not be banished to do clerical work. It is 2.5 years ahead in army, i don't want to waste it by doing nothing.

The anticipation of going to Army is similar to when I was going to Polytechnic. The Poly's openhouse is like the Army's CMPB brainwash centre, promoting how good it is, and I truly believed I was brainwashed by both these entities and everytime I try to remember, I pee in my pants so yes, I believe in the good of Poly and Army.

Another door closing in this chapter of my life soon and another is about to open. More stories, more whinings and more insights. I should actually write this later when I have finish my internship but hell, I wanna write it now. It just put things more into perspective as I can ponder on the past, present and future.

I believe in the good of Poly and Army. I believe in the good of Poly and Army.

- Benjamin

P.S. I almost peed while writing this post. Ironically, the last two posts have been with regards to golden showers. I blame the downpouring showers of the weather. I believe in the good of Poly and Army.

Limbo

After the festive period of 4 days, the joy lingers around you and like you are in limbo between happiness and the next munch of CNY goodies and wham, Monday hits you and suddenly, you wake up from a great dream into a nightmarish world.

Before I go into details, let me rewind.

Last Saturday, I did my SATs. It has been raining dog, cats and mice and it seems that the rain just wouldn't even spare midgets like me. Having had to reach Expo at 8 am in the wee morning, I did my last minute studies of the format the night before which I had to entertain guests aka my cousins and my preperation is like going out in the rain with only wellington boots naked.

Pigs. Yup, i felt like a wet pig. At the expo, 2500 students crammed into the exhibition hall to do a mind boggling test. What made matters worst was many administration problems as this was the first time SATs is taking on a large scale and it only officially started at 11 am. 3 freaking hours wasted seating and waiting.

Worst thing was the weather. Even though it was freezing inside, it was no respite as there was no heater and everyone was shivering and grabbing themselves to gather warmth. Luckily, I brought a jacket. Unluckily, I did not bring tissue because my jacket did not gather enough warmth as I expected because my nose kept dripping like a tap on the test paper. Yes, have your vivid imagination. Remember not too vivid or you will puke on your keyboard.

It was ONLY finally done at 2 pm. My stomach was growling, my body temperature was declining, my head was spinning and I know for certain that the English section for SATs is pretty screwed.

Sigh, I might be revisiting this pig hell hole again only I think hell is better at least I can burn to death than freeze.

So after the SATs, I was relatively on a limbo, hanging by the thread of laziness and my backbone was as slithery as the rattlesnake, refusing to move, hibernating from the horrid climate out there as it continued pouring on even as we speak till today.

God must be angry even though I don't believe in God but I think that the clouds have been storing too much evaporation and finally think it is time to urinate.

I miss the sun. Bring it back to me bonnie, or I make sure I will flood you with my urine.

- Benjamin