As our life changes.
Presenting Version 36.0 of this domain, entitled “Colours of Summer”. As usual, it is floral and nature themed, and all photography used in this design are the results of yours truly with my digital camera. I decided to experiment with colour schemes during this design, and came up with pink and brown. I am not too sure whether the colours really go together, so I will leave that up for you to decide.
If you hadn’t noticed, this design combines certain elements from two of my previous designs, Version 34.0 and 35.0. Hence, I consider this a new-old design.
It took me three hours to create this design, and an additional 2 hours to do the actual coding. Which means I have to give my eyes a short break at the moment, and I am coming this close to getting carpal tunnel’s syndrome after tapping continuously on the keys.
In the meantime, please let me know what you think. There may be some minor bugs around the site that have yet to be squashed, so if you come across any, please let me know as well.
On a slightly different note, I am starting to wonder about how life will become after starting university. During the past year, my life has been changing extremely rapidly. One minute, I am happily settled in a Junior College and mugging for my exams like a typical student should do. The next minute, I am faced with a 8 month long holiday where it is up to me to decide how I will like to spend my time.
Now, that long holiday is almost over and I am now faced with the prospect of furthering my education with the workload piling up all over again. Being someone who treasures freedom, will I be able to take the workload? Will I become so stressed out that I break down all over again?
Furthermore, I’ve built up my own circle of friends in Junior College, and now it is time to start all over again. Apparently, I am the only one heading to Singapore Management University (SMU) while the rest of my friends are going elsewhere. I’ve received many remarks that I was ‘brave’ to go my own way, but now I am worried about whether I may fit into the new environment.
All that worrying aside. 2005 is a year of many ‘firsts’. It was during this year where I headed out to work for the very first time, and it was also the first time where I actually got to work with the public first hand. I managed to see how the real world is like, and it was certainly a real shocker after being cooped up in my own little world for the past eighteen years of my life. It was also during this year when I came face to face with so many other legal matters such as CPF and insurance, and I was extremely overwhelmed.
Is this part of growing up? Perhaps there are several other eighteen-nineteen year olds out there in Singapore who are experiencing the same so-called ‘cultural shock’.
It is just … strange. Strange in the way that for the past ten years, our educational route has already been pre-planned for us. 6 years in a primary school, followed by 4 years in a Secondary school and finally 2 years in Junior College. And after all this pre-planned education, we are stuck at a crossroad where our future depends on whichever route we choose.
And I chose Information Systems Management in SMU, and where will I end up after that? Only time will tell.
Noticed anything different? I have yet to officially announce the launch of the new design but yet I am already receiving comments on it. To be frank, I’ve already completed this design a month ago, but was waiting for the correct moment to upload it since I was still rather attached to the previous design.
This design features an integration of three totally different things that I love. Nature, as represented by the flower and the sunset & forest background. Writing, as represented by the pencil, and photography as represented by the two small ‘photos’. And yes, all the photographs used in this design were captured by yours truly.
On another (technical) note, Wordpress 1.5.1.1 has been released. This journal is still running on Version 1.5.1 because I barely have the time to upgrade, so the RSS feed for this site is still kaput. Sometimes it loads fine, sometimes it doesn’t. The feed has mood swings, just like it’s owner. The temptation to upgrade is just so great, but I’ve just got so many things to do!
So it’s back to work for me again today. It’s a little difficult to adjust, considering the fact that I am still in the holiday mood, or known as a “post-vacation hangover”. Thank goodness there is still the trip to Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur to look forward to, otherwise I don’t know how I would be able to handle. Even my supervisor and co-workers noticed that I was a little sluggish today, but luckily I managed to complete my entire shift without making (hardly) any mistakes.
I heard from my co-workers that the restaurant was pretty hectic over the weekend while I was overseas, because it was the Vesak Day Holiday. So I am thankful that I wasn’t around because I can’t work well in stressful situations. Long queues were common outside the restaurant, and all of them were bustling around at top speed to answer to the customers’ demands. And yes, the breakages.
According to one of my assistant managers, she could hear “CLING CLANG CLANG CLANG!” every few hours as crockery fell out of the full trays of my co-workers.
One thing for sure, I know that I am a person who can never handle a tray that is completely full. Why? Because I am so accident prone that I am liable to trip over my own feet. In fact, I am already tripping over my own feet on average twice every work day because the material that the floor is made of is slightly on the squeaky side. Thank goodness during all of those occasions, I hadn’t had any laden trays in my hands.
Today, I tripped over my own feet twice, and tripped over one of my co-worker’s feet once. The latter had sent me headfast towards a nearby chair but luckily I managed to stop myself in time before my head went crashing into it.
It’s saddening to see the increasing number of Singaporean bloggers under fire for expressing their views online.
Reading these two articles ( 1, 2 ) disgusted me greatly. In fact, it is downright disappointing. The mere thought of fellow webloggers driven to their knees by money-loaded yet cash-guzzling companies and personas makes me sick.
This is the second time in a month I’m reading about my fellow Singaporean webloggers being forced to shut down (or rather, shut up) after being threatened with legal action. And for a country who claims on being a more liberal and open-minded society, this certainly does nothing to boost that image.
Open minded, you say? Excuse me? This is a case of a high ranking persona from a rich company who can’t even take some criticism from an innocent blogger merely expressing his/her views and even forcing the latter to apologise with a legal threat. Is this what you call open-minded? Huh? Why don’t you tell me? Instead, why don’t you just take into account the opinions of others instead of flaunting your power around with legal action?
Legal action indeed. Like as if it’s going to stop other bloggers from bitching online about this company or that company or whatsoever.
Sure, you call it slander. Instead of taking it so negatively, as a threat to the image of your company, why don’t you look at the positive side of it? Analyse the point that the writer’s words are making, and try to derive the meaning of it by reading between the lines. There are lessons to learn from every opinion or criticism hurled towards a company or individual.
By responding so harshly towards a mere blogger, it simply reflects poorly on yourself as a person, isn’t it? It simply shows that you are someone who cannot handle criticism, and that you are not open to the views of other people around you, living in a world of your own. Why can’t these people be more magnanimous?
By forcing or imposing such a harsh penalty on that individual, you are denying him one of his basic human rights. The right of self expression, and to voice out one’s opinions. Doing something like this is tantamount to disconnecting his voice box altogether so that he/she is unable to utter a word for the rest of his/her life.
Yes, I do agree that bloggers have to be responsible for what they write online, after all the internet is a public place. I am not completely condoning the actions of the blogger in question as I can see some faults in both parties involved.
In the case of the blogger, I feel that he ought to exercise more tact, and phrasing his words in a more favourable manner. After all, it is the attitude that the blogger shows in his writing whether the offended party would decide whether to take him/her seriously.
But still, legal action? Hello? You can’t force a blogger to shut up, can you?
I don’t understand why people are constantly using their money as a source of power. Threatening to sue, to guzzle money out of poorer folks who are of a lower rank than you. Sure, you can flaunt your money around, hiring a lawyer, spending even more money to bring up a lawsuit. But is all these really worth it?
Many Singaporeans seem to be blogging about the same thing, and I especially LOVE the comments on this site. I shall quote two of them;
“We’re living in a legitimate dictatorship, and we will always be on the bullying end of authority since we’re too meek to do anything about it.” - Anonymous
“This culture of defamation suits in Singapore makes for a fearful society which is afraid to discuss controversial issues openly. This is probably the reason why Singapore blogs are infantile.” - David
My sentiments exactly. We bloggers are now ruled by dictatorship and controlled by our fear of the authorities and what they can do. It’s sickening. We bloggers have come on the internet to seek solace from our offline lives, to express ourselves in an internet where free speech is prevalent. The last thing we want is some asshole sue-ing the pants off us.
“We want the people to be involved, to discuss, to understand and to have a view, that we want them to have,” says the Singapore Prime Minister a week ago. (I can’t mention his name here just in case I get sued. *Rolls eyes*)
Right. You’re sooo right.