YAY

Liberation from the exams. Priceless!

hahaha. i am in the south spine f.a.l. right now, going off to the library to borrow novels soon!


aim for tonight- master photoshop and upload the pictures of the clothes.

check this space:) :)

at least this is a good distraction!

i think i should be studying. ok i know. but my eyes are really getting crossed from all the reading and rereading and i am So Glad i s/u-ed astronomy.

anyway.

pictures of the banner! at my favourite spot, haha. canteen a bus stop.

a close-up!

it seems a little risky to stop blogging because people might lsoe interest, but exams are exams are exams. hence we shall all be the muggertoads so characteristically singaporean university undergrads. study study~

i've had people asking me about the online shop. haha. the pictures are with chenghui, who is still in the midst of sieving through the close to 5 million pictures we have, to choose the best. and i actually (went shopping but upon better moral judgment) bought another 2 skirts to sell for the shop, soo... stay tuned! haha.

ignitechange.wordpress.com for those who still don't know. go see!

:)

adding additions

hello again!

just to update that i bought another 2 dresses for the online shop, and psyched as i am about selling all the clothes which i bought with the se people, we are all swamped with the projects and assignments that are so typically put at the week before exams.

soo.. more updates after the exams ok?

another thing to add, the application forms for the wsc ignite change camp are out! i hope that a lot of people will come and join us for a fruitful journey this july, do do :)

ignitechange.wordpress.com

goodnight, moon
goodnight, stars
goodnight, children
goodnight, nobody

identity dissipation

an extremely pertinent article in The Nanyang Chronicle;

this article talks about the many homeless old people roaming the streets and focuses on one of them, Madam Chan Ai Eng, who sells tissue for a living.

personally, i have always been more inclined to support the teach-a-man-to-fish stance, and thus never thought of tissue sellers like Madam Chan to be more than members of an organisation that makes pitiful looking people sell things and collects earnings from them.
there is just so many ways to look at this issue that i think it is better left alone for now, and attention to be put on foremost how to stop this.

reading in the article about how government policies leave people like Madam Chan out of the loop of those who will get financial assistance is definitely something new. reasons left unsaid, i always thought the lengthy policies periodically implemented are enough to help everyone. clearly, bureaucracy has its limits.

one of the Ignite Change camp's events will be to alleviate the loneliness of old people who are alone and helpless, but i have to say: can we do more than just limit ourselves again, and have another one-off visit? or weekly?

somehow the point seems that their lives are or have become unfulfilling. how can this be changed?

a policy that gives them $5 000 monthly?
5000 people to visit them daily?
5000 meals a day?
5000 items of clothing/ houses/ pets/ cars/ holiday trips?

No, I Do Not Think So.

from my experience with senior citizens, and i am in no way saying i am experienced nor wise just that i am saying this from my personal experience, what they wish to have or to do are more often than not really simple.

like have grandchildren to play with.
like to play with their grandchildren.
like to see their children more often.
like to have had children.
like to be able to walk to the market to buy food for their family.

family is most of the time the top of their priorities, and from personal experience, i will not say that filial piety should be made a legal responsibility nor will i say anything along the lines of those who don't adhere to the nuclear family unit are sinners sin sin.

after all, like the chinese saying goes, every family has its troubles.

regardless of these, though, i do think that senior citizens should not have to become street selllers like Madam Chan.

but i do not like to see old people working either, because more often than not the only jobs they can handle in terms of time or effort are cleaning ones, like macdonald's personnel and so on. and seeing an old lady or gentleman wiping the table and collecting the trash while the table of youths laugh and continue their conversations is just PLAIN WRONG.

sorry. really feel quite strongly about this.

so my point is that, in all honesty, i have no idea what to think. there seem to be so many contradictions to untangle that my mind is a messy blank. (and of course it's late and i've 73874968463524785 readings to do just like you cause yea i've exams too yay)

government policies have loopholes that neglect some individuals.
there cannot be an imposition on families to take compulsory care of the old ones.
working tires senior citizens and i personally do not really like the idea.

so how now brown cow?

another thing to think about...

my hall table. prickly heat powder rocks socks.

tonight is another cold night

and i wish you well,

i wish you love.

i wish you hope.

simona, you're getting older

your journey's been etched on your skin

today we acted cool under the blazing sun

hello! today was the much awaited photoshoot for se! haha. we were supposed to meet at 2pm at sch of comm&info BUT chenghui forgot to bring the clothes!! so we waited for him.

the first thing i did upon arrival was help to move things around! so saddening.

anyone would have thought the area behind sci with the moldy concrete walls and stuff would be empty, but there was a surprising number of people there.

which made posing really quite awkward, i felt like i was in a mutated version of enchanted.


the indispensable bottle of water, and a good angle of camera always eliminates fats. tres bien~

the aforementioned moldy concrete walls. it actually wouldn't have occured to me that this place can be used, but i remember seeing other people posing and the image of a girl dressed up to the nines posing infront of a slightly gross hybrid of nature and man just stuck. voila.

chenghui taking pictures for ziqian, who is quite interested in buying the skirt already anyway. haha. his camera is quite interesting, has functions to change focal length and colour temperature, kindda like the equipment i work with for filming.

another shot of ziqian. a nice one, though i think we can't use this for the actual website because it doesn't show the skirt closely enough.

tra la la la, it was so super duper hot and we were in LONG skirts which have INNER LININGS. okay. is how hot. smoking hot.

chenghui.

doing his favourite thing; taking pictures of random things.

damn glam i know. haha. i wasn't kidding when i said it's hawtt.

another wonderfully glamourous shot! hahaha

i like this one actually. reminds me of the stabilo coloured pencils, the dual sided ones, and orange is paired with green.

i know,i love colouring too!! maybe we can organise a colouring contest for the children beneficiaries, earn money now and these plans can all come true! i'm so psyched. buy buy our things and we will try try make the days of all these people! yay.

group shot!

we actually finished in like a little over an hour, which isn't too bad considering we are all relatively new at this. sooooooo

nowit is time to start selling!!!! everything we have (which is not a lot because we have limited finances for now), and continue to sell sell sell more and more!

just a note to self, for the random ideas i have had so far that se can embark upon

1. dance for charity. dance competition or series of performances

2. colouring contest for children. sponsorship from stationery companies, colour pictures of old monuments or significant places of singapore, commemmorate a day or an anniversary

oh no... only 2 ideas so far. time to put on the thinking cap!

mini epiphany

i was having breakfast with mingyang at macdonald's, and over hotcakes with sausage and big breakfast with 15 packets of pepper (yes i know) he asked, "how about if your salsa people dance for charity?"

"well, firstly we'll have to be good enough first la. hahaha"

"hmmm. i was just thinking. cause you see cac is for like music and dance, and wsc is...?"

"for volunteering activities. BUT ah why can't wsc be rebranded as volunteering with kickass events?"

"oh ya! that's a great idea."


ok! that's all. i want to tell the whole world i had a good idea this morning! HAhahahaha.

seriously though it's worth a thought. spin-offs from charity marathons, charity galas, kind of thing. wsc can do it too! :)

shopping day!

the very first thing that greeted chenghui, ziqian and me at paya lebar was... RAIN. it's been raining almost nonstop for a week now, and the rain this afternoon was so heavy that we decided to take a cab to city plaza. the cab fare was $3, which is omfg how near is that.

but yes, trust me. the weather was waaay bad.

surprisingly, it was chenghui who has been to city plaza before! haha. ziqian and i had never been there. here they are walking, and


a kickass outfit! what better an ensemble than a high neckline cotton tank with a denim miniskirt and faux leather tights, i really know not.

HA.

i am a mannequin, you are a mannequin,

we are mannequins mannequins

manic queen!

a rare snapshot of chenghui smiling to the camera! i had to make him laugh before i managed to get this shot.

while i was working very hard looking for clothes, chenghui and ziqian went to look at mahjong tiles! oh my goodness. i dont even like it ok! not that i know how to play mahjong. but that's another story~

the 3 of us! haha. time flew quickly because we were trying our best to sieve through the truckloads of seen-to-death-passe clothes to get at the really good and worthy buys.

did you know, they sell the cottony cottony stuff by the BUNDLE. i was how shocked ok. they looked like potato chips, not items of clothing supposedly special and unique and all.

here is ziqian and me getting all excited over our first buy of the day, a long peasant skirt!

the image is blurry as we ponder the value of the buy...

things become clearer to me as i decide that it is worth it...

and ziqian gets a moment of clarity as she falls in love with it too!

haha.


for a first time, i'd say that the trip down was not bad, there were nice things and we had good buys. i hope our decision to go towards the high-end works out! after all, it is more efficient to differentiate our products so price undercutting is not an issue. AND with more money coming in we can fundddd our funnnn projectssssss.

it is yayness.

back to today: after we shopped, we went to singpost foodcourt for dinner! ziqian just got a drink because she (doesn't like us) was meeting her rommate back in hall.

(we dont like her too!)

( haha)

chenghui posing with his bowl. he ate his curry yong tau fu so fast there wasn't anything left by the time this was taken!

ziqian with her drink!

all in all, it was a good first outing because we got nice clothes and more potential ones coming and contacts for future collaborations! chenghui was saying that ziqian and i are probably going to be the biggest customers. HA

i also just got an update from mingyang about the wsc camp; there's going to be a lot of interaction for the camp participants with our beneficiaries and each other, and there will be a fright night!! haha. i know it is common, but the idea of us going to help out at a fright night based on a storryyyyyy is scaryyyyy.

psst.

(i am scared of fright nights)

on a different note, tomorrow is the joint dance concert! ahh, what with all this shopping for money to further social causes, and dancing for the love of dance, i can hardly wait. who knows what tomorrow brings? i hope there are many smiles and bundles of joy for you and you and you!

p.s. we will be taking the pictures for the online shop on thursday. i'm so psyched!

moneymaking 2

another se meeting today.

being a tutor myself, i never thought much about the logistics of having a bigger class; schedules, fees, and all are usually decided beforehand and seldom vary, after all.

another but - this time, what we want to do is hold crash courses for secondary students over a week. and we have this place at yew tee. so how are we going to get students?

and i have never distributed fliers nor conducted surveys before, and this will be another shot at something new. because we're actually going down to the secondary schools and/or the hangouts near them to increase awareness of our crash courses.

-subjects taught
-syllabus
-teaching methods
-fees
-timeslots

will all have to be decided upon soon soon soon like soon! again.

seriously, i am a little apprehensive about teaching a big class. who knows what could happen? oh wells. another moneymaking venture to get capital for our upcoming projects!

also, there is going to be a meeting tomorrow for the actual camp to tie down details about the recruitment drive and beneficiaries coordination. it will be some kickass hugemongous programming to be done!

on a sidenote, tonight was salsa outing to our dance instructor's event in upper club at chijmes. looking at all the people dancing, i thought, if there is a way to tie in social causes to all these interests and hobbies of people, how much help we would be able to give! not in terms of one-off monetary donations, but ongoing, sincere, and actually helpful help.

who knows what could happen? i just want to see the earning projects begin and work. next wednesday is shopping day for the online shop, and the tuition center during the holidays. with money comes the ability to ignite change, and with change ignited there may just be some good changes to this world. :)

let's go shopping!

the account will be chenghui's
the clothes will be bought
the shopping will be on the 19th to city plaza
the design will be sought
the website will be livejournal!

i am happy that we pinned down the details and we will begin the shop proper! finally

if there is one thing i refuse,
i refuse to let the volume of details to weigh me down to indiscriminate formality
that blinds me to the essence of it all, the humanity in humans.
with the online shop up and going we will be able to start thinking about the se project proper. :)

have you done a good deed today?

changing plans to begin plans

i've always liked the pure hilarity of paradox, and the paradox of a paradox.

BUTT. there are times when some things are just not funny.

let me ask you a series of leading questions.

1. isn't student life supposedly easier than working life because there isn't as much red tape and constrictions as to what one can do?

2. isn't being an undergraduate supposed to epitomise the vastness of possibilities, the sheer volume of change one can make to the world?

3. isn't the passion to help the needy and the desire to bring positive change to a dying planet and jaded human race at least slightly commendable?

i understand the disgusting logistics that come together with managing an entire student body comprising of half-wits that think the world of themselves, but i cannot reconcile myself with the fact that we cannot put up our banner because it is "not informative enough".

inherent to this is the judgment that all banners must be informative. that is, boring, standard, totally uninteresting, and seriously? adhering to the "ntu is boring shit" unspoken judgment of our lovely university.

because people think that volunteering is boring,
because people don't even know of WSC,
because the spirit of helping is dying,
we need to ignite change. we need to revamp our image. we need to revitalise dying desire.
we need to be able to do things in a new way, and we need to be able to all see this need.

we need to be able to do what we want to do because what we want to do is what is really needed in this world.

to show you that people need help,
to show you that the earth needs help,
to show you that you can help,
to show you that you should help.

so please, let us do what we want to do, because we need to.

a new way for a new day

hello!

there is just so much work to do and i cannot believe i just set up a blog to avoid the avalanche of readings. school and schoolwork and more school and more schoolwork... Bah!

soo it is a good thing that for SE's next committee meeting, we will be going shopping! haha i know i know, but it really is for a good cause. what with the Ignite Change camp coming up and so many other ongoing projects for SE, i think the next couple of months will be the most meaningful ones in my life (AND the most tedious, busy, yada yada).

in today's meeting all of us were asked to give more ideas on making the camp an un-normal one. i was a little bit sceptical because there really isn't much you can change, right? a camp is a camp is a camp. BUT after listening to what some of the others had to say, i decided that i will come up with some brilliant idea too!

and this blog is the beginning of that! the logging of my train of thoughts will invariably lead to some kickass revelation that will Blow Your Mind.

fingers crossed. and meanwhile i have essays to write and hearts to break (ha!), will be back soon soon soon like soon!