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| Wednesday, December 09, 2009 |
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Conspiracy Theories...
 
Let me kick-start my post with a big congratulations to our TOP 2! Well-done, at least it's an interesting final with the results not so obvious at long last! I've got to say, I waited 3 seasons for this...
Who will win? Will we have the traditional guy winning or finally our first local female singing idol in ALL competitions?
Personally, I am sticking to my bet that Sezari will win. Although my gut feel tells me that Sylvia will make history. Am I a Sezari fan? Well, no... I am not rooting for anyone mainly because I don't feel a strong sense of connection with the characters this season. I'm purely basing my analysis on statistics. Look at the demographics of our existing winners, there seem to be a trend isn't there? To be fair, the winners are worthy... and I do think they are the best that season had. This season? Hmm... tough call. I do think Sezari's community is more united and thus stronger.
I learn in my Sociology class in the module Singapore in Transition, our minority ethnic groups in Singapore seem to be more united (particularly the Malay community). I think this is worth applauding because based on the Singapore statistics, the financial capability of Chinese versus the other races is much higher, yet the other races bother to vote more than the Chinese.
This argument is of course flawed. I am basing my remarks on the assumption we vote along racial lines and thank goodness, we are past those kampong days of racial riots. I do think Sezari and Sylvia are worthy finalist. The only competitive chinese I thought stood a chance was MJ, unfortunately he pulled out. So kudos to Singapore for staying objective!
Having said all that, I still think Sezari will win. One fact proven across all our singing competitions, the male always win! Even Jerrold with the odds against him in the latest Campus Superstar won... one plausible reason is because girls bother to vote more and it's also reasonable for them to favour the guy over the girl...
But there's an outside chance Sylvia can make history. If Ken decides HYPE Records can do well with her as the winner, he'll probably get all his employees to camp with their phones. After all, voting competitions are usually all about the richest wins... yes, I mean ALL voting competitions including the one which is going happen soon but I probably won't have an opportunity to participate in...
My crazy theories aside, I genuinely think Sylvia is the better singer. Yet, my gut tells me Sezari gonna beat the odds and win... and no, I'm not going make Singtel happy just because I want to help Sylvia make history...
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter who wins. Hype Records! will still promote the one with more market value... and that fact, is being echoed loudly in our acting scene and of course, with greater relevance, at the American Idol.
SobRiquEt wonders why our Singapore Idols have been busy producing non-English albums and doing stupid dance for 711 rather than promoting good English albums... |
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| Dictated by SobRiquEt at 2:08 AM
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| Saturday, December 05, 2009 |
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Why wait indefinitely for flats...
Dear potential flat buyers,
I think you all made a right choice waiting for months and even years for a flat, rather than purchase a condo which cost a little more and pay monthly maintenance.
This is especially a smart choice particularly our flats offer somewhat similar facilities to a condo. In fact, some of the sizes of our flats are even bigger than that of a condo.
While living in a flat may appear less safe because there is no security guard at the front gate, we offer regular patrolling of our friendly neighbourhood police officers. Yes, facilities, facilities, facilities...
We may not offer tennis courts, but we offer outdoor badminton courts! It enhances your mind as well particularly during windy days when the shuttle cork moves in uncertain directions. We do not have conference rooms, but we have study areas! We do not have gyms, but we offer a make-shift one in the playground cum exercise corner! And while we don't offer swimming pools, we offer a range of facilities to compensate that... such as foot reflexology path, outdoor table tennis courts (which will make you run a lot more on windy days), a basketball court and even a street soccer court! If you still like to get wet, you can always play on a rainy day.
Now I know people sometimes complain it's a problem when most of our carparks are open-air. Well, not to worry, we are increasingly providing multi-story carparks! And yes, I also remember one of the older complains about the lift not stopping on every floor... well, with the increasingly competitive elections, now you all have lift stopping on every floor!
And here's the best news, your flats can constantly be improved, while condos are stagnated to what the developer thinks is best for you! All you need to do is complain when the voting period is here, and voila! You get new upgrades!
So dear potential flat buyers, you all really made a right choice. Even if it means waiting for a long long time to get a flat, it's worth the wait! Why pay more for a condo with limited facilities which you are not empowered to change, when you can buy a home which you can change what's around you... oh yes, of course, you need to choose your location wisely. Some places have higher resistance to change because there's no competition.
SobRiquEt wrote this article after getting annoyed at the lack of changes in her area, especially a lack of table tennis tables located indoors... |
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| Dictated by SobRiquEt at 11:14 AM
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| Saturday, October 17, 2009 |
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SobRiquEt Chronicles - Apologies and announcements...
I've no time to blog hence Jannex will be updated on a very irregular basis. My deepest apologies to all readers... it's not as if we don't have anything to say. I want to express my piece from Ris Low, the not very bright attention seeker to Wee Shu Min (shit, did I just resurrected old ghost?) and the stark realities of life to the very undemocratic Singapore Pools with absurd odds... but I really have no time...
Managing 2 start-ups with 2 more coming up (1 being my own)... it's becoming impossible to take time-off to blog.
3 school assignments due within the next 2 months and NONE done... oh gosh, I can honestly tell all aspiring entrepreneurs, 24 hours is really not enough to do work (let alone sleep).
So, this entry is simply to apologise to all readers who still bother to check out this space. I'll try to blog about how I'm doing when I've more or less settled my stuff... if there's any readers left by then that is...
SobRiquEt sleeps at 4am every day, she welcomes anybody to have an msn chat with her to keep her awake in the wee hours of the morning... |
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| Dictated by SobRiquEt at 12:42 PM
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| Monday, September 28, 2009 |
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Brainwave: Messed up life...
Spending the past 1.5 months over at a VC firm has been a rather enriching. While the entire experience has not been exactly how I envisioned it to be or maybe I should say, I'm not exactly learning certain knowledge which I assumed I'll acquire... I did rediscover a bit about myself, improve certain shortcomings and gained new insights. I like it there... especially the part whereby I managed to unlock my critical thinking skills without engaging in chess...
Every time I find myself telling myself how much I love work, my heart would be wrought with worry. After all, I'm supposedly a full-time student and a part-time entrepreneur. How my roles and responsibilities swapped, I really don't know.
Yet I know myself, I can work for long hours to complete proposals, push myself to the limits to fulfill promises, and most recently, spend precious time replying emails when I got test the next day. Makes me wonder, what'll it take for me to channel some of my commitment to work back to school?
Amazingly, while I've always been a bad student since sec school, I still made it to uni. Having once been embarrassed by my sec sch's VP for bad prelim result, I was acknowledged as an able administrator for student council. In Poly, I am only a 1 time director's list, but I dare to say I am one of the better Presidents of NPChess, amid very horrible ones. Now uni, my relentless focus on work outside school is becoming a little troubling... especially as the level gets harder, people become more kiasu.
Speaking of kiasu, the recent test is rather scary. Even a mere definition question can warrant an essay equivalent answer... did I really not study or is everyone just dumping the entire textbook on paper? That encounter kinda spooked me... to say the least, I am obsessed with winning (especially in style). How cool it'll be to write a paper which is shorter than an avg student and hammer home all the points?
Seriously, my life is a mess outside work. My spare time has been spent dreaming up new business ideas which isn't exactly healthy since I spent most of my time awake working already. Occasionally I try to relax by taking other experimental hobbies... like how I concluded a person isn't spouse material (after more than 6 months) and how a person is better nurtured as a protege, albeit a VERY uncooperative one. My consolation - I snapped out of delusion.
Well, I stand by the belief, if people don't wish to help themselves, we shouldn't waste our time to be kaypos.
To a certain extent, I have my spells of emoness. Sometimes I really wonder what's the threshold of my temperament. I only know my recovery rate is very high and I don't bear grudges unless that person is trash to society. Thankfully, I haven't met many of such people.
Ah well, sometimes keeping busy is a solution for thinking of useless stuff.
SobRiquEt used to think effort and being the better alternative is the way to attain goals, apparently it's not always the case... |
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| Dictated by SobRiquEt at 12:06 AM
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| Saturday, September 26, 2009 |
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Brainwave: The Moral Question...
It's been about 6 months since I took active steps to build up my business experience. These 6 months, my lessons have been enriching. The regular cynic about what school can do for people, once again, I'm convinced I learnt more over the past 6 months than the 3 years spent in business school.
What good has this hands-on experience done to me? For one, I dare say I came out a better person. My value system has finally settled and has since become firmly etched into my life. Living the talk hasn't been easy, but I'm thankful business disciplined me to do it.
Business has also exposed me to a set of like-minded people whom I never thought I'd meet at my age. When I was younger, motivational books and speakers constantly said you got to meet great people to be successful. Yet as most of us realised, talking is easy... reality seems far-fetched... like how in the world can I meet these people? Today, speaking to government officials or directors of big MNCs seem like a part and parcel of life... thinking back, maybe it wasn't so hard after all.
While business has its plus points, it has a considerable number of minuses. Moral issues have become the biggest dilemma on my learning journey. Probably known to many, business is never black and white but a shade of grey. To win, the core requirement is to outwit. To outwit, honesty is a virtue which cannot explicitly be displayed. In my 6 months, I finally understood the meaning of 商场如战场.
Besides the external facade, there's internal management which can prove to be an equally big headache. What happens when you have people who don't help themselves? You can choose to terminate them and make them pay back every cent owed or continue to try motivate them at the expense of maybe using the time to do something better... from a business perspective, termination seems a better option... yet from a human perspective, maybe you haven't tried hard enough?
I believe in honour and respect, but I fear being taken advantaged of for being too nice... in the past, I probably have no qualms letting the person go, after all it's his own fault for not stepping up to the play. However I learnt that sometimes we need to give to get. For which, I try to help... yet I question if some people ever learn...
Then there's my maid at home who obviously is not making an effort to learn. Making the same mistakes over and over again, forgetting to do stuff, working mechanically without the use of her brains... the option to send her home seems enticing especially when an ordinary person in an office probably will be terminated after 4 months on the job without progress... yet to do so, she can't repay her loans back home, it does seem callous.
Which brings me to the biggest moral question. Is it wrong to give up on people who don't help themselves? People say it's morally wrong not to help people and drive them to desperation is bad. Yet I ask, if they really need help and they really will be in trouble if they don't perform, then why don't they help themselves?
Results may not show even if they are trying because of a lack of aptitude, yet you can't cheat on effort. Effort can be seen...
for example, if a person is forgetful, the person can write everything down... it may slow a person down, but at the very least you can see effort. Or if a person is bad at marketing for instance, the person can spend long hours reading up, writing marketing plans and getting feedback, even if you get bad comments overtime, you're still making an effort to learn... nobody can fault you.
Moral dilemmas is probably one of the biggest trials I have to overcome... my personal take is, people who don't help themselves don't deserve to be helped. Callous? Maybe... every human being only has a fixed amount of time, if this time is channelled to help someone who is trying hard at the expense of someone who doesn't try, I think I'm still doing a morally correct thing.
On a side note, the serangoon bubble tea is pretty good.
SobRiquEt is still trying hard to understand why people don't bother to help themselves even when help is given to them... |
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| Dictated by SobRiquEt at 11:00 AM
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Shermain