t s u b a s a reservoir chronicle

Sunday, March 29, 2009

YESSSSSSSSSSSS FINALLY APPLIED FOR NANYANG SCHOLARSHIP

My essay was quite lame, but that seriously can't be helped considering the 300 word limit. No one ever wrote something truly inspiring in 300 words. Haha.

I wrote about OCIP, which is indeed very hao xie. Now please call me for interview!!!! *prays*

Call should come in some time in late April or early May (which is like, my birthday period, thank you) depending on when you submit your app I guess. Until then, I feel VERY VERY FREE and unburdened :)

I also feel very thankful that I know exactly what I want, most of the time. And that I never regret the choices I make. I guess it's because I don't look back and keep on thinking of what could have been. Like, what if I had gone to NUS business school instead. Or, what if I had tried mass comm instead. Okay, I do, but I don't allow myself to dwell on it for too long. That is the key to contentment, I think - knowing how to be satisfied with your choices. I don't want to be otherwise, forever permanently stressed out and lamenting the missed opportunities in life.

Because sometimes not all opportunities must be grabbed. Some should be missed just so you can focus on the ones that are truly right for you. If you go for all of them, you bite off more than you can handle, you don't perform your best in all these opportunities, you waste them all. Better to take only what you really want and focus.

I guess I don't understand why people have so much difficulty making choices of what kind of course they should take. Of course, it is a turning point in life and they should be given all the time they need to think it through carefully. Yet I realise I've never yet faced such problems in life. I always miraculously knew what I wanted - bio/chem double science, because physics sucks, then VJC arts because I like VJ and I like the humanities (how is science ever going to be relevant in my career and life), and taking lit maths econs geog GP for my subject combi, and not going for H3 or KI cuz why spend time doing the unnecessarily hard. Not taking external scholarship even though I probably can. I can tell you, being able to decide so quickly saves a LOT of mental troubling and stress. Which is extremely ironic since I can take 20 mins to decide between 4 patterns for a notebook.

I knew I wanted Nanyang Business School since I was in J1. Of course having a sister graduating from there helps a lot. But I simply assess the pros and cons and go for the one which appeals to me most:

NTU, because I've seen their hostels when i visited my sis in uni and I loved the vibes.
NBS, because they offer tourism & hospitality management (which I might take) and a direct 3 year honours program and are ranked first in SEA.

I found out all I could about NUS business too (sorry, SMU. But your girls are too chio and your school is too new and your students are too pushy for me). Their double degree in comm studies and business admin is very attractive. But I don't want a double degree and have no life (I WANT TO ENJOY MY UNI LIFE) and spend 4.5 years waiting to get my degree not knowing if I can graduate with honours. So clearly it's NTU business.

I don't want to be zhuai but my first choice is always right. ALWAYS. Like not dropping to H1 anything even though I was contemplating dropping h1 geog. I don't know why. I think it's because I don't focus on what could have been and concentrate instead on making the most out of what I've chosen. I think many people haven't yet learned to do this, to sorta have an idea of what you want and try your best to get near it without being too distracted by alternatives along the way. Of course, these alternatives may turn out to be the right path for you. But it's too tiring for me to accept changes in my life (like perception changes, ability and task changes. I don't like change) so I just stick with what I've chosen, and hope it turns out fine.

And most of the time it does. (because I have an eternal optimism and endless faith that things will always find their place in life and settle to be fine. Not everyone is able to acquire this talent. It lets me sleep well at night.)

Those of you who are fretting what to take, unsure if you're making the right choice, come on. Just make one already. I'm sure if you give whatever you choose your best shot you will do brilliantly. Those who've made one and are fretting if it's right, DO NOT think like that. Just focus on what you;ve chosen and do your best man.

We're all big people now! Uni life! Impending adulthood! Career choices!

God I wish I never had to grow up. I want to be stuck in this post As pre U rut forever.

Lingga says @#%$! at 4:01 PM

Thursday, March 26, 2009

My mother is now overseas until 17 apr :(:(:( I am going to zi sheng zi mie.

Lingga says @#%$! at 8:08 PM

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

WAH AMAZING. Today each of us must have gotten 50+ calls! I think in total call volume was about 1000+. Lijie is going to have such a hard time doing log sheet tomorrow. Lucky today was my turn. neh neh :D

Anyway these few days I keep getting arrowed to do sai kang by the supervisors. Sigh. Yesterday it was because I was playing rubbish tennis with Wenwen. Crushed a piece of paper and hit back and forth at our new seats near the wall. Very far from supervisors' table, and hidden behind monitors, so fairly hard to see. Hence it was some time late before I got caught by Sau Hing, and how I knew I got caught was because she made me go around and record down the number of calls everyone had in their callsheets. THEN, get a breakdown of the type of queries about JC scheme. It is extreme sai kang I tell you because it's really boring and tedious to go around asking people and waiting for people to finish their calls before you talk to them.

Then later, because Pearly actually went around asking people to show their staff pass then did I find out that I had left mine outside somewhere. Unfortunately she found it. ........... So as staff pass is pretty important, as punishment I was made to do another round of the call analysis T.T at 4pm. T.T sai kang to the max!!! Then I swear, when i went home that day I was thinking "nah can't possibly kena arrowed to do this again, did twice today morning already. I'll behave and they can't arrow me :D" and feeling very happy.

TODAY, I ended up doing even more sai kang because I happened to be the one in charge of logsheet and there were some problems -.- It's a looong story as to how I ended up doing sai kang but it's REALLY a lot of admin sai kang. And going around to ask people about the types of queries they got for JC yesterday. Luckily got my 2 trusty colleagues to share sai kang with me to shorten my misery :D I must have been approached by Pearly at least 4 times today to do something for her. Ok la her job is quite suay as well I have to do the legwork but she has to do the actual compiling and reporting.

But I still think we should get pay rise. Haha.

MANY CALLS TODAY. PHONES RING OFF THE HOOK. And there were 20+ officers you know! Not just 3 like last time! From about 2pm onwards I got like 40 calls? Man some people ah. Discrepancies between their calculations and the amount they're getting only a few cents know. I know they dont want the money but they just die die want to find out how to add up the decimal points for their calculations. This woman called us 3 times to ask about it. Very long phone calls ok, not just ask and go. Give figures and expect us to calculate for her some more. -.- Another one that Wen received was some westernized big shot director who went (apparently) in a very supreme and condescending tone that he thinks we are wrong (about the calculations) and that we are highly inefficient and that we should reflect upon ourselves. Hate such people who are, admittedly, very educated and accomplished and have much to be superior about. But don't go around thinking everything you touch is gold and everything you say is correct can. He apparently ended up wanting to sue us by the end of the call. Whatever lah, want money or not, want then don't talk so much.

Lijie also got this guy who screamed at her to feedback to the government that "WE ARE NOT BEGGARS, DON'T DISCRIMINATE AGAINST US, I'M NOT BEGGING YOU FOR MONEY" because he doesn't receive JC although another shareholder like him is. So Lijie tried to explain to him maybe he's an ownership shareholder whereas the other one is a stock shareholder, which would make him eligible, but he was completely impervious to her explanations and went on very agitatedly. Seriously, I think one should never be too impolite to people who handle your taxes. We have access to your entire life records and it is actually fairly easy to access them undiscovered. Don't play play with us. We can do many nasty things.

:D

Ok another busy day tomorrow I bet. It was pretty entertaining today actually, watching how phones ring so quickly between calls that there isn't even enough time to unscrew the cap of your bottle.

Lingga says @#%$! at 9:32 PM

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Sorry to disappoint people who are still valiantly checking my blog even after 2 weeks of non-activity. It is likely this spate of non-activity is gonna continue. :D Well I can't blog during work now, because our supervisors have finally cut off internet access for the temp staff. No more facebook, no more Word Grid (which is mindlessly addictive after you get the hang of it and has sent Wen and Lijie into spasms of excitmenet), no more I Can Has Cheeseburger? (T.T), no more checking Straits Times online everyday, no more random googling and wikipedia-ing.

:(

Can't believe we're expected to survive 7.5 hours without the net. It's not like we're actually GIVEN work to do. We only have work when someone calls. And that's like, at most 3 calls every hour every day.

So yes, this week started off with only like 5 of us manning the line because the other 4 went on course next door (JOBS CREDIT RETRAINING. MY GOD) on Mon and Tue. Nafisah and I actually got to experience first hand what is meant by "phone was ringing off the hook", especially when people went for lunch at their allocated slots. When Kok Siong and Shu Mei went for lunch (who are a very cute couple by the way) at 12.30 and came back at 1.38pm and then Nafisah went for her lunch at 1.30 and Qiyou went to the toilet - I was the only one at the line! EXCITING!!!! Challenging!!!

Which is like, more than I can say for training on Wed & Thu. Which was a huge waste of time, especially on the second day. Granted, we had new things to learn about the scheme, and yeah we should be trained on those. But who made the young girl from corporate income tax come in and subsequently torture us for the next 4 hours with her pointless random scenario-generating and asking us to speculate why the company never receive their jobs credit?? Seriously lor, if she had maybe thought of it beforehand and planned a bit so she had some idea what she was doing it would have been quite productive. But nooooooo I re-experienced econs lectures when Mr Ueng was lecturing. I swear, words cannot begin to express how miserable and POINTLESS the entire activity was. Everyone (especially the temp staff) was like "can't believe I'm being made to sit through this shit" and staring off vacantly into space not paying attention. T.T abject misery.

Lijie said the other batch's training got fun and games and competitions leh. She said second day of training was very fun and interactive. ... apparently we didn't get the same instructors.

Okay anyway the result of training was that we are now trained to handle appeals for Jobs Credit! Meaning, if companies call and complain how come they never get the money they think they should get, we have to try and assess the situation and explain why they didn't get it. Which is basically invitation for a lot of over-the-phone grumbling and complaining from disgruntled, desperate owners who don't want to listen and only want money. :x So not looking forward to it.

Yesterday and today the temp staff on the left side of the room bonded through cards (first official day where everyone is back in office and stuck without internet access). We played for a full 6 hours or so variations of daidee, bridge, heart attack, Uno, indian poker -.-, rubbish fortune telling. Today we graduated to sitting on the floor to play Snap as well in the last hour of our office hours. I was very nostalgic because from monday onwards our sitting positions will be reshuffled (!!!!!!!!! NOOOOO I LOVE MY SEAT) and the original batch of temp staff who were all transferred to other departments in this period of low call volume are all coming back. I am now like, on the other side of the room, but I made a deal with Pearly, one of our supervisors, to swop me with Qiyou so I end up sitting near Kum Boon instead of with this other malay girl I don't know very well. My seating partner however is now Tzu Wei, the 195cm tall basketballer. Haha! But now very far from Lijie my love :(

AHH so many things to do! Haven't go VJ collect Najib's appraisal letter (NAJIB ROCKS) from GO! Bloody they didn't allow Dev to collect from me insisted I must go down personally. ... The transport fee!!!! Also, haven't submitted application for Nanyang scholarship! Haven't taken photo of myself to submit with it -.- Nor written the damn essay. Nor scanned in the appraisal letter (to be done only after I collect it). Haven't sign up for Singtel student plan by 31 mar! Haven't convinced father to let me change to Singtel student plan -.- Urgh

BUT I LOVE MY POST-AS, PRE-U LIFE. If only it can be prolonged FOREVERRRRRRRR

Okay I'm high already. Laaaaaaaaaaa

I'm going to go play Word Grid on facebook now. Haven't played it for 4 days already.

Lingga says @#%$! at 9:12 PM

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Oh GODDDDDDDDDDDD. Now we're coming to the really scary part. SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS.

I'm really only interested in the Nanyang Scholarship. Anything else with an external organisation is too much for me. Too daunting and like so much more REAL, like a proper scholarship. You know what I mean. Like those people whose faces you see in the propaganda material they hand out. And got bond! Wei Ching thinks in such an economy it might actually be good to be stuck in a bond and have a job as opposed to being unemployed for the first few months after graduation. Well I might be overly optimistic but I told her I don't believe the commercial sector can ever face a shortage of jobs. Haha. I don't dare to predict so far into the future! 4 years know! Can't risk throwing away on something I don't like.

But even the Nanyang Scholarship is very prestigious know -.- I wish they had some smaller scale thing to offer to us... I'm certainly not poor and in need of financial assistance, nor is a scholarship the only way for me to break out of the trappings of mundane Singapore and venture overseas to discover myself. I guess I want it for the financial perks (mostly. Haha), and maybe also opportunity to go overseas for you know exchange programmes for short periods (I actually do love going overseas and experiencing new cultures. Just not for THREE YEARS OF MY LIFE, without any familiar faces. So yeah, no overseas uni). And also it's really a pretty big thing to get the scholarship.

BUT, I can certainly do without things like this "Unique Leadership Training Programme" they put in the first line of its offerings. Or like, be representative of the uni when the opportunity arises or something. Call me unambitious (I AM NOT AN AMBITIOUS PERSON, I ADMIT) but all these things sound so foreign and intimidating and I'm not sure I even want to step out of my extremely safe comfort zone to do embrace them.

AND AND AND THE WORST PART IS

Got essay to write T.T And interview T.T I can deal with the interview I think. But essay T.T 250 - 300 words. Write what!!??

:x Yeah I know, why am I applying in the first place right.

...

Well I guess you can't always have everything you want in life. Sacrifices must be made. Heh.

Have you ever seen a perfectly round Subway cookie? I'VE NEVER, until last week:

Alien cookies sia. Totally never see before such a rounded cookie. Must be because the anal manager of the United Square branch ordered her staff to shape each of the cookies into a precise circle. Absolutely horrible woman, I tell you. Said very pointedly (REPEATEDLY) to her staff how if you order a foot long sub you have to have the same toppings throughout and not split like me and Lijie did. Ming ming shi zai shoot the 2 of us loh. Yeah yeah whatever, do something the rest of the 70 or so other outlets in Singapore don't and alienate your customers. Me and Lijie swore we'd never go back unless we don't see her.

What, customers get to choose who they don't like okay. Haha. She has qian bian lian!!!

HOW! Essay!

Lingga says @#%$! at 5:10 PM