Totally busy with the Project Excellence camp the past week. Extremely exhausted by I'm loving it =)

Now its back to school once again!

p.s I will blog about the balloon incident pretty soon (when I managed to find time to do so)

I'm back from module 1 of the PA YouthsLead program! It was definitely an enriching session at OBS, even though the duration is rather short (2D2N). Still I got to know new friends and learnt more about myself.

But the most important thing I received from this was I found back the very fire I had for volunteerism in the first place. Come to think of it, time does pass very quickly. Before I know it, I'm almost nearing the "3 year itch" of volunteering.

I have to agree that my passion is no longer as strong as when I first started. Perhaps it is because I got so much more other commitments at hand now than in the past. I feel that I am no longer putting 100% as much as I would like to. Volunteering can be hard work at times.

But during my time in OBS, I reflected a lot. I got to this realization that though I can no longer contribute as much as in the past, but the very little act of contributing itself is enough. I was so particularly inspired by the interaction with the other volunteers. To hear how volunteering changed their lives, no matter how small is enough to rekindle my fire.

I am now committed to making volunteering a part of my life =)

I'm back from taiwan~! yay

Tons of updates to do here, but I will post up the travel entry pretty soon. Looks like I'm going to be staying in sch for another year =)

CACTUS 2010 was a blast!

Attended the first school performance in my 3 years of university life, and I was treated to a fusion of music, voices and dance. It was a display of dances/singing from the various sub clubs like social & ballroom dance, d'hoppers, Jazzitude, BBoys, Resonance, Voices etc.

What an Amazing night!

Time sure flies. At the blink of an eye, I'm already approaching weekends.

It's about time to start doing my readings, but somehow I can't seem to find the motivation to do it. Especially when it is so alluring to watch movies, eat good food, shop around etc. I basically spent my Monday & Tuesday watching 2 very good movies - Schindler's List and Amadeus. Wednesday was outing to eat potatofarmland (omg good stuff!), Friday attending the YouthsLEAD launch dinner.

I can't wait for the OBS module 1. I seriously need some adventure in the wild.

Should I continue with the PA YouthsLead 2010 programme?

While I am extremely happy to be selected for this, I don't know whether I have time to do a good job in it. After all, there are no clashes currently (since the special semester timetable is not out yet), but I am not exactly sure if I can handle doing windsurf camp, special semester and this YouthsLead activities (3 camps + 1 GRO attachment project) on top of doing research for thesis.

In a Dilemma.

Attended several inspiring talk by the various speakers working in the different fields of psychology in Singapore. There were topics on working as a counselor, educational psychologist, forensic psychologist, clinical psychologist, industrial/organizational psychologist as well as being a psycho-entrepreneur.

We also learnt about how to get into graduate school in psychology and the best of all panel discussion with some of the more distinguished leaders in the local field (for example our own Prof George Bishop!). Had a great time knowing more about the field where my passion lies =)

Crazy mambo night out with the windsurfers (char, jocene, xingyan, yew ming and jeron)!

Drank alcohol as though it was dirt cheap (which is true in a way), and I couldn't even walk in a straight line, nor count multiples of seven even before we went into phuture. It's interesting to see the people you usually see behaving in all kinds of weird manner yesterday. haha

Anyway, psychology talk tomorrow and saturday. Followed by dinner with lost-long friend penguin and Project Excellence volunteering. Sunday's up for windsurfing.

I foresee a busy week ahead, yet satisfying at the same time =)

Sunflower!

Thanks for the Iron Man 2 movie treat~!!! Such a pleasant surprise (totally gave me a big shock in fact). Though I am still sad over the news, but nevertheless there will definitely be a solution to the problem.

Don't ever lose faith, for the battle has only just begun.

Been neglecting this place for sometime. A few reasons, one - no time to blog, two -no inspiration, hence the lack of "proper" posts these past few weeks.

Now that I am finally done with all the papers, perhaps I can have more time to re-indulge in some philosophical pondering and get inspiration for the blog posts.

On a side note, I really hope to find a good supervisor for HT. Dr Sandy is good, but I still have a lot of persuasion to do in order to find a co-supervisor, otherwise all the effort so far will go to waste =(

Or maybe I should just stick to doing other topics or modules?

"I'm famous for my motivational skills. Everyone always says they have to work a lot harder when I'm around." - Homer

Hope that gives everyone enough motivation to study~! cos Homer will be watching you =P

"If success is determined by the number of steps you have taken, just look down and you will be surprised by how much you achieved. But there are many more steps in front (CP,2010)"

The Spelling Bee Competition for the P5/6 is fantastic. Some of the kids really amazed me when they can spell words that I didn't expect them to (after all I got the words straight from the dictionary). Either that or maybe I underestimated their abilities. oops.

Inspiration from Akeelah and the Bee. Wow!

Sometimes I wonder whether I should leave the situation as it is and don't bother making my life that miserable. Since the problem has been stuck for so long and there is still no solution in sight. Such a awkard situation yesterday, I don't even know why she can behave like nothing happen when I am trying to avoid her.

That one entire year of "friendship" gone just like that. Maybe that one year when I thought the times was happy and it meant something to everyone doesn't mean anything at all.

Perhaps pretending to be strangers could be a way out eventually. And I should stop thinking about it and focus my attention on the others who have supported me all this time.

Nevertheless, I'm glad there are angels who are still disguised all around me, even after the situation threatened to push us apart. Thanks people =)

Some inspirational stuff to motivate everyone who are busy studying/doing reports/rushing projects. Special thanks to nana for finding the quote below. Thanks lots =)

"If you take a nap now, you will dream, but if you study now, you will have your dreams coming true." via @Liccalika

Jiayou everyone!

Getting extremely unmotivated to study as the days progress. Is this what we call "burnout"?

I don't want to play Pokemon anymore, I want to study. Arghh. Someone gimme some extrinsic motivation (since intrinsic is not working) to mug.

The last PE session was quite a shock. Simon didn't realise there was a session for the P3/P4 and we had to do an impromptu brainstorming for the lesson plan.

Anyway the entire story goes like this. Last saturday was supposedly the term review for the project, and we had a meeting with the teachers in the morning. I was rather impressed with the meeting flow, all the teachers contributed to the discussion and they didn't really "ignore" our points that we brought up as well.

Not that I purposely wanted to say those words, but we are the youngest among the group, and there is of course a tendency that they will treat our points as irrelevant or not important. I have seen so many examples when senior management thinks their points are correct and doesn't give a hoot about what the rest says.

But that is not the main story. I did learnt a lot from this meeting, and gained more experience with dealing with problematic kids (or at least I believed so). Nevertheless, after meeting we went for lunch and wanted to get a birthday cake for huihui. While we were eating together with simon, he told us that there was a lesson and that he forgot about it. Oh my, I got such a big shock. The time was about 145pm, and the class starts at 3pm.

Fortunately we realised that there are chinese chess in the cupboard and we ended up teaching the kids how to play =)

p.s It's quite a sight to see kids queuing up to receive huihui's birthday cake. haha I wished I was young again

Dealing with people matters is probably the most difficult thing to do in this world.

You do this, and there will be impact on a few people, you do that, then it will affect other people as well. Don't do anything, it will still have an effect. Given such dilemma, how do we tell which of the decision is the best among them all?

While I was watching the film titled "12 Angry Men", one thought came to my mind. How do we essentially know which is the correct decision to make? Sometimes, the majority agreement does not necessarily meant that their answer is right (As shown in the movie). Especially when it is in an ambiguous situation without full information all the time.

Very often it just take one strong opinion and a charismatic leader and decision can be swayed towards a particular direction. What I often find is that, sometimes there is not much deliberate thought before doing the decision, or the deliberation is just not enough. Once you have an opinion, it is far likely that you will try to confirm your hypthosis than discomfirm it.

So when every decision made is based on the knowledge of some people, we might end up in a groupthink trap. But then, very often we don't have the luxury of time when deciding on matters. After all, there are so many more things to do, by the time you get back to evaluating your initial argument, time is up and the effect is permanent.

So this post is dedicated to everyone who are decision-makers, be it a big or small matter. It is extremely important to think and get a third party opinion. Sometimes I will wish to do so.

Or perhaps I was never suitable for a position like this and should continue to be a introverted mugger, who aims to be a librarian for life.

"Emotions kills reason." Evaluate this claim.

ohmygod, totally didn't expect this kind of question to come out for the midterms. Nevertheless, 2 midterms down and last one to go. And not forgetting the emotions presentation, the group dynamics tutorial presentation and the MNO video.

All due within the next few weeks. Arghh =(

Pardon for the lack of updates. As usual, not much events happening recently that seemed interesting enough to be posted here.

Chinese New Year is becoming like a rountine, so I am not exactly excited to blog about it. After all its always house visiting followed by mahjong, eat, poker, eat, eat, sleep, eat. What is special this year is Recess week is the same week! Omg I hate it when I gotta study for mid terms and do essays when its the festive mood.

Its time to study for emotions mid terms, and also to finish up on the video project as well as a very weird "blind date" tutorial project. haha. Anyway, I am so contemplating whether to sign up for YOUTHSlead 2010. Seriously tempted to get this cool experience (recommended by huihui) but I wonder whether I have the time to commit.

Let me go sleep over it. Its surfing this weekend again =)

p.s I like the powerpoints lots.