the alleged public relations day

note: this is a back-dated post.

a fun take on what’s pr about

themediaslut has declared 9 april to be the day to highlight and celebrate the work that pr professionals do.

there’s no particular cause or reason behind this movement. it’s just a fun thing to do.

let’s see how long or how many people will it take to get this off the ground - if ever.

i’m plugging this purely because i’m in the said field as well and since more than 95% of my friends do not know what being in public relations entails, it will be a good opportunity to educate the general public on what the pr profession is really about.

i said, if this ever takes off, okay?

meanwhile, happy public relations day to all!

mis-judgement

as a rule of thumb, i tend to trust someone until proven otherwise because i believe that people should give others the benefit of the doubt.

recently, i have a friend who has put this belief to the test - time and time again.

right now, i’m thinking of how i should handle this in the best way possible.

i’m starting to realize that i might really just be a lousy judge of character…even after being around for 25 years.

naivety or stupidity?

it’s a bloody fine line..

p/s: in other news, man utd has just ended arsenal’s dreams with their 2-1 win at home. as much as i don’t want to admit it, i have to say that man utd’s second goal was truly impressive.

what people ought to know, but don’t - especially me

i’ve learnt one very important thing over my last weekend:

NEVER (and i really mean never ever) eat flu medicine before going for a drinking session.

you’ll be out before you know it. and you won’t even know what the fuck hit you until it’s too late.

take it from me.

p/s: sorry for the delay in the birthday pictures, they’ll be up soon - i promise! by this week, no less.

pp/s: happy birthdays to the feb/march babies - gracey, wendy and ivan!

“blogging” has gone to the dogs

if anyone has noticed, there seems to be a wave of old-time bloggers shutting down their blogs recently.

sad to say, quite a number of them are blogs that i read regularly.

i used to remember a time, not very long ago, where there were only a handful of people whom i knew were blogging. although lacking in quantity, most of these blogs were interesting, down to earth or, at the very least, worth someone’s time.

i don’t know when, or how, it happened. from a relatively obscure activity/hobby, blogging suddenly become the most talked-about “in” thing in town. everyone, who was anyone, started logging onto the internet and established their own blogs. from there, this phenomenon quickly developed into an unstoppable tidal wave - blog aggregators, blog advertisements… all types of blog “accessories”. you name it, someone has invented it.

and it didn’t stop there.

from being a pure leisure activity/hobby, blogging soon evolved into a money-generating tool with the popularization of blog ads. most of the blog ad mechanisms work on the general principal, as below:

the higher the traffic volume for blog = the more blog ad income for blog owner.

under such a mechanism, it will only make economic sense for the financially-motivated blog owner to try to increase the volume of traffic to his/her blog.

how? - is the next question.

now, that’s an easy question. what are people most interested in?

ans: sex. that’s why we have the saying - “sex sells’.

enter the proliferation of blog entries with sex-related titles.

coupled with the rise of blog aggregators, blog entries with such sexual innuendo quickly raised to the top of the most popular charts, once again proving the old adage.

sexual innuendo aside, these blog entries don’t even have any content - at all! some post links to websites of questionable nature, some are just pure lame nonsense…the list goes on. the contraversial titles are just baits to lure readers into clicking through and entering their blog sites to prop up traffic volume.

i’m not even saying that the quality of blogs has gone down.

what quality?!

although i’m not the ah kong of singapore blogs, like mrbrown, nor did i popularize blogging, like xiaxue. but i’ve been blogging for a relatively long time…from the time when people went “blog? what’s that?” to them going “oh yar, i’m a blogger too!”

i started blogging to find an outlet for things that i couldn’t express verbally, especially when my feelings were in a turmoil or going topsy turvey on me and words seemed to be the most effective way for me to express how i feel or vent those frustrations.

i didn’t want to tell people i had an online diary, right in the beginning, because i didn’t want to share that inner world - where i wrote down my honest, naked feelings under an anonymous guise. slowly, i begun to realize that there was a handful of others who were the same way, who expressed their thoughts and feelings in words.

it was refreshing to be able to share thoughts or opinions with them, without fear of being judged since we were all veiled by the internet. as these like-minded people got to know each other better, being anonymous no longer seemed that important. blogging had seemed to be a more-or-less accepted norm, abeit being a lesser known activity. it was good that way.

however, with the recent developments (or should i say “degradation”) in this area, the thought of uttering the word “blogger” rings so fake in my ears. blogging has turned into a fad…one that many people follow mindlessly, or do just for the sake of making money, trying to become famous etc.

blogging has gone to the dogs.

of course, this does not apply to everyone who blogs. there are still those who stick by their guns and blog on maintaining their own integrity or objectives. these, i admire and respect.

how can we return to a simpler time - where blogging was merely a true reflection or expression of how one feels?

…while beginning a new chapter.

just like most people, the beginning of a new year is always a good time for me to review happenings of yesteryear - the highlights, events or memorable moments.

in 2007:

• met one of my favourite bloggers, kenny sia, and kicked the men’s asses at risk - together with nadnut.
• arrival of my new nephew, shijie (potential heartthrob-in-the-making alert).
• not one, but two, of my cousins got hitched.
• caught long-anticipated musical, phantom of the opera, with mr g.
• met jolin tsai at a media conference i was organizing.
• decided upon and made a career-related change.
• experienced my first kelong stay.
• threw caution and fear to the wind… and achieved a few other “firsts” (that you don’t need to know, of course!).
• one of my closest friend / senior got hitched too (yay!) - this will warrant a totally separate post by itself later.
• caught another long-anticipated ballet, swan lake again - this time by a different ballet company.

it was through these experiences (and, of course, many others) that i’ve grew to understand myself a little better and gained further insight on people around me. good or bad, i’m thankful that i’ve survived 2007.

looking towards the future - 2008:

• to make further advancement in career.
• to spend more time with family and friends.
• to try to keep my new year resolutions (yes, i’ve made a few!).
• to blog more regularly (i realized that there might have been less than 40 posts in total for 2007, my gosh!).

yes, missyling.wordpress.com is coming alive again after hibernating for….goodness knows how long it has been.

seeya.

retro back!

last saturday, i caught one of the movies on my must-watch list - hairspray.

retro and musicals - two of my loves together

i stepped into the cinema without knowing what to expect since it was a relatively new film and i haven’t read or seen the movie trailer yet.

i didn’t even know that it’ll be a musical-movie but the retro theme, by itself, was already more than sufficient to capture my attention.

*disclaimer: contains spoilers ahead. read at your own risk.

***

the storyline was simple, cliche and light-hearted (for most parts). yet, the deceptively simple plot highlighted many issues that we’re still facing today.

acceptance of differences, racial segmentation and segregation, courage, love. these elements formed the core of the story.

the music, the songs and dances inside were full of hope, optimistism - so cheery that it will even lighten up your mood. compare this to our modern pop - full of angst, sadness and broken hearts. where did it go wrong?

somehow, musicals move me in a way that i can never quite understand. it just stirs something within me - a strong, mysterious and alluring force that makes me want to lose myself in it.

and now, this reminds me of yet another musical….

from bimbo to tech junkie

it came as no surprise to me when people tell me that their initial impressions of me, especially after meeting me for the first 2 minutes, were somewhat of a bimbo.

even after so long, i can’t decide if this should be a compliment or an insult.

but i wouldn’t blame them. looking at it from someone else’s point of view, if i were to meet me for the first time, i might have just arrived at the same inital conclusion.

possible thought-process during an initial meeting:

face warpaint a.k.a make-up - check.

perfume - check.

looks like she might be a little vain (little is subjective, okay) - check.

clueless with serious IT stuff (like fixing own PC) - check.

conclusion - bimbotic woman. check.

plus, the fact that i’m in public relations doesn’t really help the case because it seems like most people generally misunderstand the nature of this industry. public relations, as far as these people are concerned, is an industry full of glitz and glamour, exciting events and happening parties.

yes, i wouldn’t deny that people in the public relations industry do have some opportunities to be part of such merry-making events, but the enormous amount of hard work, effort and sweat that pr professionals put in towards their work often slip by - unnoticed.

with such misconceptions, it is small wonder that some will label me as bimbotic during the inital meeting.

however, things have taken a slight change recently. although i am still in the same industry, the nature of my clients’ industries have altered substantially.

from dealing with lifestyle and consumer to enterprise technology clients, i have to say that the transition isn’t easy at all. i had to grapple with new concepts, applications and jargons which were totally foreign to me. i had imagined that the learning process will be long and painful.

but surprise, surprise…i think i might actually have formed an interest for this aspect somewhere along the learning path. i actually found some of these stuff amazing, and get this, interesting!

even i, myself, am pretty shocked at this realisation.

what happened?

from a complete technology idiot to this. who would have thought?

oh gawd, i’m a tech-geek wannabe.

but the make-up, perfume and slight vain-ness still stay. heh.

happy belated birthday, singapore!

yes, i know. i’m late again.

national day was 9 august, and i’m only writing about this on (let’s see)… 13 august!

oh well, better to be late than never, i guess.

***

going back into time by a couple of months, i first heard the ndp 2007 theme song on television. the song was sung by kit chan with lyrics written by jimmy ye. since both of them are very talented local artistes, i naturally had high expectations of the ndp 2007 theme song.

however, after listening to the song, i was pretty disappointed - both the music and lyrics didn’t speak to me, unlike the previous ndp song that kit sung - home. has our local artistes lost their touch, or had i grown too cynical to appreciate the song?

why? why didn’t the song touch me? do i not love singapore as much as i did in the past when i was much younger? what happened?

questions, questions.

in the days that followed, i’ve had the opportunity to listen the song a few more times and i realised that the song gradually began to speak to me.

the song was reflective of what singapore is going through as its citizens become more globalised and well-travelled. we’ve come a long way from what we used to be - a fishermen’s village. our people are now well-educated with broadened horizons. as the world becomes smaller, we’re now encouraged to look outwards.

and the song reflected all of that.

we might have been to major cosmopolitan cities such as london, paris and new york and experienced their cultures and ways of living. however, no matter how glitzy or seductive those cities were, the ultimate place that we miss…the country where we were born and raised.

the ndp 2007 theme song - there’s no place i’d rather be

it’s true. our family, our friends are all here. how far can the pod fall from its tree?

and yes, we lament about our lack of freedom here, about the high yet ever-increasing costs of living, about the stressful and overbearing hectic lifestyles…

but yet, we also enjoy the stability that this country offers us, the honest leadership, the meritocracy system that we’re not judged based on our colour or race.

for that, i still am thankful.

happy birthday, singapore. may we grow and mature together - blissfully, peacefully and happily.

Do you know what you really want?

i’ve been giving this issue some thought for quite some time and to my utter horror, i realised that i really don’t know what i want…More specifically, i should say, i don’t know what i really want to do - something that i’m passionate in, something that i can do my whole life.

don’t get me wrong, i’m not talking about general desires such as to be successful, to be rich (for some), to be healthy etc. all these are good and fine, and a little redundant, not to say. you mean there are people who want to be a failure, poor and sick?

what i’m talking about is a specific occupation or hobby. the key word here is specific. for example, if you’ve followed the comedy series - friends, ross has always loved science, especially dinosaurs. he subsequently became a dinosaur scientist. (ermm, i can’t spell the professional word for it…heh.)

thoroughly perplexed and bent on exploring this issue further, i raised this question amongst some of my closest friends. the answers i got were surprising pretty consistent…

“don’t know…never thought that far…”

“this is a good question man!” (followed by silence…duh.)

“let me give it some thought…”

and the very classic…

“huh???”

discouraging answers, i must say. nonetheless, i shall not relent and continue my search…

***

now, on a totally unrelated note.

among my hall friends, most of us are given endearing nicknames…and on some of our trips, we came across shops that are “named” after us!

here’s one from our taiwan trip long long time ago:

this one is added to the collection from his most-recent trip:

they’ve all got their “own shops”! where’s mine?!?!!??!!?

note: i know this is a totally bo-liao post, but talking about hall days and friends cheer me up most of the time and i’m definitely in need of some pick-me-ups.

A long overdue adios

i know i haven’t been updating for some time now…as i’ve been trying to cope with some changes in my life.

within the last two months, i’ve made a pretty major decision regarding an aspect of my life. subsequently, with that decision, i had to cope with a different set of challenges, a new environment and unfamiliar faces. i’ve never been one that’s good at coping with changes, hence, this snapped up a major portion of my energy…

it wasn’t easy to make that decision… and it definitely hasn’t been a bed of roses trying to ease myself within a new habitat but nobody ever said that change was easy.

although the road is still fraught with challenges, i do not regret my decision. life’s too short for that, ain’t it?

the initial start to coping with any changes is often extremely difficult and so it has been - for me as well. on one of those days, i received a short message from a friend.

the message read:

smooth roads never make good drivers

smooth seas never make good sailors

clear skies never make good pilots

a problem free life never makes a strong person

so be strong enough to accept the challenges in life.

don’t ask life, “why me?”

instead say, “try me.”

maybe it was the circumstances surrounding me…i found that message particularly encouraging and i hope that, by sharing it with you, you might find some meaning in it as well.

on a lighter note, i’ve finally bought my own camera (cammie, it shall be henceforth be called)!! it’s a pretty hot pink z5…and i absolutely, absolutely love it, especially the colour! (ya ya, call me bimbotic.)

now you can expect…alot more cam whoring!

once i’ve downloaded all my pictures from my cammie to my computer, that is. and i promise, it won’t be long! heh.