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Blog A Trend: Forging Our Future Friendship

I forgot where I’ve heard this being questioned : ” Who on earth still receives mails in their mailbox from friends anyways ?”

I still do ! But that’s beside the point – it’s just so amazing to see the ‘revolution’ of friendship with the help of technology. I still remember writing letters and notes to keep in touch with friends, say 10 years back. It was a regular thing to do with my overseas friends and funny enough, I still keep most of them since I’m pretty sentimental. But with the introduction of emails, IM and mIRC in those days, writing and snail mails are long forgotten.

One thing that really allowed me to make more friends was those mIRC days in secondary school. Who can possibly forget the numerous nights you spent infront of the computer at various #, ‘fighting’ to become @op/+v  randomly having people asking you “a/s/l?” Surprisingly, I’ve met several friends on mIRC and we’re still friends even though mIRC is like, dinosaur era for us.

Not forgetting social networking sites like friendster and facebook ! Many ‘old friends’ are found when everyone starts using facebook and looking up for eachother via the internet. I’m happy to have found most of my friends back in primary school and of course those who are overseas, facebook really made everything more convenient for us to keep in touch.

Having friends overseas is a huge problem back then, because it takes weeks to exchange letters ! Now we can just skype or call directly from computer-to-landlines to keep in touch. I really survive on skype with my friends on exchange although my current dinosaur laptop doesn’t have a webcam *coughs* (haha). But it’s almost like we’re at the same place when we do get to ’see’ eachother…perhaps next time it’ll be a 3D-call ! Who knows, that might just be the new trend in years to come.

Moving on, now we have Foursquare which is a mobile app to ‘follow’ your friends when they are out. I don’t know if I want to let my friends know whether I’m a few blocks away from them or ’stalk’ me virtually. But I see the advantages for those who are around the area and wants to meet up for a short gathering. In fact, if you’re adventurous, you can probably meet new friends if they happen to be on Foursquare too ! Mobile is like the next important thing now, I definitely think we will be relying on the mobile platform to keep in touch – and not just via calls and smses.

It’s probably a good thing that we have so many various platforms to keep in touch with our friends and technology has indeed make things alot easier. However, I think having such ‘virtual relationships’ still can’t be compared to a ‘real friendship’. Worst of all, now we have robotic friends/pets that keep the next generation company. Will our future generation forget how to interact with a real human being and just maintain such virtual/digital relationships in the future ?

It’s rather sad to see couples or friends sitting at the same table with their faces plastered to their mobiles/laptops. As much as I appreciate the technology, I truly agree with this quote I’ve found off the net,

“True friendship isn’t about being there when it’s convenient; it’s about being there when it’s not.”

So spend time with your loved ones, not because it’s ‘convenient’ but because you love them and want to be with them. Technology can only help you that much, it takes your individual effort to keep in touch afterall !

Tags: 3D, blog a trend, email, facebook, foursquare, friendship, friendster, futureis, HP, hp mini, laptop, mirc, netbook, skype

Being Happy in 2010

Earlier last week, Brian from Happyesque asked what would make me happy in 2010. Without much thinking, I gave the following answer. (Because if I keep on thinking, I’ll end up with a LONG list or telling Brian stuff like “If I can only have one wish, I wish all my wishes will come true” kind of nonsense..Haha!)

“Spending more time with the loved ones, getting a great internship that I can learn something from!”

As cliche as it sounds, I guess I’ve learnt that nothing is more precious than spending quality time with the family ever since my mom had her operations. With school (and work) taking up most of our time, we barely have time to care for the people we love, not to mention spending time with them.  Half the time I wish I can quit school so as to spend more time with my parents who are…well, honestly getting older and needs me around to help out at home.

At the same time, there are many friends whom we are ‘well-connected’ to via the internet but slowly losing the ‘human touch’. It’s a good thing that technology allows us to keep in touch easily but I think many would agree that it is different to hang out and just chat about anything under the sun as compared to throwing pillows at eachother on facebook or @-replying on twitter. Spending time with friends (be it doing anything ‘objective’ is something that I miss dearly too.

I had a great internship experience with Iris in 2009 and hopefully this year, I’ll land myself with another exciting internship (hopefully an overseas one) with equally awesome learning opportunities. That’ll keep me happy over the holiday I guess

Sometimes, it’s the simple things in life that makes you happy.

So what would make you happy in 2010 ? Read more from fellow tweeters and bloggers here !

Tags: 2010, bloggers, cliche, facebook, happy, happyesque, internship, iris, overseas, spending time with loved ones, technology, tweeters, twitter

Ever Yours,with Love.

It’s a Saturday afternoon in December of 2008. With a Toffeenut Latte at RafflesCity Starbucks, I was waiting for the boyfriend aka ‘Daryl the Shitfu’ anxiously after long months of him being just a 2D figure on my screen. Months of chatting online till wee hours (since he was in Canada for exchange) and never-ending emails, finally we met up to have our Toffeenut Latte ‘real date’ and xmas presents exchange. Rather awkward to see him again after so long but glad I agreed to meet him instead of waiting for the school term to start ! (What a difference it might have been!)

And the story continues when we evolved into this ‘complicated’ status on Facebook (social media dependents..lol) which eventually became this not-so-complicated relationship of ours. Of course, Love is never perfect- we both shared our emotional ups and downs in the relationship from the start. Somehow, it’s the seemingly bad and counter-emotions that enable us to appreciate the positive emotions or happy times together.

There are moments when we could possibly be the most insensitive prick to eachother’s feelings which resulted in even more communication breakdowns or disagreements. To make matters worse, we’re both just as hot tempered and stubborn to listen or give in when we were arguing. I’m glad we are learning to listen and understand, respond to the other person as who he/she really is, having more patience with eachother now. Not easy to state all the changes he/I have made over these 12 months – Something new for the both of us but I guess it’s a good thing because if  you don’t love and care for someone – you wouldn’t bother to change ?

Not to get all mushy, but we definitely put in alot of love and effort into this ‘long yet short’ one year. Despite our differences, I think we’ve grown alot from this relationship and learnt to appreciate each other more each day. Things may be awkward at times because we don’t know how to handle the situations, but I believe as long as there’s love – we can overcome these obstacles =)

Looking forward to each and every coming anniversaries together, with trust and the love we bear each other, I hope it will be sufficient to make them blessed…Thank you for loving me =)

Love is a magical thing, it just happens – and I may have met my awkward ‘perfect’ match

Happy our Anniversary to all ! Hur.

Tags: 2008.2009, anniversary, boyfriend, canada, christmas, daryl, exchange, facebook, Love, rafflescity, relationship, social media, starbucks, toffeenut latte

We Are What We Do, Rubbish…”Designers”?

Without a doubt, I am a proud graduate of Temasek Polytechnic, School of Design. It was a well-spent 3 years because I have learnt alot about design , and myself as an individual. Being one of the pioneer batch of Design School Ambassador, I have been active in most school events and even though I have graduated (for coming 2 years), I dare say that my heart is still with the school.  Because of the same reason, I am really disappointed with the juniors after hearing stories and looking at the current situation in school.

Take a look at these pictures (Thanks Moses for posting on facebook), they were taken in our school’s studio space which is a common ground for all design students to do their work/attend their classes. Back in my years, it was also a great hangout for us after classes and a place to work till wee hours for our final year projects. There is a rule for “No Food/Drinks allowed” but being “rebellious” students (as we once were) – nobody really cares about the little plastic signs on the doors.

BUT it certainly makes a difference when individuals do not abide by regulations and do not have basic courtesy/social responsibilities . We (perhaps except a few black sheep) do clean up our mess after using the studio. Especially when it comes to sneaking in food – Who in the right mind would leave their “evidence” behind ?! Sure, I agree that working late in school can be tiring and food is definitely a good way to keep us awake.  However, I also believe that we should be responsible for our own mess and not rely on the cleaners of the school. They are not your personal maids.

I think the school has been really lenient when it comes to rules and students’ rights, it’s been said that “There are no rights without responsibility, and there is no responsibility without rights.” If you wish for people to respect you as an individual, respect yourselves and behave like a mature young adult. I don’t see how difficult it is to pick up these rubbish and throw them in the bins that are available on every single level of the school. We can be great “designers” AND good citizens of the school at the same time.

IF you can create a “cause” on facebook,which I must highlight that the description has been changed after much debate on the way this was handled.  (You can still view some of the rather rude comments and silly suggestions on how to deal with our canteen problems.) I just have one thing to say about this – it really reflects and says alot about the students to see something like this happening. Immature ? Selfish ? No comments.

Why not create another “cause” – “Save the Design School Studios” ? Hah ! I hope the new batch of Design School Ambassadors/Design Studies Club can look into these matters. Why wait for the school to take action on this when YOU have the right and say in how you want the school to be like – it’s YOUR school afterall.  We are what we do, I don’t think “litterbug” is ever on my CV and it is certainly not how we “designers” should be like.  Bad habits are hardest to get rid of ?

With this post, I just hope that juniors reading this will reflect on their own behavior and stop creating disappointments for the seniors/alumni. Not forgetting the lecturers who have to deal with this every day.

Sure, all seniors have things to say about their juniors – but I don’t think I was being unfair to voice this out, especially when I’m taking the risk to “wash the school/my dirty linen in public”.  If you have any feedbacks/solution to this matter, feel free to leave a comment.

Tags: alumni, ambassador, cause, courtesy, design school ambassador, design studies club, designers, facebook, Moses wong, pioneer, public space, rubbish, save the design school canteen, Social responsibility, studio, TDS, temasek design school, Temasek Polytechnic

#sgtweetup- All Twisted Up ?

I had an interview earlier on this afternoon and my interviewer was asking where I’m heading to after the interview.

I told him about #sgtweetup, like how it is supposedly the first/official  meet-up for Singapore Twitters. He chuckled and mentioned that he went for the “official” one last week (which one ? That’s one !?!) but anyways, I have to agree with him that there are just way too many people claiming that their event is the “first”/”official”/”exclusive”  – which is the real thing ? And does it really matter ?

I personally don’t really give a damn about it, I’m here for the content/meeting more (new/old) friends -  not so much about being “in the scene” or “active” in the community. Let’s just say I’m more of a passive user of the social media platforms. (HAHA)

Back to the topic – I was half expecting a bunch of geeky people, whipping out their gadgets and twittering away while being in the same room (Sorry, anything related to technology is just being stereotyped as “geeks”/”nerds” with no life ! HAHA) To my surprise,  Geek Terminal was filled with people – mostly high on alcohol and laughing away in small cliques, nothing like what I’ve imagined. We were actually following #sgtweetup while on the way there and the word “models” popped out from nowhere.  So what is the relationship between “models” and a sg twitter event ?

Apparently, the “hidden agenda” behind this event (not very hidden afterall) was to introduce the girls from supermodelme.tv !  Since we were late, the main “show” was already over and people were just mingling around while the models had to break into the small cliques in order to introduce themselves, giving away their “name cards” which has their Twitter ID and the show’s Facebook group+website address on it.  I mean, I’m fine with checking out the show+girls and I’m quite sure the guys in the room were not complaining either. But is there a need to keep this as a “surprise” ? It certainly was not a pleasant one for most of the attendees, as you can see from the -ve feedback on twitter.

To keep things short and simple, here’s my own opinions about the event :

1) It is #sgtweetup, right ? I was expecting more than just a “hi-bye-here are the models” session. Where’s the social media/Twitter element ! But yea, it sure did create a buzz on Twitter.

2) They are models for a reason – they don’t tweet. You don’t go up to a person at #sgtweetup and asked if they are on twitter or not *roll eyes*. And I noticed they do not approach the girls first – but the guys instead ! Way to go,  very clever and *duh* ! (HAHA, I’m NOT acting jealous here)

3) It was a “neither here nor there” event. I am ok if it’s like a “sponsored” event by supermodelme.tv and the models are introduced as part of the marketing campaign but it was not stated ? In the end it felt like a nightout with random people with bad alcohol breath, happy hours after work huh ? I won’t mind if it is like how plurk outings are being organized – purely chill-out sessions.

4) Kudos to the organizers who planned this – but it could have been (much) better ? Not easy to plan an event I must say, but next time – clearer agenda needed please. Felt alil “cheated” in a way as a participant.

I really pity the girls who are being bombarded with negative feedback because of this “surprise” twist to the event – they are definitely the innocent victims here. BUT I don’t think I’ll follow them because this is just part of the marketing stunt for the show and to be honest, I’m not exactly blown away by this tactic/the girls.

Sure, it was a “successful” event because of the attendance but I’m not impressed (by the quality and motive).

P.S : Happy to put some faces to the names I’ve been following/followed ! If you were there tonight…”Hi,I’m @iammyy on twitter/plurk aka Ingrid”

–

Links :

Daryl – Singapore’s “First Ever” Tweetup (#sgtweetup) : Shill Or Social ?

(and he added in why the “surprise” may not be a “surprise” like what @sgbrands tried to explain to me after reading my entry)

Claudia with some event pictures  and Ian with his views on the event too !

Tags: community, facebook, geek terminal, marketing, marketing stunt, models, official, sgtweetup, singapore, social media, supermodelme.tv, twits, twitter, website

Have A Squeaking Good Time

I am not exactly a huge fan of gaming. Don’t get me wrong, I love to know all about the latest games around and tries to keep up with the trend. BUT I have been quite a sore loser since young at games..trust me, you wouldn’t want to play games with me because I’ll either throw a tantrum if I lose or can’t complete the game.

I think my horrible tantrum has improved ever since polytechnic days, where the boys would spend hours gaming on their laptops. Our gatherings and chalets were more like gaming nights where everyone sits around to watch ONE person playing the xbox/psp3.  Sounds silly ? It was the best time ever spent with the poly clique, screaming and scaring eachother while trying to snap a picture of those zombies/ghosts in “Silent Hill”.

Personally I’ll prefer to play “brainless” flash games that you can find on Facebook apps or websites. The latest craze gotta be “Jam Legend“. It is somewhat like the flash version of guitar hero and I like how it features new/undiscovered artistes as you can upload your own songs for the game.  (I love indie music by the way)

Lately I have been playing with my Ipod Touch alot, my main usage is probably to connect WIFI, check mails and play those free game apps that you can download from the itunes store. I am really addicted to this game called “Catcha Mouse“. The game is pretty simple – the objective is to prevent the mouse from escaping through the holes by placing mouse traps around. Not as easy as it seems to be because it’s challenging when the mouse is pretty clever. Then again, it’s all calculated moves..so just see if you can outwit the one who designed the game ?

I’m stuck at level 14 of “Hard”, cleared both Easy and Medium (yay!)

I NEED/want to complete the game ! *stubborn*

It is indeed rare for Ingrid to be obessed over a game, especially one that requires thinking. HAHA!

Tags: apps, catcha mouse, facebook, flash games, gamer, games, gaming, imd chalet, itunes store, jam legend, silent hill