the ostentatious glory

Thursday, August 24, 2006
M.I.A till 29th of Sep..

I'm so stressed because of the impending Promotional Examinations.. If i fail this major exam this time, i'll be retained for a year and study JC1 all over again.. And the fact is, using my common test results, i had barely made it through.. (RJC isn't that fun after all, huh?) So i must make it this time! i can't afford to be retained and kiss goodbye to a PSC scholarship which i have always dreamt about. Time to get serious.

Right now, it's NCC Senior Specialist Course 2006 coming up in the September holidays which will slash 3 full days and 3 full nights off my remaining days to study! What's even more exciting, i was selected to be the 2IC for this whole course! That's tremendous responsibility, given i'm still rather junior compared to many other cadet lieutenants, and many others will be watching me perform in the midst of Promos. Life's tough, huh?

Hmmm and there's also South East Youth Fashion Fiesta coming up.. Well, i certainly don't believe Ranjeet will let me off in the models' training coming up throughout the weekends before the actual event in December. Definitely, being in the organising committee, i have some responsibilities, obligations, and standards to keep up too! haha. i'll just bite my teeth and fight it all out. (Helping the public sector is definitely something an aspiring PSC scholar ought to do.. Let's think it this way..)

Lastly, not to forget the at-least-twice-per-week canoe trainings plus the personal trainings we have to do ourselves to maintain our physical level at top-notch.

LIFE'S TOUGH HUH?

See all you guys again after 29 Sept.. And if you do miss my pressence because i'm going to literally shut myself up to the outside world, do give me a call anytime! At least i'll reply once i'm free? Heh.

Take cares everyone!

Promos-phobic-James
2153hrs
24/08/2006

9:42 PM
| 0 comments

Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The impending ultimate war of 2006...

Enemy soldiers getting ready. Well you can feel the teachers racking their brains out to set their trademark "killer" papers now.

Aggressors are sending out warnings ever more often now than before (well teachers just love to remind you how close you are to the inevitable battle, and how you will lose this fight if you don't buck up your armies and supplies). There is imminent "brain-juice-shed" coming ahead, and much casualities promised. Still, renmants of the previous war, named "JC1 Common Tests 2006" continue to taunt the memories of our soldiers up till this date. Cadet Lieutanant James here was one example, with two S-grades for both of his sciences. (that definitely didn't turn out great when my dad saw these two grades being underlined on the report slip?)

Will the JC1 soldiers be able to take such major blows again? The emotional damage, spiritual destruction, and over time, deterioration of mental health...*Ahh i heard cries of help somewhere in the North*

Back to the track, though bad as it sounds, i'm sure the students forces will perform better against our aggressors this time. Firstly, we have more time to brace ourselves for this fight. There is still about 40days ahead of the final war, and we were notified of this battle 60days before, compared to Common Tests which only gave us about 30days to prepare. More time, more stuff revised, better grades i supposed?

Of Course, Secondly, i guess the previous exams have taught us a lot on our fighting strategies and what we ought to do to win. With these factors, getting good grades should be at leat two steps closer now compared to the previous time? Well, whatever we say now is sort of redundant.. It's definitely high time to MUG!!!

Let's go guys... We'll ace this war together..

not-liking-exams-James
2235hrs
15/08/2006

P.S. do ask me out if anyone wants to relax occasionally though.. You can't study for 24hours a day!

10:11 PM
| 0 comments

Thursday, August 10, 2006
Mi Lu Bing!!!

Now we can really see why they deserved to win the SuperBand Finals!

Adapted from youtube..=)

Dreading-school-day-again-James
1026hrs
10/08/2006

10:27 AM
| 0 comments

Wednesday, August 09, 2006
SKINS!---the event that rocks TOTALLY!

Oh my everything, SKINS is just such the perfect production ever. This event which has took a whole six months of preparations has bonded together youths from all walks of life in the y2y Network, ranging from models, designers, actors, debaters, singers, dancers and even pure youth volunters! Rehearsals which took place like almost thrice every week since early this year have definitely tire our actors and dancers out, but looking at the results and their expressions last night after the Senior Minister (Guest-of-Honour) left, this was definitely worth all the efforts for them! I felt happy and proud for them, and everyone else would definietly feel the same.

Feedback from ranjeet: Senior Minister was damn pleased with our productions, and he told mayor that he would want to see more of such youth-initiated events coming up and he be invited to these events. Oh and before i forget, yup, this event was entirely initiated and run by us, youths, with Marc, Nadia and Dewei taking the lead and making sure everything runs smoothly. They are the ones who rock the most! Of course, in this theatre productions, actors, dancers, singers, even the crew, are consisted of youths and YOUTHS only. I'm sure we had showed the public what youths nowadays can be capable of. Which is good of course!

As an usher-in-charge and the "knife-person", i saw how everything is being run from the start of the show to the end. I daresay that all youths were coordinated and wonderful in running the show. Our ushers were warm and friendly to all the guests, especially Senior Minister and Mayor; our performers putting in their best on stage; our crew members ensuring no "cock-up" in visual and audio effects; and of course our dear Ranjeet putting in his upmost efforts to shout at all of us. Well, i guess the statement he made at the end of the show during his debrief was right.

"i think each and everyone of you guys had gotten my scolding during the whole rehearsals."

Yup, no one was spared. BUT scolding is definitely good for us. We put up the best show ever in the end! Even Senior Minister, while i was carrying the knives for the cake out, said: "Oh, why not we let the youths themselves cut the cake?" From that, we can see how impressed he was with our show and how he's willing to take a step back and let us youths front the show during the finale. Even the media was impressed. Oh man, i'm (we're) so looking forward to reading the media reports about us coming out real SOON! Look out for Straits Times, LianHeZaoBao, Teenage etc!

Not to forget, all of us involved enjoyed ourselves too! There were great cooperations, initiatives, and definiely wonderful friendships involved. Hmmm let me share some of the "things" i gained during this recent period of time, especially last night. Well, i saw the most beautiful girl ever in my life few weeks ago, yup, in case you're guessing she's a key part of this production process. (But i'm not gonna let you know exactly who she is.) Observant people should be able to find out without much effort at all..so many hints given.. :) And of course, there was this girl last night, an Eurasian, with the most beautiful eyes ever. Trust me, if you look into her eyes, you wouldn't believe that belonged to a real person. Those eyes were so shiny, beautiful, and outstanding that they seemed to come from an artist's impression. I can't believe they were real too if i never saw them from that girl last night. Hmmm hints? She shared a cab with me last night? Oh no that's too obvious. Take another one. She seldom appear in y2y events, but she appear for fashion fiesta last year. Yup, that's enough.

Yes, you can't believe how cool and vibrant Y2Y network can be until you join it for yourself and experience the things with do. I daresay truthfully, without Y2Y network, i would have died in RJC long ago. You would probably see me on the newspapers headlines "RJC boy committed suicide". Both are totally different envronments which have helped in giving me variety to life. In one, i had a vision to my future and what i want to achieve in life. In another, i had a perspective to the lives of other fun-loving youths, share precious friendships with them, serve the community, and not to forget, relieve myself from the tremendous stress of RJC! Well, my experience in SKINS this year is a testimonial to the fun you can gain in Y2Y network.

So, folks out there, if you, like me, want a whole new experience to your life, and of course, fun and friendships too, DO JOIN ME IN Y2Y NETWORK. We're looking for aspiring fashion designers, models, actors, singers, dancers and event organisers like what i'm doing currently. Do text me or email me, especially aspiring male models! See you soon guys!

Happy-41st-National-Day-James
1333hrs
09/08/2006

12:53 PM
| 0 comments

Sunday, August 06, 2006
Let's define Piracy...

This time, the blog shall move away from personal life-sharing in this post. With regards to the a special report on bloggers in the Sunday Times last Sunday, 30/07/2006, the millions of bloggers we have on the net sharing their daily thoughts and experiences were being refered to as self-centered people publicising their "me-world". Well, this is true to a large extent, as what netizens usually find on blogs are the life stories of unknown people, living on the same Earth as us. In fact, it is reported that only less than 10% of bloggers based their daily posts on current affairs or society issues. So, to make this blog more diversified, it is decided that I will discuss about certain issues in our society every now and then. While not neglecting the readers who are interested in my life story, don't worry, my experiences will not ceased to appear on this blog. :)

Firstly, like the introduction paragraph in every discussion essay, let us define piracy and the implications it has on our society today. How do we define piracy? The fact that it is further divided into so many forms only made the boundary between piracy and doing it legal more unclear and uncertain. Generally, i believe that piracy means the infringement of copyright. However, even with this defination, there is still a varying amount of people who may or may not be labelled as pirates. On a stricter tone, if sharing music, video or even ten-year-series without knowledge and approval of the publisher means piracy, then i think everyone is or had been a pirate. They had infringed the copyright! And if all pirates be prosecuted, let everyone go to court then. The police can just go to any housing estate, any HDB block, any floor, any unit, and capture ANYone for piracy.

But well, we don't see that happening in real life, so the police must have adopted the more lenient tone on piracy. You won't go to jail for sharing a latest "Jay Chou" album you just brought with another friend, who copied all the files onto his own computer; you won't be charged if you share your "I not Stupid 2" DVD with a friend, who too, copied the whole video onto his hard disk; and, you definitely are considered legal even if you give a pirated VCD retailer support by buying his "super-cheap products". This is it in Singapore now. But what about the implications? Forget it dude. I need not repeat what the Media Development Authority (MDA), and other companies had said a billion times.

Insulting the artists' creativity, not recognizing his efforts, no moral ethics in you... What crap!

If you look into the reasons behind all "Anti-Piracy" movements closely, you can find only one motivation behind all these exaggerated actions. MONEY.

Well, the government wants money, music companies are profit-motivated too, and singers, of course, hope to reap as much income as possible. Who wouldn't? In Economics, we studied the problem of scarcity and the limitation of resources, thereby causing producers and consumers trying to attain as much utility as possible, i.e. buying the cheapest available product (consumers), and selling the product to earn as much money as possible (producers). Right now, consumers' hunt for CDs worth the price they are willing and able to pay for had led them to the haven of pirated products, which cost an average of $5 per disc compared to $25 for a brand new original album. That's exactly 200% cheaper! Well, this is gladdening news for people like us, but saddening news for people like Universal Music. Why? That's because they experience a lack of income!

Let us go back and use MONEY to argue why these firms work so hard to prevent piracy. Firstly, it is not as if their singers won't be showcased and supported by fans if people buy the pirated version of their albums for a cheaper price. Well, it's the same artist, same song, same way of singing, same lyrics, and SAME messages portrayed! Don't try to tell me that you receive a different message from a same song just becuase you heard it from the internet and not from an original album. That's bullshit.

HOWEVER, you do see a difference in the price between an original album and that of a pirated one. Of course babe. These firms are the ones who need to pay the artists for their songs, the government for taxes and themselves for income, of course preferably more so that they can afford to go SPA, massage, treatments etc to increase their quality of life. Being money-oriented, it is no wonder now, why consumers are being charged at such a high price---JJ Lin telling Ocean Butterfly that he wants a good pay; Ocean Butterfly, within itself, desires higher revenue every year, of course the more the merrier, and the higher the growth the better; and apparently, PAP telling Ocean Butterfly:"where are my taxes?". MONEY.

On the contrary, pirated retailers are able to bypass all these payments. Being a small-scale firm on their own, they need not pay the artist, they need not so big an income for themselves, and they need not pay the government too! I'm not supporting pirated retailers in this post, but rather i'm explaining how these players determine the market equilibrium. Being expenses-aware consumers, and seeing such a big difference in the prices for the same disc with the same songs, same artists etc, it is no wonder why consumers convert to buying the much cheaper pirated CDs and actually prefer it more. So now, we can see how close a substitute pirated product can be compared to an original one. 200% cheaper for a same thing!

Back to Earth. This fact has set producers worrying about the big hole in between which allows their revenue to fall through. Snap, with a twist in their brain, governments around the world started whacking on how unethical it is to purchase pirated products, how immoral pirates are, and how consumers insult artists' creativity by purchasing pirated products. To complement such desperate efforts to save their income against the strongly arising pirates and its supporters among consumers, laws were constantly being made stricter and more firms begin joining this global battle too. What we can see today is a fierce battle between the legal bodies and the illegal ones. Who is the winner actually? i believe we consumers can say.

Is it really an ignorance in acknowledging an artist's efforts and creativity if we buy his pirated albums? Well, i personally think that piracy made available the artist's creations to more listeners and fans. With regards to the expensive original albums, there are definitely people who can't afford to buy the original ones and thus turn to the internet or friends for the songs they want. These people, after listening to the same songs, may still love and support thier idols too, and ultimately, contribute to thier idols' earnings through concerts and other products. Well, i believe there is no such thing as a pirated concert ticket. If piracy is not allowed and these people unable to even listen to and enjoy songs apart from original albums which some may choose not to purchase because of the price, fans would decrease and revenue generated from concerts would go down as well too!

Piracy is not necessary bad in this case. However, whether it is morally wrong or unethical, i leave it to we consumers to judge. Remember, MONEY. Hmmm have you downloaded any songs from the net recently?

Sunday-James
1839hrs
06/08/2006

11:58 AM
| 0 comments