goodbye singapore and hello nanjing

today marks the last day of the YOG. and sadly to say, i was involved in no way. quite disappointed that i didnt even get to watch one competition.

though a lot of people made noise about how it was organized, how much they spent and how Singaporeans are not supporting it and are forced to it. truth is that these people only know how to make noise. they will never suggest proper methods to improve it. they complain so much, but dont want to step up to do it, to make things different. they are so unhappy, but yet, you ask them to move to another country, not many will. empty seats, but then again, these people are so bo chap about others that even if you dangle a carrot of their choice for them to go, they wont, and just stay home and complain how empty the seats are.

on the other hand, it is not true to say that singaporeans are bo chap. walking past toa payoh stadium everyday, i will always see people queuing up, hoping to get tickets, be it early in the morning, or in pouring rain. how about the little girl that cried because her mum bought the tickets to the previous day instead? there are so many of these, but because these people arent as noisy as those grumbly folks.

how i wish i was younger, being a youth olympic athelete just looks so.... fun. competiting in your favourite sports, staying at a village with friends, meeting other atheletes from all over the world, take part in cultural exchange activities. these experiences, i bet these youths will keep with them forever.

if only i wasnt working. i would be a volunteer! it looks mighty interesting and fun too. get to make new friends, learn and see all the behind-the-scene stuff. how often would one get to be a mascot for a worldwide event? raise flags of other countries? helping to present the gold medal? making the games village more happening?

guess my chance is gone.... cross my fingers... and hope that... when the time i retire... the games will come back to singapore!

the architect

with inception still in many people's mind, the age-long question about dreams surfaced again. not so much the things that happen in movies, but questions like "do people dream in colour or black and white?" or "what do dreams mean?". from what i hear, not many people can remember what they dreamt about with studies saying that 70% of dreams are forgotten the moment you wake up.

strangely, i am one of the rare few who seem to be able to remember their dreams, usually not all, but a lot more in detail than most people. so the dream that got me thinking this morning, is that in this dream, it seems like i have a good friend, who has features that belong to no one I know or met. Though most are forgotten, the vague memory of some of the features really make me wonder.. if i know nobody like that, how did my brain make it up? who is that architect that created that in my head??

Mash Ups

What is a mash up? It refers to the mixing of two different media into one. For e.g., mixing two songs into 1 (such as It's My Life Confession form Glee). But my favourite has always been the mash up for movie trailers. The trendy mash up content would be inception with something else, such as inception and toy story 3 as reported in 8 days. Past popular content includes avatar and of course, the dark knight. There are a lot of misses with mash ups, but once in a while, there's just these awesome ones that are mixed so well that you think they are movies by themselves. Avatar - Pocohontas is not bad, the reported toy story 3 and inception is ok, but still, my all time favourite is still the dark knight and toy story. If you havent seen it, please click below, its awesome.

routines

ever been to raffles place mrt during the morning peak? first thing that comes to mind would be with every rumbling of the train into the station, it releases a mob of people, seemingly doing the same things, brisk walking out of the gantry up the escalator into the sun above. somehow, i always picture these people as cattle, all being lead by a shepherd dog up the escalators.


weekday mornings for many are pretty much routine. the sleeplovers will find themselves reaching out for the snooze button time after time (carol, that sounds like you right??). the morning lovers will wake up at a time i would use the term "crazy", go for a walk, sit down for breakfast and newspaper.

 just like most others, mine is pretty much routine too. not a person that snoozes (not that i can if i wanted to), i'll start the day with the newspaper, to get myself woken up. leaving the house at exactly 8am, heading to toa payoh for my bus to work. unfortunately, buses do not always follow routines, so some mornings, my bus would be nice and empty, other days, i would find myself having to stare at people who doesnt want to move into the end of the bus.

 often, during this morning ride, i would meet 2 people, who morning activities seem to be routined to. judging by the cover, there's this guy, who appears to be the not so educated one. always dressed in a old looking polo tee, this guy with bengish greasey reddish hair would be at the bus stop, reading the morning copy of 'my paper'. he will get on the same bus as me, and get off at the same bus stop too. in many ways, one would hardly describe him as gentlemanly. but God loves to teach me lessons, such as in this case not to judge people by the cover. true, his dressing and style is not gentlemanly, but surprisingly, on the bus, he showed that he is much more gentlemanly than those prim and properly dressed men and ladies. with a whole bunch of them stuck in the middle of the bus, he was the only one who moved to the rear of the bus. the rest, seem to be afraid that they won't be able to get off the bus, insist on glueing themselves to the exit area.

 person 2. i doubt i will notice her, if she didnt look like a friend's friend. but with the many routines bus rides, i noticed that she is always (like every single time) on the phone. but i also noticed that within the 15mins till i get off, she will hardly speak to whoever is on the other line. seems like her routine every morning is to call this person and listen to him/her, and this person's daily routine would be to keep talking back to her. well.. i could be wrong, she could be talking to nobody, but i highly doubt so.

play actors..

its official. singapore has just lost the semi final soccer game to haiti. before i go any further, credit to them for beating what was considered the favourites. singapore cannot blame anyone but themselves.. but then again, i think credit must go to them for going so far.


im sure it was really emotional for the haiti players, after overcoming the earthquake and stuff. but really, their spirit of olympics was really absent. they won, but at what cost. most of them probably wont have any future in soccer if what they displayed was anything to go by, most of them would have to go back to a land that is still devastated. but they should consider going hollywood, cause it seems like most of them have a passion for acting.


clutching faces when contact was nearer the legs, rolling around when hit and that same hit would probably not be able to crack an egg.


the president of the internationl olympics committee said this in the opening ceremony. it easy to be first, you just need to cross the finishing line first, but being a champion is a whole different thing. hopefully, they can do their country proud in the finals, not just much in terms of results, but in terms of their behaviors.

one moment of sillyness

with a address such as silly sebby, i do have to live up to some expectations huh? with a history of silly acts that joey (from friends) would be proud of, though i must say not at the same frequency as him, nowhere near.

so, a recent rather silly act occured, and someone suggested that i should post it here.

so for those that doesn't know, i play ultimate for a local club known as chuckies and we train thurs sats. so last sat, the sky decided to unleash itself.  its been ages since i played in such wet and cold condition. my hands can barely sweep the water fast enough from my eyes to prevent it from obstructing my view. every moment not moving allows the chill to move up and down the spine. every lightning and thunder combination sends chilling thoughts to the head, about how a frisbee player once died while playing ultimate in singapore.

anyway, the rain stopped not long after, leaving behind pools of water that resemblance more of a vietnam padi field than a frisbee field. i am never the most comfortable on the disc, and even more so during wet conditions. picking up a turnover, i took special care and effort to dry the disc while walking to the line. next thing i know, i dropped the disc back into the puddle while trying to switch hand, much to the delight of xinhong, who cant stop laughing at the sideline. i was trying to stopped her from laughing anymore, so much so that i forgot to concentrate on passing the disc.. and it fell short. to make things even more pathetic, i layed out, miss the disc, the opponent scored the final point of the day, and i went home with  more serious than usual scratches that bleed and remain wet for a long time.

well.. the good thing is i found this whole thing rather amusing.. rather than feeling pathetic..

Lyo and Merly

so i was talking about walking past this kindergarten a few post ago. this short 10 mins walk i have to complete every morning to get to my bus stop. it may seem like a short journey, but other than the kindergarten, my next inspiration occured during this 10mins.


so this journey, after the kindergarten, i have to walk along a narrow path, sandwiched by a really big canal that is always full of water, and the building that used to be my primary school (which has become global indian school since). crossing an overhead bridge next, which covers the width of the canal, and 8 lanes of expressway. at the end of the bridge is the start of toa payoh "sports hub" (i came up with the name.. hehe..). right here you will find the stadium where i spent 9 years of annual sports day, plus 3 years of 1.6km run. also here are the table tennis association, indoor sports hall, and rather newly renovated swimming complex.


at the end of the bridge, you can actually see the inside of the stadium, and the swimming complex. and today, it hit me that i have been looking at how the youth olympics set up has been developing without realizing it. it took a couple different nations' flags to remind me that the youth olympics is just round the corner. from empty spaces, now there are fences, information booths, security counters, tentages, sighboards, ticket booths and many other things occupying the used to be familiar path. kudos to the committee who got this going! (including the one that asked me for my resume when she was desperate for ppl to work and totally ignore me after that) things look really good.


so.. i been reading about how it seems like singapore in general arent too interested in the YOG and the ministry of education is doing all the purchasing of the tickets for the students. i thought, i should really support this event right? we dont need everyone to be interested in it. i think 1 out of 10 people would be decent enuf, and i can be that 1. sooo... came home and check to see if i can get tickets for the events that im more interested in. turned out. almost everything is sold out! at least those i can make it. oh well..


oh.. so what is Lyo and Merly? they are the official mascotts of this youth olympics.

cliffhangers

2 leonardo di caprio movies in the last 2 weeks, 2 cliffhanger type ending. first it was inception, then followed by shutter island. endings that do not tell you what is really going on, but keep you on your toes, keep you guessing.

with no influence from that two movies, i did a cliffhanger here too, much to adeline's displeasure. i remember it quite well, since it was accompanied by a smack on the head.

so i was talking about leadership camps. on hindsight, i realized i am someone who enjoys camp a lot, either being a participant, or being one of the organizers. strangely so. for those who don't know yet, im a very fussy sleeper. meaning, the conditions i need before i can fall asleep is so so so strict. if im not in my bed, you can rest assure that i wouldnt be catching a lot of sleep. if im not in a bed at all, chances are, i'll be entertain by the snores of the night, waiting and looking out for the first light.

anyway, the camp i was referring to would be when i was a facilitator in the freshman leadership and teambuilding camp in 2005. being a post year 1 student, with very few friends in smu, i somehow convinced myself to sign up to be a faci alone. the day came when the facis-hopeful had a camp of their own. to test out the activities, to see if every hopeful has the potential to be a effective faci. many times on the night before, i wanted to just pull out. dread going for such things alone, since im someone who really hates the beginning of socializing.. all the small talk.. all the awkwardness.. by some act of God, i turned up at bukit gombak bright and on time. things will get better? nah.. not yet. i was put in a group which has already cliques of their own. and to make matter worse, they werent the most welcoming people. somehow i survived.

the plan was that, the group you were in during the trial camp would be the group you are working with on the actual camp. somehow, i was switched to another group. there i met alina, who created the name that is so in tune with my branding, the creator of "sebbie". one cold morning in the auditorium. a seminar was going on, teaching us how to facilitate. a bored alina, who only sat beside me because she came really late, stole my notes, and wrote "sebbie" in big colourful fonts on the top. that's the start of it all.. and somehow, the branding caught on, and to some level, i think that nickname somehow gave other people an impression that i was much more approachable than a sebastian. how that brand spread, with a few different spellings over the year (sebby, sebbie, sabby). with the help of amy, most of everyone calls me by that now, smu friends, smu ultimate friends, church friends, chuckies friends.

though no empirical research was done on sebbie and his approachability, i do believe that it has made a difference in my life. with the name, i think i has also become a less serious person.

haha. not the kind of part 2 huh.. but its still enlightening right? now you know why you call me sebby.. heh..