So anyway, as you know if you study in Raffles, the council elections are upon us!
Yes, yes, exciting, exciting.
Interestingly enough, all of a sudden everyone is willing to do things for you, and everywhere you go suddenly everyone is so nice, and ironically enough egos are allowed to fluctuate every hour or so.
Well, I got 15 votes with me, and you may say they are not important, but like they say in The Simpsons Barn Burner (or some other Simpsons comic I read), EVERY VOTE COUNTS.
Well, I don’t know who I’m voting for yet in other houses, but in my house, Morrison-Richardson, I pretty have a good idea who I’m voting for.
And just like in the style of the Obama-Clinton battle, I will now reveal who I will cast my votes for in MR (a la an exit poll thing):
In no particular order:
1. Ng Chen Xuan / Julian Goh (I actually have a bit of dilemma over these two, dunno why…)
2. Alina Tan
3. Bryan Chia Wen Song
4. Jarrell Goh Ye Lone
5. Cai Mingzhe
6. Jane Lim
7. Claire Lim / Ada Chua (They offer the same skills, so I’m only voting for either)
Before you get angry over my choices (or lack of them), let me first say I made my picks according to how well I know them. The above 9 people I have met over the course of my 4 months so far, and most of them I have even known since Secondary School. Because of this I have a rough idea of their leadership skills, talents and ideas.
Before I go on to say anything else, I must first say I cannot stand outright incompetence. Incompetence for incompetence’s sake is pointless. If you’re not cut out to lead a task, DON’T VOLUNTEER TO TAKE THE REINS.
It’s not like you ditched things to have fun, or you had prior commitments, which is irresponsible but at least I would understand (yes, unfortunately, I would, which is why I’m not running for council).
It’s actually because you just don’t have ample ability to take things under control. Which is really sucky.
Hence I would like to believe that I made the right choices; MOST of the MRians above are not outrightly incompetent.
Jarrell is highly talented in artistic skills – he is most suited for design work, poster/banner/T-shirt creation, etc. He is an extremely funny person! You should hear his jokes! Great and fun person!
Mingzhe is good at leading overall – he can get things done, and nothing garners more respect from me than someone who can GET THINGS DONE. He can mobilize people quickly, and he knows how to multitask well. He can take people to task for mistakes, yet ensure he still keeps his cheerful attitude.
Alina I know through Drama Feste, and she is a very capable person. She is most suited for communications work, and she can get information out fast and efficiently (do not mistake this for a great gossip skill, though some may confuse the two).
Bryan I’ve known for ever, and the best part about him is that he leads with heart. Though I personally prefer a person who leads with an iron grip, it is sometimes imperative that a leader puts heart into things so he can understand better.
Chen Xuan is ex-House Captain, and I would say he and Julian are very similar. They take a laidback approach to affairs, and though some may see that as incompetence (it’s easy to see why) I think sometimes maybe less stressful atmospheres generate better ideas. However, I’m only voting for one out of the two, so I’ve to make a choice.
Claire and Ada present the same personality too – bubbly, efferverscent (shit, this is so chem), and when they work on tasks they can keep focused on the work at hand, but still can keep their humour throughout. That is commendable.
Jane Lim I don’t know AS well as I know the others, but from what I’ve seen and heard she’s a person who’s willing to take risks and make changes. She’s fit in really well (from SCGS to RJC) and I think that given time, she’ll be able to make some bigger changes overall, and intergrate students better into the school system.
Not that I find the others MR-ians not respectable, or not good or not anything in any way. It’s just that from what I know and have gone through so far, these people I have mentioned above are the people that have shown true experience, skill and star quality (which is of course super important).
And if you know me, I value solid experience over an inspiring message any time (i.e. Clinton > Obama) which ensures that the candidates can deliver.
If you’re not in the list, it means I don’t think you can deliver.
Or, I just don’t know you that well.
Anyway, second part of my post!
I accidentally hypocriticalized myself (yes, I made that term up)!!!!!
I followed Earth Hour and everything. I nearly became a complete tree-hugger. Totally left my house in the dark (resulting in my mother screaming as she bumped her toe), BUT BUT BUT! Recently something happened that kinda erased my good deed.
I OVERPRINTED PAGES FOR my Creative Arts Programme portfolio!
You know how people usually print double-sided pages for reports right? Well, my printer can’t do that, and it never occurred to me I could manually flip the paper around (and print alternate pages) to get double-sided pieces! So after i was done, I was like, “Hmm. Shit. That was a waste of paper.”
So I thought, okay, that’s fine. That way, if I want to make last minute changes, I’ll just have to print one new side and not waste so much ink. I’ll reuse and recycle the paper I don’t want.
After I was done with the master copy, I went to the printing shop in RJC to try to photocopy three copies of it. I THINK I told the woman to make everything double-sided, but somehow there was a miscommunication and I ended up having THREE THICK BOOKS OF one-sided writing!
OH. MY. GOD.
I really didn’t care about the $17.40 I paid. It was more about the amount of trees that went into making my work tangible!!! And SO MUCH FOR MY ADVOCACY ON SAVING THE EARTH!!!
I was really guilty, okay. No thanks to Natasha, Camilla and Rita for, “WHAT did the Earth EVER DO TO YOU?!?!”
But what’s done was done. I chose not to waste more money and paper and ink reprinting double-sided books. In the end to resolve the problem, I included this message with my books:
AN ECO-FRIENDLY MESSAGE
In the course of my work and preparation of my portfolio I printed all my works on individual sheets of paper so if I wanted to re-do any one portion of my work I would not have to waste ink and paper reprinting two sides.
It turns out that when I completed all my works they amounted to a lot of paper. I then decided to leave the blank facing pages as commentary pages for the judges and other readers to write commentary and notes.
But I realized that was not enough.
So I implore you, if ever you should decide to throw this book away, to think twice and instead, RECYCLE it. All the paper inside won’t go to waste; they will instead become new paper for other people out there to use.
Remember to Reuse or Recycle this book!
Yes, it sounds rather odd, and even Yao Guang said it’s kinda weird.
But I DONT CARE. Hopefully the MOE people can read this and KNOW WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY. I’m super uber guilty okay.
I don’t mean to be hypocritical. I KNOW, it kinda is right now, but as long as that note is not discarded, and the eco-friendly message is adhered to, then I think I can make up for things here.
Fuck. It sucks right now.
Daaaaamn the guilt.
