2010 Report/ Letter

Everything has been firgured out, except how to live. Jean-Paul Sartre

 Dear world,

So this day has come. 31 December 2010. The last day of the year. Many Youtubers have done 2010 year reviews and I intend to do my own. Unfortunately, I don’t know if the entertainment level would be the same as some of the videos online.

Well, everyone knows what happened in 2010. Obama is rocking out the presidency. He even ended the war ( yeah, it was not that well publised). There is a new healthcare plan in America and the UK raised University fees. Singapore held the F1 again and the very very first Youth Olympic Games. Hmm, what else happened. Snow came to Europe and has packed up there. Wikileaks happened too; which is good for people who do end year reviews. Wikileaks was this years best scanddle. Last year I think it was Obama being president and Tiger Woods sex encounters. (Yeah the King of Pop was there too but the press had more fun with Woods). The I pad came out this year. You know, its just a giant sized itouch. The iPhone 4 was released too. The apple people are geniuses, (and not in terms of their technology). In terms of Youtubers. DeStorm as a new shoe modeled after him. Dave days is switching from paradies to his own stuff ( now not only is he cute, he is talented too).

But you would see this in all other year reviews.

Every year, I write a letter to myself and the very next year I read the letter and reflect. It is a good practise. I (finally) found last years letter and remember my deep and strong feelings towards getting into the school and course of my dreams. You may think now that this is some random rant but not entirely. Every year, around this time, I write two very personally letters, one to myself and another to my readers.

This year, thanks to everyone, I hit my 10,000 views. It was something to celebrate. I don’t see the numbers flying or sky rocketting any time soon but I am glad that I have a generally healthy flow of traffic to my blog. People ask me what do I write about and I tell them life. Sometimes it is personal. Sometimes I am trying to convince you of a cause and sometimes I am not too sure myself. That is life. Life is such a broad topic and I think that is why I love it so much. Like the quote above, no one really knows how to live. And I know many say ‘oh, you need a niche for your blog’. Screw you! Life is a niche. Everyone can relate to it. And when I blog, I figure out how people live and why people live them and try and understand you. And then try to tell you what I understand.

Next year, I will cramming (again) for exams. But I will blog when I have the chance and inspiration. But I plead all of you. Go out to the world and forget that its 2011 tomorrow. Enjoy countdown celebrations. Eat, drink ( don’t drink and drive). Tomorrow will come sooner than any of us will hope. And watch out. I might just be writing my 2011 year review WAY faster than any of us thinks.

All the best for the new year.

Love, Cheyenne.

Welcoming 2011 with a new habit.

Adventure must start with running away from home. William Bolitho.

Dear World,

I know it is a coupld of days before the actual new year, but I thought I would promise my readers that I will commit to a new habit. What brought this on you might ask? Well, recently, I have been reading some articles and blogs about improving my writing. Many mention a form of a niche, something I concerntrate on. But, being me, I can’t really do that. I have too many opinions about way too many things. So, to try and keep my blog fresh, I will commit myself to find appropreate quotes to start each post.

I happen to like quotes. And may be it will help you too.

Let’s look at the one that starts this post. Adventure must start with running away from home.

I hope everyone gets that there is a potential hidden meaning under this quote. Home= security. ANYTHING that makes your feel secure. Adventure is all about taking risks; stepping out of your comfort zone.

There are a few reasons why this quote kind of starts off 2011, although not officially. Firstly, next year is my A level year and in terms of my theatre studies,  I might have to take big risks in order to be able to try and hit my best potential. Secondly, its a dare for you. In 2011, I would like everyone reading this to try and do something really really unusual for you. Be it bungee jumping or trying some new mexican cuisine. You don’t have to do it at the BEGINNING of the year. Take your time with this. If you know you can get impatient try a jig saw puzzle, 750 pieces.

Actually, everyday has potential for new experiences and new posibilities. You just need to run away from ‘home’ and take that risk.

SPG? Still exist?

Dear World,

Hmm, The topic of today is “SPG, is it still a relevant term used today?”. For all those who are not sure with the term SPG, it is short for ‘Sarong Party Girl’.

Now a SPG is -was- defined as an asian woman dating a white man. A party girl. Apparently.

Why the sudden and strange topic? Well, I was reading an article in a woman’s magazine about Miss Singapore having a British boyfriend. Well, someone wrote in to the magazine to make a comment with an article she read in the local paper about Miss Singapore and her British boyfriend and she was called an SPG.

You have to get the historical fact about this term.  About 20 years ago, when the white man came exploring Singapore, the local women saw them having money and power and a status increase ( generally speaking). There was something sexy and appealing about having a white man on your arm, walking down the street. It showed everyone that ‘I was better than you’.

Now, the issue is, with an ever globalizing world, is the definition of a SPG changed? Can the term even exist any more?

Well, I’ve been doing some research online ( not too much. With this topic, you never know what you can find).  There are women that disagree with this and there are others that consider themselves as a SPG and they are proud of it. Warning, some of their blogs are a bit R and X rated but there are insightful to how they live their lives. They are so proud to call themselves a SPG.

I suppose the term can still exist, but may be it should not be used so lightly.

UK increase in uni fees

Dear world,
If you do not know, I am not a UK citizen and hence will not be complaining about the increase in university fees in the UK.( international students would still pay full fees… That’s if I was going to UK. But I’m not)
So you do not need click the X on your browser. No complaints about the UK parliament here.
But I was on twitter and I searches ‘university fees’ and everyone spammed the same few messages, asking the same few questions, had plans to walk out on classes on Wednesday at 11am local time etc etc.
I would like to politely inform all the UK students that I feel frustrated as well, but not for the same reason they feel frustrated.
You may think ‘you will never be a UK citizen so you don’t understand ‘ but hear me out.
I may not understand, yes, because even subsidized tuition fees here are rather high ( higher then UK anyways) and £9000 may seem like a reasonably cheap price to pay for an education in university and I still stand by the fact that it still is considerably cheap to get a degree. Slightly over $10000 Singapore dollars if my maths is accurate. (Singapore dollar is strong now, so this might increase in coming months).
I am also trying to understand the UK system alil bit more. Most of the tuition fees are tax payer’s money and in fact most things in UK are paid with tax ( if my sources are accurate). I am not condemning this system but I do not entirely agree with it (neutral stand, don’t want to interfere too much with politics) but I think, there are always two sides to this story.
The students strongly strongly believe in their right of an education, and I will not deny them that right. But a free education in a materialistic world? Nothing in a materialistic world is free. It either has been already paid for or is highly subsidized. but yes, education is very important and you have your right to one. But there is this arguement that came across BBC news and twitter post. One girl on BBC that was interviewed or made a comment or something, well, she said my parents had a free university education, they should be paying the taxes for mine ( trying to remember this from memory) and someon on twitter commented that scottland had free education, why should the UK students have to pay.
I am sorry, no matter how much I try and remember the girl, I keep thinking it was a void argument. it made no real sense. As for the second one, well, that is life for you. If that is the cast I should be arguing that my education should be free too. Most Singapore students do take Cambridge exams.
And well, the government has to do this, to an extent. With the financial crisis several months ago that still affected several countries, the government must make more money than it gives to the people before becoming bankrupt. Then students really will have something to protest about.
Well people feel social injustice, they do not sit back and think. They are just filled with emotion. That was why the protests ended up being violent.
Hope UK hangs in there.
Regards,
Cheyenne

Turkey: arrival

Greetings. Greetings from Istanbul,Turkey. I have nit see much of this country but I can tell you one definate thing. It is VERY cold.
But since I have nothing to say about this country just yet, I would like to share with you something else.
Crime and punishment.
Weird for a 17 year old to talk about crime and punishment you say? Well not when you are a junior collge student in Singapore.
This years holiday assignment for GENERAL PAPER was to read the crime and punishment package. So I took it with me to Europe…on my so called holiday.
I have read the first few articles, writing notes, citing examples and
well, learning about crime and punishment in general. In fact I am very happy that brought the package along with me, so I could relate and compare Singapore and the other countries I have and will be visiting.
It seems to me, crime is a very….contraversal. More than originally thought.
Be it nuture vs nature or the forms of punishment.
I am convinced that genetics do have a part to play with the involvement of crime but I strongly believe that your destiny is in your hands and not in your genes. If you wish to embrace these so called ‘crime genes’ and use that as an excuse, go ahead and have that kind of life. Even with nuture, by using it as an excuse you are not taking a proactive approach to your life.
I think that is why I am having a tough time with this topic….
I believe in changing your destiny

Greece

Dear world.
Me again! Sorry that I have not been posting about beautiful Greece! I will be going to turkey tonight so I thought I could tell you all about Greece right now.
So i’ve been staying in Athens, walking distance from the acropolis! Yes, walking distance. No I have not walked up there. I took a bus!
Everything in Greece is so beautiful. I’ve climbed up to temples and theaters. I saw the original Olympic stadium and rn in it. I lost to my sister.
What amazes me is that the same time last year, I was in Italy and fence and switerland and those places were jam packed with people. And I bet it still is now. But I look at Greece, it offers so much more culture and history. It offers, in a sense, more magic.
I recommend Greece especially in autumn, when the sun and wind are friends. Stay a week or two nd do everything you can.
Make sure you have a good guide.

Does Complex equal simple?

Dear World,

Watch this video first please!

Complex does not equal to complicated.

Interesting concept. I also liked how he explained everything in three minutes and 28 seconds.

I, personally like complex ideas and situations because then I can take the time to solve them and have some fun, (yeah…I know I might be weird!). But you need to understand. Complex situations just means there is a lot of mess behind the actual problem.  Everything is just very simple. People just make a mess of simple things, making them complicated and visually complex.

Note: VISUALLY COMPLEX! Re-watch the video if you must. He had this mind map stuff or atom like stuff and he made them smaller or more condense and precise. You could understand how to solve the problem.

It makes very good sense if you think about it. I just thought I share it with you.

Singapore Housing: worries, problems, and may be a solution?

Dear World,

I have found some interesting data which I would love to share with you all.

You see me General Paper teacher keeps telling me to read and I have been but so far, the reading has not been spreading far just yet. It will. For now I want to discuss some thing I find very serious to my future and to the future of Singapore. Who knows? You might just be involved in it to.

It started off with my cousin, Jackie’s wedding last year and now the housing situation with her and her husband is not all that ideal I heard ( they don’t have a place of their own yet) and this coming september her sister, Von, will be tieing the knot too. I am curious about thier housing situation. AND THEN, my relatives were all teasing Nic’s boy friend ( Nic is the youngest of the 3 sisters) what time next year do they expect to mark in their calenders. After drunken giggles, the boyfriend said save money to get a house and then get hitched ( I am exaggerating the get hitched part, he did not really say that).

Then the conversation went on to rising house prices ( my family is always like that). I have seen with my very own eyes that prices of housing are going up by a hundred or may be two hundred thousand and many properties are worth ONE MILLION SINGAPORE DOLLARS ( you can sent at least 3 kids to an overseas university with ONE MILLION SINGAPORE DOLLARS).

Now here is my isusse ( for lack of a better term).

With the Singapore Goverment wanting more couples to get married and have 3 or more kids ( new campaign), how can they when they can’t even afford a house big enough to fit 3 or more kids? The goverment claims that the problem is that women are becoming more educated and want to have career lives. This is NOT entirely true. There are those that want to start a family but they have to settle the house before doing ….
They have to work and earn enough to move out of their parent’s house and get their own place and THEN they can START thinking about having 3 or more kids like the goverment wants.

So I propose the goverment try and help couples out. Give compensation for couples who want a house but can’t afford it. Set some new requirements. Sure they might not want to have kids immediately after getting a house, but they sooner they have a place to call their humble abode, then they sooner they can start thinking of having the sounds of pitter pattering feet running all over the place. AND THE SOONER YOU WILL BE HAPPY!

Think about it. I don’t know if this post will make much of a difference, but I don’t know if writing into parliment is the brightest idea either especially if I don’t have statistics to back up my ‘claims’. But it is a growing trend. That should count for something.

oh my gosh. The Prime Minister was right. Some of us Pre-University Seminar people might end up in politics.

The scary thing is that I might be one of them.

Terrified,
Cheyenne

P.s. I premed my hair

P.p.s Tomorrow are my exams. Wish me luck

Being yourself, truely

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. My cousin helped prove that to me tonight.

You see we are all different people with different strengths and weaknesses and different talents as well. I can’t be Jonny Depp or Britney if I wanted to. I can only be me.

So just a little reminder.
Being perfect sometimes isn’t worth it.
It is not worth the mess.
Believe me or not and face the fact,
Don’t try and put it to the test.
Take what you have
And make it grow
And trust me
The products will show
Sometimes just being ‘me’
Is the best I can be 

I hope that helped everyone out tonight oh and btw I downloaded wordpress on my I-phone so I can update as soon as an idea pops into my head so you will get updates from me more often 
Take care
Cheyenne Phillips

Those who can’t teach review

Originally staged in 1990, Director Alvin Tan and Playwirght Haresh Sharma returned to reinvent and revamp the play into a comtemporary classic. The Play revloves around a particular teacher’s experiences and branches out to her fellow educators, her students her personal life and the personal lives of those around her. Various Themes were explored such as Teacher-Parent relationships, self-discovery, the need to fit in and the idea of elitism among both teachers, students and the entire education system.
The orriginal set was of a staff room. There were elevated platforms from centre stage right all the way to center stage left and down stage left which elevated the tables and chairs in the respective areas. Down stage centre there was a long table as well. Along the cyclorama, lifted about 2 meters of the ground were white sign boards with a few of them suggesting what the education system is all about. Along the play, there were several set changes, platforms were rolled out and replaced with other platforms with other types of furniture like sofa’s or louge chair to suggest a change in scene. Most scene changes were shown through these set changes. Lighting and sound played more major parts when required, for example a purple light was used to indicated that Mrs Phua was dreaming about teaching in an elite school and having perfect students or when prom came about or Ms Hana’s wedding was being performed.

As for acting, there is no way to really compare anything. Everyone had strong characterisation considering 4 out of the 5 cast members played multiple roles, everyone had a strong pressence on stage and each showed how their respective characters transitioned. It is something I think I can take back, having a strong transition and showing how my character develops over time. The one person who had suffient amount of ‘airtime’ to show this was Ian Tan’s character, Tek Liang. His character transitioned from a smart bad boy to a smart boy without his original girlfriend and feeling empty inside. His greatest transition was in Act 2 where the signboards along the cyclorama suggested how the education system may not be suitable or there was a lack of education for some students.

If there was a lesson- a life lesson- that I learnt by watching this performance was when Jali got his O level results in Act 1 and his teacher, Mrs Phua says that he should resit the O levels after failing and one day her will return and thank her and all his teacher and later in Act 2 about 15 years later, he comes back to see his teacher, Mrs Phua and explains that he did take the O levels again and failed…again and he went on to to several jobs that fit his qualifications, showing how the education system and exams may not be the way to be considered successful. And it is sad that there are people no matter how much they believe in themselves and work hard.