Pre-trip ideas

Dear World,

I would like to announce that I have been chosen by the Ministry of Information, Communication and Arts (MICA) to blog for them about Singapore Day in Shanghai this April, something I did not expect to win ( it was a contest).

While I am excited about the event I refuse to check out Singapore Day’s website. I would like to go there, get a full experience without any background information about the event, even though it’s too late now cause I know which local artists are going.

However there are some questions I want to see if I can answer when I am there. Firstly, how strong is the Singapore Spirit there and is it so strong that the physical boundaries do not distort this Spirit? Can the essence of Singapore (or any country really) be captured into one day? Is the social/cultural fabric similar or different?

I suppose MICA would want me to ‘report’ on the day but I am not entirely sure if I can do that. Everything I blog about, I try to relate back to what I learn in school and what I learn about the world. 

If you are wondering where all this is coming from, I am actually preparing for an exam tomorrow and was reading my Globalisation notes. Hey, I’m still schooling. There are somethings I still have to do.

Cheyenne

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.

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

A more dangerous world

http://www.newsweek.com/id/233838

read the article first

Strangely enough, these are one of the few things in the world that we know at the back of our heads but it is very pushed to the front until an article  like this shows up and tells us off.

It is amasing what our world is coming too and what ignorence we have not to learn from misfortunes and beliving that nothing will happen to us. It astounds me how much the human race believes it is more powerful than mother nature that we need not care about her ‘ little power’.

To be honest, some of it is human ignorence while some of it is basically how we work.

I just wanted to share

The Singaporean Dream

I am currently studying in a JC. The next step in the educational system here is a University education. This is what society expects of me. Sometimes I wonder I am expect of me.

To be honest, I had no intention of contining my education. If I could, I would drop out and travel the world and see and learn and meet people from different walks of life. However, in this fast-paced world, I can not afford it. I will not survive. Without credentials, a job, money, no one can survive. No one can make a mistake because many know that one mistake can cause you everything.

In fact, making mistakes has become a ‘ crime’  in the Singaporean education culture to the extent that students rather not learn, but memorise their texts and encrave the knowledge in their brains and then just ‘copy and paste’ everything back on their examination papers. This is not only seen in primary and secondary educational institutions but also in JCs. No one in my lectures raise any questions of clarification or possible other doubts. People believe whatever the lecturer says is 100percent true. Not me. I like a clear my doubts. I feel very unsafe with uncleared doubts.

Before I side track further, I would like to talk about my project work presentation assignment. It is a mini competition with in school to improve our presentation skills. The questions is ‘ Youths have a role to play in_________’

I have an idea which I intend to build on tomorrow but for now  I just wanted people to think about youths and their roles in society.

Adam Lambert Performance: For your entertainment.

Dear World!

HAHA. Actually I had a discussion about this video with 2 of my JC friends and I had told them that I havent seen the video. They described it to me and I thought ‘ OMG ADAM HOW COULD YOU!” ( I am a FAN!)

Then I saw the video and I began to laugh. Several Reasons why. Firstly, the song he sang was ” For your entertainment”. Ladies and gentlemen of the world, Adam Lambert is an artistic genius trapped in a world of non-believers. I know I am making it sound like I have joined the ADAM LAMBERT CULT but listen. There is not such cult. Ok I can explain his performance, just people of the world, listen to me.

For your entertainment is a song which Lambert Genius-ly picked out and the dancing, lighting, staging and the whole theme behind it was genius! He did it all for your entertainment. Now you might say you are not entertained. REALLY? You all seem to be going on about how bad an influence he is. How long ago was his performance anyways? Last week?

If anything 4 minute performance that keeps people talking for about a week is not entertainment then I don’t know what is.

I saw everything from start to finish. I watched it again. I listened to the lyrics. Here are the lyrics that struck me the most. ( Oh yeah! I don’t think everything in this world is wrong. In fact I believe people are innocent until proven guilty)

I bet you thought that I was soft and sweet
You thought an angel swept you off your feet
Well I’m about to turn up the heat
I’m here For Your Entertainment

Hey! This is hard to explain. Society believes his actions were…not appropreate. I believe it fits in perfectly which the song, the lyrics and his overall image. Ladies and Gentlemen, sex sells! It is a fact! Even if it is gay sex, it does sell if use well to sell.

You want to know how sex sells? Notice how much publicity Lambert’s performance got over the past week? The number of exclusives? The number of magazines that interviewed him. The number of sites that disagree with his artistic talents and the sites that do agree? The number of views on that video on youtube?

Sex sells ladies and gentlemen. It was a genius performance, admit it. Well thought out, genius theme. I think it was the best thing I have ever seen the entire year and I have seen a lot of new movies recently. Trust me. Adam’s performance was way more appealing than some of the movies I just saw. It had high energy, there was many things happening which was appealing to the eyes, the flashing lights, the flexible dancers, Adam’s  “bold”  moves. It will definitely be a performance that you will not forget.

It does not even matter if you agree of disagree with it. You know you will never forget it.

Regards,

Cheyenne

There is a scary kid world too!

Dear world,

I know I was blogging about the scary adult world in my previous post. Now I am here to blog about the scary kid world.

Adults don’t understand teenagers and kids ( under 13) don’t understand teenagers for one reason and one reason alone. At teenagehood, you begin to realise that the kid world and the adult world are constantly clashing.

This is the only reason why being a teenager is so damn hard!

When you are a kid, there are a few basic expectations. Be respectful to your parents. Make your parent proud. Do well in school. Others are like, love your siblings, have fun, enjoy.

When you are an adult, you have expectations too. MOVE OUT! Get a job! Earn money and make a living. Those are the basic expectations. Others are like own a car, own a house ( move out and own a house is a different thing all together), get married and give your parents grandchildren.

Kids have it tough. Parent yell at them. Some feel like they can’t talk to their parents. They have to be the perfect child. They have to paint, dance, act, sing, play the guitar or some other musical instrument and score at acadamics. Kids really have no time to play!

That is all they want . PLAY! Kids are biologically programmed to play. That is all they want.

Adults get more freedom ( that is why alot of teens want to grow up faster, the freedom. I will touch on this more later). They make their own choices, do what they want, they are responsible for themselves. They don’t understand what that is like yet because they have yet to move out but! They don’t care. As long as their parents ( who say they love them) aren’t under the same roof they are fine.

To all parents. Give your teens the freedom. Because to keep love is to give it wings. I know you don’t want them drinking smoking or doing drugs and most kids, if they know that they are given the oppertunity to be responsible without their parents breathing down their necks about it, they will be responsible. Parents say they love their kids. I think they say it by default. Some love their kids. Most not really. Most don’t love their kids unconditionally. I believe that is how conflict between parents and teens arise. The lack of love from the parents side. I am not being biase. I am being truthful.

Most teens just want to be understood and accepted especially by the 2 people who tell them they love them. Honestly, parents! If you contradict yourself, immediately your teen will not believe you anymore!

You know we arent that tough to figure out. You just lack the understanding that it is not us that is the problem and making us emotional and rebilliant. It is our surroundings and situations. And , trust me that includes you.

This is actually on a personal note but I wish my mum just knew that I love her and that I just want her to trust me and love me unconditionally, no matter who my friends are , what school I go to and my appearence. I also wished she knew how much I am so afraid to ask her things and talk to her….because the fact of the matter is…I already know her answer to each question I ask. I don’t see the point in asking any more.

Teens, try and understand your parents. They love you. Yes they do. They just don’t understand you. Be patient and hopefully.

Parents, you don’t need to agree. You just need to understand. However, if you keep your teen waiting too long, you actually may lose contact with them after they move out.

With regards,

Cheyenne…

The scary adult world awaits….

Hey….fast and enhanced adult world.

I am Cheyenne. I am 16 and I am SCARED AS HELL.

There are many reasons to why I am scared as hell. Firstly, my school posting results are out in about 10.25 hours from now. That would be 8am on the 27th of January Singapore local time that the Ministry of Education releases the posting results. I DON’T KNOW IF I CAN GET INTO THE SCHOOL(S) OF MY CHOICE!!!!!!!!!!! Secondly, I have another fear concerning the school(s) of my choice. You see, I am eligible to enter a Junior College( JC) where it is compulsory for me to take Malay as a subject. If you haven’t been following my blog, or if I have yet to mention it then I will mention it now. I SUCK AT MY MOTHER TONGUE! Finally my mum told me I might not be able to study in an overseas university because we might not afford it.

NOW I AM SCARED AS HELL. I want to cry so much. Not that I hate Singapore Universities. I just really want to get out of this country. Plus there are universities that offer me better Drama or Marine Biology courses. I am currently looking at scholarships. I AM 16 AND I AM LOOKING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS!!!!!

There are other options. I am looking for a part time job. I am scared to death as it is and I don’t mind tutoring little kids to help fund my college courses. I don’t want to commit to a job just yet. I don’t know what my timetable is like until I enter a school (which I hope is soon).

I feel like a kid living in an adult world. My parents tell me don’t grow up too fast but the fact of the matter is that I have to. I can’t survive in this world without ‘ growing up fast’ . The harsh reality is hitting me hard, and I am not even facing the worst of it yet. I should have taken up a job.

I think when I am all settled, I’ll apply to a tuition center.

I am a kid living in an adult world. I wanted to grow up fast. I wanted to be free and I wanted to be extremely adult. Now I wish time would stop. Just for me. I don’t want to grow up any more.

I am scared for what the world will bring to me.

Sometimes I wish I didn’t turn 16…..

Lots of luck,

Cheyenne

Nothing in life is free.

And this doesn’t even apply to money!

Seriously. This post is free. The only thing you will get free from me. But remember, you had to buy the laptop,pay for the internet access ( unless you are in a free hotspot) and you have to pay the electrical bill at the end of the month for charging your laptop. If you ask me where did I get this silly explanation above, I would like to thank my class 4/9 of 2009. I remember this answer and I know which girl said it ( all girls school remember?) but I can’t remember the question…hmmm

Anyways I hope you don’t mind the above wackiness. I am getting to my point.

Last Monday at 2pm, the GCE O level results were released. All my friends and schoolmates went back to school to collect our results. Some had tears of happiness, some had tears of sorrow and some ( like me) just could not believe their results.

Before I go on, I would just like to express my reason to why this post is so late. It is because, if I posted it any earlier it might come off as a bragging post rather than an inspirational one. I will not post the actual results like how many As and Bs I got but I will tell you that I am a 12 pointer. It is not a perfect score but it comes pretty close.

Anyways, to all those who got great results, congrats and I believe all of you will agree with me that we worked our butts off for those results. We either worked unbelievably hard or studied using mind maps, audio tapes or other methods of studying and revising that we know will work for us.

However, I do not wish to discourage those who did not do so well. Exams are not for everyone. This is why school does not work well.

If you were present at any Singaporean school ( I don’t know about the rest of the world), you could hear people tell the top students that they are so smart. “GENIUS AH YOU!” is the slang version or “You are VERY SMART LA!”. I had people tell me what too. Well not really. I am not really smart. In fact I entered secondary school with a low Primary School Leaving examination grade. I worked my butt of for this exam because I had a goal. Some didn’t do well because they were unsure of their goals, others just did not have any and sometimes it is external reasons why one does not do well.

However, work your butt 0ff. Take it from me. I squeezed my brain during the examinations and worked my butt of months before.

I have a friend, Herman. A few months he asked me for my goal grade. I told him 6 which is all As. He said it was impossible. I am from a convent school. A neighbourhood school. I should not dream big.

I might not have reached that goal but I did pretty well, well enough to enter the school which will offer me drama.

A few days ago Herman asked me for my secrets.

I don’t have secrets. I just tried my best and left the rest to God.

Ok. I do have secrets. But when I tell you them, you will think they aren’t really secrets cause you already heard of it. You just haven’t tried it yet.

I use colourful notes, check my work, revise according to how well my brain can cope and use loads of helpful and inspiring phrases. I visualise my results why before hand. You must be a dreamer and you must have courage

Dreams are like stars you may never touch them but if you follow them they will lead you to your destiny ( Anonymous)

Courage is not the absence of fear but the acquired ability to move beyond fear. ( Matthew Kelly)

The way of Tattoos

Today I went to the Tattoo convention at expo. Today was the last day of the convention and I went and I saw loads of people getting tattoos making tattoos and browsing tattoos. I am that person browsing!

But the number of people there, the booths. It was amazing. And the different types of tattoos and the different cultures coming together. There was the mordern way of doing tattoos and the traditional way and everything around me just screamed culture. Everything just went wow. I was filled a hall with people and experiences and who are artist and who put art on their bodies. It amazed me their commitment to such an art. An art which is often not looked highly upon.

I adore that people come together and celebrate what they love and bring to the table new ideas, images, cultures.

I don’t know why tattoos aren’t really highly looked upon in society but if you look at it differently, there is a purpose and reason to why people want art on their bodies. It is a whole new way of admiring.

I am planning to get one….when I am legal of course…right now too many ideas floating in my head on what to do but I am planning to do a small one.