essentialprint

Haven't been here for long.
But I'll be back soon, I hope.
Till I find the strength to be honest with myself again.

 

(Source: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/heavy-loss-to-my-cabinet--pm-lee-.html)

Don't just talk the talk, walk the talk.
This is just the beginning.
Stop treating us like robots and ruling Singapore as if this is an imperialistic state.
History will repeat itself, and this time, possible irreversibly, if nothing changes within the next five years.

Edit: BTW, read international news or yahoo, don't bother with those state-owned media.
Their reporting is, for a lack of a suitable word, disgustingly bias.
I bet half of them had their journalistic ethics shoved down their a** when they covered the GE this year.
 

Yes, that's right.
I can do this.
Internship, work, school, business plans and FYP - bring it all on, just bring it all on.
I'm going for nothing less than world domination, you should join me too!
YAY
*Pumps fist in air*



Bye.

A writer in my current company was sharing with me about her career history a few days ago.

She told me she was an accountant before joining this company.
She was earning a take-home salary of $5k, had a personal assistant and her own office in one of the big 4 accounting firms.
She gave it all up - for a job which gave her a take-home of less than $2k.
It didn't mattered to her that she didn't have the relevant degree nor the experience for the publishing industry.
She wasn't afraid of starting all over again either.

To put things in perspective, right now, she is at the lowest rung of the entire company, she is an assistant to the editors and the writers, and she only has a cubicle to call her own.
She even have to run errands that nobody else wants to.
She is 27, and she is just starting on a brand new career in an entirely different industry all over again.
People challenged her decision and she told me many close friends even called her stupid.

I wanted to know very badly what drove her to her decision.
She told me very simply that sometimes you just have to put yourself out there, to give yourself a chance to have a go at something you believe might work out better for you.
Some people work for money, some people work for passion, some people want a life beyond their career - there's nothing wrong with any of these. You just gotta know what is your priority in life and what keeps you going.
I asked her if she's happier now.
She hesitated for quite awhile, said she think she is happier, and told me she never regretted taking the leap.

Respect, was all I had for her by the end of the conversation.
Maybe sometimes, we really need to ignore the nay-sayers and take that leap of faith.
Jiayou everyone! :)

"Tear down the mirror in front of you -- the one that makes you look at yourself.
Tear down the mirror and you will see the millions of people that need your help."

- Sargent Shriver, Founder of peace corp

It's easy to say words like that. But to be able to live your life with these words as your guiding principle, that's an entirely different story.
For that, he earned the respect he deserve. RIP.
The world can do with more people like him.

-
On a random note, everyone should read Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club.
Seriously. It's a fucking masterpiece. Pardon the language but there's no better way of describing it really.
Here are a few quotes that stuck by me.

"This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time."

"It's only when you lose everything, that you are free to do anything"

"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. "

"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. "

And, the the one that hit me the hardest?
 

"Losing all hope was freedom"

I cannot agree more.
Thanks to the life I had a few years back, that I'm leading such a perfectly beautiful life now, surrounded by beautiful people who would never let me down :)

Go read the book or catch the film, then spend some time pondering over it.
It's definitely worth your time.

Have a good week ahead everyone!


 

2011's been awesome so far!
I have been pretty busy with work so I haven't had the time to update here at all.
But it's been such a eventful 4 weeks at work!
Just last week, I had foie gras, abalone and damn awesome peking duck.
It was also my first experience with real fine dining.
I have to say I was really blown away.

And today, I had to go to 4 media tasting and I ate so much I feel like puking now.
Oh, and today, my editor told me that I need to be more opinionated.
Now, that's a first.
Usually, people tend to tell me that I can get too overly opinionated. LOL
I also realise how much I overlook economy of words. 
In school, because we have to churn out essays that range from 2000 to 3000 words, we tend to go on and on and on.
But now, most of the time, I'm only given 60 words to make a point.

Often, I find myself at a loss as to how to make the most impact and bring the point across succinctly.
Not forgetting, I realise how stressful it is to work under crazy tight and last minute deadlines.

I really have to give it to all the insanely talented people in my company who always never fail to impress.

It's been really fulfilling and I guess I am really lucky that I'm getting all the opportunities to write, attend media events and just learn the ropes from some of the best and most influential people in the industry.
All this has seriously created a lot of good networks which might be handy in future as well.
I'm more than thankful.

And, it's really true that passion drives motivation.
I am so obsessed with work that one month just flew by and I didn't even noticed.
I love this job.
Now, I gotta make full use of this training and hope that the best comes out from it.
Wish me good luck :)