a screwed up philosopher.

hello, everyone! happy vesak day! anyway, that's not what i wanna say with this post...

against better judgment, here i am, blogging, rather than counting atoms and electrons in the stupid chem notes. sigh. but i guess most of us have pretty hectic holiday schedules... is there a sense of fulfillment there? i hope you guys are feeling good about working :)

hmm. the paradox of work. isn't it quite interesting that humans cannot enjoy life to the fullest without work? we whine all day long about working, but when we get to rest and relax, we start thinking about work again... it seems to form part of our survival instinct, i suppose. we have to constantly deliberate over our decisions, so that we don't get caught unprepared in times of crisis... especially in this dangerous and chaotic world, where everyone else is finding an opportunity to put you down, there's hardly any real chance for us to actually rest; there is a constant need for us to strategise, to think ahead. the human mind is hardly at rest.

i'm pretty awake right now, thanks to a macs bagel and two cuppas... wonder if the salt and caffeine are doing things to my head.. increased alertness? (amanda chong should try it before the ki blocks and see if it makes her get a perfect score :P oh the ki trinity - amanda, bernice and the holy karen) many thoughts swirling in my mind, no thanks to the sheer number of activities this week, next week and the week after next...

thinking about yesterday's coffee session with aaron, yifan, hao chuien, ongzy and shou hao, the whole topology thinggy... quite enjoyable, although the topic was rather intellectual (again, no thanks to the human topology innuendoes)! maybe the aroma of coffee opens up people's minds, haha... i'm still dreaming of a nice bio project that can earn as much as vaintrob :P [this para is quite random, so don't think too much over what i said... it's just showing how much i enjoyed the conversation :D]

anyway, has anyone felt unappreciated recently? i guess i have been doing a lot, but people seem to take it for granted... hmm. i think that that's how most of our service staff are feeling - underpaid and severely mistreated. the papers says it, the news programme says it, but no one really gives a heck what the media has to say (usually i don't give a damn either, but this one is painfully relevant) about singaporeans' service dna. it isn't just about singaporean staff's attitude towards their clients, but also the way we, as consumers, treat the people who serve us.

true, there are examples of poor service everywhere we go. but was it like this, to begin with? as individuals, people start out, passionate about serving their customers and trying to meet the clients' needs. however, when these customers appear to be taking their hard work as a consumer's right (rather than a privilege), they don't feel for the job anymore. really, i was in the same situation as well. i volunteered to do all the coordination and liaison with the lecturers because i felt that i had to fulfill an obligation to the team. reminders in the form of emails and smses (mind you, it isn't cheap when you have to send out so many at the same time), and what do you get in the end?

no one seeks rewards consciously, but what they really want is a word of thanks. not censuring anyone here (lest i sound like a particular tutor), but really, some people lack the EQ to even recognise other people's efforts. if someone thinks that what you are doing is peanuts (not an allusion to durai, ok?), let him/her do it. coordination and liaison aren't as simple as "contact lecturer, compare schedules, find common slot, arrange lecture. case closed". if it were so mechanistic, there won't be frustrated secretaries and vexed scribes in this world - you can just leave it to a computer. in fact, if you were to ask me, i think that a secretary is really more busy than his/her CEO boss -he/ she has to keep track of so many more things! but even that is a special case - secretaries are paid to do it. but poor volunteers like me, and so many exco members in school ccas? they don't get a thing! at the very least, exco members get to glorify themselves in their testimonials, but i? i'm not even guaranteed a place on the team; i still have to mug! grrh. to top it all, not everyone is thankful that there is actually someone coordinating...

how many people said thanks? hmm. two? how many times, then? erm, thrice in two months? that's sooooo comforting. even my teachers and best friends bother to say, "hi liangwei" before a message... it's basic respect for others and a subtle display of self-respect. it's disturbing how indifferent our peers can get. people can just write an sms, like, "can you tell me when this-and-that is happening? it's not convenient for me to go online to check it." dammit, i don't owe you people any favour! you don't even have to write the word, "thanks", explicitly (i know how some people see that as a form of weakness/gaiety, but whateva, you can't have both ego and humility); you could have said something like, "could you please send me the info" or "could you kindly tell me over the phone", that implies some form of appreciation. but nooo, you wanna demonstrate your brahmin superiority over me, so that i know my place as an untouchable...

sorry for writing all these... in a very emo mood now, with all the maroon five and fallout boy music... sigh.