beyond gold: the yog documentary

ADVERTORIAL (though i'm not earning money from it)

it started from this:




and then this:
and so on my last day of work, i went MIA for a few hours.


the preview theatre at cine's hidden, so mysterious. had to ask a staff there for directions.


the ticket says "bloggers"! and we were each entitled to a small combo hence the drink and popcorn.

screening of the documentary started half an hour late, after the COO arrived and gave his speech.

beyond gold follows the lives of three athletes, A (cycling), C (judo) and R (fencing), people inside lyo and merly (most of them are guys), and syogoc members.

i think A is quite good looking (and was sitting just below sebas, whom i gave the other ticket to), so i shall start with him. he started competitive cycling after his dad advised him to concentrate on one of his many hobbies, and after competing for a few months, he had already earned himself three medals. his family is constantly behind him, especially his dad, who was all supportive and excited in the show. he was at the preview with A too.

C is a rj student. switched primary schools due to gep. was quite fat. started judo in sec 1 just because he thought it was a fun sport. coach thought he was an ordinary kid, but realised he's really hardworking. the documentary showed clips of C competing and training, and his expression always shows one thing i find common among many rj students: the hunger to win. not a bad thing, i must say. it's prolly what brought all of them so far. the most memorable part of the documentary (not just the parts that featured C), is where after he lost a match to the south africa representative, the guy actually came to him and asked, "are you okay?", because it was a really rough match.

R is a hc girl. she took up fencing in sec 2 after watching parent trap, where lindsay lohan did a fencing scene. she thought the sport was just for leisure, but her coach saw the talent in this left-handed fencer, and groomed her to the youth olympian she will be. R got the chance to train with a left-handed olympian, and you can totally see the bond between the two lefties. like the olympian said, "a left-hander understands another better than a right-hander."

beyond gold also gives us an insight into how the mascots were chosen and made (spray painting of the eyes was quite cool). little post-it strips represented the votes given to the submissions, but i was a little disappointed that no credit was given to the designer(s). it was really interesting though, to see how moves were choreographed for lyo and merly. the hair-flicking action by merly seems normal, but wait till you see the behind-the-scenes. it got the whole theatre laughing.

CEP (culture and education programme) was featured too, and andy was on screen for like two seconds! and sadly they only filmed at marina barrage, no hortpark scenes.

the friendship camp last year was in the video as well, and like all camps, it's really touching when you see previously-strangers supporting and encouraging each other.

oh yes, i couldn't help but feel a little proud when they played the bid-awarding video and showed jj students jumping around after knowing we got the rights. and i was kinda touched that they brought the torch to northlight.

little bite of unimportant but interesting info: vivian blalakrishnan brought his son to both the mascot launch and the 1 year countdown, and his son was wearing the same shirt at both events. and the head of yog has a unibrow. look out for that!(:

leaving you with a quote from an olympian present at the friendship camp, "there are three kinds of feelings. the silver feeling, the bronze feeling, and the gold feeling. and the feeling i like best, of course, is the gold feeling."

watch beyond gold on channel 5, 7 aug, 5.30-6.30pm, or 14 aug 6.45-7.45pm. (just before the opening ceremony) and read the media release of beyond gold here!

beyond gold

seriously. this yog has presented me with so many priceless opportunities. my experience as a volunteer, like the aptly named yog documentary, will be "beyond gold".

i'm one of the 3 selected volunteer bloggers for the media preview of the documentary tomorrow, so stay tuned for the very exciting update coming up!

oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah, HEY!

voices

Polytechnics have planned holidays for students during the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) period. While this may be good for students volunteering at the YOG, Polytechnic students are not the ideal audience of YOG matches since most of them have passed the competing age group of 14 to 18 years old.

On the other hand, Primary and Secondary school students aged between 7 and 16, especially those in school or national teams and hence might still have a go in future installments of YOG, are not given the opportunity to participate in the YOG as live audience. Friends of Singapore representatives might also have to forgo the chance of supporting local talent due to school.

My brother is in the school shooting team. I wish to bring him to the air pistol preliminaries and finals, and he has also expressed great interest in watching the competition in person. However, his interest was dampened after I revealed that the competition will be held on a Tuesday morning. Even though I have contacted his teacher about this issue, he is still hesitant about attending this once-in-a-lifetime event as he will have to miss out on schoolwork should he be granted official leave.

Since Singapore is playing host to the first YOG, shouldn't the Ministry of Education (MOE) create some leeway so that students are able to optimise their experience of this event happening right at their doorstep?

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has delayed its date of term commencement to September as its compounds will be used as the Youth Olympic Village (YOV) to house athletes and team officials during games time. However, as far as I understand, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU) have not made such arrangements to accomodate the significant amount of students who will be volunteering for various aspects of the YOG. Though help has been promised for student volunteers, there is a limit to how far this help can go, and it would still be best that no lessons have to be missed.

The Singapore education system has educated students to contribute to society and participate in Community Involvement Programmes (CIP). Volunteering for the YOG with the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Organising Committee (SYOGOC), as I know, does not award students with CIP hours. This indicates that students who are willing to commit their time and effort this August have wholly embraced the volunteering spirit. To reward these outstanding students, and to practise what it has been preaching since the implementation of CIP, MOE and universities should consider doing more for the students of Singapore this coming YOG.

HAHAHAHA totally praising myself in the last sentence, but whatever!

one week

hate how my smses are selectively replied.

hate how patronising the received messages sound.

hate how the dream is recurring.

hate how i don't know if it might happen.

hate how i actually believe it's happening.

hate how i'm losing faith.

when i was fifteen

my classmate committed suicide

my pri school chinese teacher died of pneumonia

i had people seriously hating me in class

i was trying too hard to get into dance exco

i studied chinese lit. one of my biggest academic mistakes, but one of the best experiences.

i went through a rough patch, but it brought me closer to mr foo, made me a stronger girl, and opened my eyes to the world.



back then i swore i was gonna marry him someday
but i realized some bigger dreams of mine
and abigail gave everything she had to a boy
who changed his mind
and we both cried

'cause when you're fifteen and somebody tells you they love you
you're gonna believe them
and when you're fifteen
don't forget to look before you fall
i've found time can heal most anything
and you just might find who you're supposed to be
i didn't know who I was supposed to be at fifteen

dependance

lunch at work is provided. but today it's cooked from a different kitchen, further away.

it's half an hour into lunch break, yet it's not delivered yet. like, left the kitchen but haven't reach the office.

and many many aunties and uncles are downstairs waiting (and complaining).

but the person in charge insists that the truck has left an hour ago and should have reached. and he doesn't have the driver's contact number.

so we're all stuck here with hungry souls.

that's so true of the globalised word, no? we're all outsourcing our stuff to be so interdependent that once an arm fails, the whole body's paralysed.

like how my company's depending on company K to get workers, yet K employees do a sucky job at it, and our hr miscommunicates with the managers, and the managers who have planned work for the people hired by K have to do the planning all over again.

this yog won't end pretty. but of course it will look nice in front of the laymen. and the gahmen.

i haven't seen my boyfriend for a week, yet i've met up with his brother twice. the world is crazy.

song for singapore

i want to sing
sing a song for singapore
with every generation
there's more to be grateful for
so come and sing
sing a song for singapore
you're my brother
you're my sister
i'm thankful for my singapore

not a song you would want to hear a whole padang of people singing together (imagine just 10% of the audience to be tone-deaf) but it has done a great job in getting stuck in my head.

not just the lyrics. the choreographed actions too. and that's very dangerous because i might just wave my hands around like an insane girl in the office.

"you're my history you're my beginning..."

argh.

this will happen again, with the yog theme song. "raise your hands for our generation, fly the flags of every nation, reaching out, to the moment in our lives....."

ah shit.

complete essays while playing farmville

see anything funny?

yeah i know it's quite small, but zoom in on the ads margin, and the second one on the list is:


wth right! i always knew the supply of essays is out there (for a nominal fee) but no need to advertise on fb right!

students are educated time and time again on the importance of integrity. but with satan looming around with such temptations, it's really hard to keep our education system pure.

hormones took over me today.

mood turned really bad this morning/afternoon, made me pissed off at everybody and everything. but what made it worse was that the only person who could set things right didn't even make an attempt to.

but all turned out okay nearer to the end of yog training.

funvee ride was fun because we were all damn high, waving and screaming at random pedestrians and chanting "yog! yog! yog!" 75% of the time. the other 25% was spent camwhoring.

didn't get to see diyana and the other faci babes though. and andy had to forsake the funvee ride so he could clear the mess we created. he has my admiration for being calm and composed all the time even when his job scope's shitty (imo).

human beings to human beings

i guess relationships between people really strengthen with time.

was at jc for less than a month, and when i left i almost cried. esp when i went to tables of people to get them to sign on my jc mug. now becky has left too, after six months. the number of presents she received show how attached the team next door is.

gonna leave sfi in another three weeks, marking three months plus. already people are panicking that there'll be no one to do their ppt slides and excel spreadsheets and operational plans for them. i'm feeling very important. esp when S sent an email to E (and me) and cc-ed boss to say "steph has done a great job by...."

Y very openly exclaimed that i'll be missed after i left, and surprisingly manager G, who i've never really worked with but only chatted on a few occasions such as asking about his son's uni education so i have an inkling on what mine will be like, agreed. so touching right!

gonna miss bitching about stuff with the girls.

yog training at sp tomorrow! very excited, will be meeting the newer volunteers. then i have more people to lament with about nus' refusal to start term after yog.

i previously sent a query to nus' office of admissions to ask if they could push back term commencement. immediately i got an automated response saying they'll answer me in five working days' time. them five working days later i get a reply from the office to say they have submitted the question to the officer in charge who will get back to me soon. then two weeks later, today, i got a reply from the supposed officer asking when i can enroll into nus.

"can" refers to ability to do smthn. i can enroll into nus anytime! all they have to do is send me an official letter saying i have to go register, and i can go! but the problem now is i don't WANT to start school before yog! i don't want to miss class, but i don't want to miss out on this opportunity to volunteer.

i think there isn't enough pride about the yog in sg. everybody's like so bo chup. syogoc is obviously trying very hard (and maybe too hard) to hype the island up, but i guess it's just singaporeans who think that it's none of their business, they're not any sporting personnel and all, nothing to be excited about. rawr. the ideal sign that the yog fever exists, imo, would be to see counterfeit yog items selling in the market. tho it obviously spoils the market for crocodile and othering supporting companies, it would at least show the demand of the people.

but nah, nobody even bothers to stop by to browse merchandise at crocodile's yog booths.

pink ≠ steph

there's so much pink on my blog it's freaking me out. but purple just doesn't have the "oomph" factor, you know? and lime green looks freaky! and cyan comes off as very cold.

gonna learn sign language after yog! mad excited.

that sounds like xiaxue. i may have rubbed off some of her personality by being an almost committed blogder (a word she coined from connecting "blog" and "reader")since like, secondary school years.

getting old already. somebody's celebrating two decades of existence tomorrow.

miracle of the moment

It's time for letting go
All of our if only's
'Cause we don't have a time machine

And even if we did
Would we really want to use it?
Would we really want to go change everything

'Cause we are who and where and what we are for now
And this is the only moment we can do anything about

So breathe it in and breathe it out
Listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment

There's only One who knows
What's really out there waiting
In all the moments yet to be
And all we need to know
Is He's out there waiting
To Him the future's history

And He has given us a treasure called right now
And this is the only moment we can do anything about

So breathe it in and breathe it out
Listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment

And if it brings you tears
Then taste them as they fall
Let them soften your heart

And if it brings you laughter
Then throw your head back
And let it go
Let it go, yeah
You gotta let it go

And listen to your heartbeat

And breathe it in and breathe it out
And listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle of the moment

And breathe it in and breathe it out
And listen to your heartbeat
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss the miracle
Of the moment

an attempt at rp's rj.

republic poly's reflection journal, not somebody's raffles jc.

On your way to school, you see a mother trying to deal with her child throwing a tantrum. What do you do?

Witnessing a mother dealing with her child on the street is no different from being a passerby of a quarrelling couple. It is looking at a commotion in public, a commotion that does not concern me.

I would not want to be involved in the case of a bickering couple, for I do not have the faintest idea of what the commotion is about, and I am at no position to take any stand since I am no acquaintance to them. People tend to disagree at times, and couples are no exception. I will make a silent prayer that hopefully they will sort things out and return to being a happy couple. But other than that little contribution, I will not step in. Not even if things turn violent, because that would put me at more danger. Interfering with a fight will put me at risk of being a victim myself.

Similarly, looking at the case in question, the incident is just an example of a mother educating her child, teaching him how to behave in public. This is a family issue, which I have no right to intercept.

Children of today lead the lives of princes and princesses; they are pampered by their parents and so used to having things done their way that once something is not to their liking, tantrums will be thrown, tears will be cried and screams will be bellowed.

I am aware that the above is a sweeping statement, generalizing people born from the nineties onwards. While I can imagine that not all people falling in the age group determined are born with silver spoons in their mouths, it is not difficult to agree with me that most teenagers and children we see today think they are of some royalty descent.

However, me being me, I absolutely cannot tolerate the ear-splitting din created by children. I have been brought up such that all disagreements shall be settled at home, and no dirty linen shall be washed openly in public. Upon witnessing a mother cajoling her spoilt child, I will throw a stare while continuing my route to school. Make that two stares, one at the child for disgracing the mother by not behaving well in public, and one at the mother for not being able to teach her child well.

I do a huge amount of self-reflection. I see things happening to random men-on-the-street and try to put myself in their shoes, imagining how different my actions will be if I were them. After witnessing this saga, I will imagine that I am the mother and look at the event from her perspective. The child will not be my target of imagination, for I cannot fathom the amount of naivety that I have to take up to assume that identity.

One day in the future, I will have to answer to the government’s call and contribute to the population of Singapore. I will be a mother, and I will have to bring my child out. Before we leave the house, I will give him a strict reminder to behave himself in public and settle any unhappiness whatsoever after we reach home. Should he still decide to cry and scream in public, I will discreetly ask him to shut up. Should he refuse to listen, I will let go of the little hand that I have been holding and walk away. Young as he may be, he needs to learn to listen to instructions. He needs to portray himself well under eyes of the public. He needs to be able to reflect on his wrongdoings. He needs to know that life will not present him with a huge bunch of roses sans the thorns.

After this role-play session, I would most probably have reached school. Being at this age and constantly being bombarded by the westernised television programmes showing gossiping people, I will share the experience with my clique of friends, and see what views they have to share. Then I will hope that the child never embarrasses his mother ever again.

deutschfieber!

got the new post page loaded, then remembered i've got to ask josephine kuehn about german and its tenses.

how is perfekt different from partizip II?

in a bid to freshen my brain from german stagnation, i've read through sowieso 1, half of sowieso 2, then gave up reading these secondary school textbooks because i managed to psycho myself that i'm awesome in german grammar.

actually it's because i think it's too late to clear whatever misconception i have now, especially since i don't have a teacher teacher.

so i better start reading german articles and memorising the worterbuch. like how china chinese learn english. carry a dictionary around.

i rmb honglin used to bring her electronic dictionary everywhere she went so she could translate our conversations and random english words anywhere.

i hope i've got the willpower to do that.

we always complain that prcs snatch away our opportunities, but that's cuz they're more hardworking.

give angelynn her oxygen!

chic magazine's chic genie's giving away $500 weekly to grant the wish of whoever gets the most "likes" on facebook.

angelynn's suffering from lung problems and requires an oxygen machine just to survive. she's currently renting the machine at $120 a month and constantly has to seek medical attention, adding up to a rather significant amount in the long run. but she can get the machine at $2000, and the $500 reimbursement chic genie can provide will go a long way in lightening her load.

angelynn's a little distance away from the top girl with the most likes, since the girl is popular and has publicity done on not just her blog, but a blogshop as well. the $500 will be put to better use helping an ill girl than providing an abled working person with a macbook.

please help to vote for angelynn (by this sunday) by "liking" her photo here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=981375&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=96921045375&aid=-1&id=1597698105&oid=96921045375&fbid=1390105324819

if you're not a fan of chic magazine yet, i.e. you can't "like" the photo using the above link, be a fan now at: http://www.facebook.com/chicreaders after being a fan of chic magazine, you can then access the link on top again to like angelynn's photo. or just go to "fan photos" and find her entry.

spread this around please! she may be a stranger, but she's a fellow human being very much in need of our help(:

i can has formspring too!

because you know you want to know more about me:

http://www.formspring.me/stephyeo

ikea timbre.

nope this is not a post discussing the vast amount of trees sacrificed for ikea's profit margins. nor did i mispell the title. 'cept for maybe the stroke ontop of the e of timbre.

it was the outline of the after work programme last thurs, where i finally met up with jc people. was meant to be just a dinner with the girls at ikea, but since they had programmes extended till late at night, i thought i might as well join in since it was vesak the next day.

so after a meal of meatballs, salmon, chicken wings and mushroom soup, we trained down to timbre, cut the queues and had alcohol and roast duck pizza.

band was nice, food was good, and we all got cosy. ten adults in six chairs, lol.

for a recount from another perspective, visit becky's blog at http://lemonbarleystrawberry.blogspot.com.

sometimes...

i wonder why people think i can create essays out of succinct points. where no elaboration has been provided. it's like giving me a needle and some thread but no cloth, and asking me to produce a jumpsuit.

sorry jumpsuit fever. not that i own any. yet.

so yes due to the aforementioned circumstances, i have next to nothing to do in the office. except glancing out the pull/push glass doors just in case anyone important comes in and catches me facebooking.

kind of have financial independence now. like, i manage my own money and all. even received my cpf letter last night, welcoming me as a member to the cpf board. (wth, just cuz i received my first contribution i gain membership?)

so with that freedom to spend, inevitably i get abit tempted to snag pretty clothes from blogshops. but, must be the chinese in me, i never could bear to transfer money over. gah! i guess physical shops work better for me. less time for personal reflection, especially with salesgirls breathing down my neck most of the time.

nssl results out, says me. because i haven't heard from the nssl people. i'm glad a more deserving person got the top prize. not too bad for me either, a third, though it means a prize worth just a little more than 20% of the top prize. why the difference so big! 950 and 200 leh. but of course, a little money's better than none at all. so i can hit physical shops and get, let's see, flats, heels, jumpsuit, blazer. all with 50 bucks, is that possible? because, the chinese in me again, i'm gonna share the money with the family. i know daddy needs a new keyholder. and brother needs more pants. mummy, i'm just gonna let her decide. mothers never seem to want anything new.

ahhh. counting my chickens before the eggs hatch.

first, with 158 votes, audrey! even though i don't understand what's with the europe thing.

second, with 104 votes, michael. he was leading for like forever, until audrey finally caught up. i didn't want michael to win top prize cuz i don't like the message trey's sending to jesse here.

third, with 68 votes, me! 300+ friends, 300+ wall messages and many many status links, but just 68 votes): oh well.

fourth, colin, with 56 votes.

fifth, 30 votes, karina.

sixth, 30 votes, aileen.

and the rest, who definitely put in effort as well:

a leap of faith

just took that one small step for somebody else but a big step for me.

i clicked on the bubble that said "nus arts and social science", meaning i'm rejecting ntu's offer or psych. so after i send in my form p and nus receives it, i'll be officially an nus student.

omgomgomg. i. am. going. to. uni.

this phase of mine prolly makes zero sense to everybody else, but i know at least one person feeling the same way. ytd at the fass open house, i walked past this girl telling her friends how magical it was, "anyhow take a levels also can end up in nus".

my exact sentiments. i rmb telling A, that time i met D and her for lunch after an interview, that i reallyreallyreallyreally think i'm gonna have to retake my a's. but look where i am now.

even though i have been brutally rejected by some organisations for certain things, i'm glad that this twist of fate had occurred, for me to land a place in fass. and i'm gonna continue taking german. a secret wish of mine, to locate my host family. the internet hasn't been working in my favour to help me accomplish that.

still many questions i have about uni. when do i start bidding for my modules, do i not have class everyday, will yog make my grades fall, when do my parents start paying tuition fees, how do i select my modules etc etc.

just finished watching goh keng swee's state funeral. a few days back i wrote a fb message @george yeo and @ vivian balakrishnan, asking if i could pull strings to get an invite to the ceremony. george yeo (or his secretary) replied that only official invites from pmo count. i.e, no i can't go.

i can't figure out why he thinks i know wht pmo stands for. but i do la, prime minister's office. because of the first ever event that i emceed, the goh came from pmo. sorry digress.

i think dr goh's grandniece's awesome. i was listening to/watching the prev four eulogies, all they dd was to make me yawn alot. but hers actually made me cry. did a check on fb, apparently she's younger than me and in vj? or did i find the wrong person.

just a little extra info. i went to dr goh's wake ytd, and in the signing book, i said i want to be as great as he was.

my email thread with "fedex"

so one fine day in april i got another of those scam award emails in my mailbox. but this time i decided to reply to see what happens. here're the print screens of my email thread with mr david mark, supposedly from fedex but internet sources have also linked him to several credit card companies.

didn't even bother to put in my name, lol.

the next email was on the same day, awhile after.

didn't even tell him i got the info from google maps lol.

then i got bored so i stopped replying. but mr mark was adamant. four days later:

never replied, and he never got back to me either. lousy.