Goodbye 2005... Hello 2006

So another year has come and gone. My, my, how time has flown! To end this year, I'd like to make a list of my hits and misses...

 

Career

Yessirree... I changed jobs again this year, to a whole new field. Was in IT for a good 3 years, and made the leap to education. Totally hated what I was doing and was really wondering what to do, when a friend suggested I try for her son's private school. Am teaching high school Physics, and the very first week I was there, I was burdened by exam papers to mark... Workload complaints aside, for the first time I really enjoyed my job and have never found anything so enriching. Of course I still have a lot more to learn (and I am not talking only about rereading my favourite Science subject)... such as better teaching methods and how to deal with teenagers. Fortunately I don't have a problem getting through to most of them as I'm quite close to them age-wise.

Career satisfaction (out of 10): 6 (for the whole year. The first half-year still has to be counted. It's an average of 3+9)

 

Dancing

Hmm... this is a rather depressing. This entire year was very bad for me. Up to last year I always made it to the finals of every comp I go into; this time I can't even sniff finals, the closest I got was semi-finals. And I only participated in one team event, and we didn't do well either. It's not a question of the lack of practice; I think I put in more hours than most do. I think I expected too much from myself this year and tried to push myself too hard that whatever I tried failed. Learnt a lot along the way about my own weaknesses and how to deal with them. Painful falls, but I hope to learn more.

Skills (out of 10): 8 (coach says my skills have actually improved tremendously, and my learning curve is much faster now)

Progress in the field (out of 10): -5 (yup... it's a negative! I have transgressed as I did very well in 2004)

 

Relationships

Hah! That's another one. A few guys tried to ask me out this year but they're all screwed-up cases. There was this engineer who, after one dinner date with him, started calling me and SMSing every day as if I was his girlfriend already and even got angry that I didn't call him upon my return from a work trip to Bangkok. I was like, HELLO, I've only gone out with you ONCE! And actually, after that dinner, I swore never to see him again because he was dreadfully boring. And then there was this guy who hasn't got a clue on how to woo a girl although he supposedly had a few girlfriends before. That's the main stuff, the other minor ones that happened throughout the year are not even worth mentioning.

Scale (out of 10): 2 (the experiences aren't great, but hey, at least I got to go out)

 

Music

Argh! Another depressing story. I used to pass every electone exam with a distinction, but this time when I went in, the moment I hit the keyboards, I knew I screwed up. It was mostly nerves. And probably underpreparation, even though I practised so hard the previous weeks. I was just not prepared for the exam, which was quite tough. I laid off the electone after the exam. I haven't touched it in 6 months. I still like music very much, but I just don't want to do it academically for a while until I feel ready again.

Scale (out of 10): 3 (I still enjoy it. All I did was screw up the exam)

 

Friendships

Ooh! My best friend has come back from Penang this year so we got to catch up on quite a bit. We go for supper once in a purple moon whenever he comes back (or when I came back for the hols when I was studying in Johor) to catch up. This time he's working in KL so now we can meet up more often. He's definitely one of those I can confide in without fear of judgement.

 

Also, have been getting closer to another wonderful friend's family. I've known this wonderful lady for two years but she has done so much for me, in terms of support, love, friendship, and advice. Her kids are also beautiful treasures who have accepted me as a firm friend to the point of being family. She's another one whom I can talk to about anything and I know I can rely on her sound advice.

 

Managed to catch up with a number of school friends too, through friends' weddings and baby showers, some of whom I barely spoke to when in school but now we meet up quite a bit. Great guys who celebrated my birthday with me. One of them even got me a memorable gift - a photo of us 10 years ago when we first got to know each other on a school trip.

 

On the downside, I hadn't been all that nice to someone who cares a lot for me. I must say that it was mainly my fault and I'm not going to delve into this too much. However I shall say that things are on the mend and I'm going to make up for it.

 

Overall scale (out of 10): 8

 

That brings to a total of.... 22 out of 50. This has been a below-average year! Yech. I hope next year's a lot better.

 

At least I have one additional highlight. I PASSED THE RADIATION PROTECTION FOR OFFICERS EXAMINATIONS! WOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!

 

 

Got to end this properly, right? We've always got to count our blessings. Hmm, where shall I begin...?

1. I'm thankful for the privileges I have in life; that my parents managed to rise to a level of comfort and have always provided whatever I needed. I'm thankful that they brought me up well to be a good person, and to be independent ("I don't need no man to finance my life!"). I'm thankful that they have provided well in terms of home, education, and even beyond the basic necessities. These privileges have given me a good headstart in life and I wouldn't get to where I am (which isn't really very high at the moment, though) now otherwise.
2. I'm thankful that I have five working senses (I don't have 20/20 vision, but at least I can see) to enjoy my life. I'm thankful that I was born intelligent (well, not a genius... but I'm definitely above average. Yes, I'm blowing my own trumpet. Haha!) and that my brain learns quickly (did I say I passed the exam for Radiation Protection Officers?). I'm thankful that I have four functioning limbs which enables me to dance and play the electone. And that no matter how imperfect my body, I'm still better off than a lot of other people (at least I've got CURVES, babe!).
3. I'm thankful for my family and friends who have been very supportive of me no matter how I screw up. I know who my true friends are!
4. I'm thankful that the country I was born and bred in, in spite of its silly politics and downhill economics, is a still relatively comfortable place to be in, and it's peaceful. Here's to racial harmony! Oooh... and that we haven't been struck with any super-major disasters except for the tsunami last year, but we were nowhere near as badly hit as Sumatra, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

I think that's enough for now.

 

Well... here's to 2006!

Here's an end to 2005...

Today was not all that great a day. It started with my school's orientation
for the new students and the PMR students-going-into-Secondary 4. Oh,
nothing went wrong with the orientation (for me, at least). It's just that
it started with my spilling Milo over my library books (shhhh!!!! Don't tell
the librarians that), and then I lost a cup cover down the drain. It's not
just any cup cover - it's a cover for one of my tea thermos. OK, it's not
actually a thermos, it just about keeps the tea hot for half an hour, and
the cover doesn't actually work. Still....

However, had a bit of excellent news to make up for it... I went for a
radioactivity course last month which was over 2 weeks, ending in an exam.
Passing the exam gives me the right to be a Radiation Protection Officer.
The passing rate is usually quite low, and the exam was quite difficult. I
have somehow lost the ability to "mug" for an exam - I guess it's because
it's been many years since I last studied for an exam. I studied only about
4-5 hours for the paper. And... guess what, the part I didn't study CAME OUT
IN THE PAPER. The part I studied did NOT come out! I had to B.S. my way
through... thank goodness I paid attention during the lectures.

Passing grade is quite high: 70% average for Papers 1 & 2, with a minimum of
60% each; and 70% for Paper 3. I was very confident of Papers 1 & 3, but
Paper 2 was a killer and I worried that I wouldn't get the 60% minimum even
if Paper 1 could bring up the average to above 70%. The results were
supposed to be out weeks after the exam, but there was no news for one
month, even when I used the online checking system. Finally today one of the
guys who went for the same course SMSed me asking my results; so I checked
online again... and .... I PASSED!!!!

Wooo hooooo!!!!! A great end to my year.

Not that quiet Christmas after all

I thought I would have a very quiet Christmas, albeit better than last year... I slept off the entire Christmas weekend last year as I was very sick from fever and cough, and it took about 2-3 weeks just to get better. This year I'm pretty much healthier, but I thought Christmas would past by quietly. I don't really celebrate Christmas as my family aren't Christians, although I occasionally do exchange gifts with friends.

However celebrations came in the form of lunch and dinner with very close friends. On Friday, I had lunch with 2 of my best friends and the family of one of them, including her husband, kids, and mother. I've become a family friend for her, and it's a really wonderful thing for me, because I'm not really used to "family friends" (in my family, we don't really have any). Her three kids are some of the most loving children I've ever met, and what strikes me the most is her youngest. The older two are very loveable as well, but they are more outgoing and have no problems talking to their mother's friends whom they've met for the first time; but the youngest has always been very shy. I remember in the past year whenever I met him, it would take at least one hour for him to get warmed up to me. Although he has met me several times before, he'd still stay away from me, no matter how many times he's cuddled up with me before. Now (perhaps because he's older and not so shy) he 'knows' me the moment I arrive and without undue hesitation he'd climb into my lap. He even considers me as family and in reply to my protest (in jest) that there's no room in his house for me, he said that there's a room they can open just for me.

Then Christmas eve, another dance kaki whom I haven't met for a while called a few of us to her friend's brand-new restaurant to be opened on Boxing Day for food-tasting. The restaurant called Big Boy, is in USJ Taipan, and the food is excellent. Except for some weird-tasting pizzas. But the dessert was very good - flourless chocolate cake with ice-cream. Yum yum yum.

Oh, we didn't do anything crazy or noisy during the lunch or dinner, so it was still a rather quiet Christmas. But it was definitely not uneventful. I like this type of Christmas. Good food with good company, what's there not to like?

1st Perak International Dancesport

I went to Ipoh on a one-day trip yesterday with a friend to watch the 1st Perak International Dancesport which has four different categories of dance: latin, ballroom (standard), line dance and hip hop. The hip hop section alone was worth it... there's a team of four boys called D'Artiz whom we have seen in the past few competitions, whose dancing is SOOO good that they've set a very high level of hip hop which I think no other can reach, at the moment. In fact, they did something really novel yesterday. Aside from the hip hop individual and team open events, they also took part in the Professional Hip Hop Team Showcase event. The difference between this event and the team open event is that they get to use their own piece of music whereas in the team open event, the teams have to use a preselected song chosen by the organiser. They didn't use an existing piece of music, they SANG their own song (although it was chiplaked from other songs... i.e. they took other songs and modified the lyrics a little) in Hokkien. The quality of the recording wasn't great, but their moves were. The song - a medley - basically introduced themselves (you'll hear the words D'Artiz from time to time) as a team and also individually, and questioned whether the people who do hip hop nowadays really know what hip hop is. Of course, they won...

And I saw a few girls who had been winning the line dance individual events the whole of this year participate in the hip hop individual events, and also made it to the finals in this one. I don't know if they won, because I left before prize-giving (the competition was running late; it was supposed to end by midnight, but by 12 the ballroom section still had not even started. And we had a 2-hour drive back home). I'm not their fan... I'm only mentioning this out of jealousy. Hehehe. Well, my time will come...

Oh, and more observations. People who are good at latin are not necessarily good at line dance. While line dance is seen as a "lower" level of dancing compared to latin and ballroom, the standards of line dance has increased tremendously in just 1-2 years, and comprises many different styles, including rise & fall (waltz), cuban, smooth, lilt, funky, and novelty. If the style of line dance happens to be similar to latin, the latin dancers obviously have the upper hand; but watching them do funky is like watching a tennis ball thinking it can do the job better than a pingpong ball in a table tennis game. It's just... something you cringe at.

Lessons learnt during one "family day"

Haaa!!! I've finally got some time to sit here and type some pent-up thoughts.

The past Sunday was the culmination of some observations, as I was involved in a performance for a "family day" of sorts for an MNC. I've learnt that...

... dancers aren't very important to your corporate organisation, even you have planned the events around the dance performances.

... you can tell your performers to come early in the morning and wait for 2 hours before the event starts, and not to worry because you will provide breakfast for them, but you don't really have to keep that promise and after they have arrived, you can tell them to go outside and buy their own breakfast.*

... it's OK to keep your crew and performers (inclusive of dancers and clowns) hungry, long after the public has been fed. And since they're all in the same area, just dump all the food in one area and let them fight among themselves for what little food you've provided. Anyway, it's not like you're providing that little, you are providing second and third rounds. It's not your fault if there is a long delay after the first round.

... you can contract freelance performers, pay them a pitiful amount, give them about one month's notice, make last-minute changes, and expect them to do just as well as international performers who do this for a living.

... you can have many "dance" competitions in the same event. First, blindfold the participants and get them to boogie like mad chickens (The whole idea of a blindfold is to keep them from recognising people who might recognise them). Nevermind that you've already told your performers to hold a mini-dance competition. Since they're coming on second, it makes them look bad that they're having a similar contest.

... the emcee/deejay can come to the event late, even if it's just a one-day event. Don't worry, there will be someone there to fill in for you. The show still must go on, it doesn't matter who starts it.

... 100 people (by pre-registration only) are enough to have a carnival for. It doesn't have to be a very exciting one, just put a few games up under the tents, and get some dancers and clowns to keep them entertained. You can charge per head including the kids... and they'd still pay!

This is arguably one of the worst events I've performed for, what more for an MNC, and as a performer, one of the worst treatments I've received. For the latter, I can't help wondering if it's because we didn't have a very strong and experienced leader though. I'm not saying that we've had a bad leader, but leadership does come with experience. For most of my previous performances, I was with my dance team who was under the management and de facto leadership of my coach who has had more than 18 years' experience as a dancer, teacher, and performer. It is definitely the responsibility of the organiser who contracted the performers to take care of them, and to make sure they are informed about the events and that they are at least fed as promised; but few people know what it's like to be a performer - they think that dancers can perform on the spot (without warming up/without food/straightaway after food/etc). Then the responsibility lies on us to educate them about what we performers need or want so that they are aware of our requirements. Otherwise they're going to roll into one event after another year after year, staying the @$$holes that they are, none the wiser.

Why didn't I step in and plead our cause? Because I'm not the leader here, and I don't want to cut in on someone else's position. ........ OK, OK, I'm also not very experienced. But I'm learning all the time.

* Fortunately our breakfast was paid for by them. It's still a cause for grouse though.