What is Life?

A friend complained to me that she has "no life" these days because she has been so busy at work that it's basically work-home-work-home-work... for her, sometimes working late into the night in office. And she even works some more when she reaches home. It's partly because she's taken on a new managerial role and there's just so many things she needs to handle. Am happy for her that her wait to be recognised has finally come through, having eked it out for so many years in the organisation. However, I'm also worried that she might get burned out. I wished I could help her out, but all I can give is moral support. Hope she gets a good aide soon when the coming re-org takes effect. Also, I pray she gets her promotion soon, and with it a significant pay rise as she had reached the cap for her level for a few years already. Hopefully that happens this July.

Anyway, my purpose of this post was to ponder what do we mean by "life" then? Is it the activities we do, which in this case, seems to be life outside of work. But if your passion is your work, doesn't it make it "life"? How wonderful if one can do what you're passionate about at work. But sometimes, it might kill your passion though. Whatever. I think I'm contradicting myself.

Or really, is it about what's inside of you? You can have all the activities in the world to occupy you, but if you're "dead" inside, whatever you do is not going to bring you to "life" isn't it? Just a shell that's forever searching.

Photographing Hong Kong

Wow, it seems it has been a long time since I posted something about "me" here.
Guess I've been busy reviewing stuff (which I'm still doing and clearing) and work has been busy. Well, so here I am, back again, talking about myself...that's what a personal blog is about isn't it?

Anyway, ever since I came back from Hong Kong, I've been compelled to want to do some street photography (i.e. taking photos of the streets or city). More specifically, I have this compulsion to go back to Hong Kong on my own, to photograph the street scenes, billboards, etc. On those last days, I felt I didn't really see enough of Hong Kong and its sights. I didn't even visit the Arts Fest even though it was ongoing then. The whole trip was just eating and shopping, and well, maybe a little bit of nature on Lama Island. In fact, I didn't do that too on the other trip last Oct (which was pretty short). What have I actually seen of Hong Kong? Maybe I was too caught up in moving from place to place to actually just wander the streets leisurely. That's why, I thought of going on my own, or at the most, with 1 other friend.
Actually, I think I developed this feeling on the last few days of the trip. Maybe it was when I had the opportunity to take a "stroll" on my own from H&M to Peninsula Hotel. Short distance as it may be, but I was suddenly alone, at my own pace, and I took time to stop by the Hullett House area (some kind of heritage area). Maybe it was also the tram bus ride. In any case, I might just do that, going back to Hong Kong one of these days just to "experience" it in another way.

This kind of brings me back to when I actually walked around the city taking photos. Actually, only the City Hall area lah. It gave a different kind of feel to life really. At that point, I was in the mood for photography. I'm not a pro (only going around with an automatic) but there was some sort of satisfaction or just carefree feel, even if it was just for half a day, once in a while.

I must say I'm a girl of many interests, and they take priority at different times. Ah well, it's time I got down to finishing up my short play. Did the 1st draft and gotten some feedback, so will need to go revise it. I don't know what I'm going to do with the script eventually, but just see how things goes.

Writing a musical dream

As mentioned earlier, my friend & I have been exploring the idea of writing our very own musical(s).

After some thrashing out of ideas, we've yet to find a storyline that we think is strong enough. We came up with something, but not sure how it's going on from there. (Will hear from my friend what he has in mind later)

Obviously, writing a musical is very different from writing a novel and play, and not all plays can be musicals. Musicals need to be more "flamboyant" and as my friend said more "exotic". After the storyline, one still needs to fit the songs in, taking into consideration setting, "hook", etc. It's tough!

Well, with no new ideas coming up, I'm currently building up on one of my story lines, expanding on it and putting it down in a more structured form, like imagining how it will play out. It might not be the best of ideas, but at least there's something! Hopefully, new ideas will emerge in the process.

Good thing it's the season for song, dance and drama so there are lots of opportunities to draw inspiration from the shows. Aside from Victor/Victoria and Broadway Beng which I have watched, I'm catching Beauty & the Beast, Lea Salonga and The Composer. And probably more next year. So hopefully more useful ideas emerge!

Looks like this will be 1 of my resolutions for the new year. Finally doing some writing (of stories).

Year-end inspirations : musicals

The year end is always a time where a lot of musicals seem to be playing, like for this Nov/Dec some major ones were/are Victor/Victoria, Beauty and the Beast and Broadway Beng: Jiak Liu Lian. It's hard not to get in the spirit and want to do something creative. Just like how last year's "season" prompted me to write a duet with a musical in mind.

Well, following my friend's post on writing musicals, it prompted my brain juices to start thinking of storylines for possible musicals to stage. I only managed to get out a gist of one (a love triangle), and with the friend, we're working on a brainstorming session to really come up with more stories and also tweak some existing storylines we have.
Of course, everything is very preliminary and some stories might fail, but I think it'll be a really fun experience. After all, 2 heads are definitely better than 1 and we need to do this especially in this period while our "engines" are all started up so that all these creative juices will flow more freely. Looking forward to it! Now I must think of more storylines.

PS: Did you know that I used to dream of writing a book? That was rather long ago, as now I'm much more focused on songs. I actually started on something a while back, but had only succeeded in getting 1 page out. Ah well...

baby times bitez 1

My mum was just sharing with us that when I was a baby/toddler, I would stand up to sing & dance in the cot when the radio was turned on.

I have no recollection of this, but hey! So my music inclination was displayed even then! Haha...

Breaking Out - Year of Exploration

This year seems to be for me a year of exploration; a breaking out of conventions; a year of "adventure" and pursuance of my passion for the arts.

I've been rather proactive and "daring" this year. 1 obvious exploration was my try-out with the art installation design project. I have never expected myself to do any design or visual art stuff as I can hardly draw. But this being a platform for amateurs, I actually dared to sign up for it. And I won! Well, probably because it's more craft than drawing. That probably boosted my confidence a little. I realised that once I have a concept or inspiration, I am of a 1-track mind.

Then there's my resolve to look into new genres of sound & music and I found electronica/indie. Well, there are various types but it's interesting to explore new ways to make sound & music. I decided not to attend any SSO concerts or classical concerts and to make attempts to go for performances that I have never tried before. Well, there was Electrolab and these few days' Hadaka. Think if I were still in the previous conventional mindset, I wouldn't have gone. Maybe the old ways were getting "boring" or restrictive for me...maybe this year I wanted more activity & dynamism; new things...wanted to feel alive. Maybe because of certain influences.

I've also been seriously looking into photography. Guess it's really because I now have a digital camera which allows me to freely take photos without wasting film and & I can try out the features of the camera. And there's Flickr. Haha...maybe a bit thick-skinned, but some photos I took before looked great to me.

Hmm...think I'm looking at more meaningful doodling, i.e. something that looks like some form. Haha...well, just doodling. Abstract art maybe? Also, I'm trying to integrate into the arts community...maybe join some arts circle or social group. Found 1 though, see how'll it turn out.

Besides artsy stuff, guess doing fencing is a new thing too. I'm not the sporty kind (a bit lazy lah) so yah, at least I"m doing some form of sport.

I've been wondering, as consideration for my career path, have been thinking of specialising in the arts field. As I thought further, I felt that actually I'm more interested in become an 'artist' than an arts librarian. But if I ever get to specialise, probably it'll help me know more about the arts scene in Singapore.

Is preserving our heritage really so tough?

Is it really so difficult to preserve our heritage?

We have people who are passionate for this cause, but yet can do little or has little support. We have those who do it for the sake of doing it as they have been tasked to do so, but are without passion.
There are also those who are passionate & have the power, but due to conflicting interests, no synergy is created, but rather rivalry. And yet, what happened to the common good, the common goal? Also, is it our society that is so, given that not every one of us value heritage or our roots? Or is the drive to do so only manifested in August?

Sometimes, we look at other countries and we're amazed at how they value their artifacts, their heritage, etc. and how they work together as a nation to do it and you see them complementing each other in collecting such valuable resources rather than competing over them.

Maybe we're too "young"?

Ambitious?

Ever since I became a librarian, I think I've become ambitious. In the past, when i was an accountant, I didn't feel the same. It was just a job then. Now, I see my future (at least for now) ahead, as a career.

I'm not ambitious in the "competitive" way. It's more driven by passion for the holistic meaning of what I do or can do. I have visions of bigger plans, how big my work areas can be and what can be done...the big picture (well, right now is it more like mine?). I have passion for the profession, and the cultural aspect of it all. With passion, there's vision. My brain ticks and envisions "how much more can be done for this area", the future possibilities, the long run effect & results, or even the creation of something bigger than the current state. And these are really meaningful work that will benefit our society in the long run, benefit Singapore in the long run.

My ambitions are also driven by negative forces. The lack of power to carry out the vision, to put the meaning & passion into reality, to bring it across. It is also driven by disappointment, at how some management personnel don't seem to see the meaning of it all, have no passion at all (they don't seem to buy into the mission/vision that is set by the Board & holistic impact) and doing things for the sake of doing it only and approaching things in the wrong way or totally miss the point. This really demoralises those who are passionate, till they lose that passion and become "in the system" coz they are disillusioned and convinced that life won't change for the better.

I still recall the earlier days when I was really supportive & passionate about the importance of what I'm doing, of being a librarian, doing something that's benefitting the nation. Now, seeing management being not really in the library field and are not really interested/passionate nor buy into the mission and holistic vision, and in some cases incompetent, it's hard to keep "passionate" for long due to all these discouragement. I struggling real hard to keep the passion up and I hope I stand long.

Ambitious? In a way, but is more for the power to do the right & meaningful thing in & for the organisation, for the nation.