William Chong

Hehe, I now have william.hc.chong and fruitcocoon @ gmayle. Very cool.

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[you are in a cocoon. a fruit cocoon.] Has anyone noticed that the two syllables in the word “cocoon” are both pronounced with an “u” or “ooh” sound, but one is spelt with 1 o and the other is spelt with two o’s. strange.

I actually should be working, so I’ll leave it at that for today. Sorry guys!

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Listening to Ethan Waters  comforts me on these foreign streets.

It’s that sensitive, mellow tone in his voice today that tells me re-assuringly she’s irreplaceable… or that we’re all living under crazy summer skies.

No matter that I forgot to uplift my lunch from the second shelf in my fridge, or that the wind has picked up and skies are overcasting. With singer-songwriter ballads in my ears, simple songs for kids like me, I don’t feel so alone.

Thank you, ethan.

So it’s a bit early to make any posts about the year in review, right? I mean, things are just starting to pick up. Holidays are starting, end of year is imminent. Life starts now! For me, on Tuesday I walked out my last undergrad exam with a distinct feeling of “don’t look back, let it go”. And from now on? The wide world awaits – new job, Albany-based, starting January 7th, new people to work with, and a new phase in life where money makes your mortgage go round.

Four years of Uni, and life went on through all that. Here’s a recap…

(DEEP VOICEOVER: Previously on …)

• I wanted to be a pop star. When you’re young and impressionable, you have crazy dreams. This was one of them.

Funnily enough, most recent Saturday it turns out one of our singers at NY called Selah Mahe came 9th in Season One. It turns out I didn’t envy her singing ability (high notes are for those than can do it well), and didn’t envy her gigging lifestyle either (singing 70′s and 80′s hits a la jukebox style. creative independence?). Either you make it as a pop artist or you don’t – leave out the manufactured mess in the middle.

• The Four of us. It was the close friend-group that you’d swear you’d hold on to for the rest of time. We were all striving for ambitious degrees: BA/BFA, BSc(CompSci), BMus/BSc, BA(Psych)/LLB. The latest from Paul is that he works full-time at Harvey Norman and lives for his weekends. The last time I saw him was at RB’s 21st. The latest from RB is that she works 6-7 days a week running a cafeteria at Whitford Golf Club. Alive? Yes. Well? Who knows.

• Music was easy, Sports science was a revelation. I still had laughs on Fridays at Andrew Fellowship. RB was formerly the Youth Fellowship leader who was headstrong and sure about walking with God. We all dreamed of bigger and better things, yet fractures in relationships grew.

• My mother passed away. I stopped being a child. My faith had never been more tested. Our family ceased to be nuclear, and grief-scarred, I saw my father, my brothers, sisters in different lights. You look around and see people take for granted their mothers, everyday.

• Old friends, new friends. Paperclip, Sportsci, NY, and soon in vivo. I achieved what I had set out to during my time at NY, and hopefully I’ll aim to do the same at in Vivo (my new workplace).

• My time at uni certainly shook things up and let me decide who I wanted to be – a dreamchaser, or a realist. I could be unemployed, let the government fund my chase after a fantasy of song-writing and soul-searching until I “make it”. Or I could fund it myself… it’s not to say that I don’t have dreams. I do. But they’re less wild, more picket-fence, less fame-fondling, more altruistic. I hope.

• I hope.

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This paper’s convenor has to be the laziest one I’ve come across in 4 years of courses. All our tutorials have basically been taken straight off the textbook’s online resources website – the questions all unchanged. During lectures she makes a very, very distant summary of 2, 3 chapters of the textbook at a time, yet everything in those chapters are examinable. What is the point of the lecture if we have to memorise the textbook after that?

Copying the online material from chapters 11-24 have so far given me 45 pages in MS Word. This lecturer is lazy. $500 into the student loan. Not worth it. ‘Nuff said.

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I’m quitting my old job, starting a new one. I may move out, I may not. I finished with my last lecture yesterday. And who knows where we go from here. I’m sitting here reflecting on the twists and turns in this time at higher education.

Am I better for it? Who knows. Motivations still the same? I’d say not. But there are so many new things I’m looking forward to. A career. Saving up. New problems, new challenges. I can’t sum up any of the feelings I have this moment on a blog post. I can however say that I am hopeful.

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graffitiwork01

Above is a picture. It’s the wall of the corner dairy being painted over, graffiti lost. You then wait about a week or so, and the same tags will reappear, emblazoned boldly in black and green across the large brick face.

Manukau City Council spends about $1 million dollars a year “beautifying” and fixing up all the tagging and graffiti that reappears over and over again.

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There are many things that occur in this life that defy any reasonable explanation or excuse.

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Tommy came back from HK and brought back presents. My birthday present (April 29) turned out to be a brand-new Nokia n73, which is fantastic. Cheryl got a Haruhi figurine, which is pretty cool I suppose.

If I quit my job and had 48 hours in a day, I’d be happy mucking around on Garageband.  As it stands the last five weeks of academic rigour (at uni anyways) involves 2 assignments, 1 lab report, studying for 3 exams – then I can focus on my ATCL violin recital. Oh my, recitally goodness.

Last week I took my (first) sick day from work. Saturday turned out to be my only work shift, which was kinda odd.  I wonder what it will feel like if I get a full-time job and have to leave – I’m sure I’ll have a hard time saying goodbye to everyone.

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A section on lifestyle choices and my opinion of that which is merely my own. (controversy alert)

I envy the E lifestyle. It is carefree. It is freedom. It is the inspirational green thumb that can pick songs and make videos and they’re all course-related, they’re all part of the academic workload.  His major is life-m. (In Bahasa Melayu, the word film is translated as “filem”, therefore an appropriate anagram). Assignments are more enjoyable. Friends are creative. Money is not as important as happiness.

I’m annoyed with the M lifestyle. It is self-centered. It is me me me. It is stepping on others to get your way. It is being so proud that a job unglamorous is a job not worth working. It is a Type-Asinine personality. It is on the verge of life and death, too proud to ask for help, too afraid to live unwanted but not willing to change.

I pity the C lifestyle. It is like Cellatape. It sticks to an ideal borne of success stories posted from the depths of Bible-belt America. It is a yearning for a culture foreign to the majority of people around her. She strives to FROG her way into Keith the pastor’s golden son’s arms (or stereotypical equivalent).  It is impossible living in her traditionalist Asian heritage world of burden and expectation. Whoever spoke Cantonese in West Virginia and got married?

I’m tired of the B lifestyle. It is oppressively headstrong. Uncooperative, a sports convertible with a glued-on roof. It is half-baked at times, and there is less loyalty to those who have been there for him since the 1980′s. Who can understand him? Evidently not I. I am the enemy. The tacit disapprover. The Napoleonic-Anti-God. And the lifestyle of low standards of living.

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Oh all these negative opinions. What of my life? It is the same. Unremarkable. Plain. Sorrowful. And barely faithful. It must be the Last Night on Earth.

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The exhilaration you get from refreshing your screen incessantly to see the changes of votes, next move, who dies, who lives, did the mafia win, what’s that suspect “citizen” saying, where’s the cop’s information… think Trademe but on an intense, adrenalined scale!

Mafia.  If anyone has never played it before, it’s on wiki as well.  But oh, it’s been so addictive! I love the thrill of tension in the air, as people sift out who’s Mafia and who’s citizen.  And then there’s the cop, who tries to out the mafia.  And doctors who heal… so fun, so fun!

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I drove a limo last night.  Very hard to negotiate cul-de-sacs with an extra long car.

Awesome!!!

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You know the feeling when you’re sitting in a business class lounge?

That’s what the postgrad lounge is like. We were invited by Jared and Kristy (read: we caught them making out and they let us in as long as we didn’t tell anyone). Lol j/k~.

Plush couches, quiet study space. I’ll bet there’s free internet too.

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