Happy Good Friday to all. Let today be a brief respite, a little infusion of calm and inner peace before the final lap of the semester.

Semester 2 has been a rough compared to Semester 1. While I had lessons nicely spread out in Sem 1, Sem 2 has me going for back to back lessosn for six hours at a shot. I had time last semester to sit down and game at the Deck with my friends; this semester all I have time for is sitting down and lunching before moving off to the next class.

That said, lessons this time are more interesting. Deciding to major in Communications and New Media has allowed me to get started on major-related modules, which are more applicable than the introductory classes taken last semester. Tutorials are more interesting, and I have the chance to pick up new software skills. Photoshop be damned, I really like Illustrator.

It’s just under two months to the semester break, but there will be no rest even then. CCAs are gearing up, with both Resonance and NJChorale getting started with concert preparations. Not to mention A Cappella Championship rehearsals, which I suspect will kick off soon enough. My only chance at respite will come during the study break for this semester’s final exams, after which everything will resume once more.

Some part of me likes how busy I am though. While I do agree with the need to have time home alone, I’ve never been one to stay home for more than a couple of days in a row. I need to get out and do things, to feel like I’m making good use of my time. The upcoming semester break’s set to be an action-packed one.

Of course, the obvious shortcoming is that I probably won’t have the time to get a job. Coupled with all the meals out that rehearsals necessitate, I’ll have to be very serious with regard to budgeting and saving in order to avoid being broke this holiday.

It’s been quite a decade. The years between 2000 and 2009 are, arguably, going to be the most formative years of my life. Time spent in and between secondary school, junior college and eventually the army put me through challenges and situations that have shaped me. My 21st birthday and entry into college (plus passing my driving test) all helped to mark out my transition into young-adulthood. When I enter the workforce, I’ll truly consider myself an independent adult.

But enough of looking so far ahead. What does 2010 bring to the table? For starters, it carries the promise of progressively difficult and specialised education. Scoring a CAP of 3.7 in Semester 1 wasn’t disappointing, but it wasn’t as good a result as I’d hoped for. More work-life balance is called for, and with semester 2 about to begin I’ll have to quickly settle back into the routines of school. I’ve declared a major in Communications & New Media, and although I’m interested in it only time will tell if I continue to stick with it. Chances are that I will though, lots of thinking precluded this decision.

2010 also brings more opportunities for singing and performance. NJChorale is likely to put up a small-scale concert once again; the momentum from 2009 has to be maintained. NUS Resonance will be putting up Vocal Obsessions IV this year, which means that at the very minimum I’ll have two productions worth of preparations to undertake. It’s going to be a very exciting year ahead.

The New Year is also a chance for me to fully put into place projects that I’d attempted at various times last year. Personal expense tracking is at the top of that list, with a GTD system a close second. Along with a now-secure habit of calendaring, success in these projects should find myself in good stead to tackle the task of organising the multiple aspects of life. It’s going to be tedious, but I believe it’s worth working toward.

That’s as close as I’ve ever come to putting down resolutions for myself. We’ll see how things go as the year goes by. For now, here’s wishing everyone who reads this less-than-satisfactorily-updated blog a very blessed and fulfilling 2010.

As I type this I find myself coming to the end of a three-hour-long break. My next tutorial starts in 35 minutes time, but with today being the first tutorial of the module I’ll have to allow myself additional time to locate the venue. Just like that, three hours have passed. That’s including time for lunch, but even with that it’s still a sizable chunk of time doing and accomplishing nothing much in particular. The only measure of productivity I have from this period is half a geography reading. Which, I tell myself, is better than nothing at all.

In other news, Snow Leopard is slated for release this Friday! I’m quite excited, having joined the growing legion of Mac users at such a dynamic time. I’m planning a full backup of my system so that I can perform an erase-and-install once I get my copy in the mail. It’s things like this that occupy me instead of my studies during these long breaks. Woe is me.

In fact, I just spent my most recent Wednesday at Sentosa with Dear. Visiting Underwater World for the first time in more than a decade was an interesting experience; I was happily reminded of how interested I was as a child in all sorts of nature and prehistory. Looking back, I must have spent days reading those hardcover science books for kids, flipping through dinosaur books at the bookstore and making sketches of what the world must have looked like millions of years ago. I probably could still draw a mean T-Rex for you today, but the days of doing that all day are behind me.

Looking ahead, I’ve got my hands full. There is, of course, school with its deluge of readings, tests and exams. There’s also Caroling to plan and organise. On top of that, I’m hoping I’ve cleared round 1 of Reso auditions; it was quite honestly the worst audition I’ve ever had, and while I’m critical of myself I guess it doesn’t hurt to hope.

Lots to do this semester! Gears seem polished, but now the throttle needs to be tested. Let’s see how much mileage I can get out of this seemingly refurbished engine.

Time now to take stock of the situation. I was fortunate enough to be in a situation that allowed me to make use of my brain during NS. Coming out of the army, I’ve kept my mind active by planning and organising a concert. Whenever possible, I’ve tried to keep up my reading. Barring heavy academics, I’d say that I’ve not regressed as much as I’d thought I would prior to BMT. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the time is ripe for entering school, but I would say that I’m not unprepared.

I’ve had a lot of time to think during the past two years. About my academic attitude during Junior College, about my work ethic, about how I would approach my studies during University. I’ve arrived at a few conclusions:

1. Be proactive. The opportunities are there, waiting to be grasped. If there’s one thing that I must leave college knowing, it must be the knowledge of how to effectively evaluate and make decisions. No one will tell me what and how to study. That’s all up to me.

2. Be productive. I’ve become very interested in personal productivity systems in recent years. It all started when I discovered Lifehacker, which led me other websites such as 43folders. Reading about how others managed all the responsibilities in their lives inspired me to do the same. University is the opportunity for me to I tweak and refine my systems and streamline my workflow.

3. Be balanced. My biggest mistake in Junior College was failing to balance academics with my co-curricular activities. I neglected my studies, which resulted in a frantic six month cram prior to the A’s. I believe I could have attained better scores if I had led a more balanced life. The next four years are probably the most crucial in deciding my future; balance is more than an ideal, it’s a necessity.

These will be my three core tenets whilst in NUS. Let’s see where they’ll take me.

Edit:

I realised I didn’t list what modules I’m taking this semester:

1. PL1101E – Introduction to Psychology

2. NM1101E – Communications, New Media and Society

3. EN1101E/GEK1000 – An Introduction to Literary Studies

4. JS1101E/GEK1002 – An Introduction to Japanese Studies

5. GE1101E/GEK1001 – Place, Environment and Society

Anyone with anything to say about these modules, please do so in the comments. Tips and advice will be greatly appreciated. If you’ve got a friend of a friend of a friend who’s said something you think I need to know, do let me know too.

In reacting, one learns. In preempting, one grows.

This concert has been just that. From conception to execution, we’ve just about experienced the entire gamut of Things-That-Could-Go-Wrong-Whilst-Planning-A-Concert. We’ve preempted certain problems, and we’ve learnt to preempt others that had never crossed our minds prior.

Personally, this entire concert-production process has underscored the need to be personally organised. Prior to putting things into motion, I considered myself a pretty organised person. I got hooked on personal productivity methods about halfway through National Service; websites like Lifehacker pointed me towards sources of new ways to approach tasks and get things done, and I took a keen interest in incorporating new methods into my personal workflow. This concert showed me that I was far from as effective as I thought I was, and while things greatly improved in the last month or so, the lack of a solid organisational ethic in the foundations of this project meant that even on concert day itself we weren’t operating at an ideal level.

I’m glad the concert became a reality. Looking ahead though, I’m more concerned with putting measures into place to ensure that I’m more organised and effective in the future. Not just as a leader of an organisation, but also as a person.

That, and trying to jump-start my brain in preparation for academics. Semester 1 is looking heavy, and that hitherto-dormant part of my brain is still quite sluggish. I keep telling myself that I won’t slack off like I did in Junior College, but whether or not that resolution comes true remains to be seen.

Gogo willpower! And focus! Et cetera!

I think that the most powerful part of Apple’s designs is that its hardware and software are designed by the same company. In that way, they’re able to come up with solutions that allow the two to work as seamlessly as possible. Looking at iFixit’s teardown of the Summer-2009 13″ Macbook Pro, you can see that a great deal of thought has been put into how components are fitted together, even shaped. This is done because Apple is able to procure built-to-order components that suit their dimensions. Compared to most PC-manufacturers who build from component-up. I reference my old HP laptop, which I’d popped open when it started to malfunction. It had support struts, partitions and other miscellany between electrical components, all of which takes up space that compromise the portability of a device. All in all, it just seems to be a great amount of common sense. It’s likely the most efficient method of building a portable device, given the limitations of technology today.

But the best feature of their laptop lineup, as far as consumers are concerned, has to be battery life. In a review, Anandtech found that it achieved five to eight hours of battery life while emulating ‘real-world’ use. I myself have been getting about six to seven hours of productive use with websites, calendaring and Youtube access. Even if battery life were to suffer due to a heavier workload, I’d still consider myself happy with its capabilities. And while a lot of people complain about the inability to swap batteries on the go, I frankly don’t see it as a problem as far as students are concerned. We’re running on a budget, less than likely to buy multiple batteries anyway, and I highly doubt any of us are such power users as to need double-digit battery life. Final verdict? Thumbs up.

What’s irksome though, and I realise this may be due to my coming from a Windows background, is the lack of customization and control I have over the system. Apple has designed OS X to ‘just work’, and while it does just that there’re are users like me who’d like to be able to tweak every little thing to suit their purposes. Still, I guess I shouldn’t complain about something that hasn’t shot me in the foot just yet.

So, am I a ‘switcher’? In Mac evangelist parlance, hardly. I like my Mac. I like its intelligent design. But I grew up with Windows, and with Windows 7 coming out this year the Windows experience seems likely to get a long-delayed reboot. Conclusions? Macbook Pro for work and productivity, Windows for games, multimedia and anything that’d look better on a 22″ screen instead of a 15″ one.

I’ve often thought that a voluntary outfit is much harder to run than a commercial or corporate one. When an organisation is composed of volunteers and run by a volunteer, what authority does the organisation’s leadership have? Lacking the implicit authority leaders in aforementioned organisations, how does a leader of volunteers get his people to do what he deems necessary to achieve the given objective? Moreover, it has been my experience that in volunteer groups, the members are more often than not friends of the leader. How then does the leader walk that tightrope between maintaining his relationships and getting things done? I have often said that it is important to separate personal and work relationships. Under the constraints of Junior College CCA leadership, where I first confirmed the necessity of said adage, this is all too easy. When one leads a group solely made up of friends, needing to delegate tasks to move the organisation forward, how does one avoid doing so in a manner that doesn’t sour both types of relations?

It is with regards to this matter that the past few weeks have been somewhat troubling. I have worried about uneven distribution of work amongst my committee members, especially since there are only so few of us. I have worried about the discrepancies in the amounts of time individuals have spent. I worry about the levels of sacrifice that my requests demand. Sacrifice demanded of my friends, people whom I care about.

I’ve been taught to consider myself a leader. Prior to National Service, within the controlled circumstances of school-based leadership, I believed this. But my eyes were opened in my two years as a conscript. I came to reaffirm that respect is earned and not given by right of one’s appointment. I peered into the Army’s planning systems, and my unguided mind saw that when it came to leading an organisation of my own, I was completely clueless. Yes, I had been a CCA-leader for five years prior. However, not once in those five years did my decisions have any bearing on the direction my organisation was to take. Those five years were spent leading others in carrying out actions aiming to reach destinations that I had no part in charting. I saw the importance of having Vision in leadership. The organisation cannot decide what it wants to be; only its leadership can decide what the organisation is to become.

The past few months have been spent adjusting my footing, coming to terms with this core principle. My early actions after taking over the Chorale, despite charting out a path for the group, hardly reflected this principle at all. I floundered early on, as despite seeing its importance I had yet to come to fully internalise and understand it. No actions were undertaken by me for days at a shot. Wasted days that, on hindsight, could have had a great bearing on the generally last-minute feel of our affairs now. It hit critical point when the time came to confirm a venue though. The urgency of that task jump-started me, leading me to put in place systems for myself that I think have helped a great deal with my own productivity. Unfortunately, this increase in personal momentum led to the concerns laid out earlier.

It is said that leadership is a humbling experience. With success impossible to qualify, all a leader can do his best, aiming for the Vision that he has set, doing everything necessary to achieve the objective without compromising on his values and principles. At times, it might feel like plans go nowhere. At times, it may feel like one is a round peg in a square hole, trying to achieve impossible goals. In times like these, it seems all one can do is to have faith in oneself, faith in their members, and ultimately faith in their friends, however uncertain that may be.

Time is ever against us. We want things to get done; we make lists, we set deadlines, we aim for best- and worst-case scenarios, all to often achieving none of them because circumstances change. All to often we simply forget, or forgo one objective as another replaces it in the priority list. Eventually, something’s got to give. But upon what criterion do we decide what gets the boot?

It’s frustrating to feel helpless. You plan, you aim, you set goals. All for naught if just one of your people decide that this commitment, made months in advance, is now on a lower rung. At the same time, you can’t discount the rest who’ve been responsible, who’ve held true to their words, putting in proper efforts towards the group’s objective. You want so much to pull the rest up, to get everyone back on the same level so that real progress can be made. Unfortunately, not everyone views the impending event in the same light as you do. Others have other priorities in their lives that you can’t fault them for. And while you want to set a harsh stand and cull the black sheep, you can’t because reality usurps the ideal, because without them making up the numbers you can’t possibly hope to make any progress. And so your principles are diluted just a little as you turn the goal of real progress into some illusion of progress.

For the past two years we’ve been trying to move forward. Managing to get somewhat stable a core-group was the beginning. Trying to buffer it with new blood was the next, albeit failed, step. But we press on, hoping that the third step can still be accomplished while praying for more fresh members next year. Is this considered progress for progress’ sake? Just over five weeks remain. So much has yet to be done. Now’s not the time to apportion blame, but I can’t help but look at myself and wonder if I’m really cut out for this job. Am I demanding enough, am I driven enough, do I want this enough? Again, all useless if you’re the only one who wants this to happen. I’m trying to turn this ragtag ensemble into something. But I don’t know if the ragtag wants to be anything. If all they want is to come together and feel warm and fuzzy, then isn’t this entire project an exercise in futility? I need the hearts of each and every member, but try as I may I can’t find a single reason why any would want to follow my lead. My single greatest fear now is that this buckles under its own weight. This could mark the beginning of a promising climb..or it could signal a regression into the past. The next two weeks are crucial – everything depends on how much we can get done, how much momentum we can build up for this final push that we feel so inadequately prepared for.

On the bright side, much has definitely been taken away from this experience.

Okay. I needed to unload, to pen my thoughts and organise them. That’s done. Self-doubt and second guessing out of the way, now its time to focus on the tasks at hand.