The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

damn, i wish i was your lover.
that’s what she sang.. i’m not creeping on you. promise.

I don’t know whether you knowing the name of her song, or the fact you’re still up on a work night scares me more.

PUT THE MOUSE DOWN … STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER

i’ve got a lovely case of insomnia, which possibly accounts for my bad taste and attitude.

As someone brilliant pointed out, making Jade Goody famous is like teaching a monkey to be a butler.

Dont be surprised if it starts throwing shit at you, its still a bloody monkey.

Because you keep spending it on electronic shit thats why. Only 1404 emails to go.

A lot of people who seek fame are of the personality types most likely to get hooked / abuse drugs.

Look at people like Robbie Williams and Lindsay Lohan, they are clearly insecure people who take it too far.

Rob, I know it’s late but your meeting isn’t over yet so could you stop fucking blogging and pay attention to what is going on.

Both and if you respond to this, I will kill you.

Are you trying to tell me I really never will won’t be worldwide planning director of Wonderbra? Time for some charlie.

OK Rob in another effort to keep this on topic. Now interesting you should say this, as it’s the thought behind Singapore’s ‘Streaming’ system which works like this: In Primary 6 (Grade 6) the kids write an exam, based on the result of this you are put into either the ‘Express’, ‘Normal’ or ‘Technical’ streams. Express get special schools and are fast-tracked on scholarships and eventually an Ivy League University. ‘Normal’, well, follow the normal school, Junior college & Univ sequence. The ‘technical’ stream cannot apply to universities for degrees, they only will be allowed into technical institutes after high school to earn diplomas in technical skills for future blue collar jobs.

This is, of course very harsh and frequently criticised, I particularly abhor it as I am a school drop out and can’t imagine I would’ve just been allowed to be a mechanic in Singapore.

But it seems to work as the kids are very clear from a young age, on what is success and the life they can achieve…

I don’t agree with your last bit Hari … the kids are TOLD from a young age what is success and the life they can/should achieve – their own views and goals don’t come into it.

This is why in Singapore, anyone who has aspirations outside of banking/white collar jobs is regarded as an outcast and the creative arts are viewed as nothing more than a ‘nice distraction’ to the business of making money.

Now I have to go because if Jill see’s I am blogging when I should be working, she’ll do her nut.

IMHO: it’s all bollocks.

take my sister and i. i’m the over-achiever – got caned (not literally) for only getting an A (as opposed to A+) in exams, while she got pandered over getting a C.
i’ve got a degree and she never finished high school.
i wanted to be a radio journalist. she wanted to be a boy.
now i’m the one with the ‘creative’ career, lovingly caressing the poverty line.
she earns a grand a week working for some shit TV network.
she takes drugs and gets shitfaced, often. i don’t (anymore).

pressure on kids sucks and squeezes the bejeezus outta ya, but i don’t think it’s the sole contributor to seeking drugs and, at the end of the day, there are many other factors that influence your life and choices as an adult.

there.

this is not an endorsement of that jade girl, american idol or starfuckers, or any other beige crap.

Thanks for those comments guys, I really, really appreciate it.

When I was at school, I was good at school work but absolutely crap at exams – mainly because teachers had continually told me exam grades were the conduit to having a great or terrible life and I was scared shitless of screwing it up.

Infact when I was 15, I was sent to a careers advisor who looked at my prospective exam grades [which were low, regardless of how good my school work was] and told me I wasn’t ever going to be the lawyer or journalist I wanted to be … I should consider a career in catering management.

Imagine how that feels when you’re 15!

Infact, had I not had such great parents who supported me, helped me and encouraged me, I could be living a totally different life to the one I have now – and it’s not because of talent, it’s because I’ve been exceptionally lucky to continually meet people who have believed in me and encouraged me to explore opportunities that I never even knew existed.

I am a massive fan of education – especially in areas which are becoming less and less attractive to the money-at-all-costs society we’re breeding – but if we continue to stop kids exploring the joys of life and give them more and more pointless adult-like exercises [ie: the mass quantities of homework Marcus mentioned], then I am afriad society will be made up of a large propotion of middle management, call centre employees.

Hell, that would be a reason to take hard drugs right there.

I know I have gone on about Sir Ken Robinson – as have Fred and Age – but I beg people to watch / listen to it … http://fredriksarnblad.wordpress.com/2007/03/13/116/#comments … because he is so right when he say’s education is now formulated to kill creativity and free thinking in the people of tomorrow.

This is an issue very close to my heart and the wonderful Mark Chong at Singapore’s SMU regulary lets me rant to his wonderful students about embracing what is important to them.

The sad part is that in many of the Asian youth, the thing they are passionate about most is money – because they believe this allows all their other hopes and dreams [wife / husband, family pride, fulfilling responsibilites, material possession, house, car, etc etc] to be achieved – which is why their choice of job is beoming primarily dictated by starting salary than passion liberation.

I find it sad … but then I am from a different generation with different cultural values, so I cannot say they are wrong … though I do believe that if the Governments of the World don’t take on this issue in some way, it will have massive economic, cultural and social issues for them later on in life.

OK, rant over … back to work. BOOOOOO!

You posh bloke Age … private school. Ooer!

But your Dad should have been proud because ironically, you now can earn more money in a Blue Collar job than 90% of the White Collar jobs – mainly because we are becoming a society who can’t DO [practical] things so happily pay top dollar to people who can help solve our problems and inconvieniences.

lemme guess age – either xavier or st michaels?

he he… you’re talking to an old star of the sea girl..

you obviously haven’t met me rob, if you think i’m posh.. ha!

touché..