Never-ending Learning

So, that request to design stationery for someone's wedding was a huge huge lesson for me. Never jump in without knowing what exactly you're in for, and never be afraid to say "No."

It was really hard for me to work without any direction from the buyer. Worse still, they didn't know whether the stationery I would be designing would be used at all! Deep down, I really didn't want to spend all that time and effort coming up with a design, just for them to turn around and say "Awesome design, thank you but we don't need it anymore."

So I was stuck in that awkward place where I had already agreed to take the job but couldn't proceed, yet I couldn't tell the buyers bluntly how I felt. Anyway, it all worked out well and I'm a lot more clear about my stipulations now.

*Sigh*

I'm so glad I have this little space online. My breathing space. Somewhere I can run to when I feel crowded or confused. You know, like Lucy from the Big Bang Theory? Well, this is my bathroom with a window to escape through.

Wonder if I'll ever outgrow this habit of mine.. to think that I've been running here for the past nine years. We'll see if there's any cause for celebration next September at the 10-year mark :)

Quivering!

Oh goodness, oh no! Oh my! Oh, eeek!

Just needed to get this outta my system. These fluctuating high levels of contrasting emotions is driving me insane!

I just got asked to design some wedding invitations for a complete stranger and as honored as I am that they trust me with such a personal thing, I am also freaking out because I want it to be perfect for them! What have I gotten myself into?!

Ever had to just jump and jiggle on the spot to shake all your jitters out? That's me right now :D Wish me LOTSA LUCK!!

Enticed by a devil called social media

So, this Etsy venture has kicked off and we've even got our first sale from a complete stranger somewhere in the the USA.  Not bad for a shop a few days old, knowing that some people only get their first sale a few weeks or months down the line!

Am pretty excited about that! But the irony was.. I've been learning so much about this whole online shop thing, about Etsy, joining teams, promoting and such and yet, our first customer came from nowhere. Not from facebook, twitter, wanelo, etsy discussions.. nada. In the process of getting acquainted with all the social media available, I'm having second thoughts less than a week in.

THEY CREATE SO MUCH NOISE!! Noise as in spam, superfluous pixels.. color static. I want to stick to my guns and prove my mettle "the right way," knowing that that means everything and nothing to different people. As much as I appreciate having a certain item of mine being "liked" on Etsy and elsewhere by complete strangers to "help" me promote, I also dislike that feeling that those "likes" are artificial. Random, thoughtless clicking by strangers compelled to do so for the promise that other strangers will do the same for their products.

That's the crux of it, I suppose. I don't like the fact that it's artificial, mindless and there's a motive involved that isn't a bit more altruistic. What have gotten myself into? Dare I ditch them to strike out alone? Do I want to risk the next three months without a single sale? Is it even practical? So many questions to answer! Time for my thinking cap..

Giving Back

Once again, I've been hit with that childish giddiness - that feeling that everything in the world is bright, shiny, beautiful and where the dark, lies and other monsters don't exist. To experience this first thing in the morning.. it's awesome!

I came across (as you do when you follow, then follow, and follow more links down rabbit holes) this very inspiring creation of three wee kids in Sydney who have been busy with their project, a website called Share and Inspire. They are guided along by their mom as they research graphic designers to make inspirational canvas prints for them to sell online. All proceeds get donated to a charity they have researched and picked that supports children, their families and education. The clincher is that these young ladies are aged 5, 7 and 8! Makes me squeal with glee at the cuteness of it all, compounded with the goodness! Ah... too. much. warm. and. fuzzy. feelings.

To top it off, I came across another awesome project aimed at educating kids, in a different way. The medical students at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle have been training to not only become people doctors (good luck to you all, don't let my cynicism get in the way), but to also become Teddy Bear Doctors at the Teddy Bear Hospital! Awwww!! Why didn't we come up with something so warm and fuzzy with our medical student society? *pout* Instead, there were piss-ups and pub-crawls and "Suture Nights" and plastering workshops where half the people attended to learn, and the other half showed up for social reasons. I don't recall any philantrophic activities.. it was always about us, and never others. How embarrasing..

Anyway, I digress. Just deflated my own happy bubble. Tsk.. now I have to go inflate it again by clicking on the warm and fuzzy websites again! =D Hopefully, will be able to pass this on as best as I can once my etsy shop is up and about. Have plans of donating a portion of sales to a charity I've been volunteering with!

Etsy Fun

Am so, so excited!
The day is drawing near.
I've been worried I won't make it,
But everything's now clear

From one wee bear,
An idea grew
And now I've too many
Oh my, who knew?

So now it seems,
The right time's come
Sometime next week
We're opening with aplomb!

And the Journey ...kinda begins

I've gone and de-railed myself this year, and it's both exciting and scary to travel off my beaten track! From wanting to do a millions things and not knowing where to start, to STILL wanting to do a million things but finding a starting point that's propelled me in all sorts of unexpected directions, I'm finally on my way!

To do what, you might ask?

Well.. we'll see how this pans out over the next few months. Gut instinct is to be extremely protective and secretive, but this goes against everything in this retail industry I'm dabbling in. I'm supposed to go out there and flaunt my wares, to garner customers and fans and network! So, I'm starting to challenge my personal comfort zones yet again by putting it out there - I'm opening an Etsy store!

It might not seem like a huge deal, and some might ask what Etsy even is... (it's an online marketplace mainly known for the variety of handmade things people sell there, from food, clothes and stationery to the downright wtf) but I'm taking my store very very seriously. I kinda have to. I turned down a secure job for this year to embark on this crazy journey. It kinda has to work out somehow.

So here we are.

My store's nearly ready to open. My listings are slowly filling up. Bits and pieces of my required supplies are filtering in. My designs have been sent off for professional printing. I've got a logo! There's still a ton of work to do that I would never have known about a month ago, but that's what keeps me on my toes!

I guess this is all I'll let on for now. Throughout this post, I've obviously come to a subconscious decision to half tell whoever is out there without the details, for I'm still not sure I want to reveal my Etsy identity just yet. Or whether I'll try and keep the two worlds separate with different blogs. But ah well. Can decide later! Planning to launch the store sometime in April, fingers crossed!

It's Already March!

Holy moly!

I can't believe it's already March. Autumn. First quarter of the year, gone. Just like that. I haven't even gotten a chance to DO anything yet!

Time, please slow down. By a lot. With a cherry on top.

what's with the hoo-ha?

Slowly but surely, various friends and their friends and their friends start this stream of protest pictures and opinions about this Population White Paper over in Singapore. Without even having to do Google searches or any blog-hopping, I am pretty sure that the usual suspects floating around the Singapore blogosphere would have many opinions (witty or otherwise), analyses and of course, pictures adorning each blog or website.

All of this hoo-ha got me curious. I've got a million questions!

What is this magical 6.9 million number that keeps getting mentioned? What exactly is this Population White Paper and why is it suddenly such a huge piece of news now, and not.. say, last month or last year? Why are people so agitated over it? Why do people care enough to stage a protest in Singapore?

So I went and went straight to the horse's mouth and learnt a thing or two.

Some parts of it got me so agitated, I was rebutting every sentence I had read. 

From what I've gleaned, there are three components to the Paper. One's to do with the population and family planning. The second's to do with the economy and the last is to do with the quality of living. Within each section, there are more specific issues that are highlighted.

With regards to family planning and the population issue, the Paper wants to

• encourage marriage and parenthood 
• remain open to immigration
• help new immigrants adapt to the local way of life and "reinforce our values and sense of belonging"

So great! This Paper proposes to make it easier to couples to have kids and help young families settle into places of their own. How noble. How dare it assume that the norm is the traditional nuclear family, or that one needs to marry and then have children to be considered a family. What about those who do not want to get married, but are happily with the love of their life.. with or without kids? What about those who cannot have kids? Or the ones that live with extended family members and various generations under one roof, but have just started their own brood? Why are these families penalized for not conforming to the supposed "norm" the Paper sets, and therefore misses out on some of the potential benefits outlined?

The Paper also wants to allow immigrants to arrive and take root, with an annual quota declared to have some control of how fast the population will boom. The last point baffles me. Who exactly is deriving benefits from adapting local ways of life here? The local population, who can feel better about themselves compared to the newcomer and therefore, have a reinforced sense of belonging in an "us vs them" mentality? 

As to the economy, the Paper wants to

• create good jobs for the Singaporean Core 
• complement the Core with foreign workforce
• moderate the workforce so it doesn't "outpace infrastructures" and "to drive necessary" restructuring and productivity improvements

What does the Paper define as "good"? What does the population define as "good"? Do the two coincide? It's quite appalling that more and more people seem to view less and less jobs as appealing, or good. Apparently, word on the streets amongst the young'uns is that being the checkout chick is just as "bad" and "beneath them" as being a janitor, and the ideal job is one that garners the greatest fame/power/respect coupled with the fattest pay check requiring the least amount of effort to gain the aforementioned two criteria. This doesn't exactly leave a lot of jobs to pick from. Of course, one solution as the Paper proposes, is to import foreigners to fill in the gaps and work the jobs the locals don't want. There presumably will also be foreign imports to fill in so-called "top" jobs until there are local equivalents to match the level of expertise required, if possible. It's no wonder that the local workforce is scared of the foreign competition and losing out. It's no wonder that people feel compelled to work long hours to be ahead of any perceived competition amongst both local and foreign colleagues just to stand out amongst the crowd and earn their level-ups. And then you wonder why people aren't busy making babies to boost the population and why the Paper needs one section to address purely numbers... d'oh.

Local mentality has to change because currently, I don't think there's a long term solution that is viable. I'm in no way defending the Paper, but I can see where some of the plans stem from. The locals are so picky about the jobs available, they leave no other choice but for the powers that be to import foreigners. And then the locals complain about these foreigners competing with them for jobs and crowding their country. And THEN, the locals complain about the Paper when it tries to provide a stop-gap solution for this downward spiral as the locals become even more prissy and decline jobs that are no longer "respectable" or "fashionable." We haven't even begun addressing the issue of the ageing workforce yet! The local mentality has to change.

 Then, there is this quality of living business that the Paper addresses. It wants to

• plan/create infrastructure ahead of demand with projected population in 2030 hitting 6.5 - 6.9 million
• implement infrastructure programs to expand transport etc
• explore new technology and solutions to optimize land use/create new land etc

Good for you. Good luck in making it work. I don't see why the Paper proposes to create unnecessary work for everyone. Why would you be so ambitious and increase the population by that  much, and then be pressured into developing new tech/solutions to cater for the population increase? Why are such pressures required to spur improvement? What about focusing on the current population and try figuring out what would make their lives easier to live, instead of ignoring them to focus on generations that may or may not come into existence? 

The long and short of it, in my view, is that the Paper outlines reasonable issues that have been identified as potential problems in the near future. It is certainly not wrong to highlight these concerns and formulate plans to circumvent future problems, although it seems to me that some of the plans appear to be temporary stop-gap measures without sufficient think-through of consequences or "nipping the problem in the bud" approaches. Have I also mentioned... the local mentality has to change or else, the Strawberry generation will be finding it harder and harder to attain any quality of life in the near future.

not another annual gripe

It's that time of year again,

Oh yes, you know what I mean.

Don't sit there pretending

This day, you haven't seen!

It's that awful feeling again,
Oh no, how will it go,
Will it be filled with laughs and smiles
Or will it be full of woe?

I'm sorry to say, I won't know
Because it's not my special day
I don't expect flowers or cake
But I bring lots to the fray!

Happy Birthday to all of you,
Those born on Valentines' Day
Hope everybeary had a blast,
And played the day away!

♥  ♥  ♥