Thursday, January 31, 2008 @ 16:46
Internship experience
If you had lost touch with me sometime around Nov and Dec last year, well, I was busy. Of course if you had checked this space then, you would have been bombarded by a constant deluge of articles (my apologies).
I was kept occupied with an awesome internship that was made possible with the help of Jolene (also courtesy of her aunt). Here's Jolene with her trendy haircut and I in the office sharing a rare good photo moment. We usually sat opposite each other, so much so that the two computers we were using became known as Jolene's comp and Eunice's comp. Four comps for six of us interns, no cat fights, we were very compromising people hoho.
The News Editors(clockwise from top left: Boon Siew, Chong, Jacqueline, Cindy, Freddie and Kee Seng)
Each editor had different lessons to offer, it was definitely an interesting experience but of course there were stressful and cringe worthy moments when I made stupid mistakes, thankfully I survived phew. Working at the news desk opened my eyes to things and issues that I was previously apathetic and ignorant of, worth pondering hmm. Balance of cynicism and passion?
The hip and happening Lifestyle & Entertainment Desk(clockwise from top left: editor Sebastian, Indra, Mei, Anansa, Bissme and Shashi)
I was highly motivated working at this desk. Got the chance to cover such a variety of events and met so many friendly, interesting people, am just super grateful for the experience. Many fun, casual chats with the team. Till this day, my Peter Pan article is my happiest one to date, somehow, but actually the story behind the inspiration of Peter Pan is really quite tragic. A case of tragedy begets wonder.
The three interns from Taylor's spiced things up at work. We drooled over exciting assignments and all clamoured to go out in the field haha. Presenting to you Calyn! We had three weeks together at the entertainment desk in which we both loved! It was such breezy fun working alongside her heh we were like movie buddies going for foreign films and the EU film festival's opening together. Most importantly, she motivated me to complete my James Morrison article in something like an hour?!! Companionship and encouragement much appreciated! =)
Cheryn hopped on over to the entertainment desk after me. It was certainly refreshing to see her creativity unleashed in her writings there. Surprisingly I already knew her sister Eng Hooi (TJC-ian)! All those times playing movie trivia, she could be a walking Wikipedia for movies I swear! We had many a good laugh at inside jokes and she never failed to give me lifts after work right back to my doorstep. Seriously thankful for that! ^_^
Third one's 'Auntie' Beh (Behonce)! He sure livened up the hours. Love the attitude! Professionally suppressed at work, I am truly privileged hoho to see his personality unleashed at the BRDB media appreciation party. Drama mama. Ask for Jolin Tsai's concert and you will receive heh. This dude here confiscated my wine at the party! Ish. Never forgive, never forget (Sweeney Todd tagline).
There was Geraldine also but I forgot to take a picture with her! Yikes. She's standing far left in the picture above. She had the most off days (holidays) and what an experience it must have been to be under the special investigative reporting desk. We would always scurry off to get ice cream and lunch together, hungry kids we were. Food was definitely in abundance at work especially during Christmas season. Yum. Here we are treating the whole office to TEN PIZZAS!
Here's us with the baby of the photo desk, newest one to the team - Faiz! He was the one who took photos at my first ever assignment (Deal or No Deal) and he won RM50 there (could have been RM200 darn)! After that, we always didn't seem to have the luck to cover the same events, maybe 3 or 4 more only? I think we interns disturbed him the most just because.
Random from various desks(clockwise from top left: Fashion editor Peter, Wern Jun, Charles, Amin, Kimberley, Giam)
What a myriad. Of the six, spoke most with Wern Jun, she was with me when my jacket got stolen. Shopping with her at IKEA was laugh-till-milk-comes-out-through-your-nose inducing. Surprisingly also, I knew her brother Churn Haw before this.
Farewell lunch with many editors and other staff. Cindy's farewell lunch that is, we had the same last day of work. I ate a super spicy chilli by accident that day. Yowza. It was an awesome two months overall, and it ended sweetly too. Yohoho, Journalism is the life for me. *forget the small salary and long working hours*
Friday, January 18, 2008 @ 23:42
My face in the papers!
On January 4th, something exciting happened!! My face was in the papers! Huahahaha my face appeared in the papers! (Must I repeat myself? :P) To think I thought only bylines were the best thing ever. Having my picture in the paper is a pretty neat experience too. All thanks goes to Behonce who wrote the article and included that little photo in the system. How the editors ended up choosing that photo to use in the paper just bewilders me but I am so thankful for that!
It was the media appreciation event in which I won my iPod shuffle, man that night is just full of surprises and good things ain't it? And if you haven't heard of Comeback Kings or seen their super hilarious skits, you're really missing out! Too bad I didn't get a recording. Bylines, picture, what's next? =)
Thursday, January 17, 2008 @ 18:53
Praise God
I can't really put my finger on it but when I look back on the past year, I feel...so blessed. It was a year filled with fantastic things and amazing times with many loved ones. Spent quality time with dad, mom, brother and sisters, not to mention an awesome Christmas back in Kampar. Plus good times with all my faraway buddies. Those many many visits to the red dot (especially the surprise visits LOL priceless). Thank God I also have crazy people to hang with in KL, sure makes the days more interesting.
I got As for subjects I really hoped I would score in. Take that Written Genres! Great fun in Psych and Public Speaking classes. Had delicious food, read good books, kept trim and fit at Fitness First, met Chester!!! and Lina, Joanna and Douglas, got a treat from a fish seller (wow), witnessed SYTYCD Malaysia, watched loads of awesome movies and experienced meaningful times at Wesley. The year was even prettily wrapped up with a kick-ass internship at theSun!
Another thing I am grateful for and here goes the story you may not have heard. I had been eye-ing MP3 players for quite awhile last year. Spotted a Sony one that was just perfect, it was just up to the point where I had to part with precious money to get it and I couldn't bear to spend just yet.
Surprisingly though I got invited to a Citibank launch where they had a lucky draw with seven prizes. There was a DVD player, Hifi set and teddy bears up for grabs but none of those attracted me. Amazingly there was an MP3 player in the list!! I was so excited, no freaking way I really could not believe my luck. I believed God was blessing me by putting me in that situation.
I answered the sixth question correctly (phew) but I had to choose between 2 sealed envelopes, one had the MP3 player written on the slip of paper inside and the other a teddy bear. I was so nervous and ended up picking the TEDDY BEAR!!!! GROAN. Absolutely devastating. To come so close and yet screw it up by picking the wrong envelope. Fifty-fifty, what screwed chances man?!
To have something you really wanted pulled from right under your nose, tough. However, I guessed it would have been just too easy if I had won the MP3 player then.
Few weeks later, Behonce got us all invited to this media appreciation party by BRDB. I was ready for a night of fun, food and good laughs with theSun interns. Then came the lucky draw section, I had the feeling I had screwed chances anyhow. It looked like the gifts were fragrances, cookies, food and the like. All the interns knew my misfortune at the Citibank launch so we were joking about the possibility of an MP3 being hidden amongst the bath soap and cookies when suddenly the emcee announced 2 iPod shuffles were up for grabs!!
My heart must have boomed loudly the moment he announced that. No freaking way. First iPod went to some fortunate soul and everybody consoled me, all the while crossing fingers and hoping hard I would get the second one and...I DID! That dude called my number out of all the numbers in the huge goldfish bowl!!!!!!!! All four of us were shrieking like maniacs!
Of all the prizes, the two nights stay at some 5-star hotel and other really really drool-worthy expensive prizes, I actually got a prize and it turned out to be the one that I have desired all this while. I mean to get a prize is already unbelievable, but to actually get something I wanted! That is extra freaking superbly incredible! It felt like God blessed me and blessed me a thousand times more. Coincidence? I believe it wasn't.
Presenting my new green love, praise God!