Preparation for Friendship Week

I actually posted last night but bizarrely enough after I clicked submit there was a bad error request and the worst thing was that the "back" button didn't work and there wasn't even a draft copy when I logged in again, which is strange cos usually Blogger saves the drafts as you blog. So it's super xianzzz! Wasted my 1.5 hours of life T_T

And I dunno why my old com can't access the Internet which is extremely irritating cos almost all of my files are still in there and I've not even installed MS Office and other programmes on my new com yet. The strange thing is that I can actually go onto MSN and download Windows updates and even play DOTA via the Internet but the IE just doesn't seem to work suddenly. Looks like a DNS error or something and I noticed the packets of data transferred is very small (like in 10's as compared to usually 10's of thousands or even 100's of thousands). Anybody has a possible solution that's simple to implement? =s

Anyway as one might tell I'm not in the happiest of moods so this post is gonna be a trimmed version (which may still be long cos by my standards my recent posts tend to be v long) cos I don't have the feeling to go and elaborate on everything as I did...

Ytd I went to visit a fellow Council TA at CGH with some of the other TAs cos she was admitted for appendicitis (ouch!). Thankfully she looked to be in good spirits though in obvious pain and some of them tried to cheer her up by joking about her but it was difficult for her cos she wanted to laugh but it was painful to laugh. =s

After that we went down to MJC to check out the preparations for orientation. The councillors were preparing the O-Packs and I learnt about dealing with vendors and handling certain issues that cropped up during my time there, which is good cos next year I'm one of the ICs for orientation and there are so many things to learn and prepare for - all the paper work and liasing will be just crazy!

Have been busy with organisation of Friendship Week and there are actually a lot of things to look into, contrary to what one might think. Of course the work pales in comparison to Orientation and some of the other major events like Prom but it also involves a fair bit of coordination and the whole Council's help - a good way to get initiated into the Council I suppose haha.

Anyway so this week I was a lot more involved in Friendship Week (previously we just liaised with the 2 ICs) and on Wed I sat down to speak with all the 4 sub-committees (Angel-Mortal Game, Publicity, Sales, Finale) and it was an enjoyable experience to listen to all their plans and giving feedback. I guess it's something I expected Council work to be - interacting with the students and getting involved in a variety of tasks that also requires me to think critically about their plans and also sometimes requiring a bit of my creativity. As I thought before, I would be of better use in Council than in IGC, though I enjoyed my time there. =)

The most enjoyable thing was conceptualising the photo shoot for the postcards we intend to sell for Friendship Week. I went to find quotes on friendship on the Internet and from there I got some inspiration on taking certain photos in the school to represent those quotes which I thought was cool cos my fellow TA had mentioned before that her school sold special postcards with pictures of the school and it was very popular even though they were expensive cos they carried sentimental value.

I managed to get my chem bro to help us do the photo shoot on Thu and it was a very fun session as we walked around the school to take pictures at the spiral staircase, classrooms, garden, rock wall and soccer field. After that we did some photo editing where I learnt some skills from him and we had a reshoot cos there were some things we weren't satisfied with and also cos I had another brainwave so we went to take pictures at the running track and chin-up bars.

We then got some other teachers and councillors to give feedback on the edited pictures and it was interesting to hear their comments - like certain pictures look scary, very artistic, unnatural, etc. - and I learnt more stuff about how various people have different sense of aesthetics and how some things look good to everyone so that I have a better idea of what appeals to people. I also learnt about the importance of different fonts and how it ties in with the photos so after a while I developed a sense of what fonts would match certain photos and it became a really interesting affair trying to match a suitable font and even arranging how the words of the quotes should be placed in the picture was a very fun thing!

Can't say that the edited photos are perfect because I have a thing for perfection but given the time constraints and my amateurish skills I think it's already very, very good (thanks to the great shots my chem bro took) and many people have said that they liked the photos. But the most important thing is the final product so hopefully everything will turn out fine after they're printed. Btw, proceeds of our sales will go to SCAS so please do your bit for charity and support our Students' Council too by buying the postcards! =) [price tbc later though the initial plan was $1 per card with a special price of $5 for a set of 6 cards]
Contact me if you're interested (I will probably mass email soon to the ex-MJC students anyway, esp those in my last batch) =)

Ok, shall stop for now and carry on in another post cos Blogger looks scary - got problems saving the draft. It better not screw up again!