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    3/31/2009

    Dream of your dream

      marley-and-me 看《Marley & Me》,喜欢不是因为里面那只顽皮淘气的狗,也不是因为感动人类和狗之间特殊的感情,而是里面男主人公的生活。作为一个在报社工作的人,他喜欢写作,他一开始便觉得自己天生就是写政治时事报道的,谁知报社总编却突然有一天安排他写专栏,他满心不原意,渐渐的,却发现很多读者都喜欢他所写的东西,唯独他自己觉得生活并不快乐。所以他们离开了那座城市,去了新的地方,搬进新的大房子,新的工作让他回归到写时事报道,可是主编却并没有好言称赞,因为他的文字里融入了太多的个人感情。于是他自我安慰说是因为之前写专栏写的太久。他的妻子对他说人:“人就是这样的,总是喜欢不属于自己的东西。”当你觉得自己心里是那样憧憬一个行业,一个领域,一项事业,你就会对现在自己所从事的工作不屑一顾,认为那只是在浪费时间,为了养家糊口没有办法才继续的。可是,当你有一天真的做到了梦想中那个职位,那个身份,你却发现原来和自己是那么格格不入,原来没有那么出色,原来没有那么得心应手。于是,回过头来才再次发现:“原来真正属于我的还是前者。”影片里的男主角又重新开始写专栏,相信经过一番变换和波折之后才能意识到自己心中的所属。 

      在上次的workshop里认识一些有相同兴趣的陌生人,他们都希望将来可以从事和电影有关的行业,他们都看起来事业有成,他们的年龄都在三十岁以上。可是,大部分来参加这个讲座的人真正从事电影事业的又会占多少比例呢?正在电影圈里摸爬滚打的人可能根本不屑或是没有时间来参加长达两整天的讲座,只有那些对电影有兴趣却还没有真正参与的人才会愿意用自己休息的时间来交换爱好的所得。

      在午餐过后,桌上的人开始交换名片,我看到坐在我旁边的人拿出四五张不同的,然后抽出一张给我们说:“拿着这个吧!”,我低头一看,上面的职位显示他在出版社工作。嗯,应该是最接近电影这两个字的名片了吧?而他手中其他的呢?看得出,他是一个成功地商人,他在stanford经济学毕业,他随口都可以讲出很多金融方面的尝试。于是我们了解到他是有自己的生意的,他是一个生意人,只是这个生意人对电影很有兴趣。私底下,他对我说;“无论有多么爱好电影这样的艺术,真正能从事并且全心投入的又能有几个?”。我想我明白他说的话,如果你决定写剧本,那么你需要待业一年,这一年用什么来吃饭?而一年之后你的剧本又有多大希望能被制作人看中?看中后又有多大希望去拍摄成电影?而电影又有多大希望去拍摄成功?而拍摄成功又有多大希望能带来票房的保证?就算这一部成功了,那将来继续写剧本就会一直找到雇主吗?微小的可能,靠艺术想要吃饭有多么的痛苦!

    f_dreamrealitm_5b440c1

      所以,有人从小深爱音乐却不敢放弃正规教育而进音乐学院,有人渴望表演,但却不能抛弃重点大学而选择电影学院。他们害怕竞争的激烈,害怕一旦走入了这一行就没有回头的选择,害怕如果走的太深就会迷失了自我。而还有一个重要的困惑,那就是:究竟自己梦想这么多年的东西到底是不是真正想要去做而且适合自己大有胜算的工作?我们知道,喜欢并不代表擅长,有梦并不代表会有希望。如果你没有这个把握没有勇气就不能轻易的随着自己暂时的心意而迈入那个不知道后面会有什么的门槛。

      所以,歌迷永远都比音乐家多,影迷永远都比演员多,热爱音乐却从事别的行业的总是比正在做音乐的多,热爱电影却一直在商海里打拼的永远比一流,二流,三流加在一起的演员还要多。

      不仅仅是电影和音乐,绘画,雕塑...我们应该由衷的佩服一直坚守在这些岗位上的人士们,因为他们有信念,他们坚持不懈,他们在和一群人过着独木桥。他们理应获得尊重。而剩下的人们,就如我一样的人呢,只能远远观望,心里默默畅想,然后嘴上对自己说不在乎,因为我们不属于那一行。不管你有多么的渴望,不管你有多么的期许,不管你们在梦里多少次看到自己变了模样。却始终都不敢大大方方的坦然承认,因为心里总是有那么点彷徨和恍惚。你不知道是否有足够的理由去支撑,有足够的才华去坚定,有强有力的信心去铺垫。

      这就好比感情一样,人们总是喜欢得不到的,喜欢追求遥不可及的,从而忽略一直在身边相守的。可是突然有一天,当你真正接近了那神仙姐姐或是白马王子之后就发现原来他们和你并不在一个世界,不是说他们有多出众多高不可攀,而是他们的想法,他们的生活方式根本就和你是不同的。而当一直在你身边的人离开之后才意识到原来自己早就习惯了有他们的相伴。只是因为年轻,因为野心,因为贪婪想要去得到更多,以为把目标放得更远就会收获的更多。于是人们都一味的选择去前行,殊不知他们一直在退缩,同自己现实的渴望,同内心真正的需求渐行渐远。

      stevie%20wonder%20toys%20pic%202%20(Custom) 那天看到Stevie Wonder的现场表演,唱自己写的歌,编自己的曲,制作自己的音乐,弹奏自己的乐器,力宏对这位他一直崇拜的偶像总是赞不绝口,说他的音乐里有一种单纯,直接,不做作的东西。我想这可能就是一位盲人最直白的内心的表达才会带来的真实感受吧!他热爱音乐,因为他看不到花花世界的诱惑,所以他能遵从内心的趋势在钢琴上用音符驰骋。他是一个有梦的人,而且他从不怀疑他的梦,所以他能获得成功因为他早就给自己奠定了单一独立的身份,他愿意为此一博,他无所畏惧,他已经失去了光明他再也不怕任何其他。 

      所以,如果你拥有一个梦想,且当真只有这一个想要用生命去实现的愿望,而且相信自己必定能够大放光彩,如鱼得水。那么你才能为了这个梦想而去牺牲现在所拥有的一切。如果不是,那么只能继续做一个普通人,做一个欣赏者,一个收藏家,一个有广泛爱好和兴趣的路人甲。

      梦想和现实的距离很遥远,坐着星际快车也不知道要多少光年,不是每个人都有穿越黑洞直达目的地的勇气,我们所能做的就是仰望那一片璀璨的夜空,怀抱那一刻年少时青春的梦,继续仰望,继续梦,继续想……

    3/30/2009

    巧遇成龙吴彦祖于PS新加坡电影宣传会

      星期一,新的一周又开始了,伴随的是三月的即将结束。很快,四月就要到来了,每一年的四月对瑶函来说都是很重要的。有瑶函世界的周年日,有裳在OH China的生日,而今年多加的一项就是在澳洲悉尼的毕业典礼。最开心的绝对不是因为拿到一纸证书,而是可以和家人在今年春节之后再次团圆。没有什么比这还要开心的了。

      今天工作和以往不同是因为一直帮助我培训的人今天Off,所以没有人帮我检查邮件的准确程度,我只能自行检查然后勇敢的发送出去,还好没有遇到太难的任务,即便有一些不知道的也就顺口问其他同事帮忙了。相信再过一段时间已经不需要发送给其他人帮我检查了,发觉有自主能力的感觉还是相当好的,只不过要细致很多,生怕我粗心大意毛病会发送错误,那样就很危险了。而电话方面则更自然一些了,一大清早倒是有一些客人,下午就静寂很多了。今天午餐时间在11点半,12点半开始继续工作然后一晃儿就到晚上5点多了。在公司上歌迷会的网页,然后用简单的粘贴和复制回了一些帖子,时间过得很快,再加上这个周末在家里还是写了些文字的,所以草稿箱里还有储备,就没有刻意在公司完成日志。总是尽可能的用中文来写东西感觉会比较好。

      晚上本来是有中文课的,在去往朋友家的路上接到电话说她肚子里的宝宝一直在踢她,所以感觉很不舒服,不能上课了。而我已经在半路上了,所以就提前下车打电话给朋友恰好她也没有吃饭,也都在附近,所以就相约一起去PS商场了。进到商场之后发现人特别多,一群人都拥堵在中心,又听到有女主持人的洪亮嗓音,当即就断定一定是某个明星即将大驾光临了。于是和朋友两个人朝人群方向走去,不经意抬头发现:“天啊,整个七楼的周边走廊全部围满了人!电梯上也都是人,到最后甚至电梯都停了作为观望点了。我问了旁边一个人究竟是谁要来啊,她回答我说:”Daniel Wu“,当时这女生只说了吴彦祖一个名字,我就很纳闷怎么他居然这么有魅力,当时仔仔周渝民来的时候也没有这么大的接驾团阿!果然,我的猜想是正确的,来者可绝不仅是吴彦祖,更厉害的一个人物则是成龙。

      DSC_0008 原来是为了宣传《新宿事件》而来新加坡的,和朋友没有多做停留便去先吃晚餐了,而接近吃完的时候突然听到外面一阵”暴动‘,很明显就意味着大明星到来了。于是我们也决定去一看究竟,至少看看吴彦祖本人到底有多帅。出去之后便发现想识庐山真面目实在是太难了,我们从七楼一直下到二楼,才好不容易找到一个容身之地,距离前台大概有100多米,根本看不清楚成龙和吴彦祖的脸。只能听到他们的谈话,还有一些和影迷之间的互动,其中一个环节倒是很有意思,主持人说在成龙来之前有很多成龙的影迷在一起比赛看看谁最了解成龙,然后选出了最后优胜的两个人上台可以有和成龙一起拍照的机会,成龙还现场出了考题,我想他大概以为既然是最了解她的影迷就应该了解他的动态吧!结果这两个人还是千挑万选选出来的连成龙正在拍摄的电影是什么都不知道。最后还是成龙自己说出来的:”我和王力宏在拍《大兵小将》。我的心里一阵激动,呵呵。不过,也间接的看出来一个问题,或许影迷真的没有歌迷疯狂。 

      虽然没有看清楚两位明星的本尊,但还能多少体会一下他们的魅力,几乎每一个上台的影迷都说出来这样的话,那就是吴彦祖真是超级帅。从PS离开之后他们还要赶场去VivoCity,今晚就是《新宿事件》的首映式,还有星光大道,他们都要一并出席。相信在那边还是会掀起一阵波澜的,毕竟像成龙这样的人物,在整个华人世界的影响力都是数一数二的,再加上吴彦祖,就凭那张脸走到哪里都少不了尖叫。相信这点应的宣传已经达到了预期的效果。至少我相信今天晚上看到两位明星真面目的人多数都会去电影院看看这部电影,去看看真人和在电影里究竟有没有不同。至于我呢,再想想看吧,如果有时间就去观赏一下也无所谓,虽然不太喜欢血腥暴力的电影。

      不管怎样,能够巧遇大明星也算是种运气,如果今天不是朋友取消了中文课也不会有机会来到PS商场看到成龙和吴彦祖。在那之前也去了一家美发沙龙,因为在杂志上看到一个很诱人的促销活动,所以去打听一下发现果然价钱很合理,于是就准备这个星期六去改变形象了,头发现在实在太长了,都已经成为累赘了,而且颜色也没有什么光泽了,所以就决定在去澳洲之前把头发重新做一下,估计要四个小时呢!还得为那天的时间找点东西去打发。

      好了,就写到这儿了。这个星期将会很忙,几乎每个晚上都有一些活动,所以刚刚取消了几个挪到下个星期,至少也得找出一个晚上和家人上网阿!这个是主要问题。去澳洲之前想必时间会很紧张了,希望可以应付得过来,希望工作每天都会有进步。

    3/29/2009

    写在熄灯一小时

      已经记不得有多久没有一个人独自在家享受两天完整的周末时光了。这个星期没有约朋友一起出去,到了该洗被子的时间,一些小家务还要做。天气果真变化无常,昨天还可以慵懒的在阳光照射下的窗口旁边读杂志,一边吃着零食一边看喜欢的电影碟片。今天就要用毯子裹着身子生怕空调的湿气让本已经不太舒服的肩膀恶劣下去。还好,没有什么比一边打字一边听着外面雷声而觉得舒适的事了。

      1107430 昨天是地球日,通过各种途径都收到了关于“熄灯一小时”的号召,公司总部也发来了邮件通知说在28号的晚上8点会关掉所有不需要的电器设备来贯彻公司一贯对于环境的关心和在世界同领域中的领先倡导地位。可惜我居然忘记了这么重要的一件事,昨天晚上8点多的时候我还在灯下看着杂志。所以这个任务就只好放在今天来履行了,也就是现在,把房间里所有的灯都关掉了,而外面还在打雷闪电,除了电脑屏幕的光亮之外整体上都是黑漆漆的一片,还没有到夜晚就要体会黑暗其实这种滋味并不常有,我们现代人早已习惯了光亮,白天享受阳光的照耀,黑夜也是灯火通明,谁会像古代人一样掌灯燃蜡?没有了。借此机会能重温短暂失去光明的机会也算是种自我教育,希望我们都能学会节省资源,学会保护地球环境,不要毁了后代生存在这个蓝色星球的权利。

      eastwoods_gran_torino_character_descriptions_relea_414x270 周五那天晚上去看了《Gran Torino》,之前说如果我不写影评就意味着电影不值得一看,但是我需要为这个电影破一个例,第一次,一部很好的电影却让我不知道该写些什么。因为它太深了,深到我还不能很好的去消化去理解,一个时日不多的老人,曾经经历过战争的残酷洗礼,在面对自己好客的邻居一家人时渐渐的对自己的一生有了新的理解,所以他在最后牺牲了自己的生命为了成全一个男孩子的价值。看到最后,电影院里很多人都哭了,包括我在内。其实电影前半部分非常平庸,可能很多人都会产生困意,但是导演讲故事的方式让人渐入佳境,到最后如同烟花最璀璨的时刻让观众都得到了欣慰的震撼,原来整部电影所得到的好评就来自于这最后几分钟。如若不是一位有自信有功底的导演谁都不会愿意去冒险,用冗长的平淡的开头和中间,去为最后几分钟一搏,所以这部电影让我记住了Clint Eastwood这个名字,既能导又能演得奥斯卡影帝,实在名副其实,当之无愧。

      在回邮件的时候突然看到很久很久以前朋友给我的一封邮件里的一句话,:“努力一点,即便不是为了我”,那一刻突然一阵心酸,我接收过很多这样的句子,可却从来没有对任何人说过这样的话,虽然一点都不丢脸,一点都不卑微,可是我却总是把自己当成一个不能处在劣势不能位居主动的女孩子。其实我并不畏惧但实际上重新回顾这么多年似乎并没有真的把真实的自己展现给想要展现的人的面前,我用了无数个比喻,用了太多的借代,用这个物体那个物体,这个角色那个角色去代替自己在现实中的身分,为的就是不用直白的去表达。我很懦弱,懦弱到无视别人,也无视自己。在现在看来,我很敬佩其他人的勇气,虽然告诉自己说:“他们是男生,他们理应主动,理应去追求。"不知不觉中我就把女人的地位又降低了一层。

      为了心里的一个位置,很多人都不得不放弃其他的空间,忽略其他的人,当接受别人伤害的同时自己也在伤害着别人。你以为别人欠了你实际上你欠了更多的人。这些债是无法也无力去偿还的,只能安慰自己说是上辈子自己施了太多的恩德,也警告自己说或许来生你要付出更多去偿还今世不能救赎的罪恶。我们注定要辜负很多人。而最可怜的是此情此景在经过太多春夏秋冬之后才能意识到,原来那句;”即便不是为了我“,说者怀抱着怎样的痛。

      我已经过了一个星期没有热水的日子了,因为水壶突然不能正常工作了,加热的灯依然亮着,但是却没有把水烧开,我想可能是里面的加热棒坏了吧?估计也是过了保修期,又不想拎着这么大的东西不知道去哪里修理,所以就得过且过的等了几天,希望它能突然变好,可惜到今天还是没有恢复正常。还好那天买了两大瓶绿茶回来,只是不能喝热水倒是很折磨人,所以下个星期无论如何也要去买个新的回来了,在新加坡这地方修理电器倒不如去买个新的来得划算。值得庆幸的是现在工作日都全天在公司,所以喝水也不成问题,这个星期都是把茶水带回家来的,以防临时吃东西被噎到,呵呵。

      昨天和家里上网的时候萍萍就在摄像头前展示她新给我买的两双鞋子,之前就说了,如果他们能顺利拿到去澳洲的签证那么就可以给我带去很多东西了,看中的衣服和鞋子也不用担心不能及时送到了。所以这两个人昨天就去逛街,收获了不少,可我现在担心的就是从澳洲回到新加坡的行李会不会超重的问题了。澳洲应该也会有东西值得买吧?可别什么东西还没装就已经装不下了。 

      在干打雷不下雨的半个小时多后大大的雨点总算是落在窗前了,就好像是鼻子一直痒者好不容易打出喷嚏的感觉一样。风肆无忌惮的刮着,每次看到这样的画面就会想象明天必定是个艳阳天,又要到星期一了,新的星期即将开始,新的挑战也即将到来,过去的一个星期我正式开始了业务,也见识了越来越多的需要应付的情形,自我感觉还算不错,也因为有了组长的赞扬和鼓励而对自己渐渐产生了信心。下个星期开始回很忙碌,希望我可以不错的完成任务。 

      最后好好享受这个宁静周末的最后几个小时吧!

    3/28/2009

    再看〈Becoming Jane>

      昨天晚上又看了一遍《Becoming Jane》-毫无疑问是我最爱的电影,爱安妮海瑟薇,爱电影的整体的艺术感,爱它拍摄场景的美丽,最爱的是简,奥斯汀。我觉得这部电影对我而言最特别的地方就在于它在整体上打动人心。每次看完都会在电影结束的字幕出现后流眼泪。对于其他电影来说,可能某一个片断,某一个画面让你感动,但是这一部却真的是整部电影让人眼泪止不住,并且会持续很久。

      我想了很多,敬佩简.奥斯汀这位杰出的女作家的一生。我们无需谈论她和电影里男主人公的故事是否真实发生过,但至少有一点肯定的是他们彼此在生命中都是独一无二与众不同的。这位女作家终身未嫁,或许没有轰轰烈烈的爱情体验,但是却能写出《傲慢与偏见》这样的生动佳作。而我们的男主角将自己的大女儿命名为Jane。这当真是发生过的。

      电影的奇特之处就在于它可以把过去带到现在,把模糊转变成清晰,把猜想变成传奇。

      总而言之,这部电影让我心甘情愿的去相信,就算不是百分之百的存在也愿意告诉自己说这位女作家正是因为曾经拥有过那样一段刻骨铭心的爱情才会拥有源源不断的灵感和创意。读《傲慢与偏见》或是读简.奥斯汀都让我们不自觉地去产生一种共鸣,小说里的主人公或许为了创造出艺术价值而添加了些夸张和剧情化的成分,但是基本的人物性格,身份背景却都会反射出作家本人的亲身经历。

      由此会联想到我们中国文化史上最辉煌的著作-〈红楼梦〉,现在的学者都喜欢去寻找红楼梦里人物在历史上真实存在的证据,说秦可卿的原型,说贾元春的原型,为的就是在小说和现实之间找到哪怕一丁点的联系,如果达成也算是种突破和成就。而这也就间接的说明人们有多么的渴望红楼梦里描述的情节曾经在清朝时代真的上演过,我们崇拜异常的才子佳人真的和我们生活在同一国度里,而不仅仅是一个作家在脑海中的塑造和想象。知道了这些就会让很多红迷觉得值得,因为他们所研究的对象决不是虚幻的,他们仰慕的十二金钗或许都是他们的祖辈。

      在上次的剧本讲座中有人问那位教授说:“我们怎样才能找到要写的话题?”,教授说这很难讲,他所做的就是无时无刻准备着被激发灵感,正如那天他在出租车上的时候看到街边标志的一个路名,他觉得是个很美的名字,所以或许下一个剧本就以它命名-Moon Terrance。 然后再借由这个名字去延伸去寻找合适的人物和故事与之搭配协调。然后,可能就会出现一个和名字一样浪漫的电影。按我的理解就是,大多数时候没有谁去怀抱一个要写什么的目标去寻找线索,而是根据一个线索而联想到自己要去写得东西。所以,我相信这个线索毕竟是发生在自己身上,可能是自己的经历,可能是自己所见,可能是从他人口述所得知,也可能是简单的一个名字,一个物品,一个不起眼的东西。

      67f1ac19-b775-4f2c-9b59-1ba60a547021 就个人而言,当我看到一个黑色配着蓝色的铅笔盒就会联想到高中时的岁月,可能当我看到一碗热气腾腾的面就会怀念小时候和弟弟一起在农村亲戚家东北西跑的画面。这些在别人看来丝毫没有关系的事物却会让你拥有一份与别人不同的经历,这份不同就是可以去写作的目的,然后通过发表给大众让读者去了解他们生活以外的世界,让他们知道在每一个角落,每一天,每一秒都会发生获惊艳,或不可思议,或离谱,或颠覆自然的事件。作家满足了他们的愿望,而读者也领略到全新的视角和感受。

      话回到〈becoming Jane〉,其中有两点影响我最为深刻。其一就是我更加懂得了前几个段落我所写的内容,那就是只有自己有机会参与的情节才会成为将来打动别人的情节。正如电影里MacAvoy对Jane所讲的一样,眼界要开阔,要经历很多才不会显得无知,才不会让自己的文字那么矫情,那么扭捏。其二就是通过他们两人之间的爱情让我明白了原来真正有一种感情会因为外物而牺牲。以前我一直都觉得只要两个人互相喜欢彼此,互相钟情彼此,互相都相信就是唯一,那么就不会因为外界的干扰而无奈的分离,我以为如果分离必定是因为两个人还没有那么坚定。但是看过这部电影之后我却真的相信原来比顽强的爱更坚贞的就是为了对方幸福的决心。Jane因为爱Tom所以在最后选择了离开,从此之后,再也没有了交集,而她悲伤的方式就是让自己短暂的42年一人孤单,而Tom 也只能凭借着自己女儿的名字而回温曾经一段青春可人的往事。

      其实写完这一段心里依然还很难过,每一次看这部电影都会有新的想法产生。每一次都觉得又获益不少。电影拍摄的那么高贵,那么优雅,那么有张力,那么纯熟,却又那么悲伤。或许只有女导演才能细腻精致的猜测到这位女作家的心声吧,如果简奥斯汀在天有灵相信她也会喜欢这部电影的,她会因为扮演她的人拥有如此古典之美也会微笑吧?如果她知道有那么多观众因为这部电影而对她的一生更加尊重和崇拜她应该获得满足吧?如果她知道有那么多人想要Becoming Jane该会很骄傲吧?

      “想要成为简.奥斯汀”是我第一次写这部电影影评时的结尾,这一次,我依然很想再说一次,可是我又很清楚这样的想法只能停留在“想”的地步。或许我要等待的是一个Tom Lefroy,赐予一个动人心魄的亲身体验,或许是一个人一辈子都无法拥有的被称作欲罢不能的痛,或许是生活跌宕起伏如若水上漂浮的一只小船,没有方向,也失去了引擎,在那漂浮的颠簸中去发现人性中最真实的恐怖。Syd Field 说每一部好的作品不可能是欢笑,也不仅仅是矛盾,而是“Trauma”,只有它才会虏获人心。我想,我终于懂了。

      想要成为简.奥斯汀。

    3/27/2009

    My first job salary!

    It’s weekend again!

    It was very quiet yesterday, from the board we could see that the phone calls we received is one third less than average. And there are not many emails too. I think it seldom happen, maybe once or twice a month. 

    I’m not afraid to answer phone calls anymore, although I still have so many things to learn, however, I could answer with calm and confidence. I think next week will be a busy week. There are several activities for us.

    1)       we have to attend our sales seminar, which means we should go to our sales gallery to join a 90 minutes presentation by our sales department staff, each time, our team leader will assign 1 or 2 people to join because we will attend the seminar for those who are interested to join us, not only for our learning. What we will do in the seminar is we have to open the door for customers, greetings to them and answer their questions. It sounds like a part-time job in sales industry. However, luckily, it will happen only once. I don’t like sales, sales may not accept me. That’s it.

    2)       There will be another training before I leave Singapore. And it will start so early. 8 am…ah, how early I have to get up! That training is about a software application which has been used for quite a long time, however, it is not very common use, so people like me haven’t used yet due to its specialty. Way to go. 

    3)       A brainstorming event is coming too. It is for internal; our director will meet us as groups to suggest some ideas to improve our department culture. Because few months ago, a survey was conducted by our department, targeting few cultural issues, asking our associate’s valuation and opinion then in terms of the result score, our department could keep the good and get rid of or improve the bad. However, there are some new associates who didn’t do the survey, we were still asked to prepare and bring some suggestions to the meeting. Well, I have to think. So far, I do feel everything in this office is good enough, even some parts I don’t understand, I still believe that it is just because I’m new, not enough time to get to know more. 

    Maybe there will be more I can’t sort of at this moment.  .

    Okay, big news!

    Today I got my first salary!!

    When team leader brought lots of envelops I thought there was not my business, because I haven’t enrolled in any incentive programs. Obviously I’m wrong, because that envelope is not our commission, it is our salary notice!! Actually I’ve been working more than one month already, however, during this time, I never thought about when company paid for us till today. Haha, it seems like I really do not care money too much? I don’t know.

     Anyway, I know now. After I tear up the envelop, I saw the number on it, I feel very happy because that is really my first working salary, before what I earned is only for part-time, but this time is different. I’m under training, not many jobs to do, but I got quite satisfied salary and I’m looking forward to be upon confirmation. I know three months will past very fast.

    Today only two of my colleagues went to lunch with me. We had a pleasant conversation. That’s what I’m looking for, I don’t like going out with a big group people, and each time one or two will be so helpful to get to know each other. Like today.

    This week we also got an email regarding to the tax. As the foreigners who live in Singapore, we have to pay for tax to the government. I still have no idea how much it will be and will that be refundable when I go back to my home country. Okay, will get to know gradually, so far, there are so many things for me to learn, cannot spend time on this.

    Step by step, i can feel everyday I’m improving. Also I have to say thank you to many colleagues who helps me all the time. In our department, every week there is a lucky girl whose name will be chosen from a lucky draw, so other girls will write a love note to her. Luckily, for this week, I become that girl, so I received much heart shape with so many colors love notes from my colleagues, team leaders and directors. When I did this for last month, I didn’t feel what good point it is, however, when I become the receiver, I finally knew what meaning it is. It is a very good opportunity for me to know what other people think of you, what they said may reflect my impression as a new comer to them. So I feel very happy when I saw many nice words writing on the notes and now I understand to build up a nice atmosphere, there do have many ways to achieve. So I believe that I’m working in a wonderful company with wonderful colleagues with wonderful surroundings. Again, I am lucky finding such a great place to work.

    So, it is almost 530 pm, after another hour, beautiful weekend will come, as usual, will have dinner with my friends and watch a movie together. Tonight’s movie is what I have expected for long time, from a movie comment, I saw one sentence “it is surprisingly a good movie”. Wow, what movie can be called like this after “Slumdog Millionaire”? We will see. If you could see my movie review article, that means it is worthy for that, if not. Um..

    What I’m going to do now? I will go to destroy my draft paper and some fax documents, because there are so many credit cards detail on it. If there was anyone who has bad habit, he or she may take this advantage, but I believe for most of people, over 99% people won’t take advantage on their job.

    Okay, outside is sunny now. No rain, no thunder, no lighting, for temporarily. Hope later whether will be the same as now. A two full empty days are waiting for me. I haven’t made plan yet. I will think about it later since I know from next week, a busy period is coming. However, by now, I will celebrate my happy feelings with my family and friends for my officially first job salary!

     

     

     

    3/26/2009

    花醉垂蕊泪满樽

    鸟愁振翅羽散魂

    玉帝琼浆风携洒

    倾海掀洋万露奔

     

    我在写最近新加坡的天气啊。懒得解释了,今天不太想写东西,所以就在公司趁空闲时间偷偷在纸上写首诗打发。明天就是周末了!时间实在过得太快了,提前祝大家周五愉快!

    3/25/2009

    25th, March

    When other people could grab sometime from working hours, they chat online with their friends. But for me, my way is making use of this precious time to finish my journal of the day. Of course also reply some friend’s emails when I ‘m free to do so.

    Someday, I know there must be one day; I can public my own book, maybe movie reviews, maybe poems, maybe a biography, maybe something about music or my any other interest. The book is only for me, my friend, my family or some stupid people who want to purchase. Haha. I don’t think they exist.

    Alright, I’m feeling so good today, got a good comment from my team leader who seems doesn’t like me before, she praised me that so far I’ve been doing great and I will be more steady with more experience. Well, I think that is true. Although I haven’t set up my confidence when solving problems or advising customers, however, I did much better than I imagined. At least, I don’t have any problem to understand customer’s request no matter where they come from or what accent they use. The only thing I have to practice more and more is getting to know more suggestions and options for customers without looking for help from my colleagues.

    I came across many situations today like previous days. I made a diagram which did help me a lot, I can record “haven’t met situation” in the form then use them correctly next time. And I would like to see the very tidy record on my notebook that makes me feel comfortable. I will continue to do it until one day I do not need any notes. However, it seems impossible since nobody in our industry in our company can understand everything. So everybody has a thick “bible book” for their reference. Or maybe we just pray to let this bible become thinner and thinner.

    One difference of today from other days is that I didn’t go out for lunch with my colleagues together. Does that mean I am on diet? No, today I brought my lunchbox! I don’t know why I feel so excited about it. The lunchbox was bought by my landlord, which is very cute and relatively functional. That is much better than normal lunchbox, there are two bowls, one is for soup, another one with three interlayer can be put with rice and another two or three dishes. Therefore, today I first time have a chance to use it.

    Because I had dinner with my friend last night so didn’t have dinner at home, that’s why I asked my landlord to keep my food in the lunchbox so I can bring it to company today. She helped me keep food in the refrigerator and brought it out on the shoe shelf to remind me in the morning. I only had chance to see what’s inside this noon during my lunch time. And I quite happy to see that the dishes are very nice and delicious, could be the best one I’ve ever had at home. The first reason probably belongs to the lunchbox itself, second reason is there is no vegetable dish except soup. The third reason is that it’s truly nice.

    As the first time eating in the office, many people came over to see my lunch and said:” wow, it looks so good.” Ha-ha. I was happy with it. At the beginning, I was worried about maybe lunch will be so few for me because my landlord’s stomach is much smaller than mine. However, she didn’t disappoint me, not much, not less, just right. And I washed lunchboxes for almost 10 minutes to make sure they were clean and doing it as exercises since I do not have chance to walk and I don’t want to go back to my station and sit until evening. Anyway, that was such a great lunch, I enjoyed it.

    Today our Mrs. is back, after her wedding, she had few days off and came back this morning. It is a strange thing, just few days, the title from Ms to Mrs. and the family name has changed too. So when will I have to do that? When will I not be called as Ms Yin, if not, what will be my family name instead?

    Ok, better not to think about that much. 

    i thought i could publish this journal during my working hours, however, today was surprisingly busy, is the busiest day since i started to work. not many phone calls, but team leader assigned me some customers who asked to call back. not only that, I also met some difficulties of system. so there are still some tasks haven’t done yet. i will follow up tomorrow. 

    tomorrow is Thursday! my favorite! The feeling of the end of week, however, it is just a start point, we can expect more with a excited heart.  oh by the way, I forgot to announce a big good news! my team leader will apply a Chinese software on my PC in order to bring convenience to me since I will handle both Chinese and English customers, so I have this privilege to install on my PC ( only few of my colleagues could read and write Chinese ) . so what is the good point?

    Bingo! I will be able to write articles in Chinese!

    ok, I’m gonna read movie magazine now . good night.

    3/24/2009

    Perfect & Joy

    It is Tuesday. Although I hate to open an article with stating which day it is, I still have to do this to remind me how time flies.

     

    I’m a little bit worried about my space, since I only can use English in office when I want to write something. But I know what I really want is writing with beautiful Chinese- more subtle and more emotional language. However, some days after I went back home, I’m lazy to write again. While, I don’t want to waste time when I temporarily no job to do. So this is butterfly effect, if I don’t have task, I write a journal, because there is no Chinese input method in my computer, I have to write in English. If I write in English, I become lazy to write something new in Chinese at the same day again. That’s why it comes quite often that my space is full of crowded alphabets. It doesn’t seem nice and tidy. I don’t like it.

     

    However, another difficulty is somehow I don’t know how to explain my job in Chinese, there are so many proper nouns I only know English, there is no suitable word in my brain when translating to Chinese, even when I talked to a mandarin speaking customer at the first day as my first call, I still found there are lots of sentences or phases or words I used are totally wrong. Luckily, she was a nice customer and didn’t care so much on my language.

     

    To continue, I have paused for about two hours, there are some calls I received, and most of them went very smoothly, I feel so happy when I received there “thank you “ by email .however, that is not the most excited thing in this afternoon.

     

    I got a message from my mom; she told me that the visas have been approved! And, my dad and she will go shopping right now. Ha-ha. They must be so happy, of course not because get two stamps on their passports, it is because we will see each other again in April!! I haven’t replied their message and will chat with them through video chatting tonight. At that time, I will know how many new clothes they bought for me, or maybe shoes since last time I told them I didn’t find shoes I really like and really comfortable.

     

    So after this good news, I immediately booked the hotels in Melbourne, fortunately, there still have availability; I almost checked everyday because it seems a little bit different cancel policy. If I booked before confirmation of my parent’s visas, there may not be cancel easily. However, I kept eyes on it and check inventory everyday. Well, finally, we have it! I can’t wait seeing my parents again!! So happy!!

     

    Although, I haven’t planed very detail yet….so shame about it. I have no mood to do it without knowing if they can get visa. But right now, I can plan whatever we want. Will start soon!

     

    There is a bad news too, maybe all the good news come with bad news. My shoulder or maybe my neck, somewhere between these two areas are very painful. Only when I raise my head and keep my head on the edge of chair makes me feel better. I did massage to myself too, but it doesn’t work very well. When I deep press my shoulder, I can’t tell the pain from press or from itself. Maybe there is something wrong with my neck vertebra. oh god, don’t be like that. I don’t want to see doctor. What I guess is probably because I always carry my heavy bag on my right shoulder, for long time, it may have some bad effect. Recall memory and back to school time, everyday we have to carry such a heavy book everyday, 3 or 4 kg? And we carry them when we are on the MRT, on the bus, or walking. Maybe this is the reason why my shoulder doesn’t feel happy right now. 

     

    So maybe I should do more exercises? Or maybe do more massages, oh, poor me.

     

    However, the good news is much bigger than the bad news. I’m sure everything’s gonna be all right when I meet my parents in Australia!!

     

    Okay, it is 6pm sharp. I cut my phone line and get ready to leave, there is no more email in my mailbox, and the whole day seems perfectly end. Later will go for dinner with my friend, after that, will share happiness with my parents through video chatting! Today is perfect, joyful and I am helpful as my role in my job. 

     

    Tomorrow is Wednesday again, my favorite hated day. Wish all the best to myself.

    3/23/2009

    A Monday Morning

    It is Monday again. Time flies really fast. It has been a month since I worked here. 23rd of March, it is just like a week from 23rd of February. I thought it could be very long but the truth is time goes very fast after you started working.
    I don’t know if it is good or not.
    Today I logged in my phone at 9am like others, and waiting for the phone call with a trembling nerve. Yes, it was a tough thing; so far, all the callers asked me something I didn’t know. I have to ask them to hold on then check with my colleagues. I’m calm enough but there are still some rules and answers I have no idea. Even I know basic concept but cannot confirm with my brain. And through the phone, it doesn’t allow you to think for long time. However, it is good also, I can remember and learn the experience for each case and write them down for next time use. 
    You can’t imagine how many different questions a customer may ask, and it is always surprising and always out of mind. I don’t know when I can handle them very well like others. I’m still trying and trying.
    This morning, when I opened up my mailbox, there are five emails in my individual mailbox, luckily, there are three of them need not to be replied. They are from other offices in other countries that can help us solve some special cases. So when we received some requests that are not related to our business, we could forward or write email to them, of course, someone will reply us with good manner, so three emails are just like that. 
    After replying the last two emails, I’m wholehearted waiting for the phone calls, I can’t concentrate to write this article because I don’t know when I will be interrupted and the first three phone calls I didn’t do it very well made me kind of nervous and less confidence.
    Fortunately, the customers for my product are not as many as another one. The girl sitting besides me answers phone call much more often. Comparing to her, may I say I am lucky or lack of chances to practice. I know, finally everybody in the office will be the same, we will do both products together, and I understand there will be another cycle of training for me, probably two months later for another product. Anyway, I ‘m the last employee in our department, excluding Japanese team, I will the slowest one and the last one to accept training. 
    Yesterday I stayed at home the whole day, watching movies, eating snacks, talking to my family and the most important thing is sleeping. I slept till 11:30 am in the morning and fell to sleep at 3:30 in the afternoon. Well, went to bed again at 11pm. So all of these hours combine together makes me wake up early this morning. I don’t feel any difficulties as previous morning, maybe after one month; I finally get used to getting up early and have less sleep than before. 
    Last Saturday, I met Benny and watched a movie with her. So far there are not many good movies on show, the only choice we could make is “hotel for dogs”, well, it is not a good movie that makes me write review, it is a movie for dogs’ lover and children maybe. I saw the score this movie get on IMDB is only 3 point something, that’s really sad.
    My parents are now still waiting for their visas, I guess the result will come out within this week, maybe before this Wednesday, only after that day I can be at ease and make some reservation of air flights and hotels. I really wish I could have a great time with my dearest parents. That should be no doubt, only confusion is visa. Praying.
    Suddenly, I found that I made a mistake. No wonder why there is no new call coming; I put the wrong button and logged off from my station. Ah, I hope there is nobody found out. I should be more careful with my Gemini nature. 
    This week, my Chinese lessons with my friends are cancelled because they will have a visitor from America, that’s why we don’t have any lesson within this week. That means I can have more personal time! Say this Monday, today, I do not have to hurry up to leave the office and catch bus then transfer, I don’t have to eat in 10 minutes in order not to being late. So this week should be easy enough for me. Right now I’m thinking what I should eat tonight. Last Friday, because of meeting with my friend, I didn’t have dinner at home with my landlord; there will be an extra for this week, which I ‘m not really expecting. Last week, there are six people joining a dinner, four adults, and two children. However, landlord cooked the same proportion as before. But I’m not complaining about it, I’m very surprised because only two small plates of dish, all of them, besides me, they can be full!! Singaporean’s stomach is too small to imagine. For that dinner, even my dad is not enough for just one person, same as my mum, me, of course. But that is not in china, I can’t eat all of them, I have to behave like I am a girl. But, actually, I am a girl; the only difference is I came from Northeast part of china.
    So I will think about it, maybe ask my friends to eat with me outside. Ah, I miss steamboat! Long time no eat, it seems like our appetite changed because of working. No time to make gathering, no time to eat whatever we want. Okay, stop talking about food. That makes me hungry.
    Great, it’s 12 over now, only 20 minutes more for lunch. I hope this afternoon won’t be a difficult half day. I need encouragement!!
     
     
    3/22/2009

    The very first phone call

    Although I just published a journal about my past Thursday and today, I couldn’t stop writing something again. The reason is I just answered my first phone call in these four weeks since I came to this company.

    Oh my god. I was nervous plus excited. It is very different from yesterday after I tried to call a customer. Calling and answering is too different. First thing you could prepare in advance, but second you have to be prepared without any hints. You don’t know what kind of questions customer will ask and even you know what they talk about, you don’t know the real answer.

    6a00d8345396f169e200e55000ceff8834-800wi The first phone call, my major difficulty is that the caller didn’t know her customer number, we do have many ways to retrieve her account, but using name is not simple one. She has such a long name, about five names together, I can’t figure out which is first name and which is middle name. It is a challenging work to try many times in our system and I couldn’t find at last. So I looked for my colleague to help me, she tried ten times over like me but she got it. After my apology to the customer, I started to check the information she wanted. That is lucky too since she was nice to me and didn’t mind waiting for too long. 

    However, the second is not easy too. He has an even complicated question and I looked for help, even my helper couldn’t solve it, and then asked a senior colleague, finally transferred customer’s call to someone who has experience while I’m not.

    The third one came really fast, there was zero phone call in this morning but 7 phone calls in the afternoon, which I took 3 of them, it is big proportion. I think maybe team leader purposely assigned phone calls to me to practice. The third customer was kind of sad about some fee increases, he complained a little but not that serious. So I could handle it with gentle tone and smile. After this phone call, I totally got rid of nerve and I’m surprisingly expecting phone ring! Wow, the transformation is faster than I imagined.

    I hope this is a good prediction. From next week, I will finally do the same thing as others. Maybe no more relax time, have to stay longer. Who knows? But luckily I’m the only one who is doing one product only; others all do two products at the same time. So this means I will still be easier than other. But the bad point is that I have to learn and be trained for the second product too. It’s been one month already since I was under training. It may not need to take same time to learn new things since at least there is some common connection between these two products. But what I want is temporarily doing one product, after I master it, going to do the next one. That will be steadier and more confident.

    Okay, it’s 530pm already, we only have to wait for the line for another half an hour. The line will be cut after 6pm. And I can leave at 630pm if there is no more extra emails have to be replied. So far there is no more email for me, after I started to answer the phone calls, my mailbox is less full than before. Maybe team leader is balancing the weight between phone calls and emails for me. Which one I prefer? I can’t say. We’ll see.

    Okay, after the last call of today, I’m ready to finish my journal. It is 6pm already. I am so hungry and cannot wait eating something hot and delicious. But it needs to cost me another one hour to put some food into my mouth. I have another half an hour working time; I don’t have anything to do but no way to leave earlier. I even hope there are some new emails in my mailbox so I can find something to fill my empty time frame. Ok, waiting, it may come just like the phone you answered. Everything is unpredictable.

    Tomorrow for some of my colleagues is not free. Every Saturday there will be six to seven people working as this is a service company, it is good enough that don’t have to work on Sunday like some telecommunication company, for us, we are lucky because only work on Saturday and can have a day off in the weekday. That is always welcomed for me.

    Ok, I can stop at last. I didn’t expect to write many English articles in my space. But to avoid missing chance to update, I have to do this. By the way, who can help me install a Chinese input method on my computer? Because I can’t find it in control panel- language, is it okay if I download a Chinese input method like “sogo”, directly to my computer? I will try.

    Well, time to say goodbye, I will use up the left 20 minutes.

    (wrote on 20th, March)

    3/21/2009

    教堂婚礼

      今天去参加了生平第一次有份参与的婚礼,更是一次从未见过的教堂婚礼。新娘是公司同一部门里的韩国同事,新郎则是一位出生在美国的新加坡人,他们在认识一年半的时候决定结婚,于是婚礼就在今天举行了。同行的大概有10个同事,也有一些因为要工作所以没办法来的人。

      我之前一直在想这一定是个很大的话题,可能值得我用几篇文章去描述,我也以为去看别人的婚礼定会让我有很多感触。可是非常奇怪,我并没有深深的被触动,也没有任何奇幻的想法。可能只会在这篇文章里简单记录一下罢了。

      婚礼在某教堂举行,1点钟正式开始。我们几个人在新娘这一边找了很前面的位置坐好。然后看到新郎已经站在前面微笑着准备迎接新娘了。音乐声响起,所有的人都起立转身朝门口看,然后大屏幕投影也追随者新娘缓缓地脚步而慢慢拉近镜头,于是和我们越来越近。那一刻我心里多少有些激动,我觉得能够体会新郎那种期盼的心情和新娘心里的复杂情绪,迈入教堂的那一刻对她来说意味着什么。

      现场歌手演唱之后就进入了互相宣言的阶段。就是问男女双方是否愿意和彼此结为夫妇的那一段,不过不像电视或电影里的台词,如果勉强一下的话,就是:“你们是否相信并了解上帝对于婚姻的概念,并且愿意接受这一概念。”还有“你们是否愿意竭尽所能得去维系这一婚姻。”在得到双都说;“Yes, I do”之后双方家人也都分别举起右手来表示他们的支持和赞同。紧接着就又一是一段现场演唱。然后就进入了我最没料想到的一段。一位中文神父上台要为大家讲一段亚伯拉罕的故事,当时觉得也太不合时宜了吧,以为仅仅是几分钟就好了,没想到至少有15分钟那么长,旁边还有一个英文翻译在重复他的每一句话。

      说实话,我觉得这段不太好并不是因为我不懂圣经的故事或是不能理解。而是所讲的这一段和今天的婚礼有点不太协调。而且他的中文也有很多地方很奇怪,应该不是从中国大陆来的人吧。他首先讲的是上帝关于婚姻的理解,然后便延伸到男人和女人的问题,然后一连说了很多“车轱辘”话,说:“什么是男人,什么是女人”,最后大概用了10分钟时间告诉了我们一个谁都知道的说法,那就是“男人是土做的,女人是男人的一根肋骨做的。”我说这些并没有冒犯基督徒的意思,只是觉得用这么长的时间去说教有点喧宾夺主,而且他的语言也没那么生动没那么有说服力,不仅仅不会吸收更多的教徒,就连作为一个心理或是哲学上的启蒙都不够分量。不过也可能是语言上的障碍,可能本身翻译就会产生歧义,他的中文造诣也不敢褒奖。(不过对于本地人来说应该很容易理解)。

      Marriage 终于结束了他的长篇大论,然后新郎新娘交换了戒指。接下来的一刻是最让我感动的一瞬间,那就是神父宣布他们可以到旁边的桌子上去签署结婚证明了。然后投影就显示了他们和彼此的父母握手,签字,拥抱的场面。那一刻我有点想哭,两个人的名字就那样连在一起了,从今以后他们就是不可分开的了。不知道他们在写下自己名字的那一刻有怎样的感触,会不会手在颤抖?还好没有看到他们双方父母流泪的样子,看起来都很冷静,要是看到他们哭我的眼泪一定会掉下来的。 

      在一首歌结束之后新郎新娘结婚仪式就算结束了,他们要首先离开,我们依然目送,那短短的一段路同事还和我们说hello,她一直微笑着,而我一位日本同事却在擦眼泪。两位新人离开之后我们也通知可以去二楼的餐厅用餐了。离席途中看到其他同事也有很感动的人,我想大家心里都有自己的想法,那位哭了的日本女生已经和男朋友在一起七年了,却还一直没有结婚,也不知道什么时候会结婚。而其他很有感触的人也都是有了男朋友的人。我想或许这样的身份比我更有资格去感慨吧!

      教堂提供的午餐依然是自助的形式,菜肴算是很丰盛,只可惜我没有太多时间停留,因为和Benny约好看下午2点40分的电影,所以吃了一点沙拉还有水果蛋糕就先行离开了。离开之前所有的同事也都去新娘的桌子去拥抱美丽的新娘,然后和她一次又一次的说congratulations,我觉得那一刻这份祝福每个人都很真诚,因为不管是否有宗教信仰的人在这样庄严的环境下都会相信他们是会受到祝福和保佑的,而有幸参与的我们也一样会得到这份幸福。

      后来才知道今天又三位同行的同事都是基督徒,可能以后要参加很多的教堂婚礼了。

      可能之所以没有很强烈的感觉就是因为整个婚礼的过程和婚礼的场合都没有我想象中那么完美,教堂有点旧,灯光不是很明亮,就连地毯都是灰色的,没有喜庆的气氛。而现场演唱的歌手唱功业非常一般,看起来都没有用心打扮。神父,牧师他们的英文都带着严重的本地口音,听起来少了那么点专业性和庄重。宾客也不多。之前看《求婚大作战》时的婚礼有一段是播放新郎新娘一路走来的照片幻灯,然后一起回忆一同走过的这段路,但是今天也没有这样的环节,就连父母致词或是朋友致词也都没有。感觉过程特别简单,虽然我不知道教堂婚礼的程序究竟是怎样,但如果换作是我一定会多添一些元素在里面,也给宾客带来多一点的惊喜,或者是多一点的感动和难忘。

      最后还是要祝福他们,也祝福身边每一个朋友,每一对还相信婚姻愿意不如结婚殿堂的人们,我相信只要有信仰就一定会有幸福。

    3/20/2009

    Thusday and Friday

    This is another relaxed morning. Only replied three emails and the rest of time I stared at the phone in front of me and thinking who will be my first customer and when.

    Because my mentor will only have sometime in the afternoon, so I will start to call when she is free. So right now, I don’t have anything to do but writing today’s journal. Maybe same as yesterday, I will stop before the lunch time and continue in the afternoon if I can have a break.

     

    Ok, it is afternoon right now.

    Our company system was down until now, without logging on some specific software we are not able to do anything but reply emails. But there is no email in my mailbox, so I steal this moment to continue writing.

    I’m so sleepy when I don’t have anything to do. Went to bar to get some coffee but I know it won’t work. I don’t know how long the network can be recovered; it seems like it happen quite often. I remember the first week when I was here; there was once one of our major applications down. Now, this is the third time and more serious even the mailbox was affected, for a short period, I even cannot type regular alphabet, all the words show cap only. So I wrote on another notes first then copy, paste to word document, very troublesome.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It is super Friday.

    I’m wearing headset while typing my today’s journal. Yesterday’s one will only be half of this article. My minimum words per article except poem are 1,000. No matter Chinese or English. Actually for English, should be considered as half Chinese, because one word is equal two or three words in Chinese. And it takes more space. Haha. Anyway, rule is rule. I don’t want to break it.

    Yesterday I started to call someone, and my first target is a Chinese customer, first of all, mandarin is my advantage different from others, it can help me get rid of nerve although there are too many phases I don’t know for Chinese, I still tried. Luckily, she is a very nice woman; she even apologized to me saying she was too talkative. Actually I don’t speak very well but she is too polite with too much manner and that made me really satisfied with this phone call.

    I think she is rich enough to calculate small detail, she didn’t ask how much we are going to charge her credit card but only give us detail without questioning. Besides that, she asked me to fill some forms for her even without seeing or recognizing me. That is all about money but she trust us and she doesn’t really care. Is that rich woman’s life? Wow, so easy and quick.

    After talked with her three times, I was trying to wait for another phone call not calling out. Finally, I got one; however, that customer was looking for some specific advisor to assist her. It sounds like a complain case, luckily I don’t have to handle it and what I did was just transfer her call to my team leader. Then it shows there are 3 phone calls on my phone.

    After my lunch time, I went back to the bar to prepare some Milo; team leader came to ask me “did you answer 1 call yesterday? I thought for few seconds and said yes, because in fact, there was only one case. And she asked me:” how many do you want to answer today?” I said I didn’t know but I would keep my phone logging in all the time until line cut. So right now I’m wearing headset and waiting for new calls. 

    I saw the service level on the information board, it shows there was no call from customer (of course relates to my product), it seldom is but it happened. I’m thinking maybe this number will break in the afternoon although I’m not expecting. Haha.

    Today I made a diagram; it is like a checklist, for me to check when I come across different situation. So I won’t forget any procedure easily and at least there is some record I can go back to check once again. It is good for me, you know who I am.

    Okay, anyway, only less than half day to go. There is another 4 hours to beautiful weekend. I have already asked my friend to come out for dinner together. Later have to fill a wedding card to my colleague who is going to get married tomorrow. I still haven’t decided how to go and with whom but I believe there will be some arrangements between my colleagues.  

    One side is happiness, another side is sadness. Another colleague is going to take an operation, she is in hospital now and I heard of that it is very serious illness. Team leader had sent us an email to tell us where the hospital locates and we should go to visit her. I plan to go tomorrow morning before wedding.

    Sigh, last week I attended my friend’s baby shower that was the first time in my life. Tomorrow’s wedding will be my first time in a church to see someone getting married too. Once more, I have to visit a person who stays in hospital as my first time visit a hospital in Singapore. Life is full of surprises; you don’t know what happen next. What we can do is treasure our life, as usual.

    3/19/2009

      我越来越习惯早起了,今天甚至在闹钟还没响起之前就睁开了眼睛。然后看到手机显示7点钟。距离第一次闹钟响起还有15分钟,距离第二次还有半个小时,距离第三次还有45分钟。距离另外一个手机兼闹钟的响起还有一个小时。

      没错,我设定了四次闹钟。因为新手机没有循环闹铃的功能,只能分别设置最多三次的闹钟时间,所以只能用这种方法了。每当第二天早上不需要洗头的日子就可以多睡一会儿,而需要洗头呢就争取最晚脱到7点半起床。而如此偷懒的直接作用就是我不能选择搭巴士去上班了。以往都还计划的好好的,早上提前一个小时出门,这样就能听一个小时的摇滚来振奋精神。而自打工作开始以来,好像只有前两天是乘坐巴士的,到后来每天都是急匆匆地出门然后选择坐地铁,这样能省不少时间,但是稍微麻烦了一点,而最可惜的是MP4里的好音乐都不能尽情聆听了。

      2093641100_9311fd7021 而下班的时候坐巴士则更不是一个好的选择,晚上正值交通拥堵的繁忙时段,塞车很严重,赶上幸运了车上还有座位但是要颠簸接近一个小时才能到家,在车上也都会忍不住睡着。再加上已经开始在家里吃饭了,所以也要尽快回去配合房东的时间。于是晚上回来也要坐地铁了。这个星期开始和其他同事一样正常上下班,也就是说比前几个星期晚半个小时。没想到会有那么大的不同,在等地铁转车的时候如果幸运才能登上第二趟车,要是不幸运就要等第三辆。人实在太多了,这就是在市中心工作的缺点,附近的办公大楼太多了,每个人几乎都在同一时间下班,在同一个车站转地铁,还好晚上时段每隔不到两分钟就会有一趟车所以倒不会等太久,只是被挤得滋味真不好受。

      我看了最近两个星期的时间表,暂时周末还都是休息的,没有串休。其实倒是挺希望可以在平日休息一天的,可以不用排队买电影票,可以不用人挤人的吃饭,可以换得一天清静。以往当学生的时候似乎都是如此,平时周六周日反而会喜欢呆在家里不出去。但现在就不同了,上个星期和朋友去逛街,结果发现每一家店都是人满为患,也不管那衣服有多难看总是有人光顾。更不用说一些比较有名的餐厅了,外面的人排了好长的队,也看不出来经济不景气阿,要么就是新加坡这些饭店阿,商店阿实在数量有限,没得选择夜就会如此了。

      电脑暂时还没有换电源,碰插头的时候依然有点战战兢兢,不过没有火花了,吱吱的声音就不会那么可怕。尽量让插头和电脑保持一个特定的角度,这样就会正常充电,否则就会显示无法连接,电池现在的寿命也就40分钟左右,也可怜它了,自从被我买来之后就没休息过。现在也快两周岁了,生命似乎即将终结了,不知道算是提早夭折还是自然老逝了。

      那天同学说自从上班以后回家就不爱对着电脑了,我深有同感,如果不是为了瑶函世界的更新恐怕我也会疏远很多了,在公司就要一直对着电脑看,然后穿梭在十几个软件系统的页面切换中,手里还要时刻握着一支笔在笔记本上记东西,这个都是必须的,所以公司提供很多很多本,因为实在用得太快了,一些东西没办法在电脑上作必须要用“人力资源”,所以眼睛不盯着电脑的时候也要盯着纸张,总是闲不下来。就算有一丝空闲,想在工作时间写点东西却还是要打开word 在电脑上打字,看来我们的生活真的离不开这到处都有的辐射了。

      没错,我用“挤”来作为这篇文章的标题,早上和车站里的人挤,工作的时候和自我时间挤,晚上更新空间和牺牲睡眠挤,进入梦乡之后熟睡和无奈的闹铃挤。这么挤下去定是能楚腰纤细?还是师老兵疲阿!

    (写于3月17日晚)

    3/18/2009

    Tomorrow Onwards…

    It is Wednesday again! Quoted from Mr. Syd Field’s phrase, “my favorite hated movie”. So now I want to change it to “my favorite hated day”. He was talking about “no country for old man”, I’m talking about the midpoint of a week.

    Everyday the first thing I do after I sit down on my chair is checking how many new emails in my mailbox. Today is absolutely an exemption. There is zero email! Great, probably because team leader is preparing the meeting at 10:30 am so doesn’t have time to assign emails from main box to our individual one. However, although it is easy for me, I feel totally nothing to do. But I do know the dark side is coming.

    That will happen tomorrow onwards. 

    I was told that from tomorrow I had to answer calls, this is nothing wrong, but, there will be a mentor who monitor my phone calls.. While I talk, she will help me when there is anything difficult for me to answer, team leader told me her role was jump in when I didn’t know the answers. That makes me a little bit nervous because I may do well when nobody around me, but if there is someone who sit besides me….I’m not sure… one thing I’m sure is I have to do this for next two days. Thursday and Friday. After that, I will officially graduate from training course and will start to do the same thing as everybody does.

    Before that happens, I have already tried to call somebody. Like our partner company to ask some basic enquiry. Like tech department. I just called to America to set up one application’s operator ID and password. It costs me almost half an hour because the guy who answered the phone seems also no idea why this technical problem occurred. So I had to wait on the line and allowed him to remote control my computer which made me feel dangerous while seeing your arrow move without your order, not only that, I was replying a non-business email at that time and he may notice that. Finally, it didn’t work; I have to wait for his email to get correct direction. Luckily it is not urgent application. I hope I won’t come across that situation.

    Above was written in the morning.

    Now it is 5:30 pm already. I have another hour to go. Just finished self-studying on a new system we are going to use from 1st April, that one will replace original system which I had learned for the whole two weeks. New one is very user-friendly; it is much easier than old one. Anyway, I accept the time wasted.

    Since it has been more than three weeks working here, step by step, I can go into this office easier and easier. At the beginning, I tried not to answer phone calls when I was in office, but now I can pick up the phone without hesitation. Besides this, I can eat whatever I want while working. I can chat and say something unrelated to business with my colleagues. Another important “progress” is that I began to send emails to my friends, haha, such as piggy. Of course, I can write my journal just like right now.

    I ‘m more powerful than before but I know it won’t last long. During lunch time with three girls, I got to know that actually this is a job requires more over-time hour. However, there is no extra salary for that. You have to finish what you need to finish regardless what time it is. So I feel so weird why everyday only I leave office so early while others are still typing emails. I asked them why company doesn’t recruit employees. They answered me:” you.” .yes, I’m a new comer, before me, there are five or six half a year earlier than me, another three girls three months earlier than me, and two more girls arrived two weeks earlier than me. So which means company’s business is really getting better and better even in economy downturn. However, I’m the last one company recruited. After me, they will only look for Japanese native person to help Japanese team complete their endless job everyday. They have been looking for few months already but seem hopeless. It may because of the nature of this job, mostly suitable for female, so we have 50% less chance. Moreover, most of Japanese would like to work in Japanese company due to many benefits they can get and culture influence. So it becomes even harder for our company. Nevertheless, it is not my business, I ‘m enjoying only one mainland Chinese right now. Enjoy colleagues around me who need my help when they talked to a mandarin speaker. Even some Singaporean who thought they could speak well but still asked me when a foreigner tried to learn some Chinese. They do know themselves, they know they don’t have confidence to speak in front of an original Chinese.

    Therefore, naturally, I will take care of all the Chinese customers, the priority from a Singaporean has to transfer to me I think. I’m willing to contact with Chinese although it seldom hears Chinese on the phone. Most of customers from all over the world can speak good English because they are so rich for them to learn well English, probably have English education background, so no matter what race, what nationality they hold, they all can communicate by English. The only exemption is Japanese, they are rich, well, they do not have to learn English. Ironic but that’s true.

    Okay, it is just few minutes left for me to leave. My colleagues told me that I should treasure my life right now because I do not have to stay in the office till sky turns dark. But how long I can leave with all the tasks were done? How many days? Or maybe from next week? Terrible if it starts from tomorrow!

    Good luck to me because I’m going to experience something new tomorrow! Ah, still a little bit nervous and scared…

    3/17/2009

    遗忘尚未遗忘的

      3月15号,隐约觉得很熟悉,经过十几秒的思考之后才想到那个长长的名称:“315消费者权益日”。是我太久没有听到这个名词还是对日历上的每一天越来越迟钝,说不清道不明。还有昨天,3月14号的白色情人节,或许是因为每一年都会有朋友祝福所以也从来都没有忘记过,而昨天在接近结束后才发现网络上朋友之间信息的传递才意识到,哦,原来又是一个节日。再加上上个星期把过去从来都不会忘记的一个人的生日忘掉的一干二净之后我开始对自己的脑容量产生怀疑。是不是开始愈渐忙碌的生活让我们对生活的小细节开始忽略,又疑惑是到了一个应该对这些事情忽略的年龄。

      那天看《lost》的时候,sawyer说的一段话让我特别感动,当时觉得喜欢这个演员和他的角色还是很有道理的,虽然这么多季过去了电视剧还是很拖沓,但是这个人在观众心中依然有很高的位置,看起来放荡不羁,但内心还是充满感情的。可是就这样一个人,他却也说出了:“三年了,如果你问我是否足够长去忘掉一个人,我说会,曾经我也喜欢过一个女人,但现在我甚至想不起来她的样子..."。这一段可能感动我的不仅仅是台词,还有sawyer的演技,太有说服力了,我完全相信,把三年会忘记一个人当成了真理,至少在观看这个片段的时候。

      对我个人而言,我根本就说不清楚一个时间段,从心里驻扎一个人到移开一个人,根本就算不出有多久。可我知道这个忘却的过程绝对超过了三年。sawyer生活在一个小岛上,原来了纷繁错杂的社会,身边的人也屈指可数,没有太多事情让他分心让他去故意遗忘,如果我在这种环境或许一辈子都逃脱不了回忆的束缚。但是他却没有,他接纳了新的感情,虽然还不知道在他重新见到过去的最爱时会否动摇。可能在电视剧里为了营造吸引人的效果,他还是会往返不定,不知道是回归过去的心爱的人身边还是继续留在这份新建立的感情中。势必很多故事还会发生。但相信观众会和我一样忘不了他的那段话,那段发自内心绝对真诚的一段感言。

      很多人之所以说他不知道或许是因为他们根本不敢面对自己。他们生怕自己说出来真话会伤害到别人也会让自己觉得有愧。但更多的时候如果你不选择真实的倾吐那么对不起的依然还是自己。东方人对感情更加内敛,更加深沉,所以所受到的困扰也更多。有些时候当真是为了别人而选择让自己一个人承担痛苦,但是谁都高估了自己,其实没有人那么坚强,也根本没有人体谅你的坚强,你自以为承担的其实就算放手了也没有严重的后果。把自己困在一个小圈子里去惩罚自己,还以为是在拯救他人。

      已经不再年轻了,不再适合猜谜玩游戏了。我们总是迟钝的当别人已经度过这样的时期后才意识到现在有多迟才去履行。那些已经遗忘的时不时还会动摇我们现在的想法:“今后还需要这样一个过程?还要重蹈覆辙吗?”如果忘掉的东西霎时又重新回到人生轨迹中那我们是选择偏离轨道还是顺从自然的要求?抑或者我们错的太多,早就分不清楚经度纬度,在哪里打转都找不到迷宫的出口。 

      但终归,我还是认定是该遗忘的时候了,永远都不要捡起已经被抛弃的东西,也一直致力于把那些残留的痕迹清除的目标。遗忘的继续遗忘,尚未遗忘的还要努力。遗忘尚未遗忘的就是我们为了迎接新生活的主要目的。 

      无聊说了这么多,只是想给自己‘健忘”的一个解析。现在已经很明了了吧!

    (写于3月15日晚)

    3/16/2009

    Sleeping on the job

    It is raining again, almost every day at this time.

    What I am doing now? I’m writing something unrelated to my work while checking around if my team leader starring at me at corner.

    SleepingOnTheJobLogo No, I ‘m not lazy, just because I have to do something wakes me up. I’m really sleepy and just had lunch with my colleagues at 11, 30 am this noon. I was not hungry at all but I was assigned to eat during this time period. No bargain.

    I noticed that today team leader assigned me some emails which are very different from last week. I have practiced some tasks and this week I started to know something new. That’s why she gave me some unusual emails for me to handle. Of course, I have my mentor to help me amend the email and send me back the correct ones.

    So far, I have replied 8 emails, more than anybody in the office. They have to answer the phone calls while reply emails, not like me, only job is writing emails. However, the easy life may not last long; I was told that from next week, I have to do jobs like others. I have to answer phone calls and reply emails at the same time. That will be tougher since there are still some software access I haven’t got, that means I haven’t mastered them. But I do not have time anymore, I have to start as early as possible that will allow me enroll more beneficial package in this company. In addition, I will be gone next month for quite a long time for my graduation ceremony, I’m afraid I will forget everything after I come back. So the only way to avoid that situation is getting to enter this job as soon as I can.

    I just wrote an email to Guizi, and unfortunately I can’t type Chinese in my computer, I tried to find “add language” in control panel but seems like there is no Chinese at all, which means I cannot write my Chinese journal if I want to start during my working hours. Well, that’s not too bad, if I wrote something by Chinese, everybody knows that I’m not currently doing my job.

    I heard that there will be new software we have to learn by ourselves this week. It is a new system that will takes place of original one. God knows how long I was trained to learn original system; it is only two weeks later, I have to change to a new one. I hope there is some connection so that at least I have some advantages to adapt new system.

    Right now, there is a guy in our manager’s office room; we can hear clearly the sound of laugh that it is randomly hear before. The truth is there is zero guy in our department, such a sad thing, all the girls complain about it, well, no one is better than few right? Few days ago, there was a Japanese guy who had an interview with our director and team leader. However, he was back to Japan already and we do not know if he wants to take this job. During the lunch time, Japanese colleagues all talked about this guy and hoped he would be our new colleagues. For me, I’m not interested at all; to be alone right now is a wise decision. So wise.

    Gradually, I have learned many things from this job. Not only my duty but also some knowledge relates to geography, culture and countries. To answer customer’s question, we have to aware some basic knowledge, we have to identify which city locates in which country, time zone? Culture difference? Currency? I’m willing to get to know that information, that is fun and good for us.

    It is 2 pm in the afternoon, from today; I only can leave company at 6:30 pm, half an hour later than last three weeks. And I have Chinese lesson at 7:30. That’s why I ate quite a lot in the noon in case I won’t have time to finish my dinner before appointment time. I don’t like being late.

    Ok, so stop here today. I have used up nearly half an hour to write, it can offset my early arrival this morning and early back from my lunch time. Haha, that is so calculated. Not like me.

    All right, I just saw my team leader walking back to her desk , maybe she will assign new emails to me soon. I have to check my mailbox now. Bye.

    ( writing at 2pm )

    3/15/2009

    自由

      又是周末的晚上。每到这个时刻似乎都是在打字。我决意不留长指甲了,没下多大决心就剪了大半截。然后听着键盘上和以往不同的声响,猜想着会不会有一天连这样的声音都不见了?会不会有一天我的瑶函世界突然就停止前行了?

      我不知道那个将来会是在多久之后,我只想继续争取现在,争取每一个今天写下来很可能就会成为明天的一条线索,希望在这里的期许在将来的某一天回顾时会对自己说;“哦,原来那时的我那么充满热情,哦,原来那时我的心中就有这个梦了。”所以很多人都喜欢写东西,这也都是他们的目的之一,写来未来的自己,写给此刻或许并不成熟将来或许会嘲笑此时的自己。

      下午下了很大的雨,我于是说服自己睡一会儿,伴随着雨声几分钟都用不上就进入了午睡状态,然后被一个短信惊醒,原来是朋友刚回新加坡问我最近怎么样,刚看完便放下手机继续闭上眼睛,然后就进入一个梦境,梦里朋友出现了,然后便是同工作有关。梦见一个阿拉伯妇女成为了帮助我培训的人,她带着黑色的围巾,把自己包裹的严严实实,只露出两只眼睛,从她的脸判断我以为是个年轻人,后来发现她和我住的很近,有一天我莫名其妙的去了她的家里,看到她摘下围巾时的面目,霎时吓了我一跳,她居然是个中年人,看起来大概有40多岁了。没想到一直给我培训的人居然是个中年妇女,而我还一直凭着她那双黑眼睛断定她和我同龄。

      不知道为什么会做这样的梦,也不像任何剧本里描述的故事一样那么神气,或许这个梦境提点了你什么,预示了些什么。对我而言,我还没有生活在一个作家的生活里,我还不能把一个梦心甘情愿的“锦上添花”然后写出来昭示公众,然后接续一个曲折离奇的故事。这里在记录生活,而不是在编电影,这里平淡无奇,这里没有任何起伏跌宕,因为这里只是一个普通人想要有人倾听的私密地盘。

      早上10点15分自然醒,然后打开电脑一直赖到11点才起床。开始看那些落下的电视剧,《24》,《Lost》等等,顺手也把那天在公司打印下来的一些资料翻翻读读,也就是因为这样才会让我想睡觉吧!衣服还没有捡回来,料想也不会干,下午的一场大雨让他们不能在今天回归我的衣柜,而明天又将是新星期的开始,它们还要一天等待阳光的到来。

      一直到晚上8点钟,我都没有和任何人说话,除了吃东西之外连嘴都不用张。我喜欢这样的寂静,一周只要有一天这样就会很满足,随心所欲作自己想做的事情,不用去附和别人的话语,不用强制做某些不喜欢的事。不用和别人打交道,不用听嘈杂的声音。一个星期,哪怕就一次,也可以。晚上和家人上网打破了宁静,却依然甘之如饴,不想说话是因为大多数要说话的对象都不是我想与其说话的,而在视觉和听觉上告别这些人之后可以选择的和自己喜欢的人说话就会更突现一种自由。萍萍给我买了很多去澳洲要穿得衣服,我现在又开始担心回来行李会超重,虽然连他们是否能拿到签证都还没有定论,可是我们都在期待这个四月的团圆,好像提前买了很多东西就相当于对未来有了强制发生的命令一样,这样的心理暗示是很强大的。

      我想我也需要一种心灵上的鼓励。周五临下班的时候,组长过来我的办公桌前问我现在的上下班时间,我含糊了一下,然后也不忘说是经理如此安排的。然后她对我说下个星期就要一切照常了,让我和其他同事一样,没有例外了。我说好,然后心里在想又要牺牲半个小时的睡眠时间了,不过也或许我可以再早睡半个小时。除此之外,组长告诉我说下个星期将是我接受培训的最后一个星期,然后正式工作了。我没有丝毫胆怯,虽然我还有东西没有学,但至少真正上岗之后就不会有太多清闲时间让你去胡思乱想,没有那种空闲去觉得无聊了。

      fe90fce3 我的自由在慢慢被剥夺走,第一份工作的制约,一个最低层所挣脱不了的束缚,一个刚刚从学生时代走向社会的人总会觉得自己所能掌控的越来越少。当我们还是学生的时候,我们可以选择自己喜欢的功课然后下更多的功夫,对不喜欢的甚至可以逃课示意,没有谁能主宰得了我们,只要我们的成绩足够证明自己。但是现在则不同,我们有了真正的上司,真正的监管人,我们有严格的时间去遵守,有严格的过程需要记忆。一切都不同了,生活真的开启了新的一页。

      或许从第一天上班那一刻我就已经适应了变化,就好像整个过程都没有强烈的情绪变化一样,一切来得很突然,可是却被我接受的很平静。不知道双子座适应环境的能力是件好事还是坏事,因为当你把一切都看成自然,一切就都会变得平淡无奇,变得没有冲击没有起伏也没有想要突破的动力。

      自由是个很危险的东西,当你拥有很多自由,你就会不畏惧家中藏着非法枪支然后突然有一天跑去校园来个枪击事件。相比之下,我们还不需要那样的自由,我所追求的无非就是突破束缚,没有条条框框的约束,没有等级的施压。但是听起来似乎比偷藏一把枪还要困难吧? 

      呵呵,我的周末感言又胡乱抒发了一通,难得有个一时半会儿可以随意打些东西,脑海里也没有外物的侵占。明天又是新的星期的开始了,而周一也总是我的最漫长的一天,希望一切顺利吧!大家也是。

    3/14/2009

    Baby Shower

      今天生平第一次参加baby shower,两个星期前朋友就问我说:“你来我的婴儿下雨吗?”,呵呵,当然她是开玩笑的,不过baby shower的中文其实我也不知道怎么说。婴儿洗礼?因为中国并没有这样的传统所以也就没有相关词汇。

      没有经验,不知道该有怎样的程序,不过还是准备了礼物。那就是给刚出生宝宝的一套小连衣裙。

      还好我设定了appointment的提前45分钟提醒,设的8点钟闹钟我根本完全没听见,要不是9点45分的提醒我一定睡过头了。baby shower的时间在10点。起床之后匆匆洗澡整理,然后也没吃东西就出门打车去目的地了。是在一间做手工的小店,他们也帮忙组织party,主要生意是提供手工制作需要的材料让客人发挥想象力自己动手做一些类似餐具阿,陶瓷啊,手工相册阿,等等。同时也提供饮食服务。店里为了今天的party停止了营业,桌子也都侧在了一旁,不过还是能看到在墙上缤纷的颜色,还有各种调色盘。

      我到的时候已经有十几个人了,一般来说美国人比较遵守时间,说10点到就都不会太晚。而欧洲人就有些不同了,如果说party在10点钟开始,稍微晚十分钟左右是很正常而且也比较有礼貌的。但是在新加坡的party,很多人都被当地人所影响,喜欢迟到,不准时,所以晚去一个小时也很常见。

      我到了以后如我所料都是些三十,四岁的人,很多也都处在怀孕状态,还有抱着一个小孩子来参加的,其余人也都是结婚了的。当然,baby shower基本都是女性参加,所以一位男士都没有见到。等朋友来了之后大家都开始互相聊天,自我介绍也是必须的,里面我只认识一个人。我也是唯一一个资历不深的人吧。不像和欧洲那群年轻人在一起自在。这些美国女人聊的都是关于孩子的,也没办法,所出席的活动就是为了宝宝嘛。多少会觉得美国人很会说话,态度很友善但心里如何想的就不知道了,相比之下欧洲人会比较直接一点,有时候你会从欧洲人脸上看出来他们的情绪但是美国人就比较喜欢掩饰。这个我就不多说了,以后有机会再举例说明。

    DSC05992   回到洗礼现场。一张桌子是专门呈放礼物的,另一张桌子则是事物。一个很大的果盘,里面几种新鲜水果,还有巧克力蛋糕,Pizza,咖喱角,棉花糖。这些都是自助的,旁边有一次性的叉子,勺子和盘子。都是粉色的,超级可爱,就连餐巾纸也都是粉色可爱小娃娃的图案。

      大概半个小时之后游戏项目就开始了。美国人总是喜欢在party上大家一起参与一些游戏,可能是纸牌阿,可能是猜谜阿等等。无论年龄大小都喜欢参加,这就不像我们东方人,当年龄大一些的时候就会觉得很多游戏已经不再适合我们了,但是西方人这一点值得借鉴,多那么一点玩心可能就会少几条皱纹。

    DSC05996   我们今天的游戏是答题游戏,有三张考卷,第一张是的问题是animal  baby, 给了很多动物的名字,然后在下面有相对应的其他名字,举个例子上面是dog,下面就会有Puppy,你就知道puppy是dog 的孩子。以此类推,一共有26个配对。很可怜,我只知道4个。动物的名字我都认识,但是他们的孩子的英文名基本上都没有见过。不仅仅是我觉得难,就连土生土长的美国人也都不可能全部答对,答对最多的是20/26,错了6题,获得了一瓶红酒的奖励。紧接着第二张考卷,主持人说因为朋友很喜欢American Idol, 所以这题是关于名人的。同样和孩子有关,给出了六对很有名的明星夫妇,例如贝克汉姆夫妇,本阿弗莱克夫妇,Tom Cruice等等,旁边有大概20多个孩子的名字,让我们选择孩子是哪位夫妇的。这个就更难了,除了贝克汉姆的三个孩子名字我略有所闻之外其余的一概都不知道。而这个可是有厉害的人,坐在我旁边的一个人只有一个没有答对,剩下的全部正确,所以她也获得了奖励。第三个,也是最后一个游戏就是给出一些儿童电视剧或是电影,然后让我们写出里面孩子的姓名。我的答卷依然空白,这题也是最难得一个了。

    DSC05993   游戏环节结束之后就进入了最期待的下一步了,那就是朋友打开礼物。 她坐在桌子旁边亲手拆开每一个礼物,同时告诉我们这份礼物是谁送的,旁边也有一格人专门记录名字和礼物,可能是为了日后的参照吧。而我这个时候也当起了朋友的摄影师,她每打开一份礼物就帮她和送礼物的人拍照片留念。大概有三,四十份礼物吧,大多都是婴儿用品,很多东西我从来都没有见过。当我的礼物被拆开后几乎所有的人都在说;“so cute”,这套连衣裙外加小披肩是我在上个星期买的,其实我并没有觉得特别漂亮但是已经足够特别了。尤其是对不太讲究时尚感的西方接近中年的人来说,他们都比较喜欢穿很休闲很舒服的衣服,而我们亚洲年轻人则不同,我们更喜欢时尚感强一些的款式,对我来说,即使不舒服,只要样式好看也会穿。所以很多衣服在其他人眼里看来都比较另类。我也看到了一些朋友收到的其他婴儿衣服,仅仅就是衣服而已,没有任何设计,千篇一律,没有特点。我希望将来我的小宝宝可以打扮得很可爱很漂亮,与众不同。呵呵。

      礼物全被拆开之后baby shower也就接近了尾声,已经差不多两个半小时了,和预期中的一样。很多人都开始陆续的离开,我也在内,和朋友告别之后便拿到了一个小袋子,原来每位到来的客人都会受到这样一个礼物,里面有一个婴儿用品,还有一些零食,还有做手工用的贴纸。后面两个东西还可以,那个婴儿的东西我要怎样用啊?留着自己玩吧! 

      好了,整个baby shower的过程就记录完毕了,给没有参加过这种活动的朋友们简单介绍一下,也许今后有机会参与呢。也许将来你们也会用这种活动来收集礼物,多好的方式阿!看到那么多宝宝的东西真想赶快当妈妈啊,哈哈哈。那一天会是什么时候呢?

    3/13/2009

    再说第81届奥斯卡-The Reader & Milk

      这篇应该是写第81届奥斯卡电影最佳电影系列的最后一篇了。我也终于把几乎所有入围重要奖项的电影都看了个遍。也需要再一次肯定2008年的电影,比前前一年层次要高上不知多少倍。其实很多时候当你看过太多电影后眼光就会变得更加挑剔,欣赏水平也会比以往多少高一些,所以评论难免会越来越尖锐,越来越苛刻。但是对于这08年的电影来说实在不忍心也不能吹毛求疵。

    《The Reader》

      reader_final-(3) 之前斐斐就强烈推荐这部电影了,给她的感觉很震撼,kate winslet的表演也深入人心。在我看过之后也的确被她的演技所征服了。不过不知道是否是因为先入为主的缘故,我依然觉得《Revolutionary Road》里的她更胜一筹。

      我依然比较喜欢一部能够说明更多道理或存在更多意义的电影。这部电影把一个“畸形”的爱情放在一个特殊的历史时间段里,年龄几乎可以成为男主角妈妈的Kate扮演的是一个不会写字,不会阅读的“文盲”。她一直都觉得很羞耻所以每次遇到和写和读有关的东西她都会一带而过,尴尬逃避,所以她甚至承担了莫须有的罪名而被判入狱终生。一直迷恋他的小男孩也渐渐长大成人,他内心很挣扎,一方面Kate的纯真和诚实,还有刻骨铭心的初恋几乎改变了他的人生,而另一方面他又对Kate在纳粹党里的做法不能理解,尤其是身为一个法律人士他不能容忍她的行为。所以他一直都没有去监狱探望她,不过却用更特别的方式帮助她。他用录音机朗读很多小说然后送给狱中的Kate,Kate也鼓起了勇气开始练习听写,然后慢慢的也懂得了阅读。直到死前她也把能读能写当成了一生最大的收获。

      从她的身上我想很多中国人也会引起共鸣,在我们的上一代,上上一代,有数不清的没有受过正规教育的人们,他们内心纯朴善良,没有心机,可是也不懂得社会,政治,历史,文化。很难用好和不好去形容他们,只能说是造化弄人,生不逢时。所以对西方人来说这部电影的取材相当成功,纵观电影史也似乎没有雷同的故事,再加上主角们精彩的演出的确获奖名副其实。

    瑶函评分:8分。

    《Milk》

      milk_movie_poster 一部关于同性恋题材的电影。如果单谈奥斯卡获奖概率的话,我首先就会有两个印象:第一,它一定是获不了最佳电影,因为我们华人伟大导演-李安已经凭借相同题材《断臂山》荣获了最佳导演的殊荣,但因为题材敏感而与最佳电影失之交臂,在相隔仅仅两年之后很难会有类似题材再次获奖;第二,它很有希望为Sean Penn赢得一座奥斯卡最佳男演员的小金人。因为演一个同性恋实在是不容易,而且还是改编自真人真事,无论是形象,动作还是人物言语上都有很高的要求,因为人们心中都是有个模板的。Sean做到了,就算其他入围的男演员也做到了,但前者还是在更高的起点上,所以获奖的希望最大。果然,我最先的两个猜测都很准确。

      而说到电影本身就被我所参加的screenplay writing 的workshop所连累了。就像syd field -我们的讲师所说的一样,结束这个课程之后你再也不会以相同的眼光去观赏一部电影了。而这部电影就是我第一部在结束讲座后看的电影。的确,太不一样了。我用心的去找在讲座里学到的电影重要的分界点,Plot point, middle point, 等等。然后便从一个很不正规的角度去给了一个不太好的评价,那就是:“电影太过刻意营造戏剧化了。”虽然每个人写剧本的目的都是为了营造这种效果,但在了解这个目的之后再看电影就会质疑电影故事本身的真实度。我以前都没有过这种想法,但讲座过后浑然不觉多了个思绪,不知道这样是所谓的成功还是失败。

      一个很伟大的人,他有他的伟大之处,但也有他的缺陷。很多在别人看来很高尚的举动或许是他们刻意的营造或宣传手段,一不留心作的事情可能会让人欣赏,也可能会被唾弃。我不太相信一个人无论何时都会心系着他人,也不会在临死之前那么凑巧的脑海滑过很多我们希望会出现的画面。所以感觉电影非常“心甘情愿”的去搭设一个舞台,让Milk这个人形象很高大,他的全部都是好的。看起来有点不切实际,很多时间,地点,状态的巧合也太多人为的痕迹。不过还是那句话,我想肯定是受了讲座的影响了。

      瑶函评分:7分。

    《The Departures》

      %E9%80%81%E8%A1%8C%E8%80%85%E7%A6%AE%E5%84%80%E5%B8%AB%E7%9A%84%E6%A8%82%E7%AB%A0%E8%8B%B1 今年奥斯卡最佳外语片的获得者。也是今天晚上刚刚看完的电影。朋友也发来邮件推荐说要看看这部影片,因为算是历史上第一次日本电影或奥斯卡最佳电影吧?

      我觉得电影很不错,非常日本化,叙事很安静,温暖,虽然描述的都是和死人有关的东西,但反映出来的却都是爱。尤其是影片结尾非常感人,让我们一方面感动儿子在30年后才因为父亲的死亡而看到他的最后一面时的原谅,另一方面也突然会萌生一种对父亲这类人的怜惜。其实父亲这个人物只是以尸体出现的,却成为了连接电影前后最关键的线索,关于石头的故事就是来自于小时父亲的口述,长大之后才渐渐明白它的含义,而父亲死后手里也依然仅仅握着这父子之间唯一的联系。于是,男主人泪眼模糊中终于看清了已经遗忘三十年的父亲的脸。

      我觉得这部电影应该会给中国电影人一个提醒,那就是究竟怎样的影片才能走向奥斯卡,走向国际。是不是那些展现中国功夫或是古代大气磅礴的战争场面就是我们中国人唯一的筹码呢?当然不是,像类似这种温婉却深刻的文化电影都能够有机会体现我们的内涵,然后引领着我们走向世界各地,去打动各民族的人心。我想,取材才是最重要的,这部电影开头平淡无奇,但是细细品味就愈发觉得它很有特色,让我们及时不知道是日本人拍出来的,也会知道这是来自日本。从他们礼貌的态度,互相尊敬的礼仪,这些都能展现出一个国家的独特文化。我想我们中国人一直都需要世界的理解,也需要在文化上用电影的方式去展现。拳打脚踢的类型已经出现过了,为什么不寻找类似这种情节的电影,让我们也能武能文些呢? 

      瑶函评分:8分。

      第81届奥斯卡影评就此结束。期待2009年的好电影。

    3/12/2009

    3月12日

      现在写东西的时候可能我正在处于危险之中。连电脑的电源插头时不时就冒火花,然后还吱吱作响,就好像是放烟花一样。可能是寿命到了?我不敢挪动地方,如果保持静止状态应该就没有问题吧?明天要去买新电源了,希望是电源的问题而不是电脑的问题。

      足以见得我写字是件多么有魔力的事情,居然让我以很不舒服的姿势趴着来完成今天的日志。不知道会不会漏电阿?坚持二十分钟就要把电脑关掉否则真的发生什么就不是开玩笑了。因为上班之后时间很少所以没能像以前一样草稿箱里总是有文章储备,现在只能每天完成一篇,还是要在时间紧促的条件之下。因为不止要在瑶函世界上写东西,每天要回复的邮件也不少。所以一般情况下我就利用中午午休或是偶尔有空闲时间在公司里回复他人的邮件。

      每天都对着电脑,眼睛不舒服极了。以前上学的时候至少不会一直和电脑打交道,如今可到好,上班要一直对着,晚上回来也要对着。所以这几天眼睛很干,用眼药水也没起多大作用。晚上回家坐车的时候一定要闭眼睛或是努力打哈欠才能有所缓解。可睁开眼睛没多久就又开始发干了。看来明天要再去买一个新的眼药水试试看了,现在用的这个恐怕是过期了?

      终于习惯了早起,睡眠时间从以前必须保证的八个小时到九个小时减少到了七个到七个半小时。还算不错,但是等培训结束之后就要提早半个小时上班,晚回半个小时。不知道到时候还要多久才能调整好生物钟。今天经理也找了我和另外一个新来的女孩子,给我们两人介绍一些关于奖金的问题。那个女生来得比我早两个星期,现在培训基本结束,估计我也会在两个星期之内正式上岗吧!然后也就有资格收获额外收入了。最开心的是基本上所有的奖金都是以整个部门的表现来决定的,所以和个人无关,这样就不会有压力,反而会让整个团队比较团结,大家也会互相帮助。喜欢这样的气氛,而如果是做sales可能就会不同了,那个可能比较适合男生做吧!总之,值得庆幸的是我最不想做的两个:sales和Accounting都离我现在的工作远远的。

      晚上本来是和朋友有中文课的,7点半到了她家之后她对我说她有点不舒服,很累,我说可以取消课程,她又觉得不好意思,后来我还是坚持要离开,因为她现在肚子里的小宝宝估计已经长到很大了,下个月就要出生所以会暂时比较活跃。如果太累勉强学也没有什么效果。而我也不太想教,虽然我们之间根本也不存在教与学的问题,每次都是聊天,聊电影,聊音乐。最近说的也都是关于American Idol的,这个星期也没看什么新的电影,American Idol也只会在今天8点钟的时候出成绩,所以话题自然也少了,在路上时就在想晚上要说些什么呢,没想出来所以取消也中了我的意。

      赶快利用难得清闲的时间去逛超市,买些水果和布丁回家,做这个星期天的储备,如果没有其他事情我一定要在这个星期日老老实实呆在家里休息,上个星期连续两天去听讲座,这个星期还有baby shower,下个星期有同事的婚礼,我需要好好养精蓄锐了。感觉都很长时间没有睡个懒觉,没有赖床了。我得利用这个周末回顾一下这种舒服的感觉。

      希望明天有时间去看《watchmen》,看完之后要好好写篇影评,那将是在接受完剧本讲座后第一次去电影院“实习”,看看究竟有没有改变看电影的视角,看看究竟有什么启发。 

      好了,我就此打住了,不知道电源还能撑多久,晚上睡觉的时候一定要切断了,可怕,可怕。要是明天晚上我没有按时更新空间,那就代表着我没有时间去买新电源或者是我的电脑出现严重问题了。呜呜呜,保有保佑,我现在这台电脑可快到两岁生日了,身体一直好得很呢!脾气又乖,千万不要让我失望啊!! 

      祈祷中。