Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Step right out
Hi folks, it’s time for another get-to-know-me session.
This internship at an engineering firm has been quite an eye-opener in terms of preparing for a future career and at the same time, it got me thinking about how I would fit in with the rest of the workforce and what kind of person I’m going to be.
Engineering is perhaps what most people would consider a white-collar job, requiring a degree or at least a diploma to undertake this profession. From an early age, kids (in Singapore at least) are taught to aspire towards being doctors, lawyers, bankers and engineers and such. These vocations are held in higher esteem, presumably because of the higher levels of education required. They are also associated with better salaries and lifestyles, which are reinforced somewhat by the media.
At the other corner of the ring are blue-collar jobs. While they constitute an honest living and in some cases pay better than white-collar jobs, the stigma in Singapore society remains. It is not uncommon to hear parents admonish their children to study harder by painting the grim scenario of sweeping roads or collecting rubbish for a living. This mindset is what fuels the paper chase, from which people graduate into the rat race.
And how does all this relate to me? Well, here I am on the path to a white-collar job (whether I take on one or not remains to be seen) with my fellow peers, and while some of them seem to be embracing some or all aspects of the stereotypical yuppie lifestyle, I happen to be heading off in another direction. Here are some examples:
Food:
Classy establishments don’t go down too well with me, not to mention the inevitable financial drain. Well, I can hold my manners well enough to not get thrown out of such places, but I’d really rather be hanging loose at a more relaxed venue. Given a choice, I always opt to eat at hawker centers or kopitiams, where the food is cheaper and usually better. While some people rave about the latest tiramisu or NYDC desert, I’ll go for a good bowl of chendol, ching-teng or ice-kachang anytime. Sometimes in social settings or with a group of friends, going to such places is inevitable, but you can be sure my stomach has a dream of a better place.
Drink:
The beer vs wine debate is already very well-documented in this blog, so I will not go into gory details. The most expensive liquor that I imbibe would be Scotch whisky, but a good bottle lasts me a long time, since my drinking tendencies are more on the side of sip-and-savour rather then fast-and-furious. Needless to say, concoctions like Bourbon Coke or Vodka Ribena don’t get much mileage in my book. Drinking to incoherence or incapacitation is also not my style, which brings me to my next point.
Nightlife:
I can count the number of times I’ve been to a club on one hand, and none of them were particularly pleasant. Poseur-ish people all dressed to the nines in expensive or pseudo-classy outfits, drinking overpriced swill in excess, dancing (or trying to dance) to mind-numbing beats and trying to pick each other up are really not my kind of crowd. The single biggest turn-off about it would have to be the monotonously irritating noise played at ridiculous volumes. My idea of a good time in the nightlife usually takes place at a pub with proper music, decent drink and good vibes. The ones I frequent are not necessarily the most hip place to be seen, but that’s not a major concern. Though perhaps it would be nice to see some more age-group appropriate female eye-candy.
Music:
When most of the people you count as musical heroes are either dead or dying, it’s not healthy for your Hip Quotient (my quotient died a quick and painless death some years ago from Bluesinitis). For the most part I’m ignorant of the heavily recycled sequence of sounds that passes for radio-friendly hits these days, and unabashedly so. A lot of it also masquerades as flimsy excuses for pretty faces. Normally I don’t have any issue with pretty faces, but I’m a firm believer of music being played by musicians. Even among the newer bands these days, few of them ever capture my attention. Most of them just fall into the same, tired old sound that guarantees radio air time.
The current high-life trend is to be “into” jazz or whatever mutilated bastard-child variants of it have been cooked up. Which is a pity really, because while I do appreciate good jazz, it has been sullied by association with people attracted only to its’ cerebral and complex technical nature, or people just trying to be in the loop. Sadly, both groups of people usually miss out on the underlying groove and spirit behind the music. It has been turned upside down on its head and either dumbed-down or souped-up so much that it’s unrecognizable and in some cases, unlistenable.
In any case, blues is still my music of choice, but even that is not immune to the influences of mass-media demands either. I just have to be a little picky about what I listen to. To me, music is life, not lifestyle.
Fashion:
Those of you who know me in person will probably know that I’m a fashion non-entity. I’ve seen several fashion trends come and go on our little island, and I’m glad to say I didn’t spend any cash on that stuff. That might account for my abysmal luck with the ladies, or maybe not. I won’t tell you how much I’ve spent on guitars, gear and CDs though.
So there we have it, my life preferences in a nutshell. My tastes might change over time, I’m always open to new experiences and if any of you would like to point out something erroneous, please do so. If you’d like to shout out your concurrence, feel free to do so too. Afterall, we do live in a country of (somewhat) free speech.
This internship at an engineering firm has been quite an eye-opener in terms of preparing for a future career and at the same time, it got me thinking about how I would fit in with the rest of the workforce and what kind of person I’m going to be.
Engineering is perhaps what most people would consider a white-collar job, requiring a degree or at least a diploma to undertake this profession. From an early age, kids (in Singapore at least) are taught to aspire towards being doctors, lawyers, bankers and engineers and such. These vocations are held in higher esteem, presumably because of the higher levels of education required. They are also associated with better salaries and lifestyles, which are reinforced somewhat by the media.
At the other corner of the ring are blue-collar jobs. While they constitute an honest living and in some cases pay better than white-collar jobs, the stigma in Singapore society remains. It is not uncommon to hear parents admonish their children to study harder by painting the grim scenario of sweeping roads or collecting rubbish for a living. This mindset is what fuels the paper chase, from which people graduate into the rat race.
And how does all this relate to me? Well, here I am on the path to a white-collar job (whether I take on one or not remains to be seen) with my fellow peers, and while some of them seem to be embracing some or all aspects of the stereotypical yuppie lifestyle, I happen to be heading off in another direction. Here are some examples:
Food:
Classy establishments don’t go down too well with me, not to mention the inevitable financial drain. Well, I can hold my manners well enough to not get thrown out of such places, but I’d really rather be hanging loose at a more relaxed venue. Given a choice, I always opt to eat at hawker centers or kopitiams, where the food is cheaper and usually better. While some people rave about the latest tiramisu or NYDC desert, I’ll go for a good bowl of chendol, ching-teng or ice-kachang anytime. Sometimes in social settings or with a group of friends, going to such places is inevitable, but you can be sure my stomach has a dream of a better place.
Drink:
The beer vs wine debate is already very well-documented in this blog, so I will not go into gory details. The most expensive liquor that I imbibe would be Scotch whisky, but a good bottle lasts me a long time, since my drinking tendencies are more on the side of sip-and-savour rather then fast-and-furious. Needless to say, concoctions like Bourbon Coke or Vodka Ribena don’t get much mileage in my book. Drinking to incoherence or incapacitation is also not my style, which brings me to my next point.
Nightlife:
I can count the number of times I’ve been to a club on one hand, and none of them were particularly pleasant. Poseur-ish people all dressed to the nines in expensive or pseudo-classy outfits, drinking overpriced swill in excess, dancing (or trying to dance) to mind-numbing beats and trying to pick each other up are really not my kind of crowd. The single biggest turn-off about it would have to be the monotonously irritating noise played at ridiculous volumes. My idea of a good time in the nightlife usually takes place at a pub with proper music, decent drink and good vibes. The ones I frequent are not necessarily the most hip place to be seen, but that’s not a major concern. Though perhaps it would be nice to see some more age-group appropriate female eye-candy.
Music:
When most of the people you count as musical heroes are either dead or dying, it’s not healthy for your Hip Quotient (my quotient died a quick and painless death some years ago from Bluesinitis). For the most part I’m ignorant of the heavily recycled sequence of sounds that passes for radio-friendly hits these days, and unabashedly so. A lot of it also masquerades as flimsy excuses for pretty faces. Normally I don’t have any issue with pretty faces, but I’m a firm believer of music being played by musicians. Even among the newer bands these days, few of them ever capture my attention. Most of them just fall into the same, tired old sound that guarantees radio air time.
The current high-life trend is to be “into” jazz or whatever mutilated bastard-child variants of it have been cooked up. Which is a pity really, because while I do appreciate good jazz, it has been sullied by association with people attracted only to its’ cerebral and complex technical nature, or people just trying to be in the loop. Sadly, both groups of people usually miss out on the underlying groove and spirit behind the music. It has been turned upside down on its head and either dumbed-down or souped-up so much that it’s unrecognizable and in some cases, unlistenable.
In any case, blues is still my music of choice, but even that is not immune to the influences of mass-media demands either. I just have to be a little picky about what I listen to. To me, music is life, not lifestyle.
Fashion:
Those of you who know me in person will probably know that I’m a fashion non-entity. I’ve seen several fashion trends come and go on our little island, and I’m glad to say I didn’t spend any cash on that stuff. That might account for my abysmal luck with the ladies, or maybe not. I won’t tell you how much I’ve spent on guitars, gear and CDs though.
So there we have it, my life preferences in a nutshell. My tastes might change over time, I’m always open to new experiences and if any of you would like to point out something erroneous, please do so. If you’d like to shout out your concurrence, feel free to do so too. Afterall, we do live in a country of (somewhat) free speech.
# posted by BloozeGit @ 8:47 am 
