diary of a madman

Radical transparency is a management method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly.

All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decisions about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_transparency)

Why is there a need to have a structure in an organisation, when decisions made “at the top” remains status quo? Do individual member votes count, if the people in power and authority decide to hold “further discussions” and ultimate decide to act against said decision, or to reverse a particular decision?

Hierarchial structures in an organisation, regardless of size, is of utmost importance because it legitimizes the organisation, and provides a clear leader, or leaders, for its followers, or members, to look to for guidance, advice, and to settle and resolve conflicts.

However, for an organisation to be truly legitimate and recognised as such, hierarchial structures are not the only things that would play a part, but should work in tandem with transparency and accountability.

Though the concept of transparency should be perceived as

Transparency is introduced as a means of holding public officials accountable and fighting corruption. When government meetings are open to the press and the public, when budgets and financial statements may be reviewed by anyone, when laws, rules and decisions are open to discussion, they are seen as transparent and there is less opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system in their own interest. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_%28humanities%29)

it can be “dumbed down” and seen as a means of holding individuals in positions of power accountable to decisions made by either by said individual, or by a group that includes said individual, without prior knowledge or consultation of other ordinary members of the organisation.

Some people may argue that transparency and accountability should only be important where the decisions made are of great importance, or if there’s money involved in the decision. But I say that’s total bullshit, because irregardless of the position you hold, as long as you make a decision, you make it an open, and a completely transparent decision, explaining to members and committee members alike why you made the particular decision. If you asked for a vote prior to decision making, yet changed your mind after a “discussion” with the committee members, then make that clear and make a statement explaining and detailing the factors that led to a “discussion”, and ultimately, the revamped decision.

It doesn’t matter how important you think your organisation is, or is not. It doesn’t matter how important you think you are, or are not. It doesn’t even matter how much of a difference you think it’ll make, or will not make.

We bitch, whine and complain about how much lack of transparency we have to endure as Singaporeans, and how the government only makes privy information that works in their benefit. How often have we took a step back and examined if we as logical, educated Singaporeans have made this leap of faith in our daily lives, and in the organisations and committees that we dedicate ourselves to?

Some updates for you trolls out there still reading my blog.

I ditched my mac book pro for a dell inspiron 1420 (2.2ghz centrino duo, 4gb ram, 250gb hdd, geforce 8400 128mb video card), and took 1st runner up for the 10th XQRJ national song writing competition with Lara’s song of “Ai This Way”.

It was a pretty productive day yesterday, though it was rather irritating as well. The sound-clowns at NTU’s surf and sweat managed to fuck up our sound, and not know how to rectify it, and best of all, forget to bring a keyboard down. That meant our keyboardist had to sit out for the gig, and Ivan had to fill in her parts. But we still managed to put up one hell of a show, and the stage, we rocked. \m/

XQRJ at UCC was not much better, apart from the fact that we won. Too many goddamned Indian Chiefs, inadequete soundmen on stage, too many students on stage trying to boss us around, and fucked up monitors. My original plan was to use my 20″ k custom ride and my 14″ byzance hats, but I ended up only using my 14″ byzance hats and my yammie snare because I had all of 30 seconds to setup before the lights came on and we were live.

Zhang Pei’s song was amazing - it literally blew the audience away. The judges had nothing but praise for her during the comments section, but they did comment that her lyrics were a little simple - but hey, that’s chinese pop for you isn’t it? The 10-15 mins before the announcment of the top 3 winners felt like eternity to us (Gerald, Daniel, me)

We heard the Emcee call out our band for 3rd position, and we literally went crazy, flipping and jumping all over the place. The next thing we heard was the announcement for the grand prize. Before we could figure out wtf was going on, one of the organisers came to us and said “You’re 2nd!”

So yeah, we went crazy again. But we fucking deserved it after the amount of effort we put into it!

When night falls and the warmth of the day fades away to nought, it’s hard not to contemplate and think about the past, reminiscing and regretting, so some extent. Aromatic, yet pungent, acrid yet soothing, the cigarette smoke that wafts through the night sky, blurring your vision. Silence all around, safe for the occasional passing traffic. It’s not difficult to think and wallow about uselessly in past memories.

But all’s been said and done, there isn’t any point crying over spilt milk is there? Decisions, choices, mistakes, regret. It’s funny how the past can get so intertwined with the present, and probably with the future as well.

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up… To more than I can be.

You raise me up… To more than I can be.

…to more than I can be.

Okay let’s start with the pleasant stuff - the 3rd floor STEAMboat. Really quite steam… a lot of dodgy talk and a lot of jiaowei around (literally, penis talk, aka rubbish).

I’ll not bore you with my uber l33t literary abilities, but I’ll let the photos do the talking.

The pre-STEAMboat preparations:

Ivan and Khairul hard at work to get the boat to steam:

More food:

Laremy’s feast:

Dodgy-ly:

KumsungmalongCORN:

Overall it was amazing, thanks to Laremy for organising this very steamy steamboat, and to everybody who came! (Especially the konfused korean who called me a cheebye, cheebye to you too HAHA)

Ok to the more kaopeh stuff - the NUS cultural activities club did a gig at Holland Village on Sunday as part of some program organised by the RCs there, and I was amazed at the turn out, more so at the number of annoying people who complained about the “noise level”. All of the kaopeh people were residents of a condo situated just behind our stage, and all of them were Chinese.

I wonder what happened to tolerence within the community. Nobody complains when there’s a Chinese funeral, and we all know how noisy and loud it can get at unearthly hours of the night. Nobody complains when its Chinese New Year and bazaars blast cheesy chinese music daily. So why complain about a 2 hour performance?

What amazed the most was the fact that the police actually responded to the complains. I’ve made numerous police calls regarding dodgy characters loitering at my block’s void deck, delinquents playing with sparklers and vandalising public property, and the fastest response time I’ve had to date was 1 hour +.

That’s two police officers, defenders of peace and public safety, talking to Rosli, our band director. I do not condemn the police for taking their jobs seriously because we were obviously a public nuisance and making old people in the condo suicidal. Oh maybe we made some little kids pee in their pants and interrupted some adults’ love-making session. This is why our parents are required by law to pay taxes in order to pay for their salary.

But anyway, I’m going for breakfast and I’ll end my kaopeh session here. More photos:

The gear I had to lug from KR all the way to YIH where the band room/bus pickup was at:

And this is the drumset that we used. A yamaha stage custom with the older lugs (resembles a recording custom), my yamaha maple custom absolute snare (14x5.5, 6ply maple), 14″ k light hats, 15″ k dark thin crash, 17″ a custom crash, 22″ a custom ride, 10″ k splash and my yamaha dfp9310 double pedals.

Okbye.

I want to rant about people who’re chock full of self-righteousness, and people who generally think that everything different is bad - smoking, for instance.

I’m quite sure that people will read my blog and kaopeh kaobu but I extend a great big fuck you to all your clowns who’re gonna take offence at what I’m about to say.

What’s wrong with smoking? True enough its not beneficial (heck, its actually harmful) for the smoker. True enough the 2nd hand smoke is bad for whoever’s around the smoker. True enough, it makes you stink. But hey, ultimately, its our choice that we want to smoke. It’s an integral part of our daily lives, and part of our civil liberties and human rights - the right to choose. We’re young voting adults, I don’t see why we can’t choose to fuck our lives up if we have the right to decide on who rules over us with an iron fist.

I’m not denying that 2nd hand smoke is bad for whoever’s around the smoker… but if you stand near to a fucking lion, you’re bound to get mauled. So why stand near a smoker in the first place? Why bother standing near to a smoker, then wave your hands and crinkle your nose to signify your fucking displeasure? And nigga pls, the smoke from my cigarette dissipates into the fucking air faster than you can say “i love watermelons”, so if you happen to be staying one floor above, how affected can you be? If you happen to stay one floor up, and on the opposite site, what the fuck are you complaining about?

There’re more cancer causing carcinogens in all your fried food, BBQ-ed dishes, and drinks combined as compared to the damned smoke from my cigarette. Why’re you making such a big fucking hoo-hah about cigarettes and smokers anyway.

Fucking self-righteous cheebyes ought to burn in hell.

It’s over and I can start on my PS essay, along with the various revisions, at last!

Nah, just kidding. I’m not that glad its over actually… was having a lot of fun jamming and practicing with the band (affectionately known as The Marblows), disturbing Janelle, kajiaoing Sherri, and annoying the living shit out of everybody else who happened to be around me during our tech runs and rehearsals. Heh heh heh so much fun.

Photos’ll be up when they’re er.. up, but great job guys, we rocked the fuckin’ house down (or in this case MPSH) and did a perfect job for the finale! Looking forward to working with you guys more often again in the future!