R.I.P.

Hey guys.

I know I said I would blog again more often, but I had been pretty occupied from the end of last week until now. On Thursday morning, my grandfather had passed away. So ever since then, I had been been busy at the wake and funeral. I couldn't even attend the Service Science lecture on Monday. And because of that, my team lost the debate.

It all happened so fast. So sudden. We didn't expect him to pass away so soon. We were all hoping he could last at least past chinese new year, so we could celebrate with him. As it is, now we can't celebrate chinese new year.

My grandfather was a nice guy. To be frank, I wasn't really close to him, or anyone in my extended family for that matter. I'm just the quiet awkward guy. But he did used to cook his famous ah kong curry for us when we were much younger, and we would visit his house every weekend for dinner, and stayed there for a bit.

I guess the main problem is the language barrier. He could only speak teochew, not much mandarin, and not any english at all. This made it really difficult for the grandkids to communicate with the grandparents generation. It's a problem that our children's generation never has to face though, given that our current parents can probably speak english and mandarin. It's a real shame, given that he and people of his generation probably had vastly different experiences as us, many lessons and things that could have been shared, but are now lost in the mists of time. Oh how I would have liked to ask him more, and hear the stories from his time. But it's too late now... Let's not regret, but rather build upon the path that their generation has forged for us.

"It is possible for an economy to be based entirely on services?"

So, regarding that debate on Monday. I half expected us to lose anyway. I just didn't have enough time to commit to building up a really strong case. My team of foreigners aren't really up to scratch as well. The indian guy still had the cheek to claim that Singapore needed foreign talent such as themselves. Pfft. If you're half as good as you say, SHOW ME. The only reason Singapore needs to import people is because we aren't reproducing enough, which is another full-blown topic for discussion. That and the fact that foreigners are cheaper. In no way are they clearly superior, quite the contrary in fact. Let's not even talk about the negative effects they have on our country's identity, culture, and infrastructure.

I'm not ranting because we lost. Even though my points got removed from the slides, and we spent one whole slide talking about importing foreign labour, I'm cool with that. But regretfully, I couldn't be there. I pretty much predicted the opposition team's approach and argument. But my suggestions were easily brushed off, and the indian guy was really lazy and arrowed one guy to present everything. All I'll say is, things cannot continue like this lah. Need to buck up yo!

Besides that module, I'm also doing the gamification module. Almost managed to get 2 female members, haha. But one of them declined. They're both attached anyway. The lecturer also female, which is surprising. Surprising because it seems she is a gamer too. This module has quite a lot to do with gaming. Some more, first lecture she wore cheong sum to lecture. >_<

Oh ya, I missed my FYP meeting on Monday as well coz of the funeral. I feel like my progress for that has slowed to a crawl. Not a good thing. I wasted the whole holidays not doing anything. Until now not yet coded much. Yet, I'm hoping to score an 'A' for that. What's wrong with me? Why so lazy?!

I need to somehow reinvigorate the fire in me. But somehow I have lost most of my motivation these recent years. It just feels so empty and pointless. It's lonely here.