Friday, June 26, 2009
First thing I see when I go to Mozilla Firefox is:
"Michael Jackson dead at 50" -YahooNews
And I was like, omg?
Apparently, it has something to do with the heart. Cardiac arrest. Hmmm.
The next thing I saw:
S'pore confirms 95 new H1N1 cases
This raises the total count to 315.
Sigh, I wonder if going out later is safe.
Anyway, yesterday I went to the Pet Lover's Centre opposite my house. Bought a two-storey cage, (which comes with a water bottle and wheel), bedding, its food, a box for bathing sand and bathing sand too. Yeah, hamsters can bathe themselves. How cool is that.
Total cost: $56. Not cool at all.
But I couldn't tolerate the sight of the poor hamster getting attacked by ants and flies in that small cage. And so the trip to PLC was necessary.
Going out to get Serene's letter of recommendation from someone called Kam Hoe. Also need to get Yen's letter signed. Hmmm.
Cotton Candy just woke up and it's so cute. [:
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Just came back from SPH, got Serene's letter. It's super awesome.
Below is what she wrote:
It is in my capacity as her editor that I have known Siying.
She has been an active member of The Straits Times Media Club's students council (called the "IN Crowd") over the past two years, and during her time, has been consistent, competent and responsible. She was an active participant during The Straits Times Media Club Camp last December. In 2008, she also went to Kuala Lumpur as part of the newspaper's annual study trip to visit newsrooms around the world.
She was appointed the council's president this year, a job that she has unstintingly performed despite it being her O Levels year. She has been prompt in meeting the rigorous deadlines of a newspaper, and reliable with her submissions, demonstrating to me that she is both a committed and passionate individual. She is already well on her way to her future aims - that of becoming a journalist and to mentor those younger than her - not least because she has a deep empathy for readers, and wanting to serve them.
Siying has made a deep impression on her council members and myself because of her proactive, go-getting attitude towards work. There is impressive maturity about her approach to work, and she is a natural newshound. She is also diligent, and has quickly picked up key journalistic fundamentals in the short time she has worked with the team.
Her story ideas have even appeared in The Straits Times broadsheet, where she worked closely with full-time journalists to interview her peers for a story about how teens were making money at school by selling fiction books to their peers.
I have every confidence that Siying will have no problems accomplishing her goals to study mass communications and go on to become a strong journalist. She not only has commitment, but the will to achieve.
Best regards,
Ms Serene Goh
IN and Little Red Dot Editor
The Straits Times
Singapore Press Holdings
The next one is from Yen, a full time journalist who mentored us last year:
I had the pleasure of working with Si Ying last year as the lead journalist for The Straits Times' school publication, IN.
She was one of 14 student reporters recruited for the year by our newspaper to write for us.
In the year she spent with us, Si Ying wrote several pieces, from news reports to personal columns.
Her piece on a student forum chaired by a local celebrity, ("Do your research and don't be late", pub 7 April, 2008), showed her ease with feature writing.
Si Ying is a competent writer and an assiduous reporter. Perhaps most importantly for our business, she was reliable and met her deadlines.
That she was able to juggle a full-time school schedule and a commitment to our editorial team was impressive.
This year, Si Ying was recruited again, and she now heads the student editorial team as their elected president.
I am confident that she will continue to take on more responsibilities and excel in them.
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two heavyweight letters that makes my head spin.
i smell the fruit of my labour.
