Style and Synergy
Music: Red Hot Chilli Peppers- Parallel Universe
Nehnehnehneh.
I do not like saying this, but what sense is there when a councilor shouts at her own classmate for eating some bread in a no-food area when she herself is guilty in many, many other things? People don’t seem to realize things get complicated only because they make it so. I wish I could understand and apply that for myself.
Whatever it is, female-female diplomacy is some uh, complicated stuff. I’ve got the impression girls get hurt by criticism and the like more; a single sentence could very well ruin a year’s worth of potential friendship. I think they tend to take things more seriously than they are—not to mention the fact that they like *sharing* things, and when things spread they easily seem bigger than they are. I wouldn’t be surprised if the phrase make a mountain out of a molehill took root from it’s creator’s musings of such female tendencies, lol.
I don’t understand some people. Come to class, hang out with class, leave class without a single goodbye. I don’t know about you but personally I cannot stand such attitudes and cannot see how friends of that particular type of people tolerate it. Are they even aware of how insincere certain individuals are in committing themselves to a semblance of friendship? They come to class, they talk and they laugh, and then they make big shows of wanting to hang out with outsiders, and then they leave the moment the opportunity presents itself. They are their own obstacle to a united class.
I question the validity of certain friendships. They stay together only because there is no one else to be with.
The absence of frontline males in this class is making itself felt in me. No frontline male to keep the group going, or even together, no frontline male to keep the females in check ( in class), no frontline male to provide the kind of company I am more accustomed to. True, I am fully capable of standing on my own—but is that what I really want?
On to more cheerful stuff. There is always cheerful stuffs around, it just depends on the extent to which you make yourself see them.
1A03 class gathering took place on 27th August, Friday evening.
Met up with Liz and JJ earlier to get a present for birthday girl. Been long since I paid homage to my own style and have it so suitably embraced by other complementary styles. I have never ever seen such styles, such characters which make me feel so comfortable, so good, in NYJC.
JJ: What do we want to get.
Me: Lets go to Times and get a book with no intellectual value. [This shld not be taken as a derogatory remark: you shld infer that books with no intellectual value tend to be those that look more like a birthday present]
We stand at the entrance of Times.
JJ: Ok what now.
Me: Ok I’ll go ask the cashier where the books with no intellectual value are.
It’s not so much as a joke as implicit humour: imagine the response of a cashier to a customer asking: “May I know where the books with no intellectual value are?”
And do not take the role JJ plays as a minor one. It might be simplistic—but even so only a few people are able to respond in such a manner which complements * my style*. I can never ever deliver such a thing if I do not get the appropriate responses, however passive they are. As a matter of fact, it’s the passiveness which brings out the flavour, and do not be surprised when I tell you very few people can even manage to be passive so perfectly around me, not to mention *active*. Even if it looks simple, there is great latent synergy here.
Dinner was at café cartel, at PS. Attendance was 10/13, with 2 being unable to make it out on Fridays and 1 being un-contactable at press time. I doubt there are many classes out there who can manage such a high attendance rate, seriously.
We had been separated for months, and the groomed desire to catch up on lost time was reflected in the fact that we unanimously agreed to arrange the 4 long tables into a square, so that we could see the smiles of everyone. There’s no such thing as a reunion when everyone is seated along a stretch of tables—you’ve got to be seated in round-table fashion.
We sat and talked and dined under a night sky but somehow things weren’t as romantic as they should be. It could be the fact that two frontline people weren’t there, it could be the inertia felt after months of complete disassociation, it could be the fact that we are all leading separate lives now. No amount of reunions can restore the level of feeling we attained before we split, and though it might be immature to say it now, I will still say it: The split-up of 1a03 is one of the greatest losses I would ever experience in my lifetime.
I will not forget this, amongst other things:
Chorus 1:Don’t let KC take the gassy drinks [while we were placing orders]
Chorus 2: Yah gassy drinks are unHealth">healthy!
Chorus 3: Get him the iced peach tea!
Person: He’ll still burp with or without gassy drink!
Nor little things like this.
(in a gift shop, to a sales person)
JJ: Give me something which looks expensive but is cheap.
I don’t know about you but personally I find that very funny. Especially when the sales person got caught off-guard. Style plays a lot of importance in my preferred brands of humour and it is often the way you deliver it that makes me laugh, not what is being delivered, though anything which catches me by surprise is by default amusing.
Hmm, maybe I should get more examples and start my own best quotes book. Looking back now, some of the stuffs I say to people, and people say to me, and we say to other people, are very amusing; by the way I get as amused with my own words (and self) as with other people, which is perhaps why I can manage to laugh all on my own.
Synergy is something we own, and it is the one vital thing which explains why 04A6 isnt a class but 1a03 still is. 6 months could not cover what two months did. How such natural smoothness, such unpretentious synergy we attained within two months is beyond my comprehension. Even closer friends in VS require months, some years, to forge it out.
We have a good mix of genders (8 males to 5 females) and the right collection of characters. We have lead-males, both the rugged type and the gentlemanly type. We have the corresponding supportive characters to not only support, but enhance overall group cohesiveness to a very deep extent. And it is only when there are supportive roles to take on can I be the person I am! How to support when theres no one up front? The females are not subordinated. They form a unit which proactively makes up the class, but there are no rigid cliques in this class; the class is the clique. Everyone contributes in a unique way, everyone has a unique role—I can actually list the roles of all individuals but that would not be necessary. But the main thing is the synergy between all 13 distinct characters, and to have been so blessed as to land up with that specific configuration of characters…….
It is only when there is one to lead can one follow, only when they give can I give, only when they take can I give.
Speaking of styles, a classic of mine goes like this.
Two people walk peacefully along a corridor. Suddenly…
Me: I sense a disturbance in the Force.
Person: Are you trying to be funny?
Me: The Force never tries to be funny.
A suitable continuation would go like this:
Person: I suspect you’re trying to be funny.
Me: The Force tells me no.
Person: The Force is trying to be funny with you.
Me: Are you trying to be funny?
There, stalemate.
You have to note that nobody is trying to be funny in this case, not in that crude, conventional sense. Take it that dabblers of such humour are often detatched from the very content they produce: they are more than aware that the content is childish; their aim is never to induce laughter from content per se but from very all-round synergy.
I’ve noticed a relation between friendship and response to this brand of humour.
I don’t get along well with people who don’t respond to this kind of humour. They would tend to just pretend not to hear what I said, or just give me a funny look and a smile. Worse still, some would think they’re above this form of interaction, and they don’t seem to be aware of their own attitude.
The 2nd tier would be those who respond moderately. They accept it amiably, some laughter, some smart comments like “Trying to be a Jedi dude? Work on it.” They tend to be nice friends of mine, with some eventually becoming very close friends.
What separates the 1st tier from the 2nd is the ability to reciprocate such things with style. People who are able to do so are few, and they definitely form my inner core of friends. Not sure if it’s the humour which breeds friendship or friendship which breeds humour, but it doesn’t really matter.
A female called me some days back. CALLED. PW mate. Its all the more amusing because I mentioned law2 in the previous week and law2 was proven wrong this week. Maybe I shld start putting more laws down here, heheh.
I thought only girls hug each other but I was proven wrong when Edmund Khoo gave me a very brotherly hug when I saw him in parkway on the eve of teachers’ day, one of the few hugs I ever got from a male. Had a feeling there would’ve been more if I had made it to VS on that day—such is the power of friendships buried!
Met up with some friends even though I gave VS a miss (too late by the time I got to the area), had soccer at tampines. Its been MONTHS since I last played street soccer with those fellows, months. (They’ve been meeting to play every now and then but well, too busy)
The spot they chose is remarkable. Imagine some flights of paved steps leading up to a basketball court, with a hdb block encompassing it. And the block is arched in the middle, such that you can, from the court, view the surrounding beyond. Same for the other end, (end as in sideways end), only it’s several blocks this time with arches in the middle—and so when you are standing on the court and looking that direction, you feel overwhelmed by feelings of vastness. Damn think I really need that digital camera.
Afternoon was quiet, good. Think we consumed over 15 litres of drinks. The thing about hardcourt soccer is that one can be very, very mobile. And in case you don’t know, that is always my preferred modus operandi, be it in sports, in relationships, or in any other area of life. Incidentally, that is also why I am a fan of Arsenal. Just look at their mobility, the speed at which they counter-attack, their incisive penetrations. Mobility means you do not get tied down. Fancy some runs down on the flanks? Or flank-to-centre conversions?
To sidetrack a little, my modus operandi usually employs the doctrine of counter-play. Table tennis, chess, soccer, daidee, pool warfare, computer games">games, interaction with both genders, anything, you name it. I find personal satisfaction (though not always results) from luring one forward, or escaping one, play him about, make defense compact, counter-attack hard when he is in your territory, or when he overstretches his resources. It probably accounts for why I cannot get along with females easily—how to counter-play when they don’t get into my territory? Or when they don’t overstretch? Or when they don’t play at all?
The presence of certain frontline males was acutely felt. Kind of natural—in any group of over 10 males, there would surely be a few *strong* (or noisy) ones. Note that such people do not necessarily lead the pack; to have any form of leadership would be to segregate the pack into two. And it does not matter that these people are strong only because they have friends around: dutch courage, if you want to think of it that way.
It only matters that one keeps in touch with his *religion* and past. Any male group of that size would tend to get cheeky: little moments of cheekiness (for lack of a better word) got relived when Mr Frontline shouts some stuffs to a vj couple down in parkway. (I ncidentally, the guy had attempted to place his hand around the female’s waist; the female recoiled and she kept her distance from him thereafter. HAH.), things like that.
I find it amusing, in a benign way, that junior college students still throw ice cubes at each other. It started with a straw and tiny bullets of ice and some childishness, and my back was facing his targets. Then all of a sudden an ice cube flew past me from the table behind. Sheesh Im laughing even now. If they had started before they started their meal I wouldn’t be surprised ikan bilis and noodles start flying, maybe some people too. These are the things that count more than anything else.
Style and synergy. Styles which enrapture me, styles which complement mine (or I yours), tight synergy between individuals, holistic synergy throughout a group..
I think the main thing which Im lacking in my present class is frontline males. Trust me girls, I feel the absence more than you. Heheh.
PS. I've almost finished reading Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
Nehnehnehneh.
I do not like saying this, but what sense is there when a councilor shouts at her own classmate for eating some bread in a no-food area when she herself is guilty in many, many other things? People don’t seem to realize things get complicated only because they make it so. I wish I could understand and apply that for myself.
Whatever it is, female-female diplomacy is some uh, complicated stuff. I’ve got the impression girls get hurt by criticism and the like more; a single sentence could very well ruin a year’s worth of potential friendship. I think they tend to take things more seriously than they are—not to mention the fact that they like *sharing* things, and when things spread they easily seem bigger than they are. I wouldn’t be surprised if the phrase make a mountain out of a molehill took root from it’s creator’s musings of such female tendencies, lol.
I don’t understand some people. Come to class, hang out with class, leave class without a single goodbye. I don’t know about you but personally I cannot stand such attitudes and cannot see how friends of that particular type of people tolerate it. Are they even aware of how insincere certain individuals are in committing themselves to a semblance of friendship? They come to class, they talk and they laugh, and then they make big shows of wanting to hang out with outsiders, and then they leave the moment the opportunity presents itself. They are their own obstacle to a united class.
I question the validity of certain friendships. They stay together only because there is no one else to be with.
The absence of frontline males in this class is making itself felt in me. No frontline male to keep the group going, or even together, no frontline male to keep the females in check ( in class), no frontline male to provide the kind of company I am more accustomed to. True, I am fully capable of standing on my own—but is that what I really want?
On to more cheerful stuff. There is always cheerful stuffs around, it just depends on the extent to which you make yourself see them.
1A03 class gathering took place on 27th August, Friday evening.
Met up with Liz and JJ earlier to get a present for birthday girl. Been long since I paid homage to my own style and have it so suitably embraced by other complementary styles. I have never ever seen such styles, such characters which make me feel so comfortable, so good, in NYJC.
JJ: What do we want to get.
Me: Lets go to Times and get a book with no intellectual value. [This shld not be taken as a derogatory remark: you shld infer that books with no intellectual value tend to be those that look more like a birthday present]
We stand at the entrance of Times.
JJ: Ok what now.
Me: Ok I’ll go ask the cashier where the books with no intellectual value are.
It’s not so much as a joke as implicit humour: imagine the response of a cashier to a customer asking: “May I know where the books with no intellectual value are?”
And do not take the role JJ plays as a minor one. It might be simplistic—but even so only a few people are able to respond in such a manner which complements * my style*. I can never ever deliver such a thing if I do not get the appropriate responses, however passive they are. As a matter of fact, it’s the passiveness which brings out the flavour, and do not be surprised when I tell you very few people can even manage to be passive so perfectly around me, not to mention *active*. Even if it looks simple, there is great latent synergy here.
Dinner was at café cartel, at PS. Attendance was 10/13, with 2 being unable to make it out on Fridays and 1 being un-contactable at press time. I doubt there are many classes out there who can manage such a high attendance rate, seriously.
We had been separated for months, and the groomed desire to catch up on lost time was reflected in the fact that we unanimously agreed to arrange the 4 long tables into a square, so that we could see the smiles of everyone. There’s no such thing as a reunion when everyone is seated along a stretch of tables—you’ve got to be seated in round-table fashion.
We sat and talked and dined under a night sky but somehow things weren’t as romantic as they should be. It could be the fact that two frontline people weren’t there, it could be the inertia felt after months of complete disassociation, it could be the fact that we are all leading separate lives now. No amount of reunions can restore the level of feeling we attained before we split, and though it might be immature to say it now, I will still say it: The split-up of 1a03 is one of the greatest losses I would ever experience in my lifetime.
I will not forget this, amongst other things:
Chorus 1:Don’t let KC take the gassy drinks [while we were placing orders]
Chorus 2: Yah gassy drinks are unHealth">healthy!
Chorus 3: Get him the iced peach tea!
Person: He’ll still burp with or without gassy drink!
Nor little things like this.
(in a gift shop, to a sales person)
JJ: Give me something which looks expensive but is cheap.
I don’t know about you but personally I find that very funny. Especially when the sales person got caught off-guard. Style plays a lot of importance in my preferred brands of humour and it is often the way you deliver it that makes me laugh, not what is being delivered, though anything which catches me by surprise is by default amusing.
Hmm, maybe I should get more examples and start my own best quotes book. Looking back now, some of the stuffs I say to people, and people say to me, and we say to other people, are very amusing; by the way I get as amused with my own words (and self) as with other people, which is perhaps why I can manage to laugh all on my own.
Synergy is something we own, and it is the one vital thing which explains why 04A6 isnt a class but 1a03 still is. 6 months could not cover what two months did. How such natural smoothness, such unpretentious synergy we attained within two months is beyond my comprehension. Even closer friends in VS require months, some years, to forge it out.
We have a good mix of genders (8 males to 5 females) and the right collection of characters. We have lead-males, both the rugged type and the gentlemanly type. We have the corresponding supportive characters to not only support, but enhance overall group cohesiveness to a very deep extent. And it is only when there are supportive roles to take on can I be the person I am! How to support when theres no one up front? The females are not subordinated. They form a unit which proactively makes up the class, but there are no rigid cliques in this class; the class is the clique. Everyone contributes in a unique way, everyone has a unique role—I can actually list the roles of all individuals but that would not be necessary. But the main thing is the synergy between all 13 distinct characters, and to have been so blessed as to land up with that specific configuration of characters…….
It is only when there is one to lead can one follow, only when they give can I give, only when they take can I give.
Speaking of styles, a classic of mine goes like this.
Two people walk peacefully along a corridor. Suddenly…
Me: I sense a disturbance in the Force.
Person: Are you trying to be funny?
Me: The Force never tries to be funny.
A suitable continuation would go like this:
Person: I suspect you’re trying to be funny.
Me: The Force tells me no.
Person: The Force is trying to be funny with you.
Me: Are you trying to be funny?
There, stalemate.
You have to note that nobody is trying to be funny in this case, not in that crude, conventional sense. Take it that dabblers of such humour are often detatched from the very content they produce: they are more than aware that the content is childish; their aim is never to induce laughter from content per se but from very all-round synergy.
I’ve noticed a relation between friendship and response to this brand of humour.
I don’t get along well with people who don’t respond to this kind of humour. They would tend to just pretend not to hear what I said, or just give me a funny look and a smile. Worse still, some would think they’re above this form of interaction, and they don’t seem to be aware of their own attitude.
The 2nd tier would be those who respond moderately. They accept it amiably, some laughter, some smart comments like “Trying to be a Jedi dude? Work on it.” They tend to be nice friends of mine, with some eventually becoming very close friends.
What separates the 1st tier from the 2nd is the ability to reciprocate such things with style. People who are able to do so are few, and they definitely form my inner core of friends. Not sure if it’s the humour which breeds friendship or friendship which breeds humour, but it doesn’t really matter.
A female called me some days back. CALLED. PW mate. Its all the more amusing because I mentioned law2 in the previous week and law2 was proven wrong this week. Maybe I shld start putting more laws down here, heheh.
I thought only girls hug each other but I was proven wrong when Edmund Khoo gave me a very brotherly hug when I saw him in parkway on the eve of teachers’ day, one of the few hugs I ever got from a male. Had a feeling there would’ve been more if I had made it to VS on that day—such is the power of friendships buried!
Met up with some friends even though I gave VS a miss (too late by the time I got to the area), had soccer at tampines. Its been MONTHS since I last played street soccer with those fellows, months. (They’ve been meeting to play every now and then but well, too busy)
The spot they chose is remarkable. Imagine some flights of paved steps leading up to a basketball court, with a hdb block encompassing it. And the block is arched in the middle, such that you can, from the court, view the surrounding beyond. Same for the other end, (end as in sideways end), only it’s several blocks this time with arches in the middle—and so when you are standing on the court and looking that direction, you feel overwhelmed by feelings of vastness. Damn think I really need that digital camera.
Afternoon was quiet, good. Think we consumed over 15 litres of drinks. The thing about hardcourt soccer is that one can be very, very mobile. And in case you don’t know, that is always my preferred modus operandi, be it in sports, in relationships, or in any other area of life. Incidentally, that is also why I am a fan of Arsenal. Just look at their mobility, the speed at which they counter-attack, their incisive penetrations. Mobility means you do not get tied down. Fancy some runs down on the flanks? Or flank-to-centre conversions?
To sidetrack a little, my modus operandi usually employs the doctrine of counter-play. Table tennis, chess, soccer, daidee, pool warfare, computer games">games, interaction with both genders, anything, you name it. I find personal satisfaction (though not always results) from luring one forward, or escaping one, play him about, make defense compact, counter-attack hard when he is in your territory, or when he overstretches his resources. It probably accounts for why I cannot get along with females easily—how to counter-play when they don’t get into my territory? Or when they don’t overstretch? Or when they don’t play at all?
The presence of certain frontline males was acutely felt. Kind of natural—in any group of over 10 males, there would surely be a few *strong* (or noisy) ones. Note that such people do not necessarily lead the pack; to have any form of leadership would be to segregate the pack into two. And it does not matter that these people are strong only because they have friends around: dutch courage, if you want to think of it that way.
It only matters that one keeps in touch with his *religion* and past. Any male group of that size would tend to get cheeky: little moments of cheekiness (for lack of a better word) got relived when Mr Frontline shouts some stuffs to a vj couple down in parkway. (I ncidentally, the guy had attempted to place his hand around the female’s waist; the female recoiled and she kept her distance from him thereafter. HAH.), things like that.
I find it amusing, in a benign way, that junior college students still throw ice cubes at each other. It started with a straw and tiny bullets of ice and some childishness, and my back was facing his targets. Then all of a sudden an ice cube flew past me from the table behind. Sheesh Im laughing even now. If they had started before they started their meal I wouldn’t be surprised ikan bilis and noodles start flying, maybe some people too. These are the things that count more than anything else.
Style and synergy. Styles which enrapture me, styles which complement mine (or I yours), tight synergy between individuals, holistic synergy throughout a group..
I think the main thing which Im lacking in my present class is frontline males. Trust me girls, I feel the absence more than you. Heheh.
PS. I've almost finished reading Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.
5 Comments:
yah, we are a complicated species haha, and we take things seriously and all. but don't judge or examine us like guinea pigs eh. u know that book i told you abt, "odd girl out" by rachel simmons, the one i've been shamelessly championing to a lot of people? go get your hands on it. it explains the mechanics of female relationships. really.
hannah.
haha.. sounds like you are having a good time with your life. yes.. keep a good qoute book! i would like to see that when i am 40years old. then i can practice counting when i am 70 and see how many of them were by me.
P.S: my shirt is still at your place
P.S.S: I am back to blog.
this is a bit late, considering how i'm already at school, almost forty-eight hours after i read this entry on my Palm, but anyhoo:
now if you were having that "Force" conversation with me, it would have went like this:
KENNETH CHONG
I sense a disturbance in the Force
AARON KHOO
Shall I call the newspapers?
haha. i bet you'll love to observe my class. and the sad fact that i usually have no choice but to be the "frontline male", also probably due to the fact that i'm the CT rep.
anyway,
KC:I sense a disturbance in the Force.
Me:(runs away screaming)
now come to think of it, that's not that far away from the truth.
Hi SirWhale, I was just blog surfing and found you! Wow, I really like this one.
It’s such a pleasure to read your post …. Interesting! I was over at another site
looking at synergy
and they didn't go into as much detail as you, but nonetheless interesting.
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