… in real life, that is. It’s quite pointless talking about a low profile in the blogosphere, cos’ if you really want to do that, you wouldn’t have blogged in the first place.

Many of us are familiar with the publicity that comes along with being a (super)-star. We are talking along the likes of Stef Sun, Kelly Poon, Weiliang, and the local winners from the superstar/campus superstar competitions. The best singer may not always win because there is a 30% component to the final votes, with 70% being accounted from the judges. (Ed: I feel compelled to clarify that Stef Sun didn’t emerge from a competition) However, regardless of who wins, everyone somehow becomes a target of public curiosity. People would want to know more about them, what they do, how they are doing, and probably, uncover some scandals in the midst of it.

We are all too familiar with it - the news and scandals that tabloids can bring. However, we are not talking about your street tabloids today. We are talking about the tabloids amongst us.

Do you recall the last time you met your ex-classmates who have made it to the top? Who has became a celebrity in his/her own rights? Or someone who is seemingly moving faster than the most of you, or creating an unbelievable phenomenon?

I’m not sure about you, but after meeting some really phenomenal people, I googled their names - not because I want to find scandals or things that would bring them down, but because I want to find out what’s behind their success - the things they did, the opportunities they had. Sometimes, unconsciously - and probably effortlessly, we dig out some scandals; not from paparazzis or the likes, but from people who know them, closely or otherwise. Instantly, their friends become their paparazzis - be it in work or relationships.

Of course, if they are someone who have no skeletons in the closet, there’s probably nothing to be afraid of. What they should be afraid of are people who are out to put them down - people who are red-eyed of their success, who would go all out to make a mountain out of an ant-hill.

So, my golden answer to my question - do I have a skeleton in *my* closet?

I don’t think I have any, unless mocking at my neighbour’s dog when I was a small kid counts. I hope I never will have, and neither am I rich and famous now. But I realised that the more I advance (in my studies or work, in future), I have a tendency to downplay my role. Probably, instead of a lecturer, I’d say that I’m in the “education services”, or instead of a “flight stewardess”, I am in the “service industry” - something to that extent.

So, why am I blogging? Isn’t the Internet not that anonymous anymore? Well, yes. It is not that anonymous anymore and hiding behind a moniker isn’t really going to help much. But… (can I be contradictory?), there’s an exhibitionist in everyone (oh, this is a sweeping statement, and I beg your indulgence) and blogging allows me to share a restricted part of my life to those around who may be interested (frankly, I don’t think anyone is), and to a certain extent, is something that is controllable (?), unless of course, I cross the line and make remarks that “breaks the peace of the nation”. Read (without implication and prejudice): Wee Shu Min (here and here) and Chen Jiahao (here). Personally, I don’t think Chen Jiahao created much of a brouhaha. It’s more about the entire episode that’s troubling/puzzling/whatever. Of course, the other big no-no is spelt “S-E-D-I-T-I-O-N”, which I have no interests ever to even say it.

Having said that, I see my name searched every now and then in google. Perhaps they are really looking for someone else, but sometimes I get a little paranoid about them really looking for me. Call me buay hiao bai *, but I’d rather keep a low profile in real life. Life is already complicated enough, I hope not to add on to it.

* it’s a local slang for shameless

Matriculation starts at 9:30am at LT2. Better not miss it. Bring along:

1. B.Sc. Transcripts / Certs
2. M.Sc. Transcripts / Certs
3. Passport
4. NRIC
5. Offer letter

Don’t forget and don’t be late!

Moby Sky wrote about Singaporean drivers refusing to give way to emergency vehicles in a jam - a long mentioned problem with Singapore drivers. In fact, the problem was so bad that it was reported in the national papers, and obviously the problem is bad enough to be tomorrow’ed.

I was just talking to one of my lecturers the other day during lunch with my other senior who is going to the UK for further work or studies. He mentioned that in London, watching an emergency vehicle moving through the jams is like witnessing the parting of the Red Sea. Vehicles along the way would literally move up the curbs to allow enough space for the emergency vehicles to pass through.

In Singapore, this almost never seem to happen, especially if the emergency vehicle is headed for a red-light camera secured T- or X-junction. Most Singaporean drivers are probably too afraid of getting a ticket from the traffic police to risk crossing the sensors when the traffic light is red. Personally, I have witnessed vehicles inching shy of the censors on the road when an ambulance was trying to move forward. Like what Moby said, what if the person in the ambulance is a close family member of those drivers?

However, there is something unique in Singapore (ok, and probably elsewhere that I do not know of) afterall. We have ambulance chasers. These are the drivers that follow an ambulance closely on the road; because in the rare times that the ambulance does get a cleared lane in a jam, ambulance chasers would be able to beat the jam. In fact, there are so many vehicles following the ambulance at top speed that you would think the patient in the ambulance was either an important person or someone who came from an affluent family.

Sometimes, I am quite ashamed to admit that I am a Singaporean. I dread the day that someone would go… “oh, you are from Singapore! Yes, I heard about horrid drivers and ambulance chasers“. I hope the earth would just open up and swallow me in.