Red pill, blue pill

You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Given my current situation, I have no idea which choice is the red or the blue pill. But guess that’s the thing with choices, sometimes just got to take one and stick with it.

Haha, sorry for being so cryptic. I explain if things go alright..

Youth Olympics Village at NTU

Well as the title suggests, the athletes Village for the 2010 Youth Olympics games has been shifted to NTU’s very own garden campus.

Athletes and team officials coming for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010 will now be staying at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

In a surprise announcement yesterday, YOG organisers said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved a proposal to site the Youth Olympic Village at NTU’s existing campus off Jalan Bahar.

News articles here and here.

So is this news to rejoice for NTU students? Well, on first look it definitedly seems like it.

Seems like a total of 11 halls will be used for accomodating the 5000 odd athletes and delegates. I’m guessing some of the older halls like 4,5 and 7 did not make the cut. And since only Halls 3 and 16 are air-conditioned, the rest will be renovated with air-cons and with new furnishing in bedrooms.

NTU said it might need to postpone the start of its new academic year by about two weeks, till after the Games in late August 2010, so as not to displace students who will be staying in those hostels.

More good news.. i think.

And now to see if the school admin actually passes on the cost of the construction by increasing rental fees. And even though there is no chance for me to take part in YOG 2010, at least i’m sure i’ll be a part of it.

Whenever you are down..

When ever I feel down or feel dispirited about something, which is quite often when schooling in uni, I sort take my inspiration and motivation from speeches.

Great speeches have this effect on me, the goose bumps rising feeling that makes you want to go out and do something. Just like the feeling that you get after watching the movie ‘300′, even though it’s your 5th time.

I think making speeches in public is not easy; you more often see people making a fool out of themselves. Either that or their speech is rather forgettable. Giving a meaningful speech and to infuse it with some humour is even harder.

Great speeches have the ability to transport you to another world; one where you are allowed to pursue your dreams, one where all your current problems have disappeared, and one where the choice is ultimately yours. Which is why I kind of loved Steve Job’s “Connecting the Dots” speech.

I keep some sort of a collection of speeches which I think are rather interesting and inspiring and re-read once a while. And I came across a pretty decent speech while reading Mr Wang Says So. A friend of his, Adrian Tan was invited to be the G.O.H at one of NTU’s convocations last week.

A brief excerpt:

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Pretty interesting? Read the whole speech here.