A Reflection

I've retreated to one of my favorite study areas of all time - a small airconditioned room in the clubhouse at my estate. I spent a considerable amount of time here to study for my 'O' levels more than 3 years ago and I feel kinda nostalgic. I've been doing some reflections over what I've achieved over the last semester and I'm trying to make sense of the decisions I've made over that period of time.

Very simply put, I'm pleased with what my project group has achieved. As the Lead Designer, I think I've fallen short of my responsibilities but nonetheless the final week showed how much our group could produce. With that amount of work done in such a short period of time, it was clear that the group packed some serious potential. In fact I think at some level, we did even better than the so-called heavyweight group in class (you know who).

Quite a huge amount of class politics has been ongoing over the last few days, especially after Chi Yong announced that we had to start thinking whether to reform our groups. **If you're reading this Aishah, I'm serious about wanting to join your group. I think you guys have a great work culture, and it would be my pleasure to work with you guys. With that said, I know some people have been talking behind my back. This is normal and I'm not taking any grudges against anyone. It's just you know, politics. While a group can be overpowered, the group members might not be happy due to the assumed pressure from both external and internal. I always felt that it's important that group members should remain happy with one another, and that everyone is always working along the same ideology. Think Ascendancy.

Today, I stumbled upon Peng Leng's group at McDonalds in Clementi. A lot of people might think Melvin fell short, but I noticed he was a really happy individual because his group accepts him and I could tell they truly enjoy each other's company, even though I know some tempers flared up at some points. I looked at my own group and noticed some level of deviation, especially when various parties were slow at submissions. At that point, there was little support and encouragement given. It's a problem but I don't think anyone is to blame. It's just the fact that we were all buddies and tried to give each other too much leeway. I would quote Andre: "friendship and work ethic are very different." Therefore, I want to work with a group that I may not be very familiar with. In other words, I could work with almost every group. At some level I think one of the key reasons why I didn't give as much as I would like to was the fact that I subconsciously exploited the friendship. To some extent, I think it's human nature. Which is why again, I stress, I may be able to work so much better with people I'm not so familiar with. Hint hint*

This Saturday could be interesting. We'll be presenting our projects to bigwigs from Ksatria and Scrawl Studios. I would really like to hear some industry comments, and hopefully we won't be utterly destroyed. I think in general, all the projects achieved at least the minimum requirements. Oh wait I didn't sit in for every presentation, but the projects I saw were very successful considering the limitations we had. I'm sure Hubertus was very astounded and/or impressed by our progression, especially during Gavin's presentation. I don't know who said this, but apparently Gavin is more skilled than Hubertus... On a sidenote, it's kinda weird everyone comes up to me and say, oh noes your boss is coming down. I'm actually quite anxious about the boss encounter, really.

As I'm typing this I have not submitted my GDET Serious Design Document. This is ridiculous, 9000 words and I'm just above halfway done...