Ahh… Friday nights. The perfect time to unwind: head out to town with some friends, enjoy good food, and laugh the night away. Not for this girl. I’m perfectly happy to go home, take a long shower and watch a good movie. Perhaps I’ve outgrown all that “partying”. Or perhaps I’m just too exhausted from the weeks’ work to do anything else. Regardless, I’m perfectly content staying in.

Although, today being the last day of the school semester, my friends believe it’s imperative that we celebrate the occasion. After all, we survived five tumultuous months and we’ve managed to stay sane the whole time. Sure, we fell terribly ill along the way, lost plenty of sleep, and sacrificed our social lives… still, we came out of the fires unscathed. We all agreed that was some achievement so it calls for some major partying. Alas, today was one of those long days where we had a workshop and a school function back-to-back, and with the heat and humidity rising, many of us just wanted to veg out at home. Besides, let’s be practical. Partying requires energy, which we barely have. So I’m rationalising that we need to recuperate first, then we’ll be able to fully honour the true meaning of the word, and not make it a half-assed attempt. Agreed?

Now excuse me while I go prop my feet up.

To me, it’s not a matter of supposedly homosexual dude vs church boy. The gay supporters vs the church-goers. It’s a matter of which genre of music is more popular with the voters right now. I’m not even talking about which genre is more popular in the current music scene. I’m talking about what’s popular with the VOTERS. I don’t know who exactly votes (reportedly the tween crowd?), but these people are obviously more passionate about voting.

After last week’s reveal of the final two, I was actually kinda certain that Adam Lambert wouldn’t win. With the final three determined as such, I figured it was gonna be a case of Lambert vs Gokey & Allen. And with the latter two having a similar style, it was clear that when Danny Gokey was out of the competition, Gokey fans would naturally shift their attention to Kris Allen. Had Gokey been in the final, he would’ve won over the Kris fans. Therefore, I believe that Adam would only have won if Allison had been in the final three, not because Allison is less talented, but for the fact that Adam is the more dynamic entertainer.

Regardless, as a Kris fan, I guess I’m happy that he won the competition? I still think it damages an artist’s “street cred” – doesn’t help that his first single is lyrically hideous and they even give out a ridiculously redundant trophy now! – although it’s a great platform to be heard. Also, I don’t think he’s gonna be a household name, but he’ll definitely have a strong enough fanbase which would keep his career going.

So congratulations, Kris Allen.

Tina Fey is a genius. And people in her industry know it. Which is probably why she can fit so many celebrities in an episode and make it work.

Click here for the lyrics to the song.

(Disclaimer: This is an entirely fan-girl post. So please refrain from squirming or rolling your eyes, cos I already warned you.)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been religiously watching American Idol and getting myself charmed by a little fella who really didn’t strike me as a star initially, mostly because he didn’t share the same screen time in the lead up to the Top 12, nor the swagger and charisma as this other guy who has been screeching his way to the top. But week after week, he continues to impress me with his musical artistry (as one of the judges love to put it) and show the world that he’s not just a singer, but a real musician at heart. And that’s exactly what I like about Kris Allen.

At first, I wasn’t too keen on this season’s Idol cos no one really stood out. Matt Giraud came close cos I was blown away by his performance in the Hollywood round but the others who were constantly featured were off my radar as their voices didn’t quite sit well with me. Then the Top 36 came along and when I heard that some dude wanted to sing Man In The Mirror (a song I can put on repeat for hours), I had to sit up and take notice. And whaddya know, it was not bad.

So I started looking forward to Matt & Kris, with the former disappointing me more each week, and the latter rising up the ranks. Then Kris performed 2 songs that completely did it for me. His interpretation of Ain’t No Sunshine was pretty damn spectacular and sealed his position as the dark horse of the competition. And because he still needed to win me over (heheh), two weeks later, he performed a very heartfelt rendition of one of the most beautiful songs ever written – Falling Slowly. I first fell in love with this song when I saw the movie Once, and for weeks, I couldn’t get the song out of my head. I played it every day; I had it on repeat, so when Kris didn’t ruin it for me and somehow made me love the song even more, it said a whole lot.

Now in the Top 3, Kris reinforced his artistry (there’s that word again!) with this bold but amazing take on Kanye West’s Heartless (no kidding) which got everyone talking.

At this stage, I don’t care if he doesn’t win, cos I know he’s gonna get a decent record deal and people are gonna buy his albums. In fact, like last season with David Cook, I’d actually prefer if he didn’t win, cos I think the label of “American Idol winner” doesn’t give any one a whole lotta brownie points in the “street cred” department… But that’s just me.

This morning, I woke up, stared at the heap of scripts before me and wondered why I got myself into teaching.

Growing up, I only ever wanted to become a journalist. Since I was 14, I already knew I wanted a degree in Mass Communications so for the next 8 years, I kept my focus and worked extremely hard to achieve my goal. I was completely on track, until I realised that my fickle-minded self would not contend with a simple journalism major, and that I didn’t need to major in it to be a journalist. So I diversified. I settled on Public Relations and Media & Communication at uni and gave myself some business and marketing perspective.

Upon graduation, I wanted to gain some experience before diving into full-time journalism. I believed it was important to gain an in-depth knowledge about the various industries first before writing about it. I applied for several PR and Events Marketing positions and within a couple of months, I got my foot into the world of fashion & lifestyle.

It was a great platform for me as I had to constantly juggle several clients at a time, learning how to deal with the nuances of each industry. I won’t tell you what they are specifically, but know that some take pride in name-dropping, and appropriate responses include looking at them in awe. They love it.

Tired of all the schmoozing, I decided less than 6 months into the job, that I wasn’t cut out for this. I’d considered going back to my first love – journalism – but realised that it would be more or less the same thing, only this time, I’ll be on the other side of the fence. So I prayed, re-assessed my life and learnt that I’d only be satisfied if I were doing something more meaningful.

I didn’t get into teaching immediately. In fact, it took a couple of failed applications before I understood that I had to have a go at relief teaching first, before finalising my plans. What happened after that was clearly God’s answer to my prayer. I was given a six-month relief teaching stint that wasn’t like what most relief teachers had to do. I had to take over a teacher’s full workload and teach all her classes. I was thrown into the deep end of the ocean, but it was also a great learning experience for me. In fact, this stint quashed all doubts. I knew I was ready to teach. So with confidence, I submitted my application one last time.

Despite having many moments like what I experienced this morning, I have not once regretted my decision to become an educator. Yes, the workload is a total pain in the ass, I hardly have time to hang out with my friends, and the kids occasionally make me wonder why I even bother, but the fundamental idealisms pertaining to teaching has kept me going every single day. If I didn’t believe I can help these kids to find their purpose, I wouldn’t be able to haul my ass out of bed at 5:30 every morning, and still go into work feeling optimistic.