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I have always been amused at how misleading the word ‘Minutes’ is. After all, good Minutes usually take hours to write, if not days.

It has been a hectic month. You can tell from the number of recent posts (i.e. very few) on this blog.

But today, something happened and it made all the effort worth it.

A few weeks after a ‘project’ was over, I received news that a letter of commendation had been sent, from one overseas Minister, to my Minister, and the names of a colleague and myself were in that letter. I was very touched by the description and choice of words used, and proud to have been able to make a positive impact.

Of course, given the effort we all put in, there are probably many others who received commendations like this as well, but this doesn’t distract away from the little moment of bliss that I had. I was happy to be there to help, and this little gesture of thanks has made me all the more so.

Self-application: Write notes of thanks to people, with specific mention of what they did for you that made them memorable. It doesn’t take up more than a little of your time, but it can make a lasting impact on the junior staff who receive it.

Ron, my boyfriend, booked tickets to watch the closing ceremony of the Youth Olympics.

He went to the counter and mentioned he wanted to collect the tickets he booked for the “Youth Olympics”.

The girl at the counter looked at him, initially in bafflement, then said, “YOG?”

Singaporeans have a habit of turning many things into acronyms. Perhaps we’re not too fond of using many words (“No stock!”) or phrasing our words the right way (like the infamous “If got then got, if don’t got then don’t got”).

But when people use an acronym to the extent that they forget the original meaning of the phrase, it makes you wonder. What makes us so fond of acronyms in the first place?

Convenience. Perhaps acronyms pack a certain ‘punch’ while the full term is a drag to pronounce. Acronyms may also give confidence to those who can’t pronounce long or foreign-sounding names, and are simply more convenient to refer to. Thus, Singaporean ladies like to say “LV” instead of Louis Vuitton.

Ubiquity. Wherever we go in Singapore, we are surrounded by acronyms. When we drive, we take the PIE, AYE and CTE but avoid the ERP. Our children take the PSLE, while young men aim to pass their IPPT and can’t wait for their ORD.

At work, we aim to meet our KPIs, but some ideas will be KIV. We use acronyms to refer to each others’ departments. To make things more complicated, those in technical fields will have their own sets of specialised terms, which would also be converted to acronyms. WYSIWYG, anyone? ;-)

So, in short, acronyms are here to stay. And, as the saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. But spare a thought for the newcomer at work, or the foreigner who’s just arrived in Singapore. Don’t be so focused on doing things ASAP ;-)

Finally, whatever you do, never forget what these acronyms actually stand for.

Two things may change in the near future:

1. How this blog is run. Despite my many years of patronage I am seriously contemplating leaving Movable Type for Wordpress. The biggest effort would be setting aside time to make the switch and clearing out the thousands of static pages published since this blog was born. I also hope to set aside time to customise the look and feel, although it’s been a while since I undertook a personal design project.
2. How I store my files. My Macbook Pro is out of space and I’ve asked my Facebook friends for advice on how best to manage my huge collection of multimedia files. The most compelling solution appears to be the Time Capsule, which will act as a file server.

Change may not happen immediately, but announcing it publicly will compel me to do something, hopefully soon :)

I’m rethinking how I want to live my life.

Who i give my time to.

What I will work for.

Perhaps this holiday will help clear my mind. In a way it is the first real holiday with the same people I befriended before we set out on our respective career paths. It is like coming to the crossroads again.

But will i take a new direction again?