Sheares Hall : SHout

By Valerie Oon

It is a bleak Christmas this year. While the wet weather has been quenching our Christmas spirit, the looming recession is a rain on our buyer’s impulse. Each time my fingers close in on an object for sale, my heart reaches for it only to be thwarted by my mother’s voice in my head: “Now economy so bad…you know the value of money or not.” Of course, this has amounted to insane financial contributions to the F&B industry because when the going gets tough and the tough can’t shop, the tough goes eating.

And if like me, you’re ripe for an exit with Bachelor’s, you might also be asking yourself the million dollar question, in the manner of Shirlyn Tan’s robust rendition, should I stay or should I gooo? Is honours a value-add or really just a perfect alibi to escape the stodgy life of an underpaid working adult with unfamiliar responsibilities?

Because in times like these, graduation is so much more than just that scroll of paper, square hat and the launch of an exciting career. Graduation in this climate could entail unnecessary nerves, shelved graduation trips, loads of discouraging interviews and might possibly culminate in a disappointing job. I paint a grim picture but this is really no time for quixotic career choices.

With Singapore being the first country in the region to fall into this slump, we might even have to review the virtues of our degree, honours or no. Is pumping another 6K* worth of financial resource into this so-called ‘first class education’ going to see any returns other than that yearlong reprieve from the struggle for employment? We might be better off investing in stocks that are hitting rock bottom prices.  Read more...

written by Ying Hong,

Ever felt cooped up by the perpetual nearness of walls and concrete around you? When you enter lecture theatres and classrooms, angular walls and fixed rows of chairs greet you. When you get back to hall, narrow corridors and adjoining room-walls loom and constrict your movements.

Well, face the hard fact. This is Singapore— the tiny dot on the world map that occupies the spatial extent of a mere 682.7 square kilometres. There is no extra space for us to have the luxury of retaining lush vegetated forests or vast strips of meadows. Neither do we possess breathtaking landscapes of waterfalls nor snow-capped mountains that residents of other places enjoy. Instead, wherever we go, the same monotonous ‘scenery’ of tall buildings and man-made construction greet us.  Read more...

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By Sesame Bean

The next time you are commuting, open your eyes and observe. People do the weirdest (and distasteful) things subconsciously. You’ll probably find these actions familiar because you’re a culprit too! J It’s pretty interesting how many people are doing it but no one actually talks about it.

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By Guest Writer pSHyco phantom

Examinations, examinations. It’s an interesting fact that this is always the period in which the needle of the scandal-meter across all five blocks suddenly starts jumping. After many generations of mad-scientist research testing and field observations on unsuspecting Shearites, the pSHyco phantom has decided to share this wonderful theory with the greater Sheares Community.

It’s been observed that when the Shearite mind is in a state of examination fluster, suddenly, the world around him or her takes on a different shine. You’ve only been idly eyeing that semi-hottie from the next block all semester, and then ALL OF A SUDDEN, it becomes a Question of Ultimate Truth (portentous background music) that you’re agonising over whether she is THE ONE for you. Or not.

And suddenly, everything’s moving oh so quickly. First you’re just sometimes getting Sheares breakfast for her, then you’re buying her ’study treats’ on the sly, and THEN you’re studying together, and THEN you’re having HTH (heart-to-heart) talks, and THEN oh-em-gee-zeg many crazy wild blurs later, one thing leads to another and it’s a ‘Do you?’ ‘I do.’ situation.

Ladies, this applies to you as well.

There is a particular human defense mechanism that kicks in whenever a Shearite comes under extreme duress. This insidiously subconscious mechanism displaces the initial stressor (in this case examination-related stress from being behind in mugging) onto another subject (in this case, the coughcough-ahemahem).

A simplified version of pSHyco phantom’s theory, is that this arises because Shearites that are stressed out over their examinations have a lack of control over their examinations situation. Hence, they turn their attention towards other, more interesting problems that they have a greater sort of control over. Yes, this is somewhat similar to the beer-goggles effect seen in many clubs, except much more subliminal. Hence dangerous.  Read more...