WhyOhGee

The verdict is out.

WhyOhGee.sg, the youth microsite of Singapore2010.sg is disappearing soon because the International Olympic Committee (aka our colonial masters) does not want to host the website. On seeking the help of other gahmen authorities, the outcome is still "No". Hence, the blood and sweat of editor Ms Amanda Zhang, who has seen the website from its birth, will face its impending doom and soon be nothing but an "Error404" in cyberspace.

Now, one of my friend had mentioned that I didn't have to work that hard during that YOG period. We didn't really have to produce 5 videos each day, as our videos are more fun and not as urgent as say, the real sporting action videos, the ones with matches, scores, well basically the videos that the Official Broadcast Station produces everyday. But you see, without pushing ourselves so hard, we probably wouldn't have gotten so many videos made. It's a whopping 70 plus videos made throughout 3 weeks, and each video has gotten a minimum of 500 views. Most of the videos average 1000 views, and for 70 videos to get 1000 views each, that's saying a lot.

Furthermore, our talent pool is made up of volunteers from polytechnics and a few from university. Most of them are 18, 19 years old, and we have about 40 plus from the video production team alone. Imagine the exposure that these 40 youths get from this project alone. Imagine having produced a 1000view youtube video at this age. Imagine meeting athletes, interacting with them and the coaches, and just having new experiences everyday. This is priceless.

Maybe I'm just a little idealistic, trying to justify the 5 videos-a-day concept (which we worked so hard till we were so bloody tired). No matter what, I look back with a real sense of pride and satisfaction. We could have done less. We could have made things easier on ourselves. But you know what? I'm so glad we didn't. It's a real once-in-a-lifetime thing. If you don't get that story on that particular day, it will never come around. Never. And for those young volunteers who survived to tell the tale, I think I learnt so much from them.

Then there's all the memories. The Miku Tashiro interview which was just so fun. The endless press conferences which I had to use the tripod to "chope" a good spot. The fireworks that was right in front of my face during the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. There are also, of course, the bad memories, but they have taught me a lot. Don't ever assume, and that you cannot trust others easily. Other than that, I've had a really good time.

And that's the whole team right there, up above on the last day. I reckoned most of them enjoyed themselves (so much so that one even showed up when he didn't have his duty on that day.)

It's just awesome to know that, I contributed to the first ever Youth Olympic Games.