Fruitful Year of 2006

Its only 1 more day to the end of 2006, time to consolidate and evaluate this year's major landmarks:

1. Finally graduated from NTU with a 2nd Upper. All my dedication and hard work has paid off.
2. Made my graduation trip to Phuket with the guys. Great fun and laughter. I wonder when will I get another chance to go for another all guys travelling trip
3. Made lots of fun frens in DSTA !! (it doesn't matter if my blog gets picked up by the HR again)
4. Finally brought dear to Taiwan for vacation. Plenty of fun and great memories. Made a couple of frens over there too. Probably will be going back for another vacation within the next couple of years.
5. Got into my dream company, and in a very sought-after position!
6. After 3 years of fruitless toil, I have finally managed to break the 5 hours mark for the Standard Chartered Marathon this year (and by a big margin). My training has paid off! Another bonus is that I managed to avoid post run injuries this year. Recovered really quickly this time. I'm feeling good enough for another marathon next year!

Overall, 2006 has been a pretty good harvest year for me, seeing the rewards for all my efforts coming in from various fields. I'm really satisfied.

2007 will be a challenging year for me, I hope it will be as good/ or even better than 2006 !!

Its Christmas again...

Thanks to everyone for being so sporting and making the effort to come for the mini BBQ get-together. Hope you guys had fun. Maybe we can make Bek organise this next year. Hahaha.

Dang...Forgot to take pics....

Wishing..

JS, success in your money making project and finding ur love quickly.
Bek, to get ur dream job and may XL get obedient students in the coming yr, and both of u to quickly tie the knot!
YQ, to settle the germany issue and Lilian all da best in ya job. Finally got to see Lilian in a proper setting after so many years! YQ should bring Lilian to join our gatherings/outings/dinners more often! (of course its after u come back)
Derek, all the best in your job and may promotions and pay raise come your way quickly. (remember to send me your blog..)

May everyone have a Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year !!

1st week of work

Completed my 1st complete week of work at Agilent!

Started work on 1 Dec, which was a Friday, and it happened to be the FY07 Kick Off for Agilent, so effectively the day was cut by half, and almost the whole company spent the entire afternoon at DXO (cool huh, to book the whole DXO for company event).

The first thing that I learnt from Agilent on my 1st Day of work is:

BlackJack & Dice....

"Gambling stalls" were set up in DXO and we were given 10 chips each and told to 'Grow' the chips. It was the 1st time that I saw the banker getting bankrupted by the players. Hahaha.
Nice preparation for the upcoming IR huh...

===

Got started off to proper learning and training in office for the entire week. Plenty of stuff to learn and I must pick up as quickly as possible. I had previously thought that I had grown tired of EEE stuff after finally graduating from NTU, but somehow, the product learning had forced me to recall all those EEE stuff that I had learnt over all these years, and I'm actually enjoying it ! It still does feel good to know that the stuff that I had spent so much time learning is useful afterall.

Got plenty of revising of my old lecture notes and reading of new materials to do!!
Must conquer my 1st field battle next week!

===

Just wanna say a "Thank You" to all my frens/ex-colleagues, Hock, JZ, Liping, SY, YZ, Junyuan, Zhong Qiang, Wei Siang and Shaun, from DSTA for organising the farewell lunch at IKEA last Thursday.

Hopefully some of you might be reading this, (Thanks to the unexpected free publicity from the HR) and do remember to ask me along for any fun activities that you guys might be organising in the future! Dun forget me hor! I miss you guys... I tink I miss the free table soccer sessions a bit more, hahaha...*kiam pah*

Nice Touching Video

This is a very nicely done up video which really touched my heart.

Gives me plenty to think about too. Hope it is just as inspiring to every single person who have watched it.

禽為夢想而飛翔﹐人因夢想而偉大。。。

MAJOR MILESTONE

I have tendered my resignation letter to DSTA today.
Will be leaving to join Agilent on 1 Dec.

Ever since I have learnt about the term “financial freedom”, I have always dreamt of setting up my own business and working towards my early retirement. The most basic step that I took at that time was to get a Business Minor.

I took up an Engineer job at DSTA after graduation. Not something that can really give me the proper training towards my holy graill, but it was a pretty nice place to be at. Great colleagues and plenty of fun.

Then by chance, a job agency picked up my old resume from those online job sites, and matched me to a sales engineer job. I wasn’t too keen on this when they first called me, but I still went along to the interview to see what they have in store for me, and to check out my market rate too.

I was surprised that it turned out to be Agilent. So I just continued from that point and within a short period of a week, I was selected to join them.

It was a tough choice to make. On one hand, I have a big group of fun colleagues of the same age group at DSTA. On the other hand, it’s a rare opportunity to join Agilent as they rarely recruit fresh grads in this position.

In the end I decided to take the plunge and chose to cross over to Agilent.

I feel that I need to push myself out of my comfort zone, to go and learn how to do sales, something which I dun really like, sometimes even to the extend of hate. In this way, I’ll be forcing myself to either grow stronger, or just drop dead in face of adversity.

I’ll be losing a bit of money on the compensation and bonus initially, but I guess it will be worth the gamble to start building on my future and work towards my goal right now. Afterall, making sales is the primary skill to have if I were to have my own business. So there’s no escaping from learning sales skills.

There are many similarities and parallels that I can draw from my current scenario to the time when I was going to leave Ammo Base for OCS. I felt that it was a wise decision to go for OCS then, and I pray that this time, it will be even more rewarding.

To all my friends, if you haven done so,
make a blueprint of your future and start working towards your goal now.

Almost been 2 full months since my last entry.

A lot of things have happened recently. Though I should say most are good stuff.

Finally realised the goal of bringing dear to Taiwan for a trip. It was really fruitful and fun. Although it was my 3rd time visiting Taiwan, it is very different from my last 2 trips. We were a lot more adventurous and really took it on our own to travel and visit the places we wanted to go. It also feels different to celebrate my birthday outside SG for the first time in my life, with the person that I love most. I'm really glad that both dear and I had put in a lot into this trip and thoroughly enjoyed it.

There are some impt stuff that is happening at the moment. Will talk about it when the time is ripe...

Nice Jaguar Pic !! 

Cosy dinner with my closest frens

Duly completed my goal of getting Gold for IPPT every year, received and burnt the $400 at an amazing speed, but I can't really recall what did i spend it on.

===

Met up with JS, YQ and Bek on thursday for a small gathering b4 YQ leaves for his Masters program in Europe (envy!)... It has been such a long time since I last thoroughly enjoyed a small cosy dinner with my closest frens.

We could talk about every thing and anything under the sun, all clicking at the same frequency.

We could make fun of each other and really enjoy it, without having to worry whether the receiving party would be offended or not.

Although we had been busy with our own lives for most of this part of our lives, the fact that we could talk freely when we meet up really transcends all those time that we had spent apart. It actually feels like we have been together all the time and have never left each other at all.

They are my closest and bestest frens! (where is that god-damned CS ???)

Can't really bear to see YQ leave us for the next 2 yrs, but i can confidently say that our frenship will not fade away with time. And YQ would definitely be back if Bek suddenly decides to get married within this 2 yrs.. hahahaha

===

Went to the Zoo with dear on saturday and really enjoyed ourselves there. The otters were really cute!! Caught them playing and enjoying themselves in the rain, doing backflips in the pond (its real!! too bad I had a flat batt..)

Will post the some pics up when i have the time...

long time no update again!

before i know it, i've already been working for a month already.
My first paycheck is already almost all gone due to those one-off events associated with the first paycheck...

Gotta start saving up already. There's no more excuses for me to be cash poor anymore.
Must start planning for the future. I'm no longer entitled to dream my way through the days anymore..
Got my own plans, but i won't share them here.

The world is really small.
My fren from OCS is the FYP mate for my best buddy,
My colleague knows both of them
And yesterday Dear just told me that her colleague is my Rugby mate's wife

Talking about rugby. Was talking to dear yesterday, and she came up with an idea that got me all excited
We recollected about the times when my Titans mates were so crazy about playing rugby,
and now that most of us have graduated and are working now, probably all of us dun get the chance to play rugby anymore
Maybe I could get all those rugby-crazy guys to go back to NTU for a friendly session with the incumbent hall rugby team during the IH period
Old Hands vs New Birds
just like those testmonial football matches, how fun would that be...
I believe most of my guys would love to play, but not sure whether they can afford the time or not.
Miss all those fun I had together with them.
Bryan, Big One, Ivan, Yifan, Bong, Quan Bin, Fook San, Kok Jun, Kelvin...
(i tink with the exception of FS & Kelvin, all would be super unfit and fat now...)

Really hope that this plan can be realised.
Maybe i should start psycho-ing some of the peeps now
hahahaha

Bored...

Went for a job interview and decided to take up the job offer. (i'm not posting any extra info on the job...ask me personally if u want... its no longer safe to say anything online anymore, more companies are monitoring their employees' blogs, just look at A*****)

The world cup has finally ended. Not really a memorable one nor entertaining world cup for me. Brazil went out too early, and they deserved it as well. The final was a tad boring for me as well. (I dun really fancy Italy nor France)
Think i'm better off watching Champs league. Waiting for the new season to start...

Had been playing JYonline for over a month with BC and MK, until last week when we got stuck in the game and cannot continue playing anymore then we gave up the game altogether. It may be good thing afterall cos I feel I have been spending too much time on it and have been wanting to stop playing and concentrate on job searching. Now my wish is granted. Hahaha. Good thing that the 3 of us can quit at the same time.

I have got 2 more weeks before I start work. Gotta train myself up in this window and try to clear my IPPT before I start work. Starting to get fat again at the tummy...

Stress at home

It seems like there is always something for mums to nag at their children, irregardless of which stage of their life they are at. I'm not spared from this agony as well.

Mum has been constantly hounding me to get a job quickly these few weeks. (the signs were already there when I haven even started my exams) Especially when she sees me playing JY online at home. (it makes the my idler image more complete in her mind when she sees that)

She would always try hints or blantant taunts to make me get a job.
From telling me so and so's son/daughter has got a job at so & so company, drawing $xxxx per month, or telling me eh now police salary for graduates are at 2900, to saying I hope that you quickly run out of money so that you will go and find job to do (when i'm now low on cash and not working... I din ask n will not ask for money from her) and the worst is when i try to explain to her that i'll be losing out if I get $2400 per month, she would say that XXX getting $2400 per month is BETTER than you not having a job now.

Dear has told me that mums' would never understand that graduates finding a job is not like O level people looking for jobs. I really understand what she went through in the 4 months when she did not have a perm job. They probably think that us looking for jobs are just as simple as a walk-in interview to macdonalds.

Mum is a workaholic and cannot stand seeing people at home doing nothing. Thats why she wants me to quickly get a job and start working, irregardless of the future prospects. She dunno what is the difference between a JOB and CAREER.

I just hope mum can a lil' bit more understanding, and not expect immediate results in job searching. Its not up to me whether the companies wanna call me or not. I can try to make it happen but the decision is ultimately not with me. I am also very stressed in finding my job too. I know what to do, just dun keep nagging at me.

The elevator will not move any faster irregardless of how many times you press the buttons.
My job search will not be any more progressive irregardless of how much stress u give me.

Its a common Asian illness that parents dun really like to compliment their children in the face. All I hear is always about all the wrongs i did (or more like what she deem is wrong), and never about the things that I have done to make her proud. I know that she is proud of me in some stuff, but wats the point when she is telling the whole world that she is proud me, but not to me?

Reminds me of the 'I not stupid 2' movie, where the parents would always give encouragements when their kids just infants, and the encouragements slowly turned into castigations as their kids grow older.

I know mum is concerned about me. I just need some breathing space, after carrying so much pressure to meet high expectations since primary 1.

Lets just hope that I get a good job quickly, if not i might get desperate and go for PhD in NTU which will be a super huge mistake...

Side show: Received a call this afternoon from an unknown number when I was in the car. I was getting a bit happy cos i tot it would be a call for an interview, but in the end it turned out to be dear calling me from her office line. hahaha. me cockster

From the pits to heavens

This 2 days had really been a quite a roller-coaster ride to me.

Brought Dear and Ah di to the beach for a walk on Sunday noon. Ah Di loved the beach, but hated the water, and never really had any experience swimming before. So this time, I forced him to swim by carrying him into the water then releasing him to let him swim a short distance back to the shore.

He din like his first swim, and ignored me after he hit the shore. After a few more tries, he gradually grew to like swimming a bit, and started to smile after the swims. Will upload the video later when I have the time.

Realised that I lost my wallet at the beach after me and dear went over to Mac, and after going back to search the spot where we walked the dog, we concluded that my wallet was officially lost and we went to make a police report. I was really upset cos a lot of my important identification stuff were in the wallet, not to mention the hundred odd dollars in it.

After that, we sent Ah Di back home and went back to search again, but to no avail. After giving up and returning home again, we received a call from mum saying that a Caucasian came to my place to return me the wallet with everything intact. The Caucasian told mum that he was initially waiting for someone to search for the wallet at the beach, but after sometime he decided to return the wallet to my home.

I was really relieved when I heard the news.

Through mum’s description, I realised that we had saw the Caucasian with his kids earlier on the beach. It was really amazing that the Caucasian took the trouble to take a cab to my home to return me the wallet, instead of keeping it for himself/ throwing it away/ handing it over to the police. I’m really thankful for his honesty and helpfulness. It saved me a lot of hassle in replacing everything.

It is even more amazing after I realised that my wallet was soaked in seawater, meaning that my benefactor had actually fished it out from the sea.

He did not leave a name nor number which I can identify and thank him for what he did. The only thing I can do for him is to wish him all the best in whatever he does, and may his children grow up strong and healthy. He is a really good model dad to his kids.

I really can’t believe my luck in recovering my wallet.

The emotional turbulence I experienced was pretty overwhelming.


TODAY

Was playing JinYong Online with mika this afternoon when I wanted to log off and check my results in case it came out, then mika msged me in the game that the results were out.

I was quite nervous as mum hovered around me wanting to see my results too.

I checked through my degree audit first and it would not show all my results at one go as I have to scroll down to see my grades. I was very disappointed to see a B+ for my FYP. Partly because me and my partner had worked very hard, and a B+ means that my chances of a 2nd upper honours is close to nil.

I was getting more n more upset. Then I switched over to the proper exam results paper to see the final judgement for a 2nd lower honours. To my surprise, I actually got a 2nd upper.

Super happy sia!
Worked so hard for 4 years, and it finally paid off!!!

From yesterday’s lost wallet, to today’s results, my mood has really went from the pit bottom to the heavens! SHIOK!!!

My reason to be ecstatic !!! 

My first ever bungy jump!

Per and me going surfing. Shiok! 

Waterfront lodging at Phi Phi island. Nice.. 

Picture of Phi Phi Island captured from the boat. Notice that there are beaches on both sides 

Per, Mika, BC, me and Tian Yee at Viewpoint 

Better view of Phi Phi island beach. The water is so clear! SG sea sucks big time 

Taken on the beach of Phi Phi Island 

Great Fun in Phuket !!!

Went to Phuket with BC, Per, Mika and Tian Yee over last weekend. It was sort of like a graduation trip for me, since I dun have the money or company to go anywhere further. Anyway, this trip was fruitful, fun and farnie.

It was nightfall when we touched down at Phuket, so we went straight to the hotel. After checking in and received our room keys, we proceeded to take the lift to our rooms.
Farnie incident no. one: BC dropped his room key into the gap at the lift door…. (everyone got the WTF look on their face then, damned farnie).


(Official) Day 1
Hotel breakfast sucks. Went for a free city tour provided by the travel agent. Visited the local range, and had a go at the 0.22 rifle with scope. 10 shots at 650 Baht. Initially I thought the staff would teach us some technical handling stuff, but no, they simply took over everything, and all we had to do is just aim n pull the trigger. Din even get to cock the rifle. Sianz.

Went to the Wat Chalong Temple after that, nothing much to do there, just pray pray a bit.

Was supposed to go for elephant trekking, but most of the guys were against it, and i wasn’t too keen cos it was drizzling then, thus we moved on to the next destination.

BUNGY JUMPING !!
It wasn’t a damned beautiful place nor the shop was elaborately done up. Just a simple hut in the rurals and a crane to send us up to 50m to jump. BC couldn’t take the jump cos the body harness wasn’t available, so the rest of us just took the challenge.

To me, the most scary part of the jump wasn’t the moment I stood out on the launch pad, nor the moment I dived down, but it was the slow ascent to 50m. Had the “regret” feeling crawling in then.

But once I stood out on the launch pad and looked around and down, I din really feel any fear. The most exhilarating moment was when I just leapt off the launch pad into the head –down-first free fall. The feeling was out of this world. Damned shiok. (post the pics later when i get it)

After that, we went for a badly needed massage session. Bungy jumping wasn’t as easy as it seemed, and it was actually quite taxing on the respiratory system and muscles.

This is the first time I had a massage done by a real masseur. Had 1 hour of Thai massage followed by 1 hour of Oil massage. I always had the impression that Thai massage is very painful, but it seems like nothing much to me and Tian Yee. We actually thought that the masseur wasn’t using enough strength. BC, mika and Per actually felt that the Thai massage was painful. Maybe physically fitter people would find Thai massage easy on their muscles than most people. Tian yee and me thought the oil massage wasn’t really that good. Maybe we two should had went for a 2hr Thai massage instead.

We wanted to see the famed “Tiger Show” at night, but we took the recommendations of the tour guide and went to see the “Sexy and Erotic Top Model Show” instead. I actually found the show quite boring, just some “women” baring it all and moving around (I’m not sure if they are all real woman or not). It’s a real waste of money to me (800 Baht). It is just to make sure that we had a complete Thailand travel trip. I dun recommend those going to Thailand to go for tiger shows if they can help it.


Day 2
Went to the famous Phi Phi (pronounced as pee pee) island. It was a must go place for people visiting Phuket. Went snorkelling with the guys. Think it was a first for all the guys except me. I din have too much fun there. But its good for BC since he went down into the water with us.

Had some sun tanning on the beach on Phi Phi island after lunch. It was so damned hot and sunny, just the perfect setting for a perfect beach day. The only downside was that coconut wasn’t available from the shops by the beach.

After a short tanning period of about 1.5 hours, we went back to the boat for a ride back to Phuket.

Farnie incident 2: BC threw his towel to Per when we were on the boat, but Per missed it and the towel dropped into the seawater. (Towels were borrowed from our hotel, and has to be returned) Being a true singaporean in not wanting to pay penalty fines, I jumped into the water to ‘save’ the towel. Damned pai sei sia, the whole boat was watching me.

Night: I wanted to go diving on day 3, but it was a bit late when we went out to shop after dinner, so I thought of giving up the hope of diving, until we came across a booth offering day dive trips. Placed a 1000Baht deposit for 2 dives on day 3.

Day 3
The bus was supposed to pick me at 0730 for the dive trip, but after a few calls to the agent (cost me 120Baht to make 3 calls, WTF), it was established that the dive operator forgot to pick me and I had to go back to the booth to take my deposit back. So I ended up joining the rest of the guys for some beach action at the Patong Beach for the day.

Went surfing at the beach. We din use the American-styled surf boards where we had to stand on the board, instead, only those types that u used like a swimming aid was available. Anyway, it was pretty fun to surf at the beach, being washed quickly to the shore by the incoming waves.

After that, I went parasailing. Cost me 700 Baht for less than 5 minutes in the air. Pretty nice experience though. It was the closest I can get to skydiving for the moment. The view up there was great, but I couldn’t bring a camera up with me. just too bad.

Mika and I had rented a bike for the day. I just wanted to experience the kick of riding after so many years of layoff, as well as the kick of riding without helmet. Hahaha. Coaxed Tian yee to join in and get a feel of riding. (only mika, per and me have lic to ride)

Farnie incident 3: Tian yee was trying out the bike in the carpark outside our hotel, and almost lost control of the bike as he sped towards a shop. The lady in the shop was screaming and looked terrified when tian yee ‘flew’ towards her shop with a very loud throttle sound. (mika, per and me: super ROFL)


I really enjoyed myself on this trip with the guys. It was great fun and laughter all the way. If only we had more money and time at Phuket, then I could have went for diving, as well as white water rafting.

Well, till next time!!

Dedicated to my friend, Kowi

I had always liked this song, but I had never really bothered to figure out what the lyrics were talking about, until the day you are gone. May you fly with god speed to the your new home. Our platoon spirit will live on strong in our hearts, and you will always be in our memories.

I'm terribly sorry that I cannot see you off tomorrow. Hope you will understand my difficulties.

To everyone reading this, cherish your friends. Dun wait until they are gone then start to regret.

This is for you, Kowi.

Friends Are Friends Forever

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
I can't believe the hopes He's granted
Means a chapter of your life is through

But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

And with the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you live in
Is the strength that now you show

We'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say never
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

To live as friends

Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

No a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

So many things happened and so many things to do... Damned irritated

The Passing Away of a Great Friend

Attended the funeral wake of my platoon mate from OCS last night. A great guy with a bright future just gone like that.

His abundant energy and Ronaldinho-esque smile is always so infectious and have left a deep impression in everyone and anyone who knows him. He is one unique and special person that you would remember for the rest of your life even though you might have only know him for a day. His jovial ways and friendly demeanour will always perk everyone up when everyone is tired and the mood is heavy. I still can remember him singing his favourite song under the SAFTI tower...

He will be loved and remembered by every single life he has touched. May he Rest In Peace…

Motivation

Seeing the guys in hall playing dota almost every night makes me wonder:
"I dun understand why can they play every night when I myself can't even find enough time to study already?"

Tee Loong gave me the most simple answer:
"Because you are 2nd upper but they just want a pass."


While this may sound obvious to most, it gave me the motivation to strive on. Sometimes too many things happen around you and you lose your original directions. In midst of the confusion, sometimes someone just unintentionally gives you a nudge, and you can get going again on your journey.

Sometimes I just get too caught up in studies and forget what I want in the end, and then lose the motivation to go on. Now I remember what I want and will give my best in this final hurdle in NTU.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Top Level = Self-Actualization)
I know I still have the chance of making it to 2nd upper. I will put in my best effort to make it happen. (I dunno what's the possibility, but heck, if I dun get it because of sloth on my part, I'll never be able to forgive myself)


Short Analogy:
In spring time, the bee is working hard to collect and store food for the next winter, yet he sees so many grasshoppers playing in the warmth of the lovely season. The playing grasshoppers made the bee ponder: why should i be working so hard? Everyone is playing.

The playing grasshoppers almost made the bee forget his task of preparing for the winter, and the bee was lost. Until one of the grasshoppers accidentally knocked into him and told him: " Wow, your bee colony will have no problems surviving the winter with that amount of food u collected".

The bee now remembers his original mission, and continues working away, just to be sure that his colony will be prepared when winter comes.


(author disclaimer: this is not a accurate reflection of what really happens in the insect world)

Exams r coming in 20 days time...

Just came up with another crappy analogy last night when i was talking to derek.

To prepare 7 modules for exams in 21 days is just like trying to find an empty cubicle when u r running a diarrhoea. Urgent and painful but still have to endure...

Hmmm.... After the year long constipation, now comes the 21 days diarrhoea. Hahaha

Since the constipation temporarily on hold till after exams. i'll be stowing away my laptop for the exams to remove all unnecessary time-consuming activities which i might be doing when i see the laptop on my desk. Actually this has been the SOP for my exams all these while, scares the shit out of some of my frens when i do that. Hahaha. Good warning for them that diarrhoea is around...

No more updates till after exams! (or when i have some interesting snippets that i desperately want to share. U dun purposely hold back your shit when u r on the toilet bowl already dun u?)

Oh my, think i really inherited the lame aura from KK... (maybe it had morphed into crap aura instead)

Ebi Tempura 

Cha Soba 

Had dinner with Dear at Hoshi Restaurant in IMM today. Look at all the yummy food!

Lotus Exigue Cup 240. This car has great curves. Looks much better than my dream car, RX8 

Ferrari F430. The design looks better than Lambo, but i still prefer Lambo anytime! 

Lamborghini in NTU car fest. I think it looks better in other colours... Anyway, its still a great car! 

I’m disgusted…

Went to Angela Chang’s campus concert last night. And as usual, the number of international students outnumber the locals by about 10 to 1. I guess most locals just can’t be bothered to queue for the free tickets, or maybe Angela wasn’t that popular in SG just yet. Well, I got mine thru a lucky draw, if not I won’t be going for this concert too. No time to go Q for 2 hours just to get 2 tickets!

Q & A sessions are very common items during campus concerts. From my experience in going to such campus concerts, 4 out of 5 persons who volunteer to go up to participate in such contests are usually international students.

There was this incident during the concert which I was particularly disgusted about. During the Q & A session in the middle of the concert, a guy international student was selected to go up and answer a question. When he got up to the stage, he just simply grabbed the mike away from the emcee (Peifen from 933) without asking or even looking at her, treating her like as if she’s transparent.

Peifen gave a shocked expression when that guy did that, and shrugged at the audience at the near corner.

After a reminder from a close fren of mine, this post was edited to keep in line with the SG style of self-censoring. I dun wanna get locked away for having an OPINION.

I'm so lucky

I feel I'm quite lucky to be the youngest in such a warm family.

Just received 2 huge gifts from my bro n sis, which are exactly what i needed to make studying a much easier thing for me.

I had been contemplating about buying a motorbike to get around in school, cos i always study till quite late in school, and having a bike will make travelling easier for me since i always bring a lot of studying material around. Meals will be easier to settle too, since the only eating place after 8 is the coffeeshop across the PIE. The only thing that is holding me back from getting my bike is that mum has violent objections...

Well, the problem is sorta solved now. Bro has just bought a new car, but his old car has not reached the break-even date (sept 06), so he doesn't want to sell it off yet (to avoid having to pay extra $$ for the loan). So he let me have his old car till sept, while he drives his new car. Now i can go over to the BK opposite SAFTI to study whenever I want. Good food + Conducive studying place!

Studying with good music is always a good boost. I wanted to get a cheap mp3 player so that I can arrange my own music to keep my adrenaline high while studying, but the prices keep putting me off. (i'm quite a stingy guy when it comes to spending on myself). It would also be useful as a thumbdrive while doing my FYP. (I'm using CDRW to transfer big files...) All these while I had been using the FM radio receiver instead. I even fixed the battery compartment back when it broke.

Sis just won a mp3 player in her company's lucky draw, and since she already has one from creative, she gave me the one she won. Now i dun have to ponder whether to get my own mp3 player or not! Yeah!!

A lot of people used to say that being the youngest in the family is a good thing, since everyone will dote on u. I used to think that it is crap, cos i all i got when i was small was bullying. Now i understand that there are some truth in that saying.

=========================================

Brougth mum to the famous Guanyin temple at bugis to pray pray yesterday morning. It has been so long since I last went out with mum alone. It was "Guanyin Dan" yesterday, so the temple was really crowded. (dun ask me what is "Guanyin Dan", i only suppose its her bday or sth like dat)

After praying in the temple, we went over to the old and rundown hawker centre near the temple for breakfast. There's this stall that sells cheap food and the Q was damned long. After a long wait, mum bought 2 peanut porridge, yam cake and chee cheong fan, for a total of $3 only!
The peanut porridge was damned delicious! There wasn't anything fancy ingredients in the porridge, just normal plain peanut. It was the best i had ever tasted. Now i understand y that stall has such a long Q. Cheap n Good!!!

This year is a "bad year" for 'roosters', so mum wanted me to go for some rituals performed by some old aunties, to drive away the bad luck. Might as well do it since we were already in the area, so we went over to the building opposite to the temple for the rituals. Mum also had the ritual performed for herself, cos this year, the 4 unlucky zodiacs that offend the "Tai Sui" are: Dog, Cow, Goat and Dragon. ( Mum is a goat!)

Went back home after that, and I accompanied mum around the neighbourhood shops to hunt for new shoe racks to replace the old and small one that we have now. Couldn't find the one that mum wanted, so we ended up shopping for other daily stuff.

Watson's had a promotion, selling some good facial masks at $1.95 per pieve with each $10 purchase. So mum bought quite a few (for sis) on the back of my purchase of the facial wash that i badly needed. Mum is so nice to all of us. I love mum!!

Going out with mum yesterday felt like it was a holiday, cos i dun get to go out with mum often. Feels quite good.

Still, i feel so lucky that everyone dotes me in the family!! (dad not mentioned but he's always nice to me too!)

Are you stupid?

Propaganda in NTU

Money is never enough!

This is so true for NTU. In order to attract the top researchers and academic staff from all over the world, we need to pay them world-class renumeration. Thus, we not only need to increase the tuition fees every year, we also need to appeal to our dear Alumni and graduating students to donate money!

From the way the school treats us, I dun see why would any sane graduating student be willing to donate their hard-earned money to the school. I would rather give my money to my primary sch and sec sch. (no for JC, i hate my JC)

Why give the school money to buy luxurious chairs fit-for-the-emperor ($2200 a piece) for the staff and lecturers?

Propaganda in NTU 

Finally submitted my FYP report

Came up with an analogy for fook san to describe FYP at the blk supper just now.

Doing FYP is just like having a super ultra serious CONSTIPATION for the entire year. It’s a huge load off after submitting the report. Feels freaking good !!!

Now time to start studying!

After you die... Heaven After death, you will exist in heaven. Everything and everyone you love will constantly surround you for all of eternity. You lucky scoundrel.

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Disgrunted final year student...

Was forced to take a break of 2 weeks from FYP due to the CNY, and tons of FYP, Masters & PhD students waiting to use the 1001st milling machine in my lab.

I'm not sure if I'm mistaken or not but hey, NTU EEE school has got one of the largest student population in the campus, and there's only ONE freaking milling machine to cater to SO MANY people who need to fabricate their boards to save their lives?

Ok, for the record, there used to be 2 milling machines in my lab, but one of it was spoiled for 431 days (or maybe more than that) and I see no replacement for it at the end of the tunnel.

Is NTU really that poor to spend some money to buy just one replacement milling machine?

Recently, i have noticed that there are plenty of cute posters around the campus, trying to psycho people into believing that everyone should try to give (money) to their alma mater as alumini members.

The initial thought i had was:
How shameless can the school be? NTU had the money to blow on 300 Aeron Miller category chairs (worth roughly) $2200 each for the golden asses of the NBS staff, and now they are trying to milk the money from the alumini to fund excesses in the school? Well, everyone has their own definition of wat is excessive, and apparently i'm not on the same wavelength as the staff. Read the below url for more details.

http://app.mof.gov.sg/cutwaste/suggestionview.asp?id=27115

But after today then i realized, they REALLY NEED to get more money, cos poor EEE labs dun have the money to buy 1 more milling machine to feed the battalions of deprived FYP, Msc & PhD students.

For the record, we need more money to build more canteens in school, repair the NTUSU van that decided to take a stroll in our nice Yunnan Garden, more air-conditioned halls (well, they can recoup from the rental fees for this) and so on.

Oh ya, the school really badly needs a fresh coat of paint, which is ongoing now. (at least this is worthwhile)

(I heard from my fren that MAE has a lot of milling machines... )
_______________________________________________

Anyway, back to my FYP.
Finally got to use the milling machine today after waiting for so long, and I spent the entire day in the lab to ensure that the milling machine works properly throughout the miling process, cos we only had 1 board, so must make sure its correct.

Stayed in the lab from 0930 to 1830 just for this, and to me and my partner's horror, the measurements of final output of the differs from the one that we had originally designed.

So conclusion: Gotta fight fire tomorrow morning. so sianz to have wasted an entire day like that. I even skipped 2 tutorials for this. Damned.

It is CNY… again

In the past, I had never really enjoyed having a crowd over at my home on Chinese New Year. Had always felt it was troublesome and noisy. But my mindset has changed a bit this year.

Went to Dilong’s place on the second day. It was really crowded with his relatives, and our guys (though we all cramped into Dilong’s room and they gambled their time away).

Spent the 3rd day afternoon at Mrs Yeo’s place again. But I brought along dear to let my 2nd mum give her stamp of approval. It was quite a crowd over there too. With the usual suspects who turned up every year, plus the few gals who were also quite attached to “mum” too. Adrian and me were the only ones who brought along their significant others, with Hua Qiang promising to do the same the next year.

Then as usual, YQ, JS, Bek and XL moved over to my place for “Fo Tiao Qiang”. It felt better to have some frens over at home to liven up the place. Otherwise to have an empty home full of untouched new year goodies really feels quite bad.

Be Thankful that you have to clear up the mess after a party, for it means that you still have friends celebrating with you…

Guess I’m really getting old….

Jolted into action

It’s the 4th week of school already. We are at tutorial 3 today yet I barely even done one tutorial. Wasn’t getting nervous about it earlier until today, when I sat with the ‘wrong crowd’ in the tutorial, then I realise almost everyone around me had done their homework. Damned. I had been too lazy and slacked off. If I dun start to catch up now, i probably never will. So its back to my usual routine of staying back in school to catch up on my work till late at night before I return to hall.

Dun put off what you can do today till tomorrow.
Well, what I wanna yell at myself is, dun put off what you should have done YESTERDAY till NEXT WEEK!!!

It’s a nice wake up call. Albeit a terrifying one.

Officially Retired from TITANS

Played my last ever Rugby match last sunday in midst of the never-ending rain.
Won 10-0 against Hall 10, then lost 15-0 to Hall 1 in the quarter-finals.

It was my first and last ever game against the defending champions whom had been keeping a clean sheet for the last few seasons. Their superior technique and teamwork had won them the game but it was our gamesmanship that has really won us the day. We almost broke their clean sheet when we went beyond their tryline, only to be denied by a last minute tackle which prevented our guy from touching down the ball. It was fun playing against the Hall 1, at least we gave them a run for their money.

As for the game against Hall 10, it was déjà vu for me again. I would always have a near miss in scoring every single year, only by a distance of 5 metres, and it was the same against this year. This was the 3rd time this season that I had beaten 3 men and only to be denied by the 4th opponent coming in.
Well, my final statistics for rugby as I retire: 13 caps, 0 goals.
This is the only regret I have for playing rugby.