Devache's Burrow

Slavedrivers beware!

2009-12-29T23:43:00.004+08:00

故天降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，饿其体肤，
空乏其身，行指乱其所为，所以动心忍性，曾益其所不能.

It's always important to manage others, even when they do not come under your purview.

Adaptation

2009-09-22T20:54:00.003+08:00

My fourth week into my first job, I am beginning to slowly get used to a new life.

I remember how I bravely declared just a few months ago that I would never bring work home even if it meant finishing at late everyday. Reality has its way of making one mince his own words. Working in policy office and dealing with a whole range of international issues means there is never really a dull moment and consequently a lull.

Having a laptop means work can find its way to you at odd hours. The long weekend was my first taste of working on a public holiday when my mates were out chilling. Finally I understood a colleague's lament that he cried when he got his lap top. Nonetheless I aint complaining about the quality and nature of the job. I am doing what I dreamt of.

Despite being distinctly short of the yardstick planted by my current colleagues, I hope to make the grade as soon as possible. Not to mention the almost hectic movement within the civil service I once wasn't a fan of, I find myself sent for leadership courses, psychological courses and a whole range of 'extra curricular' activities designed to bring out the best in a person.

I really should not be complaining because there is nothing to complain about. Perhaps I just need time to take in all that has happened to me in the past few months and convince myself I am worth salt people think me capable of. Time to prove myself wrong, for the umpteen time in my life.

Memories

2009-08-29T22:02:00.003+08:00

Since I am to begin work on Monday, I was clearing my personal cupboard when I stumbled upon the old cards and letters I used to exchange with friends.

I can be a sentimental person, and looking through the thick stack of Christmas, New Year and other miscellaneous cards for birthdays left me reminiscing of a time long gone.
Sentences like "Happy 14th Birthday", or "Have a wondrous year in 1999" invoked memories from the past. I even went to the extent of smsing an old secondary school classmate whom I hadn't contacted in ages to confirm his address! I guess it's not so easy to forget someone who helped me get into Anderson Junior College some nine years ago.

I recall myself being really active in my local church choir from 1997 to 2000. I was then singing in what is now known as Christus Laudatur Voce Choir (CLVS) at the Parish of Risen Christ. Together with my good buddies Victor, Dominic and Benjamin, we strolled into choir practice at a time when CLVS were recruiting. For all those who didn't know, I even sang solo once or twice in church for selected songs, which I would really put as one of the higher points of my singing career. But all good things come to an end and while CLVS was a fantastic place with wonderful people like Mark, Edwin, Gerard, Kelvin, Mona and Stephen just to name a few, one could not possibly continue singing when his faith is exhausted. This felt especially true for me in late 2000, and I quit, much to the disappointment of many.

Several years passed and eventually I did return to church, although I was no longer as pious and staunch a Catholic I was before. Bumping into these old choir mates gave both a tinge of joy and sadness. On one hand, I was happy to see them and catch up a little and the other, I knew I was never going to join them again. Weekly Saturday practices, together with intensive choral practice before major events such as the Shine Jesus Shine Rally, or the annual Christmas midnight mass medley would mean dedication beyond what I was prepared to give.
Of course I did it for a full three and a half years but by then I had grown to love my freedom on weekends, and turning back was simply something I never considered.

And then there was junior college, where I began a journey of self-discovery. I was eager to impress and quite frankly, I lost count of the number of times I overdid it just to make my point.
It never really struck me how obnoxious I was because I was proud of my bi-lingualism in a college where Chinese was more or less the main medium of exchange. Perhaps this is why I never bonded well with my own classmates, but ended up hanging out with the people from 07/01, which is now better known as 14US.
Even in my CCA, I was known to be overzealous and loud-mouthed when the situation called for calmness. I probably had a much easier time dealing with our CCA teacher in charge, because I knew when to talk to him and how. EQ - it turns out- was something I picked up quickly when dealing with him. Till today I would credit him for many of the traits you see in me. He brought out a side of me I never I possessed. I bonded better with some better than others in ODAC, maybe because this bunch of people I hung out with had the same work-values and attitude.

I poured so much into ODAC that I neglected my studies and the fool in me believed that I could turn things around within the last six months of Year Two, when I suffered a slipped disc and that put an end to my dreams of scoring for my A levels. Discipline and an almost crazy iron will, now that I look back at it, has its limitations. Afterall, it is no laughing matter continuing to revise and do your tutorials when your disc was pressing into your spinal colomn irritating nerves in your leg.

The slipped disc put an end to the possibility of me serving Singapore as a foot soldier. Instead God has other plans and placed me in a unit where I think I learnt a great deal and matured greatly. In a department with a supportive boss and equally helpful seniors, I was left independently to deal with the administrative work . I would like to think I did my best while serving my National Service, and it seems that was indeed the case for the day I left, one of my section heads came up to me and thanked me for doing a good job handling matters in my department. Looking back, I really was blessed to enter into a unit and department where work done by NSFs did not go unappreciated. How many NS bosses actually remember their subordinates birthday and even bought them cakes and gifts? Well mine did.

That's life, isn't it? Many a times we are thrusted into situations where we wish we picked a different path but life has other ideas and we move on. I wondered how my life would have turned out differently if I had more faith during the more troubling years of my adolescence. Perhaps it was a test, and whether I passed or failed is not up to me to decide, but for God to judge the day I move on.

Now that almost ten years have passed, I look back over my shoulder and reflect on events from the past. If there is anything I wish for the future, that would be to listen more and to talk less. Humility is something that I preach all too often but fail to practise.

I haven't written a post of such genre in sometime, and I hope I didn't bore you to death with what is almost half my life's story.

Moving on

2009-08-13T10:47:00.007+08:00

The next step of my life beckons: Work.

Life can truly be amazing, when one looks back at the things that happen to oneself.

Perhaps the most surprising was the job offer from the civil service.
I cannot remember for how long I have been critical of how scholars tend to have a blessed life in their ministries.
Well irony has its unique way of presenting itself.

Now that I have been posted to Mindef, I will doing something completely unrelated to my choice of study throughout the past four years: Try equating Defence Policy work to Aerospace Engineering.

The path ahead of me right now is very clear, those in the civil service would know exactly what I mean.

Time to start reading again.

Decision.

2009-06-10T11:43:00.002+08:00

There is no room for hesitancy here.

Whatever I have believed in for a long time, may have to be thrown out of the window.

I have no choice.

How apt.

2009-06-06T21:03:00.001+08:00

Amd bringing to you the latest updates from the Straits Times:

50 cent settles lawsuit

Wah, if only a real lawsuit only cost 50 cents.

Retro

2009-05-20T11:51:00.004+08:00

I was clearing up my cupboard yesterday morning and came across several items that reminded of a past long gone.

The Sega Gamegear: Imagine holding this and playing this on the MRT today. I bet you'll make all the people with the Nintendo DS Lite and Sony PSP drop their jaw in admiration.

The 5.25 floppy, what an amazing device, capable holding up to, 360kb = 0.36mb per disk.
Hahaha, what 1 TB hard drives now going for 150SGD, it can be hard to believe that each of these disk cost 4 to 5 SGD once.

What a reminder of how much time has passed.

Quote of the League

2009-04-30T13:53:00.001+08:00

"Arsenal's big advantage is that they can play Pat Rice at right-back and Arsene himself at centre-forward on Saturday" - Sir Alex Ferguson, Manager, Manchester United

Bank no bank?

2009-03-24T11:43:00.003+08:00

From the Straits Times, 24th March 2009:

"No 'quick fix' on the horizon" by Christopher Tan, ST Senior Correspondent

"AN OLD joke about former American president George W Bush goes like this:
During a golf game, an aide had rushed over to Mr Bush and reported: "Sir, we've just had our first Brazilian casualty in our war against terror."
To which, Mr Bush, looking suitably mortified, let out an "oh no!". Then, pulling the aide aside quickly, he whispered: "How many is a brazilian?"
It was only a joke of course (I hope), and it's funny because of Mr Bush's seeming predisposition for gaffes.
The current world economic situation on the other hand is real and is no laughing matter. But how many of us really know how many is a "trillion"? (It's a number with 12 zeroes behind it. In other words, 1,000 billion.)
This is the amount the US Congress has approved to rescue its ailing financial institutions (US$700 billion). Separately, governments the world over are dishing out billions upon billions in taxpayers' money to do likewise.
The question is: Why?
Why are we rescuing institutions most responsible for the mess that we are in? Why do these ailing institutions take up the lion's share of bailout packages - in the case of the US, close to three quarters?
Why should this be so, when they account for far fewer jobs than the manufacturing or agri sectors?
Does the world need more investment bankers, derivative traders, insurance agents or gamblers in disguise?
Going by the rescue plans and their chief beneficiaries, it would seem so.
This is going to turn out badly.
AIG's now infamous bonus saga is just the first sign that throwing good money after bad is not going to solve anything, much less teach the fumbling financial sector the follies of its ways.
Taxpayers' money would have been much better spent on the real world, where real people work in real jobs making real things.
Not spiffy dudes in Savoy Row suits and $100 haircuts making margin calls, packaging predatory loans to unsuspecting individuals, and devising devilish instruments that no one understands - as events have proven - not even themselves.
Think of the High Notes 5 and Minibond notes that relieved many a retiree of their life savings recently.
Then, think of the easy loans banks plied when the bulls were charging - given inane names like Easi Money or Eazi Cash. They were practically forcing cash on consumers. And at the first sign of trouble - round about third-quarter 2008 they ran for the hills.
Now, when businesses are in actual need of financing to stay in operation, the very same financiers become all reluctant, citing judicious policies when none existed before.
It is sad how this sector has been allowed to flourish, to the detriment of others.
The strastospheric remuneration of the financial sector has lured a whole generation of bright and promising young men and women into the dark side. These people could have been brilliant doctors, engineers, inventors, researchers, and last but not least, teachers.
Instead, they now sit behind multi-screen desks making money from nothing. And the world is no richer for that. Except for the suited minority, no one is.
Yet, we are bending over backwards to ensure they still have their Mercedes-Benzes, designer studios and yes, fat year-end bonuses.
The late Akio Morita, founder of Japan's Sony, once said that real successful economies are those that make things. It may appear too simplistic a view – and perhaps a tad biased – but there is undeniable wisdom in it.
The US could have devoted more money to help crank up its auto industry or to irrigate its parched farming sector. Or it could have invested in areas which have perenially needed attention: the education system, inner-city housing, medical welfare.
Or even alternative energy.
The hundreds of billions would then have helped so many people with real needs.
But like most world governments, the Obama Administration seems to have succumbed to the temptation of a quick fix, by granting so much money to so few.
And unfortunately, a quick fix ain't on the horizon. Not when the very institutions which triggered the world financial meltdown are propped up and nursed back to health."

While somewhat over-generalised, I have to agree with some of his points.

How about you?

Kimchi Yes or Kimchi Damay (Japanese for 'No')?

2009-03-04T23:07:00.009+08:00

On a friday night, guess what flew into my house?

Apparently my mother thinks of bats as bad rodents that should be exterminated like rats. It took quite a bit of convincing to quell her fears, although the bat did take a dump on her ornament hat hanging in the house.
On a lighter note, I made kimchi for the first time in my life! Thanks to Maanchi's recipe!

Saturday was spent bringing Heinz and his wife, Myrna, around Singapore. Heinz was a German friend I met while on our way from Milan to the Bergamo airport.
It can be quite amazing how people who live so far apart can be connected so easily, thanks to travelling.

So when Gun Kiat and I travelled around Europe, we made a short stopover near Heinz's place in Heidelberg and he offered us a place over our heads for one night and even drove us 300km away to the airport we were to leave from the next day. Where can you find such friends, especially when you barely know them?

And so, since Heinz made a huge leap in faith in me and Gun Kiat, we made sure his short stopover trip (he was en-route to Davao) here was enjoyable, and brought him to see the night scenes in Singapore.

The Esplanade was the last stop for the night, and I don't have the rest of the photos but you could go to Gun Kiat's blog if you wish to know where we brought him :)

Thanks a lot for the memories Heinz! I hope you had an enjoyable trip in Singapore and hopefully I'll get to visit you and Myrna in Davao when you've finally built your dream retirement home.

Myer Briggs PersonalityTest. Untrue!

2008-11-24T21:41:00.000+08:00

MBTI测试 - Psytopic心理-中国心理学爱好者的8小时之外!Psytopic分析：您的性格类型是“ENTJ”(外向+直觉+思维+判断)

坦诚、果断，有天生的领导能力。能很快看到公司/组织程序和政策中的不合理性和低效能性，发展并实施有效和全面的系统来解决问题。善于做长期的计划和目标的设定。通常见多识广，博览群书，喜欢拓广自己的知识面并将此分享给他人。在陈述自己的想法时非常强而有力。

ENTJ型的人是伟大的领导者和决策人。他们能轻易地看出事物具有的可能性，很高兴指导别人，使他们的想象成为现实。他们是头脑灵活的思想家和伟大的长远规划者。因为ENTJ型的人很有条理和分析能力，所以他们通常对要求推理和才智的任何事情都很擅长。为了在完成工作中称职，他们通常会很自然地看出所处情况中可能存在的缺陷，并且立刻知道如何改进。他们力求精通整个体系，而不是简单地把它们做为现存的接受而已。 ENTJ型的人乐于完成一些需要解决的复杂问题，他们大胆地力求掌握使他们感兴趣的任何事情。 ENTJ型的人把事实看得高于一切，只有通过逻辑的推理才会确信。 ENTJ型的人渴望不断增加自己的知识基础，他们系统地计划和研究新情况。他们乐于钻研复杂的理论性问题，力求精通任何他们认为有趣的事物。他们对于行为的未来结果更感兴趣，而不是事物现存的状况。 ENTJ型的人是热心而真诚的天生的领导者，他们往往能够控制他们所处的任何环境。因为他们具有预见能力，并且向别人传播他们的观点，所以他们是出色的群众组织者。他们往往按照一套相当严格的规律生活，并且希望别人也是如此。因此他们往往具有挑战性，同样艰难地推动自我和他人前进。

您适合的领域有：工商业、政界、金融和投资领域、管理咨询、培训、专业性领域

您适合的职业有：

· 各类企业的高级主管
· 总经理
· 企业主
· 社会团体负责人
· 政治家
· 投资银行家
· 风险投资家
· 股票经纪人
· 公司财务经理
· 财务顾问
· 经济学家
· 企业管理顾问
· 企业战略顾问
· 项目顾问
· 专项培训师
· 律师
· 法官
· 知识产权专家
· 大学教师
· 科技专家
· 房产开发商
· 教育咨询顾问
· 投资顾问
· （人事、销售、营销）经理
· 技术培训人员
· （后勤、电脑信息服务和组织重建）顾问
· 国际销售经理
· 特许经营业主
· 程序设计员
· 环保工程师

Stressed!

2008-11-13T11:53:00.003+08:00

I hate exams. Especially exams that has to do with my university major.
I have studied hard, extremely hard for the past few weeks: Putting up 14 hour days is a norm for me.

It is downright unhealthy, disgusting and by far, the cynical part of me feels like everything in the world is against me right now, when that actually could not any further from the truth.

Besides having a supportive girlfriend who is willing to listen to my every whine, curse and grimace about exams and how engineering in NTU favours the intelligent and not the hardworking, I also have my mother who listens and calls me each night to remind me that I should not study from 0830 to 1130 everyday, 7 days a week.

This is ridiculous. I am doing right now what I promised myself I would not do in the start of this semester. This madness is like a recurring nightmare, haunting me every semester just because my brain was never tuned to work with high level mathematical analysis.

My strengths for those who know me is my ability to communicate well. Yet at the important crossroad of my life in choosing my higher education, I made the choice of studying this, which by most peoples' standard, isn't a bad choice at all. It's the pinnacle of engineering some may think: Aerospace engineering.

A line from my friend Alex's blog that went along the lines of : "I know I know better than that, but suffering is relative to one's circumstances and background" made me think.
I couldn't agree more with that.
My mother and girlfriend keep telling me that I should not compare myself with the more intelligent people but why shouldn't I? I study much harder than them yet my grades never reflect my effort, so who wouldn't feel shitty?

Hell I rise before my girlfriend and go to bed after her, yet her results remains stellar while mine reaches a glass ceiling time after time. How would it feel for anyone to always put in long hard hours but never get any result? The irony of that all is that I actually am so attuned to such fruitless effort that I myself would favour a person who is lazy but produces results over someone who is hardworking but produces lesser achievements.

In terms of football teams, I am more like an Everton than an Arsenal.
I grind out results. I don't score much goals but I don't concede much either.
But I can never play the fluid football Arsenal plays, just like how I will never study like most of the scholars around me because their brain, and perhaps their gene is better suited to academic excellence than mine.

It's God's choice that I was made this way, and maybe because I have not seen myself at my best for quite a while, I feel my potential is covered in a shroud of doubt.

I try to be competitive but in the process, I can't help the feelings of jealousy and anger that rises up in me when I see people outperforming me with much lesser effort. So I always remind them that when we work, it's more important on how you communicate and how you handle yourself, and of course the quality of your work matters, but as long as you get the job done, no one will complain. And in a cheap shot, I will remind myself that I will definitely outperform them in the outside working world, whether that is true or not however, remains to be seen.

So this long whine of a post will hopefully help to steady the motivational ship within me that is on the verge of sinking, as I come into the final stretch of Sem 1 examinations, with three more papers to go.

Change.

2008-10-23T01:38:00.002+08:00

The old one gets, the harder it is to change.

Character that was brought up from a tender age is difficult to change.

Having a girlfriend who was brought up in an entirely different culture from my own was always going to be bring up some hiccups in the way we interpret things.

Whilst I consider substandard electronics lectures as a reason for feedback, she believes it to be part of life and a minor matter at most.

This brings me to the point whether we Singaporeans are a bunch of whiny people, or the obvious question of whether I am a whiny person.
While those who know me well know the answer to the second question, I am quite puzzled as to why the rest of my 235 fellow counterparts who also had to watch the online lectures did not complain about the inadequacy of the lectures?
Perhaps 123 of them have not even watched the lectures and 100 gave up, which leaves about 12 who are probably geniuses who understand the illegible handwriting of the lecturer combined with shoddy camerawork.

Is it a crime to speak up when I feel like? Obviously I am wise enough to avoid such a confrontation when I am working, but here I am the person paying the cash to the university, and while I don't completely agree that the customer is always right, it seems the only way to get things in Singapore done is to bang the table.

So, you make the decision.

Meanwhile, for me, I just have to learn how to undo everything I learnt from young about letting others know how you feel.

I'm just grateful to have two most understanding woman behind me currently.

E lectures?

2008-10-21T15:57:00.001+08:00

I almost feel like murdering my lecturer and the entire NTU E Lecture recording team for making such terrible recordings for a subject that is already difficult enough without the technical ambiguities.

The Greater Depression

2008-09-30T10:27:00.006+08:00

Are we headed there yet?

BBC

The cynical part of me tells me better late than never.

***

On a side note, although I love my country, I do empathize with this man about the recent F1 race in Singapore.

"Ferrari boss denounces Singapore F1 race"

I am sure plenty of my friends disagree, but motor racing came about due to overtaking, not through tight circuits with limited overtaking opportunities.

However, to maintain relevancy, his team also won no points in Singapore.

Sour grapes? You be the judge.

Career choice

2008-09-19T00:35:00.002+08:00

Of late, I have been attending career talks launched in school.
ExxonMobil, Shell, Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, and many other prominent companies have given recruitment talks in the humble abode of Nanyang Technological University in the the months of August and September. The list is definitely not exhaustive as I read in my email that other companies are on their way.

But are they? Even as we speak, I am certain most of us young undergraduates are extremely fearful of the difficult times ahead. One bank after another has collapsed; another bank has been bought over; even one of the biggest insurance companies around has its owner's credit rating reduced.

I am not a fan of the financial world out there. It is because of these errant bankers that the world suffers along with them. As my teacher put it, America sneezes and the world catches a cold, except this cold cannot be cured lest a miracle in the American economy (or a African American president!).

Reading Adrian Tan's recently and hugely popular speech (I hope this blog owner doesn't mind me linking to his/her site, I am simply too lazy to find the official site, so please pardon me!) made me think slightly harder than usual about what I intended to do after graduating with an honours in Aerospace Engineering.
I admit the prospects are not bad in the line: While working with Pratt & Whitney, people got an average of 4 months of bonus. But then I thought harder about what I enjoyed and I wanted to do.

Like Mr Tan, I enjoy arguing and I enjoy the process of it, win or lose. But unlike Mr Tan, I do not have a law degree. The one thing I do have running for me, and if I recall correctly, I blogged about this somewhere like four years ago, is my ability to talk.
I am not particularly proud of that ability because more time than not, it has landed me on the wrong side of peoples' opinions, yet it is also my pride and joy that I enjoy talking, even if sometimes, it's just absolute nonsense.

Talking to my girlfriend earlier in the week revealed to me that envy is never a one-sided process. As much as I envy her and many of my dean-listed peers who travelled with me to the Netherlands for their sharp and highly analytical minds, so too she for my ability to make things happen through unacademic means.
With that in mind, I cannot help but wonder, what if I chose a path that is unrelated to the hardcore engineering?

I too wish to be like Mr Adrian Tan, playing, playing and playing till the day I die, and not working for a single day of my life.

Lost!

2008-09-03T17:02:00.002+08:00

Lately I have been losing my belongings.

I misplaced my pencil box this monday in a lecture theatre and it is now officially gone, together with my Sandisk 512mb thumbdrive which I had bought more than three years ago in Jun 2005 with Shengyong.

Today I misplaced my organiser where I place all my meetings and important meetings inside.
I have never lost an organiser in my entire life and I have like three books of organisers dating back to 2005 till 2007 to prove it, but I guess 2008 is going to be empty.

I know thumbdrives and organisers now are ridiculously cheap, after hearing from my friend that he got his Sandisk 2gb for something less than SGD15 at the recent Comex fair.
But it's something about taking care about the stuff you own and after holding it for more than three years, you somewhat develop feelings for these things, even if there are purely mechanical or physical and resembles nothing close to a living thing.
Afterall, these things did serve their purpose and they did it well and probably most importantly, not once did they complain that I chucked them hastily into my back or that I plugged them out of the computer without safely removing the device from the computer.

I guess I just have to be more careful with my belongings from now on.

That familier feeling

2008-08-20T23:11:00.003+08:00

It's been three weeks since I returned to Singapore.

Busy is not the word I will choose to describe how life has been since returning.

My three weeks have been filled with spending time with family and friends that I have not met up in quite some time.

The one question I get a lot from both family and friends is whether or not I am slowly adapting back to Singapore. Afterall, life in the Netherlands is slower paced than in our metropolitan society.

The answer I always give is yes. I never really lost touch with my Singaporean roots.
I still love the good old food and hawker fare that I can find easily and while I do go to bed hungry every night and I have had to withstand the sight of Boon Lay nasi lemak being consumed in front of me by my coursemates with healthier metabolism rates, I still can stomach a resistance towards the food around me.
Well, while I am sometimes sad that I restrict myself so much in terms of what I eat nowadays, the returns is that I can now fit into so many clothes!
The good thing about having a brother is that I am now about the same size as him and I can now freely wear any of his clothes. Essentially, my wardrobe just tripled and I did not have to spend a single cent!

Oh the perks of weight loss.
And not to mention my running: Perhaps I never really knew how much change occurred in me physically when I was in the Netherlands but back home, it really tells now.
Running in NTU last Wednesday made me feel alive, like I was when I was in junior college.
I pushed and pushed, but my body simply responded to my every whim and call.

I probably could lose even more weight if I wanted, but the one thing that is more important now is to maintain this weight. 创业容易，守业难.
The Chinese really said this line right, and I probably have seen too many occasions where people lose weight but six months down the road, they are right back where they started off.

So maintenance is the key for now.

----

In recent times I found myself questioning myself why I chose to study this field of engineering which generally never pays well for fresh graduates.
I even went far enough to enroll myself in a networking sessions with global banks like Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Standard Chartered, Citi and Credit Suisse.
When the event occured, and despite me reading up on all the positions, I found myself devoid of questions to ask these bank representatives.
Perhaps I was never really interested in working in a bank, and while I agree that banking right now is really 'in' career choice, it is not a path that interests me currently and hence my feeling towards the event.

Not that other engineering graduates should not consider working in a bank. My take is that we have studied equally hard as the business students and so why should we not settle for their jobs when some of us might even be more analytical and shrewd when it comes to spotting market trends than the business graduates? Afterall, banks do mention explicitly that they hire anyone from any background so as long it is a good honour and the way I see it, it is definitely easier to get a good honours in a business degree than in an engineering degree.

It probably is a different ballgame altogether, but it is still a ball.
I was never really convinced that engineers would make good bankers but my auntie in Merrill did mention to me that half her office were all engineers who converted to working in a bank, simply because it paid better and their skills were up to the mark, so if you are good enough, why not?

Which brings me to the point that engineers in our part of the world are never paid enough.
In the Netherlands, I vaguely recall an aerospace engineer being paid as well as a lawyer, but sadly the context is far from being applicable here in Asia.

I once wondered cynically, what would happen if all the engineers in Singapore just walked out on their employers and decided to take an extended hiatus from work like their international counterparts?

Of course, that would never occur and I would not want it to, because Singapore's image is entirely built on the fact that we are a economy that runs like a smoothly oiled tranmission, ready for the next upgrade and capacity increase whenever required.

We're so American in working style and yet so British in the way we think.

The beginning of the end.

2008-08-05T00:48:00.003+08:00

Today marked the start of my last academic year in NTU.

It was a very pleasant experience saying hello to old classmates that I had not seen in almost one year.
In my final year in NTU, I have listed down the following to achieve:

1. Maintain my weight of 77 kgs (Yes, I lost a total of 8 kgs in the Netherlands!)
2. Stay happy and maintain a healthy relationship with Miss Ge
3. Spend a healthy amount of time with my family, be it cooking or mopping the floor.
4. Enjoy my last year in NTU!

When I first started out in university, I had that obsessive mentality to put in 100% for everything that I could lay my hands on:
Lifesaving training, school work, project work, and et cetera.
After my attachment, I was taught the very important lesson of expectations.
The higher one's expectations, the bigger one's disappointments.
It was a very humbling lesson but perhaps it was best it was a lesson I learnt when I was just an intern rather than a working personnel.

On exchange I learnt a lot about myself with regards to my personality thanks to people like Mau, Gunkiat, Kianshing, Miss Ge and Venu.
Simple things that my close friends that have always given me leeway for like my burst of emotions and my tendency to jump to the wrong conclusion before making a more accurate judge of the situation was very apparently exposed to me by the friends I made in Delft.
Thanks to these people, I now make a more decent attempt (although by Gunkiat's observations it's not decent enough..) to not jump to the wrong conclusions nor to mouth out whatever I think without further processing in my brain.

Hopefully I will keep in mind all these lessons I have learnt in the past one year and apply them for the rest of my life.

Perhaps I forgot to add a last and final objective of what I wished to attained in my last year in NTU:
5. Not to spend a ridiculous amount of time on school work or on my FYP.

I admit I should work hard to try and claw my way up into First Class since I am only 0.08 off, but then I figure I should do what I always did and not put in additional effort, because it's frankly not worth getting 4.5 and then end up looking like Humpy Dumpy with 90 kilos of excess weight.

So having said that, I should also try to get my healthy amount of sleep which began from yesterday. 7-8 hours a day would be perfect, and time to put that in practice.

La Creme de la Creme 2

2008-08-03T21:16:00.003+08:00

La Creme de la Creme

2008-07-23T21:37:00.004+08:00

Failure!

2008-07-10T22:25:00.002+08:00

Structures 5/10, which means I will have to retake it in NTU.

Aviation Management 9/10.

If results were everything, then it´s a pretty clear indication where I should be headed in my career.

Left with Compressible to make or destroy my next semester.

Settled Stockholm, Madrid, Toledo, Sergovia, Porto, Aveiro, Espinho and Girona.
Left with Barcelona, Valencia, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin, and the day trips in between of course.

Exams are over, but what awaits?

2008-06-28T00:23:00.002+08:00

And with the ringing of the bell at 12pm, my last exam at TU Delft drew to a close.

Today's Aviation Management Paper was a breeze relative to my previous two papers.
Regurgitation of facts is not one of my fortes, but when I am called upon to, that is one thing I can deliver.

Structures on Thursday was yet another one of those nightmarish papers where you stare at the question blankly and wonder what to do.

Having cleared 15 past year exam papers, and reading through my lecture notes and probably studying even harder than I did for Compressible, (which was horrible, and that gave me motivation to push myself even harder), the paper was nothing short of a surprise as it always is in the Technical University of Delft.

Coming here has certainly changed my opinion of the European universities, at least my view of Delft has changed immensely. Before I thought this place had a solid curriculum, and after it turns out I was right, but with the fact that I left out that with the presence of a robust system, their examination system can be extremely unforgiving on the untalented.

I am in no way talented as an engineer, and the only reason why I have chosen this course I am in is because I liked it. But liking something does not equate to being brilliant in it.
So to is the common misconception that hard work will always equate to results.

That is probably the one lesson I have learned the hard way over here in Delft.
Never in my life have I studied so hard to fall so hard on my face that I was forced to change my perception of myself, and probably my perception of others.

One thing that I have proved is that I am definitely not engineering material. People put in 10 hours for the work and the thinking that I require 15 hours to generate and it is no issue to me but a stark reminder of my shortcomings.

What can I do about the current situation? Well, nothing. As one of my professors I was chatting with on MSN said: "You cross the bridge when you get there.", and if I am destined to have to take Aerodynamics II and Aircraft Structures back in NTU because I failed to clear it here, I should hold my head up and know that I have already studied as hard as I possibly could.

Here, for all you know I might go back to NTU and grab As for those two subjects.
As far fetched a thought as that might be, if I work as hard back in NTU as I did here, I don't see why that isn't a possiblity, plus a bit of luck that is.

But for now, I have to concentrate on trip planning in Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin.

Get up.

2008-06-21T05:29:00.002+08:00

My mother is right.

I was man enough to take the challenge of coming here and I should be prepared to face the consequences of my actions.

Move on.

Bad luck or Wrong choice?

2008-06-20T04:49:00.002+08:00

Sitting for my Compressible Aerodynamics paper today was a horrid affair.

Despite practising nonstop on examination questions and reinforcing my concepts, I am faced with the possibility of failing yet another subject here at TU Delft.

As mentioned before, the system here has no mercy on its students.
No moderation and a 6/10 to pass.

Now of course it's fine for local students who can resit as many times as they need to for a pass, but for exchange students like me, the resit opportunity is not possible.

I wear my heart on my sleeve. When I say I don't think I am going to pass, I usually don't pass.
Exam fright gripped me today as I passed over question after question that I knew how to do but just didn't put pen to paper as I was too busy thinking of the 'what ifs'.
It's a torrid affair to stare blankly as you attempt to recall what you did for the past ten days only for the paper to return a nonchalant look at you.

The only good thing I see from this is that fortunately, I can take the same subject back in NTU because it does not potentially clash with any of my other Year 4 subjects.

Thank goodness the working world does not solely rely on examinations.

Switzerland

2008-06-10T22:54:00.005+08:00

Great trip but would have been better with better weather.

Unfortunately, due to the moody Swiss weather, I was unable to summit Jungfraujoch nor Schilthorn as originally planned.

Still Switzerland is a beautiful country with graceful people that I am sure many countries should learn as an example from.

And yes, I finally fulfilled my dream of trekking in the Swiss Alps. Simply amazing!

Grindelwad, at 1500 plus metres

Credits to Desmo Vu

2008-06-09T19:03:00.004+08:00

The article below was sent to me by a coursemate of mine named Desmond.
I'm not sure if he wrote it but I'll credit him for the time being till I find out.
Interesting article.

For all my friends:

Poor people always tell me that they are happy and carefree because their water melon heads do not have the ability to think of good ideas. That is why they are so free. That's their only technique to bite back at busy, rich people. Never believe in their dangerous illusion. It will only kill your mind and make you lazy. Separate yourself from these lazy comfortable people. $1million is hard to earn. But $14 isnt easy too. $14 doesnt just grow on a tree for you to take. If you want to hit the light in this lifetime, you must first walk on glass. If not, just quit.

My SI unit is not Pascal, Newton or Joule. My SI unit is just $. Understanding pressure, force and energy does not make my life any better. It is money that makes my life better. I am interested in cash flow more than air flow or energy flow. I am interested in how currency moves in one place more than how electron moves from place to place. I like bank transfer more than heat transfer. With such technological advance, this world seriously needs a lot of engineers. Engineers make our life better, but we do not need to be them. It is like this world seriously needs road sweepers to clean the place, but I do not wish to be them.

You can show off to me that you hold a PHD degree in sweeping the road. You know what is the correct angle to hold the broom in order to sweep the dust off the floor at the most optimal and efficient rate. You know what is the maximum weight of trash a dust pan can endure just by knowing the brand of the dust pan. You even took up a chemistry module called "Molecular structure of recycled material" and thus got a minor in chemistry. For your Final Year Project, you got an A+ because you had created a remote controlled dust bin that moves. But the 'uncle' selling char kway tiao earns more than you. He earns $6k. Then you realise you should just break your broom stick and pick up cooking.

But the answer to the title of my email is: The number of right contacts you have in your handphone is directly proportional to how rich you will become. It is not how much you know. It is who you know. You dont need to know everything. You just need to know who to call. Whether they are "white" contacts or "black" contacts, you seriously need both of them in order to survive in this jungle of organisms. Some of the things I do aint created within a day. I have to walk on glass.

-Vu

Q3 Exams Results

2008-05-30T22:44:00.005+08:00

Despite failing one examination, I was fortunate to be granted an oral resit by the professor in charge and managed to pass.

In TU Delft, getting a 5/10 is not enough to pass. For example, I got a 52% for my Flight Dynamics and that is considering by TU Delft as a pass with half the credits.

Knowing how stingy NTU would be with their credits, they would never accept that for a pass so I took the resit.

People coming to Delft for exchange should be wary.

I'm convinced that the folks that went to the US had a fair easier time than we did because the US grades you on mid-terms and assignments and so as long as you do not screw up, you should be given a pass even before you take the final exam.

Here, final exams are 100% and if you screw up (or you try to take too many subjects), you're buggered.

So Q3 down and 2 more Q4 subjects to go before I can go enjoy my trips in Europe.

I love cooking!

2008-05-30T21:03:00.003+08:00

Cooking is one of the things that everyone has to learn when they go on exchange.
Unlike Singapore, you do not have a convenient hawker centre or kopitiam in the vicinity that offers you decent food for a reasonable rate.
So yes, cooking is a must overseas.

Today I shall show you how:

Sliced Mushrooms, carrots and potatos, simply laythem out on a baking dish as above

Lamb Fillets, which I cut into cubes and seasoned with oregano, salt, pepper, onion and garlic overnght

Put the lamb cubes over the meat and set the gas oven to mark 8 or 450F/230C

Make a sauce with the juices from the lamb and vegetables and pour over the grilled lamb cubes

Tomorrow I shall leave for my 9 day trip of Switzerland. Right now I am praying it does not rain.
By far, should the weather stay, I am certain that Switzerland will be the beautiful place of all the places I am going to in Europe.

Buggered

2008-05-25T05:42:00.002+08:00

With my exams coming up in less than a month's time, I must be insane to still be going travelling.

Prague is up on Monday (26th May to 28th May) and the same Saturday, I will commence my 8 day trip of Switzerland (31st May to 07 June) before returning to take my exams on the 19th, 26th & 27th of June 2008.

And which reminds of my 23 day insane backpacking of the following countries thanks to Mr Eng Gun Kiat.

Eindhoven - Stockholm - Heidelberg - Madrid - Porto - Barcelona - Valencia - Glasgow - Edinburgh - Dublin - Amsterdam

Officially, if the tally is right, I would visited the following countries in my time here in Europe by the time I return to Singapore on the 30th of July.

1). Netherlands - Amsterdam, Delft, Den Haag, Rotterdam, Leiden, Eindhoven (done)
2). Poland - Krakow (done)
3). Italy - Milan, Bergamo, Florence, Roma, Venice, Treviso (done)
4). France - Paris (done)
5). Austria - Vienna (done)
6). Czech Republic - Prague
7). Switzerland - Basel, Zurich, Luzern, Interlaken, Vevey, Lausanne, Montreux, Berne, Lauterbrunnen
8). Sweden - Stockholm
9). Heidelberg
10). Spain - Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia
11). Portugal - Porto
12). Scotland - Glasgow & Edinburgh
13). Ireland - Dublin

Which is not too shabby when you consider that for me to have gone to all these places, I have spent a total of EUR466.8, thanks to budget airlines like Ryanair, Skyeurope, Wizzair & Easyjet.

Still, this is an experience that I will hold dear for the rest of my life, because obviously, I will never be a student again, carefree and perhaps with the most important commodity anyone would want to have - time, to travel and see how life is in other parts of the world.
That on top of the fact that I met someone that might change my life forever :)

For anyone on exchange, please do travel!
I am probably more fortunate than most in that I have a coursemate by the name of Eng Gun Kiat who is fanatical about travelling. And thanks to him, I have also picked up a thing or two regarding trip planning.

For now though, it's back to the books, because my Flight Dynamics retest is on Monday with the professor.

PS: My photos are all here, I'm simply to lazy to upload them onto Facebook since I already have Picasa.

http://picasaweb.google.com/home

9 Years

2008-05-18T05:21:00.002+08:00

That feeling.

Your pulse fastens.

Your heart flutters.

You swallow your saliva.

That feeling.

You have it again.

幸福就是如此的感觉。

Good Will Hunting

2008-05-15T17:29:00.006+08:00

It has been ages since I last saw a proper movie.

Delft is not exactly on the leading edge of movie release venues but the movie I watched last night was something that was produced in 1997, exactly eleven years ago.

'Good Will Hunting' was directed by Gus Van Sant and the script was written by (surprise surprise) Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who are like megastars right now in Hollywood.

Before they were Jason Bourne and Jack Ryan respectively, Damon and Affleck were just good friends who happened to be talented scriptwriters as well. The script for Good Will Hunting was almost entirely written by the pair and needless to say, they acted in their script as well.

Good Will Hunting talks about a guy called Will Hunting (played by Damon). Working as the janitor in a prestigious university, he is fascinated by maths and is extremely talented in it, despite not having gone through any formal education.

Socially, he is a reject because he was orphaned as a child and abused at the foster homes he was sent to. Yet Will finds joy and challenge in the solving of the mathematical problems posed by the university professor.

Once the professor discovers his talents, he tries to get him counselled as despite his huge potential, Will is completely inept in letting anyone into his own world.

It reaches a point in the movie where Chuckie (Affleck) talks to Will about what he intends to do in the next twenty years. Will says that he would be fine raising his kids in South Boston and hanging out the same bunch of guys he is with, possibly even doing the same demolitions job he is currently doing. Chuckie replies very bluntly that if anyone standing in the vicinity of them would gladly give up everything in the world to have Will's talent, and that he should not be wasting his time demolishing houses or laying bricks.

Watching the movie, which can be dry and slow at times, I found myself being drawn into Will's world.

Slow movies rarely catch my attention and the ones that did number only three:

1) Before Sunset

2) Before Sunrise

3) Gattaca

And now I probably have to add a fourth: Good Will Hunting.

How many of us are talented in the ways that we do not realise and yet we spend our time studying for a university degree that we will only utilise a mere 10% of the knowledge we learn?

Still, I think I would give it up a lot of things to be like Will Hunting, simply because he was a genius beyond compare.

If you haven't watched "Good Will Hunting", maybe it's time to catch it soon.

Goodbye Canon A80, Hello Canon SX100IS

2008-05-14T04:05:00.003+08:00

One thing I probably did not tell anyone because I haven't had the time.
My Canon Powershot A80 died on me on Day 3 of 10 of our Italy trip.

Oh the devastation when I found out the camera had gone bust.

The funny thing was that, it could still take proper videos but for some reason, the colour for normal photos was all awry.

An example:

Almost like a paint job, but I suspect it has something to do with the colouring and the exposure the computer chip decides for the photo. Obviously the chip is now fried or loose.
Another instance of the weird shots my A80 now took. The intention still shines true, as I attempted to portray the top killer in Italy: Lung cancer, and no prizes for guessing why.

And so enters the replacement, with 10x optical zoom and a wider lens, but only slight, the Canon Powershot SX100IS

The camera set me back a total of 283.59 EUROs including two 2GB SD cards but with tax rebate, I stand to claim back about 27, making the camera only just above 500SGD.

I hope it will be a good investment and more importantly, last the same five years my previous Canon Powershot A80 did.

Italy and Back

2008-05-09T03:25:00.003+08:00

Italy was great, but marred by too many incidents that has left me disappointment with the administration and safety of the country.

Still, one place in Italy really stands out for me, and that was Cinque Terra.

Absolutely brilliant coastal scenary and quite definitely, one of the top three places I have been in the world right up with New Zealand and Switzerland.

I'll let you the photos do the talking.

Jumping at Pisa
I don't know how I managed to get that pose. But it was really well-shot, thanks to Ge Yao!
Cinque Terra and us.
Cinque Terra 2 & Us
Another splendid view of Cinque

I leave for Paris in about an hour's plus time. Will be back on Monday night.

Oświęcim - A Moving Experience & Poland + Antwerp

2008-04-26T04:21:00.008+08:00

I am very happy that I had made the choice to go to Poland.

The Salt Mine of Wieliczka was great, but that was about it. So was Rynek Glowny Square, the second largest square in Europe behind Venice's St Marco's Square. So was Wawel Castle in Krakow.

Perhaps I felt most touched by my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the Nazis murdered 1.5 million men, women & children of Jewish or Gypsy origin. We read about World War II and what happened to the Jews and we sort of pity them when we look at it through a book.

Being there changes this perspective entirely. I vividly recall entering a room where thousands and thousands of shoes were piled up in a glass room, just to reiterate the fact that many Jews were forced to strip down before goin through gas chambers, when they thought they were going through a routine bath.

Suffocating and probably knowing this was the end, I struggle to understand what were their last thoughts as they finally relinquished their soul to their Maker.

Particularly jarring was the sight of a baby shoe in front of the stack of thousands of shoes, I still cannot shake the image out of my head.

A picture taken by someone else, the rail to Auschwitz Latrine for Jews during the Holocaust (credits to Gun Kiat) At the end of the railway, I found it a little hard to smile after what I saw earlier
The infamous words that literally translates to "Work sets you free", which unfortunately was not the case for the Jews entering Auschwitz. The only way they achieved freedom was death. A group photo outside the entrance before entering Auschwitz with us (NTU students), two Argentinian siblings (Margerita & Francesco) & a Swede (Oskar)

My mood did get better as the day progressed, and somehow I was found talking to a.......

.........beer jug. Right. (Credits to Gun Kiat for taking this shot!)
Apparently Mr Eng has a discriminately photo of me sleeping in class with my mouth wide open. Since I know it will eventually be released in the future, I might as well launch a counteroffensive. Behold, the sight of Mr Eng eating kebabs and tomato sauce all over his mouth!
Smos in Antwerp, which literally means "mess". Apparently you will get a mess on your mouth when you eat this........
.....as Mr Eng appropriately proves the logic right
Me and Kianshing with our smos outside the Jean Pierre on Grote Langenweg (I think) in Antwerp

Since Mr Pang complains, and Mr Eng has like a gazillion backlogs of blog posts, I shall strike while the iron is hot and post the photo up for him.
And yes, another attempt in a more unconventional pose. Apparently, someone was complaining that he was jumping in a the same pose all the time and so decided to make a change.
Artistic shot that involves (obviously, food) by me and Anthony. The bread we were eating cost us about 1.20 Polish Zlotys, which is about 80 cents Singapore. Poland is relatively much cheaper than the rest of the Eurozone because they still have not changed to use the Euro despite being an EU country.
A weird shot.
An even weirder shot, with KS and GK being the eyes of the statue.

This one is once again for Mr Pang, in front of the Cathedral at Wawel Castle
And then again in front of the watchtower overlooking Rynek Glowny Square in Krakow
Something we ordered while walking through the Jewish Quarters in Krakow. Like typical Singaporeans/Malaysians, we saw a long queue and just decided to queue as well. The photo looks as if we are using the baked bread as a knighthood or fellowship of the bread,
Mau was really hungry, but I think Kianshing's plain version looked the best. The cook even had time to write out Poland in tomato sauce over his pucok. Oh, that's what it's called. A pucok.
I was obviously very pleased with my pucok, and mine had a little extra on top known as goat cheese, which was slightly strong but not an issue to a cheese lover like me. As you can see, I was much happier here because this was actually a day before going to Auschwitz.

Poland is definitely a must-go if you intend to visit Eastern Europe in the future. The people were quite nice to us, and one gentlemen even asked us at the train station whether we were lost and walked us all the way to Rynek Glowny Square despite not being on the same route.

Initially we thought he might have been a conman but then he just turned and walked away, not before wishing us to have a good time in Poland.

And don't worry about the language barrier part, most young Poles can speak fluent English and it's the older generation that do not understand English well.

Another trip made possible by Mr Eng.

Time to go off to bed. Tomorrow I begin my 10 day tour of Italy, where I will be visiting Rome, Florence, Venice and Pisa for the 3rd time in my life.

Poland

2008-04-18T20:07:00.002+08:00

You know the one thing about being here is that opportunity to travel.

Budget airlines in Europe are pretty cheap and if you can find the right deal, you can find yourself visiting a place you would probably not visit if you flew from Singapore to here.

Poland is on the cards, and I am actually quite looking forward to the Auschwitz visit, because it is afterall, a site that would bring forth plenty of emotions to anyone who visits there.

After Poland, I still have Italy, Vienna, Paris, Prague, Switzerland and maybe even Stuttgart if I can find the time to go visit Vincent there. If I don't, then I can always push that back till after 27th June, when Samuel joins me and Gun Kiat for our backplanning trip throughout the remaining destinations of Europe we have not covered.

In all frankness, I am not that interested in Western Europe with the exception of Spain and Portugal. Gun Kiat was mentioning Malta and that certainly would be a big welcome for me.

The most important thing of all this is that I hope not to use any of my folk's cash for my travels, thanks to my miserly days in the army, URECA and my industrial attachment, I have built up a decently healthy amount for travelling in Europe, despite the strength of the Euro thanks to a weak US dollar.

Travel. If I do not do it now when I am young, I probably will never get a chance to do it when I am working because you will never be able to get a month long leave.

Time waits for no one. Time to get back to trip planning.

Coastlines, windmills and the Cat!

2008-04-15T04:43:00.005+08:00

At Scheveningen Noordstrand - An black and white photo attempt from me.
This chap was surfing at 5 to 10 degrees celsius weather, but I loved the backdrop. Lucky shot!
This one is for Mr Pang Sze Fei - Check out Mr Eng's version!

The resident cat in my apartment, totally black. Oh, his name is Dexter by the way!

At a random museum in Rotterdam.
I am totally copying Lin Sui on this. I think.
The windmills at Kinderdijk with Venu. Splendid shot by Gun Kiat. Ain't those windmills lovely?
Group shot by Anthony, who does not like being photographed.
I liked this shot alot, although it went awry. The macro on the wild flowers with the windmill backdrops gives it a special oomph.
Once again, to Mr Pang. Jumping up and down like this is so tiring. But with such wonderful backdrops, who can resist making the jump.

A random B&W photo of the two most deep-thinking people in our group: Venu and Zao Min.

I should really take this opportunity to thank Mr Eng Gun Kiat for all these mini-expedition to the outskirts of the Netherlands where you get to see such beautiful scenary. Not everyone is willing to make the time to go plan on trips but Mr Eng seems to always reserve some time for trip-making.

I think I have to cook more chicken wings to buy him over.

The Beginning of the End.

2008-04-08T04:23:00.003+08:00

And before you know it, a quarter at Delft has ended.

But I am not interested to blog about my exams. I am more interested in the...snow!
Haha, believe it or not, after being arriving in the Netherlands for more than two months, we only got to see snow the week before. And while it generally doesn't snow much in Delft, we were blessed with the most impossible of snows, March Snow!

It kind of reminds of a film that starred Bae Yong Jun and Son Ye Jin, April Snow, but that's another topic for another day.

The morning surprise!
The library at TU Delft.Ge Yao and Me: If you look at the background, you would see people making a snowman on the top.

On the side steps of the library, and just after I got hit by a snowball by Ge Yao. It hurts!
But before you know it, the sun rises and the snow melts.

Snow isn't exactly all fun, especially when I was cycling out of my apartment and I took a turn too quickly.

Basically the snow makes the ground all wet and I just landed with a thud when I banked too hard round the corner.

The calm.

2008-03-29T07:05:00.002+08:00

Extracted from Gun Kiat, who in turn extracted this from Extracted from http://www.geocities.com/lauho08/words.html

"When we are angry we say the most atrocious things. We forget ourselves and become indifferent to what we say. We blast the other person without mercy, although we may not mean those words. But words once spoken cannot be taken back and it takes a long time to forgive and forget. It is very important for us to control ourselves when we are angry. We have to exercise self-control."

The hardest thing in life is to change one's character.

If only human beings were as simple as machines, just flick a switch or shut down and you can start afresh the next morning.

Forgiveness is really one of the hardest things a person can do.

I really have to step into church one of these days.

God hates a coward.

A Sensitive Me

2008-03-22T22:50:00.002+08:00

Today I was given a wakeup call on how unwanted I am in my friend's apartment.

I know it's rude of me to write this out up front when some of my classmates will read this blog, and word will eventually get around.

I think everyone should be familier with my accommodation problems here in the Netherlands.

Of course, things have been more or less solved, with my internet arriving last week and my room being properly heated finally, I should logically move back to my place in Prunuslaan.

Yet I have chosen not to stay in that apartment on a permanent basis because:

1). My clothes, utensils, food and books are all in my friend's place.

2). I am reluctant to waste time pedalling from place to place since I study most of the time in my friend's place. This is especially so with my exams in the next 3 weeks.

Of course, that does not qualify me the right to remind here, afterall, as I correctly pointed out previously, my friends have paid accommodation prices based on the fact that they should be sharing their premises with 3 people, inclusive of themselves, and not 4 since my inclusion.

While making tea today, I unintentionally overheard someone speaking to someone about how the internet at his place is slower and how it probably affects the quality of the conversation he is currently holding. Then it went on about how he would tell the stranger to move out if it had to come to it.

I was very angry. So angry that right now, I have no mood to study with my exams round the corner in 5 days time.

I am not a very big-hearted person, but I believe that given my circumstances, another person would have chosen to do the same thing.

I told this person that I would move out the day my exams ended on the 7th of April.

I wonder if I will even return to here when I am invited for dinner sessions because I am very very offended by what the person was talking about in spite of the fact that his door was wide open.

I get the hint and personally, I am very apologetic for infringing on your privacy by sharing an apartment with you.

---

I cannot change who I am. From a young and tender age, I have always been very sensitive to the comments of people around me. As I grew older, I knew how to suppress my feelings whenever I thought someone offensive was being mentioned about me. But then it's a way of covering up a flaw rather than curing it completely.

I still am very aware of the conversations around me, and sometimes, I get extremely angered by the comments people make.I am not flawless, and that person probably never meant what he said in the way I have just mentioned it, but by God, am I angry right now.

It was never my fault that the stupid Dutch administration messed up my accommodation, and given a choice, I would choose to sleep on a warm, comfortable bed than the armchair I am currently residing on.

Touch me.

2008-03-17T05:21:00.003+08:00

I've always loved music.

Same reason why I joined church choir.
Same reason why I joined school choir.
Even when I was in ODAC, I eventually enjoyed singing and helped out alot in the occasional wedding choir that needed people.

I was just surfing on Youtube yesterday when I chanced upon Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing".

Simply awesome.
Something about her voice makes you want to just burst out in tears, or in my case, just be dumbstruck to the point that you are leaning forward on your seat and you are almost falling off.

Listen to Whitney here:

And then looking through my usual genre of Korean variety shows, I chanced upon this lady, who is only 15!

Charice Pempengco.

How good is she? Well, look for yourself.

I loved Whitney, and boohoo (I jnow Samuel will hate me for this, but..) as far as I know, no one comes close to Whitney when she was in her prime, not even Mariah Carey by a long long way.

I'm not saying she cannot do it again, she apparently is coming back but after close to a decade of drug use and neglecting her voice, there is some doubt if she will sound as good as in the 90s.

Just to draw a comparison, listen to Charice do Whitney's "I Have Nothing."

I think it will be extremely difficult for her to beat Whitney, but then again, she's only 15, which means she has plenty of years to get to Whitney's standard in her prime?

Will we see another Whitney? I don't think so. In the first place, it is quite wrong of me to be comparing singers. Afterall, Whitney was more a soulful gospel singer who managed to merge acapella and gospel into mainstream music.
But it's just simply mindblowing to listen to such soulful and fullhearted singing.

It simply moves me.

Prioritise.

2008-03-14T23:40:00.001+08:00

What an timely read.

I must thank Wenliang for posting that little entry, which struck a chord with me.

Now I must put thought into action, and prioritise.

Studies first, travelling later.

话太多。

2008-03-11T19:38:00.001+08:00

I always have this habit of mouthing out things that hurt others.

I am too direct, especially when it comes to friends.

Perhaps I should consider filtering whatever I speak, or better still, talk less, because sometimes I think the words that come out of this mouth hurt a lot of people, and out of respect, these hurt people choose to keep quiet whenever I speak, and only a select few who feel strongly enough will speak about it.

也好。But I still insist on my point of hating people who come to tell you mentioning that they have not studying hard and that you are so hardworking. 我平生最讨厌那种假嘻嘻的人，所以我的答案也很简单。

"What is your GPA? Better than mine right? So yah lah, that is your answer lor."

人是不会改变的。

Suddenly this reminds me of an armymate's nickname quoted after Bob Paisley:

"If you want to be heard, speak softly."

不懂有多真实。

Studying in the Netherlands

2008-03-07T23:52:00.006+08:00

Of course, it would consist of many things. Some of which include:

Friends that do not wish to sit with the group and choose to sit on their own. Ah scandalous pair. Right down my alley anyway, apparently I am the most 三八 person over here according to a Miss Ge. Might as well make the most of it.
Another happy together. What is this turning into? We're on an exchange, not some relationship camp. Damn, how come I am the only not getting hitched?
Taking pictures in a lecture hall, in the middle of a lesson. Whatever happened to the diligent student writing down notes? Note the smirk on Venu's face on the extreme right. That's Nii from Ghana on the left by the way.
Hey hey hey, now that's a welcome sight. Lessons cancelled. The only problem is that we dragged our asses to school at 0845 to see that being written on the board. Could they not have told us earlier? Still Flight Dynamics is like listening to Aerodynamics I in NTU.
Star Wars revisited! And right in the middle of lecture building too.Being caught in the middle of the act. Muahahaha, confess you two!
And the most important thing of all, lots of travelling and phototaking.

Trips for Poland, Switzerland, and Italy have been booked, which would mark the actual beginning of my travelling extravaganza here in Europe.

---

On more serious matters, work here has been extremely hectic.
TU Delft works on a quarterly system, which means exams here come hard and fast.

Just 7 weeks after we started our lessons, our exams will begin.

Probably the most surprising part of our exchange was when we found out that TU Delft does not follow a Bell curve like NTU when it comes to the grading of modules.
Apparently, students here take an average of 7.5 years to complete a course that is scheduled for 5 years.
And what I mean by TU Delft not following the Belll curve implies that we have to get 5.5 to 6 out of 10 to pass a module.
To top it off, there are usually no assignments or tutorials which means exams here take the full weightage for whether you pass a module or not.
I am not exaggerating when I say that the bunch of us here have chosen the toughest place to do our exchange.
But then, to quote a line from a Batman comic I read some years back: "I knew the risks when I took the job."
Similarly, it was my choice to go on an exchange, in spite of all the trouble I went through to get my attachment delayed.
I guess it all adds up in the very end and for now, I just have to grind my teeth and work my way through all the madness.

Like adapting to my studies, so too have I adapted to my accommodation problems here in the Netherlands.
Believe it or not, I have yet to receive my internet despite being here for close to one and half months. Any longer and people would not have raised an eyebrow if they thought I had chosen to go for an exchange on some remote island in the Pacific.

I have applied for internet on my own after giving up on the school to arrange some sort of connection for me. The top side is that the TU is paying for my internet, but the downside is that I have to keep my bank account open even after I have left the Netherlands because the contract I signed is in effect for a full year.

As for lodging issues, I currently spend about 4 nights at my apartment at Prunuslaan (about 25 minutes cycling distance to school) and 3 nights at Gun Kiat's place at Troelstralaan (10 minutes cycling distance to school) on days that I have early morning lessons.

I do not particularly enjoy the arrangement but it is by far the only compromise I can think of here. The Dutch take shitloads of years to get simple administration done, and the idea of taking responsibility for what you do is quite foreign to them, which suits anyone on exchange here fine as long as you get used to it, as I have.

On the nights that I cycle back alone, I take the opportunity to enjoy the wind breezing past my ears and the serenity of the path I can choose to take. Sometimes I take a different route apart from the main roads and go into the parks that run adjacent along the expressway. I obviously take a longer time to get back but then the inner peace I get from returning home via an alternative route makes it quite a worthwhile detour.

Perhaps the one thing I enjoy most here is the weather. An average of 0 to 5 degrees suits a heavy sweater like me fine. The weather probably has an effect on the people as well. I get less irritated and less agitated unlike in Singapore. But then ask any of the Dutch here and they are super envious of the sunlight that Singapore gets. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side would be an apt line to describe such a behaviour.

Mealwise has been good too. I have been able to purchase local ingredients such as 菜心，chicken seasoning powder, and noodles. The one good thing about being far away from the university in Prunuslaan is that I am also only two minutes away from the local Asian supermarket. Asian ingredients are obviously priced at a premium in a European country but as least I can get the most important condiments like sesame oil and light soya sauce.

Genius

2008-02-21T04:24:00.002+08:00

In front of me is someone who is considered by many in my course as a genius.

No marks for guessing who, but it is not who that is important, but how.

Sharing the room with this person gives me the unique opportunity to observe how he works.

Meticulous.

Knowledge-craving.

Disciplined.

The thirst for the truth.

He would make what I would consider as a perfect engineer.

Now I know why I am not in the league as him. Because I simply do not want it bad enough.

Winners are winners only because they want what they desire so bad they would sacrifice everything for it.

I must tell you he is human too though.

He makes mistakes, he gets angry, he listens to music when he works.

I still do not want it bad enough, but maybe if I look long enough, the desire might arise.

For now, I will keep observing.

Weesp & Muiden Trip

2008-02-17T17:37:00.006+08:00

A shot of an alley in the town of Weesp, just five minutes from Muiden. Obviously I was the photographer here.

Muiden - A small satellite town that has about 4000 inhabitants just five minutes bus ride from Weesp, another town which is only 12 km away from Amsterdam.A very adorable dog carrying his owner's bag. Look at it, so cute. The guy was so nonchalantly crossing the road with a bag and we were all so stunned. Somehow, Gun Kiat managed to snap this photo with the dog looking back curiously with us.

Sadly I also know I will never own a dog in my working lifetime, as it requires too much time and effort to properly care for a dog. A cat would be a much more suitable choice for someone like me who is quite likely to enter the engineering industry. Just feed it and 'sayang' once in a while.

Dogs? Hai, no time ah.

An artistic picture snapped by Mr Eng Gun Kiat: He is truly the master of touring.Windmills, the glaring sun and the reflection of the sun on the estuary. Loved this photo, thanks to Venu.
Gun Kiat & Me - and the Castle of Muiden. Originally built in 1462 (I think). I never knew the Netherlands had castles but it's all thanks to Mr Eng that our merry bunch gets to choose places to visit our week. It's as if he has a menu of places to visit and you the customers just have to choose. His payment? Peanut butter and bread. Hahaha, truly an amazing and meticulous traveller he is.
Just outside the perimeter of the Castle of Muiden. Muiden used to be directly connected to the North Sea, until the construction of the IJsselmeer Dam in 1932, which caused the formation of Western Europe's largest lake - Ijsselmeer aka the Lake of Ijssel.
The castle of Muiden once more, surround by a moat with relatively dirty waters. Who said the Dutch don't litter? Or more probably, the kids. Apparently this place is a favourite excursion spot for local schools. We saw many children even on a Saturday with their parents touring the castle.
This one goes to Mr Pang Sze Fei. If you are reading this, go check out Gun Kiat's version.

All of us - 6 Exchange students & 2 Free-Movers from NTU in the Netherlands! Technically if that photo went well, you would probably see it appear on NTU Exchange Office's poster boards, but the sun was a little too glaring and the shadows a little off, but all in all, still an above average shot from the touring master - Eng Gun Kiat.
I took this photo while walking towards a small mole and the rest of them were up there. I liked the shot because it felt like a shot from Band of Brothers. My attempt to be artistic but like I said, an attempt.
To all the Singaporean drivers, including my father, who are absolutely incensed when they see birdshit on their cars. Let's just say if you were living in the Netherlands, your tolerance for birdshit is much higher. It has to be.
Gun Kiat, me and Ge Yao at the Weesp Town Hall.
A church in Weesp.

All in all, this was one trip I thoroughly enjoyed because there was a large expense of open space and scenary. I am a person who much prefers beautiful scenaries relative to shopping areas, and at the Dutch towns of Weesp & Muiden, I got just that.

It is also a good break from thinking about when my internet issues will be sorted out, but I will leave that to Tuesday and spend the rest of my time from now till then studying instead.

Car or no car?

2008-02-14T06:14:00.008+08:00

Today I had a class about Sustainable Engineering.We were told to write down our thoughts on a piece of paper and hand it up to our professors after watching the Al gore film "The Inconvenient Truth".

Some of us were selected to give a 1 minute pitch on what are some of the bugging issues that were clouding our minds after watching the film, and I sort of volunteered myself to bring up the most pressing issue I think we had in Singapore.

I shared with the Dutch students the common perils of cycling in Singapore and how the Dutch should consider themselves lucky to have cycling lanes when in Singapore, most vehicle drivers like to play the game of "how close to the cyclist can I get before he loses his balance and falls".
That story was shared to me by my close friend Benjamin Kline.

Of course some common rapport was established and after cheers and laughters, we were all graded mercilessly by the professor (who incidentally also graded himself for a speech he gave on how old people could encourage younger people to start environmentally-friendly businesses by distributing their wealth to the young to try for adventurous environmental ventures.

Other points such as how political will usually gets in the way of sustainable technology came up and the one point that really stuck was this student who adopted the pessimistic view that we should just give up. Because all that we have done is too little too late too slow and c'est la fin.

Another chap stood up and said we do not embrace sustainable technology because we human beings are just plain stupid, which was quite a sweeping statement but backed up with relevant opinions.

Some random pictures of the class:

Incidentally, we were all graded upon a score of 1 to 10. You probably can catch my score on the chalkboard if you looked closely enough.

I must say I quite enjoyed such a lecture series. It was a chance for students to come up with their own ideas about how we as engineers can try to embrace sustainable technology to help resolve the CO2 problem that plagues our Earth.

I am not much an Earth-loving person, but I do know my share of responsibilities when it comes down to the wire.
Here in the Netherlands and in most parts of Europe, you have to pay for your plastic bags and you get paid for returning your glass bottles.

Now that I am here, I do appreciate the efforts my mother makes when she dutifully sorts out our trash for recycling. She splits the trash into paper, plastic & glass. And while my brother and I are not exactly very happy to do the recycling, (even though the car is at home and we have the time), I am beginning to see why my mom makes the effort despite knowing the rest of Singapore probably will not give a shit about saving the environment.

We really have shitloads of cars in Singapore and whatever happened to not charging the driver when he had more than 3 people in his vehicle entering the CBD? (In case some of you are unaware, Singapore did have this policy till the early nineties I believe).

Nowadays we are just content with sitting back and paying ERP gantries for entering, what might be for some of us, home. (Hint hint Toa Payoh people.)

Now the Dutch laugh when you try to explain that we charge ERP for moving along an expressway. I mean, those people actually cycling as many kilometres as they take the train!

Still the professor thinks that the Dutch can be better and try to embrace more renewable forms of technology. Singaporeans probably cover more distance on cars than those on trains, buses & bicycles added together.

The Dutch, as with most developed European nations, have students that will confidently take to the mic and speak up on their view. Hey, we even had one student who accused the professor of not doing his bid to save the environment because he was the leading engineer on some fuel rocket manufacturing in Delft. Man that chaps had balls.

All in all, it was one of the best lessons that I have had over here so far, though I was left to ponder how possible was this in my native country of Singapore. We are (and I certainly am) too apathetic to the issues around us. But perhaps I might change the way I think the next time I pick up a plastic bag from NTUC when I get back.

PS: It was really foggy here today. A picture of Kianshing and me on the bicycle lane to school.
Lesson venues can differ greatly over here. Today we had to cycle 10 minutes from one end of school to another to catch a lesson. And pictures were possible only with the help of Mr Eng Gun Kiat.

觉悟

2008-02-12T00:58:00.000+08:00

又到了那种时候。

心情漂泊不定，有一种心浮气躁的感觉。

说实话，我蛮讨厌Facebook 和Friendster.

看到人家把自己高兴的照片放上，巡死了。感觉好虚伪。

看到自己出现在朋友的照片里面反而让我更反感。以前的我好像重了些，但至少脸庞还过得去；现在是我一身中最重的一个时期。还以为来到了这个寒冷的国家有可能授了些，但与两个星期前，我好像还是老样子。

功课上又缺乏动力。

好讨厌这样的自己。

又懦弱。

I hate this. The feeling of knowing that you can make an effort to initiate change and yet you are so comfortable where you are and you refuse to move.

I see my friends all moving on, while I have stayed stagnant after so many years.

In my mind, I rationalise to say that I have perhaps been far ahead of them, but the reality is starkly contrasting. I am yet again fallen behind.

Whatever happened to that young impressionable boy that was always full of zest and never spoke until he thought and second-guessed.

I keep hiding behind my strengths, and use them as a tool to deflect or block arrows that are aimed at my weaknesses.

I refuse to improve, and alas, time has caught up with me.

Is that what I really want? Why am I still so dependant on those around me?

Why can I not settle things myself?

Sometimes I like those times when I was alone and I had no relational burdens, when I was free to do whatever I wanted and most of time, it turned out well.

My discipline has deserted again, and it is a worrying trend that it has been missing in action more and more regularly.

Will it come to a day where I am left to stand my ground against the advances of my weaknesses, with no more walls of strengths to hide behind or shields of positivity?

It just might come to that day.

Leiden & The Prerequisites of travelling in the Netherlands?

2008-02-10T04:45:00.001+08:00

Windmills. Obviously you must have windmills.

Bikes. So many bikes that you even have multi-story bikeparks. Unheard of in Singapore but very much possible here.
Hell, the Dutch cycle as many kilometres as they travel on the train.

Beautiful canals and buildings. Of course, which Dutch city wouldn't have some form of a dyke or a canal?

Freshmarkets. Very much like pasar malam in Singapore, but their markets are a weekly affair.

And lastly, the most important factor. A friend who lives only to travel and even checks out where to go when we are having lunch.
Indeed, when passion takes over, there is no such thing as a break.

Throw in some bells, and you might even get lucky.

Chinese New Year

2008-02-09T04:05:00.000+08:00

The cooks of our little CNY dinner.

We can cook too!

Dark sauce garlic chicken. (Done by me!)

Unfortunately, it looks better than it tastes and the oil from the chicken was eventually too overwhelming for even the hungriest of stomachs.

Having to spend CNY this year for the first time in my life without my family wasn't too difficult.

Perhaps it was because my mind was so caught up with my accommodation issue that the little meal felt so uplifting to the heart.

I have come to the conclusion that the Dutch work differently, and thus so will I to adapt to their culture. Even if it means violating common sense.

Rotterdam was visited on Thursday, but until I figure out what's wrong with my template, no photos temporarily.

If you cannot wait though, you can find them here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jananyeo/RotterdamTheBiggestPortInEurope

Enjoy CNY folks.

2008-02-05T18:50:00.000+08:00

I finally got the keys to my actual residence.

I will leave that residence as a party residence as the hall and kitchen are large with comparison to the sleeping quarters.

Yes, sleeping quarters, because my room is so small, I barely have room to move around.

I do have a backyard with a pond, but it is currently overgrown with algae and the garden floor is littered with broken glass shards, an indication to me that my place was broken in once before I moved in. My cellar is flooded with dripping water from leaking pipes and the basement has all kinds of funky items strewn all over from hamster cages to an extra motorbike wheel.
Oh, I almost forgot the next most important thing regarding the house: My heater is spoilt while winter season is still on, and I swear I would have suffered in my sleep had I moved in yesterday night.
I do not know how long it will take for the housing corporation to settle these 'minor' issues regarding my place of residence, but judging from how long it was taken them to fix the heater and internet in my friend's apartment (it's been more than 8 days since they raised the alarm), I do not wish to hope.

The last owner of the house was a female Dutch lady by the name Van Der Velden, and my mailbox was stuffed with utility and cable bills from the month of September 2007.

Needless to say I kept all these mails, and if the previous tenant of the apartment wishes to return, I will have her mails ready for her.

My place has no internet, which was as I expected and I had a meeting with the study coordinators here in Delft this morning regarding the lack of internet connectivity.
I was told to apply for internet on my own, and apply for the entire block that was living on Prunuslaan itself, with the contract obviously being under my name.

Obviously I am intelligent enough to know that until I get an email that states black and white that the university will reimburse me for signing the contract, I will NOT even go near the place.

I may be pigheadedly stubborn, but I am wise enough to know I should not enter battles that I cannot win. Handling Dutch administration is like suddenly kicking sepak tekraw when you were always kicking a football.
Different ball game, like a typical Singaporean says: "Bangs balls lor."

Meanwhile, it seems quite likely I will be spending more time than I expected in my friends' apartment, something I am not very pleased about and quite honestly, feeling embarrassed about but thankfully, all of them are accommodating.

I wonder if they will mind if I said I wanted to continue staying for the rest of the entire duration here, which is quite common in the open European culture despite a blatant breach of housing laws. But then I am a person with a slipped disc and spinal fractures living further away from the university than all of them, so when it comes to human rights that the Europeans so famously pride themselves for, I wonder whether who will prevail.
Not withstanding the fact that I have and paid for a legal residence in the country, who should give two hoots about whether I am living in my place or not.

A Dutch contact introduced to me by Victor mentioned that finding accommodation in the Netherlands was shithard. I think I am beginning to appreciate the significance of that statement as everyday passes.

My new place is obviously isn't that bad. Quite frankly, the neighbourhood around it is quite beautiful, with a huge park and reservoir just adjacent from the highway across my street. But like I said, it is more suitable as a weekend hideaway than an actual residence for school.

2008-02-04T03:10:00.000+08:00

Cycled around my area today.

Caught and snapped away with my camera.

Random photos:

A canal in Delft, with the setting sun.

Lonesome tower in the background.

2008-02-01T19:35:00.000+08:00

First shock.

Then realisation.

Followed by depression.

Not before acceptance.

Then comes rationalisation.

Finally, balance.

This is the way most people feel when they are dealt a blow that they cannot do anything about.

Those who cannot get past the acceptance stage generally follow on to lead miserable lives.

Me?

Today, Gun Kiat, Kian Shin and Anthony headed off to Den Haag, the administrative capital of the Netherlands. I chose to stay in bed and ponder about what ifs.

Regret overwhelms me right now. I wish I had gotten up and moved on to visit more places in the Netherlands. I think I am over the depression stage, now is just accepting the fact that I will definitely be moving on Monday.

To which, I will have to work out a new schedule, a new system of surviving in this foreign country.

Still I am bitter over the Dutch administration. Perhaps they should have gone Dutch on my accommodation fees as well for their screwup, I sure as hell would not have mind that.

2008-02-01T00:08:00.001+08:00

Negotiations have failed.

My whole experience in Delft right now is being ruined by the fact that I have been given an accommodation venue far away from the university.

To sum up how far my actual residence is from the university, kindly put the following in perspective:

My place is so far off from my friends, it would take me close to 40 minutes of cycling to get to them.

And it would also take me 25 minutes of cycling to get to university everyday.

I am not complaining about all these because I am some spoilt brat that is used to walking from campus to university everyday.

In fact, I have got no qualms living alone. I do not mind sharing the kitchen with only one other person.

The one thing that really pisses me off is the messed up Dutch administration.

You see, I sent my appliction form in late October and and the exchange coordinator there, whose is also a student of TU Delft, totally messed up my application.

By the time I found out my application was not processed in late December, DUWO was so fully booked they could only give me a place which is almost off the goddamned city map of Delft.

And the most brilliant thing about this whole episode is that unlike NTU, housing in Delft is handled by an external corporation known as DUWO. And to those sons of bitches, so as long as they never received my application, they will never compromise to anything because they would simply point the finger at TU Delft.

TU Delft, on the other hand, simply said I should go the exchange coordinator and see if she can do anything about it. But what the hell can she possibly do?

I mean, she is just a goddamned student just like I am, who is doing the exchange role as a part time role to pay off her college fees.

Their exchange officers just say they cannot do anything about it and it's Dutch laws.

Yah, they might as well go dutch on my accommodation as well and jolly well pay half of it since they totally messed up on their end.

And how I have to land up paying for all their stupid cockups in between is equally amazing.

Basically they messed up big time, and I have to be the one to clean up the mess.

I admit I can be a really vulgar person, but to have me vent my frustration in such totally uncharacteristic manner just goes to show how bloody exasperated I am with the whole Dutch administration.

And the people at the exchange office say they cannot do anything about it because they were not the ones in charge. And here comes the most embarrassing part of their admin:

TU Delft has a rule that all students MUST have internet connectivity.

Because it is a modern university.

Because it is a technological university.

Because it is a world class university.

Now I believe all that but obviously they have the same problems as Singapore: World class university, substandard administration.

Guess what, my new place?

No internet connectivity.

Now I would gladly go apply for internet myself and pay for it if I had to.

But the problem runs deeper:

They have NO internet cabling at where I am.

Not even a damn telephone line, so you can rule ADSL or dialup out.

Am I really in the Netherlands?

Or am I in some mountain top refuge in the middle of Antartica?

Well, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger.

2008-01-31T15:49:00.001+08:00

IA results are out.

Well, let's say life comes full circle in this one.

Right now I am concerned about my accommodation than anything else, so that result while significant to me, does not matter as much as the moment.

Though I must caution the rest of my coursemates on this, your report matters. Not just the input from your industrial supervisor.

Today, let me learn how to negotiate.

2008-01-31T00:34:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was spent visiting Amsterdam again. I was there in July 2005 with my mother, and some things just don't change.

I didn't take the canal ferry this time, as I had taken it before in 2005 and I am saving up for the places that I have never visited in my life. Prague, Geneva and the works.

But photo's sake, I did upload the photos of the places we visited in Amsterdam.

Unfortunately, we had missed the free tour that Sze Fei was telling me and Gun Kiat about by just a few minutes as we were having our breakfast at the Burger King at Amsterdam Central.

But undeterred, and led by our temporary guide Mr Eng Gun Kiat, we proceeded to visit the Anne Frank house & Amsterdam History Museum while we were there.

I had been to the Red Light district before so it wasn't on my list of must-goes, but I am certain the rest of the group will return to check it out sometime.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jananyeo/AmsterdamAgain

I never got to upload my photos when I visited Europe with my mother in July 2005, but since I have the time now, and Google Picasa makes it so bloody convenient.

Oh by the way, I was a lot thinner then and if it's anything I want from this exchange, since I will be cycling so much, it is to drop some weight and look like before.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jananyeo/Europe2005

Alas, D-day is upon. Time to sharpen my negotiation skills and get me a place nearer to TU Delft instead of the 25 minutes I might have to undertake everyday.

2008-01-29T01:47:00.000+08:00

I have finally found a proper place to stay in Delft.

A place with proper internet and more importantly, in the same apartment as my fellow coursemates.

Technically I am flouting with the rules but the more important point is, the dutch side screwed up first and I do have a legal address here in the Netherlands in 57 Prunuslaan.

And the room I am in is spacious and even bigger than what I have at home usually. So no issues whatsoever.

Now the only thing I lack is a proper bed and a pillow, plus a nice chair which I can sit on the do my work.

In the meantime, exploration of Delft has taken on a new meaning.

Somehow traveling in Europe can be quite a stoic experience.

I can't like talk about where I have been in Delft, but let us say we have spent the past few days hunting for a cheap bike and also visiting the area in Delft.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jananyeo/DelftExploration

Till next time.

2008-01-26T06:10:00.000+08:00

I have arrived safely in Delft.

The weather is cold and chilly, but I am confident my thick layers of subcutaneous fat will help block out the cold.

Bunking in with a friend currently as my room is still currently occupied.

Long day ahead, but thank you to all who were there at the airport.

My sleep.

2008-01-16T19:06:00.000+08:00

My mind is currently filled with uneasiness over my exchange.

Somehow, the Dutch administration never received my initial accommodation application.

Somehow, the room that I was subsequently allocated because of the above reason is close to 25 minutes cycling distance from TU Delft.

Somehow, that room has absolutely no internet connectivity.

I don't even know whether the room has a telephone line which I can tap for ADSL application, but I guess I have to take things one step at a time.

But hey, I always believe that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

The whole point of an exchange is to be exposed to the culture, whether it's the Dutch culture (they must be high on weed 24/7 to have messed up my accommodation application, but hey, at least they processed my application.) or the point that you are left alone to struggle for survival. Probably not Spartan-like but a more fight-for-yourself mentality where complaining alone ,which I and many other Singaporeans are guilty of, gets you nowhere.

Whatever it is, I will sweep all these minor obstacles aside and rise above all this nonsensical shit.

You be damn sure that I make sure whatever I learn there contributes to my knowledge of worldy experience, and put me ahead in terms what I know and can do.

Meanwhile, I look forward to the great European experience and seek whatever rewards I can possibly find.

And of course, kbox on Friday, badminton on Saturday and Sunday!

2008-01-11T20:07:00.000+08:00

Today marks the end of my industrial attachment.

No more waking up at 0555 every morning.

No more rushing for the company bus at 0650 at Hougang community centre.

No more sleeping on the company bus to work.

I do not know how much of working life I will miss.

My main concern was to go to work, do my job and not get someone else into trouble.

While most of my classmates have barely begun their attachments, mine has already ended.

I chose what I wanted, and got to experience more than I had expected.

Contacts were certainly made and while going back isn't an absolute certainty, like most other places where you might have interned at, I stand a better chance of returning.

I am glad I got the recognition I wanted.
Two positive evaluations forms, one testimonial and one letter of appreciation from different departments within an MNC is most flattering.

Of course, I made mistakes along the way but I am lucky I had colleagues who were willing to tolerate them.

I move on another stage in my life, and try to remember the lessons I learnt from the previous.

2007-12-07T23:04:00.002+08:00

Just had a conversation with a classmate.

I did mention earlier my choice of study was in chaos.

Well, chaos is an overstatement. More like in need of reorganisation.

Classmates are unhappy with the course curriculum and the general direction at which the course is headed.

It might sound stupid of me to sound off here, because all I might be doing is de-valuing the nature of the entire cohort.

But the industry will find out anyway.

I mean: one entire batch of students ill-equiped to live up to the expectations of the industry, what beats that?

Factor in the future batches that will have their hopes dashed by the pioneer batch not impressing and NTU suddenly has to open their eyes a little more.

Reputation can be such a bitch sometimes.

They had a tea session with the professors on Tuesday, from which I was absent due to working reasons. Let's just say covering for your supervisor while he is on vacation isn't exactly what I expected myself to be doing during my attachment, but hey, I take what comes and it's new experience anyway.
The tea session was more like a farce according to him.

A norm in our country.

So bring it on, his point was that the trouble runs deeper and although administration has been alerted, someone has to tell them what's really going wrong.

It's a Singaporean thing is it not? To not stand up for something you believe in because you feel you might get marked out for persecution.

Another norm.

This classmate of mine had that thought, and I would be lying if I said I did not.

I thought of it as a potentially mutually beneficial situation.

We remind administration of their flaws, and they shake themselves up so they don't produce graduates that disappoint.

I don't think my course is in complete shambles right now. But the more acute problem is that the people in charge of curriculum are mostly material based people, which means too much emphasis on materials.

Isn't aerospace engineering about the fundamentals of aerodynamics and flight mechanics?
Factor in too little of the latter and too much of the former, and you get an imbalanced bunch of undergraduates due for the working world in one and a half years time.

Another classmate wrote that "we are still devoid of a good spokesman".
I think the more accurate statement is that the good spokesman doesn't want to stand up.

Why would a spokesman stand up if he felt he did not have the support of his classmates?
Or more importantly, perhaps like what Robert Redford insinuated in his recent film", the people who are capable of making a difference simply don't bother.

Why they don't bother could come down to a couple of reasons:

1). They are intelligent enough to know they will survive in the industry even if the course is messed up because they are simply capable.

2). They are intelligent enough to realise that they might get screwed over for sticking their head out despite their excellent EQ.

3). They are politically correct in whatever they do or say and simply won't say the nasty things when it needs to be said.

Which leaves the question of whatever happens to the majority who don't know how to speak for themselves or have troubles expressing what they feel, or maybe even feel that expressing itself is pointless as administration is exactly what it means in its inefficiency to effect change.

I don't know for sure which category of person I fall in. But if I choose to speak, who would listen?
Conversely, it is unfair for me to comment as I have not been in school this semester, so whatever I speak can only represent last semester and before.

I do not seek effect changes that are beyond the school nor do I seek personal glory should I choose to stand up and speak to the administration.

But my point is, isn't the administration the one who should be fearful of its students, rather than the opposite?

I'm not confused on whether I should continue to be unSingaporean-like or be a typical bystander.

My task at hand is to convince those people who belong to all three categories to stand up with me and go see someone who can effect change.

Who knows, a defining moment in our live might await us.

Time will tell, as it always.

2007-11-28T21:29:00.000+08:00

My choice of study is in turmoil.

And yet here I am, oblivious from all the trouble that has been brewing in the background.

It probably isn't as bad as it sounds, but it is times like this that people look around for someone to stand up and talk.

Somehow I get a bad feeling that work will overshadow this.

Bad feeling.

2007-11-06T20:10:00.001+08:00

Ran for 35 mins 32 seconds last Tuesday.

Ran for 34 minutes 47 seconds last Thursday

Ran for 33 minutes 46 seconds today.

---

Had a frank conversation with one of the other interns in my office today.

As I previously mentioned, I am the only university intern currently working at Pratt & Whitney Svcs. The comforting thing is that I am not alone, and that there are also a couple of Balestier ITE interns working there at the same period.

Well almost the same period, because they will be leaving next Friday.

Anyway, I was chatting with one of the ITE interns when we came across the topic of milling.

In plain simple English, I know what milling is and how the process is done but I have never executed the process before.

Then she started asking me whether I knew about grinding.

'No.'

Turning came next.

'No.'

'What do they teach you in university?'

'Good question.'

It is illogical to me that if we were to continue on our current education paths: She to achieving a Higher NITEC cert and me a university degree, I would land up sitting on the office floor while she works in the workshop, despite her knowing a lot more about the process than I did.

What makes me, a future graduate to be, capable of quality-auditing her working process, when she is the one that has done it a lot more times than I do, and probably does it the right way?

Yes, I know the usual argument that graduates have the big picture view and that you cannot compare us this way because universities teaches you to think on the fly and to adapt accordingly. You cannot expect undergraduates to learn every single manufacturing process and be better in the technician at it, especially when the latter spends a much more substantial amount of time in the workshop while the former usually hangs behind a computer screen.

What do you think?

My industrial supervisor offered me his thoughts and they were quite enlightening to say the least, but somewhere within me lies the desire to know and perform the process better than the technician one day when I really become an engineer, if I become one, that is.

2007-11-03T14:50:00.000+08:00

我变了。

更冷酷。

更无情。

但是，我仍然一直被牵着鼻子走。

为何我现在可以对别人的不幸偷笑？

曾几何时我是那么的心地善良，现在内心却如此的险恶。

It is not my intention to be spiteful. But I hated the way it was written.

You may be good, but it is something I hate very much when you put people down.

In the end, you did not get what you want. So who is having the last laugh now?

It always pays to be humble.

But then again, one door closes and another opens.

Only you can decide whether the new passage is brighter than the one already closed.

2007-10-30T19:48:00.000+08:00

Three years ago, I bought a game called 'Call of Duty' the very day it came out onto the market.

I admit, I love First-Player Shooter games but for the past two years, I had given them up due to an aging computer.

Since my family purchased our new computer, a lot of games have been popping up in my head.

My motto is this: Anything but Half Life.

Call me biased but I hated anything to do with the silly Steam online software.

So Activision became my best friend.

You can't go wrong with these guys.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Enemy Territory, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.

I admit Battlefield 2 was fun, but until I saw Call of Duty 4.

The video speaks for itself.

I have so got to get this game.

Be forewarned though: This game takes a lot of juice to power, but am I lucky that mine can provide that juice.

Time to be a little boy for a while again.

2007-10-23T20:38:00.000+08:00

Today I was having my morning break with my supervisor (as usual) when he touched upon the topic of academics.

I told him my experience regarding government organisations and my failed (sigh) scholarship interview with DSO.

He told me that he was disappointed in me.

Of course, he was just joking and was merely trying to rub salt into my wounds regarding the earlier interview.

He did mention that made me think for a moment, and that was something along the lines of:

"You are very unSingaporean."

Am I?

I mug when I see people mug and am equally focused on my academic results as my peers are.

I am just as kiasu as the average Singaporean out there on the streets when it comes to good food and queuing for it.

I speak Singlish.

I can point a dozen other things that makes me equally Singaporean-like as my fellow countrymen.

I admit I do differ some bit from my fellow countrymen in the way I analyse people and things.

To put it a nutshell, I am more or less a similar kind of person to Mr Chow Siu Hang , my dear old friend from AJC and ODAC, but then that chap has the benefit of living in a foreign country once and then coming over to Singapore to adapt to our system, so naturally his thoughts would differ.

Is it my parents?

Maybe, my mum has always expressed her admiration for European culture. When she was still a housewife, I remember the times that she would take pieces of wood bark and broken branches from our apartment compound and somehow work it into a nice little signboard which wrote 'Mag's Kitchen', Mag being the name of my mother naturally.

My dad is probably more Singaporean than it gets. Typical Singaporean. Especially when it comes to food.

My religion perhaps?

That one would probably factor in high. Being Roman Catholic meant reading and attending Mass in English, week after week after week. I must admit: there are days that I do not understand the sermon completely, and there is a burning desire within me to tell someone high up that the Church has got to change the way they deliver their sermons, but that is another story for another day.

I would say if you called me unSingaporean in nature, it is because of the above factors combined.

I internalise a lot of my thoughts and many a times, I am very direct to people, although I have never really stepped on anybody's toes, or even when I did, I did not care much because I felt the person was worthless in nature.

I have got myself into several quarrells recently: The dick at the Real Run, some portion of NTU administration, and just the week before, some rockhead and his wife who insisted Gun Kiat and I give up our parking space when they were four lots away from our space when we parked.

I do believe, however, that if I am to succeed in life, be it academically, career-wise, or simply being happy, I have to continue to be unSingaporean-like.

A beautiful image to me does not lie in the picture of Mona Lisa, nor does it lie in an art piece sitting behind a Chubb's protected security glass.

To me, sitting on the grass looking at a body of water is scenic enough to make my day anytime.

And if that is enough to keep me happy, then why not remain the way I am?

We all view happiness in different ways.

The above is my way.

2007-10-13T13:32:00.001+08:00

I think I am a fairly normal person.

Below average height.
Above average weight.
Above bad temperament.
Above average kindness.
Below average fitness.
Above average communication ability.
Average handwriting.
Above average drive.
Above average attitude.
Below average discipline.

I have always thought in my life that it matters not what you do, but how you do it.

How you do the small things is going to affect how you do the big things - If you cannot do the small things right, then how would you expect to do the big things?

I felt happy that my industrial supervisor recognised the amount of effort I put in my effort, whether the work is significant or not.

It makes a difference when he refers to you as a colleague rather than an intern attached under him.

It makes a difference when he gives you the freedom to make the decision regarding minor decisions, and seeks your opinion when he is deciding on important work decisions.

Yesterday's assessment was indeed an eye-opening session, and he obviously has no regard for rules and regulations set by university administration.

His opinion was that I am currently an employee of the company and so the school cannot interfere.

Oh well, I wonder what my professor will say when he hears that.

---

Watching Lust, Caution with Gun Kiat at Cathay yesterday.

You know what? The Board of Censors destroyed a wonderful film.

I was living in Lee Ang's world for a good 147 minutes until the end came.

And when it did, because they cut all the steamy scenes, you would not be able to fathom why Wang Jia Chi did what she did.

If people wanted pornography, people can easily get it online.

Even if it was an attempt to make the film NC16, and to rake in more cash, the relevant people should have released 2 versions of the same film and make the more steamy one RA.

Because of all that cutting and relentless censoring, Lust, Caution drops from 5 stars to 3 stars.

---

Was talking to Gun Kiat after the movie and on our way to meet my other classmates.

Of all the people who are currently doing their IA in my course, I am the sole university intern in my current company.

It is both good and bad.

Bad because I do not have anyone to compare my reports and my logs to, although that to me is complete bullocks anyway.

Good because people do not treat me as a student but as an employee.
It makes a huge difference that people treat you as a co-worker rather than just a student.

To be fair, Pratt has had interns in their company before, and I am certain I am not the best student there.

But so far, it's been good work and interesting stuff. Although the admin can be mind-boggling, but people are willing to answer my questions and teach me stuff I never have seen before in school.

That's the point of an attachment.

2007-10-13T13:25:00.000+08:00

I love the people who did this:

What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z is represented as: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

2007-09-26T22:16:00.000+08:00

What do you do when you're in a position to mess up a person?

Especially when that person messed you up bad previously?

How does it feel to be in a position of power,
To be able to take away things from people in the form of a word known as 'punishment'?

Right now, the person that chose to be rude in her emails; the one who chose to take half day leave when I sent her an email three full days earlier that I was coming down from Loyang to Boon Lay to speak to her; the one who thinks she can scrutinise people based on her judgements.

I won't deny it's all a big misunderstanding, but the way the matter was handled was completely insulting to all parties involved.

Don't you ever, ever accuse me of claiming credit for something I did not do.

I spent my goddamned holiday in the hangar, working on prototypes after prototypes only to get emails saying that my claims are being scrutinized.

Fine, at best I'll say more prayers, but if getting you reprimanded, or making you lose a bonus, or at the very worst, making you lose your job is what my email to your boss is going to do, then so be it.

Because one thing for sure: Carry on working the way you currently are and I guarantee you - I won't be the first and last person you'll be pissing off.
And one day, someone with higher and bigger authority and possibly a much shorter fuse than I am, can do a lot more things.

And it doesn't help your plight that your fellow colleague actually felt what I was doing wasn't wrong.

So what if I'm finally getting what I deserve; so what if it's now all water under the bridge since my point has been proven after that one hour talk with someone above you; so what if I have been a nice person for the majority of my life?

Burn. And I will watch.

2007-09-20T20:40:00.000+08:00

Oh the anger that streams through my blood.

For months I have been waiting for the money that has been owed to me by my NTU project to arrive.

Yesterday came a mail that absolutely infuriated me.

Dear Students,

We would like to inform you that your claims and the subsequent justifications, if any, are being scrutinized and you may only receive revised or partial claims as per NTU authorizing offices.

Regards,
ASDF
On behalf of the ASDF Chairman

It seems to be that I am being doubted for the work that I have placed into my project for the last ten months.

Never mind that. It is of not much importance.

The thing that irritated me most about this event is that the professors in charge of the claiming system refuse to engage the students involved in dialogue - to an extent that he/she has to rely on his assistant to send out emails and answer queries when there are any.

It almost feels as if they are so comfortable up there on their ivory throne that they absolutely refuse to let themselves be displaced from it: Even a meeting called by a friend via email is left unanswered despite two full days of waiting.

Unlike Samuel, I do not take this action of theirs lightly. In fact, emotions rage within me on how I intend to make their life more difficult.

Should I:

a) Send an email to the Dean of MAE to let them know how their suboordinates are mishandling the situation?
b) Send an email to Dr Su to inform him of our displeasure for not getting paid for work we duly performed?
c) Get the professor in charge of our project to come out (Afterall, doubting our claims means you doubt the very person who approved it), informing him via email of course.

You know, I have never believed in sending out emails whenever you wish to handle senstive matters - especially accusatory tones and language, no matter how well-disguised they are intended to be.

But since I am working right now; since they chose to do it through email; since they are so inefficient with regards to our questions; since they have been contacting us for nearly two months via email but the matter is still not resolved, tell me: Why should I hold back?

I realise what might happen: They might mark me out and give me a bad grade for my FYP.

They might even if they choose to, try and influence my IA grade, although it is of no concern to how I am performing currently.

Ultimately they can burn me bad and significantly influence my career path.

It is times like this that some sanity within grips my instincts and restrains them before it explodes into a ball of exasperation.

It is also times like that that I feel I need to discipline my mind more.
Things like controlling my emotions and keeping my thoughts in check run through my mind. To a certain extent, I write out how I feel, like I am doing so now, in a bid to escape doing the foolhardy things I so badly wish to.

I regret that I cannot be in school tomorrow to help my fellow coursemates who are also owed a huge sum of money by our school. And when I say huge, let's just the amount owed to all of us combined adds up to more than ten thousand quid.

Should I just sleep over it and then send the email?
I am no fool, I do know you should never send emails when you are angry.
Sleep over it they say, then look at the email in the morning again and you will see the amendments that are necessary.

That's the exact problem.
I have slept over it.
Not for one day, not for two: a whole two weeks to be precise.

And yet whenever I look at the email, I do not wish to retract any sentences.

What does that mean?

But let's hope tomorrow turns out well, for the best victories are those won without a battle.

2007-09-13T22:51:00.000+08:00

"Thanks a lot, you showed me how much integrity Singaporean bosses have."

I wonder if anyone working for a Singaporean company thinks the same of foreign bosses.

2007-09-03T19:02:00.000+08:00

Just finished reading Samuel's Blog.

It makes me happy to know my friends are enjoying themselves in school, despite me being away at work on the other hand.

I cannot really find the right word for that feeling.
Would it be nostalgia? Perhaps I am trying to catch that familier feeling I once had the past few semesters.
Or would it be envy? Some part of me wishes secretly that I could be back there in that lecture theatre talking cock to Sam, Tim, Paul, Claire, YW, JW, CY, Calvin or any of them around.

It is a different kind of life stage I am undergoing: one of working life for a prolonged period of time.
I have been there before: Army to me was pretty much working life but with a much more regimentalised system.

I almost feel like my mind is made up of separate entities: One that wants to go back to school, another that enjoys not studying further.

Again, we fall back the same topic of "it's not what you're studying, but the company with which you are studying".

Being alone (in fact, the only university undergrad) in Pratt & Whitney right now feels like a long lonesome walk, but I'm equally lucky to have colleagues from different departments that always call me out for lunch.

Do I like working as the only intern in P&W now?
Yes, because it means the only competition I have is myself. On the flip side, you are alone in the unique problems you face, and how exactly do you share these problems with someone with the similar mentality as yourself?

Of course, it just means I have to age my mentality to that of the people around me, and all my problems will be swiftly solved.

Thankfully I have no problems doing that, as I have always been blessed with maturity beyond my years.

But, I still reminicise the times when I could act like a kid and get away with it.

What does not kill you makes you stronger.

2007-08-29T18:35:00.000+08:00

Three weeks into my industrial attachment and how has it been?

When my industrial supervisor returned from overseas last week, he promptly sat me down and informed me of what I was going to do for my attachment.

For starters, I am not going to be doing anything related to engine parts despite the fact that I am working in engine compenent repair facility (For that matter, a centre solely dedicated to engine compenent reparation.)

Next up, I am not going to be touching any engineering drawings, nor use much of my current aviation knowledge in my current job scope

Third up and probably the most surprising, my industrial supervisor himself is not an engineer by training and whilst his entire department is full of engineers who inspect engine parts, he happens to be the only chap who does not do so and the only reason why he is in that engineering department is because what he does involves quality control (but not of engine components).

So exactly what am I doing? Well, some details are confidential but the main bulk of it involves training and admin.

The admin part is perfectly fine by me. I was doing it when I worked part time at Caltex befire army, I was doing admin while in the army, and here I am, doing it again.

Thankfully, the admin part is only one portion of my work. The other portion involves updating training database records, streamlining training procedures and preparing training materials for staff undergoing training in the company.

Basically, I am an aerospace engineering intern who is working in a HR/Admin role. How strange the world can turn out, you must be thinking. While it is not uncommon for interns to do something completely irrelevant to their choice of discipline, I thank my luck for doing something that will still be benificial to my work life in the future, since training is one aspect of our working life that will always be prevalent.

Whilst I am not exposed directly to engine components, I will get to sit in during training sessions which is aviation-related and perhaps, if my supervisor is agreeable and so far he is, make a presentation to staff in the company.

But all in all, it was not a bad choice choosing a reputable company as advised by my aunt.

She told me that it matters less what you do in the company, but matters more which company you are working for. Her rationale is that bigger companies have more established frameworks and thus attempts to move about or to learn more about new concepts are much more convenient.
So far, her advice has turned out fine.

Let's hope it continues to be fine.

2007-08-18T11:06:00.000+08:00

The first week of work has passed.

I think in all of the places that I've ever worked, I've been very fortunate in that I'm not had to experience much office politics.

I hope that this time, I will have that kind of luck again.

Relationships are a very sensitive thing. Between me and my supervisor, I don't know how things will turn out.

But I don't even know who he is yet, because he is currently out of the country on training, and what kind of a person he is - is something that I will only find out starting next week.

Work is ok, but I will only find out more about what I'm exactly going to do next week.

Hopefully, it is something I look forward to.

2007-08-11T14:12:00.000+08:00

Back from Hong Kong.

It was the first time I ever took a free & easy trip away from Singapore.

Meanwhile, IA beckons.

Updates updates updates.

2007-07-22T15:50:00.000+08:00

Today was the Mizuno Wave Run that I had been training for the past 6 weeks.

For six weeks, I have been throwing myself to run around anywhere to hit a certain mileage and giving myself time to get used to the full distance.

To frank, in all of my six weeks, not once have I touched the full distance of 10km.

And to make matters slightly more difficult, I had problems sleeping last night due to bad sleeping habits the previous few days.

To top things off, it started raining heavily around my area at about 0430H.

I figured with such heavy rain, the race might be cancelled but thankfully that was not to be.

It was, however, to be a very muddy track today.

Our route was mainly around Bedok Reservoir and then around the circumference of Temasek Polytechnic.

Like one Caucasian runner said after the race, it felt more like a "cross-country run" rather than an actual competition run thanks to the huge amount of mud kicked up.

And something odd I found about the runners today: Some whine about being hit by the mud.

Because of the rain in the morning, parts of Bedok Reservoir's track was turned into potholes of muddy water.

The result was many runners doing Super Mario hops (as termed by Samuel/Sze Fei)while on the run.

However, for most hardcore runners, pothole or no pothole, speed is of the essence and so all of them just breezed past the pothole and sprayed water sideways towards everyone around them.

I don't really care about mudwater. I came to run and thus what is a bit of mud and water in my shoes and shoes.

But some people running beside me were absolutely hilarious...hissing line after line of 'tsk' or 'pssst' after being sprayed by the oncoming water.

Oh well, I guess some people are allergic to mud.

That said, the remainder of the race was quite uneventful.

Thanks to the morning downpour, the weather stayed relatively bearable.

I managed to huff and puff my way to the finish line in 71 minutes and 56 seconds.

To be frank, I thought my best would put me around 80 minutes, since it took me 59 minutes plus to finish 8km. So coming in 8 minutes earlier is a huge achievement for me.. I should thank all those who have inspired me to keep running (Daniel, Samuel, Kok Vui, Sze Fei and many more, you know who you are).. and probably the one thing I should thank a lot is my training. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to finish 10km since the last time I attempted 10km was in 2004 during the Second Link Run.

---

Life has a very interesting way of throwing up surprises at you.

Just when I thought my day was pretty much set (doing 8 minutes better than what I thought I would have done), some dickhead had to attempt to spoil my day.

Samuel was in the queue for the goodie bags and so we naturally gave our goodie bag tickets to him so he could collect them for us whilst we'd get water for him.

Slowly, Ga Seng and Claire caught up and joined us in the chat as we waited for the goodie bag queue to shorten.

As we chatted, a guy behind Samuel suddenly shouted at Ga Seng to get out of the queue. Perplexed as GS was never in the queue (more like chatting to us), the guy (A) decided to give a go at me as well for apparently cutting into his queue.

To be fair, for giving Samuel the goodie bag vouchers (he had no pocket and so I took it) was definitely something like cutting a queue, but we have a guy there in the queue long before us, we just pass him our vouchers and scram. But of course you won't, we stayed and talked to Sam to keep him company as he queued for the goodie bags.

In a nutshell, there were instances he raised his water bottle in a seeming attempt to hit me and the 'f' word was introduced very unceremoniously by him in an attempt to gain some vantage over a young man like myself.

Sometimes, you got to know who you are talking to and I put him right back where he should have been by talking to him as an equal.

Though the incident didn't really feel like it was my fault, I was very delighted with my race timing and so as not to ruin my day, I apologised like a gentleman and let the chap go on to his works.

Poor Sam had to stand there alone while he returned us our goodie bag vouchers for us to collect it on our own.

In all frank truthfulness, had I finished the race in a foul mood or not even finish it, I might have retaliated and landed myself in much bigger trouble.

But somehow, I think I did the right thing by telling the man to talk like a civilised person and talk sensibly.

In fact, I even managed to get him to talk about the race today, which was in his opinion, poorly organised and probably the reason why he snapped after he had to wait like one hour plus just to collect his goodie bag (we all did, btw).

Or maybe, like my brother suggested, I looked like the guy who stole a potential job away from him.

Whatever.

2007-07-20T00:35:00.000+08:00

I love cats.

Dogs too but somehow cats rub it off better with me.

So today, you shall have a cat fiesta.

Cats cats and more cats.

Enjoy.

NTU Hall 13 Cat - Garfield

Unknown Hall 3/16 Cat

Unknown Hall 3/16 Cat

Cat at Marine Parade

Cat at Siglap

Cute fat cat at Siglap

And the finals, a video!

2007-07-19T14:23:00.000+08:00

Dear Janan

We have been informed by Pratt & Whitney Services Pte Ltd that you have been accepted for Industrial Attachment. Your IA with Pratt & Whitney Services Pte Ltd will be from 13 August 2007 to 12 January 2008.

Hurray!

Hong Kong here I come!

2007-07-17T23:12:00.000+08:00

5.0km in 33 mins 47 seconds.

Ran at East Coast Park.

Nice weather and running surface.

Sunday beckons.

2007-07-14T09:14:00.000+08:00

Just sent my parents off at the Airport.

They'll be in Australia for about 6 days before heading back on Thursday.

So, the house has just me, my brother and the occasional lizard.

And so, since my brother cannot cook, suddenly I'll be the one doing the cooking.

I'm sort of used to it, but still, well...it has been like 13 years since my mom and dad went on a holiday together.

They did ask me along but I flatly refused.

So please, please please please please let me go to Hong Kong right now.

I hope my IA company will be more willing to extend my IA so that I can go to HK in August.

Meanwhile, run in the evening.

2007-07-13T19:37:00.000+08:00

Ran about 4.5km with my brother.

My back was aching since my Sunday's run, so I rested for 5 days before running again today.

I think running in the night isn't a very good thing.

The sun in the late afternoon/early morning takes a lot more out of you.

And talking about people running with their mp3 players, it helps alot, doesn't it?

I mean, the music takes away all the pain, gives you the rhythm and certainly helps in giving you better mileage.

BUT, isn't running supposed to train you physically and mentally?

If you rely on music, and if the music does what I just mentioned, then where does that mental aspect go to?

It becomes something like a mental steroid, something you require everytime you run.

So you get trained physically, but mentally you're as before.

Of course, I admit running alone is goddamned boring, unless you live in Kinabalu or some place where you can run up a mountain etc.

So, with music or not, should I?

I don't have an iPod but I certainly have an mp3 player.

Whatever, just keep running.

2007-07-09T21:34:00.001+08:00

I just returned from watching Transformer with Aaron at Cathay.

Before watching the movie, I was pretty much pissed with the amount of negative reviews given by movie critics in 'Today' and 'Life'.

I believe Felix Cheong of 'Today' or 'Life' gave it a two out of five and the other two critics, who were coincidentally female, gave it two out of five as well.

Firstly, judging from the photo, Felix must be at least in his late thirties or early fourties.
If you consider Transformers to be a cartoon that came out about twenty years ago, what exactly would Mr Cheong know about it?

Zero.
Kindly tell him to stick commenting on the Beetles or the Beachboys.

And then the ladies, how do you review something that you didn't know off much in your youth?
As far as I was concerned, my female cousins were generally involved in Barbie.

Barbie.

And more Barbie.

It's like watching 2046 by Wong Kar Wai and saying that it sucks because the story has neither an end or a start when you realise that Wong Kar Wai's films are meant to be watched in chronological orders before you can start appreciating them (Like 'One Night in Mongkuk' followed by 'Chungking Express'....you get the point.)

And so yes, I decided I would watch for myself and decide.

Firstly, let's starts the pros.

1) Kick-ass special effects
I'm not a sucker for that but you gotta admit the F22 Raptor (called 'Starscream') was a really cool kick-ass scene when he took down other human-piloted F22 before roaring off never to be caught up with. Robots and pure metal grinding against each other, together with the goddamned ostentatious-looking vehicles (A monster-truck, a Pontiac Solstice, a Chevrolet Concept Car, a Hummer and the good old truck of Optimus Prime....and that's only the Autobots.)

2) Some references to the original cartoon and movie.
Now contrary to what people think, this is NOT the first Transformer movie made for the cinemas. There was another movie (cartoon movie that is) that was released in 1986, where Optimus and Megatron battled it out in an epic battle.
There was this one line that probably stands out in this movie that was referenced from the one in 1986: "One shall stand, one shall fall." Said by Optimus in reference to the fact that all that bad blood would be brought to an end today when he faced off with Megatron, I couldn't help but feel a hint of nostalgia.

3) Spoofs in the show (This one is both a pro and a con.)
Let's see:
a) The Matrix was spoofed (the radio robot hiding behind the pillar as the Secretary of Defence, yes the US Secretary of Defence, played by Jon Voight was discharging shotgun rounds trying to buy time for his allies to contact the military for an action plan.
Now trying imagining Miss Condi Rice with an AK or M16 in Afghanistan.....Eh...no.
b) Top Gun was spoofed (when the F22 pilots were getting into their vehicles, the music in the background was from the 1989 movie 'Top Gun' by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson)
c) That Man In Black thing. What the hell is Sector 7? And why try to spoof a film by Will Smith? And the good old agent who can own anyone with his badge, but can't figure out how to use an old receiver? Another few minutes wasted.

Now, the cons:

1) Too much stupid stereotype
a) The typical Indian telemarketer who receives a call from a marine and demands for his credit card despite being in a desperate situation.
Who has that got to do with movie? Obviously, Michael Bay thinks the inclusion of that scene helps to make the movie a little more light-hearted and funny.
But really, does it?
And then the good old tough African American man who can hack his way through the entire Pentagon's network but is still afraid of his grandma, sounds familier? It is.
An overused plot or cliche that is way past its time.
Do yourself a favour Mr Bay, fire your scriptwriter or pass over the sequel to some other director: How about James Cameron? (Terminator?...Yoo hoo... tried,test and proven. Michael Bay? Erm, you watch the movie, you judge.)

2) Too much making of the Autobots 'uncool'
Robots in your backyard, ruining your folk's garden, big, bulky and stupid.
No, Autobots are meant to be friendly, but not that stupid when it comes to moving around.

Nonetheless, credit must be given to Michael Bay in terms of action direction.
The fight scenes were quite breathtaking and the morphing scenes when Autobots or Decepticons transform were really seamless and well-connected.
Although there are a couple of bloopers in the show, like:
1) how did the Autobots know where the Allspark was?
2) What exactly happened to the other robots that was created when the Allspark's energy leaked onto the streets?
3) Why are all the new robots created by the Allspark always innately evil?
4) Why didn't Bumblebee touch the Allspark and heal himself the way the Radiorobot did when he got his legs blown off?
5) Why didn't the Police Car Decepticons show up in the final fight scene? Or was he camping at some spot because he knew the baddies would lose this fight?

If I can point out that many number of errors, then you know where the show needs to touch up on: The finer details and making sure the story ends well is important here.

Still, I loved this movie simply because it was wave after wave of nostalgia as I watched my favourite hero in all cartoon, Optimus, face off against evil and struggling despite knowing the odds were against him.

That alone, gives Transformer a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

PS: I'll leave you with this video, which was made before the movie was released, and you'll be amazed at how close and true this chap predicted the movie flow in this review.
Enjoy.

2007-07-08T13:31:00.000+08:00

Ran at Macritchie today.

Tried the 11km with Daniel.

Couldn't complete it.

We ran about 5km before hitting into a sign that says the route is closed and we have to detour around another 5km before continuing.

Damn NPB, that route was blocked off since December of last year due to a landslide, and 7 months later, it's still not up.

Oh well.

Damn tired now.

2007-07-07T23:34:00.000+08:00

My URECA project finally ended on Friday.

After ten months of work, some sweat, one pretty irresponsible group member, incredibly resilient other teammates and some guidance, our report was finished and submitted.

Ten months ago, my project was to built a flapping wing propelled micro aerial vehicle.

Ten months later, I'm no way close to accomplishing that.

But we managed to finish three prototypes and one waterproof flapping wing system in that period of time.

Surely, we have laid the ground work for the next batch of students who intend to work on the project.

Let's go through a small timeline.

January 07 - Prototype 1

May 07 - Prototype 2

03 July 07 - Prototype 3

Thanks to Anthony, we even had Fluent analysis and a fantastic done artist impression of how the final integrated model would look like.

I couldn't have asked for a better job.

Yet, even with the best of analysis, the best of Solidworks, the best of theories, nothing and I repeat - nothing, comes close to an actual flight test.

Our test didn't last too long, we must have thrown something like 100 over times to test its flight worthiness, but if anything, we definitely proved its crash worthiness.

When our first and second prototype broke easily, we decided our third and final prototype would be completely styrafoam-based.

And then when we almost close to giving up, the below happened.

That moment was quite sweet indeed.

Ah, the vindication.

I must say thanks to the following people for their hard work.

To Shengshi: For your resilience on the flapping wing mechanism and innovation in times of needs.

To Sock Fang: For your amazing patience to try a program you've never tried before, and to do something you never touched before as an environmental engineering person

To Kok Vui: For all those lame ass jokes, messy-hair-cause-i-woke-up-late-again look, and sticking it in there when we needed help

To Anthony: For the excellent Solidworks and analysis

To that uninitiated member: For not making much effort in helping us, I promise to really screw you up nicely. How does a Unsatisfactory grade look like on that probably first class honour degree sheet of yours?
Simply priceless.

To Samuel: For sticking it in there, giving useful suggestions, listening to my cursing, talking cock and most importantly, taking over the leadership role when I was simply too tired to go on. Another project with you down the pipe and we delivered decently once more.

Special thanks to a Prof Jorg Schluter - For allowing me the chance to work on a project that I wasn't allowed to work on when my grades was supposedly unsatisfactory thanks to rigid NTU administration.

To God (surprise surprise): For somehow making that flight possible just to show a proof of concept.

-----

Running at Mac Reservoir tomorrow.

Hopefully it's be 2x 4.8km or maybe the 10km route.

Mileage mileage.

2007-07-06T01:56:00.000+08:00

8km in 59mins and 10 seconds.

Same distance as what I did three weeks ago, only I did it faster.

I charged the slopes and maintained my pace on the down.

Still need to make it to 11km per run somehow.

Run.

2007-07-03T23:25:00.000+08:00

7.2km in 52 mins and 06 seconds.

Slightly disappointed.

I was targetting a sub 52 minutes but it was not to be.

Still, I am very proud that I am running.

Keep running.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a running mileage counter on my site.

For now, I'll use the good old excel sheet.

I probably need to start doing 11km per run by next week... as suggested by Daniel who was once in the athelete team in AJC.

Wah 11km.

The thought just blows my mind.

I think I might have to run around the school again.

Like run around NTU......twice.

So screwed.

2007-07-02T23:56:00.000+08:00

Ran 5.8km in 41.43 minutes on Sat evening.

I need to keep my mileage up.

20km per week from this week on.

2007-06-29T00:07:00.000+08:00

6km in 43.15.

Maybe I should come up with an excel file to claim my mileage per week.

I don't know if I've lost weight.

But hey, running was good.

My URECA project is at a brickwall.

I don't know where to go, ever since my prototype tragically landed upside down thanks to poor aerodynamics + lousy throwing.

So tmw, me and Sam are going down to Chinatown to get some stuff, in an attempt to make our final prototype lighter.

I hope it works.

Or else, I can kiss that grade goodbye.

At least I do get SGD4000 so I won't complain that much.

2007-06-26T19:54:00.000+08:00

Went for Claire's 21st Birthday yesterday.

Apart from a minor incident, it was an entirely enjoyable event.

It was held at Aloha Loyang, the same place Junping held his 21st birthday party more than two years ago.

Hai.. The memories.

If anything, don't ever drink too much. I saw someone shivering in pure pain and totally in shock as the alcohol limit hit the roof. Not a very enjoyable sight, and it makes it worse that it was my friend whom I was witnessing.

I think he should be grateful that he has such a wonderful girlfriend, who quite literally had to forcefeed him water so clear out all that alcohol in his system.

And then came this interesting topic I had with Sam & Kok Vui today during dinner: Why do we drink?

I never enjoyed drinking. I always see it, and up till now, as a mere choice of drink during gatherings and occasions.

We drink for the occasion and that should be the way.

You don't drink till you're pissed drunk.

I think once you start vomiting, it's a little over the limit.

I've never vomited after drinking in my entire 22 plus years.

For starters, I hate losing control - and drinking causes the loss of self-control.

Then comes the fact that too much alcohol is bad for your health. I admit a little red wine every night is healthy. But no, while my mom does follow that rule, it hasn't caught up with me.

And yes, I CAN drink. I once downed 16 glasses of red wine when I was on tour in Europe with my mom in a very wonderul Italian Restaurant on top of a mountain.
Still I managed to maintain enough control to get myself on the bus, tape the rest of the tour group who were more than gone and even help some drunk tour people into their rooms because their wives weren't able to lift them into their room.

I realised I never posted photos of me and my mom when we visited some parts of Europe in July 2005. Oh well..

I never intended to drink that much in any case. It was like 6 pple to one bottle of wine but because the adjacent tables had kids, we ended up drinking 2.5 bottles and since their wives don't drink much, the men ended up finishing most of it.

Speaking of drinking, the guy on the extreme left of the picture was a Korean chap, Cho.
Cho was one hell of a drinker... no wonder Korean men are required to hand over all their salaries to their wives in an attempt to prevent them from drinking too much.

But back to topic, I still don't think pple should drink until they lose it.
The so-called phenemenon of getting high is a very foreign concept to me.

And puking. Maybe it's me, but in the four times I've gone clubbing with friends, on three of those occasions, I had to lug one of them (or two of them) back to their homes and make sure they didn't shit their pants. On two of those occasions, someone vomited on me and I ended up smelling like the colon of pig + bull's testicles + goat's big intestines blended into a nice juicy mixture.

So maybe that's why I don't enjoy drinking.

Give me my milo-peng anytime.

2007-06-24T12:29:00.000+08:00

Did 4.7km at Mac Reservoir.

I clocked 33.50 the last time I ran with Daniel.

That was two weeks ago.

I clocked 32.18 today.

Hope to improve further.

I need to start running longer distance, or I fear I will not be able to complete the Wave Run.

I can, but I know I will be doing so at a very slow pace.

Run run run.

2007-06-23T21:48:00.000+08:00

Trekked for 11 plus km today from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve to Macritchie Reservoir.

I've done it before but today was done with the company of Jonathon and Dom as we made our way.

Surprisingly, there was a lack of monkeys today.

I have a video clip on my handphone but I'll upload the view from Jelutong Tower (which is above the tree canopy).

---

URECA Project.

Argh... after one and a half months of building, our prototype... *Sob*

I'll let Samuel's video do the explaining.

Sad sad sad. Now we gotta rework the fuselage and go back to the drawing board.

Hell.

Looking at Sam's video reminds me of the videos I made from 14US just before I entered university.

Important they are.

I'll let the video do the rest.

PS: Miss Tan, sorry so many of us could not make the gathering you organised.

2007-06-23T21:09:00.000+08:00

Kok Vui, Samuel, Pang and Paul somehow insisted the route we ran was somewhere about 6 km on Wednesday night.

Bullocks.

6 km huh?

I know I am unfit but nowhere would I take 56 minutes to complete 6 clicks.

Now all of you know! Actually we ran more...hahaha rejoice!

2007-06-21T03:26:00.000+08:00

Ran for 35 minutes on Sunday

Swam for 30 plus laps on Tuesday.

Ran for 1hr today.

Sleep.

2007-06-17T18:49:00.000+08:00

Ran around my neighbourhood for about 35 minutes.

I nearly gave up so many times along the way.

For once in a long time, I actually verbalised what I was thinking:

"Just keep running."

Hey, nice motto, if only Asics would take it.

I would gladly recommend my shoe, the Asics Kayano Series for any plump chap out there seeking to run.

In the Asics series, I think it is the one type that offers the maximum amount of cushioning.

And I've lived through three Kayanos and none have let me down.

If my current pair were to expire any time soon, I would still go for the Asics Kayano.

The only thing is that now shoes are so expensive.

Oh well, running shoes are a good investment.

Just like education and land.

Cars are the worst investments on earth.

2007-06-15T21:54:00.000+08:00

5 hours of singing.

Yeh.. I finally found a place where singing is almost as cheap as Malaysia.

This place is called '10 Dollar KTV' and the bill was really SGD10.

Hahaha, 5 people and we paid SGD50 in total, with free flow of drinks and even a bowl of substandard shark's fin soup but that was redundant.

---

Ran for 37 minutes today.

Believe or not, I was locked out from my house because my no-brain older brother had to take my keys and had no sense to leave them outside or sms me that he was going over to his girlfriend's place.

So for the first time in my life, I ran in jeans.

Fortunately, my footwear was a Asics Gel Kayano 9 so I was saved in terms of impact.

To be frank, I haven't eaten my dinner yet but my stomach's rumbling so I might grab a bite soon.

I'm currently looking to join a couple of races this year, together with my coursemates who are also eager to lose some pounds.

Here's some:

1) Mizuno Wave Run (10km) @ Bedok Reservoir on 22 July 2007.

2) Army Half Marathon (12km) @ Esplanade on 26 August 2007.

3) New Balance Real Run (15km) @ Changi Exhibition Centre on 28 October 2007.

4) Standard Chartered Run (21km) @ Esplanade on 02 December 2007.

I think option 1 is a little too ambitious for me. I haven't ran 10km in three years, since I conquered the 2nd Link Run in 04. But Option 2 is a big welcome and so is Option 3 because I like the shirts from Option 3. I still have my Real Run shirt from 2005, and it fits me still quite well.

---

Suddenly, TU Delft is a possibility again.

But why now when I was just getting over it?

Why now, when I already am stuck with doing a special semester and have my HK trip booked in Aug?

And the worst part is, if I do go to Delft, I have to do my IA this semester, and NTU has this rat ass strict policy of IAs starting on the 09th of July.

How do I work around 3rd Class administration, should I choose to go to Holland?

I suddenly feel like Michael Schofield.

If you see exchange as a plus on your resume, then IA to be me is a necessity.

Because of the lateness of this information, I am only eligible for the 2nd round of IA selection, which might mean a lot of good companies already taken up.

Sure, I could always source for my own, and I'm confident I will find at least one. But NTU has this balls ass rule that you cannot self source.

Why? I don't know.

And even if I do get that exchange place, and I do get that company I want, my special semester ends on 26th of July, by which IA would have already started by the 09th of July.

Now I have to plan on how to get out of this administrative incarceration.

2007-06-14T22:56:00.000+08:00

Swam about 30 laps today.

Been so long since I last touched the water.

My blubber (I refer to the fat around my tummy) didn't let me down in terms of staying afloat, but I sure felt a lot of drag as I pushed myself forward with each passing stroke.

Talk about drag, and my URECA project's prototype 2 is finally out!

After one and a half months of reworking and reinstallation of electronics, system checks and all that yadayadayada, it was done.

It's far off from the original flapping model but for a bunch of Year Twos who built this from scratch.

We are now just waiting for Professor Schluter to come back from his holiday to fly the aircraft (because we are all scared of crashing it).

---

That said, I realise Shaker leaving isn't such a bad thing.

I realise that there are a handful of professors in NTU who are aerospace-trained but are unable to teach in our course because Shaker had some prejudice against them.

One of them is a certain Prof Suresh from the School of EEE. (Electrical and Electronic Engineering).

On Wednesday, he showed me an orthnicopter that he had built together with a couple of Final Year students, which was simply amazing.

I can't show you what he did, because it's on my handphone and my Bluetooth is faulty, but let's just said he succeeded in making a electronic model of a bird that flies for 20 minutes on a 8.4 v 340maH battery and his model only weighs 117.5g.

Simply amazing. I wonder how many more of these talents NTU is burying.

"1st Class University, 3rd Class Administration": I just can't get these words off my mind ever since I heard that from a professor in my university.

Of course, there are good things, and I'm sure for every miss, there's a hit.

NUS and SMU probably also face the same problems, but as human beings, we always compare.

2007-06-13T19:32:00.000+08:00

I made on the newspaper.

What a joke.

Had Samuel not posted it on his blog, I probably wouldn't have known.

No wonder that lady was asking me for my Chinese name during the EID event itself.

My parents have never ordered Chinese newspaper in their lives before.

Oh well.

I certainly don't remember speaking in Chinese...or did I?

2007-06-11T16:33:00.000+08:00

Finally, EID has ended.

At the start of the day, we felt that our project had a chance of winning because it was simple, innovative and most importantly, efficient.

Our product was a mobile crowd control stanchion. You know those things that help to demarcate certain off limit zones or the stands that help to make a queue zig zag across whilst in a bank, yep - that's what I'm talking about.

The questions posed to us were normal, with some industry people judging us.

The picture says the rest.

Finally, results.

Still, all these would not have been possible for the sacrifice of my fellow EID teammates from various streams of Aerospace, Mechatronics and Design. We brought together a range of expertise from 'smoking' (Aero pple for the Business Plan), manufacturing (Mechatronics) and drafting (Design).

The end result was a very successful product indeed. The impression I got from most of the people whom I gave the presentation to was that of respect and they were certainly impressed.

One thing that did remind me and continues to be verified with each passing project that I do is that I excel in the role as a backup person.

I mentioned before I hate being the group leader and that I function a lot more clearer and better when I'm thrusted the responsibility of being a member. I'm not a regular member in the sense that I speak up a lot, and if things need to be done on a sub level, I generally take charge and volunteer. But somehow I hate the organising and all that paper work, somewhere along the way when I do have to do that, I get lost and go back to square one.

Our group leader for EID, Christian, conducted a post-briefing where we were supposed to receive a feedback from each of our members of our strength and weaknesses.

I found the last point on the negative trait section on one of the papers to be very true of me. Over time, I have grown proud and sometimes ignorant of what I do. Whilst I do not seek to change that because it reduces the desire to excel in me, I do have to find a way to curb its overzealousness when I work with people. That said, it is reminder to me that I am far from perfection and must seek to improve.

One thing that did strike me too was that once again, I was doing the presentation.

In my group, I gladly volunteered because I knew they wanted me to do it and that there was probably only one or two more chaps who were up to the task but were tied up in other responsibilities. I fear I'm becoming a little too one-dimensional but once again, that said, we won First Prize so how exactly does that weigh out?

I must improve: to not only be a good presenter but to be an even better engineer.

Because I have chosen a course where most people are either afraid to speak up or can't.

And to excel, you have simply got to be the best, maybe not academically, but in how you present yourself and you have to know what you are saying.

Congratulations to my fellow group mates on a wonderfully successful model indeed.

2007-06-10T11:10:00.000+08:00

I just came back from running with Daniel.

I must thank him for being so patient as to keep to my pace during the 4.8km run at Macritchie, he was afterall, once a school long distance athlete and he could have probably blazed the trail had he chosen to.

I like the idea of meeting on every Sunday to run. I used to do that with Darren, Vincent, Junping, Liangjin and Chongmin when we were all in the army and had supposedly less time.

The irony of studying in the university now is that we don't meet up as often as we did when we were in the army. Oh well, we are all just too busy with school work and projects.

But still, Dan suggested a weekly run since we are in the holidays and I would very much like to embrace that. It is a great idea to meet to run together, because it gives you a larger motivation to finish the distance and in cases like me where I'm a bloody slow runner, the additional drive to stretch your legs a little more.

So run on Friday morning: 3.2 km.

Cycle on Sat morning: 2 hours

Run on Sunday morning: 4.8 km.

I want to keep running.

2007-06-09T18:38:00.000+08:00

My results came out on Friday.

Since people I know like Gun Kiat and Samuel actually gave reviews of their results, I shall follow suit and give a review.

Firstly, I personally thought this semester was the most insane semester I have ever endured in NTU.

Credits are a bunch of numbers, the amount of effort I sunk in for a subject known as AE2011 was ridiculous.

From designing the interior of an Airbus A380 from scratch via Solidworks to the building of an escape aerial vehicle with my bare hands, 2011 wasn't just insane, it was absurd.

But still, I must admit my understanding of electronics improved tremendously after that course. Now I know how to operate Solidworks, how to solder, how to use a drilling machine, how to use a sawing machine and how to negotiate with your Lab technicians because I spent a hell of a lot of time in the Aerospace Hangar day after day after day.

Getting a B+ for this subject was something I expected because I felt I had zero motivation for my final exam paper. I spent more time copying stuff down into my cheat sheet than revising my concepts (as did most of my coursemates) and so I agree with the B+ completely.

The same must go for Aerodynamics I. Source, sink, D'alembert's Paradox, Vortex generation and Vortex induced drag, yadayadayada. The way it was taught was poor to begin with. I fear for my next semester's Aerodynamics II where we will be dealing with Compressible Flow which just increases the number of parameters in equations that already have to take care of changing variables in all three degrees of freedom + viscosity + specific volume + etc.

B+ was definitely the deserved grade once more.

Thermodynamics: I knew I nailed this one from the start of the paper. I did all 4 questions and not once did I stop to think whether I was on the wrong track. You have that feeling once in a while when you do papers. I had the same kind of feeling for my Mathematics 3, and hey both of them turned out to be an A+. I worked my ass to get that grade.

Aerospace Materials: My previous blog posts would have suggested I should have died because I only started studying for this paper at 12am on Saturday morning. I have a pretty good memory and I suspect were it not for the fact that I confused large grain nickel alloys to be good against creep when it might have been the opposite (I can't remember anymore in any case), the A would have been mine. For a subject that required almost zero understanding and pure regurgitation of details, A- was good enough.

Lab: A- is my best ever lab grade. Nuff said.

My only gripe is Mathematics 4. I know I scored close to full for my CA and although I made some silly mistakes here and there, I don't deserve a B. That is also why for the first time in my life, I have actually submitted in an appeal for a review. I mean, carelessness can drag you down a grade or two, but down by that many? Well, I heard NTU doesn't bother to remark your script. What they do is just to recount the marks on each page to ensure each page was accounted for and make sure that the grade remains the same UNLESS you failed.

World Class University, 3rd Class Administration: I think that line from one of my professor just summed it up.

Still, I'll send it in because right now my cumulative GPA stands at 4.44, which is about 0.06 off the mark of First Class. I myself would like to give up on trying for first class, because I believe the additional effort required simply doesn't pay off. I would rather sacrifice that 0.43 of a GPA to spend time exercising and leading a more fruitful lifestyle than to stare at books for extended hours. Afterall, getting a 4.01 or a 4.44 makes absolutely no difference on your degree certificate.

Oh and to Samuel and his improving grade (now firmly in First Class and in my opinion, the dark horse of our course, plus some say my gay partner, the last point being complete bullocks), you owe both me and Xuefeng a treat!

-----

I must say I have some opinions about the recent furore about students not being able to enter universities due to inadequate A level results. Reading some of the comments by parents and strangers alike about the issue was very thought-provoking indeed.

I myself had a half-baked result for my A levels. I got a A for Physics, C for F maths and A for C Maths. My GP grade was a B3 with my Chinese AO Grade an A1.

Now, I don't consider myself intelligent. I am certainly hardworking and I know there are limits to where hard work can take you. I have said before I see exam results as a snapshot in a person's academic career.

A snapshot.

But life as we know it is more of a movie and we are the actors or actresses playing it out on a stage called life. Just because you got a couple of botched results shouldn't condemn you to which course you can take and which course you can't.

Universities have only that much manpower and so to ask them to individually interview every single candidate is an absurd suggestion.

Some guy with the name of 'Hih' and 'Han' wrote in to the Straits Time to ask local students who were rejected to take the option overseas in the US /UK. I laughed silently as I saw the state of our forum page deteriotating as time goes by. Not everyone in the whole of S'pore is rich enough to go the States or the UK for an education. That alone deters people from trying. For the Straits Time to actually publish that letter, I think the editor should have shot down by his boss. You'll find it in Thursday forum this week I believe.

NUS even went to the extent of publising their entry criteria to sooth those angry A level/Poly students who were rejected, which is a very good move I must say, because it helps to clarify the picture.

Grades of A,B,E and a B4 for GP was considered adequate to get into an engineering course during my time. But being born in the year of the Dragon means extra competition and therefore you simply have to work harder. If you do wish to compare, then countries like South Korea, Taiwan and China simply have it worse-off than us. Statistics don't lie. China has ten times the number of students applying for the number of places available. South Korea and Taiwan are not too far off, and that probably explains why planes stop flying during exam periods in South Korea. (Yes, they actually delay their departure or alter their flight path so it doesn't disrupt the students).

All I can say is: Keep working hard. You harder you work, the luckier you get.

There is no two ways about getting that place in university, should you truly desire it.

There is no replacement for hardwork; Being intelligent just means that you take one hour to do what people do in two hours, but you still have to take that one hour.

By the way, 9 million people in almost two decades and we seek to have a 25% university rate, that's about 2.25 million graduates?

We better come up with ways to support our sinking island before we land up like Venice: Flooded every year.