Nomis's Thoughts

sian...................................

2008-03-03T22:56:00.002+08:00

Today is the beginning of a boring week. I really really really really need a change. Take a step backward to go forward? Continue walking and hope for the step upwards? Working can be so boring, esp when nothing challenges you and you can actually feel your brain rotting.

Gwarr... Ponder ponder... This game of chess is so hard to play.

You know that......

2008-02-21T14:57:00.002+08:00

You know that you are working for a rich employee when they say that an unexpected USD$1billion writedown is "immaterial". I expect to receive "immaterial" bonuses then.

Batam

2008-02-13T22:32:00.000+08:00

Went to Batam over the CNY weekend with Dap and her family. It’s just a 90mins boat and bus ride away. I must say that the sleaze factor of the island is overrated, or maybe it’s because I did not go to the right places at the appointed timings.

The one thing that struck me was the drivers’ amazing driving skill. Their overtaking maneuvers can put any Singaporeans’ to shame. Of course, they are all driving beaten up cars and can afford to be more reckless with their cars.

Did I mention that we went there as millionaires? The exchange rate is $1 – Rp6,450, so go figure how much it takes to hit a million. A can of Heineken goes for Rp7,700 in their supermarket but our resort’s lobby is charging S$7 for a can. It is either exceedingly intelligent or stupid for the Indonesians to mix up the currency units, depending on which angle you look at it. Bought a couple of nice Polo-Ts there as well.

It’s not exactly a cheap place to go to once you factor in the transportation costs to travel around the island as well as the accommodation expenses so I guess I won’t be returning there any time soon.

Happy Chinese New Year 2008!

2008-02-07T01:21:00.000+08:00

The first week of Feb is quite a slack one for me. On leave on Mon and Tue, half day on Wed, public holiday on Thurs and Fri and it's the weekend. It does sound like a great start to the New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone. Guess health, career and family are the top 3 concerns on most of our mind right now - so best wishes for them!!

A quick update on my new year re-solutions (40 days into the new year):

1. Save more spend less - Just got my latest credit card bill, very much WIP

2. Get fit trim the fats - Might shift office to Changi so gym membership put on hold. Dreams of 6 pecs remain a dream for now

3. Out with the old - Completed. I didn't take 2 days leave for nothing. It was spring cleaning time for my room and thanks to Dap, the room seems so much bigger and cleaner now.

4. Blog more regularly - So far so good

5. Switch job - very much WIP too

I'll be away to Batam from this Fri till Sun so hopefully I can catch some sun there.

Happy Chinese New Year 2008!

Another setback - just a day in Nomis's rollercoaster life

2008-01-28T17:14:00.000+08:00

I knew things would be bad. But not this bad.

The world seems to be a little bit darker.

I want to be alone, to shrink into my little shell.

Cowardly, yes. But at least no one can see my tears.

Cowardly beats cowardly AND embarrassment anyday.

CFA results are out...

2008-01-23T22:55:00.000+08:00

Judgement day come now and then and are like signpost in your life telling you the distance to your goal. Sometimes the signpost shows that you are further than your goal then you think; sometimes the signpost shows that it is a dead end straight ahead. So life goes on, seeking these various signposts to correct your direction in life and the pace of your steps.

Today is such a day for thousands of people around the world. These people are armed with the dream that CFA qualification is the ticket to better jobs and money. I do not know about Level 2 and 3 but 39% of these dreamers cleared the first hurdle, on this ardous journey.

I am glad to say I am one of them. Dap is one of them too.

I must admit I consider myself lucky to clear this first hurdle. Glancing at the result slip, I have failed a few topics and inside me, I know I am not strong in those topics.

And the dream is still alive.

New Year Re-Solution

2008-01-14T22:35:00.000+08:00

It’s being a long time coming since I updated my blog again. No excuses, just plain lazy. And, my life is pretty boring. Weekdays work and sleep; Sat will have tuition and play mahjong, Sun play soccer. It had been pretty much a routine for the last year. I wonder if I can last this way for the next 40 years. I need to add my spices to my life!

However, if I were to look back and recap on the year on some events that stood out, I must say there were a few. In no order of importance, firstly, I passed my driving test! That should relieve me of the story that I gave Pingwen the ride of her life that fateful day in the NTU carpark (whoops). Secondly, I got my first car. It was a second hand OPC silver-ish blue (and some say bluish silver) Hyundai Getz. It was supposed to be quite cheap but it is still burning a hole in my pocket every day. But it does make travel more enjoyable (if no jams) and faster (if got parking lots). Thirdly, I went to HK / Macau with Dap, Jit and Pen for 7 days. It is always nice to travel and I doubt I will get sick of travelling (until I see the bill) and the trip rekindled my wish of working overseas one day. Any country will do, even my beloved India. Fourthly, I got into my first car accident (that required repair). It happened on the slip road leading to SLE at Sengkang. I blame it on the heavy rain and rising water level on the road. I had a lot of opportunities to look at drivers who got into accidents and standing at the roadside arguing and it was my turn to be gawked at back then. I wonder if the accident was reported on the radio.

I guess there are lots more stuff hidden at the back of my head, waiting for the right time to come flashing in front of my eyes. I think that right time will come in 50 years time, when I am sitting on a rocking chair and staring at a blank wall - It might be blank to others but it is actually a canvas to play back my own life.

Looking forward, I present to you Nomis’s New Year Re-solution 2008. See? It’s not really new resolutions being made; It is actually coming up with new solutions to meet the resolutions made in the past. Hence, re-solution.

1. Save more spend less

I realize that my savings are not as much as it should be and I realize too that part of the reason was due to the maintenance of the car, monthly mother tax and tuition fee loan repayment. With the tuition fee loan about to be repaid fully, I will be in a better position to save more. I am also thinking of getting rid of the car in a bid to save even more and if I do not need to pay anything to sell the car and clear the bank loan, I think I will do it. I do not have much free cash flow now and I hope that in 2008, I will be able to resolve that.

2. Get fit trim the fats

I am in a serious dilemma for this. Do I sign up for a gym membership? That will set me back by $1k and be a direct challenge to resolution #1. Do I go jog after work? I will be too tired by the time I reach home. Do I go jog at Esplanade area after work? Maybe I will do that but that will take a lot of perseverance. Do I jog before I go to work? This could be an option too. The bottom-line is that I want to delay the inevitable - being fat – for as long as possible. I can slowly see the deterioration of my body. What used to be a firm 6 pec stomach is now a flabby sometimes-can-see-4-pec-sometimes-can-see-2-sometimes-none stomach. Arggh.

3. Out with the old

It had been a long long long time since I cleaned by room, I think maybe since before I graduate from university. Lots of dusts are gathering in places not visited often. Spaces are running out as stuffs are piled on top of the other. I intend to take 2 days leave before Chinese New Year to clear out all the rubbish I do not need and to clean the room. I wonder if 2 days are enough.

4. Blog more regularly

Hopefully I can update my blog once a week. Taking 30 mins out on a Sunday should not be difficult but it had proved difficult thus far. I will see what I can do about this.

5. Switch job

To say that I am unhappy in my job is an understatement. I feel that I am not learning enough things in my current role and somehow, I am unable to work well with my teammates. To put it bluntly, I feel stupid in front of them and it had been like this for a year. I guess I have not yet found what I want to do or the niche which I can excel in. I am thinking of a life as a product controller but as of now, my career path is still hazy. So if possible, in 2008, I would like to switch to a better (paying) job where I can excel and learn lots.

Strange, I thought I had more than 5 re-solutions when I was forming the content of this blog entry in my head. Well, I guess these 5 are already quite a handful. Let’s see how many will be done in 2008!

Happy new year everyone!

Car accident

2007-11-27T00:25:00.000+08:00

Got into my first car accident (defined as requiring workshop repair. If not for this assumption, then maybe this is my fourth accident) a week back. It was raining very heavily and I couldn't see shit when my car was entering into a sliproad onto TPE. I stopped the car but it's too late - my car had inched out of the sliproad, inviting a passing lorry to hit me. Damage not too serious but it's enough to shake me. Had been seeing people at the road side or on the road surveying the damage to their car during an accident and this time, it's me! Those who were driving along TPE to SLE direction near Punggol, you might have caught a sight of me.

Repair took about 2 days, involving panel beating and replacment of a metal sheet. Total damage - $520. Ouch.

Luckily it's not anything more serious and luckily i did not hit a car, otherwise, the cost of repair would be much higher.

Risk - zero sum game?

2007-10-26T11:49:00.000+08:00

"The risks that banks would have taken on under the old system, when banks made loans and profited only as they were paid back, had been transferred through a bewildering wilderness of options, swaps, swaptions, specialized investment vehicles, collateralized debt obligations, variable interest entities and who-knows-how-many other instruments.

And when the whole daisy chain was through, a lot of the risk seems to have ended just where it used to end. The banks had it." - IHT, 25/10/07

Investors should never touch derivatives and exotics if they do not understand what they are doing; similiar to the way Warren Buffet steers away from tech stocks. What you do not understand will hurt you. If a bank is transferring their risk to another party and locking in their returns , the other party must make a loss. And if the bank system, as a whole, are riding out a storm and are not making that much losses, the losses are then on investors. USD$7 trillion had been wiped out so far people. How much of the losses are contributed by you?

Tech stocks boom are back; backed by senseless and frantic bidding for internet companies. It is crazy to see young faces suddenly enriched by their technology startups so soon again. Microsoft just bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook for USD$240m. That's a valuation of USD$15b on Facebook; something that generates US$150m in revenue last year. Firstly, that's revenue for you and not profit. Secondly, that will mean over a decade before breakeven. Thirdly, we know nothing in technology can last that long. Look at where is icq and yahoo messenger now. They have went the way Encarta encyclopedias had went - replaced by better and more efficient products embraced by the public. New products that appear on the internet almost everyday.

Just back from a product awareness talk conducted by CS. A fund that has a 60% ytd performanace? Keep talking. There are products out there that don't enrich the pockets of those who thrive on zero sum games.

Holy grail

2007-09-24T21:10:00.000+08:00

Had terribly good luck while plaing mahjong over the weekend. Not only did I had a "qing yi se" (all bamboos by the way), I managed to conjure up the holy hand of mahjong - "si san yao" (well, maybe "tian hu" IS the holy hand). Things went well cause my hand only consists of 7 tiles out of the 14 tiles required and everytime I got one that I wanted, my hands began to tremble more and more until I got 13 of them and someone threw the final tile I needed. First time man. For those who don't understand what I'm talking about - too bad.

Manchester United won 2-0 over Chelsea over the weekend, so that's a piece of good news too. Though deep inside me, I know that sometime better go terribly wrong for Arsenal soon or else it'll be hard to catch them. It's amazing what a 21 year old dude can do when a 25 year old dude like me is huffing and puffing to play even 45 minutes.

Which brought me on to the next issue: I was playing right wing for Credit Suisse in our amateur league against a team called J-Heat (all Japanese goons) and we were rightly thrashed 4-1. I swear, the ang-mohs are playing it England style - pumping the ball far and making the midfielders run up and down the entire length of the pitch. Now, there's a reason why I prefer, and excel, in 5-a-side - the pitch is smaller and my speed is to an advantage. In a real soccer match, my speed counts for nothing because I have no stamina! By the time I sped to the ball, i'm already out of breath to dribble past the opponent!

But that's not to say I did not dribble past any of them at all. *knowing wink*

Perfect study place

2007-09-12T23:56:00.000+08:00

Ideal critieria for a study place - quiet, comfortable chair, air con, availability of power supply, free wifi, not crowded, cheap food nearby, free parking, no minimun purchases, no one to chase you away. It's just a 10 minutes drive from my place - NTU reading room.

Catch me there on weekends and some weekday nights.

Why people say blondes are dumb

2007-08-28T23:02:00.000+08:00

Well, think millions of people have blog about this by now, esp those who had their eyes glued to the tv watching young tarts prancing around in Miss Teen America 2007. This young blonde from South Carolina was given the question "Why do you think 1/5 of Americans can't find USA on a map". Well, in the first place, this question already somehow demonstrated the intelligence level of the common American. BUT NO! Our dear friend must show that she's the cream of the crop.

Her 30 second answer to the question went like this "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some ... people out there in our nation don't have maps and uh, I believe that our, ah, education like such as in South Africa, and, uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uh, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for."

WTF. Instant stardom.

Injury

2007-08-23T20:26:00.000+08:00

Went to play soccer with my fellow colleagues on Monday (at last! People who share my gender and interest. No more talks about P1 registration!) Though I must admit that it's the first time in my life that I'm playing with so many ang mohs. There's even one that looks like Zidane, kid you not. 5-a-side astro-turf pitch.

The last time I played on astro-turf pitch was at FICO which is a newly set up soccer center near Boon Lay. That time, all of us had fun sliding and tackling as we cannot (dare not) do so on our normal concrete haunt. THIS time, I thought I can do the same thing too and down I went and down my right leg skin went as well. A horrible patch of whiteness and redness formed but I thought nothing of it. Played on as normal, scored a few, assisted a few and went off happily to collect my stuff when the game ends.

That's when the realisation of the seriousness began. I poured water over the wound and was immediately rewarded with a deep sting. A glistening layer was forming over the wound and it turned out later to be brown and it hardened when dry. Saw a doctor the next day and was given 2 days MC.

At last count, I've changed dressing twice and both involved tugging at the bandage and I can really feel as if the doc is peeling off my skin to reveal the furious redness underneath.

Well, I can only hope i'll recover in time for the next soccer meeting on wed. =)

A silent re-entry

2007-08-15T23:08:00.000+08:00

8 months. I was away from my personal blog for 8 months. And thanks to spammers, I have 20 comments on my last post selling me viagras. Thanks spammers. Hope you spam and die.

I'm sure even the most ardent reader had faded away by now and perhaps I am blogging to nothing but heck care. Happy 200th post to my blog. A quiet re-entry to mark a milestone. =)

Bad

2007-02-09T14:55:00.000+08:00

This is bad... Had wanted to blog so much of my thoughts and I even have the text prepared in my mind. It's just that whenever I reached home, I am so tired and don't have the energy to switch on the PC. Today? Well, I am on leave today to have a good rest so at last I have some time to update my old songs in my mp3 collection, some time to get more new DS games etc.

Damn. Downloaded a cantonese song.

Anyway, I had wanted to blog about the State of the Union speech by Mr. Bush. I had wanted to blog about the meetup with my old sec school classmates - people whose intellectual prowess never ceases to amaze me after all these years. I had wanted to blog about my driving test and how the tester commented that my acceleration is too slow. I had wanted to blog about my first attempt to drive on the expressway when I rented a car some weeks back, how it was like to try to drive home but ended up nearly crossing the causeway - twice, how it was like to park successfully for the first time, how it was like to scratch a lorry (or rather, the lorry scratched my rented car) while attempting to park, how it was like to run under an operating ERP gantry without a cashcard in the reader, how it was like to get lost in Geylang area, how it was like doing 110km/h for the first time taking over mercs and BMWs and mazdas with my beatup Nissan.

Shiok.

Won't be going back Malaysia this New year. Granddad not around, Grandma not around. Guess it's a good time as any to get more DVDs from yahoo auction.

Happy new year everyone!

Ban Beckham endorsed products!

2007-01-12T17:52:00.000+08:00

In an era where sports superstars' wages grow exponentially faster than inflation rate, it is a little known fact that it is ultimately, the consumers that are paying for the ridiculous wages. Case in point - expect Starhub to raise their sports channel charges especially bagging exclusive English Premiership TV rights for the next few years.

And what do these young sports superstar do with the money? Drugs, rape, assault - you-name-it-they-did-it. Well, in a way, some purists can argue that it's good for the economy as it keeps the money flowing and according to Keynes blah blah blah but hey, there must be a limit. The word "ridiculous" is getting a new definition every year and this year is no wonder.

Beckham has signed a 5 years, USD$250m contract with a stupid club in US. That's USD$50m per year; USD$4.2m per month; USD$1m per week; USD$149k per day; USD$6.2k per hour; USD$103 per minute, USD$1.72 per second. Ladies and gentlemen, Beckham makes USD$1.7 everytime he takes a breath for the next 5 years, guaranteed; and not including his sidelines which include advertising, endorsing and his own line of clothings.

AND to rub salt into the wound -
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=399538&cc=4716
I quote "Beckham, 31, insists he is not going for the money but to promote football in the USA."

Oh yeah? Do it for free then. You do not need so much to feed your skinny wife anyway.

If you are really interested in bringing trophy to the club, peg your salary to your performance then. Don't pay lip service. But you do it so well, you can consider becoming an American and run for its presidential election.

Happy new year and Merry Xmas

2007-01-06T23:29:00.000+08:00

Heh. So long never blog and 2 big occasions had passed just like that. Well, better late than never so here's a happy new year and merry xmas to whoever who is bored (or interested) enough to read my blog.

Happy birthday to Towkay Bu! Hope you had a fun time at Waraku. Well, and that "Blood Diamond" movie after the meal was so much better value-for-money compared to that thai horror movie. Come on, I don't pay $7 (safra card + hsbc credit card discounts) to watch a supposed horror movie that has no impact on me. YawNz. Speaking about "Blood Diamond", I feel that it's quite a good show; good plot, good acting and for once, the movie brings reality to the screen. While the gore may be too much for some girls (and maybe guys), well, welcome to reality. I'm sure it's much worse out there. To guys, bring your girls to watch it and you will find a new excuse NOT to buy a diamond for her.

Driving test this coming Monday. Booked the test date on 20/7/06. WTF. That's like a 5 months wait. Hate to think when's my next test date should I fail. Haiz.

E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g cost a bomb nowadays.

KL!! woohoo!!

2006-12-14T14:48:00.000+08:00

Went to KL over the weekend with Dap & Co. Was a totally unplanned trip: Hopped onto a bus at Kranji to Larkin (JB Bus terminal), then bought tickets on a coach to KL, visited a few hotels to check out rates and availability, toured the city with their monorail, back to Larkin via coach again, taxi to JB custom, walked across causeway and then taxi home.

Sounds a lot within 2 days eh? =)

Suddenly I am warming up to the idea of backpacking and everything DIY. Heh.

Used to love playing with lego. Would make up lots of imaginary scenarios in my mind and act out everything with the lego characters. You know, then will go “bang bang” or “bish bish” out loud. I will then explore the “world” with my lego men and hours were spent that way.

Perhaps exploration is in my blood.

Last day

2006-12-02T16:31:00.000+08:00

Would like to give a heartfelt thanks to all the people in my Run for being such wonderful friends and colleagues for the past 3 months. Though the word "colleague" will no longer apply (perhaps not for long for some of you all), I am sure the word "friends" will still apply, ya?

Had some wonderful "farewell' gifts as well: a big card, a certificate (?!?) and a cd-rom that contains pictures and a video. *sniff* Thanks everybody. Remember the joke we had the other time whereby the last person standing (as in who stays in the company) will pocket all the remaining money in the Run fund; I guess that will compensate for the lack of present then cause there will be no one left to pass him his gifts!

Well, just a thought.

So long pals, hang in there. I'm sure life won't be a bed of roses in the new place where I will be in and watch this space for complains and gripes to come.

a passionate entry

2006-11-27T01:00:00.000+08:00

Half time for the match between Man Utd and Chelski right now. Sorry but I just cannot tahan seeing the crestfallen face of abramovich after Man Utd fired the first salvo. For the uninitiated, behold the face of an idiot:

Clap all you want dude. You have just wasted $500 million sterling pounds on a team of losers. Perhaps the stadium lights at Old Trafford are too strong; the majority of your team has no way to hide. Oh well, enough of the gloating. There's the second half to come. *fingers crossed*

*updated*
Well, the final score is 1 goal apiece. Not a bad deal; Man Utd's engine lost some power to Chelski in the second half. A real exciting match here. As usual, Rio Ferdinand made some clown mistakes here and there. The litmus test came during substitution; Chelski took off Shev (S$30m signing) and Ballack and replaced them with Ferreria and Joe Cole. Man Utd took off Saha and Ronaldo and replaced them with Fletcher and O'Shea. What a gulf of difference in the depth of the 2 squad.

No complains here ya understand. That's what $500 million sterling pound can do for ya.

Changes in the wind

2006-11-26T22:02:00.000+08:00

Yes, by now, most of my friends should know what changes are there in the wind for me. Well, this is definitely going to be a step into the unknown for me. No more sheltered life, no more "guaranteed" promotions, no more "guaranteed" steep pay increments. I'm not one to take bets but looks like this is gonna be one of the more serious gamble I am going to undertake in my life.

Regarding my lost phone, I have since gotten a white version of the phone that I have lost. This time, I should be able to see the phone clearly should I drop it in a taxi again. =X

Is it me or does this happen to everyone as well? Case in point: Despite me getting at least 7 hours of sleep everyday (in line with SAF guidelines), I still feel damn tired in the morning when I wake up. It's like there's insufficent sleep everyday and no matter what you do, you will always be tired. Perhaps I am getting older.

Had a fishbone stuck in my throat. Went to TTSH to check it out and ended up with a doctor sticking his finger down by throat, followed by some metallic instruments down by throat and then a tube like thing poked through my nose cavity and down into my throat (for him to see into my throat). What an adventure. Conclusion after all these? He cannot find the bone. Going back this Wed for further adventures. Wee~~ Keep tuned.

May your hands rot

2006-11-15T17:51:00.000+08:00

Bad news.

I've dropped my phone in a taxi today and chances of recovery is 0% at best.

In view that I did not back up your contacts, I cannot chase those who owed me money anymore.

So next time if you see me on msn (or some nice people can email me your number), do tell me your handphone number.

And yes, may that person's hands rot.

Goodbye Bush

2006-11-07T13:42:00.000+08:00

Some background information is required here before I paste up the opinion by Mr Thomas L Friedman from the New York Times. U.S mid-term election is drawing near and will decide on whether the Congress is controlled by the Republicans again (Bush camp) or the Democrats. If democrats win the Congress, you can be sure that they will scrutinise Bills proposed by Bush before passing them.

Now a few days ago, Mr John Jerry (ex-US president candidate) made a comment implying that poorly educated people will be working in the Army and will be sent to fight in the Afghan and Iraq war. Of course, like true vultures and true goal poachers (think Andy Cole), Bush and gang pounced on this and made a big hooha and at the same time, masked the real issue besetting US for the entire tenure of Bush.

Below is the full article written by Mr Friedman, published in the New York Times. Enjoy =)

"
Insulting Our Troops, and Our Intelligence

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.

They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because they surely do.

They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team’s real and deadly insults to the U.S. military over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry’s mangled gibe at the president.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose? What could be a bigger insult than that?

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than to send them off to war in Iraq without any coherent postwar plan for political reconstruction there, so that the U.S. military has had to assume not only security responsibilities for all of Iraq but the political rebuilding as well? The Bush team has created a veritable library of military histories — from “Cobra II” to “Fiasco” to “State of Denial” — all of which contain the same damning conclusion offered by the very soldiers and officers who fought this war: This administration never had a plan for the morning after, and we’ve been making it up — and paying the price — ever since.

And what could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in Iraq than to send them off to war and then go out and finance the very people they’re fighting against with our gluttonous consumption of oil? Sure, George Bush told us we’re addicted to oil, but he has not done one single significant thing — demanded higher mileage standards from Detroit, imposed a gasoline tax or even used the bully pulpit of the White House to drive conservation — to end that addiction. So we continue to finance the U.S. military with our tax dollars, while we finance Iran, Syria, Wahhabi mosques and Al Qaeda madrassas with our energy purchases.

Everyone says that Karl Rove is a genius. Yeah, right. So are cigarette companies. They get you to buy cigarettes even though we know they cause cancer. That is the kind of genius Karl Rove is. He is not a man who has designed a strategy to reunite our country around an agenda of renewal for the 21st century — to bring out the best in us. His “genius” is taking some irrelevant aside by John Kerry and twisting it to bring out the worst in us, so you will ignore the mess that the Bush team has visited on this country.

And Karl Rove has succeeded at that in the past because he was sure that he could sell just enough Bush cigarettes, even though people knew they caused cancer. Please, please, for our country’s health, prove him wrong this time.

Let Karl know that you’re not stupid. Let him know that you know that the most patriotic thing to do in this election is to vote against an administration that has — through sheer incompetence — brought us to a point in Iraq that was not inevitable but is now unwinnable.

Let Karl know that you think this is a critical election, because you know as a citizen that if the Bush team can behave with the level of deadly incompetence it has exhibited in Iraq — and then get away with it by holding on to the House and the Senate — it means our country has become a banana republic. It means our democracy is in tatters because it is so gerrymandered, so polluted by money, and so divided by professional political hacks that we can no longer hold the ruling party to account.

It means we’re as stupid as Karl thinks we are.

I, for one, don’t think we’re that stupid. Next Tuesday we’ll see.

"

For the record, I am neither pro/anti Republicans nor Democrats. It's just that some of Bush's actions/inactions make me wonder sometimes where is the QC in place to screen US President wannabes?

waste of time

2006-11-05T01:46:00.000+08:00

In case anybody is listening to the radio or watching tv on sat afternoon, you will realise that some poor souls area activated to report back to their camp because the "garwumen" missed these souls so much that they just want them back to the camp with all their gears and all they had to do to exchange for freedom was - a signature on a piece of paper.

What a waste of time.

Yes, I was one of those poor souls. Thanks to Berg for giving me a ride from Jurong to Changi. I was recalling to Berg how "chao keng" he was 2 years back in reservist: while out on a mission one fine night, he tripped over something and sprained his ankle; as a result of that, he missed the mission and had a fine time at the back of a jeep. While Berg tried to defend himself (for the millionth time), he apparently tripped over a molecule of water and fell headlong towards a tree trunk. I was just in time pulling his army fatigue and held onto it. As Berg limped towards the busstop, I cannot help but laugh merrily along the way. With Berg around, you will not have a moment of dullness - he defines entertainment.

I swear, he will make a good footballer. Imagine the number of freekicks and penalties he will earn.

Castle On A Cloud

2006-10-16T17:30:00.000+08:00

There is a castle on a cloud,
I like to go there in my sleep,
Aren't any floors for me to sweep,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

There is a room that's full of toys,
There are a hundred boys and girls.
Nobody shouts or talks too loud,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

There is a lady all in white,
Holds me and sings a lullaby,
She's nice to see and she's soft to touch,
She says, "Cosette, I love you verymuch!"

There is a place where no one's lost,
There a place where no one cries,
Crying, at all, is notallowed,
Not in my castle on a cloud.

Beautiful song if you ask me. How can a boy sing like an angel? I asked myself that while I listened to the whole of the Les Miserable CD repeatedly.

More importantly,
is there any place you will want to be when you are asleep?
And if that place has a room or a chest, what will be inside it?

Lack of creativity

2006-10-15T21:58:00.000+08:00

Tired of the old blog skin and wanted to change one. I don't have as much skill as xiaxue nor do I have as much time as rabbitblood (=P) so I've decided to go with the oh-so-boring of using default templates. There was some problem with the tagboard (ie. spamming) and decided to get rid of it. Any comments please do so at the end of each entry (if anyone's interested).

Played badminton with a few of my colleagues over the weekend and that's about all the exercise I got for the last week. Haiz. Growing fatter each day. Heard that these guys wanted to sabo me and get me drunk during the Company's D&D. Heh. I escaped. Hahaha...

39 colleagues remaining from my batch. Wonder how many will be left after a year? Happy belated 1 month anniversary to all my batch's people.

Pain

2006-10-01T14:46:00.000+08:00

Pain is a good thing. It lets you know that you are live.

Yesterday, I suffered a dislocated shoulder as I tried to perform a tennis smash a la Sampras. The pain came immediately though the realization that I had a dislocated shoulder came much later when I discovered that instead of a nice roundness at the joint where your arm and shoulder connects, I had a caved-in crater there. So, my arm was then attached to my shoulder with only tendon, nerves, fats and skin. It did not seem that amazing to me then though.

I DIY-ed the injury and pushed (gently) the bone back into the socket. I really do not know how to describe the feeling when the bone is back in place so I would suggest those who are really curious to experience it first hand for yourself.

Like all good things in life (depend on how you see it), it is not good to have too much of it though.

Ouch.

random musings

2006-09-29T20:08:00.000+08:00

Apologies once again for not blogging regularly; the cold hard truth is that after a day in the life of an auditor, there ain’t much life in the old dog to blog about the day musings or thoughts (not much musings anyway).

Have been thinking about issues that had grappled some of my friends since graduation. Contemplations, contemplations. Perhaps I don’t really know what I want.

When the government announced that the casinos are going to bring billions to the country, I almost disbelieved them. However, I reckoned now that the estimations are not that much far off. I am involved in some “cash count” activities in my Firm and it is amazing how a single clubhouse (name undisclosed) can generate more than $200k in a single week, bearing in mind that this particular clubhouse has the least number of machines compared to other branches. Looks like Singaporeans are richer than I thought. Oooo, the things I will do to have a slice of the casino pie. Sure win and no lose one lo. Poor punters.

A bit late here to blog about the Hady vs Jon affair for the last Singapore Idol finals. Well, too bad Jon. It’s just too bad that you postponed a year’s of study just for this competition. Perhaps you will become famous, perhaps you will fade into oblivion. I don’t really care. Thousands of your young female fans may gush about how cute your are but to me, that one incident during reservist 2 years ago forever mar the image of you in my mind.

Personal issue aside, I find the entire Singapore Idol episode hilarious. To those people out there who had voted: how does it benefit you now that your favorite idol lost? To those who voted for Hady: how does it benefit you now that he had won? I really really don’t see any sense in GIVING money away to the telco company and to the judges for the competition. As long as there are A MILLION votes for a single finals, you can be sure that this franchise will continue and generate other spring-offs until the teens are milked dry.

And in the event if they really become famous, their songs can be downloaded for free over the internet. That’s freedom for you.

Stepping into the big wild world

2006-09-17T18:22:00.000+08:00

Last Friday marked the end of 2 weeks of training in PwC. Kind of cool to find out that my counseling partner is an ang moh and has completed several ironman under his belt. To the uninitiated, An Ironman race is a triathlon composed of a 3.8Km swim, 180.2Km bike, and a full marathon of 42.2Km. Well, as for me, just thinking of swimming for 3Km can make me break out in beads of sweat already.

Post training celebration involved going to this café near our workplace that allowed us to play games and have a bit of snacks. My table (out of 4) turned out to be the one that made the least noise but I dare say that we did not have the least fun. =) I kind of sucks at memory game. Grrr… Especially the sort that requires me to remember the sound of the animal that “belonged” to each and everyone in the group. Double grrr…

Hope to settle down in the Firm and my job soon. Heard that there are 4 notorious managers who are collectively called the “4 heavenly kings” at the level which I am in. Everyone, pray for me.

Update: Sleepless Nights

2006-09-07T14:03:00.000+08:00

Heh. For the record, I had a good night sleep. =) No worries, mate!

Sleepless nights

2006-09-03T18:01:00.000+08:00

I'm sure all of us had sleepless nights now and then due to excitement/fear of things that will be occuring tomorrow. You will yourself to sleep but to no avail and the wee hours are fought desperately between your body (which need to rest) and your mind (which refuses to stop working). In the end, most of the time, the body loses and you start the new day tired and drained.

I had sleepless nights...:

1. Before my PSLE
2. Before my first surgery (on my left ankle)
3. Before my 100m race in the national stadium representing my secondary school
4. Before donning NJC colors and playing for them for the first time
5. Before my enlistment (into 2.5yrs of slavery)
6. Before my first parachute jump (and the ones following)
7. Before my first date
8. Before my interview for my internship

and many others. I realised that all these events are major milestones in my life. Those that are filled so much with pride, happiness, fear, sorrow and nervousness that it is unlikely that I will ever forget them.

As I embark on my working career tomorrow (and leave my slacking lifestyle which I won't have a chance to have again for the next 30 years, hopefully), will this cause another sleepless night tonight? I wonder.

IPPT and Pluto

2006-08-26T00:58:00.000+08:00

YAY!! I have cleared my IPPT for this window! =) *clap clap* Ask any average, normal singaporean male and he'll be similarly elated to pass his IPPT. Eh. If any of my readers are exempted/excused/somehow-escape-from-the-system, you are not "any average, normal singaporean male". Haha... So you will NEVER experience my euphoria at passing an IPPT test. Hmmm.. I envy you.

Anyway, my stumbling stone had always been 2.4km run. Somehow, 6 rounds around the track sounds tiring before I have even started running. I thought there is no way I could run below 11.40mins (my passing mark) but somehow I managed it a few days back. But I don't think I can repeat the timing again due to a certain Chong Pang dinner celebration after the test. =X

On an another note, Pluto had lost its status as a "Planet", a title which it had held since 1930, as it does not fall under the defintion of what a "Planet" should be. Kind of ironic I think. The universe was created far far earlier compared to mankind and here we are, a few hundred scientists arguing what title to bestow to a piece of rock in outer space. It will definitely be interesting to find out what (if possible) other extraterresterial beings NAME us and our solar system.

Worries

2006-08-18T23:08:00.001+08:00

Sometimes, we worry too much.

We worry about whether we will have enough money to spend in the future.

Our parents worry about whether they have done enough for their children.

Students worry about whether they will be accepted in school.

Couples worry about “horizontal daggers”.

We worry about things that may directly affect us. We worry about things that will not affect us. We worry about things that MIGHT affect things that may affect us. I am a victim of excessive worrying as well. Perhaps this luggage will grow heavier with age until deep furrows form all over my face.

I quote from vin, my JC fren (who quoted from army): “Do not make your problem become my problem. I do not see it as a problem. If you see it as a problem, deal with it”. Perhaps it sounded a bit callous, especially to the person who is requesting your assistance but I believe that advice would come in handy to certain people in certain circumstances.

2006-08-18T23:08:00.000+08:00

What I have been up to lately. Hehe..

Questions unanswered. Or rather, I won't know the answers.

2006-08-11T19:47:00.000+08:00

Where do we go when we die?

Who will be peering into my coffin to have a final look at my face before the lid is closed? The young cousins whom I was playing with, perhaps? The friends whom I studied with, perhaps?

What is the time remaining in my personal countdown timer?

So many hypothetical questions. No answers to any of them. But the ever-practical me cannot stop thinking about these questions. Is this why people believe so deeply in religion? So that they can "pass" these questions to God and leave everything to Him? Then I must say it's a clever avenue to clear one's mind about such stuff for the common answer to the questions above would be: "Only He knows".

Tick-tock.

You know that you are getting older when…

2006-08-05T22:50:00.000+08:00

You know that you are getting older when…

1) the speed you used to use to terrorize “older” players is increasingly used against you;
2) your appetite is getting smaller and smaller;
3) your bald patch and/or beer belly are/is getting larger and larger;
4) you are starting to have 5 years plan or 10 years plan;
5) small kids are INSTRUCTED to call you uncle or auntie;
6) you get tired easily;
7) the number of relatives with a “grand” in their relationship with you decreased slowly .

Though we meet only once a year; though you speak and listen to Hakka only and I don’t; though you don’t seemed concerned at my existence; you will be missed. The thinnest blood is still thicker than the most viscous water.

Death. That’s another topic for another day.

Pictures posted up lo!!

2006-07-25T23:54:00.000+08:00

After a few minutes after blog-complain about the inability to post up pictures, I have since posted up all the pictures I have prepared. Some of the words in the speech bubble a bit small but you can click on the pictures to see what I have perceived to be in the characters' mind. =P

Another plea here: Please please please send me convo pictures taken today! Every picture sent to me will be entitled to a lucky draw chance!!! I will disclose what the top prize is after I have sourced my sponsor for my first prize. Heh...

Felt great to convocate but deep inside me, I know I will miss those days in school, in the reading room, in MBA room, in......, where laughter, joy, sorrow, sadness, tension are all shared with friends. I can foresee days when in office or during a train journey, I will just space out and think back to these 3 years which I had spent in university......

You can bet that I will either cringe or smile into the empty space (depending on what I recalled at the moment la).

2006-07-25T23:35:00.000+08:00

Convo at last lo!

2006-07-25T23:34:00.000+08:00

One of the few shots that turned up un-blurred in my digicam

2006-07-25T23:33:00.000+08:00

Me and Dap!!!

2006-07-25T23:32:00.000+08:00

Throughout history, a great man will step forward to chart the path of mankind. Perhaps, this is history in the making. Xiao Pang stepped forward to teach us how to throw a convo hat properly despite knowing there was no food involved.

2006-07-25T23:30:00.000+08:00

Before throwing our convo hat.................

2006-07-25T23:29:00.000+08:00

GRADUATE LO!!!!!!!!!

2006-07-25T23:28:00.000+08:00

Yandao Goh did it again. Throw convocation hat also can mess it up! Haha..

2006-07-25T23:26:00.000+08:00

2006-07-25T23:25:00.000+08:00

PUI! Who cares about SMU's students who only know how to jump in advertisement? This pic shows what NTU students are REALLY made of.

2006-07-25T23:23:00.000+08:00

Convocation had never been this difficult.... Using a pole to poke Yandao Goh's hat off the tree...

2006-07-25T23:20:00.000+08:00

2006-07-25T23:01:00.001+08:00

Despite the small accident involving NTU's horticulture, we are all glad to be back in the comfort of being enclosed in an air-conditioned space.

Congrats to everyone, my fellow friends. May all of us keep in touch in the years to come. =)

Graduate Lo!!!

2006-07-25T23:01:00.000+08:00

Finally, after 3 years of hard work and hard play, I have graduated!!! Took lots of pictures at the convo ceremoney today but unfortunately, most of the photos were blurry. =( Please forward/send me pictures ok? Tolong tolong....

Now, I have actually prepared a series of pictures to be posted online but Blogspot seems to be throwing a huge tantrum now. Perhaps the server is jammed due to the millions of pictures being posted now. Will try my luck at a later date then.

Had a nice dinner with Towkay, DL, Yandao Goh, Xiao Pang, Rabbitblood, Yunru, Marky after the convo at Holland V followed by dessert at Gelare's. Totally full and bloated but Xiao Pang is seriously contemplating a packet of maggi mee later at home. Tsk...

price of trying too hard

2006-07-20T12:22:00.000+08:00

2 gym session + a floorball match in 5 days = slight lower back ache.

Don't worry, salon pas to the rescue!

It's all in your mind

2006-07-14T20:09:00.000+08:00

Back from my reservist training!! 2 weeks just like that. 2 weeks of my life idled away and waiting for things to happen. Perhaps, regaining a bit of my fitness and meeting some of my army friends annually are the only consolation from this event.

Met up with a friend of mine who is now in the SOF (special operation force). He did not even complete his O-levels but is now enjoying life and drawing a $4k salary. Ah. Life is really good for guys who have no interest or talent in studying.

Army can bring out the worst and best in everyone in an amazing and beautiful way. You are cold and wet and muddy and aching and hungry and you have a weapon on your hand. Given the fact that some other people will be in charge of weapon inspection the next day, it is a no-brainer that most people chose to hand in the weapon before cleaning it over taking the responsibility to clean it. Perhaps these people won’t have a chance to read my blog and repent BUT beware, there are 3 more reservist trainings to go and karma is only around the corner.

Some might wonder what is that event that led us to be cold, wet, muddy, aching and hungry, it’s actually the completion of a “mission” given to us. My team and I were to “attack” a place in Singapore by certain timing and this involved taking a helicopter ride and then walking numerous kilometers with an uncomfortable load over our shoulders. The cemeteries at Lim Chu Kang can be quite scary at 3am but luckily, I was not wearing my specs then and the rows and rows of tombstones were just a blur outline to me.

“1 more step. Come on.”

“Reaching already. Reaching already.”

“Around the corner can rest le.”

So many thoughts flashed past my mind to push my weakening and tired body forward. Curses were made internally as well as countless encouragement and cajoling to will myself on. The elation of completing everything can only be savored when I had cleaned myself and lying onto my bed a few hours later.

That’s right. The lesson taught and reinforced everyday in my NSF life 5 years back remained very much relevant now, be it in the army or in the civilian world.

It’s all in your mind.

far far away in the south china sea ~~ (music not included)

2006-07-09T11:08:00.000+08:00

I hereby hypothesize that when guys (and maybe girls) wear army uniform; they become duller and less intelligent and began to move in a herd mentality. Perhaps that is the REAL reason for army uniform and stuff. The extent of inefficiency was so appalling and it seemed that the higher authority is completely oblivious to it. Perhaps the officers have an agreement among themselves not to shoot each other asses but it had done little favor among the troops. What to do? 1 more week of absolute nothingness and all will be done.

The coming week is a sure-deal in getting slimmer and the diet you want. So listen carefully for all those who want to have a healthy figure – army and jungle training is the way to go, forget about jean yip or marie france. It will be goodbye civilization and hello mosquitoes for me next week so do wish me plenty of luck. Berg, wished you were here but it’s ok; you will most probably screw up your ankle again. Heh…

Failed my IPPT. Compared to last year, sit-up still ok, chin-up deproved a bit, standing broad jump deproved a bit, shuttle run still ok but… 2.4km run is like shit. Damn, study too much and never exercise. Haiz… Lazy to train when at home leh, no one to run with = no motivation. Haha… Getting older liao. Zzzzzz..

Weekend so fast over. Book in lo!

yay!! I love jugs, i mean jungles!!!!

2006-07-02T15:47:00.000+08:00

Don’t know whether there is still anybody who is reading my blog. If there are any, sorry for the poor update rate. Sorry lah, not like my friend rabbitblood who can update 3 times (or more) a day. =P

Anyway, wun be blogging much for the next 2 weeks. You see, I am a nature-lover and the government recognized my interest. Therefore, they have extended an invitation to me to join one of their organizations for 2 weeks to evaluate the condition of the jungles in Singapore. Yes!! I am paid to do it, not mentioning free food and accommodation. You can say I am definitely excited to be one of the participants. Who else interested can give me a call and I am sure we can work something out. ^_^

Yesterday was a sad day for soccer. Both England and Brazil are knocked out from the World Cup. Haiz… The semi-finals look like a fixture for the European Cup instead. Determined to give Brazil another shot at the world cup. How so? With my PS2. =P Who interested in joining me in playing winning eleven?

there was a beginning, there is an end and surely, there's another beginning

2006-06-30T15:22:00.000+08:00

Started off sweetly, routineness set in and lots of bitterness and misunderstandings at the end. Shake, not stirred and truly... on the rocks.

21 March 1981 - 30 June 2006

random musing

2006-06-14T18:29:00.000+08:00

Back from Thailand with a deflated wallet. Tailored a few shirts there and ate my way to poverty over there. Really appreciate the nice distinctive white lines on Singapore roads after spending about a week in Thailand where the vehicle owners make the traffic rules. Not much photos to offer due to the extremely shy nature of my fellow travelers. Will post any interesting photos up in due course.

Checked my examination results. The overall grading was above my expectation when I first stepped into NTU. However, from the tone of my language thus far, the euphoria had waned and a bigger realization had set in – So what? So what if I had gotten a first class? People with similar grades or lower than mine are going places far better than I am going to. (I surmised that a disclaimer is required here: I do not dislike auditing work. Not at all.) Out of the people whom I reckoned received first class, I can only recall one person going to an auditing firm while the rest will be going to banks and big name institutions and that person is going to an auditing firm because she had a bond with the company (ie. no choice). This means that none of my peers who received the same grade as me is going to an audit firm voluntarily. Just make me kind of depressed. As usual, the only grouse that I have is that the starting salary of an audit job is way too low. In a year’s time, most of my friends will have a net worth double of mine (assuming everybody’s net worth is 0 at graduation). This brings me to my original question: So what? I have a paper qualification advantage over some of my peers but this is translated to nothing in real life.

While I appreciate very very much the congratulations for my academic achievements, I felt that it was a hollow victory. I do not need a first class to get into an auditing job: a bare minimum of pass will do the job nicely. A question of over-kill? A purely rhetoric question.

By being in a job that “waste my talent/grade” (quoted), I do not know whether this initial handicap is a good thing or not but it really fired me up. I know I have to work doubly hard to overcome the perceived handicap, to catch up with my peers who gained entrance into mega name companies the moment they graduate and to catch up with my peers who had at least a 3 to 4 years head start in terms of absolute monthly salary and perhaps 5 to 6 years in terms of accumulative salary.

This race is unlike what I have gone through or witnessed over my 24 years of existence. But chase I will, for in a hunt, the thrill is in the pursuit. The target that I am running to is an ever-moving one. I might not win the race, or the race might even be left uncompleted but I do hope I can find similarly-minded friends and colleagues who will run along with me along the way.

And so it is...

2006-06-05T12:56:00.000+08:00

And so it is…

The long awaited overseas trip is here! Will be away to Bangkok/Pattaya from 6th June to 12th June. Shopping, food and beach galore!! Though my convocation trip destination is somewhat nearer to Singapore compared to most of my richer/deeper pocket/luckier counterparts, I don’t care because the beggar cannot choose. Haha…Chicken Little, his soon-to-be-wife, me and Dap will be going on this trip together.

And so it is…

The long awaited (not really) examination results are RUMOURED to be out on 6th June. Haiz… What will my results be like? Will I still be in the List? Uncertainties, fear, nervousness all mixed in a huge pot. Given the fact that my aspiration was a Second Class Upper when I enrolled into University, I should be satisfied that I can hit that target. Perhaps I should.

And so it is…

My lunch is calling for me. Will blog more and hopefully post some pictures up when I am back on the 12th. Hee… 12th June SOUNDS like a auspicious date. Hee… Hee…

Memories - a fragile thing

2006-06-01T16:06:00.000+08:00

In school now cause need to format my laptop as well as floorball training later and guess who I saw… Xueren, DL, Yandao Goh and Yunru!!! Wah lau… Plan for convo trip come school plan, other students doing projects leh. Hehe... What an evil idea, must be xueren’s idea.

Don’t know what’s wrong with Ivan and I guess he will not divulge whatever had happened to him. No matter what, optimism and faith wins cynicism anytime. The world might seem bleak but if one does not master the bleakness and search for the silver lining, he/she will only be consumed by the darkness. I do not know what is worse: a bleak world full of enemies or a bleak world with pockets of friends. Just my 1 cent’s worth. Might not be correct. I’m seldom correct anyway.

Met up with Alvin Chan and Ivan Tan yesterday for a game of badminton at Bishan. Can say that they are the remnants of my JC class who still keep in touch. Nothing has changed much. The short one remained short, the fat one remained fat. =P Went back to NJC with Alvin after the game for lunch. Nostalgic swept over me as his car entered the NJC compound. The parade square is still there, the container where I had my maths class is still there, the canteen dessert stall aunty is still there… Ah… The days when I was back as an NJC student.

JC1 was a flop for me. Out of 4 subjects, I failed 2 at the end of the year and was forced to drop Further Maths. That episode was really the pit for my academic journey. The saving grace was that I discovered Hockey and it transformed me from a flabby boy to a trim and tanned boy. Haha… The days of “poning” school, playing cards in school compound, evading discipline master. Haha… Days which went by and left unappreciated then came flooding back.

So.

Treasure the memories. As we aged and grow, some of these memories can only fade away and be forgotten. So let’s enjoy those memories while we still remember them.

a nice day at the east

2006-05-24T20:45:00.000+08:00

Went for a chalet yesterday and I think it was eons since I last went for a chalet. You know, that kind of class-gathering-and-bbq-together type of chalet. So it was kind of a surprise that Yandao Goh booked a chalet and extended his invitation to us for a 1 night chalet at downtown east.

Kind of fun to see everyone again since the exam ended. Haha… No one changed much, especially Xiao Pang who kept claiming (falsely) that he had slimmed down. Due to overprovision of the number of people coming, we had a lot of left over food. Xiao Pang tried his best not to waste all the food but alas, even someone like him have to call it a day. Heh.

Drank quite a bit I guess but it could be due to the fact that I am no strong drinker. Head was very heavy and eye lids too. Though I still can hear and see what is going on around me, my head seemed to be stuck to the bed and my neck muscle cannot hold my head up. Haha… Is this what they call “head spinning” after drinking? Virgin experience leh… Xue ren drank quite a bit too but he can hold his own. Danlin and Selene drank quite a bit too but the champion of the night goes to Tunz who reached a stage where she drank without knowing why she drank. Never mind, there’s always the big strong arm of the hairy rabbit to hold her eh? Dun eat her tofu ok? Hehe…

Kudos to the organizing committee: Yandao Goh, Marvin, DL who gave the overarching vision and expect us to make it happen (and we did make it happen). Thanks to Xiao Pang who demonstrated his agony of sleeping, Selene who showed us that a cooked lobster is no match for her red face, Mark for sharing his ghost stories, Tunz who showed us her drunken side, Rabbit who showed he can take care of a drunken girl, Yunru who showed her cocktail skill, Chunwei who drove me around, Leonard who came and left mysteriously and Dap who fed me with the food. Heh… Wendee wanted to come but she was bogged down by gastric. Hmm..

Oh yah, tried roller blading with Xiao Pang, Tunz and Rabbit earlier in the morning at East Coast Park. Damn, so hard to blade. I really really prefer to have no wheels under my footwear man. Tunz even tackled me once *blush* when we were playing catching. Rabbit proved to be elusive as he evaded all attempts to capture him. Wanted to go kayaking with Xiao Pang after the whole sorry saga but there was no time. I missed kayaking/canoeing. Haiz…

Backing a winning horse pays off

2006-05-07T20:16:00.000+08:00

So nothing had changed. PAP lost only 2 seats, rendering the status quo unchanged. Chiam and Low must be having a field day at securing their 10k a month salary for the next 5 years. Kudos to all the new PAP MPs; you guys either won through walkovers or won because you had the backings of the more “established” MPs. I doubt you would have won if you guys went across the fence over to the opposition. This is what I call backing a winning horse.

In life, all of us want to win. Be it finding a job, getting the grades or even in computer games. No one likes to see the sign “Game Over” flashing and flashing all over again. No one talks about losers. That is why in Life, everyone wants to get that extra bit of advantage over others. That extra bit can come in the form of luck and/or knowledge and then when asked to share: “Don’t have lah… Where gooooot? Got meeeeh???”

To those who constantly want to get a better over others and to those who keep lamenting that you are no good, this is a message for you all (btw, I fall in the latter category): No one wins in life. In the long run, the small wins and losses here and there, coupled with huge wins and losses once in awhile, all cancels out. If everyone wants to win, who losses? If everyone is above average, what is average?

So. Do not moan what life had not given you but appreciate what life had given to you. I am trying to relearn the meaning of that statement everyday.

(Due to inability to find the lyrics on the net, I have undertaken the task to translate the lyrics)

There are many times when
We do not know what our self worth is
What should we do
So that we will not waste our lifetime

Are we important?
Are we small and insignificant?
Hidden deeply inside our heart
Will other people find it ridiculous?

Chorus:
Do not think of yourself as been useless
Do not always sit there staring at the sky
If you are unwilling to help yourself
Who else will there be to help you to succeed?

Do not think of yourself as been useless
Do not let self-pity stop you from moving on in Life
Everyone’s contribution is different
Perhaps, your contribution is the best type

(Repeat x1)
(Repeat chorus x1)

Some people think I am smart. I beg to differ. I had never been a smart kid. I worked extra hard to gain that edge over others. Bowling? Ktv? No thanks. I need to go home to read my textbook to confirm how many sides a circle has. I make mistakes, lots of them. I try my best to learn from them. I learnt the meaning of “high expectations” since young: Being in the special stream, I was required to clear my normal Chinese paper when I was in Sec 3. I do not really like Chinese and I hated my big red Chinese dictionary. I got an A2. I was devastated. Perhaps the peer pressure got to me. Most of my peers in my class got an A1. I felt left out in life. For the first time, and certainly not the last, getting an A was not enough.

In RV (yes, I was from river valley high), I remembered a teacher saying this (in mandarin of course). He said we will want many things in life. Unfortunately, wanting something and achieving something is very different. Indeed, after 24 years, what have I achieved? I wonder.

More on this next time.

Some random political discourse after studying too much political econs...

2006-04-30T20:16:00.000+08:00

I cannot help but feel energized and excited about the upcoming Singapore election. Never mind that I do not get a chance to vote; I’m perfectly fine not to wake up at 7am to go to a polling station. What interests me is the current debate and salvo fired among the incumbent and the opposition parties. So far, I am quite impressed with WP’s Ms Slyvia Lim’s speech that was printed in the Sunday Times and the manner in which she dealt with the media. This stark against the fact that none of the new PAP members had made any impressive remarks or made any intelligent discourse thus far. But aiyah… She wants to run in Aljunied GRC… Got Mr George Yeo leh…

Though issues such as security, terrorism, future competitiveness are important issues to the nation’s well-being in the coming years, there are some issues closer to my heart at this very moment (yes, starting to feel like a serious entry).

Firstly, the status of education in Singapore. The syllabuses are in a mess as educators try to tinkle with what to teach, how to teach and when to teach certain topics. It does not help when syllabus changed so frequently and the kids have to adapt constantly to the changes. SAT? A hot examination in the past but almost non-existent now. There are tremendous pressures on the kids to get into “good” schools right from the start because the probability of them succeeding in life is viewed to be higher. They will go on to 6 yrs direct A-levels intake, then to university and a good life. What about those that did not go to a “good” school? Say good luck to them and hope that things turn out well for them? (I was from a neighborhood school) I would think that the removal of the “good” tag is important. Pool all the better teachers together and distribute them evenly to all the schools. If all the good teachers are attracted to teach in a “good” school, of course it will create an elitist environment.

Secondly, the cost of medical healthcare in Singapore. The older folks are not as financially savvy as most of us when they are in their youth. Investment planning? What is that? Equity-linked funds? They would rather cook more bowls of noodles to feed their children. The medical cost that they are facing is tremendous. Because of relatively shallow pocket, the older folks tend to congregate at the cheaper wards and I can tell you it’s a sad and heart wrenching sight to see 6 old folks in an open air ward that is connected to other wards with 6 old folks each. Ok this might be getting personal: My grandma was warded and had a pacer placed near her heart due to weak heart beats. When I visited her some time back, she gave me the feeling that she is just sitting there waiting to die. She kept telling me in hokkien: “Go home eat la. Po Po (grandma) old liao. Nothing to see. Waiting to die only”. Haiz… Anyway, why is it that no one is bringing up the issue of healthcare costs? Why is it no one is questioning the conduciveness of the wards in aiding recovery? Why no one is questioning why is there no actions taken to alleviate the long waiting hours at polyclinics (I waited for 6 hours to change the dressing on my fractured ankle)? Why no hospitals in the West (other than NUH)? Is it because the west side always walkover?

Vent finish liao. Back to studying how rubber industry affected South East Asia in the past. Talk about relevancy of syllabus.

ZzZzZ

2006-04-17T20:36:00.000+08:00

Heh… Had not been really blogging nowadays. Thanks to Leonard who pointed out that I had a double entry in my blog. If only we are as good as spotting double entries in accounting eh Leonard? *Lame accounting joke*

Had a fun time playing soccer in NUS the last Sunday with Leo, Xiao Pang, Mr Magarita (aka Shilong) and Keith. Felt the age kicking in. Haha… Or maybe it’s because I have not been exercising regularly for a long time. Going to die when ICT comes.

Feeling quite broke nowdays. The garmen angbao definitely will come in useful. Haiz… Last time complain no time to learn driving (Ok. “Learn” is a wrong word to use. I ALREADY know how to drive), now going to have time to learn after exam but no money to do so. Arrgghhh… Sorry Xueren, no money to go to the Taiwan trip with you guys. Haiz…. The world does not favor the poor.

Heard quite a few of my friends getting jobs in the banking sector. Congrats to all of you. Best of luck to those who are still seeking their dream job. =)

Thousands of rumors going around RB and tunz. I wonder why. Heh…

eve of impt match

2006-04-08T21:39:00.000+08:00

My political economics module should be renamed as a literature module due to the numerous mandarin and English poetry and verses peppered throughout the lecture and lecture notes. As I suck in mandarin, I am now worrying on how to replicate the Chinese characters onto my exam scripts given the fact that the only Chinese words that I can write with some ease are the ones in my Chinese name. Haha….

Anyway, the latest words of wisdom apparently came from our former PM Goh, in reference to the numerous free trade agreements that Singapore had signed: “Those who can run faster, should run faster and not to be restrained by those who cannot run at all”. What powerful words. Nemo and I immediately answered our school’s call to think out of the box with the following: “Those who can eat more, should eat more and not to be restrained by those who cannot eat at all”. Hee… Referring to no one in particular la…

On an unrelated note, there are 2 tv shows airing this coming Sunday that is vying for my attention. On one hand, there’s Man Utd vs Arsenal and on the other, there’s Miss Universe Singapore 2006. Both involve balls of a different kind and have totally different meaning when one say “fang(4) ban(4) li(4)”. Haha… Ok… Lame joke…

Happy birthday Wendee! You wan to go into the swimming pool vertically or horizontally? Don’t say never give you options leh… I very democratic one leh… Anyway, have you converted to the Arsenal camp or are you still in the Man Utd camp?

Fat

2006-03-23T00:48:00.000+08:00

With the impending dateline for final year project and the coming quizzes in the coming weeks, one cannot help but hope for a miracle. Therefore, my blog’s song is dedicated to whomever that needs a stroke of hope for a miracle.

I have concluded that who ever that does project with xiao pang can only lead to obesity and feeling poorer. Wah rao… KFC, mac, pizza… These 3 food had become a regular item on my dinner list for the past few weeks. All thanks to xiao pang who ensured that his FYP group mates (and the people in the entire FAL) never go with a hungry stomach. Hahaha…

Will go going to the NTU convo ball. Marg’s table got: Marg, Piglet, RB, Von, Shu Li, Jes, KF, Marky, Nemo and Coffee Boy. Xiao Pang’s table got: Towkay, Towkay-Bu, PQ, TM, Yunru, Yunru’s fren (shit.. forgot name), Dap, Nomis, Shilong and Xiao Pang. Looking forward to having a good time erm.. eating chinese food…

Oh yah… Congrats to Adrian who left the bachelor club too. Apparently, his new found gf is one half of the only twin I know in NBS. Heh... On an unrelated note, there is now a 4 horse race for tunz-kia. Keep it up tunz, you may be able to share a table during the convo ball with all your suitors. Heh…

most important discovery for FYP

2006-03-16T21:49:00.000+08:00

Due to boredom / tiredness / deliriousness from lack of food, xiao pang made an earth shocking discovery today while doing FYP. My FYP group and Xueren’s FYP Group are working together in ITL today when xiao pang said:

Taking the first alphabet of each of Marvin’s group members’ name:

Tianming --> T
Marvin --> M
Danlin --> D

= TAMADE!!!

Taking the first alphabet of each of my group members’ name:

Simon --> S
Huang --> H
Yunru --> Y

= SHY!!!

So combing our powers (aka captain planet style), we are TAMADE SHY!!!

Heh…

Fishing trip!!

2006-03-11T00:45:00.000+08:00

Suddenly feeling adventurous and wanting to connect to big Mother Nature, a group of us decided to put our level of patience and love for the environment to the test – a fishing trip. Idea was conceived by Marvin and executed by Xiao Pang. Being blessed with total no sense of direction, Xiao pang made the right decision to engage the service of a boat man to steer the boat instead. Heh… The pictures are as follow and I took a long time to blog this entire episode man. =)

2006-03-11T00:39:00.000+08:00

Boarding the boat for our fishing trip!!! Had a hard time finding the jetty as it is at some ultra "ulu" part at the West of Singapore.

2006-03-11T00:34:00.000+08:00

The picture above was drawn by Tianming when we were planning for this fishing trip. The picture was materialised in the picture below where we posed to make it look like the drawn pic. Unfortunately, HJ was nowhere flying off the boat. Hahaha...

2006-03-11T00:29:00.000+08:00

A very nice group shot just before we set off. From bottom left, clockwise: Mark aka "Marky", Huang Jie aka "Xiao Pang", Yunru, Danlin, Marvin aka "Towkay", Tianming aka "Yandao", Daphne and yours truly aka "Nomis". We were all excited and hopeful about our fishing trip. Except for Marvin and Yunru, none of us had any prior experience. Let's set off!!!!

2006-03-11T00:20:00.000+08:00

Xiao pang is holding our dinner. 7 x packets of canteen 2 chicken rice. Me and mark have finished our share earlier on. He wanted 18 x packets initially. Scary~

2006-03-11T00:18:00.000+08:00

Woots. FYP group #1. Grp A ppl submitting final report today. We go fishing today. haha...

2006-03-11T00:14:00.000+08:00

Didn't realise we have 2 FYP groups on board. All looking fresh and alert at the prospect of procastinating for FYP!!

2006-03-11T00:02:00.000+08:00

Yunru brought her friend along and he's called Samuel. Hall 2 president some more. He also participated in some fishing World Cup in Sabah when I was in year 1 and he got 7th place or something. We were all so awed to have a professional with us. If I am not wrong, the rod that he is holding onto cost about $600. Wow... Notice the nice golden crown on top of his head.

2006-03-10T23:59:00.000+08:00

Sorry about this but my compact camera is too lousy to take good clear shots in low light conditions. But I guess all of us can guess what that champion is doing there. =P Can't resist a dig at him. Haha...

2006-03-10T23:56:00.000+08:00

Danlin scared that someone will snatch her mamee. So she is actually handing out the ration for everybody. The small packet that she is holding is for us. The big one is for herself.

2006-03-10T23:53:00.000+08:00

Yunru and Sameul.

2006-03-10T23:45:00.000+08:00

Mark and Yunru frolicking at the back of the boat.

2006-03-10T23:41:00.000+08:00

Samuel preparing the bait here. Much thanks to him cause without him, we will have no rods, no baits and no one to teach us how to fish.

2006-03-10T23:38:00.000+08:00

Our only source of entertainment, other than Tianming's crap, for the whole night. Xiao pang's property. Switches to malay and indian radio channels half of the time. The other half of the time, it was emitting weird noises.

2006-03-10T23:33:00.000+08:00

Love sparks flying on the boat wor~~ Woots!! No bed compartments on the small boat though.

2006-03-10T23:29:00.000+08:00

Me and dap at the bow of the boat. Munching hello panda and marvelling at the cleverness of the fish who refused to take our bait thus far. Now I know why ppl say eat fish will get smart..

2006-03-10T23:25:00.000+08:00

Posing gamely for a shot even though it's approaching midnight and everyone is tired. Xiao pang is half dead cause supper time is approaching and he discovered that Mac does not do helicopter delivery. Heh...

2006-03-10T23:12:00.000+08:00

Sameul and Yunru posing with our first catch of the day. =)

2006-03-10T22:52:00.000+08:00

Look at the vision in his eyes, look at the calmness of him in the face of adversity, look at the cold night wind blowing at him... look at the kaya "tu" until "gao gao" bread in his hand. Yes, no mistake about it, he's our man, xiao pang. Cute and cuddly until can make all gers go weak in their knees. See? Even Yunru loves to be in the same pic with him (the woman behind him). Hee...

2006-03-10T22:40:00.000+08:00

Trying to hook the bait onto the hook. It was a frustrating night for all of us so far, except for the boatman and Samuel, cause we have caught a grand total of 0 fish so far. Mark and I caught a small small fish though. Marvin was super frustrated cause the fish always manage to eat half his bait or all of his bait without being caught on the hook.

2006-03-10T22:35:00.000+08:00

To our wildest delight and surprise, our hero Tianming caught the largest fish for our fishing trip; it easily weigh over 10kg!! He had the help of Samuel of course when reeling the fish in but Tianming appeared half dead when the fish was finally brought to the boat. Haha... I was a bit apprehensive man. Never saw such a huge fish live in my life before. The only fish I see are those in tanks or on my plate. This episode gave him the right to boast and we respectfully listened to what he had to say. Haha...

2006-03-10T21:49:00.000+08:00

Our Tianming, aka Yandao Goh has been newly crowned the fish prince! WHat started out as a novice trip for him turned out to be a discovery of his forte and hidden ability (other than playing maple story). All hail the fish prince! Poor xiao pang, fished for the whole night but didn't catch any fish. =( Never mind. YDG revenged for you - just look at the giant fish.

2006-03-10T21:41:00.000+08:00

Group shot!!! All with bleary eyes. Can you believe that Marky is heading towards national lib straight after this?!?!

2006-03-10T21:38:00.000+08:00

Nice group photo with our catches for the day. The newly crowned "fish prince" is seated right in front. He had the right to laugh though, cause the rest of us in the background did not catch any fish... zzzz....

2006-03-10T21:32:00.000+08:00

Our total catch for the whole trip... Got to take that fish home for my mum to cook!! Oh... The gigantic fish was cut into 3 pieces and our hero of the day, yandao goh took 2 of the pieces home...

2006-03-10T21:21:00.000+08:00

Ahhh... The end of the journey for my first fishing trip - fish head curry!! haha... yummy yummy... Can't say that i'm a fishing man but the company did make the whole trip more fun=) Thanks for all the fish! (No pun intended) =)

Hitch Chinese Edition

2006-02-23T20:34:00.000+08:00

Check out this link!!! If anyone of you have seen "Hitch", this one is a short 8 min chinese version of it. To everyone else who had not seen the english comedy, take a look! Damn funny. =) *evil twinkle in eyes* Heh... Xiao pang ah.. the male character look like you leh... In terms of size and hair cut la... But anyway, thot of you and *ahem* someone else while watching. Heh... Good luck to you!! Your "secret" is no longer a secret man. You should have seen how her good frens gossip about it just now.

http://xomibid4.myweb.hinet.net/8.htm

liverpool vs man u

2006-02-15T16:56:00.000+08:00

Just finished 312 report and 306 presentation this week. Heh.. Can relax a bit by playing more maple? hahaha... Not really I guess. Still got FYP to do. Will be doing some of it with xiao pang later in FAL.

Talking about maple. Had been burning nights playing it. Heh.. Now I'm a lvl 38 ice/lightning wizard. Pingwen is lvl 41 cleric and Yongxiang is lvl 51 ice/lightning wizard - just learnt about these 2 facts. Haha.. Looks like quite a lot of ppl in NBS are playing maple. =) Can't wait to reach lvl 40! cause I've the equipments ready for lvl 40. haha... Still remembered playing maple global in the past with pingwen.. together chuan tian xia. haha.....

Will be posting some pics up which I took during my CNY visit to malaysia soon.

Kind of looking forward to this sat. Xiao pang is organising a trip to Zee10 for some hoegaardens and soccer. Heh.... Xiao pang had became such a coooooooooool and hiippppppp guy! Haha... Wonder what changed him so much? *innocent look*

Just discovered JIT had an old flame. They were quarrelling about how to split the dinner bill in the FAL now. hahahhahahahah.... *add oil to fire*

ooo... going for dinner now. think got marky "king tatami" yang, selena, xiao pang and dap. =)

Happy new year everyone!!!

2006-01-28T05:09:00.000+08:00

Happy new year everyone! It's the year of the Dog so I guess it's the start of the 3rd cycle for ppl born in 1982. Fast eh? 24 yrs just like that. On the brink of leaving the education system for good (maybe not).

Nice pic? Just revived my interest in maplestory and had gotten quite a nice bunch of frens to play with and train together. The lady on the left is from 21 yr old girl from a poly in singapore, the one holding the fish on a stick is a 21 yr old guy from malaysia. the one with red hat is a married woman with kids residing in Singapore and the one to the right of Cai Shen is yours truly. Hee....

Happy new year everyone!!

Predator and prey (part I)

2006-01-22T00:45:00.000+08:00

Realised that my FYP is lagging far far behind most groups, xiao pang, chio lian and I decided to sacrifice our saturday to hit the street to beg, i mean request for the public to help us to fill in our questionnaire.

Interesting things that happened:
1. Chio lian was "bio-ed" by a group of about 5 china chinese men. They were watching her mini skirts all the way.

2. The longest time taken to complete a survey was 30mins. The volunteer talked for a long long time and I really appreciate stories that he told me throughout.

3. I walked a lady to China Square because she don't know how to get there. She said it's payback time for helping me with a survey.

Here's the result of a day in the office:
Time taken: 5 hours x 3 = 15hrs
Number of surveys completed: 20 (nomis) + 18 (chio lian) + 17 (xiao pang) = 55
Productivity rate = 3.67 vict... volunteers per hour
Time taken on average for each volunteer: 16.3 mins
Time taken on average to complete 1 survey: 5 mins
Time wasted per survey completed: 11 mins

Haiz... Tired... Bushed.... Going for another round next wed. Any ppl who want to watch us suffer can go raffles place to do so. =(

Going for a good game of soccer with ah huang tomorrow. Really looking forward to it. =)

Added:
I guess I just have to accept the fact that some actions of mine, no matter how much explanation, are beyond forgiveness. I guess, perhaps, I am going to lose at least 2 of my friends, whom I do treasure and value as friends still. I guess, maybe, you do not realise the hurt and torment that I am subjected to for the past few days... Yup, I fully deserve it.

consistently misunderstood...

2006-01-21T01:15:00.000+08:00

Guess I have upsetted quite a few people due to my decision to add/drop out of 2 modules.

"We added the modules as a group of friends and should stick as a group"
Response: I agree with the principle and I do feel guilty about it. However, adding and dropping the modules was due to some personal reasons and there is totally no correlation to the level of friendship I have with all of you. I still want all of you as my friends.

"You added and dropped the modules without consulting us"
Response: The decision to go ahead was a hasty one and it took place 1 day before the end of the add/drop period. I would have consulted if the dateline was one week later, which I thought it was.

In order to change one of the index, I have to change the index of another module due to clashed timings. I have no initial intention to change 2 indexes.

Rabbit, now I know why you refused to take an empty seat beside me during lecture yesterday. Guess you were/are disgrunted.

KJ, I have to apologise to you for being transferred out. The position that you feel that you are in is part of the reason why I dropped the index in the first place. I'm sorry I got you implicated instead. =(

Wendee, sorry. Your 2x snubs (so far) are noted.

To the rest who did not voice their dissent: sorry.

I think I am pretty much misunderstood. And I do not know how to deal with it.

Last day of work at PwCCF

2006-01-15T02:11:00.000+08:00

8 weeks was a short period of time man... It's going to be back to school again tomorrow. Haiz... Ultimate sian-ness. But then again, a few more months and I would have completed the long formal education route that I had began some 18 years back (wait a min. I am THAT old?). Kind of nostagic to think of the good old days where the only worry in my mind is whether the favourite food stall in canteen got open on that day or not.

Took some last day pics and posted them in this entry. Was quite nervous actually when I was told my supervisor name because it is not in 3 chunk of words (eg. Lim X X or Tan Y Y). However, he turned out to be quite a nice guy who turns up to work later than me even on the day when I reported the latest to work (around 10pm). Heh.... Overslept lah..... Overall a not too bad experience in advisory and perhaps will choose that line of job in the future. Who knows right?

Went to Amex D&D after last day of work due to some effective persuasion from Dap. Held at Raffles Convention Centre and we have to pay for the meal. =( No free dinner... =( The theme was old Shanghai those type and there are quite some ppl who dressed up to the theme with Wong Fei Hong wannabes etc. Was quite hilarious that ppl can actually find the time and effort and money to buy something which they will not wear often. Hmmm... Overall a not too bad experience too. Though I wish sometimes I can catch what the ang mohs are saying better. =)

Oh yah, I would like to thank PwC for being my main supplier for my back-to-school stationery. Full of gratitude to you guys. Will work my ass off for you to repay when I next report to work in the later half of this year ok? =P

2006-01-15T02:10:00.000+08:00

My ID card!! Sad that I can't access my department in the future to pop in for a visit

2006-01-15T02:09:00.001+08:00

My clean desk...

2006-01-15T02:09:00.000+08:00

Snapshot of my colleagues. Lunchtime was till 2pm that day!! Woots!