MFA Selection Tests

ARGH!

Relief Teaching in Primary School

I finally taught relief teaching in primary school today!

Today was totally embarrassing. I face the class from 2-3pm and after a brief reprieve (recess), I had the same class again from 3.25-5.30pm. This was how my timetable looked like:

2-2.30 - Pri 3X English Language
2.30-3 - Pri 3X English Language
3-3.25 - RECESS
3.25-3.30 - Pri 3X Maths
3.30-3.55 - Pri 3X Maths
3.44-4.25 - Pri 3X Maths
4.25-4.55 - Pri 3X Maths
4.55-5.25 - Pri 3X Science
5.25-5.55 - Pri 3X Science

Gosh. 1+2.5 hours of the same class. RIP.

The kids were quite alright, to be frank. However I guess I didn't mentally prepare myself for the role at hand like what I'd do in the past where I'll muster some classroom activities that I can fall back on and even plan a contingent lesson plan of games. However while I reached the school at 1pm, I suddenly realised MOE has no idea that I've recently graduated and should be moved to a higher pay bracket. At this point the staff in the general office told me it was my responsibility and I should've updated it on the MOE web site. My response, rather, was 'so what do I click - Application or Renew?'. Neither am I a new applicant nor is my relief teaching licence ending soon. Thankfully the school's very near my house, so I went home, grabbed the MOE number and called up MOE customer service, who instructed me to email them about it. Duh, you should put this vital information somewhere on the web site! Or else the school can easily do for us since they can verify the degree immediately! There hasn't been a reply up till now from them, and it doesn't feel comfortable that I haven't signed my appointment letter when I left which states the usual (lower) pay bracket that I am entitled to.

Ok, so that's administrative. After that I waltz to the office and the teacher I was to relieve popped by to collect his stuff, said "I have nothing to be done today. They are alright if you keep them busy." and sprinted off. Keep them busy? By chance I saw a stack of activity worksheets meant for relief teachers (a godsend) and grabbed a few before heading off.

The kids were at the hall, so I went there in time to see a teacher teach them how to sing "Wish Upon a Falling Star". I admire his bravery to sing out loud in front of all the students, to be frank. After the students were dismissed, I finally found the class, and caused my first taboo when I didn't know the order by which the students should leave the hall and ended up cutting the queue. The other teachers there were definitely not amused.

What did I do the first hour? I thought I'll snuck some planning while asking the kids to go on silent reading. It quite work, silent reading, though it wasn't exactly silent all the time and some kids ended up drawing or even worse, folding foolscape paper into vehicle-like contraptions modelled after the Japanese anime "crush gear" and attempt to make a din by ramming them against each others' vehicles. I tried to engage the class by saying that they have to narrate a story about what they have read or conjure one up from their drawings and such if they did other stuff. It didn't really work though, 'cos the kids were either too soft, or the other kids were too unbothered to pay attention and made much noise, making the sharing session an impossibility.

It was a relief when the bell for recess rang.

I became desperate, with 25 minutes left to conjure up magical activites that can calm a huge bunch of 9-year olds. An exercise in futility it was in the end. I trudged to class with my invisible arms in the air. It was supposed to be Math, but as they have just started the new semester and didn't bring their old books, I couldn't do much in the way of quizzes without evoking lots of disgrunted shrieks that will send the teachers in the next class running over. I did a quiz in the end, and coming up names for the groups was already a torture. We first played word creation where they pitted against one another forming words from a large word. I went easy on them, giving them words with tons of vowels like 'aeroplane' and 'beautiful'. It was not bad, though a team lost horribly 'cos they weren't the least interested in the game but were more keen on either collecting beads that were dropped on the floor or their ramming their makeshift crush gears. However the noise continues unabated. Thank goodness no teacher came over to threaten for silence, or I will be totally embarrassed.

After that I tried to teach them some English by reading a text from the reader. It was quite difficult in the end too, as once again not everyone was keen in doing it and it ended in despair, with me trying to strain my voice to keep everyone (or whoever that was with me) to read the text. I tried going through some difficult vocabulary words too, though I think nobody bothered except the monitor and his group.

Wow his group is amazing. Not only were they enthusiastic during the games, the monitor also came up to me with suggestions on how to control the class! The remark I remembered most vividly was that I was too lenient with them... sigh. Is being stern while wearing a perpetual frown the only way to go? The kids were also awful, spilling their water in the middle of the classroom and causing a mini-crisis where I didn't know what to do. Where can I find the cleaning lady or a mop to do it? Should I do it in the first place? The first time it happened I didn't bother about it, though the impending thought of 'danger! slippery for kids!' came to my mind all the time. The second time round, some kids volunteered to run to the toilet to get some toilet paper to soak up the water. I had to give them permission and I must admit they did a good job. Then they pestered to take out their radio to practice singing two Chinese pop songs for a singing competition in August. Gosh! It was a wrestle between me and them as they sought to turn it up loud and me keeping it down for fear of interrupting other neighbouring classes. It was hopeless in the end, as the kids screamed louder than the radio. Finally to my relief the bell came and the Chinese teacher appeared outside the classroom. Freedom!

While exiting the classroom, I muttered an apology to the Chinese teacher for the noise, though he replied with a "It's like that, they're naughty", allowing me to heave a sigh of relief. Oh well!

So I left the school, came home to take a breather, and went down to Holland V to meet the USP Orientation pple. So glad to have seen especially MC and GR. Hisashiburi! :)

Makeshift "Crush Gear" - actually I forgot about this other contraption they have which suspiciously resembles Beyblade, a spinning top toy made popular by the anime. Do you remember those small, rectangular erasers with the flags of countries printed on them? The kids stick a staple through the middle and viola! A top! The rule is the same as 'Crush Gear' too, to push your opponent's spinning eraser off the tabletop.

Places to Try!

http://www.compass.org.sg
http://www.compass.org.sg
http://www.state.gov/www/careers/rbiblio.html
http://www.state.gov/www/careers/rexample.html

MOFA - Foreign Services Officer

I submitted an application!

Watching a movie, thinking about JET

昨日TYとQKさんは映画を見に行きました。There was a Barnie show at Plaza Singapura and it was so fun to see the hordes of kids settling down around the auditorium and engaging on their lifelong pursuit of consumerism. Euke.

I forgot what show it was about.. After the show I didn't feel like going home, so I just went to the airport and look at the departure board, trying to imagine if I were taking the next flight to Japan for JET. There it is, that one!

久しぶりに大学へ行った

今日久しぶりに大学へ行きました。元はPGPのジムに運動して、AとB型肝炎の予防注射をうけて、大学の図書館でJLPT３の試験を借りて、色々な先生に お邪魔して、それでアルバイトへ行くつもりです。でも、今大学はお休みだのに、先生は大学へ行かなくてもいいですが、それでなかなか先生に会うことができ ませんでした。残念だと思います。

まずPGPのジムへ行きました。いつものように込んでないので、自由に色々な運動機械を使ってもいいです。久しぶりに運動するので、すぐに疲れていました。一時間からやめるつもりだ、大変でした。それからジムでシャワーを浴びて、リラックスしました！後で新しいSUBWAYのお店にサンドイッチを食べてみたいですが、YIHへ行きました。

やっとYIHへ行きました。あれ、SUBWAYはまだ開けさせませんね。 ＿|￣|○ 近くのYIH食堂で卵や、パンや、お茶などを食べました。それで、YIHのUWCに予防注射を受けました。予防注射はS$75ですが、とても高いです！まだ１１がつ最後の予防注射を受けなければならないですが、無理をしますね。

次に日本語の先生にお邪魔していました。永見先生と堀江先生が事務室にいましたから、楽しかったです。もう久しぶり日本語で話しているので、大変でした！時々英語を使って、恥じました。堀江先生は今晩ドイツで旅行の予定がありますが、いいとおもいます。でも堀江先生は卒業式の日までシンガポールへ帰りませんですが、卒業ガウンをつけて一緒に写真を撮られません。残念だ！

やっとアルバイトの時間があります。バスを待つ時、ハンビの母は電話しました。｢今日は無理ですが、来週月曜日のは都合がいいですか？｣と言われました。あれ！！どうして早く知らせられませんか？
＼（－－）／　それから帰りました。

SIGH!

＊＊＊

副詞が下手ですが、よく練習しなければならないと思います！

今日使った副詞、副詞的表現

• まず　-　？　
• もし　-　？　if
• いくら　-　？　even if
• 必ず（かならず）　－　？　
• すぐに　－　？
• やっと　－　？
• まだ　－　？
• 時々（ときどき）　－　？
  

新しい

• いつものように　－　？　
• 元（もと）「は」　－　？　
• A/B型肝炎（かたかんえん）　－　？　
• 予防注射（よぼうちゅうしゃ）　－　？　
• 恥じました（はじました）　－　？
  

M1 Marketing, Communications

http://jobsearch.monster.com.sg/getjob.asp?JobID=44100629&AVSDM=2006%2D06%2D07+05%3A22%3A49&Logo=1&cy=SG,CN,HK,ID,JP,MY,PH,KR,TW,TH,VN&brd=1&lid=116&fn=8&sort=rv&vw=d

M1 Marketing, Communications

http://jobsearch.monster.com.sg/getjob.asp?JobID=42967185&AVSDM=2006%2D05%2D10+00%3A57%3A16&Logo=1&pg=2&cy=SG,CN,HK,ID,JP,MY,PH,KR,TW,TH,VN&brd=1&lid=116&fn=8&sort=rv&vw=d

JobsDB
Media Communications Executive Sentosa Leisure Group - MRE

apply_career@mediacorppress.com

MediaCorp Press
Technology Reporter (1-year contract)

http://www.corporate.mediacorp.sg/career/job_1150258742.htm

Becoming a Librarian with NLB

I thought I'll drop a note to remind myself at least that I've applied to be a Librarian providing Digital Information Services in case I ever forget.. I really hope to get it! It really sounds like something I'll love to do and I am quite excited about the working hours too, where they're spreaded out and there's still enough of each day left to pursue one's interest. :) Cross fingers! :)

Ned Nickerson

Considerations: Kokanee, Borneo Motors, Acer

JobsCentral
www.jobscentral.com.sg

Jobseeker
www.jobseeker.com.sg

Monster
www.monster.com.sg

JobStreet
www.jobstreet.com.sg



CONSIDERATIONS

[JobsCentral, 23/6]
- kokanee acquisitions
Sales And Marketing Executive Cum Management Trainee

Resume of a "Danny Kwok Ching Yun"
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:79din8Fhid4J:dannykwokcy.buildtolearn.net/ResuMe_DannyKwok_Full.html+kokanee+acquisitions&hl=en&gl=sg&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=firefox-a

"Created new customers accounts by cold calling and direct sales in residential areas. Worked with team to create sales. Maintained sales goals by week. Provided pre-sales services and product information. Generated sales with referrals from customers. Gave sales training to new staffs."

WHAT! Goodness.. I really don't think I'm capable of such stuff, or rather I'll get burnouts in no time.


- Borneo Motors
Marketing Executive

Sounds good, though my degree qualifications don't fit. The application date's over too.


- Acer, Product Specialist
http://jobsearch.monster.com.sg/getjob.asp?JobID=43521617&AVSDM=2006%2D05%2D24+03%3A59%3A29&Logo=1&cy=SG,CN,HK,ID,JP,MY,PH,KR,TW,TH,VN&brd=1&sort=rv&vw=d&cn=acer

Worth a try, though the PC market is very competitive.


- Asia Malls, AsiaMalls, Advertising and Promotions

From the blog of an intern there:
http://micgabriellehui.blogspot.com/

" Saturday, May 13, 2006

internship

currently working at AsiaMalls Managment Pte Ltd (AMM), under advertising and promotions (A&P) department... yeah, why am i, a real estate intern, doing a business intern's job?!? weird...

supposedly posted to Gutherie House at Bukit Timah but got transferred to AMM on the day i reported for work. AMM is the ppty manager of 4 malls, namely tiong bahru plaza, century sq, hougang mall, and white sands. of all places, they put me at century sq. now, i have to travel to tampines everyday...darn it...

what did i do during the 4 days?
Handled License agreements,
Handled License agreement cover pages,
Did invoices,
Counted coupons,
Handled cheque payments
Did Filings
Prepared the prizes for the lucky draws
Handled cheque payments
Did Calculations for the top ten tenants of feb"

Well if the pay is good, I think it's a great experience. I can't seem to find the web site though, darn.

Some unchased (cannot be traced rather.. darn)
- AsiaMalls, Advertising and Promotions
- Wearnes Tech Solutions
- SBS Transit
- Marvell (broadband communications R&D)
- Wincor Nixdorf (IT Solutions)
- UPS

Badminton with SJ & RH

I just came back from playing badminton with RH and SJ, two nice friends I knew from NUSPE now that we've all graduated! I was rather rusty I admit, having not done any sports at all since moving back from PGP. Lemme check the weighing scales.. I weigh a grand total of 73kg fyi. Shucks! Today got me rethink about getting back in shape, especially after meeting HF by chance in Bugis Seiyu last Thursday after my interview at MV and she has slimmed down! She's my role model!

Anyway back to SJ and RH - RH's still doing pretty alright, coming into his second and final year of masters in NUS. He's looking forward to joining a reputable pharmaceutical company as a researcher, good for him! :D SJ's doing very well, having started on a lucrative teaching job in piano to expatriate kids. She was a little hush hush towards me though, which I don't blame her as I guess we don't really know each other very well (as compared to the two of them), but I do think I hear that wedding bells are pealing in a distance and who knows, she'll even be going to Europe for music studies! I am so happy for her really - I think she is really talented and music is an excellent direction for her to pursue especially since she has the flair and interest in teaching.

We've also talked about meeting up to take pictures too, just like a year ago when the NUSPE seniors graduated (which includes RH, PS, TC and BF). It'll be such a wonderful occasion to catch up!

Let's hope that things will continue to work well - please do call me, employers! Haha!

4C Settlers Cafe

I went for another 4C outing on Thursday evening at the Settlers Cafe at Clarke Quay. It was pretty fun, though the crowd that turned up was only a paltry 5 out of 12 (and out of a class total of 37). However I think 5 people is quite a nice group to play games - looking at other tables, they've got group sizes of around that number too. Anyway I detract - there was me, KF, YH, LW and SH. Wow, amongst the people, the one I haven't seen for quite a while is SH who's now an accountant with Ernst & Young (if I'm correct). However life's difficult there, reaffirming what rumours have about the auditing workplace. We tried many games too, like King Me! (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7806) and Galloping Pigs (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/485). It was pretty fun though we were pretty demanding and changed games after each try, much to the consternation of the staff there. "Maybe something less intellectual", "Something with dice", "something more fast pace" were our demands of the day. It was Ladies Night too, which was great as for S$7, it's free flow of drinks (Coke or Green Tea) and games. Meals cost S$5. For a grand total of S$12, it's an excellent way of spending an evening playing games and interacting with other friends!

life in australia question

Hey hi!

I was quite surprised to see your email since we've been chatting so often now and then online and sorta thought it'll be an interesting conversational topic that we can share with each other. Now it sounds like an essay topic so oh well I'll just blurt out what I feel and hopefully it sounds structured after a while. :D

Hmm, have I been at the receiving end of racial discrimination when I was in Australia? Definitely! However, I felt that the experience hasn't been too awful, probably because I feel I might have overlooked some occasions where one will raise the red flag of racial discrimination as to me, I think that it is sometimes a very thin line that differentiates between what racial discrimination is and what might constitute socially accepted norms in a foreign land that an alien might mistake as discrimination when it is perfectly normal. To me, I find that it is perfectly natural, though improper on many fronts, that foreigners use metrics that carry over from their original cultures as evaluative measures when visiting a strange land and interacting with strangers that have cultures that are very different from one's own. Taking Singapore for instance - should an Australian coming from Brisbane who is used to exchanging friendly banter with the bus driver find himself affronted in Singapore where our bus captains can barely afford a smile to boarding passengers? I guess coming to a more credible conclusion about racial discrimination can only come with prolonged experience and comparison with the locals, but then it is still a thin line nevertheless isn't it?

Ok, now I'm re-reading my previous paragraph and find it a little detracted (and of course so controversial). Back to the issue of racial discrimination - yup, it is definitely there in Australia. I guess must of my experience will be only in Brisbane, and it is very important, I feel, to make a distinction between the cities in Australia which we are talking about as I noticed that the cultures are quite different between the cities. In a general sense, I find less discrimination in Brisbane as compared to Sydney and Melbourne. I might be too sensitive for example, but often a times I do not get a similarly enthusiastic response from the checkout staff at the supermarkets such as Coles and Woolsworth. After observing how customers make small talk with cashiers, I attempted to do so and got very varied replies. Some were enthusiastic and were jolly though a personal feeling of more than half were glum-faced. It doesn't help when I observed that the customers before and after me (usually white Australians) were able to strike up a conversation with the same cashier whom I have not had any success. However, I felt this is acceptable as there are more pressing areas which I am glad to say do not really factor in lots of racial discrimination. An example will be the willingness of bus drivers to wait for passengers to cough up small change for bus rides - such an 'important' service is dispensed equally to all from my observations.

However I do have 2 major racial discrimination instances to highlight. One was the time when I was walking around in Melbourne with friends - there was this young chap (white, around 16, if it matters) who walked up to me (I was a little behind my group of friends who were walking at the front) and asked for 2 bucks or so to grab a quick meal. Initially as a Singaporean (I hope it is a suitable assumption!) my alarmist bells were raised and I insistently said no. The boy persisted and with that I said more nos and tried walking faster. He suddenly broke into a tirade of curses, screaming at my apparent unwillingness to help and accused Asia of not being cooperative when Australia has done so much for the region. He wasn't representing any organization, to be clear. He was just a guy that just walked up to asked for 2 bucks. So that was really awful. I was glad nobody got hurt..

Another incident happened at the immigration checks when my friend and I were coming back to Brisbane from New Zealand after 8 days there. I'm not sure if it coincided with the Shapel Covey(can't spell her name, sorry) case, but we were the last two passengers and we were stopped at the customs for an hour while they did quite a concise check on us. Not only did they do a drugs test on the bags (they had this cotton swab device which the swiped the interior of our bags to pick up particles i believe), they kept on interviewing us and it really got to a point where I felt it was more of an interrogation as he refused to answer our questions as to why are we stoppe d for so long and we're both dead tired from the trip. Finally he let us go, though I felt that it was a racial thing that caused us to be stopped. It was even more interesting considering we were taking Garuda airways then (Indonesia). Racial discrimination? I find it hard to deny.

However, these experiences aside, I feel that the level of discrimination does not warrant avoiding the place (and hence I really loved Brisbane as compared to other more metropolitan cities like Melbourne or Sydney where racial differences are more clearly defined as compared to Brisbane in my opinion) as though discrimination exists, to me I am willing to overlook (or already have overlooked) these little nuances as they do not impinge on the more important interactions that directly impact on conducting my life. Nevertheless, many of the Singaporeans whom I have met and are studying there for their degrees (i.e. they've been there for 3 years) also raised their eyebrows about settling there as what you have pointed out. This might be due to their more informed experience I feel, as while I have only seen Australia from the perspective of an exchange student with nary a worry in the world, many of them had serious considerations of settling down there and came to back away from that idea after researching on issues that pertain more significance to life, such as finding jobs and such where they have found racial discrimination to be a factor against their favour. Hence, although I see Australia favourably, I must quantify that my experience is severely limited! :)

So that's my take on racial discrimination! It is definitely a very exciting experience and I think your upcoming trip to Japan will be an excellent field experience to see the Japanese side of it, such as the 'gaijin' concept and the uchi-soto concepts. Have fun and good luck!

NN

----Original Message Follows----
From: XXX@hotmail.com
To: "Ned Nickerson"
Subject: life in australia question

I am rather curious if you had been at the receiving end of racial discrimination when you were in australia? My friends and I were having a discussion the other day and we came upon the subject of living in Australia. Both of them said that they would not migrate there due to the discrimination that they might face in a larger extent compared to other places. IMHO, I feel that there is always a sense of discrimination anywhere you go where you are a minority. What I want to know is that how much do you feel when you were there. I know that this is a rather sensitive issue, but I am willing to hear your views on them. I think the world needs more open minded people. I need to be more open minded myself.

Take care and enjoy your well deserved holidays. =)

Interview Eulogies

Writing thank you letters sound more and more like writing my personal eulogy for another unsuccessful interview. Sigh! I came up with the following to vent frustration:

Thank you very much for spending time with me yesterday. Although i had a nagging suspicion that the company is looking for an acrobat that can spit knives, i prayed hard for a more conventional role though my worst dreams came true.

I guess I should be more confident and hopeful. :)

Interview Week!

This week can easily be called Interview Week! I guess I was clearing up the backlog of interviews that resulted from kind friends who provided contacts to companies that are employing but not advertising in the public sphere. Thank you RY and HY! And of course the many people who were the intermediate contacts along the way, such as BL, NL - without you, I won't even have had the chance to face the interview panel in the first place! (muarkz!)

Let's recollect backwards, starting from the freshest. I went to MV for an interview this afternoon, and although it was a nice fireplace chat of sorts, I guess I should've known from what the career guidebooks say that no matter how casual an interview is made to be, it is, after all, still an interview and thus the interviewee (i.e. me) has to be very clear about his goals and his background research. Anyway I was 10 minutes early as usual and met ADL, the HR manager. She was very nice and we broke the ice pretty quickly, discussing about her pregnancy and the impact of age differences in sibling relationships. After ushering me to a meeting room in the marketing department, she proceeded to chat about HR practices which were pretty interesting, to say the least. As they do not have any openings at the moment, I guess I should have been more cautious when I heard that they will create openings for deserving people. Before entering the interview, I felt I was compelling material, but I guess I was wrong. That, rather, was a signal to me that I should have sold myself like nobody's business as they are not in a rush to hire.. on the whole it was alright, and I felt we had a fluent conversation.

At that moment PL the Chief Organization Officer came in, which was pretty cool. Before the interview I thought that it might be a coincidence that PL was the other on the panel, but now to think of it he's the most natural person to be there since my resume seems to point towards a corporate communications/marketing direction which is his specialty. Things started off well, until we went on the topic of spotting industrial trends. Call me daft if you want, but I didn't practice these questions although I had expected them to arise before I went. So it was impromptu answering, and he didn't agree with some of my ideas and opinions. An example was the need to hire physical staff in the markets that operate and whether one can purely work from a headquarters like Singapore. I said no, it is difficult as the company will need the localized experience and he goes yes, it can be done. Another question that stumped me was what Creative Technologies should do now with its diminishing market share in MP3 players and sound cards, to which I gave a (lame?) reply of analysing current patents and work on their core competencies. I tried to add value by saying also to explore new ways of interaction, citing Creative's (flopped) attempts like the Audigy keyboard (interesting, but impractical) and Nintendo's Wii in the upcoming episode of the video console war. With regards to MV, I only gave (cursory?) replies that it is heading in the right direction - a big NONO cos it means I cannot offer anything of value to the company.

So that was the interview at MV. Do I expect a call from them? I'll be surprised.

日本語の練習の約束

勉強した日本語が忘れないのに、今から毎日日本語で短く日記を書くつもりです。でも、日本語四のテキストは無くなりましたが、忘れた文型を調べられないのに、ちょっと大変です。

きのう、コンピューター会社で面接へ行きました。面接は午後六時の予定ですが、私は十分前に来ました。会社員はインタビュー間に入らせました。それで長い待つマラソンです。四十分後、やっと面接者きました。

長い待つのに、面接は短いでした。私の好きだ、嫌いなのを聞いて、面接者はプログラマーの仕事を紹介しました。あれ！私はプログラマーの仕事が嫌いだ！それは時間のむだだ。

*　*　*

とこるで、明日HMさんとダ・ヴィンチ・コードの映画を見る予定です。

http://www.st701.com/

Sent! - SIA, Bloomberg, RP, Meiban, MINDEF

I just dropped a resume to SIA (Administrative Officer), hopefully they can extend the application to a position of Systems Planner

SIA - Systems Planner
http://singaporeair.recruitmax.com/MAIN/careerportal/Job_Profile.cfm?szOrderID=201&szReturnToSearch=1&szWordsToHighlight=

Bloomberg - Global Technical Support Representative

RP - Academic Staff

Meiban - Creative Writer

MINDEF - Research Associate

Argh! I missed the application with the Royal Bank of Scotland as a Trainee Operations Officer. Maybe I should pay the bank a visit.

Ned Nickerson

Goals & Dreams

SHORT TERM (1-2 years)
- JLPT 3 (and subsequently 2)

MID TERM (3-5 years)
- Stay in Japan for a prolonged period (1-2 years) (JET?)
- Certification to teach English as a Foreign Language (CELTA?)
- JLPT 2 (and hopefully, subsequently, 1)

LONG TERM (>5 years)
- JLPT 1
- Masters in Education (Technology)

Meaningless Rantings

I'm back from HK! I'll blog the lailongqumai (the details) in another blog (gradtriphk.blogspot.com) that is co-authored with SG. And oh yeah, welcome back to SG, HM!

I heard from RY-san that he'll be there for the Main Commencement Ceremony (that's the one I'm going with the Programmme) so it's a good feeling to know that there're some friends to take pictures with! Right now we're also considering bringing along my paternal grandmother to the ceremony if there're still tickets available after June 15. Oh well let's see how it goes then.

I've got a first interview lined with with EDS next Monday! However I am really unsure how my resume ended up in their office and even prompted a follow up. I've done a quick research and it seems like an excellent IT company to begin a career with as it is multi-fauceted and global - much space for growth! Hope it goes well and I get invited back for a second interview.
http://www.eds.com/about/locations/singapore/

Meanwhile, ABN-AMRO's supposed to call me back by today (according to our conversation in Shenzhen) but I have yet to receive a call.. I hope they haven't forgotten and more importantly, I didn't mishear! I guess I'll drop them an email if I do not hear by next Tuesday..

Career-wise, I guess I will continue with my resume deliveries over the weekend, via the NUS eCareer Fair where I spotted a few interesting companies. RP, Bloomberg.etc.. here I come!

On the entertainment front, tuition's postponed to two evenings next week (groanz) so I guess I guess that frees some time for interviews and fun. Meeting HM twice next week to watch XMen3 and Da Vinci Code, more for the hype rather haha. :) Oh! There's a 4C outing too next Thursday! Settlers Cafe, Clarke Quay is the place. I've got to do the booking tomorrow, gosh!

Meanwhile, I guess I'll set a time to run back to NUS to meet professors and such for fun and to thank them for a wonderful 4 years. But then there's also the graduation gown fitting which can only be done from 23 June onwards. Argh! Maybe I should just wait till then before returning. Meanwhile try to concentrate on job hunt?

Oh, my current book now is Catherine Lim's "Following the Wrong God Home". Hope that's a good read.

I guess that's enuff bagua to keep everyone informed about my life. Oh there's a surprise coming on Friday, I can't wait! :D

Ned Nickerson