Singapore: The air-conditioned nation

I should read it one day!

Crazy GT, ticket stubs and memories

260907 - Kitakyushyu College of Technology visit!

Caught by YV at the swimming pool!

Japanese Film Festival - Life can be so Wonderful

The Beginning

Here it goes, wish me luck!

http://www.sg.emb-japan.go.jp/JET2008.html

3 student-mentees wishing a happy birthday!

W45K!

Institutional student database!

Goodness, speak of privacy!

http://yandao.com/photo07

One can search for a student's name and the student's ID and class(es) taken are listed! Gosh!

W34K

26!

A new class! W24H

Dinner with WT

I just came back from having a rather expensive Japanese dinner at Kuriya with WT. Thanks WT, for the birthday trip!

I was rather busy today and subsequently next week onwards as the semester is starting and I am heavily involved in problem crafting. Sigh!

Called QK this morning in between meetings and chalked up quite a hefty bill from using expensive (but straightforward - just dial '+1xxx...'!) distance calling on my mobile and chatted for an hour. He was just like an arts student (he IS one), complaining about the incompatibility of his Macbook and he does not know that it comes with a built-in microphone. He was worried about using Skype and MSN Messenger to do voice calls as he does not want to impose on his friends to get a microphone - goodness, they cost cheap and might actually come with laptops!

Happy 26th birthday!

I went to the airport after having a little celebratory dinner with HY. I just love the flight information boards at the airport, those little black rectangles that go "flip-flip" to signify the departure of flights and the moving forward of the lives of the many passengers on them.

Terminal 2:


Terminal 1:


At the moment of 11.59pm, 12 September 2007 ...


... and the bewitching hour of 12.00am, 13 September 2007.



Happy 26th birthday!

Buying a new guitar!

Synchronium

J&D Brothers

W25J BBQ, rainbow/s!

Trying to be humorous

roti prata

pavarotti

teh aliah


Why we should work in the CBD

Working in the CBD is lots of fun. I was a corporate communications executive for 3 months after I graduated from university and I thought for a moment I was in a place better than my undergraduate days.

Just coming to the CBD is fun. When I started on my first day of work, never have I seen such a long queue at the MRT station like the McDonalds Hello Kitty craze. The Singaporean in me went "Wow, I get a welcome-to-work gift!" So I waited and waited, shuffling in my well-pressed shirt and pants. Finally it was my turn. I could barely hold my breath. It was certainly a limited edition alright. A newspaper that is limited to the day's news.

It was fun to go on the train as well. I pride myself to be a Singaporean, and I feel very patriotic that I raise my arm like any other fellow Singaporean on the train. However that is where I realise that different people have different arms. There are hairy arms, there are smooth arms, there are long arms, there are short arms. Then if you are unlucky, you might have someone who is very patriotic like Corporal Teo who carries arms.

There was this time when my colleague was late. When her boss asked her why she was late, she said, "I had to wait for the water to boil." She was our pantry lady.

CBD is also a place where you have tons of IT as well. I thought it was great, so it was a rude shock when I asked my boss, at 3pm in the afternoon, 'I want my high tea - where are my scones and cream?" "I'm afraid we only have keys and diskettes", he replied.

Actually sometimes I do not really understand what is considered work. In the morning, I walk over and chat with Stacey the receptionist, pass a message from my boss to Marcy in Finance, and then help Tracy from HR hunt for a few documents. I am absolutely busy. Whenever my boss asks me why am I so busy, I always say "I am communicating what."



It is painful to feel hapless and helpless.

Sometimes I have a colleague who tells me every Sunday that they do not want to go to work the following day. Yet I see them on Monday. When asked why they decide to go to work, they just say,"I do not look forward to work." I cannot help but tell them





Mooncakes

Beer drinking

Going for night classes

Meals in the CBD

Love in the CBD

Hatred in the CBD

Free gifts in the CBD – lifting gold bars in the middle of a hot day in shirt and tie

Rush hours in the CBD

Learning a foreign language

http://earnestspeakers.com/humorous-speech.html

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/07/saving-time-with-your-microwave/

National Day

Link it back to the club

My PEAKS profile

I attended a training session on how to interpret my personal PEAKS profile which every academic staff and student has to do. I cannot help but think how much the school has invested (or paid) to have us subscribe to this system, gosh! In my case as an academic staff, not only have I been paid to do the profiling and received 5 reports, I have also undergone the course that certifies me to be sufficiently qualified to understand the report. Goodness!

http://www.drshirleylim.com/index.html
http://sg.jobstreet.com/career/premium/career_profile.htm

As I attended a training session that was earmarked for my department, my assistant directors and director were there as well. While I had lots of fun with KM, FDR and PML digging at our personality profiles, it was tense at times when we were asked to line ourselves based on our scores and how the directors had a better understanding of their staff by seeing where they stand in the whole department, for example who is the most vocal, who is the most determined person when it comes to projects and such.

Sigh. Office politics.

A new organisation structure, a new workplan, a new declaration

I want to do problem crafting, I want to to do IG, I want to do adult training, I want to run student workshops, ...

I don't want to do IT-related stuff, I don't want to do collaterals, I don't want to do research (quantitative), ...

I don't mind doing research (qualitative), I don't mind meeting corporate clients, ...

Missed pictures of the symposium in March '07