Yesterday night it started to drizzle a bit on my way home, I've seen taxis that are covered with rain and I thought, finally it's going to rain in Clementi. Afterall I am not that far from home, IMM is not that far technically. For the umpteenth time, I was disappointed.

It just won't rain in Clementi, it's a curse! I've been observing this trend for like a month and it rains every where but Clementi. It will rain heavily in my camp, it will rain heavily on my way home, and it will even rain heavily in NUS when I go pick up sucre, but it's just all sunny in Clementi. How cursed is that?! Is Clementi now the place of choice for some devils? So the devils are "upgrading" this place to make it as hell like as possible?


Weather report: Feels like 40 degrees, feels like oven to me

It says Singapore feels like 40 degrees today on my Firefox toolbar weather.. at least that is closer to reality compared to the helpless weather report we get from some media broadcasting company here. It's that hot. I need ice-cream but I'm on a diet, is there any low-fat ice-cream around?

Clementi Singapore

No, I'm not dead yet.. In fact I'm almost done with my 30 months of NS liability and right now I am clearing my ORD leave/off until the last week when I need to go back and do my clearance and dekit. For the girls, it means I don't need to go back army till the last week where I need to return to settle paperwork.

Why 30 months of NS? Because I was enlisted before 2002, the cut-off date whereby NSF get discounts of 2-6 months and because I did not pass my NAFPA test in JC and miss out a further 2 months credit. The good thing is, 30 months of NS is useful for civil servants as guys like us get a pay increment after 6 months in the ministry. For guys who serve only 2 years, they will have to wait for 12 months. Well that's something to cheer about.

Now that I'm in my Civilian Conversion Course, I hope to achieve some goals before I start my work in the public sector.

1.) Lost weight - In fact I have started this some time back and met with some success

2.) Get fit - The irony is, I gain weight and generally became less healthy when I'm in NS, go figure.

3.) Rip MCD - I really need to convert all my music cds to mp3 for the iPod I so wanted to buy with my first pay.

4.) Spring Cleaning - Or rather Summer Cleaning, really need to sort out my junk.

5.) Win the Champion's League - That's for my CM

Well, wish me luck...

Sucre is busy with her exams lately so she won't be updating the blog. As for me, mobilisation manning is around the corner. If you see "Spring Season", "Scorpion Tail", "Path Finder" or "Trump Card" on the mass media next weekend means I am in camp doing marshalling under the hot sun/in the rain.

Some time back mb started the "I'm too sexy for my blog" spoof. Then they made the April fool joke of transparent screen fun. See here (mb), here (popagandhi) and here (more photos). Me thinks these stuff are cool.. how I wish I can have such a nice wallpaper, but then the view is hideous. The pic above is something I got from email long ago but just as cool.


mb masterpiece

Some time back I met with a friend from NS who ORD and found a job in a famous local IT company in Singapore. This company made it's mark making sound cards 10 years ago but nowadays it is focus in making portable music devices. Apparently, my friend did not lose his sense of humour as he share with us some of the insider stories.

1.) During the company's annual dinner, the boss of the company made a lengthy speech on how he aim to take on his rival - Apple and it's iPod. He told his employees that he will step down as CEO of the company if he lost.

2.) He also mention that the rival company have shares in his company and vice versa. So if he loses, he wins and when he wins, he loses.

3.) That his company worth is only 1/10 of his rival.

4.) The top few prizes for the annual dinner is a chance to dip his/her hand into one of two tins full of cash (with thousand dollar notes among others) and bring home whatever amount he can take out from the small opening.

5.) The top prize, the remainder of the money in the tins, is awarded to the person who came closest to guessing how much money was left in it.

6.) SONY buys product design and parts from them for their own players

7.) That 20% of the company workforce is devoted to products yielding 80% of their revenue.

8.) That the IT company do not have sufficient computer terminals for their employees and they have to share.

9.) That the first batch of their products are made in Korea and are of good quality. Subsequent batches are mass produced in China or Malaysia. And the long queues at the Customer Service section are mainly due to MIC products.

10.) That his colleague used a $100 voucher from the annual dinner to buy the company's micro harddisk player and was spoilt after a week and told that he cannot claim from the warranty for god knows what problem.

11.) Last but not least, the company will be launching new products soon and product prices will fall...

12.) And the number 1 thing he learnt from the company is that "Mohamed do not go to the mountain, the mountain go to Mohamed." Do not understand? Ask those who are working in society now.

Ahhh... such things make me look forward to my own time working in the near future.. ORD Lor~~

So there is this guy who asked for a girl's hand in lecture some time ago and the thing caught fire online, guys might think "way to go dude" but the problem is, this girl does not know the guy. It just won't work unless the girl already know you and is already interested in you. But lucky for the guy he didn't succeed, cos he obviously just jumped into this by impulse. Incidentally, the lecturer who agreed to help this guy taught me before, he's a nice guy who tries to remember his student names, yes all the hundred of us. There are just not enough lecturers in NUS who are this devoted to teaching.

Traditional dates are not for students (unless your are rich) and that's that. Didn't hear about the news that movie tickets are going up to S$9.50 for weekend tixs? Well, now here's a breakdown of a standard dating package.

Standard Dating Package: Fetch girl, flowers, dinner, movie, send girl home.

Transport (Bus or Taxi, plus send girl home) = S$3-S$40
Movie Tix X 02 (Weekday or Weekend) = S$14-S$19 (Add S$0.70 for booking)
Snacks + Drinks for movie = S$8
Flowers (Bouquet of 6-12 roses, self collect) = S$35-S$50
Dinner at restaurant = S$40-S$50

Total Standard Package Price = S$100-S$170
Optional Shopping Add on = Varies
Optional GV Grand upgrade = S$31-S$36
Optional Indoor Games (Bowling, pool etc) = Varies, per hour
Subjected to midnight surcharges and Valentine's Day tax

Even if they decide to go dutch, it's still cost you a Maths textbook. So he should be glad that he made quite a savings. And the gahmen still wants to romance singapore? Wait till I go onto the Standard Fiance/Fiancee Package and the Standard Marriage Package.

Things to learn from this episode. Do not ask a girl to be your valentine in public, especially when you need to attend lectures, tutorials and exams with the same people in the foreseeable future. Now the guy have a time bar of 3mths-1yr before he can go after a different girl. I can imagine what will happen should he go after another girl before this episode is forgotten.

Guy: Girl, take my hand
Girl: Dun wan, people dun wan your hand then you offer to me
Guy faints

Credit Roll
Victor Tan (The Prof who endorsed it, Best Supporting Actor)
Cuiwen (The girl, Best Leading Actress)
Shan (News @ Web, News Reporter)
MB (Tabloid papers, Includes a link to the video plus link to CW)

singapore

So Candice Wan won the Angus Ross prize for best performance in Literature by a non-UK candidate and she is a SAINT. I didn't know about it until I saw the news on mb (again) and was link to another saint blog who wonders what Miss K thinks of all this. I was just reading it and when I reach the last part I almost burst out in laughter. (Ex-saints should read it).

This article prompt me to revisit the saints homepage to rediscover sajc and I can't help but feel old because...

1.) I don't recognise most of the faces in the staff photo.

2.) The maths tutor who just came to teach us 8 years ago is now the HOD of maths department. And she was pregnant (think should have given birth by now, anyone can update me on the child's name and sex etc?)

3.) The disciplinary master, Mr Marimuthu, the guy with hairy ears who rides a scooter to world trade centre (now harbour front) to catch students siaming chapel hour, is no longer in SAJC.

4.) The CCA teacher, whom we passionately named Xu Lao Lao is now in the disciplinary committee.

5.) The "never was there by chance" principal B.C. is now tau-kay of St Andrew's Village, the combined campus of the SA group of schools.

Think SAJC going to erect a statue or plaque in honour of this achievement. Coming up, a photo of Miss Teo playing mahjong (when she was young).


sajc

What is all the fuss about life science? Isn't science of life biology? Then why are there thousands of students in NUS taking up life science courses and why life science in Poly became so hot? Merely a few years back there isn't a life science department in NUS. Why? Is it because someone managed to map the DNA? Or is it because there is a huge market in gene therapy and growing of spare human parts?

The storyline is becoming all too familiar. In the 90s we had IT and computers. Anyone in this line were making money so everybody took courses in computers and/or IT hoping for a high paying IT job in the future. In fact when I graduated from JC, I received a brochure that says IT graduates command the highest starting pay compared to other fields. Then the bubble burst and the influx of cheaper alternative left many people stranded. What about the engineers before them? Now the first choice career in Singapore is Life Science, how many years will the bubble survive? When the life science bubble burst in the future, I guess we will be hearing the news about Singaporeans need to upgrade you skills, that you shouldn't be choosy about your jobs yada yada stuff again when the unemployment rate hits high.

All these years I have seen how the government puts money into life science from promoting it in schools to building biopolis for it. A few years back I volunteered for a science program to assist secondary school students in performing research projects. All the schools wanted were chemistry and biology undergraduates as they are focusing on life science projects. So after traveling from one end of the country to another end enthusiastically to attend the briefing we end up with no assignments on hand for physics undergraduate. In fact, some of the research centers for the students only cater for life science research only.

It is a mistake to put all the eggs in a basket. Those gahmen must straighten their thinking and put some of the funds and effort to support other researches too. Research techniques used in chemistry and physics proved to be useful for medical or life science research. After all, there are only so many things that you can see from an optical microscope or X-ray machine. Research to understand the behavior of micro objects and fluid could result in a portable micro lab device that could test for diseases from a single drop of blood. Sadly the progress is slow due to the lack of funds and researchers in this area.

Breakthrough in research for one field can be beneficial for other fields in science and technology. So if your child has interest in science, make sure he/she gets exposure to the different fields in science rather than one single area. Who knows he/she may revolutionize nanotechnology or design the new generation of quantum computers, possibly the next “in” thing.

Singapore

Forgot to mention that localbrand is offering 20% discount when you show your tongue for all their shirts. Sale ends 31/3/05. Oh, their products can be found @ Far East, Heeren and Holland V.. just check out their website.

Just came back from duty and saw this funny project going on. It's the "I'm too sexy for my blog" movement! Featured above is the pic of xiaxue, whom I think is in NUS, that was found by some blogger that was read by some blogger and so on so forth.. and I finally read it at mb. The story goes like this, Xiaxue, quite a well known blogger had this pose and when miyagi and mb read it, they decided to do a spoof of this photo titled as above. Ever since, the blogger community started a frenzy with this "too sexy" thing. Here's some of the essence...

mb does a xiaxue

Mr Miyagi had KFC for dinner

Ohh.. side note, while browsing some of the spoofs, I saw a photo from adri of popagandhi and she's from SAJC... amazing. You can see more of the sexy bloggers doing the spoof here.. it's so funny