Today

Just concluded my LTB Presentation on 'A Leader I have Known'. It was quite successful (And according to Ariel and Kangwei, was better than my Comms presentation), with just a hiccup during Q&A.

Had lunch at the corner coffeeshop along Armenian Street, and ordered a plate of Char Kway Teow ($3), which tasted quite ordinary, shared some Ngoh Hiang Hae Piah (quite expensive, but the prawn crackers were quite nice) with Kangwei, Shouwen and Ariel ($6). Washed everything down with some barley, which according to Shouwen, tastes like 'the water they use to wash the dishes'. Ouch.

Yesterday

Met Debbie in school for the first time. Looks like Pick N Bite is a great place to chance upon friends.

Got back our Stats Quiz. Surprise, surprise... 92 percent. :)

Oh, but the embarassing thing is, my only 2 (rather careless) mistakes came from the MCQ and not the Open-ended questions... :P

All in a Day's Work

Am quite fresh from my first school-free weekend of the semester, which provided a much needed respite from my hecic schedule.

For a change, I met up with Ruiyi on Friday to hunt for Xuelun's present. As I was there rather early, I decided to check out the Library@Orchard. There is a really cool comics collection here (just like Jurong Regional Library, I'd say).

We had our lunch at the Takashimaya basement food court. The Vietnamese Chicken Curry was reasonably good.

After four hours ploughing through Takashimaya and the Heeren, I headed over to SMU for a Blurt gathering, followed by an introduction to the World of Warcraft ;)

Sunday started off with a lazy brunch with Xuelun at Paulaner Brauhaus (Millenia Walk). Food was great, booze (free flow) was in-house and rather light (despite the fact that it contained 4.5% vol of alcohol). It was a simple affair, with most of the usual group present. Buffet-style, great hash browns (authentic ones, at least!) and yummy sausages (88%)

After brunch (It was nearly 3.30pm!), I went home to prepare for dinner with Cousin Lily (which was at Serangoon Gardens Country Club's Jumbo Restaurant). Traditional Chinese crusine, set (table) meals with great value. (80%)

Current Cost of Integrated Casinos (Resorts) to hit S$5 billion
See here for Channel New Asia's take on the issue.

"...property valuers expect competitive price tender for the site and construction costs to add up to as much as S$5 billion..."

"...This will make the Marina Bayfront integrated resort one of the most expensive integrated resorts with gaming component in the world..."

As I see it, the eventual cost of the project will hit 9, 10 billion SGD if the bidding process drags on. Besides, the bidders might need to make space for provisions, expecially miscellaneous licensing and building permits (especially so since the Marina site will envelope the Marina Bay Waterfront and will no doubt be liable to the stringent judiciary requirements of buildings being consructed next to water catchment areas.

Underneath all the glam, potential operators should also carefully consider the hidden costs involved in the construction and running of the Integrated Casinos (Resorts). Mark my words, 10 billion is not too far off.

All in a Day's Work

Still recovering from flu.

FA Presentation went well this morning, which brought much relief to the team. Next up: FA Project!

The two-presentations-a-day scheme never worked out, and my Comms presentation has been postponed till Wednesday.

Had a super busy weekend, having been preoccupied with my FA presentation.

Also celebrated Grandma's 90th birthday yesterday evening at the RC below their flat. Turn out was very good, and several fellas had a go at karaoke.

Schedule is currently filled until the end of the week, so I'd better go hit the books (and the sacks) while I can. :)

All in a Day's Work

Still down with a bout of flu, but recovering speedily.

Had a pleasant surprise yesterday when I received an invitation to Xue Lun's 21st. My, we are certainly growing up fast. :)

On a lighter note, I joined dad at his group's 60th birthday celebrations, where they were recollecting the days gone by when they celebrated their own twenty first. Now enjoying fulfilling and relatively successful family lives, they are the epiome of The Singapore Story. Envy!

All in a Day's Work

Back from Tae Kwon Do training. It was a slightly more demanding session today (Had no time to relearn more patterns...) Oh well, finally tried to spar with sir. :) Ha ha... first sparring session since a long time ago... :P And earned myself a blister in the process... bah. But on a lighter note, it felt good to be back on my feet again. Heh...

Anyway, due to my less than friendly schedule, I do offer my sincere apologies on the less than informative write ups.

All in a Day's Work

Fourteen days and one Stats assignment later, I emerge from my lair, all weary and dazed.

Just a rough idea on what's on my current To-Do list:

- Stats Assignment
- Prep for FA Quiz
- FA Group Presentation
- FA Term Project
- Comms Assignment
- Plural perspectives Quiz

A scream rings through my head.

Was almost pulverized by an overenthusiastic wave (yes, WAVE) of vehicles as I was crossing the road near SESS with Michael on Wednesday, after Tae Kwon Do Training.

Comms Quiz (on Wednesday also) was a killer. It was 'Fill in the Blanks'. And they asked right about anything under the sun. Sigh...

All in a Day's Work

Wow, I had at least eight people asking me if I was local, three in the morning (when I went for the AIESEC simulation programme at NTU) and another five in the evening (when I joined Yao Long for the network marketing introduction at Boon Keng. Varying comments put me as a Vietnamese, a Chinese scholar (*gushes), one said I have mixed blood (Which may hold some truth :P) Any comments from the panel?

Are you a Mover or a Shaker? (Source)

A mover and a shaker

Larry Boucher has a reputation for staying ahead of the curve

Douglas E. Caldwell

Why do some Silicon Valley companies succeed wildly and others fall into the "dustbin of history" with barely a whimper? Larry Boucher, founder and CEO of Alacritech Inc., says there are commonalities that set the successful high-tech companies apart.

My take on the issue?

To be an industry shaker, the finer things in life might just count. It is no use promising to help each other out when one is indifferent to even insignificant issues such as giving up a seat to the needy.

Start being a SHAKER today!

I can recall an incident last Friday on campus - A worker was trying to push his trolley up a ramp, but the trolley simply couldn't get onto the ramp. As there were many boxes on the trolley, he was worried they might drop if he was to jerk the trolley onto the ramp. Passers-by opted not to notice, nonchalantly by-passing him as he struggled with the trolley.

A simple act, I'd thought. Just help him lift the trolley onto the ramp. Why didn't anybody rise to the challenge?

For the record, I did, and am glad for having done so. It made the worker thankful for assisting him, but even more so, because that instilled in him confidence in the human spirit of forthcoming assistance, and myself, pride on having made a difference to someone's (otherwise tedious and tremendously mundane) life.

Take another example:

I was on the bus last week, when an elderly man boarded the bus. There were many typical Singaporean commuters (you can recognize them by the way they select their seats - by the aisle) on board. Of course, plonked upon the green seat meant for the aged was this young chap, who promptly shut his eyes and began meditating, as soon as the elderly man boarded. The elderly man tried to squeeze his way across the young lad to his seat, but he did not budge. In the end, in frustration, he shook the young fella awake and promptly got his seat.

Me 1, Society 0

Went to Waterways Watch Society this afternoon to plan for our bicycle patrol. It poured, but that did not dampen our spirits, and we eventually started the patrol proper at four. It was fun cycling down to the Esplanade while keeping a lookout for errant picnic-goers and fishermen. :)

Oh well, will be having lessons tomorrow, so better call it a day.

Probably more on the Groupthink phenomena brought up by Prof Kong (during LTB lesson) in future. It's an interesting concept!

All in a Day's Work

After two weeks of school and two complains that I have not been updating my blog frequently, I finally manage to find some time to make an entry.

The first week passed quite quickly, with 3 days of schooling (My Tuesdays and Fridays are designated 'off' days). Textbooks flew off the shelves like hotcakes (okay, so I didn't manage to get all my textbooks...), most of the profs were nice (at least they do not see the necessity to appear otherwise), I attended a lunch time talk which came with free lunch (so I saved on meals. Clever!)

Yes, a hurried post, no doubt. Will post more juicy stuff when I find time to do so. :P

All in a Days Work

290705

Hopped down to the Singapore Expo for lunch with mum and dad, where we tried out yummy food at the Food Festival, such as the Japanese skewered meat and sushi, Singapore's famous Chilli Crab, Hong Kong Ee Fu Noodles and the Thai waterchest nut dessert.

After the hearty meal, I went on to meet my Asoc Campmates at Marche for Dinner. As facilitator Ron was not feeling well then, Weiming coordinated the meet up instead. And I had the honour of being splashed with water courtesy of their infamously pathetic counter staff (Luckily it was just a small splash. What made me MAD was that he did not apologize for having splashed water on me). Had it been one of my less patient days, I would have dragged him and marched up to the General Manager to complain. As it was, I had the Teriyaki Fish and Wedges, which was probably one of their cheaper Main Courses (Snapple for four bucks, so you go figure). And they've added a new clause which requires a minimum of ten dollars spent per card (cumulative with other cards)

After the initial formalities, we trooped over to the Cineleisure Food Court where I grabbed a 'Cool Blue; (really just Longan with some blue, sweet stuff). Actually, we were waiting for a place at Cafe Cartel, where Cheese cakes go for for 1/2 price (practically S$2.10) after 9pm. A steal! So we tried the Tiramisu, Chicago and Oreo cheesecakes, desparately trying to find space to slot them into our stomachs. :D

280705

Met up with Victor at Starbucks Coffee, Suntec City, for a small introduction session. Despite some efforts at initiation along with Gabriel, he and his friend were quite reserved, but yup, what should be expected of an initial meet up anyway? Of course, we spoke a little about the political climate and current affairs issues such as the bombings in London and Egypt before they scooted off for another appointment.

Note to self: The Mocha, kettle chips and potato salad at Starbucks are pretty good, but it should come with a sticker that screams: NOT CHEAP!

Heh.

Anyway, after the little get together, I walked around City Link Mall for a couple of hours before meeting up with fellas from my SMU Orientation Group (Ed: It's Leadership and Team Building Camp! Whatever...) for dinner at Thai Express. I guess we were enticed by the 'Buffet', which ended up really being a 'Finish up our fine spread of 20 dishes before you may order as you like' Buffet, which is really sad, because most of the fellas were full even before we finished our preassigned twenty dishes.

After dinner, we crossed over to Marina Square to catch a Movie (At a discounted rate, 'cos Xin Yu's working at Golden Village) - The Island

After watching The Island, I realized that if one dwells upon the plot and storyline, one will notice that the film deals with many current issues (I will place the onus on you to find out which scenes were represented by their corresponding issues):

1. September 11 Terrorist Attacks
2. The ethical issues of Human Cloning
3. Man's quest for longevity, at any cost
4. The prevalence of Racial Discrimination in society
5. The violent consequences that may arise from the oppression of thought (Propaganda) in societies
6. The obsession with Designer babies and Production line babies (In Vitro, X-ray gender scans, cloning)

Lifted the ban on the K Box Group and accompanied my OG to K Box Karaoke.