free tools

free tools? Yeah, i'm entitled to an order of the tool bag and tool box, which was quite scary:

Delivered to my office


What you want, sure can find inside

she made some sushi for the picnic this weekend:

Yum~

remembering army daze

was chatting with Alvin about the new ITI when i started to recall some small stuff... like.

- the ultra long running track throughout Jurong Camp, from Division HQ to the old SOCE and to 30 SCE. 4km (really?) long, get to run the entire border, sometimes running into SAFTI cadets and some really eerie corners. I remembered i ran the track 3-4 times to prepare for AHM.

especially the old SOCE, which is now ITI. Other than the cars zooming by PIE, the building itself was abandoned when i was there. Imagine a building with corridors, staircases, doors and some windows nailed with wood but there are still lights in one of the room!

- guard duties, tuang-ing at that old SOCE building. Don't really understand how i picked my guts up and walked into one of the disused room with that 30 SCE guy and slept there. Don't ask me! Another spot was the vehicle workshop near 30 SCE, and the guy's bunk. We really tried to break the limits during NS.

- camp food. Apparently the best after Pasir Laba or SAFTI, but we still went for canteen and mat store all the time. The wanton mee or nasi lemak still win camp food any time, except for the price. In any case these are still miles better than the cookhouse at Stagmont.

- daily bus 182 or 193 to and fro the camp. Plus the strong and choky chocolatey smell every morning.

- the bunk with TV and entertainment gadgets. Had trouble hiding them (anyone tried to hide a TV will know) when MP comes, yet life is boring without these. Craved for internet, which i managed to get later.

- battalion day (or night). The CO ordered good stuff, can't really remember. I recalled having laksa or satay specially prepared by a chef standing at his table. Then as usual MDC sent some of their guys and girls over to perform the same old stuff. How about asking Wonder Girls to perform their famous Nobody instead...

- live firing. The BMT one was bad, real bad. Somehow i failed that and had to go again. Maybe it was the specs i wore, was difficult to take aim and ended up being a bobo shooter. The unit one was much better, because i became smarter and used contacts. There was the push cart (what's the name??) offering all kinds of food. If don't have, the uncle will come back with the order later. The only problem was no-sleeping, mozzies and the boring clearing up of the butt and swearing "i xxx NRIC ssssss hereby swear....... SIR!" Not enough spent rounds, gg. Kena f*** big time before going back.

too bad there weren't any photos. I personally liked the design of the range, because it was completely done in wood painted black with big numbers. Argh... no photos.

i'm still alive

work started for half a month already, still riding the learning curve. The curve is still manageable, but there are pockets of free time here and there. Could have been put to better productive use in office.

i'm working with System p server hardware, which is based on IBM Power architecture (the old Macs use this; the PowerPC all the way up until Apple switched to Intel). Along with it would be the System Storage solutions, such as storage enclosures, SAN, tapes and what not.

the learning curve is steep i don't know server hardware, and we don't hook these hardware up like a PC, which can fail when any component goes down. It's difficult too due to the Unix based operating system - lots of work with console, AIX commands...

my focus now would be to be a good employee and manage my free time better. But it's going to be tough.

Deskmount? Rack? Frame?

The 7th generation of Power chip

a member of AlumNUS

went to collect my graduation robe from campus. As usual, any event would attract advertisers. In this case, they were the banks (alumni credit and debit cards by SCB and DBS), NUSS (the graduate club), plaque makers and photography companies, etc.

received the invitation package and AlumNUS card too. Basically, it wraps up my undergraduate study with NUS. I would be good if i can return and continue my Masters programme there too - if there's such a chance.

making the move...

i'm changing my job environment on 1st July 2009 - my new employer is IBM at Changi, with an intermediary company as the agent managing my payroll and administration. Am i sad? I think i am, but the move must be made since i've completed my bachelor's degree and cannot remain in the temporary position for too long.

i've been with NYP for many years, 2000-2003 as a student then 2006 till now as a staff. Factoring out army, it's already 7.5 yrs. I seen level 6 uncovered (it was covered up in late 2007), LTL3 red seats (it still is), blk M up to level 4 only, the unrenovated Mac and previous Food Junction. Many things changed subtly over the years, but the general look remains.

some key memories during the course of work was the 2006 period i was depressed and spent many nights at the level 5 office. Only the ghosts saw me. It's somewhat entrenched since it was part of the life experience.

then came the larger events, such as the Oracle workshop in 2007 where i had the chance to handle the event, the stay at the campus accomodation at Blk 170 and in early 2009, the Xin Min Symposium.

i had much satisfaction building up (and tearing down) labs myself - CL 1, 2, 3, 11 and M310. CL 11 is my favourite, because i built it up and tore it down few times in 3.5 years. I put in effort to make sure the smaller details were included and the labs would be neat and tidy even after few semesters of usage. No messy or dangling cables in these labs!

there are many emergency incidents from small to big in the course of work too. Projectors and instructor PCs go south at the wrong time, requests come when there is only me, people getting hurt or vandalism of property, card readers going crazy, thumbdrive virus busting. Interesting incidents.

i certainly hope students at large are satisfied with the dept's customer service level. I would say we have progressed in small steps towards a student-centric learning environment, where we try to understand their needs and problems. Like SIT Club, instead of being defensive against their requests, we have largely changed towards listening and supporting them wherever possible. There is still much to be done though.

more photos to be updated in this post later.

FINALLY

after making so many attempts. Let's talk about last weekend 1st - i went in to try and the breakdown was:

#1: put in the tag at the reader, mounted the bar and did only 1 when PTI said Sir, you haven't inpro yet? I looked at the LED screen, **** it told me to inpro first without registering the 1x.

i almost wanted to scream at him because i wouldn't have gotten the tag without inpro first.

#2: mounted the bar again, 4x. ARGH

#3: mounted the bar again,..... 4.5x. I JUST COULDN'T DO 0.5 MORE!

just now was better. Did 5 without much ado. Only had to swing a little to do the 5th.

PASS LIAO LOH!

No monetary reward? It's ok. Just get this year's done and over with

fishing (changi point)

went for a different experience in fishing with CL, my colleague. Met a graduate EI student and his brother, and i invited WQ and girl too. Took Ah Long's boat out, and armed with his powerful Garmin GPS and fish finder we went to many spots between Tekong and Changi coast in the search for big fishes.

there were many new things for me. 1st was the fishing rod, quite heavy and hard to handle (i have wrist pain due to computer work). When the line got sang-kok by some rock, its so hard to extend the line. Flip the switch and the handle will wind itself by crazily, which blue blacked my fingers.

2nd was fishing with live prawns, learn to handle it was quite easy. But sensing for bites with the live bait in the water was really difficult. Couldn't feel a bite at all for the whole day. So you can guess, i was the unlucky one who caught nothing, only 1 decent bite but didn't have enough tension cos' my wrist was feeling weak.

Ah Long's boat


Preparing to set off


Chewing gum of the oriental (it didn't make it back to shore, cut up as bait)


Not bad, from 0830 to 1730 hrs.

summary of interviews

actually, interviews need practice and some homework. Read about salary negotiation skills (don't give a range, give a fixed number but suggest the competitive market rate before giving that number, ...) and working history problems. For example, how to explain job hopping in a nice way - unfortunately, any decent explanation would look bad on the applicant.

so far i applied 55 job positions, received 6 requests for interviews. You can guess the catch rate is around 10%! Went to ST Electronics, IBM, Philips, HSBC, Standard Chartered (PS) and NP, some turned out fine and some were superficial. Had 2 more calls from Hitachi and through a banking friend's referral, but i had to turn down since i received an offer.

come to this offer itself, decided to accept it since the terms seemed alright. The salary was not the best, but acceptable in such tough times. For the next 4 days, no response from the agency. I should give the staff a buzz tomorrow.