Last snippet of hall life

Just came back from a long talk with Kenny and Weiyen. It reminds me that there are great conversations to be had anywhere in hall, and the serendipity is just amazing :) Perhaps it's the sense of home in our warm abode here that endear us to our friends and neighbours so. Well, since i'll be staying in budget student hostels in both the U.S and Germany, i'll be sure to experience this feeling with different people who have different stories to tell :)

Anyway, I feel really relieved that my overseas trip issues are settled. It was a pretty tough exam season, what with running all around getting my jabs done, applying for student discount cards, preparing documents and whatnot... and, Oh Gott, the waiting. That was the worst part of all, stressing over whether my acceptance package, german insurance requirements will arrive in time for my visa application (and my pre-booked flight!)

I'm just glad to have everything fall in place, and not a moment too soon, either. Will be flying off next thursday on the 30th, i hope everything goes smoothly ~ Before that, i'll be initiating myself to Moolah @ the SG office these few days. Definitely raring to go :)

Bis bald, Singapur!

Acceptance from TUM!

Für Ihr Studium an der Technischen Universität München wünschen wir Ihnen
viel Erfolg!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Ihr Welcome Office

:)

Stats

Interesting stats from blogspot's new Stats function!

Over the past month...
-227 views came from my facebook profile.
-16 views came from a Russian property website. I assume real estate must be big in Sebastiancity?

-Top Countries that my readers are from:
Singapore, U.S., Malaysia, and.... Russia. (btw if you're russian, you may want to stop searching for your dream house here.)

-Strange O.S./ Browsers used by readers:
4 Iphone views, 1 Netscape (thought it was extinct?), 1 Java (Java has a browser?)

-Top stories read:

Hall XI FOC 2010: A Happy Ending
Reflection
Fishin' in Sibu

Haha... really fun to look at the stats. Thanks, Google/Blogspot!

Updating Life

Been wanting to blog for the longest time! A multitude of myriad things have passed by, and i'm just dying to rave abt them.

First off: getting an internship @ Project Moolah, Silicon Valley U.S. :) It's going to be tons and tons of fun over there, every single day at work! I was so afraid that i'd end up doing a mundane office-job internship in SG again... it just felt like i'd never be able to explore what i truly wanted to do. But I'd bet that just getting overseas will really throw me out of my comfort zone and force me to search for directions in life again :)

What i'd be doing there isn't kinda fixed, but it mostly revolves around customer development (on e ground with the kids and parents!), as well as some fascinatin projects here and there. I cannot begin to describe how much more interesting this is compared to a typical 'high-flying' internship in a bank or MNC... which will be mostly abt churning out metrics, hanging out at pubs, and dabbling in things full-timers do. Still pretty interesting, but i'll pass this second time round, for the wild unknown world of the Valley!

Anyway, probably flying at the start of the year :) Looking forward to visit some friends like Alvin, Gaoshan, Zhiyang along the way.

Next up, i did some cool photoshoots for the school! Reminds me of the JCRC photoshoot a couple of years back.. but this time i wasn't in the limelight! Ended up as those in the 'background' picture..haha. It was pretty fun tho, we even did some external shoot and went all the way to SRC! Anyway i'm going for another one tomo, will see what this one is like.

And over the past weekend, i mourned for the passing away of my great-grandmother, aged 97. The wake was probably the most extensive i'll ever see, with me among the 170+ descendants that she had, and the high-budget stuff that went on. A whopping 6 or 7 buses were catered to bring us to Choa Chu Kang.

It's amazing how one life can lead to so many. And yet i'd think it was never her intention to pass her genes down, as a sort of immortality. But among all these lives she'd impacted so deeply, how many have actually spent a thought or two thinking about filial piety, familial ties to her? It seems as though where the heart cannot pay back, the wallet serves just as well. And hence the origin of ceremonial burial, lavish, elaborate and ultimately, redeeming for the living. As below, so above; as above, so below.

Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius.

It wasn't of course this moody at... my most fun project presentation till date, BC214!! Check out the videos @ facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=477238146704&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=477250986704&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=477261261704&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=477295916704&ref=mf

I scripted it from an idea out of the blue in twenty minutes :) Plus directed the whole thing in an hour with all the born actor guys, and Zhi jie did the great video editing. It got the entire class laughing, including the prof. I'm definitely proud that we satisfied the entire audience, instead of just presenting boring, factual stuff that looked aimed at the prof only! (counts for 50% of the grps.. sad).

It's already the third year and i'm pretty much synced in with what the profs want from us, and what they want us to pick up from the course. That's why i took the initiative to lead two project groups this semester (stepping down from CCAs helped too), and i'm pretty comfortable with the results for both! I maintained a leisurely pace throughout, and learned to show more empathy and understanding, something i had as a terrible fault while being FOC Chair.

Come to think of it, despite my FOC journey being much less intensive than JCRC in year one, it taught me so much more than i ever learned as a block manager. I'd say Year one was about losing the naivety about people and things, Year two was understanding my strengths and weaknesses, and Year three was... well, being in the know and getting comfortable :)

I truly felt at ease this entire semester, knowing when to "let go" and when to "reel it in". (Anglers' Club taught me new lingo eh, haha) I just felt more acutely aware of the situation, the paths of action open to me, and their consequences. There was little doubt in my mind as to what i needed to do, and when. All i needed was a desire, and the discipline and will to fulfill it :p but these're my biggest weaknesses after all.

In short, Life has never felt more carefree and yet empowered in the comfort zone i've built over these past years ...

...and that's why i have to get outta here :)

Infocomm Industry Forum

I'm usually not the kind of person who goes around attending seminars and forums, but these two days I've had them back to back!

The first was the Infocomm Industry Forum 2010. Informative, inspiring, and led by high-powered executives and entrepreneurs full of vibe! They presented on the hottest ICT trends, on cloud computing, analytics, mobile techs... all poised to evolve the way we do business, and even the way we live.

I especially liked the last two presentations, about Globe Forum, an ideas and capital marketplace for environmental enterprise, and Grow VC, that promotes the system of communal investment, i.e. growing a VC from the ground up. I grabbed the opportunity after the forum to talk to Mr Jouko, a long-time entrepreneur, investor and the founder of Grow VC. It was inspiring to see someone who believes in a vision and great ideas, especially at his level of multi-million startups!

At the same time, I also talked to Mr Johan of Globe Forum, and.. it was not so inspiring. I asked about his personal motivation (besides being a hero to his daughter!), but instead of hearing about the importance of environmentalism, he exhorted about how it was a truly profitable idea, by taking a stake in multiple startups. Sounds like a VC masked up by lofty ideals.

Of course firms must be profitable. But in which sense? Money? Sure, money is a universal medium of value. But what if this value is not recognized in the monetary sense? Just as housewives and mothers receive no banker's pay, so do many not-for-profits toil away at solving the needs and problems that society falls short in today. How about giving them a pat on the back and some healthy financing, eh?

I'm sure there are so many worthy startups out there that can earn huge profits. With minimal costs they can maximize their revenue: millions worth of peace, billions in conserving the environment for the future, and trillions of happiness for many, many people in the world. Do we really have to leave it to people who get realllllyyyy rich before they can give away half their fortunes to charity and NPOs? (Nice initiative btw, Bill!)

Anyway, I'll been contacting Mr Jouko soon, and hopefully get to engage him on these issues.

Fishin' in Sibu

Back from the Kelong fishing trip in Sibu, Malaysia. And lovin' it. :)

I haven't felt so refreshed for a long time... Sitting on a stool, rod in hand, hook in the waters, the vast expanse of blue skies and white clouds immersing me in peace and serenity. The horizons drew me in, and the hours passed like minutes. Here was a great getaway, replete with a overflowing atmosphere of calm that enabled us to talk and share freely and have fun. These were the halcyon days...

It's not the fishing, but the company that matters. I feared at first that i wouldn't be able to make friends there, but it was just so easy to get to meet and know so many new people whom i've never seen before!

There were the 'villagers' and Exco who worked hard to make the event a success... Jame, Xinyi, Sophia, Jason, Wei Qiang, etc. There were the 'mahjong khaki' that i played with, including Felix, Huang Hui and Wei Kang from German class :) There were the random peeps i've met, either queuing for the toilet, helping me with my line, or just plain chatting as we fished, like Jia Long. And of course, the girls whom i'd spent most time with, fishing, playing cards and had meals with... Xinru, GC, Carol and Yeexian! It feels refreshing to know more people for a change, and though it were just two days and a night, i had open, interesting conversations with a lot of different personalities.

Yet another big catch :p

We fished as much as we liked, with squid as bait, and easily caught a myriad of fishes. From a white one that made kissing sounds as it spat water at us, to a colorful variety that had spiny fins along its back. At first it was fun putting them in the pail, like a record-keeping book; but later when they started suffocating, we could only release them back to the sea. And make no mistake, fishing is cruel, really cruel! I regret the times i had to pull out my hook from the fish's eyes or mouth, leaving them bleeding! In the end, i stopped fishing the second day.

We ate as much as we could, too. There was good seafood, and i enjoyed the restaurant-style yet communal meals. The locals rang the bell to start the meal, and we streamed in like schoolchildren to get our ricebowls and sit at random tables, each with full five courses set out tantalizingly. There was even a supper BBQ; you just had to feel satiated the whole day and night.

I liked to wander around and talk to people. The kelong was an open-concept, mammoth wooden platform with rod holders all around the perimeter. In the day we shuffled around like rabbits, looking for new spots to hopefully dig out something. At night we waited patiently for the squids at the bottom of the sea to bite, which rarely did. When we got sick of it, we played mahjong, chatted, got drunk (not me!)

It was all a good, wholesome weekend :) Hopefully next year, when i come back from Germany, i'll be able to go for it again. Hurrah for retired uni. life! It's really great to take a leisurely pace of life to things, for a change.

Life must be so full of all these new and interesting experiences, waiting for us to explore and discover :)

Doldrums

In the doldrums now. Perhaps there's just so much uncertainty in my life now, that it gets to the point where it's terribly, miserably upsetting. I still don't know what i want to do with my life. I can't find an internship anywhere outside Singapore (though i haven't tried Kazakhstan). And, now, after stepping down from umpteen things in my past two years of hall and school, i can't find something new to be passionate about.


I did try. I joined the Anglers' Club, and it was fun going down to Pasir Ris pond and catching that monster of a fish. I'll be going to Sibu this Sat too, to a kelong floating in the sea half an hour off the Malaysian coast. Hopefully it'll be exciting enough to lift my mood.

I joined the NBS Exchange Club, but after the first event, we got caught up in some bamboozling red-tape stuff and that was that, till the next event at the end of the month. And i'm in the German Society, which has yet to notify me of anything.

To sum it up, my CCA life has been grinding to a halt now. Guess i've been so used to the hectic workload of being a leader at the top, that now that i've stepped down, to relax and retire as an ordinary member, it bores me. I am at a complete loss of what to do when i'm free. Even now, i am doing extra work on my biz. project, because it occupies me for the moment. Keeps me from thinking too much.

To top up the depressive moods, i had been watching '1 Litre of Tears' the past week. And it made me tear almost every single episode. The original story is sad enough, but the drama's addition of the love element really ups the ante far too much.

The most touching scenes were, to me, those of Aya and Haruto... it's like having an infinitely bright and beautiful scenery that you can but peek through a window. It was so deeply poignant when Aya tells him not to see her again... because she couldn't bear being reminded of the happiness that she 'could have' with him. A tragic love story that did not begin or end, but only simmered in bittersweet sorrow in each other's hearts.

I will always remember this serial for being so different from the usual riffraff. This is a serial not made for entertainment, but for inspiration. Not made to sell, but made to touch. This is a love story you'll dream about vividly at night. Perhaps just as Aya does.