"GHH BOOK PRIZE" FOR DIST STUDENTS

Starting 2 semesters back , I began to award my CL3301 module distinction students with a small gift as an appreciation for their commitment to safety.

So far I have bought 3 different books for them to choose from...
1. Rules of Life / 2. Rules of Work / 3. Word Power Made Easy.

Don't think they are ready for (4. rules of management) yet...even I myself are not ready also...haha.





















The main intention is to reward the deserved students, also introduce these books to them so as to better prepare them for life / work (pbp / uni life coming!!) and also perhahs also the dreaded english test in Uni.

Here are the past receipiants:
o4S2 winners - Anna / Shirley (Given out late..when they are about to leave NYP to join uni)
05S1 winners - LSL / Maryam / TPL / Aishah (lucky batch to get 4 A*)
05S2 winners - Justin / JingHui / Cynthia / ShaoYi (actually 3 A* eventually only...but i still gave 4 books anyway)
06S1 winners - Sarah Maria / Annie / YaLing (Actually Sarah took so much choc from me, I should pass her my bills instead of the book)

The 2 rules book are very well written and organised...so the readers can slowly digest each rule at their own pace...without rushing through the book. I still have not finished the books myself.

However, though it's good eye opener and life skills enrichment, I must say that not all the rules in the book I will adhere to...for example - there is a rule which the author call for :
GET CLOSE TO THE HIGHER MANAGEMENT - yes if you really wanted to scale the corporate ladder...for me I am stubborn and cannot and do not want to get recognise by this route. So on contrary ...I tend to get closer to the ground level instead. That's me.

For the English book ...it's actually my very 1st english improvement book I read when I was in the army. It was a great help to raise my English standard to the next level. (Haha...i can imagine some of you will say....wah...like that also next level ah?? just how low is your original level?...all I can say is ...I'm a chinese helicopter...very very low!!)

I thought of passing this book to some of them who wanted to improve their English too. However, Rome is not built in afew days and I am not really sure it can help them much within a short period of time. But still it is a good book and I really hope they do have the will to go through and adsorb it.

Dear students, have you finished reading the books? Or still working on it?? or was it sitting in your book shelf collecting dust?? Or already dump into the "Round black folder" for good??

Let me know... :) ....if no use I better try other books le...

EuTongSeng attachment ???

For the past few semesters, I made a point to meet up with the P6 students in CPTC to catch up with them during their training there.

Time to see how are they doing and also good to pass them some sweets... so hopefully they don't fall asleep during lectures. Hehe.

Also, it is appropriate time that I have a chance to spell out clearly the attachment companies under my care. What is the company business, , job nature, working enviroment, boss character, expectations and pay package etc etc.

I believe this extra session is valuable and win-win....as I can share the true scenarios with the students. The heard the whole story, no glamourization / not gloom ad doom conspiracy. Then they think about their own needs and interests. If the job fits, let me know and I shall check if there is anything planned for them for the better or worse. If the pbp coordinator (my boss actually) found it to be suitable, then we have a match. Bingo!

In this way, I really hope that there will be more commitment from the students side and once they get what they opt for...they will put in their heart n soul into the job later...and so far it has proven that my hypothesis is correct. So far no problem faced from those who volunteered.

And also since the companies under my care are NOT Multinational corporation..and the pay is just standard pay and reputation wise cannot really match Shell / Exxon / Seraya and some big Pharama companies...really I can't ask for top grade students for attachment. But what I hope to do is to add value to the student and help them to go through the attachment with minimum or no hickups.

I just hope they felt taken care of and appreciate my frank advise along the way. That should translate into better realtionships later and they should feel a sense of achievement / attachment later on.

It has also provided me an opportunity to work with quite afew students that I have no chance to know them well during the lessons. Since then, relationship with such students has vastly improved...I can only hope that they enjoy working in the company I told them, and have no complaints about the way I handle attachment / visits / reports / presentation preparations.

LiJun / Ghafu and 2 more (sorry ole already really cannot remember le) were with me in 04.

MuiMui / Shufang / Daniel / WanEe / Karen / Wiro / Farhan / LiLi / Durrah were with me in 05.

This year it will be Marcus / Elaine / James / Huay Shan. Coming soon - next sem - Loh Yun / Angela / Nor Adam / Joanne / Wei Kin and one more Kenny- pending.

These are the small group of students who I have chance to work with during the PBP and the relationship I hope is a bit more special also.

A bouns joke this year : -

After this year explaination session, i received a SMS message later on in the evening from student A:

"Sir - the Eutongseng company, for gals lab tech, I'm interested, :) "

I was actually stunned for a moment...where got this chinese traditional medicine company under my care for attachement ah?? Then after awhile I suddenly realised that this student was referring to ItalSing (Lubricant company)!!! ...not the TCM EuTongSeng lah.

Feel like replying to her and say : "You like to sell 余仁生 白凤丸 ??”
I just hope that she wont get a rude shock to arrive at the ulu ulu plant of Italsing ...expecting to see a high class Eutongseng sales counter like in west mall ah...hahaha.

Oh no...pbp havn't start and i already smell potential trouble...blur queen on her way to me...
>_<

3-STAGE LIFE CYCLE

I was coaching my son on Primary 3 Science and went through the topic of Life Cycles with him. According to the text book, the mammals have a 2 - stage life cycle. Adult - young.

Not sure where I read it from...there is this another candid theory about human life cycle, and actually it classify our life into 3 stages instead.

SATGE 1 - Plenty of Time , Plenty of Energy --- BUT NO Money!!
(This is the stage refering to us before we actually start work and financially independent, as a student, many of you may not be aware of this, but actually you all have plenty of time to spare...so much so that quite afew of you are wasting it without knowing the fact. You are also young and energetic, plaenty of energy in you...the only regret in life at this stage, priobably is thatyou wish you have more $$ to spend...so that you can do a lot more things that you want to do.)

STAGE 2 - Plenty of Money , Plenty of Energy --- BUT NO TIME!!
(This is the stage probably one concentrates his/ her energy to balance between own job advancemant / marriage / friends / parents / children. Your financial status will get better and better once you startrd work. After 5 years, $$ should no longer be a problem. BUT...the major prblem you faced this stage is : so much things to do !!! within so little time!!! Can I have more hours pr day??!!)

STAGE 3 - Plenty of Money , Plenty of Time --- BUT NO Energy!!
(This is the stage where you have probably retired / financially secured / children already old enough to be on thier own...wanted to do something but health/vigour is limiting factor. This is the stage you have to take things a bit easy and use your energy wisely, cannot play paintball le.)

I am now well into stage 2 and approaching stage 3 in the next few years...that's why sometimes I live and play like there is no tomorrow. Don't want to reach Stage 3 and then regret and there are actually so many things in life that I have never tried and experienced before.

I really hope that you can tell me that you are the exceptional STAGE 1A type:
Plenty of time / Plenty of Energy / Plenty of money - Lucky you!!! But beware...if you are not careful, refuse to learn to sustain the family wealth...can drop back to Stage 1 anytime.

Also, in case you are doubting the above classification...as you are in Stage 0 - that's
No money , No Energy and No time!!! Well don't be despire...you are in transition stage...keep working hard and smart ...and finally you will be in stage 2 soon...I hope.

Do you agree my friend??

Chinese Blog / English Blog 左手剑 / 右手剑

有看武侠小说的朋友， 应该不会错过古龙写的小李飞刀。 小说里有个重要的配角叫荆无命。 他是大坏蛋上官金虹的贴身侍卫。 他的右手剑， 又快又狠又准， 江湖里大家都闻风丧胆。 但是，故事发展到后来， 才发现原来， 他的左手剑， 原来比右手剑，更快更狠更准三倍！！

提起他的原因，是因为他的左手剑 / 右手剑， 与我的中文博格/英文博格 有点相似。

我的中文博格， 有如左手剑。。。不敢说是好三倍。。。但当我在用中文书写时， 所花费的时间的确是需要三倍以上的时间。 写完草稿后， 还得细细回味改正，修改了好几遍后， 才舍得登出来。

为什麽要花费这麽多心思？？ 一方面是我对中文的一厢情愿的执著， 另一方面， 自己也对自己有信心， 知道只要肯花点时间与心思， 肯定会能写出更好更精彩的文章。 就算辛苦一点， 但想到文章会经过修改后可以越来越生动有趣， 自己倒也乐得一头栽进去， 一写。。。就写了半年， 一共近60篇文章。

但是要用的时间实在太多了。一方面学校开学后太忙，另一方面三分钟热度后， 热情稍减， 实在不能再用这麽多的精力去维持，只好退而求次，用英文来写作。

反观英文写作的态度就实在有天渊之别了。 一次过写完， 懒得修改。 连拼字都懒得去查， 只要是意思能传达就好了。 所以写得快，不太花精神，负担不重。里面的错字一大把， 要是给念英文的学生或朋友们看了， 真的会问 ： 这样的水准也敢书写？简直是羞到家门了。

没有办法啦， 我自认英文水平低落， 态度又不正确。 知道我再花更多的时间， 也没办法把英文文章写得更好， 用来用去就那几个字， 徒劳无功，白费力气。倒不如把精力省下， 做点其他开心事更好。如今时间有限， 与大家交流，还是用英文快捷方便。

如果真会再用中文写作，一定是有感而发， 心里实在是有话要说， 不说不痛快的状况才会发生吧。 我个人倒很期待会有那麽一天，赶快到来， 朋友们， 请耐心的等待吧。 哈哈， 有“大代痔”的时候再见吧！！！

MOST HELIRIOUS SETTLERS GAME EVER!!

This afternoon I went down to NUS Science Dept to meet up with the Applied Chemistry students. We (CY / LL / LT) then proceed to West coast McCafe to sip coffee, eat brownies and play settlers game to pass time in the late afternoon.

Start the first game soon and and it was a dream game for me. I am the 3rd player to start so have abit of advantage on placing the 3rd / 5th settlements. Then everyone keep rolling 8 / 8 / 8 / 8...three of us keep on getting various resources non-stop until we cannot hold the cards in one hand...except CY.

So in the end I won the 1st game in record time...less than 30 mins!!! Due to the quickness of the game...we actually thought we can squeeze in a 2nd game within the next 1 hour....so we procedd to reshuffle and play the 2nd game...BAD MISTAKE!!!

For a start, the ORE hexagon got 11/12 and a 9. Then when we all placed our settlements nicely...CY decided to squeeze into the small little area already crowded with me and LL. 3 is really a crowd!!!

Despite repeated warning of the overcrowdedness and also rightly pointed to her that there is a empty 9 ORE spot to settle in nicely...she insist to disturb the peace. While she happily placed her last 8th settlement, that immediately cut off my potential linkage of my two settlements.

Since she so first, she roll a 7 and placed the robber in our RED 8 hexgagon for weeds. Then she quickly build a road and force her way out of the mess, and that also leave LL no where to go...All LL can do later on is just building benzene ring with 6 branches.

So with no ORE in all our hand, everyone have nothing to do except building roads. I got 8, LT got 10 and CY have 12. (LL only have 6 - branches off the benzene ring don't count!!)

After 1 hour...and we are still building road...we keep asking : "Anyone have weeds ?? " (Needed to build settlement) but all we can do is stare at CY because our RED 8 HEX was blocked. Cannot buy soldier to chase away the robber as there is no weeds in the first place...all signs are pointing to a boring game with overrun of time...my cold work permit is expiring soon too.

And CY seems to be the runaway winner...slowly but surely.

Finally decided that instead of CY having fun alone, why not we change the strategy a little bit and speed up / spice up the game a bit too!!! In that way...at least 3 of us have fun rather than just 1.

"LT - what do u need? Sheep? Oh yes...I have 2 , all yours, just pass me any 1 card in return."

"LT - what do u need? Ore? Okok...i go exchange 2:1, now i have already. Take this...give me any card u don't need."

"LT - what do u have? plenty of woods?? Oh I am soooooo desperate for wood, willing to exchange all my cards on hand for just 1 wood"

You should hear how hard the 3 of us laughed and see how black CY face is. Her jaw open up in disbelieve and almost touching the ground.

We are all wondering when is she finally going to burst and flip the table. Luckily she manage to control herself and seems to be able to see the big picture...we really need to end the game really fast and also instill some fun into the game...at her expense of course.

So after 3 rounds of undertable drealings er...not really it's actually abovetable dealings in fact, LT managed to piped her to win the game 10-8. We really laugh very very hard during those last 10 minutes.

In the end, we managed to complete the game at 6.30pm...if not we could have stucked there till 8pm! Along the way we also set a few records -

1. Fastest game - < 30 mins
2. Whenever we play with CY - she never win
3. Whenever I play with CY - I always win
(LL - u seems not agree with this point - dun u think I am actually the real winner in the last game Hahahaha)
4. Most beautiful benzene road linkage - Fully completed hexagon with all 6 braches out
5. Confirmation that CY is still mad about building roads - she actually used up all her roads!!

As it all subsides later...just would like to say thanks to them for a fun filled late afternoon. I really had a good laugh about the game and feel younger. Alamak, only thing missing is that we forgot to take a picture together...and for others to see CY long black face at the spur of the moment....hahahahaha.

Kevin's First Prize this Year

Kevin MSN me in the middle of the night...must be something very urgent...or is it??

This is what he typed in the MSN screen...I couldn't help but quickly took a picture of the screen b4 it went on for too far...b4 the joke is gone.
















I guess he has found his 1st prize this semester finally..that's why he can't wait to show this gem to me.

When we discussed this over the table with Chin Joo during Christof wedding dinner, we both came up with the same suggestion to complete the answers for that student - b) PRESSUE!!

Come to think of it...if the student is abit smarter...he should say :
a) Total
b) Quality
c) Management

If he/she is even smarter, could even reply :
a) Total Quality
b) Total management
c) quality management

b4 it's too late, better show this year RS paper funny answers also :





















What is the temperature? T = 79.04 s
















3 A + 4 B = 2 C.....where the hell the number 5 come from?? This is tutorial 1 Q1 nad it came out in the term test b4...still blur like sotong!!!
















Wonder how can one goes as cold as - 6 K? Does that guy actually know whit it physically meant? I wonder...
Actually there is another who wrote -780 K ...forgot to take picture!!
















Is the student drawing pores?? I thought he drew octopus or jelly fish...















The 2 propagating steps happen so fast...that the 2 two propagating steps are of the same rate.

try to pull a fast one on me??

Christof's Wedding Dinner @ Yatch Club

It was actually a rather stressful evening for me - being the ameturish MC of a friend's wedding dinner.

Only 2 days ago I was told in more details about the wedding proceedings. And only at that time the real stress starts to set in.

I spent the whole weekend scribing the speech and looking up and down for wedding jokes / stories / touching things to say during various stages of the night.

Remember a month ago, when I am presenting the WITs team project, big big boss told me to scribe my speech down for consistency 3 times and i pretend to forgot about it. Now it's a friend's wedding dinner and I am panicking...omg...I am getting my priorities wrong in life!!!

So in the end I start my speech as : "One of the reasons Christof picked me as the MC...is because I am a Hainanese...in the local dialect circle, we are known as the Chinese German."

Tried 3 sentances of German in my speech also. The German tutor gave up on me I guess...she told me that : " well I guess a German will be able to understand what u are trying to say."

This is the wedding joke that I used :

"A Man merres a woman...hopeing that after the marriage, she will never ever change a bit.
Woman marries a man...hoping she can slowing change him bit by bit...for the better.
It the end...both are equally dissappointed."

By the cake cutting part, I discovered that I was actually sweating uncontrollably and my new shirt is soaking wet. The last time like that is during the CNY gathering...

There is abit of hiccups here n there...because Christof do not believe in reharsal...but in the end I would say it was a very enjoyable night for all. The food is fantastic and weeding cake baked by Christof's mum is very delicious too!

I managed to get a chance to sip some champane due to my duty as MC too. A bonus.

Christof was a busy and tired man that night. He was abit dissappointed that many left so early...by 10pm.

Cannot understand his mum but from the way she was gaticulating...she may be saying that :
"hey, this is the time we suppose to listen to music and dance the night away for a wedding dinner."

Christof passed me a surprise gift the next day...Settlers boardgame!!!
Consider that as a handsome reward for a amaturish performance. Hope he does have a better MC in Germany. Good luck Christof!!

只传有缘人

Each semester, when I finished my safety lecture, I will announce to the class :

"There will be an extra P.O.O. lesson. No attendance taken, no extra marks given, not examinable, but if you want to learn something extra, please come for this lesson."

And each semester I draw different response from each program.....

BB can proclaim that their program is the best of all times...but that semester, only 4 students from their program came for the lesson. If I still remember correctly ...they are SiewGeok / Cynthia / Justin and Keng Soon. So we had 1 session together and also went through the reactor de-bottleneck charging question as well.

This semester I have more luck. 2 groups of students actually made it. This time I was more prepared and managed to remember to brinig along my digital camera to catured the event. (Getting old and can't rely on memory to recall names later le...)

Here are some of the pictures taken with the students.



This group :

Sarah Maria / Wei Kin / Annie / Cai Li /Tian Rui / Pei Ling /Lim Han










This group :

GuangLin / Pang Lek / Ya Ling / Angela / Kenny / Felicia

Thanks Aderline for taking the pict.







Sorry Genesis, your group kind of mixed up the timing and u are the only guy end up in the pilot plant on time...but we can't play this game with just 1 person...anyhow also meet target then...so have to call it off.

Many of you who have graduated can starting thinking back why did u not come for this lesson.















For me, these students represent a special bunch who came to learn not just for marks. I do hope they tresure the experience, enjoy the process, have lots of fun and most importantly, always remember the lessons learnt while playing this simple yet very powerful game.

Hey guys remember - THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY!!!!!