Riddle in class

Sorry sorry, I know i suppose to rest and stop writing but got this story really make me break my promise...so just 1 more ok?

Today in Safety class as usual we play the whells of fortune riddle game during break. Progress of guessing the alphabets went smoothly and the riddle was almost fully revealed...here are the unfinished piece:

HE _HO H_S NO FIRE IN HIMSELF C_NNOT _ _ R_ OTHERS

this is the time where many students jumped up and wanted to try to slove the puzzle.

Student A : HURT (Wa liao... y u wanna hurt ppl?)

Student B : HARM (Wa Liao...H appear b4 le la, still insist of harming others!!)

Student C : BURY (wa Liao...u want to be undertaker ah? or watch too much WWE?)

Student D : CURE (a bit better...really we are not doctors and nurse here)

Lecturer A : BURN (during teabreak when I ask them)

In the end each still received a small token...must thank them for the entertainment...really make my day.

BTY...do u know the correct answer?? Hope u enjoy this entry. Haha.

I. T. E.

All of you who enjoyed watching Jack Neo's I Not Stupid will probably remember very well what does I.T.E. stands for in the movie. Now it's also ITE for my blog...finally.

Started writing Chinese blog exactly 1 year ago, to recount my funny stories in China and places I've been to and friends that I've met the 5 years I spent there. I think my friends in PRC kind of enjoyed them. However, they prefer to write me seperate e-mail to tell me their thoughts rather than putting those comments in my blog. They are also having problem to access blogspot...so for a period of time...I double my entries in MSN to the to read them abit easier.

I also started to write more about myself, my life and my current job. This is a way to reach out to my students and share some of my views/situational stories/photos with them. I have viewers from various years, including the pioneer batch students, even though I never have a chance to know some of them too well. Most of my readers are of course the CP03 classes, which I teach them for year 1 to year 3 without fail.

Also started to have new viewers from the current 3rd year...I guess they are more comfortable with me after going through the PBP / Safety moudule, rather then the very theoretical "xiong" reactor systems moudule in year 2.

I then swtiched to English blogging after the Graduation of 03 class in June. One is of course my China stories were finished, also to save me time from writting/editing chinese. I enjoyed the experience very much but cannot afford the time to try to perfect my entry. Switching to English really save me alot of time as I don't really worry to much about the grammar part.

For the last couple of months, then I try to concentrate on the stories in the current school life andfriends/ students around me. I write about pbp / graduation / viva / 4-balls / settlers / NUS / paper marking ...and afew of my own believes.

1 year on...101 entries later...I.T.E.

For my 1st 60 entries I complied into a CD and gave to the grduating class. Actually thinking of comiling into a booklet...but the cost is just too prohibitive...so I eventually dropped the idea and go the E- way.

Really want to thank you for your kind support...u know where to find me if u stil want to talk.

Really have not much new topics to continue to drag on...and also, i figure out that if i am going to write, I might as well write for some pocket money. :)

Thanks for my army buddy Benjamin who introduce me to this potential lobang. So I will be moving on...still wondering when will be my very first commercial article will be...still at discussion stage...so hope it can materialise. A bit weary...but I guess I will try my best.

Good luck to all and take care, and keep in touch too!...signing off...yours truely.

Life is actually ....ONE BIG FAT ZERO!!

Many of u have read my previous 3- stage life cycle theory. That one i heard from someone else...so not really generated through my own. But this following one...I think it is my life sublimation theory. This is what my conclusion is after living and experiencing life after so many years :

LIFE ...IN THE END ...IS ...ONE BIG FAT ZERO

In other words...You Gain some...You will Lose some. That simple.

Life is fair...u choose to do whatever you deem happy...but along the way...you get what you want in life and don't ever forget that by doing that...you will also lose something along the way too!!!

So really in the end...when u add all things / dimensions up in the life at any stage of you life...it's basically all cancel out each others and back to the original stage...one big fat zero. It's actually a zero sum game.

Imagine many people wasting their youth to persue wealth, in the end have to spend $$ trying to regain the youth later...one always dun realise the preciouslness of this when they have...only to treasure them later when they lost it.

As soon as I recognise this...some how it helps me to mellow down abit in life. I take things alot more easy. I tends also to look at the reverse angle :

When you lose something...don't just focus on the lost...think a bit harder...u actually realise that you actually gain ssomething in return also!!!! So dun be too overly in grief...think on the bright side too!! Remember - you actually learn more when you lose

Of course I do not want all of you youngster to slow down and heck care...please continue to persue your dreams. I have gone through the rat race myself, and finally realise this concept on my own actualisation. Dun use this to find excuse not to do well, that is not my aim.

But rather, maybe use it to be more generous / magnanimous and take losing a bit better in life. Enjoy the process and not focus too much on the results...results can be summarise in different ways!! So there is actually no clear winner or losers...there is price to pay in each ways as they turn out actually.

Life is a careful balance of work/friends/family/self persue...if one concentrate too much on one...will easily pay the price of loosing the other aspects...that's when the imbalance stress starts to set in.

So take things in moderation and widen your scope of definition of win/lose. In chinese we say "看开" and "中庸".

Again this is in my mind for a long time and I am glad that I have the energy and time during this term break to write this down and share my thoughts with you. Well...if you don't understand or don't agree...it's OK...just my funny thoughts.

The way I treat my tools

Still remember my A level Physics textbook - almost as thick as seven inches, close to a thousand pages. I almost freak out when I saw it, and think -OMG am I going to digest this book for the next 2 years??

Carrying it to school is so cumbersome. But going without it is not much useful as we need to do tutorials from the books. In the end i made up my mind and do the right thing - I disected the book into 12 small sections. Each time I carry only 1 thin slice chapter to school at a time.

And if u look more closely, u can find highlightings / undelines / scribblings / notes etc in the book. So much so it really looked like salted vegetable.

I also carry it on my way to give tuition. My student, SJ, will give me the dirty look and say EEEEE...why you ill treat your book until like that.....??!!! I then took a look and think for a while...and replied : " I think it has served the function it suppose to serve." “我想 - 我对得起这本书”

What's the point of having it sitting nicely on my shelve and I preserved it like brend new if in the end I didn't manage to gain knowledge from it?

That day also another similar case happened. BB walk into my room and saw my camera, newly bought - just 4 months old, and commented - Woa Lao...so many scratches on the camera already, you never take care of the camera properly!!!

Yes I do - I pasted a protective film to protect the big screen. The rest...I guess no need to as they dun actually interfere with the functions.

And I carry the camera with me almost everywhere. When needed, I will have this useful tool to take down memorable moments of my life. If not for it, I would have difficulties remembering these following moments -















Settlers sesion at West Coast McCafe with the NUS students...fighting to build longest road happens here always with CY around.















Ever see ShuMei smile so happily b4?
She gets 5 sheeps every time 6 is rolled, and has a sheep port.

And 6 was rolled afew times in a row. so she was really really happy.















Outing with my PEM 0501 at Grassroot clus to taste fondue and bowl for 2 games. Have to do 10 push ups after loosing that 2nd group game. Damn!!















Chin Li and Siok Hui was soooo shag and exhuasted after paintball3...can't even focus their eyes.That promt me to take this picture.

Oh by the way, one of the smashed the birthday cake. Guess who?

So yes again, it has served its intended function. Anyway in 2-3 years time, even it is brend new, no one would want it as the technology will progress foreward so much already. Any one need a nice looking but obsolete item??

My car is another example. I am its master. To me I have decided that I tresure time more than money (Stage 2!!). So I use it as much as possible to transport me from point A to B to C etc. With children around it is extremely convenient.

Last example I shall quote is my settlers set. It looked like it has survived WWII. Of course I can keep it at home and treat it like my treasure. But I dun think that was the intended purpose anyway. So far I have play more than 15 rounds with various group of students...and trained 20 students along the way...and they all enjoyed the game and we really have some super fun time together.

Sure, the set looked bad now...but really, what the heck...it has served its functions isn't it??

That's the way I treat my tools.

PAINTBALL 3!!!! @SDC

It was a rather hazy day...11 of us set off to Discovery Centre for the long awaited paintball 3.

4 cannot make it last min...the NUS/NTU students are just too busy with thier studies / tests...and those students in cptc cannot form a team...so we dun get to gather 20 players and enjoy 20% discount.

out of 11...6 are totally new to paintball...so we see plenty of funny moments along the way. They are busy shivering behind the low wall / covering their ears / stunned when opponents charged at them etc etc.

In summary - Paintall 3 at SDC is less fun than paintball 2 @ OCC.
Due to the limited size of the arena, the players are quite close to each other. So a lot of the time, due to safety consideration, we have to think whether to shoot or not.

The hardwear does't help either, using magazine type of loading, we have to tap hard to ensure proper engagment all the time. If the is no rounds coming out...we dun know if it has run of of round or there is something jammed. So it was a major distraction.

Guns used are less powerful, luckily. So less painful but accuracy / jamming is a problem. they do have a newer version, just like OCC type which is hopper loading...but v v powerful. In view of the close distance...we decided not to use it.








































It was also Felicia's bday the day b4. So we bought a cake and enjoy a little gathering after the session in the canteen as well. It was bit soft n smahed up...players are soooo tired after the sessions and could not even handle the cake properly.

Paint ball 4 is definitely back @ OCC...but not for now...16 weeks later...at least. I need to recover from my aches and pain 1st.

It pays to be kind / generous

Just came across two recent examples to illustrate my point.

1) Mooncake shopping at Takashimaya basement

We went down to Taka for our annual trip to shop for mooncakes. In the basement there is probably more than 50 stores selling almost the same thing. There is maybe afew stores that sell unique flavours to attract buyers. This year new flavour we noticed is the orange-lemon snow skin cover and red wine as well.

But we also noticed 1 thing - Singaporean sotres are rather stingy. Yes they do offer free sampling but the size of sample is soooo miserable - slightly more than the size of 2-3 grains of rice. Some even put in a box and cover them up - sure way to piss your potential customers away.

When we were at japan / Taiwan, free samples are uausally of generous portion to make testers feel happy and to the point where feel abit paiseh if you don't buy from them. Well maybe that's their strategy but to me it's better than the tinny winny sampling strategy in local shops.

In the end we bought 4 boxes from 食珍。One reason is because their teochew fried skin with Yam paste tastes very very nice. Another flavour of snow skin red bean/yam combo also blended nicely. We had been repeatedly buying from them since 3-4 years ago.

But I also noticed how their chef handed out free samples to the browsers / customers - by chunks as big as a fish ball - no question asked, non-stop, happily. In the end many are impressed with their generosity and decided to buy from them. (The mooncake business is sooo lucrative high high profits, just dun understand why some store are still so stingy.)

(Incidentally, this year is the 1st time students gave us mookcakes!!! In the past I buy mooncakes for the students/staff to try and enjoy together...this year there is the return of favour finally. Thanks Angela / LYL / SLT /Shumei).


2) MSN Catan settlers game

some of us are heavily hooked on this game. Can't get ppl together to play face to face all the time, so instead we play the PC version as practise to brash up our skill. There are quite afew site for you to downloan the free trial game. Yahoo! / MSN also have it under their game section.
But only MSN version is kind enough not to cut u off in the middle of the game when 60 mins is up. When your computer goes hybernate, it will continue allow you to play on. Quite a kind gesture.

So in the end when I decide to buy a computer version, it is no surprise that my 1st choice of the download site is from MSN.

So you see -- a little bit of kind gesture actually goes a long way towards your potential customers / friends etc. Yes you may lose out a little bit but who knows, u actually will get back much more in return. If you calculate too much on the gain and loss...then you just missed out on the potential big deals.

I do hope you agree with my opnion. :)

My Biggest nightmare in NUS days

Visited NUS / NTU in last week and also this week and catch up with quite afew students in both campus. Had tea / lunch with them, and some who are free even played settlers with me to enjoy fun fill and lazy afternoons.

Heard them complaining about life in new campus. Lecturers are foreign and their slang cannot understand, tutorial tutors never explain and dismiss class, LT got not enough seats so last 12 must sit on floor, Lab assistant scold people freely and loudly, leacturers not time to see students, canteen very very crowded, lab no need safety / env measures....etc etc

Here are my replies to them :

Maybe I should write a letter to thank the Dean...my graduates students suddenly realised we are so nice to them actually as soon as they enter uni.

Life is fair...last time you bully me...now people bully you lor.

Last time you are big fish in a small pond...now you are small fish in a big pond!!!

Go get close to your senior ba, they can be of great help instead of the lecturer...who knows...he may be your future spouse!!!

Don't ask me anything about sociology...I got a C for this subject...and untill now I also dunno how and why I get my C...Idun even know what I have learnt!!!

I had left uni almost 19 years already...would have thought uni life and style of delivery would have improved tremendously through these years...but I guess history just repaets itself every year. We used to tell a joke : Your professor actually didn't teach for 15 years..he teach for 1 year, but repeat it 15 times.

NUS / NTU ranked high up in the world ranking because of the reseach works done...not % of students understand the lecturer. So guys and gals, you really have to dig in deep in your brain reserves and do your own reading / understanding / summary / revising.

Maybe...that's the right way of training uni grads...no holding hands, no sweets, make sure they are independent and use own resource to solve porblems and exercise the brain more , and learn to work under stress etc etc...so that they will be ready for the real world!!!

maybe in a way, I/we have failed to prepare our students for the real industry and real uni life...
Last but not least, just would like to share with you my experience in uni...yes life can be very stressful at times...I have a recurring nightmares about the same storyline...that is tomorrow is the final exam...and I suddenly realised the I have never touch the textbooks / notes at all the night before!!! And it woill be my most dreaded suject like maths or sociology. :(

That thought alone will weak me up in the middle of the night have cold sweat all over my body.

Even when I started working in Exxon, within the 1st 5 years...I still have the same nightmare once evrey 2-3 months!!! Only after 5-6 years...this nightmare slowly depart me and never come back and haunt me...

So dun say I never warn you ah...uni is not exactly plain sailing after all...do work hard and smart. good luck !!