2008 Uni Entry

June 2 is approaching and to many University going students, it means they will either receive the reply from Uni about their application status and also quickly decide on the choice of which Uni/Faculty for their studies. Some are abit lucky to receive early and have more time to ponder about what to do. Some...will receive on the last moment and have to really think and act fast. (Aishah, 1 of the top students received NUS Chem Eng offer on the very last day!!...so u can imagine how she feel in the whole month of May).

Some, due to their nationality, may have to stop and work for a year and apply for PR so that they will be placed into their choice course next year. These are good candidates for DTs in school. I really hope they can join us.

This is also a dragon year for poly babies so competition is quite tough...while summaring the data for uni entry cut off GPA...it seems like those with GPA less than 3.45 will have to try again next year. Tough for quite afew guys who have GPA around that level...some are appealing already. Still, they can apply again in the army next year...many of their seniors have tried and successful so there is still hope for them.


I have almost all the data now...just missing 1 or 2 more...here are the summarised data so far:
NUS Chem Eng - 5
NTU CBE - 4
NTU CBC - 10
NUS Chem / Applied - 3
NTU biological science - 2
NTU materials Eng - 5
NUS Arts - 1
SMU Accounts - 1

surprisingly no one choose Env Eng from both NUS / NTU this year.....Good to see NTU CBE accepting more students now...they used to take in only 1 per year...so your seniors must be doing the school proud so they decided to take in more.

All together there are 32 going uni ...20%...quite afew actually choose to work and save up. Some will go overseas and some will enter PSB / MDIS / B-tech...so overall % uni goers will be passing 30%.

I will send out the summaried excel table out once finalise...by Jun 2 i think.

OUTING - ski360@East coast Jun13 Fri 9-12noon

Thanks Shiling/PL for the news update...and just nice that I can organise this outing in the Jun holiday break...b4 the Bali trip.

Details of the outing are as follow :

Date : Jun 13 Friday!!!! BLACK!!!
Place : East coast park lagoon
Time : 9.20am to gather for safety briefing / change / split into sections
Ski time : 10-12noon
Cost = $36 / pax for 2 hours

Important notice : You must be able to know basic swimming!! Which means you can paddle your way back to the side of lagoon with life jacket on ...and not panic and shout for help...cos that will only mean u will be recorded in my video to show the juniors...still, no help gurenteed.

Capacity of outing : up to 30 or 35 slots to be split into 3 sections for various rides

Respond so far : 15 seats have been snapped up by my 3rd year Specialty Chem class already!!! So another 15- 20 to be open for past graduates...if not filled up after 1 week, I will then open to the remaining 3rd year current year students. So be quick to register.

For more info, pls refer to the weblink:

http://www.ski360degree.com/

B4 our leaves cut down to 21 days...this may be the last outing...cos we no longer can afford to take leave from next year onwards!!! So If I were you i will tresure such opportunity alot...b4 they disappear!!

Hope to see you there!!! I probably will take a full day and we can gather somewhere to play till 5pm.

Graduation Day 2008

This year Graduation comes really fast...in May. Most guys are still enjoying their long hair compared to last year. I prepared the graduation CDs 2 days in advance and sign every copy..need only to put down individual's name on that day itself.

This year ceremony went through rather smoothly...no extremely late comers nor shoe sole left on the stage. Asked Christina to pretend to faint on stage to increage her time to 6 mins rather than 6 seconds but she suggested me to do the unthinkable thing instead. So when the 4 award winners went on stage for the second time for the Best project / Bronze / Silver / Gold award, i screamed from the very last roll of the auditorium :

"YEAH!!!! YX!! My class!!!!!"

"ZY !!! Also My Class!!"

"CX !!!! Again from my class!!"

"XN !!!! My class Also!!"

The students' jaws dropped and the boss face turned black. But what the heck, how better to support them?? In my known means this is the best way.

Then it's photo taking time at A3 NYP lounch...no lunch but just drinks for me.

After the session I invited my PEM 0501 to a swensen dinner. 11 of them accepted the invitation. XQ/LY/CA/Evl has got appt with family and friends and can't join us. Afew did not even turn up for the day...Euvin probably too shy to face us after his contribution in the video...he was the talk of the town!!

wonder when will be the next time the class can gather in such a big group...?? someone's wedding maybe??

PS. - hope you guys enjoyed the graduation CD!! Every year the contents gets better!! CX told me she cried the whole night...I hope the rest of you has less severe reactions..

OPSOC @ CPTC

Time flies....I have been teaching Mandarin OPSOC at CPTC for the past few years. Not the most charming audience that I would like to have in this course....as they are mostly50+ yrs old uncles from S'pore n Mal'sia. There are some younger audience in the 30s and also geting more of Chinese National workers about 30s also.

I know I just cannot deliver the lesson in a typical classroom manner...if not the uncles will just simply fall asleep. And that, as the person who trying to conduct the lesson, hurts. Instead of reading though the slides, it was more like a story telling and case study and joking session....when I remember...I even bring some mentos along too.

There will be a major restructuring in CPTC and we will be pulling out of that place very soon and another commercial training professional will be taking over. I don't think they will be interested in conducting such course nor need me to go over to deliver mandarin lesson any more.

So I considered this Wed is my last lesson of OPSOC with them. There are 22 "uncles" in the class...and as usual I ask them if they can understand mandarin as this is a Mandarin course. Also then I ask them they know how to read Chinese as later there will be a chinese MCQ test.
3 of the uncles actually raised their hands and tell me they dunno how to read Chinese...or very little only.

I pretend to be angry and ask them how the hell then they expect to pass the test and get their cert for working in the chemical industry for the next 3 years....to my surprise...their answer is :
"teacher, u forgot liao ah?? We are here 3 years ago, that time we told you we cannot read and u raed to us the 30 questions line by line and we answer accordingly lor. That is why we come back here again. er...how come today u never bring mentos??"

Oh what the.....stupid thing that i do when I was younger now actually come back to haunt me!!!
That time I really think the Chinese MCQ questions grammer sucks and must be translated directly from the English script and by a computer and checked by a non- Chinese.

So no choice, and hopefully for the very very last time....I got to read the questions line by line to thses 3 jokers after the lesson, while others do the test. this time I only read the 1st 20 questions...the rest they have to self-help, anyway they only need to pass..not score perfectly.

When passing the cert to them later, I kind of curious and ask them seriously : "Uncle, 3 years later...do you serioulsy expect to pass the test again??" The just smile and shrug their shoulders and say..." No choice lah, we will try our luck at Bukit Merah Centre lor...thank you you ah...".....

Though I wish them good luck....I really hope those of you who are reading this can remeber : Never allow your livelihood to be based on someone else mercy!!!

June 11 wed 12-6pm settlers @NYP Q4

It's Uni holiday time again...exams are finally over and many of the past graduates will be relieved n free. Some will go for their attachment, some will have to work...some will just relax and enjoy the momentary not-so-stress uni vacation.

I was remeinded by YH&JM that it's about time to organise an outing again soon...Sure why not?? Before the school cut away my leave from 42 to 21 I might as well spend them wisely.

After July...I (we) will never be able to spend so many 1/2 days away from work organising outing with the students le...

well got wine let's get drunk today...tomorrow no rice is tomorrow's problem.

Discussed with Christof and he is OK to have a settlers / other games gathering session @ NYPQ4 on Jun 11 from 12-6pm

Pizza will be delivered at 1pm so pls dun be late or else u eat the cromps left behind.

Interested?? pls register!!!

Myfavourite working day this semester

I was handed a rather polarized time table this new semester. Very luckily I had every Tues / Wed totally no lessons, so can actually go out to look for courses to attend (which I already did - Tony Buzan's speed reading), also can take leaves and visit students rather flexibly too.

That means, of course, all the teaching loads got assigned to only Mon/Thur/Fri, which are 3 rather hectic days. Monday I have RS lect + 4 hours of safety tut, Thurs have 4 hours of Specialty Chem lessons and fri 4 hours of Safty lect + tutorial.

Now that i have went through 3 weeks and into week 4 now, this thought of which is my favourite working day this semester just came to my mind. Is it Tues - my free day + badminton night? or Wednesday? (actually i am catching up with paper work / misc items during these 2 days...not enjoyable work in fact) or Friday - weekend approaching day (too tired to celebrate liao)...

Funny enough, I really like Monday this semester.
RS lecture statrs 8-10am. Then I need to rush to S3 for safety tutorial...by the time lesson ended, it close to 12 noon and I have not even had anything in the stomach except maybe 2 mango jellies.

Then I will need to rush to Blk F for Yoga lesson. This is really good for my back and I am putting in effort and also happy to see teh improvemnets in my body flexibility and breathing through the past 3 months. Usually after the session my shirt are soaked and I am extremely hungry...

That the rewarding part coming...rush to hub and treat myself a good meal of pepper lunch's pepper steak promotion @only $9.90. Life is goooooooooood.....when u swallow the juicy steak and sip green tea.

After that it's another 2 hours of tutorial and it's time to get ready to go home!!!
I kind of like to day for it's intensity / purpose / rewarding reasons. Good to have workout to keep yourself fresh and clear a mojor part of yoru teaching load and have a gd meal all in the same day!! Also, what a way to start a week by facing your favuorite day and then rest for the next 2 days!!!

so what about you? what's oyur favourite working day now?? :)