It's goodbye again, Prime Minister's Office.

I still recall vividly my last day at the Commission last year during my extended internship. It's goodbye again this week.

Had an early farewell lunch last week at Jack's Place as my supervisor is involved in the International Monetary Fund meeting the following week. I am touched by the gifts given by colleagues, Swiss Balmain watch, polo tee and red packet.

I had wonderful experience at the Commission, friendly colleagues, interesting work and great exposure. I felt a bit sentimental on the last day. It's such a great organisation.

Taken at my cubicle

My humble cubicle =)

Had lunch with Ms Ng and Amanda in school a day after I left the Commission. It's a belated Teachers' Day lunch or so, but ended up given a treat by Ms Ng. The school hasn't change a bit with the exception of a Cheers convenience store at the former Saffron restaurant. Thereafter, chatted with Business Information Technology lecturers.

The end of one journey, the beginning of another. I will be enlisted for national service this Saturday at Basic Military Training (BMT) School 1. My family will be accompanying me, I hope no emotional scene there. Will be finding Ivan on the first night to chit chat if time permits.

I would probably give an update on recruit's life in BMT after my first book out two weeks later (23 September 2006). Till then. :)

Comex 2006

Comex 2006 was held from 31 August - 3 September 2006 at Singapore Expo. Though it was described as 'IT and Consumer Technology Exhibition", it's plainly an air-conditioned IT pasar malam . Not that I care, just a random thought.

Post-mortem of my 3 days visit to Comex 2006,

• Palm TX Handheld (Free 2GB SD Card, Leather case)
• 1GB SanDisk Memory Stick Pro Duo
• 1GB Creative Zen Nano Plus
• 1 Year subscription to HardwareZone Magazine with freebies

The Creative Zen Nano Plus does look out of place in the list of IT gadgets of an Apple's user like me. Just say I am enlightened from the marketing efforts of Apple and my recent belief on functionality over style.

Last week was supposed to be my last week, yet I decided to extend at my supervisor's prompting. Will share more at my next post.

Bangkok Trip 2006

To visit Bangkok has always been in my to-do list before national service. Well, it did materialise afterall.

Stayed in Novotel Siam Square, a modern hotel situated right in the heart of the shopping district of Bangkok in Siam Square. It was convenient to travel with someone who speaks basic Thai. It came in handly when ordering from menu, transport and most importantly, bargaining!

One of the trip's highlights was pubbing at The Dome, located at the 67th floor of The State Tower. The pub extends to the edge of the floor, with sofa around the rotunda and surrounded by unbroken band of glass windows, giving unobstructed views of Bangkok's skyline. It's a fascinating sight to behold! It's pure bliss warming up to a glass of bitter chocolate martini in the strong wind.

The rest of the trip are visits to the usual places of interest, Platinum Shopping Mall, Mah Boon Krong (MBK), The Central, World Trade Centre, Siam Square and Suan-Lum Night Bazzar. From the places I visited, you can know it's a shopping trip. :)

Visit to Bangkok is never complete without a massage. Had a foot massage at Suan-Lum Night Bazaar after all the shopping and finally a Thai massage at Siam Massage on my last day.

Platinum Shopping Centre

Suan Lum Night Bazaar

Tom Yum Fried Rice at The Central

Lunch at The Central

Visit to Four-Faced Buddha

Chill out at The Dome

Cosy environment at The Dome

Catching up and a short update...

Lately, I have been working on a paper on the impacts of new regulations governing Institutions of Public Character. It's been so much fun researching and liaising with various entities, a break from the usual stuff I do.

For the next coming weeks, I intend to have lunches with friends I have not been in contact with. A little catching up before my national service enlistment.

HSBC's recent promotion is just brilliant. Charge $30 to HSBC credit cards and you get to purchase pizza, golden village ticket, etc at just $1.

Leaving Singapore for a short holiday later. A little disappointed that I would miss catching the National Day Parade live on television. Have to settle for the encore, I guess. Till then.

A post-graduation update.

Haven't been feeling well lately, persistent cough and phlegm-filled lungs. Took a x-ray the day before and on my fourth course of antibiotic.

Last week, upgraded my soundcard from Audigy 2 to X-Fi XtremeMusic. I must admit, my pair of Creative Cambridge speakers have never sounded so pleasantly clear before. The review by Tom's Hardware is a fine read, albeit technical jargonize.

I know this is long overdue, but here's the photo collage I did for graduation ceremony. Enjoy.

Post graduation dinner and get together with TB030

Looking at my last entry, I realize I haven't been posting for two months already! Gosh. Here's the much anticipated entry for everyone.

Work has been pretty much the same like my intern days except for the additional portfolio I'm handling. Will continue my work until my national service enlistment in September.

Last week had a class outing and a send-off dinner for Ronald, who enlisted last friday. Like most guys, I fear the day of my enlistment. 2 years is no kidding for someone who prefer home more than outside environment.

Had dinner at Moonfish Restaurant, Marina Square, with a handful of TB030 classmates, namely, Sharon, Willy, James, Yao Sheng, Ivan, Chan Hui, Faith, Noi and Nadia. The ambiance at the restaurant was fantastic, the same goes for its service and food. After dinner, we took a stroll - a long one, to The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC) at Boat Quay to chill'. The bean bag seats are cool, though half the time, Faith and I were fighting over it.

All thanks to Sharon for taking her time to organise the dinner and the treat at TCC. :)

Graduation ceremony this thursday. Graduation to me is always a bittersweet experience to me. The sweetness of moving on from a stage in life yet the bitterness from reminiscing the wonderful moments spent.

Here's some photos we took on the post-graduation dinner. Enjoy.

10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining

Things happen when you least expect it. My team came up first in the data mining competition for the Polytechnic category for the 10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD 2006).

The twist to this is, there's only 2 teams competing in the Polytechnic category, and both teams belong to the same course in the same polytechnic.

While rushing the competition at the short time frame, winning the competition wasn't on our minds, we are more keen on finishing up our work for submission. It came quite a surprise when the results are announced.

According to the committee, the winning factor was our submitted report. Quoting the lecturer,

"... you have given a better analysis and interpretation of the mining results than some of the participants in the University category."

The prize giving ceremony is going to be held at Hilton Hotel tomorrow during the conference. We are expected to be there early in the morning at 8am.

Back at office, my job scope is expanding vertically. I love the challenge though it gets tiring sometimes.

On a last note, more interns are joining in at my office. I'm sure they are going to liven up the office's environment. :)

Latest development in brief

Drat! I so want to go for Jason Mraz and Damien Rice concerts. But tickets for both concerts are sold out. Oh well.

Work wise, I have settled down pretty well. Met a few familiar faces, Kenny working nearby and Wei Jie taking the same bus as me. Oh, and the occasional lunch with Amanda.

Just last week, a company approached me to design a website for them. I would have gladly took up the offer to kill time if I wasn't working now. In any case, I told the company I would pass their offer to my friends who are keen.

I'll be making a trip down to SMU during lunch the next day. Not there yet, but praying hard.

Back soon, hopefully bearing good news. :)

Life back at PMO

Getting back to the good ol' office lifestyle is pretty hard for now. Still used to the late night sleeps and indiscipline lifestyle.

The modern and swanky national library building is a complete different environment compared to City Hall. People there are as friendly as usual, had lunch at Billy Bombers on my first day with fellow colleagues.

My job scope remains the same, more or less. But went the extra mile by writing an enquiry system which I'm really impressed with.

Work aside, I realised national service helps to cut extravagant spending. At last week IT Show, almost bought a LCD monitor but rational thinking makes me ponder whether is it necessary to get one now since I would be spending half my time during the 2 years national service in camp.

Oh, I'm a proud owner of a Sony Ericsson K600i now. Here's a picture, courtesy of InfoSync,

Also, the pictures from Meeting Young Minds. Enjoy.

Meeting Young Minds 2006

I felt a huge void in my life at the end of Meeting Young Minds, the annual course event where students from Business Information Technology showcase their FYP projects to guests and friends.

At the closing of Meeting Young Minds where students gathered for debriefing, I was overcome with acute nostalgia for my days in Temasek Polytechnic. From the marvellous duo performance by Gareth and Baldwin to the heart to heart sharing by BIT lecturers.

One particular sentimentalizing moment was when Ms. Yvonne Ng cried when she tried to share with the students her thoughts on our cohort. She is one of the few people that I'll be forever grateful, as a liaison officer during my internship, my supervisor for final year project, my tutor for E-Business Management and Practice of Technopreneurship, and a mentor I can speak to when in doubt.

The end of Meeting Young Minds was a closure to our 3 years of polytechnic education. In these 3 years, I have an interesting school life with friends and tutors I can count on. My group of first classmates, TB030, I have enjoyed our friendship very much and will continue to treasure the bond we built from this long but seemingly short 3 years.

My last semester classmates, especially, Amanda, Muslihah and Carolyn, it was a short semester yet we manage to establish a good rapport with each other. I enjoyed the car rides we have together after lessons. :)

To everyone, thank you for enduring my blunt and assertive behaviour. I mean no harm just often gets carry away. I wish every one of you all the best in your future endeavours.

Yes, I finally decided to get a job after much pondering. With the family trip to Taiwan cancelled, I guess there's no reason for not working.

Starting next week, I'd be back at Prime Minister's Office at the new national library building (NLB) in Bugis area. Pretty much a challenge having to work and participate in the PAKDD competition.

Next entry would be the photos I took during Meeting Young Minds. Till then.

After Polytechnic: Reflection

I realise I have been doing quite a bit of self-reflection these days. It suddenly hit me that I have now progressed to the next stage of my life.

With polytechnic life gradually coming to an end with the upcoming MeetingYoungMinds and the 10th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD 2006) Data Mining Competition, I have been deliberating on the next stage, continuing my education.

If only entering local university is as easy as polytechnic admission, I would not have spend countless nights planning on a "what-if" contingency plan.

Spotted a few good books while browsing through at Kinokuniya. One of it is about bad manners, not your usual dose of proper etiquette, but an exploration on the degradation into bad mannerism. Quite engaging after reading the first page.

Perhaps I'll spend the holiday reading books while waiting to be enlisted.

Dilbert's Theory on Salary

Happen to chance upon this interesting theory,

Dilbert's Theorem on Salary states that engineers, programmers and scientists can never earn as much salary as business executives and sales people.

This theorem can be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following three postulates:

Postulate 1: Knowledge = Power (Knowledge is Power)
Postulate 2: Time = Money (Time is Money)
Postulate 3: Power = Work/Time (As every Physics student knows)

Proof therefore follows:

Knowledge = Power (From Postulate 1)
Knowledge = Work / Time (From Postulate 3)

and since Time = Money,
we have: Knowledge = Work / Money (From Postulate 2)

Solving for Money, we get:

Knowledge x Money = (Work / Money) x Money
Money = Work / Knowledge

Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of Work done.

Conclusion: The Less you Know, the More you Make.

Sister going on a long business trip again, poor nephew of mine going to miss her badly for this 2 weeks. Saw her itinerary and gosh, she's practically travelling the world in a short period of 2 weeks. Singapore to New York, Buenos Aires from Chicago, Buenos Aires to Frankfurt via Brazil, followed by London and back to Singapore.

After Business Intelligence paper, there's just the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERM) paper the following week and finally a short period bliss before national service enlistment.

In the meantime, I'd better start revising intensively for ERM. Till then.