Watching the Live Coverage of the 9/11 Anniversary really does put all the problems we are facing, no matter how big or small, into perspective, doesn't it?

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

Just two questions,

Is there something with Twitter that I can't access the homepage rather frequently, and

Why is no one using Google+? Is it due to its rather close resemblance to Facebook and the fact that the latter possesses an immensely powerful 'network effect'.

I think these are the sort of things one will think about (see previous post) when you have a load of metal stuck with you for the better part of next year, and the year after that to boot.

Its like a permanent brace that impedes my freedom to indulge in gastronomical delights (as what Lional's doing rather sinfully every weekend). Oh wait, those metal things are called 'braces', or rather - 'orthodontic braces', to give its full name.

No turning back now then. Those metal brackets are here to stay. Better make friends with them ASAP so that they will not cause me any unnecessary heartache and 'wallet-ache'.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

�Information overload� is one of the biggest irritations in modern life. There are e-mails to answer, virtual friends to pester, YouTube videos to watch and, back in the physical world, meetings to attend, papers to shuffle and spouses to appease.. Management consultants have spotted an opportunity. Derek Dean and Caroline Webb of McKinsey urge businesses to embrace three principles to deal with data overload: find time to focus, filter out noise and forget about work when you can. Business leaders are chipping in. David Novak of Yum! Brands urges people to ask themselves whether what they are doing is constructive or a mere �activity�... Cristobal Conde of SunGard, an IT firm, preserves �thinking time� in his schedule when he cannot be disturbed.

Too Much Information by Schumpeter in The Economist (July 2nd)

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

Went back to work of Friday determined to remain in civilian throughout, and risk provoking scathing comments from certain ignorant, self-fulfilling individuals. The clearance portion for 30 people went particularly smoothly, a fact not lost on the folks at HR Branch. It was the most orderly out-processing of personnel I'd done over the past ten months and the biggest one-day group ever for my sub-unit.

At least part of the credit must go to Facebook for publicising the date and time - no one really reads the conventional routine orders, especially when you are just one month away from closing a chapter of your life.

Our outgoing superior treated us to four pizzas; he probably forgot that it was the start of the fasting month. Some heart-lighted banter followed as we bade farewell to him with his future lying somewhere in NUS Mech Eng. ^^ Stayed back before leaving early (hence the civilian attire) to clear some outstanding work, including the inaugural Home Visitation Letters (the mail mentioned in the previous post) for people going for XWB (currently the co-ordinator after being arrowed during Tuesday's conference). Another item for my CV then =/

Night beckoned and I met up with WM, SS, Lional and Quek for some imba Ben & Jerry's. Shared a Vermonster (meant for 8-10 pax) in celebration of WM and SS reaching their ORD. Unsurprisingly with Lional around we managed to scrape the bottom of the tub near midnight when the staff chased us out of the establishment.

The original plan after that was for us to proceed to Old School for after drinks through the ramp from the carpark. However after finding the place well-policed, we gave up and went by the conventional flight of stairs - only to find the place closing by 0030 hrs without a live band in sight. Undeterred, we then meandered throughout the area, introducing SS to Clarke Quay and its nightlife (witnessing preparations for a police raid on Lunar to boot) before deciding to spend the night at Lional's where we witnessed SP's WCG CS exponent in action.

Turned out to be a wonderful chillax session after all. A last minute thing clobbered together and only confirmed towards evening. If only every Friday night can be as happening - to escape the drudgery of both work and school.

Meanwhile, a very happy ORD to WM and SS
Honoured to have spent the first night of your freedom with you guys. ^^



4.57km according to WalkJogRun; they provide the meanest maps, courtesy of Street View of course ^^. A great site to track distances for wannabe marathon runners and curious people like you and me.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

On a day when I am officially tasked to draft up a mail to parents and to fold, seal and despatch them to boot, I saw how just how incompetent, to the point of being utterly useless, some truly are.

Here I am doing so much work, rushing to and fro to get things done, contributing ideas for unit performances, having my say during conferences, staying back to rush work overnight and there they go complaining? About my attire? My working relationships? My seemingly disrespect for many of them because in reality we are friends, not mere colleagues, after doing so much work together? And effectively influencing my new colleague to think that way? How hypocritical, judgemental and short-sighted people are sometimes.

And the shocking fact - One of them draws a higher salary than me every month! By absolutely doing nothing, leaving his place he's in charge of to.. come up and chat until the end of the day?

In the final review of duties in the unit I want to ensure parity by making him perform his fair share of duties. And we're dead certain any excuses he can find will be readily shot down by the conference.

There are not many chances in life that we can actually get back at someone fair and square. This isn't about revenge, per se, more about.. taking responsibility and also accountability.

Now at least I can turn in with one less issue to worry about. Will have to wake up early, miss the morning run to prepare for an onslaught of soon-to-be civilians and effectively seeing some of my close friends one last time at work.

To all those leaving - please come early so that I can settle your clearances and leave with you guys as well. I pray.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

August has arrived.

How so much will change in just a few days.
Time to get used to a changed work environment then.

4 more months.

There's not much time left to effect real change in the way the unit operates. Sometimes we tend to set off in sole pursuit of an ideal that will forever be just that, an unattainable ideal, if we do not get the fundamentals right in both operations and discipline.

An eventful conference beckons later in the morning.

RANDOM THOUGHT OF THE DAY,

Seems like sportsmanship and common sense still prevail in other sports - save football. Witness the reprieve granted to Ian Bell by India's captain Dhoni in the cricket - and the support it garnered back in India. And contrast that with the ugly scenes from across the Causeway in the build-up to, and after a match.

Lets just hope that cool and moderate heads will prevail in the upcoming Presidential Elections, though it seems very, very unlikely nowadays given that the ease of sharing information over the net has helped polarise opinions online.

Whoever said we were a politically apathetic nation?

No more Earworm mashups for now.. Must maintain a semblance of normalcy on this site.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

'Where got time for Off or Leave...'

I've been so busy the past week staying in and tying up lots of loose ends for so many people that I would just reach home (on the days I actually go home) and just collapse right after dinner until the next morning when the whole horribly unnatural cycle will commence once again.

On a brighter note, I managed to catch Part II of HP7 with some of my classmates over at GWC on Saturday. Like how the special effects complement the show and not the other way round. Too bad it will be the last we'll see of Hermione though. Sad moment for guys all round when the end credits roll and the curtains close on the Harry Potter series.

Pre-ORD training for the Aug/Sept batch starts next week. Will be deprived of my regular cook-house kaki as WM will reach ORD in three weeks. Not that he'll be around camp anyway - probably too busy being a parrot for SDE's rag. A parrot lifting a peacock. Imagine that.. Why not a butterfly, easier to chase (literally) :D

Actually, I kind of feels that the day wears on at a pretty blinding pace nowadays. The weekends seem to come by oh-so-quickly, leaving me with an ever-increasing pile of work left undone due to the lack of working hours. Probably spent more time waiting for a free terminal than actually doing work I'd reckon.


The nicest people one can ever find in camp.. Reaching ORD soon..

Kenneth will be disrupting on 1 Aug for MEng in NUS (GPA so high..),
Bar will most probably be working first before considering studying
SS will be going to SIM/UOL Acc...
WM will be reading PFM in NUS SDE (as well as being a parrot come NDP)

NS indeed gives us the chance to know people from diverse backgrounds (so its not purely propaganda after all) and for us to step out of our comfort zones in offering one another both a helping hand and a listening ear in order to make our lives more tolerable and ultimately, memorable.

Grateful for each and every one of my friends in camp. Glad to have the chance to know and work with so many of them given the unique circumstances that I find myself in.

Anyway, I am already thinking of what to write for my final email come Dec 9 2011. At the rate the weeks are flying by.. Hm. It will be December in no time.
Exciting five months ahead for myself and the unit though, should live to cherish every single moment.

Alright I should logout now to catch at least three hours of sleep before a 15 km run in the morning.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!

On July 1st Terence posted '5 more months. 5 more months. 5 more months' as his status. Then only two nights ago after finalising plans with my CO and B2 about relocating existing OA terminals from godforsaken places in the unit to ramp up productivity of the Admin Office (more affectionately known as the 'fishtank' as one wall of the office is glassed). Pity then it took the threat of an imminent manpower crunch for everyone to focus on us. In light of the change, my B2 casually asked on FB whether I will be reluctant to leave just as I will finally be getting a terminal along with a desk after seven months of running around the whole camp searching for an unoccupied one in order to rush my projects and tasks.

To my surprise I actually think I will be reluctant to leave this place, in spite of June being such a busy month for all of us. Even though I was not inside the GOH contingent for SAF Day, I still stayed back with them on quite a number of nights just to finish up my chart, reports, plans, slides, write-ups and every other type of menial admin work thinkable. I'd never imagined my NS life to be this fruitful and enriching or to even be doing work such as this (I'd resigned myself to two years of rushing up hills and dashing through forests every other week prior to passing out).

And boss did treat me lunch at Shokudo Japanese Coffee House at Bugis Junction after taking time off work to watch SPDS Section 3 deliver their final performance at NLB during Mindef PRIDE Day 2011. That respite from camp was pretty surprising, but did wonders as it was the first occasion I could converse with him informally and find out more about his beliefs and also his family life as well.

Anyway, I'd successfully identified my understudy after an interview session with the help of my fellow PAs from the sub-units (save from School) and Terence from HR ^^ All of us were from the same batch and hence we will often meet up in camp just to chill out and talk about things from our side. The selection process for the interview was rather screwed up though. Thankfully our choice, even from such a limited number of people already destined to be posted to my side, seems to be vindicated from the two weeks I spent shadowing them during our unit induction programme. For starters he does possess the neatest handwriting from amongst his peers.. Hm..

Sometimes I just hope for proper S1, S2, S3 and S4 Branches in my sub-unit so that I do not have to, along with two other guys, deal with all of these especially when you have close to three hundred individuals and lots of platoons to look after with only a handful of guys to help me. Anyway, I'm sure there's a reason why they consolidated it all at HQ side. I guess on our part we can attempt to synergise our workflow processes in line with our requirements in order to cut out duplication and redundancy from our work. Guess that will help a big deal (Bottom-line - We need more terminals to further distribute work amongst us more effectively)

Ultimately I shall try to incorporate an open office concept when we start to revamp the place - and Solyh has a friend over at School who studied Interior Design in poly to help us out (hopefully he'll agree). Then once it is done five months on I can say that I'd truly left behind a legacy for Henry, Solyh, Jaime and our future replacements to better enjoy their remaining time (and work) in the office (: And our bosses will never again have to complain that we seem to be doing nothing and just crowding over a single terminal like fishes waiting for dinner time.

The last analogy was made popular by this guy, who's actually one of my superiors in reality (and a well-respected one at that) ^^



By the way, I've removed the Feedjit widget it was getting rather irritating. Also, I do not see the need for it now. Times have changed, to put it across simply.

Comment! (0) | Recommend!