IA

Industrial Attachment. Let me 1st briefly describe the place where I worked and what I work as.

 

The company I'm working in is ST Electronics (AMK). It has a big compund with abt 4 or 5 buildings. The place where I worked at is a big office situated on the 2nd floor of one of the buildings. The office is always brightly lit, rain or shine (which you won't know when you are inside), and it consists of ard 50 to 60 cubicles, a few small meeting rooms, 2 or 3 offices for big bosses, and a pantry. I am stationed at one of those few small meeting rooms, at the far end of the big office, together with 2 other fellow IA students in the same department/team.

 

Everyone in my office works on the different system in the transit system, ie, MRT. My department is in charge of PA systems, (whereas other departments includes CCTVs, telephone lines, radio etc). It consists of only my boss, 3 other perm staffs, and 4 IA students (1 from poly leaving soon). There are 2 projects on hand now for my department - setting up of PA system for the local Circle Line MRT, and setting up of PA systems for Gao Siong MRT in Taiwan. I belongs to the Gao Siong project.

 

So, my job scope?

  

Ans: Putting speakers on the architectual plans. Sounds easy? Well, there are lots of knowledge behind it. We have to know abt the different types of speakers, calculate the coverage (power decreases with distance, both vertical and horizontal), learn to read the (damned) architectual plans, determine the different zones etc etc. Shan't bored you guys with the details, but frankly speaking, it is not that difficult either.

 

As for the pple here, they are all quite nice. When I asked one of the perm staff taking care of us whether normally we have OT or not, he replied. "Huh? What is OT??" At 6pm sharp they will actually remind us to go home, which I think is quite rare among the IA students. (The norm is the other way round right?) Then there are many fellow IA students in the same office, so actually quite happy to make a few more new friends. Workload-wise, normally we have to ask for work to do when we are sick of reading up the required reading materials. Quite relaxing so far, hopefully it will continue into the future. =P

 

Hehe. Ming tian hui gen hao!

 

 

 

Update 2

Hmmmm, you are still with me? Well this shows that you are a true friend who is truly concerned with my life, or you are a true friend who is truly bo liao. Anw, no matter what, you can see that I AM truly bo liao.

 

OK, continue my MAJOR update, this time mostly in chorological (dis)order. During the week right after my exams, I've been administering exams to other people, i.e. I've been an invigilator for an outside exam. The job is kinda exciting as you can watch other pple suffering the same suffering you suffered for the past few suffocating weeks. But the excitement quickly died off when you have to travel from Boon Lay to Expo Hall ONE(!) everyday for 8 days.    

 

Most notable during these 8 days is the stupid aunty (1st timer invigilator) who enjoyed pointing out the faults of everybody. Even I 5th timer lao jiao also ganna fault, and it is not one time but a few times! What "put the answer paper properly la" and "cannot sit at empty candidate's desk la". Wah liew eh, as long as the paper is there, who cares if it's put upside down??? (And I didn't put upside down lor, I just didn't take the pains to align the papers carefully so that they are parallel to the sides of the table. Liddat also tio gan. WTF.) Cannot sit at the candidate's desk??? First, I must state that we are allowed to sit. Maybe she was concerned that I might give unwanted pressure other candidates nearby. But, the nearest candidate 360 degree around me is FIVE DAMNNED DESKS AWAY!!!!

 

Aunty, for goodness sake, don't let me see you again, ever.

 

Other than that, it has been quite fun: made a few new friends and a few hundred more bucks.

 

In the meanwhile, I had been busy with production stuff. I've been tasked with (re)writing the ending of the production script. Other than that, meeting and coordinating the tech crews with the directors. Other than that, give some advice here and there, help out here and there. Other than that, nothing le. Haha! Slackest Inner Circle staff around. Anw, I had been helping out the Sound Crew to source for sound effects and music. Quite fun. Get to hear some rarely heard beautiful music. Enjoy. I love production!

 

Then is the Interhall Contract Bridge Competition. Our captain was very nice, and never gave us any pressure.  He told us that it is just a game, just enjoy lor. However, whenever you made a mistake, he screws you left right upside down like nobody's business. (Tangning, relax la. =P) Anwz, we got 7th, 2 positions below what we got under my leadership last year. Not I good lah, is just that the overall standard increased alot this year. But still... HAHA!

 

Then there are books. National Library Board is very kind nowadays; it let us borrow 8 books instead of 4. But BEWARE, it is a TRAP!!! The borrowing duration is still the same! Nowadays, who the hell can read 8 books in 3 weeks?! It's trying to make you over borrow, return them overdue, and they make $$$! Lao3 gan1!

 

Anwz, the books I read for the past few weeks are some books on script writing, Cell by Stephen King, State of Fear by Michael Critchton, Matrix and Universe X (Marvel) comics (they call it graphic novel),and I've just finished The Philosopher at the End of the Universe by Mark Rowlands. If you want me to recommend I would recommend the last book. It tries to explain philosophy concepts using examples from movies such as Matrix, Star Wars, LOTR, Terminator, Minority Report etc etc. (All my favorite movies.) And it is quite a gem I stumbled upon 'cause its categorization is not at the usual 100.00 for Philosophy, but 791.43 for Movies. I'll summarize something from the book for you guys to think about.

 

The Problem of Freewill: Are we really free? Free as in do we really have the freedom to decide what we want to do, eg eat, sleep, walk, talk etc etc. Tom Cruise in Minority Report said that we are, but the philosophers state that we aren’t.

 

Why? Because everything we decide to do has a cause, and every cause has a cause. Eg. I decides to eat. Why? I'm hungry, Why? I long time never eat. Why? I've no money. Why? My parents didn't give. Why? Blah blah blah times infinity until BIG BANG! and the universe is borne. Therefore it is inevitable that I decide to eat and since it is inevitable, my decision is not free. This is call Determinism.

 

There are counter arguments and counter-counter arguments for the above topic (and in the end, it is concluded that we have no freedom). If you are interested, you can read the book or argue with me.

 

(You see, I really have no choice but to torture u peps with this philosophical mumbo jumbo. Don't blame me!)

 

 

Update

Five weeks...

 

...with no exams to study.

 

Recently I've been suffering from chronic fatigue, which leaves me with little energy to write blogs after doing the things I want to do. However, a friend told me that a blog is good in a sense that it updates your friends about your life. So... well, here's my feeble attempt to do a MAJOR update with the little energy I've left.

 

(Despite that I believed otherwise, I confirmed recently that there are people reading my blog as friends feedback to me that they did the Deathnote Personality Test... erm... at least I hoped that they read the rest of my blog lah.

 

Actually I shouldn't have been so pessimistic. The blink blink star besides my msn nick would have attracted the attention of anyone who is interested in my life whenever I write something. As a matter of fact, I think that it attracts too much attention. Maybe that's part of the reason I stopped writing temporarily. For those who know me, you know that I don't like attention.

 

How do I know that the blink blink star will attract too much attention? I know because I always have the uncontrollable urge to click on other pple's blink blink stars whenever I see their blink blink stars blink blink. Ya, so to all friends who have blink blink stars blink blink and think think (Haha!) that no one read your blog, don't, because I'VE READ YOUR BLOG. )

 

Yup, now I've updated you guys about what I think about the MSN blink blink stars, I shall end this blog entry. Have a nice day!

 

 

Update 3

Let us continue with the update.

 

A few months ago my time deposit acct matured and now I've a few thousands bucks sitting in my saving acct doing nothing, slacking. I always feel a bit uneasy when someone or something is more laid-back and relaxed than me, so I quickly asked my FC, Financial Consultant (haha!) out for a chat once our exams are over. My FC recommended investing in mutual funds as she earned lots of money from dabbling with it last time. (The money is virtual though. =P) So I listened to her advice and had been doing some research on funds for the past weeks, armed with her lecture notes(!) and the website she gave me. (She refused to help me do research as I didn't pay her! Sobz!) Now I have a target in mind, and going to go into the market soon. Wish me luck! (Btw anyone has anything against HSBC Chinese Growth Fund?)

 

Then there are movies and meeting up with friends. For movies, you named it I watched it, at least for the more well-known ones. As for meeting up with friends, there is one particularly interesting one - my SC, Spiritual Consultant. As we are chatting halfway, she suddenly popped up with this question:

 

你觉得空虚吗？

 

I was quite surprised actually. If she didn't ask you won't feel it. But once she asked, you will find that it is surprisingly true. Then she proceeded to say that it is the same for everybody. That's why there are people trying to fill their hearts by finding relationships and taking drugs and still end up feeling quite empty. The reason is because there is this space in your heart called the God Space, and it can only be filled up with faith in God.

 

What do you think?

 

Anwz despite her words, God will be the last thing I'll filled my heart with. Meanwhile, I will stuff as many other things into my heart as possible to make me feel 充实.

 

Talking abt 充实, maybe I've went out too many times with friends doing the same thing again and again - namely watch movie, eat and drink coffee, it is getting a little boring. I think it is time to find some new fresh things to do. One of the most interesting things I did during this holidays is the visit to the Singapore Science Centre, together with the bestest friend of mine, Chioboo (self-proclaimed =P), who happened to be my FC too! A fun-filled day finding out how gentically similar we are to a chimpanzee; posing as a prince/princess at a... treehouse; extrapolating how ugly we will look when we are 60 years old etc etc... All in all, SSC is a great recommendation to all who find it bored watch movie and drink coffee everytime you meet up with friends. Tips: Go there earlier - according to our exp, 4 hrs are not enough to explore the entire place!

 

The places I wanted to go next, not in order of preference, are: museum, zoo, night safari, art museum, bird park, fort canning, discovery centre, treetop walk (this one seems particularly interesting =P). Anyone interested in any of the places, feel free to msg me or leave a comment k? =)

 

Lastly, I want to thank everyone who made this holiday an enjoyable one for me: Zijun, Xiangbin, Yinghow, Youjie, Fiona, Yi4hui4, Adeline, Chioboo and lastly all my hallmates. Thanks buddies! For those friends I didn't get to meet during this holidays, I'll made it up to you sometimes k? (Haha! I doubt anyone managed to read until here anyway.)

 

K la, other than the fact that I was bed-ridden for the past Thursday and Friday from gastric-flu virus infection, there is nothing much else to say le. Cya and hope u pple have had a enjoyable holiday too! Happy working/ schooling!