Reflections during the final cruising stage

With just one final exam to go, it has been a week of finally tying up loose ends in Tembusu.

The People of Tembusu project has ended. We featured 22 people in tembusu and the project involved 17 photographers, designers and writers. It spanned 7 weeks from week 2 to week 14 with breaks in between. Even though it was half of what was planned (an ambitious 45 posters at a rate of 3 per week), I think I did not too bad a job to contribute something to tStudios by having a more or less constant progress in this project. I may have overestimated the amount of work that my designers could do and it didn't go according to plan to finish every poster within the first 4 weeks as it is natural that people would only do work when closer to the deadline. Part of the reason why we couldn't hit the target was because I did not push the designers too hard as I did not want them to see the work that we do as something of a chore but a way to express their creativity instead. Even myself I find that ideas dwindle the more I do it, so I would expect the same of others. I tried my best to show example to the others by doing first and doing more and I realize this gives me the authority to ask others to do work which is a good thing as I enjoy this authority. One of the flaws of this project was that the quality was not as good at times and I find it difficult to correct as I didn't know how to counter the 'if you think you can do better do it yourself claim' and also sometimes people have different ideas which is not wrong but just not something you prefer. I wasn't an expert when it comes to design and I didn't want to clamp down on people's idea so most of the time I let it slide and just coordinate the efforts but on hindsight, I should have been more insistent on quality by maybe enlisting the help of people with better judgement and experience.

Ukulele beats was also very successful this year I feel. With almost a performance at every major events, I can feel a great sense of accomplishment especially since the skill level of our performance increase throughout the events, from just strumming and requiring other instruments to backup our performance to having fingerplucking styles and ensemble performance. Our performers also come and go and we practise only when performance are nearing which I think is fine given the transient nature of the club but I feel it is great that everytime a performance opportunity comes by, we are game enough to have enough people to practise and perform for it. This one year in ukulele beats gave me a chance to perform in a music group on stage and its an experience that I think is really invaluable. And I had a great time with my pink hair for the final performance at formal dinner! Haha.

Tembusu Bladers and drinking (tea) club was quite dead this year due to my other commitments, but sometimes it can't be helped if there is no critical number of people who are really passionate about the interest, and it is not easy to tank the group without help from others and it is not a year where I am able to do this with my FYP around. I wish I could do more but the motivation and drive to see this two groups are not in myself so hopefully in the future someone else will be interesed in reviving these IGs.

tCambodia and tStudios were two groups where I was quite heavily involved in as well in fundraising efforts for the Cambodia trips and photoshoot assignments. It allowed interaction time with friends and fun people to do things that I was quite interested in. Of particular mentioned is resume photoshoot which allowed me to learn about lightroom and setting up of a studio shoot(lightings and camera). It was really interesting and fun I think to help people look the best capture the best shots. Helping during Open Day for photographing the mascot with others was quite fun as well! Of course making the video to promote the ICG was quite fun too as we tried making the entire video on GOPRO.

TYE with tMentors was quite dead from the start and I kind of gave up doing it when the other members start to become MIA from the project. I should have quit from the start as I could actually tell that the people in it lack the desire and motivation to actually do anything at all. I just did not want to be that bad guy to quit it but it made a bad impression on our group to not do what we promise to do.

It has been quite a lot of holistic development this year. With design, photography, video to improve my creativity, ukulele to pursue some artistry, my studies to improve myself academically, PoT to improve managing people and a project. Not everything was good and at a lot of times it was an uphill slope, but with all the pain I experienced, I enjoyed the fun times more and I am happy about all the friends that I made and the memorable times we had together.

New ideas are still popping into my head at times and I feel like doing them but I think I will just suggest them and hope that I can from the sidelines see my juniors pick them up and enjoy as much as I did, trying new things and learning from each other.

The final 10m in my University Life

I should really be doing my Nanotechnology presentation that is due tmr but just a quick post before I go on to that.

It is in my final 2 weeks of proper school where it is going to be like crazy! I do like it that I have something productive to do all the time so that I wun slack too much which is part of my natural tendencies.

FYP has finally been going well and I'm almost completing my final report. Other modules are finishing soon too with essays and presentations and project due. I'm booked for my final summer holidays to travel with 4 different group of friends. And I'm going to finally put my Inline Certification Program Level One Coaching qualification to good use and work part time as an inline skating instructor with skateline, the most established skating school in Singapore. Check them out here: http://www.skateline.com.sg/

Sounds like a exciting 3 months ahead. In the next 3 months I will try to find a job that I'm interested in, that pays reasonably salary, good opportunities for personal and career growth. These are my top 3 qualities that I look for in a job, not work-life balance or benefits or other stuff as they determine my current emotional state, feed me and my needs, and light up my future potential. Other things can be negotiated or sacrificed.

Also a graduation gift to myself in advance! A wireless headphones that is so awesome that I couldn't forget after seeing it on kickstarter. It won't reach me until next year January though but I will wait for good things are worth waiting for. Check it out here!

I think I like someone at the moment too. Its a bad time to like someone now with so much transitions in my life going on but that has always been my excuse everytime. Life is always in constant transition, I just have to muster up enough courage someday.

In this last month of my uni life, I hope to spend as much time with my friends as possible even with all the work I have. Do crazy stuff with the year ones, unfulfilled stuff with the graduating students so that we won't ever regret, last late night sessions with my best friends, imparting all the skating knowledge to the young'uns, do as many experiments as possible in my free time haha, visit the gym and infinity pool, clean my room one last time, make the ORA lounges better, etc. In a way I wished uni life will never end, but I have also reached a stage where I am ready to embark on the next stage. It has been fun! But its also time to say goodbye...at least I didn't have regrets being able to enjoy these 4 years with these friends, exploring myself (i have no idea how to express this without it sounding very dirty), and enjoying all the activities. Thanks for everything NUS, even though you have many flaws, you gave me the most wonderful time of my life :)

The Double Ds in life: Drive and Discipline

After watching a movie this afternoon (RUSH) about 2 F1 drivers of different characteristics fighting out their lives on the race tracks, it has reminded me again that to succeed in life we need 2 things.

DRIVE: to push hard and never stop trying despite failure because you want to reach your goal so much.
DISCIPLINE: to be able to focus on the goal and say NO to all distractions that tempt to veer you off track.

Its a life-long process. Something that is very hard to learn and obtain but I hope that I will be able to achieve it and maintain it.

8 years many hairstyles

Haven blogged in a while...it has been a really busy half semester but really fruitful one! Will blog more again soon hopefully...

The video above highlights my past 8 years in JC to NS and through University.

Hair is a fascinating part of human body being the only thing other than nails that can grow continuously throughout our lives (unless you start balding of course) Changing hairstyles is the most natural way to change one's looks and I did that many times over the past few years, going from short to super short to long to short to long again and now short again. Hair plays a huge role in society in status and also religious practices and of course is a strong characteristic of our identity. When I had long hair, I could be spotted among a crowd from far far away! When celebrities change their hairstyles, like how Miley Cyrus did the pixie crop, it made so much news.

My favourite hair quote:
“Interviewer: 'So Frank, you have long hair. Does that make you a woman?'
Frank Zappa: 'You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?” 
― Frank Zappa

Google's OKR

Its gonna be a smashing semester that is fit for an ending to my formal education!

Taking a lot of modules for interest:
Tembusu's Biomedicine and Singapore Society
Arts' Bahasa Indonesia 2
Engineering's Automation in Manufacturing (and FYP of course)
Science's Nanotechnology: Smartphone and beyond

So basically I will be running around everywhere for classes which is much better than last semester when I pretty much stayed in my room all the time.

In the meantime, I have decided to make this blog a personal development tracker for this year as this year is quite an important year as I am going to graduate and step into the working world.

I was reading about Google's OKR (Objectives and Key Results) which can be applied at any level, companies, team or individual as it is a simple and easy to follow system of getting things done.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-ranking-system-okr-2014-1

So every quarterly I shall review and set new objectives.

Improve Fitness:
Gym 3 times a week
Slalom 3 times a week

Improve HR:
Finding people to take over/ help organize tea club and skating club.
Getting designers motivated for people of Tembusu project.

Career Planning:
3 Job Applications that are to your interest after a elimination of other alternatives
Wealth management by making a portfolio about current insurance and financial plans

ITS A BRAND NEW YEAR! 2014 HERE WE GO!

2013 was the year when I had best semester of my life travelling around in Europe and leading the life of a european student (EASY EXAMS!!!) and also one of the worst semester of my life doing my FYP.

So.... its NEW YEAR RESOLUTION time!!!!!!

it always doesn't last but who says we should stop trying?

Resolutions should have a goal and an action plan:
1) Be fitter than last year (my most unfit year since secondary school)
         by
    Exercising (Run Bike Weights in Gym, Swim in infinity pool, Skate, etc.) 1-2 hours on weekdays

2) Be Better in HR in the clubs, activities I'm in so that I can participate, run them better
         e.g. tea club: get more people to organize, skating club: find succession and teach people how to teach, tstudios: engage with the juniors especially to have ownership over the club, resident assistant: interact with people from other floors by having more informal gatherings

3) Career Planning
          thinking about the engineering roles that I could play by going for internships, mentorship program, career fairs, research online or by asking people. I realize that I really is not a design engineer or research people. Operations like manufacturing is more interesting to me so probably gonna look into that.
          also explore more about alternative jobs (mentioned in previous post)
          wealth management (investment, savings, insurance)

4) Personal Development
          Question yourself all the time, make better informed decisions, double loop learning, self-confidence, self-discipine, self motivation, increase productivity.
           by ?????

We spend our lives looking for answers, but we always get sidetrack along the way. The key thing is that we eventually get back on the main road and continue to plow through until we reach our destination. 

and if we don't like our destination, or get tired of the place, 
it signals another journey, hopefully
a brave and victorious journey.

Cambodia and X'MAS!

Its been a funny holiday. Just got my results and its not really ideal but within my expectations.
Oh wells one more semester till graduation and I'm really glad to finish my university education after 4 years.
But the question that I have been really thinking about is what happens next. What would my career be like?
I have always plan my life until the end of university but not after so I am really clueless at the moment but this academic year I have started to question a lot of my values and motivation in life and hope to find my answer soon.

Some of the alternate jobs that I considered was being:
1) Tour guide - flexible lifestyle, get to meet a lot of people, have fun showing people my country which I love very much
2) Skating instructor - skate a lot, get to impart my skills and also encourage people to be more serious in the sport, I like skater friends
3) Cafe? haha I had this idea because my sister could make nice cakes and macarons and I have a really sweet tooth.

These alternatives would have to come with lower expectations when it come to pay, career progression and job stability especially since it is not something I was trained for my entire life! Something to thing about for the rest of my life...

But anyway after my exams when I went to Cambodia! and its my first time there and it was a really nice chill place to be in where everything is cheap. Yay!

Haha but seriously, I was there for an OCIP feasibility study to see what can we do to kickstart a new OCIP project for tembusu students. 3 focus that we decided the project should head in are:

Heritage - Angkor Wat 

Helping out with the school that Winson is setting up to teach English to poor students

Making and distributing meals to the poor people in Siem Reap

All in all it was quite a awesome feel-good experience as we got to see the touristy things, volunteer and also chill every night in this really cheap place! (haha I'm such a cheapo) The only bad thing I would say was that the travelling from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was arduous.

Can't wait to see this OCIP get up and running!

MERRY XMAS!