Collected my Advertlets cheque today, it came in registered mail from HSBC KL office, they underpaid me about 5 times lesser than what I’ve cashed out in total, about 5 months late too. I wasn’t amused either, after all, previously drenched with a daunting sense of incompetency in their job so I didn’t set my standards too high for them in the first place.

I have read quite alot about this less than a year old startup company, with so many complains coming in and out around town I slowly learnt that I wasn’t very much alone. I won’t be bragging about this just because of the trivial fact that I was not paid or feeling cheated- it is part of a constructive argument and comparison I will bring forward my point and perspective on the issue, highlighting my personal viewpoints as well as including relevant external references and experiences.

In this age of the internet, anything (literally) is almost a Google away. I always had the impression that you can always find anything you want on the net, let be research stuffs, etc, then come the ugly part of the internet- you will never find valuable or information useful too you. The ability to determine information and knowledge from raw data (i.e your searches) is also a part of the the work and skills needed to get stuff for decision making. Then there is also the commercial part aspect as well, having to pay for any additional research information which don’t always turn out to be what you want.

So there must be a catch to relooking back to print media in this technological age. Something writers having spend countless hours writing and going through the hassles of publishing will definitely spot something more critical than what any broke can post or publish on the net at an instant (which also comes the questionability of creditability and factuality). So those stuff called books are worthy to check out right?

Armed with shovels and my archaeological hat this morning, I raided my area’s Bukit Merah community library since I last stepped foot about 5 years ago. Mainly for information to prepare myself for my SAT and college entrance essays and any possible anvils of death the college boards can throw at me.

Searching for books there was quite a pain though- it’s not like click-to-a-shelf, their PC search there directed me to other libraries like Bukit Panjang by default unless I specified a local search. It’s like “what the?” Can’t the computer acknowledge the essence of me and IT being right here in Bukit Merah? They should implement a local search for the books right here and not simply uplink to default NBL’s website. To make matters worst, they do not have a call number/ISBN number floorplan layout, so you have to raid almost every shelf to check the numbers… Grrrrr. I remembered searching for books in SP library was less of a tedious feat, and that library is almost 3 times bigger!

Nevertheless, simply homed onto “the educational” shelves and found an SAT book in no time, together with few other US college prep books like “Getting into the elite college of your choice” (yea!) I will be sinking myself into, don’t think I can find all these stuff from collegeboard on the net as readily and royalty-free. On a sidenote, I never saw myself revisiting the SAT since my JC days, man I hope I do score much better this time.

The library on the contrary was a rather nice place to chill out for the afternoon as well, caught up in the computer section to learn a few new skills or two in Photoshop CS2 and optimizing Windows XP, and literally borrowed the whole PHP5 codebase with me as well!

Whoa me reading!

Something funny about ipods and questions about their unreliability. Say if you “broke” your iPhone, “get a new one” said jobs. So that will very much go in line as the iPod as well as shown in this video. I think the thing which sets the stereotypical iPod and PC user is the difference in the buy and throw away style, while “PC’s” will opt for more practical devices based on spec-wised (like to the refresh rate and the number of horizontal pixel on their LCD screen) or repair them when they are spoilt, on the contrary. In short, pure nerdy.

“Don’t you all have songs uploaded to your brain?” “No we all have ipods, lots of em!”

This race is also known as the Singapore Bay Run as well.

Well just as always, the Army Half Marathon (AHM) aka Singapore Bay Run aka Sheares Bridge Run 2008, held around the third quarter of the year.

Date: 24 August 2008
Start Point: Esplanade Drive (One fullerton area)
End Point: Padang
Distance: 21km / 10km / 6km

This year’s event is rather similar to last year’s the Singapore Bay Run – SAFRA Sheares Bridge Run & Army Half Marathon, to reflect the Marina Bay flavour as participants run through iconic landmarks, such as the Esplanade.

Running Route
(To be confirmed, but will be similar to 2007 route with endpoint at Padang and some detours at the Singapore Flyer area, given F1 Pit Construction and road widening in progress)
Click here for image of the running route (opens in new window)

21km Army Half Marathon
The route starts from the Esplanade Drive and heads to Collyer Quay, Marina Boulevard, ECP, Benjamin Sheares Bridge, Fort Road, East Coast Park Service Road, Marina East Garden, Marina Barrage, Central Boulevard, Collyer Quay, St Andrews and ends of at Padang

10 km SAFRA Singapore Bay Run
The route starts from Esplanade Drive and heads to Collyer Quay, Marina Boulevard, ECP, Benjamin Sheares Bridge, Rochor Exit, Fountain of Wealth, Temasek Avenue, Republic Boulevard, Raffles Avenue, Connaught Drive, St Andrews Road and ends at the Padang.

6km SAFRA Singapore Bay Run
The route starts from Esplanade Drive and heads to Collyer Quay, Marina Boulevard, ECP, Sheares Bridge, Rochor Exit, Fountain of Wealth, Temasek Avenue, Republic Boulevard, Raffles Avenue, Connaught Drive, St Andrew’s Road and ends at the Padang.

Today is the MCYS carnival of opportunities event day held at Henderson Secondary itself. It consisted of an array of events held in a big tent pitched right in the middle of the school field. Inside was an array of game stores (dart, mini basket ball, typical carnival games), self help booths (such as recycled paper weaving, St John, etc and food stores.

The event is called carnival of opportunities as it’s also a job fair with quite a few employers there as well to offer jobs and places for seekers. Was down in the morning to help out with the parent’s teacher’s association (PTA) booth, where mum was there for the day as well. We had lots of ummm, fried food such as Japanese seaweed chicken, wings, fries and chicken nuggets all going in packs for a dollar each. Not excalyt good for us athletic believes. Money raised goes out to help needy students in the school’s pocket money fund on top of funding the and running for such events by the PTA itself. The town council mayor was there as the VIP as well a few distinguished guest of honor.

There were lots of performances by the CDC line dancing club and singers, who were not bad I say, there were free balloon sculptures as well lessons and lectures on employment on top of the job fairs (where I heard many people got jobs too at the event itself). The event ended round 5pm with a gathering of the helpers and with the principal for a closure and ARR for the event, of course with plans up for a bowling gathering at Safra Mt Faber next week!

Fast and Furious (FF) 3 was Tokyo Drift and there is a 2009 sequel coming up right too, was actually in the theaters. Unlike the old dumpy FF2 which was descent and the given fact that FF3 simply screwed up the whole series, FF4 will feature the original cast from FF, well most of them… Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and some new ones. One of the featured cars in the show will be the BMW E92 or the 335 we mostly come to know it as and it officially becomes a Ricer in Fast and Furious 4!

Apparently news of the confirmation of the movie was revealed after some spy shots of filming and the sudden concentration of few tuner vehicles out of the blue. I hope this 4th series won’t be as disappointing as the rest, only time will tell when it hits the silver screen 2009.

For upcoming movies, “21″ looks kind of a nice show with a nice twist of Harvard grade students versus the Casino system- perfect entry movie for “who knows what will happen” with our textbook stricken students and upcoming IR Casino developments.

Yesterday was an interesting day at the SP admin block, specifically at the Principal office and meeting room. It was the interview and shortlisting session for students nominated for the SP ACE awards.

The session started with me meeting up with the other top students from the various courses/schools who arrived at the venue in staggered 10mins intervals. Met few familiar faces including Andrew, the top DARE student there as well. Apparently few of us there were SAA SP award student winners as well, so we were definitely not strangers to each other with the exception of few new faces from courses not usually within proximity from our school of MM. Was told this year there are fewer people shortlisted for the awards, namely the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Award, Toh Chin Chye Gold Medal, Low Guan Onn Gold Medal, Chua Chor Teck Gold Medal and lastly the Tay Eng Soon Gold Medal (for exceptionally well students who came from the ITE route), so if you are here, man you are good!

Ultimately, the Lee Kuan Yew award is the one I will be strongly pushing for.

The main interview was conducted in a rather casual setting with 5 interviewers consisting of our Principal Mr Tan himself as well as distinguished members and heads from the board itself. The setting is rather good I can say and it really paints a relaxed casual setting and encourages constructive conversation, something few jumpy candidates can definitely benefit from. My interview as rather good from my perspective and I believed the interviewers enjoyed their time there with me as well.

The main interview followed by a second 1-1 interview with the SP Media Communications department where the staff will go through details of each candidate where a personal writeup for each student will be done and published in the event of selection. While most just take about 20 minutes on average for this, unknowingly, we got so engrossed in our discussion that we didn’t know that we went into over 2 hours for the interview! With namecards offered from my interviewer at the end, which makes you simply go: “whoa that is actually something the others don’t get!” A photo taking session was one next which saw candidates back in our respective schools or workshop posing for rather professionally taken photogenic shots – IPC galore!

The results of the awards will be out mid April, wish me all the best!

Met up with my old Eng Materials II lecturer Mrs Lim for the day on her invite for the upcoming SP flag day as a volunteer, come to think about it, its was a rather hectic week and it will be so for weeks to come as well, so mind me if I do not update my blog as regularly as before. Will also be busy over the weekend for the MCYS fund raising and AIDS/HIV awareness program at Cathay Cineleisure as well.

On an interesting note, got an invite for the 2010 Youth Olympics dialogue session from the SAA as well, that will be interesting to attend. Oh yes, last but not least, got shortlisted for the 2nd of 3rd stage of interviews for my DSTA scholarship too! Yea!

Yea a year older, a year wiser!

Thanks for all your greetings! Let be from online or text message greetings, esp those on the dot at 12mn wahahha spammed!!