come some up a music...

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Finally its over, but still lots undone...

Yesh finally over...

The NTU Tertiary Institute Outdoor Archery Championship 2005 is finally over, after months of preparations and planning. Been really busy the past few week, getting last minute stuff settled, calling, liasing, rushing datelines, training and working. Guess the handphone bills and stress level for me and my vp reached a sky high figure this month.

Its kinda hard to cope and to adjust at the start of this month. Starting attachment and i have to been away from NTU, lots of co-ordination stuff put pains into me daily. Had to make calls to various people during office hours without my supervisor knowing, doing work on one hand while finding means to solve problems on organising the competition on the other. Still glad that my supervisor is kind enough to just laugh away and not complain at my Alpha Program Test which failed badly that day at work. And also my vp who did most of the planning stuff, neglecting his studies. Both of us were really happy yesterday after the competition once it ended after the prize presentation and photo taking. He said, "Yes, no more phone calls", guess it was really like putting a big stone down from within us, finally time to relax and return to our normal lifestyle, or maybe not...

Working life sux. Can't really have time to go for training. Felt really tired after work, though it was mainly sitting infront of the pc doing programming 8 to 5, guess it was due to the mental strain. Even if i have energy after work, by the time time i reach NTU its already sun-down, can't even shoot at night. Felt guilty not going to shoot with the competition coming up. Especially it was a "home ground" advantage competition, all the NTU archers wanted a big win.

Then i found myself becoming a "weekend warrior". While most people rest at home or party out during the weekends, i travel early in the morning to NTU to shoot and travel back home in the evening every saturday and sunday, even on Hari Raya. Though it was tiring to do so everyweek, i felt contented and happy every weekend. Seeing my strength coming back and feeling the good form again. Grateful of the Final Year Archers who couldn't really train during the weekdays like me due to their FYP to train with me on the many Sundays. Even the final year archers wanted NTU to win in this important competition and took time off their busy schedule to train and work hard together again. Happy to spend time with you guys each Sunday working hard together. They even know that i was busy with attachment and offered to make a new string for me first before themselves so i could go for this competition with a better edge. I could say i owe a quarter of my total scores to you guys. Thats the spirit of NTU archery, always look for the team win, not an individual win. Though we have no coach to help us, we have ourselves to help, and with hard work, we can still win with pride. I would like to say Thanks and you guys deserve the credit.

The organising of the competition got me to learn and see lots of things. It made me more confident and quick to make firm decisions. Learned to push people to work hard, meeting datelines, establishing good relations. It made me realise we cannot stand alone and not know the world out there in order to achieve certain stuff. They may want to get an advantage on us, but we can also in other ways get another advantage back on them in order to draw more attention for our competiton, it works both ways. We just have to know whats our objectives and work towards it. It was an "eye-opener" for me. I found out who i could really trust and who i could really depend on. More evidence and truth on various rumours came to light for me. I finally knew the true side of the story and who was right, who was wrong.

This was the best competition ever in the many competitions i went. The weather rocks with overcast clouds, no rain, slight wind, best weather for archery. Though being part of the organising comm, i had to wake up earlier and make arrangement even while i was competing, i felt great. Wasn't a bit anxious, nervous, pressured or tired while shooting. It could be due to a "home ground" feeling and also could be that i was shooting with many other archers from various clubs who i already made friends with through many competitions. Its like a get together session while enjoying the challenge from archery. I felt the love of the game yet again.

Yet again, NTU archery swept most of the medals and hopeful of being ivp champion for the running year. But various events shocked me, as i saw another institute getting stronger for the ivp archery arena. I saw the threat it posed to NTU's domination in archery. It was like they are following the foot steps of NTU, pushing more archers from their team to the national training squad, training in the open category to improve and to defeat us. After the competition, i talked to my predecessor and he felt the same as i did. We cannot stop other clubs from being stronger, but we ourselves cannot maintain at our current level, we have to work harder. We will have to look far, to beat the national players at their own game at the same level even without being in the national training squad. We had a long talk in evening even after a long day competing. Finally able to know how he felt when he was in my shoes.

Although the organising of the competition was over, there was still many things left to do to improve ourselves. Still many things that is needed to do to pass on the tradition and never let is die out.

Friday, January 07, 2005

Nanyang Chronicles

I think i'm getting mad!

I miss NTU!

Got back to campus after work to join the team in gym at nie.

Guess its about 2 weeks since i vacated my hall and left campus for home. Today was the first time i stepped back into NTU in 2005. Stoning infront of the pc from 8 to 5 can really kill me i think. Felt happy to be back in campus to see my team mates, to crap jokes and also to keep fit. Sitting infront of a pc the entire day, could easily grow a huge belly even without beer drinking activities. Hopefully i will not be the one to prove this as a fact after 6 months of attachment.

Felt excited to be going back to Canteen A after the gym workout. The sight of students having discussions or holding meetings by pulling tables together made me felt shiok.

I found a new copy of Nanyang Chronicles in canteen.

Never know that i missed the campus paper so much. From the smell of the paper and from reading it, i felt like being a student again.

While having my MacDonald's meal, i peeped across the table to see a girl reading her lecture notes. From the lines of words and graphs, i felt the urge of going back to study.

I think I'll seriously sick.

Monday, January 03, 2005

630

630am.

I dread waking up so early in the morning.

Today's the first day reporting for work at my attachment company. Really dread it to wake up so early, whats more to have to dress in long seelves and long pants. Can't imagine going on like this for 6 months, or even after i graduate and working in the corporate world. Guess its a time to get use to, guess it a time to make sure this way of life stays permanent in my system, guess its time to make it a habit, a drill, be sub-conscious about it. Is this how life is going to be after i graduate?

Maybe thats life?

I took a taxi as i wasn't really sure of where or how the company looked like. Besides it good not to be late on the first day of work as the elders always like to say as to give a good impression. But being interns how good an impression will the people in the company think about us? "We're Trash!" thats what one of my friend told me. Just imagine the company is getting 20+ interns each with a payroll of $750 per month. How much are we sucking the companies monthly expenses? We aren't even full fledged engineers! Guess they could really use these extra expenses on something more productive and cost-effective. Just imagine the number of new pentiums or LCDs they can replace in the office each month rather than let us interns sit infront of the pc day by day surfing net and sleeping after lunch?

Its the first day of everything. First day of work, first day of school for the new year. Bishan Road was really jammed, constipated. I really wondered why are there so many schools in Bishan. Even RJC wants a piece of Bishan right besides RI. Could cementry grounds really be that fertile to grow more sprouting geniuses? The taxi uncle cursed as he drove like a daredevil, just to meet the 730am ERP to CTE. "Heng ah 0727 am" as he just crossed the gantry. Ya i bet he's gonna bet 0727 on 4d. Guess he was lucky today morning to fetch 2 guys to the same place of work one after the other.

At least I saw familar faces at the lobby.

25 of us, wah thats quite alot of "trash" this company is getting. Early morning we were all briefed by this super nice HR executive. This pregnant lady looked like our mom into this company, patiently helped us with the admin and various orientation. 1 of the interns got to work under her department which became the envy of the guys i was talking to in the morning. The morning passed like a breeze under her care until our various supervisors came to fetch their "kids" from the "child care centre". Not to my surprise i was the last "kid" to be fetched, together with me were 2 other girls from the same department i was assigned to.

The instructions wrote "Office Attire" and mom kept nagging to wear nice nice on the first day of work so to give the boss a good impression. So i wore long seelve shirt and pants. And the boss of the whole department wore a company white polo-t for work todae. What a great impression it gave me. I looked like the most "pro" guy in the whole department. Somehow i noticed that the most zai people in the department wore the most "lock kock". Maybe they were too zai le, so don't have to attract attention by wearing nicely to work. Or maybe they spend 24/7 in the office that they practically couldn't bother about image.

It didn't took long for me to notice that my desk was directly infront of my supervisor. What great feng shui i had! Whenever i looked up from my puny desk i would see my sup's name hanging on his cubicle wall, i was like worshipping a tablet of a god every now and then. To my surprise the person who "fetched" us wasn't my sup. My sup was on leave, still in holiday mood ah, but i know i wasn't.

So we "trash" were squeezed in a long desk with pcs that counldn't use msn or icq. Ok, i bet i wil find a way to "disable" this, as i saw the lao jiaos in the office using msn. The prior briefing by Liang, the person who "fetched" us made us felt we were supposed to be very pro to be part of their various teams in the department. Who the team leader was, their role, blah blah, I felt like Voltron, "I'll form the leg!" "I'll form the body!" "And I'll form the head!". (Voltron the cartoon with robot tigers)

So time in the afternoon took pain to pass. We had no work. At least i know my sup's not around. Me and the 2 girls stoned. I forgot how many times i surfed the pages of the company website. I started to doze before i surfed to various online forums to read. 1 of the intern girl told me we had a project briefing at 4pm, by the time i looked at the clock it was 425 le, and yet no briefing. 1hr to knock off time! i quickly sms a fren to encourage him to "tong" 1 more hr. He replied "hey reading doc... see u outside later". At least he had something to keep him busy.

525. Time to knockoff. The intern girl came and told me, "Hey they want to have briefing now!" WTF, then my phone rang, guess cannot meet outside le.

Liang gave the project briefing. Guess he was the 2nd boss of the one team, at least he wore more "lock kock" then the rest. "So we've come up with 2 projects to let u guys choose. We want to make sure that ur resume meet our project so we maybe reshuffling u guys abit". Huh? Does that mean i won't get to do the project i chose to come to your company? That doesn't seem like how it was supposed to work. Then he went on blahing the project details while emphasizing that he wasn't trying to scare us. That it is was difficult yet easy. ??? Saying some terms that he thought year 3 students should know but we don't, and assuring us that it wasn't important even though he mentioned those terms many times in the project. Maybe that was his "stress" policy, to give us a briefing at the time of knockoff when we are the most tired and most eager to leave. Not to give us work the whole day until now, then to see how well we perform under this condition. No wonder he one of the "lock kock" guys in the department.

"Any questions before u guys leave?"

"What time do we report tml and do we have to punch?" asked the intern girl. (punch to clock working hours)

"So whats the time the HR pple asked u guys to report? Cos i dunnoe wats the official time to report for the company everydae leh? i always work until very late then come not so early in the morning. Then we also nv punch for like.. 9 mths? Here very corrupted one. But i think u guys better be official for the starting period of the attachment, dun be corrupted like me..."

Oh okie

By the time i left the building,

630pm.