攝.秋.諷

黃昏楓葉特別紅，夕陽深秋愁加愁。
才華名利低一等，窮困暮年悲白頭。

笑话

笑话有两种：好笑和不好笑（很冷，无聊那种）。同一个笑话，有些人觉得好笑但有些人觉得无聊。 我觉得好笑，别人却觉得很冷。别人觉得好笑，我却觉得无聊。

人生也有两种： 精彩和不精彩。 同一个人生，有些人觉得无聊但有些人觉得精彩。别人觉得很精彩，很向往，我却觉得很无趣和乏味。别人觉得无趣，我却觉得这才是人生。

人生和笑话何尝也不是一样吗？我心里难过，别人却当笑话。我心里高兴，别人却觉得平平无奇，无聊。我们的人生有时候就是别人的笑话，别人的人生很多时候也是我们的笑点。

人生本来就是一个笑话。你笑我，我笑你，一笑置之。

不会“笑”的，哪里可能会“潇”洒？

Snake

13/02/13 Chinese Lunar New Year's Fourth day (Year of Snake).

It was a test of courage, planning and teamwork I supposed.

I was sleeping when my second eldest sister woke me up and told me that she saw a snake moving towards to the living room. She woke up her husband as well as our auntie Kim. The snake was hiding in a gap between a cupboard and the wall. After spotting the snake, my brother-in-law had got a long plier, a long ruler and a broom. I'd got a magazine. The magazine was used to block the exit of the gap so that the snake has to come out by the entrance and thus allows my brother-in-law to catch it by using the plier. So, auntie Kim was assigned to block the exit of the gap, I was assigned to hold the broom (to press down the snake whenever I can) and my brother-in-law was responsible to hoe out the snake and catch it with the long plier. However, the snake was able to escape from the exit because the magazine can't cover the exit fully. The snake wasn't very big though. It was approximately 1 ft long and 1/2" in width. Luckily the snake was heading out from the cupboard and I was able to press down the snake by using the broom. Eventually, we were able to remove the snake from the house without harming it.

It was fun but indeed very frightening, especially when the snake was able to escape from the exit. It was something that we didn't expect. Like I said before, it was a test of courage, planning and teamwork. But sometimes, it just won't go according to the plan. When it didn't go according to the plan, you can only react (keep calm!) with you instincts because it was happening too fast and you had no time to think and plan ahead. I was so glad that none of us were bitten by the snake and we were braver against snake.

Lastly, Gong Xi Fa Chai.    

Sickness

NUH Blood Bank called my on Friday to ask me if I’m able to donate plasma and platelet on Monday because they have a patient who is going to have a liver transplantation on 31/01/13 and the patient needs AB+ platelet for the operation. So, I had the donation done today and everything was smooth and ok. However, at around 4.30pm, suddenly I have had a ‘vision distortion” and I can hardly read the text from the iMac. I gave my eyes a rest, looking at far objects and it took me approximately 30 minutes to “restore” my eyesight. Right after having back my eyesight, I have had a very painful headache on my left brain. I started to breath faster and deeper, and suddenly I felt very cold. I mildly felt like to throw up and my knees were weak. I was having a headache and fever at the same time I guess. Hence, I decided to take a walk in the hope that it would help and erase the headache. The walk does help to reduce the headache though I guess but it wasn’t an immediate one. The pain was still the same after the walk (in fact, every symptoms remain the same) and I wasn’t so sure should I ride my bike home or not. Anyway, I decided to ride my bike home and I told myself that I have to be 100% focus on the road and temporarily forget about the pain. Surprisingly, not so far form Bedok while on the way home, the pain started to reduce and I started to feel warm a bit. Fortunately, all the symptoms were gone after a hot shower.

 I was so worried about myself when the headache persisted for more than 2 hours. It was the first time that I have had a side-effect after a donation. I had never experienced any sickness which consisted of headache and fever before today. I was worried that something might go wrong during the donation and caused any contaminations in my blood. The consequences might be unimaginable. Now, I’m relief. I have no idea what the root-cause was but, after the hot shower, I highly doubted that it was the donation that causing the problem. Perhaps it was merely a random out-of-the-blue sickness that just happened for the sake of itself.

 Lastly, the moon tonight is big and indeed, very bright.

QA Engineer

When I’m meeting the HR manager for my medical check-up appointment letter today, she told me that there were a lot of people applied for the job (I hope it’s true) and all of them were asked to use AutoCAD during the interview to demonstrate their proficiency of the software. She also told me that I’m the only one that did not asked to do so. In fact, I was asked to do so but I told the interviewer that I might need some times to recall. The interviewer paused for awhile and then said “ok, never mind, maybe it’s time for you to go back home and practice AutoCAD again; AutoCAD is very important here.” Then, the interviewer goes on with another question. “Maybe,” the HR manager continues with a smile, “he (the interviewer) got chemistry on you.” As a matter of fact, the first question that I asked the HR manager when we just met for the medical letter was how many QA engineer working here. She told me that I will be the only QA engineer (!). “So,” I said, “I have to do all the measurements and testing?” “Oh, no. There is another QC engineer to do all these. You just have to focus on… what you guys called it…?” “AutoCAD.” I said. Then she starts telling me the “story” I mentioned at the beginning.

Did chemistry really work on me and the interviewer? I don’t think so. I was selected simply because I’m “familiar” with 6 Sigma and it was my triumph card. Throughout the interview, I talked about 6 Sigma (which is extremely useful in quality management) most of the time. Ironically, I didn’t learn 6 Sigma from schools or from my past working experiences. I start picking up 6 Sigma after seeing it appears everywhere (especially GE and Rolls-Royce) in the “Requirements” of the job that I wanted to apply. I remember, few years back, I’ve read an article and it asks all the reader start picking up the skill themselves or through course whichever that is require in the job but yet to be taught in school and add it in the resume to show the potential boss that you are really keen and interested in the job. I thought it makes sense, thus I decided to take the advice and start picking up 6 Sigma myself. Fortunately, it really works, and thanks to the author who wrote the article.

So, if it is really the job that you like or a company that you wish to work for, but unfortunately it requires something that you’ve never learn before, say a mechanical engineering student suddenly wish to work in Oracle or Intel which required XML, SQL or even ERP SAP, freak not; just start picking up a book that teaches the subject, learn it yourself and show it in your resume. I believe your potential boss will appreciate it and take you into consideration for the job. If it doesn’t work out, never mind, it shows that s/he may not be a boss that appreciate human resource as an asset to the company but what s/he wants is just a working horse!

Once again, good luck for your future endeavor!

Anyway, my new company is a listed European MNC with approximately €62 per share at the moment I written this. I hope it is a good company, I’ve made a good choice and all the best to myself as well. :))))

Reflection (II).

After some considerations, I think I didn't really waste 1 year. In short, from May 2011 to Dec 2011, I've attended General Relativity (GR) and Advanced Quantum Mechanics (AQM) at NUS, worked part-time at Sushi Tei and NAC and had a trip to Japan. From Dec 2011 to end of April 2012, I've done some readings in Functional Analysis, Quantum Gravity, Lavier-Stokes equation and Quantum Computing. On the other hand, I've also done some research on the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and wrote 3 papers about it.

Well, after I attended GR, I've learnt the relationship of space and time, Einstein's equations which govern the gravity and one of the solutions for Einstein's equation, namely Schwarzschild Solution, which eventually leads physicists to predict black hole, white hole and worm hole (cool!). As for AQM, I've learnt how physicists combined Quantum Mechanics with Einstein's Special Relativity (SR), the mathematical tools, the methods and most of all the motivations of doing so. As for the part-time jobs, I've learnt so much and it actually deserves another entry. However, in short, I've discovered that I'm actually very good in customer service (from Sushi Tei) but poor in interpersonal relationships (from NAC). I received quite a lot of customer feedback saying that I've provided them a very good service while they are dining in the restaurant and I can engage with them very well. I always like to "talk cock" (talking nonsense) while taking order or doing the bill but surprisingly it turns out that I'm actually engaging with them and enhance their dining experience. Strange, isn't it? My first compliment came just after 5 days of working there from a French woman (you know why and how I got it, don't you? lol!). Anyway, as for NAC, somehow I've just messed up my interpersonal relationship there (sorry to my ES2007s teacher, Ms. Happy Goh) and I really don't know why. Maybe I was just insensitive enough or I'm just poor in EQ in an office environment. Working in NAC was my first ever office work, after all. My previous working experiences were all came from restaurants and factories. Or maybe I've just inevitably showed them my "true color" while I was surrounded by a lot of female colleagues? WHAT THE HECK!? I should really reflect on this issue and improve my interpersonal relationship while working in an office, anyway.

I think I've wrote too much about Japan, so just skip my Japan trip and move on to the readings. Well, some of you may think that I've wasted too much time on reading those subjects that eventually won't help in my career or even my daily life. To some extent you are right but if you are not willing to "waste" some times on doing so, you never know what you really like and capable of doing. As a matter of fact, research is part of our living and you always can't get the successful formula right away. You have to try watching the movie before you said that it isn't your cup of tea. Just like the movie Titanic. Some people like it very much and watch it over and over again but some just walked away from the theater halfway through the show. Japanese movie is another good example. Unfortunately, it is a fact that research comes with a price to pay: in some cases, it would cost you some monies or some of your times in order to find out the result. By now, at least I'm convinced that functional analysis isn't really my cup of tea and I'm not really capable of doing Quantum Gravity and Navier-Stokes equation. No one else is more persuasive than you yourself! Also, after finished writing my first "research paper", I realized that I enjoy scientific research very much. In fact, I don't mind doing research without getting any pay! I just love the thinking processes and the feeling of joy of "Eureka!!"; these are the rewards simply beyond any words to describe! However, like I mentioned before, there is a catch in scientific research as well: you may ended up wasting all your time and effort in vain simply because you don't know your idea somehow just don't work or your research is simply catching 22. You'll get frustrations and start hesitating or even panic. You'll start to lose your faith and eventually give up. To be honest, I knew it very well, or just too well. To this extent, I really don't know what to do next. It's really up to you to decide and find out. Research isn't just facts discovery, it's also to discover yourself I guess. How brave and determined you are to continue the research that seems to be so hard and "risky". In some cases, after a lot of hard work, you submitted your research paper, but your peers didn't agree with you and rejected your work, what are you going to do next? Face the challenge again, start the research anew and rewrite the paper or just give up?

I wasn't very sure whether I've wasted one year of my time or not. Maybe it's just not that fruitful. But I guess I've learnt something about myself and it's also very important to know and understand myself. Hopefully all these experiences will come in handy one day.

Now, it's time to ponder another very important question that I've just realized in this entry: If you are good at doing something that, unfortunately, you don't really like doing it, are you going to do it or not? As in I think I'm pretty good in customer service through my experience of working in a restaurant, but I don't really like the job as my career, what should I do? Some people think that doing what you good at (not doing what you love) will eventually bring you fortune and satisfaction. Is it really true?

Reflection.

May is around the corner. 2 important things in my life happened in May. My ever first full-time job in HP, from 2005 to 2008, was started on 9th May 2005. My very last undergrad exam paper (Introduction to Programming) was on 2nd May 2011. My first full-time job meant a lot to me because it was when I started to work and save money to prepare myself for degree study. It was also the happiest period of my life so far because, basically, I have nothing to worry about within those 3 years and all I had were just fun, fun and fun! I've met a lot people there and I was so glad and it was so fun to work with them. We troubleshoot problems together, helped each (they helped me most of the times to be precise), having tea breaks, lunch, dinner and supper together and most importantly, we had so much fun in our "talking-cock sessions". We also went overseas together for vacations (Thailand, Sabab and Genting). Oh my goodness, it was so fun and I had no idea what stress means within those 3 years. In addition, I went to Japan twice within those 3 years.

On the other hand, 2nd May 2011 also meant a lot to me because I was "officially" a "Bachelor" and I have "conquered" most of the difficulties and obstacles in education. It was a very very long and hard journey to go this far just to be a Bachelor. It took me almost 18 years to be a Bachelor. Oh my goodness, 18 years!!! How many 18 years can one get in his/her life?

Well, since May means so much to me, I would like to have May as the "month of reflection" to reflect on what have I done for the past one year.

I graduated in May 2011. Now is the end of April 2012. What have I done from May 2011 to May 2012? To be honest, I really don't know, as in, yeah I've done something like working part-time in Sushi Tei and NAC, had a trip to Japan, had wrote 3 so-called "research papers" (if you allowed me to think so) and had a "totally-failed-but-funny-and-memorable-relationship" with someone, what is the significance of all these? Let me put it this way: You worked part-time in Sushi Tei and NAC, so...? You had a trip to Japan, so...? You wrote 3 so-called "research papers", so...? What/where is the big deal!? There's no big deal in all these at all! Basically, I have wasted one year of my life I guess! If all my papers get to publish one day, well, May 2011 to May 2012 would be a very fruitful year for me, but unfortunately, getting one of these papers to publish seems almost impossible. In addition, I'm still jobless by the time I'm writing this (my trip to Japan ended in December, so "officially" I'm jobless for 6 months). I have tried to apply for a lot of jobs in different fields but it seems that I'm only qualified of selling insurance, as in ONLY insurance companies are interested in me. I had an (and only) interview with NEA for an Executive job, but unfortunately, they have found someone better than me. How sad and cruel...

On the other hand, I also need to reflect on, other than foolish and idiotic in some sense in some cases as some of you might think and to some extend I really agreed with you, how brave and determined (if there is any) I was in order to be not-so-cruel and fair to myself.

Maybe I'm just too pessimistic about myself but I really should start taking my life very seriously and maybe start from another point. I really can't purely react based on my "instinct" and faith anymore. Maybe dream job only exists in Utopia. But again, I might end up living my life miserably... I really don't know... (*superposition*, huh? you said? I'm so glad that you've read my previous post and thanks!)

I hope you not only have resolutions every year but also a reflection. All the best to your resolutions and wishing you that you'll have a smiling face on your reflection eventually.