Jeffirean Stories
Friday, August 31, 2007
Hello!
I can't believe my luck when I relooked at BOSS (SMU's course bidding system) round 2A when I decided to reshuffle my modules. The tourism course had vacancies and yesterday I got one of the two remaining! WOOHOO! I also boldly dropped another course and got a really 'chim' one, Biological Models for Business Applications. And you know what? It goes really well with the Intelligent Organisations course I am taking. WAHAHA. The World Tourism and Travel course goes well with my Business Study Mission to Taiwan (which, until now, looks more like a school trip to Taiwan). Then I also have New Product Development, and that fits with the Corporate Creativity course I am taking. So, in all, including the half credit Negotiation Skills for Business, I love all my 6.5 modules although they are all tough and demanding (in the sense of so many stupid readings that are so difficult to downloand, let alone read). Well, let me summarise my timetable here for your information (if you are interested, I mean)
World Tourism and Travel -- Tue 7pm - 1015pm
Intelligent Organisations -- Wed 830am - 1145am
Biological Models for Business Applications -- Wed 12nn - 315pm
Negotiation Skills for Business -- Wed 7pm - 1015pm (for 1st 7 weeks of the term)
New Product Development -- Thu 830am - 1145am
Corporate Creativity -- Thu 12nn - 315pm
Business Study Mission Seminar -- Thu 330pm - 645pm
Maybe I will describe more about what I learn next time.
Let's reverse the time to last week... Tue.
Finally caught Nigel for dinner, but the venue was quite weird. A Malay kopithiam at Serangoon, opposite where Pius lived. We chatted about many stuff, but there were some awkward pauses as well. I guess it was because we are both quiet by nature. He didn't eat but drank teh alia with me. I ordered a plate of nasi ayam goreng, but I couldn't finish it because it was too much. Anyway, the weather turned bad somehow and we decided not to wait for Pius at the kopithiam anymore. Rather, we would meet him at his condominium.
When we finally caught Pius at the lift lobby of his block, I asked him to show us around the place while he and Nigel caught up with one another slightly. Finally, the weather was about to unfavourable but Pius decided to have the chat at one of the sheltered pavillons near the pool. It was really cool, scenic and leisurable. We chatted a wide variety of topics. One common topic Pius and Nigel had was on France. Nigel studied French in Canada because it is one of the common languages spoken there while Pius went on holiday to France during the summer break. So fun! We then discussed a wide variety of topics, albeit sometimes having the same awkward pauses. Pius seems to have lost his leanness, perhaps due to a lack of long distance training? Heh, but of course he still looks good. Nigel kept using the word "my partner" to refer to his girlfriend (which he told me a few weeks ago that they have broken up) while Pius is still single and available. Heh. We finished around 10pm and bidded goodbye at the gate.
The next interesting thing is the table tennis session on Monday, 27 Aug. So so so many people attended the session that I think we broke our record for attendance for table tennis since the school began in 2000. HAHAHA! Anyway there were some good players, but many average players around. Couldn't really find someone to train hard enough with, but still I lost a round of 11points to my VP, who says he played at district level in India. 9-11 to be exact, and I was actually mounting a comeback from 10-6 until 10-9. The last point I lost because of a dropped serve. LOL. Anyway I think there will be more chances to challenge and I think I ain't the best currently either.
Then..... hmm... another noteworthy point of the week was meeting the Icequeen to get a ticket. If you were me, you would really understand why she is known as Icequeen. She beats me hands down for looking glum! LOL. I have been criticised before for looking glum and unapproachable, you know. But of course one incident cannot be used to measure a person. Icequeen is actually quite warm-hearted, you know? Maybe she's a moody Icequeen that day... and because of the stupid rain that day, I was a clunky, carry-so-many-things dumbo. Dumbo dumbo dumbo me~
I think it would be good to end this posts by describing my past 2 days with super pretty girls. One was with Carrie, during Nego class. She was to negotiate with me on a contract (simulation exercise) and eventually I took a lousier deal (as usual). But taking a lousier deal is nothing, it was worse when during the negotiation I found it extremely pressurising to look at her face.... Just as during the BSM seminar, this chilli padi called AH (who is similar to my YJC chilli padi councilmate Jayne) sat beside me. Not that I went speechless, but it was pretty uncomfortable...And to top it up, she had a very "diao" voice.. =p
So I shall end here and wish you a happy weekend ahead.
-piaks-
Acknowledged my existence at
1:48 AM
Sunday, August 26, 2007
What an exihilating start to the term! It's quite a rollercoaster ride up till now, with new things coming in as fast as gravity can pull you. Heh. I probably need to catch up soon by upping my action rhythm. I have a tendency to deliberately start slowly or drag and drag, which has led to me being pretty slow in accomplishing things. With such a see and wait attitude, how can I accomplish big things!?
Criticisms aside, I would like to congratulate myself with a show of ultimate despondency. Nobody in SMU would be as "bu yao lian" or "ke lian" as me because I singlehandedly set up the table tennis booth for CCA Day 2007 this year, without spending a single cent by pooling resources available from my home. I also took the vouchers I won or received to use as prizes for the booth itself. It was definitely well spent because 62 people signed up at our little humbl booth. We were bullied by other clubs as well, because some arrogant idiot decided to take our chairs and exhibition board, leaving me standing for 6 straight hours at the booth without sitting down at all. Such unethical, assuming, selfish, greedy people ought to be punished by God, for they committed such acts in the name of promoting his holy name. I am sure God will have seen it and provided them with the appropriate lesson. I am glad that despite all the odds, the really run-down booth managed to attract people to come and sign up! Some even signed up when I was not at the booth, as I took a break to play Winning Eleven (while continuing to stand) at my table tennis buddy's Gamers Irregular booth. The people there were very friendly as well. I guess it helped that I had a chance to interact with them during the WE tournament last term. Heh.
After CCA Day, I met up with Anthea, my primary 1 classmate. Friendster, by a stroke of fate, brought us back together despite hugely varied paths we took. However, she and I share similar interests in many things, particularly in entrepreneurship, singing and helping others. We had dinner at the Kopithiam opposite SMU School of Infomation System, and I would like to recommend what she recommended to me, the Korean hotplate set! It was so nice and filling. To top it up, using the SMU Kopithiam card entitles the user to get 20% discount there! WOOOOHOOO~ Hahaha. We discussed loads of stuff about life, which in conclusion, led me to consider recommending her to be Ms E's fashion consultant. =p
It has been decided and fated that I would revert to the 2 day study week, and that means, whole day classes for Wednesdays and Thursdays. It is absolutely tiring on those days but the other free days should be sufficient for rest and other endeavours, such as taking care of the table tennis club and learning more on setting up a business.
Speaking of setting up a business, recently I had the idea to start a video game retailing business. It is very easy to get started, but the cost price wise and other factors are making things more difficult than I initially thought. Before taking the plunge, I need to study more and learn more about the trade hence my focus now is to know as much market information as possible. Hence if possible, if you know of any video game information around Singapore, such as availability of goods, prices, upcoming games, trends you observed, tips and tricks, and whatever relevant, please please please tell me, ok? Heh. If I manage to set it up, you guys would benefit as well from the opportunity to get cheaper games / better service / industry knowledge. If you are interested to try it out with me, do catch me up and we can try to team up to make a successful venture!
I guess that would be all that I would like to mention for the week. Oh, before signing off, I would like to wish Jason (22nd Aug) and Hongwei (24 Aug) happy birthday. The celebration for Hongwei and the dinner with Nigel/chat with Pius, I guess I would describe them in further detail later in the week.
For now, I wish to take a good break, take stock of my current duties, priorites and interests, while to you who reads this, stay healthy, happy, cute always!
-HuGz-
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
1:07 AM
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
I have been extremely occupied these days. I can't say I'm busy because probably 40% of what is occupying me isn't related to work, for example, watching football, reading forums. Haha. And it has become worst as school has begun, with CCA work taking its toll on me as many of the people who had promised things had broken their promises. Everyone wants the title (President, blahblah) but don't want the responsibilities that come with it. Plus, I have been employing a passive strategy at the moment due to the aggressiveness of other clubs, so this could have meant a lower level of activity in the club.
Which they got it all wrong.
I already played 2 sessions of table tennis for the past 2 Mondays. Despite my invitation, the people who said they wanted to play table tennis in the entire holiday hasn't played at all. Well, well, the world is full of funny people.
My timetable has been derailed with approval given for my application to the Business Study Mission (BSM) to Taiwan at the last minute. As SMU students have to complete a certain number of courses for different categories to qualify for the degree, and that many of my modules overlap various categories, it was quite a struggle to decide what modules I really want and that complements my weekly schedule. Eventually I opted for a 4 day week instead of the 2 contemplated. The number of modules I get to complete in total is 6.5! This is so that next term I will be able to take those mods not related to my degree but useful for my future. Hopefully I won't struggle too much this term with the committments. I also have decided not to pursue triple majors, although it is still a possible option for next term.
Recently I have been cheered up with a 4d strike and a great start to my season account with a Manchester City win. Hehe. But before that I had my MSN nick as "Poisoned by Nostalgia" for I had dreamed of the past. My past was a pretty unhappy one but now I am very glad to have known Pika and the Rabbit family, the 7seas brothers and many kind, helpful individuals. These are the people that brighten up my life and let me learn what is a fulfilling, experience-rich life all about.
Moving on, my house now is in a mess now and I am not sure how can I tidy all of them up. There is so much paper at home, that I had to set up the mahjong table to increase my desk space, and then my room is strewn with clothes that just barely dried due to the wet weather...
Tomorrow school is starting for me.... looks like a busy day up ahead! To cheer everyone up, I found an spirit uplifting song which I like. Hope you like it too.
Ganbatte!!
Acknowledged my existence at
2:58 PM
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
I suppose some of you guys had suffered my "eruption" before, like you know, you made me super agitated and I exploded on you. Sometimes I realised that my family makes me explode more often than any other people because they are just so insensitive.
On Sunday after work, I went home to have a short break, reading newspapers while waiting for dinner to be prepared. My mother asked me to switch on the lights for her by addressing me as "wei". I was slightly peeved but nevertheless, it was just on the way. When I sat down to read the newspapers, she suddenly mentioned that I shouldn't drag on my duty of processing the payments for the subcontractors. The key point is "DRAG". I wished I could drag and drag then my father's business would have a beautiful cashflow system but no, I never because I set myself deadlines and systems. Till now, the system I had devised puts the deadline on the 15th, where monies will be credited and payments of last month's jobs settled. Obviously my mother doesn't follow systems, and she uses a haphazard way of working with others. Her past bad experiences had made her distrustful of many people, so she only wants her way of doing things, which unfortunately, creates alot of additional trouble for me. Obviously I blasted her on the spot saying that I had just come back from work, I needed a break and she shouldn't bug me for something that is not due yet. Then she says I always delay and etc. Well, if you know, she bugs me for every little or big thing that happens, hence her $91 phone bill for last month. Every morning I needn't any alarm clock, she will call and say this say that, which could be better accomplished if she could help make the paperwork easier by putting them into the correct files, and summarising the situation everyday rather than call me every hour or so and give me bits of instructions. Her phone bill is always over $50 lor. Dotz.
Anyway I wrote the above 2 days ago. Been very busy all this while actually.
This morning I had a strange dream. I dreamt of the guy whom I had a crush on during secondary school mate, the guy who sat beside me during secondary 1. He was getting married and invited me to his wedding, which was to be held in Spain! Then I was pondering if the airfare would be sponsored as well when his father and brother challenged me to a race. (He doesn't have a brother anyway) and I lost to his father in jumping stones on a pond. Lol. The final memory of the dream I have is he giving me a smile, as if we could still stay as friends. (I have no idea where he is now.)
Ha ha. Maybe he is really getting married soon.
After that my morning began with 2 pieces of good news. My appeal for the deafmute employee was successful and strangely the S Pass application for the Indonesian chap was successful as well. Heh. That adds some good manpower to the business so it is indeed good news after the departure of several men.
But it was followed by an accident at home. I decided to have stir-fried onion fishballs with bread. As I took out the olive oil, the soy sauce was blocking the way and falling off the shelve. In a bid save the soy sauce, I used one hand to push the soy sauce but my other hand wasn't big nor strong enough to grip the slippery olive oil bottle and it fell. The neck of the bottle broke and probably 60% of the oil were leaked. I had a hard time cleaning the glass and the oil, then I used 2 small bottles to store the remaining oil. My stir-fried onion with fishballs was pretty tasty with bread but lacked a zing to it. Haha. So much trouble for such a small meal.
Other than these, my life has been pretty normal. Have been reading finance stuff and getting inspiration for business ideas. Hopefully there would be an opportunity to start something interesting soon...
The song I put up is quite an old song... but I would be happy to sing it once again.
In the mood for singing
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
3:19 AM
Friday, August 10, 2007
First of all, let's just wish this nice little island that I live in a "Happy Birthday!".
Anyway this brings me to the story of my Chinese name (again). I was supposed to have a 2-word name 杨威 and I think it's quite a cool name. However, during the 80s, cheena names (usually 2 words) were not popular, and my uncle suggested adding a word 国 to my middle name since we are a poor family and do not have a 族谱 (family tree listing) that dictates the generation's middle name-character. So my name's 杨国威 now. Seriously, I don't really lament having such a name that reminds people that my country is a powerful country (are we?) but it is a difficulty for some non-chinese to pronounce my name properly in English syllables g-u-o-w-e-i. Sometimes I get made fun of, as it sounds like "go-away". When someone tells you to go away, it hurts, doesn't it? But usually my name gives the teachers a phonics lesson as they struggle with "guawei" (Indians), "go-wei" (Malays), "guo3wei3" (Chinese). Eventually I cooked up an English name to make it easier. And it was like quite cool to have English names in my Pri 4-5-6 times, like everyone was finding one for themselves and signing class books with it. I remember starting out with the name "Jason" or something, but luckily it didn't stick with me. Hehe. When I was in secondary school, I finally took up the name "Jeff" but most people thought I was parodying the very popular Jeff Chang then. Well, I loved his songs then because they were really heartbreaking and my heart was broken every day in school anyway (especially in sec 4). But the real reason was that the name "Jeff" was just what I saw in a game manual (Secret of Mana) and I felt it was cool. I added the "fire" part because I loved the "fire" magic when playing those RPGs plus it was quite a cool extension to "Jeff". However, I only used the name substantially when I was in JC because
a. I wanted to avoid the pronouncing problem
b. I wanted to make it easier for people to remember me
c. I just felt egoistic to have such a special name
d. I was in a new world of my own as none of my classmates were in YJC (unfortunately, many of my primary school classmates were. LOL..)
So that's roughly how the Jeffire name came about. Haha.
On this 42nd National Day, I stayed at home the entire day, sleeping, watching a history documentary on Singapore (politics and transportation), the national day parade, some soccer matches, reading forums and posting replies, and doing my monthly invoice recording work. I've recorded 192 records but there are another 100+ to go. I had my craving for tuna sandwich satisfied in the morning, but the rest of my meals were quite imbalanced, in the sense I had too much carbohydrates. SIGH. How can I ever lose weight this way?
I laugh at myself.
Finally, today I read that if you use sunblock, you must:
a. get one that protects against both UVA and UVB rays
b. use makeup remover or double cleanse to get rid of the sunblock
c. find one that has high antioxidants content (ascorbic acid and ascorbates)
So, girls, do you use sunblock religiously at all? I doubt so.
Hahaha
Jeffire
*************
Something just flashed through my mind, okie, go and look at the photos I posted and look specifically at the ones I took with girls. They would give a great hint to how I rank the girls in terms of prettiness. (Okie, it could incite anger in all the girls but if you can see how, it means you quite understand me)
Acknowledged my existence at
12:19 AM
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
I'm finally 24th! Nearly a quarter century old.. sigh. Still have no key life achievements till now. Many of my contemporaries have already gone into work life, and some are earning big bucks, that isn't corresponding to the level of education. This shows that my belief of "results don't make the man" still holds in this era of blind academic pursuits.. But I can only envy others while daydream about how should I start building my empire..
Doing a review of your life is a sort of self-reflection that one can practise every year so as to know oneself better. I guess it's quite inflexible to fix the review period to emcompass one life-year but it's easier this way for me. And it has been so since I begun the blog. For this 23rd year of life, I probably had enjoyed life more than ever. At the same time, I seemed to have lost the hunger to improve myself aesthetically and in the pocket. These 2 issues are very key to me because they affect my life very much. See what I mean below:
My weight target was a complete flop from the start of year 23 till the end, it ended upwards rather than downwards! On the streets, every 4 guys you see, one is well dressed, groomed and has good skin, one is bengish-looking (aka attractive in a bad-boy way), the third one is cute, and the fourth one is muscular or sporty. What happens to guys like me and others? We hide as much as possible, envying these guys who get the babes, the attention and the satisfaction to fit into nice looking clothes and not end up look like clowns/wannabes.
I don't want to look like a clown/wannabe!
The second issue is about what my friend JQ calls them -> Vitamin M. Everyone wants more of them, but most people are destined to end up making the Vitamin M for the people already bursting with this vitamin. How should I go about earning enough vitamin M to accomplish the following?
a. basic needs
b. networking
c. enjoyment
d. sharing
e. improving life (of self and others)
f. for the future
This is one big headache that I have been thinking hard to settle, but it seems the opportunity has yet to come.
Nonetheless, apart from the above 2 issues, the rest of my targets for year 23 were mostly achieved without too much hassle. For example, my results climbed slightly up the scale for the past 2 terms. In addition, I managed to know quite many new friends, read probably around 100+ non-fiction books (mostly astronomy, investing and beauty stuff) and learnt a great deal about business in Singapore. I also learnt more about the people around me, my surroundings, and have grown accustomed to life in this ulu town of Punggol. For these, I hope to continue such pursuits as they are fundamentals in my life.
The holiday is coming to an end in 2 weeks time. But it is good to be able to celebrate my 24th year in style with the 7seas brothers and sisters, and also the Rabbit family. The first one was already mentioned in the previous posts, so I shall just write my thoughts for the second.
For a start, I was probably quite worried that the venue was a turn-off because of its apparent nearness yet it needed long trips to get to. For example, HW would have to take a long winded train ride down the NEL and up the NSL to reach his home at Marsiling. Moreover, the cafe was a first-visit for most of the invitees. The food was not completely tested, and the ambience a challenge due to the proximity of the kitchen to the air-conditioning system (think oil smell on your clothes after you step out of a air-con canteen). However, I was really really glad that this year it was much much much a fun occasion with several people getting really "high" (although I can't comprehend why) such as Dexter, Gerald, Rabbit, Grace. I guess everyone enjoyed it more than last year's dim sum buffet for the food was eventually fantastic (even the accredited gastronomer Gerald who doesn't like fondue said that the fondue was good) and the chats and activities (such as monopoly and the underwear incident were hilarious. LOL. Hope next year would be just as enjoyable and exciting as well.
I shall paste a few photos here and that shall sum up the first new post in this revamped blog. (Whoever has XLi and me foto pls send me) Hope you like the song 可以不可以 by 叮当. Hope then new blog is easier on the eyes as well!
Thank you all for the presents and well wishes. Love you guys!
Acknowledged my existence at
6:08 PM
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Ciao
I went shopping today before and after a facial. Want to hear about the facial and what I found? Continue reading.
All right, the day began with a meeting in school. I didn't know there was another conference hall in school, but now I know. After the meeting, as I was summoned to pass my mother her stuff, I went to Ubi. I bought my brunch on the way, vegetarian bee hoon, but there was nowhere I could eat it. So I decided to eat at the bus stop while waiting for the bus. Unfortunately, before I could do so, I missed the bus because of a call. I found 3 letters that had to be sent out on the floor from a IT company so I called the company to see what could I do with them. As I listened to the instructions, I wasn't able to flag the bus so I missed it and then ate abit of the bee hoon.
I took bus 51 and alighted at Crawford St. I intended to go Mustafa Centre, and so I walked across the road to the bus stop, but I boarded a full bus. I alighted at the next stop immediately. Stupid me then had to walk 3 streets across to Mustafa Centre, but luckily I was right in guessing that it was probably a few streets away. I then finished my bee hoon outside Mustafa Centre by the roadside while watching a woman completing a parallel parking with a huge car successfully. Woo. Nowadays the left side of Mustafa Centre (the mass stuff side) you needn't zip your bag up with their special zip. I searched unsuccessfully for my soccer boots. Sigh. The design I found it at Queensway SC, but the size wasn't right for me and there were no more stocks hence the reason for going to Mustafa . I guess the next try would be at Penisular Plaza.
After that I took the train to Kreta Ayer and did my facial. The extraction of blackheads is a torture!!! Pain pain pain but I guess it was quite worth it. The facial went on for 2hrs and I fell asleep while having the mask on. Haha. If you like to know more about the facial, ask me on MSN or when you see me. After the facial, my hair was in a mess but my face was significantly clearer. But due to the extraction of the super stubborn blackheads and pimples, I had some red dots on the face. Haha.
Then I went to eat the famous Yong Tau Hoo at People's Park. A long long queue! After that I walked over to Visma CD shop, the cheapcheap cd shop. Heh. Bought many cds, mostly China versions though. Shopped in the Ladies Street at the basement but there were nothing for guys, really all for ladies. Some of the stuff are quite hip there, so maybe if you pass by there and are free, can take a walk in the aircon basement before proceeding elsewhere.
Next I went to Central. I went there because the bus I boarded was flooded, and I needed the washroom. :p Since I was there, I decided to visit the recently featured "Yamakawa Super" which is a japanese supermarket. Not really considerable as a supermarket, but the items stocked there were rare finds in Singapore. I bought some chocolate, 77% cocoa Lotte chocolate bar and green tea chocolate. Find the bitter chocolate nicer.
After that I was in Orchard. Walked to many places, Taka, Lucky Plaza, Paragon, Cineleisure, Centrepoint. Cineleisure is a great cruising place if you like to see weird fashionistas and fashionistos. Kobayashi the japanese fast food sucks big time, don't waste your $$ there.
Finally when I reached home, I found bits and pieces of a $10 note on the floor. I picked the pieces up and tried to stick them back. I hope I can exchange for a new note in the bank! Here's the picture of the note, but I am not sure if I need to put the word "Specimen" or not, but since the quality of the picture is marred by the crumpled note...I shall be lazy here..
I'm quite good, right?
Well, I hope tomorrow will be a better day. Better better better!
Acting Clever
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
1:35 AM
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
A long time since I last blogged. It isn't that I was occupied, it's just that my life is really boring that I don't want to state the obvious and bore you to the core. Moreover, the past week I have been sleeping more than ever because the holidays are ending, but more for the reason that I was not feeling good even though I was recovering from the common cold. I do admit sometimes I oversleep because I have no interest to face the world.
There's a turmoil at the workplace with quite a number of people jumping or intending to jump ship to another contractor. It has stressed out my family and at night we can be heard debating and quarreling on why our employees are jumping ship, and some more, to a ship with unknown history and unclear future. May I appeal to all that if you know of any car painter, car polisher, with experience, and if they are looking for a job, please let me know, okay? We are offering positions of sub-contractors, employees and a part-time car polishing coordinator. We don't mind the nationality but work permit is only applicable for some nationalities. Position #1 the average earning is about $3000 p/m, Position #2 is about $1500 onwards, depending on skill level, and position #3 is about $850 per mth.
I also think that when you request someone, especially someone who isn't your friend, to help you do something, you should make an effort to help to ease the person's burden. Rather than to complain that things aren't going smooth, when you know the person doesn't have the power to push the issue onwards, you should try to help by getting more information or wait patiently. Anyone into HR should be aware that many of those bloodsucker workers out there have no patience and they expect everything to be smooth-turvy when they are the ones who rocked the ship first.
On the fun side, I just began my birthday celebrations with a 7Seas gathering yesterday at Wee Nam Kee Chicken rice and also the nearby HongKong Cafe for the cake cutting. Han's Tiramisu cake is very nice!! Smooth, soft and not too rich nor too thin. Heh. I post our group photo up here so that you can see how "JackNeo-ised" I have become.
Nonetheless, I was very happy to have seen nearly everyone..... from a small group of guys and girls, now we add so many new members! Hope the couples can get married soon and add more new members, hehe.
Finally, it's August! Two things important to note in August:
#1 The Hungry Ghost Festival is coming.... no late nights! (robbers are more scary)
#2 Birthdays!! Myself, my father, my friends like Lixia, HongWei, Jason, Singapore..
I haven't update my wish list, etc. I shall leave it to the Great Annual Review post then maybe you would see some new stuff on this bloggy. Till then, hope you guys stay healthy and funky!
Trying to Cheer Up
Jeffire
Acknowledged my existence at
2:06 AM
