2009 Resolution

1) Family Gathering 2009
2) Be more Discipline - use time more efficiently
3) Toastmaster Club - Competent Communicator
4) 修行
5) A half-marathon (21km)
6) Be more Detail
7) CCNA
8) Certified Sys Admin (UNIX)
9) Courage to ask STUPID questions
10) Get a Girl-Friend
11) Japanese Langauge II
12) Better presentation skill; More out and well spoken and better command of English
13) Read Lee Kuan Yew Book
14) Understand Software Development Life Cycle - Sys Engineer
- Proj Manager

Happy New Year!

Fell sick... Flu and slight sore throat, but I was reluctant to stay at home. So went out to spread germs... Most likely victims were Jeremy, Yang Chao, Zheng Bin and Gwen. We had supper at Bedok Feng Shan 85 Market. Enjoy the kopi shop style.. haha... Then we went 洛阳大伯公宫 to pray... This was the first time in Loyang 大伯公 after they have shifted to their new site. I like the temple, quite grand. Maybe the temple is rich, thats why able to make the temple more grand.

But in general, it was an interesting experience. There is also a Islamic god 拿督公. Saw Indians worshipping 大伯公 together. Then Chinese worships Hindu gods together. Realised Singapore is really a Racial Harmony country. haha...

Bowling Session at Downtown East

Just had a bowling session at Downtown East with some of primary school friends (Youde, Zhong Yan, Huimin and Ting Ting).

Alittle disappointed, first game I got 99, and second game 101.
As Downtown East Bowling system was new, really curious how does the turkey looks like... haha... So my target for the day was set to be above 100 points with a turkey. But this time round my ruthlessness (the way I throw my ball) didnt bring me much glory. Haiz...

Nevermind... hehe... Will see it the next time... hoho...

Was surprised that Zhong Yan played quite well. This was the first time I saw a lady friend play this well. In fact I feel that she still "put water". Maybe let Youde and myself to look better... haha...

A Lonely Swimmer Again...

Been flown Aeroplane this Morning...
Reached Tampines Safra Pool around 9.30am.

Swam around 10.10am, still no one.
Rest for awhile as I was trying to figure out whats the strange "linging" sound when I was in water and at the same time wait for the ES gang to arrive...

Till 10.20am, no one... I knew I would be the lone ranger. haha...
Completed my 30laps & got out of the water.

So sad... haha...

Presentation Skill...

Today, there was kind of a debrief for the project.
I was a little disappointed in a way when the consultant said that my colleagues performed better as he felt that many times my colleagues could understand and relate better to what he said than I did.

Before I continued, I just want to literate that I feel that my consultant and my colleagues didnt do anything wrong and there wasnt any politics involved. I just like to share my reflections.

After hearing that I was a little surprised, because all the while I felt that my technical knowledge was better. Networking, UNIX, ability to relate to systems, I thought I scored better. As a result, I didnt.

I evaluated myself. Some possibilities:
1) I think too highly of myself due to over-confidence. Which most of the time fell on me when I got too complacent. Which I believe is also one of the factors that contributed to the feedback.
2) Attitude. By means, my joking way of talking. PR-ing, yeah... I may have done a great job. But up to actual working, sometimes I can feel that alot of people feel that I wasnt serious as I was akways happy and laughing.
3) Big picture way of viewing things. Maybe have been thinking to be CEO, so only looks at big picture... Realised that at my level, I should pay more attention to details. Because those are the stuffs that are really important. Points for me to score GOAL. And I feel that this was also one of the factors why I did not manage the Boot Camp project well....
4) Presentation skill. I feel that my colleagues has a better presentation skill than I do. I could see that he didnt understand the whole thing at times, but he could phase it very well. I can only blame myself, why cant I present as well??? I believed besides presentation skill, another factor is also my command of English. Although compared to primary and secondary school days my English had improved alot, it isnt enough.

Conclusion:
Add the following to my 2009 resultion:
- Suppress my complaceancy
- Be more details
- Improve in my English and Public Speaking skill

Just like to re-literate that I feel that my consultant and my colleagues didnt do anything wrong and there was no involvement in politics. Just like to share my reflections.

I will like to take this chance to tell anyone who is reading this posting that even one maybe very capable, but if he doesnt manage to present himself well, he will lose out. I feel that one way to improve is to join Toastmasters Club. If u ask me, join which club to join? I will tell u Tampines Changkat Toastmasters Club! In a nut shell, I believe as well as Toastmasters Club is concern, every clubs will try their best to help their members to improve and excel in Public Speaking skill.

Christmas....

Kind of bored at home...
Parents went 1 day JB tour, Sis went out. Alone at home... haha...
Too lazy to explore Solaris and start writing stuffs in my new Organizer... haha...

As for Christmas Eve... Quite enjoyable... Know 4 new friends of Zhiyu's, but most likely will become 'Hi' or 'A' friends... hehe...

KTV at Liang Court Party World: realised the whole Liang Court was just renovated. Now becomes higher class... Even the party world is more high-class... hehe... Also realised the shopping mall "Central" was around that area. Always saw Central advertisements, but dont know where is it... haha...

Then dinner at Brewreks: alittle xpensive but the portion was huge, so quite filling. Service was excellence! Only 1 thing to comment, the chicken in my chicken sandwich was like rubber. 不好吃... Saw someone order their burger and pork ribs, looks GOOD! hehe...

Gift Exchange: I got a Santa Clause hat with a block game. Alittle regret didnt open the Company's gift exchange gift... It was a name card holder.... haiz... now I need to go & buy my own... Sianz...

Then a moment where no one wants to decide where to go & do what, so mingle outside of Central awhile then proceed to Settlers Cafe. Actually I was alittle regret to join Zhiyu and Teck Liang to go Settlers Cafe... haha... When I left Settlers Cafe and walked to City Hall MRT, I delibrately dragged my feet. I felt I was crawling to the station... haha... Fortunately there was an unoccupied seat, I slept all the way to Tampines (apprx 30min). That was refreshing... But still tired... Continue to drag my feet till I reached home to Zzz... haha...

Wedding Dinners....

Today marks my last wedding dinner for the year 2008!
From Jan 2008 till Dec 2008, I went 13 wedding dinners, 11 friends, 2 relatives..
Shag...
Lucky for relatives 1, got parents to help.... Or else would cause a bigger hole in the wallet... haha...

As for next year, 1st one will be on 3rd Jan. Think the cycle will come again...
haha...
Shag...

An Incident

Dont know why out-of-sudden this incident came out from my mind.
It goes like this:
Encik Gan was marking the parade GOH attendance. When he called the person's name, he also asked the height and whether the person wore a spectacle.

Then came to this particular guy (Derrick who wear a spec), Encik Gan asked him, "Do u wear a spectacle?" (I thought this was a stupid question to ask when someone was wearing it, but nevermind.)

Out of everyone's surprise, he replied, "No."
Encik Gan repeated his question "Do u wear a spec?" (which I feel was silly too, but nevermind.)
Then Derrick kind of "woke up" & replied, "Yeah, I wear specs."

Then here comes ME, the commentator "WOW!!! Superman, wear spectacles for fun."
hehe...

Past Events in 2008

While transferring the Events & Activities of 2008 to my official record book, realised that so far there were 40 events & activities that I recorded.

About 11 jobs interviews (first interview, second interview, briefing, causal interview). Maybe due to this interviews that added up the numbers.

So now need to think the targets for 2009, then buy a 2009 diary & get prepare for 2009!!! wahaha... hehe...

A Joke told by my Dad...

This happened to this couple. As the man's job required him to outstation often and stay overseas for 1-2months before he could come home. To fulfill his needs, he also had girlfriend in overseas.

For this particular business trip, his trip was shortened to 1 week.
One night when he was asleep, he heard someone knocking at the door. Still half-awake and thinking he was still in overseas, he tapped his wife on her shoulder & said "Wake Up. Your husband had come home. How?"

Then the wife replied, "Aya, dont worry... My husband wont be back in another 1 to 2 months time." Then she continued to sleep. Zzz...

Morale of the Story:
Half-awake situation is one of the Man's weakest link. Anything can come out from the mouth, unknowing or the brain assuming the environment that will cause one to say or make wrong decisions.

Singapore Flyer - 061208

Yesterday went Singapore Flyer. Free tickets from Singapore Technologies as our family day.
hehe...

But realised the flight was ok...
Alittle too bad, as the weather wasnt that good when I was taking the flight. Still lucky that didnt rain..

Maybe the experience in Taiwan was thrilling as the carriage was alittle wobbly when someone just moved around within the carriage. As for Singapore Flyer, it was very stable. Maybe thats why I didnt feel that interesting.

Some friends recommended that the flight was better at night as the lightings were great! Think I wont take the flight again unless friends from overseas came or some other special reasons.

Toastmasters Club Meeting - 4/12/2008

I did my Project 6 on 4/12/2008.
Project 6 is about vocal variety.
Time Taken: 7min 12sec (Just Right!) hehe...

What I Spoke:
What is fear?

Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus such as pain or threat.

Where does fear come from?

Fear believes to come from anxiety. Anxiety is the troubled feeling in the mind caused uncertainty about the future.

Then where does anxiety come from?

Anxiety comes from stress. It may help a person to deal with a difficult situation, for example at work or at school, by prompting one to cope with it. When anxiety becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder.

The creation of fear begins with a scary stimulus and ends with the fight-or-flight response. Stimulus can be spider, cats, or formless such as darkness, news article like the recent Mumbai terrorist attack and China Sichuan Earthquake. As for the response, from the term fight-or-flight, which means one will either fight for his life or runs for his life. This is an instinct of every animal. But what really make us to determine to fight or flight? There are 2 paths involved in our fear response.

One of them is low road which is quick and messy while high road takes more time and delivers a more precise interpretation of events. These processes can happen in us simultaneously. The concept behind the low road is “take no chances”. For example as I can recall, I was chased by a swarm of bees while playing basketball near my neighborhood. My first response was to run for my life. So this is a form of low road process.

As for high road, high road process is much more thoughtful. It considers all the options. “How did I react previously?” “How did Indiana Jones react to bee chase?” “What kind of bees are chasing? Honey bee or hornet?” These questions will pop out so to allow us to decide to fight or to flight.

How do we know we are fearful?

Due to our brain’s chemical reaction, when we feel fear, it will cause our heart beat to be faster, our breathing to be faster and our muscles to be tightened. Besides rapid heart rate, fast breathing and tightening of muscles, we will also experience in a rise of blood pressure and increased sweating.

Other effects such as nightmares and phobias may occur. I remembered that day when I was attacked by the bees. That evening, I was in fear. My imagination drove me crazy. I kept thinking that the bees would come and attack me. I shut all my windows and was unable to get into sleep and even broke out in tears. The moments when the bees were chasing kept on replaying in my brain just like a defective player. Finally fell asleep but awakened by nightmares.

Many specifics phobias can be traced back to a specific triggering event, usually a traumatic experience at an early age. For instance, a person’s fear of dog. Perhaps he was bitten by a dog when he was young. Even 20 years later, the person’s brain still associates the sight of a dog with the pain of a bite. Therefore, whenever the person sees a dog, the brain will signal to the person as a fear.

Panic is another effect of fear. Panic is an immediate physical response to unrealistic and irrational fears. This can have a huge affect on both emotion and physical well-being – as well as your ability to reach your full potential. I had this experience in the swimming pool when I was young. I wasn’t a good swimmer. At that point of time, while swimming my goggles flipped. I remembered, I just screamed for help. Help! Help! Help! At the same time struggling kicking, punching for breath. Then a warm hand caught hold of me. It was my instructor, he scolded me “Do u know u are very near to the wall?” I woke up & realized the wall was only half arm length away from me. Looking around the pool, everyone was looking at me. I lost, not because I was embarrassed. I had totally defeated by fear and panic. Lesson learnt panic will not just cause one to feel lost; panic will also make one lost the survival capabilities.

How to overcome fear:

1. Learn about the thing you fear. Uncertainty is a huge component of fear: Developing an understanding of what you're afraid of goes a long way toward erasing that fear. Then train yourself to do it. Start small and work in steps. Slowly build the familiarity with a scary subject that makes it more manageable. A very good example is Toastmasters Club, helping us overcome the fear to speak in public.

2. If u feel that fear is getting over u, take a moment to pause. Close your eyes, take a deep slow breaths and focus your attention on the sound of your breathing. And try not to let your mind get carried away with negative thoughts. Keep focused and concentrate on the “now”. By living in the moment, u will meet the need in front of u as it arises without getting caught up in the “what-ifs” and “should-haves”.

3. Seek help. Fear is not a simple emotion. If you're having trouble overcoming your fear on your own, find a professional or someone familiar to help you. There are lots of treatments for fear out there, and no good reason not to try them under the guidance of someone with training and experience.

4. Another unconventional way was to eat a sweet. After a shock, our body consumes a large amount of glucose so to prepare for the flight and fight response. By taking in sweet stuffs, it can help us to replenish our blood sugar levels. In additionally, research has shown that by eating sweet stuffs, it makes us happy. In this case, we can be calm and more optimistic to handle the upcoming situations or events.

Conclusion:

To conclude, stress makes us anxious, while anxiety will make us feel fearful. Fear is unavoidable, but we can reduce the impact by preparing for the fear, seek help from professionals and calm ourselves by pausing and having sweet stuffs.

With this, I hope everyone will have a fearless future ahead. Thank You.

hehe... I thought I performed pretty well this time round. Only felt that at the beginning have some problems how to start & almost forgot my speech. This time round, I memorised my speech again. Thought that this was the best way, at least for me. It really able to gain some confidence when I memorised the whole speech. Think I should do that for the next few projects, and dont act tough! haha...

Evaluation by Mr.Andrew (from Entreprenuer Toastmaster Club):
Hightlights:
- Good use of pauses
- Good natural body language
- Nice vocal variety
Recommendations:
- Volume control (I have no idea how! haha...)
- Pace of speech, may like to include whisper in the speech (haha... havent master the art yet)
- Stronger opening, a more dramatic opening. (I agree with this point, not saying I dont agree with the above 2 points. Because this is the point that I know I can do it better!)

Ah Counting:
- 1 er
- 4 repeitions
Total: 5


Stuffs I learnt:
- Perfect
- A sharp tongue
- delighted
- Moving on
- air time
- Evaulator evaluate like a friend
- Evaluation is always at the speech & the proj objective


In general, I was glad with my performance. Hope I dont screwed myself the next time! haha...