taiwan quality china price

Saw the line "Taiwan quality, China price" while searching for stuff online.

Hmm, looks like the industry still doesn't buy the one China policy.

So, is the product made in China or Taiwan? Or somewhere in between?

culturally shocking project meeting

me: can you help me check the price for [...]
yi hui: cannot, I'm checking friendster now

Jack, who is the leader of another design project group, sat in for our design project meeting cos it wasn't time yet for his own meeting. Then our group was like lazing around, reading newspaper, looking at girls on facebook or friendster, talking crap, playing with handphone, eating Mac...

I dunno if Jack got culture shock or not. I always thought he set quite high standard for his group.

Then when I said "let's call it a day", everyone was like "NOOOOOOO! CANNOT!"

oopz. They must be halfway loading the girls' profile page on facebook.

why i don't drive

Recently there were a few people asking me why I don't drive. Ok, I don't drive, I can't drive, and I won't drive. My family had been bugging me for it also. But why learn driving when you are not going to drive anyway?

Although my blog is blowing smoke everyday, but I love the environment. Why increase the carbon emission? And what's wrong with taking public transport? Even if your fantastic eco-car has zero carbon emission, you are still going to take up road space. Not very nice to be one of those whom I curse and swear at during traffic jams.

If I really am driving, I think this car is cool...
The Kärcher ICC 1. It is definitely environmental friendly and doesn't take up much space. Don't you find it cute?

leading the suppliers on

Bumped into her after lab today. Somemore it was at the bus stop that she doesn't usually go. Right, just as I thought we should talk things out face to face instead of behind the computer screen.

Let's just say I was stupid enough to get led on.

But then, can't blame her for leading me on, cos I do this kind of thing all the time also. I always disturb suppliers, tell them that I am interested in a particular product and ask for quotation or more specifications. 90% of the time I won't be buying the stuff. But, I am genuinely interested in the products that I enquire about, whether I end up buying the stuff or not.

I wonder do the sales representatives get the false hope of a new purchase order from me everytime I enquire?

quote of the day

She was by no means a virgin!!
-- Mrs Indira Pant
Human Resource Management Unit
School of Business, NUS

Was discussing about the Alligator River Story, then dunno why all the words "hymen" and "virgin" and "horny" all come out when the class talked about Abigail.

Hello, HR lesson leh!

revoke your S/U

It's time to rebel revoke!

For NUS stalelies (if you are not fresh, you are stale), this week is the period for the one-off online revocation of the Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory option.

It's open from 00:00 on 29 October 2007 to 23:59 on 2 November 2007.

The page is here.

(Somehow, I can't log in...)

teh peng

Was having lunch with Alvin at Clementi's Varinice coffee shop. Before we went to buy our food, Alvin ordered teh peng from the coffee auntie. We were eating eating, but the teh peng didn't come. We finished our food, the teh peng still hadn't come. Then we heard someone from another table order teh peng. We almost peng.

Next we saw the auntie will a glass of teh peng on her tray and asking us whether we ordered teh peng or not.

Alvin kept quiet.

His expression was priceless lor! Then we saw the teh peng sitting at the counter for the remaining of our time at the coffee shop.

So, acting dumb is a useful skill.

开门放狗

That day I was at the void deck waiting for the lift, then this auntie came and asked me in hokkien something like "you bahru move in?" Hello, I have been staying there for more than 10 years... either I'm really low profile or something. Then later ended up that auntie exited at the wrong floor -_-" Now who's the one bahru lai?

Another day, I was tending to my plants at the corridor, then my neighbour opened his door and his dog came running and barking towards me. I was like what the... luckily the owner shouted at it before it got close, if not...
Anyway definitely I stay there longer than the dog. Do I really look like a bad guy?

There goes my self image of being a boy next door.

x-ray yankee zulu

Collected my foot's X-ray on Friday. Nothing new, maybe different envelope. AH, TTSH, NUH, MMI, all the film look the same. Do I need to collect all the envelopes from every hospital in Singapore?

Actually I have more or less accepted the fact that it is not going to heal and will stay with me for the rest of my life (unless, well, I amputate it). But I don't intend to let it interfere with my life. And so, I have started a little rehab on my own a while ago (physio didn't work). And of course, doing crazy things like walking to school is just a way to test my limit. Nah, I'm not suicidal or self-destructive.

I have the honour to talk to 2 adventurers face to face before, Khoo Swee Chiow and David Lim. Both of them are forever testing their limits. If you have seen David Lim close enough, you can see that even walking takes a bit of effort for him, who suffers from Guillain-Barre Syndrome. But that didn't stop him from pursuing what he wants.

Maybe it's like tensile testing, the only way for me to know my strength is to break something...

japanese av cover

I was browsing browsing then chanced upon this good stuff...




The *meow* very cute right?

enter a personal problem here

(ok I hate having low air pressure in my blog, so let's screw the unhappy things)

Do you know that taking care of yourself and your well-being is also a responsibility of a team player?

So you know the crap about me didn't sleep on Thursday night and setting fire on my calories on Friday morning and skipping lunch on Friday afternoon, so basically it wasn't that bad that my exterior still resembled a homo sapiens.

But but but, during HR project meeting I was like sleeping most of the time, occasionally shocking my group mates by raising a point or two. (I sleep with eyes open and pay attention with eyes close) During design project meeting half of my brain circuit was fried, but I'm really glad of my competent team, they handled/smoked the Prof well.

Hmm... professionalism? Maybe...
It is easier said that done to keep your freaking personal problem to yourself. Mind over heart and not heart over mind huh?

bleh

I think I over-burned the calories and I skipped lunch...

didn't know it feels so disgusting.

wrong equation or wrong reaction

Couldn't sleep the whole night. Lying on bed, tossing around.

Actually the outcome wasn't much of a surprise to me. First time, there wasn't any chemistry. Second time, a bit more. Third time, things went messy.

Maybe somewhere in the circuit there was an open circuit, therefore an input doesn't create any output. Maybe a wrong op-amp was used, thus a negative feedback was resulted. Maybe I have used the wrong input signal.

If you can't fit a bolt into a hole, either you change the hole, or you change the bolt. Or you change both. Forcing a bolt in just damages both the bolt and the hole. Like what a research scientist once said, "there is no mechanical problem that can't be solved." Is BGR like mechanical problem?

Now I feel like I have been bluffing myself all this while.

(anyway to my dear friends, I'll be fine. Just let me burn some calories and kill some muscles)

sc1101e revisited

It felt very funny to sit in for the lecture for the module that you took some 4 semesters ago.

Today I decided to look for Suzuki-san who was having SC1101E Making Sense of Society lecture at LT7A. So there I was, reading my disgusting Materials Science notes and listening to Prof Tan Ern Ser talk about "Power and the State".

Learning seems to be more fun when you don't have to sit for exam (or do project). Not forgetting a whole lecture theatre full of pretty girls =P

manufacturing popcorn

Prof Rahman was showing us a video clip during yesterday's ME3162 Manufacturing Processes lecture, then somehow everyone got high with the video's starting music...

That's the 1969 music Popcorn by Gershon Kingsley.

Retro!

project meetings

1. Kept playing Girly Man and Barbaric Game on the laptop during HR project meeting. We have non-Chinese in the group, so English songs only =)


2. Was having design project meeting at EA. I looked out of the window and saw Tata at the bench on the opposite side. I pushed open the window and woohoo-ed at her, then I turned around and saw all my groupmates standing at the window with face sticking to the glass and looking at Tata. I turned around again and saw Tata change seat with her back facing us now.


3. Was doing CADding in the computer lab. The moment I have my hands on SolidWorks I can't quite stop. So in the end I found my groupmates crowding around me and waiting to go home -_-"
   Anyway I was late for dinner at home.


4. My group leader wants everyone to slack but my groupmates don't let him.
   

ended up somewhere

I made the wrong turn and ended up in NTU... no lah!


Reached NUS Entrance A in 2 hours 46 minutes, pretty close to and within my estimation of 3 hours. Didn't take any technical break throughout the walk, only stopped over at Esso to refuel with Mars bar. The weather was nice with cloud cover, only drizzled a little when outside Singapore Polytechnic.

The feeling was very funny, it's like I kept seeing buses that could bring me closer to NUS. 74, 165, 151, 95, 96... all whizzed past me along the way. Some people just like to take the tougher path huh?

Now imagine school kids in some parts of the world have to walk 10+ km to school everyday. Ain't we fortunate?

chilly expedition

Ok it's not an expedition, but just a walk to school.
Later in the morning I will be walking from my home in Ang Mo Kio to NUS. Conservative estimation of the road distance is 12km. Although my old fracture is giving my foot problem recently, but I'll give it a try. Let's see if I can reach NUS Entrance A in under 3 hours. (sounds too much huh?)

With the latest in satellite technology, you can track my progress on google map...

Want to donate money to my charity fund? (nah, this is not a fund-raising)

Let's hope the weather is nice and I can make it to lecture on time.

regards from skf

After writing about SKF this morning, I received an email from SKF's Communication Director!

Dear Chillycraps,
I just spotted your blog on "bearing in mind" and good students shall be encouraged! So if you would like to explore even more about SKF and how we help industries to reduce friction in their machinery or our contribution to the development of industrial energy efficient solutions. Then let us know and we can send you information material that adds to your insight and should not make you "dizzy".

Best regards,
Susan Pak
______________________
Communication Director
AB SKF

I feel so impressed~!
ok good students, do you have any question to ask? =)

bearing in mind

(ok this entry is half a year late. Wanted to write about it when we were learning ball bearings last semester)

This year marks 100th anniversary for SKF, a Swedish manufacturer of bearings. In 1907, Swede engineer Sven Wingquist invented the first self-aligning ball bearing. With that he founded Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF).

Ball bearings come in all sizes, they can be as small as your thumb or as tall as a human. If you read SKF's catalogue you will just go dizzy. Bearings are almost everywhere, from your computer's ventilation fans to ferris wheel and turbine in power station. You can even find a bearing on moon when the Apollo 11 crew left behind a camera there in 1969.

And if you are not aware of it, ball bearing reduces friction, increases machine efficiency, and in the process saves energy and the environment!

oversea sweetness

I received an oversea SMS from joyce telling me don't sleep too late.

This is so sweet, it's getting diabetic!

drinking beer with straw

That day I saw an uncle drinking beer from a straw at the void deck. It's those big 500ml can. I was like covering my mouth not to laugh out, cos he really looked like a kid sipping soft drink or something. =P

Anyway is it true that if you drink alcoholic drinks from a straw, you get drunk more easily? Why is it so? Something to do with fluid mechanics? (yeah yeah, conservation of mass, smaller area faster flow velocity...)

If you are interested to know how drinking straws are manufactured, this page describes the extrusion process.

coating technology

The latest volume of The MISUMI Voice talks about coating technology and I find it relevant to what we are learning in our course.

4 samples of linear bushings of different material underwent the complex corrosion test including 1 salt water spray test (5% NaCl, 35 C), 2 dry (at 60 C), and 3 wet (85% relative humidity at 50 C). The result is as follows:


As we can see, after 168 hours the first 3 samples have visible corrosion while the fourth one with Low Temperature Black Chrome plating (LTBC) seems unaffected.

In a crapshell, LTBC is a plating technology which uses electrochemical reaction below 0 C. The product has no hydrogen embrittlement, no tempering required, improved hardness/elasticity ratio, no frictional peeling and it's the most resistant and the most effective rust protection plating achieved by all conventional methods.

Sounds cool?

quote of the day

project is about learning to work with different people

including jerks
-- yuka

report crapping

ok I'm totally sick and tired of proof-reading and editing the HR project report. Where on earth do you see reference 9 in the last paragraph and reference 60 in the paragraph before that, and mysteriously there is no reference number 30-40?!?! And the Singlish, argh!! Yes it's National University of SINGAPORE, so you use Singlish in your project report??

I'm supposed to be on strike, but why do I still bother about the project? Just because tomorrow is the deadline for report submission and I don't want to screw the group up?

No pride. That's why the girl say I no guts, cos I did not heck care like I wanted to.

chillycrappy riddle

A girl said I have no balls.
Another girl said I have no guts.

Who am I?
(hint: a male blogger)

my sugarcane brings all the boys to the yard

Just now I was having dinner at People's Park Complex. There were these 2 sugarcane stalls side by side, one stall had a girl showing every possible square inch of her synthetic breast (aka fake boobs) and touting every passer-by. She really reminded me of the betel nut girls in Taiwan. The other stall had a honest-looking man, also touting.

I happened to be seated at the table right in front, and I didn't pay attention to the girl. She must be damn disappointed I didn't ogle at her. Anyway cocky me walked to a stall some 50 metres away to buy drink, self-service somemore. The more you tout, the more I won't patronise you.

Anyway from my observation, the honest-looking man seemed to have more business thanks to his sincerity. Milk and sugarcane don't mix.

october sky

Have been looking for this movie for a few years (serious! at least 5 yrs) and finally found it last week. How apt it is to watch the story exactly 50 years later, same month somemore.

The story is about Homer Hickam, a high school kid in a small mining town who was inspired to build rocket after the big hoo-haa about the Soviet Sputnik satellite. Along the way he faced many obstacles, as the norm was kids grow up to become miners like their fathers in the town.

In the end, there was the touching scene of Homer's father pressing the launch button of his rocket. Later Homer Hickam became an engineer at NASA.

(do you know that I almost started a rocketry club in my secondary school? In the end the school scraped the idea)

friday lecture

1. The 3 people at the row in front (ie titus, snoookems and tata) kept turning their heads back. It was so obvious they were hunting for someone interesting.


2. hj was telling me kimmy just flew off to Japan, but I told him that kimmy was there for quite some time, "unless she bluffed me". Then the 3 people in front turned back in unison and exclaimed, "you mean she bluffed you?!?!"
   Wrong channel.


3. I suddenly received a sms from jy asking me "eh who's the gal 2 your 10 o'clock 2 rows down? Wah lau how come so low cut today? Dunno her name?"
   Yeah I know her name. But why ask me...


4. Halfway through the lecture wl suddenly called out my name from across the aisle, saying "I know who liao! The pink colour one right?"(then point towards joyce)
   Yeah I know joyce, but why out of the blue...


5. To create dramatic effect, I slouched all the way down in my seat after hearing wl. Then snoookems ,who was sitting just in front of me, turned back and almost choked on her drink after seeing (fill in the blank).
   Hello, who would slouch with legs closed? Ok she didn't see anything. I hope. I was wearing bermudas.


6. hj dropped his pencil case off the desk onto my side, then he tried to retrieve it in a very awkward position, with his head just above my thigh. I was like pushing his head away and screaming "ooi, unnatural!! 377A !"
   He could have asked me to pick the pencil case up for him.


7. titus and snoookems were gossiping about mp (aka converse girl). Actually jack everyday talks about her. I think a lot of people are paying attention to her rather than the lecturer.


8. I saw 2 people reading my blog on their laptop in the lecture theatre. This is bad...
   

robotic leg

Recently I have been taking bus during peak hour and most of the time I have to stand for the bus ride. My once fractured foot is giving me problem and sometimes the sharp pain almost drives tears out from my eye socket.

Maybe I should have chosen specialization in Biomechanical Engineering. Next time if I need to install robotic leg, at least I can either make one myself or at least know how to maintain it. Crap.

ok lah, feeling quite negative recently.

But if Mark Inglis who has lost both his legs can climb Mount Everest, why am I whining here?

I actually thought of training for marathon again, pushing the limit, but think better not. I don't want to end up having to use a Gundam leg...

thinklab got sound

It was a quiet morning at the ThinkLab. The sounds of the laser printers, the photocopiers, and people busily typing away on the keyboard....

Then suddenly we heard singing. Everyone strained his/her neck in the direction of the acappella. We saw a girl with earphone on, happily singing away in her own world. Everyone had that smile on his/her face and went back to his/her own business.

Then I heard someone farted. I was trying to convince myself that was from the chair's hydraulic.

airbus a380 evacuation

Ok this clip is uber cool, it shows a test carried out on the Airbus A380 to evacuate 853 passengers and 20 crews out of the plane in under 90 seconds, with only emergency lightings on inside the cabin and 8 of the 16 exits blocked.

They did it in 77 seconds. How often do you see passengers cheering after they have alighted from a jetliner?

naked consultation

Can you imagine a fully naked undergrad talking to a fully naked professor about academic stuff?

I was chatting with Prof Seah in the changing room about the industrial design project.

We talked cock also.

pinging botak jones

Last night we had a ping.sg gathering at Clementi Botak Jones.

It was my first time at Botak Jones and man, the food was shiok! I had a cadjun chicken which was basically, chicken, but I managed to lick my plate clean. The service was great too, it's like restaurant service at coffeeshop. We were waiting for all pingsters to arrive before they deliver the food, but think along the way some miscomm, so some of the food was delievered early. So, the botak staffs helped us wrap the food up, and they gave us freshly fried fries to compensate for the "oxidised" ones.

The pingsters present were great too! We had aaron, daphne, felix and gf, uzyn, beconfused, chillycraps, jzin, miccheng, dhope, arzhou, xizor, eatyourmaths and jacktan. Cracked a lot of craps, like how we wanted to blend uzyn's iphone and miccheng's ibook into idust, how arzhou cracked a joke and only he himself laugh (then jzin said we laugh at him, not laugh with him) And eatyourmaths thought I'm 19! All of our jaws ached from overlaugh =P

Don't ask me how the chilli sauce ended up in front of me.

(check out the photos by daphne, jacktan and aaron. Thanks aaron for organizing!)

distress on bus

This morning I was on bus 151 to school and found a seat at the last row. There was this man at the corner who seemed like he wasn't feeling well, then suddenly I saw him shaking and hand on his left chest, face wet with perspiration. A lady went forward to notify the bus driver while a few of us tend to him. When we asked the man if he's ok, he said he's ok. But obviously he wasn't ok. Then we made space for him to lie down on the last row and the task fell on me to keep a look out on the man. Every few bus stop the driver would look back to check, and I would give her the thumbs up to drive on. When I asked the man which stop he was alighting, he said NTU -_-" Ok he wasn't ok.

When the bus reached NUS, I suggested him to see the doctor, but he declined. So I insisted to walk him to his destination, which was engineering workshop 2. He looked much better after alighting from the bus and taking in some fresh air.

He is a lab officer in the power electronics lab.

(I feel so helpless again. Luckily the man is alright)

blog action day

Hey people, it's Blog Action Day today! It is the day when bloggers around the world blog about the environment.

(Shucks I'm going to be late for lab session at 2pm)

Ok today I did something for the environment. I brought my own cup to fill coffee at the canteen. It's time coffee monsters like me go easy on the paper cups. What's more, you get "cash rebate" for bringing your own cup, and if your cup is big, hohoho...

So what have you got to say about the environment?

something long and yellow

We both have something long and yellow and... that can float on water!
-- Yihao

If you happen to have seen my facebook profile, the profile picture is of me holding a Dancer kayak.
And my dear friend Yihao's profile, has a photo of him with a wakeboard.

 

(coincidentally, we used to rockclimb more than touching seawater)

extrusion is like crapping

Extrusion is a metal forming process which you force metal (billet) through an opening (a die) into the desired shape of the extruded product.

It's like squeezing toothpaste. But that's cold working. Hot extrusion is like crapping. Your billet is preheated.

I was reading NTU's lecture notes for the module M455 Net Shape Manufacturing and guess what, their reading materials for powder metallurgy alone is already as thick as our textbook!

I really salute them.

disclaimer

Words are spreading and I think I need to clarify.

I did NOT go home / go out with Jerry Fuh or Jenny Fung after lesson last Thursday.

(Prof Jerry Fuh is our prof in mechanical engineering. Jenny is an undergrad in industrial and system engineering.
Mrs Fuh and Sean, please don't kill the wrong person.)

some racist remarks are more racist than others

It's Hari Raya today and Rizwan invited Ameet and I over to his place for party.

The party was supposed to start from 2pm, and we reached Rizwan's house slightly before 2. When we walked in, it was so quiet we were having doubts... until we saw Rizwan's mother. When we entered the dining hall, the big grandfather clock struck 2. See? We were punctual. Not like Chinese wedding dinner.

Our host had prepared some really nice authentic Pakistani cuisine, and Ameet and I being early had the honour to get the first bite. Man, the food was nice! And the gulab jamun that I so can't forget the previous Hari Raya is back! Along the way we cracked our usual racist jokes... (Rizwan is Pakistani, Ameet is Sikh, I'm Chilly. See the dynamics?)

More guests arrived along the way. Most of Rizwan's university guests are from industrial and system engineering (ISE), some from computer engineering, a tutor from School of Computing, and the odd ball me from mechanical and Ameet from civil. Then there's this ISE guy from China, he asked Rizwan if there's alcohol served. Ameet and I were like so stunned there (although we had used that joke for umpteenth times) Then guess what, that guy actually brought a stuffed pig toy as gift to the host.... =_=" gosh. He wasn't joking.

When you are going to another country, it's always good to know about the culture there.

(thanks Rizwan for being a wondering host!)

engineer who dunno pr

This morning when my nice Malay neighbour brought over some food for Hari Raya, I went out to answer the door and wish my neighbour. And while I was expecting my brother to come out to greet my neighbour, he was literally hiding behind the kitchen!

Hello, a 29 years old engineer, and scared of handling neighbours! It's their festival, at least have the courtesy to wish your neighbour lah. It's not like my neighbour would eat him up, and in fact my brother doesn't interact with any of my neighbours, regardless of race language or religion. I gave him a very long lecture after that. It's like my Malay neighbour even asked "where's your brother?" (then I stupidly said he's inside. I thought he would come out what!)

I think of my whole level, I'm the only kid who socialise with neighbours.

selamat hari raya

hey people,

Selamat Hari Raya!

I am not working, so any green packet for me? =P

homeland security

hj wanted to ask me out for a beer this evening since it's Oktoberfest, but I wasn't feeling well, so I turned him down.

When I reached home, I saw a memo pad with my brother's words saying that he will be having dinner outside. I was like, ok, luckily I didn't eat out, if not my mother would have to eat on her own.

Not talking about being filial or what, but I think it is something that people who live in hostel or people who don't have meal as a family won't understand. It's like sometimes when I tell my friends that I have to rush home to cook dinner, they will say "ask them to buy themselves lah". Hmm... how to say.. it doesn't work that way. Home-cooked food has that ingredient that you can't find elsewhere (unless your parents work as hawker). Imagine you have chillycraps as your son/brother, and after a hard day's work you reach home to find a table full of nice hot food, how does it feel like? (A:turn-off =P)

I feel bad thinking of my mother eating alone. But at that age, think my single brother needs social life more than I do. Guess I still have to do "homeland security" for some time.

tracking on whales

Now you can track whales on google maps!

Scientists from Opération Cétacés and the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation have placed satellite tags on 20 humpback whales to track their journey from South Pacific to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. The last I saw they were near New Zealand.


This is real scientific research, not like Japan who sends whaling fleet to hunt whales, put them on supermarket shelves and call it scientific research.

quote of the day

i want to prove that even though my grades cant make it, doesnt mean i cant survive in my industry
-- nicole

state of confusion

Recently feeling very confused, tired, both physically and mentally.

I thought I can use coffee like morphine. It doesn't work anymore.

8 hours of sleep doesn't work.

Images from the past keep coming back. Sad things.

This morning I saw firefighters climbing up a HDB block near my house.

I saw car accident on the bus to school.

And on the way home in the evening, I saw a lorry lying on its side.

I got this feeling wherever I go, bad things will happen.

I feel helpless.

quote of the day

why you don't eat your father's banana?
-- chillycraps to snoookems after she bought snacks from the kiosk

ok that sounds a bit wrong.
But her father likes to eat banana.

lky selling ad on my blog

I got the stun of my day early in the morning when I saw NUS (or more precisely, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy)'s ad appearing in my blog! (must click the pic to enlarge)

I'm innocent ok!

I better go and set to filter out NTU and SMU's ads.

undergrad with ferrari

Yesterday during lecture, the Prof said that there used to be a student in NUS Engineering who drove to school in his Ferrari 360 Modena everyday (and park beside the Prof's Mazda). It was a gift from the student's father cos he decided to study in Singapore instead of oversea, so it was a reward for saving the parents' money. -_-"

Ma, I need to buy bus concession, can I have 50 dollars?

brick for jade

Recently I received an invitation to apply for an award by my alma mater's alumni association. From my understanding, less than 50 are invited. But the condition is must join the alumni association.

On the surface it looks like a good "bargain". You join the alumni association for $10 membership fee, and the award is like more than 100 times that amount. But I don't want to join the alumni association. Call me selfish or unwilling to give back to my alma mater, but I just don't have that sense of belonging there. Yeah, I can always join and just pay the membership fee, but what's the point of being a sleeping member?

Sometimes I wonder should I throw away my stupid ideals?

banana protective cover

I chanced upon this product which is designed to keep banana inside. It has breathing holes somemore. Cool eh?

After seeing how Prof Seah keep his banana in an envelope, I think he should get this protective case for his banana breakfast.

Is it injection molded?

selling your product

When you sell your product, do you list out all the good features of the product, or you leave it to the customer to discover for themselves?

Or do you tell them right from the start the bad points about the product (such as it will explode when kept in room temperature)



*shrug* I think it's pretty much like when you go for job interview, you tell the interviewer that you are very lazy and hire you at their own risk. I did something like that before. They hired me.

bleeding and hugging

This afternoon I was on the bus home when I saw a few seats away from me, there was red stain on the seat. I swear when I boarded the bus it wasn't there, then along the journey I think some ladies sat near there. I told myself that's soy sauce and not blood. eek.

Last Saturday I was on the MRT when suddenly someone hugged me from behind o_o! I turned around and saw an old man trying to grab hold of something to stabilize himself when the train accelerated. I happened to be the nearest pole.

I wonder if this will happen on me...


Poor boy.

my wallet has emi

Recently when I travel on buses, I find that the ez-link reader can't detect my card when I tap. At first I thought must be too rich then too much money in my wallet blocking the signal. But when I look at my near-empty wallet...

I found the culprit: my new Combi CashCard. This Combi CashCard has an added contactless feature that older CashCard doesn't have, the company terms it Wave & Go. I guess it works on RFID (radio-frequency identification) which our ez-link also uses.

With ez-link card, CashCard, matric card, my wallet packs quite a lot of electromagnetic interference (EMI). At least I don't have arcade card.

fuji xerox singapore open water swim 2007

Went to help out at the Fuji Xerox Singapore Open Water Swim 2007 at East Coast Park. Came back with a very messy mind.

For the morning I took a single kayak, which was taking in way too much water from nowhere. I had to pour away my drinking water and use my Nalgene bottle to bail the water out. At least I had followed a hydration regime yesterday, if not I would have to become desalination plant today (don't even try), or risk dehydration. The single boat was really hard to maneuver and the sea state was quite unforgiving, for the first time I was really worried of a capsize. I have never had an accidental capsize before.

So in the afternoon I switched to a double kayak, partnering a guy from NUS Chemistry who just took his 2 Star course last week. A double kayak is less agile, made worse when partnering with someone you are not familiar with. Imagine there were twice when the swimmer crash into our kayak like a torpedo when we couldn't go astern fast enough! A swimmer was in distress and struggling in the water, and we took a bit longer to reach him. Fortunately a lifeguard from a nearby jetski got to him. The image of the struggling swimmer and my helplessness is really disturbing.

Then it started to rain. It was worse than the time during Triladies'. On top of the rain, the wind was stronger and the waves were stronger and there was a water sprout just to our West. I was fighting against the waves to keep in position to wait for the swimmers to get back to shore, but it was draining too much energy so I decided to head back to shore. Man, I had to shout at my partner to coordinate the strokes, if not we could have ramped into the breakwater.

While under shelter and waiting for the rain to stop, a lot of thoughts went through my mind.
Actually I lost a brother during outdoor activities.

I think for a while I won't be kayaking.

you read, they sponsor, i donate

Yay, I have donated my first blog sponsor money to the following charity organizations:

2 for environment and 2 for humans, quite balanced right?

Thank you so much! Without you, I wouldn't have the spare money to donate. =P This is the first time I am donating to these organizations and it feels great!

Now you see what a blog can do?

jis handbook 2007

woohoo~ today I saw the JIS Handbook 2007 published by Japanese Standards Association (JSA, 日本規格協会)!

It is a series of handbooks with specification and data on Ferrous Materials & Metallurgy, Heat Treatment, Fasteners & Screw Threads, Piping, Metal Surface Treatment, etc etc.

But one handbook costs like S$500. -_-"

the engineer, the undergrad, and primary school maths

One evening, the undergrad was about to sleep when his engineer brother asked him a primary school maths question:

Vehicle 1 takes 7 hours to get from A to B; vehicle 2 takes 8 hours to get from B to A. If both starts moving at the same time towards each other, how long does it take before they pass each other?

The undergrad tried to smoke out an answer by applying his newly-learned kinematics equations, ended up with 0 = 0. He couldn't be bothered and went back to sleep.

The undergrad rolled a few times on his bed, then sprung up, went to his engineer brother, grab a pen and paper, wrote 2 simple lines of equation, solved.

Then he went back to sleep.
(while his brother was whining how to explain to the kid)
Lesson of the day: if you can't solve a problem, go and sleep.

gundam oo premieres tomorrow

Gundam fans out there, if you still dunno, the latest Gundam series Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (機動戦士ガンダム00) premieres tomorrow!

Tease yourself with the previews at MBS.

*excited excited*

stand chart called me back

Standard Chartered called me just now with regards to my earlier feedback.

They explained that there was a technical problem with their lines earlier this week and as such there was a cut-off to my phone enquiry. I don't really care if that was really the case or not, as long as the reason sounds reasonable and acceptable, I'm fine with it. So, apology accepted. (actually I could go on and question more, but no lah)

The person asked what was the enquiry I wanted to make, and I pulled stunt and say "oh I was just checking the interest rate" -_-"
"erm, ok" He sounded taken aback. =P

So, at least they value this customer.

Case closed.

my system engineering

If the system shortchanged you,
then shortchange back the system.
That's what I'm doing now.

what I learn from hr

I was slightly pissed off cos one of the HR project group mates was absent during yesterday's meeting. Then I reason to myself, why getting pissed off over someone who, even if present, won't contribute a thing to the project group?

I'm seriously not giving my group leader face. Why should people get the same grades for the project if they do nothing but leave the dirty work to other group mates? I know some people are born quiet, and so they don't contribute much during project discussion, but to be reading newspaper and books while others are squeezing brain juice is just a turnoff.

I'm going on strike. If that means getting a lousy grade reflected for the module, I'm still going to do it. Sorry to the group mates who are genuinely putting in effort into the project. But if the free riders aren't going to pay the fare and yet still unwilling to get off, then I'm not going to pay my fair share too. Don't ask me to pay for their portion. In the first place I don't even know how one of them managed to get into our group!

Do you know I got A1 for maths in Sec 1, 2 and 4, but F9 in Sec 3?
I play with my grades too if I see the need.

today in history

50 years ago on 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite.

More information here at NASA.

(I am still hunting for the movie "October Sky")

grand prix singapore -- supermarket

Yesterday morning I was waiting outside the supermarket for it to open at 9am, together with aunties and maids. It was some 10 minutes to 9 and some of them already had trolleys at the start line.

The moment the gate was raised, all the aunties and maids dashed in. I was last.

Free Burma!

go bank your head

Just now I called up Standard Chartered customer service hotline to enquire something about my account and I was pretty disappointed.

First time round, the recorded busy busy thanks for waiting for a few minutes still no one answered the phone.

Second try, a male representative picked up my call. His voice was like super soft, so I asked him to speak louder. His tone turned bad, then I caught the questions for my name and IC number, then after that couldn't hear what he was saying at all. I wonder if even ants can hear him.

Then you know what? He hung up on me.
Fine, but he didn't call me back. Hello, you had my name and IC number, you could have checked my record and just called me back right?

Yeah, probably he checked my record and saw that my account only has peanuts inside.

chillycraps' bad influence

WokkingMum's son asked WokkingMum to buy the Peko and Poko chocolate lollipop for him after he saw my avatar on the computer...

I feel a bit embarrassed =S

But also quite sweet. =P

Children, be a good boy/girl and ask mummy to buy chillycraps lollipop for you hor! (mums, please don't scold me for burning holes in your wallet)

quotes of the day

nicholas: my father is older than me.
yuankang: I am my father's son.
nicholas: but you can be your mother's son also.

(before ordering)
nicholas: the teh here is nice.
me: the teh here is nice ar? ok I want kopi.

A few of our group mates had a little cohesion at VivoCity. We talked about engineering, education, politics, history, and all sorts of serious stuff. Coffee talk basically. It is really rare to sit down casually and forget about school work, and just talk.

Of the 5 of us present, 3 was from The Chinese High, 1 was from Raffles Institution, and 1 from neighbourhood school. The 1 from neighbourhood school was the only one in dean's list. (so parents, you know what schools not to send your kids to)

bad competition

There is something about the design project that I really don't like.

One of the other groups' leader has been asking me questions like how is my group presenting or what is my group wearing... ask once maybe ok, but he asked like 2-3 times, now that's annoying. The worse is, I gave him the answer, and casually asked him back, and he gave me totally lame answers like they are wearing swimming trunks and army boots. What the hell! Next time I'll just say "I dunno" or "not sure". Or they prefer lame answers as well?

There may be an element of competition in the project, but also not to the extent of scrutinizing every detail of other groups while keeping the lips zipped about your own group. They themselves told me they asked the prof about my group's progress. Is my group's progress so important to your group's progress? Or is it a hindrance to you?

If you are so threatened by the very existence of my group, don't be. My group's leader is the very person who keeps telling the group not to take the whole project so seriously.

But his pen ran out of ink while writing his design logbook, and he has reached the last page of the logbook. Think he mixed up his blog with the logbook.

running on empty fuel tank

The whole of yesterday I was living on 2 bottles of fizzy drink, and 2 ultracarbon tablets. When you don't want to have output, you cut the input.

Early in the morning went to the vending machine to buy 100-plus, then the glass panel was full of condensation, so I was wiping it with my hand like mad. Then I keyed in the wrong coordinates and ended up with a bottle of F&N orange. Eew.

During HR lesson, I was right between concentrating and sleepy. Too tired to concentrate, but too conscious to fall alseep (or to be unconscious). My spine hurt like mad, maybe cos the whole of my previous night I was curled up in pain on the bed.

Really didn't want to go to school, but I had lab session somemore. The worst thing was to operate machines when feeling unwell. My finger got cut by the cutting tool, but luckily that was during tool-change and not the machining process.

More high risk activities awaited me when I got home to cook dinner for the family and wash dishes.

Today still have to meet up with the company with regards to the design project. Why must my body fail me whenever I need it the most?

1st october

Do you know that today is Children's Day, and also China's National Day?

And do you know that all the committee members in the Politburo of the Communist Party of China (including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao) are all engineers by profession?

diarrhoea again

Argh, I'm having diarrhoea again... =_=

My stomach feels like splitting up, my head aches, my spine hurts, my knees weak.. hell my whole body is weak now! The whole night I was on standby mode and couldn't sleep.

The "best" thing about diarrhoea is that the crap doesn't only come when there's a toilet nearby.

I think I'll survive the day on isotonic drink alone.
(the other time the doc said it was stress-induced diarrhoea. This time round?)