msn

~Junwei~ says:
(stupid emoticon)

aspiring game designer says:
u're the only 24 yo i know who plays with emoticon

~Junwei~ says:
m i e only 24 yo u really noe

aspiring game designer says:
no sir

~Junwei~ says:
how many 24 yo u noe

aspiring game designer says:
with msn or without

~Junwei~ says:
generally

aspiring game designer says:
quite a number from our course

~Junwei~ says:
estimate

aspiring game designer says:
a number from school

aspiring game designer says:
a number of npcc seniors

aspiring game designer says:
some from working places

aspiring game designer says:
30 - 40???

~Junwei~ says:
so among these ppl, i'm e only one who plays with emoticons

aspiring game designer says:
yea

~Junwei~ says:
so m i hearing tis properly u're biased against a 24yo playing with emoticons based on yr understanding of another 30 24yo

aspiring game designer says:
the rests r busy dating

~Junwei~ says:
out of so many 24yo's in e world, u based yr judgement on such a small sample population

aspiring game designer says:
my perception always based on what inflence me what

~Junwei~ says:
furthermore, yr population representations r frm npcc, school and work which is not a clear representtaion at all

aspiring game designer says:
i din make an inaccurate statement

~Junwei~ says:
my son, i'm glab u chose engineering... its e right choice... u're never make it in humanities

aspiring game designer says:
my statement was accurate

aspiring game designer says:
i said

aspiring game designer says:
u r the only 24 yr old I KNOW who plays with emoticon

aspiring game designer says:
it's 100% accurte

~Junwei~ says:
hookey

~Junwei~ says:
pardon me then, but busy ppl like me deal with things on e vast scale with upmost impact on world progress and national security

~Junwei~ says:
for mankind, i hve to b prudent in my judgement

aspiring game designer says:
what has that gotta do with this?

~Junwei~ says:
i dunno, i done my part, someone else has to figure out tis question of yrs

~Junwei~ says:
u cant always depend on me, u noe

aspiring game designer says:
it has nothing to do with it

aspiring game designer says:
no one.... u claimed that i'm biased against 24yr old who plays with emoticon

~Junwei~ says:
maybe i see yr qualification

aspiring game designer says:
which is a weird accusation

~Junwei~ says:
who r u how many papers hve u published

aspiring game designer says:
because i only commented that u play with emoticons

~Junwei~ says:
wat gives u e right to criticise me

aspiring game designer says:
it's like saying u're the only friend who wears a ribbon

aspiring game designer says:
wld u feel offended?

~Junwei~ says:
may i gently remind u tat i can sue u for slandering

aspiring game designer says:
so u're being defensive

aspiring game designer says:
the 2nd thing......

~Junwei~ says:
i'm not.. honestly, i juz wan to make a pile of money out of u when u pay me for compensation for slandering me

aspiring game designer says:
go ahead

~Junwei~ says:
can u give me an advance first on e compensation so tat i can engage a lawyer

~Junwei~ says:
no need much lah, i planning to find a NUS undergrad

aspiring game designer says:
sure

aspiring game designer says:
why dun u go to the nearest ocbc and ask the counter for it

aspiring game designer says:
just tell them i asked u to get the money

aspiring game designer says:
oh..... they want to see a toy gun as an item for authentication

~Junwei~ says:
haha, a cock a day makes e stress go away

the old game

just realised the current batch is playing the same game. Woke up early today just to play with them. Basket!!! It's a saturday leh...

Anyway, there're good things that result from that. I realised I'm more tolerant. When handling accusations or offending words, I kept telling myself..... they don't mean that, it's just a bad choice of words.... woohhooo.... I think I've grown out of battling mode.

It also helped me recognise some outstanding people around. Can engage their help in the future.

And i realise.... some people have funny habits..... they slap the person on the face, and tell them to swallow that because it wasn't meant as a personal attack.

D99

Stands for December 1999, the last batch of CIs trained in the last millennium.

I can still remember the strange experience. Being a new CI was the most scary and contradicting thing. The Sirs and Ma'ams who made us do push ups until one of our friends fractured his arm urged us to stop calling them 'Sirs and ma'ams'. The other old CIs alternate between telling us that we must take our own initiatives and shouting "why don't you listen to us??? we're your seniors!!!"

I fell under the wings of 4 great mentors, Jason, Hengene, Yvonne and Haoqiang. They were different from the other seniors who treated us like kids. They forged the image of what I wished I could become, though four of them had completely different styles.

Jason was the charismatic leader. He was able to influence. Teachers, officers, CIs and cadets alike. Hengene was the silent killer, keeping quiet all the while but everyone held great respect for him. Yvonne, the devil, except that at the end of her guidance she'll lead you to heaven instead of hell. And Haoqiang, The senior who approached us as a friend.

In the end, I absorbed a bit of each but never excel like them. I soon evolved into my own style and made my combination with Weiguang. It never became popular with the other seniors.

"You are not fierce enough, we must really teach the cadets what discipline is about," one of the seniors always said with his shirt tucked out. I had never seen a hypocrite until he appeared in my life. I figured that there's a bit of hypocrisy in everyone but he was truly a representation. We called him circle.

Back to the D99 batch. This was the batch caught in the transition of time. The old idea of leading and managing through coporal punishments and harsh trainings was still popular among many seniors. The other group believed in management in the modern fashion. Both are very different and they work for different groups of people. The first kind of management is effective for training soldiers. It works through fear, and demands absolute obedience. The second kind trains leaders. And the person in leadership position will find followers questioning him of his instructions.

And because it was a time when things were changing, The D99 had to choose their stand. Nobody appreciated anyone standing on neutral ground. On either side, they had half the CI population criticizing them of their leadership and attitude. In almost every debrief sessions, most of the comments were directed to the D99s for not taking initiave, for not being good leaders and for having bad judgment.

It became clear after a while. On either sides, the seniors dared not attack one another. Instead, we became their outlet of frustration. If i've ever tried to pacify anyone, it must have been at this time. We learned alot of PR skills in the process.

Soon enough, the D99 batch became a different kind of leaders. Instead of managing cadets, they spent more time on managing seniors. It was then I realised something important, too much emphasis on seniority hinders progression. The lesson was to be humble.

Those were the silly games we played at that age.

The things I learn in uni

Over dinner, Taitat asked me what I'll be doing for the rest of the night.

"study loh, what else?"

Instead, I've
1) played 3 games of warcraft
2) read strangers' blogs
3)checked my email
4)ate a second dinner

Then, I remembered what I was supposed to do. A sense of guilt hit me and I questioned myself "what am I doing in school???"

Almost immediately, I answered my own question. The guilt went away as quickly as it came. I never believe that I'm in school to learn the scientific theories or the equations, judging at the things the professors throw to us. I'm supposed to memorise these things so i can get the papers of certification at the end of the day.

Still, I know my time in Uni will not be wasted. I believe tertiary education is very important. What you get out of it really depends on what you do. The aspiring engineers sleep with their textbooks, the future entrepreneurs will set up booths in school carnivals, prospective journalists write for the school papers, potential leaders take up leadership roles in the school population and hermits lock themselves in their room.

For me, I'm looking for life skills and a diversified experience. I'm gaining a bit of both everyday. NPCC requires me to do alot of planning and management. I have never written so many proposals in my life before. It gets better everytime I do one. I also have to work with different people on different projects, and that teaches me how to PR. I accquired some leadership skills while leading different groups of people.

I realised that even the simplest thing can be a very valuable lesson. Manning booth requires spontaneity, organising a camp requires detailed planning, painting a banner requires good coordination and creativity, being the technical crew in a stage production requires accuracy and proposing a new idea requires one to be persuasive.

Even in conflict management, there's three different things to master; ability to negotiate, ability to mediate, ability to come up with resolution. (As what i heard from Winston).

I devote 80% of my time (waking time) to my extra curriculum activities. Hence, I'm able to get over the guilt of not studying hard. The returns of my activities reward much better than senselss equations. I won't want to graduate to be only proficient in solving maths problems, knowing nothing about working.