Experiential

New Year New Start

2009-01-01T10:41:00.003+08:00

With 2008 behind, I started 2009 with a morning 3 km walk at Nee Soon Central Community Park which is my usual playground for health. Since it is my regular exercise regime and doing the same exercises it kind of drill in me during my off days. When I'm at work I will do the standard 3 km run and some exercises to maintain my fitness level.

My other favorite On-line game is Warbook - Rise of The Internal short for ROTI. It is a wargame where one pit against other opponents on the internet. This game has been around for quite sometime since beginning of 2008 where I reached the rank of level 47 until the server crashed about a fortnight ago. It went online again yesterday with all players starting on ground zero. Currently I'm playing under the FURIA alliance. This is a game where you can't play on your own as you need friends on the internet to help when being bullied. Since it is a restart I have to spend some time building up my forces and gaining territorial land.

Summary of 2008

2008-12-31T23:43:00.006+08:00

2008 is a year to be remembered with so many disasters happening in Asia as well as around the world.

The most notable natural disasters in the of region of Asia is the Myanmar Cyclone in Jan 08 followed by China winter freezing temperature and Szechuan earthquake which affected so many lives.

On the terror front, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, India was attacked by terrorists and Singapore lost one of its citizen to the overseas terror attack.

Memorable setback for Singapore is in Feb 08 where JI detainee Mas Selamat Kastari escapes from Singapore detention centre and nearly a two month extensive manhunt that involved the SPF as well as SAF and other security resources. All exit checkpoints were also on the alert. The escape was due to some security lapses. Next is the Singapore icon, the Singapore Flyer Observation Wheel which was opened eight months ago have broken down a few times with the last on 23 Dec 08 where 173 were stranded on the wheel for about 6 hours and the stranded people have to be rappelled down from the capsule.

Next is the financial meltdown in USA that swept through Europe as well as Asia Pacific region. Many financial companies went bust and were bought over e.g. Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, AIG ……

Crude oil prices shot up to the highest of US$147 per barrel in Jul 08 that affected so many people worldwide therefore increasing inflation and basic need commodities in so many countries. In the first quarter of 2008 is the fear of the shortage of rice. By Dec 08 crude oil prices has fallen to as low as US$36 per barrel where we can see some breathing space especially for those who drive.

Because of the financial crisis, the down stream effects are job losses due to retrenchment from so many companies. As for myself I’m not affected due to the fact that I working in a government establishment. However, I’m financially affected too due to reduce bonuses and other variable pay components. This will also be evident in 2009 as well.

On the social aspect, Singapore holds its first inaugural night 2008 FORMULA ONE™ Singtel Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay street. The 27-year-old Spaniard, Fernando Alonso, claimed his first victory of 2008 in a stunning, incident-packed 61-lap race that thrilled a sell-out crowd of 100,000.

On health matters, thank God for good health and also the strict regime of keeping myself fit throughout the year. In 12 months of 2008, I managed to clock 386 km in my regular walk, 78 km in running and also 65 km in cycling and gliding. Managed to pass my fitness test in Apr 08 but not as good as previous years. I also managed to donate 4 times blood in quarterly intervals as part of community service.

On continuous learning, I have managed to complete 2 modules of Basic Logistics Certificate course namely Transportation and Warehousing. Currently still attending the Logistics fundamentals and will be finishing on 3 Feb 09 which is the exam day. Will also be attending the Basic Info Communication Technology and Workplace Info Communication Technology in mid Jan 09 to round off and complete the Basic Logistics Certificate program.

On my job, thank God for the promotion in Jul 08 and was posted to another organisation in handling maintenance engineering solutions as well as managing the organization’s IT administration. It’s a great challenge to take up the job as I believe new job always reap experiences. In the 6 months of the new appointment, I managed to revise about seventeen policies with thirteen implemented and the other four on trial and to be implemented in Apr 09.

On the social and personal aspect I have gained some experience in IT skills on video editing and conversion of different video formats, e.g. converting DiVX files to other formats like AVI and MP4 especially for movies to be played on smaller gadgets like IPods and Network Media Tank (NMT). This year I also was able to create a blog and participated in various forums discussions especially Singapore Star Trek Communiqué where I reached the rank of Rear Admiral. Talking about Star Trek club Singapore, I also managed to participate in various activities organized by the club, e.g. blood donation drive and participated in .

This year is also my first time in going for a cruise on the Royal Caribbean. The 3 days and 3 nights on the Legend of the Seas is an experience to be remembered as I really enjoyed the food and the relaxation on the ship. The food was good and the service was excellent especially the waiter serving us during the three nights of fine dining not to forget also about our cabin attendant cleaning our cabin a few times a day.

That’s all for 2008!

Here we come 2009…………

Nee Soon Central Community Park

2008-02-09T15:12:00.001+08:00

Nee Soon Central Community Park has provided those living within neighborhood community a varied options of keeping themselves fit and healthy and a good place to spend your leisure time.

The amenities within the park is a 500 metres running/walking track, children play corner, two elderly fitness corners (one just upgraded in Jan 08), a basketball court, two badminton courts and a big field for those soccer buffs. It also have two barbecue pits for those who want to enjoy the night with friends. Sad to say these two surrounding corners are very dirty after being used by the users.

Many people come to the park in the morning and evening to exercise. There are various groups of people which I've seen are regulars at the park. They are usually there practicing various fitness dances, Tai Chi, and playing badminton.

Lately I've observed that there are more people, especially the elderly coming out to the park to exercise. This could be due to the park's newly upgraded elderly fitness corner where there are about eleven new machines added to the fitness corner. The elderly fitness corner is a strength building fitness corner for a total body workout. I've tried it for about a month already and I can say that I've benefited much from it as it really gives me a hard workout.

Although the new machines have benefited many, I can see that they are deteriorating as well as I noticed many fitness corners park machines are badly maintain or no maintenance at all. After about a month of usage I noticed that a pedal was missing from one of the machine and two lubrication/ dust caps falling off. I've written to Sembawang Town Council (SBTC) on 9 Feb 08. I hope that SBTC who upgraded the park will send maintenance staff to maintain the fitness machines regularly.

After about a week of posting this post another machine was damaged. This time the glider where one of its arm was broken from the welding connection. I guess this must be due to the poor workmanship of the welded joint that gave way. Hope the relevant authorities will send someone to rectify the damage soon and hope that no one will be injured when misusing the damaged exercise machine.

Google Productivity Tools

2008-01-29T21:56:00.000+08:00

Happened to browse through a book entitled Google Powered Online Productivity Tools at Woodlands Civic Library last Sunday and found that there are quite a number of free useful productivity online applications where one can use it.

All you have to do is have a Google account and you are ready to use all of them.

These useful tools that I've tried are Google calendar for you to manage your time, Google spreadsheet for you to create worksheets (e.g my fitness log), online document storage where you can retrieve any documents anywhere, creation of Blogs, creation of photo album, Google Earth for exploring the world on a computer, gmail and also get alerts for news updates.

Just go to the Google website search engine and under the top rows of menu and click more for a drop down menu. Click on even more to bring up a whole page of more Google products.

Try it and you'll love it. If you have problem click below address to bring you there directly.

http://www.google.com.sg/intl/en/options/

40th Blood Donation

2008-01-17T19:50:00.000+08:00

Today is my 40th official blood donation on record. Actually its my 41 but one was not recorded as it was a donation to a subordinates' grandmother back in 1989. My blood donation became a regular basis when my sister-in-law was suffering from some blood infection where she required regular blood transfusion. From then on I started to donate at least twice to four times a year.

I always make the donation an enjoyable one by participating in my church annual blood donation and also Star Trek Fan Club at Health Science Authority (HSA). Here on the right is me in Starfleet costume at HSA in Oct 07 with Star Trek Fan Club administrator James Lee.

Each donation only takes about 330 to 430 mls of blood from your body which takes about half and hour to forty five minutes. After the blood donation you're advisable not to carry out strenuous activities and have to drink lots of fluid.

If you think you are fit and wants to do some good works to save lives why not do a good deed by donating blood, you can find out more info at the following address: http://www.hsa.gov.sg/publish/hsaportal/en/health_services/blood_donation.html

CSS Cohesion at GV-ViVoCity

2008-01-02T16:41:00.000+08:00

After a long lapse of several years in going to the movies, 31 Dec 07 marks a day of breakthrough for our office staff cohesion outing together with my two kids watching National Treasures - Book of Secrets at Golden Village-ViVo City.

My kids and myself enjoyed the outing very much although its only half a day. It's also very convenient to travel by SMRT from the Yishun to Harbour View and it only took me about 45 minutes.

After the movie we had lunch at Brotzeit German bier bar and restaurant, its located at VivoCity, #01-149-151, facing Sentosa. The restaurant setting is quite simple. The pork knuckles are all time favorites, various types of German sausages and the pizzas were great. Prices are also quite expensive if you going there alone or as a couple. If you want to savor a variety I suggest you go there in groups or at least a family size of 8.

Here you see is our branch staffs having a group photo taken to show that all had a wonderful and memorable time there. Look at the table with the full spread of food.