Dr. M Speaks

And we have comments like:

"Bring it on Malaysia!"
"bomb singapore?does he have the guts?or should i say the brains?"

Come on. It's a joke. But then again, if MM Lee made such a joke, we would be embarrassed too. And frankly, my respect for a prominent politician and great ex-leader of Malaysia has just gone down.

lip
ranting

Fuck Switzerland

Why must your damn National Languages be GERMAN, FRENCH, and ITALIAN?!!!!

And all the data I need is in those 3 languages.

Go Google translation software.

Sigh.

lip
ranting

Switzerland Market Report

So here I am slogging away at my Swiss Market Report, due at the end of the internship. Some interesting facts I have learnt thus far:

1) Switzerland has the world's 7th highest GDP Per capita.

2) Switzerland is known for watches, machinery, biotechnology and finance.

3) Switzerland has nice mountains.

4) Switzerland's capital is Bern.

5) Switzerland is probably the best example of direct democracy - citizens vote on everything - from whether the minister should wear white, or whether the country should join the EU.

6) Which brings me to the interesting point that Switzerland is probably the closest example to Marxist communist model today. I'm talking about the real Marx, not Maoism, Stalinism, Leninism or other forms of "suppresive" politics in the world.

I should probably do International Studies, or Politics. I loved my course in Social Sciences, maybe I'll do an intro to IS course to see how much politics I actually like.

Then again, I hate the nitty gritty details of politics, and frankly, all you have to succeed in Politics in SG is to be called a Lee and wear white.

Hey! I've already done that:)

lip
ranting

Absolut 2006

It's just not happening.

UChicago organises a party every year for incoming US students (OMG, I'm using the word incoming, i'm actually feeling pretty USified)... and this year, my batch has not risen to the occasion and done anything of not yet.

Shahidah is now the one running the show, and of course, with our supposed chairman and social chair running off to Thailand. Then again, I ran off to Frankfurt, so let's not invoke the pot/kettle/black argument.

And Kenneth is in Chicago, Calvin is in Chicago, Huiling is in Chicago, Huiying is i-dunno-if-she-wants-to-be-in Chicago. Thong Kai is touring Europe with his girlfriend.

That leaves, Ivan, Shahidah, Kaval, Yikley and Waikeong.

Let's see, who do we have now? No one!

Kudos to Shahidah though. I'm doing absolutely (pardon the pun) nothing at all.

lip
ranting

Exercise

It has come to my attention that my physique, though nothing to shout about, is becoming even more "nothing to shout about".

I attribute this to American food, and Bartlett dining hall. You always talk about the Freshman 15. (For the uninitiated, it is the 15 pounds you CONFIRM CHOPSTAMP GUARANTEED put on on your first year in college.)

My roommate happens to be a wrestler, and so, we have a weighing machine in the bathroom.

I remember when I first went to Chicago, my bodyweight was 160 pounds. Or 72.7 kg.

Now, it is 170 pounds. 77.3 kg

A TOTAL FUCKING WEIGHT GAIN OF 4.6 KG.

My BMI used to be a respectable 21.7. Now it's a staggering 23.1.

Overweight is at 24.9, which is at 83-84 kg.

I think it is time to start my exercise regime again. I used to swim every week. OK YOU GOT ME! (blardy hell) .. change that to every MONTH. But I did go roller blading very often, especially with Sharleen in those days... and after that, I went running and blading alone.

I hate running, I love blading. Blading gives you the sense of speed, and you can get to Parkway and back in half an hour. Furthermore, it doesn't kill your knees. I MUST bring my god damn blades to Chicago with me.

And in the Winter, all thoughts of exercise just get thrown out of my head. Dammit.

Gone are the days I ran 2.4km in 9.15. Gone are the days I ran a marathon. Well, those days are going to be aim again, to exercise more, and to run the Chicago Marathon. (shit, I MISSED THE REGISTRATION DATE) -oh, apparently there's a registration cap of 60000 runners. Dammit. I want to RUN!

Looks like I have to persuade my ice skating gf to start blading:), if not, I will just go blading every Sunday along Lake Shore Drive alone. And the exercise regime will start now!.

Shit. Did 100 push ups. I'm too tired to type. Bye

lip
ranting

Chicago Sears Tower Plot

And so the terrorists have decided to blow up Chicago Sear's tower after bringing New York's WTC to the ground in 2001.

If they had succeeded, it would make 2 in the family who have seen skyscrapers go down in America, after my Mum's Manhatten trip in 2001.

This shows us that we still live in a dangerous world, where the rules of terror are becoming more and more... fluid.

Then again, it may just be an intelligence mistake by the US government, which wouldn't surprise me.

lip
ranting

Video Broadcast

Video Quality Kinda Sucks. I used DivX Compression. Anyone can suggest a better compression?

lip
ranting

New Creative Webcam

And so I bought a webcam.

:) And I bought Creative. Bad CHOICE. It took almost an hour to set up the damn camera with all the drivers... But the result is one very happy girl, one amused sister and mum, and a very very angry boss.. ooops.



Balls to you!





lip
ranting

Cool Mums

6/20/2006		8:06:24 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		hello
6/20/2006		8:06:24 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		who is this new girlfriend?
6/20/2006		8:06:37 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		smth like that
6/20/2006		8:06:39 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		haha..
6/20/2006		8:06:47 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		who
6/20/2006		8:06:55 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		girl la
6/20/2006		8:06:56 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		then?
6/20/2006		8:07:01 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		her name is wincy
6/20/2006		8:07:05 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		the artist i sent u the pictures of
6/20/2006		8:07:12 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		from where huh
6/20/2006		8:07:17 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		HK/SG
6/20/2006		8:07:19 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		lol.
6/20/2006		8:07:30 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		RGS RJC girl la
6/20/2006		8:07:35 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		good lah i am not objecting
6/20/2006		8:07:43 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		go for ti
6/20/2006		8:07:47 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		at least not black right
6/20/2006		8:07:48 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		ehh
6/20/2006		8:07:53 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		sounds like what sis would say
6/20/2006		8:07:59 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		how tall huh
6/20/2006		8:08:05 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		about ying's height
6/20/2006		8:08:06 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		1.7
6/20/2006		8:08:21 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		nice
6/20/2006		8:08:21 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ok lah approve
6/20/2006		8:08:45 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		...
6/20/2006		8:08:47 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		need u to approve one meh
6/20/2006		8:08:48 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		haha
6/20/2006		8:09:02 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		i think she'll earn more than me in the future though
6/20/2006		8:09:05 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		if i'm stuck in IE
6/20/2006		8:09:06 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		but take it easy this time huh
6/20/2006		8:09:07 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		sian
6/20/2006		8:09:09 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		duh*
6/20/2006		8:09:32 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		be positive lah

6/20/2006		8:09:59 AM		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		ling-		she wants to learn drawing from u hahaha..
6/20/2006		8:10:24 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		good good
6/20/2006		8:10:50 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		next time i probably have studio
6/20/2006		8:10:50 AM		ling-		Lip Jin: Frankfurt		she can paint too

Imagination

My imagination has been running kinda wild since ermm.. this morning. It's amazing how I can be so obsessive about a single thought. You can call it "single-mindedness" in a euphemistic sense, or rather, I might just have OCD. You never know:).

And yeah, I realise I can't take stress on stress's own terms. I can stay calm, but at the same time, I just want to get my plate cleaned up and all the excess annoyances done with. I think I thrive under stress, but then again, I prefer not to be stressed out.

And the gf sure knows me well. ARGHH... =p. And I realise that many of my closer friends know me very very well too, from my idiosyncracies to my penchant for moodiness and general idiotic-ness.

Sigh. Phone bill is going to be $600 bucks this month. Fuck.

P.S. Some people are Java idiots. I hate it when Firefox crashes due to a Java Error.

lip
ranting

Working in Frankfurt

Somehow, I feel that working in a Govt Agency is sooo... Boring.

It's all paperwork, and it's about mixing and matching, and looking through databases, and creating opportunities for firms to talk to each other.

Problem is, if the firm itself is looking to internationalise, it should already have it's own resources and it's own drive in looking to internationalise. Oh well. So what we are doing is just... ermm.. paperwork.

Kinda sad.

lip
ranting

I need a webcam

lip
ranting

Cooking and Buying Groceries

With much difficulty over the past week, I finally managed to find myself the Kaufhof - or in English - a supermarket.

And an egg in this Supermarket is Super expensive - 33 cents. Which works out to around 66 cents in SGD. Awesome.

Thank God for a Lebensmittel (a smaller supermarket) near my place, and now I have to figure out where the hell to get washing detergent from, because I didn't find anything in the Kaufhof - or maybe, it wasn't in the food section.

Talking about food, I've decided to subsist on peanut butter and bread for my entire stay in Frankfurt, until I looked at the receipt and saw that Erdnusscreme - Peanut butter - costs €2.99 for 350g. Which wouldn't last me for a week. Ouch. And Bread costs €1.29. double ouch.

Compared to a Bratwurst for €2.50 and a coke for €1.30, I think I'll have to survive on Peanut Butter and Bread.

Dad, send money.

lip
ranting

WM 2006

Which by the way, stands for World Cup in Deutsch.

People have been asking me how Frankfurt is like. Frankly, (pardon the pun), rather boring.

Here's why: Although it's the World Cup, firstly, I'm not all that interested in soccer, and secondly, it's boring to watch soccer without friends. Being in Frankfurt alone just means you have to find things to do on your own, and after awhile, that becomes kinda tedious. Sigh.


Fressgas - the "eating street" of Frankfurt.


My quiet little Esslinger Strasse - Outside my window.

Oh! And I managed to cook my self-recipe dish. After buying luncheon meat, eggs and sprouts, well, I managed to cook myself a delicious noodle dish!



1) Boil noodles with sprouts
2) Fry egg with luncheon meat
3) Fry noodles with egg and luncheon meat
4) Add oyster sauce.

Tada! Cooking by myself never seemed so... satisfying:)

Trying to persuade the girlfriend to come Frankfurt:) haha. Poll the audience here: Who thinks if 4th of July is a Tuesday, that everyone should take leave on Monday 3rd of July? Comment! :)

lip
ranting

Frankfurt!

Life in Frankfurt is great. I'm having loads of fun, and the people in the office are nice, and most importantly, IT'S THE DAMN WORLD CUP!

But then again, by the time the matches end, I'm already back in my apartment:). Oh well.

Just a peek into my life.




My little room in 11 Esslinger Strasse, Frankfurt.




My office, with my window seat and my own research corner. I'll be doing market research on Austria and Switzerland, I think:)



The office when empty. 2 cubicles for Annette and Elena, and the office for Tim. =)

lip
ranting

In Frankfurt

Short post, because my internet here costs around $2 euro for 15 minutes.

1) In Frankfurt, lugguage with all my business stuff inside still in London. I have no shirt. I shall report to work on Wednesday now. Maybe I'll pop by Hugo Boss and get a shirt. Hugo Boss store is just beneath my workplace.

2) Missing my girl in Chicago. It's an awesome summer with World Cup and Internship, and just an important piece missing in the puzzle.



Back together in SG in 9 weeks time. Sigh. It's always the distance. Why why why?!?!?

:) To hell with popular opinion, because what you think doesn't matter to me. (Actually it does, so please don't think bad thoughts:)

3) HANXUE!!! My damn wireless router. Please!

And yes, it's true.

lip
ranting

A look back

1 year on, and I'm done with 1 year in Chicago. I'm off to Frankfurt on Sunday, and I'm finaly done packing my life into little boxes.

Packing is such a bitch, especially when you have bought so much stuff over the past 8 months you kinda forget how hard it is to bring everything back. I came here with 3 suitcases, and I leave with 15 boxes and 3 suitcases. Talk about consumerism.

Meanwhile, my collection of junk has increased. (weighing scale anyone?) and I also have an ironing board, and various little things that make your life convenient and you don't really care about until you start moving them. Then they suddenly increase in mass and bulk, till all you can do is curse and swear.

I'm excited for Frankfurt, but I leave Chicago with a sense of ... loss I guess. But then again, we will have to lead our own separate lives again, till the day comes when we are back together.

Cheers. it's 2 am, I'm done packing, having a car is just GREAT (though everyone clamors to use it, I get first option though:). Life is just awesome.

See you later, Chicago.

lip
ranting

Car Problems Part 3

And so my car is gone yet again.

Yes. The battery died. I tried jump starting it, it died after I switched off the engine. Then it died in the middle of the road while on the way to the mechanic.

Thank god for Brian and Alex who helped me all the way. Thanks to Adela, Ming and Jason too, who helped me through this shitty period of car troubles.

A car is just like a gf, after a break down, or a break up, you need your friends beside you to recover.

Thanks all. I'm just so lucky to have friends.

lip
ranting

A Look Back.. Reflections from a 2LT

Taken from one of my archives: Reflections from week 7 of EOAC. EOAC is the Engineer Officer Advanced Course, where we are prepared for higher level positions during our reservist days. I think EOAC has played a huge part in my motivation for learning, and in Uchicago, some of the motivation is lost. Perhaps it is time to find out what really motivates me to learn, to find out more about myself, and to conduct myself in a social way, without sacrificing moral dignity and integrity.

****************************************
REFLECTIONS WEEK 7

This week is the last week of EOAC. Having gone through 4 exercises and currently undergoing the 5th and final exercise, I have decided to reflect on what has happened these 7 weeks. I regularly jot down notes on my PDA, reflecting on them afterwards and providing a good source for the weekly reflections. So here, I present my points of reflection and of learning for the entire EOAC.

1. Learning has taken place when we are given time and space to absorb and reflect.
This point is actually taken from CPT Tan Han Siang (39 S2) on the illumination board. Often during the course, we are bombarded with information and regularly are expected to cough up detailed information at crucial moments (e.g. number of doctors in BCS, size of BSA etc.) Also, given the fast paced nature of the course, we are given very little time to absorb and “feed-forward” what we have learnt from the previous exercise. Given more time and space, I feel that we would be able to give a better account of ourselves during the exercises.

2. Presentation skills are critical to projecting your knowledge.
We may know and understand our plans entirely; however most of us are unable to present our knowledge well. The outcome of this is that we may know and understand, but we may not SEEM that we understand. This is congruent with my point at the beginning of the course, where I stated that knowledge is giving the instructors what they want to hear. I still stand by my statement, for the basic mission of an instructor is to make the trainee understand. We are better off regurgitating answers we already know then to go through the process of finding the answers ourselves. In short – reverse engineering would be beneficial if the answer to the question is undisputable, as are most answers in EOAC.

3. Give information as and when required to SPECIFIC audience.
There is a crucial difference between presenting to instructors, presenting to peers and commanding and ordering our soldiers. We are expected to present model answers during our presentations to our instructors, however, we must realize in a real situation, the best we can do is only to give the best plan we can come up with during a limited time frame. No matter how hard we try, we can never come up with the perfect plan for the instructors – there will always be holes in our plans, no matter how miniscule. After all, the basic job of the instructor is to play devil’s advocate to the trainees. In the name of improvement, this has to be done, but balance must be struck in combusting a plan and praising the good aspects. A plan can be 80% solid, but too much focus on the 20% not-as-good aspects can really dampen a student’s morale.

4. Visualize and have a clear picture prior to giving a presentation.
This has to do with presentation skills and understanding of your own plan. Many times in the course, the plan is an amalgam of different people’s ideas and thinking. There is a huge challenge in understanding the different points of views and presenting all of it as your own plan. I find that holding an OC appointment in exercises is more of a team leader in directing everyone to collate information and ultimately to formulate your own ideas around the framework provided.

5. Process VS Product. Learning Journey VS Outcome
There is often a struggle between wanting to achieve the outcome quickly (the product) and going through the steps in sequence (the process). I tend to be impatient and go for the product as fast I can. Often I would miss out certain information, but mostly I am able to reverse engineer the process (rationalize the plan). The drawback to this is that many of my peers discount this as cheating. My response is that the end state is more important than the process; the end is more important than the means. I firmly believe in results, and the process to obtain the result can be placed at a lesser priority.

A point: I still firmly believe in the ends. However, not all ends justify the means; no amount of evil will make the end a "good".

6. EOAC has many different personalities, and every one has gained maturity and experience since OCC, allowing greater appreciation of the course.
The diversity of the trainees is greatly reduced in 53 EOAC, being an all NSFs course. Plus points include being totally engrossed in the work (due to fewer influences and also understanding each other very well since our cadet days together. There is a bond in the course forged since 03/03 EOCC. Antics happen everyday, and the atmosphere is very relaxed since no one really needs the top trainee to further their career. The drawbacks include not having the diversity and experience in the course, as CO 30 puts it “The blind leading the blind.” This has placed more emphasis on the instructors to teach many basic issues and knowledge to us. Kudos goes to the instructors for doing that well.

I also feel that with new maturity gained from 1 year of ground experience, everyone is subtly different since OCC days. There is a greater appreciation of NS and the national service requirements. The greater hope is for the infusion of this spirit into our men during our tours in ICT.

7. Instructors should not impose their system of beliefs or mnemonics on us; rather help us develop our own competencies and principles.
This point came about as I felt the instructors are trying too hard to impose their own tools and thinking methods onto us. Among the 4 instructors, there is disagreement and different schools of thoughts. Everyone should recognize that we all have our own beliefs and our own methods of thinking. The thinking tools and “fishing rods” are a good exposure, but we all should be given the chance to formulate our own mental maps and choose which tools we want to utilize. There is no point in forcing everyone to utilize MTEOT, OAKOC, MAP, ASK etc etc. These are useful tools, but everyone has their own mnemonics, their own systems and their own choices. Having our own choice to make is what makes us inherently human. Ultimately, S3 35 said it best; to take away what we understand from the course, and leave the rest behind. Everyone has different points of views on situations, and as I like to say, we can only “Agree to disagree” on many issues in life. There is no black and white, only shades of grey in everything we do.

Finally, I would like to sum up the course with quotes over the 7 week period. Here they are, from the gems to the profound, from the inane to the explicit. For your enjoyment, please.

“I agree with both of the first three people…” –Yongtong

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be” –Douglas Adams

“Wise men thinking alike, fools seldom differ” –Proverb

“Live life as though everyday is your last day…” – CO SOCE

“As a military officer, your actions in the field will show your guiding principles…” – CO SOCE

“We tend to perceive what we expect to perceive” –Int. Analysis by Hanting

“Put your plan into writing; prevents mistakes from falling through the cracks” –MAJ Michael

“When you see what you think, you know what you lack. Externalize your thoughts.” –Mr. Soh

“A good leader inspires his men to have confidence in him. A great leader inspires his men to have confidence in themselves.” –MAJ Low

“I wanted to be somebody, I should have been more specific” –NOBODY

“Your motivation for planning should be the lives of your men…” –MAJ Chang



51/03 OCC
03/03 EOCC
01/04 CBRDCC
53rd EOAC
2LT LEE LIP JIN
****************************************

And so... A chapter closes in my life. Till 2009 for my first ICT! 39 SCE!!!!! Chiong Sua in Gas Mask. Pride.

lip
ranting

Another Computer Crash

It has happened again. My computer has crashed.

Yes, this is the 2nd crash in a year. The last time, my hard disk died, this time, my OS had some start up problem. A few funny error messages and refused to start. Well, so I just reformatted my entire computer.

Turns out, I backup my university work regularly, so I still have all my readings and my lecture notes and my essays. However, I've lost all my pictures (those in Chicago and Europe) and all my music (which I need iPodsoft to recover, because most of it is in my iPod), and virtually all my programs.

Now I need
1) Microsoft Office XP (which I will buy from Campus Computing tomorrow. Surviving on Office 2003 from my roommate now)
2) Adobe Premiere Pro
3) Adobe Photoshop
4) Adobe Acrobat Pro
5) Nero
6) STATA (some statistic program)

I'm more pissed off over my missing pictures than anything else. Sigh.

P.S. Lucky I have Kenneth "warez" Goh around.

lip
ranting