It's my LIFE!

I’m going to blog about some updates on my Imagine Cup 2009 – Mashup Team, PlanetKY; one of the only two teams (besides NTU team) from Singapore which make it to Round 2 (Ranked Top 15 in the World!).

First thing first, for those whom don’t know what is Imagine Cup 2009, it is actually a student competition held by Microsoft Corporation, people who knows about IT or computers should know this brand inside out

Imagine Cup competition is open to the whole world, encouraging students to think and “imagine” how to make use of different tools to change the world.

For this years’ theme, our mission is to research, brainstorm, design, and develop potential solutions that address the toughest problems facing our world (earth) today. Featuring the 8 United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (UN’s MDG). Here are they:

	Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Achieve universal primary education Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Promote gender equality and empower women Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Reduce child mortality Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Improve maternal health Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Ensure environmental sustainability Overview Fact sheet Success stories
	Develop a global partnership for development Overview Fact sheet Success stories

Basically, one of the round two’s requirements is for us to publicise our “end product”, and proof evidence of us doing so; For example, have a press release, or have it hosted on NGOs websites & etc. It’s quite interesting in the sense that we have to market and publicise it by ourselves!

I have never done anything like that before. I plan to use my blog as a platform to do the publicity. Other than that, we should have other plans in spreading the message.

People, do stay tune to my blog if you are interested in how we, Team PlanetKY, is going to publicise and market our mashup program that is going to change the world!

Cheers!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

There once was a very poor man, who woke up hungry with only 1 rupee left in his pocket. He decides to go to the market and see if his rupee can buy him some left over fruit.

At the market he meets a fancy clothed man behind a table with a beautiful oil lamp on it, and a sign that reads “1 rupee”.

The poor man can’t believe his eyes, and asks the man what the catch is.

It’s true, the lamp only costs 1 rupee, the man says. And he explains that in the lamp there lives a genie, who fulfills all your desires.

“Then why do you sell it?”, the poor man wants to know.

“Well, the genie is always active and rather impatient”, it is explained.

“And if you don’t pay attention to him, he’ll start taking things away again”.

“Well OK”, the poor man says. “Since I don’t have much to lose I will buy it from you”.

When he arrives back home, he rubs the lamp and the genie appears. “How can I serve you, master?”, he asks.

“Prepare me a meal worthy of a king”, the poor man commands.

Within a second the genie serves an opulous meal with 87 courses. The poor man is delighted, but when he wants to start eating, the genie asks again – “And how can I serve you master?”

Keeping in mind that the genie can also take away all the goodies, the poor man commands: “Build me a beautiful castle, suitable for a maharadja!”

Only a few seconds pass by, and the man now finds himself in a beautiful palace. He likes to explore it, but there comes the genie again, asking “How can I serve you, master?”

Every wish is immediately fulfilled, and when ignored, the genie takes away everything.

The poor man is annoyed and goes to the village sage, where he explains his problem.

After a silent conversation, the poor man steps to the genie and says: “Genie, build me a large pole and stick it in the ground”. The genie immediately builds a pole and sticks it in the ground.

“Now genie, I want you to climb up and down the pole, over and over again”.
The genie starts climbing right away. And now the man has time to eat his meal, explore his palace and do other things.

When he and the sage go to see what the genie is doing, they see that he has fallen asleep next to the pole.

“And so it is with the thinking genie of every man”, explains the sage. “It is restless in its desire to satisfy every desire, and fragments our being.

The pole is a tool called a ‘mantra’.

By repeating it over and over again, our restless mind is kept busy until it gets so bored that it falls asleep. And this way our true self can enjoy the world.”

Moral of story: you are more than your mind – don’t worry and enjoy your self!

Tags: Story by Wen Bin
No Comments »

The pig flu or swine influenza is a virus specific to pigs or porcine species; it doesn’t usually infect humans, although it has just happened recently.

Regarding this this time (April 24, 2009), it is believed that the strain is a mix between bird, pig, and human virus. It has already infected people in Mexico, and has already spread worldwide.

Previously, the virus has only been contacted by those who work with pigs, but this time, the virus is believed to have spread from human-to-human.

What is the most scary thing about this? I believe that it is the symptoms. But why? It is totally and can say is EXACTLY the same as typical flu symptoms: Fever, cough, fatigue, lack of appetite.

Normally when somebody caught a flu, they won’t immediately go and see doctor, they sure eat panadol or drag a few days see will recover or not; by then, either they spreaded the virus to people around them already (IT SPREADS HUMAN TO HUMAN!!!), or it is already too late for cure already…

The thought of it gives me a chill up my spine.

Lastly, here’s the origin of the pig flu taken from BCC News site:

A team from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is on its way to Mexico Tuesday April 28 with the purporse of investigating the origin of the swin flu cases in Mexico.

The chief veterinary officer of the FAO, Joseph Domenech, told the BBC that rumours that people had been falling ill last month near some intensive pig farms meant the FAO had to act: ”[We had] no indication of human cases of direct contact with pigs but this can never be totally sure and the probability that this virus could come from pigs directly could not be anyway ruled out totally”

It is believed that the origin of the current pig flu epidemic took place in an industrialized American-Mexican where a 4-year-old boy acquired the illness first.  The boy, who survived the influenza infection, is Mexico’s earliest known case of the pig-bird-human chimera virus, Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said Monday.  The boy lives near a pig farm run by a U.S.-Mexican company, Granjas Carroll, in the municipality of Perote, in Veracruz state on the Gulf of Mexico. The 4-year old contracted the disease on April 2, Cordova said, one of a group of residents who came down with what was at the time labeled a particularly bad case of the flu.  Testing confirmed that the disease contracted by the boy was due to the same strain of virus that has caused the epidemic.

People contracting pig flu from pig farming is not uncommon, in fact, it happens everywhere in the world; what is highly uncommon is that after the virus contracted from the animal is acquired it is transferred from human-to-human as is the case of the current epidemic.

I hope that all these info I shared with you guys actually helps! Spread the information with the people you care about! Thanks!

Cheerios!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

Hello everyone! I simply feel like blogging, so here I am!

Given the fact that I am given the priviledge to invite one of my secondary school teachers to my Nanyang Polytechnic Graduation Day 2009, to share the joy with me, I’m wondering who should I invite.

Nanyang Polytechnic is definitely inviting the current principal, Mr Teo, whom came exactly one year after I left LOL. So I got no idea who he is, and on top of the fact that Naval Base Secondary School (NBSS), which is the secondary school I am from, had not only shifted location, I heard that most of the teachers not around anymore.

But luckily, my chinese teacher, Mr Ng, is still around AND he is the Dean of Mother Tongue Languages department now! I’m going to give this invitation to him! hahaas.

I still remember, my prelims results was very bad, I got 30 points for my L1R4 and 39 for my L1R5. Almost all the teachers predicted that I’ll most likely have nowhere to go, or perhaps go to ITE. Got one even cursed me & my friend that we will never pass O levels (YES, I still remember who you are, LOL).

Anyway, Mr Ng did not look down on me despite the fact that I disappointed him the most. Why I say I disappointed him the most? I’m from his class, and I’m the TOP STUDENT IN CHINESE LANGUAGE (only in chinese), I always get A1 or A2, but I am the ONLY ONE in the whole class which did not show any improvement, and the ONLY ONE whom results dropped, somemore is from A1 drop to B4.

How can I say I did not disappoint him?

Nonethelessly, when I seek him for advices on my selection of courses, he still sit down with me, and slowly talk to me, giving me advices, such as not to waste my first few choices applying for business courses (the gap too big.. I can never get into those courses), because if I wasted these top few choices, then later other course which I might get in initially, I might not get in because other people which put them as top choices have taken the places already.

This is what he write for me on the book given during my Secondary School (NBSS) Graduation Day 2005:

文彬∶ 人生有起有落,重要的是: 不要因成功而骄傲,更不要因失败而气馁,要勇于面对一切,达到最后的成功。

And this is what he signed & wrote on my class photo:

文彬∶ 立定目标后就该努力不懈地向前迈进

I don’t know if he still remembers me, but nonethelessly, I will be inviting him, Mr Ng, to my Nanyang Polytechnic Graduation Day 2009 together with NBSS’s current principal, Mr Teo.

Looking forward to meet him on that day!

Cheers!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

Today I hosted a Mahjong session at my house! Invited Man Chun, Rong Yao, Albert Sea, and Terence Tan to my house to play mahjong~ & also a gathering!

Played two rounds~ I both rounds also lose a bit T_T Still beginner larhhs. MC and RY is our big winner~ Keep winning lor. Both won so much~ hahaas.

It’s super fun even though I lose money larh, the process is so fun LOL! Enjoyed~ hahaa. I wanna become a better player leh, got to gain more experience and confidence! Play more learn more! Wahahas!

My hands damn itchy now, I wanna play mahjong LOL!

By the way, just now a very funny thing happened! Albert threw a “4 WAN“, I very happy because I “HU” already, (as in I won the game), guess what? RY, whom is one seat in front me, “JIE HU” and won instead (means his turn comes first, so he won instead of me), then happens to be MC also “HU“.

一炮三响!! Somemore MC and I both “HU” quite big also. But see Albert losing most mah. So forget it, cancelled the 一炮三响 “HU” instead.

The most surprising thing is that it actually HAPPENED! I thought only happen in movie LOL! As in, real life, somemore happen in my game. hahahas. INTERESTING!

Looking forward to next session! Cheerios!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

I’ve finally received my National Service (NS) Enlistment notice, stating that I’m required to report for enlistment on 7 Oct 2009 (Wed), at 1pm, at Basic Military Training Centre School 2 located at Pulau Tekong Besar.

Is anyone else the same as me? Please let me know yeah Feel free to leave a comments on this post

Anyway, I’m looking forward in serving NS! It’s a process which change me from a BOY to a MAN! Perhaps I’m man enough already (WAHAHA!), but still, it’s stil going to be a change in my life, to make me even more mature and independent; learn to not always rely on my parents to take care of me.

Furthermore, Singapore have been a safe and nice country to live in, I’m glad I’m a Singaporean It’s time for me to play my part and serve the army! Isn’t that just sounds great?

It’s like, I’m given a safe and wonderful homeland for my family and loved ones to peacefully live in, and I’ll play my part in protecting it Whoohooo~

One problem I have, is that I’m afraid that I might miss the Year 2011 University intake in August; entering army in October 2009 means coming out in October 2011, am I right? So I might miss the intake!

My friend told me that by August, army will allow me to come out to study University, just that during holidays or/and after university studies, I will have to return to army to continue serve back my 2 more months. Is that right? Does anyone know about the details of such scheme? Please let me know if you do! Thanks!

That’s all for today, I’m going to meet my friends to play mahjong soon! Hands itchy, HAHA.

Cheerios!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
9 Comments »

Why men don’t understand women?

The simple answer, as if there was anything simple about it, is: Evolution.

As far as our DNA is concerned, we have left the caves a few minutes ago. Deep inside our brain the wiring is just the same as that of the Geico caveman. Helen fisher “The first sex” and Deborah Tannen “You just don’t understand” have carried out seminal work on the subject of male-female communication and behavior.

The short answer is this: Men evolved to be hunters and as such developed a task oriented behavior and communication style. Communication in men developed to solve immediate problems, generally related to the task at hand; whether the task is getting a woolly mammoth to fall off a cliff, or taking apart a motorcycle engine, the style of communication is the same: Brief, explicit and task oriented. Sometimes I’ve gone fishing or hunting with a male friend. After I come home, my wife asks me: “What did you guys talk about?” The answer is of course “Nothing” There is not much talk needed to butcher a deer or gut some fish.

Women on the other hand were gatherers. They probably moved about in female groups, gathering roots, berries and such, while communicating with each other. At the same time that food was gathered, they would keep an eye on the children, make sure they did not stroll to close to that hedge where that big snake lives, keep an eye on that lion over there, make sure it doesn’t get any closer, and at the same time catch up on the doings of the other women in the group. I.e. multitasking and non linear thinking.

Not only did women evolve differently but on top of it they developed a higher pitched voice. Now babies respond to high pitched tones more than lower pitched tones, so this may have provided an evolutionary advantage and thus the different tone of voice, but this resulted in a more musical speech by women. Recent studies on brain function found out that men do not hear musical speech as well as women. There’s strike two.

The third strike is the short attention span that men have for anything that is not of immediate interest. Because men communicate only to problem solve (almost only) and not to share, the minute a woman talks to a man about something, he immediately tries to problem solve. This is a recipe for disaster. Here she is sharing something that frustrated her for the whole day, and he glibly provides an answer after only a minute of conversation. When she complains some more, he gives her a second answer, and maybe a third; if, as usually happens she is getting more and more upset, he can’t understand what got into her. He has been trying to be so helpful; he provided three solutions to her problem; why doesn’t she like any? In any case, he ends up in the couch, drinking a beer and wondering what did men do to deserve this.

Of course she wants to share and, if he has some experience, he will just shut up and pretend to listen. That is the reason words like Aha, hmmm, and harrumph exist. Of course she gets wise to this very fast and he ends up in the couch, drinking a beer and wondering what did men do to deserve this.

Both sides are equally responsible for this, and no one side can resolve the issue.

Men need to detect when women just want to share, and then just nod their heads and say “Yes dear” and try to keep at least track of the general drift of the monologue, err.. I mean conversation.

Women need to let men know that they just want to share, and do not need a solution to their problem, and also understand that men’s attention span, if there is no problem to be solved, is about 1.5 minutes, and do their sharing in a short time period. Maybe 5 minutes.

And I’ll just go directly to the couch at this time.

The above is a article written by Mr Pedro Miranda, I find it interesting, so shared it with you guys

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
2 Comments »

Here’s a different love letter and a beautiful reply to it. It is super hilarious, made me laughed like mad. I’d like to share it with YOU.

A teenage college guy sent a love letter (in Q/A format) to his classmate.

My Dearest Reshma,

Please answer the following questionnaire. For Options

(A) 10 marks
(b) 5 marks
(c) 3 marks

1) Whenever you enter the class room, your sight always falls on me because:

(a) of love
(b) you couldn’t control seeing me
(c) really … am I doing it?

2) Whenever professor cracks joke, you laugh and turn and look at me because:

(a) you always like to see me smiling
(b) you are testing whether I like jokes
(c) you are attracted by my smile

3) When you were singing in the class, I entered and immediately you stopped singing because:

(a) you are so coy to sing before me
(b) my presence influenced you
(c) you feared that whether I’ll like your song

4) When you were showing your childhood photo, when I asked for it, you hide it because:

(a) you felt ashamed
(b) you felt uneasy
(c) you don’t know

5) During trekking, myself and my friend gave you hand for lifting you and you took only my friend’s because:

(a) you enjoyed my disappointment
(b) you won’t feel leaving my hand after grabbing
(c) you don’t know

6) You were waiting yesterday for bus and didn’t get into your bus…

(a) you were waiting for me
(b) you were dreaming about me and didn’t notice the bus
(c) that bus was crowded

7) You introduced me to your parents when they came to college because:

(a) I am going to be your groom
(b) you just want to know what your parents think about me
(c) just you felt like introducing me to them

8.) I told that I like girls wearing roses. Next day, you came with a rose on your head because:

(a) to fulfill my wish
(b) you like roses
(c) by chance you got a rose

9) On that day, it was my birthday. you too came to temple early at 6:00 A.M because:

(a) you want to pray along with me
(b) you want to meet me before any one could meet on my birthday
(c) you want to wish me at temple because you are spiritual.

If you have scored more than 40, then you are loving me. Don’t delay in expressing it.

If you have scored between 30 and 40, love is budding in your heart and it’s getting ready to bloom. If you have scored less than 30, you are in confusion whether to love me or not.

Eagerly awaiting your reply..

Love, Aakash

Reshma’s reply letter was also in Q/A form

Aakash,

Please answer the following Yes/No questionnaire.

1) If somebody sits in the first row, normally people entering the class, sees them.

(a) Yes (b) No

2) If a girl laughs and looks anyone, is it love?

(a) Yes (b) No

3) While singing, if somebody forgets lines of the songs, will he/she stop singing or not?

(a) Yes (b) No

4) I was showing to my friends (who are all girls) my childhood photo.

You poked your nose inside….. right ?

(a) Yes (b) No

5) I avoided to hold your hand during trekking. Couldn’t you understand yet?

(a) Yes (b) No

6) Should I not wait for my best friend (Anjali) at the bus stand?

(a)Yes (b) No

7) Shouldn’t I introduce you to my parents as a friend?

(a) Yes (b) No

8.) You have said you also like Lotus, cauliflower, banana’s flower. Is it true ?

(a) Yes (b) No

9) Oh was that your birthday. That’s why I could see you in temple. I come daily to Temple. Do you know ?

(a) Yes (b) No

If you have answered “Yes” to any of the question, then I am not loving you. If you have answered “No”, then you don’t know the meaning of Love.

Hope everything is clear to you.

Tags: General, Joke, Story by Wen Bin
No Comments »

In this post, I’m going to share about my choice of acceptance and the reasons why do I make that decision.

Finally, the acceptance of university studies offer period is opened! Have YOU went to the joint admission website and accept your universities offers already?

Here is the website to review on your offer: https://jointacceptance.edu.sg/pls/webexe/joint_accept.login

I have received offer from both National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

For NUS – School of Computing
For NTU – Computer Science

However, I’ve decided to go for NUS – School of Computing already.

Reasons being:

1. More sincere – NUS sent me the offer in 13 March 2009 while NTU sent it in 15 April 2009; knowing that the joint acceptance period is starting from 15 April 2009.

2. More comprehensive - NUS is a comprehensive universities which is good all rounded, compared to NTU which is not as comprehensive (e.g. no school which focuses on laws?)

3. Lesser bad news(?) – Recently which is a very critical period for both universities, there are countless bad rumours and news being reported on newspaper; which is very ironic. Students stabbing lecturers, female students’ undergarments being stolen, etc. It just makes people’s impression of NTU goes good to bad, bad to worst.

4. Personal preference – This part is quite biased; I personally more preferred NUS environment because it looks so much newer and modern, compared to NTU, which makes me feel like I’m going through a forest, then all the way up into a mountain top just to reach the campus. =.= And the buildings are old and, yeah, the lecture hall which is used to give talk is old and ugly also…

5. Universities ranking - QSNETWORK ranked NUS as #11 Engineering Faculty while NTU as #26, and there are other websites which does the checking as well~ All the results show that NUS is better(?)

Just basically blogging on my own personal views and opinions, and my reasons for the choice I’ve made.

if I offended anyone, please pardon me, I have no mean of harm

Cheerios~

Tags: General by Wen Bin
18 Comments »

Have you guys ever tasted the Korean Noodles in the Korean cuisine stalls in any food court in Singapore?

If yes, did it remind you of “Maggi Mee”? Yes? No?

For me, it totally reminds me of Maggi Mee, and it’s the Tom Yam flavor somemore! Just that you add in some pieces of vegetables and perhaps an egg to make it look more presentable and looks more delicious; as plainly just the maggi mee noodles is not enough to sastify your customers. :p

The problem is, why put Korean Noodles (韓式拉麵) when it is just plainly “Maggi Mee” noodles?

Even those normal noodle stalls in neighbourhood coffeeshop which sells Ban Mian (板面) or other noodles uses more high quality noodles; yet a Korean Cuisine stall which specially sells korean food uses a cheap Maggi Mee and expect it to sastify their customers?

I didn’t mean to rant, but a poor experience again and again after tasting Korean Noodles (韓式拉麵) at different places, made me feel like ranting :p

It somehow makes people feel cheated after paying and eating it.

Don’t you guys agree with me?

Tags: General by Wen Bin
6 Comments »

Here’s a real touching story I’d like to share – read the following story & watch the video clip & you’ll be amazed how much can love be… This is true love!

One day, a son asks his dad “Daddy, would you like to run a marathon with me?”.

The father says “yes”.And they run their first marathon together.Another time, the son asks his dad again “Daddy, would you like to run a marathon with me?”.The father says “yes son”.

One day, the son asks his father ” Daddy, would you run the Ironman with me?”
The Ironman is the most difficult  triathlon ever (4 kms swimming, 180 kms bikin, 42 km running?)

And the dad says “yes”.

Enjoy the video clip!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
1 Comment »

I’m back to blog again! First thing first, do you guys know that the 10th of April 10 is the 100th day of the year? Meaning, there are 265 days remaining from now until the end of the year!

Interesting uh?

Good Friday, which is also known as the Black Friday, is a religious holiday for the Christians. However, everyone in Singapore get benefited from it, no matter we are from which races or religions

Isn’t that cool?

Knowing that I’m a very curious person, you guys should have guessed that I’d go search for some definition of Good Friday and read them up, then share it out over here, right?

Here you go~

Good Friday, called Feria VI in Parasceve in the Roman Missal, he hagia kai megale paraskeue (the Holy and Great Friday) in the Greek Liturgy, Holy Friday in Romance Languages, Charfreitag (Sorrowful Friday) in German, is the English designation of Friday in Holy Week — that is, the Friday on which the Church keeps the anniversary of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Parasceve, the Latin equivalent of paraskeue, preparation (i.e. the preparation that was made on the sixth day for the Sabbath; see Mark 15:42), came by metonymy to signify the day on which the preparation was made; but while the Greeks retained this use of the word as applied to every Friday, the Latins confined its application to one Friday. Irenaeus and Tertullian speak of Good Friday as the day of the Pasch; but later writers distinguish between the Pascha staurosimon (the passage to death), and the Pascha anastasimon (the passage to life, i.e. the Resurrection). At present the word Pasch is used exclusively in the latter sense. The two Paschs are the oldest feasts in the calendar.

From the earliest times the Christians kept every Friday as a feast day; and the obvious reasons for those usages explain why Easter is the Sunday par excellence, and why the Friday which marks the anniversary of Christ’s death came to be called the Great or the Holy or the Good Friday. The origin of the term Good is not clear. Some say it is from “God’s Friday” (Gottes Freitag); others maintain that it is from the German Gute Freitag, and not specially English. Sometimes, too, the day was called Long Friday by the Anglo-Saxons; so today in Denmark.

Frankly speaking, I don’t quite really get it, but nonetheless, perhaps some experts could share their knowledge with us

Feel free to post comments!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

In life, there are times where one would experience all sorts of bad luck and unfortunate happenings, in short, things which one would think,

“Nonsense! There’s no way such things is going to happen to me! Impossible~!!”

But in the end, it still happened to you. Have you guys ever had such an experience?

Personally, I have such experience for quite a number of times already, it’s like, when “it” comes, “it” comes all the way~ you will have a whole row of bad luck lining up for you to go through!

But when “it” goes, “it” will go all the way away from you, leaving you with all the good luck

Perhaps this is what people always said,

“Life has UPs and DOWNs.”

Recently, “it” have been away from me for quite some time, I’m glad, really. However, I sense “it” coming back to me. I can really sense “it” coming. “It” must have really missed me a lot

“Yes, I miss you too,” I said.

Learn to accept life. Life without “it” is not life. If anyone have never experienced “it” before, they have never lived before…

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

Here’s a meaningful story which I want to share with all of you!

There was once a stone-cutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.

One day, he passed a wealthy merchant’s house and through the open gateway saw many fine possessions and important visitors. “How powerful that merchant must be!” thought the stone-cutter. He became very envious, and wished that he could be like the merchant. Then he would no longer have to live the life of a mere stone-cutter.

To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever dreamed of, envied and detested by those less wealthy than himself. But soon a high official passed by, carried in a sedan chair, accompanied by attendants, and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow low before the procession. “How powerful that official is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a high official!”

Then he became the high official, carried everywhere in his embroidered sedan chair, feared and hated by the people all around, who had to bow down before him as he passed. It was a hot summer day, and the official felt very uncomfortable in the sticky sedan chair. He looked up at the sun. It shone proudly in the sky, unaffected by his presence. “How powerful the sun is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the sun!”

Then he became the sun, shining fiercely down on everyone, scorching the fields, cursed by the farmers and labourers. But a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below. “How powerful that storm cloud is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a cloud!”

Then he became the cloud, flooding the fields and villages, shouted at by everyone. But soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. “How powerful it is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the wind!”

Then he became the wind, blowing tiles off the roofs of houses, uprooting trees, hated and feared by all below him. But after a while, he ran up against something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it — a huge, towering stone. “How powerful that stone is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a stone!”

Then he became the stone, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the solid rock and felt himself being changed. “What could be more powerful than I, the stone?” he thought. He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stone-cutter.

Most of the time, we don’t know the extent of our own personal power. The most insignificant seeming people among us are those whom are most able to affect great change.

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »

The best company I’ve ever worked in is The Boys’ Brigade in Singapore. And no, I have never been in a uniform group, let alone Boys’ Brigade.

I was sent to The Boys’ Brigade in Singapore for an internship attachment by Nanyang Polytechnic. My initial job is to deploy a system, and due to some reasons, it was dragged and I’m there with no object. Thus I start helping out with the Boys’ Brigade Sharity Gift Box 2008 as a Project Assistant.

First, I’ll talk about my colleagues. It is great working there! Everyone are very friendly and treat me very nice – they are all big brothers and big sisters, very easy to communicate with.

Despite being so much more superior than me (at least 3 to 5 levels higher than me hierarchically), they treat me with respect and doesn’t show me any attitude (if you know what I mean?)

Next, the environment. It gives me a very “home” feeling working there, the building is not those big and tall buildings where we have to take a lift so high up to work everyday – it is a one level old building, it used to be a primary school long time ago (if I did not mistaken).

It don’t give people the kind of pressure compared to working in a big building/office. It make me have the “Yes, I’m homed!” kind of feeling everyday, and makes me look forward to work everyday & hates weekends and worst still, hates 6pm (we knocked off at 6pm daily).

Next, my direct superiors. I have two superiors, they are both very nice and friend people, they treat me very well, taught me a lot of things and shared a lot of experiences with me. Even when there are things I’m not supposed to do or not going to do (they are doing it), if they see a need for me to have an idea of what it is, they will ask me to come over and watch them do, so that next time I go out to society to work, I know what are these stuffs. I often go around all departments (project, finance, etc) to mix around and to learn when my hands are free (or less tight, take a break man!).

Seriously, I enjoyed every lunch, because everyone in the whole office would go for lunch together at a nearby coffee shop or food centre, it would be a big group of people, all dressed in formal, walking together, joking/crapping/chatting along the way, then seated in a big group round the table and have our lunch. We can chat from Naruto to Bleach to One Piece then back to Naruto. HAHA!

And what’s more hilarious is during my first week of work, when I crap/joke around with some random person whom is slightly older than me (perhaps 4 or 5 years?), after returning back to the office, I went to tour around and realises that this random person is actually the Senior Programme Executive or something (can’t remember what it is, but I’m sure there’s a SENIOR something inside, and he owns a big desk!).

It’s full of surprises and exciting adventures working in The Boys’ Brigade in Singapore! It makes me look forward to every tomorrow I ever have in this company!

In life, it is hard to find the right company to work in, but it is totally great when you find one which suits you, it’s great to work in an environment you felt comfortable in and to work with kind of people you like to work with! It make your working life more meaningful and interesting!

Don’t you agree?

Win $100 by telling us the best company that you’ve ever worked in!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
No Comments »