Job Hunting Day

11pm: Called back Pasir Ris Secondary School to confirm interest. The admin officer was so funny, asking "any good news?" Asked if KY can join them as well to teach English.

11:15pm: I received call to go down to school admin office with KY.

11:30pm: It started to rain.
KY messaged: You got bring umbrella?
Me: Slight rain no need la.
KY: Slight rain? You look again. It's the kind of rain that ppl doing guard duty will be happy with.

I laughed so loudly in the bus some turned to stare at me. Ah, the good 'ol Guard Duty days. Heavy rain = no need to prowl.

12pm: Reached PRSS and met the in-charge, and we talked for a while. It seemed that they want us to stay until August as they really lack English teachers. I was put to a Sec 4 Normal (Tech) and a Sec 1 Normal (Tech) class, which to me is very scary thing to handle. Not only am I teaching a subject that I am not supremely good at, but also taking control and gaining respect of these less academically-inclined people seemed a daunting task. KY agreed. He got the better deal: two Sec 2 classes, one Normal (Acad) and one Normal (Tech). KY was kinda reluctant to work until August, we might work for just two semesters to prepare for university.

12:45pm: So that settled our job from January to June at least (if indeed we would stay that long, God willing). And we are left with the month of December. Went home, got into MSN with SH, and he asked me to follow him to Recruit Express where he just got a 2-week temp job. Agreed to meet at 2pm, called KY along as well.

2pm: Saw Terry at bus interchange. Going to Serangoon for some YFC event. So we met this guy called Charlie, who is actually from the same batch as me from TPJC. He's working temp as recruiting agent. So we signed an application form, and wait for his call. SH asked to accompany him to Kinokuniya, I was tired so didn't go with him.

3pm: Reached home. Gotta sleep now, and prepare for Charis later.

Tribute to Mr Lee Hoong Yoong

Crap. I went to TPJC.net and then I saw that nerdy display pic of Mr Lee, and then I thought of Mr Lee himself. And then I burst out laughing. What a character!

I was imagining him teaching cosmology in Physics lesson, time travel and all that stuff when he should really be teaching electromagnetism or Newton or something like that. And then he wouldn't care if we did Mathematics or Chemistry in his lesson. Sometimes he would even discuss with us. And he wouldn't care if Pey Yuan didn't attend his lessons, or the fact that he can hardly command the attention of 1/10 of the class, 1/10 of the time. One word to describe Mr Lee: eccentric. Yet I sincerely believe we need more of these kind of teachers who can inspire learning beyond grades. Singapore students care too much about grades. I remember writing a message to him when I was in tpjc, requesting that he start to teach us tutorials according to the A level topics rather than randomly discussing Physics that are outside the textbook.

I must admit I was wrong, and we need more of these kind of teachers. Maybe not overly eccentric, but at least able to inspire learning of the natural world, rather than trying to put an 'A' on our certificates. Mr Lee, til today still strikes me as a teacher who has a funny way of talking and explaining, "Yah, yah, yah" he would say, as he nods his head comically.

And then I recalled Jianyong, who asked, out of the blue one day, 'Mr Lee, are you married?' to which Mr Lee replied, "Ahh...this question, not important.."

And then he turned our attention to Physics.

Army Friends... Ord loh.




Top (left to right): Alfred Yip aka 'Gay Boy', Sean Seetho aka 'Jiggy Boy', KolinKolin, me, "Ivan!", Yuanlong aka 'Gantz', Emma, Kwan Teng aka 'Qiaokelipi hater', Meng Hau the Slacker, Ce Pe Lau the 'Old Man', Wen Jie, Raymond aka 'Big boobs'.

Bottom: Peter "GOO-WEEEEEE!", Chris, Fabian "没有，没有，不是我", Siang Di aka "Garang", Kar Yee, Johnston.

ORD LOH!

Layla by Eric Clapton

What a great song...

What'll you do when you get lonely
And nobody's waiting by your side?
You've been running and hiding much too long.
You know it's just your foolish pride.

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.

Let's make the best of the situation
Before I finally go insane.
Please don't say we'll never find a way
And tell me all my love's in vain.

Layla, you've got me on my knees.
Layla, I'm begging, darling please.
Layla, darling won't you ease my worried mind.

The Fight Against Mediocrity

I believe we live in a very shallow culture, and I believe I am shallow as well. As I read through the short biographies of philosophers living a few centuries ago, I find that they were all multi-talented. Not only were they great philosophers, they were at the same time playwrights, poets, musicians, artists, scientists, mathematicians! Then I look at the people and myself in our culture. To have a distinguished profession is hard enough, not to mention a few! Those were the true intellectuals. And for myself, I don't even dare to take Double Degree! If I could survive in the academic field I would be fortunate enough. This only goes to show how shallow I am!

Haiz. Of course people nowadays would say, 'That's because they last time don't have technology and leisure what, that's why they only know how to study.' I don't think that's a bad thing at all! Today, kids only know how to play computer games, party, LAN-gaming, nintendo-DS'ing, nintendo wii'ing, PSP'ing, para-para dancing ....and have some sort of aversion to books. Not that playing games are wrong, but like OCH said, the postmodern culture have lost the appetite for words, and books.

Then I was wondering about my church. It's called a 'Presbyterian' church. When I heard that my church may be changing name, my first violent reaction was, "They gonna take out the 'Presbyterian'?!?" (as I don't really care about the TC in TCPC.) Thankfully no, but I guess most people wouldn't care anyway. A glance at our church shows that nothing much in it is actually 'Reformed' in the true sense. Sure, we have elder governance. Sure we have a nice pulpit in the centre. But we have largely forgotten our roots and reformed tradition. The more important aspects like Scripture Alone and Reformed Theology are never taught and defended agressively except by a minority (thank God OCH is part of this minority, and I can't wait for Elder Yong to come back again). We don't know what the Westminster Confession of Faith is, nor do we know existence of the Shorter Catechism. Great Christian authors who could be easily recognised by their last names (eg. Edwards, Owen, Calvin, Baxter, Packer, Boice, MacArthur, Grudem, Ryle, Lewis, Ryken, Carson etc) are largely unrecognizable by our youths. As I told someone in my church, we've been in TCPC for so long, but does that mean we are 'Presbyterians'? I would be ashamed to say I am. Then look at the Puritans' way of teaching and catechising the children and adults. Be very ashamed. The church has a love for mediocrity. We prefer pleasing maxims to hard, sound doctrine.

Of course I do not think that we must identify legalistically with the tradition of our church. But looking at it another way, the "un-presbyterising" of our modern Presbyterian church is only part of the whole postmodern movement. It is the other extreme. That's why we must teach the young to read, and read extensively. D.A. Carson remarks that the English-speaking world is blessed with the greatest library of Christian literature, but sadly few are reading them.

Can we stop the shallowness of this culture? I think we must spend less time with our PSPs and more time reading books. X suggested that I send an email of the Daily Bread for him to read online, as he has no mood to physically hold the book (which he has) and read it physically. I wanted to kill him.

Pick up your books, ladies and gentlemen, and join the fight against mediocrity.

Comfortably Numb

I suddenly realized how important it is to LOVE your job. It's more important than the salary, distance from your home and all other considerations. Today during the training I switched off my mind for like half an hour at one shot. I was awake, I appeared to be listening, I even maintained eye contact with the trainer and everyone else but I was thinking of other things. My ears detected speech, yet somehow my brain refused to interpret those words.

It's kinda magical.

And I wonder if my recent affinity to psychedelic rock, like Eric Clapton's 'Let it grow' and Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb' got anything to do with this.

I... have become... comfortably numb.

Woah!

I am utterly impressed with Prison Break's latest episodes on Season 3. Still haven't lost its ideas, twists, and intensity. Watch already can kenna heart attack.

You just can't guess what the writers are thinking.

Work, work, work.

As of right now I have started work with NTUC Income for 3 days. Under training all this time and it will last until the 23rd. It's like having lectures in a small group setting like that. Teaching us how to handle call enquiries. Feels weird. And I actually went past an admin staff and I was thinking, 'Why can't I do this?' Haha. File paper, print paper, shred paper. So simple, should let me do!

My job is actually quite knowledge-intensive. There are a lot of information that I need to know. And it helps if one is street-wise. I am not! I know practically nothing about car insurance, COE, PARF, NCD and these terms. I was thinking I might be more interested to take down notes if they taught Mathematics, Chemistry and the like. Haha. One thing I learnt: Don't ever get into accident. It's a major headache. In fact, with insurance it can be even more of a headache. Other than the information we need to know, I don't think they can really train you to talk properly and politely. I mean, politeness is not a skill, it's a duty. And actually so far I have not met a nasty colleague inside. All of them, including my supervisors are very nice people. They are professionals, but they joke, laugh and talk like the rest of us once outside the phone. They even greet you in the morning and ask how's your day! Maybe, I reckon, it's because they are trained to be good in attitude in the customer service.

Most of my colleagues undergoing training with me are actually looking for a permanent job, and when people looked at how young I am (20, compared to many in their mid 20s and early 30s, all working adults), I have to keep explaining I'm doing this on temporary basis and I still have university (thank God) to look forward to. And I am thankful that I am only going to learn one module compared to at least three for them. Imagine the load of stuff that I really cannot care less being absorbed into a brain that is reserved to learn Maths and Science. It won't do. My colleagues are also very friendly people, though there is this tiny age gap. Only downside is that sometimes they would be talking about taking this insurance module lah, reviewing what they have learnt lah, asking about this industry, which I really don't care. Haha.

How to serve a company well if you don't really love or enjoy the job? I actually hoped that I would somehow like the job more the serve them better during this period. I'm thankful that I'm going after 3 months since I think this job, though with the very nice people around, is still rather boring. The rate of phone calls is also very scary. Once you hang up, I counted; there will be an average of 1 second before another call come. It is crazy! The people were multitasking like mad.

So far the job's been easy, since the whole day is information spoon-feeding and imagining scenarios. But once the job start, that's when the pressure comes. Nasty customers, customers you can't understand, don't know how to answer, too slow...

Pressure, pushing down on me, pushing down on you...

Ridley Scott's American Gangster (2007)

Looks good. I wanna watch!

After Two Years... It's Over.

Derrick Tay is officially a civilian now. He officially holds his beloved Pink IC and has obtained newfound liberty to walk the streets of Singapore.

My army life in a jiffy...

Went through BMT. Battle innoculation course. 7 Day Field Camp. Passing Out Parade. Tekan'ed by platoon sergeant. Learnt many new things. Failed IPPT. Missed out on command school.

Went to Signal Institute at Stagmont Camp. Studied in air con room. Learn the basics of Signalling. Very very nice people. And nice blue bedsheets. Slack!

Went to 3 SIG BN at Jurong Camp. Tekan'ed like mad on our first day there. Whole day stand by bed. 'We are the premium Signal battalion.' Attached out soon.

Went to driving course at Sembawang and Kaki Bukit. Met unreasonable instructors. Tested my patience. Endured it. Class 3 and 4 license.

Went back to 3 SIG BN. Sai kang. Guard Duty. Exercises. Loved driving. "Huat ah!"

Went to Australia. Ex Wallaby. 14 day exercise and 3 days R and R. Had fun.
In 3 SIG for one whole year. IPPT Silver. Can't get Marksman.

Went to Ex Tourmaline. Toughest exercise yet. Bitten by mozzies. Displaced 3 times in 5 days. Best Signal Unit and Best Combat Support Unit.

Made many friends. Crazy people who don't behave normally as they do outside. DOTA outings. Movies. Eat Buffets. And then it's time to leave.

Then finally....

ORD LOH!!! :)