Convocation~ 卒業式

As we go on, we remember, all the times we, had together.

After 4 years, I've finally graduated. I still remember the first day when stepped into NTU as a student looking for a nice course to study. Hmm think I was actually looking to find out more about the design stream in Mechanical Engineering. Then I decided to change my course to Mechanical Engineering from Common Engineering and had an interview there.

If I'm not wrong, I went back to NTU again to prepare for Sports Camp SU13 to paint banners for the group as a freshie and had the camp 2 days later for 7 long and tiring days. I wasn't as fit as the rest of the group and probably didn't perform too well. It's a memorable experience no matter.

Then I stepped into NTU officially as a student on 7 August 2006. I was wearing jeans as I thought I should be more formal as a uni student. Perspired like crazy. Had my Sports Camp group Pumbaa celebrated my 21st birthday 3 days later in school. Had Sports Ball later on in September.

SU13 Sports Ball 2006

And I became a programmer for SU14 after that. Planned and had lots of fun with the SU14 batch. But failed as a programmer when the fire structure which my event partner, Lyanna, and I built painstakingly, overburnt and fell within a minute. I was so devastated.

SU14 Tioman Retreat

Continued with second year of school life, skipping lectures to sleep in late, struggling for examinations every few months, having to study like how I studied for 'A' Levels.

Had Engineering Innovative Design module during the June holidays. We won first prize though I didn't contribute much...

EID 2008

I continued as a programmer for SU15. Met more friends. Had Kok Sing and Audrey as event partners. Did Theme Park for SU15 and planned things to scare the new freshies. It was a great success.

SU15 Theme Park Event IC

SU15 Programmer

Joined the Japanese Appreciation Club as a sub committee member too. Got to know more people, though not as close. Tried to join the wakeboarding club too after getting very interested in cable skiing. But couldn't take the cost of about $50 per 30min of training so stopped going.

Wakeboarding coolness oh yeah~

Then I was in year 3. Had first semester with lots of projects, struggling with time. It was terrible. Never did I have such a busy semester. Worked hard with Kevin and Qingwei. Did a CAD project with Qingwei. I'm proud of this video that we produced using Geneva gear mechanism:

Oh and I took Japanese Level 6 as an elective. It was the elective I liked the most out of everything I took in uni. Never contact most of the classmates already though so don't remember them much...

Japanese Level 6, Semester 1, 2008

Then I finally bought my first camera, Panasonic Lumix. And I finally got to take a photo of the gang with a real camera.

Dated 14 Nov 2008

I wasn't really in the programmer team for SU16 this time round cos I've decided to go for Global Immersion Programme to China. Went for Chingay Parade in the second semester before I flew to Beijing for GIP. It was back in 2009. And soon after that I was in Beijing with Bor, Sihan and Jiwei as flatmates. Think I might have been an asshole sometimes as a friend. Hopefully the guys were ok with me...

Chingay 2009


Flatmates outside Tian An Men

Returned to Singapore around the end of July 2009. Gotten my Final Year Project and went to find Prof Low to talk about it. Think I kind of spoiled the market by finding the prof early... And after 2 semesters of struggling, I finally got this:

Was struggling to form a band while juggling FYP and other subjects. I really didn't want to live life as a normal simple engineer in the future. I wanna be different from others and carve out a new and better life.

Applied for Toshiba in Japan and got the job of design engineer. My path for the next 3.5 years was set to be in Japan, Tokyo, when I placed my signature on the contract paper. Continued with my normal life for the remaining of year 4 semester 2 in NTU. Finally completed the last exam paper on 4 May 2010 and prepared for the final FYP presentation around the end of May. Finally fulfilled my initial goal of starting a band, which is to perform, on 23 July. Took really long...

And finally, on 28 July 2010, I got this:

I can't help but to lament that after 4 arduous years and around $24000, all I get is this piece of paper, 2 sheets of transcript with the grades, and one more certificate for my design specialization.

4 years of life in Nanyang Technological University. It was a really fulfilling experience. I've made people unhappy, argued with people, people made me angry, experienced fireball dropping, experienced mixing with people...so many things... It will be hard to ever forget about the good and bad experiences in university. I had never been through such a fulfilling period of time while studying. With all that I have been through, I am now stepping into the real society, with a first step in Tokyo as a design engineer, AKA Japanese salaryman. Failures will come but they will go. Go through them and hold on hard. Things won't go smoothly all the time but they will end no matter what. Experience everything possible. That is life.

Gig at BluJaz Cafe~~~!!!

Gomen's first gig held at BluJaz Cafe! We were reminded of butterflies in our stomach by our vocalist in the afternoon when she complained about her having it. Luckily we still managed to overcome the butterflies and did relatively well for the gig, considering it's our first.

For me, I did make some mistakes here and there, not sure if anyone noticed it. Oh well.. Now I've learnt that even if you made mistakes, you must act cool and pretend nothing happened. Most people will not notice the mistake in that case.

Two more days

To the gig day... So nervous... I even dreamt of the gig yesterday...

Will try my best! Catch Gomen at BluJaz Cafe at 9 to 930pm on Friday!

Passed my IPPT!

Yes! After 3 tries I finally passed my IPPT!! I still can't believe I actually failed shuttle run and standing broad jump stations. At least I can understand that standing broad jump is possible to fail. But I've never heard of non overweight people failing shuttle run for IPPT.

Just a bit more I could have gotten silver too. Oh well.... Can do it for the next IPPT. I'm not going to take IPPT again for now. Sick of having to do it 3 times...

Busy Busy Busy

With Japanese lessons, guitar practices and FYP project. Gonna start real revision for the Japanese. The lessons are getting tougher and I'm starting to make more and more mistakes.

Gomen's debut gig is next Friday. So fast! Gonna practise more and more and more. I dunno why but I seem to be able to relax my playing style a lot now and can play more at ease. Guess it is useful when I get tensed up during the gig.

And my FYP project. It's starting to get busy. Gonna rush out the device design soon and fabricate it out. Hopefully by somewhere in August it can be done.

New pedal arrangement

...Again. The previous arrangement resulted in loss in dynamics and hollow tone. This time around, I've placed the GT-OD in front of the Distortion III to increase the gain of the pedal for solos. Volume can't be boosted this way hence placed the 10 band eq behind the two pedals. Now it has more gain for solos and the dynamics are back. Not perfect kind of tone yet but I can sense it nearing.

Andy Timmons - Electric Gypsy

Was introduced to this song yesterday. OMG it's nice! Found it normal at first but slowly gotten to understand the song more and got more feelings for it.

Swimming pool

The new sports complex with swimming pool opposite my house is nearly complete now. It's directly beside the reservoir and park. Seems like a good spot for mosquitoes, especially when swimming naked there. The scenery while swimming should be quite nice though. Wanna go there as many times as possible before flying off to Japan!

Germany is out!!

Damn it! From now onwards I'm not going to watch World Cup for the next few years...

4th day of my Japanese lessons is over. It's tiring to keep listening in Japanese. My brain kind of damaged already. But at least I feel the damage each day is getting lesser. Guess Japanese will be as easy as XYZ in another one week's time.

Taken from thE guitaR addicT!

The above picture is a new power supply done by Sanyo. Seems to be able to work well in powering pedals, just like having batteries in the pedals. Might be getting that when it comes to Singapore.

yAaaaa~~

Tomorrow is the start of the Japanese lessons offered by Toshiba. Hope it is fun and interesting and exciting and everything good.

Will be working on my FYP with the new project manager soon. I might be the only one in the whole of NTU to actually go back to work on the FYP, without being an official staff, that was supposed to have ended last semester. I wonder if anyone would call this stupid. I do find it stupid to go back to do up the project to a certain extent but I can't seem to leave the project alonesince no one else, even the new FYP students, would not be able to build the device in time (I think, after what the prof said). Gonna let the uncle stand up and walk as soon as possible. Kind of feel guilty that he can't get to use the device soon.

Rock On~!

Will be doing the first gig for the band on July 23 at BluJaz Cafe~!! I gonna improve my skills more!! Can feel the pro-ness of the whole band already. Can't let them down! Check out Gomen performing from 8 to 8.30pm! We'll be doing Japanese pop and pop-rock and anime songs!