Just some Gibberish

We have moved!!!

2011-10-06T21:20:00.004+08:00

Just Some Gibberish is no longer in operation.
Head over to A Photo A Day, Keeps The Doctor Away!

Monkey in deep thoughts @ Tree Top Walk

2011-04-21T22:28:00.000+08:00

Thirsty? @ Hilltop walk along the Southern Ridges

2011-04-21T22:25:00.001+08:00

Ducks @ Kampong Village

2011-04-21T22:24:00.003+08:00

Boy playing with table football @ Changi Airport T3

2011-04-21T22:24:00.002+08:00

Girlfriend @ Esplanade

2011-04-21T22:23:00.001+08:00

Performance @ Esplanade Concourse

2011-04-21T22:23:00.000+08:00

Nanbantei Japanese Restaurant @ Far East Plaza

2010-12-25T10:30:00.005+08:00

Nanbantei's specialty is with their yakitori or Japanese skewers. This is my 3rd visit there and they did not disappoint. Located at the top floor of Far East Plaza, most people do not know the existence of this fabulous restaurant.

This could be due to the fact that there's hardly any queue outside the restaurant. Most patrons would already have had a taste of the crowd and be convinced that a reservation is a must to avoid disappointment. Others would probably have been discouraged by the long waiting time, typically more than 30mins. But don't be, we once waited for 30mins and it was well worth the wait. Even the Japanese themselves patronize this place, there is surely no mistake about it.

There are 3 yakitori set to choose from:

A-course ($36) being the exotic choice with 12 sticks of exotic yakitori. If ox tongue, chicken liver and the likes are your kind of things, then go ahead and get the A-course to have an exotic gastronomical experience.

B-course ($36) is the chef's recommended choice, featuring 8 chef's recommended yakitori sticks, sashimi, rice, miso soup and a dessert. This is the one I always ordered as, so far, it didn't really disappoint.

C-course ($30) is the vegetarian choice, which is pretty self-explanatory.

Ok, on with the food we go:

Yasai Stick with special miso sauce ($2)

A starters that everyone will get once you get seated. It cost $2 by the way, I'm not sure if you can cancel this but I would say it's worth a try as its a great appetizer. It's definitely the miso paste, you've gotta try it.

Warmed Japanese Sake ($7.80) and Assorted Sashimi [Part of B-course set]

Warmed Sake, great on a cold day, is a bit on the strong side but still manageable.

Sashimi is fresh and nothing much to complain about.

Pork with Shiso Leaf & Asparagus wrapped in Pork [Part of B-course set]

The first thing that came to my mind, and most first timer alike, would have been that the food here is pretty salty. If you get to sit at the counter seats, you get to witness the generosity of the chefs with their sprinkler of salt as they grill the skewers. I would strongly recommend hot green tea to go with the food or that a post meal water parade as a standard procedure.

Mini Tomato Maki & Okra (Lady Finger) [Part of B-course set]

Mini tomato maki is a must try. It's an explosion of flavors inside your mouth; now repeat after me: it explodes. The juice simply bursts out as you bite it and its just feels great and makes you feels like tomatoes just became your heavenly food ever since. Ok exaggerated and oh don't forget to let it cool down just a tiny winy little bit before you attack it, for it burns...enuff said.

Okra was grilled with a right proportion of salt, but nothing special. Its fiber. And you need it. Trust me.

Tsukune (Chicken meatballs) & Chicken with Leek [Part of B-course set]

Tsukune is tender but not juicy, definitely better than the Tori tori ball, no? Leek never tasted so good before, the grilling removes the unpleasant taste that causes most people to have a certain grudge with. grudge with.

Tebasaki (chicken wings) & Garlic Chicken with Leek [Part of B-course set]

Chicken wings was pretty tasty but a tad too salty for our liking. I kinda forgot if that's garlic chicken or garlic pork, I think it's chicken. But nonetheless, eat the garlic leek and chicken together; they blends well.

Sake Harasu (Salmon Belly) ($6.90)

The salmon belly was fresh, to say the least, and it was really juicy and tender, much to our delight and excitement.

Shiitake ($6)

BBQ Japanese mushrooms with all its flavors retained. It's good and juicy. Another option is mushroom stuffed with chicken, also not too bad.

Uzura Tamago (quail's egg) ($4.50)

I was actually having high expectations for this one. But it didn't really work for me. It's worse than hard boiled egg and the sauce really didn't quite blend well.

Tomato Pork Maki with cheese ($5.20)

After having a great experience with the exploding mini tomatoes maki, we decided to try out another of a similar dish. This one uses a tomato, not the mini one duh, cut into wedges and wrapped in pork and cheese. Not too bad as well, kinda preferred the mini ones. But considering this is our last dish and the law of diminishing returns, the result can be biased.

Red bean mochi [Part of B-course set]

Lastly, the dessert is the red bean mochi. It's thick and sweet, and we were very full.

Total time taken was 2 hours and total damage was $125. It was quite worth it, do try it as it could change your opinion about certain vegetables that you once considered untouchable, well.. at least for that meal that is. Service wise, I was hoping the staffs to be a bit more forthcoming; green teas normally goes unfilled and empty plates sometimes are unattended to. But I'm not complaining much, they are a friendly lot and makes the whole dining experience a pretty cozy and enjoyable one.

Nanbantei Japanese Restaurant
Address: 14 Scotts Road #05-132 Far East Plaza Singapore
Tel: +65 6733 5666

Holiday trip @ Bintan Lagoon Resort (12 - 15 Dec 2010)

2010-12-17T13:30:00.004+08:00

Day 1 sightseeing and lazing by beach

Dinner
[Orzo Italian & Mediterranean Restaurant]

Day 2 Go-Karting

Breakfast
[Kopi O]

Day 3 ATV (All Terrain Vehicle), swimming and stroll on the beach

Video during ATV (taken with Nikon D3100!):

Lunch
[3Degree Signature Restaurant]

Dinner
[Room Service food]

Day 4 Buggy ride and home sweet home

Meow

2010-12-10T12:23:00.000+08:00

Hatched @ Evans Lodge

2010-11-25T10:00:00.004+08:00

In yet another of our food adventure in search of good breakfast place, we chanced upon this place called Hatched. It is very near to the NUS Law campus at Bukit Timah. So, it's a bit of a walk in, but its all worth it. And as the name suggest, Hatched's specialty is of course eggs! All kinds of eggs: boiled, poached, baked, fried, scrambled, omelettes. But I've been warned of my unhealthy eggs consumption of late, so yes will be eating lesser..

Apple Orange Juice ($4.50 Each)

Popeye's Salute ($14)

We decided to try out this version of egg Benedict which have spinach (and thus the name) instead of ham. Well other than the fact that the eggs are so puny, I must say that the spinach doesn't really go well with the rest of the ingredients. It taste very weird with the spinach; somehow the spinach causes the taste of the whole dish to be very separated. First, the spinach taste kicks in, which had a slight hint of a bittery taste. Follow by the egg with the hollandaise sauce and then the muffin. By itself, all taste great. But as a whole, it just feels wrong; better to stick with the original Eggs Benedict with ham which is called the Sir Benedict here.

Comes with tomato and mash potatoes as side dishes

Pancake Party with caramelized apples ($8)

The pancake is omg very fluffy and thus a bit too filling. But it's toasted pretty nicely and with the syrup and the cream, there's not much complain to this dish.

Where's Waffle? with black forest ham and egg ($12)

The waffle was pretty normal, but the ham was really good. The egg was disappointing.

Spent around $20 per person. Their service is a bit slow, but hey there's no service charge... It's a pretty cozy place to chill out on a nice Sunday morning.

Hatched
Address: 26 Evans Road #01-06 Evans Lodge Singapore
Tel: +65 6735 0012
Website: http://www.hatched.sg/

Of the lenses I want or want to try out

2010-11-24T09:30:00.000+08:00

The AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f1.8G (~SGD 300+):

I'm currently using this one a lot and have thus replace my 18-55mm kit lens. Pretty good for low light shooting and its extremely light-weighted so it's quite fun carrying it around together with the D40. So far I'm more than satisfied with this purchase.

AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f4-5.6G IF-ED (~SGD 300+):

I think I will be getting this one next for the telescopic zoom ranges from 55-200mm focal length. I've never play with such ranges before so I'm not quite sure whether this lens suit my needs. But I guess I could use it to capture people and their expression at ease (as most people are not natural with a camera too close) as well as for macro purposes? If this is not my kind of thing, I can always get rid of it by selling in clubsnap forum.

AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f1.4G (~SGD 800+):

If the 55-200mm doesn't work for me, I will probably go straight into this one with a whopping aperture of 1.4. As I dun really like high ISO (very grainy photos), I usually compensate with wider aperture size (smaller f stop number) than to increase the ISO under poor light conditions.

AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f3.5-4.5G ED (~SGD 1.3K+):

This ultra wide zoom lens is of course the least priority of them all and its here because I've always wanted to try an ultra wide. But the price is ultra expensive too...! Haa

Feedback from colleagues

2010-11-18T15:10:00.002+08:00

The person:

The work:

Our lunch and muffins

2010-11-15T22:32:00.006+08:00

Our homemade lunch:

Potatoes with egg mayo with various side dishes. Pan-fried thyme chicken breast, sautéed mushroom, boiled broccoli and cherry tomatoes.

Baking session after lunch:

Blueberry muffins

Blueberry muffins, mini version

Melody's first month 06-11-2010

2010-11-06T16:36:00.004+08:00

Melody is my cousin's daughter and it's her first month!! Omg I uncle liao...jeez

This one is another cousin's son, also around 1 month old:

Food for thought @ Singapore Art Museum

2010-11-06T10:00:00.003+08:00

We wanted to check out a photography exhibition called Table for one by Samantha Tio, featuring photos of solo diners in Singapore. The exhibits are placed in the above mentioned cafe called Food for Thought and we thought we will just go there and take a look as well as try out their food there. Well well guess what? It's eggs again for me hahaa.

But but but, we went on a Sunday evening and they've got all the photos covered up with black cloths. They say that is for the Halloween event at night. Jeez. But nvm, the food was great and I guess we have to go back again some time next week or so.

Customized breakfast: Scrambled eggs, roasted tomato salad, garlic mushrooms and toasted brioche ($13)

Oh yes, they allow us to customize our breakfast with quite a wide selections available, including scrambled eggs, sunny side up eggs, bacon, sausages, etc etc. Do, however, note that their breakfast menu ends at 5.30pm.

Sautéed garlic Mushrooms

Scrambled eggs on the toasted brioche.

I hope the photos of this dish looks delicious. Because it is quite close to the perfection I'm looking for, their scrambled eggs are of great soft texture with cream complimenting the eggs in quite right the proportion that I wanted. While my standards aren't really that high, I should mention that we had this dish at around 5pm, just a few hours after a hearty brunch at Prive earlier that noon and a long trek down hortpark and the southern ridges. We were both not feeling that hungry at all, so it was rather surprising of how much my appetite was whipped up after tasting that scrambled eggs.

The brioche was very rich in the taste of butter, very tasty when eaten with the scrambled eggs. It also felt a bit too dry for me but I'm not sure if it's meant to be that way.

Pesto Chicken Linguine ($14)

It was tasty and flavorful, though I thought it might be a bit dry. More sauce would have been great. The portions of ingredients are also quite generous. Ok I know I'm biased! Only commented so little for this while the scrambled eggs got so much attention. Hee.

Spent around $20 per person. And oh there's no service charge. Because "It is our pleasure to serve you.", that's what they printed on their menu. However, you can tip them if you are happy with their service and donate to the Give Clean Water Fund.

Food for thought
Address: Queen Street 8 Singapore
Tel: +65 6338 9887

The garden slug @ Telok Kurau

2010-11-04T23:30:00.003+08:00

This is our 2nd visit to this place and i must say we were disappointed... Located at quite a remote area in telok kurau's bright centre, it was quite a search the first time round. The staffs were friendlier the first time. I'm not sure, perhaps the not-up-to-expectations food spoils it all.

Carrot pumpkin ginger soup with almonds bits and peppermint leafs. The ginger taste was omg so strong.

Dory Fillet. I wouldn't say its horrible, but it really left a bad impression. The fish itself wasn't the problem. The freshness and texture was decent, just that the whole fish had this burnt smell and taste. The fish wasn't burnt though, it's just that it taste burnt, probably the grills they used are so burnt such that the food taste of them. Jeez.

The mash potato is worth mentioning as it's pretty tasty with a nice combination of butter. I would say it's one of the best I've tried.

Portobello vegetarian burger. Ok, first off, the potatoes patty was burnt at the side, pretty gross out. 2ndly, the portobello mushroom was undercooked; the flavors of the mushroom wasn't brought out as a result. We had to ask the cook to grill it more.

There is celery and carrots as sides, both raw.

Spent around $20 per person. Their main attractions are most likely their mixed grills, which from what I heard and read was not too bad. Our first visit we had lamb chop and it left quite a good impression. Perhaps, healthier choices here are not that much recommended then. Their slogan is "eat drink don't think", sorry lor i think too much and don't really agree with you on that.

The garden slug
Address: 55 Lorong L Telok Kurau #01-59/61 Bright Centre Singapore
Tel: +65 6346 0504

Prive bakery cafe @ Keppel Bay

2010-10-31T23:00:00.003+08:00

I am sorry if I somehow bore anyone with all the brunch food because here's going to be another one. Prive is yet another brunch place she found and this one is in a rather remote place, or so we thought, near vivocity. Prive is on an offshore island called Keppel Island. Previously, this island used to be for shipping repair purpose for Keppel. Now, it's a safe haven for the yacht and shipping community. Anyway, it's just across a short bridge and the cafe will be near in sight. We reached at around 11 and there's no queue at all! This place, like Epicurious is also full of expats.

Carrot apple celery juice and apple orange fruit juice ($8 each)

Eggs Royale with Smoked Salmon ($14.50) and mushrooms toppings (+$3)

As you can probably and hopefully see here, the egg yolk is quite runny, much to my delight. The hollandaise sauce is not as rich as that of Epicurious and this one is with smoke salmon instead of ham. I was craving for more after eating one (we had one each) but resisted the temptation as I promised not to eat too much eggs... hahaa this is really good stuff if you're an egg person like me.

Fluffy Pancakes with honeycomb, strawberries and bananas ($11)

She had cravings for pancakes for the whole week and here it is. Choosing the syrup over the whipped cream as the latter is fattening. I'm not really a big fan of pancakes so I shall not comment too much. She found it delicious with not much to pick on and I supposed that's enough for me. Hahaa

Hazelnut Praline ($6.80)

Ended our brunch with a slice of cake, very chocolaty and dense.

Spent around $30 per person, a bit more expensive than I expected but I have no complaints at all. A great place for dinning, with very friendly staff and cozy environment, surely worth a try i say!

Ah Yat Tian Xia @ Orchard Central

2010-10-24T14:18:00.013+08:00

It's my dad's birthday and I thought of bringing my folks out for a meal. Since I have on my hands a large pile of Ah Yat Tian Xia's voucher, so here we are at orchard eating abalone and shark's fin..

This branch of Ah Yat featured a budgeted version of abalone and shark's fin. Their set is really affordable where 30 bucks is enough to get you their 3 treasures of abalone, shark's fin and bird nest. Having said that however, since it's a budgeted alternative, don't expect too much out of the quality and size of the abalone..

6ppc Abalone (6头鲍) with mushroom

Abalone and shark's fins soup with rice

Yes a 10ppc abalone (10头鲍) comes with this dish and its puny puny puny! Hahaa.

Braised Shark's Fins soup in claypot

The shark's fin soup really surprised me with the quantity. For the kind of price, I was expecting much much lesser fins. Ya although they are small, it's still a decent amount. And the quality was not that bad either, although I feel they could go easy on the bean sprouts... I find a tad too much bean sprout taste in the soup...

Around $25 per person. I would say its quite value for money, if you are looking for a cheaper alternative of abalone and shark's fin, this is the place. The staffs were pretty friendly and approachable too.

Ah Yat Tian Xia
Address: 181 Orchard Road #05-34 Orchard Central Singapore
Tel: +65 6884 9979

Halloween Horror @ Night safari

2010-10-24T01:05:00.000+08:00

Epicurious @ the Quayside

2010-10-18T17:40:00.007+08:00

Ok, my craving for eggs was once again answered by my girlfriend. Epicurious is yet another great breakfast place she found. This one is by the river, at Robertson Quay. Had a bit of hunting around to do, but it wasn't really that hard to find; just across that colorful bridge.

This place is practically littered with expats (and their dogs); seems like quite a famous breakfast place for them. We arrived at around 11am on a Sunday morning and it's already full. But worry not, we were being warned of its notorious queue. Some reviews claimed up to 30 mins of waiting, yet it took us barely 5 mins to land a seat. Lucky!

Mixed fruit juice. We have here an apple-orange juice and carrot-orange juice, each costing $5. Yes a bit too pricey for the puny little cup that they came in. But it was pure and freshly squeezed, with ice separately served for your own adding according to your preference, of which we added none. I would say its quite a good start to the meal with those refreshing juices.

In case you are wondering, they served cold water in those vodka bottles (photo above). So don't be caught by surprise when they place that bottle of goodness in front of you before you even order anything...

Choco-nana sandwich ($5), toasted bread with bananas and Nutella fillings. I found them a tad too sweet though. But she, the nutella-lover, simply loved and enjoyed the dish.

Egg Benedict ($12), English muffins with ham and poached eggs, topped with hollandaise sauce. We both had our eyes on this one and it didn't disappoint.

Poking the egg yolk out of the poached eggs. Well, they didn't really flow out as smoothly as I imagined it, had to force it out to get the effect. Even though it's not runny enough for me, it was still yummy nonetheless. And with the hollandaise sauce and muffin, it's a great combination.

Ratatouille Omelette ($12)

The ratatouille consist of eggplant, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and zucchinis. It was really appetizing and gosh I loved it with the omelette and bread. Ok I love eggs in general and might be biased, but this is quite irresistible.

Yes, I have to admit this is a very filling brunch that we had, with so much eggs and bread. We were so filled to the brim and bloated for the whole afternoon, so much so that we didn't really feel hungry till very late into the evening for dinner.

Spent about $20 per person, I would say it's pretty worth it. Though the reviews were quite right in that the service wasn't really that great, it wasn't as disastrous as some lamented either. Do check it out if you are up for some nice brunch!

Epicurious
Address: 60 Robertson Quay #01-02 The Quayside Singapore
Tel: +65 6734 7720

New lens: The Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX

2010-10-17T22:00:00.000+08:00

Wild Honey @ Mandarin Gallery

2010-10-12T16:49:00.011+08:00

I'm really a huge fan of scrambled eggs. So when my gal found this place, I was understandably juiced up as I drools over the photos of their menus in the reviews i found. So there we were, visiting the place twice within a week to satisfy my seemingly unfathomable craving for this restaurant that proclaims "all about beautiful breakfast". Or brunch. Well we had them for dinner, but ya, it's a all day breakfast menu so let's not worry too much about the time of the day.

Please please please pardon the quality of the photos as they did not do justice to the food due to my lack of photography skill to bring out the best in them.

We tried the Tunisian, English, Californian and I Love New York. I wished I had taken the photos of the first 2 as we believed they are the main attraction.

Tunisian with a sizzling pan of red pepper, onion and tomato concise studded with sliced chorizo sausage and crowned with two fried eggs. It was slightly spicy the last I remembered it. It also came with toasted bread for you to dip into the sizzling stew and the sunny side egg yolk. Shiok!

The English was real sinful with creamy scrambled eggs, pork sausage, sauteed mushrooms, dad's baked beans, bacon and vine ripened tomato with toasted brioche. The portion was generous and I could hardly finished it. I never really liked bacon, but they looked slightly too burnt for me. The scrambled egg was tastefully done and so were the mushrooms.

Californian came with eggs softly scrambled with tofu, yellow and red peppers, fresh herbs on char-grilled ciabatta. This dish came with no meat and the pepper taste generally covers the rest. A healthier choice!

I Love New York is another hot favorites featuring softly scrambled eggs with caramelized onions, imported smoked sturgeon and served with a toasted sesame bagel, cream cheese and vine tomatoes. The vine tomatoes was great, they just burst in your mouths. The scrambled eggs was not too bad, just that the smoked sturgeon tasted somewhat more like something between bacon and salmon.. The bagel was quite tasty, especially with the cheese and the eggs. I'm more than satisfied!

Price is on the high side though, we spent around 25 bucks per person for both visit.

Wild Honey
Address: 333A Orchard Road #03-02 Mandarin Gallery Singapore
Tel: +65 6235 3900

Paradise Dynasty @ ION Orchard

2010-10-10T00:54:00.010+08:00

Paradise Dynasty's specialty is in the xiao long bao and the la mein with their signature pork bone soup. I was attracted by their 8-flavors xiao long bao sampler to try them out with my gal. The 8 different flavors can be seen from the photos above.

Clockwise from Black Truffle: The black truffle's taste was weird, bad combination i supposed.

Foei Gras: Actually we didn't really wana get the foei gras, but the waitress decline our request for a replace. But in any case, I failed to appreciate this delicacy; not really my kind of thing.

Ginseng: There is a bit of the ginseng taste but the pork taste was too strong and it covers the ginseng flavors. Other than that it's really not that special.

Garlic: The garlic augmented the original taste pretty well and I thought it was next best to the original. But of course if you are the kind who can't stand garlic taste, that's a different story.

Szechuan: Szechuan was a bit too spicy to my liking. It's the kind of numbing ma la szechuan kinda spicy, I only had a bit of it and I already felt the numbness. Hahaa..

Cheese: It wasn't significant, just some cheesy taste to the pork.

Crab roe: Taste was too fishy. Sorry to say this but we prefer the one from ding tai fung...

White in the middle is the original: We are of the opinion that the original one still works the best for us, although it was slightly too sweet to our liking. The skin is thinner than that of their competitors and that we appreciate.

Other than the sampler, we had 6 more original xiao long bao to satisfy my cravings. We also got the la mien and it was pretty tasty. I had it with the vegetable pork dumplings and she had it with pan-fried chicken.

The price is also reasonable. Sampler costs $13.80 and the la mien is typically around 10 bucks. Total damage was around $25 per person.

Paradise Dynasty
Address: 2 Orchard Turn #04-12A ION Orchard Singapore
Tel: +65 6509 9118

Hong Kong 22-25 Aug 2010

2010-09-12T22:00:00.001+08:00

Day 1 Airport

Day 1 Dinner @ Mi-Ne Sushi
[Mi-Ne Sushi, G/F, Chong Hing Square, 601 Nathan Road, Mong Kok]

Day 2 Lamma Island

Day 2 Dinner @ Sai Kung
[全記海鮮菜館 Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant, Sai kung, man nin st 87-89]

[Honeymoon dessert, G/F., 9-10C Po Tung Road, Sai Kung, (852) 2792-4991]

Day 3 Dim Sum Breakfast
[Luk Yu Tea House, 24 Stanley Street, Central, 2523 5464]

Day 3 Ocean Park

Day 4 Home sweet home!

ECP Picnic 30 Aug 2010

2010-09-01T23:00:00.000+08:00

ECP cycling

2010-08-17T10:28:00.003+08:00

Cycling at ECP always brings back beautiful memories as we had our first date here. I could still remember that lovely day where we cycled and chatted all the way from ecp mac to changi village and back. Ok to avoid being overly emo or anything, I shall not digress further and go straight to the photos ba..(too lazy these days to type so let photos do most talking hahaa =p)

Resting and seeking shelter from the rain; erm really think god dun wan us to cycle cos everytime we seek shelter the rain stops...or is He creating other opportunities for us..? ahem..

Smile!

Resting by the breakwaters..

Sleeping...

Watched this wang lee hom movie, quite touching, especially love the theme song:

Waiting for movie to start...dunno she stoning or emo-ing here hahaa

NDP 2010

2010-08-13T20:57:00.004+08:00

The day started off with a foot massage at kenko to ease the soreness in our legs from the previous day's ubin cycling. We did the fish spa thingy also, which was supposed to be for removing of dead skins and promote blood circulation from the "micro-massaging" from the fishes...but all we had was lots and lots of micro-ticklish sensation...hahaa

Next up, we went to a nearby restaurant, Olio cafe at marina square for dinner:

Pondering over what to eat

Portobello mushroom salad with sun-dried tomatoes and pumpkins

Portobello mushroom sandwich with sweet potato fries

Yummy!

After which we joined in the crowd and watch the NDP actions:

Ended off the night chilling at coffee bean with 2 hot chocolates

Of Ubin cycling outing 08 Aug 2010

2010-08-11T23:40:00.000+08:00

On the way to ubin, taking the bumboat from changi jetty

Tiredness sets in..

Wild flowers by the road side

The Famous "Oh yeh oh yeh y u so like that" drinks stall

Caught a fly on a bench in mamma beach!

Mushroom

On the way back, gal practicing her 自拍 technique again..lol

Yay, so happy can go home liao!

Dinner in cafe cartel in tampines

Chicken salad

Chilling out in Starbucks

Our first baking class - Macarons

2010-07-31T23:00:00.003+08:00

Never thought I would ever do this, but yea, I went for a baking class at Palate sensations with my gf (on my birthday actually hahaa) and we made macarons!

She made this chocolate macaron

I made this...

This one is lemon curd macaron, dunnno who made this one haa

Of tree top walk and hortpark

2010-07-22T21:53:00.020+08:00

So there we were thinking what we should do for last weekend, preferably something that allows us to workout a bit, since we have been eating a lot like 2 pigs lately, and I really meant a lot (read: 2 person with a table of 1 huge chili crab, 1 samba stingray, 1 oyster omelette, chicken wings, satays…)

Gal was suggesting Hortpark so that can walk walk and take photos. But then I decided to throw in a tree top walk as well, which surprisingly she agreed. Well, my gal is certainly not your typical girl who hates walking in the forest huh? So proud of her! =]

And came that lovely Sunday where 2 of us arrived at Venus drive (yes, starting point nearer to the tree top) to begin our journey to the tree top with lots of enthusiasm and energy.

Drizzling…

Its ok, we thought and ventured deeper into the dirt track.

People were heading out as we walked further in…and the track was getting muddier and shoes getting wet and soiled (omg!)…

Should we continue? A bit like not what we were expecting the walk to be…

But then somehow we managed to persist on and finally we saw some signs of us heading somewhere…and snapped a few photos hahaa.

"Yay, it's 1.5km more..."

Acting cute!!

We managed to hit a road (island club road; hint to first timer, no need walk so much of the dirt track to get to tree top walk, use this road instead pls…) and joined more trekkers ahead of us, reassuring ourselves that we were on the right track…Walk quite a while more and hit a road sign that says 1+ km more to tree top walk…and I thought it felt like we already walked for 1+ km already no??!!…jeez.. Still drizzling...heard the tree top walk will be closed if weather no good, oh no..how how?

Nevertheless we persisted on and lo & behold we reached the entrance of the tree top walk and somehow the rain stopped!! (We thought it's gotta be some kind of divine intervention that was at work hahaaa, such great timing as once we got off the tree top walk, it started to drizzle again!! heh.) And the sun even came out a bit so that we had gd lighting for the following shots:

The tree top walk

Water droplets on the leaves after the drizzle

Pointing out at the canopy and excited over the achievement of reaching the tree top walk

My gal loves this one hahaa, let's caption this photo as: "looking out into the future filled with hopes and dreams"

She took this photo of me, not bad eh?

Turning back to check on me, just in time to snap one gd shot of her, heh

Next up, we went over to hortpark but it was still drizzling and managed to shot a few shots below:

It started raining heavily and she was actually holding an umbrella to shelter us while taking this last shot...haha

Meow Meow

2010-07-19T23:36:00.002+08:00

The big guns

2010-07-17T09:10:00.003+08:00

155mm field gun from NDP 2010 Rehearsal

Meow

2010-07-17T09:00:00.004+08:00

My ride (I wish...)

2010-07-16T22:50:00.000+08:00

Caught a sleeping bee?

2010-07-13T21:15:00.002+08:00

My first decent (but still very noobish) macro shot

2010-07-12T22:00:00.002+08:00

Kopi Talks

2010-04-25T16:40:00.005+08:00

Now contributing in Kopi Talks.

Of Chinese New Year

2010-02-13T02:46:00.004+08:00

Sometimes, whenever I hear the phrase "Happy New Year", I find myself having to bite back the reply "Whats so happy about it?". I'm sure people used this phrase at the start of 2009, and that didn't stop it from being a relatively lousy year, globally speaking, did it?

Its as if the mere act of wishing another person a happy new year will miraculously transform that person's year from being rubbish to being the epitome of joy. Or is it accumulative, where the more people that wish you a happy new year, the happier your year will be? Hermits and small villages must lead very miserable lives then.

Oh wait. Whats that you say? Its meant to be just a polite salutation? Doesn't make it very different from "Good Afternoon", or "Have a nice day", does it? So what makes this particular day, out of 365.2422 days in a year, so special that it deserves a different, and 'enhanced' greeting? Or is it just an excuse to relieve the monotony of giving the same salutation everyday?

I can accept greetings for religious observances and other festivals, it means something to the people who observe them. What about a new year? Isn't it just a routine administrative change, set so that people won't have to go "today is the seven hundred and twenty-fourth thousand, one hundred and thirty-seventh day since *insert arbitrary starting point* "? Some people start counting from the birth of a king, others keep count from the phases of the moon or the change of the seasons. What does it really matter? If I declare tomorrow to be the start of a new year according to my new calendar, can I start wishing everyone a happy new year then? The only practical difference between my calendar and the current calendar, would be popular(global) usage. Which is not a good reason if you think about it. It means if I can convince enough people to use my calendar, I can arbitrarily change the date of a new year. So anyone could choose a date of their own and declare it the start of the new year. So shouldn't you really be saying, "Happy Next-Year-of-Your-Life," everyday? Oops. Starts to sound like "Good Afternoon" doesn't it?

Even if tomorrow is the start of a new year, its still just another day in your life. Big deal. Whether or not it'll be happy lies partly within your control, and partly within the things you cannot control. You wanna be happy? Go out and make your own happiness. You definitely won't get it by exchanging "happy" greetings with each other, and hope that the rest of the year will pass blissfully.

Or maybe I just hit the real reason why people exchange such greetings. Hope. Which is to the meaning of life as oxygen is to the lungs, as Emil Brunner would say. I cannot deny hope to those who need it; we all need it to carry on at some point or another. But do we really require an administrative change in the recording of the passage of time to renew our hopes?

And sometimes I start to question: why hope at all? As Nietzsche says, “Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.” Do you think there is anything you could actually achieve now that will make a difference to YOU two hundred years from now? Yeah, I know, the contributions to mankind and the collective memories of mankind, and the progress of the human species etc. But what difference does it make to YOU whether the human race progresses or not? I like to think that I'll be at peace in two hundred years time, or that I'll have ceased to care what I did in my lifetime. Which makes anything I achieve while alive pointless. What a cheerful thought.

But heaven forbid I play the grinch in this festive season. I'll still smile and return your greetings. But now you know what I'm thinking don't you? Lol.

Let me end off on a slightly more cheerful note. To the intrepid reader who has come thus far, let me now offer you a salutation for the/every season. May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy. =)

Of pack of biscuits

2009-12-21T20:14:00.001+08:00

One night there was a woman at the airport who had to wait for several hours before catching her next flight. While she waited, she bought a book and a pack of biscuits to spend the time. She looked for a place to sit and waited. She was deep into her book, when suddenly she realized that there was a young man sitting next to her who was stretching his hand and grabbing the pack of cookies lying between them. He started to eat them one by one. Not wanting to make a fuss about it she decided to ignore him. The woman, slightly bothered, ate the cookies and watched the clock, while the young and shameless thief was also finishing them. The woman started to get really angry at this point and thought, "If I wasn't such a good and educated person, I would have given this daring man a black eye by now." Every time she ate a biscuit, he had one too. The dialogue between their eyes continued and when only one biscuit was left, she wondered what he was going to do. Softly and with a nervous smile, the young man grabbed the last biscuit and broke it in two. He offered one half to the woman while he ate the other half. Briskly she took the biscuit and thought, "What an insolent man! How uneducated! He didn't even thank me!" She has not met anyone like this and was relieved to hear her flight announced. She grabbed her bags and went towards the boarding gate, refusing to look back to where that insolent thief was seated. After boarding the plane and nicely seated, she looked for her book which was nearly finished by now. While looking in to her bag she was totally surprised to find her pack of biscuits nearly intact. "If my biscuits are here", she thought feeling terribly, “those others were his and he tried to share them with me." Too late to apologize to the young man, she realized with pain, that it was her who had been insolent, uneducated and a thief, and not him.

How many times in our lives, had we known with certainty that something happened in a certain way, only to discover later that it wasn't true? How many times has our lack of trust within us made us judge other people unfairly with our conceited ideas, often far away from reality.

Moral of the story:
Think twice before we judge others.

Everyone has a story

2009-11-04T22:22:00.002+08:00

Everyone has a story. The story of how our paths crossed, of the reason we chose to work in our company was an interesting story to share. The decision to join this industry, the opinion about this industry, the passion of their research and their work, their vision of their future or the lack of it. Their view of the merger, the good, the bad, their plan for the future, what will they do if they get retrenched, what they will do if they get relocated overseas, the rumors they heard, the stories they shared.

There are also stories of various events in people lives. The decision to get married, the excitement of a pregnant colleague, the sorrow of a miscarriage of another, the joy from receiving a proposal ring with a 1 karat diamond worth over 10k, the enthusiasm of moving into his new condo, the sadness of an old cleaner grappling with her illness, the enjoyment of another having his children bringing him out for a movie, the enviousness for the young of another colleague wishing he still had the energy to play with his kids and many more stories filled my days.

There are also of course gossips. The scandal of the boss, who he hated, who he liked and hated afterwards, what kind of people he like, what people did to get into his good books. The story of the other colleagues from other people, what has she done wrong, what opportunity she lost, why he was not well liked by others, what he did to climb up the ladder, why you shouldn’t trust certain people, and many more uglier side of the workplace.

I’m glad I have lots of people to talk to each day, there is someone for me to talk to about stocks and investment, and we shared lots of knowledge and insights of the stock market and how to manage our investments. There is also someone for me to talk to about general career advice and also the sharing of some technique knowledge. There is someone for me to tease and disturb to lighten up each others day. There is someone for me to listen to, for she will pour out her problems and complains about her boyfriend at times or otherwise sharing how great he is. There is someone (my direct superior) for me to crap about anything and of course a great pool of technical knowledge for me to tap on too. There are a lot more for me to casually chat to as well for which I am grateful for their friendliness.

Everyone, no matter who they are, where they came from, old or young, fresh or experienced, has a story to tell; everyone has something for us to learn from and I have been fortunate and privileged to have learnt from their stories. And as I listened to others’ stories, each with their own unique perspective and importance on their lives, I struggled with my own purpose in my life and my career.

Everyone has a story. What’s yours?

Chartered Semiconductor's shareholders approve ATIC deal

2009-11-04T19:48:00.003+08:00

SINGAPORE --(Channelnewsasia)-- Shareholders of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have voted in favour of Advanced Technology Investment Company or ATIC's offer to acquire the chipmaker.

A total of 82.56 per cent of the shareholders present at an extraordinary general meeting in Singapore on Wednesday approved the proposal. This represents about 99.83 per cent of the shares held by shareholders.

The acquisition still requires customary approvals.

Under the deal, ATIC offered Chartered shareholders S$2.68 for each Chartered share. The transaction represents an equity value of about S$2.5 billion and a total value of around S$5.6 billion, including debt and convertible redeemable preference shares.

ATIC is a technology investment company wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. This is its second major investment in the semiconductor industry following the setup of Globalfoundries in March.

Dilbert Cartoon- Engineers

2009-10-11T23:19:00.001+08:00

Can he lead a normal life? No, he will be an Engineer....

ATIC Makes Bid to Acquire Chartered

2009-09-08T23:28:00.004+08:00

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advanced Technology Investment Company LLC (ATIC) of Abu Dhabi and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Chartered) of Singapore today announced a definitive agreement whereby ATIC would acquire Chartered, one of the world’s top dedicated semiconductor foundries.

Offer Details

The proposed acquisition will be effected by way of a scheme of arrangement under section 210 of the Companies Act of Singapore, subject to the approval of Chartered shareholders and the sanction of the High Court of Singapore. The transaction is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2009. Completion of the transaction will be subject to customary conditions, such as regulatory and shareholder approvals. Details can be found in the joint scheme announcement that has been filed with the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (SGX), as well as in the scheme document to be sent to Chartered shareholders.

Under this scheme of arrangement, each Chartered ordinary share will be acquired by ATIC for a cash consideration of S$2.68 per share. The transaction represents an equity value of approximately S$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) and a total value of approximately S$5.6 billion (US$3.9 billion), including debt and convertible redeemable preference shares of approximately S$3.1 billion (US$2.2 billion) as of June 30, 2009. The price represents a premium of 14.2 percent to its 30 trading-day volume weighted average price, 26.8 percent to its 90 trading-day volume weighted average price and 44.2 percent to its 6-month volume weighted average price on the SGX. The estimated amount of consideration for each American Depositary Share ("ADSs") is US$18.641. The actual amount per ADS that ADS holders will receive will depend on the applicable prevailing exchange rate, less the amount of applicable ADS depositary's fees, taxes and expenses.

ATIC is a technology investment company wholly owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. This acquisition is its second major investment in the semiconductor industry and follows the company’s March 2009 creation of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, a U.S.-headquartered, leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing company and a joint venture with AMD. The acquisition of Chartered will be made through ATIC International Investment Company LLC, a subsidiary of ATIC. Once the transaction is completed, ATIC will be the sole owner of Chartered.

The transaction will allow ATIC to build on the complementary platforms of Chartered and GLOBALFOUNDRIES, with Chartered’s customer relationships and capabilities in both 8-inch and 12-inch fabrication, and GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ advanced technology expertise, capacity profile and global footprint.

“We believe that by having access to ATIC’s long-term capital and related assets, Chartered has an opportunity to bring its skills, capabilities and leadership to the next level,” said Waleed Al Mokarrab, Chairman of ATIC. “By acquiring Chartered, ATIC is expanding its investments in the semiconductor industry which currently consist of a GLOBALFOUNDRIES leading facility in Dresden, Germany and a new, state-of-the-art facility under construction in upstate New York.”

Pending appropriate board approvals, Doug Grose, chief executive officer of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, would serve as CEO of the combined operations, with Chia Song Hwee, CEO of Chartered, serving as chief operating officer. Chia will also spearhead the integration effort.

“Chartered’s board of directors recognizes the efforts of the management team and employees on the considerable progress they have made,” said Jim Norling, chairman of the board of directors at Chartered. “Given the importance of scale and the need for substantial, continued capital investment, and having carefully assessed all strategic options available to Chartered, we believe this transaction provides Chartered shareholders the opportunity to realize their investment. In addition, it enables Chartered to accelerate its goal of becoming a leading player in the semiconductor industry. We have today appointed Deutsche Bank AG, Singapore Branch as an independent financial advisor to advise shareholders on the fairness of the offer, and we will submit the proposal for a shareholder vote.”

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte. and Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd. serve as joint financial advisors to Chartered, and each provided a fairness opinion to the board of directors of Chartered in connection with the transaction.

Temasek Holdings, which currently owns approximately 62 percent of Chartered’s shares, also fully supports the acquisition and has signed an irrevocable undertaking to vote in support of the transaction.

“Chartered and GLOBALFOUNDRIES will be able to draw on each other’s strengths to enable the next generation of semiconductor innovation, utilizing the value of both companies and the intellectual capital of thousands of skilled employees,” said Ibrahim Ajami, CEO of ATIC. “Chartered and GLOBALFOUNDRIES are well positioned to meet the growing chip demand to come from billions of new mobile phones, cars, televisions, computers and other devices.”

RESPONSIBILITY STATEMENT

The directors of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (Chartered) (including those who may have delegated detailed supervision of the preparation of this Press Release) have taken all reasonable care to ensure that the facts stated and opinions expressed in this Press Release are fair and accurate and no material facts have been omitted from this Press Release, and they jointly and severally accept responsibility accordingly. Where any information has been extracted from published or publicly available sources, the sole responsibility of the directors of Chartered has been to ensure through reasonable enquiries, that such information is accurately extracted from such sources or, as the case may be, reflected or reproduced in this Press Release.

The directors of both the Advanced Technology Investment Company LLC (ATIC) and ATIC International Investment Company LLC (including those who may have delegated detailed supervision of the preparation of this Press Release) have taken all reasonable care to ensure that the facts stated and opinions expressed in this Press Release are fair and accurate and no material facts have been omitted from this Press Release, and they jointly and severally accept responsibility accordingly. Where any information has been extracted from published or publicly available sources, the sole responsibility of the directors of ATIC and the directors of ATIC International Investment Company LLC has been to ensure through reasonable enquiries, that such information is accurately extracted from such sources or, as the case may be, reflected or reproduced in this Press Release.

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte. and Citigroup Global Markets Singapore Pte. Ltd. serve as joint financial advisors to Chartered and each provided a fairness opinion to the board of directors of Chartered as to the scheme consideration to be paid to the shareholders of Chartered in the transaction, which opinions are based upon the considerations and subject to the qualifications set forth therein.

For more information on the announcement, go to: www.advancedtechnologyic.com and www.charteredsemi.com.

About Chartered

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (Nasdaq:CHRT)(SGX:CHARTEREDSC), one of the world’s top dedicated semiconductor foundries, offers leading-edge technologies down to 40/45 nanometer (nm), enabling today’s system-on-chip designs. The company further serves its customers’ needs through a collaborative, joint development approach on a technology roadmap that extends to 22nm. Chartered’s strategy is based on open and comprehensive design enablement solutions, manufacturing enhancement strategies, and a commitment to flexible sourcing. In Singapore, the company owns or has an interest in six fabrication facilities, including a 300mm fabrication facility and five 200mm facilities. Information about Chartered can be found at www.charteredsemi.com.

About ATIC

The Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) was created in 2008. A technology investment company wholly owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi, ATIC is focused on making significant investments in the advanced technology sector, both locally and internationally. Its mandate is to generate returns that deliver long-term benefits to the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

ATIC seeks to leverage the unique advantages it enjoys as an investor from the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to identify and realize long-term investment opportunities in the highly competitive and capital-intensive advanced technology sector. These advantages include significant and reliable capital, a patient investment philosophy, and a subsequently long-term investment horizon. For more information about ATIC visit www.advancedtechnologyic.com

Of rich son poor son

2009-09-06T19:40:00.002+08:00

Of the mistakes we make and why we make them

2009-09-02T21:18:00.002+08:00

Came across this interesting article and thought it's worth sharing:

---------------

What was I thinking?

If there's one question that investors have asked themselves over the past year and a half, it's that one. If only I had acted differently, they say. If only, if only, if only.

Yet here's the problem: While we know that we made investment mistakes, and vow not to repeat them, most people have only the vaguest sense of what those mistakes were, or, more important, why they made them. Why did we think and feel and behave as we did? Why did we act in a way that today, in hindsight, seems so obviously stupid? Only by understanding the answer to these questions can we begin to improve our financial future.

This is where behavioral finance comes in. Most investors are intelligent people, neither irrational nor insane. But behavioral finance tells us we are also normal, with brains that are often full and emotions that are often overflowing. And that means we are normal smart at times, and normal stupid at others.
The trick, therefore, is to learn to increase our ratio of smart behavior to stupid. And since we cannot (thank goodness) turn ourselves into computer-like people, we need to find tools to help us act smart even when our thinking and feelings tempt us to be stupid.

Let me give you one example. Investors tend to think about each stock we purchase in a vacuum, distinct from other stocks in our portfolio. We are happy to realize "paper" gains in each stock quickly, but procrastinate when it comes to realizing losses. Why? Because while regret over a paper loss stings, we can console ourselves in the hope that, in time, the stock will roar back into a gain. By contrast, all hope would be extinguished if we sold the stock and realized our loss. We would feel the searing pain of regret. So we do pretty much anything to avoid that pain—including holding on to the stock long after we should have sold it. Indeed, I've recently encountered an investor who procrastinated in realizing his losses on WorldCom stock until a letter from his broker informed him that the stock was worthless.

Successful professional traders are subject to the same emotions as the rest of us. But they counter it in two ways. First, they know their weakness, placing them on guard against it. Second, they establish "sell disciplines" that force them to realize losses even when they know that the pain of regret is sure to follow.
So in what other ways do our misguided thoughts and feelings get in the way of successful investing—not to mention increasing our stress levels? And what are the lessons we should learn, once we recognize those cognitive and emotional errors? Here are eight of them.

No. 1
Goldman Sachs is faster than you.

There is an old story about two hikers who encounter a tiger. One says: There is no point in running because the tiger is faster than either of us. The other says: It is not about whether the tiger is faster than either of us. It is about whether I'm faster than you. And with that he runs away. The speed of the Goldman Sachses of the world has been boosted most recently by computerized high-frequency trading. Can you really outrun them?

It is normal for us, the individual investors, to frame the market race as a race against the market. We hope to win by buying and selling investments at the right time. That doesn't seem so hard. But we are much too slow in our race with the Goldman Sachses.

So what does this mean in practical terms? The most obvious lesson is that individual investors should never enter a race against faster runners by trading frequently on every little bit of news (or rumors).
Instead, simply buy and hold a diversified portfolio. Banal? Yes. Obvious? Yes. Typically followed? Sadly, no. Too often cognitive errors and emotions get in our way.

No. 2
The future is not the past, and hindsight is not foresight.

Wasn't it obvious in 2007 that financial institutions and financial markets were about to collapse? Well, it was not obvious to me, and it was probably not obvious to you, either. Hindsight error leads us to think that we could have seen in foresight what we see only in hindsight. And it makes us overconfident in our certainty about what's going to happen.

Want to check the quality of your foresight? Write down in permanent ink your forecast of tomorrow's stock prices. Do that each day for a year and check the accuracy of your predictions. You are likely to find that your foresight is not nearly as good as your hindsight.

Some prognosticators say that we are now in a new bull market and others say that this is only a bull bounce in a bear market. We will know in hindsight which prognostication was right, but we don't know it in foresight.
When I hear in my mind's ear a voice that says that the stock market is sure to zoom or plunge, I activate my "noise-canceling" device rather than go online and trade. You might wish to install this device in your mind as well.

No. 3
Take the pain of regret today and feel the joy of pride tomorrow.

Emotions are useful, even when they sting. The pain of regret over stupid comments teaches presidents and the rest of us to calibrate our words more carefully. But sometimes emotions mislead us into stupid behavior. We feel the pain of regret when we find, in hindsight, that our portfolios would have been overflowing if only we had sold all the stocks in 2007. The pain of regret is especially searing when we bear responsibility for the decision not to sell our stocks in 2007. We are tempted to alleviate our pain by shifting responsibility to our financial advisers. "I am not stupid," we say. "My financial adviser is stupid." Financial advisers are sorely tempted to reciprocate, as the adviser in the cartoon who says: "If we're being honest, it was your decision to follow my recommendation that cost you money."

No. 4
Investment success stories are as misleading as lottery success stories.

Have you ever seen a lottery commercial showing a man muttering "lost again" as he tears his ticket in disgust? Of course not. What you see instead are smiling winners holding giant checks.

Lottery promoters tilt the scales by making the handful of winners available to our memory while obscuring the many millions of losers. Then, once we have settled on a belief, such as "I'm going to win the lottery," we tend to look for evidence that confirms our belief rather than evidence that might refute it. So we figure our favorite lottery number is due for a win because it has not won in years. Or we try to divine—through dreams, horoscopes, fortune cookies—the next winning numbers. But we neglect to note evidence that hardly anybody ever wins the lottery, and that lottery numbers can go for decades without winning. This is the work of the "confirmation" error.

What is true for lottery tickets is true for investments as well. Investment companies tilt the scales by touting how well they have done over a pre-selected period. Then, confirmation error misleads us into focusing on investments that have done well in 2008.

Lottery players who overcome the confirmation error conclude that winning lottery numbers are random. Investors who overcome the confirmation error conclude that winning investments are almost as random. Don't chase last year's investment winners. Your ability to predict next year's investment winner is no better than your ability to predict next week's lottery winner. A diversified portfolio of many investments might make you a loser during a year or even a decade, but a concentrated portfolio of few investments might ruin you forever.

No. 5
Neither fear nor exuberance are good investment guides.

A Gallup Poll asked: "Do you think that now is a good time to invest in the financial markets?" February 2000 was a time of exuberance, and 78% of investors agreed that "now is a good time to invest." It turned out to be a bad time to invest. March 2003 was a time of fear, and only 41% agreed that "now is a good time to invest." It turned out to be a good time to invest. I would guess that few investors thought that March 2009, another time of great fear, was a good time to invest. So far, so wrong. It is good to learn the lesson of fear and exuberance, and use reason to resist their pull.

No. 6
Wealth makes us happy, but wealth increases make us even happier.

John found out today that his wealth fell from $5 million to $3 million. Jane found out that her wealth increased from $1 million to $2 million. John has more wealth than Jane, but Jane is likely to be happier. This simple insight underlies Prospect Theory, developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Happiness from wealth comes from gains of wealth more than it comes from levels of wealth. While gains of wealth bring happiness, losses of wealth bring misery. This is misery we feel today,

whether our wealth declined from $5 million to $3 million or from $50,000 to $30,000.
We'll have to wait a while before we recoup our recent investment losses, but we can recoup our loss of happiness much faster, simply by framing things differently. John thinks he's a loser now that he has only $3 million of his original $5 million. But John is likely a winner if he compares his $3 million to the mountain of debt he had when he left college. And he is a winner if he compares himself to his poor neighbor, the one with only $2 million.

In other words, it's all relative, and it doesn't hurt to keep that in mind, for the sake of your mental well-being. Standing next to people who have lost more than you and counting your blessings would not add a penny to your portfolio, but it would remind you that you are not a loser.

No. 7
I’ve only lost my children’s inheritance.

Another lesson here in happiness. Mental accounting—the adding and subtracting you do in your head about your gains and losses—is a cognitive operation that regularly misleads us. But you can also use your mental accounting in a way that steers you right.

Say your portfolio is down 30% from its 2007 high, even after the recent stock-market bounce. You feel like a loser. But money is worth nothing when it is not attached to a goal, whether buying a new TV, funding retirement, or leaving an inheritance to your children or favorite charity.

A stock-market crash is akin to an automobile crash. We check ourselves. Is anyone bleeding? Can we drive the car to a garage, or do we need a tow truck? We must check ourselves after a market crash as well. Suppose that you divide your portfolio into mental accounts: one for your retirement income, one for college education of your grandchildren, and one for bequests to your children. Now you can see that the terrible market has wrecked your bequest mental account and dented your education mental account, but left your retirement mental account without a scratch. You still have all the money you need for food and shelter, and you even have the money for a trip around the country in a new RV. You might want to affix to it a new version of the old bumper sticker: "I've only lost my children's inheritance."

So here's my advice: Ask yourself whether the market damaged your retirement prospects or only deflated your ego. If the market has damaged your retirement prospects, then you'll have to save more, spend less or retire later. But don't worry about your ego. In time it will inflate to its former size.

No. 8
Dollar-cost averaging is not rational, but it is pretty smart.

Suppose that you were wise or lucky enough to sell all your stocks at the top of the market in October 2007. Now what? Today it seems so clear that you should not have missed the opportunity to get back into the market in mid-March, but you missed that opportunity. Hindsight messes with your mind and regret adds its sting. Perhaps you should get back in. But what if the market falls below its March lows as soon as you get back in? Won't the sting of regret be even more painful?

Dollar-cost averaging is a good way to reduce regret—and make your head clearer for smart investing. Say you have $100,000 that you want to put back into stocks. Divide it into 10 pieces of $10,000 each and invest each on the first Monday of each of the next 10 months. You'll minimize regret. If the stock market declined as soon as you have invested the first $10,000 you'll take comfort in the $90,000 you have not invested yet. If the market increases you'll take comfort in the $10,000 you have invested. Moreover, the strict "first Monday" rule removes responsibility, mitigating further the pain of regret. You did not make the decision to invest $10,000 in the sixth month, just before the big crash. You only followed a rule. The money is lost, but your mind is almost intact.

Things could be a lot worse.

--Mr. Statman is a professor of finance at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, Calif. He can be reached at reports@wsj.com.

Ameriquest - All 5 Funny Commercials

2009-08-30T20:19:00.002+08:00

Don't judge too quickly... lol

Of rebalancing and dollar cost averaging

2009-08-26T22:21:00.012+08:00

I think I judged a little too quickly on POSB myhome fund earlier.

The key attraction in this fund is actually the auto rebalancing feature that it offers. There are 2 plans to choose from, homesteady plan (20% in DBS STI ETF 100 and 80% in ABF Singapore Bond ETF) and homebalanced plan (50% into each).

Now, since stocks and bonds usually go in different directions, when one zig, the other zag, having these 2 asset classes in your portfolio allows for a strategy called rebalancing. What this does is very simply balance your 2 ETFs back to the allocation you chose, say homebalanced, 50% into each. So when the stocks index is not doing well for example, the bonds index will probably produce more, making the portfolio imbalance. Now, what rebalancing does is, as the name suggests, balance it back to 50-50.

What this achieves is this, a portion of the bond index that is doing well are sold off at a price when it is high and this amount of income is reinvested into the not-doing-so-well stocks index, where it is now bought at a low price. And the reverse also applies. So, by regularly doing this rebalancing or should I say sell-high-buy-low between these 2 asset funds, you are maximizing your returns. This also forms the basis of why diversifying is so important; to allow you to sell whatever is high and buy whatever is low, increasing your returns and lowering the risk at the same time.

Of course, you can say that investors can rebalance their portfolios even if they buy the ETFs direct. But, for one thing, I think not many people have the discipline to do it. And also, it also incurs more cost when you sell and buy with brokerage. Now, this fund does it automatically and somewhat justifying the management cost. But it is if and only if we are talking about small investment, say less than 10k. Anything above that, the fees will be too much to chew on and you are better off doing it yourself.

Furthermore, I believe there is also a regular monthly investment option ($100 minimum) which can be seen as a saving cum investment thingy. But, what this option really helps to achieve is dollar-cost-averaging. This means, buying more units when the price is low and buying fewer units when the price is high. For example with a 100 dollars regular investment, the first month when the price is at $5, you buy 20 units. And comes next month, if the price decreases to $2, you buy 50 more units. The average price of the 70 units you bought with 200 dollars is thus averaged to $2.86. This means, you do not have to worry much about market timing.

So my opinion is that this product is good for investors with low starting capital or those who wants to invest little on a regular basis. Other than this, please do it yourself and do your own math..

Of investing in ETFs

2009-08-23T21:37:00.006+08:00

Last week, a couple of colleagues of mine was discussing about which stocks are good to buy and one of them was complaining about a stock she got dropping below the price she bought when she went in and pondering whether to sell it or hope for it to increase back up. She said that she regretted the last time the stocks went up to a certain price and she hesitated in selling, hoping it will go up more so that she can earn more. In other words, she was trying to speculate, very much like gambling and I really doubt she made an informed choice in picking that stock as she merely followed her friend as “it’s a good buy”. I was recommending her to look into something like STI ETF as it offers high diversification and generally lower risk with decent returns in the long term. She frowned upon that and the reason was that "it’s so slow…", meaning low rate of returns.

Coincidentally, a friend also supported the idea of index investing over a meal during the weekend. Also, kr commented in line of this topic in my previous post regarding the POSB myhomefund. So what are the advantages of investing into ETFs like STI ETF? For me, it’s really the simplicity. ETFs (Exchange traded funds) are really just funds that track a certain index, say for example the STI, that are traded on the stock exchange just like any other stocks and it has a generally lower cost as compared to mutual funds as it is passively managed. Furthermore, index like the STI already has a diversified portfolio with a large basket of investment which means the risk is being spread out.

This means you do not need to research very deeply into companies’ financial reports and meticulously pick the correct one. Of course, the trade off is of a lower return. So, whether to go for ETF or the individual stocks, it really depends on a person’s risk appetite, whether he can stomach the ride on the volatility of the stocks market and whether or not he has got the holding power. Having said that however, I do agree that I should take advantage of the fact that time is still with me as I am still young and venture into stocks and not just stay in the comfort zone. After all, I can still afford to lose since I do not have much commitment in my life yet. But I think my point is that it’s good to keep ETFs in my portfolio, just as you should have some bonds and MMFs, etc for sake of diversification.

What you all think?

Of Flexitarianism

2009-08-23T16:12:00.002+08:00

Ah yes, I am kinda going flexitarianism these days, which means reducing meat consumption from my diet but not eliminating it completely. How did this crazy idea came about you might wonder? Well it all started with the canteen food in my company.

Each stall, other than the economical rice stall, has different dishes everyday. So for example, the western food stall can have chicken chop on Monday and fish & chips on Tuesday and so on. However, the western stall really really cannot make it. The chicken chop is cold, the fish taste weird, the chicken cutlet contains more flour than chicken and looks pretty badly fried and above all, the portions are so little that I mostly cannot last till knock off.

The noodles stall, well, their noodles sometimes are horrendous. Because of the production line nature of the stall, the noodles sometimes are not well cooked and the noodles are still stuck to each other because they simply grab a lump of noodles, put it into the bowl and add the soup and other ingredients. One of the dishes I can tolerate is the la mian or otherwise known as the hand-pulled Chinese noodles. They really do have cooks to do the hand-pulling in front of us and so the noodle is really much more edible compared to the usual ones. But of course, the trade-off will be the long queue, which most of the time we can live with that. Another edible dish will be the laksa, of course not as good as outside, but consider the lesser evil in here.

So that leaves the economical rice, if there’s no dish that I fancy from other stall, I will mostly ended up here. But here lies the next problem. The meat choices here are very limited and absurd. I see variant of chicken wing in so many of their selections every single day, fried chicken wings, curry chicken wings, braised chicken wings, sweet and sour chicken wings. If not chicken wings, I get hot dogs and pieces of stirred fried chicken cubes which are extremely salty and hard. And also, they are particularly stingy with the portions for meat too, just a small serving for 1 buck to 1.20. Whereas, if it were a vegetable selection, it was a whopping serving and it cost way more economical. So, that’s why I started avoiding meat and going for veg and egg and toufu, which not only have bigger portions, they taste much better and value for money too. It’s like somehow they are encouraging us to eat less meat or something.

There’s a few things I achieved by doing that. Now, I spent much less money on better quality and filling food. I am eating healthier and complaining less about getting that cold and dubiously uncooked chicken chop. Because of this, I started becoming more health conscious and started getting more fruits than just getting that coke.

I thought that’s just in the workplace. Yet, I became more mindful even when I eat outside, becoming fussier, if you like, in the selection of food I get. Also perhaps because I am living such unhealthy lifestyle after working that I now try to compensate with a healthier diet. But of course, I wouldn’t try to pull my friends into a vegetarian restaurant or refuse to chomp on that steak. I’d like to think of it as a flexible choice and oh god that steak is still completely irresistible.

Of walk in fridge

2009-08-16T10:36:00.000+08:00

Holy shit, spoof on walk-in fridge commercial, this is so freaking cool lar.. lol

Advising the advisor

2009-08-15T11:19:00.002+08:00

It’s amazing how some financial advisor from certain X insurance company can be so uninformed with their financial knowledge. I managed to question an agent until she says she doesn’t know the answer; given that the question is not really that hard to answer as long as you have some layman knowledge of the financial market. I think they really don’t quite care about your financial needs either, but will just keep recommending what is the best plan for her company in her opinion. Or can be translated to the best plan that could get her the most commission out of you.

But then again, a lot of people also dunno what they really want from insurance/investment-linked product(ILP) and just blindly follow what the “expert” tells them is best for them. I am not saying that insurance/ILP is not good either, it’s good to have some, but it’s important to get the plans that suit your needs the most. The agent actually has the cheek to ask me why I ask so many questions. Jeez, if I wana buy a product and put my money with you, of course I must understand your product thoroughly and make an informed choice mah. If not, it’s like buying an iphone without knowing it has got a freaking multi-touch function.

Of Single?

2009-08-12T22:27:00.003+08:00

Hahaa, just came across mac's double Filet-O-Fish Ad on youtube, quite funny.

Chinese version here.

Sorry ah, i dun watch tv these days..haha.

Of making a living

2009-08-12T22:17:00.001+08:00

Some people love their job so much that they forgot they have got a life to live. Others hate their job, looking forward only to lunch, knock offs and paychecks, and making it up during the evenings, weekends and holidays. And we call this making a living?

POSB myhome fund

2009-08-12T21:32:00.002+08:00

POSB recently launches a new product, myhome fund, which essentially buys into 2 ETFs and allow investors to choose the proportion of equities (DBS STI ETF 100) and bonds (ABF Singapore Bond Index Fund) according to individual's risk appetite. Yes, ETFs are getting more popular now as compared to unit trust due to its lower fees, so this serves as a good avenue for investors who are looking for some mid to long term investments but doesn't have the time to manage their portfolio.

But hey, isn't STI ETF already diversified and is itself a passively managed fund? What is there for the bank to manage then? Oh yes, there are 2 indexes to manage, so basically the sales charges (3%) and management fees (0.5%) goes to them for rebalancing your portfolio according to the proportion in those 2. It's like buying a fund which have only 2 stocks and you still need to pay all the fees; nice way for the bank to earn money huh?

Why not just buy the ETFs straight through online brokerage? Or why not research abit more and search and invest in some other mutual funds that beats the STI? Or just invest in DBS stocks lar; sure ownage one. lol

Spiderman spotted at NUS central library 23/04/09

2009-04-23T14:12:00.002+08:00

Holy shit! Spidey in NUS! Lmao!

EE4410 Chip Micrograph

2009-04-21T13:20:00.007+08:00

The following shows the chip micrograph of the chip we designed in the module EE4410.

Notice the last one got 4 pacman ghost? Haha, its our logo, representing the 4 mooty aliens of this project, the 3rd one is xiao chuan cos that one has got a horn! Moo!

Just some oldies songs

2009-04-21T13:12:00.001+08:00

Listening to oldies these days...

The final leg

2009-04-07T01:03:00.007+08:00

13/04: FYP CA3
17/04: FYP CA4
20/04: EE4415 Report deadline
27/04: EE4410 Report deadline
30/04: Last final exam paper in Nus, EE4415

Dying moments of my undergrad life. I think i am starting to miss my schooling days. No, not the exams or quizzes of course, everything else i guess. That also includes the things i did not do, having more fun and enjoying life while I can being one of them.

Sigma Delta

2009-03-25T11:30:00.012+08:00

This is the output for my fyp, sigma delta modulator. Generally, the noise shaping is working; notice how the low frequency components have lower noise compared to the higher frequency ones. This is because the low frequency noise has been "shifted" to the higher frequency part so that the signal of interest, which is in the lower frequency domain, is not affected by noise.

However, the result is far from expectation. 80dB of SNR is a far cry from the desired 120+dB that is required of a 20-bits sigma delta modulator. Sad. Sibeh sian. =((

And most people reading this dunno what i talking about. Also sibeh sian. No one can help me..

Engineering and Technology Careers are Not Valued - Singapore is “High Cost Low Tech”

2009-03-25T11:11:00.006+08:00

(Link)

Among news like a monk and an infidel GP doctor making six-figure income, there’s an interesting piece in ST two days ago - ex-top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow worries that Singapore is becoming “high cost, low tech”.

“The United States has overtaken Britain because while some of their best went to Wall Street, their best still go into engineering.”

His concern is valid.

In Singapore, the best JC students are attracted by glitzy ads and employment survey reports (see example) glamorizing the banking and finance industry and repeatedly highlighting that top dollars are made there.

For engineers and techies, they only get to hear things like “with a basic degree, you get to wash test tubes”.

Or that engineering and tech talent are a dime a dozen from China and India.

It is no wonder that students die to get into the in-demand courses like business, finance and accounting, while engineering and technology-related courses are dumping grounds.

See my previous posts on getting out of engineering and dead end career.

We all know that techies are undervalued in sunny Singapore. You’re a techie, you make 5k and be happy. Stay happy. Else get out and go to countries like USA, Japan, or even China and Taiwan where tech talent are much more highly valued than over here. Or, get into banking or do a sales job.

So Mr Ngiam worries about the lack of local high-tech talent.

There’s always a simple solution (right?): Start paying top dollars for engineers.

Start with tech-related ministries and agencies like Mindef and MDA. Then, move to tech-related GLCs like Singapore Technologies and JTC.

Pay millions for, say, the Chief Innovator in DSTA and ask the media to cover this ad nauseum (much like the way life sciences were glamorized in the not too distant past).

Hopefully we get to confuse the students again.

Why wasn't I confused by glitzy ads and employment survey reports and took an interest in banking/financial sector instead back then? =((

My first designed chip!

2009-02-22T11:47:00.007+08:00

Yay, we just got back our chip, the one we spent one sem to design. So before sending for fabrication, our design was working pretty fine. Now that the real thing is fabricated, will it still work as we intended? That will be the task for us this semester, to perform all kinds of test on the chip to verify our design.

Initial test shows some system working fine. The ADC seems to be ok, but only 1 input tested. LNA seems to have lots of problems. Bandgap is ok. More tests will be perform for the next few weeks and if it works, yay! If not... then pray for at least a b+... lol

A Levels Mathematics Tuition & Consultation

2009-02-21T13:05:00.004+08:00

Advertising for my friend who set up this webpage which offer tuition and consultation services for JC mathematics. There's also a download page to download summaries of topics, assignments and even mock papers. For tutors, he probably can hook you up with an assignment too!

Mathematically yours.

Of Dota gank went wrong

2008-12-07T17:04:00.005+08:00

Void, pudge and tiny vs proudmore.

Nice hook, nice toss, nice failure. Lmao.

DotA skill that hurts the most in real life

2008-11-15T12:27:00.011+08:00

I was surfing the DotA forum when i came across this interesting thread: "Which skill do you think hurts the most in REALITY?" So which skill in dota would you think is the worst if it hits you in real life?

Here are some of the most hurting ones of them all in my opinion:

Doom: It really hurts. What do you expect? You are roasted alive. And the worst part is? You cant even mutter a word, because you are silenced! Just imagine your mouth is being duct-taped while are being burned, yes the whole 16 agonizing seconds of the last of ur life.

Butcher's Combo: You are minding your own business and suddenly out of nowhere a hook comes, burrows into your flesh and pulls you toward a freaking nightmare monster...and that's not the end, the monster then releases rot and disease from his body and you see your body rotting alive and you cant do anything about it. Just when you thought its over, he starts to dismember you and eats you alive and U SEE UNTIL THE VERY LAST MINUTE TILL UR BODY JOINS WITH THE FLESH HEAP INSIDE THE BUTCHER, where eaten alive seems less painful..

Nether Strike: You're just sitting around, minding your own business again, when suddenly a giant blue humanoid pig phases in next to you, paralyzes you, and smacks you in the face with a thurible. Over, and over, AND OVER again....

Omnislash: Minding your own business, farming rice again, all of a sudden, some chaos orc comes round and slashes you again and again and again and again until you are a pile of meat balls. And if that's not enough he puts up a dance of death and spin and spin and spin and spin towards whatever that's left of you and can't do anything about it and makes you feel like a retard for every single last second.

Meepo's Combo: Imagine 4 little cute meepos whacking you and dealing 99999 dmg per second and slowing you like there's no tomorrow. You tried to run, but they net you down while walking around you laughing at your pathetic cries for mercy. Then for a moment you thought they let you go, as they each disappeared, for a split of a second that is and you get poof-ed to death. Now, that's gotta hurt your ego..

Exams is here again

2008-11-09T18:27:00.004+08:00

Yay, its that time of the year again where people goes into mugging mode, furiously printing out notes for the whole semester and searching for past years papers and what not. So after having slacked for the whole semester, let's check out what's installed for me this time.

Hmm, first paper's on the 20th of November, HR2002 (Human Capital in Organizations). Hey! That's during the reading week right? Damn.. ~~Thought i am supposed to be still playing dota or something? Dang, there goes my plans.~~

Next paper is like, wow, 2 weeks later, 4th of December, EE4412 (Technology and modelling of silicon transistors). Ahh with that much amout of time in between, let's just take it easy lar.

And, that's it. Yup that's right! 2 papers nia. So slack, this must have been the most slack semester i ever had.

Temaek selling chartered semiconductor?

2008-10-28T20:56:00.002+08:00

(Source)

"Singapore's Temasek Holdings is seeking to sell its stake in Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd and has approached Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) (2330.TW), the Economic Daily News reported, citing market rumors."

Looks like its the end for the semiconductor industry in Singapore? Cutting losses or an attempt to save the company? Chartered recently also had a pay cut too, looks like it's a terrible time for those folks. Will they lay me off as well? gg

1 module down!

2008-10-28T09:49:00.005+08:00

Last friday was the official tape out date for EE4410. (Tape out in electronics terms is to submit the circuit design for fabrication.) So now that means we have nothing to do for this module till the next semester when the chip comes back, or at least close to nothing cos the foundry shoots back to us with some DRC(Design rules check) errors once in a while and we have to try to resolve those.

Sucks, now i having problem with my FYP, dunno why the results weird weird one.

Of layout design of comparator

2008-10-01T01:18:00.006+08:00

Yay, completed the layout design of my comparator and it passed the DRC and LVS test as well as the post-layout simulation. Most of the rest of the parts are completed too, now what's left is to stitch up the different parts and do the final overall system simulation. And if it meets our specs, that basically concludes the module! Woot! (at least for this semester that is)

Then i can start doing my FYP, too long never touch liao.. haha.

Play Light Bot

2008-10-01T00:55:00.005+08:00

"Programming-style puzzle game. Give commands to your robot to light up the factory. Very soon you will realize though that using the main method on it’s own is not enough and you will have to start creating re-usable functions to achieve the ultimate goal."

Play Light Bot.

Completed with 188 commands

The most expensive module

2008-09-15T23:37:00.007+08:00

EE4410 (Integtated circuit and system design), it cost around $6k to fabricate the chip that we design. So its around $1.5k per person, since there are 4 person in one group. So that just makes this the most worth it module to take. Not too sure about the grade though. But then again, i think our group is doing quite well, at least we are almost done with integration at schematic level, now proceeding with layout design.

Absolute Haven

2008-09-06T16:57:00.003+08:00

We had a try at a restaurant along princep street, Absolute Haven. It certainly left a great impression and will probably be going back to try out the other dishes.

The ambience, it was really relaxing and pleasant. The romantic setting is ideal for couples with the dim lightings and lovely music, although of course, group of friends can equally enjoy the pleasant ambience while catching up with each others lives in the midst of the great food on the table.

The service was great with friendly staffs topping up our ice water (with strawberry flavor) regularly and food served pretty fast. I recalled an experience in another restaurant where we had to wait quite long for our food despite the fact that we were the only customers! Then we were joking that the cooks had to go catch the chickens and fishes… Here, we didn’t have to wait long; the soup came in like 5mins and shortly after, the starters.

The soup was mushroom soup. It was yummy and the bits of mushrooms taste great too. The soup was not too thick or diluted, pretty much to my liking. My starter was soft-shell crab with beetroot. Although portion is abit little, it was crispy and the meat was sweeter than I had imagined, very appetizing indeed.

My main course was Ribeye steak. The portion of the steak was just right, but it was the potato gratins that make it filling. The gratins contained potato and cheese I think. The meat was soft, that the knife just went right through effortlessly, and omg juicy and tender. Add some flavor to the meat with the sweet port wine sauce that’s drizzled presentably around the plate.

We didn’t had dessert there, although I heard their tiramisu is a must try. Perhaps next time.

So there, if you guys are looking for a great place to dine, there is Absolute Haven for you to try out. I give it 4/5!

Of Smiling Now Primarily Used To Communicate Anger

2008-09-06T15:34:00.000+08:00

(Via)

NEW YORK—The smile, a facial expression traditionally used to convey joy, pleasure, or amusement, is now mainly used to suppress rage, according to a five-year study released Monday by the Countenance Institute. "More than 85 percent of smiles are involuntary responses to mounting anger," the study read in part. "In addition, the length and intensity of these smiles directly correspond to the amount of anger the smile is concealing. A smile that lasts less than two seconds represents just a passing annoyance, while a smile of four to eight seconds indicates a genuine hatred for its target." The study noted that individuals smiling for more than one minute while nodding and baring their teeth are most likely preparing to kill the person they are smiling at.

So if next time i smile at you...

Tian Tian Steamboat

2008-09-06T14:59:00.004+08:00

I think it was last week. Ya last week after comex, a group of us went over to bugis and tried out the tian tian steamboat. And to our utter disappointment, we wished we had waited at the earlier stall where it was packed to the brim and had to wait.

Let's start with the service. The guy practically throws us at one corner, gets the money and left us waiting for our soup which took like more than 20mins to come. And despite BK waving at him in desperation after seeing the group who came after us getting the soup before we did, the guy seem to have sense our anger and steer well clear away from us, which was quite an easy task since we were in one corner remember? Then he went on to serve the queuing crowd at the entrance, totally ignoring our presence.

The soup finally came, when one of his colleagues finally spotted us who seemed to be genuinely surprise of our predicament and offered our soup not soon after. So came the soup and then at last its time to grab the food.

The food, well, it was horrible. The selection was laughable and the refill rate was ridiculously slow. Granted, the soup was not too bad. But that’s the only thing I can say I enjoyed, together with the noodles. The rest of the stuff I just gobbled down to satisfy my hunger needs, cos I didn’t eat anything for the whole day that day… Oh by the way, the refill rate of the soup was also absurd, our pot almost went dry and could be used for bbq liao.

For about 18 bucks per person, I would say it’s not quite worth it. But maybe our poor experience in tian tian was due to our high expectations of it; after all it had so much advertisement on tv and was supposed to have won some awards of sorts.

Of fyp and sigma delta modulator

2008-08-25T18:17:00.001+08:00

Now that I am in my final year, one of the hot topics is none other than the final year project. Some of the conversations during gatherings, be it with ex-classmates, platoon mates or current school mates, have been centered around the opening of asking what each other’s FYP is about. More often than not, the responses from the other party usually make not much sense to me, unless of course the person is doing something general or something related to my area of specialization. Similarly, when I tell people I am doing a design of sigma delta modulator for my FYP, they go like wth is that?

So, I shall now present a brief overview of what sigma delta modulator is all about, as laymen as I can get. That is of course if you are even slightly interested in what I am doing, if not then just treat the rest of this entry as just some gibberish.

Now, in the world of electronics, there are 2 kinds of signals in general. They are either analog or digital. The signals from the outside world, sound for example, are analog in nature. These are the signals humans can understand. Yet, the computer or other microprocessor cannot. In order to process the analog data from the outside world, an interface is needed to bridge the 2 signals of different nature together. This is done using the Analog to Digital Converter (ADC).

How the ADC works is really, to put it very simply, approximating the analog data to a corresponding discrete level determined by the resolution. Due to this approximation, there will be some errors as the final digital output does not equal to the analog equivalent exactly. This error, or quantization noise, is inevitable but can be minimized. A sigma delta modulator is one such architecture of ADC to attempt to reduce this noise as much as possible.

The basic idea of a sigma delta modulator is to use the techniques of oversampling as well as noise shaping.

Oversampling is sampling at a frequency more than the nyquist rate, thereby reducing the amplitude of the quantization noise spectral density and spreading it over a wider range of frequency band while the total noise power is unaffected. Thus, by applying appropriate filters, the quantization noise out of the band of interest can be reduced.

Noise shaping further enhances the performance by means of filtering the quantization noise in the band of interest. This can be done by making a distinction between the noise and the input signal by means of a feedback loop filtering technique. Hence, by designing appropriate filters, the quantization noise inside the band of interest can also be reduced.

Improving the quantization noise is in essence improving the resolution of the ADC, and this is the objective of my project.

My FYP will start off with system level design using MATLAB, to design and determine the filter transfer function, order and coefficient and stuff, and also the oversampling ratio. After optimizing at the system level, I will then have to move into schematic level using the cadence ic design tools, where the modulator will be realized in transistors' level circuits. The technology that i will be using is 0.18um CMOS process technology. And if time allows, the layout design of the circuit will be implemented as well.

Now thats what i will be doing for the next 2 semesters.

A peek into EE4410

2008-08-25T17:45:00.002+08:00

I was mentioning about my group wanting to chiong the project, and target to finish it by mid term. Well we are not joking. 2 weeks have gone by and we have already designed and completed the schematic for most of the parts. We are now trying to optimize our designs as well as think ahead for the layout design issues, such as area, mismatching and stuff. Hopefully the layout design will not posed too much problems. Oh wait, there's still a digital logic we have not complete yet. At first wanted to use verilog to design that part (which will be very simple), but the prof told us to use the digital library to implement it. That means using logic gates to do, think EE2006. And there isn't even a counter in the library for us to use! =(( Pure gates and mux. Sweet...

By the way, one of the sub-systems i am working on is the comparator. The comparator, as taken granted to be a block for most people that compares the 2 input and gives an indication of which is bigger at the output, requires some knowledge of the workings of the MOS transistor as an amplifier. I am actually quite impressed when i read and learn about how people implement the comparator, by making use of the characteristics of the op amp.

This is what goes on inside the black box, with current consumption of only 100nA!

And layout is more messy, here is just a testing layout for me to practice on cos i haven't take EE4415 which deals with abit on layout design, which proves to be really useful as my teammates all like very pro in layout except me.. =((

This is going to be a chiong sem...

2008-08-11T17:41:00.008+08:00

Just attended the first lesson of this semester, which is EE4410 where the prof gave us a brief intro to the project that we are going to embark on. ECG signal acquisition system, which is to be designed and fabricated on a chip. Each project group consists of 4 people and each one is to design a subsystem of the chip, very much like EE2001, and then later integrate them together.

My part is going to be the ADC, which is quite challenging I would say. The architecture of this ADC is to be using the successive approximation algorithm, while my FYP is on another kind of architecture called the sigma delta modulation, which makes use of oversampling and noise shaping technique. From what I see now, both designs are quite hard one. Moreover, the dateline for the submission of the EE4410 final design is in week 9. This means the schematic design as well as the layout design to be ready for tape out. So, we have only around 2 months to complete this, which is really really rushed. I am so going to relive the days of EE2001 and eat, work, sleep on EE4410 everyday. Wait, there’s also my FYP hor? Wah, means eat, work, sleep on EE4410 and EE4001, like doing 2 FYPs.. Great, just great…

Now, some people went a bit crazy over the fact that my timetable in my previous entry was like so empty. Well, now to loosen them up a bit, here I posted another timetable which will very likely quite accurately reflects what I will be working on for the next month or so. It seems preposterous somewhat, but that’s really what my group intended to do. Complete the design by mid term and start worrying about our FYP.

Wish my good luck, will ya?

Of year 4 sem 1

2008-08-04T18:53:00.004+08:00

Just received the email that I've successfully got my last module, EE4410 (Integrated circuits and system design)! The 8mc 2 semester-long project module....sheesh.. what have i got myself into?! Looks like need to reopen the NGDC for new applicants to support my grave digging activities.

EE4412 is rumored to be really really quite hard one..so much so that bk dun dare to take it....lol.. Eh then why i still take ah...gg

HR2002, bo bian have to take one, i wana graduate mah.

My FYP is going to be on IC design, topic is "Design of high resolution sigma-delta modulators" and my supervisor is the lecturer of EE4410, how convenient! Oh ya, ECE folks can check out your fyp allocation here.

So here goes, my timetable for the sem:

Sheesh..this must be the most disgusting timetable i've ever had.....(oops =p)

And ya, only 2 exams for this semester! (Both morning paper.. wtf)

Of how to confuse an idiot

2008-08-04T18:28:00.006+08:00

Hilarious! Hahaa..

(Via)

Of cable skiing

2008-08-02T11:59:00.005+08:00

Had my first try on cable skiing at SKI360 at east coast lagoon yesterday with Jevon and Zg. It was really really fun.

Before the skiing I was observing the ang mors doing it (sheesh there are really lots of them), they make it looks so simple lar. But, it’s not that easy for us.…

We took the 1 hour package, with student rates, so it's 27 bucks. I spent the first half hour swimming back to the shore more than I ski, always fell off at the first turn, trying to learn how to maneuver the board to go in the direction I want but ended up losing balance. Haha. The second half was where I finally got the technique and skied more than I swim! And yes, at least able to ski one round around the lagoon, unlike Jevon (oops). Poor little fellow, cannot keep balance on the board. Oh wait, it should be poor chubby one, too much fats at undesired position, causing imbalance in cg. You should have bend over more than anyone else. Ah, zg that ass, skiied before, so it was smooth-sailing for him.

You guys should try it if you haven't and I am probably going back for more! =)

How to make full use of your excess CORS bidding points

2008-08-02T11:49:00.006+08:00

Note: This is intended for year 4 folks with lots of program or general points and dunno what to do with them.

General points.

This section is only for those with no more general modules to bid for and those points are just sitting down there collecting dust, damn there isn’t even any interest to accumulate.

Choose a target module of your choice, preferably those popular ones for best results. Dump in ALL your general points. See them scream in desperation when the highest bid shot up to 2k+.

Or just go bid for A FEW popular general modules; you will be potentially screwing up all their biddings when number of bidders exceeds the quota.

Drop the module just at the last moment just before the closed bidding ends.

Or heck, leave it as it is and get the module while denying one dude of his place and drop it later before the “W” period. Oh too bad you sore loser, who asked you to put only 1 point and never monitor the market ever since then.

Program points

Program points? For haven’s sake, just dump in everything to get your core and stop being such a calculative idiot. This is your last year, what were you expecting, NUS converting those excess points into cash for you at commencement?

Or if you really wana be an ass, go find a really hot module, with limited number of seats available, go dump in all your points. 5K+. They will crumble and cry for mother.

--------------------------

I am really just kidding. Dun ever do that, you sick bastard.

Omg i am finally blogging....

2008-08-02T11:47:00.005+08:00

Sheeesh... sorry for that absurd long period of absence. Oh my gosh, I didn’t blog for the whole of June and July? Has it really been that long? Time must have slip by so fast that I have lost track of it. You see, life as an intern has been really hectic and an assortment of after work activities further deny me of any possible opportunity to sit down and blog. There’s just so much to do, and even at times when I wanted to blog, there will be some dudes disturbing my rare moments of peace with repeated smses to play a game or 2 of DotA. No, actually I do welcome those games and enjoyed them at times, so much so that I played like almost every night for weeks. Yet, there are times where it got really tiresome and meaningless; what a boring game it has became. It’s ironic actually; I actually claimed that I will never get bored of this game because of the amazing replayability capacity with so many heroes to explore and so much different scenarios each time you play it.

Sorry I’ve digress. Ya, my internship is finally over. And as cliché as it may sound, it has been a really fulfilling 12 weeks of internship with DSI. The knowledge and experience gained will certainly be useful for me in the future, regardless of whether I continue in the embedded system industry. Even as an IC designer, there is knowledge gained with some digital design techniques I learnt from my fellow intern which could be really valuable. Quite genius that guy, created his own number theory that even the supervisor confused. Oh ya and did I mentioned that one of the intern in my group actually reads my blog and he was like introducing this blog to me, saying it provides really good information of modules for EE juniors like himself. Haha.

Ok I shall try to blog more from now, seeing that several people scolding me for being so lazy. What’s there to read here anyway? Such a boring blog.

Of results and FYP selection

2008-05-31T18:27:00.006+08:00

Its amazing how my results turns out exactly the same i predicted. So yup, it was as bad as i have expected, resulting in a slight drop in the cap. Well, its about time i guess, it has been rising steadily for the last few sems.. In summary, EE2001 saved me. Being the only A however, it had quite a difficult time trying to neutralize the negative effects of the rest of the modules, where the next best grade is B+. S/u option shall also be employed to help clear up the mess created by a B, although s/u-ing a B doesn't feel quite right, but well there's no other modules i can s/u and it does help me abit, so why not?

Next, the dateline for FYP selection will close next friday (6th June). Looking through the 700+ project proposals can be a pain in the ass and the search algorithm also just cannot make it. Spent some time last week during work to scan through the list and found that alot of them damn scary one, of course there are interesting ones like implementing a PS3 game/wii, some are just weird like laser for a king?? and also cute engineering, part of a series of research into the use of cuteness in engineering new interactive systems.

Here's the top 3 hottest projects as of now:

First 2 damn scary, so many people choose. Bet they never look at this stats, especially those choosing as 2nd and 3rd, sure no chance and wasting their choice slot one leh.

Of Chartered and more on internship

2008-05-24T09:02:00.007+08:00

Yay, it's weekend again! The 2nd week of internship past by real fast. Cos monday is public holiday, tuesday i did half day cos got interview with Chartered, Friday also half day cos DSI got some dinner and dance thingy, so we were released early.

The interview with Chartered was quite horrible. It was largely due to the fact that i did not understand how Chartered fit in in terms of designing role. As Chartered is well known for being a fabrication foundry and only does manufacturing of wafer from the designs of their customers , i was being questioned as to how can i contribute as an ic designer. I mentioned a few things like verification, testing and stuff, but each answer was backfired as those weren't exactly what they are dealing with; obviously i didn't do my homework.

Technical question were alright, was asked to design an inverter using CMOS process, that one i did ok, with the circuit as well as the explanation. Then, the next one was how to simulate and measure the RC time constant. This one i blanked out, damn it's only after the interview i realized how easy it was. The remaining of the interview was the most jialat one, the interviewer kept reiterating: So you really wana be an ic designer? for like 10 times or Tell me why should we give you the scholarship and not the rest of your peers? Do you think Chartered is really the right choice for you? You sure you wun regret?

Ok back to my internship. I have been given more tasks after completing the first one. I also implemented what i have learnt in EE3208 (timer interrupt) into my project, in order to make my timing more accurate. Now thinking back, even though EE3208 might be my worse module this sem, i actually learn alot from the module and applied the most in my work here in DSI. This is the reason why you should take design module, you get to do hands on project and not just theory only. And of course you get to tell people you did something impressive in the module like:"Hey i did a talking cash register in my module.", rather than:"Erm, well, I learnt how to do fast fourier transform." (Erm, i have nothing against the signals and comms folks ah, this is just an example..lol)

Also, other than doing my microcontroller programming, I am also writing a simple game using visual C++ just for fun after I have finished my task. It's just a simple text based game where you get to fight monsters based on dungeons and dragons rule but a more simplified version to ease the complexity of my program..

Oh yeah, by the way, even though i am working in a research institute, I am doing pretty much industry work rather than research. I am part of the team that is going to produce something that is going to be sell for industry use. Which kinda answer my question on why everyone else is like studying... while i am doing actual work...

Alright, that's all for now.

Of vacation internship and vacation so far

2008-05-19T21:37:00.007+08:00

Now let's see, i finished my last paper on the 10th and my internship at DSI (Data storage institution) began on the 12th, barely have time to relax lar. My task is mainly programming, very much like the programming of the PIC in EE2001, but much more complex as the chip i am working with has much more capabilities. Also, the idea is also similar to that of EE3208, programming the microprocessor to control several other ic chips which in turn perform other tasks. In short, its EE2001 and EE3208 all over again...

However, working there was far from stressful or difficult, in fact i kinda enjoyed it. Maybe because of my experience in EE2001 and EE3208 (or maybe it's only the 1st wk?), i found the first task my supervisor gave me quite easy to grasp and got rather familiar with the software i am using to program the chip. It's a darn powerful software, can code, can compile, can convert to hex format, can debug, even can simulate the ports output, variables value, the serial port input/output (omgosh love this one, save me so much trouble when working with the GUI), timing waveforms and even the performance of the program.

Alright, not supposed to reveal too much. Of course, dun expect any photos either.

Other than work, I pretty much slack at home watching tv and playing CABAL online which BK recommends.

It's slightly different from the typical MMOs i have played, in that this one doesn't focus so much on grinding your character and you can have the flexibility to build your character. Also, there's the combo system which is quite refreshing and fun. Actually havent really explore much about the game, still dunno alot of the game system.

Go try it!

Weekend had high tea with LT and Matt, at Fort canning The Legend's strawberry fantasy high tea buffet. Basically its cakes and tea. Not bad though, eat until damn shiok.

Thats all folks, maybe next week then update again.

Of EE3208 completed!!

2008-05-05T20:48:00.003+08:00

I finally submitted my project for EE3208...took the whole reading week plus last week to rush it out.

Here's some photos of the final product:

Ah i know success is missing a 'c', but i only limited to 6 characters mah...heh

I always thought software was hard. But i was so wrong as this project has proven to be that software is the easier part as compared to hardware. Why? Cos hardware is sometimes so hard to debug, there can be so many possibilities and uncertainties.

Ah, whatever, i still have 2 more papers to go.. and most people have already finished their exams liaoz. Sian..back to mugging.

Exams again...

2008-04-25T22:48:00.003+08:00

Exams coming up again:

29/04/08 5pm @ MPSH1B: EG2401 Engineering Professionalism (Seat 557)
08/05/08 5pm @ MPSH1A: EE3304 Digital Control System (Seat 74)
10/05/08 9am @ ENG AUD: EE3407 Analog Electronics (Seat 28)

Time to start preparing for exams liao.

Spent the whole reading week doing EE3208's talking cash register. In the end, only the cash register part is done, the talking part is still having lots of problems. Seems like i am so going to get a shitty grade for this. Lucky still have s/u. Damn, wasted so much effort and time. in the end still have to s/u, so not worth it. Pissed with myself. =((

The day my keypad and 7 segment LED started working!!

2008-04-22T19:56:00.006+08:00

Finally finally!! After 2 days of debugging and stressing my ass off, my keypad and 7 segment finally work! Ahh this is for yet another project module, EE3208. Deadline for this project is 7th may wor...

Just moments ago, i finally found the error in my codes that made my 7 segment went berserk earlier in the lab. Here, my system display 543210 and then switch to 9876 after 1 second and 543210 again and so on. This is just a test program to test the 7 segment.

More photos, taken after i wire wrap. Yes wire wrap, bloody hell, you've gotta marvel at the wonderful invention of wire wrapping, making you connect wires for more than TEN TIMES longer than you otherwise would if using breadboard instead and poking wires into those lovely holes. Now, this damn stupid thing cause me like weeks to connect just a simple system...

Now, i better go try to make the sound part work, if not i am still quite screwed. There's a reason why the project is called "Talking cash register"..

EE2001 - The Airport of the Future!

2008-04-20T11:21:00.010+08:00

Finally, after 1 semester of hard work, pulling of ~~hair~~ wires, soldering ~~accidents~~ extension of wires, late nights and stressing over whether we have enough features, the 6 MCs project module came to an end after a rather good presentation last Friday.

Our team had lots of fun in this project. Its always great to see our concepts and design materialize into the real working product. And we also put in alot of effort in making the model looks professional, and it all pays off because in the end it really looks very good and impressive, and the sense of achievement is just beyond words can describe. We also put in alot of effort on the GUI and SMS, learning much more things than required, to present our project in the best way possible.

In all, it was a great project and no matter what kind of grades we get, we can proudly say we did our very best!

Now, let the photos do the talking.

EE2001, The Airport of the Future, presented by group 4-03:

The Graphical User Interface (GUI):

The GUI has an overview of our entire airport and can control certain features as well as performing real time updating of the status of the transit rooms allocation as well as the smart car park. One of our best features in this project.

The smart transit rooms allocation system:

This one got a rotating platform plus a travellator on top. It basically allocate traveler to the nearest available transit room. Spent a great deal of time to make this feature as perfect as possible.

The smart car park:

The car park provides guiding light for drivers to the nearest available slot. It also have a room booking system and the driver will be directed to the slot nearer to the transit rooms.

The smart queuing system and the SMS system:

Smart queuing system requires traveler to login into the system by first obtaining a one time password from the SMS system and then entering into the keypad in the waiting area. The system then prompt travelers to board plane row by row based on their seat numbers and whether that passenger to the particular seat has login.

The greeting robot and interactive directory:

Next comes the greeting robot which turns to face the travelers as they come out of the car park. On it is the interactive directory where travelers can check out what shops are there in the shopping area as well as the route to take to get there. Moreover, they can have the map sms to their handphone!

The Lounge power management system:

Solar panel for the lounge:

Smart energy control allows the fan to blow at speed corresponding to the number of people in the lounge. Also lighting depends on the amount of sunlight on the solar panel.

More photos of us at work:

Red bull kept us awake all night through! (Eh actually only I drank...together with coffee and had a terrible stomachache the next day..jeez )

Messy wiring below....

Planning stage for the model:

Taking measurements:

The designer at work:

More messy wirings during testing phase:

Once again, this is The Airport of the Future!

Of course, a great project should end with a celebration of sorts. Right after the presentation, we treated ourselves to a sumptuous meal at Sakura!

Okay no more photos after this, too busy eating..lol.

GG!

Of quick updates and interviews

2008-04-08T20:07:00.007+08:00

I finally have time to sit down and blog. For a while.

Yes, it has been a mad rush, the past 1 month or so, of completing assignments and projects, particularly EE2001 which took up lots of time and also EE3208, yet another project module which requires us to make a talking cash register and i am nowhere close to the point to make it talk yet.

There are also interviews for my IC design SMP (Specialist manpower program). So far, i have been to 2 of them and those 2 interviews were just so different.

The first one only asked of general questions with regards to my interests and why i applied for the program and stuff you would expect of an interview including some scenario questions where you have to make some somewhat tough decisions and stuff. Nothing technical, just pure, i would like to call it, chit chat session with the interviewer. It took an hour though.

The second was totally technical! The first thing i had to complete was a test, analyzing some circuits and stuff, basically testing the fundamentals. Well, they gave me 1 hr and i finished in half, so i thought, well.. not bad. But the real thing came when they started interviewing and throwing me more technical questions and also questions with regards to my project for EE3408 (Integrated Analog Design). I kinda forgot quite abit of the project and didn't answer well for some of the questions and the interviewers were kinda disappointed. And so, i also became pessimistic...

Now, the worst thing to happen during an interview is losing confidence. I am quite sure the interviewers can tell, which means i am probably not going to give a good impression. Nvm that, i will probably take this as an experience and learn from it ba.

On a side note, it's quite scary to have 3 interviewers staring at you while you try to think; every passing seconds seems like eternity...

Ok, i guess i better go do work liao, have eg presentation coming up. Also have to finish up the talking cash register and my EE2001 model.

Damn, its 2 weeks plus to the exams and i still cant mug even if i want to. =(( It was a big mistake to take 2 100% CA project module, dun ever ever do that. Be glad and thank god everyday that you do not have to go through the agony of having that uncertain feeling of whether you can pass that ~~goddamn~~ module. Btw, i mean 3208 not 2001.

Cursor 10 - The power of 10

2008-03-09T09:58:00.012+08:00

Cursor 10 is one of the most unique and clever flash games that i've ever seen which plays with both time and space! At the start, it might seems trivial, clicking on the stairways to proceed on to the next level. But as you played on, you will realized there is much more to it.

Managed to reach finished the game after a few tries with a score of 137.. lol

Try it!

Cursor 10

Disgusting timetable

2008-01-24T21:28:00.000+08:00

I hate my timetable. Alot. First off, 2 days starts off very early at 9am with one of the two having to end at 6pm (read: bloody crowded bus with traffic jams) with a long 5 hrs break in the middle.

And adding salt onto my wound comes Tuesday with only an hour of tutorial slot as well as Thursday with back to back tutorials and labs.. Sheeesh.

Now, I can't really complain much about my Friday, can i? Well, except for the fact that the only possible freeday that i could have was thrown down the drain when i made the decision to sign my group for the Friday slot...bleah...

School's actually fine thus far; i am actually still very much in holiday mood, playing games everyday and have yet to put in any effort whatsoever to read up on the modules. Alright, honeymoon weeks over soon, better start ~~digging the grave~~ doing some work...

Of new toy

2008-01-19T11:57:00.000+08:00

This is the PIC development board which contains the PIC16F877, a 40 pins PIC microcontroller, and other components.

Took us like almost 3 hrs to solder, program and test it. This one is for our EE2001 fam lab, and which will be used for our final product as well, the "Airport of the future".

Now now, the above is considered ok one. Imagine the horror when i saw the schematic for our EE3208 part1 project (below). I almost pee in my pants. Sheesh..

Of the grave diggers

2008-01-19T11:55:00.001+08:00

NGDC is Nus Grave Diggers Club, set up by those taking EE2001 with EE3208 as most thinks we are crazy taking these 2 modules tgt (as they are both rather time-consuming design project modules) and thus digging our graves in the process..

The founder of the club decided to set up a blog to honor the birth of such an unique organisation.

We have thus pledge ourselves to build every grave in different shapes and sizes with pride through thick and thin and not to chao geng.

Ready to dig, fellow diggers!

Of yet another semester

2008-01-14T20:04:00.000+08:00

(Before adding in tutorial and labs)

Modules for this semester is as follows:

EE2001 Analog and digital system design (Project Module, 100% CA)
EE3208 Embedded computer system design (100% CA)
EE3304 Digital Control system
EE3407 Analog Electronics
EG2401 Engineering professionalism

Yes yes all engin modules again and this time got 2 design project modules with 100% CA component. Most people think i am crazy taking EE2001 with EE3208.. oh well...what they dunno is that 3208 actually complements 2001 (i think/hope), with the design methodology of embedded system possibly helping with EE2001. But probably not the other way round as mentioned in 3208 lecture just now.

Speaking of which, i thought a small class (less than 50 students?) shouldn't be under the bell curve system? But in the EE3208 lect just now, he mentioned (to a class of 38 folks) that the module have a cap of 30% for the number of As even if all students do well. Damn, this is going to cause lots of market spoilers like EE2007's. Sian..

And EE3407 only has like 35 students... comments i heard so far is that concepts not too hard, but its not a scorable module. Oh well...too bad.. i die die have to take this leh...

EE3304. Boring math again.

Oh yeah, 4 days week! Ahh only for the first few weeks only i guess.. =((

-----------------------------

Some examples of EE3208 projects:

Digital Queue Announcement System
A possible application of this system is in a medical clinic/hospital. The system will consist of a display such as a LED panel, The keypad should allow the doctor (for example) to enter the number of the next patient that he will see. The display should alternate between showing the number of the current patient in the examination room and the next patient that he will see. Interval between the two displays should be about 2 seconds. When the doctor is ready to see the next patient, he should press a button. A synthesized should then announce the number of the patient to enter the doctor's room.

Digital Talking Cash Register
In this project, a cash register that is capable of synthesizing in voice what is keyed into the system is to be designed. It will consist of a six 7-segment LED display, a voice synthesizer, and a keypad. The keypad will allow the casher to key in items into the system (item type, quantity and price). The LED display will show the item, quantity or price as they are keyed in. The voice synthesizer will at the same time speak the same, as the items are displayed.

Both have emphasis on voice synthesizing, which could be useful in our EE2001. And the systematic procedure of the integration of subsystems that will be covered will likely be a valuable knowledge to my team in EE2001.

The start of 2008

2008-01-01T23:37:00.000+08:00

Its year 2008 liao. So happy new year! And ohh happy birthday tim!

The first day of 2008 begun with the celebration of tim's birthday, at swensen's with lunch followed by the firehouse happy birthday icecream combo with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry flavors. Of course there's the birthday candle which tim had quite a poor job blowing up which zg(@trying_to_be_straight.com) just cant stop commenting on the blow job poorly done which of course is quite understandable, as the expert of blowing stuff must give his most professional advice. Which reminds me, zg's almost every other sentence must have some reference to gay and sexuality in it, but quite sadly for him, it almost always kena backfired by us (very much like jere's attempt to counter mitch's in trashing his liverpool hahaa). Sometimes, if he just shut up, he will not be shot until so jalat, but then again it was rather entertaining so we just let him be, digging his own grave deeper and deeper with every comment he made. Hilarious really.

That continued on as we made our way to.... science centre! Yesh, it must have been like eons ago, for most of you, since you last been to the science centre. We were actually heading to the snow city, very kind suggestion by lzg for a terrific freezing new year day. Oh yes it was terrific, especially the part where zg was aimed by the 3 of us in snow fights where he almost always ended up having snow in the back of his jacket and having to rush out of the snow chamber to clear up the mess.

Snow city is actually quite small, with the main activity being snowtubing, which is like sitting on the snow tube and slide down the slope, and hearing alien, i mean ai lian screaming all the way down (thought we were supposed to shout: "zg dun be gay!!?"). The slope basically took up most of the snow chamber and the rest are like play area for the kids, or for the young-at-heart like the 4 of us...

After the 1hr session, we wandered around the kinetics garden outside the science centre where we proved that zg is indeed heavier than the 3 of us. The first prove of course is during the snowtubing session where his side went down much faster and that the crew had quite a hard time trying to push his fat ass down the slope. Now, we prove it once again with the see-saw balance thingy as shown in the photo on the left. Zg's sullenness in the photo, obviously shows that he is unhappy for having been proven wrong that he's only 62 kg. Its more like 162 kg can?

So then, while pouting away, he decided to do what's he's best at once again, peeping at guys generally of his size but slightly smaller, through the peep hole.

Haiz, what to do, his favorite hobby, so we let him be.

Resolution for 2008

Tim: Hopes zg will become straight.
Ai lian: Hopes zg dun be gay
Me: Hopes zg take the advice of the above 2
Zg: Tries to be straight

Quote of the day: "You know, it would really be kinda hilarious, after all these years of joking and teasing zg about him being gay and all, if one day he were to come up to us and confess that he is indeed one."

The last of 2007

2007-12-31T23:56:00.000+08:00

Basically the last of the year 2007 was spent with a few gatherings mainly from my jc friends. Watched so much movies of late that we almost wanted to settle on alvin and the chipmunks on new year's eve, but we decided against it and went window shopping instead... That was where we spotted this cream crackers sofa in furniture shop.

It would be so cool that have one of that in my room lar! Ha. Nvm anyways, earlier on lunch was at riverside Indonesia's restaurant. It was quite cheap for a 7-course meal (or was it 8, nvm forgot) for only like 15++ per person. Well, my jc friends like quite camera shy one, so i only took the picture of the food nia.

Well, good bye year 2007, it has been a great year and lets hope 2008 will be just as terrific for all of us! =)

Of s/u period

2007-12-27T11:30:00.000+08:00

00:00 28 December 2007 to 23:59 on 30 December 2007

Important date and link you dun wana miss if you are going to declare your s/u option! So here it is.

And also if you are changing your TE to UEM, change it today via the Online Degree Requirement Check.

The results

2007-12-27T10:48:00.000+08:00

Well lets see, i am rather amused by my results, considering the fact that i am quite honestly thinking that i am screwed this semester. So it turns out i did pretty gd, although i would say that the general overall results wasn't really of that much interest to me than that one module which quite luckily i got a darn good grade which will at least allow me to even think of getting that 8mcs ic design module which i wana take in year 4.

It seems that pessimism sometimes do have its advantages. I was so certain that i am going to screw up big time for my dsp that i went to change the module from a technical elective into a UEM, so as to allow me to have the option of s/u-ing it. In the end, it turns out alright.

Our project module, we walked out of the presentation feeling screwed. No words can described how much we do not want to see a B-ish grade for a module we pump in so much effort and time on. But it turns out to be a B+, still B-ish but at least for me its decent enough.

Electronic gaming was a disaster. But still, i was expecting something much much worse. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter cos this is going into the s/u dump for certain.

Microprocessor has been one of those very uncertain module i had. The paper itself brought about much uncertainty with all the uncertain answers i gave and those stupid mistakes i committed, and not forgetting to mention the uncertain project results which was never released, leaving us with no feedback as to how well we did whatsoever.

Integrated analog design. Well lets see, i enjoyed the module, learning the design methodology and the different topologies for circuit design. I spent darn lots of time on the project in order to get the most optimized results i possible could (optimization cost about 20% of the project grade). Although mine wasn't the best around, i do enjoy the learning process that led me to it, compromising certain specifications for another. The final paper went quite well and at the end of the day, i gave myself a pat on the back for a module well done.

This is actually my best sem...somehow..., after s/u-ing the gaming of course...

Back from reservist!

2007-12-20T01:47:00.000+08:00

Now lets see: It was a 10 days thingy and it rained pretty much everyday. And i got like 4 days outfield. I think that pretty much sums it up the feeling of the whole ict. Bloody hell, you guys better pray hard your ict dun ever fall on a monsoon season. Its totally demoralizing, to be wet, cold, hungry and tired out there in the forest.

Well then, my role in this BME was a rebro, bridging comms and making sure all stations can get each other. The first mission the rebro wasn't working well, so we relay like siao, scouts especially, so much sitrep and spotrep...zzz. So never slept on the first night. 2nd mission the rebro was working pretty ok, so we manage to catch some sleep.

One pretty funny conversation i relayed was that of the pioneer pc and the co:

pioneer pc: minefield cleared, who should i report to?
co: alpha coy
pioneer pc: alpha is down ah, so who should i report to?
co: alpha platoon 3
pioneer pc: alpha 3 also down, now wat?
co: nvm, go take over alpha 3 and attack enemy from the back.
(Long pause... obviously stunned by the decision, cos pioneer normally dun fight)
pioneer pc: err we dun have ammo ah
co: nvm go melee go melee, i.e. use you bayonet.
(our side and the co signaller were laughing like hell)
pioneer pc: roger..........
co: try your best
(really really long pause)
pioneer pc: pioneer kena suppressed and captured.

- signal platoon's bunk is on the highest floor again...6th floor..

- condition of bunks and toilet is pretty good, and every bed have a personal powerpoint.

- vending machines are everywhere, so do bring more coins in for your reservist..ha

- signal platoon got the best platoon again...somehow... and we booked out pretty early, right after alpha coy.

- my navigation skill quite cmi, possibly due to the fact that i was made confused at the start of the exercise by a certain trainer who gave me the wrong starting location on the map. But still, i need some kind of navigation training and familiarize myself with lck area...but then again, next ict onwards will have jackson.

- i rode my bike for like almost everyday, either for orientation, topping up of petrol or for the exercise.

- i fell off my bike once, resulting in bandages around my hands, although it wasn't as bad as it looks.

- Oh ya, 3rd ict coming up june next year (low key one)... i am so going to finish my 10 yrs cycle by 30 yrs old... lol

- well thats all for now, later then add more if i remember, shag now.