1) PART-TIME JOB: Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 11.00 am; Banana Leaf, Centerpoint

Some kind of part-time job interview to write for a new magazine called LED which will launch its inaugural issue in March. It is a bi-monthly lifestyle and living magazine. I will be given information about businesses such as boutiques and restaurants and I will have to write advertorial-like articles for the magazine. Marcus Chang introduced me to this job and he is also doing designs for the magazine. Looks like I got this job, albeit in a probation period first. I will keep my current sales job and write articles during my free time. =)

2) PRINCETON PHONE INTERVIEW: Tuesday, 19 February 2008, 9.00 pm, Starbucks Cafe, The Mall

Received a phone call from Professor Xu in Singapore who called to conduct a phone interview on behalf of Princeton. The interview lasted 10 minutes plus and it was mainly about general stuff such as my family background, involvement in sports and music, answering my questions about Princeton, etc. An easy interview, to say the least. Reinforced my perception of Princeton as a place with much emphasis on education quality but less on entrepreneurship and start-ups. Go Stanford!

3) VOLUNTEERING FOR WORLD CONGRESS OF IT: Wednesday, 20 February 2008, 10.45am, Menara Millenium

Basically there will be this World Congress of IT 2008 in Malaysia sometime this May, and 2500 delegates from all over the world, including some big shots like Bill Gates and many CEOs of the largest tech conglomerates, are coming to Malaysia. To run the event, massive volunteer manpower is needed and thus I volunteered myself for the event. I volunteered due to my interest in high-tech companies and my fascinating with them. Since signing up as a delegate for the Congress would cost me RM3000 plus, I figured that volunteering would be the next best thing. The interview went well, and I was rather fascinated that there was an office suite of many people dedicated solely to the WCIT event. So professionally and painstakingly planned. I stand to be paid RM 80 per day throughout the event, but nevertheless the experience and networking would be priceless.

Sorry for not posting for four days! No internet in my hometown! The agony!!!

I have been really busy collecting these in Malacca…

… and making this fatter as well…

… not to mention leading a worship session during a family gathering…

… and posing for pictures …

- My cousin Su San and I. I just realized we look rather similar in this photo. =)

- The usual trio.

I’ll see you guys around in future posts! Happy Chinese New Year to all of you once again!

It’s that time of the year again: Reunion Dinner!!!

Happy Chinese New Year to all ErnSheong.com readers. GONG XI FA CAI!

Delicious food prepared by my aunt and my grandmother.

Tossing ‘Yee Sang’ for prosperity!!!

Well, it looks tossed all right

Granddad

Aunt and grandma

My parents and I

Yeah I’ll just help spread this around a bit. I’m going! *rushes off to buy tickets*

From Wikipedia:

Switchfoot is a Grammy-nominated alternative rock band from San Diego, California, United States. …

Switchfoot first gained mainstream recognition after the inclusion of four of their songs in the 2002 movie A Walk to Remember . This recognition led to their major label debut, The Beautiful Letdown, which was released in 2003 and sold over 2.6 million copies as well as featuring their best-known singles, “Meant to Live” and “Dare You to Move”.

…Switchfoot is often referred to as a “Christian band”, mostly due to their involvement with the Christian rock scene in their early days. But the band has always shunned this label. “For us, it’s a faith, not a genre”, says Jon Foreman.

More on how to purchase tickets here. Watch the YouTube video of “Dare You To Move” here.

Hope to see you peeps there!

Be a volunteer for this large scale event! Featuring industry leaders in ICT, including top CEOs and Heads of State from various regions.

Quoted from http://www.wcit2008.org/About/default.aspx

Held once every two years, the World Congress on Information Technology is a premier global ICT forum that brings together global leaders in business, government and academia. Often billed as the Olympics of ICT, it impacts global economic and social development through the exchange of policies and ideas on technology.

WCIT 2008 will be held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on May 18 – 22, 2008. Themed “The Global Impact of Information and Communications Technology: Enable Businesses, Empower Societies, Enrich Economies”, the five-day event is expected to draw more than 2,500 delegates from over 80 countries. Keynote speakers are expected to include some of the most respected and admired names in Government and industry.

WCIT 2008 incorporates a three-day congress to address global impact issues, a Link Program for business matching that includes a series of structured business-to-business (B2B), business-to-government (B2G) and business-to-industry (B2I) meetings, an ICT exhibition, a debate on current ICT issues and ancillary activities like tours, golf tournament, F1 experience and a spouse program.

It will cost a delegate USD 950 to attend, which translates to RM 3325 per delegate!!! For day-dreamers who want to rub shoulders with the industry’s greats like Michael Dell and Bill Gates, volunteering is your next best option!

So go and volunteer now!

- FAQ for volunteers
- Terms and Conditions
- Volunteer Online Form

I was invited to Daphne’s birthday surprise party by Anthea, Daphne’s sis, and had a good time reconnecting with an old friend who used to sit next to me in class (5 Cengal) and who was my chatting buddy in class about Prefect matters, stuff, etc. (i.e. Daphne!) She was formerly the very dedicated Head of Discipline in the Prefects’ Board, and I have not seen her for two years already. She was surprised to see me, and I hope that she had a great time too =)

Victor was with me, as well as many of her church friends.

Guess what? I drank a glass of white wine, another glass of red wine and a glass of beer! LoL, I never drank so much in my entire life! Not bad, I could take in all that drink without feeling anything wrong with me =)

In any case, Happy 20th Birthday Daphne! and may God bless you tremendously in the coming year! Keep on shining for Him!

(P.S. Thanks Anthea for being one of the major organizers of the party! God Bless!)

Not bad… not bad at all…

I ranked 1977 out of 8727 runners in the Men’s Open Category (42 KM) and completed the marathon in a Gun Time of 4 hours 50 minutes and 17 seconds, and a Chip time of 4 hours 47 minutes and 31 seconds.

Not bad for a first timer. The most agonizing run in my life. =)

Was interviewed today by Mr William Lau who is working with the DSTA (or was it the Ministry of Defence?) Anyway we had a good chat and he ask me things which I was familiar with. The main purpose of the interview was to help me to differentiate myself from all the other applicants who are presumed to have great academic qualifications (myself not included). So anyway it was a no stress interview. Expected those classic questions such as “What are your weaknesses?” but they never came. So, essentially, I did not prepare at all for this interview other than fooling around the MIT website and thinking through the question “Why do you want to go to MIT to study?”

I told him about Sunday’s marathon, my Prefect Experience, my YMCA Youth For Causes venture, and we veered of to politics and business (since I told him that the reason I wanted to go to MIT was to learn innovation at its very best as my goal was to establish a start-up that puts innovation at the forefront)

On my way back Zhong Liang invited me to go ‘makan’ the (Malaysian) Penang Char Kway Teow in near Aljunied MRT and after that we simply had a good time spending the whole afternoon at Sim Lim Square shopping for stuff. I bought a wireless router for my Malaysian house use (SGD 55) and also a game called Call of Duty plus its expansion United Offensive (SGD 57) to help me kill the boredom after the exams.

And I think tomorrow we will go ‘makan’ again at Botak Jones near Clementi. I heard the food is good there. =)

My last days in Singapore.

I charged my camera for two hours and inserted it into my camera only to obtain a display that said “Battery Empty.” So I guess the pics must wait until my friends start sending it over. =(

A great night and a great way to end two years of JC life.

Prom King went to Muhammad Faisal and Prom Queen went to Samantha Ng (both Councilors, and members of the Council Executive Committee!) Met many friends and said my goodbyes. Well i don’t have much to comment about it except for the fact that I tool umpteen pictures and posed what felt like a hundred times. NJCians are really a bunch of friendly and wonderful people. GO NJ!

Oh, and kudos to the 40th Student Council for organizing such a great and smooth night!

I thought that it would be quite an easy run. But by the twenty-something kilometre, my legs cried out in agonizing pain…

The 42.195 kilometre run was my first marathon in my entire life. And I must confess that I have gone through anything worse or more torturing than what I went through today. Even all the push-up and other torturous punishments dealt to me last time during Scout meetings in secondary school were put to shame today.

To put it simply: The marathon was very very challenging. More mind than body in the race. To finish it was, to me, to conquer new territory. Thankfully, I did manage to cross the finish line. Even now as I type, my legs were aching so badly. After the race, I had serious trouble trying to walk straight or climb the stairs. I suspect that I would not even be able to walk at all tomorrow. =(

But what was most interesting in the marathon today was not the fact that I finished the 42.195km race in 4 hours and 50 minutes, and received an exclusive finisher’s T and a medal. Something else made the race more worthwhile and more meaningful.

I actually attached a tag behind me throughout the whole race on which a verse from the Bible-Philippians 4:13- was written. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” So when runners run behind me, they would be able to see this tag of mine which also carries the picture of a cross and the words “Jesus Loves You.” At first, the race started without anything off-beat. As I ran eventually I would hear a man reading out the whole verse behind me (it was audible to me but I pretended to take no notice) and ended off his recitation by saying “Jesus Loves Me.” (I wrote “Jesus Loves You,” didn’t I?)

As I raced on, a man ran pass me and said, “Praise the Lord” to me. As I ran in front of another girl, she said, “Amen.” Also, I would encounter a man wore a shirt with the words “Powered by Jesus” in fluorescent orange colour, who became my moral supporter throughout the race (we constantly bumped into each other in the race, sometimes me leading and sometimes him) He approached me after seeing my tag and encouraged me. Further on, another man told me, “Great message.” Another guy told me, “Nice tag.” I really felt very encouraged in the faceless marathon of tens of thousands. God’s people was everywhere.

Which brings me to my point: In this race of life, we are never alone. There are always other Christians running alongside us to give us encouragement and moral support. Amen.

Needless to say, I was proud to have run today with my little tag tagging along behind me proclaiming the greatness of the Lord.

Halfway through A levels and just finished my H3 Math paper today. Rather tough. Quite disappointed with myself for not being able to complete all questions as I was just stumped by some of them. Anyway.

It has been so many months here in Singapore. Now I’m facing much problems with funding if I were to go to the US to continue my studies. No grant or scholarship, no need to go, said my mum. If getting admission into the top Us was hard enough, there’s another barrier called funding woes. And I’m the type who wouldn’t want to be bonded to any scholarship. So maybe that’s why I am facing a money problem. Praying hard and hoping that God will answer my prayer and open a door for funding.

Applied to Stanford two weeks ago. Should know the result by mid-December. Didn’t apply for financial aid since Stanford would most likely reject me if I did apply for financial aid (it’s not need-blind to internationals). And it is my dream school, have been looking at it for many many months. As I want to be an entrepreneur, I thought that the Stanford culture and education really nurtures one to think out of the box– something really good for entrepreneurs. But it is going to cost me (or my parents) USD 55000 per year. That is REALLY A LOT OF MONEY.

Looks like NUS here in Singapore is very probable indeed.

Hope that God will show me the best way for me and open a door to wherever it is that He wants me to go. Amen.

I thought I was very prepared for this competition, but it turned out to be very badly done after the two and a half hours were up. Aimed for a Silver Medal, but now I think that the best that I can attain after my mediocre and ignominious performance is just a Honourable Mention, or Bronze, but the bronze is a bit far-fetched.

Well, my maths leaves much to be desired, I guess. So far, I’m only sure that I have 5 correct out of the 11 attempted. (25 questions in total) Who knows, that might even only qualify me for a COP (Certificate of Participation).

But I know one thing: I did my best there, and taxed my brains to my best ability. What matters is that I gave my best. =)