Category: the otnaicus daily

It’s a Monday… Monday it is… Hardly was able to wake up this morning. Why? Probably because I slept at 2.30am this morning. Why? Cuz I went to hang out with my ministry mates after Chinese and Dialect Service and we basically had a great time. Why? Cuz we wanted to hang lah…

Haha… Anyway, it’s a half-day today for NTU staff and students because of the 50th Anniversary Celebrations this evening. Got in to work late so I guess I’ll stay a bit later but will definitely be out of here before 5pm as the bus services are going to get disrupted. Don’t want to go walking around School to find a bus stop where the services have not been disrupted.

So here I am, in the office. First thing that I’m doing this day in the office is to blog. Haha. Looks like I really don’t want to work. But have to; got deadlines to meet. So I shall update again soon. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ

Woot… Testing this new wonderful tool from Blogger that allows me to compose my blog using Word and then it automatically publishes to my blog for me. Interesting little tool. Hope it works as advertised. If not, I’ll be back to web-based publishing. Hahaha… That’s all for now…

Before you go jumping to conclusions, it’s just me venting my frustrations at programming and trying to setup a site for forums. ARGH!!!!!!

Anyway, an update regarding the dinner last Thursday. Like I mentioned, we went to Grand Hyatt’s Mezza9. Altogether, we had 12 adults and one kid. And following is a blow-by-blow account of how the dinner went. Please try to keep away from your keyboard or any other electrical appliance as you might end up drooling after the account. Haha. Well, here goes….

Appetizers
We had tonnes of appetizers. Think big boss ordered two of every dish. As Mezza9 is a multi-cuisine restaurant, we had salads, meats on skewers, some bread topped with dunno what, sashimi, sushi and (*gasp) foie gras. Huh? Haha. Foie gras (think I spelled it wrong) is fattened goose or duck liver. For those of you who know what it is and how it’s made, don’t go lecturing me please. It’s prob the only time I’m gonna ever taste it. And to top that off, our host had two bottles of wine opened; one red, one white. And I think I found my next favourite wine varietal, which is the Riesling. Nice and fruity, not too dry. The red was good too, but dunno which variety as it was French and the French don’t categorize their wines by variety but by region. By the end of the appetizers, we were basically 75% full.

Main Course
So Jimmy, Su Wei, Cai Yi and myself decided to order a few dishes to share. So we put in an order for fried rice, steamed sea bass (teochew style), sweet and sour prawns and a meat platter for two (western style). Well, we basically had a hard time getting everything down into our tummies cuz we had a fabulous round of appetizers. Not that we were greedy or anything but we didn’t know that there were gonna be so much appetizers. And came the second bottle of white and red wine, same type.

Dessert
We had a white chocolate cake for dessert. The cake was part of Su Wei’s birthday celebrations as her birthday was the next day. Think we would have enjoyed the cake more if not for the fact that we were stuffed beyond belief.

Yup… So that was the meal. Estimated cost? Perhaps close to $2k? I’ll never know, but all I know that is it’s one heck of a dinner. And Mezza9’s food is pretty good but also pricey. So if you wanna go there, go there with a very very deep pocket. A simple meal for two with starters, main course and desserts would set you back by about $200 to $300. And it’ll definitely go up if you are ordering drinks.

Okay…. Now back to reality…. At work… Given new task to setup a forums webpage on the Centre’s Xserve server. A relatively simple task made complicated by the fact that I don’t have a lot of the passwords needed and have no clue to where certain components needed are actually installed. Worse of all is that the forum scripts have minimum requirements such as it can only use certain versions of required components. And if I don’t know where the components are installed, how the heck am I supposed to know which version is installed? Oh well, but that’s something that kept me going the whole morning and thank God for an opportunity to play with that server. Think the setup costs almost $30k. Mighty expensive toys….

Okay… Gotta get back to debugging my program. Just needed to rant a bit. Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

Hahaha… Forgot to mention in my last post that I have also graduated!!!! Hahaha… Basically the ceremony was 2 hours long. And it was two hours of sheer boredom followed by 1 minute of excitement as I went up on stage to receive my Degree, or rather a folder for my Degree.

Oh well, another boring day at work is coming to an end. Figured out more stuff and the team is clearer in what we’re supposed to do. But we’re still basically lost as to where to start. Jimmy and I reworked the timeline a bit and it seems quite tight. But God willing, we’ll be able to complete it with the help of the two extra pair of hands we have, namely Aaron (a FYP student) and Cai Yi (my freshie and a student under the University’s undergraduate research program). Can’t wait to get the phones that we’re using as a development platform: the Motorola A1000. It’s a Symbian-based phone with the UIQ2.1 interface. Now we’re scratching our heads as to whether we really would need the UIQ SDK to develop the applicaiton we’re working on. Sigh…..

Today shall be the first time I miss cell group cuz of work-related stuff. Going for a “kick-off” dinner at Grand Hyatt’s Mezza9 today. It’s a restaurant I’ve been wanting to visit for a while now and I thank God for this blessing. Haha. I hope there won’t be too many work-related stuff that’s gonna happen on Thursday cuz at the end of the day, God is still numero uno in life yeah??

Been giving my iPod a very good workout daily while travelling to and from work and at work. A very good companion I must say. Having my entire music collection with me is wonderful. No longer am I limited by the MDs that I have to carry around. Speaking of which, gotta go and figure out a way to sell the MD player off… Hahaha….

Oh well, that’s all for now. Gotta go fiddle around with my phone a bit before we head off to dinner at 6.45pm. Time check: 6.25pm.

Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

Yes, I know it has been almost two months since I last updated but life has been keeping me busy. So now that I’ve found some time to update, here is a summary of what has happened in my life for the past two months:

1. Started working part time as a trainer to coach secondary school students for the Micromouse Competition. The company was good enough to help me apply for an employment pass, which I now can’t collect. Why? You’ll find out as you read on.

2. Took a freelance job to edit a video for Greenridge Secondary School’s 40th Anniversary Celebrations. Video was viewed by President S.R. Nathan. Rush job, but the money was pretty good.

3. Went for an interview for a job and got an offer on the spot. Basically a phone tech support person with a pretty meagre pay and comes with 30-month bond. Did I take it? Read on to find out.

4. Dr. Yow, my lecturer from University, has an interesting job for a period of 6 months. The job scope is to develop an application for 3G mobile phones for a startup company. If all goes well, we get shares in the company and we work for that company after the 6 months. Did I take this job or the one mentioned in (2)? Read on…..

5. Bought myself an iPod 20GB with colour screen. Got a Crumpler case to go along with it and now looking at buying a pair of ultra-expensive earphones. Which one? It’s the Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5Pro. Costs US$250. Anybody wanna bless me?? Haha…..

6. After much debate, I took Dr. Yow’s job offer. I now work in NTU under the Interaction and Entertainment Research Centre located in the Research TechnoPlaza. That’s why I can’t collect the employment pass that I have an approval for. And now you know which job I took. And the best part is, the renumeration for this job is close to twice of what was offered by the other. God is good, amen?

Yup, a brief summary of the past two months of my life. Keep me in prayer as I step into this new job. There’s a lot to learn and pick up, and most of them from scratch. And also, please pray that I can get an extension to my Social Visit Pass cuz bloody NTU can only give me an offer letter 3 to 4 weeks later for me to apply for my SPR. Why? Cuz they have to seek approval from MOE and what not. In my opinion, just a whole load of red tape.

Oh well, that’s all for this update. I will try to update more often. Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

Haha… Interesting title to my this entry right? But it’s true, I’m no longer a student in Singapore, just another one of the masses of visitors that come into Singapore for whatever purposes. At least, in the eyes of the immigration authorities lah. Went it yesterday to submit my student pass for cancellation cuz it’s expiring today. So am now on the Singapore social visit pass. Lord, please help me get a job soon!!!!

Yeah, it has been a long time since my last entry but I have been pretty busy. With what? Work lor… Work??? Yeah, been helping out a bit in the Church office doing some effects editing and a bit of editing for the broadcast programs. On top of that, running around doing various errands for myself. But all has been good, except for the job front.

I got a shock this morning when I read that Apple was going to upgrade it’s entire line of iPods to colour screens. Why shocked? Cuz I was saving up to buy the “old” 20GB model and I thought surely the colour screens will mean an increase in price. Thank God no… Just a mere SGD8 which I think I can still afford. And I think God is good cuz I’ve been receiving the no go so far in getting the iPod. Hahaha… Imagine this… Me showing off my brand new COLOUR iPod to my sister… Wahahahaha….. *evil thoughts*

In church for the morning for the Pastors’ Course. Then it’s off to the Immigration to collect back my passport. Then it’s cell group tonight. That’s all for now. Sucianto signing off… Cheers…. :Þ

Thanks for all the wonderful blessings and cakes and prayers that you guys have showered on me during my birthday. Really, a lot of you caught me by surprise and I’m really surprised. Three times… Haha… That was very fun..

And now for the frustrations… My dear School’s graduate yearbook. I’ve learnt a lot from doing this yearbook myself and not through a Publications Secretary or Publications Officer. One thing I learnt: it’s never good to do things last minute. As a result, Justin and I are rushing like mad to get the artwork done and amended and printed and what not. It’s driving us up the walls a little. And doing things on my notebook is not helping the situation as the work files are getting huge. Sigh…. Oh well, it’s gonna be over soon and I hope my life can resume some form normalcy. But from what I’ve heard so far, the year book looks impressive. And that’s judging from the mock-up that our printers have kindly provided us. I didn’t get to see it personally, but I trust Justin’s taste. And our printers, Precision Printing Pte Ltd, are helping us pull of something close to a miracle by rushing things out for us in just 1 week. Usually takes up to 3 weeks to do this kinda things… Any of you want great and efficient service in printing, come find me. In my opinion, a good place to get your printing needs sorted.

Okay.. Gotta get back to settle the yearbook for final submission tomorrow… So until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

Have been sitting in front of a monitor for almost 10 hours today already. Not 10 hours in a row, but even then, it starts doing things to your eyes, like for example, the loss of ability for your eyes to focus properly. Haha. A reminder of Taipei.

Scrubbing (an editing term) through a tape that has no audio is really weird. Exactly like watching a silent movie, only that the lips of the person move. So half the time you’re wondering what the person is actually saying. Coupled with the silence of the CHC Media Department at this unearthly hour of 1.40am, I’m really not in my element. Need some music. Need some nice noise to help me keep awake…. *yawnz*

Yay!! My new table from Ikea is arriving tomorrow. Haven’t sort out a space in my room for it yet though but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Pretty excited about it and can’t wait till I get my hands on it to assemble it. Then my computer will be further away and the noise of the fan won’t bother me that much at night. Right now, cuz my computer is right next bed, it irritates me when I get into bed at night to try to go to sleep. Sounds like bees buzzing in one of your ear. But then, when you’re sleepy and tired enough, the noise will be drowned out by the sweet silence when you’re finally asleep.

Okay… Enough ranting… Oh.. Did I mention that bus fares were going up again? But then again, you’d already know. Unless….. Unless you’re still a student…. Unless…. You couldn’t care less about what’s going on in the world…. Unless…………

Getting crappy and cranky… Until next time…. otnaicus out…. :Þ

Just wanted to share a worship song that touched my heart when I first heard it. Actually, still touches my heart. It’s taken from Christian City Church’s No Longer I album. I can’t post the song, but hopefully the lyrics will touch some of you guys out there….

Thank You
Taken from No Longer I
Christian City Church

Thank You for the promises You made
For the gift of life You gave
Always I will sing Your praise

Thank You for the chance to live again
For the grace that never ends
Always I will sing Your praise

Chorus
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
My beloved king
To You I sing

Hallelujah song

Bridge
You mean everything to me
You’re all this world could never be
Your name reigns in my heart
You’re all that I depend on

Hehehe… Yup… I’m at Taipei again… Same thing as last time but setup finished faster and we have less things to bring.. Yay!!!

Anyway, am now staying in the Tampines. The room’s good. For the first time in a while I don’t have to wake up feeling all sweaty and sticky and what not. It’s gonna take a bit of packing to get it into order and need to purchase a computer table. But other than that, it’s gonna be good I believe.

Plus, CHC’s gonna lease temporarily a space from Singapore Expo. Yes. Singapore Expo. Can seat 7,000 people leh. Think of it. Just two services. Hahaha… But I do pray and hope that we don’t just stay at two services. We’ll grow and grow and we’ll outgrow the place. So I reckon that it’s gonna be exciting come December this year. Christmas service at Expo? Why not?? Kekeke…..

Anyway, about to pack up and head out of here. Will try to blog again from Taiwan. Until then, cheers… :Þ