And 1s

Bits and peaces of things that happened during the last month and some change: This Saturday early morning I’ll be, for the first time, fulfilling my second objective of coming here, travelling to the neighbouring countries. First stop: India.

Shan and David had a ‘cold war’ going between them, which is now finally subsiding -we’re all having a dinner together at Shan’s place tonight (pic) for the first time in a long time. I felt (a bit) what kids must be feeling when the parents go though the divorce. Two ‘grown’ man acting like kids, I wanted to throw them over the knee…

Yesterday I had my first Invigilation Duty (exam police-ing) in the examination hall w/ some 600+ students. I was laughing about it all at the beginning as I was one of them just a few months back.

Ali left Tuesday morning. Sunny arrived Tuesday evening. Monkey came back here from his Indonesian trip on Sunday evening, and then left back home to Malaysia last night. Sunny departs tomorrow evening. I love having friends visiting over, but the frequency of it made me feel a bit like running a motel; I think the feeling is excused.

The appreciation I have for my uprising in a modest environment has grown a bit further. Thanks King :)

It will be interesting to see if (how) Apple is going to stick a phone into an iPod (this time around).

Another interesting techy story mentiones the potential for MS to tap-in with Zune: "Personally, the ultimate Wi-Fi feature I want is long-distance Zune to Zune sharing. If I can get on a Wi-Fi hotspot that connects to the internet, and so can my friend halfway across the country, I see no reason why I can't beam him a song, picture, or short video across the 'net. All the Zune needs is a friends list you could manage from the Zune PC software. I also want to "DJ" songs to other Zunes. Instead of sending them tracks, I want to stream audio to them, so I can play through a list of songs and have the other Zune users hear exactly what I hear, so we can jam out at the same time."

I like Daily Dime column at ESPN. It nicely summarises the news from the day’s games. In one of them ex Denver Nuggets GM was writing about their current coach: “When George first joined us in Denver, he loved the quality and quantity of players and talent we had. But one of problems with talent is dividing up the minutes. When you have fewer choices, you're not fighting the urge to experiment, because of your limited options. ...Injuries have solidified the lineup because it has taken the guesswork out.” This remained me that when writing about choices, I forgot the mention that too much of a good thing amounts to no-good. Or in words of R. Sharma’s character: “everthing in moderation, no extremes”.

"What is the ultimate question of life, the Universe and everything...?" The line is from the Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy. One of the DVD's that Monkey brought along - just a lovely movie. Déjà Vu is a good old story with a new, scientific twist - nice.

The pool is closed for this week due to the major cleaning. Couldn't they have done it the next wk, when I'm of to India :(

A while back, I conducted a little, informal survey with the class I find the most difficult to teach. Difficult as in the subject material is one that nobody likes, me included, and the students are rather 'lively'. The common desire expressed was less lecture slides and more tute work. I have to speak slower and clearer as they (shockingly many commented on this) have difficulty understanding me. As many know, I am not surprised by this. Also, I should not give out any kind of encouragement to do the work, as this easily can be mistaken as nagging/scolding. Steve Goschick's "to care is not to care" is employed to the max. The good news is that since then I'm putting the suggestions into practice, some more then others, and the students have responded really well.

To answer the question Luka posted: the difference is in the EQ not the IQ. In my opinion, the lack of care for the study on students' part is down to the two main things:
a) most of students don't end up doing the course that is their first choice
b) students' place at the Ploy is largely subsidised. So the aim is to get as many students to pass with better marks that are nicely distributed - the bell curve obsession - which improves the Poly's looks. The better the Poly looks the more funding it gets.
Mix into this 'saving face' concept and it's not surprising why the main topic at the end of the semester meetings is the justification of failures -> i.e. the message that is being send down, albeit implicitly (for the most part) is 'don't fail anybody'. BTW, the more experienced local lecturers here are 'too experienced’. (Note: just IMO)

I was bragging about the all around efficiency as one of the things that got me really impressed. Well the running of the meetings might be just the exception that proves that rule. On many occasions, it is as though they try to invent the purpose of the meeting because they have a meeting pre-scheduled. If you think that it should be the other way around, then that makes the two of us.

Two weekends ago I spend 3 hours scrubbing the floor (poured full container of Jiff on it), and then Monkey spend an hour the next day mopping it as rinsing the floor with 5-10 buckets of water didn’t clear out the Jiff trails. And then last weekend I had a guy come over with the industrial polishing machine and the water blaster. The professional cleaners were cleaning the lobbies in the buildings and pathways around them, so I got them to pay a visit to my apartment as well. For the next few weeks, the floor is clean!

This is the 9th week of the semester. It is a common test week, which means there are no classes scheduled. The two weeks prior to that students were working on the assignment during the classes for one (less likeable) module, i.e. no teaching. This was a well deserved welcome to the ‘paid holiday’ period as the two weeks prior that period, during the week 5 and 6, I actually had quite a bit of work to do. Along the usual teaching responsibilities I had to finalise all the teaching materials, as I was made responsible for coming up with all the content for those two weeks. The usual underestimation of the time required to do the job did not surprise me a one bit, but how badly I underestimated it, did -> slept fewer than 4h per night during the period.

Going out on Wednesday night and missing your 9-11 class the next morning is definitely a bad thing. Having students who don’t report it to no one is great. I guess all that lenience I give them, came in handy. I did report it myself to the module leader, emailed an apology to students, a bit formal one, and then spoke to them. They found it funny that a teacher ‘over-slept’ because the alarm didn’t go off, even though it was set in what appeared to be proper way: the little knob was lifted, and the time set correctly – I am thinking that I did not lift the knob all the way. Well anyhow, all that is long gone, and I can say I was happy with the way I reacted in the situation, or should I say with the lack of my reaction… Oh well, shit happens…! ("A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous." Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) - work in progress, but I'm getting there.)

Dude, where the #*&% are my noodles...? I ordered a fish balls noddles... and got a soup w/ few balls swimming in there w/ noodles nowhere to be found. Broken English meets broken English, in this case the two negatives did not cancel each other, they compounded. This happened during the two weeks I mentioned above, when workload was heavy. Thus, I had no time to go back and complain to the Uncle. Guess, had I had time for it that would have been interesting.

Monkey 2.0

I am pretty sure it was something on a TV where I heard that 'wisdom comes suddenly'.

I look at that in a way that we try, accomplish, struggle, fail, learn,..., experience in a continuous fashion thought the life, whereas those 'Aaahaaaa moments' (thanks Nola's friend), with a significant impact on ourselves come unexpectedly and in an instant (like bumping into another person when turning the corner of the corridor while sms-ing). And if I'm anything to judge by (form one to most/all :), they are very far in between.

My friend from Melbourne, Monkey is currently visiting. It is encouraging as well as motivating to see the strides he made in the direction that he always wanted to go since I sow him last in July. One thing that Monkey is currently big on can be summarised as 'the truth shall set you free'.

Another possibility...

It looks like that when I grow up I'll have improved chances of getting a (real) job in Europe: "The EU, which lags behind the United States and Japan in terms of funding for research and development, aims to become the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010." Btw. Yes, somewhat selfishly, I hope that sooner rather then later Cro will be "one of Europe's Stars" (T. Ivčić).

25,414,760,448

km...!

Choices, choices...

In my opinion this is a good 'problem' to have, a quality, or even a privileged 'problem'.

Yesterday I updated my Personalised Google page with more feeds to address the current interests (human sciences and more techie news...). Ray told me once that 'one's research should be about pursuing one's interest'. Unsurprisingly, I went on to generalise this by saying that 'not just research... a life should be about pursuing one's interest', which has underlying assumption that "All life is an experiment." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

So now when I logged in and noticed the feed titled Human Journey, it was a no-brainer click. It leads to the blog entry with the interesting line:

"The art of living is, in its essential meaning, a development and transformation of the power of inward choice."

This is nicely complemented with the inquiry that was part of Luka's eM signature "What is the best use of my now".

Either way, a 'problem' or with 'transformation of the power ', with 'best use', or whatever else might be applicable to choices, when it comes to our own, I hope we can all join Frank Senatra in singing:

I’ve done it my way...!

Ps: off to get that lecture material ready for this Monday :)

Teach less Learn more

This is the latest ‘catch phrase’ that the Poly's Teaching and Learning Centre is using to advertise the ‘new’ approach to teaching. After going though their induction day for International Fellows, I felt rather confident, as what they consider as ‘new’ is very much the same way tutorials are run at the unimelb. In a nutshell, what TLC is advocating, is a move from an Oracle, know-it-all, type of a teacher, to a more human facilitator who is more concerned with students’ wellbeing ant not in love with the subject material.

Back in Melbourne my (very) low power, friendly, facilitating approach to teaching worked very well, so I decided to start of with it here as well, and adjust things as needed. So far there hasn't been much need for adjustments, and things are going rather well, but we’re about to start only 4th of 16 teaching weeks, so better leave evaluation for later.

The reason why I mentioned extra effort for appreciation of different style of teaching is two fold (not to just put it due to the socio-political circumstances). One, as evident by TLC’s new campaign for ‘less teaching...’, is that it seems that students are quite comfortable with teacher running though all the slides while most of them are engaged in their own world via their laptops.

And second, as I’ve heard a lot about before arriving here, the students are less mature then the ones I’ve got accustom to. The difference in age is small, but the one in their attitude towards the studies is rather significant. So for the example, an obstacle to efficient lessons is a laptop. As the School does not have a typical computer lab setting, the students are required to bring their laptops. By having their own laptops, there is no regulation on what kind of software can be installed. This means that lecture time is games, games, and more games for guys and as many Korean TV soaps for girls. And, of course everybody’s into on-line chat, chat, chat… (Helping a student last week to debug a Java program, I was laughing at the frequency of msn chat’s notification popping up in the system tray… easily 1 in 5 seconds.)

Ideally, I would get all my students to:
a) take more responsibility for their studies (unlike some lecturers, I'm not going to be giving them a call to a mobile to remind them about their exam the night before - an extreme and isolated example, I hope).
b) think for themselves, it seems that they are not used to questions such as 'what do you think' n 'why'...
c) actively participate by asking questions and commenting on each others answers.

Thanks to circumstances, it will be hard to achieve the above, as I’ll have to get them to realise it for themselves without (explictitly) telling it to them.

And by the way, a thing that I’ll have to get accustom to is being referred to as MrZoran/Sir/Teacher/Cher, as quite a number of students cannot seem to get over the power barrier and refer to me by the 1st name only, without any prefixes or titles.

I like it a LOT

...is the standard answer to the usual question of '...So how do you like it in Singapore'. It's two months today since I landed here, and if I just think about all the specifics of my situation, I have a little grin stretching across my face...

There are two main reasons for it:
It was a while back on one of our walks to his car when Boxy asked me: 'what do you want?', and my answer was 'different lifestyle'. And on the arrival here, all that the word 'lifestyle' implied at the time, was basically handed to me. Nothing against my previous lifestyle, but it was just that after 20 years of doing the same thing in a very much the same way I was well due, or should I say overdue, for a change...

The second reason is rather simple: I've expected it to be a working holiday and it is. My first travelling destination, not counting that little trip to Malaysia, is India. The furthest destination West I was thinking about was Myanmar, India came as a possibility and then a realisation very quickly and very 'accidentally', very me!

As they say 'without sorrows there is no sweets', and the reason I find all this so 'sweet' is that it took me five yeas to get here. Similarly to recently retired Michael Schumacher who explained why his best memory was his title win in 2000: "We had a lot of hard work and setbacks so when we finally won it, it was the most beautiful championship." I say it took me five yeas, and not 20 to get here, because it was then, when I first moved to Melbourne, that I started thinking what is it that I've done during my undergraduate degree, and what kind of a job would I want to get, and how could I get... it was a while after that that I came to, what I see now as even more important question, why is it that I want it...

In summary, what it is that 'I like a lot', is mianly due to my outlook to the context. I like Singapore, but this is not about the city, this could have been Melbourne, Auckland, Zadar or abc...

Routine

...fighting it, while looking for it at the same time...

It's been now almost 2 months that I've been here, and I guess I'm sort of developing the pattern in everyday things and slowly but surely settling into the comfortable lifestyle:

Breakfast: cereal, sometimes in addition a boiled (in a kettle) egg. I have assortments of cereals and few fruit and yogurt types available so the nuber of combinations keeps variety (sort of) present.

Work: It's 2nd week of teaching now. I have 4 classes, two for each subject that I'm teaching. Each class has between 20 and 23 students; this is the same as the case used to be at the Melbourne. The main difference is that with the groups of students I have been assigned, I run lectures, tutes as well as labs. Another difference is that I'll have to put in some extra effort to get the students to appreciate different mode of learning - after all, as my job title implies, I'm suppose to provide a different classroom experience.

Swim: I am getting better and better by the day. Paying attention to the technique by keeping in mind all the lessons I picked up from reading swimming articles, is paying dividends. As the end result, I can ‘feel’ myself being ‘pulled’ through the water by ‘holding’ onto it for increasingly long periods.

Dinner: with David/Shan/Ed. We end up at Auntie’s place on most nights. It is the restaurant in the stretch of restaurants that is located 5 min walk beyond the Hawker centre. The restaurant has a similar menu and prices as a Hawker place, plus a friendly customer service with a smile – an old little Auntie that likes us – CRM truly goes a long way. [Auntie/Uncle == Madam/Sir].
On nights that we’re not at Auntie’s place for dinner then we provide Shan with an opportunity to further practice his already excellent culinary abilities – you are welcome Bhai!

After dinner it’s either the bed time, or meet down here in the lobby area of the building for a drink (beer/cider/whisky...wather/tea) while browsing the net and talking cock (BS).

Cleaning: on most weekends I do some cleaning. I finally figured out what my sister was talking about when mentioning those machine cycles – clothes come out clean and somewhat nice smelling (maybe I should put in more softener) – thanks Yogic.
(Cheers) Suzanne, an IF fellow, left us her things, that got accumulated in the appartment during her one year stay, once she moved back home to States few weeks ago. Guess who picked up majority, if not all, of the cleaning stuff – once a cleaner, always a cleaner :)
Ideally I’d be swinging that mop around once a week, as the apartment gets rather dusty even though it is on the 8th floor. It must be due to the near by motorway and the fact that I keep all windows open all the time…

In a way it seems like the two months have gone by very quickly, but on the other hand acclimatising to lifestyle here felt rather effortless, mainly thanks to David, Shan and number of guys at work, so in a way I feel like I've been here for a long time. This reminds me of a comment from the (local) colleague, who joined the School few weeks after me: "Thought you’ve been here for at least two years."

Honeymoon period, no more

Officially, as of Monday this week the 'do nothing most of the time while at work' period is over. Yesterday I had 7 hours of teaching... in addition had to work on some exam questions (procrastination) as well. To make the welcome back to 'work' after 3 and a half months away from teaching even more exciting I only managed to get 4h of sleep the night before. Conditioning is truly a funny thing - unsurprisingly I couldn't just fall a sleep 4h before the usual bed time.

The 2nd day of teaching is in the books... - and the 3rd - so far so good...

The pictorial representation of the 'honeymoon period'

Ideas...

...are cheep. It was at one of DIS Phd seminars where I first heard the story that ideas are like mushrooms after the rain - when the conditions are right they pop-up all over the place. The same, or at least very similar ideas tend to surface at a particular point in time and context. [The moral of the story for the Phd students was to publish early and often.]

I never considered myself to be an Idea person, until the last year when my Honours supervisor Sandrine mentioned it quite a few times... didn't want to argue with her on that one. Guess that's just one of those relative adjectives.

Well what has my emotions kind of split tonight is the article about the rumoured acquisition of YouTube by Google for a cool $1.6 billion. See, the idea of doing something with a user generated video content on-line was between my ears for about a week or two even before I read about this new website called YouTube in MX newspaper on one of my daily train rides from the uni to home.

My initial reaction was 'F, if only....' But luckily my reasoning is much quicker these days as I got to be quite good at shortcutting my initial, occasionally not so positive thoughts. So the 2nd reaction was ' Hey, that's cool! The same mushroom that pooped up between my ears has turned out to be a very lavish one.' This makes me optimistic, maybe as Ray once said it, unreasonably optimistic, that eventually there will be a time, the right time, when I'll act in time to turn one of my ideas into the lavish mushroom.

Ps: Repetition of the word 'time', in the previous sentence, reminds me of a line someone once said: 'Timing is everything.'

Team building

Well that Botanic Gardens trip last Friday afternoon was all about a team building exercise. The HR department at the Poly organises this kind of fun activities for the staff every so often... And I couldn't miss the opportunity to swap the office for the afternoon in the park. If I had a 'to do' list of things to see, like some very organised tourists (e.g. my first visitor Hrvi :), I could have experienced the satisfaction of ticking one item off...

The staff that attended the trip were split into groups by the department. Each group had to complete the tasks that required finding the answers by exploring the park and at the same time solve a set of questions that resembled IQ testing. The album tells the story:

From GreenEscapade...

Botanic Gardens

Just like the one in Auckland and Melbourne, this botanic garden is very nice:

From BotanicGarden...

Singapore River

David's Indian fellows organised the farewell lunch for him at the Indian buffet restaurant yesterday. As Dave was giving the lecture on Multimedia in the school that is near by the restaurant just couple of hours after the lunch, he needed some company to help him kill the time - I was happy to help. The restaurant is located near the river where, similarly to Melbourne, there are plenty of eye pleasing views:

From SingRiver, 27...

...it turns out rather convenient to have a camera on the phone.

Annual leave/Visiting me

This is my first full time working arrangement, and so, the 1st time where I actually have annual leave. As it is probably the case for most employees in most organisation, I cannot take the days off just any time I feel like it - I need to apply for it.

As I am a teacher, my annual leave can be approved during the non-teaching periods. This contract allows me for 42 days of leave which the majority of I will use up on travels to neighbouring countries around Singapore (one of the main reasons for taking up this job).

This being said, for all those wishing to pay me a visit... well first of all you are very welcome, and as long as I have the apartment just for myself you can have a bed at my place anytime, including the breakfast every day (cereal :)

But if you are not just stopping by while passing though Singapore, and have flexibility in planning your visit then please refer to my calendar. Goes without saying that I'd prefer if you can come during the non-teaching period while I am in Singapore. And if you can join me on some trip, then that would be even sweeter...

Too cool apple

Even though I like the name Zune (for some reason, I have a soft spot for words starting with Z), apparently Microsoft has a big gap to close if they are to compete with now even more improved iPod - that iTv thingy sounds very desirable.

I like the way this guy thinks: "Think about it for a second what it would mean to run Mac OS X on the iPod nano, provided that the device has Internet access provided via a WiMax connection. And if it comes with VoIP support, would you ever buy a PDA or a cell phone? I think not. "

Washing the clothes

The reason for starting up the washing machine was not because I ran out of clean clothes to wear. I picked up all of my summer clothes from my Melbourne closet... quite a few T-shirts. And like I've mentioned in that post on Malaysia shopping, I got a few more here, and then I even received couple more Polo's with the School's logo.

Had to do it because few peaces of clothes that I left for a week in the bucket filled with water started producing some nasty smells - I'm surprised that happened in the first place. Thought that keeping those smelly, sweaty clothes in water will prohibit the smells... guess that works for a few days only!?

I like when the clothes smell really nice after washing, and I was told that's due to the softener. Well, my Auntie had this kick ass softener back in Croatia, I was so impressed that I even send her an SMS asking for its name. Unfortunately, I didn't find that particular one in the shop here, but I got something that looked decent.

The challenge today was to figure out how to load, where to put powder, softener and start up the (top loading) machine. For my first load I've put in the powder into a bag that now I think serves as a filter to pic up the loose bits that come of clothes during the washing. On the softener it said not to pour it directly on the clothes, so I poured it into the few holes that I found within the machine's loading area.

The bottom line is that I messed it up... The clothes doesn't smell nice at all, and the ones that were in the bucket for a week still stinks...

Some constructive comments could come in handy. Thanks...!

Ps: it seems that it was the basketball top, made entirely out of plastic like material, that stank up all the other clothes that were in the bucket.

First working assignment

After couple of meeting last week, and then one yesterday I am given the first task. My job is to come up with the lecture material, notes, exercises and solutions for the two weeks of teaching OOAD2 (object oriented analysis and design). The subject is new to the School, as well as to me. The subject has primary objective of teaching students on what and how things happen from the point of securing an IT contract till the actual design of a desired solution takes place (to the point of vision document (project sign off)). In addition, secondary objective of the subject is to put OOAD into context within the whole IT project (system maintenance included). If you think all this sounds ambitious, you are not the only one.

Pics are up

I was saying that it must be possible, and now finally thanks to Ray it is. Ray directed me to the new Picasa's web album. Currently I have two posts that have links to the album, one with more photos of the campus (note how clean and tidy it is!), and the other with shopping photos from Johor Bahru, Malaysia. For best viewing of the whole album, after clicking on the thumbnail within the post and getting to the web album, click on the Slideshow link on the right had side of the photo. Enjoy...!

Though, still cannot post up individual photos that are not uploaded in the webalbum.

Now, I can :)

Hawker Centre

…is the place where I have dinner on most nights. Five minutes walk from the apartment, in the opposite direction form the Poly, is an open (has roof, but no air-conditioning) food court that has 88 stools, according to the old Chinese scholar with whom I have shared the table and interesting conversation the few nights ago. A dish costs between 2 and 5 Singaporean dollars (3 SGD = 2.50 AUD = 1.50 EUR = 11.20 HRK). This makes it cheaper to eat out then to cook at home, especially to cook just for one person – me like.

Most days I end up eating seafood dishes, and the one that I try to eat more then once per week, is a sliced fish soup (pic taken by the phone camera)

Yesterday I caught up w/ a Kiwi friend after a long time... First we met for the dinner at the Newton Circus, the Hawker Centre for tourists, where we had BBQed Sting Ray.

Fighting the nature

Dave, the international colleague, says that it is all in the name of comfort, and our – human – prosperity, it’s something that we have been doing since always, so it shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone. But still, I’m surprised - the amount of energy that Singapore spends on keeping all the indoor areas cool must be ridiculous. In spite of many warnings by my friends, I don’t mind the heat at this place, at least not the one I have experienced during the first few weeks. What I do mind are aircons that keep big difference in the temperature between inside and outside. I believe that this is the cause of my cold that has been dragging on since the day I arrived.

Also, in my opinion, the outside heat would not be perceived as bad as it is by majority if the aircons were set to cool the inside to a temperature ONLY few degrees less then outside, instead of, what seams ten degrees or more.

Airconditioners, 'decorating' the side of the building:

On the sunny side, the layout looks somewhat better than the one Coleman ran into.

More on sports

Continuing on from the previous post... In the last couple of years, running replaced basketball as my sport of choice. So I’m looking to incorporate one or two runs per week as well, to balance out the swimming a bit (...and btw, the old man said that the balance is a very important thing). So far I went running only once. On Thursday morning the pool was closed for cleaning so I ended up running at the track. This was the first time I ran on the track, and the level of support, the bounce it provides, is very noticeable. Since I haven’t been running since I left Melbourne in the mid July, and taking into consideration the heat here, I stayed on the track for a reasonable amount - half an hour. In Melbourne I used to run a couple of 4km laps around the hill, this 400m per lap thing is not something that I prefer so I’ll be keen to check out the running at the near by park/hill.

They organise some kind of interdepartmental sporting competitions here at the Poly, including running and basketball. So I am looking to participate in both of those.

Tuesday evenings after work seem to be basketball nights… at least that has been the pattern since I’ve got here – hope it continues.

Swimming

I'm developing a healthy habit. I like the pool, a LOT. Most days, after I get up, the first thing I do is go for a one hour swim. In case I don't make it in the morning (due to the early meetings), I go at night before the dinner. And on some days, like yesterday, I even get there twice.

During my holiday In Croatia, I swam the route that I use to swim as a kid growing up. So in a way I already got used to swimming during the last couple of months even before coming here. Therefore, it sure was very convenient to find out that now I can continue strengthening my new habit by making it from the bed to the Olympic size pool in 5 mins.

Some 20yrs ago, I used to spent a few weeks each summer with my cousin Vlado in Split. Back then Vlado used to play competitive Waterpolo for the first division club as well as train younger players in the club. (Now he is a Waterpolo coach for students at the private high school in South Africa). So he would take me to his trainings, where he taught me how to swim. He thought me well, and I though I was quite good at it. Though, during my swims in Croatia this time around I started thinking about maximising the efficiency of moving through the water... and then last week, as part of my ‘work’, I started googling for the information about the stroke efficiency... Wow... Who knew swimming is such a complicated science. I came across quite a number good articles at Swimming World Magazine and at US Masters Swimming. Though out of all the articles that I went trough so far, the one that stands out, and is responsible for my muscle pain, can be found here.

5 min walking distance from the bed, free => love...!

Rainy Sunday afternoon…

Or should I say lazy Sunday… I like Tropical rain, at least for now… It’s been raining quite a bit in the last week. It would be nice for Melbourne to get one of these downpours once in a while. Pic taken form the ICT building.


Currently I’m sitting at the bench on the ground floor in the foyer area of the building. Just today I found out that these benches have power sockets underneath them. Thought that’s not that much of a big deal anymore (for now), as I got a new battery for the laptop. The new battery is good for a few hours of work, as oppose to a few minutes that the old one was capable of. Apparently, this rapid decrease in a battery performance of our (beloved) gadgets is something that will be around for a while longer...

View for the bench:

Blogging about blogging

There is lots of it out there... I went looking for a solution to the pictures uploading problem and it turns out that I'm not the only one facing the issue. Google guys are 'upgrading' the blog, and this version that I'm using is in the beta stage - no right/basis for complaints. Though on the bright side they are 'looking into it', so those pics will be there 'in no time' :)

The suggested solution out there was to use the FireFox instead of IE, though I cannot even log in using FF, let alone upload the pics. Though FF's advantage is that the blog itself looks better -it used to look good in IE as well at the beginning.

Update, 23th Sep - now that I can log in using FF, here's the pic of one of the 'blogging spots' - though here I can only work off-line, as wireless doesn't reach to the 8th floor - which is actually the 7th floor. Around here they start the count from one, there is no ground floor!

Mobile phone

I think it was Tuck who joked by saying I better change my phone before I start teaching in Singapore, as all students would be laughing when they see me answering my old Nokia 8310. I had no concern about it, I rally think that I was using the good old classic, maybe even something that one day might be a worthy collectors/museum item :)

Though, unfortunately my classic developed some problems during my stay in Croatia: it couldn’t recharge properly and the slight shake would shut it down. On the bright side, if you’re goanna have your phone die, then it’s a good thing that it happens on the way to Singapore, a place of cheep communication (relative to Australia/Croatia). It turns out that here, plans provide a much better talk/sms value, plus you get a new phone for cheep, then the prepaid options. But wait there’s more, the Poly has a corporate agreement with Starhub, one of the telcos here, so the staff gets 30% discount - and everybody likes a nice discount.

So for $20 a month I get 160 outgoing minutes, free incoming calls, 100 SMSs and the new phone for $98. It was bit difficult to forecast the usage pattern, but they give you an option to start cheep and upgrade, charge free, to a higher plan should you require it later. Considering the amount of mobile phones per kilometre square in this country, it's no wonder that the price of communication is rather cheep here. Talk for 15c/min, and send SMS/MMS for 5c.

Apart from using a ‘stone age’ Siemens for a month in Croatia, this is the first time I’m using non Nokia phone, and all is great. Love all the new features that found their way onto a small sized phone (aka, form factor) in the last 5 yeas, and especially its ease of use -> me a happy customer.

The only disappointed I came across (so far) was the other night when I started transferring numbers from the old phone to the new one. Using them both simultaneously, there was a big difference in the way the phones felt while pressing the buttons. Comparable to the old one, the new phone felt clumsy, toy like, cheep…

Wondering if that is just the case for this particular phone, or if it can be generalised to the whole brand, or it’s the case for all models that are on the lower end of the price scale…?

Update, after using the phone for few days:

The calendar on these new colour screened phones is (almost) great. Why my one doesn't have an option to set an event as reoccurring one (e.g. bBall every Tuesday evening) is puzzling... Guess having an option for 'remind me later' would be asking for a bit too much.

It would be nice to have an option to reply to SMS including the original text. I figured a way to (sort of) overcome the problem by using the forward option.

The message alert tone is to quiet. When trying it out within the settings it sounds great. Though once a msg is received you can barely hear it. You are probably thinking why don't you just increase the ring tone volume, well if I was to increase it any more the tone for incoming call would jeopardize well being of my hearing. There must be something somewhere to set this properly.

Any pointers on any of these from SE users are more then welcome!

And lastly the good news, after putting in some tape below the back cover (between the cover and the battery) the fit of the cover is significantly improved – the good old sellotape.

Phone + Mp3 player

Few years back, when I got an iPod, I was talking about my wishful thinking to have a phone integrated with it (note the order)... surely that's gonna happen one of these days. Although Apple did get iTunes into Motorolas, I wasn't impressed. My thinking was more along the lines of what the guys at Sony are doing lately by squeezing the whole walkman, not just a music application, into the phone. This latest offering, Me like, a lot: 4GB, touch screen, yet still pretty small form factor. If only the calendar is on par with the one in the Outlook...

...or Phone + camera (update, 28 sep)

I've first seen the 3.2M camera on the phone that my cousin Daniel was using when we met in Croatia this summer. I was rather imprssed with the phone that had integrated camera which is as good as my digital camera, it's smaller then my camera, and ...err... it's not actually a camera, it's a phone.

A few years back, while I was studying subject on HCI there was lots of talk about which devices should be bundled together to create a mobile device such is a smart phone, and the current trend by SE and Nokia seems to be to emphesise either a music playing functionality or a picture taking ability of their phones.

So the question becomes, which option is the better one. The answer comes from that HCI subject, as another question: 'what do you need it for'. So for my current situation where I want to preserve and share the experiences, such as the non-planed walk along the river, the camera phone is more suitable. Whereas, once the life routine kicks in, as I had it in Melbourne during the past few years, an MP3 player becomes (to a person like me) an essential traveling companion. On that note, I should mention that my iPod has not moved from it's docking since arriving here.

Shopping

While talking to Nat before I started packing for the trip, he told me that if I don’t have the clothes that satisfy the dressing code at the school, then no point of going shopping in Melbourne, as Singapore is world famous for it.

The last weekend, 9th and 10th of Sep, I went and seen it for myself.

I had to wait until I got my FIN card (some kind of ID that proves my working visa) to get a discount on the mobile plan. So after I got it some time last week, the first Saturday I went to the big city in search of the phone for me.
Like I’ve been told, the city is like one big shopping mall - I spend half a day just to walk though the Orchard Rd, that was plenty for one day.

The next day, as was talked about for a while w/ David and Shan, my neighbours and fellow Internationals at the Poly, we went to JB a town on the other side of the border with Malaysia. David needed just a hair cut (yep, going across the border for the haircut) and Shan wanted to go and do some shopping. When it takes half an hour on the local buss to get there, then why not. In terms of the distance and ride experience, it’s just like going to another area of the city, pardon the fact that you need to show your passport at two customs checking points. But when you get off the buss you can tell straight away that you didn’t just get to the other side of the city, it seems like you travelled very far, if not in terms of the distance then in terms of time – as in back in time. It’s a very different world, everything looks, smells, sounds and feels different.

All that beings said, it is not surprising that the prices of everything are much cheaper for the people who are coming form a more developed country (i.e. anything that I’ve seen so far, IMO). After two meals and the amusing browse through two big shopping malls, I had my uniform assembled: two pairs of none jeans pants, couple of polo T-shirts, and couple of shits. Had to trow in couple of plain t-shirts as well - for the soul as SteveG would say. All good quality stuff for 170 Ringgits (60 AUD).

From JB, Malaysia ...

Meetings

Last few days I've been attending the number of meetings the school runs at the end of each semester. Being new, I have to admit that I haven't really understood the relevance of the most things being said, but the meeting today was something that I was rather impressed with. Actually it's not so much that I was impressed by it, as much as I've used to be disappointed that there was no similar thing (during the recent years) at the DIS. The meeting is rather simple one, subject leaders of each year discuss the due dates and the weighting of the assessment for the coming semester. This way there is a coordination of the students' work load, i.e. not all the assignments end up being due in the same week, nor does the one subject end up with 3 times as many submissions as the next one. Brilliant!

Pictures

As they say picture is worth a 1000 words...

When getting an email from someone I always like it that much more when it has pictures attached to it. So, likewise it was always my intention to attach many pictures to this blog, maybe put couple w/in a post and then have a link to a gallery or something. And this being a Google product I thought there would be convenient way of doing it...

Well think again, so far only on the paper it sounds as though this will be possible, but unfortunately (for me) it doesn't work in the practice (yet).

I've heard about goodness of Picasa about a year ago from Björn, our German exchange friend who spent a year with us at DIS. It took me a while to get to use it, but now that I'm here I must say that 'I am feeling lucky' button under 'Basic fixes' tab is doing wonderful improvements to the pictures (that I've taken). Though Picasa on its own wasn't enough and when I decided to post some pictures on this blog I was referred to a yet another product, Hello, that was suppose to make this picture-blog integration a breeze.

Instead of just reading my blabbing about photos, you can have a look at Björn's Australia photos, and if you know German you might want as well to read about his Aussie experience.

For some nice night photos of The University of Melbourne take a look at my good friend Nay's gallery. Nay also took some impressive shots of the city of Melbourne. To understand what Nay has against the sun light, you might want to try your luck by reading his blog.

From the apartment to the office

...the 5 minute walk.

Due credit

Since I'm enjoying my Singapore experience so much, I should give credit where the credit is due. First and foremost that's Shanton, a lecturer at DIS, and Nat, my fellow tutor whose position I inherited here at Ngee Ann. Thanks to two of them, the majority of the discussion during my phone interview with the poly was based around the timing of my arrival, and not about my experiences, why 'do I want'/'should I be given' the job, etc. Cannot beat the connections! Much appreciated guys!

Also, as mentioned in the post below, I'm rather comfortable with all the stuff teaching. That's thanks to the opportunity to constantly have the casual tutoring position during my stay at DIS, even in the recent times when those positions have been increasingly becoming scarce. Special thanks to all the people I've had opportunity to work with as part of 230 and 245 teaching teams during the years, as well as to admins: JennyT and James who helped me in many ways on many occasions.

Since this looks like I am preparing for the Oscars, I might as well mention that I've spent waaaay more time at DIS then at home, or anywhere else for that matter, in the last 5 yrs, and so I've gotten to know basically everybody who works there: from the head of the department, to the cleaners; and who studies there: from Phds to undergrads. And they all have been kind and helpful, so thanks ALL and good luck DIS.

Teacher

Yep, that's me, that's now my occupation. Even though I've been doing it since 2002 at the Department of IS, I never looked at it as work, as an occupation. It was something that I was doing until I found a 'real job'. And to me, all that teaching stuff never really felt like work and it has been something I really enjoy (exception: administrative things related to marks).

So it seems that it could happen to me like to Mujo (pronounced Muyo, the main character of jokes that are on Bosnian account) when he first married Fata. He marred her only temporarily until a better one came along... they're still married (happily, I hope).

Now that I have a full time teaching job as an International Fellow at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic's ICT school, I started referring to it as work.

It's funny, what makes it work now and not then, I don't know. Actually, so far I haven't done anything that's related to any kind of work. These days, my brief office time is mostly spend on-line, catching up with people and the sports news... working hard.

The next semester, and the first day of my teaching, starts on the 16th of October. I'll be teaching two subjects: 'Object Oriented Programming' and 'Object Oriented Analysis and Design'. I fully expect to be enjoying it as I always have, till then I'll just have to continue with my 'hard work'...

From NgeeAnn campus

Efficiency

I already mentioned the organisational skills at this place, but I must elaborate a bit more and give the example of amazing efficiency. Before I signed the leasing contract for the apartment, the housing manager gave me the check list to go through and to report anything that needs fixing. There was one light bulb (pronounced boob in Brazilian English), one loose socket, and a possibility of getting a TV. I told him this in the morning and by the time I was back in the apartment in the afternoon everything was fixed and little TV was there.

I missed the army, but just barely (to be posted some time later). And back home, people say that 'boys go to army and men come back'. Now I see my stay in this highly organised, efficient environment as some kind of an substitute for my army training and the opportunity to improve in those skills. Needless to say, it shouldn't be hard for me to improve, as there is plenty of room for it.

Jetlag

Why is it that one only gets affected, or much worse affected, when flying east? – That’s what I’ve been told, and that’s how I experienced it this time around. I know it’s something to do with the fact that our bio clock somehow gets bit more screwed when going opposite to Earth’s rotation. None the less I find it still rather funny for this trip of mine as on my way here I slept pretty well on the plane, the flight was mostly during the night, and then I was awake during the majority of the day time here in Singapore – I thought this is great, I’ll just continue where I left of, unaffected by the jetlag – err, think again. First night upon arriving to Singapore I had two two hour sessions separated by 6h of rolling on the bed. The next day I slept for 13h, and then last night only few hours again. Whereas, on the way to Europe my sleep was shocking… but I didn’t experience any jetlag effects whatsoever.

First impressions

...last, or so they say. In this case, if that ends up to be true I'll have excellente time here in Singapore.

I was picked up from the airport in the luxury car and driven to the luxury 3 bedroom apartment which is located in the luxury apartment block which includes many playgrounds and it's surrounded by the park in the area called Bukit Timah. (Mind you luxury, as all other adjectives is a relative word.)

There I was greeted by the American dude who's been working here for a while with the same title that I have. He showed me around; how things work, where to buy milk, where to get dinner etc. Thanks Ryan!

Work is located five WALKING minutes from the apartment block (to put it into perspective, previously it took 1h on public transport to get there) . At work everybody is very friendly and happy to help... Since I arrived at the end of the semester I can have first couple of weeks easy as everybody else is busy with the exam marking. This will give me the time to slowly settle in. Also, I should mention the organisation at this place. They already had everything ready for me: office, name on the door, laptop, email, bank account, ... , and the first paycheck. Last but not the least, meeting coworkers who enjoy jerking around: priceless.

Guess the only thing that wasn't waiting for me here was a wife and two kids :)


View from the apartment:

...3 tennis courts are behind the other goal. Running track, Olympic size pool and the other smaller one are part of the campus. (There might be more... and there is: gym, indoor courts, rugby field...)

Why this blog

Before I left Australia I talked a bit about this idea with a few friends and one of them, Ray, summed it up like this:

About me: I don't have to write the same thing many times over, or be spamming most of the people in my contact list with impersonal emails.

About you: if you what to know what I am up to, you simply look it up. Or in the IS terms, it's information pull instead of a push. I.e. you retrieve the information that you want, instead of me pushing it out to you in this day and age of information overload.

I envision blabbing on about my experiences, thoughts, etc, without too much thought being put into the writing style and presentation. Luckily this thing has a spelling check so words should be readable. Though as many of you already know, I'm not much of a witter (to say the least) and English grammar, especially the articles, are not best of my friends. Happy to have my grammer corrected in the comments section :)

Btw, looking forward to ALL your comments -> don't think, just write...!

Hello World...!

For non-CS people: just testing.
For CS people: just saying Hi.