Dec - Jan bullets

- We won, we won. Machineguns are the champions. We won the 2nd competition we went for. The algoMania, organised by NUS. As a nice reword each of the students (3 of them) got cool iPod Touch, and photos taken with the Education Minister. Pat (the official coach for this competition) and me got nothing (hmmm, he's the coach, so I got less :).

- Level 8 party, part 2. This time a more quiet one then the last time, none the less very entertaining.

From Level 8 Party...

- Last Friday I went to NUS administration to see about my enrolment. If I contacted them back in October last year I would have been enrolled by the start of this semester (14th Jan). The way things are now, the likelihood is that I'll have to wait for yet another semester to come around before I get a chance to finish of my masters.

- I'm getting sick of being sick. Last couple of months I pooped more Panadols then the whole of the last two years put together. As how bad it was, well I only went for one swim in the new year... Finally this week, things feel better. I played ball, and went for two runs. Of for another run now.

Whatz up...?

...impressive creativity - of entertaining kind:

Darwin & NT

For Christmas and New Year's holidays I met with the parents and sister half way between Melbourne and Singapore. Our destination was Darwin and North Territory, at the Top End of Australia.

Out of 10 days there, we spent four exploring Kakadu, Nitimiluk (Kathrine Gorge), and fishing on Darwin bay. During the fishing, Mum was the only lucky one catching the golden snapper for dinner.


great...!

2008

I wish you all that you might have wished for yourself... I wish that all your 2008 resolutions come true... wish you all the best...

health...luck....love...!

MIS @ NUS

Finishing my masters within the next half a year at the National University of Singapore.

I started Masters of Information Systems at The University of Melbourne in 2002, as a year and a half degree for a full time student. Things got interesting - to say the least :) - and now I'm aiming to complete the 'outstanding' degree by May 2008. Thanks to Universitas 21, I'll be doing a minor thesis at The Department of Sociology at NUS (subject to approval from uniMelb).

During the last semester that finished in November, I informally attended the postgraduate subject (Sociological Theory and Social Reality) on theories in Sociology. The reason why it was not counted towards the completion of my MIS, is that the administration at UniMelb took too long - about three months - to sort out the enrolment. They concluded that if I want to complete my degree at NUS, as opposed to uniMelb, I'll have to do 3 subjects instead of two. I wasn't happy about that, but it is what it is... The one good thing in all that, and unusual, is that at NUS school fees are charged per semester, as opposed to per subject. This meaning that even though I had to do 3 subjects, by doing them all in one semester, my fees would be considerably less then at uniMelb.

Then last month when I thought about which three subjects should I take. The idea of attending uni three nights a week between 6:30 and 9:30 together w/ the full time job just did not 'digest', as I don't want to completely rearrange things on my plate. Luckily, I remembered the possibility of a minor thesis, which was discussed with DIS before leaving.

Next semester is approaching quickly, it starts on the 14th Jan. To enrol officially by getting my minor thesis approved in time, I'll have to do more then just wait to get an approval that I have requested at the beginning of December.

can...!

birth-month shopping

After one year plus here, I get to taste some of the famous Singapore culture 1st hand; the shopping culture:

Save from losing/breaking stuff, I should be shopping-free for a while. This being the month I was born in, it felt kind of like receiving lots of prezos... - albeit, most from myself...

At the beginning of the month, with few of running colleagues from work, I went to the New Balance shop - the marathon running colleague has 40% discount during November. I am a new NB fan. At the shop they got us running on a treadmill to determine a correct shoe. I got two pairs and running shorts.

Few weeks later, for birthday I got the watch. Also got the new jeans that have been in the closet for couple of months, finally trimmed (my ass size/lag ration makes it impossible to get a new pants that fit 'out of a box').

As the phone died the in washing machine, last week I got Nokia E51 - awesome.

Then on the weekend, after a year plus since having initial idea, I got the Boston Birkenstok - perfect for flat footed teacher, also quicker at getting ready in the morning as no need for socks. To make the best of the shop wide 40% discount, I also got Teva sandals, swimming gaggols and two pairs of Mizuno running shorts. My Dad´s birthday is coming next month, so (at danger of ruining the surprise) I got him a pair of NB as well.

Getting a good use from all this goodies, will make it a happy year...!

Oct-Nov bullets

-Another round around the Sun to be added to the total tally. Goes w/o saying, it was quick, very quick, guess the quickest yet.

- Rodo Mile's dear wife gave birth to their 1st child today at 6am CET. My niece Petra was born on a very lucky day :) - Zivila...!

-I moved to the apartment next door. The new guys are great and all.. We have swimming, bBall in common amongst many other things, but I still like the have my own privacy, my own mess, my own choice... guess I'm too old for all that flatmate thing...

- As there is 8 new IF around, there's always choice of doing something w/ someone... : e.g. throwing a party across two 3-bedroom apartments and the level 8 lift lobby that is in between them:


or travelling: Cycling trip at Pulao Bin, a small island of Singapore's east coast:


- I completed my 1st semester at NUS, albeit just as an outsider sitting in at the Sociological Theory and Social Reality .

- The competition at NTU, I took the students for was really good. On one side we were lucky at time, on the other quite unlucky at the last round to finish 4th overall out of 12 schools in our division: 1% point difference behind the 3rd place, and 5% behind the 2nd. So close yet so far away... On the bright side we had fun preparing for it.

- I'm getting more and more into running. Went for another 10km run where we as a corporate team (NP) finished 3rd. This got us a $50 reward each. The run was huge w/ some 10000 participants. My time was 1h. In the another event, we as the School of ICT won the Poly's inter-department relay.

- ...and we came 4th at Poly's inter-department dragon boat race:


- Last Saturday (the 17th), I spent more then half an hour looking for my phone. I found it at the bottom of the washing machine. It was playing submarine. After blow drying it, the SIM card was the only thing that survived. Unfortunately, all my contact info was saved in the phone memory - all lost. The phone has picked the nice smell of the softener :)

...!