Friday, January 16, 2009
hello from level 3 dry lab
for this is where i'm based for my republic poly attachment, in a cold (in more ways than one) and technologically advanced testing lab for biomechanics, anthropometric, and to some extent, physiological testing. for this attachment, i'm supposed to analyse many many many data and make information out of it, entering it into an excel spreadsheet. hmmmm, why does this sound a lot like the much-maligned temp. job many others resort to, aptly termed 'data entry'? well that's what it exactly is you eggheads, but up one level la. i gotta manipulate and extract information out of this motion analysis software called visual3d, so learning how to do that has been rather interesting. unfortunately, that exciting novel feeling kinda wore off after ploughing through the same thing for 30 subjects, leaving me disillusioned and blogging. so is this what research life is? that sucks! methinks i'm more suited to helping people directly with information garnered by God-gifted numbercrunching geekspeak-spouting exercise scientists who do all this dirty work, hehe. 'tis a vast industry this i realise. remind me to try straight out for an internship with SGH instead of this next time round. of course, this attachment still does have its merits, and i hope i can learn as much as possible in wat lil time i have here. to do that, probably less blogging and more hardcore data entry work ethics will free up more time to do more and learn more. man i'm such a conscientious worker, cramming more stuff in the same hours with the same pay. lmao who am i kidding, it's all hot air at the mo, but watch out! i'll be back after lunch to bulldoze my way through.
i'm also doing this school camp orientation facilitator job part-time, and next week is hell week cus monday to wednesday is with nanyang primary! after the jawdropping no-holds-barred briefing we had yesterday, i'm thinking it's still not too late to pull out. haha! just yesterday as well i worked a few hours with smarty pants VJC IP sec 4 kids. i discovered, they're human too! or at least in the street sense yow, because i'm very sure all of them are in IP because of what they can do sitting down with a test paper at their mercy. we had to facilitate a mini 'amazing race' around chinatown, in the spirit of things (yes dong dong dong chiang time is here, in case you havent' realised) and this was just one of the activities planned for them. i did have my doubts when they took a little while to figure out perigi maksima, which directly translated means well maximum, actually was referring to maxwell, but yea i guess that brings me back to the abovementioned point anyway. haha.
all in all, a very fulfilling summer break on the surface, but what lies beneath, who can know? be good kids, and avoid foot rot.
paN!cker lost it at 11:53 am
Monday, January 05, 2009
our paths divide
last night, i attended my mum's cousin's daughter's wedding. that makes her my distant distant relative. josh and his family were there too. i realise i really haven't attended many weddings, perhaps due to me being away these 2 years when those slightly older than me are starting to all tie their respective knots.
anyhow, my dad picked us up after the dinner and we proceeded home. he parked the car halfway between our block (95) and block 93. we all got out of the car. before my very eyes, in a most singular and allegorical display, my mum and dad started trudging off in different directions towards different blocks. my mum was making very steady progress towards 93 while my dad was moving towards 95. neither was remotely aware of the distinct lack of another 2 members walking alongside. each assumed that the other two would be along any moment now anyway. and so it was, that my parents actually made it to the lobbies and my dad actually went up, no questions asked, while somewhere in that block 93 lobby mummy realised this block was not that familiar after all and sheepishly retreated back to the carpark to rejoin me, patiently sitting on the car bonnet. we then took the correct route back together.
oh how we get so myopic in our little glassed in worlds that sometimes, we take wrong turns in life unknowingly. any form of beautiful big picture is lost on us. sometimes, we need to learn the hard way, through a heap of trial and error mistakes, to truly learn the lesson life is throwing at us. but at the end of the day, it's always nice to have a friend to fall back on at that fork in the road. a friend who never says 'see i told you so' (and actually means it anyway), a friend who is completely trustworthy, and who loves you unconditionally.
a friend.... perhaps, like Jesus.
paN!cker lost it at 12:01 am
|