Rock Bottom Motivation

I think doing FYP is the worst phase of the 3-year polytechnic course, maybe for me at least.

It didn't start well that well, probably because I'm breaking all the rules.

I see other peeps' supervisors visitting them, giving them solid information and objective to be met but I only received bits and pieces and am not sure how to go about using this Microsoft Visual Web Developer. And my supervisor is so busy that not one of the calls gets through.

Yesterday, I was tired in the lab and decided to just put my head down for awhile but even before my chin touched my arm, the department manager barged in and stopped me. His office is at the corner and everytime he goes to the toilet, he'll be able to monitor us.

The project co-ord warned us not to cheat on the attendance because they've installed a camera to spy on us. So I got bored, and I went online to download GameBoy Advance emulator and a few ROMs, like Spidey 3, Ratatouille and the old school Pokemon. The reason I've decided to play that is NOT that I'm deprived of childhood but just because it doesn't require installation and it takes up only one small corner of the screen and so I wouldn't be nabbed that easily.

So I loaded the ROMs and played Pokemon red version. I took charmander as my first pet monster Pokemon and further on captured a pikachu and rattata before traning them each to around level 15. By then, I felt quite sleepy and I headed to the first gym. My game screen suddenly poofed and at first, I thought I closed it by accident or maybe some pop-up covered it. I toggled between the applications on my taskbar and found nothing but a small pop-up.

"Ho Yit Jing, playing of games are restricted in the lab, this is a first warning. Uninstall and remove any games from your computer immediately."

I now believe that my project co-ord wasn't lying. The DT can actually monitor EVERYTHING I DO ON MY COMPUTER. It's so secondary school man, nanny cams and all. I was about to curse about him to a friend on MSN when I thought that he might still be monitoring me (for all you know, he's monitoring me now). I turned a good boy, deleted the game and in a few seconds, another pop-up appeared.

"Ho Yit Jing, Thank You for your co-operation."

What the? First it was issued as a warning and now he thanked me as if I've done him a favour. Confusing. Maybe he needs students like me so job like his will be created.

This morning, I had no motivation to wake up and so I reached 45 minutes late at 9.15 am. The DT happen to reach earlier and marked me late. Think the management gonna be strict for a first few weeks. I'll try be good now and maybe strike later.

FYP = FUCKING YUCKY PROJECT

Ciao.

Emo already

Hi, I'm back in school once again for Final Year Project (FYP).

Yesterday, after the briefing (which almost ended when I'd reached), I checked out where I was posted to and it was some unidentified initials "ETG". The moment I got it, I muttered under my breath, "holy shit." I was hoping hard that I'll be posted to something more MIT based, maybe flash animation or PHP but for 'E', I could only think of 'electronics' or 'engineering'. I'll prefer to work under my own MIT side though, because that'll mean more company, assistance and most importantly, more FUN. My project co-ordinator allocated breifing time at 1 and so I had to wait for 3 hours after my briefing. During that 3 hours of waiting, I prayed not to get some circuit board project or else I'll kill myself by stabbing myself with IC chips and resistors.

I went to my project co-ord's room and there was already some people waiting outside. That further confirmed that ETG is under School of Engineering because those peeps waiting look really 'engineery'. I couldn't explain why exactly, except for most of them look slightly more mature.

I later found out that I'm doing some sort of 'intelligent assessment system'. My supevisor came later and further briefed me and the other guy in the team on our job scopes. Mine is to improve on an equiz system using asp.net, the programming language that've always hated because it's not straight forward at all to me. The other guy from SEG got flash animation, alien to him too but WHY DIDN'T THEY ASSIGN THAT TO ME!? My supervisor spoke as though I can easily learn asp.net and even told me to teach the SEG guy Macromedia Flash. Sucks lah, don't think I'll be helping much until I've figure out asp.net (or if I ever will).

The lab kind of suck too. I'm using a P4 with 768 RAM only with some free additional virus package.

One line to sum it all up, I miss working at ST Electronics.

Complaints over, gonna do research to self-learn.

Doc, I feel a little ermmm... METALLIC today. MC please?

This entry is dedicated to a Swedish, by the name of Roger Tullgren.

This is the man. He looks like any other able-bodied man, am I right?

I'm unsure if I should be impressdd, but he's actually financially aided by the government for a disability. I swear to God, it is called - Heavy metal addiction.

Heavy metal addiction? HEAVY METAL ADDICTION!

I wonder how did he ever got his music preference officially classified as a disability. That's not all. Was that Sweden want to promote The best part was that he was issued an official document granting him permission to do things that people usually couldn't. So besided benefits from the nation, he could...

1) Blast metal during work
2) Go MIA from work to attend gigs, with the condition that he'll make up for it later
3) Come in his matted hair, painted face, tatoos, chains and skulls because "Roger feels compelled to show his heavy metal style."

I think any one of them is more than enough to pwn job rules.

With these previleges, there are definitely job limitations as well. You can't put him to a full commitment job, an office deskjob so a magnanimous boss decided that he could hire and put him to good use.

OF ALL JOBS POSITION HE COULD ASSIGN, I WOULD SAY THE MANAGER IS INGENIOUS.

Because he made Uncle Roger the dishwasher. Of all things, the dishwasher.

If I was the manager and let's be realistic. I wouldn't hire him, someone who might be capable of this.

Guitars are harder than plates I believe. Picture him using all the utensils and crockery as drums and cymbals. You'll cry mama.

Harsh it may sound but as long as you believe, you are always useful and can excel in something else even more.

Brawling when I'm not around? This yamaha will be shoved up yours, and I'll break it inside you. FEAR ME!!! ROAR!!!

As for Roger, music is made because he plays for 2 bands. However in Singapore, I hope the government doesn't allow that else Ah Lians will go about having cam-whoring classified as a disability because "ii feAl sHo cOmPelLed tU sHoW mOi cAmZ wHoRe styLeXx woRz~!!" and tax payers will suffer. In my opinion, that should be grouped under self-obsession, referred to IMH with immediate effect.

Out.

Government responds to unemployment

Hello, I'm damn free now so here's an update.

I'm so glad that the call center I'm handling is being being outsourced to a new call center at ST Serangoon North, which also mean that...

• I can come later
• Leave earlier as well
• I can go for lunch together with my colleagues and we don't have to take turns to mend the calls
• I can go for a random tea break, at a random time, with a random duration
• I don't get interrupted by calls while I'm doing my stuff
• I don't get fucked by *take a deep breath* angsty-emo-gothic-slit wrist-screamo-pissed drunk-self stabbing-school/workplace massacre, callers.
• I can tell lesser white lies
• I'll be free to roam a little as long as work is done
• I don't have to act happily polite.
• I don't have to get someone to answer my calls while I answer my nature calls (no pun intended).
• I won't have myself speaking on a phone while the the other one is ringing.
• Roll about on my chair to reach the four corners of the call center, doing a different task at each

This sums up to a big YAY.

Yay, I'm a pussy.

On the other hand, I think I'll miss doing it because other than shit you get, there are nice callers who make you feel much appreciated for the service you've provided. The call center will be officially handed over on 5th November which is next Monday. This may also mark the end of funny calls.

*phone rings*

Me: "Hello, good morning. IT helpdesk."

New guy: "Hello, my laptop cannot go internet. I think the settings something wrong."

Me: "Go under 'tools' and then 'internet options' blah blah blah and then you blah blah..."

New guy: "Okay, you wait."

*mouse clicks and typing sounds*

New guy: "Eh, cannot leh."

Me: "Hmm okay, what's your location at? We'll go take a look later."

New guy: "This is ehhhh, I don't know my block... ermmmm"

Me: "How about your department?"

New guy: "uhmmmm... errrr... I don't really know, I'm new here."

Me: "Can you ask your colleague please?"

New guy: "I don't have any colleagues around me here..."

New guy: "Oh yah, there's this Carol sitting next to me, but she's from another department."

*thinking it may be my supervisor but not likely*

Me: "Oooo-kay. What's her surname?"

New guy: "I don't know man."

*rose from my seat*

Me: "Sir, can you stand up?"

New guy: "Huh? Stand up? What do you mean?"

Me: "Oh nono, nothing to do with your comp. Just literally stand up!"

New guy: "Errr, okay?"

*Head bobs up from a cubicle at the other side of the room*

Me: *waves* "Hello?" *waves again* "Yo? I think we were talking on the phone eh?"

New guy: *turned and looked at me, still having the receiver pressed on ear* "Ohhhhhhh! Yaya!"

*click*

Funny guy. His last line was still spoken through the receiver. Anyway, my department shares the same office witho another one so that's why that sotong was there.

From my perspective, there are 2 reasons behind the outsourcing of the call center,

1) To achieve excellence through specialization

2) Reduce unemployment

They are supposed to be more professional but I heard they weren't trained. However, one thing for sure, I know they'll have a more professional tone than I do. Mine rises and goes down together with the Sun. My supervisor told me that the call center will eventially still notify us of the problems via network and now I feel that the business process will be slowed down. Don't know, I'll see on Monday.

Last day mending the calls tomorrow!