Sunday, April 18, 2010

Sportacular & YouthOUT! 2010


10 April 2010

We returned home at 1am from Eunos Community Club, after packing and arranging the goodie bags and wrist tags for our BIG event. Fellow YEC members and I had looked forward to Sportacular & YouthOUT! 2010 for some time. After 6 months of planning, the YEC and the SLC will finally see the fruits of our effort.

Fearing of feeling soggy after a 3-hour sleep, I went for a jog instead. At 4am, the park connector was in total silence. I ran round the Eunos Petal Garden and envisioned how the whole event will run in the morning.

The chilli that Chee Lee threw round the Petal Garden didn't seem to work as the sight of flashing lightning greeted me from a distance.

At 5am, YEC members began transporting the 2,000 goodie bags from Eunos CC to the Petal Garden. Although a short distance, it was hell work. Fortunately and smartly, Faiq loaned out some mega trolleys from the Kaka fruit stall and our work was heavily leveraged upon.


SLC members joined in at 7am. As early as at 8.30am, residents start to queue up for their goodie bags and registering themselves at the Electronic Registration and Attendance-taking System (eRAS), which is a new system under pilot-testing.


I was the Master of Ceremony for Sportacular, a mega sports carnival featuring sports-related performances, sports-themed games and a sports league (basketball and street soccer tournaments). The event is held in support of Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games!

For each ticket for the event sold, $1 goes to the Bedok North Secondary School Needy Student Fund.

I was scratching my head hard for some time before I finally came up with this sports-themed stage game. Using a squash racket, pose and fashion walk in the most creative manner!


The rain finally came... but it lasted for just 10 minutes! Participants were not deterred by the wet weather and stayed around till the sun returned.


And their wait wasn't a waste because Lyo and Merly came short after! The two adorable mascots wowed the crowd and forced everyone to use their mobile phones to snap pictures. They were here together with the Guest-of-Honour, Mr Zainul Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs & MP for Aljunied GRC, to unveil the YOG wall. The YOG wall is the results of the creativity and hard work of students from Bedok North Secondary School.


The 3-hour gap before YouthOUT! began was a great time to take a rest. Most of the YEC members sacrificed sleep over the past few days to ensure an enjoyable experience for residents.

YouthOUT! is in its 5th consecutive run. First a void deck party, it slowly evolved into a full-scale outdoor dance party. This year's YouthOUT! is held to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the People's Association. As the motto goes, Bringing People Together.

The emcee is DJ Jeff from FM93.3!


Stilt walkers hyped up the crowd as they weaved through the enthusiastic crowd.


Gursewak and friends also performed a Bhangra Dance that got everyone dancing to the beat of the song.

It was heartening to see the crowd build up as the time passes on. The crowd grew so big that the sound engineer actually told me that he was concerned that his speakers could be toppled by the energetic crowd. Of course, this did not happen!


The 10 participating hip-hop dance teams that took part in the inaugural competition were judged by a judge (of course...) and a SMS voting system. This is the winning team:

The months of ticket selling and visiting residents house-to-house, the months of meeting and deliberations, the debate over details all paid off at the end of the day. The huge turnout for the event is another new high that the YEC achieved!



Sending God-Grandmother off her last journey

9 April 2010

My god-Grandmother is also my Grand Aunt. It was a common practice in the past for children to have god-mothers for various reasons. One reason could be the lack of sons for the god-mothers. Another reason could be that the child is weak in health, so by having a god-mother, it is believed that it would improve the child's health status.

When my Father was young, he suffered a severe injury. One day, his elder brother was using the changkol to work on the soil and accidentally struck it at my Father's head. My Father would always say that his lacklustre academic performance could most probably be due to that accident. Hence, my great Grandmother instructed that he be a godson of my god-Grandmother.

It was only on Monday, when my god-Grandmother passed on, that I got to know about this special relationship.

I remember my god-Grandmother would always come by our place during the day and chat with my Grandmother. She would feed me lunch, carefully blowing the porridge to make sure it is not too hot.

With Father's passing, I made it a point to attend the prayers. I find it weird not knowing all the members of this big family.

On the last night of prayers, a group of more than 50 sworn brothers offered their prayers. Sworn brothers are members of a triad. In the old days, triads were common but not now. Triads provide great support to a bereaved family. On the day when we sent God-Grandmother off her last journey on foot, the sworn brothers carried the coffin.


Friday, April 16, 2010

EC3351 Group Presentation


8 April 2010

My most memorable Economics module in NUS must be that of the EC3351 Public Finance. Associate Professor Chia Ngee Choon is also my top-ranked Economics lecturer, for being able to simplify the otherwise complex economic models.

I was glad to get to know my peers within my project group. One was an athlete who represented Singapore in the track and field sports at SEA games Vientiane 2009 and won some medals. One was passionate in community service, and another shared the same post-study career outlook.

We researched on the Foreign Worker Levy system and explored the possibility of applying a carbon trading system to the Foreign Worker Levy as an alternative method.

NM1101E Human-Computer Interaction Tutorial


7 April 2010


My NM1101E Introduction to Communications and New Media tutorial group members are a fun lot. During our second last tutorial for the semester, we were tasked to analyse a product that has a poor HCI interface.


I brought along the NDP Nokia phone torch. Fancy as it is, the torch has an affordance problem with the buttons that could not be pressed down. And when the torch is finally activated, the light shines onto your face.


We finally selected Darryl's Polaroid camera, a complicated antique.

When we're done with our work, we thought we could borrow adhesive glue from the general office of the CNM department. However, when we were there, no one attended to us despite our long wait. The absence of a bell also turned us off. Waiving to a staff also yielded no response, so we did a commando stunning act ..... (censored).


国际讲演会80区域L1分区国际讲演暨即席演讲比赛

4 April 2010

L1分区包括甘榜菜市讲演会,榴莲园讲演会,职总英康讲演会及布莱德岭讲演会。我很荣幸的当任比赛主席,跟许多资深的讲演会会员学习,特别是L1分区总监陆泳德,L3分区总监林明娟,我会创会会长沈来银及郑福安会友。没有他们的帮助,我的头就真的会很头疼!

我会的沈翠珊会友第一次出赛就赢得了国际演讲比赛季军。

The Toastmasters International District 80 Area L1 International Speech & Table Topics Contest was held at Braddell Heights Community Club. I was honoured to be the Contest Chair and learnt a lot from many of my seniors.



Thursday, April 15, 2010

PAYM Policy Forum - "Women’s Leadership Roles In Today Society"

3 April 2010

After the SLC meeting at Eunos CC, YEC members joined fellow grassroots members of Eunos to attend our Adviser Mr Zainul's daughter's wedding function at the Malay Heritage Centre.

Some of us then went to the Giraffe Restaurant @ Istana Park to participate in the PAYM Policy Forum @ Aljunied GRC & Hougang SMC - "Women's Leadership Roles in Today's Society".

The Guest-of-Honour is Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Minister, Prime Minister's Office, Second Minister for Finance & Transport, MP for Aljunied GRC & Adviser to Serangoon Grassroots Organisations.

Along with her are panellists: Ms Sophia Pang, the first Singaporean woman to reach the South Pole; Ms Genecia Lou, South East Asia Woman of Excellence 2010, Ms United Nations Singapore 2010/2011 & Miss Singapore International 2006/2007; Ms Merry Riana, Winner of Spirit of Enterprise and best-selling author.

The 4 ladies from different walks of life shared their various experiences. I was particularly drawn to Ms Pang who narrated how she prepared for her expedition and how tough the journey was. Sometimes, she had to take over her male counterparts when they are down.

With Ms Sophia Pang


With Ms Merry Riana

With Ms Genecia Lou


The Peaceful April Fool's Day


1-2 April 2010

Represented my RC at the Citizens' Consultative Committee meeting. After a long day of work, no one seems to be bothered about April Fool's Day. After twittering this sentiment, I received a message from Jialing saying that she saw my girlfriend out with another guy at the Cathay.

Well, good attempt but caught her right on. I then went on to prank my TR2201 group leader saying that the Professor just voided our pilot-testing. Argh... April Fool's Day was much fun back in the old days...

Shortly after April Fool's, some of us went to Karaoke...


TR2201 7uicy Wonders Pilot-Testing


31 March - 1 April 2010


7 wonderful individuals, each from different disciplines and faculties, brainstormed a fantastic idea and now it is time to test it out.

7uicy Wonders makes fruit juice concoctions targeting at specific problems that youths face. The various flavours have names that indicate the solutions. They are the Brain Booster, Energy Escalator, Dr Detox, Weight Watcher, Stress Shield, Immunity Injector and the Complexion Clarifier.


We located ourselves in between LT 9 and LT10 where our juicing and blending machines caught the attention of many passers-by.

The pilot-testing, which spanned a period of two days, yielded great feedback and suggestions of improvement on the tastes for the various flavours. It also confirmed our idea that people drink fruit juices not just to quench their thirsts, but also due to the inherent benefits that fruits bestow.

With the positive response, some of us are really thinking of realising this project into an actual business!

Thanks to all my friends who came to support!


Listen to the Jiggle sang by Xavier:



And yes, two days of pilot-testing with lessons to attend were really tiring!


North East Region YECs Bowling Gathering


28 March 2010


The North East Region YECs Bowling Gathering was held at the National Service Resort & Country Club.


The gathering provided members of the various YECs within the North East region to get to know one another.

And I got my first Turkey here!



Thursday, April 08, 2010

NUSPA Chancellor's Challenge Shield 2010 Grand Finals

27 March 2010

After wishing Mother a happy birthday, I went to Eunos CC where the SLC students gathered to prepare for their house-to-house publicity for Sportacular & YouthOUT! 2010. When that was settled, I made my way to school for the Grand Finals for National University of Singapore Students' Political Association Chancellor's Challenge Shield.

The Grand Finals was held at the Lee Kong Chian Wing of the University Hall. Portraits of the present Chancellor as well as the past Chancellors decorated the lobby wall. NUS Chancellors have tended to be the President of the Republic of Singapore and that shows how much NUS means.

The PAssion team: Wei Quan, Li Yong, ME, Edgar

We waited anxiously for the results of the Semi-Finals video-making contest. We already won the Best Application Question award but that was not enough, especially when so much effort was put into the video.

Receiving the plaque for winning the 1st place for the Preliminary Round (Application Question) from CCS Project Director Zelig Dhi Lee.



Our anxious wait paid off when we received the Most Interactive Video Award!

Receiving the plaque from NUSPA President Eng Kiat:

Even though our team didn't manage to get into the Grand Finals, we are contented with our achievements. As the sole NUS team to make it into the Semi-Finals and clinching one of the video awards, we have already done the school proud.

The Guest-of-Honour for the event is Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for Education & National Development and MP for Jurong GRC.

Besides a quiz segment for the Grand Finals, the finalist teams had to present their videos and answer questions from the panel of judges. The judges are Dr Malone-Lee Lai Choo, Director for Sustainable Asian Cities & Senior Lecturer at the Department of Real Estate (NUS); Mr Wilson Ang, Founder & President of Environmental Challenge Organisation (Singapore); and Mr Steven Chia, Channel NewsAsia Co-anchor for Primetime Morning.


Congratulations to Hwa Chong Institution for winning the CCS this year!

After the event, headed down to Safra Tampines where I had Mother's birthday dinner at Sakura restaurant, Father's favourite buffet restaurant.

清明节


21 March 2010


每一年的清明都是一个不一样的体会。

惟有不变的是丰永大公会骨灰甕壁龕室的清净。

还记得往年的清明节,父亲都会带着我跟弟弟去那儿祭拜太太和公公。从没想过会有那么一天,来到同样的地方祭拜父亲。