Typewriters, Roadshows, Universities, and ...
Crazy day for me...
Started in the morning with typing an invoice, on a typewriter! I have never used one of those in a loooooooooooooong time, and the last times I did, it was "play play only"! Well, this time, I had to type on a serial numbered invoice, and any mistake would render that invoice invalid and make a lot of people very unhappy... Not a good impression for people to have of me, especially just after 2 weeks of work with NUS Entrepreneurship Centre. And not to mention, with another Five-and-a-half months more to go...
Oh well... Went out for another Roadshow at Anderson Secondary. Spoke to a rather stiff teacher who thought he was cool... Well, even the way he spoke to the students and carried himself, a true poser, in every sense... Our speaker was Mr Adrian Lim from TYEM, and he spoke on Social Entrepreneurship... I had heard this particular speech before, and this served as just a refresher session for me. He showed exerpts from Patch Adams, and once again, I felt very drawn to him... Interesting.. One thing though - Patch Adams is really worth watching!
After that, I had to make a mad rush to the Singapore Institute of Management. They had invited the Professor-in-charge of the Bachelor of Science in Computing and Information Systems (B.Sc Comp. & Info. Sys. for short!) to come down and talk to us. Dr David of Goldsmiths College, London was a very interesting man... Tall and very typically English. He had a very disarming charm about him that made it easy for every to relax and just listen to him. I certainly wish all our local lecturers had that kind of aura about them. It would make lessons easier to absorb if you are able to just concentrate on listening and learning rather than some lecturer's weird antics and mannerisms that subconsciously throw us off at times..
Ah well, it's late... Good night!
Danny Boy.
Reunion with Blogger...
Hello everyone...
It's been a good year since I last blogged, and so much has happened. In brief, I've been through the Army, and am now a free man. I won't even want to go into detail as to what happened the last year, but yes - everything's been great so far...
I've been working with the National University of Singapore Entrepreneurship Centre for the last three weeks already. It's not a bed of roses - in fact, in many ways, the heavy and crazy workload somehow resembles army life - without the profanities. It's a real challenge, just getting up at 6am in the morning to try to leave by 7am so I can be there by 8.30am (Yeah, I know - one-and-a-half-hours just to get to NUS in the morning, and that much time just to get home - and that's just the average timing too!)
Well, I'm there as an Outreach Support Officer. What's happening now is, I joined in the midst of the publicity&marketing phase of this International competition they are organising. Called Startup@Singapore, its main aim is to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship in everyone. Having done some of the marketing and listened to many entrepreneurs in Singapore, I daresay it's been an enriching eye-opener thus far. Listening to diverse opinions from various people is a really good way to experience people and hard work - without going through it! The best part of the job is the Networking - I get plenty of opportunity to go around meeting all sorts of people, be it the eccentric entrepreneur, the ultra-strict-disciplinarian-of-a-vice-principal, or a young bubbly teacher who seemed to have the hots for me... *chuckles*
Anyway, that aside, it's all very stressful. Meeting deadlines, rushing people, being bossed around by a Poly Intern and the like - it's not entirely a stroll in the park in the office. Indeed, S$7/hour seems like paltry pay compared to what I'm doing! But I will hang on, all for the sake of a (hopefully) lovely testimonial from NUS, that hopefully (Wishful thinking!) can get me admitted into NUS... Let's hope it all works out and I get my placement!
That aside, I'm going to Singapore Institute of Management tomorrow evening for a talk on a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Computing and Information Systems. Will find out more... Just the prospect of having to spend S$50k on studies is a huge deterrent factor. Not to mention, the rather hip crowd there makes me feel like a complete misfit - even though I'm in what's normally considered a nerd course anyway!
Wish me luck.. I hope that this year, I can get places in NUS, NTU, SMU, NIE and SIM-UOL... That way, it's a testimonial to effort and trying - and working hard to get a place...
In the memorable words of Michael W. Smith,
Pray for me, and I'll pray for you.
Pray that we will keep the common ground.
Won't you pray for me, and I'll pray for you.
And one day love will bring us back around... again...
Cheerios!
Danny Boy.
