Coming straight on the heels of Oikos: The Escapade, I was physically not at my best as I checked in for SMUX Camp. But there was a palpable sense of relief. Finally! On to the last camp out of 4 (SMUCF Camp, FTB, and Oikos: The Escapade being the others).

SMUX Camp was different from the other camps in that the camp was structured around a certain fixed set of activities, instead of the generic bonding, station games, and performance nite layout of previous camps. And it was refreshing, to be able to get to know my group mates better through activities instead of being baby-sitted through specific bonding games.

My group, Chubby Bunnies, was great! Lotsa nice, fun people. They made the camp fun and enjoyable despite my tiredness, having come straight from Oikos. Thanks guys!

Click through to read more about the camp!

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Oikos: The Escapade marked the first of a double-header of camps within the span of 1 week for me (SMUX Camp started on Wednesday and overlapped with the last day of Oikos). Had a good mix of people in my Breakfast at Tiffany’s group (the group name was assigned to us… we had no say).

Click through to read more about Oikos: The Escapade!

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Freshmen Team-Building camp was certainly better than expected!

Upon walking into the registration area, I was pleasantly surprised to learn I was in the 1st group of the 1st section. That meant that I was in Run 1, Section 1, Group 1. And my group (appropriately named by us as THE ONE) truly lived up to our billing as the FIRST group of FTB.

We had great group members who were vocal and enthusiastic. We did well for all the situational challenges, which formed the bulk of FTB. Everyone contributed ideas and were participative. The guys especially helped out loads with some of the tougher challenges (rafting, horizontal spider-web) which required more strength.

Click through to read about the highlights of the camp!

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Back from a spiritually and emotionally refreshing SMUCF camp! Have to say I really enjoyed it, the people, fellowship, games, messages. All were wonderfully planned by the Planning Comm (thanks Kenji and Co.!) Twas held at the LKCSB, our messages were held in a SR, group discussions were at various GSRs, and we had separate sleeping rooms fer guys and gals in 2 different CRs. (haha, unique acronyms for SMU rooms!)

Justus, Celest, and myself made up a strong contingent from FERC! (Enoch joined us for day 2). But there were many others from various churches and denominations, ranging from the BP churches to the Charismatics to those who had not attended a church service before (hooray to Xing Yan!)

Click through to read about the highlights of the camp!

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Finally, I am an SMU undergraduate, majoring in Economics.

After 3 years of pre-school, 6 years of primary education, 4 years of secondary school, 2 years of junior college, and 1 year 10 months of serving my country in the National Service, I have arrived at this very important stage in my life: tertiary education.

Economics at SMU, Part 1 - Econs??? Never!!!
I did not once think throughout my secondary education and junior college days that I would be majoring in Economics.

In secondary school, at ACS(I), I had studied:

• English
• Chinese
• Elementary Mathematics
• Advanced Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Geography
• Literature
• Social Studies

In junior college, at ACJC, my subjects were:

• General Paper
• Chinese
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Project Work

So nopes, no Econs anywhere. In fact, I had not wanted to take Econs in JC, despite much advice to the contrary, for the following reasons:

• I felt I was a Science person
• Taking Econs would have meant dropping one of the three Sciences (dropping Mathematics, such a core subject, is a big no-no). I wanted to keep my options open with regards to choice of courses in university.
• Not taking Econs at JC level was not much of a disadvantage as an introductory economics course at tertiary level would cover all the JC content within a semester. Furthermore, tertiary economics, involving much more maths, was much different to that taught at JC level.

Instead, I opted, and was accepted, for a new course, Engineering Science, that was to be offered at NUS. I felt that Physics had always been my strongest suit and it was only natural for me to progress in that direction.

Click through to continue reading about what influenced my decision to change course, and also my thoughts about Matriculation Day, an important step in my SMU journey!

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A week ago at this exact time, a man committed suicide by jumping off the platform onto the MRT tracks at Choa Chu Kang station (more about it here). An incoming train pulling into the station ran over him and he was pinned down under its third carriage. Onlookers were shocked and horrified. Civil Defense personnel rushed to the scene and the man was pronounced dead at 8.30am.

What explains this recent spike in the number of ‘MRT suicides’?

Allow me to probe deeper into this worrying trend and explain the reasons and psychology behind the rise in the number of ‘MRT suicides’.

Click through to read the full article

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There was another MRT suicide this morning, this time at Choa Chu Kang MRT. In terms of time and space, it is the closest I’ve ever come to witnessing a successful suicide:
>> If I had arrived at Yew Tee station just 3 min earlier, I would have been on the train that killed the guy
>> Choa Chu Kang station is just the next stop after Yew Tee station

Thank God I arrived at Yew Tee station at my usual time of 8.06am to board the 8.08am train. If I had been earlier, by just 3 min, I would have boarded the 8.04am train that would crush the guy at Choa Chu Kang station, the next station, just 4 min away by train.

Click through to read more about my experience today

Also check out my follow-up article, MRT Suicides - Explaining the Phenomenon, in which I offer some explanations for the recent surge in suicide attempts

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I have now worked for two weeks already at Total Oil Asia Pacific as a Customer Service Assistant. This is to tide me over these 6 months till July 08, when university orientation programmes kick in.

Total Oil Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd is an affiliate of Total, an oil company headquartered in Paris, France, and one of the six “Supermajor” oil companies in the world. Total, a leading multinational energy company with 95,000 employees and operations in more than 130 countries, is the fourth largest publicly-traded integrated oil and gas company in the world.

Total Oil Asia-Pacific is headquartered in Odeon Towers in Singapore’s city centre, whereas its Lubricants plant is located at 10 Pandan Avenue, which is where I’m working now. You could say it is more than a little out of the way. However, it is relatively close to where I live (Yew Tee), and they provide a free bus service to and from work, with the pick-up and drop-off points at Yew Tee MRT station, so I spend nothing on transport costs.

Click through to read more about my job

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Finally! 6 months of tough training and perseverance have paid off. After 5 hours of pounding the roads and pavements of Singapore, I completed the gruelling 42.195km Full Marathon in the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2007!

It was no easy feat. That is probably the under-statement of the year! For a first-timer such as myself, there were many challenges faced and conquered leading up to and during the marathon.

Click through to read all about these challenges and how I conquered them!

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Less than 2 months to go to the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2007! This will be my first full marathon. Dec 2 just can’t come soon enough!

Click through to read about my preparations thus far for the marathon

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