the wacky wombat weblog

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I’ve just started a new tech blog on Adobe AIR technology - head over there, check it out, and tell me what do you think: AIRdesktop.com

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It’s been an eventful 14 days. Let’s have a rundown on what went on…

1. FYP short film selected in an Australian film festival. Supervisor tells us to try and attend if we can (with the school’s money!)
2. Last minute National Day Sale shopping spree - bought some lovely sheets and towels from Aussino for Mei and her travels
3. Had an interview marathon, made some decisions, and got myself a job (I’m starting next Monday)
4. Bought a 4-piece pots and pan set from IKEA for only $69.90! Plus a 3-piece utensil set for 90cents!! I’ve not bought anything under a dollar for a long time.
5. Cooked my favourite spaghetti aglio olio with the above-mentioned pots and pans.
6. Went back to PJ to visit my family, and provide Mei with guidance in my capacity as Expert Luggage Packer.
7. Developed stomach indigestion as I ate too much pork over the weekend - bak kut teh, fried pork knuckles, mom’s specialty minced pork patties. *burp* It didn’t help when I came back to Singapore and overloaded myself with Ikea dinner with my friends.
8. Completely whitewashed everyone in Scrabble but got my ass kicked in Monopoly. My sisters bullied me into bad property deals. Remind me not to do *real* business with them ever.
9. Discovered that there’s a new mall opened back home in Section 14. It’s the New Jaya, opposite the old Jaya (they could have been a *little* more creative with the name, no?) Nothing there except Coffee Bean and a whole lot of empty space.
10. Signed my employment contract, and submitted my Permanent Residence application yesterday. Level of service at the immigration department here is much more efficient than Malaysia’s.

And I just called home, and found my family having the earliest dinner ever in the history of my household. 6.30pm! These days nobody ever eats till it’s 8 and I’m bugging everyone to start dinner.

They’ll be sending sis Mei off to the airport later. She’s going off to State Uni of New York in Oswego (near Syracuse) to finish up her mass comm degree. Of course later I’ll have to stay up late tonight because she has nothing to do during her 5-hour transit at Changi and phone calls to all Singapore numbers from the airport payphones are free.

Okay, back to my list earlier — the thing I’m most glad about is that I managed to find a job within a month that I got back from Tokyo. At least soon I will be able to pay for my own living expenses here and hopefully have some extra to bring my parents out for a good meal and buy stuff for my sisters. Feel a bit bad that I’ve been living off my dad (and Au Yong - he keeps complaining about my Tokyo electricity usage) for the past few months, so yeah, a job is a good thing. And best of all, I won’t feel restless anymore ‘coz I’ll have lots of things to do and to look forward to! :p

Here’s to hoping all the best for me, and Mei in New York!

It feels great to be appreciated.

Somebody in Australia saw my FYP short film, and actually thought it was good enough.

Good enough for a competition in a freaking film festival!! w00t!

Got an e-mail a few days ago saying that my group’s film has been selected to compete for the Tadgell’s Bluebell Honor Award (best film made by adult for/about youth) at the 10th Auburn International Film Festival in Sydney. Checked out the website and found our film listed right there in a whole long page of other entries.

This is really surprising. We sent the video out for a lot of film festivals, but never really thought we’d get any response. Although the story’s theme is universal, it is embedded in a culture and language that is essentially very locally Singapore. Plus it is a very subtle film, so I am surprised, but very glad, that someone outside Asia understands and appreciates it. That is, wow.

Heh, definitely feels good to reaffirm that those 9 months of stress and hard work was not a wasted effort. (I still cannot believe that I lost weight over the course of the 1-week shoot, even with meals eaten 3 times a day — gotta promote this as the new definitive weight-loss regime.)

I’m in a limbo sort of phase right now.

Feels great to have graduated. No school, lots of time to just hang around, catch up on some regular reading (had no English books for 3 months in Japan), watch TV, go out with friends, get some exercise before the Coming of the Haze. Heck, I even had the time to spring clean my room AND my wardrobe.

But I also feel a little restless at the same time. Sucks having to wait around for a job, not knowing when your search will end - 2 weeks? 2 months? I know everyone’s always complaining about the working life doldrum, but seriously I can’t wait to start. I just wish to have the certainty of a future and wake up knowing what I’m gonna be doing for the next week, and not looking at irrelevant job matchings provided by the various jobsites and going ‘ugh’. Being paid is a bonus motivating force too - doubt I can survive too long with whatever’s left in my account and I don’t really want to dip into my savings in Malaysia just yet.

Anyways, I just attended 2 interviews yesterday, and there’s another 2 later. Yup, interview marathon it is. Tiring, having to run around one interview after another, but the good thing is, at least I will get to consider any offers given at around the same time, so I won’t have to go through the “omg I should have given up that job for this better job” mental torment.

I so despise wearing formal, not because of the look, I like that really. But it’s just too freaking hot out there. Once I get off the bus/MRT, and walk in the afternoon sun searching for the office, within 2 minutes I can feel sweat forming on my skin and my make-up ready to melt. gross.

On other job-search related matters - I do so despise misguiding reports in the papers and all about how great the job market is for graduates and etc. I think sometimes it really does give people false hopes and expectations. I’ve only been searching for 3 weeks so I have nothing to complain. But I know of people who have been searching for months and still are doing so now.

And let’s not even go to the “<insert university name> graduates earn an average of <insert ludicrous amount>” reports. Somewhere out there, some young ciku freshman is all happy of a rose-tinted future that does not exist (ok, unless the person scores uber top grades in engineering/accountancy/business). I believe the CS (Communication Studies not Counter Strike) cohort are single-handedly responsible for pulling down the ‘average pay’ statistics to a lesser and saner number (though still ludicrous - cos we’re too small a cohort to make significant statistical impact).

In any case, I’m glad for my situation I suppose. At least there’s been a couple of interviews, so hopefully there will be good outcomes from them. Just gotta start somewhere and work my way through. Crossing my fingers, and hoping for the best!

When my family was here in Singapore last week, I was left with the task to feed everyone for all meals. Of course I skipped the usual hawker fare that I have, because there’re far better and far cheaper chicken rice or char kuay teow and wantan noodle without tomato/chilli sauce in Malaysia.

So for one of the dinners, I brought them to Arab Street for some ‘exotic’ Egypt/Arabian food. (Mainly also because I wanna try more items on the menu, hehehe).

Everyone was excited because they haven’t really got the chance to try Middle Eastern food before. There’re probably a few in KL or what-not, but it’s also probably not gonna be cheap. This one at Arab Street (Al-Majlis) is decently priced, dishes cost about S$8 to $12 on average.

Fantastic stuff, great flavour thanks to all the spices, and absolutely yummy.

(Top) Yein ventured to try kibbeh - a triangle of spiced minced beef and nuts, with a side serving of cucumber salad in yoghurt sauce. Looks the strangest but the taste made it one of the best dishes which we ordered that night. (Bottom) I had my usual stir-fry lamb with rice, simple but fragrant. (sadly I’ve forgotten the name of the dish).

(T) For the less adventurous, there’s good ole’ chicken chop. Pei claims the potato wedges taste much better than the ones at KFC Malaysia. (B) Also, another standard dish with a spice-filled twist — mixed grill, consisting of chicken, lamb, beef and rice.

(T) My mom ordered ba’mia, a simple tomato-based curry with okra (ladies fingers) and lamb, served with rice or bread. (half-eaten in this pix. apologies hehe) (B) Mei had harissa, a pan of lamb, no idea how it’s cooked but sure taste great, soft, with flavours that linger in your mouth. Everyone scrambled to try it (and then took extra heaps of it for second tries), so Mei had to order a second one as she had nothing left from the first serving.

We also had a dozen of grilled fresh mushrooms for appetizers. Juicy, and nicely grilled, so it was a treat for a mushroom fan like me. To go with the food, we all had iced mint tea — refreshing and not too sweet.

Great stuff. Gotta go back there again for another round. :p

This is a little overdue, but yes, I have officially graduated.

Convocation was last Wednesday in NTU’s Auditorium. Ceremony was, well, long-winded, especially when I thought it’d be quick with our cohort of only 160+, but turns out there were as many masters fellas as there were mere degree folks like us. 0_o

My whole family travelled all the way to Singapore just for this, so haha, what an honour. :p We were probably one of the largest family to attend, but thankfully plenty of extra tickets were available so I don’t feel so bad taking so many extras, and my sisters didn’t have to sit outside and drink coffee for 90 minutes.

Nice seeing everyone again after my 3-month-long holiday. Took me a few seconds to recognise some people. Must be the gowns, made us all look like some harry potter congregation hehe. Took lots of photos too, so thanks to friends, friends of friends, family of friends, who helped with the photo-taking.

My sis Tse Mei and me (with the mortarboard that gives me extra height). She’s leaving soon for her final year studies in the US, so all the best (with the snow)!

me and some of my choir friends who arrived after the ceremony for our lil’ photo-taking get-together.

After convo (and some touristy activity around Singapore with my family), I went back to PJ with them, spent the weekend there fooding around, and now I’m back in the little island, hoping someone will hear my plea for a job (and money to pay my rent). lol. On with more job sites browsing.

According to BERNAMA, the misinformed minister has called for RTM to feature pictures of buildings, particularly corporate premises if the national flag, Jalur Gemilang is not flown at the buildings. So what does this mean?

It very well means you can now opt to buy a big canvas banner to advertise your business/products on your building rather than spend it on a Jalur Gemilang flag. You’ll get your business featured on the national TV station and free advertising!

ZAM also calls for the flag to be flown on vehicles on the road “as a symbol of their support and love for the country which had brought prosperity to them”. So in return of getting squeezed with crappy overpriced cars by the Govt and the AP crap, we should fly the flag to show support for such prosperity that benefitted the AP kings. Bagus!