Its been a while.....

This blogs taken a back burner to pretty much everything else for the past month or two.

Its been quite a roller coaster of a month, what with upping my cycling frequency and juggling 2 projects, my IA Final Report  (80 done!)  at work. Just completed one awesomely long and complicated C program that's been sent over to be used in a gas power plant in Bangkok and if it weren't for this whole Red Shirt fiasco, i'd be flying to Thailand before the end of my internship. The program's a beauty. It estimates the performance of  the power plant in real time, with a 2 minute cycle in between computations. And i also included a sweet graphical user interface to make it user friendly :

where the plant operators enter manual values for different plant operating conditions.

Damn.....

I have come to realise one thing during my internship.

I HATE WORKING FOR AND ANSWERING TO SOMEONE.

Seriously, working for someone sucks. You don't have the luxury to fiddle and really think out a problem when someone is always breathing down your neck, pushing you to set unrealistic deadlines and constantly checking up on you everyday.

I may be an intern, but come on, when i say once that i know what i am doing, please just trust me and leave me alone until I deliver. Crucify me later if i fail, but don't come breathing down my neck every damn day.

On that note, I have decided to apply to Harvard's and MIT's business schools. Both have very good MBA programs which include a 6 month internship and loads of networking opportunities. MIT has an awesome dual degree program which combines engineering and management.

I'll be honest here, all I ever want is just a good balance in my everyday life. I want time to enjoy my hobbies, cycling being the major one. And i can't get that sort of time in a 9-5 job which requires me to rush projects constantly.

I have done 32 hours of OT this month alone, and i'm not the hardest working intern at my work place. I am so going to be pissed if i don't get an A for my IA.

I mean, whats the point of working if you don't get to enjoy life? I enjoy kicking back with a beer and a good book or melting my legs on an all out bicycle sprint with friends on a weeknight after work.

I was toying with the idea of applying for the various graduate fellowships NTU keeps emailing me about, but research has never been my passion. I don't enjoy researching something that probably won't earn make it to the industry any time soon. Perhaps pharmaceuticals is a hot research area with rapid product movement form lab to marketplace, but not robotics.


Cheers from the,


Matrix

RIP Ben Mok

For one who truly knew why we do what we do. 

RIP Ben Mok

I get bewildered stares from my mates as they try to decipher the money and time spent on the sport. All for the pain, the risk for what seems like a futile effort at reducing emissions. For all you hippies, its not what its all about. We ride for the joy, the satisfaction after overcoming pain and lactic acid to keep up with the pack, scale a mountain, pushing when mere mortals would simply give up and fall back.

Noone will ever understand cycling except the men and women who burn rubber on the tarmac, the dirt, the mud and the pavement. Don't even try to.

I never knew Ben Mok. Nor will I pretend i heard of his name before this tragedy. I'm not a vengeful person, but for that drunk driver who mowed him down, may the rest of your life be one filled with misery and regret.

I once again sound out a plea to drivers. Give us quarter. Cause if you don't, you'll probably have our blood on your hands.

Link to the memorial website