..:: 648. The One With Last Paper::..

so excited about my last paper. first thing i did was to pack my travel guide book in my bag before my notes. lol

watched american idol always energize and psyche me up! adam. wow wow. loved his entrance, even jamie foxx, the mentor was full of praises for him. so what if he is theatrical and over-the-top, that's his style and uniqueness. lovin' it.



anyway left top 5, quite easy to make the prediction:

winner: adam lambert
runner up: danny gokey

kris allen
allison iraheta
matt giraud

close fight between allison and matt, whether to keep the girl or keep it an all-guy affair. their performances also on-par, really based on popularity. i would prefer some girl action though.

hopefully i get to watch top 4 when i am in india! 2 songs each.

haha. can see that i cant be bothered with my last paper already.

..:: 647. The One With India ::..

just applied for visa to india. here are some details if you ever need...

mustafa air travel is opened 24 hrs for visa application since the embassy does not provide the service anymore... you can apply any time but the application would only be processed in the morning when the staff from embassy come and collect.

59 bucks, payable by nets. as for the address of reference in india, they will give you a list of hotel so just fill in any.

ready in 2 days. i applied today (tue) and i can collect after 7pm on thur.

if u go to the other air travel agencies nearby, have to pay 60+ bucks and pay only by cash -_-

also went to nokia service centre to try and get my phone fixed before my trip. the casing out of stock so have to wait. its 40 bucks :(

comeon' let me strike 4D!

which D&G outfit nicer? thinking of tailoring it for my convo ball... both from Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2009

..:: 646. The One With Star Awards ::..

well. the annual "meat-giving" ceremony has come. this year with quite a twist.

1. having a buzzer to warn the winners they dont have the time of the world to deliver their winner speech.

2. magic tricks or special effects before announcing the results

Just when I thought Mediacorp could not get any worse, they just "outperformed" and proved me wrong. I guess the producers should have watched the oscars before and know that having a real buzzer doing the countdown is not at all classy. at least have some band music or even the "theme song" play as the countdown timer rather than the irritating "teng teng teng" sound.

Whats up with the magic tricks? adding spice is one thing but overdoing is another. i rather they give more time for the winners to speak and make it a more sophisticated event. I do however like the introductory shots of the nominees and the 5 or 6 panels they had on stage.

Mediacrap just gave a new definition to "best" when they gave best supporting actress to xiang yun (whom i think is a deserving winner for her tearjerking role) and huang hui (the undiscovered "servant")... are they giving a retiree award to xiang yun and an appreciation award to huang hui? looks like it.

i am glad best actress went to joanne peh. firstly, ntu alumni. haha. secondly, her acting is really better than ou xuan. sorry to her fans but its true. even chen han wei(best actor) gave her (ou xuan) advice that she should act with her heart not just having the emotions showed on her face. poor chen li ping, but i guess giving her 2 nomination for a category sort of gave her due recognition.

another thing i was very interested in the show was what the actresses/actors were wearing.

ou xuan or jeanette aw really dressed like a nonya kueh. lol. layered one.

you can always count on zoe tay for her (or the stylist) fashion-forward sense. simple outfit from alexander wang, spring 2009... just that the dress doesnt look as long on her :X

yvonne lim's christian dior looked really good as she sprinted down the stage.



now for joanne's best actress dress from hermes and the dress from herve leger she wore for being in top 10. nice and sleek.



though i thought she would look better in vera wang's

..:: 645. The One With HP329 ::..

glad that the paper was easy. heng, read the articles my prof wrote. hopefully enough to get A.

omg. yest was watching adam's performance. If I Cant Have You. I thought mad world was great, this one is even better. disco week, he chose a disco song but made it such a touching and inspiring song. and i love how he gave credit to those who helped him, the band, the person who helped him with the song arrangement ... reminds me of giving citation when we quote. lol.

i think matt, lil and anoop will be in bottom three. lil and anoop probably going home. i was thinking since matt is saved, the supporters should be calling their hearts out since last week he was almost gone.

we'll see tonight =) plus david archuleta on the show! dunno what he will sing. too little not over you?

..:: 644. The One With Distractions ::..

perks of studying at home:

no need to spend $ on food
cut down on travelling
readily available food
power-nap to maximise "absorption"
tonic! tons of ginseng and multi-vitamin pills

cons of studying at home:

DISTRACTIONS

firstly, xbox was introduced to the house yesterday and proved to be a major distraction! my friends and i were so engaged with the guitar hero game, where one person is the drummer, the other guitarist and last one vocalist. had so much fun playing and rotating from 7pm. then went for dinner and back home playing again.

harper island yet another distraction.

but seriously the game is damn cool. esp the singing, with the microphone that can detect your change in pitch and tone so u have to sound like the original. we played the career mode and after each "gig" we will get to see who earn the most $ within the band.

then with fastpass, i ended up catching project runway 5, but the designs were kinda :(

then online movies again, 17 again and bride wars. initially wanted to just let the movie run but my eyes cant help looking at anne hathaway and kate hudson... "sabo-ing" each other for their weddings.

3 more days to my psy paper. worse, there is no textbook so you dunno what you dunno. just tons of readings to do. sometimes just feel like going to school and study with the rest.

back to study!

..:: 643. The One With Waiting for Exams ::..

urh. i want my tennis and swim...

watched revolutionary road, it was great to see the chemistry between leo and kate again. some scenes were intense but ending was quite drastic. plot was ok, but the meaning behind the movie and the acting made it worthwhile.

anyway, matt was saved by the judges at american idol. interesting. they just had to use it now cos they are left with 2 more episodes after that, they cant use. they kept anoop so i think next week the 2 going to be eliminated will be an interesting "race".

i would think anoop is sure to go next plus either lil or matt (whoever perform worse). i think allison would be slowly creeping to the top, just like how season 3 fantasia who has been appearing in bottom 3 won the season at the end. furthermore, next week is disco week. what kind of music? cant wait.

was watching antm on youtube and found this clip rather interesting. yet another allison but loving her look with her large eyes. interesting looks usually dont go that far without personality so i am guessing she will hang around till top 5 and be eliminated. enjoy her while she's still here.

note the bitchy moments:

6:53 (sandra is weird and crazy) and 8:12



had a great presentation with tafep but news that we might have to present to MOM. scary. but that is not till i am back. gotta study now.

yea my fren got driving license. now can go for suppers and late night movies!

..:: 642. The One With Ms Kay ::..

i shall dedicate this post to my fave tutor from my years in NBS. Firstly, she is not only inspiring but also like a mother to us. Constantly giving us feedback and I am glad that I kept all her feedback so I can share with you guys. Maybe I shall start with the more inspiring ones then the random emails she would drop us throughout the course. jiayi and yash would enjoy reading these. haha.

learning, avoiding, proving orientations

Here is another piece of OB wisdom that is practical and useful.

You all know that in any graded exercise, some people will get better grades than others. Research has found that over an extended period of time, those with the best results are people with a learning orientation.

People who approach work, life or studies with an Avoiding Orientation are so focused on avoiding failure that they are too stressed to perform well. Either that, or they fear failure so much that they refuse to try hard, so that at the end of the day, if they don't do well, they can say "It was a lack of effort" rather than "I couldn't make the grade". Big mistake because the world is full of talented failures.

People who approach work, life and studies with a proving orientation are like sprinters. Good over short distances. These people set out to prove to themselves and others that they can. They try really hard and do really well until they meet the first setback which proves that they can't (or that it's impossible... or that the system is unfair etc...) and then they stop trying. Big mistake because life is a marathon. It doesn't end till you die.

People with a learning orientation focus on the learning value of every experience. They have no need to prove anything. They have no fear of failure. These people say "Never mind if I don't get that 'A' from Ms Kay, the experience alone has taught me so much". It sounds lame but research shows that people with Learning Orientation experience more and more success as time goes by. Time is their friend.

When learning snowballs on learning which snowballs on learning... success eventually comes.

12 weeks is only a VERY SHORT relay sprint in the whole race of life. If, in the first pass, you stumble and don't get up... what can be done for you?

Student to Ms Kay

Ms Kay,

Good Evening. I hope to bring your attention towards the instruction that you sent us this morning.

In my opinion, it is a little too last minute, since it is sent during the weekend, with our presentation on Monday. This leaves us little time to respond as most of us have already done up both case studies and allocated presentation slides accordingly. Changing the focus to one case study would require us to reallocate and modify slides, which require a discussion where all team members to be present, which, in this case, be very difficult as those living in halls may have went home, and each of us has different commitments.

However, I hope u understand that I am not questioning your instruction. In fact, I was wondering if this last minute change of instruction is a test of the efficiency of our teams, or our responsiveness towards sudden changes, or perhaps providing a chance for us to work virtually. All of us will be glad to take up such challenges. I just hope you understand that giving us ample time to prepare in reaction to early instructions will give us opportunities to bring you higher case study quality and presentation standards.

Student X

Her wonderful reply:

Student X,

You have written your feedback very well. It is respectful and argues a point clearly. I am also pleased to see that you have internalized the values I promote: case study quality and presentation standards. Added to that, your email shows very obviously that you took this seriously enough to start on it early in order to do a good job. That is another value that I have been trying to teach. I notice that Infinity is slated to present only in Tutorial 8. This leads me to conclude that you actually put due diligence into the defence cases even though the grades for defence don't count. There is not only no fault at all, but excellent due diligence.

You do notice that I always give early notice of what will happen in the following week's tutorials. In some cases, notice is given 2 to 3 weeks in advance. I am just as disturbed as you at this last minute change. I was away and came to know of the change yesterday. However, as that was the consensus, I had no choice but to implement as all my other colleagues. Testing your team efficiency may be a convenient excuse and I thank you for suggesting it. However, it would be dishonest to hide behind it. If it is really a test of team efficiency, based on my Para 1 above, you already pass with flying colours.

If you should come prepared and wishing to do 2 cases, I am more than happy to have 2 presented. I will defend you to my colleagues after the fact. If you should decide to do a single case, I cannot object because every other tutor is doing so. I will facilitate a discussion and come to an agreement with the whole tutorial on what we should do in the coming weeks. I will then proceed to defend our tutorial's decision as best I can.

For the groups who have to present this week, I will have wisdom enough to account for this unforeseen event when grading. You need only concentrate on doing the best job you can as specified in 060907 Expectations.

Please do well.

All tutors must be able to defend the "A"s to colleagues too in the same way that all managers have to put up strong justification to defend a decision to promote someone. Help me justify.

Other students, please note Student X's email. Read it carefully. Learn from it. It is respectful, mature, well-written and stands on a strong foundation of a work ethic I wish to see from all of you. And it demonstrates something called "managerial courage".

Thank You.

Rest a little

I am very aware that students in my 3 tutorial groups have had to spend A LOT OF TIME preparing case presentations from Tutorials 2 to 5. This has helped prepare you for Tutorials 6-9. I needed you to do that in order to teach you the process of case application.

Critical thinking can only be taught in class... In Tutorials 6-9, I suggest that attack groups can RELAX somewhat each week. You may not want to prepare as a group.

I am all for working hard but I prefer you to work smart. You've had an intense start in AB105, so it's time to rev down a little in order to catch a second wind that will bring you the the finish line.

Instead, you may want to start spending between 10-12 hours a week working on your OB&D case report so that you produce a high quality one.

I also suggest that you CONTINUE to make personal notes of each textbook chapter (whether we discuss the case in tutorial or not) because there is no way to tell which chapter will come up in the open book exam.

Further, do note that I intend to teach the process of Critical Thinking in the upcoming weeks. You will only be able to benefit if you HAVE READ the cases prior. So, though I suggest less preparatory effort in T6-T9, please don't decide to take a complete holiday. (love the last part)

Another piece of friendly advice

Gee... you people are turning me into a nag!

From T2-T5, presentation and essay grades don't count. However, they served as teaching sessions. Those who didn't observe due diligence generally are stressed out in T6-T9 because presentation grades do count now.

In T6-T9, attack grades don't count, but again they serve as teaching and feedback sessions for me to teach critical thinking. Those who do not observe due diligence in attack preparations make a choice... but please make that choice with EYES WIDE OPEN

=)

..:: 641. The One With Yr 1 Sem 2 ::..

well, sem 2 was not as exciting cos besides business law and bs803 elective, the rest of the modules were quite a bore. financial management, accounting, IT and biz communications.

the only exciting event i remember in the sem was that i went to finland for 2 weeks during the e-learning and chinese new year weeks. had a conflict with one of the instructor for my biz comms. shall dig up some shit. i emailed her regarding scheduling my presentation as I will be flying back the day we are having lesson. Here's her reply:

John,
you are really messing up my schedule. As it is you owe me one presentation. I will allow you this request, but do realise that it inconveniences me, your classmates and the video editor and its downright rude to continually assume that you can change the schedule around at your convenience. You are certainly not building goodwill here.

Well i guess having a MC for my first presentation definitely worsen the situation. I thought she would flare in class but luckily she didnt. She also told me i caught her at her bad moment. It also taught me to be less direct in making this kind of request.

i loved my biz law tutor, ms joy khoo. she is a very patient lawyer who explained concepts clearly and challenged our reasoning for the cases. I believe it was one of the courses that i talked the most cos the way i approached the case was different from most of the people in class. when i did my tutorial, i tried not to go for the most obvious way to solve but read every line and interpret carefully.

the elective i took was also very fun. biology in popular media. i was the pioneer batch for the course and every lecture the prof would play snippets of a movie and use biology to explain whether the things they mentioned in the film are fact or fiction. the lecture was always full-house, can still see people standing at the back of the lecture theater just to watch the movie. Some of the movies i remember vividly were the fly; matrix reloaded; jurassic park; CSI; jewel of the palace (the korean show - da chang jin).

i found something interesting. comments by my fave tutor of all time... organizational behavior!!! My group, doraemon was "owning" in the class haha.

"The best group in my tutorials surpassed my expectations of 1st year OB students. Their transcriptions and notes were very detailed. They actually researched on the qualitative research methodology called “Grounded Theory”, and tried to apply some of its tenets e.g., iterative coding (where coding is done by several people and the same text is coded repeatedly with new emerging themes in later transcripts being used to refine or change the thematic coding of earlier transcripts). It is a long and tedious process but the quality of their coding gave me the confidence that the issues they identified were real ones. What they did was so unexpected that I seriously suspected that they didn’t actually do it. Hence I probed sharp and deep, but found no fault in their responses to me. They did do as they said.

In reading their entire report, one gets a sense that their assertions are well-grounded in real data. Having identified the issues, they analyzed them with OB concepts from the textbook as well as OB concepts from outside the textbook. However, I was most pleased by their recommendations. Their recommendations were practical and workable, and they found research findings and theory from the literature to support their practical solutions – an artful marriage of theory, research and practice.

Unfortunately, they went way past the word count and I gave them a 1-letter downgrade. It really is a pity but one must be fair to other groups. They dropped from A+ to A-. (my own comment: oops... but no prize for guessing which grp)



Some groups focused a great deal on research, neglecting to apply the theory to the case in practical ways. Other groups analyzed their cases almost as if they had not learnt OB, nor been taught to do self-directed learning – their recommendations were practical but not research supported. Some groups wrote better English than others, used fewer words to say things, and thus could say more in 4000 words.

None of you had major problems with applying concepts and theories from the textbook. This should stand you in good stead for the exams because you really aren’t expected to cite very much from theory elsewhere than the textbook.

To assess Theoretical Basis, I was looking for evidence of research supporting both your analysis and findings. You would have needed to do more self-directed learning. Language is very little weighted. I look only for understandability. If it is excellent however, you get bonus extras. Rigour of Data Analysis is weighted less than Theoretical Basis and Practicality.

The above feedback points are the most salient differentiating factors in the quality of the reports. I use other sub-dimensions for assessment that don’t demonstrate great differentiation."

mmm... sometimes it feels good to read and think back how far we have come since year 1. so happy we had a great start in year 1 and built such strong foundation, thanks to our class and the inspiring tutor.

..:: 640. The One With Face-Off ::..

was researching more about Project GLOBE - Global leadership and organizational behavior effectiveness... there was this face-off between Hofstede, one of the originator of culture dimensions and a group of researchers who started the Globe study.

Firstly, the study had used dimensions that were not entirely from Hofstede's cultural dimensions and hence i think started with him "reviewing" this study through his article on "What did GLOBE really measure? Researchers’ minds versus respondents’ minds"

Inside, there were really strong words he used. He started by contrasting his research and the GLOBE study:

(1) Team versus single researcher. The analysis of the GLOBE data was a team effort, although closely coordinated by its designer Robert House. My analysis was a one-person effort (with excellent help: see the Prefaces), and in my 1980, 1991
and 2001 books I was the single author.

mmm... needed to state his position?

(2) Managers versus employees. The respondents in GLOBE were managers. The respondents in Hofstede (1980) were matched groups of employees in seven occupational categories, two managerial and five non-managerial. Measuring
leadership from survey answers by leaders is, in my eyes, a debatable approach. If you want to find out about the quality of a product, do you ask the producer or the consumers?

wow. ouch eh.

(3) US inspired versus decentered. The term ‘decentering’ refers to conscious attempts at avoiding ethnocentric bias. Robert House was conscious of the danger of ethnocentrism: in his Preface to the 2004 book he states: ‘Hopefully, GLOBE will
be able to liberate organizational behavior from the US hegemony.’ GLOBE’s network and respondent population were very international, but its project design and analysis still reflected US hegemony. The book’s 25 editors and authors overwhelmingly hold management or psychology degrees from US universities.

He also added the Long term-short term orientation which was formulated in Chinese to show that his was not entirely US-inspired. of course his comment was shot by the article written by the authors in response to his critique.

(4) GLOBE’s operationalizations of values and practices. My main concern about the GLOBE research is that the questionnaire items used may not have captured what the researchers supposed them to measure. He also mentioned that most questions were "as-in" questions. Asking ‘as is’ questions basically assumed that these people
were in a position to compare their society with other societies. This assumption, I believe, is naive – it takes international experience plus an unusually open mind to produce anything like a credible comparison between one’s own society and others.

wow. naive.

(5) Our minds have a limited capacity for processing information, and therefore dimensional models that are too complex will not be experienced as useful. In a now classic article, Miller (1956) argued that useful classifications should not
have more than seven categories, plus or minus two. He may still have overestimated the optimal number.

With nine dimensions of culture times two, the GLOBE researchers’ psycho-logic has surpassed the limits of our capacity for processing information. A form of data reduction is needed.

Now for the rejoinder... in their abstract, it was so blatantly written:

We show why there is no theoretical or empirical basis for Hofstede’s criticism that GLOBE measures of values are too abstract or for his contention that national and organizational cultures are phenomena of different order.

We also show why Hofstede has a limited understanding of the relationship between national wealth and culture.

Furthermore, we explain why Hofstede’s reanalysis of the GLOBE data is inappropriate and produces incomprehensible results.

Finally, we explain why Hofstede’s claim that GLOBE instruments reflect researchers psycho-logic reveals ignorance of psychometric methodologies designed to ensure scale reliability and construct validity.

gosh. if i were Hofstede, I would flip!

But reading such intellectual cross-fire is definitely better than reading some emails or fighting over blogs like xxue (didnt want my blog to appear in goggle search for her blog)

oh and guess what? Cultural intelligence (CQ) like your IQ and EQ was developed by Earley and Ang Soon. Ang Soon is now head of Strategy, Management and Organization Department of NBS. Earley? He was Dean of NUS Business School and Cycle & Carriage Chair for 2 years, now he is back to UConn to be their dean for school of business. mmm... He was in NBS before though. I guess like the Chinese saying goes, one mountain cannot hide 2 tigers. Ang Soon VS Earley. lol. My CQ prof, ng kok yee, co-written journals with him before. wow.

anyway was looking at nus business school website... they had the salary data across universities. are they trying to say that 3 years direct hons earn lesser than their 4 years hons? -_- we'll see. lol

..:: 639. The One With Results ::..

Ha. i was spot on!

Just that Lil was sent to safety.

Just heard adam's studio version of mad world. wow. haunting.

..:: 638. The One With Top 8 ::..

first off, adam was as usual A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. i always knew when he was the last few to perform, somehow the last few performers always performed superbly.



flashback: Votes (judges plus me)

black or white: 11/13 (5/5)
ring of fire: 5/11 (3.5/5)
tracks of my tears: 8/10 (5/5)
play that funky music: 8/9 (5/5)
mad world: 8/8 (5/5)

this week, all the judges gave standing ovation for adam. as far as i know, simon cowell never stood up for a contestant ever in the show for 8 seasons. i just cant wait for him to say what he told carrie underwood when she was in the top 4 show (i think) that "you have done enough to win this competition"

every week adam produced something special and i believe everyone looks forward to his performance, see what stunts he can pull up.

this week the contestants sang songs from the year they were born. was it challenge? no. most of them were born in the 80s which danny gokey was the oldest (1980) and the rest ranged around 82-86, only allison iraheta was 1992.

most memorable ones for me were Matt Giraud and Adam Lambert. However, i heard that those in the US using the DVDR were not able to capture adam's performance fully as the show overran. I dont think he will suffer in terms of votes though since i predict he has a strong fan base.

Now the fun part. guess who's the bottom three or the one most likely to be eliminated.

Group stages winner and wildcard: number of times in bottom 3

Group 1:
danny gokey
alexie grace (out)
michael sarver (out)

Group 2: strongest
adam lambert
allison iraheta (2)
kris allen

Group 3:
lil rounds
scott macintyre (1)
jorge nunez (out)

Wildcard:
matt giraud (1)
anoop desai (1)
megan joy (out)
jasmine murray (out)

Most likely to be in bottom 3:
anoop (ok but not great, may be sent back to safety)
lil (have yet to prove her ability, kept choosing wrong songs)
scott (bad performance)

i got a feeling its time for scott to go.

if lil gets the boot, i am not sure if the judges will use the "save" option as they might wanna keep it for allison instead cos she showed more potential but also one who keeps hovering in the bottom 3. i think allison should be safe this week, based on records, she is safe from bottom 3 when she delivers outstanding performance like in top 10. hopefully when randy jackson compared her to kelly clarkson, her votes can go up. she is as risky as anoop.

i dont think matt should get bottom 3 cos last week he didnt do as well for a song by the frays but he was safe. i think he is building his fan base slowly.

the top 3 in the end i think would be adam, danny and kris. but kris may end up bottom 3 to shock the audience cos he did quite badly this week, however he will definitely not be eliminated.

stay tuned for the results...

..:: 637. The One With Happy Moments ::..

ok shall blog about happy moments. i guess there is still a collectivist part of me where guilt is killing me! arghz.

decided to write this jiayi-inspired entry summing up my 3 years in NBS.

actually my uni life started with joining the sports club which was the right choice for an explosive start to school. everyone was so "on" and crazy. our group was not the strongest physically but we have smart people in our team so we won quite a lot of challenges. one of the more memorable ones was coming in 4th out of 16 teams in the 2-day amazing race. i could still remember some of the stations that we had:

1. kbox at cck lot one where the clue was an indian word that translated to cck.
2. tiong bahru market to finish one basin of rice! we apparently lost to a group of big eaters
3. kallang to do dragonboat and the clue was sign language. difficult!
4. bedok interchange food center... had to link words to buy different types of food
5. pit stop: pasir ris park and we slept over in tents.

the next morning:
1. east coast park to try the 360ski
2. west coast recreation centre to play bowling and forfeit to drink some weird stuff based on the no. of pins missed
3. qian hu fishing farm. drew lots to see how many different colour small fishes we had to catch. it was so difficult. needed a lot of patience.

the next most fun activity was the night trail at the old changi general hospital. i must applaud the acting skills of the seniors and the prop set up. all the calefare acted as wondering ghosts really gave us the chills and screams. still remembered one of the guys freaked out and ran out of the room. that was how scary.

the camp was also a platform for me to join the organising committee of surf and sweat which was a major national event that ntu sports club organises. learnt a lot from there and i had the honour of doing the explanation of the whole rundown of the event to all the participants despite having to do it for like at least 50 times.

Year 1 Sem 1

AB105 - Organizational Behavior & Design

it was quite amazing how the group was formed. random. started off with me and my marketing grp mate jiayi, then came a few other girls and then crappy guoxiang. there was some adjustment initially cos one group had to dissolve. then came all the weird "name calling" by funny emails. i still remember how our project discussion would go off track and guoxiang will always bring us back. in our conversation, there will surely be ob concepts and terms used.

a very "spoil market" module cos every group was trying to "up" their standard every presentation. it was this module that polished our research skills. we already started to research extensively using the database and learning how to cite professionally. All these were not taught by a prof but a phd student. i mean she is amazing minus the fact that she had a weird habit of turling the ends of her hair. there was a lot of critical thinking and even our Q&A, we had to "argue" using what we have researched from journals to support as in her own words she dont want any "coffeeshop talk".

i still remember she was very proud of our class cos we were very driven and produced really good work which she sadly told us it was unfair to "bell-curve" us cos the three groups were generally better than some of the other classes. i was glad that we all met her expectations and still kept in contact with her.

AB112 - Marketing

Same classmates so you can expect the "spoil market" effect to spill over. the tutor was kinda weird as she wanted quality research and that translated to producing 100+ slides. The first group that got A+ presented banyan trees... but i enjoyed all of the presentations. trying to sell our products and services and also on case studies.

AB103 - Statistical and Quantitative methods

tough course cos i not very good in stats. not much group work and there were not interesting either. lucky got math genius in the group, so the group assignments were not that painful.

AB106 - Principles of Economics

Didnt take it in JC and it was quite a challenge to cramp 2 years plus worth of JC stuff into 3 months. plus the prof was intimidating... after you are asked to present your solutions, she will ask questions to test your knowledge and understanding of the concept. must do tutorial faithfully, cannot copy from others.

quite a long entry... shall break up different semesters into different entries for easier reading.

..:: 636. The One With Misunderstanding ::..

I received an email...

"Wah Liew ey... John, i salute you. You very the pangseh KING leh. I think it's the 3rd time ?? Seriously. I only know that you are not coming, until I meet the rest lor (seems like only xx and xx knows abt it)!!! Some of us actually rush dwn from school just to meet Mdm Ho. You are always just too late minute guy. Seriously.

It's good that you are enthusiastic at project work because you want to score well for the module... but your enthusiasm is a bit temperamental. As your projmate, it's quite hard to tell when you are in or out. I understand previously you have HR Forum and FYP to deal with. But like the rest of us, we have our own stuff too. Seriously, I kinda felt disappointed. It’s not nice to make last minute "surprises" when it comes to working as a team. I hope you can understand that.

Anw, update you. We ALMOST din get to meet Mdm Ho because there's some miscommunication btwn both of you. She though that the meeting is cancelled since you have oreadi sent her the softcopy. Eventually, she came down just for "yi shi yi shi" because all of us were oreadi at AMK Hub. Probably what you shld consider in the future is to Cc all of us the emails btwn you and Mdm Ho. We almost bust into tears when we heard tt she's unaware of the meeting just now. "

-------------------------------------------------------------
my first reaction was "woo. that is quite a direct feedback"

the enthusiasm temperamental was a bit hard to swallow though...

miscommunication. didnt mean to drop the last min bomb. had to get urgent endorsement and approval that had to take priority over the meeting. didnt want to change the meeting just because of me and everyone wanted it to be over and done with. i got the notice late and i msged 2 of the key members whom i left their contacts with "mdm ho". bad judgment i can say but i guess i was expected to msg 5 other members?

the no turn-up of mdm ho was a stunner for me. cos i emailed her:

------------------------------------------------
From: #CHEN XING TIAN JOHN#
To: Mdm Ho
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 1:00 PM
Subject: Report

Hi Mdm Ho,

I have attached our report. Sorry that I am unable to make it tml as I already had an appointment. However, my team mates will be there.

9xxxxxxx - xx
9xxxxxxx - xx

Thanks for agreeing to meet us.

Have a nice day.

Regards,
John

-----------------------------------------

i even sent her a sms to remind her. mmm... guess when you are the one coordinating and not there, it can be a prob. and yea. should have cc-ed them. my bad.

as for the 3rd time thing... i didnt realise it was the 3rd time? cos i remember i attended all the meetings. anyway have sent an email to check what were the other 2 times. mmm...

well, another learning point for me. wake up, john!

..:: 635. The One With New Post ::..

recently, i saw an article on leadership written by one of the prof teaching me and also a representative from saf. then it struck me that i could actually request to post to the centre for leadership development (CLD for short) in saf. firstly, i get to work on the multi-year leadership project that saf has and at the same time, work with the professors i know =) Secondly, leadership is quite a niche area to focus on and i think the stuff i get exposed to will be useful for my future and also for red cross.

but my career manager had something else for me..

"we are clearing you to assume the appointment of SO (staff officer) wospec development..."

ok, wth is wospec? it refers to the warrant officers and specialists.

challenging was the first word that came up in my mind. though there have been efforts done to increase the attractiveness of the wospec, like the recent introduction of the new specialist cadet rank to raise the profile and status of a specialist, the process is not easy...

having done a survey with the wospec to get some ground sensing, there are a few changes they would like to see so being the "voice" for them, i have to juggle their expectations and the organization needs which i hope i will be able to achieve the balance.

anyway i am excited to be back in mindef, can see all my ex-bosses but that means i have to pay for my meals :(

cant wait to start work. sounds exciting.

sidepoint. tiger airways should get their customer helpline together. i tried calling once and was put on hold so for long. subsequently i tried to call back at different times, there was no dial tone. did the staff do something to the line?

..:: 634. The One With David Archuleta ::..

American Idol 7 Runner-up David Archuleta coming to Singapore! gosh. now i sound like a crazy teenager. he will be at iluma, opposite bugis junction at 7 Apr, 7pm!

anyone wanna go? lol.

been spinning lady gaga's songs. lovin' it. a mix of gwen, madonna. very club-able songs... which yash 100% wont like. haha. shall hum those songs when i see her.

just dance.
poker face.

..:: 633. The One With Spree ::..

no. i am not in a shopping spree... on the contrary, i am actually on a download spree. not music or movies but

journal articles!

so expensive to sign up for a database so i thought why not download all the relevant articles before i graduate lol. especially those classic founders of theories...

been searching for relevant topics that could be useful in my career and self-development... topics like:

leadership
teamwork
self-efficacy
culture and self-construals
job performance and job satisfaction
organization citizenship behavior (tough to do in military lol)
counterproductive work behavior (easy to find in military)
selection & assessment
stress and coping

and a few more... cant believe i actually made folders for them. haha.

and i cant believe this is making me high! woohoo~

..:: 632. The One With Final Presentations in NTU ::..

i'm officially done with my last presentation in NTU. how come i dont seem to be excited? i dont know why. i think there is still part of me that loves presentations.

but through today, i can really see how i have benefited from the training NBS has given me. today's finale presentations for hr metrics and cultural intelligence i must say were the most unprepared ones i ever made. but i was glad i could pull it through =) energy people!

at 3am i was still struggling to churn out content slides to send to yash. there's so much info out there with the helpful tool of scopus and google scholar. i found myself reading more and more. got intrigued by interesting studies.

when i was reading the same line twice, i knew my mind cant take in anymore curiosity. still must perform for my metrics presentation which i have not prepared at all. took a 2 hr nap and woke up at 6am. luckily one of my team mates drove so i had a free ride to school and found an alternative route to avoid the traffic jam by using the old lim chu kang road.

got 15 mins to prepare for my part and off we go. saw one team inside the seminar room being "grilled" by the profs. Their Q&A was kinda long...

was glad that our presentation went really well. the profs just raised some clarification and requested us to add in some linkages (considering they gave us only 3000 words limit???)

i was pretty tired then had to rush an abstract and touch up my part before i sprinted to another seminar room for my next presentation. cultural intelligence (CQ) was even more unprepared. cos i havent seen the final slides and not even sure what i was going to present.

but mighty groupmates, everything fell in place. i was shocked that though we went given 40 mins, when our 3nd speaker spoke, the prof told us we only have 10 mins left. so the 4 of us shared the remaining time and rattled fast enough to be comprehended.

faints. kinda sad when u researched so much then u cant get to share as much? :( but i guess the prof loved our presentation cos i must say ours had a super comprehensive coverage for expat development and going beyond the case. hope we get a really good grade...

flashback my pictures for the last presentations for my modules this last semester...

24 Mar, Tue. BH227 - Selection & Assessment with Prof Templar. er huh er huh... with year twos and siok wei & wen yee the old birds



31 Mar, Tue. BH225 - HR Research with Prof Violet Ho with the year twos



3 Apr, Fri. BH326 - HR Metrics with Prof Cheryl Tay and Prof Fang Yong Qing. 2 extreme profs in terms of style, content and behavior lol



3 Apr, Fri. BH331 - Cultural Intelligence at Work with Prof Ng Kok Yee and Thomas

..:: 631. The One With 2 Down 2 More To Go ::..

finally 227 and 225 are done. though both presentations seemed like going into warpath. lots of questions shooting without the prof even asking questions. dunno if the yr 2s found me very aggressive, somehow i have questions (and quite a lot) on their presentations. but i tried my best to ask in a non-intrusive way, also tried the complimenting first then shoot technique.

for 225, every group controlled for all variables except our group. every other group was shooting at us why dun we control, no harm etc. tried to explain but i think the prof had a final say and all of us took her words. having to control all variable will decrease the statistical power needed to test for significant relationships. so i gleefully crossed my finger, hope our report get A or A+ (even better). we thought we were the only group with the descriptive stats and inter-correlation table but damn there is another group who had it.

been quite a struggle editing the report i must say. contents were contributed but somehow lacked the persuasiveness... at first it didnt look like we answered the discussion portion well cos the lit review found didnt really address the question. :( double work, haiz.

anyway its over! now left with 2 more on friday. see everyone slogging for hr metrics. i hope i perform well for both presentations. cant let the groups down...

oh yeah! my friend's friend managed to find my thumbdrive! so happy... someone should invent a beeping system to remind user to take their thumbdrive!