joohan

Yes, I've finally graduated from NUS, somehow. I didn't fail that bloody difficult stats module. In fact, I got B-! Now I feel guilty giving the lecturer all the lowest possible ratings for the module review.

What's even better is ... I got my 1st Class Honours!!! Woohoo! Not that it matters in terms of finding a job, 'cos the confirmation came so late (I've been applying to jobs putting myself as 2nd Upper). It matters more in terms of personal satisfaction =) although I barely made it. My CAP was dragged all the way from 4.66 to 4.515... Any lower grades and I will be crying right now. The key was the honours project though, I just barely got an A- too which is the requirement for 1st class...

On the working front, I've one more interview (hopefully last one) with DBS for the management associate position. And my boss in JL Capital (the local hedge fund) had offered me a perm position and even let me wait til the DBS's offer to decide between DBS or JL... That boss is really good! The people in JL Capital are fun too... Really nice to work there...

My risk management project is quite nicely done now (or I like to think so) since I had achieved the objective of pushing from reporting once every two weeks to a daily frequency. In additional, I had made a few improvements to the system. I believe there are more work (enhancements) to be done.

In addition, I have been assisting this equities trader in some analysis... Fun... The work I'm doing is all my interest... I realised I love stocks better than derivatives... More fun, more art, more stories...

Seriously, I don't know if DBS is going to offer me anytime. I think at the very least, I should get a management trainee offer... but I think I'll definitely be better off staying in the hedge fund. If I got the management associate position, then I'll have to think hard... The MA program will give me 2 years of structured training while the hedge fund is all about on-the-job training and self-learning. Well, see how it goes...

The tsunami disaster has claimed almost 150,000 lives and raising everyday... It's really a sad event and such natural disasters always spurred me to think "if god exists, why do such things happen?". I don't believe in god and I think it's better to be morally upright rather than a devout religion follower... Anyway, that's my view all along. It's up to you to disagree. Meanwhile, those people who are unaffected should count their blessings, especially Singaporeans... I think Singapore is one of the best places to live in... Safe, efficient and organised...

Ok, that's all for my new year personal update...

HAPPY NEW YEAR and a BETTER 2005!!!

Recently, a few local issues caught my eye. Firstly, police rejected an application for the SnowBall.04 indoor part which has been similarly organized for the past two years. Next, there is the push for more anti-smoking stringent measures such as banning smoking in bus stops, interchanges, hawker centres, pubs and etc. Finally, there is the whole debate on having a casino in Singapore that is bombing the Straits Times forum. All the pros and cons of having a casino; we heard it all, haven’t we?

In today’s ST, I came across this forum letter which I agree with the writer, Alex Au Waipang. Here is the letter:

No reason to scuttle 'gay party'

I REFER to the article, 'It's no go for planned Christmas 'gay party' (ST, Dec 9). By rejecting the application for a license to hold the party, the police are over-reaching their authority.

The police said they noticed kissing and intimate touching involving people of the same gender in previous events held by the organiser.

If the degree of kissing and embracing is no different from any greeting or affection shown at other parties such as ZoukOut, then the police have no grounds to cite such a reason and still say that 'they do not discriminate'.

In any case, it is not against the law to embrace or kiss someone of the same sex, nor to cross-dress, another observation cited.

If the police had felt these were against the law, why didn't they arrest those persons on the spot there and then?

If they felt they had no powers to arrest them, as these acts are not against the law, then why cite it as a reason to reject an application?

Overall, the police seem to be saying that any party that caters to the gay minority is now banned, based on the hoary excuse of 'public interest' and that of a 'traditional and conservative society'.

These phrases contradict their 'do not discriminate' claim. They are inconsistent with a society hoping to move forward.

I will be interested to see if the same excuses are invoked when the time comes to approve the setting up of a casino.

I think it’s really a case of brainless discrimination. If the police can reject the SnowBall.04 party for the sake of ‘public interest’ and the recognition that Singapore is still a ‘traditional and conservative society’, and then the casino issue becomes a no-brainer. We should not have a casino since it’s so obvious there are quite a number of people out there who opposes casinos, judging from the response of ST forum writers.

Seriously, sometimes, I really felt that Singapore is such a backward country. I have no issues with gays. I think that it’s perfectly fine to let them be themselves and do whatever they like as long as they don’t harm others which they don’t.

Between two men kissing and intimately touching each other in front of you and a smoker puffing second-hand smoke in your direction, which one will you choose? The former don’t affect me in any ways, the latter do.

So instead of banning gay parties, why don’t we spend the energy and effort to ban smoking in more public areas? Passive smoking kills. Why should non-smokers be subject to the damage caused by smokers whenever they share the same public area such as hawker centre and bus interchanges? If I have my way, I would have push for a ban on smoking in ALL public places, and then place some air tight containers for the smokers to indulge in their brainless smoking activities and also take in the second-hand smoke of other smokers.

Next, regarding the issue of having a casino… I thought it’s a no-brainer. Singaporeans have been flocking all the time to Genting, Australia, Batam, cruise ships and underground gambling dens for their gambling fix, so what’s wrong if we open a casino here in our shores? We will just be directing these outflows of funds into our own pockets, not to mention attracting the tourism bucks and creating new jobs.

About the social ills of gambling, I can only say that most of those people, who will become addicted to gambling if a casino is opened here, should have already became addicts. They have already all the choices of various casinos around the region. And If they are too poor to travel abroad to gamble, they have all the choices of illegal gambling, or legal forms in horse betting and other Singapore Pools games. And I thought Singapore already has a large scale casino in the form of the SGX? The stock exchange is one big fun casino!

I can’t imagine there are so many people in Singapore who opposes gays and gambling while passively breathing the second-hand smoke around them. It makes me kind of sad.

Argh, my head hurts after facing the computer screen for the whole day. Especially after doing all the Excel programming and facing the flickering movements of the macros. It's time to stop, my head can't take it anymore, it's spinning like crazy.

Right now, I’m just pretending to work, in fact I'm typing this in the Excel visual basic editor, haha, with VBA codes all below. Well, not that I'm lazing away. I've done a lot of work today to justify me waiting for 6pm to arrive. In fact, I'm so proud of myself today. Boy, am I a genius at times!

There are two high profile IPOs debuting in the SGX today, Yellow Pages and Suntec REIT. Yellow Pages, priced at the higher end of its offering ($1.66), closed at $1.75, up 5.4%. Suntec REIT, similarly priced at the higher end of its offering ($1.00), closed at $1.10 for a first day gain of 10%. Best is, I'm allocated 2 lots of the Suntec REIT! Woohoo! $200 made in a day, not too bad...

STI, on the other hand, fell 21.52 points to close at 1999.14, just breaking the 2000 significant psychological barrier. A sign of more bears to come. Well, hope the market consolidates further and present better buying opportunities. Patience is the key.

Wow, today was an eventful day…

First, my boss, Mr JL himself, took me out to lunch, along with his wife, who is also the Finance & Admin manager of the hedge fund. We went to Prego, this pasta restaurant at Raffles shopping centre. I felt quite honoured to be eating with him as this guy, I reckon, must be worth millions and he sits on the NUS executive council alongside other prominent big shots like Olivia Lum and what have you.

I ordered spaghetti which is the easiest to eat but I couldn’t finish it, to my own surprise. I think my stomach had shrunk, probably due to irregular meals during my exam period, which is not a bad thing. I used to overeat way too much.

Anyway, my boss and his wife are very warm people, very friendly and they don’t behave like they are bosses at all. I think joining the hedge fund is a good thing for me as it opens up new horizons.

That’s not all though. For dinner, I attended this Loving Heart Charity Gala Dinner at Meritus Mandarin whereby my boss has got a table due to some donations. It’s quite a high level event since the guest of honour is Mrs Goh Chok Tong and I was just seated a table away from the VIP table. The dinner was nice, with a fashion catwalk thrown in as halftime entertainment. Towards the end of the show, to my pleasant surprise, Dick Lee came in along with his band and sung quite a number of songs. Wow, I like that guy man, ever since I heard his songs in primary school. I wonder if I can get a CD of his compilations…

Well, it’s now past midnight and I think I ought to sleep since I have to get up early tomorrow. Today, or rather yesterday, was a nice and sweet day… Hope more such days come my way…

Today marks one month since I broke up with my girlfriend, Jolyn. We had been together for more than three years. It’s kind of ironic that as my journey in NUS ends, my journey with her ended as well. We met each other in NUS and we had to part when our time in NUS were up.

I can only wish that she will be happier without me and that she will find a better man than me.

I started a 6-8 weeks internship with a hedge fund on Friday, one week after my last paper. Well, I am not sure if I am a workaholic but what I know is that my bank account is near zero and that if I don’t earn some pocket money, there won’t be much of a holiday for me.

My plan right now is to work for a couple of months (which I’m doing now), then use the money earned to give myself a good rest, maybe throw in a holiday as well, before I embark on a fulltime position. I just went for the DBS interview on Wednesday and I hope that ideally, I can work in DBS as a management associate or an analyst in the risk management area or treasury area. I really like DBS because it just gives me a very warm and family feeling.

Well, that’s my plans for now, whether they can be fulfilled is another matter. I considered myself living a rather charmed life until now. I hope my lucky streak can continue…

Sometimes, an end of a journey represents a start of another new beginning... Well, that is what exactly happening to me right now.

I just sat for my last paper in NUS last week. When I said my last paper, I meant truely the last paper I'm ever going to sit for in NUS (unless I go for further studies in NUS in the future). Yes! It means I have finally graduated! After a struggling three and a half years!

The last semester is a tough nut to crack. I was taking four modules and doing my honours project at the same time. The workload and credits earned are equivalent to taking seven modules. And the motivation isn't there anymore. Two weeks into the semester, I was dreading it. I was counting down the days to the last examination. And yes, finally, I saw the end of the tunnel... and the light that comes along with it.

Sad to say, I did very badly for my examinations, especially the stats module. 15 minutes in the stats paper, I was just sitting there in a daze, counting down the minutes to the end of the paper and along with it, the end of a nightmare that lasted a semester. To make things worse, my professor announced 5 mins before the end that he would extend it by 15 mins. I was thinking, what could be worse. I attempted about 20% of the entire paper and I don't think I scored well for even these 20%. I was anticipating the worst scenarios. I was sure I will be getting either a ‘F’ or a minimal passing grade ‘D’. If I got ‘F’, I would have to stay back for one more semester.

On Thursday, I went back to pack up some of my stuff to move home and thus I went to see my stats professor as well. I asked him about my grade. He said he couldn’t remember but the minimum he gave anyone in the class was a ‘B-‘. I was pleasantly surprised. Wow! I got ‘B-‘?!?! You got to be kidding, man! Well, I can only hope that he remembers correctly and on the day of the results release, I don’t get a nasty surprise. If what he said was true, then I really have to say, “Sorry professor, that I gave you all the worst ratings in the feedback review…”