Darren Sim

The new school term at SMU  officially begins in less than 24 hrs, and I can’t help but ponder… ”what are my goals for the new school term”. For the past two terms, my results were above average, but definitely nothing near what I’ve charted out and I have to admit that I squandered away lots of valuable time.

“Attitude defines Altitude” – a very meaningful thought which my ex-boss at Microsoft once shared with me on my first day of work when I asked him what did he look out for when he hired.

Looking back, I realised that I’ve been sinking in too many airy thoughts and actions; as though being in quick sand - which were not sustainable in the long run and I really have to get down to the basics. I thought Richard St. John’s Secret to Success (download as Wallpaper) really puts to picture, my thoughts right now.

 

… and overtime, i’ve become everything i said i wouldn’t be …

 

Before it’s all too late, I should pull myself out of this quicksand and get back to form, not letting my past efforts go to waste just because of a short stint of satisfaction / temptation. After some reflection, asking around and research, I’ve derived my new value set which I endeavour to stick to…

 

“Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”
– Napoleon Hill, Writer

1. Responsibility & Accountability
2. Take Risks and Remain Passionate
3. Treating everyone with Respect
4. Seek to Understand > Seek to be Understood
5. Remain disciplined & Never Say Die
6. Seek great challenges. When you go the extra mile, there’s very little traffic.
7. Urgency and Time Consciousness

 

Source: Tumblr

Most importantly, SMILE!

DISCLAIMER: This blog post is not an indication that the author or the organization/s which he/she had represented had previously acted against these values. This blog post may not be used as evidence in court/s and holds no legal weight. Reproduction of this article is strictly prohibited.

As the new school term is set to begins, the time has come again where I’d need to reconfigure my notebook; of course, this also includes emails, since it’s cumbersome to log in to the webmail all the time.

I’ve been using Microsoft Outlook for my corporate emails for sometime and that will not change, since all my calendars, contacts and emails are already intergrated with all my devices.

As such, I’ve decided to give Mozilla Thunderbird (download) a shot since it can run concurrently with outlook. While configuring Thunderbird, I noticed that Live@EDU is not really idiot proof as compared to the older exchange infrastructure that the university depended on earlier.

I’ve posted a screenshot of the settings that I’m using which proved to serve me well. Do note that the user name is your full school email (E.g. john.tan.2004@business.smu.edu.sg)

Camp camps camps are what had been keeping me really occupied for the past two weeks – SMU Freshman Team Building (FTB) Run 3 & SIS Metamorphosis Camp!

Facis Hanging Out on Day 0

Clan Head (Brandon) & Girlfriend

Ice Breakers on Day 1 of FTB

Drawing up team contract

Freshies + Oldies

Chicken Rice Game

Waiting for PhotoBooth

Clan Heads joining in the fun

Joan with the gruesome Carrot Paste

Spider Web Activity which stresses on Integrity & Excellence

Rafting @ ECP

Camp Fire Night I

Camp Fire Night II

Joan bidding farewell to her shoes

Xiao Mei and the Gunny Sack

Meta Camp (Learning the Mass Dance)

Aries 3 + 1 Guest

Forefeit

Roti Prata Game

Another Forefeit

SIS Wave Video

SMU Classics (How to get A+ in SMU)

The past Saturday was an especially exciting one with three separate events running sequentially, one after another with little buffer time in between; customer meeting at 11am, SINDA Volunteers’ Tea at 2.30pm and Bizcomm BBQ at 6pm.

SINDA’s Volunteer’ Tea was really exciting; being the minority for the first time in an event where I was given the privilege to meet many community leaders who have devoted much of their time to helping others. Truly inspirational. It was unfortunate that we had to leave early to rush and prepare for the next meeting.

SINDA Band playing some awesome music (Indian & English)

Host for the event; his ability to crack jokes randomly was impressive.

After the SINDA event, I quickly rushed home to change out of my smart-casual wear to something more comfortable for the Bizcomm BBQ.

Having done MPS at Pasir Ris and having a number of friends living around the Pasir Ris area (whom I visit quite often) I thought I knew the area well enough and walked directly to the pits nearer to downtown east only to discover that Pit 54 was at the other end and I was at Pit 9. Dunk!

Ended up walking 30 minutes to the other side of the beach. It was quite a nice walk though; under the dimply lit night skies accompanied with the scent of nature. It would be really romantic walk if I was strolling down with a loved one (currently single, that’s why. tsk tsk).

Got the opportunity to meet two new friends – Selene & Alson- at the BBQ. At first I thought Selene was like alot older until I saw her fb. woops! hahaa… She looks like one of my secondary school teachers…

This was one really nice videos that Selene showed us.. =D

The past week flashed past as though it was chasing after a speed train, passing by before I even noticed. Maybe it just feels good to be home again after all that travelling – taiwan, kuala lumpur, then Ho Chi Minh.

Deciding to take the night off since the weekend will be a very hectic one, with Bizcomm outing, meeting with clients and attending a charity event which my company sponsored. I very well know that my weekend will dissapear before I even notice it again. Gosh!

Went to get a haircut in the event at Ion with ever trusty Jeric from Jerics Salon; always very nice and warm, met up with Univantage marketing team and headed straight to zouk to meet up with Alex.

Being earlier (yay!) than Alex, I went to get my ‘chop’ before heading to the piano bar at The Grand Copthome to indulge in a sinful slice of cheesecake, while enjoying the melodious sounds of the enchanting piano pieces.

It is strange how vacant the citibank queue is now compared to years ago where I had to reach by nine-thirty to get my free entry (woops!)

It seemed Déjà vu when my sis organized this years mother’s day lunch at the Si Chuan Dou Hua restraunt at Plaza by the Park; we had Si Chuan food at Swissotel last year and The Plaza was my first every office back in 2007.

The famous 8-treasure tea!!!

Waiting for the “8 treasures” to infuse…

Very unique “snack-bits”

A very spicy and sour bowl of Suan La tang. I still prefer the one my mom makes.

Braised shark’s fin soup… There was really alot of sharks fin in this bowl… Yummy!

First set of dishes, Sichuan Ma Po Dou Fu, Gong Bao Ji Ding, Prawn Salad & Soft shell Crab

Sea Bass cooked in Sichuan style

Fresh scallops with jalapeno, wild mushrooms and veg!

Siu Mai!

Seaweed Dim Sum!

Sichuan prawns… So oily we only at the prawns..

Look at the fresh pepper…

Roasted Chicken.. By the time of this dish, I was really stuffed and didn’t have the determination to continue snapping… I recalled we had another prawn dish, couple more dim-sum dishes and desert (Their silken dou-hua was really good!)

I visited a friend last evening at his hostel at NUS and got to learn about a very interesting new feature about Photoshop CS 5, which I though will revolutionizehow we are going to deal with photos in the future, saving us alot of time and effort.

First, we start off with a picture with me in it.

Then we use the quick selection tool to select “me”

After the selection has been done, here’s the magic!

Click on Edit > Fill (or Shift + F5) to invoke the Fill Panel

Select the Content-Aware fill option and Poof ! I disappear… *grins*

This is a long overdue post which I was inspired to write after doing some housekeeping on my backup files and saw all these gorgeous pictures all over again!

At the International Teleco Union (ITU), a part of the UN in Geneva

In the presentation hall with the panelists. Looks exactly the same as on TV. It’s a pity that we didn’t have the chance to catchup and have a pic with UN Sec-Gen.

Just in case I had something to say.

Slides slides slides and more slides….

The entrance at the UN in Geneva

The Gigantic chair opp the UN!

En-route to look for Michelle!

Gorgeous mountain passes

Houses along the mountain-side. A nice place to have a weekend home?

Someone parachuting in the middle of the sky

That’s where we’re headed for!

A bridge in the middle of the mountains???

One way road for two way traffic! Innovation!

Up close and personal with the mountain houses… The weather and air made me felt semi-devine at the moment.

Michelle’s School

Michelle’s School

This is Michelle. Believe it or not, this is the first time we met. How we got acquainted? Secret! Haha!

Michelle and her pretty hong-konger classmate

Sunbathing deck at Michelle’s School

Lake @ Geneva

Singapore’s Merlion representative to the UN!

Shopping!!!!

Chocolate Speciality Shop @ Geneva

Rows and rows of watch shops in Geneva.

Domestic workers waiting for public transport in Geneva

Geneva seems to be flooded with all the dream cars that I have! Arh!

Rich man’s house in Geneva… Does he have a daughter? =P

Lovely Dog!

Lovely view from the house.. Nice!

Russian Embassy?

The big bell@ the park!

Care for some meditation in the park?

Museum @ Geneva

Traditional Swiss food

Another Traditional Swiss Food

Awesome bread! (PS: I don’t smoke. it’s not mine!)

I thought that bottle was tap water. It’s actually EVIAN and it cost over 20 SGD! This was my most expensive meal in Geneva! But apparently it is a place frequented by many bankers and diplomats as they say.

Geneva has cuter ducks than Singapore

The brown version! If only I can bring them back to Singapore!