Graduated

Hello guys,
I've graduated! Yeah.
Gave Bren a big hug last night. Told him thanks, he asked why.
He said I did all the studying. I said well,. he took care of the kids while I was gone. Furthermore, he sponsored my school fees, heh heh heh.

Took a while for the feeling to sink. Then I called my mom. She asked: - "Got gown to wear or not? Let's go celebrate." Me:- "Errr, have lah but got to rent." She - "Rent lah". I'm like, not so keen leh., I mean, how old am I already lah! Silly.

If I really want it, I would rather go attend the convocation at UH this November. Alas I am unable to summon enough desire to take the trouble although a part of me desire to make an excuse to go the distance or I may otherwise never have another reason to travel seven thousand miles to a foreign land that I only read or watch about.

Update

You can see that my grades slid in term three. I'm still hopeful to get a second upper.... the school changed its administrative schedule, I think they are consolidating the convocation to once in a year rather than twice. We may only get our certificates in July although we've completed our studies in January. Some of my classmates are very upset (which is understandable) because they were aiming for career promotions.

Anyway.

Super Shagged

I'm not sure for how many weeks now,,, I had been working on my assignments till 1130pm every weekday night. Getting up again at 630am routinely until damn shagged. Hanging in there... just a few more papers and one more exam then we're done. Not in time for Christmas shopping.. the childcare called me twice to remind me that KiCo haven't brought their presents for gift exchange. Hey,,, wait lah! wait. The party at school is not till 23rd mah!

So anyway, on Tuesday night, it was nerve wracking for my classmates and I. We had to do a standup presentation for 4 to 6 minutes and we were all unnatural, tongue tight, sprouting nonsense and jittering. After we each took our turns, a heavy load was off our shoulders, and my classmate took this selfie to commemorate our survival. LOL. 

One Last Leg

Sorry for the lack of entries, I have so many things to share and I wished my brainwave could transmit my thoughts and organise into a presentable blog entry but alas the technology is not commercially available yet.
I'm having three modules this term and there just just so many essays due this month, sometimes I'm overpowered by fear of not meeting deadlines or inability to come up with a reasonable piece of work given that I had practically not read any of the recommended textbooks from the online library... just two more months to go, hang in there!  There's this particular module - Business and Commercial Awareness, that Prof., is darn demanding..... he threw us not one but two "uncertainty events" and we had to either adjust our proposal or re-do the proposal to accommodate to the latest turn in event. He is trying to stimulate real-life work situations where crisis management is part and parcel of business. Well,,,,,,,, I really hope that I can complete my three essays these two weeks..........how am I ever going to enjoy by birthday! I will be 40! Gosh. that is like damn old!



Last Saturday, when half the people on our island went on holiday, we had our regular violin class.
Not that I'm complaining, as I was already mentally prepared to be committed to this violin education and have not a single ounce of displeasure. So anyway, for the first time in a year, the Novena Square (mall) was a ghost town. There were very few patrons unlike the usually sardine packed Saturdays. Except for GAP store that was running 50% sale, everywhere else was empty. Anyway, I was star struck when I saw this person sitting right in front of me when we alighted from the taxi. This Alvin guy. He is a fellow blogger, i don't think i can call him fellow blogger because he's a professional blogger and i'm not. Anyway, after 15 seconds of wondering if i should say hello to a stranger,,, i decided that i may never see him again and i will only have this chance. so i walked back to him (his wife and kid were there too), and asked -
"Are you Alvin?"
He raised an eyebrow and replied "Yes,,,,,, do I know you?"   
"No, you do not know me but I read your blog"
"Have I met you?"
"No, you do not know me and we have not met"  "but I read your blog"
*** awkward silence for 5 seconds *** while his wife lowered her head with a wide, wide grin she couldn't hide.

LOL lor...


Here's Alvin's site    http://alvinology.com 

Digital Economy

The library is my new best friend.

I am cheonging one proposal to revive an ailing printed directory business in europe, across america.
gone are the days where having a website and some CD-roms suffice. you've got to give your business a personable touch, interact with your stakeholders like you really care, and be at the touch of your customers' finger tips. the bottom line besides how much revenue you make is how much profit and at what margin. e-business is no longer B2B, it is now P2P - from path to profiting.

Some organisations loose sight of common objectives
my lecturer said that it's like how the fire in Indonesia is also our problem if unresolved.

Some encouraging results

This week, Kiki could play the violin to the tune of "Twinkle, twinkle, little star", albeit still brash and calls for lots of polishing, we are very delighted there's a breakthrough after many fortnights of tears.
The resistance she had stemmed from the inability to play the verses in sequence and it took a lot of encouragement in order to press on. Because I'm having a break from school the past two weeks, I made a point to practise with her for 10 minutes a night, and this is how it finally bore fruits.  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVYktsV6Zg8

Today, I received another encouraging news, I've scored a distinction for one of my essays! (82 marks)
Well, this module is one of the easiest one, I suppose.... nevertheless, I am very glad that my hard work paid off. Here's my lecturer's comments:-


Assignment Title: Case Study Coursework- Leadership and Organisation
Marked by: Len Ryder on the 21/04/2013 at 14:52

Feedback:General Comments

An essay which is to a very high academic standard - excellent engagement with theory and an good level of academic rigour. Good writing style. There are one or two small gaps - such as motivation could have been developed further.

It's curious why you termed Branson as Dr. Jekyll and O'Leary as Mr. Hyde as this is labelling them unjustly and pigeon-holes them as if one is good and the other bad.

Excellent work, however - well done!.

**end

Learning from a Distance

Hertfordshire

After more than two decades of non-stop work, I feel it is time to upgrade again.
Earlier in the year, I inquired on MBA programmes from a few private schools here.
To my horror, the postgraduate diploma I have from Chartered Institute of Marketing UK, had devalued.
This is because they now speed course the usual 3-year programme into just six months.
I do not blame the academics to raise the bar, given this questionable trend from my alma mater. 
We used to be courted by University of Hull for the Masters programme but now, they won't even take a look at me even if I pay the hefty sum of thirty over thousand dollars. As much of an work experience I have, it constitutes to nothing in their eyes as long as I do not head a team of staff to count for my professionalism.
They do not care if our staff hierarchy is a flat one.

I enjoy learning and I love to learn. And so I dove back to finding the next plan of action to satisfy my thirst.
There are several other MBA programmes that will take me but I feel that I need some greasing of my brain before I commit, hence I've taken a sidetrack and signed up for a distance learning course with University of Hertforshire for their Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration. With my credits, I will join the final year and take eight modules in the span of 12 months.

The lesson is dispatched via a net portal with our student login. It is an academic's haven I must say, you get access to hundreds of books, e-books, journals, papers and pod-casts.
The lessons are also being facilitated by a local partner (BMC) where I attend class twice a week on Tuesday and Friday evenings.

So far, I've just started on three modules overlapping each other and am barely able to finish speed reading the materials and it's already time for assignments. The assignments come in several forms. They are our "exams" so to speak. You got to write essays individually, as a group, do video presentations, online timed quiz as well as timed, open book essay. Each lecturer / professor will have his/her style and we just got to follow. I find this a refreshing learning concept and have turned myself into a "bus-learner". I don't know why but I tend to be able to absorb the lesson even as I read while on the bus or listen to audio podcast while traveling. So I guess this mobile style of lesson plan suits me.

Suddenly, I feel fresh again!

 chapters all marked out awaiting to unleash

a doodled heart on discussion note