Last night was the DSTA scholarship awards ceremony 2008. The event saw the leaving graduates from the 2008 batch leaving this year as well as the prize presentation for the 2009/2010 batch of scholarship receivers and post graduates.

Held at Orchard hotel, the event saw a welcome address by Dr Tan Kim Siew, Permanent secretary and Chairman DSTA and DSO together with the keynote address by Mr Teo Chee Hean, Minister of Defense. There I received my scholarship scroll from Mr Teo followed by a stage phototaking session, performance and a dinner reception outside the main ballroom itself.

DSTA-DSO scholarship ceremony 2008

With Mr Teo Chee Hean

With Tan Hang Cheong SP Principal and Soh Kong Pheng, DSTA CEO

There I got to meet up with Tan Hang Cheong, SP principal, Soh Kong Pheng CEO of DSTA as well as Mr Teo Chee Hean for casual talk and discussions, particularly on plans ahead and education. There I got to meet up with the other 3 scholars from SP itself which brings the total number of scholars from Singapore Polytechnic to 4 in total, far more than any other Polytechnics in Singapore had got.

Everybody was in the light of the mood for the occasion and congrats, and a great sense of achievement constantly filled the air around us. All is very promising road ahead of us scholars as scientists and engineers in the defense science community.

The reception ended around 9pm, with Mr Teo making his move around that time, overall the event was a big success I can see, the food was good and there was enough to always constantly go around for everybody. Will be looking forward to my farewell ceremony next year, when I leave for abroad in my studies.

I was around magazine road area today for my Duke of Edinburgh, NYAA gold award interview. Though I tend to frequent the river walk area for dinner often, I’ve not really been around the Central Mall area before as it is always around the outskirts of town. Nevertheless, I really liked how the offices, pubs and restaurants are arranged and put together in the area, so much that it’s both modern and paints a little self-contained village feel.

Their offices are located on the third floor of the 5th block, the stone walled architecture on the office facade and it’s location beside a temple really added to the NYAA building’s old authentic feel. It’s mostly a walk up office so you will be more or less greeted by flights of timber steps leading up to their 3rd floor office. There you will be kindly greeted by their staff there who will direct you to their meeting/waiting room where you can get to mingle with the other interviewees while waiting for your turn.

The interview is a one to one interview with their deputy executive director and she’s a very kind lady who will guide you along with the interview. So there is no real need to prepare for it as ultimately it’s your deeds and commitments! Overall, I can’t really tell how I fair from my interview. It’s very much a mixture- I think I did give a good impression to the interviewer, and I believe I did bring forward my point of the NYAA award being a great contributor to what I am today and how students and leaders like us can see the world today and take steps to do deeds in the benefit of the community, both local and overseas.

Through each component, I explained through my efforts in planning, organizing and aiding in events such as my residential project and adventurous journey just to name afew. However I constantly felt that it’s rather difficult to bring forward a point or impressing the interviewer with what I say. Maybe there is the exception of the interviewer’s exposure to the various events done by students, which don’t seem to raise an eyebrow in my projects? Ummm that I will have to wonder.

Nevertheless, it was a rather enjoyable causal discussion and everything was done rather in a very relaxed setting. Focused on only the award objectives, I did not bang on my portfolio, awards or achievements, neither did I let the interviewer in that I am am institutional and special awards winner (though I felt that will definitely give me a comparative edge). But I felt the constant need to leave them out of the topic as I believe that it’s something fair and humble to do to and to also level the playing field for the other Gold award candidates as well. Neither was I even complacent on my remarks from my school student development officer exclaiming that “I will have the award more or less in the bag quite easily”. I think that is not something I would like to count before the chickens are hatched either.

Nevertheless, I always tell myself- “it could be worse” and I am glad I didn’t mess it up, with the exception of few quirks here and there. My interviewer offered me the NYAA Gold awardees alumni GAHA leaflet at the end of the interview with her hand written follow-up on sending my project photographs in so that it could be used in their annual award publications. But that is only when I get selected right? Or does that mean something else?

It’s late, I will be touching on the happenings of my scholarship award ceremony this evening tomorrow.

Though it’s officially Monday now, but it’s still in the late hours not far from Sunday, yes Sunday… I guess for most of us, Monday don’t start until the first cup of coffee on day break. So with that let just recap some of the happenings I missed for the week.

Backtracking, last Saturday was a whole day out visiting and some shopping on at IMM in the evening, what made it note-worthy that it’s a family outing all done on public transport! Yea, no driving, just plain commuting to Telok Ayer Market for the famous Wanton Mee after our Philip street temple visit. Then it’s the bus over to Grans and my aunt’s home before popping by IMM for the rest of the night.

I think we must be appreciative of the public transport we have here in Singapore, so far it’s efficient for short to medium journeys around Singapore. On the contrary, long bus terminal-to-terminal journey’s are usually not worth your 2 hours on the bus in small Singapore.

While my amazed mum couldn’t get enough of her hands full at Daiso in IMM, the thing which amazes me is how fast our journey back home was. Yes though the bus roads were rather empty then and our bus skipped a few empty stops here and there, it goes to show how much we are missing on commuting given private alternatives, given the myriad of public transport available right our doorstep itself. I grew up always having a family car, but that doesn’t mean I am an idiot to commuting either, considering that I spent almost my whole secondary and polytechnic days commuting everyday to school, if only my dad were to think differently.

The key thing is that with it being so expensive to own a car these days, everybody is all looking for alternatives, let be recyclable diesel, CNG cars, running ads on their cars, etc but isn’t the answer right in front of their noses? I’ve never did the honor of counting the dollars and cents and traveling time of each alternative, until I did, surprisingly its usually not more than 10-15mins by driving- time you can bear with. Come to think about it, you need about the same time to find a free parking lot on a Saturday in IMM and the parking fees will cost as much as your bus fare itself.

We can see that now, with whole day bus lanes coming on the way, more ERP gantries and B signal traffic lights sprouting up everywhere in favor of buses, these little things are starting to make commuting a more bearable thing from the past. Yes, public transport do have it own quirks and there, such as lugging loads around, the quick snap convenience or waiting endlessly for the buses. But think of the savings you can get by just leaving the car at home, if you have a day out with time to spare, why not? We did!

Our last car-less trip could be a learning step to the next best thing of public transport, or will be parents get the hint? Maybe let me see into try getting an electric car which runs off home roofed solar panels, maybe that may work for them.

Got an unexpected item in the mail, it’s an invitation from our permanent secretary, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim to the 2008 special awards. As naive as I was, I had to google to update myself on what the special awards is for now, as it was a never widely known or publicized event, or one that I never thought myself being able to actually attend and witness.

The special awards had not changed much from what I thought it to be- it is a prestigious event held for the top students from all the institutions in Singapore, particularly also for the recipients of the Lee Kuan Yew awards and those receiving the “All rounder awards” as well. I am honored to be able to attend it and accepted the invitation. I will be looking forward to the ceremony coming late August.

Well, today is the 3rd day of the voting rounds of the Singapore Blog awards, and just as how campaigning fever has subsided in the States with Obama and Hilary in alliance now (with the exception of the Anwar case going on now), campaigning fever is definitely up on my side now! I am glad I have my contacts and not to mention my website traffic to help me pull in a steady stream of voters for this voting round, to date my site is 3rd in the round!

But of course that means having to strike a balance between my professional side/work and casual campaigning as well, and not like bugging anybody you know just as if your life depends on it, or even mentioning or hinting to people to vote for me, even in my 1000-odd convention talks, classes or even advertising for it over the various portals and websites I run, that will be stupid.

Unlike rebellious juveniles who will simply bug anybody without a care in the world, sometimes as a grown individual, you get to see the mature side of things than disturbing close friends or acquaintances for favors which kinda gives you the uncalmy feel of being indebted to even when they help you out, but I am glad everyone I approached so far was a great help!

But mind you, not that I don’t like feeling “indebted” but very much the respect I give to my friends, after all this is just a small blog competition and it boils down to what you value more and not risk going overboard. Sometimes I feel that a little reflection of your actions can go a long way. I won’t set my standards too high and the competition can be something which I am prepared to even lose, so anything else is just a bonus.

I don’t need a laptop, neither do I need a fancy phone when I win the award, so I will be considering selling or donating them to the salvation army or to my contacts in charge of the sharity gift box, but that is of course provide if I win, so I won’t count the chickens before they are hatched.

But I will be glad to be in the competition for the thrill, kick and challenge of it, as being a marathon runner, the other sporting side of me do not have a nature to give out so easily, so if you are my competitor you can be rest assured it won’t be an easy journey for you.

In all, the thing which matters most to me in this competition is winning the “best design” category will mark more than 10 years of my commitment and dedication in building and designing websites which means alot to me. The thing which amazes me is that I am glad this 5 year old, but still rather entrancing website design is still able to see me through so far.

With that, I will still bang on the bulk of my votes coming from people who visit my website, I think I might not go wrong with the traffic I get on my site. So I will leave it to unbiased people who think that I deserve the award for my contributions to blog design and development. With that, I will feel that my votes which (possibility) make me win more meaningful, not to mention deserving. I thank all my site visitors, friends and acquaintances who vote for me, your vote will be a very meaningful one and will go a long way into the competition.

Last but not least, yup here are the link, so do vote for me! You can vote once a day.
» Shaun’s Picture instructional guide on voting! (Click for instant image) » Vote NOW!

The voting period of the Omy Singapore Blog Awards 2008 are open! with each of the top 10 members of each category announced. So far is the competition is in it’s third and final stage with the floor now open to public voting, yes now it’s your turn to determine the winners by voting!

Overall, the winner in each category will be determined by 30% public votes and 70% scorings by our panel of professional judges – media industry veteran, Man Shu Sum; The Theatre Practice Co-Artistic Director, Kuo Jian Hong; and acclaimed movie director, Kelvin Tong.

This website will be gunning for the best design category, so I will be needing all your support, friends, relatives! etc please do vote for Shaun Chng.com. With that, I will let you in of what you can get by being a voter:

For winning blogger’s prizes, besides bloggy fame, we will be getting a laptop, an LG phone and a trophy designed by Tan Swie Hian. More details on the prizes here.

So act now and vote for Shaun Chng.com! we are listed as entry number 6 of the ten in the best design page. With that I’ve prepared few instructional goodies to get you up to speed on how to vote:

May the blog with the best design win!