Smock Me UP!

Just checked my archives of drawings that I started since 2 months ago. Remembered that I drew myself smocked up while I reminisced about my past job before uni. It does feel kinda strange that I am back doing the same thing. So this is it, me smocking up, then and now.



Today is a sad day.

My first 2 days at work

Ok ok... I know I should be writing how I went on my first day at work. Well, yesterday was my first day at work. HR orientation? Yes right, took just about 45 minutes and then I was already brought up to see all the other engineers in the module. Followed my buddy engineer most of the day. Basically there will be 3 of us doing our machine group and there are about 35 machines plus all other adopted machines in the lithography module.

Man the workplace, is freakking huge. I estimated there should be at least 3000 workers there. I get lost all the time. The company produces many different microchip devices, one of them being the popular camera phone chip. Yesterday already I was in the fab snooping around machines, the same old ones that I used to work on, yes I don't know if that's lucky for me or not, but I think that's why I got hired. They needed someone to support the line fast fast fast. So, without even being briefed on safety, cleanroom protocols, security (which will take about 1 to 2 weeks worth) I was already in there. I could hardly believe it.... the yellow light environment... the bunny suit (smocks we call it), the droning of machines and the seemingly unending machine process end alarms. Yes... it was all coming back to me. Before that I was already asked to read the machine manuals. Well let me tell you what the machines are.... discounting screws.... there are about 5000 working part in there and the stuff is pretty intricate.

Today I also realised that last time when I couldn't solve any problems, there was always the shift coordinator (who's a senior technician w experience), the equipment owner, the equipment engineer, the senior/principal engineer for a particular machine. Now, I'm it! I am the only calvary best known to me. OF course for the first few months I will have to depend on my buddy senior engineers. But I suspect the boss is putting me on a high learning curve bend. Yikes. But there is no pressure from anybody as yet.

And yes in months to come --- I will be fully 24 hours on call even weekends, and maybe looking at the bleak future of an 8 to 8 job 5 days a week. This spells "Tua ki lan" in Singlish. Now that I mention it... I'm already morphing back to a Singlish-speaking engineer. I think it is more beneficial to me and my job in the long run. Language does play an important role in how much coorporation you can get from the people around. I guess in any place, if you push the right buttons, you'll just have to sit back and watch the good stuff roll in. I am remaining hopeful that that will happen. My boss is southern Indian, damn if I can speak Tamil... I would.

Ok, just took this test on someone's blog. Here are the results



which is why I need to be harvesting some agressive skills. I could see the similarities between highly effective middle managers. Neh somethings can't be changed but I do hope I can be more firm at times with people.

Work is quite tiring despite the "cho bo"ness at this stage. Like today I almost fell asleep while standing in the MRT and would have slumped onto the lady in front of me if it wasn't because the sudden weakening of my right leg that woke me up. After dinner I totally collapsed but I woke up an hour later. Right now I am listening to a song that I came accross from this a someone's blog. No idea if she composed it herself or its a known Chinese song, but it seems alright to me.

http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=cristochan

Still wondering how to insert some sound into the blog leh so I can irritate pple with some sounds....

My new job

Hiya Furdelance, I am glad to inform you that I have landed myself in a job yesterday. Got the offer Monday night like at 8 p.m. So yesterday I just went for my medical checkup and also signing of acceptence. Well, its the one that I applied for and went for interview last week. I will be an Equipment Engineer responsible in equipment maintenance in photolithography machines. Actually, it was quite a surprise coz I thought I screwed up quite a bit in the interview.

Even then, many people were so curious about my doing a masters. Some fellas in typical Singaporean mentality - if they can't see the nexus or material benefit, they'd say "why do it?" I'd say "go fuck yourself" coz its my life and it's my business. The satisfaction factor is there and if you ain’t open minded enough to know that life can be savoured without dousing yourself in work and the rat race all the time, then I’d boldly say that your life is a waste of time, as you have only contributed to the world as a unit of the economy and I’m sure it would have been just as fine without you and I.

On the other hand, living and learning all trades that you can (including those that you can’t see why but you learnt it anyway) is a luxury still quite a foreign concept to many people coming from fast paced countries. Where is the culmination of art, the feeling of freedom to express art, the motivation to create new non-technical, philosophical concepts and so on? Not from the universities nor the polytechnics I’m afraid. It’s the individualistic want to, not even pursue, but letting loose of one’s thoughts and responsibilities into the abyss of mainly unproductive things. You can’t institutionalize or academise these thoughts. You can’t have a diploma in free thinking nor can you award a degree for failure. Failure itself is beautiful (weird concept?). I can’t imagine my life without failures.

Incidentally, “lepak”ing is also art, though very unproductive (and heavily associated with a certain ethnic group), of letting loose without having to gain something constructive out of it. Oh well, I think I’m ahead of myself here.

Will be going back to Malacca for the weekend, need to get more clothes and stuff. Most importantly is to get my Entry permit, which is this brown piece of paper given to all new PR's of Singapore. Come Monday I will have to make a trip to ICA (Immigrations and Checkpoints Authority) to try to reinstate my PR, now that I have got a job offer. Then on Wednesday, I will drag my sorry ass to work already. Kinda fast heh? Well to think that I did nothing contributive to my life for the past 10 months would make u think otherwise. Wryly, I’d say it had been a great time for the soul.

Speaking of "PR's", for the first time yesterday after 5 years I heard the word "PRC" again. For those unfamiliar, it stands for the People's Republic of China and is a term widely used in the manufacturing business in Singapore to name Chinese Nationals. Personally, I think this underpins somewhat derogatory sentiments (no doubt unintentional) to the Chinese Nationals. You may know that Singapore is a country that is too fast for long strands of words and hence the PIE (Pan Island Expressway), SLE, CTE, MOE, COE, HDB, ROM, ORD bla bla you get the drift. If such is the case then the next time I fill a form I'd state:

Citizenship: FOM (Federation of Malaysia)
PR status : ROS and COA (Republic of Singapore and Commonwealth of Australia)


Afterall, like the abbreviation "PRC", the abbreviations "FOM", "ROS" and "COA" stand for the official, worldwide recognised names for Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. So fellas, you see that I am an FOM instead of a Malaysian. If you are a Singaporean, would you like to be called a "ROS" by more advanced countries when you work in say U.S., U.K., or Japan? For Christ's sakes you ain't a country! You are a countryman of the country!!! Man, of all the Singlish that the ROS'es can come up with, this is easily the most politically incorrect!

Dear friends, do use the appropriate term when you work next time. I would be much happier to call our Chinese counterparts from China as CN's (Chinese Nationals) and that's that. Let's restore some mutual respect here ok?

Go Furdelance! Do your stuff!

Back to be Hokkiense

Hi Furdelance, today has been slack for me. Yesterday I bought me a phone with Starhub, signed a freakking 2 year contract. Got me a nokia 7260, which I thought was a fair deal. Next I am thinking of getting me a game, which can as well keep me entertained when I have nothing to do, no interviews, bla bla. Just miss the life in Melbourne. Besides being hot, the stress gets to you a little. Hearing stuff from counterparts can be a challenge, especially from those ppl who'd happily dispense career advise when deep inside noone actually knows, or can be sure about their own job. Still, its better than not having one yeah.

It sux when it rains a lot everytime you wanna go out. Thank goodness I haven't been caught in a downpour but I think one of these days my luck will run out. Been back here for one week, and not a day went by without raining. Nevertheless, it isn't a bad thing either, when you r indoors, as it coools down the hot hot hot weather.

Will be looking for more jobs come next week. Cross me fingers that I land myself in one really lucrative one. One thing that I had to get accustomed to, apart from the weather, is the language. A week ago, I spoke mostly Cantonese with Allan and the rest. Now, its Mandarin and Hokkien heaven here in Singapore. Yes, I am a frikkin Hokkienese again wif my usual orders of "Teh Peng", "Mylo Peng"/"Tat Kieu" (Ice Milo), "Aye hiam" (with chilli) etc. and these things get me by everyday. In Melbourne, the only times when I used Hokkien terms were those that come along the lines of odourous parts of the anatomy. To think that my next coupla years is gonna be so different from that of Melbourne is a challenging thought. Then again, I'd like to believe I can live with it and am versatile wherever I go. A saying in Malay says "Di mana bumi dipijak, di sana langit dijunjung", which means wherever I am, I'll get accustommed to the environment. For the time being, its just the memories of the good old times that cloud my forward vision.

Okaylah, I think its just too late in the night and I am not making sense. Anymore would be xtreme bullshit. Tmr meeting Oaky and her friends for lunch.

Interview today

Dear Furdelance, had an interview today with CSM. This was how my day went:

7:00 am Got up
7:30 am Breakfast with the Beast
8:00 am Got back home to prep for interview
9:00 am Ironing clothes
10:00 am Surfing the web, prepping possible questions (Thank God I did)
11:00 am Went to Bukit Batok central, and photocopied my credentials.
Went to Popular to buy some papers to be printed by my new toy the
canon printer/scanner MP130 that I bought yesterday
12:00 pm Had mixed rice lunch at central. Realised that I would b running late
and so raced most of my meal, and way back home to print, arrange
handouts and then shower.
1:00 pm Hailing a cab on along Ave 5. Guess what cab I got? Yes the mercedez.
What a way to get to an interview!
1:15 pm Damn it, CSM is much bigger than I thought! There are like 4-5 fabs
over there and they are humungus man.
1:30 pm Have to fill up some forms...bla bla
2:00 pm Talked to the HR lady who was my contact
2:15 pm Interview started in earnest. Was interviewed by the Section Manager
for Equipment and Equipment Engineer, who have pocketed 9 and 5 years of
experience respectively. Was asked (gentle grilling as I have been out
of semicon for 5 years already) very specific questions. Wah, I guess
they could see that I was struggling groping for memories to come back.
Obviously I could not have been able to answer much due to lack of time
to revise the things I have done. Five years is a long time yeah.
4:00 pm Interview concluded. By then I was already brain dead and whatever the
Engineer said, it's all yes. Have to wait for 2-3 weeks to know if I
got the job. Somebody screw me...
5:00 pm Was at West Mall walking around, still hyped by the interview. Huh so
typical of me. It was such a fucking hot day that I sweated profusely.
5:20 pm Got back home and started typing this damn entry. Am going to take a
short r&r before I head for the city to meet Oaky.

So Furdelance, this has been my day so far. How was yours?