2 Weeks on The Job

2 weeks have gone and I wouldn't say it was a hard one. The work itself really feels kind of easy to get the hang of it. Now I can really tell what's the difference in productivity between someone who is totally new and someone with experience.

Everything was kind of expected so far. In fact a lot of flashes came back to mind and remind me what is the next step to take and the precautions for potential problems. Construction site always have problems, and solving problems is really what engineers like me have to do. The upside is I can get my job done pretty effectively. The downside is people start to depend on you and harbour high expectations from you.

I'm not genius or different in anyway while compare to others. I just know slightly more than others in terms of marine construction. I would say luck brought me here, to where I am today. I have never planned myself that way. I just followed what was given to me, and I kind of made my way here. I still doubt about my choice of career though. Despite all the upside my job gave me, the downside will always be there and I not sure that is really what I wanted.

Anyway, for the time being, I will just continue to do what I have always been doing, to have great faith in my abilities and to do what I am paid to do.

New Chapter in Life: New Job New Beginning

Well, instead of further study like I mentioned in my Preview of 2012, I changed job. The 23 of April 2012 was the last day of service to my company. 

It was my first company since graduation and I have learned lots to grow to a more mature engineer compare to 2 years ago. I joined this company on 17 May 2010 and gosh time passed so fast. I have since involved in 3 projects which exposed me to the fundamental of marine construction. The experience was awesome! Many thanks to colleagues whom had guide me throughout my time in this company.

About 3 months ago a new opportunity arose and I took it. As a result I will be starting my new job at 2nd of May. I will be working in Malaysia and this involve giving up my employment pass. It had certainly served me well for this past 2 years, enabled me to access Singapore easily. For the record, my passports only got stamped once by Singapore Immigration.

However, working in Malaysia also means a different kind of lifestyle. Not exactly new to me but this time it is more reassuring that I will be staying here far more longer. Hence I have bought my first ever car in my life! More about my car in future posts! ^.^

By the way, for the record as well, I have never bought any laptop in my life until one month ago. I've been using my company laptop LIKE A BOSS all this while haha! I'm changing company and of course the laptop has to go back to the HR, which it already did.

HP Envy 14 Spectre with HP X7000 Wifi Mouse and Beats by Dr. Dre! Also starring are my HTC Desire HD, Nokia Xpress Music 5130, and Samsung Monte.

Yes I did use 3 phones and in fact I have 4 phone numbers! Call me crazy but I really found them handy as I always moving around between JB and Singapore, and also to segregate my calls between personal and work. Don't be surprise if you only have one of my 4 numbers, because no body have all my 4 phone numbers. Mostly got one or two, three is very few! However I'm likely to reduce it to 2 or 3 starting next month.

I pray my new chapter in life will be better than ever if not awesome. 

Ritsu Tainaka 1/8 Figure by Alter

After about a month i back from Japan, i finally unwrapped Ritsu and assembled it from pieces.

I also put it into a proper display case, but i had removed it for taking the below shots!

The level of details in this figure is just amazing! Never regret bringing her back all the way from Akihabara Tokyo Japan. Hope to bring in Mio next time if possible and eventually the entire K-On! band! Haha! ^.^

Singapore vs Tokyo - MRT vs Trains, Subway, & Shinkansen

I have been living in Singapore for about 2 years. The impression i have for Singapore MRT is pretty good. You know, convenient, timing accurate, not like the one in Kuala Lumpur. It was hopeless. Now the Sungai Buloh-Kajang MRT are being constructed. Hopefully it would be run in a first class manner.

I went to Tokyo about 3 weeks ago. Then i get to experience the public transport system over there. It was great, even when compare to the Singapore's. In Tokyo they don't really call it MRT. They are Trains and Subway, run by dozen of companies. Singapore MRTs were run by two, SMRT & SBS. Now we don't compare on the quantity of companies or number of lines.

Tokyo Subway Route Map

Singapore MRT Map 2012

First thing, speed. MRT of Singapore, in average travel at about 50-60km/h, with occasional stops in between stations, for no reason whatsoever. Maybe the one in front is late moving out from the station. I mean, SMRT or SBS should have had done it better. Whereas Tokyo, even the slowest train easily travels at about 100km/h with no stop in between stations. In fact they have rapid line which bypass low traffic stations so that you could get to your destination faster. Of course you can only do so if you are alighting at stations which the rapid line does stops. What about the Shinkansen aka bullet train? Well, you can tell by its name.

The distance between stations, as far as i have seen, there is none closer than 2km. In Singapore however, it stops like every 1km or less. The travel time/km is much higher than Tokyo's. Of course when you have stations further away from each other you need to walk further or take buses to reach there. But that is the whole point of having buses to compliment the entire transportation system right? Why having buses while you have trains stopping every 1km? It is a waste of resources.

To make travel using bus better preferred, the time table shown in the bus stations shall be deadly accurate. Thus it allows people to estimate accurately the time they need to travel from one destination to another. Less time is spent waiting at the bus station as well, because you know that the bus will reach at exactly 3.15pm, and not plus minus 5 mins of 3.15pm. Buses in Tokyo never move out from its station earlier than the time shown in each stations. Of course the estimated time to travel from one stations to another is highly accurate too.

I wrote about Singapore MRT when i first came to Singapore. That was nearly 2 years ago. The Circle Line was not complete back then. Now it travels through Pasir Panjang and terminating at Harbour Front.

Amid recent constant breakdowns of Singapore MRT, there are a lot the management of SMRT needs to be done to resolve it. Before the name of Singapore MRT got worse.

Tokyo Love

 I came back from Japan about 12 days ago. What else i'm going to talk about if not Japan right?

Tokyo was where i went. A really... really awesome place! Everything just feels better!

The way people dress, the way people talk, the way people eat, the way people behave, etc, it was just awesome! The trains, the food, the architecture, etc, Tokyo was really an eye-opener to me.

Shibuya Scramble Crossing

Shinjuku

Tokyo Tower

Yokohama

Asakusa, background was Tokyo Sky Tree scheduled to open at 22nd May 2012

Meiji Shrine

Sensoji

Some of the stuffs you can't really depict from photos alone. You got to have videos. I have made one with my D7000 as well. Not recorded in the highest quality possible, which was quite sad cause i should have had. Never mind, i am all aspired to take better quality videos next time around.

Across Tokyo feat. Takashi Sorimachi's Forever