The Intern - Day 13/50
The mind is engulfed by sleepiness.
4 hours and 35 minutes to 6pm
...
I must hold on...
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Farewell Kallong Roar
On a more constructive note, I spent the afternoon of Day 3 posting an entry on my recent National Stadium tour trip.
Not the best of photos, but it could have been far worse. All comments are welcome.
The Intern - Day 3/50
If the ignominy of the first two days is any measure, then day 3 of the enforced slavery must look like a great success.
In the lift on the way home, a man in strange running attire said bye to me. I must have managed a smile at the lift landing before that. But a very weak one it was, such that I wasn't sure if the smile came out at all.
Not that I was suddenly the happiest employee of the day, just a reprieve to the strangeness of it all; to be an intern in a company, yet not really in the company, nor doing any of what they call work.
The second significant event occured earlier in the day when I went to the desk of a particular Jenny to return the Confidentiality Form. It was left on my table over lunch, quietly, like how the life of The Intern in The Company goes.
I was then told to photocopy my IC at the photocopier just beside. I fumbled at it for minutes, but it kept telling me "..size not detected".. Is the status of The Intern so lowly that he is not even recognized by a photocopier, the slave of all slaves? Defeated at my first real task in The Company, I had to approach Jenny for help. Which meant that she got to see the stupidest looking IC photo ever taken, circa 1993. Jenny remained professional and stone-faced. She did not LOL.
Now for some pride.
The greatest achievement of the day, the week, or even the entire lifespan of The Intern, was when I discovered where the pantry is located. The one which they have been despicably hiding from me. Morning after mornings, tea-break after tea-breaks, caffeine laden scents had been missile-guided towards my defenseless corner cubicle, yet no one had offered me as much as a clue to where a single drop of water could be found.
So I spotted it after the misadventure with the photocopier. The pantry, the essence of office life anywhere, sits on the opposite side of the entrance, shrouded by high cubicle walls and guarded by the zealous HR people. Maybe as a form of company benefits, HR determines the number of cups of coffee an employee gets a day, and interns get nothing. I casually took a quick reconnaissance glance then turned and left.
Wait till next week.. I'll bring in my own mug, sneak pass HR and come strolling out with my own coffee, just to let them know they have been defeated.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Monday, May 14, 2007
The Intern - Day 1/50
"Hi, I'm the new intern working under XXX XXX. Today's my first day."
I was led to xxxxxx, who looked kinda lost when he saw me. I was offered a seat and the company's magazine while he get someone to set up my computer. So there I sat for 1hr 15min and no further words were exchanged, even though he was sitting just behind me.
That done, I was shown my cubicle right at the end of the short corridor, which suits me fine. He then demo-ed the company's intranet system to me, and in particular the Project Management System, which can be aptly read as PMS. My task for the whole of the day was to click around and see how I can improve the PMS, thereby bringing salvation to all the people suffering from PMS.
...
LIKE HEELLOOOO?? How am I gonna improve on a system which I've never used before? Shouldn't them the frequent users know best on what should be done? It looked fine to me as it is anyway. Silent questions in my head, and I was left alone in my corner once again.
Whatever happened to the friendly breakfast that my friend had told me about? Or at least a simple orientation around the work place? Everyone turned and stole a glance at the new face. The Intern. My attemped smile and nods returned nothing. The Intern retreats to his corner.
Nevermind the orientation, when lunch time arrived at 20min to 12pm, the Office was suddenly devoided of life. I was conveniently forgotten. Not that I need a babysitter, but isn't the first day lunch invitation a customary gesture? Not a very friendly place it seems.
Thankfully The Intern has many good friends who work around the area. A couple of sms-es soon found myself having lunch with them. So I learnt that Golden Shoe is a good place for cheap and good lunches. And I witnessed at first hand the fabled tissue-chopping culture of CBD. Tissue packets were everywhere, not for its content, but for its prowess as an object to chop a priceless seat during lunch hour. Once we finished eating and get going, a tissue packet instantly landed on where my butts was positioned half a second ago. An office lady turned and walked away smartly.
The Intern parted way with friends and headed back to the office. At the door, it dawned upon me that I wasn't given the access code. I pressed the buzzer. No response. I walked around, but I was alone. An Indian chap from another office walked down the aisle and eyed me suspiciously. I pressed the buzzer again. I could see reflections of at least two persons near the door but of course they feigned ignorance. Indian chap returned from the toilet and must have sniggered at The-One-Who-Is-Still-Standing-Outside-The-Door. Eventually I hung around for almost 10 more minutes before someone turned up and I followed him in. So of course xxxxxx must have thought that The Intern have been lazing in an extended lunch on his first day of work.
...
Not knowing what to do, I approached xxxxxx and told him I can't really figure out what to improve on the system. So he told me to think in the shoes of say, a manager, which is basically him, and what can be added to aid the manager in project management, which is basically what he do. So The Intern had to pretend to be The Manager now and know what functions or tools can be added on his first day of work which didn't include an orientation or lunch invitation. Why can't he just tell me what he wants to implement? strange.
The Intern would like to include a function that informs any Interns (current and future) of where the pantry is and the access code for unlocking the door so that all Interns may return from lunch on time.
...
The rest of the day was spent pretending to be busy. I looked forward to tea-break. At 4pm, most of the office mysteriously and quietly cleared out again. Disappointed at such attitude, The Intern went to shit. The cubicle was really cramped. My knees were touching the side of the wall. When I returned, everyone was back already, and they eyed The Intern-who-took-a-long-teabreak-on-his-first-day-of-work with contempt. I could feel their stares behind my back.
At 4.30pm, I really really looked forward to 6pm. And time.. goes by.. so slowly.. and time.. can do... sooo much...
I adjusted the time on my computer so that it goes 5 minutes faster, the same as my watch.
5pm came, but 6pm wouldn't turn up.
5.15pm arrived. 6pm is nowhere to be seen.
Even 5.30pm reached.
5.45pm caught up with the rest. The Intern is excited.
Finally, 6pm. But xxx xxx was nowhere to be found. The Intern thinks it's only polite to wait for him to come back so that I can inform him I'm leaving.
6.10pm. 10 minutes of injury time have been played. Enough is enough. The Righteous Referee blew the whistle signalling full time, off the comp, packed up and left.
The day has ended in sad defeat for The Intern.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
To wrap things up
It's been barely 10 days since I last mugged with the muggers at the SAC, but it seems like distant memories now. the preceeding days were kinda rushed, scrambling to get my FYP program together, the insignificant presentation that came after that, then a mad hurry to siphon off the ntu irc network as many movies as I could, before I bid farewell to my home of the last 3 years.
My life in NTU went past fast and furious. Cliche as it may sound, it seems just like yesterday when I was still a blur freshie, terrified of the man-eating Electronics and Maths I in Year 1 Sem 1.
Exams went okie. Not ok as in I'll beat the shit out of the other students, but okie as in I won't get shit beaten out of me by the papers, my final final exams. So compared to how amazingly lost i was just weeks before 18th April, I have done relatively okie.
My last paper in NTU went down without a whimper. It was Distributed Computing, of which I'll prolly get a B if I didn't screw up too badly. The venue was at Hall A, Nanyang Auditorium, next door to my virgin paper in NTU, School of Biological Science. In that inaugural paper, I scored an F for Electronics. Of course, I then cleverly changed my course to Computer Science and managed to erase that mark of failure.
In these 3 years, all in, I have taken 33 exams and 1 major Final Year Project. In retrospect, my bunch of Shitter Friends and I realised that, if like us, you just wanna get your degree with an average grade, then hey, university is actually not very difficult. You can't afford to be lazier than us though. I don't do tutorials, have never approached a lecturer to ask any questions, skipped some lectures, skipped alot of lectures for some subjects sometimes, normally don't know what's going on throughout the whole semester, but I mug real hard in the couple weeks just before exams. So basically it is possible to cover 85% of what was taught in an entire semester in 3 days.
And I am living proof that one need not be good in maths to get by in Computer Science. All I know is my elementary maths from secondary school education. At the end of the 3 years, I proudly declare that I can't perform the simplest of integration or differentiation. I hate maths related subjects. That explains for the few Ds that I got.
ah well, these are stuff that just came to my mind at this point of time.
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FYP, the 1 year old demon, is over as well. My presentation was alrite, it being more of a formality. Neither supervisor nor examiner seemed too interested. And I doubt they even read my report. I suspect all the efforts put into my report and presentation went in vain. To them it is probably just another project, just a routine whereby if the student didn't screw up, he'll be awarded a B and get done with it. So at the end of the day, my supervisor, Tweety Bird, told me that it boils down to the effort that I put in through the year, and not the final product. Which means that I've wasted a few good days trying to make my program look good. damn it.
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My last few days in hall was spent in front of the computer screen. I've only recently discovered the magic of irc and the riches that it holds. so before I move out, I thought I would like to make full use of my internet fees for once and grab whatever that catches my eye. It was pleasantly surprising to find some gems among the many films that people were sharing there. In that few days, I turned from film enthusiast to film collector.. Plus the hoard of dvds that I bought over the last few months.. Seriously, I dunno when I'll ever finish watching all the films.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Athens Here We Come
Anfield '05 we kicked their ass
Anfield '06 we kicked their ass
Anfield '07 we kicked chelsea's ass once more
Istanbul '05 we went and won
'06 (who cares where) we took a break
Athens '07 HERE WE COME
WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
the entire defence had a great game. Carragher, Agger, Finnan, Riise, Reina. Mascherano was excellent, bar a mistake in the first half. Pennant was good, as was the workhorse Kuyt who ran down every single ball. Even Zenden had a much improved game whereas Gerrard, sad to say, was far from his best yet again, though he could do no worse than Crouch who had an awful game in my opinion..
ahh whatever, we won.. reina's penalty saves were superb.. the least that i can say.
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on a sour note, I seriously can't stand watching any matches at the hall tv lounge. why must there always be a bunch of idiots who gets on my nerves?? is it just Hall One, particularly block 16? to support Liverpool is a good choice. but to call yourself fans, you should at least get the names of the players right. these 4 morons came in 15 minutes late and talked nonstop without any consideration for the person who's quietly enjoying the game, namely me.
people who don't know a shit about what they are talking about should just shut the fuck up. so disgusted and irritated was i, that i couldn't bear to look at their faces even once, lest i spit and scorn at them should i chance upon them in school.
At the start, they made fun of all the black chelsea players.. makelele, drogba, essien, kalou.. all of them. a little pre-match excitement, i can live with that. "why is he so black?", "did he go for a sun tan?", "did he take an injection?", "they all look alike" .. blah blah .. but if by the 70th minute of the game they were still discussing how black essien is, then surely i can't be faulted for getting pissed.
incessant unintelligent unfunny senseless boastful LOUD crap talk throughout the 90min + half time + extra time + injury time + penalty kicks. fucking pests really. these are the fans i detest, those who watch one game a year and boast to everyone that THEIR team won last night.
if you are or know anyone like that, there should be plenty out there, kindly tell them to sit back, watch and learn, stop reading NewPaper, think before they talk and not to talk like they are playing Championship Manager. They can't even pronounce Steve Finnan correctly!! fuckin retards.. and I nearly groan when they mentioned Kuyt's name.. OMFG really.
I'm glad this is the last liverpool game that I'm forced to watch in hall. and thankfully we won. it makes everything slightly more bearable.
Athens Here We Come...
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