2021: Hola

Hola! To those who are still paying attention to this blog some 18 years later, welcome once more! Next update will be next year I suppose. Have a safe year ahead, everyone.

2020: Gotta Write Something For the End of the Decade

Annual update from ye olde thelaptop! It's the end of the decade, and almost 18 years since we were all part of the same class. Hope everyone is doing well. Maybe we should do a 20th year anniversary meet up in two-years time. Oh, meanwhile, please have a wonderful 2020, wonderful year of the Rat, and what not. Till the next year's update!

2019: Woahh

I've gotta stop by here every year just to put up a customary hello. I really, really, really doubt that anyone else is looking here any more, but who knows? See you all in another year.

2018: Hi Again!

It has been two years since the last entry by yours truly. How is everyone doing? I know many who have wed, some who have children, and others who are still moving through life in other ways that they truly want. It is a little hard to believe that it has been fifteen years since we were all part of a confluence of timelines that we ended up in the same class. Just a little candle in the dark to those who happen to stumble back here. =)

2016: Just a Hello

Frankly, I'm not expecting anyone to be reading this, but just in case there are any of the old VJC 02S35 crew out there feeling bored and wanting to relive a little of the nostalgic past, this place is still quietly watched over by me. I'll probably keep updating this page at least once each year until Blogger goes bust or when I'm otherwise too hopelessly occupied, whichever comes first. Happy $insertholidayhere !

2015: The Only Update

I think I'm about two years late, but thought I'd drop by this dust-covered blog to say hi to the phantoms who still lurk here. Hi!

2014: It's Happening Man...

2014: it's happening man. Yep, another year begins, another blog entry. I've not checked the statistics, but I'm sure no one comes here any more. But some things just take a long time to die. Maybe I will get bored with writing filler entries. Nah. It takes less than five minutes every six months to write something here. We're good for a while. Blogging in the 201x era is not that hip any more. Shoot. Should've kept it at 140 characters.

Month 6 of 2013

Hello once again, here's a semi-regular update from the resident noise maker. I wonder how everyone is these days. It has been more than 10 years since we were part of the same class, so our lives are largely different from each other now as compared to before. Some of us might be very successful, others less so, and maybe a few unlucky ones are still trying to figure out what they are doing in life. I'm back, and as always, futilely keeping this blog less dead. Flogging the dead horse, I know, but hey, I think I can stand this as being some kind of one-man black comedy performance piece or something. Maybe on one random day someone will find this page again and go "woah, did thelaptop really write most of the posts here?". That would be a fun day I suppose. Back to lurking!

Dec 2012!

Hello once again! Did everyone have an enjoyable time trying to catch the magical date of 12/12/12 12:12:12? The next one is coming in around 80+ years (01/01/01 01:01:01), where all of us are getting way too old (assuming we are still alive and all). I know this is, as always, a futile attempt at keeping a rather ancient blog alive, but someone has to do it. Maybe 20 years from now, someone does a search on "02S35" and suddenly rediscovers this, triggering nostalgia... Of course I'm kidding. No one would ever do that, right? =P For those of you out there who believe the world ends on Dec 21, 2012 when the Mayan long count calendar rolls over, I wish you peace. To the rest of us, have a happy Friday. And now, back to the usual programme of silence and lurking. Till the next update. ;-)

Summer Time!

So it's finally summer time over where I am in the US, and it reminds me of some of the more carefree moments that we had when we were still in JC. Come to think of it, it has been nine years since we all graduated as a class. Maybe we should arrange for a ten-year anniversary meeting when 2013 comes by. Welp, looks like I'm still the only person who comes here often enough to say some things to keep things alive. Maybe this will all be futile, but who knows? Already our generation is losing attachment to the physical realm, maybe this is just a simple way of maintaining a link back to the past in the hopes that one day far far in the future (assuming Blogger.com hasn't gone the way of the dodo), we might look back at this in nostalgia and remind ourselves of a time that we once shared together.

Spring!

Heyo! It's me once again talking on this rather quiet blog. It has been roughly five to six months since the last time I spoke here; I wonder what has changed among us. I don't really have the chance to hang out with anyone these days, well partly because I'm not in the correct country, and partly because everyone has more or less started to get used to the notion of being an adult and doing adulty things, like work, play, travel, finding a spouse...

But aanyway, over here where I am, winter seems to have finally loosened her cold grip upon the earth, and spring is seemingly coming to take her place. Already the weather is much warmer and the sunlight more plentiful than before. I hope that everyone is having as good a time as spring is showing.

Alright then, that's my little update on this blog just to keep it a little less dead, just in case any one of us old timers of 02S35 decide to drop by and see how's it going.

Till the next update, take care, stay strong, and have a wonderful time.

September Blues

Hmm, funny to note that the 2011 entry only appears in September, a cool nine months from the last one. Actually, I'm starting to feel that this is fast becoming my "private" humour column that I update ever so sporadically.

At this point in our lives, I suppose that the idea of settling down is probably starting to appear, whether or not we are actually intending to settle down into a family of our own. In four years' time, most of us would hit the magic three-oh, and well, lots of funny things happen then. Suddenly life seems a little bit shorter (where did the last decade go?), our "mid-life" suddenly appears over the horizon, our parents are starting to look a little more frail than before and so on. Maybe we can even have a class outing bonanza in the year where most of us would have hit 30 years old, just a way of saying hi to everyone else and to commiserate or to congratulate each other on a job well-done surviving so long. By that time, we should [hopefully] be sufficiently well off that we can go somewhere a little more pricey to enjoy good food and great company.

But that's a while from now, is it not?

Meanwhile, where is everyone? Hm, I mean, where is everyone? I don't even see Harish posting here anymore, and of course I don't know if folks are still tracking this quiet little spot of heaven that is ours. I'm currently in the US doing more studies instead of making big bucks, so if you happen to be around, maybe we can link up and meet up or something.

Of I go to my next adventure! And see you all at the next update, which will occur on... I don't know when.

(=

It's A December Romp!

*cracks knuckles and stretches*

It is the December of 2010, and once more it appears to be the time for me to pen something here. It’s quite hilarious actually, considering that each time I write here, I have a tendency to whinge and gripe about how I’m the only person to write and threaten to stop writing, only to keep coming back, like some moth towards the electrifying lights of the bug killer.

But then again, if I don’t keep writing here, who is going to maintain this little corner of the web that we have managed to corral off from the rest of the world to host what is left of our cohesiveness?

Anyway, December. That’s right. Another six months (seven actually!) since I have written, and about five since Harish wrote the last entry (Harish my good man! Thanks for aiding me in creating some content for this place!). Most of the guys have already graduated by now and are somewhere in the work force, either plotting the next Google-book or collecting taxes from all of the rest of us (I’m looking at you, Sadu heheheh). Or like some of us poorer folks, we’re just selling our souls to our overlords for some paltry sum of money so that we may live yet another day to sell them even more of our soul ad nauseum.

But December! December is an awesome month! Not because there’re lots of activities to work on, but that every working person would be looking forward to one thing: bonus! That’s right! The bonus that we have all been working for… what is everyone going to do with them? Pay taxes with them (glances at Sadu again… I know it’s not quite right, but I’m still getting a kick from this), splurge on the year end food/​ball, or save it away at the paltry 0.0001% interest that we can get out of the bank (ouch!). I’m probably saving it for the taxman, but hey, everyone has a different idea on what money is useful for.

So we had a nice meet up the last time, some time in November if memory serves me well (that one is kinda going downhill these days). It was nice but it could have been more kick-ass, if not for the fact that people were sort of missing overall, and some folks just cleanly forgot, or somehow managed to not be involved. Food was excellent (all you care to eat buffet on Indian food) and the company was pleasant. If you couldn’t turn up, well hopefully you should try to come to the next one that might be planned some time in the future; I’m not sure when it will be, but considering that I’m mostly the instigator for all these things, I might have a clue about this in about five months’ time.

Alright, this tirade is getting on my nerves. But I’m just rambling because I need to wait for my little experiment to conclude before I can knock-off for the day. And because of the preternatural need of all humans to procrastinate whenever they can, legitimately or not, you get a new post on this rather quiet blog.

Huzzah!

How my life is

Hi everyone! I just stumbled upon our class blog again and wow the new background looks great! More polished interface, nice :)

Well, I'm currently waiting for my final year in NUS to start. Pretty excited to choose my final year project, or maybe propose one. I have prepared a list of profs whom I feel would make good supervisors, and would want to work on something related to geotechnical engineering. Just for information, geotechnical engineering covers topics such as

• Soil mechanics (how soil behaves when subjected to loads)
  
• Foundations for structures
• Stability of slopes
• Excavations (digging soil and preventing its collapse)
  
• Embankments (placing soil in mounds)
• Groundwater movement (this is very important)
• Tunneling

I'm also doing an internship in an engineering consultant firm now. It's a small firm that specializes in handling the approval processes for construction projects. The internship lasts 12 weeks and so far, during the first 9 weeks, I am happy with what I have learnt. Hopefully I can make the last 3 weeks enriching too :)

My future plans are to start off working as an engineer. It's mainly because it does interest me and I want to learn the civil engineering trade and become good at it. But it will probably take many many years to become good, and a lot probably depends on fate as well. Is there a lot of money in civil engineering? Well, yes and no. It's a highly cyclical field, that is manipulated by governments to control the economy, so timing, luck and connections matter. It is a very diverse field, and so one could probably find a niche if one looks hard enough. And it's true, even small projects are usually in the millions of dollars, but the slices of the pie are greatly skewed, and it depends on which part of the pie you are getting.

Again, many thanks to Mun Thye for keeping this blog alive with his amusing posts. It would be nice to read anyone else's updates about their lives too!

May 2010! An Update! Woo Wee!

Huzzah huzzah, it’s the month of May, and like always, this place is deader than a door nail. Man, each time I write anything here, I keep asking myself: is it really worth the effort to keep this place running at all? I mean, I have no idea how many people actually come here to read whatever is posted (I know how many people actually post here: try one), and this casts serious doubt to whether it is necessary for me to actually keep trying to resurrect this place once every few months just to keep things a little more fresh than the deadness and desolation that seems to have permeated through this place.

Anyway, half a year is almost gone for the year 2010, almost only since it is just the beginning of May. To be technical about it of course, at most one third of the year is gone, but I suppose by the time anyone notices this post, it would probably be June and thus the statement is justified. Okay, that’s enough rambling on the date issue—​​bigger fish to fry.

I suppose with each passing month/​year, everyone drifts ever further away from each other. This is the law of how things work, and there’s really nothing anyone can do about it. The concept of a ‘class’ back in school is in many ways an artificial grouping induced by educators with the sole purpose of allowing a better management of both material and human resources by providing a self-identifiable group for people to be involved with, thus creating the microcosms that are necessary in the maintenance of peace and the veneer of cooperation. So, in view of that highly unsubstantiated allegation, it is most natural that at the end of a decade or so, all of us have dispersed away from that artificial grouping to seek out new groups to belong to, both artificial and natural.

But enough of speculation! I know that it is a fruitless exercise to keep talking here, but I suppose as the resident noise maker, it is my duty (and perhaps even right!) to keep saying things here ever so often on the off chance that folks who drop by will have something new to feast their eyes on, thus ensuring that they will keep coming back once every bunch of months just to see if they are lucky enough to find that I have posted something new. Again, I apologise for the general digression.

So how’s life? A most standard question in the age of self-identity complications. Why do I claim self-identity complications here? Most of us are at the age that borders between the molly-coddled past of the education system and the harsh realities that make up the working life. And among the myriad of options and paths to choose from comes the entire issue of what the self is. While many believe that there is a certain permanent persona that remains at the core of all that one does, I believe that the self is an evolving concept that is wholly context and environmentally sensitive. The only consistent thing in the universe is the law of change—​change is the only thing that is ever present, and any other form of permanence is either an illusion or a delusion. But of course, I digress once more. The answer to the standard question is perhaps something that is more important than the metaphysical babble that I am positing here, and so the answer is here: life is good. Hiccups along the way, and minor obstacles abound, but nothing truly lethal—​as they say, what doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger, and I suppose for most people, this is how their lives are right now.

Enough of the talk from me! Dear Fellow Classmate Who Chances Upon This Post, how is your life?

The 2010 Post

Hello 02S35, how's the silence treating you all? It has been a couple of months since anyone wrote anything here, and I suppose it is just second nature of me to just pen a few words here as and when I realise that it is sinking down my pile of blogs from the general lack of use.

I wonder how many folks are still reading this. Even activity on Facebook is not very great, but I suppose we all know that already, after all, we're known to be reticent.

Maybe some of you might realise that I am not on MSN these days. That is a partial truth, since I have been staying away from many forms of communications for the last few months. Something about wanting to be away from people for a while, while trying to recover from the various things that life throws at me.

So, how's everyone these days? Maybe ten more years from now, when some of us might be married with children, we might once again meet up and talk about the good old times when we were a part of the same class, tormenting/tormented by the same teachers that we had grown to love/hate, and about the crazy things that we did/witnessed.

And maybe in that ten years, I would be a much different person from who I was.

Here's to a good year ahead. Cheers.

Soliloquy

And soon another year will pass once again, and the group of us that were fatefully bound in our common destiny as being a part of a strange class back in 2002/2003 will be one more year apart from each other as compared to the past. The artificial means that have been tried to keep us in contact with each other are merely a stop gap measure to maintain linkages among a group of people who prize individuality over collective mutiny; there is little left for us to mutiny against, and even less of a thread of connection to once again be with each other to reminisce about those who once oppressed or bolstered us.

But among the disheartening note lies that small beacon of light that shines from a distance that at times remind us of our heritage. That beacon is the silent yet tenuous thread of fate that we share with each other. This thread requires a struggle to maintain, a struggle that we have mostly tried from a group level. Forming committees just to ensure that contact is kept is just a silly proposition, but it is hard to say that some form maintenance is hardly necessary. We are judged by the world around by the company we keep, and sometimes even on the people whom we know.

So as I pen these few weakly linked thoughts, I sometimes hope that perhaps one day we will all meet again and cherish the moments that were when we were in His Excellency EY's turtorial class, and to share with each other what the future bodes. But these are just mere dreams of a scholarly mind; people have lives to lead and they grow ever increasingly apart from the divergence of life paths.

Call for Class Gathering!

Hi folks. If you've not been paying much attention to facebook, you ought to do so now. We are currently in the process of determining when is the best time for a class gathering this year. Check out the class facebook group and contribute to the discussion board.

An update

Hey everyone! Wow Mun Thye's post was funny and it made me decide to post something here ;)
Well I am now in the midst of preparing for my exams which are on from next week. I have also been up to other things including trying to learn about gardening and farming, and trying to learn about better and more visual ways to present large amounts of data and statistics.

My semester has been exciting so far as I took a third year geography module about natural resources and was throughly enriched by the breadth and depth of perspectives touched on by the module. It has been a difficult module, but the lecturer has been excellent and I am greatly interested in the topic :) I've hardly felt such in any engineering module so far. Maybe next year... Thanks to Ching Hwa for showing me that taking upper year modules can be a lot more enriching!

It was great to bump into Boon Kai a few times and go on a trip to KL with Sadu in these few months :) I hope all you other guys and gals are doing well, with work/school and with your personal lives! It would be great to hear how you've been.

Annual Solo by Me

Alright, it's time for the annual solo by me. I know that most folks don't even bother reading this, and the last thing that people are probably interested in are the photos. Heck, I'd admit that even I don't really read this blog that much, since almost no one actually posts anything here.

So, it is winter over here in the northern hemisphere in the United States. Life's not too bad now, with so many things to think/worry about, like writing more code, writing more papers, proving more theorems, among other things. And yes, the rumours that many of you have heard for so long are true, I am in a relationship with an awesome girl. I will… leave it as that. Heheheh…

Hopefully other folks will write something on this forsaken blog other than me, because truth be told, it gets really boring after a while when I'm the only one speaking.

Heh, but who am I kidding? I'm the only poor sod who will maintain this anyway. So, until the next update from me I guess.

02S35@Marche

Sorry for the long wait..
Rest of photos on facebook!

Photos!

CHEH! I was one of those who got excited by the post lo..

waiting for the Powerpuff girl + Mojojojo pic hahahaha

Photos

Ok don't get excited by the title, I haven't really gotten down to uploading the photos.

But I promise I'll do it by this week!

Back to work heh.

"Real World" Updates

Without sounding like the pompous ass that I make myself out to be, here are some semi-visceral updates:

1. A new facebook group has been created for our class (VJC02S35). Entry is by invitation only, but it shouldn't be hard if you are indeed a member of 02S35.
2. I've gotten BK to dig up our old class logos, and have updated both the blog and the facebook group with them.

Hopefully with all these updates, we can be a little more frequent with our updates, because honestly, I'm getting tired of talking to myself here.

That all said and done, the blog will still be a primary source of information on the latest happenings, with the facebook group being used as the supplementary.

Peace out.

FIRST POST!

wahahaha I gotta hand it to munthye for keeping this upp.. I didnt even remember there was this!

and yea.. we ARE really a class of silences lol.. look at the posts.. =) ok, now to wait for melissa to post up the photos..

P.s. google rocks

Annual Gathering(?)

It is summer, school's out and people are streaming back from the places that they were throughout the year. Yes, the time has come for the annual let's-try-to-get-everyone-to-meet-up time.

Post ideas/schedules here.

Heh, if there's no response at all within 2 weeks of this post, I guess that it is a safe guess that no one is interested in any gathering at this time.

Breaking the Silence Once More

Alright, lemme fire the next salvo then. Who's going to be around during summer this year? Anyone up for any gathering/meet-up etc?

Not sure if anyone will actually read this, but since I'm giving a good 3-month notice, I think that we are in good shape in reaching out to folks [I guess].