径路窄处，留一步与人行；滋味浓时，减三分让人尝。

Thursday is suppose to be a fine day, between Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday is right at the middle of the week, you get bored. Thursday is just next to the last day of the working week, you get more Adenosine Triphosphate. Or rather a bit too much I think, at least for the taxi driver that was driving me to office. He was quarreling with another car driver. I mean nothing strange to see taxi uncles quarreling among themselves. You get amazed at their vocabulary of *^F$##FQ words .

I was comfortable in my seat about to take a nap when the taxi driver shouted to me, “Seat steady, let him bang my back”. Yours truly was sitting at the back. Their skills sure beat any F1 drivers. Really give me the sea sickness riding on the taxi. Somehow or other, the other car didn’t ram into me and I was back safely. According to financial analysis learnt at my MBA, insurance is just a deferment of payment not needed if you can manage your finance well. I can manage my finance well, but I can’t really manage to keep out of the way of rogue taxi drivers. First thing I do tomorrow is look for an insurance policy! Especially for such “accidents”.

Well to compensate for the scare, I do have a great coffee. The coffee is normal but the company is great. I don’t really like meetings but in some meetings, you find long lost friends that you seemed to know for decades when in fact it was the first time you met. Lovely meeting but I nearly vomit out all the coffee after being stunned by the taxi driver. Still a bit soft on my hands and legs.

I certainly do not have the honor to meet him in person. But thank you Mr Jobs for bringing us such a colorful and vibrant Internet and mobile world. Rest in Peace.

如果两个人的天堂
象是温馨的墙
囚禁你的梦想
幸福是否象是一扇铁窗
候鸟失去了南方
如果你对天空向往
渴望一双翅膀
放手让你飞翔
你的羽翼不该伴随玫瑰
听从凋谢的时光
浪漫如果变成了牵绊
我愿为你选择回到孤单
缠绵如果变成了锁链
抛开诺言
有一种爱叫做放手
为爱放弃天长地久
我们相守若让你付出所有
让真爱带我走
有一种爱叫做放手
为爱结束天长地久
我的离去若让你拥有所有
让真爱带我走 说分手

I can hear a lot of grumblings from fellow Singaporeans on the estimated 1 million foreign talents and workers in Singapore. It does make Singapore a tad too crowded. But come to think of it, without those talents, who innovate? Without those workers, who cover the shortages of Singapore labor force which is less than 3% unemployment rate.

I met with a company recently. I thought I know all, but compared to them, I am like a small guppy swimming in an aquarium while they are whales in the oceans. Their visions are far and accurate. I am not comparing myself to their boss. I think my abilities is comparable to their tech guy. The ability of their boss to hire such talents and work under one roof and coordinate among so many countries is amazing. Really makes me quite fired up to conquer the business in Asia. Myself alone, I do not have that sort of vision. Never would have taught of doing things their way. Confucius said that even in a small group of three, you can find someone to learn from. Fact is I have a lot to learn from, from all of them. But honestly I like that tech guy best, kinda computer geek like me. Talking to him is like talking to a long lost friend. I enjoyed talking to him the most. Pity he is flying back tonight. Learning a lot from them and I think can learn far more from them in the future.

These are talents that Singapore cannot even attract, no matter how attractive we package our immigration policies. Those who oppose Foreign talents coming to Singapore need to understand that in a population of 5 million, how many entrepreneurs, how many scientists, how many financial wizards can we produce? Really not much, too little and too pathetic. We need to augment our society with such talents and continue welcoming them with open arms. Maybe we can get one or two of such talents.

We had a racial harmony day recently. The Internet has brought the world closer, globalization replaces localization. Suddenly we find the world as our neighborhood, different races, different religions and different social behavior. It is time we learn to adopt and adapt and to look at all as our brothers and sisters. It pains me to see some of the posts in the Politics and Religion sections. Hope that we can become more tolerant of each other, respect each other and love each other.

Just remember that whatever races or religions, all are human beings with feelings with flesh and blood. Respect them and they will respect you and we will gain far greater knowledge of each other and the world around us.

Wow, super efficient! The teaching materials and instructors’ text books are here already! Still quite some time from the courses. I guess they are telling us better read the textbooks first before teaching . Also good, new courses, safer to read the textbooks in case of tough questioning by the students. Surprising the students are getting better and better, more matured and more eager to learn. Do not need to spoonfeed or force them to learn. They are keen learners and an inquisitive lot, which makes teaching them quite fun and satisfying. Just hoping that I don’t mess up using the new LMS system.

For universities, I do feel that we need to fulfill our social obligations to realise the potential of each and every student. Granted that ranking is important but it should not be at the expense of educating the students. I have seen too many universities going all out for ranking, hiring the best research professors and putting all the money and efforts into research at the expense of teaching their undergraduates. I do urge that universities practice organic growth and slowly enhance their research capabilities through increasing the standards of their undergraduates so that a greater proportion can go into research rather than just hire researchers from other universities just to pump up their rankings.

The standby list is out. Looks kind to me with all the easy subjects to teach. Can’t believe my luck, no hard engineering courses for the next semester. Most are Business and Management subjects which is quite straightforward. Might as well make use of the time for some time in Waseda University.

Waseda University

Waseda is extremely strong in Engineering and Technical management, interesting to see the fusion of both disciplines. Also must remember to take back their unique square university caps. The only thing I don’t really like is the food, guess I have to be content with Ramen as I can’t take any raw seafood, yucks, why can’t they just cook it before serving . I like the way they preserve their traditions though. Not too old a university but extremely rich in culture and traditions.

Alleged Arbitrary and Capricious Grading are normally known as unfair grading or biased grading from the student’s point of view. Had a colleague shared with me her experiences on this. This is something that is quite stressful for professors. One word from the student and such cases go direct to an Associate Dean at the very least. But we do have protection. Normally for such allegations, the burden of proof lies with the student. The student will need to prove on the allegations but whatever it is, it is no fun at all.

Procedures involving such allegations are extremely strict, there is a fixed time table for meetings, explanations etc. Zero tolerance for delays. I normally find that such accusations are mainly the results of misunderstanding and miscommunications. As one of my professors told it, there is absolutely zero reasons why we should fail the students if they did a credible job. There is nothing personal in teaching and grading a course. Our main aim is for you to get out of the course knowing what we want you to know and learning what we want you to learn. If you satisfy these, you are out with the necessary credits. For State universities, our curriculum are well defined, the criteria for grading and the grading rubrics are all in place. It is certainly not arbitrary and we don’t have any axe to grind against any student. In fact, the rules are so much in place that sometimes when we feel that the student deserve a higher score, there are limits to what we can give also. Taking Yours Truly. This was a course on Food and Sociology in a Swedish University, had this email from the Course Coordinator :

Dear Boon

I think you have done a very interesting learning document, in that I felt I could follow your grandly learning. If I should grade your learning from your individual perspective I should have given you an A, but as our grading systems now are trying to be “goal related”, I have to grade you an C-B (close to B when it comes to “very good degree of independent thinking”). My final grading will be B.

Best Regards,

I got a “B” in the end but it is quite touching to receive this personal email from the Course Coordinator. It was on Sociology, a field that I am a newbie in. A pleasant surprise and I am still keeping that email

Therefore in lots of times, students allegations are normally unproven. Of course there are exceptions, but professors aren’t in campus to take revenge on you. Most of us will be glad that everyone has a distinction, but we need to be fair to all and ensure that those who put in the most efforts and those who does best gets the best results. We have tons of faculty training for professors every year. Some are compulsory, anti terrorism, anti racial prejudice etc. Some of the courses need to be taken every single year. This is to install in all professors the work ethics that comes with the job. Can be quite boring but then again, it is necessary to reinforce some values and make sure that you will remember them forever…..