Category: AutoBio

Auto-Biography

Ang Moh Conmen

Just because you’re talking to someone with an “ang moh” accent does not mean that you need to be cowed by him. After all, he might be nothing more than a petty thief…

Conmen seem to be taking this tact where they believe their accent is able to convince people into buying questionable investment products. I have already received 2 calls this year where they attempted to get me to invest in some “hot new thing”, but when I refused then they attempted some pressure tactic by throwing in some legalese and threatening to replay a previously recorded conversation to entrap me. Two times they tried this, two times I responded with an effective tactic: hanging up the phone.

Just remember one thing whenever you are approached by anyone to invest in something with your hard-earned money: if it is really such a hot, new thing, why do they need to hard-sell it to this extent?

Milo spoils easily

In my Uni days when I had to go to the lab to work on my Honours Year Project, I had what I thought was a great idea and decided to bring along a thermos flask of milo that I had prepared at home since the labs were always very cold and it was great to have a hot drink.

It was then that I discovered that Milo turns sour very quickly even when you keep it in a vacuum thermos flask…

Designing Experiments

In the course of improving a process or product, you may need to utilise experiments to isolate which are the factors that are most important (remember the 80/20 rule?).

While the design of experiments is usually touched on in University, the concepts may all be forgotten by the time the student is ready to apply them in the commercial world. For a quick refresher, Wikipedia has a succinct article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_of_experiments

Ah Goh the instant drunk

There was this guy in the same training cadre as me who had a “special skill” — he could get drunk really easily! And by easy, I mean he just needed half a can of SAF beer before he became drunk and incoherent!

I suppose that is not the ultimate because Esh said she knows of someone who is able to be a bit light-headed just by inhaling a bit of alcohol fumes!

100 Pushups

After a PE lesson, I was unjustly punished by an Indian PE teacher for some reason (I can’t remember what now…) and he gave me a ridiculous punishment of doing 100 pushups before walking away.

Think it was the crazy adolescence hormones as well as pride (not to mention fury) that drove me to complete the 100 pushups simply because that teacher thought I could not do it. Although I managed to hold on to my pride, my arms did ache for quite a few days…

The discus accident

A little known fact is that I was the House Captain during my days in Secondary School. Unfortunately, an accident happened during my watch when one fo the boys got too enthusiastic and started practising his discus throws in an open field! One of the boys got a glancing blow to his head and all of us were horrified when the blood began to stream down. Thank goodness it was not a serious accident…

Sng Bao, Sng Bao

When I was walking back home during my Primary School days, I would invariably walk past an array of provision shops that displayed all their tempting wares along the walkway to seduce children into parting with their money. During those days when the weather was hot, I would open the freezer and get a “sng bao” (literally translated from Hokkien as “ice packet”) to enjoy on my journey home.

For those not in the know, a “sng bao” is a nunchuk-shaped plastic tubing containing a sweet frozen liquid that was undoubtedly accountable for countless sugar rushes and tooth decay. Think you should still be able to find it being sold at some places.