How the hell do I know if I really got six sense?

Sometime some inner voice command me to do things or made some decision that turn out to be the right thing at the right time. On the contrary when I intentionally made decision, it more often end up with a small mess to clean up and salvage. I am starting realize and come into contact with that little voice inside me, to know who it is. I think its what people call the 6th sense, the ability to sense whats gonna happen in the future or what is happening away from me presently, except I seems to sense things sub-consciously.

Haiz...did not get enough sleep this days but thats not a concern. Catch it up on the weekend. Met many new friends this week from drinks and dance to dinner and Corin's birthday cakes, from Wednesday to Thursday. Its wonderful to see the social circle expand and I really got to thank "someone" for the opportunity.

The Nurses and the Mechanical Doctor.

New friends are nice but we must never forget our old friends too. 不可以喜新痒旧。Tomorrow I'll be back for badminton games with my regular shuttlecock khakis and in the evening, its time to meet up with the sisters to celebrate Cat's birthday! I think this is the second year I'm joining them. Geez...time flies.

Yet another diving trip coming up this July 10th to 12th before the grueling school semster starts again on the 19th. This time I will be bringing along Garfield's fujifilm digicam with its expensive underwater enclosure. Hopefully to have a successful virgin underwater photo shooting experience. Frankly, I'm hooked to the water world... under the sea is the place to be...can't think of any place I like to go without the ocean or the sea. I really miss the feeling of calm and quiet upon the sunrise and sunset, by the beach or the cliff.

Sunset at Tioman, seen from Malaysia

Sunset at Pacific ocean, seen from California USA

Team split

Recently, contingency plans that were set in place within the empire to prevent the spread of H1N1 virus. Its necessary not only within the empire but its also crucial within the entire country itself. In fact, when everyone exercise good social responsibility, we all can keep the infection level down to manageable level.

However, sometime the intend to protect is there but the plans are flawed. I shall not dwell much into the plan that had already taken place. For all I could say its the hassle and restriction place upon the soldiers of the empire. I'm sure some of you guys know what I mean. I do understand the need to protect human assets especially for an organization critical to survival of the empire but could there be a better protection and containment plan hatching by the stars, gold crab and gold bars?

For one, its a big challenge of hatching a plan to tackle a virus that is puzzling scientist around the world with its speed of transmission. Its like hacking in the dark, hoping you find the right way but also hoping you are not gonna accidentally chop your buddy head off. So in the meantime, its sound fine to conjure any plan to keep human contact to a minimum by coming up with a blue and red team that will never make human contact for the next few weeks. Maybe after all this saga is over, we should have some team sports pitting both teams against each other, a measure of how "team spirit" had grown during this period. I say we go for a paint ball game....

Brother Eechyi marriage and thoughts for the week

Today is brother Eechyi big day. He is marrying his long time sweet heart Shiyan and its all happening "customarically" today. I will be tasked to drive and tong-pang the "jie mei". Boy boy boy...yet another brother getting married. Happy occasion for the 9 Dragon clan. Pretty excited about the programme later in the day. Hopefully don't get "tekan jialat jialat" at the brides door step. I am standing by my guts, balls, wits and maybe voice to shield our man of the day from the insuppressible fire from the "jie mei". Haiz... we brothers are having lesser and lesser chances to meet up. Turn out that its the quality matter more than quantity of time. Work lah, family lah, BGR lah, past time lah... its inevitable that we guys only meet once in a while but I'm glad that they are the only few close brothers that I can share thoughts with.

Today I started writing hard copy journal. There are some thoughts and feelings I cannot write in the blog. Things are suddenly moving at a surprisingly fast pace. On one part of my life, it was a pleasant experience. On the other end of life, a drastic change in mindset and decision making. What really matter now is the pleasant part of life and how things are developing... I would never had imagine life heading in that direction for the past 3 years. Things just seems to fall into places. For both changes of life, I felt the challenges ahead... :)

Human Error is here to stay.

If there is ever an eternal problem plaguing mankind throughout its existence, it is human error. Take a look back in history and its obvious all the failures in battles and business are the results of mistakes and error. Vice versa, all the success are thanks to all this mistakes and error becoming a learning lessons of the future. The old quote validate about human error "A wise man learn from his mistake, a wiser man learn from others mistake".

However to boldly aim for a zero error or mistake working environment is an outrageous dream in my opinion. Proclaiming such aims is nothing more than trying to move the mountains with hands. There will always be mistakes made in life and work even for the most careful, experienced and skilled hands. The best production facilities in the world admits that it is not able to achieve a 100% production output quality. There bound to be a few loss nuts and screws here and there that get pick up by quality assurance and condemned as rejects (Eventually becoming refurbished products in market). Some might escape the proclaimed keen eye of QA and end up in the hands of consumers (but there is such thing call warranty claims).

So the question that was poised to all of us, "How can we stop human error?" The man, the managers and the leaders of my Empire at the moment don't have the solution at all despite a multi level discussion carried out. Either there is no solution or we are all just protecting our financial and job life line by not making politically incorrect statements. I say there is no way to stop this kind of error happening.

As long as humans are in the equation, the physical and psychological emotions will play its role for the good and bad. Human beings are incredible species that can make a breakthrough under insurmoutable odds and mind breaking pressure but can make mistake under favourable condition. Human error or mistakes are here to stay otherwise there won't even be a whole load of scientific studies, literature and process method to tackle this kinda problem.

So so so so ..... why not we throw away the ridiculous idea of zero human error or human error induced incident? Maybe if all of us are replaced by robots, life will be peaceful but they are subceptible to bugs, worms and virus of a digital kind. Because every reported case, there are hundred other unofficially reported case under. Because it will always be part of life. What we see is the tip of the ice berg. My Opinion:

1. Admit human error and mistakes and folly are here to stay. Embrace it like a friend. If we deny it, we will only be coming out with ideas and solution that goes in the wrong direction. Hitting the wrong door.
   
2. Anticipate the way our people are working. SHEL - Software, Hardware, Enviroment, Liveware (humans).
   
3. Instead of dictating how things are to be done from top down, allow the flexibility and room to adopt different method (Safety first always) to create working process that are smooth flow and little friction. That require the power and authority of changes from our leaders.
4. No self denial. Admit there is a man power problem, equipment problem, morale problem, leadership problem, skill problem. Bring out all problem! They must be solve for a reason.
   
5. Instead of just focusing on productivity, divert resources to production capability. Investing in production capability will definately boost productivity but everyone must have the patience for the effect to manifest.
6. With respect to point number six. Can we all cut the bullshit, the politically right action but effectively wrong ideas, the redundant paperwork just for show and those image/ brand creation. Can we just focus on our core business? Defense! Where have all our value system go to?
   
7. Keep the morale high, keep the man happy and satisfied at work.
8. With changes, comes improvement and that reduce human error, reduce its impact to a resolveable level (if error happens) but never expect no human error.
   

I leave my rattering with this meaningful quote from an article in TIMES,

"Any leader, military or civilian, has one priority: the quality of the people under his command. Without their skill & spirit, the best plans & policies turn to dust"

Once upon a time, the entire department was asked the question. "Can we stop human error and achieve our goals of zero incident, zero accident and zero human factor?" Everyone move to the right in acknowledgement. One junior on job trainee moved to the left in rejection, later on joined in by another courageous junior. Both were duly reprimanded. Truth hurts sometimes.

Eddie and Daphne wedding.

Is it 8 years or 10 years both of them "pat tou" before they tie the knots? I really lost count but I know it was a long long relationship for both of them. 爱情长跑 Happy they got settled down few months ago and I just got their wedding photo today.

The wedding party, from the left: Alfred, April, Shiyan, Eechyi, Angela, Randall and their little one, Eddie, Daphne, Weisheng, Joa, Riccardo and PC Wu.

All the late night before the big day, 5 grown up man forgetting to bring the bouquet, the driving from one parents place to another, the 2 hours crunch making the pre-walk in video and the wedding dinner.... it was a memorable event to see my long time brother entering the next phase of his life. Eagerly awaiting the red eggs!!!

Next stop, Eechyi and Shiyan big day happening 20th this month. Must ready the Ang Bao and alcohol guts :)

Tioman Scuba Diving Trip 2009

I only got the pictures taken above water. Now eagerly await LeeYing to post her underwater pictures and I will broadcast in my blog than.

Lost Generation no more

Back from Tioman Scuba Dive

Phew...I am damn tired but I had the time of my life beneath the sea of Tioman. 5 dives over the weekend, a total 2 hours and 13 mins of underwater time. I must had seen hundreds of fish and corals but also passing by thousand others while figuring how to move properly underwater. This is a first time experience but its an experience well worthwhile and I'm glad I made the decision (and commit the money) to learn Scuba Diving. Oh yes... I kanna couple of Coral cut and scrapes plus two sea urchin sting but I guess thats just a natural exchange process between an inexperience diver and the marine life.

I am now a certified open water diver. Like a new driver with P-Plate, I am restricted to a depth of 18m and require to dive with the lead of a dive master for future leisure dive. I will be going for the Advance Open Water Course end of the month. The license to dive aside, this 3 days had also been a time of friendship making with both Singaporean and foreign newbie and experience divers who are my company through the trip. Its great to have everyone onboard and I like to thanks Bjorn , Sebastian(my 15 years old dive buddy) , Henrick, Fauzan, Lee Ying, Leonard (thanks for the "camel"), Palm and not to forget the wonderful instuctors from Waikiki Dive Center Robin and Harshil for making this trip a pleasant one. The underwater experience will not be a complete one without their human touch to it.

Home sweet home right now back in my Yishun apartment. Time to sort out the pictures and share with my dive companion and also to you guys. Hoping that this will encourage you to pick up Scuba Diving which is a great new experience in every way. Lee Ying got all the underwater pictures though because she invested in a underwater camera case. I took all the out of water pictures and will end this blog with one group photo taken by Divemaster - Harshil...

The newbie openwater diver - (From Left) Henrick, Sebastian, Bjorn, Riccardo, Fauzan and Lee Ying.

We may not meet again but its a happy end to another chapter of my life.

Urgency in the wetsuit

For today pool lesson, we learn how to establish neutral buoyancy while underwater a.k.a the Aladdin carpet stunt. When one is neutrally buoyant underwater, he/she neither floats up or sink. I shall leave the details of how to do that to the internet search engines or the PADI Open Water Diver Manual. Just like to share that its a very essential and important skill for a scuba diver. Controlling your buoyancy give you better water depth control and also prevent the diver from sinking and hurting the corals reefs. It take 10 years to grow back what took 1 min to destroy so as much as we wanted to appreciate the wonder of the underwater world, we don't want to be too careless too. Buoyancy control...very important!

Wetsuit. It keeps you warm underwater and also give limited protection from scrap and cuts during the dive. Thats what the book says but unfortunately some of us got to learn some hard facts about divers wetsuit. Once you got it on (your body) and get your fins and scuba dive gear equipped, once you are underwater....nature called. Thats a problem. Do you abort the dive to get back on the boat to relief the nature call or do you hold your bladder? Man and their ego, They kept quiet about it and pressed on with the dive. The only lady in our team voiced out her nature call only to have the instructor to ask her to hold on for another 10 mins. Is it true that women can hold nature call better than man? From the instructors, its a resounding yes.

At the end of the training session, almost everyone was eager to get out of the suit, almost everyone heads for the washroom. I learn my lesson today, not too drink too much water before the dive... hahahaha. No wonder a friend of mine, a season diver mention "If you need to, relieve yourself underwater quietly". However we were warn not to do so because the liquid might just stay within the wetsuit untill you took it off.

Oh boy...sea turtles... can't wait to see them.

Underwater Breathing

On 2nd June 2009, I can breath underwater!!! Welcome to the confined pool scuba diving training held at Outram Secondary School, a hilltop school established in 1906 with a rustic feel in it. Very quiet and peaceful place except for the shower room which look rather spooky.


The first time experience of using the Scuba gear underwater is surprisingly pleasant. The air from the tank taste so much cleaner and better than our lightly polluted air from the environment. Boy was it heavy when we step out of the pool with it after the end of the training. It felt like hauling those field pack I got during Basic Military Training (but slightly lighter). Rule of thumb, always inhale and exhale deep and slow.

To really qualified as a Open Water Diver, it is a requirement not only to complete the knowledge examination but you must be able to demostrate that you can swim 200m unaided without time limit or 300m with snorkels and mask. Furthermore, a 10min water threading is a requirement as well which is pretty much the most tiring highlight of the first training session. All this is for the instructor to know your confidence in the water.

Some of my training buddy could not sustain for 200m swim or the water threading and have to try again today. I really really really really really wish for them to pass this physical test! Our training group will be heading to Tioman together this weekend and the friendship had grown after the first pool lesson, I'll be sad if anyone of them could not join us.

In my group, there is 3 guys from Denmark, 4 French and 2 teachers from Greenridge Secondary School who will be with me this weekend diving at Tioman. My friend from Thailand, an Advance certified diver, will also be joining me and she will be my dive buddy for the weekend. But of course! Since its such big group, everyone buddy everyone! ahahahah.

Meet our lead instructor....Jeremy from Waikiki. He look tough and he look like a Naval Diving Unit combatant with the scare on his left arm. However he said he is not previously from NDU. My comment: Very good instructor and had clear well organized teaching methods. Not too mention a calm and approachable personality. He always welcome question and is very strict about adopting good dive practice from the start.

Jeremy. He just had very dark complexion, nothing to do with my camera.

Meet Hashire, assistant instructor to Jeremy. I thought he is from some South American country like Brazil. Turn out to be Mr India. He promise to teach the me, the new dog some tricks at Tioman. A Divemaster in his own rights.

Hashire the Divemaster

Robin, the other lead instructor was not in any of the pictures. He is too shy to have his pictures taken. :)

So tonight will be the last Diving lesson at Outram Secondary School. The Pool lesson is interesting enough, just can't wait to be at Tioman and watch some beach turtles and reefs.