SPS

Prologue
This is the post from my blog introducing the Special Programme in Science (SPS) in National University of Singapore (NUS). This post is mainly intended for those who are potentially interested in applying to NUS to do a science major under the Science faculty. Also this can serve as an informal advertisement and encouragement to apply for the programme (not that it needs this ad), and guidance to newbies in SPS and also for existing and past SPS members to appreciate should they want to, but they don't need to.

Introduction
SPS as you can gather from the website, http://sps.nus.edu.sg/ is a multidisciplinary science and research programme, intended to cultivate undergraduates so that they would eventually have an leaning towards becoming a scientist. SPS has a room, and accepts about 40 students per batch, from the first year Science students, Pharmacy and Food Science people excluded due to their busy schedule. The views from below are based on my personal perspective, and ultimate accuracy has to be from the (other) people in SPS itself and the official website.

History
So here's what I heard: SPS was back from 1996 or so, where there was the talent development programme (TDP) for almost every faculty. Those TDP eventually merge to become USP, while the science one remained independent and changed its name to SPS. The current SPS room, a very spacious place where its students hang out used to be much more spacious but undergone a renovation in 2009 where it was partitioned into the library and seminar room area and has 4 long tables complete with sockets for the students to sit and study. The Library has mostly science books so that SPS people doesn't have to compete for the books with others at the Science Library (I use the Science Library more often). There's also a printer which is specially for SPS students to print for free (toner limited, once per month) but mainly for SPS related stuffs. The students has to provide their own paper and are asked to be considerate in using it. Personally I think it's a waste of paper to print lecture notes, and a waste of ink if it is printed with the SPS printer.

Syllabus
SPS syllabus also underwent changes in 2010, where an integrated science programme with multidisciplinary themes are introduced for the students to take. They are: Atoms to Molecules, The Cell, The Earth, and The Universe. Adding in 2 other modules that focuses on research, SPS now has 6 modules for the first 2 years of the students. Previously, we only had 5 modules, one per semester, and it is almost completely student run. Now, there are dedicated lecturers for each of the 4 modules they learn. From Atoms to molecules, they learn about Quantum Physics to a bit of Chemistry and nanoscience, The Cell has the most Life Science content but information theory and Physics are present too, The Earth produced this: https://sites.google.com/a/sps.nus.edu.sg/the_earth/, The Universe has Astronomy to Cosmology in it.

Structure
The structure of SPS is that it is headed by SPS Director Dr. Adrian Lee, assisted by Assistant Director, Andreas Dewanto, and 4 staff mentors for each of the integrated Science modules, then the head mentors (usually 3) headed by the year 4 students. There are graduate mentors, consisting of graduate students, student mentors, the year 4 students, and the junior mentors (usually the year 3 students). By looking at the alumni page, almost half of the people http://sps.nus.edu.sg/wiki/SPS_Alumni_in_Academia/Industry are in research after graduation.

Literature review
The research modules are intended as an introduction to the world of research at an earlier opportunity with guidance. For the first semester, the students figure out what area of research they are interested in and write a proposal for literature review for the next semester. The second semester is where the students read up on the papers available on the particular research topic that they are interested in. This can include pure physics projects like time travel, to multidisciplinary projects like the nanomachines to deliver drugs in biological systems. The papers reading are meant to familiarize the future researchers on what's out there and what's known before venturing into the unknown. As such, there is no need for hypothesis in the literature review proposal, as the students wouldn't have enough knowledge on what is there to research on before doing the literature review. (SPS first year students, please take note.) At the end of the literature review, the students are to present their review in a report no longer than 30 pages, a congress presentation where they train their presentation skills and a viva where the mentors question them about their work in detail (some viva can last upto 3 hours). Working in a group of 3 (or 2, I recommend working in 3) the students are also guided by their mentors who are the 3-4 year students and the graduate students who had previously experienced the same structure before. Thus, SPS students have their first opportunity to do research in SPS in a friendly, caring, guided environment. The other students in Science may experience their first research in University in UROPS or Honours project, both of which SPS students are encouraged to take up too after they finish their SPS research project.

Research
The third semester is their SPS research project, they are to seek out a staff mentor (a professor, lecturer etc) and asked for some guidance in doing reasonable work within a semester. They still have the student mentors with them and while most choose to continue on the literature review topic, it is possible to completely change the research project into another topic. Also the grouping of three people would reevaluate their ability to teamwork and then decide if they are to continue for one more semester or split up and choose another group (if there are other groups who are willing to split up too.) It was at this juncture that my group decided to stick together, and now I have two very special people in Physics that I kinda always feel like a good close friend to even after so many years. The research component is doing something, for the life scientists, chemists and experimental physicists, most of them are out in the Lab, for the computational and theoretical physicists, we have our computer, pencil, paper, and brain. They deliver their research in a report no longer than 30 pages, a congress presentation where they train their presentation skills, posters in which they summarize their work for a semester in a page and a viva where the mentors question them about their work in detail. If the research is good enough, it may even get published in a scientific journal. It's rare that this happens, so don't worry about it and just have fun doing your first research.

People
Next I want to talk about the people in SPS, by majors. Most of the batches after mine has been Life Science dominated, with over 50% of them, followed by Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. The rest of the major are as rare as Mathematics, or more common. The female to male gender ratio is quite balanced, at least initially, with a tendency to have more boys than girls. It's not that there's a quota for the majors, it's more of the ratio of the people who applied, and the people we think are suitable for SPS makes it like this. So if (a lot of) you're reading this and want to go into Physics in NUS and especially if you are a female (you're a rare type now), do apply for SPS. The same goes for the rarer majors. This is not a discouragement for Life Science people, if you really think you're made for SPS, by all means apply regardless of your major (precludes Pharmacy and Food Science and Technology majors as mentioned above) and gender. Also when you go for your interview, do make sure you be yourself and do not pretend. What we want are people with the right attitude towards science and research. So if you are very averse to Physics or Life Science, SPS might not be the right programme for you.

Personalities
SPS has a lot of unique personalities. I shall focus on the more weird ones as I was one of them. There's people who say hi to every newbie (guess who), there's people who... ok it's really hard to describe personalities of people without making it into a novel or offending some people. Oh well, there are people who talk to themselves, out loud, who study non-stop as if life is for study (I call them the human study machines), who play a lot (now I'm one of them, but people would say I'm always one of them), who have all sorts of weird behaviour, not understanding cultural norms... Ok wait, I should just say, there are Seldon-like people in SPS, but the % of population is not so big, mainly just me (last time I was much weirder). As long as you got the right attitude, the personality is secondary. However, we do learn our social norms and
mature along in SPS. Or else....

More personal stuffs...
Well, I was stopped from becoming a junior mentor in my whole of year 3 because of some perceived irresponsibility and my reputation to be weird (wherein I was just pretending to be weird). It was the single most hurtful event in SPS that I had experienced. Eventually, I managed to convince the people in power to give me the mentorship thing in my year 4 (it's a position of quite heavy respectable power I learned) as I behaved more normally and showed responsibility and passion by mentoring groups for free as an unofficial mentor for a year. So mentors, appreciate your positions. As far as I am aware of, I was the only one they tried to prevent to become a mentor, although I can see some other people who does not have the right attitude to become mentors as well, I dunno things that happen behind the scenes. Now I still come back to help out for things like junior mentors training and even helped to become one of the unofficial mentors (I'm not a grad student) of a lit review group in Physics.

Mentors
So mentors, what do they do? In all of the integrated science modules, the mentors are there to help the lecturers out and to explain stuffs to the students. If the mentors doesn't know the stuffs, they can at least refer the students to someone who knows. For the literature review modules, the roles of the mentors are the most crucial in helping the students read and select the suitable paper and direction for the literature review process. The mentors also help out in teaching the students how to do a nice proper scientific presentation, poster, do the viva, read and mark the reports, interview the incoming batch of students, train the next batch of junior mentors, all sorts of stuffs! The head mentors especially are tasked with the coordination and detailed managing of the SPS academic stuffs.

Annual events
Knowing and seeing just how much the mentors work (they are paid) and pay the learning forward to the juniors, there is this annual event called the Mentors Appreciation Night at the end of the second semesters in Uni. There, awards like the most.... mentors are given out and each group can prepare something as a token of appreciation to their mentors. This is one of the few events that is organised by the SPS committee. The other two more prominent annual activity are: The Newbie Orientation Camp, NOC at the weekend of week 1, and the Dean's Tea around week 10 of the first semester. The NOC is filled with fun games and is meant to let the newbies to get to know each other and their seniors in SPS before all the hard work really starts. And the Dean's Tea is where SPS students who had finished the curriculum are given their certificates. Both of these events feature performances by the newbies and good free food!

SPS committee and seats
The people behind these events are the SPS committee, typically elected in their year 1 second semester and last for one term, the committee is responsible for most of the other non-academic stuffs around SPS. For example, the logistic team is responsible for making sure the SPS room is clean. The system in place now is that there is a spring cleaning every semester during the holidays and people who participate in it get to choose a permanent seat for one semester at three of the four tables in SPS. The remaining table is free seating. Those who has a permanent seat typically comes to SPS more often and leave books and stuffs on their desks, but also has to help in the regular duty roster in cleaning.

Subcultures
Finally, I shall come to the very unofficial part of this article. Or the officially unofficial part. The subcultures in SPS. Disclaimer: I'm just saying what happens here, please don't apply to SPS because of these subculture, which are liable to change depending if there are people in each generation to live them. Apply to SPS because of the academic reasons.

Board and Card Games
Bridge was one of the most enduring culture in SPS. 4 person, late night or after dinner, or just during lunch time, people gather around and have a pack of cards to start on the Singaporean culture of bridge game. This is only part of the larger culture (with less people playing) of board and card games. Bang used to be a favourite, as well as various non-traditional board games like Settlers of Catan, Small world, 7 wonders, Citadels, The new science, etc.... to many to be listed. Also card games like Dominion, Magic the Gathering and others... There are of course traditional games as well, like monopoly, chess, risk, etc... lately traditional pen and paper RPG is getting some people in SPS to engage in them.

Video Games
The next category is the video game culture, specifically the people who owns a Nintendo 3DS. The Streetpass functionality plus SPS room means the more people in this subculture, the more fun it is! And quite a number of people are planning to play Pokemon X or Y soon!

FDDP
Of course there's the study culture too, the Human Study Machines. Especially amongst the people who take the France Double Degree Programme (FDDP), the most prestigious programme you can take in NUS academically that will send you to the best school in France to learn cool Mathematics and Physics in French. It is very hard to be in SPS and the FDDP at the same time, but there are a few of these brave people in SPS, not every year but those who do take it do really think that life=study. Well, for the most part, they also participate in the bridge culture.

Staying over
SPS is kind to its members, so that if they study late at night until there's no more transportation back home (even for those who stay in campus), they can stay over in SPS until the next dawn and so on.... So, yes SPS is open 24/7 and only its members can access the room and the number of people staying over usually peaks the night before the final report is due or congress presentation. While it is all cool to fall asleep at your desk and in front of your laptop, it is better to sleep on the sofas, the ledge inside the library or just three chairs clumped together. Usually the number of people who stay over often then and again are just those familiar few, and those who do stay over (especially the FDDP people) stay so often that I call them the SPS PR (permanent resident), which I am one of them.

Free Food
Every so often at night when we stay over, we feel the pangs of hunger, and we are always grateful to the extra free food that is available. Having a Fridge in SPS helps too as well as the strategic location of SPS being just beside LT31 where lunch time events with buffets are frequently held. Other than that, there are many events of SPS that provides free food for its own members, including the annual events stated above and the congress where the students present from morning until late afternoon. There is an important ethics in going for free food events that are not SPS's own one, that is to wait until the people to whom the food is for has finished taking their share and the food that's left is going to the trash if not taken. Thus the important job of scavenging for food and finishing them falls upon the people in SPS. Free Food!

Couples
And last but not least, there is a tendency for couples to form in SPS. Of course, in a close knit community with a room to hang out in in between lectures, close friendships can often progress further on. One important thing to note is that it is not possible for mentors to have a boy-girl relationship with the first or second year students. If such cases do happen, they will have to not be a mentor until the student finishes SPS, or the relationship fizzles. This they made clear to the mentors, and I put it here to tell the first and second year students not to begin your relationship with a mentor, should you happen to fall in love with one, until you can (at least third year), unless the mentor is willing to give up the role...

Finale
Ok I had covered almost every important aspect of SPS and why it is worth to come to NUS to study Science just to get into the programme. Maybe a final point to make is that the students in SPS are not elitist society in the sense that we don't feel that we are more entitled to stuffs (only the SPS room, and scavenging the free food) more than the rest of the science faculty... We are still humble students, and the few (and not many) of the SPS members who scored and maintain a perfect CAP would had done so anyway even if they are not in the programme. Or vice-versa. Well, I hope this lets you guys from outside of SPS to get to know what's really behind that mysterious wooden door beside LT 31 that spawns scavengers.

Anchor

Hey there,

It's been a long time since we had talked. I guess I had little need for personal space now that I have a 3DS. Well, anyway here's a bit of anchor, for the writing of the Metta Convention, 8th Global Conference on Buddhism, and Awaken Challenge. 3 crazy weekends, followed by one more ultra crazy weekend. Rock and roll guys!

I'm not used to writing here.....Maybe it's because it's a personal blog that I feel so relaxed in typing whatever non-sense here, as long as I keep to the 5 precepts online too, I'm ok.

This is my anchor in life for now. I've a little bit more stuffs to write, like a Buddhist gaming idea I'm having, another presentation in MDC, and a cool project that is my job! FTL travel simulation..... Haha.

Life after graduation moves on and on like a speeding train. If you don't watch where you are going, or what you're saying yes or no to, you will not have a grasp on the direction of your life.

Notes on Research

Note to self, this is what I learned for almost a year as a Research Assistant:

1. Don't be afraid of new things which I have absolutely no background on. Just read up.
2. Don't mentally block any areas to investigate for research.
3. Don't read a book from 1st page to the last because most likely I only need a few chapters on it. 
4. Don't be afraid to change the direction of research until you feel a great passion in yourself to want to do this day or night. 
5. Don't be lazy to do the exercises and simple readings of paper and verification of them, just not all of them, the important ones only.
6. Talk to people!
7. Use Wikipedia early on. 
8. Speed read the papers, get the physics instead of getting stuck on the technicalities. 

Street-smart, 21 advises to not get scammed.

It's been a few days, let's recall the lessons that I had learned and analyse this further.

Please read this first for the following advise to make sense.

Also other links for these cases:

http://myblogmystore.blogspot.sg/2011/06/jade-mattress-technology-of-korea.html?m=1

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/10-fall-prey-to-jb-lucky-draw-scam-since/686156.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRqOh8Nciwc
Also please help to sign this: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/34979.html

First up, RUN

There maybe chemicals that are odorless and transparent, that makes people susceptible to suggestions, or hypnosis masters, who easily control those who were not focused. (I was busy thinking about gaming and getting back home as soon as possible). So first line of defense and the best line of defense against scamming is: Don't stop, don't even look, don't receive anything and run. 

Second, Don't get adventurous

Susceptibility to double thinking and adventure. I was thinking of having an adventure and have an innately natural tendency to trust people. So, when strangers say they are not scamming me, or that they hail a taxi to get me away, I shouldn't just entertain (not even half or less) any notion of them being true to their word. I admit there was some part of me who wants to seek adventure, that's why I followed them, but the potential loss of wealth is too great, too expensive. So don't. Don't get adventurous on these dangerous missions, get adventurous on trips to mountain climbing with Rovers, but not on possible scam syndicates! 

Third, Read the signs and follow them.

There are clear, big signs in front of City square about beware of scratch and win scams. Two thoughts cross my mind when I saw it: the opening of the red lucky draw thing is not "scratching". It is opening. That's just small details, not worth it to ignore. Second thought, I should just ditch this thing, I'm in a rush. Then the promoters surrounding me said sweet words: we do things under the sun light, most people win cars, our employer put this up one, we are younger than you, so "big brother" me... Still should had just tore the lucky draw thing in two in front of them and throw it to them. If they get violent, yell for help and police.

Actually, if you fail to follow the previous steps, you most likely would get conned already, but anyway I shall still highlight the remaining possibility go get out of the scam in case you regain awareness at any stage then.

Fourth, Don't follow strangers into a Taxi

They said it's just 5 minutes, I offered to walk there, but then it got longer than 5 minutes even with taxi, and they asked me to pay somemore. So first thing first, if they asked you to go somewhere, you make them pay first, if they come out with some lame excuses, drop them off and get the taxi to go to elsewhere. 

Fifth, Once you catch any contradiction, don't ever trust them.

They said no need to fill in forms or any details, just win only. Then at the office, they gave me a form to fill up in case I won before. (In case I got cheated before and now come back as undercover to exert revenge.) A real business man does not need to cover up lies with lies. 

Sixth, Don't fill in any form, just leave.

Also don't give them your IC, passport or let them see your debit card, credit card etc... 

Seventh, Do not trust the pictures if they show them.

It's too easy to fake stuffs, certificate of business premises, etc... especially if they show it to you voluntarily. There's such a thing as photoshop too.

Eighth, Be alert for names.

A true professional business is not afraid of saying the company's name, and having cross checking. I think I saw different company names, and the bosses didn't introduce themselves properly too. As well as do google immediately the names of the company, test them about it, and even google scratch and win thing to make sure you can find similar cases to what you're in now. I had the disadvantage of not having smartphones or 3 or 4G connection.

Ninth, Be very suspicious of people handing you their IC/ valuables.

This is usually the move that others use to promote trust and then they will get it back because the victim is generally a nice person. 

Tenth, When you hear about the need to pay first to get to open up and find out what you win, RUN! 
Don't just sit there and make lame excuses like I need to rush back, just say I'm not paying/nor standbys nor anything.

Eleventh, GST has not been implemented in Malaysia. Catch that and RUN! 

Seriously, don't give them any details anymore, just go.

Twelfth, Don't tell them what bank you use nor the amount you have in the bank nor your job nor how long have you worked. 

With these information, even indirect telling like I got up to this amount in bank, qualify for how many years of insurance for the car, don't even reveal the no. of years for the car. This is where they adjust the details of how much they can safely cheat you out of. So the amount of money to standby really depends on what information you give them. 

Thirteenth, Don't fall into any greed nor logical trap nor time trap.

I was ready to leave by the time I knew about the standbys of money. They kept on saying that it's still my money, just need to copy down the serial no. of the cash. I said I need to rush, then they trapped me by saying that I might not have worked that much of amount of money even for 40 years. At that time, I had no intention to get rich in the long term, so I fell into the logical trap. In truth, it's easy and fast to earn and save up and invest up to even the top prices of RM 100,000, because you work in Singapore and have good financial advises, know how to invest properly and know how to save. It's an insult to you if they ever say that.

Fourteenth, Don't give them your receipt if you go and withdraw the money anyway. 

Also be suspicious when they use a female to count your money instead of a counting machine which is on their desk outside! Don't let someone else write down the serial no. of your cash too, not even if it's a female youngster! You can do it yourself! 

Fifteenth, Don't sign anything that you don't get a copy of. 

They let me sign a copy that assures me that if I don't win a price there's a compensation value of RM 24,000 (they used $, must be easier for the Singaporean people they are trying to cheat), and 3 free prices. The document states that you're to pay RM____ for opening the secret price, then are to accept whatever gifts they had inside without refund. So this also makes the victim vulnerable and susceptible to believe that they are real and that the lucky draw thing contains other no.s other than no. 7, the jade mattress. 

Sixteenth, You're not a superhero.

You don't have superpowers, nor Batman's training. So don't think that you can fight them, outsmart them in their lying game, or have gadgets to track them down.  

By this stage, after you had handover the money, you're already duped, nothing else you can do but to move on, because the police is useless.

Seventeenth, Don't believe in their "newspaper", it can be faked too. 

Seventeenth, A Hand-phone no. is not enough to guarantee that they will truly sell the mattress and give you the money. You should call the cops by now. Don't get distracted by their free gift. 

Eighteenth, Make a police report immediately.

 Tell your taxi driver to change direction midway if needed to the nearest police station and ask them for cooperation to storm the place. Yet by the simple fact that they're still there after all these years since 2011, having the same, predictable, known place of operation (City Square mall), you can conclude that the police is under their pay too. So, the police report saves you from future trouble, but don't expect them to help you get your money back. Corrupt police still haven't called me. I mean how hard can it be to send an undercover plainclothesman to their office and raid it? Money hard.

Nineteenth, Share your experience.

If you ever come to this stage already, then my sharing of experience had failed, and maybe you shouldn't bother with it too. There will always be naive, stupid people who hadn't got scammed before and will be scammed. Good luck.

Twentieth, Don't trust strangers in general.  

Ok not so much on losing faith in humanity, but losing nativity which is a willful ignorance of the fact that there are people out there who are not afraid and will do bad stuffs. Don't trust door to door salesman, people giving flyers, people working in a lucky draw or scratch (or open or anything else) and win thing that you didn't signed up for. Free lunch is found in NUS, not in JB nor elsewhere in general. Still don't be bad to all strangers, do lend help etc... but once they asks for money, freeze up and don't trust them.

Twenty first, After you got scammed,
It seems that these post attract people who got scammed more than those who had not. So here's a short sharing on what I told someone who got scammed. He/she was worried that the scammers has his/her address.

First off, since they cheat you off that much and you got the mattress, there's no reason to panic. They're just keeping your records in their system incase someone else in their network happen to cheat you again. So all this means is that you cannot become an undercover cop and provide the same details to them again to bust them. 

Other than that, you're ok. Do you have any idea how many people keeps getting conned all the time? They have no time to threaten old customers. Relax. Just be sure that when you save someone else from being conned by them on the road next time, please do not follow them (in case they beat you up), call the police if possible, and don't give face to them, run and stay at safe distance then call the police. 

You can also go to this 

http://e-aduan.kpdnkk.gov.my/eaduan/aduanbaru.php?lang=2

website and make a complain. I dunno if it does any good. 

And tell your friends and family how not to get conned, put in a police report to protect you in case they photocopied your IC, and....be more street smart, do good in the world and be thankful that the bad guys are lowering your bad kamma. 

I think it's better to tell your family and friends about it as they
are also potential victims. It is better to have their defence
increased instead of one day, one of them got scammed and then found
out that you got scammed too and you didn't tell him/her.

So please share it with your loved ones the story as detailed as
possible instead of a casual "be more careful". You can show them this
blogpost too, and the next one.

For me, my "face" is not as important as for them to be safe from
scammers. And it's not shameful to share that you got scammed, be
motivated by love and concern for your friends.

Done.

I got scammed

The following is a police report typed on the night after I got scammed. Do take the time and effort to read this. Because like you, I knew all the advices and precaution, but I was still too naive (more naive than greed), so please don't let this happen to you. Especially Malaysians in Singapore and Singaporeans travelling in Johor. 

On the 24^th May 2013, I, Ng Xin Zhao, aged 24 was on the way to City Square, Johor Bharu, at 12:30pm when I rejected the first offer of something by a youngster.  Then the second person give me the same thing. Apparently, it’s an “open and see” lucky draw red packet. There was a lot of people suddenly surrounding me, about 10 of them, all of them seems so excited and eager to see what price I won. Apparently it’s not a “Thank You” note, thus I won something. Inside it, there was another packet, a smaller one that they asked me not to open. It’s supposed to have details of which prize was it.

I was on the rush to go back to Petaling Jaya, to celebrate Vesak Day with my family, yet they said that it’s just a 5 minutes trip from City Square, and another one of their friends was already getting a Taxi to go to their office after I inquired where is their office. Then I offered the winning back to them. They said they cannot take the lucky draw prize. I caught a glimpse of some more opened thank you red cards. It seems ok then, to see that not all people will automatically win this thing.

I was still disinterested in the price and didn’t care if I didn’t get it. Then they still went on and described the details of the prizes and how if I won a car, they offered a car insurance to me for free. Then they asked what type of banks do I have and what amount are in them. It’s a suspicious move and I was not inclined to tell them.  They said that two of them will get a RM 6000 commission if I happened to win a car. They even showed photos and quotes some newspaper about famous people who won their prizes.

Included in the famous people list are: Singapore Actress who starred in Phua Chu Kang, police chief inspector etc…. I just offered them the red winning card due to rushing of time, which they declined to get and then I asked them to just take me to where their office is.

On the way, he introduced himself as someone from Perak and aged 19, so he called me “khor khor”, a Chinese name for big brother as I revealed my age to be 24 years old. He kept on explaining the details of the prize, saying that the secret opening red packet within the red packet is meant to be in the office. I inquired why did it took so long to reach it, when he promised the trip to be only 5 minutes. I did asked if we can just walked there instead, in the end I took the risk of being kidnapped to just find out how does this scheme works.

Then he replied that it’s to avoid a traffic congested area. I neglected to ask the driver about this. It seems suspicious now that I recall that the other person who sat in front of the taxi was silent the whole time with the driver.  When we reached the place, I recall seeing aeon, jaya jusco near the corner, and some shops and coffee places. I was surprised that they asked me to pay the taxi fare, which amounted to RM 13. Then they bring me upstairs to their office. The staircase was undecorated, but was just beside the Malay food shop. The office is at level 2, immediately obvious from the decoration from Chinese new year. My thought was that it was queer that the decorations are still there after 3 months.

Once inside, the first thing that they did was to congratulate me. The two Chinese boy, both 19 years old who brought me there told me that their supervisor was a Malay. I know how to listen to Malay, but I’m not good at conversing in Malay. They then ushered me into a room, with its dark coated glass. Later during the long 2 hour conversation with them, from 1:30pm to 3:30pm, I ventured out to see their reception place to see very unprofessional surroundings. There was a clerk who did most of their job of copying people’s IC and getting the receipts of the bank withdrawal that we made. There was a money counter machine and loads of photos of certification of documents that’s supposed to show that their company is legal.

There were also photos of the previous winners on the walls, showing and advertising the winners and their winnings, most of them are cars. I also saw a dog in a cage, CCTV, lots of people in casual clothing. I estimate that there were about 10 people in the office. A female clerk in her 30s, 2 male “bosses” in their 40s, 2 aged 19 male boys who took me there, about 3 young girls at the back. They seem to be slacking around and playing with the dog, making it look like a family setting.

After I was ushered into the room, some of them went out and do some work, supposedly to prepare my prizes. Then the Malay boss who didn’t introduce his name explained to me again that the procedure is this:

1.     

1. The person is to give their name, IC, telephone no. and address for them to check if they had won the lucky draw before. I gave them mine, including my Singapore handphone and address.
2.   The person is to standby a cash of RM12300 for the tax, GST, service charge and etc… for the prizes that we win. There was even a form to copy down the serial no. of the money that we were supposed to show them. So in short, they tried very hard to find out how much I have in my banks, then when I said that I didn’t had enough money in my Malaysian bank, they phoned DBS bank in Singapore for me to enable overseas withdrawal. They gave a “discounted” assurance price of RM 6300, about half of the previous amount, saying that the other people who won (117 prizes, about 80 of them won). I said that I was only willing to standby an amount of RM 10, which they said it is rejected. Then somehow the amount we settled on was RM 3000.
3. Then the person can open up the secret thing inside the winning red packet and see what they won. No. 1 to 3 are cars, no. 4 is a TV, a lot of no. are blacked out including 5, 8 until 14. No. 7 is a jade mattress, no. 15 to 17 are free travel arrangements to Japan, Australia, and another place. All of them have prices besides their products ranging from RM 100,000+ for the Toyota cars, to RM 28,800 for the jade mattress. If we won the travel arrangements we can exchange that for cash. The car, they will show within 15 minutes of scratching, but just the jade mattress, they need time to help me to sell. They talked as if most people would win the cars, I for one didn’t want the car because it’ll take more time. In the end, I got no. 7, which they put on a show that maybe it’s 17, then I can get the cash, pretending to scratch the thing just a space before 7, when there is no silver coating to scratch away because it was a packet that is opened by tearing off the edges. Before giving me the option to open it, they asked me to sign a form saying in Malay, English and Chinese that the person scratching cannot exchange their winnings for cash money, and devoted RM ____ (mine was 3000) to them as advanced cash fee, which is non-refundable, and that only the travel arrangements was exchangeable by cash. 
4. A quick search online shows that there are other people also having similar experiences, winning exactly the same thing, a jade mattress. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/1/9/southneast/12537881&sec=
5.     Then they will bring the winnings to the winner. I saw the jade mattress almost immediately, suspicious and strange. If they did have the prices here already, why go through all these trouble?  They were also eager to keep me in the dark coated glass wall room and not in their main reception area.

The interesting thing is that they said that the standing by of cash is mine, they just wanted to see it. I gave them the cash and then opened the secret red packet, won the mattress, and get Micheal Chin (which apparently has another name called Tan Hen Yong, one of the two youngster who brought me there) to find a buyer.

 Another part where they gain my trust is their eager offer of their IC for me to safe keep during the trip where they took me to Ambank around 2:30pm to withdraw the money.  Then they cooked up an excuse saying that they need back their IC for commission purposes. There was a lot of paper work with minimum names. In the end all I got was a free gift from Mitsuyoshi , a multi cooker which cost about RM 100 and I brought it all the way back to Petaling Jaya, and a receipt.

The receipt says the cooker cost RM 3000, and a jade mattress on hold of RM 6300, which they say I cannot take it back because I still have RM 3300 on hold. The person Micheal Chin or Tan Hen Yong is supposed to come to MidValley Megamall on the 25^th May to meet the buyer of the jade mattress who offered RM 20,000 for one jade mattress. He went out and came back to tell me that the buyer is willing to buy 2 jade mattress for RM 45,000 instead, I said no, I’m not buying another one to sell like that. Interestingly, they let me off on that easily. Maybe it’s because the RM 3000 is already in their hands.

So after selling the mattress, I was supposed to give the remaining amount of the RM 9300 (RM 12300-3000), to them and another RM 700 as commission for the two young boy, and the remaining RM 10,000 is mine.

The details for Tan Hen Yong are as following:

940606-08-6583 Tel no.: 013-6739839, 016-7153284

The detail of the buyer is, name: Mr. Ong, tel no.: 019-7191590

Details of the company are:

Name: Visdynamics Marketing (I cannot find this online, it’s another company based in Melaka http://www.vis-dynamics.com/v2/)

002223872-U

Address: no.8-09, Jalan 2/10 Jalan Permas Jaya, BDR, Baru Permas Jaya, J. Bahru.

Other than the loss of RM 3000, taxi fare of RM 13+23 (going to Larkin), and giving them my IC for them to photocopy, my name, IC, tel no. and address in Singapore and receipts of my withdrawal from my DBS bank, there is a possibility that they may use my IC to borrow money or do some other harm. Hence this report.

It would be nice for me to have a police escort to meet them at the mall.

Update: Neither the scammer nor the police inspector in JB has called me yet after one day. This is kinda disappointing. I was instructed not to talk to the scammer as they might trap me and ask for more money again. The police might be seen as doing nothing to stop this crime as it was know to be operational at the same place since December 2012. Please share and spread this out for awareness sake!

P.S.Please help to sign this too: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/34979.html

There's also more links that was posted on my facebook after that:

http://myblogmystore.blogspot.sg/2011/06/jade-mattress-technology-of-korea.html?m=1

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/10-fall-prey-to-jb-lucky-draw-scam-since/686156.html

This case is even featured on crime watch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRqOh8Nciwc

http://ngxinzhaomonk.blogspot.sg/2013/05/street-smart-20-advises-to-not-get.html

And those of you who wants to post that I'm an idiot on the comment, please remember that you're only reading this because I do not want this to happen to you, as I thought I'm immune to this too. Don't overestimate your street-smartness. And don't spit at those who give advise from experience and out of kindness.

A superhero response to malaysia's election results

 BN won in Malaysia election again, with more than half in numbers of Malaysians voting against them. Many would feel anger and disappointment now. Including me. Yet, I recall to mind that anger is using other's wrong doings to punish ourselves. 

What would a superhero do? Here's what: BN, your own karma would catch up with you, and all those who participated in the corruption and cheating to let you win unfairly. I, as a silver medalist of malaysia representative in 2008 international physics Olympiad do not have the confidence for you to rule. 

Yet, I would urge all who feel the same to not do anything drastic, don't do anything criminal, or harmful to yourself to them or to our country. Just know that next election, there's the people who signed up for elections late (2013) there's a whole new 5 year batch of youngests who's very dissatisfied on Facebook. There's still the support of overseas Malaysian voters, even more, as those who didn't vote this time will want to vote next time. 

So keep on living our lives, be vigilant against corruption and cheating, be aware of the gangsters that rule our country and know that they will reap their owni karma, we need not be the punisher. We are instead superheroes like superman, knowing that truth will win. Declare on your own, for yourself, the content of this message too. 

My voting experience

Today is 5th may 2013, the election date of Malaysia. It's about 1pm now, and I came back from Singapore to Melaka just to vote. Being a first time voter, and one of the few in SPS to come back to vote, I've written some of the experience on site.

On the line to Taman Kasturi I. MELAKA on 10:30am in the morning. The line is shorter thanI thought, Only about 100-200 people. There was a conversation happening behind me. From there I got the rumor that a left handed person requested that his/her right hand to be marked with indelible ink, but was not approved. Some people noticed that their ballot paper was marked, but the request to change was met with someone assuring that they didn't cheat one... Note these are just rumors I heard.

Lining up under the shade of trees is nice. There's 4 staffs in the initial phase, checking the IC and giving people their lines. There are 4 unmarked lines. The same people who were conversing behind me, one of them having voted very early in the morn, and his friend queuing up behind me, said that he lined up wrongly due to the unmarked line and had wasted 1 hour lining up again. Now it's 10:50am.

I got into the area for voting, it's a small place, actually a centre in the town, with a playground just outside. There were police there too, helping in lining people up. When I am in, another conversation started behind me. A female voter said that she registered to vote in melaka despite staying in Selangor to switch melaka to the Pakatan rakyat side. She said that there ions 2 times she voted in melaka, there were not so many people, the voting process is much faster.

Well, I was expecting more people and 5-6 hours of waiting, so the line seems short to me.

Then came for the time for me to vote. The police officer outside told me to leave my water bottle out, the reason, asked by the female voter behind me, was to avoid wetting the ballot papers. I entered, with tissue in one hand and my IC in another. Then I gave the first clerk my identification card, the second marked my left index finger, the third gave me 2 ballot paper, clean as it is, one for the state another for the parliament of  the country. I came to the back of the voting place, there's 2 of the place, with multiple black ball pen and 3 sides covered up. Stricter than any exam I've seen. Well, I took my time and saw the not BN symbol there and put a neat cross beside it.  Both of the ballot paper. No idea who the candidates are anyway.

The female behind me had finished putting her votes into the clear box in the middle of the centre, and I was just starting to fold the 2 ballot papers into half. I was glad that it was colour coded so that I know which paper goes into which transparent box. Then I'm out. Seriously, nothing special.

I was hoping for a longer line so that me preparations can be used, but all well, i 50 mins, I've finished voting. Then I went back to try to wash the ink on my hand. It came off a bit, not that easy to clear it all off. Washed with soup a bit and then it got lighter. Looking atmy families case, it is safe to say that the claim of indelible ink which cannot be washed away for days is untrue. But to be fair, we should try putting permanent marker ink on the other hand after we voted and try to wash that off as hard too. To compare the quality of the ink used in the election.

  I should be going back now to help lookout for foreign voters who were given malaysian Identification Card just a few days ago to mess with malaysia's election process.

The news in Malaysia had BN denied that they were foreign voters, yet more and more evidences keep on floating up on Facebook.
See ya.

T.H.I.S. Buddhist Film Festival 2012

The event has just ended today (Sept 2012), and I've seen 6 out of 12 movie screening but due to some 2 in 1 deals, I've also seen 8 out of 16 movies. 3 out of 12 were impulsive buying on the spot. While I initially wanted to see the whole 12 movies, the trailer made me realize that $12 for some is too expensive. http://thisfilmfest.com/

The list in chronological order that I saw it was:
The Gatekeeper of Emnyoin
Headshot
Crazy Wisdom
Angin
Your mind is bigger that all the supermarkets in the world
Dandelion Dharma
Tulku
One Mile Above

Screened at Lido House, I think this event has brought together many different types of people, maybe next time it's held (2014) we can give free tickets to the Youth group commitees!

Journalist?

Although the kent ridge commons is an independent student newsletter, I don't feel like a journalist after getting two more recent articles published in it.
Here they are:
Time travel research http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=17539#sthash.ULWvWa3A.dpbs
Reconnact http://kentridgecommon.com/?p=17707#sthash.tn1M4SwE.dpbs

What I felt was more of wanting to have the opportunity to write more, to have cool, good things that I've encountered and then write my experiences in it to share with more people other than the base I got here.

Well, anyway, I really aught to get going to editing my novel that I've written about 3 months ago now. Making it nice and good enough to be published!

Hmm... I can't seem to write more, is it because of lack of inspiration or lower amount of ego? Haha or ego for wanting to have lower amount of ego?

Team Robo

Team Robo is an officially registered Pokémon League and Tournament Organizer in Singapore. You can get this from the facebook page.

Many of you might be surprised in knowing that there exist a group who actually still play Pokémon in Singapore. I meant playing Pokémon as in using the official handheld gaming device and the trading card game as opposed to the emulators on PC.

Who are these people in Team Robo? I've joined in their lastest event recently and they are friends united by the love for competitive Pokémon battling.

Competitive Pokémon battling nowadays is no joke compared to the first generation. In the early games where the player almost always wins all battles. Yet with introduction of many different concepts and ideas into the main battling gameplay, sometimes a trainer has to breed the right type of Pokémon for their abilities, nature, individual values, battle the right wild Pokémon for the effort values, and even give the right berries, items for them to hold during battles to win at the last round of play. There is even a Smogon University listing of strategies for all Pokémon so that a serious trainer can have some guide towards building his or her team.

Ok back to the people in Team Robo, they are mostly males in their Junior College, University, National Service or secondary school, sometimes even primary school kids are there and of course working adults as Pokémon is for all ages.

They meet on Saturdays fortnightly to mainly battle and to trade, entralink, register friend code, funfest mission etc... many other stuffs that you can play with Pokémon other than the competitive battling part. Sometimes there are competitions with real life gym leaders in various malls in Singapore to beat and win prizes for! There is also the trading card game people, but since I am more on the side of video game, you get only that in this article.

Well, I'll just end this off with an announcement since the last post about new Pokémon games. Well, briefly speaking the follow up games for Pokémon Black and White are Pokémon Black and White 2 released in 2012. Now the 6th Generation of Pokémon games will be released in October 2013, called Pokémon X and Y with real 3D graphics on Nintendo 3DS! Finally, a 3D Pokémon game! Rejoice fans, this is a good time to buy a console and start playing again.

Pokemon X and Pokemon Y Trailer

Disclaimer: Do work and study as hard too and not get addicted to playing Pokémon.