"Its my life story. My infamous story" -Dick Lee

I was born in August 1973, at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital. The furthest I could remember into my childhood is at my grandparent place. My grandparent's house is located in Chinatown. Chinatown during that time was still partially developed and had lots of night markets and food stalls. Whenever I was at my grandparent place, I had to help my grandfather in his repairing of stuffs, lots of stuff. He fixed almost everything - TVs, radios, lamps, chairs, tables, fans, and lot more. Luckily, my grandfather have a large house (very old design HDB flats) with a big corridor. This corridor became his workshop and store room. Whenever I was around and he was fixing stuff, he would demand my presence and ask me to pass the tools he needed to him. Although I hated to help him that time, but that spark off my analytical skills and my interest in fixing things. My favorite place in my grandparent place is the kitchen (see picture). My grandmother ensured that there are always food on the table. The food that I loved most is the 'Chilly Fried Peanuts'.

The primary school that I went to is "Permasura Primary School"; however, it was closed down two years after I graduated. The school compound is now used by "New Town Primary School". The first friend I made and also best friend in primary school times is called Lim Tiong How(林忠孝). I had lost contact with him therefore I don't know how is he doing now. In fact, I had lost contact with all of my classmates except one. I met that friend again in poly. Try to identify him from the poly photo below. :-)

The nightmare of my primary school days is the dentist room. As my oral hygiene was not very good at that time. :-P The dentist always scolded and threatened me to brush my teeth. On top of that, the drilling, filling and polishing of my teeth gave my several nightmares. Nevertheless, the nightmare is now over but it gave me a phobia for dentists.

Due to training I had from my grandfather, I performed quite well in the Math and Science during that time. However, that was not true for my language subjects. I did very badly for my English and Chinese subjects. Nevertherless, I managed to get a C5 for my English in PSLE and went to secondary school.

The secondary school that I attended is the "Queensway Secondary School". As you can see from the picture, the uniform of the guys are all white. This really give me a headache as my primary school is grey shorts. I had trouble initially keeping my shorts clean. The problem was elevated with some naughty students who like to soil the chairs and benches.

The first two years of secondary school went quite well. I continued to perform quite well in Math and Science. But still the same terrible results for English and Chinese. The greatest shock I had occurs in Sec 3. That was the time where I first failed my Math test. After thinking and analyzing myself for 2 sleepless nights, I concluded that I was not flexible enough or weak in the application of theorems and formulas. Hence, I began to read IQ or Mathematical books to train my brain flexibilities. By the time I graduate, I had completed two shelves of such books in my school's library. The result was rewarding, I was the 2nd runner up in the school GEC 'O' level results and top in Math D and Physics.

It is the school's policy to take-up two ECA (Extra Curriculum Activities), and must be one sports or uniform group and one club. Therefore, I joined the badminton club and computer club. This is the first time I played badminton in a proper full court and I felt it was so big. Running from end to end, corner to corner, and hitting the shutter from base to base almost gave me a heart attack. On the other hand, I had more fun in computer club. In the club, I played my first computer game (Dig-Dug) and learnt my first programming language (GW-Basic). This is my first step into programming. I found that I could apply my flexibilities and analytical skill to programming.

Going to poly is my first decision that I made for myself. I would say it is the most correct also. As my GCE 'O' level results was eligible to go to JC, but I decided to go to poly instead. I was accepted by "Singapore Polytechnics".

That was the place where I enjoyed the most in my study life. As it is still non-modular system, there was only one examination at the end of the year. Therefore, for 7 months we enjoyed ourselves and relax. Until August then we buried ourselves in notes and books to study for exams. On top of that, Singapore Polytechnics was very near my house (just across the road, 3 minutes walk), I could stay very late in school to do whatever I wish.

Also due to too much time on our hands and were tired of the games. During the second year, we occupied ourselves in the computer lab - playing games, programming, hacking the network, and making graphics. That was the time where my flexibilities and analytical skills were fully harvested. Furthermore, due to the time I spent in computer labs, lots of people had asked me to troubleshoot their program as required by the computer assignments. This is the time I built up my troubleshoot skills, and programming abilities.

In poly, I had made several good friends. It was also here that I picked up my comics hobby. We would read our comics almost every where - in lectures, tutorials, labs, canteens. Our 'gathering' place was the study area under the clinic. I considered that place to be the best place with the canteen is on the left, football and basketball field in front, lecture theaters and classrooms on the right, and lockers (that we manage to get 10 in a row) in the centre; it was like our own personal club house with snacks, drinks, games, balls and everything we need in the lockers.

However, the happy days ended with our graduation and to serve our country. After 3 months of tedious BMT (Basic Military Training) in 7th BTS (Basic Training School), I was posted to 2nd GUARDS where HELL really began.

Again due to my poor physical fitness, I was virtually tortured everyday on top of the normal daily training. Furthermore, my company, Charlie Company, is commanded by 2LT Siva Steven. He is the most 'garang' and sadist person I ever met. Days under his command was like in prison or 'black' society. Not sure how I did it, I survived the two years of training there. At that point of time, I had totally switched off my brain and thoughts; if not, I would have gone crazy. The picture above is the picture of my company.

After the unit had stood down, I still have 4 more months of service to serve. Then I was posted back to 7th BTS as instructors. Being the fittest, strongest and very good field knowledge, I was the most experience person in the company I was posted to. Hence, I enjoyed several privileges and it could be considered as a break from the army life to prepare myself for the coming civilian life.

After I completed my army, I found a job at CSA Automated Pte. Ltd. as a service engineer. This job enabled me to be in contact with lots and lots of different people and hence slowly built up my personal relationship skills. However, this job did not last very long. After 10 months, I was accepted by NTU and I quitted.

NTU is another memorial event in my life. Luckily I met 2 of my good poly friends there and as soon as we met, we ganged together and begin our comics craze again. As poly student entitled the exemption of some subjects, I could take up subjects from next semester in advance. The first day of school, I discovered that I was not the only one and before knowing it, the poly students that attend the same 'advanced' class as me had ganged up together. But one thing for sure, all of them were also comics fans. :-D

We had several happy times and sad times with this gang of friends. We go on outing, see movies, tour oversea, exercise, swim, study, and etc. In the three year of the course, we done almost everything together. I could still remember the crazy things that we had done too. For example the 'PROM Erase' procedure after the exam of each subject. By the end of the examination, we had watched 5 movies in 2 weeks. Another example is the 'X' project. :-)

In this group of friends, we had also 'spun off' several couples. The first is Swee Hock and Philyn, followed by Kany Yong and Shao Peng, and finally Beng Shuang and Aileen. Blessing to all of these couples.

Although we graduated in 1999, we were still in contact and gathered to play 'healthy' Mahjong and badminton. I stayed back in NTU to continue to obtain my honors degree. As almost all my gang members had left, it leave me no choice but to try to fit into other gang. Hence, for the one year of honors study, every week day was nothing but study. Only during weekends, I would join my gang in outings.

Therefore, I had my second graduation ceremony in 2000. I did not opt out of this convocation because it is the first session (where we can shake the president's hand) and first time in NTU auditorium.

When I was still deciding between post-grad studies and working, I was offered a job at Trustcopy Pte. Ltd. As it is a spin off from KRDL (Kent Ridge Digital Labs), the first 6 months of my job was mainly assisting a research fellow in his research work. After the research was done, I developed the prototype for the research. After the prototype was completed, my work load was greatly reduced. With this lesser work and more time, I used the time to research, write proposal, and apply for post-grads studies back in NTU.

Hence, I was backed in NTU and backed to study again.