The Last Lectures of My Life

You see it during every end of semester. People bringing their cameras and snapping pictures with anyone and everyone they can lay their hands on. I promised myself that I would not succumb to the cheesy activity of taking last minute pictures, immortalizing that part of your life that you paid so much for.

I broke my promise, almost- it was my classmate's camera. It finally occured to me that it's the last week of uni and also the last lectures of my life. I have passed yet another milestone of my life, and decided that it'll involve too much trouble relating it verbally in the future.

But I should take some pictures, for nothing will bring back those memories as vividly as pictures do.

So, whether you are the snap-happy or the photo-shy, this will be my unbashful sharing.

Deena, my newfound neighbour living just above me. We didn't know of each other existence till one rainy morning in the tram.

Me, Deena and Kate. Together, we represent the Southeast Asia countries of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. 

Purpose of this picture is to illustrate the concept of "scale". Or rather, Omar's a great guy, doesn't mince his words. He's mellowed over the semesters tho, no more quick-witted sacarsms.

Chinese Steam Egg Recipe

This is dedicated to my friends in Melbourne, where every meal doesn't come that easy.

I've tried this a couple of times, and it's quite fool-proof. Just dump all the ingredients inside, steam it till it solidifies, and viola!

You'll need:
4 Eggs
Lean Pork 100 g
Dry Black Mushrooms 3 pcs
Chopped Spring Onion 1 stalk
Chicken Stock-same volume to egg

For the Sauce:
Salt 1/2 tbsp
Light Soy Sauce 1 tbsp
Pepper to taste
Yellow Wine 1 tbsp

Directions:
1) Wash lean pork, mince into small fine dices
2) Soak dry black mushroom, cut into small dices
3) Heat wok with 2 tbsp of oil, stir fry pork and black mushroom
4) Add sauce when pork is cooked, stir fry well then pour in a large bowl
5) Whisk well the egg with same volume of chicken stock and 2 tbsp of water
6) Pour the egg into bowl gently, and stir mix well gently
7) Put inside a steam case, steam the egg in medium heat when water is boiled
8) Steam for approx. 15-25 minutes until egg is steamed solid
9) Sprinkle chopped spring onion, serve

Steaming time varies, but just make sure that the egg has solidify before taking it off the stove.

Bon Appetit!

Steam Egg

Check this Out!

This is a posting from the online forum of my Strategic Management class. Check out this posting and tell me if the lecturer reading this will flip.

"In the literature review assignment,my interest is innovation one.My questions are from the question you asked us"can innovation be effectively framed as the firm's capability?" (1)you expect us to find the different prevailing innovation theories(value innovation,technology innovation,management innovation) or your focus is how they could be framed as the capability or you want us to show that we know that capability is not necessarily the competitive advantage to firm(4 attributes)? (2)As the reading given under this topic is the value innovation(focusing on customer needs, irrelevant to competition),the writer says this should be the strategy(not the traditional competition-based),I am confused about the above points relative to your question.Ir does not mention capability stuff,should I define the "capability"in the question to be narrower,that is ,the capability which could provide company with competitive advantage. Thanks very much."

Lecturer's Reply:
The questions you have asked is a little confusing, but let me try to answer the issues you have raised.

What The??! (Series 1)

It's one of those things that never fails to catch your attention. In Communications Marketing, we call it Novel Stimuli (using of humour to attract attention). BAD ENGLISH!

Talking to Cindy and Clara, we've compiled some bad english that occured right in the heart of Melbourne, land of the English descendents, but possibly peppered with ambassadors of other nationalities (of which I will not try to name).

Here's the list from the restaurants:
1) Prok Vemicelli, Dump Dumplings and Fred Red Bean Cake
2) BBQ Chiken with special rice

And these came from formal correspondence/presentations of the post-graduate students of Australia's best university:
1) Alternative Adz
2) It's a Pitty
3) Swizzland

We're quite brain-dead now... so we'll add on as we get more of such input.

"Everyday Everyone"

I've been spending recent nights obscillating between thoughts of correcting a badly written essay and sending a politically correct email to the authors to get a better grip of their writing. I'll let you be the judge.

A sample of it goes like this:

"Furthermore, within the budget airline industry, high number players who are severely competing on price gives a little room for customer to differentiate products provided by different firms... Additionally, the weaknesses of not well established brand and lacks a safety track record also prevent the company from ... ..."

Additionally, the flexible culture the company where cost saving is regarded as a core task of everyone everyday accommodates favorable conditions for cost leadership strategy......"

I'm a fan of Lynne Truss's Eats, Shoots and Leaves (the ultimate guide to punctuation), but I don't demand her pristine standard of english on anyone. However, to put things into perspective, this context is set on a post-grad level course which requires a convincing command of the language in order to be effective.

Therefore, I am hardly surprised when the following article was published in The Age:

Unis Depend On Foreign Students to Stay Afloat
Australia's universities have become so financially dependent on foreign students that their viability as major learning and research institutions now hinges entirely on that market.
But the pressure of maintaining the 220,000 international students needed each year to keep the campuses afloat has led to a drop in academic standards.
Academics report that in some courses entry requirements have been lowered, courses have been made easier and marking has been softened to help overseas students cope with their problems with the English language.

Back to another night of editing. Cheers!

I'm Back!

Hi, I've finally returned to the blog scene. It's been a crazy 2 weeks with tonnes of assignments and presentations. My dear friend cindy will attest to that, and even Clara, since we've not have a decent meal together for sooo long!

'Buggered' was a good word to use after Marketing Plans and Strategy presentation. When it was done, you get the feeling of wanting to just slob over a chair and call it a day. The good news was that our Swiss Choc lecturer didn't go on an attack, but the bad news was that the French was a tough loaf.

But that is all over!

Thanks to my babe Sharon, i had been entertaining myself (read: wasting time) with Toshimitsu Takagi's Viridian Room and Crimson Room. They are great mind-perking games to play when you are bored with your Strategic Management assignment.

Back to case study on Swatch. Food for thought: it costs only A/S$10 to manufacture one swatch. Irony indeed...

Do you like my revamped blog page?