Waydespectives

It has been a very exciting week in Singapore with a few major happenings due to the Committee of Supply debate in parliament on the Budget 2019. One of the major focuses was the changes detailed on the changes in streaming for secondary schools. In other but related news, the Info-Communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) cancelled a concert by Swedish black metal band, Watain, just a day the concert, a move which was backed by the Minister of Home Affairs, K Shanmugam. In view of these 2 major incidences, I have requested my Instagram followers to choose between the 2 choices, of which 65% requested for me to blog on the Changes to Streaming. For the uninitiated (seriously, you didn't know?)  on the changes of streaming? With effect from year 2024, the current Secondary School Streaming system we all know and grew up with will cease to exist. There will be no more "Normal" or "Express" stream as we know them from 2024, nor will there be any "...

Just last month, my 2-year contract with Singtel for my mobile plan had expired. Initially, it seemed that it was going to be another routine biennial (once in 2 years) affair, to go renew my contract, and get a new phone. However, initially, I turned down the immediate contract renewal as I wanted to wait for the Oppo R19 to be released, though its release date in Singapore is still unknown. When I got home, I was thinking of my options at hand. Should I wait out the Oppo R19, or just settle for the Oppo R17 and renew my contract? My contract has been an issue as of late, especially after enlisting in SAF. As the SAF camps do not have WiFi, I often rely on Mobile Data to satisfy my internet needs. It's not too bad since I am a stay out personnel, but the data plan I was on still seemed insufficient. My plan started off with a 2GB plan, with a Data X2 to make it 4GB. Some time last year, I was going to overshoot, so as a moment of desperation I bought 2 GB more to make it ...

Just last Monday, the Budget 2019 was delivered by Finance Minister (and probably Prime Minister designate) Heng Swee Keat. This budget was long awaited as rumours of a General Election would be coming soon. I did think prior to this budget that this budget would be indicative of whether the GE will be held this year or next.  To sidetrack a bit, while I have been following the Budget for a few years (thankfully I've started to understand the Budget more and more), Budget 2018 was a significant one for me. First, it was when Minister Heng announced the increase in GST from 7% to 9% in the next term of Parliament (2021-2025), and the immediate increase of 10% of the excise duty of all tobacco tax. Secondly, it was announced the day before my enlistment, so I was just lying on my bed feeling depressed before my impending doom. Before I begin my recap and (attempted) analysis of the Budget, please note that what I present is not whole for 2 reasons. If I were to cover the...

Recently, I was informed by my NUS High School juniors that the NUS Bonus Point Admission Scheme has been extended from just A Level graduates to local Polytechnics, IB Diploma, and our NUS High School Diploma.  To explain it in NUS High's context, the Bonus Point works whereby if the applicant will be considered for his/her first choice course with an increased CAP of 0.1. However, this applies only for courses without interview requirements. For example, if an NUSHS graduate has a CAP of 4.4, but applies to (for example) Computer Science (CS) as first choice, he/she will be considered for CS with a CAP of 4.5. However, shall he/she not get CS as first choice, his/her will be considered with the original 4.4 CAP for the second choice onwards. If this graduate chooses a first choice course which has interviews, such as Medicine, Law, or Dentistry, the bonus points will not apply. More information can be read at:  http://www.nus.edu.sg/oam/docs/default-source/admission...

After getting my driver's license on 4 Jan earlier this year, I have been practicing driving on the roads for about a month and a half now. I've seen many weird stuff happen on the roads, and the number is likely to increase. One of the challenges I've seen is discretionary right turns on the roads. For those who do not drive, discretionary right turns happens at a cross-junction. Suppose I wish to turn right at a traffic light. I form up in the lane for motorists turning right. If I am the first motorist in line, if I deem that the oncoming traffic is clear enough for me to turn right, I can go ahead even if the green arrow has not come on. Sometimes, an oncoming vehicle could be approaching the junction, but if I decide I can complete my turn before he reaches the junction, I can perform my discretionary right turn. Such junctions with discretionary right turns often have a green arrow next to the green light. The danger of such discretionary right turns is w...

I first blogged about the timing of the next General Election about more than 3 months ago. For those who are new or did not read my initial post, one can view the post at  https://thecwtheorems.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-next-general-election-ge2019.html. In the post, I predicted that the next General Elections in Singapore will be held this year, year 2019. This is in spite of most election cycles being full 5 years, with the exception of the 2001 and 2015 General Elections.  In summary, I have not changed my view that the next General Election will be held this year. In fact, in light of recent developments, there is more evidence that the General Elections will be held this year. I will discuss these developments in this post. Firstly, the Elections Department started training 30,000 public servants who have been appointed as Election Officials for the next GE. In fact, these officials have started training since the second half of last year. In the last GE, public ...

Before I begin this week's post, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the family and friends of the late CFC (NS) Aloysius Pang, who unfortunately passed on due to a serious training injury sustained during Exercise Thunder Warrior. This incident was certainly unnecessary and avoidable, and has shaken up the SAF and Singapore as a whole.  As an SAF soldier, I sincerely hope that his death will not be in vain, and that the SAF will take all necessary steps to prevent such further incidents.  However, as I am an SAF personnel, I am not allowed to speak out or speculate on public platforms on such cases. I will leave the findings and investigation to the Committee of Inquiry (COI). Furthermore, speculating on the matter would be extremely insensitive to the deceased's family, and frankly unprofessional. I will leave the matter as it is here. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Singapore is certainly...

I wrote on what happened during my internal evaluation and the 6 practice sessions before my practical test in my last blog post yesterday. In this blog post, I will detail what happened on the day of my practical test, and also wrap up my experience with BBDC. On the day of my practical test, which was 4 January 2019 (Friday), I managed to secure half day off from work since I did Christmas and New Year duties. I had a swim in the morning and thereafter a short meeting with my new boss before heading off for my test. A good colleague, Aaron, offered to send me and my Malay colleague out of camp, the latter having to attend to his Friday prayers. After lunch, my colleague abandoned me as he went to toilet, and off I went to BBDC. Although my warmup slot was supposed to be at 1345, I arrived at around 1315 and registered next to the Instructor's office. The instructor on duty quickly checked my details and PDL, before passing my details to another instructor, who led me to ...

As many who have been following my Instagram and Facebook would know, I've revealed last week that I passed my driving test, and am now officially a qualified driver! Although I passed my test on 4 Jan (9 days ago), I generally kept the pass as a secret from many till my Driver's License came and when I posted last week. I realized that my previous 2 posts on the Journey to the License was not too well received, and perhaps they were a bit long winded. Therefore, I also decided that since I've made my test pass public, I will also wrap up the series by talking about what happened since I passed my internal evaluation till the driving test. As for what happened during stage 2-4, those interested can drop me a message, or maybe one day I'll write about it (or on a separate link). I managed to pass my 5.01 Internal Evaluation on 23 December last year, having secured a rare Session 5 (the OT slot for BBDC instructors). Given that the date was near Christmas, many i...