Grumblings about April

Realised that I haven’t blogged in quite a while. It’s almost a month since the last post.. not sure how the last month went by though.. for one work is starting to close up. I’m more or less done with my bit to make Singapore’s defense industry a notch better.. *smile*

That being said, other things don’t seem too well.. and so the ramblings and grumblings will begin. Proceed with caution.. or earplugs rather.

FYP MESS: This all started with me wanting to do my FYP with DSO. What better way right? I mean, I’m already in the company spending a good 6 months of my time, up to my ears in defense R&D.. why not carry on.. so I voiced out and they were nice enough to finally get down to forming up a project specially for me to do as my FYP.. (and everyone goes ‘aww…’) and that’s about where it starts to spiral out of control..

Apparently, the security clearance for the project didn’t go up high enough, and due to some ‘unforeseen’ miscommunication issues, the top-level big-bosses didn’t clear the project. So even though I have already managed to find a prof at NTU who’s willing to take up this project, and I’ve done all that I can possibly humanly (or inhumanly) do, they decided in the end to withdraw the project. Bummer. So much for me thinking that I’d slog my guts out for them.. only for things to turn out this way.

And as you would guess, NTU with it’s superb, awesome and HIGHLY efficient administration ‘capabilities’, does not allow me to re-submit another proposal for a project. So even though DSO is willing to re-draft another project just for me (and everyone goes ‘aww…’ again), NTU will not be willing to accept it. In their very own words, “..I’m sorry, it’s too late..” right.

Somehow, I feel that there wasn’t enough done. Like DSO could have done more, seriously.. if they really wanted to help me push for this project. I mean, after all, it’s gonna be a Sponsored project, and everyone knows that NTU will bow down to you.. to you who will SPONSOR them anything.. just look at what they were willing to do to get more students to pay hostel fees with the triple sharing thing.. hah. So maybe it’s just a ploy, a conspiracy against alvin, “knowing that he probably won’t get thru the NTU side, so we’ll just tell him to go check with them if they’re still willing to take in a new project proposal.. he probably won’t get thru anyway, so that way, it won’t be our fault..” Ok, that’s pushing it abit. But I can’t help but feel that way.. especially a week ago when they pricked my bubble bad..

The next rambling will probably be on the application of sponsorship from DSO. See, the original plan and intent, was to do my FYP with them, and because of that, I’ll most probably extend my attachment period with them, so I can have a head-start on this whole FYP thing.. plus, I foresee that I’ll be paid too (a temp staff gets paid too right?).. so that isn’t a bad thing. It’ll be like being paid to do my school work, so it really isn’t that bad an idea to extend my IA period. And then, because I’m already doing my FYP with them, I’d stand a better chance to be considered for their sponsorship. So they’ll pay for my last year of school fees and in return, I’m only bonded for 1 year after I graduate. Again, that’s not a bad thing.. looking at it, it also means that I do not have to really worry about finding a job upon graduation, cos I’ll be ‘guaranteed’ a job.

So you see.. this is the IDEAL plan.. But like they say, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. And my guess is that it probably applies to this as well.

So the FYP is messed up. And because of that, I’m starting to wonder if I should even bother to apply for the sponsorship. Deadline’s this Friday, so I’ll be needing to decide soon. And along with that, I’m now also undecided as to whether I should extend my IA term with them. Like I said, my input to the team has more or less reached its end. There’s only so much I can do regarding this particular topic. Exploring other topics to improve the project is a possibility, but it’s not something that I can do in like 2 months or less.. and plus, if they already don’t wish for me to work with them in the future, I’d just be extra baggage for them.. and so I’ll be treated AS extra baggage; ie I’m expendable.

So the other alternative is just to bite the bullet and finish this IA term professionally and then walk away from it/them.. never to return.. *buahaha* And perhaps go on a short break before I sit mindlessly in class for my inter-sem module.. which I shall grumble about some other time.

I’m now stuck with a whole list of FYPs to choose from.. the list that every prof uploads and tries to sell. Let’s hope that the few profs I contacted will be nice and willing to accept me..

So that was how my April went by.. how was urs?