rather accurate... :)

My Personality

Neuroticism	23
Extraversion	57
Openness To Experience	48
Agreeableness	49
Conscientiousness	61

You are neither a subdued loner nor a jovial chatterbox. You enjoy time with others but also time alone. You are generally calm and composed, reacting moderately well to situations that most people would describe as stressful. A desire for tradition does not prevent you from trying new things. Your thinking is neither simple nor complex. To others you appear to be a well-educated person but not an intellectual. You have some concern with others' needs, and are generally pleasant, sympathetic, and cooperative. You are reasonably reliable, organized, and self-controlled.

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Little Thought Apparently

The LTA recently announced that they were considering scrapping bus bays, thus allowing buses to simply stop in the left-most lane at bus-stops, holding up the entire chain of vehicles behind it.

I find the responses in the Straits Times today rather amusing and of point:

"I READ with amusement about the proposed closing of bus bays by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a bid to cut travelling time ('Bus bays may be axed to help cut travel time'; ST, Feb 13).

The LTA has taken aggressive steps to improve bus services without consideration for other vehicles on the road.

First, it closed off one-third of the road for the exclusive use of buses, affecting taxis and other vehicles. Now, it plans to axe bus bays which will affect vehicles travelling in the left-most lane.

Closing the bus bays will deter other vehicles from taking the left-most lane. Once stopped behind a stationary bus, other vehicles will try to filter into an outer lane, which could result in accidents, near misses and slowing of traffic in other lanes.

Eventually, all vehicles will tend to avoid the left-most lane, which will increase congestion on roads where there are bus stops.

No amount of statistics can justify why a major road that takes only 66 per cent of its designated load is always congested.

I am a daily bus commuter and a weekend driver. Allow me to pinpoint the root problems experienced by many commuters.

First, unrealistically extended bus routes contribute to a one-hour ride from point A to point B when 30 minutes is possible.

Second, the low frequency of buses results in overcrowding and difficulty in boarding the bus. Therefore, the bus needs to stop longer at the bus stop.

One often sees the bus driver urging passengers to move to the rear of the bus. This is reinforced by announcements on the bus PA system. We are also having premium bus services for those who wish to avoid taking overcrowded buses.

Lastly, I would like to ask the LTA to slash road tax by 30 per cent - since we will no longer use one-third of the road.

Edward Ngui Yong Siang"

Here's another one:

"AFTER the recent announcement of the implementation of full-day bus lanes on certain roads within the city area, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has now decided to do away with bus bays on a trial basis so as to further increase average bus speed.

It was reported that this initiative is based on an internal survey by a bus company which indicated that 9 per cent of travelling time is spent waiting to get out of the bus bay.

I believe closing bus bays will only cause traffic to pile up behind buses and create other kinds of problems, including congestion and accidents resulting from impatient driving.

If extra space is not created on the road, managing traffic is actually a zero sum game as any extra benefit accorded to one group of motorists has to be at the expense of other groups of motorists.

Can the LTA explain why it is implementing various initiatives so as to increase the speed of buses - which are known and have been accepted as a slower form of transport?

In addition, buses carry far fewer passengers per trip compared to trains.

The LTA should try to increase the speed of trains instead, as this will not be at the expense of anyone.

Tan Wee Ko"

To avoid sounding repetitive, suffice to say that I agree wholeheartedly with the learned authors of the above letters to the ST Forum. The whole notion of abolishing bus bays is just ridiculous and a clear indication of the narrow-minded focus of probably some "task force" in the LTA set up to look into reducing bus transport time. What happened to the "task force" to look into reducing traffic congestion for the rest of the motorists, who incidentally pay hundreds in road tax, as compared to 80 cents for a bus ride?

To put is bluntly, I have been less than impressed with the LTA in recent times. Frequent and arbitrary increases in the ERP charges with only a few days' notice each time, massive road works (using taxpayers' money) to replace a barrier with an almost identical barrier (ie. Benjamin Sheares Bridge), and now crazy suggestions to cause greater congestion all around the island. I suppose when traffic gets clogged up due to the absence of bus bays, they'd use it as an excuse to set up ERP gantries along these bus bay-less roads?

Disappointing.

the end of an era...

Ok, the title's a bit of an exaggeration, but nonetheless, I am in fact about to move on to a new phase in my career.

The wait I had described a couple of posts back was for the outcome of an interview with my future employers. Notwithstanding that I had told them at the interview that I would be leaving for ICT the following week, they were unable to get back to me before then, and it was only during my day off-in-lieu on 2 Feb that I got the long-awaited phone call offering the job. :)

So I'll be joining the Equity Capital Markets team in the Frantic Slogging Department of a very large local firm. For the finer details, click here.

The benefits of the move are clear to me, as the experience gained will place me in a much much better position for future career moves and options in the event that I choose not to stay (or am compelled by fatigue to move). The downside is of course that I am voluntarily giving up the most excellent hours which I am enjoying at my current firm.

Weighing the pros and cons, I suppose it's a necessary sacrifice (and investment) to slog a bit harder now while I am still young, and reap the benefits in time to come. Every person is granted with certain gifts from God, and for me, I suppose the parable of the talents come into play here. I should not be sitting comfy where I am, and allowing the gift from God to stagnate. As my ex-pastor used to say all the time, if you're comfortable, you're not growing.

Of course the most difficult aspect of the move would be having less time with Ad, but I truly hope we can both look at this shift with the right perspective, and support each other through these (still) formative years of my career. There will come a point of time some years down the road when I will have to choose between family and career, and because I will be choosing family, hence it is all the more important to establish the career aspect firmly for now.

Dealt with another difficult issue yesterday - the tendering of my resignation. It was very hard to break the news to my boss, and even harder to look him in the eye when discussing the matter thereafter. I'm sincerely grateful to my current firm for helping me transit to corporate law, and I apologise for the disappointment caused by my departure. May God prosper the firm always.

So this shift is accompanied by mixed feelings, but with trust in the Lord, I need not fear, for He shall direct my paths. (Back to the key Bible verses of my life - Proverbs 3:5-6)

Last day of work at my current place on 11 April 2007, whereupon I'll be scooting off to Bangkok from 12 to 14 April. Starting work tentatively on 23 April. FYI. :)

Strike With Synergy

That's the tag-line for my current NS unit. Not exactly the words you would associate with a bunch of guys from all walks of life gathering together once or twice a year to play with guns and such, but we did surprisingly well nonetheless.

Just returned from 2 weeks of In-Camp Training, and it was whole new experience for me, since I was but a clerk during my active NS days. We took part in Exercise Voyager, which entailed being out in the field for 7 days and 6 nights. For fear of being hauled up by Mindef for security breaches, I shall not provide much details, but suffice to say that our motley crew managed to prevail against fresh and vigorous 18/19 year-olds in a reputable active infantry unit. The sleepless nights and heavy tasks were a torture, but on hindsight, it was truly a refereshing experience and I'm a tad proud of myself for surviving my first full military exercise as part of a unit which was recently the best combat unit in its division.

But the bane of my existence in the army? Here it is:



For some reason, they have chosen to bestow me with the squad automatic weapon instead of just the usual rifle, and I thus have to lug this heavy crap all around with me. Not only that, the blanks used do not generate enough "kick" for the weapon to function optimally, so I have to spend more time fixing it than shooting it. Sigh.

I also ended up bringing too much food for the exercise. Only when the exercise started did I realise that I should minimise my eating so as to minimise the call of nature. Trust me, it's not pleasant to squat among tall grass and a battalion of mosquitoes to do the deed. Am most pleased to have limited myself to 3 "releases" during the 7 days, but it came about as a result of eating just enough not to be hungry. Plenty of wasted rations.

Soldier talk aside, I did have a good time with my platoon mates from all walks of life. From a chef, to a pilot, to luxury watch sales, it's nice to be able to interact with people other than legal eagles and the like. Will be seeing quite a bit of them this year, as we anticipate a mobilisation sometime this year, and another ICT later this year too.

Alright, am tired of being deliberately vague, so shall end this post. It's good to be back in civilisation. :)