Goodbye, 2006!

Another year came and went, and now it’s finally the last day and into the final hours. As a recollection, here are the things that I’ve done that meant something to me, chronologically order:

Jan 21 – Baptism in Christ
Declaring my faith, trust and love in Christ was a huge way to start the year of 2006. Not to mention the fact that 21 January is also my birthday!

Apr 3 – Driving Test
After long and hard hours were being spent at the driving lessons at Singapore Safety Driving Centre, 3 April was the faithful day I took my test. I can never forget how edgy I was on that day, and it had been 50% skill and 50% luck I will say. The cut-off point that I need to get was below 20, if not it will result as a failure. Well, I got 10. Haha…

May 6 – SAT Test
Since the beginning of the year, I had wanted to get into the renowned university, Digipen Institute of Technology. One of their criteria though, is the SAT. Wanting to pursue my dreams, I went ahead and register for one. May 6 was the faithful day, if I remember correctly. Well, it was a most grueling session that I had, and I got my results at June 2. I did fairly, mainly because English language was never strong.

My results are as follows:
Critical Reading 580
Math 660
Writing 490

May 6 – Singapore Government Voting Day
At the age of 22, I was legal to vote for who will be taking on over the Singapore Government for the next 5 years. Is it the People Action Party (PAP), or other parties, such as Working Party. As I stay in the area where I was legible to vote, I went ahead after my SAT test that day. It was a good experience though, seeing how the things are set up, the entire process as well. I never knew that I will actually be interested in the political scene until I needed to vote. =D

Jun 12 & 26 – Wisdom Tooth Operation
These are the 2 most traumatizing day of the year 2006. Had my wisdom tooth extraction operation on both dates, a pair on each side at one time. During the operation, though I don’t really feel anything, the pulling and pushing action that the dentists were doing will stay with me vividly. Post operation, it was bleeding so much from the wounds that I cannot even open my mouth at first, as when the gauze moves, the bleeding will be gushing. It took me 5 days to recover from side.

Jul 13 – Canada Trip
The long waited holiday! It was a great trip and I’ve experienced so many things. Travelled to Edmonton, Banff, Drumheller, Vancouver and Victoria Island during the tour, and it was such an eye opener. Spent a good 2 weeks to visit the area, eat great food, and enjoy the summer sun of Canada before returning back to Singapore on the 27 July. 2 weeks was not enough, and I really wished for a longer stay, but being restraint as I’m still a National Service man (NSMan), I had no choice.

Sep 29 – ORD Lo!
After serving 2 years to the nation, I’ve finally ORD lo! I’ve been looking forward to this day every day ever since I entered service. I believe this should be a mentality that most Singaporean guys will have. Nevertheless, these 2 years had been an excellent experience as I learnt the ways of a soldier. It is the kind of thing whereby you will not be able to experience it anywhere else.

Oct 16 – Found my dream job!
After several weeks of job-hunting followed by a couple of interviews, I’ve finally found my a great job with the dream scope that I had in mind at Radixs Pte Ltd. I am employed as a Flash engineer, and it has ever since been a great joy, working on my favourite program and programming language. My skills are still green though, and there’s so much more to learn on a daily basis.

Nov 7 & 8 – Adobe Max 2006 Singapore
With Adobe Max 2006 being the first conference that I had officially attended, I must say that it was a most enriching and invaluable source of experience. I had definitely learnt a lot during that 2 days, and I totally enjoyed myself, not to mention the food as well that Grand Hyatt provided. =D I learnt more about the upcoming Flash 9, codename Blaze, Flex 2, Actionscript 3, Apollo, the new products’ integrated workflow since Adobe bought Macromedia over, and especially the inspirational Flash presentation by Erik Natzke.

Dec 17 – Christmas Comes Early
Another first as well, this was an event organized by my Church that was about distributing food to the less fortunate so that they may experience the love of Christ. It was a heartwarming session when we brought food to them, and seeing their expression of gratitude. It was a win-win situation, as the families are being touched by us, and I personally, touched by God. My faith definitely thickens.

To the new year!