Psychology Department's "Big Morning Tea"

The Psychology department will be holding a Big Morning Tea on 22 May to raise money for the Cancer Council. This is a country wide event and I'm proud that my Uni's Psy department choose to be part of it. I have two Aunties who have had breast cancer. They overcame it not only due to their own efforts but also because of the medical research that went into it. So people! support cancer research! :)
For those interested, this is the website: http://www.biggestmorningtea.com.au/

I'm sad that I probably wont be able to go for the morning tea cause I have class at that time. However, I am going to contribute some food. Have decided that I'll get a chocolate cake (yum!), some muffins (if they have it at the supermarket when I go that day) and some cookies. A friend of mine commented that I shouldnt bother contributing anything cause I wont even be there to enjoy it. Felt like smacking her... but then decided to leave it alone. She is entitled to her own opinion. But well, I feel good contributing, and who knows, maybe after people at the tea ate the food they'll feel happier and then they will donate more!

I did something really stupid... I thought that the tea session is tomorrow! Yap. That just show how.. blinded I am. So I went to buy cake and muffins today. Only realized my mistake when I reread the email (cause I wanted to check where to pass on the food). Sheesh. Now i'll be sharing the cake and muffins with Komal and her housemate (who stays opposite me). So blur right? Hahaha... but then, thank goodness I found out the mistake today. Imagine how stupid I will look if I had brought everything tomrorow and then find out then that I got the date wrong. Haha... phew. Thank goodness I am spared tat. Hehehehe... just find it soooo funny. Next time I better real emails and dates carefully...

Have a good rest of the week! :)

Reflection on mid-semester break

The mid-semester break is officially over. Sob. No more slacking. Now it's the beginning of assignments due date. I think I still have 6 written assignments and 2 presentations in the next 6 weeks. And each of the written assignment is 2500 words? Dun even want to think about it now...

Didnt really accomplish as much as I wanted during the break. Did get some things settled (thank goodness!!!), but not everything. Sigh. I really need to learn what my own abilities are and from there how to set realistic targets. I laugh when I looked back at some of the stuff that I targeted to finish. Sheesh. I supposed this is one of the ways you get to learn about yourself. At least I learned something from this...

On a positive note, I finally finished my draft for WAIS. Will read through it after dinner before sending it to my vetter. Haha. Thanks fen :)

Ok, off to dinner! whee! So hungry!

Food Party!

Today is the last day of our mid-semester break. So sad! >_< Classes start again next week! Sob. BUT! There was a good thing that happened today! We had… a food party!  Han Ying came up with the idea, where everyone cooks a dish and bring it for dinner (we dun get dinner provided on Sunday). Nope, for people who are wondering, I didn’t cook. Pls, I dun want to poison someone k. I bought some drinks instead. There were a total of 17 of us and these are what we had:

Xiao Bai Cai + dong ku + dried scallop
Fried potato with vinegar
Fried dry beancurd skin
Spicy chicken dish (not sure how to describe it except it’s REALLY spicy)
Mochi (red bean filling)
Fried egg + seafood
Chicken curry (had potato, onion and carrot in it so healthy )
Pork Leg
Stir-fry mince lamb
Crispy Chicken
Chicken (again, not sure what this dish is called, but it’s kinda soupy, but not too much. And it has a mild taste. I like it)
Spaghetti
Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Mousse
Peach Pie
Whisky
Scotch
Midori
Coke
Sprite

Cool huh? So many stuff. Hehehehe. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos.  If not I can share with you all the wonderful food that we had. But I’m sure we’ll do this again. Hehe. Next time I’ll take photos. Some of the guys were a bit drunk at the end (scotch and whisky are 40% alcohol content) but all in all, it was good.

Present: Yasu, Masayo, Ethan, Wang Yu, Xiao Peng, Long, James, Siwei, Lin Shen, Mark, Han Ying, Mark (? Not sure whether this is his name…), Adam (I think...), Adam’s brother, Gilmert, Feifei & me.

Fencing night! :)

Today is fencing day!!! Wheeee!! :) I couldnt really make up my mind whether to go or not. Cause I had to go Uni in the morning, and then come home. U know how after u go home u really dun wanna go out? that's how I felt. Anyway, I still went for fencing today. It was a good workout, though I didnt do very well today in the bouts. I got thrashed in the first bout. 6-15. Sigh. I really need to work out more often. My legs get so tired easily. And I think there's something wrong with my grip, cause for the first time, my thumb hurts. Will have to check with the experts next week.

I won the second bout though, but it was really closed. 15-12. A lot of things to work on!!
1) Hold the blade up
2) Extend the arm first before moving the legs
3) Tempo
4) Take small steps
5) Use cutting action, not swiping
6) The fastest action should be:
- when attacking
- riposte is to be faster than parry
7) Do not anticipate
8) Do not take too many steps at the beginning

I get new things to work on every week when I go! Lots of room for improvement... Ahhh!! and I must improve before the competition in June!!!

Glenelg Beach

Went to Glenelg Beach with Komal today. :) We took the tram!! It was nice! The weather was good (warm enough that I can walk around without my windbreaker!!!), but water quite cold. Still, I enjoyed it. The sea is sooooo clear!! First time I've been to the beach since I arrived. IMO, the area is a bit too commercialised. Dun really have the full "beachy" feeling. Ah well... Komal and I are so spontaneous. We were walking in the town on the way home when we pass by the cinema. Saw that kids movies are $8! We ended up watching a movie - Horton Hears a Who! It's quite funny, and the animation is cool and colourful. After that we went home, and I managed to be in time for dinner! All in all, a good day today.

Below are some photos that I took today! :)

Glenelg Beach

See how clear the water is!!! The dark part is where the seaweeds are...

So bright and sunny! :)

Me & Komal. Komal is my fellow org psy-to-be

Glenelg

The Beach House. See those slides? Those are for people to slide in! So cool huh? Haha. Will probably come again some day with Komal. :)

Glenelg Beach

Tram! Took us about 30 mins to travel from Adelaide City to the beach.

Sunsetting. Waiting for tram to go home

Skills & Expertise required of I/O Psychologist

I was browsing through some of the jobs requirements of I/O (Industrial/Organizational) psychologists yesterday and found out to my horror that I LACK A LOT of the skills that's required.

This is what I gathered from the job requirements and some articles that I read a while back. Skills needed:
- Mastery of finance (dang!)
- Strategy (no idea o.O)
- Marketing (none of this)
- Operation (maybe a bit?)
- Knowledge of the customer (have a bit of this i think...)
- Knowledge of leading edge practices (i'm trying to keep up by reading...)
- Creating and managing change (part of a consultant job...)
- Various certification like SHL accreditation (a 1 day course can cost $1000+) and cert IV in assessment & marketplace training (expensive too!)
- Psychological assessment (thank goodness I'm learning this in my course!)
- Interviewing skills (had some of this...)

So yeah, looks like lots of work needs to be put in before I can become a good I/O psychologist.

After looking through all these, I think what I'll go for in my placements are 1) Administration of psychometric tests 2) Recruitment related, e.g. interviewing and 3) Dealing with clients. That should serve my purpose and let me have experience in these areas. Still need to think it through and finalise things before I decide and send out my cv.

Hahndorf Photos (13 April 08)

Some photos taken in Hahndorf :) Went there with Mark, Ethan, Long, Gilmert, Wang Yu, Han Ying & Lin Shen. They are my friends from college.

Hahndorf

I dunno...

Mark & Gilmert

Wang Yu & Me

Long & Mark

Ethan

Chocolate Roses

Nice! :)

Old Cafe

Candy Shop

Me, Lin Shen & Han Ying

Hahndorf

Hahndorf Inn. We had our lunch here

My Lunch. Shared with Lin Shen

International Rugby Sevens Adelaide photos (6 April 08)

Got a new SD card reader yesterday. And therefore... can extract photos from the camera. Here are some photos from the International Rugby Sevens Adelaide on 6 April. It was really exciting on that day. As the halves are so short (7 mins!!) there were lots of action and tries. hehehehe. We were there from 10.30am to about 7pm. Long event, but worth it for the excitment!

Adelaide Oval

Adelaide Oval in the evening

Ta Wei and Me

Uni at the back!
Wallaby


Attendance for the event

Kangaroos supporters + cow!

Kenya Supporters

Kenya Players. They played a good game. Lost toTonga.

Bowl Champions - Argentina

See the bowl on his head!!

Final Scoreboard. This is the oldest scoreboard (1911) still in use in Australia

Plate Winners - Tonga

Shield Winner - Wales

South Africa Supporters

New Zealand vs South Africa - Cup Finals

South Africa Won

The Cup! (weird looking o.O)

Me, with the winning SA team behind :)