A new year begins

The year 2008 has ended and the new year of 2009 begins.

Personally, the year 2008 was by far the most eventful in my life. The three most notable events: CPTC, SIP and recognizing my atheism.

CPTC refers to the Chemical Process Technology Centre where I received training in Chemical Engineering along with the rest of the cohort. It was amazing. It was interesting. It was fun. The shift training absolutely rocks. Even until now, I cannot forget the night shift when my team had to do troubleshooting. Yea, we broke the record. The experience blew my mind away.

SIP - Student Internship Program. I was sent off to the Nanyang Technological University with Jonathan for this 4 month program. We got our taste of working life as laboratory assistants. It kinda rocks for the first day then it sucked from there. LOL. I had to do a 40 day long experiment and do the same set of tests everyday. Really harmful to your sanity. BUT, I did learn alot.

Through SIP, I met and became friends with Jonathan. At the beginning, you could say he is somewhat of a lapsed christian? I'm not sure. Nonetheless, I was able to discuss with him about religion when I was in the process of "discovering" my atheism. I would sometimes offer little tidbits about evolution when I was reading Richard Dawkins' books. Perhaps his beliefs were changing - I don't know - but in no time, he got the Gospel of Flying Spaghetti Monster. He loves the Pirate Fish. Oh! And this funny guy loves to call me "Boss!". LOL.

My becoming a "full-blown" atheist was largely triggered by the SIP. But not by virtue of the SIP itself but the loads of free time I gained because I had to travel a long distance to work. Two hours each day on the train made it incredibly boring without any entertainment. I got "The God Delusion" first. Then in no time, I got "God is not great", "The End of Faith" followed by "The Ancestor's Tale" and more. By the end of SIP, I have read almost all of Richard Dawkins' books.

I was short of the "River Out of Eden" and "The Blind Watchmaker". But Jonathan got me the latter 3 days ago. So, in standard Singlish, I want to thank him for the book again: "Jon ar, thanks hor."

I would also like to thank all the people who made the year a fruitful one for me. Oh and screw god. (Sorry, couldn't help it)

In this new year, may we work to make the world a little better. I shan't dare hope for world peace yet. For I think it is impossible to achieve world peace any day if religion stays around.

Every step is worth a little something. Make it count.