Saturday, December 22, 2007

Stan the man

it wasn't all that long ago when i first met him... slightly more than 2.5yrs. he was our team's mentor. my first impression - so young! n he's already somebody in microsoft. a nice, polite, yet somewat mysterious guy with an accent that reminds me so much of a good fren whom i missed. i took a liking to him immediately. (our first meeting: http://egnaroangel.blogspot.com/2005/04/imaginecup-briefing.html)


a pic from then. we met up late last nite, he looks exactly the same. 2.5years have done nothing to him whereas, i seemed to have aged ungracefully. =(

imaginecup was a huge part of my life 2yrs ago and the memories that came with it remains ever so dear to me. the many days n nites we hung out at 1 marina boulevard perfecting our presentation n system, only leaving just in time to catch the last train/bus home. our commitment to the competition and his commitment to us! he stayed back as late as we did, giving us valuable advice and suggestions for improvement. i couldn't ask for a better mentor. he revealed last nite that we were never the team to beat. in fact, the comp's organisers tot our chances of winning were 0% even when we were one of the 4finalists. so why did he believe in us?, i asked him. he didn't really know. my guess is the frenship. but he did say he has always believed that "it's not what you say, but how you say it." - which was really why we won. we had the package.
i learnt so much from him, from the competition.


look at our delight the moment the results were announced.

japan was phenomenal. i guess we were rather sure our chances were slim in comparison with the world. nonetheless, we fought hard n nv gave up even when things didn't turn out that well. we had several crazy nights drinking sake n wine in stan n ed's room, playing silly games, reciting tongue twisters and even trying to learn to play the guitar in my stupor. n being with a bunch of IT geeks had it amusements. when we seemed stuck with too much alcohol, "Let's write a program to see who drinks!" declares stanley. n within 10minutes of coding, the program was up and we were drinking according to the names that were generated with a click of a button. =) so silly rite...


all of us in a nice jap garden. stan, ed (our "daddy"), me, dot, justin, vincent.

even tho we only met up for a short hour or so, and i was slightly groggy from the alcohol, its still so nice to see him again (n to see him so happy with his girl) n to know that some relationships are not lost despite a 2yr gap. he was still the same - such an IT geek, yet witty and teasing me with every opportunity.


reflecting upon my imaginecup days resulted in a firmer decision to wanna be my own boss someday. working with partners who have the exact same goal, heading wholeheartedly in the same direction. unlike working in a big bureacratic organisation where conflicts of interests are prevalent.
Some day.......... it will happen.


~~~ Angela 10:30 PM