Thanks for the acknowledgement, but...

I just read Wee-Chong's PhD thesis on M²ICAL. (Fine, scanned through). I have to thank him for the kind acknowledgement which I shall reproduce here because it's so amusing:

A lavish pesco-vegetarian dinner awaits my partner-in-crime Lim Yew Jin, seemingly the only other person interested in intellectual games research in the whole of Singapore. My initial thesis idea stemmed from him, and even though it eventually metamorphosed beyond recognition, Yew Jin was always available as a sounding board for ideas and a sympathetic ear as a fellow PhD student. Almost makes me forgive him for being 6 years younger and 6 times smarter.

Yes Wee-Chong, woe to all of those who dare to study something academic on something with no immediate financial reward in Singapore. The important thing is that we survived and can walk away as free men. Thanks for being modest and saying that I am smarter than you - I can only honestly claim to have actually played (a lot) less board games than you during our candidature, which, mind you, can be viewed as a bad thing given the our subject area. And while I cannot deny that I am younger, there's also the issue of life expectancy. If I die 6 years before you, it all evens out.

Cheers!

Not Doctor Doctor

I received the official notification for the conferment of the PhD degree yesterday, and my parents, a family friend and my wife were commenting and joking how it is so nice to have a fake doctor in the house.

Because you know, I'm not a Doctor Doctor. :)

The Fake Doctor -- Useful only for service and reservations.

Defence

Today I had my PhD defence. Actually, it was relatively pain-free, and was over after approximately one and a half hours (basically a seminar and a few questions).

Verdict: Passed - but with minor amendments.

Awesome, but somehow I am too zoned out to work currently. Too much excitement for one day.

Removed 4 Aug due to (potential) copyright issues (with images) Added 9:51pm - defence slides