About

About what?

“This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.”

These were the default words on this page. Interestingly enough, they do remind me quite a little bit of twikis and collaboration based thing-ma-jigs.

Who am I?

My name is Dionis, formally known as Jiahui, you can call me Ai Zhen (艾蓁) too. Just changed my name not too long ago from something that is difficult to pronounce for the non-chinese tongue (think Jia Hui), to something that’s a little exotic to pronounce, (Dionis & 艾蓁), but at least the name stays etched in the other party’s mind. Some of the names that I used to go by: thimerosa, thim, jia jia, jade, hui, lalita (remnants from my high school). I am born in the year of the pig, so go figure what age I am at.

Where am I from?

I am from Singapore, the sunny island that has 4 seasons of which 4 of them belong to summer. We are technically south of China but we are not part of China. There is Vietnam, Laos, Hongkong, Malaysia, Thailand in between us. Singapore was in fact a British colony in the past but we gained our independence in 1965. So we are essentially a pretty independent and stand-alone country in South East Asia.

Where did I study at?

This section is really for my old friends from a long time ago to identify me. (You know, in Singapore, our social circle sometimes really revolves around school much more than the neighborhood you live in or the town that you grew up in.)

1. Qifa Primary School (1990 – 1995) Class 1H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5E, 6H
2. Nanyang Girls’ High School (1996 – 1999) Class 1/4, 2/4, 3/8, 4/8
3. National Junior College (2000 Jan – Mar)
4. Hwa Chong Junior College (2000 – 2001) Class 00S61
5. National University of Singapore, School of Computing (2002 – 2006) Computer Engineering
6. University of Pennsylvania (2004-2005) Classes EAS345 EAS346 EAS348 and the “Elusive” Signals Class

What do I do?

I am currently working as a “monopreneur” providing an customised apparel and merchandise service to bring smiles to people around me. On top of that, I am part of a team known as The Digital Movement where we want to encourage the informal culture of information sharing to help advance the country and region in terms of technological and business expertise. Sounds a bit far fetched? You don’t know what you can achieve when you put concrete plans into action. I also guest blog for this food blog and run a review site for beauty products. On top of that I’m also helping to manage a digital printing service.

Other times which I call idle, I love to blog, drive around, go out and shop, read thrashy magazines, do real girlie stuff, paint my nails, cook some food, watch TV, go to the gym, hang out with friends. Hey, I am still a girl yeah. (Don’t know if I mentioned that in front)

What else about me?

Perhaps a little bit more about me is that I used to do gymnastics, chinese dance and for a little while Indian dance, until I had a mini slip disc. Joined the students’ union in university, held executive committee positions with my faculty club, did an overseas working stint for a year. (Just some boring stuff that I will elaborate on request)

I play the Piano – Pianoforte Grade 7. I never quite got to Grade 8, gave it up halfway. Perhaps I could try for that exam again when my future son or daughter takes it. I play the trumpet and I own a no. 37 Stradivarius Bach 1997 trumpet. I am a band geek! As well as a geek at studies. But I wouldn’t consider myself socially inept like the stereotyped bandie. Oh, I love technology and actually pursued a degree in Computer Engineering in college. I am a licenced powerboat driver in Singapore (I think we are the only few countries that requires a licence to drive a boat around)