Layout...

seems to be screwed up by blogger.

At least that's how I see it in my Firefox browser.

Well done. Ok, another task to be done after I get back.

Interestingly....

Interestingly, I have some time to blog before I'm gone. There had never been time set aside all those days when I'm always around.

Well, I have about an hr or so before I set off to the airport. Will be away for 2 weeks until the end of the year. Seems I'll still be back in time for the countdown. Will be off to Egypt this time. And among my travelling companions, is one of whom many would be raising their eyebrows when named. I'm sure BeeFGee would know who I'm referring to. The one who gave him so much reasons to slap me silly. Haha!! Anyway he's probably quite surprise by this I guess. Anyhow... let's see what happens in these 12 days. In any case, I felt a closure to all this a while back ago. It's a long story and I promise I'll tell when I get back, to those close frens who would be curious to find out the juicy gossips about myself.

My mum was equally surprised when she found out the travelling party in this trip. It's no hooha I feel.. but I guess she's just concern that I'll be hurt again. I understand where she's coming from, so I didn't put up a long debate with her on this.

That aside, I been away from blog for quite a while. The excuse would simply be busy. I do admit, I had quite a number of things to do. And I made the mistake of spreading myself out thinly trying to complete everything at one go. And recently, I picked up some self-help/motivation books and somewhere along one of them, I read (recapped vaguely from memory) "Being busy and being efficient are 2 different aspects. You can be busy with a lot of things, but yet accomplished nothing. While being actively efficient and productive, shows that you are getting things done."

I do admit, sometimes I am busy doing things but honestly it's an excuse. An excuse for me to avoid something that is at the back of my head. But like I said, it's at the back of my head, so running isn't getting me away from it at all. Somehow, somewhere, it looked at me in the eye and I got to face it, and thankfully, there is a closure to it all now.

Well, seems like it's gonna be a fresh start to everything come Jan 2008. At least I know things will be different when I am back from this long break.

Best wishes to everyone! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Hiatus.

Ok, so I had been away for quite awhile now. Just back again to clean up the cobwebs that had been gathering around the corners.

My excuse? Well, I had been busy.

I guess there isn't really much to talk about work, which is almost the same day in day out. The office had gotten more lively again when the new colleagues came from Germany. It's been already 6 months since they came, and now 2 of them are on their way back already. I was invited to go visit them next year, and we'll probably get to drive around a few places and down to Italy as well. That's one thing I am looking forward to. Apart from a merry bunch of people at work, there's also a new project we undertook. I'm always keen on new challenges so thats not a bad thing. But also, there's a pile of documents I need to read up on coz it's somewhat different from what I do most of the time.

Perhaps another reason for being busy was that I spend most of the time running away from thoughts. In bid to forget, I packed myself silly with many activities. So that I don't have enough me-time, which might lead me to think about stuff.

But still ever once in a while when I'm alone, in the train, driving or just walking home in the evening, thoughts simply surface again. Perhaps I should have said something when I have the chance. Was there a chance? I was always looking for the 'right time' to talk about it, but apparently there wasn't any. Maybe I blew it. But anyway, the time had past.

Day after day, everything seems to be running like clockwork. And I guess I'm too lazy to break out of that routine. i never did give time for that issue. I never did say what I wanted to say. Perhaps I thought it was mutual between us and need not be spoken. Or perhaps we had a different view on it and thought we understood each other from that point of view.

Perhaps...

Square one again

Four years later, I looked back and realised I haven't really moved off any further from there yet.

Monotonous Weekdays

Hmm... it's always a tiring cycle. Plain busy work week and then followed by the bad habit of forgetting what I want to blog about at the end of the day.

This has gotta change.

Wha-? It's Monday again already?

Ok. I need to crash. The weekend was really eventful.

It was a usual early start to saturday (as like all days). Met RK to return her some stuff in the morning. Coz I didnt want to lug it around with me all day (as they were particularly bulky, and after a while, heavy). and the early rain almost succeeded to make us stay in bed. Anyhow we met up first thing in the morning, b4 I headed to Novena. Church session there... and then headed off to gym until 1pm. Over to Concourse after that to grab some stuff for diving, before rushing home.

And then there's this Volunteer Fair event for the church, it's sort of 'eca roadshow' (as one volunteer uncle said it) for the various volunteer organisations in the community. And this week my church was one of the chosen few place to setup shop. I guess it's only proper that I help out at my own parish.

So, got home at about half past 3. Out about 4 to meet friends and head over for the fair. Managed to squeeze out a coffee break since we realised we were waaaay to early. Was a good boost, coz the fair lasted til about 8.

Ya, that's done. There's also sunday morning and evening. And also violin class in betweem. But after dinner on sat, it's ktv at orchard. Thankfully we ended b4 midnight. So it's much earlier than expected, meaning... I could get home earlier (than expected) to rest.

Now comes Sunday. In short, here's the flow. Home -> Church -> Give brochures/explain activities/stay for 2.5 hrs -> Home -> Violin class -> Home -> Church for evening duty -> Pack up -> Home.

Well... not all that short. I guess I shouldn't complain about doing alot of work, coz there wasn't really any tedious work to be done. It's more of the travelling around that got me weary. Perhaps giving back some time to God is not too much to ask. There was some 'me' time when the crowd was light. Its really the shuffling from place to place that got me tired. I'm never a gd recruiter kind of person, so in my experience, I never did like to help out doing such kind of recruitment events.

Well, in other news. A friend of mine is flying off to Japan for work next weekend. If he's reading, here's wishing you a pleasant journey! There's always MSN, email, Friendster, Facebook to keep in touch.

In other other news, it's diving this coming weekend again. And I really need an excuse for Mum so that she won't worry that much. At least until I get back on Sunday. Hmm...

Ok, really need to crash now.

There're always 2 sides to every story

Isn't it sad to know that sometimes someone paints you a picture of her life story and you realised that it not as true as it seems?

After Rawa

Ok, so i was suppose to talk about Rawa after I got back. But then i was feeling really lazy. Til now :P In short it was really a nice place to relax in the sun and have fun on the beach.

It was not too expensive I suppose. Everything we paid covered transport (land and sea transfers), lodging and 3 meals, coz we were there for only 2D1N.

And here are some shots I took.


Shot of the island. It's really a small island. We kayaked around it in less that 1 hour.


This photo was the first to receive a comment in Flickr. Heh.


Yup, thats our crew of Lost Survivors on the island (Almost all. 2 were missing) among the many other sun worshippers who were there as well.

More pictures are in the Flickr album. Feel free to view them.

Rawa wawa

In approximately 7 hours' time, I'm settling off to here.

Heading over with my bunch of colleagues and exchange students from Germany and Sweden and also a few of the housemates whom they share the place with.

So yeah, the minibus will be coming to The House to pick all of us up and over to Mersing. And the bus will be there at 5.30am. And... the house where they stay happens to be just outside of the school/workplace, which also means that I gotta shuffle over at about 4.30am in order to be on time.

Ah.. the joy of travelling. OK, gotta go pack now.

Cold... turkey... treatment...

I survived the whole most of today (and in front of the computer, mind you!) without internet access. Well... ok.. no IMs to be exact, and all I could surf were only a few local sites, namely those of the ISPs and news pages of yahoo.sg

The IT dept in school blames the ISP for the connection breakdown. I wonder if anyone actually forwarded the issue up to the ISP at all. Network was down for the whole day, but emails, intranet and (some) local sites were accessible.

For all we know, it could just be the fault of our own router in the server room instead.

I'm back, for now

Took a long break from blogging. Well, the hiatus is mostly due to work. I'm glad the pace is slowing down abit now that things are falling into place.

Well not entirely a slowdown. There's a new project the company just undertook, so I guess I should say it's a change of flavour to what I have been doing. Something different, yet the same kind of stuff I first accepted this job for.

Many events happened since June. Looking back, that was when I stopped blogging (in details of what happened) But that's... history. Perhaps, stories for another day.

In recent news, I sprained my arm over the National Day holiday. Yeah, took friday off work for some R&R/Me-time. It was good... clearing up the backlog of stuff at home. Like... sending ex-RK's monitor to the repair shop only to find that it's fit and hearty, which I have to lug around along with me for the other events I planned for that day. And then there's also clearing up the computer desk to welcome the new members, namely the monitor and a new printer. Speaking of which, I haven't exactly installed the printer yet since saturday.

Anyhoo... Woke up Sunday morning 6am to find my left arm dead stiff. T'was in a 90-degree bend, but can't move any other ways. Suspected a cramp at the upper arm, btu turned out to be stiffened bicep muscles. -_-;;; Warmed it up a little with those muscle cream, and managed to move it a little to 45-degree bend. I guess it was due to the long day on friday and then the following clean up of the computer desk on Saturday evening. Well, took me until today to recover. Still ached and can't exactly carry heavy stuff yet, but at least it's bendable.

On a sidenote, somethings happened as I thought it might have. Was in denial and felt I was feeling too sensitive on things. Perhaps I should trust myself more. Interestingly, it's quite an ironic situation too.

And then, there's seemingly never a right time to sit down and sort things out.

Surprises surprises both big and small

To some peeps, today is just another day. Another stressful day at work, another tired day or just another day like any other.

In some ways, I was looking forward to today. Well, it was afterall, MY Day. Nothing really special, just one of those MY Days that happens once a year. Yet at the same time I wanted it to be a simple day. (Yar... everyone has their birthdays, so wat's the big deal with mine anyway?)

Well, but it turned out to be a nice surprise at work today. One of the new German colleague baked a German style apple pie-ish cake. And he had to stay up til midnight to get it ready the previous night! It didn't turn out as he had expected, but it was already very nice. So... I'll have to wait till he perfects his cake that's up to his expectation. On a sidenote, the guys in the office (yes, guys! And mostly the German dudes) can all bake really nice cakes/desserts/pastries. I'm budding, but hear me! Soon, the day will come! And also, we ordered some pizzas and had an eat-in lunch in office. The 2 students from Germany also got me a huge pack of 24x 2-ply tissue paper packs. Woohoo!!!! Well, coz usually im the only one who is equipped with tissues during lunch. Hehe, so now my supply of tissues just increased. Yes, tissues. Never leave home without it. It somehow helps one score points with the ladies. Being able to bake nice cakes/desserts/pastries is a plus point too. Oh yes, and there's a pic of me as Supes, not exactly Supes, but Mister Tissue instead. Not bad huh? Like... Dr Doom! Dr Octopus! Mr Sinister! Notice these all are the baddies. So perhaps Mister (insert name here) belongs to the dark side. Hmm... So means I'll have to steal tissues from people instead. Mmmmm.....

And then there's a long distance call all the way from Seattle, where Jingz and Derrick are now. I was really surprise to receive her call. Yeah it was a really nice surprise, and I was a little lost for words. Managed to chat for a while, well, it was some internet call service and charged at local rates, so it will appear as a local call on my side, that's why there was no "URGH! LONG DISTANCE CALL GONNA COST ME!" kind of feel.

Not forgetting too, Kappyo and Ben who were in Italy a few weeks back. I was asking them to get me a Venetian mask (perhaps one that's like the Phantom's mask) along the way, but it turned out i got it as a birthday present from them. I suppose it cost quite bit. Thanks u 2! I really love it.

Not forgetting also, all who smsed and emailed their greetings. Short and sweet, but it's really the thoughts that counts.

More pictures to come soon.

Ah... what else did I do today, one might ask? No dinners, but I was at the gym boxing. Come to think of it, i was there for 3 hours. Treated myself to KFC 2-piece meal before that. (Happy Burst-day to me~~!)

Well, it's just another day. And dinners are planned and coming over the next few days. Surprises both big and small this year. Sometimes people are busy, one can't really blame them when one expected something but came nothing, can you?

Older and wiser

Breathed for another 365 days on earth.

Seen the world for another 12 months.

And in all, 1 year has passed.

But somewhat only a tad wiser.

It has been a while, hasn't it?

June seemed to have passed in a blink of an eye. Where did it all go? What did I just do?

Seemingly apart from work and personal commitments, there was some time to take a break from it all for a while. Only to be back facing the same pile of work day in day out. It was a poor excuse to run off and find my focus. I guess it's the mental drain which made one not think of anything else. And then it turns into a vicious cycle yet again with either taking the time to settle all the undone pile of things or use it for time off for myself.

Ambition? Seemed to have been stifled by everything that had been piling up around me. I don't think I need a break to reward myself. Perhaps it's really time that is void of all worries is what I'm looking for.

I love work, it fascinates me

Somewhat a lukewarm 'cold' war this morning. We talked a little when I greeted her at the breakfast table.

On another note, work today was not so stressful. I guess it's one of those better days at work. There are stuff to do, but no one around rushing u to get it done asap. At least I get to pace myself slow and steady. Well, basically there's nothing much I (as human) can do when the work left to it (the machine) to crunch the data. Much of it at this phase requires the machine to process the data. I'm glad the bug fixing is quite solved. (Remember The Project?)

Not forgetting that I'm concurrently handling 2 tasks. So I'm quite glad that both happened to reach the the same phase of letting the machine crunch data while I get to catch a breather.

There's makeup violin class later this evening. Hmm... would it be Carl's Jr or juz BK Mushroom Swiss? Mmmmm....

Always in moderation, so they say

So I just had an argument with my mum earlier on this evening. It's always the same old topic(s) of discussion. I really dunno where to begin. It's juz always the same 'ol, same 'ol stuff, that i gave up bringing my point across to her each time we chatted/argued/discussed.

Most of the time it's about Why can't you talk to me nicely?

And then there's the Why can't we (parents) chat with you nicely like a family at the end of the day when u get back from work? I know there are stress from work, why not tell us about it, instead of sulking when u get home?

I do admit that there are some stress from work, but the next thing I wanna do is to talk abt them again when I get home. And then there's always the silly questions she asked, which I always tempted to give silly answers to. Silly, as I always see it. Perhaps some (obvious) questions shouldn't be asked. (Like, oh? Didn't you shower after u came back just now? When she sees me grabbing dinner and plonking in front of the tv and watching wif everyone there.) By not asking, that would cut down the possible chances of starting a conversation with the Son. But then again, by asking, it causes the Son to get irritated with such trivial topics when he's not in the mood to be discussion such said issues.

Perhaps I have to many things planned to do. And a slight interruption in the schedule juz get on my nerves. And then there's a bunch of backlogged activities which, I can see, is piling up day by day. Everything is planned too closely and I guess I gave no allowances for interruptions.

The unexpected argument ate into the practice time. And the after effects from the seething totally killed the mood to concentrate on my playing. Today I didn't walk away but instead fought back my point to her. It made things worse coz it totally turn on her defensiveness and start saying things on the negative extreme.

Nvm.. I shall not dwell into it. It's over now. (Just dun treat me like a helpless baby can???!!!)

Take everything in moderation. Ya, but even a bit of everything just piles up into a mount of stuff to do.

So now it's on to the cold war.

Under(water)world weekend

Another 70mins more and I'll be off for my trip.

Away to M'sia for a dive over da weekend!

And will be back on Sunday evening... back to reality. But let monday worry about monday when it comes. For now, I'm so gonna break the weekly cycle of my everyday life and enjoy something different.

Dun miss me too much, I'll only be gone for 2 days :P

Bear wif masking and fins. Mmmmm....

~~~

And something to lighten the day

Courtesy of Logwoxone on LiveVideo

"I Want A Car!" Reason #36

... so that I can DRIVE to the beach on weekends and EXERCISE while enjoying the sea breeze.

Oh.. and maybe spend some time suntanning too. No worries abt leaving personal stuff around coz they are in the mobile locker car.

Well.. Assuming all thing else are negligible...

Hoist The Colours - Pirates of the Carribean 3

I love this song!

*Spoiler: it was sung at the start of Pirates 3*

The king and his men stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her bones……
The seas be ours and by the powers
Where we will, we'll roam…

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the colors high…
heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die…

Some men have died and some are alive
And others sail on the sea
With the keys to the cage and the Devil to pay
We lay to Fiddler's Green!

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high…
heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never shall we die…

The bell has been raised from it's watery grave...
Do you hear it's sepulchral tone?
A call to all, pay heed the squall
And turn your sail toward home!

Yo ho, haul together--
Raise the colors high!
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die.

Composed by Hans Zimmer

On a saturday nite

Sweet.

We managed to catch Pirates 3 tonight.

On a big screen, comfy and central seats and away from the maddening crowd in town too.

Perhaps I should really should consider those neighbourhood cinemas the next time I buy a ticket.

Temptations

It's so easy to succumb to one.

Sometimes you see it as a means to reward yourself after a hard and long day.

It's something so trivial that you wouldn't even want to think twice about it

Sitting here in front of the comp in the early hours of the night, it's so simple to get carried away with it.

I tried but I could not resist.

I got myself a can of coke.

That's why I'm an doer-type engineer...

I knew it's not going to be a fine day when I got up this morning.

It was the day to meet our client for update of The Project in the afternoon. And also the week when the development team sent me the updated version of The (Still-Prototype) Application. So since, i figured, that I'll be heading over to the client's office for The Meeting, i might as well update the version over at their side.

However, to my horror, inhouse testing produced unexpected horrific results. Somehow I think I never learn, coz each time I experienced similar horrors whenever I receive an update of the prototype.

No matter, I figured I can install it first in their machines while I'm over there. And then do the testing on the ground. And that's when I received the first 'good' news. That their team lead is in another office and would like me to travel over there for the meeting instead. So this effectively reduced my time for testing... again. F**k, if there's 1 thing i hate, it's last minute information. Was a solo mission without Boss since it's all the technical stuff that we will be discussing about.

Now the next 'best' news, that their CIO would like to see some results from the development TOMORROW MORNING. Hello? I was informed that you guys are have a progress update MEETING on friday afternoon. Now you tell me it's in the morning and would like to see demos? Sorry, too late. Effectively the update has a new database structure, so effectively the old data was wiped clean. But I had effectively backed up the data, but it's impossible for me to restore everything in what? 30mins? Too bad, really, for telling me after I updated the version and left for another office, that some high level peon wants to see a DEMO in the morning. And for this, in order to save his own sorry a55, he has kindly requested (wif a dagger in his smile) me to join in the MEETING *slash* DEMO *slash* WHATEVER-SHIT-U-MIGHT-CALL-IT in the morning. Team lead is the f**king Asst IT Director of the company. Shame on you that you don't even know exactly the works of the application and want me there to explain the technicalities to your CIO. Fine, I'll be there. But there's limited stuff I can show in that 30mins time for me to prepare.

And then on to the meeting proper. Team lead is concern about meeting the dateline, which is end June. Claiming that the development is still somewhat stuck in Phase 1, which by now should be end of Phase 2 already. And then further claiming that we (developers) have yet to meet the FOUR functionalities as drafted in the agreement. Wait a minute. Since when was there a fourth functionality? I retorted, Was there the fourth one as stated in the agreement? And the team lead proceeded to show me the finalised agreement, which had only THREE listed there. However, the Fourth Function is what the application engine is capable of doing, and that was mentioned in the PROPOSAL document. So does this mean, that Fourth Function a binding one? It was not stated in the finalised agreement as we all could see.

And then there was the discussion about the feasibility of having a remote connection for tech support from us and the dev team (who are based in Germany, by the way) or to fly in someone from the dev team to tech support directly locally. Team lead says his company is willing to pay for the expenses to bring someone over, excluding accommodation.

They favoured the ship-one-dude-over idea so that we all can happily meet the June dateline, despite my Boss having every confidence that we can meet it. I swore I see a snicker on the team lead's face when he said that. I would think the remote connection is a more feasible idea, but noooo.... due to their highly sensitive network, the machines will hav to be then set up in a standalone one. But doing this will screw up the login connection tied to the Windows User Directory structure.

So there. Seemingly wanting me to make a decision and then inform my boss about it. Sorry, it's not going to be the case. I'm a doer-type engineer, and not a decision maker especially in this project. I'll have to inform Boss about it and let him do the deciding. Beside, I'm neither the dev team member as well. And then letting the client contacting the dev team directly is out of the question too since they it is proper that we need a physical entity here (ala me) for all the arrow shooting representation.

If you would excuse me now, I need to send an email to Boss informing him of today's meeting outcome.

Sucks man. But that's what you get for being at the bottom of the food chain.

Maybe I'll never be good enough...

...but that doesn't mean I will stop trying harder everytime.

So when, or what, does it really take to make one give up trying?

Blog template revamp attempt #2654

I'm glad to say that the revamp is now completed!

Many thanks to -
Ella (for her colour theme suggestion),
Angelystor (for the coding comments) and last but not least,
Kappyo for her align ur title to the left lah!

That made it all look so much nicer :P

And not forgetting the others who had left comments along the way too :-)

Mothers' Day and Someone's Birthday

Author's Note: Before this post gets any further backposted, I figured I should finish it soon and publish it.

Well, I started writing this on Monday night (Tues morning to be exact) after transferring my PC into a new casing and a couple of co-op in Rainbow6:Vegas. So that's already after midnight. But anyway, back to the main topic...

It was Mothers' Day on Sunday. Since my mum's birthday is also in May, we normally dun celebrate Mothers' Day anything more than having a 'special' lunch treat on that day. But then again, normally there is also no special celebration on my mum's birthday as well, nothing extravagantly more than a red packet from me and perhaps buying dinner home instead of her cooking on that day. Well, my parents don't really like to eat out for dinner and prefer to enjoy it in the comfort of our home. So the only thing I can do is to buy back the food after convincing my mum not to cook for the day.

But well, that was on her birthday last year. Initially my cousin wanted to arrange a Sunday brunch, for us cousins, my mum and my aunt, but the fav restaurant was fully booked when he called. So my aunt suggested the brunch to be on another day instead, no hurry to have it on the special day itself.

So there... ended up with a free Sunday afternoon at the end of it. And i spent the day catching up on sleep.

Arranged to meet C for dinner that evening too. It was a simple birthday dinner treat for the lady. Somehow it didn't occur to me that the evening might be crowded due to Mothers' Day until she mentioned it. Thankfully we arrived at Suntec with many a few choices to go about. I had in mind the Jap buffet restaurant near Swiss Culture, but the downside was its price. And then there was Swiss Culture, with the Choc fondue as the main attraction. Alternatively was Outback over Millenia Walk, but then C was trying to cut down on meat intake.

So... pretty much ends up with wat she would like to eat then. I was trying not to repeat the same places we been b4. Perhaps simple local cuisine still wins at the end of the day. We went to Muthu's Fish Head Curry for our meal. (this IS a local cuisine, isn't it?) The young lady was craving for the fish (head) and poppadums (this one freeflow some more!) while I was craving for the fish head (curry) AND the poppadums AND the briyani rice. No, I dun exactly dislike eating the head, but it's juz me not knowing HOW to effectively eat it.

So that was it. A dinner treat and a birthday card. Well, at least for that evening. I couldn't break my own surprise of flower-to-the-office the next day at that moment. Much careful planning was done on Saturday and though I would want to surprise her earlier, too much was at stake. (Heh...) So I left everything to the florist the next day.

And yes, by 11am on Monday, although it was like 45mins later than the time i requested, the birthday gal received her bouquet of 6 red gerberas! =D And of coz she was pleasantly surprised by the flowers. Sure m glad it brightens up the day!

Blog template revamp attempt #2653

Is there something wrong with this picture?

Somehow, the contents are just... offcentered... and the bear is out of the cage! as Angelystor mentioned. Well, only happens if u view it in Firefox.

Argh... Guess more tweaking is needed to correct all those minor issues. And then there's the alignment on the sidebar too!

Argh!

Blog hopping

and that was wat I had been doing for the past... 15mins. (Really! Only 15mins!)

Been hopping around to friends' blogs and a few others I bookmarked. And each time I always feel inspired to get back to my own blog and start my own rants and rumbles about all that happened. But each time I'm here, either I lost the mood to blog, or blogger is down for maintainence, or I just got distracted by something else to do.

Perhaps I shd try to drop short entries each and everytime that I can.

and so he writes again... with a stylus

It's a cool and windy nite. And this entry is written as I lay in bed tapping on my pda fone. I did mention previously that perhaps I would want to keep things to myself instead of writing. but now I can pen down my thots (almost) instantly, perhaps i might start to post more again. Oh, and I guess I haven't really mentioned abt the "new" phone I bought earlier this wk.

Well. It's a Dopod fone I bought from someone online. Condition's ok. Most imptly the fone works well. Some minor scratches at the bottom from the previous owner, but then juz these few days of using it, I think I made more dents and scratches already. Lesson learnt? Never share ur pocket space wif coins if u plan to put a Dopod in there.

Interesting transaction I had wif the seller. Was suppose to meet him near his place, but later arranged that he come over to meet me instead. Fine wif me, since I was meeting him after work and him coming over would definitly save some time. Ended up I was a little late, but he was later. As he had forgotten to bring along the memorycard and had gone back to take. Finally meet him abt 30mins later, which after I checked the contents, he realised the power cable was left at his gf's house. (his gf was wif him when we met) So... 3 of us drove over to collect it. They 2 then drove me home. Phew... Heh... At least they sent me home. But a simple buy/sell took up an entire hr.

Well, but that made them 2 happy sellers, and me a proud new owner of a pocketpc fone.

The things i write, or not

It's not a writer's block that im having. All these while of not updating my blog... it's not that I have nothing to write, but rather... it had became mostly something I dun wish to write about. Interesting isn't it? Then why bother to keep a blog in the first place, i guess some might ask?

Set to loop endlessly

Seemed like forever from my last post.

Yet everyday feels like a deja vu of the day before. Everything seemed like clockwork. May day break was a welcoming one. It was a good break to all the routines day in day out.

And then after that, it's back to clockwork again.

Quests of the day

Today's list of concurrent works to be done are as follows:

1) Follow-up with The Project with an external client that has been ongoing since last month

2) Try to get the damn working-all-along-then-suddenly-not-working-when-you-need-it USB steering wheel to work.

3) Start applying light effects to the on-hold 3D model which I had put on stasis due to the above 2 other quests.

So... now i need like 2 copies of myself to get things running concurrently. Or maybe 3... no harm keeping a spare one around.

Dull

Does it seemed a little too grey here?

Seems a revamp in colour combination is in order. As least a grey wallpaper with some motifs is better than juz a plain slab of solid colour. Hmm.....

Will have to plan something when I hav the time.

Happy are those who slogged

for they will enjoy the fruit of their labour!

Happiness!

Started today early. And I'm glad things fell into place smoothly.

There are still some interesting errors appearing now and then. But the bulk of the application was finally running smoothly.

At least I can face the clients tomorrow when I install it over in their machines. Not all perfect, but good enought to get some work done. I reckoned I'll be heading over again towards the end of the week for the second half of the application. But till then, it's another story.

It's R&R tonite!

Juz pack it all up, those damn days!

Nice way to spend my weekends this week. They were fully packed up!

Started saturday in the morning with a sort of AGM with my volunteer group. Honestly, I dreaded going, but somehow when I got there, there was a strange sense of peacefulness. Reached at about 8am which was still breakfast mingling according to the schedule. Everyone was happily chatting over breakfast and just seemed so enthusiastic about the event.

Breakfast was a simple spread of Fried carrot cakes, Nasi Lemak, Fried bee hoon + stuff, some kuehs and You Tiao. Simple things, but the company made it all taste so much better.

I dreaded going because I had work at the back of my mind. Planned to leave at lunchtime. Yeah, back to work on a Sat and coz I needed to get the application running by Monday (which is today), but then it's near impossible since I received it only on Friday afternoon and by the time I got it all installed I had to go for my Phantom of The Opera. (read prev post)

So anyway, I left at about 4pm (Yes there was spiritual peace so much so I didn't want to leave, but then work just needed to be done) and headed back to office. Left the application to run overnight (read previous post again) so I can check it when I got back then. And lo and behold! The application crashed again! (as like the previous in-development versions) So for the next few hours I tried a clean installation and send some data for it to crunch. And the data crunching takes hours and the best thing, errors in the application only appears at the end of the crunching process....

WTF! It had became one of those moments when u just wanna laugh and cry at the same time. Laugh coz a new version finally came along, cry coz the application keeps crashing on a new set of errors. It got me pondering for quite a while whether was it juz me who sucked in testing out the application.

So I left for home at about 8+, 9pm? and was intending to install that application on my home pc. But by the time I got home, I decided to chill out instead. Too much events happened in a day.

And since I missed my gym session on Sat, I met my trainer on Sun instead, after violin class in the afternoon. Was supposed to be a round of boxing with him, but ended up on the machines instead. Guess it's fine with me, was a little burnt out with all the events the past few days. Gym ended at about 530pm. And then it's rushing off to church for the 6pm service. I figured I'll juz be late for a few minutes so I shouldn't skip it altogether.

So it was testing round 2 on my home pc. And this was the award winning moment. Application CRASHED again! And with a new set of .NET Framework errors with error codes 0x8007007e and 0x800736b1

what the hell.... it's one of those moments that u feel so traumatised and would want to juz suck thumb in one corner and juz gaze blankly ahead. Dammit la! Scrapped the idea of testing it at home in the end and decide to start work early today instead. Thankfully, things turned out well at work for the rest of the day.

Friday 13th! Phantom Night

Finally it was our turn to catch Phantom of the Opera tonite. Strangly it didn't get so exciting when the day came. I think both of us were quite bogged down with work at the back of our minds to really relax and enjoy the musical.

Finally got a new version of the application for a client's project. Our client was getting quite edgy for not getting anything new as promised from us. Breathing down our necks coz their boss was breathing down THEIR necks coz the prototype version of the application didnt work as well as it should be. But duh.... it's called a prototype for a reason. I guess that's the difference between Asian and Caucasian work culture. They do it slow and steady and keep to the scheduled dateline as agreed before. While asians want to see constant progress so as to make sure one ain't slacking off after taking the money.

But anyway a delay in delivery was mainly due to our screwed email server. Somehow our email server decided not to receive any mails from our German counterpart. So i only managed to get the application on thursday nite via my private email. And by the time I managed to set up the test system, it was time for me to go.

Anyway, on to Phantom of The Opera. Met C for dinner b4 heading over to the theatre. She was pretty troubled with work as well. I didn't want to ask too much since i guess it's frustrating enough and to talk about it might make things worse. Even I didnt want to talk about my work either.

Settled down in the theatre on the dot. Didn't expect such far away seats despite being Cat C seatings. We sat at the second row at the highest circle. And the people in the front row (just behind the railings) didnt really help by leaning forward and totally block my view. I'm sure C's view was blocked as well but she didn't exactly seem to mind. Guess it was just me who was irritated by the kid and his mum who was fidgeting throughout the better part of the first half.

I mean, do one really need binoculars to watch the whole performance? The kid was leaning out all the time and was looking through his bino to see those on stage. Duh... Maybe he knows someone on stage, but then again, they would hav front row seats down below if that was the case. His (head) obstruction wasn't so bad since he only successfully block the right corner of the stage from where I sat. His mum was the one blocking much of the front stage if she lean forward (which she did for most of the first half). Seriously, I jus felt that they (the first row) would still be able to see the stage if they juz sit upright. The railing would be juz obstructing their view of the trench where the orchestra is.

It dampened my mood at the start of the performance. Even after they sat back from the middle of the performance later on, I believe the dampened mood did still trickle over to the rest of the night.

Yes, Christine and Phantom did sang well that night, but I was too irritated (both by work and obstruction) to enjoy it all.

It's all about the $$$, it's all about the hum too... maybe

In view of the recent news about pay increase for the civil servants, and especially those on the top management level (read: Garmen), this article from AFP simply cracks me up.

Singapore PM's salary stuns White House official

AFP Photo

A senior White House official on Tuesday admitted he was floored by the news that Singapore's prime minister earned five times more than US President George W. Bush.

"I'm going to emigrate and run for office in Singapore," the official said on condition he be identified only as "a senior administration official who sits in disbelief after reading that story."

On Monday, the Singapore government had announced a fresh 25.5 percent pay hike for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, boosting his salary to 2.05 million dollars per year.

Bush gets paid 400,000 dollars per year for doing his job, according to the White House.

Combined with personal investment income, he and his wife Laura reported 618,694 dollars in taxable income in the 2005 fiscal year. They had to pay 187,768 dollars in federal taxes.

But maybe Bush shouldn't feel so bad. The Singaporean's paycheck is eight times fatter than Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's.

Article courtesy of SG Yahoo News. Read more here

it's more than Words, and Words are all I need

No, it's not one of those kind of posts that u might think it to be.

It's literally Words that's all i need now. And it's not working! In fact, the whole office suite isn't working for some reason. Think it could have started from the update I did some time back. So now, each time I start any of the application, it prompts me to insert the Office CD so that it can look for a certain installer file. Which then later prompts that it can't find the cd and file.

And attempts to remove Office resulted in 'fatal error during installation' error messages.

So now im stuck wif a non-working Office suite and I can't remove and reinstall a copy of it. Darn.

I *pant* think, therefore *wheeze* I can...

it was a cardio workout today at the gym. Gosh... it's been quite sometime since I really focused on cardios and hell, was it intense!

For some reasons, I felt like running today for my warm up routine. Normally I'll head to the stepper machines for a less impactful exercise. It WAS warmup for my standard... but seriously 10mins isn't considered a proper warmup. It's enough to get the heart pumping and probably perspire a little, but once u stop it's a cooling down for the heart already. Blah blah blah... But anyway, since I never did like running, 10mins was quite an achievement for me at a higher speed on the threadmill today.

Met my trainer after that for my workout session. After my near-faint (near-death is just too taboo to say) boxing session on sat, my trainer decided to focus on my cardio training today. So the first thing he started me on was the vertical stepper. That's something like climbing a ladder, only that you aren't going any higher and ur bodyweight is the resistance against u. So it's 4mins on that. Not bad... did about 320 steps in that time. so that's about 80 steps per min, which makes about 1.33 steps/sec. Following that are 25x crunches (wif legs 90 degrees lifted in the air) and 15x push ups. And wow! I survived set ONE! But was somewhat panting slightly already. After a few mins of rest, it's on to Set TWO. O_O;;; And then Three >_<;;; and Four. X_x;;; Did lesser and lesser steps on the stepper in each round. And also the fact that i had to stay for 5mins in Set Four didn't really motivate me much. Thankfully the TV was nearby to keep me preoccupied for that short time. I'm really surprised that I had no problems wif the crunches and push ups in all the sets. Wasn't at all fatigue, but juz know that my stamina is at all time low. And so the four sets took up 30mins of the 1 hour session.

Next was stationary.. (darn the name juz slipped my mind) lunges. Basically it's putting 1 leg forward and then do a half kneel. Then step back, step the other leg forward and half kneel again. (Get the idea? Simple?) Ok, now put a 30lbs (very light wat.. juz abt 15kg only) barbell over ur shoulder and do the kneeling thing. 12 times, with each pair of kneeling as 1 time. This was one of the exercises I dread most, so it nber been something I like doing. And after a set of 12, assume boxing stance (that's wif left leg in front, right leg step back, both feet pointing forward) and still wif that barbell on ur shoulder, do tiptoes 15x. That's to train calves. And there were 2 sets of that. It's always a magic number of 4 for my trainer. And the remaining 2 sets are walking lunges. It's juz a short length of walking from one wall to the other and back. But that took 26 steps to and fro. So that's 2 sets of walking and that kinda took up the remaining 25mins.

And the last 10mins was spent cooling down on the stationary bike. For once, I realised exercise bikes can be so relaxing.

So.... wat did I learn from today's workout? That my stamina is really down in the dumps already. But still (surprisingly to myself) able to push myself to do wat seemed to be impossible for me, although I can feel my lungs are gasping for breath already. So yeah, u think, therefore u can do it.

At the end of the day, look! I hav sexy, muscular (and totally aching) thighs! And as I walked home from the station, I couldn't believe how light and relaxed my breathing had become. Perhaps it's really time to emphasize on my cardio and stamina levels the next time I head to the gym.

And after clearing off the warm vege soup and duck rice my mum cooked, it's now time to snooze. Do excuse me as I wheel my tired self on my computer chair over to bed.

Of April Fools and Showers

So I end up continuing my blog in April.

I have to say that i did some retail therapy for very much of this week. Did it help? Was it therapeutic? Er... I guess I bought useful stuff... so yeah.. perhaps I can say it did help a little.

Expenditure list (in order of purchase since last Sunday) :
- Curse of the Golden Flower DVD
- A remote control helicopter which i havent charge up the batteries yet
- A 2nd hand camera lens for my Nikon
- Dinner and drinks wif friends on a tuesday nite
- Waaaay too many ingredients for dips for a farewell party at work. And some expensive stuff includes Dijon mustard, Heinz Mayonnaise, a tub of cheesecake-flavoured yougurt and a couple of big green onions which I hav no idea how else to eat it.
- A(nother) pair of canvas sneakers (and new socks) at a Seiyu Fair in NTU.
- A new pair of gym gloves
- Command and Conquer 3 (Special Edition that came wif a free tee!)
- Hearty German dinner wif friends on a saturday nite
- And the Latest item being this today

Well, I guess the latest item would benefit everyone at home, since my dad was complaining about his sore feet and lousy lowerback aches and whatnots. And mum... well, generally she will use it as she watches TV at night. And then there are my sore and stiff shoulders, which had gotten me thinking of visiting the spas and/or massage parlours in the first place.

The 'cheap' price tag of only $298 didn't really help to dissuade, in fact, it got me convinced that it will be cheaper in the long run to juz use this massager in the comfort of my own home. PLUS everyone else at home can use it too. And thus, "Yeah, I'll get one of these" was the next sentence that I uttered to the salesperson.

Before I turn into a fool who can't hold on to his savings, I better check my accounts and give myself a rude shock to how much I have already spent in that 1 week. In the worst scenario, I'll juz hav to head home after work to play my games, or go to the gym to put my gloves to good use, AND THEN come home to fully utilise my massager. :-P I do admit, after 15mins of use on my back, it felt gooooood.....

Zilch

Why? Why? Why?!?!

Been restless the past few days. Hmm... Restless isn't the right word either. Work efficiency and productivity are definitely down. So low im afraid im having a hard time to pick it up again.

Need a break? Not sure. Perhaps I need a good rest to start my engines again. But then, it's hard to take a rest when there are all this piled up work. Seems like it's getting into a vicious cycle if things keeps up like this.

Oh great. And the best part is that I dun even know where to start solving this problem

where did time go?

Everyday seems to pass so quickly especially when one is preoccupied wif many things. Lately I have been wanting to blog but each time my mind is a blank when I want to blog, and then I would feel like blogging when I'm on the move most of the time. Maybe I shd try out that mobile blogging function juz like Angelystor did.

Ironically, I was attempting to put this off to the next morning when I'll attempt to take some time to blog b4 i start with the work proper. But duuuuh.... I have time now so why not blog?

Hmm.. Did many stuff over the past week, including waking up at 3am to catch the lunar eclipse on Sunday morning. Well, that shd be a separate entry... once i get the photos done up.

Anyway, on to something recent.

Was out in the afternoon today to a few vendors who do corporate ties. 1st stop was at Sunshine Plaza. And we had the Dim Sum there for lunch. Victor's Kitchen was the name. And OMG! Was the dimsum superb or wat!?! We ordered the prawn dumplings, prawn cheong funs, carrot cakes and the custard buns. And the century egg porridge.. and wow! I must say it's the best dimsum i ever had in SG. Apparently the chef was from Hongkong and had been running this small eatery for a while now.

Too bad, no pictures.. for we were too hungry and enjoyed the food the moment it came. And we were on a mission to source quotations! No time to waste enjoying the food! Which of coz, gives me an excuse to head back to the eatery for another round or two of the dimsums there.

it's a radish! ... isn't it?

it's a radish! Isn't it?,
originally uploaded by GreyPolarBear.

Meet Radish.

This was the radish my mum bought for the lo hei for the Chinese New Year last week.

Apparently Radish is a conjoint coz there is a smaller one growing out from it's side.. so in a way my mum bought 2 radishes for the price of one!

Anyway, does this look naughty to anyone? As in, does it remind anyone of any particular *ahem* leisure device thing? Or is it only me that is thinking otherwise?

Procrastinated

It's been a while since I last blogged.

There was Valentine's Day and then there was Chinese New Year. And now it's gonna be March soon. Have I been so busy with things to do? Guess so, and gotten too tired when I got home to really blog anything. Seems 2007 kinda passed quickly, come to think of it. But no matter... so far it had been quite a good year for me. Hope it lasts...

More updates soon.

Which is worse?

To find small tiny white worm(s) crawling out from inside the tube of Cadbury's Choclairs AFTER u popped the 1st pieces into ur mouth,

OR

To find white specks which u later found out are moulds on the haw flakes you JUST BOUGHT... AND then find some webbish looking thing between the flakes which can be assumed to be spider webs... (although it looks more like cocoon webs to me.) ????

and God knows how much more there might be inside the can of haws...

Gotta walk back to the shop to have it changed. -.-;;;

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing all a happy Valentine's Day!

May the day be yet another sweet and happy one for those who are blissfully in love.

May the day be a good start to many more sweet and happy days for those who have found their Other Half.

May the day also be one that's filled wif blessings and hope for those who are still seeking for the special someone. Have hope! And don't be despair!

Yeah... some of us are definitely spending the day alone... well, at least we saved ourselves from the (evil) F&B industry who never fails to suck us dry entice courting couples to spend exhuberent amounts on dinner and gifts to make the day memorable. Well, but then again we can't blame them... it's still thanks to the great dinner ambience created for that special day that makes this day such a special one. Afterall, it's only once a year. The couples themselves will have to make each and everyday their Valentine's Day by themselves.

Once again, may it be a great day for everyone, single or attached!

And to the one whom I'm always the Guardian "Polaris Bearus" Angel for,
the road ahead might be tough for us, but im always there to walk together with you...

GPB Angel? haha! i think it's gonna look cute...

Look! it's a raincloud! No, it's a grey... thing! It's... it's.. waddahell is that?! Flying polarbear?!

8 days later...

In the exact time. Okay, maybe a little more than exactly 8 days later, I'm home.

It was truly an eye opening trip, and something more than we all had planned it out to be. In short, I guess I can say that I visited Nepal off the beaten track. Gone to a few towns that no one in the right mind as a tourist would go.

But really, this trip had made me appreciate what I have all this while.

More updates and pictures to come soon!

Sadly, no nice sunrise pictures due to foggy mornings. But then nice is relative, so far... my shots are never nice enuff for me ;)

Leaving

Strangly, I'm feeling a sense of longing from this trip. Longing for my friends and loved ones, and the things that I have, the many things that were left undone. Well, it's only a week's trip... soon enough I'll be back here again.

I guess in a way, it made me cherish everything that i have.

I guess i can finally understand how those friends of mine felt, when they left to work overseas.

Maybe it's the rainy night that got me feeling melancholic....

In any case, catch up with everyone in a weeks' time

the day so far...

Since the last posts ended up as such a long one. I'll update today a little at a time, since it's been quite a happening morning already.

Let's see... 3 people reminded me (on seperate occasions) that my shoelaces were untied while i was in the train.

Train's packed.. and there was no way I could bend down to tied, without the possibilty of placing my face near anybody's butt. I think it was a young lady in a skirt who was standing in front of me when another kind young China lady pointed to me about my shoelaces. Thanks, but I just can't tie them yet. At least until I managed to find a seat b4 I could do so.

Some gal smiled at me while I let her go thru the ticket gates first.

Some guy said thanks when I let him alight from the bus first. (which i dun think i did, coz he was in front of me already)

Another guy stopped and smile (and said thanks, I think. Couldnt hear since i was plugged into my ipod) after he got out of the lift coz I jabbed the "Door Open" button, like I did all the time every other day.

Do I look friendlier today? Or everyone juz started to get into the habit of smiling and being concern for other fellow Singaporeans?

Hey, who ever said Singaporeans care less about others?! Definitely not today. Or mabbe it was just me? hehe...

Weird Wednesday

Yes, it was a weird wednesday today. And this is gonna be a long one.

For a start, it was another round of spring cleaning in the morning. This time in another of our lab rooms meant for the research students. But this time, there is a renovation due tmr so every farking single piece of movable item in the room has to be temporary shifted to the adjacent one. Includes every set of workstation, cables, wires, metal cabinets, books and bookshelves and furniture. Oh, did I mention that there were only 2 of us guys left to move the heavy stuff? Almost everything can be considered heavy stuff. First there were a few unused workstations, so those were to be stored in another room. And then those which were in use by students are shifted to the temporary student's lab. Next were the furniture... and I managed to find the only wastebasket to which one of the students (who soon came to help with the moving) exclaimed,"Oh! We finally have a bin in the room! But we're moving out already.." Nevermind dear, you'll get to use it when the room is all fixed up nice and new.

At this point, the admin manager (the other guy in the moving team) had to show a guest prof around, so I can't move the metal cabinets until he got back. I gone to pack up the files and such while waiting... dumped away a thick pile of old notes and magazines. Found a few interesting artifacts (which were also slated for disposal) and decided to bring them home check if they are of working condition. So the rest of the heavy stuff finally got moved when the admin manager got back... and that was around noon when we finally got all the things done.

Had instant noodles for lunch. And finally got back to proper work... while chatting on MSN at the same time. (Hey! I was still working as I chat! Juz a little slower at work that's all) Added a few friends I gotten to know during the wedding to my MSN list. The funny thing was that one of the guys is working in the new lab that had moved into my research centre. Basically we are juz diagonally situated across each other in different rooms. Lolz... talk abt small worlds.

Had a short briefing in the evening for the upcoming trip. Finally ironed out some inconsistencies in the schedule for the visits to the camps. My fren and I got the feeling that the coordinator was trying to push the blame onto us for the mix up.

Wait... you were suppose to be the coordinator to help us plan the trip. You had no objections when we gave u the key dates of the trip, we worked within those dates and did no changes. YOU did not update us when there were amendments, and when there was a mix up, you simply push the blame to us without asking us on our end. True that we booked our tix ourselves coz YOU wanted to leave it to us to do our own itinerary for the days after the visit.

Well, whatever... One of my friends said to me (when I was telling her abt the messy arrangements) that even if it's a false accusation, we dun have to worry since we aren't guilty of any crimes committed. Afterall, there are always black sheeps in every organisation. How true. In any case, since this voluntary work is done in the name of God, He'll know about the truth behind it all.

Last 2 weird encounters to end the day. Went to have a quick dinner b4 the briefing... so wanting something fast and simple, I had the chicken rice at the food centre nearby. There wasn't a queue, so I reckon the lady would be able to whip up my meal fast. But I was wrong. Being a Hainanese Boneless Chicken rice stall, the lady took pains to intricately remove all the bones from the meat. Presentation was zilch... the meat was simply stacked onto the rice. But that was not my concern. I just want my food! She finally brought the food over. And whoa! was the chicken soup oily. i noticed that the rice was not plain but was yellow (ala brayani style). Then she mubled something about the soup being good and all, to which I juz nodded. (I just want my food!) She came back with the change and a laminated piece of newspaper article. And she proceeded to tell me that the sop had no preservatives and MSG and all freshly and lovingly boiled from chicken bones and herbs. Prevents cancer, etc etc... But the amt of oil in the soup from the chicken.... I wonder wat else would one contract if not cancer. And then there was, too, the reason to why the rice she made had the yellow ginger in it. Again for health and anti cancer purposes. Well, the rice was nice... juz that the soup was way too oily. She was glad I enjoyed my dinner (coz I was hungry and I just wanted my food!) and ask me to patronise her stall the next time I m there. She even has other kinds of soup available in the menu. Hmm.. i wonder...

The final weird encounter was the one with the taxi driver who drove me home. He asked about the youth group which we went (since he picked us up in front of the church) and juz some distance b4 my stop, he said he goes to this 'church' in expo (I wonder which one is that... ) and always very happy to sing when he was there. And this is when, while returning me my change for the ride, he belted out a few (well, actually 2) chinese oldies in 7 different octaves from tenor to soprano. "Good eh? Good eh?" he kept asking while I was trying to alight from his cab.

Well... I.... suppose so. But I just wanna head home and rest. And to cool myself down from the briefing which seemed to have invisible fingers pointing at us for the problems. Anyway, I managed to get myself out of the cab b4 the driver got carried away with his singing. But I guess he's being friendly. But I wasn't really in the right frame of mind to be in.

Good eh?

The big event on Sat

The wedding finally happened on Sat 20th Jan. It was quite an eye opening experience for me as I volunteered to be the secondary photographer for the day. Interesting to be attached to the Jie meis as I witnessed (ok, I was part of their team too. Bwahaha!) the torture meted out onto the Groom and his bros. Well, actually it was quite mild, especially the food items they were forced to eat. In fact, the guys loved them (the food items) I think the most tiredsome one was the treasure hunt which was the 1st challenge them guys faced. Imagine running around the block in full suit (for the Groom) and chinese coats (for the bros and the coats seemed thick to me). I think the Jie Meis are all really nice gal. hehe...

Was a little disappointed initially when the Main Photographer showed up in the morning together with the Videographer and the makeup artists at the bride's place early in the morning. I was thinking to myself "Duh... Of coz the Photographer will be here instead of being with the groom, wat was I thinking?"

But i got over the initial awkwardness and got myself to take pics out of the Main's way. I covered those angles of her in action and especially when the Groom arrived at the gates, I covered the scene from inside. i guess that was rather balanced up. I still left the main scenes to the Main... well, that's what she's paid for and supposed to do. So that gives her all the rights and priority to have good angles. Besides, my camera and I (read: my skills) are not that fast enuff to capture fast shots. And oso her camera does look BIGGER than mine. haha!

It was definitely a good experience last Sat. I was inducted as a Jie Mei-for-a-day too.. albeit a rather ugly one. But no matter... it meant that the Groom had to feed me a red packet too! Hehehe... Thanks to all the Jie Meis who included me in. (Yes yes, I was used.) Was a little embarassed when the Groom had to fish out another red packet. But then again, he was already expecting to give them to the Jie Meis.... hehe... I guess the shoots I took make up for the red packets I earned.

Interestingly, the videographer was the one who shared tips with me on what to look out for when covering a wedding shoot. Hmm... maybe I should have intro-ed myself when I met them in the morning. Was only until afternoon when the Bride mentioned to them that I'm the couple's friend and I was leeching on helping out to polish my skills. It was only then, that the Videographer seemed to lighten up and shared some tips from her experience. The Photographer was a little more relaxed I suppose.. Didn't really talk to her much. But I guess like what the rest told me... they have been in this field long enuff to know that sometimes relatives would be also tagging along to help with the phototaking and such. Oh well, maybe I'm juz a little too sensitive about that issue.

Should be posting some shots I took in my own flickr after I figure out how to upload them to the Groom's account.

For an account of the day thru one Jie Mei's eyes... click Here

Dusty Monday

It was a different start to the week today.

Firstly, the network was down when I got to work. Initial thought was that my workstation screwed up over the weekend again (yes yes, I usually leave it on over the weekend and waste the nation's resources), hence I restarted my comp. But it was still down when I logged back in. Was only until after i checked with my colleagues that it was not just my computer. But anyway, 2 of them switched over to the sch's wireless network and were still happily surfing the internet. Thinking that it might be our firewall problem, I headed over to the server room and shut it down for a while. For a while, the network was fine when I restarted the firewall 30mins later.

On another note, what supposed to be a simple task of tidying up our own desk turned into a medium-scale spring cleaning session in our office. Well, ok, maybe it was juz our room. As there will be a visit from some VIPs (in particular, our BU-1) (YES! BU minus 1! He's the biggest shot sitting way back in the main office back in Germany) tomorrow, we were putting up some posters and getting ready demos of our works. And somehow along the way, we had to pack our room a little, which led to clearing our some past annual reports and newsletters dating back to around 1995? And since we are clearing out them old reports, it would be wise to be wiping off the dust from the shelves too. And there were some empty cabinets (after clearing out the loads of unwanted report materials), it made sense to pack those dunno-which-category-they-shd-be items and lock them up where they can't be seen. Well, we cleared up our room juz in case BU-1 decided to step in and peer at our working habitat. So i guess a good clean up is necessary.

We got the cleaning lady to come over after lunch time to sweep and mop up the room after we packed. We then had to move all the chairs and any movable items out of the room so that the lady can clean up the place. And while waiting, we put up a few more posters along the corridor. It turned out quite nicely decorated. We realised we were missing a noticeboard (supposedly used to disseminate news and info to all staff and students there) and were able to dig up an old noticeboard from the storeroom. The next task was to tack up enuff news and info to disseminate to the staff and students so that it would not seem like the board was hung up at the last moment. Heh.. im glad we were able to fill it up quite a fair bit.

Somehow along the way, the network screwed up again and we were left unconnected. But that was towards the end of the work day, so we were slacking resting for a bit as we waited for the time to knock off work. One thing I always hate abt cleaning up, is that I'll get all sneezy each time I dusted anything and everything. And I couldn't really rest (since there was no internet connection) and do soemthing else.

So that was it.. a dusty Monday to start the week. Maybe I didnt mention much about the dust and all... but it was very very, dusty as we were cleaning up the place.

So... how was ur monday today?

I could hardly remember what happened last week. I guess that's why it's good to keep a journal of what I did.

Forgetting what happened could mean many things...
- Everyday is too mundane to remember
- Time flies when there are always things to do
- And er... I forgot wat I wanted to say

But anyway... bits and traces of memory seems to be coming back now. I recall having dinner wif my friends in Geylang on Wed nite. Had been quite a while since the 3 of us met up again. It was a choice of air-con comfort vs nicer local foods. So we settled on this popular Beef Hor Fun eatery at Lor 9.. ordered the Hor Fun and Oyster Omelettes... 'lettesss coz the eatery opposite also has this 'Famouse Fried Oyster Omelette' signage on it. So we took the chance and ordered a plate each from both stalls. Each has it's own flavour and nice in it's own way... but I think I preferred the one from the Beef Hor Fun eatery.

Then we stayed on and caught up with each other over drinks (of lime juice, coke and tea) abt relationships and career. And then we moved next door to the Tau Hway shop and had more drinks (of soy milk) and Tau Hway.

So that was Wed's evening.

In other news...

One of my friends is getting married this coming weekend. So somehow, in some ways... I got nosy and volunteered to help out. Ok, initially I was asked if I could help and be the videoguy for the day. But then the couple decided to get the bridal studio to do it. Hence I asked if I could leech on to this chance assist by being the 'secondary' photographer and take photos instead... so there you have it... I'll need to be up bright and early, say like... 3am on Sat morning so that I can reach the bride's place at 5am, so that I can cover the teeny weeny short segment of the bride getting ready and with the makeup artist at work. And then probably a few more shots until the groom arrives which I assume that the photographer from the studio will be coming with.

Guess I'll just have to be thick-skinned and give myself the exposure to covering wedding events. Or mabbe steal some tips from The Pro too... hehe...

Hei Zhi Ma Dan Juan (Black Sesame Eggroll)

or was it?

Anyway got the picture courtesy of Ben, who allowed me to post it in my blog.

He was away in China with his parents for holiday during the Christmas/New Year break. Then they stopped by at a restuarant for a meal. I guess the waiter there recommended them this eggroll dish.

For one thing, not listing the ingredients used on the menu might be good. Ben and family heard as "Hei Zhi Ma Dan Juan" or Black Sesame Eggrolls. So when they tried it, the dish tasted bland and soft, not so much like black sesame, but rather like tofu. But nonetheless nice, so everyone finished it.

It was not until when they left that they saw this jar (somewhere by the counter/kitchen?) with a handwritten label of the contents which was the filling used for the eggrolls they had earlier on.

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Apparently what they had were "Hei Ma Yi Dan" or.... Black Ants Eggs!
Wow! Urgh! Definitely an exotic experience!

You know u r a Villager(tm) when...

- u have a specially printed The Village(tm) polo tee

- u hav a "Long Live Friendship!" (aka LLF) handphone strap hanging off either on your handphone or somewhere at home on some knob somewhere.

- (last but not least) the most frequently heard pickup line on conversation starter with you is, "So.... u working at The Village? Nice place they got there, don't they?"

O_O!!!

The view out my kitchen window at 4am

Since I was there enjoying the slight breeze and the nostalgia, I decided to take a picture of the view out the window. At 4am, some neighbours' kitchen lights are already on (on a Sunday morning, mind you). Either people are getting ready for the day or they just prefer to keep the night lights on.

A scent of nostalgia

I'm still up at this time.

Earlier on, I walked into the kitchen to get a drink and the scent of the warm night drifted through. I realised the last time I smelled that scent was about 2 years ago when I stayed up to study for exams.

How time flies. It was an all familar scent which got me remembering the yester days. Somehow all I remembered was how carefree and simple life was back during the school days.

Lazyman's pasta salad

pasta salad

Decided to prepare my own lunch today and created this Lazyman's Pasta salad.

Preparation time: 10mins
Cooking time : 40mins





Ingredients serves 2 pax
1 carrot - sliced finger food style
1/2 broccoli - coarsely sliced. (well, as long as it's short enough to be a mouthful)
10 fresh brown mushrooms - halved
1 potato - boiled and cubed
300g pasta (Never remembered the name of this shell-looking pasta. Can be any other kind too)
Some Olive oil
Some salt

Toppings
Bacon bits
Mayo or Miracle Whip

Steps
- Set the pasta to boil. Takes about 15mins
- Prepare a pot of water to steam the veges
- Wash and slice carrots and broccoli to finger size bits. (Might need to soak the broccoli in water for a while for the itsy bitsy stuff that are stuck in the 'afro hairdo' to fall out.)
- Wash and slice the fresh mushrooms into halves, or smaller depending on individuals
- Put all vege bits together, add salt and mix well. Steam for about 20mins or until carrots show signs of softening.
- Boil potato seperately or cube and steam with the rest.

- Pasta should be ready but the time the veges are put to steam. Remove pasta from boil and dip in cold water bath. Drain dry.

- Once veges are ready, remove and add to pasta. Add about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and mix the salad evenly.
- Add mayo or miracle whip and mix well

- Add bacon bits before serving.

Whoo hoo!! Healthy lunch! *Happiness*

After the festivities are over...

.. comes the sore throat, blocked nose and an aching knee. Ok, i shouldn't blame the festivities but the rain!!!

Was caught in it for a while, and then stuck in the car for the better half of the remaining day last week. Conclusion - drenched and get "air dried" by the air-con in the car do not go well together.

And then the old knee injury seems to act up everytime on cold and damp days.

Man... my joints are getting creaky

Games galore!

So that was how I spent my 2 days of holidays in the first week of 2007.

Was a day of mj over at my cuzzie's place. I wanted to slack at home (again) when my mum asked if I be interested to play. I wanted to pack my room and maybe continue my violin practise after resting for so long, so I thot. But then again... the chances of me not doing anything as planned if I stayed at home is much much higher than I would will myself to do the tasks which I had planned out even before my long break started. So I found myself agreeing to the mj session.

Headed over around 10ish. And we got the game started an hour later. Usually it's 3 games with an average of 2hrs per game. But it was kinda longer this time round since some of us got 'tiao zeng' for a number of times. (which is good... hehe) Anyway, finally ended the game at around 1930hrs with the last game lasting for almost 3hrs. I must say... it was a pretty intense mentally... got me going O_o after it all ended. The good thing for me (for this session) is that i managed to reduce my 'game fees' to a mere $10!!! (considering we started with a capital of $200 and is a $1/$2 per 'fan' game) Whoo hoo! Managed to reduce my losses this time.. but I dun think I can ever hit it over to the profit levels.

Headed over to C's place after dinner as I promised to get her modem up and running. Thankfully it was only a matter of proxy settings (which we did do the prev time, but didnt get it working properly) and nothing wrong with anything else. We tested the settings on my laptop first. And then i tried on her PC only to be faced with the harddisk acting up on us. Thankfully it worked after some tweaking and then got the internet connection up and running again. */flex* man... I'm good. Ok, mabbe not all that good, else I would hav got it working months ago.

So that was yesterday, the 1st day of the new year.

And today, it was another day of boardgame over at Cable's abode. (sorry Angelystor :P get j00 nex time when we can really PLAY the game) Started the day with brunch over at Cafe Cartel and then headed over around noon. We tried Arkham Horror And boy! was it long! By the time we settled down for the game, it was about 1.30pm... then after the gamemaster (ala me) tried to re-read the rules of the game to play again, and then setting up the game wif the help of the bunch, it was already 2pm! When we finally got into the game proper... it was about close to 2 hours later!

Got some of the rules wrong as we went along... but it was pretty interesting though we took like about 6 hrs to complete the whole game (with our screwed up rules). I guess at the end of the session, everyone is pretty versed in the game already.

And so that was today... after 1 game of AH which got all of us quite brain drained at the end of the day.

Cliche title... HAPPY 2007!!!

So.... the last few hours of 2006 were spent walking over from my place to the Esplanade to catch the fireworks.

Set off from base camp at about 2100 hrs and trudged thru Geylang hoping to catch some interesting nightlife there. But sadly, it was a usual Sunday night along the (main) streets of our famous red-light district.

So I carried on walking to Esplanade, passing along National Stadium and Nicoll Highway. Hmm.. now that I mentioned it... shd go take some shots of the grand old lady b4 she's torn down to make way for a new sports complex. Anyway, back to the trek, the stretch of road there was almost deserted saved for an occasional few buses and cars heading into the city. It was only until Suntec when I saw more life around.

When I got over to Elizabeth walk, the place was already quite packed with people waiting for the fireworks to start. There was no way to get onto the bridge overlooking Marina Bay as it was filled with about 16,000 merrymakers that night. Esplanade grounds were out of the qn too. From were i was, it was a sea of shadows all over the bridge and the Esplanade.

Did manage to get a good spot near to the edge along Elizabeth Walk, so I was quite glad the effort (to walk there) did pay off. Strangly, as I wait for the fireworks to start, 2006 seemed to have slipped off amidst all the anticipation and counting down to midnight. Somehow it just came and then it's all over when the clock stuck 12. And everything was drowned out by the cheers for the beautiful fireworks that followed. And then 10 minutes later, it all ended. The lamps in the park were turned on again and saved for a few young people still celebrating with the confetti spraycans amongst their groups, most people were leaving, trying to catch a ride home. I stayed on for a while... then headed over to Esplanade to catch whatever else remaining that can be shot for keepsake. Nothing much 'cept for throngs of people trying to get out of there.

As I headed back towards City Hall, seems that many had booked a hotel stay at Swissotel and were wishing all of us ground troopers as we all walked on by. I was tempted to wave back but it was kinda weird already when I was out 'partying' all alone by myself all the way at Esplanade. So i decided to keep my arms down and carried on walking. Walked to Bugis (when I somehow missed City Hall station totally) and caught a train home.

Pics of the fireworks to come soon.

Happy 2007 everyone!!!