Thursday, December 29, 2005

Retrospection and Resolution

Another year has just passed me by and the wheels of time stop not for mere mortals the likes of us.
As I see the year went by like so many just alike.
I stop to think that little changes there may be till I lay still and time pass me by
~Annoymous

I have carried on my usuall sabatical at the end of the year as the time for rest and reflection. And also I loath the prospect of having the chance to work till late during my birthday. So much so that I had never go back to the office at the end of the year and that no one will usually sees me around after christmas. As it is, I did went back to office after christmas(Boxing day) to be exact to attend to something urgent.

The rest of the time is spent on Victoria Island with my Spearman as he is really lagging in his advancement. The other tie are spent on painting the new house among other distraction.

I had known for quite a while next year would be bustling with activities on the personnal front thanks to moving to the new house, the customary and not to mention, not 1 but 2 ICT. Fuck!!! they are really milking this for all its worth.

I had spent this year scrapping by, making one compromise after another for 1 reasons and another, I wished I did not but I did and really, its pointless regretting about it now. The few high points this year is to finally got off my but and started this little space of mine and to have some of you that drops by often and leave your comment and suggestion to help me to be better. For that i am eternally grateful. My English is still atrocious and my spelling crap. I shall make it one of the main resolution to make sure that I stopped posting crap. Of the people that I know, I can only say that Paddy is the 1 inspiration that I know that getting into business while not easy, is something that is fulfilling and rewarding. Hang in there Tomato, you are doing great it will only get better.
The Student is someone that helps me to keep in check in another prospective, the youthfull but precarious point of view keeps me in check and help me to not go off a tangent.
As for lady Iris, for you grace this page with your presence and was not quick to slay those points. In that, I thank you.

Also to my wife for she actually read all these stuff and tells me how she felt about them. She knows that I sometimes keep a few thing to myself and this is one of the way which makes opening up easier. I have to thank my wifey for actually patient enough to read through all these and not just make me say which unfortunately while I am bad in writing, my lacking in eloquence will not be able to bring forth half my thoughts and feelings as easily as this.

Enough eith the last year. All I can say for next year will be,
to complete all those task that I know that lay before me and to spot and overcome all the obstacle not seen yet. To persevere in keeping this blog and to keep on with my regime of badminton and restart my weekly jog.

To really get into the eNN thing and to be worthy of the term entrepreuner.

Last of all, to complete those projects and task at work, spin off a few new ones while staying in scope of relevance and budget.

And to all of you that actually read this. Hope you had a great 2005 and that 2006 will be better for you in each and every way possible.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Another weekend burned

It was one of those weeks that left in a haze and left me even more tired.
2 full day spent at the new house painting it and it is now painted to a certain extend. More to go surely, in fact I am pretty sure that I will have a white christmas thanks to all the white paint we will use.

Managed to catch some zzzzzz's on Saturday afternoon before setting off to catch Budak Pantai at the esplanade.



It was entertaining but I do find that I had heard the performance before or most of it. It is one of those things that despite hearing for the nth time, the n+1 time will still be funny.

Stopped by the Glutton Bay after that as we are both hungry. And after reading what Mr Brown had said about upgrading, I wasn't too disappointed with some of the food but I did find something that really worth the wait and the hype. And I will actually put that down in the next post.

Sunday was even more gruelling and I was too tired to even fall asleep.

Well, back to work today......

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Christmas Gifts

It was a ridiculously busy week, with the painting of the new house, wedding dinners (not mine), meeting to plan for my own wedding dinner and a 2 hour badminton schedule, I still manage to retain my sanity or with most of it intact. More that later, maybe.

(For those below 18, turn back, click on disney or something... go on)

Monday Night and wifey was showing me her gift she had for gift exchange and telling me about the wrappers and how it is not necessary to buy expensive wrappers...

Which trigger a thought in my less than pristine clean mind:

Hey, thats how I see lingerie on m'femme. She wear those to make those concealed treasure more lovely and while the only thing I can think of is how to remove them. While satin and lace is very nice,
even leather will do fine,
full or half cup nevermind.
Thong and G-string are just lines.
All that I have on my mind,
Is to that those damn corset.
gets in the way of mine.

For guys, you as much as I do, probably enjoys unwrapping those presents
But really, what get us going is what lies underneath.

As for the ladies, well, even if you wrap yourself in only a towel or dressed to the ninth.....what your man wants is to get rid of those damn cloths and get into the *ahem* thicks of things.....

And Santa, I had been naughty all years and I decided that as usual, I will buy my own gift and you can take that piece of coal and chuck it up your fat lily white ass...

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Your Body Is A Wonderland

Your Body Is A Wonderland By John Mayer

We got the afternoon
You got this room for two
One thing I'll have to do
Discover me
Discovering you

One mile to every inch of
Your skin like porcelain
One pair of candy lips and
Your bubblegum tongue

And if you want love
We'll make it
Swim in a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be awhile

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder (I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland

Something 'bout the way your hair falls in your face
I love the shape you take when crawling towards the pillowcase
You tell me where to go and
Though I might leave to find it
I'll never let your head hit the bed
Without my hand behind it

You want love?
We'll make it
Swim in a deep sea
Of blankets
Take all your big plans
And break 'em
This is bound to be a while

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder (I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland

Damn baby
You frustrate me
I know you're mine all mine all mine
But you look so good it hurts sometimes

Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonder (I'll use my hands)
Your body is a wonderland
Your body is a wonderland

Da da bop ba ba da da
Ba ba bop ba la la la
Ba ba bop ba ba da da
Ba ba bop ba da da da
Ba ba bop ba ba da da
Ba ba bop ba da da da
Ba ba bop ba ba da da
Ba ba bop ba da da da

Run For Funds

Relaying this information from Voxeros.
Run for Funds a charitable cause to help to raise funds for the disadvantaged.
You ca read about the background from here
I will put it up to sticky till the end of December.

Here is the reproduction :

Run For Funds (Update Nov 05): An appeal for funds

Hi folks, (Superfriends, pls cascade to your sponsors)

This is an email appeal for contributions (funds and volunteer time) for Run For Funds 2005.(For background info, pls go to www.runforfunds.com)

It is 2 weeks to the Stanchart Marathon (4th Dec 2005, Sunday)
The Run For Funds Superfriends have been training hard for their respective 10km, 21km and 42km runs in a bid to raise funds to help the disadvantaged in Singapore.
I look forward to your continued strong support of this movement.
(I'll be running 42km. You can sponsor me on a lump sum or on $X per km completed basis).
Thanks :-)

---Cut Short---------------

Monday, December 05, 2005

A weekend spilled over

My groomy Friday night was just a prelude to how the weekend had been.
I was just sitting alone in the room and trying the darnest to level my character in MS. Nope, it was not the smoothest run thanks to a workstation that decided to play random reboot and a server that is always too full. Wifey came home late after her OT and her meeting with some of her friends and let me in on the bad news, I am on my own for the weekend.

Nope, she did not skip town, just that I have to start the painting of the new house all on my own and I wasn;t really thrilled about it.

So, saturday morning came and I started off bright and early. Had some fried carrot cake at the food court in Yew Tee, it wasn't fantastic but it will pass.

Now, for those that had done any painting work will realised that the fun part is really the painting....the crummy part is making sure that the paint lands on where you wants to and not all over the place. Despite the fact that I am only doing the kitchen ceiling and the entire service balcony, it really wasn't any fun. I soon realised that taping stuff could be so tedious. I had also found my lost affinity with the ladder and I probably looks like a hairless ape climbing up and down, taping and painting. Wife came over to join me for lunch and went back home as she has other appt in town. Mother came over and helped out as well.

By the end of it I was tired and not really in a very talkative mode and that I virtually forced myself to bed at about 1 as I had to digest a few thing that doesn't go very well in my mind.

The next day got up bright and early to do even more painting and fortunately, only the storeroom. Wasn't easy when 1 has to climb up and down in a confined space with plenty of shelves.

REalised that this weekend isn;t really my day as I actually left my phone in the new house on Saturday and my sandals decided to separate between the sole and the strap. While ironing, realised that the thermostat decided that the best temperature for an iron is a total melt down..... nearly lost my shirt.

After done with the shirt, went out to catch Zathura, not bad.... its basically Jumaji in Space. Got a new pair of sandals from Hangten as well as a pair of shirt for me and 1 more for wifey.

Followed by a 2hour session of badminton with just the 4 of us and realised that, damn, I need alot of work on my swing and that I am not really getting younger.

Woke up at 7 on monday morning just so that I can everyone that I am on leave to attend a talk in NTUC income. Interesting thing about the enn newsletter and I decided that I might just sign up for it.

Ran some errand for the office to bring a router from the Holding office to our datacenter, caught a bus back and stopped over at Bukit TImah for a quick bite. Nothing fantastic really....

In the mean while, calls from the office seems to be coming in and that i rushed home just before the shit (real) hits the fence. Seems like I can get out of the office but I cannot get out of working, well, all will be normal again tomorrow as I return to the office.....I hope.

Friday, December 02, 2005

Paris Hilton Caught screwing

While it is no big news that our beloved heiress has been caught in compromising situation, the circumstances this time is a bit more out of extraordinary. Ms Hilton was caught on film to be screwing by the poolside in her manor.
“This is utterly scandalous”, said one relative.
“I’ll have none of this in the house,” said the father of our famous heiress.
“And I’ll bet old Conrad is probably turning in his grave,” said the anonymous gardener that provided us this precious footage









Thursday, December 01, 2005

Me a Pesto

I had never tasted one before... So, I have no idea

Pesto Pizza

Adventurous and hedonistic.
You live for new experiences and tastes
And you're not the type to have your pizza the same way twice
If they can put it on pizza, you're up for trying it!

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Wrong Notes


It does seem like the prodigal son is having a hard time coming back. Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against him personally. I feel that anyone that is willing to forsake his obligation to his country and left his parent behind for so many years in his pursuit of music and achieving greatness ought to be honored for their dedication. While the judge honored Nguyen’s love for his father with a noose, we honored this great son of Singapore by asking him to part with $5000 to the continual effort of national building. Which immediately got a lot of tongue wagging and a lot of people lamenting of their lack of interest of the keys of ebony and ivory.
I must say that this is indeed a great moment for us, as his return will probably mark another chapter in the ongoing effort of making our arts and in this case, music scene more vibrant. We probably are also telling the other prodigal son that Singapore stills welcomes you, as long as you do not mind to part with a measly $5k which in fact is for the good cause of further the nation building and to sustain the lowly wages of our highly effective and efficient ministers and the governments.
This also sent a clear message to those young impressionable kids that they really have nothing to fear. Go forth and pursue your dream, renounce your citizenship and come back when you make your mark in the world. You will still be called one of us despite the fact that your passport is now issued from somewhere else. It cost only $5k, really. Never mind the parents that you left behind and the friends that you have forgotten, as they will remember you and flock to you when you make it great.

As for those that is not gifted in Arts, I am sorry. Unless you decided never to come back, have parent that does not mind bank rolling your great escape, you will be given a very short hair-cut, be forced into an arranged marriage (with your rifle) for the next 2 years, and till you hit either 10 cycles or past your 40th birthday, you will be called back at whims all in the names of protecting our homeland.

Besieged in the ivory Tower


While there is likely to be no rest for the wicked, there is however, never short of scrutiny for the best and brightest of this land. Since young, they would have been identified and tagged as gifted, put into a highly advanced and accelerated learning program, studying way beyond their less gifted peers, taking off the little chance that they have to make friends with those that are placed in a less stressful learning environment while living in the constant fear of being ostracized. This draws them into a small enclave, which from the outside looking in, seems to be a wall make of snobbery and elitist superiority.

But yet, the question here is that are we looking at it with green eyes of envy at an ivory tower built by those gifted few as a way to protect them. Growing as such an environment, I fail to see that those early bloomers with their high IQ and excellent aptitude for being academically inclined a gift. In a way, it is both a gift to be bright and brilliant and probably a curse. No, this is not spoken in pity for those GEPed pupils, which will probably one day be the decision maker to steer the nation and forms the pillar of our society; If they did not burn out in that relentless pursuit of paper excellence.

Should we today, sideline them and force them into their small little clique, they will probably never see the world in a perspective, which in lack of a better word, elitist. We would probably never benefited from their sharp mind and thinking. It is probably for the worst that we are allowed to while place them where they are and yet refusing to treat them as whom they are but by how smart they are. It will be truly inhumane and undignified to classify people by their IQ. It is probably just as bad as forcing a yellow Star of David on their shirt and arm. Surely, we had the holocaust to teach us better, or is it that we are fulfilling the role of one that created history only to repeat because we never learn from it.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

How old I am???

First, thanks to Lancerlord which have this in 1 of his entry, guess he is younger than me, or at least he is acting younger than me.

If you want to use this, go here



You Are 32 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe.

13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences.

30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more!

40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary

The last 1-year had been great and had also surprising little in the department of argument. I must say that my wife must have been exasperated for the numbers of times that I have been extremely a brainless, insensitive oaf being totally uncaring and unromantic. She has always been there for me, caring and absolutely understanding. Well, she has her moments of little tantrums but I guess that only makes her even more endearing in my eye.
There really isn't much to plan for except to go catch Harry Porter but unfortunately all the better seats had been taken and we decided not to. We next drop by to WCG at Suntec to actually see our very first cyber competition and we were lucky to walk back with 1 game controller more courtesy of the Lucky draw in the WCG.

I tried, really tried to find a place, which is good enough for her. I guess I only barely scrap the passing grade bringing her to My Secret Garden, a spot befitting its namesake as it is quietly hidden behind the Sculpture Garden somewhere in the city. The ambience is impeccable as it is cozy, lighted with just enough tea-lights. Soothing music and the gentle fragrant complete the setup that is just perfect for a night of romantic get-away. The service is just right on the mark and the food did do the place justice. What really completed the evening is the desert, which delighted my wife.

What I would recommend would be the lamb rack that is delightfully done to just the right texture, while the flakes being tasty on their own gives the lamb added dimension to its taste. The potato skin with escargots was exquisite with the right balance of escargots and mushrooms while the potato was baked to just the right level of softness and crispiness.

I did mention that the desert was exquisite? Well, the Bread and Butter Pudding and the Triple chocolate cake is delicious by their own rights. Try tasting both together would be heavenly. I do suggest that if you want to have a quiet night out, this would be the spot. Take a look here : Http://www.mysg.com.sg but shhhh….dun o out an tell everyone.

Well, I hope my wife enjoyed the short interlude between her busy work schedules. I know that I needed this break. Just looking forward to the next year. In fact, everyday spent is like winning the lottery.

债 (Debt)

生命中,无法抗拒, 无力承受的情

一个人一生中,总难免会承受一些人情。人情债,最难还;但是它会叫你不能也不得不还。 与其负上这一个人情的负债,有时情愿不领这个情,不负这个债。但是身命中总有一些你不得不领的情和不得不负的人情债。
无法抗拒的债 其实讲白了,根本就是一种感情勒索。而勒索这门勾当就是要让你知道这是一个无法全身而退的一个局但是你还是不得不入局。布局的人,有时令人觉得心机很重却令人无法咬牙切齿的去恨。很无耐的是,布局的人都是生命中,一些你认为重要的人。能够让你在毫无条件下,最义无反顾的付出。虽然这些都是一些小动作,但有的时候这些小动作可能会叫人心烦进令人有一种被人玩弄于股掌中的感觉。我相信,任何人都不喜欢那种被当成是扯线木偶的感觉。但是,如果把线看作是一种牵缚,一种感情与关系的联结,将这条线剪断可能令人得到了自由,也对双方造成伤害。

引起这诸般沉思的,只是一碗面。一份星期六早上的早餐。 当我听到母亲说她没空准备时,只是应了一声。可是随之而来的,尽是以连串的提问, “要不要我煮?”“吃饭?吃面?”“要吃就帮忙!” “要你帮忙这样难。”“你看,五分钟就弄好了!”“又可以省钱.”

可能你们觉得我不懂得感恩,有些不识好歹,甚至觉得我大逆不道,活该给雷劈了。但是, 如果以我的立场来讲, 其实,早餐我可以自己张罗,自己下厨也行。 只是我并不喜欢被别人用问题来套牢,如果别人已经决定的事,就别来问我。稍有违被您的意见就给人扣帽子。顺着您的意见时,稍有不够卑躬屈膝,就会被当成大不逆。直到今日, 对别人不敢有所诉求,大半都是因为觉得还不起这分债和这俩句:

欠人一分钱,不还债不完。
欠人一份情,不还不痛快。

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Another Bird Flu Victim


dead_bird, originally uploaded by putit_this_way.

Yes, it hit Paris. The world mourns for the lost of one its quackiest duck. Donald Duck residing in Euro-Disney is found dead at the Euro Disney.

Some passerby which witness this terrible scene reports tat the last word spoken by Donald is,"Tammi...Tammi..." much to the anguish of a distraught Daisy Duck. Widow to the recent deceased Donald Duck.

(Boomberg)

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Caption maketh the picture

I know the phrase a picture says a thousand word has been repeated till death and resurrection for the nth time. But I feel that at the end of the day, its the caption that completes the picture. Let try to run it

Just some of the captions that skew the original emphasis of the picture


Big Cork


big cork, originally uploaded by putit_this_way.




Big brown one


whiskey wet dream, originally uploaded by putit_this_way.



Big Ones


big ones, originally uploaded by putit_this_way.



Now, the captions really change the way you expectof the picture...No???

Friday, November 11, 2005

Effective Communication

In my years in different companies, I had derived the following 10 points foreffective communication which is the key to success:

1). Be seen as forcefull in your message
Saying maybe, synergies as buzzword seems so last century. What you need is to say empowerment, deadline, consequences and impact. More effective if you can emphasis them with a very big gun. Tomahawk missle is extremely effective.

2). Back it up with gesture and actions
Words are just facts, action is key. Do not be afraid to use force and demonstration. Remember how effective it was when Deathstar was use as an interogation tools????

3). Dont threaten, Just promise that it is going to hurt
Threatening someone is just so wrong and should only be done if you are part of the cast in the Sopranos. What you should do should be not telling people to pay up but start to pour kerosene at their front door. This is a Industrial-wide best practice.

4). Picking the right time
Yes, timing is everything. Telling someone a crisis has just happen at 10am will not have much effect. Try doing it at 3am in the morning at the person's home number for about 20 times will be much more effective to convey the sense of urgency.

5). Dress appropriately
What most practicioner failed to get prompt payment is because they dont dress right.
You should always wear something which is worse for wear from your client in order to get those payment. big thick goldchain shows that you are still quite well to do. Wear shirts with a few holes and a smattering of blood to show that you are not afraid to follow up with promises and action.

6). Give praise when needed
When you are asking for something. Be it an extension, additional loan, or raise. You should always heap praise and be subtle about it. And remember, praise and discreet gifts are nice emphasis that you meant your praise.

7). Format and presentation
Small font are good if you want important matters to be grossed over. But to bring points across, large bold text in red works best.

8). Location, location, location
Position your message strategically. Like right smack at the void deck in front of the lift and just in front of the unit will drive the message home. Put it in front of the police post will get you arrested.

9). Tailor your message
Not everyone understand officious sounding word from a lawyer's office and that not everybodies bodyguard appreciate a call by your agent. Know how to make your message understandable to your targetted audience is extremely important. Which works in a lesser way in the next point

10). Eliminate possible communication error
This is extremely important in that you do not want your message interpreted in the wrong way. While there has been ways to reduce this, there is a breakthrough solution to remove this once and for all. As we understand, Miscommunication is alwaysdue to a mistake in the interpretation of message by the recipient wilful or unaware. What we can say to this is to eliminate the recipient. Once and for all. That will reduce all Miscommuncation once and for all

Hope that was not helpful at all as it was done at a moment of insanity. Any attempt to follow or to replicate any/some or all of the 10 points will be basically your own fault for following a ranting of a mad man.

Happy weekend

Thursday, November 10, 2005

My Confidence profile

Thanks to Student for sharing this link:

Done my, seems to be not too bad with only social confidence at 5 while the other a minimum 7.

The link is here.

http://www.confidenceclub.net

you need to sign up first though

My profile as follow:

confidence profile

You are a crusader. When you believe in a particular course of action, you are not afraid to make your views known.

You perform at your best with an audience. You would describe yourself as 'shy', and identify closely with performers who use their performances to obscure their shyness and insecurity.

People notice you. You are not afraid to take charge of difficult situations when you feel that this is necessary. Your personal qualities seem contradictory to some of your friends and colleagues; they have difficulty understanding how you can have such presence, and yet also project so much insecurity.

You can achieve significant gains in your personal life and career through personal development. Improved interpersonal skills will help you to form and sustain personal relationships which bring you joy. You have the capability to become a leader; by enhancing your sense of self worth you may find that you become a better listener, more empathic to the needs of others. This increased awareness of, and responsiveness to, the emotional state of others can help you to manage working relationships with a much lighter, more assured, touch.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Breaking the chain of depression

IT was one of those gruelling day in the office which seems like never to end with one situation following another and meetings after endless meeting, did not complete some of the task which I set out to but I have some other agenda today :- Badminton.

Went home to change and went to the badminton session at the sports complex nearby with wifey. Seems like she needs the regular session as much as I do. A good work-out till next week, hopefully I will squeeze some time to jog this friday.

It was only after all these that I managed to sit down and power up my computer. Only then I just came to a realization that there is this friend of mine that is in 2 photos that I glanced upoon. Showing them to my wife and she just realised that I am not that vetically challenged and that also a comment that it seems like the pose that I have seems to be that of confidence. Of which, my only reply is, " why not?"

It seems like confidence is something that my wife finds very common in me, in the pictures aptured and in the way that I talked. This is however, not just something born, but a belief that without confidence in the way we act and speak, our words and deeds will lack the substance and the conviction to carry out our will.

In this case, there was this thing about how there are some that is ever so lacking in confidence and that people who lacked confidence will never find it.

My only reply to this is a simple word, rubbish. Not to what she say but to the belief os those that lacks confidence. If you act and speak without confidence you will always falter and be indecisive, and people will take you as being indecisive. That will be a vicious cycle and that it will just reinforce your own belief that you do not have self confidence and hence manifest in the action which in turns reinforce perceptions that others have, hence the cycle will carry on in a modius loop of infinity.

The same for unhappinese in life. Feeling unhappy is just a start the melancholy is but the prelude to the tip of the emotional iceberg that one will experience. It is always easy to be kept in that same dark melancholic shell which makes one feels easier, better a shell than further hurt some says. There is a time for melancholy and there is a time for healing, a time to cry out and a time to wipe away those tears. To keep crying past that will be to cry yourself blind. In fact, I am very much given to believe that it is this downward spiral which will leads to depression and that if one still does not climb out of that deep well of depression, deeper depression till the point of death might eventually be the only solace for 1.

So, wipe off those tears as it is time to dry. hum a soft happy tune, while thinking of the bad time, think of something good and in itself a small step to climb out of that tower which is made of bricks of misery and pillared by depression. There is no help unless one decides to take the step to remove those bricks and pillars that binds. Tell yourself a joke, find something amusing and most importantly, laugh. And remember, laugh with a heart and build it up and laugh so hard that the damned tower collapse. You will find that there is sun behind that silver lining at the end of the dark cloud.

So, if you are depressed, snap out of it and laugh it out. You can do it.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

2 Sentences

It does seem like we are not really well liked by our friends from down under. And probably because we have a problem with listening and that, we do have a sentence that is rarely liked, the death sentence. While this has been fine and dandy with the people in Oz, it became a problem when not 1 but 2 people from the land of Oz was recently spending time here and that they might end up getting the hang of it so to speak.

The first guy probably will get away lucky. In fact, he is not even an Aussie. He is a Briton, which had spent quite a fair bit of time in Singapore and was doing rather well, when skeletons from the closet came out and almost put him away. I would not use the term skeletons but rather dead bodies which he had hidden after killing them, his girlfriend squealed on him and he ran down south only to be caught and tried for some other crime. We got our man after a long and drawn out legal and political wrangling which made us gave our word that he will not be hanged for his crime despite the mandatory sentence of death for murdering someone in cold blood. A blood for a blood, but I guess this case, he gets a discount. And if his lawyer had his way, just a few year in an institute by pleading one degree or another of insanity. If you ask me, I would prefer to let the Australian keep this guy in their prison or whatever, we really do not need to set such precedent of extraditing someone by making deals with them to have sentencing reduced. What is the point of trying someone, which is at our expenses when the full sentence could not even be served? If we have to pay from our pocket to feed this guy for the rest of this life for his killing spree, I would consider that a punishment befitting of his crime. More like a booby prize.

The other case was a bit sadder as the guy was caught trafficking a bit too much heroine into our airport. This guy was in fact transiting Singapore with the aim of smuggling insanely amount of heroine to Australia. While 400g might not seem to be a lot it definitely earns the gallows for Mr. Nguyen in this case. This is despite the fact that he is doing all these to pay off his brother’s debt and that he was in transit in Singapore. While his case wrings ones heart and his case deserves sympathy, His plea for clemency was denied and that despite all said and done, he will not be spare the rope. This paints a stark picture that there will always be runners like that, which will bear the brunt of the law, which makes a sad situation even sadder. This solves not the fundamental of the problem. It is like pruning the dry leaf of a plant in hope to kill the weeds, visible effort but no tangible results. I am sad to say that his life while taken within the letter of law, seeming taken more in the interest of this nation’s wish to express her sovereignty and that it will not take kindly to external interference. While I have always feel that it is paramount that external forces should be told in no uncertain ways that they are in no position to meddle with our business, but would a life of someone driven out of love for his brother into desperation a price too high?

The second episode reminds me of the recent scene in 汉武大帝, which saw the emperor in anguish and the court in uproar in what was a failed military operation against the 匈奴。The general leading the operations was a loyalist and in his whole life has no higher personal ambition than to defeat the barbarians pillaging the kingdom. His failure got him into jail and a possible execution. His son, at a moment’s folly, consorted with the premier through bribes in an attempt to exonerate him. Unfortunately, that incurred the wraith of the emperor and that the general was being executed for his failure. It seems like while law at time could be tempered with compassion, the wrong interference might very well firm the resolve to bring it to its bloody ends to everyone’s dismal. I sure hope that this will be the only time that I will witness a person that is being put to death under such circumstance, and of course, there are times, which I do wish that we do not need to bring such cretins into our shores.

Monday, November 07, 2005

Just how big is this toilet anyway

I was reading with some pique interest about the row that involves, of all things, a toilet. It is big as compared to other toilets as it is a toilet designated for the disabled and the whole thing that started the entire debate is none other than the irrepressible XX.

Now, the toilet is big, but is it that big? Obviously, it is, but not big enough as our beloved XX was being scolded for using it and that as all bloggers do, she blogged about it. The ensuring censure to her offending entry got 2 of her 3 sponsors pulled the plug on their sponsorship.

But really, is public toilet that big a deal and that does it requires one to go through so much just so that they can have some private time and space to their business so to speak? Apparently, public toilet is a serious topic in Singapore. We were told that our social grace and the lack of it reflected on how clean our public toilet is. Unfortunately, the cleanest toilet award and the upgrade of public toilets everywhere did nothing much to bring up our level of graciousness or make us a nation full of grace. It just proves that public toilet can be made clean with a minion of ever-vigilant cleaners and that if you give an objective and a measurement, people will go into the mad rush of meeting the barometric indicators while neglecting the one thing that needs to be improved on seems to be all the rage back then. It probably still is, but I digress.

There are 2 questions here raised:

Is it right to deny someone a source of income or to bitch about it just so that they lose the endorsement from a corporation because of something that is not agreeable to the complainant?

Is it right for someone that is physically without any disability to use the toilet or for that matter, other facilities being reserved for the physically disabled?

These 2 questions have been covered and chased by the media after they made their rounds in all the popular forums in Singapore. What I can only say is that and I am just as guilty of, feeding the troll by bringing up these 2 topics that are at best, OB markers.

Bitching to kill an endorsement

At this day and age, we are in short supply of celebrities, which could at the drop of a dime spin stories and sells papers. What the media and the media public masses finds in shortage, the Internet delivers. And this time from the realm of blogsphere, which yields more often than not, people, which are extremely outspoken with interesting character and in some cases, some personal failing that can be newsworthy from time to time. We have the perennial Mr. Brown and Mr. Miyagi, which have their own column in Today, and we have Xia Xue, who is a frequent guest on local Chinese talk shows as well as endorsing not 1, but 3 company. Unfortunately, like what uncle Ben once told Peter, “With great power comes great responsibility” As she is the endorsement for those, her words and deeds are watched and monitored by some, with a zeal that is far from what is proportional to her responsibility. It is not like everyone who read her blog would want to go out and offend somebody, and that the sponsors sure weren’t looking for a spanking clean image of purity and beauty. But yet, to have people that got outraged and write in to the sponsor to call them to withdraw and to have the sponsors so easily giving in paints a rather disturbing picture that people that are not happy about what you say in your blog will now not telling you in the face, but rather do something rather drastic about your source of income. It is worst than a slap in the face, more like a kick in the groin, and in this case, the feeling of indignation of having bad press that actually worked in such a way is probably more hurting than having someone flaming on the person’s blog. Low blow maybe, but it is effective. I am just waiting to see if there are blogger that will actually start litigation proceeding against those or even the sponsors that reneged. End of the day, someone might just say that it is the blogger that was being socially irresponsible, and are being negative role-model by abusing social resources and in this case, toilets meant for the physically disabled which begets my second question; What governs the use or abuse of toilets designated for the disabled?

Can the able-bodied use the disabled toilet?


If we compared toilets with parking lots, we would see that those perfectly able-body drivers parking their car in the lots designated for the disabled and that they will be slap with a fine. The same situation when it comes to the toilet, the person using the toilet might even answer with an indignant retort that it is within their bloody rights to use the toilet. The whole idea that having a toilet there which sits pretty, have better facilities and reserved only for a minority while the majority of us have to share the toilet and for the ladies, bearing the sometimes unbearable long queues while at it. I guess is a bit beyond comprehension. But think about it, most people will brand the driver that is able bodied as mentally disabled when parking at the disabled lot. The rule of thumb here I guess, while it is not too bad to use it when the situation is required, the disabled toilet is first and foremost, something build for the use of the disabled and should be treated as such. It might be going a bit overboard should we decide to fine people for using that, I guess it is only good social grace that we refrain from using it and let the physically disabled have the right of use for those toilet and that we will only it in the case of extreme emergency. I mean, you will never know when someone that is wheel chair bound really have a bad case of shit cramp while you are squeezing your zit inside.

I will just leave this last words, we should all live and let live and if we think that the particular person is not a role-model, do not emulate and do not engage, if there is not so much press surrounding them, Their ability to influence diminishes.

And that to exercise common sense befitting of the society that should be now matured by only using public resources that is designated for those that have special needs.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Keeping it for 40 years.

Was watching the 40 years old Virgin last Friday with my wife. While the show was hilarious without resorting to crass jokes and toilet humor, it did not make the joke too high-brow for some. In fact, I find it in good taste and the message behind the show very well thought out. If there is a show that you would want to get on DVD, this is the 1. Of course, I would also recommend Final Fantasy VII :- Advent Child, but that is another story altogether. Just 2 words, it rox.

Back to the 40 yr old Virgin.

Through out the whole show, a few topics which the show dealt with :- virginity, sex, fidelity, dating and I guess the underlying message is really about persona and perceptions.

The whole idea in the show about virginity is that, everyone else lost it which started the mad rush of everyone around our main antagonist to help him be relieved of his status of being a virgin, so much so that his boss even volunteered her services. There are of course dating tips which goes about in the likes of either getting your rocks off in 60 sec or getting slapped. The whole courtship prior to rutting ritual were the de-rigeur which make our main character getting into tight situations time and time again which resultant in failure of comic proportion. But if you were to ask me, the whole idea of virginity is that, its great to hold on to it, but if you lose it, it is really no big deal. For a guy to obsess over the state of virginity of his wife to be, that is like wondering if the seat cover of the car is still wrapped in plastic covers, you are going to tear it yourself anyway and that it really is not something worth getting upset over. I would be however, if the car is a 2nd hand being passed off as brand new. It is not the matter of being obsess about being the first but rather it is about knowing what you are signing up for. I have never lied about the fact that I am no longer that since my first relationship and that I have been up front about it in every relationship that I have been after. And really, I have never even asked if they are virgin or not, just a reminder that once they are past that, there is no turning back. Just this to all the guys and girls out there thinking of losing it for the first time. Please, think twice, use protection and make sure that you are old enough and that do remember that there will be no turning back after and that if you can wait, why not?

Which lead me to the other aspect, sex. I always feels that this is a beautiful expression between 2 person that loves each other, the very act itself is never dirty or wrong. If it is that, we would probably be reproducing by some other ways, the whole act of pro-creation is about love. The love between each other at its highest form of physical culmination. Equating sex and love is as wrong as as equating words with feeling. And please, I am not so naive to believe that all sex are from love. If that is the case, the oldest profession in the world would never be and that vice would only means the device or the situations of being gripped. However, acknowledging its existence is quite different from endorsing it. Vice does have its place in society and that like porn, meant as a viaduct of relief when non can be found and that while some choose to hold the restrain of man, some rutted like dogs. And no, I had never seek out the service ever till date and have no intention to, though I visited almost every red-light district in every country that I visited and yes, my wife knows about it. But seriously, I would never go about sorting such services as of the 1 word in mind, fidelity.

Fidelity is an interesting concept but not exclusive to human being. In fact, wolves are known to mate for life as with penguins while we human sometimes do not. I admit that I did not keep it till the wedding day and that I did have a few relationship that were long and deep in both emotional and physical aspect but yet, if truth be told, while temptation has always been there, I had never, for the better or worst of me entertain the thought of straying and I do hope that I never will. The whole idea of fidelity is not just about fidelity within marriage. Marriage is the legal process of solemnizing a relationship. And to some, the holy pronunciation of a man and woman to be 1 entity. If 2 are made 1, would you ever expect your right hand to cheat on your left hand? Being faithful to one another is something that is unwritten but should be practice throughout the relationship. So much so that the act of staying faithful to each other, forsaking all other is that once a commitment is made to be in a relationship, there should be no other. Such relationship has only a space for 2, putting a third party makes it intolerable for anyone. To carry on screwing is no better than being a dog that screws everything in heat or being no better than a bitch in heat. While some may argue that fidelity is only in marriage. But if you are not willing to do so in a relationship that lead up to marriage, would a vow and a piece of paper binds you? That is something that you will have to answer to yourself, honestly.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Getting an off day

Has it been mandatory for the employers of Singapore to need a law to give their employee a day off or to compensate in lieu of it? This has been one of those questions that had been raised with the recent headline of a possible legislation to be passed. No, we are not talking about you and me, the happy employee of Singapore which during bad time, will gladly bite the bullet when time is bad in the form of pay cut and CPF reduction while patient enough to see wage rise and bonus as a possibility just because that times might have been good, but they are not good enough.

No, I am talking about day off for maids. The staunch defender of household cleanliness, the nanny of the next generation of young Singaporean, the all-in-one wonders that do your groceries, cooking, laundries and even dishes. And yes, they do windows too…..

For those who slog so hard to make the household livable (trust me, I have no maid and I am the constant receipiant of the pig sty award from my mother) And for some, even going oversea might have been a problem as the maid is suppose to pack her passport for her.

I would think that the next generation of our NS boys would have a hard time unless they are allowed to bring their maid along with them.

But yet, if you just pick up the evening tabloid frequent enough, you would see that the pages have dedicated quite a splattering of space for the maids. In fact, if not for the media frenzy and all the maid related story, our tabloid might just run weekly or become yet another morning news with all the somber news of the day. (Yes, I read that trash and then some, if you have a problem, dial 1800-3825633)
If it is not another case of maids getting pregnant thanks to the friends that they have, it would be how they managed to slice and dice and even burn their employer up, or maids running away or worst, sleeping with their employers, torturing the kids and yes, employers tormenting their maids.

Which if we were to read too much into it, it seems like maids are trouble and the employers are the demon that torments, which made me checked my location if I am in Singapore or if I had sunk to hell without knowing.

Now, we all know that it is the exception that gets into the news; the old adage that dog bite man is not news but man bite dog is applies here. In general the maids are here to make an honest day living just to send off the meager earnings back home while the employers here are just looking for cheap but reliable help to make sure that their house is not in shamble.

Giving someone a day off meaning a day that you do not get to control and that they might be given in to bad influences. If that is the case, I do suggest that the proponent of that point stays home and keep a tap on their maid 24X7. If your maid goes to the market, supermarket and fetch your kids to school and then back, they are exposed to all the other maids, good or bad, given a chance to mingle with the opposing sex which might end up becoming their boyfriends and probably even fuck buddies which might fathered their children.

Or maybe what the employers really feared is that if they were to run lose on their off day, when they actually couldn’t care less what kind of company their maids keep or who they sleep with as long as it is done outside the house and not with the sir of the house.
They are a pragmatic lot, they are worried that their $5000 deposit being forfeited. Believe you me that if they happen to see their maid dead, the only concerns is if they would need to pay for the funeral arrangement and would the 5k be forfeited.

This is nothing new and in fact, being dug out again with the recent legislation of foreign workers, which requires their employer to buy medical insurance for them in the even that they felt ill. The whole idea is to have the amount of this deposit reduced or to be converted to a compulsory insurance premium that could cover in the event when either party defaulted 1 way or another. That however, takes the money away from our coffer and I would be pleasantly surprised if it is not thrown out of the window of MOM together with the person with the audacity to even suggest such idea.

Anyway, I guess it is only fair that if we ourselves are not expected to work 7 days a week and are renumerated when we do, shouldn’t those that work for us be accorded the same treatment?

I guess this is something that the conscience of the employers should answer. If the conscience of theirs worth more than just $5000.





Friday, October 28, 2005

For all its worth

I am glad it is not less....


My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?



Thanks, Iris...

Thursday, October 27, 2005

What am I doing here

Just realised after boarding the bus this morning that I was supposed to be on leave. Heck, too many things left unfinisihed. So I decided to just go with the flow and head on down to office.

Have some time to catch up on the news and back in the office to at least catch up with some of the work still left undone. Only to realised that have another meeting which went on till lunch.
However, still got a call from home and was reminded that I have not decided on the colour scheme, hence theis week will be another wasted week. Yeah, right. Thats really a perk-me-up to have in the morning.

The meeting which did not went too well as the phone system decided not to work on duplex mode but uneventful otherwise. This was followed by a department lunch whereby we get to all sit around to have a little chit chat with our visiting boss from HQ, it was also the same place that another colleague of mine is having her farewell at another table. Just wonder that when it is my turn, will I actually have the fortune to have people which I call friend to actually go for a farewell lunch and not one of those contrived departmental thingy.

Starting to feel like I should have been home only to realised that it is probably better off at work of which I can complete the task that I need to do rather than having to face with some task which I cannot complete and a situation that is slowly unravelling what little patience that I have left in me. Either we get that darn house painted or somebody let up or I am really gonna blow....

It did not get better at the end of the day whereby my mood was fouled for the rest of the night and I am just quietly sulking and typing it all out.

Tomorrow will be a full day seminar at Grand Hyatt before another Saturday back in the office for some unfinished business which could had been done last saturday........

This weeks sux and I think next week is gonna get progressively worst.......


\

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Thrice-born Trinity

Yupe, this is the number of time that I could still recount restoring Triniy due to 1 problem or another. And in case you are wondering, Trinity is not Neo's mainsqueeze in this case, she is my computer. I enjoy giving quirky names to my computer. It was Skynet then Trinity. And if you must know, my wife's PC is affectionately knonw as Volkswagen.

Trinity was grouchy for the past few month, refusing to boot and citing missing NTFS.sys ever so conveniently. I had to do the ultimate... reformat......So far, so good. At least you see this blog coming off Trinity.......This came after I finally fixed up Volkswagen's refusal to boot up... The caus? Speakers that doesn't seems to just speak, but suck out every functional capability of poor little Volks......And to think we were so close to calling it quits and upgrade her.

Just hope that she stay this way till I have enough spare cash to give her a new lease of life with the AMD64 processor, another 1 more GB of Ram and a new graphic card which can render all the FPS in their true glory........

Some thoughts and a new look

For those that only start visitng this page recently, first of all, a warm welcome and hello. For those that had been visiting since day 1, this is actually for you.

First off, thank you for actually bothered to read thoughts that I have, some dark, some satirical. And those who commented, thank you, for words of encouragement and comments to make me write better.

No, I am not closing this down. More likely to tell you about this new look. First off, the words should appear bigger to make it seems that I am writing longer. Actually, the length of entry is about the same as I am normally spent after 1 1/2 page.

I added links to some which had linked tome. If you think there is some link you like to see here, prey tell. I have added the link to Bak2U.com which is a business venture of Mr Tomato75 and his partners. The link is just below the advertisment link on top of the Google Ads. And No, Paddy, I am not going to charge you for that, rest assured.

You are always welcome to drop me a mail to talk about anything under the sun. I included not 1, but 2 of my email address, both which I checked regularly if not daily.

All in all, do let me know how I can be better in both my post and to improve this page. And that if you have something to say, just say it, I might not agree but I will not take you to court.

A little bit about myself: I was almost a Poly drop-out which spent too many years for my own good in the military, if you find my english bad, my apologies as I am using this as a way to improve my bad english and sometimes mandarin. Online, I hang out either in SPUG forum or in a online game called Maple Story. Who I am in the forum is no great mystery and who I am in Maple-sea on the server called Aquilia, I will leave that unanswered for now.

Lastly, welcome, enjoy, be comfortable, and don't hesitate to drop me a line or a comment.

Chickened by the flu

Maybe it is due to my sickness, I was very concerned that I might have come down with flu, which I did, after revelation by the doctor. But while what bought me down is nothing more than the common flu, it did set off some small alarm and that I come to realize that despite all the advancement we made, our conquest of Earth and the inner planets, we are nowhere near today as we were half a century ago into ridding the existence the one common bane in life, the brother of Death, Disease.

It is probably ironic that portray in Orson Welles’s work “War of the World”, whereby the invading aliens which destroy cities at will and tearing through the armies like putting aside toys, were to succumb to virus and to die without a fight. That gave the phrase,” The meek shall inherit the earth.” a whole new meaning and prospective. To think that a race far superior to us were to be overcome by something so small and ancient really put our own superiority into a new perspective. And to think that, at the onset of the 90’s, we believe that we mastered disease and that we believe that the advent of antibiotics would win it for us once and all and that we are left to battle aids and cancer and once that done. We would be able to make mortality especially to disease something that is rare if not a chapter in history. How ironic is that what we had almost consigned to history came back and bite us hard and to make that old maxim that history can and will repeat itself.

The greatest threat might not come out of H5N1 or its deadlier, mutated of-spring but our pride and greed. Nations had feared that the revelation of the occurrence of the thread might threaten the standing of their nation and that some poultry producer in Indonesia had even managed to blacked-out the news of the avian flu situation in Indonesia and the whistle-blower was even fired for informing the situation to WHO. This is just one of the many cases that was found splattering over the media when the avian flu was nothing more than an Asian concern. And as long as it remains that, the world can watch on, ban poultry import and just go on with their business. Which raise this question that does nationalistic pride over-rule the well being of its citizen and the influential lobbyists are allowed to let their private agendas and greed be fulfilled at the expenses of people’s life?

But when birds flew northward and westward into Turkey and Russia, things stopped becoming a detached topic on how disclosure would be. We suddenly see that the avian flu is a global pandemic. Medicines such as Tami flu is now being considered necessary for mankind’s survival and that the bottom-line and intellectual property which caused the Pharmaceutical giants gazillions of dollars not withstanding. They need the medicine, they need it now and they need a lot of it. Which make Asian Nations realized that the pills they tasted in the name of common market, protection of intellectual property tied their hands save their own people is now being disregarded by their advocators are bitter and hollow, unlikely to be a cure and now like a placebo in face of a terminal illness. This is not unlike the situation that is being faced by the Aids epidemics faced in Africa whereby countless of children suffered while being paid lip services and all the advanced to fight that deadly plague made little headway in that continent. Which begs the question that is our life cheaper than theirs? And also another question which will be that, should Dengue Fever takes root in Italy and Califonia, would a vaccine and a quick cure be developed due to market demand?

While the world is getting smaller made apparent by virus spreading without boundary, the chasm is widening between those that can move and shake the world and those which had to pay the dear price and sometime with their life in the wake of all the moves and shakes. Advancement of humane being….probably till the bitter end of obliteration.

Monday, October 24, 2005

sick

I know that something was wrong with myself for the past 2 days when my head felt heavier. Today was really bad that I felt groggy and even sounded dfferent.

So, after a while in the office, I decided to call it quits and went to visit the company's doctor. got the rest of the day off as MC. Had a good 3 hour worth of sleep and that, while I still feel like shit, at least I am getting better.

Friday, October 21, 2005

7 points is not enough

It seems like our ongoing needs to improve us has even taken its toll in the arena of free speech and press freedom and that we are now 7 positions better from last year as shown in this report by Reporters sans frontieres.
We should be proud as even the great US of A slide 20 places down.

This makes it a surprise to all during the farewell speech of the outgoing American ambassador to Singapore that we Singaporean should really open up and give us the citizens more freedom of choice and expression. The passage is here:

Singapore has its share of challenges as well. Singapore has flourished over the past 40 years, but is a 20th century model adequate for the 21st century? Singapore is grappling with the definitional questions of what kind of society it wants. Remaking its economy is, in a sense, the easy decision. Shaping a political system to reflect the needs and aspirations of its citizens is more difficult and more sensitive. What are the bounds of expression? What say should citizens have in their government? In this era of Weblogs and Webcams, how much sense does it make to limit political expression? Remember, we have the death of distance. There are no islands anymore. As part of Singapore’s success is its strong international links, it is surprising to find constraints on discussions here. In my view, governments will pay an increasing price for not allowing full participation of their citizens.

This is while the diplomatic immunity card is still in force which practically is a get out of jail free card. Even so, this speech was uttered just before he is flying back to land of the free whereby minority elected president can just sits fine doing pretty much nothing besides going to Camp David, his ranch and also to invade countries which failed to yield Osama and the WMDs. For all fairness, the full test of the speech is here. We can probably write this off as a criticism by a departing friend in good faith or as the current administration which an article in Littlespeck has eloquently put. And which while it’s all quote-worthy, I find this little excerpt rather eloquently spoken about how to actually inspire people.

I close with this excerpt of a review of a book by the late Dale Carnegie: "...Success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to the ability... to arouse enthusiasm among people [by] dealing with them so that they feel important and appreciated...handling people without making them feel manipulated...You can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from the other person's point of view...You learn how to...win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment. For instance, 'let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers,' and 'talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person'."

But it seems the criticism is not the only voice that dissent our state of affair. Should the words sting, I guess action would more like a slap, and in this case, a slap in the face not unlike a spurned lover walking off in disengagement. The name of this love interest is Warwick University of UK, which spurned the idea of a branch campus in Singapore after the result of a vote by the senior lecturers of Warwick against setting up in Singapore. Seems like our limits of expression as well as reluctance to allow demonstration on campus is a damper. Not to mention that smoking pot will not be granted as a special privilege or as an educational pursuit.
That might really set us back to further attracting the good money we get from the influx of students in the region which we will readily give PR status and jobs so as to reduce the brain drain despite the fact that some may very well view us as a mere stepping board while the natives not recognized as main stream are better off spreading their wings in a land far from home only to be labeled quitters by a country that has no place for them.


Meetings or mindless doldrum

It is something that is unavoidable in working life and in fact, meeting is something that is so ingrained that we have to attend meetings even before we started our working life.
And if you asked to people what is the single factor that they can attribute to as a total waste of time, meeting would top the chart with email as a far second.

Is meeting truly a waste of time? I don't think so, or rather, if meetings being done right should work in solving problem, brainstorming and gathering ideas. I believe in keeping a meeting to the points of discussion and to keep to the timing. Leaving all the other topics raised either to the end or to arrange another session outside should the scope is out. All these are something which I take a leaf from my boss which while believe in meetings in keeping to the meeting to make it work.

However, having attended enough meetings, it is more like siting there listening to others speaking without engaging brains, while some just sit there and zone out. It had happened often enough that meetings are often a mass orgy of blame shifting and finger pointing.

There are also the time tested shouting match to get your points across. Waiting for your turn is so passe.

What I would end this entry is a little verse in mandarin written by someone else. I have no idea who wrote it, so, if you are the one, thanks and my apologies for not able to accord you my thanks for this apt little piece.

開會再開會,不開怎麼會,本來有點會,開了變不會。
有事要開會,沒事也開會,好事大家追,出事大家推。
上班沒幹啥,一直忙開會,大會接小會,神經快崩潰。
銷售我不會,企劃又沒學,問我啥本領,專長是開會。
上午有早會,午後有午會,下班不能走,還要開晚會。
每週開週會,每月有月會,隨時檢討會,年底是年會。
赴會要及時,小心選座位,最好靠邊邊,以免遭口水。
雖然在開會,誰也不理誰,有人忙協調,有人無所謂。
主席一上台,自稱大掌櫃,扯東又拉西,全憑一張嘴。
內容沒準備,聽來活受罪,差了十萬八,大家還說對。
台上說什麼,沒人去領會,手機不時響,怎還不散會。
牛皮拼命吹,發言不乾脆,時間過好久,不知輪到誰。
有人窮訓話,有人打嗑睡,有人瞎附和,有人掉眼淚。
小聲像催眠,令人真陶醉,大聲不必怕,就當狗在吠。
打盹有技巧,腦袋不能垂,不然被逮到,就要倒大霉。
會開一下午,實在有夠累,沒聽兩三句,水喝好幾杯。
說來真慚愧,開會千萬回,快要退休了,還是不太會。
唱了大半天,到底會不會,你若還不懂,就要多開會。

Thursday, October 20, 2005

swinging us voters

It is really no big mystery... and all the writings are on the wall.
The election will be coming soon.

How do we know that?

Just look at the papers and you can see a sea of rosy pictures about how employment figures is going up, the pay setting to be increased next year, the prices of COE went down and more precincts scheduled for upgrades. In fact, even the PM has opened his golden mouth that the election could be anytime.

All these are not lost on our dear oppositions, which even started their campaign to garner more votes and also to get funds by selling newsletters and whatnots.

However, I really do think that they are not just lacking in funds... they lack a lot more.

Some of the more common failings:

1). Smile: At this age of GST, do you think your scowl will get us to empathize with you? You might think that you are the crusader that will rescue us from the evil crutches of abject slavery and that we owe you a living, but in truth, we owe you nothing and that it is our vote that will get you into the office. So, please smile more and shake hands, walk the ground and do what politicians since time immemorial has been doing, kissing babies and shaking hands has been the sign of politicians getting close to the people, walking the ground, cliché as it all may sounds, it also shows that you care and willing to connect. . And that is the only way that the second step can be realized

2). listen: Now that we see you, Mr. Opposition. Maybe you will like to listen to us. Listen to the topics that riles us and to let us know you have our interest at heart. While you can still get on your high horse about how Singapore is not so democratic compared to some developed nations and that some polls showed that we have no human rights, get off it and start telling us where the beef is. That is more important. Show us how by electing you that you can get us more goodies and remember those who promise us the bread gets the vote.

3). Work together: We know have that illusion of grandeur and that you are insurmountable, if that is the case, please wake up and smell the coffee, you are probably asleep or should have been sent to the rehab for the last 30 or so years. You guys have been trounced and trounced bad. And if you think that play fair is something that you are entitled to, I will suggest that you not to take up any more election, in fact, you should not even take up any sports and I sure hope that you do not gamble in casinos (IR in Singapore context) because you are playing against the house, and there is absolutely no way that the odds is not stack against you one way or the other. There will always be irrefutable reasons that the election boundary needs to be re-drawn and that more GRCs needs to be formed or get bigger. Your only hope, get together, cover all, and I repeat, all the grounds. Now is not the time to let small things like ego gets in the way of that coveted seat in that place. There is always plenty of time to have infighting and bickering after the contest is won, if you win it, that is.

4). Play Nice: Or appear to do so, using low brow tactics like asking your opponent where is the money or to show you the money is not being nice, especially to the public’s eyes. In fact, it is down right stupid. Saying stupid things without first consulting your lawyer as to if you can get sued for saying that is foolish as well, remember, this is a campaign, not WWE. This is definitely not a No-Holds-Barred contest. Remember high-jinxed antics and shenanigans not well thought out will get you donating to someone’s charity under a judge’s order or spending time in Changi chalet with no hopes of ever contesting ever again.

5). Have Carrots: We are all suckers for freebies and promised goodies, while I know that the coffer is not deep, do give up some goodies that people can use and do remember, you can always promise and that it will only come back to haunt you during the next GE if your cheque bounced.

6). keep it clean: Do remember that all the money has to be accounted for and that by no chance, someone with other than a pink IC should be linked to the funds of your campaign. And make sure that you have no traffic offence, no record of any misdemeanors, did not cheat at the last exam, did not cheat with your maid, co-worker or your best friend’s wife/husband, be even more straight laced then the pope. If there is just 1 blemish in your record, trust me, they will find it and show it for the world to see. On top of that, Do not retain any porn on your computer. If there was, remember, no technology is advance enough to restore a hard disk smashed into 700 pieces and the platter burnt and demagnetized. Trust me, I know.

All I all, I wish you luck in your endeavors, not that I am going to vote for you, in fact, I have not even see that damn thing you called vote since I hit 21.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

X-ditious blogs

It wasn’t that long ago when someone just branded blogging with porn and guess what? Just when we thought that the whole debacle with racist blogger has finally come to an end, some blogs which were a bit racy made it to the press and was given quite a bit of space. No, blogging as a form of expression be it the bearing of one’s flesh or the telling of the more raunchy opinion and sexual conquest be it real or fictional, should not come as any surprise.

But such content be it new or 3 yrs old, will be consider the mother lode of media fodder to be feed to the public. What it does is to post such articles, claiming journalistic right and moral high ground. Those uptight prudes out to save the world from moral decline will spend time to write high brow article to condemn the bloggers which show and tell…. While those dirty old men will gladly pay the newsman to read and to take it all in, articles, bosoms, tirades and all.

And I am pretty sure that those bloggers will most likely be hauled in for their sex-ditious blogs as they probably ran afoul of the law here which will interpret their acts as publishing and distributing objectionable material. That is unless the letter of the law has been changed recently.

However, all I can say is that this is a crying shame. The epitome of entrepreneurships is being snip in the bud all for some letter of law which has seen the better of its day. Do I sound ridiculous, allow me to elaborate.

We are now in the age of knowledge whereby information is power and in a sense, money. Imagine that the press can generate so much hype in Singapore, The hype that they can generate worldwide. All we need to do is to ensure that no minors will incidentally venture into those sites with objectionable content. Rather than removal, I advocate control. Control in the form of age check and verification through credit card which has been an industrial trial and tested method. And of course, nothing so good and having page loads in the range of the Toto jackpot should be allowed free, lets charge them and if this is good, people will pay for it. In fact, they can venture beyond picture and words, they can have live telecast, 1 on 1 “conversation” as well as prodcast of them either talking or engaging in activities. This will certainly spice up the dismal showing of Singaporean’s performance in certain nocturnal activity and probably boost our falling birth rate by a bit. All I am saying is that, if we can legalize Geylang, we can legalize this. And in the mean time boost our GDP as well as to solve our population problem.. Killing so many birds with just a few stones and of course, those bloggers income will be taxable making this a win-win situation for all.
While some find bearing themselves to the world on their blogs gratifying enough, we can always add another dimension by making it more rewarding in so many ways. And to the prudes that will protest, think of the greater common good…….

Did I signed up for this?

It has been more than 4 years since I left my previous job and came to where I am today.

I could still remember the long hours spent in the server room and the odd hours which I require to wake up. Working from 6 to 12 means 6am to 12 midnight.... could still remember how thankless and sometime the feeling of helplessness when facing a situation knowing that it is just 2 different routes to hell.....

Could actually remembers the people who started off colleagues and ended up as friends and people which I regarded highly turns out to be a major disappointment.....And how putting to a place of eminence or duress is the easiest a person shows you what they are made of and their unmaking.

It was that depressing and worst at times to time when it is only by yourself that you have to take up the burden and handle the responsibility. Time when I reached Australia at 6 in the morning with a bad case of flu only to hear that the servers in Singapore that just went production were down and nobody was able to connect to it.

It was also a time that I lamented not taking up offers that came my way which could have seen me away from this shore to a possibility of better prospect.

If there is a few things I was taught in all this.......

Adversity might drown you, but they make you who you are and leave you better of the wear.

Loyalty to people might be a worthy pursuit, selling your hearts and soul to a company...you will always sell yourself short

Do your honest day job and tomorrow will always be another challenge.

To those that I know back then, all the best in whatever you do.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

精英?精华?

This is the one entry that I shall use mandarin not because of the need to flaunt my minute mastery of my mother tongue, but rather, it is a feel that English might not help to convey some of the more poignant points across. If I can, I will revisit this in English, or someone can help me out and do that.


没有把李总理的演说听完。所以,这篇很有可能跟演说重点有所不同。 但是精英和精华的两极论,只是把一个开埠 以来, 华社所存在的问题具体化。 可能说两极太沉重。 但滋事体大, 叫人怎敢乱言。

精英和精华并非朝夕,两极的厚冰,也决非一日之寒。 即使我也感觉到,这分化已经根深蒂固。 我本身既非精英, 也和精华拉不上关系。英文半桶水, 中文更加不入流。 这一篇是我以我有限的中文打出来的。只希望没把我的中文老师给气死.

我认为,精英并不是指一些英语一流而不通中文,而精华并不代他们对英语一窍不通。 根本的差异其实是在于他们因为家与教所培养出来,在思靠与处世方面,有着本质上的不同。早报就于星期日, 刊登出应磊小姐的一篇感言。http://www.zaobao.com/yl/yl051015_501.html

代出了精英和精华在就学时,已经存在的不同。 这种不同,只会在职场上,更加具体化。 只因为,道不同,不相为谋。无法有共同志向或习气的人是很难拉在一起的。

而这种种不同只因为这两中语言和文化是处于两个极端。象形文字为基础的中文与拼音语言的英语就如水与火一样的不同并在某个层次上,有着强烈的对比。在逻辑和思维上的根本差异,无法造就相同的想法与思考模式。

所以,两者根本就不同。但,这差异并不一定全无益处。两个极端既相克,也相生。只能期待的是这是孕育生机的火苗而不是酝酿毁灭的火星。



Monday, October 17, 2005

Guess I am a bit batty....












Batman

Congratulations! You scored a super 61%!

Cool, calm and powerful. Whilst your actual super abilities may not be
anything too dazzling, you have earnt the respect of both friends and
enemies in response to your amazing fighting skills, strategic combat
and experience.
Luckily you have access to the greens which can fund all your majorly
cool gadgets, vehicles and weapons! Also, you're reluctant but still
accepting to the idea of having a teammate/side-kick, which just makes
everything a whole lotta fun, doesn't it now!
On the down side, you've probably suffered some sort of trauma at a
young age (that's why we don't talk to the old man near the swings,
kids).
Similar to the Wolverine, your past is a base for your current
motivation, undertaking some kind of personal vow in search of justice.
All in all though, you're one tough nut. There's not a lot of people
who have the minerals to go up against you, and you're experienced
enough not to get cocky and let the little things like never finding
happiness get you down!
















My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 42% on Heropoints




Link: The Which SUPER HERO are you Test written by crayzee69 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Romantic cartilage?

In case you are wondering, it is still not time yet for you to start calling SANA, and this has nothing to do with joint conditioning and my wife, not me is the expert on that.

This post was actually something which transpires between me and my wife. Nope, no raunchy details here, we were talking.......In case you find it weird, it is something that 2 person or more can do, mostly on a daily basis, it involve using mouth to produce audible and comprehensive sound which we call language. If you still have problem understand all that, I suggest you go back to school.

It was actually in light of the mounting of issues at home that I realized that, there is a simple, relevant analogy to it all. An analogy which my wife understood easily and I hope that most people do gets it. This is actually more in line with a recent thread in SPUG which talks about married man in general not being romantic.

The question which I would like to post back is, would you expect your cartilage to be romantic to you?

Why cartilage? That is the crux of the question. Most of the time, should the married couple stay with their in-laws, normally the father-in-laws are the easier one to deal with. They normally keep to themselves and leave everyone alone or are normally the person which is neither see nor hear. I am no expert in fatherly figures as I did not have 1 throughout much of my formative years.

What I can share with you is the other in laws normally known as mother-in-laws. There had been more material, either in real life or reel life about the conflict between the wife and the mother of the husband. They say that art imitates life, so all the stories in real, reel or books are probably in a way, not too far from actual facts that plays themselves day in and day out in a family near you.

Now, imagine that under one roof, the relationship betweens the wife and the mother is like 2 joint, and right in the middle of it, is the cartilage which is filled by the husband. Not the most enviable position, I would say. And why? The cartilage in this case, plays the roles of the be all and ends all to reduce all friction between the 2 joints. The cartilage is the soft liquid that takes in all the impact between the 2 joint and acts in the best ways possible to prevent the 2 joint from crashing. And what happens when the cartilage is worn out? Let's just say major pain. And that most of the time, it is beyond repair.

Doctors would have told you that the only way is through operations or regular injections of cartilage to ease the pain. But in the case of marriage, it is either that both side rethinks and note of their behaviors or in the case of operations as analogy, to put distance or to separate. Space works wonders as it reduces friction.

So, I besiege the ladies. Be it that you are the wife/in-law. Please, spare a thought for the cartilage that is caught in between.

The need to be made happy easily

It has came to a crushing realization that the scientist is right about happiness being nothing more than some chemicals released into the brain.

As people went on the crusade for the holy grail of happiness, it is startling to realized that the first step to happiness is that, you need to have a low threshold for happiness.

In case you starts to call SANA to bust me for possession of controlled substance to be able to tell you something like that, stop and listen as I will just tell you the simple truth to happiness.

It is very simple. You have to allow yourself to be happy. Sounds difficult?
No.

Just ask yourself; What will make you truly happy?
And then ask again; How do you go about to achieve that?
And now,ask yourself; How does getting it and making you happy has any relation whatsoever?

And if you are stuck at the last question, you will realize that it is not the pursuit of certain thing that will make you happy. But to achieve a certain thing or the sign that you achieved certain thing that will truly grant happiness. Now, look at it this way, I felt miserable for quite a while and sometimes I get angry for not doing certain things or for not having certain things done the way I wanted to. But I allow myself to first, let it go from my mind, to not harp on not achieving happiness or the need to have in possession what I asked for. To let it go is perhaps the hardest part but this is therapeutic. As this allows you to stop and think if you have been on the wrong track all along. It allows re-examination of goals and what perceived as goals could be a fool's errand. To then decide if pursuing this goal is worth your time or not, to have milestones instead of a final goal. Recharge and go forward.

All I can say is in 2 lines,

Happiness is always within reach if you know what you are looking for and not aim for the sky

Pursuing happiness can be miserable as a process and a goal if you got it all wrong.

I sure hope I am making sense to you and hope that you can and will be happy.

Monday, October 10, 2005

The one that got away


It should have been over, or very close to the end of the whole episodes of racist bloggers being hauled to jail for their lack of better judgment, their lack of discretion, their hot headedness and their deviation from the norm and the very words that could be a spark that blows up the so-call racial harmony.

While at it, we have people that called this a season of fear that is used to shut the bloggers up, there are also some that either called for those 3 bloggers blood, the removal of the racial reference in the sedition act, the reference of race to be removed from our identification. And then, there are also some voices that called for the 4th (or the first) blogger to be brought to justice, the scholar whose racial reference that were uncovered, then protected and then being brought to the attention of a nation that were still coming to terms to a bunch of crazy lunatics that rants and bares all on the Internet which is also known as bloggers. It seems like that there is one that got away. As far as most people is concerned, reprimanded by the one that pays your tuition in the form of a scholarship and getting into the slammers is of a world of difference. Why did one being reprimanded as that is punishment enough and those 3 that follows have to have their life going on with a blemish just so to show that the government is serious about people using racial sentiment to stir up trouble and have zero-tolerance for racial slur be it in print or electronically put in words for all to see. And just adding all these, students which blogged about their teachers in a negative light is feeling the heat from the school and probably their parents as well (Yeah right, no internet for you, kiddo)

But yet, I guess once again, we had all missed the point. The one that actually got away, the one that went off on a ride on the wild side, is nothing more than our own intolerance.
How tolerant are we to the other races that allowed such statement to be made to the first place. Were we tolerant to the difference in race and to understand that as long as we are different, there will always to be friction. Does it means that everyone that has something to say about the difference should keep their mouth shut? Am I defending those 3(or 4) bloggers that were extremely intolerant of the people with different skin color and religion? Hell, no. They showed they’re intolerant of others and that they should have realized that they would face the same intolerant of their shenanigans by the order of law. To ask the first (or the last) of the racist blogger to come out and ask for his blood, am I not also being intolerant myself. However, I do believe that someone should make that call (not the 1900…) and the guy should be placed under the same scale under the eyes of law, as I last remember that justice and equality is something that was in our national pledge. But jailing him will no longer serve its purpose. A heavy fine would probably do. But to be cleared before trial is one thing, to not requiring to even to be tried in the court of law is tantamounting to the proclamation that the PSB is even higher than the judiciary and that there are higher order of things, which is hidden to us lowly subjects.  

You might be asking how dangerous is the seditious statements? I would say that the dangers are clear and present. Despite the many years of racial harmony and integration, we are still different races in both letters and nature. You cannot wipe it off by just removing the simple entry in our identification. We still donate to the different self help group and that inter-racial marriage is still something frown upon. We still have people that asked to be given special treatment base on their inherent race and religion and yet frown upon other’s practice. With the growing intolerant of others, all it takes is just the right moment and the right slur of language to screw it all up and set it all on flame. While we are now more cautious to not destroy all the good things that we build up, the many good years has unfortunately soften us and isolate us at times to the point that there is a small barrier between the different ethnic groups. Which lead us to wonder that will we be as tolerant with one another and to work as one united people when the nation is put to the test. I would surely hope so. All I can ask for of myself and my fellows, is to let us all to be more tolerant to one another and that to understand that what is spoken in a moment of anger and differentiate that with the dark muttering of malice to discern the appreciation of our diversity from the slurred remark to divide us.

It is not going to be an easy task, just look at the way that our driver pries the road and how they treat their fellow motorist. It does seems like we have a long and arduous journey ahead.

The World's Shortest Personality Test

Thanksto the student again for this great link.

Anyway, glad that he is coming of age.

We might need to address him as Ex-student

Anyway, something from blogthing, have fun.

Your Personality Profile

You are elegant, withdrawn, and brilliant.
Your mind is a weapon, able to solve any puzzle.
You are also great at poking holes in arguments and common beliefs.

For you, comfort and calm are very important.
You tend to thrive on your own and shrug off most affection.
You prefer to protect your emotions and stay strong.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Educate your users...For What ?

If there is a more startling revelation, that would be that users that you support are a lot like your parents. How is that so? You might ask. Allow me to illustrate mine point:

1). You can’t choose your parents and neither can you choose your users. In fact, most of the time, they choose you.

2). They would normally know less about the things that you do, try asking your parent to program the VCR. It is the same in the case of the users. Some of them have problem to even use the computer properly.

3). A strange unknown fear which is largely unfound. Most of my user fear the Helpdesk operator, Just my parent fear the devilish bad influence that is known as the computer game.

4). Being wrong. How many times when you look up to your parent only to realize that a later stage, they are wrong. While I do not look up to my users in the field of computer application, half the time, they are wrong about the ills in their computer.

5). Pinning the blame on you. How many times when it is your best friend next door that started the fight and you ended up paying for it because your parent says that you are the one who taunted the fight. I have users that, by my call to him, place the woes that he faced with his computer, as solely my fault and expect me to pay for it.

You might be wondering what inspired this post. Well, the straw that broke the camel’s back happened when I received a very interesting mail. It was actually a reply of an earlier broadcast that I sent informing them that we had completed the maintenance on some of the application servers during lunch. A very explicit note to contact helpdesk in the event of any problem faced in English (I do know of some incidence that someone actually sent me a written instruction of about 300 pages in 7 different language, none of them in English)

To my horror, I think the user decided that a mail to me was not enough. He sent it out by selecting reply to all. Well, now the entire world knows it and that I was fuming inside while fixing the problem and restoring the service. Maybe in the future, I should add the line (Do not reply to sender) least to say that this was not the most pleasant of experience and that the only thing I can do is to bite the bullet and forward that email to the helpdesk to follow up. So much for email etiquette. I might need to check the user’s mail client and see if the send to function was disabled by some freak accident or explained caused. Maybe the alien abducted it.

While fixing that problem, I had a user that decided to tell me her sob story with the helpdesk and started to ask me what exactly is wrong with her mailbox. Well, to tell you the truth, after 5 min on the line and actually looking at her system on the spot, I will profess that I have absolutely no idea. I also had no formal training on the mail system. All I have is just 5 yrs of experience working with the darn thing and what they call, common sense. Checking the mailbox, it seems like it is about 2GB. Now, I am very much for pushing the limits. I also understand that there is a need to retain all your information for posterity. But this is pushing it. And to expect such a big file to be fine after stuffing it. Well, try choking yourself with big Macs for every single meal for 3 years. Michael Moore did it for 30 days and it almost kill him (It also make him famous)
It goes for mailbox. A physical mailbox can only takes so much, likewise for an electronic mailbox to go before it starts to go haywire.

There are also incidences when the users comeback to us telling us that they do not like to call Helpdesk. As the helpdesk will take control of their system and that they do not have the time. I was hearing it while I was sitting at their desk, commandeered their workstation and working on their workstation. Anyway, I will be damned; I actually started working at the helpdesk when we did not have any means to connect to the user’s computer. Yes, read my lips, no connection. The users had to do what we tell them and that we relied on them to tell us what they see on the screen and tell us what is happening. If the users asked us to go over, it would have been a bit difficult as we are not even on the same continent and they want help, they want it, now! Without a teleporter back then, and without my trusty Spell casting and teleporting for dummies, I would have to rely on a lot of imagination and patience to put myself into my user’s shoe, and to think like the user. Trust me, thinking in the state of brain blank is extremely difficult. And you wonder why all Helpdesk Operators talks like blonde…

And if you are not someone that is in the IT industry and think that I am being unfair, just this little anecdote:

I was an intern manning the helpdesk as a first level operator, my job as with the other intern were tasked to answer calls from our customers and to raise this ticket to our level 2 support. My fellow intern was giving me a look not unlike that of a kangaroo staring into a floodlight. He asked me what to do when the user lost their dinosaur. This got my and our manager’s attention and we proceeded to find out more. Only after 5 minutes into the phone, did we realized that the users lost the dinosaur (Which incidentally is the customized icon) on her own PC and not the terminal that we support and that she called us because they paid for support. On top of which, she is actually the secretary to the top guys at one of our local bank and that we should solve her problem because they handle a lot of transaction on that PC. To top it off, she actually tell us that her in house PC support refused to support as it is against company policy to customize the PC.

Also to note, this is one the longest entry and it certainly took the longest time. It is about 2 days in production that broke my personal record of 30mins.

If you are offended, I am sorry, I still think that you are ok. Just stay away from that PC next to you.