灰色地带

Black and White

2008-04-03T23:10:00.002+08:00

My boss asked me today: "Why you must see everything in black and white?"

That question was so wrong in so many levels that I don't know how to retort.

Except to write this:

I see the world in black and white.
I worship logic and reasoning.
I can accept the state of unknown, the fate of uncertainty.
I did not get here by speaking in riddles, diddling in gray shades.

Not knowing is knowing.
No answer is an answer.
An incomplete picture, is still a picture.

If you told me, I need not guess.
If I heard you, I would not ask.
I asked you, because I had not understood.
I challenged you, because it's for my own good.

Quotable quotes 2008

2008-03-24T22:57:00.002+08:00

From Catherim Lim's blog

... as long as Singapore’s leaders do not pay heed to the fundamental needs of the human spirit, they can never be called wise, only clever, and as long as the nation they lead is admired only for its material achievements, it can never be called great, only successful.

Wise or clever? Great or successful?

There is a difference.

Blueys report card

2008-01-12T07:13:00.000+08:00

Where: Blue Mountains (Australia, New South Wales state)
What: Rock climbing, what else?
Duration: Dec 9, 2007 to Jan 7, 2008, a whopping 30 days!!!
Number of crags visited: 14
Number of routes tried: 62 + 5(@ Rain cave)
Favorite crag: Porters Pass - with long routes and technical face/slab climbs!
Non-climbing achievement: Solved Rubik's cube in 3m 11secs

What is the meaning of 'Crux'?

2007-11-19T21:42:00.001+08:00

Was playing the vocab game at FreeRice website (http://www.freerice.com/index.php) and got this question.

Now, why and how is 'unmarried woman' even a possible answer for the meaning of 'Crux'?

I don't know...

It's a breeze

2007-10-13T08:32:00.000+08:00

and a rare treat to skate over miles of smooth tar without having to even pause once.

East Coast Park on a Friday afternoon, lovely.

一人一半, 感情未散

2007-08-25T18:56:00.000+08:00

A saying that I've known since army days. Nice rhyme to it too, if you say it in Hokkien. But I have to hand it to Roystan Tan in his movie "881", to blend these simple words with such an endearing tune that I can't seem to get it out of my head since watching the movie.

There are 2 versions of the song; the Mandrain one was sung by Wu Jia Hui(伍家辉), there's a nice MTV in youtube. But I liked the Hokkien version sung by Liu Ling Ling better. Took me couple of minutes to make out the lyrics. I don't think I did justice to the song with my Chinese translations, I wanted to keep the original words in Hokkien but ended up translating the meaning with Chinese words substitute. I hoped I got most of it right...

这样的人
这样的梦
为何要想到我这样重
为你思念
为你疼痛
你真能狠心放我一人？

越想越乱
越想越茫
为了你心惘惘心沉重
你有所求
你有所梦
你肯当我是你的人？

一人一半
感情不散
一人一咀
永远不分开

Know thy bag

2007-06-01T22:29:00.001+08:00

After 6 agonising days of waiting, phone calls and worrying, my lost luggage finally returned home to me.

In the past 6 days, I have learnt a few things about how airlines handle delayed or missing bags. To us mere passengers on a flight, it may be just as simple as boarding the plane, suffer the cramp quarters, or enjoy the lap of luxury if you travel in First Class, before getting off the plane at your destination. You may not notice but you have legs and can walk yourself on and off the plane. Your bags, unfortunately, have to be man-handled, many times, before they join you at the end of the baggage claim conveyor belt. That means screw ups are part and parcel of the process.

There are 101 ways for your bag to get separated from you. Barring the occurence of thefts, the commonest reason of all - it missed the flight. Specifically, your flight, especially connecting flights. Humans can rush to make tight flight connections, bags can't. If the bag don't make it, it usually comes in the next available flight, which now becomes a delayed baggage.

The next reason - the baggage tag went missing. Yes, that seemingly impossible-to-tear barcode sticker that was wrapped around your bag; it can fall off, intentionally or not. I have learnt, from UA, that the numbers on these baggage tags are recycled after 72 hours. It means if your bag could not reach its final destination after 72 hours, the airline's systems cannot track the bag using the baggage tag id as it might not refer to your bag anymore.

Most people would file a missing bag report immediately at the airport if their bag never turned up. But no one really knows if their bag was just delayed or was lost somewhere in between.

If your bag was delayed with the baggage tag intact, there's high chance that you will get it back within 72 hours after landing. Most people I spoke to have experienced at most a 2-day wait before their bags showed up.

If you were unlucky, like me, where your bag was still missing after 72 hours, the airline is going to assume your baggage tag id is useless and starts tracing with bag description info instead. Therefore, you will greatly help the Lost&Found people in tracking down your bag with the following information when filing your missing bag report:

The type - UA (United Airlines) has a list of bag types, like hard case, hard case with wheels and retractable handles, soft shell with zipper, etc. Identify your bag type as accurately as possible. Airlines (and airports?) seemed to be classifying unclaimed bags according to type first and this also seemed to be the first place to look by the Lost&Found department. Specifying the wrong bag type is going to send them on a wild goose chase.

External descriptions - like your bag's brand, color and any other distinctive features. Some people, like me, don't even know the brand of their own bag! These external features show up as descriptive text on a database search. Being precise here will take a lot of guesswork out in the tracking. Whatever your preference, just spend some effort to mark your bag with something unique, like labeling your first name, your pet's name or your college's decal - all should work, in my opinion. I found that airport personnel may not always be permitted to open your bag to identify by contents so don't count on providing the sundry list of your bag.

Of course, you have to prepare the above before you start your journey! Unfortunately, I have to learn it the hard way.

Just another statistic

2007-05-26T13:50:00.000+08:00

According to the statistics published by the U.S. Dept of Transportation, there's been an increasing trend in lost luggage among airlines in the U.S. See the May 2007 report here.

For UA specifically, it was 4.53 reports per 1000 domestic passengers in 2006 (Jan - Mar); and in 2007 same period, it jumped to 7.77 reports per 1000.

Understandably, there were no numbers for international passengers; but I doubt I missed the mark much if I assumed similar rates.

Why the sudden interest over missing bags? Well, mine never came back with me from Chicago. My new Levis, my new Black Diamond headlamp, Weng's brand new runners and Cranium. I hope it was only delayed. Not lost.

Of all the joys and fun of travelling, losing your bag ~~can be~~ is a real pain.

Thai fish mousse

2007-05-06T18:54:00.000+08:00

Another of my favorite Thai dish found on the internet. Recipe here.

I sampled this delectable dish on the streets of Hatyai in 2005, enroute to Krabi. At that time, I was immediately hooked on the mysterious fragrance emanating from the springy texture of the steamed fish. Today, I know that came from kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil. And today, Thai basil leaves are my favorite ingredient in Thai cusine, more so than lemon grass. It has a subtle frangrance when you sniff its un-assuming raw leaf form. But when you chew it, the aroma simply explodes with surprising vigor. It's a must-have in Thai green curry, Thai beef kway teow soup and of course, my dinner tonight - Thai fish mousse.

Mum got mackerel as the base fish ingredient. The preparation was rather laborious, requiring the frying of the curry paste which Dad obviously did not approve - because it smoked up the house and that meant him having to mop the floor. The recipe called for banana leaf cups as the holder for the fish mousse, which I realised was a tricky item to fabricate. The leaves kept tearing as soon as I folded them. From a process point of view, it was a high yield loss process.

Eventually, 7 cups of exciting reddish paste of fish made it into the steamer, accompanied by much anticipation.

The verdict? Flavour and aroma was there, similar to what I have experienced. However, the fish texture was different, so very different.

Instead of a soft mousse like steamed eggs, it was bouncy and springy! Had I made the paste into a ball, I am sure I can play ping-pong with it. Mum thinks that it needed more 'wet-ness'. Fresh fish tastes like this, she said. I had to 'dilute' the 'toughness' with water probably.

Ah well, no on-sight, but the dinner's still good.

Next time, just add water.

Eat and Climb

2007-05-02T22:55:00.000+08:00

Noticed that eating came first before climbing?

This was what I went through for long weekend of May day. It has been a long time since I last went on a road trip like this one...

We left Singapore on Friday night, reached Ipoh on Saturday morning. Spent Sat and Sun climbing the insanely long routes at the Lost World of Tambun, interviewing taxi driver for the origins of 芽菜鸡 and 怡保河粉. Savoured the juicy 叉烧包 and 猪肠粉 of 富山茶楼. Left for Kangar on the 8pm bus, arriving at midnight. Headed to Bt Keteri late Monday morning, climbed 4 routes there, returned to Kangar and broked my 6-month abstinence of fast food by having KFC . Then, it was heading south for KL on the 10pm bus, starting Tuesday morning with another dim sum session in Jalan Petaling, pampering ourselves with foot massage at Bt Bintang, finally finishing the KL leg with 2 bowls of delicious beef hor fun.

In the 4 days, we traversed almost the entired length of Pennisular Malaysia, in search of good climbing. At the end, the good company and even better food was all that I remembered.

Lost World of Tambun & Bt Keteri 2007 Apr

Weekend Road trip

2007-03-18T21:40:00.000+08:00

Weekend trip to KL with Wee Chuan and Jo. Door to door 36 hours.
Total expenditure - RM170. Good food, great climbing. No jams at border.

Much better experience than that crappy Tampin bouldering trip I went last year.

KL 2007 Mar

Always close, never closed?

2007-02-13T07:10:00.000+08:00

Well, maybe, depends...

Remember the joke about 7-11? If it's a 24-hour-always-open store, why does it need locks on the doors?

I suppose I found the answer last Sunday, at SMU campus.

Kindergarden homework

2007-01-31T21:21:00.000+08:00

Do you still remember your days when you were in kindergarden? You were probably 5 or 6 years old then. A kid. Those days should be full of fun and play. ABCs and 123s were learnt in sing-along sessions. The word 'Science' is not part of your vocabulary. The books you flipped have more pictures than words and were no thicker than the the daily newspapers.

Look at what I found when browsing through the local bookstore last weekend.

For scale, compare my thumb size to that book's thickness.

时代真的变得那么快吗？
连上幼稚圆的小孩也有作业吗？
现在的儿童的童年还有玩荡秋千和跳飞机吗？

Dirty rice & Gai Yang

2007-01-28T19:28:00.000+08:00

No, it's not a new Hollywood production.

Rather, it was my dinner today.

According to this link, Dirty rice used to be a popular dish in some southern states of US but has lost its appeal due to the ingredients used - chicken gizzards and livers.

Ha, gizzards and livers? Not a problem for Asians like me. It was a must-try for me after reading the recipe. And it certainly didn't disappoint. Savoury and fluffy butter rice interspersed with soft liver bits and chewy gizzards, thoughts about calories and cholesterol was the last thing on my mind.

Gai Yang, the ubiquitous barbecued chicken on the streets of Thailand; loved it the first time I tasted it in Ao Nang, Krabi. However, its recipe has eluded me for a long time since I don't know what it was called. The power of Google is helpless against descriptions like "street-side bbq chicken thighs, Thailand". But I must have accumulated enough good karma lately that I chanced upon the real recipe here.

And now I am fully convinced I have hit the jackpot. Even the chili sauce tastes like the one in Thailand.

Two great recipes to share with mom & dad. A happy and satisfying finish to the weekend.

Cold

2007-01-06T13:50:00.000+08:00

Just came back from Kiwiland, camping and bouldering. It is supposed to be summer in NZ now. Ah, summer. The season where the sun shines brightly, days are longer than nights. Supposed to be warm, toasty, maybe even hot.

Yet, the days spent camping at Craigieburn Forest park could still prompt me to write this:

The wood sizzles, a flame flickers,
pink ambers beneath glowers.
The light is feeble,
fire's warmth hardly reaches.
The water stood still, within the pot,
a sip of tea is only a thought.

I rub my hands in earnest,
wtih hope of some friction may bring,
comfort to my fingers,
numbed in the glacial stream.
My knees hug together, the limbs out of sight,
bracing myself, to endure the long cold night.

Housing a home, now and then

2006-10-29T22:38:00.000+08:00

In 1980, my parents bought our first and current 4-room HDB flat. It costs $27000 then. After down payment, they took a 15-year loan for the remaining $18000 with monthly installments at about $120. Dad's salary then was about $800 per month. In those days, total monthly CPF contributions (employee + employer) was about 40 to 50%. So I figured that, after monthly installments, there was still about $300 going towards Dad's Ordinary Account (OA).

Fast forward to present 2006. My colleague was describing to me the situation of his brother-in-law (let's call him 'X'). X and his wife's monthly take-home is about $2000. 3 years ago, X was looking at getting a HDB flat. Then, a new 4-room flat costs $110K-140K. If they took a loan of $100K, over 25 years, monthly installments would take off almost 70% of their monthly CPF contribution, leaving something like $200 per month to grow their OA from zero. Not very comforting.

As a very very very rough estimate, with an average of 1.5% yearly inflation rate, $800 in 1980 has the same buying power as $1200 in 2006. $300 in 1980 is worth maybe $440 today. So, dollar-for-dollar, X's income of $2000 today give him more purchasing power than my Dad in his days. However, if X has taken up the flat, he actually has less to save in his OA than my dad did. And this means X's CPF will grow slower than people of 26 years ago, and X will have to work more years before he can think of retirement.

I know my calculations are not accurate but I don't think they over-estimated the actual situation. If Singapore has progressed over the past 26 years, and if by progress, it meant changing for the better, then how come last time my poorer parents can afford a flat whereas a family today with seemingly stronger purchasing power cannot? Or reluctant?

I know, last time policemen wear shorts. Admit it, you want to tell me that.

Update [2006-10-30 11pm]
Prompted by Gecko, I looked up Singapore's historical trend in Consumer Price Index between 1980 and 2005 (available here). It was 65.7 in 1980 vs 100.4 in 2005, a 52%-increase. If I used the CPI as my indicator of purchasing power, the $800 in 1980 is roughly equivalent to $1600 by 2006.

Just free

2006-09-29T02:38:00.000+08:00

I don't know what prompted me to spout this but I know I wont sleep if I don't get it all worked out. In the middle of writing it, I felt that somehow, a fellow friend who has what it takes, but will soon stop moulding the Nation's future might know what I am trashing here... (Yo, cher, this is for ya...)

I will not be that sheep
grazing within confined greenery.
Seemingly contended,
towards an eventual end of being fleeced.

Let me be that stream
meandering across mountain ranges.
Effortlessly flowing,
admist withered flowers and season changes.

I will not be that clog
jammed among gears and bearings, an interface.
Perpetually churning,
only till the day to be replaced.

Let me be that breeze
whistling over dainty daisies.
Endlessly in motion,
without purpose or need, just free.

Ok, better sleep...

Half full or half empty?

2006-09-12T08:00:00.000+08:00

Ah, sounds familiar? Many many moons ago, someone told me:

An optimist sees the glass as half full. A pessimist, half empty.

I supposed the idea was to encourage people to see opportunities rather crisis in everything. Some kind of feel-good and upbeat pep-talk in the dark times.

However, by the 'loose' definition above, I must be a pessimist. I tend to see faults, short-comings, gaps in almost everything. When I fail to finish a climb, I see it as I am not strong enough, my sequences are wrong, my endurance needs more work. See? Deficiencies, mistakes, imperfections.

But does that stop me from improving? The answer is definitely NO!

To me, being aware of my faults and gaps makes me want to improve. It spurs me to work harder, to fill the gaps and bridge the difference. So what's so bad or wrong to see a 'half-empty' glass?

I believe the current state of the glass don't mean shit. Rather, it is what do I want the glass to be in the next 10 minutes, 10 hours or 10 days that matters.

Realising it is not my desired state is more important and I would want to change that. To the best of my abilities, of course.

Whether you are a pessimist or an optimist isn't defined by what you see. It's what you do after seeing that counts.

Red Wine Bread

2006-08-26T17:25:00.000+08:00

Red wine in bread? Sounds really interesting.

Ben was describing this bread recipe that he found from “Confessions of a French Baker”, by Peter Mayle(Writer) and Gerard Auzet(Baker). The recipe calls for equal amounts of red wine and water, no sugar or oil.

In my past baking adventures, I have learnt that breads turn out dense, and even tough, if oil/butter was omitted. But I admit that it was the wine that perked my interest in wanting to try out Ben's find. Also a good excuse to finish that quarter bottle of red wine. Incidentally, I googled for "Red Wine Bread recipes" without any finds. Seemed like it's going to be an 'off-the-beaten-path' adventure today.

The recipe called for strong flour, with Ben recommending unbleached. However, I decided to change it to whole meal instead, hoping to up the nutrition index a bit more. While shopping for the flour in my neighborhood, I dropped by a newly opened food store that sells Organic food. I came out $6.05 poorer, with 1kg of organic whole meal flour and organic dried yeast. And I decided that I shall also use distilled water, instead of PUB’s sky juice for the dough. Wow, I think my nutrition index just shot through the roof.

Recipe was straightforward. Mix everything, knead for 10mins. Proof the dough. Beat down. Let it rise again. Into the oven and out. Tada! Fresh, soft, wholesome, nutrition-loaded, home baked, whole meal bread like those of Gardenia or Sunshine. Right?

Not quite.

Although the wine flavour wasn't evident, I still think the bread tasted fine and no lacking in nutrition. But the softness I was looking for wasn’t there.

Where did I go wrong?

Whole meal flour has less protein than normal plain flours and therefore develops lesser gluten. Gluten is formed when flour is mixed with water and gives breads the typical “web” or “spongy” structure that trap the CO2 released during the leavening process. When I used 100% whole meal flour, it is not surprising that the bread turned out rather coarse and dense. Maybe I didn’t knead enough. Maybe I could have used more yeast. Maybe I should let the dough rise longer. Or maybe I should have just follow instructions.

Ah, the world of what-if scenarios and hindsight. I shall ponder them over tea and my home-baked bread.

You think the standard of English in Sg is bad?

2006-06-30T18:38:00.000+08:00

Screen capture of an email I recieved at work. This was written by someone who has lived and worked in the USA for a number of years. I hope the standard of English in Singapore is not this bad.

Oy, Oy, Oysters!

2006-06-07T22:54:00.000+08:00

My brother came today with 12 frozen oysters. He ate 6 after thawing. Raw. That was too fresh for my liking.

I decided my oysters shall be baked, with a little bit of minced garlic, a slice of butter and topped with a sprinkle of cheese, 15 mins in the oven, add a dash of lemon - ah... that's how I like them!

Slices of Sillypore 002 - Can comprain a'not?

2006-05-13T19:15:00.000+08:00

This was taken from my kitchen window this morning.

The act was not what I would normally call 'silly'. It is plain inconsideration. Nothing more.

When I told Suzanne about it, she suggests that maybe the poor neighbour did not have a tumbler to spin dry their laundry...

Right. Maybe my neighbour is too weak/old to wring it by hand. So I should have a bit a more compassion and tolerance, and suck it up.

Afterall, I can always move my laundry to another slot. Surely my other neighbours have washing machines to tumble-dry theirs, right?

爱的代价

2006-05-10T22:31:00.000+08:00

A phone call came in yesterday morning, at 6am. It was my brother informing us that little Joey was running a fever. Mom and Dad immediately took off to bro's place. Later in the day, I found that they had took Joey to KK hospital. They were worried that she had a scare (from nightmare???) - Chinese call this "惊风" and kids diagosed with this problem are fed the ubiqutous "惊风散". Luckily, after rounds of blood and urine tests, nothing amiss was discovered. The doc prescribed some pills to control the fever and by evening, Joey was back to her usual active brat again.

Sigh. The price of having kids. 小不点的稍微风吹草动, 发烧流鼻涕, 爸爸妈妈爷爷奶奶就有得忙了.

After hearing Mom's account of the day, I made a remark, "We weren't so troublesome when we were babies, right?"

Gosh. Bad move. Really bad move.

From my mom's retort, I found out that, when my brothers and I were babies,

I threw up whenever I cry. Every time. And my vomit stank really bad.
I had this 'pox' condition at 11 month where my mom, who was already pregnant with my brother, had to take me to the doc every week.
I get coughs very often.
My 2nd bro had 'worms' in him, giving him bad stomach aches. On one occassion, my parents dug out one wriggly-wiggly out of his mouth in the middle of the night.
My 3rd brother had fevers whenever he got a new tooth. So that's about 28 times for a kid?

From this 'extensive' list of examples, my mom rebutted my "kids-last-time-were-tougher-than-kids-nowadays" theory. In her mind, all kids go through the same shit, now or then. All parents will have their fair share of pain in bringing up a child.

Last I heard tonight, Joey was running another high fever, again. Another night of worry for my bro and his wife.

Sigh. The price of being parents.

I hope this entry stays around long enough for Joey to grow up to read, and appreciate what her mom and dad has done for her.

Slices of Sillypore 001 - Riding in the Rain

2006-05-05T17:15:00.000+08:00

Well, Sillypore isn't going to be silly without silly acts and people, right?

Now that my phone has a camera, although a pathetic one, but it's good enough for my purpose - capturing silly things and people.

So the first entry to my Slices of Sillypore series - Riding in the Rain.

The ground's wet. The sky's still raining (although the picture didn't show it). At peak hour traffic, she rides a 1-gear 'Flying pigeon' bicycle, steering single-handed, umbrella in the other hand, squeezes between 2 columns of cars and makes a right turn at the traffic junction.

Guts? Or goodu?

未央歌说唱会

2006-04-22T21:02:00.000+08:00

黄舒骏的歌, 是大学时代, 去chalet 和BBQ的时候, 如果有人带了吉他就一定会弹唱到的. 喜欢他歌词的幽默, 有时很啰唆, 有时又很有墨水, 很有深度. 去年的3场说唱会都爆满, 我昨天看的那场也坐有九成以上, 可见欣赏他的大有人在.

现场的伴奏, 唱唱谈谈, 虽然说的话可能跟唱的歌一样多, 虽然我和Albert都坐在speakers的前面, 虽然半途有点尿急, 还好, 夜晚还过得挺'enjoy'的.

But what made me wanted to blog about the event was the ending Q&A session with the audience.

Someone asked 黄舒骏 if he (the audience who asked) could work with 黄舒骏 to make some music. This guy, in his words, is a '音乐人' and '玩音乐有4,5年了'.

So 黄舒骏 asked him immediately, '有带你的作品来吗?'

音乐人 replied, '电脑当机了...', which meant to say his works were lost after his computer crashed.

黄舒骏 humorously said that in his time, music was made using pen and paper. To which, 音乐人 claimed he's got about 60 or so works on paper. So 黄舒骏 asked if he's got that with him. Well, the bummer, 音乐人didn't bring it. Dud...

As the saying goes, the best has yet to come.

黄舒骏 says he's still around the next day, hinting that they can still meet up to look at 音乐人's works and discuss about it -- to which 音乐人replied, "噢, 我明天飞台北了..."

*face palm*

I don't know who is this 音乐人, he never introduced his name. However, I didn't think too much of his sincerity in wanting to partner with 黄舒骏.

What went through my mind was : 朋友, 你的诚意在那里? You wanted to partner with another artist, and an accomplished one like 黄舒骏. Good for you. You think his concert might be an opportunity to ask, but yet you couldnt't even prepare yourself properly for it? Stored all your works on computer? Tech geek eh? Apparently you have never heard of back-ups, or you would have come a back-up plan - with your works on paper, CD or mp3 player. Or maybe you expected 黄舒骏 to believe you were a worthy partner with just your words?

And did someone say on national TV that the PAP "was arrogant"?

Of course, 黄舒骏 was much more eloquent and polite in his reply. He didn't say all that above. He just chuckled and said, '噢, 我好忙啊!'

Sweet.

Handphone = Hand "Chicken"????

2006-04-19T16:31:00.000+08:00

Saw this sign off a mama shop along Selegie Road that made my head turn, literally. Couldn't believe my eyes for a moment - had to dig out my camera phone to capture the scene.

To the dear sir or madam who wrote the signage, I assume you translated "handphone" in Chinese as "手提电话机", abbreviated to "手机". But even if you were using prounciation mode on a Chinese input software and the hanyu pinyin of 机 (if loosely translated means 'machine') and 鸡 (chicken) are the same - ji (first intonation), there are no forgivable reasons for a person ~~proficient~~ ~~fluent~~ who understands Chinese to mix the 2 words up like this. Not even if you have been getting F9s in your CL2 since kindergarden. And if you are really that rotten in Chinese, what the heck are you doing in the business of making signages in Chinese?

Human. Nature.

2006-04-10T22:18:00.000+08:00

On checking one of my many email accounts today, I read a mail from Evelyn, who shared one of her recent encounters at her office:

On my office patio, a pair of sunbirds built a nest on a potted plant sometime mid Feb. It was such a lovely sight, watching them flitting around... with whatever materials (including pealed-off paint) they could find to build the nest. As they built the nest for a week, we watched them from behind the glass partition.

After completing the nest, they stopped coming for about a month.

Yesterday evening, I saw a colleague at the plant with a plastic bag. I rushed out to the patio…………..but it was all too late. She has cut the nest and put it in the plastic bag, intending to bring it home! She thought the nest has been abandoned.

So typical of us, right? (Ahem, I wanted to say 'Singaporeans' but I wasn't sure of the nationality of the culprit in question, so I shall generalise). But did the culprit think for a sec what would she want with a Sunbird's nest at home? Make a lamp shade maybe?

Isn't it human nature to always want to interfere in some way or another with Mother Nature? How often have you wanted to grab, hold, fondle, cuddle or caress any objects, animate or in-animate, that you think is "nice"? We have to pick flowers in bloom, feed monkeys in the wild, throw rocks into an otherwise calm pond, profess our undying love for our lust/infatuation on million-year old rock faces. About rock faces, rock climbers just can't leave them alone huh? We just have to scale them and leave our chalk all over...

Evelyn, being the ardent animal-lover that I know her as, was heart-broken over this episode. Her email went out to her group of friends and to which Kee Seng, who empathises with her, consoled her with this photo taken from an ecogarden that he built for a school.

All well, there's some destruction, and there's some construction. The equilibrum of the Universe is still in balance.

And I can go back to sleep tonight.

V for Verbosity

2006-03-24T22:51:00.000+08:00

Ben used to make fun of his former uni lecturer's Indian accent - a 'unique' pronounciation of words with the letter "V". Like "poverty" became "poWerty", "verification" became "Werification".

From the movie "V for Vendetta", I wonder how would his lecturer pronounce these lines:

V: This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

Each word in red is one that I had to look up its meaning in a dictionary - a display of my dismal vocabulary of V-lettered words. And to add insult to injury, I still don't quite comprehend what the ^&%$# the above was talking about. Vichyssoise is a potato-leek soup leh... how come got a soup in an introduction one?????

And I wondered how I endured the rest of the movie... Ha.

Getting Cheesy

2006-03-05T17:19:00.000+08:00

Cheese had never been a common item in my diet. My whole world of cheese used to consist of just cheddar cheese slices by Kraft. I never knew there were other forms of cheese. Then, from Pizza Hut, I learnt about Mozzarella. From spaghetti and pastas, I knew about Parmesan. On a Caesar's salad, I met the yucky Blue Cheese.

Still, being Asian, I could not appreciate why the Ang Mohs loved their cheeses so much. So much so that they have to put it on everything? In soups, salads, rice, pastas, burgers and sandwiches.

And to make a cake out of cheese? Is someone out of his mind?

Ah, you see, I had not had the real thing then...

Philadelphia cream cheese, whipped with yoghurt and eggs, baked on a crumply cracker crust and chilled to a dense creamery. Then from the great pie, you extract a humble slice, gently spooning into a corner of its firmness, lifting and letting the bits melt slowly in your mouth, swirling in a tangy flavor mixed with sweet indulgence.

Err, wait, what am I writing?

Anyway, I just baked a cheese cake today according to this recipe. It's now chilling out in the fridge and tomorrow, I shall have cheese cake and Teh Siu Dai for breakfast.

Going Bananas

2006-02-26T16:41:00.000+08:00

Another Sunday afternoon.

Feel like having banana bread today.

Main recipe from the Engineer Cook, with the idea of adding ground cinamon and cloves from the Baker Who Cooks. But I think I under-estimated the amount of butter and resulted in the bread being slightly dry and crumbly. Still, the lovely aroma of banana, cinamon and cloves on my fingers as I type this is more than enough reward for the day.

Next time, use a measuring spoon.

Brownie Points

2006-02-19T18:46:00.000+08:00

Sunday afternoon.

Nothing to do.

Went down to 升松百货 and came back with a bar of unsweetened baking chocolate. With the instructions from Cooking for Engineers, 2 hours later, viola! Moist, sticky and chewy Chocalate Brownies!

Now, lets get some vannilla ice cream...

蝶恋花

2006-02-17T15:32:00.000+08:00

花退残红青杏小，
燕子飞时，
绿水人家绕。
枝上柳绵吹又少，
天涯何处无芳草！

墙里秋千墙外道，
墙外行人，
墙里佳人笑。
笑渐不闻声渐悄，
多情却被无情恼。

十八年前，当我还在当兵的时候，营中的一位Chinese Helicopter教了我这首宋词。当时真的很喜欢它，不出一天就背熟了。过后上大学，毕业工作，隔了这么多年，已经是忘了一干二净。前些日子在网上搜索时却意外的再与它重逢，感觉好象老朋友一样亲切。

最喜欢的是第二段。十八年前读后的了解为：一道墙分隔了两个世界，一边经过的路人甲却被另一边的笑声吸引住，甚至爱上了隔墙素未谋面的姑娘，但这样的一相情愿，落得没人理会也不希奇啦。

十八岁的思想就是这么片面没深度。区区三十几字里，把一个路人的经过描绘得那么有味道，这等文采功力对当年的我，是“completely wasted“.

十八年后再读此诗，却有另一种想法：人与人之间的关系总有一道墙。很多人在很多时候，都只在单方面思考下，就作出一相情愿的结论。多少不必要的误会都是因为说者无心听者有意，不加澄清而产生？

"Communication is a 2-way street". 这句被现代企业经理们用到烂的“名言真理”，苏东坡早在九百年前或许已经悟出来了。九百年中，真正懂得的人又有多少呢？

虎子无犬父?

2006-02-08T23:15:00.000+08:00

在电影<小孩不笨2>里的一段剧情: 儿子问爸爸怎么知道警探是假扮的, 爸爸回答:"虎子无犬父..." 儿子纳闷不解:"不是'虎父无'...?" 可是话没说完, 就已明了爸爸的话中话.

自己当时一下也搞不懂什么意思. 后来回家路上才恍然大悟 - 爸爸是想'多称赞'孩子而把成语颠反了说 - 言下之意, 儿子是个聪明的'虎子', 为父当然不会是个'漏气'的犬父, 所以识破小人奸计当然小儿科啦!

称赞别人同时也不让自己逊色, 这成语可反得真妙, 高明!

电影一开始就已问观众:"你最后一次称赞别人是什么时候?" 梁导演无非想鼓励狮城人"多看别人的优点, 少挑人家的缺点".

常听到激奋人心的故事也有说: 一千块砖头砌成的墙, 为何只看见那块铺歪了的一角而忽略了其他九百九十九块完好无缺的呢?

其实在这里我不禁要问: 我们看人真的有那么偏吗? 一个人优与缺的比例如果真的如一张白纸上的小黑点, 大众真的会单挑那黑芝麻来过不去吗?

又如果说我们不计较这小芝麻, 那黑点得长多大我们才可以名正言顺的批判? 才不会被天下人判成存有偏见, 过分苛刻, 不懂欣赏他人长处的bastard?

Reunion Dinner

2006-01-22T20:38:00.000+08:00

Or what's left of it after we were done...

We had: 麦片虾, 卤猪脚, 西兰花带子, 烧肉叉烧, 炸肉丸, 莲藕汤 and mum's kick-ass 什锦炒面.

7 dishes for a household of 6 people, that's heck of a dinner! Ok I didn't count little Joey and her even little sister.

May be next year. We will need a larger table then.

Quotable-quote 2006

2006-01-15T00:23:00.000+08:00

Actually, it wasn't really a quote. Rather, it was a line from the movie I watched 7 hours ago. The movie's "Le Grand Voyage" - about a son driving his father - a Muslim - for his pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest city. The journey started from France, passed through Italy, eastern Europe, Turkey, middle East and finally Saudi Arabia.

I was glad that after some 100 minutes, despite the absence of spectacular cinematography or fancy CGI effects, it was still possible to exit the cinema without questioning if I had spent my $9.50 wisely.

I was emotionally moved by the simple plot and realistic acting. However, what perhaps had impressed me most was a line said by the son to his father, after father was mad over son's behaviour and wanted to head to Mecca alone. Son, in realisation of his folly and in order to get dad back into the car, uttered this: "Don't you practice forgiveness in your religion?"

It stopped dad dead in his tracks.

How sad. Isn't it in most religions to advocate forgiveness? But do we need to subscribe to religion inorder to learn the virtue of forgiveness?

Oh wait, do we care about virtues any more?

Buying Fish

2006-01-07T12:47:00.000+08:00

I had this weird dream about 2 weeks ago. In that dream, 2 people were talking, there were parts of the dialogue that was so vivid in my mind, that I think I am gonna remember it for life...

The dialogue went like this:

A: What do you look for when you buy a fish?
B: the eyes, the gills, the flesh, blah, blah, blah*
A: If you spend such a long time choosing, wouldn't the fish be bad when you get home?

Sounds like something out of a Zen class huh?

*this was the part of the dialogue which I couldn't remember the details.

Easy Money...

2005-12-13T20:39:00.000+08:00

$400 in 1 hour 27 min 45 sec.

Ha, cat Z some more... I should be proud of myself?

Thanks, Suay Han

2005-11-18T20:59:00.000+08:00

It is a blessing and a wonderful feeling to be remembered, not forgotten.

I have known Suay Han, a co-worker at HP for almost 10 years. We worked together in the same lab, I the Engineer, she was my Tech operator.

Ever since knowing my date of birth, she has never failed to buy me a treat on this annual occasion. Even when I hardly bothered myself with it. Even when both of us had moved on to doing different jobs 8 years ago, and hardly see each other day to day.

A mango cake. A pandan mousse cake. A birthday card. I have gotten all of that.

This year, it's an assortment of kueh-kuehs from 老婶阿嬷潮洲粿. Nothing fancy. Full of heart.

What have I done to deserve this? I am really not worthy.

Worse yet, I don't even know when is her birthday, that I can reciprocate her thoughtfulness. Shame on me...

I count my blessings every year this day because of a friend like Suay Han.

And relish that wonderful feeling of being remembered, not forgotten.

PS to self: bake Suay Han a cheese cake for Christmas, this year!

Car or Cab (Part 1)?

2005-11-08T00:06:00.000+08:00

Cost of car ownership in Lion City - the highest in the world. Right? But just how ridiculously high is it?

Discounting reasons like lifestyle and convenience, just a plain dollars and cents opinion, is there a justification to own a car here?

I have thought about this some time ago and felt that it might be interesting to compare cost of owning a car with the next best alternative - taking a cab. That means comparing the driving my own car versus costs of commuting via cabs only.

Since majority of folks who own cars are just using it to commute from home to office and around the island, I wondered if there could be a threshold distance between one's home and office, that if exceeded, would make owning a car financially more viable than taking a cab.

Such an 'academically' bo-liao (无聊) task can easily be accomplished with an Excel spreadsheet.

First I need to get my assumptions down. So here goes:

Assume a new 1.6L car that costs $50K, on a 7-year loan at 2.5%p.a.

The monthly fixed costs are estimated at $700 for installment, $80 for road tax, $123 for insurance (averaged from 5 years, without accidents), $300 for misc like parking, servicing etc.

Now for the variable, which is mainly gas expenses as a function of driving distance and engine efficiency. I started with $1.6 per liter for gas, 10km per liter for efficiency, a daily 40km (to and fro) commute between home and office. Assuming 20 work days per month and IF I don't go anywhere else (ie I got no life lah), the monthly gas comes up to about $130.

Summing all expenses gave me the figure of $1330 per month.

Now, the same total distance that I used above, if it was done completely via cab costs $496 approx. Again I assumed only peak hour surcharge and only no-life type of home-office-home commute.

With the model set up in Excel, I can iterate the distances for both car and cab costs and solve for a distance between home and office where cost of car = cost of cab.

What did I get?

Heh heh, a 1-way distance of 83km between home and office! FYI, Lion City is only like 40-something km from east to west.

Of course, nobody is that no life in Lion city, regardless how workaholic you are (cross my fingers). So this distance is definitely an unrealistic number. But it tells me that even if I factored in typical usage distances, I would still be like staying-in-PasirRis-working-in-Tuas, in order to balance car and cab costs.

Well, since I have the spreadsheet set up now, it's a matter of punching some numbers. But that's for another time...

讲华语, Cool?

2005-11-02T22:42:00.000+08:00

This incident happened to a colleague - WK, re-told to me by another colleague TKL.

WK loves to snack in office, as a result, munchies and junk foods are always within an arm's reach from a swivel of his chair.

Today, he asked TKL to accompany him to buy some Mamee snack - that msg-loaded no-water-needed-tear-n-eat instant noodle snack - at Telok Blangah (I don't know where exactly but that's not important).

WK wanted to buy a 20 mini packs in 2 jumbo bags (10 per bag). The conversation with the store towkay went something like this:

WK: 我要大包的Mamee.
Owner: 里面是十包, 你要几包?
WK: OK, 我要两包.
Owner: 这样啊?我要去楼上拿.

WK was puzzled as to why the towkay has to go 'upstairs' for a mere 20 packs of Mamee. The answer was revealed when the towkay came down - with 2 bags - yeah, and 80 packs of Mamee!

Yup, the owner said 里面四十包.

WK heard 里面是十包.

Ironically, had the conversation been in Cantonese or Hokkien, even word for word as above, there would be no misunderstanding and WK wouldn't have to walk away with 4 times more Mamee than he intended (not that he was complaining either!)

婚礼

2005-10-24T22:43:00.000+08:00

这是在"联合早报"副刊里读到的一篇短文, 里头提到的遭遇自己虽然没遇过, 但对一向不喜欢参加婚宴的我,倒是引起一点的共鸣.

我不认为以前摆过婚宴的朋友都象文中的"女孩"那么狂傲, 但多多少少都看过一些为了自己人生的"唯一一次"而绞尽脑汁,大费心思.

华人对人生大事一向都是很注重. 婚事都大势铺张, 敲锣打鼓, 非得宣告天下不可. 这样的传统延续了几百年, 从原本无可厚非的幸福, 自豪与高兴的情感, 至今已演变成一种炫耀,出风头的闹剧.

你若家财万贯, 或钓了个金龟, 摆它个数十或百桌的豪门宴自然是绰绰有余.

但如果当你俩走进爱情坟墓的当儿, 那"一生一次"的"美好回忆"还得靠你翻江倒海, 甚至一相情愿的去邀请"亲朋好友"来"赞助"的话, 这跟"打肿脸皮充胖子"没两样!

更可恶的还有人任为这种"赞助"是天经地义, 理所当然, 甚至希望底消了宴会后的红包还有得赚!

再想想收到"红炸弹"的人也是好无奈. 是好朋友的话也罢, 真心的祝福哪在乎那几十块呢?

如果只是普通朋友又怎样?

华人就爱在乎人与人之间的有来有往, 人家请你, 就好歹得给面子, 免得以后见面难堪. 但咱们狮城华人喜宴谁没领教过? 说花钱买罪受可能夸张了点, 但也差不多啦. 饿不死, 吃不饱的晚餐就算了, 还说出席是为了给新人祝福的话, 你骗谁? 都说是普通朋友了, 到场时和新人握手寒喧几句就了事了, 然后整个晚上跟其他久违的朋友聊天,交换名片才是正事. 就连震耳欲聋的"饮胜"声后, 还不是象爆过的鞭炮, 一地废纸碎壳的空虚.

不过呢, 人, 就是爱从这种外在的型式里找到心理上的安慰.

这多年来吃了那么多此类的"桌子", 非常腻了. 厌倦这大同小异, 千篇一律的过程. 看不过那戏剧化的排场, 那么造作. 我很想说是"虚伪", 但我不想"打翻全船"的朋友. 所以我早决定, 除了非常情况之外, 以后的婚礼宴会, 能推则推, 不然就是"礼到人不到"! 算破财消"灾"吧...

Oh, my cry baby!

2005-09-14T23:30:00.000+08:00

My brother and his wife dearest were so excited about Hong Kong's Disneyland opening its doors this week, that they decided they should attend its opening cermony. Well, not exactly the real reason but it's boring to say they went Hong Kong for a vacation.

So Joey, my 18-month old niece came and stayed at my place for the first half of this week.

As far as I could remember, I have not slept in my house with another human under the age of 24 months. The experience of living with babies was a memory as distant as my Primary 6 form teacher.

Joey is a lively girl. Too lively, in my opinion, for a girl.

Any items within grasp of her tiny hands are worthy of at most 10 seconds of attention before uncermoniously flung. Yeah. Flung. And you think only boys are 粗鲁?

She knows no fear of the dark and unknown - she enters every room in the house, lighted or not; opens every cupboard and door that she can.

She doesn't care that her legs are shorter than the distance from the bed to the floor; never stopped her from walking off the bed.

Spirit of adventure? Or just foolhardy without wisdom? Who knows? Why judge?

The past few nights has been a gentle awakening for me, to appreciate and respect all who have bravely and boldly stepped into the realms of parenthood.

Babies cry. Most of them do. And babies can cry really loud.

They cry because they are hungry, scared, sick, pissed or whatever reason that made them want to cry. And most of the time, we want to calm a crying baby. Feed her if hungry, hug her if scared, treat her if sick.

Joey was crying the past 3 nights. With almost clockwork regularity, at midnight. But I was absolutely clueless what's ailing her. My mom and dad knew no better.

As an engineer trained to solve problems, this crying baby may be the hardest yet. In the world of nuts and bolts, I can examine, inspect, probe, analyse, test, whatever. But in the face of a crying Joey, I never felt more useless and helpless.

Was she hungry? Was she in pain? Was she scared from unfamiliar surroundings? We have no bloody idea. All my mom could do was to carry her, coaxing and joslting gently, motherly love mode turned to the max.

Joey would gradually quiet down and just when I thought peace has returned, she resumed with unfaltered fervour.

The night passed slowly with cyclic bouts of cries and silence, intermixed with my mom's cooing.

Without being a parent myself, I can now appreciate what it meant when my colleagues told a new dad at office: 'Welcome to the Panda Club!'

Watching my mom pacing the bedroom, coaxing and patting the wailing Joey, I couldn't helped wondering if I was ever a difficult baby for her.

Dear mom and dad, I am sorry if I had ever made you lose sleep in my baby years. Even though that was like eons ago, I still thank you for not giving up on me.

To all other mom's and dad's, I salute your courage for taking the plunge into parenthood, planned or otherwise. May your unfeltering love for your child be reciprocated in the years to come.

And to all children out there, myself included, say 'Thank you' to your mom and dad today!

And to Joey dearest, tonight is the last night liow. 乖乖呵...don't cry and sleep nice nice till morning hor!

My "Amazing Race"

2005-09-10T18:59:00.000+08:00

A log of my trip on Sep 9th, 2005, from Tonsai beach in Krabi, back to home sweet home in Lion City. I had to travel a distance of almost 1000km in a span of 12hours. Of course, with modern technology, this is ain't no big deal. Thought it might be fun to read this again sometime. What sucks was of course the lack of photos to complement the log.

11am
Gathered my barang-barang and strolled down to the beach. Jumpman was having a rest day and was heading to Ao Nang as well. Boatman was lazing around, chit-chatting with other Thais, ignoring Jumpman and me. Well, he probably saw that there were only 2 of us, not enough to make his run profitable. I knew he would ask for some exorbitant fare if I were to asked him to leave immediately. Just 2 days ago, a fellow climber was 'offered' the ridiculous fare of 100 baht - to go from Tonsai beach to Eagle wall! Damm these boatmen, damm their monopoly, damm the low season.

12.15pm
Finally, after waiting for 90 minutes, enough passengers turned up - 6 of us in total. We can now leave for Ao Nang. Can't help taking a last glance at 'Cross Eyed' - as the boat glides past the Melting Wall. Sigh... Unfinished projects always dampens my spirits when leaving Tonsai beach.

12.30pm
Landed at Ao Nang. The ang-moh couple was remarking that they 'got on the wrong boat' - they wanted to go 'Ao Pra Nang' beach, not 'Ao Nang'. Oops, so had they not made this blunder, I would still be fuming on Tonsai beach. Lucky for me, too bad for them.

1.40pm
Krabi bus station at last. The tuk-tuk trip was slow but luckily uneventful. Seems like my luck is still holding out. This is good. Getting the bus tickets to Phuket was a breeze. 2pm bus, 135 baht. I even had 20mins for a quick lunch.

4.45pm
Phuket bus station. I officially declared that travel by public bus in Thailand beats the infamous 'Air con mini-van' anytime. My bus was only half full and I got 2 seats all to myself. Plenty of leg room and the air con actually works! I even managed a few winks, despite the incessant droning of Thai pop ballards throughout the journey.

5.00pm
Phuket town appeared to me as a tad less noisy and busy compared to Hatyai. I surmised that this is the more down-to-earth section of Phuket and definitely far from the maddening tourist crowds. Since I had no idea how to get to the airport, I asked at a tour agency. The helpful sales clerk said there were no more mini-vans for the day. She offered an option of 'Motorcycle Taxi' - costs 200 baht. Wow, that's more expensive than my bus ticket from Krabi. But I took the offer. I didn't felt like bargaining or checking out other options. I rather spend the limited time exploring around the streets.

5.30pm
After satisfying dinner of fried fish cakes Thai style and other local munchies found at the afternoon market few blocks away, I returned to the tour agency for a quick shower, ready to leave. My driver and my mode of transportation showed up at 5.35pm. So, this 50cc tin can was going to carry me and my pack to the Phuket International Airport 32km away? Great, after feeling clean and fresh from shower, I must now be dragged through the dust and grime of Phuket's evening traffic. And I don't get a helmet.

6.30pm
Phuket airport, my body and luggage, arrived in their separate 1-piece. I made it afterall, despite not feeling my butt very well, from the restricted blood circulation. Never thought that pillion riding for 32km can be such a torment. To top it off, I had to pay extra 50 baht for gas. Damm, hidden charges. And the guy didn't even have change for 500 baht. WTF...

Passed through security X-ray and found the Tigerairways counter. Gosh, look at that line! It was moving rather slowly. I realised that the staff was checking in passengers manually - they first looked up a list, crossed out the name, filled out the boarding pass by hand, and finally tagged the luggage. All without any computers! B for budget airlines, B for back to basics.

8.10pm
Airborned finally. We had a 10 min delay due to 'unavoidable technical problems' - that's what the pilot said, after we took off. Not a very encouraging opening address. The flight was smooth on the whole. I busied with the last chapter of 1421 - The Year China Discovered America. This book has a fascinating and convincing theory that the Chinese in Ming dynasty were the first people to sail & discover the New Worlds. Hoorahs for Chinese!

10.52pm
Welcome to Singapore Changi Internation Airport. Yada yada yada. Blah, blah blah. Thank you and hope to see you again.

Driving with Tah-Koo-Mee

2005-08-21T12:42:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was supposed to be training at Yishun. Last chance of vertical endurance training before the 'test' at Krabi.

Usually, it's an hour+ journey on the train to Yishun and a short walk to Safra. Although not exactly comfortable, our world-class transport system does have its merits; I do get to places I want without much trouble.

I wouldn't mind some entertainment along the way but no thanks, TV Mobile.

However, the journey to Yishun yesterday in my friend's car proved to be the break I might have been looking for.

My training partner - lets call him Tah-Koo-Mee; offered me a ride. He got his brother's car - a Hyundai Getz - for the day. In fact, we just drove to Yishun last week too.

"So how to go to Yishun ah?" Tah-Koo-Mee asked, when I got in.

"Huh? We just drove there last week leh. You don't remember liow?", I replied. You picked me up from this same bus stop dude!

"Can't remember liow lah."

Waliow, such short term memory. Gave him the directions and we went on our way.

- - - - -

Nearing Hume Park area along Upper Bt Timah, a number of barriers were put up on the sides and the road narrowed into 2 lanes.

We were on the right lane, when a truck in front, on the left edged towards the lane divider, without signals as usual.

Tah-Koo-Mee became edgy too. Our car slowed to almost a standstill.

"Hey don't stop!", I blurted.

"I don't know what he want to do!" Tah-Koo-Mee replied, referring to the offending truck.

"You still got your lane what!", I pointed out.

The truck did not cut in, another case of an idiot who doesn't keep to his lane.

"You slow down like this can cause trouble for the cars behind leh", I added. "Keep your speed and drive through lah."

"Don't want lah. I don't like it tight", Tah-Koo-Mee said.

TIGHT???? Please lah... You think you driving what? Hyundai Getz, you know?

- - - - -

We got on the BKE smoothly, got off at Mandai road and turned to Yishun.

Our conversations led to Initial D, Takumi (the real one) and his cup of un-spillable water.

"Your driving is so unstable, if I put a cup here, the water will spill all over." I commented. Following that, I placed my Nalgene bottle on the dashboard.

Bad move on my part, I realised.

We were running on a straight section and Tah-Koo-Mee was really focussed on getting the water in the bottle not to shake about.

Not a difficult thing to do, considering he was only going at 60km/h. But I soon found that Tah-Koo-Mee's eyes were on the bottle instead of the road!

"Eh better keep your eyes on the road lah", I quickly took the bottle off.

WHEW! That was a very very stupid thing for me to do.

- - - - -

As we neared Yishun, the weather took a turn and soon, it was pouring. Visibility was very low.

"Wah, so hard to see. So heavy rain and so dark." Tah-Koo-Mee said, as we tried to make out where we were.

I thought that comment was weird.

While the rain was indeed heavy, it was nowhere dark. I could still make out the surrounding traffic quite well. Maybe he needs to turn up that wiper speed. But still... I looked at him and understood why.

"eh, take off your sunglasses lah!"

"oh yeah hor!"

Sigh, we will make a Takumi out of you yet!

Peace offering

2005-08-14T22:15:00.000+08:00

又到七月中元节了.

记得以前这时的空中总是冥纸碎灰飞舞, 香烛漫烟飘绕. 家家户户都为一年一度从鬼门关出来阳间放假的"好兄弟"而忙碌. 这月份的空气污染指数飙升, 除了因邻国烟雾之外, 给"好兄弟"烧的零用钱也应该有些贡献吧? 邻里街边的歌台标会, 吵吵闹闹的嚷他一个月更是司空见惯.

小学时代, 中元节都去婆婆家, 和姑姑嫂嫂叔叔阿姨, 一大群人一起过. 供奉鬼使神差的食物福物, 在走廊上摆满两三桌, 物件上都插上小旗帜. 各路的好兄弟几时吃完我从来不知道, 因为当时心中只等着把小旗拿下来, 和表兄弟们一起玩武林大决斗.

高中时代, 工课的繁重让我渐渐疏远了婆婆的家, 和表兄弟们的距离也疏远了.

跟着当兵, 上大学, 毕业, 作工. 按部就班的生活次序一点也没乱过.

年复一年的节日年复一年的过. 学多了, 看多了, 经验多了, 感觉反而淡了. 好象生日会过多了, 蛋糕都越吃越没味道.

节日虽每年都过, 节日的气氛感觉却越来越蒙. 就算中元节的意义在于宣扬华人的孝道, 到了今时今日, 对我来说, 已起着几乎微不足道的影响. 当初童年简单的欢乐最多也只是回忆里的小插曲罢了.

今天看到妈妈忙了一个下午, 炸五香卷, 煮咖哩鸡, 炒香港面, 焖东菇鲍鱼, 就为了循着这老传统.

望着这一桌的菜肴香烛, 突然想问自己, 紧紧跟随现代生活的步伐的同时, 我是不是走的太快, 而忘了某些也应该一起带着走的东西呢?

Wrong side of the road

2005-08-07T00:17:00.000+08:00

It was a long time since I have used my Fuji Finepix6900Z. There seems to be some fireworks show going on this evening, so I was thinking: why not take a walk to the Sheares Bridge, snap a couple of shots of the pretty fireworks exploding over the Shenton Way skyline? Shooting fireworks from high ground - it's a new angle for me and sounds fun.

I took the train to Marina Bay, skirted around the crowd@Celebrations hoohah carnival, climbed up the Sheares bridge and chose my sweet spot - overlooking the Durians, Fullerton and the bay. Time check - 6:40pm. Sweet. Plenty of time. I don't know what time the first shots will be fired but experience told me it won't be this early.

20 minutes passed. Crowds were gathering. A few drivers on the ECP stopped by to ask where would the fireworks be. No one seemed to have a definite answer. Everybody 'supposed' that it's gonna be over the bay by the Durians.

A small Indian community was chatting loudly while perching themselves percariously over the side walk divider, drawing the occasional angry horns from the motorists. A member from the group was yak-ing non-stop over his handphone while pacing up and down the side walk. Funny that he was wearing a polo shirt proclaiming "南大华乐" (NTU Chinese Orchestra).

2 photographers on my flanks had their camera & tripod all set - both were using DSLRs (Nikons I think). Had a conversation with the guy on my right. He was also wondering, like everyone else, where were the fireworks going to appear tonight. He was on the bridge last week when the NDP rehersals were happening. He said that the fireworks came from the bay below us but there were the Marine Police patrolling the area. He didn't notice any today.

Uh-oh. Don't tell me there's no fireworks today? Cannot be. The Singapore Fireworks Festival website say so. Hmmm, but there's no mention of the exact place... More uh-ohs...

Time check - 8:00pm. No sight nor sound of color explosions. The daughter of the PRC family on my left had long finished her dinner of sweet sour pork and stir-fried long beans over rice. When are those darn fireworks gonna start.

The answer came in the next instant - from behind. Yeah, 30minutes of walking, 1.5 hours of waiting. Only to find you were on the wrong side of the road.

虽然万事具备, 不过在东风还没有吹起时, 最好看看位置方向对不对, 不然就像今晚这样, 吹了一鼻子灰...

20kg and growing

2005-07-28T00:23:00.000+08:00

Yes, I have added up to 20kg today. No, it's not my weight I am talking about.

This is the weight I am adding to myself, in the form of iron bar plates, during my strength training sessions. I am doing 5 reps of chin-ups with these dead weights. I have been working with these weights for the past 2 weeks but everytime, the weight gain has been in slow increments.

Today, at the end of the 4th (and last) set, under the 'encouragement' or 'instigation' from Ben, I piled an extra 7.5kg to the usual load and went for an extra set. I realised I could make 3 good reps!!! A silent 'wow' to myself. 20 kilograms! That's 4 bags of rice! Ok, maybe just the standard packaging type... Still, I was really happy. The next moment was even more wonderful; I dropped the weights and did another 3 more pulls. My body felt paper-light! Ha! Suz was joking that this is probably how Sibin felt all the time when he climbs. And I do believed her...

I am glad that I could start to feel some results after these 2 weeks. Mental note to self: keep at it, persevere and go for 5 set of 5 reps with 20kg!

And that 7b doesn't seem so far now...

The Queen and The Coconuts

2005-07-16T19:28:00.000+08:00

The big day of the Bloggers.SG conference. Out of curiosity, I decided to drop by, to see for myself some of these new celebrities made famous (or infamous) by the internet. 看看你们的庐山真面目. Is the Blog Queen really that short? Is Mr Brown really that "Uncle"-looking and is his running-slimming working yet? Does Kenny Sia really have coconuts-sized, umm, assets?

Firstly, the venue - DXO. Holding a conference in a Club, tsk tsk, what a novel idea. New business venture for Mohammad Sultan area leh... Their slogan can even be: "Talk first, Party later!"

The conference was already in session when I reached. 2 people on stage were easily recognisable - Mr Brown and Mr Miyagi, and two other folks which I presumed were some other heavyweight Bloggers whom I still yet to know.

Although this was a gathering of the vocal voices of the Sg virtual world in life, somehow, the atmosphere doesn't appear too lively leh... I expected the ground to be abuzz with lively and colorful exchanges, thought-provoking and mind-enlightening speeches intermix with humor, wit, sarcasm and profanity.

Oh wait, yeah, that's only the ~~real~~ virtual world these ~~buggers~~ bloggers ~~live~~ blog in mah.

In the real world, everyone was so well-behaved, so quiet, so cordial, so... ermm, nice.

Maybe it was still early, folks need to warm up. But somehow the feeling of reserved-ness was heavy in the air. A lot of camera flashes, video cams hovering up and down; I might have thought this was a fan club gathering of some boy-band pop-singer group, but the missing hysterical screams of early-adolescent girls reminded me it was not.

I looked around trying to identify any known Bloggers. And I saw them.

我看到他们了! 下雪and Kenny Sia!

Damn this low lighting, cannot see clearly if Xiaxue really got make-up so thick that can stop an Armburst round. Also not close enough to hear her speak. Wonder if she sound like Ah-Lians with an A-me-li-can slang? Or she speaks with the cool demeanor like Diana Ser?

And that chubby guy beside her, so easy to recognise - Mr Sia, didn't see your coco-nuts leh... Anyway, so nice of the organisers to fly you in and you really give them all the face man... You must the only guy today to wear like you going ROM - long sleeve and tie leh!!! I supposed you want to look presentable, but really, I thought you got wedding dinner to attend later tonight.

Anyway, the session was not getting any livelier by the minute. Even Kenny's moment was rather low key. But hey, these are bloggers, not stand-up comedians. If I wanted entertainment, I am in the wrong shell, the Durians are next door.

But I was really getting bored. Some kid was blabbering about his experiences since the era of homepages, in the years of 1-9-yawn-9-7. I wasn't getting much of his words, partly because my mind went off-line, partly because the dude was covering the microphone with his hand while speaking. I didn't even noticed he finished but when I heard Mr Brown declared a 45-min break, I was out of the door.

I missed the session on Blogging and the law. Oops, I hope I don't break any in the future.

Oh btw, Xiaxue was really as short as she claimed.

Office Work-Out Exercises - Skip the Gym lah...

2005-07-10T20:56:00.000+08:00

Are you working too hard at office? Always wanted to keep fit and work out but can never find time for it?

If you are a office cubicle dweller in the modern day corporate world, you will realize that opportunities are abound around you to work out within that 8 hours.

Take a look at some of these great exercises that require minimal space and equipment. Heck, you don't even need to change into sports attire to do them!

Back aches? Weak lower back muscles? Try these Back-strengthening methods.
For starters, ever heard of Ass Kissing? This is an age-old exercise that needs no introduction and probably no training to execute. It's an easy feat for most, even first timers. However, it is advisable to complement this exercise with Bending over backwards. You see, too much Ass kissing will bias your back towards only trunk flexion. To strike a balance, you need to do the antagonist motion and that is trunk extension.

IPPT coming and can't do even 1 pull-up? You need to strengthen those Upper limbs then. To develop marble-hard, Arnold-size biceps and triceps - try Back Stabbing. There are 2 variations of this exercise - the High Stab pose where the action starts with hand overhead and plunges downwards. Remember to complete the rep by raising the hand overhead again. This exercise trains your biceps and triceps. The other variation is the Level Stab pose. You hold the hand at waist level, extend the elbow and retract. Trains forearms, biceps and deltoids.

If you find Back stabbing too distasteful to master, here are some other upper limbs strengthening exercises to consider - Pushing your luck and Beating around the bush. For those in management, you may not realize this but - Shooting "Arrows" - is also a very effective technique to develop strength in your wrists, arms, shoulders and upper body in general.

Weak knees? Legs looking like satay sticks? Tone those calfs and thighs with Lower limbs strengthening. The best method so far is Dragging your feet. The slower you do this, the stronger you become. The next best exercise is of course Dodging responsibility or Avoiding "Arrows". This is super intensive on the leg muscles and develops agility.

Aerobic exercises are an integral part of any fitness routine. Likewise, there are various methods you can use to train your aerobic fitness in the office. For the beginners, try the simple Jumping to conclusions. Your increased rate of breathing is a good gauge that you are doing it right. For those experienced, you can up the ante with Running in circles. Good idea to reverse the direction once a while so that you don't get too giddy. For the super-fit, try Flying off the handle. Watch that heart rate though, and never attempt this exercise if you have been diagnosed with High Blood Pressure.

To finish your session, remember to do some cooling-down routine with stretches and easy breathing. For stretching, I recommend Finger pointing. Do it with the index finger and point in all directions. If you are into Yoga, try Putting your foot in your mouth; very challenging pose, I can't do it yet. Finally, simple breathing like Tooting your own horn is a good way to call it a day.

See, the 9-to-5 office is so full of opportunities to work out. Who needs an expensive membership at California fitness? Oh wait, people go there for the social work out.

The Importance of Timely Communication

2005-07-02T13:53:00.000+08:00

Had some fun with the Signboard Message Generator and Error Message Generator. All found here.

made the above and also this one.

Another good quote found...

2005-07-02T01:04:00.000+08:00

Read from the comments section of a blog:
We have no precedence, which is precisely why we should invent them. If Singapore keeps looking to the past for answers, when will we move forward?

So well-put. How come I can never think and write stuff like that?

Too much engineering thoughts in me? Maybe nothing to do with Engineering.

My train of thoughts seem to only move forward and back, like current through resistors connected in series. Or sometimes, it is locked up like a cross-linked epoxy; too rigid and frigid to twist and bend, rock and roll anymore...

I need to read more; 也许才能解开这脑筋死结, 打破这思维僵局...

About that excellent quote above, it sounded ironical to me at first. All these years as an engineer, I have been drilled that 'leverage' is the key to a shorter learning curve, faster time to market and lower costs. But the act of leveraging is, to a large degree, looking at the past while trying to move forward. By leveraging, I take all good things I have done in the past and use them in my next steps. Isn't that analogous to driving a car forward by looking at the pot holes I avoided, through the rear view mirror?

Maybe I over-generalise. I am probably on the border of belittling the need to study history... haha.

I have always believed in learning from the past so that I don't make the same mistake twice. But I know, not all answers are to be found in the retrospection. Discoveries are only made when a step is taken in the forward direction.

A step.

A B o l d S t e p.

The question is: Am I bold enough?

You are slow and un-informed, don't blame others

2005-06-22T23:31:00.000+08:00

In my last post, I blasted some poor soul for a poor translation job on the chinese name of Seoul, capital of Korea. Well, it turns out that I am that lousy, un-informed, mountain-tortise who should be doing some fact checking before judging on others.

It appears that around late January this year, Seoul decided to rename their city's chinese name from 汉城 to 首尔, for the reasons of 'avoiding confusion'. Apparently, they think that others might mistake it to be a 'Chinese city' in China. Talk around the internet seems to say that Koreans felt that the name 'Han City' is derogatory. Wow... that's heavy man...

While I don't know the origin of the name 汉城; some said it was so named because the city was built along the Han river (汉江). Honestly, I felt that it is a nicer name than a cold, purely-phonetic translation of 首尔.

不过话说回来, 城市是人家的. 名称人家要怎么翻译,怎么称呼, 都是人家的自由. 翻译本身其实是一项不容易的学问. 很多时候照着发音而翻译往往只是一种go through motion的运动, 其原意和精髓能不能保留下来似乎已不重要了.

"临汉江而建的城市" -- 汉城--怎样都比硬梆梆的"首尔"好听, 有意思.

Take me for a [cheap] ride...

2005-06-16T00:06:00.000+08:00

Lion City does it again! Another "notable" record of proving, once again, our world-class transport system is very affordable.

A Land-transport system research team in the NU of S published a report (12 June 2005), suggesting that after a comparison across 10 Asian cities, the taxi fares in here are 'very cheap' and 'there maybe room for a fare increase'.

To substantiate their findings, they released the following statistics:

While I haven't been to all 10 cities listed, I am no stranger to KL; and I find it hard to believe that a 10km journey in KL city would cost USD6.00! If I remember correctly, a cab ride from Jalan Petaling to Batu Caves (about 10km) costs about RM14.00, which is roughly USD3.70.

If you look at the second table that lists the average monthly family income, did you notice that a Singapore couple could take home, on the average, USD3088 a month or S$5175! I seriously question the validity of this figure. It seems unrealistically high! Is this the total disposable income after CPF deductions? I would assume it is since the study was trying to estimate what portion of the monthly salary is spent on taxi fares. For a combined take home pay of 5K a month, considering present job market conditions, the couple are most probably at least degree holders with 2-3 years experience (I may be overly optimistic here). Now does this mean that the average workforce in Lion City are degree holders?

Statistics like these are most often misleading than informative. Especially when it comes to using averages. Average salary may seem to be a fair estimator of wealth but few people realise that a couple of super-high income earners included in the survey would skew the entire data set and shift the average abnormally high. Without including other vital information (like max, min or median), the reader is definitely taken for a ride.

Afterall, there is wisdom in the phrase 'Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive. What they conceal is vital.'

By the way, another weird observation in the above table. Did you notice there's an Asian city by the chinese name of '首尔'? I cannot seem to recall which city could this be, that has an average income of USD2.8K? Until I tried to pronounce the word in English; I could not believe there are such idiotic, worse-than-half-past-six translation skills - Did they mean SEOUL??????

是那个猪头那么没水准? 可怜贵为亚洲四小龙之一的韩国首都-汉城-竟被这种三脚猫和半咸不淡翻译功夫糟蹋! 奇怪的是怎么没把东京译成'都鸡油' (Tokyo)?

I don't deserve...

2005-06-11T10:12:00.001+08:00

Date: Friday, the 10th day of June, year two thousand and five
Time : between the hours of 7pm and 8pm
Place: NUS rock gym

While resting from a problem on a sweat-chalk covered mattress, a bunch of finger-sored geckos heard the un-imaginable over radio: "... ... ... give us a call and tell us why you deserved to be in the ARMY ... ... ..."

I think and think until my pen has no ink.
I laugh and laugh until ... WTF???????

Unfortunately, we didn't managed to hear the words of wisdom of the callers, IF there were any. So sad. I might have found enlightenment that night.

Life after graduation

2005-06-11T10:12:00.000+08:00

It is the time of year where a new batch graduates from Kent Ridge/Jalan Bahar and enters the Matrix... to be another clog in the giant economic wheel of Lion City, to be another battery in keeping the gleam and shine of this Little Red Dot.

Must life upon graduation always like that? Or maybe you should wait. Maybe you should take that different path. Break the norm. Do that something you have always wanted to do but might never have the chance again once you are part of the Matrix, until you unplug yourself.

A fellow gecko - SL - is now at this crossroads of life. Should he find a job or should he go 'see/climb the world'.

Choices. There are always choices. Life is not always a one-way street, even in Lion City.

CY, who recently unplugged himself afer 5 years, and is about to embark on his 6-week rampage admist the boulders of Fontainbleu, offer this piece of advice: find a short term job that pays well, work your ass off, quit and go. You will never regret it, he claims.

I say that sound like a good plan.

Phase A: if you didn't 打包 too many times, you would be 24 or 25 (earlier if you are female) upon graduation. Work hard and get the cash. Take off and go see the world for 2/3/4 years/till you are broke/till you are sick of it, and then return to settle down.

Phase B: Assuming your surname is not Hilton, and eventually will have to work like all the rest of us, you are at most 30, can still join the typical cycle of life here - i.e. find a job, contribute to CPF, find a partner, apply HDB, marry and pay loans for the rest of your life. Oh, don't forget your national duty to mate and reproduce.

And about that mating part. While it can happen anytime, it is in your best interest that it happens within Phase B. Getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant in Phase A can have serious implications to the plan. Your hard-earned moolahs might end up in pampers and milk powder from Carrefour, instead of lattes and capuccinos in Paris or Rome. But since our gahmen is trying to get this country to reproduce, avoiding unwanted babies does not seem to be a major diffculty for most.

So what are you waiting for?

Words of Wisdom

2005-06-05T12:30:00.000+08:00

Read this from the Reader's Digest June 2005.

It's much better to be apart and wish you were together than to be together and wish you were apart.

Indeed.

Poolside Chill Out

2005-06-03T12:59:00.000+08:00

When it comes to celebrating holidays, I think the Americans know best. If you don't already notice, American holidays tends to fall on a specific weekday of the week, rather than a specific date of the calendar. Example, Memorial Day - traditionally observed on the last Monday of May. Labour Day - first Monday in September. Martin Luther King Day - third Monday of January. And finally Thanksgiving Day - fourth Thursday in November and the friday is also a holiday. Need I say more?

Long weekends in the US of A are celebrated in traditional fashion - with a mattress sale! Not kidding, there's always a mattress sale around holidays. But of course, sales are everywhere if you look hard enough.

However, in the sunny state of California, instead of trawling the factory outlets for deals like bazillion others, I decided that an afternoon of grilled cheese burgers by a poolside is a way better idea.

Good friend at HP - Bill, invited me to his beautiful home in El Cajon for a chill out session. We had some good cheese burgers, home-made salsa with chips, tiramisu from Trader Joes and serious fun in his great pool. Ah... such a good life...

look at that pool!

lazing by the pool with cheeseburgers off the grill

home made salsa by bill

From KL to San Diego

2005-05-24T23:16:00.000+08:00

Seems like a dream but I am sitting in the good ol Residence Inn of Carmel Mountain Ranch, San Diego. To think that less than 72 hours or 8000 miles ago, i was still having nasi lemak at Madam Kwan's in KLCC. Ha, the wonders of modern technology...

I have always dreaded the long flight over the Pacific. 7 hours to Narita and 8-9 hours to LAX. Cramming in a dehyrating cocoon for that many hours was not an enjoyable experience. Airline food was no mouth-watering cusine either. And somehow I always got seats next to the wings. Never mind there was no view, we were flying over an ocean, what was there to see? But those engines under the wings, gosh were they loud! I hardly slept a wink with all the constant dronning.

Long queues at the immigration checkpoints were my next gripe. I used to go through LAX and they were just the slowwwwest airport customs I have experienced. US flights from asia normally land in the mornings. When half a jumbo jet of 'aliens' come crashing at your gates, how many custom counters should you open? Two? Nah, you were thinking of the Malaysia-Thailand border at 6am. This is US of A, strongest ~~bully~~ country in the world; they do better. Three. Yes. For about 200 aliens. Subjecting each and every to detailed questioning and interviews, all in the name of 'national security'. Your cooperation and understanding is appreciated. Thank You and move along you wuss...

BUT, surprise surprise! This trip has been the smoothest of all. I breezed through immigration checks in SFO under 10 minutes, including waiting. There were 8 to 9 counters opened today! Even with an trainee officer on my turn, it was over in 5 minutes. Now, this is what I call 'quality service'!!!

If only we can say the same for our JB lines on the last day of our Lion City's ubiqutous Long Weekends...

What's up, Doc?

2005-05-16T22:32:00.000+08:00

Visited the neighbourhood doctor this morning, for the first time, after 507 days. How I know? Because I saw the date of my last visit on my patient record lah!

While waiting for my turn, I ~~eavesdropped~~ overheard a conversation between another waiting patient and the doc's clerk/assistant/receptionist (what do you call these folks who work at the clinic anyway?).

Apparently, this lady patient had some trouble with her eye from the use of contact lenses; lack of proper hygiene, she said. The doc's previous prescription (probably an antibiotic) seemed to have helped and she wanted a refill of it. She thought she could just buy it over the counter without the doc's consultation. Well, unfortunately, the cleck could not oblige as the drug was 'by prescripton only'. The patient was pissed at such a 'rule', claiming that 'as a customer', she's very 'dissatisfied' at the clinic policy to charge patients $30 for 'consultation' each time just to continue a prescription. The conversation ended with the patient telling the clerk off, 'no point talking to you, just register me and let me see the doctor lah'.

If you asked me, 'respect!' to the clerk for being so patient with the patient.

question: are all sick people called 'patients' or only those who are warded in hosiptals? If I go see a neighbourhood clinic doctor, am I a 'Customer'?

Anyway, back to the story. I probably would have said something like 'Sorry lor mam, you cannot suka suka buy any drug you like because you think it is good. If like that, any father mother son and daughter can open shop and play doctor liow. The reason drugs are controlled is because doctors are responsible for what they give you to apply/eat/drink/shaft up your a**. Don't like to pay doctors for consultation? Then learn to take care of youself and don't fall sick lah!' But that's just me... luckily I not doctor...

Oh, did I say why I see doctor? No, not that I am ill. I had to resample my blood for a liver screening test and 顺便 run a Hep B screen since I have not done it. My bilirubin levels were isolatedly high in a previous test and the doc wanted a re-test to confirm. During the course, I mentioned I read that a symptom of elevated bilirubin was jaundice. It must have been my poor pronouciation or something because the doctor's reply was 'Who is Jaundice???'

Errm, doc, I think you should know jaundice better than I. And it's a 'what' not a 'who'.

I guess I will find out soon enough (in 2 days) whether I will get to know 'Miss Jaundice' or not. I know she's yellow-skinned, does she have long hair?

What's my dream job?

2005-05-09T21:11:00.000+08:00

Would liked to have blogged this in Chinese but the conversation with my colleague was entirely in English. Too lazy to translate...

Was chatting with my Indian US colleague (or US Indian colleague?) about what kind of job we take up if we quit what we are doing now. He thinks he would like to be a travelling writer, visiting places, trying new food, doing new stuff, writing reviews, a la loney planet style. I asked if he would think such a job can pay as much (or as little?) as what he's getting now, to that he replied, "maybe lesser but at least I get job satisfaction!"

Hmmm, is that cliche or what? Job satisfaction? Hey, ain't I getting paid? Still not happy? Or is this one of those 21st-century buzz words that everybody uses but nobody understands - like paradigm shift and value-added.

So it's not about getting a monthly paycheck to pay my liabilities in life. I have to *enjoy* what I do. I have to *love* going to work everyday.

And what defines 'enjoyment' at work? Is there an X-factor that makes me look forward going to work everyday?

Nice office with posh furniture? Super kick-ass PC + 21" LCD (to read emails?). Hot babes to flirt around with?

Truth be told, none of the above really applies to me. The state of my cubicle at work is constantly under the threat of violating ISO14K and OSHA regulations. My PC is functional but nothing to brag about. As for the babes, well, the married ones don't qualify and the qualified ones are just '小妹妹', physically and mentally. Anyway, what's flirting? :P

Or on a less-materialistic note: Is it going home everyday feeling a sense of achivement? Or is it a realisation (of 'truth'?) of what I do everyday and therefore spurs me on to do more?

Hmmm, let's see, [mental flashback] what have kept me going all these years were ... ermm, a constant diet of insane deadlines, unpredictable changes and ever-recurring problems. Yeah. Right...

Will there ever be a day where my boss tells me, "Hey I see that you are getting a lot of satisfaction lately from doing this project, I am cutting 10% from your pay this month."

Well, if that's true, then do I get more moolahs if I am all pissed from the crap? Ha!... maybe... Go find a spider first...

I think I have doodled long enough, not gonna think about it anymore...

母亲节

2005-05-08T19:46:00.000+08:00

今天是母亲节, 又是商家们乘机捞一把孝顺子女的大好机会. 还没翻报张就先来一环"我猜我猜我猜猜猜", 猜猜会有什么人写了什么感人肺腑的"我爱妈妈"宣言而赢得了大奖. 结果没猜到. 报纸首页, 读到了妈妈婆婆选美赛, 知道祖母原来也可以是皮肤白晰, 珠圆玉润. 翻下一面, 读到面对生活逆境而担忧的妈妈, 又是另一种心情.

正奇怪今年真的会有一个没有商业成份的母亲节吗? 不可能的啦! 哈, 言之过早. 副刊之尾, 一箩筐的物质诱惑, 就让你在这一年三百六十五天当中最重要的一天里表表孝心. 不过大大标题"收买妈妈的心", 似乎跟孝心有些反调. 妈妈的心是用一瓶香水, 七张'邓丽君'CD 来"收买"? 或许真的可以. 不过希望你是出自"孝顺"而非"收买".

一直认为所谓的母亲节, 父亲节, 奶奶爷爷, 大姑妈节都是商家想赚而搞出来的. 好好的一个星期天干嘛得颂起爸爸妈妈亲戚朋友来? 生我之父, 养我之母, 孝之理所当然! 送礼, 请吃, 似乎是城市人最方便表孝顺的方式. 礼的轻重, 也许有人在乎, 送礼的那份情意, 除了口头上敷衍了事外, 心里想的是什么, 也只有天知晓了.