End of 2007...

It's the last day of 2007, a good time for me to review to see how have I done for this year:

UPSIDE
Work:

• 2 week training at US back in Feb - Very Fun but too short to really learn anything
• Winning deals - Not as many as I had hoped, but closing big deals is damned shiok
• All-time favourite FE award - Small but meaningful, yet not too useful..

Personal:

• Marathon - Significant improvement in timing again by around 25 min.
• Football - Joined Agilent FC for the veterans league. yet to score a legal goal
• Travel - 5 days HK/Macau trip with dear in Nov. Not too shabby, at least Macau & Disneyland were quite fun

DOWNSIDE
private...


It seems to me that 2007 has not been as fruitful as 2006.
Hope 2008 will be a better year!

Resolution for 2008:

Better balance between work and personal time. Steps to take:

1. Fix and follow a strict sleep routine. current habit is no good
2. Strike balance between networking and working time in office. avoid getting involved in too many meaningless banter
3. Max of 0.5 day for additional work on weekends. currently doing so, will continue this
4. Eat breakfast everyday!
5. Less caffeine intake (= less red tea)

Engineering looks cool once again...

Saw this amazing video on Youtube on how this guy managed to transform the Wiimote into amazing human-machine interfaces with some ingenious methods.

Engineering is no longer as popular as it used to be as a career, and many locals are choosing other more glitzy paths. The MOE should show this video to students to reverse this trend.
Now, who said Engineers are not cool? (well, thats apart from the choice of title for the videos..)

Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote


Tracking fingers with the Wii Remote

Another nice show from Will Smith!

Just watched "I am Legend" this noon with dear.

Pretty neat show, but the ending is really abrupt and a let down.

I'm impressed by the German Sheperd that can really act!

Feeling a bit bored now...

Just finished some work, and its 3am in the morning.
This has become a trend for me to work till the wee hours to complete additional work that I don't have the time to do during office hours...

Totally not worth upsetting my health for work.
Gotta start kicking this habit.

Test post of one of my favourite MV on youtube:

Does cold weather affect the mood?

Life has not been as smooth sailing as I had hoped it to be, and things are not in the best of situations.

I still can't get some issues out of my head.

I may not show it openly but I have been feeling a bit down and disappointed at how some things have transpired.

One can't help but compare and reflect on whether past decisions are wise and best.
There is always a tendency to work out hypothetical situations and compare the "what ifs" against the "what is"...

I sense a vicious cycle of digression and self-blame... Will need to quickly snap out of this.


End of year summary coming up in next entry... 2006 seems like a much better year for me..

Great Show!

大哥是对的!!

抢钱,抢粮,抢娘们!!

人无信便是畜生!!

安心上路!!

纳投名状,兄弟结义

生死相托,吉凶相救

富祸相依,患难相扶

凡外人乱我兄弟者,视投名状,必杀之

凡兄弟乱我兄弟者,视投名状,必杀之

Ya Zi is gone...

In loving memory of Ya Zi, who left us on 11th December 2007

Ya Zi
2006 - 2007

Some pics from HK trip

Disney Hollywood Hotel!

Chip & Dale (with their soft toys!)

Wanted to post more pics, but the damned website keeps having problems uploading my pics...
Maybe will post a few more when I'm more free

Disappointed, but oh well...

A bit disappointed, but I'm not in a position to make noise.
Can't help it but sometimes I wonder if I had made the right decisions...

Dun ask me what happened.
I just want to talk to myself on this blog.

Looking forward to a weekend of sports again to drown out those negative thoughts...

Don't be too nice to everyone (2)...

Seems like I don't really learn from mistakes sometimes...

I think I just have found the 2nd CPT Quek in my life...
These people just simply have a 8-character clash with me.
For no reason (or maybe they dun like my face), they will see any simple innocuous banter as the most malicious rumour-mongering session.

Not to dwell too much into details.
Just a simple analogy on what had transpired:

• Fren A, saw his fren B (an acquaintance to you) buying mocha at Starbucks, and pointed it out to you.
• You tell Fren C (whom is a good fren of B) that you saw B at Starbucks buying mocha.
• C chats with B and asks if the mocha at Starbucks is good, letting B know in the process that you told him that you saw B there.
• B gets mad and scolds you for being so busybody and deliberately checking out his private activities, and starts to send multiple emails to you and C to declare that B is C's fren, but NOT your fren, and proceeds to put weird tags on his msn declaring he is NOT your fren.
• Fren D, E, F sees it on msn and everyone asks you what happened...
  
  
  How would you feel?

Moral of the story? "What The Fark...."

I think the last time I have heard "My friend is XX... NOT YOU..." was way back in primary school.
I'm amazed how 30+ years old adults can say something like this...


Remember: Only be nice to those who deserve it.

Marathon

Finished my 5th marathon on Sunday.
Broke through the 4.30hr international standard and achieved 4.15hr this year.

Pretty good results considering this is about roughly 25min improvement from last year's timing.

But I have to admit that I was quite lazy in this year's run.
Always had the lazy mindset of holding back a bit so that it will be easier for me to break the record again the next year. (I did the same thing last year)

I was quite surprised at my speed that I have managed to clock up to around 11kmh for the first 33km, which subsequently ended up in me walking for most of the later part since I will break the 4.30hr even by walking for the rest of the journey.

The good thing about this year's run for me is that I have finally felt my breakthrough in the legendary invisible wall. My legs used to give way at around 30+km in the past runs, but I'm feeling ok this year, and could have ran all the way to the end without walking (if not for being lazy).

So probably next year I'll be expecting to clear the 4hr mark, which is easily achievable if I can hit somewhere near this year's performance.


Will post some stuff on my HK trip later.
Need to catch up with work first..

Satisfying weekend (32 days to HK!!)

Had a pretty satisfying weekend, doing most of my favourite stuff:

Friday - Had High-Tea with colleagues at Equinox (great scenery but average food), followed by kBox! (getting more and more confirmation on the reincarnation of Wang Jie..)

Saturday - Was supposed to go for our weekly marathon training with WC in the morning, but he was indisposable, so we cancelled this week's training, and I slept thru the morning. Went for soccer match in the late afternoon. (see later para)

Sunday - Basketball as usual, but slightly different this time as we were invited to a full court challenge by the local kids at our home court (instead of the usual half court), and the guys rose to the occasion and took up the challenge. Not a pretty match, but at least it was a comfortable win without us having to resort to cheap tricks that the opposition was trying. I could comfortably score without having to over exert myself, especially when i was still recovering from the previous day's fatigue.

Football
My colleagues have formed a football team and joined in a mini "international" league with some other locally formed teams. Will be playing quite a fair bit on the weekends over the next few months. Its a pretty interesting league, and we have a website for the league as well, check it out: http://www.efleague.com.sg/evfl/index.htm

Don't be too nice to everyone...

This post is to remind myself of 3 incidents that happened over the past few days, which I really ought to keep in mind for the long run to prevent a recurrence.


Integrity. Not everyone has it.
Some swear by it (dying breed in Today's society)
Some use it as and when applicable (I'm one. I have cheated in tests and projects before. Who doesn't?)
Some KNOW HOW TO SPELL BUT DUNNO WHAT IT MEANS.
Is this word still applicable in the modern society? I still have some integrity left in me to be fair and just to my "team mates", but it doesn't seem to work both ways nowadays. Those who swear by integrity will soon die of hunger, thats why they are a dying breed.


Sometimes it doesn't pay to provide critical information out of goodwill to people whom you think ought to know about the situation. Some will bite you for showing them the "real world" outside, as they believe they know better since they have been staying in this "well" for so many years.


It may not be worthwhile to help certain people if they do not understand that you are trying to help, and end up having the wrong interpretation. Ultimately they are pissed and you are dissed for being such an idiot for rubbing them the wrong way.
Maybe its just me using the wrong method of expressing concern and making an effort to help...


Please don't ask me what happened.
Let's just stick to this blog's objective of being my journal. I write what I want...

Dad is not feeling well

Dad wasn't feeling well last night and we had to send him to hospital in the midnight. Luckily it wasn't anything serious, but he had to be admitted for the day for observations. He was discharged in the afternoon, and I'm relieved that he wasn't feeling ill due to High Blood Pressure or heart problems.

He did not manage to get a full run-down from the doc-in-attendance, so I think maybe I should go with him for his follow-up to understand the situation better.

~~~
PAIN-ball

Played paintball for the first time on Sunday with hall 15 guys. Turned out to be pretty fun but fell short of my expectation as the games were finished way faster than I have expected it to be. Cost is definitely a big factor in deciding if you are going to have more fun in this game or not.

I think i'm the one who received the most number of shots, judging from the number of bruises that I have.

It may sound a bit sadistic, but I think getting shot at increases the fun in the game!

A 2nd round in consideration? hmmmm....

~~~~

Injustice

After sending dad to the hospital last night, I drove back home to find that there was no available parking lots at the car park at my home, even after circling around the whole carpark.
(found the usual suspects parking at the Handicapped lots and No parking lots)

Thus I had to resort to parking along the double yellow line which is the least obstrusive spot in the whole carpark. Anyway, I have seen plenty of cars parking along that stretch for the past few years, though its a first time for me.

To my horror, I found a $50 parking summon for illegal parking in the morning when I was leaving for work, which really irkes the hell outta me.

I'm spending $65 per month on the season ticket for this carpark, and could not find any available lots for me to park my car. As a result, I'm forced to park on the double yellow line to minimize the inconvenience caused to other drivers, yet I got slapped with a $50 fine! How ridiculous can this get!

The carpark attendant who issued the summon to me must be smirking this morning, for catching poor "errant drivers" like me, whom will be contributing to their quota and pay checks for the month. Damned bloodsuckers, never think with logic one. Why would a season ticket holder park illegally at his designated carpark when he is ENTITLED to one lot?

I have wrote in to HDB to appeal against this fine. If the appeal doesn't go through, I'll have to push it to the MP. I'll not take this lying down...

Marley & me

Its quite a bit of wonder that i had managed to finish this book over the weekend!
Nice story and I can totally related to the author's narratives...

Ratatouille

Almost as good as transformers!

Ah Di's 10th Birthday = 1 day leave!

It's Ah Di's 10th Birthday today!
Took a one day leave together with Dear so that we can bring Ah Di out to celebrate his birthday at the Beach, and also for us to take a break from work.

I guess Ah Di should be quite happy that he got to roam around the beach untethered for such a long period of time this morning, and I spared him the agony of swimming in the sea today since its his big day. He seem to be smiling for the whole day!

Spent the rest of the day eating and shopping together with Dear in town. It really rare to get to walk around in a "deserted" Suntec. We tot it might be a good time for us to try our luck at buying the infamous Donuts the "Donut Factory", but the Q on a weekday afternoon at 4pm is simply unbelievable... Ever since the Donut Factory opened shop, the usual catch-phrase for a Q-ing craze in Singapore will be changed from "Q-ing for Hello Kitty" to "Q-ing for Donuts".

I will not be joining in the "fun"...

On the overall, its a great day spent off-work (helped a lot by switching off my mobile for most of the day)

Will be looking to taking such impromptu breaks everynow and then to recharge!

Repetitive Life

Seems like my life is getting a bit repetitive over the last few weeks.

Weekdays -> super crazy workload and little sleep
Weekend -> catch up with my sleep debts, go out for a short pak tor with dear, nua at home, play bball, back to work...

Been stumbling across quite a number of threads and blogs on travelling this few weeks, really makes me miss the happy times I had when travelling in TW with dear. Miss the refreshing feeling of visiting some new place and eating something unfamiliar.

Guess I really need a break from my monotonous life. I should really start planning for my next trip. Life is so dull without vacation travels..

Untitled

Dun have much to write about these days (I dun wanna write too much about work-related issues)

Was reading through my old entries, and found the trend of my entries getting shorter and shorter as time goes by. Is this the effect of being too busy with work? Or simply me can't be bothered to write too much?

Things have been moving so quickly for me (especially at work) that I dun have the luxury of slowing down my pace and taking the time to enjoy and sniff at the flowers along my journey.

Some random updates:
-> Been to KBox 3 times in the last 2 weeks. (pls avoid asking me to go again within the next 2 months)
-> Realised that staying in SG and being contactable while on vacation is a BIG NO NO.
-> Finally bought the watch that I have been waiting to buy ever since I started work last year (thanks to the GST hike that forced my hand)
-> Finally managed to snitch a extra 2 hour nap in the evening at home today (usual amount of sleep I get every night nowadays is about 5 hours or less) and I'm so happy about it.

PMS

Dunno whats wrong with me, getting more mood swings these days.

Really no mood to do anything, just want to have a break and breakaway from everything in life.

Tired..

Another weekend passed!

Just went to the Zoo on saturday with dear again, courtesy of the corporate pass from her company. It has been 9 months since we last visited the zoo.

It was pretty nice to see all the cute otters and meerkats again. And this time, the zoo had a new attraction, The Splash show. (dunno if this is the correct name for it)

Featured the "mermaid" (correct name is manatee. I seriously dunno how they got mistaken as beautiful mermaids. To say that is way off is an understatement), the penguins, and the sea lion. Due to the school holiday, the amphitheatre was packed and we have to stand all the way in front. And thanks to the naughty sea lion, everyone just in front of the stage literally got splashing wet.

Good to visit the zoo every now and then, especially when its complimentary.

===

Really feel like taking a long break from work!

Weekend is over before I know it

OMG, the weekend has passed me by before I know it...

Din really do much this weekend except cleaning up the bedroom and catching a lot of sleep.
Did not even get to play basketball cos there were too many people at the court on Sunday.

What a waste of a perfectly nice weekend to sleep it off just like that... Damned...

Weekend is almost here...

OMG, I'm still working at this hour...
Going to turn into walking zombie soon..

Grandma's Ok now

Grandma got discharged from hospital today. Think I should get everyone to bring her out for a walk or meal if possible. Probably this or next weekend, especially when bro is back, and before he flies off again to Germany.

~~~

Done a customer visit today together with my AE, and through my own analogies to the customers, then I unknowingly realised that the demo instrument I was using, was going to get a 1 month holiday in HK!! And I still do not have concrete holiday plans of my own! The instrument has got a better life than I do! Stupid isn't it. Ha ha ha.

Actually I felt a small sense of accomplishment today, that I'm starting to see myself slowly improving my presentation skills in today's visit. Guess I do like the attention that comes when I'm able to capture my audience's focus and click with them. Hopefully I'll get better and better as I grow more and gain more experience.

~~~

Just saw the most disgusting thing that can ever happen to my stuff in my room. Why must this happen on Monday?.... I still have to wait through the entire week to get some time during the weekend to clean up the whole room... damned.... dun even feel like sleeping in my room now...

~~~

Oh ya, watched Spidey 3 on Sunday with dear. Pretty good show, but it was a bit over-elaborate on the drama and love scenes. I mean come on, guys watch Spidey mainly to see all those web swinging and bish bashing stuff, not too much lovey dovey stuff. I liked the final fight though, a mass fight with plenty of action. Reminds me of the good old video games (dun get to play em anymore...)

I need some rest!

I still have much to learn in my job. Still not being efficient enough, ending up having to work/read till late every night, which isn't the right way to do things.

A colleague told me that having enough sleep is critical in our line, so that we will have the focus n concentration to chiong at work in the day.

Some times when we are overwhelmed by tons of work, it is easy to overlook such simple stuff. The old way of doing things simply cannot adequately address my increasing workload & stress. I must change my old mindset of sacrificing sleep for work.


Visited grandma again after work today. Think she looks a lot better now, and can talk more to me already. I hope she can recover quickly and get discharged from the hospital. Though I was never really that close to grandma, but the look of despair and resignation in her eyes when i see her so bored and lonely in the hospital ward really pains my heart. I guess it hurts her even more when other patients always have large groups of people visiting and she has few or none.

I really love to see her eyes light up whenever I mention something that makes her happy. It really brings me comfort to be able to know that she is happy whenever we do something for her, irregardless of how simple the task is. Looking forward to bring her out for dinner when she can return home!

Hope Grandma will be ok

Grandma has been going in n out of hospital with alarming frequency recently. I really hope that nothing bad will happen to her this time. Though I'm not particularly close to her, but afterall she is my grandma, and I hope that she will be able to see her grandsons get married.

I'm on quota with effect from this month on, so life and work will gather even more speed as I work harder to let my career take off!

Still haven managed to catch Spider3 yet...

US trip

I will be leaving for US for 2 weeks of training!
Will be visiting Colorado and Santa Rosa for a week each.
Let me know early if anyone wants me to tumpang anything back from US.

Bek has finally got his dream job today!
Was pretty concerned about his situation cos it looked exactly like what I was going thru 6 mths ago. Slow calls, little news, considered abt taking masters/PhD, going for SIA pilot interview. Its really too much of a coincidence. Hahaha.
Good thing he has got his desired outcome. Congrats Bro!

Went for Choon Yin's wedding dinner last night. It was nice meeting up with my ex-colleagues at DSTA. My ex-bosses were also glad to see me enjoying my current job. Its a pity that some of our young engineers gang were not present at the dinner, and too bad it was on Sunday night. If not we could have went for some KTV after the dinner.

Guess thats abt all for now. Will update more after i come back from my US trip.