Crazy start to the week of Aug 24-30, 2009

Busy week running to hit target. And we've only gone through two days of the week.

Monday Blues...
Monday will be remembered for the day when my laptop auto-shut off due to depleted battery. While I was trying to close case via electronic means. I ended up going back to office (from appointment location at Far East Shopping Centre) to look for a spare battery / charger with my client. Subsequently, I realised that my program crashed.

Despite repeated attempts to 'revive' the system through restarts, it stubbornly refused to recover, and I ended up using paper forms to close the case instead. As a result of all the trouble, my appointment ended up dragging to three hours from the intended one hour. Haiz...

Upon reaching home, I discovered that my system had somehow been restored to my last backup, despite my failure to get it done earlier, in the office. The only problem was, the case which I closed in the afternoon was gone! How was I to submit the case?

In the end, I had to extract the saved files from the program folder and seek help from the technical helpdesk with regards to the submission. Haiz...

Prospecting till 11+pm on Tuesday...
Tuesday will be remembered for the first time I took cab home due to closing case at late hours.

Tagging with two colleagues, we managed to close three NSFs at Choa Chu Kang at 11+pm. By the time we were done and ready to leave, it was past twelve. The cab ride back cost me almost $13. Thanks to Alvin for the reimbursement!

With five more days to the end of the week, and agency outing coming up tomorrow, I can't help but feel excited about the days ahead! Hopefully, no more nonsense a la Monday blues in the subsequent days!

Haha... Back from my long hiatus!

Today, I found out exactly how long I've not blogged.

I have been lazy.

I have been procrastinating.

But today, I'm BACK!

Anyway, this is the 2nd day post-AHM. I woke up with relief that my knee ache after that 21km of paid torture was subsiding at a faster-than-expected rate. Given out I had taken 4 days to recover from my first run (which I similarly did not train for), my knees appear to be on a slightly faster track to recovery. Oh yeah!

Next year, I shall do better than my 2:39 this year! Target will be 2:15! And I will do it!

But for now, I will need to focus on my sales. After slacking for half a month, it's time to buck up.

CHARGE!

Relieved

It turned out that my mouse was dead after all...ok semi-dead.

After functioning properly for one night, it went back to non-functioning state yesterday. Which means that I did not purchase a new mouse that I did not really need.

So, to my old mouse: R.I.P zombie mouse!

Where's my chat box???

Arghh!!

I just realised my chat box is gone! Apparently there were some data corruption according to the website which provided the service.

YL, I need your help!!

I got punked by my mouse... -.-

My mouse had been dead for about a week. Or so I thought.

The light comes on when I plug it into my laptop, but the cursor does not move when I move my mouse. I tried other USB ports but it was equally unresponsive. Then I tried my desktop mouse, and the cursor moved as it should.

I was convinced my mouse was dead. I decided I had to get a new one if I were to continue gaming.

One day went past. Then two. Then three. And suddenly one week had gone past. I was contented to using my desktop mouse or my dad's laptop mouse when my brother or dad are not using them. It was a bit troublesome, but not too inconvenient. Besides, I did not feel like shopping for it intentionally as it was not an urgent need.

Today, Hon asked to meet for dinner at PS. And so I decided. This shall be the day I get a replacement! :D










I reached home to find my 'dead' mouse fully functioning.

Exam blues episode 2 - Feeling of deja vu...

Oh no! I'm having my final paper on Wednesday and I'm already planning for activities after that. Can't stop my mind from wandering...

The same thing happened last year and I failed my Macroeconomics...

Do others suffer from this Last Paper Syndrome as well?

I. Need. To. Focus. -.-"

Exam blues...

There's FI paper on Wednesday and I'm been feeling so lethargic the past few days...

I NEED TO FOCUS !!

Look at what's HOGging the headlines...

In the midst of a bear market, the pig has made its move over the weekend. Originating from Mexico, there are now confirmed cases of infection in Canada, with suspected cases as far as France, Israel, and even New Zealand. Are we going to see another flu epidemic, a la the Avian Flu?

The Asian stock markets have already reacted to news of the swine flu, with airline stocks leading the bloodshed.

Is this going to be just a roll in the mud or is the pig here to stay? 

One little black bird sitting on the tree(window)

Woohoo! Thanks YL for the help in setting up my chatbox! ;D

Now my blog looks more complete.

I'm sure birdy agrees...

In case anybody is wondering, this was supposed to be my new pet. Mum got a shock when she walked to the service balcony and saw 'something' there. She turned on the lights to find it perched proudly at the window.

Totally. Motionless.

Even with the lights on. Even with us discussing about it (Is it dead? Or sleeping? Or just resting?) a mere two metres away. Even when I move forward to take this photo, less than a metre away.

Apparently, it was sleeping.

Dad came along. "Shoo! Shoo!"


Birdy woke up. It was feeling groggy, perhaps due to the bright lights, perhaps it was having a hangover. It turned its head to the left. Then to the right. A little shake, then to the left again. And yet another shake.

Dad advanced. It flew away. No more pet for now.

Adding a chatbox

I can't believe how difficult it is to add a chat box to my blog. The instructions are very straightforward and easy to comprehend. The steps are easy to execute too. But why is it not working for me?!?!

According to http://chatter.flooble.com/, "Flooble chatterbox works as a javascript include, which means that there is no additional strain on your server, and that it can be added to a page by simply inserting one block of HTML where you want the chatterbox to appear. We give you the code, you just paste it in. Nothing could be simpler."

Nothing could be simpler indeed... It's mocking me!!

Arghh!!!

HELP!!

RWM outing to HealthZone

We had our last Read-With-Me (RWM) session today. Unlike our usual sessions at Hougang Student Care Services (HG SCS), we had an outing today to HealthZone at the Health Promotion Board (HPB).

Most of the kids were already waiting excitedly at HG SCS when I arrived with Yi Lin around 9:10am. We were late. (Ops!) Thankfully, we were not the last.

We left the centre at around 9:30am, after all who were supposed to be present had arrived. I took charge of Manfred today, as I usually do. He seems rather attached to me and would always come to me if I were around. Hongchuan is the 'spare tire' in my absence. :p (I was to find out from Hongchuan during lunch, that Manfred prefers a male teacher, because he looks to elder males as fatherly figures. His dad had left his family for another woman.)

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At HealthZone, the kids were all so eager to get into action! It was hard to get them to line up and wait for their turn to enter. There would probably be a stampede if the teachers release the students.

The slide was a major attraction. These tykes seem to have no qualms with playing there the whole day! Of course, we did not let them have their wish; or rather, we had to show them that there are other attractions apart from the slide. And indeed there were. After bringing them on a tour of the place, where we saw exhibits ranging from a huge lower jaw with tooth decay for the room on Oral Hygiene, to this food monster below in the room for Healthy Eating.

Then it was up to them to choose the games they wanted to play! They were quick to spread out to different stations, although there seemed to be a general herd mentality involved, as they tended to stay in the same room. Except for Daniel. He was perfectly at ease playing with minimum company or even alone.

Here's Daniel testing his strength...

And at the stationary bike... The poor kids were not able reach the paddles even when the adjustable seats were pushed all the way forward! But Daniel was somehow able to get into a comfortable position, and stayed on the bike to complete the challenge!

And finally, a group photo to end the day. Aloysius on the left was throwing tantrums again. After he was pried off the Step-up Machine to join in the group photo. :D Guess he couldn't bear to leave...


While waiting for the bus, Damien and Manfred discussed the prowess of Ultraman and Ironman. Would the Ultraman on Damien's shirt, beat the Ironman on Manfred's shirt?

Here's Manfred eating the chocolate sandwiches that Angie prepared for the kids. He didn't like those with strawberry jam...

I'm sure the kids enjoyed themselves. I enjoyed my time with time too! Too bad the next semester is in August...

Wizard of Id - 29th March 2009

Source: http://comics.com/wizard_of_id/

Familiar story isn't it? Unfortunately, despite the failings of the top executives of banks, finance firms and auto-makers in the US, their government has no choice but to bail them out due to the disastrous macroeconomic impact that would follow on their collapse. Conversely, the small firms that get innocently embroiled into the economic mayhem are left to their own devices.

The world is unfair. And it will always remain that way.

Non-sequitur

I just read this on the panel of 'Useless Knowledge' on the right side of my blog:

A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.

Wow... Imagine a bouncing ball of glass... :O

Kids, do not try this at home! Adults, if you intend to try this, do remember that a ball of glass will shatter when dropped on/thrown against most surfaces. A ball of solid steel, meanwhile, is likely to shatter everything else. A ball of rubber can be dropped/thrown quite safely. Do note though, that I shall not be responsible for shattered chandeliers, smashed glasses (drinking glasses, reading glasses, glass balls, etc...), holes in windows, and any other possible damages resulting directly or indirectly from dropping or throwing a rubber ball.

Ok, now you can go ahead and experiment.






Go on!

Chess gang meet-up (Mar 09)

Jia Chuan is back for a two weeks break. As per usual practice, it was the perfect excuse to meet up for lunch and chess! And seeing as Hon's birthday was merely a week ago, we decided to include a belated birthday celebration for him!

Esmirada Orchard was chosen as the venue from an initial shortlist of three. I was quite excited to eat there as I hadn't been there before. It helped that I had read about their lunch promotion with Citibank, which means that we could get a good discount for our meal! :D

The plan was to meet at Orchard MRT at 12 to get Hon's birthday card signed, before he reaches at the 'actual' meeting time of 12:30. Shi Qin was pretty late, and we were initially worried that he would spoil our plans by being later than Hon. Thankfully, our worries were unfounded. Hon was over 10mins late. When queried, he gave a very interesting response:

"I was late because I left my house late."

-.-" Oh. Wow. I resisted an urge to laugh out.

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The metal cover of the menu. I like how the rust gave the restaurant name a nice highlight.

I was quite impressed by the decor at Esmirada Orchard. The instant I stepped in, I was reminded of Hogwarts Castle in the Harry Potter movies. If only they had used chalices instead of glasses.

We were disappointed to learn that the Citibank cards discount only applies to their ala carte items and not for the set lunch. Nonetheless, most of us decided to go for the set lunch. I had a two-course set with a main course of roasted chicken and warm chocolate cake and walnut maple ice-cream for dessert.

The chicken turned out quite burnt, and I had to spend quite a bit of time slicing / chipping off the charred bits. Otherwise the taste was good. I loved the crispiness of the potato wedges, though they were a tad too salty for me.

Unlike the main course, dessert was great! The warm chocolate cake was delightfully sweet, and combined well with the ice-cream, while the walnuts provided a good juxtaposition of textures.

Hon's birthday cake was yet another chocolate cake. It lost out to Esmirada's offering, but was still good. By then, everyone was pretty full, and being the cake-lover that I am, I was glad to have more of it. ;P

Non-sequitur: The three lychees in each glass of Cher's Lychee Martini were pierced with one of these plastic sword. Very interesting!

Lunch was followed by some browsing and shopping at Borders, before we proceeded to Cairnhill CC for our long-awaited chess session!

(I ended my day with more cake during my grandma's birthday celebration at night. No, it was not chocolate cake.)

Wei Ting's Wedding Dinner

First wedding dinner of the year(and I already know it's not going to be the last)!

Yesterday's dinner at Oriental Mandarin Hotel was interesting in that the menu departed from the usual wedding fare I had been accustomed to. An example is the 2nd course(out of nine), Double boiled shark's fin soup with chicken. Unlike the shark's fin soup that we commonly find at Chinese wedding banquets, this one is not so thick, and it contains one small abalone, one dried scallop, and chicken on top of the leading character - shark's fin.

My favourite dish last night was the Baked fillet of cod in superior teriyaki sauce. One huge chunk of juicy fried cod with a very compatible sauce. Marvellous. I can eat that everyday, every meal. Heck, I feel like eating it now.

The Crispy king prawn was quite a disappointment though. The presentation was excellent, unfortunately, it wasn't as crispy as it looked, and in fact, turned out a tad tough. Many had difficulty removing it from the skewer.

Hmm... Close up, it looks rather like a worm doesn't it? o.O

Right up next is the deep fried pork ribs glazed with honey. The fatty part was an indulgent delight; the meat was too tough once again.

Here's a closer look...

And finally, for dessert, we had these two slices of cake below. The brown one is chocolate mousse, but I'm not sure what the yellow one is made of. It has a nice tangy flavour though. The orange bits at the side was mango.

And of course, a photo of the groom with a back view of the bride (my cousin Wei Ting).

Overall, I think the food presentation was great, but the taste and texture of the food have lots of room for improvement. Service too, wasn't fantastic. Although we were served for every dish, topping up of drinks wasn't as prompt as I would like. In fact, no one topped up my iced lemon tee; I merely got a new glass when before the toasting session. I love the washroom though. Spacious, clean, dry, with an attendant to boot! Towels were provided for us to dry our hands.

And finally, the souvenir for the evening:

Very interesting...

14 Jan 2009 or The First Post of 2009

The spider had established itself. A big web spanning 50cm across, with a second layer starting to form behind. It had grown to around 8cm in length, pretty remarkable given the open location it had chosen to make it's home. The line of dead insects stuck on the web seemed to be 'arranged' in order by the web master. That was the last time I saw it, on 12th Jan.

The row of bougainvilleas have been pruned. The arachnid and it's home were gone.

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I arrived at Tampines. There was no queue at the station control. I thought I could change my ez-link card.

The sign on the glass panel at the control says the nearest locations for the replacement of ez-link cards are Tampines and Bedok Ticket Counters. I thought the Station Control IS the Ticket Counter.

"Hi, I would like to exchange my ez-link card!" I flashed a smile.

Station staff pointed at the sign and replied curtly, "Look here."

I read the sign again. I did not realise my mistake.

"Ya, it says Tampines Ticket Counter..."

Looking irritated, she shot back, "Go to the Ticket Counter!"

"Isn't this the Ticket Counter?" I was totally bewildered.

Finally, looking very irritated, she pointed to a sign higher up the glass panel: STATION CONTROL.

I turned back to walk away, and promptly saw the Ticket Counter at the other end of the station. I left wondering why she couldn't have politely pointed out the Ticket Counter to me right from the start instead of beating around the bush and speaking with such attitude. Even if I had been ignorant, she should have been polite, which is the least I expect from a service staff!