Pass me the abalone...
CNY - another reason to perform a ritualistic entry to reflect the mundanity of even a festive holiday. Like any weekend or off-days, I woke up at 1plus in the afternoon. Dad was already grumbling. "We are going to be the last group again this year!" Hehe. For the past 3-5 years, we had always been the second or third last family to arrive at my 1st aunt's house. Setting the trend at that, I don't believe our 'position' this year's gonna change.
After more grumblings by Dad, a few pissed off faces of mine, a slice of pandan cake, a shower, a 5 minute wait at the bus stop, a 30 minute journey, we reached aunt's house at 3pm! We weren't the last! Second-last! As per the past... glees.
The usual stuff on the table - steamboat, fried chicken, nuggets, century egg with preserved ginger, curry, kong bah pau and kong bah. I remembered there were more stuffs last year. This year, except the addition of preserved abalone, the stir-fried vegies, "five spices roll" and prawns were gone. The health-conscious me naturally only had one - two dishes to pick at.
It came to my realisation that one of my cousins is in the private banking sector aka big money job! So tempting were her relating of the earning potential in PB. The re-emphasis in planning out a career path, she reiterated: ".. stay for 3 - 5 years, then jump!" "local banks.. they are your stepping stone.. ". As a mother of two, she's still pretty attractive, looking younger by 7 - 10 years than her actual age of 35. I was half-delighted and half-apprehended when she offered to pass me the word when her department is hiring. I am but only one of the hundreds of NUS graduates with only 1 - 2 years of experience in a mini operations unit of a consumer banking division in a local bank. Totally unrelated to "big money". On one hand, I wana move high up quickly, yet I fear the collapse of the unstable ladder. Grrr.. frustrating! Complexicating! I shall think about it later..
The entire affair ended abruptly at 4.30pm. Dad was feeling bored and wanted to move on to River Hongbao. I parted ways with them and returned to ecp for my regular fix. Whoa.. never in my 25 years of stay here did I see so many tents popping up! Multi colored tents housing mostly malay families. Still very strange. CNY is not the only holiday that sees a consecutive spread of 3 holidays in a row, yet such spectacular scene has never occurred before! But my jogging results aren't as impressive. The fortune-teller must be right! I am getting weak! :-(
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I wonder if this only happen to men. Spoken to a few guys I know who mentioned their awkardness in still receiving angpows in their mid/late-twenties. Though I wasn't as interested anymore, I still take whatever angpow that was given to me :)
... ... ...
OMG! Those information may be of no creative value but they sure have already done damage to a year of hopefulness. For people born in the year of the Rooster,
Lucky Number: 6
Benefactor: People born in the year of Snake
Lucky Month: April
Overall Luck: Bad
凶 
Should concentrate on working & avoid gossips.
Should train up to avoid ill health.
Brought to you by Chinese New Year Variety Show, Channel 8, 28 Jan 2006
As I typed away, I felt a tingling pain in the right side of my mouth. I had been yawning away ever since I woke up at 3.00pm this afternoon! And I took an half-hour nap at 4plus and 9plus respectively! Ill health
2006 has been a bad patch in terms of career too! All those entries about me dozing off in front of the PC look set for a series of continuation... And why only April being the lucky month? Cos' I will be getting my bonus only then!
Compared to the other Zodiac Signs, I only have one lucky number! How to buy toto or 4D? 6666? Can win meh?
a TEETHING problem!
My tooth hurts recently. And the problem is I don't know which is the one except that it lies on the right side of my jaw. *Gasp* Maybe it is TEETH. It comes on and off. There was one day where it hurt so badly that it became difficult to bite properly. The situation was exacerbated when my left side of the mouth was plagued with an ulcer on swollen gums which were right behind my crooked wisdom tooth. There was also one night where it hurt till I couldn't sleep well. Now there's still a tingling pain. Luckily, the left side had healed.
I can't bear the thought of seeing my dentist though I supposedly overcome the fear early last year (or was it 2004?). It was in April (either 2004 or 2005) that I went to fix up a crown when the filling loosened and came in place of it, a huge hole! From then onwards, I brushed my teeth regularly, twice a day! With toothpaste. Various kinds of brands that boast different effects. That didn't last long. Now, I try to brush as often, sometimes with toothpaste, sometimes without. Sometimes at 1pm when I woke up and had lunch, sometimes at 5pm when I forgot to do it after lunch, and sometimes at 2-3am when I forgot to do it at 5pm and decided to wait till after dinner but forgot again. I am glad I got back to work. This means I have 5 days in a week to brush my teeth regularly. :p
Back to the part why I was afraid of the dentist... I kinda blame it on my parents who did not force upon me to brush my teeth regularly when I was a kid. Ever since I attended school, I had been a regular patron at the school's in-house dental clinic. I still remember the lady who wore a nurse-like uniform. She would pry open my mouth, fight with my tongue, and get in all kinds of funny, scary-looking equipment onto my teeth. I was blessed with a set of teeth that didn't subject me to braces, yet I was cursed with a set that decays and turns yellow so easily! Oh yes! I forgot to mention that I am even to 'abstain' from general anaesthetic agents (read previous post) lest more mast cells degranulate and I will sink into the possibility of having an anaphylactic emergency! So means I probably can't remove my wisdom teeth! *wide-eyed*
My whitening sensodyne is running out... I should go get one tube of gum-strengthening Parogencyl.. and maybe a bottle of Listerine too.
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The wind blew strongly last evening and IT DIDN'T RAIN! What a blasted night. It wasn't like this last sunday. I got to ecp despite the strong howling wind thinking that the sky's still clear with not much grey clouds. 5 steps into the running track, and I sensed big raindrops falling on my head! Had a slip while trying to zap through the rain to home.
This evening had better be a nicer one without misleading signals. Yup, this entry is once again, done in the office :)
Telangiectasia Macularis Eruptive Perstans
Drinking alcohol is fun; I love the burning sensation when the liquor slips down the throat, producing thereafter a short almost-sweet aftertaste. This is something wines cannot provide. Whatever! Be it spirit, wine or liquor, unfortunately, this is one luxury that I cannot afford. Monetary terms and vomits aside, I contracted a rather rare skin disease known as urticaria pigmentosa, of which alcohol is one of the many stimuli that triggers mast cell degranulation, releasing an itch-causing agent: histamines. Simply said, it causes itch and rashes (i.e. a slightly brownish/salmon colored skin lesion, aka a concentration of mast cells, which turns darker when scratched or rub against).
"Skin punch biopsy shows an unremarkable epidermis with basket-weaved horny layer. The upper dermis shows few prominent blood vessels with slight increase of mast cells. They are not in dense sheets or masses. The increased mast cells are confirmed with Toludin blue and Giemsa staining. This form of lesion is known as telangiectasia macularis eruptive perstans." -- Extract, Histopathology Report, 01/09/05
Doctor said he sees only one to two cases every year, and I was his second patient in 2005. This is a chronic condition which can be controlled but not eliminated. He fed me with oral antihistamines which come with fancy names such as xyzal, ranitidine and atarax. He also issued me with two bottles of steriodal creams, one for the face, and the other for the rest of the body. After a few visits and several hundred dollars, my condition did change for the better. I hate to admit that it was more from the creams than the oral medications that led to the improvement. This meant the condition is still around and uncontrollable, only the itch is temporarily relieved!
Speaking of stimuli, I am advised by Doctor not to enter any surgical rooms or see any other doctors without that piece of paper, a page of Chapter 47: Urticaria and Mastocytosis of dunno-what thick book. Table 47.9 states the potential stimuli - alcohol, physical triggers (especially rubbing), insect/snake venoms, plasma expanders, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin *gasp* and so on and so forth.
Now I am suffering the after-effects of the indulgence and disregard. Scratches... scratches...
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How I love scientific names.. so long.. so latin-like.. so pretty...so nice-sounding... so hard to remember.. so difficult to spell... bacteriohodopsin, proteoliposome, adenosine triphosphate, benzylisoquinolinium, immunoglobulin...
An eye-opener O_O
Celebrated a colleague's twenty-second birthday on the twentieth on the fifth floor of City Plaza. It was one of those sleazy-looking KTV that faces the carpark. JT, D and me arrived at ten plus and stood outside the brightly-lit 'establishment', waiting for one of the guys who arrived earlier to bring us in. It wasn't difficult to understand JT's concern that we shouldn't barge in on our own if possible. KTV hostesses with thick make up and yet still can't hide their actual age of late thirties to forties were seen entertaining male customers who seemed happy to exchange flirty comments and challenges to gulp down glasses of hard liqour. My colleague JW appeared to be one of them :p
The room was pretty big and spacious. It comes equiped with two televisions (strange) and an aircon that blew so strongly that within half hour, I was already shivering. The table was filled with glasses, two tubs of ice, one bottle of liquor, two bottles of mineral water and two cylinders of non-alcoholic drinks. I stared hard at one of the cylinder containing a yellowish liquid with bubbles at the top. I thought it was beer, it looked like one. JW saw my eyeballs almost popping out and hurriedly said it was green tea. JT must have thought that I dis-believe JW and further 'convinced' me that it was merely green tea.
It was a first for me seeing hard liquor being mixed with green tea or coke. I always thought only stuff like vodka get mixed with soft drinks. Anyway, amongst all I have tried, the coke mixture still tasted the best.
Three disparate groups in their own world most of the time: AN & GA (half) were hogging the mikes; JT, JW, AL, & GA (half) busied themselves with some form of dice game; D, WG, E, H, A and me were blabbering away, walking in and out taking shawl, answering phone calls, fiddling with the phone with dunno-what.
Apparently, there was some kind of rule amongst the cheong-sters. Every birthday is celebrated with liquor, either in a club/pub/ktv which serves liqour. Every one attending the party is supposed to at least drink a class of liqour as a form of respect to the birthday star. Before you leave the party, each one is supposed to toast with the birthday star, "ta" (read: dry) they called it. Yet strangly, WG still asked JT if she wants another glass after the "ta" glass.
I think JT got a little too high. After a few glasses (eventhou she promised herself to drink only 1 glass) her voice turned hoarse, and she had asked for more alcohol. I guessed if she didn't have to fulfil the cinderella curse of returning home by 12midnight, she probably will get drunk with the boys.
D's friend failed to turn up. Hai, we gotta take a cab home. Overall still pretty tolerable and enjoyable. Maybe cos' I only turned up for 1.5 hours. Maybe cos' it was all free (except the transport) :p
ps: D told me not to wear the same tee out tomorrow. Yup, fullof cigarette smell. I am glad she reminded me.
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It's a thin line between creating false memories and truly forgetting what actually had happened. [Proof]
Unlimited Wants, Limited Resources. Who win?
Economics, also known as the study of the efficient allocation of limited resources to maximise the utility level (happiness) of the consumer, is a result of humans' unlimited needs and earth's limited resources. To maintain the otherwise impossible relationship between the two, man learnt to make choices among his competing wants. This, he termed it "opportunity cost". Man probably incurred a significant amount of such costs as he forgoes ideal economic choices in search of the next best alternative.
The birth of the Production Possibility Frontier [PPF] represents the coming together of sarcity, choice and opportunity cost to produce a curve showing all the possible combinations of 2 goods that a country can produce in a given time period with all its available resources and technology. Any combination that does not fall in line with the ideal mix (economic choice) of output production is regarded as a cost incurred to recognize the sacrifice of producing less of Good A for more of Good B. On a different note, any mix that falls outside the curve is unattainable with the current capabilities available. But hey, economics is also a epitome of optimism! Once capabilities (such as technology, capital resources) are improved, an outward shift of the PPF is still possible, with the extent of the shift determined by the advancement of the amount of resources in producing either/both goods.
CHAPTER ONE SHOT DOWN!
I win.
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Heh. Another signal of "SOS" received. A topic that I studied for the first 3 months in JC, and thereafter by act of choice, opted for Biology instead (which I subsequently dropped it after 12 months of struggling). The opportunity cost incurred here proved to be a sum of the cost of loss of face, cost of self-realization of low capability, and the actual definition of cost of lost chances to attain a better understanding of economics which was to affect my studies in U- life.
Hmm... will I be evaluating all my future choices in economic terms and opportunities forgone for the next best alternative?
The PPF states that I should read up Chapter 2 (Good A) first since the opportunity cost associated with forgoing it for Good B (instantaneous decision-making) is relatively high. I shouldn't take the risk.
The Thirteenth & The Fourteenth
Friday the 13th went by rather smoothly. For the record, the sun was shining again and I got my jogging fix. I even managed to read 60 over pages of the boring manual, without feeling too sleepy. The only thing that probably didn't go so well was a phone call that I received at 6.27pm, requesting me to check the status of application records! I was ready to leave by then!
Saturday the 14th was of course better. The weather turned out well again, except that it was a lil' hot at times. Met a rather showy NParks guide at sungei buloh who at the same time, did a fine job in introducing the wetland reserve's signature dish: birds. Learnt that great egrets had black beaks and little egrets had yellow beaks, the dollar bird is so-named cos' of the watermark-like white patches beneath its wings, the woodpecker flutters from branch to branch and perches inclined to the arm of the branch, the brahmini kite has wings that spread out in a straight out, unlike the sea-eagle which has arc-shaped wings when open up. Saw quite a few fly-pasts too. Almost magnificient, if only I can see the formation clearer.
Memoirs of Geisha was pretty entertaining, though a little too much drama has fictionized the so-called true account. A pity that at the end of the show, my companion and I are still puzzled by how the Geisha House or Okiya worked. Note: Cathay @ Causeway is cheaper by a dollar! And booking fee is half of that one-dollar charged by Cathay Orchard.
It had been a long time since I saw anyone fished, or caught a fish. It was a big fat catfish that was drawn up by a lady who seemed to lack the strength to pull up her catch. Apparently some kind of competition was being held by two groups of fishing enthusiasts and their professional-looking fishing rods. It was a nice park, small yet full of life.
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Half of the peach was stolen! The Monkey God decided to create havoc within the premises of the Ice Palace of the Heavenly Court. Coaxing the guarding fairy to take a rest at the pavillion, he took to the act when the former dozed off! By the time the fairy realized it, half the peach was already in the Great Sage's mouth! Mistake.. mistake..
To Truth, With Hurt
Entry into the Service Delivery Team is an equation balanced by choice and compulsion. This is definitely one of the better deals one could ever expect from a boss who tries to slot in your personal growth chart with the organisational needs. His motives, to the others, remain that of recognition of hard work and strong capability. The skeptical self, though, has no idea of what he really has in mind. To be honest, I'll rather he holds low expectations, if any, of me being able to settle in comfortably in this new role.
First two days into the job has already made me realised that my capability is not enough to fulfil the requirements of this job. I am not a systems-based person. Neither do I possess the ability to make casual small talks with people, be it work related or non-work related. This is one essential part of this team, to be able to network extensively so as to get work done. Yet the irony is to be able to do so, you need to possess considerable amount of knowledge to command a presence that is indispensable and therefore be able to deliver results effectively.
I doubt I will be able to get past the figurehead of this team to really babysit a campaign or a follow-up on my own. It is totally understandable that the fate of the department cannot be erroneously manipulated by a green horn who does not know the restrictions of the systems and therefore the actual effective capability and resources of the department. Every word said, agreements made are considered final and do not react well to any acts of reversal.
There is no intention to push the entire responsibility to someone else. I had already captured the truth of my dependence on my team members to pick up the major events and suss out the details for me to work on. I am a support unit, a secretary, a spare tyre, a headcount whose cost is fully accountable, but non-justifiable.
This is already the 4th week. In the words of my mentor: " you are already very lucky.. " Indeed, a short comparison to my counterparts sees me having a much more relaxed pace to learn the workings of the job. I heard, others only got a chance to see their mentor, but none to learn from them or even work with them. Yet whenever I asked them how they managed to do it, the usual reply was: " just ask around and learn lor..". How insightful.
L O S T
I think I have too much questions. I bothered my mentor several times in a day. I supposed he became sort of frustrated and replied to me: "Read the manual.". I am lazy to read manuals to find answers myself. But this time round, I did read the manual before emailing him, unless he was refering to another manual. :-(
I still have tons of questions, but I don't dare to approach Mentor further, at least not today. But a branch staff called up and wanted to know the procedures to apply for recurring giro arrangments under the Everyday Card. I called up Mentor; he didn't pick up his call. He was busy with someone else at his desk. Or maybe he didn't want to answer my call. I emailed Mentor again. I had second thoughts after i pressed "send", so I went to ask my colleague.
Happy to receive an answer, I went back to my desk and gave the branch lady a call, advising her accordingly. Mentor actually emailed back. This time, with a proper answer, disparate to that of my colleague's. I forwarded the email to my colleague. She must have thought I shouldn't have asked her if I didn't trust her advice. But that was not what I had in mind. I had something more evil. I wanted to expose the gap in understanding between different parties. I succeeded halfway in achieving my evil plan, and even more to annoy my colleague. And Mentor.
I feel lost and hapless. I am so out of touch. I need to improve at a progressive, systematic rate. I must learn to read thick stacks of paper and multitudes of lines. I need a real teacher.
Or maybe I just need to reverse my mistake.
Nine items knifed !!!!!!!!!
Achieved many things today! Whoa.. I am impressed ... with myself.
1) Managed to get up by 7am despite sleeping at 3.30am the previous night and staying in Master Zhou's place for less than 5-6 hours every night for the one whole week prior to today (Sat)!
2) Managed to eat a McDonald's egg muffin meal after so sooo long.. heh.. gotta attribute it to tremendous efforts in trying to jog 3 times a week! I have amazed many people with this resolution and the actual achievement of at least the first 10% of the plan!
3) Managed to find the way to Kent Ridge Park's canopy walk! Heng, the rain god cued at the right time to stop the blew up of the clouds and stop the droplets from falling thereafter... the so-called Canopy Walk ain't as amazing as the Treetops Trail. The latter gave a more authentic feel to the idea of canopy walk with its metal looking suspension bridge while the former looks more like just a normal boardwalk that is held in mid-air. Not much wildlife seen saved for some squirrels. Mostly floral 'exhibits' that are beyond my knowledge, and thus earned zero appreciation from a non-flower-&-leaves lover.
4) Managed to convince and be convinced to do a fair bartertrade on 'snapshots of memories'. Really fun! It is likewise a movie that is made up of both the leads and supporting leads and even extras; a life story is written out more clearly in pictorials than in words. I am going to dig out more of such memories! Understanding the past makes the present more logical, and prepares the future for better encounters! A very nostalgic, meaningful, and fun activity!
5) Managed to find the way up to Mount Faber! In the course of doing so, I became one of two trepassers who accidentally roamed onto private grounds (Temmengong Street) of some rich Malay men! Nice white houses built on stilts.. probably men of royal blood! Well, as usual, finding the route to the intended destination has always not been easy, yet those missed turns and wrong directions provide the most unlikely adventures! Didn't stay on to tour around the 'Mountain' since rain god was having some fun.
6) Managed to find out the menu for reunion dinner at Soup Restaurant. $98++, 7 dishes for 4 pax! Pretty cheap compared to other chinese restaurants! Crystal Jade is offering a similar but more expensive version at $168++. However, my mum and brother don't seem to show much interest, dismissing the food as common, normal. Probably of my mis-recommendation of last year's dinner at The Feast: Chongqing Hotpot.. Hai..
7) Managed to catch Wallace & Gromit! A very funny and entertaining show! Even the penguins before the actual movie were superb!
8) Managed to locate Settler's Cafe and had a great timeout! Didn't expect myself to actually enjoy docents' outing that much. Was treating the volunteering activity as a obligatory duty, yet each duty never fails to light up my day, especially when the visitors were friendly and the fellow docents are entertaining. I should strive to attend every docent outing/meeting! Taboo was loud and fun! Though it didn't have brand-new LOTR, it does store a collection of a range of cute games with interesting names like 'Mama Mia', 'Valley of the Mammoth', 'Munchkin' and old classics like 'Cluedo', 'Pictionary', and of course 'Taboo'. The tables are also much bigger than Pit Stop's, and food is served faster.
9) Managed to bring myself to blog all of these!
Tired but happy. (",)
Mis-happenings! D.F.I.
Absolutely spoilt my evening! That damn fucking bus took a whole hell lot of THIRTY MINUTES to arrive at Suntec City Convention Centre! Jam at orchard area? But there are at least three to four bus no. 111 that passed through! I believed I starting waiting at the bus stop at 9pm.
No. 70 went passed.... No. 97 two - three times... No. 111 three - four times... No. 133 at least twice.... No 5XX probably once - twice... No. 857 and 106 at least once each... all except No. 36!! I really dunno what's wrong with the bus driver of No. 36! Emu, if you happened to read this, please inform cornnie to sms that stupid bus driver(s) to speed up! I am not so free to wait for him(them) to turn up 10 - 20 minutes behind their schedule!
I had planned to reach home latest by 9.30pm to watch at least half an hour of the channel 8 drama, as well as cook my dinner which means opening and heating up a can of campbell's low caloried chicken vegetable soup which was lying in the carrefour plastic bag that I was carrying at that time!
When the damned thing finally arrived, all the seats were already taken up with standing passagers filling up the last third of the bus. And here we were, probably 20 people squeezing in. It didn't help that I was carrying 2 kg worth of stuffs ( a 550ml dove shower cream, a one-litre fruity yoplait lite yogurt, a 250ml campbell's chicken veggie soup, a box of panadols for cold relief) and a haversack that was another 1 kg worth, all hinging on the left side of my body! And I had to stand through 90% of the journey in a sardine-packed bus!!
And that was not the worst! Of all times, it had to rain when I was about to alight! What a darn joke! Even though I had an ultra mini small umbrella with me, it's the hassle of finding that little thing amongst chunks of stuff in the bag and having to hold it while walking that made me boil! AND THEN I had to see the door of my flat tightly shut with that big lock locked at the grills! Looks that my stupid dad must be sleeping away and feared for any idiotic thief/robber to come along! Another attempt at rummaging thru' the bag for that pair of keys.
How not to be angry, irritated and frustrated?! A hungry man is an angry man.
I gave up the idea of having campbell's for dinner and went for just the yogurt. In the end, I downed 100ml of orange juice with aloe vera bits, 2 旺旺 biscuits, a few kueh bangkits, maybe 150ml of yogurt.
And now the damn day has not ended. My family is now arguing over my brother's lost pair of keys! These people, as if I am not being irritated enough!
I should have simply taken up the offer to hitch a ride home :(
Bloody hell!
a galactic game
It was alarming. The terrorist crashed upon the innocent girl and wielded her out of her planet, an orange colossal of ball which she called her home of thought. She was thrown off her imagination momentarily, but swifly flew into another one of derogatory induldgence. Not a fairly nice term, but she seemed happy at the misfit of such a ridiculous phrase stuck at the back of an evocative statement.
It was funny that the terrorist didn't perform the invasion earlier. Maybe that's typical of a fast-headed destructionist - preferring to work in a dark side calculating complex formulas to derive an ultimate answer of forty plus two which stupendously translates further into a light sabre which had the following words engraved on its blade: FORGET IT.
The passing of one day, two days, three days.....1096 days... Weapons of mass destruction were constructed behind the misted wall of Skull Island, with the help of a utility vehicle, so named the World Wide Web. A fat kitty was sent as a bait. Remember those war dogs which carried bombs and ran pass the lines of fire? That idea probably drifted through the decades to reach the jaded soul who had only impressions left to count on for the capture of the intended target.
She realised her planet was in danger. Now's probably the time to switch off the defensive mode, and turn on the strategy of hard attack! But the damned kitty was so well-trained to take the heart out of her! Old methods, tried and tested, rich and powerful.
So quick, the death of a freedom fighter (not the terrorist), the illustration of the prowess of a deceptive terrorist. Blood and bones,
crushed.
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well.. I am just too free in the office ;-p
Unofficial work done on unofficial grounds ;)
6.00pm. Wahaha.. 15mins more to knock off time! Then, I saw my mentor walking towards me. Funny. He seemed to like giving me work to do during the last 15-30mins before 6.15pm. Though I don't quite enjoy it, I am still glad! This means there's work for me to do tomorrow! Maybe I won't feel as sleepy as today then.
7.00pm: Off to parkway to accomplish my missions! Didn't cut my hair in the end. ES wanted me to accompany her to Jean Yip Salon actually. But WTH? Me sitting there flipping a magazine and listening to her talk while the hairstylist messes around with her hair? Nah, I'll be better off wandering alone in parkway; besides, I need to get my stuff done! Been dragging it for weeks! Heh, this means I gotta delay my hair cutting then, lest i aroused ES's anger. "wah, you also cut your hair ah? Yesterday I ask you to accompany me to the hair salon, you don't want, now what?!"
Mission No. 1 failed. Heng, it does not symbolise a bad start. Got ES's gift, ate my scoopz icecream (33% of my dinner, with the rest of the 66% represented by one piece of Lao Po Bing & one slice of tomato bread with peanut butter), posted my blog entries done in the office... a fair bit of achievements!
Now my next assignment: sleep early. . .
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It takes a mere 15 minutes and a little rain to change a person's mind. How fragile. How fickle. ;-p
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ps: Oh yes! I also managed to returned a one-twentieth - read library book. The receipt wrote it having a deadline: 3 Jan 06.
Unofficial work done on official grounds - Second Half
2.53pm. My second entry for the day. Yes, I am dozing off again. It seems that for today, one dosage of redbull is not enough. *takes a sip of coffee black without sugar* Bitter. For the past one week, I have been drinking redbull after lunch. Perhaps it is this excessive drinking of the hi-glucose-caffeine mixture that made it lost its effect on me.
3.08pm. After reading a few pages of the manual (luckily it came with quite a few printscreens and not too small words), I began to feel restless again. For the second time in a day, I contemplated looking for a new job, not within, but outside of this organization. My performance just doesn't seem to hit the power road anymore! Time to change the tyres! Move away from the mudtrack!
3.17pm: This is bad. My eyes are closing... and there are a continous flow of walking people along the aisle that my desk is situated. Here goes a very interesting line from the DBS calender (an annual corporate gift to all its slave members): "To win one hundred victories in one hundred battle is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill -- Sun Tzu" :-S And here I am losing a battle despite putting on a brave fight... SOS.. SOS!
3.32pm. Checked my hp; realised TT messaged me at 2.17pm. Ha! I really wonder about my sleepiness. When I am typing away at this blog or replying sms-es, I am clearly wide-eyed! The moment I turn my eyeballs to the manuals, it auto shuts off. Involuntary reactions the scientists called it, I suppose. Another message!
4.10pm. Phew! The big boss just walked past me. Luckily AG just walked past to talk to me. Otherwise I'll be seen as a bobbing dead duck! 2 more hours. Grrrr! Probably should take this time to plan some activities for myself later!
-- cut my hair.
-- buy the gift for ES.
-- write the card & probably try to find a way to wrap up the cap (belated xmas gift) for DL.
-- buy my dinner.
-- eat my dinner.
-- post the blog entries i did during office hours to keep myself awake.
-- aim to go to bed earlier and hope that tomorrow will be better.
-- go to bed.
:- *pulls hair* Time.. it's really passing slowly...
Unofficial work done on official grounds - First Half
11.20am. Feeling sleepy again... it seems to be the very same 'mode' that I am in ever since I swop to SD on 19 Dec 05. 10.30 am - 12.00pm, 3.00pm - 5.00pm: those are the slots that i have the hardest time trying to keep my eyes open and concentrate on whatever I am doing, be it merely surfing the intranet for staff offers, new career opportunities etc or planning my own calender to see which days are best to go off for a long long period of time... So many holidays falling on strategic days, better not waste them!
I wonder if things are slow-moving in this period where the marketing guys are more or less done with hitting their targets for the year and are slacking away now, or I am, as per what the boss says, a new addition to the team. So 'extra' that I have to bother myself with reading system manuals to kill time with a legitimate reason. On some days I am lucky to have one or two assignments from my mentor; on some other days, I am even luckier to receive no orders from him. Ironically, that kinda scares me. No work = No promotion = No money :(
This is the team that I have always wanted to join - the glam, the action, the recognition, the free gifts, the fun! Now that I am in, I wonder if my decision is right. I definitely enjoyed myself more when I am with the call agents. Even though that meant long hours of work, late nights till 1 - 2am, shift work, anger, frustration at indecisive, dunno-anything bosses, dealing with irritating troublesome customers, it still beats having to sit down at a patch of 7 empty workstations with me occupying the 8th in this deserted land, feeling helpless and useless. The superiority complex of being the leader and pioneer of a little team is reduced to an apple crumble - seemingly hard and chunky, but actually soft and weak.
What probably worries me more is that my bosses know that I am not doing anything much! I so much wanted to offer my assistance yet fear to discover that I can't be of much help with my limited knowledge of those damn bloody systems and stupidly funny processes and sparse data of the network that I could possibly tap on. Maybe the next step should be to try and make sense of those process maps ( I was the Management Representive in last year's ISO but I have little inkling of those maps *gasp*) and complicated manuals even when there is an absolute need to be able to have some form of application before the information sinks in and translates into knowledge.
The call agents asked me: "Ha! Regret right?"
I replied: "3 months! Then you ask me again..."
This is only the third week.
Sigh, it is time to pray hard. *..hope I get a promotion, pay increment, a big fat bonus, easy job...and I'll leave soon!*
Raise your glasses.... To my next green pasture!
