vandal's project

Just now when I came home from work, I passed by the badminton court behind my block, and saw a group of kids painting the court. They looked serious, with rollers and paint buckets. I thought, hmm must be those heartland project for those youngsters who could have otherwise turned to crime in their free time.. ahem.

When I reached home, I looked out of the kitchen window and to my surprise, I saw policemen at the badminton court, seemed like taking names. If that was vandalism, that was the most well-organised and biggest scale one I've ever seen...

Maybe those guys just wanted a bit of ownership to the court, which is itself not a bad thing. Every evening there is a little sepak takraw league going on there. At least it is something healthy, minus the part about them smoking when they are on the bench waiting for their turns.

Did I just see one guy did a bicycle kick, landed on the wet paint and got his arm green?

killing the messenger

If you have read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you will always come across scenes where a warlord is unhappy with the message delivered by the other warloard's messenger, so he killed the messenger in reply (weird, dead already how to bring back the message) and if he's lucky, he will get to go home with missing body parts.

Had an unpleasant experience last night. So some 2 months ago I left a comment on a blog, a crappy reply aiming at noone in particular. Then last night, the blog owner told me someone is not happy with my comment on the blog. So I followed the link provided by the blog owner, and saw that someone has posted a reply there, some 2 months late, and he indirectly claimed to be exactly the person I described in my comment by telling me not to assume he's what I had described. Hello? I didn't mention names or whatsoever, so if I say something like "there are perverts on earth" and you insist "don't call me a pervert", what can I do?

And the blog owner, what for telling me someone is not happy with me? 2 months old entry, what is the probability of me reading it again? Close to zero unless you tell me someone has left a comment there saying he's not happy with me. Maybe it was out of good intention, but the blog owner's action brought more harm than good. It feels like person A tells person B that person C is ugly, then person B goes on to tell C that A said C is ugly. Then C did likewise... If B kept quiet, nothing's going to happen!

How to kill the messenger? Just uninstall Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger, and you've killed 2.

quote of the day

Jasline: (to my boss)...cos I need to manipulate the data. (turning to me) You didn't hear me say anything har. But you also doing the same thing, so we are on the same ship.

the turf is neutral

It helps not to take side/stand when watching a soccer match, since either you will be very happy, or very sad. Even if you are very happy, unless you betted on the team, their victory means nothing to you. Just sit and watch and be good.

Was hoping for Australia to win last night's match against Italy, afterall the aussies fought so hard to reach that stage. Not say they played fantastic football, but they were against a team with stars above their crest. Although it is lame, but I feel sad for them. Oh man, now I feel as lame as those idol-chasers.

Often I find myself silently cursing at the referee. It seems like they are always either blind or brainless. Well well, the only fair referees you can ever find are all in the Xbox or Playstation.

Anyone has read the book The Jungle is Neutral?

quotes of saturday

It's going to rain soon. They are climbers, they are used to be out in the rain and falling.
SAFRA staff telling a family to go first on the canopy-walk.

抓他那条!!
Chow "cheering" for Nicholl, while others told her to catch hold of the rope. Alex was her partner for the walk, just behind her.

Think you wait till you finish studying lor.
About me. The wisest thing I've heard from Nicholl. Anyway it was commonsense.

Seong Per: What trip do you all organise?
Melvin: Orh we got go brokeback mountain.

nalgene's brother, brother's nalgene

Guess what, I kind of forced my brother to buy a Nalgene bottle for himself. It started with him always borrowing my beloved Firefly Yellow Nalgene bottle for his badminton games. The other time he even wanted to bring it along to Cambodia, but of course I refused. Guess it must have looked cool huh?

SO, for $14 he got himself one, a bit girly Raspberry Red. So now the younger brother has the older bottle, and the elder brother has the newer one. It kind of reminds me of when I go climbing, Alex, Nicholl and I line our colourful Nalgene bottles up, and when I was in AJC ODAC, a few of us used to put our bottles as boundary markers.

Kind of wish he'd bought this one... =P

don't like

I don't like piercings
I don't like tattoo
I don't like make-ups
I don't like jewels
I don't like nail-varnish
I don't like dyed-hair
I don't like chatting
I don't like SMSing
I don't like cigarette
I don't like clubbing
I don't like surprises
I don't like burden
I don't like restriction
I don't like pressure
I don't like Giordano
I don't like Bossini
I don't like Baleno
I don't like ...

I don't dislike the rest.

worm laksa

So today after climbing, we went to eat the famous Yishun laksa behind the bus interchange. Reached there, saw that how come the original place there no more queue, and now not using the plastic container anymore. Alex and I went to investigate a bit, and saw that the original one has shifted to next door, together with the queue... (the one at the original place is a fake.. muhahaha)

And Nicholl's laksa got something more beside cockles, WORM! Bernard was saying that it's the intestine from the cockle, but when Nich lifted out the worm, we saw legs! Eek. So Nich called the uncle to see (wrong uncle, she called the sugarcane juice uncle...) Guess what, the uncle picked up the worm, walked towards the laksa stall, and dumped the worm into the bin.

So Nich wasn't quite happy with that, a while later she called the uncle again, told him "(in Mandarin)I paid for the worm, why did you throw away my worm? You want to destroy evidence is it?" Should have shown to the long queue huh?

free climb, climb free

Last night I was still worrying that the walls will be booked cos of the SAFRA Adventure Hub open house. Today, we got free climbs.

Meder is at Korea, so that's me, Alex and Nicholl, plus Jason and Seong Per. My relation with Jason wasn't that good, but today was fine, guess someone matured huh? Then there's Bernard, KS and Angie. Angie's boyfriend hurt his leg and didn't go, so she tagged with our big group. Then Wee Li, his father, 10 yr old brother and girlfriend were also there, and Wee Li is flying off next week. teamNUS were there too, and even saw Sean and Jenny and family... bleh!

Cleared lane 6 (err..cocktail minus green), then lane 1 grey stuck halfway. Angie was belaying me when I did 1, and I was desperately screaming down to get her attention to lower me... bleh..

Then 8 of us signed up for the free canopy walk. I tell you this canopy walk is more meaningful than the treetop walk at MacRitchie, cos this one you really can touch the treetop. (in fact, they get in your way, blame it on NPark for not allowing SAFRA to cut the branches) We had to go in pairs, and SP and I were the last pair to go. Think both of us were too steady and it bored those who desperately tried to shake the cable...

And after that, we had free ice cream! And I went to the bouldering gym to fool around a bit (heel-hook on fluorescent light somemore)...

The open house is still on tomorrow~

watch out

Not sure if it's retribution for THIS, I scratched my beloved Victorinox Swiss Army watch yesterday...

It was a very obvious scratch, ermm 3 scratches to be exact, think got it from the staircase stainless steel handrail. (and Alex got his from the escalator) Can't help feeling a bit sad.

I remember the time when I scratched my first watch, some 15 years ago. Is it the inevitable to scratch one's watch? I'm a very property kind of person. Felt sad when someone borrowed my eraser and rubbed away the sharp edges. Felt sad when my Nalgene bottle got its first scratch. Felt sad when someone tossed my carabiner.

Ah well, my father used to say every object on earth has its lifespan. My watch... it is still rugged, it got quite a hard knock, and it was not some hi-tech sapphire crystal cover, just plastic.

I was in Switzerland

Actually my face was in Switzerland on 16 May this year. See if you can find me HERE?

quote of the day

Gar gar lah! Won't pain one, only the paper will pain!
My boss cheered me on in front of the binding machine

and today my boss's boss said the booklets that I compiled are "very nice"

(about my boss's boss: he is the executive engineer of the manufacturing side. A very demanding guy whose name appears on the toilet wall. My boss and the other supervisors always got "shoot" by him. He always seems to be rushing about, talk also talk like tongue twister, got a feeling he's the kind who pees halfway then rushes out of the toilet. But today he was very cheerful when he said 'morning' to me, maybe cos I was inspecting the line before office hour...)

barely button

One day my mother rode the elevator at my block. She pressed the button with her finger. Later she rubbed her nose with the same finger, and she could smell cigarette on her finger...

What if someone digs his/her nose often? The button will kena the nose crap, then the next person's finger will get the crap, then he/she digs his/her nose, then his/her nose will get other people's crap, etc etc etc...

So, make sure you are the first person in the food (crap) chain.

(talking)

The Japanese converse in Japanese. (which I dunno)

The Chinese chat in Hokkien. (which I dunno)

I talk to the computer in n-bit signals. (which I dunno, but the keyboard knows)

I'm an alien, I'm a legal alien,
I'm an Englishman in New York
-- Sting, Englishman In New York

People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.
-- Simon & Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence

Talkin' bout my workplace.

of doing business

Incident 1:
My brother's colleague brought him to a hawker centre in Alexandra to try an exotic fruit juice. They arrived at stall A, saw a few certs hanging there, so they thought that's the stall, and went on to order 2 cups. Took a few sips, nothing special. Then their head turn a few degrees away and saw another stall, stall B, selling the same drink, with dozens more certs hanging. They realised they ordered from the wrong stall... My brother suggested buying from stall B to compare, so he went to stall B and ordered. The uncle at stall B was smart, could see my brother had ordered from stall A, so he told my brother "I treat you half a cup, hope you can support us lah!" My brother was smart too, so he bought one cup (plus half a cup free) Woala! Totally different taste!! And guess what, the auntie from stall A kept staring at my brother & Co.

Incident 2:
My mother went to fruit stall to buy pineapple. 1 for 50cents, 3 for $1. But my mother only wanted to buy 1. Then another woman came, suggested sharing so that can get cheaper. So the woman paid 1 dollar to the stall, and told my mother to give her 50cents. My mother only stared at her.

Incident 3:
Remember this incident? So under the manager's apology and invitation, we went down to the same Pizzahut, to sort of feedback on the service. Now, this meal was complimentary...
(in my opinion, the previous meal should have been complimentary, cos we were pissed the most then, but it was still great to know pizzahut still values feedback. Btw, another small incident and sidenote, was at Crystal Jade, ordered E-Fu noodle, waited half an hour before we discovered that the manager forgot to key in the order. They apologised, but then, the correct thing they should have done was to give us a complimentary dish.)

Am I asking for too much? Yes, but some restaurants do give complimentary dish as apology while the customer wait for their belated order.

prohibited by law

Today I saw this sign at my workplace, beside the unofficial smoking area... didn't know it is against the law NOT to smoke. (if "not smoking" is prohibited, then smoking is not prohibited..)

Smokers are already complaining about the new law. I ain't complaining, since I will benefit from it.

I can forsee in the near future, farting is prohibited by law too.

drip, drop

Did my running nose remind me of dripping coffee, or was it the other way round?

Since I started working some 2 weeks ago, I have been having this not-here-not-there-syndrome. My cubicle is just beside that gigantic Daikin central air-conditioner, which basically sucks in whatever air particles there are in the office, including but not limiting to people farting, body odour, etc etc. To highlight how severe it is, I wear 3 layers on top and 2 layers below. -_-" Just the other day, I was talking to my boss halfway when some transparent liquid dripped off from my nose and landed on I think my boss's row of folders...

Coffee... my unwellness has taken away my urge for drinking coffee. Now I've no choice but to drink jasmine tea available at the pantry (it's either Nescafe, Lipton or Richshaw)In the process I'm involved in harming the Earth, using 1 styrofoam cup per day. My bad.

A while ago, I was troubled by some matter. I felt like a small coffee cup, filled to the brim already the coffee still keep flowing in. So, the nasty residue stays at the bottom of the cup while the coffee overflows, becomes useless when it reaches the floor. (unless ants and flies like coffee) I didn't change a new cup. I turned off the tap from the coffee machine, and slowly enjoy the remaining coffee in the cup.

My father likes to use mahjong to describe life. I use coffee.

the ball is round

You may think I don't watch soccer, that's because four years ago I hadn't started blogging...

Catching World Cup is different from watching the leagues, cos in World Cup you see people playing for their nations, fighting for their people's pride and honour, whereas in leagues they are pretty much after the money, just another occupation. I only watch the 9pm match since the next morning I'll have to wake up early. I don't go for the top teams, since they are already so good they can only disappoint you whereas the others can come up with surprises, seeing them try their very best. Of course nothing is more enjoyable then seeing the referee slip and fall and roll on the ground, or become target board for power shots...

Watched the Dutch match, only could recognise van der Sar (oh gosh I'm old...), then last night's Japan vs Australia. Our friend from down South is now part of Asia! (at least in soccer term) Japan is so lame, the whole team is ang moh except the botaks, the Brazilian and the veteran goalie Kawaguchi, as if the dyed hair allows them to play like real westerners... the Australians were really cool! They knocked the Japanese as if they were playing rugby! And their passes were beautiful, those backpasses... Australia should have won earlier.

I don't have Cable and if you are wondering how I watch World Cup, there is something known as the antenna. Please, I'm from engin fac.

walking keyboard

I tell you I really thought I saw my office keyboard walking sideway like a crab...

What do you expect, after working for 44 hours doing the same old thing, keying in numbers after numbers... ok there's this folder the thickness of 2 Yellowpages on my table, I mean Yellowpages the phonebook, not 2 pages of yellow colour! I am supposed to key in the hourly record of the production line for the past 1 year plus.. HOURLY ok!! And this factory runs 24 hours, 7 days a week... when people don't update records regularly, they create job opportunities like mine. Afterall, they pay you money hourly for feeling bored.

So today is the start of my second week there. Much more interesting today, cos I got to do powerpoint slides, tweak pictures to bluff auditors, etc, so interesting that I skipped both my tea breaks.

And today I saw my boss' boss, he actually went around to people's computer and browse their emails while they were away from their seat!! What the... no wonder someone wrote something about him in the toilet. Ok now I must set password on my screen saver, make it 1 minute activation. Leave no chance....

mech

Streaming result is out today! I got into Mechanical Engineering~ Now I have one less thing to worry about and can proudly tell people that I'm from NUS Mechanical Engineering! Suddenly there is this sense of belonging, imagine how lame it is to tell people I'm from common engineering...

Anyway that cute soldier there is a mech unit in the game Advance Wars, mech for mechanised infantry. Advance Wars is a nice game if you have the patience to work out the strategy.

tuesdays with morrie

Just finished reading this book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It is a true story about the author's last lesson with his dying professor Morrie Schwartz, 16 years after they last saw each other at Mitch's college graduation.

This final class is on meaning of life, topics include the world, feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, family, emotions, aging, money, love, marriage, culture, forgiveness, and saying goodbye.

One paragraph I find quite meaningful (actually the whole book is meaningful):
If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble.

Life is so troublesome.

exit strategy

Do you need strategy to exit?

I want to exit work I want to exit school I want to exit family I want to exit life...

Quitting is the easiest way out...? But the American soldiers are still stuck in Iraq...

It's not as easy as it seems.

quote of the day

宁可得罪小人

也不可得罪女人
Ong

ear muff needed

Not talking about my workplace, I'm talking about my home! What do you expect when your home is under the constructive interference of 2 sound sources, read noise.

Firstly, I don't understand why must they use the microphone/ amplifier/ loudspeaker/ whatever to amplify the chanting at the wake at my block's void deck. Spirit doesn't need that to hear the chanting.

Oh, maybe it's because a few blocks away, there's a stage performance, happily blasting away songs that includes Dragostea din tei (special remix ugly voice version).

See if I can get an earmuff from my workplace tomorrow.

freak(s) at work

Let's talk more about my work. If you are still curious about where I'm working, my company's logo can be found on this stylo Subaru Impreza of Toshihiro Arai. Sorry, no State Express 555 cigarette.

Today, both good and not so good things happened. The not so good thing was, my boss's boss said the charts I made looked "ugly". Come on, I just followed THEIR template and I didn't show him at all, did he see the old files or what? Or was he cunning enough to peep at my computer while I went wee-wee? Think he was the one who stirred shit when the HR department borrowed me over to do some stuff yesterday.

The good thing was, well, I helped my boss do up one particular chart. -_-" My boss very funny/nice, when it's time for tea break he would always drag me to the canteen to have tea break, of course if it's just me myself I wouldn't go, so weird to drink coffee on my own right? I think he needed a break more than I do, looking at his stressed face. A little more about my job, I'm actually helping the company for the upcoming audit. Reminds me of my army days preparing for ISO and SQC...

Oh, and one more funny thing, at 8am sharp the whole company must do stretching exercise...

work work

First day of work today at a particular Japanese factory very close to my place. Bus fare was 64cents, so you can imagine how close the workplace is.

I wasn't the only new bird today, there was a kid from Nanyang Polytechnic on industrial attachement. Quite interesting to watch him stick up his foot and sleep at the reception area, of course this guy (pointing to myself) from NUS tried very hard not to bring shame to the school, especially when people asked where am I studying. (that brought a bit of pressure to behave myself) Maybe I should have told people I'm from SMU engineering.

First day of work and already became centre of office politics cum internal struggle. HR department snatched me away to do staff appraisal. They even wanted me to change place with a girl already working in the department... Sigh, aunties.

Anyway, quite touched to know that my immediate boss has been working there for 20 years, and still talks very passionately about his company. Oh if you are wondering what's my jobscope, maybe you should read more about Edwards Deming. (by the way, I didn't get this job from those big job agencies)

pc show

Problematically Crowded Show....

Don't ask me why I was there, cos I dunno why my family went there when obviously we weren't looking for anything there. The biggest tree killers were all there, just look at the amount of flyers... oh and yes, a portion of the money you paid for the goods went to printing those high quality flyers.

Saw Sherman near the Convention Centre. To my surprise I met Alex near Guardian, which was the turning point for my severely irritated mood. Funny him followed us until Carrefour when I chased him away. Then he called me on the phone to meet up with him, Derek and Loh (from Trg Br) at Carl's Jr. It has been a year since I last saw Derek, and the 4 of us talked a lot of cock, about army days and after, laughing out quite loudly at Carl's Jr. Oh don't order the Channel Islands Roasting coffee at Carl's Jr, it's from a vacumn flask and you can imagine how fresh it can be...

When we were leaving Suntec, we got stuck at the bottle-neck near U2. On normal days it was already quite squeezy, and now all thanks to PC Show, the volume flow rate was like non-existent. Didn't they anticipate the increase in shoppers/visitors? At the other end of the bottle-neck I saw Wei Chuan, who was lucky enough to receive my advice and detour.

As for PC Show, I guess the things must be cheap there, buy printer get free trolley, then I saw a middle-age woman dropped her box of LCD monitor on the ground and didn't bother much. Does she know what is a computer in the first place?

sunkist sticker

(my brain is fried, can't write any intersting things...)

Last night I just ate a very sweet Sunkist orange. Now, if you are wondering what is that number printed on the Sunkist sticker, that's the PLU or Price Look-Up code, an agriculture practise in North America, something like the barcode that the cashier scans.

Now, there is extra information behind the number... (behind the number is the skin, and no, not Da Vinci code, stop dreaming!)

3027 - ORANGE: Shamouti
3028 - ORANGE: Delta Seedless, small
3036 - ORANGE: Midknight, small
3107 - ORANGE: Navel, medium
3108 - ORANGE: Valencia, medium
3109 - ORANGE: Seville / Marmalade type
3110 - ORANGE: Navel, Cara / Red
3153 - ORANGE: Delta, seedless, medium
3154 - ORANGE: Delta, seedless, large
3155 - ORANGE: Midknight, medium
3156 - ORANGE: Midknight, large
3309 - ORANGE: Lima
3310 - ORANGE: Pera
3370 - ORANGE: Maltaise
3371 - ORANGE: Salustiana
3372 - ORANGE: Navelate and other late Navel varieties
3373 - ORANGE: Navelina including Newhall
3374 - ORANGE: Without postharvest treatment
4012 - ORANGE: Navel, large
4013 - ORANGE: Navel, small
4014 - ORANGE: Valencia, small
4381 - ORANGE: Blood
4382 - ORANGE: Juice
4383 - ORANGE: Tangelo Minneola
4384 - ORANGE: Navel, small1
4385 - ORANGE: Navel, large1
4386 - ORANGE: Temple, small
4387 - ORANGE: Temple, large
4388 - ORANGE: Valencia, large

If the PLU code is 5 digit, and the first digit is 9, then it is organic. If the first digit is 8, then it is genetically modified

(Disclaimer: this post does not guarantee you sweet oranges!)

no climbing on hoops

What else can climbers do besides climbing and eating?

Cos today quite a few of the walls at SAFRA Yishun were booked, so Meder and I decided to play basketball... at Tanjong Pagar! Alex wasn't far off, he was at his office -_-"

At first we joined in to 4 guys who were already playing there, made it 3 on 3. Shucks, the previous time I played basketball was on Pulau Tekong, which was much more than 1 year ago! Geez... something never change, I still couldn't shoot. Tsk. Later on 2 of Meder's colleagues joined in. All working adults except me, and Meder's colleagues were kinda amused/amazed when I told them I knew Meder online, the usual sex channel joke.

Now my foot is giving me problem, seems like rock climbing is a safer sport.

whose dragon boat festival

Tuesday was Dragon Boat Festival or Duan Wu. To my non-Chinese readers, Duan Wu is a festival to commemorate the Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who committed suicide when his country fell. (alright, in those days, suicide was glorious)

Now, the problem is, South Korea has succesfully claiming Duan Wu as its National Cultural Heritage from UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), ie, something like copyright. People's reaction was like, what the... and if you do a search online, you would see words like "hijacked", "steal" , etc from Chinese websites.

Some people think that the freaks at United Nations are dumb, and maybe they are, but the fact is that Koreans take the festival more seriously than Chinese! They have large scale rites and rituals and many other cultural activities. Ask a Chinese kid and he/she may just say "ah, dumpling very nice!"

Why blame others for taking it away when you yourself don't safeguard your own heritage.

pretz honey hot cake

You read me right, another snack I'm talking about... Pretz Honey Hot Cake!!

I shall be honest, yes I got attracted to cute Japanese foodstuff, don't you agree that the little girl on the box is cute? And yes I do judge book by its cover. They take so much pride in designing the exterior, the interior should be..... reasonably nice?

And yes, it is nice! You get the taste of honey when you lick on the stick... hmm but for a moment I forgot how does pancake taste like =_="

Now I know what's the differece between Pocky and Pretz. The spelling. =P

morinaga petite cheese cake

For those of you who love cheese cake, too lazy to head down to confectionary to buy, and who just can't help wanting a small bite every other minute, here's Morinaga's Petite Cheese Cake.

Cute little cheese cake in individual wrapping, tastes exactly the same as its bigger siblings.

NICE!

Available at Isetan Supermarket @ Shaw Tower.

dinner with ah loong

(this is a super backdated entry)
Last Saturday when I told Meder I was having dinner with Prime Minister, he was like.. what?

It was one of those neighbourhood dinner, 100 tables. Prime Minister is my constituency's Member of Parliament, so we got the chance to see him once in a while.

So, what do you need for dinner with PM?
4 x metal detector gates
1 x bomb disposal truck
2 x bomb sniffing dogs
lotsa policemen
lotsa CISCO auxilliary policemen
lotsa bodyguards
lotsa barricades

Did I miss out anything? Oh, food.

you little butterfly

There's a newborn at my home today!
Don't be mistaken, nothing of the toilet baby stuff, and technically speaking, it was born quite a while ago.
A Butterfly!!
It started when a fat caterpillar ate the leaves of my pomelo plant. We decided to put the culprit to close arrest inside a plastic microwavable container until it decides to confess. To our disappointment it went on a hunger strike and transformed into a pupa...
On this sunny morning of 1st June 2006, the yellow butterfly was released to freedom from my kitchen window.
If it dares to lay eggs on my plants like what its mother did, I'm going to use capital PUNISHMENT.