Some maintenance

Some unhappy posts have been deleted. No more postings about it in future if I can help it...

Recovery of item

Before my ORD, I lost my helmet.
Acting on advice, I searched my juniors' room, found it, felt a little betrayed at the identity and took it back in the presence of others.

He asked if I took his helmet and I showed him the mark I made. My name had been crossed out and replaced with his. He said sorry and explained that he lost his and he was in a hurry to mount duty.

Today, I spotted two lost items of mine.

Xmas dream

Dreams as they go don't make sense. I just thought that it's amusing to log them and read at a future date. Readers might want to skip this entry.

[continued dream]
-setting
2 group of young women were standing close but apart. Group A had an arrogant leader, surrounded by 5 cronies. Group B had a plain looking gal on crutches, with 3 friends. Only 3 of them talked, let's called them Tarragon, Mate Best and Lucid Ride. Lucid Ride had unequal bones(??) and recently fitted herself with prosthetic limbs so that she would be able to look and appear normal. This has been what Tarragon had tormented her for most of their relationship.

-act1:
Lucid Ride: But I want to be your best maid!
Tarragon: Well, I already have Mate Best here [smirks]
Mate Best: Yeah, I'll be a good best maid.
Lucid Ride: All you had to do was that to say that I'm your "sister", then my gown would be $300 cheaper
Tarragon: Well, then I won't do that
Lucid Ride: I'll get the gown [exits, her friends giving silent support]
Tarragon: Are you sure you can walk on that? [cronies laughed]

-act2:
We(??) are in a car. felt like my mother was driving, with brother and Lucid Ride in the car. somehow we were watching "zhen qing" - a Hong Kong serial, with the car windows acting as screens. They appeared to be filming in Singapore then one scene shifted to some place very familiar. A low single storey building with thatched roof. Trees and a circuitous path inside the compound. A long row of 2 storey classroom. A tall 3 storey building which was not accurate but yet I do recognise it. Followed by another 2 storey building. A large pond and a Chinese style building as a backdrop. More trees... "What the hell?...", I exclaimed in surprise., "When was this taken??". Lucid Ride replied, "Maybe they took the footage long ago and superimposed it as a background for their filming". I was stunned. Such dedication, filming a scenery that you might use in the far future. I closed an eye and used a finger to test for the blue screen effect, it was true. "But the canteen was not 3 stories tall!", I complained. "It was", replied my brother. I didn't believe it but watched in silence as the characters walked in a scene that had vanished. Our car drove by the quiet streets of Cassia Crescent, without any of the low houses. A silent dark field as our companion.

-act3
Lucid Ride and me were in a hotel room. She was upset that Tarragon did not want to acknowledge that she's one of her "sisters" so that she could get a discount off her gown. "I can sponsor you, $300", I offered. "Thanks, but I won't accept that". "Then you can pay me in instalments. 2 months, 10 cents per day", I said (apparently my dream self did not pass his Mathematics...). No reply. Brother was smoking on the bed. "Hey careful", I exclaimed, brushing away the ash. I turned back to her, "Come on, $300 only". "Don't be disgusting", she snapped.
[/continued dream]

"Continued dream" means that I have dreamt this character before. However, I wasn't inside the story then.

[Inaccuracies]
We don't have a car anymore. Much less one with futuristic features.
You can't test for the blue screen effect the way I did.
Cassia Crescent is now built up.
My brother doesn't smoke.

[Blog update]
Note that there's a "label" below this post? This is a new feature to sub categorise our posts. So click on Dreams and.. you can guess what happens =D

New Blogger 2/2

[This post has been edited]
Ah, new look.
Blogger has merged with Google to deliver us a better service. I picked the same template so you wouldn't really see any difference.
There's two new things:
1. The archives on the right are now expandable and more accessible.
2. There's a photo at the bottom of the blog, breaking my trend of anonymity.

There's simply too many clues to my identity so I guess there's no point hiding anymore.

Happy Holidays

Merry Xmas, Everyone.
Please remember than drinking and driving don't go together.

New Blogger 1/2

Darn... I can't switch over to the new version now.

Ethanol and Me

[Backdated to 17 Dec 2006]
I woke up with a little hangover so I did a bit of research.

Hangovers are multi-causal. Ethanol has a dehydrating effect (such substances are known as diuretics), which causes headaches, dry mouth, and lethargy. Dehydration causes the brain to shrink away from the skull slightly.^[3]
Wow, doesn't that sound scary?

Alcohol is a laxative.
Boy, I hate this.

Subject may become sleepy
Am I the only person in the world who has trouble sleeping after drinking??

How F.O.O.F turned out to be

1. No two perspectives. The Jap p.o.v. will be told in the companion film "Letters of Iwo Jima".
2. Very little fighting scenes, only about 10% of the film.
3. Makes you feel for their grief and guilt.
4. More authentic than some "realistic" fiction war movie that everyone has watched.

Quite nice, not for the causal movie fan. I would like to watch "Letters of Iwo Jima" when it's screen.

-1 working day

A sport that our country did well despite little funding

For the last 10 years, the president of our country's netball team lamented had that while they consistently get good results, they do not receive the same fundings and attention such as soccer, which gave disappointments year after year.
In today's papers, an unassuming article said that they have won the four nations cup.
"..turn the tables on Papua New Guinea", was the subject.
"..host captured netball's inaugural Four Nations Cup", was the only hint they won.
Who was the host? Us? Does that mean we won the cup? Why can't the writer just say so? So by reading that we won another country is supposed to tell us we won a cup??

Congratulations.

-1 working day

Why I would want to watch F.O.O.F

1. cos it stands for Flags of our fathers
2. cos of my Y gene, also known as the stupid gene
3. cause I'm drawn by what seems to promise as an impartial view of the event
4. fulfills my quota of war movies. Alexander was a disappointment

-1 working day

First week without RT

Ah... So relaxing. I can go out as I like. I can OT when I feel like it. Don't you love working? =p
To prevent complaints about me *always* complaining about work. I've labelled the sections with a description of the topic.

[Work: Overloaded]
Actually, I'm quite stressed. Take away Pat, who's on a trip. Take away Kelvin, who's on reservist. Take away Hui Koon, as she's doing authorisation stuffs. Guess who's left in my sub-track? Kena-ed chased by boss and Dennis but I refrained from complaining I'm overloaded - I'm sure boss will start counting my working hours...
But seriously, can't anyone see that I have a problem? It's really simple. Run the solution manager, put in my name and study the tasks. Hey! JW got some jobs that took him months. Hey look, these new tasks aren't even touched yet!

[Work: Outsourcing]
I've not yet started two tasks which have exceeded their deadlines. Dennis forced me to promise completion dates, which I thought was sort of unrealistic. Well, whatever it takes to pass this day. Boss tried to lighten my load but I'm not highly optimistic about my helper. I spent an hour to teach him how to create the test scenario. I even debugged the program in front of him and give him 3 possible approaches. It's something I could have done myself in 30 min but he spent the next 3 hours getting himself lost.
Don't get me wrong. I'm willing to let him learn at his pace. I need him because getting things tested, signed and transported can take anywhere from 2-7 days. I fully expect Dennis to be after me again.

[Personal: Handphone Loss]
Thank you, Roadster, for sending me a sms when you thought that I had lost my phone. No, it's not me, it's Gaga. You can read his entry on his blog (not listed here).

[Personal: Ankle]
I posted the timing for my laps. It's 99% ok. I'm taking a rest and will start my IPT in Jan.

[Personal: Job hunt]
Er... In case anyone missed the news, I renewed my contract.

-1 working day

Exploding phones

Don't you wish you had rigged your phone before it was lost?
Don't you wish you could do it?
Why are my countrymen so cheap?
What happened to moral values?

Even among friends, the belief that you could keep what you find is prevalent. If I share my story (of returning lost items), I won't find praise.

My tally of lost items
===============
Phone1 - Taken together with my bag at the depository section while I was taking a water ride. It was triple-ly painful as the bag was a gift and the loss was no fault of mine.
Phone2 - Left on the table at a wedding. When I discovered my mistake, I ran back up but it was too late.

Wallet1 - Left on the bus. Returned to the police with all cash intact but the farecard was gone. I did not point this out to the police.
Wallet2 - Left on an arcade machine. Recovered by a member of the public in a toilet. All the cash was gone.
Wallet3 - Left in my unlocked locker in my bunk. After I made a police report, it appeared under my pillow.

Watch1 - left on table as we were having turnout drills. I was quite upset as we were supposed to comrades - who shouldn't steal from each other! I did not report this. After this loss, I no longer carry a watch.

What I found
=========
Wallet(i) - Same arcade as where I had lost my wallet. My classmate lost hers this time. A kid whom I was on friendly terms alerted me to where the thieves were hiding. We tracked them down and sorry to say it but we intimidated them (threatened to call their school, not physical violence) to return the wallet by the next day as the mastermind had fled the scene.
Wallet(ii) - Found on the floor at the reception area of Ngee Ann City - where the big Christmas tree stands annually. Passed to receptionist.

Phone(i) - Found on the sofa outside our classrooms. Went into the other class and asked for the owner. Luckily, he turned out to be the true owner as I had forgotten to authenticate him. (He called me back by the number I had given his mother).
Phone(ii) - Found on back of taxi with GaGa. Taxi driver took us to where he dropped off his last passenger and we returned it.

[Conclusion]
No one steals the wallet itself. So build a phone that looks and functions like a wallet. And in the event that it does get kept, it would blow up when the secret cipher is not keyed in daily, costing the thief some fingers.

-4 days

Welcome back, JW

9am: Renewed my contract
11am: Checked email, "XX, YY, please extend JW's email validity date.
Checked intranet access, invalid.
4pm: Checked email, "Your email expiriy date has been extended"
Checked intranet access, success.

If this doesn't prove who took away my access, I don't know what will.

-4 days

Service charge strikes again

14 Nov, I deposited $300, balance is now >$500
30 Nov, they charged me $2...

grrr...

-4 days

Service expectations and behaviour of Singaporeans

[These are my personal opinions and are not based on any official studies. Readers are advised to apply their own judgment on the accuracy of the below statements.]

What Singaporean customers want
1. bend or kneel to their eye level when taking your orders
2. smile and include sir/madam in every sentence
3. no waiting time
4. preferential treatment if they are rich
5. preferential treatment if they buy big items
6. glasses must be always filled

How Singaporean customers act
1. don't respond to greetings
2. gets angry at delays
3. lashes out at fellow staff who happened to be so unfortunately positioned
I should know, as I was once on the receiving end of a scolding
4. act superior when they happened to be rich people
5. think they have a right to leave without paying if they are not attended to
6. leave glasses full of water behind

-6 days

Bryan's bday celebrations: No plans survive first contact with the enemy

[Plan A, part 1] Go Sentosa.
[Plan A, part 2] Foot massage for Bryan, watch him squirm and scream.
[Plan A, part 2] Dinner.
[Plan A, part 2] Iguana!

[Reality1] "Oops", said Bryan. "I forgot I got jap class"

[Plan B, part 1] Foot massage for Bryan, watch him squirm and scream.
[Plan B, part 2] Dinner.
[Plan B, part 3] Kill Bryan with drinks at Iguana.

[Reality2] Foot reflexology hurts me more than it affected him. What was I thinking??

[Reality3] Dinner plans changed. Iguana booking cancelled :_|

[Plan C, part 1] Foot massage for Bryan, watched JW squirm.
[Plan C, part 2] Dinner at HarbourFront.
[Plan C, part 3] Kill Bryan with drinks at Iguana.

[Reality4] After dinner plans involve karaoke.

[Plan D, part 1] Foot massage for Bryan, watched JW squirm.
[Plan D, part 2] Dinner without hopes of ice frozen strawberry margarita.
[Plan D, part 3] Karaoke.
[Plan D, part 4] Maybe we could still go Iguana.

[Reality5] Decided to call it a day.

[Plan E, part 1] Foot massage for Bryan, watched JW squirm.
[Plan E, part 2] Dinner without hopes of ice frozen strawberry margarita.
[Plan E, part 3] Karaoke.
[Plan E, part 4] :_|

-6 days