Debugger's wedding

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A first among colleagues of Ulu Ulu place. Also, how could I not attend for someone who helped me with B.P.O.E?
30 odd of us were invited and I was seated with Pat, Kelvin, Belle, Kieran, Big Satan, Sarah, Ah Bing and Steven. The decor was nice and everything tasted good except for the shark's fin soup. As expected, ours was the nosiest table, earning glares for the racist jokes coming from the usual suspects. To our pleasant surprise, We dismissed earlier than usual.
Now, If only people can come on time...

Santorini

This is in Greek but here's an aerial shot of Santorini.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=santorini+caldera&sll=36.407744,25.399017&sspn=0.195351,0.32135&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=36.459673,25.401077&spn=0.195221,0.32135&t=h&om=1&iwloc=E

Some pretty shots here
http://mountainhouse.smugmug.com/gallery/1698463#83520946

Badminton on Sat

It was nice to play again after so long.
Worth the aches :p

Instant messaging

[Was watching a series and had forgotten to turn off my messenger program. My online-away status probably toggled every 15 minutes]

[09:54] ZC: !hmm
[09:54] ZC: !hmm
[09:54] ZC: !hmm
[09:54] ZC: !hmm
[09:54] ZC: !hmm
[09:55] ZC: !hmm
[09:55] ZC: !hmm
[09:55] JW: yes?
[09:55] ZC: !hmm
[09:55] ZC: what are you idling?
[09:55] JW: ...
[09:55] ZC: never work?
[09:55] JW: send once enuff rite?
[09:55] ZC: so u will response mah
[09:55] ZC: keke
[09:55] JW: ...
[09:55] JW: ta
[09:56] ZC: !88

[Logged off]

Slackers

I do hope Mr Jantze don't sue me or anything, I love his strips.
Once some time has passed, I'll replace the pictures with hyperlinks to the archived pictures from his official site.
From: http://www.gocomics.com/thenorm/

Dilema at work

[Ok ok, another post on work. I promise there'll be no complaints in here]

[1. Helping too much]
I've been worried about this for some time till my colleague made a verbal (and physical) complaint to me. She said I spoilt the guys and she won't be able to cope when I go for my vacation.
Yup, it's my fault. Even if they don't ask me for a quick fix, I would have volunteered a solution. Impatient; busybody; show-off. Still, there is a new hope...

[2. Aptitude over experience?]
The Little sister of the B.P.O.E. broke loose with 3 errors logged and promised more to come. To cut the time wasted by red tapes, the Powers requested us to collectively solve them under a single programmer instead of 3. I couldn't take it up so they left it to us to decide.
Do we pick someone with strong debugging skills or do we pick someone who is experienced with the Little sister? We have a deadline and would suffer political fallout if we fail.
I recommended Ad Myron (not his real name) to our Little team leader and she accepted. He had earlier impressed me by locating a problem inside B.P.O.E. with minimal help from me. Double points were scored as he turned down my earlier offer to swap his task with mine.
Did I make the right choice? I would know when I return.

[3. Who the hell does he think he is?]
Potentially, anyone from my bosses to my co-workers could think of this. Some apologies may be needed on Monday...

-

Restrain

Another stupid edict got passed down and I resisted the urge to give a sarcastic reply.
Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? -.-

What education does to us

It's abit small, so click on it to view it better.
From: http://www.gocomics.com/thenorm/

Quantity of sleep

Since my precious fell sick, I have been sleeping earlier at 12mn.
So why do I feel so tired?
I think I fared better with my earlier 3.30am timing.
Strange...

Belated bday for Gaga

The seven of us are finally together after some time. We had a slow lazy BBQ which was interrupted at the latter half when a monkey came along. After an hour of standoff, it was always comical for the monkey to be distracted by an ice cube. It enjoyed it so much that he took it up the tree to suck on it.


We cleared up and headed to another spot to play Munckin. We backstabbed each other for 2 hours before Roger joined us. We then took another hour triple-stabbing each other before we let Ah yam win...

Finally, we ended our day at a restaurant with not-so-nice dumplings. The ending highlight of the night was, "Do you know the price of your wife's ring should be 2.5 times your salary?"

Official site: Munckin Bites

Itinerary for Greece

4 May: Check in for flight.
5 May: Arrive in Athens at 1.30pm in the afternoon. Proceed to hotel and get briefed on trip during the night.
6 May: Walking tour of Athens after breakfast. End with welcome dinner.
7 May: Depart for Paros. Small walking tour. Free day.
8 May: Free day on Paros.
9 May: Depart for Mykonos after breakfast. Free day.
10 May: Free day.
11 May: Depart for Santorini. Tour.
12 May: Free day. Evening farewell party.
13 May: We stay on and check-in to our hotel. Free day.
14 May: Free day.
15 May: Depart for Athens. Check in to our apartment. Free day.
16 May: Free day.
17 May: Free day.
18 May: Check in at Athens airport latest 4.30pm for our flight at 6.05pm.
19 May: Arrive Singapore at 2.05pm.

The day can't come quick enough...

Removal of rocketmail account after 4 months of inactivity

This is painful. My first web account I had ever subscribed. Hundreds of mails, passwords and java source codes inside.
Lesson learnt is not to entrust important mails to web accounts.

Aftermath of Friday the 13th

1. Think I should stop being a busybody... bzzz...

2. I solved the update-task. That improved my mood quite a bit. Huikoon said I mustn't begrudge that guy's assistance but I pointed out he might as well tell me to use an oven to bake a cake.
The final analysis of why he was so unfriendly/unhelpful boils down to he is someone who is afraid for his own skin. This isn't unknown to me but I guess I was in a bad mood.

Freedom Writers

The story isn't new. Put a motivated teacher in a problematic school and expect a heart warming story. However, with Hillary Swank, I was willing to give it a try. That or it is "Ninja Turtles" with Prawnkid. Don't get me wrong, I'm thinking of kids...

It turned out surprisingly good. How easy is it for a movie with 20 odd characters to leave an impression in you? Well, this one did. There are several themes but my personal "favourite" is "jealousy and resistance to changes".

Baby boy

[This post has been back-dated]

Congratulations to Angela on the birth of her baby boy.

Complaining about work

[Another complaint. You have been warned]

I thought I made a new year resolution to myself - "Stop complaining so much about work"

I cleaned out unhappy posts and began posting pictures of myself, so that I am no longer faceless. I gave out my blog address to more friends and thus hoped that I could accomplish my resolution.

But I simply can't help myself.

Why is it that some people must make life as difficult for you as possible?
Stress relief? Oh yay! Take away our tools. Send us threatening email directives. Freeze our accounts...
Rivalry? What the hell? I clean bugs!

If you're still here, thank you for reading...

I will TRY...

Eating humble pie

[Another complaint. You have been warned]

I couldn't solve a problem in the B.P.O.E. and I had to seek the advice of the technical consultant from another company we work with in this project. The consultant(also his colleague) I worked with accompanied me.

The consultant, let's call him Nice-Guy, explained the problem. Then Mr know-it-all began explaining it to me. I shook my head as a show that I couldn't understand.
"Then get someone better", he said and turned away.
What, what??

Nice-Guy stepped in to smooth things over, realising the problem way before I did. So Mr know-it-all began explaining it to me again. "You have to use update-task", he said.
"I don't understand what is update-task."
"Then get someone better", he said and turned away.
It finally clicked and I started to get a little angry.

Nice-guy nudged his colleague again and I got a bit more info on how to use it. But it's no use as I don't know what the heck an update-task is!!

"Maybe we can get Jose to help JW, he might know". This is Nice-guy.
"It's not that I don't want to teach him. I don't want him to mess up the code and then say I taught him to do it." He turned and looked at me. "You understand me right?"
"Yup." You bet. Just you wait.

Nice-guy caught hold of me. "We'll get Shiny later in the afternoon to explain it to you."
Thanks.

[We were later caught in our respective work. So the meeting did not take place]

Busybodies - 12 years apart

12 years ago, I tried to be a peacemaker and made a mess of things.

Today, I tried to smooth things over and found that things are just fine the way they are. When I got home, I was worried that I might cause misunderstandings and hastily sent messages and apologies.

Messages just returned. No harm done. Haiz...

Heat disorder

My "precious" is suffering from heat stroke, so I won't be seen online for a while :_|

Meanwhile, anyone wants a free original copy of "Battle for Middle-earth 1"?? First come first serve.

A much better way of tracking

[abstraction]
Occasionally, some of the sheep got sick. Aunt Sally suspects that they ate some undesirables while grazing and thus charged me to chart the movement of the flock. We would walk over the route and if we find anything like stagnant water or suspicious looking plants, we would avoid that path in future. This is done every month.
"Hey boy, come here. I got something that will make your work easier."
"What is it?"
"From now on, you'll chart the paths of each and every sheep, then mark the zone which they graze."
"And how does this make my work easier?"
"Well, every month I have to imagine which Dolly is at which part of the flock. Is she in front? To the left? To the right? There isn't any information. This will make it easier."
"And ultimately I will mark the suspicious areas on the map for you?"
"Yes."
"And isn't that the same if I just give you my drawings as I have always done?"
"No no, it matters!"
"I can't possibly chart for each and every sheep!"
"Well, you should do you charting as often as you can, not at the last minute!"
"Why every sheep?"
"Then I can see at which point your charting goes wrong."
"But what you care is the final area in the end. What does it matter?"
"No no, it matters!"
[/abstraction]

Dog Sled

1 sled with a dog goes "Weee"
1 sled with 2 dogs goes "Weee Weee"
1 sled with 9 dogs goes "Weee Weee Weee"
1 sled with 49 dogs goes nowhere

[Acres] Bricks & Trees needed: Wildlife in Singapore needs our help!

[my financial straits is pretty dire in anticipation of my coming trip. So here's my "contribution"]

yoz pple,

The construction of the Wildlife Rescue Centre is well underway!

We’re delighted to have reached this milestone, but there is still a lot of work to do… Most importantly, we need more money to pay for the construction. We have set up a fundraising campaign and a new donation page on our website at:

http://www.acres.org.sg/donatetoAWRC.htm

Help us by sponsoring a brick ($50) or a tree ($200) or an enclosure ($2,000 - $7,000) at the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre. South West Community Development Council has offered us a 1:1 matching grant up to a maximum of $65,000. Therefore, for every $1 that you donate to Acres, South West CDC will donate another $1 to us!

It would be great if you could make a donation yourself and even better if you also forward the email below to your friends, family, colleagues, neighbours… anybody!

You may personalise this email by adding somebody’s name at the top and your name at the bottom.

We CAN make the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre a reality, brick by brick and tree by tree!

Yours sincerely,

Louis Ng (MSc)

Executive Director

Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres)

www.acres.org.sg

30 Mandai Estate #05-06

Mandai Industrial Building

Singapore 729918

(O): +65 6581 2488

(F): +65 6581 6318

(HP): +65 9796 8592

Donate now at: http://www.acres.org.sg/donatetoAWRC.htm

****************************************************************************************************************************

hihi pple,

Could you take a moment to read this, please? It is important to me.

If you are not already a supporter of ACRES, I think that you would like to join me in supporting their many activities.

I am sure that you have read about their work with respect to clamping down on the illegal trade in endangered species (such as bears) for Traditional Chinese Medicine, saving and improving the lives of captive animals, and much more. ACRES is the only Singapore organisation chartered specifically to care for endangered wild animals and to educate all of us about the importance of animal welfare. Their focus on wildlife is unique. You can read about their good work at http://www.acres.org.sg

The reason for this email is to let you know that ACRES is in the process of building a Wildlife Rescue Centre in Singapore (www.acres.org.sg/wildlife_rescuecentre.html). It will house the hundreds of endangered wild animals that are confiscated by the AVA, or turned in by the owners, each year. Currently, there is no wildlife rescue centre in Singapore and these animals are either housed in inappropriate conditions or may be killed. In the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre, they will receive optimal care and be housed in a naturalistic setting before being repatriated to their native country where possible.

ACRES needs our help to complete it... They are more than a third of the way to their first year's requirement of $1,000,000, thanks to the generous support of people like ourselves, but much more is needed -- and quickly. Phase one of the centre will be done soon, and we need funds for the second phase of the construction.

It would be great if you could donate whatever you can spare. Nothing is too small (or too big!). I know personally that it will be put to very good use by highly dedicated people (no gold taps at ACRES). And it is easy to do... just go to:

http://www.acres.org.sg/donatetoAWRC.htm This is a great cause, and even $10 helps. Please act now.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope that it captures your interest and support, as it has mine.

Oh, one last thing... could you please copy this email to your friends and acquaintances? Just remove the part of the email above the dashed line, and copy or forward to everyone on your mailing list. Everyone should have the opportunity to participate, and everyone's participation is needed!

On behalf of the animals, thx lotsa!

cheers,

jun

Side notes

Many companies have funds available for worthy causes. If you work for a company that does so, or if you know an executive in a company in Singapore, please let me know, or send an email to louis@acres.org.sg. ACRES can provide them with an attractive Corporate Donation proposal.

China students in our country

[in response to Sunday's article]

Summary:
1. Local students and parents don't like them, claiming they raise the bar and add pressure to students in a environment that is already too stressful. They also fear future competition in the job market.
2. The students from China complained that the system here does not educate and impart moral values but instead train students to be question answering machines.

So. Now we fear competition and wants to start closing our doors. Weren't we once an economical tiger? We were told we were the best. We rested our laurels and now others have caught up. If others have raised the bar, it means that we aren't good enough! These students aren't geniuses! They are simply hungry for success, like we once were.
For point #2, you know my stand. I rest my case.

New Google products

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TISP: Wireless connection via your sewage
http://www.google.com/tisp/

GMail Paper: Free Snail mail
http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html