So I went to a talk today about $$ planning. After the talk (which was pretty entertaining ... I was worried that I might /thud /snore /drool), I was mulling over it...
So basically, here are some of the ways to make $$
1 - Business
2 - Investment
... Got some other lah but I can't remember..
Out of investments there's
1 - Property
2 - Stocks & Shares
3 - Wine
4 - Zurich ..
5 - Other weird shit....
So I was thinking ... how best for us peons to earn the most $$? To me, it's either business or property... Stocks & shares depends on your capital (and/or how much you leverage it), and it depends on your trades..
The speaker succeeded (initially) on property. It pretty much seems like the way to go, but needs knowledge and timing .. and balls I guess. Take a huge loan to buy a flat... especially if you're not buying for your own. And if you're buying purely for investment, you'll need to buy private unless you're >35.
Business need risk taking ... But nowadays it's not hard to open a business? Just require bigger balls. Lol.
Time to do due diligence....
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Dumb shitz
So .. after a long agonising period, I finally threw letter. Woo. You cannot imagine the relief... and the release I felt. BU said "you cannot imagine the sense of loss I felt".. Well, I'd like to say to him, you cannot imagine the relief and release I felt.
Lolz
Anyway the moment I stepped home just now, my mom was saying .. I dunno what you're so busy doing outside, but if you're not interested in him, don't give him chance. (+ other sundry comments about guys and marriage and such)
My knee jerk reaction was what the fuck are you talking about?
Duh. Does she only see things like this? -_-
wtf.
Lolz
Anyway the moment I stepped home just now, my mom was saying .. I dunno what you're so busy doing outside, but if you're not interested in him, don't give him chance. (+ other sundry comments about guys and marriage and such)
My knee jerk reaction was what the fuck are you talking about?
Duh. Does she only see things like this? -_-
wtf.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Who knows? God knows? Nobody knows!
We were supposed to go to staging this week.
Didn't happen.
We are supposed to go live next week.
There has been 0 testing.
Are we going live?
Who knows? God knows? Nobody knows!
Didn't happen.
We are supposed to go live next week.
There has been 0 testing.
Are we going live?
Who knows? God knows? Nobody knows!
Life with an MBP
As some of you may (or may not!) know, I bought an MBP last week :D What's an MBP? It's a Macbook pro of course! And being the poor peon that I am, I went for the 24 mth interest free installment, and being the poor peon that I am, I bought the cheapest 15"er, souped up to 4gb ram :P
Her name? Imperator! At first it was a tentative name, but I guess it grows on you. Somehow Imperator seems to be masculine, but my fleet is always feminine.
So far I've alreadby bought a 110$ bag for her, but I haven't taken her out yet. Been mainly computing on the bed with her.. Thinking of buying a Belkin cooling pad, bring down her temperature. She usually runs at 71 on load.. Kinda hot huh. So far haven't done much programming on her.. Don't really have the right ergonomic environment for a laptop at the moment ..
But she's fantastic!! :D
Her name? Imperator! At first it was a tentative name, but I guess it grows on you. Somehow Imperator seems to be masculine, but my fleet is always feminine.
So far I've alreadby bought a 110$ bag for her, but I haven't taken her out yet. Been mainly computing on the bed with her.. Thinking of buying a Belkin cooling pad, bring down her temperature. She usually runs at 71 on load.. Kinda hot huh. So far haven't done much programming on her.. Don't really have the right ergonomic environment for a laptop at the moment ..
But she's fantastic!! :D
Friday, June 20, 2008
The power of options
No.. I'm not talking about the trading derivative. Rather, I'm talking about options as a whole.
What are options? TFD defines options as thus (irrelevant ones removed):
op·tion (
p
sh
n)n.
So .. how many of us have options, in terms of working, lifestyle? What kind of options do we need? Well I'm going to focus more on working options, since that's what I'm primarily concerned about these days.
Your boss is mean to you. His demands are unreasonable. You feel so angry and want to piak him/throw letter/etc. But can you? Do you have the capability to? How will your car/house/education loan get paid? Can you get a job elsewhere?
Nay, that will never happen to me, I hear you say. My boss is very nice.. sure he's abit mean sometimes but mostly he's nice.
Ah, but then again... some things are unforeseeable. What if he suddenly gets replaced? What if the company poofs? (It does happen! Well the example I've seen isn't really a company, but there was this kopi tiam which I walked past everyday at the old company. And one morning, when I walked past it, it was closed, with OCBC notices on it. Apparently the owner had been defaulting on payments and such. So imagine if you're one of the stall owners.. You wake up, prepare your stuff and go to your stall, only to find it closed. Who'd knew?) If shit happens, do you have the ability to escape relatively unscathed?
Having options gives you leverage. If you're underpaid, you can either walk, or show your boss the options (ie job offers) you have and negotiate for higher pay. Else? Sit around at lunch/dinner with friends and colleagues and bitch about it? I realised that I have no more patience for such crap. Don't bitch about stuff, not unless you're ready to make a change.
You need to anticipate and prepare for change. It might not be your doing, but it would most definitely affect you.
-----
Mindsets, this slightly digresses from the topic, but mindsets must also be changed. A lot of us (well I used to be like that too) always just think .. well okay, I'm just a peon, I do what the boss asks me to do. I obey his every order. He want me to go East, I go East..
That's the makings of a good peon. But do you want to just be a peon? You will just be a fixture in the office, the obedient one whom the boss can depend on. That's nice, but is this it?
I was talking to my ex line manager the other day, and he was saying, if you want to distinguish yourself, you need to show initiative. Similarly, the books I've read say roughly the same thing too. Don't go to your boss with a problem. Rather, go to him to notify him of the issue, and suggest solutions. In this situation, you can influence his decision to pick the solution that you want.
Mindsets about salary and money issues have to change too. Alot of people just go, well I'll save $X every month, and when I finally have enough, I'll be able to buy Y item. Why? Why try to save? What about turn it around (as wont in Phoenix Wright games)? Instead of saving the money, what about telling yourself that you want to EARN the money to afford Y item? (Admittedly it's hard.. I'm still trying to learn this). Why scrimp on your salary? What about think of ways to INCREASE your salary so that you can afford Y item (faster)?
And lastly... negotiate. Try to learn that (I'm learning too! ><) Nothing is truly cut and dried. Humans are not 0 and 1. You can always negotiate (and to do it better, you need leverage!)
Whoever reads this, please ponder over it. Don't just be a peon with no leverage. Improve yourself, anticipate and prepare for change!
What are options? TFD defines options as thus (irrelevant ones removed):
op·tion (
pshn)n.- The act of choosing; choice. See Synonyms at choice.
- The power or freedom to choose.
- Something chosen or available as a choice.
So .. how many of us have options, in terms of working, lifestyle? What kind of options do we need? Well I'm going to focus more on working options, since that's what I'm primarily concerned about these days.
Your boss is mean to you. His demands are unreasonable. You feel so angry and want to piak him/throw letter/etc. But can you? Do you have the capability to? How will your car/house/education loan get paid? Can you get a job elsewhere?
Nay, that will never happen to me, I hear you say. My boss is very nice.. sure he's abit mean sometimes but mostly he's nice.
Ah, but then again... some things are unforeseeable. What if he suddenly gets replaced? What if the company poofs? (It does happen! Well the example I've seen isn't really a company, but there was this kopi tiam which I walked past everyday at the old company. And one morning, when I walked past it, it was closed, with OCBC notices on it. Apparently the owner had been defaulting on payments and such. So imagine if you're one of the stall owners.. You wake up, prepare your stuff and go to your stall, only to find it closed. Who'd knew?) If shit happens, do you have the ability to escape relatively unscathed?
Having options gives you leverage. If you're underpaid, you can either walk, or show your boss the options (ie job offers) you have and negotiate for higher pay. Else? Sit around at lunch/dinner with friends and colleagues and bitch about it? I realised that I have no more patience for such crap. Don't bitch about stuff, not unless you're ready to make a change.
You need to anticipate and prepare for change. It might not be your doing, but it would most definitely affect you.
-----
Mindsets, this slightly digresses from the topic, but mindsets must also be changed. A lot of us (well I used to be like that too) always just think .. well okay, I'm just a peon, I do what the boss asks me to do. I obey his every order. He want me to go East, I go East..
That's the makings of a good peon. But do you want to just be a peon? You will just be a fixture in the office, the obedient one whom the boss can depend on. That's nice, but is this it?
I was talking to my ex line manager the other day, and he was saying, if you want to distinguish yourself, you need to show initiative. Similarly, the books I've read say roughly the same thing too. Don't go to your boss with a problem. Rather, go to him to notify him of the issue, and suggest solutions. In this situation, you can influence his decision to pick the solution that you want.
Mindsets about salary and money issues have to change too. Alot of people just go, well I'll save $X every month, and when I finally have enough, I'll be able to buy Y item. Why? Why try to save? What about turn it around (as wont in Phoenix Wright games)? Instead of saving the money, what about telling yourself that you want to EARN the money to afford Y item? (Admittedly it's hard.. I'm still trying to learn this). Why scrimp on your salary? What about think of ways to INCREASE your salary so that you can afford Y item (faster)?
And lastly... negotiate. Try to learn that (I'm learning too! ><) Nothing is truly cut and dried. Humans are not 0 and 1. You can always negotiate (and to do it better, you need leverage!)
Whoever reads this, please ponder over it. Don't just be a peon with no leverage. Improve yourself, anticipate and prepare for change!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Two things
Happened today.. (3 if you count this blogging event!)
1 - I received my first cold call. Woot.
It was for an SI position.. and she didn't bat an eyelid when I quoted my price. However.. sadly I had to decline the offer.. Why? Well cos I don't really want to do SI anymore. I have the (mistaken!?) belief that I can do more, better, than write custom apps for users... Well unless I'm designing the user experience... then that's another thing.
2 - I have found .. I believe.. my light.
Yes! I think I've found my career direction!
Sadly.. I'm still at novice level for that.. . hopefully I can find the opportunities and work towards it... ^^v
1 - I received my first cold call. Woot.
It was for an SI position.. and she didn't bat an eyelid when I quoted my price. However.. sadly I had to decline the offer.. Why? Well cos I don't really want to do SI anymore. I have the (mistaken!?) belief that I can do more, better, than write custom apps for users... Well unless I'm designing the user experience... then that's another thing.
2 - I have found .. I believe.. my light.
Yes! I think I've found my career direction!
Sadly.. I'm still at novice level for that.. . hopefully I can find the opportunities and work towards it... ^^v
Monday, May 26, 2008
What I learnt today
Is .. that sending emails to my boss.. is the same as not sending emails to him at all. I've been made aware that I'd have to go up and poke him, but... seriously. Do I have to fucking handhold someone to do something/request for input?
Well I guess the usual "If your boss is late.. it means he's been working late the whole night. If you're late, you're lazy" thing works here. He may be super busy... but .. busy until cannot even ever reply? Does he even read the emails I send? /facepalm.
Whatever. I just send the email. That's my duty.
Over the years.. My MO has changed to be somewhat of a "If I tell you something which I think should be corrected, and you don't ever do it, the most I do is tell you a few times. Then .. whatever. It's your onus."
That's not to say I'm right. Before people say I too arrogant =p
For eg. I've been helping my friend work on his website cos his FL is bloody irresponsible. My method has always been teaching the person how to do something, rather than doing it for him. I can do this once or twice for you, but don't think you can rely on me (unless you're paying me!). If you don't want to learn.. then that's your business. (Not to say that he isn't!!)
So, I (will try) never nag. At most I'll mention it a few times. Like, have you done this and that? Didn't you say you were doing it? If you still don't do it. Then too bad. I won't bother anymore. It's your life. Your choice. Your onus.
When I wait for you, don't expect me to wait forever. You say okok after this game .. but then play another .. and another. Screw that. I'm going home.
Hmz, if I sound angry, well that's cos I am.. I'm always angry :@ There's this strong latent anger and impatience which throbs inside.
Basically I keep feeling that there's no more time. And well actually there isn't! It's always marching onward and onward, and I still feel like a fucking entry level dude =.= urghz
There are people who prefer to do the same job day in day out... Get pay, increment, bonus and they are happy. They aren't wrong. But somehow I don't see myself doing that. I don't want to be Faceless Peon #2451511341. I was reading on CNA about the Mas Selamat case. A few peeps got fired cos of that.
So a bad thing happens, and they become the fall guys. Naturally no one wished for it to happen, but shit happened, and they were axed. What happens to them? Do they have enough money to pay for the housing loan? Their kid's education? Their car? Would it be easy for them to get another job? Would any security firm hire them (well since they are dealing with security, I'm assuming security firms)?
I don't want to be in the mercy of that..
Well sure, you can say .. hrm My job dun have any Mas Selamat lah, surely won't axe one. But .. you never know what happens. What if your company gets bought out? Or too low profits (or losses), and like Sun, to make the shareholders happy, just axe a bunch of employees? Shareholders are always happy when companies X ppl, but are the ppl happy? What are their plans?
So yeah .. time's running out.
Too many people just prefer to live everyday as it is. Go to work .. get paid... go home .. eat.. sleep .. whatever. Next day.. same shit. It's not wrong. Just.. BLAH. I don't want to live like that. I believe I can do more than that..
Hopefully.
Yes we can.
Well I guess the usual "If your boss is late.. it means he's been working late the whole night. If you're late, you're lazy" thing works here. He may be super busy... but .. busy until cannot even ever reply? Does he even read the emails I send? /facepalm.
Whatever. I just send the email. That's my duty.
Over the years.. My MO has changed to be somewhat of a "If I tell you something which I think should be corrected, and you don't ever do it, the most I do is tell you a few times. Then .. whatever. It's your onus."
That's not to say I'm right. Before people say I too arrogant =p
For eg. I've been helping my friend work on his website cos his FL is bloody irresponsible. My method has always been teaching the person how to do something, rather than doing it for him. I can do this once or twice for you, but don't think you can rely on me (unless you're paying me!). If you don't want to learn.. then that's your business. (Not to say that he isn't!!)
So, I (will try) never nag. At most I'll mention it a few times. Like, have you done this and that? Didn't you say you were doing it? If you still don't do it. Then too bad. I won't bother anymore. It's your life. Your choice. Your onus.
When I wait for you, don't expect me to wait forever. You say okok after this game .. but then play another .. and another. Screw that. I'm going home.
Hmz, if I sound angry, well that's cos I am.. I'm always angry :@ There's this strong latent anger and impatience which throbs inside.
Basically I keep feeling that there's no more time. And well actually there isn't! It's always marching onward and onward, and I still feel like a fucking entry level dude =.= urghz
There are people who prefer to do the same job day in day out... Get pay, increment, bonus and they are happy. They aren't wrong. But somehow I don't see myself doing that. I don't want to be Faceless Peon #2451511341. I was reading on CNA about the Mas Selamat case. A few peeps got fired cos of that.
So a bad thing happens, and they become the fall guys. Naturally no one wished for it to happen, but shit happened, and they were axed. What happens to them? Do they have enough money to pay for the housing loan? Their kid's education? Their car? Would it be easy for them to get another job? Would any security firm hire them (well since they are dealing with security, I'm assuming security firms)?
I don't want to be in the mercy of that..
Well sure, you can say .. hrm My job dun have any Mas Selamat lah, surely won't axe one. But .. you never know what happens. What if your company gets bought out? Or too low profits (or losses), and like Sun, to make the shareholders happy, just axe a bunch of employees? Shareholders are always happy when companies X ppl, but are the ppl happy? What are their plans?
So yeah .. time's running out.
Too many people just prefer to live everyday as it is. Go to work .. get paid... go home .. eat.. sleep .. whatever. Next day.. same shit. It's not wrong. Just.. BLAH. I don't want to live like that. I believe I can do more than that..
Hopefully.
Yes we can.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
New Shoes!
My Capitaland card is actually (finally) useful! Old shoes were opening their alligator mouths and I had to buy new shoes. Thank goodness I didn't buy them last week when I saw them cos the sale just came this week. And lo DBS actually mailed me that my Capitaland card can get 15% discount, even for discounted items..
In the end, I bought 2 pairs of shoes, and sadly .. none of them were discounted items.. The discounted stuff are too cheesy...
But at least.. new shoes!
And did you know .. Bata is actually an international company .. lol I always thought it was just an SG company .. =x
In the end, I bought 2 pairs of shoes, and sadly .. none of them were discounted items.. The discounted stuff are too cheesy...
But at least.. new shoes!
And did you know .. Bata is actually an international company .. lol I always thought it was just an SG company .. =x
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Failed wannabe yuppie?
So today, I learnt that members is pronounced as memberls. Highly irregular, since I don't remember seeing an L anywhere in M E M B E R. I don't care what you want to sound like, american, british or singaporean.. But there's NO L IN MEMBERS.
That is all.
That is all.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Stop the presses!
Omg! She's actually home when I reached home. Amazing. However I'm willing to bet everything, including my future munni, that she'll be out and will be probably back (probably? lol) by 3 or 4am
So I've been asked this question by a smartass. Eluding to the lateness in which dinner was made available.
The question was thus: Ask yourself, what time did I eat yesterday?
So the answer: Well at least I've never eaten FIRST then bought dinner back at my own leisure pace for you. Whereas you can happily be eating first with your friend (yes friends sure are important) while your sister is waiting at home starving for food.
Ask yourself another question too: Is it too overwhelmingly hard to drop an sms or something if you suddenly decide to stay overnight at some random place?
Get married already.
So I've been asked this question by a smartass. Eluding to the lateness in which dinner was made available.
The question was thus: Ask yourself, what time did I eat yesterday?
So the answer: Well at least I've never eaten FIRST then bought dinner back at my own leisure pace for you. Whereas you can happily be eating first with your friend (yes friends sure are important) while your sister is waiting at home starving for food.
Ask yourself another question too: Is it too overwhelmingly hard to drop an sms or something if you suddenly decide to stay overnight at some random place?
Get married already.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
$200
So today, I spent 200$... on a keyboard and mouse.
The most expensive KB and mouse I've ever bought. The previous mouse I had was like 70ish $, my MS Laser mouse.
Finally bought into the Razer hype and bought them. So far not too bad, the keyboard feels pretty good, nice click sound... The rubber feels weird for typing though, as though my nails will slowly wear them down, cut into the rubber and such. The mouse feels slightly too big for my hand at the moment.. can't really reach the scroll wheel comfortably.. Guess will get used to it in time.
Well now I have 2 Razer stickers... not sure where to stick them to.. Resurrection's casing..? On the Keyboard itself? Hmm... Iono!
Here's a pic of the mouse and keyboard, and part of Resurrection's casing. All blue! + Black casing and monitor! Kinda matches huh.. But actually I wanted the mouse with the red lights.. but they didn't carry it .. =(
Drat, the keyboard's supposed to have blue lights on its keys too, but somehow it isn't captured in the picture.. Oh well just imagine it has blue light!
The most expensive KB and mouse I've ever bought. The previous mouse I had was like 70ish $, my MS Laser mouse.
Finally bought into the Razer hype and bought them. So far not too bad, the keyboard feels pretty good, nice click sound... The rubber feels weird for typing though, as though my nails will slowly wear them down, cut into the rubber and such. The mouse feels slightly too big for my hand at the moment.. can't really reach the scroll wheel comfortably.. Guess will get used to it in time.
Well now I have 2 Razer stickers... not sure where to stick them to.. Resurrection's casing..? On the Keyboard itself? Hmm... Iono!
Here's a pic of the mouse and keyboard, and part of Resurrection's casing. All blue! + Black casing and monitor! Kinda matches huh.. But actually I wanted the mouse with the red lights.. but they didn't carry it .. =(
Drat, the keyboard's supposed to have blue lights on its keys too, but somehow it isn't captured in the picture.. Oh well just imagine it has blue light!
Friday, April 25, 2008
Buh
So .. I started yet another blog. But this time it's supposed to chronicle my endeavours in extra money making. http://lfmoney.blogspot.com hopefully it'll chronicle more green stuff than red stuff =p
Also set up adsense on these blogs... maybe can hopefully make some money? But they don't seem to be appearing. zzz. But not likely, given the extremely low traffic of these blogs.. hehe
I was checking the stats of palindrone, and sadly it's empty! Zomg. But I haven't finished my story yet.. need to pick it up again and finish it, it's meant to be a short story anyways, about 3 - 4 parts. Will have to read it up again and start composing, since Snooks doesn't seem to be able to save emails once they are sent out.
Also set up adsense on these blogs... maybe can hopefully make some money? But they don't seem to be appearing. zzz. But not likely, given the extremely low traffic of these blogs.. hehe
I was checking the stats of palindrone, and sadly it's empty! Zomg. But I haven't finished my story yet.. need to pick it up again and finish it, it's meant to be a short story anyways, about 3 - 4 parts. Will have to read it up again and start composing, since Snooks doesn't seem to be able to save emails once they are sent out.
Monday, April 14, 2008
How I (finally) got my stupid PHP to work
/configure --with-apxs2 --with-pear --with-gd --enable-pdo --with-pdo_sqlite --with-zlib --with-mysqli --with-mcrypt=/opt/local/var/macports/software/libmcrypt/2.5.8_0/opt/local --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-pdo-mysql=/usr/local/mysql --with-curl --enable-calendar --enable-gd-native-ttf --with-ttf=/usr/X11R6 --with-freetype-dir=/usr/X11R6 --with-jpeg-dir --with-xpm-dir --enable-soap
-_-
Hope these are all the extensions needed
-_-
Hope these are all the extensions needed
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Installing RRDTools on OSX
Phew.. Finally got the darn thing to install...
I better put this in here for posterity.
sudo cp /usr/X11R6/include/ft2build.h /usr/X11R6/include/freetype2/
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/gtk/lib/pkgconfig"
CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/X11R6/include/libpng -I/usr/X11R6/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/lib -I/opt/gtk/include/libart-2.0 -I/opt/gtk/include -I/usr/local -I/usr/X11R6"
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/local/lib"
CFLAGS=-O2
export CPPFLAGS LDFLAGS CFLAGS PKG_CONFIG_PATH
Your paths may vary
I better put this in here for posterity.
sudo cp /usr/X11R6/include/ft2build.h /usr/X11R6/include/freetype2/
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/gtk/lib/pkgconfig"
CPPFLAGS="-I/usr/X11R6/include/libpng -I/usr/X11R6/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/lib -I/opt/gtk/include/libart-2.0 -I/opt/gtk/include -I/usr/local -I/usr/X11R6"
LDFLAGS="-L/usr/X11R6/lib -L/usr/local/lib"
CFLAGS=-O2
export CPPFLAGS LDFLAGS CFLAGS PKG_CONFIG_PATH
Your paths may vary
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Blah
Yes! Finally back to blogging. Been too busy to do that (and expand on my story). Phew.
Hmmm where shall I start? Thailand mayhaps! Went to Bangkok during the Good Friday weekend. Was the first time there. So fun! Both G and I are slackers so no omg it's 7am we need to wake up now, kind of crap :p
We'd only sortie out at nearly 12pm :p
Did lots of shopping there. Totally no sightseeing. 1st trip where I spent almost all my money, even changed an extra 50$ over there.
So much variety there! Hardly any repeats at all. The sunflower seeds are fantastic too. Will need to ask people to buy for me if they go, heh.
Then it's back to Singapore and back to work again... Had a release due 1st April and there was lots undone. The front guys were overtaxed, the service guys were clueless. Sigh. My colleague and I volunteered to help out at QA, since there was only 1 person doing it. Zzz the staging server was so slow. Many things which were working didn't work, and many things which weren't working still didn't work. But finally, after burning the entire weekend plus Monday (getting home at like 2 to 3ish am) it's finally out! Seems fine so far...
But still feeling rather blah at the way things are done (and not done). I can't even get a database schema... Sigh
Ba must continue ebony's adventures soon! Dang!
Hmmm where shall I start? Thailand mayhaps! Went to Bangkok during the Good Friday weekend. Was the first time there. So fun! Both G and I are slackers so no omg it's 7am we need to wake up now, kind of crap :p
We'd only sortie out at nearly 12pm :p
Did lots of shopping there. Totally no sightseeing. 1st trip where I spent almost all my money, even changed an extra 50$ over there.
So much variety there! Hardly any repeats at all. The sunflower seeds are fantastic too. Will need to ask people to buy for me if they go, heh.
Then it's back to Singapore and back to work again... Had a release due 1st April and there was lots undone. The front guys were overtaxed, the service guys were clueless. Sigh. My colleague and I volunteered to help out at QA, since there was only 1 person doing it. Zzz the staging server was so slow. Many things which were working didn't work, and many things which weren't working still didn't work. But finally, after burning the entire weekend plus Monday (getting home at like 2 to 3ish am) it's finally out! Seems fine so far...
But still feeling rather blah at the way things are done (and not done). I can't even get a database schema... Sigh
Ba must continue ebony's adventures soon! Dang!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Back from Thailand! From Happy Fun Time!
Yo!
Finally got time to blog (in the midst of testing)
Back from Thailand liao, was pretty fun ^^. One of the few trips where I spent all my $ .. even after changing 50SGD more in BKK. -_-;;; In the end, I ended up with 170 baht hehe
The amazing thing was the variety! Tonnes and tonnes of stuff! I've been to the Chinatown of KL, the pasar malams of Vietnam, HCM, and well SG, and you'd go through 50 shops and see 5 unique items. In BKK, you HARDLY ever saw any repeated items... most of them were different! Not every item was nice though but .. @@ The variety!
We also had a massage every day =p, well except for Friday, but other than that, Every Day! Woo
!
... Bah guess I'll continue later, just suddenly remembered I have to do up a presentation .. urgh =x
Finally got time to blog (in the midst of testing)
Back from Thailand liao, was pretty fun ^^. One of the few trips where I spent all my $ .. even after changing 50SGD more in BKK. -_-;;; In the end, I ended up with 170 baht hehe
The amazing thing was the variety! Tonnes and tonnes of stuff! I've been to the Chinatown of KL, the pasar malams of Vietnam, HCM, and well SG, and you'd go through 50 shops and see 5 unique items. In BKK, you HARDLY ever saw any repeated items... most of them were different! Not every item was nice though but .. @@ The variety!
We also had a massage every day =p, well except for Friday, but other than that, Every Day! Woo
!
... Bah guess I'll continue later, just suddenly remembered I have to do up a presentation .. urgh =x
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
To know when to quit
Yes I need to do that. Lost all I made and more just because of that. I knew it wasn't good to go in but I still did. Note to self. Don't. Unless I've got a good feel of where it's going
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
There and back again
I realised, yesterday, that dentists are very good at conversations, one sided ones. Where else can you find a profession where you (actually) have a captive audience? And the best thing is your audience can never talk back at you, so you can say anything you want =p
It was fairly traumatising actually, getting my poor teeth mishandled like that (She was good, but my teeth! ><). The top one, understandable, but the bottom one .. :S Halfway through the entire procedure, I had visions of myself getting up and saying NO! No more!! Leave the teeth alone!!! ><. The rational side of me helpfully pointing out that it was impossible, she had already sawn through like half the tooth. Haiz, why did I remove that poor tooth.. it was fine! It was huge! It was merely impacted >
So now I'm 2 teeth short, with 1 week MC... Well at least I can use this 1 week to learn something I should have learnt some time ago...
Unexpectedly, I just spent 2 hrs plus spying on blogs. I haven't done such a thing for a really long time, but the mood suddenly hit me, and I remembered what Hogy said about CH, so I decided to take a peek at his blog. Hmmz seems like a lot of things have been happening in the old place. Well, the problems were already latent, I remember mentioning a few of them last time, but as usual nothing happened. Their 'pattern'... very obvious heh.
It was reading these blogs that put me in a more introspective mood, so far my blog posts have mainly been about work, nothing much on what's inside. But that's just me, everything inside.. is, well... inside.
I met up with Hogy on my birthday, had a very nice dinner at this Brittany place. Yum~. We talked about a bunch of things, and he was saying I am too rational. Hmm can there ever be too much rationalism?
Actually it's kinda scary, the level of rationalising I do (which is too much). Somehow relationships are mainly viewed in + and - terms and their final value is calculated from some secret formula... Hmmz this didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, but it's probably the self protection mechanisms =p
I think, what I'm trying to say (obliquely) is the level of openness. Of course, I don't try to leverage on people, I try to be open. If I'm recommending something, I lay it all down, play it straight. Never going to play it otherwise, just not my style. But on the more emotional level, it's pretty much restricted zones everywhere. Highly irregular.
I'm not sure if I'll ever reach a high level of openness with anyone, it's just not programmed into my circuits ><; Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Thinking about the old place, I guess I'm glad to have left. To think I almost would have stayed. At that time it wasn't really about the $ (Well NOW it would be heh), it was more of principle, more of the work that I did. It was (and is) sad that the Product that we spent so long developing, and pretty feature complete, would probably never see the light of day, just because Someone wants it to be omfg! Splashed on macworld the moment it's released. The Tool we've all been waiting for! To release the oppressed masses! Everything AND the kitchen sink!
Have they done focus groups for that?
Haha
Well that aside, it IS a pretty useful tool for certain jobs.
Moving on with focus groups... It's been a rather .. interesting week last week, many changes. Some kind of abrupt. But hedging safely I guess. Kinda traumatising to be yanked from a team and stuffed into another, although they were quick to reassure us that yes! We still want you guys! You're not entirely useless to us!
I guess I'm kind of blase about the whole thing. Basically, I know my direction, although I'm not sure if I can get there.. But HEY! If Daxx can do it... I can too! >< maybe? But of course I need to hedge my bets too. Daxx's route isn't the easiest either. But at least it gives the power of Choice. As I told Hogy on Saturday, Choice is what I want. Choice is what's in short commodity nowadays.
Sometimes I feel like giving up ... it's too hard to learn.. not seeing any returns, keep losing .. But thinking about Daxx and Choice ... and Freedom of course... Gotta trudge on .........
Where is the exit?
It was fairly traumatising actually, getting my poor teeth mishandled like that (She was good, but my teeth! ><). The top one, understandable, but the bottom one .. :S Halfway through the entire procedure, I had visions of myself getting up and saying NO! No more!! Leave the teeth alone!!! ><. The rational side of me helpfully pointing out that it was impossible, she had already sawn through like half the tooth. Haiz, why did I remove that poor tooth.. it was fine! It was huge! It was merely impacted >
So now I'm 2 teeth short, with 1 week MC... Well at least I can use this 1 week to learn something I should have learnt some time ago...
Unexpectedly, I just spent 2 hrs plus spying on blogs. I haven't done such a thing for a really long time, but the mood suddenly hit me, and I remembered what Hogy said about CH, so I decided to take a peek at his blog. Hmmz seems like a lot of things have been happening in the old place. Well, the problems were already latent, I remember mentioning a few of them last time, but as usual nothing happened. Their 'pattern'... very obvious heh.
It was reading these blogs that put me in a more introspective mood, so far my blog posts have mainly been about work, nothing much on what's inside. But that's just me, everything inside.. is, well... inside.
I met up with Hogy on my birthday, had a very nice dinner at this Brittany place. Yum~. We talked about a bunch of things, and he was saying I am too rational. Hmm can there ever be too much rationalism?
Actually it's kinda scary, the level of rationalising I do (which is too much). Somehow relationships are mainly viewed in + and - terms and their final value is calculated from some secret formula... Hmmz this didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to, but it's probably the self protection mechanisms =p
I think, what I'm trying to say (obliquely) is the level of openness. Of course, I don't try to leverage on people, I try to be open. If I'm recommending something, I lay it all down, play it straight. Never going to play it otherwise, just not my style. But on the more emotional level, it's pretty much restricted zones everywhere. Highly irregular.
I'm not sure if I'll ever reach a high level of openness with anyone, it's just not programmed into my circuits ><; Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
Thinking about the old place, I guess I'm glad to have left. To think I almost would have stayed. At that time it wasn't really about the $ (Well NOW it would be heh), it was more of principle, more of the work that I did. It was (and is) sad that the Product that we spent so long developing, and pretty feature complete, would probably never see the light of day, just because Someone wants it to be omfg! Splashed on macworld the moment it's released. The Tool we've all been waiting for! To release the oppressed masses! Everything AND the kitchen sink!
Have they done focus groups for that?
Haha
Well that aside, it IS a pretty useful tool for certain jobs.
Moving on with focus groups... It's been a rather .. interesting week last week, many changes. Some kind of abrupt. But hedging safely I guess. Kinda traumatising to be yanked from a team and stuffed into another, although they were quick to reassure us that yes! We still want you guys! You're not entirely useless to us!
I guess I'm kind of blase about the whole thing. Basically, I know my direction, although I'm not sure if I can get there.. But HEY! If Daxx can do it... I can too! >< maybe? But of course I need to hedge my bets too. Daxx's route isn't the easiest either. But at least it gives the power of Choice. As I told Hogy on Saturday, Choice is what I want. Choice is what's in short commodity nowadays.
Sometimes I feel like giving up ... it's too hard to learn.. not seeing any returns, keep losing .. But thinking about Daxx and Choice ... and Freedom of course... Gotta trudge on .........
Where is the exit?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Zzz
The Voice of Optimism is chirping again. Being greatly optimistic about stuff. Want to stare it down. What are you so happy about?
Been too busy this week to continue my story, if anyone's still waiting for the 3rd instalment. Part 3 should be out soon! In 2 weeks!
Every day, I go over The Plan and Motivation. It's been consuming my mornings and evenings, well any time when I have spare time. Hopefully it will work for me... Time to start registering for a real
Been too busy this week to continue my story, if anyone's still waiting for the 3rd instalment. Part 3 should be out soon! In 2 weeks!
Every day, I go over The Plan and Motivation. It's been consuming my mornings and evenings, well any time when I have spare time. Hopefully it will work for me... Time to start registering for a real
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