Meetings suck...

Some people hold meetings because it's somewhat nice to have one once in a while. So that we keep in touch and don't forget each other? Complete waste of time and who suffers? Those down there who help to prepare presentation materials (worst), organize meetings, record minutes (suay) , etc...

Some people hold discussion meetings don't know for what reason - they just sit back, relax, and do minimal. The worst lot of all are the ones who sit in just to show their faces (Yo, I'm looking just the same! Same old me! What the...).

When you expect people to comment, nobody does... okay, even if they sometimes do, it's of no help really because some only know the bird's language!

When you expect people to trash things out constructively, everyone becomes "yes" man (oh! this looks okay, quite good, not bad... etc), and bingo! The presenter becomes the genius of all morons.

Dictionary...

Guess what is this?

It's an electronic Chinese dictionary by Creative Technologies that is approved by the Singapore Examination & Assessment Board (SEAB) for use in CL composition examination. This means students no longer have to lug along a thick dictionary to the examination hall and frantically flipped through the pages to look for a word. All they have to do now, is to press a few buttons... and bingo, the words would appear before them on the little b&w screen. It'll read out to you if you do not know the pronunication... Recommended for those who're learning Mandarin cos' it's cheap (didi bought it at $25.20 in school; outside maybe more expensive - not sure).

Hmm... no doubt it's a good use of the cheap existing technology but I wonder if kids are being pampered too much nowadays and I wonder if subsequent generations will know what to do when thrown a 'paper' dictionary?

Busy Weekend

Busy weekend, if not because of work... would be most welcomed.

Friday night's gathering with my JC classmates over tom yum steamboat is a nice change from the last ikan bilis soup-based one. As promised, I'll provide free-of-charge the next round of 麻辣 stuff... and if possible, ah gong's home-made chilli cos' all those bottled chilli sauce really cannot make it.

We went for night cycling from Sat night to Sun morning. From East Coast Park to World Trade Centre, stopping in-between at lau pa sat for supper + gossips... hahah... I think it's more of a supper + gossips trip disguised as a cycling trip... and I got to know the interesting insider stories of things which I've never knew of or imagined of.

Too itchy... can't tahan... so went to contribute a freaking expensive $29 to the salary of yet another "can't-make-it" family doctor. I must document it here... so that in case I "suay suay" have it again, I'll just buy this easily obtainable flu medicine that double up to relieve itch... everyone should be very familiar with chloramine (there... the small yellow tab)...
Anyway, precisely:
(Morning: Cetirizine dHCL 10mg - Zyrtec; Night: Chloramine 4mg - Piriton; Apply: Betnovate cream)...

Then slept through the whole Sunday afternoon... waking up just-in-time to go for the bbq gathering with Uni Engin Club's friends... and my k750i babe helped to blast, at its loudest volume, 700mb of chinese mp3 for about 2.5hrs...

Insect bites thingy...

The "insect bites" thingy is back to haunt me again...

This time round, I choose not to see any "see-already-also-no-use" doctor (see previous encounter). I have my own calamine lotion. Plus, I think I know the cause (though I'm not 100% sure)... I suspect my skin is allergic to a kind of chinese "cream" that I apply externally on my blue-black area...

And hor, why do I always have gatherings when I'm scratching huh?
Today, steamboat at Kanny's hse... sunday, bbq at Vel's place...

Dae Jang Geum (大长今 / da chang jin)

This korean drama (大长今/Dae Jang Geum) was awesome. Simply irresistable.
It's a drama which makes one hate the interruptions of commercials to the core.
It's also a drama which makes one can't stand having to wait another day to watch the next episode.

Hohoho... my resourceful parents managed to grab hold of these vcds (more coming in soon)... haha...
And end all our miseries (especially mine... keep missing episodes).

Usually only didi and I will chase episodes after episodes of Korean/Taiwan/Japanese drama.
Haha... never would I expect dad and mom to join us in such acts. *observed same reactions at every disc change - QUICK is the word... (quick to change disc, quick to fast forward the unnecessary, and of course, quick to grab a drink + toilet break)* tsk tsk tsk... crazy (but I like it). ;p

But more importantly, it has definitely created even more opportunities to spend enjoyable time together chatting and discussing while watching. Amazing.

Design...

Sometimes I wonder why I'm not in the design field... hmm...
Not that my designs are good... errr...
But I think they will be if given enough training, exposure and opportunities... emm...
I really think so... uh...
But then thinking of it is one matter, putting a foot into it is another... yah lor...
Better leave it as a hobby thing... yup.

MBA for toddlers

When I read this in the papers... "Toddlers signing up for ‘MBA’ courses in China"
I was like... OH GOSH!
Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
Nowadays there are freaking ridiculous parents who think they can help their children gain a headstart by signing them up for EMBA (where E stands for Early) business administration programme (set up by money-suckers) at the young age of three.
Three? Nightmare! Torturous! What were you doing when you were three????
Sigh! These are the kiasu parents thieves who steal the precious toddler years from their little tots and deprived them the rights to play and enjoy.

Ballot Secrecy

Voting's a secret. Votes are secret. These I know.
(I still remember the "chant": 投票是神圣的，投票是秘密的。）
It’s easy to find out the number of votes for each party for each polling stations/districts. This I also know.
But I just realize that there are serial numbers on each voting slip.
SO, Would the serial number be tagged to each individual or recorded as it is issued?

Not that I wanted to draw a tortoise or a pig on the voting slip.
Not that I wanted to write something crude or bad in there.
You know I won’t because I am good by nature (also read as “kiasi” ;p) and will never play play with my voting rights.

Anyway, share with you smth written by someone with the nick of "Foreign Talent" in Channelnewsasia Forum:

Scene at Voting Centre:
You hand in you NRIC with the voting card they sent you.
One chap will read out loudly your Name and IC Number,
as though announcing the arrival of a VIP,
Another chap will look into the Register book and ensure that the data
are correct against your NRIC and the voting card.
He then makes a marking against your data and hand you the Voting Slip
which has the serial number, that is also written in one of the columns in the Register book.

Are the above true? I mean the process (written in a comical way though)... ;p

Anyway, enough of all these nonsense... now I know the official answer (in full) to my question.

SO, DON'T PLAY PLAY...

知。不知。

即使亲身目睹某人的小动作，大行动
都无法明确的解释，述说，和理解那一举一动背后的原因。
更何况是听说的。

那是为简单的爱，为片孝心，为义气，为名利，为权利，为私利，为一切的一切都好
大家只能猜，能说，能谈，能辩，能论，能八卦
但事实的真相只有天知，地知，和当事人知。
你我都不知。

渐渐地明白：
少管闲事，做足本份，最简单。

台前。幕后。

做台前的，易博出位，被发掘，受肯定。很讨好！
但付出的代价是隐私。
搞幕后的，不亮相，常被忽略，被遗忘。很低调！
是场外的无名角色。
虽说两者都不可缺，身为观众的你，曾以平等的角度注视台前与幕后的工作者吗？
很残酷的，大概多数都不会！
虽然如此，这世界还是会有为了秤砣闪烁满天星而牺牲的黑夜，和懂得欣赏这一幕和给于星夜公平肯定的观众。

I played a few tricks on didi...

First day...
Puzzle 0: I pulled out the USB plug of the keyboard
[He still managed to go online... so it's too simple (as expected).]

Second day...
Puzzle 1: I meddled with the "zoom" function on the Onscreen display of the monitor to make the whole screen looked small.
Puzzle 2: I deleted his online game shortcut... and asked him to put it back himself.
I did leave "stories" (hints) on the wallpaper...
[All solved when I went back to take a look... no kick, I guessed...]

Third day...
Puzzle 3: I swopped the left and right function of the mouse...
Again, I left a story (with hint) on the wallpaper...
[Again, solved...]

All along, I thought he knew I was behind all these... but I was wrong. He didn't.

On the night of the third day... I realized that on the first day, he went to tell my mum off (asked her to be more careful when she sweep the floor). *LOL*
kekek... and for the tricks I pulled on day 2 and 3, he thought the com was down with virus... Kids are forever so frank (& adorable) and this is precisely why chating with him can be very fun & enjoyable... (he never knew what it's like when a com is down with virus, only heard about it... that's why)... then I told him that those nasty people who wrote those virus would not be so nice to leave hints around... Anyway, he told me he was quite fed-up initially cos' not familiar and not sure what exactly to do...

(see... this is precisely why I decided to let him explore the com more... yup, for his own good...)

Anyway, the game shall continue when I have the time... and I think he's looking forward to it...

Hectic wk...

The more significant bits:

I realized on 1st April via news on TV that it was the first day for the sign-up of the Progress Package thingy and for a moment, I thought it was an April Fool's joke (but of course, it wasn't). Hmm... I actually signed up on 30th March. (Why am I so blur...) But anyway, I don't think it matters cos the system recognized that I've already signed up when I login to double check.

*****

Recently we were given two difficult songs to play and this had somewhat driven ML & I a little 'crazy' on top of our daily dosage of work. Maybe our fingers are too stiff. Maybe we didn't have enough time to practice (yup yup!). Maybe it's too difficult. Maybe we are just not used to it. Maybe... Anyway, we just felt like all our fingers somewhat needed to "fly quite a bit here and there". These 'transits' are not smooth and the 'landings' are also not accurate. Listen to us play is akin to listening to songs played using a faulty CD/player... quite a bit of skipping (i.e. gets stuck, jumps back, and repeats a few seconds). Haiz, sian diao. But luckily I always do enough to scrap through - hence, no owing of homework (poor ML, need to repeat next week...).

*****

I "agreed" to help go through a fyp report. Guessed what? I just flipped randomly (I haven't even started going through its technical contents and flow) and I've already found lots of unacceptable mistakes in areas like: listing of references/labeling of tables & figures/font size/formating). *faint* Actually the work done by this person is pretty good (except for one obvious technical mistake - how could one discuss this but not realize it doesn't make sense?) but the work is not well documented (lacks flow and clarity).