Browsed by
Month: September 2002

Computer, multitask! -ROGER-

Computer, multitask! -ROGER-

Sometimes, I marvel at my own multitasking skills. Although, they are not as well-honed as a typical Pentium 4, but not too bad for flesh and blood. Unless I am a cyborg then. (Argh! Too much Science Fiction!) 2 tables of internet mahjong, eating grapes, listening to mp3, writing blog. Therefore, as you might have guessed, I am not doing too well a job at any of them. I have lost miserably at one of the mahjong tables. Luckily, the other one looks rather promising, with me leading for the last 3 rounds. Arh! What a lousy entry…. I guess I can’t really multitask when there is a need for depth of thought. (Right, you never knew that I am a person of depth?!) ~~~ My 1/2 cent worth of thoughts!!~~~ * Only half a cent left.

Complaints Complaints…

Complaints Complaints…

I have just gone through my last few posts. Gosh! A whole lot of complaints! I am not really such an unhappy person, am I?!

New resolution of the year : Think happy thoughts, write happy posts, be happy!

This day would have been perfect, if not for the freezing temperature of 5 degrees outside (it should have been at least 15 degrees!!), tonnes of work… ooops. I mean.. What a beautiful day this is, look at the little birds, so enthusiastically freezing in the cold. A lot of work is good, so that my brain juices can be kept flowing and I wouldn’t be senile in my twilight years..

Gosh! Ain’t I cheerful today?!

My First Fan Mail!

My First Fan Mail!

Ah Hah! A mail from the blog website. Oh well, usually, I receive only insulting mails from friends or questionable ones from anonymous people, who probably have horrible names and are too embarrassed to put them down. The mails that I hate most, second to spams, are anonymous mails! What is wrong with these people!? Do they have an unspeakable past, present or future?

Ok, ok, enough about them. Today, I received my very first fan mail, from a stranger named Diana. Thanks Diana! You have made my day! I shall endeavour to write more undepressing (har?! Is there such a word??) blogs, throw myself into work with abandon and be a good employee for today.

Drama-mama

Drama-mama

1. Open one eye… feel around the refridgerator.. waffles waffles… where are you? Grin stupidly. There you are! Sluggishly tug the bag… Jam jar slide, slide, sliding… Oh Shit! Open both eyes!… piang!! %@%!%#@ Totally awake now… Pick up the glass bits.. curse and swear… wipe the floor.. pray that there are no more glass splinters on the floor.

2. Damn damn! stupid jar! 10 minutes late. At the door. Stare at empty space. My driver drove off without me. Drizzling, cold. Sigh big time. Ride bicycle to work. Hands freezing, me wet.

3. Stupid computer, still drunk from the coke it drank last Friday.

4. Great. They have finished assembling my parts. At least one thing did not go wrong today. Hum happily. Pick up the fixture. Pins, glass and eyelets start trickling through the gaps. Sheisse! Ah Wei, you bloody idiotic moron! Find the nice lady who assembled the parts for me smoking at the stairways. In broken German, Erm.. I .. didn’t know that .. .. the parts fell out… erm.. sorry… Manage to look utterly pathetic and apologetic. Nah.. Don’t worry! I will assemble them again Brighten up! You.. you will? Phew.. If I have to assemble them myself, that will probably take 8 hours. Wipe sweat off brow.

5. Relieved, walk to the stairs to go back to the office. Aaarrhh… ouch.. !!! Slip and fall. Sit on my ankle. Look wonderously at twisted ankle. This is really my day. Same old ankle which I sprained 3 weeks ago and still hasn’t healed. Pick up ankle, twist it back into place. Stagger down the stairs.

6. Yes.. Lunchtime! Dig around the bag. Pour content of bag onto table. ARGH! Where’s my lunchbox!! From the corner of my eye, I see it still lying on the kitchen table. Prima!

I can just see the beginning of a great new week.

NB : The above story and characters are purely not ficticious.

Drunk Lappy!

Drunk Lappy!

This•is•just•great! My•laptop•said•it•was•thirsty. So, being•a•kind•owner, I•satisfied•its•demands. See•what•happened… It•got•so•sick, that•it•became•dysfunctional!!! This•is•agonizing, forming•words, character•by•character, with•a•mouse•and•the•charactr•map. Moral•of•the•story — Never•give•in•to•a•computer!!!

Thursday Night Movie

Thursday Night Movie

This is an amazing little town, the one I live in. They do not have self operated washing machines at all, except for the laundry shops which charge about 3 euros for washing one shirt. Duh!!! I will probably be so broke that I have to hike back to Singapore on foot.

“Does everyone have one at home?? I asked my landlord, “Are you going to bring a washing machine here?”

“No…”

“Are there any washing salons in this town?”

-Blank Look-

“So what do you suggest I do with my clothes?” Fold arms.

“You can use the washing machine in my house.”

“So.. Where do you live?”

He pointed to some *ulu location on the map. “There!”

Ok, great, that would be one hour’s bicycle ride from here. Just great.

So what do all these have to do with the Thurday night movie? Be patient, the best things come last.

That solution didn’t really appeal to me, so I ended up handwashing my clothes everyday! Yes, me! You can’t believe it? Neither can I! This must be retribution!

A guy, I knew from Mainz (the town where I first worked in), came along and moved into the house next to mine. As you could have guessed, he didn’t have a washing machine as well. They should do something with the rental contracts in this town!!! Anyway, after a wild goose chase in vain, we decided to request for the use of the washing machine (one and only one which is coin operated) in the basement of the building in which the company apartment was located.(Please do not ask me, why they didn’t put me there in the first place, to save me all the trouble!).

Thursday, yesterday was Thursday. There was only one machine between the 2 of us!? Each cycle takes about one hour!!! Resigned, we sat down on the laundry room’s floor. Stupid me didn’t bring any entertainment, all I had in my bag was washing powder, a few coins and my cell phone. Thank goodness, the radio on the cell phone worked. He read an Ikea magazine from head to toe, left to right, whatever for at least 30 minutes. I was going to borrow the mag from him and read for myself, what was so interesting in it. Not only that, It didn’t help, that the laundry room was in the basement, stuffy, smell of washing powder, wet clothes, cold floor etc…People kept popping their heads in and giving us wierd looks, wondering what 2 idiots were doing, one reading an Ikea mag, the other playing games on the cell phone…..in the laundry room.

Next week, there will be 2 loads of clothes and that will take 2 hours at least! *Shiver* I have decided to make a contribution by bringing my laptop and vcds. We have decided to entertain ourselves by watching old movies .. IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM! So tune in next Thursday for ‘You’ve Got Mail!’ (I have watched this like 3 times already!!!!!)

*ulu (Malay) = Deserted (English) = Niao Bu Shen Dan, Birds don’t lay eggs (Chinese)

~~~ Tune in the Channel Laundry Room for the hilarious comedy, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Please go to the IMDB Website for reviews. ~~~

Good Morning Good Morning Good Morning!

Good Morning Good Morning Good Morning!

Yawn!

The morning is not so good afterall. Due to bleary eyes and shivering fingers…. here comes the pointy points…

1. Every morning, I swear to myself, that I will sleep at 10pm that very night, or I will be a $%§%$§%$” (You guess the meaning.)

2. 9.45pm Oooh! Another 15 minutes…. Surf net…

3. Hmm… The computer screen seems to be moving…

4. Looks up at the clock.. Oh damn! Midnight! When did it become midnight! It was just 9.45 a minute ago!

5. Power off, toilet business, brush teeth, wash face, remove my thick spectacles, plomp into bed (oh! I forgot the lights!), look at clock, argh, 1210!

6. Eyes shut, poof!

7. RRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGG!!!!!! BBBBBEEEEEPPPPP!!!!! BBBBRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! (The sounds made by 2 alarm clocks, 1 watch, 1 handphone, which includes vibrating).

8. Hhhuuuhhh…. It’s morning already?

9. Brings clock within 1mm of eyes, force them open… OH SHIT! 6.20!! OH no Oh no… They are supposed to ring at 6!!!! Stupid clocks!

10. I swear to myself I will sleep at 10pm tonight or I am a %$%&§%$&§. That reminds me… get another alarm clock.

You and I, different??!

You and I, different??!

My dear friend commented on my style of writing for my emails. I go systematically in point form and followed the order of the paragraphs of the previous mail, so that they referred to each other sequentially. As for her, her thoughts are peppered throughout the whole mail. Looking at her blog (Nana’s Tots), I tend to agree on that, we write differently too. She likes to focus more on personal feelings and emotions, on the other hand, although I do drop a few at times, but mostly, they are about more impersonal stuff.

I am beginning to observe the way my friends pen their emails and letters and am finding some sort of similiarities between the technical and ‘arts’ people. The technical folks write in order, in point form and stuff about the world and opinions, whereas the ‘arts’ kingdom expresses itself with more personal yous and mes.

Well, maybe the training we received in those 10 odd years have finally reconfigured our brains. I am trained in the technical field, but somehow, wistfully, I wish that I am able to express myself better with words and not with numbers and equations. However, in the country where I come from, we are labelled for life for the choices we made when we were 13. Once an engineer, always an engineer. Only a few managed to escape from this stereotyping. You and I, the differences stay with us til the end of our lives.

Walk of Silence

Walk of Silence

After provoking comments like “You walk like a dinosaur!” and strange looks from people as I thumped through the corridor, I have decided to make walking in silence the study for this week. Today, I have discovered the miraculous solution and from now on, I would walk as silently as an elephant, erm.. I mean, swan (wait a minute, do swans walk?!), well, you know what I mean and as gracefully as a flamingo. People will turn their heads around, to catch a glimpse of such a beautiful walker. I shall let all of you into this discovery….

1. Take mincing small steps (Walk as if your feet are bounded and will topple any time)

2. Slow is the keyword (An accurate pace would be to reach 100m in 10 minutes, then you will be safe.)

3. A deep breath before treading as though on air before each step (Although you will be short of breath for the first few tries, but practice makes perfect.)

There, now we will have a world of catwalk models. Although this is the secret recipe to graceful walking, I can’t really stand torturing myself like that. Patience, my dear! I do so like to move quickly, get from point A to B in the shortest possible time route, drive at 50km/h above the limit, ride the speedboat instead of the slowpoke bumboat (gosh, I can never spell this word!). To do this every day will shorten my life by a few years each time. Therefore, to upkeep this image, I have decided to walk in slow torturous grace whenever I can. Along the corridor, as a door is opened and closed, thump thump thump, 3 big steps (under the camouflage of the banging of the doors), then small steps again. Life is a then, a little more bearable.