I've got my own button!

Scroll down. It's somewhere near the bottom of the sidebar. Please use them when you're linking to my blog. Thanks! :)

Courtesy of Kalsey Consulting

Hello BloggerBot: Good v.s. Bad

Good:

• Very easy to use, pretty much idiot-proof (except maybe the worst idiots)
• Free photo storage!

Bad:

• Only supports JPEG
• Doesn't take advantage of the title and link fields in Blogger

Now, all I need is a digital camera and/or a camera phone, so I can actually use it. Anyone wanna give me a free one?

Testing out Hello BloggerBot

WOOHOOO!!!

The Dawn of a New Age?

So, it's official. PM Goh will be stepping down, and PAP MPs have "unanimously supported" DPM Lee Hsian Loong to be the next PM. The handover will be done some time in July, but the exact date has not been fixed yet.

Let's see where this change is gonna lead us.

(I can't help but wonder: Will Singapore's 4th PM be a Goh again? That'll be a pretty interesting pattern, dontcha think?)

Blogger's new features

*phew*

Finally finished refactoring and republishing my blog to take advantage of some of Blogger's new features. It would've been nice if Blogger automated some of the things though, like allowing you to apply the changes to all your old postings automatically, rather than making you do it manually.

Next: Start playing with the Hello BloggerBot.

Do you want these people to run your country?

Earlier this week, Bush delivered a speech at the War College about the White House policy on Iraq. He only mentioned Abu Ghraib, the prison notorious for the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, three times in the entire speech. And yet, in typical Bush fashion, he managed to butcher the pronunciation all three times. First, it was "Abugha-rayp". Then it was "Abu Garon". And finally, it was "Abu Garah". (Most Americans prononounce it as "Abu Grabe").

No wonder he picked the War College for that speech. Anywhere else, and at least half the audience would've been rolling in the aisles.

But inept politicians are not just an American thing. In India, also earlier this week, a politician announced that he refuses to accept the portfolio of minister of heavy industries and state enterprises because he found out that another politician has also been appointed for the same position.

And yet the next day, he was sitting in the minister's chair. His explanation? "I spoke to Sonia [Gandhi] and Congress, and they told me to run the office until they sort everything out".

Yeah, right.

I HAVE GMAIL!

WOOHOO!!!! :D

Liberdad!

Yet another one of my ex-colleagues has left the company, and as usual, it was a reason to celebrate. (Quite shocked to find out last week that another ex-colleague left the company several weeks prior, too). We went to Embargo yesterday, and it was a pretty fun night, meeting all the old folks again. Plus, I also got some blog addresses. (Keat, if you're seeing this, the link should say "LiQuid!'s blog". Thanks. :P).

Well, anyway, I should be getting to bed now. Gotta be awake for my class at 9.00 a.m. I know I shouldn't be complaining, because I really want to do this, but bloody hell! I'll be glad when this is over. Well, 2 more weeks to go. Then, exams. Cisco's exam questions look pretty tough. Well, tricky, more than anything. And you can't go back if you happen to miss out on some small nuance in the question and picked the wrong answer. Which seriously sucks, of course. (Cisco certification exams are the only ones where you can't go back and correct your answer).

OK, enough. I really ought to be going off now. G'nite!

I have lost something very dear to me

On Wednesday night, I stayed back at the office to finish up on some work, and I had to take a cab home. I got off the cab, went to the Cheers store nearby to get a drink, before turning in. When I got out of the store, I realized that I've dropped my Zippo. In a panic, I retraced my steps, hoping that it might have dropped along the way, but of course it wasn't there. I called up the lost and found department, and when they asked me if I have the taxi number, I told them that I didn't.

But the thing is, of course, I did.

I only realized the next morning, when I was in the shower, that I do have the taxi number. Since the company is paying for my taxi fare, I asked for a receipt before I got off. And the taxi number, of course, was on the receipt! I quickly got out of the shower and called them up again, giving them the taxi number. Of course, by this time it was too late, but I was still holding on to that sliver of hope. But, of course, as the way thing always go, the driver couldn't find it. My Zippo, the one that my friends gave to me for my 21st, the one with my name etched on the side.

I can't help banging my head over it, especially over how stupid I was. If I'd remembered about the receipt before I went to bed, I could've at least had a better chance of getting it back. (Plus, I did stay up pretty late that night, worried as I was. Think I turned in at about 3.00 a.m.).

So now, I am Zippo-less and feel like a total bloody idiot. Not a very good way to start the weekend.

P.S.: Seems like Blogger has a new interface. Kinda like the old one better, not too many tabs to click, and you can do everything from one page. Ah well... such is the price of progress (and marketing).

Little Blessings

Today was shaping up to be a hellishly hot day. When I went out of my room this morning, I was struck by a wall of heat that seemed to emanate from every single object around me. The sun not so much a warm yellow, but a steel-hot white. I had to steel myself and plunge into the boiling sea of air to reach the meagre coolness of the shower. Stepping out of the house, I knew this was going to be a long and arduous day for me.

And then the sky suddenly darkened and a light rain fell like a gentle mist upon the scorched earth.

Thank goodness for little blessings. :)

P.S.: The office was also peacably quiet today. (Especially since that loud, annoying cow is not here today. Let's hope it stays this way for a while). Yet another little blessing. This turned out to be one of the better Mondays, after all.

We live in interesting times

Was at the office earlier when a convoy of fire engines and ambulances screamed past the window. Turns out, that a portion of the highway near my old office collapsed. (My new office is about 15 minutes away from my old office). The first thing that people thought was that it was a terrorist attack. What happened, though, was that a tunnel they were excavating for the new train line collapsed, and the stress proved too much on the surrounding area. The traffic jams are gonna be pretty bad for a while, I guess. There were massive blackouts in the surrounding area, too.

Weird thing is, my ex-colleagues from the old office had no idea what was going on until I told them. Talk about the typical ignorant Singaporean. :P

Another thing, my flat is near yet another construction site for the same tunnel. Woah... that can't be good. :\

I feel like I'm back in school again...

So, I went for my Cisco lessons today, and just before we finished, the instructor gave us an assignment to do for next week.

Hoo boy, I feel like I'm back in school again! :P

Firefox

Finally upgraded to Firefox 0.8 after much procrastination, and it's just getting better and better. (For the uninformed, Firefox used to be Firebird, and before that it was Phoenix. They kept the version ordering though). I didn't see any large improvements on Thunderbird 0.5, though, barring better stability and speed.

Try them out! It'll be the best thing you've ever done for yourself (and your PC).

Death to the American infidels!

So, I heard on the news today that a new (purported) Osama tape was aired, where he offered a truce to Europe, provided they stop attacking Muslims. But, naturally, there will be "no truce for the U.S.!". Heh.

Speaking of which, apparently Bush finally admitted that he would've gone into Iraq whether or not there were weapons of mass destruction there. So what I've been telling you guys all this time is true, after all. He just wants to prove that he's a bigger man than his dad and finish the invasion of Iraq. :P

Resistance is futile

Despite not caring one whit about NKF's annual charity shows, I seem to run into them year after year. Last year, it was the bicycle cage thing in Bugis Junction. This year, it's the bunch of people in orange jumpsuits rappelling up and down a HDB block near my place. I saw them on my way home today, and all I could think was, "Who the heck is gonna wash the windows after they're done?" :P

Never talk to strangers

Went to the NTUC near my place last Friday to get some shampoo and stuff. As I was searching for the stuff that I need, I felt a pair of eyes looking at me. I turned and saw a little girl of about 4 or 5 staring at me. I spotted her mum a little way away looking through the stuff on the shelves as well. So I waved to little girl and said "Hi". Little girl stared for a little longer as I went back to what I was doing, then ran back to her mummy shouting, "Mummy, mummy, stranger talk to me I never talk back!" Mummy looked up, surprised, and smiled drily at me.

Oh-kay....

I hate bugs

Not the kind that has more than 4 legs, but the one that creates problems in software (or in Microsoft's case, the one that becomes "features"). I've been fixing bugs for the past few weeks, and they never stop coming! Man, I can't wait for this project to be over....

Jazz and Jesus

OK. This is gonna be a long update, because I have been putting off updating for a really long time.

Last last Thursday (that's 2 weeks ago, just to be clear), I met Len for drinks at Jazz@South Bridge. I'm sorry to say that I've never even heard of the place until Len asked me if I wanted to go there. When we got there, I found out that an old acquaintance of mine is the drummer for the house band! (Talk about a small world, eh?) The music was great, and we really enjoyed it. I haven't been to a Jazz pub ever since Eldee Young last came to Somerset's Bar (which has since been closed down), so it was a real treat.

But that was just the appetizer.

When the band had their break, Boon Gee, my drummer friend, came over to talk with us, and we got to talking about Jeremy Monteiro, who I last saw at Somerset's Bar, having a drink and enjoying Eldee Youngs's music. And who should walk in, but the man himself! He's put on weight since I last saw him. A lot of weight. But the owner of the bar convinced him to play that night and that was a real treat. He played a whole set before the house pianist took over again, and he was awesome. Afterwards, the owner sat down with us and chatted for a bit, before he was accosted by the people from the next table.

Jazz@South Bridge is a real jazz club and I'm definitely going back there one of these days.

The next day, my project team had a buffet dinner at Hotel Plaza Parkroyal to celebrate the completion of the main bulk of coding for the project, and man that was a great buffet. They even had sashimi, which was really, really fresh. I managed to embarass myself by taking pictures using an empty camera, and only realizing it halfway through the dinner. :P

Anyhoo, after that, we went to watch The Passion of the Christ for free, because one of my colleagues has a friend who can get free tickets for the show. I secured 4 tickets for me and some friends, and I met up with them at the cinema. The show itself was really interesting, despite being almost entirely in Aramaic and Latin, that even Esther, who warned us that she might just walk out in the middle of the show if it's too boring stayed on to watch it until the end. (I said "almost", because in the beginning I heard Jesus saying "Not tonight, not tonight". I could be wrong, though).

(Just a bit of trivia. Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus in The Passion..., is starring next in a movie called Bobby Jones, about a golfer of the same name who retired at 28. Talk about versatility.).

Of course, the downside was that we had to work on Saturday, and naturally, everyone who watched the show came late. :P

Last week, on the other hand, was a long weekend. On Friday, Len introduced me to Yan, a friend of his from primary school. The three of us went to watch Taking Lives, which, incidentally, was a sucky movie. The ending was stupid, and Kiefer Sutherland was wasted in this movie. Kiefer Sutherland appeared only briefly -- not much more than a cameo, really. But I guess they put his name on the posters to sell the movie. The plot started off showing pretty good promise, but it was thrown away at about the 2/3 point of the show. The ending was absolutely duh and it was a total waste of money.

The next day, I went for my first Cisco certification session. The whole thing lasted from 1.30-9.00 p.m., but it was worth it. I learned a lot of new stuff from just one session and I'm looking forward for more. I just hope I'll pass the exam on the first try, because to have to retake it would be really expensive. Ah well... something to keep me occupied. Plus it looks great on my resume. :P

Going back to basics

Eagles are the most long-lived bird in the world. By the time they reach 40 years old, their claws started to age, losing their effectiveness making it hard for them to catch their preys. The lifespan of an eagle is up to 70 years old. But in order to live this long, the eagle must make the toughest decision when its at 40.

Their beaks began to grow long and curvy to the point that it reached its chest. Its wings are extremely heavy due to thickened and long feathers making flying extremely difficult. The eagle is left with 2 choices - Do nothing and await is death or go through a painful period of transformation and renewal.

For 150 days, it first trained itself to fly beyond the high mountains,build and live in its nest and cease all flying activities. It then began to knock its beak against granite rocks till its old beak completely removed. When the new beak is grown, it would use it to remove all its old claws and await quietly for all new claws to be fully grown.

When new claws are fully grown it would use these to remove all its feathers, one by one 5 months later, when feathers are fully grown, with renewed strength, it began soaring in the sky yet once again and was able to live for the next 30 years. In life, as individual or an organisation, sometimes,we have to learn to make difficult decisions so as to make room for changes. Changes bring about renewal. And the only way for us to soar again is to let go of old ways, old habits, old life.
For as long as we are prepared to put aside our old baggage (past glory or shame, past success or failures), be willing to become zero, with an empty cup mentality, we will be able to discover our potentials and head towards a renewed perspective in any aspect of our lives.

I've got so much shit it's fuckin' ridiculous

You know how to realize you have too much stuff? Move into a smaller room.

So, my landlord's decided to move back in and kicked me out of the master bedroom into a smaller room. And after moving over, I realized that I have too much stuff. I literally have to shove things off the bed just to be able to sleep, and then pile them back on in the morning so that I can get to the door. I'll eventually get it all sorted out, but it's gonna take time.

Ah, well, at least I have a place to stay, so I can't complain. Plus, sorting through my stuff now and getting rid of all the shit I don't need will make it easier when I eventually move out.

Aw, hell, who am I kidding? I've always known I had too much shit. But living in a big room meant that I can ignore the issue. So it's time to tell myself: "Buck up, buddy. You have too much shit and it's time to get rid of 'em."

*sigh...* I am so NOT looking forward to this. There goes my weekends.... :(