New year, new decor, new thoughts...

I've seen all kinds of decor (e.g. visitor counters) on blogs, but today I saw for the first time a CLOCK on a blog. It's not the typical digital chronometer, it looks (and operates) just like a traditional clock.

I realised some of my friends like to limit the readership of their blogs (so that they can condemn people more freely??), therefore I don't link directly to their websites. But I think the clock my friend has is from www.bloguru.com.

On a totally different note, I'd like to say that I've reached the end of the (lunar) year with a new conclusion:

• When something unpleasant occurs and it bothers you greatly, it doesn't always mean you can't let go, but rather it's on your mind because it matters a lot.


• When you keep thinking of the worst case scenarios, it doesn't always mean you're a pessimist, but rather you're facing up to the situation and preparing for the worst.


• When you keep yourself fully occupied so that your mind doesn't keep wandering, it doesn't always mean you are good at handling your problems, but rather you're trying to escape from the problem.

My family has planned to go Thailand for the coming holidays. Hope to overload the server with photos when I return.

The last tale for the Year of the Chicken

During one day of their lonely quarter life, 3 miserable souls decided that they had missed out too much being single and decided to look for BIG O (suppposed to represent "orgasm"). They went down to Wheelock Place together after work, without letting anyone else know, hoping to have the time of their lives.

A list of selections was presented to the 3 upon their arrival and they pondered over every choice carefully, each wanting to ensure that their very 1st experience there would remain unforgettable. The 1st guy thought, "Since I'm going to end up in hot soup for coming here I shall order 'The most famous stew'." The 2nd guy had nothing but dirty thoughts on his mind, hence he figured that "Dirty rice" would suit him just fine. When it came to the 3rd guy's turn, all he cared about was to叫鸡, and thus settled for "Chicken-rice cordon bleu".

And then, they waited for their BIG Os.


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I finally gave Fengchun and Yuxiang the treat I owed them (for getting my 1st job) after so many weeks of delay and further delay. We ordered a main and a mudpie each (but we chose our mudpies 1st), and surprisingly, it was the mudpie that satisfied us more than the main did. At least that was the case for me. That was also the 1st time I used my POSB debit card, but no, I didn't feel anything special when I signed my name on the receipt. Well, I guess I felt that my signature is a bit crooked but that's about it.

After dinner, we decided the night was still young and some post-dinner entertainment is necessary. There wasn't much choice for us - there wasn't enough time for us to go KTV (no marathon = not enough), the nearest bowling alley is Marina Square - it's either pool or LAN games for us, and we went for LAN games.

We just played a game that we've never tried before, attempting to fulfill the objectives but never got to complete it. We were playing rather senselessly, and 3 hours flew by before we realised it. Some people would call it a waste of money, spending 3 hours on a 'new game' trying to win a battle that could not be won, but senseless fun is still fun to me and I like doing it with friends.

Holding on to the money doesn't make me a happier person anyway. Just don't do it too often.

Questions

What is the extent you would go to for a close friend?

Personally, I don't believe a true friend would ever use the phrase, "If you're my friend, you would help me", because as a true friend I'd offer my help without you asking in the 1st place.


What is the extent you would go to for a relative?

Blood is thicker than water no doubt. Classic examples of how people have spent every minute of their life caring for sickly (such as permanently bed-ridden) family members can be found in the newspapers from time to time. However, I don't think I'll ever fit into such an example.


Why do I seem to treat my friends better than my own kin?

Good question. The way I handle relationships is pretty similar to how Newton defines his 3rd law of motion.


If a person is mean to someone very close to me, and yet treats me quite well, should I tolerate that person's behaviour?

I don't see why I should not stand up for that someone who's very close to me, but then I still put up with it. I think I'm very self-contradictory.


I feel that on several occasions, people are testing the limits of my relationship with them, as if they're trying to make me say to them, "I don't see why I have to put up with all these nonsense". In the end, I still put up with everything, being a nice guy with the trying-to-be-politically-correct-mentality but not sure if I'm doing the right thing.

Sometimes, I just want to throw all the nonsense back at them and say, "You know what? I can live without you."

Maybe I'll do just that one day.

Opening for engineer from JobsTengkia

My company is looking for an engineer, type of qualification doesn't matter. I think whoever reads this would know the job scope, so I shall not elaborate on that. If you're really interested, contact me in any way except through posting comments here.

Sidenote to froggy: I'm not trying to snatch your ricebowl away.

Serious now

I was reading my friends' blog entries today (as always), when I noticed something common about all of them - they mentioned problems faced in life. Not that it's a wonder people blog about problems in life, but the usual cheerful and lively 'banter' is totally missing.

Time to play the trend-follower again.

I've heard that people who work as insurance agents, financial advisors and such have few close friends. Personally, I agree with that. Which is why I dread the fact that 1 of my friends chose to work in the industry after graduation.

朋友之间最好还是不要谈到钱。谈钱即使不伤感情也会令人尴尬。

O_o

I'm playing badminton 3 times this week. Sooner or later, I'll look like a fiddler crab.




If only the frequent precision control of a mouse can also help build up the right arm muscles...

You can get hooked on feeling bad

I saw this sentence while reading the newspaper (and shaking my legs) today, under the section named "horoscope". Normally, I don't give a 2nd thought about what horoscopes say because the degree of accuracy isn't high. However, it seemed to have struck bullseye today. Wonder if anyone else feel that they have the same problem...

I'd rather be hooked on feeling good.

For the 1st time in the past 2 weeks, I saw sunlight streaming in through the window of my office. Today shall be a different day from the rest.





On a side note, I've been reading DOTA forums on some recommended ways of using certain characters. Some of the guides posted there are written so well that they might be something of a thesis for all you know. They have background information, introduction, pictures/illustrations (everyone loves putting pictures in theses), arguments (and counter-arguments and counter-counter-arguments), as well as detailed calculations. Most impressive of all, some of them really do testing to authenticate their conclusions. Kind of like running simulations to prove a hypothesis.

Player A: You're from Clan NEDO? What does NEDO stand for?
Player B: Never-Ending DOTA Obsession.

Weekly badminton

Actually I have enough lobangs to play badminton 3 times a week, with a different group each time.

1. My current company (MEA)
2. My former company (Carrier)
3. My monster killing kakis (Clan PAP)


[Sidetrack]:
There's more to my life than just killing monsters (as opposed to 'popular' belief). And that clan name is made up.


The number of players in each group on each occasion is always a variable - there'll always be some people who can't join in on certain days. Which is, of course, inevitable.

For me, I've plenty of time to spare for such activities, and since I like to play badminton, I'd definitely make it a point to go.

Today, most unfortunately, I had to meet a friend in town and was unable to join my colleagues for badminton. And on the rare occasion that I couldn't attend, an exceptional number of people decided to join in. To make things worse, all of them came by my desk, turn by turn, to ask me if I was going to play later.


Sigh..........

Don't ask me what I've been doing over the weekend

My PC is like a Singaporean with poor working/studying attitude - it doesn't like to work on weekends, and if you insist on forcing it to work, it'll give you all sorts of problems.

On Christmas weekend last year, it was a suspected motherboard problem. During New Year weekend, it became a suspected hard disk problem. Last weekend, there appeared to be another suspected DVD writer problem.

I had bought a new hard disk and DVD writer having realised the true importance of backing up data, all thanks to the PC failures I've been facing. The 2 hard disks I now possess took turns to malfunction, or rather, avoid detection (just like dodging arrows). The DVD writer simply refuses to read anything I put into it (just like a lazy student).

Sim Lim Square now tops my list of weekend hangouts.

Holiday-mood-feeling is back again!

As a student, the one thing that everybody looks forward to is the holidays. An employed person is not very much different in that aspect. The Christmas-New Year-Chinese New Year period is always the most anticipated season, where the holiday mood can last for 2 months (depending on individual).

I thought I'd have lost the holiday-mood-feeling forever the moment I graduate from NUS. The blissful feeling came back in full force due to the long weekends on Christmas and New Year, though I had to spend most of my time at home tinkering with my new PC.

Holiday mood doesn't only come when you don't have to go to the office - it can also be felt when everyone is having idle chatter during teabreak time.

天黑黑

It's been raining the whole day.

The sky has been overcast since I was on my way to work. Sometime after I reached the safety of my office, the imminent downpoured began, turning everything beyond the window to various shades of grey. The weather caused the temperature in my office to drop so much that I had to put on a jacket on top of my long-sleeved shirt, but then, I am recovering from the cold I caught on New Year's Eve.

In countries which lie in higher latitudes, freezing temperatures and blizzards are causing tremendous trouble for the locals, and possibly even endangering their lives, especially for those trying to recover from the aftermath of the South Asian earthquake.

Looking as far as I could out of my office window, where the visibility has been limited to a kilometre and the scenery dulled to a lifeless gray by the unceasing torrents of rain, I can't help but to feel that if the weather spoils my plan to kayak, I'm still not that unlucky after all.

Everyone has a "first blog of the year", why shouldn't I?

Those of us who have retained and are still using the EZLink cards issued by NUS will probably be shocked when they tried to cross the MRT barrier this morning. This is because the card has EXPIRED.

I remember someone has told me about this matter some time ago, but I didn't register it in my mind as the end of 2005 was quite some time away. It caused me to miss 2 shifts of the LRT and also the additional charges from buying single ticket trip.

But no fear. I already have a back up EZLink card.





Everyone received this during the company D&D last year. What a timely gift for me! And a rather nice looking design too!


First hot topic of the year 2006

How did you spend your New Year?

The most common replies were watching fireworks at Esplanade/Harbour Front, counting down at some place (nobody I knew went to Siloso Beach), and hanging out some place with friends. Mine was spent as option 3 - I was hanging out at Battle Net with my fellow monster killing kakis, doing what we do best.

It was all in the name of testing out my new PC, to see if there're any further problems with it. How I love to test out new PCs!

Got to admit that some have remarked that "I have no life staying at home playing Warcraft 3 on a day as wonderful as New Year", but I'm not really bothered. I'm still having fun after all, and I'm interacting with my friends. It's not as though no one wants to be with me or anything like that.

While others are busy setting numerous new year resolutions to improve themselves upon, mine is just to...

BE A BETTER GAMER!!

A good gamer is not just someone who wins every game he/she plays. It also requires good gaming ethics to be one. By good gaming ethics, I mean no scolding or cursing of other players, not quitting a game before it's completed, display of 'sportsmanship' (not being a sore loser and able to acknowledge your opponents srength), to name a few.

To me, a good gamer has good skills, a sharp mind, and last but not least, good character. Ahqiang is one such example. He never seems to flare up or lose his patience no matter how the game turns out, or how poorly his team-mates perform.

Therefore, I should play more games to build my character.