Clocking OT

First time I clock OT for my current job, the feeling reminds me of the time when I stayed back in NUS to rush my FYP, except that the air-con in this building is left to run and freeze whoever's still inside.

Thought I'd stay back because I was working with a French engineer (a young lady actually), but having problems because they are 8 whole hours behind Singapore time!! As a result of the time difference, I only receive emails from the after 4 pm - which usually require that results are to be shown before I go home - and not left with much time to do whatever I have to do.

However, staying back for 4 hours still wasn't enough for me to complete my work. I guess I can only carry on tomorrow...

恶梦

昨晚，我做了一个恶梦。正确地说，应该是今天凌晨做的。在梦里，我处在一个布满陷阱的地方，必须步步为营， 否则后果不堪设想。正当我小心翼翼的避开那看似无数的陷阱时，我突然发现我所处在的环境非常熟悉。仔细看，这地方竟是我家！

就在我琢磨着为何这布满陷阱的地方如此像我家时，我一不小心触碰了一个陷阱。警铃开始嚷了起来，使得我惊慌失措。

接着，我就醒了过来。

听说一个人所做的梦反映他的生活， 那我做的梦到地反映着什么？

Furball is back

I got my hamster back only yesterday though I returned from Chiang Mai since 3 weeks ago. This is partly because my brother's friend, who help looked after Furball while I was gone, was a little busy to meet up earlier, and also partly because I didn't really make an effort to go collect my little Furball back.

When I got it back yesterday, it looked a tad less healthy than before and my god-sister's friend who dropped by yesterday suspected that it had infection. That got me worried enough to take urgent leave to bring it to the vet.

Digressing a little, a family (the dad was wearing a RASF uniform) brought a little hamster to the vet as well. According to their friendly little daughter - she seemed to be about 10 years of age - the hamster was discovered at the roadside by her mum while she was jogging this morning, and it had this huge wound on its scalp. The looks of it seemed to be the result of an attack by a larger animal or a terrible accident of some sort. Part of the scalp seemed torn off exposing pinkish flesh (for the hamster's sake, I hope it's flesh). At least the hamster was still moving around normally.

Anyway, my hamster was diagnosed to be ok, no problems whatsoever that require attention. Thank goodness.

Everyone who knew I took leave to bring the hamster to the vet (actually it's only my family and 2 taxi drivers) showed disapproval/disbelief regarding my actions. But I didn't care. Some people would never understand the need for responsibility, even towards something as small as a hamster.

A hamster is also an animal, a living creature, and if you want to keep it, you have to be responsible for it. Only people with love for pets would rather pay twice the cost of buying the pet, and bring it to the vet only to be diagnosed that it has no problems at all than not to do anything and wonder if it's really ill.

Some people will never understand...

Expansion

My company is expanding. To this, most of the engineers (or rather all the male engineers) have only 1 thing to say:

"我们的公司太过阴衰阳盛了。"

If my HR manager ever asks any of the engineers here to sit in for the interview, I think 1 thing can be said for sure - all males candidates will be filtered out of the selection list.

When you have nothing to do...

You really have absolutely nothing to do at all. However, when work starts coming in, it comes in bulk.

I was still leading a 'carefree' life when I was suddenly tasked to carry out a new project of modifying a current connector design by myself. It wasn't anything complicated actually, so no big deal about that. And out of the blue, the assignment - for me to take apart a whole new printer and identify every single connector inside - which I was told to do long long ago but the printer wasn't given to me until right after I took up the new project. I had 3 weeks to take the whole thing apart and to write a report on all the printers inside, so that wasn't a problem either. Following that, a colleague of mine asked me to help check some engineering drawings for missing dimensions, and since I felt it was good (and much needed) practice, I accepted that as well. So now, I have 3 assignments on hand.

That was pretty long-winded.

Anyway, now I have enough things on hand to put off blogging about my Chiang Mai trip during office hours...did I just give myself away? Ooops...

During my Chiang Mai trip, I realised that a 256 Mb memory card is hardly enough for a 5 day trip, and I wasn't even trigger happy. Time for an upgrade.

Ok, I'm out of crap for now. In the meantime, photos taken during the Chiang Mai trip can be found here.

Bombshell

HR manager: (walks towards my desk suddenly) Can group 5 do with 1 less person?

Colleague, who is also group 5's (my group) leader: HUH?

HR: Can your group handle the projects with 1 less person? I need to send someone overseas for attachment.

C: When? For how long?

HR: Mid February, 3 months.

C: !!!


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I can't imagine if I really do get sent overseas just like that, with only a week's notice, to Europe for 3 months. No time to even buy winter wear, much less get mentally prepared to travel so far for 3 whole months.

My mom will miss me real bad (and vice versa), my hamster will miss me too (and vice versa too), I'll be alone for 3 whole months, the only way I can contact my friends is through my blog because of the huge time difference (and they'll simply leave comments asking me to buy things for them...), and...and...and...

But I wasn't sent of course - I'm still under probation. Don't place your orders yet.