Sunday, June 29, 2008  

[Pre-ICT blues...]

My one week in-camp training starts tomorrow. Compared to the other in-camps, this one should be quite relaxed, since we're supposed to be going just for range and there's no outfield and no drawing of armoured vehicles. Things should be easier.

But still, I'm not looking forward to it. I get the same feeling now that I had when I was an NSF, on Sunday nights. I don't think my morale has ever been this low.

I just hate everything about in-camp training. It disrupts my personal as well as my work life. Although work-wise, it's not that bad since I'm just starting out and anyway, someone else is covering my work so it's not as if I would be returning to a pile of papers on my desk. I'm not sure when we would be released. If it's during Friday evening, then it's still not that bad. If it's on Saturday, then it would be really shitty as there would be very little time to wash and pack everything away after I get home.

To add on, there are a lot of people in my platoon that I don't particularly care for. I certainly won't be looking forward to seeing them. Fucking losers. I do feel a little better about myself when I see them, but I really think those people should not be allowed to reproduce.

But perhaps one of my biggest grievances about in-camp training is the location of the camp I'm reporting to. It's in a very isolated location and the only way to get there is via a cab. If I had my own car, then it wouldn't be a problem. But without a car, it's insanely inconvenient. I tried making an advanced booking just now and no cabs from three different companies would take my booking. I'm not surprised. It's a long way out from the camp and the cab would most certainly be empty. Looks like I've got to flag one down tomorrow, which is always risky because you never know if there would be any cabs available.

On my way back, it's even worse. Can you imagine hundreds of NSmen standing outside the camp gates and most of them on their mobile phones trying to get a cab? It's an absolutely insane situation.

Why can't SAF fucking leave me alone? They've taken two and a half of the best years of my life. What more do they want?

EDIT: I got my cab for tomorrow. Phew.

^^^ by Locksley @ 7:55 PM. 0 comments.
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Saturday, June 28, 2008  

[Mixed feelings...]

I picked up my graduation gown today. To be honest, it looked butt-ugly. I thought that I looked like an escaped mental patient, and wearing the mortar-board didn't help. Why do they call it a "mortar-board" anyway? Does it keep you safe if you're under attack by mortar?

And I didn't care for the way it was handled. Some people chose to buy their graduation gown. No offense to anyone who does so, but I don't get it. Why buy the gown? You're never going to use it ever again, and it's rather huge and takes up a lot of space in the wardrobe. If you have a sibling in the same faculty and you both wear the same size, then yes, it makes more sense to buy (cheaper than renting twice). But even so, where the hell would you keep it?

But I digress. The folks who bought theirs were directed to a counter to pick up their gowns, all pressed and ready and whatever. Those of us who chose to rent? They had all the gowns and mortar-boards on display and you just picked whichever one fitted you. It feels like shopping in the bargain bin. And the gowns...Smelled funky. And not the good kind of funky. The WTF kind of funky.




There were a lot of other things going on in the MPSH other than the collection of the graduation gowns. NUS really wants to keep in contact with us. The Alumni Association was working overtime. Lots of things going on, I couldn't even keep track. There was this society we could join, for $2,000 a year. Yeah right. Usual price $10,000 a year. Not kidding. That's insane. I wonder who would drink the Kool-aid.

What I thought was interesting was how, among the stuff we got, were credit card applications. I was never going to sign up for them. I'm perfectly happy with my debit cards and credit cards are just a bad idea to begin with since they are trying to get you to spend the money you do not have.

I never truly understood how people ended up a ton of credit card debts until today. I read the application forms briefly and I believe the interest rate is 24%. That's like...Loan-shark levels? Insane. And they allow you to spend up to two times your monthly pay. That's very attractive...And a very good way to fall into debt.




I had mixed feelings today while collecting the graduation gowns. In the past, I would be completely on top of things and would look through everything thoroughly. Now, all I want to know are the essential things and then to get the hell out of there. I don't know how to put it into words, but the way I handle things and look at life has changed. Not sure if it's good or bad.




I'll be away for in-camp training next week. So, no updates. Actually, it was a busy day today. I picked up my graduation gown in the morning and packed for ICT in the afternoon. I keep wondering whether I've forgotten anything. I nearly forgot my shaver and toothbrush last year. I almost forgot underwear this year. And there's always the dilemma of whether or not to bring an additional pair of boots.

^^^ by Locksley @ 10:00 PM. 0 comments.
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008  

[I'm sorry...]

I've been at my job for almost two months now and one of the things I'll never completely understand is how some people talk on phones. The irony of this is that you'll probably never completely understand neither, since you didn't hear it.

What do you say when you pick up the phone? Probably, "Hello?" isn't it? Whatever you say, it comes with a "?" at the end, doesn't it? Ever hear someone answer the phone with a, "Hello!"? That's right, an exclamation mark at the end, instead of a question mark. Don't pull the "O" at the end (that's what gives the word its friendly tone). The entire word is short and curt. Try saying it that way. Doesn't it sound...Aggressive and not at all friendly?

The person who does this looks away when you smile at her as you walk pass her in the hall. She's a secretary, but she dresses like an escaped mental patient and is so fugly that whoever has her as a secretary must be pretty upset that all the story-lines he's seen in porno movies about bosses and secretaries are never going to come true.

The very same person makes calls for her boss. And she does it this way, "Hello! Aye, hi XXX. Can I transfer you to YYY?" XXX being the person she called and YYY being her boss' name. A director, by the way.

I don't know about you, but if I was on the other line, I would say no. Why? I don't want to speak to him. The least you could do is to tell me what this was about.

Still, the most mind-numbing thing that comes out of her mouth while she's on the phone, everyday without fail, is this:

"Hello! Aye, sorry ah, ..."

Why are you sorry? Are you sorry for calling me? Then don't call. Who the hell apologises on the phone and proceeds to give you information or asks for a favour? What are you sorry about? What the hell did you do that I don't know about that makes you sorry? Or are you sorry that you're so fugly and have zero phone skills?

If only they could hear themselves speak.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:54 PM. 0 comments.
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Monday, June 23, 2008  

[Shit flows downhill...]

...and guess what? I'm at the bottom of the hill.

Some shitty happened at work today. P gave me a task and didn't provide very detailed instructions. That's his style. It was similar to something he asked me to do a while back, so I took the cue from that and did it in a similar fashion.

Along came D. He's our superior. Apparently, D gave the task to P and P gave the task to me. Shit flowing downhill. Anyway, he wanted it done another way and I basically got chewed out in front of everyone.

You see, if you're chewed out in someone's office with the door closed, your colleagues probably won't hear much of it, if at all. At most, they have some idea what's going on but they won't know the specific details. When you're chewed out in your cubicle, everyone knows about it.

It was pretty fucked up if you ask me. As far as I'm concerned, it really wasn't my fault because the requirements were not communicated properly to me. And don't tell me I should have asked. Sometimes, you know you don't know but yet you don't know what to ask. It's like Meno's you-can't-learn theory. You can't learn about what you already know; and if you don't know, you wouldn't ask about it and won't learn about it. Hence, learning is not possible.

I wouldn't say that it was P's fault neither, but it would have been nice if he said something while it was going on since he was right there.

When asked to summarise several pieces of news/updates into one PowerPoint slide each per news/update article, what would you do? Try to squeeze all the important points into the slides, no? What would you do if P told you (at lunch) that there were still too many points? Remove some of the information, no? What would you do if D chewed you out for not including enough information and not anticipating the questions of the audience (P didn't tell you who the audience were)? Expect P to say something, no? Well, he didn't.

On the whole, it wasn't a big deal. At least, I didn't think it was a big deal. Shit happens. I'm still new. But it must have sounded pretty bad to everyone else, because one of my other colleagues actually came over to talk to me about something else all of a sudden. Something we discussed at lunch and something totally irrelevant at that point in time. And later when I spoke to D again, I could tell he was doing damage control. And when he and P left for home, both said good-bye to me. We don't say good-bye when we go home. That's not the culture there.

What's done is done.

Tomorrow's another day.




I no longer bring my work laptop home everyday. Don't see the point. I used to do so because I wanted to sync my work calendar (in the laptop) with my personal calendar (in my phone which I could not use at work). Now I'm just going to pay more attention and store those new appointments and whatnot in my temp phone and transfer them over at home later. It's not like I have time to do work at home on weekdays anyway. I might bring it back home over the weekend, just so I could make sure my two calendars are properly synchronised (via manual comparison). I don't know, I haven't decided.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:17 PM. 0 comments.
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Sunday, June 22, 2008  

[Roaches!]

I was at a fast-food restaurant (?) in town on Friday and I saw a small cockroach.


I can't prove which outlet it was, seeing how it wasn't captured in the photo. So I guess I won't mention it here. One thing's for sure, if there's a small cockroach, there's got to be a big cockroach...

As for the "?" above....As I was typing, I realised how weird it was to say "fast-food restaurant". Why do people call it a restaurant anyway? A "fast-food joint" might be a better and more accurate description.




I just did my finances. I spent $1k+ in 7 days.

I was warned about this. I have some friends who entered the workforce before me and they told me they spent a lot when they first started working. It's usually because of the sudden increase in spending power and how we don't really need to support anyone else (likes kids or family).

Most of my money went into buying stuff for my room as I'm in the middle of changing the layout. I still have a few big-ticket items to get, but I probably won't be doing so anytime soon. Need to space the purchases out.

I spent close to $100 on three G2000 shirts yesterday too. Had to, my work wardrobe was somewhat pathetic. I plan to get another watch as well, but probably a cheap Casio will suffice. Casio makes very nice watches with silver bracelets nowadays and it's really difficult for anyone to tell the difference unless they look up close.

^^^ by Locksley @ 7:11 PM. 0 comments.
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Sunday, June 15, 2008  

[Tank de-comm...]

After 4 and a half years, I've decided to end my aquarium hobby yesterday.

Due to work, I haven't had much time to take care of the tank. When I leave for work in the morning, it's too early to turn on the lights and when I reach home, it's time to turn the lights off. It was becoming more of a chore than an enjoyable past-time, so I thought it was time to end it.

I gave all the livestock to my Dad. His two tanks have much more fishes now than ever.

Last looks:



Draining out the water.


Pulling up the plant in the middle.


It was huge!



Where the tank used to be.


All the stuff I have no use for. Going to try selling them.






Tearing down my aquarium was part of my room redecorating plan. I've been wanting to change some of my furniture for a while but could not because the aquarium was in the way. I could now.

After tearing down the tank yesterday, I went to IKEA in the evening and bought a new bed. The old one has been with me for about 21 years. Although it was fine, I wanted one whereby I could store things under the bed. I couldn't do so with the old one due to its decorative sides/legs.

The new bed I bought actually resembles the one in SAF camps. But it's nicer. Now it's just four legs, with access to the bottom of the bed. I intend to get some big Tupperware-like boxes to store items under the bed.

The thing about buying furniture at IKEA is that you need to consider how you're bringing your purchase home. The bed I bought cost $99 and delivery cost $45. Totally not worth it. I was told that a London/Maxi cab would be big enough, but calling those cabs meant a $9 surcharge plus whatever's on the meter.

So I took a chance and wheeled the (unassembled) bed out to the taxi queue and tried to see if it could fit into a regular cab.

It did. I won't go into how I did it, but it fit very nicely.

Total cab fare was $10.60. Saved a bundle.

Next would be to get the storage boxes, followed by a new L-shaped table. Then maybe some new computer components (I'm still considering whether or not to blow more money on my rig, especially since the current one is working fine).




I found something on Friday on my way home from work. Someone lost something very important and it didn't even belonged to said person.

Said person must be having a very bad weekend...

^^^ by Locksley @ 6:51 PM. 1 comments.
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Sunday, June 08, 2008  

[Catchy...]

I don't normally listen to this genre, but I can't this tune out of my head.

^^^ by Locksley @ 11:21 AM. 3 comments.
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[Sell Ronaldo...]

That's right. That's what I think. And I'm a Man United fan.

Sell Ronaldo.

He's more trouble than he's worth. If he wants to go to Madrid, let him. Or make good the threat to let him rot in the stands. Whatever.

I've never been that big a fan of him. He goes down far too easily, and although he does get hacked down a lot, many times, he could have stayed on his feet if he wanted to. So he scored 42 goals last season. Big deal. Would he have scored that many if he wasn't playing in a team like United?

And I don't know why they let him take free-kicks. He is NOT GOOD at free-kicks. Everytime there's a free-kick, the commentator would say, "This is in Ronaldo territory." Oh please...He has no fucking territory. His free-kicks go all over the place except into the net. He's had oh-so-many chances throughout the season and how many did he score? Five. Hargreaves has had less chances but he's scored two. I believe it's a 100% record for him, I can't remember for sure though.

He's selfish (like Nani) and doesn't always pass the ball when others (like Rooney or Tevaz who ran their asses off to be in a good position) are in a better scoring position, instead choosing to go for glory. He goes down easy and cries like a spoil brat when he doesn't get his way. At least when Rooney doesn't get his way, he gets physical and goes after the player and hacks him down in return. That I can respect.

And most importantly, this is Man United. United versus insert-random-club. Not Ronaldo versus insert-random-club. Teams should not evolve around one or two players. Nowadays, whenever United is trailing and time is running out, they would try to pass the ball to either Ronaldo or Rooney and hope for a touch of magic from them. That's not the way. Too many long balls. Where was the passing of the 98/99 treble-winning team?

Sell Ronaldo. Now. If Real can pay, sell him for a handsome profit. He thinks he's bigger than the club. No one is bigger than the club.




I've grown more and more frustrated with public transport over the years. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because their standards are dropping. Maybe I didn't notice before. Maybe it's because the population in Singapore is growing faster than the public transport operators can cope. I don't know.

Now that I'm working, I take buses during the peak hours in the morning and evening. And more often than not, something would happen on the bus that piss me off. Some of the things I remember:

1) I was seated at those face-each-other seats near the front of the bus one morning. Whenever I'm in those seats, I make it a point to sit as straight as I could, so that my knees don't tangle with the people I'm facing. I think that's just good manners. This kid got on, sat across me and decided to slouch. Great. Long story short, my knee was caught between the side of the bus and that kid's knee. He basically resting his knee on mine. I wanted to take his PSP and shove it down his throat.

2) I see this technician on the bus almost every morning. He sat down next to me this one time. He wears the same company-issued attire everyday. His pants are somewhat like cargo pants, with pockets down the side. He has something sharp and protruding in his pocket and he just leaned it onto me. The whole time, too. It was unpleasant. I wanted to take whatever he had in that %$#% pocket and shove it up his ass.

3) Yesterday I waited 17 minutes for a bus outside Khatib Camp. 17 fucking minutes. If I had a car, I would have reached home in that time (it's a very smooth and fast drive from my place to Khatib Camp). On the bus, three kids were having the time of their lives. They made so much noise, it was insanely annoying. The youngest still did not know how to talk, so she shrieked her ass off at every opportunity. Their parents? Seated behind them and did absolutely nothing.

It's times like these when I really wish I had my own transport. I don't have to put up with the nonsense of using public transport. And I'd save a lot of time too. The bus ride to and from work takes about 60-80 minutes one-way. Driving should take about 15-20 minutes one-way. How much time would I save a day?

At least this can be something for me to work towards.

^^^ by Locksley @ 10:06 AM. 0 comments.
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Wednesday, June 04, 2008  

[No shame...]

I took the picture below on the bus on my way home.


I usually censor the faces of these people, but I really can't be bothered this time. The bus was packed...Evidence? Just look how close I am to this guy.

On a packed bus, and he has the balls to take up two seats. And not care.

We should make these people walk for the rest of their lives. No buses, no MRTs, no taxis for them.

Someday...When I come into power.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:09 PM. 1 comments.
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Tuesday, June 03, 2008  

[Biggest mistake ever?]

I wonder if I've made a mistake accepting my current job.

Don't get me wrong, while it has its ups and downs, I really can't complain (so far, anyway). What I'm concerned about is the fact that the pay increment's every year is very low and if I want to switch to something else (in another organisation), I can't really take away any relevant experience from my current job.

What makes me cringe even more is the fact that some of the people around me are actually involved in Enterprise Risk Management and Balanced Scorecard-related things. I don't much care about the Balanced Scorecard (I feel that it's a fad that would one day lose its importance), but having experience in Enterprise Risk sure would be an advantage if a person decides to leave for greener pastures. Not to mention the fact that my employer actually sponsors people doing ERM for professional ERM certification courses....




A few posts ago, I lamented about my aquarium/table-related dilemma. I've finally figured it out.

I'm going to keep an eye out for the kind of L-shaped table I want. Once I found it, I would tear down my aquarium (it's in the way) and get the table. After which, I could consider getting a bigger LCD monitor, which I can't now due to lack of space on my current table.

If anyone has a L-shaped table in their room, let me know where you got it from. If it's part of the whole interior design of your room, then forget it. I only want the table, I don't want to redo my whole room.

^^^ by Locksley @ 9:08 PM. 0 comments.
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Monday, June 02, 2008  

[Mondays...]

I.

Hate.

Mondays.

^^^ by Locksley @ 6:10 AM. 0 comments.
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Sunday, June 01, 2008  

[URLs on MSN...]

Unless I'm missing something, you can't click on URLs in display names or personal messages on MSN. I think that most people would have tried to, at one point or another, and found that they couldn't.

So I don't understand why people put insanely long URLs in their display names or personal messages as a way of spreading information. A short, direct URL is fine. Long URLs, especially those with HTTP GET parameters appended behind, are damn-near impossible and insane for anyone to try typing into their browser.

So for those of you with insanely long URLs in your display name or personal message (I have at least one on my list at any one time), you need to find some other way of getting your message across.

^^^ by Locksley @ 8:50 PM. 4 comments.
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