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Saturday, June 25, 2011
[Sick...]
I haven't been this sick for a long time.
I started feeling sick on Wednesday. It got way worse on Thursday and I was completely down for the count on Friday. I am recovering, but right now, I am still feeling really weak.
My current employer has this silly rule of accepting only MCs from company doctors. The closest one to me was at Lot 1. It was only a total round-trip of one hour, but this one hour nearly killed me. I have been against this rule since Day One, and I still am.
I don't understand the logic. If my previous employer, which is a statutory board, is willing to accept MCs from my GP, why don't you? Are you implying that my GP is not a qualified doctor?
I effectively need to travel out of my "town" to one that was two "towns" away to see the doctor for an MC if I am ill. One could make the argument that if one is able to do that, then one is really not that sick.
If you are going to have a rule such as this, then you need to make sure this chain of clinics have branches everywhere. If not, all you are doing is penalising employees who fall sick.
^^^ by Locksley @ 7:17 PM.
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Saturday, June 18, 2011
[Uncertainty and other things...]
One of the reasons people give when they change jobs is that they wanted to learn new things.
What exactly are these "new things"? And why do you want to learn them?
I think that things you need to know in order to do your job...These things, you will learn them eventually, whether you want to or not. There is no need to hurry and it doesn't make sense to change jobs to learn this. For practical reasons, it's akin to learning a foreign language of a country that you have no intention of ever visiting.
I think that it is more important to learn things that are more generic in nature. Things that can be applied no matter where you go or where you are. Things that could possibly shape you. These things are usually not about work. These things are about yourself.
For the longest time, I was part of a system whereby there always was a "right answer". As I transitioned to a current phase of my life and the system no longer existed, I was still searching for the right answer. So when I heard someone say that there are no "right answers", just what you are comfortable with, it really stuck with me. From that day on, my perception of life and how I dealt with it changed.
Recently, I learned something else which I think will change my perception and how I deal with things. Something happened at work which made my supervisor go apeshit. I do not know all the specifics, but suffice to say, it really was a big problem and going apeshit seems justified or the very least, a reasonable reaction.
Another colleague did something entirely different. He dived deep into the problem and realised that there was more to it than we thought and we should not be directing our anger, or throwing our shit like apes, at anyone else.
When we spoke about it later, he said he doesn't go "off" immediately until he has checked and double-checked an issue. For one thing, how do we know for sure that a certain party is to blame when things go wrong?
I am not the most patient person in the world and it doesn't take much to make me lose it. So this advice or mindset really gave me something to think about. Especially when immediately before I learned this, something happened that made me want to send a very vindictive email to another colleague when it turns out that the cause of the problem really was under my area (okay, so he didn't know that, but still).
I then wanted to send another email to a person of higher position pointing out a deficiency in her department, which I chose not to in the end because I cannot say for sure it was that.
An important life-lesson, indeed.
DBSS flats in Tampines are going for $880,000. That's a record for HDB flats. Although I am not sure whether to really consider DBSS as "HDB flats". Hell, this is more than twice the amount of my same-number-of-rooms HDB BTO flat.
I can't say for sure, but I think this will result in a generation of people who will be in dire financial straits when they reach retirement. By the time they are done paying for the flat, how old would they be? How much money will they have left? What if someone falls sick? What if they need money desperately for something else?
This is something new which we are seeing in recent years and we do not know what will happen in the future. Flats cost much less during our parents' generation and most have no issues with paying for them. This is the generation of expensive, sub-$1 million flats. I really wonder what will happen to these people 20 or 30 years down the road.
I found out my platoon sergeant during my NSF days is now no longer with the SAF and has started his own events/wedding planning company.
Most of these regulars who are no longer with SAF ended up doing event management, becoming property agents or insurance/financial planner. One joker opened a pet stop, or so I heard.
In any case, it would be hard for me to picture this guy as a wedding planner. Nothing against him and he was always fair when I was an NSF, but I just can't picture him doing this.
All the best to him, though.
^^^ by Locksley @ 5:08 PM.
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Thursday, June 16, 2011
[Expectations...]
I guess I expected better from a company of this size. This isn't some kachang puteh SME we're talking about.
Key policies are not put in place. For those that are, half of them are not clear. Half the people are incompetent. Work processes make no sense and does not help in getting work done.
I expected better.
But still. There is not much I can do right now. I need to stick it out. At least for now. The coming months will be very challenging. Hopefully I can ride this out. I guess whatever doesn't kill me will make me stronger.
^^^ by Locksley @ 9:40 PM.
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Sunday, June 05, 2011
[Debranded!]
Several new versions of the firmware for my phone have been released. However, whenever I tried updating, I was told that I already had the latest version.
That really irritated me because the firmware I was using had some stability issues. Which is surprising, considering the phone has been on the market for about 18 months (maybe more).
I did some research and found out it was because my phone was tied to Singtel. Because of that, I was unable to load the firmware meant for the general market. I had to wait for them to come up with another Singtel-specific variant before I could upgrade.
That really pissed me off because I use none of the special Singtel services or features on my phone. And I cannot upgrade the firmware because of this.
I dug a bit further and found a way to change the product code of my phone so it would appear to be a general market phone, instead of being identified as one from Singtel so only Singtel-specific firmware can be loaded on it. After changing the product code, I was still unable to upgrade. Ovi Suite was telling me that I already had the latest version.
I decided to choose the reinstall option. And lo and behold...The latest version installed this time.
Did a hard reset after the upgrade to return the phone to factory condition. Spent the rest of the day restoring it back to the way I want it to be. I can already feel the performance improvement. Battery life is supposed to be better. I certainly hope so. While the issue with Music Player, Radio, and WhatsApp has not been resolved, I would still be satisfied if performance and battery life have been enhanced.
^^^ by Locksley @ 9:44 PM.
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Thursday, June 02, 2011
[Check out the view!]
I uploaded it full-size (something I don't usually do for pictures on my blog). Click to see it in all its glory.
I think it's pretty awesome that a mobile phone's camera is capable of taking such a shot.
EDIT: Oh shit. I just realised that Blogger down-scaled the picture. I guess it was too big. Oh well...
I saw this sticker in a toilet today...
Which was perfectly fine, except that it was stuck on top of a urinal...
Who the hell uses water from the urinal for drinking and washing? Isn't it understood that you shouldn't?
^^^ by Locksley @ 10:15 PM.
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Wednesday, June 01, 2011
[So wet...]
I took this picture in the lift of an LRT station.
It says, "so wet my puku". Puku means buttocks.
I wonder what happened to Mr/Ms Wet-Butt.
I bought a laptop sometime last year so I'd use my desktop less. My desktops consumes a lot more power than a laptop so I thought I would save some juice by switching to a laptop when possible. My desktop is still my primary machine.
Over time, I shifted more and more of my time to my laptop. So much so that it almost became my primary machine.
Recently, I rediscovered the beauty of my desktop. No matter how advanced laptops are these days, they still can't match a desktop in certain areas. Computing power, ergonomics, big screen (debatable, I know) and huge keyboards.
If I can only choose one, I'd still pick my desktop, the power-hungry Veyron, rather than the everyday Toyota.
^^^ by Locksley @ 10:21 PM.
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