My 2014 & Into 2015

2014 was a very eventful roller coaster year filled with ups and downs, both at work and in my personal life.

At work, due to departures, I had a new section head and 2 new team leads. Separations aren't easy, and working chemistries and bonds have to be rebuilt.

In my personal life, I got married to the love of my life on our 10th anniversary. I couldn't have the wedding in my dream setting/location, so I had to settle for less and found Regent Hotel, who could bring the garden into the hotel ballroom. It was a crazy tiring day. It didn't help that the hubs was puking the whole night and the rented suit and shirt was stained with vomit... But all was good in the end thanks to my brilliant laundry skills *flips hair* and we still managed to get back the full deposit.

Then, I lost my granduncle... He may be my half granduncle and stays in Selangor, Malaysia, but distance (be it in blood relations or in actual kilometres) doesn't reduce the hurt of losing him. I vividly remember how doting and caring he was to everyone around him. There was once during the school holidays while I was still in primary school and we had a family trip in. I didn't have any appetite for dinner. So knowing that I shared the love of durians with him, he took out his basket of durians, sat down with me and told me that we are going to have durians for dinner. I don't like unripe durians and loved only ripe ones. For me, durians must be creamy and not crunchy. When we opened one which was unripe, he would say lovingly in Cantonese to leave it for him while taking another one out from the basket for me to open. So there we were, sitting on the floor, opening one durian shell after another.
And he could pass off as George Lam's, a Hong Kong singer, twin or long lost brother. I kid you not. He looks really like George Lam.
Now writing this, I can still hear his voice and remember his expressions in my head...

And then the retirement of Derek Jeter. Why oh why...

Moving into 2015, life seems a little rosier. Collected keys for our new flat and now we are awaiting to welcome a new addition into the family come September. 2 new chapters await...

In the meantime, I am having weird cravings in the span of just 1 week.
Just other night, I was craving for Blackball grass jelly really badly. I could even smell it and taste it.
And just a few minutes ago, I craved for Coke. I hardly drink carbonated drinks and even when I do, the preference is Pepsi or Root Beer. But I craved for blardi Coke... Perhaps the kid takes after Papa...

Oh yes, and Man United is no longer in mid-table this season following the sacking of Moyes and appointment of van Gaal. Yes, 2015 should continue to be just as rosy.

The "Horror" Of Online Job Application Forms

I have decided at 5.30pm just now that I will stop sending in resumes for the day. My excuse: No one will be going through resumes and do much work because the weekend is beginning.
After wasting brain cells tackling application forms online, I seriously think I deserve a break mentally. If u think filling in application forms online is easy, imagine me in these "horrifying" situations...
1) I have more than 3 working experiences and a particular one only allows me to enter in 3. And with no section for one to input other details of my resume, or a text resume, I can't even "display" my "all-roundedness" in "excelling" in both academic and co-curricular activities.
2) An error prompt of overlapping dates in employment history. Hello, cannot hold 2 part time jobs at one time ah? Thankfully this site had a text resume portion so I can "customise" around and fill in stuff accordingly.
3) Text resume portion with a limit of characters. What's the point in having a section for text resume then?
4) After filling up the entire form and had "errors" like above, you tell me that "there's an error in submitting your resume"?! Waste my time and effort and brain cells rite?!
5) Having to work around sites that limit the number of characters for job descriptions.
6) Having to work around sites that require you to type in your entire transcript. And you dare tell me "this application form takes about 20 to 30 minutes to fill in". By the time I finish ctrl+c, ctrl+v everything, 1+hour gone...
7) Having to work with sites that tie up with online job portals like jobsbd and jobstreet. Instead of entering your ID and password and the system extracts your resume from the online job portals, you have to fill in every single field of the application form all over again.
8) A combination of almost each n every single one of the situations listed above.

And so, I sent out my last resume/online application form and I begin packing my bag and preparing for tomorrow's graduation, but that was done pretty fast.

But the next thing on my "to do" list is something which I dun feel like doing now. My excuse: lazy and no mood to churn brain cells. I seriously think my brain cells deserve a break.
I should take this time now to catch up on what I want to blog about. To me, these are issues I do care about and like writing essays, I do want to do up a good post about it. But my mind's shutting down, I cant think through them properly and how to do up those posts.
Also, the US trip posts. My excuse: too mentally drained to think through what happened chronogically...

Maybe I shall spend this evening on my facebook applications or games, clicking away without spending a bit of "intellectual energy". Or maybe I should watch my TVB VCDs...

Singapore Finally Get Its 2nd Olympic Medal In History!!!

Sorry for the false alarm for all the weird reasons it happened. Here's the real deal...

The women's table tennis won their semi-final against Korea. We now confirm have a medal, dunno what colour only... Haha... Wooooooot!!! Well done gals!

It was damn exciting and it was a close fight with the Koreans. But Li Jiawei have to stay calm and composed lah... Lost to Kim Kyung Ah 4 years ago in Athens, gotta learn from that lesson.

Feng Tianwei is a player we ought to watch. Very clever and composed... Won us both singles matches!!!

But personally, I felt that Wang Yue Gu had a better day compared to Li Jiawei. Hopefully all of them will excel in the individuals later on also... 加油!

China Travel Scam Or Not?

I received this a few days ago as a comment posted on one of my entries. The reason I'm not approving this comment is because there is no "credible" source to it. Anyone else got this? How true is it? (Click for a bigger pic)

Lydia Sum... China Scam Call?

My mum never buys Chinese newspapers because we don't read them. The only times she buys are when my sister or I request for them or when something she would wana TRY to read, like when I was featured on Lianhe Wanbao. When I went home yesterday, I found 2 Chinese newspapers on the dining table. Reason? Lydia Sum passed away yesterday morning.
After dinner, she kept asking if 48 (Starhub Cable TVBJ - Hong Kong channel) has anything in Lydia Sum. True enough, there was an entertainment news program and the entire episode was dedicated to her. My mum and I were watching and we both cried.
I cried because I was sad and happy at the same time. She was a strong and brave woman, bringing up her daughter almost on her own. The love she has for her daughter is really touching. When guests on the show were interviewed, they all spoke about the only worry Lydia has, and that's her daughter. They wanted Lydia to hear them and told Lydia that "all the uncles and aunties around her would carry on to protect her and take care of her" and that because Lydia had been a very good friend to so many of them, her daughter would be in safe hands.
Lydia gave her daughter everything she wanted and nurtured her daughter when she wanted to enter the entertainment scence. It was rumored that in her last few months, she had slowly transferred her assets in her daughter's name. She never gave up fighting the dreaded C. Right now, she has passed on and need no longer suffer. Sigh... Hong Kong has lost an endearing and loveable celebrity.
And hence, I declare again, I'll win this long battle with cancer. Die cancer die!!!

I was receiving these "private number" calls almost everyday since mid-January. I dare not pick them up because it was indicated on my phone as a diverted call. Whenever I see "weird" calls like that, my instant reaction would be to wonder if its a China scam call. There was even once that I got 4 missed calls in a row! One interesting thing bout this/these caller(s) was/were that no calls were made when the sun sets. Hmm...
But the calls ended about a week before my exam last Saturday. Maybe that fella gave up...

Place Singapore On The Monopoly's World Map!!!

No, Singapore is not part of China, Hawaii or some other place, we are a country on its own. Let's do our part to establish ourselves on the world map as Singapore. If we can support Singapore's bid for the Youth Olympics, why not support this too! Singapore's currently on the 35th position and according to Monopoly's webby, only 20 places will be up for grabs.

Its fairly simple.
1) Enter the site at http://www.monopolyworldvote.com/
2) Click on the yellow "Log In" button on the top right
3) Signup for a login
4) An email will be sent asking you to verify your account. Login to your email and "validate" the email
5) Locate Singapore either by scrolling down the list of cities on the right when on "Vote for a City" tab, or on page 2 of the "City Rankings" when viewing "Leaderboard"
6) Click on Singapore and a picture of a Merlion will be displayed
7) Click on "Add to my cities"
8) Click on "My Cities" on the lower right
9) Click on "Vote" and complete the voting process
10) Viola! Your vote has been cast!
You can vote once daily for one city.

That SQ Girl... Resolutions?

I don't freaking understand at times. I've seen fatter ones, flatter ones, uglier ones, worse complexion ones, even those face "tio langah" types ones, etc. They all get to wear a kebaya, but not her. Sometimes I wonder what is their selection criteria.
It was a goal, a dream, since childhood. She even wore braces to correct her teeth to chase this dream of hers. Interviews after interviews, she sees her friends flying on SQ, but not her.
But she is finally coming back! Finally, she fulfill her dreams even by going round in circles. Woots! Singapore Airlines, why did you take soooooo freaking long?

Got tagged by April (who was tagged by another friend of ours, Dan)! A list of stuff I want to get for early/ first half of 2008... Hmm... Anything Louis Vuitton of course, but I don't have the moolah!!! Ok, some serious stuff which I think are achieevable (this is what happens when you abandon your blog) achievable and fulfill-able...
1) Driving License
At freaking long last... Pratical's booked on April 9th. Wish me luck!
2) PSP and/or Nitendo Wii
Erm, hopefully I can save enough in 6 months time
3) US and/or Japan tour
Will be in Oklahoma in end-April for my on-campus residency. But there's an exam to be taken when I'm back. Well, if time allows, I would like to tour US and Japan a bit. Afterall, have to transit in Japan mah, so might as well lor.
4) A's for my remaining modules
Means I have to work damn hard. In a desperate situation to pull my GPA up.
5) Live Strong!
Stay cancer free!!!

Paced On The New Paper, Grades, That New Taxi, Blonde Moment, Random Rants, Meme...

Firstly, before I begin the entry per se, I would love to express my deepest and most sincere biggie THANKS to everyone who gave me support, mentally, morally and/or physically during this mad month. Really really very very muchie appreciate all the encouragement you lovely people gave on my taggie and comments page. You guys are the bestest sweetest blogger friends I know lah! Now, entry will start proper...

First I was on Lianhe Wanbao, now, I'm on The New Paper!!! Talk about that 15 seconds or minutes of fame that everyone craves for... Lol...

The article touched a bit on the Student Council. Online version of the article can be found here.

The Student Council's blog is up and running at last!!! My main contribution to the blog so far is the video entitled "Here We Come". Check it out and comment leh... I wana know how my editing skills are... Haha...
The busy-ness never really stopped nor did it slowed down for a while. Want to know more what I've been up to, sneeking around on campus, bothering the school's stuff and that kept me away from blogging? Do visit http://mdissc.blogspot.com/! Although I'm the administrative secretary and wasn't really part of the team that plans the events per se, BUT, still got work to do one lor... Haha...
November will be a real busy period for me. In school, we are organising a huge event lasting for 9 days and I'm working as well. I need to work, I need the money for the on-campus residency in Oklahoma in about 5 months time. Woots! 5 more months!!!! I'm getting damn freaking excited lor!!!

The exam on the 20th went on fine. I was glad I was able to answer more questions that I thought I could. Now for the grades... Remember this entry which I talked about my grades being late? Well, I got my advertising grades, about 6 weeks late, receiving them in mid-September. I took my PR exam on 18 August, and only got the results just a few hours ago. Values and Cultures exam was on 15 September, results are almost 3 weeks overdue. I want my grades!!!

Anyway, remember I talked about a new taxi operator on the roads in this entry? I took it the other day. But honestly ah, judging by the taxi fare chart, I don't see how cheaper it is... The only good thing I could think of is that it runs on CNG and is environmental friendly. This is how it loks like...












Was in the school canteen yesterday afternoon. There were 2 girls, standing between a pillar and a clean, unoccupied table, wanting to fill up a form. Guess which one they chose. Hint: For a moment, I thought they chose to do so because they felt that there were too little blondes in school... Honestly, I laughed so hard, I was squatting on the floor. Yep, that's the mean side of me...

Sometimes, are people too self-centered or just plain brainless? There was a car, parallel-parking with only half a car body in the lot, while the other half was jutting out towards the "lane" in the carpark. I wished I could have taken a pic of it being such a safety hazard. Is it just me being paranoid? Is it only me that I'm being such a big idiot who cares if my actions will inconvenience others? Is it just me being stupid enough to care for others, while other don't simply just give a shit and only do things that convenience them? Wouldn't the world be a better place to live in if others would just spare a teeny weeny little thought for others?

Dearest Daphne, thank you so so very biggie muchie for the Hello Kitty Nice Matters Award!!! And yes, here's the meme that I got tagged...

What Is My Most Common Writing Mistake?
Instructions:
To play this game, all you must do is explain what your most common writing mistake is. Then, you simply tag five individuals for the meme. Those five people will, in return, tag five more people. Ultimately, readers should see a tapestry of common grammar and spelling mistakes. Therefore, anyone that is feeling ashamed of their errors will feel a bit more confident and secure.
Copy the person and persons names who sent it to you and add your own at the bottom of the list. It really helps build community.
Here’s the answers:
Shine with Grace: Mixing the word “from” with “form” all the time
Trinity: I sometimes feel confused to use past tense or present tense when I share my stories.
LadyJava: Typing too fast that sometimes I miss words in between
Genie King: I type too fast too…always end up with “tot he”…when it should be “to the”
Bobo: Makes too many mistakes all the time. She tend to miss out the word “not”.
Endoh: Can’t differentiate British or American spelling at times.
Claudia: Although a teach I is, I could everytime made mistook when I wrote and spoke. (Got it?)
Aaron: I used to always mix up than and then. It even sounds alike to me!
Daphne: I always use ‘objectively’ and ’subjectively’ wrongly.
Jas aka paced: I can't speel for nuts and always type shortform, even my MS Word's spellcheck has been programmed alrdy=already, pple=people, etc...
And i tag...
1) Arzhou
2) Chillycraps
3) Xinyun
4) Xizor
5) And of course, THE Dearest!!!

Where Are The Grades?!

Grades are released one month after the exam is taken and that's the usual practice. I took my advertising exam on the 28th July. Till now, my grade for advertising is one week overdue.

Somehow I don't feel like knowing what is the grade I got... Because I blanked out during the exam. But I want to know if I failed...

Patience is key now...

Another Queer MSN Message!

Nope, it's not the "myphoto2007.zip" thingy...
A friend of mine logged into MSN. Then he sent me this msg...
"This web http://www.contact-checker.tk tells you who blocked you in their MSN :-)"
Then he logged off, the very next second...

I was thinking why would he bother to disseminate this kinda info, and we had never threaded on a topic of finding who has blocked whom on msn. I googled, but couldn't find such a webby. I shortened the search to "checker.tk" but still no such webby.

Anyone any idea? Virus? Phising webby?

"Vanity" Car Plate Spotted In Singapore

I was in a cab in the evening (about 6.55pm) along Napier Road, just after Gleneagles Hospital, when the taxi uncle pointed out to me that the car plate number of the car in front of us was DK 65 OXL. I was like "huh", eyes blink blink and tried to re-confirm what I had seen. I know that we have plans to have vanity car plates aka personalized car plates in Singapore, but so soon?

I have 3 speculations about this and please correct me if I'm wrong.
1) I don't think this car could have been a Thai or Malaysian car that drove all the way down here because I doubt Thailand or Malaysia has a car plate number beginning with DK.
2) Could it be that the car was shipped or air-freighted over from another country?
3) Singapore has started issuing vanity car plates.

I don't have a pic to prove what I've seen because by the time I whipped out my phone from my bag, this white/ cream Chrysler 300C changed lane to turn into Tanglin Road while my cab went straight up into Grange Road, bypassing it. And the people who were in the car looked Chinese. Someone shed some light? Has anyone seen this car on the roads before?

Friends & Clutter

I find it funny when people add people in Friendster or Multiply or any other social networking websites for the sake of adding people. Yes, I've made some friends through these websites, but that's beside the point. There are people in my contact list whom I have added due to the following reasons:
- I know them personally, they may not be exactly my "friends" and I don't have their contact numbers, but they are friends of my friends and they are people whom I would go up to say "hi" on the streets even without "the mutual friend" around.
- Some are players I got to know during my "Gunbound" days.
- Some are people who chanced upon me while I was sick and fueled me with words of encouragement. These are friends found during my deepest moments.

And I absolutely hate it when people message me, "Can I be your friend", without giving any reason. Sometimes I feel I should be mean and reply, "For what? I'm not interested!", but I simply can't do so, because I'm not like that.

These social networking websites are a lovely tool for me to get back in touch with long lost friends, friends I want to keep and treasure for the rest of my life but somehow we lost contact along the way. And I guess I'll have to make do with all these "clutter" along the way.

Hooray Etihad!

The bestest news I received since Jan went to Abu Dhabi: Etihad will start to fly to Singapore in end-Sep.
The nearest destinations it flies nearer to Singapore so far are KL, Bangkok and Jakarta. My latest school schedule has me tied up till mid-Sep; there are breaks, but these are study/ mugging/ cramming breaks for me (somehow after radiotherapy, my brain cells are zapped dead too). However, by then, I'll still have one module's exam to study for. I've been trying hard to save up moolah to fly up to those places to meet her and with my school schedule, I reckon the earliest I can do so is after mid-Oct.
With that good news, it means I can get to meet her by the same targeted "earliest" date at a cheaper rate and "rolling over" those moolah for the US trip next May for my on-campus residency.
A win-win situation... Absolut nothing can describe my joy now.

Psst... Absolute is purposely spelt absolut... Hehe...

Blog Changes

Nothing major. Just changed the taggy. Prefer this one though, can set how big I want it to be.
Added the technorati and stats thingy.
If there are popups or worms or whatever "evil" stuff, these changes did to your computer, please kindly let me know. Technorati should have no problems. I had gone through the stats and taggy webby and by right, there should not be any "evil" stuff.

Comments Moderation

Dear lovely ladies and getlemen, I hate to do this, but I say I would have to. And that's start to moderate the comments you post when you click on "post-it's". I fucking hate to do this, but I have no fucking choice. Cos when I logged on just now to discover that some fuckhead had left some advertisments on insurance on the comments section of my latest entry. I somehow managed to remove it by deleting the entry n re-posting it... And I shan't put myself thru this shit again...

Now, I've forgotten what I have initially logged on to write about... Seesh...

Working Is Fun!

Why do I say so?

1) The section I'm working in is on the same level as the movies section, thus, when there are new releases, we get to watch them!

2) You get to meet stupid people and you can lol at the stupid things they say. for example:
Customer (Holding the latest/ newest release by XX artiste): Do you have a newer one?
Me (On a slight intent of making fun of him): What do you mean by newer one? The album you are holding is the newest one for XX artiste already.
Customer: I mean another newer one.
Me: Another newer one?
Customer: Another piece of this.
Me: All our stocks are already displayed out. (Which is true)
The thing I'm getting at is, at a CD shop, you don't ask for a newer piece while holding the latest release cos the idea is that you'll be asking for the latest one. When shopping for clothes, you can definately ask for a new piece, which means untried n 'unopened'. At a CD shop, you should just ask if we have another piece in stock. All customers who approach any sales staff in a CD shop posing the question of a newer one, are 99.999999999% of the time asking for the latest release of that particular artiste cos they don't see it on the racks. Honestly, this is the one and only customer who did this to me in my whole retailing life... And he did it to me, yesterday...

3) You get to spew technical jargons and terms and 'chim-ilogies' at customers n look at their 'wow', impressed, confused, 'why-so-technical?' looks on their faces when they ask questions like...
"What do you mean by MV?"
"What is the difference between a DVD and a VCD?"
"What do you mean by region coding?"
"Why cannot order?" (eh, well, you can, provided you are willing to pay us extra moolah to send the DVD to the Board of Film Censors n willing to wait up till a year or so for the BFC to approve your obscure-Japanese-artiste-DVD)
"Why is (certain title) not released/ not found/ banned?" (sometimes I really feel like telling them to ask the BFC instead. Yes yes, no "Sex and the City", no "Sopranos", no "Birdcage", no "Football Hooligans", etc...)
After they ask the above question, usually this would follow...
"So you mean I can't get it anywhere in Singapore?" (When we tell them, they can risk ordering it online, they give us a shocked look like they have never heard of online shopping or internet before...)

"Bring It On" lastest installment, "All or Nothing" is a good chill out movie...

Penny Dai Pei Ni's (戴佩妮) new album is very relaxing. Most of the songs are "very her", with the exception of a few tracks.

Vivian Xu Ruo Xuan's (徐若瑄) new album a bit CMI (cannot make it). Boring, bad vocals, eeks... To me, its a bit painful to the ear...

Coco Lee's (李王文) new album not too bad. Some tracks are nice, some CMI. The hip hop ones are the nicer ones...

Today's Toto Draw

Hmm... Good news n bad news...

Good: I sucessfully picked out 5 numbers. I chose them myself, not through quickpick... I chose 2 system 7, 2 ordinary entries, a total of 4 boards...

Bad: They are on different boards...

Damnit! I should have made other different combis with the 4 boards i had made... NB...

Why Like That?!

I'm getting too disillusioned. Everything seems to be a blur. A tornado just swept thru my mind and created a whirlpool, tempting to suck things into extinction. For a moment, what happened last April seems to be rosy, now, everything's falling apart. Why have we come to this kinda situation? What is God's will? Is it His will that such a close friendship for more than a decade will be blown apart due to certain different thinkings and priorities? 心寒...

As you Can See/Tell Part 2

Good, chinese text can be displayed. But i'm using windows text package thingy. so dunno if those comps w/out it can still c or not... next, I gonna try japanese... lol... another day perhaps... studeeeeeeeee....

And Then...

So, another week of not blogging. hardly come online too. after working, u just feel like slacking n not doing anything.

Dr Khor gave me something today to take to get rid of the smelly breath i have. hopefully it works. i cant help but feel sometimes pple are keeping a distance away from me becos of it. sigh... insecurity, as always...

and then, no and then. i guess that's all. just needed to type something out here...

WARNING:
MR STEVEN LIM HAS CHANGED LOCATION FROM TANGS/MARIOTT TO LUCKY PLAZA. targets changed to xiao mei mei's to filipinos? i have simply no idea. ladies, just be careful...