Life Blog: Mother Nature plays and crashes the net?

I flew back to my home country to celebrate Christmas there with my loving family. I had fun although it was just a short vacation, as I need to head back here in SG for the yearend support. Gees :(

Anyhow, just after Christmas a powerful quake (with a magnitude of 7.1) hit southwestern Taiwan, which might have potentially caused tsunami hitting its neighboring countries. Thank God it didn’t happen. It was the same date, Dec 26, when a devastating tsunami hit Phuket two years ago.

Now, Mother Nature played with the internet by crashing through undersea cables. This has disrupted major communication lines in Taiwan and the internet traffic across Asia-Pacific.

With this kind of natural disaster striking from the sea, the impact is not just on land-structures within the affected areas, it can also cause havoc and major loses across different countries especially if comm. lines, power lines, and net connections gets busted. Kinda scary…

Tech Blog: What could be next?

A friend forwarded this link to me. I was flabbergasted with this great invention since the first time I’ve seen this kind of technology was from the movie “Mission Impossible” or “Minority Report” (I couldn't recall exactly). Remember the scene where Tom Cruise was pulling some pieces (like a digitized files) out on a glass panel using his fingers to locate someone? Intuitive is it? and yes there’s a working prototype launched by this research scientist himself in TEDTalk online.

Watch it from this link

Like the audience, I wowed when Jeff Han showed some pictures he played around, a digitized keyboard -- which can be resized on your preference, and also few GPS snapshots in 3D which you can move around if you want to see the perfect angle!

Truly intuitive and amazing! This is just one of the incredible inventions out there, and some scientists could probably formulating new ideas at this very moment, while others might painstakingly be testing out their new discoveries. So, in today's world can you imagine what could be next?

c”,)

Life Blog: 'tis the season..

I just got home. I went out had some fellowship with friends. 'Just played pool with 'em then visited couple other friends.

I ran some errands & hadn’t actually finished much of my chores and yet I already felt somewhat bushed. This seems to be a pretty tiring weekend (well, what's new?!?).

The streets are gettin busy, some people are shopping for gifts, Christmas jingles bein played everywhere, and my fidgety body calling out for a kitkat break. Although not everyone celebrates Christmas, I believe this season is much more exciting than other holidays. Others have already gone decorating their houses with lanterns and colorful dazzling lights (even as early as September -- those who got used to garnishing their houses with warm & lovely decors as the month hits “ber”,hehe). I love this holiday season because people tend to enjoy giving & sharing and they become more creative. December is always the busiest month as it marks the end of the year, at the same time we prepare to welcome the brand new year. What gift should I get for my loved ones? What have I accomplished the past months? What do I plan to achieve this coming year? These are the typical questions we ask ourselves as we observe this holiday season.

Ahhh, weekend is over and I hate to think I need to get up early again to start with my stressful work. Anyway, its part of my routine so I must go now..

ciao! c",)

Entertainment: Here Without You

Nicely done. Anyhow, just missin' my best friend.



A hundred days had made me older
since the last time that I've saw your pretty face

A thousand lights had made me colder and I don’t think I can look at this the same

But all the miles had separate
They disappear now when I’m dreaming of your face

I’m here without you baby
but your still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
and I dream about you all the time
I’m here without you baby
but your still with me in my dreams
And tonight it’s only you and me

The miles just keep rollin
as the people either way to say hello
I've heard this life is overrated
but I hope that it gets better as we go

I’m here without you baby
but your still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
and I dream about you all the time
I’m here without you baby
but your still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl it’s only you and me

Everything I know,
and anywhere I go
it gets hard but it won’t take away my love
And when the last one falls,
when it’s all said and done
it get hard but it won’t take away my love

I’m here without you baby
but your still on my lonely mind
I think about you baby
and I dream about you all the time
I’m here without you baby
but your still with me in my dreams
And tonight girl it’s only you and me

Life Blog: Greek goddesses

If yesterday was too relaxed, today was a li’l eventful. I won in a bet! free lunch! hehe. My seatmates dared if I could ever come to work earlier than ‘em (tardiness is one of my undesirable habit these days). Miraculously, I got in earlier than I expected. I was ecstatic and grinning when I greeted them a wonderful morning :) Actually, I’ve been trying to discipline myself to break this bad habit so I agreed when they challenged me. I hope I could bring back my old self where no matter how late I sleep I could still get up early (and be the early worm, hahaha).

One of the surprising events that occurred today was when I received a “Goodbye email” from our user. Since I’m supporting Greece Bank, I get to interface with some Greek goddesses, hehe, since most of our users are women. I can say she’s one of the hardworking, nice and enthusiastic Greek user we get to interact with. So after replying to her email I phoned her to wish her my best, bid her farewell, and inquire why she’s leaving (because 2 weeks ago her colleague resigned also). She relates to me highlights of her story. It was a very short conversation (well, it had to be a quick chat as I need to ensure I don’t keep her from whatever she was doin at that moment) but I could feel how dejected she was. Imagine she was with the company for 22 (long) years! I wasn’t even born yet when she joined their firm (haha, right!). It was indeed a very difficult decision (well, talking about decisions again, huh!).

Anyhow, it was fun working with them (haha, now I’m using past tense -- I haven’t decided yet). Though we had tough times, I was able to become accustomed to having fine conversations with ‘em. And I’ve seen their pictures! Their built are kind of vast (compared to Asians) and they all look lovely. Greece is now in my list of places to visit. One of the ancient adventure I'm lookin forward to! yeah!!!

c",)

Poetry: UNPERTURBED

My Monday used to be crammed
First day of the workweek already damned
Wobbly email system just perfect!
Wrecks my day, well, what else can I expect?

But chaotic days is somewhat over
Time to relish this sweet November
Though new work items has just been served
Today seem to be unperturbed

Life Blog: Decisions

This we make each day. In all facets of life we will always make choices. There are simple ones, but a lot of times it’s complicated. You may find it easy to make decision sometimes, but the intricacy lies in putting it to work.

As you get up in the morning you are already tested to make simple decisions, such as what to have for breakfast or what to wear for the day (unless you’ve already planned these ahead, in which you still dealt with decision-making task). Even if you’ve listed all grocery items to get (well, most of us list ‘em just to help manage the budget apart from making sure we don’t forget buyin replacement for that heavily squeezed toothpaste, hehe), more often than not, we’re still caught in a tight spot on what to throw in our cart. Or perhaps you’re wedged in a dilemma on which gift to buy for your special friend’s birthday. These are just plain and simple day-to-day decisions we do. But what if it’s a life changing decision? Ahh.. spare me some time to think things over please! :)

It’s tough, it’s disconcerting, it’s bloodcurdling, it’s tiring (esp. if you’ve spent several sleepless nights thinking haphazardly about the best choice to make), and it’s as if you want to pull someone and hurl it over to that person so you can break free your mind from it. Decisions like opting to work abroad away from your family and friends, or resigning from work, or settling down, or filing a divorce can be very stressful. These are examples of life-changing decisions. And these requires careful thought, your family & friends’ advices, and Divine intervention. A sound decision entails facts as well, that’s why listing the problem and all your options down really help a lot. In court, the Judge, Attorneys and the Jurors conduct several sessions until the person being tried is proven guilty (or not), then the verdict is carried out.

What makes it difficult, I suppose, is that most of us are afraid of what will be the consequences if in case the end-result is the opposite of what we’re expecting. We normally call this “bad decisions”. We are prone to making bad decisions if we decide too quickly -- doing it without carefully spending some time assessing the situation (or probably when we’re under emotional stress). Some blame themselves for making an awful choice while others just tries to live on with the choice they made and noting that they don’t plummet on the same trap if they stumble upon similar circumstances. On the other hand, it’s easy to say if you’ve made the right decision because you’ll definitely find yourself giggling with satisfaction and utterly proud about the outcome. Putting our decisions to work requires faith, which we seriously doubt oftentimes as we are filled with “what ifs”. I believe our decision-making principle somewhat defines our maturity. Yes we make wrong choices but we can learn from them. And if the choice we’ve made turns out to be okay, we gain extra self-confidence. =)

Why am I writing about this? Because my job contract will end soon, and I have been asking myself how should I decide. Yes this is one of the life-changing decisions for me because I need to consider my family and depend my future plans on it. Although I know my priorities and I have identified the problem (the stress factors at work which almost led me to resign a few weeks back), my options aren’t clear still. Also, I’m still contemplating on what I might be leaving behind and what lies ahead. It’s challenging and at the same time nerve-racking.

Truly, it’s easy to give counsel to a friend asking help in coming out with good decision, but when you’re the one in the situation of making a life-changing choice, I would definitely say it’s tough and troublesome! Do you agree?

c”,)

Life Blog: Thai A Yellow Ribbon

Yellow (or golden yellow) is the common color you’ll find in Bangkok, Thailand. My friends and I recently visited the city for a common reason: enjoy the privilege of travelin' while working abroad and to escape from the rather demanding job, hehe.

As we arrived at the airport, this guy carrying a placard bearing our names greeted us. He took us to our hotel. It was just a 3-star hotel I suppose. I believe when traveling for short period and looking for cheap hotels, there is no time to be nitpicking, as long as the air conditioning works (unfortunately, the aircon in our room is not powerful enough to sustain our body heat). Nonetheless, the place is neat and the location is perfect. It was already late in the evening when we checked in, then immediately we went out to welcome the atmosphere. The hot temperature is nothing new to us. However, we were surprised to see how busy the streets were when it was already past 12mn (considering they were under martial law, haha). Every corner was filled with tourists.

Bangkok is the cultural and economic centre of Thailand. They really are rich in cultures. (Also rich in cultured worms, beetles, grasshoppers, mantis, frogs, scorpions – made crunchy, hehe). My friends said I should try it, they told me it tastes good, just like the typical street foods. But I never dared to try, not even a single bite.

Thais give high regard to their King. This is another common sight you’ll discover in Thailand -- picture of their King all over the places. Thai people are also nationalistic. I remember when we were in the market, all the people stopped suddenly because their national anthem is being played over the air. (I noticed even the street dog stopped sniffing around – no kidding! hehe). Some Thai people we’ve stumbled upon were very nice. Even those people at the hotel and the drivers were all very accommodating. Although some hardly speak English, they could still interpret somehow what we were trying to say. So we never had much trouble askin' around for prices and places :)

Our 3 days were spent on visiting some of the temples, trying out the floating market, goin' for an elephant ride through a jungle trail, watching cultural shows (both day show and night show, haha), and shopping. There’s nothin' much to see in Bangkok actually, but we enjoyed our vacation. We enjoyed taking snaps everywhere. I hope in our future travel adventures I already have the dSLR I’ve been eyeing for. Oh, I almost forgot, we weren't able to watch live Muay Thai fight (though we've seen similar acts in the cultural show, fair enough, hehe)

Sawat dee! c",)



Here are some pics I took:

(outside the temple)


(@ the floating market)


(one of the many golden temples)


(some tourists shopping for souvenirs)


(the reclining buddha)

Entertainment: Kaleidoscope World

The master rapper taking it slow in this cool music. Sing along and enjoy! =)

So many faces, so many races
Different voices, different choices
Some are mad, while others laugh
Some live alone with no better half
Others grieve while others curse
And others mourn behind a big black hearse
Some are pure and some half-bred
Some are sober and some are wasted
Some are rich because of fate and
Some are poor with no food on their plate
Some stand out while others blend
Some are fat and stout while some are thin
Some are friends and some are foes
Some have some while some have most

Every color and every hue
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the slope
Take a look in the kaleidoscope
Spinnin' round, make it twirl
In this kaleidoscope world



Some are great and some are few
Others lie while some tell the truth
Some say poems and some do sing
Others sing through their guitar strings
Some know it all while some act dumb
Let the bassline strum to the bang of the drum
Some can swim while some will sink
And some will find their minds and think
Others walk while others run
You can't talk peace and have a gun
Some are hurt and start to cry
Don't ask me how don't ask me why
Some are friends and some are foes
Some have some while some have most

Every color and every hue
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the slope
Take a look in the kaleidoscope
Spinnin' round, make it twirl
In this kaleidoscope world

Life Blog: United Colors of Singapore

Yey! Tomorrow is a public HOLIDAY! Rest day! I just hope I won’t get called for work. Singapore is havin this important occasion celebrated by Muslims around the globe, called the ‘Hari Raya Puasa.’ While last Saturday was another public holiday celebrated by Hindus, called Deepavali, which is also known as the festival of lights. There are also holidays for Chinese, as well as for Christians.

In this country you will find many different races. I guess, ‘say in one shopping mall, if you gather all the people together you’ll be surprised to see sorts of people coming from dif’rent places and races. Apart from Singaporeans, you’ll find Chinese from mainland, Malays, Filipinos, Japs, Thais, Koreans, Indians, Americans, Brits, and many others. There might even be some Cro-magnons (or Encino-man, hehe).

SG is such a small country. I think this is one obvious reason why we can easily find varied nationalities in many places. One of the things I admire here is havin 'less discrimination.' I observed one time, when I was trav'lin via MRT, that most people were just minding their own business – some were half-asleep (others were snoring), some were just quietly sitting there while reading books or listening to their mp3s, others were chattin with their friends. You’ll also hear different languages from those people conversing, and probably you’ll notice different smiles, funny faces, traditional outfits or some peculiar get ups, and of course, the unusual smell. In public transportations you’ll discover that signs are printed in 4 different languages. And hearing the announcements everyday as you head to/from work will somehow lodge this into your head. It goes something like..

“Your attention please, for your own safety, please stand behind the yellow line.” (English). “That cha chi chu yi…” (this is Mandarin, sorry I forgot the rest of the phrase). “Sila ambil perhatian, demi keselematan anda…” (this is Malay, I forgot the rest also, hehe). “Al lugi lipawl blah blah blah.. (this is Tamil, I obviously couldn’t remember the entire phrase, hihi)

Another thing that I’m thankful for in this country is knowing that many people speak English! You wouldn’t get lost because there will certainly be someone who could give you directions, in which you wouldn’t find difficult to understand.

c",)