the Wild Hamster

They say that life is unpredictable. But what's the reason for that? I think we'll never know. But what I do feel is that the person responsible for this is the big man above. I feel he's been pretty random when it comes to sowing my life with unexpected events and outcomes. Most of the time, it's all been positive however.

Just last week, I had made a decision to stay in my warm and fuzzy corner at my current workplace, a decision spurred by the fact that it was a comfortable place to be and the pay was decent. Also, I was happy.

Of course, in the back of my mind, I still yearned for deliverance - something which I've prayed for ever since I knew how to pray. Indeed, the past couple of years I have been incessantly praying for some divine help to show me where I must go in life.

But then, I also realised that maybe if he showed me the path I also wouldn't know what it would look like.

It's not like he's going to send an angel down to me and the angel will take a classified ad, shove it in my face and say, 'NAH, THIS ONE LAH, WHAT YOU WAITING FOR? THIS HUAN WILL MAKE CHIU HEYPI!'

You get the picture. Still, I did not give up hope.

Then last week, just when I had made a decision to stay, a call came from someone I know about a potential opportunity.

Call it fate, or providence, but it really did come at the exact moment when I was about to relay my decision to commit to my current management. A few days later, I decided to take it up.

In all honesty, I have no idea what I'm doing. It's very much a leap of faith. As Donald Trump says, sometimes, you've just got to trust your instincts. And making this move feels quite right, even though I've been literally ripped out of my comfort zone and thrust into action.

As a consequence, I've had to partake in a flurry of activities over the past few days.

It's pretty exhausting, especially since I have to juggle my new duties with the demands of my current job, which I have to stay in until the date when I officially step out of the door.

But at the same time, it's a happy kind of tired. So far, I'm quite thrilled with what I'm doing.

As I've said before, I don't know where this will lead. But as my new superior says, as long as you have passion, luck will come. So I'm just going to plunge headlong into this and pray once again that I will end up somewhere much better than where I am now in a few years time.

And I must never forget those who made it happen. Especially the big man above, for I am eternally grateful to for having provided for me and my family over these years.

Today, I made the decision.. to shelf my earlier decision. Temporarily. I think.

In all honesty, it was made on a whim. Without any clear motivation. I am as undecided about it as I was earlier in the day, or yesterday or the week before. But I had to make a decision, and so I made it.

Going forward, it seems to be a right move to make, though I admit that the lure of a free life was very seductive, and that the path I have taken seems a bit selfish, and its probably going to cost someone (hopefully, not me) dearly (or not dearly, maybe undearly, or deerly, or venison. maybe beefly? or chickenly? wallaby!)

I've not lost my desire to strike it out on my own. After evaluating my position, I feel that I still need some more time to re-evaluate that direction.

It will also give me a chance to further strengthen my available capital, and allow me time to do the things that I want to do, which I feel I may not do even when I am not employed. Self-motivation has always been a problem.

In any case, I have made my choice. At the very least, my situation is slightly different than last year because I have a 'get out' clause, which I can exercise at any time after giving one month's notice. Which means that I always have the option to walk away should I so feel like it.

Maybe a few months is all I need to think about what I really want to do.

But one thing I do know is that I also have another job opportunity which seems very interesting (and in my league) from Stream's friend. If I get the chance to do that job I will probably jump at it.

For now though, I am staying put. For how long more, I do not yet know. Yet I am very much aware that I am not become any younger. And people 10 years younger than me are sailing off into the distance while Im stuck on a sinking sampan.

I am also very much aware that I have to get off at some point lest I drown.

Better collect as much lifesavers before I jump though. Or maybe a life raft. And some clean underwear as well.

Ive just finished watching the top 11 performance of American Idol and I have to say this: I believe that there's no one on AI so far that compares to Adam Lambert.

Before the top 13 was determined I was an ardent Danny Gokey fan, but I have now officially switched allegiances to Adam. It started last week after his mindblowing Black and White performance.

But this week. Holy smokes. I'm speechless. His performance of 'Ring of Fire' from Johnny Cash just completely floored me. Although Simon says it blows I find it shockingly addictive. In fact, I just downloaded the MP3 rip of Adam's portion of the show and Im playing it now.

Omg man. Talk about uniqueness. That's an understatement for Adam Lambert. He's bizarre, he's weird, and at the same time he's one of the best singers in the World.

To sum up, here's a perfect comment from one AI viewer:

Ok, so I hate Adam Lambert and his assault on my eardrums screech.

But I have to say that as much as I was determined to hate him, I loved it! It was so weird and bizarre and awful, but in all the right ways. All I know is I can’t stop listening to it. What the hell? I’m so confused right now.

Adam Lambert is like meth. Makes you feel like shit but you just can’t stop.

Its time to make a change.

I think I have stayed in my comfort zone for too long. I need to venture out, make new discoveries, discover new challenges, challenge new horizons.

What am I going to do next? I have totally no idea. I envy those who know what they want in life. You know, those who already map out their entire future.. their hopes and dreams.. their short, mid and long term goals.

For some reason, I just can't do the same thing. Maybe its because I don't know what I want, though on the flip side I believe that its because I want too many things.

It isn't all murky up ahead though. I've got some ideas on what I think I might do. And most of them don't involve being under someone else's employ. Which is what I really want .. I think. Working independently will mean I have the space to exercise my creative thoughts and ideas, even if they are doomed from the start. Well, that's the way to learn ainit?

I've always felt restricted while working for others. Felt something missing, as if it was wrong, even though it looks right as rain. So maybe working for myself is the best option. Some may call it the arrogance of youth. I prefer to call it entrepreneurship.

Granted, I will no longer have the security that employment brings. Then again, maybe that's what I need for some major motivation. Besides, if I don't do it now, I may never have the chance to do it when again when I'm older.

Another obstacle is the steep learning curve. I'll pretty much be starting from scratch, and there's LOTS to learn. I like learning new things though, so that's fine.

Finally, there's a good chance that I may fail. But as they say, Fortes fortuna adiuvat. In any case, I will be giving much thought to this decision before I make it. As life changing endeavours go, there is none that will be as big as this.

Ad victoriam!

Well, as much as I like the old design, I thought it was pretty glaring as well. Mean on the eyes and all..

Besides.. i think a more wild environment would be suitable..

Its so hard to find a good netbook. And by good I mean one that comes with a SSD. SSD means Solid State Drive. or Solid State Device. or Smooth and Silky Design. Or Safe and Secure Drive.

Many people are jumping for netbooks nowadays coz well, they're cheaper and smaller.

To cut cost and make them seem more attractive, manufacturers are releasing netbooks with normal hard drives in them, and people are snapping these up.

Its a great idea of course. Normal HDs are cheaper and have bigger storage. But what many people fail to realise is that they also have MOVING PARTS.

It doesn't take a lot for a hard disk to fail. In fact, if its processing something all you need is a tap on the laptop to damage it. Yes, its that easy.

For normal desktops, hard disk failure arising from such actions are uncommon(since its probably stuck in an immobile casing.

In a laptop, the risk is higher as you're moving it around all the time. In a NETBOOK, the risk is extreme.

Why? Because netbooks they are small and light, people tend to move them around more often. They often think that netbooks are mobile phones and fling them around like they're indestructible. In fact, I recently saw a guy trying to look cool by walking around with a netbook and watching a video on it.

To be sure, laptop and netbook hard disks are more durable than normal desktop drives. Its a technology thing. However, no matter what technology you put into a normal hard disk, you still can't change its principle of operation.

If your netbook contains an SSD (new type of disk with no movable parts), then good for you. You can play table tennis with your netbook and itll be fine. However, if it contains a normal hard disk, I suggest you NOT MOVE IT WHEN ITS TURNED ON.

All storage disks are equal. But some disks are more equal than others.

I'm going ....




downstairs to buy a bottle of starfruit juice.

This morning on the way to work I found myself, as usual, standing in a crowd of people at the traffic light.

The light was going to turn green soon ( which meant we could proceed to the other side)

There was this woman who started inching out. She walked a few steps (out onto the road) and stopped. After a few seconds, a few followed, then a few more, then .. the WHOLE CROWD followed.

Then the woman walked forward again and stopped again. She could do this because the traffic wasn't passing directly in front of the traffic light due to road works. Let me explain:

Original situation:

Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
------------------------------------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
------------------------------------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
-------------- Pedestrians ---------------
Pavement----------------------------------

So.. frame by frame.. this is what happened:



Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
------------------------------------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
--------------------X (Woman) ------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
-------------- Pedestrians ---------------
Pavement----------------------------------

Then:

Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
------------------------------------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
---------- Some Pedestrians - X(Woman)----
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
-------------- Pedestrians ---------------
Pavement----------------------------------

Then:

Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
------------------------------------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
---------- Pedestrians - X(Woman)---------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
------------------------------------------
Pavement----------------------------------

Then:

Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
-----------------X (Woman)----------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
---------------- Pedestrians -------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
------------------------------------------
Pavement----------------------------------


Then:

Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
-----Some Pedestrians --X(Woman)----------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
--------------- Pedestrians --------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
------------------------------------------
Pavement----------------------------------

Then:

Pavement----------------------------------
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
Road->
------------------------------------------
<-Road
--------- Pedestrians --X(Woman)----------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
------------------------------------------
<-Blocked-off Road Lane
------------------------------------------
Pavement----------------------------------



After this, the light turned green and everyone crossed to the other side.

There you have it. Herd mentality 101! And I was witness to this marvellous spectacle.. yeah.

There is a food shortage around the world. Many people are starving. Many more will soon follow as a result of the financial turmoil as it will mean dwindling donations.

According to my University professor, the Earth's carrying capacity has been exceeded many times over. There's simply not enough food for everyone.

There's no easy way out to this problem.

We can look at producing less children vis-a-vis China's one child policy. Of course, such a thing can be hard to enforce. But nevertheless, it may be attempted via public education. The key is to slow population growth rates until we can find the technology to provide more food per acre of land.

The next solution is better. WE MUST STOP WASTAGE. We must BAN buffets. Don't get me wrong. I love buffets. I love the concept of eating without limits (one look at my tubby midsection can confirm that). But I also know that buffets are places where obnoxious amounts of food wastage takes place.

As a diner, its fine if you completely consume the food you take. But I have visited many buffets and have always found at least one table with unfinished food. Sometimes, its a LOT of unfinished food.

Restaurants too are guilty parties. How much food do they throw away at the end of everyday? I'm not just talking about buffets either. I have seen restaurants emptying loads of cooked, perfectly edible food into rubbish bins.

What about groceries? Bread especially is regularly thrown away, along with other consumables like milk and eggs.

I think many restaurants order excessively because they don't want to run out of food at crucial moments in their operation. The same goes for Supermarkets and other shops or stalls in the food industry. Often, this leads to over-estimation, and food that can't be kept is thrown away as a result.

As a community, we need to see how we can optimise our food consumption so as to reduce wastage. The benefits are widespread. Food costs will be lower as demand drops, making it accessible to more people - especially those living in poverty. Businesses will benefit from lower prices as well. More food will also be available for everyone.

As individuals, what we can do is to ensure we do not waste food. At food courts, order only what you can eat. At buffets, take only what you can consume.

And this applies to non-food items as well.

The other day I bought a drink from 7-Eleven. When I had finished the drink, I took a look at the bottle that had contained it. It was a perfectly solid item. If I had kept it, I could probably use it 10 billion times more. But usually people just throw them away after consuming the liquids within. That's a terrific waste of resources.

We really should step up our recycling efforts. Think about how many thousands of plastic bottles are wasted a day. Think about how the materials used for those bottles can be put to better, long-term use. We should re-look our consumption habits not only for the good of our greater society but also for the benefit of our future generations. What's going to happen when we've used up everything on Earth?

We have to change our mindset. In the past, things were expensive. But they were also solidly built. One of the TVs in my house which my parents bought in the 1980s still works fine. People used to save up to buy these things. However, they are now a dime a dozen, and this has lead to a 'buy now and change later' mentality, which means people don't really think too much about their purchases. They just buy it and use it and if its spoilt, its okay. Because its so cheap, let's go buy another one tomorrow!

This also counts as wastage, because much material goes into making even simple products. We need to refocus our attention on quality. To see how we can make products that last as long as possible without breaking down. This applies to any industry. Look at the fashion realm for example. There's a reason why some people insist on buying branded goods. Yes, they buy it because of the name. But sometimes, its more than just that. The brand represents quality. Some high-cost Italian shoes can last for many years for example as they are hand-made, with careful attention paid to their construction.

I'm not advocating the purchase of branded goods. Don't get me wrong. What I AM suggesting is for us to see how we can invest in quality instead of always looking at the price tag.

There is of course one ultimate solution for wastage. And that is to build a spaceship and go colonise other planets. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. So until that does, there is an urgent need for us to change our lifestyles so that we can last the distance.

When thinking about what to type for my heading.. just thought of this line from one of Ro Keating's songs. Recently.. life has indeed been like a riding on a carriage going up and down the hills of an amusement park ride.

CNY has come and gone. I had expected it to whizz past though as there were just too many things that were happening on those two days. It's a chance to meet up with relatives and just have fun.

I've learnt one thing that you shouldn't do on CNY, which is try venturing into Sentosa. Don't say I didn't warn you. I was there over the entire CNY period and the island was SWARMING with people. Most of the visitors were foreign workers, and a number of them pitched tents everywhere on the beach. I had originally planned to relax on the beach when I got there, but after seeing how the beach was crowded to the max with all sorts of people doing all sorts of things, I decided not to anymore. Sigh.. somehow my plans to let off some steam always seem to be derailed. Maybe I'm doomed to feel stressed for my entire life.

Anyway, trying to get into Sentosa was another headache on its own. There were queues at all the points of embarkation for transport into Singapore. The queue for the Monorail was most horrendous, creeping all over the top floor of Vivocity. So I headed to the Cable Car queue and found that there was a queue there as well. That's not the end. After reaching Sentosa, I found queues stretching for hundreds of metres for the local buses as well. Frustrated, I decided to just hike back to my beach chalet through the Imbiah jungle. Thankfully, it wasn't as arduous as I'd thought it be. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. All in all, it took nearly an hour and a half for me to get to my chalet on Sentosa from Vivocity. If I had waited for the Monorail, it would have probably taken longer.

Another thing which peeved me was the fact that Sentosa took the beach trams off the paths for the two days we were there. This meant that anyone who had beachside accomodation (i.e. Costa Sands Resort or Siloso Beach Resort) had to walk a hell lot just to get a ride off the island or a bite to eat. Thanks Sentosa, for making us feel like valued customers. The reason that they gave for taking the trams offline were pretty illogical as well - it was something along the line of, we took them off because we want people to enjoy the Sentosa Flowers Display.

Huh?

Tram operation on the beach path = people cannot enjoy the Sentosa Flowers Display?

Honestly, they could have just said: "We foresaw the billion and a half people flooding our quaint little island and so as to prevent our trams from becoming MRT trains at peak hours we decided not to run them."

Inevitably, many people had a lot of things to say about the FTs crowding Sentosa on those two days. I don't have a problem with that really. After all, many of them work hard 7 days a week, for almost all of the year and they deserve their rest. Besides, they're as human as any of us, and so should be accorded the same basic rights that we do.

I think it makes sense for many of them to go to Sentosa, because really, its one of the most cost-effective places to go for a day of fun. Apart from the entrance fee + monorail fee, which adds up to around $3, there's nothing else to pay for aside from food and drinks. I mean, that's if all you're looking for is a place to relax and you don't want to slide down the hill on a plank with wheels, or watch a 3-D fish that's dancing on a screen, or touch some dolphins.

But some (read: SOME, not ALL) of the workers were quite unruly and were displaying quite ungracious behavior. Like there was this one guy who just came out of the sea and walked straight to the Luge attraction. I was standing there trying to get a shot of someone and he stood next to me and I could feel all the seawater dripping off him and splashing on me! I admit that I wanted to touch seawater that day, but that wasn't the way I planned to do it.

Probably the most irksome thing that I saw was rampant littering. Of course, not all the foreign workers could be blamed for this. Singaporeans have also been pretty notorious for littering when there is a large crowd around. This is something we really need to be conscious of.

I don't know how people can update their blogs everyday. Either they're very free at work, or they don't really do much after work but stay at home, which in the latter case can be a good thing. Nowadays I work till quite late, and then after that meet my SO for dinner, then when I reach home it's too late to do anything productive, let alone write on the blog.

These few nights have been spent sending out job applications. Despite what people tell me (that the job market is bad and I should just apply to ANY job that I fit the requirements for), I still prefer to only apply for jobs that I really want to work in.

Sure, I may be able to do just any job, but I believe that it is my employer's benefit (and mine) if I have real passion for what I'm doing. Only then can I truly excel in my work.

So, the search goes on.

I realise that human life today is pretty worthless. In the past, when the World wasn't so Friedman-flat, and when communities were closely-knitted groups, people really did give a damn about what happened to their workers.

Farmer John, for example, knew each one of those who worked in his corn field. He gave a damn about what they wanted, their hopes and dreams, and their lives. They were all happy and gay.

Even up till the 60s and 70s, companies still treated their employees really well. Take IBM for example - they had a solid record in this area and IBM employees were happy and gay for they knew their bosses would take care of them for life.

Fast forward to current times, and you'll find that the situation's completely different. Many CEOs now pretty much care only for one thing - their paycheck. With this mentality, only one thing can happen when they take a look at their balance sheet and realise that it isn't really that balanced.

Expenses must be cut, which is a statement often mentioned in the same breath as the dreaded exercise known as retrenchment.

In such exercises, they trim employee numbers as though it meant nothing to them, and I'm sure this is more the norm than exception. It's like all they'll say is: 'Hey, let's just get rid of 10,000 of them. There, we're going to save $50 million dollars in this way - problem solved!'

But wait, this goes around in a vicious circle. If A loses his job, he won't be able to buy stuff from B's company, so they lose money and cut B from their payroll. So B loses his job, and he can't buy stuff from C's company, who has dealings with A's former company, and so they cut their dealing, and A's company retrenches more staff.

So after all the retrenchment, who's going to be left with salaries to buy anything? Maybe some of the aforementioned CEOs of course, and let's not forget those financial market types, some of whom destroyed their companies and made millions of people lose trillions of dollars -but still got away with extremely fat paychecks. Where'd you think all that money comes from?

Money doesn't appear magically - it's gotta come from somewhere. Well, my friends, it's people like us, or more specifically those of us who were gullible enough to have our money siphoned off by these so-called brilliant financial engineers.

And its not just money these people had sitting around but money that they've slogged our entire life to earn. Losing all that money.. it's like they've worked for nothing.

Of course, like I said before, they aren't excused from the blame either. They could have chosen NOT to invest in something they didn't understand. But then again, in the financial world, how many people really understand what's happening? How many people read contracts nowadays? How can we? Modern contracts are so long, they can be sent for publishing as a paperback novel.

So as I was saying, many management members now only think about the numbers, and not about the human aspect of their companies. As warped as such a mentality may be, that's how the World works today. People only care about the numbers, or at least, I notice many that do.

People no longer care that much about service, and even if Spencer the salesman smiles all the time and gives a good customer experience, you know you're still going to go to Max, who is nasty as hell but sells the same product for 50 cents less.

Let me add a disclaimer that not everyone is like this. I know of some people who do care about service and will pay a premium for it. Wealthy people, in particular are good examples.

But if you think about it, these wealthy people most likely earned their fortunes by playing around with numbers as well - doing cost-cutting and such, and thinking about how much money they can make off a field of crops grown for bio-fuel, not thinking about how more people are starving because their isn't a great availability of arable land for growing food.

It's a World of numbers, my friends. We are all a statistic, nothing more.

Ah well, maybe I'm thinking too much.

Anyway, this weekend I'll update with my Phuket thing - which I promised earlier but haven't really followed up on it.. oops.