Disappointed

I'm feeling a wee bit disappointed today.

I had expected to enjoy a pretty nice afternoon at 1Utama but things didn't turn out as I had planned...

It's Going To Be Alright!

My hiatus from this blog was mainly due to work. That's not a big surprise actually.

Not that I hate my work, I actually enjoyed it a lot.

I Missed an Entire Month!!

Yes.. I didn't blog for an entire month.

A whole stash of photos from February to March are still waiting for me to process...

I was a little lazy but also was caught up with some stuff at work which for some reason now, doesn't really need my attention anymore. So, will have to realign my priorities. One of it is to get back to taking care of me and spending more time with my camera. ;-)

Another is to think about getting all my certifications done.

Anyway, will share more in the coming posts. One of it was the major disappointment I encountered on last Friday which had me going for some minor retail therapy over the weekend...

Called Home To The Lord - We Will Miss You Ian Tan

It was so sudden, so shocking. We hoped that it was someone else...

It's Been A Year Already??

How time flies...

It is so strange that October is the month for anniversaries. LOL!!

Quiet Month...

It's been a quiet month on my blog. Yeah, I've been a bit lazy to do my updates. I've got tonnes of photos to edit and burn but didn't quite get up to it.

So, what have I been up to?

1. Parents went to Chiang Mai for a holiday - leaving me to take care of the dogs and etc.
- I have to rush back from the office during lunch to release both dogs for their toilet break.
- Good that I can have lunch at home which is cheaper and healthier.
- Bad that I had to race up and down, paying double tolls for the time they were away.

2. More work
- Yes, I had some work to do which was both interesting and frustrating at once.

3. Rush, rush, rush on my b'day yesterday
- Yes, I've turned another year older. Am I wiser. Errr... Jury is still out on that.
- I had to rush quite a number of things yesterday. It feels like last year all over again when I was under immense pressure to get something up to show to my client.
- This year, I had to prepare for a small demo but thank goodness it's only for the R&D team.

4. My photos?
- Aaaaaahhhh.. I'll post something up on a lovely small eatery I visited a couple of months back...

Anyway, it's a Friday. Time to take it easy.

Have a great weekend folks!

Anxiously Waiting...

How quickly the weekend has gone by. I had a great time over the weekend taking lots of photos and catching up with some old friends. Like Rusty, I'm waiting for Friday to come along again.

However, I'm a bit anxious as I've got a follow-up appointment with the doctors this Saturday. I've been "naughty" and good at times with my regiment but overall, pretty strict with myself.

I've been feeling a bit lousy for the last few days due to my meds. It's giving me some problems again.

Aside from that, I've been a bit too aggressive with my gym exercises that I pulled my hamstring last week. So, couple that with my meds side-effects and I had a pretty gloomy Monday. However, with some rest and stretching, I'm much better and can resume my gym tomorrow. ;-)

Being active is good as I now have more energy and am able to do more stuff. A great side-effect is the weight-loss (though slow) and better muscle tone/strength from all that exercising. I'd guess now that I'm active with my gym, I feel lousy if I don't hit the gym more than twice in a week.

So, what are you folks anxiously waiting for? Being the tax month, I think you're anxious to get it done soon, eh?

CNY Over, A Dry Spell of Holidays Until May...

Feeling awfully tired as I've just gotten back from the gym.

Yes, the CNY holidays are over.... Time to get back to work and other stuff. Less partying and etc...

Time to hit the gym to lose those extra kilos gained over the 15-day celebration. Hehehe.. :P

However, if you have been "behaving" yourself, you don't have to feel all that guilty about indulging a little during the CNY festivities, right?

Meanwhile, I'd guess everyone will be working hard in the next 2 months as there isn't that many public holidays unless you happen to be in Sabah/Sarawak for Good Friday.

Ok.. So, hope everyone will have a smooth sailing Year of the Tiger... *ROAARR*

Keep On Smilling Regardless

This just happens to be one of my favourite Pixar shorts... "For The Birds".

I think I recalled watching this prior to Finding Nemo. My friends and I had such a great laugh...

It's a very simple story. Birds of a Feather... Flock together...

However, because the bird who joined the flock was different than the others, large, long and clumsy; the other birds in the flock decided to make fun of that bird... So much so, that when the clumsy bird lost its balance, two birds got together to peck its feet to get it to fall off.

Well... Watch the entire short and you'll love the ending.... (^ ^)

In short.... Keep on smiling, regardless of what others do to you. You may get the last laugh after all.

Have a Happy Merdeka everyone!!!

Slowly Recovering...

Little Rusty is recovering from his little operation... He got neutered last Friday... Stitches will be out this Saturday...

So am I....

I finally had to take an MC when I woke up feeling extremely exhausted with runny nose and sore throat yesterday. While on my way to work, I felt really really tired and just made a U-turn to see the doctor.

The doc said that I had a throat infection after I told him that I've been having a dry cough and bad chest congestion for the last couple of weeks. I also had low grade fever which I got at night too, making me feel very warm and tired the next day.

The doc said that the reason why I'm so tired is that my body is completely exhausted from all that "infection wars" which raged within my body for the last few weeks. He said, "Now, your body needs external help.". So, he gave me an MC.

I went home, took my medicine, went to sleep and ignored all calls/SMS on my mobile.

I knew that I should have gone to see the doc earlier but work was in the way. Frankly, I don't know why I work so damn hard when I'm not appreciated for the effort I put in... Stupid eh?

Nevertheless, after a full day of rest, I feel much more energetic now although I had some slight fever and body ache earlier in the day... I also started working today too.

Will try to de-stress and keep calm despite the powers-that-be above me giving all the stress...

Longing... Waiting...

We all long for something... We wish that something would just happen... We just wait for it...

I think for me, I just long for the weekends to come around and hope that it won't end so soon! LOL!

Anyway, I'm anxiously waiting for the arrivals of my twin nieces, Charlotte and Olivia who are due some time at the end of this month or early September.

A new generation at the threshold... So much to teach and learn from them too.

Multi-tasking

This is the danger I may run into. Even though I may be on holiday, I'm afraid that I may be multi-tasking then. Grrrr...

Anyway, to continue from my previous post, do you think it is annoying that you're "multi-tasking" when you're in a meeting/conference call?

When everyone brings in a laptop and connect to the network via WiFi, we tend to be checking/reading/replying e-mails, writing up documents, taking down meeting minutes/notes, surfing for the best restaurant to eat this weekend/shop for stuff/read the latest news feed about Malaysian drama politics all in one breath.. while we are listening "intently" to someone...

What was it you were saying?

Kekeke... (This post was written AFTER a meeting... not during one..)

347th Post - 28th July 2009

Nothing spectacular reaching my 347th post.

Anyway, I hate it when my birthday happens to fall in the middle of the week. It makes it very odd for me to take the day off to enjoy myself.

With work/project being so stressful due to human/inhumane factors, I find it hard to enjoy myself this year.

I just found some very interesting photos on my mobile phone which I've not posted before.. I think. Kekeke... It brings back memories of when I used to have a desk and phone in the office - a place to call my own. At least back then, I had a proper place to sit to work. Unlike now, me being the turtle/nomad, camping around the office.

Oh well.. 347th post.. Another load of crap... LOL!!

Weekends are for...

What does one do during the weekend?

DEFINITELY NOT WORK!!!! If you can help it...

Like Snoopy, these days, my weekends are used for me to catch up on the following:

• Sleep (as I sleep between 3-5hrs per day)
• Photography & Photo editing
  
• Blogging
• Watching lots of TV
• Spending time with my Terror Terrier Rascals - Snoopy & Rusty
• Shopping... (if I need to)
• Yum Cha/Lunch/Dinner with friends
• ... Anything-else-I-can-think-of

Hope you folks enjoy the weekend before we head back to the madness which we call our working lives...

Flabbergasted?

Did I gas you?? Really??

Sometimes, you just can't help being flabbergasted.

I know that I'll be hitting one of my yearly milestones soon but I just can't help thinking about some of the other milestones I've hit.

What got me thinking was when I tuned into LiteFM and found out that songs they start to play are hits from 80's... songs which I grew up with.

That's when it HIT me.

I'm getting to be an Old FART.

I was having a quick chat with EV and she said that she is about to reach her 1st decade with the current company that she is working for. It is an achievement and deserves some sort of medal but there is no such appreciation for loyalty from her company. Her sister, who works in the same place has been with the same company for more than 20 years...

It is kind of a flabbergasted moment too as I can't imagine to stay in a company for more than 10yrs. At the current company where I'm at, there's a special "club" to join when you hit 25yrs of service... So, assuming that you started working for that company at 21, when you hit 25yrs, you'll be at least 46yrs old. Whoa.

I'd guess what I'm getting at is longevity - how long you can stay at something for the long run.

Flabbergasted, eh?

Mind on Auto-Pilot

Ever encounter this before?

1. You get in your car, you start driving to your destination without even so much as a thought?
2. You're on the road, your mind starts working on 2 or 3 different things at once?

My mind was going through both scenarios.... Hehehe... Multi-tasking on its own....

Not that it is something new, we've all done it.

For example, you're listening to music while driving on the road. Or you're listening to music, talking to a friend (via mobile handsfree kit) while driving on the road - (though not advised to do so)....

The other night, I was amazed to be using my brain in parallel mode. I was in my car, on my way back home, listening to my favourite "rant music" - Linkin Park when I started to think about my work, i.e. what needs to be done, if the particular component needs to do this and that... Then, I realized that my brain was working on at least 4 things at once!!!

It was scary. Not that I wasn't concentrating on the road, but I was too!

Anyway, I was mentally exhausted by the time I got home.

When I opened my machine to continue my work, my mind just hit a wall. It just refused to work which is bad because I was supposed to work around 15-20hrs per day.

Hmmmm... I need to find a way to relax my brain and get it work at an optimum level. However, hard to find rest these days...

So curious

Rusty and Snoopy finds something interesting beyond the fence...

There are times when we are so curious about what's it like beyond the other side of the fence.

Now, when we DO go over the fence and have our curiosity satisfied; do you feel that it was worth "jumping" over the fence? Or do you have regrets?

I'll have to admit that I feel like the latter at times but then, you can't turn back time, bla bla... So, I just suck it in and move on.

Life after all is about the journey, not the destination right?

Who knows, after you jump beyond the fence, you might find a pot of gold somewhere....

Reflections...

Have you ever taken the time to reflect on yourself?

Basically, have you taken time to look into your "internal mirror" to see if the person there is who you want to be?

I think this occurred to me as it is already July and most companies are already closing their financial year. Which means.. It's time for those darn review sessions with your boss(s)... Uggghhh...

Lucky for me this year I've sort of escaped it as I've switched jobs.

Nevertheless, I often take time out to see if I've reached my own goals by this time of year, i.e. Resolutions for Year XXXX. But it's never a serious assessment as so much as just a fleeting thought only.

Anyway, after this evening's team meeting, I'm seriously doubting my capabilities as the PM said that my project has to "catch up" due to the delays. Frankly, I feel as though I'm carrying the entire project on my back as my two team members are far too junior to undertake some of the tasks I would like them to do. *sigh*

I try to put this behind me and soldier on but as I do so, I feel that I'm redoing a lot of work when I hand it out. Which is not what I want... Because of that, I'm seriously doubting my technical and leadership abilities.

Ok, rant over. The picture in the mirror is not so pretty but if I draw the mirror with nice doodles and etc, it makes me a bit happier. However, that's not the end result I'm looking for. I still need to find a solution....

7:02am

Damn it!

Ok, I shouldn't start my post with a curse.... But.... No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to get my mandatory 8 hours of sleep. =_=

I went to bed at around 12:30am and woke up... lo and behold at.... 6:15am. I was supposed to be awake by 7:00am. Where did that 45minutes of sleep go?? Oh yeah, I remembered... Nature's call woke me up. Grrr...

7:05am - Some random thoughts before I feed the dogs and prepare to go to work. I've got to get the routine right as by next week, the school holidays would be over and the mad traffic return to the streets. *sigh*

Anyway, something cool to share - my sis and bro-in-law have given names to the twins. They are very certain that both are girls. So, we're currently praying that Charlotte and Olivia would safely arrive at the end of August.

Wouldn't it be cool if they arrive on 31st August 2009 and share the same birthday as Snoopy? But then, the cost of delivering that day would be double or triple...

Inner Peace

Friday is here!! Well, sort of... It is past midnight anyway.

Snoopy is the master of Zen...

I've mentioned in my last few posts that things have been hectic at work. Well, it can't be helped as I'm in the midst of a project.

There are some ups and downs but the important thing is, the entire team is in it together.

As such, within all the "madness" going around, I strive to search for that inner peace by just taking a deep breath from time to time. It is so easy to be overwhelmed.

One colleague practices deep breathing techniques in the morning before he comes into the office so that he can face the madness. It's actually a pretty good technique. I've neglected it for a while and now that the stress is starting to build up, it's time to get back to those exercises!

Besides that, spending a little time with God each day will help alleviate the stress too...