Have a Great Weekend...

Hope that everyone will have a relaxing weekend. It has been pretty hectic with the CNY holidays...

For me, things were pretty crazy just before the CNY break due to some software platform release my team was involved in. We're relieved that it's now done but now, the old cycle of innovate, improve, fix and deliver a working software platform is back.

We or at least, I should learn from both Rusty and Snoopy... They always take time out for an afternoon "siesta". They only bark when necessary and only exert energy when it's really needed (like chasing squirrels or birds).

Why don't I ever learn.....

In Anticipation... Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! Hope that 2011 will be a fantastic one for you all...

I've been a bit busy with work to pay any attention to blogging. I have tonnes of photos to edit too but haven't had time to work on it.

Wishing everyone a great year ahead....

An Afternoon With The Dogs

Wow. Time certainly passes by quickly. We're already in July...

I'd guess for Snoopy & Rusty - time is something they have a lot in their paws.

What a Lovely F/22 Day

It's a bright, sunny Sunday morning.

Makes you feel like sitting in some shade, having a great brunch.

However, I'm out of bacon and eggs & so, had to contend myself with a slice of waffle smothered with peanut butter and kaya.

Snoopy, on the other hand enjoyed her morning sunbath along with her brother Rusty.

Did Someone Mention... FRIDAY??

Yep, the weekend is just around the corner. It's so close that I can feel it.

Both Snoopy & Rusty also sense a BATH is heading in their immediate direction this weekend too.

Have a great weekend. Hope that your Friday is as productive as possible... Yes Yes... Football this weekend too. ;-)

Meeting @ Noon...

I seem to have stumbled upon an afternoon meeting. I didn't mean to interrupt it...

Haha! It is a rare sight to see both Snoopy (on the right) & Rusty (on the left) sun-bathing so close to each other. Usually Snoopy will lean against the wall to catch the rays, while Rusty will be rolling around on the grass.

Yes.... The brown spots you see were contributed by both dogs'..... urine! Their urine kills our grass. So, there are brown spots all over the garden.

Anyway, ever since the weather has gotten too hot or has been raining too often, both dogs don't sunbathe on the grass. They sit on the porch to catch the rays.

Makes you wish that you can do something fun for the rest of Friday, huh?

Have a good one folks!

P/S: Docs' appointment went pretty well. One doctor was happy with my progress, while the other was not happy that my bp shot up a little bit. Got to visit one of them again next month... *sigh*

Going MF-Styley

Don't be alarmed.. My blog title is not a rude term... (^^)

It's just that I decided to try out the MF setting (Manual Focus) on my camera.

For quite some time I've been wondering if I should try to use MF on my pictures since I get quite frustrated with what the AF sets for me at times. The AF would have selected the closest point which would have been Snoopy's butt, a focus point which I did not want.

Anyway, here is the result of my experiment...

Snoopy was busy sunbathing... as usual...

This was taken with the kit-lens (18-55mm). I moved the focus rings manually, using the sharpest point of the lens, right at the middle to focus.

The EXIF data is available by selecting the picture. ;-)

Sometimes, it is worthwhile to go MF.

Sleep Troubles... Again!!

Snoopy doesn't like it when I disturb her "beauty sleep"

Of late I've been having difficulty sleeping...

It is frustrating as I've been experiencing great sleep at night for the last couple of weeks after I got out from the hospital. I'm not sure if it is due to the fact that I've started to go back to work since last week and that the stress is coming back, or it's due to the medication I'm taking.

Anyway, I've been trying to apply the correct sleeping habits as follows:

• No caffeine/food 2 hours before bed-time
• No exercise 3 hours before bed-time
• No TV/laptop activities while in bed or before bed-time
• Going to bed as soon as you feel sleepy...

However, it does not work. I tend to wake up at 4 or 5am feeling quite alert! Whenever I try to go back to sleep, it is not restful and I wake up feeling more exhausted at 7am.

Grrrrr... Also, I find that when I accidentally fall asleep by 10:30pm and not go to bed soon after, I'm wide awake until 12 or 1am!!!

Sleep is very important and we should try to get at least 7-8hrs per day to stay healthy. If we have not enough sleep, we can put on weight easily and also tend to crave unhealthy foods! My insomnia for the last 3-6mths also played a big factor in my being sick too... So, I'm worried about my sleeping patterns now...

Any suggestions??

Some "Me" Time

I've been longing for some "Me" time lately... Yes, spending some time alone to do my own stuff, contemplate life, bla bla...

Well, I wouldn't go THAT DEEP... LOL!!

Sometimes, I just want to have some "Me" time to do stuff which I like, i.e. go look at books or just sit around and look at people... i.e. LEPAK?

It's good to take a breather now and again - especially when you have a lot of daily stresses from a very very demanding project.

In one banking project a looong time ago, my PM used to say to us, "come, let's go minum" after we've had a very long (& absolutely stressful) day at the client's site. During that time, we would just sit, have a bit of tea; and just keep quiet. He would just sit quietly and study folks as they walk by the stall or sit nearby. Of course, he will "cuci mata" (oggle) but it was subtle, so much so that you can't notice it at all!! He was one cool dude, the epitome of grace under pressure.

That's probably one quality I find hard to master... Probably because I have a short fuse and am a perfectionist, I am my own nightmare at times.

So, I should take a lesson from Snoopy - just sit, relax and just stare out into space. Yeah, you might fall asleep in the process but then, taking naps is good for us!

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?

Dog Tired Days

I've been learning to adjust my body's "sleep" clock ever since I started my new job. I used to wake up at around 7-7:30am but these days, I tend to wake up at around 1-2 hours earlier.

Firstly, I was still trying to figure out the traffic timings on the new route to my workplace and so, rather being early than late; I chose to go to work earlier.

Secondly, I was not sure how the parking was going to be like and so, rather than lose a parking spot; I chose to go to work earlier to secure a good spot.

Work has gotten to be a lot more hectic with long meetings and discussions; leaving very little time during working hours to get some job done. In the end, the work spills over and I have to continue at home just to keep up.

At the end of the day, I just don't have the energy to do anything else except to unwind with the dogs - Snoopy & Rusty who comes up to give me lots of TLC.

I feel guilty because I've not been playing with them much and I would really like to spend time with them this weekend. *sigh*

Hopefully, I will have some time left over for that as I know that I will have to continue working on my deliverables. After all, there has to be some life after work, right? The PMs are stressing this as they know from past experience about burn-out.

I've been through that before and it is NOT a pretty picture.

It's Already April!

Yes, it's already April and I haven't posted anything much...yet.

Well, I've been quite frustrated with my image editing process and after getting some comments from the good folks at PhotoMalaysia, I've realized that I can no longer work on my photos on a laptop which does not have a proper colour profile installed. Grrr...

So, I'll be working on my photos on a "better" (read older) laptop which has a better graphics card, and has the proper colour profiles after installing some good photo editing software.

Snoopy taking a nap - 1/8sec, F/2.8, 50mm, ISO 200, Manual Mode

I've managed to capture some good photos over the weekend but lately, due to the lovely weather yesterday and today, I've been doing what Snoopy loves best - to sleep.

Lots of stuff has happened over the last couple of weeks and it will take me a while to gather my thoughts and photos to put it all up.

The one thing I'm happy about this week - Manchester United is slowly getting back into form. Lots of work ahead though, I'm afraid but that's the whole fun about football.

Snoopy Poses For The Camera

The office's Internet speed was awful this week, hence, I could not upload any photos. Anyway, I think the IT support team are "snooping" around the network to pinpoint if there are any issues as we've been having some problems connecting to the UK servers from Malaysia.

I meant to put up a post about one of my dogs - Snoopy, who's a real darling.

Ever since she was a pup, we've trained her to not be afraid of the camera and ever since that training session, she loves the camera! Or rather, choose to ignore it. Kekeke...

The picture is blurred as I was lying on the bed. The background is distracting and I should have used the 50mm lens for nicer bokeh.

Snoopy ignores the camera... Actually, the neighbours' dogs were barking and she was listening intently to their "conversation".

This has got to be my most favourite shot of Snoopy to date. I used my 50mm lens to take this shot of her while she looked at what her brother Rusty was doing.

She's a quiet dog and not as active as what her Jack Russell Terrier traits expects her to be but then, I'd guess it's because in her mind, she's the QUEEN OF THE HOUSE.

By the way, do remember to turn off the lights tonight at 8:30pm for Earth Hour...

How's Your Christmas Preparations?

Traditionally, the Christmas season for me and my family begins the 1st week of Advent.

This year, my family doesn't seem to have any big plans except for a couple of things...

1. Rusty's Neuter Operation (ugghh)
2. Rusty and Dad's B'day a few days before Christmas (yeah, they share the same b'day)

My eldest cousin is very lucky to share the same b'day as our Lord, Jesus Christ. And because of that, he's always felt a very deep and special connection with our Lord.

Snoopy finds it hard to get into the Christmas Mood...

I know I have a tonne of things to do during the Christmas season. It's not the parties with family and friends but also to do some works for those who need it more than ever. Gosh, I got to talk to my Dad about that too.

I think I may have harped on this many times that Christmas should not be the one time of year to do all the good works we need to do, but it should be done all year round.

Anyway, with the impending recession and bad times ahead; I find it hard to get into that Christmas mood. More so, after this morning's meeting at work where the bosses harped over small issues. *sigh*.. It's not a good sign when that happens as it pisses off the employees which just speeds up their exodus from the company.

Anger Management and Merdeka Wishes

From my last post, you may think that I was really taking it too far.

Yeah, I nearly lost my head because I was stressed out over some massive jam. The truth of the matter was that I've been stressed out for a very long time now.

Ever since an announcement from the HQ that each profit center was to hit 80% utilization, I have been stressed out every week to try to hit those numbers. Sure, revenue collection is not part of my KPI (Key Performance Indicator) but cost recovery from utilization rate of each member in the team; including myself.

I know that I shouldn't let stuff like this get to me, but the pressure is just getting too much. Every week, we're been asked by the boss - "Do you know what happened last week?", i.e. do you know why your numbers are so fxxked up last week? Sometimes, out of anger, I would like to answer back - "Sure, YOU fxxked up the numbers because YOU didn't bring in the sales!". However, I keep this all repressed inside, waiting for the moment when I'm excused from the meeting.

I'm a technical team lead - which means, I lead my team in technical aspects of a project. Somehow, the term is being abused by management because we have the responsibilities as a manager but yet - not really having the title. In fact, I feel like a pseudo-manager all the time now.

Anyway, enough of that.

I had a small revelation while at church yesterday. It happened when I was listening to the church's 50th Golden Jubilee song. A sort of calm and peace came over me as I concentrated on the lyrics of the song. That the greatest celebration was The Word - "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1)

It was as though I had been touched by God's finger, i.e. like being poked (not Superpoked! like in Facebook), nudged to return my focus to Him. Sure, the world could be really screwed up at times and it can take it's toll on us; but there is so much more to life, than just work.

With that, I have a renewed sense of self this Merdeka. Yep, that means I've got to take whole of my anger and turn it inside out. Laugh a bit more, learn to breathe more deeply - to calm the mind and also to eat right!!

I'm getting the exercise thing down - by trying to hit the gym at least twice a week - up to 2 hours per session; but food is my biggest downfall and brick wall. Well, right now I'm having my low-fat yogurt and apple and I am resolved to get the food part of my diet right. It's so hard when Malaysian food is soooo delicious and you need a lot of will power to resist the lovely char koay teow or that fatty piece of bak kut in the bak kut teh.

However, thinking of all the saturated oils just gives me the heebie jeebies now. Yeck!!

Snoopy celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday as well as our nation celebrated 51 years of independence. Both numbers are significant although one is larger than the other.

Just like Snoopy wishes for good things to come to her, I also wish for great things to come to our nation. Despite all the things which are happening now, we all wish and strive to make Malaysia the best she can be.

I pray that our leaders will wake up and remember that the job they took was provided by the rakyat. So, the rakyat is the boss.

I pray that our leaders will be granted the wisdom to lead the people and not lead their pockets.

I pray for continued peace amongst everyone.

I pray for the people of Sichuan, China who suffered another earthquake on Aug 31st.

That is my Merdeka wish. Happy Merdeka everyone!

Speedy Dogs...

Both Snoopy and Rusty are Jack Russell Terriers, i.e. small dogs with "big-dog-mentality". They both certainly amaze me as they constantly do things that defy their small/tiny physique. So, it's no big surprise that they're both my inspiration in everything that I do.

Their "can-do" attitude often translate into pure energy. Now, it's not easy to photograph these rascals. They are often on the move. Even if I do issue a "sit-stay" command, they can only sit for about 10 seconds before they go off again.

Both Rusty and Snoopy like to play with each other. Often, Rusty is the instigator....

When Snoopy gets all excited about something, she sure can move fast!!!

Recently, I decided to play a little game with the dogs around an overturned pot. I would place some food there to entice to see who would reach the pot first. Snoopy got there, took a few bites, turned around to look for Rusty before zipping off! I like this shot as my focus is not on Snoopy but on the pot and so, it has a nice "speedy" effect. Zoom in for a better look!

Eventually, both of them will run out of energy at some point. Snoopy likes to relax on this chair while her brother tries to squeeze his way to get the lion's portion of the couch...

Phew!!!! Now, I want to take a break...

A New Member...

Election fever is gripping the nation. I've yet to write some comments on it. Even if I did, a lot of folks have commented on it. (^.^)

All I have to say is Vote on Your Conscious. Remember that you'll be stuck with your decision for the next 5 years!

A couple of weeks back, I wrote something about change and so, there was a change in my life. A new member has joined the family!!

He's a little rascal of sorts..

Don't let his baby brown eyes fool you! He's a rascal through and through!! - Snoopy

Both Snoopy and Rusty seems to get along pretty well. Well, as least Snoopy has accepted him into the family now... Except for meal times when Rusty thinks that whatever everyone eats is his food!!


I'll try to post some other stuff later. Got some thoughts on my mind...

How Many Days of Annual Leave You Have To Left?

It's a nice Friday to laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzeeeeeeeee around. (^ ______ ^)

I'm very glad to be able to do so as I'm taking a couple of days off work.

Well. Not that I wanted to, but I had to clear some leave.

I had been saving my leave for December since I could not take it earlier a few months back as I was anticipating some work. However, that didn't come through and so now, I'm in a rush to clear my leave since I can't carry forward my leave. :-(

It's ok. That means I can spend some of my days at home with Snoopy. She's hoping that I stay home so that she has a friend to play with. Besides giving her some attention, I can give her blog some attention too!!!

Meanwhile, have a great weekend folks! :-P

4 Years On

It has been 4 years since Oofy has passed.

She was a lovely dog. She came at a time when the world was going nuts. It was 2 years after 9/11 and the wounds were very sore. At this point, a lot more details were known about what happened on that terrible day.

She came at a time when I was facing the most stressful point in my career. I was asked to do more work and yet, getting not much satisfaction out of it. She just came out of the blue. I still can't believe anyone could just discard such a beautiful dog.

Aside from my parents and sibling, I had never felt so much unconditional love from another living being. She could still love me despite me disciplining her. She could still wag her tail even though I had a black face to show her.

Her face could just turn hearts of stone into hearts of love. She had that ability.

Oofy, I know that you are in God's house now. I hope that you are having a good time there with Jesus and the other animals there. I know that you will make great friends there.

I miss you. I love you. I hope I will see you at the Rainbow Bridge.