Monday, October 31, 2005

Sunset by Laborador Park

http://dinno.fotopic.net/c742930.html

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 12:55 AM with 0 comments

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Synopsis of S

Just in case you think its a really nice place, apparently it hasn't always been this way. Don't be fooled by the new office premises. It may be a somewhat 'new' company but its not. Among the people who can be classified 'management', they came from the parent company.

As I was going through some documents, I realised that the manager had never gone for more than 1 interview in his life. Yes, he came in, worked, promoted, worked, promoted yet again.Its been more than 10 years at least! This uncle (I shall call him uncle cos he shares the same name as my uncle) had never had to wonder what its like to be changing jobs, to be facing nasty interviewers and being interogated. I wonder if he even had to be interviewed to get into the company back then. To a certain extent, I guess all above him shared that same path. Sounds a little like my previous 'S'? I should think so.

The AVP (its very strange, AVP is smaller than mgr), was fairly loyal. He had been working on many projects for a software house till he joined this company. Coming in as SSA in 2003, he became AVP early this year.

This place keeps going on about how we are not a software house. Yet, some 2 years ago, they only employed programmers to code all the apps within the company. Lowly programmers I should say. The people who came in were fresh or almost fresh and expected to produce the applications for the company. No internet, nevermind. They were not even given email! Because, as programmers, your job is to code. There is no need for you to communicate with anyone. That was in 2003, where internet had come and gone years ago. I really cannot imagine life without the internet. And if you had to code and program and develop, I wonder how fast you can be when you are hampered by having no internet at your convenience. Things will still work, but I wonder how effective you are. Do programmers really use the internet only when they need to download stuff? Think again. That's what happens when they are not IT people. They think only business people need the internet to do research.

Today, there are no more programmers. They are called SAs. There are 7 in all and we deliver the IT apps the entire company requires. Supposedly, it customisation from a base application. So they say, I will wait and see. Coming from CL, we all know too well what code reuse and plug and play means huh? :P Object-oriented?

We were separated from our 'mother' only about 1 year or a little more ago. They say that, a lot of people left. And I believe there is some truth to it. I see many ads placed every Saturday.

Here, looks matter, if I like your face, I like you. If I don't, to hell with you. Maybe its true as well. My application form to the company specifically required me to submit a photo on my CV. The rest of the companies required too, but I didn't actually submit one. I don't really like the idea of being selected for an interview because of the way you look or the way you don't look.

I have a feeling, its also an emotional place whereby, its 'because I say so'. Not the people I deal with directly, luckily. I'm referring to, policies in place and things happening. No internet access, fine. But why, no good reason seems to have been given. And certainly, I am not the first person to be alarmed with such a policy.

$4 a month? Only $4? I'll gladly let you dock my pay in exchange for that. We do not need internet? That's impossible. And sharing a terminal is really painful. Because its not readily available when you want it. And for me, I cannot try to do 3 things at once, which I normally do. Why can't I do 3 things at once? :P

So I say, there is only 1 reason. The reason that they are unwilling to spell out. That, they pay you to work, not surf the internet. They are afraid that you will end up not working. So they rather give it not. When in doubt, its always better to say no.

To get internet access, the #1 man has to approve of it. That's your MD.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 2:34 AM with 0 comments

Retail Therapy

There was a sale at the newly opened Spring Beaute in Bishan. I bought this Taiwanese brand cleanser just a week ago and its DAMN GOOD & CHEAP. 2 for $6.90 (buy 1 get 1 free), 60ml per tube. Finally my skin is seeing some improvement and starting to clear. To hell with skincare that cost $50 (or more) and don't work. I better stock up on it in case it decides to disappear on me again.
OK, its still not that MUCH, still under $200. Luckily the trend e/s set I originally wanted was OOS. Actually, I cannot remember when was the last time I actually bought cosmetics. Besides, I got some 12% rebate from shopping at Tangs.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 1:58 AM with 0 comments

Underage

When I wear jeans, sports shoes and carry a backpack, I look just like a student, maybe even a poor student. How can I possibly own a credit card? I might even look underage.

That was exactly what happened when I was trying to queue myself for an e-lucky draw at Tangs today. And the guy questioning me, obviously younger than me and probably wasn't eligble for the draw either (not because he's a staff) :P

Just a day ago, I was walking along the same place, dressed differently. Black pants, lime green butterfly top and a matching small olive bag. I get TAKA jewellery brochures stuffed in my face, credit card people coming to me et al.

Moral of the story 1: You only have to look rich.
Moral of the story 2: But its good to look young!

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 1:51 AM with 0 comments

Saturday, October 29, 2005

"J Lowe" says

Make-up is 'illegal' for the men, so they need a well-groomed lady beside them to increase their value. So ladies, hear this, we are just vases. Maybe that's what the real corporate world is really like. Chanuvinistic.

If you're curve, wear no more than 1 straight. Heck! All the corporate wear available are either plain or straight! A flowery (curved patterns) print just doesn't really cut it right at business meetings? Looking at the pictures she produced, I half suspect the way to look professional is to look like "auntie".

The bigger the bag, the lower your IQ. I'm supposed to carry a small bag (to look expensive) and a document bag, a laptop and if I want to visit the gym, all my gym stuff? I think I'll look like a klutz for having to handle so many things, squeeze into the morning crowd on public transport and in the process drop something, who knows if it's the laptop :P

The smaller the heel, the lesser you work. => no heels, no need to work? The only option you have is either big heels or small heels it seems. Whoever the idiot who invented the heel shoe, obviously does not know how much a health hazard it poses, to your lower back and it deforms feet. Each time I attempt to wear one of those, one of my toe nail dies. I've tried it many times. I can't be wrong. My engineer friend has many as FOUR pairs of shoes under her desk, including a pair of worksite boots.

Colouring your face. The SQ gals are paid to look pretty. They expect us to be the same. Enough said. I'm not going to go on about how makeup is bad for your skin when you don't have clog free skin to begin with.

We ought to dress up corporate for business meetings and even being prepared to go for one anytime. But when the likelihood is so low (like now), should I continue to dress so my computer will say WOW? But for that matter, I'm sure my computer would love me whether I look like rag doll or barbie doll.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 2:51 AM with 0 comments

Thursday, October 27, 2005

PIG!

There was this BIG FATTY PIG in the step class I went to yesterday! He was in front of me and very distracting. He thinks he's oh-so-style and always doing something different and fancy but in fact his big actions just tells me he has no control of his limbs and throwing his body everywhere! No face, no body (read fat and jelly) and certainly an eyesore.

I am beginning to think "step people" are one of a kind and inconsiderate. And yes, the class has you spinning and spinning and spinning. Shirley is right. To get your high intensity, just spin. By the way, that's utter nonsense.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 3:17 AM with 0 comments

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Just in Heaven

This is about a workaholic doctor, Elizabeth who was supposed to be home for dinner to be introduced to landscape engineer David but unfortunately met with an accident and landed in coma.

She is not yet dead, but her spirit lingers. She only has a vague memory of her name and nothing else. Coincidently, her apartment is rented to David who happens to be the only person to be able to see and hear her. She is not happy with having an intruder "ruin" her home.
Realising David is the only person to be able to see her, she soughts his help. David finds out that Elizabeth is a doctor in coma. Upon finding out the truth, David is a changed man and he looks at Eliz in a different light. He cares for her like a friend. He emerges as a different person who finally managed to pick up the broken pieces in his life and move on. Their encounters slowly brought them close and eventually fell in love.

David wasn't able to convince Eliz's sister, and they are about to pull off the life support system because Eliz was never a believer that one should artificially prolong life. Finally he decided on stealing the body from the hospital with Elizabeth's help so he could think of a way for Eliz to get back into her body. At the hospital, David discovers that the girl he was supposed to meet that fateful day was Elizabeth. They did not succeed in stealing the body. Along the way Elizabeth was pulled off life support and seemed to be slowly dying but she woke.

It ought to be joyful but it was not for David. Eliz could not remember who he was! He could only walk away, sadly. The day Eliz was discharged, she found David on her rooftop (which the landscape engineer had transformed into a beautiful garden. He remembered she wanted to do it). When Eliz asked for the key before he left, their hands touched and she knew David was not a stranger. She finally remembers him. And as all fairy tales do, it ends with a happy ending.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 3:01 AM with 0 comments

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

The Cat is Out

Have you heard about it? The cat is out of the bag. This is certainly big news! It's pretty dramatic and feels like I'm watching some HK drama serials. It's very exciting when you're watching a LIVE drama serial :P

Is this worth celebrating? I think sacrificing 35K for 400K is really not worth it with your reputation (and perhaps career) down the drain like that. I wonder if this is the virgin attempt. They seem pretty cool about the whole episode. A friend thinks its 'hurray' for causing us endless torture years ago.

Years ago, we knew there was a problem with them, or rather, one person. But I'm sure none of us would have ever thought this would happen. High turnover rate is NOT NORMAL. They were blind to the silent protests of the people graduating to the alumni. It's ok. The truth will speak for itself and it has. Justice prevails. First it was bad, then it got worse. With a piece of news like that, it has just gone WORST. Someone probably has to pick up the broken pieces and fix it together again. But then as it is in Singapore, life goes on, doesn't it?

Now that I'm no longer there, I can only silently gloat and offer my condolences. Is this retribution? Or did they pave their way there?

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 2:54 AM with 0 comments

Surprise

I'm quite pleasantly surprised. It's neither X'mas nor my birthday yet I received a pressie in my piegeon hole. Its a n ink stamp with my name, designation and company! For what, I'm not sure. But I still need to clear my pigeon hole right?

Surprised again. All the places I've ever worked at had terrible reception. FM933 is known to have weak receptions susceptable to plenty of interferences and even that, is crystal clear! I should consider putting a radio here hor?

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 2:53 AM with 0 comments

Monday, October 24, 2005

1 Week

I still hate the thing about the internet. You know how when its not your machine, there's loads of junk and other people's preferences you have to be mindful over. The older folks like huge words so they can see. If you view - text size, its set to 'largest'. I like smaller fonts so I can fit almost everything into the screen instead of scrolling up down left right. The preferences and customisation are just not there. And of course, each time I have to login to check my email to my inconvenience. This is the first time I hear about business people having more grounds to have internet and not technical IT people who need to do programming and all other IT stuff like current technology trends, resources. To and IT person, the internet is your answer to everything. However, management views that IT people only need the internet on an adhoc basis when we need to download something.

My cube is still very empty. This does not seem to be a place I feel a sense of belonging to. There is just a 1-litre Nalgene water bottle, very scratched from my mishandling and lots of paper on the table. My computer, the specs is not bad but it doesn't feel like mine. Everything is left as it is, with the default Acer wallpaper staring at me.

I met the MD yesterday evening. He seems like an impatient man. Talks fast, loudly and sounds as though he is very agitated and/or irritated. You worry if he is like that because you made it to be so. He just got off the plane and came straight to office. He told me that my wrap skirt cannot go for meeting. Bleah. Of course I know it, but I'm not meeting people what! It seems that he is one of those who is about to strictly adhere to what Colour/Style-Me-Beautiful says. C'est la vie.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 2:50 AM with 0 comments

Sunday, October 23, 2005

My New Colleauges

Seems like this is an ok place to be in. Ok bosses, no terrible working hours like CL. This is what I hear so far from my colleauges. The people around me are tall once again.

The world is really small. It turn out that LL was the classmate of 3 of my ex-colleauges! She's very tall and looks underweight. There is Mich, who is quite well dressed. Petite in size, I think she dresses quite well and does not really look like IT person (like me). She is a Ms No-Sun girl, so as you can guess, she is very fair. I think she likes pink and hello kitty. The 2 of them are all 2 years younger than me and 2 years old in the company.

There there's the product dev engineer who joined just in Feb this year. He's a Malaysian from JB and graduated last year I think from NTU CE. Reminds me a lot of CW. Actually, I don't know the difference between SA and product dev engineer. The work they do seems the same. He was the one who help me to install the JRun and MS-SQL on my machine. He thinks I am very li hai when I told him last time I do coding with textpad.

There is Darr who I also have lunch with but don't really know him yet. Seems the other 3 SA don't really lunch together. They have lunch on their own. Sometimes my boss will lunch with us. Thy guys here are very typical nan ren alot of techie and gadget and work talk. I am glad got the other 2 gals.

There are only 3 miserable gals. Technology is a small group. There are only 7 SA including me. And together we handle all the applications in the company and we have to do our own programming. I wonder how they did it last time. Anyway, I will know in time to come. I am the oldest among the young people (those who did not come from HDB days) there. The oldest before that was from 1979 leh. I am really getting old. :(

On my second day of work, all the dua bai all treat me to lunch together with the rest of the SA. I feel so stressed. Cos I found out that they have never done this before. I think boss treat you to eat is not very good. It means you have to work doubly hard for him!

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 8:26 PM with 0 comments

Merging Southern Islands

The Southern Islands comprising Renget, Kias, St John, Lazarus, Kusu and Sisters island are located 3-4 kn south of the Singapore mainland. Under the project we reclaimed to inter-connect the 5 islands and also construct the infrastructure for development on the reclaimed land. The 280 million dollar project started in 2002 and will complete in 10 - 15 years time.
When completed, the Singapore Tourisn Board will develop the area into a world-class tourist attraction. The central design concept for the development will be a canal laced marine village with an exotic and vibrant waterfront village centre. The resort will offer exclusive facilities such as waterfront housing with a village centre, sea spa, boat housing area, marina, water sport centre, a 5-star hill-top hotel and restaurants, beautiful beaches and vast green for nature lovers. The resort will be an ideal place to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, a place to unwind, relax and enjoy.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 4:44 PM with 0 comments

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Colour/Style Me Beautiful

Geez. Its a Saturday and I have to wake up early cos the company sent me to this course together with 5 other colleauges. 2 older guys and 3 other gals, engineers and IT people by profession.

I made a new friend today, engineer from 22th floor. She joined only 4 months ago. And similarly one of the few rare species of gals there.

The trainer was Sony, thats her name. The course was fun and interesting in the morning. They went through the Spring Summer Autumn Winter of colours. I'm Spring-Autumn. (Spring-Autumn != Autumn-Spring). I think its because I think its cos I'm quite dark (though still very fair by many people's standards) now. She said I can take Summer if I fix my teeth. Bah...ok, I still want to fix it anyway. The reason is because Summer colours attracts attention to your mouth and Spring, to your eyes. She also said that I'm very talkative (cos I cannot keep still). Err...?? I can talk and I can talk a lot if I want to but talkative? Anyway, the course taught us how to look at cool/warm, bright/muted and deep/light colours.

I didn't like the lipstick colours she chose for me though they were spring-autumn colours. I had to use 3 lipsticks together simply cos using 1 on its own was very flat?

I didn't like the Style Me section. It talks about styles of clothing you can and cannot wear. They tell you things like the kind of specs you can wear, the watches and accessories, makeup, shoes and hairstyles. That taught us how to made ourself look 'expensive'.

Well, I guess this is really tailored for business corporate. She doesn't understand the meaning of technical work at all. Mind you, the engineers and architects have to go on site you know? I mean, safety helmets and boots all in. Here are some statements made:

The bigger the bag, the lower your IQ.
The smaller the heel, the less you have to work.
Number clock faces are for children below 12.
Women should not wear pants cos it shows where your features start and stop.

She was also pretty judgemental in a sense that we could tell she was dead against colouring of hair. Because it was a no-no for pregnant women. So even if you're not carrying a baby, doesn't mean that the chemicals do not harm you. She was really dead against it.

My goodness. Imagine attending a meeting with managers and VPs and ending up looking like their bosses. I don't think we want that either. So really, just take things with a pinch of salt. Sometimes, beauty is just not practical.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 11:48 PM with 0 comments

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

The Internet PC along the corridor

I just came back to my empty cube. 2nd time after a failed attempt to try to use the PC for my competitor analysis. This is not very helpful is it not?

I am supposed to code with Struts which I have the freakest idea. All this and no internet is making me miserable. I think its not very helpful when u cannot visit java.sun or jGuru or Google your problems away at will. There will be all your new things that come out and you will not be able to know about it. This is just very troublesome.

Seems like the reason being, IT Dept charges them money for internet connection...

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 11:10 AM with 0 comments

First Impressions

First impressions are important. Technologies is small but I have a big company (with a new office) to thank. From the furniture to the stationary and the benefits. To my lovely surprise, there's a gym here! But then it ain't free. Overall, it's fairly structured and fairly well organised on part of HR. It's not the best but I know i shouldn't be complaining.

Everything was good until I found out that all the SAs had no Internet access. By any standards, an IT job had to have internet access! I am starting to feel the pain. Yesterday, I planted myself right there in front of the shared internet PC along the corridor for half the day. I felt like I was hogging the terminal. But what can I do? I needed to do a competitor analysis of 15 competitors and I had 3 days to do it.

I feel kind of cheated. The manager addresses all those SAs there as "programmers" throughout the briefing. It means I'm probably another one of those "programmers" :( They came in fresh from school over the past 2 years. I'm the oldest bird around the SAs. This is not good news too.
All in all there are only about 10++ people, max 20 in this team, inclusive of the losing hair or white haired big shots and business development people. I don't feel the warmth and synergy among the people here. Maybe not yet. I think I'll just keep my fingers crossed for now.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 11:05 AM with 0 comments

Saturday, October 15, 2005

WDO2005

I went for WDO on a Sunday, very hot afternoon. The tentage set up was normal. There were alot of people. I registered and number tags were given out. My number is very nice! (222)

I think it was very badly organised and I am very ashamed to call myself Singaporean.

Some of the Ms Fitness contestants didn't respond too well. When asked what aerobic class would she teach if she were an instructor, they cited high impact aerobics! OMG! High impact aerobics is no longer taught since the days of Jane Fonda. It is deemed to cause too much injury to the participant le! No way!

I was very impressed (not to mention very proud) of the 51 year old contestant. When asked who was her fitness role model, she cited herself. Because at her age, looking this good and being this fit, she is proud to represent women her age! WOW! She deserves my respect.

As I was going off, I spotted someone with the maroon bag. On second looks, I think I like the very bright orange one better. The design of the maroon one didn't look very nice afterall. There was a side pocket which jutted out and I think it looks quite ugly.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 10:29 PM with 0 comments

Thursday, October 13, 2005

NbyN for a 2nd time

Finally dragged my butt out of the house to do a reshoot there. I could only do a reshoot on a weekday day time. This is the result of giving in to temptation some 6 months ago. They had just opened ma, lesser people and could afford better service.

They didn't get a consultant to come and "look after" me and pick a dress for me. I wasn't too pleased with the service this time round. The make-up was nice though.

I finally chose this sexy pink dress which looks red on all the pictures. The second shoot was a leather theme shoot! Woohoo! Alas, their pants were all either too small or too short. The boots' zip had came off too....

I'm entitled to 2 free makeovers a year, for life. So if anyone is going for DnD, let me know. Cos I doubt I will really be using it.

I finally went home after some 3 or 4 hours. Very tired.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 9:02 PM with 2 comments

Thursday, October 06, 2005

What Kind of Seducer Are You?

Your Seduction Style: Au Natural

You rank up there with your seduction skills, though you might not know it.
That's because you're a natural at seduction. You don't realize your power!
The root of your natural seduction power: your innocence and optimism.

You're the type of person who happily plays around and creates a unique little world.
Little do you know that your personal paradise is so appealing that it sucks people in.
You find joy in everything - so is it any surprise that people find joy in you?

You bring back the inner child in everyone you meet with your sincere and spontaneous ways.
Your childlike (but not childish) behavior also inspires others to care for you.
As a result, those who you befriend and date tend to be incredibly loyal to you.
What Kind of Seducer Are You?

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 3:09 AM with 0 comments

How Weird Are You?

You Are 50% Weird

Normal enough to know that you're weird...
  • But too damn weird to do anything about it!
How Weird Are You?

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 3:02 AM with 0 comments

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

You Are 60% Boyish and 40% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch.
Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes.
You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them.
You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.
How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 2:49 AM with 0 comments

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

I know what you did last weekend

I went waterfall abseiling over the weekend!
Splashing great fun, really.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 1:47 PM with 0 comments

HAHA Crab

What is a Haha Crab?

I was at J8 yesterday after an ok lunch, trying to show a friend this new coffee bean corner outside Watsons. There was also a new shop there, selling hermit crabs. It didn't come cheap at $25 for 1 and $45 for 2 all packed in nice sandy containers to mimic the sandy habitat it is accustomed to. The crabbies were in little colourful shells. Very pretty, very unique. I think it would do very nicely for a present. It was then that I found out that these crabbie need to constantly look for new homes. So you place a shell near it and it would change its home on its own! Never attempt to change homes for it because it would rather allow itself to be torn apart than leave its protective home.

I would say its an innovative idea. Hermit crabs don't cost much do they? There's plenty of them on the beaches of Malaysia I think? And certain places in Singapore. By giving the crabs colourful homes (aka shells) and doing up a "home" for it, and voila! You can make some money from these hermit crabs, a creature no one would usually take a second look at.

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 12:00 PM with 0 comments

Monday, October 03, 2005

10 Reasons You Should Go Home on Time

Posted by LiTTle-FooT at 7:15 PM with 0 comments