Yup, I’ve been up to Taipei and back. A few people have asked me how come I’m back so fast. It has become such that my trips to Taiwan have been associated with long periods away. But I thank God that this trip was short and fruitful. At least, I met all the goals that I went up there for.
Will update more soon. Seems like there’s nothing much to update lately aside from work. Haha. Anyway, cheers… :Þ
So we’re 10 days into the second half of the year. It started off busy and with a quick break to KL, Malaysia to visit my parents. Been a while since I last went to KL and it’s good to be away from Singapore and work for a while.
Work has been busy. Gone are the days when I complained that I’m bored at work. First day back at work after holidays and the emails that I have to catch up on is unbelievable. On top of that, there was a conference call that I was totally unaware and unprepared for. And I missed cell because of last minute surge in work. All in all, a “fantastic” first day back at work.
Headed up to Taipei next Tuesday for a quick business trip. Gotta go show face at the client’s office in hopes of calming some frayed nerves. And then another round of training, but this time to a friendlier audience. Hopefully, I get some time off at night to hang out and go shopping for stuff, especially the stuff that Dear wants.
Oh, almost forgot a testimony. I got promoted in my company’s last round of performance reviews. So praise the Lord for that. At least the hard work is rewarded.
That’s about all for now. Gotta go get some rest. Been having a headache ever since early in the evening. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ
A lot has happened over the past two weeks or so that I have never gotten the chance to write about. And so here goes…
This year’s birthday was once of the best that I’ve had. Started on the midnight of 14 June 2008 where the Father’s Day drama team celebrated my birthday after the rehearsals. I think I spoilt their plans a bit when I came up too early to the control room. But nevertheless, I’m touched and appreciative of their thoughts and actions. Then after ES2, my ES2 team celebrated my birthday. Again, I spoiled the surprise because during debrief, I wanted to go find Karen in the audio room and they walked right out of the same room carrying the birthday cake. The look on the faces of those carrying the cake out was priceless. But again, thank you all for remembering and celebrating.
Of course, the best surprise came from Dear. She gave me an envelope in the cab ride from JW back home. Opened the envelope and I was very delighted and surprised at what I saw. Background story first. When Dear and me went to the Singapore Flyer, I noticed this shop called “Flight Experience”. They sell time for flights in a Boeing 737-800 simulator and they weren’t exactly cheap. I was planning to go back there and try it out one day. And so, my wishes have been fulfilled by Dear. I was so elated and still am. Now just to plan a time to go take that flight.
Last Sunday (22 June 2008), Dear and me went to Forest Adventure to be “monkeys”. Well, it’s a tree-top course that included zip lines (flying fox) and stuff. My body is still aching 3 days after but it was good fun. Sorry, but no pictures. Brought the camera along but just didn’t have the chance to stop and take pictures. Planning on going back there again sometime. Anybody want to join me?
Work has picked up a bit in the last two weeks. Chasing deadlines here and there. No more slacking. Managing a project is not easy, even though it’s just enhancements and change requests. But I’m trying to take it all in my stride. It’s definitely challenging and hard work, but I’m having a bit of fun at it.
This is one long update. Something that I’ve not done in a while. Anyway, got to sign off here and get back to work. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ
And so I’ve begun to have second thoughts about getting the iPhone 3G after seeing the two beauties pictured above. Two phones have exactly the same specs, except that the Nokia E71 has a QWERTY keypad and the Nokia E66 has the standard keypad. Nokia E66 also features a accelerometer for auto-rotating and if you flip the phone upside down when it rings, the ringer goes silent.
You can check out the specs from GSM Arena. The link will bring you to side-by-side comparison of the two phones.
Downside? Not as cool as the iPhone 3G. And definitely no touch screen. I’ve got some serious considering to do….
Cheers… :Þ
I’m sure most of you have seen my post saying that I’ve been feeling slack since I came back from Taiwan. Not anymore. Suddenly, a torrent of work unleashed itself towards the end of last week. I even had to do some work over the weekend. But all is well and managed. Just good and bad to have the rush feeling again.
Let’s step away from work for the rest of this post. Had an exciting weekend with the Father’s Day drama that my church put up. This is a drama that goes into the CHCTV record books as one with the least number of rehearsals and full-dress runs. For the JW team, it wasn’t so bad. They had 4-5 runs before the actual service. For us in Expo, all we had was Saturday morning to finalize our shots, and 2 full-dress runs and we were supposed to be all ready to run. Thank God the drama was relatively simple. Still missed shots during the actual service, but I think it wasn’t too bad.
My boss just told me today I need to make a short trip up to Taiwan to conduct training. He asked me to schedule it and go. So when’s a good time? But at least it’s just a short trip of a few days.
That’s all for this post. Will update again soon. Got to get some work done before knocking off. So until the next time, cheers… :Þ
So there I was, awake at an ungodly hour of 2am, waiting for the keynote at Apple’s WWDC 2008, keenly awaiting for the confirmation of a very solid rumour that Apple is going to announce the iPhone 3G. Lo and behold, Steve Jobs announced it to loud fanfare and applause from the audience.
The iPhone 3G sports the same features as the original iPhone. New additions are obviously the 3G radio and a GPS module. Firmware also includes ActiveSync to allow for push-PIM with Microsoft Exchange, and Cisco’s VPN client for VPN support. Battery life has been bumped, which means better longevity.
The phone will launch on 11 July in 22 countries, including Australia and Hong Kong. Singapore is on the list of the 70 countries that will eventually get it. Local operator SingTel has announced that it will arrive within this year, but there is no word on the exact timeframe.
Best announcement was the price. It is now USD199 for 8GB and USD299 for 16GB. And Jobs has said that the prices worldwide won’t rise above those levels. From my point of view, the Windows Mobile market may get a trashing come the launch of the iPhone 3G. We shall see.
Can’t wait to get my hands on one of these babies… Cheers… :Þ
EDIT on 12 June 2008: SingTel has just started taking reservations for the iPhone 3G. Visit them at http://home.singtel.com/iphone.
To all those of you using Firefox, Mozilla is planning a Firefox Download Day to set a world record for the most number of software downloads in 24 hours. To find out more, go to their site. Or click the nice button on the left.
Cheers… Þ
I’ve been back in Singapore for about two weeks now. The feeling that I get from being able to stay in Singapore for more than one week is fantastic. For now, there are no plans to go back to Taiwan, although I’m sure that the opportunity will come up.
Now that I’m based back here in Singapore, I’ve suddenly developed the “I’m-too-free” feeling. Problem is that I’m not free. There are things to do and deadlines to meet. I’m doing them and I’ll be able to meet deadlines, but the mad rush feeling is gone. Kinda makes me feel very laid back and void of any motivation. Guess I just have to tune my body back to the Singapore work habit. No more rushing about like when I was in Taipei. Don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Does it mean that I’ve been stretched or does it just mean that I’m lazy? Haha. Well, what ever it is, I pray that this feeling doesn’t hang around for too long.
The office is very empty nowadays (hmmm, I wonder if this contributes to the “too free” feeling). A lot of staff are on-site at the customer’s place, including the team that was in Taiwan together with me. Feels like I’m “left behind”. Miss those days when there were people in the office and out of a sudden, a conversation that is not work-related will burst forth and everybody will jump in to contribute. Guess that’s one thing I like about this company I’m in now. Everybody is cool with everybody else. And best of all, minimal politicking.
On another topic, I recently purchased a water filter thingamajig from Brita. And after drinking water from that filter, all other water now tastes weird to me. Even the water from my office’s water cooler, which is filtered, tastes weird. Okay, this part is way off-topic and random.
Gotta get back to work now. Until the next time, cheers… :Þ
My new, non-tech gadget. It’s a gadget for the kitchen. It’s called the Bialetti Mukka Express. And the ticket to daily cups of cappuccino brewed, not using a cappuccino maker, but on the stove top. Makes a pretty decent cup of cappuccino too, complete with a nice thick foam on top that doesn’t seem to disappear over time. And the versatile maker can also make a decent cafe latte and black coffee. Brilliant little thing.
The secret to this maker? A nice little valve that pressurizes the steam from the boiling water and the releases it, thus steaming the milk and creating that layer of foam that is so widely associated with a cup of good cappuccino.
Downside to this gadget? The cleaning after each brew. Not terrifically difficult to clean. In fact, it’s quite easy to clean. But when you’re used to getting your fix from Starbucks and not cleaning after getting that cup of coffee, one would feel lazy to do all the cleanup after one brew. And the price is pretty steep too. But it definitely costs way less than a standard pressurised espresso maker.
So for a coffee lover who want a good cup in the morning but doesn’t want to splurge on getting an espresso maker, this is a good trade-off. Can be purchased at Takashimaya’s household department at level B1. Cost for a 2-cup maker: $180+
Until the next time, cheers… :Þ
First week back in Singapore is almost over. Not too bad of a week. Although I was still busy with work, it felt less stressful as compared to when I was in Taipei. Work was at a more peaceful pace, peppered with situations where I got whipped into near panic attacks. But all is good and the week has ended for me. Yup, I’m going to have a fantastically long weekend. My parents are coming in too, so that’s a bonus.
Going to see my cell group members after such a long time tomorrow. Yes, two weeks seems like a very long time. Frankly speaking, I’ve missed cell group and now that I’m back for good, I’m looking forward to those cell group meetings. A after-cell-group fellowship has been planned and I’m so looking forward to that. It’s going to be great, being able to fellowship together.
I finally did what I’ve been trying not to do. And that is to buy a PSP. Yes, I’ve finally succumbed to the temptation and bought one at the Taipei airport as I was waiting for my flight. Trying to find some puzzle games (things like Puzzle Bobble, or something similar) for Debbie now so that she can have some games to play as well. Seems like puzzle games are hard to come by on the PSP.
I’m going to stop here for now. Looking forward to the rest this weekend. Desperately need sleep after Taiwan. Haven’t exactly recovered from all those late nights and early mornings. Hope this weekend I can get some decent sleep hours in. So until the next time, cheers… :Þ