words of wisdom #104

what not to do after having a rather full meal:
watch 3 contestants on fear factor each gag their way through downing 3 pounds of raw ostrich egg...

time viewing

"you have to know where you are going to understand what to do now"
-- from 'Time� and what to do with it' by Dave Andrew

oh the suspense of it all...

man, this is not good... i've just discovered the mountain lion, a fanblog for 24, already into its third series in the states, but yet to be screened here... damn the spoilers, or withstand the curiosity? hmm... decisions, decisions, decisions! hehe...

also the premise of the next survivor series looks interesting... all stars parade, best of the best... hmm... bring on the ratings season! :p

land of the long weekend

the first half of the (calendar) year always has plenty of long weekends to break up the grind of work... one in january, 2 in april, one in may, and another in june. i guess they're good when you don't really want to be at work, but then again, the longer you're away, perhaps the harder it is to come back :p certainly felt like that this morning. took a bit longer to get out of bed and get moving...

went away for qyc on the weekend, and came away greatly challenged by the teaching... more reflecting to be done, and i want to listen to the talks again (bought copies of the CDs). also bought a copy of nicky chiswell's new cd, the secret of the world. didn't get a chance to listen to it while i was there, and i think if i did i probably wouldn't have spent the money. was also considering it as a gift, but that was before realising the nature/purpose of the album, which wasn't what i thought it would be. still, i like the concept of the album, but somehow just don't find it all that engaging musically... not that i speak from an authoritative stance re: things musical, but the sound of the songs just don't really appeal to me, which is a bit of a disappointment, cos one of the reasons i was interested in the album was due to previous works i've heard from nicky. i've got it playing repeatedly, seeing if/hoping it will grow on me...

haha...

got a chuckle out of this CNY themed shockwave movie clip:
http://218.1.64.131/2004monkey.swf

enjoy!

just noticed google's tribute to the day too!

"spring festival"

apparently that's what the chinese in china call chinese new year... in chinese of course :p it's chinese new year's eve, but i'm not feeling particularly festive. never really do in australia, especially these last few years when the occasion has almost always just been another working day. it's been a while since i spent CNY in an asian country/culture - kinda miss it, but then again i think i'd feel a bit out of place/like a stranger if i was there.

had dinner together with the family at home; dad says that traditionally the CNY eve dinner ("nian2 ye4 fan4") is the most important meal of the year... *shrugs* what do i know about chinese culture? too little and not enough to call myself chinese, that's what. afterwards we went to my uncle's place to meet up with the rest of our extended family and had a time of singing hymns (in chinese! so i struggled...) and sharing/reminiscing (by people from my parents' generation) about their childhood days and memories etc. some interesting stories there, and quite surprising how much difference there can be in the life experienced by one generation and the next. ok granted they take place in relatively dissimilar countries and cultural settings, but still... they say theirs may have been harder in a physical sense, but ours has much more stress.

then we ate... and just as we were starting to tuck into the food, my dad and uncle were outside cutting open a durian - that sight made me feel like i was back in malaysia... for a moment :)

happy (chinese) new year :]

bringing down the (ware)house

so i was struggling to stay awake at work yesterday... the post-lunch lull... head in hands, elbows propped on desk, eyes closed, mind thinking: bed. pillow. sleep. want. very much.

then the phone rings, and the receptionist tells me that a guy is here to pick up some items. what? who? why? how does this have anything to do with me? (as it turns out, nothing really... but what's new? we seem to regularly receive stuff that other people should really be dealing with). so, there being no one else around, and me having been silly enough to answer the phone and thus now loaded with sorting out this customer, trod off to investigate.

i find out where he's from, and what he wants to pick up. go out to the production warehouse (since he's picking up new items - not my area!), and try to track down his order with the production warehouse clerk.

nothing.

back out to reception. confirm where he's from. no record of any such orders.

he goes to make a phone call, and now we have some reference numbers... oh and a store code - not the same place where he's from, but a totally different store! of course the order is there, but only a mind reader could make the connection based on the information i was working with.

so now we have to get the stock, and lo and behold, it's up on the very top shelf in the warehouse. only way to get it down is to use the electric forklift, which i'd not previously touched, let alone tried to operate. nobody else around who knows how to use it... customer waiting... doesn't look that hard, i mean, you turn this to steer, and these other buttons make the forklift go up and down, and here's how to move forward and backward. quick test, and away we go... turn... realise it's going a little fast for my comfort, and formulate hindsight lesson #397: learn how to stop before actually beginning to move! such knowledge might prevent results like crashing into some metal bins on the bottom shelf and attracting attention with the noise!

but then one of the guys who came out to see what was going on has significantly greater proficiency than i in operating the forklift, and got the goods down. so the customer was all sorted in the end, and i wasn't feeling sleepy anymore after that incident... :p

how pure is your vision?

these are the newer breed of contact lenses that i've been using for the past year and... can't remember how long. thanks to the silicone hydrogel material, i am mostly spectacle free :) they have a special trial offer at the moment and also a chance to win a trip to paris... so if you've been looking to try, now's a good chance!

Bausch & Lomb - Purevision - See the latest fashions in Paris with PureVision

suburban soundscapes

i got back to the housesitting place. it was late at night on a cool summer evening - slight breeze, but generally otherwise fairly still. i went to collect the rubbish bin from the kerbside, and was about to wheel it back to its resting place when i hear... from diagonally across the road... emanating from a dark and unlit house... the distinct sounds of a woman reaching the heights of erotic pleasure!

it occurred to me that this is probably the first time i've heard such sounds "live". tv and movies etc, sure. but never in real life, i think. i stood, bemused at the "opening of my ears", then started wheeling away. now in the house and a few minutes later, i realised that i had left my phone in the car, so went out the front door to retrieve it. as i was coming back into the house, she sounded to have "returned"...

- - - - -

so i didn't end up doing any goods out stuff at work... tried packing an item that i was supposed to send out, but then realised i had no idea how to operate any of the courier related stuff... so in the end i decided to stop stressing about it and tell my boss that i can't do it. too bad, so sad, really not my fault or my problem. or my job for that matter, though it may well be part of it soon...

i think i should be investing in some options.

urgh

first day of "something akin to back to normal" work, and my supervisor is away (not her fault - health scare). but it means i'll have to look after our area (still haven't fully caught up on all the comings and goings that took place while i was away), as well as do all the goods out stuff (packing, couriers etc) that she was temporarily in charge of, seeing as our regular storeman was "let go" last year.

just last friday my manager was making noises about getting me familiar with goods out, cos my supervisor is taking leave this friday. but of course i haven't been shown anything yet, and now i need to know today...

time to go swimming!

more quizzes...

saw these on chiayo's blog, and clicked away :p

What Classic Movie Are You?

What Famous Leader Are You?

well i guess only those who know me in real life can comment on the accuracy of the results :o might go do some of the more serious ones later... when i'm feeling more serious!

unemployed again

technically i'm unemployed this weekend, given that my previous employer is no longer my employer as of 5pm friday, and my new employer does not become my new employer until monday. new contracts to sign. new job title! thought not a very fitting one, given that it doesn't really reflect what i do... and while it sounds like a step up, there's no corresponding change in salary :p

last night some friends came over and watched maid in manhattan - probably wouldn't have been my first choice of rentals but it wasn't too bad. afterwards yung told me about stuff she'd been learning at forte training (training to be a music teacher), and we practised this basic orff body percussion rhythm, which wasn't as easy as it sounded but was quite fun to muck around with. i think if i ever have children, i'd like for them to learn music from a young age and give them an opportunity to develop a love for it... go the vicarious living ;)

docile mouse

i'm playing housesitter for ~3 weeks. it's been a while since i last house sat for anyone... one of the plusses this time round is having access to an air-condiitoned bedroom - something that would come in quite handy if the hot weather returns! for now, it seems to be quite happy to rain. and rain. and rain...

what with running between my regular home, work, the housesitting place, and juggling everything else that i want to / should be doing when i'm not working, i don't think i'll have much time to twiddle my thumbs. hope to have friends over though - make use of my "own" home while i have the chance :)

- - - - -

is it just me or do other people find it annoying when their nails reach that "needs to be cut" length? i keep playing with mine, and am itching for some time to sit down and cut them. one FOM trims her on a weekly basis!

ooh... home time.

there was movement at the station...

it's been confirmed - new owners taking over (pending final payment)... administrators end COB friday, handover to new owners to start monday.

not sure how i feel about that. definitely good to be out of the "up in the air" mode, but... was really unmotivated when i got to work today. maybe it was just the coming back after holidays thing... or the fact that i was still quite sleepy (i later decided to go home and take a nap during my lunch break - one of the luxuries of working close to home :p). oh well, one day at a time...

- - - - -

fluff n quiz time - this result could could cause big-headedness ;) but i think there is some truth among the fluff... hehe


You came from heaven. Your goal in life is to help
others and to make the world a better place.
Some call you weak, but in reality your soul is
very strong. If only more people were like
you...


Where did you come from?
brought to you by Quizilla

r.i.p.

10 jan 2004.
goodbye mrs c.
hang tough kayakok and porky.
heaven's where the reunion party's at, so hold on to your invites :)

back at work already??

got called back to work a day early... apparently signs are looking good for a buyout, but i'll wait till i see official confirmation before deciding how to react. except for the lack of enthusiasm to repeat the job hunting process (given that my previous attempt didn't go as well as i'd expected) and state of unemployment, i don't really care too much whether i stay or go.

managed to keep relatively busy for most of the day, but it's winding down to a close... took a wander at some blogs i visited and finally decided on a bit of a whim to follow a link and do a little quiz:



cuddle and a kiss on the forehead - you like to be
close to your special someone and feel warm,
comfortable, and needed


What Sign of Affection Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

doublespeak

"the financial gap and expense levels were incapable of being adjusted within the funding constraints that existed"

that's the reason given for the financial difficulties being experienced by my company. sounds about as clear (and informative) as mud to me!

today was the new deadline for offers to buy the company. tomorrow another meeting of creditors will be held to decide the outcome/future of the company.

what fun.

- - - - -

not sure whether my colds are just slowly mutating, or if i'm just rather more sickly than i thought... i've picked up my second cold of the summer (that's twice in the space of one month!) and am still yet to shake an annoyingly persistent and unproductive cough from the first round.

happy holidays indeed. bleh.

chinese cinderella

just finished reading chinese cinderella: the secret story of an unwanted daughter by adeline yen mah. picked it up from the coffee table while at a friend's place last night, and recalled seeing an earlier book by the same author which i had meant to get a hold of and read but never got around to doing. so i'm kind of starting out of order, but that doesn't really matter (and in any case this is in some sense the prequel to her first book falling leaves). there is a sense of accomplishment from finishing off a book - too often i start and don't finish. i was almost half way through by the time i left thier house, so i asked to borrow it and resolved to finish it today (strike while the iron's hot, so they say :p).

and wow... it is a touching and sad, but also inspiring and triumphant tale. read it for yourself - it really doesn't take that long. the friend who bought the book read it in one hour; i took a tad longer :p check out the website which also tells you more about the author and some of her other works.

takes me back a fair few years to a period in my life when i read a number of books of similar genre and heritage (amy tan's the joy luck club, the kitchen god's wife, and the hundred secret senses; jung chang's wild swans, and i'm certain there was at least one other whose title and author elude me). there's something about these stories - the characters, the culture, the history in which they are steeped - that somehow resonates with whatever little china there is in me. my ancestry is chinese, but i wasn't born in china nor have i ever been to see any part of china. still, there's *some* chinese in my blood and being... i think! ;)

now i'm motivated to track down some other adeline yen mah titles from my local library :)

3 2 4

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two substances:
If there is any reaction, both are transformed.

-- Carl Jung

g-code (as published in last sunday's tv scene) has been playing up, and i set the wrong time for our generation... so i missed an episode, and got the start of a movie instead which featured the above quote.... and it kinda struck me so yeah...

anyways...

watched LOTR 3 on monday night... so now that both the matrix and LOTR series have ended, where's the next great blockbuster going to come from?

went to the beach and visited the Oh's restaurant on tuesday [photolog] got to use my sunshelter (courtesy of fly buys rewards) for the first time, and i think it's a pretty darn good invention :)

went to the beach again wednesday night/thursday morning to see the first sunrise for 2004 [photolog] surprisingly didn't feel too tired or sleepy... finally came home for a shower and some sleep ~8am.

well... happy new year. what's 2004 got in store for this nebulous netizen?