娱乐之际，娱乐自己

For the past few weeks I've been watching Japanese series that I've gotten from the Internet.. My Boss My Hero，Kekkon Dekinai Otoko and Sapuri.. All 3 are of different genre. The first was a comedy, second was 生活写实, while the last was a romance.. I love all three.. especially 長瀬智也(in the first), 阿部宽(in the 2nd) and 伊東美咲,瑛太与亀梨和也(in the last show).

I've watched many Taiwanese variety shows too, including 全民大闷锅,康熙来了，国光帮帮忙，解码陈文茜and李敖有话说. Of course not forgetting English serials like Prison Break and many other..

除了这些下载的电视节目，那些从图书馆借来的书，本身订阅的杂志，每周末都必须阅读的两份报章（中英），加上每两个星期都可能有的翻译工作，我（想）要做的事情非常十分地繁多。。再加上我会上网玩游戏或是游览一下网页，所以时间的的确确不够用。。也因此牺牲了睡眠。但是这些东西都是充实我生命的精神粮食，满足我求知欲的必备品，缺一不可。。

What will be will be...

Went for a 3-day training since this Monday.. An escape from office.. but not much, cos all the tasks piled up waiting for me to complete today..

The 2 new engineers who were supposed to lighten the team's load are still enjoying their 'honeymoon'.. Such good fortune they have.. I was thrown to the deep end of the pool to swim and fed for myself on my 3rd day at work here!

There were a bad news that were announced by my Visa boss last Tue. We are going to take up more responsibilities!! Wah!! As if we are very free these days... Almost every single member of the team took the news as the final straw.. How sad.. This is a great team to work together.. Everyone work as a team, covering and supporting one and other.... How sad that this team will be a thing of the past soon..

Can I quit today???

Still in office.. due to a project I'm doing... have to test backup and restore of a server and its content. Now the restore is not working.. the tape is not rewinding..

This is the 3rd evening I'm staying back so late.. dont know when this can be fix and tested.. =(

While we are here trying to fix this, my boss is happily feasting at a colleague's farewell dinner.. We also haven't had our dinner yet.. Aiy.. 心理真的有点不平衡。。

Can I just leave this bloody company?? or change my boss??

Eradicated..

Old news, but I didn't have time to write it into my blog earlier.

It seems that the 淫妇 has finally decided to follow her 奸夫 and left my previous company! Those words might seem harsh to some of you, but to those who know who I'm refering to should be very clear how I feel about the two of them. Although it should have been water under the bridge, but the bitterness, no matter how minute, is still there. I might be in the process of forgiving them, am still working on it, but I will NEVER forget what they did.

Anyway, I knew she won't stay long when he left last Aug, cos they are such 'Siamese-twins'. Almost everyone, who didn't know, thought that they were husband and wife. And all these time, the GM was 'blind' to it. Only this year did she realised that she had a scandal in the office waiting to be (publically) exposed.

There is another mass exodus of staff recently from the company, about 6-8 staff has left/are leaving. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way the company is run. The management just do not know/want to take care of their staff. Majority of the staff work very hard for the company, and yet no appreciation is shown. They pay low but expect staff to work doubly hard. With the job market picking up, good experienced staff will move on. This company's loss, that company's gain... Fair deal..

Same old.. same old..

If last week was bad, I wouldn't have it any easier this week...

My 2 projects have been extended to this week, so whatever that I didnt have time to do last week, I would need to find the time to complete them this week. And with the never ending user requests and problems to solve, I really am not 100% confident that I'll be able to complete all those project tasks. But nonetheless, I'll try my best..within working hours.. hahaha..

3 new colleagues joined us today. 1 for Server Operations and 2 for OSPS (my team). Hopefully, with their involvement/presence, things will be much more tolerable, although I dont forsee it happening any sooner than 3 weeks later. Can clearly see that the team is not in a very good shape/mood/morale. 'Resigning' and 'leaving' have been the daily topics that we would joke and talk about openly. No more being discrete. Everyone is just waiting for their time/opportunity to leave this place. And the worst part is that neither HP nor VISA management is doing anything to raise the morale or even try their least to make us feel less frustrated/overworked. All the HP manager did was to just keep very quiet when we were complaining/grumbling about the whole situation within his earsight... How sad.. What a failure..

To me, I'll try my best to look for greener pasture. Now, $$$ is the utmost importance. If a company is willing to pay me 1K more, I'll work 10-12 hours for them!

Best case scenario:
I find a high paying job (at least $800-$1000 more than my current pay, cos I'm grossly underpaid), quit this current job, get to see my (HP and Visa) bosses' face when I resign; Worked for a few months, get notification and go to Japan on scholarship.

Hopefully this will happen.. but ultimately, I would still want to go to Japan to further my studies. I want to take a break from working life and enjoy (again) a student's life. And being on scholarship and studying in Japan is definitely a BIG bonus... =)

I WILL SURVIVE!!

The past week and the current week is a super 'siong' week. So many things to do.. Not enough time to complete them.. and more importantly, no MOTIVATION to complete them, other than the fact that all hell will break loose if I dont....

Was on mc last Friday, fever for 2 days, which in the end cost me the opportunity to attend my old friend, YP's wedding on Saturday... I'm soo sorry about missing her wedding...

It was certainly not worth my health working so hard for something that other people (aka the management of both Visa and HP) will not appreciate. It is less than 3 months to go before our contracts with GMP ends, and yet there is no news what-so-ever from any parties... Are they waiting for us to beg them for our contract extension?? If they are, then they are in for a HUGE disappointment. Everyone of us is just waiting for the end-of-project bonus, unless we can no longer tahan the work/management or we get a better offer elsewhere. Everyone is looking for better opportunities, cos this place sucks. However, if one could 'switch-off' or 'bochap' all the nonsense by all parties (including the management and users), then I must say here is not too bad a place to work. Again, it all depends on what we want from this job. If we just treat this as a steady-expense-paying job, nothing more, we can put our effort and passion somewhere else. If we want this job to be a stepping stone or we want to have career prospects/path 5 or 10 years down the road, sorry, please look elsewhere. This place is not worth your effort, time, energy and 'blood & sweat'.

保佑我获得去日本的奖学金吧！！不管是上帝、菩萨、耶稣或是佛祖，都希望您们保佑我去日本留学！！保佑！保佑！

Pain in the ass...

How long can I stand it? How long do I have to take it? How can I get rid of it??

The 'pain' I'm refering here is my boss... Imagine, a team of 5 is reduced to 4 becos one of us found a better job and left. So each of us is doing 1.25 of our normal work load. Imagine again that 2 of the team members went on a 3-day course and won't be in the office at all during that period. So the 2 of us who is left in office is working 2.5 times our workload!!! And that is on top of the existing projects that we are involved in. I have 2 projects running concurrently with the same (first) delivery dateline of next week!!!

To make things worst, cos my boss never thinks (or she's trying to push her luck), she even ask me to take up another NEW application support that requires full attention, as it is a 'fragile' (I would termed it as 'cock-up') easily breakable application that has its perculiar way of operating/administrating.

Well, if the management (both Visa and HP) do their managing and planning properly, these things wont happen. It has been 3 long months since my colleague gave her resignation notice and then eventually left for greener pasture, and there is still no replacement in sight!! Yet, my boss has been telling other departments that the team would have new members joining!! Darn! Those 2 new engineers will only come in 18 Sep, and by the time they are familiar and ready to share the load, which I think would take at least 2 months, I think most of us have already burnt out!! And also I hope the management is not assuming that those 2 new fellas will not resign when they know that they 被骗上贼船!!

Everyone is looking towards 'graduation'. Think most will just take the money and leave, or take the money, stay around while looking for new jobs.. Too bad I won't know my scholarship results any sooner than next Feb, else I would love to leave the place in Dec, then rest for a few months before shifting to Japan...

StanChart Marathon 06, here I come!!

Signed up for the 10km run in this year's Standard Chartered Marathon.

Two of my colleagues signed up for the half marathon, 21km and they asked me to join them. Very tempted but I don't think I can run 21km, at least not this year, and furthermore I wanted to better my timing of 80min from last year.

So it's back to more intensive running regime from now onwards!! Gambatte!!

To go or not to go??

I'm in a dilemma..

I've decided not to go New Zealnd for my hike as it exceeds my budget. Instead I'll go to some place that cost lesser (in term of air tickets) and do a free-and-easy on my own. Between Taiwan and Macau, I've decided on Macau. Macau is a good place to go as it is small enough to walk and done exploring within a couple of days, the air fare is less than SGD$300, while the hotels are less than SGD80 per night! So for a 5-6 days trip, it shouldn't cost me more than SGD$1K.

Now, I've been thinking.. Should I just take that 1 weeks' leave and stay at home? Save on all the expenses (including air tixs and accommodations), and just watch movies/play (online/PC/Playstation) games/'rot' at home? But part of me wanted to go away to destress.. But still the notion of spending money on a place that wasn't my first choice tour destination doesn't seem very attractive/convincing. Should I travel to Macau just for the sake of traveling or should I just shelf the whole plan and stay at home?? Mmmm.....

If I do get to go Japan for my Masters, then I would have the time to travel around. Think summer and winter holidays! =) During that time, it would be a shame that I do not have the financial means to support my travel lust.. Like they used to say: "While at school, you have plenty of time but no money to travel; Once out working, you would have the money but no time to travel." So for me to have both the money and time to travel, I will think carefully about this trip...

To go or not to go?? That is the question....

Birthday party...

Went to my friend, Loreen's birthday party last evening. It was held at Aloha Loyang Resort.

The usual makan and chatting went on. It was good meeting up with all my ex-colleagues from SISTIC. Although not all the 'Alumni' turned up, but majority did come.

We chatted and catch up with what each of us are doing. And course, we gossiped and bitched about the 'shocking' departure of my ex-boss from the company, if and when that in-house bitch will be leaving, the mass exodus the company is facing now, who else will be resigning and what is/isnt the management going to do about it. Good to know that everyone seems to be doing well in whatever they are doing.. =)

He left... good news?

Suprised that I didn't blog about this the minute I heard the news.. Maybe I wanna be more objective and less emotional about the whole thing...

That wimp, aka ex-boss from my previous company has left that company. A place that he had been working for at least 15 years!! And no one seems to know if he left voluntarily.

The first reaction I had when I heard the news is "You sure? He left the company?" It's more of 质疑. He has been with the company so long that one would think he would retire from there too.. On top of that, he's old (40 years old) and useless (dont think his IT skills is still relevant), so it's pretty amazing that he 'dare' to leave the comfort of his directorship.. And now that he has left the company, when will that woman follow suit? Or would she be desperate enough to use her charm (or what is left of it) to hold on to what she currently has?? The position that should have been mine.. Maybe I'm being evil.. but I am still unable to totally forgive what they have done to me.. Maybe a few more years down the road..

Regardless, I might forgive, but I will not forget...