29 Apr 2006

Life!

A little bit of insight from the events of the past day.

2 things happened yesterday that bring into perspective exactly how short life is and how easily everything can be taken away. 2 events happened yesterday to remind me of this. One is sad, the other happy.

Sad
I'm a warden at the church I go to, having decided last year that I haven't been keeping up with my part of the bargain in my relationship with God. I joined a warden ministry where apart from my brother, me and another girl, the average age was above 50. Yesterday, I received news than the Assistant Group Leader of my warden group has passed away. He collapsed at the bus stop while on his way home. Even though some kind people took him to hopsital, he didn't make it. May God bless his soul.

Happy
I met up with a group of friends for dinner yesterday, it was kinda a farewell for me and new job treat from me to them. The bill came up to a lot of money. Now, the normal me would think that this was not worth it but not yesterday. Money can always be earned again but not friends. Good friendships are rare. Definitely worth the price of a dinner and drinks and more.

I never know when I will meet my friends again. Things may happen to us that we cannot predict. I treasure the friends I have made on this little island. Life is too short to be spent worrying about unncessary things. You never know when you might not see someone again.

28 Apr 2006

The Hunt for the Elusive Laptop

*This entry was originally going to be typed on my new laptop but I ran out of time and am now a little bored at work so it being typed out on the work laptop instead.*

I wanted to buy a laptop. I know, I know. Why would a furry pawed animal want a laptop? Well, I guess sometimes we furry animals need to surf the web, check our email and stuff too.

So I ventured out of the jungle long enough to go survey what laptops I could get. As with most wild animals and some domesticated ones, I was automatically attracted to the bright shiny surfaces of the fruity laptop. In fact, I was so enamoured by the shiny surfaces, I almost didn't notice that it costs almost double a normal non-fruit flavoured laptop. Man, when I found out, I ran back into the jungle and needed to hide in there for a while to overcome the shock.

So after some time of recuperation, I ventured out again, this time much wiser and price concious. Money doesn't grow on trees, even in the deepest, darkest forest. So after much deliberation (this would probably be considered an underestimation by some), I finally decided on an Acer Aspire (what it asspires to, I have no idea) 5762 WLMI. It didn't cost too much, approximately 121.5 honeypots, which is roughly S$2430. The monkeys have it so much better because 1 peanut equals 30,000 honeypots. They could have bought the laptop with less than 1 peanut.

Anyway, the laptop looks like this:



It has got 1.0GB of RAM, 100GB Harddisk and a ATI Radeon X1400 with 128MB VRAM and extra 384MB shared. Now I should have a better laptop than the king of the jungle. Let me go show Mowgli a thing or two.

14 Apr 2006

Bahloo or Bagheera? Part 2

The deed is done. The events of the day unfolded in the following manner.

9:00 am - Received a phonecall from my agent informing me that I will be receiving my contract today.

10:00 am - Hit refresh in Gmail for the first of almost 20 times, waiting for the email to arrive.

12:05 pm - Goes to the toilet.

12:07 pm - Noticed a new email in my inbox. I open my mail with trepidation and there it is staring at me, my contract.

12:08 pm - Begin downloading contract to view. Downloading fails.

12:09 pm - I try downloading again. It still fails. Curse under my breath. Frustration level increasing.

12:11 pm - It finally downloads successfully. I open it. I quickly read through it. I stop at the "how much will I get paid" section.

12:12 pm - Wonder where the calculator went. Have a quick look around. Can't find it.

12:13 pm - Finally locate a calculator. I work out my monthly salary. My heart does a few cart wheels inside my rib cage. My brain is busy trying to decipher what car to buy.

12:15 pm - Call Papa Bear to tell him the news. Briefly read out the contract to him. He has no objections. It is good.

12:17 pm - I send my acceptance and call my new employer up to confirm. A bit "kiasu" , I realized but hey, I've been on this island for 6 years. I'm entitled to be a little bit "kiasu".

12:30 pm - Happiest lunch I've had a in a long while.

6:30 pm - Meet up with boss back in office. Trying to find a good time to break the news to him.

7:00 pm - Still haven't found a good time.

7:11 pm - Yet to find a good time. Having a hard time holding it in. Colleague starts giving me funny faces.

7:45 pm - I find the right time and inform my boss. He is ok with it and seems quite nice about it. I appreciate that.

8:20 pm - I sent out the email with my official resignation. The deed is done.

Next stop, the land down under.

9 Apr 2006

The Pessimist

Why is it a pessimist's brain will never allow the pessimist to be happy and glad for longer than 24 hours? 24 hours ago I would say I was among the happiest fur covered mammals on this little island. Now 24 hours later, my brain is full of doubt and worries. All the watifs have started popping out.

This made me think, is it just me or are there others out there like me? I know for a fact that almost all human beings will examine anything they either dug, scratch or shat out of their bodies before disposing it. Does a pessimist take a dump, a normal healthy dump and 24 hours later, wonder if there was something in that dump that wasn't so good? Maybe he thinks he told too many people about the dump and now he's afraid people he doesn't want to know about his dump will know. What happens if this dump was imaginary and didn't happen?

A pessimist biggest enemy is not himself. Most pessimist have an ability to think of the bad stuff and then accept it. It becomes much harder when this outlook of pessimism is imparted by another pessimistic party. In short, the pessimist's pessimist. That makes a pessimist's biggest enemy another pessimist.

Anyway, here hoping the pessimist are all wrong.

8 Apr 2006

Bearry Emotional Landscape



The chart above represents the emotions of a certain bear over the past week. It is over a scale of 0 to 100, where 50 represents neutral emotion, anything under 50 is either anger/disappointment/frustration (normally displayed to the outside world as anger) and anything above 50 is happiness.

As can be seen from the chart above, the bear has been through a very emotionally varying week. So much so, that given the above chart, one might be mistaken for thinking that the bear is actually female. (He most definitely is not.)

One clear trend though is that the emotions seem to improve as the end of the week approached. Guess that means if you want to find bears in a good mood, look for them on weekend.

6 Apr 2006

A Pun Time Was Had By All

REPLYING TO an invitation to a Scientists' Ball:
Pierre and Marie Curie were radiating enthusiasm;
Einstein thought it would be relatively easy to attend;
Volta was electrified and Archimedes, buoyant at the thought;
Ampère was worried he wasn't up to current research;
Ohm resisted the idea at first;
Boyle said he was under too much pressure;
Edison thought it would an illuminating experience;
Watt reckoned it would be a good way to let off steam;
Stephenson thought the whole idea was loco;
Wilbur Wright accepted- provided he and his brother, Orville, could get a flight;
Dr. Jekyll declined, on the grounds that he hadn't been feeling himself lately;
Morse's reply? "I'll be there on the dot. Can't stop now- must dash."