City is covered in snow =]

Today is a cold cold day!

It has been snowing since yesterday evening and I was expecting the snow to stop in the middle of the night. Obviously, its 7am now n it's still snowing quite heavily. Pretty surprised because the city never seems to get alot of snow. On days that my company that area were covered with thick white snow, city is always... The same...

Snow is... Quite pretty... But it's simply too cold (and slippery) for me... I hope for the warmth to return soon...

To dearest BIN TAN island...

Today (hmm, actually turned yesterday, half hour ago), was bad and tiring.

Since the night before, the weekend, been having headaches. Not too sure why, maybe been thinking or worrying too much about all sort of things especially work and what lies ahead.

Morning started off quite badly. Weather was damn cold. 4 degree - when I reached office and checked. Almost freeze me to death. On the way to office, there seems to be this thin layer of white color stuff covering the usually green and dewy grass. I would think is snow.

Used to like winter, all the snow and nice, cool weather that we never get in Singapore. I guess it is nice to experience it like while traveling but I dont think I enjoy winter that much anymore. Too freaking cold and troublesome. The worst part has yet to come. The "electrifying" part. Yeah, the static lah. I have already started to get "shock" a couple of times these 2 days. I really hate it.

Anyway, that was morning. Then from 9am, bosses and colleagues started streaming in and so did the workload. All the way from 9am to 6pm, non stop - invoicing, faxing, billing, scanning, asking, fainting... Didnt even had time for lunch. So my packet lunch became my dinner.

Then, on the way home on the bus, I saw message from my dearest BIN TAN... Already having bad headaches, saw her message, almost died of high blood pressure. She got accepted by freaking NUS engineering course part time degree, yet she come and tell me she doesnt want to take it. Makes my blood boils (still boiling, if not I wont be staying up this late to write here). I feel like holding her and gave a a good hard shake, upside down, inside out.

I really hope she understands that it is a pretty good opportunity for her. Honestly, it is not easy getting into a Uni especially since her major is not that common. If she is in the business line, of course it doesnt matter if she doesnt want to study now, cos business schools are kinda like everywhere. But talk about engineering, good ones and recognized ones at least, not alot. I would only really think there are NTU and NUS and probably some courses offered by some big companies and organizations. And she went through all the trouble of going for the courses, just to come and say she doesnt want to attend the course... Seriously, "tao ka pai" ah... (hokkien saying literally means "skull spoil" / "brain spoil")

Dearest ah BIN, you saw my smses to you. Please go through them carefully and think about it. It is really a vicious cycle. You dont do it now, you will just be going round and round and you will never do it anymore.

You might think I will never understand how your BB feels or how you feel. You are right, I dont understand and I dont want to understand for the time being. Because... You also dont understand how I (and everyone else who cares) feel about you not wanting to attend the course. You freaking got the chance and opportunity to study now, you should just do it. You do it now, you might have to live a more... "frugal" life for a while, but it is for the better of your future. Yeah, you dont want to add burden to his family cos they have paid alot. But you think about it, at this level now, do you think you can repay them back anytime soon? 2, 3 years time? Standard of living keeps going up. Everyone has to keep up with the pace. We cant just stay at where we are thinking that things will get better and wait till things get better then we come and do something about it. Cos by not doing anything and remaining status quo, things wont get better, you will just keep lagging... Pfft...

Please, think about it for yourself and for him and his family. I hope you be a bit more rational about this whole thing...

*Note: Serious ah, not threatening you, you dont study right, I think I probably wont go back for CNY le... =)

Suicidal stunts...

Be glad that you are reading this post now because it means that my suicidal stunts today weren't successful!

Today I prepared 2 packages that need to be shipped but cos we dont have much receiving this week so UPS people did not stop by. SO, the clever me wanted to try driving here. The UPS store is very near to the office about half a mile away but cos its all highway type of roads, so walking there might not be an efficient way. So the boss asked if I want to drive there considering that it is so near and direct. I told her if she feels comfortable with the idea of me driving then I dont mind...

Pfft...

Suicidal Stunt # 1: I drove onto the 1 way road in the opposite direct. I dont know what was I thinking about. The road beside the office is 1 way and it is the road that I always take to go home but yet I just don't understand why did I ever made that left turn out to the road! Then I just keep going up to the cross road junction STILL without realizing that I am on a 1 way road in the wrong direction!!!

Suicidal Stunt # 2: Then at the junction, I know I need to go right to get to destination, so I need to make a RIGHT turn. Singapore, right turn is always the outer lane yeah, but here, right turn is always the inner lane! So... I turn onto the OUTER lane... Then I only managed to realized I turn into the wrong lane! So what I did was, I saw this "small road" after the turn and there weren't cars coming out from there. So I thought I could do a 3 point turn to get back onto the correct direction.

Suicidal Stunt # 3: My plan could have worked but I got so nervous that while doing the turn and reversing, I step too hard on the accelerator and reverse too much and fast back that the car went onto the side and got stuck there. STUCK. The car couldn't get out of that place.

HAIZ... So I quickly called my boss to tell here I was in some sort of trouble and she get another colleague to come and help me out. While I was waiting, some guy coming down from that "small road" saw my pathetic situation and stopped to try and help.

He first advised me to full turn right and accelerate hard. Didnt work.
Then he went behind the car and tried to push it up onto the road. Didnt work too. Then my boss and colleague came. She tried to loosen the soil up around the tire hoping that might help. Then I told her to drive and I will do the pushing from behind, cos I can see that I didnt go too far down, should be pushable. Initially, I just pushed. Wont work. Then I tried to lift and... IT WORKED!!! Luckily, I am not the weak type, thanks to all the basketball trainings, exercises and working here that build up my muscles... haha! =p

Oh, then I have to explain what I said "small road" with the inverted commas... Because, it is not any small road... The road is actually linked to the expressway, which means, cars coming down from that road, will be coming at pretty high speed and not visible from afar... meaning you prob wont know when a car will be coming until it is like right in front of you that kinda idea... =.="

Nice right? Can you imagine in all the 3 stunts I performed, all could have gotten me into some very serious accident... Esp. for stunt #2 and 3...

Oh and... I still havent realised the mistake of the 1 way thing when performing stunt 3. I only found out when I called my boss to tell her I was in trouble... She was surprised I didnt know that road is 1 way... =(

NICE NICE NICE! Haiz... but I am in quite a bit of a trauma I think whenever I thought about the junction... all the cars from the other 3 sides I think were very very shocked... Sorry about that!!!

I think I seriously need to re-take my driving test here.

Jam... lifeless...

Yesterday morning was ridiculous... Pissed me off... Everyday, I take the exact same bus at 6.45am and usually I will reach office at 8am. That morning same bus but I reached office at 9.03am and I had to half RUN there... The jam started at 7.10am or so and lasted all the way till almost 8.20am and I just reached Wissahickon Transfer Center, which is like not even exactly halfway to work. From there it will take a good half an hour to 40 mins to reach office...

So angry. The whole purpose of taking the earlier bus is so that I wont be caught in the jam and can be on time or early!

Haiz, things still not looking too good here. My daily is like: I leave for work before day break and get home after night fall... What kinda of life is that man... 1 day spent 3 hours on travelling, is such a waste of time.

At least even if I work later at sunny sun, I still get to go for my lindy class at 8pm, the most by taking a cab. Here you wanna take a cab also difficult. Cabs are mostly seen in center city, suburbs... if you see one you probably can take down the plate number (if any) and go buy 4D or toto lah... That was why the first day I got lost on the way to work, knowing that I had past the stop, I did not just alight, cos I know this is not SG, not like you can get a cab easily...

I think I will grow fat, fatter and FAT!!! Cos everyday is eat, work, eat, eat, computer, sleep... well fed... I want to go swimming... haha, firstly weather here is like damn chill lah, if they have any outdoor swimming pools around, I think I can just jump in and freeze myself into ice cube. Secondly... are there even swimming pools here?!?! Then I wanna play basketball... Where are the courts?!?!?! Back home, so many choices: Cheng San, KBCC, NP, prob NUS too... Freakin accessible lah... here... ~!@#$%^&

Help... I just received an sms from a NUS friend asking if I wanna go catch a movie next week... haha! I wish man... =) I will reply her tomorrow, asking her to buy an air ticket here and watch movie together...

For those who are complaining about their job =)

For those out there who feel that your job is not offering you enough, here's some consolation I hope. =)

My job now basically promises me... nothing... Back at that sunny sun, although I was only a contract worker for 6 months, I at least have all the pro-rated benefits:
- basic
- Annual leave of 7.5 days
- AWL!
- Medical and hospitalization leave of I think 14 days?
- Eye, dental, health care benefits of $___ (few hundreds)
Although there isn't OT pay, at least the basic is pretty decent for a fresh grad with no exp.

So now?? Everyone thinks that: "Oh, going to the United States, lots of promises and opportunities... blah blah..." Well, I cant say that thats not true but at least for me now, I dont think it applies very well... =( I think maybe I have chosen the wrong company, wrong job, wrong timing, wrong everything...

My benefits at the current place:
- basic (which I am still clueless??) Apparently, it seems like I might be working more than I am needed to (probably 10 hours a week more)
- Annual leave?!?! talk about this and I get real mad... Because here AL is not specified by law, it all depends on your company and how they set the rule. So mine is something like that:
--> less than 6 months = 0 day
--> less than 1 year = 1 day?
--> 2 to 3 years = 3 or 5 days?
--> 5 years or more = 10 days?
--> 10 years and above = 20 days?
All the question marks is cos I cant remember the exact no. of days because after I saw the first 2 lines, I almost cursed out loud and faint on the spot.

I was hoping that I can use some AL to go back to Singapore and meet all my beloved friends and family... But nvm, thought about it, there is still the option of unpaid leave, which in fact might be better in my case. Then when I return to Singapore, I can just take as long a leave as I want since I dont have to be too bothered about the leaves and pay... =) I am gonna take like a freaking 2 weeks if possible then... hehehe

- bonus? Sorry didnt see that section.
- other benefits? sorry also didnt really notice any major clause on that... There is probably the basic insurance and stuff... not much of an incentive to me...

How sad.


Haiz, thinking back now, I am really not sure if I have made the right move. I have given up working in a MNC and what's more a well known one, for a small little 10 man strong IT firm... Giving up all the benefits... From a nice title of financial analyst (working on a pretty important project too) to... at the moment, a receptionist, and later on most likely some Sales Engineer. ~!@#$%

Wrong move eh?

Haiz, the basic, at first it seems more than what I will get in Singapore, I think mainly is cos of the exchange rate, but later on, I realized that there are so many freaking taxes to pay here! Initially, I thought it probably will be just high tax say 10 to 20%. I will just treat it as CPF and let them take it... But apparently, there are 3 types of taxes to pay! What federal tax, state tax, city tax... Monthly got this dont know what tax will take away like $2 bucks from you... Really sux...

At least in Singapore, I got deducted for CPF, ultimately 30 years later it will be mine, can still use it in between to buy houses etc. Here? The taxes go to paying for the refugees?? For those who can stay here and work and yet do not need to pay taxes...?? Or so I heard... Whatever...

Pfft... Getting headache... This morning I got locked out of the office because I didnt transfer the office key to my new set of keys. 1 hour in that freaking chill weather... Pathetic...

Oh and 1 last thing before I go to bed. The freedom and discipline of the company. Sigh, back in the sunny sun, its all about self discipline. You come in on time, you leave on your own. If you need to take some time off, let your boss know and most of the bosses are pretty good about this kinda issues. Just as long as you get what you need to do done and you are pretty much on your own. You can use your company email as partly a personal email just as long as you maintain it well.

Know what, when I read through the contract for my current company, there is this particular sheet regarding "company email policy"! I was about to email my sunny sun colleagues on my first day of work as promised, but I saw the title on the sheet of paper, I held back and read it first.

It specifically said that, you should refrain from using company email for personal use except for maybe communicating with spouses, domestic partners, family members or whatever emergency. Then each day you should limit such personal emailing activity to 15mins at most. Then they said that company has the right to access the employees email anytime. Then they made you sign and write your email ID and password which is default and I dont know even but the boss knows...

WT*... I mean I can understand that some companies do have the practice of assessing or spot-checking employees email activities. Its something still controversial and debatable I think. Haiz, I am just lamenting... because back in sunny sun, we have our own email password and before I leave, my boss wanna gain access to my mail, they still need to seek my approval! (feel so shuang... wahahaha! me giving approval to my boss! =p)

Nvm... I should stop whining... =( and go to bed...

Good night here and good afternoon there...

Life in United States... (bad)

Today is the 7th day in Philly. If I can start blogging it goes to show how ULTRA bored I am. I simply have nothing much to look forward to. I really really really miss all my good old friends. All the sessions (poker! taxes "hold'em"! wahaha!), basketball games, mahjong, dinners... Talking about dinners... I think I have already eaten at least 3 out of 7 days of instant noodles (mee pok from Singapore). Oh man, I really really miss the food back home... My "ba cho mee"... =(

Life here...:

1) Traveling / Transport - Oh man, sucks. My workplace is like a freaking 1hour 15mins of bus ride. Not that it matters alot lah, but hor, back home when I travel from home to NUS, it also takes about 45mins to 1 hour, but then, it just didnt feel thattt longggg. Maybe cos' of TV mobile (though most of the time I am asleep) and the seats are also actually much more comfortable than those of SEPTA's.
*SEPTA = SBS Transit in Singapore, the operator of all the buses here.

And public transport here is also pretty expensive. They have "tokens" here which is supposed to be cheaper as compared to using cash alone. One token is USD$1.45. There are different zones and will cost different lah. But minimum one trip using cash is $2 or a token. For me, my workplace is in Zone 4, so I need to use 1 token + $1.50 = $2.95 per trip. 1 day will cost me $6. 1 month = USD$120.

Haiz, so people, please dont complain that Singapore bus fare is expensive (haha! Actually I always complain one!) Compare the quality of the buses, the service and the frequency of buses, the fare in Singapore is really reasonable to a certain extent.

I have thought of investing some money in a second hand car, but I think, not now ba, I still dont know how much am I being paid for the job monthly... *dumb*


2) My job - I will have to be a general worker / receptionist for like a month! Receiving items from UPS, DHL, Fedex, USPS, answering phone call by saying

"Good Morning/Noon! You have reached U-Combination. I am SORA. How can I assist you?"

~!@#$%! I think that takes about 20 secs to complete...


3) House (e place you call home...) - Haiz, the place I am living in is like an apt type. Dont imagine those nice scenes of those american houses you see on TV. It's on the 3rd floor, basically there are 2 rooms, a so-called living room, a bathroom and a half kitchen. Why I call it half kitchen is cos, its a small area, a bar like type of place. So compared to proper kitchen, its more like a bar. Oh and there is NO windows in the living room, only 1 in one of the room and 2 in the other room. What does this means? Insufficient lighting!!! And another problem is that there is no place for this thing call washing machine and dryer. So laundry how?

Option 1: Carry all your dirty linens for the week or 2 weeks or 1 month, go like 2 streets away to the laundry shop and use the washing machines there to wash your clothes. Its coin-operated type. I think 1 wash is about $2 or so? If you choose SUPER wash (dont know what's the freakin diff), then more ex. Also, here people use dryer to dry instead of hanging out the clothes to dry. So then you have to pay for the dryer too, er, I think is a quarter will dry for 7 mins. Usually you need at least half an hour of drying, depending on your load too. I think if you split the load might be cheaper and faster.

Option 2: Bring out all pails, scrubs etc, go into the bath tub and manually wash it yourself!

Haiz... Last time when I was here, I used to go for Option 1. This time, I decided it cost too much and too troublesome to walk here and there, so I went for Option 2 today. Pfft... so bad, if I do it at home at least there is a proper bath room with enough space for 2 to 3 pails to do the washing. Here, the pathetic little bathroom has everything, a bathtub, a toilet bowl, a wash basin. All in one, imagine how small it is and you can probably only do the washing by squatting in the tiny bathtub. The comes the drying. Normal clothes I am ok lah, but today I washed a freaking thick towel lah. My arms can still feel the twisting... I think I will develop alot of arm muscle when I go back...


4) Food - Singapore is better, so much better... Talking about food, from next week on I have to bring my own lunch box to work because the office is located along those highways and there is no way I can get over to the other side of the highway by walking, eat and get back to office in time. Even if I drive, I feel its too troublesome too. Haiz... back in SUN, there were so many choices... Chinatown, Clarke Quay, Hong Lim, the fish dumpling... *****


5) Language - Before coming over, I told my friends that I am worried that I might not be able to communicate with people here. To a certain extent I think it is quite true. I think because I dont speak with that kinda accent, the pronunciation, tone and everything might sound a bit different to them. At work, luckily quite a number of them are chinese, so we speak chinese sometimes.


Pfft... The first 4 days here were still pretty nice because the guy renting this house was still around and I at least have someone to talk and joke with. But he moved out 2 days ago. Sigh... Lonely... Tomorrow wont be alone anymore cos roommate coming back, but well actually... haiz... dont say le...

1050pm... Think I going to bed... SEE!!?? ME going to bed at 11PM!!! I never do that in Singapore. Most of the time I am only home probably at night or I will be busy watching all the great TV programs at this golden hour... Oh ya, I only have a CRT TV here and no reception, cant watch a shit... Can do something about it, by applying for cable tv or whatever, but, haiz... this stupid old house, dont even know if it will work well...

OFF TO BED... (10.55pm)

Something wrong..

There is something seriously wrong. Been reflecting and thinking, really need to do something to change. Past 2.5 years in school makes me feel quite demoralised, thought that I can stop feeling that way (or feel less of it..) after coming to the 社会大学. Ha... worse... Feel totally... helpless, useless... 真是无奈...

I know there is alot of things that I should have done and reacted to them in a certain manner, but then, dont know leh, dont know why I do it in another way instead. But I think I am learning. If there is nothing very technical for me to bring home from this job, there is definitely alot of soft skills I seen and know that I should pick up. In any case, haiz, since I wont be here for long, forget it... get it over and done with and I hope I will (be able to remember and) apply those soft skills I seen here to the new environment that I am moving to soon... =( but I got a not so good feeling that I will fall into the same situation again... haiz...

Days without telecommunication / internet / network services

Recently there were 2 earthquake incidents in southern part of Taiwan. Though there is still death toll, the number is fortunately not big. 2 people were killed and 40+ were injured (according to what I read from the paper). This earthquake problem affected not only Taiwan but its surrounding countries because it damaged some major submarine network cables. For users who have internet services routed through these damaged cables, encountered difficulties in accessing the internet. ISPs are working on fixing the problems and most of the users are able to access the internet already. Not only is internet service being disrupted, in some countries, telecommunication network were also down.

So well I guess some of us are fortunate enough to be able to regain access to the internet within a day or two. Though even a day or 2 is considered pretty fast already, there are still people lamenting about it. From a newspaper article, it was reported that there was a period of time this year, Pakistan's internet service was being disrupted for a good 12 days. Imagine yourself, your country's internet service was being disrupted for say just 3 days? 5 days? A week?? I feel that some people's life will turn upside down...

"Har, oh, like that, you send me lor, I take a look...",
"... I will send it to you asap when I am done...",
"you need that ah? Ok I send you later",
"eh I want AAA's contact number ah? no pen now, you send to me lah, thanks!"

We are constantly SENDING things to one another. Handphone, computer, snail mails etc. We have been sending things to one another since thousands of years ago. If for a week, you are unable to get access to internet, or perhaps your telecommunication lines are not functioning, I think there will be alot of inconvenience caused to your daily life. Many businesses especially globalised ones will have problems in their daily operations and lose really big big bucks because they will lose means of communicating with their overseas counterpart, delay in shipment etc. Disasterous I would say.

But lets wind the clock back to say, 15 or 16 years ago, when there still isnt internet and mobile / cellphone services. Back then, I was probably 5 or 6 years old. I rememeber there still isnt mobile phone and I dont even have a computer at home (I dont need them). When we meeting up with friends, we will have to confirm everything way before and there should preferably be no changes on the day itself. If you are late for a meeting, your friends will be ultra annoyed by you because they know they cant wander far to do a little shopping at a nearby mall without knowing when you will be reaching. If computers or internet is never discovered in our lives, could our lives have been much more simpler?? Will there not be problems of internet pornography, viruses and worms etc? I dont know... being so used to the technology around me now, I dont think I can live in that era without cellphone and computers (probably computers I can still live without owning one... but come to think of it, even my mom needs computer to check BIG SWEEP, TOTO and 4D - faster than radio... 0.O")

So if you have time, do reflect back to the time when technology is alien and think about if one day all means of communication were being cut off by... perhaps another earthquake?

Expectation too high??

Why do some people have the thinking that people who are educated (meaning literate), knows about everything? Just because a person can read, write and speak doesnt really mean that the person can understand or grasp something that is new or something that he/she does not have prior knowledge or contact with...

Take for example, you were given a new gadget, say a new type of microwave over which doesnt look like the conventional type of oven that you have always seen and used all your life. The gadget comes with a 25 pages manual. Half the book (13 pages) contains not instructions but recipes. The other half of the book gives you some safety instructions, a big diagram of the components of the gadget, maintainance of the gadget and 2 pages on what wonderful achievements can be done using that gadget. One page contains the "operations" of the gadget. If I were the manufacturer I wouldnt keep the operations to just one page. It is a new gadget and it doesnt even looks like a microwave oven. Shouldnt think that everyone is a mind reader who can read what your thinking...

Anyway, say this manual is being passed to a normal person who can read, speak and write english. Should we expect this person to understand how to use the gadget? I dont think we should. We need to consider other factors. Maybe at the time when you pass this manual to this person, he/she is in the "hibernate" mode? He/She has comprehension problems and need a little more time to digest the thing? That person probably need to read it a few times, go to bed, ponder on it for a few nights and then will begin to see the light?? Well, it might sound ridiculous, but I dont think why it cant be possible... A person's mood can greatly affects them in many ways...

Take for another example, say someone who doesnt know english very well receives a letter (probably from bank, a govt entity or a promotional gimmick from some firms etc). That person pass this letter to you and wants you to tell him/her what is the content about. Say it is a credit card issue from bank. You probably can approximately tell him/her what roughly the letter is talking about if you are a credit card owner yourself. Even if you have credit cards, I dont think you will fully understand what is going on unless you ask further questions about the credit card scheme that the person signed up or that you own that exact same credit card with the same kind of promotions etc... AND if you are totally credit card idiot or bank ignorant, you probably wont be able to understand certain in the letter...

Anyway... I guess the above doesnt apply to all people... perhaps only to a selected few... No matter what, I still think that people nowadays have too high an expectation on one another, or people think too highly of people who receive slightly more education. Just like some tution kids might bombard their tutors with all sort of questions thinking that because my tutor is a graduate, a diploma holder, Alevel cert holder etc (receives more education than him/her) means that the tutor can answer all the questions... This analogy is not that good but well, think along that line I guess...

=(