Dreamz FM

Peilin returned from singapore idols are was gushing over the song Should I Stay, by Dreamz FM. I dont have the song, but I found the link to listen to it online.

I like this group quite a lot and I even have two of their albums, which is quite a feat considering how broke I always am.

I just offhandedly mentioned to peilin that Dreamz FM is way underrated, and she says she knows. I asked her had she heard of them before, and she said yes, because I recommended them to her once!

Hey! I didnt even remember that.

But to think of it, it was because of them that I surfed to sgforums, where I am still actively surfing up to this day, which had been a good 5 years at least.

Woah! Time flies. =)

Changing over

This is my #498 entry, and I sort of not being able to believe that, for a total of 19 months, I had almost chalked up 500 entries.

Now the thought is, whether I should convert to blogger beta and locked this blog away from public eyes. I'd bitched really too much at this blog and I fear the repercussion. *shivers*

I cant be closing this blog down because it is my baby.

At blogger beta, I will be able to select who is to see this blog, and hence I would be more at ease when I need to scold people in this diary.

But first, I need to know, do everyone who reads this blog has a google account? I mean all 2 of you? Hahaha.

Let me know. You have my email address (points at header), and tell me whether I should convert or not?

Thanks all. Ahem, I mean, thanks, you two. *Shifty eyes*

Yi Jie Qi

I am recently very much in love with this song, and of course the voice that sang it.

易桀齐 『千里之外』

Listen to the vocal and love him like I do ok? =)

Another ex colleague

The FC I mentioned in the last entry left the company around 2 wks ago. YF almost treats him like a god re-borned, gushing over how talented he is, how good he is at talking and how good he is at drawing.

I can only recognise that his drawing skills are good. But talking? And when he pulled me and YF aside that day to want to give us a training session on presentation skills, I was quite happy to oblige.

But when he started telling us vocabulary, I was very tempted to stop him and tell him to try harder next time.

His english is poor. Period.

Well, my english sucks as well, but I know better than to make a fool of myself, no? I mean, is there a need to be proud that you know the word "manoeuver"? Or "embark"?

He recommended we read more design books to build up our vocabulary but I was so very tempted to ask him, is there such a need? I am building my vocabulary from newspapers already, do I really need to learn more from design books, when its function is to showcase design to me?

And I was reading his blog just now. Can you imagine his tagline is (it is not exact in case he has the habit of googling his tagline, but close enough) "our lives are like a plate of dimsum, you dont know what you will get until you order it".

It is like, what the hell. What is this? A lousy ripoff from forest gump?

Oh, I so realise that I am mean. Can you imagine I will hypocritically agree with YF when she says he is nice, then bitch about him here.

Muahhaha.

Sharp pictures

Ok, these two pictures are meant to be blogged but it is long past due.

These are the things we drank and the thin pizza that we ate that night for FC’s farewell.

I like the lighting for both pictures, so warm and nice, and no blurry pictures despite not switching on flash.

Cat on car

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So cute! I think I want to add more pictures to this blog, or it look very drab. =)

Blogging via phone

I am testing to see if I can blog via email. If I can I will be able to successfully busy from now on. Haha.

Talk is cheap. Very cheap

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We were supposed to have a company gathering on thurday night, but because myself and CD were busy with projects, we asked the rest to go ahead while we shall stay to work on.

EC needed the stuff by 9am on fri morning, he claim, and hence I felt I will definitely need to stay back or how would I be able to finish the work?

(By the way, it was freaking 6.30 pm then, so it is not even a case of finish-work-quickly-and-we-can-go.)

Uncle and LW began to flutter around me asking me what am I busy with that I can go for the gathering, because I HAVE TO GO.

Excuse me, I am hardly that important. I really cannot comprehend how come just because CD and myself cant make it, they have to eventually cancel the dinner?

They keep pressing me to tell them what is on hand, and what do I have that I need to do so urgently.

I counted off my fingers that I have P081, P079, P074 and P076 that I need to work on, and P081 and P079 must be finished immediately so that CD can then work on it.

Granted that it is actually not a lot to do, but can I be doing it at my pace, and not dash through it so that I can go for dinner?

Uncle and LW began to quite useless things like how come I’ve got so much to do, why did I give clients promises of deadlines that will force myself in a dead corner (he was referring to P074). But I am very eager for this project to materialise, and this client was supposed to give us a reply on fri itself.

If I cant give him a revised layout for him to further firm his decision, regardless it is good news to us or bad news to us, I think it is the least I can do for the client to help him have a better idea on what he wants eventually.

(Update: The client didnt reply yesterday (on friday) as he previously promised. I guess we might have lost the job.)

It was why I had wanted to give him a revised layout as soon as I can, and I didnt count on it that LW would pass the entire P081 to me when the project is in her name, hence I couldnt finish all that was to be finished.

I hate it the way that they will say things like "Oh, we will help you talk to the client" or "I will help you do one of your other projects" or saying things that is talking up my time just to listen to you but not helping me reduce my workload significantly.

Talk is cheap ok.

Like I mentioned to YF yesterday over coffee, it is a real pain in the ass when I need to do drawings or presentation boards for LW. It is not I cant take extra work, but I hate it when it is not my project to begin with, and I will have to study the project from the scratch.

In all honesty, hence I dont blame LW totally, it is impossible to totally brief another person about your project unless you religiously take down every single note and record what your client wants on your mp3 player, then pass it on to the next person.

More often, I take down important information and when I was doing the project, information will come back to me as I scrutinise every area and I will input design according to the information I have in my brain.

So when LW passes me her projects, I know it is not really her fault that she didnt manage to give me all the points. But it is frustrating that she expects the finished work within a certain timeframe, but I had already fully packed my schedule for my own projects.

And when she passes the crap to me, I will have to start to understand everything that is in the project.

I will have to study the site photographs, I will have to quickly look at the client’s website to give me an insight of who the client is, and I will have to ask CD on what are things that was quoted for the clients because I would have to specify the finishes in the drawings.

And then I would have to pray LW had already selected her whole set of laminates, wallpapers and carpets and other materials and had already set them aside for collation. If she had, I just have to put them in a sensible order, doing up a board labeling each material that was used and where it was used.

If she hadnt decided, which is like 50% of the time, then I will have to ask her what she have in mind, and she will send me to ask kok (whom she had briefed once and hence she dont want to brief me again), who will sometimes give me, ermmm, interesting answers and then I will get questioned by LW how come I am not doing her project to what she had in mind.

Because kok does the visuals, and visuals usually feature specific locations like the conference room and the reception, the places like utility is often not featured.

And areas that are not needed to be shown in visuals are often given the last priority (I am only being frank, shoot me down if you think otherwise). And when the materials in these places are hence not decided, I will have to bring laminates after laminates, wallpapers after wallpapers to LW, and hope she can decide on one of them quick and I can quickly get the fucking work done.

It is also why for her projects, I usually end up specifying the most boring and standardised laminates and wallpapers. I really have no energy to choose one that I like, then she decided against it, *repeats for 3 times* then finally she decided on one that is often the least adventurous.

I also mentioned to YF once that I dont believing in specifying wallpapers that is forgettable. If I want a wall that gives a subtle wallpaper feeling, I will choose one that is in one single colour but is characteristically textured.

I will not choose one with grainy bumps in one single colour because that is exactly how a wall might look, with or without wallpaper.

I will not choose one with that is cream colour with bits of latte coloured dashes. If I want it to be that boring, I might as well just paste mahjong paper over it.

Hence I hate it when you tell me my wallpaper is too flamboyant. If someone had studied my design and wants to offer comments, I am more willing to listen it out. But if the intention is to get me changed to something simpler because personally you cannot accept loud design, then too bad. Being loud is my way of life, and hence it manifests in my design.

But I hate the presumption when other designers ‘felt’ the client wont like it. If clients dont like it, it is up to me to convince them. If I cant convince them, and I had to change, then I will dejectedly reasoned it to be that clients are not as receptive as us regarding colours and I will get over it.

But I cant take it that other designers are not openminded to designs other than their own. I can accept that you prefer subtle designs, then why cant you accept my strong design. Ok, dont accept it, but dont run it down with your bulldozer.

Called off

I mentioned in the last entry that there was supposed to be a company dinner gathering on thurs and a karaoke today.

But both were called off.

I was very busy with work yesterday and LW, YF etc didnt want to spend too much time in a small space with LN and hence they decided to call it off until a later date.

AC, YF and myself are supposed to go for karaoke today, and we had been arranging this since last wed or so.

AC promised he will make it tonight no matter what, and YF and myself were very much looking forward to it.

He was so confident last wed that he claimed that he will "把头砍下来给我踢" if he were to not go again. So when he told me just now that he cant make it today because he is not feeling well, I told him "你死定了。自己去磨刀吧！"

In the end I had coffee and watched movie with YF, and we discussed about work and etc. I am beginning to like her better, but honestly, not perfectly still.

But it is good to make friends, still.


****
I will abduct contents from my 'official website' later. I wanted to write here then repost it there, but more often than not, when I blog here, I tend to be more critical and hence the entry cannot be used over there.

Sometimes I feel I cannot cope with two blogs because my each entry is fuckingly long.

But it feels good to be able to cheat and post the same entry on both blog.

Hee.

Disappearance

I hadnt been blogging for the past two days because I had been doing ot till quite late these days. I will be going for a drinking session with my colleagues tomorrow and karaoke on fri.

I'll blog about the two events after that.

Oh, but a quick update.
I've blocked the gang on msn and hadnt been contacting them, and it has been 9 wks now. One of the guys in the gang is getting married and he had invited me.

I'm reserving my rights whether to attend or not.

A site to share

Wu Xiao Kang.




I got this site from tomorrow .sg and I am deeply affected by it's contents.

Hateful colleagues

◘ Abducted contents ◘

My director at work, whom I branded the Ancient Long bean, is showing potential to be really devilish.

You will also read about Miss Pretentious and how she thinks she is of a higher breed.

Oh, disclaimer! *Waves hand nonchalantly*

The things said here are obviously *rolls eyes* things that happen to me. If you people is the below story read this and want to rebute me, go ahead.

If you want to go to simon and raymond and weep into your handkerchief, go ahead too. Scheming is your middle name anyway. Tsk.

We are supposed to be having a presentation tomorrow, and this had been made news to everyone since last week.

This is one of the few projects that had me involved right from the start, and really, I am appreciative to be able to capture information personally rather than hear it through someone else.

Though it would means more work for me (me as in the projects that I am involved in. This new work process will affect all designers and all sales, so please dont presume I am whinning to get myself a better deal only), I am quite willing to engage myself in the entire process because it is an learning experience.

Digression: Having said that, please stop attributing every additional responsibility as a good learning experience. Doing presentations = training for talking. Calling suppliers = picking up interpersonal skills. Clearing bins = Planting feet on the ground. To hell with it.

It used to be that, the sales team meets the client, takes the brief from the client and arrange for proj execs to measure the site. They will then come back to brief us designers, we designers spend the next 3 days or so tweaking the first version of layout.

While we are doing the layout, we need to study the client's requirements, then plan their needs into the space, of course taking into consideration the design and aesthetics.

When it is done, we will have to explain it to the sales person, and they will present it to the client. Only after the proposal is into a later stage then will the designer need to meet the client too.

This is largely due to the fact that while we take ard 3 days to do one single project's layout, it takes much lesser time to get a client to pass us their layout plans because most of the time, the clients want to compare between a few designs and hence they are always more than willing to get more design firms involved.

Then when the proposal proceeds to a later stage, we designers have to meet the client too at the presentations. The sales team will do the presentation then designers will serve as a consultant when the client has some design issues.

But recently, thing had changed, and this change was brought by ALB.

Now designers have to meet the client for the first meeting and take the design brief from the client. Then we will have to visit the site and record the site conditions, while the proj execs take the site measurements.

We come back to the office, and we will have to debrief the sales team on whatever they had missed out, and then we will have to do the layout.

When the layout is completed, we need to send it to the client and make changes according to better suit their requirements.

This would be repeated a few times until the client is more or less satisfied, then we will arrange for a full presentation.

To do this presentation, we will have to brief the visualiser on how we imagine the space to be according to our design.

We will have to choose colours, materials and lighting, and at the same time choose the furniture, regardless system furniture or loose furnitures.

We have to choose the carpets, and how the different carpets would look coordinated at the end of the day.

We have to choose the wallpapers that will be used to clad the walls of important spaces, such as conference room.

Then when our colour/material concept is more or less defined, we will have to call each supplier to get them to quote us a price of how much each item would cost.

And then we will have to prepare the presentation boards, which will include surfing the visual libraries for suitable pictures, then we will need to do storyboarding for the presentation board so that all the information is clear to the viewer's eyes.

(Please remember this whole process is easily a 30 hour process and we have to juggle many other projects at the same time.)

Then when the presentation boards is completed, we will have to set up the presentation ground, and then we will have to do the presentation.

I dunno what you think, but I think we have a hell lot to do.

Because we have this presentation coming up tomorrow, we arranged to have a rehearsal last thurs between ALB, MP and myself. But because ALB felt that he was not free, it was postponed to fri, 2.30pm.

I waited in the office for they two to return, and planned my other work ard that time slot so that it is not messing anyone's schedule.

It was postponed to 3.30, then later postponed to 5. Then ALB called me at 5 to ask me whether it can be postponed to 6.

I was supposed to be meeting a friend at 6.30! So I rejected this idea and told him we shall have the rehearsal tmr morning instead (I am on leave today).

He was immediately unhappy.

What the hell? I wasnt the one who messed up the schedule! While I know he is busy too and he didnt mean to mess up the schedule, is it fair to blow his top at me?

Just because he can stay back on a friday and I cannot, that makes me a sinner? How about all the other days when I stayed and he happily vacated his seat of his ass at 6?

What about those days?

Bloody hell.

Then MP came over and instructed me to send out an email to summarise another project. I was already in the middle of doing it, and hence I told her I am already doing it.

She then insisted that I must cc the email to the proj exec and to the m&e engineer.

Me : But why? This is a design debrief, why must I cc it to the proj people?

MP : ALB says so.

Me : But what is the rationale behind it?

MP : ALB says that it is to acknowledge that the proj people had been to site with you.

Me : But why? They are there with me, why do I need to send them an email to tell them 'Yes we went to site together'?

MP : ALB says so.

Wah? What is this? Messenger?

Is ALB so busy that he cannot talk to me directly and need to get someone to pass the message? And is MP so free that she can be this messenger?

While I get along well with everyone else in the company, these two characters make my blood boil.

How can they be always broadcasting that they are busy, as though the rest of us arent?

How can they be so inconsiderate to the rest of us, happily sharing their workload with us while we are already so overworked?

Oh, yah yah, of course, I cant just critise without giving constructive comments. *Shakes head at myself*. I think ALB and MP should begin to step down from the clouds condensed with our tears, sweat and blood, and begin to shed them like we do.

We cant be burning ourselves to warm their body, then get reduced to a mere charred wick ourselves.

I dont wish for that to happen.

I think I am getting an ipod

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Just.look.at.this!!!!






I will get this it's capacity isnt just 1gb.

I had mentioned before that I want to get a creative player, but since they stupidly decided only win xp users are within their marketing plans, I think I am getting an ipod eventually too.

So much for patriotism.

Tagboard

I've suddenly decided to create a tagboard and I had spent my last 1 hr trying to find out which one is the best amont all that there is swimming around the internet.

I used to have a page that list my favourite lyrics, but I am too lazy to update it. Hence this tagboard would be for me to tag my favourite songs and lyrics. =)

Oh, and there might be pop-ups that comes with this tagboard. Well, what do you expect from something that is free?

Stupid singnet

Singnet is being fuckingly glitchy again, cant one have a decent connection at all? This is especially exasperating because I only get to use the comp an hour or two a day but I have to put up with such laggy connection.

Shitnet.

My books

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These are my collections of books. I do not actually have a real book shelf so I store them in this cheapskate shelf that I bought from Giant.




While it look quite neat to you, it is because I swept all the little items from the empty spaces in front of the books to the floor before I took this picture.

Hahah. =)

Going a little nuts

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Like I plan my leave so that it affects my current workload least, I had been doing some simple graphic work for a total of 7 hours while I am supposed to be enjoying my weekend rest.




As a matter of fact, I was sleeping at michelle's place when I suddenly jumped out of bed after a dream, and I rushed home to get this done as she didnt have photoshop at home.

Well, I am going a little nuts.

Taking leave

I've decided to take leave on 18 sept.

I think I can do with some rest, but I think I am really going a little off the tangent when I started considering which day should I take leave so that it affects my schedule least. Haha.

That's it

I dont know if I mentioned this incident before, but there was once when I was doing ot, I happen to met jnce when I went out to buy sandwich. Her bf works near my workplace and upon seeing me, she asked me why wasnt I out with the gang?

I look at her curiously and told her I dont know of any gathering, but I had a pile of work to clear anyway, so I cant make it even if they asked.

For a while, I thought I must have missed out on their invitation somehow.

Then as weeks progressed, and they no longer ask me out for their gatherings even though I know their gatherings are usually once-every-two-weeks. I slowly came to understand that something - unknown to me - had obviously happened and no one is going to tell me.

Yesterday jnce suddenly msn-ed me and asked me whether I was going out with the gang. I simply replied a 'huh' and that successfully scared her into appearing offline.

I left the office soon after because I was meeting erv and eric anyway, and I called her, quite schemingly, to ask her about her msn message. She hummed and hawed for a while, then asked me whether ncn informed me that there was a gathering that night.

Replying in negative, I told her they must be having some special gatherings that I shouldnt be there, hence I am not invited. I told her I am busy anyway, and offered to organised some gatherings soon, ha ha ha.

Previously, I had imagined that the reason for not asking me along is probably because ncn and jnce usually cannot make it for gatherings and since so, they immediately convert the gathering into a guy's night.

Evidently not.

If ncn was going, and jnce is invited, it is apparently something against me and only me.

I hang up the phone and immediately made a resolution.

That's it.

It is obviously no incident that they are trying to ostracise me, I have no idea why, but I think our differences grew after I left the last company. While I had turned to become a designer, our jobscopes and conversation topics had since breached.

During the last few gatherings, it became significant that I had ran out of topics with them and maybe that is why they begin to feel awkward with me around.

Or perhaps my new identity as a designer is too strong for them. When I first began, I was weak and lost, and I turned to them for support.

But survival of these couple of months saw me growing to be more aggressive and I've most unfortunately regained the designer's disdain towards every single thing. Such pomposity probably puts them off.


I came home and promptly blocked all of them on msn.

Sometimes, when the enthusiam towards a certain person (or in this case a group of people) dwiddles to a stop, it is only for the good that we do not remain in contact anymore.

Dinner with erv and eric

I had dinner with erv and eric on fri night, and it had been ard 6 mths since I last saw eric, and 2 years since I last saw erv!

The dinner was pretty ok, but I was very distracted when they kept talking about their bank jobs. I was almost falling asleep out of sheer boredom but I just stab at my food and tried to stay awake.
After that we walked from suntec to marina square, then to esplanade and finally to fullerton hotel simply because we couldnt find a table at any pubs!

I've never been to post @ fullerton hotel before, and I eric treated me my drink. I ordered a mai tai, soemthing I hadnt try before. It is not very nice, probably because I like fruit drinks and mai tai is not sweet enough.

The two of them commented that I've matured since 2 years ago when we were working together. Come on, what were they expecting? I am such a alcohol and ciggy junkie now, a far cry from 2 years ago. And I knew them when I was almost fresh out of school, and doing my first official job.

Two years down the road, with so much work related stress, and so much drinking and smoking, is it a wonder at all that I've aged.

They keep emphasizing that they meant I matured, not aged. Go and die! Both equates!

Is lunch that important?

I am miffed with a colleague. For convenient's sake, in this entry, she shall be referred to as Prissy, which by dictionary.com's defination, [someone who is] excessively proper; affectedly correct; prim.


There was supposed to be a presentation for proj074 on thurday, 3pm, and the manager wanted us to have a rehearsal at noon. I agreed to the timing.

Prissy later asked me if 11am instead is ok, and of course I asked her why. Can you imagine the explaination she gave me?

"Because noon is lunchtime."

You may think that I am making a fuss out of nothing, because it is her entitlement to eat on time. I agree with that, hence I told her why dont she go for lunch at 12, then we can have the rehearsal at 1.

She told me it is not a good idea, because we should finish the rehearsal first, then we can enjoy a good lunch.

Now, if you followed my blog, you will know that I am obsessed with finishing work before leaving, regardless is it for lunch, or is it for appointments, or is it for home. It is not because I am sadistic, but because when projects can be better, it should be better-ed immediately.

I think this is a common insistence all designers have - when you have a more brilliant idea, you want to see it completed asap.

Whenever I have a deadline to meet, it is a norm that I will skip lunch so that I have one more hour to work. And it is usually during the last lap where some old selections and decisions are suddenly glaringly wrong and it must be rectified immediately.

It is not like she dont know that, because we usually go for lunch together, and whenever there is a presentation, I will stay in and she is aware.

While it is not fair to request she stays back with me to do the presentation boards because - as much as it is a lot of work - it is not her workscope. She can help if she wants to, but it is not her jobscope.

But because lunch is more important to her, and I have no problem with that. She can go for her lunch but she should at least remember that when things turn out wrong during last minute, I am the one who have to stay back to rectify it. Lunch is the last thing on my mind because perfecting a presentation is far more necessary.

(Excuse me, this obsession isnt to do with this job, but it is to do with *cough* designer's intergrity. When I was in poly, presentations and submissions take top priority and we developed this commitment as our holy mission and we fiercely guarded by it.)

And stop imagining that things will go so wondrously well. It is far more likely that there is a last minute amendment to the presentation boards or to the quotations or to the project report.

Lunch? You thinking about lunch? Huh? Huh? Huh?



I aired my frustration over msn, and I've cut and paste it here because of plain laziness. =)

Kanigi says:
Aiyoh... u know prissy.. we are supposed to be having a presentation rehearsal for proj074 on thurs, manager said lunch
Kanigi says:
she wants it at 11 now
Kanigi says:
said noon is lunch
Kanigi says:
but presentation boards making is seldom smooth sailing

Catz says:
I know

Kanigi says:
I know she is stressed too, but I hope she is not taking that because I can leave before 9pm these days = I am very unstressed

Catz says:
I think she is becomIng stressed

Kanigi says:
when I was eyebrow deep in shit she wasnt exactly staying back to help anyway, and I will be the one staying back to do presentation boards next tues and wed

Catz says:
maybe since she is new so she still doesnt know how to cope

Kanigi says:
I know she is stressed
Kanigi says:
so I dont want to voice out my concerns to her
Kanigi says:
hence I bitch to u... hahahahahahahahaha

Catz says:
and usually sales are typically like this
Catz says:
tHey are quite insensitive to the people preparing the drawing, boards and even quotes

Kanigi says:
YAH
Kanigi says:
I want it now now now now now now now now now now now now

Catz says:
so all they know is that she needs it
Catz says:
But they didnt know that before they rush, we were already sooooo rushing
Catz says:
and they are the last part of the triathlon,
Catz says:
we were the first one to run, and bike

Kanigi says:
and we are the one to prepare sandwiches, and brew coffee
Kanigi says:
and the ones needing to go out buy new track shoes and socks

Catz says:
and hers is like serving

Kanigi says:
and in the end, they run the last stretch and they goes up to take the trophy

Catz says:
Yah

Kanigi says:
they are the one who gets photographed

Catz says:
and get money
Catz says:
and received bouquet of flowers
Catz says:
and medal

Kanigi says:
and when ppl asked, they will nonchalantly say, oh yah, I have a good team

Catz says:
and gets the chance to give the last speech of gratitude

Kanigi says:
we were a good team

Catz says:
I hate that as well
Catz says:
its like !!

Kanigi says:
when all they did was to think of the thank you speech IN CASE we won

Catz says:
and non-stop calculation of the distribution of the prize money.


Then I posted to catz this email prissy sent to me:

Dear Kanigi,

As discussed, we have the following preparations for PROJ074 presentation on 14 September Thursday

12pm - rehearsal presentation with Manager and prissy
3pm - actual presentation with Clients

We may have to lunch in if the time is tight. That is all.

Regards
Prissy

Catz says:
crazy
Catz says:
need to email

Kanigi says:
yah~
Kanigi says:
-_-"



I was very angry when I read that. She is obviously trying to gun me when I told her that she can go for lunch if she wants to, but I will stay back to do the boards.

I'll let this pass now that I've blogged about it. If this happens again I will be lacing poison already.

Blogger is still my favourite

I havent been blogging as intensively as I wished for the past few days, I had began a blog at blogsome recently and I had been blogging there when I am working, then reposting them here.

Because those contents are read by my colleagues, they are not exactly the most reflective of my emotions, but it serves as a good official website. Colleagues no longer wonder if I have another blog, because I had volunteered that one out to them.

All blogs marked with "◘ Abducted contents ◘" are contents that appear at the blog too, but I dont necessarily blog there first then re-post them here. I am still too comfortable blogging at blogger, because I have the habit of typing out tags, instead of using the convenient buttons that blogger or blogsome gives. I simply love to <.img.src.=."url".> the pics that I want to blog to, and <.s.>.text.<./.s.> when I want to retract my statements.

I cant type my own tags there (or maybe it is different way altogether and I cant do it yet), and that is slowing me down considerably.

Blogger is still my favourite. =)

Heels

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I had an ongoing obsession with heels ever since I began to know michelle. She is the one who instilled in me that heels must be at least 2 inches tall, and chunky heels (anything with a diameter larger than 20 cent coin gets her immediate disapproving stare).

Currently I am professing -- to everyone who stop for even a single second -- my love for this pair of shoes I bought from heatwave.

I took this pic with my vga phone and I'm surprised the quality turned out ok. It is not half as grainy as I had expected.

So pweety.

Shifting blame

My colleague A asked me whether I've colleague B's blog address. I told her it is listed in colleague C's blog and colleague A asked me to check out the address for her.

I asked her why the sudden interest?

She said that someone outside the company told her that someone is blogging about the company and hence she wants to know if it is colleague B's blog.

I've read B's blog, and there wasnt much in it, save for a few complain entries. But comparatively, my blog is full of them!

But B posted pictures of the office interiors in his blog, so I wickedly pointed a general finger in his direction and told A she is right, the famous blog is probably B's.

Well, none of them knows I have this blog. If they know it, god knows what happen? Hee.

I've started another blog at blogsome in an attempt to throw them off the tracks, and to whine a little about work there. I suddenly realised my colleagues will soon find it impossible that I do not blog, given that I know alot about setting up blogs.

Hence I started one, and I will re-post some of the entries here because after all, it is still a big effort to write each entry.

I log into that blog blatantly at work, but I blog via email for this one. Hence my colleagues are all accepting my reasons when I explain I have a long term friend I email to almost everyday.

Wah lao eh, win already! I even have to give this 'friend' an identity, like it's a he whom I email frequently but I am not sure if he reads each entry. This friend is more of a shoutout bin for me and *cough* is usually too busy to talk on the phone with me, hence we exchange emails.

Sometimes I lie so much that it comes naturally to me. Whahahah. =)

Devil wears Prada

◘ Abducted contents ◘

I went to watch Devil wears Prada today with my colleagues and I am pleasantly surprised that the show is interesting.

I hadnt read the book before, but I do have the background knowledge of this book and hence I kinda know what to expect.

In short, the story line is about this terror of a boss, a female editor of a magazine, whom has huge demands on her staff and everyone generally keeps out of her way.

Come a young girl who was to work for her, and the story tells how she manage to survive.

Before I enter the cinema, I had doubts on how such a simple story line can even last 100mins, but it did. The show was quite fast paced, and it was really easy on my nerves.

I watched the show while keeping an eye on the chinese subtitle (a habit that I cant break no matter what language the show is in - chinese, english, korean, thai, japanese, whatever!) and there was this line : 当你可以背叛亲离的时候，就是你可能升值的时候。

Directly translated, it meants "When you can abandon all your friends and kin, it is time you will be considered for a promotion".

That really jocks me, because that is really how fucked up life is.

You work so hard that you forsake everything and everyone else in life to put in your heart and soul at work, but eventually, it might not even pay.

Sometimes I wish I can forsee how long have I do live, so that I can judge whether it is a good idea to put in so much time at work.

What if I decide to cut myself some slack and find a low paying (if there could be another that pays worse) job that allows me to remember to breathe, but I live all the way through 90. I dont wish to live on porridge for the rest of my life.

And what if I strayed away from my friends because of the compelling need to do more ot, and in the end I die before my next birthday and everyone cannot be bothered to attend my funeral even?

Nope, striking a balance is never an option. Honestly, your friends and family can never see enough of you, and your intray at work will never be empty unless you burn more hours at the desk.

Tell me what to do?

Seriously, my family members and my friends are probably the people who will busy themselves with my funeral should I die; while the clients whom I slave for would probably just arch an eyebrow and say ‘oh’.

How helpful.

Bonding with the guys

I actually went down to project site just now when the project isnt mine to begin with.

I dont really mind, probably because the project person for this job is ac, and I had a short conversation with him over a cig on thursday and I think he is quite a nice person to talk to.

And since he is willing to teach me, I am willing to take extra effort to learn also.


***
But honestly to be fair, when I was waiting for a bus to go down to the project site just now, I asked myself whether I would have taken the effort if it was bt, or lw, or yf, or pl. I dont think so, haha. But if was ec, I would have too.


I am interested to bond with ac and ec probably because they are the people who would made my lousy design right.

Hence I must try to be more familiar with them.

***

Ec happened to be there too, and I am just doubly glad that a trip down would mean a bonding session with the two guys.

The visit at the site actual wasnt much helpful, because there are many things where they cant tell me off hand because there isnt much problems with the site.

But I had fun hanging around with them, listening to them converse in cantonese and not contributing to the conversation. I realised they are comfortable with me around and I will just laugh when ec cracked his silly dirty jokes. Hahaha.

We adjourned to clementi's pizza hut after that for an extended get together session and we even considered to go out together for karaoke or movie soon. My hands are raised for both.


We happened to mention about the ex-colleague, and I asked them two what exactly happen. Ec just off-handedly addressed it as that he is "not suitable for the job."

I wonder if they think the same of me like I do. =(

Not fair

I spied on a colleague's blog and she mentioned that she will be working 5 days week soon. She is currently working a 5.5 day shift while I work a 5 day shift.

Sounds like I am having a good life? Think again. She gets off work on time almost everyday, and on saturdays when she is working, she is just catching up on her workload, because the bosses are not there.

Me? I work 5 days a week, but I am averaging 3 hrs of ot every night, with some insane nights I work up to 11pm like thursday, or 1am like last night.

Dont get me wrong, I am not angry with her. I am just angry with the management.

It is confirmed that a new designer will join us, but I do not think that my working hours will be shortened when another person share the workload.

As a matter of fact, I think the management will just happily pitch for more projects and leave us to work overtime until we developed spasms and die foaming from the mouth.

It's 9.30 on a friday night

Bingo, you have guessed correctly, but no prizes though.

I am in office doing ot. Sigh. Lynnette isnt feeling well, so the dinner is postpone to 2 wks later anyway, so I am free to do ot tonight.

I dont want to, either, but it is really a case of getting it over and done with. If I dont do my work tonight, I will have to do it over this weekend, either I come back to office, or work on it at home amidst constant whining from my two brothers because they want to use the comp.

Currently I am tagged to this project, small as usual, and I have to finish the amendments by monday morning.

Maybe because I've not grown attached to the project yet, so each amendment is a pain in the ass. I was briefed about this project on tuesday, and was expected to finish the layout on thursday.

I was quite free that tuesday, so I managed to finish it on the same day, and passed the completed layout to the ln.

He got a reply almost immediately, and requested me to amend and give him the amended copy on thurs (the actual deadline he gave me.)

I stayed back until 9pm to finish it, then gave it to ln the next morning.

Again, the efficient client commented and ln wanted me to amend it so that we can have a revised layout by the time we see the client today. And hence I stayed until 11pm last night to finished it.

We sent the dwgs to the client in the morning, then when we met him at 4pm, there was further comments and ln promised the revised project will be completed by monday morning.

KNS. It was nearly 5pm then, and monday morning? It is obvious I have to stay to do it today, or come back during the weekend.

Perfect! Just perfect!.