Why isnt there a day betw Sunday and Monday?

Read abt wakamaru bringing the elderly companionship. V cute robot indeed, it has a very blur look..haha.  unlike asino which can do more things tho. Despite being the trailblazer in the robotics world, the headlines read: in japan, the elderly dying alone becomes the norm. How sad but actually not ironic. Much had been mentioned abt gadgets n socialising virtually replacing face-to-face coffee breaks. One of the places with the most centenarians, or is it the most? not sure abt the figures as compared to the scandinavian countries. Close fight probably. But the ageing pop is causing the lack of healthcare facilities as well. How many of them have been denied treatment? Cant bear to think of jus biting the bullet and letting these sickly white-haired go. Sighz.

Checklist for Happy people:
1. Make about US$75,000 a year. (Even if you’ve not achieved this yet, the rest of the items on the list are easy enough to achieve)
2. Eat plant-based breakfasts.
3. Volunteer.
4. Work 5 days a week, seven hours a day.
5. Sleep eight hours a day.
6. Exercise 30 minutes a day.
7. Socialise six hours a day.

Is this really achievable? Shrugs. Anyway if this is a complete checklist, it is not exactly too difficult. if you put your mind, heart and soul to achieving these, you can at least achieve 50%? though i honestly think item 7 is extravagant. seriously? or maybe already innate since human are supposed to be social creatures. prolly not difficult to achieve 6 hours out of 16 awaking hours? sounds alot, but prolly it is normal? summation of all the minutes clocked thru any means of comms. i'm not sure, nobody actually timed i suppose.

Yay got the slippers brought back from brazil finally. Happiness level increased by a point.

Obtained an omamori today : "A baby whale is dependent soon after birth. When it is in full growth, it becomes indep and roam the ocean." Shall heed it.
 

Spent a nice sunday afternoon bonding. we spent abt an hour discussing abt the designs of the bicycle stands, while being forced to play uno with the gals, how come my bros are always spared huh? maybe cos they jus simply refuse to humour them. topic sprung from the Bicycle Bay Design Competition 2013, which is jointly organised by the spf and ncpc. but forms are really a turn-off. anyway most of the time, creative juices flow when you are just randomly chatting, i seriously doubt we can come up with such amazing ideas if we were serious abt taking part. You know when you are told "ok let's start", somehow just experience mental blocks. The human brains are really recalcitrant. They were sharing this double-decker bicycle rack in pasir ris, but it wasnt easy to load the bike up? managed to see the image online, shall go and try loading mine up sometime.

Warm bodies

An interesting twist to the vampirish series, each species guarding their own territories. Definitely looks like corners in the US since the corpse slayers mentioned in one of the scenes too. But really recognised the glimpse of the old Olympic stadium in Montreal which we visited some years back, surprised that the one with better didnt catch that. A spontaneous decision, decided to see if there's any show after late lunch. Some familiarity already cos the corpse were all bunking at an airport right at the start. An immediate co-relation with myself walking across the arr hall or dep hall in the morning. I probably walk like that, like R. Very cute dialogues at the start by the scriptwriter or maybe the director and the actor chipped in too. Soliloquizing in my head is common as i slouch and drag my feet across the strong stretch of air-conditioned hallways every morning. Even the bonies are more energetic.

 

Follows with a super intensive week, not so much of info overloading, it is more towards glitches experienced in processing and organising data. Consistent concentration is required. Even tho the sheet was prepared beforehand, with the many types of info sharing during the entire process, it is more of capturing the right ones and then putting them to good use later. Into useful processed data. fortunately for me, i'm already familiar with abt 70% of them, otherwise may not be easy to capture, let alone the processing part. Wouldnt be easy catching up alr, tho i think those who arent familiar did well. The various styles and experience put tog contribute to having the workshop's outcomes achieved. The best consultant by far i suppose, how many consultants have i come across at work? 3-4, with whom i directly work with? With this, the 4th or 5th. Impressive. On how the technical stuff and more imptly the humans are managed, counter proposed so nicely. Cant stop being tickled by his "chicken" and "what, what, what?". First day no sigh, but the number of sighz really increase over the days, one everytime before he lands the marker on the whiteboard. wahaha. Fun spotting idiosyncracies.

Come to think of it, i do miss the times when we shared stories, and that's where i got to know so many systems actually. Glad to meet my ex-div mates, tho of cos many others have since left. From the chit chats, you learn the most, just sponging, no homework. And when you got some spare time, you join them for site walks, and not for work, it is to accompany or to help out when they need an extra thinking machine or pair of hands, and for our own extra knowledge. That's also where one build the domain knowledge. Of cos via the less interesting ways, sitting in meetings, sighz. With an unbalanced working period when you hardly have the time to go seminars without having the need to clear emails at night. And without even peace at lunch, how are we gg to talk beyond hi-along-the-corridors. Better start handling it, before you realise you are slogging too much.

Thus at the end of the wk, lunch on fri at green market was somehow heavenly! Tori teriyaki, despite a little saltly, zeittai oishii. Ahhh... it is like such a great meal to reward oneself. Totally imagine myself to be one of the japanese workers who never fail to increase a great deal of decibels in the cosy mise where the entire street springs into life and laughters fill the night air after work.

kyou wa totemo atsui. ima 28 deg cel. intolerable. warm bodies. wasted almost the whole afternoon on troubleshooting. and lesson learned, the sequence! damn, even the sequence of rebooting systems makes a difference. and just when i stood up from the laptop, prepared to calling it a day, the "connected" signal is displayed. relieved and happiness. retrieving such desired emotions are really helpful, regardless of the stuff that had happened, it somehow resets the negativity abit. The heat is start to get onto me again...a good luxurious long slp shld help. Wkends are meant to be distracted, i mean do you need so much concentration power? It is fine to cyclops even. internal lingo. that means eye-power. really dont nid to do anything, just cyclops. Missed the sentosa close adventure, shall get the verbal version tmr.

She's in the class A team

Melodious, really. That's what all agreed. Critics mentioned dark lyrics - gloomy and dismal. haha job of the critics, oh well. Maybe the melody gives a lighthearted feeling, thus the contrast, and probably the unexpected subtle meaning of the title. Great song really, cos it can be played in so many versions and yet all still sound decent, tho the unplugged one with guitar is still my fav. From a teen who pursued his dream - the songwriter.

so to the literal class, without the A. Started the pmp prep course yesterday, gd course provider i thought. The 2 trainers have v different styles, good variety for me, wonder if it is effective for the rest of the class. The lady is one of those rare ones who can carry off well with short hair and with the bandana head band as accessory. Bleached fringe with blue highlights, not surprised that she love extreme sports. she has kindly shared experience in Microsoft and HP. The guy was totally the teacher type, patient and articulates almost perfectly, like a toast master.

Cant help not spotting the similarities of facilitators. The rule of thumbs, and not bad, they use various techniques to "drill" in information, basically for memory. Summarising and repeatedly highlighting the gist. Questions spotting too.One of the better lessons, tho paper oriented, but get the message and concept across, and of cos hopefully internalised so that it will be applicable later on after the cramming period. the difference betw a lesson delivery person and a teacher/trainer. Anyway kudos to them for ensuring presence in class. Really not easy to maintain the concentration.

The most difficult part - the terminologies. Reminds me of the japanese vocab lessons, you just need to be in that mode for swallowing it whole, really exam oriented mindset right at the start.I never understand why are they out to test the terminologies, especially the names like Maslow, Hertzberg, Delphi, Douglas McGregor and Mc Lellands, or cant we just say cause-and-effect diagram, die die must add in fishbone or Ishikawa. so if questions ask any of them, you must be able to relate. Can try to memories using relations. Realise quite many of us are culprits of McGregor's style-similar, not the same but the general concept of Theory X and Y. And then there are different inputs and outputs of each process, different tools and techniques. Sighz... Haven been in this mode for a long time. Just need get into the "test me test me" mode, the easiest way actually to pass the exam. Once you are struggling, there will be the snow ball effect then there's high possibility that it will be game over for that paper.

Unfortunately, my lunch is rather stressful. mainly cos my dear lunch mate is uber demure and cultured. Sasuga ninhongin desu. yup a japanese lady who works in SAP, and who's very interested in the paranakan culture. omoshiroi ne. Had fun interacting and with some others, seems like quite a few from the IT industry, a couple from pharmaceutical. One was sharing her bad experience in her org's tokyo office where there's prominent rank and gender discrimination which she totally couldn't tolerate. that's extreme. Anyway kanojyo split up her lessons. She prefers taking time to digest. and me on the contrary, crash course and chopchop get over with the shiken. If i were to take the shiken much later, I would have forgotten most if not all of it.

Some of my fav quotes shared in class, from some of the knowledge areas:

1. I cant change the direction of the wind,  but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. - Jimmy Dean.

2. I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times - Everett Dirksen.

3. Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. - Henry Ford

4. The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. - Theodore Roosevelt.

The omakase experience

Sugoi isnt it? Pple say to embrace the omakase experience, u jus need 3 steps - keep an open mind, inform any allergies,accept with grace.

The beauty of japanese language. Their proverbs are graceful, deeply infused with their culture. From futon, onsen, shyokudo, geisha and many more. each with its own meaning and steps. To give credit to the chinese language, it does too. Chinese literature is v abstract with elegance. Concise and meaningful.

The omakase style can counter one's stubborn-ness i thought. Yes we have our own views and opinions. Sometimes we shld jus keep them to ourselves. If i choose the omakase style right at the start, i realise it is so much easier, and u will not sour any relationship. Imagine u tell the chef omakase onegai. No catfish pls, tats what im allergic to i think, will kenna itchy tongue. Then the chef kinda prepared one, and u give that displeased face full of disapproval. Prepare to get an earful. no more irrashyaimase next time. Tats bad attitude. It is ur choice right at the start. U chose omakase!

so yes it is applicable elsewhere. choose omakase n jus accept others' ideas with grace. Even if it is yucky, swallow it! Smile and give the chef a thumbs up. Sounds hypocritical? No, The effort is commendable. Would u rather eat soso food with great service or great food with soso service? so it is the same. Would u rather soso result/outcome but works with a team amicably or great results but alone. Kudos and sincere appreciation for the chef who drains his brain juice to present u a dish already.

The coffee barista has nicely created the latte art. How wonderful. How skillful. Impressive. Then we saw a doraemon at the next table. Refraining frm gg ard tables discreetly peeping at their cups as i thot that must be quite rude. Cheap thrill. Jus the little things in life. U will feel exclusive for the barista to make u this latte art for ur cup. Prolly he has a list to work on, sequenced. Or prolly he jus randomly creates according to his liking. Omakase. Accept without comparing. Will i slurp all down my throat if he gives me a hello kitty? So that i dun need to stare at smth i have no particular liking to? No! Supposed to accept with grace. Isnt every piece of latte art the effort of the barista? I will admire the cat without the mouth with as much pleasure as possible.

For any shortfall, believe in less is more. content is bliss. Pursue simplicity. Monochromatic is timeless too. Applicable everywhere, anytime. So lets work towards it. Try ordering omakase style next time, or jus let ur frens order for u, instead of complicating an order with many picky requests. N embrace the experience.

When will ladyluck comes along?

Amazing cheap thrill in looking forward to first, the toto, then the cny singapore sweep. All hoping that we dun haf to report to work anymore.

I never believe in such windfall. And even if i agree to: if u buy, u may get a chance, if u dont, no chance at all, somehow the logic doesnt sink into my head. Im actually prepared to lose the chance. Processed info to be the probability is jus too low. And even if i get a winning number and i dun buy, i am prepared not to gain. Deep inside, it is ok to let go of this winning, it doesnt really hurt. Thus it amazes me that greed is one of the 7 human sins, how to get one to be totally engrossed in that... they nv reach the status of being contented. But isnt it good enuff that u arent losing anything? Even if one takes risk in this, it is really jus for fun, alr prepared to lose those so called investment, pure luck leh, no strategy at all, no trending study and analysis. The easiest investment of all.

Dad stared at me when i sulked...haha... didnt expect me to do that cos im no believer. I was jus gathering all the troubled feelings from everywhere else and sulked in a long, draggy tone. instead of shouting at the open sea or the cliffs or screaming into the pillow. It's always nice to do that once in while. Letting go of the steam trapped, not anger, jus some negative bottled up feelings.

Dad can still joke abt it. Before i checked, he acted as if he is talking to the manager, shhh not saying the nickname we gave him here, but who has kindly visited and follow up with calls to chk on his condition la. "mr manager, u can take my place tmr, try falling, then u will be able to get first hand information to the questions u posed". Then he cover my phone, demanded that i tell him how much i giving him if i win. Haha obviously his good filial daughter passed the test, said it without hesitation. And after i checked the results, he acted as the manager "mr lim, u come back to work tmr immediately, short of manpower". Dad obediently said softly "yes sir". Sad life. But anyway he says his hobby is doing work for the company, n then pple will ask him if he has hit his head during the fall.

I got a shock when he said he bought 100 pieces before, cost him 1 dollar each last time. N all in running numbers! I was totally convinced that he definitely hit his head previously. Did he win any? Not at all. Wat a waste. Then he say his frens all buy 4D all super big one....really nowhere else to spend the money?!

When will we ever get such winnings n then we can drop everything here n disappear from this world ? realistically, migrating for us. there r pple who always remain so hopeful and thats why sp will make so much money...well, it always remains a mystery.

Crossing bridges in the month of march

Interesting introductory show on cna. たくさんおもしろい橋。shizuoka no oi gawa to kyoto no shira gawa. The bridges jus tempt one to take a stroll and to sit by the rivers to enjoy the peace the river brings. Crossing every bridge made of wood, constructed in its unique manner, along the different section of the river guarantees different experience and different views of the landscape. the bridges were used by farmers to reach their farms. nice countryside prefectures.

a suitable analogy i thought for the myriad of activities thus far, tho only 3 days into march. Of cos much was rolled over from feb. Again shows why procrastination can be disastrous. Not exactly intentional, jus refusal to extend the hrs in feb. amazing statistics from the white paper that a substantial number of singaporeans do overtime. A familiar scene in tokyo when i looked up their office buildings at about 9pm at night 6 yrs ago. The same view of the white collar workers burying their heads at their desks. They can be seen from the roads through the glass facade of the buildings in changi business park too.

forced myself to take up the pmp, knowing that i will jus be courting death. But again i will never have this "freer period" anyway. Lets jus try, body, mind and the soul. Now or never. The last time when i had almost 0 me-time was 10 yrs ago. The only me-time was the few minutes jus before drifting into slp. I jus have to be organised and deal with each task separately during that allocated amount of time. Slowing down info processing. Turning to the basics, jus the facts, not opinions. Jus crossing each open bridge and enjoying the view of that alone. Move on to the next bridge and soaking in the experience of the next.

1 mar. Was lucky to skip the bkk retreat in a sense. Chichi slipped and fell off the platform jus outside the cargo door of the 777. gosh. Witness said he was unconscious for 2min before recovering. Kudos to the fire brigade and rmg ambulance who sent him immediately to cgh without half an hr. waited for almost 9 hrs for the darn bed. Of cos we were swearing in silence for the consequences the flood gate brought. The rest of it is waiting. And chatting with some concerned medical officers n some impatient ones as well. Witnessing other unfortunate cases at the resuscitation room. Pray that they rest in peace. So went back office. Finished some stuff asap while answering calls from dad's colleagues asking for his condition and ward number. N then rushed back.

Fortunately he has the helmet on. Hit his right cheek and injured the kidney. Irregular heartbeat due to atria fibrillation. Hopefully it is due to trauma, n it will recover on its own thereafter. Really dun want him to be on perpetual medication to control the heartbeat rate. As usual, sceptical of what the docs say. They dun really seem to communicate. Reminded my dad to chk what are the medicine for and not anyhow take. Of cos it is prescribed for his own good, but sometimes if it is not necessary, spare the liver. Quite a few specialists, heart, kidney, plastic and general ones. I wonder what they wrote in the reports, cos everyone came and ask the same questions. Even the nurses, maybe they try to make sure his brain is working, but cant they talk abt other things? And read the reports instead of asking. I doubt they r identifying inconsistencies in his statements. He is obviously losing patience in repeating so many times. Giving shortcut answers. Anywhere pain? He said no. I was like didnt u complain the entire night of pain at the back and abdomen?! Sigh. Prolly he knows they r jus gg to give more painkillers. He wanted to hammer one who cant get his blood out. Poke in and out. Now u know why the hooha over the comment of nurses being xxxxx-skilled workers. They r really impt. Their skills make hell lot of difference.

Rained heavily in the evening. We watched the rain drops flowing down the glass panes. Then with the tv sounds running in the backgrd, i opened up my laptop, looking up at him occassionally. After much fidgeting and sighing, he finally went into slp. I worked in darkness except for the light from my laptop screen. Good time to complete the work. I probably wouldnt be able to make it at home or in office. Then finally went to slp too on the sofa. The nurses came in every 2 hrs to measure blood pressure. I jus eavedropped with my eyes remained close. Why r they so interested in how he fell? He didnt bother talking much.Like my bro said some jus talk like there's no tomorrow. and they like to ask if it is painful. Dad jus replied: Flesh leh, of cos la. Rhetorical.

Took a morning walk downstairs to grab some food after he had his congee and then the system that limits the no of visitors and preventing entry outside visiting hours is jus creating more jobs for pple at the registration counters. Hope to leave here soon. But they said smth abt stroke prevention by thinning the blood too. Got to see how tmr.

Oh yea im really impressed by the sound hound app. The upgraded version has the lyrics in built and moved accordingly based on the rhythm. The great escape.

Hope we can do the great escape by visiting the bridges in shizuoka soon. Meanwhile shall jus cross the virtual ones. Ganbarimasu.