"Selfish"

A friend, Ninniku (Nini for short) asked me today:

"Why is selfish called selfish.. i wonder? Fishes are not solitary creatures leh, they swim in schooools."

My answer (a very innovative one) is as below:

"Maybe there is some old wife's tale abt how an old maid was helping a fish monger to sell fish for the summer and when the villagers know abt it, they asked her to help them sell other stuff too, like crabs, prawns & etc. And though the old maid had lots of time, she did not have the desire to be helpful to the others coz they did not pay her a single penny to help them out, so she turned them down.

One day, the old maid was selling fish as usual and the other villagers were selling their own stuff but there was some commotion in another part of the village and they went to look-see, all but the old maid.

Then came the Ma-tah (policemen) on their patrol and at the sight of them, the old maid packed up her fishes and ran off, leaving the other villagers' goods to be conviscated by the policemen.

So thereafter, the villagers all called the old maid the "SELFISH" one."

KPO Pig

U know how sometimes u feel like u are being watched or eavesdropped. When u have done something guilty, tat must be a scary feeling to be watched or eavesdropped.

However, when u are just having a regular conversation with another person and have been eavesdropped by a certain Assfuckdiot, all u will feel is IRRITATION. Not tat the conversation is a secret or tat the contents of the conversation is inappropriate...but simply tat in normal circumstances, any other person who overheard the conversation would just keep their silence and pretend they didnt hear a thing and only join in the conversation when they are invited to.

Well, the Assfuckdiot apparently likes to stick his stinking butt in everyone's business.

So I was having this early argument with a colleague on the pronunciation of the word "Abalone". Our views are:-

Colleague, V: A-ba-lo-nee

Me: A-ba-lone

Then Assfuckdiot interrupted and said "V, u r right. Its A-ba-lo-nee. Even radio FM95.00 is correcting pple's pronunciation." (Can just imagine his gloating face tat I got the wrong pronunciation.)

So I googled "Pronunciation of Abalone" over the internet and it turns out V is right. -_-

Ya lah, I am not the guru of English nor an English teacher mah, its ok to get it wrong occasionally.

But who is the Assfuckdiot to interrupt our conversation which he was not invited to?!!!

Pronunciation of Assfuckdiot: ASSSSS-FUCK-DIOT

9 Days to CNY

Counting down 9 more days to Chinese New Year. Here is an early CNY greetings to all my friends and blog readers: Wishing all of u a prosperous and bountiful new year!

Getting all excited for CNY is a thing of the past when I was still a kid. Now CNY is just another festive season where I get extra few days off from work. A much needed break coz I am getting rather restless at work.

U know how pple always say tat CNY is a busy period when there are lots of preparations tat one must make to welcome the new year. My progress of preparation for CNY is as follows:-

1) Spring cleaning my room - Partially. I wiped the dust off most areas and tidied the table tops in my room but it still looks almost the same except neater. It was the DVD/VCDs tat was packed away tat made my room look less cluttered.

2) Buying new clothes - Zero pieces of clothes bought for CNY. Its not tat I din buy any clothes for the past 1 year but tat I din buy clothes specially for CNY. So, I shall wear worn clothes to CNY this year AGAIN.

3) Have a haircut - Nope. Not going to have a haircut. Been trying to grow my hair long for the past few months. It sure is taking its time to grow though.

4) Dyeing my hair - Just bought a pack of Liese hair dye from Watsons last night "Marshmallow Brown" colour, need to find time to dye.

5) Painting my fingernails and toenails - Planning to do it nearer to CNY coz afraid of chipping the colours.

6) Trimming my eyebrows - Also planning to do this nearer CNY.

7) CNY goodies - Dun intend to buy coz I always find food at home without having to shop for them.

8) Appointments for CNY - Still unsure wat my appointments are for CNY. The usual reunion dinner at home, then wat? The usual half day visiting on 1st and 2nd day of CNY, then wat? At least I am sure of my appointment on 3rd day, gotta escape from home coz there will be visitors. 4th day back to work...thereafter a few other appointments for visiting.

Hmm...8 items above, not too bad...dun seems to be tat much for me to do right. LOL.

Yah, coz my wonder mama is doing everything by herself: spring cleaning the whole house, decorating the house, stocking up on CNY goodies and preparing the reunion dinner. :)

The joy of being SINGLE, UNMARRIED and LIVING WITH MAMA....haha....

I "heart" u, mama. ^_^

To be "Deep" or "Shallow"?

Just read a few blogs and realised tat there are many things I do not know abt my friends and even my own bro. Not as in secrets or sordid stuff but simply their train of thoughts, their experiences in life, their goals and vision, etc. Their postings seem to have a depth of sorts which I find amazing to discover and I envied these coz my postings of late seem to circle ard complaints of my workplace and silly and random stuff.

Made me think: Am I shallow? Do I lack the gift for writing? Or am I just unwilling to share some parts of my life which I hope to remain unexposed and unpublicized?

How far would we go to share ourselves on the blog which is accessible by all?

Then the devil on my head started shouting "Who the hell cares! This is ur blog. Just write wat u want. Read if they want to...heck care if they don't."

:P Then there goes all my readers... :(

PS: The angel on my head cowers in fear on hearing the devil's ranting.

Restless, Bored & De-moralized

As I quoted in my facebook previously:

"I am feeling my umpteenth time of Monday blues. Think that my blues is almost like weekly pms."

Had basically lazed at home for the whole weekend playing Aion, eating (bing-ed on ice-cream a lot too) and sleeping at odd hours. And still I feel restless, bored and unhappy.

Now to add to tat, came to work on monday and feel de-moralized more than ever.

The faces I dun wish to see (some u know, some u dun), the voices I dread to hear, the mountain of files I wish were burnt, the work I cant get my gear started to do and my boss's non-stop orders to do this and that.

Sick...very sick...

Idiot's Self-Importance Technique

The idiot has outdone himself.

Having been scorned for over a year, the public enemy cum idiot decided to make himself known in my office.

He sent out this email yesterday:

Dear all,

With immediate effect, if you are not able to report for work and need to take urgent leave, medical leave, child card leave, time off, etc, you are to notify your immediate superior and myself (96777663).

Email dissemination of the reason for your absent will be done by myself and not any of your colleague. This will help to streamline our
dissemination procedure.

Cooperation and compliance will be very much appreciated. Thank
you.

Regards
Idiot

The email was labeled "Absent" and the words "your absent" were mentioned in the 2nd paragraph of the email as well. Idiot tries to be smart and to appear good in his english....it should be Absence! Real idiot.

To make himself known in the office, he now wants to appear important and wat better way than to be in a position of power...when anyone who wants to take leave or MC have to go thru him and be at his mercy.


The idiot had previously sent out an email regarding dressing in the office on Fridays. Follow this link to my blog entry on this email: http://chrsfran.blogspot.com/2009/12/idiotic-email-writing-skill.html

Then I just heard from a colleague tat she asked him, cannot wear flip flops then wat abt some of the bosses (ie. lawyers)?

His answer was "Theirs are expensive flip flops."

Wat kind of an answer is this? Nevermind the double standard practice tats in place...is tat even a smart answer? The flip flops are ok coz they are expensive?

So if I wear expensive or branded jeans, t-shirts and even RAGS on Fridays in the office, its ok too right?!!!

Asshole, Idiot, KNN...he is just one of a kind, so atrocious tat I cannot find a word for him. Maybe I shld just invent a word -"ASSFUCKDIOT"!

Re-tying the Friendship Knot

It was a long while since I met up with Am. Only met her twice in 2009 and havent heard from her since March 2009.

We were close once upon a time when we were the only ones in the site office other than our commercial director (it was a site office within a retail shop, so there are other sales colleagues but they are just not seated in our office). When we switched jobs and left the place, we were close friends who met up every now and then to go out and sometimes chat over the phone.

She is one of the smartest lady friend I know (maybe she is the smartest but I cant be sure coz I cant make all my friends sit down and take an IQ test) and I always have stimulating conversations with her. But maybe its coz she knows she is smart, she is set in her opinions, views and in her own ways...to a point of stubborness.

There was a small bit of tension between us nearly 2 yrs ago and our friendship was never the same since and wat with all the laziness to keep in touch, we drifted apart.

So it came as a surprise tat meeting her again the first time this year actually brings back nostalgic feelings of our friendship before and I must admit tat I kinda missed her. We talk like old times and updated each other on wats happening in our lives and before we knew it, we had to head home coz it was late. Promised each other tat we will meet again soon and I do look forward to meeting her the next time.

Now I believe tat time does heal ALL wounds...even friendship can rekindle with time washing away the past and letting good friends start anew.

^_^

Being Aware

I seems to be having lots of reflection sessions lately. Not just on my life direction but the surroundings and the whole world at large.

I have never been the kind of person who keeps up with the current affairs in Singapore, much less the whole world. But every now and then I do feel a little embarressed tat I know so little abt the world and many many things out there. Its not tat there are no sources of info available to me or tat I am uneducated and couldnt understand wat is written...its simply coz I am lazy and cant be bothered to find out. Yah...scold me stupid... (-_-)

Anyway, as the new year roll in, my thoughts of switching jobs and changing a new working environment linger while I am still waiting for news on my last year's bonus announcement. Tired of working in my current job while trying not to be too sick of it or drag my feet to work.

Sure, my Batam trip on the first week did help but reality sets in the moment I return (oh yah, will blog on my trip next after I download the pictures from my digital cam).

Sigh.

The same idiot and his gang in the office. Portions of my work which I don't really enjoy and beginning to resent. Working environment which is consistently bad and just waiting for a chance to blow. Hope I could jump ship before the working environment deteriorate.

Double Sigh.

The good thing is I still have my family, friends and gaming. Such a comfort to have these consistent factors.

A home-cooked meal, a home-packed lunchbox, my niece's and nephew's squeals, my bro driving me to work so I can rest/sleep in his car, meeting a friend for dinner after work, meeting friends for coffee and gossips, shopping and movies with friends, gaming with friends, etc, etc...

^_^

Ok back to the part on my reflections.

Recent movies tat I watched left me messages which I decoded as the true meanings of the shows, or maybe I am thinking too much into it but who cares. Below are just the decoded messages I got from the movies and not the synopsis or details on them...go watch the movies urself if u are interested in them.

1. Daybreakers



I feel tat since the vampires (the majority) are so clever and they basically live like humans (work, eat and sleep) except for the fact abt their diet and they work at night, they should have long anticipated tat their food supply (human blood) will run out in future as the population of humans drops.

In such case, shouldn't they have done something to bring up the human population like catching humans and put them in a facility to breed them? Ok I know tat sounds crude but isn't tat wat we are doing with animals now...fishes, chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, etc. We humans credit ourselves as the clever species and so thought of the idea of rearing animals for food, so if vampires is smarter than humans, shouldn't they do the same things abt their food supply?


2) The Blind Side



I like this movie. Real heart warming.

It highlights the racial issues in America - white vs black. I don't know the details as I am not really interested in history. Correct me if I am wrong - ages ago the black people were slaves of the white people and though time progresses and slavery is no longer in fashion, I believe many of the blacks did not move out of poverty and the imbalance in the American society formed a rift between the 2 races.

A vicious cycle then developed. The poor got poorer. Most of the blacks were unable to get proper education tat shld have been available to all (by equal standards), get into bad company, destroy their lives and future (shall not go into details of these), then start giving births to kids which they cannot support and the cycle repeats. Sad...

Second thing abt the movie is on Charity. Its great to do good deeds, help the poor, donate to charities, be a volunteer and etc. It helps even more if u r rich and u wana donate.

Sandra Bullock in this show protrays a rich housewife who has probably nothing better to do than running the household and taking care of her husband and kids. Probably is her usual habit to do the occasional donating to charities like wat the other rich wives in the show do. But it sure took a lot of courage for her and her family to take in a total stranger and be kind and good to him. And luckily this black guy Michael is neither a crook nor a psychopath who will steal or kill the family.

Her family did a most commendable thing than just feeding and sheltering him, they accepted him into their family. Salute! Not all Philanthropists can do tat...it takes heartfelt warmth and care and true opening of the heart to do tat. To be more specific, Sandra Bullock cared for Michael as if he was his real son, fed him, gave him a room to himself, cared for his feelings, guided him in his studies and thought abt his future. Are all foster parents this caring? I hope so.

Go watch this movie before its too late and have ur wake up call.

Photoshooting - Xmas on 24 Dec 2009

Call me bored or simply bo liao. I went photoshooting with A for Xmas 2009 to take part in the joyous occasion and be in the crowds this year as compared to hiding at home in the past years.

Was horrified by the crowds at Orchard Road and swear tat I will not be involved in this kind of countdown thingy there again. Ok, nevermind the squeezing thru a whole SEA of pple along Orchard Road...pple are armed with cans of foam sprays and spraying on unsuspecting friends, strangers and "ah-nehs" (the Bangladesh workers)...so mean, not to mention racist.

We started early at the Esplanade in the afternoon for some warm up photoshooting and headed for Orchard in the evening. Our Orchard photoshoot started from Plaza Singapura and when we reached the danger zone between the Heeren to Orchard Ion, I was paranoid with fear of foam getting into our cameras and spoiling them.

Luckily, we got thru unscathed but found tat it was impossible to retraced our steps back to Plaza Singapura straight away and so settled for some drinks at Gusttimo at ION for the countdown.

Cameras used for the photoshoot:

1. Sony Cybershot T77 - Photographer: ME

2. Olympus E510 - Photographer: A

Before starting the comparison of the photos taken by ME and A, here's 2 of my favourites...sadly both taken by A and not me. Actually I like some of those taken by me also lah but dun wana boast here mah...LOL.



Overall, I think I am gifted at taking photos at just the correct angle. U shall see wat I meant from the photos below...

Photos below are ALL displayed in the following order taken by:

(Left/Up) ME-Sony Cybershot T77 v. (Right/Down) A-Olympus E510

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

Good photos? Who did u think took better photos? Which camera do u think capture the best shots? Comments are welcome.

Mabel's Wedding - 29 Dec 2009

Finally attended the last wedding of 2009 on 29 Dec - Mabel's wedding.

A marriage across 2 countries: Singapore and Taiwan.

Their cross-country courtship finally came to an end and now a shared life beyond the borders of their individual hometown.

Got a fantastic entry shot



















The blissful couple
















Red colour...the elders' favourite colour



















Cylindrical lights at M-Hotel ballroom















The MCs















Change of clothes mid-dinner



















Oops, 2nd shots tat cropped off the Groom's head















Tower of champagne















The MCs again...no, I dun know them or their names















The famous "Yum Seng"

Joey or Zoe? and guess who?

Got ur guess yet? and ME

Why the mystery? Well, this lady beside me is my friend and my blog's very own - "K" for Kim!!!! Isnt she a knockout!!!

I like to "wow" her in this entry coz tat was the first time I saw her after makeover (full makeup and hair styling) in our 13 years of friendship.

Let's see her transformation (at least the stages tat I manage to catch on camera):

WOW right? .....told ya.....