National Day Rehearsal at Marina Bay
Hot afternoon as we reached marina bay stadium for national day rehearsals. We got tickets at yellow sector and already one third full. First time attending one live so should be interesting.
<Insert Transformers transformation sound>
Finally Transformers hit our shores on 28th June and Yh managed to get some tickets after hitting a bit of a snafu with GV’s booking system at GV Bishan and we ended up watching at GV Plaza Singapura. Actually we should thank them for making a mistake with the listing since they gave 2 complimentary free tickets for the mistake 
Anyway, as we settled in to the movie and sat through the obligatory commercials and blah blah stuff, the prologue started up and gave everyone a quick intro into the movie. The special effects are great but you really haven’t seen anything yet till they hit the scene in the desert and in later parts of the movie. Without giving away too much specifics, the scene when a Decepticon transforms from a combat helicopter into a Transformer was priceless. The last time I heard that cool sound was as a kid watching Transformer’s cartoons and it gave me goosebumps watching it on a huge screen with the sound effects pumping out in a theatre.
Michael Bay managed to bring something new to a generation who probably never heard of Tranformers and also something to relive for countless of people who grew up waching robots transform into vehicles to protect Earth. I am definitely not a fanatic who keeps track of every detail of whether specifics are accurate but the experience was definitely something worth going to watch and enjoy. Even Yh who didn’t know what the movie or story was about commented later that the special effects was quite amazing.
iPhone gets a 25 minutes video tour
With 25 minutes, iPhone does something which most companies don’t even other to do, a video tour that showcases its more impressive features. I think its pretty considerate of them considering how a lot of people probably don’t know how to work their phones. Using a video is rather clever since they created a clear cut manner to deliver a tutorial rather effectively and at the same time create awareness of the features without making the user read the manual!
I recently had to configure a Samsung SGH-i600 for a customer and even though I consider myself quite tech-inclined, I had trouble making sense of the options and how to get to them. In a device with small screen real estate, user experience and simplicity is paramount. While I think Windows Mobile is a great platform (and I even develop on it), it isn’t the most efficient manner to address a broad audience. So kudos to Apple for remembering the customer and letting them know that not reading the manual to make sense of their purchase is ok.
999 days gone unnoticed
Mic had surprised me on our 99 days together with a bouquet of red roses at my office, and so I had told him then that we should also celebrate our 999 days together.
Well, in my mind i was thinking 999 days is more like almost 3 years later and before we know it, more than a thousand days had flew by. Yes, we missed the 999th BIG DAY!
With the daily demands of life to conquer, this had slipped our minds altogether though we had a programme to keep track of our special days. Well, that’s what you get for having a hubby who can programme, something to make his life a little easier
Anyway, I realised it when Mic wrote the no. of days we were together on the back of a photocard he printed for me for our 33rd monthsary. It was then that I realised we had already past our benchmark of 999 days.
Oh well, now I had just asked him to programme something I can use to find out the date of our X number of days together. That is, just key in the X number of days desired and the programme will give me the date to mark down. Oops, that is one more thing to be done on Mic’s To Do List (in the vague future).
PS: For the curious, our 999 days was on 11 June 2007.
Studying for passion OR what the economy tells you?
Starting from an early age, I had dabbled in programming and was amazed at how computers worked. When I enrolled myself into Computer Engineering @ NTU a couple of years back, I was pretty much convinced this was what I wanted and would be a good stepping stone for me.
In those years, IT was all over the papers as the career with great prospects and great salary. Students who were entering tertiary education clamored to get into anything with the word “Computer” in it thinking it was a path to success. As the years went by, IT seemed not that great any more, with more and more focus being placed on the booming financial sector. And so, students now opt for business courses instead.
More students opt for business courses
Source: More students opt for business courses | Salary.sg - Your Salary in Singapore
I wonder how it goes that the job with the most financial reward gives greater pleasure as compared to what in which you are truly passionate about and will excel in? Would be interesting to see what the next BIG thing for jobs will be and everyone flocks to it.
Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer … Evil or Good Guy?
We were merrily doing some gift shopping for parents at Marina Square and Yh was doing some window shopping when we neared GV Marina. Not realizing what shows were on (a bit out of touch nowadays), we saw the poster for Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer and it said “Now Showing”! Quickly checked the time and it was 9.26pm with the show screening at 9.25pm. Great timing for us since we didn’t have to sit through too many commercials and the show started.
Shall not spoil the movie for you but shall just say that the show felt just right. Not too much mushy moments or long winded speeches but rather special effects galore with the foursome saving humanity from destruction and Silver Surfer showing what making the right choice can do. Great show to catch for our date night
*ps. Loved the scene when Stan Lee tried to gate crash the wedding.
My mini pantry
One small thing that my new office can’t compare to current one is the pantry.
Old office’s pantry has proper table and chairs, a steamer, microwave, toaster, fridge and well stocked with coffee, milo, a few varieties of tea, biscuits, proper utensils, crockery and many many frequent contributions of food and snacks from my dear ex-colleagues (sigh of content).
New office’s pantry has only a kettle, a toaster and a steamer. NO FRIDGE (OK, our level has one old fridge at other side of the level, with HR dept, which is shared by all on our level but I think hardly anyone uses it, and so inconvenient to use as it is far and feel weird using it under the watchful eyes of my HR colleagues); NO MICROWAVE (don’t understand why since my company is a big company and there are like more than 30 employees on my level).
My company actually has a fund of $100 each employee (recently increased to $200 per employee) for staff welfare, like in the betterment of our pantry, for birthdays etc yet we have this crappy pantry for almost 4 years.
Now they are thinking of building up the pantry…. I say high time.
Anyway, my point is, since my pantry is so crappy and I have grown used to a well stocked pantry both at work and at home, I would have to stock my own pantry in office.
Good thing that my cubicle has a lot of cabinet space so all my food just goes into one big drawer. Plenty of space for my files (currently only 4) and stuff (currently only a few bits and pieces and 1 photoframe of myself in Sec 3).
So what’s in my pantry….? Hee hee, nescafe 3-in-1, milo 3-in-1, Lexus cheese and peanut butter biscuits, Julie cheese biscuits, muruku (Indian snack), Cadbury chocos, Wang Wang crackers, Meiji Hello Panda choco snacks and Pocky choco biscuit sticks.
Quite a lot right? If my ex-colleagues knew, they will give me an earful. Hee.
Milo recently changed their formula. Sad as the new FUZE formula does not taste as good as the old version. Sian. Now I only left withn 2 packs…
New job
I’ve been out of touch with blogging for a while, getting used to the demands of a new job and environment, not that I was already very busy at work. First 2 weeks were like honeymoon period, predominently because my boss and senior (buddy is a new mother of a 4 month old baby gal) were too swamped to brief me and get me going.
Now, I’m in my 4th week and feeling more demands on my time and concentration level. I don’t even have time to instant message much anymore. (Fyi, I’m now on skype, and occasionally msn web and google when I’m on gmail)
My work duties include (if you are interested) managing media, publicity, press releases, corp communications like annual report, news flash and the daily news database, corporate planning, brand implementation, translation, visitors’ support (China), and supporting 3 meetings.
My new colleagues are nice and helpful people, but the environment is not as family-like as my old company, so I tend to miss my old colleagues sometimes. However, I’m starting to adapt and adjust to my new job now. So far, no OT needed as yet and I hope to manage without going on one. More to share again later.
How do you build your emergency fund?
Its taken awhile but have finally attained my goal of building an emergency fund of a years worth of expenses for us. I’ve read about many ways to do so but The Digerati Life gives a pretty good summary of 5 different ways. #3 would be something we belong to currently and #4 something to move towards. I sincerely hope none of my friends are using #1 since 24% per annum on late charges is really like gambling your money away.
#3 Using a standalone cash account separate from your investment portfolio: the traditional Emergency Fund
Link to 5 Different Ways To Build An Emergency Fund » Silicon Valley Blog About Money