Return of the Blackheads

I've been exfoliating and using my pore pack every week and sometimes there isnt much blackheads and sometimes there're tons of it. This week is one such week..

here're the links

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

Flying...

More than one of you have noticed that I havent been flying of late.. ya.. i havent.. which is a good change frankly. Gave me some time to get some semblance of a social life. I managed to meet Audrey for dinner on wed, Ad for dinner and movie on thurs and then dinner with powto today.

on the other hand, i was getting quite listless at work of late. Maybe it's been a long time i've stayed in the office for sucha long stretch.. so i was glad to hear that i shld be going Jakarta next week. It was supposed to be either JKT, Maldives or Phuket.. i'd very much like Phuket since ive nvr been there but well, JKT also can la.. maybe after i come back from JKT then i offer to go Phuket again...

Now got to dust off my luggage bag.. make sure my suit's ironed, camera charged and shoes polished...

Dinner

To please Powto, I asked her out for dinner today. She suggested this restaurant that was supposed to be super duper good...it's called Gyu-Kaku at CHIJmes..supposed to be such a good jap rest. that many japs go. And when many japs go, u know it's gd stuff...

it's basically a bbq style thing.. like high class seoul garden..




this is the bacon... 5 pieces for S$6.50.. hiong leh..



that's one with powto's hand









while waiting for her at Raffles City, I saw this scene at the Perlini, which was having a sale... gosh.. throngs and throngs of women... and some were staring from the glass on the outside!!! gosh.. so so.. crazy.. n there were tons of ple inside too..

Withdrawal

For some reason, my own internet at home was getting cranky too and after a whole afternoon of troubleshooting the modem, router, usb adapator, SCV and using my sis's laptop and her usb adapator, i found out it was my PC's USB adaptor that is spoilt.. so keeve and i decided to be gay geeks and go to tampines mall to spend the evening..

finally got my usb adaptor..



And then we went to the supermarket to get some tidbits for a night of hardcore surfing..



Phew and now my internet's back on.. and i'm glad.. half a day without internet and i thought i felt my chest tightening.. *sweat*

Public Enemy #1

In the span of almost 1 mth, PRC has become the public enemy #1 of the office. I dont really think it's a racist thing cos we all like another chinese national colleague, who's in Shanghai. I personally spent 2 weeks in China with tis said colleague and she was fine...

But PRC... gosh she never fails to piss me/us off.

During lunch once, she told me to put my pen (which was a gift from Audrey) down at the table to chope the table. I was like wat?? She repeated herself and i said "Not funny lor". She said "It wasnt meant to be a joke.." I just ignored her.

A couple of colleagues (comprising the 2 gays, PRC and Intern) went for drinks the day i went home at 5pm.. Intern told me what happened..

Gay #1, who was the most senior, whipped out his credit card when the bill for the first round of drinks came..PRC asked him if she needed to return him the money... *pengz*

PRC decided she wanted to know everyone's personal life.. and kept asking Gay #1 and #2 what kind of guys they liked. She said she knew this guy whom she can introduce to them. Now, these guys arent like openly gay.. so they just tried to ignore her questions. But Intern told me PRC was just totally poking and probing.. what a dumb ass..

What a Dumb Ass

It's 630am now on saturday.. I just woke up cos i slept at 1030pm on friday night.. very tired...

Since thursday afternoon, the internet connection at my office suddenly became damn slow.. emails are stuck, internet is stuck, everything's stuck... i called the ISP and they said we seem to be experiencing high traffic from Tokyo... that's pretty weird cos I only sent one email to Tokyo that morning.. they cant be sending me THAT big a reply..

since the internet was down, i tot i'd just go home at 5pm lor.. hahah since my boss wasnt around anyway... ya.. so i left at 5.

The next day internet seemed normal, which was good.. then suddenly it happened again!!! I called my ISP again and they said the same thing. They said maybe i kenna attacked by spyware and asked me to download and install the anti spyware program and run it. I tried all afternoon to download it but i couldnt.. cos obviously the internet's not working very well right? So the admin side was bugging me on what to do and i was fretting cos my mails aint going out.. until abt 4pm+ when i passed by PRC's desk.

SHE WAS USING BITTORRENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that crazy shithead was using Bitorrent to download "Desparate Housewives" in the office!!!!!!!!!!! i totally yelled out!!!

Cornball: " PRC!!!! What are you doing???"

PRC: Huh? what?

Cornball: What are you downloading???

PRC: Oh.. this new program.. i just tried it..

Cornball: Do you know that this is the cause of ALL the internet problems? This is the one that's slowing everyone down!!!!

PRC: No la.. cant be.. i only started yesterday afternoon..the internet stopped yesterday morning..

Cornball: NO!!!! it stopped yesterday afternoon..

PRC: *speechless for a while* erm.. i duno...

This whole thing happened in front of all the colleagues cos my office is very small.

Admin: Erm.. never mind la.. 无知者无罪 la..

PRC: 对啊。。无知者无罪。。

Cornball: 无知者无罪??? Downloading illegal things in the office is 罪。Downloading personal stuff in the office during office hours into the office laptop is 罪understand????

PRC: *Speechless...*

What a uber dumb ass...and i hate hate hate when ple try to deny things.. try to wriggle out by giving some lame ass excuses like"uh.. i duno..", "uh.. not me"

*Wave*

Long time since i've invited anyone to my blog.. running outta frens liaoz...

harlow harlow.. enjoy your stay here...

New Feature

I jus added this new box at the side.. so please feel free to leave some comments or nonsense.. :)

I have absolutely no mood to work today. That's why Im here now. 10am and blogging.

I left home this morning with my mum saying i look fat in this pair of khaki pants. That wasnt the best way to start the morning.

I woke up this morning and read a mail from my boss. Apparently I sent a mail out last night at 12:20am and he read it at 2am and he replied " Go sleep la you!". That was pretty funny. I was up last night cos I was doing my resume. And i replied when i reached the office, " Can you believe if I told you I was doing my resume?"

I didnt think he'd reply so fast cos he was in Shanghai. But he did in 5 mins! "To resubmit to me? Is there anything wrong in your first CV?"

I didnt know how to read his mail. no "haha", no smiley... i didnt reply.

Yes, im doing my resume. Another stupid headhunter called me and said there's this fantabulous job blah blah.. ok la.. update my resume and send lor.. didnt wana piss anyone off in the headhunting world. I think I piss one off the other time when i refused to give her my resume cos i simply wasnt interested. Lil pricks just want their commission.

One would question my move to tell my boss... but i jus found it funny when ple offer me jobs. haha.. we had a good laugh when his previous company wanted to poach me. Then another of our business associates, who was his old fren too. Everytime it happened, i'd tell him and we'd have a good laugh over lunch. In fact right before he left for Shanghai, he told me he was looking to add more ple in the office, I asked him whether if i quitted today and reapplied for the job, would i get a higher pay. We know the answer to that.

Of cos my resume writing today doesnt stem from my bad mood.

I..I..well, i hate my life right now..maybe i shld go home early today and rot...

Lobo

I finally managed to finish the article and im relieved. My boss said it was a breath of fresh air to have me writing it. I was quite happy until he later said he didnt really read thoroughly... damn it..

Anyway, i sent this email to the two new birds last week..

"We have one more round of printing for the last of 2005's portfolios. Would appreciate if you guys could help out on the printing for the following (3 copies each):

.
.
.

The client needs the reports by the end of the week. It'd be fabulous if the reports could be all printed and bound by the end of Thursday so that XXX and I could sign them.

Thank you and let me know if there's a problem."

I got this reply from PRC

"hello Cornball, i can't promise at this moment i can help you. today i hv to leave soon as i hv something off work needed to be attended to.

tomorrow, when XXX shows up, he will review my report and run the numbers, and the report is due the end of this week.
also, as it is my first time write about report, today i spent whole day looking for info, and not much efforts being paid. and i am sure u can imagine how difficult i can finish that on time (also this week due)."

I was shocked... i was so shocked i didnt even feel angry. I complained to my other colleagues when PRC left...they had a super duper good laugh. Say how come i give instruction then kenna rejected. then my boss came out and heard the laughter and they told him. I said, " hey, i follow your style in saying 'Can u help in blah blah..', which means 'Im asking u to do it, not asking a favour from you. I never expected a 'no' for an answer lor'.

He laughed.

Before he left for his trip on friday, he sent an email to ask the both of them to print a total of 34 reports... 17 reports for each new bird..

my colleagues and I laughed till peng over MSN.

Writer's Blog.. oops.. Block..

im stuck at this line "As the rest of Asia awoke to the full magnitude of the devastation brought by the tsunami, "

I cant seem to find the 2nd half of this sentence.

Anyone?

Oh Man!!

Jo was very nice to send me a package this afternoon. I was listening to my iPod while trying to churn out my article. So i was totally oblivious to the world when the courier guy came in. My colleague passed me the package and from the outside, i knew it was from her..

Gosh..im actually still shocked...here're the pics..



you can see my ipod in the background as well as the article im reading as a reference for my article.

What's inside the box? I have a strange feeling i know wat's inside. (she works for Sisley Paris)



Alas, it's nougats and Sisley eye cream... only 2 sample tubes though, she says. Any more and then i dont have to buy any liaoz... :(



Closeup of the tubes..

PS: Pity Jo is married and thus very unavailable.

Misc. Pictures

Im bored at home. So i'd just post some random pics i took last week with my handphone. Quite crappy quality really.

My colleauge bought this for me when she went to Japan. She left it on my table during my supposedly 1 week leave. When i came back to work unexpectedly during my leave, she was so amused cos she thought the gift was damn apt.



She bought one for another colleague of mine too. I thought it'd be quite apt for me too.



I took this when i went to the Supreme Court that day. First time i was inside after all the flak this Norman Foster-designed building got when it was unveiled. Too funky, some said. Unbecoming of the virtues and morals and dignity it represents, I thought i heard some others chastise.

well, here's the old Supreme Court:



here's the new one:

*for some reason, it's hard to Google a pic of the new Supreme Court...taking a long time.*

we'll have to make do with the pic i took.. tada!



muhahaha.. of cos this doesnt do justice (pun intended) to the building but well, i was too lazy to go out in the sun to take a proper pic.

Funky on the outside and at the top, the building is able to maintain its sterile and no-nonsense environment with its large innner envelope and of cos the metal detectors and police men helped too. I like the extensive use of natural lighting, just like the new T3. Speaking of which, i was at the construction site of the new T3 that day. With the hard hat and all, i was scaling the ladders and steps. It's a great view there. I'd post some pics but i think they're classified.

I bought this for my ipod. It's called Agent18. Sucha funky name eh.



And there you go with CSI New York playing..



Lastly, I finally managed to buy a chair. Now I can surf and work in comfort at home. Sometimes, i even stay in office longer to work cos my chair at home is just so not comfy.

Writer's Block

I was tasked to write the main article, under the supervision of my senior, for this annual publication my company produces. My boss wanted me to try my hand at it cos my senior will/might be leaving next year so i'll/might be writing it. Under his supervision also means i'll do the work and he gets the credit.

I've been staring at it for like an hour and all i squeezed out was " 2005 proved to be the banner year for the Asia Pacific region"

That's all. I need to submit 3 pages of this by end of tmr. :(

Valentine's Day

Some people have asked me how i was going to celebrate valentine's day. Some of the geeks i hang out with at SPUG are collating ideas for vday for their partners. I heard on radio this morning, Glenn Ong and Vern asking listeners to call in to tell their partners (and half the population of Singapore) what they want for vday from their partners. One gal actually asked to be proposed. Another gal asked her hubby to buy her another car cos "the MPV is too big for her".

Some guys have it easy.

I kinda have an idea who i wana have dinner with on vday. I was thinking abt it for some days. i have this peeve. Once i decide to ask someone, and if that person refuses, i wont ask someone else. Cos i'd hate to subject the other person to 2nd place. So it's either the first person i ask or bust.

Standby Duty

I was on standby for my boss who was to attend court on Monday and today. He called me on yesterday noon to come down to funan with my laptop for the assurance that someone knows the number is nearby. So i sat at the funan macs from noon till 5:30pm. When he was out at 5:30pm, he asked me to go home and be back the next day at 9:30am.

And so I left for home at 5:30pm.

I was at funan macs at 9am today. I had absolutely no idea what time the time will end and when he'll need me to on my laptop..I had to conserve my laptop batt cos there's no electrical pts in Macs.. so i switched on my iPod video to watch CSI New York... watched for 2 episodes till 10+ . hee..

My boss was out by 1pm and his involvement was finally over and he was glad. Very happy actually and he wanted to celebrate. So we went to a hotel ( that sounds wrong really) and had a good lunch. by then it was 3:30pm..he was deliberating if he shld go back to office or just not come in tmr. I kinda convinced him that he shld take a break today and come in fresh tmr. he agreed and he asked me to go home also.

I was home by 5pm. :)

Party

As mentioned above, I was invited to a CNY afternoon part by my dissertation supervisor.. it was to be a gathering for all his old students, past and present. It was quite a coincidence that he invited me cos just the week that i got the invite, I wanted to ask him out for lunch.

Our love affair started once during a lecture when he suddenly gave a pop quiz. Just 1 question only, on finance. I remembered pointing out to him that there's a mistake in the question. He insisted that there was no mistake. Of cos, I also insisted but his voice was louder. Oh well.. later, when he was going thru the quiz, he found out that i was right. muhahaha.. i felt vindicated.

Later that same day of the lecture, i was at the shopping centre downstairs and guess who i bumped into??? HIM!!! hahaha.. he was there in a tee and shorts and we jus stared at each other and smiled. i guesed he lived nearby. Such a coincidence.

He was the Head of Research in my dept so i wanted him to be my dissertation supervisor but he told me he was going on sabbatical in the next semester to canada for 1 year. Which means i'd have to submit my dissertation earlier and he'd have to supervise me from there via email. I decided to go for it.

Going to the party was like a geek fest. I was half expecting it anyway, with his reputation and all. within the 2nd minute, i heard the word "linear programming" already. in the next few hours, i heard words like "journals", "publishing","methodology" many times. My Prof introduced me and my other friend (who also took the plunge with me. Coincidentally, my friend and I have the same english name and surname!) as the 2 heroes who asked him to supervise us when he was in canada. No one was very impressed really. After a while, i was quite convinced that we both were the only 2 ple in the room that didnt grad with 1st class hons.. I kid u not.

My friend and I hung out with some juniors cos only they seemed interested in talking to us. Prof told me to talk more abt my job cos it's quite interesting. Until one gal suddenly asked me which company i was from. I told her and she said her bf applied there once. She told me his name and i was like... "oooooooooooooooh.. he's ur bf ah??". This bugger is a fren of my classmate, who got my number from my classmate and called me at 12mn the night before his interview. We chatted for 2 hrs and i met him the next day. My boss even told me to sit in the interview. Actually we kinda liked him but for some reason, my boss was slow to get back to him and he went off somewhere.. i thought it ended off quite sore for both parties, at least to me. And there i had his gf right in front of me. *sweat*

It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small world after all
It's a small small world.

Apparently Prof has a chilled wine shelf. So i was glad i brought wine.

Trapped by the Phone II

I managed to leave the office at 6:30pm on Friday. I'm glad really, to be able to leave when there's still light. For some reason, it's a different feeling. I decided to go shopping at suntec. Wanted to look at luggage bags, wanted to buy some nike tee shirts and socks for gym and also something to bring to my Professor's CNY party on Sat...

Halfway through my shopping at Samsonite, a client called and said they needed me to email them something like right now cos they needed to send something for listing on SGX... so.. oh well.. :( go back lor..that was 7:30pm..

i decided to still complete my shopping before going back.. muhahaha.. bought 2 shirts from Nike. bought the one on the left specially for my badminton session.. muhahaahha



Upon the recommendation of Audrey and Jo, i got some red wine for my Professor. Since i didnt drink, i asked the wine promoter at Carrefour. She kinda looked like thos 啤酒妹 at those coffee shops.. or rather 啤酒 aunty sans the waist pouch. For some reason, she lapsed into hokkien and started telling me the merits of each. I finally decided on this.

Bank Bang

I thought today was a lobo day cos my boss was at home preparing for court. I even thought of what to blog.. hahaha.. but then, things were not to be and i ended up being an errand boy cos the client needed the report printed pronto and hand delivered cos they going to print the prospectus and going for IPO... so lil Kornball was the errand boy..walked to Temasek Tower, then DBS Tower 1.. bleah.. so hot today...

i realised that a lot of ple worked around me.. my Cyst, CPF Audrey, Ad., Penelope... i thought i might bump into them but nope...

as part of my plan to treat myself better, i decided to open an E-Saver account with Standardcharterd... flexi deposits at 1.88% interest and can withdraw anytime.. sounds quite gd... so i went in and opened an account...

then i went to OCBC to check out how much tuition loan i have remaining..

then i went to UOB to settle my credit card bills..

Day of banking..*sweat*

Trapped by the Phone

I decided that Feb 2006 would be the mth that i started taking care of myself so i went to the gym on thursday morning before work cos i knew my boss was in court by 9am so i can go in late and he prob wont need me.. quite a long time since i went to the gym so i was pretty outta shape, so i only did:

20 mins on the threadmill;
2 reps of that machine;
2 reps of another machine;
2 reps of yet another machine; and
100 sit ups..

i was feeling quite proud of myself when i bathed and as i walked towards the office at 9:30am, my phone rang and IT WAS MY BOSS!!!! ARGHHHHHHH... He asked me something.. i answered and casually asked if he was in the office. He said yes! Dammit.. how come like that one??

i walked into the office in my polo tee and he didnt bat an eyelid. He doesnt mind la really.. i jus felt sianz abt getting caught skiving.. hee hee..

Continued

iRis said that my last post ended weird..

well, while i was typing that halfway, i decided i wasnt going to waste the last day of the holiday staring at the computer all day so i decided to go shopping.. i went to bathe and dressed up and waited for my dad to come back so that i can take the car. Jus as i was about to leave the house, my boss called me and asked if i could be back in the office in an hr.. SIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH... i ended up working till 2am on tuesday night. ... no dinner some more.. bleah..

Anyway, to continue my story..

so i was in a dilemma... both were analyst positions.. one was a big company in a field i was familiar with while the other was an unknown (to me) company in an entire;y different field from what i studied. both bosses seemed nice. i know the pay for the first guy (not high) but i didnt know what the latter would pay me. i was quite inclined to take a risk and go for the latter but i tot scully i gave up the first one then scully the second one come back from New york then decide that he doesnt want me then how???

i decided that i wanted to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond.. i decided that the latter seemed like a more fun job.. so i waited lor.. i told the first dude that i got another offer n thanked him. then i called new york to tell him i'll wait for him.

I have no idea what's the moral of the story really. Maybe it's to go with your heart and your interest and hope that things work out.

my boss told me almost one year later why they liked me:

firstly, he liked that i said that it excited me to write reports and run numbers. he said no one ever said that.

he said he and his colleague knew that i didnt know wat was going on cos it was an entirely new field to me but i appeared like i knew what they were talking abt. He said that was a hallmark of a consultant. Dont know but appear to know.

no idea if he was joking or not.