Finally, SCV!!!!

After being in Singapore for 2 years, I have always hesitated to sign up for Starhub's Cable TV. Knowing I never really have time to watch any of the programmes, I guess the inevitable happened. World Cup.

And I wasnt about to miss the greatest game on Earth.

Signed up today at PS and have just installed it the moment I came home. It was a feeling of deja vu as I felt as if I was back in Penang watching Astro.

The moment I turned on the TV, it was satisfaction all the way. No doubt that I'm just using a 21-inch TV, but the clarity and sharpness was really amazing. For a moment I'd thought I was using a 100 Hertz flatscreen TV.

Accompanied with my trusty 5.1 Altec Lansing speakers.....you can say I'm a happy boy. Hehe.

Then later today I.....somehow manage to find the way to splurge some money. Hehe....Me bought meself....da Samsung D820!!!!! Hehehe.....well, just joking.

Used my staff voucher to buy the phone for a friend back in Penang actually. Though, heard that stocks for the D820 were really limited, but thank God I manage to get my hands on one unit. No matter how you look at it, buying phones in Singapore is much much cheaper than Penang.

So I guess I will have about 2 weeks to play with the phone. Must say, the screen was a real shocker. I have always thought that my V3x has one of the best screens in the market today, but I was pretty impressed with D820's. Though, when I tested out the video playback between both phones, V3x edges D820 just by abit.

But among everything else, the one thing that leaves my jaw dropping every time...is its slimness. Its thickness is EXACTLY as slim as the older V3. And for a slider phone that slim with a brilliant display.....Samsung realli has done themselves proud.

Anyway, here's a pic between the MotoBola V3, Samsung D820 and Motobola V3x.

Still, you know what gets my blood rushin every time I think about it? Its Arsenal vs Sunderland at 12am!!! And I get to watch it on TV!!!

LIVE!!!!!

MU kena raped

Ok, no disrespect to any MU fan. But MU seriously kena raped tonight. And what was at staked? Pride.

Nothing much can be said about tonight's match between MU and Chelsea. The outcome of the title race has already been decided. Chelsea would have stayed on top of the table no matter how the scored went tonight.

But teams had only one thing in mind. The pride of these 2 juggernauts. And whats more? Murinho's pride. Thats something EVERYONE wants to take a shot at.

Well, unfortunately I didnt see the match. But the scoreline speaks for itself......Chelsea won it.

3 - 0

Talk about kena trashed.

But you know what? Arsenal's in the champion's league final. Hehe.

The Impossible Fever

"This mission...just got impossibler"

- Ben Stiller

The fever's back. Its Mission Impossible time and everyone's starting to talk about it.

So, what can we expect from the 3rd installment of the seriously popular TV series back from the 70s? Well, nothing similar.

I used to remember long long time ago I would sit infront of the TV eagerly waiting for M:I to be shown on TV. If I'm not mistaken, it was always on a Thursday afternoon around 4.30pm.

M:I is all about the Impossible Missions Force - an elite and covert action team employed by the US govenment. Every episode of the series would start by James Phelps, played by lagendary actor Peter Graves receiving orders from the government from some black laptop thats hidden in some inconspicious location. And once the orders were given then came the famous tag line...."This message will self-distruct in 10 seconds". After that, it was history in the making....the insanely-unmistakable theme song that starts with the light of a match stick.

So, a few years later....the series was made into a movie, starring none other than Tom Cruise. And what did I think of it?

For one thing, it still had that classic intrigue/drama/covert/espionage feel to it. Though, the only complain about it was, the villian. Among everything....they made James Phelps the villian!!! I was like ......$%&^*@!!!!

WTF?!?!? The intellectual leader of the IMF!! The man that signifies M:I in its essence! The man that is the very core of the M:I series for the past 20 years! And now.....he's the bad guy. Sheesh.

But then, not long after that. Came M:I 2. Even worse. Long gone was the feel that M:I was all about covert ops. There were 2 main stars in that movie, Tom Cruise and his hair. Thruout the whole movie it was only him swinging his hair from left to right.

I guess you can say that I'm pretty dissapointed with the whole M:I thingy going to the silver screens. At least the first one was kinda bearable.

So now; we can only see what happens in this upcoming episode 3. Still, you can't deny that whenever any movie buff hears the words Mission Impossible, their hearts go pumping.

The hype is already here. Just the other day, Cathay had a competition going on - the couple that turns up with uber cool shades like Tom Cruise and Maggie Q; if they win the audience votes, they will be sent to Prague to catch the premier of the movie. Sweet deal huh?

And following on.... I just saw this while I was on my way out for lunch. Local chinese products vendor, Yue Hwa had this to offer.

For every purchase over $300 of Yue Hwa products, you will get free a M:I3 poster! WTF?!!?!?

I can see it now.....old aunties and old uncles in shades queing up to buy tonnes of chinese herbs and pottery just to get their hands on Tom Cruise's poster.

To Yue Hwa, I have this to say...truly....Mission IMPOSSIBLE.

My brudder's goin on a jurneee....

One quick question.....has anyone seen the Visa advertisement where Richard Gere was at a market and decided to buy an insanely amount of birds for this small girl?

Ok....bad question....half the friggin world has seen it. Its been playing in cinemas and MRT stations like there's no tomorrow.

Anyway, it was kinda endearin isnt it? This small girl comes running along and decided to buy some pigeons to wish safe journey for her brother; and in the end was only dissapointed that she only had money for one pigeon. And the came along this good samaritan and bought nearly every friggin bird, peacock, ostrich, chicken and duck in sight. Bloody show-off.

Still, my point is.....its a scam. Everyone in the scene is working to cheat the rich-blur american celebrity. Everything's a ploy from the moment the small girl bumped into Richard Gere. And the myth about releasing birds for good luck?

One Big Lie. "More birds. More Luck." MY FOOT. But of course da American tourist believes anything.

The small girl's in it. The tour guide's in it. The so-called bird seller's in it....the one who conveniently has a friggin credit card swipe machine!!! In a market!!!! (see what I mean about the blur tourist?)

What you don't see later is that you will realise that the tour guide and the bird-seller are brothers and they will be paying a nice commision to the small girl everytime she manages to fool another tourist....

So in proper tradition...

Bird food: 200 rupees

Small girl's commision: 450 rupees

Brothers acting classes: 50 rupee

Rental of Credit Card swipe machine: 25 rupees/day

Cheating the blur Ang Moh celebrity of US Dollars: PRICELESS

Bring on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

First Attempt at Cooking.....well...sorta

Warning: The following images might not be suited for the faint hearted....or the weak stomach. Viewer discretion is advised.

Seeing that I am on the 3pm shift today, I woke up kinda early and decided to.....cook.

I know, I know......the sky's falling. But I decided to attempt to cook today. And seeing that I have approximately 1Kg of prawns sitting in my freezer (don's ask me why do I have 1Kg of prawns), might as well, have a go at it.

Staring at the prawns, I have no idea what to cook. So, I guess the only thing I could do is....to throw everything into the pan and see what happens.

So here we go. The chronology of my attempt at cooking a prawny dish.

Step 1: Thaw the friggin prawns.

Step 2: De-shell the prawns and beat up the couple of eggs. (same here...dun ask me why I decided to beat up a couple of eggs. Just felt like the right thing to do. Frying prawns just doesnt seem interesting enuff. :P)

Step 3: Fry up some frozen dumplins I bought some time ago - hey, since I'm frying some stuff, might as well fry some dumplings right?

Step 4: Stir fry da prawns!!!

Step 5: Voila!!! Dumplings with...errr......egg-cum-prawns omellette!!!

Hehe....cant say it tasted good or bad. And its not really appetizing to look at. And in many ways, it looked downright disgusting!!!

As for the taste-test. Err...well, I'm still here. Alive. Breathing. No food-poisoning and no MC. *phew* Guess it was edible. Hehe.

Well, for a first attempt at cooking, even if it wasnt real cooking...but was kinda fun. Though, until now I'm not too sure if the dish I cooked was considered a real dish to begin with....but we can always call it......fusion food for now!!

Finally an update

Guess its been some time since my last entry. Somehow things kinda just stood still...like its suspended in time...

But anyway, thank God and here I am finally updating my blog.

Been pretty busy for the past few weeks. Some friends came down from KL for work assigments and have been bringing them around. The usual I guess...try to cover as many parts of Singapore as I can.

And last week, I went over to Robertson Walk for the MU vs Arsenal match. And what can I say??? All those of you out there who caught the game only know one thing......it was a FANTASTIC match! The pace of the game was suriously fast and it was like a watching ping-pong soccer between the 2 sides. It was attack after attack from both teams.

Also, not forgetting to mention, Robertson Walk is really an ideal place to catch a soccer match. With LCD screens and projection TVs in every single corner of the place, everywhere you sit, you'd be able to watch the game in all its glory. And with the 2 rival clubs such as MU and ARS slugging it out....the atmosphere was likened to the World Cup finals. Tragically, in the end...much to my dismay......ARS lost the game. Sigh.....

..If ever I had to nit-pick about the place, the food was expensive. Drinks was ok, but not the food. There was a total of 6 of us and we had to pay about $100+. Sheesh.

Oh ya....as for work related issues.......guess what?!?!?!!?!!?! I....I.....I.........

I'm still in call center......sigh...

Though, not all is lost. Eventhough so far I havent received any replies from the jobs I have applied for....but there is a light in the end of the tunnel.

Was at work the other day and bumped into a friend from Corp Sales. This is how the conversation went...

Friend: So......first question. When are you joining us? (Jokingly)

Me: Errr....I didnt know Corp Sales are looking for people.

Friend: Well, we're always looking for people. The turnover is rather high.

Me: Oh.....errrr....is it rewarding?

Friend: In what way?

Me: In monetary terms of course!

Friend: (Laughs) Ummmm....could be better.

Me: Geee....I'm kinda interested though...

Friend: So.....wanna consider??

Me: ............ I'll get back to you on this.

Damn...

Ok....seriously.

I almost died today. And I'm not exagerating in ANY way.

Was on my way home. As I walked pass the small pathway across Duxton Park......a friggin tree crashed right in front of me.

Guess it must be due to the heavy rain in the afternoon.

In my mind, I could only think of one thing. If I walked just a second faster.......I would be sprawling on the side walk.

I was so stunned that I just stood there for a couple of seconds.

Thank God.

Get Me Outta 'Ere!!!!!

Okies....a quick update during half time. Hehehe...so far Arsenal match againts Juve going quite well. Though, I felt that Arsenal should have scored earlier on....

Aneeeeway......

I have having a sleepless night last night thinking about my interviews with Adecco and Kelly Services. Everytime I try to recall the flow of the interview, it really left me feeling uncertain and confused.

But since then, I think I have come to a conclusion and a realisation of my current status.

1. If I continue to stay in Customer Service, it would be career suicide.

2. Its difficult for me to justify why I am still with my current employer after 2 and a half years, as contrary if I apply for Marketing jobs. I can always justify by saying that; the reason I am still with my current employer is because the first 2 years I was on contract. And it is also only now I begin my job searching exploits because I just received my PR-ship.

3. And considering point 2, I have to get out of my current job asap. The longer I stay, the harder it is for me to justify my tenure.

4. To get out of Customer Service, I have to start from scratch again. And that means, a pay cut.

So, I really have to kick my job searching efforts to high gear. Just as I came home earlier, I have sent out about 5 email applications. Guess I need to be abit more hardworking and make it a point to send out 5 applications daily.

In short, I'm desperate.

Oh shit.....gotta go. Second half starting!!!!! All da way Arsenal!!!!!!!

The Curse of CS

Finally an off day!!!!!!!!

Been working for the past 8 days straight. Boy am I tired. But somehow, I have no idea why, but I'm definately in good spirits. Even till the final 8th day. I felt as if I can go on for another 2 to 3 days.

Guess in monetary terms, its rewarding when it comes to working OT. But here's a hint......maybe its gonna end soon.

Heck, even my calls answer/hour has been record high. In my company, the standard for any officer is to hit 12 calls per hour. And even accomplishing that would be a great achievement. Still....do you know this week how many calls I hit per hour????

18 Friggin calls/hour!!!!!!!!

Looks like I'm seriously rackin' it up. That my dear friends, is 18 screaming and shouting imbeciles that I scrugged off every hour. Seems either I'm getting very efficient at what I do, or it can mean the exact opposite.

Still, you might ask why on Earth am I working so hard for? Well, its to proof to this over ambitious manager that I can do it. In recent weeks, the so-called better officers on the floor are getting flack for small matters that doesnt warrant the punishment. So, not to be subjected to any redicule, I'm gonna do the job to the best of my ability just to prove this suckas wrong.

BUT ANYWAY........

Went to Kelly Services and Adecco today. Cant really say its a pleasant experience. The thing about these companies is that the moment you walk thru that door, they have a certain perception of you. In ways, they immeadiately assume that the experience I went thru for the past 2 years....is nothing. Seems like the people I talked to were so hard-up on getting telesales officers that they totally brush aside my aspirations to work in the fields of marketing.

One fella also commented, "Customer service is easy. Anyone can make anybody happy. But to sell...now thats a skill."

*takes deep breath* Now, I'm not saying that selling isnt a skill. I agree. Selling is an art. BUT TO DISS CUSTOMER SERVICE?!?!!?!! What the fuck!!!!

Oh well.......it seems to me that when someone is working in CS for such a long period of time, its difficult to cross over to other fields.

Though, I am still trying to keep my options open. I clarified with the fella that I wasnt interested in sales. But he went on harping on and on about sales. Sheeesh.....

In the end, atleast both of us came to an agreement that I wasnt looking for a sales job (thank God!). And eventually he informed me that he would like to arrange me for another interview for a bank.......but sadly, as Customer Service officer again.

So, here's my dillemma. Its already damn difficult for me to break into Marketing. And if I jump from one company's CS to another, basically my resume would literally spell....C.U.S.T.O.M.E.R S.E.R.V.I.C.E.

Then again, its not exactly healthty to continue with my current employer. The longer I stay, the worse it gets. Like one of the councillors mentioned this morning..."Oh, you have been working there for almost 3 years now. So why do you want to leave now?"

Hmmmmmmm.....

As the story goes......

Guess this is one of those obligatory post just for the sake of posting something up.

Hmmm...when I look back to my previous blog entries, seems like I really had a lot of free time. Blogging almost everyday with practically whatever that comes to mind.

And now.......maybe I'd post something up twice a week? Maybe only once.

Anyway, its not that I have lost the passion for blogging. And to be honest, without blogging my literary pinache would definately go down the drain. And also without blogging, all I would be writing about is.....

"Sub req to act AR"

"Nsub req for extension of pyt. Adv sub to call in"

"Rude n unreasonable sub req to act CLIP, CLIRR, remove BBRR. Also enq on BC and when line will be PRA and also LDL charges"

Yeah...crap like that.

But then again, if you'd ask me what I've been doing with all my free time. Well, the answer is a simple one.

Like it or not, I've been the ultimate couch potato. Been watching tv series like nobody's business. One after another. From the fantastic House, I moved on to Boston Legal. And how I'm watching the seriously good-jaw-dropping Prison Break.

Trust me fellas, get your hands on Prison Break. Its now airing in the USA, but its only up till episode 15. Still, with only this 15 episodes; there were so many twist and turns that it'll put any politician's speech to shame. I guess I'll talk more on this series next time. But for now....I just cant get enuff of it!!!

Other than that, guess my life's kinda mediocre for the time being. Though, I am working on it. And my first priority? Working hard. Working damn hard......to look for a new job.

The management in my company is seriously getting from bad to worse. Its like suddenly all their brains were sucked dry of any common sense and managerial skills.

For instance, yesterday they just announced that we need to plan our leave 1 year in advance. Thats right....you heard me right. 1 BLOODY FRIGGIN YEAR. I dont even know what I want to do in 3 months time and I have to plan for one bloody year!!!! Fine, if I can plan for the holiday trip I wanted to go for in the end of the year...that means if I ever need an unplanned leave between the motnhs, I simply cant! And if they rejected my planned leave.....then I have to postpone my holiday for 1 BLOODY YEAR!!!!

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

And it gets better. At the end of the email we receive, it says "For holidays planned during peak holiday periods, approval will be announced later cos ballotting might be required". Which.....we're back to square one. Morons. And to sweeten up the deal for management. There's a disclaimer. "The management reserves the right to make changes whenever needed".

So, what they are trying to say is.....Screw you. Your life is ours. We tell you when to work and when to go on holiday.

There's no such thing as entitlement. Still....personally I still pursue the light in the end of the tunnel. I keep on telling myself.....soon, this crap will be over.