N. Tay's blog

Number crunching

Note: I've moved to nat dot sg - please head over there if you'd like a bird's eye view of my web presence...my (infrequent) Vox posts from here will be reflected at nat dot sg too.

Something I should have done before 2007 ended, but only got around to today. This is how much I've been away in 2007:

[Dork mode on]

Number of working days: 247
Leave days taken: 29.5
Time off (for "extra" work done): 1.5
Medical leave: 7

Number of actual working days: 209
Number of weekdays out of town for work: 92
Number of days out of town for work: 95 (includes 3 weekend days)

Number of days overseas for personal travel: 43
Total number of days out of town: 138

For the entire 2007:
44% of actual working days were spent out of town (not including weekends)
38% of the entire year was spent out of town (work and personal travel)

For January to June 2007:
53% of actual working days were spent out of town (not including weekends)
50% of the entire year was spent out of town (work and personal travel)

For July to December 2007:
24% of actual working days were spent out of town (not including weekends)
26% of the entire year was spent out of town (work and personal travel)

Not to mention a crapload of time spent in Malaysia (not that I'm complaining, of course!):
Number of days spent in Malaysia for work: 79
Number of days spent in Malaysia outside of work: 6
23% of the entire year spent in Malaysia (work and personal travel)

[Dork mode off]

I could have done up some pretty charts and all, but I thought that would have been a bit much - dork mode or otherwise!

If you hadn't already noticed

This article summarizes all that was wrong about the Bears this season (see "Most Disappointing Team", "Biggest Collapse", "Most Disappointing Player" - that should be more than sufficient to give an idea of how poorly they played). To see them reach #2 in the nation early in the season, only to have them spectacularly collapse towards the end was just painful.

And just to make it worse - losing to Stanford after a 5-year winning streak! Sheesh.

More interestingly, I'm done with work for the rest of the year! HAHAHAHAH. Unfortunately I now fear I won't want to drag myself back in come 2008. Ah well.

Random work stuff

I'm sitting in my office, wearing a fleece jacket because it's so damned cold in here.

Tell me, is that not the most ridiculous thing ever?? Especially considering we're located a mere degree from the Equator?!

They really need to do something about the temperature in here...it's such a waste of energy.

And speaking of work: it really annoys me when people don't read the whole bloody thing before making inane, irrelevant comments - when it's all right freaking there in front of them. If you can't be assed about it, why should I be?

On the bright side, 3 more working days to freedom! Woo hoo!

Quote of the Day

This is what's wrong with my job - as evidenced by a conversation I had with Scrabby yesterday:

Me: "Oh, did I mention I might be shipped out again next week?"
Scrabby: "Well, you've had a good run - it's been what, 3 weeks?"

There's gotta be something inherently wrong when 3 weeks in town is considered a good run. On the bright side, only 6 more work days left! Happy happy joy joy!! WOOOOO HOOOO!

Had lunch with JY today and we were talking about something random...I think it had to do with someone's not-so-successful relationship:

Me: "You know what they say - 'Love is blind' and all that jazz"
JY: "[insert Hokkien expletive here] Please. It's more like stupidity."

In other random observations - Joey is one smart kid. I've underestimated the power of a kid's brain when they're learning and growing. It's just mind-boggling how much he absorbs from everything that's going on around him. And did I mention how I finally understand (albeit to a much, much smaller degree) what a parent's love encompasses? I finally realize what it means to want to do everything in your power to protect your kid, to be willing to sacrifice yourself for the tiny tot beside you. As a mere aunt, I'd already do anything for my nephew - I can only begin to imagine how a parent would feel. There's nothing in the world that makes me happier than seeing him happy, nothing in the world that cheers me up more than having him running around me and asking me question after question about this and that and everything. No matter how tired or grumpy I am.

The funniest (and most "annoying" thing) is that Joey uses me as a conduit to get to his favorite Uncle K! I swear, the two of them could be the fan club presidents for each other. The amount of adoration they have for each other...it's just too cute. =)

Last bit for this post - here's a special shoutout to Scrabby: Enjoy the very last day of your twenties! Go forth and end it with a big ass bang.  Heheheheh. =P

Gobble gobble

Happy Thanksgiving! (American, that is...)

And TF's back! Woo hoo!! Considering we met back in school right here in our sunny island set in the sea, we haven't really ever been in the same city at the same time since...

One for the ages

History in the making:

Yao’s Rockets Beat Yi’s Bucks

Check out the video recap, it's not too shabby.

Am off to the second wedding dinner I've been invited to this weekend...

Kids really do say the darndest things

My nephew's speech ability exploded recently, and he's been yapping non-stop since. Some of the stuff he says is just damn hilarious.

One day he told his mom: "Running away!"

A short while later he came running back. His mom said, "I thought you were running away?"

He clamored all over her, looked at her with puppy dog eyes and said: "Miss Mommy, miss Mommy..."

Hahahahah.

Another time, my sis was putting on a pair of shorts, and he took one look at what she was doing, pointed at her shorts, and said...

"These pants too tight!!"

Then he laughed and walked out of the bathroom, leaving my sis and I keeling over in laughter.

Damn funny lah. =)

Dork

Sometimes I feel like such a dork, what with my increasingly pricey comics habit (a habit I picked up ages ago in school, as HK will attest!).

But K is sitting at my computer right now reading about the different types of Kryptonite, and I don't feel so bad. ;)

Thanks for all the words of encouragement! =)

The final countdown

K was telling me the other day that I haven't been very happy for a while - said that it wasn't worth it, that I should just go do something that would make me happy. It was a huge wake-up call because I'd never thought of it that way. Sure, I'm not 100% satisfied with all of this, but I'd always thought I was OK with it, and I'd never thought it showed that blatantly.

I guess it's telling when the song that's on repeat most frequently nowadays is this:

"Now all those simple things are simply too complicated for my life
[...]
When all I ever wanted was the simple things
A simple kind of life "

Some people sell dreams, but I can tell you I'm not one of them. All I do is churn out rhetoric and pretty stories and cobble randomly pulled numbers and theories together into something that even I don't buy anymore. I couldn't give a shit if I tried. I can't even convince myself anymore no matter how hard I try, so how the hell do you expect me to keep on convincing them?

Suffice to say I'm not a happy camper - but hey, I just need to hang in there a few more months. Just a few more months to tell myself it hasn't all been a waste, that I didn't just up and leave and flush it all down the drain.

It's not a good thing when I'm already dreaming of that day.

Even if it's just a few more months, I'm not sure I can put up with all this bullshit that much longer...it's past even being worth anything. Not even with all the great, great friends who hunker down with me day in, day out. They've been the one major reason I've kept going all this while...but I fear even that won't be enough to see me through the next few months.

IMAP with Gmail

Good stuff - finally!