The Eagle Has Landed

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's landing on the moon.

That triumph over the (then thought) impossibility so intrigued a particular Singapore boy that he became interested in the moon, and astronomy in general, and he constantly pestered his parents to allow him to buy space books. His first astronomy book was a thin hard-cover book bought from Emporium. He still remembers its yellow-coloured price tag and that it has, on its cover, sun rise over Earth, seen from space.

Secretly he wanted to be an astronaut. Neil Armstrong was his hero. He wanted to get the best seats in the house when it came to space exploration. In his kiddy mind, the excitement far outweighed the fear of not coming back. However, when confronted with the school composition topic of "What I want to be when I grow up", he didn't write about being an astronaut. Apart from the lack of a space programme in Asia (then), he was also afraid of being laughed at. (This inferior complex will continue to haunt him into his adulthood, with no remedy in sight).

He read that the astronauts were mostly engineering graduates and fighter pilots. Alas, our dear boy didn't make the cut. Not only did he suck big time in science (C5 for 'O' level Chemistry and C6 for Physics), his stubby existence (pun intended) meant that he'll never fit into the fighter cockpit. That one briefing at the RSAF is at the far end of his failing memory.

Despite the setback, he continued his dalliances with astronomy, buying the occasional book and DVD boxsets. He considers the purchase of the DVD set of the TV series From the Earth to the Moon a coup, considering that he searched for it for years.

To date, he has yet to haul his big, fat ass to the shelf to retrieve the box, remove the shrink wrap and pop the DVDs into the player.







Image credit here.

Post Date: 20 Jul 09

How to celebrate, like that?

Through some heavy divine intervention, my salary has been adjusted. SIGNIFICANTLY. All credit goes to boss, who I believe must have fought very hard. The rest of the company also received adjustments in varying degrees.

While this normally would have called for a serious and extreme case of celebration, it is not to be. Unfortunately, boss didn't get his adjustments. In fact, the big boss appears to want to makan boss, on what's due to him based on deliverables.

I just can't fathom how, when you tell a staff he'll get Y if he delivers X, and he really delivers X, that you can pretend that Y never existed.

Boss now has a few options, some rather extreme, that he can pursue.

Once again, it reinforces my theory that all business people are twisted. How do you people sleep at night, huh? HUH???



Post Date: 20 Aug 07

Denial I

1. Why do they think it's their god-given right to regard themselves as superior beings?
2. Why do they think it's their god-given right to treat us as peasants?
3. Why do they talk down to us?
5. How come people can be so self-serving, and still be able to sleep at night?
6. How can they increase their own salary, but go lukewarm when helping the needy?
7. Why is it that everything they say is right, and everything we suggest is wrong?
8. How come the picture they paint is different from what I see in the streets?
9. How long more do we have to live in this elitist hegemony?
10. How did we degenerate into such an elitist state?



Post Date: 15 May 2007

Rejected

Wah, I was eagerly waiting for my Amex-KrisFlyer credit card when I received a letter from them, informing me the application was rejected.

This has never happened before.

Normally, I would be upset, but I accept it as a low of my life.

Sigh.



Post Date: 7 May 2007

Acceptance

My colleagues left for lunch without me. They went in 2 groups. Nobody called me; each assumed that I had left with the other group.

When I was younger, I used to get really upset over such incidents. It means nobody bothered if I’m there or not, that I’m not one of the “in group”. I remember once, at my grandma’s place, the cousins locked themselves in one of the bedrooms because there was this one pesky little cousin that kept irritating them. Unfortunately, I was locked out as well. My ego took a major hit. It was a while later that the bedroom door opened (can’t remember if I had knocked), and my eldest cousin exclaimed “What are you doing outside? Get inside!” and holding me by my arm, yanked me into the room.

There was this other incident in college. My girlfriend’s (now wife) good friend, for no rhyme or reason, decided one fine day that she will stop talking to me. I probed and I asked, but no response. I asked Wifey, she also got no clue. Wah, I really lost sleep because of it. (It was only years later, like recently, that she decided the war is over).

Not that I want to be Mr Popular, but I craved acceptance, acceptance into the group, into society. Yes, I may have been over-sensitive, but the lack of self-confidence was a greater devil.

Now, I’m still sensitive, but I don’t such things bug me. Actually, the truth is: I can’t be bothered anymore.

And my colleagues are back.



Post Date: 26 March 2007

Why got this dream?

Had a weird dream last night / this morning. Of all the things I could have dreamt of, I had to dream of people of the god-forsaken company, no less 2 of the Top Management.

I was talking to the 2 of them along a corridor and it was pouring outside. They were supposed to be going somewhere for an appointment. Somehow or rather, I don’t know why I did it, but I offered to drive them there. They were supposed to wait for me at the carpark.

The next few bits were quite blur, and I can’t recall what happened. But I think I took a long time, cos when I reached the car, they were already there, and I was feeling apologetic. One of them even said “We even had time to change!” (My goodness, into ugly Hawaiian shirts??!!)

And about the car. It … wasn’t my car. But somehow, we all gathered around it. When I put my car key in, I was able to open the door, and start the car! Problem is, it was a manual car. I’m not very proficient with manual cars, due to the lack of practice. Anyhow, the Top Guy proceeded to tell me the destination, and also driving instructions. In the dream, I was able to feel the anxiety of not knowing any of those places / roads that he was saying … and then I woke up.

TMD. I left the company so many months ago, and not once did I dream about the fucking place or the people. Must be yesterday lah, after catching up with my ex-colleagues and talking about all these fuckers.



Post Date: 29 Dec 2006

AMW

I abhor:

• not being able to control my own time
• being pushed beyond my limits
• being torn between personal life and "greater good"
• being held ransom (when it happens)

I miss:

• chilling out at home with Wifey, at our own leisure
• spending quality time with my family, without having to watch the clock
• going to bed at the time I want

I wish:

• to have my time back
• I can go to work everyday morning feeling FRESH
• my boss will not detect the drop in my productivity and efficiency
• I don't have to lie anymore

Post Date: 23 Nov 2006

Mystery of the missing catalogues

When we went over to Mum's 2 nights ago, and saw the very inviting red-coloured, Christmas-themed Ikea catalogue, that was it.

"I'm going to call Ikea and Sony tomorrow to complain", I told Wifey.

Where is my bloody Sony catalogue? I can't even remember the last time I got one, but I keep seeing them pop up at Mum's. And where is my Ikea Christmas catalogue? I mean, I've been holding my breath, waiting for the Tampines store to open - how can they do this to me??

The call to Sony yielded some answers - the catalogue is not distributed island-wide. While the girl told me it's the management's decision where to send them to, methinks it's based on some profiling, and my area falls out of the crack. She was nice enough to offer to send me a copy, but I would still have to call her to demand a copy everytime I don't get it. TMD.

The call to Ikea was an angrier one. Although I remembered later that I have been receiving their catalogues (just later than Mum), the total inability of the customer service person to give me a straight answer put me very off. After saying she'll check with Singpost, I asked her why she never asked for my name and number. She grudgingly did. The case was subsequently resolved amicably after a Marcom lady Cassandra called to say she has checked with Singpost, and all delivery will be done by 22 Nov. Told her she has better customer service skill than her customer service team.

I definitely jumped the gun. Last night, in the mailbox, was the very inviting red-coloured, Christmas-themed Ikea catalogue.





Post Date: 17 Nov 2006

Not very happy

An ex-boss together with an ex-colleague coincidentally brought their customers to our place just now. After the customers left, we had coffee together.

The first comment thrown my way when we were just about to sit down was: "Wah, ler see bare pui leh! So much fatter compared to last time!"

Basket. Yes, I know I've not as skinny as before, yes, I know both of you are vain gym fanatics. Not that I'm angry with them, cos that's the frankness of our conversations over the years. It's just that ... the truth hurts. I'm also angry with myself for being such a King of Procrastination. It's my own body, for crying out loud!! Next 2 months' RT should correct all this.

Our friend was driving the Lexus RX300, albeit the older model. This reminded me all over again how different I was from them (and some others back from where we came from). Definitely flashy, they lust after the good life, believe in club memberships, chase branded goods and are regulars at night spots. Not that they can't - they can well afford all these.

By comparison, the regular Joe on this side of the fence hadn't had life that well, regretfully. While considerably more subdued than them, let's face it - I also cannot afford their lifestyle lah.

But herein lies the crux: I want to have the choice NOT to lead their lifestyle even though I can, and not that I cannot afford to lead their lifestyle!

Sigh. Maybe I should stop feeling sorry for myself.



Post date: 15 Nov 2006

"Get out of my elitist uncaring face!"

Some ill-bred smart alecky you-know-what-JC kid who thinks the world of herself has incured the wrath of netizens and subsequently that of society. She who wears the elitist tag so ostensibly around her neck is but another product of our "give the best to the best" system.

Uncaring, unsympathetic and definitely elitist, her remarks show disregard for the real trappings of the other parts of society, or even the realities facing the common man. Mind you, her generation will be running our country in 20 years' time.

This just serves to further entrench my disrespect for people of that 'level'. I honestly don't think all they've done are 101% for the common good. I have reached the point where I'll just flip the damn page if there was a newspaper article about some elites saying something that they claim is good for us.

Call me a loser, a whiner, whatever. But limpeh is damn pissed.

Trisha wrote a very insightful piece on this fiasco, and I reproduce it here with her permission.

There is no glory in being an elite. No honour in trumpeting one’s own success. For if not by a fortunate roll of the dice of life, any of us could end up like Mr Y or Mdm C. Any of us could be born into a family visited by sorrow upon sorrow, where circumstances work against you and fate tosses you around like sand, so that you can’t get out of the shit even if you want to. So for those of us in which life has been unbelievably kind to us, a good measure of gratitude and humility is called for. Survival of the fittest is the rule for the animal kingdom. Surely we are above the beasts? Surely we are meant to rise up higher? Instead of dashing to be the first, perhaps it is far nobler to slow down, and give a hand to the downtrodden, the unfortunate, the unskilled, the retrenched, the slower, the old, the sickly and the poor. When we can restore even a modicum of dignity to our fellow beings who have no hope, surely that makes us more human.

Post date: 6 Nov 2006

Genting - Cool Weather + Smell = TMD

KNN. Just now PSI was 150, the highest in 9 years!

Taken on Thu, 5 Oct 2006.

Taken on Fri, 6 Oct 2006.