Dinner and Coffee Break

After you went back, I went out with the other two pals for dinner at around 8pm. I had the korean noodles (W3500) with soup and shared the kimbap (sushi roll). The food was nice to eat, especially with the hot soup, good for warming up the tummy, it was so cold out there, you know!?!

After that, we went to Myeongdon at the Coffee Love (6th floor), just opposite the Dunkin Donuts. This cafe is a cool and cosy, with nice seats. I had Citron tea (W6000), it tasted very sweet, we also shared waffle (W10000) top up with 2 flavours of ice cream (Vanilla and Strawberry). We went back to the guesthouse at around 11:30pm.

In Kimchee Land

For almost 2 weeks in Seoul, it's really freezing cold, temperature going as low as 1 degree celsius. The snow didn't come, but, the temperature is expected to go down -10 degree next Monday.

The others are busy checking out bargain buys at Nandaemum and Dondaemum, I didn't get to go there, but, mostly to Myeongdon, just within walking distance from our Namsan Guesthouse. The gals bought a lot of cosmetic stuffs, cheaper than in Singapore, especially BB cream, the current craze, magic cream that can be applied on the face to 'hide' blemish.

Oh right, we also went up to the mountain where the Seoul tower is via cable car. There is also a place near the City Hall where we walk down a river stream, bought something warm to eat at Kwangjang Market, where there are at least 200 small stores selling local food like spicy rice cake, pork meat, etc.

So far, things have been going well, the treatment was fine, in two days time, I will be back home!

Tight on Resource

One of our sys admin people has gone back to his hometown as wife just gave birth to a boy, 2nd child. The other sys admin, whom is still new to the work, is now having a hard time covering his area, so, I have to help out.

Two days ago, the network guy last him wallet and some of his documents, had to make a police report, also, need time away to re-reply for the documents as he will need them for his travelling between here and his hometown. Not only was he not around, his backup was also at another site.

For the last few days, lunch for me is mostly eating alone. The other sys admin (she) simply refused to eat lunch with me.

In a wonderful world, but, pathetically lonely...

Recovering from Flu

The last time I had a flu was more than 4 years ago. So, for the last 4 years, i always went for my yearly flu vaccination.

I have had flu for the last 2 weeks, I guess the flu vaccine had already expired, in fact, for almost 5 months. Lesson learnt: better go for the vaccination again, especially, I will be going overseas next month, don't really want to get struck by flu again.

Well, today, I went back to office to help my fellow System administrator to patch the server, HP-UX, she is new and needs help. Wow, so long never patch servers, almost forgotten how to do it.

Incident reports

3 months in the job, already with at least 4 incidents happening, and other smaller ones not recorded, i.e. managed to cover up.

Most of the incidents were due to human errors, like today, one of the operators mis-keyed a command, mistaken 'z' for 'd'. As a result, the whole system hung and it had to be rebooted or in mainframe's term, IPL. When everything comes up, checked system ok, database ok and website ok, but, next morning during online, users cannot log on. System and middleware guys checked ok, but database side saw an utility holding on to some tables. After getting the agreement from the Apps, the System DBA terminated the utility, everything back to normal, login was ok.

I had to do the incident report again, and do some damage control, the system owner was asking for the names of the operator who made the mistake, oh gosh, should I give names? I'm now in a dilemma man....

There it goes...down...down...down...

Oh gosh, I made a big mistake yesterday.

So eager to test out an LTO tape drive on an Intel server that I , without thinking, plug in the SCSI connector on the 'live' server, oops, bad action, the server just went down itself. Even after a power recycle, it did not come up, worst thing is that a BSOD saying "the boot device is inaccessible".

How could I make such a big error, connecting a tape drive to a production server without having to shut it down first? In the end, we had to reinstall the OS, recover a back-dated system state, reinstall the middleware (oracle DB) and finally restore the files and DB data from the backup.

I guess we were lucky, managed to restore back the system, although, some batch jobs were affected, which can be re-run or recover.

Three cheers to the team, who worked through the night (>7hrs) to fix the problem. Guys, sorry for the err on my part, please accept my sincere apology.

Tell you a story...

If you are a gal, you saw something so interesting that you wanted your bf to get (read buy) it for you. What would you do?

Maybe you will tell him straight away, yes? So, this bf of yours says..."ok, can get it for you! but....", seeing that you have been dieting and your body getting very thin, he says..."try to gain some weight first, then, we will see?"

So, if you are a SG gal, what would you say?

Maybe, you would say...."nay, I don't need you to get it for me, I have a job, I got money, I buy it myself!"

So, what if you are not a SG gal, what would you say?

Maybe, you would say...."ok, dear, I will do it for you, don't forget, ok?"

So sweet.....

I'm getting crazy with work!

I must be getting more and more "inducted" into my job, crazy! More of the time these days, I don't really get to do anything, really, nothing much of interest at all!

What's up??? Well, most of the stuffs that I used to do, now I have passed on to my junior colleagues to do. Sounds good? Nay, not really to me. I feel the itch whenever I don't get to do things, I'm the curious type, you know, like to probe and find out things.

My ex-boss used to tell me, "you must learn new things every day, then your life would be fruitful!". Well said, don't know whether its time to move on, maybe an opportunity is coming this way soon?? I got this feeling....

For now, I just have to get to work on time, and leaves on the dot (time).

Not telling the truth?

She told me she needs to take 1/2 day off to send off her cousin, at the airport, I guess. I almost believed her, until, when going home today, I asked her to wait for me, she just walk and walk, occasionally, looking back at me, I guess. That's strange!?!?!

Then...I know why, she was rushing to meet someone, a guy, when she saw him, she arm hugged him, hmm...cousin? Don't think so, you guess. Well, if she has been more matured enough, she would have introduced me to him, I was just steps behind them, maybe I should have kept a distance away. Nice gal, but,....

Anyway, earlier on, I have already told her that she can clear 1 day off/leave for tomorrow. Perhaps, tomorrow she has more time to send off her boyfriend who came back from overseas(??) to celebrate her birthday (I gave her a card and gift, remember?), or maybe, he's her husband, well, she's still young, maybe not....

Happy birthday to her!

I did something that I seldom do on Friday, that is, gave a colleague of mine (a she!) a birthday card and a small gift! Since when was the last time I gave or sent a card to someone? Hmmm....long, long time ago, I think.

Well, hopefully, she appreciates it and work harder in future. She is kind of special, the funny side of her always makes us laugh, but, when she is serious, her face shows it, and she means business.

10KM run, very shiok, more!

Oh hey, I have managed to finished the 10KM run last Sunday. Great, so shiok!

Already gathered some friends to sign up for the half marathon in December, it's for the Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon. I have already signed up, and now trying to get the rest to sign up too.

I have started preparing for the run, first, building up my endurance and stamina, then, for long distance. It will be tough running the half marathon, I am talking about 2x the 10KM, plus 2KM more. Wow, not easy...

Prepare for SBR!

It's time of the year, again, the SBR or the Singapore Bay Run coming on the 24 August. For the past years, I have not taking part in the event, but, this time round, I have gather some friends to join me. For a start, me going for the 10-km non-competitive run.

Started last Saturday, have been training for endurance runs, 5-km for a start, it is very tiring, not running for the last 2 years. Need to build up my stamina for the longer distance, so, I go jogging everyday, hope to reach the non-stop run for 10-km, my target.

Next year, maybe, will go for the half marathon, and then, in 2 years time, a full marathon, phew....tough....tough.....tough, a lot of hard work.

Endure, man!

National Day

Today is the 9th of August, it's Independence Day, aka National Day. It falls on a Saturday, company policy says I will get an off-in-lieu day to clear.

As usual, there will a national day celebration, a grand parade, this time opposite the Sands' IR, same as last year. Didn't manage to get a ticket to the parade, maybe will go down to watch the display and fireworks later in the afternoon.

Sweat, man, it so hot today, plus the haze is back, even worst weather.

Bitten by a dog!

I went cycling today, as usual, to the rural farmland places. While cycling by an estate at Track 14, saw some stray dogs wandering around, but, didn't really bothered. Just when I passed by one of the dogs, a local breed, light brown, adult male, it started barking and chasing after me, I went slow, that was a big mistake! Then, unexpectedly, it bite on my right calf! Ouch, painful, and it drew blood. How unlucky I was, I cycled away quickly.

I was worried about Rabbies infection, so, went to a GP, but he told me no anti-rabbies injection in stock. He told me to go to the hospital A&E, so, I went to one.

It didn't take long before a young, 26-year old lady doctor came and examined my wound and said it was a surface wound, after which, she prescripted a Tetanus Prophylaxis jab for me. Ok, I got the jab (last 5 years), also, got my medicines, the usual anti-biotics, pain killers and something for gastric pains. Wow, guess what, the consultant fee was not cheap, $75, the medicines, $6, it costs to get sick! By the way, I also got the sick leaves for today (Sunday??) and tomorrow.

Hello, I am back!

Did I tell you we had a new Unix administrator joining our team? She is fresh graduate from a local university, but from another country, Myanmar. So, after two months of work, I guess she is very much adapting to the life here, huh?

I can tell that she is pretty smart, learn things fast, and always want to venture into other domains. Like today, when we had a meeting with the network guys, she was so interested to find out about VLAN that she told one of the guys to teach her how to configure it on the switch, he said, very easy, only 2 commands. At times, I do see that she can be distracted, but, that is ok, it is good learning attitude.

Today, She was briefed on the Veritas Volume Manager, Veritas File system and Veritas Cluster server (VCS). She is already working on the Veritas Netbackup that she picked up last week. Now that I am glad I can concentrate on something else, things I always wanted to do.

Starting August, she will be on her own...

Hancock (movie)

A story about a man (Will Smith), a hard living public hero, who has strength far greater than an human being and can fly like superman. With a don't care kind of attitude, whose aim is to fight criminals, some member of public hate him, because he destroys public properties and disrupt lives, the police even issues warrants to have him arrested.

Having met a PR officer, and told about his problem, he makes a public apology, and promises he will change his attitude and temper. Subsequently, he is sent to jail, if good, may be released in 4 years time.

Later, he met the wife of the PR officer, and discovers that she, too, has special powers like him. So, he confronts her to find out the story. She tells him that they were meant to be husband and wife many decades ago, supposed to be immortal, this came as a surprise to the PR officer. All of those where were like them were dead, because when they get close to one another, they will lose their powers, and become mortal again and grow old, and if upon attacks, die. They are the only two left.

Due to a robbery, Hancock is shot and is sent to the hospital, and there with 'this' wife attacked by his enemy. Hancock fights on with the criminals, sustaining more bullet wounds, almost died, but, he revived just in time to save him and 'this' wife.

Story ends, I guess there may be more, part 2, part 3....For this superheroes movie, I say 3 out of 5 stars for special effects, 4 for storyline, 1 for romance and 4 for comedy (language, words).

The Happening (Show)

This show is about an event where people living the north-east of US were suddenly affected by some kind of mysterious nerve poisoning gas causing them to commit suicide. It spread quickly towards the west and south.

Many people tried desperately to run away from the affected regions, including a family. While escaping, they guessed that the poisoning gas originated from plants, trees and vegetations, when the wind blows, that is when it is lethal. Strangly, the family is not affected by this, not like the rest. It ended a week later.

This is more like a love story, being a teacher, the man of the family, trying to patching up to his wife, who before that didn't want to have a child and was involved in a mistaken relationship with another man.

The story didn't tell us much about what really happened, scientists only suspect the green plants and floras are giving a warning, maybe if humanity still continues to destroy them, this may be what is going to happen.

End of story, the camera moves to another country, it happens again....

Recovery from infection

It is my PC, I managed to re-install the Operating System (OS) last night, and now, it is up and running.

Having to re-install all the applications back is really a tedious task, but, this time round, I make sure all protection softwares are installed. This includes the SP2 for Windows XP, free Windows Defender and Symantec Anti-virus. As for my work essentials, the CheckPoint VPN secure-client, WinZip, Eraser, Windows Office suite, PDF and not to forgot, my favourite, Mozilla FireFox.

Hey, a new OS for a new start, got to make sure to be careful when surfing the Internet in future.

Oh no! My PC infected!

I was surfing the web and chanced upon a website, then out of the sudden, the Anti-virus software pop-up saying there was Trojan-horse virus or spyware. The Anti-virus software tried to clean it, but was only partially done. I tried to remove the infected files manually, but didn't work well, a reboot of the PC, the infection came back again when I re-connected to the Internet.

Then, I proceeded to repair the Windows XP OS, but to no avail, worst! It can't even boot up to the desktop, errors, no blue screen though. No choice but to re-install the OS from scratch, this is going to be a tedious exercise on a Saturday night, but, hey, play safe, do backup first.

New Team Member

This week, a new member joined our team, she is a fresh graduate from a local university, but, with at least one year working experience in deskstop and Windows systems support. After talking to her, I found that she pretty smart and learn things fast. She is joining our team as a system engineer, specifically, Unix admin.

For the next couple of weeks, we will be passing her lots of know-how and hands-on job training.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The Soviets want it (The Crystal Skull), because it has the capability to control the minds of humans (e.g. U.S politicians, leaders). Indiana Jones and team wants to return it to where it belongs (somewhere in Peru). With the help of a captured Jones' old friend, they try to find out where the skull came from.

The adventure begins with the Soviets hot on their tail, Jones and team have to fight them times again and again. Surviving through the firefights with the Soviets, man eating insects (ants?) and falls from three steep waterfalls, they finally got to a hidden ancient city in the Peruian jungle.

They went straight into a temple looking structure and see crystal skeletons surrounding them, one of them is without a (crystal) skull. Then the Soviet agent arrives, taking away the skull, and put it back to where it is supposed to be. The building structure shakes, starts collapsing and water floods in, then, everyone started running for their lives. Out on a high ground, Jones and team see what looks like a space ship raising up from the site, atlas, it is clear, the place was built by an Alien civilisation.

Story ends with Jones marry the woman whom he was supposed to marry many years back and found out a son he fathered with the woman, they were in the same adventure.

Back from Hong Kong and Macau

Just back a week ago from Hong Kong and Macau with a friend. It was kind of a breakaway trip from my hectic work.

On touching down to Hong Kong International Airport, we bought ferry tickets (at the arrival), straight to Macau. The thing that impressed us was that, as part of the airport's integrated sea, land, air service, our luggages were 'invisibly' moved from our in-coming flight to the ferry, without us physically carry them on the boat and no check-out of the airport! Take a fast boat from the Hong Kong Airport's ferry terminal to Macau ferry terminal in about 45mins. Actually, not many people know about this arrangement.

Macau is a small place with many good to visit casinos, not necessary to gamble though, you could just take the free shuttle buses from the ferry terminal to any casinos or hotels, even if you are not staying there. If you have a camera, do take pictures of their hotel structures and decorations, they are really nice. Oh, don't forget to pick up a map at the ferry terminal, don't worry, you wouldn't get lost, if you do, just go to any hotel, take their free buses and go back to the starting point, the ferry terminal.

If you want to, you could also take the local buses (not expensive!), and go on a short trip to Taipa and coloane islands to the south, and enjoy the more laid-back rural life. Most locals may not speak English, know where you are going, check the route map at each bus stop first. Remember this, the buses can be very crowded in the evening, as most are taken by the workers from the construction sites, they jam pack the buses, and don't have to habit the give way to alighting passengers, you may have to squeeze your way out.

Some places to visit, the Chapel of Saint Francis Xavier, Senado Square, Ruins of St. Paul’s, etc. Oh, remember to buy the egg tarts from Lord Stow's Bakery at 1 Rua da Tassara, Coloane Town Square on Coloane Island, really sweet and tasty, don't miss it!

Value Of Our Human Thumbs

You see, our human thumbs can do wonders. Some people tuck it into their mouth, and suck it or taste it (yucks! I know). Most will find it convenient to use the thumbs for pressing buttons. It can even help you to turn keys to open doors or pinch someone on the face. So, do you know the value of your thumbs?

What I'm trying to say is, if a company knows the values of its people, it would have made every effort to retain them when they intend to leave for good. Sadly, this is not so in most company...

Rich dad, poor dad

Recently, I read a pretty interesting book 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' by Robert Kiyosaki's and Sharon Lechter. It's not really just about investment, per se, but one that advocates financial independence through investing.

The book touches on the fact that most people lacks finance accounting knowledge and understanding. This has led to many people running into cash flow problems, because they don't understand the differences between Income, Expenses, Assets and liabilities. It's simple, buy more assets that bring up cash flows (e.g. real assets), cut down on liabilities (e.g. car loans), as long as your assets' cashflows can cover your expenses, your are considered wealthy!

Airshow 2008

On the 23 Feb, there was this Airshow coming right to city (Eastern part actually), once every 2 years.

I had to queue for 2hrs just to get to the free shuttle bus, took another hour for the bus to clear the traffic jam, and another 30 mins to clear the scanning and checking station at the Airshow site. By the time I reach the site, the aerobatics display was already over. That is not the end yet, the going back trip was worst, all messed up, people everywhere. In the end, I had to pay 5 dollars just to get on a paid bus.

The organiser said they didn't anticipate so many people coming, not true, people bought tickets from them in advance. They should know how many people have bought the tickets. Tickets costed $20 each, no freebies, no cap, no drinks, nothing.

what a waste of time going there.

SOE Awarded

Finally, after more than a year of anticipation and waiting, the SOE or the Government's Standard Operating Environment project has been award, it goes to the OneMeridian team. Check out the news release:

http://www.ida.gov.sg/News%20and%20Events/20080228151049.aspx?getPagetype=20

Smart kid

The other day, our familiy gathered to have a 'lao yu sheng' dinner. It's actually a CNY (chinese new year) celebration dish consist of raw fish (yu sheng), usually Salmon, shredded cucumber, carrots, and some other vegetables. Then, everyone, armed with chopsticks will lift the ingredients high up, that is 'lao', may means grab ($$) in chinese dialect (I think!), for good luck, eat it.

Surprisely, my little (pre-school) niece, was able to use the chopsticks, we have always thought she can't, so usually, we give her forks and spoons. She didn't want to tell us who taught her. Yes, what a naughty girl.

Leap year

So fast, it's 1st day of February, 2008 today.

This month we are going to see 29 days, it happens every 4 years, it is also the year of the Summer Olympics. This month there will be a 2-day holiday, which is the Chinese Lunar New Year, wow, can take a break from work.

Maybe, I will be spending some time visiting friends and relatives.....

Long, long queue

Seriously, I hate to queue! Irregardless of where I go, there are queues at food courts, bus stops, taxi stands, cashier lines, yes, everywhere.

This city is getting crowded here, small place, densely populated. With all the booming economy activities, people are buying, buying and buying, where did they get their money from, stock market? Price of housing is rocketing because of some invisible driving force pushing the prices up, at least 30% increase compared to one year ago. There are people, especially foreigners, complaining that they couldn't find a decent priced apartments. Cost of necessity products also went up by at least 10%.

Crazy!?! I just hope some day all this will cool down, I guess it should be happening pretty soon...

Happy New Year 2008!

Another fresh new year, wish everyone may all their wishes come true.

This year's New Year fireworks display duration was very short, only 8 minutes. The worst thing of all was, we, friends, were at a spot, can hear, but, can't see the fireworks, wrong place! Not just me, but a lot of people were also there, haha, big mistake. In the end, we had to chase and run around some blocks of buildings trying to get near. Yup, can hear, but, still partially blocked view.

I managed to take some pictures, the night scenes photos taken were not good, I think exposure too long. Sooo... disappointed.