How's the robotic vacuum cleaner doing?

Remember I bought that Robotic vacuum cleaner last month?

Fantastic! Although it can only manage to clean up about 80% of the area, it is good, really. Well, since it's round, it is not good at cleaning corners, a minus point. One thing that it does well is to clean up all the hair on the floor in its path. It does make noise due to the brushes and motor, but it is still acceptable.

It only vacuum, but not mop. The power of the vacuum is not that strong, but imagine once it completes a full charged vacuum cycle (~90mins), the dust collector bin were full of dust and hair to be cleared.

It's also smart, once it almost run out of battery power, yes, it's on chargeable batteries, it automatically navigate back to the base station to re-charge. So far, it has been able to "go home" itself, even if it's in the bedroom, out of sight of the base station!

The other thing is that it talks too, e.g. greets you before it starts work, inform you when it's running out of power, tell you when it's stuck, or the best one, when you pick it up, it will tell you to put it down!

Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

I have been looking around for a good robotic vacuum cleaner. Can't really find it in electric or electronics stores, it seems that it's still not a popular item in households here. But, when I tried to search for them in the Net or from online shops like Qoo10, there are plenty of models to choose from. There are brands such as LG and Samsung to those from China and Hong Kong. The Korean brands are more expensive, some could cost more that $1K. For those not so well known brands, they are in the range of $100 to $400.

I'm still looking for one that can suck up hairs and dust, with battery lasting many hours, auto-homing to charging base and has the capability to run on scheduled times. If you find one, do let me know.

My lovely one

Oh my, how the little one has grown. Although still not able to say a proper sentence, I can tell that she trying. 'Da..da...", she called. I think she's calling for me.

From a small baby to a toddler, seeing her learning to turn over, crawl, stand-up, walk and run, it's an experience as a parent goes through and it's always so joyful one.

Soon, she will learn how to say a sentence. She knows what we are trying to say, obviously, we need to give her the encouragement to speak up. Time will come.

Haze and F1

So, here comes the haze, at times climbing beyond PSI 200, pretty bad with that burning smell lingering in the air. People here are snatching masks till they are sold out. Haze is something that came from our neighbour and we have no control over.

So, will the F1 be cancelled or postponed due to the haze? Some F1 drivers said they are staying indoors most of the time, yes, it's a serious health hazard. Billions of dollars are at stake. There is nothing much that we can do. It's annoying and hurting, but life still have to go on.

How are you today?

I'm fine, thank you.

A simple good question to ask when you meet someone be it in the office or on the go. The weather is getting hotter, and the haze seems to be back, although not as serious compared to years ago.

Few days back something bad happened in Bangkok, a disaster struck, some people were hurt. This is not good. Why would there people who wants to hurt other people? There are many questions that need to be answered. Life is short, we must learn to treasure it, especially if you have your own family with children. Nothing is more important than caring for your loved ones.

The sign

There seems to have some tell-tale signs that something is coming, the ministers are coming out talking, the opposition are talking. The MPs are getting busier. There are also new faces visiting the neighbourhoods. There's rumour saying the GE is coming on 12 or 19 Sept. I'm not sure about that, unless it's confirm by the ACE of SPADE.

Somewhere up north, things are not doing well for the top ACE, too many bad rumours and stories spreading around, are they true or not, no one dare to confirm. Hopefully one day, things will be clear.

Politics are complex, involved many people, no one can totally trust anyone, not even if he or she is close to you. In a work office, it's not uncommon to hear about people back stabbing each other. Everyone knows about office politics, but most are just playing along, no big deal. Keeping an open eye, be vigilant, remain focus with your job, that's the key to survive in the hectic and sometimes chaotic and cruel corporate world.

Try to bake something

Recently, I tried to bake some bread and cheesecake, well how difficult can it be? just follow the manuals and instructions, and then do it.

Ha ha...it's not easy, really. My first 2 tries on making baguette didn't work as expected, they look like one, but they are just too hard to be eaten. I also tried to make cheesecakes, just the normal ones, nothing fanciful. The first one tasted more like baked cheese, the second one, which I tried last night, look more like one, but it was flatten out, it didn't "rise" up like that kind of cheesecake you get from a bakery.

Something just seems to be not right, is it the flour that I'm using? The temperature? The Oven? I don't understand. I just hope that someone can enlighten me on this.

Expect heavier workload

Coming to the end of June, almost half year 2015 gone. This Sunday, there will be 2 major upgrade activities, one would be front by another of our senior Unix admin, and the other by me. Interestingly, the overall OIC is staying home, waiting for our updates, while we are working hard over the midnight and afternoon.

This month was also quite disappointing, while we got our bonus, but one thing I had expected didn't come, a promotion which would have uplifted my moral. Sadly, after so many years, it seems the bosses don't see me fit for one. It's ok, life moves on. Maybe if there's a better opportunity, I will grab it.

David Letterman's late night show

It has been quite sometime since I last watched the Late show with David Letterman. I remember many, many years ago, it was one of the rare late night American shows that I used to watch, so do my friends, when we were much younger. Sometimes, I may not understand American's humour well, but, it was still funny, you know? It finally ended, David will no longer appeared on his show anymore, he will be missed, definitely.

http://www.thewrap.com/david-letterman-last-show-social-media/

If time can roll-back

If ever time can roll-back, I wish I had got married earlier and live happily in a family with many kids. Most of my friends and peers were married younger than me, and their kids were already older.

Work had always been my priority when I started working. I was ambitious and don't care less about my other well-being, but not to the point of bulldozing my way out of any situations and hurt people. I have always been nice, I guess too nice, trying to help people when they come to me.

Time passes fast, I remember the time on 11/9/2001, I was in the office's pantry checking at the CNA TV news telecast on the Sep-11's WTC strike. Then it was in 26/12/2004, the Indian Ocean Earth quake and Tsunami that destroyed lives of many people. The SARS from 2003 to 2004. The global economy crisis of year 2008, pay freeze,...and may other things happened in the last 15 or so years.

Recently, a news article touched many people's heart, including me, it's about a young toddler becoming the youngest person to be cryogenically frozen - http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/thai-toddler-becomes-youngest-person-be-cryogenically-frozen

As human, we always try to look at the bright side of things, hearing nice things, eating good food  and wear pretty clothes, but we know the world is not perfect. Sometimes, there are sad and unhappy things that we have to live with. Remember this, if you are still alone now, go get yourself a partner fast, don't wait till you are old and rotten, lonely gets lonely, and when you start to regret, it may be too late.

Let's live life to the fullest!

Don't look back

The whole city was sadden by the loss of the founding Father. A week of mourning attracted millions of people here to pay their last respect to Him either at the Parliament House, where a queue could last 10 hours, or at the other tribute sites located around the neighbourhoods centres.

Rain or shine, hungry or thirsty, it doesn't matter, the important things in the mind of people was that everyone gathered as a united nation, you help me, I help you, that was the time when you truly see the spirits of the one people, one nation, one Singapore.

While the founding Father had left, there is no looking back, we will survive, so let's move on...

Growing up

Able to see the LO growing day by day is an experience someone who is not a parent would not go through. Watching the LO taking the first step, fall and come back up again, and continue to walk, the determination to do better every time can be felt.

Now, LO has so many things to do and to play, so busy walking and running around the house. LO is now able to slowly climb down from the bed, clap hands, fingers pointing and smile at people, these make my day! Especially, after a day of hectic, tiring work, priceless, nothing to compare!

The little one's first step

I wasn't home early yesterday, worked late as usual. Then I saw this video of the LO walking without any assist for the first time. Yes, I got very emotional and excited at the same time. By the time I got home, the LO had already gone to bed. I hardly slept for the night, and on the next morning, I went to LO's bed and gave hugs. This is the time in life where you will get so uplifted, I have waited long for this to happen. So happy...

My regret or is it?

At work, having been with the same company for more than 10 years, almost doing the same thing day by day, never really get to move on to other branches of the work field is one big regret. Some of my friends said that I'm crazy working for the same company for so many years.

All these years, I have seen fellow colleagues come and go, yes, I do feel a sense of sadness and loneliness. Some of them moved on to other companies and now they are doing better, advanced up! Some quitted to go back to their home town or even migrate out of this country. Right now, most of who I work with or met in the company are young, I just feel that it's kind-of hard to work close to them like I used to with my ex-colleagues, maybe their thinking is different or they are better trained to do the stuff, so they don't need someone like me to nag or teach them.

 Looking at the photo of my ID card which was taking more than 10 years ago, I know I'm no longer young, but I do believe that my attitude of endorsing changes and hardwork, I'm still relevant and can still do better, these should be my strong points.

Beginning of a new year 2015

Our team has finally migrated the 2 remaining systems. The best part is that we didn't delay or postpone any roll-out dates. I heard that we will get praised for the efforts our team put in in this exercise. This is good thing.


Up coming, there will be another huge migration exercise, much bigger that the 3 systems migrated earlier, and most probably, I will need to play a bigger role, although I will not be the main person fronting it.


Separately, I'm glad that, now, the playful little One is learning to walk with assist, hopefully, by the end of the month, the One will be able to walk and run without any help!