Maybe will be delayed

The project to migrate systems from another site to our data centre seems to be doing fine at one look. Over the course of 3 weeks, our team can finally get the UAT environment ready to be handled over to the application team tomorrow for they web applications deployment, but for the production environment, things hit some obstacles.

Firstly, for production environment, we haven't got the budget approved to purchase a no. of software and hardware, resulting in having to share, e.g. firewalls and network switches. Secondly, even with the hardware delivered, there are just sitting in the staging room, not able to be deployed, due to the fact that because there wasn't a budget to engage the vendor for professional services, we had to source in-house, and you know what? The in-house people (not from our team!) are not familiar with implementing them, so, the project got delayed.

I don't mean to be crapehanger person, but it seems that things aren't progressing as expected, there are just similar too many show stoppers. It's so discouraging sometimes, even if you want to be a good engineer or PM, there are things that you can't control, nothing works perfect.

I will be going on leaves next week, there's not much time for me with so much work to do, and with a team that heavily rely on me to carry out the work, I'm really worried.

Shellshock Bash vulnerability

For the last one week, life wasn't good, with the announcement of the Bash's flaws, everybody was busying checking their equipment whether they are subjected to the weakness. For the Unix folks, CVE-2014-6271 was the very first that they were told to apply the fix, but after the weekends, it was another one, CVE-2014-7169.

More vulnerabilities were detected, and more CVEs were released, it was really bad. Some vendors didn't even have the patch to address the issue yet for this >20 year old Bash thing.

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/news/2240231709/Vendors-push-new-Bash-patches-as-more-flaws-emerge?track=NL-1820&ad=896324&asrc=EM_NLN_34719724&uid=976171&utm_medium=EM&utm_source=NLN&utm_campaign=20141001_Shellshock+alert%3A+Vendors+push+patches+as+more+Bash+flaws+emerge_mbacon

Project Win

Recently, the team just got another project. It's for a migration and new systems setup for a virtualised solution using MS Hyper-V. Servers will be windows 2012 Server R2. There will be a new network infrastructure, with F5 LTM2000S, MFE Firewall Ent S4016, Check Point SG4600 Appliance, IPS/IDS, etc.  It's going to be very interesting.

I reckon for the next 1 month, I will be busy with the project. Hopefully, I still can find time to attend some courses, to build up my knowledge. I wanted to sign-up for a network course, but it's kind of too expensive, so for now, not possible, maybe next time.

Outlook 2010 cache

I always have this slowness problem when opening my Outlook. So, a bit frustrated, I seek Mr Google for advice, the greatest "know-all" consultant immediate told me the answer.

What I did was to close Outlook, then delete the OST files from hard drive, C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. This is for windows 7.

Re-launch Outlook, wow...not only it open fast after the one-time sync to local cache, it cleared away the space used by the old cache, thus, saved me disk space.

What's up?

I have signed up for two running events, one for a 16KM road run, and the other is a 12KM night trail run.

To prepare for both runs, I have actually embarked on a 12-week Marathon training program for beginners, www.medibank.com.au/bemagazine/post/marathon-12-week-beginner-running-guide . I have just completed the week 1 of the program, it has been tough, having clocked almost 25KM in all. Other than that, I have also bought a new pair of Solomon's XR Mission trail shoes and a pair of socks for trail run. I have only completed a 10.5KM trail run about 3 months back, it was raining on that day, the ground condition was muddy and bad, but it was a good experience.

Week 2 ahead, let's hope I can stick though the program and never give up!

Time to relax!

After the completion of the two projects, it's now time to relax a bit. But hey, wait, there's the audit! Although, for this time round I'm not the main OIC to follow up with things, it's still quite a tedious work for me, as I will still need to support the OIC to furnish information required by the auditor. There are plans for another system upgrade and one system migration project to do, but the dates are yet to be confirmed.

Meanwhile, I will plan for some short away from office trips. This Friday, I'm going to the Zoo, and end of the month, I'm planning for a staycation on a outer island. Cheers...

May Day!

It's May Day today, not May's Day, but 1st of May, aka  Labour Day.

People in this part of the world are worrying about their jobs and salaries, some say it's because of the local government's lenient immigration policy to allow inflow of foreign talents into the country, leading to locals not able to get jobs or even secure their jobs.

It was said that the recent years of higher than expected inflation and rising standard of living was due to the presence of many foreigners. Housing costs, necessities cost, cars prices increases, etc. are making locals becoming more pessimistic.

Are foreigners competing with locals on jobs and cause so much unhappiness? Or rather, will their presence make locals work harder and smarter, I don't know, really.

Time for break

Finally, both the newly upgraded systems have 'go-live'. But, its still not yet time to celebrate as there are issues pending to be resolved.

At least for now, there isn't need for us to stay over the night to watch over things. Now, to prepare documentations and take over stuffs.

We have done this many times, taking over the support of the systems from other teams, it would take at least 3 months. Meanwhile, time for me to relax after almost a year of high tension work, perhaps going on a short trip soon.

So many things to do till I forget...

I have been busy, super busy lately, till I have got no time to blog last month. Come next month, there are 3 newly upgraded systems to be rolled out to users.

App people are busying doing UAT and troubleshooting issues now, and at times when there's a problem, they will finger pointing at us. A couple of times, we had to defend ourselves, fighting back their claims. Welcome to the real IT world! It will be getting worst, more sleepless nights, many weekends to burn, schedules that looks fine on paper, but just isn't making sense to follow and frequently had to be amended. Projects timelines and milestones are always delayed.

The important thing now is to keep the team intact, make sure everyone is not over worked, over agitated, over de-moralised, and always in a uplifted spirit!

Fight on, guys and gals. 20 more days to go! Endure!

Happy new year 2014!

Happy new year!

It has been a quite a hectic last one year, so many things to do.

This month, and likely for the next 3-5 months, it's going to be the busiest time of the year.

Already in progress are 3 security audits, 3 system upgrade projects, 2 DR testing and endless ad-hoc support. Our engineers are basically the victims of cost cutting, 1 engineer got to do the work of 3, and that's not all, he has to be at 3 different places at the same time! How is it possible?

Sometimes, I think some of those directors and PMs do not have the visibility of the ground situation, they are just not aware that the engineers are working so hard, and tiring out too. When the bosses don't get what they want, they will just complain to the engineers' superior, this is causing so much unhappiness.

I don't want to do that kind of thing to my fellow peers and staff, you can really tell from their faces that they have lots of resentment against you, I hate seeing it, but what can I do? There's really this much of things I can help and feedback to management, but it's just not working.

It's year end time!

Oh yes, it's already into December, the last month of 2013! Just image that in less than 20 days time, it's Christmas, and in 25 days time, it's a new year. hehe hoho...

Hey, back to the real world, there are tons of work to do now, people are on leaves and you have to cover their duties. Some more, there are new project implementations to follow-up, how sad, this year end, most probably I will not get much rest. Even if I have to apply for leaves, I still have to work from home.

Never mind, for now, just enjoy any free time I have, hope that next year would be better one. Cheers...

Trust no one

Over the past months, I learnt something that is so valuable, and so important that I will always keep reminding myself again and again, never to forget!

I have always been the trusting kind, that means I trust almost anyone, especially, people close to me, e.g. my colleagues, friends. At times, I need to entrust someone to do something, well, you may think that it's easy, because they will know what to do, not quite.

Let me share one of the many bad experiences about work delegation. I have this SA that I'm always proud of, but now, I just don't feel comfortable with the ways he does things. There was once, I told him to do up a documentation, he confidently said he will finish it by Friday (that day was Wednesday). When Friday came, nothing happens! And till now, still no results. Hey, that Friday was more than a month ago! This was not the first case.

I told him that if you cannot do something right, don't promise. Don't say "sorry" once, twice, third time, it wouldn't work anymore. I even have to watch his back, so, whenever he finished doing something, or should I say when he told me he had completed something, I got to secretly double-check just to make sure things are really done proper!

I thought I can go back early

I packed my bag, I thought I could go home early today, but, OH NO...

One of our Sys Admins said he needed to go for RT, so he had to leave office early. The worst thing that could happen is that I have to do a last min. follow-up task for him. He is supposed to install the Symantec netbackup client on one of the development WIN2008R2 server, but maybe he forgot, now, I have to stay back in the data centre and do it, so that the backup guy can run the backup tonight. It's so cold in the DC, and I don't have my warm jacket with me. I'm having a headache too!

Problem now, I inserted the CD, it just won't install, then after trying for more that an hour, then I realised that the CD had bad blocks! The Windows event log says so. I'm waiting for my client installer download from Symantec, 300+MB, hopefully, it works later.

Yet another chance wasted!

Last week, I thought I will get a chance to go Sydney for a business trip, but again, a dream that didn't come true.

There's already a group of people there, and I'm supposed to be on standby to assist from remote if they need help. There's also a guy who was HPUX-trained, and supposed to go there too, but again, didn't happen.

I know that a DBA colleague of mine is having a lot of fun there, other than work, he get to visit places too. How nice, isn't it?

What can I do about it?

The other day, I was asked whether I'm interested to go for a overseas working trip for 2-3 months, best of all, it was to Sydney! I was elated, I remembered I said 'yes'.

But, later in the week, I saw any email forwarded to me, it said that my boss was against it, because I'm much needed in the project, I'm too important to leave the team at this time. I know then, my boss' boss tried to persuade him, so that I can move on and go on the trip, after that, there was no news. So disappointed!

I have always wanted to go overseas to work on sometime different from what I'm doing now, but when the opportunity comes knocking, I just don't have the luck to get it!

MSCA 2012 finally!

Oh yes! I have cleared my third and last paper for the MCSA 2012 exams.

I'm so relief now after months and months of hard work studying for the exams. I have cleared this target just as I predicted. Next, I'm going to prepare for the Solaris 11 exams, 2 papers to take, hope to clear it by September.

Wish me luck...all...the...way!!! ;)

Late night, can't sleep

It's already way past midnight, and I'm still awake.

For the past week, the haze was unbearable, my eyes was watering, my nose was sniffing and my throat was crying in pain. Earlier in the week, I was feeling so giddy and almost couldn't get up to work.

Lucky it rained and the haze was clear, cooler weather came back for awhile. It rained hailstones in some part of this region, I saw some trees were fallen, one driver even claimed that his car windscreen was smashed by the hailstones. I have never seen hailstones before, too bad I missed it, but I was sure glad that I wasn't standing out in the open when the hailstones came.

I have completed 2 out of the 3 papers for the Windows 2012 Server admin certification, now, I have to study hard for the last one, hope that I can clear it soon.

The change

Recently, the company roll-out a no. of new systems, a vendor quotation system that tracks emails of how you get the quotes from external parties, they claimed this is for governance. There's another system that is supposed to help people raise purchases, but, we already have a SAP finance system, I don't quite understand why there's a need for another one...oh, for governance! With so many systems, it lengthens the process flow, and make it more difficult for people to work efficiently. I found that I'm actually spending more time doing all these "paper work".

Finally, my boss told me that I will have to report to another boss. I guess it's time for me to re-look at my career path, whether what I have done is worth it. One thing I found was that my ex-bosses don't really appreciate my help. Those bosses that I helped before had move up, and I don't get even a pat on the back or promotion for my good work. I just hope that, under the new boss, he's going to treat me better, and really appreciate my efforts spent, perhaps, put me up for a promotion soon.

Cleared first Windows exams

I have recently taken my first Windows server 2012 paper, and managed to pass. This is just the first of the three papers that I have to clear. Come this end of the month, I will have to attend the second course of the certification program, then study and try to pass the second paper. The third one is in June.

Other than these Windows exams, I also have two more papers for the Solaris 11 exams, yes, it's pretty new, so far, not many people has taken the exams. In fact, the second of the two is still beta, which you have to take 150 questions, quite tough, I heard.

So now, I have four more papers to go, work hard la...

Windows Server 2012

I have finally completed my 1-year course, but sadly, I couldn't attend the graduation ceremony scheduled at the end of the month, because I have to attend a course. I have also received news that I had won a award for good academic performance in the 1-year course, well, not bad for someone who hasn't been attending school for more than 10 years!

The new course I talked about is the new windows Server 2012, this is a certification course, I have to go through 3 classes, and take 3 papers. I think this is tough one, since I haven't been touching on the Windows OS very often for quite sometime. However, I hope that I can clear the exams, and not disappoint anyone, including my boss.

Finally, hard work pays off!

I received the results last month, it was too good to be true, but I believe that there are other students who did better than me!

One whole year of hard work, many nights spending working on the assignments, it's time to celebrate...haha.

The graduation is scheduled to be in mid May, but I know I can't make it because I have a Windows Admin course to attend. Two of my classmates also did not want to attend, I guess I have to miss this event as well.

Next, I will be embarking on my Windows and Solaris admin certifications, it's going to be tough, but I don't have a choice, as in IT, the job is so competitive, and if you don't upgrade your knowledge, you will become obsolete. Being always technically knowledgeable and hard working are the only ways to go to keep ahead of your peers.

Post no. 300

If I'm not wrong, this is post no. 300! Oh yeah!!!

I have been writing this blog since 2006, that's more than 6 years. How time flies, I remember my first post was about my trip to Australia, and I uploaded some photos from that trip. I have since travelled to other cities, e.g. South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, and even north-east China. All these trips have opened up my eyes, there are simply so many interesting things to see, and not forgetting the food too.

Today, one of my colleagues asked where is best place to travel to where you can get to see things, well, I recommended him to South Korea. Seoul is a very busy and unique place, it's unlike this place that I live in, most obviously, the people, they are an united single race, speaking a single language, so modern, a technological advance city. I have been there a couple of times, and even drove (car) in Cheju island, I feel that I like the place so much that I wanted to go again after I come back!

I hope to save enough money to be able to travel again, maybe Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam soon...

Happy Lunar New Year

In a day's time, it's Chinese New year!

Today, Saturday, 9th Feb, is the CNY's eve, this is a time where all our family members will gather and have a reunion dinner. This year we are going to have steamboat and barbecue! Oh yeah!!!

Our fridge is already stuffed up with lots of seafood and vegetables. Other than that, we will also have red wines and juices to drink.

CNY is the time when we will eat and eat, drink and drink, talk and talk, till you fall sick...no, just kidding!

Have a blessed 2013

Hello everybody! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How did you spend your Christmas and New year?

I went on an overseas tour to Taiwan last December, it was a fun trip round the island. I have gone to the night markets, ate nice food such as the stinky tou fu, oyster mee sua, fried chicken cutlets, etc. I guess most of you who have been there had enjoyed the trip too, right? And not forget to bring back boxes of pineapple tarts.

Oh well, I hope for many good changes for this new year, a better career advancement opportunity and good money making opportunities. Be optimistic, cheers!

2 done, 1 more to go

I have submitted the two assignments, out of three. Those were the programming and "theory" assignments.  I have one more to go, it is for Photoshop website assignment, actually, I'm already done with it, just waiting for the weekend to come to submit it.

From this week till end of Dec, it's the vacation period, but, I was told that the second programming assignment will be out and I have to do it during this break. Anyway, four months to go, and hopefully I can do well to score good GPA.

Assignments

So far, the semester 2's assignments are pretty ok, not overload with many questions to do. The school is trying to push us to clear all the subjects and graduate, since come next year, there wouldn't be another opening of this course anymore. So, if you were to do badly, there will not be a repeat course.

I have almost completed the Web design (using Photoshop) and JSTL programming assignments, well, not so difficult, but, I think the challenge will come next term, as the weightage of the assignments and exams would be much higher, i.e. tougher questions. I have one more essay assignment to do, hope I can finish by the due date.

I definitely have to work harder next term. Good luck to me!

Changes to come

How things have changed for the past few months and more to come.

I heard a couple of days ago, two of the heavenly kings will be leaving the system team by end of this month, these guys are really the pillar of the support team, the pioneers who know things in and out. So sad that the company is not really making an effort to keep them.

There had been a re-org, my boss will soon not be my boss anymore, well, he's moving on to a new portfolio. I can see that he fighting hard (struggling?) in his new post, and I don't think he bothers about us anymore. He asked me whether I would like to take up the PM for the project that he's currently leading, where I'm helping him, I said, I will think about it. Really, I don't have much choice, my guys are telling me to take it up, else it will go to another guy, which I will have to report to, and whom I'm just not comfortable to work with.

To me, a PM role is a very dynamic one, you will not know what you will get next. For one moment, your boss comes asking to see you, and tell you that he has a new project for you to lead, and you can't say no, or the next moment, your subordinate comes to tell you that she wants to quit. Not easy, man, really...

Going to South Korea

Tomorrow, I will be flying off to Seoul. I will be spending about 10 days travelling in South Korea and Jeju island.

For the last few weeks, typhoons have been troubling the area in northern asia, according to the news, there were quite a number of damages to buildings and places. The last I heard, the typhoons had already shifted, hopefully, they will dissipate soon.

I'm looking forward to the trip, so happy that I'm getting a break now from work.

Last Paper of Semester 1

Today, I'm going to take the last test paper for this semester. It's on the internet security subject, basically, CIA or Confidentiality, Integrity and Available, actually, two more, Authentication and Access control.

The cryptography topics are the toughest to understand, the hash, symmetric and asymmetric encryption. Terms like DES, 3DES, AES, ECB, CBC, OFB, and other definitions and concepts that I need to understand.

I just hope that the test is not difficult, because I really can't understand and digest all that I read.

Prep for tests

It has been quite a while since I took a test, and for the next 2 week, I will be taking 3 tests.

I hope to study enough to understand, so that I will be able to pass the tests with good results. One of the tests is on e-commerce concepts, heaps of memory work to do. Next, a web programming paper, open book, I don't know whether I can survive this one. The last one  is on security, this one is really tough, private key, public key, DES, 3DES, AES, OFB, etc. I have got to understand them and drill it in my miniature brain. The tutor taught the subject like so easy, but, it is not that so to people like me.

Well, good luck to me, probably I wouldn't be able to write here for the next 2 weeks, let me clear my tests first.

5 more months to go!

Yes, yes, yes....! Count down to 5 more months to the special event!

Two days back, I got the most expensive shirt I have even bought! Trust me, if you are a stingy dude like me, you won't want to know how much it costs! But really...it's nice, I just don't know how to describe it, with a silvery color blazer worn, wow, looks fantastic on me, man!

I haven't got the shoes, the last pair of the size I wanted was sold just before I went to the shop, maybe I will try my luck at its other branch.

Hello people, Cheers!!! Ha...ha...

Oh my! Someone go panic and that is the Boss!

Ha Ha Ha...that guy panic today, when he can't find me, when he can't find my colleague, when he's at a lost...he panics!

How can you work for a superior who panics? Remain calm is the key. He's the one who gave me a bad appraisal grade, I have seen how's he is like now, no wonder his other subordinates can't even bother about him.

It's time to go, no point staying with the team, he's the one who needs me and the other guy, not the other way round, forget it, there's an opportunity, I want to transfer out.

1st 5 months of 2012 over...

Oh yes, it's official, 5 months gone, 7 more months to go!

I'm looking forward to the end of the year, yes...yes...yes..., it's the big event coming, ha...ha...ha...I'm not going to tell you now, let's keep it a secret, when the time comes, I will tell.

The last 5 months had been a fast moving, but kinda of bored sometimes also, but, come the next few months, things will accelerate, for sure.

Today, I realised that I forgot to sign up for the priority registration of the half marathon race in Sep, yesterday was the last day to register, it was supposed to shave-off $10 from the normal fee. oh gosh...what a mistake! Should I sign up and pay the additional 10 bucks?

About 2.5 months later...

It's almost 2.5 months since you left, I see that you just uploaded a new cover page on your facebook yesterday.

How's life for the past months? I heard of alot of changes in your country, is you family business doing well, or should I ask, doing bigger?

I can't tell whether the cover photo you uploaded is your recent one, if it is, well, I think you still look the same, just that you are without make up, no dark glasses, and no fanciful pose or wear something very different, as if your usual self.

I hope you are doing well, I'm fine too.

Growing old and feeling old

I get tired easily these days, maybe because I'm growing old, and my body just don't function as well as it used to be.The feeling of old just doesn't make sense at all. I still can run, maybe even faster than someone 10 years younger, I had completed a couple of half and full marathons, didn't I?

But yeah, I'm getting old by the day, like the rest of the people around me. I have kept a picture of me taken years ago in my wallet, whenever I feel old, I will look at it. I may not have the looks of a handsome chap, or able to attract the attention of pretty gals, but I was once young and strong like everybody else!

Maybe I should accept that I'm growing old, but I just don't want to feel old. There are still many things I want to do. Many, many interesting things...

How many things, so little time

I have so many, many things in mind that I want to do, and time for me seems so short.

At the start of every month, I will always write down a list of tasks that I want to accomplish in the next 30 days. As it nears to the end of the month, my 'to do' list gets longer and longer, and it looks like it will never end.

I have work tasks, personal tasks, etc, I just wish I could have someone to help, but it's just so difficult to find help these days. Everybody else is doing their own things, who is going to help you? What benefits do they get if they help you?

Welcome to the real world, you are on your own, at least most of the time, to survive, you must work smart, never give up, never, ever!

After you left...

It has been 2 weeks since you left, not hearing from you or seeing any updates on your Facebook, I wonder how are you now? Have you already got used to the life back home?

Life for me is still very much the same, except that I have got to do more than I used to after my Boss left for another team.

Last week, I had asked my new Boss to let me go for the PMP course, he said ok. Perhaps, this is a new start for me into the world of project management, which I have always dreaded most, but, I feel that I have to face it now, if not, even with my current capabilities, they will not help me to move ahead or up.

Wish me luck and all the best, likewise same to you too. Until we meet again, perhaps, when I get to visit you at your hometown soon, I'm looking forward to that time...

How to setup email for Netbackup online catalog backup notification

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Time to say farewell

When I was told that you want to meet us for a farewell lunch, I'm neither surprise or calm about it. I guess it's time for you to go, after almost 3 years and 9 months with this company. Your last day with the company is 29-Feb, leaving on 2-March. Thanks for sharing the fun with the pre-sales team, e.g. vendor sponsored free visit to Bintan, meal treats... 

You said you wanted to go back to your hometown to help your parents with their home rice business. Being the eldest child in the family bears heaps of responsibilities, isn't it? Your other younger sister and brother are in overseas, working and studying, so you don't get much choice, right? You said you want to get married next year, even though your bf wants to do it this year. You said you will "force" him to come back to your home country, is he doing well in Oz? Any work opportunities when he go back? You said your bf don't like this place, which has people living in prison-liked blocks of flats.

Do eat more and get fatten up. Do remember me and add me to your facebook to keep in touch. If you ever come back here again, do look for me, and perhaps, I can meet you when I visit your country in future.

I'll miss you. Take care, dear.

To do list

I have completed the setup of that Windows 2008 servers and setup the alert notifications, the system was rolled out to the users last week. What a relief! I still have to do something about setting up the backup, because Wins2008 is not supported by the current netbackup software.

Next on the list would be the McAfee VirusScan client upgrade for the development servers, the ePO for the server and Netbackup server upgrade. The new Netbackup server software needs to be tested and if fine, I will have to deploy it in the PRD environment. Also, need to work on the SMTP alert using SNMP for that BMC monitoring.

That's all for the major 'to do' tasks for the next 3 months.

Sleepless nights...

I can't sleep, not just tonight, but since weeks ago, and it's getting worst.

I just cannot sleep, simply lying on the bed, close my eyes couldn't get me to sleep. Counting sheeps? Nope, doesn't work at all.

There seems to be heaps of things going on in my mind, my relationship, family matters, work, etc. they just go round and round in there. I'm getting headaches sometimes, what's going on???

I came back from work yesterday, and was not in a good mood because my boss was leaving the team to work on another project, and she wanted me to take over some of the stuff she had been doing. Really, I don't like the things that I have to do, I feel that she should hand them over to her boss! Not ME!

All these years at work, I have been helping people, my bosses, peers, etc, while they got to advance upwards, I don't get it! Not fair. Maybe I should ask for a transfer, I have my own career goals, I want to advance up too!

My heart melting...

The last I saw you was on the 4th Oct, 2011, you were with your friends. You were dressed up with a light beige-colour biz suit, you look somehow different.

When I saw u, I felt hungry, it was like there was a ounce of fat on your body that I wanted to eat! :-p

Really...how r u? I haven't seen you or have a chance to talk to u for a very long time. The last I heard from our common friend that you are thinking of quitting your job and return to your hometown to help run your family's rice business. Our friend said that you look much 'older' now, I think more correctly, 'femininely matured'.

When I miss you, I would be just happy to take out a self-pic of you to see. My heart melts when I see you in the pic.

Your will always smile in photos. Your long, straight hair, and not forgetting the eye shadow make-ups. You really know how to pose with a bouquet of flowers, I have nothing to say. Seeing the photo, I reckon you actually took it in your room? I guess so because you were wearing a spaghetti strip tank top, I have never seen you with just that, you would wear an external coat  to cover up (conservative, kind of?).

Back from China

Hey, I'm back from my holiday trip to China!

It's really an eye opener having to travel around the most north-eastern 3 provinces of China, namely, the Helongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, and not forgetting, a short shopping strip in Shanghai.

It's really cold in the northeast, esp. Haerbin, the temperature ranging from -20 to -28 degrees celsius. With cold winds, at least you should wear 3 layers of clothes, so, other than wearing a inner long john, you will need to wear at least a jacket with duck feather (down) filled, and of course, water-proofed gloves. You wear shoes that don't get you wet when walking on snow too. I actually bought my shoes there, it's cheap, but not so cheap if you compare buying it at other local shops, instead of the one that we were brought to as tourists.

It was much warmer in Shanghai, around 8 to 10 degrees celsius, you will still need to wear warm clothings though. Shanghai is a place for shopping, we went to a place called Qipu lu, a mass distribution centre, there were tons of things to buy there, so cheap, but you must bargain hard with the sellers, sometimes you could even get things at a bargain price of less than 50% of the originally quoted!

My exciting holiday

I'm really looking forward to my overseas holiday starting next Friday. Yes, I will be spending a white Christmas and New year in a foreign country, China's north-east! I have never done that.

It's going to be cold, very cold, the last I checked the temperature, it was -20 degrees there! Imagining coming from a 30 degrees place, that's 50 degrees difference! Wow...I have never been to such a place before, hopefully, I can still stand the cold and enjoy myself there. Counting down now...Harbin, here I come...lolz...

One more month to a whole new year!

Time flies, it has been more than 5 years since I started writing this blog, judging for the no. of views and comments, I reckoned that this one isn't popular with people. Well, maybe what I wrote isn't interesting at all, lolz...well I don't want to care!

Today's is the 1st of Dec, so, precisely in one month's time, it will be brand new year 2012! Hey, I will be taking part in the 4-Dec's Standard Chartered Marathon, this will be my 4th race, I hope to better my timing this time round.

This is also a time for me to do my new year's target settings, which I always do every year at this time. I'm also looking forward to my end of year's overseas' trip, this time to North-East China, I heard it's going to be freezing cold there, I'm so happy, haha...

Hurray!!! Hurray!!!

Finally, we had completed the system upgrade! Although, there were some post-implementation issues here and there, but, they are mean to be the show stopper, yes, we are still trying to fix them. I can sleep better and relax now.

We had our ADnD last Wednesday, there were more than 4000 of us. I didn't get any prize for the lucky draw. The food was just ok. By the time the MC announced the 1st prize, I was already on the way out of the ballroom. Later I heard, after me, everyone had to queue to get out, lolz...I was faster, and I managed to catch the last train home!

I saw her, well, not exactly, her photo with her colleagues, worn a black laced dress, still looked the same, but then older now (yes, for someone closed to 30 yo).

Now, I'm working on something important, but, I'm not going to tell anyone yet, haha...

See light at the end of the tunnel

Finally, we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. This weekend, the team is going to migrate and then cut-over to the new system, 36 hours of work, hopefully everything goes smoothly.

It has been two years since I started with doing the costing and budgeting for this upgrade. The primarily reason why I stayed on was because I hope to get some rewards out of this, perhaps, a good promotion? My last one was many, many years ago.

Autosys, ya, Autosys

Three more months, and it's end of the year. I have been working so hard lately, so many things to do, everyone in the my team are getting ready for the project's final UAT and testings, the PRD 'Go-live' has been planned for end Oct.

The Autosys system on the new systems had been giving me problem. Just yesterday, my system admin called to tell me that Peoplesoft jobs triggered on a Windows 2003 server can't run in Autosys, he mentioned an errror saying that the license key was not vaild.

Then, as I am quite familiar with the system because I had been 'playing' with it for the past months, managed to find out the problem, it had something to do with the key code that was generated by CA. The key code was tied to the host name and IP address, the system admin had removed the IP address on the server, so when the job ran, the Autosys license checking failed. Solved!

The last mile or KM...

Here I am, still working, this time on a disaster recovery exercise, it's already way past midnight. Most of the time, the work here requires me to guide and help my fellow junior system do system restoration. But, this time round, it's more critical, because if we don't do it well, we can't roll-out the system. This means all six months of effort wasted, and in the worst case, the project will be bleeding $$$ due to the delay (but this is the project manager's problem!?!?!). I just hope things will go smooth, and everyone can go home, sleep and hey, TGIF tomorrow! Haha...

Coming soon...

Ya, coming soon...what's coming?

In 2 days time, I will be running another race, although this is not the first time that I'm running such race, I still feel that I'm not ready yet. I had only trained for the last 1 month, and frankly speaking, I think I may not be ready for the run. I have not trained for that kind of distance for at least 9 months, shorter ones, yes, but it's just not good enough.

I just hope that I can finish the race and not worrying about the timing, just want to finish it, done. So, please cheer me on, will you? Thank you.