que pasa

Took a 5 hour ride on a bus from a potential project site back to town the day before. My butt and lower back started to ache 2 hours away from our destination.

Being the type of luck that I had to have, I got the seat beside the toilet so that sucked. (Ugh, the words “toilet” and “sucked” should not be used in the same sentence. Creates bad images in the head. GROSS.) My only consolation was that not that many people went.
Anyway, as I was reflecting on my uncomfortable situation, I was telling myself how I did not sign up for this. To be stuck in a bus in 1 seat for 5 freaking hours. To be next to the john.

But then I thought about how if I had gone with my boss to his next destination, and how there’d only be small talk and entertainment stuff of which I hate, it was good that I was heading back to my apartment.

I reached home around 930pm. Put on my Gilmore Girls DVD, which I’ve been watching in my every free moment, the recluse that I have become. As the characters like to say, “I live vicariously through you,” so do I, through them.

As such, there isn’t much to report except that now I don’t like the Dean character on Gilmore Girls anymore. But I’m pleased to report that Lorelai and Rory still look great and are as funny as ever and I am looking forward to my next episode.

Yes I know. From one addiction to another. Like I always tell ya, this is me.

Here’s a media clip proposing that it isn’t necessary to ban access to social networking sites such as Facebook at work.

Apparently companies have started to do so because it distracts and therefore employee productivity. Yet this clip is saying that people do work related stuff in their personal time anyway, so wouldn’t allowing them to do personal stuff at work be a fair trade?

Personally, I don’t like being hindered from doing whatever I want and probably can find ways to work around imposed internet surfing restrictions. But having been a Facebook addict, I know what it is like to just spend hours on end not doing anything but play.

The main guy interviewed in the clip seems to be rather mature and responsible and says that he’d only spend like ten minutes checking on his friends to see what they’re up to. But I doubt he represents the typical employee. If he did, then companies wouldn’t have to take measures such as blocking off certain websites, would they?

At my last visit to the dentist, he recommended that I get an electric toothbrush because it gets plaque off my teeth better than ordinary toothbrushes. Something about the smaller head (easier to reach the back of the mouth) and the rotational movement of the brush (better than my manual technique). That was in October.

I’ve been thinking about what he said and have kinda decided that I shall get one. I have discovered that the only rechargeable toothbrush I can find here is the Watson’s one, but Watson’s is like a personal care store retailer, not a specialist in toothbrushes. For brands like Oral B, they only have the battery powered ones and I don’t want to keep buying batteries or buy rechargeable batteries.

What do you know about electric toothbrushes? Any advice or recommendations?

Somebody or some people have taken pictures of the monkey situation in India. I say that’s way too many monkeys or ape-kind. And too damn fierce looking too.

See them here.

A friend and I were talking about what we do when we need to get away from life in Chengdu. Where we can go to escape. We both like IKEA. It’s one of those places where even though there are other people around, it’s still actually possible to spend time in it in a bubble, as if you’re the only one there. Seeing as I hadn’t been there in a while, I decided to back for a visit.

So, I’ve always kinda liked IKEA, but ever since I’ve been here I LOVE IKEA (if I had a car a bumper sticker that said that, I’d put the bumper sticker on rightaway). I never buy furniture though, I don’t want to have to deal with furniture when I leave this place. I have enough stuff to move already.

It’s Christmas at IKEA. They’ve totally got the Christmas mood down pat. The faint Christmas music is on, the living room layouts give the nice and cosy feeling and even smell woody. The fake windows have Christmas lights too. Love the living room ideas!

I walk through the kids’ bedroom section. It isn’t just the place where parents-to-be’s and parents new borns hang around. There are these teenagers loitering around, ogling at the room layouts too. The expressions on their faces make me think that they’re wishing they had such a gorgeous room when they were kids, and that if they were really young again, this is exactly how they want their room to be.

But the kid’s toy section must be the happiest section of all. Bright colors, cute toys, happy gurgling children. It’s like kid’s heaven. The boys and girls are smiling away, parents are video-recording their kids playing. I bet the kid’s section makes the most money. How could these parents bear to not buy the toys that turn their only child into an angel?

Bedsheets section. They don’t have my favorite bedsheet set anymore. The one with the white base and a humungous strawberry smack in the centre that I really liked as a kid. Anybody’s gotta have sweet dreams sleeping in that!

Other thoughts that come to mind as I walk about…
… wait, is that the Macarena song I’m hearing? I thought it was Christmas! Huh.
… ooh pillow. OOOH.
… hmm, I wonder where they got that shirt/bag that they’re using as a display prop from? I’d buy it if they sold it.
… gosh, the stationery looks good. I really want to buy this notebook.
… postcards. Whoopie! Gotta get me some of those! Dammit, what’s with the funky heart designs? Ah yes, this set is much better (throws into big yellow ikea bag)
… lights. What in the name of woogabooga is that light supposed to be? It looks like freakin’ Medusa’s head!!!
… candles. (The pyromaniac in me awakes, starts sniffing at the various scents and stashes two into the big bag)
… plants. Oh I wish Henry, my only plant from IKEA, made it through Chinese New Year holidays 3 years ago (I’d left it in the office during the weekend and the 2 days of holiday that followed, when I came back it had wilted)

Then the cafeteria. Lovely. The place where practically everything you use (cutlery, silverware, furniture, coffee, food, etc) is from IKEA or somewhat Swedish. I think the IKEA cafeteria brings out the best in the local people.

In the cafeteria, the local people somehow are willing to do developed-nation type things like self-service (going through the food line while carrying your own tray). Like bringing your tray of used plates et al to the place where you stack your trays after meals. Like kicking the dirty napkins from under your table so that the sweeper lady can sweep them up more easily.

Or maybe it’s the nice violin music played by the two students seating right in the centre of the eating area of the cafeteria that makes people more civilized. They must be students because they’re trying to figure out the notes of the score or something right before they play, and I could have sworn that they made a few mistakes… but then who am I to talk? I’m no maestro. Anyway, my point is, there’s no loud talking like there is in the local restaurants.

But one thing that still reveals these people as local people is the number of people who are not eating Swedish meatballs. I mean hello? If you’re gonna eat at IKEA, shouldn’t you be eating something Swedish? They’re eating things like rice with some Chinese-y looking stew. Looks spicy too. So not Swedish. Somebody should tell this people they’re doing it all wrong, but it ain’t gonna be me. I wanna live one more day.

Alright, I’ve had 2 cups of coffee and it’s time to go. But I’ll be back!

Ever wonder why men find curvaceous women more attractive? Well, that’s because women with a curvy figure are brighter and give birth to brainier kids, according to a new study.”

I can accept that men find curvaceous women more attractive. Heck, I think they're more attractive too.

But to say that men find them more attractive BECAUSE they are brighter and give birth to brainier kids??!?!? Wow, and I thought it was always because they were hot. I mean really, is that what guys think when then they compare curvaceous women to the non-curvaceous ones?

Wow, look at those curves. She must be really smarter than Bamboo Pole over there. Think of the Einsteins this one gonna have… I’ve got to meet her!”

I totally disagree, but I don’t have a study to back me up.

New day, new revelation I suppose.

So says a Singaporean female Minister of Parliament.

I disagree.  My definition of career is work that has direction and a plan.  Targets, goals.  Not a job that you go to a certain location to undertake on a daily basis.  Career women become career women because of this almost immense commitment to achieving things at work.  And that kind of drive starts young and needs to be worked out and nurtured so that you can then really have a career. 

Making a career out of wherever you’re at, whoever you’re working with is a lot of energy.  I’m not saying that kids are not important, nor that the average woman who has kids is lesser than the one who works her butt off in the office.  All I’m saying is that you can’t have kids first and then a career later, at least not the way I define a career.  You will not have the physical energy to expend anymore because the best of you went to your kids. 

I think any woman who is a career woman and decides to have kids has probably satisfied her ambitious side enough to then focus the next stage of her life on kids.  She will divert her lifesource, energy, time and resources – the very same spent on her career - to have children.  She’s gonna treat having kids just as seriously as her career.  It doesn’t mean that kids come second place in her life.  When she’s ready to have kids, you can be sure they're numero uno.

But careers need momentum, just like raising a kid does.  Once you’ve left the career track to have kids, you come back different.  What you have after that is no doubt a job that you are seriously committed to, but it’s not a career anymore.  Not the same way when you were doing whatever had to be done to make the next grade during your pre-mom days.  You may not even the motivation to dedicate so much to work once you realize how great having kids are, or how much more you love being able to really watch your kids grow up over working.

Granted, if you’re a driven person, you’re likely to be driven no matter how old you are.  But the energy it takes to excel and take on all the madness is only there when you’re young.  People who were happy and content at work don’t use phrases like “accelerate my career path”, ”exposure" and "opportunity” often when they talk about their jobs.  Their job is a means to and end.  Career-minded people treat their work like a baby, it needs attention, care, healthchecks, good nourishment, learning, stuff like that. 

So it’s not about longer lifepsans.  Don’t say kids first, careers later.  That career IS a baby. 

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Okay, I wrote that 2 days ago, right after I read the article.  And yes, the article did also talk about other things, but I just picked on that quote to rant on.  If I had to rewrite, I suppose I’ll do it a tad differently but my position would be the same.  Yeah, it’s because I’m wearing my career woman socks right now.  Essentially my point is that it's about what fills your heart at this point in time. It's not about having more time to do everything you think you should be doing in your life.

I always joke about how I’m contributing to the economic, not population, growth of Singapore, but seriously, I couldn’t do what I am doing now if I had decided that I wanted kids first.  That would mean getting married, buying a home, a car of sorts… loans, loans and more loans.  This would be in addition to the fact that I now have my own family in Singapore... it wouldn't just be my life, it'd be my husband's and kid's too.  Then there'd just be too many strings, I couldn't just pack up my bags and go like I did.

As a friend reminded me, I am very lucky to have this chance to be out here.  My parents are working and healthy.  My bro is working and healthy.  I don't have any loans or burdens to bear.  So I knew that if I don't do this now, I might never ever do it later.  It's just one of those things I have to do.

This is why I avoid sales.

Have you ever noticed..

… how the more expensive the car, the gentler the horn?  And conversely, the cheaper/crappier the car, the nastier the honk?  There are way too many cheap and crappy cars here.

… how on the streets filled crazy drivers, the more trashed up car always gets its way because the only the driver of a trashed up car has the guts to stick his car right in your face, claim right of way even though he has none, because the trashed car driver has nothing to lose since his car is so trashed up already and the nice, new, elegant/snazzy/cool car driver doesn’t want his to end up looking like the trashed car driver’s?

… in the street overcrowded with all sorts of automobiles, the biggest vehicles always seem to get their way because the puny (even if trashed up ones) would get totally rolled over if they didn’t give way to the buses and the trucks?  And that the entire road would get jammed if they didn’t let the bus/truck go where they had to go?  But yet even the buses and trucks have to give way to the old aunties who go out shopping pilgrimage on a Sunday and are on their way back home and decide to cross the road en masse?  I don’t care how big or crappy your vehicle is, you have nothing, I repeat NOTHING, over the old granny mob. 

… people only do put in the effort to better when performance evaluation comes around?  The contract of the property management at my apartment complex is up for renewal and suddenly the staff bust out the hose and scrubs out of nowhere to clean the tiles on the grounds (something they should have done a long time ago), the lights are changed to make each floor brighter?  They even have this very reflective/apologetic letter pasted on the public announcement board admitting their shortcomings (albeit at a very general level) and have promised to improve.  The guard at the gate even gives all residents a salute now as you pass them. 

… how your pillow can make all the difference when you sleep?  I bought myself a new pillow yesterday because my neck has been starting to ache.  So I got one of those ergonomic pillows… yeah, the one with the curvy shape.  Oh baby, I’m looking forward to tonight’s sleep already.

I’ve been hearing about this movie and finally got to watch it. Can I just say it was even better than what I expected and totally enjoyed it?

Personally, I’m not a big fan of rats but the story was great, the lines were great and maybe it’s just something about the setting being Paris and all that just made it a wonderful experience.

WOOT!