First day of freedom...

So, my contract ends Monday and I'm clearing leave at home now. So officially, it's my last day yesterday.

Somehow, I didn't really feel like leaving. It has been alot of fun working with Shannon and teaching Hui Ting the ropes. Oh, Hui Ting is the temp girl who will be doing what I've been doing all this time at CSC. But she's only gonna be there till like 31st July. It was fun, nevertheless. At first, she seemed quiet and shy, then don't talk to anyone one. But before she started at CSC, she was working at the reception and I went to chat her up abit, so she's warmed up to me. I thought that would make it easier for me to teach her. And it was! The best thing outta this is that I can do all the stupid things I love to do, and it would keep her laughing till her stomach aches.

I like making people laugh... I think everyone does. It's nice to see what you can do for others. =) And laughter bridges gaps, heals wounds, and fortifies dignity. At least, that's what I think.

Oh wells... Packing my room today. Oh, I got my Holgon strobe flash and my Wide Angle Slave flash... cool additions to photography! Yay! And I got about 50 more rolls of film to sell. Hahaha! Now to think of how to freeze all of them. =P

If any of you knows anyone who's into film photography and wants to buy film, let me know k? I've got slides and negatives. And if you know anyone who's into Lomo, the good news is, all my slides and negatives are expired! Woohoo! Maybe I should start a film blog where I can sell my film and update quantities. Hmm...

Sunday... Glumday...

Went for lunch at Ajisen Ramen at PS with Tiff and Pat after church. Had a Volcano Ramen which was supposed to hot (four chillis rating!) but wasn't very. *shrugs* Oh wells.

After lunch, we walked to Taka where I met mum & dad at Best Denki. He showed me the printer/scanner/copier/fax that caught his eye, and I was like, but we don't need it. Luckily he didn't buy it. I went around and searched for my Canoscan 8800F: $319! Man, it's the same price as Sim Lim sia... Maybe Sim Lim's price would've dropped after the PC Show? *crosses fingers*

Came home after that, intended to continue packing my room (I started yesterday, by the way), but the weather was so nice to sleep. *sigh* Well, you guessed wrong. I didn't sleep. I spent the afternoon reading up on how to create expandable posts. Tried it but couldn't get it to work. Maybe next time. But now I have ANOTHER link somewhere in my Kim Possible picture. =) This shouldn't be hard, considering the elements of the design. Happy searching!

Exasperation

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH US?!

The WHOLE day we didn't get to communicate much. When we finally do, *sigh* Less than 3min. LESS THAN!

I don't understand. All I wanted was for you to get some proper rest. I really feel like a nag, always asking you to sleep early. I guess you're right. You can take care of yourself.

I'll try my best not to interfere with your sleep times again.

Sorry.

Emotionality

Why do I miss you so very much, yet can't find a word to say when you're finally here?

=(

Frustrations of an Artist and the Inefficacy of a Bureacracy

I was sharing the camp t-shirt design with Bernice just now and it kinda rekindled my disgust with the way things were handled.

Now that I think about it, it was a simple matter. If a t-shirt printer cannot print realistic-looking, transparent, fading, 3D designs (i.e. flames), then the artist can always make it a 2D, more cartoonish design that will STILL bring out the same idea. But when the decision is not up to the artist and the management wants a realistic design that cannot be printed, well guess what? The result is an insult to the artist because it will totally not turn out to be anything the artist imagined.

I mean, if a painter doesn't have the right (dark) colors to paint a moody scene, for example, then the next best alternative is to use a pencil to shade a black and white drawing, instead of trying to use bright reds and bright yellows and bright oranges to try and make a dark scene. That'd be plain stupid and the result will not be anything worth painting to begin with.

If you don't have the budget, then compromise with a different design!

I don't wanna blabber on anymore. I heard from Pamela that the t-shirt was an ugly bright green. Well, what can I say? *shrugs*

Dread

Work's been getting worse day by day. It's like going to war everyday. Well, in the military sense, I'm like a useless clerk who occasionally gets shot, and see others get shot and can't do anything about it. In fact, war here is even worse because it's an internal war. Of course, if you see each department as a seperate entity, then yeah, it's a normal war. But my department is severely handicapped! We only have 2 specialists, 1 corporal, and 1 clerk. Worse, we're almost like getting sabotaged from enigmatic officers who literally stay in offices. Haha! Shit, I'm so lame...

Anyways, I'm getting bombarded not just at work. There are people out there who think I'm slacking and just laid back, waiting for a job to drop on me. Well, here's news: Jobs don't just take you when you apply for them. And here's more news: MY kind of job don't appear even rarely, if at all, in Singapore. And and... here's YET more news: I DON'T just wanna work anywhere that gives me money. For example, like in the bank. Now I'm glad I didn't extend my contract for another month. I don't know how my thoughts of the bank changed so fast, but now I can't wait to leave the place. Haha! Shhh, don't tell anyone.

Oh wells, I guess that's life. I hope it won't be like that when I get the job I want. Well, it doesn't make sense right? Coz I would like the job I want. Haha! Maybe I'm deceiving myself... *sigh* If in the end I really can't stand the job I like, as in, the job job, not the people, then I guess I have to look at other routes, e.g. photography, art, crafts, ermm... maybe I can go into shows? Nah... crap! I'm out of a job!

I wish I can be a NatGeo photographer... =(

Anyways, back to reality. Today's been positively depressing, yet my mouth automatically turns into a smile when I talk to someone. It's the years of... programmed smiling, I tell ya! No matter, I trudged home slowly, depressingly, and I liked being depressed. Hmm... am I making sense? No, not really. My thoughts are a jumble now. I shall stop blogging.

Oh before that, you'll realise a few changes to my entries. The title now appears at the top! And you can comment on my posts instead of just tagging me! Yay! And if you don't already know, one of my links (specifically the last Kim Possible square) is now a slideshow of the latest photo expedition exhibition! To see ALL my photos, it's in one of the other links which will have links to link you to my linked online photoalbum.

Ok, toodles!

A day in the life of...

So, I've been meaning to post an entry since... Wednesday? No, Thursday. Something really funny happened at work, in the office, whilst I was on my way home.

You see, I have this white pair of Adidas with pink stripes that I realize I seldom wear. So I decided to do some personalisation so that I would wear them and show them more often. Brought them to work, along with some paint markers. Now Wednesday was a pretty slack day. So near the end of the day, I took one of my shoe up on my desk and started doodling on it. 6pm came and I packed up and left, leaving the not-even-half done shoe on my table. Who's gonna see it? Well, little did I know...

Well, that was the big boss. Haha! Thursday morning when I got to work, I still saw him at the reception area! I bet he must've been thinking, "You lil' punk, pay you so much money to doodle on your shoe?!" =P

Anyways, show you guys some pictures of what I do in my office, especially since it's been so long since there's been pictures.

This is what I like to drink around late morning or mid-afternoon...

It's dried Lavender Flowers with condensed milk... and sometimes honey. =) Careful with the combination there... too much of either will make it too sweet! Sometimes I just drink it with honey and water... nice too!

And sometime around when Madelin was still working with us, I became the proclaimed environmentalist. Hahaha! Why? Because everytime I'm asked to print something, I'd ask, is it ok to use waste paper? Or, can I print it double-sided? Or, can I scan it and email instead? Ways and means to cut down on the paper used la. Haha! But some things cannot use waste paper, so bo bian, can only print on 1 side. After that, no use already. Super waste lor! So my "hobby" is to collect and keep those waste paper. So how much have I kept?


You think that isn't alot? Well, I think it is. I made 4 A5 sized notebooks last week. They're about abit more than half a centimetre thick. But cutting them was a chore, so I didn't really make anymore since then. Gave one to Tiffany, and Hatasia wanted one too, so made a thick one for her, upon her request. I think hers was about 1cm thick. Haha! I even made nice colorful covers for them! Personalisation!!! =)

Anyways, back home, I received my order on Tuesday. It's a really cool, green laser! What do I need it for? Mmm... I don't know, really. But I got it coz it's just cool! I mean, have any of you seen a green laser pointer before? I'll bet at least 80% of you haven't. Well, do abit of Googling and you'll be damned! Lasers of every color imaginable (except black and brown and grey, and the metallic colors la, you idiot!) exist! I didn't think yellow, orange or white lasers were that cool, coz I dunno, they just look weird. But blue lasers and purple lasers are damn nice! Really really! And there's even UV lasers and IR lasers! Wah seh... I tell u... you'll be amazed. K, at least I am. Unfortunately, I haven't had any pictures of the green laser to show.

For those of you who do know, green lasers put out alot of IR which is harmful to your eyes. It's much more than the normal red lasers, and since you can't see IR, it's that much more dangerous. So before I bring it out to show my friends, I'm gonna have to install something that blocks out the infrared coming from the laser.

Incidentally, these infrared filters can be found in tiny pieces in all digital cameras. Apparently webcams have them too, but I have yet to gut one out and see. Digital camera, on the other hand, I had some experience from some surgeries I did to my Olympus. Remember when I made my infrared camera? I had to make the camera sensitive to infrared light, so I had to remove the infrared blocking filter from inside. Yes! That's the one I can use to cut the infrared output from my laser! But since I only have one, and that could be fitted back into my Olympus, I'm not gonna use that. So I found a really old, unused, Olympus and gutted that. It was still working, yeah, but nobody would buy this anymore. 3.2MP. *pshhh*

Can you see the CCD sensor? It's the little squarish rectangular part in the middle of the picture. Yep! There was a piece of infrared-blocking filter there.

That's the carnage wrought on the poor thing. Well, in the process of dismantling parts, because I had to use some force to pry glued parts apart, some of those ribbon cables tore, and I'm not-so-sad to say, this camera is officially useless. Well, at least 2 good things come from this:

1. I have yet another extra battery for my IR Olympus. I now have 4.
2. I managed to get another piece of infrared-blocking filter for my laser!

Yep! It looks like that. Kinda plain for something so useful.

Anyways, if any of you know anyone who knows anyone who has a digital camera they're about to throw away, give me give me! I want these pieces of glass!!! Otherwise, if you see someone selling spoilt digital cameras for less than $10, let me know too!!!

Well, today seems to be another cloudy Saturday. Looks like another stay-home day. So xian...

Work woes...

I counted the number of days I have left with Clariden Leu, and after taking my leave into account, I have about 11 days more. Today, it would have been 10.

Liz asked if I was very sure I wouldn't extend my contract again, even for 2 weeks, or after Melissa goes back to Australia. And though the pay is good, I'd have to decline her offer. I think I really am not suited for working in the financial sector. It dawned on me just now when I was talking with Shannon, that the reason why there are so many conflicts and back-stabbing and covering one's ass is because in an organisation such as this, different departments have different goals in mind when they come to work. But in order for one job to be done, it has to go through every department, and this is where the conflict arises: lack of communication and understanding of protocol and procedure.

In the scientific circle, however, people in a lab work towards a similar goal. The staff under a principle investigator (PI) are researching to achieve the PI's ultimate results. Everyone more or less knows what the other is doing, and what everyone is doing, the PI would know from the regular meetings, updates and reports given to him. In my mind, that is what I picture a working research lab to be like. I don't know if it really is like that. Coz if things are as my ideal, there would be less conflict and less rubbing each other the wrong way. People help people. You could get your colleagues (friends) to help you inoculate some plates of agar over the weekend if you know they're gonna be back for some time. Or you could get them to change the conditions of the incubator. Or you could ask someone to wash off antibodies or antigens, and things would be done right. Because every experiment has a standard protocol, it's easy to follow and do things well.

I don't know what I'm gonna do after June. Yes, I'll look for another job, but where? Maybe I'll go be a lab tech in Ngee Ann, or NUS, or NTU? I miss wearing my labcoats and smelling 70% EtOH, lighting Methylated Spirit lamps and inoculating agar plates with bacteria and incubating them. I miss having to strain your eyes to focus the microscopes, to prepare slides and mount them, to catch and dry and prepare an insect for preservation, to collect a handful of critters and sifting through all the rubbish to find craetures you would never have thought to exist otherwise, and then scrutinizing and identifying them correctly! The satisfaction in that is... beyond words. It's similar to the satisfaction of having taken a photograph of a beautiful insect with the focus on the eyes, and enough depth of field to have the whole creature be in acceptably sharp focus.

*sigh*

You may call me a dreamer, but I wish I could be a NatGeo insect photographer.

Maybe I should look for a job with them... hahaha!

Pah!

The Pain of Distrust

The 2nd post of my refreshed blog and it has to be this...

Did you know how hurtful that was?

I'm back!

I'm back to blogging...

Hooray...