Skai Chan Kai Lun's Blog [sillydumb.com] Dear Dreams 醉生梦死

Year 2011 – Year of Living in the Mountain

2012-01-29T02:34:00.000+08:00

Year 2011 was one of the worst years in my life.It was a year of isolation that I hardly met up with anyone. Most friends were busy with their own lives and work, and all the outing that some of my ex colleagues had promised to organise vanished with time. I was, in fact, too busy to meet up with old friends individually. One of the ex polytechnic class outing turned out to be disaster when all, except Wenchang, dropped out at the tick of the clock. The lack of communication with people offline made me a duller guy.There was no romance like the previous year, which marked another two years of single life for me. I was not really in a hurry to get a girlfriend since I was not financially stable yet. Sometimes I did turn lonely but work had kept me well occupied. I also knew well that my time was too tight, but on another note, a girl could actually spice up my life and make me push myself harder in my work, which could be a positive effect. It was all about fate after all.I was physically weakened for the minimal number workout sessions I had. I went back to ITE College West for volleyball for about twice and hardly did any jogging. The most tedious workout I did was when I went to Fitness First with Gilbert, but just for at most once per week, and I was mostly lazing about there. There were times when we skipped the outing for more than a month. All gym sessions were accompanied by big feast.I was very annoyed by numerous major incidents that happened in Singapore. The unfairness and deception caused by the greed of rich people were unbearable. There were plentiful of sad news such as public transportation prices were raised to make the rich people richer, while the trains and tracks were discovered to be unmaintained for ten years, only after major breakdown incidents with the service provider taking inhuman actions and responses. I realised I had to live with the great injustice in this society because there was nothing much I could do when I could not even fend for my own life.My family got into a major conflict once when things started to explode between my younger brother and my elder brother’s girlfriend after years of toleration. When everyone started to speak up, there were great improvements although many friends still felt sorry for the house owner and two brothers had to squeeze inside a bedroom so as to allow the elder brother to have a bedroom with his girlfriend who stayed overnight regularly in the same house. By then, my elder brother’s girlfriend had grown fonder of our dog and bought him more food and goodies than she bought for the rest of us, and thus my elder brother’s life got better. However, I found it a great insult when his girlfriend banned me from using her pillow whenever I went over to that bedroom, even though the dog was using it like nobody’s business every day. It reminded me of Bruce Lee’s movies that “Chinese and dogs are not allowed into the foreigners’ restaurant”, but I was worse than a dog. Things were still going well after all, in fact, it was much better.My mum’s super ultimate regular visits to the hospital and polyclinic for check-ups and follow-ups caused great problems as she expected companion. Each trip would waste two to four hours of time because of the inefficient system that required patients to wait for long. I hated the idea of my mum expecting us to foot the bill for her because it was totally unnecessary at the moment and that any excess money with her could be cheated off easily. The time wasted could help me to relax at home.I did not join my mum and younger brother for their overseas trips. Even though there was once when my mum’s friend’s husband had things on, I did not take up the free ticket. Apart from being thrifty, my work did not allow me to have any holiday. Work would only pile up.Finance was sustainable for me somehow although I only started earning my first cent from my tuition agency in February. However, I soon started to feel frustrated when the amount of effort and hard work I put in did not produce good results for me. I was in fact earning much lesser than I was working in ITE as a lecturer. The increasingly pressure on the expenses for both family and business caused frustration in me. Overall, after striving hard for a year, I was not rich but at least I did not starve. My elder brother was jobless most of the time, which added weights to my brain since I had to pay for most of the stuffs together with my younger brother, partly due to my mum’s constant nagging in front of me.I spent quite a sum of money on a double decker bed frame with a pull-out bed at the bottom to house my younger brother, my mum and I inside the small bedroom. It was due to my mum’s complaints of not able to get up from the mattress we initially placed on the floor easily and that she often knocked her head onto the old bed frame due to the height. Next was the changing of lighting in my house as to reduce electricity bill, which did not show results due to the increasing electricity cost. The old lighting had two tubes of round light-bulb each and the inner smaller light-bulb’s electricity consume alone was crazy enough. The third expensive item I had bought was a Fujifilm camera recommended by my elder brother due to his read-up of internet reviews during the IT show, which turned out to be a total waste of money. We lost trust in forum’s reviews. Anyway, I knew I should have spent more money to get a cheap DSLR camera instead, which I had wished for donkey years, even though my younger brother preferred a more compact one.Besides not able to catch up with friends, I was dealt deadly blows twice in this very lousy year. I was initially into planning with Tze Khit’s friends for a new business venture when I was already too tight with my tuition agency. I decided to drop out in the end and somehow, someone backstabbed me, which caused Andrew to confront me. As I thought things were fine, I realised I had lost a good friend when I was deleted away from his Facebook friends list. The lost of a friend, including the fact that I was being falsely accused, dwelled in my brain for months.I began the year in Mike’s office as a freeloader to work on my own business. I was too greedy as a perfectionist but I set my priority quite right to increase credibility and efficiency of coordinators by adding and editing useful features. I started from scratch without any knowledge of the business, whereby it required real life experience to further explore, and thus I had to make changes to the website’s features very often. Nobody could understand the amount of work I had put in when I was the sole person in charge of the researching, designing, coding, debugging, content writing, internet marketing and administrating etc. I had to choose between less prioritised tasks that would require more effort if I did not finish them earlier and important tasks that were more critical but could be more tedious. There were immediate tasks, such as to approve tutors’ profile, verifying of their documents and SEO, which was extremely time-consuming, leaving little energy for me to work on other tasks. There were also times, which I had to help the coordinators to even “debug” Gmail or bugless feature on my website. It could be a very good business many years ago but it was already too saturated and that the levy was actually very low.I learned many tricks regarding Search Engine Optimization from Mike. However, he got impatient with the progress of my work as a mentor. He expected more results from me even though he could not understand clearly the thousands of problems I was facing for operating a partially offline business without experience in business - both online and offline. Every month, he would also raise issues and talk to me in a very irritated tone. The pressure on me started driving me crazy and massacring my confidence when everything I did with my greatest effort seemed to be wrong. I became moody like a zombie with my existing struggles with everything and had phobia going to the office. There was a major communication breakdown somehow and I started to fear talking to him. I could not live up to his expectation even as a normal human as I became weary of everything, not knowing how to show him any slight of appreciation while I was almost breaking down mentally.In the end, he told me he had observed me for over ten months and that I had failed him, and we would revert back to good friends instead of mentor-student status. The thing that hurt me most was my misunderstanding that we had always trusted each other fully since the army days and that was why he had been guiding me along. I ended the last few months of the year with worsened sleepless nights tossing around my bed. I hated myself for not being capable enough to prove my worth so that many things would not have happened and refusing to become a person who could suck up to people. I could have borrowed some of his time from his girlfriend to give him a treat or get him a present even though I was suffering from fatigue all the while to even think of these.Year 2011 was yet another scar in my life.

Stress and More Stress

2012-01-20T05:52:00.000+08:00

I become more stress whenever my younger brother goes overseas for holidays. Yes, “more” stress because I am already very stress.There are various projects I need to accomplish and there are boring daily tasks that I have to finish without much delay. I am battling against time everyday. The worst thing is the weakening drive that is slowing down my pace.From the beginning until business has started to pick up, I am losing time increasingly to work on my initial areas of interest. When everyone is thinking that it is perfect, I can see tiny holes all over, including major security issues.It has been proven that my effort can make things so much better but it is often beyond normal eyes to judge.I am a person who can dedicate endless time to a task. When more things pile up, sacrifices offer insufficient help to perfection. Things are all left hanging around while I try to babysit them one by one and bit by bit, and I am beginning to lose confidence due to my incapability.Friends who are more aware of my situation may be admiring my determination for I have managed to persist for so long.I am already stressed to the extent that I can be agitated easily. I am losing patience for people who do not follow proper procedure and thus causing problems.My brother’s departure for holidays always put additional workload on me. Although checking of account does not take up too much time, but it is definitely distracting and often kills my momentum.When friends ask me to take a break and have a short trip overseas to relax, I know it is almost impossible, at least not at the moment. I do not want to risk getting more enquiries and for sure, my daily work will only pile up, leaving important tasks pending longer. I do not want to risk the brand’s name.Nobody is ready to take a break when many things have not settled down.My younger brother has endless trips from Thailand to Pulau Ubin and Sentosa, and currently Bali. Just when I am getting used to abandon tasks during this peak period, he drops a bomb to inform me that half of his body is getting numbness. I am left helpless as I know little about other countries, having staying in a rather safe country throughout my life.I am feeling very lost.

It is just Me

2012-01-16T03:58:00.002+08:00

I was totally taken aback to meet someone who could use excuses to create numerous opportunities for himself in a single day. I could see through everything clearly but I was not sure if others did find them obvious. Perhaps, it was simply none of their concerns.I am never a competitive person in many events. I dislike using schemes or doing anything that may seem hypocrite. It depends totally on individuals to judge and feel my sincerity. However, things often do not turn out well for me.I am trying to restrain myself for being a busybody but you can probably be pulled away by me before reaching the death door. Most of the time, I do things quietly or in a way that you will not realise there is a difference. Even when I am saying something to help you, I will put it in a way that you will feel being teased.I feel more appreciated if someone can appreciate me by discovering little things that I have done and great things that I will do.Alas, we have to face reality that most people are too busy to give a glance to a quiet worker. I have to admit that I am a total loser in both friendship and relationship.

How Many Ten-Years Do We Have In Our Lives?

2011-12-30T04:55:00.001+08:00

One of my favourite Chinese drama shows, which had just ended recently, was Rosy Business. I was quite surprised that Gilbert did catch it as well.The story was based on the olden days of China during the Qing dynasty and I expected not many people would be interested in it. It was mainly about the family of the major rice seller in Wuxi, China. To them, it was not only about profit but the essential of lives of the people, and thus they had to fight against thugs and their evil family members to keep the business going and the price of rice low.I first caught it when I happened to have my dinner at home instead of dining out on a weekend. My curiosity was spiked by the great plot. It was a pity that I had missed out some of the exciting parts where the main characters applied intelligence to overcome problems.The show was not anything like “Huang Fei Hong” or Tom Cruise in “mission impossible”. The hero was not a saint; he made big mistakes and grew mature over times. His loyalty, courage and intelligence were impressive.The usual quote by the hero was “how many ten-years do we have in our lives?” and it clearly reminded everyone not to waste our lives.I know I have been ill-treating myself for the past twenty-plus years. Though I have not produced much result, I have clearly spent most of my entire life racing. I’m been trained not to have lust on food or travelling. I’m losing myself as days go by and soon becoming a zombie.I’m not a smart worker and I’m definitely bad at priority management. I have clearly disappointed many people.I’m never in need of money not because my family is rich but I rarely spend on myself. I’m used to mess around with hunger since polytechnic days. My dad’s last payslip wrote around $1300 before he passed away and my mum spent quite a sum of my dad’s leftovers (CPF and insurance) on renovation of the rundown house, insurance plans that she could not afford, crappy health magnetic mattresses and she even lent a big portion of it to her boss who had been abusing her verbally. One year before I went to the army for national service, I had to start skipping meals after volleyball games.Nobody can understand how much I have been through and thus no one is in the position to judge me. I have to work extra hard because I’m neither a genius nor apple-polisher. There are also some risks that I’m not able to take.I need to do something for my next ten years of life if I can live on.

Best Christmas Without Celebration

2011-12-27T06:11:00.002+08:00

Ten years ago, my festival celebration usually routed around with my volleyball team. We met up and celebrated via karaoke sessions or dinner. Sometimes, we even stayed overnight at public places like Merlion Park.It seemed that we could no longer return to the fun times when everyone started to have more commitments.I had strayed further away from them since the location of volleyball game shifted. I stayed furthest among them who were all in the west side. Moreover, they knew my interest quite well that I was not into most of the common entertainments – movie, pool, KTV and mahjong etc. The worst thing was that I was not even into appreciation of food.For the past few Christmas, I had been home alone, either spending my time working or being a little kind to myself by playing some games. My younger brother had many good friends while my elder brother stick closely with his girlfriend. My mum had some activities sometimes, otherwise, she would sleep at home.Christmas 2011’s night was a peaceful night for me like usual. I began rewarding myself by uploading some outdated photos into Facebook. I had a surprise when a net friend messaged me in Facebook regarding embedding copyright text on my photos. We began chatting and she suggested calling me through Skype.I was entirely melted by her sweet voice. The thing I enjoyed most was her appreciation for me. In fact, she sounded too nice to be true and I had perhaps met many weird people online to believe that I was lucky.Nevertheless, I enjoyed the one hour of Skype chat.“I wondered if that voice was real; no doubt it was the greatest present ever. The clock ticked as the countdown ended without me knowing for the best Christmas. There was no celebration, except for a wishing - a simple wishing that weighed more than anything and could melt anyone.”

Singapore MRT Breakdown – People trapped in underground

2011-12-19T05:48:00.000+08:00

I’m deeply disturbed by the video above.I do not care about how many people are saying “this is just a disruption of the services, give them time to fix it”, because it is not the main point.If you are trapped inside the train some depth below the human race living level, how would you feel?I assume most people are quite sympathetic towards others because human beings are born with kind nature. If you are thinking that this is just nothing, imagine your love ones are being stuck inside the trains. If you think that is not the worst scenario, visualise your grandparents then.I have come across some comments that the train has backup power that allows up to 45 minutes of ventilation during power failure. Even a kid would know that maximum battery lives would decrease over time – your mobile phone tells you that and your laptop has proven you that as well.What is the capacity of people for the 45 minutes of ventilation being measured?Some creative people may think that this is a once-in-a-fifty-years rare thrilling experience but I think differently.Before you attend Halloween night parties, you know you would be scared. Even if you are going for the roller-coaster ride, you should expect some breathless excitements. You know you will be fine after all.On the other hand, if the train has stopped for some time inside the tunnel and you realise it is getting stuffy with many passengers inside, you do not know if you can live for how more.If you think it can be forever safe in Singapore, the government will not be conducting emergency drills “Northstar”. Singaporeans are already warned about terrorism and scenes will flash through their minds during the lock-down during the train breakdown.You call for help and you receive none, you do not know what is going to happen next and when it is going to end.Most passengers seem to be fine except for around two who have fainted. Still, I expect quite a handful of victims could have developed some phobia after being mentally tortured for hours.All it takes is for the train officers to calm the passengers down and open the doors for ventilation.This society is being drawn a big thick line in between the very rich and the rest of the people. The rich people are managing everyone and they do not understand the rest of the people’s needs. They do not understand the basic needs for survival and the slightest integrity that even the poor people need.We are often powerless to do anything.

The Most Attractive Doctor Ever

2011-12-14T06:55:00.000+08:00

Last Thursday, I went to the National Skin Centre for my appointment. Since the nurse at the registration counter told me I would have to wait for at least 45 minutes, I did not fully pay attention to the electrical board.I was reading news on my phone when I heard my name being called. I quickly rushed to the room and was taken aback. The girl sitting at the doctor’s seat was the prettiest doctor I had ever visited. What stunned me most was her body movement for I had not seen such an energetic doctor before. She spoke with accent and swept my soul right and left. I supposed she had just graduated from overseas.I did not even have three hours of sleep but that was probably not the main reason I could not catch her questions sometimes - my English was really bad. My bouncing heart had most likely made things worse. I felt embarrassed that I could not communicate well with her.This illustrates clearly why I cannot get a girlfriend. I like Asian girls who are westernized and hyperactive but I’m very weak in my English language and I have since long ago trained to be very dull due to poor family background. I also crack very cold jokes, which very few people would appreciate.Even though I have been ranting about “chiobu” almost every day, I’m definitely not looking for models as my girlfriend. I focus more on the actions, reactions and elegance of the girl.It is challenging enough for any normal girl to take notice of me. I dare not dream. Though I need someone to take care of me badly right now, I’m more worried about my work.

Not a Good Time for Birthday

2011-11-06T03:44:00.000+08:00

It was a different birthday from the past twenty plus years. There was nothing special except that it happened to be a down period.

I am never good at expressing myself verbally nor physically; but it does not mean I do not care. Friends who know well enough should understand that I am much more emotional than most people. Little things can easily affect me a lot and forbid me from dozing off. I have been trying to kick my bad habit but many friends have somehow aided the devil within me. I am failing badly.

I have been doing self-reflecting more than usual – and in fact it is my daily habit. If you were to use my horoscope to describe me as stubborn, this is perhaps the best example because I am not good at apple-polishing and not want to pick it up. But come to think of it - who is never stubborn in certain aspects or things that he or she strongly believes? If you have been insisting in things being done in your way or expecting your analysis to be perfect, does it show that you are more stubborn than any Scorpion?

If you have a certain opinion on someone, have you ever look back at yourself to check if you are actually far ahead in the same attribute? If someone has not done something that you think is necessary, which by not doing so will not cause any harm to anyone, will you pass a certain judgement on him without considering what have been stopping him?

I am extremely lack of skill to even take care of myself to anticipate what others may need. For me, I always try to keep things simple. I will not try to get or do things that are non-essential. I also do not wish to be tied down by anything. If you are judging me based on the lack of these, you probably do not know me well enough to even judge.

Perhaps, I can see how much I have changed over the past year – my self-esteem has been totally wiped off. I guess that is worse than the lost of my creativity and smiles. I am being drained off of everything.

I do not hope for much, except that nobody will put more unnecessary pressure on me due to imaginative. I need more time to sort things out and get essential things done before I can sit down to think of how to become a better person in all aspects such that nobody will ever feel being neglected by me.

This birthday has received fewer wishes than the previous one, which describes how I have been distancing away from friends. If I have a choice, will I not choose to be everyone’s best friend?

It is NOT as Simple as What You Are Seeing

2011-10-28T03:25:00.001+08:00

Human beings tend to look at things from their own angles and believe solely in their own points of view.In my experience, some things may seem simple to some people but it can be difficult to many others – different people have different abilities and experiences. Things may seem straightforward but there can be many little details in order to accomplish them.For example, to open the casing of a mobile phone, an experienced user may just tell someone to pull it apart. However, some phones may require you to press certain part to unlock first. Many things are actually more complicated.I’m struggling hard but nobody can see the direction that I’m heading towards.It is a huge market that I’m exploring but I’m also entering a trade that is heavily congressed. There are many people who have stepped in more than ten years ahead of me and I’m very sure they have maximised their manpower, resources and experiences to think of creative marketing strategies – which I have seen none.My brothers and I have been thinking of ideas but nothing magnificent seems to be workable and thus, it appears to outsiders that none of us has made any effort to do any planning. I try to comfort myself by thinking that all the older companies have run out of ideas as well – at least, some people do believe in this - that I’m just finding excuses.I’m not good in prioritising tasks but at least I know what are required. I have never planned to reach for the sky before taking care of crucial things on the ground that few people can see. I do restructure my system often but it is not that I have not planned enough in the beginning stage; I’m totally new to the trade and almost greenhorn to the extent of coding. I’m proud that I have come out with ideas that have outshone most others.But my task is not all about coding a website just for clients to log in and it is also beyond online marketing can help. I have to take care of different groups of users and their interaction, and I also have to solve problems created by many humans.Things would be very different if I were working on just a blog that mainly earns through advertisement banners. But since I have started something, I’m not going to give it up.I design, I code, I write, I market, I administrate and I entertain confused people. If anyone says I should have done more, I can only smile.If anyone insists that it is easy, go and try starting an agency in Singapore such as maid agency or job agency.

I’m Not Ready

2011-10-07T02:02:00.000+08:00

When I answered the auntie next to my office that I did not have a girlfriend, she asked if I were not interested in girls. For once I did not have any interest to joke and immediately denied her.There are too many reasons why I’m not hurrying to get one. To sound really bad, it is simply because no girl is interested in me.On a more positive note, most people should be able to tell that I’m not ready yet. I have been struggling with work for very long and I can hardly spend enough time to accompany anyone. I’m realistic and know well I’m not able to give a girl a good life in my current situation. The cost of living in Singapore is ridiculous.Somehow, something is hindering me from fantasizing about beautiful stories. The phobia is dreadful. So far, no one has the power to make me overcome it. I may drool over a girl but I’m not moving at all and there can never be a chance.

Regaining Freedom

2011-09-24T17:44:00.002+08:00

The three weeks of torment has finally ended. To others, they might enjoy it for it was a break from their work. They were being paid as normal to slack and basically needed not use their brain at all. I felt the opposite because I was running my own business and the opportunity cost was high to halt my development.This further made me realise how tough it was to become a young entrepreneur in Singapore.I could not stand wasting my day rotting around and not able to proceed on my website development. The travelling distance was a major turn-off. This time, somehow Terry was allocated to the next batch even though we had attended two sessions together without deferring.I was definitely luckier than most people. Not many could have an easy life when they put on the ugly green skin.There were two car owners and I managed to get free lift. Apart from the first week that I caught the car near the gate, I started travelling down to Hougang to get my free ride. I get daily tea breaks at the canteens. The people were very friendly, which made the experience even better.

Things that we don't want to remember are most likely unable to be forgotten

2011-08-19T02:32:00.002+08:00

Many incidents are dwelling within me and I cannot let go of them no matter what.

When I was a teenager, I already had many dreams in mind to accomplish – mainly are my websites. I had many never-ending projects, which were not benefiting me in term of financial. Those were the days I could afford to help my friends whenever they approach me.

Situation has worsened over the years. More friends are coming to me and most of the tasks are more time-consuming than ever. At the same time, I’m struggling harder with my own life to build a better tomorrow for my family and I. The quantity of the requests has, although, decreased since I have lost touch with many friends, but the “quality” has upgraded.

I started helping Tze Khit with his websites and design work for marketing until he insisted to pay me some money for the work. It was my form of support for a great friend who was beginning with his career. Ever since I started my tuition agency, I found it almost impossible to lend him a hand anymore. He offered to employ me on a full-time basis and I had to reject him, which was making me feel very uncomfortable all these while.

A couple of months ago, Joei approached me to help her to design four posters for her students’ competition. My tasks were already “at my throat” and I rejected her immediately, knowing that I could not “swallow” anymore project. That was an ultimate slash at my heart because she was one of the most beautiful women in heart I had met. My principle since young “nice people should be rewarded” has been haunting me till today. To others, it is very common to reject any call for help, but it is the last thing I want to do, especially to a special lady.

I’m used to sacrifice myself for friends and even friends who are not very close to me; I set aside my work for them. Things are not as simple anymore because besides making my life extremely difficult, my actions will disappoint many people who have been pinning high hopes on me.

Don’t tell me you have experienced it personally, or studied my horoscope or handwriting – nobody can understand how I’m feeling. My situation is far worse than what you can imagine. I’m being hit internally and externally, by myself and others. The pressure is enormous, not to mention about the long period of endurance, which still exists.

I want to make the world beautiful. I want all beautiful people to have beautiful lives so that they can create a beautiful world for others as well. This is a dream, which is impossible to reach – but I’m persistent not because I’m stubborn because I see the importance of it.

My memory is never good but somehow these are the things that can be trapped inside my brain for long. Yes, I have forgotten many unpleasant things almost entirely until somebody mentions about them, but they have definitely bothered me longer than other people.

Being unable to help my friends is one of the worst nightmares I can have, but since months ago, I have met the most incredible incident. When Gilbert told me Raymond had just recovered from cancer, I was totally traumatised. We were very good buddies, together with Peh, during our NS slavery days but Raymond started to stray away somehow due to his busy schedule. I could not afford to spend enough time to keep in touch with all my good friends.

I feel like a shit. My tears fill my eyes every now and then till now, just like how the scene of my dad passing away have been dwelling on me. I was never there for my good friend when he needed support the most. I don’t even know about his critical illness until he has recovered in miracle. What kind of a friend I am? I feel like punching myself sometimes.

My life sucks because I have been such a failure.

Whenever I mention about how I hate my current lifestyle within or at the bottom of any blog entry’s content, it does not mean that I dislike only what have happened as mentioned inside. It is not only about the problems I’m facing in my work, not just the failure to live like a normal person as expected by others, not mainly on the things I can’t do for my friends, not simply because I’m being treated worse than a dog by someone, but many other issues that are bothering me.

Thy Lone

2011-08-14T02:54:00.000+08:00

I’m beginning to cherish my weekends more than ever. Even though I do work almost every day, I feel more relaxed during weekends when I’m not being grounded.

I’m a working machine being created to produce work endlessly less the Saturday mornings I join Gilbert to the gym for a swim.

I get weary at times. Though I’m usually doing work in the field that I like, things are not as simple as most people think, and sometimes I even find issues trying to relate to Google about my problems. Things are not easy because it involves more than website building. If I have taken business management courses in the past, it would be a different story.

There is absolutely no one person I can pour out my frustration to because friends are either facing different challenges or seeing things differently from me. It is also useless to pen down a ten thousand words in my blog because I can never fully explain myself.

I seem like fighting the battle alone.

The Sweet Things Yesterday May Not Be Sweet Today

2011-07-30T02:57:00.000+08:00

Long ago, I heard encouragements to the persistence of doing my own business. Flexibility of time and working location were great buy. I could do my work at any time of the day at anywhere with my laptop, which meant that I could merry around during normal people’s working hours. Apart from the extra hard effort required and income instability, everything was supposed to be sweet.

I, however, am never a cut to become someone who can really enjoy myself. There are many things I wish to do but have given up. There are also many things I hesitate or hate to do but I’m doing them for the sake of accommodating my loved ones and friends. I’m definitely living a bitter life for now.

I have free tickets and accommodation for overseas trips, but I cannot and do not have the mood to leave Singapore for more than a day.

I also have job temptations from numerous kind friends. I know I should not give up halfway.

I have done my best to struggle alone on various required job roles. I see myself as a researcher, content writer, designer, programmer, tester, blogger, website administration, administrator, marketer, IT support and probably others. The numerous tasks waiting for me to accomplish everyday have killed my creativity since long ago. It is a hectic life for me.

I never have understanding from people surrounding me and not even those whom I get to see numerous times per week. Most friends do not know what I’m working as and those who know do not know what I have been doing. Overall, most people have impression that I’m an idler, although they are very kind to persuade me to get a job.

While most people know about my flexibility of time, they are neglecting the fact that there are huge amount of work for me to finish. So often that I’m neglecting my family for work, especially when we are so bonded together, and I’m always feeling the guilt of turning them down.

I have to deal with changing climates monthly. Even the loudest voice to support my business venture has turned against the flexibilities while I’m being sandwiched by people. I should be feeling great that many kind people are trying to help me but I cannot stop feeling being torn into pieces. I’m still far from meeting their expectations.

Year 2010 - The Year of Isolation

2011-07-19T15:16:00.004+08:00

I stayed at Clementi ITE for three months to help my boss. Eventually, I left the place after spending more than a week to work on a farewell website. Soon, I received my degree certificate from University of Wollongong. I also went back to ITE to help Hirman for the orientation camp of the second time of the year.

I had my second last volleyball game of the year before quitting my job. Somehow, I was greatly disappointed over certain things. Thereafter, I rarely got to see my buddies.

I concentrated on my quit smoking website. After officially releasing the website, I was very glad with myself that I had made some contribution to the world and I thought I could die without any regrets after that.

Tze Khit moved his gym over to Tanjong Pagar. I was very happy to see a good friend whose career took off well. I spent a lot of time hanging out with him and updating his website for him. Those sessions were very stressful because he and his partner were giving me instructions by my side and there was no table to work on. Furthermore, I felt very uncomfortable charging a friend for my services. I got to meet many interesting friends at his gym. I went back to Clementi ITE for volleyball with Tze Khit for once, which was the final time I got to touch volleyball for the year.

As I was jobless, my bank account started draining especially when I continued to give my mum money every month without fail. My Sony Ericsson phone G705 died on me and I started using an old Nokia 3120. I began losing touch with my friends as the old phone could not read the entire SIM card’s memory. Since it was totally not user-friendly, I gave up sending greeting SMS to my friends during festivals. I was not broke but it made no sense to hurt my piggybank more when I was still jobless and thus I waited on for my phone plan to be over.

There was no progress in my relationship. I met two very nice girls but they were too busy to go out with me. They eventually got attached.

Towards the end of the year, I began working on a tuition agency website called Smart Tuition. It was after several bashing from friends that I should not be working on non-profitable websites when I was jobless. Mike saw some light in my working direction and began coaching me. We almost missed our first outing as I could not find his contact inside my temporary phone while he was holding onto my old number.

The Indescribable Feeling

2011-07-17T04:20:00.001+08:00

A sudden gust of indescribable feeling rounded me as I stared into the empty space. I knew for sure I would be missing things. I could never recall setting aside my work for a day in the past few years. Somehow, I was released from the curse for once.

For a day that I should really enjoy myself to the fullest, I paused to start missing the day before it had even ended. I knew it too well that such chance was slight.

I looped through memories and felt luck was really far from me. I could be a loser and I could also do my part at the same time to give others my best wishes.

Back to Volleyball after More Than a Year

2011-06-26T03:52:00.000+08:00

I finally made my first step into Choa Chu Kang ITE’s sports hall on Thursday. Both Jingkun and Tze Khit asked me down coincidentally for volleyball. Frankly speaking, I was itching for it since long ago.

The hall was fantastic. It was gigantic and could hold up to twelve badminton or four volleyball games at a time. It was the first week of the ITE holidays and thus I had less chance to see my ex colleagues and students. I managed to meet Ah Lei who was currently working in the CCK’s gym.

I was glad that I was not totally wasted after missing the game for more than a year. At least, my services were perfect and could somehow pose some threats to the opponents at the same time. I probably played calmer than usual and that covered up my lost skill. I knew I could do so much better in other areas while stamina posed a major issue as well.

If it was not for Tze Khit, travelling would be a major problem for me. We met up at the Tanjong Pagar market for dinner before we went down in his gym’s van. Along the way, he persuaded me to work for him permanently for his new web venture. He trusted me in my professional in web building. He also highlighted to me on my own business.

To me, it was useless to work for others and earning peanuts when I was a workaholic who would sink in totally. I would rather continue to push my tuition agency to a greater height while enjoying the freedom. Even though my business was not doing well at the moment, it had great room for improvement – I was very down-lucked in my online marketing progress. When Tze Khit pointed out that the time I had spent was too long, I could only sigh that I was handling too many things alone that I could not focus. If I had the time to treat my business as a sideline so that I could find a job, I would rather work on some blogs to earn through AdSense.

That night, thoughts went through my mind. For all I knew, I needed to expedite on the progress of the web development.

I have gotten a new

2011-06-14T01:33:00.001+08:00

I have gotten a new camera. Who wants to be my model?! I can't guarantee the image quality because it's much cheaper than all other cameras with the same specification, but I can promise you that I can zoom into your pimples even from far! Drop me a message and I will make your day unforgettable.

Uninstalled Android

2011-06-11T15:05:00.001+08:00

Uninstalled Android Blogger-droid because of its auto spam that appears in the status bar as notification. Lame app.

I'm a lazy programme

2011-06-09T18:41:00.001+08:00

I'm a lazy programmer. I always work on FireFox and Chrome, and I assume scripts will work well on Internet Explorer as well.

taking mrt from tanj

2011-06-09T13:06:00.001+08:00

taking mrt from tanjong pagar to tiong bahru & they make us stop at outram park to wait for next train. good public transport in singapore!

I just had dinner at

2011-06-05T20:17:00.001+08:00

I just had dinner at a neighbourhood coffee shop and 3 hookers came in to takeaway food. All the guys' eyes were glued to them throughout. What an interesting night to be at China!

Waking the whole fam

2011-06-04T09:50:00.001+08:00

Waking the whole family up early in the morning to offer food when you are just a few doors away. Is it an act of kindness or stupidity?

It's Lucky's birthda

2011-06-02T14:17:00.001+08:00

It's Lucky's birthday and he's home alone now.

Won't it be good if

2011-06-01T14:58:00.001+08:00

Won't it be good if we have all the time in the world and can play under the heavy rain now without the fear of falling sick?

My head is bursting

2011-06-01T02:17:00.001+08:00

My head is bursting and there are still many important tasks left undone. Even if you can construct a designer, programmer, writer, researcher, administrator and internet-marketer into a single body, you can't expect him to do everything at one go. And if you can ever do it, don't make him a perfectionist.

Losing Friends in Life

2011-05-26T03:56:00.000+08:00

In life, we get to meet new friends often. Some get to stay while some move off to a more suitable crowd.

“Hey, they are very nice people…”

Sometimes we sigh after we move on to a different environment when it takes extra effort to meet up with one another to the extent that we eventually quiet down the meeting. This is somehow inevitable for we have new commitments at new places and time does not spare us.

A worse way to part with friends is through miscommunication or a drama by third party, and in some cases, the third party is a common friend.

One of the worst situations I had been through was when I received a sudden confrontation from a good friend regarding how I had backstabbed him over a project. I wanted to quit the team due to time constraint and thus I did not wish to further get involved by speaking up for the unfairness of a major decision. Somehow, someone conveyed my thoughts to him behind me and definitely in a very twisted manner to sore our friendship.

A group of friends tried starting a business together to put their personal skills into good use. It was initially a zero-dollar start-up plan but after weeks when they realised some money had to be pooled in. The leader’s decision was that only the members who were going to contribute money would be the shareholders. Why would anyone give up his current career and struggle for months in the new project which may not work out in the end, just to pray hard to become an employee in the new company and able to get back the wages for the months of hard work?

I would love to help my friends like how I used to do since I was a child, but I am never young anymore to neglect my own future. I can no longer afford to do free freelance work that require lots of time.

Months later, I realise my friend count in Facebook has reduced by one. This is an extremely bad way to lose a friend, which has been haunting me, causing fears that history may repeat any time soon due to probably jealousy.

It is extremely ridiculous for adults to lose friends in this manner.

At the point of time

2011-05-26T01:52:00.001+08:00

At the point of time Bobby slammed the car door close, I broke the silence caused by my sore throat. It was not a good time for celebration for I had to battle to overcome the pain on my fingers.

In life, we must acc

2011-05-25T17:13:00.001+08:00

In life, we must accept the fact that some people may start drama behind us to destroy friendship. You never know that you may wake up one day losing one of your best friends and have no clue which common friend has played the devil.

Sometimes it's plann

2011-05-21T12:16:00.001+08:00

Sometimes it's planning that stalls dreams. When you foresee a large amount of work, you begin to worry, hesitate and find alternatives. Then you realise the time you have spent could have helped you to achieve your dreams.

Lucky refuses to pee

2011-05-20T15:16:00.001+08:00

Lucky refuses to pee. He only manages to reward himself with a small piece of bone, which I have dug out from his mouth soon to leave some tiny remainings inside.

I was carrying Lucky

2011-05-19T17:49:00.001+08:00

I was carrying Lucky near his arms to clean his legs, swinging him sideways until he screamed in pain. Oppsss!

There are always som

2011-05-19T16:36:00.001+08:00

There are always some very small but useful features that you can implement to make a great difference. The problem is that you have to race against important functions that may require a long time to code. Project management is tough if you have limited manpower and resources.

One bowl of instant

2011-05-18T19:41:00.001+08:00

One bowl of instant noodle is not enough to fill the stomach!

We have very smart p

2011-05-18T16:16:00.001+08:00

We have very smart people slowing down the progress of my work daily. It's silly to troubleshoot to realise there is no error in the first place.

let's catch the rain

2011-05-18T14:47:00.001+08:00

let's catch the rain under the bright forching sun.

It's great to be hom

2011-05-17T22:54:00.001+08:00

It's great to be home!

Going to Johor!

2011-05-17T11:16:00.001+08:00

Going to Johor!

It takes about 3 wee

2011-05-12T21:35:00.000+08:00

It takes about 3 weeks for the laptop's casing to ship over to the service centre. Hope my LCD screen won't crack by then!!

"Packing" and backin

2011-05-12T00:03:00.001+08:00

"Packing" and backing-up harddisk. Going to send laptop to service centre for the loud fan sound and cracking side of the LCD screen.. Hectic..

Is it me or the weat

2011-05-10T23:05:00.001+08:00

Is it me or the weather?

My mum is drunk. She

2011-05-09T23:40:00.001+08:00

My mum is drunk. She bathes Luckie for the 2nd consecutive day...

the worst dinner I e

2011-05-09T21:06:00.001+08:00

the worst dinner I ever had. not the food but the atmosphere. having headache.

Singapore GE 2011 is

2011-05-08T13:53:00.001+08:00

Singapore GE 2011 is finally over. All the poor and "voiceless" citizens like me have to begin struggling hard to make a living after the heavy distraction.

http://htxt.it/SrVf

2011-05-08T01:46:00.001+08:00

http://htxt.it/SrVf

PM says, "Start work

2011-05-08T01:38:00.001+08:00

PM says, "Start working harder."

Thank you, Tampiness

2011-05-08T01:09:00.001+08:00

Thank you, Tampiness GRC residents, for your support in increasing HDB prices. We shall work harder together to buy our "affordable" flats in future.

It seems like MONEY

2011-05-08T00:37:00.001+08:00

It seems like MONEY and Main Stream Media are clear winners to put Social Media and truths down.

Why is the weather s

2011-05-07T14:58:00.001+08:00

Why is the weather so cold? Opss.. I just got up from the pool!

if I had a choice..

2011-05-07T10:38:00.001+08:00

if I had a choice.. a chance to make a difference.. things may not change but an additional voice will be heard.

Is it the weather or

2011-05-06T22:05:00.001+08:00

Is it the weather or the patriotism, I thought it's supposed to be a cool day? Sweating. Anxious. Waiting for Sunday to arrive for a better years ago.

Don't judge a person

2011-05-06T14:38:00.001+08:00

Don't judge a person solely by his past credits; watch what he's doing next. A person will change and his competency level may fall.

Yet Another Worry Added

2011-04-24T03:33:00.001+08:00

My mum's health has once again placed everyone in worries.

When people get older, they tend to have more problems and this creates the anxiety far worse than playing stock whenever my mum complains about new problems regarding her health.

So far, her previous experiences in visiting to the accident and emergency department at the hospital have turned out quite well. We were more than happy each time to know that she was alright after the big issues despite the troubles and worries.

This time, she complains about her eyes and I hope it is just because of her obsession with her games on the phone that may have given her the signal to rest her eyes more. She is basically lacking of sleep everyday and yet she can spend her time gaming before going to sleep.

May all be well.

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Story of My First Smart Phone

2011-04-22T02:45:00.001+08:00

I must admit that I have a very good tolerance towards certain things.

Being a broke guy who was out of job for more than half a year, I started using a very old Nokia phone after my Sony Ericsson phone G905 died on me ridiculously. A side note: I would never trust their products and service centre again.

It was hell for me during those few months when communication almost broke down between friends and I due to the fact that the phone was too old to support 3G sim cards. Half of my contacts list could not be read. I was unable to sort out who were "not in my contact list".

When I was catching up with Mike after more than a year, I realised I could not find his contact in my phone. It happened that he was holding my old number and that was one of the worst cases that almost drove me insane.

I had to skip my habit of forwarding greeting messages to my friends during festival seasons because sending sms to multiple contacts was a great challenge. In fact, I was trained to hate replying to sms.

After tolerating the life of "living in the mountain" for at least a quarter year, I finally bought my first smart phone, HTC Incredible S. It had helped me to become more productive, such that I was able to do simple web updating when travelling and also, update myself with current affairs in news websites.

However, there was one great problem that had reduced productivity greatly - the original plastic protection from HTC with some notes at the centre of the screen. The phone model was too new that mobile phone shops did not sell its screen protector and casing. I had to resolve to keep the plastic in place to avoid scratching my new baby's face. I often had to move the text on screen up or down in order not to be blocked by the plastic.

It was pathetic weeks of tolerance with the plastic starting to wrinkle day by day. Even though it did not hurt me as much as using the old Nokia phone, every friend found it hilarious.

I had lost track of the time I waited for my elder brother's online purchase of the protection gears to arrive. The casing reached last week while the screen protector came this Monday.

I was finally able to utilize my new phone fully.

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Life - to Enjoy?

2011-04-16T09:07:00.001+08:00

It is a lonely night where the street lights ahead glow dimmer and dimmer. A man dragging a bag of a hundred tonnes staggers forward. He never seems to have a slight thought of stopping. Days after days, he gets more distanced from familiar faces. He finally collapses when his torn feet can no longer carry the wrecked body.

We never know how long our lifespans are. Are we supposed work hard so that we do not age to start begging for money; or enjoy life as we move on because we never know we may collapse the next day?

If you are born in a poor family, you probably have no choice after all, even though work all day makes a man dull and kills his creativity.

What can make things worse is when people try putting extra burdens on you when you can hardly catch a gasp of breathe. You can risk putting relationship at stake if you do not want to suffocate yourself.

Some nights I do dream of my legs powerless. I understand well what it symbolises in the reality. It is never fun to struggle strengthlessly.

Do I have to hurt myself more before I can learn to enjoy myself?

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It is my character that is ruining me

2011-04-13T05:22:00.001+08:00

I was glad that my brothers had kept my mum entertained with her cell phone earlier on so that I could concentrate on my work.

I was some kept breathless worse than ever with the amount of work piling up.

I remained in my usual contradiating self after all these years, having problems with my priority. I failed to reject friends over and over again.

I could never forget when I was struck with the old Nokia phone that could not read half of my contacts for more than three months, Mike told me he actually planned to buy me an iPhone 4. Even though I did not want him to spend on non-essential items on me, his words had strike me badly.

I could not even fare for myself to help others. The number of times I refused to take a break at the verge of breaking down laughed at me. There were plans for creative as well as critical jobs but I was ransacked totally off my time.

Yes, it was true that I had spent so much time helping others instead of trying to get out of my own poverty, I did not deserve any gift from people who cared so much for my success in life.

I knew my situation well but it was my born character to help others, especially the kind ones. Everytime I stabbed myself to lend my hands to friends, I felt guilty to myself and people who cared for me.

Nobody could understand my woes and few could realize the supposed-to-be little amount of time they could squeeze out from me for their convenience's sake had stalled the progress of my cumulative result.

I often have to draw myself away from people to avoid more entanglements. Sometimes I mock to myself having to reject freelance jobs that can raise my personal portfolio.

Life has been a great torment all these years.

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她不晓得我.爱她

2011-04-07T04:22:00.001+08:00

她不晓得我在忙些什么，
只督促我要开始为生活奋斗。
我欢喜又哀伤，
因为她的关心似乎盖不过她的不了解。

她不知我早已有了开始，
而辛苦时总会想着要继续为她努力。
我却早已明白一切已晚，
也不再期盼。

因为我不曾拥有，我不怕会失去，
而朋友间就能显得更尖酸刻薄。
她永远也不会晓得，
就让她继续这样快乐下去。

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A Stressful Week

2011-04-03T04:24:00.002+08:00

I don't like to fall sick and I can't afford to. I'm on my path to strive for my future and this is the route I have chosen, which differs from most people's.

I don't have medical leaves that others have. When I'm down, progress slow down and it will take longer for me to get away from poverty.

I know if I were to continue at the current pace, I will eventually do better than average people. I never want to give up not because I'm greedy but for my pride.

I may not be born in a silver spoon but I'm considered quite lucky to earn my experience. I have met worthy friends who have been showing me sincere concern - people who have been nagging at me to find a "proper" job. Though they don't know my real concerns about my future and they never know I can begin something like now, I'm glad they have filled my life with true friendship.

I'm lucky because I manage to find a mentor who has been guiding me without demanding for any reward, except for a greater breakthrough in my progress. Though sometimes he may not understand the problems I'm facing is more than what he has analysed due to my lack of knowledge, I'm glad that the little skill I manage to absord out of his immortal web knowledge has managed to help me to struggle on.

I'm fighting hard to get things done as a perfectionist when I know clearly I'm still far from my own expectation. I'm not trained as a designer for corporate site nor have I worked as a programmer. I'm not even good in my language to create great contents. There are also administrative stuffs to handle such that I cannot focus on any of the tasks.

This week has been really bad. Having to debug the system means a reverse of progress. It has taken away not only my time but also my brain cells.

Now, I'm at the worst of my health after the stressful days.

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Mike and I were Criminals for a Few Minutes

2011-03-27T02:56:00.000+08:00

Mike and I were crossing Pinnacle Duxton towards the Kopi Tiam on Friday early evening. We saw three policemen talking to a guy from a distance away. Just a few seconds later as we were reaching our destination, we were stopped by the police from behind at the stairs. They requested for our identification cards immediately without telling us what was going on.

Since we were wearing smart causal and our faces were more than pleasant that we hit up well with any stranger soon, it was really weird for us to be checked; moreover, we were empty-handed. Judging from the distance they had tried to catch up with us after they finished the business with the previous guy, they were trying hard to hit a quota before their dinner.

One of them was doing the job of verifying our identification cards by calling back to probably their office while the other two, including a lady, were looking around rather than to chat with us. I thought they could be friendlier and also try to get some feedback from us, rather than treating us as suspects.

I was very delighted to finally witness policemen doing patrolling in Tanjong Pagar like this. I might not have walked around the neighbourhood everyday but it really showed how rare it was because I had already stayed here for over twenty years. Of course, I had met policemen in the neighbourhood before but they were busy doing investigation probably because someone had called to seek their help.

During the period of time, I felt quite awkward because the passers-by might mistake that we had done something illegal. If I were among the policemen, I would definitely try to initiate conversations and smile.

After that, I kept wondering why the policemen were doing their patrolling at such early hour when the sky was still bright. In my opinion, crimes such as robbery would more likely to happen at night. I am very sure that there is no patrolling around Tanjong Pagar Plaza at night because there are still many topless guys sleeping all over the places, such as resident corners.

I hope things will start to improve.

Grant Me the Peace

2011-03-16T00:35:00.001+08:00

When I’m trying hard to debug some coding till I’m on the verge of collapsing, I really appreciate people to refrain from giving me the stupidest disturbance.

Yet, very often, I’m not granted the peace.

I’m working hard for everyone’s good sake. I do things for multiple good purposes and that is why I have to hesitate often to make clear decisions and push forward.

There are too often that people do not understand a single thing that I’m doing.

Life is really Fragile

2011-03-13T23:26:00.000+08:00

It is not a good start of the year and perhaps it ended really badly last year.

The departure of Kenny was quite a piece of shocking news since he had been a very healthy and energetic. I thought his career was promising. I did not ask around but it seemed to be that he started off with persistent bad cough.

The recent news of Mingen meeting an accident in Thailand proves to me once again how fragile life can be. Initially I thought it was because of his reckless driving but he was actually knocked down by a lorry while walking alone on the pavement in the night. He has survived but on the other hand, he has lost his left eye. I did not usually talk a lot to him but we used to play volleyball and go out together in the past. It was hurtful to watch a loud guy landing in such situation.

Among my FYP team of UOW, we had been mentioning about Jeremy, our lost team-mate, almost every time we contacted each other. He was a very friendly and outgoing guy and our team consisted of friendly guys, and thus we had no clue why he disappeared out of a sudden when things were going smoothly. I organised a meet-up recently more than a year after Jeremy’s sudden disappearance, which was a few days before the FYP submission and presentation. Soon Siong was telling me that he had added someone by the name of Jeremy in Facebook and the person seemed to have updated his account recently. After that night, I went to check the account and realised someone had used his account to post pictures of his tombstone. It was almost half a year after the FYP, he had left us.

I am not sure why I have been making my own life so difficult. I never know how much lifespan I have but I am sure that I need money to survive in order to achieve some of my goals. If I were born in a silver spoon, you would see the improvement in charities clearly.

Nanyang Kitchen at People’s Park Complex Food Centre

2011-03-06T23:01:00.000+08:00

A visit to Chinatown last evening killed my huge appetite. My family and I went to People’s Park Complex Food Centre for our dinner and my younger brother happened to have a craving for herbal soup. Since I was exhausted from the night cycling half a day ago, I wanted to take some meat. We ordered a bowl of soup and sweet and sour pork rice from the stall “Nanyang Kitchen”.

It was run by China people. The lady was very rude. She forgot about my order after collecting money and made me stand there for very long. My brother had taken our herbal soup away earlier on and left me waiting there alone. Many people who had ordered other food (meat and fish) were served before me.

She thought I was a new customer and tried to take my order again. I told her I was waiting for my sweet and sour pork rice and she started asking her chef to include my dish. Next she told me, "Young man, there are many people waiting for their food, be patient okay? The meat requires a long time to cook."

Obviously she was in the wrong and I was in fact very polite to her all along. I was very turned off that she tried to hide the fact. Can't this China lady admit her mistake? I'm a Chinese born in Singapore and it's obvious I could hear her late instruction for her chef.

I don't think she's running an honest business. She overcharged a customer who was sharp enough to expose her. The food tasted quite bad seriously. She was a great foreign talent who was actually quite bad in her mathematics who also reminded me good customer service.

Grow Your Wealth Before You Seek Your Hobby

2011-03-01T01:59:00.001+08:00

In life, sometimes you have to give up your hobby when everyone is pointing knife at you indirectly.

Seriously, too many things can be bought by money, such as engaging professionals to help you with things that are needed to be done; with the spare time, you can pursue your interest and you probably can do a good job with the concentration.

One-Man Show

2011-02-24T02:20:00.001+08:00

It requires at least three of me to get my tuition agency site fully done sooner.

One of me is to work on existing big features that everyone can visibly see with a “WOW” instead of “You are idling”.

One of me is to fix up bugs and security measures that everyone cannot see due to the rush to implement earlier features.

One of me is to continue with the minor features that are deem not as important but can actually be done much faster than the major features.

If you want to talk about improvement on web design, addition and amendment of web contents, SEO or marketing, you probably need to engage more staffs.

Blackout in 10 Raeburn Park

2011-02-21T21:20:00.001+08:00

[Thursday, 17 February, 2011]

I went to sleep at 2am with Lucky. I dozed off faster than usual because I was too tired.

My mum woke me up after 9am just because Lucky shit on the floor. My stomach was not well again and I had noodle for late breakfast.

I went to the office at 1pm. I was too lazy to do chin-up since the weather was too hot and I did not want to sweat more. It was not long after I booted up the laptop when the first blackout happened. I started going outside to crap with the aunties. I realised it had happened a few times before and it only affected our block – block B.

My eyes were tired again but I struggled on with the tuition agency’s administration page. I started blogging after that and reached home by 7.30pm because my mum wanted to have steamboat on the fifteen day of lunar calendar.

It was a tiring night for me as I continued with the planning of the tuition agency website for tutors to apply with tuition assignments.

Jingkun’s Visit to My Office

2011-02-21T20:53:00.001+08:00

Mei Hoe hurried me home from her mum-in-law’s wake. I was quite worried that her husband would have to stay awake by himself. When she told me that outsiders should not stay behind, I felt like telling her that I was already half her god son and thus should not be considered as outsider. I left at around 1am and walked very fast that it took me only nearly twenty minutes to reach home.

I took my supper, which was the leftover curry, together with bread. I was very tired and went to bed at 3am.

I woke up after 9am and went to the office two hours later. I did fourteen chin-ups, which was one less than the day before. I was alone in the office and felt very tired throughout. I was not sure if it was due to the melatonin or my own health. I was working on the tuition agency’s administration pages before Jingkun came over and we had a long chat.

I reached home at 8.30pm and fed Lucky before taking dinner and continuing with my work. Lucky disturbed me as usual.

Attending Funeral Alone

2011-02-18T19:05:00.001+08:00

[Tuesday, 15 February, 2011]

I took my second pill of Melatonin ever at 12.30am and went to bed at 2am. I could not doze off immediately despite it had taken effect already.

My younger brother’s alarm clock woke everyone up at around 9am. I started playing with Lucky and went to office at 10.30am. I did fifteen chin-ups with my laptop bag before entering the office. Mike did not come.

I worked on SEO and also submitted articles to many articles sites for Smart Tuition. I had instant noodle from the provision shop next door at around 4pm and went out after 8pm.

I was very tired but it was the second and also last night for Mei Hoe’s mother-in-law’s wake and I set off at 10.30pm to Zion Road. Hwee Siang had reached before me and I was quiet until he left.

Valentine’s Day 2011

2011-02-18T16:20:00.001+08:00

[Monday, 14 February, 2011]

I spent the early morning chatting in Facebook with Sae Yeoh and Galvin. I went to sleep after 5am and woke up after 2pm.

Uncle Rocky came over to look at the house’s renovation after my mum complained to him about the poor workmanship. He got an Indian guy over to fix up the holes. That guy’s English was really lousy or perhaps, he seemed to be using Indian language to talk to us in a tone that it was our main language. Since I had to wait for the Indian guy to come over again, I did not go to the office.

I spent the day working on SEO but the main tool was down and left me almost paralyzed. I thought I could reward myself on the Valentine’s Day by pushing more keywords up in Google but it turned out to be a sad day.

I had never celebrated Valentine’s Day before and I did not have any urge to do it due to my work.

I had a chat with Jingkun in Facebook during the evening. After that, I continued working on my superb article for SEO purpose.

Sleeping Problems

2011-02-18T16:06:00.002+08:00

[Sunday, 13 February, 2011]

I shared the last bottle of alcohol with my younger brother and I thought I could get to sleep early without taking melatonin. I went to sleep at 1am but the hungriness refused me to sleep. I grabbed some bites before going back to bed but the nose block caused by the air-conditioner spoiled my plan.

I carried my mattress out to the living room after 3am to sleep but it was not comfortable at all because it was thin and the mattress casing was rough. The main thing was that my nose was already blocked. Lucky poured in more agony as he moved around many times, changing his sleeping location. I was not sure what time I eventually dozed off but I went back to the bedroom at 7am.

I woke up at 2pm eventually. It was a tiring day and I spent my day working on SEO for the tuition agency site.

Visit to Fort Canning Park

2011-02-17T19:14:00.002+08:00

[Saturday, 12 February, 2011]

I went to bed after 2am and woke u by noon. I was doing SEO for the tuition agency site before bringing Lucky out for his nail trimming session at River Valley.

After that, we went up to Fort Canning Park to feed the mosquitoes but I was enjoying photography all along. It could be a good place to bring girlfriend along if not for the involuntary donation of blood.

We went to Maxwell Food Centre for dinner and waited for my mum to go over.

Back at home, I worked on the links page for Smart Tuition.

Chingay 2011 – My First Time Catching It Live

2011-02-17T19:04:00.003+08:00

[Friday, 11 February, 2011]

I was working on the tuition agency site until 1am before taking a tablet of melatonin. I managed to doze off only after 2am. Melatonin caused drowsiness in me and made my entire body weak. I felt tired but it did not put me to sleep as quickly as expected.

Lucky woke me up after 8am when my mum left the door opened. He was standing by the block of board and crying for me. I went to the office at 10am and continued with my programming work for Smart Tuition. I did some SEO work after that. Zaki called me to invite me to catch Chingay together.

It was pouring heavily and since I had to pass by my house to take the train, I decided to go home to get changed because I hated wearing wet socks. In the end, I decided to take bus instead. Bus 97 took me to near Millennium Walk and I tried my luck and managed to reach MacDonald’s at Marina Square to meet up with Zaki. He was sick and I offered to get him the dinner, which was a rare chance I could get to give him a small treat. However, I was famished due to not taking lunch and I upsized the two meals without thinking that he was coughing. We could not finish the second packet of French fries.

We walked towards the Singapore Flyer at the F1 racing track. It was muddy along the path before we could get up to the audience stand. It was one of the rare times I did not charge my camera’s battery and also not bringing the spare battery along. Anyway, the lighting was too dim for a lousy camera using freehand on moving objects.

The Chingay performance was fantastic. I did not even bother to look at the television for the broadcast all the past years and I knew the reason well – the live performance beat everything.

After the amazing event, Zaki had fun laughing at my feet because the mud looked like shit. I met Warrant Twang and we exchanged numbers. I was quite disappointed that he was still holding my old number and that was probably the reason why many friends had lost contact with me.

I went to Maxwell Food Centre to meet my family for supper. After that, they went to the NTUC for a while as I accompanied Lucky outside, trying to hurry home to catch my Bao Qing Tian (Justice Bao) on channel 8 at midnight.

Working Hard on the Tuition Agency Administration Side

2011-02-17T18:31:00.001+08:00

[Thursday, 10 February, 2011]

I went to sleep at 2am but could not doze off. I got up after 3am and worked on my administration pages for the tuition agency site. I went to bed at 6am.

I woke up after 12 noon and started playing with Lucky. My stomach was not well and finally went to office at 3pm. I worked on SEO and followed by the administration pages.

Mike left at 6pm and I stayed on to blog and went home only at 8pm to continue with my work.

Putting up Air Freshener in Office

2011-02-16T23:55:00.001+08:00

[Wednesday, 9 February, 2011]

I went to bed at 4am but I could not doze off as usual. Eventually I fell asleep but woke up as many as ten times, before finally getting up after 12 noon.

I met down to meet Mike near the usual “cai fan” but the place was crowded. We went around the hawker centre but we decided to have our lunch at the second storey where we lost and found our “emperor seal” previously. We took noodle. After a quick shopping at the NTUC, we took a cab to office.

I continued with my SEO work until dinner time. We walked to Pinnacle Duxton’s Kopi Tiam and had our “cai fan” with Mike’s herbal soup. He was a great eater for the evening. We strolled back to office and had ice-cream from the mama shop besides.

Mike was ready to train me with some nailing job but the wall above the door was harder than he had expected. I had some difficulties with the small hammer and nail, and Mike took over to show me that he was well-trained. We finally hung up the motion sensor air-freshener.

I continued with scripting for the tuition agency’s administration pages.

I slept Early

2011-02-13T22:44:00.001+08:00

[Tuesday, 8 February, 2011]

I finally achieved sleeping before 2am because I had a bottle of alcohol hours before that.

I woke up after 9am and lazed around. After sharing with my elder brother about some points in PowerPoint Slides, I went to the office at noon.

I started doing administration work for the tuition agency, followed by drafting an email to my ex colleagues to greet them. I was distracted somehow and my English used was terrible.

Mike and I started doing area cleaning after 4pm until near 6pm before we walked to Burger King for early dinner.

Back at home, I was irritated by an SMS spam. An email to IDA resulted a disappointing reply a few days later to actually show that mobile phone spamming in Singapore is in fact generally legal.

I spent the rest of the night working on SEO for the tuition agency.

Manager of Costa Sands Sentosa Resort Called

2011-02-13T22:26:00.002+08:00

[Monday, 7 February, 2011]

I went to bed at 4am but could not doze off. It was 6am when I got up to do my work. I went back to sleep at 10 and woke up at 1pm in the end.

The manager of Costa Sands Sentosa Resort called me and apologised for his staff’s misbehaviour. However, that Chinese old man had already tendered his resignation letter before the incident and he was already clearing his leave. That was really evil of this guy for sabotaging the resort’s reputation before he left.

I continued with my SEO work for the tuition agency. Mike had a new SEO weapon for me but we were not sure of the power yet.

I left home at around 6pm for dinner.

Visit to Mike’s House

2011-02-10T19:44:00.001+08:00

[Sunday, 6 February, 2011]

I continued with my SEO work until 4.30am.

I woke up after 11am and started playing with Lucky. After that, I set off to Hougang to meet up with Mike. By 2.10pm, I reached there and walked around for a while while waiting for him. We had lunch at Aston at a coffee shop. The grilled fish was quite normal. After taking lunch, we went shopping at Hougang Mall where he bought a fan.

We went to his house and I got the biggest ang bao money of the year from his dad. I got to see his newly painted room but it reminded me of the purple dragon fruit.

After that, we went to NEX at Serangoon to shop around. I was quite pleased to see a dog café at the top storey. There was a wet children playground as well. The King and King Wong shop impressed us with the gorgeous European furniture but they were rather costly. We got four wall paintings there. While we were inside the V-Hive shop, Mike’s dream girl came with her friends. Soon, I left the party.

I went to Chinatown to meet up with my family. We had dinner at the chicken rice shop opposite CK. After that, we went over to shop a while before going home.

Second Movie with Family for the Year

2011-02-10T19:26:00.003+08:00

[Saturday, 5 February, 2011]

My brothers and my elder brother’s girlfriend started playing monopoly deal game in the room. Lucky joined us but he was moving around to change his sleeping position, unlike my mum could sleep throughout at the corner. Lucky, however, refused to stop farting. After the game, I continued with SEO work for the quit smoking site and went to bed after 7.30am.

My mum woke me up before 11am to get ready for movie. We went to Great World City to catch the movie “It’s a Great Great World”. Since we were in a rush, we did not take breakfast before that. It was a good movie and I enjoyed the pieces of stories inside. It was filmed in a humorous and touching way.

We went home after dropping by the pet shop. We had steamboat at home for our first meal of the day. I started dozing off and by the late afternoon, everyone was out of the house. I continued sleeping with Lucky using my chest as his pillow as usual unless 7pm.

I started playing a game in Command and Conquer before watching my favourite show on channel 8 – Zheng He Xia Xi Yang.

Chinese New Year 2011 Day 2

2011-02-10T19:10:00.002+08:00

[Friday, 4 February, 2011]

I began the day blogging while doing SEO for the quit smoking site. It had been quite long since I started neglecting it. I went to bed at 5am.

My aunt woke me up at around 11am when she came over with our breakfast. However, she added chilli and we could not finish the spicy noodle. We took bus 75 to the home at Bukit Panjang to visit our uncle.

After the long trip, it was one of the worst moments I would ever want to be in – looking at my uncle nearly made my tears fall. He was one of the best guys on earth and it really hurt to see him in such state that he could not even think. Sitting on the wheel chair, he was tied to it and saliva continued to drip.

After leaving the home, we went to Bukit Panjang Plaza for a quick bite at the MacDonald’s. We shared two Mac Nugget and one filet-o-fish meal. Then, we went to Daiso to shop. We went to the bus-interchange and a cute wild dog caught our attention.

I continued with the SEO work for my tuition agency site. In the late evening, I caught the movie “Zombie Land” at on a SCV channel.

It was a totally different Chinese New Year Day 2 this year because my uncle on my dad’s side went overseas with his family and thus there was no gathering. My main stream of ang bao money was eliminated and it was my poorest Chinese New Year ever.

Chinese New Year 2011 Day 1

2011-02-10T18:54:00.002+08:00

[Thursday, 3 February, 2011]

While my family went to Chinatown to squeeze with the others, I played the Command and Conquer game by myself to relax. I managed to push the new article regarding teenage dating to live and sleep at 5am.

I woke up at around 1pm and my family and I went to my aunt’s house an hour later. We did not buy MacDonald’s and dined over instead. As my aunt had not been cooking regularly, there were insects inside the rice and I was quite disgusted while eating, picking up more than ten dead bodies in the small portion of rice. I did not finish it.

All of us dozed off after the relatives left. Suddenly, my young uncle woke up and Lucky barked at him and there were some dramas. I was quite disgusted and did not feel like staying there at all.

In the evening after we got home, the Red Cliff movie screened on channel 8 distracted me from my SEO work for the tuition agency. My aunt from my dad’s side came over and my family went to the “Chun Dao He Pang” with her. I stayed at home alone again with Lucky.

Chinese New Year Eve 2011

2011-02-10T18:43:00.002+08:00

[Wednesday, 2 February, 2011]

I spent some time blogging for the tuition agency and went to sleep after 3am.

I woke up at 9am to get ready for movie with my family. We caught “Ghosts must be Crazy” at Tiong Bahru Plaza at 11am. It was one of the lamest shows I had ever caught. It had two stories and the last one was really sick. I regretted catching it.

We had lunch at the food court. The four of us had kaya toast with eggs. The tea was diluted. My younger brother went straight for his tuition assignment. We went to the M1 shop for a while. After taking the train back, we went to the NTUC for a while and my mum went missing.

While I was trying to blog and do my work, Joanna messaged me and I was very stressed by her because I could no longer afford more hours to help her do her programming assignment. I started on a new article on teenage dating.

My aunt came over with my youngest uncle and we had reunion dinner at the Kopitiam at Pinnacle Duxton. It was the first time we dined out on the Chinese New Year Eve night.

After that, my youngest uncle went to Chinatown by himself to walk around. My mum and I walked my aunt to the bus-stop at Everton Park.

After reaching home, I continued with my work. There was some discussion regarding the tuition agency.

Met Up with Wanling Again

2011-02-09T02:11:00.001+08:00

[Tuesday, 1 February, 2011]

I spent hours helping Joanna with her Java project. Then, I continued with SEO until 6am.

My mum was playing with Lucky and she was practically screaming out the commands at 9am to wake me up. Wanling dropped me an SMS to postpone our outing. I woke up at 2pm eventually.

When Joanna tried to ask me for help again, I rejected her because I could not spend any more time to help her in her school assignment instead of doing my own work. My work was definitely more crucial and if I were to duplicate myself ten times, I would not be able to complete my work any time soon. I continued with SEO for the tuition agency until Wanling suddenly messaged me that she was available near 5pm.

I met up with her at The Central. She looked very tired. We went to one of the Japanese restaurants but I did not take any food since I took my lunch very late. After that, we strolled over to Liang Court and walked around. The shop for ladies, La Lu, impressed me with the interior European design. Then, we proceeded to shop at the Japanese supermarket before going back to The Central.

I wanted to send Wanling home by bus but I did not bring my laptop along and I knew I would waste a lot of time on the way back. I took bus 145 to Amara hotel and joined my family at Burger King. However, my stomach was still bloated and I did not order anything.

Back at home, I continued with my SEO work. I filled my stomach with some sushi my younger brother had purchased earlier on.

High Efficiency in the Office

2011-02-07T03:51:00.001+08:00

[Monday, 31 January, 2011]

I had the leftover satay from the chalet as supper. My elder brother placed some of them into the oven. Both of us preferred doing it on a barbecue pit but it was quite difficult to do it inside HDB flat.

I wasted a lot of time reinstalling my software that helped me to check for Google Page Rank because I realised there was no page rank indication. After some time, I checked my browsers and realised they no longer indicated it as well. I thought Google was down until Mike told me on the next day that it was probably due to Google blocking my IP temporary to avoid spam. I went to sleep at 6.30am.

I woke up at 2pm and had nasi lemak. My elder brother was watching a sadist murdering movie about how a girl took revenge on the guys who gang-raped her. It was one of the most disgusting movies I had ever watched. My elder brother told me another movie “SAW” was worse.

I went to the office at 4pm and worked very hard. Finally, I pushed the new page about the Study Guide live. Then, I continued with SEO.

I reached home near 8pm. Lucky disturbed me throughout the night and I could hardly do anything.

It was near midnight when Joanna approached me for help in her Java project.

Interesting Dream or Nightmare

2011-02-07T03:37:00.001+08:00

[Sunday, 30 January, 2011]

I began working on a special article for SEO for the tuition agency and went to sleep near 5.30am.

I woke up a few times and had a dream about being attacked by ghosts while doing charity work. It was quite an exciting dream running around to three different locations where the team was split into. I woke up at 2pm eventually.

It was raining heavily and I continued with my SEO work. Lucky disturbed me the entire afternoon to slow down my work because my elder brother was not at home.

I had an inspiration and started working on a new page to provide study tips for students.

My elder brother cooked spaghetti for dinner.

Family Shopping Night at Alexandra Road

2011-02-07T03:15:00.001+08:00

[Saturday, 29 January, 2011]

I started the morning blogging, working on the tuition agency website and chatting with Mike. Eventually, I started editing the admin side of the tuition agency website and included a loading popup for the Ajax script, which was I quite impressed. I went to sleep at around 5am.

I woke up after 1pm and had wantan mee. I did SEO for the tuition agency site after that. It was another rainy day.

My family and I went out for dinner before 6pm. We went to the renovated hawker centre opposite Queensway Shopping Centre. There was a variety of food. After that, we went to Anchor Point, followed by Queensway Shopping Centre to shop. I bought a 3-quarter pant. Finally, we went to IKEA.

Back at home in time, I was engrossed with the channel 8’s show – Zheng He Xia Xi Yang.

Typing a Feedback Email

2011-02-07T03:07:00.002+08:00

[Friday, 28 January, 2011]

I got home at around 2am from the chalet and started typing a complaint email against NTUC Costa Sands Sentosa Resort until after 6am before I went to sleep.

I woke up eventually at around 2pm. It was a rainy day and I worked mostly on SEO for the tuition agency website. I was very tired throughout the day and thus progress was slow.

Worse Chalet Experience at NTUC Costa Sands Sentosa Resort

2011-02-04T04:52:00.001+08:00

[Thursday, 27 January, 2011]

I worked on the tuition agency website until 4am and woke up at 11am.

My elder brother’s friends came over as we prepared to set off to Sentosa for the chalet at Costa Sands Resort.

I had a horrible experience at the chalet and was very disappointed with their services.

I managed to spend a couple of hours working on SEO for my blogs and other websites before my laptop’s batteries were drained up.

David’s Visit to the Office

2011-02-02T15:33:00.002+08:00

[Wednesday, 26 January, 2011]

I spent the morning trying a new method for SEO for the tuition agency website. I went to sleep at 7am and woke up at 11am.

At 1pm, I went to the office in the rain. It was the first time I carried a large umbrella and I felt quite impressed with the past experience of carrying small ones. I continued with my work until David arrived at around 3pm.

David taught me more than what I had intended to ask about business. There was too much information for me to take in but I was more than happy with his sharing. He was a rare friend cum teacher.

After David left, I continued with my work alone in the office until 8pm before I went home.

Another Bad Experience at MediaCorp

2011-02-02T15:23:00.000+08:00

[Tuesday, 25 January, 2011]

I went to bed at 2am and woke up at 7am for my haircut. The auntie had some conversation with me after the haircut as she advised me to speak up more.

I went home to take my shower and rest before leaving my house for MediaCorp. I reached at around 11.30am and went to the Annex building to do re-profiling. It started raining heavily and I went over to the wardrobe department. After opening the windows, there were three or four staffs inside and all of them were looking at me. I did not know which one was intending to entertain me and thus I stared in blank for some moment feeling very lost. The guy started reprimanding me for not following their instructions stick on the windows even though I was going there to show them my own clothes and not borrowing any clothe from them. It was merely out of professionalism that I bothered to do it and I did not expect them to be so rude. I assumed they had undergone some stress earlier on but it was definitely not right to take it on others. Due to this incident, I would reconsider over the future project.

I waited outside the makeup room with my laptop for the first time not wasting my time waiting over there. Since I did not borrow any clothe from MediaCorp, I could have left the filming place straight away without going back. I sent Huiying, the AP of the show, an SMS and she called me back to tell me not to return the MediaCorp pass because she did not want the bus driver to pick up everyone at different places. It was purely bullshit because every part-time actor had been doing that and there was no issue to return the pass and wait right at the gate which was less than twenty metres away from the stairs where the bus would be picking up everyone; there was no detouring to be made and all the veteran mini-bus drivers were definitely used to it.

The bus sent us all the way to Toa Payoh Central. The rain delayed everyone and we were waiting for so long. Since the filming crews were ready to shoot any time and there was no place to sit, I did not use my laptop. I spent the time chatting with the part-timers. It was probably due to the delay that things did not go totally like the script. We almost thought we would not be involved until we were called to become super redundant in the background running after the “robber”.

The bus sent some of the crews to Yio Chu Kang before heading back to MediaCorp. However, one of them forgot to bring a prop out and we made a U-turn, which further delayed the time. By the time we got back to MediaCorp, it was around 6pm. I was famished and took dinner there with two other guys including Timothy. After that, Timothy and I went to the same bus-stop and I took bus 167 home. Along the journey, I took out my laptop and continued with my work. I was not sure if it was due to the tiredness or shaky journey that my head started to spin. I reached home after 8pm and dozed off with the headache.

It was a totally disastrous day and I regretted badly to take up the filming assignment. I would rather help someone to maintain the website and I would earn eight times more the money. Apart from the money, it was really a bad experience. It was probably why fewer people wanted to go back to MediaCorp.

Your Problem on Others

2011-02-02T03:07:00.000+08:00

If you see a badly wounded doctor on the street, will you pester him to treat your small bruise?

Raining in the Sunny Day

2011-01-29T02:24:00.002+08:00

[Monday, 24 January, 2011]

I went to sleep near 7am and up around 2pm.

I wanted to go to the office to work but it started raining in the sunny day and I went back home. I spent the entire afternoon working hard on SEO for the tuition agency website.

In the evening, the shows on channel 5 distracted me. First was Terminator 2 and followed by Independence Day.

Administration Work Could Kill

2011-01-29T01:51:00.000+08:00

[Sunday, 23 January, 2011]

I was doing SEO and blogging in the morning. Then, I helped my younger brother to send an email to all the tutors. However, there was a limit and thus many emails rebounded. It was hell for me to trace which were the unsent email addresses. I went to sleep at 6.30am.

I woke up many times and finally got up after 3pm. My family had some conversation and my mum was all excited while she started pouring out at my elder brother. Eventually, we had a bird nest toss.

I had instant noodle for my first meal of the day. I spent lots of time to verify the tutors’ certification. I also had to edit some of the tutors’ profiles because they made obvious mistakes.

My younger brother talked to the staffs from Starhub and we decided to switch to M1 though I would prefer SingTel.

I started dozing off at around 8pm.

Sandwiched in China’s Town

2011-01-29T01:39:00.003+08:00

[Saturday, 22 January, 2011]

I kept myself busy with SEO for the tuition agency website and also made some planning for the pages. After blogging, I continued with SEO till 6am.

I woke up at 2pm and started working for the entire day. I improved on the FAQ page and continued with SEO.

In the evening, my family and I went to Chinatown’s Swanston to top up household products. I was quite taken aback on the bus because I had told myself not to step into Chinatown before the Chinese New Year because of the crowd. The massive jam along the way irritated me. After purchasing the item, spending near to $50, we went to the KFC for our dinner.

Then, we made the wrong decision to cross over to the pasar malam. Eventually, we could only move less than half a step every second. I realised I was getting very impatient due to the fact that there were too many things pending for me to handle and squeezing with the crowd was definitely waste of time when we could not really look at the stalls. I got a little giddiness from the walk. We left through the street before the Indian temple.

We went to the NTUC for a while before heading home.

Google Page Ranks Updated

2011-01-29T01:29:00.002+08:00

[Friday, 21 January, 2011]

I struggled to continue with the article Private Tutor Singapore. I had some competitor analysis before going to bed at 6.30am.

An SMS from a tutor woke me up after 12 noon to inform me of an error in regarding to registration. I checked the database and realised she had typed her email wrongly and that was why she did not receive any acknowledgement email.

Mike was all excited about the new Google Page Rank. After more than half a year or probably even longer, Google had not updated the page rank for all websites. I was quite disappointed with the new page rank for all my websites.

I managed to put the article Private Tutor Singapore to live. Next, I worked on the Link to us page and managed to put it online as well.

I was very excited to meet up with my ex colleagues. During the evening, I sashayed through the crowded streets and trains to reach Somerset. I was quite proud of myself to make it to the Bar Stop without making any detour.

When I realised Weitat and Herman were unable to make it, I was very disappointed. Zaki told me of his story to get his free iPhone 4 and I was so stunned. Jenne’s friends were around and one of them reminded me of Fengen. I did not really talk much. Zaki kept everyone entertained.

At the end of the night, Zaki sent me home and I did not even realise it until we were near Bugis. I felt quite bad for making him do that.

I had my early supper after my younger brother returned home with a Mac Chicken burger.

Sinful Dinner at Anchor Point Hong Kong Cafe

2011-01-27T03:03:00.003+08:00

[Thursday, 20 January, 2011]

I made some amendment for the tuition agency website’s design. Then, I continued with SEO until 5am.

Mike woke me up after 10am to tell me that he had forgotten to bring his office keys along. I rushed down to the office at 11am and we dined at the canteen. We had the Chinese mixed vegetable rice for the second time. However, we were the first customer this time. The food was much more expensive than other places.

I continued with SEO and we also exchanged ideas on it. I started working on the new article Private Tutor Singapore when Mike suggested going to IKEA for early dinner. We called for a cab and alighted at Anchor Point before crossing over to IKEA. Mike changed his mind after seeing the menu and we went back to Anchor Point and had a feast at the Hong Kong café. Mike ordered extra side dish and I felt sinned because I could hardly finish my plate of chicken chop.

We went back to IKEA to walk around. Mike bought his new lighting for his house before we started eating the famous IKEA ice-cream. The DJs from FM 97.2 were there to conduct a game and they tried to find topics using Mike’s lighting. After a while, we decided to take bus back to office. The taste of ice-cream was bad for I was having a stomachache. Eventually, we flagged for a cab.

After releasing my waste, I started working till after 11pm. We walked back to Tanjong Pagar while Mike went to Amara hotel’s taxi stand to get a cab home.

An Unintentional Open Challenge from Unknown

2011-01-27T02:37:00.002+08:00

[Wednesday, 19 January, 2011]

Into the morning of Wednesday, I managed to push the article Tuition Agencies Singapore to live. Eventually I slept at 5am.

I continued my day at 12.30pm and reached office at 2pm. Upon checking my inbox, I saw an email from someone who wanted to rent me his website because he had a keyword in the three place of Google. It was probably quite a good deal but I felt quite insulted by him. I told Mike my plan to show him the true Google lover.

I worked on SEO for my tuition agency and then blogged about the tuition agency’s updates. I received a call from Sihua from MediaCorp and since I had not been there for almost a year, I decided to take up the job.

I went home after 7pm and continued working on the website.

Saving Lucky’s Shit Again

2011-01-24T01:25:00.001+08:00

[Tuesday, 18 January, 2011]

I spent the morning working on a point system for Smart Tuition Singapore and it was rather complicated and I gave up when I realised much more work was required for me on the administration side. Eventually, I went to bed at 4.30am.

I was woke up by Lucky and quickly followed him to the kitchen. He started doing his business and I managed to turn his back towards the newspapers so that only one small piece of poo landed on the floor. I went back to sleep with him again after clearing up the mess.

Mike woke me up at around noon. His internet banking was not working and I went down to help him to transfer money to his part-timer. I had already advised him on the frequency of payment but he decided to continue. Luckily, the users in front of the ATM were pretty quick in doing their transactions.

I spent the day blogging and doing SEO with Lucky disturbing me. I started working on a new article – Tuition Agencies Singapore but I did not finish it fast as planned.

Working at Home instead of at Office

2011-01-23T18:45:00.002+08:00

[Monday, 17 January, 2011]

I went to sleep earlier than usual, right after 2am. I woke up at 10am and saw Mike’s SMS telling me that he was not going down to office until further notice for he was busy with his house’s renovation.

I had nasi lemak for breakfast. Throughout the day, I was working on SEO for the tuition agency website and I also dozed off a few times. Lucky, however, disturbed me like usual. I saw some results of my hard work.

In the late afternoon, I went to the Subway at Amara hotel with my young brother for my late lunch. I spent the evening updating the tuition assignments in forums and also, watching television shows at channel 5. They screened the movie Day after Tomorrow.

Sunday Dinner at Chinatown with Family

2011-01-23T18:25:00.001+08:00

[Sunday, 16 January, 2011]

I spent hours to blog before going to bed at around 5.30am. I woke up at 3pm to work on the tuition agency website and I managed to improve on the tuition assignments feed.

I had dinner with my family at China's town and I was quite turned off to see the huge crowd due to the pasar malam for Chinese New Year. We ordered a set meal from a seafood stall that offered sting ray, prawn, vegetable and toad’s meat at around $37. I did not really like the food, besides, they were too spicy. My elder brother got some satays and almost got himself into some problems.

I took a little walk around the NTUC with my mum and younger brother. I was busy checking out the coke’s price because I thought Mike could save near 50% money by purchasing large bottle coke instead of can.

Voluntary Work at Sarah Home Again

2011-01-22T05:31:00.004+08:00

[Saturday, 15 January, 2011]

I was working hard on SEO for the tuition agency site when Sae Yeoh messaged me in MSN regarding my 2011 Singapore Calendar Planner. I sent her the original copy so that she could make amendments. I was glad that she told me she was going to help out at Sarah Home as well because I was lazy to find out more from Huiting and that Baoyu did not reply my last SMS. I went to bed at 5.30am.

I woke up before 8am and knowing that the team would be late, I took my own sweet time and left my house at around 8.30am. I managed to reach Sarah Home very soon and got myself a small bao at the coffee shop nearby. While waiting downstairs, a cat fell from the second storey by the side and screamed as it ran off immediately. Eventually I decided to go upstairs to wait for them.

As Huiting and her gang arrived, we proceeded to work very quickly. I was stunned when I was told that we would be doing painting and not moving things like Baoyu had told me. I regretted not wearing shabbier clothes along. Baoyu arrived later and joined my team, and we started our usual debating. It was a tough but enjoyable moment. When the old paint started to peel off when it was wetted with the new paint, we saw a greater challenge to scrub them off. The owner of the house was very afraid that we might drag on till very late and told us not to do the extra work.

Lunch was at around 1pm. We went down to the Sarah Home centre for the chicken rice, which was quite dry and plain taste. I was quite amazed that there was another big group of volunteers and I believed they were merely doing spring cleaning for the elderly residents. However, when the leader started his religious preaching, I was disgusted. I would love to do voluntary work in an environment where everyone, regardless of religion, was giving off his best to the needy without any other agenda.

The auntie of the house bought bubble tea for us because she overheard Baoyu mentioning about rewarding herself with it after we finished the painting. As the hardship dragged on, I threw out more craps in order to entertain them. In the end, Huiting and Baoyu took their revenge by making me the cameraman for the group photos. Sae Yeoh thought I was upset over it.

We left the place at around 5pm in the rain. We took bus to Tiong Bahru Plaza and then transit to train. After showering, I dozed off almost immediately and woke up near 8pm. I had fried rice for dinner.

I started doing SEO for the tuition agency site when Sae Yeoh chased me for the photos.

It seemed that nobody, except Mike, could see the hard work I had been putting in everyday, working non-stop to make my life dull and stressful. It took a lot for me to spend a day doing voluntary work instead of working on my own stuffs when I was still financially tight, because afterwards I would have to work even harder. I was of no difference to a robot, except that I could appreciate updates from friends in Facebook that would take a few minutes off my time to keep me away from working.

Day with Countless Visible Products

2011-01-22T04:58:00.002+08:00

[Friday, 14 January, 2011]

Sore throat started to erupt. I was working on the tuition agency website and had the “Singapore Services” page up and also revamped on “Our Services”. Then, I blogged about the release of GCE ‘A’ level results 2010 in year 2011. I finally went to bed at 5am.

I woke up after 11am and set off to the office at noon. The property agent in representing LHN group came over and we had a long chat from the office to the canteen. We tried the leftover dishes from the new Chinese chef.

After writing a new blog at Smart Tuition Singapore Blog about Sophie, I continued with some amendments for the admin side. Then, I proceeded to do SEO.

Mike and I took cab over to Vivocity in the rain to take a walk and have our dinner. We went back to Challenger and were quite disappointed that the Xbox showcase area was filled with products and I supposed the charismatic Xbox girl had finished her holiday job.

We went over to Harbourfront Centre and I was impressed with the shop next to the food court that sold very creative and cool household products. Then, we had western food at the first level for our dinner before heading back to the office by bus to Kampong Bahru Road.

I worked on the Singapore Schools page and began my crazy SEO journey for the night. We were both excited to see the results weeks later. We left the office at 11pm and I continued with work right after reaching home.