Going to watch the finals of "The Chinese Challenge" ... hopefully ...

I had to sit on the upper block, quite far from the stage.  No powerful zoom in my camera-phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big screen to my left, the lady in the screen is China's ambassador to Singapore.

 

 

I got the invitation for the recording session of the finals of "The Chinese Challenge" this coming Thursday, but as we're supposed to arrive by 7pm and the session is scheduled to end at 10:30pm, Snowylady is having 2nd thoughts about going with me ...

Main issue, as usual, is what to do with the Snowypups.

It's kinda late to leave them at my in-laws until 11pm, or a neighbour's.

Also, I hoped to be able to pick them up from pre-school, shower and feed them before going off.  Snowylady thought it was too much of a hassle.  It has been quite a hectic week for her - she's in charge of temperature screening point at school and has to be in school by 6:30 am daily.

Just told me to go without her and get another friend - felt like I've just been stood up for a date.

Hope I can work something out and persuade her to go ... even if we might have to leave early.

http://www.thechinesechallenge.sg

Interesting 12 set of quizzes there ...

 

 

Tripped up at work ... a lapse, an oversight

An oversight of mine 3 months ago caught up now.  I messed up big at work.

The only mitigation is that the relevant contract annexes I drew up was done properly and when reviewed by the other party, no issues were brought up.

Not a good thing, but I'm actually glad it surfaced now 'cos it can then finally be dealt with properly, involving my bosses.  Been trying to work with vendor for weeks now to find an alternative solution that is compliant with my company's strict, very strict (translated kiasu, kiasi, ai-chee, ai-pi), technical standards, but to no avail.

My supe has not been watching this too closely because he's swamped with his own work, not because he chose to trust me as he claimed.  He's not too bad a fellow, but can't totally depend on him sometimes - he cracks when the screws are turned on.  The only good thing here is that he (should) know he can't scapegoat his subordinate alone, unlike how things are done in some other companies.

RIP, Jacko ... you're a part of my past even if I never liked you personally ...

The first time I saw you was was official Thriller poster ... I didn't know who you were and couldn't tell whether you were a girl or a boy ...

I was in Sec 1 and I wasn't into pop music then ...

The next time was when my Sec 1 Literature teacher gave us an assignment to write lyrics of a pop music.

15 minutes before the bell, I was furiously copying the words from "Beat It", still not knowing how it sounded like, much less who it came from.

But it was impossible for me to be ignorant about you forever when my world began to expand in my teenage years.  Even the Mad magazine parodied you, your glove and the A-team ...

By the time I was in JC, I was in a choir that performed a very wide repertoire, and "Bad" just came out ...

Our most talented male singer badly wanted us to do "Smooth Criminal" but gave up in despair when he was the only one who could come close to mimicking your dance steps.

Despite your increasingly bizarre behaviour, I have to admit you're a talented entertainer and musician.  You gave the world many songs that are unforgettable, from "I'll be there" to "Bad", I hum your songs according to the many ups and downs I experienced in life.

Thanks for those gifts.  The most valuable lesson from you is fame and fortune are not guarantees of happiness.

What you did with your face.
How you tried to hold back your youths.
How you tried to return to your childhood.

I understand all these sentiments too well, and it's just fortunate I didn't have your resources to have done what you did.

Requiescat in pace ...

Computer Game addictions - Spider Solitaire and Miniature Golf

It had to happen, both games have been sitting in my computer and mobile phone all these time and I never tried playing them until recently.

Spider Solitaire - a challenging game, I've learned to handle 2 suits fairly well but have yet to succeed with 4 suits.  Usually, games which may not be solvable tend to turn me off, but this one is a little different - for one thing, I also got to learn to read ahead and decide whether it is playable or just keep restarting until something promising turns up.

Mini Golf - it's back to geometry and some estimation, but it's cool.  Just before last Christmas, I started playing Fotofish and now the kids want to learn too.  I'm sure though I won't be going into the tennis game.

Sounds kind of dull with all the MMORPG around, but it's about the only kind of computer game I got time for nowadays.

 

4th time winning screenshot of Spider Solitaire

No history forum to satisfy my cravings

There's hardly anything interesting at AllEmpires and SMQ anymore.

Just the other day, I received a note from Yun about the talk on why Buddhism and not Hinduism.  Wouldn't mind attending if I could, but schedulewise it's out of question.

Quite sometime back, I initiated a discussion in CHF on why Buddhism got exported from China but not Daoism.  Among the reasons, I think some would be in common with reasons why Buddhism and not Hinduism were exported to a significant degree outside India.

*sigh* and no one to kick the ideas around with.

Somehow, after the unpleasantness after the hacking, CHF just don't feel the same again.

Times like this, it does get to me that there ain't a history forum that seems right for me anymore.

Did the bosses play me out?

Project at work is at a sensitive stage.

One contract had been signed and another one pending.  However, there is a possibility that we had not chosen the right product, or at least, took some technical issues seriously enough to highlight them to the big bosses before proceeding.

On the Project Management side, I had just cleared with my supervisor and my manager that I do not need to submit a separate weekly report and submit only email updates or through the MRC, when on Friday, I received an email from the manager doing an about turn due to Business Unit's request/complaint.

If I'm gonna strike lottery BIG TIME, I really wish it will be soon.