A day off without having an off day.

Without wanting to sound too presumptuous, I just need to get it ‘off’ me. 
Every time I hear that phrase 'off day',  it makes me cringe a bit. 
It has become so much a part of our norm here that I am not sure if they really mean what they say or maybe it's just bad grammer?

I was just reading a friend's post on Facebook and she said, "off to work for Ipad 2 launch....even on off day :)"

Presumably she is going to work as she's  'off to work',  but she's also having an  "off day".

If you live in Singapore you would have no difficulty understanding what she just wrote, if we think singlish, i.e. she's going to work on her day off.

But having a day off  is completely different from having an off day.

A Day Off is when you get a break from work.

You don’t need to work, you don’t need to go to work.

Having an Off Day means you are not feeling well, feeling a bit under the weather, or just not at ease with yourself.

You are a bit ‘off”,  like in saying ‘the food is a bit off’, meaning it’s stale or getting bad, or at least not in the best of states.

So, if you have an Off Day, you are not doing too good, but having an Day Off may do wonders for you!

Having an off day? take a day off.

Fined for walking in SG

My sister Jen emigrated to USA more than 2 decades ago and I usually chat with her via MSN.

Last Saturday, with tongue in cheek, I told her I was fined coming back from the NTUC store located across the road from my house.  Fined? for what? she asked. For walking, I said.
Jaywalking? No, I had to pay a tax just for walking along the road.

I said that the government had authorized a number of organisations to collect tax from people who walk specially near the bus terminals, train stations or shopping malls every Saturday.

Last Saturday, the Ren Ci Hospital were out collecting money from pedestrians. hee hee hee.

Hmmm, I wonder if the registered charities do have to pay tax to the government for the donations that they collect?  If that really is the case, then we are taxed for walking along the streets on Saturdays!

Peek Poke Meme Fail ?

I got my very first Personal Computer  around 1980s.
That's way back in the the 20th century, so long ago that I can't even remember when it was.

It was a Commodore VIC20, a watered down version of the then mouthwatering Commodore 64.
It had 4Kb of RAM memory (wow) and a cassette tape drive!
You plug it to your TV and get glorious 8bit colors, and it could run Space Invaders and Donkey Kong (double wow!) 

You had to LOAD each and every program that you wanted to use and then RUN the program. Only 1 program at a time. Multitasking was still something for the future.  But it was a real computer and not a game console like the Atari.

Top of the line personal computers like the IBM PC (& later the XT) were then only being used by corporations as these were way too expensive for home use.

I was feeling nostalgic while I was browsing the internet and realised I was now reading new words like meme and fail, being used so commonly today.
I recalled that even back then, when the PC was just starting to become more than just a household gadget, we were already learning new words coming into a new new world.

How many of you can remember using commands like peek, poke, RUN, LOAD, if..then,  else go ?

Of course that was a long, long time ago and all these words are now hidden under the user interface and so intuitive now that we don't need to know these anymore when using our mouse, iphones and ipads.

If you still don't know what meme and fail means today, you got a lot more catching up to do than me!

Stand up for your rights!

Today somebody said to me,  Go to all that trouble?, it's only 4 cents!
(referring to my earlier blog)


Sigh.

The sad part about making these claims appear to make me look like a cheapskate.
But I am claiming it on grounds of principles and not because of the money.

Of the 6 vouchers, I have actually not used, or did not intend to use, the last 3 pieces.
These are now expired and cannot be used.
I am keeping them as souvenirs of my stand against the injustice.

My expired vouchers.

You are entitled to your opinion, but to me, it's just another sad indication of our mollycoddly attitude which was socially engineered over the past few decades and now so pervasive in our society.
We don't stand up and question wrongs, even when we feel outraged.

If you don't bother to stand up for your own rights. who will stand up for you?

The bus companies are still taking your money!

Despite the bus companies' claims that the overcharging problem had been fixed, I've had 2 further instances where I was still overcharged for my trips.

If you had read my earlier blog on the overcharging issue, you'll know that the trip from Bukit Batok Interchange to my office at Andrew Road is supposedly $1.33. I have been regularly charged $1.37 for the trip.

Today I collected my 6th refund for overcharging, so I know it's still happening. This is confirmed by the fact that my requests for the 4cents refund have always been approved.

I get back at them by requesting for a 'complimentary' voucher for a free ride instead of a cash refund. In this way, I actually end up ahead of them. Serves them right for their unintentional (?) mistakes.

So commuters beware, be aware of the actual cost of your trip and check that you are not overcharged by them.

I hate my iphone!

Or rather, I can't stand the auto-correction feature in its messaging, email or Notes apps!

It not only corrects your spelling but changes entire words for you.
It has a mind all of its own, and it's evil and a pervert to boot !

So, just turn it off, right?
Yeah, I did that, and you know what?

It's worst than before.

The keyboard is so small and sensitive that  you make more mistakes!

So, I guess until Mr. Jobs comes up with something better, I am stuck with all the perverted and sick messages IT wants to send to all my friends.

For those of you using auto correct on the iphone, you know what I am talking about.

For those of you who don't use the iphone for messaging, here's a bit of what we have to go through....

To have a great laugh at the expense of iphone users, go to this great website... it'll leave you in stitches the whole day.

http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com

Stupid is as stupid does

Today, I was waiting for the lift at my apartment block when this youngish lady in her twenties also came to wait. I  know her to be one of my neighbours somewhere up on the higher floors.

She was on the phone yakking away with her friend while tossing & juggling her house keys with the other hand. I don't like to stereotype people but this slovenly dressed ah lian gave you the feeling she was a walking disaster.

True enough, when the lift doors opened, she fumbled her keys and it dropped right into the crack between the landing and the lift floor.

"Dammit, shit!" she screamed into her phone to her friend, "this is the 3rd time my keys got into the gap!"
"Damned idiots, why did they have to make the gap so big?!!"


Duh?

Error! Error! That does not compute!

I get peeved when those fast food servers behind the counter rattle off their scripts like robots instead of using their heads.

For example, if you say "I'd like to takeaway a cheeseburger...", they'll go through the whole rigamarole again... "burger? fries? upsize?" etc, and finally ask you "will that be dine in or takeaway?"


Today, I bullied the girl crew at Subway Westmall.
After getting my greens, she asked, "... and your dressing?"
Me: "Mustard"
Crew: "Yellow Mustard?"
Me: "what other colors do you have???"


She didn't get it.

(Link) View more Robot Sound Clips and Lost In Space Sound Clips

Hot under the collar

I took a bus to work yesterday in the sweltering heat. SBStransit #182 from Boon Lay bus interchange towards  Customs Checkpoint at Tuas 2nd Link.

The bus was exceedingly warm inside as it left the terminal. I tolerated it, assuming it had been out in the sun, and it would take a while to cool the ambient air inside.

However, after a kilometer or so, the air was still not cooled, and what's worse, it got very stifling.
Other pax'es on board were starting to get vocal amongst themselves, but as usual with most Singaporeans, they grumbled about the situation but did not have the courage to stand up and do something about it. (Guess it's one consequence of living in a closeted environment?)

When the sweat broke out on my brow, I couldn't bear it much more and went forward to the lady driver/bus captain to enquire if she could at least turn up the blower fan speed. She replied that the air con was already turned on and that the blower speed was fixed.

At this point, another Malay passenger came forward and started berating the bus captain over the faulty aircon system. A little to my embarrassment as it felt I was the one who started the incident.

She radioed her control station and they suggested all passengers disembark and board the next bus. A refund and a complimentary ride would be given for the journey onwards, as compensation for the inconvenience. There were about 20 of us on board, mainly foreign workers heading for the factories at Tuas.

This goes to show that if we want something rectified, we gotta stand up and be counted.

Blue skies at night

I recently learnt of a phenomenon that occurs almost every day though most people are unaware of it. 

For the briefest moment each evening, the sky turns a deep blue before becoming ink black. And photographs taken during these few minutes can produce quite spectacular results.

Below are some trial pictures I took this evening between 7.40pm and 7.50pm when the blue period occurred. Pictures were taken from the 22nd floor of my apartment building showing Westmall and Bukit Batok MRT station (on the right). This was my very first attempt at capturing the blue night sky. I'll be trying again to get better pictures. They will be posted to my photo blog in the future.

By the way, these photos are un-retouched or photoshopped. 

I probably will do a bit of adjustment and post it to my photo blog later.

The pictures on my photo blog are much larger, though you can click on the pictures below to see more details.

 

At 7.42pm. Olympus EPL-1 with 14mm lens. F11@50s

At 7.45pm. F6.3@50s. Overexposed, sigh.

At 7.50pm. The blue period had passed. The sky began to turn black.

Connexions - sandals and superglue

My favorite pair of sandals came to grief this rainy morning.
I been wearing them for 2 years now and  it is the most comfortable pair I have ever worn.
I bought them 2 years ago in Thailand, a local Thai brand called Calvin.
This morning, the rubber sole cracked while I was walking to the market.

Despite its age, it is still in excellent condition and it will really sadden me to dispose them.
So the next best thing - Repair. With superglue!

While doing the repairs, an amusing thought ran through my mind.
It's so surprising that  many people  do not know how to use superglue. 
I know this for a fact because I have seen people, including many of my colleagues, applying globs of superglue on stuff and they still say that it doesn't work or stick properly!

Superglue does not work straight out of the tube! Surprise surprise!
If it did, you would never be able to get the cap off, being stuck to the tube by the glue itself.
Yet, the cap never sticks to the tube. Why is this so?
If superglue is so strong, it stands to reason that the cap will be permanently glued to the tube, right?

The simple reason is that superglue needs another agent or catalyst to start its super bonding process.
By itself, superglue is inert but add a little moisture and the bonding reaction immediately takes place.

So, in order to use superglue, add water! or rather just wet the surface so that some moisture is available to kick start the bonding. That's the same reason why superglue sticks on your skin! Your skin is full of moisture and we all know how difficult it is to get rid of superglue from our fingers!

My sandals have just been repaired with the moisture coming from the rain soaked soles. The bond set within a minute and now I hope that sandals can last me another 6 months before I need to replace them. Ah ha! another good reason to travel to Thailand!

Getting it back from the bus companies.

How often do you look at the fare card reader on disembarking? Like most commuters, I rarely give it a glance. As long as I hear the beep, I assume that the fare has been correctly deducted from my EZ-Link stored value card.


How much was the fare and how much was deducted are not in my mind. I usually glance at the readout for the balance left in the card in that fleeting moment that the details are flashed.


We have become so complacent that we actually never bother to find out the cost of our bus or train trips. As long as we have enough value in our cards, we simply proceed with our journey.


When the bus and train companies implemented the new distance related fare structure in July, I still had not changed my habits. But I did note that the bus trip to my office would now cost $1.33.


Then about 2 months back, I noticed that on some trips the meter would read $1.37 instead of $1.33. At that time, I simply put it as technical glitch and though just a bit irritated over the excess didn't bother about the additional 4 cts charged.


Then it started to snowball, and that made me a bit suspicious that something might be happening with the bus fares. Were the bus companies knowingly overcharging and making an extra dollar without the commuter being the wiser? 


Mentally I worked out that at 4 cts a trip, I would have paid an additional $30 extra a year just to get to my office. This was unjustified! Imagine multiplying this by the number of passengers taking the bus each day! The amount would be a staggering scandal.


So I decided to fight back and claim for that tiny amount of 4 cents on a matter of principles. The bus company is not entitled to charge me extra for the journey, so why should I give them the 4 cents?
On the contrary, if I had underpaid by 4 cents, they have the 'right' to impose a penalty of $20 on me according to their regulations. So what right have they to take extra from me and get way with it?!


On the Transitlink website I found a Refund Claim Form and sent it off.  Refunds once approved would be made either by direct inter-bank transfer, by cash, by cheques or by vouchers. I opted to take a voucher.
Within 2 days I had a reply from the bus company.

I had expected to get a voucher for 4 cents but what I got was a 'complimentary' voucher for a free bus trip. Truth is, it wasn't totally complimentary as it had cost me 4 cents, but at least I could use it for a journey beyond 4 cents distance with their compliments, ha ha.

As of today, I have claimed a total of 4 vouchers from the bus company. Not a bad reward for getting back at them for overcharging.

VINDICATION !

The bus companies yesterday (Nov 23, 2010) were reported by the media as admitting to having overcharged commuters to the tune of $300,000 since implementing the new fare structures. They are now trying to work out a scheme to refund all the excess back to commuters, but I really doubt if most would bother, as admittedly most passengers were overcharged 4 cents.

Dividing $300k by an average of 4 cents means almost 7.5 million rides were overcharged and the media had reported that only 180 commuters had made claims for overcharging! Talk about apathy! But I am very sure that 99% are unaware that they were overcharged.

Here is the full newspaper report from Straits Times of 23 Nov 2010  if you wish to read the article.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20101123-248610.html

Let's get physical

Let's get physical, physical,
I wanna get physical!


Today,  I went for my quarterly physical checkup at the government polyclinic.
Actually it was more for the doctor consultation as I went for the blood and urine tests last week with the results only being released today.  And what's the prognosis?

Here it is, for the world to see...

Click for a more detailed image.

I underwent an ECG test at the same time and the above chart show everything's normal with the my ticker. Except for some signs of left ventricular hypertrophy, which is still OK.

More important to me were the results for the Big Three! (Diabetes- Hypertension-Cholesterol).

At my last visit to the doctor in August, I had my cholesterol medication changed from Lipitor to Simvastatin, the more generic form of medicines (statins) to control cholesterol, and was anxious to see if it had worked. The earlier Lipitor medication had brought my cholesterol levels down from a high of 200+ to 145 (even down to 139 mmol/L at one stage). If it had not worked for me, I would have requested a switch back to Lipitor despite the higher cost.

Here is the official lab report.

Lab Results
CLINICAL CHEMISTRY
Dipstick, U			Reference
	Glocuse, U	Negative
	Bilirubin, U	Negative
	Ketone, U	Negative
	Specific Gravity	1.025
	Blood, U	Trace intact
	pH, U	5.5	5.0-8.0
	Protein, U	Negative
	Urobilinogen, U	0.2	0.2-1.0 mg/dL
	Nitrite, U	Negative
	Leucocytes, U	Negative
Hypertensive Panel
	Sodium	140	135-150 mmol/L
	Potassium	4.3	3.5-5.0 mmol/L
	Creatinine	86	65-125
	Cholesterol	3.8 (145)	Desirable <5.2 mmol/L
			Borderline High 5.2-6.1 mmol/L
			High >= 6.2 mmol/L
	Triglycerides	1.79	Desirable<1.7 mmol/L
			Borderline High 1.7-2.2 mmol/L
			High 2.3-4.4 mmol/L
			Very High >=4.5 mmol/L
	HDL-C	0.97 (38)	Low <1.0 mmol/L
			Desirable 1.0-1.5 mmol/L
			High >=1.6 mmol/L
	LDL-C	2.02 (77)	Optimal <2.6 mmol/L
			Desirable 2.6-3.3 mmol/L
			Borderline High 3.4-4.0 mmol/L
			High 4.1-4.8 mmol/L
			Very High >=4.9 mmol/L
	Chol: HDL Ratio	3.92	>4.5 High Risk for CHD
	Glucose Fasting	5.7	3.0-6.0 mmol/L
	ALT	23	10-70 U/L
	AST	21	10-50 U/L

In short, my cholesterol has remained stable at 145 mg/dL (3.8 mmol/L).
Glucose level is in the optimal range.
Just to watch my salt intake and exercise a bit more!

The cost of the tests and consultation? S$66.14 but I only paid $38.40 for everything, inclusive of 3 months medication, as the rest was covered by Medisave.

My next quarterly check is due at the end of January 2011.
Stay healthy, eat healthy and live long!