Assorted Ravings of the Slightly-Weird

Sun's Out!

The sun's finally out! For the first time in weeks, I'm feeling warm and toasty. And just in time too, cos this weekend there's going to be a softball carnival at Kallang. It should be good fun and a great way to catch some rays.

The only downer is, I have to report for duty at 0730 on Sunday morning. Man. For someone who likes to wake up past noon on weekends, that is a tall order. But, like I said to my teammate, once in a while it's good to catch the sunrise :)

Since it's such a nice day, I thought I'd pick 10 random things that make my day.

1) Nice, sun-shiney days like today!
2) Getting deals at 65% off
3) Making wine charms with my sister on a lazy Thursday night
4) Hearing cheery, upbeat songs on the drive into work, and not having to deal with donkeys on the road
5) Calling people donkeys (it's got a nice ring to it)
6) Friday afternoons, with the weekend looming
7) A good bitchfest
8) Finding time to experiment in the kitchen
9) Drinks with good friends after a long workday
10) Getting unexpected phone calls

Have a good one, y'all!

Weekend Snippets And A Surprise

Another weekend spent doing nothing much, which takes up a surprising amount of energy. I've been yawning through the whole of today and coffee isn't helping much.

We won on Sunday, with a score of 4-2. Check out this series of photos for the highlight of the day: the tail-end of a double play with the runner on 3 getting tagged out at home.

2 more games to go before the league's done, and then another mini-tournament before I hang up my boots for the season.

In other news, I came out of a meeting today to find a surprise on my desk. One of our funds was the top-ranked in its category for 2005 and since I'm a member of that team I received not one but three plaques to commemorate the occasion. I guess I'm not that shitty as an analyst after all :) I'm going to leave one in the office, put one at home and... use the other one as a tray?

Coldplay tonight! Woohoo!

YIPPEE :D

Baseball's BACK!

Now I can start watching baseball on my computer again. Woohoo.

Ah, the sweet smell of spring... the crack of the bat as the ball leaves the park... the hot dogs and the garlic fries... Damnit, I wish I was still in Cal.

Just Around The Corner

Baseball is just around the corner! Woohoo!!

Check out this article about the Giants' Spring Training. Good to see they're having fun. And the photo of Barry Bonds? Hilarious!

FRIDAY!

Joke of the day, courtesy of my dad:

The doctor said, "Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition which causes your testicles to press on your spine, and the pressure creates one hell of a headache. The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles."

Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for.
He had no choice but to go under the knife. When he left the hospital he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself.

As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life. He saw a men's clothing store and thought, "That's what I need - a new suit."

He entered the shop and told the salesman, "I'd like a new suit."

The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, "Let's see... size44 long." Joe laughed, "That's right, how did you know?" "

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the suit. It fit perfectly. As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, "How about a new shirt?" Joe thought for a moment and then said, "Sure." The salesman eyed Joe and said, "Let's see, 34 sleeve and 16-1/2 neck." Joe was surprised, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the shirt, and it fit perfectly. As Joe adjusted the collar in the mirror, the salesman asked, "Howabout new shoes?" Joe was on a roll and said, "Sure." The salesman eyed Joe'sfeet and said, "Let's see...9-1/2 E." Joe was astonished, "That's right, how did you know?"

"Been in the business 60 years!"

Joe tried on the shoes and they fit perfectly. Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, "How about some new underwear?"
Joe thought for a second and said, "Sure." The salesman stepped back, eyed Joe's waist and said, "Let's see...size 36." Joe laughed "Ah ha! I got you! I've worn size 34 since I was 18 years old."

The salesman shook his head, "You can't wear a size 34. A 34 underwear would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one hell of a headache."

And, many congrats to the Chicago White Sox for a thoroughly dominating performance in the recently-concluded World Series. Game 3 was a gem.

No more baseball till March 06! What are CTG and I going to talk about now???

Procrastinating, As Usual

I should be working on 3 initiation notes but instead I'm chatting with my cousin in Australia. I hate writing these damn things; they're a waste of time and no one reads them anyway. Hopefully I'll get the drafts done by tomorrow and then I can take my own sweet time to write the formal ones.

Stupid new policy.

Anyway, I heard some funny shit on the radio today. First: what do you call a sheep with no legs? A cloud. Hahahahaha. Nice no-brainer of a joke. Second: on the morning show the topic was "What would you exchange your wife for?" with the condition that you couldn't exchange her for another human being. There were the usual answers regarding fast cars and peace of mind (haha very funny) but one guy stood out from the rest when he called in and said in a very plaintive tone: "Some good home-cooked food!"

Teehee. The longing in his voice was quite palpable. Poor schmuck.

Ok. Time to sleep so that I can have enough energy to "zo-bo" tomorrow. Nite nite!

Oh, and just one more thing. Next time, tag the batter just to make sure, dumbass. Quit your whining.

Random Stuff

This entry of random items may be a reflection of my state of mind, or it may just be that I'm too lazy to write anything longer than a paragraph on each item.

Here goes:
1) The phrase "hit the ground running" is one that can never be applied to me, especially when referring to coming back to work. Instead of hitting the ground running whenever I go back to the office, I fall like a stone and hit the ground with a thump. I sit and stew for quite a bit, before gathering up enough strength to maybe flop onto the other side. Then it takes almost a day to get up any type of momentum to flop over again. By the time I get any momentum going it's time for either another work trip or a vacation.

2) We ended the season yesterday with another win so we're 12-0. Woohoo. Sad to think that for 2005, softball is over and done with. What am I to do with my Sundays now???

3) The older I get, the more intolerant I seem to become. Little things just bug me and I've become much less accomodating. Either I need new friends or I'm slowly morphing into spinster mode, neither of which is desirable.

4) Over the past few weeks some people have told me that I've lost weight. Which definitely isn't the case, according to the scale in my mom's room. And, it leads me to wonder: What kind of a fucking fat-ass was I previously?!?!

5) I love it when all my teams win on the same day. Sad to say, this hasn't happened very often this season.

6) I just finished reading "The Toyota Way". Everyone should quit their job and apply to work at Toyota; the company is that good.

7) While out clubbing on Saturday night, to celebrate a friend's birthday, another friend informed me that I give off a "Fuck off and leave me alone" vibe. So that explains why I'm still single...

"Yeeer' OUT!"

11-0 for the season, one more game to go...

Yesterday's game, a 7-2 win, was easily the most dramatic game of the season, largely due to the most incompetent umpire I've ever encountered. And believe me, I've encountered many many incompetent umpires, the most famous being a certain Mr. H whose strike zone is imcomprehensible. Once, the ball bounced on home plate and he still called it a strike.

But the umpire yesterday topped the charts in terms of incompetence.
1) His strike zone varied from inning to inning.

2) On a steal to three, the runner slid into three, stopping about half a foot from the base and was tagged by the 3B. The call? Safe, by the home plate umpire. Who hadn't even been watching the play because when everyone looked at him for the call he had the classic deer-in-headlights look for a couple of seconds before making the call.

3) Runners on 2nd and 3rd, none down. Batter hits to SS, who fields it cleanly and throws to 3rd. Runner on 3rd dives back to the base and is NOT tagged. Runner on 2nd however, has advanced to 3rd and IS tagged out. Then the 3B fires to 2B to try to get the batter out, at which point the runner on 3rd runs home and the runner on 2nd (already out) runs home as well and is tagged again.

The home plate umpire calls it 2 out, no runs scored.

The game was delayed by 15 minutes as we argued with the umpire and got the decision reversed to 1 out, 1 run scored. Then the opposing coach comes out and tries to change his mind, failing which she convinces him to make it 1 out, runner on 3rd goes back to 3rd. Which is a ridiculous call because the ball was in play the whole time so there is no reason for the runner on 3rd to go back.

Anyway, after that whole fiasco the score was 2-1 , but thanks to errors by the opposing team, we scored 5 more runs in that inning.

Don't you just hate it when lousy umpiring ruins the game?

It Pays To Focus

The A's propelled themselves into first place in the AL West today thanks to a heads-up play by Jason Kendall.

With 2 outs in the ninth and runners on 2nd and 3rd (Jason Kendall being the runner on 3rd), the Angels' pitcher took his eye off the ball as it was being thrown back to the mound to him and dropped the ball. Which allowed Jason Kendall to take off for home and score the winning run.

That, my friends, is why you should always be paying attention. There's a video of the play in the link above, so if you have a non-gimpy broadband connection (unlike mine) it's good viewing.

In other sports news, 2 Mets outfielders collided in the outfield when they both dived for the ball. One guy has a concussion, the other sustained multiple fractures. I haven't worked up the courage to see the video playback - on MLB.com it says "not for the faint of heart" - but you can read about it here, with the video link, if you want.

To quote CTG: "Ouch."

Happy Friday everyone!

Sports Sports Sports

I rode my bike for the first time yesterday. I had to crawl from my comfy bed at 0630 to get to East Coast by 0730 so that I could get onto my bike and ride for almost 18km. Woohoo.

It's fairly fun, but I think there's something wrong with the positioning of my seat 'cos my neck is all sore from being hunched up. Either that or I don't know how to ride a racer. Still, I'm looking forward to biking again this weekend.

Other sports news today:
1) We're 9-0 for the season. 3 more games left before I hang up my glove for the next few months. Sigh.

2) The Yankees and the As are 2.5 games out of 1st place in their respective divisions, with the As being 1.5 games up on the Yankees for the wild card. The As have been on a tear lately, and with 2 more months in the regular season to go this should be fairly exciting. As for the Giants, despite being 13 games under .500 they're only 5.5 games out of first place, which only demonstrates how weak the NL West is this year. But with 65 games left to play anything is still possible. So go teams!

3-0, In More Than One Way

It's a rare day, for this season at least, when my 3 teams are all winners.

Today, for once, I'm 3-0. Giants beat the Twins, Yankees beat the Pirates and As beat the Mets. Woohoo. None of them are doing well this season, sigh.

In other news, softball season has started and so far we're 3-0. Woohoo. Personal stats: I have been on base 5 times (1 bunt single, 2 walks and 2 errors) and scored 3 runs. I've made one error. Nothing great. I wish my batting was better... but at least I can still bunt.

Birthdays and Other Matters

First things first.

Happy birthday Des and Moo Moo!
Sorry Moo Moo, this is one day behind since I was going by US time.

For some reason, April's a really popular month for having kids. So many of my friends are born in April. When I was in school April was a particularly lean month on the pocket money front since I had to buy presents for so many people.

Anyway, I'm just back from lunch and I'm not fired! *shew*
It was a catching-up kind lunch rather than anything else. In fact, I told my boss as we were leaving that I was afraid it was going to be bad news and she found that amusing. There's still no news on the promotion front though...

In other news, NY beat the "Red Sux" to pull out of last place in the AL East. But the Giants lost to the Dodgers again (after a heartbreaker yesterday). Early days, I know, but still it would be nice to get some wins especially against division rivals.

And I know I was supposed to write about CTG but one of my companies is reporting results today so it's been a slightly crazy day at work. Maybe tonight...

Triathlon Update: Day ???

Man I'm tired.

It's been 3 weeks so far and every week I've had 2 swim sessions, 2 bike sessions, 2 run sessions AND 2 softball sessions. I've skipped a couple so I'd say I have a 90% attendance record.

Man I'm tired...

Today I have to run/walk for 47 minutes. On Tuesday I biked for 45 minutes and had softball training. Tomorrow I have to swim 1 km. Over the weekend I have to bike, run AND swim.

Man I'm tired... ...

Back!

Hello folkies! Just back from my work trip.

I'm glad to announce that my freestyle has improved vastly. So much so that I can now coach my sister. Whoopee. I guess J was right, it just takes a bit of practice.

But I still hate the swimming, biking AND jogging.

Still Alive!

Rejoice, for I am alive! For now at least... There's another swim session tonight, damnit.

My distaste for jogging is an open secret. Now, of the three activities for the mini triathlon - swimming, biking and running, or in my case very slow jogging - jogging is my FAVOURITE. Which just goes to show how much I hate the other 2. Swimming gives me a headache from the lack of oxygen, and biking is just a pain on my butt (no typo there).

Ok today's BQOTD is kindly contributed by Des. From her friend:

"Des, my eyebags are so big and black they could pass off as Prada bags."

Wah, high-class sia...

Triathlon Training: Day 1

So, my crazy sister decided a few weeks ago that she wanted to take part in a mini triathlon and somehow managed to convince me to take part as well. I must have been smoking some serious shit then, but anyway we managed to stumble into a situation where we now have some professional help with regards to training.

So last night, we had our first pool session. And nearly died. It wasn't that we couldn't do the distance (in total we had to swim 1km) but that we couldn't do a decent freestyle to save our lives. J: If you're reading this, we have failed you! The furthest I managed was 40m before I had to switch over to breast stroke, just to be able to breathe, for 2 strokes before I switched back to freestyle.

At this rate the rescue boat is definitely going to have to save us on race day, provided we haven't already drowned during our sessions. Now, I have a true understanding of the word "flailing".

Addictions

I think I am seriously addicted to coffee. Not because I feel sleepy without it but because I seem to get headaches when I am deprived of my cuppa.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day baking pineapple tarts (more on that in another post). After the baking ended at around 6pm I sat down to watch some TV and I developed a really bad headache. Even Panadol didn't help, and I mooched and grumped around the house for quite a while. Finally, at 2300 I managed to get my hands on some coffee, the first coffee of the day, and voila, my headache disappeared.

But then again, maybe it had to do with the company I was keeping... Hehe.

In other news, Marat Safin downed Lleyton Hewitt 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to win the 2005 Australian Open. I had a tough time deciding who to root for - the dishy Safin that took out the #1 seed Federer or the tough competitor that is Lleyton Hewitt? It sucks that there has to be just the one winner.

Fedex Delivers, Again

There seems to be no way to stop Roger Federer. He beat the Las Vegas showman Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to get into the semi-finals of the Australian Open where he will face the dishy Marat Safin.

Anyway I thought this quote from Agassi was worth remembering:

"I would suggest," Agassi said, "that his next opponents don't look to me for advice."

As for my boy, he's still trying to regain the form he had in 2003. Vamos Juan Carlos!

Lunchables!

It's lunch time! The daily dilemna about what to eat... Working at Orchard Road has its perks but one of the drawbacks is expensive food and lack of choice. The other day, I went to the food court at Taka and spent 4 bucks on rice, 1 meat and 2 veg. You can get 2M+2V for 2 bucks at Golden Shoe!! So even if you factor in the transport cost, food at Golden Shoe costs about the same and tastes twice as good. Yummy :D

MLB update
AL: MIN 1, NYY 1; BOS 1, ANA 0 (looks like it'll be 2-0 to Boston soon)
NL: HOU 1, ATL 0; STL 1, LA 0

Replay of the MIN-NYY game tonight, 8pm on ESPN.
Tomorrow, bright and early at 8am, it's Game 2 of the STL-LA series.
Saturday, bright and early at 8am, it's Game 3 of the MIN-NYY series. Anyone interested in watching at my place? :D

Countdown!

MLB postseason is just days away! In the American League, the Yankees, Red Sox and Twins are in the post-season while the Athletics and Angels fight it out over a 3-day series to determine who goes to the postseason as the winner of the AL West. In the National League, the Braves and the Cardinals are in while the Giants, Dodgers, Cubs and Astros remain in the hunt for the 2 remaining play-off spots.

So for Bay Area fans, there's going to be 2 races that will come down to the wire: Dodgers vs Giants in LA and Angels vs Athletics in Oakland. Two Northern Cal teams vs their bitter Southern rivals... Man, the atmosphere must be electric. It's times like these that I really miss being back in good ol' California.

The scenarios so far:
AL: Pretty straightforward - the Angels and Athletics are tied so whoever wins 2 games out of the 3 will go to the postseason.

NL: This is where it gets interesting. 4 teams fighting for 2 spots. Giants and Dodgers play each other, Cubs play the Braves and Astros play the Rockies (who, btw, really suck since they twice allowed the Dodgers to come back to win!!! Argh.) Dodgers are currently leading the NL West, so the Giants have to sweep this last series to force a one-game playoff. AND, the Giants are currently tied with the Astros and have a 1-game lead over the Cubs for the wildcard slot. So if the Astros lose at least one game over the weekend, and the Giants sweep then there will be no need for a playoff as both the Giants and Dodgers will qualify.

Confused yet?? :D

It's a great time to be a baseball fan! No guesses as to how I'll be spending my weekend!

GO GIANTS! GO A's!

GO BAY AREA!!

BEAT SOCAL!!!

No More Softball! :(

Softball season is over! Boo hoo...

Sunday was the final day of the 2004 season. Sigh. No more early morning games on Sunday, no more lunching at the Old Airport Road hawker center, no more frantic dashes to MacDonald's to use the bathroom, no more cute guys... oh wait there never have been cute guys so scratch that last comment.

Anyhow, we ended the season with a clean record for the league, and a 7-1 record for double knockout. The 2nd last game was against our bitter rivals, and we managed to pull out a 5-4 win. Good pitching on our part (except for one inning) and some great defense helped, along with some timely hitting. I left the last game halfway but I'm pretty sure we won that, considering we were up 15+ runs in the first inning alone.

Next up, training for our trip to NZ. It's been 8 years since we last had an extended training tour (the last training tour was to China in 1996) so it's high time we had another one. This time around the plan is to head to the land of the sheep and do a bit of sightseeing together with softball.

Ok back to work. More bitchy entries when I get back, I promise!

Weekend Update

¡Hola amigos! ¿Cómo era su fin de semana?

Softball season is almost over - the last day of the season is this Sunday. Get your softball fix before it's too late and you'll have to wait another 10 months.

The 2nd game last Sunday was the busiest game of the season (so far) for me. Of the 12 outs we recorded, I had a hand in 5 of them. Most of the time I see limited action, if any at all, so 5 outs is big. HUGE! I had 2 tag plays at 3rd base, 1 bunt, 1 grounder and 1 foul flyball. Yippee! Oh, and check out the wishlist - I've just updated it.

Other than that, nothing much to blog about. Basically my life nowadays revolves around my family, work, softball and my computer games.
*yawn*

MIA...

... for the next few days as I will be off on the longest business trip I have ever taken. 8 full days of company visits = trying frantically to mix and match without having to bring a ton of clothes and shoes. Of course, there's always the option of wearing the same thing day in, day out but that's a bit beyond my already lax standards.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to going back to Shanghai. The last time I was there was in June 1996, as part of our training tour to China. The one thing that stood out about Shanghai was that my cousin and I discovered the world's best springrolls in a small little alleyway off Nanking Road (their version of Orchard Road).

Till this day, I still regret only eating 1 of those delicious springrolls - we bought 1 each and walked on and by the time we finished eating it we were full and also too lazy to turn back to get more. Man, those springrolls were so crispy and inside, on top of the usual turnips, carrots and (if my memory serves me right) some of the black fungus, there was also some very very tasty minced pork, with a bit of gravy (normal springrolls are dry) to top it all off. Yum-MY!

Turning now to sporting news, we won today. In the 1st inning we were slightly shaky, letting in 3 runs and only scoring 1. All 3 runs were unearned as we made 4 errors in that inning; sadly, one of them (the 1st one!!) was by me, where I muffed an easy grounder. The good news is, I made up for my error by tagging the same player out at home.

(All non-softball/baseball people can skip the next paragraph).
The situation was none down, runners on 2 and 3. The 3rd batter was up, and she bunted a ball to me (i.e. third base). I fielded it and tossed the ball to home as the runner had for some reason decided to charge home. We then caught her in a hot box (that's when the runner gets caught in between bases and has to try and avoid getting tagged out by doing the shuttle run, while the fielders throw to each other, try to make the box smaller and eventually tag the runner out) and I tagged her out at home :D

After that we settled down and eventually won the game by a margin of 7 runs.

Ok, that's all folks. Got to go downstairs to get char siew from my sister. (It's great to have a sister who loves to cook!) I'll be back in a couple of days' time.

Weekend Update

Softball season is back! Yippee! We play every Sunday at Kallang from now till mid-September, barring any scheduling changes, so if you're really really really bored come and watch lah. Come see the pathetic field that turns into a lake during thunderstorms, the crappy dugouts with half a roof between the two of them, and the pot-holed outfield that is just murder on our outfielders' legs.

It is, quite honestly, one of the worst fields I have ever played in.

That aside, last weekend's games really drove home the point that softball is as much a mental game as it is a physical game. There's basically 3 teams that are in contention every year, with the other 2/3 teams playing the spoiler roles. No names will be mentioned so let's call the teams A, B and C.

On Saturday the pitcher of Team B injured herself in the first inning and her team promptly collapsed around her. They're good players who can hit well, but once she got taken out of the game their hitting just got shot to bits. We played them 3 times over the weekend and not once did I field a ball (I play third base). All the more shocking when you realise that just three weeks ago they were sending some bullets my way.

Anyhow, I think there's no other reason for their poor hitting than a lack of confidence. They didn't think they could win without their pitcher on the mound and they didn't. They didn't even give themselves the chance to contend, fielding and batting both below their normal standards.

2 lessons here:
1) Never ever depend solely on your pitcher to do the job.
2) It's all in the mind.

Other than that, I copped out and took a day off yesterday because I was tired from the games and from watching the Olympic coverage on TV. Haha... It's so relaxing to be able to stay at home the whole day, watch TV and play computer games. I'm giving the Sims a break for now, and playing Civilisation 3 instead. I am a crap Civ player but I just like researching and being technologically advanced. I haven't yet figured out what's the best way to play Civ 3 though, since there are some changes from Civ 2.

Anyhow, it's Tuesday now and for some strange reason things always seem to happen when I'm out on leave. Two Fridays ago I took the morning off and there was a flurry of email activity that I had to reply to. Last Friday I was in the office the whole day and nothing happened. Yesterday, I was out and again, there was a whole spate of emails. Strange but true!

Ok back to work...

Cool Sites!

Yo! Found a couple of cool sites while surfing. Ossbay-omanway is not around! Por tres semanas! Well ok, one week has gone by but still, there's two weeks left. Oh happy day!

Leading off: This article was hilarious! Definitely worth a read.
Bunt specialist: Want to know if your so-called friends really know you? Send them a quiz!
Third up: Lots of name-dropping in this article about a hostess at a popular NY nightclub. Since the NYTimes has a policy of only putting its articles online for a week, after which you have to pay to read them, go read this NOW.
Clean-up spot: The almost-demise of the Lakers. I hope Shaq beats up on the Lakers every time the Heat play them.

In sports, the Giants won today in dramatic fashion, scoring 4 runs in the top of the 9th to beat the Rockies 7-5 at Coors Field. 4 runs on just 1 hit. Of course, on top of that 1 hit, which was a single, there were 2 walks, 1 sacrifice bunt, 1 run-scoring fielder's choice, one run-scoring HPB (hit by pitched ball) and 1 wild pitch that scored 2 runs. All that excitement is bound to be bad for my heart...

Plus, As hold off the White Sox 4-2 and the Yanks win 5-1 over the Tigers.

Off to test my new toaster oven :D

New Section!

Yo! I had some time over the weekend so I set up a new section for sporting news. As usual I pilfered the icon from MSN Messenger... But I think it still needs a bit more formatting cos the size looks somewhat strange.

Anyhow, Giants won today so they are still a half game back in the NL West. Having reached the halfway mark, Major League baseball takes a well-deserved 3-day break. I can't imagine playing 162 games in slightly under 6 months...

That's all for today. Too much work to do :(

"The" vs "De"

I have got a new pet peeve.

I just hate it when people say "de" instead of "the". It just pisses me off and everytime I hear people saying "de" I find myself gritting my teeth to prevent me from grabbing their collar, shaking them until their teeth rattle and shouting in their faces:

"T-H-E, not D-E! Dumbass!"

In other news, Ferrero and Henman are out. Sob. My money is on Federer to win. That man is playing some good tennis and it's almost impossible to beat him. He's barely broken a sweat in the 5 games he's played so far.

And in baseball (all you non-baseball fans can skip this paragraph), Barry Bonds just hit another home run - thanks to the technological wonder that is MLBTV I can watch MLB on broadband. That makes it 678 for the Giants left fielder, but I doubt he'll be able to pass the Babe (714) though, much less Hammerin' Hank (755).

Hm. I wonder just how many people have read the last paragraph...

Anyhow, I'm off to Bali tomorrow! Colleagues getting married left right and center so most of the Asian team will be in attendance. It should be fun to catch up with my colleagues again, especially when it's outside of work.

Go JC! Go Giants!

JC's into the 3rd round of Wimbledon! He narrowly beat Stefan Koubek of Austria in a 5-setter. I wish Star Sports would show more of JC. Last night, they showed his match until the beginning of the 5th set and then they inexbicably switched to Capriati. Come on. Who wants to watch Capriati when Juan Carlos is playing!?

And in SF, the Giants sweep the Dodgers, taking the final game of the 4-game series 9-3. With that they boost their slim lead in the NL West to 2.5 games.

Oh, happy day!

Hm... I think I should start a new category for sport-related stuff. That shall be my project for the weekend. That, and doing up my photo site.

Ok I had to evict the cute Armani guy but you can still see him here! And while you're there you can take a look at my Rodrigo Santoro photos, which has 1255 hits. AMAZING...
If only my blog had that many hits...

One last thing: on my way to work I was listening to the radio and the DJ said something like this: "I suppose they do it because it's quote unquote cool." But when you think about it, the word should come in between the quotation marks right? Like this: "cool"

So, shouldn't it be "quote cool unquote"?? Food for thought...

Happy Friday!

(Not very) BQOTD

Hardly bitchy but this snippet from the NYTimes made me chuckle:

"A couple of years ago she bought a cow with the idea of making cow's milk cheese, too. On its first day at her farm, the cow jumped a six-foot fence and had to be retrieved from across the county. So where is the cow now?

"Oh, Lily," she said matter-of-factly. "Things didn't work out. We ate her.""

Heh. I like how she named the cow and then ate the cow.
P.S.: The article's a pretty good read as well if you have 5 minutes to spare on cheesemakers.
P.P.S.: The Giants won again! *grin*

All About Naps

Hey, my boss is human after all! I just looked over and caught her napping! From my desk, I can only see the top of her head but the telltale nod-and-jerk, nod-and-jerk gave the game away. Heheh. That gave me license to take a quick nap as well. Yawn. And now that I'm awake, I shall blog!

So, speaking of napping, my cousin once told me he would sneak off to the restroom to nap while he was at work. And he's not the only person who does that; I have another friend who does the same thing.

How anyone can sleep in the restroom is just beyond me. As I understand it, there are two styles of toilet-napping.
1) The nap-and-sit
This style is really quite uncomfortable. If there's nothing to your side to rest your arms and head on, then you basically have to slump over and risk a major neckache. If there is a ledge or something to your side you still have to twist your body around. I've tried this before and given it up in less than a minute.

2) The nap-on-seat
This is way gross. Basically, you sit on the floor and rest your head on the toilet seat. Granted, the toilet seat cover is down (at least, I hope it is!) but basically, you're sleeping where people crap on a regular basis! That's just nasty. All sorts of nasty molecules floating around there... Not to mention having to lie on the restroom floor. Gross.

I think napping should be allowed in the office. After lunch, a 30-minute nap for all! That would be so much better for productivity. Apparently this is done in Taiwan, cos once when my boss visited some company there, she said that when they went in, the whole office was darkened and everyone was just sleeping. My dream office!

Note: If I ever run for politics, I will campaign on the twin platforms of office naps and getting rid of stupid pedestrians (I haven't blogged about it yet but I will. I just need to build up enough pent-up rage to make my sharp, biting yet witty comments. Ha!).

More about napping (will she never stop?!): sometimes when I nap in the office, I murmur. Yup. I go "Hmm" or "Huh" quite loudly, which is a huge giveaway given the deadly silence from my corner for the past 20, 30 minutes. So, I try to cover it up by coughing, or rustling some papers, to make it seem like I've been awake and hard at work.

Other times, I twitch. A huge, full-on body twitch. It's like I'm a puppet and someone is pulling on my strings. It's embarassing, to say the least... People sitting behind me in the lecture theatres back at Cal would giggle whenever I slipped into a somnabulistic state and twitched. Which happened pretty much on a regular basis. I think there's a kiddie song that goes something "The ducks in the pond go quack quack quack, the cows in the meadow go moo moo moo (repeat with various animals and corresponding animal sounds)..." Well, my song would go something like this:
The professor in the front goes drone drone drone, Scrabby in her seat goes TWITCH!, the other students in their seat go giggle giggle giggle

I'm just thankful I don't snore! Or, do I...

Enough about napping! Here's some other snippets that don't really constitute a full blog entry:
* Barry Bonds is up to 670 HRs - after a month-long drought he homered in back-to-back games. Better still, the Giants are on a 5-game win streak and are only 3 games out of .500 :) Go Giants! Go Barry!

* Ferrero survived Round 1 at Roland Garros, a tough match against former World No. 2 Tommy Haas 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Next up, Igor Andreev. My boy is nursing some sore ribs though... Go JC!!!

* Mauritius awaits, in less than 48 hours! *grin*

This One's For Des!

Des, this is for you. And only you.

GIANTS WIN!
hehehehehehehehehehehehe

A. R. G. H.

Why?

Why??

WHY???

Why do the Giants keep losing, and to the Dodgers and the Padres especially? What is wrong with them? Is Des sticking pins into all her voodoo dolls of the Giants team so that they can post scorelines like 0-11 (to the Padres) and 0-9 (to the Dodgers today)??? (But thankfully I don't have to eat dust pans!)

ZERO runs?!? What the hell is going wrong?! I must be caught in some parallel universe, one where the Giants keep losing (come on guys, a 7-12 record is fucking pathetic, even this early in the season). Even Detroit and Milwaukee have a better record than the Giants!!

Further proof of a parallel universe:
1) Boston just swept New York AT HOME. New York is 8-11.
2) Seattle is 6-13.
3) The Triumvarate of EVIL ie Boston, Chicago AND LA are all at 12-6. Methinks me smells a rat...

How can this be?! Someone, please restore order and bring me back to a world where the Giants, A's and Yankees should be leading their divisions.
Where Ferrero should be winning his clay court matches at least.
Where the Lakers crash out of the playoffs.
Where someone like William Hung, who has ruined the good name of Cal for all of us and is way past his alloted 15 minutes, should have faded into obscurity by now.

I now resolve to be a good person. To be a nice person. I will stop bitching if that's what it takes to restore order to this world.

Changing direction totally, I have now decided on which icon to pick for Photos. Finally :)

Crap!

Argh. Crap crap crap. The Giants got swept (stop laughing Des!) by the f**king Dodgers. At home too, in PACBELL PARK. Sai.

And, JC lost! :( He got as far as the semi-finals of the Valencia Open, only to be ousted by some little-known Spaniard 2-6, 1-6. SAI.

SAI. SAI. SAI. (translated as "SHIT. SHIT. SHIT.")
Why do the higher powers that be continually test my faith as a fan??? No fear though, the Giants have at least 3 more series against the Dodgers and if the Dodgers can sweep all the series, Des, I'll eat anything you can throw at me. And for JC, there's the bigger prize of the Monte Carlo Open AND the biggest prize of the French Open. So, GO GIANTS! GO JC!

Plus, we're now at that delightful time of year in Singapore when it's freakishly hot. Everyday I just wake up all hot and sticky, and it's no point showering cos 5 minutes after you step out of the shower you just feel hot and sticky all over again. The only good thing is that my office no longer feels like the Artic because the heat outside acts as a counterpoint.

Time to brave the heat to grab some lunch. Ice-cold watermelon juice would be great :)

Addendum: It is HOT. At least 36C man... And to think there was actually one crazy guy jogging down Orchard Road at 1230. Madman. In the words of the Wicked Witch of the East, "I'm melting! I'm melting...".

Oh, also added one more icon - guy shouting down the phone for Complaint Department. This one I pillaged from Microsoft Office clipart as well. 7 down, 1 more to go.

Sports Sports Sports

It's a good day sports-wise. Barry Bonds hit #660 today, and the Giants won! Go Giants! Go Barry! Giants are 4-3 for the season, As' are 4-2 and the Yankees are 4-4. That man is one incredible athlete... almost 40 and still going strong. 96 HRs to go to be the all-time leader.

Photo from MLB.com - Bonds hits #660 at (my fav) Pacbell Park

And, JC is back in action again! Over the weekend he helped get Spain into the Davis Cup semis, beating the Netherlands 4-1. This week "The Mosquito" is playing in the Valencia Open. Finally, some tennis action :) Only thing is, the crap cable here only shows US-centric tennis. Who gives a shit about seeing dumb-ass Roddick? Give me my Spaniards anyday!

Go Bears!

GO BEARS :) Woohoo!

Cal wins the Insight Bowl... ok so I've never heard of this Bowl before, but hey, given the wilderness years with Tom Holmoe, any Bowl is good news.

Slowly Getting The Hang of Things

Ok, I've mastered the linking bit of this whole website-thingy. For those not in the know, let's just say I'm technologically-challenged and leave it at that.

Two links for you guys:
1) My photos - always a work in progress... largely dependent on when I can get my scanner set up and when I can find time to scan photos. And no, no digital cameras for me. Right now there's stuff on some trips I took in the past 18 months, as well as a section on mi favorito jugador del tenis.

2) Des's blog - Des is one of my oldest friends and she's always got interesting things to say. Read her blog!

Oh, and I've also included the links in the Links section (how original) on the RHS. And check it out: I've learnt how to put in a picture, thanks again to Nat! Fun fun fun!