Hello World

i put my blog as my homepage, and i can't stand looking at the title "Plastic knives", so here i am, writing another one to push the knife story down. =P

i discovered that the pasir ris library has quite a wide selection of books on astronomy! yay! I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's not the horoscope or fengshui rubbish i normally find in established bookstores under the "Astronomy" category.

struggling to write my progress report....quarterly reports are such a pain..
when u have just submitted one not too long ago, it's time to start writing the next one.

The story of the plastic knives

a man went to the market to buy a knife for his kitchen (budget $10). he looked for a stall selling knives, but could not find one. an old woman came along, and asked if he would like to buy some plastic knives.
"I will sell you 2 plastic knives for $1." the old lady said.
the man thought abt it. He could use the plastic knives also, and they are much cheaper than the steel one he initially wanted. so he bought the plastic ones.
he brought the knives home and set them to work. he took care of them by wiping them clean carefully every night after a whole day of cutting.
he told the knives, "I will buy a magic potion for you, to turn you into steel knives. but it is not 100% successful. u also have to work harder everyday to have higher chance of turning into steel."
the plastic knives were very happy upon hearing this. they will get to upgrade to steel!
they worked hard day after day, thinking of the day they would turn into steel.
one day, the man did not wipe the knives clean at night. nor the next night.
then the next day, he brought home a steel knife and threw the redundant (and cheap) plastic knives into the rubbish bin.
the plastic knives had the shock of their lives. one moment they were going to turn into steel, but the next moment they get thrown away and replaced by a brand new steel knife.
they then realised that while they had been busy working hard for the man, the ungrateful creature was looking out for a good steel knife to come along. he never had the intention to buy the magic potion, nor help the plastic knives grow stronger.

and so the plastic knives wept silently.




this was what i wrote last night, after talking with two of my closest colleagues. basically i felt manipulated and that my fate has already been sealed,but things are still going on under the disguise of "training".

the morning after feeling was different. i blabbered out to my father all i could remember and asked him for an opinion. he feels that i should not worry too much abt office politics, and just "learn as much as i can". i have been hearing this phrase so much that i'm so sick of it.
but ultimately, whether i get employed by saesl or not, this training of 18mths is for my personal benefit too. so i shud milk out whatever knowledge i can out of the pple ard me, and also make back up plans.

just not a very gd feeling, but i also dont really stand to lose much if i dont get selected after it all. and i also cant think too much abt who is the gd guy or who is the bad guy.......... who i shud trust, who i shud talk to......

argh

conclusion: have to constantly improve my skill set (quote from the Recruit Section) and learn and learn non stop.

a remark

was over at my grandma's place today for lunch as usual. while watching tv, i chatted casually with my aunt. i mentioned that sometimes when i get home from work,abt 8plus, i am so tired i have no appetite for dinner. all i want to do is rest. then she said, "yah, me too. When i look for a job, i write in my resume that my hobby is sleeping. I always want to sleep."

KAUZ!

i never expected her to be so sarcastic! she's usually a nice person, and i was really taken aback by what she said. =(

turbulent 2 wks

the title says it all, and i think i'm getting over this horrid period soon. just keeping my fingers crossed that there are no other major mistakes i have made, and that i can start afresh in the coming week.

i was at suntec yesterday to help out at my company's booth at the 20% career and 80% education fair. while walking thru city link, i couldnt resist stepping into MPH and parking myself in front of the magazine shelves. (hehe...super cheapo!)

i searched for my usual fav magazines (which would prob fall under most pple's "Most Boring Mags ever published" category.) Scientific American had a special edition dedicated to Time. Not to the red-border Time Magazine but to the hours and seconds we live by daily. I was quite tempted to buy it, but the prohibitive price of $15 deterred me. Since i had plenty of time, i read abt half of it. While reading, the long lost good feel of being intellectual flooded back, and i was inspired to read more abt my fav topics again. every now and then i will be very motivated and inspired to read up chim books, but all too soon i'd be bogged down by mundane matters and lose that precious excitement. At its highest peak, the excitement is very pure and I feel like i'm breathless and bursting with energy to get my hands on every single piece of literature on the subject and devour the arguments and knowledge in them.

(uh, do i sound half-demented to u? if not, i must sound TOTALLY demented!)

when i finally understand enough abt time, black holes, space, etc, i intend to write little bite-sized entries here and share little discoveries with u guys. write abt some things other than complaining abt work or irritating pple.
not sure if anyone would appreciate that, but i think that will take a really long time to happen. =P