Finally, got time to have a time to take a break to reflect what I have accomplished for the week. Guess mostly shopping stuffs I got via online and out in the shopping mall. Looking forward in getting my stuffs, of coz' I have yet to pay my fren who have paid on my behalf - Thanks Alvina.
This tue, I completed my 2nd exam in the 'stupid' law course, 1 more paper to go for that, but guess will be after my holiday trip. After thought is I am OLDer now, but does not really seems to be like what other people have said wiser. My memory is failing me I know as I could hardly remembered what I have study. Guess no more school for me, unlike a friend of mine who is now thinking of signing for courses for exam as he missed the thrill in it. Give me a break on that. Now leave it to the god to bless me that I can pass my paper.
The most rewarding thing I got out for this week is NAPPING in the afternoon.
Just managed to change my flight time for KL from evening to early morning at FOC. So happy, but then meaning I need to occur the taxi fare for the midnight charge :(
Planning to travel to this place: Berjaya Hills
Last Friday, sitting beside my new colleague in meeting only and with his one time sneeze of his, I am down with fever that night and it totally spoilt my whole weekend. :(
Today I am back in AMK office again. This time round I am disgusted by what I seen in my dustbin. My new colleague has actually throw lots of tissue paper in it and then placed the bin under my table!! For the whole day until now, my nose is itchy. Pray hard I would not fall sick this time round again. Thinking maybe I should go and look for a new corner to hide and do my work.
On Monday I have sleepless night thinking about a stupid mistake I have made.
It never occurred to me that one of the subcon's personnel might not be suitable for my company nature of work. It would be better to offer him a desk bound viewing his inconvienice. This never cross my mind when the program manager introduced him to me!
So ended up, on monday, I spoke to his mentor and program manager. All feel we should ask his opinion and comfort level. And hence, he too feels about diffcult in carry out the job should we need him to conduct testing. Therefore, I had his replaced by another of his collegue. I feel bad about his suitation and hope that he does not feel and discrimination about it. Last but not the least, all the best in his new job.
Hope that all of us would have chemistry and get to work on well together just like the last team I had.
haha... please do not be mistaken. I am not back in school to study.
In fact I am back to work here. My company has rent a workshop here to place one of our project. And since I am working on this project, no choice need to come here as well.
It has been 5 days since I am here. Every morning is a challegne to get out of the bed. Once I am able to see a beautiful sun rise while waiting for the bus.
Late morning, I made a very stupid mistake!
That resulted in a re-work.
I am so sorry to my friend for the trouble I have caused.
So now I need to be extra careful when I write. :P
As mentioned, this is my new office space.
Do not know good or not as I still think it is quite OPEN.
4 of us back facing back. 
Have you watched this show in US? Was release on 19 Oct 2007 and in Singapore 8 Nov 2007.
Here is the link : http://www.epicstoriesofthebible.com/index.php
It was done by Digitial Media.
So far I have never seen any of their production. Think only have a short 2-3 mins snapshots of the show once during company convention on the Jane & Dragon show. Next month I would be going to watch the 10 commandments show ( complementary of course!)
Aiyo, 1st thing in the morning one start to pack and unpack my stuffs in the office. Shifted within the building just different department. Right now sitting in the mist of lotsa of engineers.
Seeing my neighbour beside me, I am 1/2 hearted liao.. think now I shall immerse myself more in music when i work. :P
I also begin to wonder and worry if she might one day turn crazy and attack me or not afterall we are now back to back without any barriers in between. Now I begin to miss my OLD time neighbours like SohSum, Joyce, Tong Luan. Come to think of it not too bad..so far all my neighours are gals.
A lunch meeting is a form of multi-tasking which allows busy executives to fill their tummies and talk shop at the same time. Whether you're the host of an invited guest, you should be aware of some things if you want to make the meal a success.
***Be nice to all ***
Being impolite to wait staff is the biggest mistake you can male. Don't act like a spoilt child or as if you own the restaurant. How you treat the service staff reflects on your general attitude towards co-workers and business associates.
***Order with care ****
Crabs are a bad idea, and so are potential messy foods like spaghetti. Laksa and curry are also best avoided if you're wearing white. You want to leave a good impression, which is usually hard if you have gravy stains on your clothes
***Give your undivided attention ***
Turn your mobile phone off or put it on silent mode. It's a form of courtesy to your lunch companions. If there's an urgent call you have to answer, excuse yourself and take the call outside.
***Arrive on time ***
Punctuality is appreciated. If you are the host, plan to arrive early so you can be at the table to greet your guest. If you are held up unexpectedly, ask your lunch partner if he or she would mind waiting for you, or if it would be better to postpone the lunch to a later date.
***Choose the right restaurant ***
If you are the host, pick a place that you are familiar with and that you know provides good food and service. Places that are too crowed are not conducive to business talk. Also ask your guest if her has any food preferences or restrictions.
***Confirm the appointment ***
As the host, call or e-mail in the morning to reconfirm the appointments; as a guest, remember that a lunch meeting is not the occasion for an intern to get a free lunch, unless he is specifically invited to be involved in the discussion.
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Note: My personally theory on lunch time is to have a break from the stressful work. Hence talking about work related issue is a NO-NO, which i would avoid.
Do you see a frog?
Different people see different thing.
Some see this:
Moral : We have to respect each other's opinion; you can see it clearly in the above Picture. We just need to wait and listen actively to others' point of view!
Have you give a thought of what "Water Cystallization Vs Words" is all about? How did it happen?
I was introduced to this japanese guy named Masaru Emoto and his research on the above by my trainer today too. Guess I have learnt alot from this course.
Nice words (like beautiful, love, dream) use would produce nice looking water cystals just like the one above whereas words like Ugly, fool, stupid...produce no-so nice water cystals just like the words used.
For more info read on this
Patience is the ability to endure waiting, delay, or provocation without becoming annoyed or upset, or to persevere calmly when faced with difficulties.
Impatience is an opposite of patience.
How often we check our watch?
How often we are told of deadline?
How often we are irriated by the slow cars on the road?
How often do we rush others?
How often do we stopby and say hi and show concern for our friends?
.............etc
I was on course today and indeed I learnt something NEW or rather re-discover who am I?!? Most of us, I believe are at rush for this and that in life. Always racing against time even though as we have only 24 hours a day and yet we have so many things/tasks at hands to accomplish. Resulted in many times, I was rather impatience with people around me and I do not spend enough time with them.
I was taught to slow down in life, there is nothing worth rushing for. I MUST LET GO of things at times in life.
I realised that I have not been showing alot of patience to my dear son as he grow older and also patience for my husband to take his sweet time to accomplish his task. Many times my son would be the one testing my patience and I will be like many other occassion told him to "SHUT UP and DO IT". Luckily my husband who is more patience than me would take over to talk to him.
Sound familar right like what our education had all along taught us to. So you can see who "successful" is our educational system ," Don't ask question, do quietly, no talking in class, raise your hand up before you talk....etc"
I hope from today onwards I would be able to show more patience to my son and those who are around me. Also to show a little more compassionate to the ones I love and cares for.
Definition of PATIENCE
You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience. Stanislaw J. Lec (1909 - 1966), "Unkempt Thoughts"
Extract from The Straits Times CATS RECRUIT , 21 Jul 07
"The secret to a successful pitch or meeting - simply set an agenda..."
Before the meeting
Phone ahead
Contact your potential new client and confirm the meeting time, location, and the number of people attending. Also list your power and information technology requirements. This allows you to have sufficient copies of material, if required.
Decision makers
As part of your confirmation phone call, find out the names and titles of all people attending the meeting. This will assist you to prepare and may give an indication of who the decision maker is.
During the meeting
Write up an agenda
Before you open your laptop or launch into your presentation, take a few minutes to write up an agenda everyone can see. Use a whiteboard or blank piece of paper to capture agenda items.
Ask everyone at the meeting: "What is on your agenda for our meeting today?" Some people may be surprised that you asked the question, so take time to allow people to think about their response.
If you have a whiteboard or flipchart, use different colours for each person. If you are using a piece of paper, use colours if you have them. This allows you to quickly identify what is important to each person.
Check the duration
Confirm with the attendees: "Do we have until 1pm today?" This will allow all participants to agree or provide you information if they have to leave earlier to attend to another matter. This can be critical when pitching a new product or ideas, as you want to ensure the decision makers are available for the important components of your discussion.
Identify global (strategic) and local (specific) agenda items. When reviewing the agenda, look for the distinction between the two types of agenda items and make note of whom they belong to. This will help you address them throughout the meeting.
Get opinions
It is important to find out how people are feeling about the meeting. This can include investment in time they are making, anticipation of what you have to offer and concerns about the product or company.
In business, we do not always take time to acknowledge feelings that enter a meeting, but feelings affect our decision-making.
Keep asking for agenda items
You may need to continue asking: "Is there anything else?" If everyone says no, you may need to ask again, "If there was something else, what would it be?" This allows everyone time to declare every agenda on their mind.
Check for hidden agendas
In most meetings there is also a hidden agenda. It is simple to find out what this is - just ask the question - "What other agendas are there for this meeting? Alternatively you might state: "There always seems to be another agenda with most meetings I attend, is there another agenda today?"
It is important to find out if there are other drivers, decision-making criteria or other concerns before you begin the meeting.
This may seem like a long process but it is a valuable one. Setting agendas for a meeting shows your potential (or existing) client you value their time, you want to cover information or content that is relevant to them, you haven't come in to just "sell" your services or product. When you invest in setting agendas, you can speed up the meeting by addressing each item, focus your presentation on the aspects most important to your potential client, demonstrate respect for their investment in time and their concerns or feelings about the meeting.
Shared by my company HR
I do not understand why... the company I am in is full of politics! I guess most company will have it, but cannot be so BAD as mine one right?
Tomorrow I am tasked to present on a topics which will suppose to "dig out" under which boss leadership what have been done and what have not been done. Well, me lowest rank of the food-chin kenna this type of dirty job. But what to do tasked or rather "arrowed" to present. So what if it had not been done, the boss still got his promotion what, except those under him lor.
If you have watched the JUST FOLLOW LAW show, you will see a scene whereby the bosses in the room busy typing emails to "shoot" one and another. Then a WHOLE LOTS of arrows would be flying across the office and then lastly landed on the office attendant who is in-charge of moving the stuffs.
Also from what i learnt is that it is very important as to who you lunch with each day. There was once a softerware engineer in my company, he only lunches with those in the rooms, within 3-4 years he was a director of my company subsidary. He didn't even follow through one software lifecycle, what makes him able to manage a project and understand project issues? Guess that's the ugly side of life. Note, I am not complaining about my lunch kakis, in fact these days i lunches only with admin staffs or my teammates. I prefers to lunch in my comfort zone.
I pray for my safety and not to be "shooted" down by those having the bird-eye view people. Instead let them shot among themseleves, while me watch the show :P
Can eat or not?
That's what most of my collegues questioned.
Anyway it was now OVER. It was just a 1 day event to be interviewed by the auditors.
And guess what only on Moday afternoon we are told who are the interviewee so you can see what type of BIG WOO HA we had in the offices. Some people are glad that they were not on the list while others are Cursing and Swearing.
The auditors i find are quite smart, they didn't select the the interviewee from the recommended list instead proposed their our choice. Well-done...quite a fair one i think.
I was glad that I am not selected, else how can my brain hold so much information, what vision, mission, 4E's , cares...all these to be stored into my 125M RAM. :P
But I was arrowed to do logistic support which is to call up the inerviewee to request them to be on standby prior to the actual interview just in case those cate leaders wanna to conduct last last min crash course. The best part of my support role is that the organiser did not even provide a full list of the interviewee's contact no. So you see how good the planning and information works. Also one thing i learnt there is the higher the position, the more diffcult it is to get the person to be RESPONSIBLE and PUNTUAL for this event. In fact the operators are the good patience workers who would arrive 1.5 hrs - 2 hrs before the actual inteview and waiting patiently there for their turn.
Outcome of the whole thing would only knows in SEPT. All the best!
Hmm..where to I begin...
This morn my boss summoned me asking for a technical audit checklist or plan.
Told her I never came across it...Oops...story begin on what have my past bosses and collegues all doing etc...
Told her me only there in year 2001 onwards..another mistake statement to her..sigh!
Now I have to dig up the history and tell the story again. sob sob.
Even though people can learn through history lesson, but many situation have shown that history do REPEAT ITSELF. Agree or not?
Have you all been part of the exercise?
Well over here in my country is seems normal..since when I as young as 7 years old during my primary school days until today I still have that. Think the only time I didn't participate in the fire drill is during my university days and the times I am working off-site.
I still remembered that when in primary school, the school uncle would take a bell and ring it walking around the school compound to simulate the fire emergency alarm. Then when we are having class, we always wonder is it the ice-cream man ringing his bell or fire drill exercise. My teacher still need to walk out of the class to confirm before letting out us out to assemble at the school field.
These days, most of my fire drill exercise is during office hours. And you know what over here, fire drill exercise is being preplanned one. There will be a notification email sent out to the staff 1 week before stating the date and time of the fire drill. Then on the actual day few hours before hand we will receive another reminder email of the event later.
So last week, the fire drill exercise was suppose to be 1600Hrs. So at 1550 I saw most of my collegues going toliet, getting prepared for the exercise. Even attendance marking of who is in office and out of office today. Some even to the extend of standing near by the office door - this was the logistic manger himself, who is tasked to oversee the exercise of my company. When the bell for the fire drill exercise goes off, the lofistic manger just opened the door. Can you see such a coordinated fire drill exercise? While all of us meet at the office compound, the overall in-charge at my parent company level told us this year our evacation time is 12 mins, 3 mins worst than last year. Well well, can you see if it is a surprise fire drill or an actual one, do you think we would even achieve the 12 mins timing? I doubt so. Also the another thing to comment is that the assemble area is at the basketball court which is on the opposite side of the gates. If there is a real fire and we are all the gather there, it is of highly dangerous no doubt the fire station is only a few lanes away.
Today is a day declared by the government to dine with your family. See how pathetic we were these days that we do not even have time to dine with our family members.
Primary school today also release at 5pm in order for the children to go back home on time to dine with their family. However, working parents are not allowed to knock off early today so how is this going to work *puzzled*. Maybe only the affected ministry and the government sector able to meet the goals, for the rest of us who are in 1/2 govt agency or private, as usual this type of good practise was never ever been followed based on the GREAT history records.
One of my collegue's sister actually suggested to her nieces to write letter to my collegue's boss to indicate for early release so that her mummy can dine with her.
See the scenario now?!? Luckily my child is still young else he would be very disappointed if I am unable to make it for dinner. Can say that it is a blessing in disguise.
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Extract from the Net
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Eat with your family today, Singaporeans told
SINGAPORE, May 25 (Reuters Life!) - Singaporeans, please eat with your families. The Singapore government has designated Friday, May 25, as Eat With Your Family Day, urging people on a Web site to strengthen family ties through the "simple act of sitting down and taking a meal together more frequently".
The annual "Eat With Your Family Day", which always falls on a Friday before the start of the mid-year school break for students, is organised by the "Centre for Fathering", according to the National Family Week campaign Web site.
Singaporean families are generally small and quite close-knit but busy life styles and long working hours often mean members eat out often or rarely sit at the same table.
The Singapore government has for years been trying to boost the city-state's birth rate -- one of the lowest in the world. For example, the government sends dating tips to local graduates soon after they leave universities.
I think a colleague of mine needs some mental help.
Personally I think she had some problem in her altitude.
Let me name a few and you be the judge:
1) Come in only after 0900am at times 0930am when office work hours only begins at 0830am.
2) Never join us for lunch, must be thinking we are like "aliens" that she is so scared to lunch with us. Maybe she do not like to lunch with us also different tpoics maybe. But she only lunch with that 3-4 guys from a different department or 1-1. Once I saw them going for lunch together all the guys walk in front chatting while she follow like 1 meter away almost behaves like the japanese woman in older days to walk behind the husband. Funny right, I thought they are a group seems like not also.
3) When she do not lunch with her "lunch kakis" she would just walk out any hours for her lunch and only return 1 hours later. Once she just turn around and tell me that she not joining me for lunch. I was so "puzzled" as I didn't even mentioned that we are to lunch together.
4) She do not seems like a team player at all. Sit at her own comfort sit like a princess and shout across her discussion when she feel like to as if her peers owe her $$ like that.
5) When she do not OPEN her GOLDEN mouth, she would be writing emails to the rest of us who are just sitting right behind her. I do no see standing up and walk over to discuss problem is such a GREAT hurdler to her.
6) She especially likes to send out funny emails to us and CC our bosses when we are ON LEAVE. So much so we cannot reply the emails.
7) When dicussions fails to meet her objective or get her way, she would comment this to the rest of us " Let's bring it up and let our boss decide". She thinks my boss is really free to listen to such small matter especially on colourings.
8) One last thing, she likes to have this type of "Kua Kua jiao" attitude when boss assign her to help out. She would comment this and that out loud makes the other party like so incapable and she is the better one. What i feel is that, if she do not wan to help say so why want to make such a BIG "woo ah" about the whole issue.
So you see she having problem or we are the ones.
Anyway, in all work of lifes, I believe we are to encounter lotsa of funny people aorund us. If do not like it just ignore and carry on with our lives.
Ever known someone who worked at the same job for years, but complained about it daily? Have you accepted an unfulfilling job because you think work is work and it doesn't need to be enjoyable? The fact is many people are stuck in lousy jobs and have either grown complacent, don't know that there are better options out there, or just aren't sure what the warning signs are. Here are some signs it's time to look for greener pastures:
1. You dread going to work. How you feel about going in to your job each day can tell you a lot about whether it is the job for you, says Andrea Kay, career consultant and author of "Life's a B*tch and Then You Change Careers." Do you wake up in the morning and dread leaving your house for the office? While you are not expected to jump up and down with excitement every Monday morning, feeling constant job-related anxiety is a significant sign that you are in the wrong place.
2. You get no enjoyment from your day-to-day responsibilities. No job is fun and games every day, but you should find some enjoyment in your daily responsibilities. Kay says that examining your job's typical duties is important to gauging whether or not it is a good fit.
3. You are uncomfortable with the company culture and environment. Some people write off the importance of culture in the workplace, but it can have a dramatic effect on your overall happiness and success. Kay says you need to ask yourself if you feel comfortable with the values of the organization. Are they in alignment with your own?
4. Your relationship with your boss is turbulent. Problems with the boss are the most common reason that professionals give for leaving jobs, and the employee/employer relationship is critical to overall job satisfaction. "Define what would be an ideal relationship with your boss so you can take the initiative to help create it or know what to look for," Kay says. For example, do you like someone who works closely with you or would you rather work for someone who is hands-off? Only after you determine what your ideal is can you assess whether or not your relationship is living up to it.
5. You see no opportunities for career advancement or enhancement. If your company does not place an importance on job training and professional development, this should raise some concerns. Similarly, if you have been stuck in the same position for years, have the desire to move up, but are not given the opportunity to do so, you might want to re-evaluate your situation.
While Kay says these five factors can be indicators of a lousy job, she also strongly cautions against using them as an excuse to leave without first taking some initiative to change your current situation. For example, if you feel like you have not been provided with opportunities to advance, proactively seek out these opportunities by talking with your boss or consulting human resources. If you feel like you do not fit in with the culture, assess whether or not you have made an effort.
"You need to ask yourself 'have I done everything that I can to explore advancing or enhancing my career here?'" Kay says. "Do what's in your power to make a difference."
If you are still feeling unsatisfied, the job is probably just not for you. And while it might be time to look for something new, your lousy job is not a total loss -- use what you've learned to help you find the right fit next time.
