2015 in numbers

Spent the last day of 2015 bedbound. Fever.

My temperature finally got down to the low 38 Celcius around 17:00 hours, which I felt more functional. Despite being bedbound for the whole day, I still feel very tired.

But anyway...

125 blog entries, this is the 8th year in a row. I am disciplined, consistent, persistent.

186 days of commute to ulu place recorded, which covered 18796.7 kilometres, giving an average of 101.1 kilometres per day.

51 petrol filling recorded. My 8.5 years MyVi is still giving an average of 15.5 kilometre per litre of petrol.

35 days of worked till overtime-worthy late. A few days less than last year, a healthy trend.

19 days of leave taken.

52 badminton sessions attended, out of 73 that happened. 71.2%, I should do better.

33 tabletop gaming sessions held. A combination of 23 board and card games played. Lost the momentum and steam towards the end of the year, I hope it's just the workload and not because of players losing interest. Would be a bother to seek new group of players...

38 novels read. 9.6 days for a book, reading speed improved from last year. Started posting my short review of each book on Facebook some time this year. I figured people can spam their selfies and photo of food, I can spam too. At least mine has some values.

38, 11, 8, 6, for my own reference.

Happy New Year dear reader, wish you a healthy 2016!

Work/Life

First drafted on 2nd of December 2015, after hearing about the fatal cases of overworked people.

We work so that we can afford and enjoy a better life, don't let work become your life.

We work so that we can afford our meals, so that we have a place to sleep, so that we can maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

If you are sacrificing your lunch or dinner for work, your every waking hours for work, or even your sleep for work, then you gotta ask yourself: what are you working for? Why do you work?

So that you can die rich but have never lived?

There is a whole lot more to life than work.

Like most things, moderation is key. Work/life balance.

Don't skip meal, don't deprive yourself of sleep, don't stop doing exercise, don't forget to have fun.

Your health is more important. Say no to job that jeopardise your health, physically and psychologically. It's just not worth it. Period.

Live your life.

Day out

Long weekend thanks to Prophet Muhammad's and Jesus' birthdays.

Took this opportunity to go to the beach for some quality family time.

Past bad experience taught us to avoid evening time on public holiday as some crooks would be out collecting illegal parking fees. If it's a reasonable amount I might still just pay, but the bastards wanted at least RM5 so it's "up yours!" then.

To avoid that, we went early morning instead. Not only were the crooks still in bed, the beach was less crowded, too.

this is the shell art that started the guessing game

Sand castle building is hard labour I tell you. Especially if you were someone who doesn't want to get wet as well as get stuck with sand everywhere.

I spread my legs wide and bent my back throughout instead of just squatted down or sat on the sand. The short attention span of the two little monsters, who were supposed to help build the sand castle, but ended up more interested in throwing sand into the sea, didn't help.

only artistic person can identify this masterpiece

Anyway, after two sand castles ruined by the rising tide, I gave up and turned to shell art instead.

I shall not name the masterpiece in the second image above, as wifey is running a 'guess the art' on Facebook and nobody has got it yet. I can only say that wifey couldn't work it out while my younger son took a glance and gave the correct answer immediately. Artistic boy, that one. =P

this is a heart, or love. Easy peasy

It's also worth mentioning that wifey couldn't work out what the younger son made while I took one glance and gave the right answer immediately. What can I say? Me and my younger son, we are artistic people. =P

It's a smiley face, it's obvious

I then filled out my elder son's heart and made it bigger, and we took a family photo, my travel photo style, hehe.

this is how I take my travel photo...

Wifey took some more conventional family photos, like this one here:

That quality family outing was two days ago, and I am still hurting all over especially my thigh muscles and back. Old fart, me.

生活点滴：汤圆记

今天冬至，吃汤圆。

晚间安顿了两个瓜后才想起还没吃汤圆，跑去问老婆仔：

“情人，我们有没有汤圆啊？想吃个意思。”

“哦，有哦有哦，跟我去厨房。”

老婆仔似乎也忘了。

从冰箱里端出一大碗汤圆，她说：

“这是邻居给的。”

我有点疑惑的问： “汤圆不是吃热的咩？”

“不知道嘞，邻居说要吃冷的喔。”

“哦。” 反正只是吃个意思。

小时候吃汤圆是一个小碗，里头四五粒吃个意思而已。今天的可是一大碗，里头至少有四五十粒吧？

“两个瓜有没有吃哦？” 我问老婆仔。

“有，我跟他们讲吃了才会长大，所以他们很勉强吃了两口。”

我吃了两大口，老婆仔吃了两小口，汤圆还剩很多。

“还这么多…” 我又吃了一大口，问： “剩下的你吃得完吗？”

“欸，你再吃多点。”

我又吃了三大口，满嘴汤圆。老婆仔吃一小口。

“喂，我每次吃一大汤匙，你每次就吃那两三粒。”

“这样你才会比我老嘛，呵呵！” 老婆仔坏坏的笑着说。

“我本来就比你老了啦，剩下的你吃完去！”

我用装满了汤圆的嘴吻了她离开。

生活点滴 |系列|

随兴随想

在看着九把刀的《妈，亲一下》，在里头看到了「驾奴」这词。

倒还是第一次在书中看到这词，亏我是个爱看书的人。

记得第一次接触「驾奴」这词是和朋友唱完歌后的即时通讯中，有人说我驾奴了一首歌。

那时都不知道是什么意思。

还是由一位不看书的小妹子讲的嘞…

《妈，亲一下》根本就是像我部落格写日记一样嘛。

只是他是九把刀所以可以出书赚钱，而我只是上载部落格自爽。

近来同事朋友都好忙，大家忙着救火。

不要忘了照顾自己的身体和精神的健康啊。

要运动，要娱乐，要放松，要休息哦！

随兴随想 |系列|

And the lesser evil is...

After the meeting that overran, the meeting chairperson, Mr H, came over to my cubicle to continue the discussion.

I was parched, for I had emptied my water bottle prior to the meeting and didn't get the chance to refill. So I asked Mr H whether he wanted to go get some water, he readily agreed. 

After drinking our fill and filling up my bottle, we headed to the restroom together for a much needed bio-break.

Throughout all these we were discussing work stuff, and when Mr H told me of an issue that remains unresolved, something that can potentially turn real nasty, something that should have been fixed a few months ago when we first discovered it, I advised him to escalate the issue so those who are suppose to fix it put their arses together and get it done.

I quoted the incident that just happened to another colleague of ours (Mr Y): an issue that got escalated by the other to the management that ended up with Mr Y taking the punch, needing to cancel his planned holiday next week and fly to the site in another country to support* and resolve the issue over Christmas.

* I am in danger of being dragged into this as well so all those who have been talking about me going to that site please stop it. It's like a curse that gathers in strength the more you all talk about it! >_<

Mr H and Mr Y are doing similar job scope, if his issue is not escalated by him and made known to the management before others do, then he would likely be in the hot seat as Mr Y.

So I told him to stop playing the nice guy and just raise the necessary awareness to the management. I said we should not be so nice, and that it has been my resolution lately to not be so nice.

Mr H then said I am not a nice person anyway.

Well, true.

So I said I want to be even nastier, and that I am still nicer than him anyway.

Naturally he disagrees. So I said let's ask our mutual colleague friends and see what they said. Mr H is pretty confident, saying I have always been branding myself evil so our friends will vote in favour of him.

I let him decide on the exact question to ask our friends, and he picked the two keywords: (1) nice, and (2) kind. Me versus him, who is nicer? Who is kinder?

We asked our friend to vote based on their general perception of us, without providing any specific as not to influence their vote. The voting period ends at 23:00 hours tonight, as this entry provides the specifics, I will only post this after that.

Who shall turn out to be the lesser evil of the two? Stay tuned, I shall post the voting results in the comment.

Backlogs #8

This one is dated 19th of March 2014, it's titled "grill, not drill".

This is one of those funny typo moments. =P

No salmon was drilled in the posting of this entry.

In this series: |1| |2| |3| |4| |5| |6| |7|

生活点滴：给儿子们的忠言

晚餐时由老婆仔不小心踩到小瓜的脚，小瓜说妈妈肥，然后变成老婆仔说儿子背不起妈妈，最后又变成老婆仔很认真的告诉儿子们选偶条件的忠言。

老婆仔是引用那种没安全感的无聊女人才会问的很废的提问开始… 

老婆仔：“以后你女朋友问你：‘我和你妈妈一同掉入水中，你会先救谁？’，你会怎样回答？”

两个瓜很天真的说：“救妈妈先。”

老婆仔（暗爽）：“那你女朋友就不要你了哦！”

我加一句：“你说救女朋友先她就会说你没有良心，妈妈都不救先，然后不要你。”

两个瓜很迷惘懊恼。

老婆仔打趣的说：“说救女朋友先，因为妈妈肥会浮。”

我们一家人笑成一团。

我说：“爸爸跟你们讲，以后你们有喜欢的女孩子，在还没有变成女朋友之前，一定要带她去游泳。第一可以看她的身材好不好，第二是可以确认她会不会游泳，免得以后给她问你这样烦的问题。”

我又说：“带她去游泳池，她不会游泳就教到她会为止。如果她已经会了又问那样废的问题就告诉她‘当然是救妈妈，因为你会游泳’。”

大瓜做状认真记小抄的样子。

老婆仔说：“应该说你会拿两个救生圈，一个丢给妈妈，一个丢给女朋友，然后同时把两个人一起拉回来。”

在我还没有提醒她之前老婆仔也想到了会问这样废的问题的女人一定也会继续刁难的，她马上又说：

“当然你女朋友一定会问你如果只有一个救生圈你会丢给谁？这样的女朋友你都是不要算了，妈妈从来没有问爸爸这样的问题的。”

我们一家人又笑成一团。

就这样老婆仔开始告诉儿子们选女朋友要有的条件：

“要会游泳，要会煮饭做家务。你们也要会煮饭做家务，因为这些事是要一起做的。外表没那么重要，要内心良好。”

大瓜又做状认真记小抄的样子。小瓜早已经神游四海了。

其实老婆仔是会游泳的，但我们还是需要给孩子们这些忠言，而且也已让他们学会了游泳，免得他们以后会被人问这废问题刁难。

孩子们，记得要先带去游泳池教会游泳啊！

生活点滴 |系列|

Belated birthday gift for myself

Last year, I bought the, to date, most expensive birthday present for myself.

This year, I didn't plan on getting myself anything. My birthday wish was to have a daughter, and it's not something I want to have through purchase. -_-

I honestly didn't plan on getting myself any present, until today.

Today, by chance, I bumped into the UNICEF counter when I was getting lunch. I waved no when the person first approached me, don't stand in my way of getting my lunch, silly!

After I got my lunch, I went back and the same person approached me again. I entertained him this time. It fits the two conditions I set for myself regarding supporting charity: (1) human beings before animals before environment, (2) children before adults.

So I am game. Initially I thought it's a one off donation, I was taking out my wallet when he told me it's a monthly thing. I am no stranger to that since I have been doing that for years with MAKNA.

It took me one brainwave to decide to still go with it, justifying it as my birthday present for myself, and that we can always cut down the weekend dinner out on months when this is stretching the salary.

If I stay on the monthly donation, which I intent to, it will eventually be the most expensive present I bought myself. Regardless though, this is definitely the most meaningful present I bought myself. ^_^ feel good +2

Perhaps it's fitting in a balancing sense. Since for a while now, I am slowing changing to a, for a lack of better word, selfish person.

It's my resolution to care less, give less, and to put myself first, only reserving my energy and time to those who really deserve it. I know the world needs more love, I just no longer want to be the person who gives it first, I will, of course, reciprocate. I just don't want to be the selfless initiator anymore, I want to be the guarded one who only gives when the others have proven themselves deserving.

Give, give, give. I am just tired of it. Now I will take first before I give.

Selfish, if that's what this is. So be it.

This UNICEF donation will keep that good person deep inside happy, so that I can keep my selfish and evil front.

Random behaviour for December 2015

Succeeded in my October's impromptu resolution. And I have learned my lesson, I shall not ask wifey regarding these monthly resolutions anymore. Succeeded the October's resolution, but felt no joy whatsoever. =(

November is slacker month so I didn't set myself any resolution. I continued the July's resolution throughout October and November though. I think it's now part of my daily routine. feel good +1

As for December 2015, starting after I post this, my impromptu resolution is: include abdominal muscles related exercise in my daily routine.

Because I can.

生活点滴：约会情人（们）

今天拿了假和情人约会看电影。

只是一早起来还是很命贱的开工作电脑检查和清除电邮。

命贱到… 对自己感到失望。

且抛开这悲哀不谈，说回和情人的约会。

难得情人会回应我问她要什么生日礼物，她说要拜三去看电影我当然马上请假啦！

情人就是要来疼的，不然要来干嘛？

只是齁，她不只是要和我约会而已，而是也要和她的前世情人们约会。

如果我也有前世情人一起带着去约会我也没什么的，就一位我也够了的。

可是我就是没有前世情人咯，唉… =(

而且她那两位前世情人总是很爱跟我抢情人的手牵，还有抢拥抱，尤其是那小的。

搞到我心理很不平衡。 -_-

就这样我和我的情人，和她的前世情人们约会了一整天。

看的电影是给她前世情人们的动画，晚餐也是他们爱的比萨。

看来今天最开心就是情人的这两位前世情人了啦。

我跟你说齁，如果我也有前世情人的话，我一定常常跟她去约会的！

我想妒嫉我会那样应该是情人不要再生了的其中一个理由… =P

生活点滴 |系列|

生活点滴：情人本钱

几天前老婆仔在面子书上转载了一篇有点长气，但总之是说「养情人很贵，要爱惜老婆」的文章。

（哎哟，我言简意赅，总结概要的功力还不错哦！呵呵。 =P ）

隔天老婆仔出门前来和还在家里做开会工程师的我说再见。

我见她穿得跟平时不一样，便问：

“今天穿到这样特别的？”

她笑笑转身离去，我想到那篇长气文章，便对着她的背影开玩笑的说到：

“哦！你要做情人！”

她笑了一声，边走边说：

“没有本钱。”

我为她不服，

“谁说你没有本钱?”

她转回身说：

“我是说你没有本钱，银行里没有本钱。”

唉，中肯。 -_-

虽然我是没有钱让老婆仔做像那长气文章里的情人，但那天起我们开始称呼对方情人，叫了一阵子，呵呵！ =P

生活点滴 |系列|

The making of part nine

Copyright:

LEGO is trademark or registered trademark of The LEGO Group in Denmark and/or other countries.

All original work on this site is copyright C.K. Goh and may not be copied or reprinted without my express written approval.

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In this series: |part 1| |part 2| |part 3| |part 4| |part 5| |part 6| |part 7| |part 8| |part 9|

Workshop: |1| |2| |3| |4| |5| |6|

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Back in September I posted my LEGO creation part nine, a fighter jet that can transform into a half-jet-half-robot, and also a full robot.

Like most, if not all, creations, it's a refining process with multiple iterations, progressing through changes, trials and errors, ideas, until we get it right. Until we are satisfied.

It's no different for my LEGO creations.

Here's the record of how this particular creation came to.

Similar to how I deal with most things, I like to start my creation from the foundation. For this creation, it's the legs.

I was a bit obsessed with that particular feature, how the Macross afterburners changed into the robot's feet, so I tried a few designs.

First version of the legs

After the legs came the skeleton of the fighter jet body, getting an outline so I could transform the legs to afterburners in a seamless transition.

no head =P

realistic walking posture possible with this design

Then some "flesh" for the body was put on and the first version of the arms was created.

It's worth mentioning that this version of arms folded under the body in between the legs. This is actually the version I wanted to achieve but this design made the body very thick as well as I do not have LEGO parts to make some of the joints sturdy.

It's after all, a toy for the little monsters to play with. Flimsy and easily broken off parts are just not going to cut it.

second version arms

still no head =P

Then I came out with the second version of arms, and legs too actually. No longer has exposed joints and gaps in between upper and lower arms and legs.

This version of arms made the wings portion thinker than I like though.

first completed version

yes, with head. It's a completed version after all =P

Eventually, I created the first completed version. The legs, arms and head are exactly the same in the final version posted in September. However I did not like the wings and the body so I remade those.

Wings were not cool enough and body too squarish. My creation has to be aesthetically pleasing to me, hehe.

If...

Midlife crisis. Probably.

Time is ticking, I am aging, body is weakening and failing.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about what I have accomplished and what I have failed to accomplish.

Positive way to put that is what I have yet to accomplish, but my depressive state of mind dwells on the negative. For good reason too, because many of what I have failed to accomplish are not something I can do by myself.

That sense of helplessness. Very depressing.

Provide for the family, so wifey can take care of the children full time. That I did, but on a frugal lifestyle.

It's a sad fact that my salary increment is just not catching up with the cost of living. There are months when we could save some, and months when we used up the whole paycheque and more, so on average we save none to very little from what I earned every month.

The real saving is from bonus. Too bad it doesn't happen frequently.

We didn't change our frugal lifestyle much, we couldn't afford to. We seldom eat out, it's only after the promotion a few years back that we finally allowed ourselves a meal out every weekend as an off day for wifey.

We are comfortable with the sparing lifestyle, at least I am, and we are not wanting. But naturally I would like my family to have a better lifestyle, a bit more freedom in getting things they want instead of the prudent, stringent expenditures now.

So in this I failed.

I was wondering, if I didn't sign on the PhD research, and just got out of academia and threw myself straight into industry and started working right after I got my master degree, how would my life be now?

After all, I got my job based on my master degree, though the skills acquired during the research had been instrumental in doing my job in those few beginning years. I supposed the few years I gained if I started work right after I got my master degree would have strengthened my financial position significantly now.

And I would have been a much different person if I didn't go through those postgraduate years. I would have been more like my undergraduate self: nicer, less evil, less cynical, less sarcastic, less bitter, more sociable, and without depression.

Some experiences change us forever, we are never the same after.

If I didn't go through those postgraduate years and started working earlier, perhaps I would be living in my own house by now, a dream that I failed to accomplish.

And perhaps, just perhaps, I would have a daughter. Something that I will probably die regretting.