2019 in numbers

Another year gone, going into a new decade.

2019 was a year of heavy workload and many, many overtime, my work/life balance was thrown out of the window. It's also a year of growing distant, getting more and more disconnected from family and friends.

Here's hoping 2020 will see some improvement, but honestly not holding my breath.

Anyway, 2019 numbers...

125 blog entries, this is the 12th year in a row. What can I say? I am disciplined, persistent and consistent.

218 days of commute to work recorded, which covered 7893.8 kilometres, giving an average of 36.2 kilometres per day. That's about 36% of the distance compared to when I had to commute to ulu place to work. No complaint here!

19 petrol filling recorded. My one year old Civic is doing an average of 14.5 kilometre per litre of petrol in urban traffic. My ex-MyVi was doing 15.8 kilometre per litre, but that's a mixture of about 70% highway and 30% city traffic.

98 days of worked till overtime-worthy late. More than double the highest of any previous years, and more than quadruple of last year's. This is simply horribly disgustingly shameful! My slacker extraordinaire reputation is totally ruined. This new department is definitely not conducive to my work/life balance and my health! >_<

8 days of leave taken. First ever single digit day off count, lowest since I started recording this. My goodness, this department is a slave pen!

18 days on business trip. Nope, hate them still.

No more badminton nor tabletop gaming session. My work life is absolutely dull nowadays. Sad. =(

30 novels read, 12.2 days for a book. I probably reread more old novels than I read new novels this year, didn't improve my read rate though, oh well.

42, 15, 12, 10, for my own reference.

Happy New Year dear reader, wish you a healthy and smooth 2020.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

I swear

I solemnly swear that this is the last weekend that I am working through.

Next weekend I will ignore everything work related.

Actually, it's next Wednesday onward, beginning with the New Year holiday and follows by the two days annual leaves I have applied for.

Then the weekend.

Five days to do whatever I want, like sleep, read, be potato, grow mushroom, grow spider web, et cetera.

Anything but work.

While I may not be in the office these past weekends, I remotely logged in to check on my simulations, post-processed completed cases, made changes and set another case running every few hours.

Basically, working.

My workstation is running 24/7, and I am babysitting it seven days a week without pause. It's solving the 24th case at this moment, which I will check later tonight.

And then keep trying until I find the best possible solution.

But enough.

This ends by the time I finish work next Tuesday. If I don't have a solution by then, too bad, so be it.

Next Wednesday onward until my break is over, project can burn to a crisp and I wouldn't care less.

This I swear, and I will do my darnedest sticking to it.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

天马行空：平安夜妄想曲

平安夜，失身夜。

都忘了是听谁这样讲过。

不过这样色色不正经的东西，最有可能就是他了。

失身夜哦，太可怕了！

都是宅在家里比较安全。

当然是在家里失身比较安全的嘛…

不是吗？

因为情人老婆仔也在家啊，呵呵！

*坏坏* =P

天马行空 |系列|

  

爱的代价

整个十一月没有洗车，闲懒月当然不做洗车这样不闲懒的事咯。

十二月还没有来得及洗车就出差去了。

住的公寓旁有大型的填海建筑工程，车停在公寓停车位十天没动过，集了一身尘埃。

这周末是回来后第一个周末，虽然病了，但实在无法忍受车的脏，所以今早洗车去。

里里外外冲洗、清理、抹干用了一小时四十分钟。

踮脚、弯腰、全蹲、半蹲，和不停在抹的手，我是准备好腰酸背痛了的啦。

我认老，午餐后睡到四点才起身。

虽然累，但看着干净发亮的车心情好好的。

值得啦。

老天爷，你不要很「衰款」我一驾车出去就下雨哦…

真的我会比中指骂粗话的咯！

随兴随想 |系列|

Dragon and phoenix, part deux

After I got my dragon (cloud serpent, whatever!) mount in World of Warcraft in September, the grind continued for the phoenix mount.

And finally, on my 64th attempt, it dropped. ^_^

finally!

Woohoo! Mission accomplished.

It's called Al'ar in the game, the item to summon the mount is called Ashes of Al'ar.

But whatever, to me it's a pretty phoenix mount.

Guess I will stick with levelling up my many characters until the next grindy item struck my fancy.

Other |geeky gaming| category entries.

Surprised, or not

Went to departmental annual dinner yesterday night.

Surprised (and annoyed) that I forgot to bring along the gift for the gift exchange. So much for going through all the trouble to get one.

Surprised to find the relatively small number of people. Guess I still don't have a feel of the department size.

Not surprised by my lack of sense regarding the department headcount.

Surprised by the venue chosen for the annual dinner. It's just not suitable in my opinion.

Not surprised by the quality of food. No great anticipation anyway.

Not surprised by my unease and discomfort. It's a social event after all, too many people, too few known well enough.

Surprised that this department usually do annual lunch instead of dinner. It's always dinner in the previous department.

Not surprised I was bored and wishing to be home soon after I was done eating.

Not surprised I didn't get any lucky draw prize.

And not surprised that I am sick today. Haven't been feeling well ever since returning from business trip. The travel stress and work stress finally caught up.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Sucked in

So I got back yesterday night.

My luggage didn't.

Never happened to me before, until I travelled with a colleague who told me her delayed luggage experience.

Darn jinxed.

Oh well, at least it's on my return trip instead of outbound.

Gotta think positive.


Anyway, thought I am finally back to my 06:50 to 16:20 hours routine.

And no, we don't count those hours where I work after I got home since it's not conducive to my slacker extraordinaire reputation.

My working hours are from 06:50 to 16:20, since you know, I am allergic to traffic congestion and all those selfish idiotic drivers who emerged at those rush hours.

Not conducive to my mental and emotional well being, them traffic and idiotic road users.

But life is cruel, the aftermath of the business trip doesn't let me off.

Not only had to rush a simulation in between all those (what I feel) unnecessary meetings, had to get all worked up by the traffic and those darn selfish road users since I got delayed past my 16:30 window, I got dragged into a late evening meeting when I got home.

First evening home where I could sit down with the family to have dinner, ended up in meeting while they ate without me.

*Sigh...*

Really, where the fish and duck is your work/life balance people?

Darn workaholics, just let me go, let me go~



Other |runaway rants| category entries.

请勿打扰

终于，熬到了星期五。

原本以为昨天已是轻松的一天，但一早就被炸了一颗原子弹，唉～

所以昨天和今天又是忙、盲、茫。

算了，工作就是这样，埋怨也无济于事。

和同事们晚餐后还精力充沛的他们要去逛街购物，已经开始头痛的我则回酒店休息。

年轻就是本钱啊！

我认老，我累了就会开始头疼的。

奇怪的是那一整个白天喝了好几杯咖啡还是趴在桌上喊累的同事，吃饱晚餐后就生龙活虎了。

优先顺序排对了，真是厉害的人，值得学习。

她每天记忆都会刷清也很奇妙，和令人无语…

一懵还有一懵高，我需要继续努力。

很冷漠的告知同事明天不要吵我，我要睡到太阳晒屁股。

然后宅在房里生蘑菇。

想想都开心。

但我应该要买本小说先，因为带来的几天前看完了。

我在想应该要放怎样的告示牌在门上呢？

“内有恶犬”

“蘑菇培植中”

“谨慎：室内宅男曝晒裸臀”

希望明天真的可以好好的休息充电下啦。

太多太多天没有抱抱了，电池干枯。

但我心知肚明我一定会做工的，太多模拟要做了…

还是同样一句：出差就是累。

随兴随想 |系列|

出差笔记

终于，有一天是晚上九点前就回到酒店的了！

还是吃饱晚餐那种，我莫名的感动。

不算刚到的那一天啦，因为那天我到酒店虽然还早，但我已是只剩半条命。

我连晚餐都没吃就死尸般躺到晚上十一点半才起来吃个苹果，然后继续做死尸…

都不知道我第二天开始去工作时是不是怨气很重，像幽魂那样。

欸，不要长气，快快写完可以早点去见周女。

和工作狂同事一起出差，我认命，每天等他们收工。

累了的精神状况更容易晕车，所以我常常想静静。（但静静都不想我…）

静静的让那很不爽不安不对劲的肠胃肚子决定它是不是要强烈抗议。

周末和同事到台中。

是的，反社会反交际的我竟然做这样的事，我也觉得自己有毛病。

背包客的旅行方式，公共交通和民宿。

由衷感谢计划一切和带我们这三只野猫的导游同事，真的谢谢了！

偷偷说我比那另外两只还好点啦，她们可不是普通的大头和迷惘…

日月潭：连绵细雨、厚雾朦胧、湿、冷。

刚到台中时是蓝天白云的，到日月潭时是被欺骗了感情的感觉。

只记得那好好吃的茶叶蛋。

民宿：很别致舒适的一栋楼。

羡慕那些能够像电源开关那样一关就入睡的人，真好命。

睡眠很浅很醒睡的我欣赏打呼噜交响曲，我想我应该也有被自己的打鼾吵醒吧？

怎么没有别人欣赏我也有贡献的交响曲的呢？

生气气！ =P

清境农场：羊咩咩、羊味、羊粪。

蓝天白云！蓝天白云！蓝天白云！

重要的东西要讲三次。

车程很要命，又让我想静静。

西门町夜市：很多人。

阿宗面线、苦瓜汁、珍珠奶茶，还有那有点美中不足的卤肉饭。

过后在别处吃了很满足的卤肉饭，不再眷恋。

别傻了，金鱼记忆的我当然是忘了那好吃的卤肉饭店名和地点。

台北101：到此一游。

拍照打卡走人。

迷惘野猫：太阳下山后会突变邪恶。

有潜质，在继续修炼应该可以白天都邪恶。

分享中学时期的一段骑单车事故，竟然被冠了一个花名。

虽然说名字都是给别人用的，但给我个英雄的花名有损我邪恶名誉。

所以决定不睬。

嗯，迟了，累了，不写了。

出差对我来说就是累。

每天要抱抱几次的拥抱爱好者我已经死了一大半，想念我的情人老婆仔…

哦，情人老婆仔，其实我不认识叫静静的人，真的！

随兴随想 |系列|

有感而发：出差前夕

二零一九年十二月四日。

明天要出差公干了…

不要不要不要不要～！

>_<

有感而发 |系列|

Lack of clothes

All the declines and rejects were in vain, one of the managers said they insist that I go, so I am going on a business trip.

Tiring stuff, business trip. To me, at least.

And unproductive too, taking me away from my workstation is just making me inefficient.

It's not like I am very free, I have way too much on my plate and not enough time to do them as it is, I really don't need a business trip for face to face meeting to take away even more of my work time...

I see little point in complaining, so I unhappily disagree but commit. I am still a responsible person after all, if the manager thinks that is duty call, then so be it.

Insufficient budget for a last minute trip where everything is more expensive booking so late. Before the trip begins I already know I have exceeded the budget.

Manager informed to pack enough clothes for the whole trip, as laundry is expensive there.

Believe it or not, that actually is a problem for me, for I don't have enough reasonably presentable clothes for the whole duration of the trip.

Here in home site I got by by wearing the various washed-faded company t-shirts, in addition to the more presentable t-shirts I have.

Which is not many, I last shopped for clothes three years ago. That's when I last went to The States. So my 'newest' t-shirts are at least three years old.

Can't believe I am saying this, but I don't have enough clothes.

Somehow the image of women with a few wardrobes full of unworn or single-wear-only clothes popped into my mind...

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

Immigration office efficiency November 2019

Despite a clear message that I rather not be travelling, since I find it tiring, and I have so many simulations to run to find solution, they still insisted that I go.

Don't they understand that I need to be at my desk working directly on my workstation for best efficiency? Of course I can remote into my workstation anywhere with internet access, but it's just not efficient that way.

And really, I am one of those who do the actual work of solving the issue, not one of those who travel everywhere attending meetings talking about solving issue.

I am a doer, not a talker. To me, meetings are necessary evil and waste of time that could be used doing actual work.

And by Murphy's law my passport is expiring just a few days short of six months from the date of travel, of course.

Bollocks.

But enough with the rant, here's the immigration office efficiency on Tuesday morning, when I popped over to renew my passport.

I arrived 07:52 hours to queue for number, and got my number at 08:03 hours, 11 minutes to get a number.

They were serving #1008 at 08:03 hours, mine's #1071, so I went out for a stroll.

Returned to the immigration office at 08:26 hours, after a 23 minutes stroll. They were serving #1012 then, 5 minutes 45 seconds to serve one with that rate, urgh.

Looked like it's going to take a long while before my turn, so I found a quiet corner to sit and read the novel I brought along.

Since they have number announcement, I recorded the time for every 10 persons served, starting from #1030, below are the time, serving number and the average efficiency at that time interval:

09:07 hours: #1030, 2 minutes 17 seconds to serve one

09:24 hours: #1040, 1 minute 42 seconds to serve one

09:45 hours: #1050, 2 minutes 6 seconds to serve one

09:57 hours: #1060, 1 minute 12 seconds to serve one

10:17 hours: #1070, 2 minutes to serve one

10:34 hours: #1080, 1 minute 42 seconds to serve one

So it's actually slower in the early morning and only really go to a somewhat stable rate after ~08:30 hours, probably that's when all the staff actually started working.

Close to 6 minutes to serve one prior to 08:30 hours, then average about 1 minute 30 seconds after that.

From queueing up for number to when I finally was done with payment, which was another wait after the photo shooting, took 2 hours and 43 minutes.

Then was told to go back later near noon for passport collection, which when I did, took another 4 minutes of waiting.

So the efficiency is actually not bad, average of 2 minutes 23 seconds per person for the whole duration I was there, and if we only consider the "stable" after 08:30 hours rate, it's less than 2 minutes per person on average. This is just the passport renewal (probably and new passport) process, excluding the collection.

Just too many people applying everyday so a lot of time wasted waiting, oh well.

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

Another milestone

Married for fifteen years.

Thank you my dearest wifey, for all we have been through together.

For loving me as I am, for holding on through ups and downs.

For the hugs and kisses, for the love and care.

Happy anniversary!

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

An aeroplane a day, part thirteen

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.

-----

In this series: |part 1| |part 2| |part 3| |part 4| |part 5| |part 6| |part 7| |part 8| |part 9| |the making of part 9| |part 10| |part 11| |part 12|

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

-----

A week after I did the combinable vehicles, I took them apart and did a next level up.

This time it's vehicles and air-planes that can combine to form a robot.

the sum of all parts...

Shame on me for falling for the same thing my younger son pulled on me, saying he was interested in making this together. But when I took the trouble to picked out all the parts for him to make the second fighter jet that transforms into one of the legs for the robot, he simply said not interested anymore.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

So be it, no good will come from forcing a bonding time on things he is not interested in, and easier for me to build it myself anyway. 

...is a robot made

The feet was just a straight forward modification of the previous project. In fact, the idea of making a combinable robot started from these.

nothing fancy about these cars

I made the legs next, the intention was to make them into fighter jets but somehow when I was done the podracer in Star Wars came to mind.

the rear bottom wings folded down to form a protection for the calf

The lower body was also something I already visualised in the previous project, when the idea of making a combinable robot formed. So it's also another part I modified from the previous project.

this was a tank in the previous project

I did the upper body next, this one took a few iterations. From chest muscles not bulging enough to too much, and balancing took some work so the robot doesn't tip forward or backward, primarily by changing the number of wheels that rotate out.

this one took the longest to make and remake multiple times

Did the head next, and took me a few tries to find a suitable place for it when it's not on the robot. The shield came to be because of this.

initially wanted to mount the head on the upper body vehicle

no easy way to mount the head on that vehicle so made this instead

The arms are the last, initially was thinking along the line of the legs, two separate but identical fighter jets or podracers, but eventually made them one that can split into two.

Robot looks good, another success in my book, heh. ^_^

having wheels on the feet does make it harder to grip for poses

but still funky pose is possible =P

here's one with the shield