Number two

The experience of the first one is irreplaceable.

The meeting with the company's legal team made me believed it's really coming true, that I have my first patent.

Achievement unlocked! =P

I am contented. Truly I am.

Then there was that second notice, and a few days ago, the meeting with the legal team, so by the end of the year, my second patent will be filed.

Of course I am happy about it, but it does feel different to the first one.

The first one is based on my work, my idea, I have no qualm whatsoever with the claim.

The second one I only helped providing supplementary information, supporting data. The idea's not mine.

Guess I don't feel like I have contributed in a major way for the second patent idea, that I am just collateral lucky enough being roped into the ride.

Well, thanks for including me in the ride, hehehe!

So ya, I have two patents under my name now. Honestly not something I have dreamed of. Real yet so dreamy.

I am a happy bunny. ^_^

Other |hyped up heads up| category entries.

An unusual chore, part deux

Them pigeons have been busy.

The weekend after the clean up, I went out onto the ledge again to put up the net.

The little pigeon had truly flown away then, but the pigeon family had generated an impressive amount of droppings in a week's time so I had to clean the ledge all over again.

Then up the net went. Not an easy task given the limited space to work with, a lot of overreaching, bending and awkward posture that made me ache all over the next day.

But we got it done, so hopefully no more bird will make their nest there and no more carpet of droppings.

That was the 18th floor, there is still the 17th floor ledge, which is this week's task.

So after a short break after lunch today, I donned the homemade safety apparatus for the third time and went out onto the 17th floor ledge through the window.

And I was greeted by the lovebirds nesting on the 17th floor ledge with two newly laid eggs.

Yea, that's why I said the pigeons have been busy. As soon as the little pigeon could fly and had flown away, they immediately got the lady pigeon pregnant. Very productive indeed.

Since the 18th floor ledge is netted, they made their nest on the 17th floor instead. Bummer.

No, not again! Sorry, but no can do. I shooed away the pigeons, scooped up their eggs and put them on the top of the lower than knee-height fence, and proceeded to clean the ledge.

All the mess and droppings on horizontal, vertical and cylindrical surfaces. So the same old same old scrapping, brushing and hosing down with water. Not forgetting the shit-shower. Yea, great fun...

Shortly after I went out onto the ledge, it started raining. I didn't really get wet from the rain to be honest, it's the hosing within confined space and the shit-shower that got me wet. =_=

Put up the net after the cleaning. While we have the experience from last week, it doesn't change the fact that the ledge's limited space is just not work-friendly.

After about one and a half hours the job is done. I am sure I will be aching all over again tomorrow but at least this particular chore is done for good.

At least I hope so. Can't say I like going out onto the ledge all that much.

And I definitely do not like the shit-shower.

Other |sane side| category entries.

空想

我期待，公假的到来。

希望可以是连着周末的公假，可以有个长周末那种。

没有什么计划或想做的事，就是想要歇一歇。

忙了这么长的一段时间，我身心都累了。

我查了查我积存的年假，没到三十日，觉得不应该拿。

唉…

自从那每周一次的新会议开始至今，连续几个星期的会议项目都是我的，而且不是一个项目而已，甚至有三个项目都是我的那种。

有时真的很想知道，老板不觉得不太对劲的吗？

整个队伍那么多人，每个星期都是我的项目而已，不奇怪的吗？

我不是超人，也不是蝙蝠侠，请让我做回闲懒人可不可以？

唉，命贱如我，唯有空想。

心语细述 |系列|

I went out (8)

Since the previous entry of this series, I was out of the house fourteen times, so my total out of the house count stands at 38 as of today.

25th outing: went out to takeaway food for dinner on 29th of August.

26th outing: went to office on 7th of September for work.

27th outing: went to office on 10th of September for work, bought lunch home from Batu Lanchang market.

28th outing: went out to do chauffeur duty for kid's archery practise on 12th of September.

29th outing: went to office on 15th of September for work, bought lunch home from Batu Lanchang market.

30th outing: went to office on 17th of September for work, bought lunch home from Batu Lanchang market.

31st outing: went out to do chauffeur duty for kid's archery practise on 18th of September.

32nd outing: went to office on 22nd of September for work, bought lunch home from Batu Lanchang market.

33rd outing: went out on 5th of October to collect road tax and car insurance.

34th outing: went to office on 6th of October for work, bought lunch home from Batu Lanchang market.

35th outing: went out to do chauffeur duty for kid's archery practise on 10th of October.

36th outing: went out to pick up son from school and to takeaway food for Young's birthday on 13th of October.

37th outing: went out to do chauffeur duty for kid's archery practise on 17th of October.

38th outing: went out on 21st of October to pump air into a somewhat flat-looking tire and for a short drive to keep my Civic battery from going flat. Also took the opportunity to use the soon to expire ice cream voucher.

As of 21st of October, 31 weeks (217 days) have past since the beginning of Movement Control Order on 18th of March. I have been out of the house 38 times in 31 weeks, so 1.2 times per week on average, or about once every 5.7 days.

Here are the main reasons I went out:
- drive around to keep car battery healthy: 7
- work at office: 14
- bank: 1
- grocery: 1
- pick up takeaway meal: 4
- dine in restaurant: 1
- clinic: 1
- customer service: 1
- car service: 2
- pet shop: 1
- chauffeur duty: 5

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

生活点滴：破功·见红

我们家仓鼠「吴雪球」，连续二十一天都很乖，没有咬我。

我吃水果都会留一小部分给它，用手指直接喂。

过去的二十一天它都是很乖巧斯文的留在我手指旁边直接吃手指上的水果，不然就是小心翼翼的从我手指取去水果，然后躲到一个角落去吃。

但昨天它又咬我了，还咬得很深，直接流血那种。

唉，破功了，还以为它已经不会那么忘恩负义咬喂它食物的人了，结果还是畜生一只。

真的是咬得蛮深的，今天都还会痛。

但比起手指的疼痛，更深的是失望，唉…

生活点滴 |系列|

Downtime

So, I have just shut down my workstation and ended my work day.

Erm... yay!

As a thermal engineer, majority of my work time is spent on thermal simulation, so the workstation is pretty much on and running 24/7.

Actually not just the workstation, since managers and colleagues seem to think I can do the workload of several persons, I have to run thermal simulations on several servers simultaneously until I get a warning recently using up too many licenses of the thermal simulation software.

Even with parallel processing I still have a backlog of thermal simulation requests...

Really, my dear managers and colleagues, I am not superman. And no, for those few who may be thinking it, I am also not batman!

Anyway, since there will be 'cold down' without power in the office for some upgrades or maintenance tomorrow onwards through the weekend, I turned off my workstation by the end of workday today so it's a graceful shutdown and not an abrupt power cut.

It will be nice to think I don't have to work from Friday to Sunday, and only resume when colleague who is going to office next Monday helps to turn on my workstation. A nice thought indeed.

But reality is that it's just a nice thought and nothing more. I will have to work directly using the server instead of my usual remote in through my workstation.

With the backlog of thermal simulation requests, I simply cannot afford the downtime.

Yea I know, what a pathetic work life. Sad, but true.

Other |wretched workaholic| category entries.

An unusual chore

A couple of pigeons decided to start a family and them lovebirds picked our ledge to make their nest.

So the lady pigeon got pregnant and laid two eggs. Both eggs hatched and the proud pigeon parents started to raise their hatchlings.

The family of four pigeons were not particularly noisy, but they produced a ton of shit. Pretty sure pigeon droppings are health hazard, so that family of pigeon was starting to be a concern for us.

The last straw was when we discovered that one of the little pigeons has died, I am guessing due to sibling "love". But anyhow a carcass on our ledge is a definite no no.

We waited until the remaining murderous little pigeon could fly before we do the carcass disposal and a proper clean up of the filthy ledge. We also want to put up a net to stop any other lovebirds making nest and pooing mess of the ledge.

Today's the day for that operation. It's a big deal because the ledge is on 18th floor and only has a lower than knee-height fence. It's an open and long way down...

Anyway, with a home made safety apparatus tying me to the window grill, I climbed over the windowsill to land on the ledge with the air-conditioning unit, thick layer of bird poo, and the remaining young pigeon.

Yup, the same young pigeon that's supposed to know how to fly already. Only it doesn't, so it's trapped there scared shitless. Probably emptied its bowel when I went out onto the ledge, couldn't tell really since the ledge was so full of droppings.

So the intel from wifey and son was wrong, the young pigeon can't fly yet.

Since I was already out on the ledge, the operation continued. The net wouldn't be put up today anyway, it's planned for the next weekend, but now it will have to wait until the young pigeon truly can fly and leave our ledge. For real, and hopefully for good.

The cleaning commenced, with the poor scared pigeon sharing the tiny space with me while I scraped, brushed, disposed of carcass and filth in plastic bag, unclogged the drain hole, and eventually hosed down the ledge.

Many home made tools were used. We should all be grateful of the mighty duct tape. =P

And yes, I hosed down the ledge, with further brushing of wet surfaces. The pigeons have special ability to get their poos on vertical walls, so it was raining shit at one point of the cleaning process, with me and that poor pigeon in the shit-shower... >_<

Probably should mention that I am not fond of birds, because I was attacked and pecked by a cock when I was young. Not scared of them, more like weary.

Anyway, so that's the special chore I did today.

Pretty sure the pigeon family will cover the ledge with droppings again by the time the little pigeon can fly and we can finally put up the net. Meaning a repeat of the whole cleaning process.

And the shit-shower.

Other |sane side| category entries.

莫名感动

四十个模拟案件后，终于做到了老板的要求。

接下来，当然就是再优化，超越那要求了。

因为我就是这样。

因为我可以。

重要的是，今天我准时下班。

而且，晚餐后没有需要加班。

已忘了最后一次可以这样是几时的事了。

久违了的感觉。

我莫名感动。

随兴随想 |系列|

雨

老天爷哭了一整天。
时而嚎啕大哭、时而默默流泪。
仿佛伤得很深。

太阳公公玩了一天躲猫猫。
一直都不见踪影。
天灰灰的，跟我的心情一样。

低落，病了。
命贱如我，除了忙，还是忙。
思维蓝蓝，心里灰灰。

随兴随想 |系列|

Landscape this week

Snowball has been with us for a few weeks now. We learned more and more about it as it adapts to its new home.

Snowball lives in two 68x50x39cm³ plastic containers, interconnected by ribbed plastic tubes. According to the research wifey and the kids did before we got the hamster, a single container of that size is sufficient for a comfortable living space for a hamster.

We want Snowball to be happy and comfy, hence we give it two containers as living space. Initially the plan was one container for sleeping, bathing and eating, while the other as a play area with the wheel and other stuff we bought or made for it.

Snowball doesn't care about the distinction, it sleeps, eats and shits where it pleases. =P

Over time we made or bought more and more stuff for Snowball, there are many chew toys, way too many tunnels, two mazes, many cardboard buildings of various shapes and sizes, and two staircase towers. We cannot fit all the stuff in its two containers so most of them are left out and rotated in when we change the container layout every week.

Yea, we clean the containers on a weekly basis and we also change the layout of the containers then. Still, there are stuff that never got into the containers so far, like the mazes, which we only use when we take Snowball out of the containers and let it play on the ground, within a large fenced area.

Anyway, this week, I cramped as many cardboard buildings as I can into a container, while leaving the other without any (except the sand bath, which is also a cardboard box). The idea is one container is a cityscape full of buildings and with narrow alleys, while the other container is a countryside.

We will find out if Snowball is more an urban hamster or a rural hamster, hehe.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.

This is it

Some higher power sees fit to give us an opportunity to raise the average intelligence and sanity level of human beings.

A chance, nothing more. But a chance nevertheless.

I am evil, so I think we should be grateful for the happening.

And I am not beneath saying prayers hoping for the best outcome for human beings all over the world.

I hope they only treat him with all the bullshit he said could cure Covid-19.

Can always hope.

Other |temperamental thoughts| category entries.