Curse of the Bonus

Every year since he was born, without fail, His Royal Highness Boy King Hsiang is hospitalised at least once.

Fever, food poisoning, hand, foot and mouth, et cetera.

Every year. At least once.

Why oh why? =(

And curiously enough, it's always within a month of me getting a bonus, contractual or otherwise.

*sigh~*

Will this cycle ever be broken?

Yes, I am willing to give up the bonus if it means my family will never be hospitalised again, ever.

 

Prank?

The previous entry was posted on the 1st of April, with outrageous claim about slacker having some sort of talent in writing, so obviously it has to be an April Fools' prank.

Since you know, how could the slacker has such talent? =P

That should have been the biggest giveaway.

After all, it's not like this is the first time the slacker tries to pull some cleverly constructed, super convincing lame prank. See the previous attempts: 2010's, and 2009's.

Right?

I will probably not waste my time and energy next year, at least avoid posting on the 1st of April since people are too smart.

It's all a prank, Scribble Pad is not slowing down or closing.

Or is it? =P

I have been writing these few days, just have not been posting. In case you are wondering, yes I am writing a short story.

Scribble Pad is slowing down

And likely closing.

Not that I have many readers or followers, but I think it's good manner to give this heads up instead of lesser and shorter entries drag out over a long period of time and eventually total silence like some bloggers do.

The short version is that I no longer have the time to keep this blog updated freqeuntly and regularly, if at all.

For about 6 days now, I have two other blogs to maintain. One of them focuses on reviews, starting with books and computer games, and hopefully will attract other companies that have products to market, really it's based on marketing and advertisement and the blog is loaded with advertisements.

The other is a pay per view blog for my short stories, only four stories so far. Surprising enough this one is generating more income than the other, for now at least. Hopefully this will continue and not just a novel excitement.

I know I said I will not sell out to advertisement, honestly I didn't, not with my personal blog (this one ler) which I write simply to share. See, no advertisement here. =)

Money is tight, and there is only so much time to write everyday, so I like to apologise to the loyal readers (if any), I just can't keep three blogs updated regularly. I love to write and share, really I do, but it comes a point when hobby has to give way to upkeeping my family's quality of life.

I hope you will understand.

I like to thank all those who have been following this blog, more comments would have been great I suppose but it's all moot now.

I will update this blog whenever I can, but no promise.

The long version...

The long version will probably sound like a rant, oh well.

Ever since the company no longer utilises my strength but assigned me to odd jobs that serves nothing but demotivates me, I have been thinking about getting a new job.

Hello, digging through a user-unfriendly database to compile data for analysis of a manufacturing issue is not a thermal related project. No sir, even if it's the manufacturing of a thermal controller card still doesn't make it a thermal project.

Can't simply characterise a project as thermal related and assign your thermal engineer to it simply because some part of it has the word "thermal" or "temperature" in it, you know?

Typical "manager speech" instead of resolving the concern is to me an indication that the manager no longer values me as a thermal engineer, and perhaps the department no longer has a need for a thermal engineer. So either I change my job scope and put away the skills that got me hired in the first place, or if I still want to do thermal related work, I find a job that wants a thermal engineer.

Or, I can just bear with the shit, as long as it still pays the bill, right?

See, that's the second thing that led me to ditch my hobby of writing for sharing, but instead I write for money now, cause the primary job no longer pays the bill. =(

If I no longer enjoy my primary job, then you better believe I am going to do something I like as a part-time job.

you see, it's the time of the year the company does the annual performance review, and thus the time we find out about our pay rise, if any.

Since the company sees fit to give an employee who is rated successful a peanut-size increment on a minuscule salary base, I am getting progressively poorer thanks to the "a-lot-more-significant-than-peanut-size" inflation.

If my salary base was five figures then the peanut-size increment percentage is acceptable. But since my salary base is oh so very far away from five figures, I am feeling rather shafted. =\

Successful performance, but rubbish increment that makes me poorer. >_<

Bollocks.

Trust me, if I ever get very successful with writing and it is giving me a steady income that supports my family modest lifestyle, I am going to go full-time writing and be my own boss.

Do what I like while providing for the family, hell yea!

But let's not get to the dream land for now. My family is already on a frugal lifestyle that I can't see us going any lower, so blogging for money instead of blogging because I like to share is the necessary evil.

Again, I hope you will understand and thanks for following my blog all these years.

什么是小象？

警告：那些连洋娃娃的生殖器官都不能接受的人请止步，不然后果你自己负责。

如果你不明白上篇文章里说到的“小象”是什么的话，让我介绍你蜡笔小新…

image source

小象！ ^_^

梦到破灭再毁减

警告：那些对夫妻间情趣对话，和对讨论正常生理器官会敏感的人，还有那些心智不成熟的人，请止步，不然后果你自己负责。

那天傍晚沐浴时间到，我拿了睡衣进入浴室。老婆还在浴室的镜子前擦护脸的东西。

我剥光身子在花洒隔离间的门口转过身子说：

“看，小象！”

老婆应酬的瞟了一眼，继续擦她的护肤膏。

我自讨没趣的关上隔离间的门，然后代她回答：

“才没兴趣。”

老婆（应该是要安慰我的自尊心）说：

“那是大象，不是小象。小象和小小象在睡觉。”

“如果我们有第三个儿子不是小小小象咯？好可怜。”

“我们不会有第三个儿子。”

“因为第三个会是女儿？”(*暗爽*)

“我们不会有第三个孩子。”

你听到吗，那女儿梦碎了满地的声音？

=(

Breakdance

There was a power cut due to lightning while wifey and the two kings were at the in-law's earlier this month.

Knowing bored kids generally mean mayhem, wifey hummed to entertain the boys.

It worked, Hsiang danced energetically to the tune and his grandmother in-law asked,

Nana: do you know breakdance?

Hsiang: no.

Nana: do you know what is breakdance?

Hsiang: a dance where you will fall down.

Reminder

This is a gentle reminder that 8:30pm to 9:30pm this Saturday (26th of March) is Earth Hour.

If you are not aware of what Earth Hour is, practise your google-fu (Wikipedia is a good source), or you can read my post from last year.

Remember, all we have to do to participate is to turn off all non-essential lights and electrical appliances during that appointed hour.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. ^_^

Of course, more importantly is to be mindful of climate change and that all of us need to do something about it.

So don't just stop at that one hour per year, but be constantly conscious of our action and it's impact, make it a habit to turn off the light when you will be out of the room for a bit, say, when you are going to take a shower.

Don't waste energy illuminating and cooling the lounge when everybody is in their room, and vice versa.

Remember, every bit counts.