Note to self: Get more sleep.

Why?

 

1. Coz’ your eyes look more and more like pandas’ lately. ><
2. Coz’ lack of sleep can make people fatter – so as a lot of articles say….
3. Coz’ 8 hours of sleep is recommended by doctors…. compared to your 3-4 hours a day. -_-
4. Coz’ your students don’t really care what you teach them; they just love their cute adorable teacher!! (… and to face all those parents who are a bit too ambitious about their children’s education – for God’s sake, the children are only 3 years old and they want them to read?!!! … well, talk to them with good English added with a tiny bit of British accent, and they’ll trust you completely)
5. Last but not least, coz’ you like sleeping!! Yay!!!

 

(The last point seems to make the most sense. Oh, well… nighty nite!!!)

The story of life

The story of life – Boys meet girls. Boys get stupid. Boys and girls live stupidly ever after.

- Dr. Wilson from “House” -

Jokes…. I need them….

They say there are six phases to any project:

1. Enthusiasm
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Praise and honors for the non-participants

 

Yeah… the joy of working on a project….. (never happened in any of mine tho….)

 

(Taken from: An Encyclopedia of Humor)

Hold for applause… fade out ….

Despite all the controversies and his eccentric behavior, most people won’t deny that Michael Jackson is one of the most talented musicians in the world. I myself is a fan of his since I watched his “Black and White” video clip on TV back some time ago in the 90’s. I must confess though that I haven’t been following his news for quite some time and so, his death really came as a blow. It was so sudden and so sad, especially because he is in the middle of preparing for his comeback, which is supposed to be ‘the’ show after years of his absence.

I’m trying not to make a fuss about it, but can’t help it after I watched his last rehearsal video. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be as good as his previous concerts, but considering that he’s now 50, I think it would be something definitely worth watching. So, in the video, after the dance an unseen director said, “Hold for applause… hold for applause… slow umbrella, fade out!” and I noticed, before the light was dimmed, Michael smiled… satisfied with the rehearsal, perhaps…. Some people said that it was a grimace, but nevertheles… it’s heartbreaking to realize that the applause he waited might not come in the way that he’d expected…..

God bless you, MJ….

YOU SUCK!!!

(Venting my frustration…)

Darn it!

I’m asking myself… “Why do I have to know you people?” I know it’s inevitable, but life would be so much… beautiful if I didn’t know you!!!

I’m so ready to disown you guys…. should I? OF COURSE I SHOULD. Yeah, it would be some sort of a blasphemy to say it out loud, well… I’m WRITING it out ‘loud’….

So… it’s official. As of right know, I don’t want to have anything to do with you good-for-nothing people. Deal!!!

 

Oke… so, chocolate cookies anyone?

Unfaithful

And this is how reasoning could be bad for your mental health, especially when you are trying to make sense of this world:

God wants lives to have meaning.
Life is meaningless without free-will.
With free-will, there’s always suffering.
(Ergo,) God wants suffering.

Sigh….

What more can be asked?

So, it’s been about 3 months since I moved back to Bandung… 2 months since I started my new job. Reality struck, I haven’t been complaining about my life to peyo ever since!!! That’s just PATHETIC, considering that she’s supposed to provide the service of listening to my rambling!!! Well, she and… you guys who are reading my blog actually.

Would I say that I am now on the right track then? Err… not really. The future is still very much hazy if not pitch black! But life is going really well though; it’s still mundane and boring, but in a way it’s kinda ‘perfect’.

My new job involves so many things, which makes it interesting and REALLY challenging at the same time. I am expected (*more like I expect myself actually*) to know every aspect of the company to some extent. It’s a HUGE task! Even now I’m still grappling with the administration stuff: learning how the process works and trying to figure out a better way to improve it. And then, there’s the technical part that involves production, then the marketing part, IT, etc. It’s fun really; when you are bored with one thing, just move to another. There are plenty to be done.

Another best thing about the job is that the working hour is pretty flexible, largely due to the fact that the boss is… my dad. – It doesn’t make the work less demanding though T_T. But, anywho, having flexible hour is great! I have time to go to the gym and do my own stuff when I need to, and just do overtime if I have to finish some office stuff.

So, at least the working aspect of my life is going pretty well.

Now, hobbies…. One thing that can make your life more bearable, as my brother said, is a good hobby that you like and, most importantly, one that you can actually do, i.e. you’ve got the resources needed. Unfortunately, my latest hobby is pretty expensive – while good wines are not always expensive, it still costs dollars!! FORTUNATELY however, my parents share the same hobby, so… what I need to do is simplyget myself knowledgeable enough about wines and suggest wines that my parents might like. (Most of the time, they’re also the ones that I wanna try, what a coincidence!) And, like any good parents, they won’t let me pay for them!

And, well, before I go on and on about how I am so content with my life (which is something that I rarely do), I think I’d better stop. (Actually, I have to run some errands and thought I’d better post this entry before I decided to throw it away.)

Why do I write this entry in the first place? I don’t know. I guess this is weird… me being so content… so weird that I have to write about it.

What more can be asked in my life? … A LOT really!!! It’s only humane not to feel enough with what you’ve already had, right?! But right now… they can wait….

And… me… out…. (enjoying life)….

Working with Dad…

So, I’ve quit my job as a software engineer to help my dad in the factory. My current position… well, I’m not exactly sure, it’s not really clear what I’m supposed to do. Basically I do what my dad tells me to do, just like yesterday….

I came to the office rather “early” – well, it was actually 1 pm in the afternoon (got something to take care of in the morning), but my dad wasn’t there yet; he was still in the other office. I brought my cousin’s Telkom Flash modem to check whether the wireless connection in the area was good. It was perfect. Great, now I can go online at work.

Then, I started dilligently working. Seriously, I was so dilligent, I surprised myself… meeting with the staff, checking important documents, analysing this new system that my dad wants me to build (I know, I’m not supposed to do it myself… this inexperienced programmer, but… “Good experience for you, right? We’re not in a rush anyway,” said my dad -_-). Busy, busy, busy… until my dad came.

Me:	Hei, Dad, check this out. I’m using Telkom Flash, now I can go online at work.
Dad:	It’s yours? You’re online now?
Me:	Nope, it’s Ko Yung-Yung’s (my cousin). And, yes, I’m online now.
Dad:	Wow, now show me the website you told me about; the one where you can find Mandarin songs. Find me the “aaa” song.
Me:	Oke… searching for the song… found it… downloading… Here you go. Is this it?
Dad:	Listening to the song…Yeap! How could you find it? Can you find ANY songs? Find me “bbb.”

I went explaining a bit about how a search engine works. Then, every time I found the song that he wanted, he asked me for another one. An hour, two hours passed… an admin staff came in with some documents that my dad needed to check, or should I say, I needed to check. The mundane task has been my responsibility since the past two weeks; the task that my dad happily passed on to me. But yesterday, he thought differently: “I’ll do the checking, you keep searching for the song,” my dad said happily.

So, yesterday I ended up spending most of my working hours searching and downloading songs for my dad. I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad about my job description. -_-

Idiom: “Over the Moon”

At last, another entry in the “English” category…. It’s an easy one, though, I’m pretty sure quite a lot of people have heard this one.

to be over the moon

“Over the moon” basically means “to be extremely happy and excited” about something. It’s a very common idiom, used especially in informal situations and spoken language.

Examples:

• When she found out that he was going to propose, she was over the moon.
• My brother and I are over the moon about our trip to Japan.
• I am over the moon with my first date tonight. I can’t concentrate on my work at all.

Some points to remember: 

1. “over the moon” is an adjective phrase, so be careful not to forget the “be” in front of it. So, don’t say: “I over the moon about you.”, but instead: “I am over the moon about you.”
2. The idiom is followed by the prepositions: “about” or “with” (you can use either one). Don’t use other prepositions. Another wrong example: “We are over the moon on our trip.”

 

Oke… that’s it. Very simple, right?!

 

(At last… this new entry makes me less guilty for not updating my blog as often as before…. Sigh….)

 

 

Image is taken from: WPClipart

The Benefits of Boredom

I’ve just read this great article which I decided to share with you guys in my blog asap, so I postponed my other entries to write this one. It offers a different perspective about boredom and made me think about it in a different way and… well, made me start to appreciate it. (?!?!?!?! I know, surprising, isn’t it….)

The article is taken from Reader’s Digest, February 2009 edition. This edition contains quite a lot of interesting articles, so I recommend you to buy it. 

Here we go….

“Boredom’s doldrums were unavoidable, yet also a primordial soup for some of life’s most quintessentially human moments. A long drive home after a frustrating day could force ruminations. A pang of homesickness at the start of a plane ride might put a journey in perspective.

Increasingly, these empty moments are being saturated with productivity, communication and the digital distractions offered by an ever-expanding array of slick mobile devices.

But we are too busy twirling through the songs on our iPods – while checking email, while changing lanes on the highway – to consider whether we are giving up a good thing? We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling around in a state of restlessness is one of life’s greatest luxuries - one not available to creatures that spend all their time pursuing mere survival.

To be bored is to stop reacting to the external world, and to explore the internal one. It is in these times of reflection that people often discover something new, whether it is an epiphany about a relationship or a new theory about the way the universe works. Granted, many people emerge from boredom feeling that they have accomplished nothing.

But is accomplishment really the point of life? There is a strong argument that boredom – so often parodied as a glassy-eyed drooling state of nothingness – is an essential human emotion that underlies art, literature, philosophy, science and even love.”

 

I have no comment about the article right now, need to ponder on it I guess, maybe in one of my boredom moments.

What do you think?