Moving out of the comfort zone

The deed is done. I have finally carried out what I've been threatening to do for the past few years.

I have quit my job.

The usual flurry of questions start coming next. Have I found a job? What am I going to do next?

I, for one, am tempted to give the middle finger and say that's non of your forkin' bidness. But I will be civil.

Firstly, the reason why I left is I want to find time to do what I want to do instead of having to entertain the whims of my workaholic bosses, who sometimes can ask for information at the wierdest times.

Secondly, the insane amount of effort to rationalise and justify admin procedures is just too much. Finance Department is simply too scared of the AGC to employ their last ounces (if any) of common sense they have.

Lastly, I need to regain my sanity.

The feeling of insecurity does creep in. The job hunt had started way before but it would appear that the job market is going to be a challenge. As always, we keep plugging on and explore the avenues available.

I could use the break to rejuvenate myself and spend more time with my son. :)

If anyone has a job to offer, let's hear it.

Regrets

Everyone has them. From never being able to meet someone to not being able to find time to bring their parents to visit Universal Studios..... (wait, what?)

 

This somewhat notorious question sometimes slip through carefully prepared interview questions and can somehow make or break the carefully crafted persona/facade one has spent so much time on. Fortunately, I have yet to encounter this but I feel the urge to put it in writing due to recent events.

 

The passing of Leonard Nimoy brought an end to the crew of the original Enterprise (NCC-1701) save for the Captain and the Comms Lieutenant (last surviving crew members). It also highlighted how fast time has flown past.

 

Regrets are something you cannot prevent unless you have had prior knowledge but even then, it may not be entirely possible to avoid. In my case, it was the inability to have my mother present to witness the next phase of my life and for her to be the grandmother she would probably have been looking forward to being.

 

The only relief or solace I find in this regret is that she was there to witness my graduation from University and for me to bring her on a trip to the Gold Coast. Like everyone, I have always took it for granted and loss of her support and encouragement after her passing was devastating. For a period, I contemplated resigning from my position as I fought to cope with the loss.

Fast forward to the present, my current position has become more and more unbearable as relationship with my supervisor has reached breaking point. From an outsider point of view, many would have just soldiered on due to the stability and the nice pay cheque. I would like to differ. Money is useless when family relations are jeopardised. Broken family ties cannot be mended, and the time required for work has been siphoned away from my family, especially from my son. This was a mistake (I felt) that my father made but his situation had been different and it was out of neccessity. I am not willing to make that same mistake.

Cue the routine job applications and interviews. Imagine the horror of sending multiple applications with limited success. You would have imagined that having many years of work experience in a managerial capacity with ability to carry out "fire-fighting" work over weekends would have been a selling point. Ultimately, it boils down to compensation. Will it kill to ask for less? Probably not. That's exactly what I did, taking a chunky pay cut in my applications but I doubt it worked much as most employers probably want to pay me much less, to the tune of a fresh grad's starting pay (not the expected one). Sorry mate, no can do. I've got bills to pay and a family to support. This is the world's most costly country to live in, not some backward country that export their jobless people out as cheap labour.

Big regret. Have wasted nine years on the wrong organisation and having not much leeway to move to another. Hopefully will have the intervention of Lady Luck soon.

The writer does enjoy the fact that he can put his job description as "Mad Scientist" and will probably miss that very soon.

Change

The only thing that is constant is change.

A lot of it have taken place since my last post. Some of good and bad, majority good though. I've experienced the joys and frustrations of being a father. The exhiliration and hassles of moving into a place of your own. The insane amount of money for bills....

Truth be told, I have no love for the blogging scene because I like my privacy. I also have a strong disdain for the so-called "influencers" (I refer to them as leeches) who blog for a living. Why leeches? Because like leeches they feed off the hard work of others and the only effort they put in is akin to the minimal effort of leeches latching onto their hosts. That aside, this post is not about them.

This is about casting off the cloak of procastination and start putting my thoughts into something readable. Maybe not by anyone in particular but it certainly brings up some chuckles when I come back to read through my posts of yesteryears and observe my own progress.

Some things don't really change much actually. I still remain a cynic, though still learning the ropes of satire.

And the Winner is....

Months of inactivity and generally keeping busy with the better half. Though the thought of going back for In-Camp Training right after the Chinese New Year holidays wasn't all that appealing, much less going back for the much dreaded Stage 2 evaluation.

I had rushed to finish and hand over what work I had prior to that (I at least want my short holiday to be undisturbed) and the buildup to the exercise wasn't as smooth as one would like it to be. It was afterall, a 3-week affair.

Granted, the first week was kinda slack as we brushed up on the planning and SOPs. And then a quick pep-talk by our out-going Div Comd. Interesting conversation though:

Div Com: So, which is the best company?

(A, B, C OCs all quiet)

Div Com: No one wants to answer? Where's the Scouts?

Me (Scout PC): [Hong gan....] Sir, Scouts are the best! (What else you expect me to say?)

Div Com: Really? Good to hear that because I agree you have to be the best in order to serve the rest of the Battalion well. So let's do this one more time, which is the best company? (Think half expecting all the OCs to take my lead and claim the title)

B OC: Sir, I think all of us are quite equal. Have to remain humble (smile)

Div Com: Good. I agree humility is good but I also want you to have confidence in your own men. So C, which company do you think is the best?

(My OC Support company slides up to empty chair beside me hiding behind the other staff officers)

OC Support: Support Company!

(Everyone laughs)

We went on and slugged it out for the evaluation, us scouts having to move out an extra 24hours ahead and losing more of our blood to the jungle commandos. It was sheer torture having to bash through the vegetation and struggling to find a way through the swampy areas. I almost gave up during the first night from exhaustion after being on the move for 4 hours straight and carrying too much weight I believe. In the end, we managed to get a fairly high rating for our efforts. Two of the scout teams managed to earn a name for themselves by adopting an aggressive posture instead of retreating when encountering an enemy OP (but sadly, they both got "KIAed" and I think we lost some points on that) but clearly our CO was quite impressed and approved of the teams' spirit.

Coincidentally, our Battalion was named the best NS Infantry Battalion of the Division for the previous work year, taking over from the "retiring" Battalion. Not a bad experience though. Not bad at all.

The writer is still recovering from the many bites and scars from that traumatic 3 weeks.

How the Internet Started

How the Internet started

A revelation with an Incredibly Big Message (IBM):

Well, you might have thought that you knew how the Internet started, but here's the TRUE story ....

In ancient Israel , it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.

And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she was often called Amazon Dot Com.

And she said unto Abraham, her husband: "Why dost thou travel so far from town to town with thy goods when thou canst trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

And Abraham did look at her - as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said: "How, dear?"

And Dot replied: "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale, and they will reply telling you who hath the best price.

And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever having to move from his tent.

To prevent neighboring countries from overhearing what the drums were saying, Dot devised a system that only she and the drummers knew. It was called Must Send Drum Over Sound (MSDOS), and she also developed a language to transmit ideas and pictures - Hebrew To The People (HTTP)

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secret himself inside Abraham's drum and began to siphon off some of Abraham's business. But he was soon discovered, arrested and prosecuted - for insider trading.

And the young men did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung.

They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Sybarites, or NERDS.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to that enterprising drum dealer, Brother William of Gates, who bought off every drum maker in the land.

And indeed did insist on drums to be made that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say: "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel , or eBay as it came to be known. He said: "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied: "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators." "YAHOO," said Abraham. And because it was Dot's idea, they named it YAHOO Dot Com.

Abraham's cousin, Joshua, being the young Gregarious Energetic Educated Kid (GEEK) that he was, soon started using Dot's drums to locate things around the countryside. It soon became known as God's Own Official Guide to Locating Everything (GOOGLE).

And that is how it all began.

Truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuly!!!