Bad Day

The earlier part of the yesterday (Monday) was terrible. He woke up early only to recall that this week is the E-Learning week. There are no classes! Argh, the precious sleep. Plus the argument on Sunday night. His mood was really bad. The bad mood carried on to the evening tuition (the focus for this post).

He did try to be as nice and patient as possible. But he was greeted by nonchalence. Argh… After 15 minutes he had enough. The boy picked the wrong day. Because he can’t walked out on the tuition like a few weeks ago (unprofessional, unethical and not to mention that the father is just sitting in the living room), he had to resort to other means. Repetition. Hmm… at first he didn’t know repeating something over and over again will be effective; he hoped that making the boy repeat will cause him to be irritated and in turn, regret being nonchalent. Evaluation of the method, education-wise, showed that it served no purpose. The boy still refuses to think. He had to guide him like he guided his primary 1 sister.

However, the thirst for “revenge” was partially sated towards the end of the tuition. Then he saw the boy’s wet eyes… Uh oh… Then his father came and blew his top (at his son). By this time, the boy’s tears were flowing freely. He felt so guilty that he just let him finished the tuition after one last question (the original intention was the completion of about 5 more?). Enough torture for one night, he guessed.

Guilty… Afterall, he’s just a primary 5 student. How different is he from a bully?

Excuses: “But he keep missing the key information of the questions! He should repeat the question so that he can spot them!”, “He just come up with some imaginary number to any question or pop the ‘invincible’ answer: ‘Don’t know.’”

HaiZ~ He just ain’t cut out to be a teacher. A teacher shouldn’t let his/her emotions take control. A teacher should be patient! Everything that he is not.

HaiZ~

A Dream

It’s raining now. And hazy too. Two things that reflect his mood and thoughts. Slack (rain allows one to slack), thoughtful (slacking allows one time to think) and clouded (thinking fills one with conflicting thoughts hence leading to a clouded head). Anyhows, he had no mood to study for his NIE quiz. Not in this stormy weather. But he’s bored. So he came up with a “meaningless” poem.

A Dream

I have woken from a dream -
T’was a dream of a big rain tree,
And little birds underneath,
Singing away silently.

© Copyright 2006 cloudie. All rights reserved. Distribution of any kind is prohibited without the written consent of cloudie.

Boo

Boo! Something is bothering him. He thought he finally cleared away the encircling mist of doubt already. He thought he already made a decision. Why can’t he sleep??? Boo! Something is robbing his sleep and he isn’t clear as to what it is. Boo! Boo! Boo!

Anyway, he’s looking forward to Sunday’s dim sum. Hope it’s good.

Uniquely Him

He drove into a big bus depot yesterday. What? Of course it’s an accident. Well, he thought it was the entrance to the carpark. So hmm… He thinks he’s the only person in recent history to drive a 1000cc vehicle into an underground bus depot. And he was still wondering why the taxis behind him didn’t follow him. Until he saw the buses and the queues.

“Oh shit.”

 He certainly hopes that there is no camera catching everything on film. Not after he just received a advisory letter from the traffic police for speeding. (PS: It’s weird, he couldn’t have sped on the road in question. It’s bloody, bloody congested at that specified time of the day. And you catch a car driving at 70km/h on a 60km/h road? Hell, why don’t you catch those driving at 110km/h on a 90km/h road?! @#!@%#@$@%##!# Besides, he didn’t think he used the car that fateful day?)

Stupid traffic police. The whole system is just weird. In fact, he noticed a lot of oddities in the Singapore system lately, like locks on emergency buttons, speaker corners in obscure places, trade unions trying to make members bankrupt. Uniquely him, uniquely Singapore.

Haze Singapore!

Alright, it isn’t something really news now. People are used to seeing the haze every single day. So much so that not seeing it IS news. As everyone knows, the haze is caused by the ”slash-and-burn” activities of the Indonesian farmers. It’s a very fast way to clear and create fertile lands, albeit with a shortlived nature. Now, tons of people are condemning these folks for causing them health problems, financial problems (cannot go work cause of haze), eating problems (cannot go out eat cause of haze), social problems (cannot go East Coast Park and look at girls cause the haze blurs the vision) etc. etc. etc. etc. and etc. Hmm… interestingly, a lot of clubs/pub have atmospheres that would hit at least 150 on the Pollutant Standards Index.

Regional ministers, grassroot leaders and people in general are calling the Indonesian government to do something about it. To the slash-and-burn farmers, “STOP burning! You are killing me slowly (softly?)!” Hahz~ Take my breath away~ (pun intended) “So inconsiderate!” they griped.

It was then that something occurred to him. Why should the farmers listen to you? They are breathing in the same smoke. If they don’t even care about their health, why would they care about yours? Moreover, slash-and-burn is really cheap and fast! Economic rewards, though short-termed, are abound for these farmers. Think of it this way: will you give up money for the sake of someone living a sea away from you? He doesn’t think these farmers have some grand ideas about saving the Earth and protecting Mother Nature from the filth of human habitation. All that matters to them is how to make sure that they have things to eat the next few days. Alright, maybe some of them do, but they are making very good efforts at hiding them.

And they are not the only ones being inconsiderate. Even in daily life, you see that inconsideration manifests. People not giving up their seats to others who need it more. Guys blasting their boomers/hi-fis/etc. etc. late at night. Girls screaming in laughter at the same time. A certain XXXXXX not flushing the stupid toilet bowl. So everyone has the capacity for inconsiderate and has done something inconsiderate before. So what right do we have to brand these farmers as inconsiderate? Pot calling the kettle black?

Of course, that is not to say we should just let them burn yeah? He doesn’t want to smell smoke everyday either. Instead of griping, people should find solutions. Solutions, not gripings, solve problems. And the haze certainly looks like a big problem.

So until the smog is gone, it’s…

Haze Singapore!

Mr. Maslow

Undergrads should know Maslow. His pyramid is quite famous. He was doing an assignment on that and he felt very very bored. So he did an analysis to find where exactly he is on the world famous pyramid. After 10 attempts, this is the result.

Don’t think he needs to explain what is 1, 2 and so on. Yeah.

Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” Cloudie agrees and adds, “And Love is the water of their lives.”

Emergency Lock?

He was taking the MRT today when he saw something strange.

This is the picture of the emergency mic button, if he is not wrong. According to the instructions, you are supposed to press it to talk to the train operator in times of emergency. Needless to say, misuse of this button will set your fortunes back by a hefty $5000.

Now comes the question, why is there a lock on the button? Okay… maybe the button is never locked. But why install a lock on something if it’s never locked? Hmm… okay so if it’s meant to be locked (at times or everytime), what happens if there really is an emergency? And the lock is not electronic! It’s the old, traditional key-and-lock kind of lock! Imagine this scenario: During an emergency, someone in the cabin needs the train to stop. Another person goes up to the button and tries to press on the dumb button, then curses its lock.

Emergency lock? He thinks it’s an oxymoron. Stupid SMRT. Sometimes the things people/organizations do makes totally no sense to him.

Interview

He went for his Industrial Attachment on friday, Mid-autumn’s day. After listening to a horror story (his friend miscalculated the date and didn’t go for his interview. Needless to say, he got turned away at the reception), he was filled with the tiniest bit of anxiousness. Ah… okae, more like a lot of anxiousness.

Anyway, HP has one of the nicest office he’s ever seen! Lots of security guards too. One of the reasons why he didn’t take photos to show. Hmm… The working environment looks relaxed though. He isn’t sure whether that was their regular office (they seem to own the whole Comtech building), but the small rooms were mostly dark. Most of the staff, it seemed, were milling around the corridors or chilling out in the big pantry. Well, all except the three women who interviewed him.

The interview was simple enough. One of them was the host; she tried to make everyone feel comfortable and relaxed. And she did lots of prompting too. Another was quite friendly, and quiet. Occasionally, she will pop a question or explain the jobscope and stuff. He decided that he like her most (and she looks vaguely familiar too).  The last one was way serious than her colleagues. The clearest thing he remembered about her was this dialogue:

“So are your projects conducted in groups or teams?”
“Yes.”
“So are you confident in working alone? Because you are required to work alone on this attachment.” (alone?! aren’t programmers supposed to work in teams?!)
“Of course. I’m prepared to take this up as a challenge.” (what other choice did he have?)
“You understand that your attachment will be graded by us?” (what is this? a threat?)

Other than that, and stupidly giving a dumb dumb answer to another question (“how long do you think you can program this system?” 1 to 1.5 months at most), the interview went relatively smooth. That’s what he thought anyway. However, he is unsure as to whether he wants to take up this (if given another choice).

Pluses:

• The office is so nice.
• Close to Queensway… can go shop or have nice meals after work.
• HP is a big name, looks nice on resume.
• The second interviewer looks really nice.
• It’s jobscope is programming.

Minuses:

• Its not exactly at Queensway, more like opposite the old SAJC.
• He has to work SOLO! What the hell?
• He just promised that he can do a stupid program for a system he barely knows in 2 months?
• He is the only person from NTU applying (so the host said).
• The pay is unknown.
• HP can be reached from his home easier than from hall. So he may have to leave hall?
• The third interviewer just threatened him???

But the choice now rests not with him, it rests with HP. His fate is literally in the hands of those 3 women. Booooo~ 

And why is the girl crying in the Celestial Diamond ad? She don’t look like she’s shedding tears of joy. She looks more forlorn to him. Then again, seeing can be believing and humans are mercurial after all.

black cloudie

Don’t really feel like blogging anymore.

-deleted-

Probably the last post in a while. Enjoy your life.

Liar, liar. Pants on Fire.

Sometimes he wonder if he is just lying to himself. Being so accustomed to lies and lying, he can’t seem to differentiate the truth from the untruth anymore. But that is just him. So…