So...why here we go again. Hopefully I'll keep at this for more than one post this time, though.
Why did I decide to start blogging again? That's a mystery, especially to me. Anyhoo, this design's getting a lil' dated, so maybe I'll change it. Maybe. Don't hold your breath. And I'll have to sort through those links on the sidebar too.
Hmm...can't think of anything else to post right now. Maybe later.
In the meantime, this is what I'm currently hyped up about.
Enjoy.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Lessons to be drawn
Just got an email for oaks that I quite liked, and one that gave me a little guidance. So here it is for your amusement, and musement. ;)
Life's Little Lessons
The Frogs
A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs!
The farmer replied, "There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs---millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy.
So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.
The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs.
The restaurant owner said," Well... where are all the frogs?"
The farmer said, "I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!"
Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs.
Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the dark.
Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
The Turtles
A turtle family decided to go on a picnic.
Turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place for their outing.
During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last! For about six months they cleaned up the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell.
He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left. Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years... six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich.
At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, "SEE! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt."
Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.
The Pretty Lady
Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river.
The big monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk." How can big disciple brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.
The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her.
All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head.
This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.
Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk.
"How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite."
The big monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?"
This very old Chinese zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the"unpleasant memory" with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the "unpleasant memory/feelings". We should let go immediately after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over. It is just that simple.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Life's Little Lessons
The Frogs
A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs!
The farmer replied, "There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs---millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy.
So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.
The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs.
The restaurant owner said," Well... where are all the frogs?"
The farmer said, "I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!"
Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs.
Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the dark.
Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.
The Turtles
A turtle family decided to go on a picnic.
Turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place for their outing.
During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last! For about six months they cleaned up the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell.
He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left. Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years... six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich.
At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, "SEE! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt."
Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves.
The Pretty Lady
Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river.
The big monk offered to carry the pretty lady across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk." How can big disciple brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?" thought the little monk. But he kept quiet.
The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her.
All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of accusations about the big monk in his head.
This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation.
Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk.
"How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite."
The big monk looked surprised and said, "I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?"
This very old Chinese zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away. We keep on carrying the baggage of the"unpleasant memory" with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony. Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the "unpleasant memory/feelings". We should let go immediately after the unpleasant event is over. This will immediately remove all our agonies. There is no need to be further hurt by the unpleasant event after it is over. It is just that simple.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Two weeks later...
Once again, I have failed miserably in keeping my blog frequently updated. So, what's new? ;)
Anyways, so...what's been happening since I last wrote two weeks ago...hmmm...Well, for one, I attended the Singapore Students Association of Victoria (SSAV) Ball two Saturdays ago (the 7th, I think). It was held at the Grand Ballroom of Hilton on the Park. It was alright, I guess, though the games were a trifle too long, which left the rest of us non-contestants rather bored. Won a prize in the lucky draw, though: a voucher of "Made in Australia" goods. Whoopee...Left it at Evelyn's place, figuring her mum would make better use of the stuff than I would. Also got a rather nasty shock: Their door gifts were little bottles of sweets from Suga, which were the very same things we were using for Multicultural Night on the 13th. Oh well.
Anyhoo, a week later, on the 13th of August (last Friday), we had the Monash Multicultural Night. This was the event for which the seven of us in the committee had been planning since April. Unfortunately, besides running logistics for that night, I also had two submissions for my second and third year design projects on Monday.
Thursday night was spent at the computer lab with Joe and Ryan trying to finish up the Solid Edge 3D model of the Front End Loader we were working on. Well actually, I was trying to finish up the model; they were pretty much there to keep me company. ;) Thankfully, managed to wrap things up just before the labs closed at midnight, then went home and started working on my third year design submission. For this project, we were to design a racer to compete in the Formula SAE competition, and I was in charge of cooling. Managed to finish up on the 3D models of my preliminary design and dragged my self into bed at 8am on Friday.
Woke up at 1230. First thought: "Oh crap, I'm late!" jumped out of bed, washed up, changed, ran out of the house with my bag and down to the bus stop. Stopped by Busy Bee Florist to see if I could get a corsage, but the lady said she could only get it ready by 4pm. Dang it. Called a cab and rode into the city. Nearly 40 bucks. Fudge. Ran to Myer. Picked up a black shirt with a silver tie, to match Evelyn's black dress. Another (almost) 40 bucks. Grife. Picked up $80 worth of vouchers for the games prizes. *sigh, at least I'll get the money back...eventually* Ran down to the town hall florists. "Sorry, we don't do corsages." Argh. Bought a bouquet of roses instead. Ran up to Evelyn's place. Evelyn already home. Quickly showered and got into suit. Called Janelle, arranged to meet in front of Nike Melbourne. Ran down to Nike Melbourne, in suit. Hot. Picked up flowers from town hall. Got into cab and got to Carlton Crest Hotel at around 1630.
Well, thankfully the decorators, Elegant Occasions were already on the scene, setting up. The hotel staff were also busy arranging the tables and setting up the stage and dance floor, while the AV company, Staging Connections, were connecting up the speakers and lighting. Phew. Everything was running pretty smoothly, till my DJ, Adel, got stuck in traffic. Thankfully, he arrived at nearly 7 and we managed to set up in time for the 1915 door opening. The night was pretty much a blur of running around making sure everything was going smoothly. The highlight of the night was quite undoubtedly the Fire Performance, which IMHO was well worth the money. The fourth act, a dance routine, nearly gave me a heart attack when their CD-R wouldn't play in the DJ's console. Thankfully, we managed to play it from another CD deck and everything came to a sweet finish. Kudos to Janelle for a job very well done as Dinner and Events Coordinator, as well as the two MCs, Shah and Angela. Many boos to Charmaine who was lucky enough to win TWICE in the lucky draws! ;) And good going! to the guy in the purple shirt who was puking in the men's, whose puke was more purple than his shirt! :P Luckily, the hotel staff said they'd clean it up and Logistics didn't have to. (Phew!)
Well, after the whole affair, we all headed over to The Loft for the after-party. We tried to get Wangwei's friend in, but the bouncer wouldn't let us. In all honesty, it's not that we didn't try, but come on, he was in t-shirt and sneakers. Anyway, after partying for a while and getting a little high on red wine (at the ball) and scotch (at The Loft), Wayne and his date, Stacey, and Evelyn and I headed off to Cece for some karaoke. Not a good move. We reached there at around 3am, but they closed at 4, and the minimum bill was $200. So, we ended up calling many drinks and I ended up getting pretty drunk after losing multiple games at the end. Oh yeah, Chan and Joanne met us there, and they very nicely drove my drunk body back to Evelyn's place.
Saturday was pretty much spent rehabilitating from my drunken stupor. Went to Big W to get Evelyn's film developed and found out they were selling Futurama at less than half price. Bought Season one, and am seriously considering whether I should go back before the sale ends on Friday and getting the rest. Also watched White Chicks, which is pretty hilarious and you should check it out if you haven't.
Woke up pretty pissed on Sunday. Took the train back to Clayton, but fell asleep and landed up in Dandenong. Not only did I have to wait half an hour for a return train, but I ended up waiting another half hour for a bus to uni. Reached uni and met up with my second year design team: Ryan, Joe, Panha, Sovan and Brian. We were there because the calculations had not been finished, which was what I was pretty pissed about. Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the calculations and force diagrams, then Panha, Sovan and Brian left because, apparently, they had a computing assignment to finish. This pissed me even more, since they were the ones who were supposed to do the calculations in the first place.
I mean, seriously. I took the time to create the entire 3D model from scratch, even though I also had my third year submission and my logistics role in the ball to handle at the same time. So why couldn't they have frickin' gone and done the damned calculations instead of dragging me down to uni on a Sunday?
Anyway, went to Wah Kee down in Clayton town for dinner, then came back up to the computer labs in uni and continued working till they closed. Seeing as we hadn't finished yet, Joe, Ryan and I went back to my place and continued working on my laptop. Unfortunately, there was only one laptop and three of us, and after a while (around 2am), Ryan decided to leave. Joe left at around 4+, and I kept working at the powerpoint report till about 7. I dunno what's wrong with me. Maybe I'm just easy to bully or something, but why am I always the one staying up till who knows what time to finish a group assignment? Anyways, met Evelyn at the computer labs at around 0820, and sent the report in by email just in time for the 9am submission.
Overall, I was pretty pissed off about the whole affair, and am firmly reinforced in my loathing of group work. Grr...
Anyways, so...what's been happening since I last wrote two weeks ago...hmmm...Well, for one, I attended the Singapore Students Association of Victoria (SSAV) Ball two Saturdays ago (the 7th, I think). It was held at the Grand Ballroom of Hilton on the Park. It was alright, I guess, though the games were a trifle too long, which left the rest of us non-contestants rather bored. Won a prize in the lucky draw, though: a voucher of "Made in Australia" goods. Whoopee...Left it at Evelyn's place, figuring her mum would make better use of the stuff than I would. Also got a rather nasty shock: Their door gifts were little bottles of sweets from Suga, which were the very same things we were using for Multicultural Night on the 13th. Oh well.
Anyhoo, a week later, on the 13th of August (last Friday), we had the Monash Multicultural Night. This was the event for which the seven of us in the committee had been planning since April. Unfortunately, besides running logistics for that night, I also had two submissions for my second and third year design projects on Monday.
Thursday night was spent at the computer lab with Joe and Ryan trying to finish up the Solid Edge 3D model of the Front End Loader we were working on. Well actually, I was trying to finish up the model; they were pretty much there to keep me company. ;) Thankfully, managed to wrap things up just before the labs closed at midnight, then went home and started working on my third year design submission. For this project, we were to design a racer to compete in the Formula SAE competition, and I was in charge of cooling. Managed to finish up on the 3D models of my preliminary design and dragged my self into bed at 8am on Friday.
Woke up at 1230. First thought: "Oh crap, I'm late!" jumped out of bed, washed up, changed, ran out of the house with my bag and down to the bus stop. Stopped by Busy Bee Florist to see if I could get a corsage, but the lady said she could only get it ready by 4pm. Dang it. Called a cab and rode into the city. Nearly 40 bucks. Fudge. Ran to Myer. Picked up a black shirt with a silver tie, to match Evelyn's black dress. Another (almost) 40 bucks. Grife. Picked up $80 worth of vouchers for the games prizes. *sigh, at least I'll get the money back...eventually* Ran down to the town hall florists. "Sorry, we don't do corsages." Argh. Bought a bouquet of roses instead. Ran up to Evelyn's place. Evelyn already home. Quickly showered and got into suit. Called Janelle, arranged to meet in front of Nike Melbourne. Ran down to Nike Melbourne, in suit. Hot. Picked up flowers from town hall. Got into cab and got to Carlton Crest Hotel at around 1630.
Well, thankfully the decorators, Elegant Occasions were already on the scene, setting up. The hotel staff were also busy arranging the tables and setting up the stage and dance floor, while the AV company, Staging Connections, were connecting up the speakers and lighting. Phew. Everything was running pretty smoothly, till my DJ, Adel, got stuck in traffic. Thankfully, he arrived at nearly 7 and we managed to set up in time for the 1915 door opening. The night was pretty much a blur of running around making sure everything was going smoothly. The highlight of the night was quite undoubtedly the Fire Performance, which IMHO was well worth the money. The fourth act, a dance routine, nearly gave me a heart attack when their CD-R wouldn't play in the DJ's console. Thankfully, we managed to play it from another CD deck and everything came to a sweet finish. Kudos to Janelle for a job very well done as Dinner and Events Coordinator, as well as the two MCs, Shah and Angela. Many boos to Charmaine who was lucky enough to win TWICE in the lucky draws! ;) And good going! to the guy in the purple shirt who was puking in the men's, whose puke was more purple than his shirt! :P Luckily, the hotel staff said they'd clean it up and Logistics didn't have to. (Phew!)
Well, after the whole affair, we all headed over to The Loft for the after-party. We tried to get Wangwei's friend in, but the bouncer wouldn't let us. In all honesty, it's not that we didn't try, but come on, he was in t-shirt and sneakers. Anyway, after partying for a while and getting a little high on red wine (at the ball) and scotch (at The Loft), Wayne and his date, Stacey, and Evelyn and I headed off to Cece for some karaoke. Not a good move. We reached there at around 3am, but they closed at 4, and the minimum bill was $200. So, we ended up calling many drinks and I ended up getting pretty drunk after losing multiple games at the end. Oh yeah, Chan and Joanne met us there, and they very nicely drove my drunk body back to Evelyn's place.
Saturday was pretty much spent rehabilitating from my drunken stupor. Went to Big W to get Evelyn's film developed and found out they were selling Futurama at less than half price. Bought Season one, and am seriously considering whether I should go back before the sale ends on Friday and getting the rest. Also watched White Chicks, which is pretty hilarious and you should check it out if you haven't.
Woke up pretty pissed on Sunday. Took the train back to Clayton, but fell asleep and landed up in Dandenong. Not only did I have to wait half an hour for a return train, but I ended up waiting another half hour for a bus to uni. Reached uni and met up with my second year design team: Ryan, Joe, Panha, Sovan and Brian. We were there because the calculations had not been finished, which was what I was pretty pissed about. Spent the rest of the afternoon working on the calculations and force diagrams, then Panha, Sovan and Brian left because, apparently, they had a computing assignment to finish. This pissed me even more, since they were the ones who were supposed to do the calculations in the first place.
I mean, seriously. I took the time to create the entire 3D model from scratch, even though I also had my third year submission and my logistics role in the ball to handle at the same time. So why couldn't they have frickin' gone and done the damned calculations instead of dragging me down to uni on a Sunday?
Anyway, went to Wah Kee down in Clayton town for dinner, then came back up to the computer labs in uni and continued working till they closed. Seeing as we hadn't finished yet, Joe, Ryan and I went back to my place and continued working on my laptop. Unfortunately, there was only one laptop and three of us, and after a while (around 2am), Ryan decided to leave. Joe left at around 4+, and I kept working at the powerpoint report till about 7. I dunno what's wrong with me. Maybe I'm just easy to bully or something, but why am I always the one staying up till who knows what time to finish a group assignment? Anyways, met Evelyn at the computer labs at around 0820, and sent the report in by email just in time for the 9am submission.
Overall, I was pretty pissed off about the whole affair, and am firmly reinforced in my loathing of group work. Grr...
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
@#$%&*!
Grife, I'm such an idiot.
I was up so late last night trying to research on my design project that I decided not to sleep till my 10am meeting was over. Needless to say, I fell asleep in my chair and missed the meeting. Why am I always doing stupid stuff like that?
*sighz*
So, called my design manager up, and luckily he's a nice guy. Meeting again on Thursday. Does anyone know of any good websites on car cooling systems?
"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep."
Fran Lebowitz
I was up so late last night trying to research on my design project that I decided not to sleep till my 10am meeting was over. Needless to say, I fell asleep in my chair and missed the meeting. Why am I always doing stupid stuff like that?
*sighz*
So, called my design manager up, and luckily he's a nice guy. Meeting again on Thursday. Does anyone know of any good websites on car cooling systems?
"Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep."
Fran Lebowitz
Dagnabbit!!!!!!!!!!!
Gah! I was all set to post my first entry in nearly 10 months. All typed out and ready to go. And then my laptop went and died on me. Well, it's nearly 0330 here now, so don't think I'm gonna retype my nonsense. This is not a very good start though. *sighz*
Anyways, blogger sure has changed a fair bit since October last year. Will take some time to figure out what everything does. Also gotta fix that comments thingie, and the bg for my post div disappeared somewhere. AWOL for more than 15 days is considered desertion, y'know? Come back, come back wherever you are...
Well, guess I'll just leave y'all with a quote:
"Good sex is like a game of bridge; if you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand." ;)
Nite folks, gav out.
Edit: Okay, went and got another comments thingie set up. Apparently Blogout is no longer in business. Also fixed the hit counter, though not sure if the number's right. That's way too high.
Anyways, blogger sure has changed a fair bit since October last year. Will take some time to figure out what everything does. Also gotta fix that comments thingie, and the bg for my post div disappeared somewhere. AWOL for more than 15 days is considered desertion, y'know? Come back, come back wherever you are...
Well, guess I'll just leave y'all with a quote:
"Good sex is like a game of bridge; if you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand." ;)
Nite folks, gav out.
Edit: Okay, went and got another comments thingie set up. Apparently Blogout is no longer in business. Also fixed the hit counter, though not sure if the number's right. That's way too high.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)