Johann Low

月曜日, 2月 27, 2006

[Are u a slave of time?]

An intriguing article in today's Zao Bao triggered this thought. There was some article called "Slow down,Singapore". I rem there was some similar lines in my Jpn textbook. Indeed, how true. In this world (ever since the industrial revolution), everything needs to be fast,efficient,effective. In hustle and bustle Singapore, if u can wake up in the morning without first looking at the time, u are probably very fortunate.

If u take a step backward, walk abit slower when u are on the way to work, I wonder how many subtle things u can see in the enviroment ard u that u never taken notice of before. Life in SG is probably hectic,(maybe not as so as in HK and Japan) but it is still fast. No wonder some say Singaporeans have no sense of humour and do not know how to enjoy life. Cos everything needs to be swift, there is a deadline to almost EVERYTHING.

Dun u hate it when ur boss breathe down ur neck to have some documents, artwork, reports done ASAP?

Dun u hate it when u have to rush to work when u simply oversleep for a few minutes?

Dun u hate it when u have to rush ur meals because u have to rush out some documents? or worse u have to forsake ur meals? Now wonder there's something called fast food.

Time is 'invented' by man, yet man unknowingly is falling victim to his own 'creation'. It is almost like Matrix, just that there are no AI machines. Life is short and I believe life is to be enjoyed. Personally I absolute hate to rush things. I dun like to rush to work, I dun like to rush out documents, I dun like to rush thru my meals, I dun like to walk fast and I dun like to be restricted by limitation of time. Why limit urself to time? Why let urself to be paralysed by the limitation of '24 hrs' a day? Is there REALLY 24 hrs in a day?

Some may say, if u do things fast enough then u will have more time to rest or to do what u want. But the thing is. there are so many things to do..WHERE GOT TIME? Does this not sound familar? 'WHERE GOT TIME?'

Life is short, if one rushes thru 3/4 of their lives, I wonder how much time do they have left to really enjoy what life is all about.

elow at 12:01 午前 | (0) comments

土曜日, 2月 25, 2006

[these 2 wks / hokkaido / recent]

Ever since I came back from Beijing I was literally down from a flu. Anyway I was on MC this Mon. Work was extremely hectic. There are countless problems with the shipping coordination. I am virtually on a hyped up mode for the past wk or so. Anyway, boss told me I will need to go with him to Hokkaido maybe sometime on the 8th, probably to meet the Jpn agent, the Jpn client and to take more orders and smooth out some issues. As for sch, things are not going too well. I will be deferring one module. Life is really work work work, school school school and pretty nothing else. As for love and r/s, I honestly dun dare to think abt it. bah hahahahaha

Oh apparently, my tolerance for my D600 gave up. I cannot tolerate the fucking dust speckles underneath the lcd glass!!!! Anywya I got myself a 3G SE W900i. I am a broke man now. whhahahaa. The only thing abt it is the bulk, it is a BIG phone in today's Razor's heyday. Battery life is 'ok' and the buttons are a tad too soft. Other than that, the usability of the phone is of cos much better than Samsung crap. If u are spoilt by SE's usability and capabilities, going to sub par standard crap phones like Samsung can be a pain. The only good thing I can think of Samsung phones is the screen,sound and size. Yeah the D600's 240 X 320 screen is sharper and renders better colors than the screen of W900i. Besides the colors, the sharpess is also due to the smaller physical size of the D600's screen. Oh yeah I also wanna try out 3G, just tested out video call with my senior last night...it is more than webcam quality over the air..ahha..

Abt the recent big hoohaa of ex NYP gal's sex scandal. I pity the gal. She had sex with her bf,recorded it in her mobile n her mobile got stolen..so the files found its way onto the net and now it is the hottest scandal in SG. To me, yeah what's the big deal and is there a need to give a dressing down to the gal who simply had sex with her bf? Did she upload the file for all to see? No, right? It is obviously for her 'private' viewing. Isn't the person who uploaded the file be penalised more than the gal? This is not abt liberal mindset, it goes to show how superficial and how...peasant the majority of singaporeans are. Some commented her attitude was bad during her interviews with local press..Well this is a SCANDAL!!! It is abt something intimate she did with her SO and now everyone sees it. Do u expect her to smile and say 'hi, do u like my tits and my pussy??" Naturally she will defend herself right?

Anyway, for my Hokkaido trip. I need to fly alone there. Hope I wun get myself lost in the airport WHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

elow at 7:17 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 2月 19, 2006

[]

honestly i dunno what title shld i put..im wondering the impact of a failed r/s and the impact of a futile attempt to fill up that 'x' void which was occupied for 3yrs and 1 month. so I supposed, when it ended, the vaccum was 'lifted' and as what u can see in movies, things start getting messy,topsy turvy,swirling when there's a vacuum and it is trying to 'fill up' on its own. A vaccum is an abnormality in this physical world, perhaps it is same psychologically as well?

I think I am totally messed up right now. I am acting so 'un-myself' or maybe this is so 'myself'? i dun even know. Many things does not seem to bother me anymore. 'If it is like this, then so be it loh~' mindset. There are so many things I cannot change, so what's the point? Lights fascinate me, I can stare aimlessly at nice ceiling star lights for hours, letting them leave 'burnt' images in my retina like unwashable imprints of my past and even present. Like these:

Ah whatever. As if i care, as if u care, as if anyone cares. Like this song playing on the radio '....all by myself,dun wanan be all myself anymore, all by myself, dun wanna live all myself...anymore...how can u be sure..., love seems so distant and obscure'

Does anything matter anymore? No, nothing. Not u, me,anyone, this world.

Oh my boss might be flying to Sapporo in March or late Feb, wonder if I get to tag along? hehehehe. I guess there's a good reason why i like chilly weather, cos it is very numbing, at least to my face. eye shadows anyone? :X

elow at 1:55 午前 | (0) comments

金曜日, 2月 17, 2006

[Beijing Trip 2006]

Kinda hard to believe, everything ended in a jiffy. Everything was relatively oke except for some bumps with some colleagues. I love Beijing's weather!!! It was abit chilly when I first came out of the airport. It was so chilly that I could see vapour coming outta my mouth and nostrils when I talked. haha. Quite an experience. When my plane was abt to land in Beijing, here's how it looked like, beautiful right?

Here is the hotel that I was staying, supposedly a 5 star hotel. JingGuan New World Hotel

Lobby :

We had a sumptous dinner thanks to our counterparts in the Beijing's office : We had bullfrogs,catfishes and some 'liang cai'. The catfishes and bullfrogs were cooked/braised and cooked in a electric pot with a specially blended sauce. I can assure u, they tasted absolutely great. Here are the pics, e sweet looking gal (Yanzi as in swallow) is a friend of the Beijing couterparts. She's gorgeous, tall, sweet, well endowed :X BUT she is getting married in Nov.

Then we went ard shopping :

Gucci :

LV :

Dior :

Fendi :

Watson with things going at 1 RMB which is like SGD$0.20!! :

We also went to Tian An Men or some of the historical places ard that area

Next day, we had dinner @ Pizza Hut. The whole place is done up nicely like a restaurant.

Wang Fu Jin street, famous for its eateries

Like making prata:

Dinner was the best @ our last night stay there,we had Peking duck at the authetic Peking duck restaurant. This is the restaurant which made the 1st world famous Peking Duck in 1864.

The sauce for dipping the duck :

There were other dishes as well, such as fried beef which was so tender and nicely cooked, I thought it was pork. There are some veg dishes ard. We also had a thick savour milky duck soup at the end. On Wed dinner, we dined at some simply restaurant. The Chinese boss was also there and luckily I was not sitting at their tables cos he made the guys to drink Gao Liang Wine 56% alcohol. So in e end, some of them were drunk.

My room was initially shared with my other male colleague. Then on Sun then we knew there was another new colleague who would be sharing the room with us. He is e Russian as the ang moh in one or two of the above pics. He does not know how to turn on the shower and I helped him to turn on twice. Anyway he acted as if he hardly knew anything. He took a long time to bathe too. His extra bed was not fixed up even to the point when we checked in. Only then I realised it got something to do with the costs and I almost need to slp on the floor. I made my pt that if I were asked to slp on the floor, I will buy my own ticket and fly back to SG. He is Russian, so does that mean I have to give up my bed to him? Russian big fuck?

Another thing was the 1st breakfast on Monday morning. We were supposed to go in a grp with one of my female colleague who was supposed to the leader. She woke up late, in the end, we had to settle our breakfast ourselves. READ: our rooms do not come with ABF. Running short of time, thanks to waiting for this 'leader' we had no choice but to settle at the 7th floor where breakfast is served for all. Costed us $431++ RMB which is ard SGD$80+. I knew it is abit high and of cos this leader once she knew this began to make some noise. I was so pissed that I told her off in front of the manager, that if she thinks the RMB431++ breakfast is too exp, I can jolly well pay for everything MYSELF because I CAN AFFORD to.

Besides having this 'leader' who kept dragging and wasting our time. The weather is icy cooling. haha..bt the air is quite heavily polluted. Imagine there is a constant arid smell of charred wood or burning smell in the air. It was alil hazy most of the time and layers of soot settled on unmelted patches of snow making them gray. Also ur pisai is gray also oke! haha.

The traffic there is horrendous, if u seen how they drive, u will appreciate how orderly SG roads and traffic is. Oh I also got myself a G2000 jacket @ ard SGD50. 60% off. Good quality.

Oh yeah, SQ planes has a wholesome collection of movies. I watched Nana, The Incredibles, Tom Yam Gong and other blockbusters on the to and return flights. I will fly SQ anytime. Just that SIA is not the top airline anymore, taken over by Cathay Pacific. Now it is the 4th!

elow at 12:38 午前 | (0) comments

土曜日, 2月 11, 2006

[goodbye]

goodbye friends,

flying off soon to Beijing. Will update if I can get hold of a pc. :)

elow at 8:38 午後 | (0) comments

日曜日, 2月 05, 2006

[Winterwear Shopping]

If nothing goes wrong, I shld be in Beijing at this time next Sun. Anyway to prepare myself for the trip, my mum and I went for a winterwear shopping trip this afternoon.

Firstly, we went to Causeway Point as there is this shop which specialise in selling winterwear there. I set my eyes on a $189 coat. I thought there is a 15% discount but realise there was not. Anyway, under the recommendation of the helpful sales lady, I got myself a coat or jacket which has a 70% discount. Original price is $99 but I got it at ard $30 hwhahahahaa. It is pretty thick and has a nicer color. Much better than the $189 coat I saw initially. I also got myself a hat, a pair of gloves and long john. This long john costed $59!. Total $114 gone.

Later we went down to AMK to get my digicam, Panasonic Lumix FX9. So idled there for awhile trying to get more discount but got none. Settled for the e-quoted price of $596.40 (sales guy told me walk-in quote and e-quote different, what rubbish, walk in is $620.) It comes with a free 512MB SD card and a orginal leather case. Oke not bad la. I wanted the black one which is sold out, so I opted for the grey one. Upon scrutinizing the quality of the paint job of the grey one, I took the original silver instead. FX9 is quite light and compact. I did my research before buying it.

To me now, branded compact digicams produce pics of more or less the same quality, at least to an amateur like me. I dun need to do all those fancy photo digital manipulation, so I dun need to show in TIFF or RAW format. These 2 options are for higher end prosumer level cams which is abit above my budget. I just need a compact digicam which takes reasonably good pictures. My old Ixus has the same fate as my cousin's Ixus. The lcd shows nothing when it is turned on, it cannot take any pictures but in the 'playback' mode, pictures can be viewed still. So this means there is nothing wrong with the lcd but with the sensor. I swear off Ixus or any consumer level Canon cams from now on.

Sony's ones are not bad. But memory sticks are not that cheap compared to other media like SD, CF. I hope the -0 degree C temperature in Beijing now wun cause any damage to it.

Headed for home. My mum asked me if I wanna get a new suitcase, since I dun own one. I had a bag which I bought for my Tekong 'vacation' in 2000. But the jacket is so big and 'pong' that I dun think I can throw in any more clothes and daily toiletries even I compress it. So went down to Sun Plaza, got myself a Polo City orangey suitecase whic I think is not bad. I wanted a more exp one but the only stock there is abit tattered. I also got a lip balm ($3.20) and some moisturising cream from Loreal ($15.90) and some containers ($2.00) for my shampoo.

Never realise one trip to Beijing need soooo many things. The only thing I need now is a laptop. I cannot do without internet!!!!

elow at 11:25 午後 | (0) comments

土曜日, 2月 04, 2006

[1st lesson at UniSIM~!]

Wah 1st time attending Uni leh. Uni seems to be such an alien word to me. Honestly it does not feel any difference, ahahaha. I thought I was there earlier, but there were some students who were earlier. I got myself a good seat and watched my fellow fac mates come in. I got a mild show that more and more people kept coming in. Some of them were late of cos. I was a tad surprised because on my class list there were only 27 students. Anyway the whole lecture hall @ Blk 82 in NP was soon quite packed.

The lesson (Management and Organisations) was interesting! My lecturer can hold the lesson well w/o boring theories but full of quotes from the biz world esp recent biz news like NKF, the accountant clerk who embezzled SGD 10 million etc etc. The lesson was mixed with laughter and all and I did not fall asleep which attest to the fact it was not that bad.

Anyway, never expected to make 2 new friends at my 1st lesson. One of them is a SIA stewardess and one I did not get to ask. The other one took the same subject as me. Marketing Managment and Management and Organisations. Next Monday will be my tutorial session and I will be meeting my tutorial grp. haha. Maybe the bad thing is the bus and the bus stops will be jam packed with students. Oh, wearing tee,jeans, carrying a heavy bag and a file make me feel so...student ahwhahahahaha

Hope I can cope well with my Uni, Jpn and work. hehe.

elow at 11:10 午後 | (0) comments