Mistakes

I read with amusement an article in the newspaper that Bloomberg has mistakenly published obituary of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Bloomberg, with such a big well known news company for its accuracy and transparency, has acknowledged the mistake. This news has been exaggerated (same as iPhone?) because Jobs had appeared in thin shape at the last conference, which trigger some worries about his health. Apple still needs his figure so badly. It seems that someone in the Bloomberg's obits department might be in deep trouble over this mistake.

Flipping through the other pages, it's quite amazing to read how high people expectation can be. Government has decided to increase maternity period to 4 months, which cause some worry to SME company. There's a comment in the newspaper that suggests maternity period should increase to 1 year, not 4 months. She even put some threatening remark that she won't give birth anymore if the maternity is not increased to what she expected. Wow..

At last, I manage to attend Tim's bodypump again on Monday. As usual, his class is quite full. Tim is a very motivating and(/with) good looking. It seems that there's always energy in the air to pump more during his class. I saw one of the blogger in the class but too shy to even say hi. Tuesday, I went for both Daniel and Collin level 2 step classes. Being motivated by other stepper to try again Collin's level 3 on wednesday after the disastrous class last week till I need to stand on the board during finale, I gave another shot at his level 3 class again, and I am still not sure how to do his class, too complicated. Redeem this embarassment, I went to Harry's class on Thursday, and decided it's a good time to rest on Friday. Tomorrow, I will do one more exercise: squeezing all butt muscle to get into Comex 2008.

Enemy of the Machines

I recently had a series of unfortunate events with some financial machines. It started with the ATM machine, that not sure why after inserting the card, I was neither able to enter any pin number nor press any key to cancel, which made me worry that my card might be swollen by the machine. Luckily, after 1-2 minutes waiting, I could get the card back. Then, I proceed to the next ATM, and needed to join the queue that was suddenly just created.

The next machine was AXS which I needed to pay my bills. As it's troublesome to enter the credit card number, I usually scan credit card number by inserting the credit card. But, not sure, the machine was unable to read the card that night, so I proceed to enter the credit card number manually and scanned all the bills. After confirming all detail was correct, I proceed to pay with NETS, and to my big disappointment, the stupid machine couldn't read my ATM card either. I walk to SAMS machine nearby, but there's no option to pay Citibank credit card there. As I needed to pay the bills soon, I walk to the other AXS machine, and all procedure was working fine, till the processing of NETS, all the transaction failed after several attempts. Arrghh.. I felt so frustrated untill feel like banging stupid machine, but it would just hurt my hand.

After China (which I consider) succesfully delivered one of the (which I consider again) the biggest show ever, in the opening of Olympic game, it has been responded with two disgrace news about the fake CGI fireworks and lip-synching singer, which the later turns out to be more serious that I originally thought. It's true that lip-synching might be ungraceful thing to do, but I think most news have been overly-hyped about it. Even some consider that it reflected: China sent out message that whoever had a less "cute" face would be denied even though qualified, and whoever had a "cuter" look had permission to lie. Rubbish, stupid politic message again.. And the more media publicized this news, I can't imagine how those two children will feel, wish the best for their future. I hope the best for her confidence in the future. This unfortunate event will be a scar to the olympic's Beijing history. It's true that all the good things that we have done for years will be spoilt by one little mistake.

I Am Rich

Apple iPhone offer its users to purchase applications through AppStore, which happens to be the only "official" way to add more application to iPhone. Developers can post the application to AppStore to sell with profit sharing 70-30 between Apple and the developers. I don't really agree with such arrangement that Apple has to earn everything from iTunes Songs to phone bills, and now with AppStore, however it's an interest business idea, and everyone seems so excited about it. So excited until one developer try to sell a literally featureless application that displays "I am Rich" text (is that considered one feature?) for an eye-popping $999.99, and the other surprise here that there're already 8 transactions to the application, before Apple decided to remove the application from offer. Well, there're many type of people in the world that so dying to be known as rich, and since iPhone is god's phone to them, why not ask the god to tell them that "I am Rich".

At the other side, I have been using Windows Mobile touch-screen phone for several months. Having been a loyal nokia user before, I have mix feeling with this phone. I am not sure if other "touch screen" phones have this problem. I almost always accidentally answer the phone while try to get the phone out of my pocket. My friends has told me several times, that their calls are answered but no sound, and it turns out that their phone calls have been accidentally picked up while it's still in my pocket. There's one time that I was in private conversation, and there's a phone call and suddenly the phone stopped ringing which I thought it's just a missed call, so I kept on talking while taking out the phone to see who had miscalled me, and to my horror, my boss was already on the line. I was not sure how much he had heard. I think I might skip this kind of touch screen phone in the future.

I have just watched Beijing olympics, and it's such a spectacular opening ceremony. Although I was just able to catch the second-half of the show, it's such a stunning display of China. As part of Asia, i am proud to watch the final torch-bearer fly to light the Olympic flame, followed by extravaganza fireworks all around the city. Well done, Beijing! Now, the game has begun..

(Well, if you think I have won Toto 8 mil and put "I am rich" in my blog title, you're wrong. I do not even hit 20$ to return my investment :p).

Flu..

Recently, I have been hit by a bad flu, feel very lousy with runny nose, headache and sore throat, very uncomfortable. I decided to go to the doctor after start to have a bit fever, and was given 1 day much needed medical leave. As usual, the medicine given caused drowsiness, i was almost sleeping in the bed all day (although i think to cheat by going to gym :p), not sure if the doctor give me a flu medicine or sleeping pill. The next day, I went to back to office, felt better, but still could feel the medicine effect. As usual, I had my cup of morning coffee, and thanks to the medicine effect, I accidentally spill the coffee all around me. The good thing is I was fully awake since then, and of course, more bad thing, all my shirt and pants is full of coffee (luckily the coffee was not that hot anymore). Although I can soak it with water to look clean, but I smelt like a walking coffee machine all day (which the good thing keep me awake :) ).

Unnecessary Guilt?

I have been in several quite stress projects for quite some times, so I am quite get used to the working for long hour with the stress demand from customer, management, etc. Then, suddenly after completing my last project, and boom, there's no future project on hand, rather than supporting existing projects. So, here I am in office without so many things to do, and somehow, I feel guilty of not contributing anything to the company. Although it's true that I need time to improve myself with the latest skill, given the industry I work with need consistent knowledge refresh, which I was used to do after office hour. I am thinking to check with my manager, with the "risk" of assigning unnecessary task. Do I need to?

And, several days ago, after completing short meeting with customer, it's still about 2-3 hours before official hours finish, and I was given choice to go back home, but I just felt guilt again, although at the end, I went home because it's quite far to go back office. During the project, when I need to consistently went back home only after 9-10PM, I told myself when I would have chance to relax a bit, and now I can take the time, but I just can't. Hmm.. As Galen said in his blog, I am completely a RAT.