10 years

10 years. How time flies! Thank you for standing by me all these years, especially when things were not going as expected. And thank you for bringing Ren and the joy he brings, and for bringing him up to become such a fine kid.

Looking forward to many more 10 years.

Stuck in front of a desk

Haha, it is official. I hate being stuck in front of a desk, staring at a computer screen. Unless it is playing games, of course.

Being given a desk job is torture. 8 hours a day, within 4 walls, looking at the computer. That's not what I want. I really prefer being with people, interacting with them, talking to them. Not all the time, just to brainstorm ideas, talk through solutions. Eventually, things still needs to be put into documents, to be documented down by typing at the computer. But it is very different because there is that people-to-people interaction.

Let's see how it all works out.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today also happens to be the 15th day of the first lunar month, traditionally the "Valentine's Day" of the Chinese. So it is a double Valentine's Day, something that happens every once in a while.

Probably see a lot more weddings today...

Broke upgrade to Linux Mint 16... sigh...

Okay, my bad, I tried to upgrade my system from Linux Mint 15 to 16 using apt, and I think I broke the installation quite badly.

Have been trying to fix it for quite some time now. Still doesn't work.

Anyway, what I did:
Replace the repositories to point to Linux Mint 16 instead.
apt-get update
apt-get distro-upgrade

I don't remember much after that. The system couldn't boot properly, first giving problems with X. Tried to fix that, thinking it could be problem with Nvidia drivers... and now, it just shows a black screen on boot up.

Guess I may have to reinstall the whole things from scratch... ouch.

The LEGO Movie

Just caught this movie the other day. The LEGO Movie. Being a LEGO fan, with my son also very into LEGO recently, it was something that we both wanted to watch. Go catch the movie, you won't be disappointed, especially if you are a LEGO fan.

The minifigures move like minifigures, with arms and leg moving only along one axis. You will recognise some items from the various LEGO series. Even the LEGO Star Wars series had a short bit in the film, with the Millenium Falcon turning up with Han Solo, Chewbacca, C3PO and Lando.

Most importantly, my son was taught that he doesn't need to buy every LEGO set there is. He can use the parts that he has to build things that he wants, without having to follow the instructions each time. Well, not that he does, anyway. Just look at his Imperial shuttle. And he even has a TIE fighter and X-Wing now (okay, these were built with quite some help from me).

But while you can use LEGO parts to build your own stuff, minifigures are harder to "configure" on your own... and thus the recent craze is to get minifigures...

LEGO Imperial shuttle

My son showed this to me the other day. I asked him what it was, and he told me it was the spaceship that Darth Vader has in Star Wars.

I think he was referring to this, the Imperial shuttle that he saw at Legoland California.

Kids can be so creative.

A different path

Today, I officially ended a journey that started in 2005, and tomorrow, I will be embarking on another journey, a different path. No fanfare, just a simple thank you to the people who have been with me.

I will miss the life at sea. The sunrises and sunsets, the beautiful night sky full of stars. The rough seas, the sea breeze.

Most of all, I will miss working with the people.

Welcoming the year of the Horse

The year of the Horse is here again! Wishing everyone a good year ahead. May fortune smile on you, and success come your way!

According to the fortune teller, this is not going to be a lucky year for me. So for myself, I just hope that I will be able to live peacefully through the days, and get by the year without ups and downs.

Anyway, did the usual walk around the floral centre nearby. This year, things are a lot quieter. The crowd was less, the atmosphere not as lively. It has been like this since they converted half of the floral centre into an open air car park, leaving half the shops in place. I wonder how long things can last... it is a bit sad, since Chinese New Year's Eve brings back a lot of memories about how I used to help out at the shop. Selling plants, helping out with the last-minute deliveries. I miss riding at the back of a lorry in the middle of the night as we did our delivery rounds. Time really flies by.

Giving up hope

I have stopped trying to ask for what I want. I have stopped trying to make my point about that post being my dream.

I have stopped trying to make her understand how I feel. I have stopped arguing.

In both instances, is it because I have learnt to accept the fact? Or have I given up hope?

When will someone reach out a hand and catch me from falling further and further into myself? From wasting away emotionally.

A cry for help. No one hears. Or pretends not to.

Surrounded by people, yet so alone.

Pine cone in the snow

Pine cone in the snow. That's how I feel.

Alone in the cold.
Fallen from up high.
Awaiting someone to pick up me.
Only to be fed into the fire.

Taking command responsibility

I have written about command responsibility before.

Today is when I take command responsibility for something that happened.

Winter vacation 2013: Japan

We usually spend New Year Day in Japan, with my in-laws. 2014 is no exception. So after our trip to the USA, we went back to Japan for the new year.

We welcomed the new year with the usual Japanese tradition of osechi. This was followed by a trip down to the nearby shrine, where we prayed for health and good luck.

We also made a trip to Kawasaki Taishi, to pray for health and good luck in the year ahead. Plus enjoy the nice food you can find being sold at the food stalls.

It was a short, quiet break for us, before we returned to the hectic lifestyle awaiting us in Singapore. It was time spent with family, chatting over dinner, over beer, over wine. Watching variety shows on TV. Reading books on my Kindle. Just taking things slowly.

Winter vacation 2013: USA trip

For the winter break in 2013, we flew over to the USA, visiting Legoland California (which we missed in 2010), spending Christmas with friends and touring Virginia City.

It was too short a trip.

1220 miles travelled on this Nissan Pathfinder, which we rented when we got to Los Angeles. Actual distance travelled was longer since my friend drove us around on Day 6.

Day 1: Arrived at Los Angeles. Drove down to Carlsbad, where we stayed overnight.

Day 2: Legoland California!

Day 3: Spent more than 12 hours on the road getting from Carlsbad to Sacramento on the I-5. All because of the truck traffic going through Tejon Pass. We started in the morning from Carlsbad, but by the time we made it through Tejon Pass, it was in the late afternoon. We ended up driving the rest of the way up to Sacramento mostly at night.

Day 4: Christmas Eve. A quick trip to the mall, before hitting the road, going east on the US Route 50 to get to our friends' place.

Day 5: Christmas with friends.

Day 6: Touring Virginia City, passing through Carson City, Reno and Lake Tahoe along the way there.

Day 7: Down the US Route 395, spending almost 8 hours on the road before we reached Los Angeles. Dropped by my cousin's place to say hi before spending the night at a hotel near the airport.

Day 8: Good bye USA!

Here's one of the lakes that we passed by while driving on the US Route 395. Think it is Mono Lake.

It won't be an over exaggeration to say that this is a Lego trip... we visited Legoland, we bought Lego at Legoland, we bought Lego at Sacramento, my cousin gave the kid Lego too! And he even had a Lego Christmas present waiting for him back home...

 

Winter vacation 2013: Virginia City

As part of our visit, our friends brought up around the neighbourhood, in the American sense. It was a day tour that took up up to Carson City, into Virginia City, where the main tour was, and then passing through Reno before we headed back home.

 

Virginia City sprang up as part of the gold rush of the 19th century. This is the wild west. There's even a museum, The Way It Was Museum, that depicted how life was like back in the days of the gold rush.

The Bucket of Blood Saloon is a famous landmark in the town.

And there's the famous Suicide Table.

 And this desk here was supposedly Mark Twain's desk.

Along the way, we passed by vast stretches of land, and even caught a glimpse of wild horses.

On the way back from Reno, we passed by Lake Tahoe. It's the largest alpine lake in North America, and has many ski resorts. Our stay was too short to go skiing, but that's didn't stop us from getting a few nice pictures of the lake.

Winter vacation 2013: Christmas

We last visited our friends at their place in Mechanicsburg in 2010. They have since shifted to Nevada, somewhere near Carson City. For the winter break in 2013, we decided to visit them and spend Christmas again with them.

We got to their place in the late afternoon of Christmas Eve, after 2 hours of drive up US Route 50 from Sacramento.

At the entrance to their new home was this cute little sign. We took up the offer of cookies and cocoa.

Walking around the house on Christmas morning, we discovered these tracks. The small ones belong to a rabbit. The big ones? The neighbourhood bear, apparently.

Here's Rudolf in the kitchen. All ready for Christmas dinner.

We had a turducken for Christmas dinner. That's an interesting dish. Throw in the rest of the dishes and dessert, and you will know why dinner had to start at 2pm, else we would never get the dishes done before bed.

It was great being able to catch up with old friends. We didn't do much, it was a short stay, too short a stay. Most of the time, we were chatting over meals, watching TV and DVDs together, getting a tour of the house, chatting over coffee. It's not the things that you do, but the company that you are with.

Pine cone in the snow.