The thought of giving birth is starting to give me shivers. Maybe I won't have kids. But all those maternity subsidiaries are just so tempting! :x
4.19.2009
A newborn.
The thought of giving birth is starting to give me shivers. Maybe I won't have kids. But all those maternity subsidiaries are just so tempting! :x
4.15.2009
Is this the 'kiasu' mindset?
Just went for lunch and ate my usual economy rice (经济饭 or 菜饭 - basically just rice, sometimes fried noodles or fried beehoon at your choice, and 2-3 dishes which you pick from a set of 15-20). Potatoes and veggies are my faves! Only $2.50 for 3 dishes, swap in a meat occasionally for just 30cents more!
12-12:45pm was usually the peak time (most dishes clear out after 1:30pm). So today I ordered this plain potato with minced meat in gravy dish. There wasn't much left, so I thought the auntie would just give me half of it or all that's left. Well she didn't give me half. She didn't give me all either. She gave me almost-all-minus-2-pieces-of-potato, literally! And the way she done it was quite deliberate. Such a strange mentality, I thought. It's quite unlikely that someone else will order that dish just for that 2 pieces of potato. So for what purpose would that 2 pieces of potato serve in that big and rather empty plate?
I could only come up with these explanations:
1) She seriously thought someone might want to order that 2 pieces of potato (she put the plate back in place).
2) She wants to snack on it later.
3) Giving me the remaining 2 pieces will cause the value of my order to exceed $2.50. Therefore, she feels she cannot give me more than what I pay for.
It's not that I want to pick on something so minor, not as if I care if I got 2 more pieces of potato. (I don't even count when I eat!) But I just can't wonder why such mentality exists, which is the fundamental problem at hand. Put it in a bigger issue and scale, it could become worse. What would a world be when people start thinking why should I pay $2 each for recycling bags when others can get 'unlimited' plastic bags for free?
P.S: If you are wondering what happened to the chicken rice stall at my workplace, I really don't know. It's just gone all of a sudden for 2 months now.
12-12:45pm was usually the peak time (most dishes clear out after 1:30pm). So today I ordered this plain potato with minced meat in gravy dish. There wasn't much left, so I thought the auntie would just give me half of it or all that's left. Well she didn't give me half. She didn't give me all either. She gave me almost-all-minus-2-pieces-of-potato, literally! And the way she done it was quite deliberate. Such a strange mentality, I thought. It's quite unlikely that someone else will order that dish just for that 2 pieces of potato. So for what purpose would that 2 pieces of potato serve in that big and rather empty plate?
I could only come up with these explanations:
1) She seriously thought someone might want to order that 2 pieces of potato (she put the plate back in place).
2) She wants to snack on it later.
3) Giving me the remaining 2 pieces will cause the value of my order to exceed $2.50. Therefore, she feels she cannot give me more than what I pay for.
It's not that I want to pick on something so minor, not as if I care if I got 2 more pieces of potato. (I don't even count when I eat!) But I just can't wonder why such mentality exists, which is the fundamental problem at hand. Put it in a bigger issue and scale, it could become worse. What would a world be when people start thinking why should I pay $2 each for recycling bags when others can get 'unlimited' plastic bags for free?
P.S: If you are wondering what happened to the chicken rice stall at my workplace, I really don't know. It's just gone all of a sudden for 2 months now.
4.09.2009
Cut costs vs Up efficiency
Recent news article speaks of this company whose employees are taking up cleaners' roles at work. I don't know how many cleaners this company hired (don't think even 10), but rather than firing cleaners (how much can you pay for a cleaner really), which possibly contributes to unemployment of the less-educated (jobs search already hard for those with tertiary education), and having employees (who essentially make the money for you) clean up the office (thus less time for effective work?), how about having some non-monetary incentives to increase the productivity of your employees, so they deliver twice as much work in the same amount of time?
EP hard to get.
I finally got my employment pass sometime last week (April fools to be exact). Almost didn't make it for the day because I did not bring my edu cert (photocopy/original) with me. Luckily I had them in email archived, and (thank gawd) the printing shops these days offer comprehensive services that allowed me to retrieve documents from my own email for print. When I was back an hour later to collect my pass, I saw something so ironic.. a man on the ledge atop MOM.
I'm sorry but he didn't look like he was going to jump off. Judging the way he positioned himself, rather than sitting with 2 legs hanging outside, he sat there as if he was sitting on a see-saw. I mean if you're really determined that it's the end of your world, you would probably be facing towards the outside of the building (there 2 legs hanging). And most likely won't stay in the same spot, where down below a huge air-bed has been prepared for you. My guess is that he probably got very depressed all of a sudden, perhaps denied a work permit, and wanted the "authority's" attention to the self-claimed difficult life he had.
Crowds were gathered below across the street. But I wonder who was really concerned with that man's life than just standing there to find out if he jumped in the end.
First time I see this with my own eyes. There wasn't any major publishing in the media, so I guess he really did not jump after all. :p
I'm sorry but he didn't look like he was going to jump off. Judging the way he positioned himself, rather than sitting with 2 legs hanging outside, he sat there as if he was sitting on a see-saw. I mean if you're really determined that it's the end of your world, you would probably be facing towards the outside of the building (there 2 legs hanging). And most likely won't stay in the same spot, where down below a huge air-bed has been prepared for you. My guess is that he probably got very depressed all of a sudden, perhaps denied a work permit, and wanted the "authority's" attention to the self-claimed difficult life he had.
Crowds were gathered below across the street. But I wonder who was really concerned with that man's life than just standing there to find out if he jumped in the end.
First time I see this with my own eyes. There wasn't any major publishing in the media, so I guess he really did not jump after all. :p
4.06.2009
"excuse me,"
it means to gtfo of my way. not standstill and stare as if i had spoken a foreign language.
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