Hunting Season

Sick and tired of cleaning lizard poo on the floors and tables, we decided to get traps to catch them.

I'd set up 2 traps - one on the dining counter where they seemed to gather (by evidence of the numerous poos) and the kitchen floor, expecting to catch them all in one fell swoop. To my disappointment, only two puny ones were caught.

To add insult, the washing machine squashed (trust me, it's not a pretty sight) one large one while it was spinning and we killed another under our massage chair.

So the latest kill count stands at one big, three small.

Will be setting up another two tonight to see if more can be caught.

I'm on Facebook (finally)

I just got myself a Facebook account today (I also got a Twitter account too)

"About time", Ivy said.

When I joined, I never realised I knew so many people :)

So, join me, won't you?

Review of Nokia 5610 camera function

After a few weeks of experimenting with my nokia 5610, I'd discovered some quirks that I've not been able to overcome (up to this point).

1. The autofocus feature tends to focus towards infinity and not at the subject in question. I'm not sure if it's the way I use the half-depress button before taking the pic or the camera. But most of my pics taken this way has subjects out of focus all the time.

2. I dislike, or more strongly stated, detest the way the taken pictures are numbered in the 5610. In my old k750i phone, the pics are numbered based on the sequence taken and don't revert to previous numbers, eliminating the risk of pics being overwritten or wrongly categorised.

The 5610 blatantly resets its numbering to zero whenever I transfer all my pics out; When I delete the first pic eg. Pic0000 and leave the second pic Pic0001 in the camera, it would happy write the next pic as Pic0000 before proceeding to write the following one as Pic0002. This frustrates me to no end as filing of pics based on the title of pics.

Call me old skool but I think I should be given a choice of how the numbering should be done, especially when I decided to get it because of the camera.

I've the mind to get my wife to trade in this phone, get the trade-in value to get her new phone since I've still got my Treo 500v.

Japanese House in Singapore?

Having worked at my office (near People's Park) for a couple of months already, I noticed that there was an interesting house located at the side of Pearl Hill (or Terrace - whatever that place is called) that looked like a Japanese temple or house.

Last week, I decided to walk up to find out for sure.

Here are some pics taken on the way up.

It was a bit of an anti-climax when I found out that it was the office of a consulting house - but hey, if you didn't walk up, you'll never know.

Here are some pics of what I thought it might have been:

Kyoto's Kiyomizu-dera? Silly me.

Inside the Singapore UFO

One of my first shots using my new Nokia 5610.

I was having a meeting at the Supreme Court (no, I was not attending any court cases) and we went up to the viewing gallery when I took this shot.

Looks nice, doesn't it?

Fever again

Caeden ran a fever last night.

This morning, Ivy brought him to the doctor. Seems like a lung infection again.

Sigh. What a way to grow up.

New Bed for Caeden

Caeden got himself a new bed on Sunday.

Not just an ordinary bed, but a Thomas train bed.

My wife discovered this bed was offered at $189 at Spotlight and we went to get it last Sat.

There were also Dora the Explorer, Elmo and Cars sets; Caeden wasn't into Cars and we thought Elmo was fine for a toddler but not a primay school kid, so we got the Thomas train set.

The only problem was that the mattress support rails on this bed were quite wide apart and there was no mattress included.

Doing some preliminary research, we found that a single-sized mattress costs abt $200. IKEA had one with wooden backing at $189, so off we went to Tampines.

When we got there, we discovered that the 'bed' in question was more of a Ottoman cum dayseat than a bed.

Fortunately we found a spring mattress there (at IKEA) at $69 and paid $15 for a couple of plywood pieces at Art Friend (we went Bras Basah) to support the mattress.

So, after 2 days of buying, the bed was assembled and ready for 'occupation'.

Was it worth the effort?

Average market rate : $400-500 (plain bed)
Total cost of our bed : $273 (Thomas theme)

25% savings - not too bad considering it's a character bed. Heard from Ivy that most cost above $400+.

Caeden has been sleeping nicely in his new bed for the past few nights and seems to be quite happy with it.

I just hope this bed can last until he gets into primary school.

Spending adulthood satisfying childhood desires

I just read an article on a man who spent the last 10 years satisfying his desires that were not sufficiently fulfilled during childhood:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27943

Even as I laughed at some of the things that he did (the psychologist stated that it was a condition known as Chronic Unfulfilled Desire Syndrome, which affects a person's ability to let go of childhood fixations and embrace maturity), I realise that I might be one of those afflicted who're also afflicted with this condition.

I always loved trains.

I never got them when I was young so I'd decided to let Caeden enjoy something that I didn't have when I was young. Wonder if there's anything wrong with that?

As I get new handphones, laptops, PDAs, XBOXes, Playstations, I wonder if they're just newer replacements of toys that I used to have (eg. my handheld games and Apple ][ computer).

Hmm... I remembered I also wanted a dog, hamsters, a model battleship, speedboat etc. (but my wife would never let me get them).

As the popular adage states, "when boys turn to men, their toys just get bigger".

Nothing new under the sun

When King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes that nothing was new under the sun, I think he was right.

When I was turning in my sleep last night, I thought about the things that happened in my life and at work.

I wondered if it was my Prudential training that I've been getting better at detecting subtle signs and signals to notice things. In the past, I'd been quite oblivious even when the situation was right under my nose.

Of course, some things cannot be said online; in the past I couldn't care less.

Getting better or is it part of getting older?

Locked in, locked out

Caeden got locked in the toilet today.

Yep, not a "nearly", but GOT locked. I just came home and was going to bathe when it happened.

As I was taking the towel from the rack outside, the little boy just walked into the toilet, closed the door and latched it down.

I nearly freaked out.

What did a 2.5 year old boy know about closing a door? Well, we found it out the hard way, sort of.

Ivy and I were trying instruct him through the closed door on how he could take the stool in the toilet and try to open the door. I stood there thinking of how the door could be opened, and was preparing for the worst - forcing the door open.

Fortunately after some non-destructive prying, the latch opened and a smiley boy greeted our eyes, blissfully (or maybe not) unaware of the risk that he'd been in.

CEO tips

As part of my job, I have the privilege to work with senior management of various organisations.

Yesterday, we went to seek advice on some of office matters from one of our board members who's a respected CEO.

We had a great discussion and the topic of what a good CEO should master to have good leadership of his organisation.

He said that a CEO should always have the human resource and financial figures of the organisation at the back of his hand. These were the source and blood of the organisation and are the two most critical levers that a CEO should control in order to maintain his leadership position.

Comments?

Caeden takes a dip

Since Caeden was hospitalised after the cruise that we took in feb this year, we'd not gone for swimming until last sat.

It was a bright and sunny morning; and frankly we were quite eager to go.

We had been a little worried as he'd been coughing that morning but decided to carry on since we'd promised him and he seemed quite excited to leave.

So off we went to the SAFRA yishun country club.

Ivy went to do some laps whilst I was left to tend him at the wading pool.

It was also the first time that we used the Olympus camera; I was quite impressed at the quality of the shots and ability of the camera's waterproof capability.

I managed to get some good shots of him at play; in particular his favourite hobby: blowing water bubbles.

Our little boy pointed excitedly at the slides, which we went on subsequently and had a great time.

A new phone at last

After many moons and sleepless nights, I finally and eventually got (not decide to get) a Nokia 5610 (the flashy red one).

This phone wasn't even on my initial shortlist of phones.

I chose this phone due to the following reasons
1. It had a 3.2mp camera of good quality
2. It could be used to surf the net at 3G speeds
3. It was offered by M1 at $68
4. I was able to trade-in my K750i at $40 excluding charger
5. I could pay the remaining $28 using my M1 bonus cash
6. Effectively the phone was FOC
7. The current trade-in value of this phone was $200

Assuming I manage to keep this phone in working order until the contract is over, I could potentially "earn" from getting this phone.

So I bid farewell to my trusty k750i (albeit unwillingly since it'd helped document my boy's growth from baby to toddler) that had been with me over the past 2 years (I had over 1000 pictures taken on this phone) and received my new 5610.

Singapore security

I had an interesting discussion over Singapore's security yesterday.

My colleague said that over the past few years, there seemed to be a growing complacency in Singaporeans' attitude to take security for granted. She also raised her concern over a growing paranoia on her own life when she travels around.

This was in light of the recent murder at ang mo kio; where she used to stay.

Coupled with e recent spate of security lapses over Mas, e Subordinate escape and ICA fiasco, it's increasing proof that we cannot assume that crimes or terrorist acts will cease just because Singapore is known to be a "hard" target.

Even though our Home Minister claims that e system is robust, we must never forget that it's the people who run the system day after day that matter; ironically these are e ones who are often overworked, underpaid and the first to be blamed when something fails.

If the gatekeeper is sacked, who'll take care of the city?

Test MMS submission on M1 from k750i

Shot of my boy

Caeden was caned

Caeden was caned yesterday for climbing up the cabinet.

It might sound normal if the cabinet wasn't 1.2m high.

I still feel amazed abt how a little boy like him can use e seams between the drawers to climb the cabinet like a rock-climber to scale it.

We need to keep a closer eye on him from now on.

I wrestled with crocodiles last night

I wrestled with crocodiles last night.

It sounds strange but it was even stranger when it was part of a management course that I attended in my dreams.

I was wrestling with a 300kg croc and having difficulty handling it. I used a lifeline to call the crocodile hunter's son (yes I know how old he is) who dispatched it and easily.

Morale of this training? As managers, we'll inevitably run into problems that we cannot handle; knowing how, when, what and who to delegate is part of good management.

That's what I learnt in my dream.

My MMS works

After a quick test, I've discovered that I can now blog by sending an email thru MMS to Blogger. Sua-ku u may ask - if you are not aware of my current predicament.

It's all because of the 2 SIM cards that I'm holding.

For those who've not been following my postings, I have M1 as my mobile line and Singtel broadband as my internet connection. After getting my 500v, everytime I wanted to go online; I had to take out my M1 card and put in e Singtel card. AND I'd to do that when I blog.

Surely there should be a better way than this.

So I experimented and discovered that sending an sms to e blog's private email (without sending to go@blogger.com) works as well.

Now I can blog thru both of my cards. Hopefully it'll reduce the number of SIM swaps.

Test email submission from Treo 500v

Test submission to Blogger via Singtel broadband for Google email (whew!)