Tuesday 29 November 2011
Rant 900 / A New Plan For A New Year
I guess that also explains Japan's population problem.
It's strange how some Singaporeans hate foreigners so much when a number of our leaders of the last generation weren't born here.
For example, our first President was born in Perak, Malaysia.
The collapse of the Euro is going to be huge if it happens. The long-term effects include the likelihood that the European countries are going avoid anything similar for decades to come.
Oh fuck!
I just found an air ticket price that's only slightly more expensive than what I paid on Expedia.com.sg!
Worse still, it's a direct flight by Singapore Airlines!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Like my flight, it arrives at around midnight. It also departs at around midnight, which isn't too different from my flight.
FUCK!
I'd totally pay that difference of JUST A SINGLE DOLLAR MORE for this.
Argh!
The absolute worst thing is that it's able to provide me with a flight + hotel package that's S$30 less than what I'm currently paying.
In short, this is better in every single way possible!
Lesson learnt, oh yes.
I'm so going for this website for my next trip.
Nothing's happening to my mum. She's worried that she may go when I'm overseas, but that's unlikely. I'll only be gone for 4 days after all. There's also the reservist training that will last almost a week but that won't stop me from going there if something does happen.
The patient who stopped eating was gone since Sunday. She was pretty quiet for the few days before then.
Now there's a new patient who's just like my mum. Almost the same age, almost the same number of children, same immobility and same cancer.
As for my goods, it's clear we're not replenishing them as rapidly as they're running out.
This year, we won't be doing as well as my mum used to, as expected.
I really need to get to Shanghai for new stuff.
Sunday 27 November 2011
Rant 899 / Coping
The hotel reservation has been confirmed!
I've also guaranteed my reservation with my debit card, and together with my special request which mentions my late arrival, the likelihood of them giving away my room is pretty low.
Still, it's China, so it's still slightly possible.
The only way to guarantee that I'll have no problem is if I pay in full now, which the system doesn't allow.
If I pay in full and the hotel is filled before my arrival, they will still be obligated to get me a room somewhere. It's not as good but it beats finding a room by myself.
And at midnight. With my luggage.
I've also found a website that charges even less for the exact same reservation at S$228.06 for the three nights, inclusive of all the extra fees and stuff. That's S$76.02 per night.
And yes, I checked the currency and made sure it was in SGD.
Given that hotels.com does not include breakfast in that reservation, I don't think I mind the $9-breakfast. I'm no morning person, so a hotel breakfast with the convenient location is probably worth the price difference ($8.98 to be exact).
Finally, I've re-checked the location of the hotel and the place(s) I'm planning to go to. They're within walking distance of about one kilometre, so it's great!
What other problems will I encounter next?
I'm aware that there is going to be A LOT of walking during my 2 days there. Even if I exclude that 1-km walk to and fro, which would total 2km, I'll still be spending my day doing nothing but walk and shop.
Fortunately it's winter, so it might not be so bad. However I doubt the Shanghainese winter is going to prevent me from sweating.
IMO it's actually a good thing that I'm having reservist training the week before the trip. I may have to do more walking than usual during that week, and that probably will make a good warm-up.
Bought some durian on Sunday. Wasn't cheap. $8 per packet of the XO durian, each containing two strips of the flesh with 2-3 seeds. $12 for two, so I bought 2.
Most likely it's still expensive but it's not like I eat durians all the time.
In fact it's been at least 5 years since I last ate fresh durian. It's been so long I don't even remember how long exactly anymore.
The XO durian indeed tastes alcoholic, although probably not like XO. Since I've only had a single glass in my entire life, I'm not a good judge of the flavour.
Anyway I could only handle one box. The other box shall have to wait till the next day.
My bro's gf was around and she doesn't like durian, so my bro is barred from eating it as long as she is present.
Burnt my soup yesterday morning. I was bringing it to a boil as usual after I got out of bed, but this time I forgot to set an alarm to remind myself to go back and check after 5mins.
My door was close so I couldn't smell anything until it was horrendously burnt, but my bro's door wasn't.
He smelled the burning, turned off the stove and poured water into the pot.
The soup was pitch black like coffee, but later in the afternoon, he discovered that the pot was still salvageable unlike the last 2 pots I burnt in the last two months.
Those were so bad even the metal scrubs couldn't get rid of the burn marks.
This one merely had a few slightly brown scars.
That I consider lucky. I was so pissed at the thought of losing this pot that I was saying that I'm not making soup anymore.
It's a good WMF pot.
It would have been like losing my Tefal wokpan that I've been using (and shown in my previous pictures).
These cookware is one of the benefits of my job. Working with middle-aged mothers mean I get to know about good discounts on branded cookware when they pop up.
I've also guaranteed my reservation with my debit card, and together with my special request which mentions my late arrival, the likelihood of them giving away my room is pretty low.
Still, it's China, so it's still slightly possible.
The only way to guarantee that I'll have no problem is if I pay in full now, which the system doesn't allow.
If I pay in full and the hotel is filled before my arrival, they will still be obligated to get me a room somewhere. It's not as good but it beats finding a room by myself.
And at midnight. With my luggage.
I've also found a website that charges even less for the exact same reservation at S$228.06 for the three nights, inclusive of all the extra fees and stuff. That's S$76.02 per night.
And yes, I checked the currency and made sure it was in SGD.
Given that hotels.com does not include breakfast in that reservation, I don't think I mind the $9-breakfast. I'm no morning person, so a hotel breakfast with the convenient location is probably worth the price difference ($8.98 to be exact).
Finally, I've re-checked the location of the hotel and the place(s) I'm planning to go to. They're within walking distance of about one kilometre, so it's great!
What other problems will I encounter next?
I'm aware that there is going to be A LOT of walking during my 2 days there. Even if I exclude that 1-km walk to and fro, which would total 2km, I'll still be spending my day doing nothing but walk and shop.
Fortunately it's winter, so it might not be so bad. However I doubt the Shanghainese winter is going to prevent me from sweating.
IMO it's actually a good thing that I'm having reservist training the week before the trip. I may have to do more walking than usual during that week, and that probably will make a good warm-up.
Bought some durian on Sunday. Wasn't cheap. $8 per packet of the XO durian, each containing two strips of the flesh with 2-3 seeds. $12 for two, so I bought 2.
Most likely it's still expensive but it's not like I eat durians all the time.
In fact it's been at least 5 years since I last ate fresh durian. It's been so long I don't even remember how long exactly anymore.
The XO durian indeed tastes alcoholic, although probably not like XO. Since I've only had a single glass in my entire life, I'm not a good judge of the flavour.
Anyway I could only handle one box. The other box shall have to wait till the next day.
My bro's gf was around and she doesn't like durian, so my bro is barred from eating it as long as she is present.
Burnt my soup yesterday morning. I was bringing it to a boil as usual after I got out of bed, but this time I forgot to set an alarm to remind myself to go back and check after 5mins.
My door was close so I couldn't smell anything until it was horrendously burnt, but my bro's door wasn't.
He smelled the burning, turned off the stove and poured water into the pot.
The soup was pitch black like coffee, but later in the afternoon, he discovered that the pot was still salvageable unlike the last 2 pots I burnt in the last two months.
Those were so bad even the metal scrubs couldn't get rid of the burn marks.
This one merely had a few slightly brown scars.
That I consider lucky. I was so pissed at the thought of losing this pot that I was saying that I'm not making soup anymore.
It's a good WMF pot.
It would have been like losing my Tefal wokpan that I've been using (and shown in my previous pictures).
These cookware is one of the benefits of my job. Working with middle-aged mothers mean I get to know about good discounts on branded cookware when they pop up.
Saturday 26 November 2011
Rant 898 / Because The Three Arrows Through Your Ribs Are Part Of Your Imagination
These guys are so good at this.
Apparently waiting for my friends to confirm with me whether they want to go overseas with me made me miss a promotion from Malaysian Airlines.
2 days after I first visited the agency, the same flight now costs me just over S$1000.
Obviously I didn't take it.
Today I've bought a ticket for another flight that lands at midnight of that day instead of departing at that time.
It's a different airline too, Hong Kong Airlines.
I feel that it's even worse than the initial one.
First, it's S$13 more expensive, at S$637.
Second, it lands at midnight, so I'll be checking in at about 1am or something.
Third, the return flight is in the early morning at about 8am, so I won't be taking their hotel breakfast even though it comes with the room.
Fourth, I'm going to have to book an extra night for this.
Fifth, because of my late check-in, I think it's much likelier for me to encounter the issue of the hotel being fully occupied.
Come to think of it, what was I thinking agreeing to this? The point of my midnight flight was to avoid this specific problem.
The first point isn't really a major issue. 13 bucks is really nothing when the ticket is over S$600.
The second is slightly more significant because Shanghainese taxis probably have midnight surcharge too, and my hotel is pretty far from the airport I'm landing at. On one website, it calculates my taxi fare to be about S$37 even without surcharges.
The third point I can probably settle by talking to the hotel people. I don't exactly expect success but my booking included a special request regarding changing that breakfast to something else.
Fourth is a bitch. I'm going to be paying the full price of a day's stay for half a night of sleep. Moreover, the 50% increment in the cost of my lodging is no joke. In addition, now that I've completed the booking process, I realized there's "fees and taxes" that weren't included in the $74. With that included, the final rate is actually $85/night. Still awesome though for a Queen bed in a 4-star hotel.
The final point is something I really hope doesn't happen, but it could. The booking system only allows payment at the hotel, so without payment, I think the hotel can still legally reject my booking.
I think.
I don't blame anyone for these inconveniences except the agent at Fairprice Travel for not telling me. Then again, I can't complain since they charge so much less.
Not to mention I expected problems to crop up. This is, after all, my first business trip and I'm going alone. So far I'd like to think I'm doing pretty well since I've basically dealt with all the kinks.
Now for the pros.
Since I'll be able to sleep on the night I arrive, I'll be able to focus better on the stuff I see on the following days.
This is particularly important because I suck at spotting stuff. I'm the sort of guy who only sees what's directly in front of me, and even less if I'm looking at a big messy pile.
I'll be hunting for specific designs, so that really should help.
Next is the food. Although only a snack and dinner are included in my two flights to Shanghai (first to Hong Kong and then to Shanghai), both breakfast and lunch are included in my flights back to Singapore (also because of a transfer at Hong Kong).
Yay.
Better still - no peak hour surcharge for taxis on Sundays in Singapore, so I don't have to rush out of the airport after landing in the late afternoon.
Feels good.
The real problem at the moment is actually the hotel. After making the reservation, the website told me the hotel can't confirm yet. Since this is the peak season, I'm really worried that it may not work out.
At this point, the alternative is that I'll be forced to spend $300 or more by going to the travel agents.
And yea, I changed my mind. I'm not keeping the destination a secret anymore.
Playing as a sneaky archer in Skyrim, I often encounter this very funny situation in which I'm implied to be a figment of the imagination of a minor character in a game.
It happens when I shoot someone and he doesn't die from the triple damage of my sneak attack arrow.
I'm practically never spotted because I fire from far away and I move back after firing in case they get close to my spot.
So when they give up on finding me, they would say something like," Probably just my imagination."
YEAH BECAUSE THE ARROW IN YOUR FACE IS FROM YOUR IMAGINATION!
And after killing them, I'd be thinking," I guess you got killed by your imagination, huh?"
Since I'm just a figment of the imagination of a minor dead character in a PC game, what does that make my readers?
YOU ARE HALLUCINATING!
THERE IS NO BLOG!
WAKE UP!
I cooked 2 dishes tonight and failed in one.
First was the carrot and brinjal in oyster sauce.
The carrot was sweeter than expected, so it made the whole dish pretty sweet, almost like a mild dessert.
I only used one carrot and one long brinjal. Most of the carrot was grated because I was too lazy to cut it into strips. The last part of the carrot was sliced instead before I could risk grating my fingers.
Next was potato and luncheon meat with baked beans.
I've really got to remember that potatoes need to be boiled beforehand because they take forever to cook. At least it smelled really nice, just like hashbrowns.
Threw in a can of baked beans after some of the luncheon meat cubes look browned.
Added starchy water to give it some gravy to make it go better with rice.
This was one dish I knew couldn't go wrong. You have to be pretty bad to fail at cooking potato dishes.
Also, some leftover soup from last night. Soup's fine as long as I boil it before I go to bed and after.
Friday 25 November 2011
Rant 897 / More Drivel
After Terraria, I think I understand the absence of appeal.
I'm not as concerned about the bugs as I am about the lack of replayability. Building for the sake of building just isn't fun. I can just go to a beach and build sandcastles all day too, so why aren't I doing that?
Or I can just buy a bunch of Lego bricks. I'm not doing that either.
It takes a lot of imagination and a lot of interest in building your fantasies. Unfortunately the latter is mostly caused by boredom.
RIDING LIKE A BOSS!
Holy crap!
Tried to make 回锅肉 (hui2 guo1 rou4) and failed.
The plan was the stir-fry pork with leeks and another random vegetable, but I ended up adding way too much cabbage, causing the packet of sauce to be insufficient.
The dish was... edible.
At least the soup was a success. The seven sets of chicken bones really worked, and all the cartilage was gone after about 4 hours of boiling on the low heat.
Asked my bro to watch the pot whenI had to go out for work 1 hour after I started making the soup. All he had to do was check the pot every 30mins and make sure the pot was at least half full.
The soup itself was simple. Just the bones and some Chinese shiitake mushrooms.
And the salmon was nothing out of the ordinary. This was the third time I fried salmon and I've already gotten the hang of it.
In the land of Skyrim, the player starts off as a captured terrorist, who has been caught plotting to destroy the golden empire by using dragons. Before the player gets to take control of his avatar, they are asked to create a character, which is purely the liberal’s way of teaching out kids that modifying and gender changing one’s self is fun and normal. Once the player has decided if they want to be a female wood fairy or an black ogre from Stormwind, they get to take control of their hell spawned fictitious demon.
Right off the bat, the gay supporting software company Blizzard, shows the player images of decapitations and after the third of forth head chopping, a necromatic dragon appears and sets the player free from righteous punishment. Now that the player is free, they will spend the next 400 hours robbing people, killing villagers, crafting sexual items, fornicate with elves and other Harry Potter style animals and also learn how to conjure up black magic.
Once they player has finish killing all the people in Skyrim, his final battle is to have a mass dragon orgy with his fellow homosexual warriors he meets on his way and all take turns impregnating the dragon with homosexual dragon eggs. Once the dragon has been backdoor feasted, the player must kill it. The dragon needs to be killed, so the spirit of death and gayness can enter the new eggs and reek havoc onto the rest of the world. This new destruction will be playable in the next Skyrim saga.
This is epic stuff. The writer sounds so much like one of those seriously homophobic guys who are actually closet homosexuals.
In case you didn't get it, the website is about mocking conservative Christians.
Lastly, I'd buy this version of Skyrim, mainly just to see what homosexual eggs look like.
Thursday 24 November 2011
Rant 896 / Is Fairprice Travel The Cheapest?
Learnt a new lesson about my work today. I was actually going to the mall nearby to look for some stuff so I decided to go to a store I sell stuff to to pass them a document. When they saw me, let's just say they showed me yet another part of my job that my mum didn't properly explain to me.
Didn't hurt or anything since I could handle it, but the trip was just more important than I expected.
Also visited People's Park Centre near Chinatown today to see if I could get plane tickets cheaper than what I found on Expedia.
I had thought Expedia used SGD the other night when I noted the prices but I just realized they were in USD.
Anyway using the wrong price as my benchmark, I visited the travel agencies one by one to ask for the plane tickets for the days I wanted plus other conditions I deem necessary, like reaching there in the morning by departing at night so that even if it's too early for me to check in, I can still leave my luggage with the hotel and start walking, something taught to me recently by someone I know through my business.
Initially all were far above the price I had in mind, although lower than what it actually was in SGD.
A few even tried to pressure me by telling me that their low price was only available at that moment and I cannot take my time to think about it.
Those "low" prices were seriously lower than most, but still higher than what I wanted. Moreover, the lowest price offered by them was exactly the same as the lowest offered by 2 other agencies, which was about S$100 above my benchmark. No big deal.
Finally I entered this agency that offered only plane tickets, called "Fairprice Travel", which actually stated in Chinese on their signboard outside that it's a wholesaler of air tickets. Btw it's not related to NTUC.
I had a bit of hope then but after so many failures, I wasn't expecting much, maybe slightly lower than the lowest at that point.
In the end, they got one that was only $9 over the price I had in mind, so I asked for her namecard and wrote the price and airline down.
It was Malaysian Airlines with one transfer at KL, surprisingly, instead of an airline from the destination country.
Then when I got back and realized Expedia was in USD (after reading their FAQ), I knew I was pretty much settled with this part of the decision-making process.
As for the hotel, Fairprice Travel doesn't handle that, and all the other agencies couldn't go below $90 per night even for single beds (I only wanted a specific hotel), so I'm booking from the internet instead.
One website that I shall not name so that I don't reveal the destination country openly, offered me 2 nights for just $148 at that hotel for a room with either twin beds or a Queen-sized bed.
In other words, even if they could match the $74-per-night rate, I don't believe any of them could match the room.
Ok, so this may not be completely accurate. I didn't actually visit all of the agencies in that mall; I omitted an entire row near the food court, so I probably visited only 90% of them.
One reason why I stopped asking after finding Fairprice Travel is because the expressions of the agents tend to darken when I ask them to find fares that don't exceed the lowest I found at that point.
Obviously this meant that in order for them to compete, they would have to reduce their own commission. And why would they really want to compete for such a small commission from just 1 person's airfare and a few nights' stay at a hotel?
One of them even told me politely she won't bother to search for hotels unless I accept the price of the airfare she offered... which was $186 above the one offered by Fairprice.
The trip itself won't be very comfortable due to the first flight. It's a midnight flight with an hour-long transfer, meaning I won't be getting much sleep. After that, the plan is to go look around right after I dump my luggage at the lobby, so sleep is out of the question for the rest of the day too.
As for the return trip, I didn't care and I don't remember. All I know is that I am going to be back on that day itself (some flights end on the next day due to a long transfer period). I'm really not planning to do more walking on the final day, hence my nonchalance.
The hotel itself was the one thing I could splurge on because in a developing country, it's never a waste of money to spend more on lodgings and even food. When things suck in a developing country, it could seriously suck, and you don't want that to be true for your room.
So when I chose the hotel, I looked at the location first before going for somewhere that's at least 3 stars. The most important factor is always the location when money is not a major issue.
Y'know, I kinda wonder how the other agencies survive. More young people turn to the Internet these days to do their research, so there has to be an increasing number of travellers who don't need a guide.
Without a guide, travellers would only need the air tickets and hotel bookings from agencies.
Yet absolutely none of the real travel agencies could match the air ticket prices of this agency that specializes in that, and the Internet offers far cheaper hotel prices than they can.
How many internet-illiterates are there buying from them to allow them to stay in business?
Tried to order Domino's the other day using my free-pizza voucher that they gave to compensate for a late delivery last month.
Didn't work. Apparently they don't allow certain promotions to be used together with others.
I used 2 other coupons in addition to that voucher, and I've never had any trouble with multiple coupons before. Hence I suspect that free-pizza voucher can only be used alone in each order.
Ordered Canadian 2-for-1 instead.
For some reason I find myself disliking the task of typing order forms detailing the changes I want to the factories.
I have no idea why. My guess is I fear making mistakes in those.
Strange because it's the same even for order forms for samples on which there is little to lose.
Didn't hurt or anything since I could handle it, but the trip was just more important than I expected.
Also visited People's Park Centre near Chinatown today to see if I could get plane tickets cheaper than what I found on Expedia.
I had thought Expedia used SGD the other night when I noted the prices but I just realized they were in USD.
Anyway using the wrong price as my benchmark, I visited the travel agencies one by one to ask for the plane tickets for the days I wanted plus other conditions I deem necessary, like reaching there in the morning by departing at night so that even if it's too early for me to check in, I can still leave my luggage with the hotel and start walking, something taught to me recently by someone I know through my business.
Initially all were far above the price I had in mind, although lower than what it actually was in SGD.
A few even tried to pressure me by telling me that their low price was only available at that moment and I cannot take my time to think about it.
Those "low" prices were seriously lower than most, but still higher than what I wanted. Moreover, the lowest price offered by them was exactly the same as the lowest offered by 2 other agencies, which was about S$100 above my benchmark. No big deal.
Finally I entered this agency that offered only plane tickets, called "Fairprice Travel", which actually stated in Chinese on their signboard outside that it's a wholesaler of air tickets. Btw it's not related to NTUC.
I had a bit of hope then but after so many failures, I wasn't expecting much, maybe slightly lower than the lowest at that point.
In the end, they got one that was only $9 over the price I had in mind, so I asked for her namecard and wrote the price and airline down.
It was Malaysian Airlines with one transfer at KL, surprisingly, instead of an airline from the destination country.
Then when I got back and realized Expedia was in USD (after reading their FAQ), I knew I was pretty much settled with this part of the decision-making process.
As for the hotel, Fairprice Travel doesn't handle that, and all the other agencies couldn't go below $90 per night even for single beds (I only wanted a specific hotel), so I'm booking from the internet instead.
One website that I shall not name so that I don't reveal the destination country openly, offered me 2 nights for just $148 at that hotel for a room with either twin beds or a Queen-sized bed.
In other words, even if they could match the $74-per-night rate, I don't believe any of them could match the room.
Ok, so this may not be completely accurate. I didn't actually visit all of the agencies in that mall; I omitted an entire row near the food court, so I probably visited only 90% of them.
One reason why I stopped asking after finding Fairprice Travel is because the expressions of the agents tend to darken when I ask them to find fares that don't exceed the lowest I found at that point.
Obviously this meant that in order for them to compete, they would have to reduce their own commission. And why would they really want to compete for such a small commission from just 1 person's airfare and a few nights' stay at a hotel?
One of them even told me politely she won't bother to search for hotels unless I accept the price of the airfare she offered... which was $186 above the one offered by Fairprice.
The trip itself won't be very comfortable due to the first flight. It's a midnight flight with an hour-long transfer, meaning I won't be getting much sleep. After that, the plan is to go look around right after I dump my luggage at the lobby, so sleep is out of the question for the rest of the day too.
As for the return trip, I didn't care and I don't remember. All I know is that I am going to be back on that day itself (some flights end on the next day due to a long transfer period). I'm really not planning to do more walking on the final day, hence my nonchalance.
The hotel itself was the one thing I could splurge on because in a developing country, it's never a waste of money to spend more on lodgings and even food. When things suck in a developing country, it could seriously suck, and you don't want that to be true for your room.
So when I chose the hotel, I looked at the location first before going for somewhere that's at least 3 stars. The most important factor is always the location when money is not a major issue.
Y'know, I kinda wonder how the other agencies survive. More young people turn to the Internet these days to do their research, so there has to be an increasing number of travellers who don't need a guide.
Without a guide, travellers would only need the air tickets and hotel bookings from agencies.
Yet absolutely none of the real travel agencies could match the air ticket prices of this agency that specializes in that, and the Internet offers far cheaper hotel prices than they can.
How many internet-illiterates are there buying from them to allow them to stay in business?
Tried to order Domino's the other day using my free-pizza voucher that they gave to compensate for a late delivery last month.
Didn't work. Apparently they don't allow certain promotions to be used together with others.
I used 2 other coupons in addition to that voucher, and I've never had any trouble with multiple coupons before. Hence I suspect that free-pizza voucher can only be used alone in each order.
Ordered Canadian 2-for-1 instead.
For some reason I find myself disliking the task of typing order forms detailing the changes I want to the factories.
I have no idea why. My guess is I fear making mistakes in those.
Strange because it's the same even for order forms for samples on which there is little to lose.
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Rant 895 / Options Are Optional
And that's usually how noobs kill the pros once in a while.
Just when I thought $4.99 for 3 dozen eggs was a good deal, I saw a stall selling eggs of similar sizes at $1.60 per dozen in the market.
Then again, with the 3% cashback on my debit card that Saturday, it should be about the same after all. 3% of $5 is $0.15.
Meh.
Last night the right button of my mouse decided to stop responding every so often. Initially I thought it was a software issue but I hadn't updated anything since the last time I used it.
So I changed the mouse to another Microsoft one but I only exchanged that problem with another.
Now the cursor jumps around occasionally.
Time to find more cheap mice. Nothing fancy, I just need a generic one that doesn't fuck up my games.
I just learnt not to fry a frozen egg. My fridge is getting old, so things placed on the top level tend to freeze, and that's what happened when I had to place two of them there after filling up the egg racks on the fridge door the day I bought the 36 eggs.
Frozen egg yolks break by themselves despite the seemingly protective ice shell, probably because the skin of the yolk froze too.
Moreover, there's the problem of frying anything frozen - the outside tends to overcook and/or the inside gets undercooked.
In this case, I simultaneously burnt and undercooked the very same egg.
Finally, the shell cracks when the egg freezes, so boiling is out of the question.
Season 4 of Die2Nite has the coalition limit removed, so I'm back into the game. Unfortunately, I forgot about the jump after signing up with my last mega-coalition, hence forgetting to log in to accept the coalition invite before the jump.
Now I've got to wait for the next jump.
Time to set a daily 11pm alarm on my phone again.
Started doing it when I died once from forgetting to log in. It was particularly unforgettable because the town had some real potential.
Skyrim is getting hard again. It seems I'm not as invisible as I thought. The first time I noticed this was when I fought the Forsworn at the Sundered Towers. They could seriously hear me from 50 meters away and see me when I'm in their line of sight and about 10m away from them even when I sneak really slowly.
This never happened before. I'm usually invisible even when I'm right under their noses.
I think the game actually takes the lighting into account because it was broad daylight when it happened and I was on the steps where there was no shade.
The second was during the main quest when I was supposed to sneak through a garden into this guy's room. They couldn't hear me but they could see me from 10m away when I'm under the sun. In the shadows, they couldn't see me at all even when one of their knees was in my face.
So minced pork goes at $10/kg at the market. And they have fatty pork unlike the Shop N Save where there's only minced lean pork. Probably because of low demand.
And the chicken breasts there cost me $15 for 14 pieces, or 7 chickens' worth, with or without the bones. Apparently I can also choose to have the bones removed and placed in another bag for me.
Awesome. More chicken stock. 7 chicken ribs can make 2 batches probably.
Another cooking failure. I got the fuzzy gourd and dried shrimps right but not the rice vermicelli. Both rice vermicelli and cellophane noodles are called "vermicelli" here, so I just bought one packet of the former.
Then I discovered it was the sort that was meant to be eaten in soup when I cooked it.
Now it's almost wasted. It's actually pretty edible but it just tastes nothing like what it was intended to be.
It's kinda like porridge now because it's been overcooked, and that was because I was initially unsure if the whiteness meant it was not cooked enough.
We're treating it as porridge. It's perfectly edible, but just doesn't taste like what it was meant to be.
Saturday 19 November 2011
Rant 894 / Crockwork
I'm finding my N8's camera so useful now in my work. Worth every cent.
I use it to take pictures of my samples and label them in my photo editor to remember them and their corresponding numbers.
I also use it to take pictures of new designs that have potential.
Finally and most importantly, I take pictures of work documents instead of saving copies because a lot of them are handwritten. Because of the high resolution, I can take a picture of an A4 size document in a single photo and be able to see everything clearly when I zoom in.
That last is the most important function to me. I no longer need a scanner or photocopier if it's just for my own eyes. I also save everything in my PC whenever I plug it in so nothing is ever lost.
$9 for a haircut! That's what I paid when I visited this barbershop across the street, instead of all the hair salons in my neighbourhood. It's probably the only barbershop here - all the others are hair salons.
Wasn't bad at all since I wasn't into anything fancy, just a trim. Most interesting part was when he took out that large straight razor to shave my sideburns. I've never had such a huge blade so near my throat before.
Also, despite all the "hair saloons" that can be found on Google, it's hair salon!
A saloon is a place you go to get drunk.
And in this case, drunk on hair, I guess.
The only difference I can tell between the hair salons and the barbers is that the latter also handles shaving (facial hair). Shaving alone costs $7.50 there, but a haircut plus shaving costs $12.
But I don't really know why anybody would need a barber to shave for him in this day and age. It's not like there's anyone with a beard in Singapore.
Supporters of Gaddafi want to get out of jail now that the civil war's over.
Too bad.
What did they expect? The Western countries to come and fight for their freedom?
Rain. It's arriving like clockwork everyday for the last 4-5 days. Always at about 2-3pm, when I'm out.
I am not amused.
So the new Giant Christmas catalogue arrived. Apparently the last coupon catalogue can be used on top of these new offers!
Unfortunately, there were too few items that I could buy to justify the cab fare.
For example, the dozen-can pack of Coke Light at $7.75 ($8.25 offer price + $0.50 off from coupon), ie $0.65 per can, is almost definitely cheaper than what I can find nearby.
The Dettol 550ml Shower Gel refill packs at $3.40 ($3.90 offer price + $0.50 off from coupon) might be cheaper too, if its even available at all here. If it isn't, I'll compare with the Show Gel bottles themselves, whose conclusion is obvious.
Everything else that interests me is just not cheaper despite the discounts.
Moreover, I can definitely expect something from Shop N Save in the near future too, although I'm not sure if the outlet near my place is going to participate in whatever sale it organizes.
Either way I'm not visiting Giant for this sale.
So my mum has returned to the point where she's confused even about how much time she has left. A friend of hers whom she recently called and informed of her condition visited her on Saturday.
She called me there and asked me why I'm not hiring a maid and let her stay home.
It was only when I mentioned my discussion with her oncologist at NUH, in which we agreed that hiring a maid was not worth it when she only has several months left, that she revealed to me that my mum told her she had 3 years left.
If only that was true.
One of the doctors told me on the first day that even several months was an optimistic estimate because if an infection sets in, which is very likely due to that wound and the steroids, she'd go much sooner than that.
I've already said everything I needed to say to her. There were a few things I realize I had to say but never got a chance to until I thought she was gone.
Now the most important thing is that her suffering is minimal. So far she isn't feeling any discomfort and that is good.
But it also puzzles me, which worries me slightly. If she's only got a few months left, won't that mean the pain will come suddenly and increase very quickly?
Hopefully she won't be like the patient who keeps whining about pain but it could come to that. Right now she and my mum are the only two patients in the ward who have been there since my mum's arrival. Everyone else has come and gone.
And she's near her end. Yesterday the nurse gave her some sort of medicine because she hasn't passed motion for seven days and, according to my mum, her family agreed to stop feeding her the night before. She could barely eat that day. It's like what the doctor told me - the intestines are among the first organs to shut down.
Within the week she's going to be transferred to a single-bed ward, just like all the others.
...
Y'know, maybe she was trying to lie to her friend to make her feel better.
Thursday 17 November 2011
Rant 893 / More Soup
I'm beginning to understand the geography of Skyrim. I haven't explored many places yet due to work but it appears that this is a simple East vs West map, in which Windhelm on the eastern edge of Skyrim is dominated by the rebel Stormcloaks while the westernmost city, Solitude, is the stronghold of the Imperial forces.
I'm not actually too interested in their fight nor their cities.
Instead, for some reason, I'm curious about the cities between them on the northern border.
What would they look like after adapting to the cold of the permafrost of Tamriel?
More importantly, why have they remained more neutral than the two I mentioned?
Apparently every single guardsman in Skyrim used to be an adventurer who took an arrow in the knee.
Every. Single. One.
Archers in Skyrim must specialise in knee-shots or something.
Giants. I got pwned so hard I flew. Or at least my corpse did.
How the heck was I supposed to know they were hostile? In one quest I was even told I sold a sheep to one. How do you do that if they kill you on sight?
Holy crap! Now that I have over 85 points in Sneak, I'm practically invisible when crouching. Just realized that I've been underestimating my Sneak ability until just now when I got ambushed by the robots in the buried Dwarven city under Markath, the one past the Excavation Site.
The two robots rolled out behind me about a meter away and I didn't move. Not much of a choice there. The only way to go further away from them was to go through the two, so it was either do that or stay still and hope I remain invisible this close.
And... I was never seen even when I went past them after watching them for a while. I was heard when I was almost right beside one of them but all it did was move towards the direction I was at.
By then, I was already far enough to become undetectable again.
Also noticed a few bugs by now (lv21).
First is the bug which makes it hard to click on the dialog options. I have no idea why it's so insensitive sometimes.
Second is at the temple near Dawnstar during the quest to get to the Skull, where I have to kill the final two monks. If I let the NPC do the deed while I sneak away, the quest remain incomplete even though they're both dead. Fortunately I save all the time so I could just reload to just because I entered the room.
Third is Belethor (IIRC), the trader guy at Whiterun. For some reason he exits when I do, and locks the store behind him. Then he walks back in and the store remains locked for hours. Annoying when I have to get something from my chest in Breezehome and I can't sell it when I get back.
Strange. While making several orders yesterday, I discovered a dilemma - should I listen to what my mum taught me months ago or should I listen to the buyer?
I chose to adhere to what my mum told me and what was written in the documents she left behind when I requested for adjustments to the samples in my orders.
When I told her that today, she told me I should listen to the buyer.
I am now confused.
I'll not change anything for the orders I have emailed, but I'll do that in the future.
What I'm confused about is why she said that.
Did she realize something? Or did she lose her confidence in herself so much?
I was so wrong when I thought I could sleep late in this job.
Looks like I must conform to the norm and be awake during the hours when people are supposed to be out of bed every weekday.
Gah! I've been having a string of cooking failures lately after I started to try new things.
A few days ago I tried to make soup out of soy beans and pork bones. Too thin. I even added half a cube of chicken bones to the small pot of soup but it still tasted like I added too much water.
It wasn't so only the next morning.
Next time I'm going to need more than 300g of bones.
Also realized I've bought the wrong gourd the last time. I wanted to buy 节瓜 (jie2 gua1) but due to my mum's confused memory just before she was hospitalized, I've been buying some unknown gourd that was supposed to be for soup. It's a light green gourd of similar size but with a smooth skin. I still don't know what it's called.
Anyway I bought the right one today when I googled the name and learnt that 节瓜 (jie2 gua1) is also known as 毛瓜 (mao2 gua1). Fortunately I know that the latter is supposed to be fuzzy, so I bought the only fuzzy one I saw.
Apparently it's also a variant of 冬瓜 (dong1 gua1), or at least that's what all the Chinese websites say. Wikipedia says it's an immature winter melon. Don't ask me which is right.
My life has formed routines again, although they are going to be quite temporary.
It's just work, visiting my mum, Skyrim, handling meals and maybe LoL and blogging.
As you can tell, I really don't have much to blog about from this routine. My mum's deteriorating condition is gradual but steady. At the moment she's still the same but definitely bored. I worry she's falling into a depression due to the dying patients coming in and out of the ward but I have no idea what to do about that.
The most I can do is spend at least an hour there everyday except for days when I'm particularly occupied with work or when she tells me not to go. She doesn't want me to visit her everyday but I don't want her to be as bored as she is now.
As for work, I'm not exactly putting in my best efforts. In fact I think I'm slacking. This is so bad.
Unlike employees, I can't slack around. The only person whose income is affected by laziness in my business is myself. I'm just cheating myself.
Yet I find that I simply cannot go through a single day without playing Skyrim as long as I have access to my PC.
Now I'm also told to go to a certain city overseas. I don't have to buy anything; I just need to see what is available and how things work outside of the Internet.
I've also request my bro to go to Europe with his girlfriend after he graduates. I'm not sure if he understands that in my line of work there's really no such thing as a long holiday, unless a week is considered long because that's the longest I can push things away without someone else handling my work.
It will also help him learn more about winter fashion if he goes somewhere in northern Europe.
I'm not actually too interested in their fight nor their cities.
Instead, for some reason, I'm curious about the cities between them on the northern border.
What would they look like after adapting to the cold of the permafrost of Tamriel?
More importantly, why have they remained more neutral than the two I mentioned?
Apparently every single guardsman in Skyrim used to be an adventurer who took an arrow in the knee.
Every. Single. One.
Archers in Skyrim must specialise in knee-shots or something.
Giants. I got pwned so hard I flew. Or at least my corpse did.
How the heck was I supposed to know they were hostile? In one quest I was even told I sold a sheep to one. How do you do that if they kill you on sight?
Holy crap! Now that I have over 85 points in Sneak, I'm practically invisible when crouching. Just realized that I've been underestimating my Sneak ability until just now when I got ambushed by the robots in the buried Dwarven city under Markath, the one past the Excavation Site.
The two robots rolled out behind me about a meter away and I didn't move. Not much of a choice there. The only way to go further away from them was to go through the two, so it was either do that or stay still and hope I remain invisible this close.
And... I was never seen even when I went past them after watching them for a while. I was heard when I was almost right beside one of them but all it did was move towards the direction I was at.
By then, I was already far enough to become undetectable again.
Also noticed a few bugs by now (lv21).
First is the bug which makes it hard to click on the dialog options. I have no idea why it's so insensitive sometimes.
Second is at the temple near Dawnstar during the quest to get to the Skull, where I have to kill the final two monks. If I let the NPC do the deed while I sneak away, the quest remain incomplete even though they're both dead. Fortunately I save all the time so I could just reload to just because I entered the room.
Third is Belethor (IIRC), the trader guy at Whiterun. For some reason he exits when I do, and locks the store behind him. Then he walks back in and the store remains locked for hours. Annoying when I have to get something from my chest in Breezehome and I can't sell it when I get back.
Strange. While making several orders yesterday, I discovered a dilemma - should I listen to what my mum taught me months ago or should I listen to the buyer?
I chose to adhere to what my mum told me and what was written in the documents she left behind when I requested for adjustments to the samples in my orders.
When I told her that today, she told me I should listen to the buyer.
I am now confused.
I'll not change anything for the orders I have emailed, but I'll do that in the future.
What I'm confused about is why she said that.
Did she realize something? Or did she lose her confidence in herself so much?
I was so wrong when I thought I could sleep late in this job.
Looks like I must conform to the norm and be awake during the hours when people are supposed to be out of bed every weekday.
Gah! I've been having a string of cooking failures lately after I started to try new things.
A few days ago I tried to make soup out of soy beans and pork bones. Too thin. I even added half a cube of chicken bones to the small pot of soup but it still tasted like I added too much water.
It wasn't so only the next morning.
Next time I'm going to need more than 300g of bones.
Also realized I've bought the wrong gourd the last time. I wanted to buy 节瓜 (jie2 gua1) but due to my mum's confused memory just before she was hospitalized, I've been buying some unknown gourd that was supposed to be for soup. It's a light green gourd of similar size but with a smooth skin. I still don't know what it's called.
Anyway I bought the right one today when I googled the name and learnt that 节瓜 (jie2 gua1) is also known as 毛瓜 (mao2 gua1). Fortunately I know that the latter is supposed to be fuzzy, so I bought the only fuzzy one I saw.
Apparently it's also a variant of 冬瓜 (dong1 gua1), or at least that's what all the Chinese websites say. Wikipedia says it's an immature winter melon. Don't ask me which is right.
My life has formed routines again, although they are going to be quite temporary.
It's just work, visiting my mum, Skyrim, handling meals and maybe LoL and blogging.
As you can tell, I really don't have much to blog about from this routine. My mum's deteriorating condition is gradual but steady. At the moment she's still the same but definitely bored. I worry she's falling into a depression due to the dying patients coming in and out of the ward but I have no idea what to do about that.
The most I can do is spend at least an hour there everyday except for days when I'm particularly occupied with work or when she tells me not to go. She doesn't want me to visit her everyday but I don't want her to be as bored as she is now.
As for work, I'm not exactly putting in my best efforts. In fact I think I'm slacking. This is so bad.
Unlike employees, I can't slack around. The only person whose income is affected by laziness in my business is myself. I'm just cheating myself.
Yet I find that I simply cannot go through a single day without playing Skyrim as long as I have access to my PC.
Now I'm also told to go to a certain city overseas. I don't have to buy anything; I just need to see what is available and how things work outside of the Internet.
I've also request my bro to go to Europe with his girlfriend after he graduates. I'm not sure if he understands that in my line of work there's really no such thing as a long holiday, unless a week is considered long because that's the longest I can push things away without someone else handling my work.
It will also help him learn more about winter fashion if he goes somewhere in northern Europe.
Monday 14 November 2011
Rant 892 / Still Unable To Find Any Reason To Dislike Skyrim Yet
To all gamers and online forum users: take the high road. It works.
Sometimes we get so focused in what's in front of us we forget to see the big picture.
Been visiting http://www.eatliver.com
The Dustman's Cairn quest in Skyrim was interesting. The part where I got trapped and Farkas had to deal with those five Silver Hands was particularly surprising. At first I was like "Aw my bro's going to die."
Then "Wait... WHAT?"
And he came back as if nothing happened.
I'm too lazy to type a spoiler warning so I'm not telling why.
One thing that's been really bugging me is how I can't tell if someone far away is hostile or friendly. As a sniper, I need to know whether I should choose to make pre-emptive strike.
Moreover, I don't want to kill a friendly NPC who may possibly give me quests.
Unfortunately the only way to determine if I can just walk pass someone or something is if I do a quicksave and actually approach that person/thing.
That's pretty annoying actually.
Pfft... Singapore does not have a bad traffic problem. It's not bad until you see S$70+ on the taxi's fare meter without surcharges, which is what I've seen in Hong Kong (over HK$350). It wasn't even that far; the actual issue was that a landslide had caused a real major traffic jam along the path the driver took.
I do agree that a few Singaporean taxi drivers drive like they own the roads. The rest just have more balls than the other drivers - they signal and follow all the rules unlike the first group.
So today I read (accidentally) something that was supposed to be inspiring. It was about how as long as you are enthusiastic about your idea(s), there will always be opportunities to succeed.
My opinion:
Hellgate: London
Look at how humongous a flop they made out of it with their enthusiasm.
Try, but don't be delusional. There are more than enough suicides in the world every year.
So when a friend disagreed with my belief that cooking at home is not always cheaper than eating out, I decided to take a good look at what I pay when I buy food.
The truth is, I don't give a damn how much most common raw ingredients cost. I just hand over $10 bills (or $50), grab the change and stuff everything into the wallet. Of course I make sure the notes are there but I don't care about the coins. How much room for error can there be in those?
Coins I use for cab fare. Usually I wait till I have way too many coins before I do that, then pay the entire cab fares in coins.
Taxi drivers are one of the few types of people I know who love coins. In fact, they usually don't bother to count what I hand them, partly because it's not easy to count $7-10 worth of them. Not that I bother to cheat them, but it's just something that could come in handy if the need arises. If it ever does.
Today was actually my first trip of the week to the market and I was late as usual.
Only bought 5 small potatoes, 2 large onions and a dozen eggs.
$3.70.
Later at home I looked at the 278g of lean pork in my fridge. Coincidentally, it was also about $3.70.
After I bought the eggs and stuff, I had also visited the mixed vegetable rice stall to buy just the dishes without rice. 3 packets: a serving of steamed egg, another of ribs with bitter gourd and finally a serving of tofu skin.
Those 3 cost me $6.50.
Looking through some of my recent receipts from Shop N Save, 500g of kangkong cost me $1.20.
The five cloves of garlic, salt and oil I used to cook it with probably cost less than a dollar.
As for tonight's cooking, I made that garlic kangkong and sliced pork in 海山酱 (hai3 shan1 jiang4).
I estimate the kangkong cost about $2 in total and the pork dish cost about $4.50.
2 cups of rice.
$11 for the 5kg bag of rice.
1 cup of rice is about 200g, so 2 cups make 400g.
0.4/5*11= $0.88
Throwing in electricity, gas and etc, this meal for two probably cost me $7.50, or $3.75 per pax.
That's slightly more expensive than 2 packets of rice with 3 dishes from the mixed vegetable rice stall, but only because of the pork and the larger amount of rice.
He's right.
I should probably buy meat dishes from outside then.
On the other hand, I need the practice.
But yea, if I want to live really cheap, I certainly should go vegetarian, or even vegan.
Saturday 12 November 2011
Rant 891 / This Blog Used To Be Much Less Serious
MEANWHILE IN DENMARK...
RIP
Sarah Jessica Parker 1965-2011
This is even better than Persona 4 itself.
Skyrim is awesome. Bugs ruin the experience though. For my bro playing on his 3-year-old laptop, they include frequent crashes, like when he loots stuff.
Personally I've only encountered a single bug, likely because my PC is just that good that most bugs get squashed by the brute power of my processor.
Nah, I really have no idea why I see fewer bugs.
That bug is in the tunnel in the very beginning of the game where you are escaping from the dragon. Down in the underground path where there is a stream, there is one part where I could get stuck while trying to jump up the rocks.
I'm so glad the console commands work and are easily found on Google, so I just used "tcl" to toggle clipping to make myself fly through the obstacle.
Of course I turned that back on after that because I don't want to ruin my experience by cheating through my very first playthrough.
Cheating or even reading walkthroughs are forbidden by myself for first playthroughs of most games. I always try to play games as the developers intended, then look for aids to explore the game deeper.
So far I've been playing as a Wood Elf archer. Initially I wanted to be a plain archer, maybe with some mediocre Smithing skills to get great equipment.
Then I realized the most interesting way to play as an archer is to be a sneaky sniper. That's my opinion anyway.
This is because the stealth detection by the AI is quite horrendous. The first time I found that out was when I was fighting Draugrs in the first sidequest in the second town I go to, the first town being the one that got destroyed by the dragon.
I was in sneaking mode and roughly 2m away from the spot I fired from. The draugr came running to the spot, turned around and walked back... right in front of me in my terrible hiding spot that was just a concave hole in the wall.
The undead's head was even looking at me while it was turning.
Seriously, wtf?
Or maybe Wood Elves looked like dead bodies. I don't know.
Whatever the reason may be, what I'm sure of is that Sneaking is very easy to level up in Skyrim. Even easier than Archery even if you're an archer who uses the bow in close-quarter combat like I do.
The only catch to this way of handling combat is that archery really takes some practice because the arrows have a realistic arc... or at least it's kinda realistic because it doesn't take into account the wind.
It's sad. The quiet old lady who was always lying in her bed next to my mum's with her eyes open is gone. She seemed so depressed throughout the times I was there. She was the one who asked for my help to move her leg.
My mum said she was moved to a solitary ward. She wasn't aware of that the room was for patients to spend their final nights with their family until I told her.
But it's strange. She didn't seem tired usually; mostly she just laid there staring at the walls or the floor. I didn't think she'd be dying so soon. Maybe the problem is in my mum's memory.
The place is so depressing. I go there everyday and stay for at least an hour because I had to try to distract her from the general dead atmosphere in that place.
The staff there are friendly and try to attend to their needs as quickly as they could but they don't stay in the wards all the time.
And when they're not around, I imagine it must be like living in a morgue.
Maybe I should see if I could get her back home even though she gets better care there.
I don't know.
I can't take care of her like they do, and if anything happens to her at home, maybe if she somehow falls and injures herself trying to walk, the doctors aren't 5 minutes away like it is in the hospice.
As for her condition, it's evidently getting worse gradually. Her speech is sometimes incoherent now and she takes some time to make certain logical connections.
For example, on Friday she was unable to realize I won't be able to know our gross income for last month until Monday because the employee whose relative is our accountant won't come with the documents until Monday. It took several attempts at rephrasing it before she finally understood I won't be able to tell her on Saturday.
The gross income is important to her because it's basically her monthly performance report, since nothing we sell right now came from me. In other words, it's pactically the basis of her personal pride.
I don't mind letting her get involved with work because it helps to distract her from her surroundings. If not for that, I wouldn't let her think about it, not at this point of her life.
Mainly it's that really pathetic patient on the opposite bed who keeps whining all the time. Maybe it's really painful, I don't know, but she always moans in pain whenever I'm there and absolutely never realizes the button is right next to her hand.
She could just press it to alert the nurses at any time.
And she's on morphine now. Started a day or two ago. Never stopped her intermittent moans.
Maybe she's got a really tragic story, but as long as I'm unaware of it, she would always appear very annoying to me.
Just call a frickin nurse to increase her dosage and go back to sleep.
Or maybe not.
Sometimes the nurses don't do that and call a doctor instead. Happened yesterday. The doctor came in and asked her what sort of pain (acute pain or ache?) and where and why?
She only knew where the pain was and nothing else.
It was a pretty pointless visit. In the end the doctor did something quietly and left.
Sometimes the nurses also ignore her moans when they pass the door. Maybe she's been doing it so much they mistook it for part of the local ambience. I don't know.
Of course I don't say anything aloud about it there, just in case she really does have a tragic story. Maybe she's got brain injuries or something in addition to perhaps terminal cancer.
RIP
Sarah Jessica Parker 1965-2011
This is even better than Persona 4 itself.
Skyrim is awesome. Bugs ruin the experience though. For my bro playing on his 3-year-old laptop, they include frequent crashes, like when he loots stuff.
Personally I've only encountered a single bug, likely because my PC is just that good that most bugs get squashed by the brute power of my processor.
Nah, I really have no idea why I see fewer bugs.
That bug is in the tunnel in the very beginning of the game where you are escaping from the dragon. Down in the underground path where there is a stream, there is one part where I could get stuck while trying to jump up the rocks.
I'm so glad the console commands work and are easily found on Google, so I just used "tcl" to toggle clipping to make myself fly through the obstacle.
Of course I turned that back on after that because I don't want to ruin my experience by cheating through my very first playthrough.
Cheating or even reading walkthroughs are forbidden by myself for first playthroughs of most games. I always try to play games as the developers intended, then look for aids to explore the game deeper.
So far I've been playing as a Wood Elf archer. Initially I wanted to be a plain archer, maybe with some mediocre Smithing skills to get great equipment.
Then I realized the most interesting way to play as an archer is to be a sneaky sniper. That's my opinion anyway.
This is because the stealth detection by the AI is quite horrendous. The first time I found that out was when I was fighting Draugrs in the first sidequest in the second town I go to, the first town being the one that got destroyed by the dragon.
I was in sneaking mode and roughly 2m away from the spot I fired from. The draugr came running to the spot, turned around and walked back... right in front of me in my terrible hiding spot that was just a concave hole in the wall.
The undead's head was even looking at me while it was turning.
Seriously, wtf?
Or maybe Wood Elves looked like dead bodies. I don't know.
Whatever the reason may be, what I'm sure of is that Sneaking is very easy to level up in Skyrim. Even easier than Archery even if you're an archer who uses the bow in close-quarter combat like I do.
The only catch to this way of handling combat is that archery really takes some practice because the arrows have a realistic arc... or at least it's kinda realistic because it doesn't take into account the wind.
It's sad. The quiet old lady who was always lying in her bed next to my mum's with her eyes open is gone. She seemed so depressed throughout the times I was there. She was the one who asked for my help to move her leg.
My mum said she was moved to a solitary ward. She wasn't aware of that the room was for patients to spend their final nights with their family until I told her.
But it's strange. She didn't seem tired usually; mostly she just laid there staring at the walls or the floor. I didn't think she'd be dying so soon. Maybe the problem is in my mum's memory.
The place is so depressing. I go there everyday and stay for at least an hour because I had to try to distract her from the general dead atmosphere in that place.
The staff there are friendly and try to attend to their needs as quickly as they could but they don't stay in the wards all the time.
And when they're not around, I imagine it must be like living in a morgue.
Maybe I should see if I could get her back home even though she gets better care there.
I don't know.
I can't take care of her like they do, and if anything happens to her at home, maybe if she somehow falls and injures herself trying to walk, the doctors aren't 5 minutes away like it is in the hospice.
As for her condition, it's evidently getting worse gradually. Her speech is sometimes incoherent now and she takes some time to make certain logical connections.
For example, on Friday she was unable to realize I won't be able to know our gross income for last month until Monday because the employee whose relative is our accountant won't come with the documents until Monday. It took several attempts at rephrasing it before she finally understood I won't be able to tell her on Saturday.
The gross income is important to her because it's basically her monthly performance report, since nothing we sell right now came from me. In other words, it's pactically the basis of her personal pride.
I don't mind letting her get involved with work because it helps to distract her from her surroundings. If not for that, I wouldn't let her think about it, not at this point of her life.
Mainly it's that really pathetic patient on the opposite bed who keeps whining all the time. Maybe it's really painful, I don't know, but she always moans in pain whenever I'm there and absolutely never realizes the button is right next to her hand.
She could just press it to alert the nurses at any time.
And she's on morphine now. Started a day or two ago. Never stopped her intermittent moans.
Maybe she's got a really tragic story, but as long as I'm unaware of it, she would always appear very annoying to me.
Just call a frickin nurse to increase her dosage and go back to sleep.
Or maybe not.
Sometimes the nurses don't do that and call a doctor instead. Happened yesterday. The doctor came in and asked her what sort of pain (acute pain or ache?) and where and why?
She only knew where the pain was and nothing else.
It was a pretty pointless visit. In the end the doctor did something quietly and left.
Sometimes the nurses also ignore her moans when they pass the door. Maybe she's been doing it so much they mistook it for part of the local ambience. I don't know.
Of course I don't say anything aloud about it there, just in case she really does have a tragic story. Maybe she's got brain injuries or something in addition to perhaps terminal cancer.
Thursday 10 November 2011
Rant 890 / And That's How Rainbows Appear
Not sure if want...
This is the next random item. What's it trying to tell me?
Why does it keeping doing this?
It should be quite apparent that my mood is lighter than before. Mainly it has to do with the fact that she's deteriorating at a slower rate than I expected.
Her memory is still clearly bad but her behaviour hasn't changed and her appetite has not decreased.
I think it's the fact that I can still talk to her tomorrow that keeps my mood up.
Which leads to the implication that I'm still unable to get over the finality of death.
Been cooking plenty of bad dishes due to the sweet oyster sauce. Don't really want to add too much salt just because.
My bro also brought back 3 large packets of beef and pork, all sliced up and meant to be eaten in a shabu-shabu, a Japanese-style hotpot.
He was eating at his gf's place with her family and they couldn't finish the red meats.
So for the first packet, I simply gave the meat a quick toss in some boiling oyster-sauce-water and added a dash of light soy sauce to the sieved beef slices.
The second packet of beef was used to stir-fry in ginger and onion (no spring onion that day and I forgot to buy more when I used it up previously). It was pretty successful.
Those were the successes.
The failures include the Chinese cabbage dish which was too sweet. I stir-fried it in oyster sauce, light soy sauce, garlic and sliced fish cake.
Another was the broccoli which I overcooked and the gravy was sweet due to the oyster sauce and partly due to the sliced carrots too.
The broccoli dish was especially bad.
Today I made beef bolognese linguini. It was successful of course. It's hard to fail at cooking decent bolognese and pasta (in terms of Asian standards, not Italian). The only trick is that I have to remember to add a little sugar because the jars of pasta sauces that we buy are usually too sour for our tastes.
I'm also getting the hang of cooking chicken breasts because I've been using it so much.
I just have to marinate a large batch (and buy in large batches) of diced chicken breasts in cooking wine (花雕酒 in my case), sesame oil, light soy sauce, oyster sauce and some starch for at least 10mins.
I don't always expect to finish all of it in one day and marinating it for 24 hours in the fridge is usually not a bad idea.
After marinating, I fry them till they're barely cooked. Slightly undercooked is fine too because they're going to be re-cooked again with random vegetables.
In my experience this fried chicken goes well with a lot of vegetables, so it's pretty versatile.
By the way I almost never use dark soy sauce because in Singapore, it's always a thick sweet liquid. For some reason Singaporeans just like sweet dishes or something.
I'm also starting to raise the difficulty level by cooking salmon.
Salmon, though expensive, is safe because I'm perfectly ok with eating it raw.
Frying it after marinating in garlic and starch merely provides me with some variety so that I don't always eat sashimi as the sole dish under the Seafood category in my diet in general.
The other day I did that with a piece of salmon belly with a large chunk from the back.
This is a similar piece I bought a few days ago to make a encore performance because it was so good.
The belly part was crispy but the back part was cooked only half a centimetre in on all sides.
And I made sure the skin was fried more to make it very crispy (and to make any undetected scales edible).
Costs $5, so I'll see if I can get it from the wet market next time for a lower price (and a larger piece).
Maybe this time, instead of frying it whole, I should slice up the back portion and make everything crispy.
Hmm...
Nevertheless this is far cheaper than any salmon dish of similar proportions I can get outside. How much would a bit of garlic, some salt, some starch, some oil, the gas, the water and detergent, and time cost?
Found apps that automatically change profile (to Silent and back) but only one is free: Situations. Not sure if it's going to work since I don't have an actual data plan, only the cheapest data plan that charges exorbitant rates per kb but doesn't have a monthly charge.
Not sure if GPS works without an internet connection.
And something kinda good and really confusing just happened.
I found a remittance form that was used to send a large sum of money to a factory in China earlier this year.
This means I don't owe them any money.
I thought I owed them some money, according to the remittance forms I've found, and the bank's pass book did not say to whom the money was remitted to.
The factory boss has been asking for his money because apparently, he doesn't keep records of our payments (yea yea I call bullshit on that too but it's not like I can do anything about it).
Now with this scanned and emailed to him, I can prove that he has been grossly overpaid. Hence I expect him to stop bugging me about money for quite some time.
Feels so good not to owe anyone any money.
Can't blame my mum, who was the one handling everything. She's disorganized but normally she could remember where everything was, or at least the general areas.
Good thing I have yet to send him the second half of what I supposedly owed him due to mistakes on his part. I wonder if the bank is able to cancel the remittance though.
Tuesday 8 November 2011
Rant 889 / Predatory Instinct
An app that syncs with GPS to change the phone to Silent mode and back when travelling in and out of pre-specified areas would be really nice.
I forgot to change it back to General mode the other day and missed work-related calls from two people. Only remembered about the phone late at night and it was already too late.
Or maybe there already is one and I just haven't found it yet.
Learnt about the Terraria Server Client recently so I tried it today. Very nice. I'm now in almost total control of the server on my PC which two friends join everyday (or night on workdays). Only feature I wish it has is the ability to undo damages without having to rebuild anything manually.
The Hellevator is complete. Apparently that's what it's called, according to the Terraria wiki.
Nothing much happening below. I've got enough hellstone to get the complete Molten Armour set plus all the weapons except for the bow. I've even got the gun.
Killed Skeletron with Vic and explored the Dungeon but I feel it's too much work for the loots, even though there are more of them than anywhere else.
I'm... running out of things to do. I find that I don't actually care about great weapons since it's not like there are monsters I can't handle with the current Molten set.
I've even visited the four edges of the 2D world.
The most interesting feature of the game, IMO, was the exploration. All the work for the equipment was to allow me to explore without dying.
Now I think I've seen everywhere the game has to offer.
All I've got now is build new stuff. Vic's getting a floating jungle on our tower and Ivan's been screwing around with lava.
So I realized that I made a major mistake in my first order of goods when I told my mum about it. She's still close to normal now.
Nothing I can do about it. Ordering more to cover the mistake isn't worth it. Just got to avoid this again.
Third day now and I noticed memory problems. The biggest was how she has forgotten that my bro used to cry a lot as a baby and a toddler.
She's probably aware of it due to my reactions but she seems to have accepted that.
At least she still talks normally and ate the sushi and sashimi I bought before going there. Still can't stand. Just sitting upright makes her dizzy.
My bro and I went to visit her yesterday and we noticed that.
She was trying to get to the bathroom to pass motion because the first time she did it in her diapers it made the room stink.
Still does but when the nurses changed her diapers while I was there, I noticed they used plenty of air freshener during the process.
She's the only one who eats healthily in that ward so it's only her who causes the room to stink.
The thought is certainly depressing.
According to the doctors on the first day, the intestines are usually one of the first body parts to shut down in dying people because that's among the least important organs. Therefore they can't eat and don't mind being starved.
In fact if you force food down their throats, they could very easily puke. In their weakened state, the vomit would likely go down into their lungs, causing infection and giving the doctors a new major headache.
So when a person gets so weak he/she stops eating, you can be sure it's almost over.
The old lady next to her can't even communicate properly in any way and she needs help just to turn her body while lying in bed.
I found that out only because she called out to me and tried to get me to lift her leg.
When a person sleeps on the right side, the left leg would curl up. She couldn't even curl her leg in that position.
That was the first time she asked me for help. The next time, I couldn't tell what she wanted and neither could my mum, so she pressed the red button for the nurse instead.
Somehow the nurse knew what she wanted despite her extremely vague and weak hand gestures.
Everytime I'm there she just lies there staring at nothing. Eats very little, almost nothing, even when her sons visit her with food and presumably her granddaughter.
Incredibly depressed, just waiting to die.
The third lady in the ward is suffering from chronic pain and is constantly under some sort of anaesthesia or something. Wakes up once in while to call out in Mandarin for a doctor to help with her pain despite the red button lying next to her hand on the bed.
She does get up to eat what her sons buy, although that does nothing to convince me she's actually aware of much.
Seeing her gives me an idea of what to expect.
The only real person in the ward is my mum. The rest are practically dead.
Fortunately the lady with the insanely thick makeup visited her today just before I was about to leave to cook dinner for my bro and his gf. Moreoever she has a phone, so I don't think she's too bored. Hopefully.
To me that place, however bright both the environment and the nurses are, is very depressing. Still, that's the best place she could be right now.
I like how attentive the nurses are; I guess that's where the money goes to.
From what I've seen, there are probably more nurses than wards, and each ward is usually not fully occupied (5 beds). There are also a few rooms with just a single bed, but I think those are the rooms the social worker at NUH told me about where the families can stay with the dying patients during their final days.
I forgot to change it back to General mode the other day and missed work-related calls from two people. Only remembered about the phone late at night and it was already too late.
Or maybe there already is one and I just haven't found it yet.
Learnt about the Terraria Server Client recently so I tried it today. Very nice. I'm now in almost total control of the server on my PC which two friends join everyday (or night on workdays). Only feature I wish it has is the ability to undo damages without having to rebuild anything manually.
The Hellevator is complete. Apparently that's what it's called, according to the Terraria wiki.
Nothing much happening below. I've got enough hellstone to get the complete Molten Armour set plus all the weapons except for the bow. I've even got the gun.
Killed Skeletron with Vic and explored the Dungeon but I feel it's too much work for the loots, even though there are more of them than anywhere else.
I'm... running out of things to do. I find that I don't actually care about great weapons since it's not like there are monsters I can't handle with the current Molten set.
I've even visited the four edges of the 2D world.
The most interesting feature of the game, IMO, was the exploration. All the work for the equipment was to allow me to explore without dying.
Now I think I've seen everywhere the game has to offer.
All I've got now is build new stuff. Vic's getting a floating jungle on our tower and Ivan's been screwing around with lava.
So I realized that I made a major mistake in my first order of goods when I told my mum about it. She's still close to normal now.
Nothing I can do about it. Ordering more to cover the mistake isn't worth it. Just got to avoid this again.
Third day now and I noticed memory problems. The biggest was how she has forgotten that my bro used to cry a lot as a baby and a toddler.
She's probably aware of it due to my reactions but she seems to have accepted that.
At least she still talks normally and ate the sushi and sashimi I bought before going there. Still can't stand. Just sitting upright makes her dizzy.
My bro and I went to visit her yesterday and we noticed that.
She was trying to get to the bathroom to pass motion because the first time she did it in her diapers it made the room stink.
Still does but when the nurses changed her diapers while I was there, I noticed they used plenty of air freshener during the process.
She's the only one who eats healthily in that ward so it's only her who causes the room to stink.
The thought is certainly depressing.
According to the doctors on the first day, the intestines are usually one of the first body parts to shut down in dying people because that's among the least important organs. Therefore they can't eat and don't mind being starved.
In fact if you force food down their throats, they could very easily puke. In their weakened state, the vomit would likely go down into their lungs, causing infection and giving the doctors a new major headache.
So when a person gets so weak he/she stops eating, you can be sure it's almost over.
The old lady next to her can't even communicate properly in any way and she needs help just to turn her body while lying in bed.
I found that out only because she called out to me and tried to get me to lift her leg.
When a person sleeps on the right side, the left leg would curl up. She couldn't even curl her leg in that position.
That was the first time she asked me for help. The next time, I couldn't tell what she wanted and neither could my mum, so she pressed the red button for the nurse instead.
Somehow the nurse knew what she wanted despite her extremely vague and weak hand gestures.
Everytime I'm there she just lies there staring at nothing. Eats very little, almost nothing, even when her sons visit her with food and presumably her granddaughter.
Incredibly depressed, just waiting to die.
The third lady in the ward is suffering from chronic pain and is constantly under some sort of anaesthesia or something. Wakes up once in while to call out in Mandarin for a doctor to help with her pain despite the red button lying next to her hand on the bed.
She does get up to eat what her sons buy, although that does nothing to convince me she's actually aware of much.
Seeing her gives me an idea of what to expect.
The only real person in the ward is my mum. The rest are practically dead.
Fortunately the lady with the insanely thick makeup visited her today just before I was about to leave to cook dinner for my bro and his gf. Moreoever she has a phone, so I don't think she's too bored. Hopefully.
To me that place, however bright both the environment and the nurses are, is very depressing. Still, that's the best place she could be right now.
I like how attentive the nurses are; I guess that's where the money goes to.
From what I've seen, there are probably more nurses than wards, and each ward is usually not fully occupied (5 beds). There are also a few rooms with just a single bed, but I think those are the rooms the social worker at NUH told me about where the families can stay with the dying patients during their final days.
Sunday 6 November 2011
Rant 888 / The Most Auspicious Rant Ever Unless I Publish Another 8000 Rants
Terraria is a pretty fun game. More things to do than I expected.
Initially I thought it would be like a crappy 2D version of Minecraft but there's strong RPG feel to it. For example you can kill monsters for materials to make armour with and there are different armour sets for each type of material, most of which can be found in the ground.
First I built a tower with dirt blocks. Turned out to be quite awesome because the grass and vines grew onto it and now the tower is almost completely green except for a few parts where stone and glass were used.
After building a few rooms and a large floating platform for plants to grow on, which I now call the "Sky Garden", at a height I thought was sufficient, I realized the sky was the true limit.
So I raised it further till it reached the very top of the Huge-sized world.
When that was done, I jumped off and realized it would be awesome if I didn't just land on the "sea-level".
So I extended the bottom of the tower to the Underworld zone at the very bottom of the world.
Took a long time and it's still incomplete. The bottom is merely at the top of the Underworld where the sea of lava is still not visible yet.
The fall is very long though.
After this, I'll probably adjust my tower so that I can fall from the top of the world to the very bottom. It's going to be a long, long, long way down.
As for armour, I'm trying to get hellstone to replace my silver stuff. Skipped gold. Not worth the effort when hellstone and obsidian are easier to find. It's boring to dig randomly to search for gold deposits.
In fact I really dislike hunting for Demonite back then, but I didn't have a choice. The only alternative was to kill the Eye of Cthulhu, which I could only do with help from friends. Even then we still failed once.
While reading the Terraria wiki on the metals I was finding, I learnt of things I could explore that I didn't expect, like the Dungeon entrance guarded by the Skeletron and the underground jungle.
Looks like I won't get bored of this game for quite a while.
The Greeks are full of shit.
Anyway, why does everyone hate his/her own country?
I think we humans are still adapting to the massive amounts of knowledge our technologies are giving us. Right now, we still know too much about each other and need to adapt.
People have always been this disgusting. In some ways, people used to be much worse. It's just that news didn't travel nor spread this quickly until the radio was invented in the 19th century, so people didn't know so much about everyone else.
Not to mention the absence of the ubiquitous camera and the paparazzi back then.
I guess the thing I miss most is the sense of security of having someone I can always count on to handle anything I can't/don't.
It was the same for my mum when my father passed away.
The fact that she is leaving is not as bad as the fact that I now can only depend on myself. There is nobody acting as my safety net from now on.
I've long prepared myself mentally for her death; I just didn't expect this independence to hit me as hard as it did.
Visited her today. For some reason my bro didn't yesterday after I got back from accompanying her there, even after I told him to go visit her while she's still herself.
Didn't seem too different today, fortunately. I guess they're reducing the dosage really gradually, or maybe the condition just worsens at an increasing rate.
I've been with her far more than I used to when she was fine.
I guess people are like cups - they can only contain this much of any emotion. You can't make a person insanely happy for years, then give him shit for the rest of his life even though it would even out.
Emotions don't work like that.
Same with me and her.
Even if I've been a very good son before, it doesn't make it right for me to stop seeing her now.
In fact, it doesn't even matter how good or bad I used to be. All it matters is what I do now.
I don't think I'm being very clear, but I don't care.
It was a little confusing when I first arrived.
There was this large group of people in the ward, some of whom were talking to her.
One was sitting next to her, a middle-aged lady in a black dress with incredibly thick makeup. Then there was this younger lady standing next to her in a white top and light green short skirt.
When I saw her face, I only thought," Whoa! Must be her apprentice."
To be honest, even with their powder-masks on, I can see why they did it to such an extent.
Apparently these people were masseurs doing volunteer work in the hospice. Nice people. Friendly, trusting. The lady in black even left her bag in the chair when she left to give us some privacy.
Unfortunately if my mum's memory is still normal, a hospice is still not a safe place. It seems she witnessed someone stealing some kind of card in the dark at night, probably an ATM card, and returning it in the early morning.
The only thing she has now that's worth anything is her old HTC phone.
Initially I thought it would be like a crappy 2D version of Minecraft but there's strong RPG feel to it. For example you can kill monsters for materials to make armour with and there are different armour sets for each type of material, most of which can be found in the ground.
First I built a tower with dirt blocks. Turned out to be quite awesome because the grass and vines grew onto it and now the tower is almost completely green except for a few parts where stone and glass were used.
After building a few rooms and a large floating platform for plants to grow on, which I now call the "Sky Garden", at a height I thought was sufficient, I realized the sky was the true limit.
So I raised it further till it reached the very top of the Huge-sized world.
When that was done, I jumped off and realized it would be awesome if I didn't just land on the "sea-level".
So I extended the bottom of the tower to the Underworld zone at the very bottom of the world.
Took a long time and it's still incomplete. The bottom is merely at the top of the Underworld where the sea of lava is still not visible yet.
The fall is very long though.
After this, I'll probably adjust my tower so that I can fall from the top of the world to the very bottom. It's going to be a long, long, long way down.
As for armour, I'm trying to get hellstone to replace my silver stuff. Skipped gold. Not worth the effort when hellstone and obsidian are easier to find. It's boring to dig randomly to search for gold deposits.
In fact I really dislike hunting for Demonite back then, but I didn't have a choice. The only alternative was to kill the Eye of Cthulhu, which I could only do with help from friends. Even then we still failed once.
While reading the Terraria wiki on the metals I was finding, I learnt of things I could explore that I didn't expect, like the Dungeon entrance guarded by the Skeletron and the underground jungle.
Looks like I won't get bored of this game for quite a while.
The Greeks are full of shit.
Anyway, why does everyone hate his/her own country?
I think we humans are still adapting to the massive amounts of knowledge our technologies are giving us. Right now, we still know too much about each other and need to adapt.
People have always been this disgusting. In some ways, people used to be much worse. It's just that news didn't travel nor spread this quickly until the radio was invented in the 19th century, so people didn't know so much about everyone else.
Not to mention the absence of the ubiquitous camera and the paparazzi back then.
I guess the thing I miss most is the sense of security of having someone I can always count on to handle anything I can't/don't.
It was the same for my mum when my father passed away.
The fact that she is leaving is not as bad as the fact that I now can only depend on myself. There is nobody acting as my safety net from now on.
I've long prepared myself mentally for her death; I just didn't expect this independence to hit me as hard as it did.
Visited her today. For some reason my bro didn't yesterday after I got back from accompanying her there, even after I told him to go visit her while she's still herself.
Didn't seem too different today, fortunately. I guess they're reducing the dosage really gradually, or maybe the condition just worsens at an increasing rate.
I've been with her far more than I used to when she was fine.
I guess people are like cups - they can only contain this much of any emotion. You can't make a person insanely happy for years, then give him shit for the rest of his life even though it would even out.
Emotions don't work like that.
Same with me and her.
Even if I've been a very good son before, it doesn't make it right for me to stop seeing her now.
In fact, it doesn't even matter how good or bad I used to be. All it matters is what I do now.
I don't think I'm being very clear, but I don't care.
It was a little confusing when I first arrived.
There was this large group of people in the ward, some of whom were talking to her.
One was sitting next to her, a middle-aged lady in a black dress with incredibly thick makeup. Then there was this younger lady standing next to her in a white top and light green short skirt.
When I saw her face, I only thought," Whoa! Must be her apprentice."
To be honest, even with their powder-masks on, I can see why they did it to such an extent.
Apparently these people were masseurs doing volunteer work in the hospice. Nice people. Friendly, trusting. The lady in black even left her bag in the chair when she left to give us some privacy.
Unfortunately if my mum's memory is still normal, a hospice is still not a safe place. It seems she witnessed someone stealing some kind of card in the dark at night, probably an ATM card, and returning it in the early morning.
The only thing she has now that's worth anything is her old HTC phone.
Saturday 5 November 2011
Rant 887 / Brass Chandelier
Blatant propaganda, but it works.
Of course Bill Gates played it cool when responding to Steve Jobs's remarks about him.
“When you think about why is the world better today, the Internet, the personal computer, the phone, the way you can deal with information is just so phenomenal…Over the course of the 30 years we worked together, he said a lot of very nice things about me and he said a lot of tough things. I mean, he faced, several times at Apple, the fact that their products were so premium priced that they literally might not stay in the marketplace. So the fact that we were succeeding with high volume products, including a range of prices, because of the way we worked with multiple companies, it’s tough. So the fact that at various times, he felt beleaguered, he felt like he was the good guy and we were the bad guys, you know, very understandable. I respect Steve. We got to work together. We spurred each other on, even as competitors. None of that bothers me at all.”
Duh. He was winning so much when he retired. Remember when the Mac was the other computer that nobody really gave a damn about and developers created softwares on Windows before porting it to Mac?
Microsoft only got into this current losing streak after Gates was gone.
I realized that when someone dies in the movies, there's always this person who tells the grieving family/friends that "he/she will live on forever in our hearts".
That's bull.
I can barely remember my father other than he was a nag and a workaholic.
Then when I look at the senile granny in the hospital ward I wonder if she would recognize her parents even if they were standing right in front of her.
Seriously, she asks about where she was every single time I was there. I usually don't understand what she says but the word "hospital" is really quite easy to catch.
And every night she would have a loud argument in Malay or Indonesian with her Javanese maid (heard her mention that when another patient asked her) at about 7.30pm.
The issue?
The maid had to get her to take out her dentures and put them in a glass of water before she could return home every night.
For some reason she always refused to do so. The funniest thing was how the maid kept mentioning the word "doctor". I bet the old lady was asking her why she was in a hospital every time that word was spoken.
Last night it got so bad the maid left in tears and got back with a nurse. It took about 10mins before the nurse told her not to force it if she didn't want to take it out, so she left. Then the nurse came back about 15mins later and somehow managed to complete the task successfully without resorting to raising her voice.
I guess I should be glad that isn't going to be happening to me... unless I get married.
Oh those Russians...
O.O
So I accompanied my mum as she was transferred to Dover Park Hospice this morning. I don't know why it wasn't Assisi but it doesn't really matter.
The ride itself was awesome.
Seriously, I was in the front seat so I saw everything this time.
The driver was going at over 100kmph with the warning lights on, so every car ahead gave way to us along the highway.
A few cars tried to accelerate just so that they didn't have to change lane but when they reached certain points with lower speed limits like tunnels they had no choice but to slow down and do that.
The ambulance didn't give a fuck about speed limits. We continued at over 100kmph even in the tunnel where the limit was 80kmph.
Throughout the journey we stayed on the right lane, and I don't think the driver ever used the brakes except at red lights.
Maintenance must be cheaper for ambulances.
This time I don't really know why it cost me only $35 for the longer trip compared to the $80 to bring her to the hospital from home. Might have to do with the fact that it was the hospital that booked this ambulance for us.
The hospice was a brighter place than expected. Not so well-maintained on the outside but they really put in a lot of effort to keep the inside clean.
Took them a while but they finally assembled the two doctors and the social worker to talk to me in a meeting room.
There they explained what is happening to us and what will happen.
My mum's been more normal since two days ago. Initially I thought it was because of the new air mattress she was using since the night before that.
Apparently the main reason for her improvement was that they've been giving her steroids as her medical treatment for her brain's tumour. This is the alternative to surgery and would reduce inflammation and swelling which were causing her to be sleepy and confused.
Unfortunately steroids can't be taken in large doses for a long time, and yesterday was the last day she was allowed to take the maximum dosage.
No wonder she appeared almost normal since last night. I was worried it could be painful for her before she could go unconscious till the end.
This morning, her doctor at NUH faxed a memo to the doctors at the hospice to gradually reduce her dosage to a level that could be sustained for a longer period.
In other words, she will be deteriorating from now on.
This was probably the worst part. Feels like it reopened an old wound.
As for the pain, they assured me they can handle that.
They also touched on several other issues like whether our relatives know about this and how we're coping.
I feel like shit. Didn't feel like organizing the lunch at Rocky's Pizza for tomorrow, still don't.
Finally the doctors left me alone with the social worker who discussed with me issues like the money involved and the funeral.
Money is a problem. I have no idea how much she used to makes. A vague idea, yes, but no clear picture.
I think I'll have to find some way to see if I can print out her tax report or whatever it's called.
I haven't even paid income tax before; I only just applied for a Singpass (user ID and password for most government stuff online) last month.
...
Hmm... It was easier than I thought. Found the acknowledgement notices from IRAS for income tax e-filing that mention her total income for the year. Printed the one for 2011. Hopefully they accept this. They should. They're not the IRAS.
As for her will, the social worker told me to make sure it was valid by speaking to whoever is keeping it.
From what I know it was an insurance agent who was very helpful to us in the past. Not sure about the legalities regarding insurance agents and wills so I'll have to check.
As for her siblings, the social worker reminded me to think in their shoes. I haven't. I don't want to. I asked my mum several times about this, including once today and the answer never changed. I know the consequences of this but that's why I asked her so many times to make sure it was not a decision made when she was mentally affected by her condition.
Whatever happens, it was not my decision.
The funeral itself was not as simple as I thought, she explained. I should probably call up the various undertakers because apparently they offer "packages" that include things we need in a wake and etc, and they all offer different prices.
After that discussion I went back to the ward and took a look around.
There's an ceiling fan for every bed and an air-conditioning system for the building. The former is for daytime and latter for night.
The facilities are also slightly inferior to the ones at NUH. Older stuff, mainly. I was actually quite impressed by how new everything look in the NUH ward.
Then again, that was the cheapest of the premium non-subsidised wards.
In terms of pricing, it's actually the same as staying in that NUH ward. It's $250 per night in Dover Park, only 1 type of ward, and $260 per night for Class B1 in NUH.
Both are non-subsidised rates. One of the first things they asked me multiple times was our financial status. They couldn't decide how much to charge me without knowing about it.
That was pretty unknown in my case but like I mentioned, I'm just going to try to hand her that notice and see how much they can subsidise. In the best case scenario it could hit the same price range as Class C wards in NUH, which is over $30.
Anyway I think a larger portion of the budget goes to the staff than the equipment. Even the food is crappier. My guess is there are more doctors and nurses per patient in the hospice, hence the price.
There are even lawyers who visit that place, but those are volunteers.
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Rant 886 / Nine Days Till Skyrim
People usually make decisions before they rationalize them. Only sometimes do they actually rationalize their decisions before choosing.
This is what I observe in myself time and again.
This morning I find myself trying as hard as I could to be as vague as possible when a factory owner in China called me to ask about my mum, among several things.
The main thing I observed is that short answers are the best misleading truths.
I hate this.
I enjoy making plans to lower costs but I don't enjoy the process of making money.
It's so troublesome. There are so many little things involved that I must keep in mind all the time, and lots of others that I must recall once in a while regularly.
If my bro joins me, I want to let him handle most of these crap.
Problem is, if I do that, what will my role be then?
Will I just take over the job of the PA which is currently taken by the most experienced employee?
Will I also take over all the organizing and paperwork while he handles the walking and talking?
I don't know.
Neither of us are particularly tasteful, so I don't believe either of us should handle the buying and selling alone.
I just wish he would stop being the "anything" sort of guy. A boss can't just say," Anything," when someone asks him a question. That would beat the purpose of having a boss, and the employee might as well be his own boss since he's making the decisions.
On the other hand it's not like I don't have my own bad habit - I frequently start my sentences with "Er.." or "Uhm.." to give myself time to think while acknowledging the question.
I cannot keep doing that but I don't know how to stop. It makes me sound like I'm hesitating and hesitation can mean plenty of things, none of them good.
So there's this Tafep organization in Singapore that handles problems regarding discriminatory practices against locals.
I bet Singaporeans like that.
So I wonder if it's also a discriminatory practice if a company hires only Singaporeans even if there are better qualified foreigners.
I wonder if that's still fair and meritocratic.
Interesting tips for saving money when shopping for food. I actually follow a few of them.
The first, "eat at home", I follow all the time. Given I do spend a bit to eat out to give myself some variety ( I can't make bread and I find that fish is usually too easily overcooked), I still try to make one meal per day at home.
And I skip breakfast everyday.
Sometimes I also save more by eating leftovers.
It's actually something I've had in mind for a long time, ever since I heard how some of my aunts in Canada cook in bulk and my cousins just reheat the frozen food when they're hungry.
I believe that's cheaper than just eating at home.
The catch is probably that the food needs to be full of gravy or practically a stew because the cold will dry up the food even if it's sealed in an airtight container. It's hard to moisturize a piece of freeze-dried cooked meat without overcooking it.
Then there's "put on blinders" which basically mean you just buy what you had planned to buy.
This is extremely important in most supermarkets because the placement of all their products and the planning of the aisles are in fact done in such a way to make shoppers want to make unplanned and unnecessary purchases. It's a psychological thing.
Therefore to save money, one must ignore these influences and stick with the original plan.
I try to do that, but sometimes when I forget what I wanted to buy, I tend to look around and fall victim to this.
"Avoiding prepared food" is absolutely true. Not only do they taste bad (unless you buy the really expensive stuff), they cost far more than what you can get if you would just take half an hour to cook something simple.
On the other hand, if they were referring to sardines, tuna and baked beans, fuck that.
"Buy in bulk" is totally obvious. Toothpaste immediately comes to mind.
Unfortunately due to the number of shops that sell this at different prices in my neighbourhood, I've found myself buying overpriced toothpaste several times. There are at least 4 stores I can go to to buy toothpaste that come in packs of three and they all have different price tags. I just can't remember which is the cheapest because a few of them change their products once in a while. And not only that, but the different brands of toothpaste also come in different volumes per tube.
Recently I've even placed a shortcut to the calculator in my phone's main menu for problems like this.
Thanks to the calculator, I realized that in one of those stores, the cheapest Listerine mouthwash is actually the 500ml bottle with no free mini-bottle. I didn't expect that to be cheaper than the 750ml ones that come with a free extra 80ml bottle of the same mouthwash. Usually bigger amounts mean lower price per ml but for some reason, it wasn't true there.
"Compare prices and stores" is what I should be doing. I just don't want to walk around so much. Lazy me.
"Shop for sales", IMO, is a pain because I would then have to shop only on specific days or times.
"Watch "Best Before" or "Sell By" Dates" is a must. Even the Shop N Save here can sell expired products.
"Pay in Cash" is the only tip I disagree on. For people in Singapore, get a debit card with no annual fee at least, like the DBS Platinum. It's just like a credit card but doesn't allow loans aka credit. The one I have gives a 0.3% cashback on all purchases and 3% for purchases at the Shop N Save on Saturdays.
Still, this really doesn't justify shopping there for most things. I can get everything but fresh meat and vegetables for cheaper elsewhere. Fresh meat and vegetables, technically, I can get for cheaper too but like I said before, I just can't be arsed to shop in the morning for them.
This is what I observe in myself time and again.
This morning I find myself trying as hard as I could to be as vague as possible when a factory owner in China called me to ask about my mum, among several things.
The main thing I observed is that short answers are the best misleading truths.
I hate this.
I enjoy making plans to lower costs but I don't enjoy the process of making money.
It's so troublesome. There are so many little things involved that I must keep in mind all the time, and lots of others that I must recall once in a while regularly.
If my bro joins me, I want to let him handle most of these crap.
Problem is, if I do that, what will my role be then?
Will I just take over the job of the PA which is currently taken by the most experienced employee?
Will I also take over all the organizing and paperwork while he handles the walking and talking?
I don't know.
Neither of us are particularly tasteful, so I don't believe either of us should handle the buying and selling alone.
I just wish he would stop being the "anything" sort of guy. A boss can't just say," Anything," when someone asks him a question. That would beat the purpose of having a boss, and the employee might as well be his own boss since he's making the decisions.
On the other hand it's not like I don't have my own bad habit - I frequently start my sentences with "Er.." or "Uhm.." to give myself time to think while acknowledging the question.
I cannot keep doing that but I don't know how to stop. It makes me sound like I'm hesitating and hesitation can mean plenty of things, none of them good.
So there's this Tafep organization in Singapore that handles problems regarding discriminatory practices against locals.
I bet Singaporeans like that.
So I wonder if it's also a discriminatory practice if a company hires only Singaporeans even if there are better qualified foreigners.
I wonder if that's still fair and meritocratic.
Interesting tips for saving money when shopping for food. I actually follow a few of them.
The first, "eat at home", I follow all the time. Given I do spend a bit to eat out to give myself some variety ( I can't make bread and I find that fish is usually too easily overcooked), I still try to make one meal per day at home.
And I skip breakfast everyday.
Sometimes I also save more by eating leftovers.
It's actually something I've had in mind for a long time, ever since I heard how some of my aunts in Canada cook in bulk and my cousins just reheat the frozen food when they're hungry.
I believe that's cheaper than just eating at home.
The catch is probably that the food needs to be full of gravy or practically a stew because the cold will dry up the food even if it's sealed in an airtight container. It's hard to moisturize a piece of freeze-dried cooked meat without overcooking it.
Then there's "put on blinders" which basically mean you just buy what you had planned to buy.
This is extremely important in most supermarkets because the placement of all their products and the planning of the aisles are in fact done in such a way to make shoppers want to make unplanned and unnecessary purchases. It's a psychological thing.
Therefore to save money, one must ignore these influences and stick with the original plan.
I try to do that, but sometimes when I forget what I wanted to buy, I tend to look around and fall victim to this.
"Avoiding prepared food" is absolutely true. Not only do they taste bad (unless you buy the really expensive stuff), they cost far more than what you can get if you would just take half an hour to cook something simple.
On the other hand, if they were referring to sardines, tuna and baked beans, fuck that.
"Buy in bulk" is totally obvious. Toothpaste immediately comes to mind.
Unfortunately due to the number of shops that sell this at different prices in my neighbourhood, I've found myself buying overpriced toothpaste several times. There are at least 4 stores I can go to to buy toothpaste that come in packs of three and they all have different price tags. I just can't remember which is the cheapest because a few of them change their products once in a while. And not only that, but the different brands of toothpaste also come in different volumes per tube.
Recently I've even placed a shortcut to the calculator in my phone's main menu for problems like this.
Thanks to the calculator, I realized that in one of those stores, the cheapest Listerine mouthwash is actually the 500ml bottle with no free mini-bottle. I didn't expect that to be cheaper than the 750ml ones that come with a free extra 80ml bottle of the same mouthwash. Usually bigger amounts mean lower price per ml but for some reason, it wasn't true there.
"Compare prices and stores" is what I should be doing. I just don't want to walk around so much. Lazy me.
"Shop for sales", IMO, is a pain because I would then have to shop only on specific days or times.
"Watch "Best Before" or "Sell By" Dates" is a must. Even the Shop N Save here can sell expired products.
"Pay in Cash" is the only tip I disagree on. For people in Singapore, get a debit card with no annual fee at least, like the DBS Platinum. It's just like a credit card but doesn't allow loans aka credit. The one I have gives a 0.3% cashback on all purchases and 3% for purchases at the Shop N Save on Saturdays.
Still, this really doesn't justify shopping there for most things. I can get everything but fresh meat and vegetables for cheaper elsewhere. Fresh meat and vegetables, technically, I can get for cheaper too but like I said before, I just can't be arsed to shop in the morning for them.
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