Workaholic tendencies

I am definitely a freaky workaholic. I complain about how much work I have but even when I am officially on holiday, I am checking my email and fixing stuff for work. I guess it is my sense of responsibility... *saint*

10 signs that Hsiu Pin is a WORKAHOLIC:
10. Gives boss my mobile number.
9. Answer calls from boss even when I am on vacation.
8. Answer work emails even when I am on vacation.
7. Carries work documents in my carry-on instead of a spare change of clothes.
6. Send detailed instructions to my replacement but end up doing the work instead.
5. Bought an anti-social device so that I can use it at work.
4. Remembers all object codes by heart.
3. Goes online and IM work colleagues about work!!
2. Leaves the office and head off to the airport and immediately check work email AND continue working until I board the flight... *I am so sad*
1. Applies for vacation and END UP WORKING WHILE ON VACATION... *I am sadder than sad*

Ok... how much is it to buy a life?

Comments are working now...

Dear Gentle Readers,

I was recently informed that comments on my blog were not appearing. It was obviously due to my own itchy fingers. I saw an option that said Moderate Comments and I thought, wow... what a great idea! Unfortunately, I don't get an email saying that someone posted a comment on my blog and is waiting for my approval. So I opened it up again. Can't be bothered moderating the comments... I want lots and lots and lots of comments! Keep them all coming...

Love,
Me

ASD

Yay! Guess what? I finally own my very own ASD (anti-social device)!! Yes, being anti-social is just so "in" right now...
Basically I usually condemn the use of ASD. I just don't like it when people use it at work (although I have now decided to be anti-social at work and use it). After all, it gives the message "Do not talk to me, I do not want to talk to you"...
However, being in America has finally taken its toll on me and has transformed me into an anti-social ball. I never thought I would buy an iPod but with the long flights, I just want to avoid making conversations with people on the plane so I just plug it in and voila... the message comes across to people. Woo hoo!!

Yes, 7 months in America and Hsiu Pin = Anti-social Person (ASP).

Not so indie and other things...

Got this from Jigsaw is an indie chick. Decided to post up my results as well then...

You Are 45% Indie

You're pretty indie, but you don't make a fuss letting everyone know. You just do what you like. You enjoy many types of things - from trendy to bizarre.

How Indie Are You?

Your Dosha is Pitta

You have a quick mind, a gift for persuasion, and a sharp sense of humor. You have both the drive and people skills to be a very successful leader. Argumentative and a bit stubborn, you have been known to be a little too set in your ways. But while you may be biased toward your own point of view, you are always honest, fair, and ethical. With friends: You are outgoing and open to anyone who might want to talk to you In love: You are picky but passionate To achieve more balance: Be less judgmental of those around you, and take cool walks in the moonlight.

What's Your Dosha?

Flat head?

I found out that I have many special talents. Check this out!!! Hmm... I guess doing yoga really helps with my posture. Heh heh heh! Otherwise, it just means that I have a flat head. Hmph! Me thinketh I can visit Africa and balance lots of fruits on my head. Yes... carry all the fiber around with me for my 7 portions of fruits and vegetables a day.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - The Treehouse

For fans of the hit series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, here's the usual tagline: In a race against time on a project that would ordinarily take months to achieve, a team of designers, hundreds of workmen and even the neighbours, have just seven days to completely renovate an entire house - every single room, plus the exterior and landscaping...

Before: An ordinary treehouse with barely any furnishing and no room to move around is just not enough to sustain human life.

After: An exquisite house is build around the trees. In fact, no trees were harmed in the making of this house...

Flashdance... What a feeling!

First, when there's nothing... but a slow glowing dream...
That your fear seems to hide deep inside your mind...
All alone I have cried silent tears full of pride...
In a world made of steel, made of stone

Well I hear the music, close my eyes... feel the rhythm...
Wrap around... take a hold of my heart....
What a feeling!! bein's believin'!!
I can't have it all, now I'm dancin' for my life....
Take your passion, and make it happen....
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life


Yes... flashdance... my style...

The corn blog

Since this is a slightly x-rated blog, I have changed the names of all the characters involved.

How much entertainment can an ear of corn give? This dehydrated corn costs only CAD$3 but it provided days of entertainment!! Funny and Shopaholic bought this and they brought it with them to Humming. The trunk of the car was so small and we were trying our best to fit everything (girls just can't travel light...) into it but decided to just pass the corn to La Mer to keep... BUT... SHE LOST IT!!

This opened up hours and hours of corny innuendos... Let me just list down some of it:
1. La Mer, are you using it as a sex toy? - It is ribbed, for your pleasure...
2. I guess you won't be lonesome tonight....
3. La Mer: I really dunno where it went!!!, Pirate: Wow... you can keep it in there for so long?
4. La Mer (making more excuses and drinking water at the same time): maybe it popped out... Pirate: Are you so hot down there until you got it to POP??? La Mer (choking on water and spraying it all out)... Funny: Ooh... you got her all wet now...
5. La Mer: All of you can go out and enjoy the view! I will stay in the car and look for the corn!! Pirate (under the breathe): Well... looks like you'll do anything to be alone with the corn!



Heh heh heh... I am sure you can come up with more... I welcome any additions!!

By the way, Pirate finally found the corn at the back of the car and La Mer was so relieved. I guess the corn helped relieved frustrations?? Hahaha!!

By the way, the second picture shows what happens to the corn when it gets HOT HOT HOT!!

Lavender

Do you actually know what lavender looks like? Or is it just a purple flower thingy in your mind? Well, there were heaps and heaps of purple flowers in Vancouver. On the way to Whistler, we passed quite a few purple flowers. Linda and I thought they were lavender so we were exclaiming "Lavender! Lavender!"

Jenny brought us crushing down to reality by informing us that it was NOT lavender. Hmph!

Oh well... it was purple anyways!

Words of wisdom

My project manager is half-baked... if you take a bite, you might get indigestion.
~GC: 29 May 2006

The wrong side of the bed...

This is a tale of the sadistic, killing alarm clock. With the advancement of technology, it has been quite a while since I used a proper alarm clock. After all, who needs one with our mobile phones at our side most of the time? We just need to set a time and bingo! Some smart person also created a button called “Snooze”. It is definitely one of the better creations of all time. However, if you are not used to the sound of the alarm clock, you might either:
1. Not wake up at all or
2. Jump out of the bed with your heart pounding

The Sheraton Wall Centre in downtown Vancouver provides each room with a radio alarm clock. We got a room with 2 double beds but the beds were slightly smaller than a queen size bed. Georgie and Jenny shared a bed and lucky me - I got a bed all to myself.

Since Georgie was the closest to the alarm clock, she was in charge of setting the alarm in the morning. The silly clock was 1 hour fast so she set it at 6 am. However, somehow during the night, she adjusted the time to the correct zone. At 6 am… the bloody alarm went off blaring and scared the shit out of us. Jenny jumped up in the bed (and promptly just turn over to sleep again) and Georgie, in her haste to switch the bloody thing off, fell off the bed and hit her head on the side table and landed with a loud *thump* onto the floor.

I panicked like mad! I shouted “Georgie!!! Georgie!!!” and she didn’t reply! I thought she died or something. Finally Jenny decided to roll over and join in the shouting match as well. So the 2 of us were shouting at poor Georgie who was just lying so still on the floor. Finally she moved one arm and rubbed her head… and said… “Ya… none of you bothered to even switch on a light!!!”

Whoops!

Araxi

YAY! I'm finally on a holiday! This is my first real holiday for the year. I'm over in the Land of Maple Leaf. CANADA! Woo hoo! I am finally utilising my Canadian visa which I managed to get done when I was rushing around in Malaysia the last time I was back. Met up with Linda, Georgie and Jenny over here. Linda drove us all to Whistler.

It is just so gorgeous! So picturesque and just so many things to do around here. We did a hike to the Lost Lake yesterday and after that long walk, we decided that we could treat ourselves to a good meal. Kekekeke! The food here is great!! Took a couple of really good shots. We went to Araxi and it was kinda like a fusion between western and Japanese cusine. The Hamachi was soooooo good. I can easily get addicted to it. You can eat it with some sprouts and I don't really know what that orange stuff was but it is slightly crispy and the combination of tastes and the freshness of the fish was just phenomenal. I am now drooling over my keyboard. Hahahaha!!

Jenny ordered the lamb and it was just nicely done. So tender and delicious. It was still red in the middle (I LIKE) but cooked to perfection. Hardly any fat and it was just pure meat! It is so satisfying to pop a piece in your mouth and enjoy the experience. I know I can definitely not be a vegetarian. With food like this around.... it is almost a sin not to eat it. I had the chicken and it was stuffed with goats cheese and in a red wine sauce. Ohhhh... It is just so good. The skin is cooked until it was crispy but the meat (chicken breast) was still very juicy and tender... The chicken here is slightly different. It is more soft and tender.

The piece de resistance was the two tower seafood platter thingy. Check it out!! They had a sushi roll which I think contained crab meat, sweet juicy prawns, some ahi poke (raw tuna marinated with some stuff that is super yummy), smoked salmon, seared tuna and the bottom tower was a dozen raw oysters!!! They had so many different types of oysters. It is like selecting a bottle of wine from the wine-list. You can pick and choose what variety of oysters you like.

Vancouver is just so good for food. To hell with the Special K diet.... I'm now on the SEE FOOD diet!!!

Corny CSI

This is from H... another laugh out loud joke that embarrassed me in the office:

Apparently there was this episode in csi where they found wheat on the barrel of a gun... And Grisom went "This guy must be some sort of 'CEREAL' killer".

I love statements like that....

Jekyll and Hyde

Awww.... look at this cute little squirrel eating.... so adorable!!!!


Aiks! Transformed into a psycho killer squirrel!!!

I want to be back home... just chilling...

Sigh, I was looking through some of my photos and I just want to go back and hang out with my friends and just talking crap and eating a lot... Not a worry in the world... I really felt the difference the last time I was back... Felt like a huge load was lifted from my shoulders. Gosh... I have only been back here for a month but it feels like an eternity... I am so exhausted and just feel so old... Whenever the weekend comes around, all I want to do is sleep. Good morning, good afternoon and good night.... zzzzzz....

My thongue ith thore

I ate pineapple the other day. Bad mistake. I think I have cuts all over my tongue now!! It is so sore. I might start talking with a lisp now. Sigh.... my thongue ith thore....

On my way back

I'm just hanging around Changi airport waiting for my flight. This really is an impressive airport. There are free internet kiosks everywhere and also a place for you to set up your laptop. No free internet for your personal laptop though so you have to go to the kiosks for internet. You are given a 15 minute timeslot to use the internet and after 15 minutes, you are automatically logged out and you have to login again to use another 15 minutes. I guess this is another Singaporean government tactic to control/brainwash the minds of their people. Malaysia's tactic for a peaceful society is to close down the news agency if they publish anything controversial and the bloody censorship board working overtime to censor the movies shown in the cinema. I reckon that there is no use censoring stuff because people already know what is going to happen. Romantic music, soulful gazes, the couple move closer together... *CENSORED* - They wake up together in the same bed. Puh-leeeze... do u think we don't know what happened? Are u raising a society of morons? It also baffles me that the simplest kiss gets censored while violent scenes where a person's head gets chopped off and his guts are scattered all over the ground remains in the movie. Does this mean "a simple kiss" would incite a rampage while "guts-all-over-the-place" helps keep peace? Go figure...

Edit: I stand corrected. If you find a laptop area with ethernet, you can just plug it into your laptop and get free internet on your laptop as well. No 15 minute restriction as well!! Brilliant! Wish I had a longer layover in Changi!

Stress ball

When I got back home, my mum told me she bought something back for me from Sydney. It was a stress ball. In a way, I think this is a very appropriate gift for me as I have been feeling very stressed and stretched (not yoga stretched but work stretched) at the moment. I guess instead of feeling so irritable, I will start using this stress ball and see if it actually has any thereupetic effect on me. This is to replace the dog I wanted to get. The apartment complex I am living in don't allow dogs. They allow cats but I need to put in a deposit for having a pet. Hmm... I am not a cat person and I don't want to die and have the cat eat me since no one is around to feed it. Urgh... I just don't do cats!
Anyway, back to the stress ball, it is actually quite cool. At first I thought it looked a bit like the "hard nudibranches" that you find underwater but obviously, it is soft. I was fiddling with it and I decided to use a lot of force when I squeeze it. To my horror (although I was secretly thrilled by it), these pus-like pustules started popping out!! Eeeeek!! It looks really gross! My brother has one as well and his is orange in colour and when you press it, green bubbles will pop out and that really looks like pus!!
I reckon that some people feel relieved after pressing stuff out. For example, popping a pimple (although I don't do that because I don't want to leave scars on my face). Eeeps... so this must be their concept when they created this stress ball. It even has a squishy sound when you press it. Kekekekeke!! After the initial shock, I am kinda addicted to the ball now. Just can't stop pressing it.... *squish* *squish* *squish*

I'll be back home soon...

Yay! I actually started this blog a couple of days ago in anticipation of going back home to Malaysia. But I was just swamped with work this week that it was really hard to find time to blog. It has also been quite a while since I wrote a lengthy blog. Someone commented once that I write a lot in my blogs but recently I have just been putting up a couple of pictures here and there only. I have to say that I am really looking forward to going back home. I have so many things to do back home though. The problem about travelling for work is that when you actually go back home, you spend a lot of your time doing administrative and just every-day errands that just can't be done while you were away. For me, I am just looking forward to a good night rest. I haven't been sleeping well for the past few weeks due to work commitments and my brain is just too active at night to shut down for a bit. Yes, even my expensive La Mer cream is not helping the dark circles and the fine lines around my eyes. Dammit! I guess I can't pass off as a 22 year old anymore!! Oh well...

HOME SWEET HOME...

If you look really closely...

You can probably spot the Axon office in New Jersey. Do you see the tallest building in the picture? Well, that's not it. It is probably one of the 2 small ones to the right of the tall building. I haven't been there yet since I am based in CT. Apparently, the board room in the office has a magnificent view of New York with the Empire State building and all... I wonder whether they have a fish tank?? I remember someone telling me that we have a fish tank in the Malaysian office because they have one in the UK as well. Hmm... the fish tank in the Egham office is much more impressive than the one in Malaysia. Also, the fish in the Malaysian office keeps dying and sometimes the fish tank looks absolutely filthy... oh well....


It was foggy and drizzling slightly as well. I didn't actually take the boat trip out to see the Statue of Liberty but here's a picture from afar...