Whatever happened to my weekend!? seems like it zoomed by in the blink of an eye. that'd technically be a wink, though, since it's one-eyed. so, i'm sorry, but the (relatively) long taiwan post will be delayed yet again, to this coming wednesday. it's labour day, and thus a public holiday. right now, i do want to talk about the past week at work, as well as the weekend.

work is coming along fine. while i'm not leaping out of bed to go to work every morning (mainly because i have to get up so early to beat the traffic!), i am excited about this job and do see it as a potential long-term career thing. so far, i've mainly been occupied with learning and trying to wrap my head around the new language and terminology. it's true - to learn or be proficient in any field, you have to speak the language. that's what i believe, and what i tell my tuition kids. it's good to remind myself of that, too. last week was a little rocky; i think i might have annoyed my mentor a little due to a misunderstanding involving patent language and phrasing. i've learnt from that mistake, and hope that i never commit that error again. overall, i'd say that my mentor is pretty good. we're still somewhat getting to know each others' styles, so some friction is inevitable. i realize that she's a little like me in terms of teaching style - doesn't like to repeat herself too much (or at all). that's something i have to be mindful about, and not set that bomb off. nevertheless, it's not as grim as i may have made it seem. we do have light-hearted moments, and she's generally nice to talk to. just that her fuse was a little short due to the billing crunch at the end of the month. i'm sure things will be fine when the pressure eases up a little.

so far, i've learnt about patent filing in singapore, brunei, indonesia, and this thing called an international application through the PCT treaty. don't want to bore you all too much, but that's barely scratching the surface. there's still the art of drafting claims, modifying the specification, filling in the relevant forms for each country, liaising with the client...things that i will learn in due time. the bright side is that it's not so much technical knowledge in the scientific sense, so i don't have to be an elite researcher or anything like that. the technical knowledge is more legal/english, which i think i can handle better. i also found out the company's KPI for professional staff, which is measured in "money billed to client". apparently, the earnings are really good. i'll know once i get cases of my own. was also talking to my mentor about patent attorney qualification earlier today. she says the average is about 4 to 6 years, though people have taken 7. good to know! i was sharing with her that i felt the need to catch up on those extra 5 years spent in grad school. hopefully things go well.

on the less corporate side of work, we had a company lunch last week to celebrate admin professionals' day. i was talking to the other principal in the department (who's not in my chain of command). he's at least 6 years older than me, and single. i can see myself going down that path quite easily. was asking him about his career so far, and he told me that this is his first (and hopefully last) job. he qualified in 4 years, and became a principal maybe 3 to 4 years ago? translating that to my timeline, if i'm at least as good as him, hitting principal before 40 is achievable. on a tangential side note, i think he's pretty attractive. but yes, no dating in the workplace...especially when we're so many ranks and grades apart. that'd be a recipe for disaster if i ever saw one. more importantly, what are the odds that the attraction is mutual? not high. nonexistent. not going to happen, so better not waste brain cells.

the routine seems to be establishing itself. the ideal case is leave house early in the morning to beat traffic and the ERP, then leave work on the dot to get ahead of the traffic. based on observation and experience, if i don't get out of the office by 6:20pm, i might as well stay until like 8:00pm. the traffic probably means i'd get home at around the same time either way. like today, it rained in the evening. i left the office at about 6:30pm, and reached home at 8:15pm, no exaggeration. it was made worse by a 3-lane road having 2 lanes blocked off due to a fallen tree branch, people being idiots and trying to filter into turning lanes at the last possible second (at multiple junctions), and just the sheer volume of vehicles on the road. it's also bad, but just slightly better in the mornings. i realize that there's an alternate way to work if i wake up late. more traffic lights, overall longer time taken, but less ERP ($0.50 vs $2.50). really wish i could start and end work an hour earlier. i already reach the building by 7:00am on most days anyway! getting off work at 4:45pm would be epic.

now that i'm slightly more settled in at the office, i tried bringing a lunchbox in today. it seemed to work, which means that plan meal prep is a go. somehow, i bought the wrong chicken parts at the supermarket (yes, blind moment) and got fillets instead of legs. no major issue, except that they were a little more expensive. generally satisfied with the way the food turned out, except that i didn't realize that my onions had rotted, and that i was almost out of miso. well, these are things to look out for next time, no biggie. since i was (am) sick, i was more heavy-handed with the seasoning. having a blocked nose means that my sense of taste is duller. don't know how i even fell sick! was it due to being in an office environment with a higher density of people as compared to lab? or did the chemicals in the lab air kill the pathogens before they had a chance to infect us? whatever the case, good news is that i'm on the mend. thanks to my visit to the doctor too, and the medicine that he gave. i'd wanted to postpone the doctor visit until i got company health insurance benefits (3-ish months later), but the problem is that i'm sick NOW. besides, it's not like i can't afford the medical fees. just got to give it a little more time so that the clear mucus goes away. it's already been through the yellow/green stage, which is how i know that i'm recovering.

giving up saturdays at the learning lab seems to have been the right choice. having one completely free day with no risk of being activated for anything is definitely good for my mental health. had to teach a class on sunday this past weekend, though. of all the classes i've taught so far, this class is in my bottom three in terms of preference to teach. there are good students in there, but the overall class dynamic just doesn't sit well with me. maybe it's because my first and only negative teaching feedback came from this class. the thing that worries me more is that the regular teacher for this class is quitting soon, and i hope that i won't end up as the assigned long-term cover teacher. normally i don't mind seeing a class for an extended time, but in this case, i may just speak to my mentor to let her know my feelings about this.

nearly did something moronic just now when paying my car insurance. you see, my policy number ends in "03". i was pretty sure that i'd entered the correct number into the payment portal as i'd double-checked it. after all, an $800+ mistake is painful to make. i was scared out of my mind when the email confirmation listed my policy number as ending in a "04" instead. i thought that i'd entered the wrong number! even called my card company to see if they could reverse the transaction. they couldn't. but after a while, a second email came, detailing successful payment to my car's license plate number. i concluded that the digit at the end is a tracker/counter of some kind, probably for the number of years you've held that particular policy. definitely scared me out of my mind for a while.

let's wrap up for now. i'm grateful that there's a public holiday in the middle of this week, so it's kind of like my undergrad schedule with wednesdays off. having shorter work weeks helps me ease into the new routine even more, and doesn't tire me out so much. i find it curious that i'm doing ok with the whole waking up early thing now, especially since i've been struggling with it for most of my life previously. maybe it's the paradigm shift of wanting to wake up early to go to work. or fear of waking up late and being fired as a consequence, either one. i've also got to talk about an interesting dream, involving an old lower secondary classmate whom i haven't seen since JC graduation.

-random thought of the day: Ask about paycheck tomorrow.-

Figured that i'd save my customary long post about the overseas trip for the weekend, when i've got a bit more time on my hands, and when i can sort through the photos on my phone. brief preview: it was good. today, i'd like to update you on a couple of things, and give my opinion on a recent saga.

valedictorian dreams were taken away as unexpectedly as they were presented. i think that the department staff were rushing for the deadline, and couldn't afford the time needed to reschedule like i asked. a message came the very next day (thursday last week) telling me that they'd made their choice. i'm now intensely curious about who they picked. guess i'll find out at commencement. should block off leave to attend it, too. is it worth it, though? sacrificing a day's pay just for the ceremony? this year, it's at 10:00am on a weekday, so i can't even take a half day off since it'd eat into the second half. think i've got until like, may or june to decide, so there's still some time.

next update, work. it's day 1 of week 2, and things are still going slow so far. over lunch, i was talking to one of the seniors in the team, who's been there for close to a year. his advice was to enjoy the honeymoon period while it lasts. apparently, he comes back on some saturdays to do work. bear in mind that he's not even been there for a whole year. well...if i have to work weekends, so be it. not like i haven't done that before. and i'll need to squeeze out all the extra time i can to catch up. somehow, i do foresee myself doing this as a career. the epiphany came as i was reading through a patent specification with an organic synthesis route. almost immediately, a thought popped up in my head, going, 'would i rather be reading this specification, or doing the synthesis that it describes?' no prizes for guessing my choice/answer, which i arrived at without too much consideration. of course, this is my thought during honeymoon period. who knows if/how that will change once work starts accumulating? but whatever it is, i chose this job, so i owe it to myself to give it a fair shot. being more settled in at work after a week, i also tried plan genesis, which is going to the gym after knocking off. it seems doable...provided i get out of the office on time and before traffic starts to build up. got in a decent workout today, partially motivated by the taiwanese judo athletes. i'll elaborate on that point in the long post. basically, i'm envious of their bodies.

if you've been following NUSwhispers, you'll know about the peeping tom scandal that really blew up over the past few days. to summarize:
*disclaimer* this is what i gathered from reading, and i make no guarantees as to its accuracy*
- guy goes into the ladies' shower
- guy takes video of girl showering
- girl confronts guy, who confesses to it
- girl reports to NUS and the police
- police gives guy a conditional warning (slap on the wrist)
- NUS suspends guy for one semester, makes him write a letter of apology to the girl, and mandates counselling
- girl is dissatisfied with those outcomes, takes to social media to expose the saga and demand heavier punishment for guy

so many people have given their opinions, some siding with the girl and saying that the guy got off too easy, while others are saying that the guy is being victimized and the girl is doing it for attention. i am firmly in the former camp. thankfully, this has never happened to me before, mainly because of two things in my favour - (1) i'm male, (2) i'm hardly fantasy material. if someone did take a video of me showering, i'm sure that they'd delete it unless they had a personal vendetta against me. but i digress. to me, this case is one of those in which an intangible thing has been compromised. you might remember another conflict in a similar vein that i tried to mediate a few years ago, the intangible in that case being knowledge. here, the victim's sense of security has been robbed from her, as has her dignity. the only way i can see to make this better is to rewrite history such that the incident never happened. coming back to obeying the laws of physics, i suppose the closest equivalent would be to lobotomize the guy and anyone else with whom he shared the video. it's a tad extreme, so i think that any lesser punishment that the guy gets (eg. jail time, expulsion) is already a discount.

but here's what i really don't get - WHY DID HE DO IT!? based on the background information floating around the internet, he's got a girlfriend, he looks pretty good, he seemed to have his life on track. apparently, he was drunk. come on! drunk is a flimsy defense at best. why not go back to his room and sleep it off, or if he was feeling frisky, look for his girlfriend first? yes, it might have been a moment of folly. i suppose the kindest thing i can say about/to him is that i'm sorry that he victimized the wrong girl and has to face the music on such a grand scale. less kind things include that i'm ashamed of having such a moron for a junior, i'm so angry that my degree will be devalued as a consequence of his actions, i hope that he gets his just deserts.

the other thing that put a bad taste in my mouth is how NUS handled the situation. it took a massive outcry on facebook, including the starting of two petitions and a call from the minister of education to the NUS president, before they decided to take visible action. and bear in mind - this isn't the first such case. according to documents released by the NUS board of discipline, there have been about 23 cases in the last 3 years alone. LIKE SERIOUSLY!!?? to be fair, there are cases in which the modesty(ies?) of guys had been outraged too, so it's not a gender-biased issue. or it is, in the sense that all the offenders appear to be male. only thing is that when it happens to guys, it's labelled as "harassment" and not "outrage of modesty". not only that, they (and the news media) repeatedly identified the girl by name, but did not report on the guy's identity. first time i'm seeing the culprit being afforded better protection than the victim. if i were the NUS president, or someone with decision-making power, the bare minimum i would do is expel this offender. chinese philosophy of 杀一儆百 - kill one to warn a hundred. more severe options include retroactively invalidating the degrees of all past offenders, or alternatively allowing them to graduate/retain their degrees with the condition that they all register as sex offenders. there has to be at least some form of black mark in their student records for future employers to see when doing reference checks. in case you aren't aware, NUS actually has a code of conduct for students, and acceptance of that code (including committing to uphold it) is a necessary requirement for admission. i believe that it was instated to prevent such behaviour from happening. clearly, the university has fallen short in terms of the severity of punishment meted out. can i just say again - 23 CASES IN THE LAST 3 YEARS. the punishment is hardly a deterrent. that aside, there's still the question of why the police didn't take action either. offenders who do this sort of thing in a public place get jail time! of course, it does depend on what was able to be captured to be used as evidence. since i don't know the contents of the video, i can't comment too much here.

let's do an exercise in empathy, and to avoid becoming too much of an echo chamber that parrots only the popular view. if i were in that guy's shoes, what would i do and how would i handle this? first of all, i'd have written the apology letter better, and proactively done it before the school instructed me to. one sentence from the guy's letter of apology reads as follows, "this incident has taught me a valuable lesson and i will strive to be the best version of myself from here on". way to make it all about you, man. i'd probably offer some form of restitution, or even ask that given the circumstances, what can i do to make it better for you (her). apart from that, i wouldn't remain silent on social media. i'd probably post two things: a statement of facts and another public apology, then take whatever comes my way. after which i'd lay low for a while and depending on my stage in life, decide on another course of action. finish up the degree in NUS then go overseas for work? or if expelled, apply to NTU? maybe just find work directly. it's easy to write, because these are kind of the standard template answers. i hope i never have to be in such a position.

considering how quickly this thing snowballed, and how large the resulting snowball is, it's a good reminder that the online lynch mob is a force to be reckoned with. fortunately, they seem to be using their powers in the correct way this time. "correct" as i see it, anyway. have to remember the advice from several elder figures - to keep my head down and avoid doing anything that negatively catches the public's attention. if you know the semi-joke (well, more of a funny but educational story) about the bird, the cow, and the cat, one of the morals is "the higher you rise, the harder you fall". and that triggered my memory for another joke, which i should tell more often. look in the random thought to see what it is.

-random thought of the day: Q: What do you call a snobbish swindler walking down the stairs?
A: A condescending con descending.-

Boy, have i got a story to tell you today! it's not about work, which went ok. the company had visitors from the european patent office who came to share some updates in the examination process, and the professional staff were invited to listen to their presentation. the best parallel i can draw would be like attending a visiting professor's research seminar. you spot a few familiar things on the powerpoint, but most of it goes over your head and you wonder when/if your work will ever be as good as theirs. i mean, it's one thing to know the rules governing patent examinations, but a completely different level to know the case number that established a precedent of judgement for that rule, and recite it from memory! i'm very, very far off from that level, if you hadn't guessed.

my mentor started me off with a little something more my speed, which was the very first thing all of us have to do when accepting a new case from a client - fill in a checklist. it's simple enough, just that i didn't know where to find most of the information. didn't help that the forms were in german, either. blundered through it, and somehow ended up getting most answers right. one day, i hope i'll look back on this post and laugh at how noob i am/was. we seem to be establishing some kind of a routine...i'll meet with my mentor in the afternoon/evening, where she'll teach me stuff or check how i did the practices that she assigned. then, she'll give me more work, and i'll spend most of the next day doing it before meeting her around a similar time. i could get used to it. today's assigned work is 2 more checklists, thankfully for a japanese application this time. not that i can read patent japanese, but at least i can make more sense of the headings on the form and find the relevant data more easily as compared to when everything was in german.

ok, story time. i got a very interesting SMS and email combo earlier today, from the NUS chemistry department. by some wild fluke, i'm on the shortlist to be valedictorian for this year's commencement! it's true, ridiculous as it sounds. i've got the screenshot to prove it. of course, it's definitely a great honour to be considered, but here's what i don't get - WHY!!?? by all accounts, i'm not valedictorian material. i was looking for the selection criteria, and the best i could find was a 2009 article from the new paper. for nus, the criteria is as follows, "At NUS, valedictorians are picked by the faculty. 'These valedictorians are students who are well respected by the student community and faculty,' said an NUS spokesman. NUS valedictorians are expected to have got good academic results and made significant contributions."

...are you serious? i fulfill 1, maybe 2 of those criteria at best. granted, the stuff above is the criteria for undergrads, but it can't be too far off for grad students either. wonder which professor got it into his/her head to nominate me. not sure about well-respected, since i didn't do anything really noteworthy for the faculty, and i think not many people know me. it's worse as a grad student, since we're cloistered in lab all day. my results are fairly decent, though definitely not the best. the most significant contribution i made is probably donating almost a year of my time (about $38500 equivalent including fees i paid) when i stayed on to finish up after my scholarship ended, and perhaps that one publication. my nomination makes absolutely no sense to me.

pardon my cynicism, but i have come up with a few reasons why i might have been shortlisted. let's assume that the best case (true merit) is possible as well. more negative reasons include:
- nobody else is free/attending commencement
- they need someone who can give a decent speech
- it's a set-up and they'll revoke my degree when i go on stage
- i'm there as the candidate who takes the fall and fails the interview
- they want to make up for the rough grad school journey (first professor leaving, not paying me in my last year)

jokes aside though, i'm still completely baffled. i can name at least 3 others who are graduating along with me that would better fit the bill. regardless, i will do my best to go for the interview (difficult now, with work), and also use the opportunity to find out a little more. somehow, i see myself declining the opportunity. it's not just that i feel i don't deserve the title, but agreeing to be valedictorian also means having to write a speech and having it go through multiple rounds of proofreading, attending writing and speaking classes at CELC...things i wouldn't have minded doing while unemployed, but which are much less feasible now due to work. quite intrigued to see how this thing unfolds.

-random thought of the day: Should I ditch Genesis for Fitness First?-

Day 1 went pretty well! the drive to work today was tolerable. despite leaving the house at like 6:30am or some similarly ridiculously early timing, the KPE was still jammed from my exit to airport road. thankfully, that's just a short stretch, and the rest of the way was clear. the traffic around my building remained light even at like 8:00+am, which is when you'd expect traffic to build up. since my goal is to avoid paying ERP, i'm thinking if it would be a good idea to sign up for a gym membership nearby, and do morning workouts. i'll probably gather more information before making a decision either way.

the workday started with a brief orientation, and i got my season parking sorted. our receptionist lady who was helping me to liaise with the building management was great. she knew that the application wouldn't go through so quickly, so she arranged a complimentary parking pass for me today. good thing too; the parking fee for about 10.5 hours was $35. the $180 per month season parking ticket is definitely worth it. i was brought around the office and introduced to everyone, and i mean i met literally everyone who wasn't away or on leave today. i can probably remember between 5 to 10% of the names right now, but i figure i'll get more familiar with everyone over time. also met the guy who i thought was super attractive from his picture on the website. apparently, it must have been more than a few years since the photo was taken! if not for the HR lady introducing him by name, i would never have guessed that it was him. maybe the interaction also kind of biased me against him, because he was rather...lukewarm/standoffish. anyway, i don't think i'll have issues with wanting to date in the workplace, which is good. maintaining of a professional working relationship and all.

got shown to my desk, which is eerily similar to my home setup. it's also L-shaped, with the monitor at the bend of the L. they gave me a dual screen system and had my windows account fully configured. the user ID is made up of some characters from each user's initials, and they chose a really unexpected/weird combination for my ID. no doubt all the letters appear in my (full) name, but that combination wouldn't have been my first choice. it wouldn't even have been in my first 10 choices! so i got everything set up, and realized that i have to request for a few additional things, like a skype account and modification of my email signature. seems like IT assigned me to the wrong principal. those aren't major issues, and i'm due to contact them tomorrow to ask about them.

was also introduced to a few other people of similar rank, and you'd probably work out that all of them have been there for longer than i have. the next-most junior scientist after me has been working for only 2 weeks, so i guess you can kind of put us on equal footing. everyone seems nice enough; we went out to raffles medical centre for lunch. thinking of cooking and bringing lunchboxes/kombucha in, but we'll see how that plan goes when i've been in the office for a longer time. on the topic of colleagues, i also met with my mentor for the first time since the interview. she seems nice enough, and spent some time teaching me one particular class of definitions. she says that she'll be passing some cases to me soon, which both excites and terrifies me. still need to wrap my head around some of the english and phrasing. while it's not like learning a whole new language, it is kind of learning a dialect of english. having a tiny bit of difficulty processing the way they write. i guess it's to sound formal and legal-ish, but it's totally not how i'd write an article. my thesis sounds less formal, even! but it's done with good reason, because loopholes can be created from the way you phrase certain things, and that may end up helping or harming yourself. and since that's the established standard, i'll have to learn and adapt.

several people have emphasized to me that attention to detail and strict adherence to deadlines are the two most important qualities i'll need for this job. to help put myself in the right frame of mind, i'd better make a to-do list for my immediate concerns.

- clean up desk area (bring wet wipes)
- organize stationery
- consider buying a lanyard
- find boxes to raise my monitors (ergonomics)
- bring earphones, water bottle and mug
- IT orientation on wednesday
- consider getting cheap mechanical keyboard, wrist rest (later stage, after confirmation)

hopefully things get better. not that they're bad now, quite the opposite. but there's always room to move upwards, right?

-random thought of the day: Lots to learn!-

Only 6.5-ish more hours before i have to get up and prepare for work. i am feeling nervous to some degree, but it's not the kind of nerves that's accompanied by dread. it's not even like how i felt before the first day of school as i was growing up. i'd more liken what i'm feeling now to nervous energy coupled with excitement/positivity, which is miles better than anxiety. so far, the hiring process has been really efficient and hassle-free, and i've got a good impression of the company because of that. kind of wondering what my first day will be like. i expect an orientation session, meeting with my mentor, and probably getting set up with a company account, email, and staff pass. maybe a desk/permanent seat, even. that would be nice, as i'm not much of a hotdesking fan. the learning lab practises hotdesking, ie. having many shared spaces and computers which any and all teachers can use. for teaching staff at least, it seems that only senior teachers or subject heads and above get their own computers. to be fair, i've never had trouble finding a seat or computer to do lesson prep or marking, but i kind of prefer having a place to call mine, and relax after putting my stuff down.

there are definitely some things which i'm going to have to iron out and fit into the workday. gym, any errands that pop up, and finding out the optimal times to be on the road. going to work is more stressful, because there's the danger of being late. coming back is more relaxed since the time is my own, but i don't want to reach home too late, otherwise there'll be less time to unwind and prepare for the next day. also decided to bring in and start using some of my nicer pens, which was impossible in grad school due to possible chemical contamination from lab. but now that i'm in an office environment, it should be fine. besides, it may be a good talking point with people, and help to break the ice too. i'm just hoping that things will go well, and that it'll be something that i enjoy - or at least don't hate. will let you all know how it goes!

-random thought of the day: Remember to settle season parking.-

Momentum is picking up slowly. had a few wins, as well as a few not-wins in the past 2 days. the winning aspects are greater in number and magnitude, so i suppose that it's net positive.

went for what i think is my last weekday cover class for a while. it was the same bunch of SCGS girls as i taught last week, and they're quite fun to teach. i feel a little bad for them, because asking me to teach biology is really not in the students' best interest. it wouldn't be so bad if the topic overlaps with chemistry or things which i've learnt before, eg. enzymes or cells (to a certain degree), but human digestive system has nothing to do with my training at all. maybe the stomach containing hydrochloric acid, but that's basically it. i felt a little bad, until one of the students commented, "i'll probably forget all of this by next week anyway". it's kind of true as well. at their age, and considering that this is extra on top of their school stuff, it's not reasonable to expect everyone to remember everything. those who can are the geniuses, i guess. i'll say this much, though. the main reasons i enjoy taking this class are because they're lively and smart, and they'll do their best to answer my questions. i do appreciate the effort. and that's also why i tend to go a little bit further for classes that treat me well, like i'll leave more positive comments on their worksheets, or even highlight some minor errors that i'd normally close an eye to. not to make the student feel inadequate, but so that they learn and improve.

despite the rain in the later half of the day, i still managed to do a fair bit of stuff today. first, i went to pick scary JC friend and my friend up from the airport. they were just in madagascar for the wedding of one of her friends, and she was telling me about the trip. sounded like fun, though i don't think i'd go there on my own accord. the economic status/standard of living sounds slightly better than uzbekistan, but it's still miles behind what we're used to in singapore. perhaps it would be a place to retire to, but definitely not where i'd consider having my career. based on what i've experienced and heard, though, it seems that people from so-called poorer countries are more relaxed/laid back than more prosperous countries. i experienced this in thailand and uzbekistan, where my singaporean need/expectation for everything to be efficient and rapid caused myself a lot of anxiety and stress. well, at least now i know what countries better suit me at different phases of life.

second mission today was to pick up my tailored clothes. i think the tailor did a good job! i tried one set of shirt and pants, and they fit well. that would mean that the other 2 shirts and pants should fit equally well, since they were made from the same set of measurements. have to put them in the wash and iron them in time for monday. easy. still second-guessing myself on the striped shirt, which i incorrectly recalled as peach/orange and white stripes. it's closer to dull pink and white stripes, which makes me even more hesitant to wear it. but hey, might as well since i've already paid for it, right? was also happy that they managed to accommodate my request for collar stay slots for all the shirts. i'd feared that the slots might not be long enough due to the collar itself appearing a little small, but the stays fit inside just nice. unfortunately, i heard that the tailor who attended to me the first time had suffered a fall recently, and was taking an additional day off each week. i'd wanted to thank him in person when i found that everything fit nicely. well, there'll be other opportunities if i commission more clothes.

that was followed by going to my cousin's place to see him, his wife, and my niece. she's definitely growing up! yes, it sounds stupid to state something as obvious as that, but it's very apparent. i'd last seen her about 2+ weeks ago, when i was telling her parents about the IP firm offer. between then and now, she's learnt to stand up! ok, she's still shaky on her feet and requires support, but i think it's a huge achievement! she also seems to be warming up to me a little, like she didn't cry around me this time. maybe it was a good day for her. oh, i didn't mention that i went to visit my other cousin on sunday, to see his kids and discuss insurance stuff. his kids (fraternal twins) are about 8 months younger, and therefore still smaller in size and more dependent. nothing wrong with that, since they're at different stages of growth and development. have to remind myself to avoid making comparisons between kids in the generation below. goodness knows that with the stress of school and all other activities that kids face these days, they don't need anyone else telling them about their shortfalls or putting others down to make them feel better. that's not the kind of values that i want to pass down to them.

what i consider to be the biggest win is that my credit card application finally got approved! after 3 failed applications since i started drawing a fixed income, it finally worked. in fact, i got the approval notice by SMS as i was driving this morning. the thing that shocked me the most was the credit limit. considering that i applied on my learning lab salary, that they gave me a 5-figure credit limit was a little unexpected, to say the least. well, having more is better than less. besides, it shouldn't be an issue as long as i remain relatively disciplined in my spending. hopefully it'll lead to more savings as i figure out how to get more cashback and other rewards from spending money that would have to be spent anyway.

blogging about good stuff does help, because it makes the bad stuff seem less bad. maybe i should practise the sandwich style of blogging - bad stuff sandwiched by good stuff. ending the post on a positive note sounds more appealing. have to do that in future for a comparison. anyway, i've had some not-wins as well, in that i haven't been completely successful at calibrating my body clock for office hours. it comes from having the freedom to wake up as and when i please for the majority of the past 10 years. yes, i know that i've had 8:00am class on a few semesters. my attendance rates for those classes was 50% at best. overall, i think in the past 10 years (3652 days because 2 leap years), i've only woken up early for whatever reason a total of less than 350 days, or about 9.5% of the time. hopefully you can see why this is an uphill battle! the goal is to get in early enough to beat the ERP, which means entering the KPE tunnel before 7:00am. and like i was telling my junior, since i'll have a lot of time before work starts at 8:30am, i might consider working out in the mornings instead. will work out the logistics of that later though, once i settle in to a daily routine.

that brings me to not-win #2, which is the lack of exercise recently. i should really start going back to the gym. i realize that it's so easy to revert back to a state of comfort, especially when there's nothing keeping you from doing so. on a similar note, i was talking to scary JC friend about maybe stopping japanese because i didn't (don't) feel ready for the exam. she told me that since i'd started, i might as well see it through all the way - which is fair. it took so much effort to restart after a 5-year hiatus from formal learning, i should just go all the way and get the qualification...or at least try to. hmm...i do see her logic. i'll at least get through term 1, i guess. maybe taking term 2 closer to the exam date in december might be better?

last item before bed. the last not-win is definitely not as serious as the above two, and is for a totally non-essential area of my life. remember the pen that i was going crazy about in the previous post? someone is selling it on ebay, but for a jacked-up price. think slightly more than twice of its original selling price. this process is called "scalping" i think, and usually applies to limited-availability items like concert tickets. so there's kind of a dilemma situation. while i do want the pen quite badly, i don't think it's a good idea to encourage other vendors to do this. but if i don't get it now, there's a certainty that i won't get it for the next few months at least, and forever if i'm really unlucky. besides, the price hike is way too much. if the seller sold it for maybe 1.5 times the price, i might still consider it. so, it's ethics/morals and delayed gratification vs impulse buying and impatience. i'm really hoping that the former wins out. guess the next few days will be a test of my patience and tolerance.

-random thought of the day: Still need to test morning traffic.-

Calling the past week "wasted" would be a little too unkind. but to be fair, it hasn't been the most productive use of my time either. let's just say that i took it REALLY easy upon realizing that my freedom would be restricted soon. soon enough that by this time next week, i'd be in the office already! the gastric flu has more or less cleared up, and i'm feeling almost back to normal. that's good, because there are quite a lot of things to do in this last week of freedom.

before that, let's talk about what i DID get done last week. cleaned my room up a little, thankfully without the dust allergy triggering. despite that, my nose has been feeling weird recently. it's like, there's a raw feeling above the roof of my mouth, and behind my right nostril. that region hurts just the tiniest bit when i swallow, so i'm really not sure what could be going on. my paranoid brain says nose cancer, which i'm hoping isn't the case. thankfully, most of the symptoms don't match, primarily that i don't suffer from nosebleeds. have to monitor how that feeling develops over the next few months and see if medical follow-up is required.

since i've been so free, i've spent a lot of time online. i was looking to get a pen with a titanium nib, just to try it out to see if it suited me before i committed to saving for that ridiculously expensive pen. i saw a few pens, some of which i deemed not suitable for office use. was just about ready to get an aluminum pen when someone responded to my question on a pen forum and recommended a model from a chinese brand. i went to check it out, and fell hard and fast for this pen:

vacuum filling system aside, i just about swooned at that deep blue! sadly, it's out of stock, and talking to the person who makes it says that it won't be back for a few months at least. bummer. there's another option, which uses a less interesting piston filling system, but that same gorgeous colour is still available. i'm trying a two-pronged approach, by looking for second-hand vacuum fillers online, and considering just getting the piston filler. either way, both will accept the titanium nib that i plan on trying out, which is yet another separate purchase. the lengths we go to when something interests us!

my first trial with fermenting kombucha worked pretty well. the end-product is drinkable, and while i wouldn't say that i love the taste, i don't dislike it either. i guess it's just a change from water all the time. nothing wrong with water all the time, by the way. but if something that tastes decent is also supposedly better for gut health, why not? i've been drinking it plain so far, and my NUS professor friend gave me some recommendations upon seeing the post i made in the facebook group. apparently, he's been doing this fermentations stuff for a while. always good to have guidance, i say. i'm trying to flavour some with blueberry, and other people in the group have suggested lychee, starfruit, and pear. quite excited to try the lychee idea out. for the record, about 6 days of fermentation seems like a good duration for the tropical weather. got my second batch going last friday, which means that it should be ready this thursday. interestingly, i learnt that the SCOBY isn't that solid mass floating on the top of the liquid. that's the pellicle (i keep thinking of it as "pellicate" or "pelican", don't know why). it's just cellulose and some other byproducts of bacteria and yeast growth, which has the function of covering the surface of the liquid and letting less oxygen in? the real magic lies in the liquid that it comes in. that's why it's possible to grow a pellicle from just adding the fermented liquid to fresh sweet tea. hopefully i'll be a good SCOBY owner and take care of it. already planned what to do when i'm away in taiwan, so way to go me for thinking ahead!

also did some (well, more than some) reading on reddit. one of my preferred reads is askreddit, where someone poses a question and others answer it. i was reading about lawyers describing their best cases, mistakes, and other sorts of stuff. it made me think that maybe i should have studied law instead. i don't know...i mean, i have a decent command of the english language, and i'd like to think that i can think pretty clearly and logically. so, on a whim, i decided to take a free law aptitude test. it's actually in the same vein as the reading comprehension test that i had to take for the IP firm. only that there were 42 questions instead of 5. my final score was 26/42, which is still a pass, albeit a pretty weak one. after a bit more poking around, i saw that NUS and SUSS both offer second-degree law programs. NUS offers a slightly accelerated bachelor of laws (LLB) degree, which requires 3 years instead of 4 to complete. SUSS' program leads to a juris doctor (JD), which is not the same as a doctorate in law. quite confusing. i figure that these options are not for me...not at this time, anyway. maybe when i'm older, more experienced, and rich enough to afford the tuition fees. besides, i don't think i want to relive my university days so soon. furthermore, it is kind of too late for regrets. it did lead me to think of a better answer to the question of "why apply for this job?", which was asked to me by the IP firm during the interview. i didn't think of this answer at that time, but i should probably have gone with something like, "although chemistry is my number one love, writing and english in general follow as a close second". maybe i'll use it for my promotion interview in future? let's think about that when we get there.

have to leave the house soon for another weekday cover class. more money! it'll probably also be my last one for a while, with the new job and all. is there anything else i want to say at this point? ...not particularly. nothing comes to mind, at least. i'll probably have to remind myself of future events, the most pressing of which are currently to get a haircut, collect my tailored stuff, and pick scary JC friend up from the airport tomorrow. oh! plan for car insurance renewal, inspection, and road tax payment. separately, i was just informed that season parking at my new office costs $180 per month (before GST) if we buy it in blocks of 3 months, $200 per month if we buy individual months. although the upfront cost is higher for the per quarter option, there's going to be more cost savings down the road. also have to pay the premium for my hospital insurance. somehow i always end up bleeding money in april.

-random thought of the day: Maybe the pen can wait...-