Kimchi... yummy...

I woke up early this morning because I had a tummyache. If you know me well, a lot of my stories always end with me lausai-ing. I eat a lot of rubbish. And yesterday it was too much kimchi...

KFC obsession is over, now it's the kimchi phase (triggered by the korean food fair at QB and Gurney Plaza). Just talking about kimchi makes me want to eat it again... Yup, I'm going to go for another round of kimchi later... kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi...

Eat now, think later. ;)

My latest craving

Kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi

So I bought one whole container of it. Saliva keeps coming out whenever I think of it sitting in the fridge waiting for me. Yummy nia!~~

Facebook, YouTube at Work Make Better Employees: Study

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/04/reuters_us_work_internet_tech_life

So, for the sake of increasing productivity, I shall do it la. ;)

Hard, harder, hardest

I’ve been quiet lately. When the boss is not around at work, my stress level goes up a little higher.

I honestly don't know how he can do it on a daily basis, sitting for meetings after meetings where all the managers from different departments attend and when everybody in the cross-functional meeting was asked to introduce themselves, everybody mentioned they had 8 - 12 years of experience, some worked so long they can't remember how many years, which made me feel tiny, tinier, then tiniest, which made me whisper a little too loudly to the person next to me, "I think I'm the youngest", which some of them heard and made them laugh, which made me say when I introduced myself, "I've been working for 4 and a half years", unconsciously hoping that adding the "half a year" would make it sound like I'm not so tiny among all the very experienced managers sitting there. ;)

Anyway, I need to state some facts about being an engineer in this gray company I work for.

Fact #1: Being an engineer is hard.
It requires a lot of brain juice to survive. I’m proud to be working with a lot of intelligent people, but there’s always the pressure to produce as much brain juice as them.

Fact #2: Being a software engineer who has to understand how the hardware works is harder.
You may be a software expert, but the software has to understand the hardware and you don't understand the hardware. So how leh? More brain juice required.

Fact #3: Being a software engineer who has to understand how the hardware works but has no passion for hardware is the hardest.
Brain juice is not the only thing needed. Without passion, it's hard to produce brain juice on a daily basis. Then eventually, the brain juice may dry up and the brain halts to a stand still.

Conclusion of all 3 facts
Boss = passion + brain juice (a lot of it).

Sooooooo....... Next time you’re enjoying your latest new cool electronic device, take just one second to think of the hundreds of engineers dried up all the brain juice, cracking their head for hours trying come out with the latest technology to make life better for you.

It's just one second of thought. :)

Most of us are busy people. We rush to work, look into issues after issues after issues. Then we rush home to get dinner ready and to finish the house chores. It becomes a daily routine, something we are so used to that we become programmed.

In the dark for earth

Let's talk about sex

I’m betting that the title caught your attention right? Because like most people, you’re probably interested in sex. However, like most Malaysians, sex is not something you talk generally about it. You may read about it, you may have looked at photos or you may have even watched it on video in private. And some of us love watching Sex and the City which of course is mainly about sex. But to actually talk about it? No way…. because we Malaysians (or at least people from my generation and older) are shy to talk about it openly.

I for one do not think there’s anything to be shy about. I mean, I’m a married woman. I should be enjoying a sex life (with my hubby of course). It’s a very normal part of life. I’m simply stating a fact. So is it so outrages to mention that fact aloud?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not crazy over sex. I do not watch porn because I’m just not interested in it. I personally belief that sex is an intimate relationship between two people so I'm not interested about watching other people doing it, nor would I like to look at other people’s photos of it (though I do not find anything wrong about people watching porn).

Just that I get amused when people shy away from this topic. My sister can’t even bring herself to say the word “sex”. She prefers to use the term “making babies”. When I come out of the room with Yin How looking pleased, she’ll ask me with one eye brow raised, “Finish making babies ah?”. And I’ll give her a big contented smile, “yup”. One day she suddenly asked me suspiciously, “Eh, did the both of you ever make babies on my bed?”. I couldn’t resist and I gave her an answer which turned her expression into pure horror.

My mum can’t use the word sex. It’s just too vulgar. She only uses the term “make love’. “Humping” is also too vulgar for her. When she saw Russell (my dog) humping Sparkle (my other dog), she said, “Please stop Russell from making love to Sparkle”. I’m thinking… erm.. I seriously doubt what he is doing has anything to do with love.

Even Yin How initially was shy about it. When I shop for something and there’s a range of it, I like to take my time choosing exactly what I want. So when I’m shopping for condoms, there’s a lot of interesting stuff to choose from. At Watsons or Guardian, I’ll usually take my own sweet time at that section going through all the different types before I pick one. This horrifies Yin How who would make it a point to stand as far away from me. When I ask him to pay, he would say, “A lot of people at the cashier… wait for a while la..”. And he would purposely buy all sorts of unnecessary stuff along with it hoping that it won’t be so obvious. But of course now Yin How is no longer shy about it. He now joins me at that section comparing all the different types. :)

Anyway, I just think there’s nothing uncomfortable about talking of it generally with close friends. Of course I don’t go into specific personal details, but as a general topic, it’s sometimes hilarious to talk about it. I laughed during lunch just now until my cheek muscles hurt which made me come up with this post.

And by the way, Genny, we have not made babies on your bed before. I just wanted to horrify you. :P

Ramblings before I go home

My waist, arm and chest muscles hurt. My butt hurts... really really hurts... It hurts so badly that even I shift my foot from the brake to the accelerator I can feel my right butt crying.

I think I overdid the squat exercises (I'm continuing to exercise at home so that when I'm ready to join the dance aerobics again, Ian and Looi won't be able to laugh at how unfit I am). After stopping dance aerobics, I suddenly feel like I'm so unhealthy. FYI, Dr. Oz says we should exercise 3 times a week. He also says that having sex 3 times a week can prolong a man's life by a few years (not sure for the woman though...)

Well, I'm not doing anything to increase my health lately... And I'm currently having my freaky obsession with KFC. Can't remember how many times I've eaten that after the surgery... Probably 4 or 5 times already. What would Dr. Oz say? Tsk.. tsk...

I am hungry. Need to go home... all I can think of is KFC... shall I be tempted? Hmmm.... *in deep thought now*

It's no excuse

I'm feeling lousy. Sometimes I'm so busy trying to keep up with life, I tend to forget about the people around me. Meant to drop an email, meant to catch up during lunch, meant to say hi but intentions kept getting lost in the many things to do in a day. And suddenly weeks have rushed by.

Until I hear the news, different things twice in one week, and I realize that things were not going all too well...

I wished I had stopped to say "How are you doing?". I wished I stopped to listen.

I'm sorry. :(

The Sire

I usually don't write about restaurants I go to because I'm too lazy. But today I was talking about The Sire with colleagues so decided to share some photos of it.

The Sire is a museum restaurant at the house where Yeap Chor Ee used to stay (I got mixed up with Cheong Fatt Tze heritage mansion which is another place in Penang open to the public). The people behind The Sire are the same people from the Ferringhi Garden, another absolutely gorgeous romantic restaurant at Batu Ferringhi (so gorgeous I almost wanted to change my wedding venue to that restaurant).

Anyway, back to The Sire, the food there is good but a little pricey. The restaurant is really charming with a wonderful cosy ambiance and after the meal, you can go over to see the museum section where you get to see some of the personal belongings of Yeap Chor Ee's family. What amazed me was that from the outside, the restaurant looks so small, but as you explore the museum, you'll find that it's much bigger than it seems.

When I saw the antique stuff there, I started imagining what it was like to live in that era. Then I started wondering whether a century from now, will they be displaying laptops and ipods and LCD TVs in a museum where people will point and say "I can't imagine living in that century".

Also, there are pictures of Yeap Chor Ee's humongous mansion (now donated to Wawasan University). If I lived in that mansion, whenever Yin How pisses me off, I'd just run off and hide in one of the gazillion rooms there and Yin How would never be able to find me. Ha!

I went The Sire twice last year. And I had a great time during both occasions. But honestly I wouldn't really go back unless I'm bringing somebody there who has never been there before. Because this is the kind of restaurant where you pay more for the environment rather than the food so once you've seen the museum, there's nothing much left to make me want to go back again and again.

Enough yapping.... here are the photos. We are only allowed to take photos of the restaurant and not the museum (but I curi-curi took a few photos until Yin How scolded me).