Oh boy, it’s been a really long time huh? This year has been a real roller-coaster ride for me. I left my earlier job of 8 years, spent 2 months looking for a job, and finally found one in the building right next to my old office. Oh ironies of ironies!

I shall not dwell on the reasons that led to my sudden decision to give up the comforts of my old job, since I don’t think it’s ethical to talk bad about your previous employer on such a public place like the Internet. Let’s just say I had great passion for my job, and the 8 years I spent there were definitely the most memorable times of my life. Although I miss my old comrades terribly, I’m more and more convinced that I made the right choice. I was getting too comfortable for my own good. This realization hit me each and every time I went for an interview. I needed more challenges, technically and career-wise. I was also too dependent on my leader of that time, who acted as the big brother for the rest of us, and it was time to learn to take care of myself.

It’s been almost a month since I started my new job. The job scope looked like what I did before, but yet was also unfamiliar to me. The technologies used and the development platform used is totally different to what I was used to. I’m the only female developer in the office, where as the ladies were the majority in my old job. My current team is not as chatty as my previous team, and the company culture was different as well. There’s lots to learn and catch up with, but I’m gradually settling in and starting to see some light.

The good thing about being located near your next company is that you get to meet-up and lunch with your ex-colleagues regularly. The down side of course, is that you’re bound to bump into your old bosses or other people whom you’ll rather not talk about your new job with. But then again, Singapore is a small country.

With all the reading and catching up I need to do, I probably will not be updating and posting to this blog regularly for quite a while. I know some of the links in the Podcasts and Links pages are outdated, but I haven’t had the time to sit down and update them one by one. Please bear with me for the time-being. Meanwhile, you might want to checkout my Tumblr page, which I plan to use as some sort of aggregate site, where posts from here and some my other site will be reflected here. It’s also a place where I can easily share short rantings and musings on the go.

I have to get back to my reading again. Until next time, adios!

Tags: life, musings, Personal, rant

As you’ve probably noticed, it’s been a while since I last updated. Life has kept me busy, especially with the recent title change that I had at work. Nonetheless, I managed to steal some time off my crazy work life last week to enjoy some quality time with myself.

I’ve been meaning to watch Puss in Boots when it started its run 2 weeks ago, but I noticed The Muppets was coming up too. So rather than taking 2 days to watch 2 movies, I decided to have a mini movie marathon.

Naturally, before the movies started, we were served some trailers for upcoming movies:

We Bought A Zoo

The trailer claims that the movie is based on a true story. I’ve not done any research on this yet, but the trailer does make it look like quite a touching story about love. Love of your family, love between man and woman and love of animals. This sure looks like a movie I might want to catch next year. Storyline and animals aside, I just want to say “What happened to Matt Damon????”. I mean.. he looks so.. matured!! On the hand, it sure is refreshing watching Scarlett Johansson fully dressed for once.

The Amazing Spider-man

Yup, I said Amazing Spider-man and not Spider-man 4. Why we need so many Spider-man movies, I’ll never know. The effects look good though and I already know a handful of my friends who’ll want to watch this. As for me, I’m not much of a Spider-man fan, as you can probably tell, so I might just skip this one.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked

Alvin, the troublemaker, and rest of the Chipmunk gang are back. This time they go on cruise but somehow the 6 furry friends get stranded on a lone island. I nearly laughed my head off when I saw them singing and dancing to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance”. I may not watch this one in the cinema, but I’ll mostly like catch it on DVD.

After the movies, I popped over to the nearby H&M that opened in Singapore recently to see what’s the fuss. Sure, the apparel is fashionable and all, but most of the items were a little above my budget. I did pick up a knitted beret at a reasonable price though. Not exactly my “go to” place to shop for clothes, but I’ll definitely be back to look at accessories.

I went on to make a brief stop at Cold Stone Creamery for some ice cream. I’ve heard lots of good things about the ice cream here, but somehow I was a little disappointed. I had the Cheesecake Fantasy, but the strawberries and blueberries tasted nowhere near sweet and had a distinct “frozen” aftertaste. Maybe next time I’ll just have the ice cream and only mix in extras that I like.

It felt good to relax and recharge for a day, even though I’ve no one to enjoy it with. The last time I did something like this was  on my birthday, which is almost half a year ago! I really should do this more often.

Meanwhile, watch out for my movie reviews coming up in the next couple of days.

Tags: life, movies, musings, Personal, rant

I was never an Apple fan to begin with and I do not own (and have never owned) any Apple products. However, I still appreciated them for their creativity and ingenuity when it comes to design and user-intuitiveness. A quick look at the smart phone market will immediately show how everyone is trying to imitate Apples technology and/or design. It’s probably safe to say that Apple revolutionized personal computers, music and smart phones. Steve Job’s vision changed the way people work and play today.

I particularly loved watching Steve Jobs giving his signature keynote speeches. His onstage charisma is incomparable. Apple would have never become what it is today without the lead of Steve Jobs.

Steve, rest in peace. You will be well missed by all.

Tags: Announcements, apple, life, musings

Whoa! Time sure flies when you’re busy. A third of a century of  my life just flew by like that, before I even realized. So here I am, 33 years old. Single, but definitely not lonely. Poor in the pockets, but rich with the love of family and friends around me. As it is, I’m already into the 3rd day of the 2nd third of a century of my life. So far so good. With a bit of luck (and possibly some hard work), things could get better.

The big day started without any bangs. Just a frantic search for stockings since I accidentally ran a hole in the pair I was wearing. Thankfully that got fixed easily. I wish my program bugs could be fixed as effortlessly.

Next, I headed to fill my hungry little tummy before rushing to purchase tickets for the earliest screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at my favorite cinema (which as coincidences go, happen to share the same birthday as me, only that they’re 43 years older than I am). The movie was great! However, I found it very fast-paced, which was understandable since there was lots to be packed in this grand finale. I’m just glad that I’d read the book before watching the movie, so I more or less knew what to expect. Watch out for my review of the movie coming up soon!

Here are a couple of trailers I watched while waiting for the movie to begin:

Cowboys & Aliens are 2 things that I’d never think of putting together in a movie. A rather interesting mix of genres involving sci-fi, western & suspense. Not something that will draw me spend my time and money to watch in the cinemas though.

Captain America isn’t something I’ve grown up with on my side of the world either, although I’ve heard some of my online friends mention the popular set of comics. Not particularly a comic fan myself, so probably will give this one a miss too.

The remainder of the day was themed “shop-till-you-drop“. Hey, if you’re a shopaholic like me, whose birthday happens to coincide with the annual Great Singapore Sale, you’ll most likely do the same. Finally at around 3pm, I decided to sit down to rest my tired legs and to get some late lunch. Japanese ramen followed by light cheese cake for dessert. Yummy!

So there, my 33rd birthday well spent; tired legs, empty pocket and all. Nothing extravagant or grand, just a simple itinerary to satisfy my simple needs.

Tags: Harry Potter, movies, musings, Personal, youtube

The season of Lent is here again. With Ash Wednesday coming up tomorrow, it’s time again to think about abstinence and cleansing of one’s soul in preparation for the glorification of Lord through His death and resurrection. It truly is a humbling time of the year, when we recall how Jesus suffered His passion to redeem us from evil. We look back on our lives so far, and examine what we tend to cling blindly to and learn to give up unnecessary material wants, and replace these “things of the world” by stocking up on our spiritual needs.

What are you giving up for Lent this year?

Many tend to think of Lent as a period of giving up something. Most times, these may be things that may not mean much in terms of our spirituality and faith, such as chocolates and candy. The idea of giving and abstinence during Lent, is actually a form of cleansing and disciplining ourselves, by learning to conditioning our urges and desires in a way that leads us to greater union with God. It is by no means a form of oppression or suppression, but rather a way to free ourselves from unwanted and unhealthy desires and attachments. It is only when we let go of these unnecessary burdens can we rise higher in our spiritual life. Such acts of self-discipline should not be restricted to just the period of Lent, but throughout our faith journey. However, it is especially highlighted during this period because we want to love Jesus as He has loved us, through sacrificing.

I’ve learned through the years that giving up simple things like coffee and chocolate during Lent does not essentially make me a better person. Lent should not be a treated as a season to adjust to a healthy diet. Instead, I try to assess what material things I’ve been overly attached to and learn to give these up. Such things can be either food, games, a bad habit, etc. Also, I try to devote more time to do something good, like saying extra rosaries, reading a good religious book, learning a new devotional prayer.

This year I’ll be continuing my fight with the morning alarm. I’m going to try to wake up without hitting the snooze on my alarm clock. Discipline in terms of  time management is something I seriously need to work on. And let’s not forget my continuous battle with my quick temper. Haven’t figured out how I can work on the latter, but it’s definitely something I desperately need to get rid of.

For more information on the season of Lent, as well as fasting and abstinence during this season, visit ETWN’s mini-site.

Meanwhile, here’s a good commentary on Lent by Father Barron.

Tags: Catholic, Inspirational, musings, Personal