I know, I know.. this WAS suppose to be a weekly blog (ideally), but I’ve not written anything for almost a month. What can I say, I’m a procrastinator and a lazy bum, PLUS, I’ve been flooded with work. For those who don’t already know, I work as a senior software developer at a software house which sells payroll software. As a payroll software vendor, we have to keep up with the latest changes to tax forms, tax rules, etc. While the rest of the world generally wakes up to filing taxes by mid-April next year, we have to make sure our software is compliant to government requirements/specifications by October of this year. As the “main developer” involved in what we call “year-end” activities, that means I get the “privilege” of being “invited” to join ALL the meetings/discussions/debates/etc regarding such stuff. It so happens that there have been MAJOR changes this year (which we’ve sort of anticipated since there were, strangely enough, no changes last year). That means reading through heaps of technical specifications to “spot the differences”, and discuss with my product leader what actions we need to take. Thankfully, being a “senior” now means I get to delegate some of the work to my juniors, while me and my product leader sit down to do design and give consultation.

Ok, enough of my whining. Last Saturday (August 9th) was National Day in Singapore, and the company has credited each of us an extra day of leave. Since it’s a school holiday today (the kids have been credited an extra holiday too), many parents have taken the day off today to spend time with their little ones. So we only have half-attendance in the office today. Since I’ve cleared what’s on my plate, I thought I’d take the time to finally start work on my blog. So here I am.

Before I start on the reviews, I’ll like to give a BIG welcome to my Twitter/Plurk/Facebook/uStream buddy, Inge Loots (a.k.a taquoriaan), who was confirmed as a Catholic yesterday (August 10th)! She is living proof to the rest of us of the power of Father Roderick and his podcasts and new media ministry a.k.a. SQPN, because according to Inge herself, her iPod made her Catholic! WOOT!!!!

Now to the reviews proper. Today I’m going to introduce to you a couple of podcasts that are short and sweet. Most of these are below 5mins and are great for times when you just want to listen to something “bite-sized”.

If you like finding out about how stuff works, you’ll probably enjoy the series of podcasts produced by HowStuffWorks.com. The good people have produced 4 podcasts, each focusing on different subjects. Each episode is a brief explanation of the topic in question, that’ll surely feed curiosity while on the go.

• Stuff You Should Know (rss) deals with topics regarding society and culture
• BrainStuff (rss) delves in science and medicine
• TechStuff (rss) obviously talks about technology
• Fact or Fiction (rss) is excellent for history buffs

Movie geeks will surely enjoy the Movie Mantras podcast (rss) by Martyn Darkly. This podcast offers to help you “search for enlightenment through the wisdom of film“. Twice a week, a quote from a movie is given in the “meditation exercise”. Each episode is about a minute in length. That’s what I call short and sweet.

In this crazy world, we all tend to have a couple of crazy thoughts once in a while. If you thought you were the only one feeling that way all along, wait till you listen to Christiana’s Shallow Thoughts (rss) by Christiana Ellis. Christiana is a writer/podcaster. To keep up with her job, she naturally has to keep her mind constantly churning out fun and interesting ideas. She shares her thought process and offers listeners a “daily dose of serene surrealism“.

Can’t get enough of funny stories? Check out Short Cummings Audio (rss) by Kevin Cummings>. Every week Kevin shares a funny story inspired by his everyday life. Give him six minutes and he’ll share his life with you.

Well, that’s all for now. I managed to finish this entry just in time to pack up and leave the office and enjoy the rest of the afternoon relaxing in some corner of Singapore. I have more reviews lined up, so keep a lookout for my next entry. Until then, take care and God bless!

Tags: fiction, life, musings, Podcasts, rant, Reviews

Yes, I’ve just begun my 30-dom. Now I have to write my age beginning with a “3″. I’m not sure if I’m ready for this yet, but I’ll just have to accept whatever God throws in my way.

Looking back, I realized there are tons and tons of things which I wish I had accomplished by now but have not, either due to my own procrastination, or other “unforeseen circumstances”. However, there are other things that I’m thankful of having at my age:

• I have a job that I love (although I can’t really say the same about my pay). Even though most of ex-classmates have moved up the corporate ladder, I still honestly prefer development to management. Like I always say, I’m a follower, not a leader.
• I have a loving boyfriend who bears with all my craziness. Although he has not popped the big question after more than 3 years of dating (Why? I’ll never know), he dotes on me and assures me that “he has plans”. He’s also the only guy I know who understands and tolerates that I NEED to spend more time with 68-year old widowed mother more than with him. For that, I’m extremely grateful.
• I’ve finally officially completed my degree course before I turned 30 (although the convocation is in end August). I just received the results of my final-year project.. “Higher Distinction” (w00t!)
• My dear dear “twin” brother, a.k.a my god-brother. We’re not genetically-related in anyway, but we share the same birthday (same year, same month, same day). How cool is THAT! He dotes on me like a baby sister, and I adore him as my elder brother. As an only child, he was a very welcomed sibling to have. We used to try and trick our friends to believing that we were really twins, since we did look alike, and our Chinese names sounded similar. Our different family names gave the trick away, of course. My “twin” brother just broke the news to me this morning that the lady he was courting was no longer his girlfriend, but is now his fiancee! (double w00t)

Those of you following my Twitter/Plurk/Facebook activities probably know that I’ve taken leave from work to celebrate with the bf. We met up for breakfast at a cafe in town, and then we went to watch the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight. Great action and fantastic performance from a stellar cast, which included the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. My favorite character however is Lucius Fox, played by Morgan Freeman. Freeman is SUCH a charming actor that he ALWAYS steals the show from the leads.

After the movies, we had lunch at Spageddies. We both ordered Crayfish Parmagiarri. That was followed by Tiramisu. Yummy!

We loitered around town for a while more and then headed to a nearby Gloria Jeans for coffee and to rest our feet. That was followed by a visit to an Apple store for the bf to check out the iPod Touch, so that he could use it as a reference of what to expect of the iPhone 3G that he’s eying to get at the end of the year. Finally, we headed home together after getting dinner for my mom.

I realized as I’m typing this entry, it has already past midnight, meaning I’m now in Day 2 of my 30-dom. Well, I guess that also means I should get some beauty sleep now. Meanwhile, checkout my birthday photo album on Facebook!

Until next time, take care and God bless!

Tags: food, life, movies, musings, Reviews

It’s been a busy week for me this week. Especially since we have a new General Manager, who officially joined us on the the first day of the month. The first thing our new GM did was to have a 1-to-1 meeting with each and EVERY one of us. He even prepared a set of questions which he expected us to answer during our individual sessions. It feel horribly like a job interview. Yuck!

From another perspective, this was also a good chance for us to feedback what we felt need to be improved. After the merger last year, things have gone pretty much topsy-turvy in the company. Most of the sales/pre-sales/customer service staff have left. It is rather depressing to see co-workers leave the company one by one. Especially those of who I’ve been working with closely since joining the company more than 4 years ago. Some of our most senior staff (in terms of service years) have resigned. Hopefully, the new GM will improve the state of things around here.

I mentioned last week that I’ll be reviewing some podcast novels that I’m currently subscribed to. If you’re new to the concept of novels in podcast format, please read my previous post regarding podcast novels.

Before we begin, here’s a disclaimer:Some of the novels featured here contain mature situations, language and violence.

If you enjoyed playing Cluedo, you’ll probably enjoy Murder at Avedon Hill (rss) by P.G. Holyfield. As the title suggests, the story revolves around a murder mystery which took place on Avedon Hill. Gretta Platt, the housekeeper of the Avedon Manor, has been murdered. Arames Kragen, retired Aarronic Advisor and scholar of prophecy, offers to help find the murderer, in exchange for access to the mountain pass. In the process, he also uncovers the truth about a town that apparently has more secrets than inhabitants. Unlike the podcast novels that I’ve previously reviewed, this novel is presented much like an audio drama, where many fellow podcasters/authors lend their voices and dramatic talent. The plot gets thicker as the story unfolds. I’m often kept at the edge of my seat guessing who the real murderer is.

Another podcast novel involving multiple voice talents is The Metamor City Podcast (rss) by Chris Lester. The podcast consists of short stories as well as full-length novels. The stories occur within Metamor City, a high-magic, high-technology setting, an epic fantasy world projected into the near future. Metamor City reminds me of X-Men, but it really is much more than that. It’s almost like a big reunion of sci-fi characters. Habitants of this magical futeristic world include vampires, telepaths, werewolves, androgynes, magicians, and of course normal, non-magical humans (a.k.a “mundies”)

If you prefer a story that’s slightly “closer to reality”, you might like to try The Takeover (rss) by Mur Lafferty. The story revolves a takeover/merger of 2 companies, and how it’s affected the employees of both sides. The catch is, one of the companies involved are a bunch of zombies! At the same time, the human employees realize that to climb up the corporate ladder, you’ll have to be willing to turn into a zombie. Oh my! Talk about working yourself to death! If you enjoy The Takeover, you might also want to check out Mur’s many other podcasts at Murverse.com, or simply subscribe to her catch-all feed here to enjoy all the Mur goodness.

Meanwhile, fans of J.C. Hutchins‘ 7th Son Trilogy will be glad to know that J.C. is back with 7th Son: Obsidian, an short-story anthology series based on the fictional universe of the 7th Son Trilogy. Contributors to this world’s first-ever anthology podcast includes A-List podcasters as well as fans from around the world. Definitely worth checking out!

If you enjoy having famous voices read stories to you, I’m sure you’ll also love SteamPod (rss) by Chris Moody. SteamPod is a podcast about what is going on in the world of SteamPunk, a publication that is dedicated to promoting steampunk as a culture, as more than a sub-category of fiction. It is a journal of fashion, music, misapplied technology and chaos, and fiction.

That’s all for now. I hope you’ll enjoy the selection of podcast novels I’ve reviewed for you. Meanwhile, God bless!

Tags: fiction, life, musings, Podcasts, podiobooks, Reviews

After a 3-month hiatus, I’m pleased to announce that I’m finally back to blogging again! This time should be for good, well at least until I start getting busy with whatever drops in my lap again.

Won’t be doing any podcast reviews today, since I’ll need some time to do some research and preparation first. I have added a few new podcast subscriptions to my iTunes during this time, and they’re all very good. So a keep a lookout for my upcoming reviews for those!

Meanwhile, let me just give a brief update on what’s been happening to me and the world around me in the past 3 months. First and foremost, as some of you know by now, I’ve FINALLY gotten a promotion. After working in my current company for 4 years, I’m now OFFICIALLY a Senior Software Developer. Naturally, the pay package has been adjusted slightly to match the new position. It was a reasonable adjustment, though the final figure is still on the low side, compared to what some of my peers are earning outside. Nonetheless, I’m a happier worker now.

The fact that I’m typing this new blog entry also means that I’ve finally completed my final-year modules. Well, almost. I’ve completed the final assignment, which is due for submission next week. There will be a project presentation in the following week. And then I sit and wait for results. Then if all goes well (please pray for me, folks), I can finally make the necessary arrangements for graduation. FINALLY! Woo-hoo!

On a sad note, my god-brother’s mom passed away 3 weeks ago, just before Mother’s Day. She died of cancer. I only found out a few days later after reading a couple of entries he left on his blog where he mentioned that his dad was devastated during the funeral. He himself was feeling very sad, but for the sake of his dad, he had to stay strong. I can fully understand that feeling. My own dad passed away 11 years ago, and I had to tell myself to be strong for my mom. If you will, please pray for the repose of the soul of my god-brother’s mom and my dear dear dad, as well as for my god-brother’s family that they will be strong.

Another tiny tiny tragedy that happened recently was that I broke the LED display on my newly bought Creative ZEN Stone Plus MP3 player, after careless dropping it on the floor Thankfully the player still works in terms of audio. I just can’t see what I’m doing when I’m fiddling with the settings. The bf checked with the nice people at the Creative store near his office, and they confirmed that the 1-year warranty I had on the device was not going to cover the repair if I choose to send it in (what can I say, I was careless), and the cost of repairing the LED was going to be S$69. WHAT!!!! The player cost me S$99, and the repair is $69?!?! I might as well get a new one! Urgh!

Well, that’s all for now. Will try to get the podcast reviews ready by next week. Watch out for it!

Tags: life, musings, rant, technology

The Lion City is abuzz with IT Show 2008 exhibition which started yesterday (6th March 2008) and will end this Sunday (9th March 2008). It claims to be the largest IT/electronics exhibition of it’s kind in Singapore. And did I mention that admission is free? It’s no wonder that the IT-savvy and gadget-loving folks flood the exhibition halls in search of good bargains on computers, laptops, digital cameras, MP3 players, game consoles, printers, flash drives, etc. Being the semi-geek that I am, I make it a point to go to the IT Show on a yearly basis. Hence, I made an appointment with the bf and the both of us took the afternoon off from work to avoid the evening crowd.

Before heading to the exhibition hall, we had steamboat at the Chong Qing Hotpot restaurant in the basement of the Suntec City, where the exhibition is held. It was cold since it had been raining for days. The best time to have some steaming hot spicy soup. Yummy!

Tags: life, musings, technology