House Party

After moving in for over a year, JJ and I finally decided to invite frds over. Not that the house is all fixed and all tidies up, but we know that it’s simply not going to happen any time soon so we might as well have a party now cos otherwise, it’s just not going to happen.

Most of the ppl were my frds. There’s no way to fit both JJ and my frds together in one party with our little place. I was the one who wanted to have a party anyway so naturally, my frds got invited. haha…

There were a couple last minute cancellations and also a couple no shows. It was too bad for the ones who were sick but for the no show ones, I have to say that I didn’t miss them much. I am quite confident to say that it was them who missed out on the good food and company, especially bcos I don’t intend to hold parties too often. It may be a few years after this before I feel like hosting parties again. Well… at least for my group of frds anyway. Maybe JJ will invite his frds over some day.

For food, we roasted a whole pig. It was a lot of work for us cos we basically have to start the day at 6 in the morning to go get the pig, have other food ready, setting up tables and chairs, cleaning the house some more and other preparations. But since we started so early, we were actually in pretty gd shape by 3pm so that we have two hours of break (of course, during the break, we still have to go ‘take care’ of the pig every 15min or so) before ppl start showing up.

Picture courtesy to Rachel.

We’ve decided to do a pig bcos it’s something fun and different, at least for me Chinese anyway. Most of the Chinese gathering I’ve been to are either HK style BBQ or pot luck, or even hamburger/hot dog kind of BBQ. JJ and I have never cooked a whole pig b4 and we were glad that the pig turned out to be quite good. Nice and tender. It’s certainly worth the effort.

We also had salads and buns and snacks. Since a few of the guests asked if they need to bring anything, I told them to bring dessert/fruits if they really felt _compelled_ to bring food. I didn’t want everyone showing up with desserts and fruits cos then there’d be like 10 desserts/fruits dishes. And as I was betting on, some ppl did bring fruits/dessert and it was just perfect. =)

Overall, I think that the party was pretty gd. There were a couple of ppl who didn’t seem to enjoy themselves but they were the odd balls. They are simply not engaged. Even when I tried to talk to them, they didn’t have much response. If they didn’t want to enjoy themselves, there was nothing that I can do and it wasn’t my fault if they didn’t have a good time.

The only problem was that it wasn’t exactly cheap to do a roast pig, especially bcos we have to rent the equipment. And JJ and I had to buy quite a few minor things (other than food) to ensure that we won’t get rained out, or when the sun sets too early or if there were too many bugs. That’s probably part of the reason we won’t do this every often. haha… But then, those extra things are reusable so next time we do it, it won’t hurt our banks that much. In any case, it’s worth it if everyone enjoyed themselves. Now that I’ve opened my house once for party, I’ve fulfilled my job and ppl can’t ask me all the when I’m going to invite them to my house anymore! wahahhahahaa…

Headphones

公司d老細成日都開住門咁同ｄ客傾電話，再唔係呢就係喺我後面既 conference room 開會，但係又唔閂門架喎，我隔離 cubicle 既占少又係多嘢講之人，同親ｄ人講電話就好耐都收唔到聲，，死咁大聲．我呢排既工作好多時候都係睇文件，佢哋咁嘈真係好大既騷擾，我星期二終於忍唔住，去咗未來商鋪買咗對至 cheap 至 cheap 既 headphone, 咁我喺公司就可以聽音樂，唔駛俾嘈音騷擾．

其實屋企唔係冇舊 headphone 架喎，但就係以前嗰ｄ舊嘢，左邊短右邊長，但個左面短到由個 laptop 到我個頭都唔夠長，有兩對舊 headphones 都係咁，激死．未來商鋪至 cheap 至 cheap 既 headphone 都要十二蚊加稅，有ｄ肉痛．

不過都買咗，喺公司試咗一輪，都 ok ，所以都算，但前兩日去艱難太大買嘢，發現原來佢哋有 headphone 賣，仲只係賣幾蚊，雖然無未來商鋪嗰ｄ個樣咁醒目，但我都係喺公司用之嘛，靚唔靚係無乜關係，而且係 JVC, 雖然唔係最 high class最受歡迎既牌子，但都算係牌子，質量應該都ｏｋ．

所以呢，就係覺得好唔抵，去錯地方買嘢．．．

追月

中秋咁快就過咗．其實呢幾年以來都係無做ｄ乜去慶祝．基本上，我都差唔多唔知幾時係中秋，係因為詹占個鬼佬同事話佢知佢同個中國女婆＆仔女慶中秋我先醒起．

尋日係追月，我同詹占一朝早大都未光就去咗跑步，見到好光既月亮，我就同詹占講話我哋依家就真係慶中秋嘞，向住個月亮跑，真係超應境喎，名乎其實既追月！

Medieval Times

Thanks to JJ's mum, who wanted to go to Medieval Times for her birthday. So I finally got to go a few weeks ago (of course I have to pay).

I did look forward to it but at the same time I was a little worried. I have a very sensitive nose for animal smell. I am the kind of person who would throw up when I got to the zoo. So I was worried that I can't stand the smell of the horses, especially bcos it was indoor so that all the smell got trapped.

But surprisingly, it's not too bad. I mean, the arena still had a funny smell but it was totally tolerable. I mean, it would be better if there's no smell but it wasn't so bad that I had to leave right the way.

The food wasn't bad, either, especially considering the fact that the food was pretty much mass production. It was fun to be entitled to eat with my hands. The problem with eating with hands was that I wanted to take pictures also but my hands were too greasy.

The show wasn't bad. The story itself was quite simple but it was expected. Some of the tricks of the horses were quite impressive. My knight disappointed me cos he didn't win. haha... I did still enjoy yelling and cheering for my knight.

Overall, I did quite enjoy the show, to the point that I would like to take my family there when they come visit me. The show should be simple enough that I think my parents could still follow even though they won't understand the dialogue. The problem is that it would be too expensive for the whole family to go. Oh well... if everybody's happy, it'd probably be worth it. And it's not like they are planning to come visit me any time soon anyway.

Album Update

2010-07-24 Aguascalientes

Settling In

Worked here for 3 weeks already. Not bad so far. Still don't know what I'm doing.

I knew from my interview that this job would involve report writing but what I didn't expect was that I had to do report for the first project that I'm involved in already. And even before that, I helped this other guy with some calculations and ended up having to write two paragraphs for his report. So I guess Bo Bo Lo wasn't exaggerating when he told me that there'd be a A LOT of report writing during the interview.

I personally don't mind writing but the problem is that I doubt I can do a gd job on it. I don't mind doing it doesn't mean that I _can_ do it. Part of the reason to do engineering in the first place was that I don't think that I can write well and that I want to avoid writing essays. But I guess that's my destiny. I can hide but it finds me eventually.

But other than the worry of unable to do my job well, things seem pretty gd so far. I finally took the laptop home one day and installed msn on it. And Chrome. wahahahhaa... Well... not that I'm going to go online on msn during working hours anymore cos my desk is totally open to anyone who walks by. I'm actually appearing offline almost everyday now. I don't know why I'm doing that cos it's not like I'm chatting with anyone that way. I guess it's just a habit to have it on all the time.

Gd thing is that this office doesn't block fb! Well... gd and bad la. Gd thing is that I can reply any fb msg in a timely manner but the bad thing is that I really have to discipline myself. XD

Still haven't installed Chinese input into the computer yet. Maybe I'll do it this weekend.

I have to say, it's pretty sweet to be able to bring the laptop home and use it as my own computer but the problem is that it means that I have to drive for two consecutive days in order to do that. It reduces that amount of cycling days if I want to bring the laptop home. So I'm not doing it very often. Other ppl, though, bring it home everyday. Somehow, I think that it makes me look bad.

Album Update

Changed the setting of my online album http://mainprize.ca/oily-gallery so that user can add and view comments.

新工上任

A week already. Survived so far. Haven't got fired yet.

跟從前的真的有點不同，頭幾日基本上都係做埋d orientation 呀，health and safety training 之類既 admin 嘢，波波佬亦都無乜主動咁俾嘢我做。相對之前第一日返 fica 既時候，第一日已經要做真正既工作，好唔同。

坐個位唔係太好啦，雖然都係 cubicle farm 入面既其中一個，但我個位背住個走廊，即係個個行過都見到我做緊乜。不過算啦，基本上因為大公司既原故，佢哋個 IT 將d嘢都 block 得好緊要，我連 chrome 都 download 唔到，迫住用 IE，MSN FB 更加唔駛諗啦，有點想投河自盡既感覺。而每個人都係有一部 laptop instead of desktop，有好有唔好啦，個 mon 無咁大，好在佢都有俾真正既 keyboard 我，如果我要用 laptop 個 keyboard，就真係想死。好彩既係仍然有雙 mon，我慣咗雙 mon，如果無咗，我會好慘架！

波波佬成日笑笑口咁話俾 laptop 你，方便你拎埋番屋企做，都唔知係講真定講笑。不過又係真既，laptop 可以攞番屋企當自己電腦用都仲得。呢個亦係我突破佢既 IT 封鎖既雞會，可以試拎番屋企 download software，可能可以唔駛用 IE，FB就唔駛旨意架嘞，不過MSN都仲有雞會。不過呢個奸計唔知行唔行通，要睇佢個 security 係 set 咗喺公司個 network 度吖，定係 embedded 咗喺個腦度，如果係 embedded 咗，我可能都係 install 唔到。But I'm still going to try. wakakaka...

The guys and girls distribution was quite even in the old place but now my area is mostly dudes. That actually feel quite weird. But we seem to get along ok. I'll have to wait and see if how's it going to work out. Apparently, my "buddy" (they have a buddy program there) is going to be this girl who was on vacation last week. 波波佬 kept saying that we'll be gd frds cos she also came from HK. 吹脹，係香港人我就同佢 frd 架咩，我其實好多時都唔鐘意d chinese 架喎。But again, I'll see. I'll get to meet her this week. Maybe I'll get along well with her. Maybe...

Another interesting thing was that since I had been in the old place for so long, there were certain things that I don't get to do anymore but my 'helper' or other junior staff like coop students will those things. In this place, I'm the most junior person in my team and I ended up being a mail boy and delivered a document to a client's office. That was weird... I did anticipate that I won't be a senior over here but I didn't expect to be the "most" junior one...

But the good thing is that the projects seem quite interesting, very different from what I used to do. I actually got a little overwhelmed near the end of the week cos I started to get involved in some "real" work but I have no idea how to do the job!! Hopefully, I can pick up soon enough and can pass my probation...

Album Update

Mexico 2010 -> 2010-07-23 Zecatecas