what do you do when clients ask for your handphone number and the last thing you want to do is to give them a licence to bug you any hour of the day?
i normally resort to 'it's company policy that we don't give out our handphone numbers' (though a lot of colleagues are in fact happy to give their numbers to clients).
one of my bosses had the best excuse - in fact it wasn't an excuse at all, it was the truth - no handphone. none. nil. nada. (a client once thought, of course, that it was just another lame excuse, and remarked to some colleagues at a meeting sarcastically that "oh, and i suppose you guys don't have handphones either?")
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
(in)productivity...
yesterday was quite a day. the phone line at home was busted, so i couldn't dial-up to the Net (as for why i don't have broadband.. that's another story. but i WILL be subscribing to a wireless service soon..), but it was all the better, i thought, cos then it would be one less distraction as i had to finish up the bosnia report for the evening's deadline.
until something urgent came up on a web design project and i had to get the design specs by email out to a bunch of people before the end of the day. i would only be able to get a Net connection once i got to the campus.. and i wasn't about to head in to the campus till i had the essay done and printed!
anyway, essay printed 5.30pm, got to uni and sorted out what i had to do for the day.
and now since bosnia has been submitted, 'tis time to get back to the unfinished PHP business. since the phone line at home is still busted (the phone technician will be popping by today), i headed to the campus to use the wireless network. it was going to be a nice productive morning (ha ha), until i found that my wireless network card had busted.. it's a PCMCIA card that sticks out of my laptop, and got bent while my laptop bag was rolling around in the car on the way in. sigh. so i decided to make a trip to low yat to get a new one.
anyway, to cut a long story short, it turned out that i didn't need to get a new one after all, cos i managed to borrow a nice Lucent Tech. Orinoco card. yay!
(but it still doesn't mean i'm gonna have a productive afternoon!)
until something urgent came up on a web design project and i had to get the design specs by email out to a bunch of people before the end of the day. i would only be able to get a Net connection once i got to the campus.. and i wasn't about to head in to the campus till i had the essay done and printed!
anyway, essay printed 5.30pm, got to uni and sorted out what i had to do for the day.
and now since bosnia has been submitted, 'tis time to get back to the unfinished PHP business. since the phone line at home is still busted (the phone technician will be popping by today), i headed to the campus to use the wireless network. it was going to be a nice productive morning (ha ha), until i found that my wireless network card had busted.. it's a PCMCIA card that sticks out of my laptop, and got bent while my laptop bag was rolling around in the car on the way in. sigh. so i decided to make a trip to low yat to get a new one.
anyway, to cut a long story short, it turned out that i didn't need to get a new one after all, cos i managed to borrow a nice Lucent Tech. Orinoco card. yay!
(but it still doesn't mean i'm gonna have a productive afternoon!)
Friday, March 18, 2005
roasted eggplant and Mostar white wine, anyone?
eeks.. it appears that, during one of my blog-template-editing sprees, something or other that i did caused some earlier comments to disappear! yikes! there goes a part of history...
anyway, RE-STARTING VIOLIN CLASSES NEXT MONTH! finally dunnit!
in an adventurous mood. if anyone knows where i can learn the gamelan, lemme know.
meanwhile, need to finish a country-analysis essay on bosnia-herzegovina. it's amazing the amount of resources you can find on the Net on the Eastern European country (and i don't mean just stuff on the civil war).. can hardly decide where to start!
PS. On food in Bosnia: Bosnian cooking reflects Turkish and Muslim influences. Popular dishes include musaka (roasted meat and eggplant) and kapama (mutton with spinach and green onions). Mostar produces an excellent white wine.
anyway, RE-STARTING VIOLIN CLASSES NEXT MONTH! finally dunnit!
in an adventurous mood. if anyone knows where i can learn the gamelan, lemme know.
meanwhile, need to finish a country-analysis essay on bosnia-herzegovina. it's amazing the amount of resources you can find on the Net on the Eastern European country (and i don't mean just stuff on the civil war).. can hardly decide where to start!
PS. On food in Bosnia: Bosnian cooking reflects Turkish and Muslim influences. Popular dishes include musaka (roasted meat and eggplant) and kapama (mutton with spinach and green onions). Mostar produces an excellent white wine.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
what a day #4576
wadda day.
so i called up someone yesterday with an enquiry. the guy was in the middle of a meeting then and said that since he would be in a series of meetings thereafter, he would return my call in the evening at 8pm. he either forgot to, or didn't save my number, or was still in a meeting. finally, at about 9pm, i smsed my phone number over (also as a gentle reminder that HELLO, you were supposed to return a call!). next, i got a blank sms. (i actually didn't know before this that one could send blank smses..) haven't heard from him since.
next. a piece of php login code i managed to get hold of works fine one minute, and suddenly the next time i try it, the login page just refreshes itself; it doesn't log anyone in. same username and password, same php files.. i even re-uploaded the stuff; re-downloaded the original files from the source and uploaded that, and nope, it still doesn't work. i can only think that the server i uploaded it to has suddenly gone into a case of indigestion..
on a funnier note.. my dad couldn't find the Straits Times anywhere on the porch today. he had to drive out to the shops to get the paper; complaining about the levels of service of the paperboy all the way. after lunch, i happened to be gazing out of the window which overlooks the side lane where my car is parked (during a break from the php nonsense), and LO AND BEHOLD! there it was - a yellowing copy of today's paper was perched on the roof of my car. i had been driving around all afternoon with the Straits Times on the roof of my car! geez!
so i called up someone yesterday with an enquiry. the guy was in the middle of a meeting then and said that since he would be in a series of meetings thereafter, he would return my call in the evening at 8pm. he either forgot to, or didn't save my number, or was still in a meeting. finally, at about 9pm, i smsed my phone number over (also as a gentle reminder that HELLO, you were supposed to return a call!). next, i got a blank sms. (i actually didn't know before this that one could send blank smses..) haven't heard from him since.
next. a piece of php login code i managed to get hold of works fine one minute, and suddenly the next time i try it, the login page just refreshes itself; it doesn't log anyone in. same username and password, same php files.. i even re-uploaded the stuff; re-downloaded the original files from the source and uploaded that, and nope, it still doesn't work. i can only think that the server i uploaded it to has suddenly gone into a case of indigestion..
on a funnier note.. my dad couldn't find the Straits Times anywhere on the porch today. he had to drive out to the shops to get the paper; complaining about the levels of service of the paperboy all the way. after lunch, i happened to be gazing out of the window which overlooks the side lane where my car is parked (during a break from the php nonsense), and LO AND BEHOLD! there it was - a yellowing copy of today's paper was perched on the roof of my car. i had been driving around all afternoon with the Straits Times on the roof of my car! geez!
Friday, March 11, 2005
nuts / loco / insane / crrr-azy
i'm still alive; i am!
was just reading the papers about the recent SPM results.
this year's top scorer had 17A's. a bunch others have had 14's, 13's, 11's.
when i was a happy SPM-er, you were quite nuts if you took 10 subjects, and you'd be nuts to the highest order if you took any more than that.
how on earth does one end up with seventeen (17) subjects? are these kids taking the entire slew of science and arts stream subjects? and, no doubt it's a feat to score A's in all 17, but is it possible for a kid to study for 13-17 subjects and gain enough breadth and depth about any of them? must peer into the new syllabuses to see what kids learn in school these days ..
was just reading the papers about the recent SPM results.
this year's top scorer had 17A's. a bunch others have had 14's, 13's, 11's.
when i was a happy SPM-er, you were quite nuts if you took 10 subjects, and you'd be nuts to the highest order if you took any more than that.
how on earth does one end up with seventeen (17) subjects? are these kids taking the entire slew of science and arts stream subjects? and, no doubt it's a feat to score A's in all 17, but is it possible for a kid to study for 13-17 subjects and gain enough breadth and depth about any of them? must peer into the new syllabuses to see what kids learn in school these days ..
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