快乐与满足

那天，好不容易，终于有机会坐下。是的，不单是因为长周末通宵达旦地赶者eLearning 各科目的作业；疲惫，也是因为前几个星期的马不停蹄而累积过来的。换句话，由于已经好几个星期都没有休息过。当然，“累”是不足以表达目前的心境（心态）。

浮现在脑海里的，不是“累” －－是“快乐”与“满足”。

忙碌中，得到的是什么？投入后，看到成果后，落在怀里的，又是什么？

看到自己有份参与的成就，我看，得到的，最大的是安慰与成就感。不是吗？

那，也可算是让自己有“满足”感吧！

生活，有意义，其中，就是让“满足”感来充实生活 － 这样，才不会白白的过日子。

要得到“满足”感，是得付出得。既然，要得到；当然，就要准备付出，有时，付出亦是另一翻代价。世上，没有不劳而获的事。

在工作上，要得到满足感并不困难；因此，也是寻找满足感的地方。

很多时候，我们就很直接地把“满足”和“快乐”衔接在一起。其实，也并不以为然。

虽然，“满足”通常是牵动者“快乐”。实际上，那不是理所当然地。

有满足，并不表示快乐。。。

Family Dinner

It was a good get-together... with just 5 of us in the family :)
Well, it's special, too... for me... just arrived homeland after a week being away... and yes, we had good food for the night... it's also like marking a 'finale' to the month of hardwork :)

Goose liver that's just cooked... tasted very nice... no smell of organs at all!

Wow! Shark Fin in very thick soup with a 'hammy' taste

Here came the highlight of the restaurant: Abalone!
There were 2 types here, the Mexican abalone which was the dry one (on the left, slightly smaller) and the fresh abalone from Japan! I liked the fresh one! It tasted sweeter and more 'crispy'

Here's another 'mysterious' item - a mixture of goose liver and some meat were mixed and wrapped inside the comb of fried noodles.

For a change, pakchoi and gooseberries... simple dish yet tasted very nice :)

Another highlight: Lobster yifu noodles

Finale: Almond flavoured bird nest

1-minute painting

Chanced upon this clip at Yun Huann's edublog. It's simply so amazing... the creativity - in terms of the 'techniques' (or skills) to create that piece of art... from sprays and papers and some sticky stuff. It's an example of optimising resources and using them creatively. It also means one has to use the resources in a way pretty different from the norm :)

1-to-1 does make a difference...

It's was just a quick observation, when we attended the FS Sharing session. Not talking about the content or what's delivered in the session; it's about the degree of 'participation'.

Indeed, I thought our table stood out... probably because we were so 'ourselves' (at home) - so naturally that we brought our own macbooks with us when turned up for the meeting.

Out of 6 tables:

• 5 tables, each had one computer for 5-6 personnel
• 1 table, i.e. ours, in a 1-to-1 configuration

When working on the first activity - when the participants were to enter their inputs to the googlespreadsheet: While the rest needed to share one screen and read what's required to do; what we did was to immediately shared out the worksheet and everybody at the table could view, discuss and start contributing to where we think we could. Well, it's a good illustration how 1-to-1 configuration has changed the way people work and collaborate :)

Ah! I'm impressed with what the fluency and teamwork demonstrated :) Hope that those around has sensed how different the learning and participation experience, given the appropriate environment.

Cheers!

Delicious Delicious Sashimi

Had this last evening at a gathering... Thanks to Karen who brought us to this place for the authentic Japanese meal... loved the thick cuttings of the fresh sea creatures... there, we learnt that it's reaaaaaaaaaaaal cheap eating sashimi in Japan... ah! Those generous servings of fresh catches from the sea...

One of the highlights we had last night...

The one in Japan definitely tasted better...

About the Peak Hour Rush

This has been the 'hot' topic for the week... saw a couple of reports on this (though I rarely touch newspapers in the morning in weekdays).

A few days ago, the (sub-)headline in one of the Straits Times articles read something like "the highest frequency of the MRT train is 2-3 minutes". This morning's Sunday Times has a page on "Special Report: The Big Squeeze" Peak-Hour Crush.

Well, the MRT system... I think the heightened interest was attributed by the Fare rise, that was publicised a coupled of months ago... ok... when the day is near, people start to talk more about it.

In the article, while the current effort to bring forth a better service were highlighted, I thought the few reasons that were cited to explain why certain what's "best" could be done were not good enough to justify. For instance,

• "The train can run only at two or three-minute frequencies due to the current infrastructure". I couldn't believe this was cited as the first reason! It sounds as if that its the infrastructure to blame! How old is our MRT system? Compare this with what they have in Europe countries like Paris and London! The frequency of the trains is high, especially in peak hours. Mind you, their systems is much more complicated - with a railway track serving several lines at ago! Tokyo's system is impressive! Don't just compare the populatuion or the number of passengers that could be packed in each car, please compare the train frequency!
• "More carriages cannot be added as the length of the station platform is only 6 carriages long." Please think out of the box! The length of the platform is not a constraint! It's just a place for people to board and alight. I may sound "unreasonable" but it's really a matter of shaping people's expectation and routines! In fact, if we are familiar with the London Metro System, we would know that some cars at the end of the train do no open their doors at certain station because the length of the train is much longer than that of the platform. So, commuters know best where they should move to if they need to alight at stations where certain cars do not 'open' the doors. Ah! It also means that the train could 'control' which door to open or not... Would this help to 'expand' the passenger capacity per ride?
• Several times in the report cited as if it's the commuters' fault of not making full use of they system - true that the user habit needs to be looked into... and since it's the problem, why not tackle it right? Thinking of removing the number of seats in the car helps to increase the capacity? Well, theoretically it does, but if the commuters are not educated to do so, the situation will never improve. Why the service provider not working on this? or it is, but the effort is not observable?????

One of the biggest 'puzzle' I have is, what's the role of the SMRT officers at the platform? Of course I could think of lines of reasons to justify the need to have such personnel at the platform to provide a "better commuter service"... but I've not seen enough (or sometimes, at all) that it's happening. Very disappointing!

Something that I saw at overseas train platforms that the auxiliary personnel do (which I don't see in Singapore, from my experience, to-date):

• Ensure passengers board the train in an orderly manner. In Japan, be it in Tokyo or Osaka, and I believe these are not the only cities in the world that we see that... Commuters follow the lines marked on the floor... while everyone knows that the train packed, they waited for commuters to alight first before stepping into the train. The auxiliary personnel at the platform maintain that order! They are able to ask or signal the commuters to be in order. What do we see at our MRT platforms? Maybe our auxiliary personnel do not know what to do or how to do? Simply instructing them to 'tell' the commuters off doesn't help. I think they need to really see how their counterparts do it overseas... then they know what that means.

Similarly, drawing the lines on the floor doesn't help... there needs reinforcement from the auxiliary personnel. The lines do not create 'automatic' barricades for those who block those alighting the train!

Adding more reinforcement around is not enough... Educate the commuters, please!!!!

Lenses for e-eye monster?

Guess who is this for? Why 3 and not 2 or 4? Hm...

Afternote (updated: 4 July 2010)

There was a typoerror when posting this via the handphone... the "e" and "3".

Got this idea when a friend likes to describe her colleague as a "3-eye monster"... hahaha... one pair of eyes to stare at 3 computer screens (connected to the same system unit)!

That was the "blur" day when I dropped and couldn't find the 2nd lense... still missing... anyway, so have to open the 3rd piece lor.

Sustainability... in blogging

Was doing some houseekeeping to this blog... and noticed that have not visited many of my friends' blogs for quite sometime.

Indeed, a number of us went into blogging at almost the same period... in the past 2 years... I guess, it's a effort to inspire each other, and with that starting belief that it's a platform where we would keep in touch with one another... Well, at that time, Facebook was not as popular as it is now.

It's the enthusiasm... and commitmment... and perseverence... that I think is needed for the blog to be 'sustainable'. Visited a number of blogs this morning... (those parked on the right panel). Noticed that a few of them stopped for quite sometime already (just to name a few):

• Kevin's "Orange" post has remain evergreen since 2008
• Irene's Photo Album and her 'resolution to re-start her blogging effort' remains in 2009
• Ching Ya's glass of water remains half filled since last July. She has not drunk the remaining half or fill it up to the rim yet
• Richard's last stocktake was this February

Of course, there are those who have been keeping it alive with everyday learning and sharing... like Yunn Huan's, Irfan's and Passang's... and of course, mine :)

What makes it on-going? Hm... at least, for my case, I think I enjoy the kind of 'privacy' in the blog... when it's not 'mixed' with many other stuff... it's clean... and it allows me to organise my thoughts (related to different matters) in a very clean and neat way. In fact, Facebook provides another avenue for 'blogging' - which is via "Notes"... Nevertheless, it's not as neat as using the blog - if I were to organise my posts as "My Thoughts", "My Learning", "My Travelogue", etc... get what I mean?

Oh yes... am still expanding my "BLOG" empire... hahaha... while "My Firsts" and "My Learning Journey" play the key documentation platform... My Travelogue would expand as I leave my footprints around the world. Oops! Not to forget blogs created other accounts for other professional work...

I guess, if someone were to ask me to name one of the greatest achievement in my life... I guess it's really "creating the blog empire, to have my existence felt upon exit"

天气渐晴、心情渐晴

昨日，友人说，自京都一旅，看到四周的人与事，都似乎渐渐地改善了 - 尤其是人事关系，当然，也包括了各人的处事态度；也许，在每个神社所许下的心愿，渐渐的实现了；同时，自己也比较“禅”了！哈哈哈！那是一桩好事。

其实，万物一直在变；不知不觉中地在变 - 不单单是四周的人与物；同时我们自己也在变 - 不单是处事待人之道；也包括了我们的看法，因为四周的转变而受到影响，一直地在改变之中。

有时，是因为不清楚、不了解“幕后”的过程；因此，在没有全面了解的情况下，所见所闻，就成了“一切”的了解，而作出判断、看法。其实，这是司空见惯的。

也许，日行一善之“Give the Benefit of Doubt”，也不妨为之是件好事？

33-37-12 Mum's Masterpieces

What has 33-37-12 got to do with.... hahahah... food????? Some of you must be wondering!!!

Yup... it's none other than the 3 flavours of rice dumplings that mum took a day to make yesterday. It's been a yearly affair, regularless of how busy she is... a day will be set aside for this special activity, despite the fact that we could just buy it from so many places!

33: Those of the nonya flavour
37: Standard ones with meat and chestnut
12: Those come with bean

Indeed, it's almost a week before the festival (端午节). Usually these would be just ready for the festival. So, why so early this year? Well, it's because I would miss it since I'm travelling out tomorrow!

Yesterday, I tweeted, "mum's making the rice dumpling early all because I'm going off on coming Saturday :D #ifeel grateful, touched & loved... " (about 12 hours ago via mobile web)

Breakfast this morning :D

all 82 rice dumplings...