YiBi's Life|Live Log

This is an overdue, post. Something that I saw on the road and need to get it off my chest.

I was behind an ambulance few weeks back, stuck at a red light. There was a driver infront, who didn’t know how to move aside and give way. And even if the driver did, I don’t think the ambulance would be able to beat the red light and cross the junction. I don’t think the traffic from the adjacent junction with green light would give way to the ambulance.

My wife pointed to me that the paramedics seem to be trying hard to resusitate the patient. The whole ambulance was  shaking from the furious pumping by the paramedics. We could see from the silhouette on the rear windows that the paramedic was performing CPR on the patient.

The hospital is about 7-8 mins from the location that we were at, assuming that the ambulance is unobstructed all the way. With all the obstruction, the whole trip could take about 15mins or more. That few more minutes could mean alot of difference to the patient, worse case, it could be death. I happened to be going the same way as the ambulance, there were 2 more traffic lights that they ambulance was stuck at, so more time wasted.

If the patient really dies because of the obstruction, it’s really quite sad. More should be done to ensure that emergency vehicles are unobstructed, it could be education, could be enforcement or legislation. I just saw on the Taiwanese news that a driver could potentially be charged with causing death to another person. This could be too extreme, but it illustrates the gravity of the issue.

“The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation,” the official KCNA news agency said, quoting a communique from the North’s Korean People’s Army Supreme Command that called the drills a “childish play with fire.”

I love their choice of words sometimes. I can’t say who’s more despicable, but then they are pretty straightforward.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE6BG05Y20101220?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29

This is dedicated to my ex colleagues who started “walking on sunshine”. I hope they are feeling the warmth of the bright sunshine and not the heat. :P

It’s Not the Size of Your Office Politics Tool…

I like this one in particular:

“Play Dumb and Busy to Keep Out of Toxic Conversations. Find ways to neutrally bow out of gossip conversations.

• Coworker: “Did you notice Mary-Sue has been sucking up to the Boss-man lately? It’s sickening!”
• You: “I haven’t really noticed – I’ve been so buried in my projects lately! In fact, (look at watch) I just realized I promised a client I would call him right now. Gotta run.”

This way you are not taking sides. You’re the positive hard working team member. And most people will respect you for that, and hopefully more than a few will follow your lead. Don’t worry about people who don’t. You’re focused on the stars while they’re down in the mud. Just keep moving forward. “

In our local terms, don’t be too kay poh and 三八!

Good news for those still doing their reservist. At least you are compensated more for the cab fare from Bedok to Tanjong Gul when you have to book at unearthly hours.

The details are here at CNA

Something caught my attention when I was scanning through the article.

“Emphasizing the importance of family support for NSmen the committee suggested that NSmen who have performed well during in-camp training should be presented with vouchers for defence and national education related attractions.”

This doesn’t really concern me anymore since I have completed my 10 year cycle, but personally, I would prefer NTUC or Cold Storage vouchers. The Hamilton watch was practical, I like it very much. :)

Has anyone received calls from insurance company or even MLM companies after you have posted your profile on Monster.com? Ever since I posted my profile on Monster.com few weeks back, I started to get such calls, offering me jobs as financial advisors and one call possibily from a MLM company. I later realised it was my oversight that I allowed more than required access to my information.

But that aside, my point is that it just doesn’t feel too right (ethical issue) for these guys to go scouring Monster.com for their candidates. Even for the insurance companies, my profile state explicitly that I’m in the Telco industry and I wish to be contacted for jobs in this field. It’s just some thoughts. I have since narrowed down my profile to mere neccessity for potential employers to find me.

Saw this advertisement for Mac in the Straits Times today. I wonder why they want to market the Mac as a machine that runs Linux.

I’m both a Mac and Linux user. (Long time Linux user and 1 yr old Mac convert). And in my opinion, I won’t want to buy a Macbook and run Linux. I bought Mac because of OS X. OS X is Unix based and has the GNU tools that I need for work and stuff. In a certain way using OS X is equivalent to using any of the *nix operating system. The sweet spot is Apple has a wonderful interface over BSD. It replaces 90% or more of the tools that I’m using on Linux, so why would I be interested in running Linux on a Mac? I don’t need to pay a premium to run Linux. I’m still running my Linux, but on my 800 bucks Acer laptop. It works.

I thought of a new tagline for Earth Hour – Less CO2 Emission, More Procreation.

This is really suitable in the Singapore context, with the government so worried about falling birth rates. There was a joke (which perhaps has some truth in it) that during the old days, people had no electricity, so no TV, no radio, no computer, no internet. Basically no entertainment. So what was the best (and free) activity when lights goes off? Right..having sex. So the problem with procreation did not exist then.

So right here in Singapore, we should encourage longer Earth Hour, maybe 3 hours. Everything off (punt intended!) and there you have it, come Earth Hour next year, we will have more new infant supporters. *grinz*