Kerr’s Universe

It has been months after I have bought my O2 mini. I can still recall one of the very first tasks that I did with it was to try to pair it up with my Jabra bluetooth headset.

The Jabra bluetooth headset which I bought in August 2004 when I was starting out as an Assistant Investigation Officer prove to be very useful at the start, but it slowly faded out of the scene when I no longer have to juggle with taking down a lot of notes while on the move as I progressed up the ladder. But nonetheless, having spent about $170 on it, I wasn’t about to let it retire out of the scene without first putting up a fight.

Well, to my horror then, the O2 mini could not detect the Jabra bluetooth headset, a prob which I didn’t have earlier when I was still holding on my Sony Ecrisson T610. I guess I didn’t tried hard enough and left things as it was, ((having the belief that it was a compatibility issue between the equipments) leaving my Jabra to lie on my computer desk for the next few months, constantly charging inside its nice warm and round cradle.

So I started to use the handsfree earphones which comes with the phone. I guess that serves the purpose well, as most of the time, my phone would also double up as my mp3 player, so, this is something which even my jabra bluetooth would not have been able to achieve even if it was working. Then, I started receiving adverse report on how lousy the handsfree earphones are, from people whom I was chatting on with it. The last straw came last night when reception was so intermittent and a friend actually hooked up her handsfree to prove her point. So, it became a 2 hour conversation without handsfree. (my poor ear).

After the conversation, I decided to run a search on "google" to check out possible models of bluetooth handsfree set that I could purchase as I seriously does not have much likings of wires running all around me, if you can visualise how a wired handsfree earphones would be hooked up. Hmm, apparently the phrase "bluetooth headset for O2 mini" has been so widely discussed that I found multiple discussion threads on forum over this issue. And so, begin the search for the ultimate bluetooth headset.

To my greatest surprise, the Jabra BT250v (a model which is slightly advance than the one that I’am using) is widely discussed and given pretty good ratings online. I was like "wtf", here I was not been able to hook it up with my phone and there online, people are all praises. So I decided to take out the user manual once again.

After reading about 2 pages, I was…erm…okay…I guess I did missed out something months back. The headset need to be put into a certain mode before it become detectable by the phone, something which I have totally forgetten about when I was trying to pair the 2 equipment together.

Well, not exactly sure about the morale of the story, but according to my sis, the morale of the story is that "one should read the user manual". A phrase which I found to be rather absurd but applicable to me.

Do I really look approachable, friendly or perhaps even one who have an arcane sense of directions? Well, apparently it does, though its probably contrary to popular beliefs of many who would definitely not agree with me.

However, just this morning, in a short span of about 5 minutes, while waiting for my bus at the bus-stop, I was approached by not 1, but 3 people who asked me for directions. And, I wasn’t even looking in their directions. They simply popped up from my back, some gave me a tap on my shoulder, others just came righ up in front of me and started bombarding me with questions of where’s where. I am pretty sure that my body language then wasn’t one which was inviting. However, it sure didn’t stop them from approaching me.

The first was a uncle who with a cigarette in hand, just tap my shoulder and started asking me what bus he could take to go to far-east plaza. Then came a foreigner asking for the MRT station when the escalator going down to the MRT station was just a couple of metres away. Then there was this china lady who wanted to know where’s the revenue house when its just directly across the street. Well, I guess I’am just not in a very helpful mood today, am I?

A colleague who has recently undergone a major operation and is posting to another division left behind this story just before his impending posting.

"’A Slice of Life’. Some time ago, when men were still cutting trees with choppers, a young guy became of age and joined the trade. He vowed to be best woodcutter in his village. Towards that aim, he got himself a new chopper and had been training to build-up his physique for the physically demanding job. On the first day, he took only a lunch break whilst the other wood-cutters in his group took several coffee breaks as well. At the end of the day, he fell almost twice as many trees as the rest. He was obviously very please with himself. He attributed the good result to his hard work and told himself not to skive or be lazy just like his colleagues who wasted precious time drinking coffee and chit-chatting.

For the next few days, he continued to work with the same zest but he noticed that he had cut less trees with the same amount of effort. He chided himself for slackening and to improve on his productivity, he decided to take a shorter lunch break. To his dismay, the situation got worse and he was soon cutting as many trees as the rest.

As he pondered over the situation, he was dumbfounded. He was as fit as he had just started work and he put in more effort by taking a shorter lunch break, yet his productivity fell to the same level as the other woodcutters who had been taking regular breaks. He decided to find out if the other woodcutters had any secrets.

During a break that the other woodcutters were having, he walked towards them. As he approached them, he realised that the other woodcutters were not idling their time away as he had imagined. As they were enjoying their coffee, they were also sharpening their choppers.

I will end the story here. We can learn many things from the short story. One such moral is that we must from time to time take stock of what we are doing and sharpen our skills, so that we can work more effectively and efficiently. Sheer hard work cannot guarantee good result repeatedly. If we just work hard like the ‘lead actor’, we will fall back in time to come. If we maintain ourselves by attending training, etc, we will remain status quo.

The world is developing and changing all the time. If we remain status quo, we will eventually lose touch and lose out. It is important that we continue to open our mind to new ideas, and to improve ourselves, our tools and procedures. If we were to change the chopper to an electric one, we can fell even more trees.

Last but not least, we need to be passionate about our job and whatever we are doing, so that we will do to our best effort and strive for excellence. "

So, how do you blog? At a first glance, the question does look a bit weird. The answer could well be "Well, isn’t it straightforward enough? Just go to the blog program and start typing."

Its probably the way in which I have phrased this question. But really, the question I am asking is actually, how do you come up with all those stuffs that is written.

(1) Do you already know what you wanted to write before you wrote it and thus the act of blogging is a mere transfer from your concious mind onto the screen or

(2) You have a general idea about what you wanted to write about, perhaps a topic, an issue which you further elaborate upon as you are blogging or rather

(3) You have no idea what you wanted to write at the first instance, but you just write whatever that comes to mind as it goes? Or perhaps

(4) None of the above?

Well, its mainly a cross between of (2) & (3) for me when I blogged (minus those posts which are excerpts from movies, books, etc etc). Usually there is a general issue which I wanted to talk about, then I just write everything which comes to mind on that issue. Sometimes in the midst of writing, I discover new things, things about my own self and possibly a totally new perspective about looking at the topic on its own. There are also instances where I ended up disputing about what I had believed initially.

So blogging has become a bridge to reconcile the views between my conscious and sub-conscious mind, many a times, they are rather different.

"That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simple because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are" - from Paulo Coelho "The Zahir"

It started off with a sneeze, then two, then came multitudes of them in sequence. The nose started to run, tissues papers flew and I came down with a flu.

Well, that was last thursday. Oh man, I have been ill for a week already. Sure doesn’t feel good to be ill.

Apparently there’s a flu bug going around in the office. In current days where sick building syndrome (SBS) is common, its a miracle that a pandemic hasn’t broke out yet. Well, I’am already the 4th in line here to fall for this bug.

An MC last friday didn’t do much good, but perhaps it was also due to the fact that I actually didn’t rest sufficiently before going for practice that night, then to make matter worse, I head for union after practice and reached home @ 3am. Then on sat, it was one long day man, from an afternoon tea @ intercontinental hotel to the mad rush to East Coast for the salsa rueda performance which is followed by a long walk around town searching for a available movie theatre or a lan gaming centre before we finally settled down for a show @ Toa Payoh near midnight. Okay, I guess I deserved to be sick. :Þ

Well, I actually kinda recover during that weekend if I could remember. I even went for my Aikido lessons on sunday evening, so I can’t be that sick. However, a late night on sunday and an early waking on Monday morning seems to have brought the bug back into the picture. By Monday evening, I was back at square one, in fact, feeling worse than thursday. So, its back to the doc then.

So, the flu has changed from running nose to a swelling throat by now, but the doc conclude that there’s no bacterial/viral infection, just plain irritation at the throat (wonder what does that means), no fever, probably I was just tired. So, 1 day of MC on tuesday was given. (concluded by a friend that the doc is rather stingy, in fact, I had to ask for it before it was given to me…hmm…am I really so healthy when I was at the doc???)

Anyway, tuesday didn’t do me any good either, cos once again, I went out in the evening for a dance practice which I did not want to re-schedule. Though the instructor taught for less than an hour, I was really exhausted at the end of it. I guess this contributed much to my current pedicament.

Then, swelling throat turned into a terrible cough which I am still having at the moment. Oh ya, just to sidetrack for a while. Do you know that coke actually have some effect in lessening a cough. Well, I guess it doesn’t cure a cough. but it sure offer temporary alleviation.

Think I better take one day leave for friday, else if I’am still ill on saturday where I would be deployed for the National Education Show @ Padang, I think this illness would just carry on to the next week.