Coolcat's Jottings

It's Friday... yippee!

Unfortunately, this weekend is chockabloc-crammed with classes, dinners and a rehearsal. It's more hectic than working in the office. Just thinking about it makes me wanna sleep in instead.

Am fantasizing about going to my boss and asking for leave on Mon. But here's what I think will happen instead:

Me: I need to take leave on Mon to recuperate from the weekend
Boss: I thought weekends are for you to recuperate from work???! Not approved!

Bleh.

Ah well, have a great weekend everybody.

Heh, this is farnee... So that's how I'd look like bald, eh?

ON THE BLOG AND ME

1. What's the purpose of this blog?

I blog to satisfy my writing itch. Really. It's a place for me to write in any style I like about the interesting and often overlooked and unappreciated things in life. People and the seemingly simple things in life fascinate me. I like to take a few moments to stop and ponder upon their significance and to say a prayer of thanks to my Maker for opening my eyes to them. These moments are captured like the pretty stones and seashells collected in my life's journey. When I feel the blahs or the blues, I would look upon these precious collection and my faith in all that's good and true will be restored. If this blog does that to you, then I'm glad to be able to share this journey with you.

Plus, it's a great way to keep my pals updated about my (quirky) thoughts and life.

2. You do share some struggles that you are going through. Is that considered a precious stone, too?

It takes sadness for one to recognise and appreciate what happiness is. I selectively document my struggles publicly to remind myself that I've been through that valley or hole before and been delivered from it somehow. And to portray the simple truth - that I'm a normal person going through the normal struggles in life. Just like everybody else.

3. How frequently do you update?

It all depends on how busy I am or whether I have actually something to say or not. A lot may happen in my life, but I do not necessarily document them all. And some things I choose not to share because I think they can be misconstrued, misrepresented or simply not the right time to disclose. And yeah, I do exercise a lot of self-censorship for the benefit of mankind

4. Doesn't that (self-censorship) make your blog un-real in that sense?

If you want to perceive my blog that way, you can - and I wouldn't mind. To me, being real means sharing honestly what I generally perceive the world to be. I just happen to choose to look at life mostly in an upbeat and positive way.

5. Why can't I leave a comment on your blog?

I welcome and love getting comments from everyone. But you would have to self-register as a member before you can do that. It was a hard decision that took a long while for me to finally implement. I'm all for free speech but I draw the line when it comes to trollish behavior. If you have a dire need to air your angst or frustrations towards certain groups of people or your own life, please do it in your own blog, not mine.

Am sprucing up the site a little. So for the moment, everyone can leave their comments until further notice.

6. Any other ground rules I should observe?

You mean, besides no plagiarism, and no putting pictures of my head on some naked body? Errhmm...

Yep, just one more.

Don't put me on a pedestal.

I'll fall off in a jiffy

7. How do I leave a comment on your blog?

Click on Meow to leave your paw print behind.


8. Avatars

I've just installed this cute feature called Avatars. So now when you comment, you can see your cute pictures appearing alongside your juicy words.

But in order to see your avatars appearing, you would need to email me your favourite picture as your avatar and I will do the honors for you. But you need to use the same user name when commenting so that the picture is associated with you.

So, what are you waiting for? Get an Avatar today!

9. Linking Me

I don't mind people linking to my blog, in fact I welcome it. But please do not refer to my blog link by my real name. Just call me Ariel Coolcat. Maybe even my initials. But never, ever, ever spell out my name. Thanks.

ON PHOTO EDITING

10. Can you recommend a decent lightweight photo editor?

I use photofiltre a lot - it's lightweight free and very functional! I also use picasa from google - very nice dreamy effects and color mods there.

You can download the two from :

http://photofiltre.free.fr/ and http://picasa.google.com/

11. What do you recommend for photo noise reduction?

This is a good one and it's free on limited usage, too - http://www.neatimage.com/

12. Disclosure

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact coolcatalyst at gmail dot com.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

<<... to be added when necessary...>>

Got this brilliant idea when hanging out at Longkang (some mamak in PJ) with the Punctuations gang just now.

1. Be in the company of your intended victim. Best to position yourself opposite victim.
2. Put your handphone on your ear and pretend to call someone.
3. Look at the victim in the eye and say whatever it is you've been wanting to say.
4. When victim becomes shocked or offended, continue to talk as if you are really talking on the phone and coolly look away.
5. Victim will sheepishly 'realise' that you are not actually talking to them.

Simple hor?

Here's a couple of suggested things to say:

• If the victim is your boss - "Aiya, you are so stingy. How come never give me a raise wan?"


• If the victim is your secret crush - "Eh, I think you are cute. Wanna have dinner with me tonite?" In this case, it's very, very important to see if they respond favourably or otherwise. If response is good, for goodness sakes, skip Step #4 & #5!!!


• If the victim is a lazy course mate/colleague - "You know what happens to lazy people? I eat them for breakfast."
  

Anyway, you get the drift

Yesterday was an extremely stressful day. But when I saw the effort my assistants (+ bro) put into the work that we are doing together, the fact that we were the last to leave the office and could still smile cheerfully at each other, it just warms my heart somehow. I think having good team members is similar to having good friends - your burdens at work are halved and your joys are doubled. The bad ones, well - they can make your life even more miserable.

Today in the day-long management meeting, where I presented the systems my team members and I developed, my boss (who is not an easy person to please), publicly commended my team members for producing impressive work. And my heart soared.

"Yes, I have really wonderful my team members," I said, almost speechless.

I felt like rushing up to where my dept was and yell out what he said word for word. I did that (in a more sedate manner, of course) later after the meeting ended but most of them have gone home already. Can't wait to tell the rest of them tomorrow

It reminded me of the time when I was agonising over choosing an assistant. Mei Fong prayed for me and she sensed that God will give me someone who will be such a blessing to me. And God being a generous God, gave me 3 assistants instead. Each one of them a blessing to the company and to me.

All I can say is, thank You, Lord