We Are a Sad Bunch

Read in the papers the other day regarding more Singaporeans wanting to continue working post-retirement compared to the global trends. It was 6 in 10 Singaporeans wanting to work post-retirement compared to 4 in 10 on the global scale.

Of course, some of the reasons for wanting to work post-retirement I can fully understand. Eg. wanting to keep in touch with friends and colleagues, continuing in a work that is interesting etc. However, it is sad to know that a significant number of Singaporeans choose to continue working post-retirement because they miss money. Mind you Singapore ranks 3rd in this area; only the South Africans and Turks missed money more than Singaporeans post-retirement.

I mean having worked for a few decades I think it's time to sit back and relax, smell the roses. After all, how many decades does a person has left after retiring at 55 or 62 years old. It'll be quite sad to keep chasing after money for the whole life.

Going Down Memory Land Part 1

Family is planning on painting my brother's room tomorrow and my bro and I had to help my mom clear all the clutter on top of the cupboard. Found a suitcase full of toys, and as we dug more into my bro's cupboard, we found more toys. Well, some of them were actually mine. They brought back fond/funny memories. Decided to take some pictures of the toys, as we had to throw some of them away. Such a pity. :(


A picture of my bro's ninja turtles. Starting from the left: Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo and Michaelangelo. He had the plastic versions too, but had to let those go because the plastic has degraded and were kind of sticky to touch.


These are some of mine. Had the leopard for more than 20yrs. The dog and owl are hand puppets. Suppose to have another 2 more, a bear and a croc, but can't seem to find them anywhere in the suitcase. :P


This was suppose to be my bro's frog, but I kind of took possession of it. Unfortunately, it was blinded over the years.That's one of the puppy toys I had; can't have the real ones so have to satisfy with toy versions. Yun, I still have the one you gave me years back. Still sleeping with me every night.


A beany monkey my mom made me when I was young. In case you're wondering, no she did not make it from scratch. It was a package and all you need to do is to assemble the parts together. It's also one of my really old toys. More than 20yrs old. It's kind of limp now, because some 15 yrs back there was a hole in its tail and a fair bit of beany fell out. Well, I was curious kid too, so I dug some of beany out to play as well. Lol


A close up. I think it needs some miconazole (antifungal) cream on the right cheek.


And we found these at the bottom of a toy tub. My mom decided to give all these to any of my younger cousins who wanted them.

Oh yah, and we also found my bro's primary school bus passes amongst the stash of things. Took a picture of those too. Haha! Unfortunately, I can't post the pic cos my bro's name and IC no. can be seen.

Finally...

The test is over. The ordeal of having to study just about anything under the sky is not a joke. Compound that with the fact that it's a closed book test, with no drug reference index allowed. No comments about the test man. Some of the questions are really (o.O).

T_T

Received my income tax statement today. First thing to cry about is I have to pay $100 more than last year. Next thing to cry about is I still have not receive my last month's pay and the hospital intends on delaying for another month then happily cap the employer CPF contribution to the first $4500 earned. In case you still don't understand, they are trying to cheat me of 1 month's CPF money (employer contribution).

Maybe I should go hang pig heads outside HR and payroll together with the message "O $ P $". And just to show that I am bilingual I'll add "欠 $ 还 $". Lol

Thesis

Somebody commented my last few posts were long as if I am trying to write my thesis. Well, it's kind of hard trying to control the length of the post especially when I have plenty to write on the topic. Anyway, I don't want to be accused of making sweeping statements, so I have to substantiate my comments and, as you probably guessed by now, that was how my posts ended up that long.

Death of a Salaryman

Bought a book by this title on Labour Day and finally finished reading it last Saturday. Book was actually quite engaging and accurate of the Japanese culture given that it was written by an ang moh, Fiona Campbell. Yes, I can hear people asking, just as Tytianne had asked, how come an ang moh is writing about the Japanese. Well, I can say the same for an ang moh writing about the crown princess Masako.

Anyway, I don't care what is the reason an ang moh is writing a story on the Japanese. It's a good book which I recommend reading. It is a book many of us can probably relate to seeing we are living in an Asian society. Retrenchment at middle-age and failing to find employment, worries of causing our family to "lose face", Asian meekness when dealing with bosses, learning to fight for what we want, etc.

All in all, as I had put it, the depiction of the Japanese culture was quite accurate except for some minor details that people would probably not notice. An example is when the protagonist was asked to sign on the delivery form for a car his mother-in-law won. Signatures are not common in Japan. The Japs use seals/chops on documents instead of signing as we do, and for more official purposes such as buying a house, opening bank accounts etc, the seal used has to be registered at a municipal hall.

Another thing was a scene when an acquaintance hugged the protagonist in public. If these 2 had been teenagers or young people, I think it is highly possible. However, we are talking about 2 middle-age people of opposite sex, what are the odds that they will hug in public even for something that was worth being excited about?

Anyway, these are just small flaws that can be glossed over.

Spiderman 3

This is the 2nd time I am attempting to write this. A few hours back when I was typing away, something happened to my browser and it shut down by itself leaving me aghast at the loss of my post. Now that I have calmed down, I will attempt to write my piece on Spiderman 3.

I will be frank and tell you not to waste your money. If you really really want to watch spiderman, go on a weekday, at least you will feel less pinch. With more patience, you can wait for TCS to buy the show and premiere it on TV during some long festive weekend; this way you don't even have to spend a single cent. Back to the show. There are 3 reasons why you do not want to watch Spiderman 3: 1. Tobey Maguire, 2. character details, 3. story line.

1. Tobey Maguire
First thing that came to mind: Peter Parker looks fat. Okay, I have not the time to scrutinise at the body, but the face has got those excess fats that need to be tucked away. Anyway, I have always found Maguire as spiderman to be weird. This is a man that looks too goofy to be a Peter Parker. Anybody who has read the comics, or watched the cartoons will agree with me. Peter Parker is intelligent, and his intelligence may put him on the same platform as the nerds, but he definitely does not look nerdy, at least in the comics and cartoons.

So a minus for casting Maguire. I don't care if he was casted in the first 2 series. Cast can be changed as with James Bond and Batman.

2. Character Details
There was this part which was suppose to show a change in Parker's disposition after fusing with the alien symbiote. In order to make it visually obvious, Maguire had his fringe hanging over his forehead most of the time instead of being combed back. However, the effect made him looked more comical than suave. In fact, he reminded me of a friend. Any pharmacist who has already watched this show and reading this, don't you think Maguire looked like YSF when his fringe was hanging over his forehead?

Next was the black spiderman suit which Parker received after fusing with the symbiote. In the first place, it was not suppose to just be a black version of the red & blue suit. Fusion with the symbiote was suppose to allow Parker to morph, note the correct word is "morph", to black spiderman as and when he wanted. It was no longer a suit that Parker can just remove and chuck aside, it was part of him. That is also why it was difficult to lose the "suit" later on. The show did demonstrate Parker's difficulty in separating himself from the symbiote at a church tower, but it will not make much sense to viewers not well-acquainted with spiderman. After all, in the movie it was made to appear that the symbiote, in the form of the black suit, can be removed like any other clothings and chucked aside in a chest under the bed.

Another grouse that I have regarding the black spidey suit, the spider logo on the chest was suppose to be white, and like I said, the new suit was not suppose to be just a black replica of the red & blue one. It is suppose to be a plain black suit without the web designs plus a single white spider logo on the front.

Going on to Sandman. Sandman as the name puts it, was suppose to be made of sand. Either the producers has never played with sand before or they overlooked the fact that sand does not become mud when it comes into contact with water. Therefore there were inconsistencies in the scene that showed sandman turning into mud when spiderman blasted him with water.

3. Storyline
The story was so slow moving that I actually checked the time on my cell phone twice. As an after thought the movie storyline would be more suited as a TV series, allowing for breakdown into small episodes.

Anyway, the only saving grace is the part when JJ Jameson's secretary buzzed him to control his temper and to take his medicine. It was hilarious because they installed a buzzer that would cause his table to vibrate a little too violently every time the secretary buzzed him, and this caused quite a few mishaps to happen that did not help in keeping his blood pressure down. No spoilers in this paragraph. If you have a chance to watch spiderman 3, you will understand why I say this part is hilarious.

Dear Boss...

Dear Boss, CEO, COOs, and whoever-thought-the-project-was-good,

You are in need of serious rest, and I do mean rest. Just rock yourself in a rocking chair and stare into blank space, if you want some comic effect you can let some spit dribble out of your mouth. Apparently lack of rest has severely clouded your judgement. No use denying you made a faulty judgement. If you had thought pharmacy store and purchasing sections's FY2006 Quest@Work project deserving of an outstanding award you can either admit that tiredness has affected your judgement or claim to be an imbecile.

Let's look at the goal of this stupid project: to implement lean management so as to reduce stock holding by 20%, reduce expired goods by 10% and improve stock turnover in store by 10 turns per year. So you applaud them when they met the targets and think they are helping the hospital's bottom line by cutting down on expenditure and wastages.

What you did not know is that reduction of stock holding led to stock shortages at the frontline pharmacies. Consequently, we had to ration our stocks for our patients, and this caused a lot of inconvenience for the patients as it meant they had to make another trip down to get their medicine. In situations when we really ran out of stocks, the patients have to go off without any medicine. It is okay if we are talking about things like calcium tablets, but can you imagine the consequences of a delay in antibiotic treatment or hypertension treatment etc? Yes, patients can use the prescription to purchase the medicine from private pharmacies or pharmacies at the polyclinics and other restructured hospitals, but try telling that to an old uncle or old auntie and it does not make sense to them. Chances are they probably put aside the whole incident and forget about buying the medicine. Whichever way I look at it, this is very very poor patient service and most certainly not in-line with our hospital's mission of "holding the interest of the patient paramount" *gag*.

To solve the problem in our own way, we tried hoarding stocks in anticipation of store's stock shortage, but our sections in-charges get scolded by you because there was an increase in our sections' stock holding. When we meekly followed your order to reduce stock holding we get scolded and abused by patients because they are not able to get their full supply of medicines. Do you understand our frustrations at work when you give us such an imbecilic order? You probably do not as you are comfortably seated in some recess of the hospital, far away from the wrath of the patients, beaming at the improved bottom line and not realising that the pharmacy staff turnover rate is always faster than the stock turnover rate.

Speaking of stock turnover rate, I think you need some help understanding how the rate was derived. Basically put, stock turnover rate in units is derived by taking the number of units sold during the time period divided by the average units of inventory on hand for the time period. So what I do is keep a small quantity of item ABC on hand, and when I am sure all sections have put in their requests for ABC, I place a large order with the drug company and when the stocks come they are all snapped up by the sections. Voila! I achieved a high stock turnover rate. Anybody with a bit of grey and white matter up in this thing called a head would be able to think of this. Unfortunately, this is not a very bright thing to do when a continuous supply for the whole department needs to be ensured, but it is exactly the kind of thing to do when you want to impress the boss with quick and fantastic results. It takes a wise person to see through the trick which you are obviously not. You are just happy with the immediate results and not concerned with the bigger picture.

How can a project that only improve the work process of a small section at a much greater inconvenience to the rest of the department and patients be considered outstanding is beyond my imagination. Anyway, I hope this has enlightened you on some of the matters regarding the project and perhaps agree with me that this project is a total flop right from the beginning.

From your humble frontline staff.