Mein Kampf! Seize the day!
What? Why are you raising a hammer over your head?
Oh...
Ahem! I mean Carpe Diem! Seize the day! (Or pluck the day, which is a more literal translation of the Latin phrase)
Eat and be merry! For we may die tomorrow!
Dinner at Tommy's house cum workplace once more. This time, with the addition of two more recruits to the growing band of Sauternauts.
Chicken Breasts on Vegetable Strips
It feels like old times, except better. The last time we got together for a night of merry was far too long ago to remember.
There was also the tricky issue known as the STPM which most of the senior members of Sautern Enterprise had to endure.
Not any more! We are free! At least until the middle of next year when university comes along.
Spaghetti with Mushrooms
So who are the new two? Well, since I have yet to obtain consent to use their names in our company documents, this is all I can reveal for now... They are my sister's schoolmates.
The purpose of this recruitment is to increase the resident programmer population.
Unlike other tech companies, we have a dozens of requests, but a dearth of programmers to fulfil them all. With additional training, we hope the two new Sauternauts will be up and typing as soon as possible.
Broiled Beef
Through mutual agreement, we have divided our company into two teams.
Team 1 (me, Tommy, stupeed demon, and ___) will take orders from lead programmer Flyzzx. The most important project to complete being the new version of our property auction suite, FusionCore 2.
Team 2 (the two new recruits) will focus on rebuilding the company's website. This effort will be led by Song Han, who will no doubt be eager to flex his web-design muscles. His work is particularly important because he will be handling the unenviable but vital task of training the new Padawans.
Unfortunately, other projects we have lined up have to be placed in the back burner for now. However, negotiations are being planned so our future clients won't become missed revenue.
Shandy
With a few mighty burps masked by deft hands, we ended the night on a hopeful note.
An unseen bright future lies just beyond the door.
Let's open it!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Dine with Us
Yesterday, we had dinner. A simple affair of chicken and fish tenderly prepared to juicy perfection by our host, chairman and chief executive of the company, Tommy Ooi, once more at his homily.
It was a great time for some vital catching up since our last meeting earlier in the year, especially with the inherent auspiciousness of the week from the double entendre of Jesus and Guan Ying.
Tommy graciously chauffeured me and Chong Yang to his home shortly before 6pm, which was the designated time to begin the feast. To keep us entertained while the chef of the day finalised the meal, we were treated with Bleach, not to be confused with the common household item used to murder scum.
First, a small tribute to the most valued and cherished employee of the company, our Chief Technology Officer, Chong Yang.
Many fail to understand how much work the average programmer has to put into a project to see it through to the end. The life of a programmer is world's apart from what we know. An esoteric universe filled with jargon featuring four consecutive consonants in a word (HTTP), truncated words rendered unintelligible (a href), and further flows of XML, ASP, HTM, and the like in the great river of cyberspace.
In this realm, the programmer is God, defining the rules, making sure the citizens don't burn the forests that give them nourishment, or cloud the sun with conflicts of code. If you are of religion and happen to be a Luddite, imagine how God made the world, trying to satisfy the craving of man for more than he needs while keeping the flora and fauna in adequate supply while defining the laws of physics, chemistry and biology and you have a glimpse at the frustration and love that goes into the thousands of lines of coding that becomes software, music, language, film, and knowledge.
That is Chong Yang's contribution to us, dedicating heart and soul to the crafting of a new world out of the DNA of computers, for us. The dedication to his craft was best exemplified during the recent Physics Olympiad, where a sudden demand for templates prompted him to attempt the unthinkable - create a template without his trusted software programs!
Not to mention spilling out cash for RM5.00 an hour for an Internet connection that barely functioned, using a computer that wasn't his, and missing a lecture on relativity.
Yes, dinner was excellent. But this post was never meant to highlight our fulfilling dine on solid marble in opulent dressing, but about a single human whom we could never do without.
It was a great time for some vital catching up since our last meeting earlier in the year, especially with the inherent auspiciousness of the week from the double entendre of Jesus and Guan Ying.
Tommy graciously chauffeured me and Chong Yang to his home shortly before 6pm, which was the designated time to begin the feast. To keep us entertained while the chef of the day finalised the meal, we were treated with Bleach, not to be confused with the common household item used to murder scum.
First, a small tribute to the most valued and cherished employee of the company, our Chief Technology Officer, Chong Yang.
Many fail to understand how much work the average programmer has to put into a project to see it through to the end. The life of a programmer is world's apart from what we know. An esoteric universe filled with jargon featuring four consecutive consonants in a word (HTTP), truncated words rendered unintelligible (a href), and further flows of XML, ASP, HTM, and the like in the great river of cyberspace.
In this realm, the programmer is God, defining the rules, making sure the citizens don't burn the forests that give them nourishment, or cloud the sun with conflicts of code. If you are of religion and happen to be a Luddite, imagine how God made the world, trying to satisfy the craving of man for more than he needs while keeping the flora and fauna in adequate supply while defining the laws of physics, chemistry and biology and you have a glimpse at the frustration and love that goes into the thousands of lines of coding that becomes software, music, language, film, and knowledge.
That is Chong Yang's contribution to us, dedicating heart and soul to the crafting of a new world out of the DNA of computers, for us. The dedication to his craft was best exemplified during the recent Physics Olympiad, where a sudden demand for templates prompted him to attempt the unthinkable - create a template without his trusted software programs!
Not to mention spilling out cash for RM5.00 an hour for an Internet connection that barely functioned, using a computer that wasn't his, and missing a lecture on relativity.
Yes, dinner was excellent. But this post was never meant to highlight our fulfilling dine on solid marble in opulent dressing, but about a single human whom we could never do without.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Chinese New Year aka Time of Feasting
The past few months for Sautern had been spent quite uneventfully, and perhaps a little too dourly too. So what better cure is there than to have a get-together meal to outline future plans and to discuss current issues.
As always, the dinner will be somewhere off the beaten track, to dine and maybe wine where not many have done before. No prizes for guessing that McDonald's will be out of the question here. Instead, Tommy, being the experienced connoisseur that he is, recommended a German themed place somewhere in Tanjung Bungah. Well, as far as I am concerned, German eateries do not exactly come to mind when Tanjung Bungah is mentioned, so I guess I will have to wait and see.
Crunch time came in a flash and Tommy was already at my place, along with a carload of the rest of us, Jupes, Chong Yang and even Lee Xin. On a tangent, a very ironic and funny remark was made by Jupes the moment I got into the car. He was surprised by the sight of 'a rat the size of a cat' (his own words) scampering across my path as I was approaching. My level of shock was decidedly zero as this was quite common to me, after all I do live in Pulau Tikus, which literally means Rat Island. Anyway, back to the journey to the mysterious restaurant. It really was off the beaten track, or rather it was not situated along the main road.
On first sight, it has a European feel to it, German theme notwithstanding. The restaurant or to be specific, restaurant/bar was quite small, occupying just a single shoplot. Slightly less than half of the internal floorspace was taken up by the bar, and the walls were filled with German memorabilia. The place had a warm feel to it, literally as it was quite smoky, about the only negative for the atmosphere, pun unintended.
In terms of service, we were given our menus quite promptly and the waiters were quite helpful. Not long after, we were joined by Jupes' mum and sis. As for ordering the food, we were probably a little spoiled for choice, and I was at a lost. Of course, dishes with names like 'schadenfreude with broiled schwarzenegger bratwurst with sauerkraut' did not help, or at least that's what they looked like to me. I am a guy whose eyes glaze over from prolonged reading food names with more than 5 words in them. I guess, it's apt that I settled for the mixed grill in the end. As for the rest, I have already mentioned my inaptitude with German food names, so do not expect me to recall what they ordered. I did remember that Jupes ordered something with minced meat in it and his sis ordered something with sausages.
Ordering is one thing, but waiting for the actual food to be served is another though. In this respect, I already downed my Lite Coke before the food came, and I was drinking slowly. The food did come though, eventually. Overall, the food itself was enjoyable, though I feel that some of the meat was slightly overcooked, a sentiment shared by Chong Yang.
Dinner dealt with, we got straight down to business, namely a serious discussion on what the future lies. I have to admit that this has been a bit long in coming, since I guess most of us are not too keen to discuss about the possible end. Unfortunately, we cannot continue keeping our heads in the sand anymore, since Jupes, me and Chong Yang are going to face a major exam later this year and not all of us will remain here next year. We spent quite some time discussing this thorny issue, but in the end, we still have not decided on a really satisfactory solution.
Nevertheless, we proceeded straight to the next item on the agenda. During these past few months, we stumbled upon a new business idea. To the layman, it will probably look like nothing special, but there is a reason why entrepreneurs exist, and that is to enterprise. Since this nascent idea does not have a known precedent, there are many kinks to work out. It is like building up a new software programme from the ground up, and we have to do tons of debugging for it to even look workable on paper. Despite the progress made during this discussion, it will be quite some time yet before Sautern can debut another branch of business.
Serious stuff aside, we adjourned to Tommy's place where Jupes tried to get us hooked on Google Earth. And as we found out, trying to find our own place on planet earth is no mean feat, Sautern will surely attest to that.
As always, the dinner will be somewhere off the beaten track, to dine and maybe wine where not many have done before. No prizes for guessing that McDonald's will be out of the question here. Instead, Tommy, being the experienced connoisseur that he is, recommended a German themed place somewhere in Tanjung Bungah. Well, as far as I am concerned, German eateries do not exactly come to mind when Tanjung Bungah is mentioned, so I guess I will have to wait and see.
Crunch time came in a flash and Tommy was already at my place, along with a carload of the rest of us, Jupes, Chong Yang and even Lee Xin. On a tangent, a very ironic and funny remark was made by Jupes the moment I got into the car. He was surprised by the sight of 'a rat the size of a cat' (his own words) scampering across my path as I was approaching. My level of shock was decidedly zero as this was quite common to me, after all I do live in Pulau Tikus, which literally means Rat Island. Anyway, back to the journey to the mysterious restaurant. It really was off the beaten track, or rather it was not situated along the main road.
On first sight, it has a European feel to it, German theme notwithstanding. The restaurant or to be specific, restaurant/bar was quite small, occupying just a single shoplot. Slightly less than half of the internal floorspace was taken up by the bar, and the walls were filled with German memorabilia. The place had a warm feel to it, literally as it was quite smoky, about the only negative for the atmosphere, pun unintended.
In terms of service, we were given our menus quite promptly and the waiters were quite helpful. Not long after, we were joined by Jupes' mum and sis. As for ordering the food, we were probably a little spoiled for choice, and I was at a lost. Of course, dishes with names like 'schadenfreude with broiled schwarzenegger bratwurst with sauerkraut' did not help, or at least that's what they looked like to me. I am a guy whose eyes glaze over from prolonged reading food names with more than 5 words in them. I guess, it's apt that I settled for the mixed grill in the end. As for the rest, I have already mentioned my inaptitude with German food names, so do not expect me to recall what they ordered. I did remember that Jupes ordered something with minced meat in it and his sis ordered something with sausages.
Ordering is one thing, but waiting for the actual food to be served is another though. In this respect, I already downed my Lite Coke before the food came, and I was drinking slowly. The food did come though, eventually. Overall, the food itself was enjoyable, though I feel that some of the meat was slightly overcooked, a sentiment shared by Chong Yang.
Dinner dealt with, we got straight down to business, namely a serious discussion on what the future lies. I have to admit that this has been a bit long in coming, since I guess most of us are not too keen to discuss about the possible end. Unfortunately, we cannot continue keeping our heads in the sand anymore, since Jupes, me and Chong Yang are going to face a major exam later this year and not all of us will remain here next year. We spent quite some time discussing this thorny issue, but in the end, we still have not decided on a really satisfactory solution.
Nevertheless, we proceeded straight to the next item on the agenda. During these past few months, we stumbled upon a new business idea. To the layman, it will probably look like nothing special, but there is a reason why entrepreneurs exist, and that is to enterprise. Since this nascent idea does not have a known precedent, there are many kinks to work out. It is like building up a new software programme from the ground up, and we have to do tons of debugging for it to even look workable on paper. Despite the progress made during this discussion, it will be quite some time yet before Sautern can debut another branch of business.
Serious stuff aside, we adjourned to Tommy's place where Jupes tried to get us hooked on Google Earth. And as we found out, trying to find our own place on planet earth is no mean feat, Sautern will surely attest to that.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Pathfinder
First post of the year. Has been a while, hasn't it?
The gang was busy throughout the end-of-year holidays last year, shuttling between home and Palma Housing, completing the extremely complex task of upgrading our clients database.
While most organizations would no doubt settle their programming issues with a quick call to any major software vendor, Palma Housing wanted something special.
Something so rare the last time one of its kind was seen was in the late 1980s, and never again.
The property listing database.
This, coupled with the newer Microsoft Access database (whose execution was as welcome as a colonoscopy without pain medication) made the upgrading process as profoundly painful as a knife dripping with dog poo in the arteries.
After a three month struggle, our titanic project was finally completed (inclusive of planning, coding, drinks, and a dead camel).
The most comprehensive property management database software, tailor made to only one client, Palma Housing. We present: Palma* Pathfinder.
Still, the realities of life has caught up. Upper Six is a bus-load of sexually traumatized children.
Lots of homework, projects and people to handle.
Life goes on and on. Like diluted sewage in a flowing river feeding agricultural industries.
*The prefix is exchangeable ;)
The gang was busy throughout the end-of-year holidays last year, shuttling between home and Palma Housing, completing the extremely complex task of upgrading our clients database.
While most organizations would no doubt settle their programming issues with a quick call to any major software vendor, Palma Housing wanted something special.
Something so rare the last time one of its kind was seen was in the late 1980s, and never again.
The property listing database.
This, coupled with the newer Microsoft Access database (whose execution was as welcome as a colonoscopy without pain medication) made the upgrading process as profoundly painful as a knife dripping with dog poo in the arteries.
After a three month struggle, our titanic project was finally completed (inclusive of planning, coding, drinks, and a dead camel).
The most comprehensive property management database software, tailor made to only one client, Palma Housing. We present: Palma* Pathfinder.
Still, the realities of life has caught up. Upper Six is a bus-load of sexually traumatized children.
Lots of homework, projects and people to handle.
Life goes on and on. Like diluted sewage in a flowing river feeding agricultural industries.
*The prefix is exchangeable ;)
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