A day off without having an off day.

Without wanting to sound too presumptuous, I just need to get it ‘off’ me. 
Every time I hear that phrase 'off day',  it makes me cringe a bit. 
It has become so much a part of our norm here that I am not sure if they really mean what they say or maybe it's just bad grammer?

I was just reading a friend's post on Facebook and she said, "off to work for Ipad 2 launch....even on off day :)"

Presumably she is going to work as she's  'off to work',  but she's also having an  "off day".

If you live in Singapore you would have no difficulty understanding what she just wrote, if we think singlish, i.e. she's going to work on her day off.

But having a day off  is completely different from having an off day.

A Day Off is when you get a break from work.

You don’t need to work, you don’t need to go to work.

Having an Off Day means you are not feeling well, feeling a bit under the weather, or just not at ease with yourself.

You are a bit ‘off”,  like in saying ‘the food is a bit off’, meaning it’s stale or getting bad, or at least not in the best of states.

So, if you have an Off Day, you are not doing too good, but having an Day Off may do wonders for you!

Having an off day? take a day off.

Fined for walking in SG

My sister Jen emigrated to USA more than 2 decades ago and I usually chat with her via MSN.

Last Saturday, with tongue in cheek, I told her I was fined coming back from the NTUC store located across the road from my house.  Fined? for what? she asked. For walking, I said.
Jaywalking? No, I had to pay a tax just for walking along the road.

I said that the government had authorized a number of organisations to collect tax from people who walk specially near the bus terminals, train stations or shopping malls every Saturday.

Last Saturday, the Ren Ci Hospital were out collecting money from pedestrians. hee hee hee.

Hmmm, I wonder if the registered charities do have to pay tax to the government for the donations that they collect?  If that really is the case, then we are taxed for walking along the streets on Saturdays!

Peek Poke Meme Fail ?

I got my very first Personal Computer  around 1980s.
That's way back in the the 20th century, so long ago that I can't even remember when it was.

It was a Commodore VIC20, a watered down version of the then mouthwatering Commodore 64.
It had 4Kb of RAM memory (wow) and a cassette tape drive!
You plug it to your TV and get glorious 8bit colors, and it could run Space Invaders and Donkey Kong (double wow!) 

You had to LOAD each and every program that you wanted to use and then RUN the program. Only 1 program at a time. Multitasking was still something for the future.  But it was a real computer and not a game console like the Atari.

Top of the line personal computers like the IBM PC (& later the XT) were then only being used by corporations as these were way too expensive for home use.

I was feeling nostalgic while I was browsing the internet and realised I was now reading new words like meme and fail, being used so commonly today.
I recalled that even back then, when the PC was just starting to become more than just a household gadget, we were already learning new words coming into a new new world.

How many of you can remember using commands like peek, poke, RUN, LOAD, if..then,  else go ?

Of course that was a long, long time ago and all these words are now hidden under the user interface and so intuitive now that we don't need to know these anymore when using our mouse, iphones and ipads.

If you still don't know what meme and fail means today, you got a lot more catching up to do than me!

Stand up for your rights!

Today somebody said to me,  Go to all that trouble?, it's only 4 cents!
(referring to my earlier blog)


Sigh.

The sad part about making these claims appear to make me look like a cheapskate.
But I am claiming it on grounds of principles and not because of the money.

Of the 6 vouchers, I have actually not used, or did not intend to use, the last 3 pieces.
These are now expired and cannot be used.
I am keeping them as souvenirs of my stand against the injustice.

My expired vouchers.

You are entitled to your opinion, but to me, it's just another sad indication of our mollycoddly attitude which was socially engineered over the past few decades and now so pervasive in our society.
We don't stand up and question wrongs, even when we feel outraged.

If you don't bother to stand up for your own rights. who will stand up for you?

The bus companies are still taking your money!

Despite the bus companies' claims that the overcharging problem had been fixed, I've had 2 further instances where I was still overcharged for my trips.

If you had read my earlier blog on the overcharging issue, you'll know that the trip from Bukit Batok Interchange to my office at Andrew Road is supposedly $1.33. I have been regularly charged $1.37 for the trip.

Today I collected my 6th refund for overcharging, so I know it's still happening. This is confirmed by the fact that my requests for the 4cents refund have always been approved.

I get back at them by requesting for a 'complimentary' voucher for a free ride instead of a cash refund. In this way, I actually end up ahead of them. Serves them right for their unintentional (?) mistakes.

So commuters beware, be aware of the actual cost of your trip and check that you are not overcharged by them.