Be careful when using search engines

Life
"사람들은 검색창 앞에서 가장 진실해지거든.
People become very honest when they are in front of the search engine."
~ Search WWW


I began watching this Korean drama called Search WWW and found it really interesting. 

One of the good things about watching good Korean dramas is that you will end up learning something new. This is because their stories are usually set in a specific context and industry where you'd get a peek into how the world works in that context. 

Stories about a cleaning service, a publishing house, how a prison works, the court house, the airport, just to name a few. 

Search WWW is set in the context of a search engine company and after watching just the first episode, I've realised a few things. 

One of the characters in the drama said this and I find it so true: that we become our true selves when we use the search engines. 

What a scary thought. Whatever we do online is no secret. We may think that we are doing it all in privacy in our own room but everything we do online is accessible by goodness knows who. 

This made me wonder if the incognito mode in an internet browser would be a good idea but then I read somewhere that even that does not mean that we are entirely anonymous in the internet. 

We cannot stop using the internet. Just know that we can be observed when they find a reason to. 

pearlie

Wonderful Things of the World #9: Gyuniku Negimaki

WTOTW

This is something I will always order when I'm in a Japanese sushi restaurant. 

I was in Sushi Tei Midvalley today and I must say they serve one of the best I've ever tasted, not that I have been to many sushi restaurants nor have I been to Japan.

But hmm...it was utterly delicious. 

Gyuniku Negimaki means beef spring onion roll. And is it true that it originated in Manhattan? Not in Japan but in a Japanese restaurant nonetheless? Interesting. 

pearlie

Praying for your enemies

Faith/Life
The world is full of all kinds of people. But one thing is for sure—we are all pretty much all for ourselves. For good and for bad.


I try my best to avoid toxic individuals but once in awhile I have no choice but to deal with them and I'd almost always be barked at and bitten. 

And it happened today. And what do I do? What can I do?

To start off with, I am obviously very angry. But as I dwell on it and think it over, I actually begin to feel sorry for this person. I suppose I do come off as patronizing when  I say it but I do feel sorry for her. 

Those harsh words and display of contempt has to come from somewhere. Which is sad. 

This obviously reminds me of this passage from Matthew where Jesus said:

“You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
~ Matthew 5:43-48 NIV

So I must pray for her every time she comes to mind. It's not easy. Life is not easy. But praying for my enemies may just help me be kind to myself and then to them. 

pearlie

Developing a Learning Mindset

Learning

I was feeling a bit tired at the end of the day at work today and thought it may be a good idea to watch some videos in LinkedIn Learning. 

I looked through my saved list of courses for a light one and decided to watch Developing a Learning Mindset that is only about 30 minutes long. 

I am no beginner in learning but I thought I would still learn something from this beginners course. 

Yes, I certainly did. 

What Gary Bolles said here in the course really resonated with me. 

One of the exercises he recommended was to build my own Learning Inventory. I took time to fill up this sheet provided and I'm still thinking of what I can still add on to it. 


Someone asked me what's the reason for doing this. 

I told her that I agree with Gary Bolles when he said that we always underestimate what we have learnt and what we know. This exercise will show the immense knowledge and experience each of us has. 

The other thing is that we always don't see how unique we are. We all know different things and have different experiences. We need to be proud of who we are and the learnings that we have uniquely accumulated in all those years.

And with that, we continue learning even more. 

Would you also complete your own Learning Inventory and share it with me. 

pearlie

Well, really...nobody cares

Life

I remember always being worried about what other people think but like what Arvind Gupta says, "I promise you... nobody cares about your business except for you. Nobody."

Then I begin to realise that people mostly just care about themselves and "you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do." (David Foster Wallace)

It was only when I read this just a moment ago that even though I'm not 60 yet, I am beginning to get it:

"The "18/40/60" rule to happiness:
At age 18, people care very much about what others think of them.
By age 40, they learn not to worry what others think.
By age 60, they figure out that no one was thinking about them in the first place."
~ Daniel Amen

But then it is only in God do I trust and put my hope in. He is faithful and will always be faithful. 

The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.
~ Lamentations 3:25

pearlie

I am exhausted 너무 피곤하니까...

Life

I have so many things to do my brain is not happy. I can't think straight. I can only think of one thing or nothing at all. 

I used to say I'm good at multitasking. Not anymore. It's definitely a myth or the fact that I'm getting old. 

We often think that combining tasks will save us time, but scientific evidence shows that it has the opposite effect. Even those who claim to be good at multitasking are not very productive. In fact, they are some of the least productive people. Our brains can take million bits of information but can only actually process of few dozen per second. When we say we're multitasking, what we're really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Unfortunately, we're not computers adept at parallel processing. We end up spending all our energy alternative between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them well. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.
~ Hector Garcia Puigcerver

pearlie

I miss my car

Life

I don't think I have ever taken the train to my current workplace. 

With my car in the shops, I took the train to work this morning. It was really packed like sardines. 

Thankfully being early in the morning, everyone was fresh and the train cooling system was quite good. So even when we were all sticking to each other, it wasn't that bad. 

But I dare not take the train back at the end of the day. So I took a ride from a colleague and grabbed the train closer to home, which was much more bearable. 

I so miss my car. 

pearlie

Sleep, now and then

Sleep

I used to be able to sleep really late when I was younger and will still function well during the day. 

But that's the key word: younger days. I'm certainly not young anymore. 

I was running around a lot on Friday night driving everyone here and there (using my parent's car since mine is in the shops) and I came home quite late. 

My sleeping pattern went berserk as a result. 

Sleeping at 3:30am till 9:00am. 
Then 5:20pm till 1:25am and 3:50am to 7:40am.
And 9:10pm to 7:00am.

I seem to have enough hours of sleep but why do I still feel so tired?

pearlie

Restoran Goon Wah - one of the best in town

Family
I have not been to Restoran Goon Wah in a really long time and so when my mom suggested we go there for lunch, I was all for it. 


And I was not disappointed. The food was really awesome. 

XO Fish Head Noodles - seriously the best in town

Hot Pot Lou She Fun - I don't remember whether it was served in a hotpot the last time when I was there and this dish never did impress me. But it was my mom's favourite and so we ordered it. I changed my mind. It was awesome and I ate most of it!

Stir Fried Pork Maw and Intestines with Dried Shrimps - I was expecting dark marinated braised intestines when I ordered this but it was ok though a tad too spicy for me. 

Fuchok Barley - and it we closed it with one of my most favourite dessert and I must say this fuchok barley is really good. It's not watery but thick and filling. 

There are a few more dishes I wanted to order but with just my mom and I, this the max we could go. Just too bad that they are only opened until 4:00pm everyday. 

I'll be back. Next weekend sounds good.

pearlie

NB: As always, I forget to take photos and the above photos are credited to Ewe Paik Leong, The Chowster & Traveller, Taufulou, Jean and Foodilifecious.

Carless for 5 days

Grrh


I just sent my car to the workshop this morning and I will be without one for 5 or 6 days. 

I got into an accident a few days ago. 

The thing is whenever I keep seeing car accidents on the road, I will eventually get into one. 

I know it's a form of confirmation bias that I'm experiencing but I have seen many car accidents recently happening right before my eyes. 

And before I know it, this car bumped into my mine. 

It will be a very inconvenient 5 days ahead. It already took me one whole hour to get to work this morning using the train. And I will not be as mobile as I would like to be. 

Not complaining. I am also taking the opportunity to have my whole car touched up and I'm going to enjoy the train rides. 

pearlie

I'm now PAPI 3 certified!

Learning


For those who know me well, they'd know of my deep interest in personality tools. 

I've spent many years delving into the 16-type theory and love watching people using the 16 types. And I was so intrigued by Carl Jung's theory on the shadow archetypes. Still am. 

But I didn't have the opportunity to be MBTI certified. Hope to be soon though unlikely. 

Then came the Gallup Strengths. When I first started working in U Mobile, there was a presentation on it by Gallup Singapore organised by Berjaya Group and we were invited. 

One thing led to another and I became Gallup-certified. One of my proudest thing. Still is. 

Then comes Cubiks PAPI 3. I have quite a history with this tool. I have used it many times with our clients when I was in KPMG under the tutelage of my colleague who's certified. 

And I have recently developed a Succession Planning framework and we began looking for personality tools to help identify potential employees and out of the many that we have seen, we settled with Cubiks. We like its capabilities and flexibility. 

Though we had a tough time getting through the legal side of the acquisition of services but it finally went through. 

Nine of us went through an intensive training session, both theory and practical and we are all certified as of today. 

Good work guys!

pearlie

Going watchless...again

Devices

My Fitbit has gone kaput. 

And now I will need to get used to not wearing a watch, again. 

I stopped wearing a watch back in year 2004 when I found it obstructive when at work. Wearing a watch and using the notebook computer is not a good combination. And since I have the time on the computer and my phone, I decided to ditch the watch. 

Until year 2017 when I decided maybe a fitness watch would be a good idea. 

And so I bought a MiBand 2 and later I switched to the Fitbit Alta HR which my husband didn't want to use anymore. 

And now it's no longer working. 

I don't think I will buy another one. Reason being, these things don't last unlike real watches and I found that I don't really need one anymore. 

Only a day has gone by without a watch. I'm still lifting my hand up to read the time but I'll soon get used to it in no time. 

I went 13 years without one anyway. 

pearlie

How we listened to music back then

Music
I was listening to my collection of music today while trying to create my own space to zone into my work in a busy office.

And it reminded me of the good ol' days when listening to music wasn't so easy and convenient.

Have you ever seen these kind of tapes? It's called the 8-track cassette. I remember my dad using them in his Volkswagon.


And later it was these compact audio cassettes. 


And I would use my Sony Walkman to listen to music using audio cassettes with my very own collection bootlegged from the music stores.


In comparison, I now have 1157 songs at my disposable in my Apple Music library.

And it will take me 3.2 days to play them all. 

We have came a long way since then, haven't we?

pearlie

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ

Books
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ
by Giulia Enders

I have been having conversations with a couple of friends with regards to our stomach problems, about acid reflux and gastroenteritis and all. 

I did a search and found this book, got a copy and started reading it today. 

It's a good book and for a start, it is quite entertaining. But it does get more technical midway through and will take some effort to keep reading it. 

Some of the things I learned is that in year 2007, someone finally found the purpose for the appendix. It is apparently part of our immune system and it monitors foreign microbes to get rid of bad germs. 

And we thought it was useless. 

Another thing I found out while reading the book is this. And the subtitle of the book describes our guts perfectly. It is the most underrated organ. 

Reading about how the entire system work together, I began to marvel at the wonderous creative hand of our God.  

We are indeed fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Get a copy if your interest is piqued. And don't miss the part about what happens when we vomit. It is brilliant.

pearlie

A need for time out

Life

I live in a household of introverts and we understand our interaction needs and limitations. And we are comfortable with each other. 

But out of that context, I find it very hard to exist in a world where others expect me to interact all the time. 

I do sometimes turn down invitations and I have walked out of events and gatherings midway before, and I do feel bad about it.

Don't misunderstand me. I do enjoy get-togethers and I do look forward to meeting up with friends and family. 

But there are times when I really need that space for myself. And it's owning that space without feeling guilty about it that is bothering me. 

Maybe what I need to do is to connect with my extroverted friends and ask them how they feel and how they manage it when their invitations or expectations to connect are rejected.

And what introverts need to do is to speak up and extroverts to listen in.

pearlie

Human and androids - being relational

Technology

I am watching a show on robots and androids. It deals with human emotions, about giving and taking, about expectations. 

And with that I do begin to wonder how would human and androids exist together in the future?

My good friend refuses to watch shows with androids. I haven't asked her why but I'm sure she would say that it is meaningless for a human to form relationships with a machine. And any happy endings to such dramas would be unrealistic.

I know it's still something very distant in future but I do wonder how will human and androids when they exist together relate to each other.

I do sometimes talk to my car. I know. Weird. But then I'd use it and then park it in the driveway. Forgotten.

Say if I have an android-housekeeper, I'd obviously talk to it but would I then just switch it off when work is done?

The closest we have now to an android is the smartphone. I speak to my phone to get it to do things but it's still a phone. 

But what about an android with a face and a smile?

pearlie

Where do you store your photos?

Gadgets

I heard in the news that Google is ending their partnership with someone that manages the syncing of photos in Google Photos and I wasn't happy. 

I use Google Photos a lot and my Razer Phone 2 believe it or not does not have a photo gallery. All my photos goes into Google Photos. 

I only found out later that my fears were unfounded. The change only affected syncing between Google Photos and Google Drive, which I don't do. At least I hope that is the only thing that is affected. 

If you only store your photos in your phone, then you should take a look at syncing your phone with Google Photos. I have two of my friends who lost all their travel photos. You can imagine how devastating that can be. 

I hope Google Photos will stay for a long while. The cloud and data storage scene will see more changes as we go along and I wonder how long more will I be able to keep up with my data storage without paying a single cent.

pearlie

Book Shopping Spree!

Books
I haven't been in a book shopping spree for the longest time!


There is currently a Kindle book sale of Eerdsman books and it's really hard not to tap that "Buy now with 1-Click" button. 

There are about 9 more books I'm still deciding whether to buy or not to buy. 

There is just not enough time to read!

pearlie

Listening to music in the car

Apps

My car does not like my new phone. I drive an old car and it does not have Bluetooth built-in.

It's funny that I still remember 10 years ago when I went shopping for a car, the one question I kept asking all the car salesmen was that if their cars came with a USB port.

Anyway, my car does not like my phone. I plug it in and it says "unrecognised device".

Since I cannot not listen to music, I need to find a solution and my hubby suggested I go find a Bluetooth dongle with a AUX adapter.

I found and bought one from Lazada for only RM15.

And it works.

Except that now I want it to do more. My iPhone plays my music the moment it gets plugged in. With my Razer, I had to tap it so many times to get to it play something.

That's when I found out that there are automation apps in Android. Apparently I can automatically get my phone to perform actions depending on the trigger. 

I did some search, or rather, I got my son to do some research. 

We tried Autoroid, Tasker and Automate. All of these are good automation apps, but none of them seemed to work with Apple Music.

Until my son found the MacroDroid app. He built a macro and voila! It works.

I start my car, my Bluetooth announces, "Connected", and my last played song starts playing.

I'm happy.

Though now I need to learn how to build those macros myself. For example, in order to save battery, how can I get my phone's WiFi to switched on only when I'm at home. 

pearlie

A sermon on divorce

Life

Today is the first time I've ever listened to a sermon on divorce. 

We are in the midst of expository sermons on Matthew, and our speaker Dr Leong Tian Fock had to tackle Matthew 19, on the topic of Marriage in the Kingdom. 

And he did it superbly well. I had so many questions when he first started, where he laid the foundations, but as he moved on, most if not all of my questions were answered. 

There are several views on divorce and I like this part when Dr Leong said that when godly theologians and good Bible scholars cannot come to a consensus, that means the Bible is not very clear on that particular issue and in this case an ethical issue, and this means whatever stand you take, there is a chance of making a mistake. 

And so like Dr Leong I will also take his philosophical stand, which is to err on the side of compassion. 

It's a tough thing and I know friends who are struggling with it, wanting to know exactly what the Bible says. It is therefore so very important for this to be taught in church. 

If you would like to listen to the sermon, it is found here.

pearlie

How many powerbanks do you have?

Gadgets
I still remember the first power bank I bought. 

It was a YooBao with 5800mAh capacity that cost me at least RM200. 

That was many years ago. 

Right now, just like me, you probably would have so many you don't know what do with them.
   
I have 4 not counting the one that is like a lamp, which is so impractical. It's so inconvenient to carry around and putting it on the desk is useless since I will use the electric wall socket anyway. 

I know. Four. Why, right? 

From left to right: I bought the first one and thinking it was spoilt, I bought the second one. The third was a door gift and the fourth is my newest favourite thing. 

Melissa bought it for me when she was recently in Korea. Thanks Melissa! Loving it!
    
And how much capacity do you think I have all in all? 

29,200mAh. LOL. 

pearlie

Do you like time travel shows?

Time
Do you like to watch time travel shows?

I do, even though it's sometimes impossible to make sense out of them. 

I just finished watching this one:

Tunnel (2017)

And even though its premise and plotline is good, the acting stellar, and the ending satisfying, the series is not able to tie ends properly.

The show is about a police detective who was in the midst of a serial murder case in 1986 who found himself inadvertently time travelled 30 years into year 2016.

And in this new timeline, he had to meet people who were affected by the murders of the case he could not solve in 1986, which of course he finally did in 2016.

It's just that when he goes back to 1986, doesn't whatever that he does then unravels everything he had accomplished in the future?

To me, the only one time travel show that actually make sense is the episode Don't Blink in Doctor Who. 

Watch this short clip and you'd know what I mean.

Don't Blink (2007)


And it's absolutely brilliant.

pearlie

Getting rid of stray cats from your garden

Tips


Stray cats are getting on our nerves.

They sleep on top of our cars. They leave dirty paw prints on our car's clean white finish.

And worst of all they poop on the garden where get I in and out of my car, so much so that when I come back from work in the evenings, I would have to use my flashlight to make sure I don't step on poop.

I tried googling for cat repellents but couldn't find anything that's simple enough.

I read about covering the whole garden with wire mesh because cats do not like to walk on it. Neither do I though.

Another way is to spray the garden with ammonia. Cats won't like the smell. But then again neither would I.

Then my hubby had a great idea: spray the grass with vinegar.

I thought why not since it's natural, safe and I wouldn't mind the smell. At least it wouldn't be as bad as ammonia. 

So I took a spray pistol, filled it with 50:50 vinegar and water and started spraying that spot where I get in and out of my car.

And it worked!

Not only there is now no more poop in the garden, the cats stopped sleeping on top of our cars too.

pearlie

Godzilla: King of the Monsters ★★★☆☆

Friends

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

I am not really a Godzilla movie person but I remember back in those days when I watched and followed Ultraman and Godzilla shows on television with much fervor.

So when my good friend, Wee Yin suggested we watch the latest Godzilla movie, I said why not.

What can I say? The visual effects and the battle scenes are fantastic but the rest is meh.

Like what Wee Yin said: just have Godzilla and all the monsters and remove the people.

The only character I like was the daughter Madison, played by Millie Bobby Brown.



I felt she brought out the character quite well.

The rest? They kinda irritated me.

The mother especially. I don't how her brain works and her tirade how she can "save" the world made me roll my eyes goodness knows how many times. I was like, really?

The antagonist is none too antagonistic.

And the rest are all too bland for mention.

And I don't know about the physics of the scenes. I am horrible at physics in school but at the rate that the monsters dived in and out of the sea and smashed down every thing in the city, I wonder how the boats stayed where they are and the cast don't get hit by anything.

But all in all, it was fun watching just the monsters alone. 

pearlie

No choice but to ride the storm out

Behavior


No one has made me angry and no one has betrayed me for quite awhile now.

Until very recently.

I made the effort to spend some time with that someone but what I got was blame and judgment and very unkind words.

I got quite mad but I was in no position to even defend myself.

So I just kept quiet willing the minutes to go faster till I can extricate myself from the situation.

A few days have passed now but I find that I still get affected by it. The emotion is still quite raw.

But I have already come to an acceptance that my emotions will come no matter what I do. I can't avoid them. So as always, I will ride them out till they subside.

But it's taking much longer to do that this time.

And it's also a decision I make. When I begin to get affected by it, I stop myself and decide not to be. I decide to stop dwelling in it. I decide to forgive.

Though it's not easy. Not at all.

pearlie

Things don't happen in threes, do they?



People say that things happen in threes. I don't think they do. It's how you see things and how you put things together. And it so happened that I had these three things happened these three days with my car:

1. I heard a sound in the engine. Not sure what it is yet. Sounds like the engine belt or something. But I don't hear it anymore for now.

2. I received a parking summon. I thought I don't need to on a Saturday.

3. My tyre was flat this morning. So I got stranded at home. Till I finally got someone to come fix it.

I hope it stops at three, at least for now.

pearlie

Do you know what your strengths are and what to do with them?

I had a good coaching season with my good friend Ee-Tan this afternoon.

I had an activity where I got her to choose two pictures that resonated with her and she choose these two:



Everyone of us would read the same pictures differently. How would you read these?

And we had a good and long engaging session using the Gallup CliftonStrengths. We talked about what her strengths are and how they can help her grow and improve herself.

And she is proud of them and it is so her to have these as her top-5: Adaptability, Communication, Positivity, Woo and Activator.

Knowing your strengths is a very good thing. It will help you be even better at what you are already good and natural in.

Would want to know what you strengths are? If you do, let me know!

pearlie