Living up to the blog purpose *grin*

Haha, so someone has been complaining I talk about cars too much. Well, it had been the most pressing issue of the time for the past couple of weeks. At least I know my blog is living up to its mission of annoying you. Heh... w00t !

Anyways, stuck in the office again on another quiet night shift. Once again, not very productive as always as I find it very difficult to concentrate during the night. During the day, I think I can do much better though.

Been listening to Digitally Imported streaming radio to find new songs and also to kill time. Got quite a couple of 'new' songs from it and I'm pretty glad. Can finally burn some new CDs to listen to in the car. Now I just need to do the same for chinese music. Need to bug some ppl to send me some music. =P

Oh well, other than that... life is just.... well... life really. Yeap.

Why VW?? WHY???

Dammit... Just read on Vortex that the Mk. V Golf will most likely be available August 2006... four months too late for me. Plus, TDI and manual models probably won't be available right then and there anyways. So... what am I going to do? Right now, I'm torn between trying to negotiate a new short lease now on another car and then getting the Golf after or get another car altogether. That coupon from GM I got isn't going to last after April.... Decisions decisions...

Another lease will be a bad idea because that's just money wasted. Why should I dump money into a car I don't plan on keeping? Plus, can't guarantee I can get a SHORT lease.. looks like most car manufacturers want to do at least 4 years. I'll be fscking 30 years old by then! I'll want to have money to move out by then, not spend it on another car!!! Shit... should I try for the 9-2x?

Decisions decisions....

Action Stations! Action Stations! Set Condition 1 Throughout The Ship! THIS IS NOT A DRILL

I recently downloaded and watched the currently remade Battlestar Galatica. Well, it's not really a remake... more of a revision. It's really a different show but kinda like based on the original show from the 70s and 80s. I like it so far. I never watched the original so I'm saying I like it from an outsider point of view. There are those that will defend the old series to death and call this one blasphemic, but I'm not interested in that. Anyways, point being is... the title is borrowed from the show when they called battlestations on the ship during the beginning when the war broke out... What does that have to do with anything you may ask? Well, read on my dear audience... it's going to be a bit of a dreary one =P

I guess I'm just trying to instill some motivation to get some productive work done. Despite the drive to want to change during New Years, it hasn't been happening. I find myself still stuck in a rut... not really that motivated to do much on my free time. Heck, I haven't done much during WORK let alone at home. Something is still wrong... I don't know. Given how much this job is draining me, you'd think that I'd already have enough motivation to start working my ass off to get out of here. But somehow, I'm not really. I'm so behind on a lot of work... and I have a review with my bosses on Wednesday... shit. It's not going to look good... especially to our NEW manager. My old manager rarely got involved in our reviews except when it's time to hand in the homework. But this time, the new one is more involved with the well-being of our team. It's a good thing, but bad for me now as I have only this weekend to accomplish anything. Right now, I'm uber unproductive because I didn't sleep in the afternoon at all... I've been up for more than 12 hours now... and I know I'll eventually start collapsing. Gonna hook some hardcore caffeine soon before I lose it.

I need to change something... and fast. If I don't start producing results, the boss is going to be looking over my shoulder for EVERYTHING I do... or worse, I'll be out of a job. Can't let that happen, not when I still have a new car to aim for. That's it... if that's what it takes to motivate me, I'm going to print out a damn picture of the car and stick it on my wall as a CONSTANT reminder... shit... does ANYTHING work for me anymore?

OMFG I'm such a moron!!

Once again, my brilliant mind has allowed me to goof up completely.

Bad news for a lot of you... well... more for me. My car lease is actually FOUR years, not THREE... so... *sob*. I'm stuck w/ the Cavi for another year...
Well, two things though:
1) I can save more money now
2) I can wait to get the new Mk. V Golf. YAY!

Of course, 2 is dependent on if VWoA can get the car out in time for me to purchase. Right now, the release time is pretty tight... end of 2005/early 2006. Which one will it be? Pretty worried now... but I will find out in a year's time.

So... I guess my invitation to take manual lessons from me still stands and has now been extended to another year. Yeah, start signing up ladies and gents =P.

... a bug I tell ya! A BUG!! MUHAHAHAHA!!!

(Title being another vague reference to The Simpsons... if you've known me long enough, you would know that this is to be expected =P)

Alright... on my 3 day break from work until the weekend... then it's two weekends of night shifts straight... sigh... and to sweeten the deal, huge maintenance project this weekend. Joy...

I actually sat in the project preview meeting yesterday on recommendation that I do just to see what the process is for planning these things. Usually, my team's presence isn't required as our team managers are usually there on behalf of us. After sitting through it though, I think it's better if one of us goes instead because our bosses don't know our jobs 100% and usually miss out on things that are assigned to us but due to something missing or not set up right, we end up not being able to do it at all. With one of us there, we can easily go through the steps we're assigned and chime in if there's any difficulty or one of those things that we aren't responsible for. I think just being more involved will allow our team to "show off" how 'valuable' we are to the rest of the department which so far appears to question our everyday existence. But even so, building inter-department unity and cooperation is already a good thing too.

When I walked out of the meeting, it dawned on me just how much more insignificant I felt. Going through my brain and knowing what kind of skills I possess and comparing it to the more senior SAs and other IT gurus, I realise I have farrrr FARRRR more to go in terms of IT knowledge. I'm like.. SHIT... I really know jack compared to these guys.. I hope this kind of experience will only motivate me to pick up on my online courses and learning UNIX faster. But I know as I'm a bit "older" now (hears laughing in the background... YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!), my ability to learn new things has diminished greatly. Maybe my timeline of jumping to a new department in a year is too ambitious for my slow brain... I guess I might have to linger on another year at most then. However, any longer and I'll collapse from this job... ugh..

I didn't end up doing any test drives today like I planned. Instead, went to a body shop to get a repair estimate. It's not as bad as I feared, but still a bit pricy.. sigh... the lessons I have to learn. Gotta take care of the new car better. I'm still heavily undecided on the new car simply because what I REALLY REALLY REALLY want won't be available until the end of the year earliest. Damn you VW!!

Once again, another boring post right? =P Blah!