Damn. No Use Hospital Business Office called with bad news. After reviewing my financial situation, I was required to pay the full deposit upon admission. Hey! How could they expect me to cough up that sum within such short notice? Not that I couldn't, but it's still a shock! (Actually not so shocked lah, I was already mentally prepared to do so the moment I decided to consider the surgery) And they had already promised that I could pay a lower deposit :\
So in the end, they stuck to their promise, but I still had to pay the balance upon discharge. That's just postponing the shock by 1 week... so STUPID!
Should have gone for another holiday first and spend all my money! GAH!!!
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Straighten-A-Sotong Part XIII
Arranged to meet my RO during lunch time. In the morning, I told N about it. Coz it will be weird if the person next to you doesn't know? I asked her not to tell anybody as I didn't want the vineyard to get to my RO before me. Actually by telling N, I'm prepared for word to get out already lah haha.
My RO only found time after lunch. I made N go away so I didn't have to find a room :P Well, I'm very heartened to know that my RO's first reaction was to show concern for me instead of for work. Feel so 小人 now *guilty* I told her that I might be back in 3 months, but might extend depending on my condition.
Now to get in touch with HR to find out if I'm eligible for the extended medical leave and what to do before I leave.
My RO only found time after lunch. I made N go away so I didn't have to find a room :P Well, I'm very heartened to know that my RO's first reaction was to show concern for me instead of for work. Feel so 小人 now *guilty* I told her that I might be back in 3 months, but might extend depending on my condition.
Now to get in touch with HR to find out if I'm eligible for the extended medical leave and what to do before I leave.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Straighten-A-Sotong Part XII
The final consultation before the admission. I had to first take an X-ray, so I went straight to the Diagnostic Imaging. However, the staff there "checked" and said that I had to see the doctor first. Huh? Ok whatever. When I got to the Ortho clinic, they asked me if I had taken my X-ray. See, I told them! Pissed! And I was sent back to take X-ray. Now, I could never be in time for the doctor's appointment at 11.30am so now I would definitely have to spend lunchtime here. Waste of time! The food sucks somemore!
I think the radiographers all recognize me already lor. All those 高难度 and weird poses. I was supposed to stay and wait for the films, but it didn't register when they told me, so Father had to go back to get them. Had lunch at the Can Rigged Win's Kopitiam. Aiyah still tasted the same lor.
Dr L has gone to the spine clinic at Can Rigged Win. Nicer waiting area, gentler lighting. Got free coffee and tea at the water dispenser somemore. And its own toilet! But it was a ridiculously long wait. Easily 2hrs long. Finished so many stages of Angry Birds that I was worrying that I could run out of stages. It's not that he was putting all other patients before me. I think there were only 2 people before me, including the person who was already in there when I arrived? 1 hr per patient!
Finally, I was called in, but Dr L asked me to wait and went out to another room, where I overheard him trying to talk a patient into having surgery. Angry Birds again for me lor. Shit man, I really hated this wheelchair. Butt damn pain and the push handles were in my bones.
O yeah my turn for real now. Dr L commented that from my MRI, I was really straight when lying down, so hopefully, we wouldn't have to break so many bones. Yay! But means still got to break lah? I wonder what he meant by breaking bones *shivers*
Q&A time.
That's not the point, but nevermind.
I think I can live with not being able to pick things up.
And I will need to wear a back brace for 2 years.
And have to bring the X-rays for admission.
Dr L asked again for the surgeries I have had before.
I still remember how that doctor looked like, although I might not be able to recognize him now 10 years down the road. But I sure do still remember the pain. I still blame him for that.
The very busy Dr L has another appointment that he's already late for, so he offered a handshake (weird? I think we were more like superior-subordinate kind of relationship than a cooperative equal. You don't shake hands with your boss, do you? Unless he's your boss-to-be at the interview stage), said bye and left the clinic, leaving the MO handle the rest of the nitty gritty. The MO suggested that I come in on Sunday instead, as there might be no bed should I admit on Monday. What? Make me pay for 1 more day when they should reserve one for me? Ah ok whatever.
He received a call on his mobile. I think the nurse from A&E was calling him.
Gosh! A&E sounded like a dangerous place with HOs who didn't know what they were doing! FYI, HO a.k.a. the scary fresh grads that people speak of. Of course, not all HOs are like that, but this one really CMI. Good luck to that patient at A&E. I think my MO should really be there soon.
But he must be done with me first. I signed the consent, he did his part, gave me my MC and sent me to pre-admission counseling next door.
Today was really a day of waiting. Counseling also must wait. A lady entered, very slowly logged into the system and started fiddling around in such a way that you can tell she didn't know how to use it. She appeared to be looking for a certain functionality and when she found it, I think she didn't know how to work it. Keyed in some figures, went "eh?", started over... I almost wanted to volunteer my help just to make things go faster. Fortunately, she recognized that she needed help and went out to get it. Things went pretty smoothly afterwards. Got my new bill estimate, which, curiously, was still not far off the previous one despite the stay being 8 days shorter at 10 days. Just about $3000 less.
When I passed by the entrance of the clinic, I caught a glimpse of their list of specialists. Right on, or near the top was Dr J H.
O.
HEAD lor. Dr L's boss lor. Luckily I never complain about him hahaha.
I went to the Business Office to discuss the deposit. The same lady recognized me hohoho. Must be the horrendous bill size.
Good news! I could still pay $5000 deposit upon admission.
She noticed that the Medishield estimate was missing, so she advised me to go back to the clinic and inform the staff that Medishield estimates are mandatory now. Har... still must go back and pass message. My words got power meh? She should call the clinic for me. &*#*$(#
Went back to the clinic, waited somemore, passed the message and got a new printout. Finally I could go home.
Googled traction, but still didn't have a clear idea of what it is. What pull my head! Sounds like I will be hanged! Painful somemore! Help!
Tomorrow, time for the inevitable... hope things will go well.
I think the radiographers all recognize me already lor. All those 高难度 and weird poses. I was supposed to stay and wait for the films, but it didn't register when they told me, so Father had to go back to get them. Had lunch at the Can Rigged Win's Kopitiam. Aiyah still tasted the same lor.
Dr L has gone to the spine clinic at Can Rigged Win. Nicer waiting area, gentler lighting. Got free coffee and tea at the water dispenser somemore. And its own toilet! But it was a ridiculously long wait. Easily 2hrs long. Finished so many stages of Angry Birds that I was worrying that I could run out of stages. It's not that he was putting all other patients before me. I think there were only 2 people before me, including the person who was already in there when I arrived? 1 hr per patient!
Finally, I was called in, but Dr L asked me to wait and went out to another room, where I overheard him trying to talk a patient into having surgery. Angry Birds again for me lor. Shit man, I really hated this wheelchair. Butt damn pain and the push handles were in my bones.
O yeah my turn for real now. Dr L commented that from my MRI, I was really straight when lying down, so hopefully, we wouldn't have to break so many bones. Yay! But means still got to break lah? I wonder what he meant by breaking bones *shivers*
Q&A time.
Sotong: For about how days will I be in hospital?
Dr L: When did I ask you to come in?
Sotong: 1 week before.
Dr L: 1 week before? So many days? (you mean you don't remember??)
Sotong: Yeah! I was going to ask you if we really need 1 week. What are we going to do that is going to take 7 days?
Dr L: No need lah, I think you just come 3 days before.
Sotong: Great! (less boring!) And what would I be doing before the surgery?
Dr L: We will put you in traction, something that will pull your neck and feet and stretch your body, which some people find quite painful. We will see how well you tolerate it.
Sotong: :O
Sotong: :O
Sotong: About how long is my downtime? (can't believe I said *downtime*)
Dr L: Depends. (so 废) How many days of hospitalization leave do you have.
Sotong: About 60 days.
Dr L: You can take it all!
That's not the point, but nevermind.
Sotong: What exactly would be done during the surgery?
Dr L: From below the neck to (points a few vertebrae down) xxxyyyyzzz, from here to here, aaabbbbccc. (something about inserting screws to FIX the spine)
Sotong: Would I be able to bend my back after the surgery?
Dr L: Of course not. Your back has to be fixed to prevent further curvature.
Sotong: (shucks) So I will be all rigid?
Dr L: Yes, you will be very stiff.
Sotong: (sounds terrible lor!) Can I do this? This? (did a few movements)
Dr L: Yes you can still turn your head as only the bottom of the neck is affected. This is twisting of your trunk and doesn't require bending of the spine, so that is still possible. But bending to pick things from the floor cannot be done.
I think I can live with not being able to pick things up.
Dr L: From now till the surgery, do not take Chinese medicine.
Sotong: Huh? Ok...
And I will need to wear a back brace for 2 years.
And have to bring the X-rays for admission.
Dr L asked again for the surgeries I have had before.
Sotong: Scapulopexy.
Dr L: When was that?
Sotong: 10 over years ago... when I was 17... (Maths very poor, had to do a quick mental calculation) 12 years ago? (still not sure. Maths FAIL)
Dr L: By whom, do you remember?
Sotong: Er... J H I think.(Why do you need to know this?)
Dr L: Ok...
Dr L: When was that?
Sotong: 10 over years ago... when I was 17... (Maths very poor, had to do a quick mental calculation) 12 years ago? (still not sure. Maths FAIL)
Dr L: By whom, do you remember?
Sotong: Er... J H I think.(Why do you need to know this?)
Dr L: Ok...
I still remember how that doctor looked like, although I might not be able to recognize him now 10 years down the road. But I sure do still remember the pain. I still blame him for that.
The very busy Dr L has another appointment that he's already late for, so he offered a handshake (weird? I think we were more like superior-subordinate kind of relationship than a cooperative equal. You don't shake hands with your boss, do you? Unless he's your boss-to-be at the interview stage), said bye and left the clinic, leaving the MO handle the rest of the nitty gritty. The MO suggested that I come in on Sunday instead, as there might be no bed should I admit on Monday. What? Make me pay for 1 more day when they should reserve one for me? Ah ok whatever.
He received a call on his mobile. I think the nurse from A&E was calling him.
MO: I'm busy right now, I can't come over. What is wrong with the patient? (pause) Can you ask the HO to do it? (pause) What do you mean he don't know how to do it? Ok, what is the patient having? (pause) Low blood pressure? What, patient said? Does he know the symptoms of low blood pressure or not? (pause) Put him on the phone please. (pause) Do you know the symptoms of low blood pressure? (pause) I know the patient said so, but do you know the symptoms? (long pause) You know or not? (pause) Yes... yes... no... ok ok I will come over later.
Gosh! A&E sounded like a dangerous place with HOs who didn't know what they were doing! FYI, HO a.k.a. the scary fresh grads that people speak of. Of course, not all HOs are like that, but this one really CMI. Good luck to that patient at A&E. I think my MO should really be there soon.
But he must be done with me first. I signed the consent, he did his part, gave me my MC and sent me to pre-admission counseling next door.
Today was really a day of waiting. Counseling also must wait. A lady entered, very slowly logged into the system and started fiddling around in such a way that you can tell she didn't know how to use it. She appeared to be looking for a certain functionality and when she found it, I think she didn't know how to work it. Keyed in some figures, went "eh?", started over... I almost wanted to volunteer my help just to make things go faster. Fortunately, she recognized that she needed help and went out to get it. Things went pretty smoothly afterwards. Got my new bill estimate, which, curiously, was still not far off the previous one despite the stay being 8 days shorter at 10 days. Just about $3000 less.
When I passed by the entrance of the clinic, I caught a glimpse of their list of specialists. Right on, or near the top was Dr J H.
O.
HEAD lor. Dr L's boss lor. Luckily I never complain about him hahaha.
I went to the Business Office to discuss the deposit. The same lady recognized me hohoho. Must be the horrendous bill size.
Good news! I could still pay $5000 deposit upon admission.
She noticed that the Medishield estimate was missing, so she advised me to go back to the clinic and inform the staff that Medishield estimates are mandatory now. Har... still must go back and pass message. My words got power meh? She should call the clinic for me. &*#*$(#
Went back to the clinic, waited somemore, passed the message and got a new printout. Finally I could go home.
Today's damage:
Consultation Services (SC - RV) $68.00
X-ray
Chest (one view) $30.00
Spine Scoliosis (More than 2 V $165.00
Subsidy -$145.00
Out of pocket $118.00
Consultation Services (SC - RV) $68.00
X-ray
Chest (one view) $30.00
Spine Scoliosis (More than 2 V $165.00
Subsidy -$145.00
Out of pocket $118.00
Googled traction, but still didn't have a clear idea of what it is. What pull my head! Sounds like I will be hanged! Painful somemore! Help!
Tomorrow, time for the inevitable... hope things will go well.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Free Lion King?
L lent me her name for the Lion King tickets, but so far the company has not charged us yet. It's already her last day today, so it's... free? :D
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
National Day
Sotong is so patriotic this year! Shall celebrate National Day this year, after a 2-year hiatus I think.
Of course, being a grown-up, instead of waving plastic flags and singing national songs, I have new ways of showing my appreciation for my dear homeland.
First, lunch at Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant. This restaurant is highly recommended by my sister, so I shall go try it out! Haven't had Korean BBQ for a long time. Not counting Seoul Garden, the last time was 2 years ago in Taiwan. Took a cab there and almost missed the entrance to the carpark. The skillful driver reversed in through the exit ^_^;; Missed then jialat liao, got to u-turn, dunno where! The restaurant is located at one of those shophouses along Upper Thomson Road, so you can expect it to have a handicapped-unfriendly entrance.
The restaurant looked rather small. Glad I made a reservation. Must emphasize you want the air-con seats! That day was so hot and humid that we could have died eating spicy food out there.
First up, the appetizers. They were all so yummy that I could get by just eating them. Free-flow mah. But the restaurant sure not happy one haha. Say, has anybody tried doing that before? The potato salad-like thing was awesome! The kimchi was on the salty side, but still nice. I love salt. Yum.
The waitress' English was so heavily-accented that I could hardly understand her. Think she's the boss' daughter.
The highly-raved ginseng chicken soup with just a hint of ginseng. The chicken meat tore off the bone easily. Lots of goodies in the soup.
We also got BBQ beef, which we asked the kitchen to cook for us instead of DIY. After the experience in Taiwan, I'm convinced I can't do it as well as the cook, so let them do it, don't destroy the meat, make it worth the $$. Apply some bean paste and wrap in the vegee to eat. Sister did it for me of course. *empress dowager*
The bimimbap! 1 bowl for the 3 of us, but I was still filled to the brim. Why was the egg cooked? :(
So so so full! Luckily I didn't order the pancake.
Still had time to spare, so we walked over to Thomson Plaza. Nothing much there as usual. Had teh at Hans. Western food restaurant selling teh, hmm... Bought a new cushion.
Overheard a cheapo woman walk into a shop and asked very directly, "你们有 National Day sale 吗?" when there was no sale sign seen anywhere. And when the sales assistant replied, she still want to confirm again!! "真的没有?" *faints* Walk next to her also paiseh!
Went shopping at NTUC for provisions to sustain ourselves later. Spotted Haagen Daz sale with flavors still available! But couldn't buy now lah. Saw the Pure gummy that I bought from Japan! Damn expensive, but I want! Then bought a sandwich from Subway, cleared ourselves out at the toilet, bought newspapers and left. As usual, there wasn't any cab at the queue when it was our turn zzz.
Dropped at MBS. Watched the fireworks here 2 years ago too. The place was full of foreign workers lor. The odor was more evident at the casino entrance :X Went Cold Storage to look for drinks... very hard to find cheap drinks in MBS. Saw the Milo van. but long queue as usual. When can I have a Milo from the van again? Nothing comes as close as it. They were distributing sachets of instant Milo that could dissolve in cold water to make up for it, just needed to find a water cooler though.
The area where I camped the last time was out of bounds.
Found ourselves a great spot! Only con was that the sun was in our faces.
Not a big deal. There's a white board used for covering the electrical box.
Whiled the time away reading newspapers.
The sun hid behind the buildings soon.
Action started!
People from the marching contingent streaming into the cordoned area. Wa... special fireworks spot for them lor.
And the fireworks began! Spectacular! There goes my taxes! And nobody blocking me! Don't leave yet, still got round 2 de.
Too late for dinner, anyway it's crowded everywhere, so we went home. The cab queue was long as expected, but there was no cabs. Abnormal! Shouldn't the supply be endless here? Jialat lor, call also no use de. We waited in the line that hardly moved. The security guard also never offered to let us jump queue. Die ah die ah how many hours will this wait be? People in front, you really should take public transport you know.
A cab came and stopped next to us, offering to take us first. Really? Yay on! But it took us a bloody long time to drive out of the pickup point alone. I thought it was due to the ambulance parked in front, but it was stuck like us. Took us like 15min to clear the pickup point...
Carpark sign spoil liao. Negative lots available!
Missed call alerts started coming in. Phone signal sucks in MBS, with all the crowd.
Reason for the gridlock was because the road towards Suntec City was closed, so everybody had to u-turn. By the time we cleared the u-turn, the fare was already $9.70. Cabs were already hailed from the roadside when they were driving towards MBS. No wonder the cab queue was empty.
Dinner was Geylang beef horfun. I thought I surely had to eat instant mee after fireworks, like 2 years ago.
First, lunch at Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant. This restaurant is highly recommended by my sister, so I shall go try it out! Haven't had Korean BBQ for a long time. Not counting Seoul Garden, the last time was 2 years ago in Taiwan. Took a cab there and almost missed the entrance to the carpark. The skillful driver reversed in through the exit ^_^;; Missed then jialat liao, got to u-turn, dunno where! The restaurant is located at one of those shophouses along Upper Thomson Road, so you can expect it to have a handicapped-unfriendly entrance.
The restaurant looked rather small. Glad I made a reservation. Must emphasize you want the air-con seats! That day was so hot and humid that we could have died eating spicy food out there.
The waitress' English was so heavily-accented that I could hardly understand her. Think she's the boss' daughter.
We also got BBQ beef, which we asked the kitchen to cook for us instead of DIY. After the experience in Taiwan, I'm convinced I can't do it as well as the cook, so let them do it, don't destroy the meat, make it worth the $$. Apply some bean paste and wrap in the vegee to eat. Sister did it for me of course. *empress dowager*
So so so full! Luckily I didn't order the pancake.
Still had time to spare, so we walked over to Thomson Plaza. Nothing much there as usual. Had teh at Hans. Western food restaurant selling teh, hmm... Bought a new cushion.
Overheard a cheapo woman walk into a shop and asked very directly, "你们有 National Day sale 吗?" when there was no sale sign seen anywhere. And when the sales assistant replied, she still want to confirm again!! "真的没有?" *faints* Walk next to her also paiseh!
Went shopping at NTUC for provisions to sustain ourselves later. Spotted Haagen Daz sale with flavors still available! But couldn't buy now lah. Saw the Pure gummy that I bought from Japan! Damn expensive, but I want! Then bought a sandwich from Subway, cleared ourselves out at the toilet, bought newspapers and left. As usual, there wasn't any cab at the queue when it was our turn zzz.
Dropped at MBS. Watched the fireworks here 2 years ago too. The place was full of foreign workers lor. The odor was more evident at the casino entrance :X Went Cold Storage to look for drinks... very hard to find cheap drinks in MBS. Saw the Milo van. but long queue as usual. When can I have a Milo from the van again? Nothing comes as close as it. They were distributing sachets of instant Milo that could dissolve in cold water to make up for it, just needed to find a water cooler though.
Found ourselves a great spot! Only con was that the sun was in our faces.
Whiled the time away reading newspapers.
Action started!
And the fireworks began! Spectacular! There goes my taxes! And nobody blocking me! Don't leave yet, still got round 2 de.
Too late for dinner, anyway it's crowded everywhere, so we went home. The cab queue was long as expected, but there was no cabs. Abnormal! Shouldn't the supply be endless here? Jialat lor, call also no use de. We waited in the line that hardly moved. The security guard also never offered to let us jump queue. Die ah die ah how many hours will this wait be? People in front, you really should take public transport you know.
A cab came and stopped next to us, offering to take us first. Really? Yay on! But it took us a bloody long time to drive out of the pickup point alone. I thought it was due to the ambulance parked in front, but it was stuck like us. Took us like 15min to clear the pickup point...
Missed call alerts started coming in. Phone signal sucks in MBS, with all the crowd.
Reason for the gridlock was because the road towards Suntec City was closed, so everybody had to u-turn. By the time we cleared the u-turn, the fare was already $9.70. Cabs were already hailed from the roadside when they were driving towards MBS. No wonder the cab queue was empty.
Dinner was Geylang beef horfun. I thought I surely had to eat instant mee after fireworks, like 2 years ago.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Cow-selling Notes: In The (Mad) House, Yo!
On week 2 of April, Mr B, the user from Irritating Mad House sent an angry email about his Cow-selling Notes reports not generating. I didn't understand what he was talking about. Haven't even develop what, of course not generating lah. After clarification with the TL, I realized that there was an existing cow-selling report based on the old database table. Only Irritating Mad House has this report. After the new cow-selling notes went live, the data was no longer flowing to the old table. Hence no report was generated.
OOPS. This was undeniably our fault. Looked like existing reports were left out from the impact analysis of the specifications. At least for me, I didn't even know this report existed! And of all institutions, the screw-up had to happen to Irritating Mad House. Cham!
Actually, Irritating Mad House didn't want this CR at all. But all the others wanted it, and it was more difficult to exclude an institution than to apply for all, so Irritating Mad House had to accept it. For free. Not such a bad deal eh?
Since they didn't want it, no impact analysis was done for them. But it was also not highlighted that their report would cease to exist.
I don't know what to say.
Of course Mr B was not going to take ”no more old report anymore” for an answer. He threw a fit and demanded his report as he needed to give it to his boss. No, the new report was unacceptable.
What's wrong with the new report! More details what! What was the thing that couldn't be derived from the new report? This Mr B really got problem! And probably his boss too. Is there anybody at least marginally normal there?
No choice, TL and I had to write a query immediately to extract the data for him. Must fit into the format of the old report. In the end, it looked really crappy. I was sure Mr B was going to scream again.
Surprisingly, Mr B was placated. Got something to 交货 can already? That's so unlike him.
Something was up his sleeve. We knew it! He demanded we ”restore” his original report - with this new format he was proposing. For free. And he even provided the folder name to deposit the files in.
In short, Irritating Mad House first made things difficult by saying don't want don't want. The result - a free CR landed in their laps. Wait for us to make a mistake and 顺便 upgrade report. So 奸!
Well, we broke their report, didn't we? Lose liao lor.
Since I'm blogging about this, you must have guessed that I kena arrowed to do the report lor. Mr B provided the format he was expecting. Waa want to extract type X,Y but not Z, into 2 separate Excel files with different headers.... REALLY TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION.
Haiz.
Mr B's requirements were not perfect of course. They will result in permutation of data and I'm not sure if he would like that. I requested the AiHiss contact, T, to confirm with B, but T also scared haha. In the end, for things that were not too major, we made our own assumptions and hoped for the safety of our heads.
On a brighter note, Mr B's requirements didn't include columns with 1000 characters. I am not interested in finding out whether DTS packages have the same weird problems as SSIS. The good (and bad) thing about DTS is that there is no control over the formatting of each Excel cell (not that I know of), so I could get away with not fixing cosmetic issues. ”It's like that! Technical limitation!”
The UAT went smoothly. Phew~ Rolled out 2 months later.
Apart from production issues, we were done with cow-selling notes. It could be the longest CR I have ever done. Don't want to hear from it again!
OOPS. This was undeniably our fault. Looked like existing reports were left out from the impact analysis of the specifications. At least for me, I didn't even know this report existed! And of all institutions, the screw-up had to happen to Irritating Mad House. Cham!
Actually, Irritating Mad House didn't want this CR at all. But all the others wanted it, and it was more difficult to exclude an institution than to apply for all, so Irritating Mad House had to accept it. For free. Not such a bad deal eh?
Since they didn't want it, no impact analysis was done for them. But it was also not highlighted that their report would cease to exist.
I don't know what to say.
Of course Mr B was not going to take ”no more old report anymore” for an answer. He threw a fit and demanded his report as he needed to give it to his boss. No, the new report was unacceptable.
What's wrong with the new report! More details what! What was the thing that couldn't be derived from the new report? This Mr B really got problem! And probably his boss too. Is there anybody at least marginally normal there?
No choice, TL and I had to write a query immediately to extract the data for him. Must fit into the format of the old report. In the end, it looked really crappy. I was sure Mr B was going to scream again.
Surprisingly, Mr B was placated. Got something to 交货 can already? That's so unlike him.
Something was up his sleeve. We knew it! He demanded we ”restore” his original report - with this new format he was proposing. For free. And he even provided the folder name to deposit the files in.
In short, Irritating Mad House first made things difficult by saying don't want don't want. The result - a free CR landed in their laps. Wait for us to make a mistake and 顺便 upgrade report. So 奸!
Well, we broke their report, didn't we? Lose liao lor.
Since I'm blogging about this, you must have guessed that I kena arrowed to do the report lor. Mr B provided the format he was expecting. Waa want to extract type X,Y but not Z, into 2 separate Excel files with different headers.... REALLY TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION.
Haiz.
Mr B's requirements were not perfect of course. They will result in permutation of data and I'm not sure if he would like that. I requested the AiHiss contact, T, to confirm with B, but T also scared haha. In the end, for things that were not too major, we made our own assumptions and hoped for the safety of our heads.
On a brighter note, Mr B's requirements didn't include columns with 1000 characters. I am not interested in finding out whether DTS packages have the same weird problems as SSIS. The good (and bad) thing about DTS is that there is no control over the formatting of each Excel cell (not that I know of), so I could get away with not fixing cosmetic issues. ”It's like that! Technical limitation!”
The UAT went smoothly. Phew~ Rolled out 2 months later.
Apart from production issues, we were done with cow-selling notes. It could be the longest CR I have ever done. Don't want to hear from it again!
Monday, July 18, 2011
Ready, Get Fat, GO!
Yeah yeah it's the month to get fat!
After artery-clogging crabs, 游油 rosemary chicken, rich Brotzeit and high blood pressure-inducing Santouka all in the space of 1 week, here's the finale - the precursor to diabetes - cake!
This year, I got a cake from Swissbake. Less atas haha!
A very humble oreo cheesecake. Why? Just felt like eating lor.
Cheap and good!
After artery-clogging crabs, 游油 rosemary chicken, rich Brotzeit and high blood pressure-inducing Santouka all in the space of 1 week, here's the finale - the precursor to diabetes - cake!
This year, I got a cake from Swissbake. Less atas haha!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Oily Rosemary Chicken
Colleague dapaoed lunch for me from the bistro. I thought they got me 油鸡 instead.
It's practically swimming in oil, appalling!
I tilted the box and let as much oil drain as possible before eating it. Left the salad and most of the fries alone as they were SOAKED.
I tilted the box and let as much oil drain as possible before eating it. Left the salad and most of the fries alone as they were SOAKED.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Movie Monday
Believe it or not, more than half the year has gone, but I haven't been to a single movie yet, with the last one being Avatar back in Jan 2010?! Which movie could do the honors of breaking the spell?
How about the upcoming latest installment of Transformers, Dark of the Moon? I had caught the previous 2 movies on my computer *cough cough* and felt this is a series justified on a large screen. Looked up the schedule for it. Wow there were more 3D screenings than normal 2D. Spoilt for choice! Even Mother was interested, so how about a birthday outing? Shall wait for the booking to open then.
Lately, there has been a lot of buzz about how wonderful Transformers would look in IMAX. Inspired! 2 of my friends were even taking leave to watch on a weekday :O
I checked out the schedule for IMAX in Lido. Ehh so few slots ah? Why did it look like they only had 1 theater and that single theater only has so few seats? Why only 1 screening daily? What were they up to for the rest of the day? And all weekend seats were already gone, up till the 9/10 Jul weekend?? And that's the one and only IMAX theater screening Transformers??? The other was Omni Theater, but can't expect them to screen Transformers right.
How about waiting for the 16/17 Jul weekend's schedule to release and chiong it? Luckily I saw the advertisement for Harry Potter on Lido's website (I subconsciously filter out internet advertisements)... if it were to be released on 14 Jul, this meant it would be taking over the IMAX theater... meaning no more Transformers once Harry Potter is released! So, if I want to watch IMAX, I must watch on a weekday, where seats were still aplenty. That's not a tough choice to make. Brother and Sister too, just that Mother couldn't make it. Too bad... :P (unfilial daughter!)
Let's make this a long weekend cum pre-birthday celebration. :D $19.25 each, ouch!
Slept till 饱饱, got dressed and went out with Father. First, lunch at Ngee Ann City's Crystal Jade Kitchen. No queue at all, abnormal! Ate the prawn horfun and dimsum. Tried 流沙包 for the first time. Delicious! But too bad my appetite wasn't in top form today. Then we went for a walk at Taka basement. They were having a Hokkaido fair with lots of yummy food! If we had known, we would have eaten here :( Bought instant ramen.
Then we walked over to Shaw House.
Empty Orchard on a quiet Monday afternoon.
The dumb thing was that it was really inconvenient for a wheelchair to to Shaw House. Had to walk down the side of Ion, cross over to Wheelock Place, down Wheelock Place and finally cross over to Shaw House. All under the hot sun. Irritating!
Then the next thing was, the lifts to the theater were different from the shopping lifts. There would be no problem if one could take the escalator lah, but I had to use the lifts at the back of the building. The lift brought us to the carpark, and the only way back to the aircon was by steps?? Fortunately a guy who knew the way around showed us a secret walkway where we emerged from a well-camouflaged wall in the box office. LATE!
And of course, got to climb stairs up to our seats, in the dark and people had to make way for us because we were sitting in the middle. Sorry peeps :X
Got to wear those humongous and heavy specs. I didn't experience the nauseousness reported by some. The new female lead was another 大花瓶. Smart one though, for she wore heels when she didn't need to run and carried with her an extra pair of flats to change into when she had to run through crashing buildings. Aiyah, if you would overlook the depth of the plot and just focus on this film's selling point (special effects!), then it's a really enjoyable treat for the eyeballs. IMAX looks so much better than 3D!
People exiting the theater at the end of the movie. I think the credits were 3D too.
There was a queue of cabs outside. Cool! We were going to have dinner at Mellben! I had made a reservation, but seriously, I shouldn't have bothered. Super empty at 6.30pm and we were given a table that would have seated 8 comfortably.
Got a drink each to quench our thirst since the movie. Butter crab was still good. Got 馒头 to mop up the gravy. Crab beehoon appeared to have dropped further in standard. The soup didn't taste sweet enough. Or I'm getting immuned. Crabs were still fleshy and sweet though. Deer meat was tough and just normal. Deep fried seafood tofu, still good. I think we ordered very little ley, the restaurant must be very disappointed in us haha. Total damage of $147.80.
Dinner kept getting interrupted by phone calls from work because it's production deployment tonight. Already told the guys to raise their questions last week liao, but dunno no questions or bo hiu me. Now then keep calling. Those were not even my files, still keep calling and expect me to pass messages to the author! Got sian and just ignored my phone. My crab beehoon soup all cold liao lor knn. Poor phone, must be so oily now. *sayang*
When we were leaving, the queue was long! So late already, those people not hungry meh?
And it was tough getting a cab.
How about the upcoming latest installment of Transformers, Dark of the Moon? I had caught the previous 2 movies on my computer *cough cough* and felt this is a series justified on a large screen. Looked up the schedule for it. Wow there were more 3D screenings than normal 2D. Spoilt for choice! Even Mother was interested, so how about a birthday outing? Shall wait for the booking to open then.
I checked out the schedule for IMAX in Lido. Ehh so few slots ah? Why did it look like they only had 1 theater and that single theater only has so few seats? Why only 1 screening daily? What were they up to for the rest of the day? And all weekend seats were already gone, up till the 9/10 Jul weekend?? And that's the one and only IMAX theater screening Transformers??? The other was Omni Theater, but can't expect them to screen Transformers right.
How about waiting for the 16/17 Jul weekend's schedule to release and chiong it? Luckily I saw the advertisement for Harry Potter on Lido's website (I subconsciously filter out internet advertisements)... if it were to be released on 14 Jul, this meant it would be taking over the IMAX theater... meaning no more Transformers once Harry Potter is released! So, if I want to watch IMAX, I must watch on a weekday, where seats were still aplenty. That's not a tough choice to make. Brother and Sister too, just that Mother couldn't make it. Too bad... :P (unfilial daughter!)
Let's make this a long weekend cum pre-birthday celebration. :D $19.25 each, ouch!
Slept till 饱饱, got dressed and went out with Father. First, lunch at Ngee Ann City's Crystal Jade Kitchen. No queue at all, abnormal! Ate the prawn horfun and dimsum. Tried 流沙包 for the first time. Delicious! But too bad my appetite wasn't in top form today. Then we went for a walk at Taka basement. They were having a Hokkaido fair with lots of yummy food! If we had known, we would have eaten here :( Bought instant ramen.
Then we walked over to Shaw House.
The dumb thing was that it was really inconvenient for a wheelchair to to Shaw House. Had to walk down the side of Ion, cross over to Wheelock Place, down Wheelock Place and finally cross over to Shaw House. All under the hot sun. Irritating!
Then the next thing was, the lifts to the theater were different from the shopping lifts. There would be no problem if one could take the escalator lah, but I had to use the lifts at the back of the building. The lift brought us to the carpark, and the only way back to the aircon was by steps?? Fortunately a guy who knew the way around showed us a secret walkway where we emerged from a well-camouflaged wall in the box office. LATE!
And of course, got to climb stairs up to our seats, in the dark and people had to make way for us because we were sitting in the middle. Sorry peeps :X
Got to wear those humongous and heavy specs. I didn't experience the nauseousness reported by some. The new female lead was another 大花瓶. Smart one though, for she wore heels when she didn't need to run and carried with her an extra pair of flats to change into when she had to run through crashing buildings. Aiyah, if you would overlook the depth of the plot and just focus on this film's selling point (special effects!), then it's a really enjoyable treat for the eyeballs. IMAX looks so much better than 3D!
There was a queue of cabs outside. Cool! We were going to have dinner at Mellben! I had made a reservation, but seriously, I shouldn't have bothered. Super empty at 6.30pm and we were given a table that would have seated 8 comfortably.
Dinner kept getting interrupted by phone calls from work because it's production deployment tonight. Already told the guys to raise their questions last week liao, but dunno no questions or bo hiu me. Now then keep calling. Those were not even my files, still keep calling and expect me to pass messages to the author! Got sian and just ignored my phone. My crab beehoon soup all cold liao lor knn. Poor phone, must be so oily now. *sayang*
When we were leaving, the queue was long! So late already, those people not hungry meh?
And it was tough getting a cab.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Cow-selling Notes: The Batch Job
There was still a batch job outstanding. S was pulled out to work on the next hot potato, so I was on my own.
It was a monthly batch job to extract data into Excel. Sounds simple. It could have been, if not for the usual complications and unexpected roadblocks.
Again, it was the slipshod specifications. Data from 3 tables were to be extracted into 3 separate Excel files. Looked at the sample files and shook head - the formatting of the headers were different for all 3 files. The design of the columns were unsuitable for certain types of data. I think it's a 5 min work. And obviously none of the users had bothered to open the sample files for a look. If I were to give this for UAT, sure kena firing squad.
But what if... that was what the users truly wanted? They siao siao one sometimes.
After consulting the TL, we were going to change the columns. However, I would leave the headers intact.
I had to use a tool that I had never used before - SQL Server 2005 Integration Services to create a SSIS package. I was not the first to do this, so I had a sample program for reference. Using VB scripting, it runs a query and writes the results line by line into Excel. Sounds simple.
But of course, how could the Sotong be let off lightly? No development phase can get through without a struggle.
I quickly realized that my batch job was going to be far more complex than the sample. The sample was full of hardcodes. If I didn't want to be writing and maintaining 7 different programs, I had better figure out how to use variables. Man, the development tool's UI could use some redesign. It was a struggle to pass variables. Not very intuitive! I had to scour the internet for a very detailed guide. The kind for dummies. Not a friendly learning curve.
I found that passing blank as an input parameter to the batch job wasn't allowed. That's deviating from the usual way we work. Potentially, it might pose a problem if somebody other than me were meddling with it. Which meant that I MUST write the monitoring guide to cover my backside already.
File exists check before generating the file... later, if I have the time! (usually means never)
When I found the Excel Connection Manager, I thought it was a totally cool idea. It could spool data directly into an Excel file. No need for VB script afterall!
I tested using the debug mode. Printed 1 line successfully! Ok continue!
But when I tried to run the proper way by using the SQL Server Agent, it didn't work :( Some cryptic Excel error. Don't know how to add more logs to help myself XD
Ok nevermind. Why don't I try fixing it on SIT instead?
WORSE. The moment Excel was launched, it asked for the installation CD. The prompt will go away if you click Cancel, but I couldn't be incorporating the click into my batch job?? Asked R for access to the CD, but the SIT server couldn't locate the file it wanted.
Great. So this batch job shall join the dll-based ones, cannot be run on SIT. I informed my TL that the batch job was going straight to UAT since there was no way we could test on SIT. He wanted me to ask for help to fix the problem as he didn't want his things to end up like the rest, but I refused flatly. I have tried already, and I didn't have time to try harder. The environment setup has been left hanging for don't know how long already, so I don't think I should even believe it will be fixed for me.
万事有 UAT environment~ Totally wrong, but bo bian. Actually, it saves time because it is almost the same as Production. If it works in UAT, chances are, it will work in Production. And that's all we wish for!
I ran into the same problem :( SHIT. Don't tell me our system cannot support and I got to redo the whole shit in some other way?
Googled the bloody cryptic error message again. There HAS to be a solution. This is not the time to get stuck!
FOUND. Instead of using Integration Services package job step, I should use the command line job step to call the 64–bit version of dtexec.
DIAO!!
I wasn't interested in finding out why. As long as it's working!
Time for the next bomb. The extraction worked fine for narrow date ranges, but failed upon expansion to 1mth's data. Query wasn't slow... I soon discovered the ultimate, stupidest, mother of all limitations -
You cannot spool more than 255 characters into an Excel cell.
I mean, what era is this already??
I want to 跳楼 now.
Blame it on the technical analysis. The users should never have been allowed to enter more than 255 characters.
Ha. Ha. Over the users' dead bodies!
I know. I can truncate and hopes nobody finds out.
Yeah... Right...
Propose to give a flat file instead.
Ok, but only as a last resort.
There was absolutely no problem with spooling into a flat file, but I couldn't figure out how to convert the flat file into Excel. This transplantation is a very simple copy and paste function when performed manually.
You know you are going insane when you start thinking:
You know, I think I would rather do it manually than to go on struggling. It's only once a month.
Shout 救命 also no use. Nobody can help me. Not even Google.
The fucking 3G signal didn't cooperate during office hours. Or colleagues have a greater right to it because they were doing investigations. And I was multi-tasking.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. I could split long data into 255-characters long segments and spool into separate cells first, then concatenate them line by line using VB script. Sounds stupid and slow, but WHATEVER THAT WORKS!
Ok try out now! I struggled with the bloody syntax - it's similar to Excel macros but the summation button is the chimmest thing I can do on Excel >_< And it did work!!! Tried with lots of data, not slow also! Finally!!
Emboldened by my new bag of tricks, I threw in decoration for the headers. Just bold the header only lah. Something that wasn't mentioned in the specifications, but I knew the users would surely ask for.
Breezed through SIT by giving the files generated from UAT. Again, TL asked me to deploy to SIT, but I called it a waste of time. Attitude liao haha.
For UAT, I wanted to give the users the same files for them to verify, but they asked for the data from Production. Hey... that means I need to deploy to Production although we haven't passed UAT? Where got like that one? NO!! Block! Why was AiHiss supporting such a request anyway?
Actually, I was in favor of it lah, because I'm not so comfortable with the unconventional way the batch job was done. Testing with real-life data on the actual server will allow me to prevent failures upon rollout. We have been having issues for every release and I dread the day I'm responsible for one!
Also, the batch job would not affect anything else if deployed to production.
But the PM succumbed. O well... Now I had to deal with the DBA because I'm gonna mess with his server... and he didn't know SSIS as well as I did yet.
Surrrprise! Gargantuan volume of data for No Use Hospital, couldn't fit into 1 Excel worksheet at all! Each worksheet could only hold 216=65,536 rows but that was not even enough for 1 week's data.
See, never do impact analysis! How? Need to send out the files tonight already.
Don't care, I shall take the liberty to split into more Excel files. Got to do it manually since I needed time to figure out how to automate it. Actually, I'm not going to entrap myself by suggesting that. Splitting into different worksheets in the same file was a no-no too. Any form of splitting is bad! Probably shall propose increasing the job frequency or just spool into flat file (dream come true!).
Surrrprise #2! No other institution's data volume even came close. Only Took Their Savings Hospital might have a problem if they suddenly decide to increase their volume and of course they won't think they were obliged to warn us. How to convince them to accept my proposals above?
I don't know. The TL and PM can think about it. I'm going home, bye.
So in the end, No Use Hospital agreed to the flat file with the job frequency unchanged. because the user is savvy enough to import into his own database. But the rest of the pampered guys still wanted Excel, but job frequency increased to weekly.
Great, now I have more things to maintain!! ARGH!!! STAB ME PLS!!!
Since things were going to be kept within a single worksheet, we could merge all 3 files into 3 worksheets in a single file. Less clutter!
The batch job entered production officially. I had to manually generate April's files :( While doing so, I found that sometimes, the batch job simply refused to start, throwing some weird Excel error again. I found numerous Excel processes still running although there were no active applications. If I killed the processes, the batch job was back to normal. Odd... Shall see if it happened when it ran automatically.
Yeah... It happened. Luckily I anticipated it and was able to recover the files before the users found out XD
And so began the long and painful investigation and fixing. I swear I have .Close and .Quit each and every Excel object I created. Want to give up, but... :((
Can I just kill every Excel process I find?
Sure, if I'm quitting really soon, like, now!
As it I didn't have enough problems, my SQL Server Management Studio expired. Reinstalled, but now my Visual Studio Tools for Applications was unable to find my imports. Hey wtf, it was all ok just now! After fumbling through tonnes of websites and forums (many with why-are-you-asking-a-noob-question-pls-go-read-up kind of reply), I found that some system files have gone missing. No idea how it happened. Together with the DBA, we copied them from whereever they were found, to the GAC folder. And you can bet I have never heard of GAC till today.
The discovery - in the VB script, each time an Excel element is manipulated, an Excel process will be created. Each worksheet, row, column, blah blah, right down to the cell level. And they will linger until you release each them explicitly in the correct order.
OMFG why does something like this still exist?? 我要上吊!!
You drive me crazy!
FINE. I FIX. *grumbles*
And the batch job was finally running successfully on its own.
But it's not the end of the saga yet.
Disk space in the server was running out fast with this new report! I never developed for archival - I thought of it, but usually not part of the batch job mah, and basic requirements not done yet, so this can wait! Aiyah zipping is also a temporary solution only. Users want them in the shared drive mah, so the only true solution is to increase storage. Out of my hands!
Monitoring guide not done yet. LATER!!
Coming up next, more problems.
It was a monthly batch job to extract data into Excel. Sounds simple. It could have been, if not for the usual complications and unexpected roadblocks.
Again, it was the slipshod specifications. Data from 3 tables were to be extracted into 3 separate Excel files. Looked at the sample files and shook head - the formatting of the headers were different for all 3 files. The design of the columns were unsuitable for certain types of data. I think it's a 5 min work. And obviously none of the users had bothered to open the sample files for a look. If I were to give this for UAT, sure kena firing squad.
But what if... that was what the users truly wanted? They siao siao one sometimes.
After consulting the TL, we were going to change the columns. However, I would leave the headers intact.
I had to use a tool that I had never used before - SQL Server 2005 Integration Services to create a SSIS package. I was not the first to do this, so I had a sample program for reference. Using VB scripting, it runs a query and writes the results line by line into Excel. Sounds simple.
But of course, how could the Sotong be let off lightly? No development phase can get through without a struggle.
I quickly realized that my batch job was going to be far more complex than the sample. The sample was full of hardcodes. If I didn't want to be writing and maintaining 7 different programs, I had better figure out how to use variables. Man, the development tool's UI could use some redesign. It was a struggle to pass variables. Not very intuitive! I had to scour the internet for a very detailed guide. The kind for dummies. Not a friendly learning curve.
I found that passing blank as an input parameter to the batch job wasn't allowed. That's deviating from the usual way we work. Potentially, it might pose a problem if somebody other than me were meddling with it. Which meant that I MUST write the monitoring guide to cover my backside already.
File exists check before generating the file... later, if I have the time! (usually means never)
When I found the Excel Connection Manager, I thought it was a totally cool idea. It could spool data directly into an Excel file. No need for VB script afterall!
I tested using the debug mode. Printed 1 line successfully! Ok continue!
But when I tried to run the proper way by using the SQL Server Agent, it didn't work :( Some cryptic Excel error. Don't know how to add more logs to help myself XD
Ok nevermind. Why don't I try fixing it on SIT instead?
WORSE. The moment Excel was launched, it asked for the installation CD. The prompt will go away if you click Cancel, but I couldn't be incorporating the click into my batch job?? Asked R for access to the CD, but the SIT server couldn't locate the file it wanted.
Great. So this batch job shall join the dll-based ones, cannot be run on SIT. I informed my TL that the batch job was going straight to UAT since there was no way we could test on SIT. He wanted me to ask for help to fix the problem as he didn't want his things to end up like the rest, but I refused flatly. I have tried already, and I didn't have time to try harder. The environment setup has been left hanging for don't know how long already, so I don't think I should even believe it will be fixed for me.
万事有 UAT environment~ Totally wrong, but bo bian. Actually, it saves time because it is almost the same as Production. If it works in UAT, chances are, it will work in Production. And that's all we wish for!
I ran into the same problem :( SHIT. Don't tell me our system cannot support and I got to redo the whole shit in some other way?
Googled the bloody cryptic error message again. There HAS to be a solution. This is not the time to get stuck!
FOUND. Instead of using Integration Services package job step, I should use the command line job step to call the 64–bit version of dtexec.
DIAO!!
I wasn't interested in finding out why. As long as it's working!
Time for the next bomb. The extraction worked fine for narrow date ranges, but failed upon expansion to 1mth's data. Query wasn't slow... I soon discovered the ultimate, stupidest, mother of all limitations -
You cannot spool more than 255 characters into an Excel cell.
I mean, what era is this already??
I want to 跳楼 now.
Blame it on the technical analysis. The users should never have been allowed to enter more than 255 characters.
Ha. Ha. Over the users' dead bodies!
I know. I can truncate and hopes nobody finds out.
Yeah... Right...
Propose to give a flat file instead.
Ok, but only as a last resort.
There was absolutely no problem with spooling into a flat file, but I couldn't figure out how to convert the flat file into Excel. This transplantation is a very simple copy and paste function when performed manually.
You know you are going insane when you start thinking:
You know, I think I would rather do it manually than to go on struggling. It's only once a month.
Shout 救命 also no use. Nobody can help me. Not even Google.
The fucking 3G signal didn't cooperate during office hours. Or colleagues have a greater right to it because they were doing investigations. And I was multi-tasking.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. I could split long data into 255-characters long segments and spool into separate cells first, then concatenate them line by line using VB script. Sounds stupid and slow, but WHATEVER THAT WORKS!
Ok try out now! I struggled with the bloody syntax - it's similar to Excel macros but the summation button is the chimmest thing I can do on Excel >_< And it did work!!! Tried with lots of data, not slow also! Finally!!
Emboldened by my new bag of tricks, I threw in decoration for the headers. Just bold the header only lah. Something that wasn't mentioned in the specifications, but I knew the users would surely ask for.
Breezed through SIT by giving the files generated from UAT. Again, TL asked me to deploy to SIT, but I called it a waste of time. Attitude liao haha.
For UAT, I wanted to give the users the same files for them to verify, but they asked for the data from Production. Hey... that means I need to deploy to Production although we haven't passed UAT? Where got like that one? NO!! Block! Why was AiHiss supporting such a request anyway?
Actually, I was in favor of it lah, because I'm not so comfortable with the unconventional way the batch job was done. Testing with real-life data on the actual server will allow me to prevent failures upon rollout. We have been having issues for every release and I dread the day I'm responsible for one!
Also, the batch job would not affect anything else if deployed to production.
But the PM succumbed. O well... Now I had to deal with the DBA because I'm gonna mess with his server... and he didn't know SSIS as well as I did yet.
Surrrprise! Gargantuan volume of data for No Use Hospital, couldn't fit into 1 Excel worksheet at all! Each worksheet could only hold 216=65,536 rows but that was not even enough for 1 week's data.
See, never do impact analysis! How? Need to send out the files tonight already.
Don't care, I shall take the liberty to split into more Excel files. Got to do it manually since I needed time to figure out how to automate it. Actually, I'm not going to entrap myself by suggesting that. Splitting into different worksheets in the same file was a no-no too. Any form of splitting is bad! Probably shall propose increasing the job frequency or just spool into flat file (dream come true!).
Surrrprise #2! No other institution's data volume even came close. Only Took Their Savings Hospital might have a problem if they suddenly decide to increase their volume and of course they won't think they were obliged to warn us. How to convince them to accept my proposals above?
I don't know. The TL and PM can think about it. I'm going home, bye.
So in the end, No Use Hospital agreed to the flat file with the job frequency unchanged. because the user is savvy enough to import into his own database. But the rest of the pampered guys still wanted Excel, but job frequency increased to weekly.
Great, now I have more things to maintain!! ARGH!!! STAB ME PLS!!!
Since things were going to be kept within a single worksheet, we could merge all 3 files into 3 worksheets in a single file. Less clutter!
The batch job entered production officially. I had to manually generate April's files :( While doing so, I found that sometimes, the batch job simply refused to start, throwing some weird Excel error again. I found numerous Excel processes still running although there were no active applications. If I killed the processes, the batch job was back to normal. Odd... Shall see if it happened when it ran automatically.
Yeah... It happened. Luckily I anticipated it and was able to recover the files before the users found out XD
And so began the long and painful investigation and fixing. I swear I have .Close and .Quit each and every Excel object I created. Want to give up, but... :((
Can I just kill every Excel process I find?
Sure, if I'm quitting really soon, like, now!
As it I didn't have enough problems, my SQL Server Management Studio expired. Reinstalled, but now my Visual Studio Tools for Applications was unable to find my imports. Hey wtf, it was all ok just now! After fumbling through tonnes of websites and forums (many with why-are-you-asking-a-noob-question-pls-go-read-up kind of reply), I found that some system files have gone missing. No idea how it happened. Together with the DBA, we copied them from whereever they were found, to the GAC folder. And you can bet I have never heard of GAC till today.
The discovery - in the VB script, each time an Excel element is manipulated, an Excel process will be created. Each worksheet, row, column, blah blah, right down to the cell level. And they will linger until you release each them explicitly in the correct order.
OMFG why does something like this still exist?? 我要上吊!!
FINE. I FIX. *grumbles*
And the batch job was finally running successfully on its own.
But it's not the end of the saga yet.
Disk space in the server was running out fast with this new report! I never developed for archival - I thought of it, but usually not part of the batch job mah, and basic requirements not done yet, so this can wait! Aiyah zipping is also a temporary solution only. Users want them in the shared drive mah, so the only true solution is to increase storage. Out of my hands!
Monitoring guide not done yet. LATER!!
Coming up next, more problems.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Favorite Letter of the Year
It has to be the $$$ Bonus cum Increment $$$ letter!
2.9 months! Whee! Personal best!
No, don't talk to me about how much people working in banks get. Tsk.
Ya, back to the letter.
Increment of 6.5625%!
When there was no increment last year...
So, I can tell my boss about the bomb already, right?
Nah, I think I will tell her after I sign the consent... confirmed already then say. For what I know, I might chicken out of it?
2.9 months! Whee! Personal best!
No, don't talk to me about how much people working in banks get. Tsk.
Ya, back to the letter.
Increment of 6.5625%!
When there was no increment last year...
So, I can tell my boss about the bomb already, right?
Nah, I think I will tell her after I sign the consent... confirmed already then say. For what I know, I might chicken out of it?
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Sotong Captures the Lion Again
Due to the overwhelming response, SinkHell decided to offer discounted Lion King tickets again. Having missed it the last time round, N wanted to try for it this time. Yup, she didn't keep the tickets for herself quietly. Or she wasn't kiasu enough nor open enough about it to discuss strategies. Well anyway, I agreed to help her out. What to do, people always help me mah. 有 Sotong 在，confirm 拿到票!
The link to the booking site was to be released at 12 noon again, so we've gonna have a late lunch. I stood by with my laptop, ready to help herlaunch a DDoS attack perform the booking. This time, the link was sent on time. A National Cockup Schedules URL. On N's terminal, it was asking for OAID login, but on my laptop, it seemed to have automatically detected my identity and logged in as me. This would not do as I wasn't entitled to the show again. I didn't know how to logoff, so, sorry, couldn't help!
So, they have now upgraded the system by limiting it to staff! *Applause*
On her own terminal, N keyed in her credentials, but upon submitting, the system threw a cryptic error message. Retried, happened again. Could hear the others feeling confused too. No idea what the problem was. System didn't seem slow. Not ready? No idea :( PM was asking the TL if he knew the meaning, but he didn't.
I noticed the URL changing to a Sistic one for a split second before reverting to National Cockup Schedules upon submitting. Hmm. I tried to capture that Sistic URL by hitting Stop button and accessed the URL directly. Guess what, IT WORKED! N could now book her tickets. Everything was super smooth once we got past that stupid login screen!
Which brought me to the conclusion that Sistic must be very mad with us for causing slowness at their website the last time, so they made us put up this pseudo-login screen which was nothing but a... not even a load balancer ley, dunno what to call it, maybe Toto results generator lah, lucky can get in lor. So after you managed to access Sistic, everything was back to the usual Sistic workflow, where you needed a Sistic account at the end, without further verification of your identity. Dumb hor. What were they thinking?
After N has secured her booking, I broadcasted the trick to the people who I knew were trying, such as my PM. Too bad appraisal over already haha.
Don't mess with programmers! Even blur and lazy ones. Still good at useless things!
The link to the booking site was to be released at 12 noon again, so we've gonna have a late lunch. I stood by with my laptop, ready to help her
So, they have now upgraded the system by limiting it to staff! *Applause*
On her own terminal, N keyed in her credentials, but upon submitting, the system threw a cryptic error message. Retried, happened again. Could hear the others feeling confused too. No idea what the problem was. System didn't seem slow. Not ready? No idea :( PM was asking the TL if he knew the meaning, but he didn't.
I noticed the URL changing to a Sistic one for a split second before reverting to National Cockup Schedules upon submitting. Hmm. I tried to capture that Sistic URL by hitting Stop button and accessed the URL directly. Guess what, IT WORKED! N could now book her tickets. Everything was super smooth once we got past that stupid login screen!
Which brought me to the conclusion that Sistic must be very mad with us for causing slowness at their website the last time, so they made us put up this pseudo-login screen which was nothing but a... not even a load balancer ley, dunno what to call it, maybe Toto results generator lah, lucky can get in lor. So after you managed to access Sistic, everything was back to the usual Sistic workflow, where you needed a Sistic account at the end, without further verification of your identity. Dumb hor. What were they thinking?
After N has secured her booking, I broadcasted the trick to the people who I knew were trying, such as my PM. Too bad appraisal over already haha.
Don't mess with programmers! Even blur and lazy ones. Still good at useless things!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
Lion King - The Musical
I still couldn't believe how lucky I was to snag 3 tickets on a Saturday. Can sleep till whenever I wanted, go shopping, watch Lion King, get home late and still be in no hurry to sleep. Sadly, Brother had to work, so it's just Sister and me for the day programme.
Sister was thinking of eating Todai for lunchner (lunch + dinner), but I'm really not confident of eating buffets anymore :( 1.5hrs might not be enough for slow, adult eaters.
We dropped off at Suntec City. Wasn't really hungry, so lunch was just Soup Spoon's clam chowder (craving for MSG but stopping myself from eating ramen again) and some of Sister's doughnuts. Then we grabbed a cuppa from Joe & Dough, which was actually quite good. I think I'm outgrowing Starbucks and Coffee Bean already?
Window-shopped. Couldn't buy anything although it was GSS since I didn't know if I could still use it 4mths later...
Dinner was Thai Express at Esplanade because Sister had never tried it before. Don't ever eat at this outlet. The green curry laksa was way too salty. So salty that I couldn't bear drinking the soup and was actually straining it from the noodles. Bleah. Were they trying to cater to the tourists, which might have a higher proportion of people from country C? The tomyam seafood glass noodles' soup was souless. Plain sourish and spicy, no seafood taste. I didn't recall Bishan being that bad.
Run to MBS! Because Sister didn't realize that we had to enter 15min earlier and thought we still had a lot of time. Got to clear our bladders before the show, but the toilet was so so so full! Ran into Brother outside the toilet, what a coincidence!
Then we ran to the theatre. There, Sister parted from us as she had to go sit at the single seat at the Dress Circle. Brother carried me to our seats as it was all steps. The ushers made sure we settled down comfortably before leaving. A markedly better experience than the non-existent cinema ones. I'm not sure where the wheelchair-bound normally had to sit. Maybe special bay in front? But I didn't want to risk having to sit alone.
People streaming in slowly. Didn't see anybody familiar.
Ah neh couple in front of me! The smell was seriously strong XD As you can see, the woman's head was blocking my view :\
Before we could start, we had to bear with a speech from... forgot who.
And the show started! Impressive songs, music, dance and movement. It could get quite loud. Not suitable for babies. Everybody seemed to be engrossed in the musical, except for the lady next to me who seemed more interested in texting on her mobile. She left midway. Partying was probably more for her. Pity!
The view from my seat was surprisingly ok afterall, in spite of it being quite far back and off-centre.
I think I had watched too much motion pictures. Not able to catch very well the messages conveyed in a non-in-your-face way, such as in a stage setting. It took me quite a while to understand a particular scene was about lionesses hunting... and you might have guessed, it hit me only when the lionesses were happily mutilating the zebra. O... so that was what all the prancing was about...! It took me even longer to realize that the fat auntie with a huge board hanging on her ass was the baboon... S-L-O-W!
Intermission! Haha like so high-class hor, watching something with an intermission. Actually, I think it's just something to ensure the audience didn't get DVT.
Look at the crowd!
Look at the overpriced drinks! Toilet tap water for us then. Grr so thirsty after Thai Express!
I had seen the movie before, but I'm glad I had forgotten the story, thus enabling me to enjoy the musical in anticipation. Sure happy ending lah, but the process? The theatre burst into applause on curtains down. Wa cheapo SinkHell staff also can behave high-classly lor. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when it cost only 20 bucks wahaha. It's amazing how many backgrounds can be accommodated on a single stage and the speed at it could be changed. How songs had to be perfect, acting had to be executed without NG. The cast did the same thing everyday, but considering how gymnasts can slip up during Olympics, *kowtow*
Now to get home. The taxi queue was being itself. Sent Sister to join the queue while Brother and I waited at the front. Observed how everybody would rather give the Chrysler a miss. In the end, an angmoh did. Rich tourist! I spotted a lady who had a makeover done by S. She looked like somebody who didn't need a makeover...
The guys managing the taxi queue gave us priority. Yay!
Sister was thinking of eating Todai for lunchner (lunch + dinner), but I'm really not confident of eating buffets anymore :( 1.5hrs might not be enough for slow, adult eaters.
We dropped off at Suntec City. Wasn't really hungry, so lunch was just Soup Spoon's clam chowder (craving for MSG but stopping myself from eating ramen again) and some of Sister's doughnuts. Then we grabbed a cuppa from Joe & Dough, which was actually quite good. I think I'm outgrowing Starbucks and Coffee Bean already?
Window-shopped. Couldn't buy anything although it was GSS since I didn't know if I could still use it 4mths later...
Dinner was Thai Express at Esplanade because Sister had never tried it before. Don't ever eat at this outlet. The green curry laksa was way too salty. So salty that I couldn't bear drinking the soup and was actually straining it from the noodles. Bleah. Were they trying to cater to the tourists, which might have a higher proportion of people from country C? The tomyam seafood glass noodles' soup was souless. Plain sourish and spicy, no seafood taste. I didn't recall Bishan being that bad.
Run to MBS! Because Sister didn't realize that we had to enter 15min earlier and thought we still had a lot of time. Got to clear our bladders before the show, but the toilet was so so so full! Ran into Brother outside the toilet, what a coincidence!
Then we ran to the theatre. There, Sister parted from us as she had to go sit at the single seat at the Dress Circle. Brother carried me to our seats as it was all steps. The ushers made sure we settled down comfortably before leaving. A markedly better experience than the non-existent cinema ones. I'm not sure where the wheelchair-bound normally had to sit. Maybe special bay in front? But I didn't want to risk having to sit alone.
People streaming in slowly. Didn't see anybody familiar.
And the show started! Impressive songs, music, dance and movement. It could get quite loud. Not suitable for babies. Everybody seemed to be engrossed in the musical, except for the lady next to me who seemed more interested in texting on her mobile. She left midway. Partying was probably more for her. Pity!
The view from my seat was surprisingly ok afterall, in spite of it being quite far back and off-centre.
I think I had watched too much motion pictures. Not able to catch very well the messages conveyed in a non-in-your-face way, such as in a stage setting. It took me quite a while to understand a particular scene was about lionesses hunting... and you might have guessed, it hit me only when the lionesses were happily mutilating the zebra. O... so that was what all the prancing was about...! It took me even longer to realize that the fat auntie with a huge board hanging on her ass was the baboon... S-L-O-W!
Intermission! Haha like so high-class hor, watching something with an intermission. Actually, I think it's just something to ensure the audience didn't get DVT.
I had seen the movie before, but I'm glad I had forgotten the story, thus enabling me to enjoy the musical in anticipation. Sure happy ending lah, but the process? The theatre burst into applause on curtains down. Wa cheapo SinkHell staff also can behave high-classly lor. I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially when it cost only 20 bucks wahaha. It's amazing how many backgrounds can be accommodated on a single stage and the speed at it could be changed. How songs had to be perfect, acting had to be executed without NG. The cast did the same thing everyday, but considering how gymnasts can slip up during Olympics, *kowtow*
Now to get home. The taxi queue was being itself. Sent Sister to join the queue while Brother and I waited at the front. Observed how everybody would rather give the Chrysler a miss. In the end, an angmoh did. Rich tourist! I spotted a lady who had a makeover done by S. She looked like somebody who didn't need a makeover...
The guys managing the taxi queue gave us priority. Yay!
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Lion King, The Admin Nightmare
No thanks to the uncustomised Sistic website and creative but poor workers, I expected the people in charge of this Lion King promotion to have hell of a time. In a negative way, of course. I have no idea how they were going to verify the identities of each transaction. Let's see what they would do if he's a foreign particle, like my account, which actually bore my father's name. Fear not, tickets' in my hands already!
I was getting worried that the HR wouldn't accept country C's staff's name for the tickets. Better borrow another name... but WHO?
Eyes roaming the area...ah L! Why didn't I think of her sooner? She wasn't interested in Lion King and was willing to lend me her name. Yay! I will definitely pay you back when they dock your pay.
Parents were away in KL for the past weekend. When they returned, Father forwarded me a shock sms received on his phone - the HR had noticed that he wasn't a National Cockup Schedules staff, so if he didn't reply with his name and RO by 31st May, they would cancel the tickets.
Argh! Now then I know! Nononono I'll explain! Using my own phone, I replied the guy and volunteered the information about lending my father's account to another colleague. Please accept my explanation. And don't blur please. There must be a gazillion other cases like mine out there. *Crosses fingers*
Thankfully, he replied positively. *phew*
But it was still not the end. I think the poor guy was badly confused by the circus out there. He followed up with a couple of phone calls which I patiently (had to) explained the whole story. Yeah, my colleague didn't have a Sistic account mah, so I lent her mine lor. *teethy smile*
This should teach them to implement some sort of login procedure next time lah. Don't mess with employees, we get creative when it comes to non-work stuff!
I was getting worried that the HR wouldn't accept country C's staff's name for the tickets. Better borrow another name... but WHO?
Eyes roaming the area...ah L! Why didn't I think of her sooner? She wasn't interested in Lion King and was willing to lend me her name. Yay! I will definitely pay you back when they dock your pay.
Parents were away in KL for the past weekend. When they returned, Father forwarded me a shock sms received on his phone - the HR had noticed that he wasn't a National Cockup Schedules staff, so if he didn't reply with his name and RO by 31st May, they would cancel the tickets.
Argh! Now then I know! Nononono I'll explain! Using my own phone, I replied the guy and volunteered the information about lending my father's account to another colleague. Please accept my explanation. And don't blur please. There must be a gazillion other cases like mine out there. *Crosses fingers*
Thankfully, he replied positively. *phew*
But it was still not the end. I think the poor guy was badly confused by the circus out there. He followed up with a couple of phone calls which I patiently (had to) explained the whole story. Yeah, my colleague didn't have a Sistic account mah, so I lent her mine lor. *teethy smile*
This should teach them to implement some sort of login procedure next time lah. Don't mess with employees, we get creative when it comes to non-work stuff!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Straighten-A-Sotong Part XI
Busy day ahead! 9am appointment again, so I brought my sandwich along. I reached super early, 8.30am I think, because I was supposed to see the nurse for the estimated cost of surgery. My preferred class? Class C lor, stay so many days, probably not in a mood to enjoy any high-class facilities anyway. Save the money! My estimated length of stay was roughly 18 days. I was surprised that it was so short. Can meh?
The estimated bill was about $40k, ~$30k after Medishield and Medisave. Fwah. Not too worried, I can stomach that.
That is when we need Medishield and Medisave. Which reminds me of how shitty Medishield cruelly denied me coverage when I just started work due to my pre-existing condition. I mean, wtf? At least cover the other non-existing conditions can? You can cover smokers but not me? How fucked up! Luckily my father covered me under his policy when I was young. Screw you sneaky Medishield!
Then, the nurse tried to draw my blood for the Full Blood Count and Renal Panel. It was so difficult, that 3 nurses were needed to hold my arm, press it down, and to work the needle. Must have been drawing blood so much that my veins had shriveled in fear. Made a mental note not to go to NSC to let them do blood test anymore, since I have decided to stop the Spironolactone anyway. Not continuing liao, still do what blood test? Figured I would just become their statistics, at my expense.
While waiting for my turn to see Dr L, I went to the Pulmonary Function Lab. This clinic is so eng that no appointment was needed, just pop by whenever you want. While I chomped on my sandwich, the (over)friendly counter staff kept asking me if I would like Milo to go with it. No thanks! I think it would be my turn soon ^_^
I had to take my weight and height. Somehow, despite us trying to stop her, the technician wasn't able to comprehend when I told her that I couldn't stand up on my own, so she shouldn't be struggling to position the wheelchair in front of the weighing scale, leaving my father with no space to help me. Aiyah, just let her finish, then we do ourselves lah. I hoped she's feeling stupid now.
Ooo they have a sleep clinic here. Patients can come here doctors to monitor their sleep. It only opens at night lol!
Breathed in and out at a machine... I hoped the technician remembered to put oxygen in there. Glad nothing was smelly. Similarly, I hope I didn't foul up the machine.
My lung capacity sucks, I know. She was probably suspecting that I wasn't following her instructions. Didn't help when I can't wrap my mouth properly over the tube.
Then I waited for the results, paid and left.
Back to the orthopaedic clinic. Surprisingly, today's wait was relatively short.
Huh?
O... you should be!
He asked for the results of my ECG, which I didn't have. After telling him what the heart doctor said, he told me to take the ECG later. This person ah, must get what he wants eh?
I was sent to see the anaesthesia specialist. Chaperoned by a staff, I got to know the shortcuts around.
The anaesthesia clinic wanted to take my weight and height again. This time, I refused to cooperate. Didn't I just take it earlier in the day?
What a weak excuse! As if there will be dramatic changes in the span of 2hrs!
Go find it in the system, lazy bum! I'm sure it must be there!
And she found the info. *rolls eyes*
Super long wait at the clinic, considering there's just 1 patient ahead of me. The patient went in for a long time, and the doctor idled (IMO) for a long time, as if waiting for lunch time (it was 11.30am), before deciding he had slacked enough and called me in.
Indian doctor from India. Almost couldn't understand him despite my years of immersion at work. He asked the mundane questions, like why I was here, my condition, general health, medical history... told me what to expect during and after anesthesia... mainly stuff that I already know. I would be looked after by a team. Then he asked if I had any questions.
Would the gas be brown, smelly and choking like last time?
Kidding. Of course I didn't ask that. No questions. Didn't know what to ask.
So I took 10min at most. I really wondered whether the previous patient had THAT many questions. Paid and left the clinic.
To the Heart Centre next. The ECG (12 Lead ECG, the order form said) took only a few minutes. Just attach the electrodes, lie there for a while, instant printout, which they would send to the doctor later. Hmm!
No need to pay also. I'm done for the day ley. Free? So good? Fantastic, I'm off! Don't regret it! *快闪*
Last stop, the Business Office to seek help for that massive estimated bill. Usually, a deposit was required upon admission, usually the entire estimated bill. How many people can cough up this sum when they were not going to buy a house or car?
The lady serving me said she could allow me to put up a smaller deposit of $5000 instead and pay the balance upon discharge. Which brought me to the next question. Did they expect me to pay the balance in a lump sum too? Wouldn't that be just postponing the inevitable?
The lady said I could request to pay by installments for the balance, interest-free, subject to my family's financial health. They would need the usual proofs to evaluate my case. I had the documents with me, so I passed them to her. She sounded very helpful the whole time. Hoped to hear good news from her!
Expensive! :(
Realized I wasn't charged for the lab tests?
After I got home and googled on anaesthesia, I realized the most popular question was whether they would be given the same chemical that killed Michael Jackson LOL!
Interest-free installments! That's really wonderful. Now, what if I could charge them to a credit card with rebates... I gotta find the perfect credit card!
The estimated bill was about $40k, ~$30k after Medishield and Medisave. Fwah. Not too worried, I can stomach that.
That is when we need Medishield and Medisave. Which reminds me of how shitty Medishield cruelly denied me coverage when I just started work due to my pre-existing condition. I mean, wtf? At least cover the other non-existing conditions can? You can cover smokers but not me? How fucked up! Luckily my father covered me under his policy when I was young. Screw you sneaky Medishield!
Then, the nurse tried to draw my blood for the Full Blood Count and Renal Panel. It was so difficult, that 3 nurses were needed to hold my arm, press it down, and to work the needle. Must have been drawing blood so much that my veins had shriveled in fear. Made a mental note not to go to NSC to let them do blood test anymore, since I have decided to stop the Spironolactone anyway. Not continuing liao, still do what blood test? Figured I would just become their statistics, at my expense.
While waiting for my turn to see Dr L, I went to the Pulmonary Function Lab. This clinic is so eng that no appointment was needed, just pop by whenever you want. While I chomped on my sandwich, the (over)friendly counter staff kept asking me if I would like Milo to go with it. No thanks! I think it would be my turn soon ^_^
I had to take my weight and height. Somehow, despite us trying to stop her, the technician wasn't able to comprehend when I told her that I couldn't stand up on my own, so she shouldn't be struggling to position the wheelchair in front of the weighing scale, leaving my father with no space to help me. Aiyah, just let her finish, then we do ourselves lah. I hoped she's feeling stupid now.
Ooo they have a sleep clinic here. Patients can come here doctors to monitor their sleep. It only opens at night lol!
Breathed in and out at a machine... I hoped the technician remembered to put oxygen in there. Glad nothing was smelly. Similarly, I hope I didn't foul up the machine.
My lung capacity sucks, I know. She was probably suspecting that I wasn't following her instructions. Didn't help when I can't wrap my mouth properly over the tube.
Then I waited for the results, paid and left.
Back to the orthopaedic clinic. Surprisingly, today's wait was relatively short.
Dr L: I have been thinking about you!
Huh?
Dr L: How to help you.
O... you should be!
He asked for the results of my ECG, which I didn't have. After telling him what the heart doctor said, he told me to take the ECG later. This person ah, must get what he wants eh?
I was sent to see the anaesthesia specialist. Chaperoned by a staff, I got to know the shortcuts around.
The anaesthesia clinic wanted to take my weight and height again. This time, I refused to cooperate. Didn't I just take it earlier in the day?
Staff: I need to take it again.
What a weak excuse! As if there will be dramatic changes in the span of 2hrs!
Sotong: It is very inconvenient for me. Can you try to find it in the system first?
Go find it in the system, lazy bum! I'm sure it must be there!
And she found the info. *rolls eyes*
Super long wait at the clinic, considering there's just 1 patient ahead of me. The patient went in for a long time, and the doctor idled (IMO) for a long time, as if waiting for lunch time (it was 11.30am), before deciding he had slacked enough and called me in.
Indian doctor from India. Almost couldn't understand him despite my years of immersion at work. He asked the mundane questions, like why I was here, my condition, general health, medical history... told me what to expect during and after anesthesia... mainly stuff that I already know. I would be looked after by a team. Then he asked if I had any questions.
Would the gas be brown, smelly and choking like last time?
Kidding. Of course I didn't ask that. No questions. Didn't know what to ask.
So I took 10min at most. I really wondered whether the previous patient had THAT many questions. Paid and left the clinic.
To the Heart Centre next. The ECG (12 Lead ECG, the order form said) took only a few minutes. Just attach the electrodes, lie there for a while, instant printout, which they would send to the doctor later. Hmm!
No need to pay also. I'm done for the day ley. Free? So good? Fantastic, I'm off! Don't regret it! *快闪*
Last stop, the Business Office to seek help for that massive estimated bill. Usually, a deposit was required upon admission, usually the entire estimated bill. How many people can cough up this sum when they were not going to buy a house or car?
The lady serving me said she could allow me to put up a smaller deposit of $5000 instead and pay the balance upon discharge. Which brought me to the next question. Did they expect me to pay the balance in a lump sum too? Wouldn't that be just postponing the inevitable?
The lady said I could request to pay by installments for the balance, interest-free, subject to my family's financial health. They would need the usual proofs to evaluate my case. I had the documents with me, so I passed them to her. She sounded very helpful the whole time. Hoped to hear good news from her!
Today's damage:
Spirometry $75.00
Static Lung Volumes $60.00
Subsidy -$65.00
Out of pocket $70.00
Orthopaedic consultation (C-RV) $59.00 - $31.00 = $28.00
Anaesthesia consultation (SR-FV) $75.00 - $45.00 = $30.00
Spirometry $75.00
Static Lung Volumes $60.00
Subsidy -$65.00
Out of pocket $70.00
Orthopaedic consultation (C-RV) $59.00 - $31.00 = $28.00
Anaesthesia consultation (SR-FV) $75.00 - $45.00 = $30.00
Expensive! :(
Realized I wasn't charged for the lab tests?
After I got home and googled on anaesthesia, I realized the most popular question was whether they would be given the same chemical that killed Michael Jackson LOL!
Interest-free installments! That's really wonderful. Now, what if I could charge them to a credit card with rebates... I gotta find the perfect credit card!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Lion, Sotong and Kiasuism
The perfect opportunity presented itself - my company was selling heavily subsidized tickets to staff.
- Platinum
$240$60 - A Reserve
$185$45 - B Reserve
$165$40 - C Reserve
$125$30 - D Reserve
$85$20 - E Reserve
$65$15
The tickets booking would start at 12 noon on 27 May, first-come-first-serve.
Cool! Now I can test my interest cheaply!
But only 1 pair of tickets per lucky staff. Need 1 more so I can go with both my siblings. Need help from a colleague! Who would possibly be UNinterested in cheap Lion King? On the prowl for victims...
Not being a very successful lioness here. I could only think of N, whose husband was likely to be overseas during the period, so no one would be watching with her and hence she's probably not going!
I sounded her interest by... being very direct. She agreed to help me. Thanks! :D However, I was slightly taken aback by the readiness. I suggested that she should still check with her husband. Should she change her mind, just let me know.
The next day, I checked with N again, but she hadn't spoken to her husband yet. Again, I emphasized that she has priority, but she should let me know as earlier if she decided to keep the tickets for herself, so I could look for someone else to help me. She said ok.
When I probed again a few days later, she said her husband might be interested, but as of now, she's still helping me. Uh oh. Confirm with me soon ok?
A few days later, still no reply. Getting insecured. Paiseh to probe her further :(
N still didn't give me an answer even when it was already the day before The Day. And she's on leave. And I'll be on leave on The Day. How to coordinate effort like that? For one thing, I knew she's taking leave because her husband was back and she's spending time with him. So I should take it that she's not helping me? Better get my backup plan together just in case. Looked around the office for targets... seriously, I think the whole office was interested in going and looking for extra tickets themselves lor.
Had to stay back to guide T, a colleague from country C to do data upload. He has A DAMN LOT of questions! I would have finished in half the time if I didn't have to entertain him :\ He had bad breath, yet sitting so close to me *gasped for air* Why did so many of them have bad breath??
He could repay me in some way though... *tentacles creeping up behind him*
Sotong: 你有去看 Lion King 吗?
T: 什么来着?
Yes! Chance!
I told him about the mass email. Seemed like colleagues from country C were always left out of such things, although they were also considered National Cockup Schedules staff. As such, T wasn't sure if he was eligible at all, although he didn't mind helping me. Har... Ok let's do it this way. If N couldn't help me tomorrow, I would get T to help me. If he's wasn't eligible, too bad for me. Since I would be on leave, I would need to contact T by phone or online. New contact on my MSN... Hugged the laptop home since I might need VPN to access the booking link.
The Day, a.k.a. today, has come. I was on leave and was supposed to go out for lunch and shop, but all had to wait because the hyperlink to book the tickets would only be revealed at 12 noon. VPN-ready. So at 11.30am, I was all dressed and ready to step out of the house to start my day, but couldn't because I had to camp in front of the computer -_- It's like NUS arts tutorial bidding all over again. Nostalgia.
Smsed N, but she didn't reply. Called her, but she didn't pick up. Gone to the washroom? Maybe.
Waited...
That's too long for a toilet break. Gone chit-chatting? T was online! I asked him to see if N was around. She wasn't, maybe gone for lunch? That's real early... got to wait for her to return call then.
Almost 12 noon and still no response from N. She don't know this kind of thing need to be first one meh? How's she going to get the tickets for herself or me or anybody if she's at lunch at this critical time? T, help me please! T was sooo nice :D
12 noon! But still no Lion King link. Kept refreshing my webmail, but still don't have. J was camping at home too, like me. Glad to know it's not that the HR had left me out.
HR sent an email saying that there was a problem and they were working to resolve it. Walau... faster lah, I want to go out! No idea how long they would take, didn't dare to leave my computer :S
Finally, the link came! I sent the link to T too. Attack!
Taking damn long to load. Opening multiple tabs didn't help. Same result with Firefox and IE. Argh! Something curious, it's a Sistic website, meaning it's public. So no need VPN lah. 害我（爸爸） laptop 回家. How were they going to prevent outsiders from ordering? Also meant that helpers need not be SinkHell staff...
Finally I got through to the booking page. Wa Platinum was sold out already! M had advised me not to choose the Dress Circle seats as they could be quite far back. I selected Stalls seats for A Reserve, keyed in the captcha, but it said I got it wrong. Ok again... still wrong?? It kept accusing me of keying wrongly. I where got so lousy! It happened to J too. Walau system cock up lah! Frustrating! Sistic should have known this would be like the whole SinkHell launching a DDoS attack on them. Shouldn't they have increased the server capacity? Maybe the main Sistic website wasn't working now as well, haha!
J told me that it was rumored that SinkHell people received the links way before we did and had already helped themselves to the Platinum seats. If it were true, UNFAIR!
Ah I got through the captcha! I made the mistake of choosing my own seats, because it took a freaking long time to load the seating plan!! Like hang there! So long that, if there were any seats at all, they would be gone by now. Sigh, gave up on that session, balek.
I suspected that the captcha mystery might be a way of telling us that the seats were sold out. This time, whenever it accused me of poor tying again, I changed the seating area. And I let the system assign the best seats. The less clicks, the faster I could complete the transaction.
T got to the confirmation! It's Dress Circle seats, but A Reserve, so not so bad! Not so fast, roadblock! A Sistic account was required. What... I thought it would be asking for National Cockup Schedules staff particulars lor... instead, we just got the usual Sistic workflow. Cheapo. I was apprehensive about giving out my Sistic account to outsiders, but on the other hand, I feared asking T to sign up his own account would result in requests which the server obviously couldn't handle already. Nah!
Hey my confirmation screen was up! Different seating area from T, but at least it was on the same day.
The confirmation itself took time to get through. Heaved a sigh of relief when it did. Double heave when the confirmation email arrived. 1pm already. Thanked T profusely. He had to go for late lunch all because of me. So touched!
Results: 2 D Reserve Stalls, CC 2,3 + 1 A Reserve, B 47. All so off-centre lor... hope can see.
The extra browser tabs we opened started getting through too. Looked like the server was finally getting a breather.
And finally I could go out. Couldn't help but feel pissed with N. She didn't reply me at all. I guessed she's probably on leave too. She's not obliged to, but it I really felt she should have at least informed me that she's not helping me. Or she's paiseh about deciding to keep the tickets for herself? I could only guess. I'm not going to raise this topic to her after today and will pretend it never happened.
At least, I learned something about N from this.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Straighten-A-Sotong Part X
Thank goodness Saturday appointments exists! Today's the most expensive investigation of all the - MRI. Before this day, the clinic's staff even called me up to remind me of my appointment and stressed that I should keep to it as it is very difficult to snag a slot. You bet I'm coming! Saturday appointments are precious! Despite it being at 10am... *yawnz*
And she also highlighted the cost. Yeah yeah...
Even the waiting room has nice cushioned seats.
But the changing room was very old ley :( The lock weird weird one. A lady didn't know how to let herself out XD
A guy stuffed earplugs into my ears, which I'm sure wouldn't work because I could still hear everything as before. I was put onto the machine and it worked its magic. Be very still... Don't waste my $$! Nothing to see, so I closed my eyes. The machine was LOUD! But still managed to fall asleep since I was in there for so long and consistent noises are easier to shut out. By the way, I was supposed to be still sleeping at this hour on Saturdays *sulks*
The bill - MRI whole spine, a staggering $700.00! After the subsidy, $400. Hole in the pocket :( Why can't I claim Medisave for this?
And she also highlighted the cost. Yeah yeah...
Even the waiting room has nice cushioned seats.
But the changing room was very old ley :( The lock weird weird one. A lady didn't know how to let herself out XD
A guy stuffed earplugs into my ears, which I'm sure wouldn't work because I could still hear everything as before. I was put onto the machine and it worked its magic. Be very still... Don't waste my $$! Nothing to see, so I closed my eyes. The machine was LOUD! But still managed to fall asleep since I was in there for so long and consistent noises are easier to shut out. By the way, I was supposed to be still sleeping at this hour on Saturdays *sulks*
The bill - MRI whole spine, a staggering $700.00! After the subsidy, $400. Hole in the pocket :( Why can't I claim Medisave for this?
Monday, May 09, 2011
Straighten-A-Sotong Part IX
Went to see the social worker again. I only gave her the questionnaire back but not the proofs since she didn't ask for them. I didn't feel like giving since the collection was incomplete.
Back to the Heart Centre for the electrocardiogram (ECG). However, I was directed to wait outside the consultation room instead. After checking my echo test results, the doctor told me that I'm fine (permanently) and I could go. When I asked him about the ECG, he said I didn't need it. Ok, one less thing to pay for!
Back to the Heart Centre for the electrocardiogram (ECG). However, I was directed to wait outside the consultation room instead. After checking my echo test results, the doctor told me that I'm fine (permanently) and I could go. When I asked him about the ECG, he said I didn't need it. Ok, one less thing to pay for!
Consultation Services (SR-FV) $75.00
Subsidy -$45.00
Paid $30.00
Subsidy -$45.00
Paid $30.00
Thursday, May 05, 2011
I Don't Friend You!
N would rather accompany me alone to the toilet than to ask S to come along. She even asked me not to ask her to come together anymore, referring her as "that person". O ya... this morning, S also didn't come and disturb N before going to the pantry as she always did. Curious, but didn't want to probe. N will tell me if she wanted to.
I didn't have to wait long to find out why. N had to tell me herself XD
Yesterday evening, N, S, J and P were on the bus home. They were all standing and when the bus jerked, N accidentally stepped on S's foot. S playfully stepped back. So they started taking turns stepping on each other when S blew her top all of a sudden, shouting at N at top volume.
"YOU THINK IT IS VERY FUN IS IT? STEPPING ON PEOPLE?"
J, P and N were stunned. N was taken aback at the sudden change of mood. The normally docile S, getting so mad? I should have seen how she was glaring at N, her eyes wide, round and fierce. N apologized, but S ignored her. Unable to stay no longer, N alighted at the next stop.
N felt very humiliated. If S didn't want to play anymore, she could have told her instead of playing along and sending wrong signals. N had treated S as her best friend in office, yet it wasn't mutual. What was all the previous goofing and poking fun about then? N was devastated. She couldn't speak to such an unreasonable person anymore. She saw no need to apologize too. Instead, S should be the one apologizing.
Sounded like some lover breakup hor? Unintentional...
Ah, now I'm entitled to the other side of the story. J's the perfect source.
J's version was largely the same. Just some details, like how N didn't hold on to something properly when the bus was so crowded. Taking a joke too far and not knowing when to stop. J had to defuse the awkwardness after S's outburst by saying... something I forgot. After N alighted, S complained to J.
So S was not remorseful at all lah. Why is there still such primary school tiffs going on now?? You step me, I step back, not happy then don't friend each other? Wakao! Although N didn't bar me from speaking to S, still, it'll be awkward.
The incident had badly impacted N. She has been thinking about their friendship and couldn't fathom what went wrong. Our lunch group was fractured into 2 as a result. J with S and I felt obliged to stay with N. Sigh.
For one thing, J was right about not N not knowing when to stop her jokes. N had been teased S about "this guy" on and off, about how S has been looking at him, him looking at her, whether she missed him now that he's gone blah blah blah. S would be teased mercilessly during each of the episodes and she would hit N in retaliation, albeit playfully. It would go on and on, until even I myself was tired of eavesdropping and wondered how S could tolerate it. And I still couldn't figure out who the guy was and whether he's the same person.
And so N and S neither spoke to nor as much as looked at each other ever since. Heng they were not doing the same project.
I didn't have to wait long to find out why. N had to tell me herself XD
Yesterday evening, N, S, J and P were on the bus home. They were all standing and when the bus jerked, N accidentally stepped on S's foot. S playfully stepped back. So they started taking turns stepping on each other when S blew her top all of a sudden, shouting at N at top volume.
"YOU THINK IT IS VERY FUN IS IT? STEPPING ON PEOPLE?"
J, P and N were stunned. N was taken aback at the sudden change of mood. The normally docile S, getting so mad? I should have seen how she was glaring at N, her eyes wide, round and fierce. N apologized, but S ignored her. Unable to stay no longer, N alighted at the next stop.
N felt very humiliated. If S didn't want to play anymore, she could have told her instead of playing along and sending wrong signals. N had treated S as her best friend in office, yet it wasn't mutual. What was all the previous goofing and poking fun about then? N was devastated. She couldn't speak to such an unreasonable person anymore. She saw no need to apologize too. Instead, S should be the one apologizing.
Sounded like some lover breakup hor? Unintentional...
Ah, now I'm entitled to the other side of the story. J's the perfect source.
J's version was largely the same. Just some details, like how N didn't hold on to something properly when the bus was so crowded. Taking a joke too far and not knowing when to stop. J had to defuse the awkwardness after S's outburst by saying... something I forgot. After N alighted, S complained to J.
So S was not remorseful at all lah. Why is there still such primary school tiffs going on now?? You step me, I step back, not happy then don't friend each other? Wakao! Although N didn't bar me from speaking to S, still, it'll be awkward.
The incident had badly impacted N. She has been thinking about their friendship and couldn't fathom what went wrong. Our lunch group was fractured into 2 as a result. J with S and I felt obliged to stay with N. Sigh.
For one thing, J was right about not N not knowing when to stop her jokes. N had been teased S about "this guy" on and off, about how S has been looking at him, him looking at her, whether she missed him now that he's gone blah blah blah. S would be teased mercilessly during each of the episodes and she would hit N in retaliation, albeit playfully. It would go on and on, until even I myself was tired of eavesdropping and wondered how S could tolerate it. And I still couldn't figure out who the guy was and whether he's the same person.
And so N and S neither spoke to nor as much as looked at each other ever since. Heng they were not doing the same project.
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