Andromeda

In the midst of the development frenzy, the Web team has officially moved to the our company's new campus on the 15th. Lucky for us, there were 86 offices on the 3rd floor of our building and we only have 84 ppl in WebCorp+ right now. That means each of us now have our own office. Yeah!

The picture on the left, of course, is my new office. Big window (one section is operable so I can kinda open it during Spring/Fall time) with blue carpet. I haven't done any decoration yet (besides hanging up 3 of the 4 white boards I have, heeheehehee), but i think I'll shop around next week and see if I can find anything I liked. However, I think I'd have better luck finding stuff I like from HK. The only problem I am having is with the motion sensor in my office that turns the light on/off. You see, I sit right behind my 2 monitors when I am at my desk. From time to time, the sensor would determine that there isn't anyone in the office and turn off my lights. I then have to stand up and wave like crazy trying to get the lights back on without having to manually walk over to the switch to turn it on. However, I don't think that sensor picks up waving very well either.

Besides that, the new campus is really great. Walking from the underground parking to my office is a good few minutes walk and should suffice for my daily exercise quota. The only other complaint is that there isn't mush food establishments around in Verona so finding a good place for lunch is quite challenging at the moment.

Mission Accomplished

...well, technically not quite as I still have one or two projects that haven't made it to QA yet - but at the very least, the crazyness is over.

I just checked today that I've logged 230+ working hours this month - and I didn't even count those hours that I was taking breaks because otherwise, I would of died right in front of the monitor!

There is only one word that can describe this development phase - insane! I don't think I've seen so many projects packed into a 2 months period. A few of us were working till 3 or 4am each night for the past couple days just trying to get things done. So it was a great relief that this is finally over. Now we just have to wait for the QAers to get back from vacation to start testing - which in my opinion will lead to more fixes and enhancements (but at least there is one full week before that happens...hohoho).

As a result of this crazy week (and the week before), my Christmas would be rather quiet and uneventful. My current plan includes sleeping, more sleeping, follow by a nap time, then back to sleep again. Don't tell me that doesn't excite you! .\/.

Someone flew me airplane tonite

I...shall...remember...him...!!!!!!

(This actually brought back a funny HS memory - totally not related though)

Never imaging that...

there are real yo-yo competition - I mean at a national level. Nice Tricks

One of the contestants used this song as his background music and now it's stuck in my head. The unfortunate thing is that I can't find the CD single anywhere online (probably because it was from 2001). I've even checked Amazon.co.jp and they don't have it either. The only place I've seen it is the album version at YesAsia.com - but I am not quite willing to dish out 30 bucks for it yet.

Almost here...the deadline that is

In my last post, I rant about coming back home around 10. Little did I realize that 10pm is not a bad time during this time of the year - especially compared to my hours this week. Monday & Friday were the roughly "normal" days. However, it was 3:30 on Tuesday, 4:30 on Wednesday and another 3:30 on Thursday. Um....only if my raise are tied to the number of hours I worked. I remembered pulling crazy hours last year before the development deadline too. Strangely enough, the projects this year and last year were quite similar - both are integration with our reporting products. Hopefully this is the last time I end up with rushing things through.

I did get an excited news this week - the room assignement for the new campus. Starting Thursday, I would have my own office! I was tempted to drop by the new campus this morning just to check it out (last time I visited, Andromeda wasn't ready yet). But I just don't think driving on snowy/icy roads would be such a nice idea. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe. [Downside: a potential day lost on Thur]

This brings me to another point - In the midst of the dev deadline, I am apartment hunting. My lease will run out by the end of Decemeber so I better act quick. Sent some inquires out earlier, a couple of the responses sound promising. If all things line up, I hope to actually go check out some of them next week and make a decision by next Friday.