¨The Twilight Zone¨- The Obsolete man (1961)

Check this out on a fellow librarian's blog.

Rambling Librarian :: Incidental Thoughts of a Singapore Liblogarian: ¨The Twilight Zone¨- The Obsolete man (1961)#links

Hee...well, now books & libraries are more than physical right?

Why the toast always lands butter side down

OK! Now for what I actually set out wanting to blog about rather than the previous post. A mini book review!

Yes, finally finished the book "Why the Toast Always Lands Butter Side Down: The Science of Murphy's Law" by Richard Robinson.

It's all about Murphy's Law and it was really fun reading it. Some of them really applied to our everyday lives & little examples here & there really made me laugh. A great book to cheer me up and philosophical! Also humour in science. Now I know why we yawn when someone else yawns. It's because of mirror neurons!

The main law - "WHATEVER CAN GO WRONG, WILL GO WRONG".

Think many of us have experienced this so yup, if you're interested, read of how contradictory life is.

As promised, I shall share with you some of the laws mentioned.

"A heavy, ugly, useless thing has sat in the dark corner of a cabinet for 20 years. The day after you throw it away, you need it urgently."

"The best way to be late is to give yourself plenty of time."

"When your hands are tied, your nose itches"

"Bad luck comes in threes"

"Her pile is mess; your pile is work in progress"

"When you search for something, you go back to the same place again and again..."(...and on the 20th time, it's there)

"A confidential whisper is heard better than a loud shout"

"Every Beatles needs its Ringo"

"The death of one person is a tragedy; the death of 5,000 people is a statistic"

"When people can do as they please they all do the same"

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree on"

"Each solution opens the door to a more difficult problem"

"Never let a computer know how much hurry you are in"

"A committee is a group of people who can't decide anything on their own, but together can decide that nothing can be done"

"Committee: a place where good ideas go to die"

"If a problem causes many meetings, the meetings eventually become more important than the problem"

"The secret of success is sincerity - once you can fake that, you've got it made"

"In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence"

"When in doubt, mumble; when in trouble, delegate; when in charge, ponder"

"The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of"

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind"

"Objects behave better when you shout at them"

"When a body is immersed in water, the doorbell rings"

"Any tool, when dropped, will roll into the least accessible corner of the room"

"Floorboards squeak loudest when you need to be quietest"

"Shortcuts are the longest routes"

"Traffic lights are always red when you're in a hurry"

"Your queue always goes slowest"

"Buses come in threes"

"The bigger the bargain, the more money leaves your pocket"

"Whatever you buy, the day after the guarantee runs out, it snaps"

"Everything looks useful until you buy it"

"The noodle effect: when at last you have to ask the supermart assistant where the noodles are, they're right beside your head"

Some updates

It's been a while since I've updated and well, been rather busy at work.
Deadlines drawing closer, work "climate" not so good as the "battle" between our division & mgt and the other division goes on...

Anyway, my boss has gone part-time for 5 months. Am guessing that it's because she's retiring soon (1 or 2 years time?), so she's slowly making her way out. Through this time, even though I had a painted impression of her when she came in (from feedback & the way she works), I guess I can live with it. At least she's not the political type & I see her being serious about the directive of preserving heritage, as opposed to my mgt. Ok lah, she also appreciates my work too lah. :)

Actually, I've been wondering if I will eventually transfer out to other divisions. You see, my 3 years is coming up (have to work 3 years in 1 division before you can transfer), and even though I will definitely stay till the major projects have launched successfully and more steady, am not sure what else I can do. I know there are some divisions that I will definitely not go (politics is terrible there), but not sure if I'm really up to the some others which pose possibilities or that I find interesting. But if I never try, who knows? Should try new things now since I'm not getting any younger and to get out of the ulu location. Or will I even continue to do professional work? Well, not exactly doing that now, but I joined the profession hoping to, except it didn't move that way. Anyway, my mgt isn't exactly on the professionals' side at the moment (thus the unrest). A no. of us are at risk of losing the only thing that's keeping us here.

Oops, intended only for a short update & started typing & typing as the track of words came. Now for some happier news. Yeah, recently there was an adjustment of salary scales to mkt rate & my pay was adjusted a little higher. Plus the annual increment & performance bonus, I feel a tad richer this month. Hmm...so the shopping done at GSS has been covered. Now hoping can save up for a MacBook.