Buying things online can be quite comfortable but sometimes, it can be a headache too. I normally only buy hardware stuffs and try to avoid clothing as I never know whether or not the size would be suitable. Regrettably, I bought a Nike sports jacket about a week ago. The price was too good to turn down. There I was, chose a size and click purchase. Item didn’t arrive promptly but I didn’t mine as I was updated every now and then regarding the status of my item. Tomorrow, I have to send it back to zavvi.com as the size, though M, is still too big for me. It states there 178cm which is totally different from my other M-size Nike shirts. Well, it’s also a relief as it is not an expensive jacket. Imagine if I bought a RayBan sunglasses online and had to return it in the end. That would be disappointment plus more headache because I would have been eagerly waiting to wear it and the price would have been higher than a jacket.

I had spent the past weekend doing nothing at all; except playing Fifa 2012 on my iPad and watching TV. As usual for Mee, she cooked and watched her own online TV programs. I just felt weak and my head seemed to be a few kilograms heavier. Anyway, I feel much better now having rested so much.

Playing Fifa 2012 can be quite challenging at times. And frustrating too. When it’s too easy, we wish that it could be harder. But when it’s too hard, we curse the computer (AI). Most of the times, the AI is just ridiculous and it’s better off playing against top teams than playing against teams at the bottom of the table. On some games, the AI goalkeeper is ridiculously good that it could block any shoot from any angle. On the other hand, your goalkeeper can be just rubbish. I have come to the fact that I just play it through no matter how ridiculously good the AI. I will have my revenge the next match. I can’t win all the matches anyway and that’s the same with real life football.

The settings still need some tweaking but I suppose Fifa13 will be very entertaining. Fifa11 is absolutely rubbish. It’s the same like Fifa for PC. It just gets better each year and I still don’t understand why people are complaining. Fifa just works for me.

By the way, I tested playing Fifa12 using iPhone as controller. It worked pretty good but the space is somehow limited. I kept going out of range and a mini-Fling gamepad will be ideal. However, my Fling has broken twice now and I don’t think I will invest in another one until a better one is available in the market.

Guess what? I received an email from thehut.com yesterday. It said;

We are really sorry but due to a high demand we have unfortunately sold out and are unable to fulfil your order.

It’s really frustrating and that was the second time that I tried to buy something from the site. I have bought things online so many times and most reputable sites are very good at stock checking especially electronic sites. In addition, it offers PayPal payment but the payment never went through. It kept saying that the payment cannot be processed. It’s a rubbish site and I believe that buying from them requires patience, time and most importantly luck! I would rather look elsewhere even if they cost a little bit more.

I probably said this quite a lot of time now but not recently. I used to be Point of Sales support or technician. It ranged from the small cash registers that print out just numbers to restaurant POS where it linked several PC-based cash registers. At one point, I thought that was my career path as I loved it so much. Well, being able to travel around and meeting new and different people from all walks of life. I did have some tough days though when customers were not pleased or didn’t have the money to pay after I fixed their problems. I have to say that I didn’t really did a good job every time. Sometimes, I was just trying to get by as I would like to quickly move to my next destination. Even the next job after that involved POS system too. However, I got to work some programming language which expanded my knowledge. My, IT is huge and I am glad that I love it even until now.

POS still plays a part in me. Every now and then, I still feel very close to it whenever I see an advertisement about receipt printers like the new Epson TM-T88V or even when I go to restaurants or having a dinner, I like to look at their cash registers. Most cash registers, be it the normal ones with dozen of buttons or the PC-based front end, they are all linked to a PC-based back end. As you may have already known, a PC can basically do anything but it still depends on the front end equipment to have the ability to perform the tasks required. Like for example, when I was still working as the POS support, most receipt printers were so basic that they couldn’t print out the company logo and the printing sound was unbearable at times. There were receipt printers that do fancy stuffs but they were just too expensive for some customers.

I do believe that now would be a different story. Hmm…. that was a job that I started out about 8 years ago! And I am not sure if I like to think what if I were still with that job now!

Just a few weeks ago, I had a lot of plans. A lot of which I am really interested in doing like improving my web skills as well as creating iOS Apps. I am not thinking about money here and they are purely my type of hobbies. Well, I got all setup only to be interrupted but a few things. I received a snail mail from LoveFilm which I did blog previously. I signed up a 30-day trial and in return, I received a £20 Amazon voucher. From the time that I signed up, I spent most of my evening watching movies online on LoveFilm. At the same time, my workload increased and my only ways to reward myself after a long hard work day are playing games and watching movies. In addition, Infinity Blade II was released about a week ago. I am truly busy getting my hands on this sequel. For some people, it might be difficult to understand but I am sure everyone has their own way of rewarding or de-stressing at the end of each day.

Well, that’s how I spend most of my time everyday. I tried reading iOS apps making stuff from the internet but I found it difficult to concentrate. I couldn’t do it during work time because I have no equipment to test. For a start, I need Mac OS in order to program an app and an iPhone to test the app. I could say it’s work related as my idea is to create an app where I could access my work information anywhere with internet connectivity. I have tried numerous ways in improving my skills but most of the time, I didn’t get anywhere as I didn’t have any purpose or target to pursue. In the past, I managed to learn great deal of web skills when I first started blogging. Not very long after that, I took my web skills to the next level as I was tasked to revamp my workplace’s website. This is where I thought about creating an iOS app to display the information of my workplace’s website but on a smaller scale.

Anyway, the progress may be slower that what I would like in the first place, but I do believe that I will be able to accomplish them some time in the future. Christmas is coming and I have about two weeks of holiday. That might be a good to time to starting something new?!

My current job is by far the longest one that I have been working; four years. The second longest one was about two and a half years. Not that I want to stay at this job for four years, it’s just that my work permit only allows me to work for this company. On the other hand, it’s not a bad job either considering that my colleagues are good and there are still a lot that I can learn. The problem is that I feel undervalued. Well well, I am sure a lot of us feel the same with our current jobs; handling more and more tasks everyday and nothing is as described in the job description when we first signed the agreement. While I agree that it’s alright to suffer a bit in this economic crisis situation, it’s unfair that companies still spend monies on unnecessary things. In this case, I am talking about the company that I work in.

There were cuts almost in every departments and any staffs who leave will not be replaced. However, they are renovating the outer shell of the buildings just so it looks nice from the outside. What they don’t realise is that the rooms inside the building are still as crappy as before. Our workplace has been the same since the first day I went in and I bet it’s also the same many years before me. In my department, we get loads of tasks which aren’t necessarily relevant to us. For example, another department bought a piece of software and we have to support it. While I agree that it may be relevant to what we are doing, but we are never consulted to see if the third party software is compatible with our existing software. The list is endless.

I still have emails sending to me about the latest jobs available and it seems like there are a lot of System Administrator jobs in the market. I am tempted but the outside world is kind of rocky. Should I just wait until I am eligible to become a PR or should I just switch just so I am sure that I will be eligible to apply for PR? I believe that the probability of staying is higher than leaving. Let’s just hope times will get better.