Saturday, June 30, 2007

My Job

I've given notice of resignation to my boss and in two months' time I'm free. Of course, meanwhile, I'll be actively looking for another job. Something that won't cause me more time than it should and that would spare me enough time to do some serious writing, and to disentangle my personal stuff from its chaotic mess.

Oh! About my resignation, I hope I won't be called in to the Managing Director's room for interrogation!

About blogspot, I've friends complaining about blogspot recently. For me, the problem starts when I try to change my fonts and colors. Over the past two months, I've attempted this a few times and each time my computer got stalled. So my links remained very light blue and difficult to see with certain computers (depending on settings, I think). Anyway, I tried again just now and the problem persisted.

Snip

Snip.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wind of Change

I've finally typed out my resignation letter and it's now sleeping in my office desk drawer, waiting to be waken up tomorrow morning to the shocked face of my boss.

I've been thinking about resigning for ages and I'm glad I'm finally taking the final steps to realising this thought. It's sad to leave after putting in five years of hard work but I am going nowhere with the job and things are getting tougher for me to handle in terms of volume of work, staffing problems and management's disregard of the situation. I'm too overstressed not to resign now.

To the company, it's a bad time for me to leave because July, August and September are busy months. In July and August, there'll be directors' meeting to arrange and attend, accounts to audit and annual report to prepare and edit in preparation for the company's annual general meeting in September.

Beside these, I have several other projects on hand to finish. I anticipate an earful from my boss tomorrow. The flu and sinus infection I suffered from last week is making me weak physically and mentally so I must really be strong and not retract my resignation (keeping fingers crossed).

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Reading blogs

I've been trying to spend more time reading blogs and leaving my comments when I can.

I came across David's new journal which I gave a quick read of some posts. Very interesting. I tried to leave a comment on his blogspot blog but comments were limited to members only. I'm not sure if I can leave comments in his live journal posts. Maybe if he reads this, he can let me know. Thanks.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Retinitis Pigmentosa

Someone's comments on my father's nerves problem, Meralgia Paresthetica (MP), prompted me to write this post about his eye disease.

He was dignosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) about eight years ago. His vision has deteriorated much since then. He cannot read without a magnifying glass. He still plays sudoku though. We have to buy the larger print ones for him. Besides difficulty with reading, he also can't see well at night or in dim lights.

Although MP is also not curable, it's avoidable and symptoms can improve. RP is a lifetime disease and is not reversible but patients don't necessary lose their eyesight totally. Most of them will retain a small degree of central vision like my father.

He also has cataracts which if operated on, may (note: may and not will) enable him to have a clearer, though only slightly clearer, vision. The procedure is costly but I think we'll give him this clearer vision for the rest of the few years of his life.

Some links below:

Blindness.org
Wiki-Retinitis Pigmentosa
British RP Society
All About Vision

Friday, June 08, 2007

Syncope

A friend and I were talking about her absence from work last Friday. She was on medical leave because she felt dizzy as she was getting out of bed and had to lie down again to prevent total lost of conciousness.

She laid on her back for a couple of hours before she was just well enough to call her husband back from work to take her to the doctor. She could not even turn to her side because the movement would make the room spin.

The doctor told her that her blood pressure was a little high and would need to be checked again next week. But he/she did not explain to her why she felt dizzy. I told her that it could probably be due her high blood pressure.

She told me that she often feels dizzy especially when she bends her head down towards the floor but her pressure has always been within acceptable limit and she is not on medication.

She further said that when she was younger, she was prone to fainting. She first fainted when she was a child. Her mother was giving her a hair cut, to prepare her for the start of a school term when she lost conciousness suddenly.

As she fell to the ground, she knocked her head on a door. She was not sure how long she had fainted but when she was coming through, she heard someone crying and had thought it was the neighbour. She wanted to get up (she probably thought she was sleeping) to tell them to stop crying. When she opened her eyes, she realised she had fainted, was bleeding on the forehead and her mother was looking down at her with teary eyes.

She also remembered the time when she was queuing at the post office and the people around her kept asking her whether she was feeling all right. She wondered why they asked her that and she even replied that she was fine. Then all of a sudden, she fainted and had to be carried into the office for first-aid.

There was another time when she gained conciousness she discovered that someone had brought her to the hospital.

However, the syncope stopped after she gave birth to her first child. After that she usually just feel dizzy and last Friday was the first bad incident after a long while.

She told me that she had blood tests done and the results were all fine. The doctors could not find anything seriously wrong with her. I told her about blood circulation and that blood was unable to flow up to her brain which caused the fainting spells. She needs to find out what causes that to happen. I guess it's probably due to some vesticular problems. So the next time she feels faint, she should lie down on the ground to prevent losing conciousness or at least sit down to ensure that blood is able to flow better.

I told her that I would print out some articles for her on this illness when I get home. I remember having done some researches on syncope, vertigo, sudden death and cardiac arrest the first two months after my mother's death.

Below are some links on this illness:

When a child faints

vestibular balance disorders

syncope

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Reading Habits

I've actually finished "reading" The Bell Jar. By that, I mean I sort of speed-read and got to the end of the story. I now know what the story is about and I now have to read it again slowly, word by word to savour Sylvia's writing and use of metaphor. I've to go read Dodo again for Angie.

My initial impression of the book is that the story is engaging and well-written (obviously) with a good dose of interesting metaphor. I'll post a better review after I've re-read the book.