The good and the just okay

I've been meaning to put up an update of what's been going on at work, but I've been putting it off until something really big happened. The good news is, that's getting closer all the time. The bad news is, I've been saying that since October.

A bit of a recap: I've been a bit vague about what I'm actually doing in Singapore, mainly because I shared a bit more than I should have about my internship back in Luxembourg and I don't wish to make that mistake again. (Then again, maybe it's just that the company back in Luxembourg was one messed-up place all around and I should have shared more stories about how that was the case. But I refuse to dwell on that false start now that I've successfully moved on. Anyhow.) Also, there wasn't a whole lot to report at first. It's a software company, and I'm doing marketing and strategy. I'm hoping to branch off into finance eventually, and for the time being I get to handle that too as there isn't a lot to report as far as finances are concerned. Our flagship product has been in development stages since before I started, and the original release date was set for October. Since startups never run too smoothly, that date got pushed back to the end of February. I'm slated to oversee our official release event at a road show at a local department store here, which was going to happen this coming weekend.

That event has now been pushed back one more week. The good news is that it looks like this delay really will be the last one. It's really just as well, as preparations for the big event hadn't been going as smootly as they could anyway.

Frustrating? Sure. But with all the stories in the news about sky-high unemployment, I don't dare complain. I really don't want to complain much anyway. There's a lot of creative work in this job that I've enjoyed so far - everything from writing scripts for commercials to market research on exotic locales where I think we might be able to sell the software. So, yeah. No complaints. It's not what I wanted to be doing when I finished my MBA, but several of the companies where I did want to end up are now out of business.

More updates as they come!

Wish I'd thought of that

As my earliest readers might remember, my very first trip to Singapore ended with me getting stranded in Hong Kong for several hours. It wasn't a very pleasant experience, but I didn't let it bother me nearly as much as this woman did. By sheer patience (okay, and spending a bit more money), I ended up with a first class flight back to Taipei. Maybe this is the way to make that happen faster?

By the way, I have seen it suggested that maybe she had a legitimate reason for being distraught, such as having a sick relative she was desperate to see. If I find out anything like that was the case, I promise to remove this. But if not...okay, it still wasn't in very good taste to put this on YouTube either way. But as millions of people have said by now, "If you don't want it posted on the Internet, don't do it."

Suburbs, Asian style

In almost ten months in Singapore, I haven't had many occasions to visit what the locals call "the heartland." That's basically the northern half of the island, far enough from downtown that it almost feels rural in some places, but never too far from an MRT stop. Before this weekend, I'd been through the heartland on the MRT once, at night, so I couldn't see much of it because it was dark outside. The fact that I've only had that one trip through and I was only passing through speaks for itself, I think.

Yesterday, I finally visited it for real. The reason why is fairly odd (visiting a branch of the health club I joined to see if we could identify the branch from a picture in a contest set up by the club...yes, really), but I did look forward to seeing a corner of Singapore that had up to now held some mystique in the form of spots on the MRT mapp that I had never ventured very near.

Wow. I thought I had seen cookie-cutter housing back in the DC suburbs. I hadn't seen anything! Block after block after block of square apartment buildings all over the place, and construction of a few new ones here and there, and a shopping center at nearly every stop, looking more or less the same as the other ones, which look more or less the same as the one at my stop. But I'm glad I got to see it. As things continue to look promising for our company, I'm beginning to give some thought to where I want my next apartment to be once I can afford to choose a place rather than having it choose me. Up to now, I thought there might be a trove of lovely and cheap places out in the heartland that I hadn't even seen yet. There are a few that I could see from the train, but nothing to measure up to what's available downtown (and will probably be in my price range if current trends continue - prices are dropping everywhere). So at least I can mark a lot of places off my list now.

The health club branch wasn't the one we were looking for, by the way.