A blogger with his own company e-mailed me on 24th July, asking if I had already found new employment. He informed me that he might need help with his company and asked me if I was interested.

That e-mail was automatically sent to my Junk folder by Hotmail before I even opened it, by the way. <sarcasm>Way to go, Hotmail! You rock!</sarcasm>

Good thing I always look through my Junk folder before deleting.

I replied him that I had actually thought about blogging the pros and cons of working with/for him, before I even got his e-mail. It'd be slightly weird for a blogger to work with/for another blogger when they both read each other. If I want to rant about work, how? He knows my blog! Die.

Anyway, I did reply back to say that I was interested, and we decided to meet at Northpoint, Yishun, to discuss about the subject.

We talked about it on Friday, 27th July, and when I got home, he had already e-mailed me details about a project. I was slightly amused, thinking, "What the fish? So fast?!" Hurr.

The next day, I went for a photo outing with Dicky (which I will blog about in my next entry - with full-coloured photos! Be amazed!) at Botanic Gardens, and after that, went home to take a look at what the project entails, and gave the blogger-mentioned a call. Asked him what he wanted done by which date, and confirmed that what he wanted was doable.

E-mailed him to say that I had already made lunch plans on Monday, so I will start work in the afternoon, instead. :D

Went for a lunch meet with A.A and Jr on Monday at Sim Lim Square. After which, I went to Convergent to RMA a stick of RAM. The employee there accused me of removing the warranty sticker, and re-sticking it, thus voiding the Kingston's Lifetime warranty, and I got pissed off. -.-"

What I did do to the RAM stick was to apply a heat spreader on it (if you're planning on doing that, please, don't bother - it's not worth the hassle). When the RAM stick started giving me errors (after about 2 years of usage), I removed the heat spreader (which basically damaged the heat spreader itself, rendering it totally useless) to prepare to send the RAM for RMA and the warranty sticker got slightly peeled off (I was very careful to not remove the sticker!). Which I then reapplied back. There were marks of the heat spreader glue, so I figured I was going to get some grief about "defacing" the warranty sticker. *Sigh...*

The Convergent employee said he will have to send the stick back somewhere to get it verified that I did not remove the sticker (apparently the sticker was pasted from the second RAM chip onwards, whereas Kingston warranty stickers are, apparently, always pasted from the first RAM chip - ah, good to know -_-"). I was thinking, "Fuck lah, if I removed the sticker on purpose (why would I?!), I wouldn't be stupid enough to paste it back on the wrong place, now, would I?"

The verification will take about a month, and they will call me once they get the information. I'm pretty sure I won't get a replacement RAM, but I'll just wait and see. Bahhh. I paid over a hundred bucks for that 512 MB RAM stick 2 years ago. Now a 1 GB RAM stick costs just about the same price. Slightly lesser, actually.

Kingston would be smart to keep me as a returning customer though. I have always bought Kingston memory sticks, and recommended the same to my friends, because they're pretty reliable and their products are under Lifetime Warranty. I've never had problems getting replacement RAM sticks before when my Kingston RAMs died on me... Only about thrice so far in the 10 years or so I've been using various RAM sticks.

Got home at about 5 pm, and started working on the project.

The blogger I mentioned runs his company from his home-office, and before he gets a proper office, I will be working from home as well. With my own working hours, 'cause at the moment, I will be paid by project-basis. We shall see how things work out, yah?

It's been only about a week since I started working with him. So far, so good. I get to work at home (pros and cons there! Hard to work sometimes when there are so many distractions!) and I pick my own working hours... Usually at night, until early morning. Yah, my body clock's totally screwed.

I think I work much longer than normal office working periods. Some days, I feel like I worked whole days and whole nights. Have only myself to blame, actually, 'cause nobody is enforcing certain-work-hours for me to follow but myself. It'd be crazy to keep working like this though, so I have to set certain limits on the timing... What I do normally is wake up at about 11-ish (depends on the time I go to bed), and check my e-mail. Then go eat, and watch a downloaded show... Then start working a bit. Then stop to bathe. Then work a bit. Then stop to chat on MSN... Then work concurrently. Then stop to surf the net... Then work some more. Stop for lunch (by this time, my lunch will be at about 6 pm. Hurr.), then work a bit more.

My bro would be back from school after a while, so we'd play Dota. All the time, with me thinking, "I should be working!" Heh.

I usually work the most when everybody's sound asleep and there're lesser distractions. I'd get a lot done between midnight and 5 am. I'd end the working hours by e-mailing my progress and then go to bed. I'd wake up later during the day to check my e-mail for feedback to my progress, and the cycle continues.

I rationalise to myself that it doesn't matter what my working hours are 'cause I'm getting paid on project-basis. The faster I get this project done, the faster I can move on to the next project.

Feels a bit like freelancing at the moment. But who knows what's going to happen with this job. I might not like working with him, or he might not like working with me. Things might not work out. I might meet and marry a rich bimbo, and never have to work again. Who knows?

But so far, it's been great. So, everybody, say hi to my new boss, Ridjal, Mr Podah man himself! :D

Die lah, Ridj, your blog is still down. If you can't keep your own blog site up, how to get other people's sites up?

Err, oops. Sorry, boss. Don't kill me, ok? :D

By the way, my birthday was very uneventful. I spent the whole day working at home. Hahahhahaha.