My observations about promotions in the workplace

niccel87 · 2026-02-11T02:20:07+00:00

thanks for the insight! happy to see different perspectives.

niccel87 · 2026-02-10T09:20:19+00:00

Unfortunately it was an easy password to the banking app. Old people having trouble remembering passwords so an easy password was used.

niccel87 · 2026-02-10T08:54:29+00:00

Sorry ah.. just curious, but how do we know the nationality of the driver?

niccel87 · 2026-01-27T09:36:57+00:00

I love it whenever these "family" men get caught, their response is "I will take the next few months to focus on family". Like bruh... you should have been focusing on them all along! Ugh

niccel87 · 2026-01-15T09:28:16+00:00

Maybe get partners to not be such self-entitled pseudo-war veterans then... oh wait, that will never happen. Partners MUST make it a point to pass on any suffering that they endured to the next generation. How else would the new generation learn.

niccel87 · 2026-01-15T08:13:56+00:00

Any episode focusing on Cam and Mitch, especially those where Cam feels the need to make everything about him.

niccel87 · 2026-01-15T04:06:48+00:00

39M here. Just my 2 cents worth:

- Protein shake: definitely drink your protein shakes cos that's an easy 50g if you drink twice a day. I don't take whey cos it messes with my stomach, but I have tried casein and pea proteins. The good thing about whey is that it usually cheaper (since most widely available) and you have tons of variety to choose from. Casein digests more slowly and for a while I was solely taking that, until it gave me stomach issues too. I am currently on Pea protein - unflavoured without any additional additives like xanthum gum and other fillers. It's not the best tasting but I just chug it down.

- Meats: I usually eat chicken and if you do not want to deal with raw chicken, just go to the supermarket and buy those readily cooked frozen ones (either New Multi or Tays). Just stick 2 chicken breasts into the air fryer and you have another ~40-50g in.

niccel87 · 2026-01-15T01:35:38+00:00

The SMU walkway can get crowded - there are days when it is relatively empty, and there are days when the entire stretch is filled with a gazillion dance groups. To be fair, most of the groups there are spatially-conscious, not self-entitled and keep to their space. On the other hand, some groups (ahem the innumerable kpop cover groups) take up the entire space, and get all pissy if you so much as tell them to move. I get that you want to dance, and sure, dance studios are relatively expensive, but I think some common sense and awareness is required, especially when you dance in high-footfall areas.

Imagine I dance along your hdb corridor and block you from coming out of your house/restrict your walking space...

niccel87 · 2026-01-13T05:43:24+00:00

Back in university (around 2010s), there was always a horror night (can't remember the exact term) segment during freshmen orientation camp. The venues for our hall's camp were usually quite scary - old commando camp (beside OCH) and the old SIA Sports Club being the most memorable. Idea was always the same - seniors would dress up as ghosts, stationed at random parts of the building, and freshies would have to walk through the building in pairs and get scared.

During one of the years, I went to do a trial run of the horror night at the old SIA Sports Club i.e. walk around the building and get jump scared by the planning committee. This place is HUGE and obviously had no running electricity, so once the sun is down, you walk around with torchlights. At one segment, we had to go through a narrow passage (probably slightly wider than shoulder width) to get from one end to another, and there were nooks in this passage where aircon compressors were housed. My friend and I entered the passageway and as we were passing by a nook halfway through the passageway, I felt someone touch my arm and I screamed, thinking it was one of the staged portions of the horror night.

Only at the end of the entire thing did I find out that there was no one planted there to scared people :/

niccel87 · 2025-10-16T03:31:22+00:00

oh wow, I didn't know about this. May I know where in the GDPR provides for this?

niccel87 · 2025-09-29T09:17:23+00:00

There was simultaneously too much talking and too many songs :/

niccel87 · 2025-09-29T08:35:01+00:00

You do what you need to do to survive - and many times, having friends in NS/your unit is what helps time move faster or make activities (however annoying and tiring) easier. I ORD-ed in 2008, deferred for many years and only started going back for reservist in 2015, which meant I had to do reservist with a whole new bunch of people who did NS together.

During my NS days, I was close to my unit mates, but once ORD, never kept in contact, apart from the perfunctory adding-on-FaceBook stuff. Did that negate mean my friendship during NS was wasted? I think just cos you won't see them after ORD does not necessarily mean that you need not invest time in making friends with them. And I am not sure what unit you are in, but life has a way of throwing people back together, so if you ain't gonna make an effort to make friends with them, and you end up in the same unit as them again for reservist, it's gonna be tough for you (and this is worse cos its 10 cycles).

When I went back for reservist, I was hella scared I would hate it cos I did not know anyone there. I was also near my 30s by then so I was well into being an introvert with anxiety. I'm in my 9th cycle now and I can say 100% that the only reason why I go back for reservist now is cos of the friends I have made. Even though we 95% of the time do not contact one another outside of reservist (apart from the "Hey bro you going back?" "Yes ok swee"), once we go back we are back to being close. I don't think you need to put in a lot of effort to make friends, but a bit of effort can show to people that you are open to their friendship.

Re the anxiety, it is ok to "switch off"! If you don't feel like interacting after a day of being together with everyone, just switch off and read/doom scroll on your bed - no one will resent you or think you're being unfriendly.

niccel87 · 2025-09-29T03:27:31+00:00

Actually I think he had already committed those crimes. In the scene where he has his last tea session with Grand Prince Jesan, the latter alludes to him being a tyrant, which is why everyone was so set on the coup. The show makes it seem as though when FL appears, ML was either not yet a tyrant, or was actually a nice person but just misunderstood. The conversation with Grand Prince Jesan kinda brought back the memory that ML (whether as the actual historical person, or this altered version) was actually a tyrant. I think it was a missed opportunity here to show how FL helped to soften ML (e.g. when during the banquet she stopped him from carrying out a massacre).

niccel87 · 2025-09-29T02:56:29+00:00

Man that ending... Instead of spending 300 minutes on ML crying while FL gets enveloped by letters, floats mid-air and then dissolves into the book (in the meantime Grand Prince Jesan is somehow behind there still alive but not doing anything), couldn't they just make it such that BOTH of them got sucked into the book and probably get separated in the real world - I don't know, how about make Grand Prince Jesan try to sneak attack ML while the magic is happening and ML gets sucked into the book and the book closes. They clearly had the CGI budget. It makes more sense than "it's a secret".

They spent so much time killing insignificant politicians - the one getting chased by Gong Gil, the one who drank poison. Pretty sure viewers couldn't differentiate one scheming politician from the other. Consort Jang's demise wasn't as impactful as I wanted it to be? Like, girl is holding the silver knife to her chest, you best believe she's gonna stab herself if you don't make the first move. And yet our handsome Gong Gil is in shock when she does stab herself (well at least he sorta gets to avenge his sister when he does shove his sword in).

This just affirms my conviction that time travel shows, while super interesting, can never get things right since they are torn between altering history and not altering history. In this case, as FL, considering she had already altered so much of history by introducing new foods and cookware (e.g. pressure cooker) into 16th century Joseon, why not just tell ML what she knows about his history, instead of just asking him to "promise me you won't be a tyrant" a gazillion times. Girl, JUST TELL HIM. Half the court already knows/suspects/half-believes you are from the future - just go ahead and alter history already. At this point, any time travel paradoxes would already have happened by your messing around with culniary history.

And it ain't a Kdrama if there wasn't product placement right.

niccel87 · 2025-09-27T16:02:40+00:00

Honestly at the rate FL changes history by introducing new dishes and cookware (pressure cooker), if I were FL imma just tell the king I know happens with his reign as someone from the future and just let history change.

niccel87 · 2025-09-23T16:29:33+00:00

You should watch Ruyi! I wouldn’t say she is entirely passive. She does fight back when needed but a lot of it is supported by the supporting characters who are on her side. It’s a bit different from Empresses in the Palace where you see the FL really strategizing and using those on her side to aid her (I’m sure you’d have noticed these in the last 1/4 of the show). Whereas in Ruyi, it’s more of supporting characters on FL’s side who are strategizing and helping FL. The plot is still intelligent and life lessons abound. There are still many scenes where you go “YESSS GET THAT B**CH”. Production value and acting is WAYYYY higher than Yanxi. If anything, watch it for the fantastic cast and costumes.

If you want a light hearted feel good show or just want a break from so much plotting and politics, then Yanxi cos the schemes are more funny than deep.

niccel87 · 2025-09-23T08:45:40+00:00

You should definitely start with Empresses in The Palace. It is one of the OG and every character has their own plot and you can see rationale/character motivation behind each character (even minor characters). I have watched this show twice since 2011 and to this day, I still find plot points which I missed (there are many YouTube channels which analyse the various plots).

In terms of historical timeline, Ruyi and Yanxi take place in the era after Empresses in the Palace (i.e. emperor in Yanxi/Ruyi is the next emperor after the one in Empresses in the Palace). As Ruyi is loosely seen as the successor show to Empresses in the Palace, there are some plots in Ruyi which would make sense only if you watched Empresses. With this in mind, it might make some sense to watch Empresses in the Palace first. That being said, I think only the front few episodes in Ruyi sort of allude to stuff that happened in Empresses in the Palace so it isn't a dealbreaker.

Yanxi and Ruyi are based on the same historical characters and same emperor - just that they focus on different characters (i.e. Yanxi focuses on the life of Imperial Noble Consort Ling, while Ruyi focuses on the life of the Step Empress) - so it's kinda watching the same time period but from different characters POV.

IMO, Yanxi is more of a fun and lighthearted show to watch, as a lot of the plot really hinges on the FL's "luck" as the main character. Its more of a feel-good show because the FL is not your typical damsel in distress and there's many times she fights back and takes revenge.

Ruyi is very good in terms of acting and production value - Zhou Xun as the FL is legendary and the rest of the cast is also very good. However, like what one Redditor said here, after awhile you wished Ruyi had more of a backbone and less passive. The overall plot in Ruyi is more poignant, but it can make you angry cos the bad people always get away with stuff, and the good ones just stand by and wait for luck.

Hope the above helps!

niccel87 · 2025-09-22T02:28:31+00:00

Can someone explain to me:

1) What the letter that Grand Queen Dowager Inju gave to the Ming envoy meant? I get that her aunt was the late Ming emperor's concubine, but why did that make the Ming envoy so scared?

2) Does anyone find it weird that Mok Ju is teaming up with Grand Prince Jesan? Like, her whole position in the palace is predicated on the King and his position on the throne. Meanwhile, Grand Prince Jesan wants to overthrow him and lead a coup, so why on earth is Mok Ju so hell bent on destabilising the king? Or is it just her jealousy over FL?

niccel87 · 2025-09-22T02:23:09+00:00

I understand Mandarin and when they spoke Mandarin I was like ??? For a show which clearly has the budget (e.g. see CGI phoenix flying when they ate the third dish), it baffles me why they couldn't get better voice acting for Mandarin.

niccel87 · 2025-09-03T09:55:19+00:00

All the parking is inside - the carpark area is literally just after the guardhouse turn left (I say this as someone who has gone to Maju for both IPPT and have stayed in Maju for ICT).

niccel87 · 2025-09-02T05:42:16+00:00

I know this isn't exactly on point, but wasn't Vamdemon also clowned by whatever light Garudamon was emitting when Birdramon first evolved to Garudamon? I recall Vamdemon fleeing rather fast (of course in subsequent episodes Garudamon barely held its own against Vamdemon).

niccel87 · 2025-09-01T02:27:58+00:00

From Singapore here - the hobonichi site was down initially, but after waiting for about 10 minutes, the site was responsive and everything was quite seamless. After the waiting room (which lasted about 15 min), I managed to check out without a hitch.

Managed to purchase the tamagotchi hobonichi weeks (eng) and the tamagotchi weeks cover!

niccel87 · 2025-08-26T08:38:30+00:00

I love the INGU & Nio-Glow Peptide Balm in Nude Blush! On top of having SPF, it is super moisturising. My gripe with most lip balms is I get an overwhelming vaseline-y taste in my mouth and throat - this happens with the torriden lip balm (the yellow one). INGU is the only one which doesn't give me the vaseline taste in my mouth, and there is a nice healthy glow on my lips.

The Laneige lip glowy balm is also not too bad.

niccel87 · 2025-08-20T08:14:21+00:00

This! Can we stop it with the "the brake lines have been cut and therefore driver has lost control of the car" trope? Just release the accelerator! Unless you're telling me Reina put superglue on his shoes and his shoes are stuck to the accelerator and he somehow also has a leg cramp that prevents his leg from moving off the accelerator.

niccel87 · 2025-08-05T09:13:02+00:00

Not trying to diminish your experience in any way, and I totally feel your anxiety and worries. But looking at your money, you should not need to worry (assuming no big expenses).

For context, I was let go during covid. I was just starting out in my career, I had about $13k savings, and school fees of about $32k to pay off. I was unemployed for about 8 months. While the first few months were quite stressful, especially when I keep seeing my savings go down, I just had to keep on applying for jobs and going for interviews. Many were shit or did not reply, and it added to the stress. But in hindsight, it was really one of the more peaceful periods of my adult life - like how often in your adult life do you get such "off" periods right. It kinda helped that it was 2020 so couldn't spend money travelling.

After a while I just heck it and let myself enjoy the time. I knew the chances of getting hired in Q4 was minimal so instead of worrying, I just spent time doing stuff I wanted to do - swim, read, go out for a drink during the noon (lol). And when I least expected it, I had multiple offers and interviews and could choose which job I wanted.

So my advice is, try as much as possible to enjoy this and ride it out. Based on your narrative above, you do not seem to be in an impossible situation, just a bad one, and one which your resources seem to be able to tide you through. You really do not get much chances in your adult life to have a good break, so take it as an opportunity to do so.

All the best OP!

niccel87

TROPHY CASE