Direction to the Pot Luck House Warming

Address of my apartment:
19, Blok F, Tingkat 3A(essentially 4th floor.... its complicated),
Arena Green Apt, Jln 1/155A Bukit Jalil
57000 KL

As shown in attached map below, the apartment should be very easy to locate, its directly opposite the stadium nasional, just down the road from Technology Park entrance.... if u see apt blocks in front of stadium.... thats the one. There are like around 6 blocks of apt.... with an orange/yellowish color scheme.

Directions:

From Seremban H'way/Bulatan lumba kuda: Go straight to Tech Park, Go up the ramp which leads to tech park, take a right turn (towards stadium).... my apt will be on your left.

From PJ: Various ways.... you can either use kesas or fed-seremban hway or puchong bypass(via LDP sunway toll).... very hard to explain lah.... i think its easy.... just know where technology park is.... and my apt is down the road from tech park entrance, and opposite stadium....


Map of my apt 

Pot Luck Event

Pot Luck is on this Saturday,24/12/05 at my apartment, 2 pm. Confirmed people coming from elly's emel):

Elly
Hafiz
Jirah
Hakam
Matde
Chen

Everyone is invited... so feel free to invite anyone else....

PS2 aku dah modified.... tak sure leh main vcd ke tak.... For pot luck.... ill be providing drinks or ice cream and paper plates/plastic utensils....

Menara tan n tan here we come.....

My sister and my brother in law is coming this weekend.... I think im gonna spend most of the weekend with them.... the potluck thing i was initiating would have to be cancelled I guess....

Had my first ever futsal session just now.... and I think I managed to not make a fool out of myself. I am not blessed with athletic abilities.... the only sport that I can play decently is badminton.... and football is the worst. i have tried staying away from futsal at Komag.... now since other people are so gung ho about futsal... might as well join for the sake of getting together. As usual... it came to a point where I became the keeper.... when you become the keeper.... most prob ur the most useless member of the team..... looking at the brighter side.... i am so positive these days its not funny...I burned some calories. It has been months since I had any form of physical activities. I know tomorrow my whole body will be aching....

Next three weeks... we will have training at menara tan n tan. 1 more day of nothingness at the office, to go.... For the past 2 weeks at the office, I have not doing much... read all the blue prints, and tried all the coffee already.... it is time for free food again....

King Kong

It is very easy to dismiss the new King Kong as another "Godzilla" (hmmm... the trailer also looks kind of cheap and too cartoonish), but the difference here is Peter Jackson. He made 3 top grossing academy award winning movies that became instant classics.... hence I have faith in him.

So far... it has received raving reviews.... CNN.com calls it "an Instant Classic" and "In a class of its own". AFI listed it as one of the top 10 movies of the year.... and tomatometer gives it a 86% freshness rating, which is good enough.... I am definitely sure this 3-hour epic (yes 3 hours..!) is well worth 11 bucks!

Got my PS2 modified already.... the thing has become useful again.... been playing WE9. Its too early to say how good the game is, but one thing for sure, it is better than WE8.....

Jom lepak rumah aku this weekend.... have a pot luck or something. We got a fridge already... food is welcome..... anyone?

The constant gardener

Someone mentioned about wanting to watch "The Constant Gardener".... I thought no one would want to watch something with that as the title.... the title is just wrong. But actually, to my surprise the movie is actually really good... First of all it does not concern gardening.... its mainly about a group of people investigating the wrong doings of drug/pharmaceutical companies in Africa... and how Africans are used as guinea pigs and discriminated... whilst those companies continue to make huge profits.... I don’t know if this is what happening right now in Africa.... But it is believeable indeed.... and this brings me to this issue of whether it is right for me to work at a tobacco company.... This movie could be an eye opener to some.... tobacco is controversial, but at the same time, other mnc’s are no angels either.....

And I am really looking forward to watching this new soon to be released movie titled "Syriana".... its supposed to be about oil companies doing all the wrong things to make huge profits....

Narnia was such a dissapointmnt for me... Maybe it was me expecting too much of it. But it was still entertaining though... though more suitable for children. There was not a single drop of blood in the movie.

Free wireless internet??? .... hmmm

I am connected to some netgear wireless signal.... dunno from where, but it works and I am connected to the net...!!.... wireless free ke apa.....

Last weekend went back home for my sister's wedding. what wonderful event that was.... albeit a bit kelam kabut. Not too bad for us first timers. But the tok kadi was unbelievable. He was like one hour late, and everyone had to wait for him...... But nothing was gonna spoil no one's mood that day. The akad nikah on saturday was kelam kabut due to tok kadi, while on sunday the kenduri itself was mayhem bcause there were too many ppl and the catering ppl were so slow like theres no tomorrow.... our neighbor was kind enuf to open their house and let some of our guests in.....

My job was mainly as the driver of the pengantin car, penyambut tetamu and to give out bunga telur..... I nearly lost my temper with those catering ppl.... guests waiting for tables to be cleared up, and there they were sitting around...

I think my sister looked really beautiful that day.... and apart from the tok kadi and catering everything went well.... One thing I learned from this, apart from what happens on a wedding day is that "bridal consultancy"(or more like bridal shop) is one freaking good business!!!

Personalize the experience.... managing expectations.....

Been attending trainings for the past 3 weeks or so.... but the most interesting for me was the business consultancy course. I never knew such a course can be so interesting. That was a really good course. But it made me worry abit. The course somewhat gave me the idea that consultancy needs so much communication and salesman skill.... and ass kissing. I dont have those talents, nor am I eager to posess such talents.... well just see what happens with this new job.

I have been assigned to a project team.... but training is still on.... until middle of jan. Im just thankful that I am not with teams going to freaking mozambique or zimbabwe and stuff like that.....

The most pleasing thing about this job is that I am surrounded by 44 people of the same age group.... that makes such a big difference. It feels more like college than work.... I have worked with old people.... and it was not easy at all.

I am back

Nope, this blog is not dead... yet....

Finally I am online after like a week+..... feel so disconnected.....

Had a wonderful raya holiday, after 4 years abroad.... reality kicked me when the takbir was on the surau loudspeaker.... what a good and wholesome feeling it created. Food was excellent.... gained a couple kilos along the way. Visited so many people... what a holiday.

In KL right now, still at my uncle's place. Should have moved to my apartment last night.... but there was still no electricity. Damn useless agent and owner... both blur cam cipan.

But I still want the apartment.... so I give them until Friday to settle everything. 750 per month at arena green bukit jalil, I am sharing it with lat fyi..... 2 rooms, semi furnished, with brand new nice furniture.... the furnitures are like 3 times better than those at home... Lol..... I feel like I cannot let this one go......

Oficially joined BAT GSD on the 14th... undergoing training for 2 months, first 2 weeks at parkroyal.... everyday fine dining... Lol.... add that with those raya rendang and kari... omg it is looking not good for my weight.....

on why Monday is a good day

I always go to this shop for whatever photo errand needed to be done..... and I have just found out that they do digital enhancement to pictures. For my case, passport sized photo..... maybe I have repeatedly gone to this place because those pictures looked good.... they do the sort of things done to magazine covers and stuff like that. But on this latest occasion, this digital enhancement thing made me look like I was wearing makeup and lipstick..... way too much "brush up" and pimple deleting....

I have one more exit interview to go, and this is the official one with the MD and hr.... I have talked to the manager and director. I am trying to avoid HR people.... whenever I bump into them theyre like "why the @#@ are u resigning? Now I need to dig out those resumes again and find a replacement. What the hell is wrong with you?" I also need to clarify that I have no problem with anyone.... for some reason it is easy for people to think that there is some "rasa tak puas hati"......

Why does a resignation result in a backlash?.... people get fired, people get retrenched... promoted and demoted.... people come and go.

I am on annual leave tomorrow.... is it time for NFL action? Hopefully there is a game tomorrow morning....

apartment to let.. anyone?

Greetings all,

I am looking for an apartment around the Bukit Jalil area.... preferably near an LRT station and/or near the Technology Park Malaysia.... anyone got tips or recommendation... kindly let me know.

Thank you and best regards.

Blue Monday...

Anxious about tomorrow.... I didnt quite hand in my resignation notice to my supervisor in person.... he was in a meeting last Friday.... so just left it on his desk and drop him an email. He usually comes down to our office in the mornings. He should be no problem, has always been diplomatic and open, but I am not sure about the director.... hopefully there will be no exit interview or anything like that....

It feels good, so it cannot be the wrong decision. Next two week will be interesting, I am not that involved, but still there are some handover to do.... I wonder who will be in charge of my "son"... the facility monitoring system project. quite relieved to know that I will be dealing with those contractors no more.... quite unbelievable people. Just last week, a 50K "engineering and project management charge" quotation sent to me.... very2 shocking and ridiculous. I am more willing to pay like 50 ringgit for that kind of work.

Djibril Cisse scored the decisisve goal vs Blackburn... hopefully this will get him going and rediscover his scoring habit. He finally started a game and lasted the whole game.... in my opinion, he was improving as the game went on, and the climax was the goal. Liverpool need him to hit top form..... I think he will be important for Liverpool.

Cigarrettes anyone?

BAT has offered me a job. I think I will accept it. I have no doubt about this apart from the fact that they sell tobacco products. But then again, like the saying of the wise men lol... petroleum companies, or other companies don't do that good a deed to the world anyway. Its all about profit.

Hopefully I will not mess up again. I will go into the realm of SAP, six sigma and crap like that, and leave mechanical engineering. I am pretty sure I am going into the right direction. Anyone know about BAT GSD's office in Technology Park? (The one in PJ is BAT, whereas BAT GSD is a sister company in Bukit Jalil). Hopefully the place is beautiful with shiny glass wall and steel structures... lol.... and not like in some shophouse. Then after this, theres the not so fun part of tendering resignation(omg again), figuring out stuff like house, car, bills......

"Helena" by My chemical Romance, "All that I could...." by the Killers and "Your Beautiful" by James Blunt. My "troika" of fantastic tracks of the year. Can't get enough of these good stuff.

"El Bob"

There is no greater gift than the love of a cat...........Charles Dickens

You know my female cat that was going to be sterilised.... well she got flu that day and the vet's opinion was shes too weak for the procedure. We didnt get a second opinion, and she never got sterilised at all. And, yeah, she got pregnant again recently , and delivered 4 more kittens, and theyre not ugly, and they are all white; I would prefer more colours.

Her previous delivery produced 4 freaking ugly kittens; we gave 3 of them away(banyak sangat) and kept one. I thought of naming the kitten "Yoda" back then, because it was ugly and cute (almost) at the same time. It has got black fur with large white spots, much like the normal local tabby cat. "Yoda" was rejected, guess what my family call the cat: "Bob". Lol.... tribute to bob.

The Deluxe Containers

The rumour is that production people will displace us Facility Department people, yet again. This time, rumour has it that Facility Department will move into the so-called "deluxe containers", to be placed next to the main building. We all just laughed it off, laugh with a hint of sadness and despair, but I think its not that funny. We are 2nd class workers indeed. And this week, rumour has transformed into cad drawings. And just last week, we were supposed to have spanking new cubicles in a spanking newly renovated office...... all that dream down the drain.

I think that is the most feasible outcome. I think we will have "kontena" office. Space is running out, headcount increasing, building expansion on hold..... The Ironic part is, we ourselves are planning this, since we handle projects. Our motto seem to be "we must suffer to provide service to other people." The only thing that we can do is to look for the most luxurious containers, or the "deluxe containers", as the vendors say it. The only way out is if there is a safety issue....

Why Liverpool lost.....

1 Ramadan falls on oct. 5, Wednesday. So it was announced on tv, by the "penyimpan mohor besar...." It has been 4 years since my last penyimpan mohor experience.... it felt good indeed.

What can I say, the premership is turning into a 1 horse race. I predicted Liverpool to kick Chelsea's ass, a defeat that would see Chelsea lose 3 points, shatter their winning habit and give confidence to the usual suspects. It was bound to not happen...

Unfortunately, Liverpool have this player called Djimi Traore. Ive never liked him, I have written bad stuff about this guy. I wrote about him standing 6 feet tall, being outjumped by midget Fabio Cannavaro in Champs League quart final. He can do worse than that, as proven in last night's showdown.

I have no idea why he was playing. Heck, he should have never worn a Liverpool shirt, and the fact that Benitez wanted him to stay after last year's joke performance baffles me. I think Stephen Warnock was injured, but I would prefer Djibril Cisse playing at left back to Djimi Traore. By the way, Cisse is a good player and he is welcome at Anfield all the time.

Djimi Traore is a special player. He has this charisma. You look at his face and you think "omg dia ni mesti nak buat lawak". A quality he shares with players such as Mickael Silvestre, Philip Neville, Gary Neville(to a lesser extent), Jerzy Dudek..... you get the picture. Do not get me wrong, these players posess football talents. But the big problem is the membuat lawak part.

There is no way that Liverpool can match Chelsea if they do not rely on defence. However, defence only works if you dont commit mistakes, and after Traore's tackle, the floodgates opened. I dont know if Benitez changed tactics, but Liverpool attacked more after chelsea's goal. They should not have, and that's why they conceded 3 more.

Fantasy football

Lets play fantasy football: http://fantasygames.espnstar.com/football/football_index.do?operation=logoutuser_football

I have a team already, but I forgot about it and it was sort of neglected until they sent me an email as a reminder. So, my score is already screwed up. But this is still fun, playing team manager, though they give away prizes to top scorers. The astro pundits each have their own team.... and they have their own so called celebrity league. Surprise surprise... mr Paul Masefield is leading.

The other night, was clicking the remote away when stumbled upon a rerun of NY giants vs San diego chargers game, and that was my first american footbal game since I left ann arbor. Though didnt watch the whole thing, the giants were staging a comeback when I decided its running late and time to sleep. Also witnessed one awesome catch made by jeremy shockey.... omg what fabolous catch, and that reminded me of american football's greatness. But it is so sad to hear the wolverines are at 2-2 right now..... I mean sad but not shocking at the same time. For me, Braylon Edwards is to the wolverines as Theirry Henry is to Arsenal, and he left a humongous gap indeed.

Die Chelsea, die!

I think I have been very prudent with money since started working, because I value it more. But in college, I bought some useless things. On the top of the list is the sony discman that cost me like nearly 200 bucks. I cant believe I bought that crap, in freshman year. It is a quality product, but the problem is that its overpriced and I bought my ipod like a few months after I got the discman. So, never used the discman since. The motorola walkie-talkie is quite useless too. It is there on my desk collecting dust. I think I only used it like twice, when I called epol/jun to come over to my apartment to "winning". Yes, they bought the talkie also, but it was on 50% off, quite hard to resist.

But the other day, while strolling around in a bookshop, killing time, waiting to pickup my sister from school, I decided to buy a FHM. Wah, the stuff in the magazine would make anyone drool(this is open to interpretation). I think I have been so disconnected to the gadget world. I only knew ipod nano is out like today. I think my prudent spending is largely due to a disconnect to product marketing. I think I also have a watch fetish. Man, I wish I could have one of them tag heuers...

I predict chelsea's first loss tonight to Liverpool, the team that last beat them. A romantic prediction, isnt it? Another sleepless night it will be, and tomorrow morning I am off to KL for bats interview. Hopefully I can get some good sleep in flight. Anyways, the three favourites for the champs league in my opinion are chelsea, liverpool and juventus. Liverpool because they have that "mombok" aura(luck, european champs blood running in them, the kop and bla bla)... and the other two because they are simply good.

career path

If I can turn back time, I would do this whole career thing differently. If only I was more optimistic and patient, I would have waited for a good offer instead of jumping into an offer and not drag myself into this whole jobhopping mumbo jumbo mess. I wish that I had the guts to reject job offers. I envy people who get many job offers all in the same time, and have the luxury to pick the best choice.

I wish that I applied to companies that I actually want to work for, instead of mixing them up a bit. But thats a good strategy for me considering my CGPA, pawe lain citer lah. And the not so interesting offers came first.... I think I had no choice but to accept, because I was such a realist. And once I had actually accepted offers, things would get complicated when more interesting companies came calling.

Anyways, I think I need to get out of my current situation. I think the whole place is in a mess, my department is in a mess, and I do not want to drag myself into this mess. I want to escape from the problem, sort of. I dont know about other companies or factories, but here it is chaos. Every request from production to us in Facility dept. is urgent. When every request is urgent, there is chaos, and something is not right.

I am in charge of energy conservation, every week they want me to update. And yet, they dont even have sufficient data of all the facility equipment, or any kind of documentation, or any kind of facility monitoring system. Can you believe it.... such a huge plant with no facility monitoring system? All the facility equipment monitoring is done manually, because the monitoring system broke down like 3 years ago.

Sometimes, when these people ask me to give updates, I fee like telling them " are you freaking stupid.... we dont have data, we cant analyse the equipment's performance... how on earth can we improve them?".... but the bosses are NATO's... No Action Talk Only, and they only want results.

I need more annual leave

I think I am taking this BAT (british american tobacco) seriously. Although it would be really ironic if I do end up there. Me working for tobacco company, hmmm.... and family opinion so far are reduced to comments like "haa nak jual rokok kah".

I guess I will be going to KL again, for the next and final stage. A few more hundred bucks gone... just like that. The final interview format for bat is similar to that of shell.... proposal, case study, group discussion and final interview. Shell's was from 8 to 5. Bat's is from 1:30 pm to 7. Hmmm... I have no idea how they are gonna do this.... everything crammed together.

The position is not engineering related, which is interesting for me. (no engineering=interesting). It is also a trainee position, management trainee, though to be exact its called business technology associate. I have no idea what that is.

Anyway, I am looking for a trainee position, because I want to get proper training. I think I will be better off that way. Currently I am huffing and puffing, and there is no one giving me directions. Everyone including my supervisor is too busy, and no one is willing to help. I am treated like I am not new and it is frustrating. They give me projects and no directions, and I am held fully responsible. Due to my lack of experience, I have overlooked some fairly important things while executing work. My worst nightmare is that I would mess up critical things, and be removed from the project. Now that will be a blow to your self confidence and ego.

Boiling point

Out of clutter, find simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty, lies opportunity.

I just cannot stand dumb drivers. Dumb drivers are those who hog the fast lane, and think theres nothing wrong with it. Plenty of them in Kuching. They think they are safe drivers. But they are actually selfish and single minded, and dumb. There are 3 lanes, and they go driving 60 km/h in the fast lane. Maybe they are just dumb and actually dont know traffic law. Sometimes, I feel like stopping these people and give them a slap in the face. Worse are cibai drivers, and these people actually deserve a slap in the face. These are people who for some reason drive slowly in the fast lane, and when you are about to overtake them, they speed up. Just because they dont want people to pass them, because kiasuness and/or cibainess and/or dumbshitness.

Knives out

I cannot wait for tomorrow. It is monday indeed.... and so the cycle will go on. Tomorrow will be the start of a hectic phase of work, for the past month or so I feel like I have been slacking, and sort of got a wake up call last Friday. Now I am nervous and anxious, and thats good because that means that I indeed have awakened. Having said that, I do not like the fact that all of a sudden, time is running out for me to complete this project, after someone like asked to do freaking extra credit to be submitted together with the assignment, deadline not changed. And all that done in a meeting with the contractor and vendor. I was like omg, "just do it".

I have seen Chelsea and particularly Michael Essien play quite a number of times, and I could not be more impressed by both. Chelsea should win the champions league this time, at least they have the pedigree, if not luck. Essien is worth every penny chelsea paid for him, and I will go to such extent: he is better than gerrard and Lampard combined.

Chelsea has gone to 6 wins on the trot, zero goals conceded. At the moment, the only team that I can see beating chelsea is Liverpool. They play similar style, they will cancel each other, and Liverpool with the power of the Kop and a slice of luck will somehow win.

mocha choca latte frappucino....

Today at work, I literally had meetings from 9 to 4. Freaking crazy day. At 4 o clock, I was so tired, I was just waiting for the clock to tick to 5. I was literally sitting at my computer doing nothing, staring at the monitor, right index finger clicking the mouse.... pretending I was at least doing something.....

We have this huge shutdown coming.... for the first time in like 3 years, they are going to stop production for like a week.... to do maintenance. The machines have been running for 3 years non stop, and now this huge miantenance work. They call it annual preventive maintenance.... but I was told that its not done anually.... the last one was like 3 years back. Luck has deserted me.... for the firs time, the maintenance will be done during raya week.....

People were telling me that I should bring pillows and comforter and sleep next to the air handling unit. Some say do not even dream of raya, as I will be at the plant for 24 hours 7.... and freaking cook rendang and lemang at the chiller plant there. Of course these people were just trying to scare me..... and I have confirmed with the boss that I WILL take days off for raya.

Are you kidding me.... I have not celebrated raya for the past 4 years.... nothing will stop me this time, even my job. They never mentioned this shutdown thing during the interview, and I never agreed to come to work on freaking 1 Syawal.....

Public service announcement: LASIK

To get lasik surgery done is like a dream for every bespectacled person. People have no idea how wearing glasses can affect lives. It is uncomfortable, annoying, physically restrictive.... we are handicapped. I seriously think that I am legally blind, because without my glasses, I simply cannot function.

Back to my story, the first time that I have ever thought at all about this LASIK was when I was at Sunway. This was when I stumbled upon a LASIK center next (left) to the pyramid. They advertised it as a miracle.... lose your glasses after painless 30 minute surgery... or something like that. And its somewhat affordable too.

However, I did quite a research on this back then, and found out what they didnt tell us. LASIK is much more risky than advertised. Complications are all too common, from severely dry eyes and astig to total blindness. The percentage of people who got blind due to LASIK was high too.... but forgot how much... Furthermore, if the surgery was successful, it doesnt guarantee that you dont need glasses. If I am not mistaken, 100% of people who need reading glasses, after LASIK, will still need some sort of aid(glasses) for perfect vision.

Anyways, my public service announcement is, if you think of getting LASIK done, do your research, and get a lot of professional opinion.

Public holiday = very good

If you have yet to enter the working world.... you would not know what it feels like to have a day off. Or even better, a public holiday, which means you dont work and still get paid. The feeling is freaking awesome. To state the obvious, we working people dont have mid term breaks, summer break and things of that nature. We have annual leave, and I have officialy 12 annual leave per year. I have been working for 2 months, and now I have accumulated 2 annual leaves. Thats how it works here.... 1 month, 1 more annual leave.

On a sidenote, we had a near-miss the other day, when one of those toxic containers(tong dram) was found to be expanded in volume because of the chemical reactions between whatever that was stored in it. It could explode, because it actually happened a few times already, but not explosion with fireball and stuff la.... minor one, but is still dangerous. Some clown decided that they were scientists and go mix chemicals like there was no tomorrow. I just thought that it was so funny.... when clueless people started to claim that "tong dram tiba tiba kembang....." like its a mystery...

Our days are numbered....

So how much of the stuff that I learned in college is needed in my current job?..... not much, except for 450, 395 and such.... those things teach you how to write good engineering reports and how to deal with people. Things are mostly new.

450 in my opinion was the closest thing to work..... I dont know about other groups, but our sponsors sucked and sometimes they don know what they were talking about. For example, they gave a requirement of 1 micron uncertainty for machining.... which looked so stupid, after witnessing how inaccurate the actual fixturing and machining process was.

I am experiencing the same thing currently.... people (aka boss or contractors) giving out wrong info and sometimes false hope. Sometimes the boss can make it sound so simple... oh there should be no problem, you could liase with bla and bla and bla..... contractors and their work ethics are stuff of legends.

Remember Netscape.... I read somewhere that they were pioneers in the internet world and the so called dot com bubble. They are considered geniuses, because they invented the browser, and without the browser, internet is not that groundbreaking and useful as it is today.

I find similarities between Netscape and my company, Komag. We make hard disks, not hard drives. We just make a component of the hard drive, and sell it to Seagate, WD etc. So, I can make sense of the fact that our company is thriving right now, even after filing chapter 11 just like 2 years ago. We could easily end up like Netscape. Microsoft decided to offer its own browser and killed netscape.... and IBM or WD can just decide to make their own hard disks.

Lets get musical

My entry shall be graced by Robbie Williams' words of wisdom in Rock DJ, maybe I should quote Hitzfm on this one:
"If you can't get the girl but your best friend can, it's time to move your body...."

I used to think that Robbie Williams is an awesome artist, I bought his millenium cassette, which by the way is a decent album. Taste changes I guess. Now I think hes just one "geezer". Geographical factors come into play too. Being in the US limits your access to British music. I think British music is so silly.... flooded with silly artists playing silly music. It doesnt come any sillier than that "crazyfrog" crap..... that is beyond irritating. I am not sure if its british, but for sure its european.

I decided to pick up my guitar again. The poor guitar has been sitting there in the corner collecting dust. I bought it during those jobhunting days when things could get really slow. I managed to teach myself 2 songs and some basic chords.... then lost my interest lol. I think I am determined to play again.... if only I have smaller rock hard fingers..... that could solve my blistering finger problem..

It is strange that I complained about not being able to use autocad... and now we are setting up an autocad station right at my cubicle. That means I will have to move though.... over the weekend the IT people will help me move my stuff. Nevertheless, I am happy with this news, an autocad station right here in our Facilities office can be useful and convenient. I will be sitting next to the window again, right behind our new safety engineer. I used to sit at the safety engineer's place for a while.... I have been pushed around indeed.

I had no idea the safety engineer position is so "hot", in our company at least. The salary is higher... but is not proportional to the increase in workload. The safety engineer's seat is so hot, many people cant stand it and just quit. But our new hire seems up to the challenge and very enthusiastic.

I think right now, I want to open a place in front of the waterfront for people to lepak and just chill. The place shall serve the best expresso and mocha latte and all sort of coffee varieties, with a huge stainless steel expresso machine from italy, on display for the public. And of course, we shall have other stuff like plasma screens showing sports and music, a pool table, Playstations strictly for Winning Eleven.... who is interested to invest...

Online therapy

So much to talk about. This blog is like therapy.... I can put anything that bothers my mind in here.... anything from serious stuff to the matter of absolute nothingness.

My superior enrolled me in this SPC course for three days since yesterday, and that sort of provides me with a legitimate excuse for not getting work done and not read those emails. I am not attending full-day-course and then take my work home. Having said that, I thought that I would never bring home anything pertaining to work, let alone staying up all night writing reports ME450 style. Yet, I found that impossible as I would never get anything done.

I think I underestimated training offered by a company to new employees. For my case, I never got proper training, they just sort of throw me into the sea and expect me to catch lobsters, when I dont even know how to swim. First day in office, I was given my job scope..... and then told to come up with some plan to reduce energy consumption by 8%. I was like... are you freaking kidding me....... I think right now the best way to handle my bosses is to sometimes ignore them, if not I will have too much to do.

However, the thing that annoys me the most is the way they supposedly "control" things here. Everything is controlled.... from engineering softwares, telephone access, internet access..... Right now, I still dont have access to the internet, I only have access to the company's corporate network. Right now, I have to do research using dial up at home instead of the high speed internet available at the factory.... that drives me crazy.... I can save so much time, they just need to give me access to use the internet. I can opt to not research and buat keje sambil lewa, but I am not that pathetic. Autocad pun nak control.... freaking komunis. Its not that we engineers do not need these things.

Talking about pathetic, the other day I was so gung-ho about bringing the streamyx home and bridging the digital divide in the household. Apparently, to my horror, streamyx is not available in my "Taman" because we are located >5 km from some Telekom wire or something..... I mean, I am not like in Kapit or Long Semaboh... or to a lesser extent, Serian or Sri Aman.... its Kuching, and no streamyx. No wonder the broadband penetration in Malaysia is only 0.5%.... TM is beyond pathetic.

Rush hour entertainment

Since my workplace is quite a distance from home, I get my fair share of HitzFM every morning. Thats like the only listenable station for me anyways. They have this ourageously annoying segment called "Dr know it All". Dr Know it All has this annoying high pitched voice, and he answers questions from two dumbass dudes who talk like Paul Walker in Fast and Furious. I am just curious, because lately I have not heard "Dr Know it All" on the air. I kind of miss it.... sometimes this segment can be interesting and informative if not funny.

Anyways, Rentokil is suddenly getting so much publicity. All because of news of their success in capturing one giant rat in some Pasar in Kota Bharu, or Norway rat as they call it. I have seen the picture of the rodent in NST, it is freaking huge indeed, and that alone is pretty scary. One medium sized rat can freak me out, let alone one as big as a cat.

Recently, the hitzfm crew pulled a prank on one of them pest control experts from Rentokil. The DJ spoke with some crazy accent supposedly southern... but it was done so over the top that any southerner from America would be offended upon hearing it. The storyline was that one Norway Rat got into the american's apartment, and freaked him out....

Sometimes when I got stuck in traffic, I listen to all these crap playing on the radio and they just make me laugh or at least leave a big grin on my face. In the early evening around 5 to 6.... Radio 4 have some interesting stuff too. The other day, the DJ'S asked the public to create the most creative roti canai. My favourite of them all was "roti besi", which comes in two styles, western and local. Apparently, roti besi western was normal roti canai rolled up like popia, and filled with viagra. And local is filled with tongkat ali lah.

EPL and weekly meeting

EPL is starting in 2 weeks.... how time passes.... the day that Liverpool entitled Champions of Europe seems more like 2 weeks ago. The summer transfer activities were not that interesting in my opinion. However, I think exciting times lie ahead. I think ManU will buy Owen and Ballack, and Arsenal getting Essien. Wah, that would be fantastical. If I am correct, ManU will be so much more a force than they are right now.

Quote of the day: "They are not the Manchester of before. If I were a player, I would laugh about it". (Karl Heinz Rummenigge, Bayern's chairman, on Ballack's ManU move talk)

I think its the other way around. If Rooney wants to move to Bayern, I would be more likely to laugh it off.

I was so puzzled when quite a few people in my department took a leave on a Thursday. I mean, why not Friday and get a 3-day-weekend. Then, I witnessed the cutthroat way they manhandled the Thursday meetings. No wonder people try to escape. It was just a shock to me, meeting macam meeting regim komunis. Whoever is presenting on a particular day will see scuds, tomahawks or molotov cocktails coming his way. Sometimes, you have people like the swiss or swedes throwing missiles at you, people who supposedly have nothing to do with anything.

Link Blogger.....nah

You Are a Link Blogger!

Your blog is more about cool links than thougtful posts. Better to be entertaining and breif than longwinded and boring!

What kind of blogger are you?

What link blogger.... I hardly post any links here.

Truffles

Do you know about truffles.... truffle the fungi, not the chocolate. I have always tried to imagine what does it taste like. Its always featured in iron chef and such cooking programs.... it seems to be the secret ingredient that can make a meal super luxurious and tasty. Today I learned from channel 11 astro that truffles grow wild underground, not cultivated and very hard to harvest (sniffing dogs help in harvest). I actually tried to look up in the internet before, and people acctually sell truffles online. i would imagine that truffles are like turtle eggs or shark fin.... something that is totally unique. I mean, I can eat turtle eggs with rice only and still satisfy my appetite, because turtle egg is like the most delicious egg you can eat. Not that I am saying eating turtle eggs is ok.

Q-life crisis

I think there is no such thing as "acting like an adult". From my observation, people only behave like an adult when they need to, ie in front of their kids. 40+ year old colleagues behaving like theyre 18, and its quite hard to believe that they actually have like 2-3 kids. I dont feel like growing up, and at this moment, the idea of me having kids is like Malaysia winning the world cup.

How time passes when we are preoccupied by things. Now, my countdown to the dreaded weekly department meeting starts, and this thursday is my turn to be the chairperson....!!!!!. The big boss has his own favourite target every week... whom he drill gurubesar sekolah menengah style.

So far, I feel like people was giving me a break, because I was new. Last week, the poor guy just stood there, overwhelmed by the "interrogation". I swear he was close to breaking into tears, it was a wonder the boss did not ask him to stand on the table, or give him a stroke of the rotan or something. As a matter of fact, a female colleague actually cried, and as a result, she is no longer the target. As things got complicated.... people actually started to backstab each other lol......

I think the whole thing is a joke. If he dares to target me, I will pull off my best expressionless face and act as if he doesnt matter to me, or retaliate accordingly lol.

Team Building

My whole body is aching right now. I have not been doing much physical activities, and then suddenly going to our "team building" session in Damai, which was quite tough. Our team got second last I think, but for sure we were not in the top three. We started off well indeed, we had the meanest war cry and the first team into the jungle. If not for the ridiculos way they did the timing, we should have been third. The rule was team that complete all challenges at shortest time wins.

The challenges were very "survivor" like. I think the toughest ones, which we did pretty badly in, were the blowpipe and river crossing. Blowpipe.... we were like having no idea how to blowpipe... so just blow lah. And river crossing..... trying to cross a small river on a small log, but with a catch, last in first out, and first in last out. Suffice to say, our strategy involved squatting on the log, and I wasnt the best squatter lol. I think i fell into the river twice and that meant we had to restart twice because of me.

But we restarted like 5 times. However, the ridiculous thing was, we got there before everyone else, so other teams that got there after us had to wait, but their waiting time was not timed. So while we were working our ass off tinking of the best strategy and trial and error, other teams were waiting, observing, resting and not being pennalised at all.

The kayak challenge was tougher than I expected. I thought kayaking for 1 km was like eating peanut, so I volunteered to paddle. But, we had 2 kayaks with 2 paddlers on each, and we had to transport all 9 of our team members from one side of mount santubong to the other side. So we made the decision to go on one trip, which means we had 2 or 3 "swimmers", or more accurately "floaters", holding on to each kayak. We were also going against the wind and sea current. After that event I just went kaput.

Job sucks

I think I am starting to dislike my job. It doesnt interest me at all. I am starting to think that my previous company was a better place. Despite the low salary, at least I would be travelling a lot, albeit only to KL, and money was no problem, so the company like to spend. I mean, I had a makcik serving me coffee and kuih everyday, and staff dinners and crap like that. Here.... its all about cost cutting and achieving "cheapness" in everything.

I think I need a new job, something more exciting that involves travelling in helicopters to oil rigs maybe... hehe. Damn.... failed at the very last hurdle at shell..... why was I such an absolute moron/idiot that day. I think I will go into denial mode, and believe that everything happens for a reason.

Friday is coming

Tomorrow is Friday, so we do not have to wear uniform and lunchbreak is longer....yay..... no need uniform day.... evokes memories at st joseph's.

Anyone know anything about salary package at MISC?

Of my job and my cats

I cannot believe, of all things mechanical engineering, I will need my thermo stuff the most in this freaking job. How could I not expect that.... its written all over the job title. All that compressor, vcc, superheated vepoah, efficiency crap..... I found all those things do not make sense. It is possible that I am digging my own grave.

Despite that, everything is not too bad. The most important thing for me is the boss, how is he like. Already I have given a project, due to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter. Not too bad I think. But my colleagues kept telling me, its only the tip of the iceberg, so be prepared.

My cat delivered 3 more kittens recently, but one went missing. So now, total we have 9 cats, it is like a nursery for cats here. Excluding the new kittens, only 2 are female. The oldest female, is going to be sunatted tomorrow, and after that impregnantable.

Good for her I think. Feed her everyday so that it will get fat and cute, only for it to get pregnant, deliver kittens and get skinny because of the whole process. After the sunatting process, I am looking to have the female cat lepakking in my room hehe. She will be cleaner/more hygienic without all that babies-pregnant crap.

In fact, I think the male cats should get the "job" as well. The reason I dont like male cats or particularly have them in the house is because of their "Territorial marking ritual". If Im not mistaken, by having them undergo the "job", they will not do that. Male cats are mostly annoying and kerek anyway, the female ones are more sweet and pleasant.

War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds is an alien invasion story through the eyes of Ray (Tom Cruise) and his family. I was sort of glad with that, if not, it would be like your typical alien invasion story, or an Independence Day clone. So, no military tactics, top secret high tech fighter jets, pentagon whatsoever. It was pretty scary though.

I think the first hour of the movie was brilliant. There were some loopholes. I wasnt sure why the van they stole was working... something about changing the solenoid. Or how obvious it was that a path was made for tom cruise to drive past stranded cars on the highway to Boston. Otherwise, the first hour was so cool that I told myself to forget about these minor loopholes.

The second half of the movie was not so great, but still good in my opinion. The scene with tim robbins.... the scene when ray decided to kill tim robbins was so weird. I dont like this mad man character at all.... it sort of took my mind off the story, and WOTW suddenly was a psycho drama, when it should stick to science fiction slash horror, in my opinion.

However, the most dissapointing thing was the ending. Everything that built up to the ending was good if not brilliant. Then, for some reason the shield that was protecting the alien tripods suddenly failed, and apparently men was able to defeat aliens. The narration at the end mentioned something about the aliens dying of chemical imbalance or virus/microorganism related thing.... not sure what it was, but that was weak.

Mr Steven Spielberg seems to be more relaxed these days..... his recent movies, like this, The Terminal, AI and Minority Report, are somewhat good.... but not really there, "serabai". Loopholes and cheesy/corny stuff all over the place. How great WOTW would turn out to be..... if spielberg made it with the intensity and accuracy of Saving Private Ryan or schindlers list. Or in other words, put more thoughts into it.

However, I think WOTW is very entertaining, sleekly produced with superb special effects and production, and I give it 4 stars out of 5.

I got my "clean shoes" today.... kasut pallas.... no kidding, yes those white canvas pallas shoes worn by us during the school days. I thought I would be getting white adidas sneakers..... some people got adidas and some pallas.... god dammit. But wat the heck..... bukan pakai kat luar pon.

I have yet to decide on the best route to work. I got three choices, the bako causeways, new bridge or satok bridge. I think it is a two way race between bako and new bridge. Satok bridge will lead me to the city centre..... so there could be some traffic problems. But the other day I tried satok bridge and the traffic was surprisingly pleasant.

The bako way is not a problem traffic wise.... but have to go like extra 15 km. So the new bridge would be a no brainer, if not for the 1.50 toll.... which will be increased to 1.70 I heard. I know, to KL people, 1.70 is nothing. But we sarawak people, with such road standard... dont you dare charge us no freaking tolls.

The new bridge should be the shortest route, and Bako definitely the longest. But not sure which is the cheapest. I guess the choice of route will depend on how early I leave my house.

Leave house at 7, back home at around 6. Work feel like consuming my weekdays.... I am always looking forward to the weekend.

New month, new company

The electronic/high-tech industry is so not for mechanical engineers. I think ME people here at my new company are second class citizens, while EE and other computer related engineering are the "glamor" people . White-washed floor, ceiling and walls, clean rooms, dust free, bunny suits, people in scary white suits...... we have no business here. I think this place somewhat reminded me of EECS building or something. Actually it looked more like a top secret lab slash research facility at first.... pretty scary.

This is such a departure from my previous company. Here, its very open(communication), and we have a uniform. Grey polo shirt.... pretty ugly actually..... and clean shoes. I havent gotten my shoes yet.... so now I wear shoe cover every day. We really look like "mat kilang" or "minah kilang" regardless of position. Whereas previously, we had to wear long sleeves and tie at the hq, and casual only at the site office. I actually like dressing up.... you feel important and people actually treat you better lol.... in my opinion. The good thing about the uniform is..... no need to worry about wearing the same shirt everyday or buy new shirt.... hehe.

Lunch break is only an hour.... so I cant go back home for lunch.... which means I am eating out every weekday. The rule of thumbis .... eating out is expensive, ceiss. Lunch break is also quite a big deal.... you have to find a "geng" to have your lunch with. If you call your colleagues with the title "uncle".... it can be tough to find a lunch geng..... have to go to other departments to find a geng or something.

Yesterday, quite a few people suggested that its a good idea to have lunch outside instead of at the canteen.... this morning I concurred. Which is much more expensive.... because a full meal at the canteen costs like 1.50.... full meal, not nasi with tauge or things of that nature lol.... with chicken and everything. But cheap for a reason....

I have Friday off

Can't get enough of tennis right now, especially when the wimbledon is into its last few days and players are playing superb unbelievable awesome tennis, watching wimbledon semis is almost like watching world cup semis. I thought Venis looked good, but man... last night she couldnt be better. Maria played well, but venus was just too much for her and flawless. I am rooting for Venus Williams, because she had such rough times these few years.

Found out at elly's blog that umich is second in the ME rankings...... I thought we were first already?? We got first place didnt we? Regardless..... I have been saying that during interviews..... that umich is the best ranked ME school, even better than MIT lol. And I have been saying that quite a few times..... to defend myself from cheap attacks from the interviewer. Interviewers like to attack my weak cgpa...... and compare it to my SPM results. And accuse me of "enjoy dan main2" at umich, living off past glory, and lazy, and things of that nature.

The accussations were not really baseless, in fairness, I could have done better..... but they were not justified either. Are you freaking kidding me.... comparing umich to SPM. That is like comparing wira to mercedes benz...... there is no comparison, because these are two totally different things. SPM..... u dont go to school and study yourself, and still score I think. There is no way, it was impossible that I could achieve my SPM results at umich..... especially when I found out that I despise engineering lol.

Wimbledon Fever

The other day, Andy Roddick was playing this unheralded italian, and he almost lost. I am no roddick fan by the way. This guy has so many weapons and somehow never fully utilised them I think. I mean how can you not win Wimbledon with that kind of bullet service? There is more to wimbledon than just that of course..... but service is such a big factor.

So this Italian reminded me how gorgeous the one-handed backhand is in tennis. It suddenly occured to me that not many players master this technique. Federer is one.... but he's the master of everything. And of course Justin Henin, who has the best backhand in tennis. I cannot name anymore players with one-handed backhand. So I guess you are either born with the skill, or not. And I used to be able to do this .... the one-handed backhand.... LOL.

Anyway, this year's wimbledon reminded me of many things. I saw Lindsay Davenport's match last night..... how good are her ground strokes. I am picking her over sharapova to win it this year. Venus williams also look so good last night. Federer to win it again maybe..... he is just a class above everyone else. Since Marat Safin is already out, who I think is the second most talented player after federer..... what is left is roddick, I guess..

omfg WTH was that.... ?!

Finally, I got online. Connection at home back to normal, after apparently "cut" over the weekend. I have long suspected someone didnt pay some bills..... but that allegation was "categorically denied" by the "party" concerned. I guess I was right all along.

Into my last week at the company..... last day is on Friday, and its official. I produced my resignation letter last week. The bosses were actually nice about it..... I feel bad and not happy with my action heh. Yesterday was the signing ceremony for the granting of funds for the company's projects.... such a huge event..... even the CM was there.

I was in Miri yesterday though, because shell called me again after they rejected me. However that session did not go well at all..... in my opinion. I think I accidentally/unintentionally rejected an offer from shell. To say the least, someone pissed me off yesterday..... so I returned the favour and make the person angry as well lalala. I feel like a dumbass, although I had enough of this shell flip flopping. It is safe to say that I will be working for komag for now.

At first..... when all this started, you know, the venture into the "real world".... all that matters for me was big bucks. Things can change pretty quickly for me, and right now I want to stick to a job and gain experience.

Hot and Tiring

The left rear tire of the medieval pajero that I usually drive to work exploded today. It was inevitable. The tires were bulging all over the place. Bulging because the protective layer of steel wires in the tire failed.... hence pressure concentration at said failure points. So bad the "bulging" problem was....... the stering wheel was shaking like crazy whenever the vehicle go over like 70 km/h. Apparently, the blown out tire and the front left tire were "bulging"...... the rear tire I changed with the spare..... then I had to fork out money to change the front set, and make the front right tire the spare. Total cost 420 for the two tires..... of course I am claiming it..... first paycheck pon tak masuk lagi.

I didnt know bulging tires would result in such circumstance. Fortunately I wasnt speeding...... if it happened along the kuching-bako "highway" where the lanes are wide but bumpy all over the place, where I usually speed like crazy, I am pretty sure that ancient machine would roll over and who knows what would happen to me after that. For that I am grateful. So I had the latter half of the day off..... dealing with the tires.

Two weeks into the job, didnt do much. But since the project manager, whom I was supposed to assist, is still away.... I am like the boss at the site lol..... bos bergaji kecik. Have been attending meetings, but for most parts, I was like the observer and said nothing, because I knew nothing lol. Introduced to so many people. And I am particularly bad in remembering names. The contractors and subcontractors, all of them so far, are your stereotypical contractor, chinese and rich. They always pay when we go for "minum". The one I met today was a communist. Not kidding at all. He spent 10 years in the Sarawakian jungles in the 60's. He was claiming that the sarawak gov gave the ex-communists something like a tender for logging in the 80's...... and the communists refused because they felt they already lived in the jungle and have seen trees for 10 years and enough already lol. And now all the sarawakian tauke balaks are millionaires, even billionaires.

My time here at the company is ending, albeit prematurely.... as interesting and promising the project is, and valuable the experience is going to be...... ultimately for me its all about money. If you already spent years working with big companies and accumulating ringgits over the years.... like most of the "big" bosses here, thats a different story.

coldplay's new album is out

After a few listens...... I think X & Y is a decent album. By that, I mean I am able to listen to all of its songs..... instead of just listening to 1 or 2. After the first listen, I thought everything on it sounded the same.... they sounded coldplay. I think coldplay tend to pick the more mediocre songs as their first single. My favourite album is still the first one, my favourite tracks being yellow and shiver..... having said that, I am fine with them not turning into weirdos and coming out with some electronic weird "noises"..... like radiohead. I would say it is a "safe" album..... and I am absolutely fine with it. Also.... I think the new mariah carey album is good too.... finally a comeback album.

From the muddy banks of the Sarawak river

Yesterday went to the project site with a colleague.... all the projects are in their initial stages. Our company owns and is building, among other projects, an independent oil terminal (IOT), a crude palm oil refinery, jetty and LPG bottling facility, and I am in the IOT team. Thats what we do lah.... and eventually we will generate income when we have shell and Petronas using our facility.

Basically site preparation and start of piling..... only the jetty for oil tankers is already physically there. The workers and contractors claimed they had an encounter with crocodiles..... again. Yesterday, there were two of them, resting on the banks of the sarawak river...... but not particularly large ones.... besar paha they claimed. Hmm quite scary..... but sarawak river was not known to have angry crocodiles.

Today, went to the site again. Starting on Thursday, I will be spending most of my time at the site office. Not so far from kuching.... near bako. About half an hour's drive. Today went there with my boss in his car..... one of the most uncomfortable and awkward experiences. He talked about me trying to "lari" to other companies all the way to the site..... I tried to restrict myself to yes/no answers. Apparently, the whole company knew about me trying to "lari".... even our project management consultant, the ogp people somehow found out.

Savvy versus Myvi

Savvy and Myvi, new models released by Proton and Perodua, almost at the same time. Similar models, similar prices, but very different looks. In my opinion, the perodua looks like a generic Japanese/Korean car, whereas the savvy looks like something designed and manufactured by Malaysians, which I think is not necessarily bad. But the Myvi is based on the daihatsu right, so of course it looks generic. Like toyota cars, I think all the "muka" of toyota cars look the same/similar, they look like the creator themselves. Savvy, in my opinion, looks more sophisticated and european, in contrast to the gen2 which looks like a hyundai and a bad BMW rip off. However, the rear end of the savvy looks a bit weird, looks like the behind of a hyena.

Sangap

Currently at work with nothing much to do. Read the whole stack twice already. Apart from that, played some solitaire and did some surfing. Seriously sangaps. My supervisor and big boss are away... to KL I think. The senior staffs seem to be away all the time. So now I have no one giving me anything to do.

Yesterday I took the whole day off to attend an interview with Komag, even though the interview was in the morning. Felt really good to have the whole day off. That had better be the final interview..... I already did, including yesterday's, 4 freaking interviews with Komag.

Cant wait for the weekend. Work is boring me already. However, my mood was somewhat spoiled, when informed about our staff meeting this Saturday. God damn meeting on a freaking saturday... and 25 bucks deducted from your salary for an unexplained absence. ceisss...

My Official Entrance into the "Real World"

Today was my first day at work. After being idle for like half a year, the notion of work left me with mixed feelings. It sure feels good that you are actually doing something, because that what we are supposed to do, work and earn money. At the same time, the thought of going through this 830-530 cycle monday-friday, makes me want to just sleep and do nothing.

As expected, first day at work, nothing much going on. I was given a cubicle, and a pc, but dont think they are mineor permanent. The makcik served me coffee hehe. They told me I will be spending most of my time at the project site, and the office is just like a "transit lounge". Not sure what I will do at the site or the logistics, but it sure beats working in a factory. My supervisor introduced me to everyone, and then gave me a stack of documents. I read them all. Besides that, I surf the net for a bit. That pretty much sums up my first day. A friend said that, during his first two weeks at work, he did nothing but read. So, I guess its just the way it is.

Just before lunchtime, I went to see my supervisor, and asked for unpaid leave to attend other interviews...... I hid nothing and told the truth. He looked expressionless upon hearing my request, but I could see in his eyes, twinkle of hatred. I was facing an angry and pissed off man. He had every right to be pissed off, if I was in his position, I would be furious. But I got 2 days off anyway hehe. Man.... I truly feel bad.

Wake up and smell the river

The other day, my Air Asia flight was delayed for 30 minutes. No, this is no Air Asia bashing.... I mean 30 minutes is nothing; expect that at all times; compared to what happened to my sister. She was delayed half a day.... and I am not exaggerating, at all. However, the seat on my Kuching-bound flight was much more comfortable, even though the table was falling apart..... screws missing and all that lol. Not that people use them anyway.

Next week I am supposed to start work. But I have interviews next week. I am not sure what to do. Not sure if signing the contract was the wisest move, because I knew I was not going to stay there anyway. Maybe I need to get leave with no pay..... or half-day leave, if such thing exists. Only a few days at work and already starting to dissappear and go missing in action.... I am going to make some people a little bit not happy.

Watched Kingdom of Heaven today. They were screening it for the last time today, and I didnt want to miss it. I think it is a good movie..... despite bad reviews. I am a sucker for movies with ancient people/anything ancient/wars though. I think the fight and war scenes were done so much better than anything I have seen in other movies. The only thing was..... they got it wrong with the muslims-praying scene. Having said that, they never got it right anyway, and it is annoying. People dont pray when azan is being called lah stupid.

Here is my list of some good movies that I have seen the past few months, in no particular order, and some are old ones, not necessarily released this year.

1. Samara (Angry deers aside.... this one scared the hell out of me)
2. Revenge of the Sith (Not really a StarWars fan.... but how Vader comes to life.... to good to be missed)
3. City of God (About life in the Rio slums.... simply stunning)
4. Garden State
5. Prozac Nation (We who went through stressful college.... can relate to this)
6. Mystic River (No, this is no wordy boring movie, this is fantastic, and Sean Penn doesnt overact, he is one hell of an actor)
7. The Station Agent (You can almost taste how good the food is, when the characters are cool with just eating, and no talking)
8. Shaun of the dead
9. Lemony Snickett
10. Pieces of April

There you go.... my guide to some good movies.

Interviews, wedding and wolverines

Currently crashing at Hakam's place, my flight home tomorrow is at 720. On Air Asia.... which is not that good.... because I paid so much. Tu lah last minute..... MAS fully booked sampai next week.... due to the start of the school holidays.

I went to MISC's interview yesterday, and petronas's today. Both interviews lasted like 20 minutes.... but there are only 2 rounds of interviews. Unlike some other companies which have like 4 rounds.... tiring and buat malas sahaja. Petronas's was a walk in..... I got there 40 minutes earlier.... and there were already like 50 people. Elly joined me a few minutes later. People were coming in droves.... good thing that I decided to come early, even though I had only like 2.5 hours of sleep. But the waiting was as expected, and we were also given a briefing and presentation about the company. Elly didnt make it to the actual interview..... she had to leave early as she is getting married like a few hours later lol.

Met some old friends(wolverines) here.... especially at elly's wedding. I must say the way they do a wedding here is quite different than in Kuching. Spent some time hanging around at the wedding .... got there early but left really late lol. A quite tiring few days it has been.

Anyway.... since I got rejected by shell.... banyak songeh lah shell nih hehe.... I am seriously thinking of job hunting in KL or west Malaysia. But in order to do that.... I thnik I have to stay here la. I have already accepted the offer in Kuching, after shell rejected me.... and starting on 6/6...... so hmmm...... cannot move here lah lol. I guess I will just wait for the opportunities and see what can I do.

SRD over.....

I just got back from the shell recruitment day(srd).... what challenging two days. Yesterday was for them to brief us..... then today the actual srd. So today we had 4 tasks.... a proposal, case study, group discussion and then a final interview in the end. Lets just say..... by the end of the day, maybe due to stress, or just tired..... people started to look like zombies. They only employ on average 20% of the participants during an srd..... I dont know about the chances.... but after I answered the final question from the dutch assessor Mr Wim during my proposal presentation....he giggled. So that wasnt a good sign lol. The shell headquarters is full of britons and dutch people. As I was finishing my proposal..... I told myself..... maybe I should treat this srd just as an experience.

Nevertheless..... it was a wonderful experience with 7 wonderful people. There were 8 of us today.... 2 Mirians, 3 Kuchingites, 2 west malaysians and a sabahan. And my hotel roommate, whos also from kuching.... was my senior at st josephs, 2 years senior. He already got his masters..... and also currently working with a firm. I found out that there was also a srd yesterday.... so there could be more srd's on other days as well.

It felt like we were on the apprentice(berangan)..... all staying in the same hotel..... everyone was analyzing everyone.... everyone thought the mirian girl.... who obviously didnt need a hotel room..... is a major threat. During the briefing.... wah popapopa in a super confident articulate way.... the guys were all intimidated. We told ourselves.... we will not be that harvard guy on the apprentice 2 who was outspoken and kenak hentam by the two ladies in trump's boardroom lol. But in fairness to her..... she was very nice.... and even gave us a mini tour of Miri and took us out to dinner. So I guess..... as a whole its a good experience for me. If dont get it... no rezeki lah.... apa boleh buat.

p/s:
-Thanks tipah
-elly.... kalau aku dapat shell... aku gi... kalau tak... takde duit lol

Badminton, football and unemployed grads

Triggered by recent viewing of some badminton...... there is some tournament going on...... I find americans perception about badminton truly disrespectful. Frankly, in my opinion, badminton has no place in America and no one in america wants to be known as a badminton expert. I read somewhere, by some michigan daily columnist I think, to stress that John Navarre sucked..... the columnist said that he could beat Navarre in anything, even in Badminton. Which is not fair at all, because I do play badminton and I find it fun. Nevertheless...... there are some aspects of badminton that can be improved upon..... to make it more appealing. Maybe they want to start with apparel. Why do they have to wear those shorts..... the sight of grown men wearing short shorts is plain ridiculous. Yonex has got to be able to come up with cooler designs. I know there are flexibility issues with shorts..... but you can make them humongous and stretchable.

The astro pundits...... these pundits have a special spot in my heart indeed..... the pundits and their never ending debate on whether or not Andy Reid should be classified as fat......fyi Andy Reid the spurs winger, with a left foot almost as sweet as Beckham's right. In fairness, no way Andy Reid is fat.... not with that kind of stamina. I think the problem lies in the spurs jerseys. Sponsored by Kappa..... they got those body hugging jerseys.... similar to those of Roma. The problem with Andy Reid is..... he must be wearing his jersey at least two size bigger..... and I think due to the combination of that and the body hugging material of the jersey and his stocky frame..... Andy Reid looks fat.

However.... a few days ago, interestingly another spurs player..... the egyptian Mido, came in late as a substitute. This time, theyve got video evidence..... a close up of Mido's mid-section area showed all that fat hanging and bouncing as he ran to the center of the field. Who could have thought..... a fat football player in the EPL.

Enough shenanigans. Next week, something to get me out of idleness and nothingness..... going to Miri. It has been a while since Ive been there, its one of my favourite places. Having a two day "recruitment day" with shell. What a pleasant surprise, how the heck did I got through the first round of interviews. I sucked big time during the first interview, which was done over the phone. Phone interviews, for me..... suck, I prefer normal interviews. I think I am in a similar position as Liverpool..... somehow got through. With that said..... I still need all the luck in the world and blessings for this..... but I am coming with guns blazing, the apprentice style.

For I am desperate. The biggest issue of them all.....bigger than mas stewardess attire.... 80000 graduates unemployed. Thinking that you are one of them..... that alone make me nervous. Today I read in the paper.... yet again the sad ironic story of an unemployed graduate. A female mechanical engineer graduate, from Pahang I think. She has been unemployed for 2 years..... has been attending countless interviews..... now she is helping her father at the stall.... making fried kwayteow, and her specialty is fried kway Teow with cockles.

Kotakku hancuss

Most encounters with west Malaysians, only males so far, kidding or not, or just too shy to ask properly or whatever...... they would ask me about gambir. To tell you the truth, I think sarawakians do not care about no gambir, at least to my knowledge. It is weird that people ask about this gambir, as I had never known that sarawak is known for its gambir. Are people being conned by sarawakians or what? Nevertheless...... if you seriously want gambir, let me know.

The other day got my pc fixed.... god damn power supply cost 150 bucks..... the other day the amoi said its only 50 bucks, apparently the cheap one is not compatible. Was I conned or what.... as usual, I had to insist I am no chinese, and do not speak chinese. Sometimes... even malay people speak malay to me with a chinese accent.

I blew the power supply.... no lightning thunder power surge whatsoever.... I changed the voltage back to 115V..... as I forgot I already switched it before.... what a moment of zero iq. My monitor the other day, one half of the screen was discoloured.... but remarkably, the defect has all but dissapeared. My workhorse accusync monitor is self healing. I got that thing during freshman year, and it shows no sign of aging..... what a bargain..... nothing beats a 19-inch flat screen crt. I still prefer flat crts(including tv) to those panels..... they are great especially for entertainment..... watching movies.

Champions League final: Liverpool vs Milan

Is it a goal... or is it not? Luis Garcia said it went in..... but of course he would say that..... I agree with jose mourinho..... the linesman scored. After further reviews by astro's so called football pundits.... including numerous replays and the use of hawk-eye technology(sounds so familiar.... i think they use this in tennis).....the pundits say it didnt cross the line. With sheer luck on the side.... as well as super negative, mistake-free tactics..... it would be a wonder if Liverpool dont win it this year.

A victory.... ignoring whatever ugly tactics employed.... is welcome. After all, we the supporters have suffered too much..... so much that sometimes I ask myself why the heck am I supporting this club and watching their games. A Liverpool side of this generation, time and time again.... have presented the faithful Kop with utter rubbish. Milan Baros doing absolutely nothing in 3 1on 1 situations with the keeper.... or Djimi traore outjumped by Fabio Cannavaro, who is absolutely not a tall man, at all..... the sights are all too common, it is a wonder how this side managed to beat Juventus. But to be fair.... Cannavaro posess some super spring in his legs...... indeed, but with that said, Traore has got to be the tallest man that can be outjumped by cannavaro.

Regardless of the outcome in Istanbul, my two favourite english teams, Liverpool and Tottenham, are facing some exciting times ahead( or, like countless years before, not). Theyve got some pretty good players..... and are in good hands. But first, we have to get rid of Jerzy Dudek. After witnessing him executing his latest "get the ball on my left side at all costs" manouvre..... maybe opposing teams can start build their team around just that when facing Liverpool...... pass it to dudek's right.

2-hour diesel queue+heat+pathetic aircond+stupid drivers=ROAD RAGE

Diesel smuggling/abuse of subsidized diesel price is such a big issue nowadays. Now we have a quota system for diesel. Yet, another fantastically stupid "solution" for a problem, in this case, by the federal government(specifically trade bla bla ministry). Not impressed at all by the stupidity. After all, a few weeks ago, the biggest issue in the parliament is about MAS stewardess' kebaya being to revealing and tight, too arousing for some MP's that they cant help it but to harass sexually. What sad, pathetic men.

These are trying times for us driving vehicles running on diesel. Last week, I had to wait 40 minutes, in the blazing sun, to get diesel. Thought that was bad enough. Today, I got insider's info, the highest grossing petronas gas station in Kuching is getting new supply of Diesel at aprox. 9.15 am. Damn fabulous I thought, I would go to the station 15 minutes early, escaping the queue.

Boy oh boy, was I wrong. Got there around 9, and there at the station, vehicles in a long line of at least half a kilometre, already formed. The oil truck just got there, and they only started pumping at around 10am. I only got to pump at around 11:15, by that time, the queue was as long as it has ever been. By 1pm, they were out of diesel. Many unlucky people who were queuing patiently, had to search for diesel elsewhere.

The minister who proposed this idea is an idiot. There must be other solutions. Why punish the innocent public, for sure those in the queue werent smugglers. Damn 2 hours plus in the sun to get fuel, freaking unbelievable. Cant imagine how other people, who actually have something to do, feel about this.

The car aircond was not helping at all either, to say the least, it wasnt cooling. This aircond is like a cold blooded animal, if the temperature outside is lower, it works fantastic..... if its scorching hot, it blows almost-hot air..... how irritating is that. Furthermore, if the car is not moving, for some reason, the aircond stops working and blows gradually hotter air...... maybe somthing wrong with the fan or sumthing blocked or things like that..... or maybe it is just old.

And, to add cheese with the whine, the same old story.... malaysian drivers. For me, I have no problem with younger drivers.... those who drive like lipas kudung..... potong sana potong sini.... as long as they dont meddle with my safety, I dont mind. But I have a history with old drivers.... all my accidents so far involved old people..... I find them having no common sense on the road, and having a very strange, unpredictable style of driving, to be polite. Today, I almost hit another vehicle. I must say I was not at fault, because he didnt use signal light whatsoever. There they were, the pak haji and makcik, stunned by the occasion, staring at me like I am a criminal ..... I could see their lips, pot pet pot pet.... muttering words, their genuinely innocent faces just like theyve seen a ghost....... what can you do..... a lose-lose situation. Now that wraps up my unusually long post.

what time is it.... it is makan time

Currently, I am filling the position of personal driver of the two bosses at home.... my youngest two sisters. I also accept calls from basically everyone...... luckily I havent got a handphone, not planning to get one for the time being...... picking up people from the airport, ride to the airport.... drop people at this place where parking is scarce..... and things of that nature. Not that I mind..... not that I have anything to do.

Earlier this week, I decided for the first time since I got here... to eat laksa Sarawak. Once you try... there is no turning back. Now I think I am developing a serious addiction..... every morning I feel like I need to eat a bowl..... same thing with kfc. KFC recently introduced curry fried chicken.... sounds good right.... I tried and it was feaking delicious. Also, a serious addiction to black pepper burger.... I think this a sarawakian novelty. Basically it is malaysian burger..... those seringgit burgers..... with added black pepper sauce. Very tasty indeed....sarawak black pepper is the best in the world..... even those used in cheap burgers are freaking delicious. There is no way..... to watch what you eat here in mesia.

Anyways.... we also have ridiculous food here. 3 ringgit teh tarik at the waterfront...... I dont mind paying 3 ringgit for teh tarik... if they serve me teh tarik in a fat tall glass mug.... complete with foam on top. But 3 ringgit for a minute cup.... freaking ridiculous. Add a few bucks and you can get something from coffee bean.

Also, the other day, in the menu it was listed.... 7 ringgit nasi pattaya with chicken, fish fillet, mix vege, egg and some more things...... wah I thought that was fantastic...... so much stuff in it.... of course what you get is the normal nasi pattaya, very very small portion. Then if you try to complain and ask the waitress... where is the freaking fish fillet.... she wouldnt know what to answer, and just leave a gaping mouth. You have to answer your own question, and say oh maybe they forgot.... just to get out of the awkward moment. My point is.... kuching waterfront food is a rip off..... and yet... people still go there.

Shenanigans

Interview question of the day(translation): Keje on site ni mmg berpanas matahari... awak tak takut hitam ke?

So I was called for a second interview with this company. It was supposed to be at 1030.... I was a minute away from going.....then they called and postponed it to 230. So I was there at 230..... had to wait 1 hour. damn.... wth.... for the first interview... also waited..... not that theres anyone around. Kepala aku dah berasap.... tapi sabar aje la.

Then they expect so much of me. Why should I remember how to draw a pump.... or know how to draw pipes the standard way..... wth is a standard way of drawing pipes..... or know what the symbol of a deflection....... or is it just me?..... I am not going to revise everything... then remember the formula and symbol for deflection..... so many formulas for deflection........ just open the book la. Then came the "hitam" question. My decision not to prepare much was justified. If I dont get the job...... couldnt care less.....

Anyway, last night, Barca vs Real.... wat a match that was. End to end stuff..... defence was nonexistent. Barca could have scored 5 in the first half alone...... real got three chances and scored them all. This could easily be the match of the year. Too bad both teams are out of the champs league.... I am picking Milan to win it this year.....either Milan or Chelsea.... and hopefully Chelsea will win at Bayern.

Liverpool menang

Liverpool were lucky, totally outclassed, the only class players were gerrard and luis Garcia.... 2-1 is very good, but that header could have been dealt with better. If they kept it at 2-0, maybe theyve got a chance. With the away goal, maybe they need some more players... I saw Alonso on the bench. He will be much needed in the second leg.

But to see the number of players mising: alonso, kewell, cisse, hamann, kirkland... all key players... if houllier was in charge..... maybe they are now in relegation dogfight. They were even outclassed by Bolton.... but somehow won that one..... and Bolton is not the classiest of teams..

But I never liked Milan Baros.... if he wants a transfer... just get rid of him. Against Bolton.... he had three 1 on 1 situations with the keeper.... and he did nothing..... I am not really fond of steven gerrard either..... he is a good player.... but he tends to do everything himself and end up losing the ball or trying too hard to produce the killer pass and end up kicking it in a cincai manner.... I prefer the way he plays for england.... since frank lampard is so much better a player, he is more in the defensive role and play shorter simpler passes.... and still score goals.

Operation Job Hunt

I am trying to bombard companies with my job application. There is no place and time to be picky.... anything will do. After the first job is obtained, then I can see more options. So far... I think there are not so much opportunities in Kuching, but less competition I think. Weh Hakam.... jom apply shell---> shell.com.

As an ME graduate, the dream job for me, and I think for any ME student is to be involved in anything Formula 1. That would be beyond cool. Doesnt matter what it is, even something in hapless Minardi is absolutely welcome. Even to be only the lollipop man is cool enough. I think they want at least a masters.... but the lollipop man or fuel man dont need masters degree.... do they.

Malaysia weekend review

Last few days, been doing nothing but eat and watch football and enjoying the high humidity and the equinoks. If you were in KL last weekend.... sure happening gila.... so much thing going on there, with the F1 and stuff. Last weekend whole family was here because of the school holidays... so much supply of keropok lekor and keropok of many varieties and bbq for my sisters bday and things of that nature.... my sister and aunt got some authentic keropok stuff from Kuantan or something.... Damn.... keropok lekor is my faveret thing.... keropok lekor and football.... now that everyone has left or leaving or going somewhere.... it is my job to eat them all.

The thing about AirAsia... they advertise about 29.99 flights KL-Kuching.... but if you go and look online.... there is no such thing. Rip off gila.... maybe if you go book very much further in advance.... like 6 months before.... you can find such thing.... but still it is 1 in a thousand thing. Still.... I think it is a rip-off..... iklan macam banyak je.... "travel in march to may at 29.99" and stuff..... tapi mahal je sampai 200+. I think you are better off using MAS.... if you can find super saver flights, you are better off using super saver at all times..... save you the delays, bad food and stuff. I have heard stories of Air Asia delaying flights because the plane is not full... so they combine the flight with a later flight.... ghetto gila.

P/s: Wann.... barang kitak dah kamek berik ngan adik kitak....

Back in Mesia

Biar betul KLIA nye wireless nih... bagi free je connect. Anyway, I have another 3 hours before my final flight to Kuching. By now, I could not feel any filthier. One remarkable thing on my flight... according to the girl who was at one time sitting next to me, who also happened to be in Hill's "posse", Lauryn Hill was on my flight... but in the first class of course. But her "posse" were all over the place... guitars and musical instruments everywhere. Lauryn Hill is going to KL to perform in some Tsunami aid concert. I was lurking around... during transits, maybe I could snap a pictture or something... but of course the singer was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was at some golden lounge or something.

My flight was alright, despite the pilot repeatedly saying that he was expecting major turbulences. Yes not once, many times he announced that. Which was very strange, because you dont want to hear that. But strange enough.... no turbulences whatsoever... only common shakiness, very strange pilot indeed.

That was the first time I go the Atlantic way, and strange enough, we stopped at Stockholm. What is MAS doing there, I have no idea... the airport is as big as Kuching's.... maybe small landing fees. I have no idea that many Swedes go to Malaysia. So there were vikings and blond bombshells all over the plane and also Lauryn Hill's posse.

And so this swedish dude was talking to me about how huge winning eleven is in Sweden/europe... yes I was still talking about W11, something in common. So much easier talking to europeans. Apparently he got second place in a tournament.... the first place prize according to him is a ticket around Europe and some cash. His favourite formation is 4-3-2-1, using Argentina, which according to him is the best team, with the backline defending further up the pitch, and applying pressure to the ball. Very interesting. I dont think so, I think their defence is very bad. I prefer England, absorb pressure, throw some long balls, lightning quick counter attack, utilize heskey to head balls and owen to run around hehe.

Excerpts from a mesian newspaper

"The day before yesterday, the SMK Durian Daun boy could not sleep well after learning that his name was not among the top scorers listed in the newspapers."

"Then it's off to school for half the day. After returning from school, he cooks lunch and dinner for his mother and younger sister before finishing his homework and revising his lessons."

"While waiting for the SPM results, he baked cookies..... and painted the house."

"....who was the president of the Red Crescent Society and chairman of the chess club, also bagged the best student and model student awards in his school last year."


I just cant help it. I am just not in a good state of mind. The first excerpt is just it. It just shows a pure moment of patheticness(hmm such word?). What freaks. 16AI's...17A1's.... I hope the ministry of education make the limit of number of subjects infinite... haha amik ko. Go chase the records... make the sky the limit.

Dont get me wrong. What good and noble deeds... studying hard and getting results. I am not hating nor am I jealous. Maybe I am... but that is not the point here. I have long accepted the fact that I am dumb by umich standard. Come on..... it is just pathetic. But children.... I am not sending any kind of message. This is not an excuse for you to not study. There is a thin fine line between studying hard with dignity, and studying hard and losing all of it.

Mail business in NW

You are pissed off... stressed out... it is cold and snowing, then you open the mailbox and there they are.... a huge stack of mails... all spam. Do you know how annoying that is..... if you live in NW you know exactly what I am talking about. Those spammers should be shot. Just install some secret cameras and catch these people .... and just hurt them. That is what I feel like doing. Or get their addresses.... collect the spams from the whole of NW.... and send them to their address. That will teach them a lesson.

If you are not pissed by these spams.... there is something wrong with you. It is annoying enough that we get spam emails.... now we get spam snail mails too. Then there is the issue of no trash can... or things of that nature around the vicinity of the mailboxes.... what are we going to do with the spams. I who actually care about the environment.... find it hard to just litter NW with spams. Most of the times... I would end up bringing them back to my apartment... which makes the situation worse.....most of the times it make me feel like crap and used.

You know what.... if you are those people who dont care... and just leave the spam mails where they belong.... on the green lawns of NW.... just go ahead. We have no business dealing with this crap.

Shenanigans volume 2

It is not hard at all to send me an email..... time of flight, transits, departure/arrival times. 50 words at most, if the author is abnormally wordy. And this travel agent.... "I will send u an email with your itinerary soon"... what is soon... never?.... soon my ass. I have to bombard the JPA bahagian Latihan with emails and calls, just to get this freaking email. And you know what, after that bombardment.... it only took like 5 minits for them to send the email.

The email was sent by a JPA person... where was the agent.... freaking coming soon email. And the ticket had been couriered to my address. I just hope it gets here soon enough. If it doesnt, wat the hel am I gonna do. Only two days left before the weekend... fingers crossed. I would rather go claim the ticket at the travel agent myself.

And I have no idea what is going on at the financial office. The Malaysians say one thing... the freaking midwesterners say something of total oposite. Wat the hell is going on down there. Freaking stupid retneks. Orang nak kasi duit pon tanak. Skema cam cipan. I feel like kidnapping the makcik at the sfo and dump her at the tsunami ravaged aceh. Nah amik ko nak ke tanak duit. Go rot in hell with ur skemakism.

Today I cancelled my International Health Insurance. Alan Benard is a pundek. I was charged 67 a month for that. When the hell did I sign up for that crap. Never did I sign for anything. Maybe I did not knowingly lol.... but I am very sure I did not sign anything. wtf is this... auto enroll or what.... I am so not over this... paying for crap.

Maxi Lopez and shampoo commercials

When Maxi Lopez came into the game yesterday, the first words out of one of the commentator's mouth was "Maxi Lopez could do a good shampoo commercial"..... or something like that. I am not the only one.

What a man to have the guts to wear his hair like that. That was beyond metro. I dont even know what that was... unclassified. Not only it was long, shiny and full of life... it was cascading. Maxi Lopez was doing layers to his hair. I wonder if he brushes his hair.... using a hair brush.... normal combs have no place in such gorgeous wonder. What could have happened if Lopez was tackled.... risking bodily injury to protect his hair from hitting dirt is utterly believable.

Such gorgeous strands of protein deserve a better body.... a woman. Men don't belong here.... we have no business meddling with fine long locks. One Fabio is crazy enough. Long messy crazy metal hair is one thing... long, cascading, gorgeous blonde hair is definitely another thing. Maxi Lopez was not even trying to look messy.... you know maybe leave his face unshaven... or messy hair just to look more mean and edgy. No.... it is all pretty in the world of Maxi Lopez.

Apu playing football pundit

As I expected, Mourinho got it done, Man U out of the competition. I dont think Frank Rijkaard have the goods to win the champions league. Yes it seems crazy, lookin at how great they are playing, and winning the Spanish League. But Barcelona have been playing like that since forever, they only lacked the killer instinct. Now that they have Ronaldinho, they can win the Spanish League. Chelsea's winning goal: from a header off a corner. The way Chelsea were winning headers averywhere was a joke.

How about that Ronaldinho goal. Ronaldinho is superhuman. I am not even sure if Zidane could do that. If only ManU bought Peter Cech/a good TALL keeper.... I think Ferguson could have won another champions League after that 1999 miracle. I recalled many mistakes by Barthez in latter stages. Crespo again scoring.... good to see he proved Chelsea wrong. Samuel Etoo missed a sitter.... he is the reason why Barca lost.

However, a person who could have been a factor was Maxi Lopez. He came in at 85.... big mistake by rijkaard. Should have been sooner. He is the designated saviour of Barca. The shine off his flowing cascading blonde locks alone could stun the whole Chelsea defence. What the heck was Rijkard thinking....

But most importantly, tomorrow Liverpool is playing, as I said, they will go through to the quarters. Again like I said, I know Liverpool suck big time, but they have every chance to win the cup. Leverkusen are no pushovers, I tell you Liverpool have always played with a swagger and confidence in the champions League. This is where they belong, they have the european cup champions' blood running in them.

My last words: Zidane handing off his mantle to Ronaldinho, gigi buffon doing the same thing to Cech, Arsenal will go out tomorrow, Liverpool will go through.

Ahpu the bookmaker

Chelsea vs Barcelona at espn2. 230 pm tuesday, dont want to miss this one. I think Arjen Robben is not playing, never seen him played before.... but Ronaldinho is going to be there... so no shortage of stars at all. But the player that caught my eyes is the new Barcelona player who scored their first goal in the first tie. Whats his name again... something Lopez, I read somewhere that barca just bought him last month. Flowing and cascading blonde locks, with a distinctive mystical swagger, scored a goal and provided an assist, he looked like a biblical saviour, reborn to save barca.

As much as I want Barca to win everything, I believe Mr mourinho will get the job done. I also think Liverpool can win the Champs League. They sort of know how to play in this thing. So my prediction: Liverpool and Chelsea will go through... ManU and Arsenal kalah.

Shenanigans

Why is it so hard to to book me a plane ticket? They dont surf around the net looking for deals... do they? Mine was supposed to be on the 15th, but they said that it might be delayed, or it could be on later days. (this is the travel agent talking)

That does not make any sense. If it is on the 15th, then that is it. You can't say "It is on the 15th, but it could also be on the 16th, 17th bla bla because it might be delayed". Who talks like that? What does it even mean? Are they predicting delays for my flight? Then... what would happen to my connection flights.. my luggages.. everything would be a complete mess.

Maybe what they meant was they have no idea when my flight is going to be. They requested for my flight to be on the 15th, then this so called agent would pass this request to her office boy, office boy pass it to another person... and so on. And no one really knows when the flight is.

To make it more amusing, I was asked to check my email regularly. "Just to make sure that you have enough time to pack you belongings and head to the airport". That is not good at all.

Of sushi, taco, oyster, PTI and Travolta's hair

Sushi and taco do not make any sense whatsoever to me. There is just no connection. Maybe the semi circle shape of the taco. But it still depends on the stuff you put inside the taco. If its plain taco with no fillings... I dont think so. Sushi just left me dumbfounded... no idea at all. Who came out with these things?

However, oyster is another thing. Being something that excites and QUOTE "exotic in taste" END QUOTE plus posessing remarkable similarities... its is written all over it. If you are lucky... you could find a pearl inside the oyster. It makes perfect sense to me.

Enough talking about food, it makes me hungry. Tony Kornheiser of PTI (PTI on espn 530 weekdays) solved the travolta hair mistery... John Travolta wears a wig. The PTI secret camera captured a picture of Travolta, with a receding hairline, on the highway to baldness. This is in contrast to the short military style hair he sported on Dave Leterman... and the long hair slicked all the way back at the oscars... just a few days later, on both occasions, his hairline was fine.

I must say Travolta's wigs are fine wigs, especially the short military style one. I bet it is ridiculously expensive. I couldn't tell the difference.... it looked real. How could you wear a wig... when your hair is that short like travolta's... freaking unbelievable.

Tiket dan Shipping

Entahlah dinna. Aku tak tefikir lak nak mintak kat MSD. Cuma kalau ko nak mintak dari JPA, kene mintak awal gile lah... lebey kurang sebulan sebelum balik.

Also, sape2 nak shipping barang... JPA peruntukkan 300-400 USD... so kalau nak shipping, a good idea is to ask for the money first.

JPA oh JPA

Flight aku yg diconfirmkan on the 7th rupa2nya tak confirm lagi. Travel agent pulak claim request for that flight baru dihantar arinih.. so takleh on the 7th, earliest on the 15th. WTf?? Poyos macam taik... confirm my ass. Kimaks I am running out of money and sangap tahap cipan... cilakos betul.

Anyway, Jirah... aku dah tau sushi dan taco tuh apa. To tell you the truth, I had no idea. Jirah.. kalau ko tak tau gaks.... gih urbandictionary.com carik. Aku ngan Jirah = pure souls lol.

Regarding Kissing Asses

I think the one promise that I made to myself long long ago is not to meddle in politics/public service. Not that I have any potential whatsoever. I think that you just need to kiss to many asses if you get yourself into those things.

Of course you will kiss asses as long as you are not the boss. But for me, I want to kiss the least number of asses. Maybe I will sell out and start doing just that.. kissing a lot of asses... only time will tell.

However, kissing asses did good things to me. If I wasnt kissing an ass, I could have been fired from my kuli job at M League. I kissed an ass too after I failed my second driving test. Ass kissing combined with sarawakian charm, I luckily got my driver's licence after failing the second time. Omg you know how embarrasing it could have been if I failed to get that licence.