Rootified's~根™

I'm back!

2010-11-23T21:22:00.002+08:00

Looking back at all the stuff i posted here in the past 5 years+, all the sweet memories, all the tears and all the random anyhow... It's like a record book of my life.

I shall continue writing. Because i have bad memory. And life's too good to be forgotten.

This is fantastic

2010-09-15T12:43:00.001+08:00

Buggy ride

2010-09-10T17:56:00.001+08:00

Sunset

2010-08-14T19:03:00.001+08:00

Fire drill

2010-06-23T11:49:00.001+08:00

Well. What more can I say?

Dirty pillow

2010-06-22T08:24:00.001+08:00

You know when I say their pillow is dirty, I really meant it.

Saturday morning activity

2010-06-05T10:33:00.002+08:00

Melaka Fencing Open!

In the driving range

2010-06-05T10:31:00.001+08:00

Rainy day. No sun, strong wind. Best time for some swinging action.

In the driving range

2010-05-09T14:46:00.001+08:00

Rainy day. No sun, strong wind. Best time for some swinging action!

Cup cake of Love

2010-05-07T14:31:00.001+08:00

What a surprise!

Birthday cards.

2010-04-27T17:50:00.001+08:00

One from my regional manager, one from MBMB.

The price to pay for....

2010-04-12T18:57:00.000+08:00

It wouldn't take long before my fingers start to bleed.

Kingtu Satay Celup

2010-04-11T16:21:00.001+08:00

Ppl que up until outside. This place is overrated. Too hot n less choice of food compared to competitor. 7/10

Eat hearty

2010-04-10T17:34:00.001+08:00

For tonight, we party in hell! (Oats, apples and some seasoning)

Shit happens

2010-04-09T19:05:00.001+08:00

As if my life is not fucked up enough already. This is great.

Massive nosebleed after workout

2010-04-05T23:09:00.000+08:00

Don't remember seeing any hotchick in the gym also...

Hardworking me

2010-03-19T14:24:00.001+08:00

Drive 2hrs here, free breakfast, meeting 3hrs, free lunch, drive back 2hrs. Go home sleep. Such perfect way to spend a friday.

Roasted Donald

2010-03-18T12:22:00.001+08:00

It's just... Wrong.

Omfg I've got straight A's!

2010-03-12T19:07:00.001+08:00

She's under so much pressure, that the good news make her look like she saw a zombie dog humping her high school principal. Poor thing.

Studying. Again.

2010-03-07T12:22:00.000+08:00

Fineprint notes. Ahh just like back in university.

Boring Weekend

2009-11-09T00:56:00.001+08:00

Fell sick and stayed at home for the whole weekend.

I got so bored that i finally cleanup and revamp my PC again after 2 long years. Despite the ridiculously low spec, this 5 year old machine is still kicking and pimp-able. It's got a brand new Alienware theme now.

Found this box of ciggy with one last stick during my room cleanup. Took a few shots out of boredom.

Road Trip to Penang * Photos Updated*

2009-11-03T07:14:00.002+08:00

Second road trip of the year. This time is a food hunting, sight seeing trip to Penang.

DAY 1

Woke up at 4AM. It's been ages since we wake up at this unholy hour. Took a quick breakfast in McD before leaving for Ipoh.

And this is the reason for waking up so early: Foh San Dim Sum, Ipoh.

They have shifted to this very atas-looking new premise few months back. Very the kopitiam feel. Seems like every other restaurants/cafes are all going into that trend right now.

Here comes the dim sum.

These dim sum are good, but i was expecting something even better since it's the "best dim sum in Ipoh" as many has claimed. Maybe all the positive comments on the internet has pushed my expectation a lil bit too high.

I'd say this place is really worth trying. It cost us RM30++ for a very filling breakfast for two. Value-for-money, considering they were really very generous on the ingredients...

It's all full with very yummy prawns!! Their Har Kaw is to-die-for. Definitely worth a try.

3 hours later...

Penang island here we come!!

Lesson learned after enter the island for 15 minutes:-
1. Roads on the island are very narrow. Has to be extra carefully.
2. Signal lights are just for decoration purpose. Nobody use it.
3. Red light means slow down and see if got car coming from the other side. If don't have, just go.

Then, we check-in to Tunes Hotel.com in Penang. Despite the stupid name (maybe soon everyone will work in say Beng Auditing.com, drives a Honda Chapalang.com and eat McDonalds.com for dinner), the hotel is based on a smart concept. It is strategically located in George Town nearby Komtar. There's a 7-11 downstairs, opening soon are another in-house mini mart and Uncle John Kopitiam. Within 30 seconds walking distant there's Coffee Bean, Old Town Kopitiam and 2 food courts.

Rooms are slightly bigger than my bathroom - very compact. Tony Fernandes promised a 5 star bed in a clean and safe environment at 1 star price, and they did just that.

Everything in the room are well positioned and it doesn't give any cramp or stuffy feeling. All the things that travellers don't need (e.g. sofa, TV, flask, fridge, big banquet of plastic flower in the middle of the room etc) are taken out. What's left is a super comfy KingKoil bed, a water heater with strong current, a KDK baby fan, a pay-per-use a/c, nice mural on the wall and a useless tiny battery-powered safe to make you feel important.

We paid less than RM75 for a 3D2N stay for two. That is inclusive of the RM21 24hrs a/c credit, which we later found out is a waste of money cuz the room is cooling enough but since we paid for it so just on the freaking a/c for the whole night and set temp' to 28'C WTF.

We then skipped lunch (stomach still full with dim sum) and proceeded to sight seeing.

Wat Chaiyamangalaram. The Thai temple that houses the 3rd largest reclining Buddha in the world

And the Burmese temple opposite.

Had dinner in Gurney Drive.

I've heard so many rumors saying that Gurney Drive is a hawker centre set up to con tourists. We decided to give it a try and well... to some extend it really is to con people one.

Paid RM6 for this half plate of Fried Oyster. Taste not bad but really don't worth the price, especially as we found out later, normal hawker meal in Penang would not cost more than RM3.

After dinner, we were so in shopping mood and went into Gurney Plaza. Only to find out it's a quiet non-happening shopping mall that sell branded stuff like naf-naf, topshop etc. Totally potong steam.

Got myself thoroughly wet when looking for my car under the rain. So we headed back to the hotel for an early rest.

DAY 2

Despite of driving for nearly 8 hours on the previous day, we were still able to wake up early and managed to make it for the famous roti canai in Jln Transfer.

The stall is just beside a busy road. People are taking the risk of being run over by some lesen kopi housewife driver, so it must be good.

And it was fantastic. Really. The taste is exactly to my liking. Shiok.
Price wise it's not so fantastic though. We were charged RM15 for the breakfast. Tourist price i guess.

After breakfast, we headed to Khoo Kongsi...

... just to find out that the place is shut down for some unknown reason. Damn.

We then went to Kek Lok Si and spent the rest of the morning there.

The last time i came here was 11 years ago during my primary school graduation trip. That was really loooong time ago.

Many things has changed in this 11 years. The world is moving forward and so is the Kek Lok Si Temple. It is now very commercialized, profit oriented and in certain occasions i felt like i was in an amusement park.

Everywhere we go, there are shops and stalls selling all sort of stuff. All ridiculously priced, in the name of "building fund".

They have donation boxes like this literally all over the place.

Even got escalator. At a fee, of course.

There's a marketing executive in each building disguised as a voluntary worker. They'd keep pestering the visitors for donation.

and they pay no respect to cute animal statue.

On-going mega construction project.

Get more donation for building expansion to attract more people and get more donation. Sounds more like a good business cycle for me.

It was already 2PM when we came down from the temple. Went straight to the Air Itam Market for this.

The friendly boss actually post for this shot. He was not taking any order at that time. Smile so happily some more.

This laksa...

... is so nice. So fucking nice that i drink finish the very last drop of the soup. If it were to be in my house, i'd lick the bowl clean too.

And it's so damn cheap i can't believe it.

I'd pay double of that price for a bowl of such heavenly laksa.

something new: chicken floss puff for snack while we were heading to Batu Feringgi.

The weather was fantastic and the beach was not crowded.

We walk bare-footed on the beach, enjoy the breeze and soaked our toes in the sea water for a bit.

Then, we took a table by the seaside, ordered some drinks and food, sit back, relax and talk and joke non stop with Hotel California playing in the background.

That was The Moment of the trip.

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Coming back from Batu Feringgi, we spent some quality time in the Toy Museum.

Apparently it is the largest toy museum in the world and all the toys are owned by... the owner himself. I never thought someone would actually own that much of toys. It's every youngsters' wet dream and every parents' nightmare.

1:1 life size action figure, limited edition, rare items... there's too many toys that it's very easy to overlook a certain area.

I think it's gonna be a really bad idea for anyone to watch Night at the Museum before stepping into this museum.

They've got a whole cupboard full of kinky/torturous figures like those above. I hope the owner's wife is OK.

Even toilet also got style one.

We decided to give Penang shopping malls another try and this time we went to Prangin Mall. Turn out it's even more run-down than the Gurney Plaza. Went back to hotel in disappointment after that.

DAY 3

It was time to go back. Stumbled upon this small hawker centre with many locals patronizing. We thought it must be good and gave it a try...

Above average taste and excellent value. Breakfast cost us less than RM6.

Took the ferry to go back, just for the kick of it.

And saw this bridge that instantly got me imagine what kind of stunt one can pull off with.

Lunch time!

Ipoh Beansprout Chicken!!

IMHO, Ipoh Beansprout chicken taste much much better than Melaka chicken rice ball. Not to mention much cheaper too.

Definitely worth the effort of the detour.

The Thean Chun restaurant is not open again that day (it was closed on our dim sum detour on Day 1 too), so we didn't get the chance to try their infamous caramel custard. Big time disappointment.

Dinner time!!

Driving for the whole day so was tiring, some kajang satay is all i needed to get recharged.

and that was the end of our trip.

Looking forward for the next one...

Random Shots

2009-10-26T02:42:00.002+08:00

A couple of very very random shots i took today.

Random thoughts

2009-10-17T12:48:00.004+08:00

I know saying this is gonna piss off lots of people. But i see the Padang earthquake as a retribution. Innocent people are involved in the process to punish those who has committed sin.

Apart from all their natural resources, the country is notably a major exporter of haze, barbarian maids who torture their employers' children and in some cases the employers themselves, and cheap labor who eventually turn into robbers, snatch thief, rapist... just to name a few of their sins.

Not to forget what they did in the past, including the massacre of Chinese in their capital during the 97' crisis. Looking at the present, they threw stones at our air-crafts and rescue crew, and even threatened to send a troop of fucking warriors carrying sharpened bamboo across the border to launch an assault at us.

It sucks to have neighbors like this, i'd say.

Though it's unlikely for us to fight back in any way given our soft government, the least we should do is to dig a very big hole somewhere between pahang and terengganu to bury all their maids and workers in our country, alive.

Oh yeah, for the haze problem every year. Maybe the government can come up with plans to build gigantic fans all over our borders to blow back the smoke. It's not impossible. Come to think of it, we're spending so much tax money every year helping them to solve their haze problem, which they have now taken for granted and are expecting our help because the haze troubles us. Might as well spend the money in giving out contracts for a mega fan blower project, which equally solves the problem but at a much more efficient way (one off deal that can be used to a looong time compared to sending air crafts over there every year) and also creates job opportunities for all the engineers recently fired from factories at the same time.

I should become a minister.

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I've just discovered the ugly truth of the women shoes industry:
Women shoes are not made durable. Instead they are made fragile and are often broken after a few months/weeks.

And it all make sense because women never get enough of new shoes.

Compared to us men, who basically has 2~3 pairs of shoes namely working shoes, sport shoes and sandals, women need different shoes to cater different occasion, location, activity, date, mood, colour of the dress, who to go out with, how long it takes etc. They have different purpose for all their shoes. And when they finally bought all the shoes it takes for all the possible use. They still hunt for new shoes.

But the cold hard fact is that there's only so much space in the shoe rack! What happen if there's no more space?

This is somehow like inventory management for a manufacturing company. Productivity (how many pairs of new shoes being purchased in a month), Warehouse capacity (how many pairs of shoes can the shoe rack accomodate at one time), and Stock turnover (how many pairs of shoes become obsolete or broken in a month and subsequently thrown away) are all that detremental to maintain healthy stock flow.

Given a constant warehouse capacity, stock turnover has to be in tandem with productivity in order not to burst the warehouse.

Since women are always on the hunt for new pair of shoes, stock turnover has to be fast so that the whole cycle keeps running. To achieve that, the following measures are emplaced:
1. Fast changing fashion - New products are launched every 2~3 months to make their existing shoes obsolete and become an embarassment. It creates the urge for women to keep on buying new shoes and at the same time relief them from the guiltiness of throwing away obsolete shoes: it's out of fashion already.
2. Fragile shoes - This is the latest strategy employed. It's targeted to greatly increase productivity without spending additional resources to expand warehouse. The goal is achieved by making the shoes extremely fragile. The pricing does not neccessarily goes along with the quality. Lousy shoes can still sell at a very good margin as it is now already a common understanding between women that fragile shoes is the new pink. It gives them great reason to throw away old shoes (duh, it's broken!) and happily purchase new ones.

Oh, the analysis does not take into consideration the cash-flow projection, does it?

Morning Outing

2009-10-11T00:08:00.003+08:00

Decided to have a nice meal before i leave for course again.

Woke up late, which means our usual spots are either sold out or full with people. So we tried a place we never went in before: Dim Sum Garden.

The restaurant is running for quite some time and we pass by it every single day on the way back home after work. But never bother to check it out cuz it looked way too atas for our thin wallet and it's always empty. I used to tell her "wah wtf. this place looks like a big time con shop. sure zap lap within 3 months".

But then of course it's still operating. And we were surprised to see how pack it was this morning.

It didn't took us long to realize it was a big mistake not to come here earlier: finally we found a shop that has met all our requirements:
1. Nice food. (Ok all our usual spots have nice food that we like)
2. Nice environment. (Not many dim sum restaurant in melaka comes with air-con, plaster ceiling with warm down light, marble table, clean tiled floor etc.... None that i can think of except those in hotel)
3. Friendly staff. (I have yet to meet a single friendly staff in all my dim sum restaurant encounters in melaka. They would constantly pester you for more orders and they are always intentionally/unintentionally not around or not aware when you needed help)

It's just too bad that although melaka has nice food, the restaurant cleanliness/settings and staff attitude still has a looong way to go (no exception for franchises like Old Town and Station One Cafe, which failed to bring in staff with the right attitude). But i saw some light in this place.

Ok enough of all the bullshits. Here's what we had for a hearty brunch.

Hong Kong style Chee Cheong Fun

Nyonya Chang (in a goddamn dim sum shop?!)

Shrimps in Tempura (KFC shrimp stix can kiss my ass)

(kiss again)

Char Siew Bao!!

Very less fat lor. Feel less guilty for eating it unlike in other restaurants where you get huge chunks of solid lard in their char siew bao... totally disgusting.

Small things like a bottle of tooth pick delivered right after we had our meals without us even asking really makes the difference.

For a very filling brunch in a place like this

Cost us as little as less than RM20. Well hello itemized bill! I had enough of those blood sucker aunties in our usual dim sum place who'd just take a glance of less than 3 seconds on the table and come up with a ridiculous price!

A little cam-whoring to end this post :)

Mooncake festival

2009-10-05T00:26:00.001+08:00

Things i hate about Chinese

2009-09-24T00:16:00.005+08:00

Despite being a Chinese myself, there's so many things about typical Malaysian Chinese that i hated so much. Sometimes i think that the country will be a better place with all of the disgusting Chinese being wiped out, left only the good ones (like me).

So here i'm gonna list down things that i hate about Chinese:-

1. Abuneneh will catch you - For some unknown reason, Chinese refer to their indian/sigh counterparts as "abuneneh". And they've always (ALWAYS!!) described these abuneneh as someone devilish/very bad to their children. And when the kids are crying/noisy, the parents will then threathen them by saying that they better shut up otherwise the abuneneh will come and catch them. Isn't it something very discriminative and very wrong to polute the children's mind?

2. Give birth to a piece of Char Siew also better than giving birth to you - I don't know why Chinese have to be so harsh to their Children. If you see parents whacking/scolding their children in public areas like restaurant, hypermarket etc, it's gotta be the Chinese. I always think that these people are just making a fool out of themselves. "Ah Beng you come right back here or else you gonna know (what'll happen to you)", "Put it down, put it down, i said PUT IT DOWN!! Otherwise if you break it i'm gonna let the police come and bring you to prison", " I WANNA HIT PEOPLE ALREADY HARRRR". Just a few examples to better illustrate how they behave in the public.

3. Malays are stupid and lazy, Indians are smelly - These are, among other nonsense, stuff that my parents and uncle aunties used to tell me. Growing up in a typical Chinese family, this concept has rooted so deeply in my mind. But hey, nowadays nobody gets rich without the help from Malays. And as far as i know, most of the hardworking (and damn smart) corporate leaders are Malays. They have heavy share in the top of the corporate pyramid, drives a fucking Bently or smtg and stay in a multi-million bungalow in Bangsar. Harkworking Chinese, on the other hand, thinks that they've achieved so much when they bought a second hand mercs, a double storey semi-D, via money earned from the family business passed down from their forefathers. And by the way, back in the days Indians used to work in estate. Now name me any estate workers who doesn't smell? This doesn't make any sense.

4. Talk very loud - This is the thing that i can never tolerate. I just don't understand why some Chinese have to talk so loud?! I would stereotype them and say loud-speaking Chinese normally come from rural areas, have darker skin tone and walk as if their balls are the size (and weight) of a No. 15 Bowling ball. This happen more often when they're on the phone. Some of them would shout over the phone as if they've just killed someone. No joke.

5. Do not mix with other races - Maybe this just happen to me. I came from a Chinese primary school and Chinese Independant school. I went to tution classes for Chinese. I stay in a Chinese residential area. My life has got nothing to do with other races until i went to university. Now that was a major problem for me. I can't really mix well with other races and i felt that i was a big time nuisance in the class! It took me sometime to change myself and in the difficult process i realized that a lot of Chinese from the same education system face the same problem. But instead of making changes and suit with the environment like what i did, most of these people chose to live in their own world. Housemate all Chinese (as in mandarin speaking Chinese), breakfast, lunch and dinner with Chinese, do assignment with Chinese, go to class sit beside Chinese. I guess this is very much caused by reason 1 & 3. Deep in these dickheads' mind they were taught not to mess around with other "abuneneh" and "stupid malay". End of the day, we've got one whole bunch of assholes so called "Universiti Graduates" who can hardly speak a complete sentence of english without grammar error, and cannot mix well with other races.

6. English - Ohh this is the best part. I'm sure many many people came across this before: In front of the guest, parents will try to talk to their children in english, or ask their children to communicate with the guest in english. But the sad part is both the parents and their children (and sometimes the guest too) know nothing more than simple words like "Hi", "Hello", "Say-hand"(shake hand), "Bye-bye", "Tank-kiu"(thank you), "Sit", "Stand", "Come", "Go" etc. So the conversation will be like: "Lai (come) girl girl, say-hand to (with) uncle, say Tank-kiu, say say faster say... ahhh, Guai (good girl), say bye-bye... ok" and it will then be continued by conversations between the parents and the guest in their own dialect.

7. English names - This is a further revolution from their miserable english conversation: Mandarin-speaking chinese who gave themselves english name but cannot speak english. Now my job requires me to make many calls a day. At times when i come across names like "Grace", "Veronica", "Eugene", "Ronnie" etc, which sound either very complicated or very Chirstian to me, i would inevitably think that the person would speak very fluent english. However, to my disappointment, in many cases people with very sophisticated names will start asking "你可以讲华语吗？" or even "awak boleh cakap melayu?" after 5 seconds. Lesson of the story is, if you want to give yourself an english name that makes you sound like can speak english, make sure you can, at fucking least, pronounce your own name.

To anybody who read this, is there any other things about Chinese that makes you hate them?

Back 'n' Refreshed

2009-09-08T22:54:00.003+08:00

Went to Kota Kinabalu for a short trip over the weekend.

As it's meant to be a low budget getaway, we didn't went to any of their islands. All we did was just hanging around town, visiting place of interest and stuff...

As expected, the capital of Sabah is not as well developed as KL or even Melaka. It gave me the feeling best described by this:

Since we were not visiting any islands, a trip to Mt Kinabalu became a must... Otherwise we might as well make a trip to Johor instead since it doesn't make any difference...

We travel by car to the foot of the mountain. Though just the foot, it took us 2 hrs of bumpy ride and the location is about 6,000 ft above sea level. Not knowing that it's gonna be damn cold up there (heck, we didn't even know it's gonna be 6,000 freaking ft UP THERE in the first place), we both wore t-shirt and short pants. Other climbers stared at us in disbelieve as all of them were shivering in their long sleeve + long pants and some even in thick jacket that i once thought can only be found in places like Travel Shoppe.

the scenery was nice but not perfect. Cuz the sky was in dull grey thanks to the heavy rain that morning.

On our way down we also visited some con shops in tourist centres.

Price was ok though. But nothing special. Most of the items there can be found in Melaka too.

After all the meals we had, i have to say that Sabah food is really not my kind. There's no exception even for their infamous Tampulari Tuaran Mee.

One of the afternoon, we visited this really hideous small village called naiurivjknrj or smtg. We were told that they serve good blow job here.

Here's the ~~whores~~ suckers

There's plenty of small stall everywhere offering fish therapy back in the Semenanjung. But what they have to offer here was totally cool.

Instead of the small ikan billis, they have big fishes to suck you up.

It's finger licking good!!

Alright that's all. Back to office tomorrow woohoo!!

Getaway

2009-09-02T22:36:00.002+08:00

It's been a long month for me. Spent extra hours in the office to rush for one particular case that equals to my 13 months target. At the very end of it, the whole case was called off due to some very lame reason. And i've wasted 4 good weeks for nothing.

All these shits are too much for me, so i'm going for a little getaway trip. I'm gonna dip that goddamn phone into a cup of milo so that none of my colleagues and clients can give me hell while i'm at it.

Ok... maybe just the sim card.

Meanwhile, i managed to squeeze some time out of my unholy time table to finish a few more Gundam toys. So i'll upload some of the photos here.

Super Deformed Gundam Collection

2009-08-07T12:17:00.004+08:00

I've already lost count on how much hard-earned cash i've spent on these worthless plastic toys. Sometimes i felt guilty and wonder why am i wasting my life on things that does not do me any good (other than the ass-kicking satisfaction).

Well... before i figure that out, just let it be for the time being and let's enjoy some photos :)

when assembled straight out-of-the-box, these toys look very very... plastic.

Look at how monotonous it is.

I've gotta say these japs are prolly the smartest people in the world. First, they make u fork out ur cold hard cash to pay for their ridiculously overpriced monotonous plastic. Then, they knew u will not be satisfied with the looks of the finished model, so they come out with a comprehensive range of products to cater all the needs to make your model look better, which is again overpriced and you end up letting them rip u off twice, happily.

This mark setter thingy is a kind of chemical solution that gently softens the decals for easy application on uneven surface. See what i mean? they make the surface uneven, so that it's impossible to put on the decals perfectly unless u buy the solution. Create problem for u, and sell u the solution for it... i shall use this technique in my marketing activities...

Head piece after some basic lining and weathering. Again the lining pen is about 5X the price of a normal pen...

Head piece half-done

Head piece finished. The red colour part is actually decals. Mark setter is applied to make it look painted-on. Dedicated Gundam Markers (again, another rip-off) are used to paint the gold and silver parts.

Arms. Check out the difference between with and without weathering... Used simple tools (i.e. 2B pencils & cotton wool) to achieve the effect.

Upper body finished. Added the metal-alike finish on fist by applying silver colour on it and immediately rub off with tissue.

Arms of another Gundam. Clearer comparison between with and without weathering.

OK... That's it for all the work-in-progress photos.

Bought 2 entry level studio lighting few days back and decided to give it a try... So here we go.

Shiba-i Sazabi: 司馬懿 (Sima Yi)
One of my first SD Gundam kit so the overall outcome is still very noob. Only thing special about this fella is that he can change his hat (different fashion for different occasion).

Sonken Gundam: 孫権 (Sun Quan)
My first SD Gundam kit. Needless to say, it has the worst finishing in my collection. I like this kit though, the gigantic sword is actually assembled from his flashy armors.

Choukou Zaku III: 張? (Zhang He)
This guy is cool. He's got 2 big swords and they can be assembled together with another huge stick to form his special weapon of which i've forgotten the name. On top of that, his shoulder armor can be transformed into weapon too.

Chouhi Gundam: 張飛 (Zhang Fei)
Worst-looking kit i've come across so far. When it was first assembled out-of-the-box without painting, this guy look like he's worth RM5 the most. But of course it look better after spending considerable amount of time in pimping session.

Kan-U Gundam: 關羽 (Guan Yu)
Best armor in my collection. This kit kick ass.

Chouryou Gelgoog: 張遼 (Zhang Liao)
Another highly transformable kit. The big knife he's carry is actually made of 1 dagger and 1 knife-on-a-stick and can be separated into 2 weapons. The wings behind his back can be turned into a big shield.

Kochu Gundam: 黄忠 (Huang Zhong)
My personal favorite. Some more got it at a deep discount (from Parkson in Mahkota Parade Melaka. Promoter stick wrong price i guess. Bought it at RM23.90 + 20% discount muahahaha). This kit has the most sophisticated accessories in the series so far. There's just so many ways to pose it.

Ryomou Dijeh & Kannei Kampfer : 呂蒙 & 甘寧 (Lu Meng & Gan Ning) (DX boxset, includes battleship and 3 Koutou Marines)
Big box set. Both Ryomou and Kannei (sounds vulgar no?) are pretty cool.

That's all.

Another 3 big box set and 1 small set to go before my next shopping trip. Woohoo!!

Short Break

2009-07-27T01:56:00.002+08:00

Took 2 days leave before the weekend to give myself a short break. My internet connection conveniently fail on me for the same period and brought havoc to me...

Anyway, Thursday was the long-waited J-Card day. It was the day that half of the Malaccans wake up early in the morning and que up outside Jusco waiting to spent money. The event-of-the-year for most Malaccan housewives and some Singaporeans.

It was, of course, the main reason for the leave. I was late that morning, reaching there at 8:10AM (yeah, it's considered late) and the place were already full with people when we reach. Took us a while to find parking and in the end we decided to park right at the entrance (my secret spot, they never chain up my car because the way i park would not block the traffic :D ).

It took us longer time to get a trolley than to find a parking. There's so many (SO MANY!!) kiasu housewives who grab 2 (some 3) trolley for each of them. Some come in one whole family and everybody grab one. Pure nonsense, they can't even push it properly! And worst thing is they brought their children. Weren't they supposed to be in the school or something?

We spent half day there and left at about 3PM. The atmosphere there was simply fantastic. You know what i mean? Aunties moving in group, emptying every discount bin with 50% discount onwards regardless of the price, long que in the fitting room, long que to the cashier, 5 ppl fighting for 1 last piece of heavily discounted jeans... Ahh. Brings out all my eagerness to spend more money.

And spend money we did. Check this out:

I know this is a lil bit too much, spending almost 4 figures on a bunch of plastic. I thought i'd just grab a box or two but i'm the luckiest guy in the world who has a girl friend so generous she'd "secretly" bought me all these. Thanks Baby!

Now i have enough supply of toys for the coming ~~rainy season~~ holidays.

It was a rather boring weekend with no internet connection, so we hang around quite a bit and here's some random photos...

SD Gundam - Kan U

2009-07-19T23:11:00.002+08:00

Yet another SD Gundam. I wonder how many more i'm gonna make before finally get tired of it.

But before that, the previous Gundam Zhang He was done but i didn't have the time to take enough photo for an entry. So i'm just gonna post some teaser here.

free gift that came together in the box.

i pin it on my outing sling bag. It's something i wanted to do back when i was in university but never bother to do it. now that it's still not too late i guess...

a part of his armor. i like the glowing feeling of the eagle eye. this is one of the things that only hand painting can achieve. anyway, the stickers came with the box didn't even cover this part, it was originally supposed to be a monotonous green colour shoulder pad...

Ok back to the main topic.

SD Kan U is actually Guan Gong (關羽).

This is the Gundam that i've spent the most time to paint so far - a whopping 6 hours non-stop.

Painted every part of the body to make it real cool. check out the difference between with and without paint.

The original parts were just plain white all over the body. I added all the red and gold parts. Very stupid move because later on i found out these parts will not be visible after putting on the armor. Damn...

This SD has the most detailed set of armor compared to all my previous SDs. Which translate to extra hours spent on painting the tiny parts.

Who'll really wear this shit to a war? You'll probably kill a couple of your mates before the energy approaches. But heck. it's damn cool yeah?

And the helmet... Why does this chinese hero wears a samura-like helmet?? I don't understand Japanese...

And of course his signature gigantic sword-on-a-stick or whatever you call it.

Kan U wearing half of his armor. Looked like a goddamn apron.

Full set armor equipped. Kan U is ready to take on any bad ass that he come across!!

Tadaa!

Pose with hourse.

Hyaaaaak!

Huaaaakkkk!

I somehow think that Japanese likes to make stick-like things much longer than how they should be in real life. Maybe that's to make up the sorry length in their crotch department. :P

Boy Again # 2

2009-07-16T22:26:00.002+08:00

I just can't resist these plastic plates...

For me, the process is always half the fun.
i'd carefully cut the pieces down from the plate, and cut off any excess using a nail cutter.

They look very plain and dull at first

Boring and lifeless

But with a lil bit of painting...

They look so much better...

Having to paint something THAT small is really miserable. But the result is rewarding...

And... new addition to the family!! Changhe Zaku III !!!
faster pose for the camera!!

My collection.

Giving my dying wallet the final blow this weekend! Woohoo!

Rootified's guide to drive your sister crazy

2009-07-15T00:37:00.002+08:00

My sister is a pain in the ass when it comes to sharing the internet connection.

She loves watching streaming videos online. The problem is that when she turns that program on, i can't even open google home page.

Negotiated once, twice... to no avail.

I love downloading. Her line will be slower (but still can use!!) when i download. She doesn't like it. So she would conveniently switch off my house's main power switch anytime, causing my pc to off and thus she could cruise online in full force.

What a bitch, eh?

Negotiated once, twice... to no avail.

And one fine day, her inconsiderate move has finally pushed me to my boiling point - sudden power shortage has caused my harddisk to short circuit. All my files, data, photos, documents since university days... All gone.

I shouted at her in my fiercest tone for the chaos she brought to me. With no compensation plan, not even apology or any slightest bit of feeling sorry she replied "hmm... according to my friend who's working in this very high-tech company as an IT expert, what i did will not cause ur HDD to damage wor..."

Now you must be thinking: Wow! what a fucking bitch!
Rest assured, i totally agree with you.

I decided enough is enough and i shall reward her with some much deserved karma.
I destroyed her Ethernet line connecting to the router in my room. I would not let moron like this to online in my house anymore.

And i gave her this...

To my surprise, she has the face to reply me with this note, which i later crumbled and burnt into ashes:

translate: bro, pls put the modem outside of your room, i need to use it for my work, pls give in, thanks. p/s: normally i use from monday to friday.

This is apparently a failed attempt by an ex-HR bitch trying to politicking her way to look innocent in the whole incident.

Now it doesn't take my 2 years of battle experience in an office full of flying daggers to shut her fucking mouth. I mean, every sentence in this note is so wrong!! Let me explain:

1. Main phone plug is in my room - what can you do with a fucking router alone without any phone line connection? Play ping pong?

2. She's not even working - I mean the whole world knows that she is jobless and that's the whole reason why she's hanging around in my house for the whole damn week watching stream video online 24-7 and ultimately caused this incident. Well if chatting with her equally fallen pyramid scheme peers who are also having problem to get a job is considered working then maybe she's not fully wrong on this, but still wrong.

3. Asking me to give in - It's gonna be her biggest mistake in life for asking me to give in. Cuz i never did and i never will!

There's no need for any further scoldings or bloody slaughter action to solve the problem. I stopped talking to her (in fact, she started it first as if i done something wrong to the ancestors) and pasted this on the original place where she put up the previous note:

Now if her brain has not yet fully shrink to the size of a sesame, she should feel thankful for having such a considerate younger brother. Even give her backup plan WTF...

Boy Again

2009-07-09T23:25:00.002+08:00

Made an impulse buying earlier this week. Bought this:-

I know i'm a lil bit overage for all these. In fact there were some unfriendly stare from the kids patronizing the toy areas as if i stepped over the line.

But... it has been my childhood dream to own one of these super flashy cool robot figures and i thought hey, now that i can afford all these, why not i just buy it?

Right decision. I haven't feel that excited for a very long time. The journey from the shopping mall to my house feels like i'm going to bed on chirstmas eve, knowing that something nice will be there for me when i open my eyes again.

To be honest, these are actually the lowest quality of robot figures available specially produced to cater cheapskates like me. The finish and detail shows very well how much they worth. Just a bunch of cheap plastic afterall...

BUT! I bought some magical stuff called the Gundam Markers, which are capable to make these cheap stuff look less cheap.

after painting

before...

after... (put up some lining to increase the wear 'n' tear feel)

after...

the helmet. it'll look terribly awful if just assemble fresh out of box without painting...

halfway done, without armor...

completed!!

woohoo!!

finished the whole thing i.e. assembling and painting in about 5 working hours. took me a few days for the job but the outcome is rewarding... considering this is the first time i did something like this.

Beware! More to come!!
I can feel my wallet trembling in the dark corner of my room...

PFHS 96th Anniversary

2009-06-23T00:07:00.002+08:00

it's been years man...

it used to be the event-of-the-year for me back then.

and when i'm out of it for so many years and looking back now. these shits are kinda stupid. i mean all the meaningless activities/ceremonies being put up to cover the fact that the event is a rip-off for some quick cash.

not to mention the dip in quality...

flat drawing.

didn't know rubik can be a theme also

it was supposed to be a sphere i guess, but the shape look more like a tumor.

praying materials look more appealing than these junks.

i still remember the life size 3D alien figure that Wilyson and Cheap Man did, that would have stunt these braindead motherfuckers for quite a bit. Not to mention the bridge we built inside the classroom.

the place where i accidentally break one whole row of test tubes, and sweep them underneath the platform.

the place where we launched a tug-of-war using nozzle bottle with diluted water and was caught and threatened by the teacher to drink finish the whole big tong of diluted water.

all those were pretty long time ago eh.

And i went for the show at night too.

boring.

'YAWN'

and when i thought the quality is just going all the way down, they again surprised me with the exceptional weird session called Group Reading "团朗".

it's basically a group of ppl standing up there reading. some sorta story-telling shit. i haven't see something that bad for quite some time, seriously.

check out the makeup, her role was the weirdo in the movie "The Saw"

just joking... i forgot what her role was but it's fucked up anyway.

And then, the show started to get a lil bit more interesting with this.

and then comes the climax of the night

when it comes to style, these losers are pretty darn good.

but sadly, they did not keep this best performance to the last. so the show was still very halfassed.

-the end-

Random Photos

2009-06-14T23:55:00.002+08:00

Another busy week spending extra hours in the office.

Taking photos became my best activity for releasing tension.

And Monday is around the fucking corner, again.
Fuck...

LOMO

2009-05-31T18:55:00.003+08:00

Spent the whole day at home cuz i'm sick.

Tired of online and games, i found myself something new to do: shooting random stuff in my house.

Never realize it can be so much fun. Both the finding process and photoshop. I kinda tweak them to LOMO style.

The Story of a Rempit

2009-05-31T10:21:00.002+08:00

Hi, my name is Mat

I work as a messenger in a law firm. My job is basically to deliver documents, go to pos office, and other shit that i'm asked to do. Sometimes, i also help my boss to pay his bills or deliver flowers to different women.

I'm always an underdog. Nobody gives a damn to me.

BUT, when the night falls.....

I reveal my true self - Mat Rempit!!

Me and my other daredevil friends will meet up at a petrol station near my place, get some cash and free petrol from the friendly owner, and then start our wild night...

This is our signature stunt. May look simple but it took me 2 trips to the hospital and 5 broken ribs to finally learn how to do it.

My favorite stunt - Superman

This is all my aweks' favorite - No-look backhand

I don't really need to put my hands on the handle you see...

... and when i do, it's just to attach me to the bike

i changed 3 helmets in 5 months thanks to this stunt.

Sometimes, shit happens and some muthaphucking relentless driver would just bang us simply because we are too cool.

We never let it go easily...

These muthaphukers deserve a good round of WWF-style exercise.

Our revenge are always bloody and brutal. Cops ain't gonna catch us anyway.

Sometimes shit went crazy and we overdid the revenge part...

All we need to do is just get back to our bike and speed off.

The next day, i'm still your regular dispatch loser selling goreng pisang in the evening. Such is the beauty of my life...

Outing with mum.

2009-05-30T02:40:00.002+08:00

Mum wanted to treat us a meal since last month. She missed my birthday and my gf's birthday cuz we spent most of our time either working or sleeping. Being a very filial son and soon-to-be daughter-in-law, we brought her out for a dinner today.

She was extra happy cuz we brought her to her favourite restaurant - Hakka Chan in Kotalaksamana - which offers probably some of the best hakka food in malacca.

Happy Family

Really like the environment there. Atas marble table, good lighting and comfortable music. Best of all, all these does not reflect in the food price. Meal for 3 was less than 50 bucks.

Their menu is very very simple. In every category (eg. Pork / Chicken / Tofu / Vege) there's only a few dishes to choose from, and it's all their specialty, i.e. no awfully low quality dishes to make up the numbers.

And so we ordered... their specialties!!

Peppermint Eggplant - My favorite

Salted Chicken - Misleading plain look. It actually taste very nice.

Mui Choy Pork - The ladies' favorite

The food was superb. Took us almost an hour to whack it all, and another hour to just sit still on the chair to let digestion take place.

We decided to take a walk after that, and headed to Jonker Walk.

It's been some time since i last visited Jonker. It's more like a youngsters' culture street now (instead of traditional chinese culture). They sell all sorts of stuff catering the youngsters there, who amazingly happens to have the deepest pocket and most desperate spending desire of all age groups.

Took some shots and PS-ed these few...

Clogs, they make it funky.

... and funkier.

been interested in weird stuff like lomography lately. Busted this otherwise dull-looking photo just to have some fun...

It's a wonderful night. I wish i can spend more quality time in happy family session like this.

B&W x 2

2009-05-24T12:09:00.002+08:00

Another day of outing.

Converted both photos into black and white to add that very old feeling. Over cook the first one a lil bit though...

Snuggle

2009-05-15T23:27:00.002+08:00

I have a pet dog, in case you don't know it yet.

Not actually MINE though... my sis got her from SPCA some years ago and left her here after shifting to KL. So she's like my family dog now.

Her name is Snuggle.

She's about 7 years old now but still have an IQ equivalent to my colleagues (i.e. bark whole day, can't solve simple maths formula, bad grammar etc).

The other day i was playing with my camera at the gate while snuggle came by to check out what's going on...

She was amazed to see that there's another bitch looked just like her, hiding inside the small black box that i was holding.

Probably wanting to save her peer, Snuggle attempted to lick my camera lens...

I was totally pissed off and whacked the bitch's ass hard.

She then looked elsewhere pretending nothing has happened...

It's just fun to have a pet around. But too bad i don't have much time for her nowadays.

Some portraiture shots of Snuggle...

Off topic:
One of the photos taken during my early-morning photography session last week.

HDR tryout.

2009-05-09T16:53:00.002+08:00

Set my alarm at 5:30AM today, wanted to go to seaside and get some sunrise shot. But it was drizzling and the sky was dark for the whole morning.

Apparently there was some kind of typhoon or something in town last night, went i drove around town looking for spots to take photos, everywhere was in a mess. Tree leaves all over, tree trunks in the middle of roads, fallen advertisement boards etc.

It was still drizzling when i reached Pulau Melaka, the abandoned island nearby my office. I've been eying on the abandoned township and imagine the dramatic feel that they'll create in a photograph, especially in dawn. There's a very nice mosque on the island also, which got me make this place my first destination.

Unfortunately the view of the mosque was totally blocked by a on-going construction, and the lack of sun light made my photos looked dull...

So i decided to convert it into high dynamic range.

It's kinda overcooked but i'm satisfied with the result, considering it's my first try :D

Then there's this second take. Also converted in HDR although don't quite look like one...

It feels good to be around in such unholy hours. Fresh air, minimal traffic... The last time i did this was wayyy back in 2003 man...

Cameron Highlands - Part 3

2009-05-05T00:29:00.002+08:00

Day 3

Woke up in the early morning as usual, had breakfast in the hotel's Jim Thompson Terrace.

It was a nice buffet breakfast and the ambient was good. We were like the first customers there and it was really quiet. Goes well with the mood.

You know... good food, country style building, friendly waitresses, quiet environment... the perfect atmosphere for a get-away trip.

But the atmosphere didn't last long.

About 10 minutes after we settled down, a group of some 20 Thais came into the scene. Making lots of noise, talking loudly with each other, taking at least 3 full plates of food each at one go... Damn. I fucking hate noisy people.

Talking about Jim Thompson, he's a legendary man that mysteriously disappeared in Cameron Highlands about 40 years ago. For once we thought "Jim Thompson Terrace" is the place he last stayed before his disappearance, but later on found out that it was just the name.

We visited the Rose Centre after the breakfast. The place is kinda old and most of the man-made place of interest in the centre are not presentable anymore. Broken statues and faded paint etc. But heck. It's the ROSE centre, and they've got some nice roses around!

And we found some hibiscus that's as big as her face!!

They've got like tons of flowers there man...

It was early and there wasn't much people around (i wouldn't let any strangers to touch my newly bought camera anyways), so the 3rd-world-country-standard tripod that came together with the camera package played a big role when it comes to taking couple photos...

------------------------------------

After that, we went to Sam Poh Temple.

Didn't take much photos inside though, cuz my camera was running low on batteries.

These statues are about 1.5 stories high. There was 4 of them. The 4 guardians of the heaven, in mandarin called 四大天王.

Andy Lau (!!!)

The interior wall of the main building is fully covered by these nice tiles, which we later on found out that were all hand-painted one by one. Gosh there were like thousands of them!!

--------------------------------------------

Had lunch in this restaurant that looked very promising in Brinchang.

We ordered the chef's specialty. The Guinness Stout Pork Ribs...

inspired by the guy from Chef in Black i guess...

And the special Thai style tofu.

-----------------------------------------

As for the day's dinner, we went back to the same shop that we had lunch cuz their steamboat looked too tempting to forgo.

That's the 3rd steamboat dinner we had in 3 straight nights. But this was the best we had in the trip. Tom Yam was a bit too spicy but i was totally owned by the herbal soup. God sent!

And it feels really good to have steamboat under the cold weather. Damn shiok one man.

-----------------------------------

Day 4

The last thing we do before leaving Cameron Highlands: Shopping!

Bought some vege for our mums, bought a bouquet of roses for her and another bouquet for my mum (mother's day present settled. woo!)

This Kea Farm is the place to go for cheap bargains. You can get a bouquet of roses (about 9-12 stalks) for like RM2.50?! Turned out the flowers all bloom nicely after i brought them home.

That's it for the trip!!

-the end-

Cameron Highlands - Part 2

2009-05-03T11:28:00.012+08:00

After done with the cactus, we got tired and headed back to hotel for a bath before going to the steamboat dinner.

Since it's included in the package of a budget stay, we weren't expecting anything more than mediocre from the dinner. But to our surprise, it actually turned out to be quite good.

And because vegetable is one of the cheapest commodity in the area, we've got free flow supply of a variety of farm-fresh vegetable for the steamboat. Yay!!

We went to bed early on the first day. Because the journey is tiring and nightlife in Cameron Highlands is boring to say the least.

DAY 2

Woke up damn early in the morning.

Had breakfast in the hotel and again we were surprised. We were expecting a buffet breakfast but it turned out to be a choice from 2 breakfast set - Chinese style breakfast or Western style breakfast. Despite the limited choice we had, we were actually very satisfied because breakfast was prepared individually after we made the order (not just fork out some luke warm beehoon/mee goreng from the huge kuali prepared by the makcik 5am in the morning) and the portion was generous.

------------------------------------------

We got to know from the internet that there's this place called Sungai Palas, which is not a sungai but actually a mountainous tea plantation recently acquired (or set up?) by BOH tea. And they've got some ass kicking scenery up there.

Scenery kick ass or not, not sure yet. But the journey surely kicked my darn arse. It was so winding, so narrow and there's so many potholes that even Takumi Fujiwara would be on his knees crying.

The road was so narrow and the corners were so sharp, I had to sound my car's horn before every corner just to make sure i don't get into any in-your-face accident with the reckless local truck drivers here and end up in the bottom of the valley.

I don't know who came up with the name but, there isn't any river nearby Sungai Palas. In fact it was so high up that after a certain distance we had to get down from our car and start hiking!

All the trouble we went through was well worth it though. The scenery was simply breath taking.

And after some good 10 minutes, we were almost there already!

We didn't really have any idea how the place will be. I actually thought that it's gonna be just a god damn big piece of plantation with shitloads of tea leafs and that's it. But the thoughtful BOH tea people has built a tea leaf exhibition centre with an attached tea house alongside their factory.

See the tip of the building that expands out from the ground in the photo above? That's their open-sided tea house for guests to enjoy some tea in the cool highland breeze. Fantastically my style bebeh!!

So we took the best spot of the place

Ordered the best tea they had to offer

With a piece of Choco Meltz... Perrrfectto!

Been there. Done that. Best birthday celebration EVEERRRR!!

Some camera try-out session after that...

By the way, the BOH tea that's been sold and drank worldwide? A portion of it is produced from this tiny factory here everyday.

And finally, a lil bit of cam whoring before leaving this lovely place.

Next stop was to check in to the better hotel that we were to pamper ourselves in for the following days and to fulfill the get-away objective of the trip.

But before that, we came across this Kasimanis Strawberry Farm at the bottom of the hill where our next stop's located. Pulled over to pay a visit...

There's something about this small hut that keeps me so attracted to it. It's like, the most old school building i haven't seen for a very long time.

Ordered their specialty Strawberry Milk Shake.

This is no ordinary strawberry milkshake. It's made of 100% freshly peeled strawberry, not the usual flavoring powder you get from your everyday franchise cafe. I could even bite the chunks of strawberry fruit in it. Totally shiok.

Checked in to our studio room in StrawberryPark Resort after that.

It's a corner room located on the 3rd floor.

Going from no star to 4-Star, the difference was obvious.

For instance, they have this in-house Spa and Massage centre operated by the Thais that's really worth a try.

A cozy jacuzzi overlooking the mountainous scenery.

Or open air Thai body massage.

It's your call...

After settling down, we headed to this place called the Fern Restaurant, which according to our tour FAQ found online, is one of the top 5 best restaurant in Cameron Highland.

It's a nyonya restaurant.

It was ironic that both of us, of whom one is from melaka where all the baba-nyonya culture began and another has half nyonya blood, came all the way to this highland where nyonya-baba restaurants are obviously gimmicky con shops set up to strip some foreign currency off the ang mohs, to order nyonya food.

The food turned out to be well below average except this Thai style chicken which i think is really not bad, big portion some more...

But the flies in the restaurant totally turns me off. It's common to have flies in the restaurants for Cameron Highlands but this one is just too much. I can't help but to imagine the awful condition in the kitchen. If having flies in the restaurant is a crime, the owner should be sentenced to death by swallowing all the flies in his restaurant.

As for dinner, i insisted that we should have faith with the FAQ found on internet and that Fern Restaurant was just and exception. Maybe changed chef or something.

So, we headed towards another top 5 restaurant on the list. The Highlands Restaurant, which is famous for their charcoal steamboat.

Looked nice but it turned out to be another major disappointment.

I burnt the guide after realizing that the amount of eateries in Cameron Highlands is so little, that anything edible will be recommended as "Top Restaurants" here.

- end of day 2 -

More updates coming soon!!

Cameron Highlands.

2009-05-03T05:09:00.003+08:00

I've got my Panasonic LX3 and took one whole week's leave for a 4D3N trip to Cameron Highlands.

the power of F2.0

Cameron Highlands Trip

We departed at 7:30AM to avoid the jam near Seremban toll. Took us about 2.5hrs to reach Simpang Pulai exit and another 2.5hrs "mountain driving" before reaching our hotel in Brinchang town of Cameron Highlands.

Stayed in this newly completed hotel called Hotel Titiwangsa. As malay as the name may suggest, it is actually a chinese-run business and Buddhism stuff for protection can be seen in every corner.

We decided to get a cheaper stay for the first night to cut some costs. The first day will be spent exploring around and we wouldn't have any mood to enjoy the accommodation anyway, especially after all the winding roads.

As the place is still new, it's so much better than ALL the 3-stars i've been to.

For RM113 a night, we get a nice and clean room mid town, with breakfast and a steamboat dinner for 2. What a steal!

After check-in, we wondered around Brinchang town and came across this small eatery called Kuan Kee, where we were half forcefully pulled in by the friendly owner and settled our lunch there.

The cantonese-speaking boss recommended this "long3 sou1 choy" which i reckoned is the "Money Chai" that can be commonly found in many restaurants in east malaysia.

Drove around town after the satisfying lunch looking for a pick-your-own strawberry farm when we came across this small tea plantation that has just only been harvested not long ago.

Took us a while to finally found a strawberry farm nearby Equatorial Hotel. To our disappointment, the harvest season for strawberry has just past and most of the strawberry farms are either empty or left with minimal amount of strawberries...

Went to Cactus Point soon after that.

I mean... you can never go wrong with cactus nursery. Cactus does not grow according to season. They look the freaking same throughout the whole year.

And apparently they are dirt cheap in Cameron Highlands. Some of the places here are going 7 for RM10 for the smaller pots here!

Didn't buy any though. Had bizarre experience with cactus before (lose balance and grabbed a big pot of cactus with my bare hands) and she said it's not good for feng shui anyway.

Had fun roaming around the cactus farm. There's so many species of them that i have never seen before...

and...

and...

and...

erm...

It's either a pair of swollen balls or a severely shrunk dick here.

-end of part 1-

more updates soon to come!

Same old shit

2009-04-12T03:35:00.002+08:00

My life is all about the same old routine. So much so that i keep blogging the same old shit over and over again. Damn. I just can get enough whining about how i miss my days as a student.

Working sucks. Especially when time's bad. Rumors' been going on about the company's retrenchment plan and even possibility of a merger. Our biggest competitor has granted an option of taking 6 months unpaid leave to its staff and even planned to close down 60 branches (plan called off later due to union's objection). It probably wouldn't take too long for shit to mess up in my office. And it sucks big time that i'm not even a confirmed staff (2 more weeks to go, it's gonna take like forever! fuck!).

Been checking out with the boss about my confirmation. Said "should be ok". I thought we only tell that to customers when they asked if their application can get approved. Didn't know it's applicable internally too. Damn.

And i've just got the news that i have missed the credit paper again this year cuz i'm not a confirmed staff yet on the registration dateline, which translates into another 8-10 months of routine work before i get work on something that actually do me some good.

As if things are not bad enough, i've also realized that my ex-employer has overtaken my current company, as the biggest group in the industry. It shouldn't meant anything to me, just "makan gaji" only maa. But... it just sucks. More so when i face people who knows that i was from there, or when being asked where was i working before this.

Things are just getting out of control. For the past whole week i've been really unproductive. Not a good thing especially when my direct boss, who sit right BEHIND me 3 metres away, is submitting my confirmation appraisal in 2 weeks' time.

So, decided to go for a trip to relax a lil bit. The last time i do so was last June in Langkawi. Been overspent a bit too much after that and the huge wound in my wallet took its time to recover.

But i've been reminded that we earn money not to save for our children ~~so that they can have the moolah to whack on booze, blondes and marijuana~~, but instead to spend it once in a while to buy some good quality time.

I'm going Cameron Highland this time.

I never go through tour agency because i think it's not necessary for local trips, and the fact that half the fun is in the preparations!

It start off from thinking where to go, budgeting, searching for suitable accommodation online, research on the targeted hotel/resort to have some expectations before going, make reservation, plan on transportation, which route to take, print out maps, research on place of interests and other stuff of the destination... it's whole lot of work with whole lot of fun! Not only it's much cheaper, it also gives me much more flexibilities compared to going through tour agents.

And, after some 7 months of hesitations, i finally made the decision to buy myself a prosumer camera. And i'm gonna whack that cash on all those fancy filters/tripods etc. Yay!

I've just realized that i did not have anything to look forward to for a very long period of time until now. Ah, such is the beauty of working life: get something to poke yourself when it feels numb.

Dreams

2009-03-23T01:10:00.003+08:00

Woke up on a lazy weekend morning, it was still dark outside but i couldn't get back to sleep.

Lying on the bed, i closed my eyes and things happened in the past flashed through my mind.

This is becoming a routine for me: recalling sweet and bitter memories from the past, revising my action plan for the near future etc. The recall process is all about the "what if"s, about the paths i chose and the decisions i made that brought me to where i am today. The revision, on the other hand, often starts after i realize that "where i am today" is pretty screwed up and what to do next to get myself out of this dipshit.

It's amazing that high school and university was like a really long journey full of adventures, whereas my (almost) 2 years of working life, although equally adventurous and often exhausting, was like... so short, so fast. There's really not much memorable things during the period.

I guess it makes sense in the way that study life is so much shorter (14 years?) than working life (at least 30 years), so the feeling of duration is correct, at least in terms of ratio.

It also makes sense that despite i really like this job, it leaves me little time for my own.

I'm glad that i still have a job by now. And i think that at this point of time, it's best to keep dreams as they are. After all, what's better than getting a stable income in times of economy downturn?

Is this what people call middle age crisis?

Cars

2009-02-16T22:59:00.002+08:00

I love my car.

I really do.

Doesn't matter the fact that it's second hand, ass raped, and probably one of the cheapest car that people of the same income bracket drives.

I feel especially good when comparing my car with those of my colleagues'. No doubt their Vios and City are at least 2-3 times more costlier than my national shit, which gives them enough brag-factor to live with for the next few years.

But one thing for sure: 7-8 years down the road, considering everybody doesn't change their cars, my car will still look pretty much the same (extensively well taken care of by me, of course), and it's just a facelit+spray job away from looking brand new (how long it took proton to introduce the 2nd generation proton saga? 20yrs? waja is only in the market for like 8 years, looooong way to go...)

My dear colleagues, on the other hand, are gonna stare at their now obsolete looking junk, which is totally phased out by at least 2 newer generations of the same model, and yell loud in their heart: "FUUUUUCCKKKKKKKK".

Positive thinking keeps me feels good. Hah.

Brick

2009-01-30T01:46:00.003+08:00

Wanted to make my new phone more fancy than ever. Was in the process of flashing its ROM with some custom made stuff i found online. Shit went wrong and before i can do anything, my new phone turned into a very expensive brick. I was like... "FUCKKKKK!".

I went ape shit. This is not the first time my phone get wasted in a totally fucked up way (I dropped my brand new handphone into a toilet bowl full with my own piss few years back), which make this even harder to accept.

I spent the next 30 minutes looking for solution. And in the end managed to revive it back.

It's running on Windows Mobile 6.1 now, with all the latest/coolest software installed. Perrrfect match with a geek like me. Woohoo!

Time to change

2009-01-24T19:28:00.002+08:00

I am moving on...

from my good old trusty Sony Ericsson K800i

to something better.

with Windows Mobile OS, WiFi, 2.8 inches touch screen and that sleek stylish glossy body, the LG KS20 is simply irresistible.

sms convenience (a tiny stylus is not exactly the tool you wanna use for messaging, especially when you're driving) and 3.2MP camera is sacrificed, but the cool factor is totally worth it.

Ooh yeah.

Embarrassed

2009-01-07T13:06:00.001+08:00

Today is the most embarrassing day of my life. After finishing a very very heavy lunch in a restaurant, eating like a construction worker, alone, i found out that i run out of cash. And they don't take cards. I bet if i do wear like a construction worker, they would've beat the crap out of me already. In the end, i got help from hiok, a friend working nearby, who walked all the way there to give me some financial support. God know what will happen to me if i don't have anyone nearby.

2008

2009-01-01T22:40:00.002+08:00

Another year passed and i'm turning 23 soon. Gone are the days when my daily routine was class,meal with pals, msn, ym, frienster, late night yam cha, and till-da-break-of-dawn assignment rush. I've spent one whole year as an office worker. To be honest, it sucks.

When i was studying, the clock showing 11PM means 'Ah... the night is still young! Time to go out yam cha! Some cybercafe online game session afterwards perhaps...'

Now that i'm working, the clock showing 11PM means 'Owww... Fuck... Again?! But i've just had my dinner and bathed! *look at my dust-covered computer, shakes head* Haih... time to sleep...'

I've forgotten what was my new year resolution at the beginning of year 2008 already. Nevermind. Don't think i've achieved any of them anyway.

I've done quite a number of things in 2008 though. Some good some bad...

1. Changed car, changed its rims, and got its ass raped hard.

2. Changed job, moved up to the top player in the industry.

3. Bought a TV and PS2 set to kill the extra free time i have after changing job.

4. Spent an adventurous 4D3N trip in Langkawi.

5. Got serious in my relationship and started to plan for future.

6. Realized 'future' needs money. Ton's of 'em.

7. Almost bought a DSLR and LCD monitor, but i started to plan for future, and
(go back to 6).

8. New year eve, received strong hint from manager that someone in the office
is going jobless in 2 week's time.

Well... Many said 2009's gonna be totally fucked up. This year no more 财神 (God of Fortune), only got 裁神 (God of Retrenchment). Damn.

Problem Solving

2008-12-23T15:19:00.000+08:00

How do you solve a work place problem effectively? That very much determines if a person is suitable for a managerial post. Given the problem shown in the picture, our ruling politicians will probably solve it by imposing a ban on use of sanitary pads whereas the oppositions will likely made headlines the next day claiming that the ban has brought social inbalance and should be cancelled. End of the day, problem presists. Things can actually be done more effectively. For the same example, i overheard some ladies talking about the pros of using tempons today in the office. The conversation being started by a managerial staff. That, my friend, is what i call effective problem solving tactics.

Ass raped

2008-12-16T11:01:00.001+08:00

Remember how i met the first ever accident in my life? I could not brake on time when the traffic lights turned red and kissed the ass of a mak cik in front of me... I mean her car's ass. Well. The same thing happened again last sunday. Some no good proton putra ass raped my ride and she is a virgin no more. I got compensated for the paint job required to restore her pride. But i'm just gonna put on some DIY touch up paint and save some money for my camera fund :). P/s: the poor guy who banged me got a whole lot more of repairs and paint jobs to pay for. We're talking about a cracked bonnet, detached bodykit and shitloads of scratches on his custom painted car. Too bad.

Difference

2008-12-15T21:51:00.002+08:00

I've joined my current employer for a month now. Jumping from the 3rd largest to the No. 1 player in the industry gave me such a culture shock, as if i'm an Afghanistan refugee just got myself into the U.S.

For instance, they don't have no freakin' fridge in my previous office's pantry. All you get is a basin and a rubbish bin in a 3ftx4ft room.

My current employer, on the other hand, are so generous that they have not one, but 2 refrigerators in the office. One in the pantry for daily usage while the other is placed right outside the toilet ~~for convenient storage of urine bottles collected from all employees that will be sent to Pathlab for health checks analysis on a weekly basis.~~ Just joking. I have no idea why in the world it is placed outside of the toilet nor do i have the courage to open and examine what's inside.

In fact, i did not really check out the one in the pantry as well until today. I was kinda hungry and decided to check out the fridge for any leftover food...

Satey sticks. Ah... Brings back my high school memories.

But these looked like the left over food from last Christmas celebration. I decided memories are best kept in heart and moved on to the lower tier....

... and found some really ripe bananas. So ripe till the oxidization has taken effect for so long that i can start harvesting mushroom from the banana skin next week.

Plan B. Go home for dinner.

Today's job

2008-12-11T15:45:00.001+08:00

I'm currently working on a thesis about how this malfunctioned button on the cheapo made-in-china calculator i bought from an all-for-rm5 shop would affect palm oil price and its impact towards malaysian economy. Ah. I hate my job.

No Yoga for M's no more

2008-11-23T22:43:00.002+08:00

Fatwa Council deems ancient form of exercise from India 'haram' for Muslims

"... ...said that once the fatwa was gazetted, it would be up to the state governments to implement and enforce the ruling... ..."

It's really none of my business but um... Binding religion and law together just don't sound right to me.

Holding hands get summons, compulsory fasting before raya, now what?

Belief comes from heart. Not through law enforcement. People won't stop doing what they wanted to just because somebody banned it. Sticks and stones are good for taming pets, but it takes more than that to change human behavior.

Murdering is wrong. But people are willing to do it for money or other intention, despite it is banned by the law. Why does the last resort (law enforcement) has always been mistakenly placed as the first way out nowadays?

“There are many other forms of exercise that Muslims can partake in..... ....
... ...Performing prayers, for example, is a good form of exercise,” he said.

Wow, now that is something new to me man.

Cashback

2008-11-18T20:14:00.003+08:00

Was browsing through some random Taiwan bittorrent forum when i came across this title.

It doesn't take big name celebrities and hefty advertising budget to make a good movie. And this is one of the best examples i've seen.

Some crazy imagination, Stephen Chow-style funny stunts, and a perfect love story ending. It would be a great challenge to blend all these in a one and a half hour movie without leaving the audience clueless at the end of the show. The director did it somehow, with fantastic style.

The movie is about Ben, a final year art-class student who broke up with his girl friend and can't sleep since then.

Since he's tight on cash and cannot get to sleep anyway, Ben decided to trade his extra 8hours everyday for some cash (thus the name of the movie).

He got a job in this local supermarket and his manager looked like this...

he's got 2 lunatic colleagues who give each other a good huge sausage blow on a daily basis.

and pulls down his pant whenever they got the chance

they are accompanied by a new guy named Brian

...who's yet another lunatic that happens to know kung fu. check out his face expression man. classic.

to clear his colleagues' doubt, Brian decided to show them what he's made of...

is this fucked up or what?

if that's not enough, he wears yellow belt taekwando outfit and brings a fucking katana to work. Check out his face again man! Damn classic.

And did i mention Stephen Chow? In view of the great success of his Kungfu and Show Lin Soccer (i suppose), the director for this movie decided to bring in some football elements as well.

This is Ben's team

... and this is their opponent

... and this is how their manager looked like after the match

Do not take this movie as yet another comedy though, there's actually much more than that. The excellent BGM which really tie the audience's mood together with the movie's atmosphere, the perfect blend of story line between Ben's self imagined ideology, the funny stuff in the office and the progress of his relationship and realization of Love, are among other things that make this movie a really nice one.

The ending was fantastic too. Ben stopped time and did a massive kiss with his new girl while the snow flakes around them halted in the middle of air. Just like many other parts of the movie. beautiful still life art.

Boy cried for scoring straight A's in UPSR

2008-11-14T09:13:00.001+08:00

I remember how happy i was when the exams were finally over and i have the whole year end holidays before stepping into high school. Never did i place so much concern about shits like result. There must be something wrong with the education nowadays. Or could it be the melamine-filled milk powder these kids been drinking?

Pendrive

2008-11-07T16:51:00.001+08:00

Got this today from my office. It probably worth less than rm20. But it meant a lot to me. This is something that will never happen in my previous company. At least not in a trillion years. Wise choice rootified, wise choice.

Bowling

2008-11-06T13:23:00.001+08:00

Productivity has a new definition. My workstation is running on Xp. It comes with a couple of preloaded mp3, flash games and a 17inches monitor. Something i would not even dream to have in my office few months back.

Hard time ahead

2008-11-03T20:37:00.004+08:00

Everyone knows the bad times is just around the corner. I've not been following any related news for about a month now and was shocked to find out how deep this shit goes today. Apparently certain financial facilities granted by any US financial institutions are not recognized here at the moment. Who knows what will happen next?

Meanwhile, being a smart ass as i always am, i invested heavily earlier this year (yellow shaded) and even MORE heavier (orange shaded) when the market sort of crashed a little. Thinking i was gonna get some hefty return in a short while.

And now, here i am, being financially immobilized and shit, not knowing when will this disaster end.

Precious lesson learned. Fuck you Warrant Buffet.

New Job

2008-11-02T23:48:00.002+08:00

Working Attire - Checked

Related Documents - Checked

New Hairstyle - Checked

And i'm less than 9 hours away from starting my new job.

The only thing i wanna do now before going to bed is...

level up my characters in Final Fantasy X!!

i'm so screwed up...

Long Holiday

2008-10-30T00:51:00.002+08:00

As some of you might already know, i made the long awaited decision to end my misery in Company P some time ago.

Now that i've been doing exactly nothing for the past 3 weeks, i finally had the chance to take a break, sit down and ~~have a kit kat~~ think about some serious issues about life.

This was how my table looked like in my last minutes of work. Hey, how did my superior manage to fit in like 50 files at one go on such a small table all these while? Also note the now-antique 14 inches non-flat CRT. You don't need a larger monitor to run Windows 95 and some unknown ancient security program written in the 80's i guess.

And this was how my colleague's table looked like after the transfer. My K800i camera lens is not wide enough to cover the 2 three-tier utility shelves full with files on the left hand side though. Several midnight OT sessions ahead i suppose.

I have no idea how lifeless my life was in the past 1 year until now. Looking back, it sure was a long and boring journey. Talking about spending unreasonably long hours in the office with managers thinking they were some kind of underpaid high pressure cooker. Hah.

A TV, a set of PS2, computer and car, coupled with loads of free time, is just the right formula that enables me to fully utilize this precious free time i have before starting a new misery all over again.

Did i mentioned 'serious issues about life' just now? Oh yeah, they include:

Make a small table using some leftover wood from an unwanted furniture that has been thrown away.

Put it on the bedside and feel proud about myself for being able to make something as nice as that :)

Play game till the unholy hour of 2AM in the morning, found this in the kitchen

... and take a photo of it while waiting for the water to boil, so that i have something to blog about.

Spending half an hour in tesco staring at a utility shelf

Comparing the measurements to see if it could fit into my room

Order banana leaf rice in my favourite north indian cuisine restaurant next to my now ex-office, 3PM in the afternoon of a working day

Eat and have fun watching people in their working attire busy walking past

Ahh... I've missed so much fun in the past 1 year!!

Wish List

2008-09-09T23:18:00.002+08:00

I LOVE wish lists.

Wish list is like a checklist of goals to achieve. It shows me the reason for working hard and keeps me motivated that my hard work will eventually pay off. The process of accomplishing/acquiring items on my wish list keeps me going and the result is often rewarding.

Things like fancy gadgets or overpriced latest technologies never appear on my wish list. Simply because depreciation on these stuff is more than enough to offset any satisfaction they bring, and i'm too poor to afford them anyway.

With my pathetic pay, i've got myself the once-upon-a-time top-of-the-line Sony Ericsson K800i

And my low profile Proton Waja

And the things that are currently on my wish list are:

Panasonic Lumix FZ-28

Sony PlayStation Portable

And a 19 inches wide-screen LCD to replace my old malfunctioned 17" CRT that shows a yellow screen all the time.

That's all.
Not too greedy and totally affordable eh?

I mean... Right?

........................................
..............................
.....................

*press calculator*

..................................
.......................

*look at payslip*

*sweat*
.................................
...........................
...................

Hey, where's the stack of lottery tickets i bought yesterday?

The Indifference Curves (or something like that...)

2008-09-02T23:53:00.002+08:00

Above is a much simplified graph that explains working life.

The sloping straight line shows possible combinations of leisure hours and income one can have. To put it simple, in order to get some extra income, one have to give up some leisure hours (i.e. work overtime). So if the choice is to enjoy life (get 24 leisure hours a day) there'll be no income. Vice versa.

The curves (C1, C2 and C3), on the other hand, are called the indifference curves. Any point on one curve shows a combination of leisure hour and wages that gives the same amount of satisfaction. And the further the curve is (C3 is further than C1) from the origin, there'll be more satisfaction from any combination on that curve.

C1 crosses the slope at both red dots, but these combination are not good as they do not give the best satisfaction. The optimal point (blue dot) is the ideal combination of leisure hours and wages one can have, given his/her current capacity, as it touches with the furthest indifference curve.
Green dot is even better but it is out of reach.

So yes. Blue dot is the best combination. Work hard play hard.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Most of the people around me are at the grey dot. Working hour is long and leisure hour is near 0 (after minus all the time spent on food, bathing and all). Grey dot does not touch with any indifference curve on the graph. Simply because it does not yield any satisfaction.

But the best part has yet to come. In Company P, employees are expected to have a bended capability slope. Instead of the near 45 degree straight line, the management believes that a bended line (slope starts from the Y-axis i.e. leisure hours. turn to the dotted line and ends at point X1 at the X-axis i.e. wages) is what the employees deserves.

So, for the Y amount of leisure time (in other words, 24-Y amount of hours spent in the office), instead of Wages X, employees only deserve Wages X1.

And if that's not great enough, harassing calls from the manager in angry tone scolding for the low efficiency and all undone work DURING ANY FUCKING PUBLIC HOLIDAYS/WEEKENDS is absolutely alright because slaves shall just shut the fuck up anyway.

Life sucks. Unfortunate enough, I'm right at the orange spot, too. And i'm THAT far away from reaching the Green spot. I doubt i'll ever reach it though. Given the current situation, not in a fucking trillion years.

The only way to get out of rat race, is to CHANGE.

Damn. I LOVE changes...

Mid night post

2008-07-25T00:39:00.002+08:00

Just only finish checking the last document that i brought home. Saw this funny .gif file somewhere.

Damn. Reminds me of Stephen Chow in his comedy version of "Journey to the West"

Damn.

1 Year

2008-07-16T23:20:00.003+08:00

365 days.

That's how long i've been working with this company.

I've heard that many (i mean like... MANY!!) of my juniors have applied and some even started working here. Most of them being attracted by the high starting pay. Last month itself, we have 6 new staff joined, 2 of them being MMU students.

Heck. With underlined sentence like "with starting pay of not less than RMXXXX" in the recruiting advertisement of such MNC, it's no surprise that many fresh grads are keen to come here. Some might even be thinking that "hey, i might get higher than the 'minimum'!!" But seriously, that 'minimum' is also the 'maximum' a normal fresh grad can get. No joke.

Well. Working in such a cina-pek company can be really interesting. That is, if you are optimistic enough.

For example, you get to learn some high level tai-chi technique. How to pretend it's not your responsibility and push to others while it's obviously yours, how to make yourself looked so overloaded with work that your boss feel guilty to give you more work and end up giving it to the one sits beside you which causes yet another major hair loss session for him/her... stuff like that.

Besides that, you get to understand "silence is gold and obey is diamond". Truth is not important. If the boss thinks that you are wrong, you are always wrong. So just let his ego win and life goes on. Makes you look like a dog at first, but the rewards come when you see things like "adequate ability to work in a team", "excellent communication skills" and "good working attitude" in your appraisal.

The job nature will very much brush up your communication skills as well. Having to convey message like "damn you piece of cheap shit, we ain't gonna approve your application, just go away!" or "alright i know your case is urgent but so as everybody else! you think you very big meh?" to customers in a good way with a smile on your face is definitely not easy you see.

I think in the past 1 year, i've basically mastered these necessary skills to at least keep myself alive in the office. Things are more like a daily routine to me now.

About the new guys in the house... one of which quited after joining for 3 days. Few others looked likely to do the same soon too. Damn.

Muthu Jackson - Thrilla

2008-06-16T12:55:00.002+08:00

This shit is kewl.

Changes

2008-06-15T19:24:00.002+08:00

Been working for almost a year now. Without me knowing it, i'm actually changing slowly.

I used to online 24-7, spending the whole night checking out forums for some information that i don't really need to know, hunting high and low for a particular crack to run my newly-installed game, chatting with friends that i don't really know over some new pop songs, stuff like that.

I don't really online nowadays (like... once a month?). I spend my after-office time wisely on dinner, bathing and bed now. For weekends, i'd spend some quality time with my girl or my family.

Life's been so disciplined, so much so that it's making me sick.

I hope it's just a short period in my life that i have to go through, before reaching to the better days.

Else, i think i'm in real dipshit.

My Ride

2008-04-13T19:55:00.005+08:00

Woke up early in the morning, drove to the workshop to get the job done.

Jack-up the car to remove the old tires.

Throw away these shit and replace em' with some shiny ones.

Next, i sent it to the car wash to get a detailed wash and wax.

Hardworking boy doing his thang.

And everything is done now.

1. Tinted Window Films - Checked

2. Sport Rims & New Tires - Checked

3. Mirror-like Finish - Checked

Yeah babeh :)

Wheels

2008-04-12T21:06:00.002+08:00

Gonna put these fine ass wheels on my ride. Yeah baby.

~~Burns a big hole on my pocket at the same time. Too.~~
My ride rocks

Quantum Leap

2008-03-20T20:32:00.002+08:00

So long, my Kancil.

It served me well for the past 4 years. Despite a not-so-functioning brake system and some occasionally drop-off bodykit, the car is actually quite good. But it's time to move forward.

My job requires me to drive around a lot, and i drive outstation quite often too. The old junk that produce weird sound all around when i go more than 80kmph just can't do the job anymore.

Getting myself a second hand local made sedan this week. Good condition, low mileage, & highly pimp-able. Bargain buy @ less than 50% of the original price.

Hooray!

Tsunami

2008-03-09T20:50:00.003+08:00

It's been awhile.

I'm having lesser time than i thought i'd have. Time management is useless when i don't have much manageable time. So i got myself a priority list of things i'd do if i have free time. Unfortunately, blogging isn't at the top of the list.

Work has been increasingly killing as usual. Was told to learn faster and go all out. The result is severe constipation and hair loss. X(

Life's been all-right though. I've already adopted the weekly routine of 5 days hard work + 2 days relax, although sometimes it's 6.5 days hard work + 0.5 day merely resting. I persuaded myself that all these are challenges i have to overcome. Psychology works better than anything else.

P/s: Voting tsunami in Malaysia, at last!

2007

2007-12-31T10:52:00.000+08:00

New Year Eve. On leave. Stay home. How nice.

2007 has been a big year for me. For instance, i realized that when people say "Money not easy to earn lah!", they really meant it. And i learned it the hard way.

2008 is gonna be another big year for me. More challenges, more obstacles to overcome.

But the struggles will end one day, and i'm on my way to make that happen ASAP.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Besides the normal ranting, i'd like to remind everyone who read this to register for voting. Election is coming and it's time to exercise our rights. I know i know, we don't really have much of that here, and the result is obviously known to all. But collective action do make a difference.

2007 was meaningful to our glorious country. We celebrated our 50th anniversary of independent by hiring actors acting events happened in 31th August 1957. We had our much beloved PM doing his thing on the stage, just like what TAR did. How great.

How can we not love Malaysia? Apart from the ever rising price index and various scandals, there are so many other memorable glorious moments happened in 2007 that truly reflects "Malaysia Boleh!" . Let's recap some of these pride...

1) The Astronaut links 1 2 3

We have our first astronaut! Hooray!
Who say we need to develop this and that apa-apa canggih teknologi? No need one lah! (stupidnye China). All it takes for a country to set a "big leap" in its history is just a few cartons of USD and a handsome dude to spend 1 year in training centre.

And of course we utilized the chance to promote our tourism industry. Doing teh tarik and drawing batik in a spaceship ain't easy ya know?

2) The Z Palace links 1 2

Illegal don't mean a thing in this country. Because we people all learned to keep quiet and be forgetful. Happy go lucky la. Just tear down the illegal satay hut and don't report about the thing for some time is more than enough to shut everyone up.

A lot of questions asked. No answer given. All we see is the open house during Hari Raya. Together-gether makan makan. Silence brings harmony.

3) The Bocor links 1 2 3 4

The incident doesn't only bring up how wisely was tax money being spent, but also the way of things being settled in parliament. Really parlia-style.

4) The Gatherings links 1 2 3

Our country is built based on harmony among all races. Harmony is achieved by keeping quiet. And any action will be taken to maintain the silence. Because failure to do so would lead to the harmony being destroyed, thus creating instability in the country.

Smoke grenades, water bombs, ISA and fully-armed anti-riot police are the key elements to keep the country in peace and harmony.

------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not easy to keep everybody together. It's a tough job. But i believe there are better ways of doing things. And i hope by exercising this right of voting i have, i could be a part of the force to improve things.

Leave

2007-12-26T09:05:00.000+08:00

On annual leave again. Only 10 working days for this month.

:D

Spent some quality time during the Christmas. Was so relax. And now the feeling of having to go work tomorrow is haunting me.

I shall watch some blood splashing zombie movie to make myself feel batter. The Resident Evil: Extinction DVD i bought yesterday will serve this purpose well i guess.

:)

PTPTN

2007-12-21T15:46:00.000+08:00

I thought they've forgotten about me. But not...

I've received THE letter today.

A letter from PTPTN.

And i've got myself a loan of RM64k to pay back in the next 15 years.

Well, nothing much to complain about.
I couldn't have finished my degree without the loan. And my life would be a different story.

I'm lucky to have secured a job. And the installment ain't really much of a big deal to me. But with the high unemployment rate among fresh grads, and the low starting pay that most of us are getting, i wonder how many of the borrowers are gonna pay 'em back?

Talking about "most of us". Yeah, not all fresh grads are getting a low pay check. There are people out there making RM3-4K per month with their first job. Of which, most of them are good students. And guess what? first class students don't have to pay back the loan!

Is this some kind of penalty for ppl who couldn't make it or what? Why is that first class students, who are more likely to get a higher pay job, and thus are more capable of paying back the loan, don't have to pay back?

Those who are struggling to catch a meal are the ones given warning letters (for late repayment). Whereas the more capable ones have been exempted. It somehow reminds me of the "survival of the fittest" thingy my Bangladeshi professor used to nag about.

Sigh.

I know, all these rantings wouldn't appear here in my blog if i had made it to the first class. I would instead poke fun of those who didn't make it and did not repay the loan.

Sigh.

Whatever.

PTPTN is for pity pity ants like me. Poor and helpless. Can only knowingly get myself into a rat race with a huge loan behind me even before i get my first pay check.

Alright. Enough rantings.

Here's the quote i found in the ptptn homepage.

"Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "Whoever takes the money of the people with the intention of repaying it, Allah will repay it on his behalf, and whoever takes it in order to spoil it, then Allah will spoil him." "

Hey, i'm with FULL INTENTION of repaying it la, but no money what to do? so will anyone repay it on my behalf?

Hah.

Sick

2007-12-19T15:36:00.000+08:00

Fell sick.

Haven't been able to online in weekday afternoon for quite some time. So to those who are still studying, treasure your time. You may have to get MC in order to get online in the afternoon next time.

Changed the blog's banner. Was told that it looks girlish. I thought so too. But time is so limited, what to do? Anyway, this new banner is kinda blank, it very much sums up my life after started working.

Before i know it, i'll be going through my first appraisal next month. It's been nearly 6 months that i've started to work like a dog. Can't imagine i made it this far.

Terry Fox can complete marathon with just one leg. I can keep holding on too.

... I think

The cough medicine is making me sleepy. Feel so energy-less. Time to Off.

Unplugged

2007-12-03T12:22:00.001+08:00

I'm back in town, finally.

Was away for most of the time in the past few months. Didn't get to online much and i don't even read newspaper.

Anyway, here i am.

I've just realized that i've already started working for almost 5 months. What the heck.

This update is just to tell everybody that i'm still alive. Heh. Nothing much to talk about. Working life is plain monotonous.

sigh.

Back

2007-11-04T13:35:00.000+08:00

I'm back from the training.

Things are pretty stable now. But the job is still killing me. :(

Nothing much to update. Unlike the old days, my life now is all about the same old routine. Work, work and work.

The end.

Happy Month

2007-10-15T22:04:00.000+08:00

This is gonna be a happy month for me, cuz...

October - Weekends - Holidays - Annual Leave - Trainning =

11 working days!

Life's great :)

Spent a few days in her hometown after a 3d2n trip. Will spend another one and half week in outstation for the training. Didn't online for sooooo long. Was so embrassed when i received an off-line message from a friend asking me to return her calculator cuz she needed it for exam and can't get to contact me. Gosh, the exam week is already over by now. X(

Nvm, i shall return it in due course.

(Now i started to wonder how people think about me at my back.)

Genting Fun

2007-10-01T22:33:00.000+08:00

In case you don't know, we went to Genting Highland months ago before i started my job.

Superb

The trip was fun and cheap. We spent very little for a 3d2n trip and we had lotsa fun.

However, on the last day of the trip, we saw something that has lead us to think that all those rumours about shits happened in Genting are true.

You know there's this thrill ride in the outdoor theme park, water splashing type of roller coaster? We played that damn thing just day before that and on our way for a lunch before leaving, we saw this...

The car was not on the way up. It was STUCKED up there.

The ride is so stupidly designed, whereby you have to grab the rubber handle on the sides to support your body when the boat is on its way up, there's nothing supporting your back.

The poor girls were already there for quite sometime when we notice the incident. And they had been using the grip of their palm to support their body weight throughout the duration, crying and screaming and begging for help.

We were quite shocked that not even one technician showed up after 5 minutes (yeah we were kepoh-kepoh around taking photos and pointing fingers). So we tried to get some Genting staff to notify the management. We asked the guards, the janitors and some unknown staff, all they responded was like "Oh..... Ahh...." and then they walk off.

A few moments later, the ride engineer made the most intelligent decision of his life...

He sent one more boat up the trail, in the hope that it will bump the first boat and both boats will start moving.

It didn't work.
So the third boat he sent.... and the fourth.

4 in love

The kids started screaming and trying to climb out. But none of them dare to risk their life so in the end they stay back in the boats.

A while more, the machine below the trails started to make some weird noise, black smoke started to come out. The kids started to scream REAL loud. For one moment i thought there's gonna be a major explosion and i may see this in the newspaper headline the next day.

I felt like i was watching some kinda Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

After another 10-15 minuts, finally the technician showed up.

They were walking in super slow motion, as if these are nothing new and they are so kind to offer their help for small things like these.

Save the kids one by one...

The thing ended just like that.

End of story. Lazy to write anymore.

Shootout at Lokhandwala

2007-09-19T20:39:00.000+08:00

This is gotta be the best Bollywood movie i've watched (well... i've watched less than 5 Bollywood movie XD ).

Shootout at Lokhandwala is an action-packed Bollywood's hit-of-the-year, starring Bollywood superstar Wkal#sujaykfuh@ufn and Lzauhd*ub Npe$jeahy.

...we don't know them anyway.

The movie is just freakin' cool. Considering it's a production of Bollywood, which is best known for dancers-come-out-from-nowhere-and-start-dancing-and-singing-and
-running-on-grass-or-hiding-behind trees, movie like this is really a great success.

The movie copied a couple of ideas from Hong Kong and Hollywood action movies, while maintaining the Bollywood tradition (hell yeah, dancer-come-out-from-nowhere thingy, but in a good way) at the same time.

Some part of the movie is simply coolness-to-the-max, while some other part of it doesn't really make sense to me. Can't fully adopt the way they doing it after all.

Check out Wikipedia if you wanna know about the story. I watched it from Astro. Gonna download and watch it again.

Photos Update

2007-09-07T21:41:00.000+08:00

Finally...

I am...

Graduated!!

With presents!!

Ever since i started working, i have no time nor mood to blog.
I work more than 12hrs per day, spending most of the time doing paper work routine between departments. My boss say he'll not tekan me like a sugarcane machine. Because tekan-ed sugarcane are of no value and are to be discarded.

In stead, i'll be twisted like a t-shirt in a washing machine. Reusable and re-tekan-able.

Sigh. How i missed those days in university.

Office War

2007-08-23T23:09:00.000+08:00

Working in a big corporate, there's always a lot of politic-playing and back-stabbing.

It doesn't matter whether you're a newbie or a seasoned warrior. Every second in the office is dead or alive. No mercy will be given.

There's been a war in the office lately. I was assigned to another department by the boss since last week, but i still have to follow up undone jobs in the previous department. My new supervisor wasn't very happy with that and so a war began...

The new supervisor made the first assault.

Wanna sabo my people huh? EAT THIS!

The old supervisor (and her homies) strike back

Oh Yeah? Try this you muthafarka

Things turned wild. So the manager came in with his shot gun

Boom!

Some one has to fall.

Unfortunately, it was Mr Trainee's turn.

sigh

Bad day for Mr Trainee

2007-07-31T22:26:00.000+08:00

I'm supposed to be a trainee.
They're supposed to give me training, teach from zero.

That's only official phrases used in the offer letter.

Sigh. So many things to say, don't know where to start.

Didn't even bother to look at mum's disappointing face when i told her i'm not eating the dinner she prepared today.

Am extremely tired and frustrated.

Sigh.

My Boss

2007-07-28T21:39:00.000+08:00

My boss is very good. Seriously.

He could've comfortably throw me tasks with necessary instructions to save himself from unwanted troubles. But instead, he explain things from A-Z, all the why-how-who-what-when. And some of them are not even related to my work, just for my knowledge.

This kind of boss, where to find?

Working in this sector is not easy. OT without compensation, dealing with nasty/stingy customer, fancy target set by the boss. You name it.

But i feel thankful that i get a boss like him. It's almost like learning things from a lecturer.

I paid university tens of thousands every year to get half-ass useless education.
Here i'm making tens of thousands every year and learning valuable knowledge.

How ironic.

The Slip

2007-07-25T23:23:00.000+08:00

Received The First Ever Pay Slip in My Life™ today.

Very little. :(

But considering i've only worked for 1 week+, nothing much to expect la.

Time to sleep. Still got heaps of work waiting for me tomorrow.

Friday

2007-07-20T00:19:00.000+08:00

4 days past by just like that. It almost felt like one and a half day to me.

Still at the very beginning of learning everything. Time flies by very very fast everyday. Report in, work, lunch, work... before i know it, the clock already hit 7 and daylight is nowhere to be seen.

They say i'm the lucky one. Cuz everybody treat me good so far and it just so happen there's very little workload this week. So i have the time to learn things slowly.

I'm still blur. But heck, tomorrow is Friday! Shiok!

New guy in the house

2007-07-16T22:08:00.000+08:00

I was late.

Being late is the WORST thing could've happen on the first day of work. And i did it without a valid reason. What a good way to kick start my career.

Spent the whole day reading the do and don'ts, getting to know people and settling miscellaneous stuff.

Went home at 6PM, while ALL my colleagues were still busy with their work. They say today is my honey moon. Today ONLY.

Shit.

Work

2007-07-16T00:30:00.000+08:00

Just came back from KL.

Went with her for a 3d2n stay. Supposed to be a shopping trip but there wasn't much sales. Only bought a few stuff.

I'm broke anyways, spent quite a lot on the working apparels. I shall put them under the "Investment" column in my cash flow book :P

Tomorrow will be the first day i start working. Am still not clear of what to do, who to meet and which boss' ass to lick. Will figure it out soon.

MBO

2007-07-11T23:54:00.000+08:00

I walked into the cinema with 2 Transformers tickets in my pocket.

This is the first time i watch a movie twice. I can't resist the movie, and i can't resist the new cinema.

2 and a half hours later, i walked out of the building thinking that the cinema could have avoid being yet another failure by...

#1. Upgrade the screen - Tiny screen is pitiful, but having blinking bar-code-like black lines on the screen THROUGHOUT the movie is simply pathetic.

#2. Upgrade the audio system - I know the speakers are new (well... they are, right?), but the cracking noise when the bass is slightly stronger is annoying.

#3. Better popcorn - Without caramel flavour is not a problem, but not crispy is.

#4. Fresher soft drinks - The Coke i had, was the worst that i ever had. Diluted (like... 1:1 ratio), un-carbonated (which makes the drink taste VERY sweet and not-shiok).

Enough said.

The Job

2007-07-07T01:58:00.000+08:00

Got a phone call in the morning, was brushing teeth so i told the lady to call back in 5 minutes.

Waited for 1hr, never call back.

So i called back the number, and got to know that it's from THAT menara i went for interview 2 days ago. But all operators were busy (welcome to malaysia) and i can't reach to her.

Can only wait.

Should've just gulp down that damn tooth paste and answer straight away. DAMN.

Few hours later. I received the call from heaven.

I'VE GOT A JOB!!

the right type of job, at the right location, with the right pay.

Shiok!

Interview and more interviews

2007-07-04T01:54:00.000+08:00

Watched Transformer with her today. Superb. Gonna watch it again in MBO Melaka Mall.

Been traveling quite frequently. Will go to KL for yet another interview tomorrow, in one BIG menara :)

Another 3hrs session interview on Thursday.

Wish me luck.

Still jobless

2007-06-24T03:53:00.000+08:00

My mentor said i'm too picky.

I turned down 1 offer, forgone 2 opportunities in the seek of an ideal job.

An interviewer asked me this morning, "What do you want from us?"
said "experience and knowledge, i'm looking to learn in this organization"
so he asked "what are you expecting to learn from us?"
said "everything"

I know it's a stupid answer, and apparently it didn't quite impressed him.

I suddenly realized my problem: i'm hunting aimlessly.

I have countless of things to learn, but everything must start from something. I'll just settle down and see how things turn out.

On another note, we celebrated her mum's 50th birthday in Riviera Bay resort. Nice food and great performance by a Philippino live band. In fact the band itself already worth the price. Imagine 2 guys who looks and sings like PowerStation and another Asian version of Christina Aguilera performing together...

Another long day ahead and i'm running down on cash. God bless me.

And when i'm ending this post, the first drop of a seemed-to-be heavy rain poured down. Oh God, you must had heard my prayer.

Goodnight

Interview

2007-06-18T00:42:00.000+08:00

Sent out several application on last Wednesday. Still waiting for reply from the main targets but i've already got an interview invitation from one of the secondary targets.

Probably gonna go KL by tomorrow. The CEO of the company is a young bumiputera diploma holder. Amazingly we are from the same high school and he's my senior.

Looking forward for the interview. I think it's gonna be interesting.

2007-06-14T01:49:00.000+08:00

The result came out. No good.

Can only say that i deserve what i get. It worths the efforts i put in. But there was no surplus, although all i need is just a tiny bit.

sigh.

*off to tangkak*

How to make a fool of the students

2007-06-11T18:23:00.000+08:00

The result was supposed to be released on today morning, so i waited.

WAITED WAITED WAITED WAITED WAITED WAITED

UNTIL 6PM!!

I saw this on the bulletin board:

Wah i got so excited, and extremely nervous at the same time. I can feel some thing's going on in my stomach, that kind of indescribable feelings u have when u almost get caught for doing something wrong... something like that.

So i went to the result page, nothing there.
Pressed F5, still the same.
Pressed F5 for the second, third, fourth.... until a gazillion times. STILL THE EFFKING SAME!!

I got really frustrated.

There must be some problem with the server... yeah... must be. They always have this kind of problems during peak hours.

Maybe i just need to wait for another 10-20minutes and then re-login, the result will be there...

To kill time, i clicked on the bulletin link wanted to have some fun (it's always fun to laugh at the poor gramma those M admins have. believe me).

And this i saw...

%$#@*^%@%(&$!"?*%^#+-

I feel like shoving a Cha Siu Bao into that idiot's throat and pop a bottle of well-shaken Carlsberg right into his rectum. Can i? Can i?...

Your ing-ge-lis is sooooo very regretful, you inconvenience-causing son-of-a-piece-of-pork.

The Bumper

2007-06-11T00:25:00.000+08:00

Now i remember so clearly that i blogged about this, but i searched every corner and couldn't find the post, so i'm making this entry again.

The very bad thing happened on my way driving to Port Dickson months ago was that i met a minor accident. Due to my careless driving, a motorist from the back banged my car's right hand side and ran away.

I thought it's just a minor scratches on the paint cuz i didn't feel anything strong. So i attempted to chase that mathafakka (i know it's my fault for not using the side mirror, but hey, HE BANG ME! so he's the mathafakka. no argue) for a few kilometer.

He fled in the end. So i pull over to the roadside to check how badly is the scratches made. Amazingly there was no scratches at all.

BECAUSE THE WHOLE MATHAFAKKING BUMPER WAS GONE.

That was the time i receive a call from friends driving behind me. They ask me why the hell i leave my bumper there.

So the ending is that we went back there, luckily the bumper was still in one piece so we simply tie it back with some wire and continue the trip. I used some super glue to stick it back when i got home.

Found this photo from a friend's friendster account. This is what they did to an unfortunate friend's dropped-off bumper....

"V" sign and thumbs up.