Ah Pek

I was asked to introduce myself to the client who apparently was waiting at the lobby ala reception area. After I gather my stuff, the client's document and the signoff letter, I hasten my pace and head straight down so I won't offend the client for waiting too long coz he's the Dato's friend and the Dato is the Managing Director. I better not bury myself today I promised myself else I will break Rule 1.

I saw a chinese man in his fifties or maybe even sixties. Just to confirm whether he was the guy I'm supposed to meet, I asked where his name is "Mr. Lim". Ok now let's call him Ah Pek. Ah Pek then look up at me and was in a paused / dumbfounded / stoned / couldn't get his senses right yet / brain not functioning / brain hang kinda way. I patiently waited for him to regain his composure and introduced myself.

Immediately Ah Pek asked: "You engineer ar?"

Me: "Erm.....yeah"
(Basically my title is Software Engineer but then I'm more like....erm...heck it. I am then)

Ah Pek: "Where is T?
(T is the Manager in charge for handling this client)

Me: "Oh..He will be coming down shortly"
(Actually he is not. Only me. You won't get anyone else)

I told him I'm the one who will do the work for him and he started to brag about his ingenius idea that will make him, erm, rich. Well he did not say that but he did say there is a big potential market for his idea. So I tried to talk to him about what I've done and after a very short exchange of sentences, I realised he can't talk technical. I then changed my style into rojak-chinese-layman style in hopes that he will be much more comfortable and I won't get screwed.

As you know, Ah Peks like to tell stories. Ah Peks have many stories to tell. This Ah Pek does not fall into the exception category. So he tells story about what he did when he was young and security and cameras. After that, I changed my mind, he's quite a techie Ah Pek actually. After the talking has been done and the papers signed and contacts exchanged, Ah Pek said this.

Ah Pek: "You are very nice..."

Me: "...."
(*kembang kembang*...kakaka..it was my first attempt negotiating with customers in this company)

Police block

I was wondering where are the police blocks nowadays? Any idea? It used to be a normal scene at every known spots and on days like Saturday or Friday nights I can even guarantee that the police blocks will be setup at those specific locations.

Not that I miss them for their chances to make extra income out of us but I'm just curious as to why they have disappeared. The last one that I saw was in Year 2003 Christmas Eve at Puchong where there is a speed trap and the police block was few hundred metres away waiting for unlucky victims. Some vehicles coming on the opposite direction has somehow foiled their plans to trap me by giving me the, you know, flashing headlights.

Snooze or Off?

Woke up naturally this morning and felt something isn't too right. I look at the clock. Damn it, it's 8:30 AM and I'm supposed to start work at 8:00 AM or at least technically clock in before that time. I was in disbelieve and I'm trying to convince myself it's not a working day. It could be a Saturday. Nope. I spontaneously do the morning rituals in just half the amount of time I usually needed. Good lord, you will realised you actually can do wonders when you are in a rush probably like how my brother ran his ass off when he was chased by a mongoloid dog.

When I was driving to the office, my boss called me.

Boss: "..."

Me: I'm on my way

Boss: "What happen?"
(in a soft calm tone)

Me: I overslept a bit. Hehe.

Boss: "Muttering about work and something about this guy wants to see me"

Me: I'll be there soon.

Finally reached my destination safely and now all the parking spaces has been taken. I gotta park at one shitty corner.

Today I think it's like my second busiest day since I started working here. I was doing work non-stop the whole day apart from lunch hour.

Yay, I've got a GMail!

Lesson Learnt: Do not simply whack a button on your handphone. It might not be the button "Snooze"

EPL, confusing jam and a job

Met up with some Uni mates to catch some football action, Liverpool vs Manchester United. The match was pretty darn dull by the standards of two huge clubs. Liverpool won by one goal. Not that I'm not a Liverpool FC fan anymore but that match itself was one of the topics brought up that everything goes and abides the power of money. Yup. We are talking about money, bookee, advertising and other stakeholders that squeeze money out of this overrated game of sports. We've concluded that Gary Nevile, one of the hateful figures in our list for possessing that again "yong sui" characteristics, is the main actor for the game.

After the match and the "yam cha" session, I was caught in a jam. It was so bad that I thought something huge is happening at the other side. What cross my mind at that time was that there could be this mega police block to crackdown the malay yobs who performs asinine gravity defying stunts aka superman on the "kap chai", or probably just some car accidents that happened to be on middle of the darn road. When I am finally moving forward, I tried to spot for the culprit. But damn, I was left disappointed and confused as there are basically nothing. The traffic in front was just slow moving but how could that left me idle non moving at all in about 15-20 minutes?? And they say, one way street is one of the solutions to cater traffic in congested areas.

*translation:
yong sui - Ugly Face
yam cha - Drink Tea
kap chai - Small bike, normally having the capacity of 100cc

Burn BSMR

BSMR. I'm not sure how to translate this in English though. If I give it a shot, it would sound something like Information System and Records Department. It's basically a department which handles information for the Immigration Department of the Government. Sounds funky? Darn awkward? Poor translation? Heck I don't care.

I just want to point out one blardy thing which is that place suck doodoo coz it's damn stodgy. Today was my third day there. Basically 8 - 5 PM if time taken for transportation were to be accounted. I'm bored to death doing practically nothing and to find some solace I look around and I found some sofa at the so-called welcoming reception area to shirk most of my time off. And I think, the obnoxious colleague of mine, *cikgu, is not too happy about that. What did she expect me to do then? Stand around watching others like I'm some supervisor and make them feel uneasy? No way man. I prefer to chill and let them chill.

You see, life at these kinda places are way too slow. Everything is always postponed. Being such that, I think there is practically no need for whatsoever planning to be involved. It will be postponed anyway. So why bother crack your head and schedule those itenaries?

The systems that we were working on and other dependent systems like the network and passports and cards seems to have a life on its own to decide when to die and pretend not functioning or rather an eye to watch us or perhaps a ear to listen when the demo of (User Acceptance Test) UAT will start. It will, by all means, fail itself tremendously at that very crucial point in time just to annoy the heck out of us. On this day though, it happened in more occurences to my colleagues. However, I pity my colleagues and would like to vent their anger on their behalf.

(translation :
*cikgu = teacher
yong sui = ugly face)

Bail my ass

Today was an uncanny day where the level of awkwardness has hit the limits. It is the same friggin feeling you get if you were forced to play with a bunch of kindergarten kids, or like you were forced to entertain a group of multi-nationals without a common language, or like you were pushed outside to make a speech without prior notice and preparation and the likes of it. The feeling that I'm trying to portay kinda hangs around those areas albeit not that harsh I would say. It goes like this where I was invited to a church by a friend, for a concert worship, by some australia band. I already felt something that was really weird when I entered the place. It's full of kids. God damn it. Kids at the age 12 - 18?? I felt so outnumbered. Me and my friend. Two old farts? Wrong place, wrong time. Volume of kids? Probably in the likes of 200. We were stucked in a kid concert thingy for goodness sake.

I requested to bail my ass out there just when it started coz I felt so uneasy, fake and definitely not enjoying the moment at all. However, I'm impressed with the aussie dude who played the bass that has no frets. Hmmm. How in the hell he did that I do not understand.

I always tell people that "Boredom is always better than Frustration" whenever they complain to me about their problems and obstacles that they are having. But then again, I'm having that boredom part right now and it is not pretty. Probably that sentence only applies to work or job related issues and not to social issues.

Why BM

I was flustered doing my job this morning which involves coming out with two similar programs with different language interface. This includes changing everything you could see on the program to Bahasa Melayu / Bahasa Malaysia.
You see, it isn't that straight forward. There was this button which is labelled with the caption "Encrypt", so for those reading this that knows BM, what word will you use to substitute that? I finally settled with "Disulitkan" (translation: To be made secret) which was found on a website in Bahasa Melayu language educating about encryption. Well I guess that's the term although I still feel sick about it. I rather have it to be named "Buat Cacing" (translation: Make Worms) as it was said by an Immigration Officer while trying to explain the concept of encryption to his asinine fellow colleague.

At the very least, when the user uses the program everyday, he or she will be slightly amused with such interface.

While I was trying to vent out some anger and trying to feel less cynical, I had a chat with my colleague and this is the extra feature he suggested to be included with the program:

gimli: hahaha

gimli: eh put la button "lanciau"
*translation: lanciau is dick

gimli: then u click on it

gimli: after 10 times u rename the button "shiok"
*translation: shiok refers to good feeling

me: i'm making two versions. BM n Eng

me: fuck I hate BM

gimli: hahahaa well so do i

me: it sounds ....urgh...

me: I'll have to blog about this.

gimli: hahahaa

gimli: u should

I'm not articulate

Totally no idea, inspiration, thoughts or even the crappiest events that unfold to let me write about. However, I shall try to wade my way through and see if I can make one up right now.

I do not write that often because I'm not articulate and witty in my literature. So I thought I might better put the pen down. In this case don't bang the keyboard. Nevertheless, I do read many blogs often and I read them thoroughly. Somehow the essence of the never ending contents, the many dry jokes and sarcastic way of looking at life or even looking at a I-am-so-bored-sanding-here-with-an-awkward-pose tree amuses me so much that I can't stop reading, the way how I could relate to their ups and downs in life seems to encourage me to keep pushing on in life coz sometimes "Shit Happens", the number of hours that I can shirked through reading blogs and received input or information from it, well I can go on and on about this. I love blogging / bloggers.

Just to make a note here that I thought of yesterday when I was in semi-consciousness and feeling woozy. I learned that when you start to feel bored in your routine life for not having much to do, at that very point in time, somehow all the things will come bombarding you simultaneously bringing so much stress till you think you just wanna quit and relax on a sandy beach for the rest of your life. So the lesson is: Don't bitch when you feel bored.

Another principle in my life is not to compare because I believe in this statement which spells "You can win, but you will not win them all, you will lose, but you will not lose them all". This means that why bother frustrate yourself and you can't possibly top it all off or end up sunking to the very bottom when you start to compare with your friends / family / relatives and so on?

Well I can't possibly type anymore. Told you. I'm not articulate. So does any stuff written above rings some bell? Gimme your two cents.

LOL

Had a great night out yesterday. You see, sometimes especially when you have no expectations whatsoever at all, you would probably enjoy the outcome much more than you would.

It has been some time since I had one of those good loud boisterous laughs out of nowhere and yesterday was the day that breaks the ice about that. A good day to be childish again and laugh at simple matters and silly jokes.

Sometimes, it's just no fun being a serious grown up which is so focused and all that.

Keep quiet

* Edited to protect / hide identities

N: that day....my boss W.... when goin out for lunch..

N: asked O to keep quiet for 1 hour. so funny

A: hahahaha

A: no shit

A: that guy do talk alot

I was surpressing myself hard not to burst into laughter. But I failed. I quickly mask it as cough in hopes that nobody were popping their heads from their cubicle to check out what's wrong with me.

Something good for a change

I noticed that I blog a lot of negativity, making complains, venting anger, mocking others, etc. Today I shall change. I need to put in more positivity and euphoric feelings into the blog.

Well, but I don't have such happy story to blog about now. Oh I shall blog bout the internet.

Internet is playing a bigger role in my life. The story goes like this. I'm suppose to meet up with some fellowship friends that we met in Newcastle, UK this evening at a restaurant called New Paris. Where the heck is that place, I do not know. Being a Cheras fella, my knowledge of places like Sungai Buloh, Kepong, Jinjang, Damansara, PJ seems somehow limited.

The internet has provided me with the information that I need. Pinpointing the exact location in a map that I can comprehend.

I did it using the following steps

1. Google "New Paris Malaysia" - Found a result in thestar.com.my with the address of that restaurant. Still not good enough.

2. Search the address in "streetdirectory.com" - Found the exact location. Hahaha. Feeling happy and satisfied.

Get rid of the yellow pages. Kekeke. It's obsolete.

I hate spywares

Damn spywares. I hate spywares. I've been cleaning up my notebook to remove all those pesky spywares. I found these lurking around in my computer.

"eZule"
"Lycos Sidesearch" damn you Lycos. Memalukan nama sendiri. (Translation: A disgrace to your own name)
"Abetterinternet.com" yeah right
"Windows Blocker" huh?
"Clear Search" I don't need you, I've got google!

Some of them are WBO (Window Browser Objects?) which are sort of like plugins to your browser. It will redirect you to their page like xxx.clearsearch.com?query= OR search.lycos.com?query= OR xxx.usemysearchengineufool.com?query=

Bah! Annoying programs. I especially hate those who created these programs. Such a nuisance.

I hate spywares. Period.

Characters renamed

I was finding names that are scattered all over my blog. I have renamed most of them if not all with some nick that resembles that character's identity or their special characteristics.

I'm not sure why I'm doing that. Could it be for my safety within the company or I feel guilty of revealing their names or I'm so selfish that I wanna keep these information to myself in case some colleague are smart enough to drop by to my bloggie.

Anyway, it's a matter of compromising. The blog will carry more truth and honest depiction of my thoughts if it is written in a more revealing way while when alot of covers up are done, it wouldn't. So it's just some adjustments to play with. Till then, loonatik signing off!

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Liverpool 4 Blackburn 0, Blog Visitors

Finally, Liverpool FC is showing signs of its glory days. Well, maybe they are still not as good when they are in their primes but heck, it's still a 4-0 which could be much more than that. I must applaud Steven Gerrard, Harry Kewell and Michael Owen for being the dominating force in reviving the engine of the whole team.



Here's a snapshot of the countries that the visitors of my blog come from. I wanna say hello / bon journo / bon jour / guten morgen / ohayo / ni hao to all of my visitors. I'm not sure what brings you to my bloggie. It could be my silly rantings of life, probably certain keywords in my blog that lead you here (Sorry if you didn't find your intended-to-find content), or code snippets that I have in here.

Bored

Yesterday's plan was cancelled. I was supposed to help moved drum sets and other musical instruments into my friend's second house in Sg. Long. Subsequently after that, our jamming session suppose to begin. It was postponed to next week.

Today is one of those days, when everything seems so stagnant. It felt as though life arounds you goes on without tagging you along. Felt isolated and left behind. To top it off, my youngest brother and cousin was pestering me of suggesting them what PS games to play. Yeah like I have nothing better to do. Well actually I do not have anything on my schedule today apart from helping Muscle to do his assignment.

Sigh. It feels like history is repeating itself. I did his whole website assignment 2 bloody years ago when he was studying for his Diploma at some college in USJ. Now, he is doing NCC Diploma at Informatics. Sometimes I wonder, what are they doing actually in the classes. Do they actually have motivation or the interest to take up the skills? It is so necessary when they actually join the workforce. Will they need me to do their work for them?

I used the word "they" because as self described, it denotes to more than one person. I should suggest them to just bloody drop out from their courses, because they aren't gonna make it anyway. And then, take up something they really enjoy or at least have some pinch of interest in it.

Life at Miri

I'll just post some bits and parts of memories that I still have with me throughout the 5 days that I spent at Miri, Sarawak.

- The Miri town is small. Kas, Jul and Myself basically travelled everywhere by foot. It is that small.
- All cybercafes at Miri suck big time.
- JIM / IMM / Immigration officers take some time to shirk outside before starting work
- And we are required to join them
- Hotel Mega was great. It's around 4-5 stars I reckon. Even Yang Dipertuan of Sarawak visited there on my first day of arrival.
- Somehow I think they charge outrageously for drinks. And that's only at normal malay stalls.
- Was having fun bitching discussing about enemies.
- Had a hard time rushing to checkout in 10 minutes. Speed packing is stressful.
- Was happy that the fast checkout saves half-day of rental rate

Back from hiatus

My blog was on a hiatus and so was my connection to the internet. Couldn't find any good cybercafes there. Either the connection is crap / browser is crap / the software that they used to manage their business is definitely crap / still using the pathetic Windows 98 / no USB slot. Bah! Too many complains for the cybercafes there.

Even the so called business centre within the lush and posh hotel sucks big time. They provide 56 Kbps at RM 8 per hour. Worse still, the mouse and keyboards does not function. After bout 20-30 minutes, I gave up and request them to transfer the connection to my colleague's notebook instead.

Will post some sort of diary jots throughout the 5 day journey at Miri later.