2010 FaIl….

Got home yesterday.. And decided was going to be optimizing the time I have in the evenings in a more productive way. So ended up ironing a week worth(or so) of work clothes, did a quick sweep of the living room, sorted some laundry and then sorted through tonnes of receipts(still not done, part 2 tonight)…

Augmentin seems to be working….

Dhamotil is good for diarrohea…

Back to work!

1.35am, 31st December 2009.

I am awake… Wide awake for some odd reason…

I think it started with me deciding to mop the floor coz it felt sticky…

Then one thing let to another… Cleaned the bathroom as well…

I need help :p

Out of the cleaning something good did come of it. I found the freaking curtain hooks which I couldn’t find!  Under the sofa… Must have gotten nudged under there somehow.. Which makes me somewhat a little more at ease, coz I remember I took out the curtain hooks from the curtain for washing, and then when I put them back on, I was short of like 3 pieces.. Which didn’t make sense, coz I had two curtains, so if my measurements were wrong, I should have a shortage of even numbers. Doesn’t make sense? If you wash curtains you’ll have a better chance of understanding this :p

Trying to decide if I sh0uld upgrade my laptop RAM to 2 gigs to meet the minimum requirements of Adobe CS4… It runs, but I think it’s gonna be real sluggish once I start doing editing. Wonder how much is that going to cost.

Ok, I’m going to go and try and sleep, perhaps count how many strands of hair does Roger have around his nose…

What amuses me…

Express Bus Accident Kills 10.

If you were following the news, you would find that previously, the driver admitted to dozing off at the wheel. Now he pleads not guilty. And now his parents are asking the families of the victims for forgiveness?

Not to sound like an atheist(which I probably will be soon), but in a certain way, although not mentioned, I believe the parents of the driver are falling back on the believe that forgiveness is holy, we all make mistakes, we must forgive each other, you know the same thing we hear in any religion,or like how some would say, go and rape a girl, and then go to church and make a confession and all is forgiven?

Now the Malaysian Institute Or Road Safety says that the rails the indirectly caused the deaths should be redesigned, that it must guard, not kill. Typical Malaysian mentality ain’t it? But then again, they might as well say our Malaysian roads should be designed with safety in mind. Potholes galore we have in Malaysia. Not to mention how many times I myself have been lucky enough not to fall into a manhole that is left opened on a highway which isn’t well lit. Or how the trees by the roadside have to be literally blocking your view before some people in trucks will come to trim it.

Back to the bus driver who dozed off at the wheel. I agree with the statement made by some parties, drive the bus like you are ferrying your family with you. Instead of just taking it as a job.

I’m of 2 minds on this. For one, 2 of the victims of the crash were parents who had children waiting for them. And now the children are orphans. Then again, (hopefully) the driver never had any ill intentions. Yet, do we blame the bus driver? Or do we blame the express bus company? Or like what is attempted now, blame the construction of the highway?

Not related, but why is it that when people go and withdraw money at ATMs, they like to chuck their ATM receipts all over the ATM machine except into the dustbin provided which is within arms reach??????

Random thoughts as the year 2009 comes to an end…

Sitting here at my office desk, everyone is in the holiday mood. It is difficult to get any work done.

2009 indeed has been quite a journey for myself.

This is one year which I am not sure if I would want to remember it, or perhaps I would like to remember bits and pieces of it. There were good memories, and there were also bad memories.

Made some new friends, and lost some friends.

Let’s go off tangent a bit. How often do you have friends that you hang around, but deep down inside you despise them. Perhaps despise isn’t the correct word, but put it as friends that if you were given an option to stay on an island with one other person, you wouldn’t want that person to be your him/her. Yes, as mean as it may sound, I do have friends like this. And I know each of us does. So why do we still attempt to keep the friendship going?

Earlier in the year, I had what I would call probably one of my ‘defining moments’ in that I decided enough was enough. Well, actually, events that lead to it happened end of last year. To sum it up, I broke of friendships as I was just simply too tired to pretend that I was comfortable being in the friendship.Perhaps I was hasty, perhaps I wasn’t, but the truth behind me reacting the way I did, I wish I could tell. Why can’t I? For one, it would mean putting someone else personal problems known to strangers(ie different circle of friends). Although part of me understands why I didn’t share it with my friends, but another part of me wonders why did I let that take over my emotions.Sometimes I wish I could share with someone else about the one month in 2009 that in my opinion, was the time in my life that if the technology existed, I would erase it from memory. Thinking back, I would say that was 30 days of hell.

Back on track. In a few more weeks, it would be my 1 year anniversary working in KAF. It would also be 1 year since I started my Msc. I’ve decided to switch my Msc to another program due to the ridiculous exam fee increase, and also the quality of the program. It wasn’t a waste, as I did gain some knowledge. Still find it amusing how lecturer A and lecturer B can have different opinions on how should a paper be written, when both are in the same faculty.

Let’s talk about working in KAF. Company is KAF Seagroatt And Campbell. No it is not related to Campbell soup. We are a stockbrocking company. Don’t know what is a stockbrocking company? We provide the facilities for people who want to do share trading with Bursa Malaysia. Still don’t get it? Visit www.kaf.com.my. We do have online trading, ie you do the share trading yourself via the internet. I should warn you that unless you know what you are doing, share trading is something you should let a remisier do otherwise your looking at all your investment go up in smoke. My department is a 3 horse power(ie 3 persons). And who would have guessed that my colleagues are both from the same company way back in 2000. And what’s even more bizzare is that my first ‘real job’ had its office in Bukit Bintang, and here I am now working within walking distance of Bukit Bintang. Why do some people get so lucky to get to work and live with only 5 minutes commuting. I live in Bandar Sunway to those who don’t know. It takes me around 40 minutes to get to work. Not that I am complaining. Coz I know if I drove a car, it would probably take 2 hours at least, on a good day that is.

Work can sometimes be frustrating, can sometimes be hillarious. Must say being 30+ does make you look at work differently.

Health wise, badly sprained ankle while going up Broga Hill and ever bugging knee problem has made this year, my most sedentary lifestyle in 30 years.

Photography, hobby picked up this year, but haven’t actually been able to dwelve into it. Here my take on most photographers in Malaysia. If they had no photoshop available, they’ll give up on photography. If you ask them to take pictures of other things besides pretty girls, they’ll probably tell you ‘What’s the point?’. Still can’t get over the fact that when there is a car roadshow, or if there is a camera road show, the focus of the photography is the models there, not the cars or the camera. Nuff said.

Going off tangent again,  was asked if I would be interested in joining a research team, ie take a heavy pay cut, but at least get to study full time while doing the research. Idea is lingering in my head.

Holiday mood sinking in.

Another Year.

My colleague just gave birth to a healthy baby boy over the weekend, which also means her 2 months maternity leave has begun.

It’s always a puzzle to me as to why as the year draws a to a close, everything seems to move slower.  We(Well perhaps just myself) get that feeling of just not doing anything, knowing that another year has come to and end.

This is probably one of those years that I somewhat wished happened differently in some ways. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it was a bad year, but there were times when I wished I did things differently.

But then, the situation at that time didn’t exactly gave me much of a choice.

Ever been in a situation where you know about something, but you know that you can’t reveal it. And that indirectly puts you in a bad situation as you try to cope with the situation, but can only reveal so much.

What’s done is done. But why do I still have that lingering thought in my head.

Don’t really want an answer to this. Just wanted to let my thoughts travel onto this webpage.

Perhaps some of you reading this will understand how I feel. The rest of you, Have a Happy New Year, and Merry Christmas.

The One With The Smoking Issue…

I’m not the one smoking, but the people who work at my company do.

What’s so different about these people who smoke?

They smoke in the toilet. And when I pay a visit to the toilet, I feel as if I am litereally putting my life on the line when the toilet air is just dense with cigarette smoke. No, it’s not to the point where you see a fog, but it’s strong enough that each breath makes me want to vomit.

They used to smoke at the stair case, but one day management found out and issued a warning.

Management is on the 14t floor, they have their own toilets on that floor. So, to management it looks like the employees are using the designated area on the ground floor to smoke, when in fact, they are not. I’ve seen one of them who smokes in the toilet, and the person is a remisier.

Why are these people so inconsiderate?

Mindless?

Recently turned 31…

Watching my dad memory getting worse as he ages…

Settling into my new job….

Not sure what lies ahead in the future…

Wanting something more, but not sure what….

My niece is still shy a bit when she’s around me, don’t know why…

Probably go through a major change in 2010…

Such is life…

Canon PhotoMarathon 2009(From A Nikonian Perspective)…

(Note : This blogpost is totally unorganised)

I own a Nikon D60 and recently a new owner of Nikon D300s. I figured the Canon PhotoMarathon(Sunway Lagoon) would be a great chance to explore my new camera, and also learn from others. It was between doing my Balance class at 9am at Jaya 33, vs going for what I felt would be a once in a year chance. Short-Messaging-Serviced the Balance instructors I knew to see who could cover for me. Finally found Dchai to cover my class. My Saturday 2pm-5pm lecture was cancelled as my lecturer was not available due to personal reasons.

Registration starts at 7am, so I figured might as well go earlier to ensure that I could still do a walk in registration. I had already packed my bag the night before in my newly acquired Octopus backpack(Rm 200 – good deal). I got myself to the registration area at Elephant walk around 6.40am. You could see the crew dressed in Pink Canon t-shirts.

I felt good knowing that I was early, and there wasn’t a long queue of people waiting to register on the spot.

That’s was where the good vibes started to go away.

My registration process was a screw up….

My turn came, a young girl, college student no doubt, handled my Rm 30 payment(non-Canon user). She wanted me to fill up the indemnity form which they had pre-printed, when I showed her the filled up indemnity form which I had printed from the website(as requested by the moderator of the FB group) , it was eithe she cannot read English, or she had no idea what forms she was asking people to fill. She had to refer to her colleagues. Which were surprisingly, as blur as her. I grabbed my receipt, and off my merry way I went. At this point, my indemnity form was submitted to this blur case of a homosapien. Since the event hasn’t started yet, I loitered around abit, wondering if anyone else I knew already arrived. Met up with Valen, who saw King, and a few others. Made friends with Max. Brian and Gigi arrived just on time.

An announcement was made, about those who wanted to access the rides in the theme park will be required to get the tickets(our armbands only allows us access to the park but not the rides). I think the announcement was made too early coz nobody approached the ticket booth setup there at that time.

At this time, I felt a little uncertain, so I asked Valen if he submitted his indemnity form, or he kept his. He said they gave his back to him and we are supposed to hold on to it. So I went back to the registration counter, and got mine back, and even that, the girl actually gave me someone else’s form at first.

…

As I was reading through the handout about the event, on how to submit your photos, I realised it said “Log in using your ICNumber”. Thinking back, when I did the walk in registration, the girl did not ask for my IC, I did not fill up my IC anywhere, and since now I am holding on to my indemnity form, how on earth am I registered in their system?

Went back to the registration counter, this time I approached a guy who looked like he would know what’s going on. I was so wrong. When I explained my situation to him, he grabbed his walkie talkie. Another girl, who I think could have been his supervisor walked by. He got her attention and asked her. Ding ding dong dong. For walk in registrations, we pay, we keep the indemnity form. We go inside Sunway Lagoon, there will be terminals for us to register online there. Yay! One minor detail they forgot to inform. But it doesn’t stop there. The insufficient information I mean.

Cut it short, friends arrived, made some new friends, and we went for breakfast, it was a LONG walk. To give an idea, think of where Hong Leong Bank Sunway is. From the Elephant Walk. Morning warmup! :p

Headed back to Sunway Lagoon after that. Canon forgot something on the inside, there were signboards welcoming Online Registration Canon, Online Registration Non-Canon. Where’s the signboard for us walk in registrations? Nevermind. So I went to the booth. An it seems, to collect your t-shirt you have to show them your indemnity form. So if in the first place, I didn’t get back my form from the college-student-who-had-no-idea-what-was-going-on-but-was-collecting-cash-and-issuing-formal-receipts, I would have had to walk all the way out and get my form back from them. I think I would have just screwed the person in charge there and then.

I figured, give them a chance. So I let it pass by.

…

It was a sea of red photographers, dresed in red I mean The event started off nicely. Besides the fact that it was drizzling for a while.

Entire Sunway Lagoon you could see red, red, red, DSLRs , Compact Cameras, Flash firing

Three themes

RED

Splash!

Shooting In Action

Here’s a nice catch. Initially, contestants are allowed to leave Sunway Lagoon and re-enter it, but due to crowd control issues, Sunway Lagoon management decided to not allow that. So we are stuck in there for the whole day. At 2pm, they announced that we can leave, and re-enter, but only by the Elephant walk. Now at 2pm, where is everyone? Not at the Sunway Amphitheathre where the announcement was made, but we were scattered all over Sunway Lagoon. Smart pple aren’t they?

Oh food? Rip off. Right outside Sunway Amphitheathre, 100plus was being sold at Rm 5 per can. Walk to Sunway Lagoon wet park, 100 plus is only Rm 3. So where is the Rm 2 extra going to?  Smart scam I would say.

Cut things short. Around 3.30pm my friend called me to inform me that they were having problems uploading the pictures to the file server.

It seems the server was not able to handle the ‘massive’ uploads.

Not gonna explain the whole scenario as I think it’s gonna make even more frustrated the more I think about it.

But basically, it’s the typical “We’ll solve in 5 minutes”… When they actually mean, “I don’t know what’s the problem”.

You would expect a company like Canon, who STRONGLY EMPHASISES on CUSTOMER SERVICE, as Simon, the Marketing person who was one of the ‘emcees’, “CANON HAS THE BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE”, and it’s involvement in Digital SLRs would know that having over 40 PCs uplading probably say.. Oh, 3 pictures taken with oh, say a mid-range SLR with a file size of each JPG coming to at least 6MB… Uplading to a single server, at the very same time, would be.. Oh… (Find your own words here)

A lot of lies were told, lies as in how much longer it would take to resolve the issue.

Lies were told also about how much longer we had to wait. As Simon did say “We only have 200 pictures to go”, when not long after, “So sorry, but we need 2hours more due to the number of pictures”, which in the end, ended up being the results only available after 4am. So did Simon know what was the judges progress or was he just doing a typical marketing/sales person yapping.

I find amusing is when he said they needed 2 more hours, he actually asked if we wanted to wait or go home. Apparently they were photographers who waited, but then asked to leave my the Lagoon security? Those of us who left, were obviously frustrated. So if we did wait, and after 2 hours….. Simon goes “We need another 4 hours”… Would simon still leave the Sunway area alive??? in one piece??

We were told to fill up our contact details. I was frustrated at that point. Only later I realised, the details we filled up were name, IC number, handphone number. So are they gonna call us up one by one to find out our address? Or did they forget to indicate the column address on the form? Or are they smart enough to retrieve our details from the registration database?(Why ask for another contact when you have our registration in your system already?)

I did not enjoy Simon’s lame jokes…. yes, Canon camera can do this, Canon camera can do that. When you have non-Canon users there, and obviously not only canon camera can do it. One clear one was the zoom-effect you can do to a shot…. He made is sound like only Canon zoom lens can do it….

Let’s not talk about the Youth Ambasaddor. He CANNOT SING…. He can dance, that I give him, but he CANNOT SING!

Going back in the timeline, the volounteers there were really of no use. Trying to slide the SD-Card upside down… Not to forget the CHEAP SD-card reader that was being used. The crew not knowing how to name the folders for our submission(they couldn’t get the server back up, so we ended up being ‘helped’ to upload the pics to the desktop PC’s local hard drive)… I saw 3 different naming methods. Which I informed the ’supervisor’ who didn’t even had the courtesy to say thank you. Who announced in BAD English to her ‘crew’ who were not paying attention.

Too many frustrations to blog. All in, I enjoyed the company of Brian, Leong and Gigi. To be honest, if I went solo, I think I would have made a ruckus. I found out a friend of mine told off one of the supposedly organising committee member who was there… Wish I was there to watch!

Canon(Not Canon Malaysia, but Canon Japan) representative, if you read this, this is what Canon Malaysia has become. I look forward to next year’s event, but this time I will come prepared to video the problems we faced.As I am pretty sure the so called event report might just give excuses as to the problems faced, like ‘Oh we tested the servers the day before and it was fine’(The day before? An event of this scale and you test it the day before?)

Long Saturday…

Balance as usual…. 8 participants… Enjoyed the class as it’s a small class, get to give full attention to each member.

Had breakfast at PJ State with friends.

Went for my lecture, air-con was broken in our regular room, one hour in sauna, and we moved to the other room(don’t ask why we had to endure the heat in the first place)…

Was suppose to go home and change into RED attire… But my motorcycle gained another flat tyre… So called the tyre change guy(I have numbers of pple who repair flat motorbike tyres – almost entire of KL)… Took the guy 1/2 hour to reach, took 1/2 hour to fix(for some reason, every person who changes the tyre of Honda Wave complains about how difficult it is)… In the end no time to go home. So headed straight to Hartamas shopping complex. In a grey top. Didn’t want to be a spoil sport, so went hunting for a red top! Only place that had red was.. ORLANDO.. So spent Rm 90+ for a red top… Reach TGIF… I find RPM HT not wearing a red top! And a few others as well… BAH!(They were punished later on)… But yeah.. first time I spend more than Rm 50 for a non-sports-brand t-shirt(collared)..

Had a nice time

Actually didn’t order anything to eat! I was scavaging leftovers! Huahuahua!!!

Only thing I ordered is Ultimate Mudslide… And another Ultimate Mudslide, suppose to be for Johnathan Yau to bottoms up for not wearing red, but he ended up bottoms up-ing it with Daniel… Cheat! :p

About 6 of us shared a Mud Pie, courtesy of John Tan who was fashionably late :p

Now washing my new t-shirt, hoping that it dries in time for me to wear it tomorrow!

Nite nite!

Gym-ed..

Yesterday(Wednesday) was a good workout. Went for RPM and Body Pump. During RPM I went crazy. It felt really good to be on wheels again By end of track 2 was already dripping with sweat. By track 5, I ran out of sweat! Was somewhat dehydrated. Legs were burning. Nice feeling In Pump, struggled with lunges during the warmup, thus for squats I went with tripod stance, and for lunge track I only did it on my good leg. Man did it hurt a lot more!

After sweat and ‘pleasure’ for 2 hours, went to refuel the body at Old Taste with Fried Kuay Teow, French Toast and Carrot Milk