30 April 2009

560 kilometers, that's how far I've driven today. From Seri Kembangan to Kota Bharu and back to Tanah Merah. Our tank is fully loaded with stuff, mostly our clothes and also my old & heavy Fujitsu desktop computer that I wanted to give to my in laws.

About 12 years ago my Dad bought me my first ever computer and I must say it changed my life tremendously. I wouldn't known so much about computers had not my Dad gave me the PC that time. I wanna do the same with my little in laws.

We finally checked Linda's KPLI results on the phone somewhere in Kuala Krai today. Unfortunately she didn't made it for the interview. I always say that if we didn't get something, some job or girlfriend or whatever, maybe there's something better waiting for us in the future. A better job, partner or something. Maybe now she can fully concentrate on her current job and go all the way. So to all the blowers out there, make way for Sharifah Haslinda. You guys are going down because Linda is making her way to the top!

29 April 2009

My darling bugged me endlessly this morning to check her post-graduate teaching course (KPLI) result online. I tried to access the MOE site a dozen times but failed. My guess is the site crashed due to over overwhelming traffic. A real IT professional would have anticipated this situation but I guess you can assess the quality of the people they hire to manage their website (which is pretty bad).

Anyhow 2 hours later when the site is finally accesible I saw this little notice put up there saying you can only check the results tomorrow afternoon. I wonder if this what they call people first, performance now. Bleh.

I don't understand why so many people want to take KPLI anyway. Does being a teacher the most desirable job now? Yeah I know the pay is good and you get to go back early plus the fact you've got tons oh holidays but teaching is a serious job that requires passion and a really deep interest in the field. Definitely not your last resort when SPA failed and you didn't have much luck with other employees.

Speaking of which, my wife is both excited and nervous at the same time waiting for this KPLI result. She's not even sure she wants to be a teacher or not. Just jumping on the bandwagon along with her hopeless friends. I already gave her a long and boring lecture on the perils of being a teacher but she never listens. Being seperated to go for the course, 3 months without pay, posted to teach at some place far-far away. Honestly, I think she's better off being at her current workplace no matter how sucky her boss is.

Anyway I guess we'll find out tomorrow. If the website doesn't crash again that is ha ha!

Currently packing our stuff for tomorrow's balik kampung trip. Pray for our safe journey.

28 April 2009

Not many people know this but today is International Facsimile Machine Memorial Day. No kidding. You can check Google News for this feature story.

Although IFMM day is not that popular this side of the world, people in 25 cities from Asfahan to Zeeland commemorate this day by turning tall the facsimile (fax) machine off for the day. I think it's really thoughtful of them to honour our tireless and hardworking fax machine on IFMM day. Imagine what will our business be without them. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our very own fax machine here at my company for it's immense contribution to the company over the years. Yes maybe the machine is old and ancient and it does misses a few incoming transmission every now and then but hey at least it's still working most of the time right? And like my friend said: why buy a new fax machine when we can buy 10 new laptops for the CFMS team?

27 April 2009

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan,

Lately I've been having a serious ants problem at my house. Maybe it's just my dumb luck but it seemed like a few dozen ant colonies in my area had moved in and around my house. I mean they're everywhere and they crawl on everything.


These ant problem has became such a nuisance to me and I have no idea how to get rid of them (apart from spraying dangerous aerosol insecticides at them) until I found this simple but really effective solution at a hyper mart nearby. The Afy Haniff Serai Wangi (lemongrass) concentrate is 100% natural, non-toxic and works effectively in solving most of your pest problems. Bugs and rodents just hate their strong smell and after using the product for just two days I can claim that 85% of all those pesky ants is gone and showed little or no signs of coming back. Just add one part of the lemongrass concentrate with 10 part (or less for stronger effect), fill them into a sprayer and spray them where those pests usually hang. It's that easy. This products is available at major hyper market for RM9.50 for the 500ML bottle.

Hmm too bad I didn't get paid for promoting this but if you're having the same predicament as I am, you know what to do.

26 April 2009

Today my colleague Safee held a little party/get together at his place in Taman Lestari Putra. It was a two in one event. Kenduri kesyukuran and also a chance to promote his Ana Edar products he he.

I got there 1.30 PM sharp like what the invitation said. My other colleagues didn't arrive until an hour later so I just eat, waited for Bujal and co for like 35 minutes and then scram. Typical Bujal.

25 April 2009

I just found out Kelantan made it to the final of the F.A Cup like 2 days ago. Seriously, I thought they lost to Negri Sembilan or something during that ugly semi-final match in Kota Bharu but actually the did win on the reverse fixture.

Anyhow with all due respect, I didn't have much expectations on Kelantan to win the cup tonight. After all, making it to their first final in 39 years is a huge achievement already for them. That said, I'm proud nevertheless with my hometown team's performance tonight. At least they managed to hold Selangor until extra time and even lead them by a goal before losing marginally on penalties. And I'm mighty glad there's nothing unruly happened tonight. 80,000 spirited and highly charged fans, anything can happen. To be honest, I think Kelantanese fans are as docile as the next guy unless provoked.

Guess which team Adam supported tonight? Kelantan because they wore red like his favourite team Liverpool of course!

24 April 2009

We went there today meaning to get a little coffee table for our living room. In the end we bought this Jokkmokk dining table (along with the coffee table). For a dining table with 4 chairs, it doesn't get any cheaper than this.

It was love at first sight. Actually, make that love after a dozen sights because I've been eying the table since like 2 years ago. Only today that we've got the urge and the means to buy it. Not surprisingly, this flat-packed table fitted nicely into our little Proton Savvy so we bought it home and assembled it immediately all by ourselves. Well, I did all the assembling and except for the chairs, they're not that hard to do. The table is not so big but it fits our place nicely. FYI Jokkmokk is a little district in northern Sweden. In fact most of the furniture in IKEA are named after Swedish towns, Swedish words or their designer's name.

Alterchart e#11

01 Stopgap - Law mp3

02 Thinking of you - Katy Perry

03 America's sweetheart - Fall Out Boy

04 Love story - Taylor Swift

05 Gives you hell - All American Rejects

06 Jai Ho - Pussy Cat Dolls

07 Cookie jar - Gym Class Heroes & The Dream

08 Boom Boom Poow - Black Eyed Peas

09 Just dance - Lady Gaga

10 Right round - FloRida

22 April 2009

Earlier today my colleague Mr Radzi along with a few others went to visit the deceased in Perak. On the way back his car hit a stray dog in the middle of the highway at 100 miles per hour. The dog obviously didn't survive to tell the story but his car got a huge dent in front not to mention the radiator and a few other things completely destroyed.

All the passengers were thankfully safe but they did have to ride 2 tow trucks from the highway to get back to the office. That (tow trucks) together with repair charges cost Mr Radzi no less than 2K. You've got friends around you for the good times but when shit like this happen, you're own your own man. That totally sucks but c'est la vie monsieur. It's cruel and it's always unfair.

21 April 2009

Morning briefings can be quite productive if conducted 1-2 times a week. If held more than that (like every day of the week) it could be counter-productive instead.

Yes it's good to hear every body's updates on things but if one person took 7-10 minutes talking and there's 12 people in the room, a short 10 minute briefing could extend to 30 minutes or even an hour. Early mornings is also the favourite time for our clients to call us and they're not too pleased when we didn't pick up hear the phone ring. Plus I had to start my server checklist duties after 10:00 AM and my real work would start 30-45 minutes after that.

Usually I'd rather not sacrifice my beauty sleep for an EPL match but since this is THE Liverpool vs Arsenal game, I won't miss it for the world. Yeah it's a tough game and defeat could effectively end our title challenge but somehow I have a really good feeling about this game. So see you around 4:00?

p.s:
Condolences to our Boss who lost her grandfather today.

20 April 2009

After the routine medical check-up at the Seri Kembangan clinic, we left Mia at her nursery and head straight to Nilai 3. My wife has this sudden urge to buy a new carpet and clothes for Hari Raya. Yes I know, Raya is ages away but there's nothing wrong in preparing early. Apart from that she also bought a huge 7 feet mirror and a little kitchen cabinet. It's amazing how much stuff we can fit into our tiny Proton Savvy. And she bought it all using her bonus money. Well at least she didn't waste it on something useless such as a new phone he he. Thank you darling, you're so thoughtful.

After red, green, yellow and white, our Hari Raya clothing theme for this year will be blue. Check out Linda's future baju kurung. I picked that for her (after rejecting 50 other patterns). Adam and I will be wearing a blue sky baju Melayu for Raya.

Now I know assembling a little kitchen cabinet is no small feat. I spent close to 2 hours fixing it up from scratch. Even then I still have no idea how to attach the door knobs. Bleh. If I'd known it would be that difficult, I'd pay the furniture store that 20 bucks to assemble and deliver the cabinet. Argh, my hand even got blisters from tonight's work.

19 April 2009

You know that famous blogger from Pantai Dalam, Zamihartini? She's very popular in cyberspace and she has dozens of followers (80 to be exact). My wife is one of them. I mean she even wear the same scarf that Tinie wore every day, you know the equally femes Tinie scarf ha ha.

We didn't do anything much this weekend. Our emergency balik kampung trip is rescheduled to next week because of financial constraints. Went to Jusco yesterday and had lunch at Al-Azwath earlier this afternoon before stopping by the barber for Adam's hair cut.

18 April 2009

It's time like this that I wished I'm living in Japan or Korea where the average broadband Internet speed is 60 or 45 Mbps and not a measly 56 Kbps when I signed up for a 684 Kbps broadband plan. My friends on Starship Enterprise would hang their heads in shame to know how slow my country has progressed in terms of Internet speed.

Heck I don't care if I don't get a full 684 Kbps, I just want a freaking stable Internet connection! One that doesn't cut off every 5 minutes. Is that too much to ask? Celcom? Maxis? That's why we need competition in businesses, not monopoly. Seriously, if my crappy Celcom broadband doesn't improve by the end of the month, I'll seriously consider ending my subscription altogether.

17 April 2009

I smell something fishy in the air. Rearing fish and other aquatic lifeforms is the latest craze in my office right now. You'd thought people will go gaga over bikes once the boss bought his new Kawasaki but nope, it's fish and aquariums all day long.

I think over a quarter of the male office population is caught with this fish bug. Yes they still chat about work, politics and stuff but fish will always come up during their conversations. It's quite common to see many of them going together to fish shops during lunch time or right after work to buy a fish or two or buy those little accessories that will make their aquariums a little bit more prettier.

Although I'm quite disinterested with anything fishy at the moment or anytime soon I must commend their new hobby. At least they didn't waste time or money at karaoke joints or massage parlors anymore hu hu.

16 April 2009

What would you do when your year old daughter likes to land right on top of your praying mat when you're praying?

a) Lock the door and let her scream her lungs out for 5 minutes?
b) Tell your 5 year old to look after her which he did but rather too vigorously and she'll cry anyway?
c) Pray anyway on top of her?
d) Curse the KL deplorable traffic system which caused her mom to come home late in the first place?


Sigh, that's the part and parcel of being a lone baby sitter a couple of times a week.

15 April 2009

Hello Mr Vending Machine! Could you dispense me some water?

13 April 2009

We just got a call from my Linda's mom telling that her dad broke his thigh from a really unfortunate mishap near home. He's got warded at the Tanah Merah hospital and they're going to insert a metal into his thigh soon. We're going to return home at the earliest opportunity.

Let's pray for his safety.

12 April 2009

I didn't know today is take-everybody-to-the-mall day. I mean almost every shopping mall within 30KM radius from my home is jam-packed with people. First we went to the Mines this afternoon and upon turning left from the main road we saw all the parking lots on all levels were full.

So we left The Mines for Alamanda instead which was also full of people but since it was raining heavily we managed to find a parking lot somewhere on the roof top. I only wanted to buy an ink cartridge for my Mom but I cannot find them anywhere in Alamanda. We did bought Mia's formula milk and let Adam play at the playground near Parkson. He was so bored at home.

Putrajaya, where all the house are nice and beautiful. Somewhere out there, there a house with my name written all over it.

11 April 2009

Have you ever noticed those big yellow and red recycle bins placed on road sides with the word 'Recycle for charity' written on them? I thought they were a nuisance, an eyesore to be exact. I even suspect they sold everything they collect for profit and none for charity.

Okay maybe I'm wrong and the were indeed a decent charity organization. You see, I've got this old and broken manual washing machine that I wanted to get rid of since like forever but I'm just too lazy to move it to the nearest dumpster. So yesterday I thought why not call this recycle for charity thing to pick up the washing machine and a few other dump that I've got here. So I called them and as promised, they came to my house to pick up the washing machine, vacuum cleaner, printer, stroller and walker, all broken of course. So in like 5 minutes, all our dumps/garbage were gone and I didn't even have to lift a finger to dispose of them. They've got what they wanted, and I got rid of what I don't want. It's a win-win situation.

So if you've got some old washing machine, fridge or anything bulky to dispose of, call Pertubuhan Amal Sinar at these numbers: 03 42977022 or 012 6861633 and they'll pick up the stuff from your home.

10 April 2009

Last January, Adam started to go to this new kindergarten called Tadika Cahayaku Seri Nilam. He goes there every morning on weekdays to learn stuff and after 11:00AM he goes to join his sister at the nursery next door for the rest of the day.

At first Adam was rather stressed with his homework but now I think he managed them well. After four months Adam already learned how to read (in Malay at least). Well he know how to spell the words and read them but he doesn't actually knows the meaning of all of them. I think the Cahayaku reading system works really well with my kid. While most other kids his age is still in part one, Adam has already skipped to part two of the syllabus. Apart from that he also can count from 1 to 100 (and sometimes more) both in English and Malay. His writing skills still has a lot of room for improvement but overall, I'm really satisfied with his progress at this new kindy. A ringing endorsement if you ask me.

Again I would recommend this kindergarten to everyone. No need to go to those expensive SmartReader Kids or whatever.

5 April 2009

Earlier this morning, Mia fell down while bathing in the toilet. Blood was literally oozing from her mouth and her nose when we took her to the clinic. The doctor just wiped clean the cut with some antiseptic and gave some more for us to bring home. Mia didn't stop bleeding until later in the evening. I think she's okay now. Poor thing.

My Celcom broadband connection had gone from bad to worse. It's GPRS all the way now. I think I'm gonna give up blogging until this deplorable service improves. Celcom, you sucks.

3 April 2009

A dawn for a new hope or the beginning of a long, horrid nightmare? That depends on which political divide you're on. As for me, I'm inclined to believe the latter. Sure he released 13 ISA detainees and lifted the ban on Harakah and Suara Keadilan. As welcomed as that move was, my guts think that's just one clever tactical maneuver for the upcoming triple by-elections. Some people will say he's a nice guy, a bright shining beacon for all Malaysians. Hate to break it to you folks but 2 former premier did exactly the same some time ago. Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr Mahathir did release some ISA prisoners when they ascend to power only to launch Ops Lalang and detain hundred others under the draconian act when they felt threatened by the Opposition. If he's really sincere, he should have released all of the ISA detainees or charge them in court. Somehow I doubt that will ever happen.

So I'm not jumping with joy yet nor does any of us Bloggers is wagging our tongues in anticipation of change and reform under the new leadership. Streamyx and Celcom users, have you noticed that our Internet connection had been super-sluggish these past few days? My Celcom wireless broadband modem which is usually bright blue with HSDPA is now green turtle-speed GPRS since last week. And it's no co-incidence mind you. They're trying to stifle the blogs and alternative online media's influence on the upcoming by-elections. The crackdown has begun and most people don't even know it. God save us.

2 April 2009

I have very little to watch television. Most of my free time at home is spent looking after the kids, blogging, surfing the Net or playing Football Manager if not sleeping. Plus the fact that my 5 year old dictates which channel is on (which is usually 611 - Astro Ceria). So when I do watch television, it must be something really good and worth watching.

One show that I really like at the moment is American Dreams. Set in the 1960s, American Dreams is different from other regular programs on TV. There's only so much CSI and Heroes you can watch every week and American Dreams is like a breath of fresh air compared to the regular programming.

1 April 2009

Cold. Fever. After 3 days of suffering I've decided to finally see a doctor. The doctor said my never-ending cold is caused by an allergen, i.e something in my surrounding that I'm allergic too. So I said maybe it's the air conditioning that I sat under everyday and she said it's probably is. Anyway she gave me a day off today to rest and recover from this terrible flu.

A rest at home is a nice change. At least until evening came. Then I still have to pick up the kids, feed, clean and look after them until the wife comes home. Taking care of one 5 year old and one 1 year old could be exasperating to say the least but sometimes because of moments like that above, it's all worth it.