30 January 2011

Today is my friend's/classmate Saiful Nizam's wedding day. As we are quite close in class, I simply had to go to his wedding which is incidentally our first wedding invitation for this year. It rained today from morning till the evening. That of course didn't stop us from going to the wedding.

We left home around 2:00 in the afternoon. About a mile from home, I forgot to bring my camera with me. So we turned back to pick up the camera. Then halfway through the journey, Adam had a bad tummy ache and he accidentally soiled his pants. We had to stop at Tesco Extra near Cheras to buy him a new pair of pants. By that time it was already 3 o' clock. Since it is raining today, traffic condition along MRR2 was as bad as a regular work day. It took as an hour to get to Batu Caves. When we finally made it there it was already 4:15 PM and the caterers wasted no time packing their stuff to go home. Well, at least we did get to see the bride and the groom. He was sorry that we missed the food but I told him we'd be surprised if we didn't. In the end we detoured to Pantai Dalam and had nasi lemak at Warung Rindu. Congratulations to my friend Saiful Nizam. Don't stay up too late ya tonight!

22 January 2011

It's been nearly 7 months since we moved here to Casa Riana apartment. All that while, we've been delaying payments for our maintenance fees. We thought it was the least of our priorities so it always come last in our monthly budget and sometimes we just skipped the payment altogether. The thing is when it's time to renew our parking lot car stickers, we had to settle all our outstanding arrears beforehand. Else we might not be permitted entry with our car into our very own home. I know that sucks but that's one way the maintenance company get to make all the owners pay up their maintenance fees. That said, I can see about a quarter of the tenants here has yet to change their old car stickers and the due date is set until the end of this month. It is interesting to see what happens when that day comes. I'm sure tempers will flare and all hell will break lose.

Lucky for me my lovely wife sacrificed to settle all the outstanding arrears so we can come home in peace and not get bugged by the security guards every other day asking to change our sticker. We drove down to the management office in Pandan Jaya to pay 5 months worth of bills. What would I do without her. One thing for sure I will vote to change the management company once their contract is up. RM143 is bloody expensive to pay for an apartment of our size.

11 January 2011

Okay class, today we are going to take a look at my working table. It is just a plain old second hand table but since I work here every day, 5 days a week it means something special to me.

1. I bought this fern plant from Jusco for RM13.00 exactly on January 1st. The last two plants that I brought to my office died under mysterious circumstances. It's been 12 days now. I do hope this one would last.

2. This pretty desktop calendar is given by Nadia Comot.

3. This is my Alderaan Ubuntu server. It contains many wonderful and magical things!

4. My underpowered yet reliable second hand Dell SX260 all in one desktop PC. Although it only runs on a 2.0GHz P4 processor and 1GB RAM it still manage to get my my work done everyday.

5. This is the card that my wife gave me for my 30th birthday. Thanks darling.

6. This is the Raya card that Adam wrote for my colleagues, believe it or not.

7. Yes my desk is always tidy and not just this one time for show.

8.Even my tray is unusually tidy.

9. The first check that I wrote using my check book. 500 ringgit deposit for grill installation for our house.

10. I love my place near the window. Hope the rumors that we'll had to move upstairs is not true.

11. I also have a photo of Steve Jobs somewhere on my desk you know, for motivation :)

9 January 2011

My first class for the 4th semester for my Diploma in Information Management starts today. For the past 3 years we've been meeting at UiTM International Education Center (INTEC) campus in section 17 in Shah Alam. Starting this senester however, class will be held at our very own Faculty of Information Management at Puncak Perdana. Since the new class is further away than before, I've decided to car pool there with my classmate who happens to live just nearby. We'll be taking turns driving there every class so that we can save cost and petrol.

The Puncak Perdana campus although rather far, has better facilities like classrooms with projectors and enough desks for example and complete labs for each related subjects. I can even see my company's name posted on most of the desks in the labs because we did supply and install many of the computers here some 7-8 years ago. Needless to say I must simply study harder and earlier if I want to improve my current 3.6 CGPA. That said, we have two subjects without final examinations this time although assignments and projects will still be plentiful. 2 of them are related to IT and my job description so I have no excuse but to excel this semester. So as I always, good bye blog. Time to study again.

6 January 2011

Into the Wild is a movie based on a true story about one Chris McCandless who after graduating with honors from a university, ceased all communication with his family, gave away all his savings and began traveling across America to Alaska. With virtually no money in his pocket, Chris made his journey mainly by hitchhiking, on a freight train, by kayak and just walking. When he needed to eat or buy supplies, Chris would do odd jobs or work part time for a while just to get by. Two years after he started his journey, Chris made it to Alaska and began his journey into the harsh Alaskan wilderness. Ill-equipped of supplies and his seemingly bad luck with nature, Chris McCandless died of starvation after spending more than a hundred days in the wild.

Very few films had managed to leave a deep, touching impression on my life and Into the Wild is one of them. Whether Chris is a selfish person and a complete idiot for cutting communication with everybody and journeying into the wild with very little provision or he is an adventurer who lived his dreams is still open for debate. For one thing this movie made me realize that life is not all about fame and fortune and material things. It's about living your dream through a journey of discovery. About how life is short and you'll never know when your last day will be and of course like Chris few final writing said - happiness is only real when shared. Definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen all my life.

5 January 2011

My fourth semester begins this Sunday. Although I'm already halfway through my studies, it still feels like a long way to go before I graduate. So, like every other semester, I applied for the education withdrawal from my EPF savings. The whole process took less than an hour but since I had a lot of work to do today, I only managed to submit my application to the EPF office. I'll have to pick up my text book/modules some other day. If my calculations is right, all my Account 2 EPF savings will be finished by my 7th semester. That means I won't have any money left to pay for my final semester. Maybe I should start saving from now. Anybody want to donate for my education fund? You can give as much or as little as you like and it's for a good cause! :)

Apart from that I finally get to change the nomination for my EPF savings today. Previously all my savings will go to my Mom should anything happen to me. Today it will go to my wife and kids. Sorry baby X, your name is not in the list yet. Of course I will change that later. Have you updated your EPF nominees? All you need to do is fill up a form and bring a copy of your identity card. It only takes a minute but will save your family from so many problems in the future if you didn't.

1 January 2011

Today like any other public holiday throughout the year, I decided to do the most productive thing I can that is stay at home and clean the house. I don't usually go to shopping malls or public places unless it is absolutely necessary.

There's some get together and potluck dinner at my apartment tonight but Mia is not feeling well so we decided to skip this one. She threw up three times this evening, once in the car. The doctor said she had a temperature and a fever. Poor girl. She didn't even play her favorite game Fruit Ninja today.

By the way, from today onwards I won't be using my 017 3487709 number anymore. You guys can contact me at my other 019 number. I kept getting my calls barred using that number because I can't seem to pay my bills on time. My payment schedule had been erratic these past few months. Anyway, you should get a text from me with the new number by now.