26 November 2017

After like months of renovation, the National Science Centre (Pusat Sains Negara) is finally open to public again this month. In conjunction with the school holiday which has just started, I decided to bring my family there. After all it’s free until the end of the year. We planned to go early but as always we didn’t get there until 11:00-ish in the morning. As expected, the place is crowded with people. Parking space is hard to find and I had to park by the roadside leading the way to the centre, secretly hoping no policeman is going to come and give me a ticket.

I remember last time we went, it wasn’t this crowded. Then again last time it was not free so many people took this opportunity to come and visit. Many as in half the population of Klang Valley was there in my rough estimate. Anyway the kids had a decent learning experience to say the last. The packed environment is not so conducive for learning or having fun. Honestly I’d rather come another day and pay for entry instead of bustling and mingling with the enormous crowd like that. And after spending millions on renovation, the entire lower floor smells like a large septic tank. Whatever it is that’s causing the stink, they have not fixed it and I doubt they will. Too bad for the country’s premier science centre.

24 November 2017

Happy 37th arbitrary orbit around the sun I guess.

A little bit update on life and career. I gained a lot of weight. I am now 94 kilos. From the average of 85, it has come up to that. I know it is nothing to be proud of. Colleagues, family and friends are noticing and it made me wanna go somewhere and hide. But I know that won’t solve anything. Lack of exercise, hiking and generally indulgence on eating these past few months has finally taken its toll on me. Yeah I should probably change my eating and living habits. Let’s start by cutting on food and sugar and then start those physical activities shall we? If Bujal can do it, I sure as hell can. But I’ll start after having this delicious birthday cake bought by my wife. I didn’t have the heart to say no to that 😉 .

Career wise, it’s been good to me. A few months ago I was appointed department team leader for the primary school campus. It means more responsibility but it is also a recognition of seniority if anything else. It would be nice if I get some pay raise with that but baby steps.

Last week however, came the really good news. After a major reshuffle in the management of my department when a few people got promoted, I was affected also. You are now looking at the new assistant system administrator. I know its not much compared to some of my old time friends who are now directors or managers but it’s a big step up. For the first time in my 11 years career in the IT industry I’m not doing basic technical support anymore. No more going to see users of all sorts fixing their usually mundane and never-ending problems no matter how many times you teach them how to. It’s not that I hate or detest doing those jobs, they had given me much knowledge and experience over the years, it’s just sometimes you will grow tired of doing the same shit if you know what I mean. I have now stepped up to solving server and cloud application problems. Which means generally less physical jobs but more of mentally-challenging jobs that require knowledge and experience. Less brawn, more brain so they say. And the best thing about this promotion is that it comes with a pay rise, not much but it’s something nevertheless 😊 .

The keys to climbing up the career ladder are:
1. Boss is always right
2. Do what you do best, no need to kiss ass. Good work will not go unnoticed
3. Always willing to learn
4. Don’t be a pain in the ass to anybody
5. Patience is key when dealing with customers

— Afif (@afifplc) November 22, 2017

Here’s to a blissful and happy 37th birthday. Hopefully by this time next year I’ll be fit as a fiddle if not buff and ripped ☺️ .

My target for 2018 is to finally graduate from G7 - climbing all the 7 tallest mountains in peninsular Malaysia. I have done 5 and 2 more left to go. And of course to lose maybe 15 - 20 kilos of my weight?