A day in the life of an average guy...

Another (approx.) 2 years on...

2010-03-16T00:22:00.002+08:00

Unbelievable. In my last blog posting, I mentioned it won't be 2 more years to my next post. As it turns out, it is 2 years since then.

Well, almost 2 years. 1 year 4 months to be exact.

What has happened since then?

1. My wife gave birth to our cute little baby boy! Probably little is a bit understating it, but he is cute, handsome and lovable nonetheless!
2. I still work in Sarawak in the oil & gas industry, but have changed departments. Previously was in Wells, now in Maintenance Engineering. Nothing interesting to blog about jobs; just leave it at that.
3. Except when I mention I think I will still be doing job searching! For those that haven't resigned from any companies before in their lifetime, they would feel that it is "crazy" to want to do job hopping. In my case however, having jumped twice (this being my third company), I think job hopping is a necessity. Provided you don't do it too often, and having collected all the important experiences wherever you hopped from, of course. Job-hopping helps you go up the corporate ladder much easier than going the internal route (i.e. by getting promoted), as you can avoid all the internal office politics and focus more on getting your paste experiences and performance being the main seller in your pitch to get the next job (preferably upwards in position).

Considering the sum I get now as opposed to what even my local managers got in PCRADM last time, I think I will most definitely stay in the oil & gas industry for the foreseeable future.

Plus also the reason being I want a job in KL; hence the current effort of trying to move out from Sarawak.

Life really do flash by in an instant. Again I pose this question to myself (and any possibly existent user - ARE THERE ANY?), what might happen in another 2 years?

Interesting...

Time to sleep now. See ya (hopefully before 2 years!)

2 years into the future!

2008-10-08T12:14:00.003+08:00

Hello world.

It has been a long time since I last blogged. Well, to be exact, it has been 2 years since my last post already! Lots have happened since then. I changed jobs, finally being able to take up my "dream" job (the "" being it was what I thought, but no longer thinks now... more on that later) which is in an oil & gas company. I also got married. And now I'm living in Sarawak. No longer staying in the Klang Valley.

It is surprising what can happen in 2 years' time don't you think? I think 2 years ago, I wouldn't even dream of being able to work in an oil & gas company; let alone staying in Sarawak!

Come to think of it, what could happen in 2 years' time? I wonder...

I'm at work currently so I don't want to spend too much time blogging. Maybe next time guys. Hope it won't be another 2 years to my next post! Heheh.

See ya...

2006-08-23T02:41:00.000+08:00

Wow. Time really flies. Let me look back at my last real post... 4 months ago??? Waaay before the World Cup, even. Not surprisingly, lots have happened since then, so without delay, let's go on shall we?

ABOUT MY WORK (If you're less interested about it, look for the next heading below - it's a huge announcement!)

First things first: my dear blog readers, you guys (if you've read my previous entries), of all people, should have known that I have been thinking of resigning from my current company since March (around 2 months since I started working there). So, what happened? Did I follow through with my action plan? NO. Yup, you read it right, no.

No??? Well, the thing is, I've been feeling more and more comfortable with my job. I know, the future of a manufacturing environment is not that positive (with China being an ever-growing threat consisting of cheap labour), and the fact that my so-called R&D job experience is not a very impressive thing that can be explained during job interviews, haven't yet left my mind. I know my current company is not something that I look forward to in the future. The most, I think I'll only be staying here for 2 years. That's the maximum limit.

Back to what I was saying. I'm feeling more comfortable with my job. I've known what problems to expect, how to solve, whom to refer to when a problem arises, whom to please, whom to never ever displease, etc. I can't yet say that my job is a cinch, but at least I'm not as pressurised as I was within the first 3 months of my employment here. And I must say the starting pay (and my current pay) is very satisfying.

However, the manufacturing industry's salary scale is not as attractive as the oil & gas industry's: that is why I'm very much thinking of moving to an oil & gas companies. But before that, a I've went to a lot of interviews ever since I started to work. Let me list them down here:

Motorola R&D Penang - Rejected the offer given to me
Protank - Didn't pass the interview
Schlumberger - Didn't pass the 2nd stage of interview
OYL Manufacturing - Rejected the offer given to me
KNM - Rejected the offer given to me

That's about it. Went to 5 interviews, failed 2, offered 3 jobs, but rejected them all. With reasons, of course. Am I too choosy? I don't know... but I certainly feel that they're not suitable for me... either the pay is too low compared to my current job, or the location is too far away, or sometimes because of some other non-quantifiable factors, too.

But let's not despair. I'll wait for better job offers. As I said before, I'm seriously targeting oil & gas companies. Ranhill gave me a call this morning and said that my CV has just been passed to their hiring manager. Good then. I'll try my best for that interview, and pray and hope for the best.

THE HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT (As mentioned above! ;))

Enough about work then. What huge announcement? Let's go straight to the point: I'm engaged! Yup, I finally have a lovely fiancee, and next year, I'll be married, insyaAllah... The date? 3rd February, 2007. Can't wait for it though. I'm loving every moment of my engaged life. Trying to get closer to my fiancee Kimmy's family, making them feel comfortable having me as part of their life. And also in the process of doing the same thing for Kimmy with my family.

Can't wait to feel how married life is. So far I've only been thinking about it, but experiencing it is another matter altogether. Well, that's the huge announcement la. Hehe. Nothing else. I'd love to put pictures of my engagement ceremony, but haven't yet selected which of them to be copied from my photographer Ezwan, so will put that on hold first. :)

Till my next update guys! Thanks for reading!

2006-07-16T22:30:00.000+08:00

Guys, bear with me! Sorry for not being able to post for a very long time... I'll post during lunchtime tomorrow. I'll try...

2006-05-31T13:09:00.000+08:00

Anybody know how the work is at OYL? I got an offer to work for them, and currently in the process of thinking...

2006-04-24T02:01:00.000+08:00

I wanted to update my blog this weekend, but there were too many things to do & take care of. I'll see what I can do tomorrow afternoon. Wait for it! :)

2006-04-06T03:34:00.000+08:00

I'm typing this entry while watching the Champions League match between Arsenal & Juventus. Good stuff, especially for me who supports Arsenal. Coz they're leading 2-0 on aggregate. :)

Also bought Coffee Bean's Iced Cafe Latte to help keep me up this early morning. But it doesn't taste quite as good as Starbuck's Iced Caramel Machiatto. I guess it's due to me keeping it in the fridge for a few hours before drinking it.

There goes another RM13.13.

I did write in my previous post that I bought a new handphone. Yup, it is a Sony Ericsson K600i. Bought it coz my previous Nokia 7650 phone malfunctioned. It cannot turn on: the power button finally gave way. But that finally gave me a reason to buy a new phone. And I like Sony Ericsson phones. Their shape, display, graphics, etc are really exquisite.

I'd prefer the smartphone-type ones though, such as their P series, but that's asking too much lah. The P series cost at least near RM2000, if I'm not mistaken. This K600i I bought at a price of RM850. Quite okay lah.

By the way, I strangely got an e-mail from Schlumberger, notifying me for a 2nd stage of interview for a Field Engineer position. Bizarre really, coz my 1st interview with them was sometime in January, if you guys might recall. It's either they are really calling me for the interview or they accidentally e-mailed me that interview request. In any case, I'll ask them this morning to confirm.

The interview will be next Thursday, and I think I'll just go ahead and try. Just for fun and for interview experience. As you again might recall, my 1st stage interview with Schlumberger was disastrous. But it might not have been as disastrous as I have initially thought, if it is true that I did get this 2nd interview.

Entah camna la agaknye interview tu nanti. Kita cuba & lihat...:P

Well, whaddaya know?

2006-04-02T21:36:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... what a weird 2 weeks it has been. Since the time that I blogged about not being able to attend the interview with Mooke's company due to a misunderstanding... well whaddaya know? The end of that week, I got a call from them saying that they agree to reschedule my interview on this just past Monday!

How did the interview go? Schweet. It wasn't too hard, nor was it too easy. Even though I felt the questions being asked were too soft and sometimes irrelevant, somehow I had the feeling that they were trying to analyse me from a different point of view, so I tried to never let my guard down all along the interview. The result? I felt quite confident of my performance, just like how I felt confident after Panasonic's & Motorola's interviews. But we'll have to wait & see what the actual results would be...

And after all that, I forgot to ask them how long would I have to wait before they would announce my results! Mooke, help me out here okay? Do tell me after what period of time should I know whether I pass or not? Or should I do a follow-up call / e-mail?

And after all the anguish, all the frustration, all the pain that I felt during the past few weeks about working here in Panasonic, I somehow was (and am) able to get over them. Slowly. Somehow, I currently feel that all the job that's being given to me is QUITE manageable. I mean, I'm slowly getting used to them.

I guess that's working life for you. As a fresh grad, it will start off as something totally frustrating, but as time goes by, you'll eventually get the hang of it.

Make no mistake though... I'm still leaving. I'm either going to Motorola, or taking up a better offer closer to PJ. Even with me getting used with all these "work", I still don't see a bright future by staying with Panasonic.

Considering that fact, this means that I have around a few weeks left to go before I really have to submit my resignation letter. Probation ends on 12th April... That's less than 2 weeks from now!!! To take advantage of the 2 weeks notice period of resignation during the probation period, I need to submit the letter before that date!

Failing that, I will have a notice period of 1 month, but if possible, I'd like May to be totally free for me to spend time with everyone (and prepare myself) before I would most probably move to Penang...

Let's continue job hunting! (while working...)

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you guys... I got a new phone. Sony Ericsson K600i. Will talk about it later. Adios!

Getting more & more bored with my job...

2006-03-23T22:43:00.000+08:00

Why do I still not resign? Remains a mystery to me... I guess I'm doing it for the money only now... Haih... Really lack motivation to go to work every morning. Alhamdulillah Fly FM's Big Breakfast Show manages to make me smile & laugh on the way to work. At least that lifts my spirit up every morning. But once the working hours start, then it's a downward spiral from there.

TNB, when will you guys call me for an interview??? At least by doing so I have an excuse to resign...

What a misunderstanding!

2006-03-20T19:00:00.000+08:00

I have cooled down a bit. The calmer & wiser side of me have given these resignation decisions a little bit more to think about. Make no mistake: I will resign before I go to either TNB or Motorola. But the key thing here is just WHEN.

I have thought about it & felt that resigning now, without any confirmation from TNB that they will call me for an interview, would be too drastic a decision. If I were to choose Motorola pun, my reporting date is still months away (12th June to be exact). So what would I do in between? Menganggur? That would definitely not look good at my CV, since potential employers would definitely ask why have I resigned without any other offers in the wings? If I were to say Motorola's my offer-in-waiting, they would still ask, "That's still quite some time away: why resign too soon?" What's sooooo big a problem with my current company that I can't wait until near my reporting date for Motorola baru nak resign? That really made me think...

Also, not forgetting that I will be jobless while searching for another job. What would my parents think? I mean, kesian la kat diorang, coz I already have a job previously. It would be irresponsible of me to suddenly stop my job tiba2 & menganggur.

So, to avoid those potential problems, I think that I will wait at most until 1 week before my probation period ends. Then I'll resign, unless of course I really cannot tahan the job any more. But for now, I feel that I can still be sabar about it.

Anyway, what is the 'misunderstanding' in my title about? Well, last Friday, Mooke helped set me up for an interview with her bosses ( Thanks Mooke! :))) ). I don't want to confuse / bore you guys with the details of the way things went; suffice to say that one person thought one way, another person thought another way, and I thought yet another way.

So when the time for the scheduled interview came, I totally missed it! The person in charge of scheduling the interview called me right at the time that I was supposed to be interviewed (6 pm today) and she thought that I didn't want to attend the interview. Sorry akak, but I thought my interview was supposed to be after lunch!. Oh well, she understood that all this was a total misunderstanding, and she said she'll see what she can do next, whether I can be fitted into any other sessions.

I really hope I would. I'd love to work for an oil & gas company, what's more, in KJ to boot! :)

But tatau lah whether those bosses will still accept my rescheduling the interview. After all, my initial schedule was supposed to be after office hours, which they had to inconveniently set aside some time for me. Terasa macam takkan jer diorang nak set another similar time for me. AGAIN.

Oh well, here's hoping they would.

Thanks again Mooke! Sorry for the confusion though...

WHY???

2006-03-15T23:00:00.000+08:00

Why do those people act so unprofessional? Why can't they do their job without supervision? Why can't THAT technician be consulted without acting soooo kapla one? Why can't they prioritise their jobs based on urgency? Why can't Marketing give more reasonable deadlines to customers? (Heck, why do they deal with customers in the 1st place? Let us R&D deal directly with them!) Why, why, why???

I hate this job. I hate the fact that the non-exec staff are acting so unprofessional towards their job (people yang baik dengan diorang get more attention & leeway compared to newbies & quiet people like me). I hate the small technical challenge but big planning, executing, and management challenge responsibility that comes with this job.

But most of all, I really hate the unprofessionalism of these people. Just do your job as you should, & when I ask for consultation, answer lah elok2. Damn it.

There's a very high (95%) probability that I'll tender my resignation at the start of next week. Tak tahan aku nak stay in this kind of company any more. Syukur laaa my probation period hasn't ended yet.

Motorola it is, then.

2006-03-12T11:01:00.000+08:00

Wow, it has been a month since I last posted! You guys must be dying to know what I have been doing for the past month? Well, if not, buat2 je la macam nak tau...

Okay, 1st things 1st, I won the Winning Eleven 9 PS2 competition in Sunway Pyramid that I mentioned in the last post. Well, I didn't actually win, coz I got only 2nd place. But I won some prize money, so you might consider that I won the competition lah. ;)

Next, I won't want to bore you about what I do everyday, since they are pretty much the same. Work life... what do you expect? It's the same ol' boring thing almost every day. Suffice to say that it is very boring. Boring but overwhelming. Remeh kan? Keje bosan & simple, tapi banyak sangat sampai tak larat.

Due to that fact, and also due to the nature of my work here in Panasonic, which is R&D but not really much of the "R" or Research, I'm considering to take up Motorola R&D's offer. Actually I already confirmed to them that I'll be joining them on 12th June 2006. But since the reporting date is quite a long way away (3 months from now), I'll be searching for other jobs that are closer to home and are better than my current one in Panasonic; if I'm offered one of them, then I'll most probably take it.

It's not to say that Motorola is my backup choice, coz it's not: I like the job there. I contacted people who are working there (my friends' friends), and got 2nd hand experience from them via their explanation about the job they do there. It is very interesting and rewarding, experience-wise. Best of all, they have creative design freedom - anyone can give any sort of ideas that can start the design from scratch: not like Panasonic where they limit that kind of stuff to the Japanese HQ. And they leave us Malaysian staff here with only simple modifications to the current lineup of compressors that are customised to the customers' needs.

But it's just that Motorola is in Penang. That is the only stumbling block to me totally accepting the offer with open arms. Nevertheless, I'll accept the offer if no other good offers come my way. After all, some of my friends are working in Penang, so I won't be totally alone. And make no mistake: I'll really be INTO the job 100%, not like how I am currently with Panasonic. I don't like my work here in Panasonic. At the very least, I gained some work life experience in Panasonic that I can use to expect how working life is in Motorola. Hopefully it'll make me a better person.

As such, I'm planning to resign from Panasonic in early April before my probation period ends on 12th April 2006. Within the probation period, I only have a resignation notice period of 2 weeks, as compared to after the probation period, which would be a month. I just can't seem to handle the fact that I would need to stay on for a month before I can really move away from Panasonic, especially since I've only been here for just 2 months. I won't like what people would be saying about me later... mesti ada suara2 sumbang yang akan cakap "Apa ni keje sekejap je dah nak berenti?", etc, etc. 2 weeks should be more than enough torture.

Now is my time to save as much money as possible from my salaries so that it can be used during my time in Penang. :)

Some things to consider...

2006-02-12T13:15:00.000+08:00

As agreed upon last week, here are my latest updates. :)

Last weekend, I spent time with my girlfriend. We went to OU and watched Syrianna, which was to me a thought-provoking film, but to others, it might be a confusing and bland story.

Over the past week, I have completed my training with the Prototype team, and have at least gained a bit of understanding about how a compressor works. With further on-the-job training, I'm sure that probably my understanding will be enhanced further.

About my job, I'm not gonna bore you with the details. Simply said, it's quite overwhelming! I have to plan out things that I want to do; if I don't, I might run the risk of not completing all my projects. Currently, 4 projects have been handed down to me, with a possible 5th on the way. 1 final year project dulu pun aku lambat sangat nak settle, inikan 5 project??? A really big challenge for me to overcome. One that I will try my best to handle and solve. :)

Yesterday, I took part in a Winning Eleven 9 tournament at Sunway Pyramid, and qualified for the finals to be held on the 26th of February. This is the first time I qualified for the finals for that particular tournament. Hopefully I'll win or at least get into the top 3 of that competition. :)

Oh, and I got that offer from Motorola. They offered me a job as an R&D Mechanical Engineer in Penang. At first, I thought it was a good opportunity to go there, but considering that I have to move to Penang, and support myself totally on my own, it made me wonder whether that is a really good opportunity, or whether I should just stay with Panasonic.

Now you see why I'm a bit sceptical of accepting that offer.

Of course, regarding the job that will be given, it is a very interesting job. The only stumbling block currently is in terms of finances.

Hopefully, whatever I choose will be beneficial for me. InsyaAllah.

The past 2 weeks...

2006-02-04T21:06:00.000+08:00

2 weeks? Yup, 2 weeks have passed since my last update. Sorry for not posting anything last weekend. I know it was a long holiday, but I just didn't seem to have enough time to update. Nope, I didn't go for any vacation whatsoever. Just stayed at home.

So, how was my 2nd week working? Same ol' thing I did in week 1: followed the Engineering Support team and observed how they perform testing, how to judge whether data obtained from those test are OK or NG (Not Good), etc. Also learned a bit about the testing equipment themselves.

During my 3rd week at Panasonic (well technically only 2 days: last Thursday and Friday), I was assigned to follow the Prototype team, where I was tasked to learn how they create prototypes to be used for testing and for samples to be sent to customers. Again, the keyword here is I learned only, and didn't actually create a sample myself, and the reason I don't want to do so is to avoid making a malfunctioning compressor and thus wasting the team's time and resources. But I'm sure my supervisor will again take me to task for not actually performing any hands-on work. Sukati aku la, my mind would say. Heheh.

But I am a bit worried because another team's leader said to me that I have to prepare a presentation of my training to the Director and the MD. Haiyoo... I hope I won't be grilled due to the fact that I didn't perform much hands-on work during my training.

And speaking about work, how was the results of my Motorola interview? I don't know. It has been 2 weeks since the interview, and I have yet to receive any correspondence, verbal, digital, or in writing, from them. I'm making myself believe that it's the long holidays that are blocking those Motorola HR people from giving me a prompt reply. But I digress (Digressing to myself? What a weird way to think... :P), because I've contacted an acquaintance I met during the Motorola interview, and he said some of his friends that went to the same interview session have already received job offers from Motorola.

Looks like I'll have to contact them myself then. Does anyone have Motorola Penang's HR Department's contact details? My interviewer told me to contact HR if I have yet to receive any reply from them after 2 weeks.

Enough about work then. What did I do during the long Chinese New Year and Awal Muharram holidays? Nothing much. I spent those holidays just staying at home. Actually, last Saturday and Sunday, I balik kampung. That's the only trip I and my family made. Apart from that, I stayed at home, cherishing the free time I had for rest and relaxation. Before the usual 7.45 to 5.20 grind restarts itself. As it has now.

Oh yeah, I received my very 1st payslip on 27th of January 2006. A very momentous event, it was. Hehe. Marks my graduation from a parents' allowance consumer to a self-earned income consumer.

Hmm... technically, I'm still not totally independent yet, but at the very least, from now on I will be earning the money I use for my own purchases. :)

Next update: to be expected in 1 week's time! Unless something important happened beforehand, of course. :)

Update coming!

2006-02-01T05:33:00.000+08:00

Please bear with me. I have things to update you guys about my life, but haven't yet have the time to post an entry. Will do so ASAP. Good night guys!

The past week

2006-01-21T23:40:00.000+08:00

So what has happened this passed week? Btw, sorry for not updating because I didn't have the time and energy to type an entry. By the time I arrive home from work, I'll feel exhausted, and I need the time available to spend time with my family, my girlfriend, and rest.

Last weekend on Saturday night was Lini's wedding reception, which was superb! The whole event was grand, held at Dewan Perdana Felda. The food was delicious. The experience was satisfying, because I was able to meet most people that I have not met for quite some time. Ichi was there, Alip too, I brought Chali also... etc. Those that were married also brought their wives. Basically everything was great.

Then came the start of my 2 weeks training with the Engineering Support Team. Verdict: Boring. Nothing much to do, coz most of the time I just watched and learned how the technicians perform testing on prototype compressors, how they record and report the testing data obtained, as well as on how to perform design judgement based on the data available.

Unfortunately my supervisor thinks differently. He prefers me to perform the testings myself. In my opinion it is beneficial, but in the real case, the technicians will be doing the testings. So I find it also counter-beneficial to do it. But oh well, let's see how the next week goes.

Also had the chance to go for Motorola interview on Saturday morning at Sheraton Imperial KL. I find it to be a very relaxed type of interview. Honestly, I came with the intention of only to come and get the free lunch they give for attendees (hey, not every day you get to eat at a hotel!), and perform only so-so during their interview.

But upon attending the briefing session they gave about Motorola and the nature of their job which is related to R&D also, I felt quite impressed. Asked quite a lot of questions during the briefings, especially during the "Career Rewards and Development" talk. I even performed, if I may say it, as good as how I performed during Panasonic's interview. But again, I don't want to feel too confident. Let's just see how things go.

The one thing that I felt quite impressed was how Motorola's Malaysian R&D Centre even handles major design jobs, i.e. designs that come from scratch, coming from an idea by any employee. Compare that with Panasonic Compressor R&D, where those type of "design from scratch" jobs are only handled by their counterparts in Japan. Us Malaysians will only handle simple design jobs, like changing the appearance of the compressor. The most they would allow us to do is changing the compressor's motor. It's like freedom of creativity is not given to Malaysian designers.

Like what that interviewer said during my interview session, these so-called "R&D" design centres in Malaysia for Japanese companies are only focused on the "D" and not so much of the "R" (maybe none, even!).

I know the job is in Penang, but based on the freedom they give to their engineers (they even have a 6 months training course before truly working, just like TNB's Program Eksekutif Pelatih) and the nature of the job which is R&D, I am seriously going to think really hard to consider whether I should join Motorola or remain with Panasonic if I'm given the job offer.

But based on my entry today, I guess you know what the decision might be. Right?

My 2nd day and my friend's wedding

2006-01-14T13:09:00.000+08:00

First off, let me start by saying that I woke up at 11 this morning! Hehe... I guess working life really takes its toll on you. Weekends are the time that we can rest and recuperate.

You know, I think I'm interested with the job that I am about to face in Panasonic Compressor R&D (hereafter referred as PCRADM). As I said in the previous post, the job is basically like the job I was exposed to in Technip. Like at Technip, I am initially overwhelmed by the various information that I need to learn about compressors, but hopefully by maybe 1 month or so, I can catch up with everyone.

And I really hope that the 2 new R&D Engineers that PCRADM plans to hire will come ASAP, since I really need a fellow newbie to learn the ropes here. At least I won't be alone as a newbie. Now, I'm quite lonely at the office because I have yet to find a common ground that I can share with my colleagues which can eventually help me bond with them. But I guess that type of thing is normal, because at Technip previously, it took me close to 2 months before I started bonding with people not sitting near my cubicle.

During my 2nd day on the job, I am still in orientation mode. I had to attend further briefings (again attended by my own self - no one else participating) that can hopefully help me know more about the job. I was also brought around the R&D building twice: once with my team leader, and the 2nd time with another team's leader (who's a Japanese: really hard to understand what he's saying!). Apart from those rounds, I just sat in the briefing room and listened to talks by my colleagues.

Oh yeah, I attended the morning assembly at 7.45 a.m., and it was a simple assembly, actually. Every staff has to take turns speaking in front, one person per assembly. This time, I had to introduce myself as a new staff there, so I just gave a brief introduction of myself to them. Hmmm... quite simple actually. We are supposed to sing the company song, but I observed that no one actually sings it. They just listened to the song's music only. Good then.

About my friend's wedding: Lini and Mizan's nikah ceremony was last night at Lini's house. Many people attended it, and I was able to meet a lot of my friends, mostly my primary schoolmates. But I was a bit unsure of talking to them (particularly the girls... shy kot? Ahahaha!), so I just sat and talked with Adzmir, Shep, and Hafiz.

To Faza and my other schoolmates reading this blog, those I saw at the wedding were Adzmir, Shep, Hafiz Musa and Junieza (they came together, sat next to each other, and chatted together all the time: are they a couple now???), Norlin, Fazrina, Azah, Izuin and Izlin, and 2 persons that I forgot their names. :P

How was the nikah? Splendid. And I'm impressed that Mizan recited the lafaz nikah once, without any repetition. Well, there was only this one time lah where the imam/kadi (which one eh?) wanted Uncle Minhat to repeat his part of the lafaz because Mizan did not say "Saya" when Uncle Minhat recited Mizan's full name. I think it's required as an acknowledgement sign by Mizan that he understands that Uncle Minhat is reciting the lafaz nikah to Mizan and no one else.

But after that incident, everything else was smooth and fluid. No repetitions, interruptions, whatsoever. I'm impressed! I hope when it's my time, I'm like that also. :)

My First Day

2006-01-12T23:35:00.000+08:00

I'm sure many of you are thinking (or not!)... how was my first day? I must say that basically it's rather boring... the whole day was spent on HR orientation only. So, I had to sit down and was briefed about their salary scheme, benefits, annual leaves, security, safety, etc. Those basic things that you should know when starting work at a new company lah.

I also had the chance to go have lunch at their cafeteria. And it was quite like a dining hall in boarding schools. At lunch, every employee will go to the dining hall and eat there, as we're not allowed to leave the company premises during lunch "hour" (it's actually 40 minutes only), except on Fridays to perform the Friday prayers. The meal also isn't free like I expected; we're supposed to pay a small amount of money to buy the food. It's not that expensive... only RM2.80 for a tray of nasi ayam. Ok what...

Also had the misfortune of having to go to the toilet during a briefing session. Hahah! But at least I got to see how their toilets are, and basically, they're OK. Not spectacular, but just OK. Clean enough to be used daily. ;P

Met the Managing Director of Panasonic Compressor, a very nice Japanese guy. Of course, it's kind of like a rite of passage for any new staff joining the company to meet the MD first before starting work. He gave me advice about working life as an engineer, career development, etc. His English, of course, wasn't that good, but he is by far one of the best English-speaking Japanese I have ever talked to.

Got my uniform, too. Yeah. UNIFORM. Hahaha... those who are working in offices might be laughing their asses off knowing the fact that I have to wear uniform to work. But I look at it another way: consider the fact that I don't have to buy office attire (which I won't be wearing after all when not at work) and that everybody else within the factory premises are wearing the same uniform (thus disallowing people to show off their neat shirts or dresses). This will add up to saved costs due to not having to buy office attire. Positive thinking!

And finally, was introduced to my section team leader, who's a very polite and talkative guy. He'll be the person in charge over me, and all my work will be reported directly to him. He gave me a slight briefing on the job they do there at Panasonic Compressor R&D, and truth be told, I am quite interested to know more. The job basically is similar to the job of a Design Engineer at Technip, with slight differences.

I really am quite amped up to know more.

Oh yeah, every Panasonic staff has to attend a daily morning assembly, where we're supposed to sing the company song, recite the company principles, and accordingly give public speeches to our section. I'm supposed to introduce myself to my section tomorrow during morning assembly. Hehe. Wish me luck! ;)

Something to think about...

2006-01-09T00:16:00.000+08:00

Lately since I am about to start work, I've been thinking about these two situations.

Firstly, if I were to get a job offer which would bring me far away (outside Malaysia) from my girlfriend (take note that at that moment, we're not married yet - if we were married, then of course it'll be easy to just bring my wife along), should I be accepting that offer? The job would be something that I like and is suitable for me.

Secondly, if the situations are reversed: my girlfriend gets that likeable and suitable overseas job offer, while I work here in Malaysia. Should I let her go work overseas while I stay here? Should I disallow her from going for that job and ask her to get one locally, disregarding the fact that she might probably not like the job that she would get by staying here in Malaysia? Or should I try to get a job at that country she's going to, for the sake of following her, but unsure about whether I will get a job that's suitable for me (considering the fact that I prefer to work locally)?

What would YOU do when confronted with either one of these situations?

I'll start work next Thursday!

2006-01-08T00:10:00.000+08:00

Yeah, it's confirmed: I will be starting work at Panasonic Compressor R&D next Thursday, 12th January 2006, insyaAllah. I will have to arrive there at 7.30 a.m. Wow, so early!

Things will start off with a 1-day orientation session, and what's surprising is that I will be the only participant! Hmmm... that will be totally weird, as there will be speakers and presenters during the session, which is normal if they were presenting to a group of people, but only to me? So weird. And what's more, their focus will be totally on me alone. Hehe.

Oh well, at least they'll give me undivided attention to answer all my questions regarding the company, their policies, and the job at hand.

FYI: I didn't pass the Schlumberger interview

2006-01-05T21:22:00.000+08:00

About the Schlumberger interview. I didn't pass it. Yup. Well, there wasn't actually any email or telephone call by them to notify me of the fact that I didn't pass the interview, but it has kind of confirmed itself by the fact that my friend who was also called for the same interview (different session) the following week had received a telephone call notifying him of his passing the interview. As my session was 1 week before his, surely I would have been notified earlier than my friend, if I were to pass the interview, right?

Well, it's ok actually. No hard feelings. I still have my Panasonic Compressor R&D job offer, which I already confirmed to join. I hope it will be a much better and suitable experience for me.

I really can't wait to start that job. I want to earn money ASAP. Earning my first paycheck will definitely be a very huge personal milestone.

Hey, it's the new year!

2006-01-01T14:06:00.000+08:00

Yeah, it is. It's currently 1st January 2006. And here's a trivia: did u know that we actually experienced 2005 a second longer than the requisite 365 days? Read about it here. It just confirms my suspicions that 1 year is actually not EXACTLY 365 days, but more like 365.something2 days. And the leap month (28th Feb every 4 years) was not enough to account for that difference.

Anyway.

Did you guys go and celebrate the new year? I didn't (never did, actually). I just stayed at home surfing the Net and talking with my girlfriend via Skype (Skype should really launch Skype-out in Malaysia, as it can definitely help us save a lot of money!). There were fireworks launched, but I just didn't have the urge to watch them. To me, it's just a new year. Nothing special about it. What's more important is how we reminisce what we have done in 2005, learn from those experiences, and plan ahead for 2006.

I don't have any resolutions for the new year, and I never did plan any resolution for any new year, as I know that if I were to do so, I would not be able to complete it. But I think the best resolution would be to be a better person than I was in previous years; physically, mentally, and spritually. For Muslims: let's all become a better Muslim. Amin.

On a side note, what are the email accounts that you guys use? Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail? Or something else? In my case, I have accounts for all three, but the one I primarily use is Hotmail. And I'm currently beta-testing the new future version of Hotmail, dubbed Windows Live Mail. It's neat, simple, and much better compared to the current version of Hotmail. It resembles Outlook, where you can modify the appearance of the interface, resize the borders, read your email in the Reading Pane, etc. And the account size limit has even been increased to 2000 MB. Well, it is less than Gmail's 2.6 GB but still, 2000 MB is a lot of space!

Windows Live Mail Beta. Neater than Hotmail, isn't it?

Actually, I prefer Gmail more than Windows Live Mail, but I still use Windows Live Mail because I don't want to go through the hassle of changing the email address I give to people.

If you want to sign up for Windows Live Mail Beta, click here.

Happy new year everyone!

In Retrospect

2005-12-30T15:46:00.000+08:00

As 2005 draws to a close, I feel like reminiscing what I experienced during the whole of this year. Some, good. Some, not so good.

The year started off with me feeling very confident that I can complete my final year project within the stipulated time of 1 semester (4.5 months). Even though I started the semester by playing games and procrastinating my work, I was definitely sure that I can complete it. And we all know what happened next: extension, further procrastination, etc. But finally I was able to finish the project (even got an A!) in the June 2005 Semester. And for that, Alhamdulillah. Lesson to be learned: Never procrastinate, and make sure to manage my time well!

Another personal highlight of 2005 would also be the start of my relationship with my girlfriend. :)

2005 also was the year where I began to understand how working at a power plant is. I had opportunities to visit power plants and see their work, and frankly speaking, I was kinda dismayed with what I saw: most of the work is routine and kinda boring, in my opinion. I know, as usual, it's always how YOU yourself make of the experience. Sometimes, things can be kinda boring and routine but if you're positive-minded enough, you can still learn and do a lot of new things. But still... somehow during those visits (and future exposure to power plant work) I grew a bit unsure whether I wanted to work in power plants, or was I just FORCING myself to work in there?

Cue Technip. My Industrial Training experience with Technip showed me what type of work in Mechanical Engineering that I like: design, project management and consultancy! Conversations with my colleagues during those weeks slowly made me feel certain of not wanting to work as a Mechanical Engineer for TNB. They even gave me the financial situation I would be if I did not work for TNB, what I would have to pay, and how advantageous it would be; frankly, it really helped me make up my mind!

2005 also was the year that my brother finally held his wedding ceremony. It was my first experience as a host for a ceremony as huge as that, and at least, now I know what to expect when my turn is up next! ;)

My sister's graduation was also held in 2005, of which I feel proud (and a bit weird I might add: camne adik boleh grad dulu daripada abang?;)). I also felt worried to hear that the London bombings which happened in 2005 occurred when my family (with the exception of me and my youngest sister) was in the UK! Alhamdulillah, everyone was OK.

And again Alhamdulillah, I was able to graduate in 2005 (but not yet my convocation: it will happen in 2006, insyaAllah), with a CGPA of 3.48. Yes, I ever so sliiiiiiiightly missed 3.50, but I'm used to it already. Remember my KMYS A-Level results where I also missed obtaining the minimum required 12-points by YTN by a mere 1 grade? Hehe. Nevertheless, I am thankful to Allah because 3.48 is still a very, very good CGPA. Alhamdulillah. :)

2005 also saw me starting my job hunt. I planned to even write snail mail applications to companies, but I always tangguh doing it, and thus even now I haven't even wrote a single snail mail application! But I sent a boat-load of Internet applications, via Jobstreet and also via respective companies' websites. Some replied, most didn't. As of the writing of this entry, I got invitations from 5 companies to go for interviews, and only got a job offer for 1. I will be taking that job offer, unless something urgent/important changes my mind.

Those would be the most important events that I have experienced. And what am I looking forward to in 2006? Everything! I hope 2006 will be an adventurous yet rewarding year for everyone, and hope that I can be a better Muslim, insyaAllah. Amin.

What to do?

2005-12-28T03:12:00.000+08:00

If you have been visiting my blog regularly, you can see that I wrote a lot about starting work. You people must surely be thinking that I worry too much about it, and some of you might even think "Relax la, dah start keje nanti, baru kau tau the reality of it".

Yeah, you guys are right. So I think I won't be writing about it any more. At least the unimportant ones lah. When I actually have started working, where, and how I felt about it, I'll definitely give updates!

Anyway, apart from that, what have I been up to, other than worrying about this starting work thingy? Not much. I spend most of my time at home. When I'm not at home, I would either be going to any mamak shop in PJ to watch football (my current fave is Jamal Muhammad, near the FAM football field, as they have 2 Astro decoders - easy to keep up when 2 matches are playing simultaneously!), going out with my girlfriend, or do something related to starting a job (such as going to Uniten to get my transcript, go for interviews, etc.).

If you remember my previous posts, I initially planned to either watch all my TV series or play PC games till I get seriously bored with them, right? Well, it turned out that I got bored even before starting to watch them! Especially my PC games, where I really don't have any mood to start playing them (except Pro Evolution Soccer 5, of course, which I play regularly). Is this a sign that I'm growing more mature? I don't know... but lately I don't feel like spending my leisure time playing PC games.

Hmmm... it has been some time since I last played basketball. Maybe I'll do that. Some day.

I am becoming bored. I need to do something new!!!

I have a plan...

2005-12-24T20:51:00.000+08:00

I have a plan... What if I just negotiate with the HR person who will be overseeing my entry into Panasonic's workforce to obtain a few days of annual leaves ? I will explain honestly the obligations that I have as a convertible loan student, what my plans are, what those few days of annual leaves I intend to use for, as well as the benefits to them by allowing me to go for my sponsor's interview.

After all, I did mention to them during my interview that I am a convertible loan student.

I don't mind if I will have to forfeit a few of my annual leaves that will be awarded to me at the end of next year as replacement for those that I hope I would get when I join Panasonic, as long as I won't be penalised from other aspects, especially in terms of my professional records and reputation.

Susah gile siot!

2005-12-22T20:20:00.000+08:00

My worst fears have been realised. Contrary to popular belief, Schlumberger's 1st interview stage is VERY HARD! I don't understand why. From what I heard from friends who were previously interviewed by Schlumberger, they claimed that the 1st stage will usually be a breeze: very easy, HR-type of questions. I guess this time I got an interviewer with a different mindset / attitude compared to those other guys.

I'm too lazy to go into the details of my interview, suffice to say that he basically created an environment of pressure within the interview, which I think is a strategy to see how I perform under pressure. Basically, he asked something about my final year project (that you guys know was a wreck to begin with), of which he felt that it was too simple or too unconvincing to be termed an innovative piece of work. From that, I can tell that he expected me to defend myself.

I must say that I performed 50-50 lah in that sense. I didn't performed too well, nor did I suck. I can say that I was in the middle.

Apart from that, there were also questions about whether I'm prepared to work with Schlumberger as a field engineer, what I know about Schlumberger, etc. Those basic things lah.

But the main thing is I really hate this type of interview where they expect us to answer questions under pressure. Yes, it is good in the sense that they can identify which candidates are able to peform when being barraged with questions or uncertainties, but in my opinion, interviews should be conducted in a way that will be comfortable to both parties, especially from the point of view of the candidate themselves, so that they can answer as best as they can. Not like what happened just now, where we were basically arguing: I almost shouted! Hahaha... tu la, sape soh tanye banyak sgt, seb baik aku tak marah balik. Muahahahahahahahahaha!

But oh well, it's their company, so it's their right to interview people the way they see fit.

Let's see what my results will be. So far, I put my chance at 50-50. Haha. I always put my chances in the middle in order to be prepared for any consequences. He said he will notify all candidates of their successful / rejected applications by next week.

By far, Schlumberger's interview is THE HARDEST. It even overtook Shell's high level of standard in terms of interview difficulty.

Nevertheless, the uncertainty with Panasonic's offer still exists within my mind. Not yet sure whether to take it or not. Ya Allah, help me.

Realization sinking in...

2005-12-21T23:55:00.000+08:00

Hmmm... now I am in a dilemma.

As per the new company's (THE one I'm considering to join) policy, new recruits cannot take paid leave during the first year of service. That means, I will have to work, without any paid leave, for the whole 1 year of service, before I will get my first yearly leaves. It's sort of like they want us to earn those paid leaves first, before they are given to us.

But the problem is, by doing so, I will not have the flexibility to look for other jobs within my 1st year of service. As you all know, being a fresh graduate means you will be applying to lots of companies, and each of these companies will be replying to you at different times, some early, some late. In the case of THIS particular company I'm considering to join, they replied early, and Alhamdulillah, I got an offer.

But what about those other companies that I applied? If I'm also gonna consider them, and if they were to call me for their interviews, will I be allowed to attend them if I were to join THIS company first? I won't have any paid leaves, so I will have to apply for unpaid leave. But being unpaid leave, THEY won't easily approve my leave application. Especially when I give a reason like wanting to go for a job interview. Even if I were to make up fictitious reasons, when I take too much unpaid leaves, surely they would suspect something. That will affect my records, for sure.

Why suddenly I become fickle-minded? I got a call from Schlumberger this afternoon, and they want to call me for an interview tomorrow in KL. All of a sudden, realization starts to sink in. All the things I mentioned above start to appear in my mind.

So, as of now, I am considering that probably I will not be taking the job offer. I'll try to make up my mind as soon as possible. Probably latest by next week. At least, let me pass this Schlumberger job interview, then I can decide.

By the way, anybody have tips for Schlumberger's 1st stage job interview? This is only the 1st stage. I heard there will be four stages of interview. I just hope tomorrow's interview is easy. At least, even if it's not easy, I hope it is still easier than Shell's interview. By far, I think Shell's job/internship interview is the hardest of all.

Schlumberger interview tips anybody? Please??? I need tips!!!

Looking back

2005-12-20T12:21:00.000+08:00

Every time I listen to Sixpence None The Richer's "Kiss Me", it never fails to make me remember my college years at KMYS. If I'm not mistaken, the song was released in 1999. Oh how far I have come since that year.

I came to that college filled with hope and confidence. And a little bit of swagger, I might add (I guess that explains why I was being happy-go-lucky with my studies there!). After obtaining exceptional results for my SPM, I was very sure that I can conquer any challenge that comes my way. But the end result, you all know what happened, right?

KMYS was also my first chance since a very long time, to be in contact with girls. Hahah! Well, don't get me wrong, even though I was in SAS (which is a male boarding school), I did have some contact, it's just that I had no actual female friends. Had some crushes there too, I might add, of which I am not happy to divulge their identities. Sorry. ;)

I also became a better basketball player at KMYS (not now though, due to lack of practice, I suck!). My days practicing with my frens (every afternoon, not to mention every weekend morning!) really improved my skills and confidence in basketball.

I made a lot of new friends and acquaintances there, each of which I hope will remain as friends sampai bila2.

Studying at KMYS inadvertently turned me into a computer freak. Hehe. I learned about computers then and there, when I had to take Computing as one of my A-Level subjects. It turned out I loved working with computers and playing computer games so much. It had a two-pronged effect on me in the end: I increased my technical affinity towards computers and computer games, but my increased interest in computer games distracted me from my studies; it was enough to kinda wreck my results.

KMYS was also a wake-up call for me. My A-Level results reminded me of how I got the great results during SPM: sheer hardwork, dedication and consistent attention towards my studies, not some shoddy, last minute work. It was a downer for me.

But I guess, good things always try to appear at the most unexpected of places and circumstances. It turned out, there is a rainbow at the end of the storm, after all.

Alhamdulillah... :)

2005-12-15T18:29:00.000+08:00

About the job offer, I am still considering it. But it looks like most probably I will be taking up the offer. I'll try to learn the ropes there, try to know what I'm supposed to do, be friends with as many people as possible, and try to ensure that my job will be enjoyable. I know, most jobs are hard to be enjoyed, especially gruellling and frustrating ones (that's why it's called a job and not a game!). But I think it's more of a perception thing; try to think of it more positively, and I'm sure things will be OK.

I know, I know, I'm a newbie. I haven't even actually worked yet, so I haven't the authority to claim those things. But I'll try to be as prepared as I can. :P

By the way, I got my updated results slip yesterday. I got an A for my Final Year Project 2! Alhamdulillah... lega gila. Now I'm officially no longer a student! Just have to wait a few weeks more for my final results transcript...

To take or not to take...

2005-12-13T20:01:00.000+08:00

I got the offer to work for Panasonic Compressor R&D. Now the question is, should I take it, or not??? Help me compare it with TNB and other companies. Help3! Urgent, people! Coz I need to give a reply by the end of this week. Uwaaa...

2nd stage completed

2005-12-09T11:59:00.000+08:00

I finished my second interview! Now I need to wait 2 weeks to know the outcome of the interview, whether I passed or not. They have 2 vacancies for us 3 candidates, so there is still a possibility of someone being booted out. Terasa cam Survivor pulak... :P

But I heard they don't all the time take everyone from an interviewing session, coz they said they held previous sessions where they didn't employ anyone from the sessions, due to the fact that they find them unsuitable for the position. But according to them, this is the 1st time they conducted a 2nd interviewing stage, since previous times, they only selected people from the 1st interviewing stage. Thus, there is a high chance lah that we will make the cut. Only upper management knows the exact reason why they made this 2nd stage.

The interview itself was similar to the 1st stage. Alhamdulillah. I was able to answer the questions posed to me very fluently. But I noticed that I tend to ramble on and on, sometimes. I need to put a stop to that habit. :) And yes, there was a Japanese in the interviewers' panel. He's a department Director. Alhamdulillah he asked only 2 questions and not more. When he asked, I had to pay 100% concentration to what he was saying so that I can understand his words and not say something totally different to what he meant. Hehe.

Anyway, will I be taking up the job if I were offered to work there? That I am not yet sure.

During the rounds that one of the engineers there brought us before the interview, I found that the R&D work they did there was more towards designing something to satisfy a client's requirements. They already have a product list that clients' can choose from, but the only difference is that sometimes these clients have specific requirements that they want us to satisfy, due to their weather conditions, cost considerations, etc. So, it will be up to the R&D Engineer to find out how to perform slight modifications to the current product specs in order to satisfy their requirements. And this is where the R&D part begins: perform some research, testing in labs, creating a prototype, testing again, manufacturing, etc.

But basically, according to the engineer, the work is mostly slight modifications to current product specs, rather than major modifications or completely new designs. He said, these major design works are normally performed by the HQ overseas.

Thus, I will need to ask around, learn more about the job, how enjoyable or boring it is, whether it is very rewarding financially and mentally, the commitments that I have to undertake, etc. Basically I need to learn everything I can about it. I have a schoolmate who works in the same kind of R&D position but in the PJ branch. I'll try to contact him to learn more about the job, but only when I have been offered lah. Hopefully with the knowledge I have, I can then decide whether to take up the offer or not.

Off to the 2nd stage!

2005-12-07T18:41:00.000+08:00

Finally, I have officially finished my Final Year Project! I submitted my hard cover thesis to my supervisor today. Technically, I am not yet a graduate since I haven't received my results transcript yet, but I can safely say that I am a graduate lah none-the-less. Can't wait to get my transcript.

"Off to the 2nd stage", states my title. What 2nd stage? My Panasonic Compressor R&D interview, of course. Alhamdulillah, as expected, I passed the 1st interview. Now, in this next interview, the Managing Director (MD) himself will be conducting the interview. I wonder what sort of questions will he be asking... I expect more personality, management, and company profile based questions rather than technical questions, because it is a well known fact that as technical people, especially engineers, rise up the hierarchy of work, they would slowly leave behind their technical expertise and concentrate more on managerial activities.

So then, I think tonight I'll be studying a lot about Panasonic's profile. Not just about Panasonic Compressor R & D Malaysia, but also about all of the other branches of Panasonic. Don't want to get caught off-guard.

But apart from that, I don't know what else I should prepare. Maybe frame answers to most-asked-questions, I guess, such as the ever popular "Explain about yourself" question. Also, maybe show him how rajin I am, since he's a Japanese, and as we commonly know, Japanese are very hardworking people. So, he surely would prefer hardworking and dedicated employees.

Nevertheless, what's most important is that tomorrow, before the interview, when the staff there brings us candidates around the factory premises, I must gain as much information as possible about my responsibilities, job description and requirements, what I am required to do there, what type of work they do there, etc. I hope tomorrow I can decide, then and there, whether the Mechanical R&D Engineer job is suitable for me or not. Currently, I prefer design/consultancy job such as those performed at Technip, but who knows, maybe tomorrow's trip will make me change my mind.

Another important thing to know too is in terms of remuneration, benefits, and non-technical life (read: social) there. These things I will try to gain more knowledge of only after I have gained a confirmed offer from Panasonic. I'll try to ask around if any of my friends (or friends' friend) are working there (last I heard, my schoolmate is currently working in the PJ branch). I'll then try to learn as much as I can from them about life in Panasonic. Sometimes, you might like the job they give you, but there might be other aspects about working life at a particular company that you can only know by asking the people who are working there. They might shed some light on whether it's enjoyable or not.

Anyway, that's for later. Now, I should prepare. And not forgetting, tomorrow, must drink coffee! ;) Doakan aku!

Good job!

2005-12-06T02:35:00.000+08:00

Time for another update.

What happened since last week? As you can see in my updated post previously, I have submitted my thesis to my co-supervisor, of which I am happy to report that it came back to me with no need for modifications whatsoever. What a relief. Thus I need only to modify it a bit according to the comments made by my supervisor and send it for binding. Yup, did those already. Now I'm waiting for the binded copies to be completed (while creating the CD's to store my project files for my supervisors), submit them to my supervisor, and FINALLY, I'm through being a student. Yey!

Oh yeah. How was my interview with Panasonic Compressor R&D? It went well, alright. The interview was definitely the best performance I have ever made in a job interview, period. Of course, I framed and memorised a few answers (such as the ever popular "Explain about yourself" question), but surprisingly, I was able to belt out my answers fluently, with little to no pauses and gaps. Alhamdulillah.

I definitely owe it all to Allah for assisting me that day.

Here's a rundown of what happened. The night before, I read up on some compressor thermodynamics theories which I, at that time, thought would help me answer the questions. The next morning, I went contrary to the norm for people preparing for interviews: I drank coffee! Hahah. I read and learned from other people that it is not a good idea to drink coffee before going for interviews or doing a presentation, as coffee would make one's stomach unsettled and thus make you lose concentration. Surprisingly, that didn't happen. Instead, I were more alert than I were during my 2 previous interviews! Yup, I'm serious. And what's more surpising is that I slept a wee bit late than I should, at around 3 something a.m.

Heheh. Now I know how to REALLY prepare for interviews: drink coffee!

Also, when I arrived at the factory premises, I met up with another interview candidate, and chatted with him a bit. I guess that also helped make me less nervous.

Before the interview, one of the interviewers gave a brief presentation of how working with Panasonic is in terms of benefits. I must say, it is quite good. Could even say that it's comparable to TNB's benefits.

The interview session itself was a breeze. Of course, as most interviews go, it definitely isn't perfect. But I was able to answer the questions posed to me with a high degree of confidence. Luckily they only asked 1 theory question relating to thermodynamics / refrigeration, which I was able to answer. :)

But what makes me a little bit unsure that the interview results will go my way is the fact that they had asked some questions that forced me to reveal my sponsorship situation. Well, IMO, I should reveal that situation as early as possible to every one of my possible employers, so that they know beforehand what they are getting into. Plus, it is not a good idea to hide information as crucial as this to your employers. They have the right to know. Personally, I feel I have answered their questions relating to this matter satisfactorily, and I might add that I were quite convincing.

But, it could be that after the interview, when they compare and contrast every of the candidates, they might feel that having me is quite risky when compared to other candidates. Who knows?

Anyway, D-day is tomorrow. I should receive a call from them by tomorrow the latest. Doa for me okay guys? Anyway, I'm keeping an open mind. I'm prepared for any outcome. And I definitely do not put high hopes for any of my job applications, as I do not want to be disappointed. Take them as they come, but if they do not go the way I want them to, then take a deep breath, relax, and try again. :)

Continue our job hunt, shall we?

Interview Again?

2005-11-28T20:11:00.000+08:00

Haih. I went to Uniten today to collect my graded thesis. But it turned out the evaluator haven't finished marking it yet. Hmm. I hope he/she does finish it by tomorrow, coz the deadline for submission of final year project grades is on Wednesday.

My remaining targets for this final year project:

Obtain the graded thesis (marked with comments) (DONE!)
Submit the final year project grade (will be done by my supervisor) (DONE!)
Submit the thesis to my co-supervisor for comments from the software perspective (DONE!)
Obtain the commented thesis from my co-supervisor (DONE!)
Modify the thesis to include comments from supervisor, co-supervisor and evaluator (DONE!)
Create 4 hard cover bounded copies of the thesis for my supervisor, co-supervisor, the library, and myself; submit them to each of those people (DONE!).
THE END!

On another note, I got another call for an interview. This time, it's for the post of Mechanical R & D Engineer at Panasonic Compressor R & D Centre Malaysia in Shah Alam. This time, I'm gonna truly prepare for it! No more gagap2 aaaa... :D

Anybody know about that company, the job, the workplace, the benefits, salary, anything? Please leave a comment ok.

Ciao dudes.

Final Year Project 95% Completed! YEY!

2005-11-25T00:04:00.001+08:00

Alhamdulillah, and hooray! There is cause for celebration now, coz my final year project is only thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis bit to completion. It wouldn't be wrong to say that there is only 5% left for it to be totally complete. The only things that're left are for me to wait for my supervisor to mark my thesis evaluation copy, for my co-supervisor to give comments on it, and finally for me to bind the marked thesis. And voila, I'll have my own hard cover, bounded thesis! :)

Now I can really start my job hunt. Really going to concentrate 100% on finding a job that suits me well, pays satisfactorily, and satisfies all the specifications that I set for it. But while doing so, I would also spend the idle time I have before my interview with TNB (which should be sometime in February next year) to play games and watch all my favourite TV shows!

Oh, how I miss watching *take a deep breath* Arrested Development, How I Met Your Mother, Kitchen Confidential, Medium, Prison Break, Surface, Gilmore Girls, House, My Name Is Earl (THE BEST!), Nip/Tuck, Scrubs, Supernatural, Invasion, Lost, One Tree Hill, Veronica Mars, Alias, Joey, Everybody Hates Chris, Smallville, The O.C., Numb3rs, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Rome and Night Stalker (though cancelled already)! *exhale*

See... there's a whole lot of shows that I need to watch. That doesn't even include the games that I want to play but I had to temporarily put aside in order to complete my project!

Probably will need one year to really complete everything.

OK then, time to relax... :)

Hard disk reformatted, Windows reinstalled, but taking too long...

2005-11-23T01:05:00.000+08:00

Reinstalling Windows XP is a hassle. Granted, it's much simpler compared to reinstalling Windows 98 (I've done both, I know). But still...

Yesterday, when restarting my computer after a program asks me to do so to complete its installation, I ran into a problem: the computer refused to load into Windows. At the Windows loading screen, it hanged. Then I'd have to restart the computer. After doing so, the same problem repeated itself. Numerous times.

Actually I've encountered this problem many times before. But in all those times, a simple press of the reset button would solve everything. But not this time. Now, for reasons unknown, the computer is acting very stubborn towards me.

So, I did the only thing I think I should do: I tried to repair the installation. Unfortunately, it didn't work. So, I went and reformatted my hard drive. Good thing I repartitioned the disk, so I need only reformat the D: partition, ensuring all my other important documents remain safe.

But the hassle is when trying to make the computer look and feel like how it was before. I liked the way my computer is before the hard drive reformat. It wasn't spiffy and speedy, of course, but I like the fact that I have all my bookmarks ready, I have almost all the programs I need, etc.

Trying to recreate the new Windows installation to make it feel as the old one is very hard indeed. It's already been a day since the reinstallation, but I'm only partly halfway through.

I think every once in a while (maybe once a year) everyone should backup their hard disks and reformat the Windows hard disk. It really does make a difference. Windows does run faster compared to how it was before the reformat.

There you go, a little bit of computing stuff. Ok, time to drink Nescafe! Later...

Another Interview, Same Results...

2005-11-17T16:48:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I went for the Flextronics interview in Shah Alam. Going there was a cinch. Easy peasy. Took me around 15 - 20 minutes to arrive there. A good enough sign for me, if I were to work there. I can siap late at home then keluar lewat and still arrive on time for work!

The session started off with an IQ test. Very easy, though I got 1 question wrong! Boo! Hehe... Later when the interviewer told me the correct answer, then I said to myself "Why didn't I think of that?! Easy maaa..."

Also, they had this 1 long employment application form that they want us to fill. What a bad system. Wanting us to fill it there on the spot. If I were the HR Manager there, I would've computerised this type of manual procedure by making the candidates either fill their information in a computer at the office, or email them a form in digital format and let them fill it themselves before coming for the interview. After all, they still want to input these information into the computer, so might as well eliminate this manual intermediary step.

Anyway, after that, I was told to wait until my name is called. And so I waited... to be exact, I waited nearly an hour! Huhu... But I'm the interviewee so I can't complain.

And when my name was called, I went to meet the interviewer. He's a nice chap. Has a very good command of English, soft-spoken, and very polite. But this time, the interview was not like the interview I went previously in Damansara. This time, there're more technical questions being asked of me. The questions mainly revolve around design and manufacturing processes, as well as some problem-solving questions. The only time he asked me about my personality was when he wanted me to explain a bit about myself.

As usual, I stuttered a bit all the way through the interview. Haih... when can I truly start mastering answering questions spontaneously in the most fluent English possible? I can write and speak very good English, but when it comes to talking spontaneously, I always stutter. Huhu... No matter, I'll practice more after this.

So there you go. I don't think I did well enough to be called for their 2nd interview. I think I did better than the previous job interview, but still not good enough. But still, I'm not that disheartened lah. I wasn't having that high an expectation for this interview after all. Furthermore, when he described a bit about the job of a Product Verification Engineer there, it struck me that it really was quite a boring job! Most of my time would be spent in the factory itself, I'll have to do routine jobs, solve manufacturing problems, etc. There'll be no overtime, I would be expected to work shifts, and sometimes will be expected to stay on longer than my normal working hours, especially when there are huge problems during production.

Boring! If I want to work like that, I might as well stay with TNB. After all, working in a power plant is not much different compared to working in a factory.

I told him I am very interested with the job, but truth be told, when I thought hard about it, I can't seem to find myself working there.

Let's just hope better offers will come my way.

Towards an enjoyable life

2005-11-09T21:24:00.000+08:00

My daily routine, everything I do, is slowly becoming a bore. It feels like I'm doing the same thing over and over again. Going out? It's always to the movies, then off to having lunch/dinner at the same restaurants; wash, rinse, repeat.

I need to get out of this rut. Do something new. Act impulsively. No matter whether the outcome is good or bad, what matters is the experience. Every good experience will make me feel happy and fulfilled; bad ones will make me a better person.

Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.

Oh yeah, I got a call from Flextronics Shah Alam yesterday, and they want to call me for a job interview next week, for the post of Product Verification Engineer. Anybody know what kind of a post that is? And what is like working for Flextronics, in terms of benefits and salary, as well as career development? Please chime in on your experiences, if you have any.

I plan to really prepare for this interview, and hope that I get a favourable result.

Hari Raya Came and Gone

2005-11-08T01:30:00.000+08:00

Sorry for not updating for the past 1 week. It was Hari Raya week, after all, so paham2 aje la...

What I did during Raya? Well, let's start off with before Raya. Before, I helped kemas our house, especially our storeroom, where it's filled with lots of unneeded stuff, as well as being disorganised as it has always been. We rearranged things inside the storeroom so that we can increase it's storage capacity.

During Raya, not much lah. Pretty much the same thing we do every Raya. On the 1st day of Raya, after Solat Aidilfitri, we had our customary salam and hugs and asking for forgiveness from every one of our family members. Then it goes on to giving duit raya. I still get duit raya ooo... hahaha. Of coz, since I haven't started work yet. When I start work, I think I won't get it anymore. And since my sis already has started working, she gave me duit raya also. Thank you sis! :D

After that we had our usual breakfast after solat Raya, which includes ketupat, rendang, nasi himpit, sambal kacang, and so on. Best! Then we went on to meet our grandmother on my mother's side, who's currently staying with my Mak Long. Then off we went to our kampung in Batu Laut, which is situated between Sepang and Banting, where we met our grandmother on my father's side. We also slept there for a couple of nights, while concurrently visiting our relatives, mostly our 'embah's (grand uncle) and 'wak's (uncles).

After all that, we went home. That just sums up my raya. So how was yours? Was it enjoyable? Interesting?

Hello World!

2005-10-29T13:51:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! I'm back! Finally, I have completed probably 80% of my project, with only a few minor updates to go, before really going gold with it. That is reason enough to usher myself back into the world of blogging. Oh how I miss this blog of mine (and those of yours!):)

So what have I been doing lately? Truth be told, it was project, project, and project only. Well, occasionally once in a while, I watch my favourite US TV shows in order to alleviate the boredom of staring at the computer for hours on end.

With the nearing completion of my final year project, the reality of working life starts to kick in. Yup, it is time for me to search for a job. I actually have three choices regarding this matter.

I can just sit back, relax and wait for TNB to call me for an interview, ace it (which I don't think is too hard to do based on my exam results - I heard, with good exam results, TNB loan or scholarship students can easily pass the interview - it seems more like a formality), and then join TNB's workforce.
To make it a point to not work with a GLC (Government-Linked Company, e.g. TNB) and find a job elsewhere.
An amalgamation of both 1 and 2: find a job first, then see what I am offered with. If good, take up the job offer; if not, work with TNB.

I am currently undergoing choice 3, which I think is the most practical choice. TNB's next intake into their workforce will only commence in March, so I have plenty of time to search and possibly start a job elsewhere. After all, I find living under my parents' roof without working for a few months (and not even studying!) a bit uneasy. I at least want to pay a part of our house's electricity bill. I am, after all, using a lot of it, leaving my PC on for at least 18 hours a day!

Anyway, in choosing option 3, I have applied for a few jobs advertised in Jobstreet.com. Based on my application status written there, I should be called for a few interviews. One such interview happened this past Friday, in which I did not perform very well. I was tired actually that day, and was not that into interview. I was concentrating on my project the previous day.

The interview was by a recruitment agency, which represented on behalf of one of their client companies. I don't think I should be naming them here, so suffice to say that it is related to mechanical engineering. So the interview goes that I was asked the normal questions:

Explain about yourself.
What is your goal in life?
What are your career plans?
What are your weaknesses?
Explain about your previous job/work.
Talk a bit about your extra-curricular activities.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years' time?
Any interests?
What are your reasons for choosing mechanical engineering as your career?

Now I have a set of questions that I can prepare to answer during future interviews for more interesting jobs. My hope upon hope is that I will be called for an interview at Technip, where I completed my internship. Now, there's a company that pays well (starting salary RM2300 that has a possiblity to be increased to RM3000 by the end of the 1st year of employement, with overtime opportunities even for executives!), is situated close to my home, gives a design job in the oil and gas sector that suits my preferences well, and has people that I already know, thus avoiding the feeling of helplessness when one starts work at a new company. To sum it all, it's just grrrrrreat!

I already have an application that is rejected, which is an application to Shell. But I don't care much about it because I really didn't put high expectations for it.

OK, time to continue on my quest for the completion of my project! Later dudes...

On an extended hiatus...

2005-09-18T22:34:00.000+08:00

Guys, I'm writing this post to notify every visitor to my blog that I will be on an extended hiatus. Why, you might ask? It is because I want to concentrate only on my project from now on. I've got only a few weeks left before the deadline of submitting it, so I need to block everything that might distract me from completing it. With regards to that, I will also stop visiting any of your fine blogs until I submit my project.

I will continue updating this blog after I submit my project, which means that sometime after Raya, I'll be back here. However, don't hesitate to write something in my chatbox. I'll occasionally visit the chatbox to reply to any of your messages.

Till then, goodbye everyone.

2005-09-07T19:45:00.000+08:00

I am quite fascinated with what I read about these on most of my frens' blogs, so I'm gonna write about them too. However, I know that I tend to write long-winded posts, so I'll break them up into digestable bits and post new ones day-by-day.

20 years ago, 1985

What exactly happened in 1985? How am I supposed to know! Then, I was just a tiny, chubby 4 year-old. I had vague recollections of my "before kindergarten" years. Among the experiences I remember was how I got lost while walking around in Pertama Complex with my parents - I cried and cried and cried and was grateful that a woman came to help me and delivered me to the Information Counter. I don't remember at all how she looked. I was grateful she found me and not some evil crook kidnapper!

And I also remember my first experience of having stitches on my body. And it wasn't just any simple part of my body. It was my eyebrow! I was skipping around the armrests of sofas in someone's living room, while 2 adults are playing chess on the table. It just so happened that I slipped and fell face first ON THE CHESS BOARD! I was soooooooooooooo very fortunate (Alhamdulillah) that the pointed end of one of the chess pieces (I dunno which one - I'm guessing the queen or bishop becoz they're the most pointed one) pierced only the skin and flesh at my eyebrow and not my EYE. Imagine if it were to hit my eye. I would be walking around with an eyepatch for the rest of my life!

Other events? Hmmm... not sure that I remember them vividly though. But when I think back to that year, I realised that I was, at that time, still a person very new to this world, still trying to learn the ropes, trying to familiarise myself with the world I'm born into. Those were my formative years...

2005-08-30T20:41:00.000+08:00

My crowning glory! A picture of the winners (I won first place!) of the Piala E-sukan competition (Winning Eleven 8 game category) held during the Zzap egamesasia tournament at Limkokwing University Cyberjaya on 20th and 21st August 2005. I'm the one on wearing the blue Arsenal jersey, 3rd person from right. Now u know how I look... ;)

A win and a loss!

2005-08-29T02:58:00.000+08:00

My last post was on the 16th of August 2005. 2 weeks have passed. What has happened? 2 major events (for me, at least) has occurred:
1. Zzap egamesasia at Limkokwing University on the 20th and 21st of this month
2. World Cyber Games 2005 at Midvalley Megamall this past weekend (26th to 28th August)

First, the good news. I participated in the Zzap egamesasia, for the Winning Eleven 8 competition (PC version) in the Piala E-sukan category. And guess what? I won! I won first place! It was an unprecedented occurance for me. I have never won a video/PC games competition before, and this was my first win.

But to my dismay, the prizes I won does not include cash. Nope. Zero cash included. They gave me, the winner, 7 original PC games and a Saitek P1500 gamepad. The games are Full Spectrum Warrior, Conflict Vietnam, Real Madrid Club Football 2005, Winning Eleven 8 International, International Superstar Soccer 3, ToCA Race Driver and Battle Realms.

Guys, if any of you are interested in buying these original PC games, contact me okay? I know the prospect of a Malaysian buying original PC games is near to none, but I just hope someone out there will go the legit way and be interested with my offer. I'm actually putting it up for auction at www.lelong.com.my. Hopefully someone will be interested with the offers.

However, the following weekend, which was this just past weekend, I lost in another tournament! This time, it's the World Cyber Games 2005! To my credit, this time, the game that I played was Need for Speed Underground 2. And man, it was tough. I can't compete maaa with all those guys yg dah practice macam haper ntah. Perfect driving tak ingat punye. And they were all sponsored by cyber cafes. They surely were able to practice all day (and probably night!) long. How can somebody like me who's also busy doing other things like my final year project and downloading things off the Internet could ever beat them?

I was a bit bitter at this loss, but I put more blame on my shoulders rather than other people. I don't know why I chose to register for NFS underground 2, because I knew from experience last year that I didn't stand a chance in winning that game. The game is more (to me) pure luck, perfection-dependent, and having the capability of finding out the best settings for your car; rather than pure skill.

Next year, I plan to join the Fifa 2006 game category (assuming WCG 2006 still doesn't include Winning Eleven 9 / Pro Evolution Soccer 5 as one of its official games). I know, it seems like a defection from WE/PES, but what to do? Fifa is my best bet for a fair and square match. I just hope that Fifa 2006's controls are configurable and its gameplay more fluid and closely resembles Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer. If they do, I stand a fighting chance of winning the tournament. If they don't, I guess I'll have to train my brain to be receptive to both types of games.

I want to win!

The haze is over... for now.

2005-08-16T00:14:00.000+08:00

Alhamdulillah, ever since my last post, the haze has slowly receded, mostly due to the winds changing its direction towards the northern region. Now, the northern regions are experiencing haze. It was also cleared due to the rain falling very heavily yesterday.

The rain also brings with it a cooling effect. Now I feel quite calm. I like this feeling.

My fren and I, we went to our schoolmate's wedding in Shah Alam. Maaaaaaan, more and more of our friends are tying the knot! When will it be my turn? I don't know... keje pun takde lagi, jangan ngade2 nak pikir pasal kawin. But it is sooo nice and sweet to see ur fren's wedding. :) It always makes us think about what if I were in his place? How would I feel? Nervous? Panicky? Heheh.

I'm talking crap here. I've just had a mug of coffee... no wonder!

Anyway, this past weekend also marks the start of the English Premier League season 2005/2006, a weekend in which all the top three English clubs Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U (Liverfool not included, sorry. ;)) recorded victories in their respective opening fixtures. Glad to see Arsenal winning, although they had to rely on late goals to win their match 2-0. Chelsea's win was more dramatic, when they needed an injury-time winner from Crespo to win against Wigan (of all clubs!) 1-0. Man U, they were OK, but seriously, I think their 2-0 scoreline is a bit flattering for the performance they put up.

OK, there's some update for u. :)

Oh yeah, I'm participating in the Piala E-sukan tournament for the game Winning Eleven 8 at Limkokwing University in Cyberjaya. Do come by this Saturday to see me play.

Hazy days

2005-08-11T16:39:00.000+08:00

The seriously hazy days of 1997/1998 are coming back! As of yesterday (Thursday), it was really, really hazy in the Klang Valley area. And I bravely didn't even wear any protective gear that can minimise the haze's effects, such as a face mask. But IMO, the masks won't help much. It does help a bit, but the fine particles will still get through the holes in the mask and into your lungs.

Thursday too, I went to Midvalley to meet up with my gf, and we had dinner with her 2 frens. Had dinner at Chilli's, which was, as usual, very expensive. I didn't order a meal myself, so I just shared a meal with my gf. (I'm not being a cheapskate ok! It's just that I'm trying to minimise my expenses, especially when I will no longer receive anymore allowance from YTN due to my study period extension...)

We all then watched Bewitched, which was an entertaining and cute movie. Definitely a chick flick, suitable for people who like sweet and romantic stuff. :)

Today, again, I met up with my gf and this time we roamed around Sungei Wang Plaza to enquire the amount of money that she can get if she were to trade-in her old Nokia 7600 handphone. She's planning to ditch that phone and buy a new one. To those interested in purchasing the phone, please do contact me ok? We're planning to start selling it at a price of around 500 to 600 ringgit.

And we had lunch at Pizza Hut today. Went there because I wanted to try out the Cheesy Lava pizza crust. Which was great tasting, but very muak. Only had 2 slices of it and already I didn't feel like eating anymore. Ended up packing it and brought it home (I finished it up just before writing up this post! ;)).

Read a very intriguing article at Pakdi's blog just now. It's about Steve Jobs' motivational speech, and after reading it, it makes me feel that life is a very precious asset that we have that should not be wasted by doing something that we don't have passion for. Instead of trying to "Love what you do", try to "Do what you love". It'll make our lives a whole lot more satisfying.

Here's the speech: http://www.pakdi.com/blog/archives/2005/08/stay_hungry_sta.html#more

OK, gotta go now. Sleep early, as tomorrow I'll be going to my friend's wedding. First experience attending a friend's wedding! :)

Semua dah nak kawin. Bila laaa aku nak kawin plak ni...

PC Fair weekend

2005-08-09T14:29:00.000+08:00

This past weekend, I went twice to KLCC. Once was on Friday, when I went there with my gf. We just wanted to hang out there, since next week and the week after she'll be so busy and will not have time to spare. I won't want to disturb her then.

But I was a bit late while on the way to KLCC. You see, I planned to perform my solat Jumaat there, but I started walking from home at about 1.15 p.m. An LRT ride straight to KLCC takes around 27 minutes. So, I arrived at around 1.45 p.m. And it was raining a bit! Huhu... When I arrived, the solat was just starting. So I joined and solat in the rain. Well, it wasn't raining heavily, so I didn't feel bad about it at all. But that must be my first experience performing the solat in the rain. :)

For lunch, we ate at Madam Kwan's. I tried the Char Kuey Teow, but IMO, it's not as great as I expect it to be. I prefer Little Penang's Char Kuey Teow.

Initially we planned to go visit the PC Fair that was being held at the adjoining KL Convention Centre. But I'm glad we didn't go: there were loads and loads of people visiting the fair!

This was further punctuated the next day, when I accompanied my friend who wanted to visit the fair to buy some DVD's and have a look-around at the prices for the items on sale. IMO, the place is quite huge and there are more ample walking space compared to PWTC, but the way they manage the movement of people at the fair is just dead wrong!

Take the entrance and exit, for instance. The entrance and exit is only via 1 doorway, and it was jam packed! Loads of crowds wanted to go in, while simultaneously a lot of people wanted to go out. So, they both collide and created an unnecessary bottleneck. It's not that there are no other doorways: they exist, but are all LOCKED! Bengong punye management.

Anyway, as a result of browsing through the hallways, I came across an Altec Lansing headset, which was priced at RM75. It was quite a steal, considering that the headset is quite high-end (further proven when I went to Low Yat yesterday: I found the same headset priced at RM185!). I managed to buy it at RM70. It was actually an impulsive decision; I already have a headset at home, but that headset is already waaaay past it's due. It's usable, but it's volume control has gone a bit haywire.

Other than that, I purchased a much-needed DVD+RW at RM7.90. I really needed that so that I can backup my data, especially those that are sooo important, such as my personal and professional files, such as my university-related stuff, resume, pictures, etc. Those, if lost, are really irreplacable. And also, I bought a printer cartridge for my gf.

What is your opinion on the PC Fair? Do you think the items on sale there are a bargain? I personally think that only some of them are worthwhile, such as the peripherals, monitors, casing, etc. But I don't think the internal CPU components are cheap, such as the RAM, hard disk, optical drives, processor, etc. I think they're quite the same as if you were buying it at Low Yat. If you know where the low-priced shops in Low Yat are, you won't need to go to the PC Fair to purchase those items.

Panjang la pulak. Lain kali sambung la. :)

First experience in a major accident!

2005-08-04T22:58:00.000+08:00

Now this is getting waaay out of hand. 2 weeks with no updates? What's happening with you Nik? Heheh... Nothing actually. I just didn't feel like updating. That's why my blog has no activities whatsoever.

But finally, I was able to get my mind to whip up something nice to write in this blog. Nice? I don't know whether it'll be nice or not. I just write whatever I want to write. Heheh.

This just past weekend, on the way back from kampung, while my dad was driving ibu, my sister and yours truly, we were involved in an accident! Alhamdulillah, nothing seriously bad happened. But something bad still happened la, that's why I said nothing seriously bad happened. The Kelisa's front part (I presume the engine block itself, included) was a total wreck. But no one in the car was injured, Alhamdulillah.

It occurred like this: my dad was "kinda" speeding down this road just beside the Bandaraya Star LRT Station (the one near Sogo), across the river. I don't know the name of that road. Anyway, while driving, we all saw a row of cars stopping up ahead, queueing up at a traffic light junction. Ayah, I presume, saw that too, but based on my experience, he likes to brake late. But even though he brake's late, his braking is often still timely (to the point where the car still stops to a halt just a few centimetres before the front car). Weirdly, this time, he didn't make it, and the car screeches for a few seconds before banging into the back of the Wira, which as a result of momentum, banged into the Accord in front of her.

What transpired after that, the circumstances of the case, how ayah wasn't able to brake even though he knew he can brake, reeks of a set-up. Partly, yes, I think it's still his fault because he should've braked waaaay earlier when he saw the car in front has stopped. But still, he said, the car should've stopped when he slammed the emergency brakes. More so when he claimed that he did try to brake earlier, but the car failed to respond. Possibly some oil slick was intentionally poured onto the road? We can just wonder... That's all we were able to do.

As far as I know, this was the worst accident we as a family have experienced. I hope we won't ever be involved in any accident after this.

As far as I am concerned, ever since I've been an active driver these past 1 and a half years, I've met with plenty of close calls! I nearly scratched another car, nearly was slammed at the side by another car at a junction - you name it, I've experienced it. Huhu... but I have yet to experience a true accident. But I hope I won't ever be involved in one. Seriously, if something were to happen, I won't know what to do, and I can easily get conned! Like I got conned that night in 1997, when a conman got away with my wallet and money and ATM card (with PIN!).

But that is another story... Ask me again, and I will relate it to you guys.

Well, there's another update for you! :)

Reunited once again!

2005-07-18T11:56:00.000+08:00

More than a week has passed since my last post. Yep, been busy with completing my industrial training report. It's been submitted last Saturday. Now comes the part where I prepare for my industrial training presentation. It starts today, with me preparing my presentation slides.

And after that presentation, no more other work. Must complete project. Must complete ASAP!

Lotsa work to do... but blogging first I must!

Yesterday was the day that my whole family is reunited again. Yup, my sister who was studying in the UK previously is now back! She has completed her studies and is now waiting for her sponsor to call her up for an interview and subsequently (most probably) for employment. And she'll be staying with us here in Malaysia from now on. Finally, someone else in the home instead of I and my parents. At least it'll be livelier than before!

Due to their sojourn at the UK, my parents brought home some gifts and souvenirs. And I got one too! They bought for me a pair of shirts: 1 collared t-shirt and 1 long sleeved light green-coloured checkered shirt. Finally, a bright-coloured shirt that I can wear. Normally all my shirts are either dull- or dark-coloured. I'm gonna be cheerier than before, hopefully. :P

About my last post? Well, that was a brief thing. After a few discussions, thing continued being well. Do not worry. I know men and women are different, and I am learning to understand them, 1 step at a time.

Till my next update, ciao!

Why la must you act like this?!!

2005-07-09T17:51:00.000+08:00

I don't understand. Help me understand! Why do girls always try and complicate matters? If you're mad or disappointed about something, just say it. If you want something, just ask. If you don't want guys to do something, just tell. But why must girls always choose the complicated path and try to say what they want to say indirectly. Why???

Most girls are like that. They expect us guys to understand what they mean from the vague phrases and sentences they say. Then, when we interpret their meaning wrongly, and acted not in the way that they expect us to, WE guys are blamed. Very frustrating!

I know, most girls act like that because they want to test their guys. If their guys are caring, understanding, and sensitive enough, he will be able to comprehend the indirect meaning of their words. Okay, but doing so will only invite conflicts in the future, due to misunderstandings! No matter how sensitive the guy is, he will not be able to catch all those indirect meanings 100%, and eventually will make mistakes, resulting in conflicts. Plus, not all guys are THAT sensitive. Most of us take words at face value: we only understand what is directly said to us, not what is behind those words that are being said. Most of us are blur people, you know...

So, my suggestion to girls is: please, just directly tell guys what you want! Don't just keep quiet or say something indirectly, and expect guys to know better. That, my dear, is just a recipe for disaster! Haih...

London bombings!

2005-07-08T03:37:00.000+08:00

I was getting ready to travel to Uniten to meet my dearie when I heard the familiar chime of an SMS message arriving in my phone's inbox. I initially thought that it was an SMS from my dearie reminding me to hurry up; instead, something unexpected was written: "There were terrorist attacks on London buses and tubes. Alhamdulillah, ayah, ibu and [my sister] semua di Turkey and [my brother] in Spain. [My sis-in-law] (who was actually in London at that moment) is safe"

In my mind, I was thinking like, wow, really? I was extremely glad they were safe. I quickly replied my relief of knowing that they were all safe.

I have read the news at BBC's and MSNBC's websites, and have now took stock at what has occured only around 12 hours ago, at around 5 pm Malaysian time. 4 bombs blew off: 3 detonating subway trains, while the remainder exploded in a London bus.

The explosions occurred during rush hour, while people were on their way to work. And the blasts, according to the maps of their locations that I've looked at, occurred near some educational institutions!

I just hope that among the casualties, none of them are Malaysians. Let us pray for the safety of our Malaysian friends and families in the UK. For now, let us not think about the reasons behind these terrorist attacks; let our hearts and minds be with our loved ones.

If you have relatives and friends in the UK, I hope they are all safe.

Let the games begin!

2005-07-04T01:40:00.000+08:00

Tonight is the last night before the start of the new semester. A semester that I envision will be a very eventful one. Apart from this being the semester where I will be striving to complete my final year project, it will also be a semester where I will have to share our family's Kancil to drive to Uniten. My mother will normally use it to drive to work, but since my sister is coming back from the UK due to her completing her studies (she's gonna start work earlier than me who's older than her by 1 year!), she'll also be using the car. 3 people sharing 1 car. I dunno how we are gonna manage that. I hope my sis will be purchasing her own car after beginning her employment.

Other than that, this is also the semester in which I and my girlfriend will start off as a couple. Yeah, we started off our relationship at the end of last semester, but this semester, we'll experience the highs and lows of going through a semester together. I envision there being more highs than lows. :)

But what will be weird is that this semester, I'm in limbo. Officially, I'm still a student, but by the looks of it, I'm not, because I'll be taking no classes. I'll only be finishing up my project. So, most of the time, I'll be at home trying to complete my thesis and project. Once in a while, I'll have to come to Uniten to present my progress to both my supervisors. So, actually I'm halfway between a student and an unemployed graduate. :P

Oh yeah, speaking about my sis, my parents yesterday have just flew to the UK for her convocation ceremony. I wish I could've joined them, but c'est la vie. I have work to do. Plus, it'll be a burden for them to support my expenses going there. After all, they have already supported my travel expenses the last time I was in UK in November 2003. The next time I fly overseas, it'll be under my own expenses, not them. Unless of course, I get a free trip due to myself winning contests! ;)

OK guys, let's sleep! And please doa that I can successfully complete my project in time! Good night!

My Final Day

2005-07-02T02:55:00.000+08:00

Today (Friday) was my final day at Technip. My industrial training period has officially ended. How was my training overall? Well, it's good, but it could've been better. I was able to perform some tasks and learn some new things about the career of design engineering, but I think if they were to allow me to perform more work and be involved in more projects, I would get more benefit from the industrial training.

And now comes the time where I'm supposed to complete my training report and logbook, to be submitted to Uniten. And 3 weeks from now, I'll have to perform my industrial training presentation. But all in all, I think I can pass the industrial training, insyaAllah.

But, as my previous post says, I'm still unsure of this final year project of mine. Will I be able to complete it in time? Is the 4 and a half months period enough? Haih...

About working, I think I will put off working until after I complete my project. After some deliberation, I think it would be in my best interests if I only concentrate on completing the project, instead of concurrently working and finishing up the project. My reason is this: if I can't even complete the project while doing industrial training, surely it'll be much worse if I were to work for real. I'll definitely have no time to complete my project, or I'll maybe feel too tired to complete my project after working hours.

But I'll keep my options open. I will apply for jobs, nevertheless, but I just hope that if they were to appoint me (Alhamdulillah...), I will be allowed to put off joining the company until after my project is completed. Especially if the job is a field engineer's job: takkan la nak pegi keje offshore or something while completing my final year project? Crazy!

By now, you must be thinking, apa la mamat ni, keje lambat sket pun nak bising ke. Well, to tell you the truth, I feel envious. And I feel macam dah rugi a lot of time. My friends that graduated from UK universities pun dah balik & mula keje. And they've started work for 1 year already. Me? I haven't even completed my studies! Now with this extended project work, hmph. Lotsa time have been wasted! And mind you, its "career time" we're talking about. If I start work late, I will have less experience. Which will equate to less opportunity to get good job offers. It's all connected, my friends. All connected...

Oh well. Let's hope for the best, and always do those 3 things that all Muslims should do whenever they strive for some target: Usaha, doa & tawakal. Sometimes, no matter how hard you work, it's just not meant to be. But at the same time, we must also always work as hard as we can to achieve our objectives. If we work hard, insyaAllah, it will come true.

OK, I'm feeling tired. Gotta sleep now. From now on, my blog will be constantly updated. Come back often! :)

The inevitable happened...

2005-06-27T12:00:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! (or rather, what's left of you guys...) What happened to all of
you? Where have all my regular readers gone? Baru je aku skip writing in my
blog a few weeks, now nobody is visiting my blog... huhu... :'( But I guess
it must've had something to do with me not visiting your blogs. Tu aaa...
I've been so busy lately, but now, the "busy-ness" meter will be cranked
down, due to the event that I am about to tell you...

Remember my project? The one about the software development thingy that
I've been writing about in almost every blog entry? Well, guess what?
(No... I didn't get an A, and no, I haven't completed it yet) I have to
extend 1 semester in order to finish it up! Huhuhu...

In a way, I've almost expected this to happen. I thought I could've
finished it during this short semester period, while concurrently
performing my industrial training. Unfortunately, things weren't as rosy as
I expected it to be. I thought I was going to be able to do my industrial
training in the mornings, and complete my project at night. Apparently I
underestimated the pressures of work life, and how taxing it would be to my
body (I feel tired almost every day after work: necessitating an early
retirement to bed). This is in addition to the time that I have to allocate
in order to help my family prepare for my brother's impromptu wedding
reception: all these contribute towards me not being able to finish up my
project in time.

However, I am not going to put the blame on those events. The blame should
be put squarely on my shoulders. I SHOULD HAVE FINISHED THE PROJECT BY
APRIL! I had months of time to complete it (since November 2004) but what
did I do? I wasted my time, not even trying to finish it up. I played
games, surfing the Net, and generally wasting time, all while thinking that
I was going to be able to finish it within 1 month ("After all," I thought
to myself, "Software development can just be done at home in front of my
PC, so sure boleh siap punye..."). Foolish me. :(

Months turned to weeks, and weeks turned to days, as my project submission
deadline inched closer. When finally it dawned upon me that I will not be
able to finish it in time, I thought to myself that I will be using my
Industrial Training period to complete my project. And we all know what
happened next.

Oh well, what's past is past la. But stil, it is a waste of time and money.
Why? Because I could've graduated earlier, and thus obtain employment
earlier, which means that I will have more work experience that will help
me in getting future jobs (which equals more money - that's why it's also a
waste of money).

As it stands, my plan from now on is this: I am going to complete my
project within this July to October 2005 semester, while hoping that YTN
will pay me the usual RM3000 per semester allowance. I hope they would, but
the prospects of that happening is quite low: after all, I'm not taking any
other subjects - I'm just continuing the project that I registered in
November 2004. If they won't pay me the allowance, I guess I'll have to ask
my parents whether they'll agree to give me a "compassionate allowance" per
month. But I think I will most likely have to search for a part-time
employment while completing this project. I feel kinda guilty of asking my
parents for money, especially when I should've completed my studies
earlier.

I hope the part-time job that I may have to apply for does not pressure me
too much, so that I can concentrate 110% in completing my project. But the
ideal case, of course, would be that YTN pays me their allowance so that I
can fully focus on the project alone and not do any other work.

I can't wait for the new semester to start. Let the games, BEGIN!

Btw, this is my last week at Technip Malaysia. Goodbye Technip, and thanks
for the memories! (or lack thereof... ;))

Procrastination, Project, Movie, Perfume, Helicopter Crash, Marriage!

2005-06-20T09:54:00.000+08:00

Hi guys...

I feel a little bit guilty not writing anything in this blog of mine for
quite a long time. Sorry! It's not that I don't want to: it's just that I
can't seem to find enough time to do it. Considering also the fact that my
final year project has yet to be completed, and I think you can guess the
predicament I'm in.

Time and time again, I've said to myself, I will not postpone my work. I've
been repeating that mantra ever since the day I started my Project I!!! But
see what ACTUALLY happened? I continued to postpone the work I had, and it
all added up to the problem I'm having now. Personally, I don't think I can
finish this project in time. I think I might even have to extend my studies
for another semester. I hope I won't, but day by day, that possibility is
slowly becoming a reality.

Oh well, what's past is past. I should not dwell too much on it. Consider
it as a lesson learned during the course of my life. Learn from this
mistake, and move on, hopefully being more matured in the process. I for
one, am almost sure that after this debacle, I'll be less of a
procrastinator than I was. Or even not procrastinate at all!

Whatever.

Anyway, what happened during the past 2 weeks? Not much. But the highlight
of those 2 weeks that came after that was my watching of the movie Mr & Mrs
Smith and Batman Begins. Both movie were great! Although the Smith movie
ended quite abruptly (I expected them to confront the main baddies after
the protagonists climactic battle), but I guess they'll be leaving that for
future sequels. Batman Begins, on the other hand, rocks! Seriously rocks.
The story is about how Batman became who he is. I liked this story because
it's much more darker and realistic. Even the Batmobile is quite realistic,
since it looks like a cross between an APC (armoured personnel carrier),
MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) and ATV (all-terrain vehicle). I hope after
this, the same producer and director, and even Batman actor (Christian
Bale) remakes the previous Batman movies with the same vein and atmosphere
as Batman Begins. Action-packed, dark, realistic, horrifying. The way
Batman should always be.

Also, after watching the movie, I went out for a stroll around Midvalley to
accompany my girlfriend and her sister searching for a present for their
dad (Father's Day - a day that I don't celebrate - was yesterday). They
finally agreed upon buying Higher by Christian Dior or something. :P I'm
not that into perfume and designer brands, but I think that was the brand
and model.

But what's great is that while going around the deparmental stores, we
chanced upon the Hugo Boss range of perfumes, and I tested (and quite
liked) 2 perfumes: Boss Soul and Boss 6. My preference leans more towards
Boss 6. Now I think I know what my next perfume purchase would be. But
buying a perfume is a no-no until my current perfume bottle is empty. I'm
not like those people who buy many types of perfume and wears a different
brand / model every day. At least not until I'm rich enough to do so. ;P

And finally, have you guys read/listened/watched the news about the
helicopter crash of Shell Sarawak (or Sabah? I forgot ;P) offshore
personnel? I think they were going to their offshore platform via
helicopter when some problems occured and their helicopter crashed. Makes
me kinda think: working offshore, as high-paying as it is, has huge risks
involved with it. Scary... But any job has their life-endangering risks
(except office-based jobs, I think). So the best thing to do is to usaha,
doa, and tawakal.

And finally, my cousin Ada (short for Adawiyah) got married yesterday, with
her husband Azizi. Congratulations to both of them! Another one of my
cousins will be getting married next weekend. My schoolmate Yasin got
married during the day of my brother's wedding reception, and another of my
schoolmate, Harris, will also be getting married this coming weekend. Wow.
Everyone my age (and even younger!) is getting married. When will it be my
turn? Even yesterday when I went to Ada's wedding, my relatives who don't
know me or my brother that much, thought that I was Bang Shah. Do I have
the look of a married guy? ;P My uncle playfully said, "Hah, dah 2 orang
ingat camtu. Masin mulut diorang, tak lama lagi la tu!" Haha!

Our first wedding reception

2005-06-07T10:23:00.000+08:00

Hello and welcome to another update on the life of Nikman Shah, one of the
greatest people in the world! (Yeah... right *sarcastic* :P). Today I will
touch on the topic of what happened during my brother's wedding reception.

Yup, as I have said before, the wedding reception was a simple one. My
family didn't plan for a grand occasion. To them, what's more important is
that both Bang Shah and Kak Fay, the pengantins (bride and bridegroom), are
introduced to all the relatives and friends; as such, we didn't have many
other things that most weddings have, such as a pelamin (a decorated dais
that both pengatins sit on to be displayed to guests), bersanding and
merenjis. We even didn't have a kompang (Malay traditional musical
instrument) group accompanying the procession of my brother and his wife
towards our house. In place of that, we used a recorded cassette tape that
has a kompang "menyambut" tune.

Hmmm... actually if we wanted to, I think I could've asked for the
assistance of my former school's students. I think I could've asked for
Sekolah Alam Shah's Kelab Kompang to do that! Heh... As far as I can
recall, when I was still in SAS, we always hoped that people would ask for
our help during wedding ceremonies. I'm sure those kids will be more than
eager to help (provided they get paid, of course. ;)) Why didn't I think of
that... Well, I'll just leave that for my sisters' weddings, I guess.

Speaking of traditions during Malay wedding ceremonies, I would like to ask
you guys about them. What are your opinions about those bersanding and
merenjis traditions eh? In my opinion, they are a waste of time. Rather
than sit on that pelamin and face the crowd and get 'renjis'ed upon with
air mawar and beras on their hands, both pengantins are better off walking
around the wedding grounds meeting guests, letting the guests get to know
both pengantins and chatting with them. And as far as I know, the merenjis
tradition is actually not allowed in Islam. Is this true? How about if both
pengantins just bersanding (i.e. sit on the pelamin only) without any
merenjis ceremony (i.e. just for the purpose of taking pictures). Is this
allowed? Can anyone please clarify me on this?

During my wedding, I am going to make sure that it adhere's strictly to
Islamic principles. And I'm glad that my parents also don't seem to mind
that our ceremonies in the future be simple yet sweet. :) My wedding
ceremony I can control, but my future bride's ceremony... I hope they will
also follow Islamic principles in their ceremony. If they do,
alhamdulillah. If they don't, then I'll try to slowly guide them,
insyaAllah... To me, this is extremely important. After all, this ceremony
is the first thing that a husband and his wife do as a married couple. If
even in this early stage of their marriage they don't follow Islamic
teachings and principles, how can they expect to receive berkat from Allah
for their future undertakings as a married couple?

One thing I'm surprised and pleased to see is the assistance my cousins
give in the undertaking of this reception. They came to my house the night
before the wedding to lend a hand in any last minute preparations. On the
reception day itself, they helped escort both pengantins to our house, help
give out souvenirs to guests, and performed many other tasks. And they even
feel jovial about it. Wow... taking into account the fact that I rarely go
to my uncles' or aunts' house during their wedding preparations and
execution, it makes their assistance for our wedding all the more
surprising! I am going to make sure that for their weddings, I try and lend
a hand. No matter how little my assistance is, I will make sure that I'm
there for them also!

As a recap, here's what happened on that day. The reception officially
starts at 12 noon (but some guests arrived early). We entertained our
guests, served them food catered by my mother's friend (nasi beriyani, I
think). I was supposed to be among the penyambut tetamu, but since I don't
know most of those guests, I just sat around quietly, giving assistance if
anyone needs it. Then at around 2 pm, my brother and his wife arrived with
her family members, ushered to the main dining table for lunch, accompanied
with a kompang tune from a cassette tape (modern maaa... ;)). Before they
started lunch, I read them a doa I compiled from what Id, my sister who's
currently studying in Warwick, UK, gave and from some other sources. Some
of the guests are surprised and pleased that I as the brother read the doa
myself. I guess, normally during other weddings, ustaz from a nearby surau
or mosque do that. It's good that we created something diffrent. :) Next,
N, our youngest sister, read a speech she created for both pengantins.
Then, both of them went inside the house and cut their wedding cake, and
took some wedding pictures. Then they went around the house, meeting guests
and chatted with them. That was what happened, in a nutshell. All in all,
our family was quite satisfied with what happened during the wedding.
Considering the fact we prepared for this in only 2 months' time (other
people normally prepare at least 6 months before!), it makes our success
all the more sweeter. :)

I think that's all for now. This post has become too long. I'll continue
next time. Adios!

Week 8 (that means 4 weeks to go!)

2005-06-02T10:13:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! Well, I think it's been nearly 2 weeks since I last put up a post
here in my blog. Well, at least I write something new around once a week,
rather than leave this blog unattended for months.

The reason why I rarely blog nowadays is that I don't have time. Every day
I go to work, while each night I help out in preparing my house for the
wedding reception my parents are holding for my brother who, by the way,
have been happily married for 1 and a half years already; the reason they
host this reception late is because they work overseas (in the UK) and
don't have much free time to come back for an extended holiday and host
this reception.

But anyway, due to some unforseen circumstances, they're now home and our
family are frantically preparing the house for the reception. And I have to
chip in, too. Plus there's also the fact that I don't have much to blog
about. Well, most of my time is spent at the office, which is a very boring
place. Even though I meet people, they have lots of work to do. So most of
the time, I'm left alone.

Have you guys watched Madagascar? I've watched it, and I think it's okay.
Based on the hype I heard about the movie, I thought it will be one heck of
a crazy, funny movie. But, well it actually isn't that at all. Well, I'm
not saying that the jokes fell flat, but it's just not extremely funny
enough, I guess. Or maybe I've lost my sense of humour. Oh well, who
knows...

Today also marks the birthday of my girlfriend. Happy birthday dearie!
Well, it's pointless writing that actually, since she doesn't read my blog.
Regardless, I still want to wish her a happy birthday and hope that she
succeeds in her future undertakings, insyaAllah. For her birthday, I've
done something that I've never done to anyone else before. =) I'm committed
to her, and I'm sure I will remain in love with her for the rest of our
lives, insyaAllah... doa for us my friends... =)

Speaking about relationships, what do you guys think about marriage? When
you start a romantic relationship, of course you would be targeting to
further advance that relationship to a marriage relationship, right? Or am
I wrong? If I'm right, how long would you guys wait until asking for
his/her hand in marriage? What qualities would you guys look in your future
spouse?

From my point of view, I will try to look for these 3 things in my future
spouse (FYI, my girlfriend has them all, alhamdulillah). One (and the most
important quality): she should have a nice personality. She does not have
to be an extremely good person, or very alim, and so on. If she is like
that, well and good. But if she's not, as long as her basic personality is
nice, its good enough for me. I as her husband would help guide her along
the righteous path, insyaAllah...

Two: she should be able to show her love and appreciation for me. She
doesn't have to be a crazy lovey dovey woman that always expresses her love
for me. If she does, I'm still fine (and happy!) by it. But as long as I
can detect that she loves me, appreciates the affection I give to her, and
cares for me, I'll be extremely happy. :)

And three: she should be easy on MY eyes. Notice the emphasis on "MY". My
spouse does not have to be the most beautiful woman in the world; as long
as I feel happy looking at her, it's enough. After all, beauty is
subjective: I might think a person is good looking, but other people might
think differently, and vice versa.

But don't get me wrong. Beauty is waaaaaaay down at the bottom of my list,
because I know beauty is just skin deep. Yup, it's just the cover of a book
that might be damaged as time goes on. What's more important is the
CONTENTS of the book, which will remain the same no matter how old or how
damaged the book is.

I know there are other qualities that people look out for (especially when
it concerns women looking for suitable men for marriage), such as maturity,
material wealth, keturunan, and so on, but in MY OPINION, I think those
things are peripherals. They're not as important to me as the three main
qualities I stated before.

As for how long before proposing to someone? To ME (and based on my
experience, too), it should be as soon as possible. In my case, as long as
I generally know enough about my girlfriend to know that she's the right
one for me, I'll want to ask her hand in marriage. After all, it's not good
to remain in a romantic relationship without marrying that person for far
too long. Unfortunately, a few other things need also be taken into
consideration, such as the financial capability to support a family, and so
on. But in my case, I'm really looking at trying to marry her as soon as is
possible. :)

Okay, now, don't go and FLAME me for my comments above, coz they are just
PERSONAL OPINIONS of mine. I'm not at all asking you to agree with them
100%. What I hope you guys would do is just give some opinions on the
matter at hand, comments about what I said, and answer the rhetorical
questions I gave in paragraph 6 previously. I almost definitely would love
to obtain the opinions of people who have already married, such as Kak An.
What is your take on this, Kak An?

Hmm... I think that's enough for now. This post should last for 1 week. In
my next post, I'll recap what happened during my brother's wedding
reception. Till then, goodbye!

Week 7 (That's another 5 weeks to go!)

2005-05-24T10:22:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! Today marks the start of week 7 of my industrial training. Well,
technically, yesterday was the start of week 7, but since yesterday was a
public holiday, thus I consider today as the beginning of week 7. :)

About my last post... Well, thank you dear readers! I appreciate all the
help I got, and will get in the near future. That's what I like about
blogging: you can ask for assistance from your fellow readers, and almost
surely your fellow bloggers will chip in to help. Thanks guys! Anyway, the
problem was not that big enough of a deal, actually. I wasn't put into any
situation where I was forced to choose between a friend or my girlfriend.
Maybe I just made a huge deal out of a small thing like that. I would not
like to elaborate too much on it; suffice to say that when we start a new
relationship, we should, as much as possible, balance the time we have with
every single person that we hold dear. That includes girlfriend, friends,
and family. And we should most definitely plan early and tell every single
person of our plans as early as possible. That is to avoid delays,
disappointments, frustrations, and heartbreaks. I will surely keep that in
mind in my future dealings with this subject.

Anyway, what have I been doing? Not much. I've performed a true techical
bid tabulation (TBT) for a bidder of an equipment that Technip's designing
for a client, and this TBT will be used as a deliverable for Technip to
present to their client. Wow, some true work, I might say. But it's just a
small bit part of the documents. But still, I got to put my name at the end
of the document: "Prepared by Nornikman". Woohoo! At least I've left my
mark here in Technip. ;)

Apart from that, ermmm... nothing much. Really, I haven't much things to do
here. Other than the usual ones, of course. Such as e-mailing my
girlfriend, blogging, and so on. ;) But at least today, a new employee will
be joining my department here in Technip. Now I can see somebody else other
than me daydreaming his days off. ;) Nahhh... not really. Well, the first
day, he'll surely daydream and feel boring but come tomorrow, I'm sure
he'll start to have many busy jobs to do. I'll observe him, how he starts
his work. So that IF one day I join Technip, at least I'll know what to
expect!

Watched Star Wars Episode III anyone? How do you find it? To me, it was
good. Much, much better than episodes I and II. And I particularly liked
the fact that in the end Anakin turned to the dark side and became Darth
Vader. Finally, a movie that shows the bad guys winning in the end! See,
not all movies have to have a happy ending after all. But one thing I don't
like is how easy it was for Anakin to suddenly turn to the dark side... He
just killed a Jedi, cried, felt regret, then suddenly chose the Emperor as
his Sith Lord. All in the blink of an eye. Too easy for a decision that's
life-changing, if you ask me.

Also this past weekend, I got to watch the season 4 finale of Smallville.
Yeah, that's 1 finale I most definitely like! Leaves us with lots of
unanswered questions. Such as who's black spaceship did Lana find? Why
Clark ended up in a snow-filled mountain? Will Clark be able to learn how
to fly (I think he will; if not, how will he be able to escape that
mountain?)? Many questions still linger... Oh well, I guess we'll just have
to wait till next fall to know the answers...

FA Cup... Who won? Arsenal!!! Hahaha... Best2... Man U lost. And they now
have a completely losing season. Yeah! And what's worse (or great, if you
asked me! Hahaha), they will have a new owner, Malcolm Glazer, who'll bring
huge debts to the club. Memang terbaik lah! I don't know what'll happen now
to Man United. But one thing's for sure, they'll no longer be the dominant
force they once were. Heheee...

Hmmm... it's too long now. I think I'll stop. I'll continue blogging later.
Bubye!

The Balance

2005-05-16T15:41:00.000+08:00

Friends or girlfriend/boyfriend? Which is your pick, when given a choice
between the two? Is it possible to have the best of both worlds, i.e.
maintain a close relationship with your friends while simultaneously
maintain a serious and caring relationship with your significant other? Is
it possible to please both parties?

Anyone with experience or opinions on this, please, do chip in and give
comments. Thanks!

A bit more work

2005-05-11T16:55:00.000+08:00

(Forgive me if this is another copy of the same post: I'm reposting this
because last night when I checked my blog, it hasn't yet been updated with
this entry)

Muahahaha! At this particular moment, it is 3:57 p.m. I feel a bit pumped
up (due to the Nescafe I just drank), but I don't feel like wanting to do
my office assignment. Nope. I feel like wanting to waste my time while
counting away the remaining hours till "balik time"! Hehehe... So that's
why I'm writing this post.

After my rush back home, I plan to bring my youngest sister around the
neighbourhood, again, to let her practice her driving. She has her driving
test this Thursday, and personally, based on the one time I accompanied her
driving this past Sunday, I think she won't pass this test the first time.
The culprit is her nervousness. There's this one time where she's supposed
to brake at a junction. I expected her to brake early, but she likes to
brake late - therefore I slowly told her to brake. I think she panicked and
instead of pressing the brake pedal, she stepped on the accelerator pedal!
So, instead of us stopping at the junction, we shot straight out of the
junction. Woooh... My heart really sank for a moment there. Alhamdulillah
there weren't any cars coming towards the junction. Imagine if there were.
Gile ah...

There are some things about her driving that she needs to change in order
for her to be able to beat har nervousness. One, her hands' positions on
the steering wheel, while steering the car through a corner, need to be
modified. Her feet's position on the gas pedal, and the way she releases
the clutch, needs to be improved. And some other things.

But generally, when compared with my own performance when I was preparing
for my driving test: I'm sure I was better than her! And I didn't even have
somebody in the family to personally coach me. My older brother and my
younger sister both were coached by my parents (particularly my father). As
for me, I drove around, practiced, all on my own. Oh my dear sister, I do
hope u pass. But as things stand, I don't think you will. But that's just
me. Who knows, when the time comes, she'll be very confident and can really
drive well.

However, I am not in the position to brag about this, because I am also the
one who remained nervous in driving a car for around 3 years after
obtaining my driving license in 2001 (purportedly because I was afraid of
wrecking the car which isn't mine: but I know it's not due to that). If not
for the fact that I was envious of my younger sister being able to drive
confidently virtually anywhere (even her old school in Labu), and was
forced to drive to Uniten last year to submit my semester results: surely I
won't even be driving to work now!

Now, everything's ok. I think I'm confident enough to drive anywhere, even
as far as Perlis! ;) But I'm so bad at car maintenance: if my car were ever
to breakdown, I don't think I can repair it myself. It's been some time
since I last accompanied my younger sister and older brother driving, but I
think as things stand, I am at least as good as, if not better than my
younger sister. My brother? Tu takleh lawan la... he's had more experience
than all of us: surely his driving skills are much better than all of us.

What did I do at work today? Not much, but it really took a lot of my time.
I finished up a spreadsheet that I was supposed to create that can
automatically calculate the maximum allowable nozzle loads when that nozzle
is connected to a shell of a pressure vessel. I haven't even started
performing the technical bid evaluation of a quotation my supervisor gave
me last week. It's ok. I'll take my time... ;)

Last but not least - here's a very happy birthday wish to my brother Shah!
:)

I Wonder...

2005-05-05T10:22:00.000+08:00

Hi guys. This must be the fastest time I ever took to post a new entry
after posting one less than a day ago. I'm not sure whether it'a boon or
bane for you people reading my blog. Sure banyak nak baca kan? ;) Hmmm... I
guess you'll just have to live with it, eh? After all, this is my blog and
I'm entitled to write it whenever I please. Especially during times of
extreme boredom like now. ;)

Well, in actual fact, now's not that boring compared to yesterday. Today
seems to start fine (apart from waking up late: 6:40 a.m., to be precise).
I went out of home at 7:30 a.m., expecting a traffic jam due to road
closures for the NAM summit in Putrajaya today. Alhamdulillah, none of the
roads I usually take to reach the office is closed, ensuring a smooth
drive. It is not that smooth actually, since at certain 'usual' parts of my
route, I will always encounter traffic jam, such as at Jalan Tun Razak. But
still, I was able to arrive at 8 a.m.. Approximately 30 minutes of driving
time from home to office is always a sign of good traffic!

Upon reaching the office, Ernest, my so-called "co-supervisor" assigned me
something to do. I'm supposed to write a spreadsheet based on formulas
given in a handbook that I borrowed from one of my officemates. It is a
petty job, when compared to the stuff all the technical staffs here
normally perform, but hey, I'm not complaining. Doing something is always
better than doing nothing at all, no matter how small the assignment is.

*But I'm still writing this blog entry. Heh... Work can wait... this can't!
;)*

And just now, Miss Lee, one of the engineers in this office, offered to
assist me in understanding how to use the PVElite software (used to help
design pressure vessels). Alhamdulillah again... now at least I know I can
do something else when I'm bored. Other than write a blog entry, of course.
;)

Ahhh yes... Last night I successfully installed the wireless router and
wireless adapters (all of the 802.11 g kind) for my home. And I've finally
secured the connection, so that no one outside our home can snoop our data,
and piggyback on our Internet connection. The wireless security feature is
very important because upon connecting my father's laptop to our wireless
router, I can see that other wireless connections (most probably from other
houses) are available to be connected to, with no security features
installed whatsoever. Are these people crazy? Fortunately their connections
are weak from our house (less than 40% signal strength) and our house
already has Internet connection. If our house has no Internet connection,
we can just easily get free connection using these people's networks!

But don't bother coming to our house and trying to connect to the Internet
from there, coz I already installed the security feature WPA-SK, so that no
unauthorised people can steal our Internet connection. =) But to
knowledgeable people out there, I want to ask: what's the difference
between WEP and WPA-SK? This WEP and WPA-SK is the authentication and
encryption (securtiy) features available to be used on our wireless
network. However, which one's the best? Which one has the most performance
impact on the speed of our connection?

And now, we go to the reason for my post's title. Last night I chatted a
bit with my friend, and the friend told me his/her job responsibility. It
seems that TNB (at least the division that he/she is working in) starts you
off, upon completion of PEP, at quite a high post. But, as I have posted
previously, their starting salary upon completion of PEP is RM2300. Reading
what his/her job responsibilities and the type of work they have to do, I
can't stop thinking that that RM2300 is too low! At least here in Technip,
even though they kinda work you as much as possible (an online friend says
it best: perah macam tebu!), at least they pay you accordingly, RM2400 with
overtime , bonus, project claims, etc. possiblities. At TNB, they give you
possibly comparable amount of work, but they expect you to be satisfied
with that meager sum of salary. So, I thought to myself, "What?!!"

When I highlight this to that friend of mine, he/she said that I'm
materialistic; say that money is not everything, knowledge and experience
is more important; don't be greedy, and all the phrases you would expect
from these people when you tell them that their salary is incomparable with
the amount of work they give you. To that I personally say, you're wrong.
If you were to say these things years and years ago, maybe it was true. But
now, the fact is, we're living in a materialistic world. Almost everything
in this world requires money, especially in a capitalism type of economy
like ours. Thus, I would like to get as much of it as I can in order to
secure a bright future for my family, and for Islam, in general. Imagine if
we all have money just enough to survive in this world. Less monetary
assistance could then be given to our Muslim brothers and sisters in this
world. That's why money is important to me.

Yes, I do agree that knowledge and experience are all important stuff that
we should get a lot of, but if my company expects me to do lots of work, I
at the same time expect them to pay me salary comparable to the amount of
work I do! It's sort of like doing work for them for free! To me, that's
just unfair. In this case, I might as well just work for charity. :P

Of course, these are just my opinions. Just like most of the things in
life, comparability between amount of work and salary paid is not a
black-and-white matter. It's more or less a grey area. It's based on
personal preference. Some people might feel that RM2300 for lots of work is
considerate. Others, like me, feel differently.

What are your takes on this matter?

Sorry for another long post... I was just trying to kill time, yet again.
;)

Wahhh... Why so bosan one?!!

2005-05-03T16:50:00.000+08:00

At this very moment in the office, I really don't know what to do. I've
completed all the assignments that my supervisor gave me before, and he
expects me to ask a senior engineer here for more tasks to perform. Well, I
may do that later, but now, I feel like I want to type a new entry on my
dear blog first.

Today is a very boring day for me. Hmm, the first half of the day, before
lunch, was quite okay because I intentionally busied myself by sorting out
my logbook. I made sure that every attachment is in order, and photocopied
everything that I need to include in the logbook.

But as lunch time came, the day became sooo boring. At lunch, as usual, in
order to save my money (for more important purchases - like "someone's"
birthday... ;)), I brought and ate a pre-packed bihun goreng from home.
Heh... It saves at least RM 3 of my money per day, and considering the fact
that I still have another 43 working days to go; that means savings of
around RM129! Wow! Drinks I definitely no longer buy, since I now bring a
water bottle to the office, where I can refill it with mineral water every
time it's empty. After eating lunch, I read my back-logged PC Gamer
magazine, March issue (brought in anticipation of another boring day at the
office, of course).

But after lunch hour the boredom truly sets in. I felt sooo sleepy, and
restless. If only they allow staffs to sleep - I'll definitely snap up that
offer. But now, as far as company policies go, I can't. Luckily I
remembered that I can post to my blog. Thus, this is the reason why I post
today. Coz I'm bored, and I want to kill time. So, sorry if I seem to
ramble about, talking much about nothing. ;)

Hmmm... have any of you guys ever gone for internship, work experience, or
industrial training at an engineering design or consultancy company? Can
you guys pleeeeeeeease post some tips for me as to how I can fully utilise
the time I have here at Technip as efficiently as possible? Bear in mind
that my internship with Technip doesn't have any specific programme that
they adhere to. It's sort of like an open-ended one, where I'm supposed to
manage doing everything on my own. Well, I don't mind if they were to give
me work - tons of work, I don't care! As long as they give me something to
do, I'll be satisfied. A little bit of work is always much, much better
than no work at all. So, what do you guys feel I should do? I want to try
asking them for some work, but it seems they're so busy with their own
work, I feel guilty of bothering them. :P

Enough about work. What happened these past few days?

On Sunday, I went to my girlfriend's friend's brother's (understand?)
wedding. That was quite a boring event (in my case, of course) since I was
quiet most of the time. I don't know what to say to the people attending
the wedding, since I don't know who they are, and am currently not friends
with them. But at least now they know who I am. That's good enough for now.
:)

Then, after the wedding, I sprinted towards KLIA to join my family in
welcoming my brother and sis-in-law back to Malaysia. The last time they
were here, it was in 2003, if I'm not mistaken. So it's sort of like a huge
deal that they're back.

Actually, it is a huge deal, since they will be having their wedding
reception on the 5th of June, 2005. A reception that we as a family, are
trying to prepare as soon as possible. So you can imagine how busy we are
these coming few weeks. Taking into accont the fact that they told my
parents they were coming back in such short notice (only last month they
told my parents they're going back), you can just guess how hectic our
preparations are! Around 6 weeks to prepare everything... crazy!

So the story goes that yesterday, on Labour Day holiday, I, my brother, my
sis-in-law and her sister went to Wisma Yakin in Jalan Masjid India to
firstly order a tailor-made Baju Melayu to be used during the wedding
reception. RM220 per baju. Wow! No way will I ever tempah a new baju
melayu, until at least this new one becomes spoiled.

After that, we went to Semua House to search for my bro and his wife's
wedding reception attire. They will just rent it for the day, and not buy
it, since they are frugal enough to want to save their money and not buy
something they feel they won't use after this. To my readers who are
married: do you guys purchase your wedding attire or do you guys just rent,
like my brother does? What's your opinion, Kak An?

Next, we went to Times Square for a short while since all of them, except
me, haven't gone there yet. They saw the roller-coaster inside Times
Square, and my brother and sis-in-law were quite intrigued to ride it.
However, I and my sis-in-law's sis felt a bit "scared" to ride it, thus
cancelling their plans of trying the roller-coaster out. ;)

After that we went to Low Yat Plaza and completed what we originally
planned to do: buy a wireless router, and wireless adapter for both my
desktop at home and ayah's laptop. We had to do this coz my father plans to
put my PC upstairs in my room, while simultaneously not wanting the network
cable to get cluttered on it's way up. Therefore, the only way to achieve
this is to buy a wireless router and create a wireless network.

I can't wait to successfully setup this wireless network. I hope it meets
no stumbling block. Then, I can relax and sit in my room, turning on the
sound oh-so-loudly, and, most importantly, I can lie down on my bed and
Skype with my girlfriend. Total bliss...

OK, I guess this post is already too long, and I don't want to irritate my
readers. Sorry for this extremely long post guys. ;)

Yet another day at the office...

2005-04-28T09:05:00.000+08:00

Hi guys! Today is the earliest I've ever arrived at this office. 8.05 a.m.!
Yeah... Now I can go back at 5.05 p.m. today. Great! Normally I would
arrive at around 8.10 or 8.15 a.m. Yeah, you might think, "What's the big
deal with you, only 5-10 minutes difference maaa... Not a problem." Nope.
It's definitely a problem, since Wisma Technip is in KL, and you know what
that means. Traffic jam. Even going out of the office 5 minutes late can
spell trouble. Well, it's actually a bit unpredictable la this KL traffic.
Last week, I once went back at around 5.07 p.m., and it still took me
slightly less than an hour to arrive home. On other days, I can sometimes
go back at around 5.15 p.m. and still arrive at around 6 p.m. There's KL
traffic for you. Totally unpredictable.

If you want to be able to survive life in KL amidst these traffic jams, you
should master the art of mencelah2 and cut queues. Muahahaha... Luckily I
drive a Kancil to work. Hey, got to survive maaa... At least the way I cut
queues is not via the emergency lanes. I rarely drive in the emergency
lanes, except at this one area near the Motorala interchange at the Federal
Highway where it's always jammed and most of the vehicles that cause this
jam want to go towards Subang, thus blocking off people like me who
actually just want to take the nearest exit there that goes towards Jalan
222. ONLY THERE will I use the emergency lane. If not, it'll take me at
least 10 minutes just to clear a distance of around 300 m. Very
frustrating!

Today my cubiclemate "teacher", A, is on leave, since he wants to have some
time to submit his income tax form. Income taxes, salaries, zakat... the
domain of working individuals. I'll be a member of this group very shortly.
Huhu... time really flies... Anyway, I call A teacher because he's the only
one in this office who really helps me out when I don't know what to do. I
must say that he've teached me a lot. My supervisor? Well, he's busy with
his work. After all, he's the section manager, so he doesn't have time to
really supervise what I do, apart from checking the assignments and reports
that I submit to him weekly. I'm really very grateful to A for wanting to
teach me the way they do work in this office.

Yesterday, my friend Ikrom, who was on training with TNB Distribution (the
PEP programme) previously, have just learned where his real job posting is.
He's been instructed by TNB HQ to work in Temerloh, but his hometown is in
Johor! Ugh... scary. This is another reason why I feel malas to join TNB.
They can just sesuka hati post us to anywhere they feel fit. The way they
choose, it looks like very random. Some of my friends, they got posted near
their hometowns, while others got posted quite far away. And it's not that
gender-biased pun. Most of the time, yes, women TNB staff normally get
posted near their hometowns, but I also learned that there are some of my
male friends who got posted near their hometowns too.

If I were to work here at Technip, I can almost surely say that I will be
working here in Wisma Technip, in KL. Yeah, I must brave the traffic jams
daily, but at least I'm near to my home. I can just stay at home, save up
on a lot of daily expenses (so that I can use that money to kawin!
muahahaha... ;)), and generally still be quite happy. Well, here's hoping I
do get to work near KL.

Guys, I would like to ask your opinions about something. My situation is
now like this: I'm currently doing industrial training at Technip (haven't
graduated) while at the same time trying to complete my final year project,
before my convocation which will be sometime in September. Do you guys
think I should start applying fo jobs now, or should I wait until I have
completed my internship and final year project? The dilemma is that I'm
scared that these guys at this office would think that I'm unloyal, and
thus lessening my chances of joining Technip. On the other hand, my final
year project haven't been fully completed yet, so I'm afraid that I won't
know what to answer about it, since I haven't finished it yet. So how?

Another Day at the Office

2005-04-26T09:57:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone! I've just realised that we can post blogs at Blogspot by using
emails! Heheh... You see, Technip doesn't allow its staffs to use the
Internet in the office, except for certain people who really must use the
Internet for work purposes. Thus, it disallows me to blog from the office.
Blogging from the office saves me time, helps you guys to be able to keep
yourselves up-to-date with my activities, while at the same time helps me
kill time when I'm sooo bored! ;)

I'm not sure whether this "blogging from the email" will work as expected,
but I'm just hoping it would...

Okay, to start things off, what happened since my last post? Well, nothing
much. I went out to OU with my girlfriend and we watched The Jacket (which
was not as good a movie as I expected). I think it would've been better if
we watched Guess Who. I guess, that's for a next time...

Then, on Sunday, my father and I cleaned up my room. Well, it's not THAT
untidy to begin with, but we need it to be spick and span in order to make
it as homely as possible for my brother and sister-in-law to live in for
the next 1 month or so. FYI, they're coming back from the UK this Sunday
due to some unforseen circumstances (something about their VISA or so). And
consequently, my parents are going to hold a wedding reception for the both
of them, since they didn't have a chance to do that when my brother and
sis-in-law got married (they married in the UK, that's why). I'm not sure
whether I can invite my friends over. I'll ask them first. If they do allow
it, I'll post an invite here. Coz I'm not sure yet whether they intend to
make this reception a simple, family affair thingy or a grand one. But by
the looks of it, it sure seems like being something grand. Well, not as
grand as if they were holding a wedding reception just after a marriage. I
guess, that'll be my turn later. :P

But preparations for this wedding reception sure is hectic! We had to rush
ourselves because my brother notified of his intentions to come back to
Malaysia just a few weeks ago! What's worse is that he cannot stay too long
in Malaysia. He must go back to the UK (due to work obligations) in June.
Only about a month or so of preparations. Mana tak hectic!

While tidying up my room on Sunday, I realised that the whole room was damn
dusty! I coughed and sneezed and watery-eyed my way through it all and
helped put away many things that I think my brother will not use anymore. I
hope after this, the room will be a whole lot tidier and cleaner than
before.

Hmmm... I guess that's just it for now. I really should go and continue
doing the assignments my supervisor gave me. And along the way learn more
new things.

Well, see you guys soon then! And thanks for continuing to be an avid
reader of my blog! :)

Welcome back!

2005-04-21T11:41:00.000+08:00

Hello hello! I'm baaaaaaack! Yup, I know, my last post was like 2 weeks ago. You might wonder, "Where have I been?" Well, a lot has happened in the last 2 weeks, but the most important factor that kept me away from blogging is that I was busy with my internship.

Hmmm... it wasn't that I was really, really busy. I can actually just blog when I get home from the office, but the 'work' I had at the office really tires me and once I get home, I'll be so exhausted and have no mood to blog.

Notice I said 'work'. For those not in the know, I've started my internship program at Technip Malaysia last week (11th April, to be exact). I know, most of you guys would be a bit blur as in what company this Technip is. When I first applied for this company last semester, I thought it was some small engineering firm. I thought wrong.

Technip, FYI, is a huge EPC (egineering, procurement and construction) company headquartered in France. It's mainly involved in the oil & gas industry. Speaking of oil & gas, as do me, you might only think of companies like Shell, Petronas, Exxonmobil, and so on. We thought wrong, you know. Those companies are the main players in the oil & gas industry, but for them to take care of everything related to oil & gas, including building offshore drilling platforms, petrochemical plants, and so on; it would be a huge strain in their resources to manage all these constructions. Thus, they sub-contract these construction activities to other companies such as Schlumberger, Technip, and so on. FYI, Technip is the 3rd largest EPC company in the world.

Enough about Technip. What work I'm doing there now? Well, I'm placed in their mechanical department, and it's a boring job. For now, since I don't know anything, I'm supposed to observe how the other engineers in my department do their work. My supervisor does give me some assignment to work on which is related to what they are working on in the department, but it's generally a boring job. It's really purely design work. Totally academic. The work I'm doing is closely related to the Mechanics of Materials, Materials Lab, Engineering Materials, Mechanical Design and Engineering Graphics subjects I did during my years at Uniten, such as the determination of stresses, thickness of certain parts of the product I'm designing, analysing drawings (which are waaaaaaaay more complicated than the technical drawings I learned at Uniten) and so on.

But yeah, as I said, for now, my job is to just study, study and study how they do their work. I have some data sheets that they provide for me to calculate certain properties of their products, but that's just about it. What's for sure, there'll definitely be no hands-on work to be done, i.e. no going offshore, visiting factories, or anything like that.

Well, that's just about it lah actually. Every day since 11th April, itu je la yang aku buat. Then, when I get home, although it might feel that I did nothing much at work, I'll feel so tired and then I'll fall asleep at around 12. Hmmm... Patut la orang kata bila dah keje ni, macam takde life. Now I'm joining one of those work zombies.

Ahhh... It doesn't matter. As long as the pay is good. ;) Did I say to you guys that I get paid an allowance of RM500 per month? Hehehe... and Technip's salary for it's staff (at least engineers) is RM2400 for fresh recruits and RM2700 when you've been confirmed (the usual 6 months period lah). And they can claim overtime, at the rate of salary per hour (divide your salary by the amount of normal hours work per month). And what's more, if your basic salary is less than RM3000, your overtime rate will be multiplied by 1.5. And they have no working Saturdays.

Compare that with TNB. Their starting salary is RM1900 and after being confirmed, they get RM2300 per month. No overtimes. Work every Saturday (except 1st and 3rd, of course). But TNB has other incentives, like easier to get low interest house, car and computer loans, and so on. But still, just like how my cubiclemate said, the difference in interest rates and loans that I can get, I can cover that up with the larger amount of salary I get per month.

Wow... these incentives just make me want to try and secure a job at Technip. I don't think I can, but I'll try my best. But to do that, I must perform extremely well in my internship, in order to make me attractive to my prospective employers. Wish me luck!

But seriously, those engineers really know what they're doing! When I'm at the office, I feel so kagum watching them work, talking about stress, pressure, thickness, materials, bending moments, welding, fillet radius, mm here mm there, drawings... wow. It's like they know mechanical engineering by heart. I hope I can be like them.

One more step, baby!

2005-04-06T21:56:00.000+08:00

I am currently just one step away from graduation. Why one step, even though I have finished all my final exam papers? My final year project, of course. Procrastination has always (and somehow I get the feeling, will always be) been my worst enemy. I had 18 weeks of this semester to finish it up, but what did I do? I waited and waited and waited till the end of the semester, baru la nak fully complete it.

Well, what's past is past, can't be undone. The best I can get from the experience I had is to just learn from it, and hopefully not make the same mistake in the future, ever. At least, I have a chance to complete this project during the short semester (which will begin next week), while concurrently doing my industrial training. Yep, I know it'll be damn busy then, since for sure my training's supervisor will assign me some work to be done. I hope I can delegate enough time for both assignments (final year project and work assignments) so that I can satisfy both my training and final year project supervisors' requirements.

Speaking about industrial training, have you guys heard of a company called Technip Geoproduction? I'm going for my internship there. I think it's an oil and gas company. Involved in all those drilling thingy like Schlumberger, I suppose. But my post will be to get involved in the design department, which is located at it's main office in KL. Of that I feel grateful, since I can then easily come to Uniten whenever I feel I need to see my final year project supervisor.

What's greater still, is that Technip's HR Executive said to me during one of my phone conversations with her that I might be able to join the company, if I perform well during my internship. Yep, I plan to perform extremely well, form close bonds with most of my colleagues during my internship programme, and hopefully can score that employment opportunity. However, I hope they offer extremely well salaries and job perks, since I think I may have to compare and contrast that post with other job opportunities from other companies, particularly TNB, my sponsor.

So, anybody know anything about the job prospects there, its salaries, perks, work environment, etc, as related to a mechanical engineer? Fill me up on those information, OK. I need all the help I can get.

Enough about that. How did my final paper go? Power Generation exam was great! It must've been one of the most relaxing and confident papers I've ever taken. All along the exam period, I confidently and relaxingly answered all the exam questions, and even had spare time to check my answers for any errors. I rarely feel like this during exams. Most of the time, I won't have time to complete all the questions, and would rush through the exam without having time to check my answers.

I think I have the best chance to get an A in this subject. The remaining 3? Control Systems, I envision a B-. Engineering Graphics? A B. Final year project II? A B+, at best. Yep, there goes my quest for graduating with a 3.50 CGPA. Well, that's that then. At least I will be graduating, insyaAllah, with at least a 3.40 CGPA, which is in itself a great achievement. Alhamdulillah...

But for now, I still have a fair bit of work to be done. My Engineering Graphics' Pro E project, which is due by the end of this week. It looks like I'll be staying up late tonight to complete it. of course, while watching Chelsea vs Bayern Munich. ;)

And I'm hungry! Let's go out and dine guys!

The final step...

2005-04-03T09:24:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow my final exam period concludes with my Power Generation exam. Finally, would be free! Free of exams, at last! I really can't wait to finish up my studies and finally go on to work, something that friends my age have at least done for the past 1 year.

When I first entered Uniten as a late entrant in November 2001, I thought to myself how long it seems to wait for at least 3 and a half years to graduate. Well, in actual fact, I don't feel that long. In fact, I felt that my 2 years at KMYS were way much longer than the time I took to study here. I guess it's due to the fact that I don't have much memorable experiences here in Uniten compared to the time I had in KMYS. Yep, you heard that right. Nearly zero amount of memorable experiences. I think I can count on one hand how many truly close friends that I acquired in these 3 and a half years of my Uniten life. Compare that to the many wonderful friends that I had in KMYS. Heh.

However, I'm not saying that I devalue the time I had in Uniten. I did have some memorable experiences here. For instance, these past 2 and a half weeks have been VERY memorable to me. I've went to new places (I visited The Curve, and it was an interesting place! Feel very likely to visit there again), dined at new outlets (btw, I saw Starbucks now having the Halal logo; now I feel more confident of going there), and generally had a wonderful time! I feel so happy and blissful... I think you guys know what I mean here, right? ;)

Enough about that. That is a topic meant for later (or maybe never, even!). Now, I have to study and study and study, and hope that I get the best grade (A hopefully!) for my final exam tomorrow. After that, project work + industrial training, then industrial training presentation + project submission, and then GRADUATION! Woohoo!

Now, now, simmer down. I still have 1 paper left... Doa for me okay people? Thanks!

Earthquake?

2005-03-31T01:48:00.000+08:00

Final exam started already. This just passed Tuesday, I took my Control Systems exam. And it was not that horrifying. Well, a bit la. But not to the point that I would say "Ooohhh... abis la aku sem ni......." But having said that, I don't think I would get an A- for it. Thus, that ends my quest of graduating with a CGPA of at least 3.50 then. NOW, all the B-'s and B's that I got all along my studies begin to haunt me. Well, what's past is past. Can't be undone. But still, it's a bit rugi la.

My next exam is Power Generation, which will be on this coming Monday. I'm confident with my Power Generation exam. And I hope its result is as good as my confidence on it. :)

Speaking of my Controls exam, the night before, when I was studying for it, I got disrupted. A bit. By the tremors that shook a lot of Malaysia. A side effect from the earthquake that occurred near Sumatra. Surprisingly, I didn't feel a thing. Whereas everyone else felt it. Especially those that are living in the higher floors of this Uniten hostel of mine.

Everyone who felt it went out in droves to the parking lot sitting directly next to our apartment buildings. Which, to me, is not a good decision at all. If these buildings, which are 10-storeys high, were to topple in the direction of these parking lots, what can they do? Run? No time man... For sure they'll be squashed flat. The best place to assemble should've been at the parking lots near our multi-purpose hall (MPH). However, even though our Resident Counselors were here accompanying the students who are assembled down there, I'm quite surprised they didn't direct students to the MPH. After all, we practice our fire-drills there. Takkan la they're thinking that fire drills are for fires alone and not other types of disasters. Short-sightednye. I guess we were all in shock and couldn't think correctly.

The same goes for me. What am I thinking??? Staying in my apartment room, even when an earthquake is happening???

In my defence, at least I was thinking that, since my 1st-floor room didn't feel the shaking at all, I guess it would be safe to say that the building, in the worst-case scenario, would topple instead of collapsing. My friends on the upper floors said that their rooms were swaying. And if those swayings intensified, I think the building will have more tendency to topple rather than collapse. Heh.

Actually I'm just guessing here. It all depends on the design of the building. Which I guess they haven't cared to take into account the possibility of withstanding earthquake-induced forces. If I'm not mistaken, buildings that are built to withstand earthquakes (such as ones in Japan) will try to withstand them, and after a certain limit, either collapse or topple (to civil engineers: which one? Topple or collapse?). I think it should be collapse, so that damage can be minimised to the buildings sitting close to the collapsing building.

So, if that is true, then I was gambling with my life la that day? Huhuhu... beraninye...

In any case, I just wonder: the 2 times that earthquakes occurred off the coast of Sumatra (one in December and the other one this past Monday night), we felt tremors and shakings here in Malaysia. What if the next time, the earthquake were to occur on the island of Sumatra itself? Or maybe, occurring somewhere near the same place as these 2 previous quakes, but registering a seriously more powerful shock (higher than 9.0 on the Richter scale, for instance). An 8.2 magnitude earthquake only sent tremors in our country, but 9.0 and above? I shudder to think what would happen then... Nauzubillah...

We have always thought that we are safe from these earthquake-related types of natural disasters since our country Malaysia is not situated near the tectonic plate borders. But still, this is proof enough that if Allah wills something to happen, it will happen no matter what.

Here's an excerpt from Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, explaining a bit of how powerful earthquakes are:

The amount of energy released by an earthquake is related to how much the earth moves. The energy released by an earthquake increases 32 fold for each increase of 1 on the Richter scale. Thus, an earthquake registering 7 on the Richter scale releases 32 times as much energy as an earthquake registering 6, even while the earth moves only 10 times as far. The amount of energy released by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake is equivalent to the energy released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan, which is equivalent to about 20 kilotons of TNT. The largest earthquakes recorded to date measured about 9.5 and released as much energy as 66,000,000 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs. It is estimated that a magnitude 12 earthquake would release enough energy to split the earth in half.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Preparing for final exam la pulak!

2005-03-27T20:37:00.000+08:00

Final year project presentation sucks. Period. I think I won't score much in the presentation. Oh well. I'll ensure that I make up for lost marks in my thesis and project execution, and hopefully my supervisor gives me at least a B. After all, my project grade will only be determined by my supervisor. If I can satisfy what he wants with the project, then I'll still get an A. That's that then.

All along this weekend, I've been having this on-and-off fever. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. But one thing's for sure, I had a damn bad migraine attack yesterday, and that was what kinda started it all. I even had to cancel my plans to play basketball with Azzad, my former collegemate at KMYS.

But still, we played today, and hmm... my game really has improved. It's quite unfortunate that it was raining just now. If it wasn't raining, then I think I would've won my 1-on-1 game with him. As it stands, I lost 11-6. But still, it was a good game, nonetheless. Goes to prove that I do have some game. ;)

Went to Alamanda today, driving my friend's CRV. Haha... first time driving a big car! Really feels weird, especially when reversing. Still, it was a good experience. After all, I am one day going to buy a Porsche right? Then, I should start practicing now! ;)

My final exam starts this Tuesday: Control Systems Engineering. Ugh... the hardest exam this semester for me! I only have two papers to study this final exam, which are Control Systems and Power Generation. Power Generation, I don't have any problems with it. But Control Systems? Huhhh... Susah nak mampus! I hope I can get at least an A-.

But to do that, I must study, and now I'll go. To study.

Preparing for Final Year Project Presentation

2005-03-24T21:01:00.000+08:00

Guys, I think I will be quite on hiatus mode lah starting from tonight, coz I want to fully prepare myself for my final year project presentation which will be held on Saturday morning. Takutnye... I want to do it successfully! So guys, please, doa for me okay? Thanks weh...

Everything about nothing (or Don't know what title to write!)

2005-03-21T01:06:00.000+08:00

Hahaha... what do you guys think about my last post? I give you a hint lah: what most of you guys are thinking is most probably what the post is all about. Heh.

Watched Hitch with a group of my friends this past Friday. Verdict? It was a good movie. Nice, good, but I won't seriously heap praises on the movie. But it is great. And gives great pointers on how to make typical women like you. But not necessarily love you. To love you, there are some other things that should be done. And I think the movie also gives pointers about that. Well, whatever. Banyak pulak aku cakap pasal love ni. :P

And after watching Hitch, we initially planned to have dinner at Chilli's. Possibly my first meal there! But unfortunately, the place was full, so we had to make do with eating at Dave's Deli, which was also my first time there. Seriously, the food there wasn't anything to shout about lah. Biasa je. I ordered a beef rissole. Tastes like burger Ramly je, but with a bit of special sauce. Laaa... that's it? :P

But the next morning, fever hits my dear tired body. I don't know where I got it. Maybe somebody sneezed it to me. :P Got some medication to treat it. But I hate the side effects of the medicine. Makes my stomach feel unsettled. :( Maybe the condition's a bit aggravated since I can't seem to down much food, as my throat's feeling a little tasteless.

What's worse is, tonight, I just did something bad. I just gave my unfinished (partly eaten) burger and cheesy wedges from KFC to my housemates. Normally I wouldn't mind, but this time, after they've eaten those food, baru la aku teringat yang aku demam! Haha... that means, there is a 60-40 chance they'll be hit by fever or at least a sore throat in a day or two. Huh... siannye. I'm sooooo evil! But at least on my part, I wasn't totally at fault. In my mind, I was only thinking of not wasting the food. I completely forgot that I was having a fever, and the food is contaminated! It was totally unintentional. Hopefully they have lotsa antibodies to fight off those viruses that are currently trying to take over some of their bodies' cells...

I'm in love... ;)

I guess this answers everything! :D

A nervous but smiling wreck...

2005-03-17T02:08:00.000+08:00

Something great happened to me tonight! I actually was able to work up enough courage (with enough prodding, of course... pathetic) to say something that I didn't think I'd ever say in my life! It left me feeling so happy and I'm litterally smiling the night away. Though I'm quite a nervous wreck in trying to initially say it.

Well the hardest part is over. Now I hope everything is smooth sailing from here on.

What I'm talking about, you might wonder? My lips (and fingers!) are sealed. Tight. If you wanna know it, you'll have to guess. :)

Adios!

Words of wisdom

2005-03-14T22:48:00.000+08:00

We often search the whole world for our soulmate, looking for her/him every nook and cranny, leaving no stone unturned, when actually she/he is just standing there right beside you.

Words of the wise. :)

Boredom sucks

2005-03-11T23:55:00.000+08:00

My friend and I went out again today, and this time we went to watch 2 movies in a row! Heheh... finally was able to convince that friend to do what I like to do on Fridays. We both watched Robots and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony for short). Both were great, although I think Lemony was better in terms of acting and story.

Robots was darn hilarious! The jokes and antics they put on show was so very funny. For those not in the know, it's an animated movie about Robots, as the title suggests. I malas nak give you the synopsis of the story, but it's OK la. A simple story. But what made it great was the hilarious jokes!

Lemony on the other hand was fantastic due to great acting by Jim Carrey as the evil Count Olaf and funny one-liners from the toddler character Sunny. She couldn't really speak English, but just babbles some unintelligible baby talk. But we as movie-goers get to see what she means by reading the subtitles in English, and her one-liners are funny. She speaks like a grown-up!

I pity my friend. And even everyone else that goes out with me, for that matter. Why? Coz I find that I'm very boring in person. When I go out with people, I tend to be quiet. I speak only when I must, such as like breaking a silence that's too long, but rarely do I continue speaking with enough ideas and verve to make the conversation more stimulating and enjoyable.

Entah la. Try as I might, I can't seem to change this. What do you guys think? From my writings, do you find me a boring person? I may write long entries in my blog and when I chat with people, but when I go face-to-face with another person, I tend to not know what to say. Weird, but true.

Anyway, officially, tomorrow marks the start of the most hectic week in my life. I plan to finish all my assignments this weekend, and resume my final year project's execution and try to finish as much of it as possible by the end of next week. So in order to accomplish that, I think I may have to not sleep much over the course of next week. Maybe only 3 to 4 hours of sleep per day. I know it's kind of like suicide, but I must. I MUST! I must try to get the best grade I can for my final year project. Plus I want to graduate ASAP. In order to do that, my project must be completed.

After all, I spent four fifths of the semester relaxing myself by playing games and wasting time. Thus I've already dug a hole for myself to jump into already. Now's the time for me to crawl out of this 20-feet deep hole using only my hands! Gotta do it as quickly as I can before somebody starts covering this hole up and leaving me alone in here. :(

Hmm I guess that's enough lah. Time to go to sleep. Gotta wake up at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning so that I can reach Uniten by 7.30 a.m. We Power Gen students are having a class trip to Connaught Bridge Power Station tomorrow. Yeah, the power plant I went to previously for my final year project research. But no matter, I'll just go again. :)

Good night everyone!

Rich Gold Crust Pizza? Come On...!!

2005-03-07T22:46:00.000+08:00

My friend and I went to Low Yat Plaza today. My friend went there just to accompany me while surveying prices for MP3 players and buying some music CD's and movie DVD's. I on the other hand, went there with the intention of replacing my old printer cartridge with a new one. Well, I didn't know that "compatible" types of printer cartridges are equally good compared to an original! All this while, I've been buying (and wasting money!) original ones, which are so very expensive. Next time, I'll make it a point to buy only these compatible printer cartridges.

I also bought myself 100 blank Imation CD-R's for me to burn my downloaded files, and a Playstation controller converter so that I can play PES4 and WE8 against another player using the same computer.

We then went to have lunch at Pizza Hut, and we tried the new Rich Gold Crust Pizza. What a waste. I don't think it's great. At all. I prefer the old Cheesy Crust pizzas, where the cheese was inside the crust. You see, this Rich Gold Crust Pizza has a combination of cheddar and mozarella cheese on its crust, but the letdown is the "Golden Ring of Sweetness" thingy! That supposed "Golden Ring" is just yam! (keladi) Or at least something that tastes like yam. It totally brings down the whole pizza taste, making it taste weird, and makes you feel really muak. I ate only 2 slices of it and felt full (normally I would eat 3 slices at least!).

The highlighted parts taste weird!

I tell you, it's a total scam. Don't go wasting your money on it.

By the way, Berjaya Times Square's parking rates have went up. Make sure you guys know that. It's now paid at hourly rates, RM2 for the first hour and RM1 per hour thereafter. Fortunately they at least have the decency to ensure the maximum rate that they can charge is RM4, so if you park for more than 2 hours, you'll only pay RM4. But it's still a hike from the previous rate of RM3 on weekdays. Weekends? Hmmm... I forgot to have a look. Maybe next time.

Hey, thanks for your suggestions in my previous post guys. Hmm... keep 'em coming ok?

The Weekend

2005-03-06T10:15:00.000+08:00

Hello hello! Power Generation test this past Friday was GREAT! Yeah, one of my best performances in a test, ever. I even feel confident about the results. But we all know that whenever we feel confident of something, most probably the outcome will be quite the opposite, right? In this case, I hope the results do go my way. Power Generation is one of the subjects this semester that I think I have the best chance of getting an A.

Missed basketball practice today. Coz I woke up late. :P Well, to tell you the truth, the practice is nothing serious actually. It's just that one of my friends wants to create a team that can play in the KL Open basketball competition. For those not in the know, it's a non-Chinese basketball competition that's open to anyone, without age restrictions. As long as they form a team, register for the competition, and pay the registration fee, they can participate. By taking part in this practice, I think my friend will be selecting who gets to join and who doesn't. But I guess considering the number of people actually being available to join the team, he'll be short on options.

In any case, I think I'll go and shoot some baskets later. Just for my own practice.

Watched Constantine this past Friday too, and I think it rocks! It's a great movie in terms of action and suspense, but of course, as most movies that have plotlines that dabble in Christianity, I just turn a deaf ear to it's story and focus more on what's happening on-screen. I seriously recommend watching it. :)

About the previous post, the reason I asked that is because I want to know how to best differentiate feelings of love, admiration, and friendship. I don't want to repeat the same mistake I made ever again. I don't want to wreck a possibility of creating a special bond of friendship by mistaking that bond as love, yet I also do not want to waste a chance to obtain my true love, my true soulmate, by mistaking what I feel as a simple friends type of relationship.

Anyway, if you guys have more suggestions about it, feel free to post some comments. It'll definitely help me. :)

How ah?

2005-03-04T00:51:00.000+08:00

I suddenly feel the urge to blog, although I know I shouldn't, since it will just disrupt the fine mindset I currently have. I don't want to disturb this feeling of confidence that I have for tomorrow's test, so I think I'll go off to bed now.

However, before I go, I'd like to fire off a question to you people: when you like a person of the opposite gender, how do you differentiate whether that feeling is love (in the sense that you want to marry her one day), or lust (in the sense that you get the feeling of wanting to do something nasty... :P), or a simple admiration for her looks, or feeling very comfortable with her (i.e. like wanting to be very close friends), or maybe you just simply like to look at her or like her attitude? What can classify your feelings into one of those conditions I gave above?

Well, good night, and again, doakan for my success tomorrow!

And The Academy Award Goes to...

2005-02-28T23:58:00.000+08:00

I should be starting my crash course (learn 4 chapters of Control Systems in less than 24 hours!) on Control Systems now (since I have a test tomorrow night), but I suddenly feel the urge to blog, so here I am.

Well, I don't have anything particular to write about today. I guess I'll just write about what happened these past few days, and my comments on them.

The Oscars was broadcasted live on 8TV this morning, and I watched it. It was great, but somehow I think the host, Chris Rock, was not as classy as previous hosts. I particularly like it when Billy Crystal hosts, because his jokes are not as crude and "like a standup comedian" as Chris Rock's. His are very subtle and classy and ironic, and they hit us at the right places. Never fails to make me chuckle, that guy.

Anyway, I haven't seen all of the most nominated movies that were featured this time at the Oscars, such as The Aviator, Ray and Million Dollar Baby, so I can't vouch for their quality, whether they deserved the awards they won or not. But one movie I'm really surprised to not even be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor or Supporting Actor was Collateral. I liked that movie so much! Well, it may not be worth an Oscar for Best Picture, since the movie's excitement goes down towards the ending as it slowly changed into an action film, but I like the performances of Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise in that movie! If you read my previous blog entry about that movie, you would've known that I found Tom Cruise to be a very classy yet ruthless assassin, and Jamie Foxx was great in acting as somebody who's torn apart in whether to help an assassin or save himself. I guess Jamie Foxx couldn't've won the Best Supporting Actor role since he already won an Oscar for Best Actor as Ray Charles in Ray. If he didn't win an Oscar for Ray, I think he would've won the Supporting Actor Oscar.

Anyway, movies, just like songs, are a matter of personal preference. Just like songs, where some people like certain genres, or some people like a song when they feel the song is good (like me!); movies work the same way too. Some people prefer action movies, some prefer thriller, and of course, some, like me, don't care what genre the movie belongs to, as long as it's good. However, I find that the Oscars normally lean towards movies that are more dramatic, have more finesse, and show more talents from the actors and actresses themselves, rather than prefering an action-packed blockbuster that raked in millions and millions of dollars for its awards. I'm not saying that the Oscar-winning movies are not good (The Lord of The Rings trilogy was one of the best movie trilogies I've ever seen!), it's just that maybe it might not suit all of our tastes.

However, I think I'll try to watch those Oscar-nominated movies to see how good they are.

For all of you keeping track (which I'm sure you don't), I got two more offers for my industrial training. So currently I have three offers to choose from. One's from Kah Bintang Auto which all of you should've known by now that, given that I have two other offers, I don't think I will accept (I tak nak jadi kuli mekanik!).

The second offer is from Pusat Sains Negara. Well, they haven't actually sent the official offer letter to my house, but nevertheless, I've called them up and they've confirmed that my application was received and I made the cut. This offer I'll almost surely take, considering that they pay me an allowance; the place is quite near to my home; and the fact that my friend also got an offer for training there. I don't exactly know what they want us as trainees to do there, but my friend once called and they said probably we might be sent to learn about air-conditioning at their air-conditioning plant or something. Whatever it is, I hope we won't be asked to exhibit some scientific stuff! I'm not that good in my physics theories. Hehehe...

The third offer, which is quite an intriguing one, comes from Technip Geoproduction (M) Sdn. Bhd. Anybody heard of this company? I haven't, but they have their website at www.technip.com, and it seems that they are involved in some offshore oil and gas drilling thingy. Well, that certainly sounds interesting, and it involves a field that I have a preference towards. Actually, my application haven't yet been confirmed, but they have shortlisted me as a possible candidate, and I only have to make a phone call to them to confirm my participation in their Industrial Training Programme. But the thing is, they start their programme in March, but in March, my semester will still not be completed. I just hope they can extend that deadline to April, or at least allow me to join up with the programme at a later date.

Well, that's all then. Heh... I know, it's basically a boring story of my life again, but well, I feel like telling it, so tell it I will.

Thanks for reading! Doa for my success in my test tomorrow night!

Blogging On and Off

2005-02-23T21:23:00.000+08:00

It's a recurring trend... most of my blogging friends are posting blogs at a slower rate, and some even have plans to close them altogether! Take Doc Del (faza), for example. She's planning to be on an indefinite hiatus. For what reason? She just doesn't have enough time! And she's feeling that it's more of a chore to post blogs, rather than an enjoyment.

And that makes me think back at the reason I started blogging. The real reasons I started this in the first place is for me to make it like a diary, and also as an imaginary entity that I vent out my angers, fears, hopes, dreams, etc. Also, I had visions of creating a website that's truly useful to anyone on the Internet, sort of like a Friendster, but my life story being the focal point of it. And of course, I started it all after watching the beautiful blogs that a few of my friends (particularly Lini) have.

Well, the community part of my vision has partly been achieved actually. Don't you guys think that blogging is sort of like a friendster thingy too? By creating this blog and visiting others, I've known many new people, and made friends with them too! Although they're just online friends, I have the intention one day to meet these people face-to-face and get to know them better.

Furthermore, I feel comfortable chatting with these people. Why? Because from their blogs, I know their stories, the lives they lead, their fears, likes, crushes, etc. On the flip side, they also know about my life. This part of blogging is what makes it a more superior "friendster" compared to the original Friendster. Tell me, how many times do you bother to reply to a Friendster message by a stranger who wants to be friends with you, and actually follow that up with further replies to and fro? Compare that with people who visit your blogs and post comments on your tagboards. When they visit your blog often, and post further comments, you'll slowly but surely become more comfortable with them, since you know they appreciate your thoughts. It's hard for me to see this happening in Friendster.

Nevertheless, I understand the dilemma. And I know it's true. When you feel that blogging is a chore, sort of like a work that you are forced to do, it will be a burden. And there's no point in keeping a blog that burdens you. It strays off the true reason for blogging. We have to enjoy posting what we want. And a definite no-no is when you post contents just so that you can satisfy what your readers want. Your blog is yours alone, and no one should dictate what he/she wants to be placed in it.

Now that brings me to this: I think I myself will not be posting as often as I normally do. I'll be posting maybe twice or so per week. It's because I have to complete my final year project and a few more assignments that must be submitted within these last few weeks of the semester. I'm not on hiatus, don't worry. From now on, I'll post only when I feel that I want to. Like tonight. :)

But anyway guys, thanks for always being a constant visitor to my blog! And thanks for willing to read what I write. :) Continue visiting me as always. I will try to ensure that I will have new contents as often as possible, but only when it strikes me lah. If I don't have anything to write, I'll not force myself. You guys pun tak suka contents yang useless macam tu kan?

All-Star Weekend

2005-02-21T22:11:00.000+08:00

Before I start completing my assignment, I think I'll write a blog entry first. First off, I must say that Josh Smith, the winner of the Slam Dunk Contest during NBA All-Star Weekend certainly deserved the title. I watched all four of his dunks, and they were fantastic. His first dunk was an imitation of Dr. J and MJ's "jump from free throw line" one-handed dunk, which to me was great but not that gempak lah.

But his 2nd, 3rd and 4th dunks were superb! His 2nd dunk was jumping over Kenyon Martin after receiving a pass from him ( you just have to see it to understand what I mean). His 3rd was an imitation of Dominique Wilkins' windmill dunk (siap dengan pakai Wilkins' jersey skali!). And his final dunk was some sort of windmill jugak, but while jumping sideways I think. Aku pun dah tak berape ingat. But it was great, and he really deserved it.

You can just go to NBA.com to see more of the dunks.

OK, off to go do some work!

My basketball history

2005-02-17T22:36:00.000+08:00

Wow. My basketball skills have certainly improved. I like it. I LIKE IT! I seem to distribute the ball better, can shoot quickly (and accurately, might I add) when I have an open look of the basket, and can perform crossovers (the normal one, not the between-the-legs one) quickly and effectively.

The only downside currently is my inability to dribble with my left hand, thus ensuring that I will rarely drive inside from the left. And yeah, not to forget, my spin dribble (or according to some people, pivot) has decreased in effectiveness. Yeah, I rarely practice that, so no wonder lah. But there was a time that that type of dribble skill is my weapon of choice. But now, I prefer crossovers.

But I always think how things would've been different if I were to start playing basketball earlier in my life. I started playing basketball in 1997, when I was in Form 4 at Sekolah Alam Shah. I remembered that at that time, I told my friend Hazani that my target is to one day join the school team. What's more, if you guys remebered, in those years, the Slam Dunk comics (with our favourite character, Sakuragi Hanamichi) were all the rage. Everybody wanted to try and play basketball.

But my interest in basketball started waaaaay earlier, when I was in Form 1 even. However, I was sooo segan at that time to join my friends in playing because I didn't know a thing about basketball, except for the fact that my brother is a very good player, and played for the KL and Selangor team in the non-Chinese basketball competition that's now known as Petronas Cup.

What a baaad decision. I rue the day I made that choice. I should've started earlier, because, if I were to analyse the time it took for me to become the good player that I am now, it took me from 1997 to 2001 for me to really develop my skills. 4 years! Imagine if I were to start playing from Form 1. By Form 5, I might even make it to the school team! Ruginye...

But really guys, based on my current skills, I think I can seriously be a good player if I was like this in Form 5. I might even be able to beat most of those school team members at that time! Well, except for Ajai and Shah, of course, since they're too gempak. ;)

Back to the story of 1997. However, I felt grateful that Hazani went ahead of me and started playing basketball. As a result, I felt envious and the next day, I went and played it myself! I dunno what would happen if Hazani didn't give me that indirect encouragement to play. Surely I will still be segan to play also.

Well, the rest, as you say, is history. I played really, really badly the first 2 years that I was introduced to basketball, but my skills really flourished when I was in KMYS. It's there that I was able to learn how to do the spin dribble, and also how to perform the crossover effectively. My shot accuracy also improved when I was there. And I was grateful that I was able to get picked for the college team (although I think it's due to respect for seniors rather than me being very skillful). But still, I feel happy to get the experience of playing formal basketball games.

My best year was when I just went out of KMYS, in 2001. That was the year I performed exquisitely. Hehe... As you recall, when I was playing in Uniten back when I was a first-year student, there's this guy who even called me Iverson. Allen Iverson... wow! I guess it's because I like to penetrate inside during that time. But now, my style of play is more refined, as I gain more experience. My main style of play nowadays is to find an open space, catch the ball being passed to me, and shoot. I am quite an accurate 2-point shooter, might I add. And sometimes, I can also shoot threes. So beware of that guys... ;)

My dear former schoolmates (SAS), how I long to one day reunite with you guys and play a few rounds of basketball, if only to just show you how I've improved compared to the person I was between 1997-1998. I'd like to kick your asses! Hehehe... well, I doubt that I can do that, since if I was able to improve myself, you guys must've been able to do that, no?

Ajai, takyah citer la, I've seen him play at Adidas 3-on-3 2003, and he's his usual, very gempak self lah. But I'm intrigued to know how Shah's and Nik's skills are currently, since those two were among the greats of our school lah jugak. And how I long to see how Pa'eh, Mantot, Capao, all those former school team members are performing currently in terms of basketball. I know, most of them are no longer playing as active as they were then, but I'd still like to know, even if it's just for the simple reason to show off the improvements that I have made. ;)

So, Nik, whenever you're free, moh la kita main! Ajak Shah, Ajai & dua2 Wall skali. Hehehe... I'm always free jek if you guys want to contact me and ask to play a pickup game or two. :)

Can't wait for NBA All-Star Weekend this weekend! The East should win the All-Star Game this time!

Sorry for the long post guys...

Valentine's Day? What Valentine's Day?

2005-02-14T00:00:00.000+08:00

It finally rained heavily last night. Good thing too, coz for the past few weeks, Malaysia, particularly this Klang Valley area, has been subjected to one of the most scorching hot weather I've ever experienced in my life! Amid the din of raindrops falling on the roof and thunder booming in the sky, I finally was able to get a good night's sleep... well, almost. Those darn mosquitoes are at it again. I've been losing a lot of sleep due to those pesky critters.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Valentine's Day. But do I care? Nope. Not before, not now, and I'm certain never will. All due to two reasons.

One, it's not a Muslim tradition. According to what I know, it's a Christian tradition that, correct me if I'm wrong, has origins of humiliation towards Muslims.

Two, it purportedly is meant to celebrate love, but why do you need to have a day to celebrate love? If you truly love a person, you won't lavish your praise and affection on her/him only on one single day. You'll do it throughout the year, for as long as you live. That's what true love is. Loving the person for a lifetime.

If you guys want to celebrate Valentine's, go on ahead. I won't bug you. But you'll certainly not hear me mope around saying how gloomy and boring it is to not be able to celebrate it with somebody else. :)

And the previous post, about being alone, has got nothing to do with me being single okay? Hehehe... I'm not that pathetic to moan about myself having no significant other to spend Valentine's Day with.

Am I All Alone?

2005-02-11T01:01:00.000+08:00

Sigh...

Feeling so hyper!

2005-02-08T22:29:00.000+08:00

Yo guys! How're ya'll doing? Today I woke up at 12.30 p.m. (yeah I know, late again...), and after getting myself ready, went to watch 2 movies at Midvalley (alone, as usual...). The first movie I watched was Bridget Jones Diary: The Edge of Reason, which was, to me, an okay lah movie. I know, most of my female friends find it to be a very good movie (I don't know whether it's because of the storyline or because of the 2 guys in the movie... but I agree, Mark Darcy was a very classy guy, and Daniel Cleaver was very charismatic... :P). But to me, it was average lah. The jokes were many, yes, but I only managed to bring myself to a smile, which according to my standards, would make the movie not that hilarious.

But boy yes, it was a romantic movie. Rugi tak bawak aweks. But then again, I'm single, so I don't have any awek to bring. :P

But the "best movie of the afternoon award" must certainly go to "Saw". Yes, an unpopular movie, not that mainstream, with not much publicity. But man it was great! It's a thriller cum horror movie. Not much horror, but mostly thriller. It's about a serial killer who kidnaps his victims and puts them in a situation where the only way they can come out of their confinement alive is to kill all the other victims. The serial killer is making the whole thing feel like a game, making his victims prove how much they want to be alive...

Along the way, flashbacks were shown that explains how each victim came to be caught, their histories, and clues that attempt to unveil the identity of the killer. It all adds up to make the movie feel very, very suspenseful. There were some moments in the movie that just literally raise the hair on my nape!

Also, be prepared to be grossed by some of the nasty things you're gonna see on-screen...

And what's great is the fact that there will be a sequel to Saw! Yeah! Can't wait to see it then.

You might be wondering why I'm feeling so hyper, right? Well, it's because while watching Saw, I consumed 1 large pack of caramel popcorn, all by myself... with no drinks! Gila lah... Sampai muak-muak aku rasa... And then when I finished watching the movie and arrived home, the whole of my body felt warmer than usual, and I do feel a bit jittery. Sekarang pun ada rasa lagi. Must be due to the high amount of sugar in my blood stream, I guess.

Next time must remind myself to not buy that much popcorn and it eat by myself...

Nothing at all...

2005-02-07T21:46:00.000+08:00

I spent the first three days of my mid-semester break doing, yep you guessed it, SLEEPING. Saturday was spent doing nothing but being in front of the PC from afternoon (since I woke up in the afternoon!) till night and then continuing on with watching football at kedai mamak (alone as usual... sigh...) till the wee hours of the morning. Repeat the same schedule yesterday, and you got what I faced these past 2 days.

Really boring.

I think I should start finishing up my project. It's been backlogged for quite a lot of months already. Plus, I don't have any ideas to blog about today.

So have a great week guys. Happy Chinese New Year to our chinese friends.

Racing Stripes

2005-02-04T23:41:00.000+08:00

Went to Midvalley today with 2 of my friends (A and B) and another 2 of their friends (a couple), to watch Racing Stripes. It was a good show, and quite funny actually. Especially the jokes made by the fly characters voiced by David Spade and someone else I don't know.

Yup, the story is as predictable and as corny as any kiddie show is, but the show is still passable as a good one. It's about how a zebra wants to be a racehorse and join a horse race (the Kentucky Derby). Along the way, he'll of course succumb to the predictable, customary initial failure, pick himself up again, train again, and finally at the very last minute, his rival attempts to block his path to glory by trying to disallow him to enter the race. As usual, the plan won't work, and finally the zebra wins the race. Predictable, as usual.

After that, A, B and I parted ways with the "couple", and we spent time at Coffee Bean chatting. Which is a good thing actually, for 3 reasons: 1, because friend A wanted to treat me to an ice-blended coffee for helping A out with many things. To that, I am very grateful. THANK YOU! 2, because I finally found out that caramel ice-blended is not a good choice of flavour - it's too sweet! Next time I'll buy something else. 3, because from the chat we had, I find that I finally am able to feel comfortable with friend B, which I can't say was possible before this. We know each other, and we occasionally chat online, but I rarely know what to say to B. But now, I hope things will work out better.

Sorry for venting out about smoking in my previous blog post okay? Just wanted all smokers out there to know how uncomfortable I am when I'm around them, when they smoke.

Uniten's mid-semester break starts next week, so happy holidays everyone! Me? I think I'll not be too happy with my holidays this time, because I think I'll be stumped with loads of work. My final year project of course, which I surprisingly haven't even started yet! Gilo apooo...

Good night guys! See you tomorrow...

Inconsiderate people...

2005-02-01T23:27:00.000+08:00

I finally have collected my confirmation letter from Kah Bintang Auto regarding my internship programme. And as expected, they'll appoint me as apprentice mechanic, which, I think is a nice way to say that I'll be a kuli to mechanics there. ;) So if any of you guys have a Hyundai car and would like to send it for servicing, send it to Kah Bintang. I'll personally attend to it. (Chewah... macam laaa reti repair kete... :P)

For being an intern with them, I'll get paid a monthly allowance of RM 300, which I must say is quite low. I've heard about interns at other companies being paid Rm500 or so. Well, I'm not gonna complain, coz this internship is generally considered as voluntary work, so I should be happy that they even consider paying me. Plus, my home is sooo close to the workshop, which means that all RM 300 of the allowance will be money that I can use leisurely, since I can just have breakfast and lunch at home.

However, as I mentioned previously, Kah Bintang will be my last choice. I'll only work there if I don't get any other offer from other companies. As of now, yup, no offers yet, but I'll still be hoping. Top priority - Exxonmobil, of course.

Let's change the topic shall we?

Reading lutfi's blog makes me wanna blog about smoking. Yup, smoking. And no, I'm not a smoker. You smokers out there: you know who you are! The closest I ever got to smoking was during primary school when I placed an unlighted cigarette between my lips and acted like I was an adult smoking a cigarrette. I'm glad I never thought of lighting it up.

Why do you smokers smoke? You do know that it's extremely bad for health, right? You do know that you might get cancer, and plenty other ailments by smoking, right? And what's more, you do know that buying cigarettes is a very expensive activity nowadays, right? I guess it's the addiction factor. Must be that, is it not? Because if you were to follow common sense and follow what you're taught at schools, you would definitely know smoking is totally bad for your health, and you would've stopped smoking.

I don't deny the fact that when you're addicted to something, it's truly, truly hard to stop doing that particular something. But what I don't get is how inconsiderate you people are to us non-smokers. You smokers always do not care about other non-smoking people while you puff away your own life. You do it in front of us, beside us, sometimes even blowing the damn poisonous smoke straight to our faces!

Now, this is a fact: do you know that us passive smokers (that's us non-smokers who inhale the smoke that smokers blow at us) have more than twice the risk of contracting smoking-related diseases compared to active smokers? I don't know the actual number, whether it's really twice or not, but the risk is definitely higher compared to active smokers. Why? For the simple fact that smokers are slightly protected by the cigarette's filter, while we non-smokers suck the unfiltered smoke straight into our lungs.

So basically, when you huff and puff your life away in front of us non-smokers, you're actually not just killing yourself, you're dragging us non-smokers to our deaths too! How inconsiderate is that?!!

When confronted with a situation where a smoker is smoking near me, I'll either hold my breath and breathe in short gasps, or better yet, move to other places. But it should be the other way round. The smoker should be the one who's supposed to move, not us non-smokers, who are doing nothing wrong. Huh...

So, I plead to you (although I know it'll fall only on deaf ears), when around us non-smokers, please don't smoke. Or at least, have the courtesy to blow your smoke away from us. We're innocents. We did nothing wrong. So don't kill us. If you wanna kill yourselves, go ahead. But don't drag us along with you.

I wonder how bad my lungs are currently...

In limbo...

2005-01-30T23:05:00.000+08:00

Looking at a certain friend's fotopage, in which there are pictures of my former collegemates happily living their lives together, cheerily spending time with each other, just reminds me of the fact that I'm currently stuck in a friendship limbo: I don't belong in any group of friends.

I can't seem to belong in a group that consists of my former collegemates, for the simple fact that we've spent too much time being apart that I sometimes feel like being with strangers when I'm with them. I no longer can understand the jokes that they say, nor am I able to participate much in discussions that they bring up. I consequently feel like a stone. Like a statue. Sitting there, listening, but doing nothing.

But am I closer to friends that I spend more time together? Well, that might be true, IF I do have many friends at Uniten. Well, I may say that I have many acquaintances at Uniten, but friends? Only certain few people at Uniten I call as friends. And their total doesn't even reach double digits.

At Uniten, even though I spend more time with people here, I have a slight personality problem. I was brought up in an environment that consists of people who have a very strong feeling of togetherness for people within the same batch (i.e. of the same age). As a result, it's a bit hard for me to befriend people who are younger than me. Yep, you might think, "What kind of a stuck-up person are you? So snobbish and condescending, not wanting to be friends with people younger than you. Ingat ko gempak abis ke?".

I agree, it is pathetic to be like this, but it is the truth. I really have a personality problem in which I can't seem to gel quite nicely with people younger than me. And it gets worse when I'm in my current situation, in which I'm behind my peers in terms of study by 1 year. Especially for somebody who's like me, so quiet and all.

Somehow, I feel that if I were able to go to the UK, I won't be having this problem. I feel that by being in the UK, I surely can gain the necessary communication skills I need. But well, what's past is past. Gotta make do with what I have. And what I have is no friends at all...

This has got to change. It may be too late to reverse this situation here at Uniten, but I'm making it a point to stop being like this and start making friends, no matter what their ages are. I have to remember that later this year, insyaAllah, I'll be joining a PEP which will definitely consist of people younger than me: 2 years and 1 year younger for people that will come from Uniten, and 1 year younger for people who will come from overseas universities. Possibly the only people who'll be my age then will be yours truly and Fina, my former collegemate who's currently finishing her MEng (Masters degree) in UK.

Gotta change my mindset ASAP.

And well, while I'm at it, do you guys wanna be friends with me? Please do! I'm up for grabs! :D

Another Update

2005-01-29T18:15:00.001+08:00

Got another call from another company, with regards to my internship application. This time, it's Kah Bintang Auto. From what I've heard from a few of my friends, it's a company with a car showroom and workshop. I guess, if I were to be an intern there, I would be learning about car repair and maintenance then. But my friend also said that we might be able to test drive some cars. Hahah! I'd like to test drive a Porsche then! But I guess that's out of the question, as if I'm not mistaken, the Malaysian dealer for Porsche is Naza Motors.

Anyway, the woman on the end of the line said that I have already secured a place to be an intern with them. Woohoo! Didn't think it was this easy. If I knew it's this easy all along, I would've went for internship last year. Then I won't have to waste my time graduating a bit late.

But seriously, I will put this offer on hold first, at least until I know the results of all my other applications. I'm definitely gunning for Exxonmobil, but if I were to get an offer at any one of the factories that I applied to, that's still okay. Well, it's because I'm not that inclined to learning about automobiles. It's useful, yes, but somehow I find that my true calling is actually in the realm of energy and power: basically thermodynamics related field of mechanical engineering. But if there were no other options, I'm not gonna be a fool and reject Kah's offer. Any experience is always better than no experience at all.

And you know what? I forgot to mention this earlier, but my weight has increased! Over the period of the past Raya Aidiladha, my weight has reached a point that it has never reached for the past 4 years: 60 kg! Normally I'd maintain my weight at around 58 kg only, but I dunno how my body was able to be that heavy. I just hope it's due to an increase in muscle mass... yeah... NOT! ;)

Oh, so now that explains why I lately feel heavier than usual...

Internship? At Exxonmobil?

2005-01-26T21:05:00.000+08:00

Got a call from Exxonmobil yesterday. It's one of the companies that I sent applications for internship to. They said they've received the application, and probably are processing it. Well, they didn't actually said those words, but I assume the woman on the other end of the phone line meant that, since she asked me to submit a digital copy of my resume and university verification letter via e-mail.

According to her, Exxonmobil generally conduct their internship programme for 6 months. And for those 6 months, she said interns will be going, if I'm not mistaken, to Port Dickson. I think the interns will be going off-shore. Gonna join your line of work then abu! ;)

But since Uniten's internship programme is just within a period of 3 months, she doesn't know whether I'll be able to fit in that 6 months programme. She suggested me working using computers, since I have some computer experience. I told her it would be better if I did something related to mechanical engineering. But I forgot to mention to her, working in front of a computer can also be considered a mechanical engineering line of work, provided it's related, of course. For instance, designing something using Pro Engineer, or performing research, or drawing using AutoCAD. Those are computer-related work.

To tell you the truth, I'd prefer working at a workstation rather than working on-site, although I know that working on-site is beneficial as it will help me gain more experience in mechanical engineering. Ah well, I don't care. As long as I get an internship programme somewhere, it's fine by me. Near the end of this year, and for a period of 1 year thereafter, I'll be going for that PEP (Program Eksekutif Pelatih) for new TNB recruits, so I'll get plenty of experience then.

I hope I do get to be an Exxonmobil intern. And I really hope they don't have an interview session like how Shell has! I hate Shell's interview... :(

Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha!

2005-01-24T07:31:00.000+08:00

The Power Generation quiz and the Engineering Graphics "supplementary test" was okay. I'm glad it turned out well. Now, I just hope their results do go my way.

What happened since then? A few things, actually. Raya Aidiladha, or Raya Haji, came by last Friday, and it was, well, the usual Raya Haji for my family. We went balik kampung for one whole day, as usual. Went to visit both of my grandmothers. This time, we went back early, since Raya fell on a Friday. So, our community's korban was scheduled to be done on Saturday, as there weren't enough time to complete it before solat Jumaat.

Speaking of korban, every year, I feel a bit guilty every time the korban is held. I mean, I feel wrong being at home, while my father goes to the mosque to help carry out the korban. This happens every year, but this feeling of guilt began to take shape ever since I turn of age (i.e. ever since I'm no longer a school-going kid). As a 24 year-old, I somehow feel that I should help out, but on the other hand, I'm not that close to the members of our community. Since I'm not close, I'm afraid that if I were to go there and try to help, I'll just be a tunggul. Nobody asking my help, and I myself don't know what to do (as I'm not used to performing the korban).

But I have a plan. When I eventually move out from my family's home here, and enter into my own community when I have my own home, I'll make it a point to really join that community. I want to help out. I will be friends with them, and hopefully they will use the assistance I'm prepared to give. After all, eventually I will have to perform the korban myself. Can't just depend on our elders, as they're getting older. We young 'uns should eventually take their place.

Raya also means the return of my sis N from her National Service Camp. She's been there ever since December. Sedar tak sedar, it's already 2 months since she first set foot there. It makes me think that time flies real fast. Also makes me wonder: bila la nak siapkan projek ni!

Speaking of National Service, I'm lucky (at least in my opinion) that during my time, the National Service programme has not yet been introduced. I don't like those programs. I don't like doing things that are too tiring, except playing basketball. In basketball, at least there's an enjoyment being gained, in the sense that I'm getting better playing the sport, and I finally improve myself to the point that I can challenge other people. But doing those military training-style drills? Jungle trekking? Rappeling? Flying fox? Marching? Ugh. I fail to see the point in doing them. Yes I know, inadvertently, doing those things can have a positive effect on our personalities, but as I said earlier, I'm not into these physical things. :P

But N seems happy being there at the camp, and I'm glad she is. The last thing we want is for her to be gloomy in all the 3 months she's supposed to be there. Our family is glad that there isn't any untoward incidents happening in the National Service camps. I think you guys still remember what happened last year. The rape incident involving a student and an instructor. Rings a bell? Alhamdulillah, events along that line have yet to take shape this year, and we hope it never will. Ever.

Tomorrow is still a holiday, since it's Thaipusam tomorrow, and Uniten is in Selangor. But today, is not a holiday, and it means class is on! Bosannye... dah la kelas pukul 11 sampai 12 je pulak tu! It means I have to ulang-alik to Uniten today, as I don't plan to spend the whole of tomorrow there. I'd rather spend it at home. So, this afternoon, I'm planning to watch a movie. Eh, actually 2 movies! Hehehe... probably "National Treasure" and "Saw".

Have a good week guys!

P/S: Hmmm... by the way, I feel like asking this question to all of you. Is Starbucks halal? I felt a bit doubtful ever since my friend told me that it's not halal. The friend said they use an emulsifier in their drinks that are along the lines of those E471 thingies. And that emulsifier, according to my friend, contains ingredients of animal origin (pork). Is this true? Can somebody tell me, with definitive proof, whether it's okay to dine there? Coffee Bean, on the other hand, is definitely halal since it has the Malaysian Halal Certification (I've checked it at Jakim's website). But I just wonder... if Coffee Bean's okay for consumption, wouldn't that also make Starbucks okay too? After all, they both produce coffee drinks... I know in terms of ethics, it's not okay to buy Starbucks since they have that Israeli connection and all... But tell me whether it's really okay in terms of halal or not.

Mind Set

2005-01-19T22:00:00.000+08:00

I've made up my mind. I'll endure the hardships (and possibly boredom!) as a mechanical engineer working at a power plant, and gain all the knowledge I can by working there. So, I think I'll be a TNB employee by the end of this year then!

Yesterday's Control Systems Engineering test, was an absolute horror! It's not hard at all, that I can safely say, but there were too many questions to do, it was very frustrating! I didn't have enough time to finish answering all the questions. I didn't answer half a question (didn't even attempt it!), and consequently, 20% of that test's marks will surely be deducted from my score! Huhuhu...

Tomorrow I have a quiz. Power Generation. And a "supplementary test" for Engineering Graphics. Doakan for me guys. :)

Not another migraine attack...

2005-01-17T01:44:00.000+08:00

My head nearly experienced another migraine attack today. It wasn't a full-on, high-powered attack, but nevertheless, I can still feel a bit of pain. Why it happened? Well, I slept late last night (4 a.m.) and woke up early (7.30 a.m.). To me, that's just asking for disaster. What's worse is, I went straitght to Uniten for basketball drills with my friends, which resulted in me being so tired. 2 out of 3 migraine-inducing conditions have been satisfied. Luckily, the 3rd migraine-inducing condition was not satisified (i.e. the "didn't go to toilet" factor. heh.). If that 3rd condition was satisfied, I'll surely not be able to function at all, and be bed-ridden for half a day.

*Sigh*... The hardships of having migraines. I envy people who do not have to worry about having migraines... They can do whatever they want, whenever they please. And it'll not affect their brains.

After a few months of restraining myself, I couldn't help myself no more: I finally bought a Coffee Bean Ice-blended drink! It helped soothe the migraine I was enduring. But it's side-effect? I'm currently feeling awake and a bit jittery. Nothing keeps me up better than a great swig of coffee!

Do you guys know who Jesse McCartney is? I like his current hit song, Beautiful Soul. It's sooo great! Here are the lyrics:

I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase
You're the one I wanna hold
I won't let another minute go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

verse 1

I know that you are something special
To you I'll be always faithful
I want to be what you always needed
Then i hope you see the heart in me

Chorus

I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase
You're the one I wanna hold
I won't let another minute go to waste
I want you and your beautilful soul
(Your beautiful soul, yeah...)

Verse 2

You might need time to think it over
But I'm just fine moving forward
I'll ease your mind, if you give me the chance
I'll never make you cry, come on let's try

Chorus

I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase
You're the one I wanna hold
I won't let another minute go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul...

Am I crazy for wanting you
Baby do you think you could want me too
I don't wanna waste your time
Do you see things the way I do
I just wanna know if you feel it too
There is nothing left to hide

Chorus

I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

You're the one I wanna chase
You're the one I wanna hold
I won't let another minute go to waste
I want you and your soul

I don't want another pretty face
I don't want just anyone to hold
I don't want my love to go to waste
I want you and your beautiful soul

ooohhh your beautiful soul
yeeaaahhh

Good night guys!

The Week That Was...

2005-01-15T16:58:00.000+08:00

After enduring much flak from my loyal readers, I've finally forced myself to write another entry in the ongoing chronicles of my life. Heh.

Since my last post, my ankle has started to heal itself. But I am lucky to just suffer a minor sprain. If you guys watched the Cavaliers vs Lakers NBA match yesterday (where the Cavs lost: boohoo!), you'll see how horrifying the ankle sprain that Kobe Bryant experienced. Fuh, if I were to sprain my ankle like that, surely I won't be running around at least for another month.

This past Tuesday, I just got back the results of my test for the Power Generation class, and surprisingly, I got 88%! Heheh... syukur alhamdulillah... I expected to get anywhere around the region of 70%. All good then. In that case, I should still be on track to get an A in that subject.

However, all is not rosy in the world of my subjects this semester. For my Engineering Graphics subject, I performed quite poorly in my recent test, which occurred this past Wednesday. It's not that I don't know how to draw, I know how, but it took me too long to complete the questions. Fortunately, my lecturer will be holding another "supplementary test" to improve our test scores, which, although he haven't marked them yet, should be very low. Somehow, I have a feeling I would not get an A for this subject, but I'll strive my best.

Speaking of getting A's, yesterday Yayasan talked to us final semester students about the working bonds, loan repayments, procedures, etc., after we graduate, and it turns out, the only ways I can wiggle myself free from having to repay my loans are either I work with TNB (which I will try not to!), or I do not work with them, but get a 3.50 and above CGPA.

As I said previously, if I were to repay my loans, I will have to repay around the region of RM14000. That is a lot... If I don't wanna pay back that amount of money, I should just perform greatly in the TNB interview, and get employed with them; or get myself a 3.50 result and "intentionally" perform teruk in the interview, and when I do not get to enter the TNB workforce, I wouldn't have to repay my loans due to my degree results! Although it seems a bit unethical to do it that way, but it seems that that is the only loophole I can find to not be employed with TNB.

Nevertheless, I should seriously consider my options, no matter what result I get. With TNB, I have a sure shot at employment, which I won't necessarily get if I were to search for work myself at other companies. Yes, engineers are in high demand in the country currently, but then again, there are too many university graduates nowadays, that it'll be hard for me to compete with them all, especially with the dismal co-curricular achievements I have for show.

Erm... this question I pose to my readers who are already employed: in interviews for engineering posts, do they require that we have outstanding co-curricular achievements? Or do they just look for technical qualifications?

But working with TNB, I think, is not that enjoyable. At least that's my opinion of the Generation sector of TNB. I'll be working in power plants, which might be akin to working off-shore in terms of variety of work. You'll be mingling with the same community you meet day-in, day-out. Salary? It starts at RM1700. Mooke and Abu, what are your salaries when you guys first started? Also, TNB has this 1 year training programme for its new recruits, which will consist of classes, OBS, hands-on training, and so on. However, I find the 1 year period to be too long! :( If only they cut that to just half a year or so.

But in terms of benefits of employment, there are many! I've looked at the guidebook my friends who are currently working with TNB got, and there are many loans, allowances, claims, day-offs, and so on, that TNB staffs can get, and this is among the few reasons why it is still quite attractive to work with TNB.

To work or not to work (with TNB), that is the question...

Tonight: Man U vs. Liverpool, a match I hope will result in Liverpool's victory, what with them having Morientes and all... Heheh... Morientes: score a hat-trick man!!! :P

And what's more, today, I finally completed the selling of two of my old RAMs! Woohoo! Finally, I can recoup at least a little bit of the cost of upgrading to 1 GB RAM... I was able to sell them off for a total of RM212! But sorry, I don't have extra to blanje you guys okay... ;)

My ankle hurts...

2005-01-10T21:35:00.000+08:00

Adehhh... My ankle hurts... After a few years of being able to avoid spraining it while playing basketball, it finally happened again. Another ankle sprain... I got it, as usual, while playing basketball this afternoon. Actually it was my fault. I shouldn't have gone for the rebound with Rajan, as he's tall enough to get the ball. Consequently, I banged into him and my right ankle terple'ot (for lack of a better word... hehehe).

It was quite painful initially, but shortly after that, the pain subsided somewhat. But I know that will be just a short reprieve, and as I expected, the pain has now reemerged. Even ada bengkak sikit. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon it will have subsided, as I plan to play basketball again tomorrow. I'm currently on form, so it would be a waste to not use it to my advantage! But somehow, I think I can expect the worst pain to come tomorrow morning, just after I wake up in the morning. Sure sakit gile esok pagi nih. If tomorrow the pain still hasn't subsided, I'll consider buying an ankle strap.

Can somebody please urut my ankle so that it'll cure quickly? :) Any masseurs out there?

Back to other matters...

Based on your comments on the previous post, I can basically summarise them to be as follows. It is normal for guys to be closer to girls, as girls are more sensitive and open-minded, where they can easily share many things with guys. I totally agree with this. As a result, the guy will feel that he means a lot to the girl, and therein starts the friendship. Plus, being close to girls proves the guy's heterosexuality! (this comment attributed to abu... ;))

But, whether the friendship remains as just friends, depends on how the guy would like the friendship to develop. If the guy wants to turn that girl friend he has into a girlfriend (i.e. be romantically involved), he can tease and flirt her. But if he has no intention of creating a romantic relationship, it is best that the guy refrains from doing all that, so as to avoid giving the girl a wrong idea.

"Remember not to pour any promises"? Why is that Lutfi? That is especially crucial when you're in a romantic relationship (believe me, I know, since I got first-hand experience with that problem...), but in a friendship, I don't think any promises are made. Maybe.

But, no matter whether the relationship is romance-oriented, or just pure friendship, both the guy and girl should set certain boundaries so as to avoid untoward incidents from occurring. Kena jaga2. Our gaze. Our pergaulan. All must be taken into consideration. Both guy and girl should not overstep these boundaries set by Islam.

FYI, I agree with all your opinions. They are, when taken together, correct in every single aspect. They each complement one another. The friendships I currently have, I have no intention of converting any of them to a romantic one, but one day, when I intend to do that, I'll take all your suggestions into consideration.

Thanks guys! And doakan that my relationships (both friendships and romantic relationship) will work out as best it can. :) And also my ankle, don't forget to doa for my poor, poor ankle too okay?!!

Guy + Girl = No Way?!!

2005-01-06T23:04:00.000+08:00

Tell me: is it wrong for a guy to feel closer to his girl friends, compared to his guy friends? Is this abnormal? And can they remain close friends, without being romantically involved in the future? What's your take on this?

Go ahead, gimme some comments, while I go study. Got test tomorrow!

Are you a coffee junkie?

2005-01-04T22:16:00.000+08:00

Yeah, are you? Well, I know I am. Why do I say this? Well, lately, I seem to notice that I can't get through a day productively without at least having a cup of coffee (I normally drink the 3-in-1 Rich variant of Nescafe - hey, no more Starbucks okay. It's too expensive!). Without downing a cup, my mornings would feel lethargic. I won't be able to fully concentrate in class, and pick up on all the things my lecturers are teaching.

Take this morning, for example. Even though I slept soundly for 6 hours (from 1 to 7 a.m.), I still feel a bit lethargic in class. I found myself taking too much time in understanding what's being taught in class. But when I bought a glass of Nescafe Ais at 10 a.m., I felt perkier. I felt that I can do most of my work efficiently. And, the lethargic feeling I had was gone.

I know, and I agree, taking too much coffee could be bad for your health, but I think it's okay to just drink once per day. Or is it not? Any doctors out there? What's your opinion?

Well, you have your say. I'm gonna make myself another cup of Nescafe. :D

New Year's Resolution

2005-01-03T08:39:00.000+08:00

It has come to my attention that I talk too much. There were a number of instances that I terlepas cakap. This must not occur again. I must exercise restraint on behalf of my part to prevent myself saying nasty things that, upon further review, should never leave my mouth.

Yup, I know you guys must be thinking, "Nikman? Talk too much? HOW CAN THAT BE???" Yes, you guys see me from the outside as somebody who's quiet, reserved, and so on. But once you get to know me... you'll understand that sometimes, I talk before I think. I just let loose with what's on my mind, without thinking much about the consequences... I guess you might say I'm the "silent but deadly" mulut laser type. After saying them, I will realise the horror of my words, and start regretting. Alas, at that point in time, it'll be too late. The damage will have been done.

As such, I'm making this one of my most important new year's resolution. To start thinking before I speak. To deliberate more on the topic at hand, before voicing out opinions.

Ya Allah, assist me.

Hmmm.. the Force is still with me it seems...

2004-12-28T21:16:00.000+08:00

The "Basketball Force" is what I mean, of coz. ;) This afternoon, at right around 5.30 p.m., I and Ikrom went to ISAS to play a few rounds of basketball. Heh. It's high time that I played again, coz I've stopped playing basketball for around a few months already!

Well, waddaya know?! After shooting a few shots, I could see that my form was coming back. Great! This semester, I want to make sure that I play at least 3 times per week. I wanna improve. I wanna be at least the basketballer that I was just after I graduated from KMYS. That, which was in 2001, was my best ever moment in terms of basketballing skill. At that time, there was this guy who played against me in Uniten. And I heard then, that the guy told his teammate to "mark Iverson", and he's referring to me! Wow! I'm being compared to Allen Iverson! The Answer! Hahaha... That's the biggest compliment I've ever received.

But I feel, almost surely my whole body will be aching by tomorrow morning. Well, that's what you'll get if you suddenly play a sport intensively, just after having a looooong break from playing any sport at all. Hopefully all will be well...

And yeah, ucapan takziah to all our fellow countrymen who were affected by the tsunami disaster that occurred in northern Malaysia. Sama-sama lah kita doakan keselamatan & kesejahteraan diorang. Ameeen...

Yet another post...

2004-12-27T17:26:00.000+08:00

Guys, sorry for not updating as often as I normally would. There are two reasons to this: one being the fact that my life is sooo "unhappening" that I don't feel like it's exciting to write about; and the other being the fact that I'm quite busy currently. Yes, I'm just taking 13 credit hours this semester, but still, the subjects (especially Control Systems and Engineering Graphics) are subjects that have many work to be done.

Anyway, let's see... hmmm... my last post was 10 days ago?!! Wow, that's quite a long time. Well, what happened since then? Not much. 2 weekends ago, I took part in the PES4 tournament (Mun Wai's, of course). Well, the usual suspects won the tournament, as usual. Mun Wai won first place, Effy won 2nd, and another 2 guys whom I don't know their names won 3rd and 4th. As for me, I managed to play till the quarter finals, before bowing out to the guy who won 3rd place. It's a huge improvement for me actually, coz before this, in the 2 tournaments that I played, I never went past the first round. Now I managed to get to the quarterfinals, so that's a huge achievement right there.

The next tournament will be a 3 on 3 tournament (on the 2nd of January, using national teams again) and another on the 18th of February (this time solo play, using club teams). Click here for more details. I'm not sure about joining the 3 on 3 tournament, as I don't have many frens to form a 3-people group. But the February 18th tournanment, yes, I'll definitely join.

Last week, not much happened. I had an Engineering Graphics quiz, which was actually a manual drawing assignment. As usual, I'm sooo slow in producing a drawing. So not used to drawing objects manually. I'd rather use computers, using software such as Pro Engineer and AutoCAD. I guess they want us to appreciate how engineering drawings were initially created: by hand. They don't want us to take the drawings generated by computers for granted.

Also, another significant event that happened last week was that my YTN allowance is finally in! I finally have money to spend... Huhuhu... but considering the hardships I had to endure in these first few weeks before my allowance was deposited, I think I'll only spend when I really need to. To date, I've spent the money to upgrade my PC's RAM from 512 MB to 1 GB total, plus changing my sound card to an Audigy 2 Value. To recoup the cost of this upgrade, I intend to sell off my old RAM. Any buyers? If u guys want to buy, just go to www.lelong.com.my and search for it. I had it open for auction, with bidding starting at RM110.

This past weekend, my family and I visited our dear youngest sister's National Service camp. Well, it looks a bit like a BTN camp. Okay la jugak... we had lunch with her, and chatted for a while. But seriously, I'm glad National Service wasn't introduced during my time after SPM, as I'm not a fan of these types of programs. Give me a job, send me to tuition, anything, I'd rather do them, than participating in these BTN, OBS, military style activities. I dunno why. It's just not my thing...

Kay laaa, I think that'll just be enough for now. I'll update more later. Thanks for being my loyal fans! :)