Taiping preparation

Well I'm of to Taiping. Just done packing my bag. I'm still deciding whether to take my own car or use the company's car. The company car smells but then I don't have to pay for the gas and less wear and tear on my own car.

 

If I drive my own car, I can claim the gas money later but it adds more mileage to my car. Anyway, I'm more comfortable driving my own car even though it's older and drives a little slower.

 

Hrmm... I think I'll take my own car. My car smells a lot nicer! I might stop over in Ipoh and visit my relatives there on the way back.

 

Travelling always make me think of this song...

 

All my bags are packed, Im ready to go
Im standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin, its early morn
The taxis waiting, hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome I could cry.

Chorus:
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go.
Im leavin on a jet plane
I dont know when Ill be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Theres so many times Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Every place I go, I think of you
Every song I sing, I sing for you
When I come back, Ill wear your wedding ring.

Chorus:
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go.
Im leavin on a jet plane
I dont know when Ill be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time let me kiss you
Then close your eyes, Ill be on my way.
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave alone
About the times, I wont have to say,

Chorus:
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go.
Im leavin on a jet plane
I dont know when Ill be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

travelling

I think I hate travelling. I mean, I like visiting new places, it's just the getting there and getting back part I hate. Especially if it's by car. I'm quite the restless person. I have to do something that's interactive. Whether it's using the PC to play games or surf the internet.

 

The trip back from Kuala Terengganu took about 7 hours of driving. I hitched a ride with my father as he was coming back too. I drove most of the way so at least that was something to do. I rather be the one doing the driving instead of just sitting and doing nothing... unless I'm sleepy.

 

I'm a few shades darker after Kuala Terengganu. From my neck up and my forearm are all dark. If I take my watch of, there's a pretty prominent tan line on my left wrist. I'm going to try one of those skin whitening face wash and see if I can even out the wierd tan lines.

 

Right after I got back, one of the things I was craving for was Bah Kut Teh. I had dinner with Chui Yan at a new Bah Kut Teh shop near her place in Aman Suria. It was okay, something different from the usual shop I go too.

 

Today, we when to a Feng Shui seminar by Joey Yap. At first we were planning to leave early but it was actually quite interesting and we stayed throughout the whole thing from 10AM to 5PM at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. I even bought an interior design feng shui book. RM40 poorer now.

 

I think it'll come in handy when I do my apartment's renovation.

 

This week, I have to go to Taiping for another shoot. I'm dreading driving there on my own. It's going to be tiring driving just by myself. The Ipoh stretch is just notorious as a accident prone place. I got to be extra alert in that area.

 

Okay, time for bed!

travelling,kuala terengganu

Kuala Terrenganu assigment

I am blogging from my phone again. Its my second day in kuala
terrenganu. We left yesterday at 11am. We were supposed to leave at 9
am but we were delayed as most of the crew arrived late. We were
actually supposed to leave on friday but i got pick. We picked up our
producer along the way. He too was pick and was recovering at home.
The trip took us six hours by the coastal way. I slept most of the
way. My stomach still isn't feeling so great. We are staying at the
grand continental hotel. It has a nice view of the beach. However the
beach has a lot of drift wood on it and huge waves. I met up with Teng
today as i was going to visit the china town. Quite a quaint looking
place. Currently resting in my hotel room before the next shoot. I
came back here to the room just to use the toilet. Like i said, my
stomach isn't feeling so great.

Training Dogs / Husbands

Training Dogs, originally uploaded by luxen.

I recently moved to a new desk in my office. I noticed the person sitting next to me had this book. I sniggered and asked her if this was the book she used to train her husband. She wasn't amused... haha.

Actually, there is a a book I saw on Amazon about how to train your husband based on what the author learned from dog trainers.

Food Poisoning

I'm down with food poisoning. I suspect the culprit for my illness to be the food they served during our department party. Every few months we have a party to celebrate the birthday's of those born in that month. I think the satay sauce did me in. It was also the mixture of a peanut butter sandwich I had later in the night... SO NOT A GOOD COMBINATION!

 

The worst part is, I'm supposed to be in Kuala Terrenganu today. I had to SMS everyone I was sick. Postpone everything until tomorrow. The doctor gave me one day of MC for slight fever and food poisoning.

 

I had a meeting in KL yesterday, on the way back I was already feeling really weak. I hardly get a fever so it's not easy to identify it when I do get a fever. I got home and pratically slept the whole day until this morning.

 

I can't eat anything now, I'm afraid I'll have an accident. I best stick to eating bread.

Wrong key

I finally got a locksmith to come over and get the lock open. It turns out the keys the previous owner gave me, the key that was supposed to open that particular lock didn't match. The locksmith said it was difinitely the wrong key. I took a closer look at the door and it was a little cracked on the side plus the locksmith said the lock wasn't of the same series as the other locks in the apartment. The rest of the locks in the apartment was silver color while the odd one out without the key was gold in color.

 

I think what most likely happened was the tenant of the previous owner, at one time or another, probably got himself locked out of the room and broke the lock, hence the damaged door side. After that, the guy replaced it with an identical lock... only he forgot to return the new key to the previous owner.

 

That so pissed me of. I spend a few hours trying to get the lock open. I even sprayed it full of WD-40 to lubricate it. Damn it.

 

I think I'm going to make a bonfire with all the previous tenant's old mail.

locks,keys

 

 

 

New Apartment

A few days ago, I got the key to our new apartment. Me and Chui Yan when to see it all excited. We've only seen it once when we first bought it, even then, it was at night. This time around, we when in the day time and the view was even better... fantastic!

 

It was a little dusty and there were stains in the toilet. Nothing that a mop and my high water pressure gun couldn't clean. We took some pictures of the view and it was great, I can imagine myself staring out of the window almost everyday while I work on my PC.

 

We when over again today to put a padlock on the front door just for extra safety percaution. When I tried to unlock one of the bedroom door this time around, it wouldn't unlock. It just refused to turn. I have a feeling one of the tumblers in the lock got stuck the last time I locked it. I don't think picking the lock would even fix it now... even the key couldn't open it... Unless I put some WD-40 in it. I'll have to dig out my WD-40 and see if I can fix that tomorrow. Pump it full of lubricant crap.

 

The worst part was, while we were fooling around with the lock, I dropped the key and it bounced of my shoe and right under the door. What the hell... I thought this only happened in the movies. Good thing I had another spare key... anyway, it doesn't work also. Not so good luck today.

 

My brother came by later to have a look. Since he's in the Interior Design profession, I thought I'll get his expert opinion. Most of his ideas were a little too wierd for our liking although he did have some very good ideas for the partition.

 

I hope the WD-40 works, otherwise I'll have to find a locksmith to open it. I don't want them to break down the door.

 

apartment,renovation,locks

 

The Backward Economy

Today I when to Midvalley Megamall to pick up a video light I had ordered. Weekdays are the only time I go to this place, on other days, the place is virtually impossible to park.

Even today the parking was horrendous. All the parking bays were full, I suspect it was mostly taken up by those working in the area. I had to park under The Garden and walk all the way to North Court through the basement. Not a short walk I tell you.

When it comes to parking, my philosophy is pretty simple. I drive to the location where I think parking would be easily available and park there even if it involves walking further. Like today, instead of parking at level 1, I drove straight to level 2 and drove right to the end. I figure instead of circling around on level 1 and trying to find a parking... I would have made up the time by walking to where ever I wanted to go already.

It's the same for One Utama. I almost always park my car in the same spot, in the new wing on the 4 or 5 floor right above Parkson. That way, I always remember where my car is and those areas are never full on weekdays.

However, when I do go out with Chui Yan, she would always insist I park closest to the lift or the escalator. We'll spend a few more minutes circling around. Me, I just hate circling around for parking.

While I was walking around midvalley, a lady asked me where Boulevard Hotel was. I pointed her in the direction of the hotel. I looked around and there were a lot of foreigners, tourist I assume, walking around shopping.

That got me thinking about shopping holidays. Here, the in thing now is to build a hotel next to a shopping mall. Look at Jalan Bukit Bintang, One Utama, The Curve and Midvalley. They all have hotels in walking distance.

Me, I personally wouldn't choose a shopping hotel for a holiday. It's the type of hotel that would just bleed you dry of every cent you have. You stay there, walk out and it's all sorts of things you can buy.

I walked around for a bit thinking what can I do here that didn't involve me buying anything and I realized there wasn't much. Other than reading free books at MPH, window shopping gives me the urge to buy something.

Looking at all the shops and the displays, I realized that everyone in Midvalley wanted my money, the same goes for all the shopping centres I spend a lot of time in. Heck, even some of their toilets want my money.

At least in One Utama, when I walk over from my office I don't pay for parking as I've already parked at work.

You walk into a shop... let's say MPH and you pick up a book. You turn it over and you see a price tag for the book. My thought process usually goes something like this, "RM146.00 for this book on Photoshop. Hrmm, that's like half of my overtime pay. Was it worth the 2 days of sleepless nights I spend editing? Maybe not".

I relate everything I want to buy to the equivalent amount of time and effort I put in at work. I'm basically exchanging the effort and time I put in at work for the things I buy.

Most people find shopping enjoyable... you pick something of the shelf and pay for it and walk out. Pleasure.

You go to work, spend a few hours slogging over something you'll be doing for a large chunk of your life and get paid. Tedious, not pleasurable if job satisfaction is low.

I think my utopian economy would work like this, you walk into a shop and pick something of the shelf. Flip it over to check the price... RM10.50 for this box of cereal. Walk to the checkout counter, and instead of you handing money to the cashier, the cashier actually pays you RM10.50 to take the box of cereal. Yes, the shops actually pays you take their goods away. It's a backward economy.

So now that you have all these money from consuming goods and don't actually have to spend money to buy anything, what do you do with the money? Well... you can use the money to pay your employer for better job satisfaction.

"Boss, I don't think I like editing this video... here, I'll pay more overtime to the company so I don't have to do this."

Okay, there's obviously many flaws with this backward economy. It's an utopian economy that's worst than communism but wouldn't it be more fun that way? Imagine all the sales sign you see in the shops saying %50 discount. If the price tag is RM10, they actually pay you RM15 to take away their goods. You'll be grumbling to yourself how you spend 30 minutes to find parking just so you have to come to take over their goods. Shopping actually becomes a chore instead of something pleasurable.

One would actually find work pleasurable because you're spending money there to work. All the money you've collected from shopping goes to your company/employer/customer.

Now if I was only the ruler of some island nation I could try this backward economy on.

economy,shopping,parking

It seems the in words for 2007 in the US were the words Subprime and also googleganger. Subprime was from the Subprime loan crisis, while googleganger is when you search google for your own name and find someone else with the exact same name as you. Funny, at least my chinese name is pretty unique... so far out of the 3 parts of my name, only 2 words have matched. Never an exact match for my name on google.

Today has been a long day. I had to lug all my equipment to work for an impromtu interview with Prof Dato Khoo Khay Khim at University of Malaya. Good thing I was using the company transport instead of my own car, the traffic was kind of moving slowly today. Lucky the driver knew where his office was in UM, it was a maze in there.

While I was waiting for the prof, I was looking around the history department and I realized their architecture reminded me of Bukit Aman. They had blue window frames and the buildings are just so... square. Typical JKR approved designed from the 60's I suppose.

If you look at most of the government offices that were designed in that era, they all look drab. Functional designs that were more economical than stylish. The one hour I was standing around in the building and I already felt depressed slightly. It had all the slow lethargic government feel to it. I had a feeling the very buildings that were designed by the government oozes that type of chi.

Okay, I admit... my own alma matter wasn't the epitome of academic architectural designs either. Most of the buildings in my campus was designed in the 70's I think. They too had the same drab feeling.

Anyway, while looking out the window. I saw one of their local students climbing around.

The place was just full of monkeys hoping around in the trees outside. The one good thing about the UM campus I could see was that at least it was quite green. There were a lot of trees around.

Anyway, later in the afternoon I had to attend a company mandated Information Security briefing. I could tell from the memo they left on my desk it was already going to be a sleep inducing briefing. At least it was for my whole department so I had my other colleagues to accompany me.

Basically, it was a briefing about internet use. It's pretty simple, no use of the office internet for personal use. The lady who was giving the briefing had an interesting accent. Everyone was trying to figure out where she was from. After the coffee break, I just asked her out loud since everyone was too shy to ask. She said she was from Bulgaria. Ah, no wonder. My first guess was India. She had that Aryan look.

They even have a policy about blogging. Quite interesting. Looks like I won't be blogging from the office anymore... unless I use my handphone.

Influences

While I was in college, I also considered other career choices. I took classes in psychology as I thought being a psychologist would be cool. Understanding the human mind to me was one of secrets I always wanted to know.

 

However, I later changed my mine after a few psychology classes. Not that I didn't enjoy the classes... I did, I loved studying psychology. I changed my mine because I realized if I when any further I probably wouldn't put my knowledge to any good use. I would most probably use it to manipulate people instead.

 

So I ended up sticking to my plan to study broadcasting instead. I still use it to manipulate people... to a lesser extend that is.

 

As a gatekeeper, I have some limited powers in influencing how people make their choices. According to my professor, the media doesn't make the choices for people, it only gives then an option. For instance, if you saw an advertisement for a new fastfood joint, you now have an option to eat there. No one is forcing you to eat there. You have just been 'influenced' to eat there.

 

So why do a lot of people decide to eat at the fastfood restaurant then? Well... when you're hungry, your brain recalls that advertisement you saw. It's brand recognition at play.

 

In my work, I try to subtly do the same thing too. I offer people alternative choices that I deem would be better for them. I can't really gauge what I do is effective or not. However, judging from some of the personal comments I have received I did manage to make some changes. One mother told me she continued breastfeeding because of an episode on breastfeeding I did. That made me felt happy.

 

 

 

career choices,psychology,brand recognition

Last year, I bought two original software. One was the Windows Vista Business Edition and Norton Antivirus 2007. I figure since I was building a new desktop, I might as well start out with original software after hearing all the hype about vista.

I installed Vista and I discovered most of the old softwares didn't work. My pirated version of Norton didn't work on Vista. So I had make my way back to Digital Mall and purchase an original version of Norton Antivirus 2007. I stopped using Vista for the moment and switched back to Windows XP. I found that a lot of softwares didn't work in Vista very well... so much for buying original.

Anyway, I already had the original version of Norton so I installed it in my Windows XP. After a few months of using it, it worked fine... no problems at all... that is until last month. It started acting up and the auto-protect had errors everytime I start up. I even tried using the online Symantec chat customer service. Some technician (I think the dude was from India) took over control of my PC over the net and started uninstalling the antivirus, he asked me to pop in the original CD and re-install. After all that, it still had the same errors.

Now I've uninstalled the anti-virus. I still have about 75 days left in the activation. I might just change to a pirated version if the next reinstall doesn't work. Stupid piece of shit norton antivirus.

Dear Dr.,

I am sad to see you go like that. Though we've only met once, you were a good man. Thank you for your service to the nation. You were very brave for coming out.

Welcome 2008!

New Year's Eve,One Utama,Fireworks

It has been a good year in 2007. The last few days were a little hectic. I was helping out Steven and Melissa's wedding video. I haven't finished editing that even.

 

The wedding was fun, I got to meet a few old classmates from high school and made some new friends. Although... my shoulder and arms was sore from holding the camera and battery packs for the lights the whole day.

 

I think it's about time I invest in that camera body harness. It looks silly but better to look silly than being sore all over.

 

I just got back from One Utama, I was there with Chui Yan and her family to watch the fireworks. The pass few years what we normally do is we park outside One Utama and watch from the side of the road. This year, we drove up to the old wing's rooftop parking to watch. There were quite a few people when we got there at 11:45PM. Everyone had already staked out a place. It was like a large drive-in movie theatre.

 

The fireworks were really loud. at about 11:55PM, somewhere from the direction of Shah Alam fireworks when of. Not sure where it was but my guess would be Shah Alam firing of 5 minutes too early.

 

Next, it was One Utama's fireworks. It was right above us and it was really loud. Sounded like cannon shells exploding over us. I don't think I've ever seen fireworks exploding so close before. I was actually kind of worried the flames would fall on us. I could feel some pieces of the burned remains falling on my hands.

 

So what's there to look forward too in 2008? Well, normally I just look forward for movies... however 2008 is going to be special for me. Two dates for two venues have been picked. August and September would go down in my personal diary from this year onwards as a special date.

 

Here's to a great year ahead with limitless possibilities!

 

One Utama new year's eve fireworks for 2008