Office Finally Completed and Moved In

It has been more than a month since my last update. It has been a super hactic month and I have completed my first month in the new company. It's so much different than my previous layback and "snail" company. What can you expect from an GLC and a multi-national company, right? No complaint here. What have taken place last month?

Well, first of all, I've been working minimum 14 hours daily including weekends (am feeling mentally and physically tired now. Non the less, it has been an interesting first month. The stress level is all time high and my level now is so much different than previous ones. First, was the recruitment. It's not easy to headhunt though jobstreet. I spends days going though jobstreet, request for resume from my short0listed candidates and waiting for them to response. Guess what! 60% of them either reject or the request has expired. Either the economy is so good that not many people want to move on or vise versa. Then, there're the "request expired" ones. I believe they are very comfortable at where they are now. ALthough I'm very sure I request for resume from some of the talented by unemployed candidates. Moral of the story is Malaysian are still in good shape when it comes to employment because I can't able to get anyone turn up for an interview. They don't even want to know how much my company's willing to pay. Good, that save me a lot of budget :-) All I can is that those who turn up, are following up with me closely, hoping they will get the job. Well, I can only hire one person for each position, except Editor.

I'm still looking for candidates to fill DBA, Web Master, Sales Manager, Director of Sales, Editors, Programmer and Office Admin. Anyone interested? I'm also looking for students who's want to earn RM6/hour to do copy and paste text into excelsheet. Interested? Do drop me a line.

Next is the office, finally it's completed and we have moved in from our rented office suite to our permanent office in the heart of the city. As a MSC company, I much prefer our office location than Cyberjaya. Public transport is very accessible. Safety is good since I can see a lot of people working late and security is ok.

Our office is open plan with minimal renovation. All this was done under RM30K with good quality furniture. The only downfall is the centralise aircon shut down at 5.45pm. As a new company, there're a lot to prepare and work on and we have to work late. So without air conditioning, it become very stuffy an hour later. We ended up buying a fan to let the air circulate. If this still doesn't work, then we will opt for seperate unit of centralise aircon. Why? because we are now sharing aircon with our office owner who reside next office.

We bought a fridge for the staff and rented 5 pots of plants for RM100 per month! Isn't that cheap? It cost only RM20 per pot include maintenance from the supplier. I was given a free table plant. That one that use jelly instead of soil. Now the office looks more livelier.

The Meeting Room:


The Office Layout:


Staff cubicle:

Renovation Process So Far...

After a week of running around like a chicken under the hot sun, looking for suppliers for our office set-up, I'm finally getting some results. I managed to get the office furnitures for RM15K. It consists of 20 workstations-5ft size, chairs at RM160 each-according to the supplier will last more than 3 years, meeting table and chairs for 6 person, discussion table and chairs for 4 person, 1 wardrobe cabinet for my finance manager and a whiteboard for the meeting room. I got RM15K for all these because I didn't get an ID company to do the revonation, instead, I go straight to the source. As I mentioned in my previous blog that we can an automatic 30-35% discount when we walk-in to furniture suppliers.

Then I got 2 sets of vertical blinds RM630. Vertical blind is the cheapest. My reason is because I believe we will outgrow the current space fairly quite and I don't want to invest in blinds that can't be reuse. For RM630, quality is good, it's a semi opaque blinds because out office doesn't have direct sunlight or heat.

Next, I managed to get the wiring, cabling and networking of our telephone lines, power and network lines for about 8k. This is quite expensive and I need to negociate for a deduction. let's see how much I can bargain.

For door access, there's a trick suppliers will use. To mark up the price, they will sell the access card at RM10 when it should be RM3. Testing, installation will be chargable in order to mark up price. Bell, intercom, power backup etc will be chargable if supplier wants to hike the price. Rule of thumb: All these are suppose to be come as a package and part of the requirement. So, you should get able to get a decent door access From MicroEngine for RM900-RM1200. Anything more than that, ask the supplier to mark down the price.

Then, there's the water dispenser. I didn't know there's akaline water out there for office. I only knows of RO water. When contacted supplier, she said akaline is a better water. Better in what?? Anyone knows? But the water comes in a package of 60 bottles for RM600++. Not bad but I was thinking a bit cheaper. Malaysia has a lot fo water right?

My problem now is the telephone registration. It seems confusing and complicated. Maybe coz I don't have IT people to help me yet. I'm still trying to recruit IT department. Anyone has contact or know of friends looking for IT work? System Admin, DBA, Manager, all vacant.

Well, here's the floorplan. I will upload the before photos of the office soon. It's still empty and I need to complete it by 3rd week of November.

New company, New Challenges

I have completed my first week at work in the new office and I must say, 24 hours definately not enough. Out of the 3 CEOs I have in my career, this one is outstanding compare to the other 2. Maybe this is the new era CEO. He's brilliant in IT/technical knowledge and executions, brilliant in business and finance as well. He's very hands-on. I always hear that CEOs plan and organise, monitor and so on. But my CEO does all that and more. He gets his hands dirty and I've seen him not able to do anything yet. Even set up email accounts for his staff he's doing it himself. Like i said, he's the new era CEO. In fact, I noticed that more and more of this type of CEOs. I knew 2 who are software developers and runs their own company. Their team or staff are relatively small, less than 20 and are multitasking.

Nowadays, you can't go far if you don't multi-tasking and multi-knowledge. Multi-knowledge is fast becoming a must in global and open economic. My second CEO was much slower and sometimes indecisive in his decision. But this one is very different. He's fast in decision making and seems to be good at it too. He may not be a celebrity CEO like Tony Fenandes but I strongly believe I can learn a lot from him. Let see how it goes.

Now, I having my first experience in setting up the company, literally. I'm running around looking for best price for our office furnitures, wiring, cabling, office equipments, pantry items and so on. I found out that if you go straight to furniture manufacture for office furniture quotation, you immediately get a 30-35% discount. Can you imagine how much profit an ID company make whenever you renovate an office?

Terms Management Used When Down-sizing

While I was surfing for information about the industry I work, I came accross an article about a media agency planning a major restructuring of its U.S. operations, including an undetermined number of layoffs. However, the news was accidentally released by the agency's top New York-based HR executive e-mailed via memo to the entire agency that appeared to be intended only for senior managers. It must be a dreadful event for her. Anyway, there was no mention of disciplinary action taken as a result of the e-mail mishap. Maybe they have learnt the lesson and ke[t it closed door.

In E-mail Blunder Alerts Carat Staff to Major Restructuring, you can download the powerpoint presentation and a "messages" template/guide to how staff should be told of their fate and what should be said to their still-employed colleagues, clients and vendors.

In today's business world, words like right-size to replace downsize, integrated organization means combine department or offices, centralised means close some department or offices and combine the remaining employees into one department. In the powerpoint, there are script provided when handling those involved in the retrenchment. Script how the affected should be handled. Example: "If you would like to go home today and come back tomorrow to clean out your desk or office, you are free to do so. We would like you to meet with your manager following our meeting to transition your work. We will be communicating to your team today. Your manager will be contacting clients. We ask that you do not contact your clients to discuss this situation."

The management even has a script prepared for executives and managers when handling their recently joined colleagues who question their career path with the company. "Let them know we are building for the future," it read. "The actions we had to take, although unfortunate, were necessary to right-size the company and ... bring in the skill sets we need to effectively service our business and future client needs."

For their clients, they have this to say: "Mary Smith will be moving off your business. Now that we understand your business better, we are replacing her with someone whom we feel will be a better partner for you." The document offered an alternative for times when the "staffing change" affected a longer-standing relationship with the client: "Mary Smith will not (sic) longer be working on your business. In order to serve you better and provide greater innovation we have made a staffing change to your business." All pre-prepared. Easy, but sad huh...

You can read the memo and powerpoint presentation here. I personally experienced similar situation once during 2002 when I had to lay off 90% of the team in our sister company. There were about 100 employees and I was seconded to the company. I can only keep 6 team members and had to let go of the rest. Our clients are declining too (same as the article here) and after a years of minimum income, we are force to closed the sister company and "centralised" the remaining staff to the main company.

My manager and I informed team mates of their fates face to face in a staff meeting. There was a Q&A session. That was the toughest time I experienced. Although I was so much younger with no commmitment, I felt really bad because some of the staff have family and commitment. We also compensate them by providing 2 months salaries and staff can gave staff workstation to them. We have in mind that they could probably do some freelancing while looking for new job. So we provide them the tools.

Now 2008, the economic crisis seems to be far worse than 2002 and it has been compare to the great depression in US which started from the end of 1929 until the early 1940s. Beginning in the United States, the depression spread to most of the world’s industrial countries, which in the 20th century had become economically dependent on one another. The Great Depression saw rapid declines in the production and sale of goods and a sudden, severe rise in unemployment. Businesses and banks closed their doors, people lost their jobs, homes, and savings, and many depended on charity to survive. In 1933, at the worst point in the depression, more than 15 million Americans—one-quarter of the nation’s workforce—were unemployed. You can read more from the link.

In my personal point of view, we are facing towards that again. We have seen banks closed, airlines bankcrupted, home mortgage fell and people has very little or no saving. Unemployment is very high all over the world. Well, I've been keeping an eye on our Malaysian banks at the moment. Altough my saving is insured up to RM60K per financial institution, there was never a dry run and I don't know how long before I can get my money back. So better cash out if I see signs of instability. What do you think?

Troublesome Crisis

I think it's about 2 years now since the financial crisis hits US housing and mortgage. I don't see any sign of recovery in the next 6 months or in the near future. I fear that it is likely to continue worsen in the next 12 months. It has cracked US and spread its sickness to Europe. Now's is creeping into Asia with Indonesia and Japan became one of the first 2 countries to be infected.

On the news, we see major airports shut down, banks at the verge of bankcrupcy, US Governments having to use $1700 billion to bail out troublesome giant financial, insurance and mortgage companies early this month. UK and Australia are following the moves. Europe is tailing from behind. What do these tell us? Are we going through another world depression again? I fear that we are heading that way.

What dissapointed me is the way Malaysia Government is handling this crisis. I hardly read in the paper or the TV about plans to minimise the global impact it will do to us. I haven't seen any of our policy makers and BNM cracking their heads to rescue the situation. All I see is the news telling me that it's going to be alright. It's going to be minimal impact on Malaysia...Are we waiting for it to hit us at the face before our think-tankers sit down and brainstorm? Do we think that just because we got out safely from the 1997 crisis we could do it again? I don't think we will be so lucky twice. Our stock market is lost 1/3 of its value since January this year. It keeps announcing its worst level. Today is the worst in 28 months. Inflation in many countries are at all time high. Malaysia is not spare of this. The global meltdown is so real, yet I am very worried that the government and central bank having come up with plans to weather it.

I'm worried that when it hit us, it's already too late. I'm worry about the unemployment, credit and the mortgage. I believe majority of us are in the rat race and we need our regular paycheck to cover our monthly survival. We need money to settle house loan, car loan, children education, credit cards, groceries and utility bills. A delay in paycheck has a serious impact. I had first hand experience in this.

My odeal lasted about 3 years. It started during 2000 when the dot com bubble burst and the multinational company I worked rely on US market. Our clients and business are US and Canada dependance. During that time, Malaysia wasn't so great either. It just recovered from the 1997 financial crisis. Our VP announced the company's situation in an emergency meeting. I think that was the most open session we had. Questions like is it going to bankcrupt or sold off was fired away and my VP answered it honestly. During that time, it wasn't easy to look for a new job. I remember my colleague told me that any job he applied, he is sure that other colleagues in our company applied too. Supplies were far more than demand. I couldn't find a job so I had to stick to the company and accepted delay paycheck. My salary was 1.5 - 2 months delayed. Earlier stage was 2 months, then it was 1.5 months for almost 3 years. I was renting a room only at RM200. I took LRT to work. I cook at home. Due to my non-commitments, I was able to weather this through. Although I ended up oweing credit cards a lot and no longer shopping for clothes. I was earning RM2k then and it was already difficult for me. Each paycheck has to be spread into the next 3 months.

Now, I have mortgage to pay, maintenance bills, tranportation and insurance bills. With the value of our curency in international market and the worst spending power, I don't think I can go though this round smoothly. My salary has inreased about 50% since the first crisis. However, I feel that it's going to be much tougher because of the essential items increased. I feel like my spending power is the same as the first crisis but now I have mortgages to commit. I don't dare to foresee how bad we are going to be hit by the global meltdown. Is there many of you out there in the same situation?

Finally A Microwave Oven

After months of surveying, I finally bought the microwave oven of my choice. The decision came when the old one is dying on me. In fact I think it already dead because it tends to cut off my house main electricity supply. What's that tells you?

I spend 2 weekend surveying for microwave oven and looking for the one that meet my requirement. It has to be easy, it can be manually or auto select for various weight and cooking mode, it must have grill mode, it must have convection and combi mode. You see, I like to cook and now I finally have time to experiencing the recipes from my collection of cook books. I also like to experience new recipes and learn new one. I want to learn more about cakes and cookies hence the requirement.



Last week, I finally found it. Panasonic NN-CD997S Inverter Convection Microwave Oven. It's not like the actual oven but for me, this is just perfect. It has all the function I want and I specially like the auto menu because I just have to select which food category and this microwave oven adjust for me. Another one is the touch sensor cooking. The sensor detect the steam from the covered container and calculate the cooking time. This oven is very easy to use and has spacious space. It suppose to control the microwave power more efficiently due to the 'inverter' thingy. Let's see if my electricity bill next month reduce, maintain or increase.

Recent Trip to Labuan

Recently I took a weekend trip to Labuan, visiting my grandma and relatives. Of course, to rest after a long and hactic working year. I haven't taken leaves for few months and now that my CEO has resigned, it's much easier to take leaves and I can plan my holidays better.

During my trip to Labuan, I saw a fruit that I haven't seen or eaten for more than 10 years! This fruit grows in jungle but I heard from my Aunt that nowadays people plant it in the orchard. We called the fruit Buah Talap. It has a very fragrant smells when it ripe and the fruits are aplenty and so sweet. I remember when I was young, we siblings would eat one whole fruit ourselves. This fruit has season too. So only certain time of the year we can find Buah Talap sells in the Pasar Tani. You can only get it from Pasar Tani.

So, I was so overjoy when I saw this fruit again in Pasar Tani, Labuan. What else, I bought 2. Unfortunately, they are not ripe yet. So I ended up brought it back with me to KL. 1 day later it was ready to eat.





Another place worth mentioning is the shop selling ABC. I can't remember the shop name but it's near the market and Utama Supermarket. The ABC there have variety of choices and hugh portion. Ingredients use are of big portion too. Not like what we get in KL..all ice and colouring...



The place is always full. Below is one of the ABCs I ordered. I went there twice.

Home Sweet Home

Finally I have some photos about my new place. It's not easy to complete the whole house but it was an exciting processes. If you asked me if I'll do it again? sure, after I rest a year. So all the basics are completed. The rest, is as and when I have the time and the financial capability. I like the divider the most. It's from Ikea but after arranged it that way, no one notice where it came from.



Then, is my small and cozy kitchen. It's not much but enough for me. I don't want it to be complicated because I don't like to clean up or tidy up.



My bathroom and study room. All from Ikea. I do recommended Ikea for those budget concious but want some kind of quality. Ikea's wood is better compares to the rubber wood we get from local furniture stores nowadays.

What A Week!

Last week was busy, busy, busy week for me. I was managing the final production of our publication before we hit to the printer. All was completed on time, ahead of schedule, but alas! we have not award the printer yet. We have not finalise an external agreement yet. Wow, talk about moving at 90% speed and suddenly you have to slow down to 10% speed blantly. Well, now is waiting for management and marketing decision.

Last week I attended an interview at one of the hotels in KL. Luckily, I managed to reached there on time because there was a thunder storm while I was on my way. It was a simple chit chating interview by the CEO of the potential company. After about an hour of discussing my working style, personality and attitude, I was hired! We even finalised my salary package on the spot. Strangely, I saw my colleague waiting there since I arrived and about to leave the place. I approached her and she mentioned she was waiting for someone. It turned out that she was called for an interview too. What a small world. She resign because she doesn't want to be transfer to my department but in the end, she still has to report to me in the new company. Too bad...

Last weekend I went to my hometown in Labuan. Well, I have more than 1 hometown since my relatives and families are scattered around. It was a short weekend trip and I was accompany my sister. It much more fun going with my sis than alone. We walk around the small town looking for great bargain. We bought few liquors and chocolates there are super cheap. Why not because it's a duty free island. Altough I have to say most things are not duty free. It's only worth to buy cars, liquors, cholocate and some of the electronics but most of it are old models.

This week started of with a bang too. I was rushing to get my medical check up done because my new offer only valid if I passed my check up. That was done in my half day MC. Then, is filling up the forms and sign the offer letter followed by emailing back to my new boss. Last night my new boss called to check if I'm ok with one of my colleague joining the team. I've no problem. Not sure about her though.

Tomorrow is off to Singapore to visit my new boss and parent company. At the same time, to discuss about the model and goal of the business in KL. Hmm..my flight is 8am and only takes an hours. After that, it's whole day meeting before I return home in the evening flight. Not bad for the celebration of our 51st year Merdeka yeah...

Avril Lavigne Concert Cancelled - What Went Wrong?

Wednesday August 20, 2008 MYT 4:16:03 PM
Avril Lavigne concert cancelled
By LOH FOON FONG


KUALA LUMPUR: The Avril Lavigne concert in Shah Alam on Aug 29 has been cancelled.

Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Shafie Apdal said that the concert falls during the nation's independence period and was not a suitable time to hold such a concert.

There are a lot of events on Aug 29 and the Ministry does not want the independence and the near Ramadan month to be filled with such pop and rock culture, he said.

I appreciate his comment but isn't this a multi-racial country? Why can't we postpone it until after Independence Day's over instead of cancel it?

"As the Minister of Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage, we should be instilling good culture in the young but here we are allowing other parties to organise things," he said Wednesday after launching the IDeAS for enhancing Integrity book.

True we should instill good culture, but what does it got to do with music? I feel that music unite us. Is Pop Rock such a bad thing? Is our mind still so inferior that it would be corrupt with such concert?

Moreover, the organisers were promoting the event even before they got approval from the relevant agencies, he said.

Is this a case of not following the rule or is it a case of unclear rules? Too bad with all the promotion going on the radio and TV about this concert. Too bad to those who were waiting for Avil's concert. Now all those promotion gone wasted and no revenue recovered. Who lose in the end? I wander...

"All organisers, local and foreign, should adhere to the rules and regulations before promoting the concert and selling tickets to the public," he said, adding that Lavigne's organisers should have sought advice from the Kuala Lumpur City Council or the Ministry.

Really? Media people, please comment...

Asked if he knew why they had promoted the concert before it was approved, he said he did not know.

Asked if the Ministry's decision was in response to PAS Youth's call for cancellation, he said "no."

The Soon To Launched Anti-Crime Drive

In today's newspaper, a national-level crime prevention campaign will be launched by the Prime Minister soon. At the moment, it was informed that more than one million pamphlets on crime prevention, including rape and burglary, will be distributed nationwide starting Saturday.

Extract from The Star:
The pamphlets are entitled “Personal Safety”, “Home Security”, “Holiday Security for Homes”, “Home Security and Safety Advice”, “Rape: No Means No”, “Crime Prevention For the Disabled”, “Ladies Safe” and “Teen and School Kids Safety”.

It's about time we have a national launched on the above mentioned. I hope it won't be just a one-time-thingy or a 'season' drive where after the telecasted launched, everything suddenly become quiet and then died. I hope this effort will continue and are properly plan.

MCPF vice-chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye said the pamphlets, with a practical checklist of safety tips, would hopefully go a long way towards preventing crime.

“If the public follows the tips, I believe crime can be reduced,” he said at a media briefing on the month-long campaign, themed Prevent Crime, Get Involved, We Can Do It Together.

I will have to wait and see the tips. I believe in general we are aware of the prevention tips but choose to be ignorant.

I hope when the drive is on, no stupid comments by certain group about female dressing as the reason of rape. I have heard enough of MCP commments about how they debate and question female dressing as reason for rape.

Something To Ponder In Life

I received this from my email so if it's copyrighted, my advance apologies...

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in
summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.


Moral of the story:
Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don't judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches
and better times are sure to come some time or later

Multi-Racial Culture In Malaysia

What has happened to us?
Where has our past gone?
Where has our memories of multi-racial culture disappeared?
Where's the time when we gang up with our Malay neighbours and jump into the pond to catch tadpoles with our bare hands, ended out mothers coming with stick in their hands?
Where has the fishing trip with own made fishing stick, at the jetty on the 'water wooden houses' with Kampong boys gone?
Where has the time when playing hide and seek with Indian neighbour gone?
Where has time gone when we play masak-masak and game of wars with neighbours without looking at their colours, genders and background?
Where has the time gone when we go swimming at the pond at the back of our multi-racial school after class?
Where has the time gone when we pretend cooking meal for big family with leaves and sticks as our meal?
Where has the time gone when we made real fire for our cooking that our teacher scold us for buring down our school's big hibiscus plant?
Where has the time gone when we each plant a sugar cane at the school yard and tender it while it grew?
Where has the time gone when we share our sugar cane with all our colourless friends and happy faces while we compare whose got the sweetest sugar cane?
Where has the time gone when we sneak out of our uni to go karaoke on the weekend? Just the 3 of us, Indian, Malay and Chinese?
Where has the time gone when we learnt how to eat with hands for the first time at friend's house?
Where has the time gone when we learn to cook nasi lemak from friend's mom?
Where has the time gone when we learn to cook sardin curry and tosai from friend's mom?
Where has the time gone when we smile at our neighbours and talking to them over the gate?
Where has the time gone when we give away our homemade redang or cake to our neighbours?
Where has the colourless people gone?
Where has the pure heart gone?
Where has harmony gone?
Where has unity gone?
Where has multi-racial gone?
All I see in the news and on the net are bickering each other, dissatisfy of each other, showing who is more qualify, showing unneccessary authorise power, showing who has special privilege and who dont.
I am a Chinese and my best friends are an Indian and a Malay and we known each other for more than 10 years. I have experienced and live the lives of the above.

What Do Chinese Do During Hungry Ghost Festival?

I don't know much about Hungry Ghost Festival and have never celebrate it all my life. Even my family doesn't celebrate it. Although, I think it meant for Taoism and Buddhism. My parents are Buddhist but we never celebrate it so I never know how it works. I believe my grandma celebrates it but she lives in Labuan so I never got the chance to see it too. Anyway, since my mom's getting older, she seems to believe all these. Personally, I don't think she should but what can you say to elderly? Maybe we will be like them when we grew old. Hmm...I don't think I will. I may become more spiritual but not superstitious.

All I know from my mom is that this month is unauspicious to do things like moving house, get marry, renovation etc and she was against me doing all these. As a non believer and non practiser, I did a minor renovation to my house, move in this month, move in my sofa and basically everything my mom said I shouldn't do. Why should I follow as a Christian? I still see my neighbours doing their renovation during this time and it's still difficult to get the contractors to come by my house during this month because they are very busy. I did all these without my mom knowledge, I just want to avoid unneccsary confrontation. Luckily, I have a very sporty and open-minded dad. He's been working overseas for as long as I can remember. Enough said about me.

During the 15th day of 7th month in the Chinese calendar, I see a lot of colourful flags with chinese word on it put up along roads or streets. I see it a lot at Chinese majority suburbs or business areas. I don't know what the flag meant but my sister told me it meant for the ghosts. Is it true? How is it meant for the ghosts? The flags will remain there for 1 month. During this time, some Chinese colleagues will go home early or before darkness fall. I asked them why and they said they don't want to encounter any unearthly spirit that follow them home. They also said during this month the unearthly spirits are more powerful. Well, not every Chinese follow this because when I was in multi-national companys, I have never seen any of my colleagues did such thing. I guess when you're in a typical GLC company, everyone in it is supertistious and orthodox.

Next in the list is I will see an entertainment stage build at Chinese suburbs which majority of Taoism and Buddhism families living there. The stage is quite big and impressive with colourful decoration. I was told this is the time they please the wandering ghosts with entertainment and offerings. There will be performances every night and families will gather to watch the performance. Few years ago I show an opera show on stage when I was on the way home. It was impressive although I only watched for a few minutes. I was told the first row of the seats should be kept empty. It's reserved for the wandering spirits. Now I know why in Canto scary movies ghost appeared in the first row.

Next, it's never steps on the burnt offerings or paper money because it's consider bad luck. Your spirit might step into the under world. Don't eat delicacies used for offerings. I told my friend that should be easy as it's place on the street outside the house but my friend told me some families did their prayers and offerings at their home and family members should not eat food offer to the ghosts. One will fall sick if break the rule. Well, not all are scary during Hungry Ghost Festival. It's also a month where younger generation offering prayers, food and worldly gifts to their ancestors as a respect. The younger generation take time to remember their ancestors and families who have left them. This is a tradition event to some Chinese families.

My DVDs Collection

Yesterday I finally displayed all my DVDs onto the shelf. Hmm..it seems I have 60% free space to fill. I bought the Ikea's tall book shelves to fill my books and DVDs. When I was renting another place, I seem to have a lot of books and DVDs. However, after I arranged all of it onto the shelves, I only used up 45% of the space. Now, I have all the reasons to buy books and DVDs. I'm the kind of person who will repeat my DVDs many times when I wind down at home. Books is cool too where I can read before I go to bed but management, marketing or leadership books I have to read it at my SOHO. I guess it's my principle.

Religion Converting In My Country

My boyfriend is a Muslim and all this years I never agreed to marriage is due to this country's rule on his religion. In Australia, when my friend denounce Islam it's ok. (he's original a Muslim) When he told me I was so surprise because I have never heard such thing as a Muslim change religion in my country. That was many years ago and I was younger but by then my boyfriend and I were already together.

In my personal view, the main reason I don't want to get marry is because I don't want to be convert to Islam. Why should I when I have no faith in the religion. I'm a Christian and in this country only Islam is compulsary to be of same religion (Islam) before one married. In Christian, it's not encourage but it's not compulsary to be converted to a Christian if you're a Buddist. Furthermore, there are so many unclear area in Islam that I fear the religion as a convert. I respect the religion's method of teaching on simple way of life but it ends there. Maybe if I was in Australia, I don't mind convert as I know I have a choice but here, I don't.

I read in the news where a convert who didn't practise the religion anymore have problem when they pass away or when it concerning their will. These 2 things are very important to me and it makes me have less confident in converting. Now, my mind is there's no way I'm going to convert. Recently, our Bar Council held a forum on this issue. For a person like me, this is a good platform for people like me to find answers. Most of us are unclear what will happen to us if thing turn sour. As you know, marriage in this age and time is so different than our grandparents and parents time. It's just a paper. Divorce rate is getting higher each year. I don't have the figure but I have more and more friends who are either single mom or divorced. Mind you, these are all educated people with strong mind and personalities.

However, the forum was being critiscise by Muslim quarters and government. I understand is a sensitive issues but isn't it about time we take things out from under the carpet in 2008? We are no longer in 1954 or 1969. Or is it our mentality hasn't grow according to time? There are so many grey area that I don't know and I have the rights to understand it before I make a decision. But how can I make the right decision if I don't know the pros and cons? I know people will tell me marriage is for lifetime but what if it doesn't? As an educated person, I prefer to know all my options. I believe the forum started as a way to help whose who are in the situation. Yes, it is very sensitive but how about those who are affected? Don't they deserve an answer or assistance? Yet, when the forum was on, Muslim were protest outside to stop it. I personally feel this is very selfish. Those who protest are not convert. Have you see any convert protest? It's time to be more open minded or we will be left behind like some of the countries is middle east. If forum is too big of an issue, there should be a neutral department where people like me can go and seek advice. It should have experts from 3 main religions where I can ask questions and seek answers. What I want is when I go to a meeting room, there will be an expert in christian and Muslim together with me in a room and discuss about my path and future, the pros and cons and what I can do if things didn't go well. Can my children follow me? Last I heard in 2000, children must follow Muslim family. That means my children can't follow me? People like me have a lot of questions but no way to find the answer. No point asking my boyfriend because he can'e give me answers.

Shopping For Levi's

Yesterday evening after work, my friend and I went to KLCC to buy his birthday present. Yup, the present is from me. Since he has help me a lot in my work, this is my gratitude for his efforts. He has bear with my all the moody, weird and fast tempers LOL. So this year, his birthday present is a Levi's jean. Actually, he has been looking for an orignal Levi's jean for quite sometimes. He does wear levi's jean to work but non are originals.



Then last 2 months, he told me about a limited edition Levi's that caught his eyes. It's kinna baggy style. I finally has the photo to show, courtesy of my friend. I guess he loves that jean design very much. But in the end, he didn't buy it. I'm not sure because of the price or because he really thinks that he has to buy suitable shirts, shoes and belts to go with it. One think I admire about him is that he's prudent with money. He said if he has to choose, he won't buy levi's buy use the money to buy another brand of jean that he can get 2 or 3 pair of jean with the same amount of money.

We had our dinner first when we arrived at KLCC. He ordered fried rice while I picked Penang Fried Kuew Tau at level 4 food court. He prefers local food or asian food so his instint of food court is level 4 while mine was level 2. Anyway, we finished our dinner quite fast and the meal was good. The taste was good (I hope I won't get paranoid with health minister's comment on the star today) We made our way to the floor plan board just outside Kinokuniya and locate Levi's store. It's was just 1 floor down. When we reached the store, first thing I noticed is the range weren't much. It has everything in a store but the choices were limited. They don't have the latest collection. Too bad. We decided to go back to Isetan Levi's section because I always show a wide range of choices each time I visited there.

We did a pit-stop at Converse store because I was looking for a new pair of shoes. My Scholl is losing its quality. I just bought my Scholl shoes about 4 months ago and its already has 'open mouth' on the sides. The glued wasn't properly done and this make me dissapointed. I paid about $200 for that pair of shoes in Isetan Lot 10. Don't they do quality check anymore? I lost my confidence in Scholl. Don't buy Scholl guys. Anyway, I didn't get to buy my Converse shoes yesterday but I've survey the price and design.

We reached Isetan Levi's section and my friend asked for the limited edition and luckily there's a last pair and it's his size! I pick up 2 for him to choose and he selected one. When he tried on the baggy style, it look weird on him. Maybe it's true that I never seen it on him so I'm not used to it. One thing I noticed, he lost his butt wearing it. Or maybe you're supposed to lose your butt in it.



Next, he tried on the latest 523 cut. Wow! nice...but he wasn't that thrill because he said this is what I normally see him wear. OK, maybe I am, so what? I prefer man who wear suitable for his size, height and style. He has the height and the length so he should highlight it. I asked him to choose the one he like the most. After he tried for the second time, he decided to go with the 523. Hurray!!! It doesn't cost that expensive because it's made from Malaysia, only $223. Well, I hope he's happy with his choice. Today he wear it to the office. Later I'll bring him and another colleague to lunch to celebrate his birthday.

KekKaishi Animation

This anime is about a 14 year old junior high school boy, who is a descendant of Kekkaishi, or an exterminator of monsters. He took over from his grandfather who was the previous exterminator. He is vying for the heir to the family with Yumikura Tokine. Tokine is older than him, is his childhood friend as well as his rival Kekkaishi. To qualify as an potential heir, they must have the square box mark on their body.



As a Kekkaishi, they must protect a magical land from the evil monsters. It seems the land will increase the monsters strength by multi-fold and it became the prized item for the monsters. Each night, Yoshimori fights against monsters and from the practise make himself stronger. Yoshimori wants to protect Tokine and his new friend Sen. However, Shishio Gen was killed by Kokubourou's man. Yoshimori has set his mind to take revenge for Shishio and stop Kokubourou team. There is a total of 52 episodes and a must watch for anime fan.

Lunch At Nasi Lemak Cikgu

This morning I had a meeting with one of the TV stations in PJ at 10am. The meeting took about an hour and we were on our way back to the office when one of my collegues suggested we have lunch at Nasi Lemak cikgu in Kelana Jaya. I have never heard or even eat there. So unadventurous of me, right?



I was told that the nasi lemak cikgu used to be a road side stall near the Kelana Jaya football field. It was always jammed with cars and people espeically when the players were there. The football players and audiences would eat at Nasi Lemak Cikgu after a game and it become very famous. It was called Nasi Lemak Cikgu because the owner used to be a teacher. So no brainer, right? Why didn't I think of that? Anyway, it seems the football field was later expanded and the crowd has became too huge that it jammed up the road around that area. So the owner move to a shoplot just few meters aways from the field.



When we arrived at the shop, there were only few customers. Maybe because we arrived at 11.45am for lunch. The environment was clean and bright. We order nasi lemak (coconut rice) with chicken. The chicken was just nice. It wasn't salty or hard like most malay stores I visited near my office. The meat was juicy and tender with the taste of spices. The sotong sambal was the star. The taste is a sweet and spicy. The sotong was well cook and the taste of the sambal blend well with the sotong. They compliment each other. Although it look spicy, it's actually quite mild. So for those who love hot and spicy food, this may not be your favourite. However, for those who like their sambal less spicy and want to taste of sambal when you out in your mouth, this is the place. The price is reasonable, altough for me is a bit on the high side. It's RM6 per plate. If you only want normal nasi lemak without the chicken, then it's RM2 per plate. Overall, I will recommend my friends or bring them over for a bite.

Nasi Lemak Cikgu
No 14, Jalan SS5B/2,
Kelana Jaya, Selangor.

How To Communicate With Square Head?

This is the second year it happened. There's a different between a SPM level, Diploma level and a Degree level. Or is it? Maybe there's a different between an MBA level and other qualifications. My my opinion, there is a different ways of thinking level, ability to absorb information and translate it though our human brain. In my company whether you are SPM, STPM, Diploma or Degree level, it'a all the same. They don't understand and don't ask. They say understand but don't understand. They can't think but work like a robot without brain. Why the use of brain when they don't use it to think, evaluate, make personal judgement and all that sort of things you see naturally in a private sector. Can I call them DUNGGU??

Below are a few real life cases. Mind you they do this every year and this the 2nd year they did the same thing under my supervision.

Scenerio 1
Some of the obsolete search titles or headings have been removed from backend since 2006 and 2007. Each year the same process repeated and won't appear. In 2008, it appear and nobody noticed it until I checked. Headings like supermarket, coffee shops etc only require logic thinking when my team QC the listings. If you suddenly saw something that was didn't appeared last year, won't you question or curious? Nope, it was OVERLOOKED. Simple answer by the team leaders.

Scenerio 2
Sending out PDF to branches for their checking. Doesn't anyone know the risk of copyright issue or even leaking of information if you send out high resolution PDF? Free for all? This is not the first time I said and reminded again and again. In fact, this morning I look into a designer and CD face and tell them put low resolution PDF on the server. Yet, when I checked (YES, I HAVE TO CHECK EVERY SINGLE THING AFTER I TOLD, EMAILED, INFORMED AND ALL THAT COMMUNICATION CALL TALKING) it was in high resolution.

Scenerio 3
compile the PDFs (single PDFs) into 1 PDF for easy viewing. Nope, it's still batch by batch, piece by piece. Maybe I should put the single PDF page for all the classified section on the server and let them experience how inconvenience it is.

Scenerio 4
Last minute syndrom. Last year, when manual paginations were done last minute, lack of QC and accuracy happened. Actually their brain can't function if you if them a task that required them to think fast and act fast on it. So there was no QC. They just check everything looks good visually. So we ended up with customers complaints that we print their older version advertisement, wrong company telephone number, wrong headings, missing lisence code etc. You would thought they learnt. Nope, still the same. It has been a month since the sales closed and some of the sections are just merely arranging the listing extracted by IT. Nope, they have to wait and wait until I shouted. For 1 month, all i see in their out tray is cover pages. When deadline is up, then everyone running like chicken. Kelam-kabut. When I finally received the first draft, there were mistakes everywhere. Haven't even think about signatures count and layout arrangement. Yet, I don't see any urgency at all.

This is just 4 examples that happened within this week. No point focus on attention to details. Let get level 1 or level 2 in our KPI beramai-ramai. I really wish I don't be around for the next annual publication. I'm very active in looking for job now. I can't let my reputation spoilt any further with all the donkeys here. I think donkey are smarter.

McDonald's Latest Promo - Gold Medal Meal

It has been 1-2 years since I saw McDonald came up with an interesting gift or collectable item. I still remembered the first time McDonald came up with its teddy bears collection. I think there was 60 of differently dressed bear. I kept it till this very day. Now that I have my own place, I'm going to display it soon. Got to buy a wooden display case first. Have to be custom-made to fit my style.



Talking about McDonald's latest promotion, the Gold Medal meal that comes with a coca-cola glass with embossed sport graphic is quite nice. I'm a coca-cola fan and collector so I'm overjoy with this promotion. I don't think it comes free though, bet the cost is already in the meal we pay. There are 5 sport design glasses to choose from. My personal favourite is the volleyball. I hope I can collect 1-2 of it but don't think I can afford to eat Mcdonald everyday to collect all 5 glasses. Hmmm...unless my colleagues is willing to eat the meal and I get the glass. That would be owesome.



It's great that the tied the promotion to Spicy Chicken McDeluxe meal because it's my favourite now. Each time I go to McDonald, there are already pre-ready so I think there're a lot of customers who like Spicy Chicken McDeluxe too. I ate it as it is without the chilli source and the taste is nice. It doesn't has much of the greassy taaste of deep fried. So psychologically it feels healthier...LOL. The burger comes with quite an amount of cabbage (well, the outlet at my area does). Most important of all, it doesn't have pickles. I hate pickles. Each time I buy burger at burger king, I have to hand-pick the pickles out before I eat my burger.

Furious Friday, Wind down Weekend and Moody Monday

Last Friday ended furiously. Well, it was me feeling furious as a manager. Having open system sometime comes with over-do staff. We are now in our super peak production time where my department has to paginate and finalise the publishing of our 7 books. The sales closed was 30th June and we had parts of the books that required manual pagination. It means designers have to layout the advertisements and information manually using Adobe Indesign. Each year, we would improvise our books to stay on top of competitions. However, it has been a month since sales closed yet I haven't seen the first draft of the manual pagination. My concern that what happened last year will repeat. When things take own sweet rim to complete until last minutes, there're practically no QC. Remember I work in a very less than dynamic company here. They can't think fast enough or adapt to changes quickly. They follow a routine of over 10 years. You give them something new, they take at least 2-3 years to adapt and familise. Sometimes it's more than 2 years because they rememeber the process in first and second year but forget in the third year!

Well, to minimise the incredible high errors rate. What made me hit the roof was to found out listing that were suppressed yearly for the last 2 years, was forgot to suppressed and the data entry staff fail to noticed it during their few rounds of amendments and checking. IT doesn't know how to automate the suppress headings yearly or their routine task during production. Everything has to be remind and highlight and inform. As for the manual pagination, I have to prepare the arrangement since the department in charge has no head and the managers refuse to take the responsibilities and play dumb. No choice but I need the first draft to visualise the whole book and so I can move the pages around to revealed which section and page comes first. 1 month and all i see every day in the tray are the cover pages of the books. The staff goes home early but I seen nothing. I questioned my CD about it. He has this stupid habit of sour-face and angry each time his mistake was pointed out. That morning, some kind of 'draft' was out. But when I checked, it was just copied from last year version and changing the templates. When I told him that his team shouldn't take their own sweet time to finish the work. Some of the sections should have completed at least 2 weeks ago. That evening, his team rush to get the pages done and print out. My CD has the guts to say I 'cepat merajuk'. Am I a manager that doesn't allow to be angry or merajuk when team members make mistakes or very slow in their work? You answer.

I was in no mood for a outing with the team that Friday and went home early. I spent my weekend at home watching DVDs and went to Ikea. I bought the wrong series of Desperate Housewives :-( so I'll watch some of the episodes that I missed in season 3. I'm looking for season 4. Does anyone knows what season we are in for CSI LA and CSL NY? I'm a great fan. Besides that, I'm watching one of latest japanese hits anime. It comes in series so now is series 27-52. Yesterday, I went to Ikea due to the sales. I was quite dissapointed because the sales wasn't on the hot items. Only a few items usual were on sales like rugs, storage boxes, chairs, tables, photo frames etc. Even those are selected items only. Either way, I managed to buy a few stuff for my house. I finally got a contractor who will do my wall mount items from Ikea this weekend. What else, I bought more wall mount items yesterday and some more rugs for the floors. This weekend I need my apartment's cleaner to take away the boxes. Need to find him earlier.

Today I went to work feeling moody. Maybe I still carry the effects of last Friday. No choice, life goes on and I have to face the day the best I can. I don't like people to step my head when I'm nice and think they can get away without doing work or did a half cook work for me.

First we saw that food price multi-fold, now we allow bus fare to increase

RECAP
MIRI: There has been a multi-fold increase in prices of foodstuff and drinks in Sarawak after the fuel price increase two months ago. A random check showed that iced milo and iced lemon tea is now sold at RM2.30 a glass in some outlets compared to the previous price of RM1.50. The price of a bowl of wantan mee had also shot up. In some outlets, dry wanton mee is sold at RM4 compared to RM2.50 previously. A bowl of plain kolok mee is priced between RM2.50 to RM3 compared to RM1.70 before. A plate of economy rice (with two vegetables and one meat) now costs between RM4 and RM5. Only a handful of outlets are selling economy rice at RM3 to RM3.50, which is the old price. Prices of wet market products have also shot up. Pork costs RM15 per kg, an increase of RM3. Restaurants and high-class coffeeshops selling food with pork as its main ingredient have raised prices as well. A plate of char siew rice at a renowned coffeeshop near the city has increased from RM3.50 to RM5.

TODAY
Government says yes to bus fare hike
PUTRAJAYA: The Government has agreed to increase stage and express bus fares but has not decided on the quantum. Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Datuk Noh Omar said the new fares would be announced before Hari Raya in October. Noh, however, shot down the Pan Malaysian Bus Operators Association’s appeal for a 100% fare increase, saying it would be a great burden on the public.

...memorandum from the association was accepted during the National Inflation Council meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on Monday...“We understand their financial problem because prices of diesel, tyre and engine oil have gone up a few times since 2005, while fares have not increased,” he told reporters after presenting excellence award to 68 ministry staff here yesterday...“They said some buses do not want to operate during the festive season because it is only full for a one-way journey such as Kuala Lumpur to Johor and returns with fewer passengers,” he said. Among ideas the Government was studying to help prevent bus companies from incurring losses, particularly when running services to rural areas, was to issue permits for them to transport school children and factory workers...

My View
The global has seen a decrease in fuel prices but our country are not dynamic enough to adjust the fuel price accrodingly. Is it because of the subsidy that make the government having hard time to re-count? I'm sure a group of think-tank should come up with a formula in a short time, right? One after another, our salary has seen little change since the last few years. I understand that prices go up each year. Everything is more expensive compare to my grandparents time. But their increase seem to be in sync with their standard of living and cost of living at that time. Now that I'm an adult, why am I feeling differently?

Although my salary has double since my first job in 2000, but my spending power is lesser than what I have 5 years ago. My saving...well, I can't save anymore. Few years back, I can saved $500-600 a month. Now, my piggy bank is empty. By 3rd week of the month, balance at ATM is $20+. 4th week, skip lunch, eat instant noodles or break for dinner. On the 28th of the month, received my salary. That weekend, buy month groceries before I ran out of cash and buy few DVDs for my monthly entertainment. Comes 1st week of a new month, pay bills, credit cards, loans, rental etc and ATM remain $300-400 for the remaining of 1st week and the rest of 3 weeks. The reason why I spend on DVD is because when I have no money, I stay at home and watch old the DVDs. Value for money. When I watch in cinema, I pay $9 for a movie but if I buy DVDs I can watch it again after few months later. It's also a good gethering with friends over some light snack and we watch DVDs together. cheap and rewarding.

I just received my arrears due to me in my July's paycheck. With that is I cleared all my credit cards. Yup! all. I'm damm angry with the BNM rule of abolishing the 20 days interest free period for card holders who don't settle all their payment. I personally think that credit card are not much different than cash or debit card, I refuse to give BNM the pleasure of getting interest out of me. Now, if I don't have enough cash, I don't buy shoes, clothes, facial, books, etc. In fact, I tell the promoters that economic is pretty bad and I don't have money. When they say I can pay by credit cards or installment, I told them I have to limit my credit card use because of no more 20 days free interest if I owe the bank. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who do the same. It can't be just me, right?

I even took the time on weekends to check what public bus goes to my place and where I can take one. So far I haven't found out the waiting time and traveling time. I bet it's not going to be on time (although I saw a notice board with time table of the buses). I bet the journey will be long due to the inifficient time table. I don't mind the many stops and jam. I can tolerate that because it's part of the journey. I took buses when I was in Melbourne, Sydney, Vancouver and Edmonton. There are all on time, some to the minutes and seconds. My wishful thinking that my country can be at par with them in the next 1-2 years.

Some Of My Furnitures

Some of the furnture I finally bought for my house. There's still more to go but I believe all the necessary items will be completed by end of August. After that, I can move in permanently. Hooray!!



After that, I don't have to trouble my friend whom I'm carpooling now. I felt guilty each time we are late to the office due to me. You see, my area is very jam and it took him at least 15 minutes to get in and out of there. Also, I don't have to tolerate with his temple when he's late.

Finally A Good Night Sleep After Great Massage

I was having body ache for the past few months and it became worse last month. I had to put some oilments on my whole back and hips before I can get some sleep at night. My body was full of 'wind' due to my working style. I face computer at least 9 hours a day in the office and sit at least 8 hours a day. Naturally, my muscles are all stress out and every inch of my body was aching to the max. I was reluctant to go for a traditional massage due to the economic situation at the moment. Money is hard to come by and with the inflation, what I earn now is not sufficient enough. I barely make it thought the month end so the 'wants' factor has to be postponed until economic gets better. Since January, I only spent on my 'needs'.

Yesterday, after receiving my salary, I decided to go for a traditional massage to clear the 'wind'. It costed $60 for an hour massage. Yup, it's expensive. That's the reason I don't go for my massage every month. People like me who face computer and sit at least 8 hours a day will absorb a lot of wind and electro-magnetic into our body. Ever had a static charge when you touch a door nob or your collegue? That's the result. It accumulates in your body and you ended up aching all over and having bad sleep nights. So, I went to the shop after work and the owner called the masseur. It was a small shop selling traditional beauty product and offer traditional treatments such as facial and massage. The massage service was sub-contract to a masseur. When the masseur arrived, we started my session. I later fround out her name was Ida.

I'm the type that can't exit wind on my own. So the masseur must be able to exit wind or else we'll both in pain later. I had so much wind in my body that each touch by Ida, she will burp. She burped all the way until we finihed our session. It felt like a frog singing for an hour. Her massage technique was different from the last masseur. She only massage the muscle points in my whole body. It wasn't that painful either. During the treatment, she told me she provide the service from her home at a cheaper price. $50 for 2 hours! Beat that. What else, I got her numbers and asked her where she lives. I was happy to hear that she lives near my office. Good, I can go for a monthly massage from next month onwards.

Last night, I slept like a dead pig. I think I dosed off by 9pm. When I woke up this morning, my eyes were puffy for the first time since a long time. I felt lighter and fresher too

Does Your Apartment Owner Ask For Rental Before End Of The Month?

Since I moved into a new place May, I find my main tenant will ask for rental before the time's up, before the due date - 30/31st of the month. The main tenant is a couple renting the apartment and sub-rent out 2 rooms. One is me and another to 2 working girls. Call me paranoid but I've been renting apartment for years and this is the first time I encounter such people. People who seems to chase for rental before the time's up. It's not even a delay. At first, I don't feel it but every month end I would receive sms like "pay rental on Thursday. TQ" or while I was cooking my instant noodles, the wife will asked me, "when you'll pay the rental?" I'm the kind of person who panic easily would immediately think, "have I forgot to pay my rental?" or "is it over 30th already already?" because my brain is a bit slower in processing data in panic state. Does anyone experience the similar owner like mine?

Well, I've decided that I will move out when I find a new room to rent at the apartment I stay. The good thing about my apartment is that it has a convenience store and normally tenants will post room for rent at the convenience store. Hopefully i will find something by next month so I can tell the couple I'm giving 1 month notice and I'm moving out. Hope luck is on my side.

Criminal Resort To Robbing Children's Home

What a world we live in. 3 Robbers robbed Rumah Kasih in SS3 in Petaling Jaya, leaving the children in fear and without mode of transport. What worse is that the robbers terrified the young girls with parang. One of the robbers put a parang at a 12-year-old's neck and demand money from the caretaker. What's valueable at an underprivileged girls home? Some of the children hid under their beds when they heard the commotion. In the end, they drove away the home's new van and the caretaker's thali.

Have our family institution fallen to such a low degree? Are we monitoring the incoming of immigrants and foreign workers? Is our system efficient enough to solve the crime? Do we have enough menpower to minimise the crime?

Somehow, I personally feel that we are too lenience when it comes to giving work visa or entry visa to foreigners. There are too many low skills or non-skill workers in our country. I believe with their education and family background, they are the highest group of robbers. Mostly robbers come from broken family, poor family, high school drop-outs or drug addicts. These group are really a pest to our country. Poor family won't remain poor forever if they are willing to help themselves. Giving execuses such as society don't help them is piece of crap. I don't get any help from anyone but I try my best in everything I do. If you don't have self movitation and drive, you can't acheive anything. Mostly, this group has major inferior complex issues. I'm not saying that all immigrants and foreign workers are criminal in the making. But due to majority of the snatch thieves, robbers are foreigners, I have little respect for them. I totally agreed with the large scale campaign to wipe out all illegal immigants from Sabah. Sabah and Labuan are at the worse stage already when it comes to illegal immigrants. I believe you also finf criminal on the run among them too. Governement doesn't has to be soft heart. Look at US and Australia, they are very strict with illegal immigrants. Malaysia should learn from them. I believe if we can kick out 50% of the ilegal immigrants and non-skilled foreign workers from our country, we will see a drop in snatch thieves and break-in cases. Someone we have to be cruel to save guard our home, our land.

F&N Creative Display

Last Friday I went to KLCC with my friend to meet up with our freelancer. At the same time we went for a bit of shopping. When I followed my friend out for a break, I saw a creative display next the KLCC entrance. It was make up of F&N canned drink. Various types of it...From the cans, it became a artwork of a happy family. Although it's not a new technique, but it was nicely done.

Project Petaling Street & Credit Card

Yesterday while I was surfing the net, I found out about this site and saw that many bloggers link their posting to this site. I read some of the blogs and it was interesting. Some of it I will definitely visit again. Many just like me, writing what's on their mind their daily encounters at work place, home, school etc.

Today I found out that my cheque for a freelance project has cleared. Hmmm...now I can clear my credit card. I disagreed witht he BNM ruling which obolished the 20 days interest free for credit card holders who didn't pay full amount. If I can pay full amount of my purchases, then I won't need a credit card, won't I? The word credit itself already spell it out. It's credit facilities that I want. Now that the 20 days interest free is taken off, there's less reason for people to own a credit card because the terms is no different than cash. If I have a comfortable life and enough money to spend, I won't be needing a credit card.

At the point when we are sufferring a CPI of 7.7% (which I believe it's actually much higher than reported banks are making money out of the poor souls like us, the PEOPLE. With average Malaysian owning at least 3 credit cards or more, it will become more of a burden to them with the BNM ruling. The 2nd finance minister said on the press and TV that he will try to discuss with BNM about this issue and would try to stop this ruling, but until today I haven't see any result or any update of the issue. Someone should remind the 2nd finance minister that the PEOPLE are still waiting for the outcome. At the mean time, I have stop using my credit cards, yup I have 3 credit cards, until I clear all the outstanding balance. It will be easier to said than done but I'm determine to clear at least 1 or 2 credit cards. This a start.

Fighting For Survival

Since the depart of my previous CEO, some of the creeps and the lazy bums are showing their tails and fangs again. These group of colleagues (can I still say colleagues even though I want nothing to do with them?) carried the title managers, executives but don't know their work or their field. Example, a Business Developement Manager no nuts about the job descriptions and the function. He just sit there from 8.30am, drinking his chinese tea and go home 5.30pm sharp. Then there's another one who's a marketing manager, who doesn't know much about marketing etc etc. There are a lot of this type of employees in my company. What to do, is a GLC company. You can only re-deploy them to another department but not terminate them 24 hours or with notice. Furthermore, they will no matter how difficult the situation will hold on to their post and their existance in this company.

Car Lost Incident

I joined lunch with my staff just now and found out about a funny incident that happened to one of my designers. Man and Yus normally walks home from work because they live nearby the office. One day, when going home time, Yus offered to send Man home. However, Yus said Man has to follow him back to his apartment and from there Yus can take his car and send Man. When they reached Yus's apartment carpark, he found out that his car is missing. Panicking, he apologise to Man and told him that his car was missing. Yus called his housemates and all of them said they didn't use the car and didn't know where the car. Beganning to worry, Yus asked the guard at the entrance. The guard didn't see anyone drive out Yus's car and he too was worried. Man felt sorry for Yus and offered to accompany him to the police station to make a report. He called one of the designers in the office to update him of the situation. That designer reply, "tell him no need. He left his car in the office..."

Hearing this, Man and the guard laugh their guts out at Yus's forgetfulness. Now I found someone who is as bad as me. I tend to miss up my appointment date.

Hunter X Hunter

Since I'm in the mood for anime today, this one is highly recommended. It's about a good nature boy, Gon Freecs, who lives on a small island learns that his father who he doesn't remember is an extremely famous man and an excellent hunter. Gon was rised by his aunt and decided to find his father at the age of 12. Gon takes the hunter exam to seek out his amazing father. During the first exam phase, he befriended with 3 other candidates, Kurapica, Leorio, and Killua. Gon and Killua became best friends when Killua found out that Gon doesn't judge his background and accepted him as who he is. The 4 friends learn that there is more to becoming a hunter. The test challenges their strength, ctreativity, focus, mind control and many more. The challenges they must face is beyond their imaginations. After 3 phases of exam, Gon and Killua motivate each other and learned to control their inner power more effectively. The episodes end when they enter Greed Island's competition. Greed Island is a reality game created by Gon's famous father and a few friends. Their journey in Greed Island will be in next season. There's suppose to be HunterXHunter Series 2. I hope I can find it in the market.

Hayate The Combat Butler

Last weekend I was watching a new anime. It's not new in the market but I started my anime collections late. I only bought the first season and I heard that there's a second season. I'll try to find it when I have finished this one. In total, there are 58 episodes. The story is about Hayate Ayasaki, a young boy who has to work since 5 years old to support his gambling parent's habit. When his parent ran away after owing a large sum of money to a loan shark, a rich, young girl, named Nagi saved him. In return Hayate became an accidental butler who serves Nagi Sanzenin who is an heiress with a yen for manga. In the Hayate no Gotoku (aka Hayate the Combat Butler) manga and animation series, Hayate finds himself involved in various escapades and adventures due to Nagi's tendency towards drama. Hayate has been trained since very young age to be familiar with a lot of situation and work. His skills come in handy when serving Nagi and handling her daily demands.

Company Policy

This afternoon our group IT deparment has activate the block again. With the block, there are many sites that I can't acccess during working hours. More like while I'm at the office. This took all the full away from working. I always believe that one should be given the freedom to browse to any url as long as one know how to seperate work and net surfing. With the block, I won't be able to access sites such as facebook, youtube, msn etc in the office. Sites that are deem personal relationship and games are not allow. I wonder how one can learn and update oneself of the current technology when many sites are block. Is this how China and Dubai control their people too?

How To Overcome Rising Cost Of Living?

On Tuesday, 15th July, there was a LIVE debate between Dtk Annuar Ibrahim and Dato Shabery Cheek about oil price. According to Annuar, he can reduce the current petrol price of RM2.70 per litre to RM2.20 per litre. A reduction of 50 cents. Of course both of them present the mombo jumbo thoughout the debate and the online version can be view in many sites. However, my topic here is not about discussing politic or my view on the debate. To me there's no benefit for me if I only hear all talk and no action. I will believe when I see result.

So how do I plan to overcome my financial burden in view of the rising cost of living? Not the mentioned I have to spend close to $200 each time I buy groceries for one person. In a few years back, I only spend less than $100 to stock up a whole month's groceries. Now, it is more important to flip though the newspaper to check what's on cheaper sales from hypermarket such as Giant, Cold Storage, Tesco and Carefour. Although I compare the prices, I only buy groceries at Giant, Cold storage and Isetan. All the non-perishable items I will buy at Giant and Cold Storage. However, for perishable items such as beef, onions, button mushroom, potatoes, garlic, fish, Japanese food and etc I will buy at Isetan. How, because in Isetan thses items are fresher and last longer. Example is onion. When I buy onions in Isetan, it stays fresh for 3-4 weeks. However in Giant, the onion on sales there are already near rotten. Besides that, it's difficult to select a good one out of a pile. No doubt the price in Giant is cheaper but I have to throw it away when I can't finish it on time. The one I bought from Isetan will not rotten easily and sometime lasted for few weeks. Therefore, when I buy groceries, I not only look for cheapest price but also freshness and long lasting. That's how I stretch my money these days.

Besides that, I do some freelance work to earn extra money. I'm partnering with my friend who's a great designer. He designs, I manage and service. I have been doing freelancing for many years but it has been on and off kind of thing. I have never taken it off due to planning and locality. Now that I have set up my study, I can concentrate on developing this business. It will be difficult because there are millions of people like me and it's a cut throat market. Some freelancers offer dirt cheap price that is just unreasonable and not even profitable. They probably took the job for some fast and easy cash. I tried that too when I was younger and it goes nowhere. In the end all the hours your put in turn to nothing because the cheap price you offer won't generate any income for rolling. I'm still at the planning stage because it's the most important part of the business. I prefer to get my foundation right and dynamic change according to market trend later.

Other than that, I'm selling the jewelly beads I made to friends and acquaintances. It's still slow but all business has to starts somewhere. I still haven't have time to upload my beads projects here. Main reason is because I'm still lazy in taking photos of the beads work and upload it. I'll see if I have the mood to do it this weekend. If not, we'll just have to wait a bit longer.

Instead of eating outside everyday, I resort to cooking at home. Altough cooking at home means instant noodles for dinner on weekdays. On weekend, I make sure I cook a 2proper meals. I stay near a hypermarket so I will buy the ingredient such as vegetable, chicken, taufoo fresh. I also started to learn some recipes from the cook books I have. I love to cook so I collect cook books and I use the rebate from credit cards to buy cook books. Everyone I know don't believe that I can cook or I like to cook. I can't blame them because I am a workaholic and queen control. Furthermore, I normally share my cooking with my sister and 2 other friends only. I plan to learn how to bake cakes, muffins and cookies. If it's any good, I plan to sell it. Of course I can't just sell it. My plan is to give it away as gifts to friends in first order or make. Then, the next order they will have to pay. I haven't decide on the price yet but I don't intend to charge a rocket for it. Everyone is having financial burden and the only way to get people to continue spending money is to charge a reasonable and affordable price.

Lastly, I started to take LRT and buses where possible. LRT is fine because I can still control my travel timing. Bus is when I have a lot of time to kill or the bus is already available when I arrive at the station. If not, I will use taxi. I hope taxi fares will not goes up. That will drastically impact my financial. Well, these are my ways to overcome the rising cost of living.

Another Interesting Craft

I just saw another interesting bead work from Craftbits. This a bling ring and in that page, there is an easy instruction accompany with photos of the bead making steps. I must upload my bead projects soon. Moreover, I better look for my craft box so I can jump start my craft passion again.

The Urge To Improve

Today I received a call from from new CEO, well more like the caretaker until we have a new CEO. My CEO called because he found out that one of our directories, Malaysia Tourist Pages has an minor graphic error. Finally, the call came to production seeking amendment. I can still recalled last year when our book became overnight infamous due to the excort ads and a media station went under cover to investigate those companies advertised in MTP. It make into the prime time news and the ministry and management called me to rectify the problem. In the end, we had to pull back all the books, take out the ads and reprint the pages and manually paste into the books. It was a tedious work that involved a lot of manpower.

Unfortunately, this the same execise will repeat. There was a graphic mistake in the book and my CEO wants to rectify it. The solution: print the correct graphic in sticker format and everyone in the company will stick on top on the error. It will be a sticking day again. Gosh...The error shouldn't happened if my designer didn't change the graphic last minute. He just has to change the graphic after the proofing stage. Due to his careless mistake, it will cost production extra. My designer has a weakness in attention to details. There is a mindset that designer only focus on design details. As a designer, he should put attention to details in all aspects, including the graphic, icon and text. When I mentioned text, I refer to spelling error, puntuation error and so on. Each time I told him about this, he feels that I'm nagging him. Well, now that there's a mistake in MTP, I let him find solution. He has to look for quotations for the stickers, the PRF and the printing of stickers. Then he has to get the staff to help with the sticking. Hopefully, he will learn his mistake and be more responsible next time. He has to accountable for his work.

Talking about improve, I plan to take up my MBA in the coming intake. It's long overdue and initially I wanted to do it overseas. However, looking at the current economic situation and my financial, I decided to pursue it locally. I plan to pursue it at Nottingham University Malaysia Campus. It's located at Chulan Tower so it quite convenience for someone like me who doesn't own a car. YUP, I rely on Malaysia's public transport to travel from one place to another. I'm the minority.


There will be a preview on the 23rd July at 7pm and I'll be attending it. The MBA will cost me RM46,000 in fees. At the moment, I have no means or ways to get this ammount. However, I believe if there's a will, there's a way. I did it before when I pursue my bachelor degrees and when I bought my house recently. No doubt it will be much tougher in the financial part as I'm still fresh in the house loan part. I just finished my renovation and purchase few basic furnitures. Now, I plan to add on more financial burden to myself. One may thinks I'm crazy, or ask me to wait. I'm different. I don't wait until I'm comfortable because it won't happen or I'll become lazy. I will definitely try to find ways to earn extra income and save up more. Although with the super high inflation cost, I'm unsure how I cam save.

My mind is made up and there's no turning back. I will have to sit for TOFEL test too. Everything involve money and money is never enough. How I wish someone or some company will sponsor my MBA. Wishful thinking. I have to improve myself or I will be out of the market. Lifelong learning is a must and good for the brain and heart. Working in a stressful place, study is an enjoyment and escape for me. Maybe that's why I have a lot of books at home and my study room is the first to fully furnished. Altough I still haven't add the deco touch on it yet. Reading borden my mind and general knowledge. This is something most Malaysian lacking. Many do read but only lifestyle magazines and not serious books or novels.

I can still spend a bit to qualify for the RM1k rebate in the annual income tax. Talking about income tax, government should lower income tax to ease the people's burden in view of the rising cost of living and inflation.