10/18: Okay, my job caught up on me, need to work even on weekends. Well, let me continue blogging on my trip. Sorry guys!

Monday, March 30, 2009

My Plan When Homeless

Do you remember this? Unfortunately the renovation is starting, now the living has transformed from like this 

to like this.

 

So, where should I be spending my few days when the renovation continues till my room?

 

Here’s the plan:

The gym at my workplace opens at 7am and close at 9pm everyday, even public holiday. 

Usually during the opening or around closing time, there will be less people around. 

So every morning, I shall use the shower place for a nice warm bath, and get ready for work. 

Then I will pretend to walk into the office as if I have just arrived work late (around 8.30am – 9am). Every evening, I shall do the same and get myself ready for bed.

 

So, where should I be sleeping?  Luckily my workplace opens 24 hours everyday, so I shall ‘borrow’ a conference room. 

To prevent the guards from disturbing, I shall put a note outside, saying important meeting is going on. This should keep the guards from knocking the door, disturbing my sleep. J 

I get comfortable easily, just a pillow will do. The cool temperature from the air-conditioner is a bonus!

 

Not bad of an idea, huh?

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Are You That Actor on TV? (Part II - I'm Spiderman!)

Since I got mixed comment for my previous entry, I tried to play around with MyHeritage website to see which celebrities looked like me.

 

The first one was cool! I looked like Tobey Maguire, the actor that played Spiderman the movie…weeeee! 

The second photo was okay too, a sloppier-looking Tobey Maguire. Not bad! 

The third photo was a girl! Damn! 

Hey it was almost the same pose as the second! Does Tobey Maguire looked like Zhang Ziyi also? Nope!

Are You That Actor on TV?

It was around 4pm. I was strolling at Queensbay Mall hunting for my ‘brunchea’  (breakfast + lunch + afternoon tea), where I saw 2 pretty girls walking in front of him, whispering to each other while kept turning back their heads. I sort of overheard one of them saying “Is it him? It must be….”

 

Suddenly they stopped and turned around facing me. One of the girl (the cute one) asked me, “Are you the guy on TV?

 

I was shocked and froze for a while. I had not watched any TV shows for quite sometime, and the first thing that crossed my mind was Malaysia started to have those candid camera shows that had caught me doing some stupid stuff on TV.  I panic. My first response was “No, no, no, you got the wrong guy.

 

The other girl (prettier one) tried to reassure “ Are you sure you are not the actor, ‘blah blah blah’ (didn’t catch the name) that starred in ‘blah blah blah’ (I was in panic mode, didn’t catch the show name either)?

 

I was relieved a bit because she mentioned ‘actor’. I answered cheekily but honestly, “If you like that actor, I would like to be him but sorry I am not”.

 

I then introduced myself and managed to get their names – Angie and Yik Hung (雨虹). We exchanged numbers but it didn’t cross my mind to take a picture with them (Still recovering from panic mode) before we parted ways.

 

But seriously, do I look like some guy on TV? Let me try to display my photo and you tell me. Maybe that actor only acted on a small portion on that particular show - maybe those janitors sweeping the street that had a few seconds of fame.

Don’t think I would be calling them up, but this was the second time I knew pretty girls from odd situation. The first one was when I was having coffee with Dreckker at a hotel in Kuching (if not mistaken, the hotel was called ‘Holiday Inn’). It was after midnight and my flight to Penang was in the afternoon. 3 girls who were sitting in front of our table requested the waiter to pass a note to me.

 

The note was written “Are you Sean?” Obviously, they had gotten the wrong guy. So, being a gentleman, I walked over to introduce myself, while leaving Dreckker sipping his lonely coffee (He grumbled to me after that). I could not remember their names but we exchanged numbers after our short chat. I never called them up, even forgotten which numbers belonged to them (should be still stored in my phone).

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Human Resource (HR) Screwed Up

* This was supposed to be a confidential stuff. But unfortunately I managed to get my hands on this, don't ask me how. Someone might force me to remove this entry. At the meantime, read it while still available.*

The economy crisis is really getting into the head of everyone. Some people are so worried that they start losing focus on their jobs.

 

There was one company in Bayan Lepas, Penang where the Human Resource (HR) department did a pretty funny thing. It might be wrong press of a button, or it might be accidentally adding everyone in the company into the mailing list or maybe it was an early April fool joke for the one getting fired; but an email of such was sent out.

 

Moments later, the email was recalled, but the damages had been done. Everyone in the company knew who was going to be retrenched. I could not imagine how that particular guy felt. It was like a virtual surprise party but the message was “You are fired” instead of “Happy Birthday!”

 

Later the IT department manager was called into the HR office. He was being persuaded to develop a virus to remove that particular email!

Friday, March 27, 2009

Why? Why? Why? (An Unfair World)

Why non-smokers contract lung cancer, whereas smokers are still puffing happily at the age of 70?

 

Why non-drinker suffers from liver cancer; whereas drunk parents are getting ‘high’ and causing the death of their baby?

 

Why some people got contracted with AIDS for no reason; whereas those who go for prostitute, or maybe too poor for that and start ‘screwing’ bottles still could live till 77?

 

Why do innocent girls kept falling for “mouth-sweeten” playboys, whereas good guys still spending Valentine’s Day alone?

 

Why those who practices bad things go unpunished; whereas those who do good still suffer from chain of unfortunate events or even die young?

 

Why hard workers are still struggling at the lowest corporate pyramid, whereas those ‘bullshitter’ or ‘orbiter’ (they ‘suck balls’) are being promoted and having good life?

 

Lots of people are asking me these questions lately. I too ask myself these questions very often. But I just don’t have the answer. Are we living in a fair world? Is the secret of life is being bad to live well? Where is justice? What is Karma? What is Life?

Reaching for Support (Donation for Yvonne)

Update 27/3 5:05pm: Funeral details - 9.00am on 29th March 2009 (Sunday), refer to map for location.

Update 27/3 7:35am: Received an sms msg: "Yvonne has just passed away." 


Earlier this month, I got to know from Lessy that her friend cum colleague, Yvonne Leow suffered from Lymphoma cancer which name as Burkitt and currently in stage 4. She was just 30 years old, but currently under intensive care unit of Penang GMC hospital.  This really saddens me, why this is happening to her at such young age, where she has just started a family.

 

Surfing through the blog that is updated by her husband everyday, I can’t help it but feeling moody. I look at myself, all those bad lucks I am suffering could not compare to this, not even a little bit.

 

Although I don’t know Yvonne, I sincerely hope that she could recover soon. Hope she would continue fighting and not giving up the slightest chance! That is I tried to my very best to help. Currently, Yvonne’s medical bill has exceeded her medical coverage and there are 2 ways to help out – Making blood donation to Penang GMC blood bank under her name, and every donation could help deducting RM50 from her medical bill; or make monetary donation.

 

Since I consider my blood as dirty and full of bad cholesterol, I opted for monetary donation instead. Today, with the help of some colleagues, we managed to collect some money to pass to Yvonne’s husband. But still, I don’t think I have done enough to help out. Therefore, I try to blog this out, hoping to get more supports from everyone out there. For all kind hearted people out there, if you are interested to place some support, you could always make donation to the account below. Yvonne’s full name is Leow Ying Won; and her husband’s name is Anthony See Chaur Yih.

Maybank Account: 557175410230

Name: See Chaur Yih

Tel: 0164044321

For Penangites, you could always go to GMC Blood Bank to do donation under Yvonne’s name (Leow Ying Won); but remember to schedule an appointment before going there.

 

I don’t know why I am so involved in this, especially for someone I don’t even know, maybe because I felt the warmness when someone expressed their supports when I was laying half dead, suffering from Herpes Zoster Virus. Maybe because someone really helped me a lot that time till I wish to spread out this act of kindness.

 

For now, I wish everything goes well for Yvonne….

Thursday, March 26, 2009

My Life Coach (updated)

Update 26/3 12:50pm: 'Chicken' purposely called me up to add in the advise from one person.


A few days ago, I watched ‘Yes Man’, starred by Jim Carrey. It was a really motivating movie!

The message that they tried to deliver was “Never say ‘no’ to an opportunity”. I made me want to try something else in life and explore all possibilities that life could offer. Then I remembered that I too had some life coaches. Their words shall always be kept in my mind my whole life. 

To be fair, I would state the good life coaches and bad ones. 

Good Coach:

Benny Sng, my volleyball coach during Secondary School:Life offers a lot of stuff. Dare to try everything, good or bad; just don’t get addicted

 

Yap HM, my work mentor: “It’s either the environment changes you or you change the environment; why not try to be the active one”

 

My Dad, indirectly taught me: “There is a solution to everything, all you need is just use your brain. Nothing is impossible! Be creative!”

 

Bad Coach:

Daniel, one of my best friends: “To improve your alcohol intake limit, all you need to do is just drink and drink and drink until you puke. Then you would be better next time.”

 

My 'Chicken' friend on smoking (see whether I could piss him off by this): “All you need to do is ‘tarik’ and then ‘tarik’ again!”

 

Ting, one of my primary school friends indirectly taught me: “Gamble? When you lost the first time, double up! If lost again, double up the total again and again and again……” (Don’t ask me what have happened to him)


(just added) Another of my closest friend: “Say no to prostitution! Say yes to illegal massaging outlets run by those pretty China girls with super extra services”


Hope some of my words do give people good guidance because sometimes i talk a lot. Hopefully they don't remember the bad ones =p

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Thank You, Readers!

I had received people saying that they liked my blogs, but never once I saw people leaving comments on other’s blog saying so:

Since I could not contact him to thank her personally (the address showed a dead link). Therefore I would like to express my gratitude to her as well as all the readers and friends out there for letting me share my comments, words from the heart or even scolding towards some people. Thanks a million, you know who you are!

 

With this, I would be fighting for more privileges just for my readers! Again, thanks a lot!

Free Haircut

I planned to go to gym yesterday but when I reached my car I realized that I had forgotten to bring my gym bag along. Since I was too lazy to walk back to office looking embarrassed, I decided to go for a free hair cut at Quickcut, Queensbay Mall. The hair cut should be free because I had accumulated 4 stamps as required for the free haircutting.

 

Last time when I just came to Penang, I did not know of any barber or hairstylist in this island. Before then, I only had my hair styled at one particular shop in Kuching. It was a family shop where my father and brothers went there in groups for haircuts. Most of the time my hair was cut by a mentally unsounded man. Seriously! Just to correct your imagination, he was not as dangerous as this.

 

He was good, really good! Although once a while when he was cutting my hair, he tried to read something from the bible as if he was styling someone possessed by evil spirit; or related his swimming experience while scooping my hair; or sang a song happily while once a while clapping his hands. But it was nothing to get worried of, my hair was still in good shape, nothing compared to this:

 

So, back to not knowing any good hairstylist in Penang, I chose Quickcut because the stakeholder was a celebrity, an almost bald celebrity – Eric Tsang.

 

The funny thing was that I thought his baldness was a result of wrong hairstyling experiment. That was why he ‘erased’ his hairstyling error by balding them! So I thought he would be teaching his employees to follow his footstep and not trying new style on the customers before successfully trying it on themselves.

 

The problem with me was I am a very loyal person, when I set my eyes on one thing, I would not change my mind. Since my first experience was good because they were fast and met my expectation, I had never been to other places for haircut. As for hair style, I always stick to ‘Spiky’ although in Kuching they called it ‘Monkey Cut’ (Maybe monkeys in Kuching used this style) or ‘Gay Cut’ (Now you know why gay friend and gay-gay friend are attracted to me). 

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Smoking Pregnant Mother

Trust me, I have nothing against smokers.  For me, if you smoke responsibly by isolating yourself against non-smokers, I would be respecting you at least; because you know you are harming yourself instead of others.

 

When I went to have my lunch at Dome Queensbay Mall, I saw a pregnant mother bringing along her small kid, puffing at the smoking area. Sorry about the blurry photos because I was sitting quite far.

 


I was really angry at this kind of mother. I know being a mother is a stressful job but if you want to get pregnant, don’t smoke! If you want to smoke, don’t get screwed without protection! Don’t you know that you are harming the baby?!! How to distinguish you from those parents that abuse their kids?! You are harming your very own fresh flesh and blood even before birth! What kind of mother are you?!! Some more she was bringing her own kid to breath in her second hand smoke!

 

Yeah, I know it was someone’s else problem, but I really could not stand it! Maybe she wanted to create a smoked yogurt flavor kind of breast milk for her baby or kid (There was a research proving that a mum’s diet could flavor her milk)!

 

If I caught my wife (if I ever have one in future) smoking or drinking alcohol during her pregnancy period, I would surely disown her, no matter how much I love her!

 

Please please please smoke or drink responsibly….. 

Monday, March 23, 2009

Proof: Engineer is Poor

Long long time ago, Engineer is considered as a highly respected and well-paid job. Now it is really a different case. Lots and lots of engineers get retrenched in Malaysia. I guess it is no longer considered as a high paying job now. Let me try to show some proofs by comparing me to my peers:

 

This is what is currently driven by my close friend, a Research Analyst.

 

How about my IT Director friend? Honda Civic 2008!

 

He is considering switching to Mercedes some more.

 

My doctor friend is driving a BMW currently.

 

And my friend who graduated with the same engineering course as me but decided to turn pilot has bought a Volkswagen Golf GTI.

 

As for me (an engineer) and my boss’s boss ; we are still settling with a national brand.

 

To make thing even worse, my boss’s boss who wanted to do an expensive tinting on her Proton was response with a big laugh by the tinting guy because the tinting might cost more than her car!

 

Engineering is really a poor job. L

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Buffet at The Golden Triangle @ Queensbay Mall

It was the eve of my brother’s birthday. Just in case my brother had some plan on the actual day, I decided to treat him for dinner on Saturday. He suggested the Golden Triangle at Queensbay Mall after seeing the promotion advertisement.

 

The first impression was not that good because the restaurants worker was not Malaysian, seemed like from either Vietnam, Laos or Thailand; because I told him that we her made some reservation and she looked at me with ‘question mark’ on her forehead. I then said booking then she understood. But this proved that the restaurant prepared actual food originated from these places!

 

The environment was quite good but sadly it seemed that no much people knew the existence of this place!











Arming ourselves with plate, spoon and forks, we were ready for food.

 

These were the menus for the buffet. There were some strange food names like ‘Choo Chee Fish’, ‘Namprik Kapit’ and ‘Papet Prawn’; but we decided not to take the risk. J

 




We later realized that the food actually came in the portion of 2! Luckily we did not double the quantities.

 

The juice was made fresh but sadly there were only 3 choices, pineapple, umbra, watermelon; my bro picked umbra.

 

So, these were what we ordered:

 

Deep Fried Spicy Soft Shell Crabs, not really spicy but very crunchy!

 

Tempura Fried Sotong, I thought this was Japanese stuff? A Japanese who lived in Thailand created this?

 

Thai Curry Powdered Prawns, I realized Thai Curry was also not spicy, unlike Malaysia ones. But look at the size of the prawns! And the prawns were fresh too!

 

Seafood Otak-otak in Coconut. Usually when we ordered this outside, there was no proof of it being cooked in coconut; maybe they cooked in coconut essence or artificial coconut flavoring. This was the real stuff! And look at the content inside – Prawns and Sotong (Calamari)!

 



Tom Yam Seafood Soup, okay, this was a real spicy stuff! I ordered another glass of water just because of this! There was no shortage of ingredient inside.

 


Sotong in Spicy Thai Sauce, still not that spicy, but it tasted good!

 

We ordered a plate of Belacan Fried Rice because some of the dishes really need accompanied by rice. Or maybe we as Asian could not live without rice!

 

As for desert, we took risk and ordered ‘Thap Thim Krop’! It was a water chestnut cooked in coconut milk, not bad!

 

Looking at the menu posted on their website, the restaurant workers should hate us! We ate so much! But honestly, it was a great buffet! Would be visiting there next time! If there was no such promotion after today, yeah, you could blame me and my brother!