Chicken Soup For The Twisted Mind

In this world, nothing is straight forward and like what it seems to be ~ unknown

My colleague, SL has been pestering me to become his model after he bought a special lens attachment for his SLR.

Kinda flattering actually, being asked to model and all that but on second thought, who am I kidding. Of all the people in the office, he chose me?? Mesti ada udang di sebalik mi..

So when I ask him about it later.. he said that my head is perfect for the picture that he want to capture…round and hairless… wtfbbqdvddongchinchiang!$@$@

When he show me the new me.. I was speechless…

First shot was kinda dumb. I don’t even know what expression should I make..

OMG!! First thing that come into my mind was this… Big Head Dog!!!

It’s been real hectic and dull lately.

The change of job doesn’t make it better as suddenly the world economy goes cuckoo and turns everybody life goes upside down.

Despite the fact me and my beloved have a chance to go on our annual KL tour last weekend, it doesn’t really pull down the blues at all as we couldn’t ease our mind from our jobs, nor can we goes on a mindless shopping spree like we used to. 

No prize for guessing where this is..

This Saturday, my gf have to work and I manage to get some time off for myself in the public library. Really, it’s kinda therapeutic for me to be among the crowd where nobody knows you and you don’t know anybody. But only in a quiet place like a library. I think my gf also have this kind of therapy session, but it’s during her shopping spree.. hehe

After her work, we have nothing to do and she don’t wanna hit home that early, so we went to a spot where we haven’t visited in ages. The famous Bukit Mertajam Mengkuang Dam, which is famous only in Bukit Mertajam. That’s why you haven’t heard of it before.

It’s a dam where peoples like to jog around the dam and some just like to picnic beside the dam. I took a pretty nice picture using my handphone. It’s a scenery of a father and daughter feeding the fish in the dam.

Definitely a picture worth to paint. And I would call it, ‘Rememberance’.

I was browsing through the photo taken by my handphone when I come across this picture that I drew for KK as a memento as I know I was going to leave Aident that time.

I bought a DVD called ‘Ashes and Snow’ by Gregory Colbert. Every scenery in the artistic documentary just took my breath away and one of the scenes looks like this;

It’s a wonderful DVD by the way, but it’s a collectors item (mean cannot borrow lar..hehe)

My boss is a fans of Hippopotamus, but I’m not sure why. In his office room, you will see all shorts of memento of hippo, from the paper weight to the paper clip holder. All Hippo. Lucky there’s none of the existing superhero is of Hippo origin, if not sure got the Super Hippo action figure in his room.

Well, back to the painting. I was hatching an idea of sketching an ‘Ashes and Snow’ for him, but with a twist.

I replaced the elephants in the original Colbert’s with two hippo instead. What? My hippo looks like a woman with a big butt??  I admit it, after so many years of not drawing anything, my sketching skills has become rusty. At least I can proudly say that I drawn a Hippo that looks like lady with big butt.

The finishing stuff. Must find time to sharpen my skill again.

This morning I woke up as usual (meaning I’m not dead yet), and first thing that need my important decision is ..what I should have for breakfast. Should I have my mamak breakfast, hokkien mee or what. Then I decided to get a cheaper solution, cook my own instant noodle. Petrol price increase, have to be more money conscious these days. I cooked myself a nice assam laksa instant noodle with a cup of coffee.

What do you mean you don’t know petrol price increase?? You must be either living in a cave or you walk and cycles to work.

Malaysian government has been stop subsidizing petrol to her beloved citizens and thus the increase in petrol price. Then they do something more absurd, by rebating the subsidy through a claim of money when you renew your roadtax. Why rebating through roadtax and not use the money straight for subsidizing the petrol, if they have the money for the rebate in the first place? I get this email the other day, which stated that Pos Malaysia in under a company called ECM Libra..and is owned by..Khairy Jamalludin?? Every Money Order being processed in the Post Office will have a small amount of processing fees..and that goes to him.. is this true?? SIgh~

Bruce Willis once said in the movie Armageddon, "You all are the genius in NASA, in US government, this is the only farking solution that you can think of". Okay, maybe he didn’t say it that way, but I totally agree the way he speak and I would like to divert them to our own government. Come on, this is a country, not a small company that you can toyed with.

Maybe it’s really unavoidable for the petrol price increasing, but they should handle them like a pro, and not with every decision they make, even monkeys feels amused by it.

Same amount of money, less 40% of the petrol.

The petrol price around the world has been increasing since ten years ago.  The reason range from  war in the  petrol producing nations such as Kuwait and Iraq, world economic inflations to the natural disaster such as the Katrinas that ravages the oil refinery in New Orleans.

The price hikes causes a lot of headache to everybody.

From our science class, we know that petroleum is a non-abundant source of energy that will be used up one day, especially with the rate we are using them.

One nation that is gargling them at a tremendous speed would be China. Imagine ten years ago, where we said mostly China people cycles to everywhere they go. But today, the traffic jam caused by the car there is so great that it become a topic that everybody  talk about after they came back from China. Development has it’s downside too.. that’s what I mean.

Hybrid cars would be a good solution to this, although it can only halved the problem, and not solving it. Hybrid cars run on both electricity and petrol, and may alternating between both, thus the saving in petrol consumption. The car is not popular in Malaysia due to its expensive price as Proton haven’t make one. Imagine we bring in hybrid cars at a cheap price and non of our national car is hybrids.. there goes the Proton and Perodue shares. According to a rumours i heard, we will have our first National Hybrids in five years time. Five freaking years!!

Prius, Toyota’s bestselling Hybrids.

It’s a luck that I get to change job before the price hike. Imagine going through all that traffic jam on the bridge. How much money I’ll need to fork out monthly from my salary just for the petrol alone. Don’t think the ex-company going to compensate for that if I’m still in there. Everything happens for a reason I guess.

That’s was all ran through my thought this morning when I was having my instant noodle. Then I have a sip of my coffee..huh.. weird, how come my coffee taste salty? Have another sips…yucks..really salty.

Then i have a flash back. I rose from my seat and go to check out the sugar container. Darn.. I mistook another container and put a huge chunk of salt into my coffee. Bleargh!!

As KK said, Live at the moment. When you eat, eat. When you sleep, sleep. And when you prepare coffee, pay attention to preparing the coffee. Don’t think of other things. Namaste.

Today is Wesak Day, which mark the day when Prince Siddharta Gautama first meet the world, attainment of Buddhahood and the passing to the Nirvana.

And I’m not in a celebratory mood.

Since a few weeks ago, when our neighbouring country, Myanmar being hit by the cyclone, i was like..WTF?? Cyclone..in an ASEAN country?? We are being hit by typhoon once in a while, that’s normal. Hit by flood, lagi normal.

Cyclone? That’s something new to me. Everybody said the weather is changing. Well I can tell you for sure, this is definitely cause by global warming. I would bet my dog’s life on it!!

By the third day of the disaster, there is already some relief effort going on where volunteers from all around the world want to go in to help. But not so fast, said the Myanmar ruling body, the Junta. In case you don’t know, Myanmar is being ruled by a military body known as the Junta, and it is this government that imprison Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy champion in Myanmar.

Efforts to deliver food, medicine and emergency supplies have been
hampered by Myanmar’s military government, which has seized some relief
shipments and refused to allow foreign aid workers into the country. Why, why would they refuse help..you ask. Myanmar has been in political turmoil prior to the disaster. The Burmese has been wanted to overthrow the military government during the coming election. So it is this time that the military would want to seized the chance of being the good guy, distributing all the  food donated to the Myanmar  through their own channel. They have cut all contact with outsider so that the people would think that it is the military helping them when they need help the most.

If only the military really have all the effort to help out. According to U.N, the children in the affected area would die from starvation and malnutrition unless being given the necessary help. What kind of sick bastard is that, rather seeing their own citizen dying, just to stay in power. Sigh~

And the condition is getting worse when Sichuan in China being hit by the worst earthquake in decades. All the initial relief effort to Myanmar has been transferred more than half to China. So, Junta, you are out on your own now. Please have mercy on your people and open the door for people to help those in need!!!

In China, everyday is like a battle. My heart sank when I watch the news. I used to listen to KK’s speech on how you cannot bring all your wealth into your grave. I do agree with that, but I really comprehend what that really means now. Imagine this.
You are some big shot in your company with good salary. Have big house, good family and so on. Just at a spur of moment, all that gone. You will have time to grief for the dead one, and then you will have to think, how will you going to survive. Yes, you may have help for food and so on..but you will still need to take the next step to stand up from the debris of disaster. That’s the most important and hardest of all.

I have heard people said that the earthquake that hits China is because of their arrogance towards Tibetan pleas for independence. Cause and effects. Please, as a Buddhist, do not ever utter such a word. The people of Sichuan
never ask for this kind of thing in the first place. The area is in such a remote location that I even wonder they ever heard of Tibet. This is a natural disaster that nobody would want.

A lot of heroic and sad story I have heard and read from the disaster.

One great teacher used his own body to shield four of his student when the school collapse on them. All four students were rescued, but the teacher is already dead when the debris hit them.

One mother tried to console her months old baby and even breast feed the baby. Both were found dead.

One mother used her body to protect her kids. Texting by using her handphone to let her kid know how much she love him/her. The mom is dead and the child was rescued.

One man trapped under the debris and cannot be pulled out as the leg was being crushed by the building. The rescuer cannot reach for the guy to saw off the leg so they pass him the saw to do it himself.

When you hear story like these, you will not be in a celebratory mood at all. I have only love and compassion for those in need. Please, please do your part in helping out those in need.

I pray for world peace and for those unfortunate, please be brave as help is on the way. Please stay alive a little longer. Make some noise for the rescuer to hear you.
Your survival will makes the world see another light. Namaste.

Month of May, 2008 is indeed a colorful, complicated, full of hope and despair for me.

My gf birthday falls on May, Mother’s Day fall on May, lucky I need not celebrate Father’s Day, and three of my close friends chose this month out of other freaking 11 months to tie their wedding knots. Congratulation on your wedding anyway, Ai Bee, Tlaysie and Yoke Ling. (Sorry guys, these ladies are taken.)

Wonder how will I look in my own wedding photo..hmm…

May also show a major change in my career, where again, I’m given the offer to pursue for greater things.

After more than half a year in Brady, I’m back working in Bukit Minyak, yes, in my old factory. I tender my resignation on 9th of May (my gf’s birthday) and shown the exit in 24hours notice. This is because Aident and Brady can be consider as direct competitors.
I’m honest during my resignation, where I told my manager straight that I’m going back to competitor.
Why I do this is because I respected all my fellow colleagues. Previously when I was offered a job in Brady, I have kept this from all my colleagues, even those who are very very close to me. And to tell you the truth, the feeling is not good at all. You have to come to face to face with them everyday for one month. How betray would they feel when they know you are going to a competitor?
And I told myself, this should never be happen again. Which is why I did what I did.

Although my 24 hours resignation, there’s is still speculation going in Brady where I’m accused to be the spy sent to Brady by Aident.
Well, I will not say I didn’t anticipate this. When I first came to Brady, I was pointed with all sorts of name in Aident too, betrayer, 25 kia.. blah blah..
Although it does not feel good to be branded with those negativity, but lucky I’m not one easily put down by other point of view.

Why should I be worried about what people think of me because I know they will think of themselves more most of the time?
If everybody can think that way, one Megan Meier would be safe.

And whatever those pessimistic low life called me, please believe in your own opinion. Do I look like a spy to you??
How could you become so friendly with me at one time but straight side with the other when rumors on me surface?

What touch me the most from the whole episode is that my ex-colleagues in Brady do stand up for me, and even manage to do a small farewell for me after my departure.

If you look close enough, you will see all the guys are wearing spectacles while the gals are not. Hmm..point to ponder.

The important question will be why I chose to leave. I’ll not talk the nature of my work in Brady, as it is consider confidential now. But travelling everyday to the island while braving through the traffic with your eyes half close and half open is definitely not a good idea.

The call from Aident HR manager come in a few weeks earlier.
FL has been on the sabbatical for two months and just return to work. Although tired from the work in Brady, going back to Aident is not a good idea at that moment. Although I did think of looking for a new job then, but it’s not that fast as I’m only in the new job for half a year. And going back to Aident definitely is not my first choice due to several reasons. I told her I would think about it but in my heart I have already thinking of turning down the offer. After two days of dragging for my feedback, I told her that I would send an email to her and KK (Aident CEO) on my decision.

I emailed out my decision of not rejoining Aident at 12.30am because I know the email will not be opened until late in the morning. And then at 12.35am, my handphones start to ring.
At 12.35am in the freaking morning, where everyone else is asleep, my CEO called me. He asked and answered all my questions, and after coaxing for half an hour, I finally gave in. It’s either I’m too easily coaxed or the CEO is a master of convincing. Well, I think it’s both, which is what makes it lethal.

I’m in dilemma since that fateful night.
On one hand, I still have unfinished projects in Brady, and my senior is four to five months pregnant (I didn’t really keep track). She will need somebody to back up her work when her time for labour has come. And it’s not helping since there’s only three of us in the HPI division. With me resigning and she goes on maternity, the burden will go to Koay.
On the other hand, how many CEO in the world would care enough for their small potatoes employee to call them in the wee hours in the morning to ask them to be back with the company. And this CEO is somebody I respected the most (if you have read my previous blog entry).

After a few sleepless night, I have finalize on my decision.
I don’t know how much this will change my life. 
One thing for sure, it will be a whole new perspective for me.

On 15th May 2008, Van has finally rejoined Aident Corporation as the Senior Sales Engineer.

I came across this joke in MetroDad Blog …don’t think it’s his original composition, but it’s funny..

Here it goes;

PARENTING JOKE OF THE DAY

A woman gets on a bus holding a baby.
The bus driver says: "Holy shit. That’s the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen!"

"That’s a great idea," the man says. "Here, let me hold your monkey."

Haha!! I laugh so hard that i almost poop in my pants.

My gf usually will share with me some fun stuff that she found in youtube with me.

Well, please please don’t tell me you don’t know what youtube is..

Last year, after I found out about Paul Potts and share with her, she gave me that ‘duh..that was old news’ tone. I was piss off and being the bastard that I’m, started blarting out how come she never even think of sharing such interesting stuff with me and blah blah blah..

If you really know me, I’m one bad ass when I’m pissed. And I assure you, my gf keep me up to date on anything she found interesting from that day on. So for those who think I’m a good bf..I’m not okay?

Okay, back to today’s topic. She introduce me to another new talent this year, a 13 years old boy who is participating in Britain’s Got Talent this year. His name is Andrew Johnston.

Don’t be deceived by his blur blur face. From the moment he open his mouth to sing Pie Jesu…everyone gave him a standing ovation. I just sit on my chair with my mouth ‘ka-ching’…

This is an excerpt from a entertainment news website;

A BULLIED schoolboy who lives on a council estate has stunned Britain with his sensational voice.

Andrew Johnson, 13, was clearly nervous as he took to the stage on Britain’s Got Talent.
But just like Paul Potts the year before, he left the judges in tears
and won a standing ovation from the audience after performing the
classical requiem Pie Jesu.

Visibly shaking, Andrew told the judges he’d been bulled from the age of six for singing, but he wouldn’t stop.

“I
get bullied a lot at the local school,” he said. “My mates have been
telling us to leave it because they don’t like that kind of music.”

He said he dealt with the bullies by “just keeping on singing”

“I live in a council estate and I don’t want to be hanging around the streets, I want to make something of my life”.

Judge Amanda Holden was moved to tears by the teenager’s performance.

“I was mesmerised by you, I could not take my eyes off you. You could take all those bullies out with that voice,” she said.

Even normally grumpy judge Simon Cowell was shocked, sitting for much of the performance with his mouth open.

“He was shaking like a leaf, he had no confidence, but I have to tell you, his voice was fantastic,” he said.

Piers Morgan said Andrew had beaten the bullies with his talent.

“The thing about school bullies, they don’t like you for one reason
– you’ve got more talent than they could dream of having – ever.”

Clearly impressed three judges unanimously agreed to put the teenager through to the next round.

After the audition, Andrew’s mum told the hit show how proud she was of her son.

"This has been an expensive day for us, traveling down to the
audition, but it’s so special for him - it’s something he will never
forget,” she said.

Hate to admit this, but I’m so moved by his singing that I’m choked with tears. It’s just too beautiful… as if an angel singing to you from heaven. Pray for him to win the show..keeping my finger cross!!

Once, my friend told me, ‘Rest Once In a while, so you can survive on a longer journey’

Well, I can’t agree more.

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking. ~Earl Wilson

But, just a little advise though. If you want to take a vacation like me, make sure you have a few days vacation instead of two days one night.

Damn rush!!

Even you have the chance to just lay back to enjoy the relaxation and sleep under the sun, you cannot relax for long. I always afraid that if i fall asleep, i’ll sleep for a couple of hours.. then the vacation would end too quickly.. silly I know. It’s just how I felt at that moment.

Just in case you are wondering, this is NOT me and my gf parasailing.

Okay, okay, know you probably asking ‘Hey, what you say happen after the third time black out in the previous blog??’

Well, it goes like this. When the third time i complain, i used my best ‘tulan’ face and tell the worker that I demand to change room is the electricity trip again. So when the maintenance guy cannot get it fixed, they give the green light to change our room. I was hoping to a get a standard room that is nearer to the beach, but no. I was correct about the nearer to the beach part, but they upgrade us to the Super Deluxe Room instead. Not superior, not Deluxe, but Super Deluxe!!!

Super deluxe is meant for a big family goes on vacation, thus the two king size bed.
Everything is bigger, bed bigger, sofa bigger, TV bigger, and it’s with a front porch for you to view the sea side.

The view from my new room.

And when I look into the bathroom, previously in standard room there is only a small bath tub and a toilet. Now there’s an additional big shower head that makes me screaming with delights.

Okay, maybe the shower head is not that big, but I can pretend I’m like Rain showering in one of his MV scenes.. haha… maybe not..

Humans are greedy. When you get bigger room, you would ask again how come it’s not the best there is. In Lone Pine, Super Deluxe is the third best room there is. There Executive Suites is in the second rank, and the first rank is the Deluxe Suites.

The Deluxe Suites in Lone Pine, perfect for honeymoon.

Will you still accuse me greedy? It’s a room to die for!!! Guess I gotta be contend with just Super Deluxe instead (at the price of Standard Room, mind you…hehe)

Apart from water sport and laze around, there’s nothing much you can do in Batu Ferringhi. We did went to the buffet dinner, which is ‘okay’ by my standard, and go walk walk at the night market along the road. It reminds me of Petaling Street in KL, as they sell basically the same things, but minus the human traffic jam as in KL. After shopping around, we call it a day and rest.

The next morning, I woke up as I smell some aroma of barbequed meat from outside the room. When I go out and check the source, I saw this.

Barbequed ang moh!!! They must be desperate to get a tan because it’s 7 o’clock in the morning!! Haha!!

After eating the buffet breakfast, we have a stroll along the beach, and just chill out.

After the two days one night vacation is finally over, we bid Lone Pine goodbye. A two days one night vacation have the advantage and disadvantage. Disadvantage is that it is too short to be really called a vacation (more like a break). Advantage is you can have break like this, any weekend you want (go on Saturday, back on Sunday).

Well, come to think about it, everything happens here is for a reason I guess. Getting a small standard room although we were praying for a superior. Guess the universe heard our plea and give us this big room. If not, I don’t think we can get to see this kind of view.

P/s: The next time you have chance to go Lone Pine, ask for the standard room no. 511. And pray they haven’t fix the electricity. Because it’s where we started. Take a break, and have a nice day!!

Have you been to any tourist destination and envied the local there because they are living in a carefree environment? Well, I have, the last time I was in Pulau Perhentian.

With scenery like this…it’s heaven!!

I’ve been living in this small state called Penang, but never really visit  any tourist destination there (unless you consider shopping mall as tourist destination).

So, when a couple of my KL friends said they would come down for a visit, I grab the chance to stay with them. However, the plan nearly stopped by some incident that cause my friends to postpone their vacation to a few months later. After discussion with my gf, we go ahead to have a little vacation on our own.

We surveyed the hotel along Batu Ferringhi (a famous tourist spot in Penang) and picked Lone Pine Hotel.

The colourful history of the Lone Pine dates back to 1948 when a
solitary bungalow owned by the McKearn family was bought over by a
group of Chinese with the intention of operating a family-run hotel on
Batu Ferringhi.

On the land where the bungalow stood, was then
a lone Casuarina tree, which was mistakenly thought to be a pine tree,
hence the hotel’s name ‘Lone Pine’.

With only 10 rooms, the
Lone Pine Hotel was the first hotel on the picturesque beach of Batu
Ferringhi. The guests then were mainly British residents in Malaysia
and sailors during their port calls. Lone Pine was also a haven for
expatriates and their families fleeing the severe winters of home.

April is the month without any public holiday or special celebration in Penang, unless you declare April’s Fool as your own public holiday.
So we didn’t give any thought about early booking. So when we were told that all Superior Room is ‘ilek pohcit’, leaving only Standard Room available, it’s quite disappointing. Because you see, the Superior room is the cheapest room that is facing the sea, while for standard room, you get to view the car park. WTF..yeah I know.

The only special thing about the standard room is there’s a special looking porch outside the room, and a wooden door that leads to it.

The room is quite small with two single beds, one small bath tubs and some antiques furnitures.

Lone Pine goes the extra mile to make you feels special. For a small standard room, there’s little minute details here and there that shows the management takes extra effort in pleasing the guest.

Everything was nice, until we have our first blackout in our room as the power trip. So while waiting for the technician to repair the electric line, we decided to go for a swim and relax by the pool.

After we came back from the pool, we experience second blackout. WTF!! The room must be quite old, but the power line should have been upgraded. With the room so hot, we decided to camwhore out side the room while awaiting repair.

After the power is fixed, we went back in to rest while watching HBO. And all of a sudden, the power trip again. But this time, we were glad it happens. What happened? Well, stay tuned. It’s late now.. need to oink oink liao. Will continue in the next blog entry.

p/s: If KH has anything to ask KK, please ask in private… Namaste!!!