Another day another story... but...

Like the title says... another day another story but...
I don't have anything to say actually...
Sorry to disappoint anyone reading this but what I actually want to say
is this...
Sometimes thing may appear nice and turn out bad. That's my biggest worry right now.
Everything at work seems to be fine. Everyone is nice to everyone, well at least
in my team. That just worries me a little. Just worried that some day out of the
blue I might get a few stabs at the back. Office politics just sucks man.
I hate working in a place where there is a lot of politics. I think I just
joined a company which has a lot of politician-wanna-be.
Well... what else can I do but just wait for someone to appear behind me
trying to back stab me. Just have to be ready at all times.

On a better note... I am sitting inside a cyber cafe with a hot chiq just sitting
very very close to me... she's very hot man! Very nice figure say 36C 24 28.
Yeah the arse a bit small... :P Well at least make my Sunday in KL move livelier.
Spent the whole Sunday at home... even ordered McDonald's to be delivered.
What a way to spend a Sunday :(

3rd Week in Kay L

This is the 3rd week I am here...
Still trying to get use to the things here
Cantonese is not really that easy
Watchin TVB makes it look so much easy but... everything I want to say
the words out... it just goes missing
Guess practice makes perfect

For the past week it has been pretty boring and dry
Everyday just go to work and attend training
Finish work play pool coz in my pantry there's a pool table
Then on Friday my colleagues took me to Asia Cafe at Subang
Had dinner and played pool again... haha...
And of coz not to miss out the booze :P

KL... this is what I do :(

KL - Too Big for Alvino

Oh boy... it's been exactly 1 week since I've touched down in KL
Since last Saturday which is the 8th of September 2007,
I have spent RM200 for petrol alone and RM50 for toll :S
Mind you that doesn't include the toll and petrol getting from Pg to KL!
Geez... I have gotten lost MANY MANY TIMES which is why I've spent so much.
Hence why the title, KL... too big for little Alvino :)

Well I guess I am still handling things pretty well...
At least I know how to go a few places, namely...
Cyberjaya (Work :P)
Puchong Jaya (HOME! :P)
Kelana Jaya station
Bukit Jalil Station
Old Klang Road
Mid Valley
IOI Mall nearest to my house...
USJ Taipan
Summit
Sunway Pyramid
The Curve, IKEA, IKANO and 1U

That's about it but I guess its good enough for a Penang boy to achieve in 1 week.

Ah... I also met up with Leonard and Jen (Xiao Min) over the weekend at The Curve.
She's going to leave Malaysia and go to Bristol on Monday, sad :(
Everyone in the old company still misses her but life goes on!
The Curve is really big a nice place to meet friends to chit chat... only thing I can remember about the The Curve is a Thai shop that sells nudles I guess its noodles.

AND!!! KL isn't that big... well... for this instance only... when I was at IKEA I met Robin and Lina who were in KL for the Jacky Cheung concert. After that I went to 1U and saw an ex-dell girl there as well... okay 2 instances... still KL is too big for Alvino :P

Don't know what else to say... too many things has happened...
Work hasn't really started yet... still undergoing training, induction, those normal stuff...
I guess the real "good stuff" is gonna come soon when my UK boss comes next week!
Life is going to be tough :'( but hey... no pain no gain
I am glad I accepted this job offer and moved to KL... I am learning much much more compared to when I was at Dell *cough*hell*cough*

That's all for the time being... going to go home now... paying RM2.50 an hour for internet usage till I get my own place and broadband...

As the days passes... my heart weakens...

Day after day,
I feel like not going away.
Hour after hour,
The feeling gets even more sour.
Minute after minute,
I don't really think I can take it.
Seconds after seconds,
My heart weakens.

26 years I have been in Penang,
Want to leave everything really not senang.
My family, my father, mother, grandma and sister,
How can I leave and yet make my heart feel not so bitter?
My dear, my dear, my dear,
When will you be here?
My heng tai's! My tukau peng eu's! My brader's!
Will KL have the same bunch of suckers? <--- Haha... juz jokin!

Laksa, char koay teow & hokkien mee,
Limpeh very confirm go KL sure will only ciak mamee. :'(
Penang Laksa is call Laksa,
In KL why Curry me also called Laksa, ini memang seksa!
Limpeh is Penang chia cheng HOKKIEN lang,
Go KL speak cantonese? I will kiang kan.

Thats all I can think of rite now...
Seriously... I don't feel I can live outside of Penang
but what else can I do but to embrace this change like a man.
To all my frens that are reading this... you better farking come down to KL
and find me more... Don't come and keep it a secret...
If I find out... ur car ur house... u better hide it :P

Double Merdeka Event :)

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of our countries Indepence!
In malays its called MERDEKA!

There's also another Merdeka... but its for me only :P
Starting 10 September 2007 I will be starting a new leaf in my life.
I actually got a new job in Cyberjaya.
It is the same job as what I am doing now but it will definitely give me
more expreiences and much more things for me to learn.
Part of me says Merdeka... another part of me is so sad that I have to leave
everything I have in Penang...
My girlfriend, my parents, my sister, my khai ma, khai mui, and many close friends.
Leaving my current company which I have worked in for 3 years 4 months and 23 days.
Thats a big big jump for me...
Too sad to blog... will blog more later...

Shuffling

This is definitely not about shuffling job tasks at work...
It is actually about Melbourne Shuffle
I came to know about this dance quite some time ago but didn't really explore it
I think its a very cool dance actually... else I won't be posting this :P

Don't want to say much about it... witness it for yourself :)



Below is a very good tutorial if you'd like to learn how to shufflez :)



If you're interested to know more then learn how to use google :P
else msg me and I will share what I know but I'm a total newbie learning :)

Long it has been...

Looking back at the things I've done and been through these few years...
boy... It's been so fast, time really flies...

It's been...
9 years since I graduated from High School Bukit Mertajam...
5 years since I left TAR College...
3 years since I left Systematics College...
3 and a half years since I left ItraMAS Manufacturing Sdn Bhd...
and... its been 3 and a half years I've worked at *cough* hell *cough* I mean DELL

Wow... 3 and a half years... hmmm... longest I've been in a company
Just makes you feel like its time to move on huh?
I mean it just gets boring after sometime...
Everyday its the same old drill... sigh...
That's why they say young people cannot work in the same place for a long time
I agree lar... boring one you know... same faces everyday
Especially when gf in the same company as you... wanna look or get to know other
girls also damn hard... so many spies around you... Hahaha :P

Well... I think I might just really wanna try a new environment!
What do you guys think?

Linux Ubuntu with Beryl Desktop Manager

Recently like I updated on my chatterbox I'm busy with work :P
Nevertheless I had to relax and have my own time at home.
So what I did was, like the title said, played around with linux ubuntu with the beryl desktop manager working as well!
It actually took me 5 days to get it all working, all because of my ATI card drivers were giving me attitude.
Well anyway its been a long long time since I had ventured into the penguin world.
Last I did was probably around 1998 or 1999 when I was in college.
Well enuff about the history lesson, let me give you all, my loyal blog readers, a little tour of ubuntu + beryl.

To make it simple, ubuntu is linux but just another version which is much much more user friendly compared to RedHat or Fedora or SuSe or Mandrake. It can still be a pain in the arse if you're a pure Microsoft Windows user and never tried linux before.
Beryl however is like the desktop theme manager that allows you to do very very cool stuff with your desktop. Think of it as Vista Aero 3D feature which requires like 2GB of RAM and high speed processor and good graphics card. Beryl - NO! You don't need those high end hardware. I'm running this on my P4 2.8, 512MB RAM and old ATI Radeon 9600 128MB graphics card.

Well... its pretty hard to explain so... let me paint a few millions words with the following screenshots of my desktop and some video from youtube to further amaze you.
However if you are interested to know more, there will be a few links below for you to refer to.


Above photo shows how you can rotate your desktop to show a 4 workspaces


Rotated the desktop while movie was playing in between desktops.
It shows that the movie is lagging but actually it wasn't.


This is like Vista's preview of windows when you Alt+Tab but is more cooler because it goes in a circle.


As for this one, when you move your mouse to the top right hand corner it automatically puts all the open windows properly and you can choose which one you want to go to. Movie is still playing too :P

So as promised here are the videos:

Very incredible:


Comparison of Vista and Ubuntu:


Last one:


Well if you guys are interested and want to try it go to:
Ubuntu Official site - http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_%28Linux_distribution%29
Beryl Project site - http://www.beryl-project.org/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl

Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as I did :)

Telco Wars

This is starting to become a nuisance... but I love it :)
Or else we consumers wont get cheaper rates and better service...

Have a look at these 2 videos, you'll know what I mean.
I hope you enjoy the vid :P

Am I a teacher or a manager in a MNC?

Today I feel like I was a teacher in secondary.
Where you have kids ponteng school and classes and all that.
Then you have to call their parents to iron things out.
Damn I don't like it but this incident made my day :)

I have chinese guy reporting to me recently.
He's actually from the same college as me, actually same year as well.
When he came for the interview he was surprised that he was being interviewed by me. Eventually I hired him as I thought that he would be okay the interview went fine and all that.
Little did I know I was gonna get the ride of my life as manager.
He started work soon after all the training we put him through.
He had a lot of problems following instructions and he had communication issues as well as some attitude issues.
One of those guys that always have to leave early, always a NO man, never YES.
So being his manager of coz I have to lecture him and all that but I also tried subtle ways, as a friend, telling him about his problems and how to improve it.
Guess what happened next? He went missing on me.

He was on medical leave on Friday, the following Monday and Tuesday.
On Wednesday he took emergency leave, then on Thursday he went on medical again. This actually got me very pissed off. Being a friend and manager and the person who hired him, he just made me feel like I was an arse for hiring him.
So I decided to call him but he wouldn't answer my calls for 2 days I tried.
I then had no choice but to call his house which his mom answered.
Told the mom that I was worried about his well being since I have been trying to contact him for a few days now. His mom was, of coz, shocked that his son hasn't been to work for so long. Then the mom called the dad and the dad called me. Now here's the funny part.

The dad was so worried about the son and all that. Saying that probably it must have been some bad influence that has made his son acted this way. His son if a perfectly good boy never ponteng kerja one. He asked me to forgive his son lar... take care of his son lar... teach him and help him grow...
Fu yoh... suddenly feel like a teacher :(
Then the funniest part the dad said this, "I'm gonna punish this boy! Tomorrow onwards he wont get to drive the car anymore! I'm gonna fetch him to work every single day!"
I was like, OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! AHAHAHAHAHAH
A full grown man getting his car taken away by his dad?!?!
How pathetic can this guy be.... hahahahahaha
Funniest story by far I've got being a manager...
Being a manager is so fun :) I love my job... NOT!

Freakin Flu

Caught a pretty bad flu yesterday.
I actually went to work first around 6am then left work at 10am to see the doctor.
It was pretty okay at first flu, sore throat and a bit of cough.
Took the medicine and went to bed straight away.
That was around 11am I remember.
Then at 2.30pm I woke up feeling very very dizzy and a very bad headache.
Was feeling very cold too, I knew I got the fever already.
Took a panadol and tried to sleep some more but ended up vomiting.
Then slept till 6pm. A lot of people tried to call me because there was a dinner last night.
Sorry guys I couldn't answer the phone, I was pretty knocked up.
8pm the condition got worst!!!
Went to see the doctor again, different one this time - this doctor damn kap siao
Took his medicine and went to bed till 11pm, feeling a bit better after that
My gf bought some porridge for me to eat. She was there to put up with all my crap :P
Went to bed till 4am woke up and took some more medicine.
And now its 8.30am, slight headache and still having running nose.
But it is much better than yesterday.
This is the worst flu I ever caught by far.
Some more thought it was bird flu -_-"

Job Security

Job security is something I think people rarely have...
You could be a CEO for a MNC and you could still lose your job in a minute.
You can be a rubbish collector and still lose your job in a minute.
Who can have job security then? I don't know myself but thats not the point
of this entry... this entry is to express my sadness towards job security.
Seriously... nobody can have job security as long as you're working for someone.
Even if you have your own business, you can go bankrupt!
Nothing is for sure in this world... the world is round

Well... my company recently announced that they are going to cut down 10%
of their total workforce all around the world. That approximately 8800 permanent
employees and 5300 contract workers.
How wonderful is that? You can imagine me standing up pointing fingers and
shouting, "mah c!b@!!!! h@m!k l@nc!@0!!!".
Well this is the cold hard truth in the business world...
Hmm... what can I do if I get retrenched?
Probably I'll get like 5 months pay for 3 years service there.
Thats not alot... cant even pay my cars full loan amount for that...
by the way I only own a Kancil.
So what the fark am I going to do?
Maybe its the right time for me buy a one way ticket to Australia and see
if I can manage to start a life there? Or maybe New Zealand? Or even
go over to the States to visit my cousin which I haven't met since form 3.
Well I'm opened for suggestions...
Sincerely Lost

*btw I'm not joking - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18968966/ - Read it urself

Bandwidth Test Rip Off

Was browsing the forums when I saw something quite interesting... bandwidth test
The guy was using streamyx and he manage to get a download of 2M and upload of 1M which was cool! I thought I should try it too...
Look what I ended up with :P



That means I have a download of 34M and upload of 31M!
which is totally not true... I later found out that the speed test
server was sponsored by my ISP :( Fark!

Try it yourself... www.speedtest.net

Friends that are business minded

Had one of my college friends contacting me last weekend.
Was quite a shocker as we haven't seen each other since a quite a while.
Said that he was in town and wanted to meet up with me to eat laksa.
Being the old nice pal I was of cause I agreed without hesitation.
He said 3pm and soon at 4.30pm I started to lose my patience,
hey 1.5 hours thats blardee long lar - was asleep anyway :P, so I decided
to give him ping. So he said sorry I'm meeting up with a customer and all that.
Fine fine... take your time, which he soon arrived within 15 minutes.
Going out to eat he came up with the topic that most people usually bring up
if you hadn't seen each other for a long time. Like what you doing to mess up your life rite now?
Are doing anyone famous like Palas Hilton? Niko Lychee?
Then he told me his "side" of his story which was quite sad. Mom met with an accident not
long ago and he had to take 2 months leave which caused him his job.
And right now he has to be in mortgage line with banks.
So I thought... still okay what, at least got job right?
Then another tragic story, my boss doesn't like me and I don't get a lot of sales!
Hmmm... something doesn't sound right!
Of coz we finished our laksa and when we reached our house *drum roll*
he said, Alvino help me sign up for a credit card *fireworks*
Whammmmm kena lar tu :(
Well of course being the nice pal I am I agreed
Sigh... should have smell it miles away but... I'm just too pure and innocent :'(
I don't mind helping a friend in need but come on be upfront about it to me
We're buddies, we're pals! Those reading these do not think I am easy to bully :P

Life moving on fast...

Well things having been great so far at work
Remember that Pan Chai and Yan Dou Chai story?
Yeah those 2 buggers! Fortunately those 2 have been "moved"
out of my team... which has brought a great change to the teams morale
The people that used to be under them are starting to get motivated!
Thats great coz its showing in the service level, at times we can reach 100%
with 16 people available to take the next call... that has never happened!
Not once since I joined the team in July...
This is the first :) Some of the agents say the curse is over! Hahaha...

To me I dont think its a curse. Its all the agents doing. They shouldn't have let
their boss being lame as an excuse for not coming in to work and not performing
If they had done this earlier we would have been better off, maybe those that
didn't get their increment on March would have gotten it... well... too late anyway
I just hope those agents learn from this "tragedy" - bleeding for a whole year service level

As for me, times flies really when everything is going well...
I spend my days in the office doing this
1. Make sure my team attendance is full, if they're not there I'll have to know why
2. Go for breakfast :P
3. Check emails/consult for walk-ins/walk the floor
4. Meetings
5. Lunch
6. Check emails/consult for walk-ins/walk the floor
7. Meetings
8. Go home :)
Sounds easy huh? Well that was what I did for the past 2 weeks
Its gonna get tough though from next week onwards...
Gotta push up the figures for our survey from now

Well it was nice while it lasted :)
Hope everyone else is having the same easy-office-life streak, especially keebs :P

Li-Ork

Recently there has been a li-ork (re-org) done by my company...
Now my boss is gone... and a new boss is here...
He has been for the past 1 week but I was away at Genting! :)
Making myself dizzy and sick with the stupid roller coaster rides, pirate ship rides...
Soon after that we "completed" our trip and came back... the bus broke down...
My nose bleed... overheated obviously...
So... what else can happen to me?
Oh ya... this is the 8th manager I have changed over a period of 1 year!
Well thats all in a nutshell of what happened...
Life is tiring...
Did you guys hear about the HP customer service manager who died from
being overworked and too stressed out?
Hope I dont end up like her... maybe if I do... my blog will get freakin famous?
All proceeds will go to my frenz so they become rich out of a dead fren! :D

Back to Hell Asia Pacific Sdn

Been away for a whole week from hell - office lar where else...
Was at Dorsett Hotel previously Sheraton Hotel.
Was there for a training sort of like Six Sigma, better known to manufacturing guys... but for my company its BPI - Business Process Improvement, fuyoh :P
Nama also canggih lar...
5 days... 5 days of heaven... and it has to end! Why?
Why all good things must come to an end?
Tomorrow is Monday, I feel very farked up right now...
I think I'm sick... Can I please not go to the office?
Talked to a few of me colleagues, everyone seems pissed off at something
I dont know what has happened in that 1 week but sure seems pretty bad
Just makes me feel even more reluctant to go back!
Well like I said in my previous post... its that damn Pan Chai and Yan-Dou Chai stirring up problems in the office, causing everyone to be pissed
How the fark can I get rid of them please... its either me or them!
I already feel like just giving in my resignation later and just fly out of this country and go backpacking how nice would that be :)
Should have done that when I didnt have so many commitments
Now my dad is retired, mom is asking for more money from me as well :(
Sigh... life... why does it have to go in this cycle? Why can't I just go wherever I want and do whatever I please! Damn man... DAMN!!!

Someone please SAVE ME!

GY PAN CHAI!

Specially dedicated post to Pan Chai.

Pan Chai oi... why you like that one?
Why you cannot understand human language one...
How to explain to you only you can understand?
Not that people dont want to explain or teach you mah...
but tell you liao somemore you want to disagree... then how ah?
Why you have to make my life so miserable??? WHY???
WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? CANT YOU GET IT THROUGH YOU THICK SKULL?!?!?!?

Lastly I want to make clear to my fellow friends...
please follow my advice below:

WORKING WITH STUPID PEOPLE CAN KILL!

Heroes

Have you guys seen the famous American TV Series called HEROES?
Its a great show about how humans over the years of evolution
evolved to be human being with extraordinary powers.

All this happen with the transformation of genes.
Don't ask me how it happens... I just don't know...
BUT... if you would like sneak peak of what you will get...
Look below...



Haha... this is not Heroes... its ZEROES!
Fake version of Heroes... haha gotcha!
Courtesy of -KCB-

Funny Clips - Must Watch & Listen!

This is the funniest sound clips I've heard EVER. PERIOD.

Enjoy it... but 2nd one for those who understand hokkien only...

1. RK House - No Pork Prank


2. Kopitiam Prank - Hokkien