Long Absence - Work

Hi y'all

Sorry for the long period of absence from updating my blog. Life in a whole has taken too much out of me to even blog about it.

Work has been... hmm... "work". Being in a new team, having to support new products and technologies that I don't know is just amazing yet tiring. Everyday seems to be a challenge because I don't know what I'm supporting :P Though I was sent for training its just not enough. I am lacking of the experience that my seniors have and I need them badly. I am still struggling though in this 6 months I think I have picked up a lot of the basic stuff that is required to perform my daily tasks. Not an expert yet but I guess I am quite happy with where I am. Someone with very little knowledge on storage arrays and zero knowledge on unix, file systems and storage manager, I think I have learnt a lot.

Taking this opportunity to thank my seniors, local and abroad. Namely uncle Alexey :P, Robert, Ken, Tony, SP, Charles and CL. Without them I would not have picked up on this so fast. Statement that shows teamwork is awesome!

Brain is jammed up

I realize it has been 1.5 months since I last updated my blog.

Reason? Simple - WORK!

Been staying back lately to pick up new stuff.
Learning about new products that I will have to support in the future.
Quantum DX series, DXi series and StorNext File system SNFS& Storage Manager SNSM.
Not learning SNFS nor SNSM yet, will be going to the US to attend a training on that.
For those who don't know yet, I'll be in Englewood Colorado from the 18th July till 2nd of August. So I'm trying hard now to learn up the basics so that I don't make a fool out of myself there!
Training after trainings has practically drained up all the juice I have left in my brain. Don't think I can even have any left to play games on facebook LOL.

Dang... see my head is so blank now I can't even think of what else to write!
Hehe... till next time I guess.

PS* Pray for me so that I don't get H1N1 - Thanks!

Old Dell Memories

Was shocked today when a friend sent me some photos.
It was actually photos of me! They were taken back in 2005 if I am not mistaken. At that time I was still a 1st level technical support guy in ANZ Gold Tech Support for desktops and laptops. The reason they took this photo, framed it and hanged it on the wall was unknown. It was some programme they launched call "I am the ONE!", supposedly I am suppose to be the one that makes Dell customers come back and spend more money, HAPPILY! Haha...
I know deep inside my heart, I was chosen because I was the best (juz jokin guys, hold the flame guns!)

Sure did bring back a whole lot of memories - good and bad obviously :P Back then it was hell having to take 50-60 calls a day. At the same time it was fun for me as my colleagues sort of looked up to me for technical assistance and my boss trusted me with her managerial/administration stuff. Was a great experience for me to learn things from her down to the nitty-gritty things like the roster, lunch breaks, reports and all those stuff.
Anyway I'm happy for all that has happened, cause its made me who I am now!

Outsourced

Don't be alarmed, I still have my job. It has not been outsourced... YET! Haha...
Outsourced is a saw I just saw on Astro tonight.
Its a story about an American call center that was outsourced to India and the call center manager had to go all the way to India to train his replacements.
If you work in a call center, I am very sure you'll enjoy this movie!
I'm not going to spoil things and write a full spoiler for this movie.
I'll just mention the funniest part of the movie which made me laugh.
It's been awhile since I saw a movie that could make me laugh, well not since Stephen Chow stop making funny movies.

Josh: I'm sure you'll do great! Break a leg!
Ashok: *puzzled look* Break a leg!!??!!??
Josh: Oh! It means... something like... good luck.
Ashok: Oh!!! Woookay~ I hope you break both your legs!

Hahaha... that's funny =) Hope you had a good laugh...

What happens when you ask Tibun a question...

This is usually what happens when I ask my good friend Tibun a question.
Well not usually out of 10 times I'd say this would happen 8 or 9 times.
I still love him no matter what...

Almost 3 months now...

Hey ya!

To my few loyal readers... everything is fine with me. I guess I've been too bogged down by work and my personal life.

Just to update, Chinese New Year was great! First time since a long time I got a chance to really take a long break on CNY. Unfortunately did not get much chance to meet up with my cousins as they're all married and have a family of their own, so reunion during CNY was more of one with just my family and close friends, read "eebs". Was also the first time I was away from my love for such a long time =(

Also since CNY, going back to work has been crazy! Been working very hard because some people just don't pull their own weight in the office. Well... I won't say much since my blog isn't that hard to find apparently so I'll just keep it to myself and continue working. Work there is good as I get to learn about storage and backup, but having someone that does't fit into the team sometimes is a real pain in the ass especially when we got boss around to do her things.

Other than that, I was at Labuan over the long weekend where there was a public holiday for Maulidur Rasul. Labuan is an island which is situated just outside the mainland of Sabah. Its a 2.5 hours flight from Kuala Lumpur (we actually got free tickets thanks to my brother who works in AirAsia - Now Everyone Can Fly!), 1 hour ferry ride from Brunei and 3 hours ferry ride from Kota Kinabalu.

More about the trip, there's isn't much to see on an island that only takes an hour to round the whole island. So we took a day tour while we were there. It only took us 3 hours to complete the whole tour. The 2 places that I think is worth mentioning is the Labuan War Memorial and the Chimney. Labuan War Memorial was build to commemarate the fallen Australian and British soldiers who fought at Labuan during World War II. The place is very well kept. Although it was, a graveyard, it was actually very calm and peaceful. The moment I walked into that place I felt that way. Don't ask me why, I don't know myself! Hehe.
Next, the Chimney, I forgot about the nitty gritty details like who built it and all that however the thing why I say its interesting is that till this moment nobody knows what the Chimney was built for and some even doubt its a chimney to begin with. There's a few theories about it but none can be verified to be 100% true! A mystery! I like that!

Anyway here is a picture of the War Memorial...

2008 ending...

Reflecting back on 2008, I guess in 1 hand I feel I did not achieve much yet on another hand I feel I've achieved quite a lot. Very contradicting but I don't know how else to explain my feelings now.

2008 passed like a bullet train for me. I did not even realize it was already going to end till today.
I changed jobs and got a new one. I lost someone special but found my everything in this someone new. We're going to start a new chapter in our lives next year. Yesterday we also made a very big decision that would bind us and bring us closer to each other. My family was always part of everything I did this year and I really appreciate them and thank them.

To summarize I think there's a few achievements that I made this year.
Getting a job that is really what I wanted - getting to do hands on technical stuff on enterprise products and learning more.
Finally found the one that I could spend the rest of my life with.
Proposing to that person (referred to only as NgP on my blog =P).
Buying a house together with that person.
Getting closer to my family and knowing how much they care for me.
Knowing God is always part of my life no matter what happens, He will not abandon me.

For 2009, I just hope I can maintain this job although with the economic crisis happening all over the world. Secondly I would want to learn more stuff on backup and storage, hopefully next year I'll be able to move on to disk backup technologies after learning everything on tape backup.
Thirdly would be to settle down hopefully =)

Thank you all for being part of my life... I wish everyone a better health, wealth and happiness in 2009. Happy New Year 2009!

100th Day - Baek Il in Korean

I saw 100 stars last night,
Shining in the sky.
I wondered as I watched them,
How did they get so high?

Twinkle bright, twinkle long
Like lao por's good night kisses
They stayed with me the whole night through
As I made 100 wishes.

However 100 wishes was not enough,
because with you around me I won't stop counting.
1000 I want, 10,000 I want & and more I want,
Forever the number will increase even after our wedding.

You are my one and only,
You are my sun, my moon and my stars!
I promise I will take care of you
and most of all your heart will never have scars!

Pressure

Many stories I've heard from people with more relationship experiences about this.
I never believed them cause I always had the confidence that I'd be able to overcome such issues. Moreover parents these days are more open and understanding of the needs of the younger generation.

Well, I was proven wrong, very wrong, when my GF got dragged to dinner by her sis to lecture her about how she's not thinking straight and how I'm not close with the family.
I was actually quite shocked because every event they had, I attended. I really did compared to my previous relationships, I could not care less. I think that I have a right to choose whether I should join such activities or not. If everyone wants to celebrate New Year does not mean I have to! I can freaking celebrate Deepavali if I wanted to. My GF's family coming from KL I'd expected less "kolot" thinking. How wrong was I. Everything had to be done formally. I was expected to seat at their house for them to get to know me. I am fine with that but they never extended any invitation for me to go their house. It has always been me going there without any invitation. I am the type that feels like I'm invading someones privacy if I go someones house. Even if I'm sitting there doing nothing, I'll just be like a pair of CCTV camera (OCTV - Open Circuit in this case) standing 168cm tall looking at them. Sigh... why do I have to face al this problem when I've found the perfect one for me. WHY~!?~!?~!?~!?

27th Year on Earth

My 27th Year on Earth has been great and things got better this year =)
I had someone very special to celebrate my birthday with me and I could not ask for more.
Its not going to be a long post its just a special thank you to Celine Ng Pey Zhi for the wonderful birthday trip back to Penang which both of us ended up sick.
Thank you to all the friends who called, who SMS-ed and left me messages on facebook, msn and friendster!
Thanks guys!

Ending the long wait

Its been a few months now since I've last been back to my hometown, Penang.
Me and my GF we're all very excited to go back but of cause for her its the FOOD =P
I can't wait to savor all the food in Penang too but most importantly its HOME.
My family and friends that I haven't see for sometime now.
I would never want to lose contact with any of my friends if possible.
I would not say I have a lot of friends but I would say I have a fair amount of good friends.

So here's the plan:

1st October
5pm - Finish work, head straight to Klang
6pm - Hopefully earlier than that, fetch Celine and start our journey back to the land of FOOD!
10pm - Reach BM and balik rumah first. Put our stuff rest for awhile and head over to have some char koay teow for supper.

2nd October
9am - Breakfast with Kev and Ah Qi, go eat hokkien mee
10am - Visit Khai Ma to chit chat and intro Celine to them
11.30am - Buy tau sar pneah and other stuff to bring back to KL
12pm - Lunch at Tho Yuen - Hong Toh mee and chicken =D~~ yummie!!!
2pm - Jalan-jalan at Queens Bay Mall, shopping
4pm - Headover to Penang Road for some chendol
4.30pm - Headover to Mount Erskine for mee goreng, popiah, ais kacang and etc.
5.30pm - Batu Ferringhi for an evening stroll and watch the sunset if we can :)
6.30pm - Walk around the night market... buy some "cheap but legal" DVD's
8.00pm - Have dinner at Gurney hawker center
9.00pm - Walk walk to digest the food at Gurney Plaza
10.00pm - Take ferry ride back to BM
11.0pm - Support again - either chinese or malay char koay teow depending on we have on the first day

3rd October
Still undecided... will plan on 2nd October I guess... Hehe...

Can't wait to go back Penang... the music "Balik Kampung... Oo Oo Balik Kampung" keeps playing in my head... can't get it out of my head man =)

What happens when there's not enough people to work in the office?

What happens when there's not enough people at work or in the office to share the workload?
When I was in Dell as a 1st level tech support I'd pick up the slack left off by my colleagues. I could take up to 70 calls a day working 12 hours a day. Luckily my boss appreciated my "sacrifices" at that time and I was dearly rewarded. Just so yo know my colleagues only took 25 calls a day and I did double almost triple =P
Things got easier when I was a team leader. Well sort of anyway. Why? Coz I did not have to share my work with anyone nor did anyone shared their work with me. All I needed to do was to take care of my people, make sure they work as they are required to meet their metrics and just some paperwork or reporting. It was easy in some terms but it was very very very hard trying to understand certain people and help them harness their skills to their advantage and improve on the things they were weak on. Every single word spoken must be thought through first or else you're gonna hurt his feelings! Lets say I enjoyed it yet I hated it!
Now I'm landed in the same position again. I averaged 30-35 tickets per week compared to my colleagues who do 18 or so tickets. Again double!?!?!? Why must I always be working harder then everyone else? WHY??? Can't my boss hire more people? Can't my boss manage the other guys and get them to work better? I always asked this question when I interviewed people, "If your colleague is not performing, how would you as a colleague, help your friend perform better?". Now I'm asking myself this, "How can I help the WHOLE TEAM, perform better?", so that I don't freaking do so much work and burn myself out eventually. Hmm... any ideas guys?

Happy One Year Anniversary

Wow... today marks exactly ONE year for me in Kuala Lumpur.
I have always been a skeptic of coming to KL for work is better and all that.
Even when I had holiday trips to KL, I'd feel sick because of the fast paced life and the amount of people I see going around. Thus I'd say it took a lot for me to decide to change my life and came down to KL a year ago. I have no regrets coming to KL. Everything has turned out just fine because God has a plan for me, always.
In this period of 1 year a lot has happened. Coming to KL, changing jobs twice, losing my girlfriend but found a wife =). All this in a year!!! This is so not me. I'm not someone who likes changes. I'm always prone to stay in my comfort zone. Always wanting to stay at home and not going anywhere. Sometimes I think I'm quite an antisocial but lets leave that for another post.

Happy One Month Anniversary

In my previous post I mentioned about the relation of time and knowing someone.
Its been a month since I've been going steady with this special someone. This special person even before I met her I've already felt like I've known her, just by seeing her photo that is and this was only around 2 months or so. Soon after we were together and we were able to share our feelings and thoughts without any problems. In my past relationships I find it very hard to communicate with them. There is always a barrier that surrounds us that makes us not communicate properly. This time around everything seems to great. We share things and we understand each other when we do. Its like I know what she wants and needs and she does the same. Of course its not 100% of the time but most of the important things we have the same thoughts.
In so little time we have been able to share so much and learn from each other so much.
I really hope that things will progress smoothly, although hiccups are expected I hope its those hiccups that brings us closer together.
Happy One Month Anniversary Dear =)

Does time matters for one to know another?

I always believed time can do a lot of things.
Time can change the earth... it can shape and mould magnificent wonders of nature.
Time can also proof a lot of things... proof lies are lies or could be the truth.
Looking back at my life I've have many friends that good. I don't have any enemies, I think.
Well if you're one of the "enemy" reading my blog, I apologise if I've done anything wrong to you.
Back to my topic, I've known Neebs for 20 years now. Jeebs for maybe 17 years now. Keebs around 14 years now. My parents obviously have known me for my whole life but how well do all these people know me? Which brings me to my next question, how can someone I know for 2 months know me so well?!?! Something to ponder upon...

Busy busy busy

After my interesting weekend, things got even more interesting.
I was introduced to this girl by an old friend of mine from college.
The first I saw her was a photo, it gave me a weird feeling. A feeling which I don't think I've had in a long long time I guess. It is a feeling of closeness, of like someone that you've known for a long long time and you would feel very comfortable just looking at them.
Soon after that we started talking more and more on MSN. Then it won't on to SMS-es and phone calls. Then we went out to meet for the first time near her office in Shah Alam, at one of the McDonald's.
Well I didn't tell her this but my heart was beating pretty fast when I saw her then. Still didn't tell her till now hehe. I seldom get along with girls well not to mention talking to them. Usually around girls I don't say much unless I've known them for like ages. However I was able to strike a very lengthy conversation with her. 2 hours is a long enough talk for me :)
Soon after we went out more often and eventually... now I'm involved in another relationship again. Although the way I write this it doesn't seem much of a love story or fairy tale of some sort.
I am telling you... it is one to me. For me to fall in love so deeply in such a short period of time is just crazy yet amazing. I really think she's the ONE!!!

Interesting weekend

Being reduced to singularity sure does changes a persons life :)
I am now doing things I did not think I would do.
Me naturally being a very lazy person, I will usually laze around at home and do nothing but sit in front of my PC wasting my time away.
This weekend has been quite interesting.
Saturday, went to meet Poh Siang, an ex-colleague and good buddy from Dell who is now working for Intel. He was here for a week for a Cisco certification training all paid by Intel. How cool is that? I wish my company would provide that :P Went to fetch him at his hotel which is Hotel Grand Millennium at KL center which I would rarely go to unless necessary, fortunately I had my Asus P750 with GPS to guide me ;) After fetching him we headed to MidValley for lunch and just lepak before I send him to KL Sentral to take his train to KLIA. Interesting cause I would never drive all the way down to KL just to meet a friend cause I am that lazy!
Today I woke up early and drove to IOI Mall to get my car washed, polished and waxed. Cost me RM130 and a 2 hour wait! How does a single lonely man kill 2 hours all by himself??? Let me tell you how. Went to Popular, acted like I'm someone who reads a lot and flip through the books. Then went to the Asam Laksa stall for lunch. Then into the arcade center to watch people playing games. That was a quick one, then I headed over to Jusco to do some serious shopping (at least serious for me lahhh). Bought 2 pairs of socks, 3/4 cargo pants, 250 page notebook, headphones and grocery. Soon after that it was already 2.30pm :P I spent 2 and a half hours there! Damn... thats why I say singularity modez rulez baby =)

Hiking at Bukit Apek aka Bukit Batu Puteh

Went hiking today with my spanking new Nike Flourish II which is now not so spanking new anymore =.="

As stated in the title it was at Cheras near Taman Cuepacs. We only manage to reach station 3 out of 8. Stations 7 & 8 are very close to each other and is the spot where there's a small waterfall. Well reason why we only reach Station 3 was because I am too farking lousy. On the way up, I was out of breath and my legs were giving up on me. Thomas even had to pass his "stick" for me to use =P



Next week I'll be going again. Today's crowd was 10 people and 1 of the girls didn't even break a sweat. So disappointed with myself. Anyway it's a good sign for me that I am really out of shape and need to exercise. Looks like jogging is not enough to keep me fit.

Kong torh mou wai - Say more no use, let you all see how farked up I looked like.

"3" symbolizing Station 3.

Another with a smile.

Look at how wet our t-shirts were. Ignore my stupid grin.

Scenery from where I sat, nothing much.

Thomas posing with his "stick".

View of the trees from the bottom. Very relaxing.

And lastly Jocy who suprisingly coughed all the way up and still survived the hike.

Nike Flourish II

Bought a new pair of jogging shoes for me to use.
My old lousy FILA has given up on me.
Frankly speaking the quality of FILA isn't that good.
Even their t-shirt gets spoiled easily.

Anyway back to the main topic, bought this Nike Flourish II (Written on the box) but can't seem to find it on Google. So don't know I bought ori stuff or fake stuff. Got it from Al-Ikhsan. Purposely buy black/gray color so that it won't get smudges or dirty that easily.

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

Hope you guys enjoy this man...
It's one of those very catchy songs that yet gives you a very relaxing feeling when listening to it =)

It made me very happy and relax after listening to it... hope it gives you the same effect ;)