Difference

First of all, Merry Christmas to all Christians. Save some of your presents for me :D

Today my company finished its working hours at 3pm. This is a normal thing for the company for every major holiday. I guess the top managements know that the staffs are no longer in working mood seeing that holiday is near. But still I have to wait until 6pm before I can go back since Izma's company finished its working hours normally. Feeling bored in the office with only a handful of people there, I decided to ask one of my colleagues (name not to be mentioned) for a drink at mamak downstairs.

My colleague, from now on to be known as A, is a Senior Application Developer. We chatted over our drinks for various topics, ranging from world's current economics condition to the company's environment. As we chatted, I analyzed him from the way he talked and his point of views. I can say that he shares many similar things like me. For instance, both of us worked with another company before joining our current company. Thus, our Senior Application Developer title comes from our experiences and not our seniority. He shares many ways of improving the company's environment. Some of them can be considered quite radical, something that most probably won't be approved by the top management.

But then he did have a point that left me pondering. If we are too scared to do something radical, is it because we are covering our own asses, we just don't want to move out from our comfort zone, or because we just simply don't care because things do look normal and functioning? As our conversation went further, I continued to find the similarities between us. It was quite interesting to find someone that shares our views with regards to our career path. I rarely find a programmer who, when asked about future career, answers something other than being a Senior Programmer/Developer. But then, with A, we did talk about our future career path. Are we already setting up our comfort zone settling with whatever we achieved or are we still actively pursuing our goal in improving ourselves?

It was a short 1-hour conversation, but it left many questions to me. How am I going to achieve my personal and career goals within this company? How am I compared to what I was 6 months ago? Most important of all, is this the right company to me?

The sea is just too wide, many things left unexplored..

That Time of Year Again

Thanks Izma, Azhar, Utopia Temple, GSC and JobStreet (in no particular order). Your remembrances are deeply appreciated. Thank you.

-originally posted on 9th Dec 2008-

My Favorite Weekend

This was, by far, my most unproductive weekend ever. The whole weekend was filled with me sleeping, attending wedding invitation (very reluctant to go, so lazy), and more sleeping. I mean, I don't know. I feel like I've become a lazy bum nowadays when it comes to week end. If Izma and I don't have any plan, then there I'll be. On my bed till 12pm (or until my mom nags me to shower, whichever comes first) then only come down for breakfast.

And this weekend Izma was not around. She needed to attend some team-building course at Genting. Whole family was not around too, they went to Nilai 3 to buy my wedding stuffs (which I, as the groom, didn't want to go LOL). How a big mistake it was to left me alone in the house. Locked the door, put down the curtain and here comes dreamland. I remembered before I was not this sleep-addict. Previously I would only sleep when I was very tired, but nowadays I can fall asleep at any time if there's nothing for me to do.

Well I guess my body needs its rest. Izma and I have been working our asses hard during the weekdays, so I think we deserve our escapade. Usually after work we'll head to our gym and have an hour of either cardio, work-out or a few laps of swim. It sure does feel good after all the sweats come out of your body. I used to think, "don't people feel very tired to go to the gym and do their work-out after a full day of work in the office". But as my experience, our body actually feels a lot refresh. Well maybe the hot shower does give some effect, but with all the toxins flow out of your body it does improve your health (and I feel my fitness level improved a bit, LOL).

This weekend I had a re-run of Puteri Gunung Ledang. Those who knows me surely know how I despise Malay movies (except Mamat Khalid's and a few more others). It is very rare to see me not cursing after watching any Malay movies. I'm sick of all those "I love you,  you love me, my parents not rich so your parents don't like it, your parents involved in an accident and need blood transfusion, my blood is suitable, I donate blood to them, they apologize and we are married happily ever after" plot. Sure I am very picky when watching Malay movie. But when it comes to the level I watched a re-run of a movie, you can be sure that I think the movie is damn good. I can't help to notice how beautiful it was the language and culture of ancient Malay history. Every action and words uttered contains a hidden meaning, spoken so softly as not to hurt the other's feeling. But at the same time, the true meaning of the words lies deep and can only be understood by few who listens carefully. Go watch the movie and see how the Bendahara, albeit having a moronic King, manages to obey the King's order while at the same time protects the interests and feelings of other people.

I find that this is a rare trait to be found in a person, and this is what I intend to learn. I mean, how could you not awed at how skillful the Bendahara was in arranging this so that all pieces fell down nicely and in place. This skill, when fully mastered, will give you a significant boost in your career as well as your life. Which is why in this movie I don't really like Tuah, because to me he was just a chess piece. The King is king, Tun Mamat is rook, Tuah is knight, but Bendahara is the true chess player. What good is a king when no one moves the pieces, right? This is what I always stress within myself, always think at least 5 steps ahead of someone before taking any action. It is not unusual to find me silently thinking all of a sudden when some action needs to be taken and I'm sure Izma has become accustomed to this.

Well I'm not a natural-born writer. I don't write good thing, even if you see in this post the points are all jumbled up. I'm not that gifted to arrange words to be a pleasant read, but I do hope whoever reading this gets what I'm trying to say. If it's too hard for you, just ponder on some quotes I took from the movie as to summarize this whole post. Overall, I would say Datuk Rahim Razali did a very good job delivering his act as Bendahara in this movie. I can really feel the wisdom within his character. And I do think Sabri Yunus' joke is kinda lame. Later.

"Kalau nak menurut, biar berakal. Kalau mengikut, biar pintar." - Hang Tuah

"Titah dijunjung, daulat disemat utuh." - Hang Tuah

"Jangan berangan meniti laut, takut airnya menjadi api." - Nenek Kebayan (Gusti Puteri Retno Dumilah)

"Apa dengan tongkat rajawali ke mari?" - Gusti Puteri Retno Dumilah

"Apakah nilainya seorang Tengku Mahkota kita berbanding dengan nyawa ribuan rakyat Jawa. Akan tetapi apakah nilainya ribuan rakyat Jawa yang bukan jajahan Melaka?" - Bendahara

p/s: I watched from an original CDs okay :D

Goddamn Appraisal..

1. What keeps you here?

The colleagues, environment and accessibility

2. What are your strengths?

Programming skills, experiences, work-over-emotion trait and no interest in office politics

3. What are your weaknesses?

Never intend to reveal my weaknesses to other people

4. Are there any specific skills you want to learn or any training needs?

Management skills are very much appreciated, and possibly psychology and/or communication skills

5. What are your personal goals?

Steady and sufficient income, happy family, 2-3 properties, nice cars and 500k+ long-term investment fund

6. What are your career professional goals?

Move into management IT instead of stucking with technical side all the times

7. Are there problems/issues faced working here?

Sales people and logistics for technical team

8. What do you think can be done to improve the company?

Sales team stays out of technical issues, logistics problems get settled quickly

9. Has the company meeting your personal goal, as a person as well as a professional?

None so far

10. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Still working for others, with plan of opening own business

Preferences

First post since Aidilfitri holiday. I'm either too busy or just don't have the mood to blog. I don't have anything interesting to blog anyway. Taking this opportunity to wish Happy Aidilfitri to all Muslims and Happy Deepavali to all Hindus.

To the real deal, below are list of my preferences for services that I require.

Banking: CIMB (Maybank can go suck my ass although they're the biggest)

Petrol Station: Petronas

Telco: Celcom (I'm throwing my Maxis simcard away. hate Maxis to the point I don't want to MNP the number to Celcom, changed to a 019 number)

Monitor: Samsung

PC Processor: AMD (switched from Intel before)

TV: Sony (Bravia especially)

Car Tyre Service: G4 Auto, Bukit Sri Bintang, Kepong (look for a fella named Ah Soon)

Car A/C Service: Waja Aircond Service, Sri Gombak

Car Service (general): Perodua Service Center, Sri Gombak

Food (cakes etc): Secret Recipe

Food (chicken): Nandos or Kenny Rogers

Food (cheapo): Mamak Yaqin, Phileo Damansara 1

Hotel Food: Aseana, Dynasty Hotel (special reason. thanks abg eddy, hehe..)

Comics: Shin Chan Bahasa Melayu, no others (known as Dik Cerdas)

Camera (normal): Sony

Camera (DSLR): Canon EOS

Handphone: Sony Ericsson (with exception to non-Java Nokia phone)

Toothbrush: Oral B Cross Action

Toothpaste: Colgate (currently Colgate Kayu Sugi)

Will add from time to time.

Raya

k-mie off for Raya mode. Be back on Saturday the 4th.

24/9

Received my confirmation letter yesterday. Salary has been revised and is increased a bit. Added with living cost allowance and overtime allowance I would say it's ample to pay off the bills etc. As for work, it's the same. Just that during my confirmation interview yesterday, my manager told me that I *might* be promoted to the position of Product Manager within 1-2 months because the current Product Manager is tendering her resignation. I wow and sigh at this though. Wow because just after 3 months and they trust me to hold technical managerial position, sigh because with great power comes great responsibilities. Will I be able to withhold the responsibilities given or will I just suck it up and let it all go..

Anyhoo, my house is being built as I blog. Not really a house technically, it's a condo unit. Signed the SPA letter last 2 weeks, so far everything is looking good. Me being a meticulous guy, read every page of that letter until the lawyer told me that those are just housing Act. I chuckled, apologized because it was just me being myself and proceeded to sign the letter. Loan has also been approved, from two banks actually. Both offered good rates and services, but then I settled for the one that offered best. Pity I couldn't get cheaper MRTA, if not I'd be able to further reduce the loan by 6 to 7k. Now is just a matter of watching the unit being built day by day.

1 more week for Ramadhan. Means 1 more week for me to go back early. After this it'll be back to normal 9-6. Hate those jam-packed traffic aarrrrgghhh..


*Attention to Mr Farid Hazwan, Mr Farid Hazwan, please update your blog and/or online through your YM. You've been missing for a long time that I wanted to report to the police station. Thank you.*

Permanent

3 months already, hohoho. Gonna ask for my confirmation letter tomorrow. Sadly no bonus for this year though, I haven't been with the company for at least 1 year. Thus, not eligible for yearly bonus. But then the good thing is, they do give bonus (yay!). Still got a lot to learn within the company, although I'm considered as one of the senior developers there. Planning to venture into Java, C++ and possibly SOAP technology. Might also enroll into SCJE course and get the certificate (and ask the company to pay for the certs, haha..).

Oh yeah, although my office is in Selangor our holiday follows Federal Territory. Reason is because our HQ is in KL, easier for internal communication by standardizing the holiday. Not that I really care though, my workaholic-ism is still with me. Just that it sucks to drive to work without somebody at my side, heh. Yeah we go to work together, our offices are next to each other. Saves a lot of spending that way, easier planning too once we get married.

<proud mode>On other note, I've already secured my first property. Will post up some pictures once available.</proud mode>

Snippet

I am lazy to do a real post, so I would just like to wish Happy Fasting to all Muslims.

Interference is an event that happens when a process is disturbed while it is ongoing. As per general understanding, this is not a good thing as it disrupts the flow of the process and thus makes thing looks not smooth. It is also generally time-consuming as well as a waste of resources in order to correct, rectify and resume the process.

However, as a programmer, I generally like interference. Although I don't deny that it does make a process slower and not in smooth flow, sometimes interference is needed in order for you to look at what are the things that you did wrong. This is due to the fact that if a piece of code (for example) runs okay, you would forever assume that the code is in perfect working condition and would not take the liberty to recheck the code for any non-obvious errors. Interference would also give you a time break from your task, which is an important aspect in job. I usually find that by taking 5 to 10 minutes break after every 1 hour of work, your mind will stay focus on what you are doing and will result in you not making silly mistakes. This also applies to the phrase that it is better to work smart than work hard. As much as you can, try to do things right the first time because revisiting things that you've done for some silly mistakes is just, silly.

As for me, sometimes I do need other person to break my concentration from my work. And I find that useful if looked from certain angle..

Ballmer's Peak

I LOL-ed, hard..

My New Environment

I'm gonna tell a bit about my work. Currently I'm working with a company that provides telecommunication services. The pay is quite decent, considering that I only have a little bit more than 2 years of working experiences. Salary aside, the environment is nice. To tell the truth, this is my first time working within big organizations. My previous employers are small-to-medium organizations, with employees less than 10 people. It was quite a shock for me at first, imagining that I need to work with a large number of people. I admit that due to I'm used to work with small companies, I tend to be self-organizing and thus reluctant (or ignoring, to be more precise) on the standards defined within my unit. Oh yeah, I'm attached to R&D unit. Seeing that I came from software houses, my managers see this as a blessing while some of my colleagues see this as a curse.

Firstly, I rejected *all* development tools that they are currently using and I use my own that I am familiar with. They use WSFTP, I use CuteFTP. They use 1stPage 2000, I use EditPlus. They use HeidiSQL, I use Query Browser. This sometimes causes communication errors due to the terms used in these softwares differs although the functions are similar. But then nonetheless, some of them (mainly those experienced ones) started to understand why I use my own tools and begin to learn the advantages of both and exploit those advantages.

Then, there comes the coding part. When first assigned for a project, my supervisor gave me her (yes, her) source code from previous project with hopes that I'd just follow her coding standards and change whatever necessary to suit the new project. Lo and behold, to much of her horror, I redesigned her codes from scratch, removed any unnecessary functions and changing 90% of the code structure. To be honest, there is actually no standards at all inside her coding. There's no proper indentation, variables are declared on the fly instead of pre-assigned, unused functions/variables/procedures are carried over from previous projects and too many rubbish such as xMsg = xMsg. I mean, who the Hell writes this? But then although this sometimes irks her, my managers and Head of Department (HOD) like it as they now starting to see quality (and readable, this is the important thing) codes within the company's code repository. I do admit that I didn't take any programming certificates to boast about my coding ability, but if you are coding at least please make your code readable if you can't make it efficient. I'd rather look at a readable but inefficient code than efficient but incomprehensible code.

Working there is considered a godsend to me. The workload is minimal as compared to what I endured in my previous job. This do sometimes make my colleagues wonder why I'm so laid back in any development task. Things that are major to them, are considered as small to me. Those worked with me before knows that when I do my codes, I like to do it right the first time. I hate debugging for simple problems, it's just a waste of time. Unless it's big thing like non-working API or query optimization (as example), I'm not really thrilled in doing debugging process. So when I received a project White Paper, I like to iron out the system logic flow before I start typing my codes. This, in return, will save me time to change my code later as I have already expected the requirement changes and be prepared for them.

But then this evening, while I was doing the process flow for my project, I asked one of my colleagues on a small flow error that I want to clear off first. "No no no no, you don't care about this first. Do the core engine first, I worry you don't have time to finish it. Leave this part first, it's not important."

"Fuck la. I've code, install, debug and maintain system bigger than this okay. This thing that you call a system, for me it's just a programming tool."

Of course, this was just roaming within my brain. I was very tempted to utter it with my mouth actually, but then my brain was quick as usual. Let the error undone and unnoticed. At least when it's discovered during testing, I know who to blame.


There you go. Actually this post is just for me to vent out my frustration with the incompetence of some of my colleagues in deciding which is important and which is not (that's why you'll see the post seems like to scatter everywhere). Ah well, as long as I get my pay every end of month, the current workload isn't killing me, I can live with that. Just enjoy the minimal work while surfing aimlessly during office hour..

p/s: with my current salary, I'm now required to pay for tax. fuck..

Schedule

Category 1

Running
Week 1 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday (2 miles per day, 8:30 pace) - 6 miles
Week 2 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday (2 miles per day, 8:30 pace) - 6 miles
Week 3 - No running (High risk of stress fractures)
Week 4 - Monday, Wednesday, Friday (3 miles per day, 8:30 pace) - 9 miles
Week 5 - Monday (2 miles), Tuesday (3 miles), Thursday (4 miles), Friday (2 miles) - 11 miles
Week 6 - Monday (2 miles), Tuesday (3 miles), Thursday (4 miles), Friday (2 miles) - 11 miles
Week 7 - Monday (4 miles), Tuesday (4 miles), Thursday (5 miles), Friday (3 miles) - 16 miles
Week 8 - Monday (4 miles), Tuesday (4 miles), Thursday (5 miles), Friday (3 miles) - 16 miles
Week 9 - Monday (4 miles), Tuesday (4 miles), Thursday (5 miles), Friday (3 miles) - 16 miles

Body Weight
Week 1 - 4 x 15 push ups, 4 x 20 sit ups, 3 x 3 pull ups
Week 2 - 5 x 20 push ups, 5 x 20 sit ups, 3 x 3 pull ups
Week 3 - 5 x 25 push ups, 5 x 25 sit ups, 3 x 4 pull ups
Week 4 - 5 x 25 push ups, 5 x 25 sit ups, 3 x 4 pull ups
Week 5 - 6 x 25 push ups, 6 x 25 sit ups, 2 x 8 pull ups
Week 6 - 6 x 25 push ups, 6 x 25 sit ups, 2 x 8 pull ups
Week 7 - 6 x 30 push ups, 6 x 30 sit ups, 2 x 10 pull ups
Week 8 - 6 x 30 push ups, 6 x 30 sit ups, 2 x 10 pull ups
Week 8 - 6 x 30 push ups, 6 x 30 sit ups, 3 x 10 pull ups
Note: do alternately. a set of push ups, a set of sit ups, a set of pull ups. repeat.

Swimming (side stroke with no fins, 4-5 days per week)
Week 1 - 15 minutes continuously
Week 2 - 15 minutes continuously
Week 3 - 20 minutes continuously
Week 4 - 20 minutes continuously
Week 5 - 25 minutes continuously
Week 6 - 25 minutes continuously
Week 7 - 30 minutes continuously
Week 8 - 30 minutes continuously
Week 9 - 35 minutes continuously
Note: if no access to pool, substitute with cycling (double the time taken for swimming e.g week 1 = 30 minutes cycling)

And this is just Category 1. After this there'll be Category 2. As a result, you are comparable to those Navy SEALS in cross-country because this is what their trainings are during Hell's Week.

Sure or not k-mie..

New Job

Long time never update my blog.

Cut short, I'm now working as Application Developer. No more project management for me for the time being. Can be a blessing and a curse, I guess. I do like my current job though. Although I'm the new guy there, as per experience level I am considered a senior within the development team. Others mainly consist of fresh graduates that just started to join working environment. They don't ask me about technical things most of the time, heck some of them are even better than me in terms of programming language. I don't really know .NET, for instance. Normally they'll ask me the environment world as a whole. What should and should not be done in office, which thing(s) to prioritize, how to speak to managers and so on. Suddenly I feel like an old wise man there, with beards and all..

As for office environment, it is heavenly. I arrive 9am every morning, well, sometimes 9:15am. KL in the morning can have traffic jam without any reason okay. And I'll go back home sharp after 8 hours of work. Arrive at 9am, go back at 6pm. Arrive at 9:15am, go back at 6:15pm. Due to the nature of my current company that is very different from the software house that I used to work with before, I find that the environment is quite relaxing. There are times where I just sit lazily the whole day without any work to do. It's either my job integrates with other people's and they have not finished their part yet or it is really there isn't any job for me to do. I found this quite unrelaxing at first, I was accustomed to being constantly busy in my previous job. But now bit by bit I am starting to adapt to the company's culture and environment, and boy these are heavenly haha..

Watched Journey to the Center of the Earth last Saturday with Izma. I'm not gonna give the summary of this movie here, if you want it then either Google it or read from the newspaper. What I want to say is the movie is fun to watch, and it did take my mind of the cruel reality of our world for a while. I must say I like Brendan Fraser's acting especially after The Mummy's series. He does make an act looks funny while not overdoing the joke (not like one self-proclaimed No 1 Joke Group in Malaysia). It's a light movie and suitable to be watched with family or your loved ones, as long as you don't take the storyline too seriously LOL.

I think that's it. Till another update. Oh btw, I signed up with True Fitness gym just 2 weeks ago. Apparently I've become concious about my body condition. Need to get physically fit like before. I was able to run for 2km without stopping during Form 4, doing 30 push ups straight during Boy Scouts training, and here I am. Not even able to finish 500m jog without panting for breath and 10 push ups seems unbearable. WTF has your body become, k-mie??

Job Interview 101: k-mie's Style

I'm sure you have been to job interview(s) before. As for myself, I've been to numerous job interviews. Some went well, some didn't. Congrats to those whose interviews went well. I'm pretty sure you've read articles as well as books on how to attend job interviews. Me, well, I do not believe what are written in those books 100%. For me, those books are written by HR people with the intentions of standardizing how interviews and resumes should be conducted and written in order to make their job (in getting rid of unsuitable candidates off) easier. So now, these are my tactics in attending job interviews. Please disagree with me if you think I'm wrong but do give reasons/explanations for disagreeing. Here goes..

1. Resume. This piece of document doesn't serve other purpose than to present your weaknesses and thus, making it easy for HR people/managers to not select you. Common mistake I notice is that people change the resume content, but not the resume layout. If you already have 1 year of working experience, do not put your academic qualification part in the front. Put your working experience(s) and your top skills in front after personal details. I personally like Adi's resume, it circulated the Internet for a while long time ago and caused 'havocs' within UTP (and Petronas) haha. Reason is, the resume is so unique that it'll catch people's attention to read. You want your resume to be read, not to be easily categorized and making the chance of it to be rejected bigger. Owh, I've once mistakenly brought an old copy resume which did not reflect my current details and expected salary. But I did get the job with the current expected salary I was asking. This one can't be told here, need personal face-to-face story to be told.

2. How you enter the interview room is also important. Get rid of that shy, overly-polite attitude. Do you seriously think managers want to hire people who are shy and too polite? People who are too polite most probably are also who are afraid to make mistakes, and those who are afraid to make mistakes are useless to the organization. Walk inside shoulder broad, face high, and greet everyone in the room. While greeting people, make sure you look at them in the eyes and smile. Always offer handshake to people in same gender as you, and nod to those who aren't (unless they offer their hand first).

3. Talk with confidence. Present what you talked about with facts or article references. If you can't find one, just say it is your own opinion BUT give reasonable reasons why you say like that. Other than useful skillsets, managers also want people who can present things and back it up with facts. Just remember that in interviews, the managers are as blind to you as you to them. Use this opportunity to get them to learn your strengths, and do keep in mind to tell them how your skills can make their job easy. People like their burden to be taken off, and by doing that your chance of getting the job is pretty high.

4. Do not be afraid to tell them your expected salary. I once gave my employer my expected salary at the highest range they were expecting and still I was hired. Tell them that the expected salary is because of your working experiences and skills, although this only works well if you aced in point 3 above. I once had a fresh grad candidate who asked for RM2500 salary. Instead of brushing her off, I asked her how she justified that salary range with her working experience and skills. Obviously she failed though, not because the salary was too high. But because she couldn't give reason why that salary was comparable to her skills. Read back point 3, back up your statement with facts or justifiable opinion.

5. Eye contact is important. I know it is very hard for us to look at a person in the eyes. The trick is, always look at the part between the eyes (above the nose). Combine this with a smile, it'll make you look confident and pleasant. If there is more than 1 interviewer, make sure you maintain eye contact with all of them. When you are asked a question, maintain your eye contact with the person asking only. But when it is your time to answer, alternate with all of them. Shuffle the rotation to make it look more natural.

6. Always know the position you are applying by heart. I'm sure most of you will be presented with a form to be filled in with personal details, work experience etc when attending job interviews. Take me as example. I'm a programmer by nature, and people know programmers are lazy-asses. We simplify things and we don't do redundant things. Why would you re-write the whole thing in the form if the info is already in your resume? I had once given back the form to the interviewer with most of the fields empty and surely I was asked why I didn't fill it all. I just answered that other things were all inside my resume, they could just read it, it's a waste of time for me to re-write it and because I don't do repetitive things. And yes, I got the job offer.

To cut short, don't take job interviews as a place where managers evaluate your working skills. Those skills can't be evaluated in 1 or 2 hours session, don't be stupid. Interviews are just a place where you present yourself to a potential employer and tell them why they need to hire you. I always believe that once you get a job interview, you already secured 70% chance of getting the job. The other 20% is how you ace the interview, another 10% left for the first 3 months from your start date. Happy job hunting.

Why Is There Another RM1?

Ok, here's the question. Borrowed from mom RM25, another RM25 from dad, total is RM50. Bought a trousers for RM45. Left back another RM5. Take from those RM1 and pay to mom, another RM1 pay to dad, left back RM3 as balance. So now owing dad and mom each RM24. RM24 x 2 = RM48. RM48 owing plus RM3 balance is RM51. Borrowed initially is RM50, how come there's another RM1 more now?

Quick Update

1. I got another job offer, which will start on the 16th. Problem is, my previous job offer was already accepted and I've sent them the signed offer letter. I guess I'll just draft a simple letter saying I won't be joining their company. Well if they insist, most to most I'll join for just a week which will be non-beneficial for them more instead of me. They should be able to see the reasoning, I guess. Any HR people to clarify on this? Sayut? By the way, my new employer will be a public-listed company. Based on the say, they do give quite a lot of perks to their employees. Looking forward to join them. Anyway, to those who I revealed my salary, there's one advice. Never, ever trust me on how much my salary is. So far I have never given to anyone how much I'm earning, not even the range. For this latest job, most that I can say is it's way more than what I expected and obviously on the high range of what I requested during interview.

2. I'm planning to buy a house sometime next year. Parents already bugging me about this. But then that won't be so quick, maybe after August or something. I just need the procedures, do's and dont's of buying house, all the tricks of the salesman, hidden cost etc. There's one attractive offer I found, where I only need to put RM2,000 as downpayment and they give shitloads of free things. Even got two free parking spots and free legal & SPA fees (the heck are those?). But then according to my friend Jim (ex-boss actually, hehe), all these free legal & SPA fees will bite me later when I've officially purchased the house. Something to do with strata title, I don't know. Oh yeah, I also need to know all those jargons in buying-house-procedures. Jim sure scratched his head explaining to me what is strata title, and no I still don't understand what that is.

3. I bought a car. No, that is wrong. WE bought a car. Kenari 1.0 Aero, quite a nice car. Very different from my loyal arowana. It's a fun car to drive, too. Just that the thing gulps gas like nobody's business. I guess after the 10,000km mark the engine will be much better. Speaking of gas, RM2.704?? What the fark. Now RM20 barely fills up to half of my tank. Well to tell the truth, I'm quite okay with the hike though. It's going to increase one way or another, so just take it and swallow. But I really need to complaint on how the hike was announced. Can't you announce it a little bit ealier, morning perhaps? Why you need to announce it in the evening, where people were rushing off from work? Didn't you know how massive the traffic jam was. Goddamn I was cursing all the way in my car, and surely someone's name was included heavily in the cursing. So next time please, announce it early in the morning or one day in advance. Give people ample time to refuel their monsters, okay. As if watching the 'rakyat' ('rakyat', hihu..) frantically queuing to buy petrol is darn amusing. Oh yeah, someone promised if he is given power he will roll back the price hike. Are you out of you mind? The price will always increase, not decrease. Well not unless until those lab-coat guys discover another efficient energy source for our cars.


Okay, enough with rambling..

Temporary

I'm now officially unemployed. Is supposed to start work at new place on the 23rd of June. Last working day with old employer is supposed to be on the 20th of June. Managers decided that it is okay for me to leave early without serving the full required 1 month notice. So here I am, having my 2nd resignation. Is enjoying life as it is, not too bad for someone who had not taken any medical leave for the past 1 year plus.

However, I still get called for job interview quite frequently. So even with my new employer, they still have their competitors trying to grab me away. And although I've given them my signed employment contract, as far as I know I'm still not their employee until the official assignment date. Which means, I'm free to look for another better job haha. Evil k-mie.

For my former employer, Godspeed and good luck with whatever you guys are doing right now. I'm sure the thing we planned about before will skyrocket throughout Klang Valley. And thanks for the offer earlier. I'll be sure to keep in touch and reapply my position should my new job doesn't quite fit with me.

See that people? That's the importance of keeping good rapport with your bosses. Although you are resigning, your bosses will still offer you job in future time. Can't really understand youngsters these days that like to burn the bridges they once crossed..

Meep..

http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=E7E29084234111DD872B000423CF3686


Click on above link, it should direct you to a video of our SpecOps trainees under their so-called 'Hell Week'. Now, read the description of the video.

People say that training is cruel? Don't they know that SpecOps people need to be trained like that to enable them to withstand torture when captured by enemies? If you're captured, your torturing will be 5 times worst than this. They are trained like that so that they become accustomed and not easily reveal military secrets. Furthermore, SpecOps are usually the team that will do those missions they call 'black-ops', which means the missions are not authorized by Big G. If you're captured, the G will deny any relation with you and won't help you escape. Thus, you become unwanted person in enemies territory and no country is saying you're their citizen. You think with this condition, the enemies will be a bit easy on you? If you're sitting behind a desk comfortably without knowing what's going on in reality, do not condemn people on what they do best.

I'm proud that our SpecOps especially GGK are trained by SEAL and SAS, which puts them on par with some of the best special operatives in the world.

Full Update

Hi minions. I'm back, and now is the time for full updates.

I had some depressions last month. Condition was one of the most serious I've ever had. Coincidently, I needed to finish my last year's annual leave. So the suffering wasn't that long, because I get to relax my head. Spent some time thinking about myself, work, life, family and so on. I figured that I had not spend some time for myself, it has been work, work and work the past year. Like most people say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I took a total of 8 days off, where it was fully used to recover myself and make some important decisions with regards of my future. What those decisions are, please continue reading..

I am now actively looking for a job. Reasons are that the stress has sometimes become too unbearable. To tell the truth, I don't mind working late at night just to get things going. Hell if somebody says I lie, I'll ask the person to look back what I've gone through the past 1 year. Izma can even testify on that, several times already I stayed until early morning just to get things done. I don't deny that I can be focused on my job and determined to get it finished if I'm required to, but if I decided that I need some rest that really means I need some rest. This, is what my supervisors are currently lacking off in noticing. I can take it if it's one or two times, but when frequently done I'll start to feel dissatisfied. Worse thing is, I started to act like a time bomb. I'll act all innocent and normal, doing my routine job and accepting responsibilities being handed down to me when suddenly BAM!! I send my resignation letter. I like my position now, Senior IT Executive (quite cool to be senior while my friends still struggling as junior exec), but don't expect me to follow whatever being pushed to me. I might follow for a while, and at the same time I'm looking for a way out..

Okay, you guys know that I'm already engaged to Izma last March. Now come the wedding part. Most probably it'll be April, May or June. What I'm sure of is it won't be during school holiday. Maybe on Izma's side it'll be on school holiday, but on my side it definitely won't be. Reason being, my mom doesn't want it to. It'll be too troublesome for her friends to attend, because they'd want to go back to hometown. Not that I'm complaining though, doesn't make big difference to me when it'll be conducted. Some more, she's paying for the 'kenduri' haha. So shut your mouth k-mie and just nod on whatever she says.

On other note, I've already purchased a new digital camera. It's Sony Cybershot T300, bought it just a month after it was launched. Bought it using Izma's Easy Payment facility from SenQ, 0% interest some more wohoo. But then since the stupid AEON Credit Service that provides this scheme is unable to accept CIMB credit card (I'm a sucker for CIMB, yeah), I had to ask my good buddy to lend his card. Thanks to him, I'm now playing with 10 megapixel camera. I'm considering to apply Maybank Petronas VISA card, just in case I need to purchase other things. Oh, my financial status still going on, thank you. I don't keep my credit card balance more than 20 days, most to most it'll be just over a week's time before I pay it off. So don't accuse me to being a credit card freak, hehe. Credit card for me is a liability, not a facility.

I'm now a bit concern about my health. For two weeks straight I went to Taman Tasik Titiwangsa on Sunday and participated in aerobic session conducted by DBKL. Would like to burn off this excess fat all over my body. More importantly, I need to break some sweat to reduce toxin level in my body. Been sitting inside air-conditioned environment on daily basis Monday to Friday, eating unhealthily (Mamak food, sinfully oily), exposed to cigarette's smoke, lacking of exercise, all these contribute to health problems. But now I'm a bit worry with my brain. I am now can easily forget things said to me or tasks that I need to do. Sometimes I can even forget things said to me about 10 minutes ago, which is kinda worrying. I don't know whether this is due to my heavy dependency towards electronic gadget to store memos and tasks to do, eating a lot of fish heads and prawn heads, eating a lot of oily foods or any other reasons. But whatever the reason is, I need to re-train my brain to remember things so that the cells inside don't just die like that. I guess because the cells are not used, they become bored and simply decided to die. Need to use my brain cells from now on.

Lastly, I'm planning to make backpack trip to Taman Negara sometime next year. Most probably after marriage. This is to reduce cost (1 room instead of 2, oh dear God so many things can be done by married couple in 1 room..) and because now I need to save all my money for the marriage. Will have to buy a good backpack then, should be fun travelling with just backpack and nothing else. Plans will be put together latest by March '09.

Okay, that seems like enough update from me. To those who concerned about me during my depression period, thank you for your 'keprihatinan'. I'm back to being k-mie. Thanks also to my Izma. Love you, muacks.

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Fuck you k-mie, being so mushy and all. Is this what 2 weeks' holiday made you?

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric anxiety disorder most commonly characterized by a subject's obsessive, distressing, intrusive thoughts and related compulsions (tasks or "rituals") which attempt to neutralize the obsessions.

Symptoms inclusive of:

• Perfectly aligning objects at complete, absolute right angles, or aligning objects perfectly parallel etc. This symptom is shared with OCPD and can be confused with this condition unless it is realized that in OCPD it is not stress-related.
• Specific counting systems — e.g., counting in groups of four, arranging objects in groups of three, grouping objects in odd/even numbered groups, etc.
• Strange and chronic worries about certain events such as sleeping, eating, leaving home, etc. without proper items. An example would be one who is unable to fall asleep without a metronome.
• An obsession with numbers (be it in math class, watching TV, or in a room). Some people are obsessed with even numbers and loathe odd numbers (odd numbers cause them a great deal of anxiety and often make the person uncomfortable or even angry) or vice versa.
• Feeling like they are needed to have an exact routine, with minor details.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive-compulsive_disorder]

Back

Didn't realize I close my blog for more than a month. Needed the break, had re-energized and now back to ass-kicking. Will update everything later. In short, it was indeed a nice vacation I had. Last year's annual leave well spent. Ciao.

*sigh* V2

As if one problem is not enough. Keep on adding problems to me, again and again and again. Can't you for once think straight? What, is it my sacrifices all these while are not enough. I didn't ask for a whole mountain. All I ask is to understand what I am also going through. Okay fine, I tell the truth. Just checked my account, apparently there's only RM20++ in it. That twenty-fucking-ringgit okay?? Now can you understand how messed up my mind is thinking about this, needing to survive with that amount of money. It's my parents who are rich, not me. I don't take a single fucking penny from them to survive in KL. All I depend on them is food and shelter. And with my desperate attempt to settle all the big things, with shitloads of commitments I have right now, you barge in and add some more of your silly bastard problem. I am *this* close to scold you real nice, thank God I still have my mind intact. So, please, unless you want me to have brain damage keep those little things to yourself. Really appreciate it, thank you.


Fucking monitor, pick up the wrong time to break down. RM600 for a low-range LCD, fuck!

Officially

This entry is actually long overdue. I would like to inform you guys that I was engaged on the 15th of March 2008 to none other, Izma. Take this as official announcement as some of you have already knew it. It was supposedly being a simple ceremony, well what would you expect for an engagement ceremony isn't it. But no... my family decided that they want to come in a large group. Long story short, 10 CARS from MY family tag along. Thankfully everything went well. Actually we were engaged long before in December, this ceremony was just an officiation as people say. 7 offerings from my side, 9 from Izma. Well it was kinda new experience for me though. All these while I was on the other side of the picture, taking photos and being the person who sneaks here and there to get the best shot. Who knows now it's my turn. But then I didn't have the nervous-wrecked at all, sitting idly outside the house playing with my nephew while the older were inside discussing the engagement thingy. I guess that's just me, very seldom become panic and always think rationally in anything.

With regards to picture, have to say that I'm lazy to upload them. Some of them were already uploaded by Izma in her Friendster account, so you can just go there and see. Looked beautiful in the choc-cream kebaya, while me with my selekeh look. It was actually due to the hot weather. I'm sure you guys know how I hate hot weather to the max. My face was sweaty and all, and when that happens I will feel very uncomfortable. Lucky by the time I entered the house, everyone else were outside taking food. Good chance should not be left passed by, I managed to secure a position right in front of a standing fan haha. After that it was "supposed" to be photography session, but then everyone were busy eating. But then still managed to get a few pictures of the dulang-dulang.

I would like to thank my buddy, Farid, for semi-volunteering to become photographer on the day. Thanks a lot and I'm willing to become the photographer for your engagement ceremony provided it is done within central Peninsular Malaysia region. And by the way, your photography skill sucks. Need to improve in angle, exposure and white balance. It's okay, Farid won't get angry. Kan Farid kan, hehe *sambil buat muka tak bersalah*. But anyway, really thank you for spending time to accompany me.

That's all I guess. I put here my favorite picture of the day. Link down there, please click.

Picture

No, there was nothing funny happening on that day.

And The Same Dialogue Is Heard Again..

Tukar lampu xenon – JPJ

KUALA LUMPUR 28 Mac – Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan (JPJ) memberi tempoh tiga bulan sehingga akhir Julai ini kepada pemilik kereta yang memiliki lampu bercahaya terang atau xenon dan cermin gelap keterlaluan untuk membetulkannya mengikut spesifikasi yang ditetapkan.

Utusan Malaysia (Dalam Negeri), 29 March 2008

Oh shit.. (still waiting whether this will really be enforced or just another 'cakap-cakap kosong'. I tinted my windows though, but I'm pretty sure the tints are within the permitted limit..)

*sigh*

Can you think with your head instead of with your heart? Duh..

(explanation will come later, now lazy to elaborate) - 26/03/2008

(yes, will be explained really later. still no mood) - 28/03/2008


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On other note, I've managed to get PHP & MySQL working yay! Refer to here on how frustrated I am to get these two dumbasses to work together. No thanks to any open-source zealots out there, I figure this out of myself. So to add salt to the insult, you go and figure out the solution(s) yourself. I'm not gonna help you with it, sucker.

*k-mie off to play with AJAX*

Early Warning and Detection

Signs that I am looking for other job:

• I voice out my dissatisfaction for the tasks I'm getting
• I put a long face while in office for 2 days straight
• I sigh when asked to do something related to my work
• You'll less hearing typing sounds but more clicking sounds coming from my desk, signifying that I'm surfing instead of typing codes
• I take leave on Fridays or Mondays more than twice in 2 months
• Traces of jobstreet.com are found on my web browser's history
• I look through Job Enlistment section in lowyat.net
• Go back from work sharp on time
• I'm getting moody after working hours
• Work-related calls are left unanswered after office hours and on weekends/holidays

Currently, I have 6 of these within this 1 week. Let's hope this does not escalate to me actively sending out resumes to other companies. Several companies had called me for interviews before and I won't hesitate to contact them saying I'm ready for interview.

This Is Where I Stand

About time for me to blog regarding Malaysia's 12th General Election. I'm gonna keep it short though, because this is not a political-influenced blog. It struck my mind just a while ago on who do I support. I'm gonna be frank here because I believe, if you really stand your ground eventually people will understand. So here goes..


With that, I declare that I support those who contested without going through any party. That means, I support all those 'calon bebas'. Here's my reasons:

1. They see what's not right with their constitution, they want to improve it and they dare to contest in GE in order to fix what's not right
2. They believe in themselves and they are really close with their supporters while party contestants rely on party supporters to do their jobs (mostly)
3. They use their hard-earned money to put as deposit for GE. If they lose, it's their money and not taxpayer's
4. They start from ground, knowing that they are fighting a losing battle. But still, they have strong heart to go for it and just don't care with what the results are
5. They don't use money to entice voters and they don't use phantom voters
6. They don't go abusing other contestants on newspapers, blogs, websites either verbally or physically
7. They have a clear vision and mission why they join the GE and not losing track of their target
8. They don't promise things they know they can't do, whether the things are not within their capacity or it's just plain bullshits
9. They don't ask their supporters to throw stones at FRU because they know if FRU gets serious, they'll be beaten to pulp
10. Last but not least, they get their name, face and details on local (and possibly overseas) media. Do you ever had your face out in newspaper or TV being interviewed by reporter? DO I?

That concludes all. No more political bullshits like this. GE for me is like Alien Vs Predator; Whoever Wins, We Lose. To the winning party, congrats. Please declare Monday as public holiday because I have system review meeting which I hate to go, plzkthxbye.

No Ping Reply Problem?

This was spotted yesterday on this very own blog, at the top Google AdSense (by the way, please click the AdSense link on top to enable me get much more money hihu). When I saw this I was like, WTF!! It's quite funny though considering most of the time I blog about geek and techie things. How on Earth does this get into my AdSense is beyond me. It's nice though for a change. So, anyone up for an 8-hour 'marathon' with 3 'finishing line'? Azhar, care to comment about your performance? Or shall I recommend this product to you? Hahahaha..

picture

Darndest Thing Happens At The Darndest Time

Was rudely awaken by a phone call just now. One of the clients cannot do daily closing on the system (daily closing is when you shut down your system, post all your transactions, print the reports and prepare the system to start in a new transaction date). Had to go online, login to the server and checked what's wrong with it. Hate to do this, but it's in the job description. Well I think if you are so dying to be a programmer, then you have to face the fact that your job requires you to be on standby 24/7.

I am a manager now, no doubt. But then until my company takes more people in, then I guess the managerial position is just on the name. Well, idiotically speaking, what's that to manage if there's no people? Maybe 2 staffs for a start, a junior programmer and a tech support. This should free myself a bit from the Hellish of getting phone calls at 3am or 4am in the morning. Good thing is my bosses don't really be fussy if I arrive late to work. Heck, I've even arrived at 10:30am and walked into the office like nothing happens. As long as I get the work done for the day, then there should be no problem I guess.

Then I received 2 internship applications, and I would like to share the story. Both are girls, studying in local public universities in Klang Valley. One girl is more towards multimedia part, where she is well-verse (she claims) in those Photoshop thingy. Doesn't really interest me then, as I'm more into programming part. But then still considering her because my company *might* need a graphic designer. Move on to the other girl. Based on the resume and list of subjects taken, she's more into coding part. Sounds good, she even made a bookstore inventory system using VB6.0 and MySQL. Just the type of person I'm interested with.

But then, yeah. I guess university life is when you'll do anything just to ensure you get what you want. I shouldn't have trusted the resume and CV at the first glance. The minute I asked her to send over sample code that she had done, her bluffs broke. The first time I asked her, she sent me the .exe file instead. Okay, maybe I did phrase my question wrongly. So I asked again, this time emphasizing the part that I wanted to see the source code. And she sent a non-working project, can you believe it? You're hoping to get internship placement, yet when asked to send sample project you sent a non-working one. Guess she got a 'distinction' in Human Logic & Reasoning course. So this time, a pissed-off me, asked her once again to send a working project with a stern warning that I won't consider her application at all if she fails to do so. Yerp, she managed to do what I want after the third time asking though.

But then, girls will just be girls. To tell the truth, I rarely see a girl that is damn good at programming with exception for a few. My buddy, Nita, is one of them. Bastard damn good in programming to the point I feel inferior to her. But then, this girl, heh. I guess the only experience she has in VB6.0 database programming is using a data control to display resultset. Can you believe it, there's still people who use the bug-ridden fucking data control?? I saw in the project, the only database-linked code was Adodc1.Resultset.Next. Bastard was even damn lazy to rename the control, using a buggy data control with minimal coding involved and you dare to put in your resume you experience in MySQL is at intermediate level. Couldn't imagine if I were to ask her to write a SQL statement without referencing to any website or book. She could have pissed in her panties LOL. Gets a big NO from me then.

But then, I don't know. Maybe I should just give her a chance and train her to do real coding. But then I'm notoriously known as a bad teacher. If she asks for something, I would either tell her to 'Just fucking Google it' or I'll throw sarcastic remarks while pointing her to the correct direction. I'm a bad person, yes. Can she handle me as supervisor? Programmers are well-known to be damn arrogant tough cookie. Scared she'll cry everytime she walks home from work LOL.

Just a reminder to you guys out there. If you're applying for internship and the person asks for your sample code, just give the damn code okay. He/She is not asking the code so that he/she can copy it. I bet your pile of shit coding doesn't even goes to the standard of programmers, so don't be shy to send your most achievable result. Oh, before you go ballistic saying your code is just as good as mine, just have this in your mind: I do error-trapping in every subs and functions of my system so that you can supply shitty input and still it'll produce standard, comprehensible output. Can you do the same?

Next Target

This thing would be my next target. In the process of getting it currently. Thanks to my Easy-Pay credit card, there'll be 0% interest for me to buy it. Now, waiting anxiously for it to arrive home so that I can ogle to its beauty.

picture

Holiday

Kepada member-memberku sekalian,

Aku skang ni tgh planning nak gi Pangkor dlm bulan April nnt utk tujuan holiday. Sape yg rasa nak join, anda dipersilakan contact aku secepat mungkin. Aku tau korang yg dah kawen tu mmg keberatan nak join punya la, aku pun dah expect korang taknak pegi. Entry ni hanyalah bertujuan utk ajak-ajak ayam, menghilangkan rasa bersalah bahawa aku tak ajak korang pegi dan instead, ia selain itu bertujuan utk meng'pass'kan rasa bersalah itu kpd korang sbb tak dpt nak spend masa dgn kitorg yg bujang ni. Disebabkan aku yakin korang mmg tak join, so tak perlu la aku letak tentatif program utk Cuti-cuti Pangkor ni. Biarlah ia menjadi rahsia di antara kami yg single-single ini. Sekian, terima kasih.


1st entry dlm BM.

Complaint

Went to a restaurant hoping to get a nice, decent meal with my family. What a horrible experience we received. Read my official complaint to the restaurant (picture taken from thomas hassler's fotopages)

I went to your restaurant just now (23/02/08) for a nice dinner considering that your restaurant appeared in local newspaper with good review. I was hoping for a nice meal with a cozy environment to chat with my family. To my disappointment, your restaurant failed to achieve what was advertised in the newspaper review.

Firstly, there was no one ushered us to any vacant table. Although this is quite normal for restaurants in Malaysia that the customers walk themselves to the table, but with the good review you get I expect at least this service. Your menu selection is not that big, in fact I've seen road-side 'warung' with more varieties than yours. But then the things that drove the ultimate disappointment would be your staffs had wrongly cooked our order and my food arrived late. By late, I mean, really late. Out of 4 staffs that I asked, only 1 had the courtesy to apologize to me. My mom and I ordered the same item which was 'mee tomyam', but then your staff put a normal 'tomyam' on our table. When we said we ordered 'mee tomyam', he quickly took the 'tomyam', stuffed some noodles inside it then served it back to my mom. And bear in mind, although we ordered 2 same items only 1 arrived. Your staff didn't even apologize to my mom for the mistake.

I am a programmer, and I do F&B POS system in my office. It really amazes me how your cashiering system uses computer but you fail to put a kitchen printer in your kitchen. Your POS system is for show or what? If you're only using it for cashiering, then just use the normal cash register instead of spending lots of money into the POS terminal. I really suggest for you to install one so that silly mistakes like this won't happen again and to make use of your equipment. And yeah, we didn't even get a discount for all these. Although it is not my type to ask for discount, but with these kind of mistakes your staff should at least offered me discount or any other complimentary dishes to compensate that.

Sad to inform you that although the newspaper review is good, I am totally against it to the point I believe you have purposely prepared your best meal for the writer. I don't think there is any way for me to come to your restaurant again, I am very sorry.

$200 Well Worth Spent

Joe wanted to have sex with a girl in his office, but she said she already had a boyfriend. One day he got so frustrated that he went up to her and said, "I'll give you a $100 if you let me have sex with you." The girl said, "NO." Joe then said: "I'll be fast -- I'll throw the money on the floor, you bend down, and I'll be finished by the time you pick it up."

She thought for a moment and said that she would have to consult her boyfriend. She called her boyfriend and told him the story. The boyfriend said: "Ask him for $200, then pick up the money very fast. He won't even be able to get his pants down." She agreed and accepted the proposal.

A half an hour went by. Finally, after 45 minutes the boyfriend called and asked what happened? She said: "The bastard used coins!"


Management Lesson: Always consider a business proposal in it's entirety before agreeing to it and getting screwed.

This one is definitely useful for me in preparing myself for management level, hahaha..

Like This Also Can Worr..

MINTA tangguhkan pilihan raya kerana bulan Mac ramai orang buat majlis perkahwinan terutama semasa cuti sekolah.

– PENGANTIN

quoted from Utusan Malaysia Online (SMS, 11/02/2008)

Oh dear God, this is funny. But I'm on the same side as the PENGANTIN, there's a lot of wedding ceremonies during school holidays. Perhaps our brilliant, smart, forward-looking PM will consider doing the election after the school holidays. Me? Yet to register. Register now also cannot make it to the coming election, so wait la another 5 years. That is if I feel it does change something with the election process, haha.

I'm Loving It..

On a consensus decision made between me and both of my bosses, we have agreed that we will be off from work starting from 6th of February (today) until 11th of February, which means we will be in office on the 12th. So Happy CNY to those who celebrate it. Yeah, I get shitloads of holidays. Even my last year's annual leave still has balance of 10 days. Need to finish them off before April. Now, need some sleep. Had been keying in 1 year of accounting data in just 1 day. Later!

p/s: haha, sucks to be you who still had to work today and on the 11th. those who get half-day work for today also won't count, must be a full day off.

I'm at My Wit's End!!

Okay, can anyone help me with this problem. This is purely technical, so if you're not the geeky type you may steer away. Here goes..

I have MySQL installed in my PC, running okay as a standalone application. Now I'm trying to do web programming (fingers itchy to try AJAX, that's why) using PHP. I've installed IIS 5.1 on my PC and also PHP. I configured PHP to run as ISAPI module on IIS and it works fine. My freaking problem is, I can't get PHP to communicate with MySQL. It seems like these two are in non-speaking terms, fuckit. This is an excerpt of my php.ini file on extension section and MySQL section:

extension=php_mssql.dll <-- not commented dammit, still cannot!! extension=php_mysql.dll

extension=php_mysqli.dll
extension_dir = "./ext;c:/php/ext"

mysql.allow_persistent = On
mysql.max_persistent = -1
mysql.max_links = -1
mysql.default_port =
mysql.default_socket =
mysql.default_host =
mysql.default_user =
mysql.default_password =
mysql.connect_timeout = 60
mysql.trace_mode = Off

I tried loading phpinfo() to see whether MySQL section is there, to no avail. I've added C:\php to PATH variable, basically I've done what fuck suggested on Google, MySQL and PHP page. I have even thought about doing some black magic ritual to ensure this dumbass working. Both php_mysql.dll and php_mysqli.dll as well as libmysql.dll are the latest one taken from MySQL page, still this freaking thing won't work! Goddamit this is the part where I hate PHP and MySQL. Are you guys in a fight or something??? Talk to each other goddamit!!

Heck I'll even give my php.ini file if you want to, just get this damn thing working *sigh* (update: link to php.ini file is down below)

[update 20080205]
Fucker still won't work. To any open source zealots who say open source is the best, come here fix my problems and I shall join you. Else, be silence. At least I don't have problems connecting to database from ASP. Score 1 for Microsoft. And I have determined that the problem is not localized on MySQL extensions only, it's PHP unable to load *any* extension at all.

Link to php.ini

Another Funny Video

I don't know how this guy could stand playing this game LOL. If it was me, I'd be pissed so much I probably would break the console. Furthermore, I've lost count how many times did the guy say 'fuck' hahaha..

Past & Present

Situation: Someone asking a bomoh for help.

[2008]
Bomoh: Kamu sediakan 2 ekor ayam golek, seterika lama, tepak sirih, kuali takde telinga bla..bla.. (insert ancient cutleries here)

[2100]
Bomoh: Kamu sediakan 2 ekor chicken chop, processor Pentium 166Mhz MMX, 8MB EDO RAM, hard disk 1.2GB bla..bla..

Note: I don't have the idea either why bomoh likes those ancient things. Maybe those things got spirit inside trapped in them.
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Subject: A very successful Malaysian singer who is now a millionaire.

[Before being involved into this 'Datin-Datin' world]
Her style is very traditional. Clothing is normal everyday's cloth. No overly done make-up. Doesn't even know what is colored contact lenses.

[After being involved into this 'Datin-Datin' world]
Modern style. No more those baju kurung/baju kebaya. Make-up is overly done (once her picture was shown in newspaper, I thought I saw a ghost). Wearing those colored contact lenses despite the fact she is cuter wearing a spec. Is now shopping in those LV, Prada boutique.

Note: I used to like this singer due to her cuteness. I admit, I like seeing woman in baju kurung/baju kebaya. Looks very 'sopan-santun' per se. Plus, without make-up except light layer of base talc and lipstick.
Now, I kinda lost hope with her already. Colored contact lenses are a very turn-off for me. I despise those people shopping for LV, Prada and all that bullshits. Those people tend to be the 'berlagak' type. And no, I don't admit anymore she's from my dad's hometown. My dad's hometown is a peaceful area without all those glamorous thingy.

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Subject: KLCC

[2004]
Local shops still present. Boutiques like Mark & Spencer, FCUK was not known.

[2008]
Local shops? What local shops??

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How time changes everything, and how usually we like the thing in the past than in the present.

n00b..

haha.. nak mask? ko tu perdana menteri malaysia ke sampai nak kena mask?

netstat -t, tracert or ping xxx.blogspot.com? apa benda tu? sorry.. aku pun baru belajar... ipv4 pun x pass lg...

Normally I don't really care about people boasting their ability in network security. I know, been there done that. I was a newbie too some time ago. But this fella really caught my attention. I mean, c'mon, the whole world knows you're trying to advertise your ubeer l33t h4x0r sk1llz yo. This is what differentiating n00b and enthusiast. A real network security enthusiast will just go and do, share the finding with peers and ask for lead if stuck. While n00bs, they'll just be n00bs. Hey fella, newsflash: tracert is Windows tools. You using Windows yo? I thought all 1337 h4x0r use Linux.

Oh btw, purpose to mask the IP is because it's just good practice. Lame..


Farid:

• template akan ditukar semula, tp tak tau lg bila. Maybe old design but with a new touch.
• told you I will change the template hehe..
  

Wall Deco

Is this better? Need comments from you unknown people. Thanks.

Men Will Always be Man..

<@AntiHeiss> friend of mine went to jail last night
<@AntiHeiss> he probably isn't getting out for a while
<%The_Coolest> y?
<+Enyo> why?
<%The_Coolest> :o
<@AntiHeiss> it was a girl cop, she was pretty cute too
<@AntiHeiss> she said anything you say can and will be held against you.... he sat there for a while and said 'tits'


Talk about quick thinking..

I wish I can say this to our cops, but I'm afraid I might be bashed up by them :P

Careful..

My bosses sign my paycheck. They are older than me. They have much more experience than me. I don't talk bad about my bosses.

Don't bite the hand that gives the food.

Do onto others as you want others to do onto you.

These three things should be enough to convey my message.


1st..

Oh Dear God..

Watch the video and please tell me how in God's green Earth the shih tzu is not cute? I don't know, I'm starting to like dogs especially shih tzu. Goddamn little thing almost melts me when it wiggles the tail. Too bad dogs are mughalazah, else I'd surely buy one and play with it all day long. Quite a hassle to samak every damn thing the little furrball touches. Don't care people say shih tzu is a little thick-skull, like I'm gonna ask the little fella to do tricks. All I want is to play with it. Lucky cats are still on top of my cute little things. Must buy cute cat later..

365

[Jan 2007]
- This blog was opened

[Feb 2007]
- Aggressively searching for another job

[March 2007]
- Handed my first resignation letter and signed my second employment offer letter

[April 2007]
- New working environment
- Been busy like Hell

[May 2007]
- Got to know some of the big-shots in hospitality industry

[June 2007]
- Installation preparation (1st)

[July 2007]
- First system training

[Aug 2007]
- First system installation and standby

[Sept 2007]
- Assigned as Project Manager

[Oct 2007]
- Test stage for my system

[Nov 2007]
- Second system installation

[Dec 2007]
- Installation finished successfully
- Something big happened
- Achieved this year's target to save some money. Next year's target: double the amount (if possible, triple)


[2008]
- Feels like something was missing last year, but not quite sure what it was. Need to spend some time for myself and others, been working like dog throughout the 2Q-4Q of 2007.
- Must have some capital and need to learn those stock investment thingy. 300k by 30 years old, maybe.
- Read lots of management books, steer away from this technical bullshits (don't want to be just a programmer until 70)
- Get married (end of year or early 2009, depends)
- Change car (is this a priority?)
- Be a good son and brother (I always am what!!)
- Don't be greedy, respect all others
- Dig up wealth all I want but never forget those who are unfortunate
- Learn to make straight face and at the same time, say these words: "I'm so damn fucking sorry"