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.