What comes after this?

I discovered a different side of myself.

My thoughts are my best company.

Your mind gives you access to alot of things you don't know about yourself.

You can make the world spin backwards in your head.

Books open doors to a vast knowledge.

What personal freedom is, and what it really means to me.

Music.



What's next?

Baaaaa...

The ScapeGoat

Sometimes people get too comfortable with our job that we sometimes forget that they live paycheck to paycheck. Looking forward to payday each month doesn't seem to ring any alarm. They sit comfortably in their zone. Feeling secure and certain.

What if all of a sudden, they were to lose it all?
They are now face to face with their worst fear; losing their job.

All because he made 6 clicks too many, 6 mere clicks that cost 1.8bil.

All seemed too harmless. It's not the first time the system had faced complications. It has been happening all these while and rerunning it has always solve problems. But this time around, that particular error was generated by a hardware failure that triggered the system's rollback mechanism. It behaved like it should. You see, the thing that non-IT people don't understand is that, when multiple systems were at work, depending on each other, a million and one things could go wrong in between. Unreliable network, database overload, failing disk drives just to name a few.

A legacy system vs a 2 yrs old state of art system. They choose to blame the human. For his error. There's obviously a big loophole in the system.

Why are these people here? They're here with one aim: Prove him guilty. That full action should be taken for that offense.

What the hell are you talking about?

These people came with the intention to convict him. At this point, explanations no matter how technically detailed is not going to do any good, cos non-IT people don't give a shit. They just want a scapegoat, and they're done. It pains me to hear how people from different work backgrounds arguing a point that we all know will never reach a mutual understanding.

It's almost certain that termination will be the conclusion.
Six clicks were all it took.

Read Like You're Rolling

Politics are boring stuff so I am not going to repeat whatever you can read in TheStar or any other papers you can get your hands on. Whether or not it will be doing us any good what the by election results, damage was done.

Now, leave us alone.

On another note, I have a couple of unfinished books. But I have this little habit of getting new ones before I can finish what I have. Some books are just easy to read, meaning you can just go on and on and on flipping those pages. Some, in my case, I read the same page, same paragraph and the same line over and over again, and I can't seem to go anywhere. Some of the books had this depressing element, but being difficult to read is the whole point, ain't it? I am suppose to learn from understanding difficult things. BAH..c'mon, read on!"

You wouldn't believe this is how I read. Hopeless. Is that how you read difficult books?

Okay. Then I thought maybe I should try something light. So one day, I went through the books on Thamby's shelf (cos all I have in hand are depressing) and picked "Can you keep a secret?" Sophie "Kinlala" Kinsella. Certainly. Before I knew it, I was flipping pages after pages until ... I finally fell asleep at 49. Damn hopeless lor.

Anyway, I've got myself 2 more new books. What did I just say?

Jamie hears a who?

School uniform sexy, says group

[insert your version of catcall here]

Shallowness

What I hate about certain mapmakers was the fact that they like to omit 'places' they dim unimportant.

Where the heck is Kedah?

I have a reason to blame them mapmakers for producing Ignorant Malaysians, no?
It's part of the country. Bet your Geography textbook tells more than that. No matter how bad you did at Geography or how sucky your sense of direction is. I can't believe how 'chien' some people could be that they don't know where this state is, let's not ask if they even know Perlis is actually in Malaysia. I am repeating this for the n-th time. (substitute n for any possible variable next to infinity)

For your information.

If you still can't see where. It's hard to believe when people tell me Penang is the north-most state in P.Malaysia. The total-chienness makes me want to strangle them.

And this is where I grew up.

I won't be surprised if people tell me they hadn't seen a paddy field before. Too full of their brick jungle life that they are so reluctant to step out a little and see the world. Very Chien.

Life here is very laid back. I loved every minute of it. The only place I can sleep like there's no tomorrow, is back at home. I can hardly get so much sleep back in KL. Feels different. Food here, you can't get anywhere in KL. Nothing like it. So people ask, why stay in KL if you want to complain? There are sacrifices to make.

Kedah is strategically located near the tip of the peninsular, in short, we're neighbours with Penang and Thailand. An hour down south, we'll land in Penang. How convenient was that?

Do your shopping. Like mad.

Then take a short ferry trip back to mainland. Bye Penang.

Sun and sea breeze.

Also close to my home state, about half an hour up north is the Thai Border.

Dine next to a Thai rubber estate?

By the Lake, surrounded by a forest?

This place is Serene!

Have food sent to you by boat.

Check this out!

Dining area. (bit grainy here..bad camera)

Home sweet home.

Greens

It's been a while since I log on to Blogger.

Life has been a roller coaster ride.

Things happen so fast that whenever I could find time, sit down and try to blog about it, my old brain can't seem to remember the details in full.

I need to relax.

Victim of Something Potty

I'm a victim. Of POTHOLES. SS2 pothole. After midnight.

But on the bright side, I am now a certified tyre changer.

For emergencies please call 012-4xxxxxx

A change is good. I am savouring it now. It is worth the wait.

Say HI!

I am cute. Don't test me.



I was wondering what it'd be like if us human have the growth rate of a rabbit.

1 month from now.

...

Noises that appeal to me.

I almost forgot that I am a big fan of this.

Eh SHOOT.

No, not that woman.
I meant this. I like their uniform. And check out the drum major. He's smart looking, while the rest are fit enough to be casted for Star Trek. The entire crew for the Enterprise.

Click for larger view. Taken with my trusty Sony Ericsson. But please click "Back" to my blog. Don't leave. =P

This is just the launching of Kuala Lumpur World Marching Band 2008 that will take place months later (in July). Why so early? I don't know. Perhaps Azalina Othman Said's had her schedule full till July or maybe til the next elections.

Anyway she did one amazing thing worth mentioning. For a person so occupied with her work, she obviously didn't quite have the time to prepare for speeches. Of course, having been on the scene for so long, she must have learnt a thing or two about public speaking.

After a whole long wait for the VVIPs to arrive, I finally get to see the band play. I LOVE. But of course before anything starts, some of the VIPs gave short speeches. So when she sat down and started to flip the handbook placed nicely in front of her, I was thinking that, bah, like all other "important" people, they just flip like they care~

Then, it was her turn to address the audience. She grabbed the handbook along. So as she stood there and started out with acknowledgments and some sweet kosong talk. As she was talking, she flips the pages, addressing people's name, fellow VIPs' titles and she made it look so easy. I reckon she cant remember the name of the event itself (cos she flips to the cover and reads aloud). She did all that in a selamba fashion and never once it sound like she's reading, and best all, she didn't pause to think even for one second. -.-"

Flipping pages and made a speech out of it as she flipping.

Now that's worth admiring.

Anyway, before that very cool band played, the VVIPs were welcomed by pipe band of 5 and a drum playing dude led by a sissy drum major.


Wtf. So potong stim. He was suppose to be a most prominent figure compared to the rest of the band. You should see how he hold the baton (did he forgot breakfast lunch and dinner the day before?) and how he swung it upwards and side stepped to catch it, and first thing he adjusted after that big catch, was his bloody hair. And also if you did not know, the drum major was suppose to choreograph the marching movements, which of course he did, just that he made the band do what I now call the "Ant-walk".

Watch closely, there are the band mates and the leader in black. I don't know if its a formation. It's ANTWALK.

I've never seen anything like that in the history of marching band.

I GOT PUNK'D!

Like I said :-I GOT PUNK'D!!

It's funny how at first I felt ... empty. But after I hung up and reflect abit, I was like WTH, I was gotcha-ed. -.-"

-_________________________________________________-"

It was when everything that happened 2 minutes ago, sank into my sane mind. But you made my day. *grins*

Nice one!

My Arrangement

I figured a brilliant way of arranging the layout of stores in a mall. Read this.

Name of shops are very the creative these days. They either explicitly include north south east west, or it comes in the form of a "recognizable name" that we can relate to a certain part of the world.

So if we group them together wing by wing, semua solved! Unless, dia tak faham bahasa, itu lain cerita.

Let's see what we've got. Apparels and eateries, cafes and restaurants.

Topman Topshop - On top lah. NORTH!

Little Vietnam. Little Taiwan. Ehh! We have Little Penang too! Erm... All EAST!!

Chinatown Classic - duh, EAST!! (hey, easy peasy)

East India - okay lar, EAST, but closer to Centre Court.

Chilli's - American - WEST!

San Fran! - WEST!

Amarin Heavenly Thai - BAH. EAST

Finnegan's - IRISH! CENTRE!

Hong Kong Kim Gary - EAST!

British India? Er...

Sounds like a plan heh?

East West? Nine West??

Shopping malls are most Malaysians favourite hang out place. Malls these days are sprawling, an outward extension of a small piece of land, and has almost everything under one roof. So when you have everything under one roof, you've gotta provide good signage, just so people don't get lost in the concrete jungle. Or spend time looking for the store instead of spending their good money at your mall, right?

One mind boggling thing is, why in the world would they still name their crack and crevices East, West, North and South? As if we can tell east west north and south, INDOORS!

*checks portable compass

You see, when we can't tell East, West, North and South indoors, we tell directions by recognizing the stores lining each side. That's a workaround solution. But how many people that you know, actually know the location of each and every store? Most of the people I know would say, meet at Centre Court. Even then, people can't find each other because of their centrepiece. You get my drift.

"Where you at?"
"Im standing in front of GAP."
"Geb? Oh okay! Meet you in a second. I'm on my way up!"
"Up? Where? I'm at GAP!"
"Yeah I know. Geb rite? Just wait. I'll meet you there!"

Okay. I just made that up. But it's a possible confusing situation, you see? People are often reluctant to admit that they have bad sense of direction, leave alone admitting they have a short short-term memory span. Or simply, bad memory. You get my point.

GPS anybody? Or the ole trusty compass? Let's hope their East West North South is really what it is.

When its raining and you've got nothing to do

Abbr. of the day: EGM
EGM no longer stands for Emergency General Meeting.
Its now: Extraordinary General Meeting.

Wow.
More to come.

Do you want some Goosee?

In the internet and yes, Facebook age, we don't need money to afford luxuries.


Some things are meant to be shared.

Pete-a-pan

Politics has never been so interesting. The more diverse it gets, the crazier the story gets. It's like fighting over the who gets more candy and icing on the cake.

Until someone can forget to put their dog in the car. Adoi.

I wasn't aware of Peterpan's new album until Dewa told me about it. He was Peterpan's biggest fan. It's nice to hear that the locals support their own bad, cos they make Good music. I shall try to love our local bands too. Please bring me for gigs. More so if Peterpan or other Indo bands are coming okay? Me love live bands too. So please.

Peterpan

I bought their new album after I came back from Bali. Speaking of Bali, yes, I haven't finish blogging about it. Soon, I promise. After I get the rest of the pictures from my home PC.

What do you think of a person who is ignorant about the ongoings in the country? I always believed that knowing a little something about everything is never a bad thing. I've stood by that, and I embrace that entirely. The Internet is a vast knowledge vault. It's almost boundless. Need I say more?

I've been asked questions that put me in an awkward situation. Of course, my reply wasn't a natural response as I would to a close friend, but rather a calculated response required of someone walking on the edge. It happens so often nowadays that I needn't think it through to come up with it. I can blurt it out with ease. I am still very selective of people I share my life with. Too often I had my trust compromised, can someone tell me why these scheming people are even worth my attention and care? Want to thank my yhsif buddies, I treasure you most.

Life only gets harder when you have choices. Options. You weigh the pros and cons. What is right and wrong. What is needed and what is not. But what if both choices are seemingly just as good, you're forced to make that choice. But how? Gut feeling? Instinct? What feels right at that moment? But when a choice had been made, how often do we have second thoughts on something that had been decided on? And why is it that most of the time, the other option seemed to so much more attractive than the one we've made after we've made that choice?

James Blunt's Same Mistake is a beautiful song.

Helo?

What comes to mind when you see a confused dog wandering on the streets in an area full of apartments and condominiums?

A lost dog.

Not just some chao kao running around okay? I wouldn't be surprised if I see a non-breed lying by the roadside. It was a Shihtzu. Did someone lose their dog?

For someone living in an apartment to lose their dog shows how irresponsible the owners are. It's not like your dog get to run around in the front porch and was "dognapped". There's no front porch to poo on.

I thought of a couple of potential ways to lose a dog (while living in an apartment):
1) You spent all your money on your breed dog and had none left to buy a leash?
2) He survived a 20 storey high fall.
3) You had your hands full carrying your stuff to your car while your dog tags along. You ordered him to stay and wait. You put all your stuff into your car trunk, hop into the driver seat, and drove off, leaving him behind.

Go figure. It's like forgetting your daughter.

Ordinary People has decided

Good morning. What does it feels like to wake up to the dawn of a new government? Did the voters did the right thing by putting in more voices in the Parliament? Or was it a brilliant scheme to get voters to deny Dacing a landslide victory, and in the end they were the ones reapoing rewards?

My home state has fallen to PAS. What does the future holds?

*puts on headphone, plays John Legend's Ordinary People*

Brwahhhh! Did I scare you? Look into my eyes and you shall fall into a trance.
[Bali post to be continued. Soon]

Election Spell

The election fever is now at its peak. Everywhere you can see banners and posters. Also pondok-pondok for their campaigns. Didn't see them act so fast when the flood hits certain parts of the nation. Nabe. I'm not going to discuss about that today.

When I was a 11, I knew nothing about what elections are for. Why bother voting over who should have the power to lead the country when the successor will still be from the same party? I don't recall getting much explanation from mum and dad, nor did they answer to all my curious questions, politics in particular.

Among my questions;

Why choose a Dacing as a symbol? Dacing has to be very balanced, or else Senget lar!

What has UMNO got to do with Barisan National?

Rocket! Looks like NASA flag. COOL!

More flags/posters/banners = more votes?
How do you know who to vote for when you only see these people coming out to campaign when the elections are near? At other times, what were they doing?
How this, why that, how come???

I have an odd liking for flags. I like to see flags; how they flutter and flap in the wind. On police bikes, the Royals convoy, Sports Day. So when I see those posters hanging freely everywhere, my genius mind hatched a brilliant idea. Make flags out of the posters. God knows what flag I made. Maybe with a candidate's face? Eww. Can't believe I actually did that. And yes, I did get a good scolding from mum for ripping out the posters and bring it home. They scare me with their bomoh and evil spells stories and that I will be put into a trance and they can make me do evil things and obey them. That scare the crap out of me. Me and my 'flags'. My mum's fantastic story.

I'm lucky not to get my mouth taped from asking all those questions. I know how annoying it must have been. I guess they had better ways to entertain me, by Ignoring certain questions. Based on need-to-know basis. I figured that if they were to explain the works of it, I guess a 10 minute thing will end up taking the whole day. I only question things that I have interest in knowing. Most of the time, I do more observation than questioning.

Anyway, by my own intense efforts at reading the news online during my goyang kaki days at le Bank, I picked up useful bits of information. I frequent websites that publish untainted information.

I'm lucky to be in the Internet age.

p/s: eh..my bali post is not finished. =P i know you can wait

My Excursion

I was away to Bali last week. I enjoyed it very much, especially the company of my sister. =D

So I did finally jet off somewhere.

Until this trip, I realised that I hadn't been out of the country, for 3 long years, for a real vacation. (Hatyai, Thailand semua tak kira larh~)

But not before I get through the airport security and stuff. It was my first time dealing with the 100ml restriction and I was amazed with the amount of effort they put to enforce that. It's pretty funny though, it seems to me that they were too focused on checking/taking/dumping out water bottles rather than watching out for other gadgets that were more potential hazardous devices. iPod as a trigger that can detonate a bomb planted in a backpack? That'll be scary. Hehe. Sorry. My mind went a tad too far. But think of the possibility, ya know?

Luckily, there were no delays. It was drizzling when we were on the bus from KL Sentral to LCCT. Air Asia did a great job in cutting down delays, but you never mess with Mother Nature, no? Nothing is predictable =). Soon before we know it, we boarded Flight AK900.

Being on the 3 hours flight to Bali was somewhat boring in a way it's fun. It was an Airbus 320. No entertainment consoles built in to the back of the seats. I didn't bring my pods either. Camera was in the baggage compartment. I'm so lazy to move my ass to grab it and snap some pictures for you. Of le food.

I am sure that most of us have discuss about the price of food on AA flight in one way or another. Bloody expensive, yeah? Everybody knows it. But when you were deprived of water for quite some time, and it was lunch time, it got me a little disoriented. I think most people on the flight had second thoughts of buying food, but sis and I nonchalantly ordered nasi briyani and nasi lemak and a bottle of Spritzer. RM20. Smack. But when we started digging out happily on food on our table (I guess the smell is out haha), and I see passengers around me start to buzz the stewards and place their order. Guess everyone's missing nasi lemak already. Surprisingly, it was Good. Or was I hungry. I don't know, but it is GOOD. So pig out, sleep, poke fun, sleep again.

.
..
...

Until, touch down!

[pictures of the airport soon]

The airport was one of a kind. They have Balinese structures everywhere, and little statues everywhere, either carved out of wood or volcanic stone. Very interesting, though sis find it a lil disturbing.

When we collected our luggage and exit the terminal, there's a whole bunch of people with placards with names on it waiting. I said, "Walaw..I wonder if my name was there. HAHAHA" It was so packed with Names, that I didn't even bother to look. I was thinking there shouldn't be any, cos I didn't arrange with anybody to pick us up from the airport. We hop on to the airport taxi and it cost us IDR40.000 (RM14).

Vira Bali Hotel was a nice as it was on pictures. I was awed. We were warmly welcomed and while waiting for them to prepare the room key, we were given a complimentary mango juice.

Reception Counter

Lobby - Waiting Area

I chose a hotel in Tuban, south of Kuta, for less hectic and less noise. It was within walkable distance to Kuta, so why not? I loved the pictures of the hotel during booking process. So why not? It was as good as it seems. I have no complaints except for the breakfast spread.

I grabbed a few brochures available at the information counter at the airport. Before the trip, I have done some research online, and made some arrangements to tour Bali. Of course, you can also do it when you get there, cos with the help of all the brochures and a few calls, you can get yourself a good deal. But I decided to do it before hand. I found this site on Google, BaliExplore.com. The founder of this website, Dewa Parwita, was the driver and guide. According to him, he started this and it soon became a family business. His workers were his family members or were related to him in one way or another. "Hard to find people you can trust." I agree with him on that.

Check out his website @ http://Baliexplore.com
Read his guest reviews and you will get what I mean.

Our first half day was spent on Uluwatu Sunset Tour. Before going down to the lobby to wait for Dewa, we were treated to a complimentary massage. Talk about Balinese hospitality. They know how to pamper you. =P After the massage, we went down to the cosy lobby and waited for Dewa. 10 minutes later, he called and said he can't make it for that tour cos he was far from Tuban and caught in a massive jam after the downpour, but he will send his cousin, Nyoman. We're fine with that cos we're on a happy holiday mood. And boy, those people that I had encountered here in Bali, were very polite. You can feel the sincerity when they apologize to you. It corrects things by apologizing. (works for Bali people only, Malaysians please ignore =P)

Along the way to Uluwatu which is south of Bali, there were alot of breathtaking sights. Just sit back and relax. There's only one government owned university, and as opposed to ours, their government university is far more expensive than private ones. Campus buildings are built Balinese style, and I wonder what the lecture hall looks like from within? Ask Nyoman anything and he could answer all my curious questions. Why are temple gates split into half? Why do people put marigold flower (marigold is a plant with orange flowers) in a paperbox at entrances? What is puri and how is it different from pura? And everything else. Hey, I'm one curious soul.
One-of-a-kind petrol stations. [pictures soon]

When we get to Uluwatu, the sky was getting dark. No sun, yes, you get that right. Ours was no sunset tour, it was Uluwatu Sunsetless Tour. Everyone must be modestly dressed to enter a temple, and also tie a sash around the waist. Those with exposed legs must wear a sarong.

But standing there with such a magnificent view upon me, that place reminded me very much of The 12 Apostles. The cliffs, the limestone stacks, erosion magic. Sound of the crashing waves, the wind, and well, fat monkeys. Believe me, I saw Michelin-like monkeys sitting around. No joke. Nyoman warned us earlier before entering that the monkeys here were a bit aggressive and asked us to take off our beads and watches, they snatch everything that is loose.

Take this in!

While standing at the cliff, taking in the view, all of a sudden, a girl screamed so loud my hair nearly fell off the cliff. One of the monkeys snatched her spectacles right from her face and took off, down the cliff.

Come out come out wherever you are...

Later a monkey snatched a girl's fluffy hair band, and chew on it. -.-" So don't say I didn't warn ya.

After spending quite some time trailing the walkways by the cliff, at the same time taking in the view of the Indian Ocean, and the sound of the crashing waves, we head off to watch the Kecak Fire Dance. It was one of the many trance-inducing exorcism dance. Characters in the Ramayana epic were fully decked out in their best costumes and headdresses along with errie looking masks. I loved Hanuman the white monkey. I liked his antics. Perhaps the most dramatic moment was when Hanuman was caught, bound and placed in a ring of burning straw drenched with kerosene, where he eventually freed himself and kick up sparks in the air and charging through the embers while fighting off the bad guys.

Hanuman

After the show, they invited the audience to take pictures with the characters. I waited in a so called line for a picture with Hanuman, but when people from behind start pushing, I fought them off to stay put until all of a sudden surge of shoving, I ended up outside the pack. -.-" Wtf~ Japanese. So F. I got so pissed, I walked away after taking a last look at Hanuman. The disappointment was there. It was raining heavily then, as everyone marched out in the rain back to their waiting cars. Sis nonchalantly blurted out that photo session are for tourists. Bloody hell, are we not? Anyway, she didn't have the patience to wait for me. So I was equally pissed at her. I kept quite the entire journey back north from Uluwatu to Jimbaran for a supposedly sunset dinner by the beach, but we were greeted by rain. Great. But once we got into the restaurant, we both lighten up. I can tell you that no matter how angry I sometimes get with my sister, we'll cool off in 20 minutes.

This as backdrop? Wtf.

IF ONLY IT WASN'T RAINING.
SIGHS. Jimbaran is a must-go for dinner by the beach. The entire stretch of Jimbaran beach was littered with beach side restaurants, with dinner tables set up by the beach. A must go. It
's Balinese style to grill everything. Not to my taste but I was adminring the beach so much that I forgot how bad/good the food was. But my seaside dinner was spoiled by droplets of rain. BAH.
Rice and seafood. But they serve french fries. So odd, and everything is so dry that we just pack off the big basket of fries for supper.

It was still raining when we finally get back to our hotel by 9pm. At first we planned to check out Kuta by night after the Uluwatu tour, but since it was raining, we just chilled at the hotel room, with french fries, sipping coffee.

Relaxing it was.