My Scary Office Lift!!!

Yesterday afternoon after lunch, I was unexpected stuck in the lift heading up to my office. Thanks to the help of some of my more ingenious lift-mates, we managed to manually open the door and escape from the lift after being stuck for around 10 minutes. This morning, I had a most uneasy feeling upon stepping into the lift then my worst fears were confirmed when the lift once again became stuck resulting in a reset of the lift systems.

The other people around me immediately pressed their respective floor buttons again acting as if this was a everyday occurrence. I was utterly confounded as to what to do but similarly just followed suit. Luckily, the lift resumed its operations after not moving for a few minutes. The building management has to do something about this!!!

Why Am I Still Bound???

I still don't I understand why I'm still subject to such rules.

I know that you have a right to implement them but even in this day and age?

If others can adapt with the times, why can't you? Its not like its illegal...

Do you understand what you are subjecting me to?

Don't you trust me to do what's in my best interest?

Don't you believe that I can uphold my principles when the time comes?

If others can believe in me, why can't you do it as well?

Or are you merely caring about other people's perception?

Talk Is Cheap...

Had to get this out of my mind so that I can concentrate on more important stuff. Oh well, thats why this blog is here for =P...

--@--

Since the start of today, I have been experiencing occasional feelings of uncertainty. When I think about it, I myself fail to understand the rationale behind these feelings. How can something be so important and so meaningless at the same time?

Should I resign myself to the worst case scenario and get on with it? That would seem to be the most wise and logical decision yet some small part of me just refuses to let go. I must learn to let go. There are indeed more important things in life.

Because of it, some things are now easier to deal with. I hope I have made a difference. There are other more important interests to entertain as well and not only my own selfish ones. I just really need to let go...

Off to bed now. Hoping for a dreamless restful sleep so that I can wake up at 5am to continue studying. Cheers!

Assignments!!!

I seriously beginning to feel like I'm been warped to my student days. The days where I dread every single assignment and procrastinate like crazy to get started on it. =(

Its only my 4th MBA module! How will I ever survive the remaining 8? Well, at least the I breezed through the assignments for the past 3 modules. Who would have thought that Law would require so much research for such an apparently simple straight forward assignment?

*End Rant*

Updates..Or Rather Lack Of Them...

Gee, I seem to have less and less motivation to update my blog lately. Hopefully, it's just a phase that will pass soon.. =P

Had a most eventful week with my long awaited promotion finally arriving. w00ts! And with it comes the decision to stay on in this job or continue in my endeavour to look for a better job. I know that in the short run, I may not be able to draw the same salary that I'm receiving over here but the future prospects of another job might be more signficant. More pondering in the books...

Friday was spent juggling between work and rushing off to attend the start of another brand new MBA module, this time its Law!!! Cripes! *Imagines self in long black robe and a lawyer's wig pacing intently around the court room* =)

Actually, the scope of law only covers Contract Law so no courtroom action is necessary. Oh well.. the module seems rather interesting, lots of food for thought indeed. Looks like this will be one of the more memory intensive modules in the MBA programme.

As the classes extended well into the weekend, which translates into no weekend! I didn't even manage to get my hair-cut which is at least 2 weeks overdue!!! Must remind myself to get it done this weekend together with some clothes shopping!!! Need more clothes!

There, that should serve as a reminder for me not to forget this weekend's to do list. Looking back at this post, I seem to be showing my bimbo writing style on this occasion. Hehe..

Random Pic Of The Day

Rip Van TITG...

Wow, talk about suffering from massive lack of sleep... Was feeling under the weather yesterday so I went home after forcing myself to attend a super important meeting in the morning.

Think I've been struck by a massive bout of heatiness probably triggered by consuming copious amounts of fried stuff and the piece de resistance would be the durian feast in the wee hours of Monday morning topped up with only sleeping an average of 4-5 hours since last Saturday.

My body finally decided to give up on me...Here's a summary of my slumber activities...

Reached home yesterday at 11:30am...

Immediately crashed on the bed till 5.30pm...

Woke up to have a porridge dinner and watched the Cantonese serials till 8.00pm...

Went back to bed at 8.00pm till 11:00pm...

Awoke in a daze and lumbered over to turn on the air-conditioning as the mosquitoes were busy feasting on my blood...

Responded to the siren call of my comfy bed from 11:00pm till I was rudely awakened by my alarm clock at 7:00am the following day...

Thats almost 17 hours of sleep!!!

So why do I still feel so tired? =(

Why All The Unsolicited Advice???

*Warning: Long Ranty Post*

Is it just me or does everyone else respond negatively to unsolicited advice? I mean who in their right mind actually welcomes advice especially when someone comes along and forces it down your throat?

I strongly believe that learning should be self-initiated. If anyone else forces knowledge upon you, chances are you won't be in the proper frame of mind to receive it and end up rejecting the information at the end of the day. The result is both the people that give and receive the advice become frustrated!

A very common example would be my Dad. Every now and then, he tries to force his style of accomplishing certain tasks onto his children. I admit there are certain tasks that he is greatly more experienced with but the delivery method of this information is all wrong!

Just because I am not doing a certain task as well as him doesn't mean I want help! First off, I have to acknowledge that I'm not doing it correctly in the first place. It so does not help the situation when you begin your sentence with "You're Doing It Wrong! Do It This Way!" I automatically become defensive and its highly unlikely I'll learn anything at that point in time.

Instead, it would be so much better if the sentence went like "Do you know there is a better way to do that?". At the very least it would have given me a chance to agree or disagree and justify myself instead of suddenly getting defensive over how I carry out a specific task.

Its even better when I get to realize my own mistakes. That way I will be extra eager to find a much better way to perform a certain task either by conducting self-research or asking a more experienced individual. Whatever information I glean at this point of time will be earnestly accepted and most likely be used the next time I go about executing a similar task.

I believe that this is a far superior approach in teaching knowledge rather than resorting to forcefeeding people with information. People are generally proud and most will not willingly accept that others are wiser than them regardless of whether its the truth or not.

Not only that, even though by nature older people tend to possess more experience and may be more knowledgable in most things, there are still times when they are caught by surprise when introduced to easier and faster ways of accomplishing certain tasks.

This is the reason that everytime, I'm teaching anything to anyone, I try to make it a point to ask whether that person already has any prior knowledge or inclinations on that subject. Not only does that person feel happy to be given the chance to share his or her own opinion but I may also pick up certain things that I wasn't aware of before.

Hence, a 'win-win' situation =)

My Frustrated Self...

-- 9.37pm --

I don’t know why I’m feeling so frustrated at the moment. I just came back from fetching my sister back from work as she had to work late today. My mum wanted to follow as she wanted to know the route I was using to fetch her back so that she could use it the next time. The thing was she wanted to go to her dance class as well, so she asked me to pick her up from her dance class on the way to fetch my sister.

This was at 8.00pm when she told me this. I had a badminton activity scheduled at 9.00pm but since my mom was worried about my sister, I agreed anyway. When my sister messaged me at 8.15pm to pick her up, I told her I would be 10 – 15 minutes away and rushed out of the house. On the way, I picked up my mum from her dance class and I headed off to pick up my sister.

And that is when the problems started…

Firstly, I made a mistake in my intended route. I had earlier asked my sister to go across the road to the bus stop on the opposite side of the road thinking that it would be on the way of intended route. My mum immediately gave me an earful worrying about my sister having to walk across the road at night. At this point, I admit I wasn’t taking into account my sisters safety as a top priority as I was trying to rush back in time for badminton.

I got a shock, when my route put me past the bus stop and I could not access it. At this point, my mum immediately scolded me again for taking such the wrong way and I was again given a piece of her mind with me being unable to do anything except apologize profusely.

I immediately picked up my phone to call up my sister meaning to tell her that we were changing the pick up point to the front of her work building but I could not get her. At the same time, my mum asked me to concentrate on driving and she started calling my sister instead. This was around 8.28pm.

Being unable to reach my sister on the phone, when we reached the bus stop directly in front of my sister’s work building, my mum rushed out and dashed across the road to see whether my sister had arrived. I was getting very alarmed when I saw that the initial intended bus stop was empty.

I started getting worried about my sister’s safety although my logical brain kicked in at that moment and told me that it was highly unlikely anything unfortunate had happened to my sister but I was getting more and more worried as each second grew by. I immediately called my dad to ask him to go ahead with badminton as I had no desire to go to badminton anymore.

I glanced across the road to my mom who was still dialing furiously at her hand phone trying to get in touch with my sister. I also tried calling my sister’s handphone only to be directed immediately to her voicemail. This series of events did nothing to allay my fear and I decided to walk to the front of her building to get more information.

At her building, I asked the guard whether anyone had walked out of the entrance recently and the guard informed me no one did. So I surmised that my sister had been held up for work and could not get to her handphone. I then called my mum to ask her whether she had any updated news. She informed me that she managed to contact my sister and that my sister had gotten a lift from a friend to go to the bus stop at the opposite side of the road.

By the time, I walked back to the car and waited for them, it was 8.40pm. I don’t know why but I began to feel very frustrated. Whether it was due to me being unable to go to badminton due to my refusal to drive there myself or it was in replacement for the relief I felt after finding out my sister was safe or perhaps it was due to her not informing my mum or myself that she was deviating slightly from the original plan and thus would be a few minutes late.

So here I am planning to skip badminton today as I was too frustrated to go anyway, typing out this post in an effort to calm down and figure out my frustration. Well, for the most part, it worked and I feel better. I’m no longer angry but perhaps slightly disappointed that I missed badminton. Or perhaps I should head there now? I think I will =)

-- 11.07pm –

Egad, looks like going to badminton wasn’t such a good idea after all. I was criticized by my dad due to my poor shots and my inability to take shots. Darn, I really dislike partnering my with dad during badminton.

Well, on the bright side. I did get to release a lot of pent up tension and there’s a wonderful day to look forward to tomorrow. Yay! Now to get some sleep…

Stressed Out!!!

Extremely insane deadline
+
Completely new subject
+
Lack of research material
=
Massive headache!


Arrghh..wish i can find a hole to crawl into until next week =(

No Mood, No Inspiration

Been feeling tired, lethargic and generally lack of mood thus contributing to my lack of blogging. It could also be due to my lack of time for anything rather than work and studies.

A new MBA module just started and already I can see the assignment due date looming on the horizon. Interesting that they expect a full research paper to be completed in a mere 10 days. Bleh...

Here's a pic of Wawa that I took at 1 Utama. Apparently she has a fascination for huge robots, I wonder...

In a melancholy state…

Have yet again started sneezing in the office which is a surefire way of my body telling me I lack sleep. Seems like my immune system is not what it used to be. Symptoms of growing old showing up already… *Sigh*

Half thinking of declaring MC and taking the day off to sleep as I seem to be underutilizing my MC days but don’t think I can afford the time due to my present workload. Oh well…

Thankfully, I still have my cache of Vitamin C pills that I keep for emergencies such as this one. Have been chugging them since I came into the office… Might as well finish them as I just noticed the expiry date is May 2006!

Doesn’t look like I’ll get much extra sleep this weekend either as its due for another barrage of classes from Friday evening till Sunday with barely sufficient time to rest between classes. And I would have to pay full attention as well as I have no marketing background whatsoever! *Darn!*

*End Ramble*

A New Beginning...

Having started this blog a few months ago, I feel its biggest contribution besides giving me an opportunity to rant and ramble is to improve the way I express myself.

I've always had trouble expressing myself as I struggle with different combinations of words and phrases which hopefully would not be mis-interpreted as something else to other people.

Recently, I've been chastised on putting too much stock in how others perceive me. I've admitted before that I seem to have this need to be in the good books of everyone I know, but perhaps lately I've realized its not really such a big deal.

At the end of the day, the people who are close to me should know me well enough not to judge and as for the various acquaintainces, I guess I couldn't care less how they really perceive me.

Perhaps as there is a new beginning in my life, I should take this opportunity to reevaluate myself, to improve myself and hopefully at the end of the day, I'm a happier person because of it.

PS: Think I also have to reevaluate how much personal information to reveal in this blog. Not being able to blog about everything and anything is finally getting to me...

PPS: Happy Mothers Day! I love you, Mom! Hope you enjoyed the cake and dinner to come =)

No Consideration ???

Was in the office washroom just now and literally had to hold my breath the entire time I was there. Some &@#&(%#^*#$)@*$(@#)*$)(*% decided to annoy the heck out of everybody by smoking in the toilet. I could not risk taking even one breath for the whole washroom which in the first place already has bad air circulation was stank to the high heavens with cigarette smoke.

Now, I personally abhor cigarette smoke and will tend to avoid it whenever possible so I was extra pissed with the audacity of whoever was satisfying his own selfish needs at the expense of others. Nevertheless, I feel even the most cigarette smoke tolerant person would also go into a rage at being forced to inhale the cancer-causing cigarette smoke the moment they entire the washroom.

I had a half a mind to kick the door of the cubicle down and confront the selfish S.O.B when there is a blanket ban on smoking in ALL the air-conditioned areas in the office building. Who does he think he is that the building regulations does not apply to him! Talk about lack of consideration! Perhaps I should lodge a formal complaint to the building management about this...

Arggghhhh....Exams Incoming!

Well, its certainly been awhile since I last crammed for an exam having completed my Bachelors degree course 4 years ago and honestly, can't say I miss the feeling. Been keeping odd hours trying to cram for my Economics Exam this Saturday afternoon. As my ability to retain information reduces dramatically while studying at night, I have resigned myself to waking up in the wee hours of the morning in the hopes that all these random facts and elaborate graphs will find a home in my brain, at least until Saturday anyway :P

Logic would dictate that I should be sleeping earlier so that it would be easier to wake up but unfortunately I lack discipline to stay away from the evil force that is MSN and Yahoo Messenger. I really have to admire people who successfully work and study at the same time now that I've tried it. Its certainly no piece of cake I assure you. After you're doggone tired after a day at the office, more of your precious leisure time is taken up by assignments and studying for these tests and exams.

The thought that this would be my life routine for another 1.5 years is exactly every comforting. Ok then, enough rambling. Back to work and perhaps I'll try to squeeze in some studying time during lunch. =D

I've Been Fooled!!!

Happy April Fools Day! Oh well, maybe not very happy for myself personally as little did I know a sweet innocent looking cute person would actually stoop to pulling a April's Fool prank on lil ol me. Hmmm...must be getting naive as I grow older, I would have smelled something like this coming a mile away a few years ago! Perhaps I'm just too trusting... :D

Now I will probabbly have to live with the humiliation for the rest of the 364 days until next year where I shall exert my sweet revenge! Other than that embarassing episode, today was a normal boring day with classes to attend and exams to study for except I wanted to make sure everybody knows! (well, those that actually know of the existence of this blog anyway ;D)

The McDonalds Fish Fiesta Is Back!!!



I remember McDonalds first introduced the fish fiesta a few months ago with this weird blue coloured drink. Thank goodness they didn't bring back the blue detergent coloured drink this time. Yay! Can't wait to try the new Fish McDeluxe burger although you must admit, the burger bun looks kinda obscene. Hmmm...wont stop me from trying it though!

Oooh...can't wait for McDs to bring back their Banana Pie which is supposed to make a come back on the 6th April 2006. It reminds me of pisang goreng albeit super over-priced pisang goreng but this pie comes with chunks of banana! *Drools* Will be counting down the days...

 

TGIF! Its the weekend!

Wow, this week had really passed fast for me, but I get the feeling that since my MBA began, life has been reduced to a cycle of eat, sleep, work & assignments with time and dates holding no special meaning for me. This really isnt how I want to spend my life, and I still have to maintain this frenzied life style for another year and a half! *Sigh*

Everytime my boss assigns a complex task to me with a looming deadline, everytime my MBA lecturer drones on about a subject so abstract that I have no comprehension whatsoever, everytime I have to refuse an invitation to go for a weekend trip, I feel like throwing in the towel! I just want to quit my job or my MBA...haha...I'll never quit eating and sleeping. :)

But obviously I wont, besides the financial reasons, I have to prove something to myself. I have to constantly keep challenging myself for I have a fear of becoming complacent. There was a time in my life where I did feel myself slowing down and resting on my laurels and I'm only 25 for crying out loud! I should be out there working like crazy, accomplishing great things and setting higher and higher targets for myself.

I believe in balance as well so that I dont burn out and have premature mid-life crisis :P But I'll depend on my family and friends to intervene when necessary, as it is they are telling me to get of my lazy butt and do something with my life. I really want to leave my mark on society, something that will enable my memory to live on forever long after I have passed on. Sounds like "illusions of grandeur" at the moment, but someone was once told me, if you never have dreams, you will never know what you are capable of, and I totally agree!

Ok, will stop rambling here... :D

My Long Dark Night...

I was awoken last night to the sound of the air-conditioner turning off. I have an ancient wall mounted air-cond that my dad constantly refuses to change as it is still (barely!) working. Whenever the air-cond is turned on or off, the starter makes a loud hissing noise. It was this noise that awoke me from my deep slumber. Well, maybe not that deep, as I'm a light sleeper :)

I looked around my room and outside my window and concluded it was a blackout; Darn! Why of all times in the middle of the night when I need my beauty sleep! The first thought that I occured to me was to go downstairs and check the fuse box incase there was a circuit trip. Before any of you conjure up images of me having to grope around to look for a candle and match, I instead reached over for my handphone / torchlight (This IS the 21st Century after all, right? :P )

With handphone / torchlight in hand, I proceeded to check on the rest of my family, Sis was fast asleep oblivious to the environment around her while Mum was awoken when I entered the master bedroom. She gave me a quizical look to which I replied "Blackout ar!" then started downstairs towards the fuse box leaving my Dad snoring away. Yes, my Dad and Sis are very heavy sleepers :)

Reaching the fusebox, I was dismayed to find out that all the circuit switches were in their proper places and the main switch was firmly in the "ON" position. Even tried to fiddle around with the knobs hoping that it would miraculously bring back the A/C D/C current to power up my air-conditioner which I desperately need to return to dreamland... Alas, it was not to be.

Trudging upstairs back to my bedroom, I was handed a paper fan by my mom who proceeded to grumble about how I woke her up and she can't get back to sleep :) I apologized profusely saying that I merely wanted to check on them incase a thief / robber / kidnapper had taken the opportunity in the blackout to rob the house! I dont think she was listening though as she was already walking back to the bed where I could hear my father still snoring away.

Reaching my bed, I proceeded to try to fend of the mosquitoes by flapping the paper fan rapidly but I only succeeded in wearing out my arm and was not any closer to getting to sleep. Discarding the fan on the floor, I lay in bed wishing for the sandman to come and throw some of his fairy dust on me when suddenly I heard the alarm go off! "Oh Shit!" I thought, dont tell me my house was really being burgled! My mom and dad were immediately awake and were at the alarm control panel fiddling with the controls in the attempt to silence the alarm. Quarelling ensued as both tried to key in the deactivation code in their groggy state.

Before I could head over there to help them out, they finally managed to turn the blaring siren off probabbly waking up half the neighbourhood in the process. Haha...I have company now! Having got out of bed, I decided to walk out to the balcony and looked around my residential area. All the houses nearby were also enveloped in complete darkness which made the stars in the sky shine so much brigher. Wish I had taken a pic, but the camera was miles away back in my room. :(

Coming back into the house, I saw that both my parents had returned to bed and were already sleeping so I headed once more back to bed in the attempt to catch some sleep. I spent most of the time swatting at mosquitoes buzzing in my ear and mosquitoes busy sucking blood from poor me. Wonder what time I actually fell asleep...

My Day Trip To Cat City

Last Friday, my boss drops a bomb on me saying that he wants me to conduct a presentation in Kuching on Monday, which is only 2 days away! I was on the phone the whole afternoon trying to sort out the logistics nightmare involving obtaining flight tickets, arranging for transport to the airport, etc but thank goodness I managed to get everything done in the nick of time =P

Due to the fact that the meeting location was some distance away from the Kuching airport, I was forced to take the 5.40AM flight from KL to Kuching. I really dislike waking up at 3.30AM in the morning! Luckily, it was a day trip so I need not trouble myself with packing an overnight bag. At least I can be thankful for that :)


A deserted KLIA at 5.30am


MAS Twin Otter at Kuching International Airport (KIA),
you can only see these in East Malaysia


A more bustling KIA airport at 5.30pm


Air Asia encourages exercise :)