Living a Working Life...

Just to babble a bit...

Work isn't all that cool or enjoyable lately. When you try to do your best for Him in your workplace, the people around you just seem to infect you with their character, ideas, positions, morals....

Some are good but as a whole, it mostly negative and I have to admit, I am influenced some. It's so easy to give up then struggle.

Where does our strength come from? Definitely not from our own only. We definitely need more than just forcing yourself to get up, do the daily chores, get to work, do what you need to do (if you get to do that in the first place), hear our colleagues talk about others (both negatively and positive stuff), go home, mentally tired, read, pray, go to sleep.

I never really wanted to prioritize my life around work (it should be around Him) but over the years, it ended up as work eating away life.

Dear Lord, the things I have gone through, please show me Your reasons why I have to go through these times. A lot of mistakes, scolding, polictics and pressure has been around but I do know You're still just and true. Your will be done though I sometimes do things my way.
You deserve the highest praise.
That I believe, know and continue to say regardless how I feel.
Thanks Lord.

Amen.

Manglish and Singlish are the bomb....

This was passed to me through email. I love Manglish so much....

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This is funny!! Hope it'll put a smile on your face (",).

You might like it. This is hilarious... ..even an Englishman could not construct sentences using numeric, which is exclusive only to Malaysians and Singaporeans.

Ah Lek was asked to make a sentence using 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10.

Not only did he do it 1 to 10, he did it again from 10 back to 1. This is what he came up with.....


1 day I go 2 climb a 3 outside a house to peep. But the couple saw me, so I panic and 4 down. The man rushed out and wanted to 5 with me. I ran until I fell 6 and threw up. So I go into 7-eleven and grabbed some 8 to throw at him. Then I took a 9 and try to stab at him. 10 God he run away.

10 I put the 9 back and pay for the 8 and left 7-eleven. Next day I called my boss and told him I was 6. He said 5, tomorrow also no need to come back 4 work. He also asked me to go climb a 3 and jump down! I don't understand. I am so nice 2 him but I don't know what he 1.
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Amazing what we can do with our words....

Long live the lame....

Work...

The live of a working person:

7.30am: Wake up thanks to the alarm. If still tired, keep snoozing the alarm until half an hour is up.

8.00am: Finally get out of bed. If you didn't snooze, then you should be out of bed already. Now go and brush your teeth and gargle mouth with "yucks" (as Sarah Ooi would say) tasting Listerine (its suppose to be good for teeth and gums but dreadful aftertaste in the mouth).

8.30am: You should be already dressed smartly with the corporate collared t-shirt with corporate pants with the corporate tie and corporate socks and corporate shoes and corporate laptop bag with corporate money and corporate..... You get the point.
So we leave in the corporate car and start heading to office.....

9.00am: The 1-Utama car park. After many moons of exploring, here's my take on their car park. At the right hand side of basement 2 carpark is the most strategic place to park. Indoors, lighted up nicely, and right in the middle of the old and new wing (taking the lift takes you to Secret Recipe on Lower Ground floor).
You eventually notice that no one seems to follow the arrows on the walls/floor most of the time. No entry yet cars still go through. Right means left, left means up, down means turn off car....
The other thing is once there's a ton of people in 1U, city people get creative on how to park their cars. Squeeze in here, tucked in there, slot in like you just don't care...

9.15am: Yup. It takes around 15 minute walk to get to the KPMG tower..... Why so? Because of the lifts. The way it was designed makes it too slow to get everyone into their respective floors since we already have 5 out of 11 floors and 900+ staff and we share with the lifts with other staff/floors. So we usually go down, then up.

My personal record getting to my department on the 9th floor journey was like this:

Ground Floor (G, my starting point) > Concourse (C, where visitor and the main entrance of KPMG tower is) > Basement 1 (B1) > Basement 2 (B2) > Basement 3 (B3 and the lowest floor, we're finally able to go up now!!!) > B2 > B1 > C > G > 1 > 2 > 3 > 5 (where's floor #4? Ask the chinese why. I actually missed a floor called 2A which was between 2 and 3) > 6 > 7 >8 >9.... Ding ding ding ding ding!!!! I have finally reached my department floor.
All that needed was to stop a total of 16 times/floors. Thank You Lord for teaching me patience a long long time ago. Some people would rather jump out the window by then.

9.30am: Settled down and finally able to get my laptop running, a cup of hot green-honey-tea and looking at word documents.

11.30am: Get up from my desk and ask my colleague, "Where you wanna eat-ah?". As usual, we city people can never see too far ahead. My typical answers would be, "Don't know", "Anything", "What do you want to eat?", "Going out to eat?" and so on so forth.

12.00pm: Get up and say, "Let's go eat". My typical responses would be "Don't know", "Anything", "What do you want to eat?", "Going out to eat?" and so on so forth.

12.30pm: Wondering why everyone is still sitting down and not budging. "Let's go people!" and the reponses are "Don't know", "Anything", "What do you want to eat?", "Going out to eat?" and so on so forth.....

We can never decide where to go eat ahead of time. It's just not in our blood/genes. Eventually, we just wait on each other and decide eventually when the girls complain that their stomachs hurt and want to eat.

1.30pm: Done talking/chatting/eating. Time to settle back in from of my ever rectangular-ish looking laptop and look at word documents.

3.30pm: If a heavy lunch was eaten, this is time where you start to fall asleep. As you know, staring at something over hours after eating makes your eyes feel wanting to flip up and down repeatedly. This is where we learn to LLB (look like busy). All you have to do is sit up straight leaning on your chair, let your head nod downwards, and sleep!
So simple! You'll LLB but actually you're taking a nap. Better KO 10 minutes rather than fighting off sleep for an hour...

5.00pm: Some of us are already gathering and talking nonsense/girls/life. Our school mentality is still the same. When 1.10pm school is suppose to end, 12.30pm already we can't concentrate on studying anymore no matter how hard we try. Same goes with work.

5.30pm: The secretaries leave work on the dot. Never a moment later. They are also the most punctual people in the whole company. However, what about us? What time do we leave?

6.00pm: We are still in office. How come?

6.30pm: More than half of the company should be gone by now but there are still life and activity around.

7.00pm: Majority may have left but there's always someone around. Don't you know we live for work?

*Disclaimer* The following time zones below is supposedly optional.
8.00pm: Workz wilz rulez zhe worldz! Lololoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoo!!! Ohx! >.@

9.00pm: Argh! I see dead people!!!!!

10.00pm: I wonder if Pizza Hut delivers at this time of the night...

11.00pm: No aircond, barely to no one around, the Fuji Xerox copy machine suddenly came to live....scary....


Anyway, that's just an example of a working day. No it's not that bad all the time but it can get tiring sometimes.
On the bright side, there's no jam on the way home....

Work for life!!!!!

Bunch of stuff...

Not really into blogging but somehow, I just want to...

Here's a some interesting/random events/things that has been going on...

Guitar Hero at Julian's:
After hearing stories about it, I finally gave it a try along with Julian, Raymond, Justin and Ben Kit. I tried the singing part. Since they rate my singing through pitch not by the words, I could say whatever I wanted but if I got the right pitch, I score points.

My lowest was around 78% and highest 93%. How would you expect to sing "Korn - Freak on a Leash" properly? I have to admit when it came to free-flow, I could say whatever I wanted and score a bunch of extra points, which makes me just make random noises spontaneously.
Funnily pure comedy....

We didn't make it through some songs though. There were some songs we couldn't even get it right from the start and failed the song...

One highlight was because Ben Kit plays O2Jam type of games so much, Guitar Hero was no problem for him. Maybe playing these kind of games make your coordination better doesn't it?
All we have to do now is get a bunch of falling bricks in the order we want it to be and Ben Kit will drum fantastically.....


Work:
I think I should paste this here. If anyone asks me how's work, my answer will be as below:

"It never ends."

Sometimes, I wonder why I try to finish it when it never ends. Something new is bound to come up, or better yet, something old resurfaces from the depths of buried work.

Interesting enough, I don't really have that much emotions to my work. I don't hate it, yet I don't love it. It's like just there. No reaction, no expression. In some way, it's better that way or else I'll just be complaining like everyone else around me. The flip side is without any motivation, I have no idea what am I working for. Mmmmm......

I already know that He put me where I am to "grow up" and learn to deal with pressure, people and responsibilities. The thing is without motivation, I'm just a zombie/machine. Something to really think and pray about now...


CC Visitations:
I grew up on it. I've spent hours on it. My life revolves around a computer. I read, listen to music, do work on a computer. So I am no stranger to cybercafes. I've stayed up to 3.00am with my friends just clicking an oval-shaped device with my right index finger (thank You Lord that I don't wear glasses though I stare at a pixel-ed screen for hours).

I still go once in a while still. Lately is because its simple enjoyment and I do want to help others complete a mission. I would have to say, because we (and me) are so used to wanting something fast, we tend to get impatient. When we lose, we get frustrated at others. Being Christ-like, looks like I have to be more careful with myself on how I talk/react. If I act negatively, others will be negative also. However, the opposite is also true. Encourage one another, it'll definitely be better even when we lose.


Sports:
Thanks to work, I actually exercise much less lately. I sometimes purposely don't eat cause I definitely feel the extra weight I put on. From hovering the 65-67kg mark to 69-71kg, for a sports person, I can tell the difference even though its just a difference of 3-5kg.

I definitely miss my explosiveness to run and jump. Small nagging injuries that linger and seems like forever for it to recover also hamper my progress.

What's going to happen now? Maybe I should put in some motivation back into sports in the first place. Playing for nothing doesn't seem to work anymore now. Should I play to win? Play to show off? To impress girls? To impress guys? Ah.... Looks like the same as work. I'll need some sort of reason before sports become a "I used to do this..." scenario. Better a reason than no reason at all.


Anime:
I'm into Bleach. I like reading and watching the episodes that come out. Swords that can transform into another weapon according to its wielder's character/attitude and to take down the bad guys. Bad thing about Bleach is that its still going on. The storyline is still on going, which means a manga and an episode only comes out once a week. Super-slow..... Downside of wanting things fast eh?


Playstation, XBOX, Gaming PC:
Which is better? Definitely not worth getting all 3 types. I don't have the valuable time to spend on all three of them. Maybe they can get their act together and come up with a all-in-one super console machine which can play all games from different manufacturers while able to use PC technology and internet. Now that would be worth investing...


I think I've given enough thought on what's going on. We'll see what happens in the next post, when I get to do another in the first place....

Not bad for a 1st...

...time in getting an accident.

Yeah, I hit a motorist from the back on Monday morning.

The lowdown / questions / assessment of the situation from my point-of-view:

- Light was green, so I accelerated to somewhere between 60-80km/h on the junction/highway. Question 1#: Should I have accelerated or not?

- Passed the traffic lights while it was still green. So I'm perfectly in the legal zone unless the answer the 1st question as no.

- Motorcyclist comes from my right-hand-side and comes into my lane without looking (he came from a legal U-turn).
Question #2: Should he have looked first before coming to my lane? My answer is yes but...

- I jam the brakes, skidded some and knocked his motorcycle from the back. Wasn't a hard bang but definitely harder than using force while in a bumper car...

- He loses his balance and falls. I see pieces of the motorcycle broken / flying everywhere on the road. Much later on, I found out that his bike alignment is out, one rear view mirror is no longer in existence, his number plate is in pieces, I saw his dashboard broken...

- He manages to get up but limps a bit.
His first reaction was, "You didn't stop at red light?"
I replied, "No! It was still green!"
"Then you should see me..."
Question #3: Should we be able to see motorcyclists all the time?
The realistic answer is no. We cannot see all the motorcyclists who come from the left and right side of our cars. Any driver who drives know that we just can't tell where they ride all the time.

- I help him gather his stuff which is all over the road to the side.

- He limps a bit, his pants are slightly torn and his knee has a small bruise.

- He moves his motorcycle to a repair shop nearby. I take him to office and pay for his fix fees.
Question #4: If he's in the wrong, why am I paying for his bike? Shouldn't he pay for my car damages instead?

Here's what I learned before and after the accident.

If you don't realize it, Malaysian traffic doesn't always follow the rules. Instead, we follow a type of culture that's dependent on where you're at which may have some principles which not necessarily follows the law of traffic.

Here's some examples whether you agree or not:

• Vehicles have the right of way, pedestrians do not. Don't think just because there's a zebra-crossing means you humans can walk across and the cars have to stop. You can get honked for just walking across the road. Pedestrians may have traffic law rights but reality they are not treated that way.
  

• The catch about pedestrians is if you ever ever ever knock / hit a pedestrian with any sort of vehicle, the driver is in so so so so so so much big trouble. Even if the pedestrian jumped out on the road on purpose, the driver is at fault.

• The bigger your vehicle, the more right of the way you have. Kancil drivers can attest to this culture/principle very well. See how much way you can get when a BMW comes into your path. Or better yet, try getting in the way of a bus and see what happens to you...
  I've seen some bus drivers, when overtaking another vehicle on the oncoming traffic lane, the incoming car is forced to slow down and stay left on the emergency lane because of the size of the bus. Wanna play chicken? Guess what? You already lost before you tried....

• A different location and culture example would be in kampungs (or even in the main city of Malacca), it is alright for a motorcyclist to drive in the middle of the road with/without their helmet on...

So in my accident case, the following rule/culture/principle applies:
If the event where two vehicles collide, the back vehicle who collided the front vehicle is automatically by default in the wrong.

Which makes questions #3 and #4 against me whenever I get into any car, start it, and drive.

Anyway, I wasn't that concerned about the cultures and principles. I more concerned about the guy who fell off his bike.

Thank You Lord that he's still alright though limping a bit.

However, there goes my zero accident-free / perfect road record that I always prayed for. This definitely disappointed me the most. I found it encouraging to tell others that the Lord is taking care of me on the roads and keeping me free accident free.
Now that's not going to be possible anymore...

In a habit that I always do, whenever I park my car, I pray for its safety/protection (against theft, vandalism) and when I reach back to the car, I thank the Him for keeping it safe.

The one thing I realize is that because I do this all the time, it keeps me from letting my emotions or reactions blast out of the person who did intentional harm/inconveniences.

I could have argued / shouted / lambasted with the motorcyclist about he should have saw me instead and maybe bring out my steering lock weapon and threaten him and force him to pay every single sen for my car damage.

Thank You Lord for bringing me up where I keep my cool rather then exploding onto others.

Amen.

Memories of My Trip to...

...Sunway Lagoon with the Youth....

Here's some of things that happened that we all will take home in our memories till we meet our graves:

- Ian being the last person to arrive. When everyone was at the bus stop, he was showering...

- Wei Xian running home because he forgot to get extra pants...

- Quote of the day from Declan. When trying to figure out where the dry park is, he asked, "Where is the dry land?"
My answer was, "Right here?"

- On the water rapids, only Declan and Stepfi were the wet-test. All the rest of us were quite dry.

- Stepfi's womanizeeeeeeeeer song before falling fast and getting splashed while sitting on a piece of log/wood

- Declan screams like a girl. He really can! Just ask him!
My proof is in this real life example:
Everyone else asked Cassie, "Hey Cassie! We heard you scream!"
Cassie replied, "No I didn't"
"Who did?"
Cassie turns to Declan......

- Cassie is one incredible outdoor/outgoing gal! Imagine going on the Tomahawk 5 times and still not enough.

- Why would Stepfi and Declan sit together on the Tomahawk when they are clearly the scard-iest of the ride among all of us? It doesn't make any sense...

- Ben Kit shedding tears / crying because of the roller coaster ride

- Ben Kit the only one sweating after going on the Tomahawk ride. Was it that scary?

- Ben Kit being the man of the group for trying out the rides though he's scared like a girl. You the man!

- Amanda's and Stepfi's endless screaming on all the rides. Even before the ride started they are able to get scared some.... We love you both regardless of your screams anyway!

- Would you want to pay RM 14 for Char Koay Teow?

- CJ reaching the end of the slide while sliding down with a mat like superman. If ya didn't stop, you might go beyond the length of the slide...

- Overturning floats while people were trying to relax on it...

- Ben Kit and Huey Wern fighting for a spot on the float. It looked like they were both fighting for the front seat of the car except surrounded with water...

- Huey Wern injuring her foot and getting a piggy-back ride from Jamie to the first-aid room...

- Squeezing 12 people on 3 double floats which were meant for 6 people only....

- Throwing Stepfi off the float...

- Cassie's infatuation with hot-white-half-naked-ang-mohs. Some of them can surf too!

- Daniel Wong shouts in the bathroom, "Can I borrow your soap?"

- Peeking at guys in the shower....

- Over dinner time at SS2:
Huey Wern asks, "Wei Xian! Do you want that prawn?"
Without looking at her and saying a word, Wei Xian calmly picks up the prawn with his chopsticks and eats it....


Thank You Lord that everyone was safe.
Thank You Lord that everyone enjoyed themselves.
Thank You Lord that we are able to enjoy ourselves.
Thank You Lord that You're the Lord of all our lives.
Thank You Lord that You're with us every step of the way.
Thank You Lord for taking care of us.
Thank You Lord that this isn't the end and there's more to come. We all look forward to what You have in store for us.
Thank You Lord that living as a Christian is not boring but fun!

Amen!

My stand...

Here's the background:

My company organizes inter-department games (IDG) and inter-audit firm games (IAFG) once every year. The games include basketball, carom, tug-of-war, chess and yada yada yada. This year they even included cyber games for IDG level only (Counter-Strike and some football game). So yeah, we have fun, compete, win and lose, brag here and there and something that different that the company provides other than work till you moo moo (become a cow) everywhere...


Here's my last year's situation:

I took part of in two games for IAFG, volleyball and basketball, since I have a great interest and passion in these two games. It was great with all the trainings and BBQ chicken wings after training at Jalan Alur (defeats the purpose of training doesn't it?), the company I hang out with, getting to know more people from other departments....it was quite fine. We eventually were the champions for volleyball and runner-up for basketball.

So what in the world happened? The whole thing took up a lot of time. A few music practices had to be missed. Also, there was once where our preliminary basketball rounds took up 3/4 of the day and I missed helping out the Ambactus group when I was suppose to. It wasn't all that bad but then I realized that if this went on, a lot of time will be gone and I won't be able to serve where my heart really wants to, in the youth especially.


Here's this years situation:

IDG was just over like 1-2 weeks ago and IAFG is currently going on till end of August. We managed to win IDG basketball (I didn't expect to win anyway, I just went all out regardless). It was a nice thing anyway. However, an incident did happen where I had to come late for a combine celebration practice (the last and most important one too) cause the volleyball IDG fell on the same time and date. I left the volleyball tournament halfway and there were looks of disgust on their faces.


Here's the stand:

It just showed once again to me from last year that I cannot do both at the same time. One or the other has to stop. Simply put, IDG/IAFG can only do so much in the first place: fun, enjoy, exercise, compete, eat ( :þ ), bragging rights... all that only last temporarily. While music, worship, serving and youth somehow have such a more fulfilling and impact in both my life and others whom I serve.

I decided that this year round, I'll stop IAFG basketball as it took up the most time last year, it'll sure take up the most time this year also. It was quite a difficult thing to tell my captain and my the basketball 'partner' about my decision but I managed to send out the email. Then explaining to my colleagues that I simply just don't have the time to sacrifice for IAFG as compared to last year/2 years ago.

The only reason is this. I want continue serving in the church for others than just get some bragging rights and a free dinner where drinks are free-flow. I want to lead others into worship and pointing young people to Christ. In fact, I even get fulfilment and enjoyment by doing this which is greater than me winning basketball and volleyball medals. I want to do what I do ultimately for His glory.

Will my colleagues understand this stand of mine? My guess is no they won't.

Dear Lord, give me the courage to stand up and speak out for You. Help me to continually seek You first before everything else. You are my God, whom I believe and want to give You praise for all You've done in my life.

Thanks Lord.

Amen.


P.S. Man, the looks on this blog sucks. Really have to put in more effort to look for cooler designs or design on my own. Long live HTML............