Whats going on?

Exactly. Whats going on in this world? As I was driving to work this morning, I was listening to HotFM, this was this caller, who said that she knew a female friend of hers in college (or was it a local U) who was humiliated by her boyfriend. The female friend was having a discussion about their coursework with colleagues (male amongst them) and he became jealous and he came over and spit on the poor girl. What's up with that? Man I tell you you are bringing shame to the whole of the male species. How could one treat another person especially a female with that? It is a deplorable behavior.
What has the world come to?

Buang anak dlm tong sampah, wife abuse, where have the feeling of compassion and responsibility gone to?

All I can do to change this is to raise my kids so that they will grow up with principle, dignity, responsibility, accountability, compassion, berilmu, berakhlak and fear of God.


On another note.. the Putrajaya hunt. we failed ... we did well on the hunt proper.. we failed on the missions. the 3rd mission it was all or nothing 0 pts or 10 pts..... guess what... we got nothing. there goes any hope of any decent top 20 placing.

Probably next year we might skip Putrajaya hunt... too many missions


time to go back to work....

A frantic weekend

I have been too tired to write anything. Been really busy managing my project. But I just wanna write how my weekend went, just for me to remember what went on last weekend. Here goes:


Saturday

Wet Market day. Dropped of AF1 for her tekwando class. Shoot of to Pasar Borong Selangor. Equipped with my trusty trolley off I went. Lets see what I got...

5 kg of ikan sardin
5 kg of ikan pelaling
2 ekor terubuk
1 kg udang
3 ekor nyok-nyok
2 ekor tenggiri
11 ekor cincaru
3 ekor ayam
1 kg daging
1 kg paru
2 kg tulang

Sayur - bayam, kangkong, pucuk paku & my favourite petai!!!!

Not bad for a couple of hours shopping. All in all for all the above I spent less than RM200 (which is my budget for the shopping every fortnight)

Rushed home to pick up everyone to go to Tok's place to put away all the things (Tok's place has a big freezer)Picked up AF1 on the way. Had a breather.. and there goes my morning.

Had lunch then brought the kids and Mama to Summit for "Tranformers" I had to go the previous night to get the tickets since
1. All the GSC phone booking lines are engaged... (for hours and hours)
2. Online reservation is down... cannot be accessible

The kids had a ball of a time... especially AF3 which was his first cinema movie experience.

The movie?.... AWESOME!!!!!

But get this... movie tickets RM 33... popcorns & drinks RM 16.. total RM 49..
I went to buy some pirated DVD (shhhh.. dont let the enforcement officers know about this....) I got 6 discs for RM 40...... sheesh no wonder the pirates are making a killing....

But all in all it was worth spending the money.... by the look on the faces of the three kids coming out from the movie theatre... it was like... priceless......they were smiling from ear to ear.

Finally... got home and was able to relax..... just parked myself in front of the TV watching Tiger Woods failing to make an impact.


Sunday...
You know why I was determined to bring the kids to the cinema? Coz today me and Mama are going Treasure Hunting... It was our first treasure hunt of 2007. We were on hiatus for nearly a year.

It was the Multiple Sclerosis Awareness hunt. We had a respectable finish...

for results see http://www.michaelpang.com.my/home/blog.php

It was tiring... yes it was. But at the same time rewarding especially when you get the answer. Treasure hunting is like a drug. The more answers you get the more you come back for it. Who in their right mind wakes up very early on a Sunday, just to torture themselves with hunt questions.... and then comes back for more.

Next week we are going for the Putrajaya hunt. So... see you guys there...

Evening... Giant time.. shopping for groceries... again!

I need to finish up some work now.... will continue when I have time......

The fragility of it all

Referring to the previous post, it set me thinking. How life is so fragile and unpredictable. We plan but God determines. Every time I go out, will I get back safely to see the cheering faces of my wife and 3 adorable kids. Will I still be around to see them grow up, will I always be there to nurture them, to provide for them, to educate them, to be there during the good and bad times, during the ups and downs?

Will I be able to take care of my health in order to always be there for my family. Will be safe on the road to be able to travel to and from home to be there when they need me?

I have had the pain when my parents passed away. I was unfortunate not to be by their side during the last moments. I was in KL at work on both occasions. However, the impact was different from this situation. When my parents passed away, there was just sorrow, sadness and a sense of loss. This occasion the impact was different. It hit closer to home. You lose the sense of security. Granted he was 9 years older than me but what is 9 years? Pejam celik pejam celik 9 years passes you by.

It had me pondering, what if something happens to me? What have I prepared for my family? Financially, hopefully it's covered. I have my life insurance and EPF which has my wife as my benificiary.
Emotionally, I dont think one can ever be prepared for the devastation.
Spiritually, I will always be there.
Physically, life goes on for them.
I hope I have raised my kids well enough to overcome whatever lies in their path.

To my wife, my dear wife, my beloved wife, I know well enough that you can survive. That's why I married you in the first place. I know you are fiercely independent, you are strong and I know that you can take care of the kids better than I ever could.

Sorry for the sombre mood today cant help but think of what transpired over the weekend.

Hopefully my next entry will be on a more cheerful note. Till next time

Al Fatihah

It was a sad day indeed. I was in PD for the leadership program. One of our friends passed away during the session. Al Fatihah to Roslen Yusoff, one of my team mate during the rafting program. He passed away due to suspected shortness of breath and heart attack. We were all stunned. I was in the front row of the raft with him.


So very short post today, Today post is dedicated to him and semuga ruh nya dicucuri rahmat dan semuga Allah tempatkan beliau disisinya bersama orang orang yg beriman


Al Fatihah

Going away again

I will be away again from tomorrow till saturday. Off to PD this time. Its a leadership program. More about it when I get back.

Another scenario thats going round the company now is resignation. Quite a number are leaving. Why? I dont know... they have better opportunities. Why am I still here. I can only think of two things

1. I dont have a better offer elsewhere
2. I like what I am doing here.

For number 1, I did have an offer a few months back. I declined since it was not attractive enough at the end of the day. It was only a 10% increase intially, when I sounded my intention to decline, they increased another 5% to a GRAND TOTAL of.....15%. Well considering the travelling..(it is in the middle of KL btw) the additional costs of tol and worst of all..... WORKING SATURDAYS. That beat the lot!

No 2 - I am in the middle of a big project, racing with the other giant telco to rollout the latest network. A new thing, new challenge, things to learn. So... nothing beats that!

I think I am marketable... but there have been no attractive offers.... any takers out there?


On another note
My AF3 is not feeling well for the past couple of days. It is very hard since he refuses to take medicine orally. No choice but to insert the bullet shape medicine up his behind. so far his fever is on and off, but at least he is eating well. He has only been his bubbly self in spurts when he feels better.

OK I need to finish my work before I sign off for the day. See you next week

Back to reality

I got back from the team bonding session on Sunday. Didnt have time to write anything yesterday (read lazy/too preoccupied). A few interesting things did happen over the weekend. The session itself was not physically strenuous as expected. Although it was tiring, but it wasnt that hard.

Highlight of the session was the jungle trekking and camping. The whole group was adjudged by the instructor as to be unfit. We only ended up a quarter of the planned route when the instructor made a detour and we ended up in an alternative campsite. The two camps on top got a place near a waterfall, and the two group at the bottom got near durian trees. the top camps had a bash at the waterfall, and the lower camps got their durian feast. A group of four went to find 'dinner' while the rest of the team members set up camp. The 'dinner' in question included chopping down a bayan tree, to get its 'umbut' on the top part of the tree. My God... the tree was really hard. These four guys (yours truly included) laboured with parangs for one hour and we barely went through a quarter of the tree. Rescue came in the form of other team members who have completed setting up their camps. the tree eventually fell.... unfortunately it fell to the opposite side than the one that we wanted and it fot tangled with other trees and never fell to the ground. Well that was the end of it. Well later that evening another group went to look for another bayan tree and started hacking away. I was too tired to join and went to the waterfall instead. They never got the tree to fall that night, they continued early the next morning and got it for breakfast instead.

The session that night ended at about 12.30 am and I was already feeling nauseous from the lack of food. We only had rations of sandwiches , lemang from the previous night cookout and some oranges. I threw up that night in the bushes. I took some panadol and dozed off....

Worse was to come the next morning. We still had some discussion session that morning, had some of that bayan umbut, but mostly empty stomachs all round. I only had a small piece while some of my mates really gobbled it up. Then it started, at about 11am when we started our trek down back to the resort, people started to vommit. My guess is about 7-8 of the threw up along the way down. one of my mates was hit real bad. From the starting point to our next stop where we had to do our next task, which was about 15 minutes walk, he threw up 8 times! (I heard yesterday he was admitted, I suspect due to dehydration)

Some of the things we had to do? Lets see....
1. Paint our faces....
2. Make your own lemang
3. Pass a rubber band from one team mate to another using straws
4. Bride across a ping pong ball using sheets of A4 paper
5. Answer riddles (most of it were ridiculous)
The best one was the catapult (catapult water balloons and try to hit the target. It was a riot!)


You want to know some of the riddles?

Q1. Apakah persamaan telefon dan kain jemuran?
Q2. Namakan Buah-buahan yg berakhir dengan huruf K
Q3. What is heavy going forward but backwards its not
Q4. Apa yg ada pada yg hidup dan yg mati?

There are a few more, but maybe I'll save it for later. Answers? later



All in all it was an interesting outing. Wanna know something else? I am slated for another similar program this weekend! This time it is a program from from the Holding company. Two weekends in a row. Aiyaaaaaaa! At least I have the comfort of knowing that there will be no food rationing or outdoor camping. Oh ya... it is not a teambonding program, it is a leadership program


adios muchachos

Order! Order!

Just a small quick note before i go home for the day.. I've got a few weird friends that once they get to shops their brains went overtime in ordering drinks or food... here goes

1. Air suam Kurang Manis, satu!

2. Teh O Ais Panas Satu!

3. This only applies on a Friday at the mamak shop

Friend: Mamak! Hari Jumaat Pisang free kan?
Mamak: Ya, Ya Pisang free
Friend: Kalau Macam tu kasi roti pisang satu.

4. This really happen once upon a time

Friend: Air Buah apa ada?
Waiter: Air tembikai, honeydew, belimbing, belimbing susu, carrot, orange, mango, laici, longan, nenas......
Friend: OK bagi teh O ais satu

And do you realise that if there are two of you and you order teh tarik kurang manis and your friend orders teh tarik biasa... usually it will be from the same kole..... meaning there is no difference in the kurang manis and biasa....sigh

I rest my case.. I've been hanging around friends like this too much


Signing off

Team Building?

Who on earth invented this thing called team building outings? Is it sane to send 30 something and 40 something age groups to this so called team building where all the physical activities take place? All the trekking, camping and the strenuous activities.. If only it had happened in 10 or 20 years earlier I wouldnt have minded in fact I would have relished it. I used to be the adventurous type. Wished that I could have attended OBS (my folks couldnt afford it) and there was no sponsors anyways (well my school Headboy and two assistants were sponsored by the scool at get to attend that course).

But back to the present. Just like what a senior management personel said on his involvement of the same programme on the previous session.."Tell me what you get by sending a 50 year old up the hill in the name of team building?"

I am not against team building per say, or on improving things... but I am willing to bet you whatever lesson learnt during that 3 days excursion will soon be forgotten within the next few weeks.

Oh well I will be off this friday for a tiresome three days. Hopefully I will survive intact and back in one piece, Insyallah

On another note, my projects are well under way and me ending up with all the paperwork. The worst part is navigating myself thru the SAP system. My God! Enlisted help from a couple of people, parked myself in front of their terminal and egging them on until the first part of it was completed. (I cant do it myself, not trained and I dont even have the SAP username and password) Well still need to delegate the shitload of paperwork as in keying in individual Bill of Quantities for each location for the project deployment. Now... who will be my next victim to assist me...(with a devillish grin, and raised eyebrows).

You guys must be thinking that I am shirking my job/tasks that I am giving it out/delegating to other people. The fact is I am juggling too many things on my plate at the moment to ensure this project A is smooth, Assisting my colleague on Project B, Project C is waiting to be tendered out, improvement programs needs to be planned and initiated by Q4 this year. Upgrading works on our gateways need to be identified etc etc. sheesh.. it is just tiring listing it out. So the next best thing is actually to bitch it out, rite

Back to reality, my flu is getting better and feeling fresher though still not as sharp as I should be. Have to stay away from my kids since they have exams this week (Both AF1 & AF2 are having their PKSR exams)


Untill my next ramblings, stay cool and dont do what I wouldnt do

Take care

Under the weather

The weather is making me go under the weather. Sorry no updates yesterday. Had a few things on my mind to unleash in this ramblings. Unfortunately I was knocked out by the flu. No updates on the weekend tho, I only blog from the office so there you go. The computer at home conquered by the kids, once I switch it on my AF3 will come and say " Nak Lightning Mcqueen" which means he wants to go to the Disney website and play the games there. Not bad for a four year old kid.

Any way, still not feeling to well and my brain is still stuck on second gear. I have a lot of paperwork to finish. And I damn well hate paperwork.

Got this call last Sunday evening:

Caller: Can you send someone for a meeting with customer on Monday 10am
Me: What is it about?
Caller: They want technical person to resolve some issues
Me: OK. What issues? So I can send the relevant people.
Caller: Some technical issues
Me: Ya larr... What are the issues
Caller: I dont know, all I know is there are issues...
Me: Then why dont you get the people who knows what the issues are instead of calling everyone as if it is a crisis. Go and call Mr X to solve this....

End of call

Dont you just hate that? HooHaa about big issues where they dont even know what the issue is? How can we solve ISSUES when nobody can tell us what the issue is? How can we prepare when no one knows what the issue is? Such an issue

I know, I know some of you might say that it is irresponsible of me not supporting the team But picture this, when there is meeting with the customer and you are sure to be in the line of fire, these guys get all the technical people to be 'hentamed' by the customer and no sales or presales person in sight.

Oh ya.. btw the caller did not attend the meeting.


Before I go I will leave you with some inside joke that we have in the office. Some of the techies might understand what they mean but surely could not get the joke...

Lelong VRF 3 RM 10
BGP routes satu 20 sen

There you go.. to see how craetive(crazy) our presales team is


C Ya