will i am's delayed diary

collageBKKDay1 Swiped from williamnyk . It's been nearly two and a half years since my last business trip overseas and I broke the dry spell with a short 3-day visit to the Kingdom of Thailand. Went with my boss for a demo at a local bank and come to think of it, my presence wasn't exactly necessary and doesn't quite justifies the cost. But he dragged me along anyway and it effectively stole five man days from my current project ( don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. :P ). Upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi Airport, we took a cab down to Sala Daeng for a meeting with our local counterparts. Had to lug my luggage up and down the BTS station ( I think the height is more than two storeys! ) because my boss had forgotten on which side of the road the office was. Pengz. Saw the same faces from long before and some of them actually recognize me from my cicak kobeng ah beng phase! Amazing. After the meeting, we flagged a cab to Centerpoint Serviced Apartments. A ni

MCTS Swiped from williamnyk . Finally the certificates that I earned after passing the Microsoft exams I took in October have arrived in the mail. One certificate is for my induction as a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and another is for the specific paper that I took. Both are "signed" by Bill Gates. Lame. In the package is a welcome note, a 20% discount voucher for purchases from the MCP site ( geek stuff no doubt ) and a member card that has no use whatsoever except for the number that is on it. With the number, I am able to access the MCP site for information and it also contains my transcript. My current MCP status is also useful to my company as it is currently hungering for points to maintain Microsoft Gold Partner status. But you know what, I only contribute a measly 1 point. :P. Anyway, this is just the first step as I plan to take more exams to make myself more relevant and to pad my resume. Might as well take advantage of the current leniency in c

Suneo & Maxine Swiped from williamnyk . Ever since I brought Suneo under my wing last October, he has been living on my colour box. It was good, for a while. As time went by, Suneo became withdrawn. Even the surprise visits from Mr. Gnome had failed to lift his spirits. Something was wrong, very wrong. Food went untouched. Porn left unplayed. The bed lay in a mess of sheets, the sign of fitfull sleep. I was nearly at my wit's end when one day I found Suneo walking on the edge on of the colour box, toying with death. I caught him just in time, or he would just another scatter on the parquet of my room. He was desolate. The solitude and lack of companionship had cracked his fragile soul. I did not know what to do. I felt helpless. However, the funny thing is, the solution to problems sometimes presents itself without us needing to find it and it came to me in the form of a teddy bear, Maxine. He came to me during Chinese New Year, an ambassador of love from the land dow

❏❏❏ Let's PLaY !!!! ❏❏❏ Swiped from €eErRbBbiiIEe€ . On the 3rd of March 2008, I celebrated five years with my current company. I even did my industrial training there and just 3 days after I took the last paper of my semester, I joined and I have been working since. It didn't hit me until an ex-colleague of mine sent me an sms reminder. I was given plenty of exposure, with regular trips to Jakarta in the early years of my employment and in addition to that, I was given the chance to visit Bangkok for a short stints. The regional experience was valuable, and there was the monetary factor as well. Most of the people that I have known have left. From junior, I am now one of the old faces and have moved in to fill those voids in the organisation. I see opportunities before me, but they are quite a double-edged sword as well. Within my company, there is much flexibility, but with it, comes chaos as well. I guess have I have grown a bit accustomed to such an environment an

Seabass Tagliatelle Swiped from Ahmad 'Cipoi' Saiful . A double birthday celebration in the month of February. In the afternoon, I celebrated my sister's belated birthday at Melaka Street Restaurant , SS2. Forever the direction-less dolt, I forgot how to get there again, and made some rounds around SS2. Ordered quite a fair bit of spicy stuff. All the usual favourites and something else I had not tried, "Chicken in Foil". Seared chicken wrapped in foil and fragrant gravy make a very good appetite stimulant. Non-spicy and juicy. Recommended. Later in the evening, SK celebrated her belated birthday at a French restaurant in Changkat Bukit Bintang, named Le Bouchon . Joined by Apollo, Jason Jr, Kenzon, Rich and KT. It's an expensive place and the only reason we dared to venture there was because I had a 50% discount voucher. Hehe. Anyway, before dinner, we grouped in front of Lot 10 and from out of nowhere, a group of dashing male models in tuxedos stru

Ballot Paper - Pakistan Elections Swiped from Ameer Hamza . Marilah mari, Kita mengundi, Tunaikanlah kewajiban, kepada negara. Gotta love this song. A classic from Penerbitan Filem Negara Malaysia. Way up there with the classics like "Kurangan Gula", "Cinta IT" and "Alhamdullilah Syukur Nikmat", but I digress. Although we're not party members, I SK, HP and I voluntered to assist DAP as polling and counting agents at one of seven the polling stations in the Seputeh constituency. SK and HP were involved in polling, basically observing and striking off the names of people who came in to vote. SK got the oldest end of the electoral roll, whereas HP got the youngest end, so the latter got more eye candy! I on the other hand was the coordinator. Had to sit one hundred metres away from the polling station entrace under a small parasol. My job was to arrange relief agents, make sure that volunteers turned up for their shifts and to send food and water

Best things in life are free Swiped from annfrau . Some days back ( now even ), I was quite annoyed at work. I had worked lateand was quite tired. My phone had nearly run out of juice. Sis, brother-in-law and mum had fetched me from the LRT station, but they were not going home yet as they wanted to listen to a political speech at Seri Petaling night market. At around 9:30pm, my colleague called me to say that there was a problem with the demo system he was preparing for the monkeys at marketing. And of course, my phone died the moment he described the problem to me. I scrambled to the nearest bakery to whip out my laptop and plug my phone into the USB port. I called SK who happened to be there to lend me her phone. Due to some communication problem, she couldn't assist me in time. By the time I managed to called my colleague, he had left and expected me to pick up the pieces. Api naik kepala ! By the time she arrived with HP, I flamed them both in my temper. Most of my fr

Hoist Those Flags Swiped from williamnyk . During the two-week campaign period, I merely attended half a Teresa Kok speech at Sri Petaling night market and a Carol Chew dinner at Happy Garden. Teresa stood on the back of a truck to deliver her speech, while Carol had a proper stage with three local ge dai entertainers to fill in the lulls. Carol is a fantastic speaker with a speech that reads like a Pengajian Am essay, while Teresa goes for a more down-to-earth approach-- fiery and sprinkled expletives. Hehe. Being the newbie, quite a number of MCA heavyweights spoke for her during the dinner. One speaker was most honest when he said: "Don't let our Carol lose too many votes..." I definitely clapped to that. At least they're not deluded. But they still pour out the campaign funds, just in case lar. In addition to that, they even had an ex-DAP member denounce Teresa. Many allegations and mud-slinging. Halfway through, it rained really heavily, and his voice

perfect? Swiped from Megan * . Here's an update from the frontline of my war against acne . I recently consulted with a highly-recommended recommended dermatologist near Tung Shin hospital. Heard only praises about him and apparently SK also found someone raving about him on a blog. Lotsa patients and the weird thing is, appointments aren't allowed. Walked in on a Saturday at 9:30am and found that the doctor would only be in an hour later. So factoring that in with the fact that I was fifth in line, SK and I walked over to Wisma S&M to do some really EARLY DVD shopping. Only one or two were open, and I bought a couple of DVDs from the bargain bin at MYR3.50 per disc. Fantastic! Got myself "Hoyakashi - Japanase Classice Horror: The Animation", "Tales From Earthsea" and "Dororo". Believe it or not, SK got herself some anime with a busty girl in a bikini out front. :P. By the time we got back, it was just in time for my turn. Dr Chang tur

It has been shitty this past week. Work has been overlapping between phase one training sessions and mock runs with phase two development. The timeline is so screwed up. And more ad hoc stuff like demos had to turn up. Stupid internal red tape and power struggles in top management, each trying to usurp resources for their own gain. Sigh. Pelanduk Mati di Tengah.

Stand Behind the Yellow Line II Swiped from williamnyk . The 12th General Elections results are already out and here I am talking about the nomination day for the Seputeh Parliamentary Seat that happened some Sundays back. Just a simple police-escorted procession from the Seri Petaling bean sprout chicken shop to Seri Petaling Multi-purpose Hall. Everyone wore white with a red-streaked DAP cap. Flags were distributed ( not the pathetic mini flags but the broomstick-as-flag-pole variety ) and they found that there were more flags than hands. Therefore, I ended up hoisting two ( *&*@&^%*&*: ). Everyone followed behind a Hilux laden with over-zealous flag-waving women and an AV set blaring the song "Together" ( a political song calling for change ). Even had a "leader" who would scream out slogans and the rest would follow. However, certain phrases were more popular than others... "Vote for Change, Vote for DAP!" "Teresa Pasti Menang

umbrella mushroom Swiped from AraiGordai . Hi guys. I'll be away in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok from Wednesday till Friday for work-related stuff. I'm going with my boss ( UGH )and the schedule is tight, so I guess no naughty stuff can be arranged. :(. Anyway, I'll be home in time for election, and that will be another draining weekend to be blogged about later. See ya later.

collageKluang Swiped from williamnyk . Nestled between Dataran Prima and Aman Suria is a cosy little restaurant called Kluang Noodle House . Just tried it on a whim. Aman Suria has become a weekly haunt for me since there are a lot of eateries there and the traffic situation is calm and parking is ample. What's their specialty you may ask? Hand-made noodles without preservative and what not. The noodles they make are slightly thicker than your japanese ramen, kinda like the Kin Kin Pan Mee that DanielH recommended. The texture is good and firm, without any floury aftertaste. Tried their Curry Tomyam Noodles ( an interesting mix of curry and tom yum soup with a generous seafood toppings ), Rendang Chicken Dry Noodles ( a lemak-y, whole chicken thigh rendang served on dry noodles, minced pork and vegetables ) and Ma Lat Noodles ( Taiwan-style spicy noodles. I find it a bit oily due to the chilly oil used, but I guessed that can't be helped ). Good food and big portions

collageAnnualDin2008 Swiped from williamnyk . "The Sexiest Voice" "The Most Kissable Lips" "The Best Ass" "The Most Sparkling Eyes" Believe or not, those were the awards given out during my company's annual dinner at the KL Hilton recently. The recipient's weren't exactly the best candidates as it turned out to be like past year's popularity contests. The recipient of the sexiest voice award even did a stupid William Shatner impersonation. Sexy? Not. Well, come to think of it, if I combine two of the above awards, one can get: "The Most Kissable Ass" Now, THAT would be something. Attended the dinner in quite a zombified state as I was out the whole day menziarah my married colleagues. Got some red packets and won at blackjack. :D. When my colleagues and I arrived at the venue, we entered into the lift with a family of three. (Why this mamat so familiar one?) ("Oh shit! The Chairman!") The Chairman gav

Shokubutsu Grapefruit Sparkle stinks! Long live Orange Peel Essence!

collageVDay Swiped from williamnyk . Technically it was KH and I's second VDay, but we didn't celebrate it last year because we had just started off late January and were away from each other. We really haven't really understood how much we loved each other. So, this year, we officially celebrated it as as our first VDay as described here . Since most of the salient points had been blogged about, let me just fill in some of the holes. Yes, we did celebrate it the "tourist-y" way at KL Tower. And true enough, I did pull a long face when I had trudge around Bukit Nanas carrying a 3kg laptop bag in the sweltering heat. Oh, wait... KH offered to carry my bag, but still I sulked. :P. KH had wanted to exchange some SGD, so when actually stopped at a money changer near the Bukit Nanas Monorail station and the guy actually offered to give us a "student rate". This has no importance in the story, just trying to jemur nyawa a bit. Indulge me. By the time

Gai-Sensei! Swiped from Seloy . Note: Pathetic filler post until I get my photos in order for the next "proper" post. It's so disturbing to see someone cosplay as Gai-sensei....! I'd rather do a Mayuri. :P AND... the office air-conditioning system is on the blink till the end of the week. I'm dying here.... lack of oygen... ack!

Herbal Duck Swiped from williamnyk . ... continued from previous post ... As soon as the food tour ended, we drove out of Penang Island to Sungai Petani, Kedah. Destination: My brother-in-law's sister's place. It was my first time in Kedah actually. The sister lives at the industrial area of Sungai Petani-- a up-and-coming township. The roads were good and the housing areas looked organized. I felt like I was in KL. Spent the night there watching "The Fellowship of the King" and playing "Brave Story" on my brother-in-law's PSP. The next morning, I met the little prince of the house, Yang-Yang. An extremely shy and xenophobic kid. I heard that he won't even let his aunt carry him though she had lived with him for a month! Surpisingly, the kid took a liking to me. I had been told that the odds of him letting me carry him is like striking 4D. Heh. An interesting fact about the house-- there are no mirrors, except at the dresser in the master be

It is Friday and I get no TGIF feeling at all. Had a farewell KTV lunch for my resigning colleague this afternoon, and no amount of fooling around with mic cheered me up. Understaffed with no replacement in sight. 101 problems and matters to attend to. Then I received an sms from KH. More bad news. Something was lost. Was a bit sad, but KH was quick to console me and something Jaded Jeremy told me about the importance of the intangible over the material things made me snap out of my gloom. Sorry I made you worry dear. I am ok now and it is not your fault.

collagePenang20082 Swiped from williamnyk . ... continued from previous post ... Woke up to this: (Mum on the phone) "Do you have a hairdryer?" "Sudah habis." (1 hour later) "Are the hairdryers available yet?" "Actually we don't have any." ($#@|@^%&*^&<%*:<*}?&^%) This is the kind of service one gets for MYR110. I wonder if this was the case when I asked for an extra bed the night before. Even our doors had to be opened using the hotel's master key since the keys were "misplaced". Oh well. We checked out and had our breakfast at Restoran Shiang Hai , at Wisma Red Rock. Kinda a shock for me-- self-service dim sum . Get the food yourself. Refill the tea yourself. Average fare. The only thing worth praising is the char siew bao and the steamed pork ribs ( love the fragrant rice wine gravy ). Our food tour started at 11:00am on Saturday at Restoran Chopper Board , Gurney Plaza. Met the rest of the foodies