I still remember the first time I knew about the 31% discount on ice-cream years back. Then, I read the word pint as "pin(t)" and not "pine" as it's suppose to be read. Pint is used as an adjective to describe ice-creams and blood. Don't ask me what these two have in common. As Irene reminded me to get her ice-creams, I tot wut-da-heck....anything to make her happy.

I was working late today, and by the time I reached B31R, it's already 19-pass-9. There are no parking available, and I was so worried that the shop will close early as it is a working day tomorrow. To my surprise the house is so packed with customers that I can't even see the workers. Some say people goes mad once in a blue moon. As tonight we witness the blue moon, people are flocking into Baskin 31 Robbins in Sungai Dua, Penang to get 31% off their freshly packed ice cream/ sorbet.

Forgetting the "house rules", I wander around for a whole 20 minutes before I found the place to get my number. From choosing my flavor, getting a ticket, waiting for my turn, made my order, and paying at a malfunction cash register takes a whole other hour. Now you see how much Malaysians are willing to endure for a mere RM20.

Driving to Ayer Itam takes at least 30 minutes. The traffic is insane!!! Blame it all on the school holidays and the working parents taking leaves to bring their children out. By the time I reached Irene's place, the paper bag is so wet that it's torned into halves. After a good kiss goodbye, rush back to my place. Kanasai those police... when there is no moon they dun wan come out, now got moon they grew like cactus from my chair. ( ie. pain in my ass)

Before I reached home, I took a check on the ice cream. My seats are so sticky and wet that I rush straight to the laundry once I reach home. I wonder how many traffic rules I broke along the way back.

So folks...that's what you have to pay for in order to "SAVE 31%" on ice-creams on the 31st of the month. Only at B31R.

Labels: Myself

I've been idle for the past 5 months or so, people say "养军千日，用军一时". After my boss came back from Japan, I believe that there will be tonnes of projects waiting for us to evaluate and execute. Today I've been doing experiments until 5.30pm with another 2 collegues. Thanks to them, the experiments progress quite well.

Yeah, if you remember the previous post about the MMU lecturer, let's forget bout him. We managed to fine one Q-SW laser to perform our experiment. Earlier eval doesn't look promising, but today we did a proper experiment with a tailor-made jig to have the laser focus on the exact same plane as the previous rail. Ok, enuff of the technical stuffs. So... we finished the experiment at 5.30pm, and I'm left with 2 pages of data to summarize and report on. Excel is so stupid that it can't perform a simple x-y plot for dynamic range. Wasted an hour figuring it out until I decided to give up and plot not according to ratio.

Besides that, I've been taking up quite some side jobs before I knew how heavy my current job might become. Currently working with a classmate on a webpage design, and besides that, I start getting interested a "Patentable" fixture dad demonstrated to me. He feels that it's unpractical to put it into paper, but I most probably will go ahead and finished what he had started. Might need to put the plan "on-hold" for the moment, maybe next week can breathe a bit of fresh air and get it done.

I need a break, a real break from all these rapid hectic schedule. My replacement holiday will be on Friday while irene's on Monday, can't go anywhere in that case. I'm thinking of cleaning up my room this Friday, maybe get to sort out some images kept idling in my desktop. That'll be a real relaxation for me. Looking forward to Germany this September... start saving money and plan now.

Labels: Work

I was working on this particular project when I faced some difficulty on a device I have. Let's just call it Device A for simplicity. As Device A is no longer in use for Process A, we plan to change it to do Process B.

Ok, first thing...ask the supplier and the conversation goes like this "Hi, how are you...sure sure we have this, we have that. But a hor, Device A too old already, don't have Q-SW parameter, the power fix dy one, cannot use."

Huh? wut parameter? Why cannot use? As curiousity starts haunting me, I try to get a second opinion yet no one in the plant is familiar with Device A, even the person that used to manage it has also long forgotten how it operates. So who do I look for? Try to contact my good-ol-lecturer back in university. Those people who have being with me for the past 5 years. Din sit together drink coffee also know eat other for the least la rite?

I browse through all their profiles, some are good in linking some graphs, while others works with the coffee cup (Java). Then it suddenly hit me, there's a lecturer who's researching on Device A. Guess how the conversation goes.

First Letter, "Good to hear from you Soon. You need to check your Device A specifications, make sure...bla x3"

Second Letter, "Yes true, there are quite a number of ways you can make it work. We need to know a few things first. For starters..."

Third Letter, "Are you looking for solutions? Actually I do provide solutions for industries. Maybe we can work together and do it as a project."

:-o, isn't there sucha thing called teacher-student relationship? Or $$$ has already soak into everyone's heart that guilt no longer become an issue? So, if that's what the world has become today from now on, I'll start "providing solutions" to the society with a "small fee".

Labels: Work

1) Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight
Launched world wide! Finally, the 3rd studio album from the incredibly talented band. Despite releasing limited number of tracks over the years, but they are particularly picky on what to put into their albums, hence the quality out of each of them. Rush down to Gurney Plaza right after work to collect the CD (preorder) just to be sure I have the first ear on it. So far...the CD is worth everything I pay for.

2) KDE 3.3 on my (k)Ubuntu 6.10. Downloaded and installed without any hickups. A lot of things to look thru and relearn. So different from GNOME, more advance features, yet simplicity is being compromised.

3) Waking up to know that I've over slept, yet managed to get through the door in time.

4) My Excel VBA (Visual Basics for Applications) study is progressing consistently since I don't have any projects in hand. Now know bit bit how it works liao. After this will continue reading up on Pivot Tables and start developing real life applications.

5) Wired and Rosegarden is still not working. Will get scold by mua cute for sure since she managed to get my wine working. :(

6) Lastly... dpreview.com acquired by Amazon.com

Labels: Entertainment, Ubuntu, Work

It's already been 1 year since graduation, I've heard some friends still having fun at home, others switch jobs for the n-th time. In my case, I managed to get a job in Renesas Semiconductor, Penang. Initially, I'm doing a test engineer for 6 months...testing and debugging test systems. Right after confirmation, they moved me to do improvement projects like cost reduction, space efficiency, and reduce TAT.

In terms of personal improvement, I've participated in Toastmasters, where they taught me how to speak in public, help up in event organization and also get to know about Parlimentary Procedure.

Travels wise, visited Pangkor/Lumut with J&J, Singapore and go back to my "ancestor" town - Fujian. Not much time for travelling due to work. Missed out JapanGT, but not KLIMS.
Talking about hobbies, you must be asking now..."Is this guy still interested in photography?" Answer: Yes. Proof: 250GB HDD, Nikkor 80-200mm f2.8, Epson P-2000 (graduation present), and thousands of photos waiting for me to process. Besides, I've bought a Canon MV120 video camera.

And since photography has been an expensive hobby, I've tried to save up by putting time in smth "free". Linux - starting with Mr Kamal (exboss) showing it to me on the tester system, downloading RedHat's FedoraCore6, then later installing Ubuntu. Now, I'm thinking of how to make a profit out of this freeware. If you have any idea, do share with me as I'm really low in $$$.

That's all for me folks~! Do keep in touch.

Labels: Myself

I have not been that nervous since the days I hiding under the blanket, escaping the fact that my FYP submission date is drawing near.

Will be attempting my 4th Toastmasters assignment tomorrow, which won't be a big deal. The larger pressure I have is on learning up how to write a business plan, one which is not being evaluated by CGPA or grades, but a plan which is able to generate profit.

Here are the observations I have so far:
1. It's hard for people to adopt new products
2. People prefer to stay in their comfort zone, despite complaining about it everyday
3. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)

Once these ideas are being cleared from their mind, you will gain the market. Selling and marketting is a totally different field from the engineering course that I've been through. Will need to take an intensive "MBA" with my personal trainer. Hopefully I can "graduate" with a yatch under my girlfriend's name.

Back to my assignment rehearsal, must make a good impact on tomorrow's presentation.

Labels: Education, Toastmasters, Ubuntu

I wasn't around for the wesak day celebration last year. There ain't much I've missed, but I really love to be around faithful prayers - makes me look very relegious (which I'm not, ...really, ..that). Anyway, I skipped the eve celebration because we were preoccupied with some other events.

This morning, picked up my grandma and her maid as early as 8am to avoid traffic. It's the first time I sat in mom's new MyVI. It's really spacious and I kinda love it despite not being allowed to step on the paddles. When we reach PorTay Primary - where dad used to study, the place still looks the same. Young school children welcomes us while teachers make sure they don't kill themselves. What makes me jelous is that these children no longer play football, hide and seek, or the likes of it. They are playing the latest java games loaded in their friends new handphone, or PSP~!!! I for one will not give my kids these "luxuries" as I can't even afford myself.

Then we went visiting the sleeping buddha and the other burmist temple on some famous street. Took a number of street photos which makes me realize how different it feels as compared with photos I've taken so far - still, lifeless subjects. Thanks to the devoters, everyone are offered free food and drinks... Took a few photos of grandma's maid so that she can send it back home.

Erm, what did I say to buddha? I thanked HIM for giving me a good education, offer me a reasonable job and wish that I can learn how to do business and at the same time share the knowledge I've learnt with the society. I've start by getting a current account from HSBC, and over the next few months, I'll learn how to use and profit from it. I'll keep u posted about my progress.

Labels: Myself