Fatigue...

I don't have any energy left to work today, Monday. I've not felt so lifeless at work...

Friday went for a programmers mtg that lasted way passed midnight!

Saturday morning jump up from bed early morning to pick up 3 guys before driving to Sunway for the GCB. Very good session session I & II, even the keynote address by Ven. Mahinda was very apt for our current INCOVAR camp concept, in relating to understanding the mind and staying happy. Where the 4 sublime states of mind which is Metta, Karuna, Mudita & Upekkha is truly a way of life or practise if we want to have a 'good' mind. OK pls hijack the keynote paper printed for everyone, I need to take the time to read all the papers written all the speakers.

Sat afternoon -- what a surprise, I met up Sau Yee my schoolmate aka 'bus friend' who happens to be the standin official PHOTOGRAPHER for the event! She recognised me first... and I couldn't even tell who's she for 3 seconds! Gossh... if I'd uttered 'who u?' *cannot imagine*

So yada yada, times up had to rush home to change into dinner baju and head on to Puchong to carpool with 3 other upm-coursemates for a wedding dinner in Sg Pelek, that's a holy 1++ hr of driving thanks to the slow tractor occupy the one lane street! Couldn't believe I left my mobile phone at home in the midst of rushing out... I'd roped in my Klang coursemate to go help my INCOVAR friends for the Bamboo mission for Sunday, and I'm handphone-less?!

Sunday morning -- 7am jump up from bed, let the dog out (mom is away for 2 weeks so I'm co-dog sitter & housekeeper) dragged myself all the way for morning walk at Kiara.. then went to Seapark to buy Ribena & junks for a class party starting at 11am at my Sunday school. Oh and I forgot to print out the Feedback form for the school teachers to fill in (it was last day of school). So sharks I was splitting my body into doing printing/distributing feedback form and attending a kids party and ensuring the latest newsletter is given all out(got a girl to help).

I couldn't help to clean up the mess for the class, really thankful for my nice co-teacher to clean up the mess while we let go the kids early, and I rushed off to change into a dress & head on to KLCC for the "Swan Lake" mpo concert ~ that nearly made me wanna doze off. It was really CLASSICAL music + ballerina in tight pants spinning around. I could help wonder what if the 'prince' is turned on... I tried very hard to stay awake until the end of the show... made some wrong turn at kl.. finally got home to change & zoom off to BGF.

It's gonna be 7pm where the meet up with Spore youth will commence, and I couldn't get anybody to reply my sms that they'd be bringing the food. I drop the bgf key to CO and then went to Nanking to order rm130 worth of food, then back to BGF to confirm food is definitely NOT enuff and there's no ice. So CO drove me to get ice and tapao alot more non-vegetarian food and came back... started the session when everyone is there.

The night went well, with some output and alot of conversation Having Said That yadayada.. and I'm so thankful that the Msian people came and it turned out well. I finally got home... to bath, change, sweep the floor.. cannot tahan.. zzzzzzzzzz....

Monday morning -- jump off the bed -- im LATE! Geezzz.. where is my mom?! Grrrrr.... need to let the dog out shit, clean up the peepee on the flr, get changed in split seconds, dash out of the house and pray that I can get a parking near my office and dragged my feet up to my desk.

This is how I'm feeling sooooooooooooooooooo tired today. First time I went to the toilet cubicle to take a short nap in the office!

Rojax mix all-in-1 update

I'm going off to Cameron Highlands on Friday, buy some flowers & take some pictures, then next day help sayang to arrange flowers for SBS for Kathina on early Sunday morning. Pretty happening, the most happening part is knowing my Indian neighbour (the entire family) will be going to Cameron Highlands too for Deepavali! *Aiyaah there goes my neighbour aunty's Thosai & curry...* Who else will I be meeting in Camerons? My cousin sis from Penang!

Like no wonder I couldn't get to book the 'hostel' that I wanted -- Father's Guest House. But not complaining cos I read a horrible review about the management being 'racist', they only allow gweilo to stay in the dorm -- wtf. Like if you're Malaysians you cannot book or stay a certain specified type of room cos its specially reserved for foreigners. Like huurrrllllooo???

Anyway, I've been waiting to blog about my recent interesting "dinner" organised by the man himself Mr. Tony Pua for Petaling Jaya residence with the apt theme of "To Lead Malaysia Forward". If you're into politics and not sensitive (with my words) then check out my ahmoi blog. Oh ya and how can I forget that, on 10th November, when I'll be in Taiping there's this BERSIH peaceful people's gathering -- Coalition for Clean & Fair Elections. Pls wear YELLOW. I do wish to join, really... its gonna be so happening! Bet Med will be there (google abit & found she's the secretariat!). This petite lady that I first got to know when I first volunteered as polling agent in the last election, she's a very yau-yeng activist to me. Feel like shouting out that she's linked to me on Facebook! :p *did I tell you politicians also on facebook?! Like Fong Po Kuan just baru signed up for it*

This blog entry is like crap, all rojak story mix into one. I attended NS's grandpa 90th bday dinner which means I missed out on my cllg's wedding dinner (where most of my cllg attended except me & I didn't even bother to tumpang give angpow). Why?! Because Kevin my Indon cllg say that back in his homeland if you're not married you DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT give angpow in whatsoever condition, be in expensive wedding. Then I said what you're just gonna go have dinner for free?! He said -- maybe will get a gift. *rolled eye* Ok the other not so important reason was that I didn't feel like I giving *ahem* cos he's the guy sitting same row as me -- the you know who. Gosshh.... cannot imagine when he's back from his honeymoon & found out if I've unintentionally stepped his back.

Work -- at work been really busy these days, esp trying to find out why these sms-agents on user machines are not 'healthy'. And I found out that you-know-who's team of field engineers were not doing a proper job in agent verification, and then the ball landed onto my court (system not productive). Blaaahhhh you'd be clueless to know what I'm yakking about, but anyway I totally enjoyed investigation / troubleshooting / learning something new technically. I get shit bored doing the same ol' routine server and engine checking, and because of my laziness -- i got screwed. "Warning" email received from my manager, for not following the 'process' which resulted in the engine being down undetacted & causing their reporting inaccuracy that made the client so unhappy. Me... the girl who can find out all the rootcauses of problems but more prominently known as the girl who didn't follow process (in the eyes of the big big boss sitting far far away in Singapore).

Somemore, attended the "Chicago" musical concert this evening -- ok lah! Free tickets what... not like the seats were sooo front, its quite far. I don't know any of the song except 'All That Jazz'. Good performance to be razzled dazzled with.

GCB -- this one also kuan ngo si... not that its kuan ngo si, but im just helping out with getting more students to join.

Ohya, before I end this, what's been most most eventful over last weekend, was my staying up late all the way till 4.30am to meet the Monday morning deadline to deliver my Sunday School 24pages of newsletter for printing. Thankful for knowing my printer who can accomodate my tight schedule, have to get it out this coming Sunday (when I'm not around)... but I'm really glad its all over. When you put your mind and heart into it, it can all conspire to make things happen for you... I had only 2 editors cum proofreaders working virtually online with me. I'm the layout/formatting technical person that I am. I think I finished it off quite quickly, as I used Indesign instead of Illustrator (learning the vital tips from Pevin & Sue). What would take 5 hours in illustrator would take only 1 hour in indesign, esp on the arrangement of the pages.

Aahhh.. in life, there's no complain if you're doing things that you enjoy doing! And things will surely work out anyway for you -- the secret.

The secret of The Secret, according to Datuk is our Karma. Dohhhh......

“I’M TAGGED, THEREFORE…"

Hahaha! Suddenly I stumbled upon this...

Rules:

Repeat subject header “I’M TAGGED, THEREFORE…”

Copy + paste these rules in your entry. Complete these 15 totally useless statements & questions. Mention who you were tagged by, followed by 8 people who you’ll be tagging.

WARNING!
Failing to do so and you’ll be cursed eternally with a 3-holed nose and a low-cost flat. *doh!!*

I kena tagged by ahban.

1. If I was an opposite gender, what would my party clothes be like?
..jeans & comfortable "save burma"-print Tshirt ;)

2. At 10am this morning, I was… ...busy juggling btwn personal work & office work.

3. At 10pm tonight, I will be… ...if there's a meeting I'll be at the meeting.

4. Who should be the next Malaysian Prime Minister? ...Tony Pua.

5. If my spouse told me to do without sex for a year, I would… ...get him a brainscan.

6. If I was a piece of a car, I would be the… ...the steering wheel.

7. If I was told one day that I would have to give up either 1) anything chocolate OR 2) ever seeing the beach again, for the rest of my life, which one will I give up?
...wow this is pretty hard one!! I can't let go chocolate neither could I imagine never seeing the beach again! Gossshh.... how?! This is sooo hard! This is harder than life!

8. Singapore is good for… ...having the Phantom of the Opera live at the Esplanade!

9. If I could only say 3 words before I die, what would those last words be? ...let me go!

10. Who would I like to be left on a deserted island with? ...sayang la who else.

11. Die by drowning or by fire? ...drown (die faster not so pain).

12. What one single thing would you buy with your last RM9.95? ...a bet that would double the money.

13. If I opened a night club, what would I call it? ...bar sayang *hahahahha ROFL hahaha*

14. Don’t cheat: what’s “bulbous”? ...huh?!? dunno.

15. I think my ass is… ...ok what. Doesn't give me pain.

Wah, now I have to think of 8 ppl to tag? I really don't want to name people here la. Here are the people i think would read my blog gua..

twinkle
chaos
sansquare
subangboy
joyce
mcc
aaronation
anna - wish she's reading oh well..

...i got Amygdala hijacked...

Before I write further, here's how bro. Keek began his session about Emotional Intelligence --> go read books by Daniel Goleman and google Amygdala (inside the centre of your brain covered by a large portion of Thalamus).

The talk hit me hard from the beginning, when he ask -- do you think you are a logical or rational person? *I've always thought I am, since I'm just a white hat neutral uppekkha person* But he went on asking -- then why sometimes you can say the wrong things at the slip of your tongue or at the spur of moment stop talking to a friend ever?

Yeah... if I have a high EQ *which I've always thought I have* why do I still feel offended at times, feel like cursing people inside my heart or sometimes really react illogically / unpredictably? Even when I could have used my mental "thought" to analyze the "situation" and control the "feeling" but unfortunately at times I got ...amygdala hijacked...

Another way of saying I got "emotionally hijacked". That sometimes feeling appear so much faster than thought, yes although I'm a logical-thinking person, I'm not aware my own feelings. The end of the talk teaches us to be mindful, in order to control or manage any situation better so that the personal behavior is much more 'effective' and 'productive' in whatever we do.

The method to manage ourselves is where the 80/20 rule comes in. Many a times, average people spend 80% of their time working to produce 20% result, only a few people would really know how to work only 20% of their time to produce the 80% result that is REALLY what is needed. Do you really need to do all the work that your boss ask you to do? Do you really need to print a stupid interim 600pages report just because the big Tan Sri said "I want to you in my office for 30 minutes". Does a meeting really require 2 holy long hours to accomplish the purpose of the meeting?

According to speaker, a meeting should only be about 45mins max, the rest of the time is crap...

On normal day, you only need about 4-5 hours of WORK, if you work longer than 8hours a day you're actually bluffing or lying to yourself. *exactly I'm blogging now at office hour instead of working*

When I heard that 80/20 technique in being effective (at work or with incovar), I felt like.. gosh that's how these great people do so much with so little TIME! In fact, speaker said you only need to Do "ONE" thing, and hell you better do that "ONE" thing damn bladdy GOOD!

He's hinting to me, I'm doing too many other things, but not doing that ONE thing... *smack smack me...* these words are resonating in my mind... (cos I do incovar, i do bisds, i do unit trust, i do photograpy, i do fixing computers, i do writing, i do things that's not even my thing..)

So HOW do you learn to MANAGE yourself to be effective?

LEARN TO SAY "NO".

*fell off the chair %#^$&^%!$#$%*

Learn to negotiate. Of course if only if I use my brain to THINK and analyse for a moment, WHAT TO DO that is worth doing and add value to myself (and to my work). When I could THINK for the solution, then I should be able to NEGOTIATE (for you to be effective & not do crap).

~*~

Having said all that, I got carried away thinking the Effective Management Training (EMT) 1st session was so much inline with the 28idc whole camp concept! It just dawn on me that our camp can be summed up in 2 words : Emotional Intelligence.

When I look at the quadrant below *grasp!* -->

[Self Awareness ][ Social Awareness ]
[Self Management][ Social Skills ]

I was so 'emotional hijacked' by the session, when he first showed the various function of the brain, where there is a tiny Amygdala is linked to our feelings, instantly Talk 2 debate came to mind -- What defines me? -- "Is it my feelings or my thoughts?" "Do I feel first or do I think first?" "If human have a brain which have a larger portion for thinking-processing, then human should be very rational & logical species... is that so?" "Why do people still get angry or say things that hurt people or simply illogical at times?"

I dont remember how, but Bro. Keek did brought up the Mahayanese aspect of Buddhism which is Metta-Karuna-Mudita-Upekkha inclined which is suitable for people who like to reach out /be socially aware /love others. Where as Theravada emphasis of mindfulness & insight is suitable for people who's more into self awareness/self management. Tibetan Buddhism have both emphasis. *wow Buddhism is like the answer to EQ or vice-versa*

In a nutshell, I felt like I went through the entire 4-day 28IDC through the Emotional Intelligence training! I think speaker tried his best to train us in 3 hour, and I truly learnt something from it. Esp on learn to say no (as the first step) to produce EFFECTIVE 20/80 result. Always use the brain to THINK and analyse, what is effective, to be proactive in thinking & not keep silent / tidak apa / just accept whatever bullshit boss give us to do...

...sei mei....
Can i make bro. keek my mentor?

525600

Just today I found out what's 525600...

I'm really excited about this new idea, if only it was on a broader scale, maybe making it like a musical, wah.. that would be power!

The jingle has been ringing in my head ever since, hope I'm not sick of it for over ringing it! But I'm so excited to be part of it, even if its just one small tiny bit of it!

For now this is a code -- 525600.

On the look out for nice property...

You know what? Finally I'm going make this happen :: To own a property of my own. This can only happen after I fully settled my study loan, which is coming to an end soon! If I don't commit into mortage, my lack of discipline will see my monthly salary disappear with what camera accessory, what airasia, what mattafair, what juscosale, what padini, what warehouse sale...

I MUST NOT SIMPLY SPEND! I MUST NOT SIMPLY USE THE CREDIT CARD!! I am going to squeeze through it... I will survive... with a hefty drop dead mortage.

So any nice property within my +/- RM200,000 budget? Hmm, my criteria...

1. Affordability or within my budget

2. Location (not too far until have to travel >1 hour to work or keep paying shit toll)

3. Developer reputation

4. Nice neighbours

5. Appreciate in value after 10yrs

6. ...

7. ...

8. ...

9. ...

10. Not next door to my family ( :P hahaha..)

Ok ok.. finish building castle in the air. Balik rumah!

Look who's sampat?

Me!

I logged in maybank2u today and saw wwwwuuuiii? Why all 7,777.77? This probably come once in my life! Hmm..well, of course I can so siow to go deposit or transfer ngam ngam to create this number, but this is unintentional! ;)

...oh when will this sampat streak ever end...

5 Things

It's not that I don't have anything in mind to write, but posting answers to tag like this, can be wuliow! You know wuliow is as wuliow does. Too bad I don't want many people to read my blog, so I won't know how to tag back :P

5 Things In My Bag (assuming it's applicable to all occasions)
wallet, handphone, namecard holder, BGF keys, thumbdrive.

5 Things in My Head
brain, blood, fluid, nerves, energy.

5 Words That I Frequently Use
Doh, Huh?, inspire, invest, sayang.

5 Recent SMSes Received
aysl, munyee, soo teng, wendy, choon hong.

5 Recent Things I Just Did
I bathed! I answered the phone.. I imagined.. I talked on phone.. I ate..

5 Things In My Wardrobe
clothes, facial stuff, comb, hanger, cotton.

5 Things I Just Ate
Grilled fish, mum's cooking, vegetarian asam laksa, jap-fan, roti canai.

5 people to tag
u, u, u, u, u.

One of a kind Birthday experience

I took leave on Monday, 17th Sep the eve of my bday. Why didn't I take leave on my bday itself? Well, I don't think I wanna miss out having to meet up with cllg for makan on my bday. Anyway, my bday eve turn out to be very special.

In the evening, just about the time when sayang came to pick me up, there was full rainbow up in the sky! *oh so auspicious in the Buddhist context according to him, while I had the scientific reason for it :P*

The "surprise" came when I was transported to a classic chic restaurant français in KL, which has a beautiful ambience of chandelier & crystals dangling from the ceiling, with glass wine & flowers on every table. Little did I know the roses decorated on our table is different from the white flowers on the other tables.

*Smack smack, don't knock over the table, don't drag the chair, don't fumble-tumble with the cutlery -- words that kept ringing inside my head* I had to remind myself to keep still and try very hard to sit with poise. Yes, I could afford to smile but don't grin like sampat. It was just very lovely & sweet. The fact is that I didn't even expect it! I was completely smitten, sayang is beyond my imagination.

Maybe it's just those special day, once a year thing that its ok according to sayang to splurge. It was also around this time, one year ago that our coming-together began.

Although I could just end my sweet bday story right there, I guess life is not all about a bed of roses, certainly my life is not just about one lovable guy. My wonderful family played their part in trying to celebrate my bday. Like doh if you really wanna know more, you can check out my fotopages of course.

On my bday, somebody also uttered 'I hate you' to me over my mobile, for some apparent trouble that is beyond my control. Of course nothing beats watching my entire cranky family making a nuisance much ado about nothing.

On Thursday, 20th Sep, how could I forget to blog this! I was invited by sayang's parents for a "simple" dinner which turned out to be so heavy, and I'm so paiseh I don't eat prawn. The most paiseh part above it all, and you won't believe me what his mother gave me for my birthday gift. Yeah... I finally found out what's the hype about it, why Tym said I'm so lucky, why LeeLeng looked so thrill, why my aunties wanna have a bit of the set that came with it inside the big golden box. Estee Lauder makeup set! Above it all, I'm supposed to be the girl most clueless about makeup! I think I must tell miss ELSF about it. It's just not fun that I can't give it away, or else my parents will nag me, I wish to give it to my friends who like 'em but my aunty say must think of 'aunty' first... doh. I honestly wouldn't make use of all the 3 lipgloss and 3lipsticks so that have to go.

What do you call this? Someone said it "when you least expected it, you'll get it." How apt.

Tunku ~ the musical ~ admirably awe-inspiring

I just have to find the time to pen this down, before the memory slips away. The memory of having the one opportunity to catch Tunku -- The Musical, for free courtesy of YTLcommunity. I'd actually wished to go get the tickets to watch it with sayang, but he said 'save money' so we didn't buy the tickets. Later, free tickets were given out by YTLcommunity, and sayang quickly register before the shows went full house.

I'm so grateful for this chance to be part of this oh-my-im-so-overwhelmed-by musical production directed by Joe Hasham, husband of Dato' Faridah Merican. I can't even tell what race they both belong to, but that's the case of the musical story -- the dream of all Malaysians being blind, colour-blind!

I first shed tears listening to the most impeccable light-hearted original score "Laksa", when all the performers dressed in respective cultural costume, praising their own laksa dish as the best. I was entralled and dumbfounded. The Malay laksa stall owner claimed that laksa is a Malay dish (dancing & singing to the Malay tune) and then the Chinese lady sung in Hokkien claiming the laksa is a Chinese dish. I just felt the instantaneous euphoria in my heart... I can't explain how I could cry. I love asam laksa. Wether its nyonya laksa, penang laksa, PJ laksa or Taiping laksa. When I worked alongside the government Malay staffs, I learnt about the difference btwn Kelantan laksa and johor laksa. There are just so many types of laksa, and even my grandma's laksa is different from my grandaunt's laksa. And I loved all of them. It never even occured to me, wether Laksa is a Malay or chinese dish. The music of Laksa together with the dance, melody and lyrics, captivated the essense of a true blue Malaysian culture -- beauty in diversity.

I really felt that the song had for a moment, binded all Malaysians into one, the Malaysian Malaysia. Reminiscence of my kolej uni days during the 1998 World Cup fever, I was sitting alongside a bunch of Malay girls, sharing some snacks watching football on tv in the common living room in the hostel.

The lyrically astouding score ensuite, brought tears to me eyes when Fauzia & Malik, the ahmoi & Malay dude embracing & passionately singing to each other -- Sayang.... Sayang....Sayang.... *ok I don't remember what were the words that came out after "sayang... sayang...". My sayang was glancing back at me and there.. *tissue please*

At the end of the show, of course there's a long-winded touching story behind it, this sayang went over to shake hand with Joe Hasham and Faridah Merican. Well, I'm not quite a PR person, its for me to know, that the musical striked a cord in my heart, and my eyes were still red when is the show is over. I guess when the performers saw me tearing up, they'd know how much I appreciated the show. I was seated only 5 rows away from the stage with my swollen eyes and wetty nose.

I appreciated so many aspect of the musical from the original score, to the talented vocals, to the passion in acting, to the fear and stir of audience emotions, to the detailed production... I would pay a hundred more ringgit to watch it again, bringing along as many friends and family as I could. The most important point to note about the musical, is the fact of history that was never covered in our school book, that was portrayed in the musical. I wonder why they'd not censored or disallow or caused a controversy with the brave portrayal of may13 1969 event.

Atleast I felt relieved to know my gal-friend who never bothered about politics, finally came to know know what actually happened in the may13 riot from this musical play. Politics had ruined the beautiful culturally-rich Malaysian Malaysia, but arts (and also football) could inspire us to dream for a beautiful vision and bring out the spark of patriotism within our heart.

I salute the entire director & producer, cast & crew, heart & soul that made Tunku the musical, so heart touching and pride brimming.

Here's some blog about Tunku that I stumbled upon.. Nick, Zamil.. I wonder what politicians would comment about this admirable ensemble.