somewhere there ~~

NRD- Normal Retirement Date I am 1 year and a few days in service but my company has set my retirement date. Seems like I have less than 32 years to go now.

Are you happy with your job? Do you find yourself sighing or maybe swearing every morning you spread your arms waking up? Do you already feel sad on Sunday when you need to iron your clothes? And do you stare at the wall by your bed before sleeping on Sunday and mumbled 'here we go again'? I have been self demotivated at times thinking about my career. As a young and active graduate, I am impatient, eager, charged and so wanting to do something much more challenging in the working world. However, the role that I am assigned currently is a little reserved and pace keeping. I find myself dissatisfied for picking up things much slower than anyone else, even time catches up on me. It's a year already. I'm giving myself another period of time for the hope that things will change, get better or perhaps favors me. I admit I may be over ambitious at times but please don't kill it, I want to set to be somebody someday although I may not have the capability for such achieveme...

A recent conversation with a friend made me realise there are so much things, when said is ideal, when done might turn out to be less pleasant. Well of course one cannot run away from continuously managing an activity or action so that it does not turn ugly at all. Continuous management is what human tend to call, commitment. And who the hell made that word up, I've missed an M the first time I wrote it! As far as I lived to write this post today, I am 'proud' to still not tied down by the human-termed 'commitment'. I can have all the 365 days for myself, all my earnings for myself (of course I voluntarily treat my family which made me happy, and that's what I do for myself too) and all the time for myself. I can safely assume that I have almost zero commitment. Probably as the level of maturity heightens with age, responsibility and commitment come into play naturally. Not sure if from zero to hero sounds great when it is about commitment to everyone but I gues...

I am already working for a year. For a year, I have been earning, although income offset the spendings. Still, better than my younger days when I was a family credit guzzler. A year working here has been a smooth yatch sailing regardless of the wind direction for a sailor. The sailor is not sure where he'll end up soon or whether he will have the chance to see which shore he'll land. Being a young inexperienced sailor, the only option for the moment is to observe the weather daily and do what is right for the day. Not any opportunities to peek at captain's telescope to see where he am set to go. At times, or most of the time, the sailor contemplates a lot about his role. Sometimes it's bright sometimes it's bleak. The sailor hopes... someday when he knows how to read a compass, he will be able to clear his own path... ah, enough of metaphore and personification. Have a great weekend!

I was surfing the internet for privileged banking criteria as I really hate queuing in the bank just to handle some small matter. Not that I am earning loads, but I am looking forward for the day. ... until I came across a forum where a person mentioned, with ebanking, transactions are done without even leaving your home. Ah, that's right. Most of the time now, I just manage transactions via online banking. Probably larger sum requires me to visit the branch but common people can just manage their account in front of their laptop. So, I thought, probably 10 years ahead, there will be only 2-3 frontline bankers in each branch rather than the sum we have now. Same to many industries, with expansive of specialization and automation, probably the world might need more maintenance technician rather than the person who once did the job before machines took over. Hahaha... sounds terminated? I'd rather say retrenched (similar terminated term in workforce hahah) Similar to LEAN. LEAN i...

I had the chance to try golf yesterday. My colleague offered to teach me some of the basics so we off to Miri Golf Club for a few 'noob' hit at the driving range. Golf ain't easy eh.. We paid 5 bucks for 50 balls... that's 10 cents for a ball. Ok, I think it worth. If I make a bad hit, it's equivalent to throwing a 10 cents coin into the river. Hahah. It's gonna be a while for me to train myself to hit the ball most of the time. Currently, I'm already feeling the after effect of swinging the golf club. Muscle aches... Anyway, lets not stop halfway here...

Happy fiddling with my Alpha 380. That's what I've been working on lately. I really need some practise before going for my trip to Taiwan in the next 2 weeks. It's already 1 month since I owned this DSLR. So what's good and what's not about it? Good this about this cam is that it fits me well as a beginner (well that I mean I'm a beginner not the dslr), nicely size and weighted, at least for me. The bad thing is this dslr is not performing well under low light. With my shaky hands, night photos without a tripod look disastrous. Learnt the very basic (errr. using the automatic mode all the way) on my own. Previous post is the very 1st self tutorial. And then, attended Sony Alpha Workshop in Miri. The facilitator and I were the only West Malaysian there.. Love this effect.. i was snapping in BULB mode in the dark and suddenly someone turned on the light.... image looked luminence and surreal! Learning to take details... better than before A great workshop I must...

Finally, I got myself an entry level dslr. It happened quite abrupt but it was planned, and since my compact camera (finally) gave way, there's no reason not to upgrade. Now being a beginner, I have taken quite a lot of photos, as well as deleting them! Here I have a few shots, the best of so far (I know I am still suck at this!). 1st shot with the camera..loved the details.. Lacking the skill to make it more vivid.. A snap too ordinary.. Well, my compact camera will still stay, will be repaired and passed to my family. Need more practise...

I've just returned from driving around Miri. From Miri Airport bypass to Miri-Pujut road. I stopped by a bakery to ease my stomach after paying so much attention on the road. (maybe it's the brunch, not the drive..lol) When I returned home. I felt so wasted. The road is not twisty and I wasn't even in a fun hot hatch. I was doing a spirited driving in a TOWN CAR! Boring. If I were to be relocated back to KL someday, bet that I would get a car that I could appreciate the thrill of driving up to Genting once in a while for a short getaway from the city. Well, Miri aint city... there's no my claimed 'getaway' for me here. Nevertheless, my current car is a decent one, a nippy zippy town car. Just that sometimes it serves the wrong purpose. Tried hard to cope with my demand. lol. I'm not abusive of my car. I'm more of touge style that drag. I guess 2 more tyres are ready to go. In short, the car is here to stay although it did not really meet my expectation. ...

Realised that I have almost everything except for my true hobby... hahahaha..speed..

It felt so different since I return to Miri from Penang. Before returning to Penang, I find Miri quite an okay place to live, reasonable and edible food, slower paced life. But after CNY in Penang, I felt that I've missed the life on the fast lane. Good food, good entertainment and near to family (that minuses the freedom actually, lol) My car front suspension noise now is getting worse. Perhaps it's time for repair, again. Found out that the car brakes aren't effective enough after driving only vios, a budget toyota. Harsh ride, bad NVH, terrible gear changes (auto unfortunately) and sluggish. But what could I expect for a 40k car with pretty low fuel consumption. Visited Labuan for the second time. This time is a business visit to contractor site to familiarize on drilling and logging tools. I was so blur there as I'm from environmental team but luckily, colleagues and contractors clarified and explained me through. It was a good exposure and It actually helped me to ...

Kiong Hi Huat Chai Gong Hei Fatt Choi Gong Hii Fatt Choi Selamat Tahun Baru Cina Happy Chinese New Year

I've worked in the current company for 5 months plus now. For the first 3 months, I have to admit that I really enjoyed chilling around office while learning about work. I've been to industrial sites, did small assignments and I am proud to say while chilling in the office, I still deliver the performance. Not sure how my superior felt about it but I think in general, I've gained a lot. But lately, I find myself being very directionless. I don't see how the task will actually help to develop me to the extent acceptable to my requirement. I just felt like an ambitious person being held back down. I have great superiors, they are friendly, easy going and give me the freedom; on the route I wanted to do; meaning to say I can plan my own development... but question is how do I do so? Damn, there's so much in my head but in brief, I'm kinda lost now. If this is to last longer, I afraid to say I will be loosing the synergy and what is holding me back from doing the ri...

I had a silent moment all by myself and soon began to realize my immaturity. I started my working life with resolutions and being so disciplined. But lately, I find myself being so carefree, playful and also being more and more materialistic. So I looked back at how my life used to be... and I never regretted being so immature lately. muahahahaha.

The female dogs aka bitches, are on heat again. So do the males (dogs only, read.. dogs only) are high. There were a few days of canine commotion at the street of Limau 2as. Miri male dogs have taste for black bitches... The afternoon I was cleaning up my car. The black bitch was humped by a foreign male (dog...erm butch?) while I was taking out my carpets. It was such a gross to watch a canine pornography so I shoo-ed them away; and also not to get my carpets stained by you know what... my carpets don't make puppy anyway. Don't cry for me Anjing Betina... Hopefully tonight I have a peaceful and silent night as lately my life is rather happening; and I am deprived of sleep. Male dogs from the uptown, coming downtown for love...oooh

Spend some of my weekend hours in the office. Nostalgically, this scenario reminds me back at the days when I visited the library. Spent the 1st 30 mins fiddling books, and the remaining hours chatting with friend, surfing internet while waiting for friends call to go for a short (like 40 mins) tea break outside the university. And now, I'm waiting for colleagues' call to head for cinema.. tickets bought already anyway. Life in Miri is much more easy going than in KL. Office is just 5 minutes away from my home, cinema/ town 15 minutes from office. No jam, more time, but lack of crazy funny stuff to do. Hope my boss don't see this... ahaha..just kidding but hey, isn't today Saturday?!

Lately, my blog has been active again.. Somehow, it appears to be a less positive indicator.. Frequent blogging appears to be proportional to my boredom and lack of activities along the day... Somehow, I feel that many people around me do not start their 2010 in the best way. I heard of people getting sick, including me and also negative happenings... I am still rather unhealthy despite already 2 weeks in 2010. Now down with cold and sore throat. Really, I need to start working out and sweat a bit since 1/3 of my time actually spent in air con office nibbling keyboard. Let's start swimming this weekend... since my blocked nose have no problem resisting water from entering...

Visited Labuan for the 1st time several weeks ago for work purpose. Had to visit Labuan CrudeOil Terminal for familiarization on site and also the environmental monitoring work. Was there for 3 days but did not have the opportunity to go around the island since the time was so packed. Anyway, a brief search on the net showed nothing much Labuan can offer as a tourism spot. Even the biggest mall, Financial Mall, is rather empty. Perhaps, Labuan is only all about tax-free. Stayed at Labuan Waterfront. Albeit old, the hotel was quite well equipped and has its own identity. Overlooking waterfront and and a small jetty, the scenery is not bad, minus the smell of the breeze. However, the mood deteriorate if you looked at the water close enough. Nice hotel, nice view, moderate cleaniness, bad hotel food. The food in hotel was way below par. Had my dinner and breakfast in hotel inevitably because there seemed to be no restaurant nearby. Waterfront Hotel Dated room but still retains classy look...

KRP countdown venue Countdown at Kelab Rekreasi Petroliam before moving on to Thai Bar for a drink. Well, took a couple of alcohols before the countdown which was a bad move that lead to a bad start in 2010.. 2 days of hiccups and gassy stomach. Learn my 1st lesson of the year. Do not drink wine empty stomached.