Ma Virtual Diary

please dont be mistaken, take notice of the inverted commas surrounding the word…..lets see..i guess the 1st noticeable incident was the fact that, new requests for changes were still being accepted despite GO-Live day just round the corner….2nd noticeable incident was how strong of a commitment to Sunshine Principle of "client is always right and we live to serve them" BUT a worst than you can imagine commitment to Sunshine Principle of "there is no email in heaven"…3rd noticeable incident was how busy we happen to be, preparing NOT for go live but for data verification on the eve of GO Live day….4th noticeable incident was how excellent ( this time without the commas ) they were in motivating and telling themselves that THERE IS NOTHING they can do about all these last minute requests/changes, …

you will definitely grow in this environment…grow old faster/grey hairs due to stress, pressure & tension ( this is good because it will promote economic growth cause ppl will start purchasing lotsa health products, etc etc to overcome aging faster / grey hairs )…grow ur guessing skills due to the fact that ur always in the dark ( guranteed to win the next MILLIONAIRE game show )…grow lotsa pimples due to late nights of unproductive work due to "excellent" management ( this is good because Facial saloons will receive many businesses now and thus causing it to bloom like mushrooms thus creating a chain reaction of price wars, etc and finally consumer would get a cheaper price visiting Facial saloons )….and most importantly, as my collegue QUOTE, grow the skills of "seeing the light @ the end of the tunnel"…and i further enhance on the quote, "seeing a DIM FLICKERING light @ the end of the tunnel" that makes u wonder real hard, if it is really light at all that ur seeing or you are just hallucinating it ( this is a priceless skill as it will definitely put night vision goggles out of business and increase your value to be a certified trainer for SEAL teams, 007 SPIES, etc around the world )…

COME AND JOIN US, CHOOSE/VOTE US FOR A BETTER FUTURE !! Make your choice wisely !! You can make a difference !!

i always had a list of things to do and i do try to achieve them as much as possible…but sometimes, it does get dragged on for pretty long before i finally achieves them…well..longest i could think of at the moment is 7 years??? now onli i m achieving it…recently i had 1 or 2 items added to the list…i hav always wondered how the hell am i gonna achieve this list that seems to be eternally long !!…not to mention the fact that time is always not on ur side…

as i was eating my banana leaf rice today…i was reading the newspaper and came across an interesting article, " Bucket List "…and i read on…ironically, it was talking about my situation…a long list of dreams that just got buried with time…and the actual term for it is " Bucket List "…and the rationale for this name is because before u "kick the bucket", what are the things that u wanna do in life….and of course, i feel fortunate because i am already doing it now !!..as for the writer, hes already touching 50 ( i think, he didnt explicitly mention though ) and just started his list and also looking back at the list that he buried long time ago as time passes by, and reality in life kicks in…not to mention, responsibilities as u age, different life status, etc etc…

so it is important to live ur dreams as much as u can…do the things on ur list ppl, dont make a list and bury them inches by inches with time !!…and even more ironically, i went for a theatre play @ Actor’s Studio today and one of the play scene was about dreams and how ppl often just dream about it and not achieve it !!!..fuhhhhhhhhhhhhh…another reality check…( btw, its my first time @ a play and i think it rocks !!..ppl singing and dancing…wennie used to say that i gotta learn to tap into the creative side of my brain and not just let it go to waste and that was like what????…3-4 years ago??..shes now married with a kid and i m just achieving this !!!..what a slow coach !!..i procrastinate too much !! )

dream dream dream, list list list, bucket bucket bucket, achieve achieve achieve !!!!

hehehehe…name is exactly synonymous with Richard’s daughter Alyssa..short form Ally…cute smart gurl who goes around calling Uncle Siew, Uncle Chuan….muahahaha…damm..uncle status for an unmarried man !!

well, aunty ellie happens to be a person i once knew during my pre-u days in MMU…status promoted to aunty since i found out that shes already married….so YES, married = aunty status as i was telling her over our office internal messenger….

anyway, recently met her back in our office..initially when i saw her, i knew she looked familiar..then after sometime, it hit me that shes Kak Ong’s fren…but her hair is short now..( luckily is not curled, else, it would exactly live up to an image of an aunty )..muahahaa…so i didnt approach her…then on a separate occassion, i bumped into her in the car park..and guess what??..she still has the eBee sticker !!…

goshhh..loyal MMU-ian…..i dont remember where i hav put mine already…so then one morning, i decided to buzz her..and she said, " are u keropi’s fren?? "..i was thinking…" oooo mannnn, wrong channel !! "…and then later she explained that keropi is Kak Ong’s nick and i dont even know that for a fact !!…mmmm..good thing is she remembers that i used to wear red in uni days…whoaaa..r3sp3cta..excellent memory !!…

aiiihhh..but frenly as she may seem to be, shes not willing to part ways with that KUM of hers !!!!!!!!!!!…what a sad story !!!

Sun Tzu has his art of war, Mozi has his art of fortification / defence…i believe i m soon making a name for myself for the art of leaving…well, every job interview that i have been too would definitely notice one and only one thing…"job hopping trend" and questions would usually centered around that for the remaining hour of the interview or so…

as always, my template opening statement.."look, i know it doesnt look good on papers, but hear me out, i have my side of the story…"….as always, so far ( keeping my fingers crossed / touch wood ), by the end of my answer, i would always just get a nod AND get the job…but of course, getting a nod, was not really a satisfactory reaction in my point of view…until recently, i had a response that went, " ooo, well, for the record, i just wanted to know and understand because end of the day, its fair and square, some ppl leave for good reasons, some leave for bad reasons…thats all right "…i was certainly taken aback by these comments and of course in my heart i was thinking, " this is the type of ppl whom i wanna work with…totally professional about things and no 2 ways bout it "….of course i hav my reserves as well, cause ppl will always make everything sound nice during an interview..who doesnt??

its exactly like 1 of the forwarded stories i got many years ago…i remembered it clearly and i even printed out a copy and put it on my cupboard display…the gist of the story was, 1 guy died was stuck between heaven n hell cause dont know where he should belong, then he striked a deal and visited both heaven and hell…heaven was of course boring, and hell was like damm happening !!..so this guy finally chose hell since it was so happening on the day he visited both places…then 2nd day he went back to hell and everything was the opposite of what he has seen…and the devil greeted him, " welcome to hell, yesterday we were trying to recruit u, so we made everything looked beautiful…today ur officially a recruit in hell, welcome to my playground !! "…

anyway, today i overheard some disturbing news and i decided to go through all those unread emails which i hav dumped aside and to my surprise, i found the email containing those disturbing news that i overheard…it was in the form of a presentation slide from the project’s steering committee…steering committee presentation slides and guess what?, they werent even using the standard presentation slide pack of the company…i totally cant believe this..since the negative incident last month, i cant help thinking about everything thats happening around me especially when it comes to senior managements and the middle management….i totally understand the fact that, this is their first project and they are trying hard to make an impact, get positive feedbacks from the customers, make a name for themselves in the process BUT, they are doing it at the expense of 2 very important elements in any project management…PROFESSIONALISM & RESPECT….i hav been telling ppl around me that this organization is totally missing these 2 important elements, but ppl just gave me the look…and today i hav a proof of my point…the presentation slide itself…the layout, the background, the contents…and this is suppose to be a formal documentation where its supposed to be archived for future references, etc

as i was bathing in the toilet after seeing this pathetic presentation slides, i had 101 thoughts of how my "R" letter’s content is going to be..i was even contemplating if i should start writing a draft now and work further on it on a daily basis so that it would sound like a solid email that hopefully will knock on someone’s head to finally listen to an "employee’s" opinion…as i walked out of the bathroom into my room…i decided since i advocate strongly on professionalism, i should perhaps lead myself by example..K.I.S.S and not waste time / effort to write grandmother stories educating them where / what should be done since end of the day its just going to either the dustbin or designated folders in their mailbox…its not gonna be an added value effort anyway….so, by K.I.S.S principle, i hav decided that its just goin to be either a 1 or 2 liner letter / email…and in the event IF i am to be called into the room for "re-negotiation", i guess my answer would just be, " u and the management hav made their decisions, i respected that, now i hav made mine…:) "

of course i hav had this discussion with 1 or 2 ppl, and one of the feedback i hav gotten which at that point of time, i felt was rather insulting and absurd, was, " of course, nobody cant say that u havent put in your effort, but did u stop to think what u could hav done or what u hav done "….of course i hav, i m not a stubborn person altogether…and my past records hav definitely proven that fact….i always feel that, ppl who hav these thoughts are ppl who hav fear in leaving or they feel that its something common that happens everywhere so u just hav to persevere…i mean common on man…( i cant blame these ppl with these thoughts cause they never had a guru like i did ), my master educated me with the knowledge that in any organizational structure, it is always a pyramid structure,..only difference is how flat or how high is that pyramid…and base will always be bigger than the peak

without a strong base, ur peak will never be stable…translate that into organization structure of a company, base = employees, peak = managements…i mean we are the building blocks man…we form the base for ppl to sit up there comfortably…we hav power, we hav rights, and we need to use them wisely…having thoughts like the above, i.e are we doing enuff of our part, etc will just mean we are suppressing ourselves to the peak and let them hav the power over us @ the bottom….that shouldnt be the case !! its supposed to be a give and take situation WITH PROFESSIONALISM & RESPECT in place…

but then again, humans will always be humans..like my doc uncle says, when ur young, u hav the age of immortality…as u age, u start to hav the age of mortality….in order words, u transformed from being fearless to fearful due to commitments, responsibilities, etc basically anything and everything that grows with age

ahhh..well, life goes on, job hunting goes on and the search for a perfect job & life continues on….

goshh..i feel that i hav just given a "Ceramah" for the upcoming elections !! such lenghty and wordy blog..

MR CHANG, MR CHANG…well, thats how his students address him, but we call him Jau Ho…when i first met him in school, i thought that hes rather "unique" cause hes a chinese educated person BUT with a very excellent command in english…i mean not to degrade any chinese ed students or what, but in high school last time, majority of the chinese educated ppl that i know could manage with onli limited vocabulary…but this mr chang was rather xceptional !!…

well, he started working in aussie like 1++ years ago and this year he finally came back for a short chinese new year holiday…while he was around, we hung out a few times, where i found out he started drinking already !!..wuhuuuu..another member in the family who drinks !!…CHEERS MATE !!!…

unfortunately, i dont thing anyone has it on camera..soooo…wat a waste !!..the only couple of shots we managed to hav is the following…

( L-R:- Melissa, Shaheeran, MR CHANG, Josephine, Melissa, Loo Vic, ME, Teik Hong, Sim, Ping Ping ) 

getting off work these days can be rather stressful, especially when u hav just finished a stressful day @ work and u gotta face the stressfulness of being trapped in a traffic jam…

today i was particularly sleepy as i had curry mee for lunch..i wanted to order prawn mee but i guess, age is catching up thus causing me to hav COCK eyes…i ticked on the curry mee column instead of the prawn mee column, when the order came, i thought the waiter made a mistake, so i asked them to double check,..then the manager came, i guess he was having his period since he gav me that dissatisfied look and with a stern tone of voice, he said , " u ordered curry mee…YES u ordered it, theres no mistake about it "…

talk about customer service man…and all i did as a PAYEE was asked for clarification…anyway…i left work sharp and along the way, being trapped in the jam, i almost doozed off..pheww..i swear i must hav doozed off 2-3 seconds…so to distract myself from feeling sleepy, i did the usual thing, looking @ my rear mirror and see if i can spot anything interesting….after all, i did spot my fren’s NEW gf kissing him once upon a time..so i msged to disturb him and he got all freaked out and started calling to ask where i was…muahahaha…

this time, i spotted another interesting thing that u ppl can do out there if ur trapped in a jam…initially i saw this lady with a white frame sun glasses..i spotted that she was holding her hand phone against the steering wheel…initially i thought probably shes having a video conference or something…then i noticed that she pressed on a button and started looking on the phone and this happened for a few times…then i saw her arranging her hair..brought the phone to a different angle and started pressing on a button again…then i realized what she was doing..she was taking pictures of herself, from different angles, in different hair styles and poses

i thought that was rather interesting..then i saw her typing sms..i guess, she must hav wanted to send those "juicy" pictures to someone…however, sad thing was, the moment she took off her white frame sun glasses…" OOOO..boy…time to change the scenary !! "

but that incident really kept me awake for the remaining journey…hehehe..divine intervention perhaps??..i dont know…

nope, this blog is not about me participating in recently organized demonstration in the streets of KL..never did understand why ppl would wanna demonstrate..if u wan to make a point but ur listener dont wanna listen, it doesnt matter what you do, they will still not listen…some ppl would argue, " ooooo..atleast we showed the world, what malaysian government is all about where they say one thing and do another thing..so wheres the democracy, etc etc "…so the world knows, so what? can things be changed?..if it can be done so easily, other countries having serious civil wars, domestic politics, etc would easily be resolved through demonstration !!…anyway…lets forget about this…

one thing for sure is that my blog is about a positive demonstration…to show and share capoeira culture to the public as part of brazilian culture awareness..its rather interesting to be part of it considering the fact that its my 1st time joining this public roda ( pronounced as "hoo da" )…it was raining heavily that night and i was contemplating if i should proceed with my plans of joining them…i decided to drive pass the academia to see if anyone is there…the minute i reached there, the academia was dark…so i guess everyone must have gone to bangsar…so i de-toured and drove to bangsar..

and i saw a group of ppl in the same outfit as i am…and i thought, "ahhh..so its on !!"…so i parked by the side of a huge house…changed in the middle of the road, pee-ed in the longkang…and just as i was about to leave…i felt a cold sensation on my right shoulder…when i looked over.."shiittt…kena bird shit, right in the middle of nite !!…dammm…first thought that came across my mind, is this a sign or wat??"…

the whole demonstration went well but i guess there isnt that many ppl who comes and support the event thus making it less "ummphhh"…but nonetheless it gives me the feel and impression of those olden martial art movies i like to watch, where they will go around, selling their "art" while asking for contribution from the public ( we dont ask for contribution btw, its just free marketing activity that we are doing )….

interesting..interesting..seeing rafael moves really motivates me to learn more, perfect my skills, and make it smooth flowing…he always say.." u gotta develop ur game, learn to do something, make ur opponent move somewhere and then get him nicely !! "….he makes sound so easy all the time !!…to the extent that he already got frustrated telling us so one day, he really got mad and say, " everytime i see u guys, i tell u guys the same thing..i think i should just record my voice, play it over the loudspeaker everytime u guys come train..OR better still, i will charge u guys some amount of money everytime u make me repeat the same thing..that way i can get rich..even faster and better than teaching capoeira !! "

well..training life continues !!

i first heard of yoga when there was one year where this exercise suddenly boomed…i heard fantastic stories bout how ppl can elevate themselves, transport themselves from one place to another once they reached the highest level of enlightenment in yoga…well, of course at that point of time, this was like to overwhelming to believe…so over the years, i have many friends around me, who joined but of course, i never really did interview them to find out what are the effects/outcome of taking up yoga…

recently, i was given a 14 days pass to try out Bikram’s Hot Yoga @ True Fitness…well, i was thinking why not give it a try, after all, its been so many years since i first heard of yoga, so if its a phony, then it would have died or there would have been many sensational news about it…but surprisingly, i hav not heard of negative stuffs so far..so its been all positive news..so i thought, lets give it a try…had my 1st lesson on saturday…anddd…whoooaaaa…mind blowing !!

one of the comment the yogi made was, "after ur 1st class, u will rediscover muscles u never knew u had….this is normal !!…yoga is an exercise to stretch every inch of tissues that u hav in ur body regardless of whether the tissues are made up to form ur muscles, internal organs, etc.."…

i think i will love this yoga thingie for some time to come !!..but of course, i guess when the fitness consultant interviewed me on what i hope to achieve in yoga…the 1st thought that came through my mind was "to check out the benefits for myself..and be a my own myth buster !!…will i get all the benefits that has been listed down when u practice yoga with discipline, commitment and discipline !!"

sometimes, i cant help to wonder, there are positions which i believe are rather difficult to achieve, from a guy’s point of view…an example would be the eagle post…

imagine, look at the attached picture, imagine, ultimately, ur leg is supposed to cross over to your calf completely till it appears on the opposite side ( in the picture, noticed the lady’s left leg, the toes are like on the opposite side @ the right leg’s calf?? )…OUCHHH !!..i can feel the pain down under !!…nonetheless, if a yogi is able to achieve that, there must be a reason to it…lets see if i will "survive" to find out the truth to eagle post !!…

i remember reading an article couple months back about how cheap labours have travelled all the way from india, bangladesh, etc to work in our country only to be conned by their agents of their hard earned money, etc…i felt really tragic for those ppl who are trying to make a decent living yet they fall into traps setup up by big time con-man….

today i had the honours of being asked to conduct an interview of candidates to join a team in our department…the interview was conducted by me, my collegue & my manager…the first candidate walked in, sat down, shoke our hands and so our conversation started…my collegue being the more "aggressive" person who always started the interview with "sooo..tell us abit about urself…so how do u rate urself from these aspects..xxx..xxx..xxx, rate urself from 1 - 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best "….the minute he started talking, i started observing his body language..

one thing i learnt many years ago is action speaks louder than words..body language tells everything regardless of what you utter out your mouth…1st thing i noticed bout this candidate was, his palms were grasping against each other…well, initially, i thought the meeting room was just kinda cold, + the nervousness from interview, hes probably just feeling X-tremely cold..fine…i can ignore that…unfortunately, as the interview got a lil bit more intense..he started shivering…i was thinking in my heart, "poor guy, this guy is not goin to make it through !!"

as i was browsing through his interview, i decided to spare his fear by jumping into the interview session and stopping my collegue’s aggressive questioning and asked him in a polite soft voice.." could you elaborate further on this point in ur resume? "…he looked at me with a puzzled look…i was thinking, "nvm…probably its a language barrier, this poor guy is already probably ready to shit in his pants…let me try a different approach"…so i bent over towards him, pushed his hardcopy resume to him, and specifically pointed the item which i wanted clarification….he looked at the point and stared at me point blank..and there was 3minutes of silence…then i finally broke the silence by asking, " can you explain to me? are you able to do that? "..and he said, " i m sorry, i cant "…

ahhhh….i was thinking, "this resume is probably not even his..or its been written by someone for him or he just copied and pasted point blank from somewhere"…so me and my collegue decided to end the interview prematurely…i turned and looked at my collegue and made a comment, " poor guy’s probably been conned to coming to msia…someone must have painted a fake good picture about the job opportunity over here so much so that hes willing to bluff his way through until this stage of the interview !! "…my collegue laughed and made a synical remark, " yeahh..for all u knoe, this guy could be working in a mamak somewhere and hes been drafted in by the conman agent to this interview !! "

i dont know what else to say about this situation….and this is just stories from 1 country…we probably hav more stories from china, vietnam, cambodia, etc that we are not aware off !!!….

linguistically speaking, it means "easy rich"…numerically speaking, it means "28"…not too long ago, junz was saying that my bday msg was the coolest and tops her list of bday wishes..so i guess i will repeat that bday msg to myself with some modifications of course..and..it goes…

" ehemmm..ehemmm..( clearing the phlegm from throat early in the morning )…krackkk krackkkk…( doing some loosening exercises )…arrrghhh…arrrghhhh…aahhhhh…ahhhh…ahhhh…ahhhh ( mouth wide open,facing a green hill with tropical rainforest,warming up the voice cord )…bateria gets into their respective spot,holding their respective instruments….berimbaus start playing…after a few minutes..followed by pandeiros…after a few minutes…followed by conga + atabaque…and finally, agogo & reco-reco…happy bday to u…happy bday to u…happy bday to me…happy bday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!! "

this year’s bday was rather unique ( i m already using past tense though its still 11/02 as i m typing this blog ) because i had a handful of "priceless" gifts…usually i only get "priceless" gifts from a single person…this year was somewhat different..;)…well..it started off as early as 09/02/2008 where i was introduced to Robert Mondavi Private Selection Pinot Noir’s red wine..and this is excellent man…i m a hard liquor person, but after tasting this red wine, i might just switch to this "healthier" taste..i specifically kept the cork to remind myself of this brand…of course, this was not just it..i had a heart to heart, fruitful conversation throughout the night as well…absolutely priceless !!

on the 10/02/2008, as soon as i woke up..the 1st sms that came through my phone was, " hey guess what?? my dad said that ur a handsome man !! "..whoaaaa…this one absolutely priceless as well !!..this would have top my list of "priceless" gift IF it was completed with a comment from the mom…during lunch time, the next priceless gift i got was a mini martell XO…whooaaa..wicked !!…it just added to my collection of mini liquors !!…and finally during dinner time, i had a quiet dinner @ Chillis while having a once again heart to heart & fruitful conversation, this time with my buddy, my first time ever celebrating my bday with him…all in, its definitely pricesless lists of gift on the eve of my bday…

on 11/02/2008 ( as soon as the clock struck midnight ), i received yet another priceless gift, HAAGEN DAZS ice cream cake !! ( black & white chocolate toppings with cherries, and Macademia Nuts flavoured ice ream )…i love ice creams, i love chocolate and i love haagen dazs !! ( this is only my 3rd time eating it…despite being my favourite, the price always deter me from buying it !! )….early in the morning, 1 special sms came through " hey chuan, happy bday !! "…i was surprised that this person knows my bday…only to find out later that, she has finally reached the page in her diary where i secretly wrote long long time ago " CHUAN’S BDAY !! "

so to sum it up, i guess the most priceless part is that i felt satisfaction of being able to spend time on 09/02,10/02 & 11/02 with ppl whom are really important in my life..

of course, being a typical chinese, i would need to believe that, what i have received, i have to give something back in return…so i gave joy by showing my ability to eat food IN QUANTITIES..& i impressed others by showing my "blow cow" ( CON-ing skills ) ability and make resume looks "tin har mou tik" ( undestructable )!!….hope that this would be sufficient…:D

since it coincides with chinese new year, 28 is a good number since it means "easy rich"…i hope/pray that it will be the same with my luck this year @ this age !!..

p/s: I can also be officially be "reached" in facebook at the following profile name "Chuan Hooi Leng" starting from today !! ( joined today to commemorate my special day )