Hi ya and welcome back! It’s been a day or two without me having the chance to fill up my blogsite but today, I’ve vowed that I’d write something down so I can share my thoughts with you. So here it goes …
On my recent day off from work ( I hate Sundays because the next day is a Monday and I loathe Monday ), I had the opportunity to go for my mandatory at-least-once-a-year corn popping experience at the local cinema with a friend, although the only corn I popped was into my mouth and not kernels in a popcorn machine. I was given a choice of a few movies to watch; namely Long-Khong or The Descent. The former having being sold out, I was given no choice but to opt for The Descent. So there we were, lining up at the mile long queue waiting to buy or tickets and keeping our fingers crossed that the tickets wouldn’t sell out once we reach the counter. 15 minutes passed and we were still queuing up. Didn’t take my eyes of the NOW SHOWING screen as I patiently monitored the progress of the ticket selling for the movie we wanted to watch. At last, came our turn and luckily, we got the last few seats for the movie. It was the second row but that really didn’t matter as I wanted to watch the movie so badly.
After getting the tickets and having a puff or two ( I don’t smoke but my friend does), we finally dragged ourselves to the refreshment counter and got a small popcorn and two drinks. Got into the movie theatre and tucked ourselves into the seats. Movie started 15 minutes later as advertisements were shown first. Then the moment came … the movie finally started. So we watched … and watched and screamed and got startled and got annoyed at the guy behind us projecting what might happen next in a voice where the people of Uruguay can hear and the movie ended about two hours later. I’m not going to tell you what the synopsis of the movie is (really, Faikay???) but what I do want to share are what happened throughout the film.
A group of six girls went cave exploring and found out they were lost when the group leader admitted she brought them all to a different cave hoping they’ll create history by uncovering a new one. Hey … that kinda sounds like a synopsis, doesn’t it? Anyway, what she did actually put her other 5 friends in a terrifying experience that later lead to their death(s). So, the question here is whether we would do the same in order to gain fame and at the same time jeopardize the lives of our friends. Would we actually stand up to our ego and not letting the people we love that something is extremely wrong at the very beginning? Would being well-known enough a reason to danger and take the lives of the people we love? And if we were one of the girls, would we ever forgive ourselves for getting into the mess although at first, we do not want to continue with it but for the sake of friendship, keep on playing to the beat? I’d really love to hear what anyone has to say about this. It can be an interesting topic of conversation or it could bore you to death. What ever you feel about it, I leave it for you to decide …
BOOK YOUR HOTEL HERE!
Monday, February 06, 2006
Friday, February 03, 2006
Decision Making
The story given below is quite interesting and really gives us an insight into DECISION MAKING.
Which one will you choose? A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train came, and you were just beside the track interchange. You could make the train change its course to the disused track and saved most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way? Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make. Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess.
Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place? Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was.
This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.
The friend who forwarded me the story said he woul d not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.
While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.
"Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right."
Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.
Which one will you choose? A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track. The train came, and you were just beside the track interchange. You could make the train change its course to the disused track and saved most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way? Let's take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make. Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess.
Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place? Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was.
This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.
The friend who forwarded me the story said he woul d not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train's sirens. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.
While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.
"Remember that what's right isn't always popular... and what's popular isn't always right."
Everybody makes mistakes; that's why they put erasers on pencils.
Celcom, you're truly the BEST!!!!
KLians … beware! Your conversation with the Celcom Customer Careline Representative may be recoded but not taken seriously! Trust me – I’ve been there and done that, and twice …
As I said earlier on, I was in the Celcom service centre today applying for some International Roaming and International Direct Dialing Service. I also did ask for a termination of my supplementary line THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE ALMOST A YEAR AGO! Bravo Celcom, you’re truly the best and most caring telecommunication company in Malaysia, probably in the world too. So, to my surprise, my supplementary line hasn’t been terminated yet. I filled out a frekkin form and was asked to wait. Wasn’t that long, although there were probably a billion others frustrated customers there today. When my turn came up, I went to the counter and explained my situation. I told the sweet smiling lady clad in the famous Celcom-brand-batik what has happened. She checked her records and told me that there is no record of my request to terminate the supplementary line. That almost peed me off but keeping my cool, since it’s a Friday, I hastily told her that the request has been submitted since end April 2005. Well, according to Celcoms’ record, there isn’t any request. So all this while, the payment for the supplementary line goes down the drain with what is known as the supreme service that Celcom provides its customers. Look … I paid RM30 per month for the supplementary line. Multiply that with May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December and January 2006, what do you get RM270 bloody Malaysian money.
So, they asked me to provide proof of my termination request (hmm … lemme see, April last year. A fax letter to Celcom, will it be in my file, you do the calculation) and only then will the CARING(not) people at Celcom readjust the money paid for the second line.
Was it my fault? I don’t think so. I’ve done my part as a consumer asking for a request. I was advised by one of the consultants to write in a request and happily did it. I waited a few months and no action was taken and followed up on the matter but was told that the matter is being taken care of. And today, what do I get for being so loyal to Celcom? An extremely hard punch in the face. So, Celcom should rewrite their service motto as Celcom It's In Your Face. They’ve the worst customer service one can ever encounter, although they claim that they have the best coverage, the lines are usually congested, GPRS works as and when it wishes and text messages takes over a century to arrive in your inbox. Believe it or not, I recently have just received a text message sent from London in the year 2004. And a friend of mine asked to post his resume for a job application so he texted the address to me. It never arrived on time but luckily for him, he sent me a second text and it arrived almost immediate.
So Celcom, ask yourself. Are you guys proud of whom you are? Do you think you’re on top of the world? Will you ever beat Maxis? I think not and with that, I’d like to end with … Celcom, you should shove it where the sun ain’t shining :)
To work or not to work, that is the question.
Hi there! Me again here ... Yeah, boring ol' me. Well, it's the 3rd of February today and according to my work schedule, it's a working day (yikes!!!). So yesterday, I prepared myself mentally and physically to go head on with what many people like to refer it as work [ work v. to get up REALLY early in the morning, look handsome and smell sweet to face a being often telling you what to do and when to get it done. This being is called a boss ( a noun ) ]. So last night, I ironed my shirt, pressed my trouser and tie and hung it up nicely so that it'll all look freshly pressed when my full-sized-kinda-model body fills into the shirt and trouser. I also made sure that my mandatory pen I place in my shirt pocket is on my desk, my pendrives are securely packed into my work bag, the home keys are neatly placed where I can see them an of course, set the alarm ( aaa ... what would I do without you Mr. Alarm Man ) at 05.45hrs and my MP3 player by my side, in case I need some music to lull me to sleep. So once all this is done, I slept and slept and slept .....Beep ... beep ... beep ... beep went the alarm at 05.45 sharp and in the early morning, I could hear the muezzin at the nearby mosque reading verses from the Holy Qur'an just about to call out for the Dawm prayers. However, I was contemplating ... should I get up for work, or shouldn't I? I actually HAVE applied for a leave today as I had 4 leftover days from last year carried forward. I did want to go gto the office and check my emails, read memos and start working on my assignment with China. There I was in bed, almost wide awake thinking what I should do. So, I decided to put the alarm on snooze mode and wait till the next beep comes along. So, I went to sleep for another 6 minutes. Again, the alarm went off when my snoozing was up and I still could not make up my mind. I put the alarm on snooze again and when it went off again, I immediately turned it off! Well, you know what happens next. I got up (not!!!!).
Well, that didn't work :) but it's the thought that counts right? That's what all my friends tell me so the next time you come across someone's birthday and forget to but a card BUt you have been thinking of getting him/her one and never had the time, don't feel so bad, I would then like too reiterate the fact that it's the thought that counts! Hope my god-forsaKEN boss reads this and sees how hard working his junior officers are, thinking of going to work albeit you have approved of his day off! I did manage to do my banking though. Went into Maybank to withdraw some loot and popped into EON bank to pay my Credit Card. Then went off to Celcom to sign up for International Roaming and International Direct Dialing. To ny surprise, I didn't have to pay an extra sen to secure these services. Guess Celcom loves me so much to trust me with my phone. Wait till they find out that I'm actually thinking of migrating to Maxis.
At about 13.00, took a quick bite and scadaddled to the Mosque near Taman Amaniah. Man, the service lated till 14.19. That really took a while because the mosque at my place finished at about 13.55. I wouldn't want to debate about that here though ;)
So, I went home afterwards, changed into my shorts and here I am writing what has happened till about now. The time is 15.13 and nothing is exciting yet. Wish a swarm of bees would attack the neighbours or a group of ninja-rabbits would stop by asking whether they could befriend my 4 other rabbits. If it does happen, I'll let you know. Till then, take care all and may the question I posed earlier on be answered upon finishing this paragraph. To work or not to work, that is the question!
Adios!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
A view of the cockpit. Look at all the dials and switches. The Concorde was flown by a three-man crew. The Captain, the First Officer and the Flight Engineer. If you look carefully, you can still see the Captain's hat squashed in the middle. Apparently, Concorde expands 6 inches when flying at supersonic speed and the captain forgot to remove the hat when it flew at normal speed. It'll be there till Concorde flies supersonically again.
As I was trying out the recline of the seat, Ian snapped this photo. As I said earlier on, the seats are very comfortable despite the fact that the are narrower that the seats you get for paying the fare (the average concorde fare from London to New York is about GBP7000+). Fly First Class subsonically if you want luxury. Also, check out the small windows. You can't see much through it but it relieves you of your fright for confined space, that's if you have one.
These pair of seats were taken from the first zone of the Concorde. They are line with soft connoly leather. The seats do not recline very much but they are comfortable indeed. However, passengers with a height of more than 6 feet might feel a bit squeezed. But then again, what can you complaint? Only the privileged few fly the Concorde. Wish it were me :(
The Concorde dining experience. What you see in the picture is the service trolley that the flight attendants use to serve their fellow Supersonic passengers. I was told by the guide that the bottles contain the actual drinks and not emptied. I guess British Airways wanted to preserve more than just a flying machine.
The Concorde Experience ... or what's left of it
Hello again. As promised another day with another thought to be shared. I was wondering what I should write about today. As I was cleaning up my room, I found a picture CD stashed in my travelling bag and wondered what contained inside. To my surprise, the pictures I took on my recent Supersonic Experience (grounded though) was in it. So, I thought I'd share this with you and hope you'll enjoy the experience as much as I have. And just to let you know, the Concorde Experience was actually last year's birthday present from Ian. It was the best birthday present anyone one can get. Thanks a trillion Ian, you're truly the greatest :) For everyone's information, British Airways DONATED all their Concorde aircraft. In England, one is displayed on the tarmac near Runway 9 in London Heathrow Airport, one is in Manchester (I think) and another one that I know of is at the Airbus plant in Bristol. I visited the one in Bristol. Although this was a Birthday present, I found out that the cost of the ticket is GBP12.50 and the proceeds goes to an organisation that will permanently keep the aircraft in a comfortable home.As I am still new to blogging, I'm really confused of how to set up more images next to text. Because of that, I'll have to post the pictures one by one using hello from picassa and explain the detqails of each picture. I'd appreciate anyone who can advise me of how to paste pictures and texts like how I did above using only one frame and not multiple ones.
Home Alone 4 ...
Hello everyone. Just felt like writing again. Apparently, the whole family went to Kerteh to meet up with my younger sister who's living there. She recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl (watch out Lucifer - another one of your kind in the making) and my Mom's crazy about her kids. Aaaaa ... the first one's a boy. Cute, energetic, dying-for-attention syndrome and last but not least a bit, but not too DESTRUCTIVE ( broke my Simpsons coin bank, destroyed my MP3 player clip, lost my coins I kept on the table, scribbled all over the screen of my computer, broke my tie hanger and the list goes on and on) kid. Well anyway, am all alone at home now with my four bunnies living outside. Nothing much happening except that I've been flying my planes and the route today was Zurich to Cairo on a Swiss Airbus 340 and Amsterdam to St Maarten on a KLM Boeing 747-400. I almost fell asleep flying to Cairo today. Dunno why but shouldn't keep it up. If I were a real pilot, I would've put a lot of peoples' lives in ultimate danger. Hmm ... that's as far as I get from flying a plane. Have always wanted to become a pilot and work for Malaysia Airlines but wearing spectacles did me no good (so did joining Arts stream in Form 4). So decided to become an Air Steward instead and still no luck. Never even tried.
Am a blue collar guy working for the people of Malaysia, yep - a civil servant. Work's really stressful and busy but I kinda enjoy it as I'm in the International Relations Division taking care of more than 50 countries under my portfolio; Middle East, The Americas, South America, Ireland to name a few. I do speak a number of languages too: Malay (my mother tongue), English, Arabic, Dutch (Flemish) and Spanish but I don't think it's enough. Would love to learn German and French too. However, German being a Germanic language and French a Romance language with completely different grammatical ruling systems, would take up much of my time to master and I can't afford more time spent. Not yet though.
Spoke to someone on the phone today. In fact, it was my long known friend Malik. We used to chat before but lost contact. Today, as I was signed on to MSN, his name appeared as ONLINE and I decided to give him a shout. Thank God he remembered me, so we started chatting for hours and I rang him up to talk in person. Oh well Malik, if you read this sometime, the whole blog is dedicated to you. May you continue being my friend no matter what the circumstances are. God bless Malik :)
Didn't cook anything today but went out to buy food instead. Ate Nasi Goreng Ayam and Satay Ayam today. Thought I'd pig out but the hefty portion of the rice left me full even before I got to relish the sweet and tender morsels of meat skewered onto bamboo skewers grilled to perfection over a charcoal flame served with piquant peanut sauce. Damn, that made me hungry. So I saved it for tomorrow and kept it in the fridge. What will I do tomorrow while waiting for the family to come home? I dunno but I'll let you know tomorrow night. I'm sure I can cook up a good long paragraph that'll bore you to death about what I did. So till then, good night and see you all later.
Am a blue collar guy working for the people of Malaysia, yep - a civil servant. Work's really stressful and busy but I kinda enjoy it as I'm in the International Relations Division taking care of more than 50 countries under my portfolio; Middle East, The Americas, South America, Ireland to name a few. I do speak a number of languages too: Malay (my mother tongue), English, Arabic, Dutch (Flemish) and Spanish but I don't think it's enough. Would love to learn German and French too. However, German being a Germanic language and French a Romance language with completely different grammatical ruling systems, would take up much of my time to master and I can't afford more time spent. Not yet though.
Spoke to someone on the phone today. In fact, it was my long known friend Malik. We used to chat before but lost contact. Today, as I was signed on to MSN, his name appeared as ONLINE and I decided to give him a shout. Thank God he remembered me, so we started chatting for hours and I rang him up to talk in person. Oh well Malik, if you read this sometime, the whole blog is dedicated to you. May you continue being my friend no matter what the circumstances are. God bless Malik :)
Didn't cook anything today but went out to buy food instead. Ate Nasi Goreng Ayam and Satay Ayam today. Thought I'd pig out but the hefty portion of the rice left me full even before I got to relish the sweet and tender morsels of meat skewered onto bamboo skewers grilled to perfection over a charcoal flame served with piquant peanut sauce. Damn, that made me hungry. So I saved it for tomorrow and kept it in the fridge. What will I do tomorrow while waiting for the family to come home? I dunno but I'll let you know tomorrow night. I'm sure I can cook up a good long paragraph that'll bore you to death about what I did. So till then, good night and see you all later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)