It is the worst when you fall sick on a holiday, which you longed for some time...
Flu visited me, and I am in a mess now.... TT_TT
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Presentation Slides
I know there are many managers out there, who will get their subline to prepare their presentation slides for them.
I have always disagree with this act. First of all, if you do not know the content of the slides, you won't be able to deliver a good presentation. I define good as informative, and useful. There are many presenters who open up the power point, and started blabbing useless things for 10 minutes without even changing the power point slides.
Anyway, our MD gets Cockroach to prepare project costing presentation for him, which I think it is fine, if you need his input on project costing, since he is an operation manager. However, I disagree having Cockroach doing the whole presentation. Nonetheless, I do not know much, so I have no further comments.
Today, our HR manager, get Twoheadsnake to prepare her Regional HR meeting next week. She gave Twoheadsnake the information, and Twoheadsnake was fiddling with her power point slides, while telling me that he has no time to pack up the nuts and bolts from our store for a project. (I was asked to help out, and I latter found out that he did not want to pack up the nuts and bolts, cause they are rather dirty, after being stored in the room for quite some time.)
I did not find out about the slides until when I returned the store room keys to his desk, and noticed an organisation chart on his monitor screen, with my name greyed out from the others. I asked him several times to flip back to that org. chart, he just ignored my requests, acting as if he didn't hear anything, or accidentally rolled the mouse one page too fast, and has no mean to roll it back to that page again.
I later found out that the task was initially handed over from HR to Ms. Azreal, who is now working under our consultant company (but still sits in our office). Ms. Azreal then pass it onto Twoheadsnake.
To me, HR is dealing with confidential information, and it should not be handed over to someone else outside the department.
Let's see what will happen... I am curious about the greyed out name of mine...
I have always disagree with this act. First of all, if you do not know the content of the slides, you won't be able to deliver a good presentation. I define good as informative, and useful. There are many presenters who open up the power point, and started blabbing useless things for 10 minutes without even changing the power point slides.
Anyway, our MD gets Cockroach to prepare project costing presentation for him, which I think it is fine, if you need his input on project costing, since he is an operation manager. However, I disagree having Cockroach doing the whole presentation. Nonetheless, I do not know much, so I have no further comments.
Today, our HR manager, get Twoheadsnake to prepare her Regional HR meeting next week. She gave Twoheadsnake the information, and Twoheadsnake was fiddling with her power point slides, while telling me that he has no time to pack up the nuts and bolts from our store for a project. (I was asked to help out, and I latter found out that he did not want to pack up the nuts and bolts, cause they are rather dirty, after being stored in the room for quite some time.)
I did not find out about the slides until when I returned the store room keys to his desk, and noticed an organisation chart on his monitor screen, with my name greyed out from the others. I asked him several times to flip back to that org. chart, he just ignored my requests, acting as if he didn't hear anything, or accidentally rolled the mouse one page too fast, and has no mean to roll it back to that page again.
I later found out that the task was initially handed over from HR to Ms. Azreal, who is now working under our consultant company (but still sits in our office). Ms. Azreal then pass it onto Twoheadsnake.
To me, HR is dealing with confidential information, and it should not be handed over to someone else outside the department.
Let's see what will happen... I am curious about the greyed out name of mine...
Monday, December 7, 2009
First day of the week
I arrived at office as usual, parked my car as usual, started practising violin in my car as usual.
But I realised no one has arrived before me, there is usually three person arrived before me.
As I practised, there wasn't anyone, until about half an hour later, Ir. Twoheadsnake's car drove in, parked and he walked out of the carpark.
I practised until the usual time, and walked out of my car, took the lift to go to the office, knowing well that there will be no one there to open the office door. And I was really hoping that there was no one there, so that I could start practising my violin in open space.
So, there was really no one, I opened up my violin case, and the cleaning lady arrived. I played my violin while she was sitting there.
One by one people arrived, yet no one has the key. Until my boss arrived, he called up the HR manager to bring the key over, and we were expected to wait for about half an hour before the HR arrives.
We went down to the ground floor to join Twoheadsnake, Woodchild and Azreal for tea. After finishing the newspaper, my boss and I decided to leave, cause there is no point sitting in the restaurant and do nothing.
So we went up again, and I continued practising my violin, until 9am, when the HR arrived with key.
We were one hour late starting our day, I had been waiting for more than 2 hours for the office door to open! This is not the first time it happened, similar things happened two three times before.
What a way to start a week.
Anyway, for the whole of December this year, all Fridays are holiday! YAY~~~~
But I realised no one has arrived before me, there is usually three person arrived before me.
As I practised, there wasn't anyone, until about half an hour later, Ir. Twoheadsnake's car drove in, parked and he walked out of the carpark.
I practised until the usual time, and walked out of my car, took the lift to go to the office, knowing well that there will be no one there to open the office door. And I was really hoping that there was no one there, so that I could start practising my violin in open space.
So, there was really no one, I opened up my violin case, and the cleaning lady arrived. I played my violin while she was sitting there.
One by one people arrived, yet no one has the key. Until my boss arrived, he called up the HR manager to bring the key over, and we were expected to wait for about half an hour before the HR arrives.
We went down to the ground floor to join Twoheadsnake, Woodchild and Azreal for tea. After finishing the newspaper, my boss and I decided to leave, cause there is no point sitting in the restaurant and do nothing.
So we went up again, and I continued practising my violin, until 9am, when the HR arrived with key.
We were one hour late starting our day, I had been waiting for more than 2 hours for the office door to open! This is not the first time it happened, similar things happened two three times before.
What a way to start a week.
Anyway, for the whole of December this year, all Fridays are holiday! YAY~~~~
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Voice Animation
I have participated in another voice animation again, this time is for a Christmas short story clip.
The cartoon clip consists of 4 episodes, and we all done it for free. It will be out when Christmas is around the corner.
I was the background narrator, and also a small character which only come out in the first episode, and got bullied all the way...
Went for the first recording last night, finished my part, except the narration on the other episodes.
Anyway, just something out of my ordinary routine, thought it would be fun to get to know more people from other backgrounds.
The cartoon clip consists of 4 episodes, and we all done it for free. It will be out when Christmas is around the corner.
I was the background narrator, and also a small character which only come out in the first episode, and got bullied all the way...
Went for the first recording last night, finished my part, except the narration on the other episodes.
Anyway, just something out of my ordinary routine, thought it would be fun to get to know more people from other backgrounds.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Office goods and facillities
Well, as we worked in the office, there are supplies of stationeries, food, utilities, connections etc.
Everyone is using it for some personal stuffs to certain extend, for example,
Everyone is using it for some personal stuffs to certain extend, for example,
- I am using the office internet connection to update this blog.
- Some are using the office internet connection to pay their utility bills.
- There are others who used to office phone to make personal calls.
- There are people who used the office fax machine to settle their credit card documentations.
- We also have people printing off some novels / colourful manga off the colour printer in the office, and bind it in the office.
- Then there are these who take the biscuits from office pantry and keep it for themselves.
- Some are guarding the office pantry stuffs like their own.
- Some are taking the office newspaper home.
- Some are copying the company purchased design codes for their own use.
- There are also some people making use of the office conviniences to work for the other company.
- Some are taking water from the office to go home.
- I have also met one person who regularly takes kitchen towel from the office, took the toilet papers, sugar, coffeemate, printing papers, even utensils etc back home.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Citibank Scam
There have been various calls from someone, who claimed that they are representing Citibank / from Citibank, offering me some insurance.
It was mentioned that all I need to do is to pay a small fraction of my monthly credit card bill, and continue for 10 years, the insurance will help me to cover all my credit card bills if I were not able to clear them.
Upon rejecting the offer, they will then ask if you have any other insurance covering the same thing as them, and asking how much you paid for it etc.
They even get to the point of activating the scheme for me, if I were to say ok over the phone.
I have called to Citibank for clarification of this scheme, and they are not aware of such a scheme. But Citibank has not been taking any action against this activities, or else these nonsense won't recurring over and over again.
Anyway, please be careful of the scam, these people are not from Citibank, ask for their details, who they report to, and how they get your information from Citibank. I suspect someone from Citibank are selling out the customer details to outsider for money.
Also, I have received some letters, with Citibank letterhead, claiming that I have won some prizes, and asked for my details and participation. I bet these are not from Citibank as well, otherwise they would have my details already. Anyway, just be extra careful and don't get excited over free money, there is always some traps behind it.
It was mentioned that all I need to do is to pay a small fraction of my monthly credit card bill, and continue for 10 years, the insurance will help me to cover all my credit card bills if I were not able to clear them.
Upon rejecting the offer, they will then ask if you have any other insurance covering the same thing as them, and asking how much you paid for it etc.
They even get to the point of activating the scheme for me, if I were to say ok over the phone.
I have called to Citibank for clarification of this scheme, and they are not aware of such a scheme. But Citibank has not been taking any action against this activities, or else these nonsense won't recurring over and over again.
Anyway, please be careful of the scam, these people are not from Citibank, ask for their details, who they report to, and how they get your information from Citibank. I suspect someone from Citibank are selling out the customer details to outsider for money.
Also, I have received some letters, with Citibank letterhead, claiming that I have won some prizes, and asked for my details and participation. I bet these are not from Citibank as well, otherwise they would have my details already. Anyway, just be extra careful and don't get excited over free money, there is always some traps behind it.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
My Poor Calculator
My poor old calculator had finally come to its end just now, I murdered it! With hot chocolate.........TT_TT *sob*And I don't usually carry coffee or hot chocolate drinks onto my working desks...
It has been with me for about 16 years, been with me everyday, everywhere, survived through the rains, flood, snow, ice, sweat, and even desert heat. Also managed to survive through the height of building, stress of the exam halls, heat of anger and frustrations, pressure from my body weight, compression of various luggages, interference of magnets...It has also flew across various tables and chairs with rough landings, dropped countless times onto concrete floors, carpets, green fields, muds etc.
It was a tough calculator, unlike those in the market these days.
I love its rubber number pad, it is so quiet and soft, and the numbers are as vivid as ever. Unlike those plastic number pads in the recent calculators, they are noisy and looks cheap.
I also love its functions, which was easier to manuveour. You pressed the numbers first, before pressing the functions (cos, sin etc), which is how we normally work things out anyway. I hate those latter versions, where you have to press the functions first, then only input the numbers. It means that all the workings I have done previously, to determine the numbers, has to be erased, and re-input again... how stupid.
I love its metal cover, those edged in symbols never faded away.
I love its uniform thickness and sizes, the new ones these days have weird shapes, which made it hard to slip it into my jeans, when I need to climb up and down.
Sigh, I wonder if it could be fixed when I got home tonight.
Will upload its photo later.
So long, my beloved calculator. RIP.
It has been with me for about 16 years, been with me everyday, everywhere, survived through the rains, flood, snow, ice, sweat, and even desert heat. Also managed to survive through the height of building, stress of the exam halls, heat of anger and frustrations, pressure from my body weight, compression of various luggages, interference of magnets...It has also flew across various tables and chairs with rough landings, dropped countless times onto concrete floors, carpets, green fields, muds etc.
It was a tough calculator, unlike those in the market these days.
I love its rubber number pad, it is so quiet and soft, and the numbers are as vivid as ever. Unlike those plastic number pads in the recent calculators, they are noisy and looks cheap.
I also love its functions, which was easier to manuveour. You pressed the numbers first, before pressing the functions (cos, sin etc), which is how we normally work things out anyway. I hate those latter versions, where you have to press the functions first, then only input the numbers. It means that all the workings I have done previously, to determine the numbers, has to be erased, and re-input again... how stupid.
I love its metal cover, those edged in symbols never faded away.
I love its uniform thickness and sizes, the new ones these days have weird shapes, which made it hard to slip it into my jeans, when I need to climb up and down.
Sigh, I wonder if it could be fixed when I got home tonight.
Will upload its photo later.
So long, my beloved calculator. RIP.
========================================
Update: 27 Nov 2009
Oh Man! My calculator came alive!
I was feeling all sad and tried to dry the calculator on my desk under the aircondition, without opening it up (cause I don't have the small screw driver).
It came alive just after a couple of hours!
So I took it home, gave it a good cleaning -- with the dirt accumulated all these years, it was pretty tough to clean it up.
Anyway, the calculator is alive now! And it is all clean. This is what I called the tough calculator -- able to survive the hot chocolate (with sugar and milk)!
So, here's my tough calculator, tada~~!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Things I have done this year
These are the things I have done in 2008: http://mechanicalmelon.blogspot.com/2008/11/happy-birthday-to-me.html
For this year, let me see what I have done...
1. Went to Hong Kong for the first time, it was Xmas last year. Visit some old friends.
2. Witnessed the real colours of most of the colleagues in my office - Mr. Pig, Ir. Decamouth, Ir. Twoheadsnake, Mr. Cockroach (aka Mr. Bell), Mr. Big (aka Mr. Paramount), Ms. Azreal, Mr. Woodchild etc.
3. Witnessed two retrenchments in a year.
4. Started my violin lesson in March, finally.
5. Went to Kuantan for the first time, for work.
6. Went to Singapore couple of times, only for 1 or 2 days stay, for work.
7. Won IMechE Speech competition.
8. Experiencing Flintstone Age in my office -- Internet got cut off totally.
9. Went for so-called-site-meeting for the first time, with lots of men shouting across the table for nothing.
10. Started and closed a project for the first time.
11. Went to India for the first time, for my boyfriend's schoolmate's wedding.
12. Bought an expensive handbag/workbag, that I have longed for years, for myself in June. Got it carried by my friends all the way from UK, what a sin, sorry mate.
13. Father went to hospital for open heart surgery.
14. Started my voluntary work in Tzu Chi out-reach clinic, but my attendance hasn't been good.
15. A virtual friend, graduated from PhD in USA got into NUS, Singapore as a lecturer, I am very proud of his guts.
16. Met up with old uni-mate after work the other day, to solve for first year engineering dynamics problem... Yes, we are geeks.
17. Jumped two departments within a year.
18. Witness the fear of AH1N1.
19. Went to Sabah for the first time, for work.
20. While I was in Sabah, I went into the Palm Oil Mill for the first time, for work of course. It smelled like margerine. Ha!
21. Talking to the customer as a Sales person for the first time, and hated it.
22. Went to Indonesia Sumatra island for the first time, for work.
23. Bought a pair of Crocs for the first time, after experiencing countless ankle twists with my old shoes.
24. Done my first sales proposal for the first time.
25. Witness the guts to be honest from my boss.
26. Got the news of going to USA for training, but no details after the news.
27. Met up with two of my virtual friend from Shanghai, who got married and come here for honeymoon. I got to know this group of Shanghai virtual friends about 8 years ago, when I was in UK. They had given me a lot of emotional supports, when I was struggling with my PhD.
28. Met up with CX, who has decided to leave academic for good.
29. Received an invitation to join the teaching force in one of the local college, from my ex-colleague.
30. Met up with an old friend, who lost contact for more than 10 years.
31. Made eye-brow trimming as one of my routine.
32. Lost my temper in the office.
33. Tried the most expensive cupcake in my life.
34. Bought a ring.
I guess most of the things I wrote above are trivial and non-specific, there are lot more of these small stuffs, but I can't list them all out. These trivial and non-specific items have brought me lots of memories over the whole pass year, and had made part of me.
I will continue to make mistakes in this next year, and hopefully I can learn faster and be wiser than the rate the mistakes were made.
Thank you everyone for enduring my childish-ness, and giving me the opportunities and trust to learn and develop.
For this year, let me see what I have done...
1. Went to Hong Kong for the first time, it was Xmas last year. Visit some old friends.
2. Witnessed the real colours of most of the colleagues in my office - Mr. Pig, Ir. Decamouth, Ir. Twoheadsnake, Mr. Cockroach (aka Mr. Bell), Mr. Big (aka Mr. Paramount), Ms. Azreal, Mr. Woodchild etc.
3. Witnessed two retrenchments in a year.
4. Started my violin lesson in March, finally.
5. Went to Kuantan for the first time, for work.
6. Went to Singapore couple of times, only for 1 or 2 days stay, for work.
7. Won IMechE Speech competition.
8. Experiencing Flintstone Age in my office -- Internet got cut off totally.
9. Went for so-called-site-meeting for the first time, with lots of men shouting across the table for nothing.
10. Started and closed a project for the first time.
11. Went to India for the first time, for my boyfriend's schoolmate's wedding.
12. Bought an expensive handbag/workbag, that I have longed for years, for myself in June. Got it carried by my friends all the way from UK, what a sin, sorry mate.
13. Father went to hospital for open heart surgery.
14. Started my voluntary work in Tzu Chi out-reach clinic, but my attendance hasn't been good.
15. A virtual friend, graduated from PhD in USA got into NUS, Singapore as a lecturer, I am very proud of his guts.
16. Met up with old uni-mate after work the other day, to solve for first year engineering dynamics problem... Yes, we are geeks.
17. Jumped two departments within a year.
18. Witness the fear of AH1N1.
19. Went to Sabah for the first time, for work.
20. While I was in Sabah, I went into the Palm Oil Mill for the first time, for work of course. It smelled like margerine. Ha!
21. Talking to the customer as a Sales person for the first time, and hated it.
22. Went to Indonesia Sumatra island for the first time, for work.
23. Bought a pair of Crocs for the first time, after experiencing countless ankle twists with my old shoes.
24. Done my first sales proposal for the first time.
25. Witness the guts to be honest from my boss.
26. Got the news of going to USA for training, but no details after the news.
27. Met up with two of my virtual friend from Shanghai, who got married and come here for honeymoon. I got to know this group of Shanghai virtual friends about 8 years ago, when I was in UK. They had given me a lot of emotional supports, when I was struggling with my PhD.
28. Met up with CX, who has decided to leave academic for good.
29. Received an invitation to join the teaching force in one of the local college, from my ex-colleague.
30. Met up with an old friend, who lost contact for more than 10 years.
31. Made eye-brow trimming as one of my routine.
32. Lost my temper in the office.
33. Tried the most expensive cupcake in my life.
34. Bought a ring.
I guess most of the things I wrote above are trivial and non-specific, there are lot more of these small stuffs, but I can't list them all out. These trivial and non-specific items have brought me lots of memories over the whole pass year, and had made part of me.
I will continue to make mistakes in this next year, and hopefully I can learn faster and be wiser than the rate the mistakes were made.
Thank you everyone for enduring my childish-ness, and giving me the opportunities and trust to learn and develop.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
My Birthday
I started my birthday today by playing Happy Birthday to myself, with my violin in the car.
Before lunch today, I received a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolate from my boyfriend. I spread the chocolates to all the colleagues, nothing was left.
I then received a book from our agent in Taiwan, it is regarding the founder of Tzu Chi Organisation.
At the end of the day, I went to a bakery shop to get some really expensive cupcakes, brought them home, and went for dinner with family.
These are the presents I received today, the two yellow boxes are the cupcakes.
These are the beautiful and delicious cupcakes, it is from www.delectable.com.my.
Before lunch today, I received a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolate from my boyfriend. I spread the chocolates to all the colleagues, nothing was left.
I then received a book from our agent in Taiwan, it is regarding the founder of Tzu Chi Organisation.
At the end of the day, I went to a bakery shop to get some really expensive cupcakes, brought them home, and went for dinner with family.
These are the presents I received today, the two yellow boxes are the cupcakes.
These are the beautiful and delicious cupcakes, it is from www.delectable.com.my.These cupcakes may look over-sweetened by the rock hard sugar coatings, but they are in fact not as sweet and hard as we thought. The rabbit/yellow is ginger flavour, bear/blue is chocolate flavour, and pink/sheep, I think, is lemon flavour -- cause my taste buds got so numbed after eating the ginger one. The ginger flavour has the strongest taste, and it can cover all other flavours.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Came back from Palembang
Well, the trip is pretty fine for me. Palembang isn't a very safe city for female to walk alone...
I went out in the morning to take a walk, trying to familiarise myself with the surrounding. When I got back to the hotel to meet up with my boss and our guide, that's what the guide warned me.
People there seem to like MPV and 4WD a lot -- all the cars a big. I guess it is because the petrol there are cheap.
I went into those towers that are older than myself, seeing them standing strong, except some minor defects, I felt as if I have witnessed the history with my own eyes. And I somehow see how the people trial and error with their engineering knowledge at that time, they are just as insecure and inexperience as myself today.
There was an open concert on the second night we stayed. The traffic was really bad when we went out for dinner that night. People are sticking to your car while you are driving... that's a whole new level of intimate driving.
And after the trip, both my boss and me got ill, I bet I got the virus from him.
---------------------------------------------------------
When I got back to the office this Thursday, I received some sacarstic email and remarks from Cockroach and Twoheadsnake.
They needed my help with some vibration issues, and wrote it in a way as if I do not want to help the project department. They are holding grudges against me handing over the Sabah project to them.
Well, there are only so little people in the office, there is no way anyone could just split the tasks so clear. But the reason I wanted to handover is because I don't want to disappear to USA suddenly next year, without anyone knowing what's going on with the project.
I had never mentioned that I do not want to associate with project departments. I guess I couldn't determine how others think about me.
Nonetheless, I guess my inputs to their problem must be valuable, otherwise Twoheadsnake would not have repeated my words in front of others, in a way which sounded as if it was his own.
I guess I need to learn to enjoy jealousy?
-------------------------------------------------------
Back to the Palembang trip. One of the main thing I learned from my boss is: guts and honesty.
I really admire his frank attitude, cause it takes huge guts to be frank and stick to what is right. I often give way when people pushed harder, and hate myself after that.
I wonder if there will be a day I have enough wisdom to deal with all sorts of situations without a sweat, just like him.
I went out in the morning to take a walk, trying to familiarise myself with the surrounding. When I got back to the hotel to meet up with my boss and our guide, that's what the guide warned me.
People there seem to like MPV and 4WD a lot -- all the cars a big. I guess it is because the petrol there are cheap.
I went into those towers that are older than myself, seeing them standing strong, except some minor defects, I felt as if I have witnessed the history with my own eyes. And I somehow see how the people trial and error with their engineering knowledge at that time, they are just as insecure and inexperience as myself today.
There was an open concert on the second night we stayed. The traffic was really bad when we went out for dinner that night. People are sticking to your car while you are driving... that's a whole new level of intimate driving.
And after the trip, both my boss and me got ill, I bet I got the virus from him.
---------------------------------------------------------
When I got back to the office this Thursday, I received some sacarstic email and remarks from Cockroach and Twoheadsnake.
They needed my help with some vibration issues, and wrote it in a way as if I do not want to help the project department. They are holding grudges against me handing over the Sabah project to them.
Well, there are only so little people in the office, there is no way anyone could just split the tasks so clear. But the reason I wanted to handover is because I don't want to disappear to USA suddenly next year, without anyone knowing what's going on with the project.
I had never mentioned that I do not want to associate with project departments. I guess I couldn't determine how others think about me.
Nonetheless, I guess my inputs to their problem must be valuable, otherwise Twoheadsnake would not have repeated my words in front of others, in a way which sounded as if it was his own.
I guess I need to learn to enjoy jealousy?
-------------------------------------------------------
Back to the Palembang trip. One of the main thing I learned from my boss is: guts and honesty.
I really admire his frank attitude, cause it takes huge guts to be frank and stick to what is right. I often give way when people pushed harder, and hate myself after that.
I wonder if there will be a day I have enough wisdom to deal with all sorts of situations without a sweat, just like him.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Going to Palembang
Well, I drawn this more than a year ago, when I first joinned this company. But the trip to Indonesia was cancelled, so was the one to Vietnam.
Anyway, I will be going to Indonesia next week, to Palembang, to visit some towers that are even older than myself. Ha!
Have been travelling quite a bit recently, just came back on Monday, from a one day trip to Singapore for meeting... so happened that my bf, too, went to Singapore on the next day. I guess there really might be chances that we eventually meet / date a the airport or highway rest area... -___-!
He was planning to go to Australia on the week I go to Indonesia, but it got postponed to my birthday.
OK, talked too much, better take some rest to battle the office politics tomorrow. I wonder what's my level now? Cause my HP is running low.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Pimples + Constipation + Grumpy Mood = ...
I am having all of the above mentioned symptoms, it gets worse if PMS strikes.
I am getting very tired, mentally and physically. I find it more tiring during weekends, compared to weekdays.
I miss my days in UK, where I can afford 1-2 hours or even up to half a day, during weekends just to rest and do nothing. Life here is so rush, even sitting in front of the TV for one hour for an episode is considered luxury.
I am getting very tired, mentally and physically. I find it more tiring during weekends, compared to weekdays.
I miss my days in UK, where I can afford 1-2 hours or even up to half a day, during weekends just to rest and do nothing. Life here is so rush, even sitting in front of the TV for one hour for an episode is considered luxury.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Idiotic drivers
I am so tempted to set up a website, where people can put up those car number plate of those idiotic drivers on the road, list out their offences and let the whole world knows.
A stupid driver parked in front of my house again, this stupid driver has been parking in front of my house every now and then. After he left his car here, he went far far away, that even honking won't bring him here to remove his car. Not to mention the car is usually parked here for so damn long.
When we return home, we can't park our car in front of our own house, and causing inconviniences to our neighbours. We then have to come out late at night to check if this idiot moved his car already or not, so that we can park our car back to our places. Sometimes this means late at night.
I am so angry today I nearly wanted to leak his tyre. But eventually I left a huge message on an A4 paper, and placed it under his windscreen wiper. I hope this idiot won't come back parking here again, or else I will have to take some action.
I know we all made mistakes on the road, so I guess setting up this idiot drivers report website and listing out the offences of the drivers, which could well be ourselves anyway, would help us be more considerate when we are behind the wheels.
Someone please help me to set up a website? m(_ _)m
A stupid driver parked in front of my house again, this stupid driver has been parking in front of my house every now and then. After he left his car here, he went far far away, that even honking won't bring him here to remove his car. Not to mention the car is usually parked here for so damn long.
When we return home, we can't park our car in front of our own house, and causing inconviniences to our neighbours. We then have to come out late at night to check if this idiot moved his car already or not, so that we can park our car back to our places. Sometimes this means late at night.
I am so angry today I nearly wanted to leak his tyre. But eventually I left a huge message on an A4 paper, and placed it under his windscreen wiper. I hope this idiot won't come back parking here again, or else I will have to take some action.
I know we all made mistakes on the road, so I guess setting up this idiot drivers report website and listing out the offences of the drivers, which could well be ourselves anyway, would help us be more considerate when we are behind the wheels.
Someone please help me to set up a website? m(_ _)m
Taste of the prohibited www
I am sending this from the office, a place where the access to www is prohibited.
How did I go into www then?
Well, it all thanks to our lazy IT -- Mr. Woodchild. I had some problem with the lotus notes, which requires his help.
Apparently, he doesn't know how to solve it, and totally ignored me. So I wrote a message to our helpdesk in the HQ, and got a reply asking me to click on the registry button. But I need Mr. Woodchild to do that, cause I am not authorised to mess with the registry.
Anyway, when I called Mr. Woodchild at 8.30am this morning, he was still in bed. I suggested him to let me using someone else's computer (cause there are lots of idle pc around, since lots of people have left), while he fixed mine.
He was so lazy to fix my problem, that he gave me the administrator password, and I am now using my own laptop under the admin's right...
That's how I got the access to www... ^_^
But I guess I have been deprived from www for too long, I no longer know where to go when the search engine is on.... -____-!
How did I go into www then?
Well, it all thanks to our lazy IT -- Mr. Woodchild. I had some problem with the lotus notes, which requires his help.
Apparently, he doesn't know how to solve it, and totally ignored me. So I wrote a message to our helpdesk in the HQ, and got a reply asking me to click on the registry button. But I need Mr. Woodchild to do that, cause I am not authorised to mess with the registry.
Anyway, when I called Mr. Woodchild at 8.30am this morning, he was still in bed. I suggested him to let me using someone else's computer (cause there are lots of idle pc around, since lots of people have left), while he fixed mine.
He was so lazy to fix my problem, that he gave me the administrator password, and I am now using my own laptop under the admin's right...
That's how I got the access to www... ^_^
But I guess I have been deprived from www for too long, I no longer know where to go when the search engine is on.... -____-!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Random rants
There isn't much things to do recently, but I have been feeling restless since coming back from Sabah.
The main reason is due to the office politics, which made me feel really sick. The HR manager herself is not doing things correctly, so I really have no surprises seeing how others behave.
Mr. Porche911 went to Europe for some important meetings, MD went off for three weeks to dun-know-where. The managers that left in the office are Cockroach, HR and Decamouth.
Decamouth brings in his own laptop to study about the share market trends, he had recently signed up for some "technical analysis courses", and is happily showing off his knowledge in front of our see lai (middle age lady) colleagues.
Twoheadsnake having a lot of small talk sessions with Azreal until their head almost sticked together. Twoheadsnake also switches on radio with the amplifier.
Decamouth also switches on Jazz musics during work, and I got accused, cause it sounded like coming from my side.
The HR didn't care about them, but come and asked me to remove my headset instead. Damn double standard.
Twoheadsnake tried to pull me to work on his project, which I had handed over since the end of August, guided him for a month, and he actually told me to get my hands off the project. Now he is trying to get me in again, to do his work, so that he can claim the credit. I refused, and am damn pissed.
Azreal and Twoheadsnake go out at 8am (working hour starts) for breakfast, at 11.45 am for lunch, come back at 2pm to work, went out halfway working to get cakes for tea time... and our HR is fine with it, even join them sometimes.
HR organises a lunch for everyone, but didn't mention what is it about, and the menu etc were all decided by Azreal and Twoheadsnake.
Cockroach pretends know nothing about my Sabah project, he didn't allow me to handover the project to him, and asked Decamouth not to give me any sales to handle, so that I can't claim that I am busy at Sales department, and urge him to take over my projects. (I should have handed over all my projects back to Cockroach, according to Porche911 and MD, since August!)
Azreal screwed up my project, yet trying to blame it onto me. She wants to take control of everything, yet push all the dirty work to me. She is so busy for nothing, spending almost every half morning in Cockroach's room chatting, and half afternoon in HR's room gossiping. The rest of the time, she is whispering with Twoheadsnake. She never got her time to request quotations or raise any urgent purchase orders, and yet simply raise any purchase order she likes without any approval from myself, the project engineer.
One of my variation order from the customer is going to explode -- I chased the vendor for quotations, and got it. I followed by working a mark up and quoted the customer. Azreal issued purchase order to the vendor without us receiving an order from the customer. I foresee the customer is going to reject our quotation, as the variation is simple, yet the quotation is pretty hefty. The vendor already finish making the product, and I don't know who is going to bear it. I have full black and white to cover for myself... I don't know who gives the instruction to issue the purchase order in the beginning.... let's see how it goes...
It doesn't matter if I covered myself or not, it will eventually be me to clean up the mess as always.
Porche911 gave me some little tasks to work on, while he is away in Europe, and he also asked me to help out Decamouth in his work load, as there are too many enquiries coming in. But Decamouth didn't want to share it... so I can't do anything. The little tasks by Porche911 got finished within half a day. -___-
I was basically lingering around the office yesterday, before my leave starts today. Things I mentioned above are all small stuffs, but they are enough to create negative atmosphere in the office to affect others, and to create rumours.
Anyway, I will be going to Indonesia Palembang mid of November with Porche911 to meet a customer. The trip is to visit their production plant, and investigate if enquiry is worth spending too much efforts or not. Apparently, the equipment we will be investigating is older than myself, so I guess there will be a lot of things to discover.
I am pretty tired talking to sales agents, cause our agents so far are perfect postmen, but never add values to the information they gathered. The Indonesia ones are pretty rough, and love to show their power; the Singapore one is damn good in copy-paste my feedback to the enquiry, without filtering the message that was not meant to be seen by customer; the Taiwan one is very political about their scope; the Thailand one is ignorant.
I do not know what went wrong, but I guess I have to start learning a new way to deal with people. I tried to stick to facts, and be transparent about my work. But the office culture is obviously not like that. People keep things to themselves, scared that others will learn their expertise. To me, if you can take over my job, that means it is easier for me to walk away from this current position to somewhere else; or to have the time to do more value added stuffs in my tasks.
Anyway, enough rants for today... I am going to stop.
The main reason is due to the office politics, which made me feel really sick. The HR manager herself is not doing things correctly, so I really have no surprises seeing how others behave.
Mr. Porche911 went to Europe for some important meetings, MD went off for three weeks to dun-know-where. The managers that left in the office are Cockroach, HR and Decamouth.
Decamouth brings in his own laptop to study about the share market trends, he had recently signed up for some "technical analysis courses", and is happily showing off his knowledge in front of our see lai (middle age lady) colleagues.
Twoheadsnake having a lot of small talk sessions with Azreal until their head almost sticked together. Twoheadsnake also switches on radio with the amplifier.
Decamouth also switches on Jazz musics during work, and I got accused, cause it sounded like coming from my side.
The HR didn't care about them, but come and asked me to remove my headset instead. Damn double standard.
Twoheadsnake tried to pull me to work on his project, which I had handed over since the end of August, guided him for a month, and he actually told me to get my hands off the project. Now he is trying to get me in again, to do his work, so that he can claim the credit. I refused, and am damn pissed.
Azreal and Twoheadsnake go out at 8am (working hour starts) for breakfast, at 11.45 am for lunch, come back at 2pm to work, went out halfway working to get cakes for tea time... and our HR is fine with it, even join them sometimes.
HR organises a lunch for everyone, but didn't mention what is it about, and the menu etc were all decided by Azreal and Twoheadsnake.
Cockroach pretends know nothing about my Sabah project, he didn't allow me to handover the project to him, and asked Decamouth not to give me any sales to handle, so that I can't claim that I am busy at Sales department, and urge him to take over my projects. (I should have handed over all my projects back to Cockroach, according to Porche911 and MD, since August!)
Azreal screwed up my project, yet trying to blame it onto me. She wants to take control of everything, yet push all the dirty work to me. She is so busy for nothing, spending almost every half morning in Cockroach's room chatting, and half afternoon in HR's room gossiping. The rest of the time, she is whispering with Twoheadsnake. She never got her time to request quotations or raise any urgent purchase orders, and yet simply raise any purchase order she likes without any approval from myself, the project engineer.
One of my variation order from the customer is going to explode -- I chased the vendor for quotations, and got it. I followed by working a mark up and quoted the customer. Azreal issued purchase order to the vendor without us receiving an order from the customer. I foresee the customer is going to reject our quotation, as the variation is simple, yet the quotation is pretty hefty. The vendor already finish making the product, and I don't know who is going to bear it. I have full black and white to cover for myself... I don't know who gives the instruction to issue the purchase order in the beginning.... let's see how it goes...
It doesn't matter if I covered myself or not, it will eventually be me to clean up the mess as always.
Porche911 gave me some little tasks to work on, while he is away in Europe, and he also asked me to help out Decamouth in his work load, as there are too many enquiries coming in. But Decamouth didn't want to share it... so I can't do anything. The little tasks by Porche911 got finished within half a day. -___-
I was basically lingering around the office yesterday, before my leave starts today. Things I mentioned above are all small stuffs, but they are enough to create negative atmosphere in the office to affect others, and to create rumours.
Anyway, I will be going to Indonesia Palembang mid of November with Porche911 to meet a customer. The trip is to visit their production plant, and investigate if enquiry is worth spending too much efforts or not. Apparently, the equipment we will be investigating is older than myself, so I guess there will be a lot of things to discover.
I am pretty tired talking to sales agents, cause our agents so far are perfect postmen, but never add values to the information they gathered. The Indonesia ones are pretty rough, and love to show their power; the Singapore one is damn good in copy-paste my feedback to the enquiry, without filtering the message that was not meant to be seen by customer; the Taiwan one is very political about their scope; the Thailand one is ignorant.
I do not know what went wrong, but I guess I have to start learning a new way to deal with people. I tried to stick to facts, and be transparent about my work. But the office culture is obviously not like that. People keep things to themselves, scared that others will learn their expertise. To me, if you can take over my job, that means it is easier for me to walk away from this current position to somewhere else; or to have the time to do more value added stuffs in my tasks.
Anyway, enough rants for today... I am going to stop.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Rooms
Today is my second time talking to customer.
The first time was awhile ago, with another customer, and I have made some mistakes by forgetting some of my points.
The second time was slightly better, as in the conversation with customer become more fruitful, but yet I still left out some points... though lesser.
Anyway, I am happy, as each time when I clarify things with the customer, regarding their tender documents, they seemed pretty ok with it.
May be I am speaking too soon.
Sales is my weakest link, as I have no sense about money, and the logic behind it.
Speaking about money, our office was pretty free over the past whole week, as all the managers (except HR) was away for some meeting. Decamouth brought his own laptop to work, in order to monitor the share market -- We finally found it out today.
He was happily sharing his share market knowledge, and about what he had learned by attending those courses offered by the traders.
Well, none of the mathematical jargons he mentioned was alien to me, but the financial and share jargons really got me lost. Golden Ratio, Fibonacci number, moving average etc, I know these things by its mathematical theory, but didn't know how to apply them to financial terms.
Come to think of it, I guess I need to pick up a bit of economics and finance, since I am now starting to deal with figures. I wasn't interested in business management during my university days, or even my secondary school days, was only because I couldn't understand the meaning of the words.
What is surplus? I know it has a definition behind it, but all I wanted to know, is just whether it is an extra or not enough. The economics text books go around the bush, but didn't tell me what it is.
What is liquid asset? For a teenager who only have money to buy bus ticket, it was two english words putting together.
All these are so similar to my journey of learning musics. I didn't know C D E F G A B was read as Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti.... I thought C was supposed to be read as "see". That was my first step into musics, and I couldn't understand it, which made me gave up following the remaining stuffs like quaver notes, crochet etc. -- couldn't even understand what people were talking about.
Anyway, back to the topic... I guess if there are things that I don't know in this world, I should be happy about it. Just like if there are things that I still need to work on when talking to the customer, it means that I still have rooms for improvements. Sure I make mistakes, but then, it showed me how much I need to improve. I think having the luxury to improve yourself is good, because it makes you grow up. And I am allowing myself some rooms to make mistakes just for that. Of course, don't make mistake on purpose or negligence -- that won't help you grow.
The first time was awhile ago, with another customer, and I have made some mistakes by forgetting some of my points.
The second time was slightly better, as in the conversation with customer become more fruitful, but yet I still left out some points... though lesser.
Anyway, I am happy, as each time when I clarify things with the customer, regarding their tender documents, they seemed pretty ok with it.
May be I am speaking too soon.
Sales is my weakest link, as I have no sense about money, and the logic behind it.
Speaking about money, our office was pretty free over the past whole week, as all the managers (except HR) was away for some meeting. Decamouth brought his own laptop to work, in order to monitor the share market -- We finally found it out today.
He was happily sharing his share market knowledge, and about what he had learned by attending those courses offered by the traders.
Well, none of the mathematical jargons he mentioned was alien to me, but the financial and share jargons really got me lost. Golden Ratio, Fibonacci number, moving average etc, I know these things by its mathematical theory, but didn't know how to apply them to financial terms.
Come to think of it, I guess I need to pick up a bit of economics and finance, since I am now starting to deal with figures. I wasn't interested in business management during my university days, or even my secondary school days, was only because I couldn't understand the meaning of the words.
What is surplus? I know it has a definition behind it, but all I wanted to know, is just whether it is an extra or not enough. The economics text books go around the bush, but didn't tell me what it is.
What is liquid asset? For a teenager who only have money to buy bus ticket, it was two english words putting together.
All these are so similar to my journey of learning musics. I didn't know C D E F G A B was read as Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti.... I thought C was supposed to be read as "see". That was my first step into musics, and I couldn't understand it, which made me gave up following the remaining stuffs like quaver notes, crochet etc. -- couldn't even understand what people were talking about.
Anyway, back to the topic... I guess if there are things that I don't know in this world, I should be happy about it. Just like if there are things that I still need to work on when talking to the customer, it means that I still have rooms for improvements. Sure I make mistakes, but then, it showed me how much I need to improve. I think having the luxury to improve yourself is good, because it makes you grow up. And I am allowing myself some rooms to make mistakes just for that. Of course, don't make mistake on purpose or negligence -- that won't help you grow.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Seeing Through The Acts
Wonder why I am troubled coming home?
That's because it is the loneliest place in the whole world.
I am closest to my loved ones, but I can't get to them. It is worse than being far and can't get to.
I do not have many friends with me, cause I can't seem to show my emotions and thoughts honestly. Cause I understand very well what fair-weather-friends means. Everyone is fair-weathered, that includes myself.
I can't show people that I am happy about my chance to be sent to USA for training for 1-2 years. Because 2/3 of the company were fired away, I need to take care of their feelings.
I can't show people that I may be a threat to them, cause I don't want to be isolated.
I tried to manipulate situations, but the more I do it, the more I fear to be seen through.
Nonetheless, I troubled coming home, cause it is the most scary place in the world, as I couldn't hide anything, yet couldn't share anything. The worst part I guess, is because everyone in this place is lonely, it is like the deep jungle in Borneo island, it is so damp, no sun can penetrate through, only rains can shoot through those thick layers of leaves, only lonely moss just grows everywhere.
What do people do when everyone gets lonely? Mosses grow on top of each other, people just stab on others in order to get some excitement out of the life. How dare you be honest and open!
I am listening to Canon D major now, I don't know how others liked or thought about this song; it somehow gave me a feeling of watching the fireworks -- so beautiful yet lonely. It is similar to when someone is hurt badly and tears and emotions exploded out, the chaos made the lonely zombie-like lives pretty.
Every played Resident Evil? I am living in one, the office is filled with half-dead zombies, and I am becoming one.
That's because it is the loneliest place in the whole world.
I am closest to my loved ones, but I can't get to them. It is worse than being far and can't get to.
I do not have many friends with me, cause I can't seem to show my emotions and thoughts honestly. Cause I understand very well what fair-weather-friends means. Everyone is fair-weathered, that includes myself.
I can't show people that I am happy about my chance to be sent to USA for training for 1-2 years. Because 2/3 of the company were fired away, I need to take care of their feelings.
I can't show people that I may be a threat to them, cause I don't want to be isolated.
I tried to manipulate situations, but the more I do it, the more I fear to be seen through.
Nonetheless, I troubled coming home, cause it is the most scary place in the world, as I couldn't hide anything, yet couldn't share anything. The worst part I guess, is because everyone in this place is lonely, it is like the deep jungle in Borneo island, it is so damp, no sun can penetrate through, only rains can shoot through those thick layers of leaves, only lonely moss just grows everywhere.
What do people do when everyone gets lonely? Mosses grow on top of each other, people just stab on others in order to get some excitement out of the life. How dare you be honest and open!
I am listening to Canon D major now, I don't know how others liked or thought about this song; it somehow gave me a feeling of watching the fireworks -- so beautiful yet lonely. It is similar to when someone is hurt badly and tears and emotions exploded out, the chaos made the lonely zombie-like lives pretty.
Every played Resident Evil? I am living in one, the office is filled with half-dead zombies, and I am becoming one.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Huge quake
There was an rather unexpected resource shuffle in my office on Monday.
2/3 of staffs who survived from the previous retrenchment got laid off, of which half of them were dismissed immediately. The other half stayed until the end of the year / beginning of next year, depending on the notice period for different positions.
There were only 9 people left, including myself, of which 5 are managers.
Since then, there have been lots of strange stories flying around the office. I will tell them later. In short, I have gotten the best deal among everyone who stayed, though not in the most obvious way.
Anyway, over the past couple of days, it had allowed me to see Mr. Twoheadsnake's other faces more clearly. Mr. Twoheadsnake at first thought that I was the leftover, who the VP decided to keep for the sake of pity. He then showed off his "power":
"Wow, now that your future is left hanging, that you may not even be in the office... it will leave only me to work with Decamouth. As you know, Decamouth is in very good terms with Cockroach, and he behaved well in front of Porche911... which means I must make sure the MD will like me, or else I have no place to stand."
"I am not sure what you want out of your career, but for me, I want to sit on Porche911's place. I am not going to leave this company, cause they are paying me well. I don't think with your current situation, you should think too much about career advancement, but to secure a job first."
He also called me the following day, when I was stucked in traffic jam on my way home:
"Vinegar, I think if I am in your position, it would be better to just resign and let the pain end quickly. Now that you don't know if you will be kept by the company, won't it be better if you make the initiative to resign?"
The persuasion went on for about 20km, not to mention that I was driving with average speed of 30km/h.
When Porche911 asked me to move my desk from Engineering department to Sales department, I had a choice of two desks -- one is sitting face to face with Decamouth, with the back facing walls, so no one can see your computer screen, this place used to be Mr. Big's seat. The other one is sitting facing the back of Decamouth, having Porche911 seeing through his glass panels in his room onto my desk. The second place is more exposed comparatively. This is what Twoheadsnake said,
"Are you going to choose Mr. Big's seat?"
"No, I am going to choose another seat. Why?" I answered.
"Oh, cause I am eyeing on that seat, if you take it, then I will have to take the other one when I am moved over to that department."
"Oh, don't worry, I don't want to face Decamouth everyday, so you can take that seat."
There hasn't even any news of moving him to the Sales department. He has only been recently moved out of engineering department to project department...
Anyway, I have reported this to Porche911 today. I didn't tell him who made that comment, but I guess with him knowing it is from the remaining 9 of us in the company, it is not difficult to find out. It may take some time for him to discover the true faces of people. But through the observation after the conversation today, I knew he guessed the wrong person -- Decamouth.
2/3 of staffs who survived from the previous retrenchment got laid off, of which half of them were dismissed immediately. The other half stayed until the end of the year / beginning of next year, depending on the notice period for different positions.
There were only 9 people left, including myself, of which 5 are managers.
Since then, there have been lots of strange stories flying around the office. I will tell them later. In short, I have gotten the best deal among everyone who stayed, though not in the most obvious way.
Anyway, over the past couple of days, it had allowed me to see Mr. Twoheadsnake's other faces more clearly. Mr. Twoheadsnake at first thought that I was the leftover, who the VP decided to keep for the sake of pity. He then showed off his "power":
"Wow, now that your future is left hanging, that you may not even be in the office... it will leave only me to work with Decamouth. As you know, Decamouth is in very good terms with Cockroach, and he behaved well in front of Porche911... which means I must make sure the MD will like me, or else I have no place to stand."
"I am not sure what you want out of your career, but for me, I want to sit on Porche911's place. I am not going to leave this company, cause they are paying me well. I don't think with your current situation, you should think too much about career advancement, but to secure a job first."
He also called me the following day, when I was stucked in traffic jam on my way home:
"Vinegar, I think if I am in your position, it would be better to just resign and let the pain end quickly. Now that you don't know if you will be kept by the company, won't it be better if you make the initiative to resign?"
The persuasion went on for about 20km, not to mention that I was driving with average speed of 30km/h.
When Porche911 asked me to move my desk from Engineering department to Sales department, I had a choice of two desks -- one is sitting face to face with Decamouth, with the back facing walls, so no one can see your computer screen, this place used to be Mr. Big's seat. The other one is sitting facing the back of Decamouth, having Porche911 seeing through his glass panels in his room onto my desk. The second place is more exposed comparatively. This is what Twoheadsnake said,
"Are you going to choose Mr. Big's seat?"
"No, I am going to choose another seat. Why?" I answered.
"Oh, cause I am eyeing on that seat, if you take it, then I will have to take the other one when I am moved over to that department."
"Oh, don't worry, I don't want to face Decamouth everyday, so you can take that seat."
There hasn't even any news of moving him to the Sales department. He has only been recently moved out of engineering department to project department...
Anyway, I have reported this to Porche911 today. I didn't tell him who made that comment, but I guess with him knowing it is from the remaining 9 of us in the company, it is not difficult to find out. It may take some time for him to discover the true faces of people. But through the observation after the conversation today, I knew he guessed the wrong person -- Decamouth.
Friday, September 11, 2009
How I start my Friday Morning
One of the project I am handling now, is having some faulty pulleys. We have purchased the pulleys from our manufacturer, and got it sent to our office, we planned to delivery to the site when our supervisor is there.
Each of the pulley weighs around 35kgs, there were two of them, packed in a small wooden box. The gross weight was 73kgs. The delivery guy had trouble moving it, he left it in our meeting room.
When the pulleys arrived yesterday afternoon, our site supervisor and myself opened it to check the conditions. The pulleys are heavy yet fragile, as it would crack easily. After the inspection, we were told to move the items to other place, as the meeting room will be used for some VIP visits next week.
By this time, this inspection of pulleys has attracted many people -- Ms. Azreal, our costing engineer, logistic lady, receptionist and Twoheadsnake. Everyone was gathered to watch a show.
So the supervisor took a trolley to move the pulleys away. I suggested to put it underneath one of the unoccupied desks, cause that desk is easily accessible when the forwarder come to collect it. Here is when everyone started to give suggestions, and some of them are making irresponsible suggestions.
Ms. Azreal wanted it to put behind another desk, which is hidden behind all the cabinets. She first suggested us to leave the things on the trolley. But I know very well that the trolley will be requested by the HR next week for the VIP visits. Ms. Azreal then suggested that the pulleys should be taken off the trolleys and put in the cabinets, but I reckoned that the weight of the pulleys will damange the weak cabinets, and it won't be easy to retrieve it again. Anyway, Ms. Azreal made a few more suggestions, and each of her suggestions she wanted the supervisor to tried out first, before accepting my justifications. Twoheadsnake stood on her side. The supervisor just didn't budge at all.
Eventually Ms. Azreal walked away when she can't get people to listen to her. The way she made her suggestions was as irresponsible, she clearly stated that it is not her job to carry those heavy goods, she mentioned that she was just trying to be helpful, but it was our fault that we refused to try it out. Twoheadsnake also mentioned that it was the supervisor's headache to think of how to handle it on site. 73kgs box is not a weight that could be handle with care by everyone.
As I was thinking of re-packing the pulleys into two different boxes, the logistic lady asked Twoheadsnake to help. Twoheadsnake was making a big fuss that he is a weak person and he couldn't carry heavy and dirty stuffs. He said it with a laughing face, but I knew he was reluctant to help. So I said hastily that I will sort things out, and there is no need for them to quarrel around. This made Twoheadsnake upset.
I came home last night, spending about 2 hours making a wood box, carried it to the office early in the morning and attempted to finish the re-packing before 8am -- the official start work time. Twoheadsnake came in while me, logistic lady and costing engineer were re-packing the pulleys. He walked pass us, looking at us, and went to his place cover his ears with headphone and sleep.
Ms. Azreal arrived, she glared at us as if we were doing something weird, and went to complain with the HR.
We three ladies packing heavy goods, messing around, and I was hammering the boxes. It won't be quiet to sleep at that environment. The HR came later, and showed her face that she wasn't happy that I made noise with the hammer. She didn't comment anything when she saw me carrying the pulley to put into the box.
Everyone else were gathered by Azreal and watching us, laughing and gossiping behind.
We eventually packed everything nicely, transferred the goods to a smaller trolley and hid it well underneath that desk behind the cabinets. At least with the packing redone, each box weighs only 40kgs now, which is much easier for people to handle with care.
We also cleaned up the place, with the help of the cleaner. Everything was finished before 8am.
Suddenly, I saw the crowd just walked away quietly with disappointed look on their face. Twoheadsnake then went to the pantry to gossip with Azreal about it... this is how I started my Friday morning.
Each of the pulley weighs around 35kgs, there were two of them, packed in a small wooden box. The gross weight was 73kgs. The delivery guy had trouble moving it, he left it in our meeting room.
When the pulleys arrived yesterday afternoon, our site supervisor and myself opened it to check the conditions. The pulleys are heavy yet fragile, as it would crack easily. After the inspection, we were told to move the items to other place, as the meeting room will be used for some VIP visits next week.
By this time, this inspection of pulleys has attracted many people -- Ms. Azreal, our costing engineer, logistic lady, receptionist and Twoheadsnake. Everyone was gathered to watch a show.
So the supervisor took a trolley to move the pulleys away. I suggested to put it underneath one of the unoccupied desks, cause that desk is easily accessible when the forwarder come to collect it. Here is when everyone started to give suggestions, and some of them are making irresponsible suggestions.
Ms. Azreal wanted it to put behind another desk, which is hidden behind all the cabinets. She first suggested us to leave the things on the trolley. But I know very well that the trolley will be requested by the HR next week for the VIP visits. Ms. Azreal then suggested that the pulleys should be taken off the trolleys and put in the cabinets, but I reckoned that the weight of the pulleys will damange the weak cabinets, and it won't be easy to retrieve it again. Anyway, Ms. Azreal made a few more suggestions, and each of her suggestions she wanted the supervisor to tried out first, before accepting my justifications. Twoheadsnake stood on her side. The supervisor just didn't budge at all.
Eventually Ms. Azreal walked away when she can't get people to listen to her. The way she made her suggestions was as irresponsible, she clearly stated that it is not her job to carry those heavy goods, she mentioned that she was just trying to be helpful, but it was our fault that we refused to try it out. Twoheadsnake also mentioned that it was the supervisor's headache to think of how to handle it on site. 73kgs box is not a weight that could be handle with care by everyone.
As I was thinking of re-packing the pulleys into two different boxes, the logistic lady asked Twoheadsnake to help. Twoheadsnake was making a big fuss that he is a weak person and he couldn't carry heavy and dirty stuffs. He said it with a laughing face, but I knew he was reluctant to help. So I said hastily that I will sort things out, and there is no need for them to quarrel around. This made Twoheadsnake upset.
I came home last night, spending about 2 hours making a wood box, carried it to the office early in the morning and attempted to finish the re-packing before 8am -- the official start work time. Twoheadsnake came in while me, logistic lady and costing engineer were re-packing the pulleys. He walked pass us, looking at us, and went to his place cover his ears with headphone and sleep.
Ms. Azreal arrived, she glared at us as if we were doing something weird, and went to complain with the HR.
We three ladies packing heavy goods, messing around, and I was hammering the boxes. It won't be quiet to sleep at that environment. The HR came later, and showed her face that she wasn't happy that I made noise with the hammer. She didn't comment anything when she saw me carrying the pulley to put into the box.
Everyone else were gathered by Azreal and watching us, laughing and gossiping behind.
We eventually packed everything nicely, transferred the goods to a smaller trolley and hid it well underneath that desk behind the cabinets. At least with the packing redone, each box weighs only 40kgs now, which is much easier for people to handle with care.
We also cleaned up the place, with the help of the cleaner. Everything was finished before 8am.
Suddenly, I saw the crowd just walked away quietly with disappointed look on their face. Twoheadsnake then went to the pantry to gossip with Azreal about it... this is how I started my Friday morning.
Mr. Twoheadsnake
I am feeling stupid for helping Mr. Twoheadsnake for the past few days.
Mr. Twoheadsnake has been taking care of this pump vibration project since I handed over to him about a month ago, and he has been handling it fine.
There are few items in the punch list, which required our action. I have solved another one of them early this week, but because he is now the contact person for this project, I needed him to sign the letter to the customer, instead of myself. It was an easy credit shoved into his pocket. Anyway, I didn't bother, as long as the work is done.
However, today's incident made me upset, and started thinking twice.
Mr. Twoheadsnake promised the site team to be there this afternoon for the vibration measurement of the pump, to witness with the client that the rectification work is making an improvement to the pump vibration.
He told me he didn't want to go, because he wanted to settle his personal stuffs at the bank, and asked for my advice if he must go. I didn't give much advice, but asked him to make his own decision whether or not he should be going to the site. He then gave me his computer password, saying that there is an email he drafted, he wanted me to send that email off his PC to the customer upon receiving his instruction. He said he will be monitoring the project from phone, and will try to make it to site when he finishes his stuffs at the bank.
When he left the office at 2pm, he made everyone known that he was leaving to the client's place. But I knew very well that he wasn't planning to go there. Having the trust that he will monitor the project over phone contact, I didn't make any comment.
Later in the afternoon, he called me to say that there were some hickups on site, that his drafted email wasn't useful anymore. And requested me to send another email to the customer, from his PC, informing that the work was done fine, not revealing the hickups, and trying to get the rectification work to continue for the remaining pumps on Monday.
I couldn't understand his explanation on the hickups, so I called up the site supervisor. I found out that it was only some small issues, and it was resolved easily.
While I was drafting an email in my laptop, requesting for permission from the customer to continue working on the remaining pumps, Twoheadsnake called up to say everything has been resolved, and that I should send an email to the customer mentioning the successful outcome.
I was rather annoyed at that point, as the way he put it sounded like he solved the hickups, while in fact I was the one that was supporting the supervisor from the office. I didn't follow Twoheadsnake's advice of sending the email off his PC.
When Cockroach asked if my email was based on Twoheadsnake's feedback from site, I said no, but it was from the supervisor. I didn't want to mention that Twoheadsnake didn't go to site.
I made one mistake before I left the office -- I went to shut down Twoheadsnake's PC, which required me to login to his PC with password. It was done in the presence of another colleague.
Meanwhile, the supervisor also told me that the whole site team, with the client was waiting for Twoheadsnake to show up, cause he told the supervisor that he was on the way -- that was around 2.30pm. They received his phone call at 5pm, telling them that he won't be there.
Anyway, this incident has given me an insight of Twoheadsnake -- he only took me as a person that can cover his ass, and to take credit from. This is not the first time I discovered his tactic of telling two different stories to different people. Along with him ally with Ms. Azreal to spread nonsense in the office these days, today's incident of trying to take me as a scapegoat to cover his absense at work, just blown my final respect to him as a Professional Engineer (PE).
Mr. Twoheadsnake has been taking care of this pump vibration project since I handed over to him about a month ago, and he has been handling it fine.
There are few items in the punch list, which required our action. I have solved another one of them early this week, but because he is now the contact person for this project, I needed him to sign the letter to the customer, instead of myself. It was an easy credit shoved into his pocket. Anyway, I didn't bother, as long as the work is done.
However, today's incident made me upset, and started thinking twice.
Mr. Twoheadsnake promised the site team to be there this afternoon for the vibration measurement of the pump, to witness with the client that the rectification work is making an improvement to the pump vibration.
He told me he didn't want to go, because he wanted to settle his personal stuffs at the bank, and asked for my advice if he must go. I didn't give much advice, but asked him to make his own decision whether or not he should be going to the site. He then gave me his computer password, saying that there is an email he drafted, he wanted me to send that email off his PC to the customer upon receiving his instruction. He said he will be monitoring the project from phone, and will try to make it to site when he finishes his stuffs at the bank.
When he left the office at 2pm, he made everyone known that he was leaving to the client's place. But I knew very well that he wasn't planning to go there. Having the trust that he will monitor the project over phone contact, I didn't make any comment.
Later in the afternoon, he called me to say that there were some hickups on site, that his drafted email wasn't useful anymore. And requested me to send another email to the customer, from his PC, informing that the work was done fine, not revealing the hickups, and trying to get the rectification work to continue for the remaining pumps on Monday.
I couldn't understand his explanation on the hickups, so I called up the site supervisor. I found out that it was only some small issues, and it was resolved easily.
While I was drafting an email in my laptop, requesting for permission from the customer to continue working on the remaining pumps, Twoheadsnake called up to say everything has been resolved, and that I should send an email to the customer mentioning the successful outcome.
I was rather annoyed at that point, as the way he put it sounded like he solved the hickups, while in fact I was the one that was supporting the supervisor from the office. I didn't follow Twoheadsnake's advice of sending the email off his PC.
When Cockroach asked if my email was based on Twoheadsnake's feedback from site, I said no, but it was from the supervisor. I didn't want to mention that Twoheadsnake didn't go to site.
I made one mistake before I left the office -- I went to shut down Twoheadsnake's PC, which required me to login to his PC with password. It was done in the presence of another colleague.
Meanwhile, the supervisor also told me that the whole site team, with the client was waiting for Twoheadsnake to show up, cause he told the supervisor that he was on the way -- that was around 2.30pm. They received his phone call at 5pm, telling them that he won't be there.
Anyway, this incident has given me an insight of Twoheadsnake -- he only took me as a person that can cover his ass, and to take credit from. This is not the first time I discovered his tactic of telling two different stories to different people. Along with him ally with Ms. Azreal to spread nonsense in the office these days, today's incident of trying to take me as a scapegoat to cover his absense at work, just blown my final respect to him as a Professional Engineer (PE).
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Violin Class Resumed!
Finally, after stopping for a month, the violin teacher finally recovered... well, a little. At least his fever is not as bad anymore.
We are learning staccato today, in order to play Gavotte. It is pretty difficult to play this piece at my level. But I guess I will learn it slowly.
I find it really difficult to play a happy tune when I am feeling distressed -- Whatever softskills that I need to learn up, I better learn it up fast, before it is too late. I wonder if there is a magical potion, where one drop is enough to raise my EQ 10 years in advance? I am willing to trade my hair for it.
We are learning staccato today, in order to play Gavotte. It is pretty difficult to play this piece at my level. But I guess I will learn it slowly.
I find it really difficult to play a happy tune when I am feeling distressed -- Whatever softskills that I need to learn up, I better learn it up fast, before it is too late. I wonder if there is a magical potion, where one drop is enough to raise my EQ 10 years in advance? I am willing to trade my hair for it.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Mrs. Azreal
Following my previous post about women fight. Mrs. Azreal is showing her feathers today.
One of my project is rushing for a client's inspection next week Thursday. The fact that next Monday is a public holiday doesn't make things any better.
There were a few outstanding things to be iron out before the inspection, which we will need to sort out some assistance from various vendors. But there was only one thing that was noticed by the client. The client will highlight this particular issue (Issue A) over the inspection.
Vendor A has given us a quote to sort out Issue A; so does Vendor B to Issue B. But as Issue A is more urgent, one must spend more time to urge the vendor to speed things up. Issue B could wait for a little while, and get fixed after the inspection.
Mrs. Azreal asked me the delivery date of Issue B this morning, and I have explained to her that there is no need to expedite Vendor B; however Vendor A's reaction has been slow and we need to get Issue A sorted out before next week's inspection.
Mrs. Azreal took note of that, but yet still continue to chase Vendor B, and almost launched an email war zone between us and Vendor B (the whole project department were all cc-ed in the email.) She felt very important when the war was on.
I got mad when the Vendor was begging us for longer time frame to delivery the goods, and wrote an email to everyone, requesting people not to confuse the focus for next week's inspection target. That eased off some pressure on the Vendor. Mrs. Azreal was not happy about it, but she knew she screwed up my schedule.
She had not spent any single effort to sort out things in my project, but was busy bargainning for some cheapo pressure gauges for Twoheadsnake (on the other project that I have handed over to him). She had spent the time to check if I have carried out a conference call to settle with the project management stuffs, and bugged someone else to question me why didn't I conduct a conference call. All these project management stuffs have nothing to do with her, and she had time to muck about. She even tracked if I have done my tasks (some of the emails which were sent to me got her in the cc list also), and openly questioned others for my action taken on the tasks, (but I do not necessary include the original mail list when replying to the sender) thinking that I have not taken any action.
She taught that she had covered herself well, by phoning Cockroach every few minutes, when Cockroach is busy at the funeral of his mother in law. I somehow pity Cockroach for having Mrs. Azreal in the department.
Lucky for Mrs. Azreal when it comes to the end of the day, when the client called to postpone the inspection for another week. And Vendor A managed to find a better solution for what was holding them back.
I do not want to interfere with what happened with Mrs. Azreal work. As usual, when the boss that I report is not around, I prepare a summary of tasks for the week. I have mentioned every single matters that I and the site supervisor has dealt with, and listed out the items that needed advices.
I have no comments on people who do not have a priority mindset like her, and trying to cover her mistakes by finding faults on others.
On the other hand, Twoheadsnake stood on her side, and said that we women are too emotional to work with each other. It is better for him as a man to deal with women. Well, this is not surprising. This is not the first time Twoheadsnake made such sexist remarks to me anyway. Did I mention before that he also carries the same title as Decamouth -- Ir.?
I will try my best to remain professional, and let the facts speak for itself.
One of my project is rushing for a client's inspection next week Thursday. The fact that next Monday is a public holiday doesn't make things any better.
There were a few outstanding things to be iron out before the inspection, which we will need to sort out some assistance from various vendors. But there was only one thing that was noticed by the client. The client will highlight this particular issue (Issue A) over the inspection.
Vendor A has given us a quote to sort out Issue A; so does Vendor B to Issue B. But as Issue A is more urgent, one must spend more time to urge the vendor to speed things up. Issue B could wait for a little while, and get fixed after the inspection.
Mrs. Azreal asked me the delivery date of Issue B this morning, and I have explained to her that there is no need to expedite Vendor B; however Vendor A's reaction has been slow and we need to get Issue A sorted out before next week's inspection.
Mrs. Azreal took note of that, but yet still continue to chase Vendor B, and almost launched an email war zone between us and Vendor B (the whole project department were all cc-ed in the email.) She felt very important when the war was on.
I got mad when the Vendor was begging us for longer time frame to delivery the goods, and wrote an email to everyone, requesting people not to confuse the focus for next week's inspection target. That eased off some pressure on the Vendor. Mrs. Azreal was not happy about it, but she knew she screwed up my schedule.
She had not spent any single effort to sort out things in my project, but was busy bargainning for some cheapo pressure gauges for Twoheadsnake (on the other project that I have handed over to him). She had spent the time to check if I have carried out a conference call to settle with the project management stuffs, and bugged someone else to question me why didn't I conduct a conference call. All these project management stuffs have nothing to do with her, and she had time to muck about. She even tracked if I have done my tasks (some of the emails which were sent to me got her in the cc list also), and openly questioned others for my action taken on the tasks, (but I do not necessary include the original mail list when replying to the sender) thinking that I have not taken any action.
She taught that she had covered herself well, by phoning Cockroach every few minutes, when Cockroach is busy at the funeral of his mother in law. I somehow pity Cockroach for having Mrs. Azreal in the department.
Lucky for Mrs. Azreal when it comes to the end of the day, when the client called to postpone the inspection for another week. And Vendor A managed to find a better solution for what was holding them back.
I do not want to interfere with what happened with Mrs. Azreal work. As usual, when the boss that I report is not around, I prepare a summary of tasks for the week. I have mentioned every single matters that I and the site supervisor has dealt with, and listed out the items that needed advices.
I have no comments on people who do not have a priority mindset like her, and trying to cover her mistakes by finding faults on others.
On the other hand, Twoheadsnake stood on her side, and said that we women are too emotional to work with each other. It is better for him as a man to deal with women. Well, this is not surprising. This is not the first time Twoheadsnake made such sexist remarks to me anyway. Did I mention before that he also carries the same title as Decamouth -- Ir.?
I will try my best to remain professional, and let the facts speak for itself.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Now I need to fight with women
As I have mentioned in my previous post, that there is a sexist HR in my company. Anyway, this post has nothing to do with sexist.
She held a personal grudge towards me, out of some rumours she heard from Decamouth. She couldn't pin me down, cause it was false.
She also held a personal grudge towards me, out of some nonsense she heard from Woodchild. She couldn't pin me down, cause I am obviously standing on the facts for that case.
She then vent out her grudge with our MD, based on some stupid allegation made by Mrs. Azreal. And this time, our HR mixed it with a bit of truth -- I speak loud.
So she went to tell the MD today, that I speak very loud in the office, and that caused me to reveal the amount of each project loss to everyone.
The MD told it to Mr. Porche911, who then gives me the warning.
I agreed that I talked loud, and I explained that it was because I received phone calls from site, where people can't hear me. I also explained that I have tried to find a room to talk, when I need to talk loud.
I also mentioned that I took up the jobs in project department without knowing or involving in the commercial stuffs, I know nothing about project costs. How could I reveal the cost of projects?
Then when I thought about it, it was from an incident earlier this week, when Mrs. Azreal wanted to get a second quotation for a tiny little pressure gauge, when my project is really running tight against the wall. It is not worth to save that little amount of money, so I went to talk to her
"This project has already spent so much money to rectify these things, why are we still saving on these little pennies?"
Only then I realised that I have made a mistake by telling her how to do her jobs. This is not the first time she dragged my project schedules, and I went to tell her off to get things done quick. She has not been happy about me, that I know.
In fact, that's the only time I talk about project costs in front of others, which didn't even mention the amount. She obviously then went to tell our HR.
The HR with the previous two cases, which all happened within this week's time, finally caught a chance to stab me right at the back.
I did not want to argue much with my boss, I told him I will watch out on my volume. And went into the MD's room to thank him for the inputs, and will improve myself.
Nonetheless, I am extremely disappointed with the HR, which accused me for something that she did not have proof, and did not talk to me before hand.
She held a personal grudge towards me, out of some rumours she heard from Decamouth. She couldn't pin me down, cause it was false.
She also held a personal grudge towards me, out of some nonsense she heard from Woodchild. She couldn't pin me down, cause I am obviously standing on the facts for that case.
She then vent out her grudge with our MD, based on some stupid allegation made by Mrs. Azreal. And this time, our HR mixed it with a bit of truth -- I speak loud.
So she went to tell the MD today, that I speak very loud in the office, and that caused me to reveal the amount of each project loss to everyone.
The MD told it to Mr. Porche911, who then gives me the warning.
I agreed that I talked loud, and I explained that it was because I received phone calls from site, where people can't hear me. I also explained that I have tried to find a room to talk, when I need to talk loud.
I also mentioned that I took up the jobs in project department without knowing or involving in the commercial stuffs, I know nothing about project costs. How could I reveal the cost of projects?
Then when I thought about it, it was from an incident earlier this week, when Mrs. Azreal wanted to get a second quotation for a tiny little pressure gauge, when my project is really running tight against the wall. It is not worth to save that little amount of money, so I went to talk to her
"This project has already spent so much money to rectify these things, why are we still saving on these little pennies?"
Only then I realised that I have made a mistake by telling her how to do her jobs. This is not the first time she dragged my project schedules, and I went to tell her off to get things done quick. She has not been happy about me, that I know.
In fact, that's the only time I talk about project costs in front of others, which didn't even mention the amount. She obviously then went to tell our HR.
The HR with the previous two cases, which all happened within this week's time, finally caught a chance to stab me right at the back.
I did not want to argue much with my boss, I told him I will watch out on my volume. And went into the MD's room to thank him for the inputs, and will improve myself.
Nonetheless, I am extremely disappointed with the HR, which accused me for something that she did not have proof, and did not talk to me before hand.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
How to fight like a man
I read on the newspaper few days ago, there was an article regarding Hillary Clinton, with her three major roles -- a wife, a woman and a mother.
One of the paragraphs striked me, it said something like this -- When all her opponents spread nasty rumours about her, she insisted that she should just tell people what are her visions when she is chosen a leader. She was stabbed badly, because she didn't fight like a man.
I have a rough day today. My contractor bite back on me; walked out of the construction site, after creating a mess; claimed that it is not his mistake, but the manufacturer's fault for producing low quality materials. Unfortunately, he also takes care of my other project, which is technically much more challenging.
For this other project, we had an agreement, verbal, on how things should be done, he agreed. There is no way I could document everything, as he has no email, no fax. Anyway, today, he said he can't achieve whatever we had discussed, and need to revise his quotation.
I got mad, real mad. I wanted to scold, but he was introduced to me by one of our very experienced colleague. So I didn't vent it out, because I respect this colleague of mine.
I tell myself that I do not need to fight with this guy, I just need to remain calm, get my goal right and sort it out.
However, the more I keep quiet, the more I am being taken advantage. Then the article regarding Hillary Clinton appeared in my head.
I am surviving in the world of men, I cannot solve problems like a woman. To hell with the dignity, principles and self-righteous, I need to shoot right into these arseholes' and get them to feel the pain in the ass. Men can't care less about being courteous when it comes to work.
But, how do I do it? I am not a guy, same things that come out from a guy will be 100 times nastier when it is spilt out from my mouth. My voice when loud, is less tolerable compare to guys.
How do men fight? I need to master this skill before dawn tomorrow.
One of the paragraphs striked me, it said something like this -- When all her opponents spread nasty rumours about her, she insisted that she should just tell people what are her visions when she is chosen a leader. She was stabbed badly, because she didn't fight like a man.
I have a rough day today. My contractor bite back on me; walked out of the construction site, after creating a mess; claimed that it is not his mistake, but the manufacturer's fault for producing low quality materials. Unfortunately, he also takes care of my other project, which is technically much more challenging.
For this other project, we had an agreement, verbal, on how things should be done, he agreed. There is no way I could document everything, as he has no email, no fax. Anyway, today, he said he can't achieve whatever we had discussed, and need to revise his quotation.
I got mad, real mad. I wanted to scold, but he was introduced to me by one of our very experienced colleague. So I didn't vent it out, because I respect this colleague of mine.
I tell myself that I do not need to fight with this guy, I just need to remain calm, get my goal right and sort it out.
However, the more I keep quiet, the more I am being taken advantage. Then the article regarding Hillary Clinton appeared in my head.
I am surviving in the world of men, I cannot solve problems like a woman. To hell with the dignity, principles and self-righteous, I need to shoot right into these arseholes' and get them to feel the pain in the ass. Men can't care less about being courteous when it comes to work.
But, how do I do it? I am not a guy, same things that come out from a guy will be 100 times nastier when it is spilt out from my mouth. My voice when loud, is less tolerable compare to guys.
How do men fight? I need to master this skill before dawn tomorrow.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Women in Engineering – Reality
I am feeling down today, so down that I decided to show some of the reality of being a woman in engineering to people who are reading my blog.
To those who have shown you the glory and rosy side of being a woman in engineering, science and technology field, I am here to tell you some of the experiences I had, which is the real flesh and blood, and not as nice to swallow.
You will have to deal with a lot of false accusation, my ex-boss, in my first job told me this:
“There are 99 men on the platform, you don’t need to work to get the job done. All you have to do is just sleeping around and the men will do the job for you.”
Sexual harassment is common, be it verbal or physical. And my ex-boss actually said:
“You are like a kid, and not attractive at all, do you think I will believe in what you said?”
When I went for interviews, people rejected me because I am around the age of getting married. In which case, it means that I will be pregnant soon, and the companies were taking that as a loss.
I was also once rejected by a company because I have long hair, despite me saying that I am willing to cut it short.
I was dumped by my first boyfriend, because
"Your studies have always been so good, do you think I would believe that you spent the whole of last night in their (my coursemates) house just for group studies?"
One of my suppliers in my current company tells me this:
“I think there is no point for you to study until doctorate, I am not an engineer and I can sell technical products to you.” (OK, this is nothing to do with gender)
“Why don’t you wear a skirt and climb up the building and let me see? I am sure if you do this, you will be promoted by your boss real quick too.”
One of my customers in my current company tells me this:
“Your company doesn’t have any dicks anymore is it? Why are you all appointing all pussies to serve me?”
“Your company are filled pregnant women, I bet you all just know how to sit there and being fucked by men, until your head can’t think anymore!”
My subordinate doesn’t like to listen to my comment just because I am a female, and it is humiliating to have female, younger than them, pointing out their mistakes.
I have male colleagues who think that I studied too much, and treated me like a threat and made a lot of rumours about me. They also like to make remarks like this:
“Actually, I think your doctorate doesn’t have much values when it comes to applications. Experiences still counts you know, you are lack of that.”
"Actually, it is kinda nice to be a woman in engineering. Cause you don't need to do any work, guys will always do the work for girls."
"Girls working in field will never get scolded, cause guys won't scold girls, no matter how bad it is."
"It is nice to be a girl in engineering, you don't need to care much. If you can't take it, you can always escape it by getting a husband to feed you."
My HR manager, who is a woman, doesn’t listen to any feedback from female; but she always favour the requests from our male colleagues. Examples are plenty, and I don’t want to mention here, as it will generate a couple of blog entries.
Most of the things I listed above, are of those rather major offences that I happened to recall while writing this blog, and are mostly gender discrimination due to inferiority complex.
I find that gender discrimination can come from female and male, superior, colleague and subordinates. Take example female discrimination, it can come from male bosses, colleagues and subordinates, so can it come from female bosses, colleagues and sub-workers.
Well, that’s all I want to say for today, just be prepared for the glory and the dirty part of the profession before you decided to march into it.
To those who have shown you the glory and rosy side of being a woman in engineering, science and technology field, I am here to tell you some of the experiences I had, which is the real flesh and blood, and not as nice to swallow.
You will have to deal with a lot of false accusation, my ex-boss, in my first job told me this:
“There are 99 men on the platform, you don’t need to work to get the job done. All you have to do is just sleeping around and the men will do the job for you.”
Sexual harassment is common, be it verbal or physical. And my ex-boss actually said:
“You are like a kid, and not attractive at all, do you think I will believe in what you said?”
When I went for interviews, people rejected me because I am around the age of getting married. In which case, it means that I will be pregnant soon, and the companies were taking that as a loss.
I was also once rejected by a company because I have long hair, despite me saying that I am willing to cut it short.
I was dumped by my first boyfriend, because
"Your studies have always been so good, do you think I would believe that you spent the whole of last night in their (my coursemates) house just for group studies?"
One of my suppliers in my current company tells me this:
“I think there is no point for you to study until doctorate, I am not an engineer and I can sell technical products to you.” (OK, this is nothing to do with gender)
“Why don’t you wear a skirt and climb up the building and let me see? I am sure if you do this, you will be promoted by your boss real quick too.”
One of my customers in my current company tells me this:
“Your company doesn’t have any dicks anymore is it? Why are you all appointing all pussies to serve me?”
“Your company are filled pregnant women, I bet you all just know how to sit there and being fucked by men, until your head can’t think anymore!”
My subordinate doesn’t like to listen to my comment just because I am a female, and it is humiliating to have female, younger than them, pointing out their mistakes.
I have male colleagues who think that I studied too much, and treated me like a threat and made a lot of rumours about me. They also like to make remarks like this:
“Actually, I think your doctorate doesn’t have much values when it comes to applications. Experiences still counts you know, you are lack of that.”
"Actually, it is kinda nice to be a woman in engineering. Cause you don't need to do any work, guys will always do the work for girls."
"Girls working in field will never get scolded, cause guys won't scold girls, no matter how bad it is."
"It is nice to be a girl in engineering, you don't need to care much. If you can't take it, you can always escape it by getting a husband to feed you."
My HR manager, who is a woman, doesn’t listen to any feedback from female; but she always favour the requests from our male colleagues. Examples are plenty, and I don’t want to mention here, as it will generate a couple of blog entries.
Most of the things I listed above, are of those rather major offences that I happened to recall while writing this blog, and are mostly gender discrimination due to inferiority complex.
I find that gender discrimination can come from female and male, superior, colleague and subordinates. Take example female discrimination, it can come from male bosses, colleagues and subordinates, so can it come from female bosses, colleagues and sub-workers.
Well, that’s all I want to say for today, just be prepared for the glory and the dirty part of the profession before you decided to march into it.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Pure Arrogance
I have finally introduced Mr. Twoheadsnake to the customer this Monday. The customer obviously wasn't very happy, cause this is the third time we changed the person handling the project. But nonetheless, they acknowledge our company's decision.
The customer wrote an email today regarding the pump vibration rectification work, and requested for a brainstorming meeting tomorrow.
I felt that there isn't much meaning to attend the meeting tomorrow, as there isn't a clear agenda, and thought that perhaps can give the customer a call, to see if a teleconference tomorrow would do any good. Mr. Twoheadsnake then wrote to the customer, telling them that the meeting is unnecessary.
The customer replied sarcastically, and Mr. Twoheadsnake felt the pinch. And we all tried to cover the unhappy customer by doing more works the whole day... And yet can't make it for the meeting tomorrow, can't meet the deadline set by the customer to do the rectification work...
Mr. Twoheadsnake told me one day after lunch (before him being introduced to the customer), that he wishes to take over the whole project from Cockroach, as he felt that he can do better without Cockroach's inteference. He also referenced a few small technical cases that Cockroach had appointed him for help recently, which he managed to make pretty good progress without seeking out for Cockroach. I suggested him not to take that move, as he doesn't know how bad the situation is. He agreed.
Well, Twoheadsnake isn't a stupid person, in fact he is good in manipulating people. But I found that he is overly confident, and wants to show off his capabilities too fast, too much. I do not know what to say, but only to recognise his sheer arrogance to shove the customer's request away within a week after the first meeting, which was lasted for less than half an hour. I guess at times, arrogance can really make one overlook many things.
The customer wrote an email today regarding the pump vibration rectification work, and requested for a brainstorming meeting tomorrow.
I felt that there isn't much meaning to attend the meeting tomorrow, as there isn't a clear agenda, and thought that perhaps can give the customer a call, to see if a teleconference tomorrow would do any good. Mr. Twoheadsnake then wrote to the customer, telling them that the meeting is unnecessary.
The customer replied sarcastically, and Mr. Twoheadsnake felt the pinch. And we all tried to cover the unhappy customer by doing more works the whole day... And yet can't make it for the meeting tomorrow, can't meet the deadline set by the customer to do the rectification work...
Mr. Twoheadsnake told me one day after lunch (before him being introduced to the customer), that he wishes to take over the whole project from Cockroach, as he felt that he can do better without Cockroach's inteference. He also referenced a few small technical cases that Cockroach had appointed him for help recently, which he managed to make pretty good progress without seeking out for Cockroach. I suggested him not to take that move, as he doesn't know how bad the situation is. He agreed.
Well, Twoheadsnake isn't a stupid person, in fact he is good in manipulating people. But I found that he is overly confident, and wants to show off his capabilities too fast, too much. I do not know what to say, but only to recognise his sheer arrogance to shove the customer's request away within a week after the first meeting, which was lasted for less than half an hour. I guess at times, arrogance can really make one overlook many things.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Trust
How much would you trust a person, in order to prepare yourself to be betrayed?
I have come across this situation a couple of times, but it somehow got me sick today. I drove a long way home today, and have been thinking about it.
I can't say anything as I don't have the proof, but I see things coming. Let's see how these people turn the table around, and I shall learn to judge people better from there.
I have come across this situation a couple of times, but it somehow got me sick today. I drove a long way home today, and have been thinking about it.
I can't say anything as I don't have the proof, but I see things coming. Let's see how these people turn the table around, and I shall learn to judge people better from there.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
No violin class in August + AH1N1
Yes, no violin class again for this week, cause the teacher is required to quarantine himself at home for a week.
Next lesson will also be cancelled, cause it is a public holiday eve, whereby the road going down the the music centre will be closed for national day parade on 31 August.
So, I have skipped the violin class for one whole month. I hope that the teacher will get well soon.
================================================
With the AH1N1 things going round, we must take care of ourselves. However, there are a few incidents in my company that tick me off.
The first case is our document controller, her husband somehow got a flu, and spread it to her 3 months old baby, and she herself was feeling ill too. The baby had fever for 3 weeks, and all they have done was just bringing the baby to see the same doctor again and again.
She continued to come to work with heavy fever. Despite our suggestions that she should get herself and her baby checked thoroughly at the government hospital, she refused. The reason being, her husband doesn't allow the baby to be brought to hospital. And she doesn't know how to drive.
We insisted that she should take a taxi to the nearest government hospital to our office, as many of our colleagues have young kids at home, we do not want any AH1N1 suspect to roam around freely in the air-cond, enclosed office. It is also better for her to take care of herself before tending to the work. She said she needed to wait for her husband to come to fetch her.... Her husband was already more than 200km away from our office, going to his factory (around the edge of the state) to start his day.
Anyway, we managed to shover her into a taxi and sent her to the hospital in the end.
=============================================
Another case was our cleaning lady, she came into office crying on a Monday morning, claming that her youngest daughter fell ill with high fever, and her boss didn't allow her to take leave to take care of the kid. (Our cleaning tasks are out-sourced)
Upon questioning her, we realised that her daughter had been ill since Friday, and the matter dragged onto Monday. Her husband didn't want to bring the kid to hospital. So our HR gave her some time off to go home.
Again, she doesn't know how to drive, her husband came from home with motorcycle, picked her up and went home. Together they brought the child to see the doctor. However, on Tuesday when we met her again, she said he husband didn't bring the kid to hospital, but brought the kid to general clinic, which costs them 50 over bucks.
Only until the case gone worse, later that week, her husband willing to send the poor kid to the hospital, and the kid has been hospitalised.
All these incidents has given me some thoughts: women really need to be strong and independent. In a country like this, whereby one is practically disabled without owning a vehicle, women particularly need to know how to drive. You can't rely on your husband all the time, moreover a stupid and irresponsible one. Women must not lose the connection to the society after getting married, or else, we will only become a mantelpiece (that's if you are pretty enough, and age-proof) at home.
Anyway, the main thing is still to take care of yourself, as no one else will take care of you any better than yourself.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
First week in Sales
It was my first week in Sales department last week. To be precise, it is in proposal department, where one reads the tender documents and preparing a bid / quotation to the customer.
There are three people in this department, my engineering boss, who is now the proposal department head, Decamouth and myself. Perhaps it is time to give my boss a pseudoname... let's call him Mr. Porche911, cause he used to own one, and managed to crash it into someone else's garden.
I managed to read two sets of tender documents this week, which almost made me falling asleep.
I wonder what will I be after a few months in Sales / Proposal? I must work hard and be more alert, as I will be working closely to Decamouth. And I will also have to learn up about entertaining people... which is my weakest link.
There are three people in this department, my engineering boss, who is now the proposal department head, Decamouth and myself. Perhaps it is time to give my boss a pseudoname... let's call him Mr. Porche911, cause he used to own one, and managed to crash it into someone else's garden.
I managed to read two sets of tender documents this week, which almost made me falling asleep.
I wonder what will I be after a few months in Sales / Proposal? I must work hard and be more alert, as I will be working closely to Decamouth. And I will also have to learn up about entertaining people... which is my weakest link.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Violin lesson cancelled again
Well, my violin lesson was cancelled again last Sunday, cause the teacher has not recovered.
It has been a while since I last played my violin, and I managed to spend some time with it this morning. I was lucky that the violin has not been abandoned for too long, as it is not out of tune yet.
It took me a while to get back the feelings, but my fingers were already hardened. I need more practise. To be able to start my day with violin, is a blessing somehow, I guess.
Even by just playing D during that short 20 minutes practise frame, I find it relaxing enough to motivate me starting a day.
It has been a while since I last played my violin, and I managed to spend some time with it this morning. I was lucky that the violin has not been abandoned for too long, as it is not out of tune yet.
It took me a while to get back the feelings, but my fingers were already hardened. I need more practise. To be able to start my day with violin, is a blessing somehow, I guess.
Even by just playing D during that short 20 minutes practise frame, I find it relaxing enough to motivate me starting a day.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Egoistic Colleague
One of my colleague, who is in charge of the civil structure of the building, is rather egoistic. Let's call him Twoheadsnake.
He is good in smooth talking, and he is very good in handling situations. But he always like to look good in front of others.
Anyway, the story goes like this.
I have sucessfully handed over the projects on my hand back to Mr. Cockroach this morning, in front of the MD and my engineering boss, aka technical boss. Mr. Twoheadsnake was also in the meeting, who was caught off guard by being called into the the meeting without any preparation.
I was rather surprised to have him taking over my projects, which in a way, I know Mr. Twoheadsnake will not be happy about.
Mr. Twoheadsnake had never met the customer before, and yet after the handover meeting this morning, he told me this:
"Vinegar, I guess it is better for you to tell the customer that you can't handle this project well, that you are now calling in some colleague who are more senior than you to take this over." Followed by a few suggestions of what he thinks I should do to make his life easier.
My first instinct was, this is wrong. The more he said, the more I felt that his words are full loads of rubbish.
So I answered, "No, I am not going to say that to the customer, cause it is going to make your life difficult." He continued his plans etc, I was rather annoyed and started frowning and raised my hand to ask him to stop.
First of all, I knew the customer well enough to know what to say. He had never met the customer before, yet suggests me what to do with the customer?!
Then, I was transferred into the project department, under the clause that it will end by the end of July. Though I anticipated that this deadline will not materialise, I tried to push for a handover back to Mr. Cockroach. In the end, I got to transfer out. It has nothing to do with my capabilities in handling projects.
I was transferred to this department with loads of shytes thrown at me, without any direction and help on how to solve them. I have tackled one by one, and now left only this one and only difficult customer who tried to fish me to their company.
Third, if I were to tell the customer the way he wanted. The customer would have a very high expectation of him. He is just going to get a tougher life from the customer!
Forth, Twoheadsnake thought that he is much better than me, cause though being two years older than me, he has worked for 10 years. I admit that he is more well exposed than me, but I do not agree that he is more superior than me. And I certainly do not think that I need to lower myself to feed his ego in front of the customer.
When I was faced this customer, I wasn't even introduced properly. My first meeting regarding this project was a contractor meeting, where everyone was too busy shouting across the table, I looked too puzzled to figure out what'd happened. My first meeting with the customer was with my consultant, and I made my own introduction to each and everyone in their office.
When I do this handover to Twoheadsnake, I told him that I will guide him for a month or so, and told him to feel free copying me into the email loop even after I am off the project. I told him I will do a formal introduction of him to the customer, and will attend the regular meetings with him for the next month, and will guide him closely from where I handed over today.
Yet, my effort is not appreciated. I guess I just have to do my part, and let things flow by itself. I guess sometimes, it is just hard to please a person who is unhappy.
He is good in smooth talking, and he is very good in handling situations. But he always like to look good in front of others.
Anyway, the story goes like this.
I have sucessfully handed over the projects on my hand back to Mr. Cockroach this morning, in front of the MD and my engineering boss, aka technical boss. Mr. Twoheadsnake was also in the meeting, who was caught off guard by being called into the the meeting without any preparation.
I was rather surprised to have him taking over my projects, which in a way, I know Mr. Twoheadsnake will not be happy about.
Mr. Twoheadsnake had never met the customer before, and yet after the handover meeting this morning, he told me this:
"Vinegar, I guess it is better for you to tell the customer that you can't handle this project well, that you are now calling in some colleague who are more senior than you to take this over." Followed by a few suggestions of what he thinks I should do to make his life easier.
My first instinct was, this is wrong. The more he said, the more I felt that his words are full loads of rubbish.
So I answered, "No, I am not going to say that to the customer, cause it is going to make your life difficult." He continued his plans etc, I was rather annoyed and started frowning and raised my hand to ask him to stop.
First of all, I knew the customer well enough to know what to say. He had never met the customer before, yet suggests me what to do with the customer?!
Then, I was transferred into the project department, under the clause that it will end by the end of July. Though I anticipated that this deadline will not materialise, I tried to push for a handover back to Mr. Cockroach. In the end, I got to transfer out. It has nothing to do with my capabilities in handling projects.
I was transferred to this department with loads of shytes thrown at me, without any direction and help on how to solve them. I have tackled one by one, and now left only this one and only difficult customer who tried to fish me to their company.
Third, if I were to tell the customer the way he wanted. The customer would have a very high expectation of him. He is just going to get a tougher life from the customer!
Forth, Twoheadsnake thought that he is much better than me, cause though being two years older than me, he has worked for 10 years. I admit that he is more well exposed than me, but I do not agree that he is more superior than me. And I certainly do not think that I need to lower myself to feed his ego in front of the customer.
When I was faced this customer, I wasn't even introduced properly. My first meeting regarding this project was a contractor meeting, where everyone was too busy shouting across the table, I looked too puzzled to figure out what'd happened. My first meeting with the customer was with my consultant, and I made my own introduction to each and everyone in their office.
When I do this handover to Twoheadsnake, I told him that I will guide him for a month or so, and told him to feel free copying me into the email loop even after I am off the project. I told him I will do a formal introduction of him to the customer, and will attend the regular meetings with him for the next month, and will guide him closely from where I handed over today.
Yet, my effort is not appreciated. I guess I just have to do my part, and let things flow by itself. I guess sometimes, it is just hard to please a person who is unhappy.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Suddenly Friday
It is quite happening today.
I went to my client's site with our site supervisor, to inspect some work done by my contractor. It hasn't finished due to the infrastructure wasn't completed by my client. But this contractor insisted that he has completed the work, and tracked me and our site supervisor down on the highway to sign the Delivery Order (DO) for him. We had to take other routes to go back to office.
The war continues with emails when I arrived back to office... and I suspended the email shootings until Monday.
Another project which has been quiet for a very long time suddenly surfaced with some huge problems just before I left the office today... sigh... my heart sinks when I read the email, but wait till Monday.
The major thing that drained my energy today is the client that I visited today, tried to persuade me to join their company.
The client's technical manager has been acting strange since about a month ago, and he got his project engineer to do the speaking today. I rejected him. When we were just about to leave the site, the technical manager, whom was claimed to be overseas this afternoon, suddenly appeared in the carpark. Shaking hands with me, and asked if the contractor's work is ok. I assured him and went off with the site supervisor.
He sent an sms while we were being tracked by the contractor, requesting to speak when I am free. Anyway, I rejected him via sms just now.
This is not the first time someone approached me for the same reason. I was approached by one of my research collaborator last time, but that was only done by people with the same level as me, and it wasn't serious.
This is the first time I had someone higher level doing this and in a much more persistant manner. I do not want to offend them, as it might affect my work with them -- this client has not been pleased with us since the beginning of the project. Yet I have to be assertive to push the "reconsideration sms-es" away. May be I am just overacting, but I felt uncomfortable to deal with delicate professional relationship like this.
In a way, I should feel glad this technical manager has recognised my effort, though in a rather unconventional way.
What I am most happy is to have good support from my boyfriend over this matter; and my current engineering boss, who doesn't know what happened, and yet generous enough to let me sit in his room quietly to calm myself down when I was feeling agitated over today's events.
I went to my client's site with our site supervisor, to inspect some work done by my contractor. It hasn't finished due to the infrastructure wasn't completed by my client. But this contractor insisted that he has completed the work, and tracked me and our site supervisor down on the highway to sign the Delivery Order (DO) for him. We had to take other routes to go back to office.
The war continues with emails when I arrived back to office... and I suspended the email shootings until Monday.
Another project which has been quiet for a very long time suddenly surfaced with some huge problems just before I left the office today... sigh... my heart sinks when I read the email, but wait till Monday.
The major thing that drained my energy today is the client that I visited today, tried to persuade me to join their company.
The client's technical manager has been acting strange since about a month ago, and he got his project engineer to do the speaking today. I rejected him. When we were just about to leave the site, the technical manager, whom was claimed to be overseas this afternoon, suddenly appeared in the carpark. Shaking hands with me, and asked if the contractor's work is ok. I assured him and went off with the site supervisor.
He sent an sms while we were being tracked by the contractor, requesting to speak when I am free. Anyway, I rejected him via sms just now.
This is not the first time someone approached me for the same reason. I was approached by one of my research collaborator last time, but that was only done by people with the same level as me, and it wasn't serious.
This is the first time I had someone higher level doing this and in a much more persistant manner. I do not want to offend them, as it might affect my work with them -- this client has not been pleased with us since the beginning of the project. Yet I have to be assertive to push the "reconsideration sms-es" away. May be I am just overacting, but I felt uncomfortable to deal with delicate professional relationship like this.
In a way, I should feel glad this technical manager has recognised my effort, though in a rather unconventional way.
What I am most happy is to have good support from my boyfriend over this matter; and my current engineering boss, who doesn't know what happened, and yet generous enough to let me sit in his room quietly to calm myself down when I was feeling agitated over today's events.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Came back from Singapore
Just came back from Singapore last night, didn't manage to rush back to office for the global staff meeting, which was held at 8pm local time -- the USA was just starting their day while we ended ours. All these were thanks to our very efficient budget airway, which was late for an hour.
Anyway, I was there to check out the construction progress, and I thought it was too short for me to learn anything from the site supervisor. They were just pitching the huge fan blades when I received a phone call from my boss, saying that he was waiting for me underneath the site. :(
I went there with my Engineering boss, I was warned by many colleagues that he is a boring travel partner, cause he talks a lot, and it is difficult to carry a conversation outside of work with him. Well, we all experienced his lengthy words in the office, without having a chance to interupt. Anyway, though he did most of the talking when we went out for a drink in Singapore, but we managed to carry a conversation when we were waiting for the flight, yes, the delayed-for-an-hour flight.
We managed to talk things outside of work, from airplanes to blood type to diet to biology to history of mankind, from cross words to singing Ode to Joy, from astro-physics to Florida to visa to asylum seekers, from rains to bird poos to cat foot prints to cars to pubs to pretty gals... I thought it went pretty good.
I thought he has been protecting himself pretty well, that's why it is difficult to talk about other things apart from work. And I guess this is when general life experiences is important to enrich a conversation. I am lacking of these experiences since coming home...
I am so tired today, due to arriving home late last night. I really need a weekend to recharge. But my batteries seem to run flat before I charge it...
Anyway, I was there to check out the construction progress, and I thought it was too short for me to learn anything from the site supervisor. They were just pitching the huge fan blades when I received a phone call from my boss, saying that he was waiting for me underneath the site. :(
I went there with my Engineering boss, I was warned by many colleagues that he is a boring travel partner, cause he talks a lot, and it is difficult to carry a conversation outside of work with him. Well, we all experienced his lengthy words in the office, without having a chance to interupt. Anyway, though he did most of the talking when we went out for a drink in Singapore, but we managed to carry a conversation when we were waiting for the flight, yes, the delayed-for-an-hour flight.
We managed to talk things outside of work, from airplanes to blood type to diet to biology to history of mankind, from cross words to singing Ode to Joy, from astro-physics to Florida to visa to asylum seekers, from rains to bird poos to cat foot prints to cars to pubs to pretty gals... I thought it went pretty good.
I thought he has been protecting himself pretty well, that's why it is difficult to talk about other things apart from work. And I guess this is when general life experiences is important to enrich a conversation. I am lacking of these experiences since coming home...
I am so tired today, due to arriving home late last night. I really need a weekend to recharge. But my batteries seem to run flat before I charge it...
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Sunday
There is no violin class today, cause the teacher wasn't feeling well.
I wasn't feeling well from this morning's voluntary work either. I used to sit at the registration counter, but this time, I was in the GP section -- I was one of the GP assistants.
The doctor that I served was a pediatrician, lots of mothers came in with their young babies. Most of them had had bad skin infections, and had delayed for months and months, cause these free clinic sessions only come by once a month, if not longer.
Most of other GPs were late, the one at the next booth was treating flu and AH1N1 suspects, two booths away was another GP taking up the gynecologist role, as the gynecologist didn't turn up this morning.
At the end of the hall, there were three treatment booth for dentists. Kids were yelling all their heart out in under the tweezers.
My role this morning was to assist the pediatrician to take urine samples from the patients. I only managed to serve less than five patients and started to feel anematic. The booth was pretty small, about 3m x 1.5m area, covered by thick cotton cloths, about 2m height. A fan was put behind the doctor, A small table two chairs were in the booth too. There were about 5-8 person in the pediatrician booth at any one time, including doctor, assitants and translators. It was stuffy, and I am having heavy days of the month.
I walked out of the booth to outside the building twice, and given up on the second time I walked out, as I really felt dizzy and couldn't walk straight.
My health seems to have dropped million miles since returned home. I am living in a diminishing return lifestyle here, and don't know how to overcome it.
I wasn't feeling well from this morning's voluntary work either. I used to sit at the registration counter, but this time, I was in the GP section -- I was one of the GP assistants.
The doctor that I served was a pediatrician, lots of mothers came in with their young babies. Most of them had had bad skin infections, and had delayed for months and months, cause these free clinic sessions only come by once a month, if not longer.
Most of other GPs were late, the one at the next booth was treating flu and AH1N1 suspects, two booths away was another GP taking up the gynecologist role, as the gynecologist didn't turn up this morning.
At the end of the hall, there were three treatment booth for dentists. Kids were yelling all their heart out in under the tweezers.
My role this morning was to assist the pediatrician to take urine samples from the patients. I only managed to serve less than five patients and started to feel anematic. The booth was pretty small, about 3m x 1.5m area, covered by thick cotton cloths, about 2m height. A fan was put behind the doctor, A small table two chairs were in the booth too. There were about 5-8 person in the pediatrician booth at any one time, including doctor, assitants and translators. It was stuffy, and I am having heavy days of the month.
I walked out of the booth to outside the building twice, and given up on the second time I walked out, as I really felt dizzy and couldn't walk straight.
My health seems to have dropped million miles since returned home. I am living in a diminishing return lifestyle here, and don't know how to overcome it.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Violin Stage 2 Lesson 1
It has been a while since the first stage violin lesson ended. I tried to play the violin every morning in the car as usual, but it got disturbed more and more frequently due to the work load, and going outstation.
I only managed to get the music score for Ode to Joy last Saturday, cause I lost contact with the classmates for some time. The teacher was expecting us to play this song today, at the beginning of our Stage 2 violin lesson.
I didn't practise a lot this week. So I don't know how will I end up later this afternoon.
It has been a while since I have my Sundays packed with activities, I am getting lazy now to go out on Sunday afternoon... Need to get motivated again.
I only managed to get the music score for Ode to Joy last Saturday, cause I lost contact with the classmates for some time. The teacher was expecting us to play this song today, at the beginning of our Stage 2 violin lesson.
I didn't practise a lot this week. So I don't know how will I end up later this afternoon.
It has been a while since I have my Sundays packed with activities, I am getting lazy now to go out on Sunday afternoon... Need to get motivated again.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Mr. Pig
We, as in me and many other colleagues have been suffering due to the low quality work produced by Mr. Pig.
This is what I felt over the past one year or so, working with him:
This is what I felt over the past one year or so, working with him:
I finally blow at him last Wednesday, as he was making up false accusation against my orders for him to do the work, and he tell lies to cover himself. He rather spent effort to make up stories and tell lies than admitting that he had done the wrong thing. It was then I totally couldn't spare any of my generosity towards such idiot, and started raising my voice.
I know I was wrong by raising my voice, but I have never scolded him for any other things except his work quality and work attitude.
I reported to my boss, and apologise to Mr. Pig in front of the boss the next day for raising my voice. Mr. Ping was darn happy and told everyone that I was forced to apologise to him. He was also summoned to chat with the HR on the next day, and he told the HR the made up stories. He even calling everyone's names during the long talk with HR, exaggerating everyone's mistakes, in the hope of covering his own errors.
Nonetheless, the HR came and talked to us this week, we told our sides of the stories. Things kinda settled down now, Mr. Pig has also improved by putting more effort onto his work this week... though still making a lot of no-brainer mistakes.
Now I am at the stage of enlightenment, whereby I don't care what he has done, mistakes or not, taking my orders or not, I don't care. I have done my parts, and even his parts for the sake of working... I guess it is time for me to sit down and just let things flow according to its own way.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Money to buy life
My father was sent to hospital due to heart problem.
Diagnoses were taken place and decision has been made to have a heart operation within a week. I guess for a hospital which is always fully booked, the arrangement of a surgery within such a short notice could only mean that the condition is pretty serious.
We were given some basic briefing this afternoon regarding the surgery, and was asked to make the payment before the operation tomorrow.
The amount of money is not huge, but it is not small either. Within such a short notice, it is hard to pull up money quick. I just felt that in a country like this, only liquid money can be your insurance. Life becomes so small and insignificant in front of the payment counter. Be it a private or state-owned.
Started planning your pension?
Diagnoses were taken place and decision has been made to have a heart operation within a week. I guess for a hospital which is always fully booked, the arrangement of a surgery within such a short notice could only mean that the condition is pretty serious.
We were given some basic briefing this afternoon regarding the surgery, and was asked to make the payment before the operation tomorrow.
The amount of money is not huge, but it is not small either. Within such a short notice, it is hard to pull up money quick. I just felt that in a country like this, only liquid money can be your insurance. Life becomes so small and insignificant in front of the payment counter. Be it a private or state-owned.
Started planning your pension?
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thoughts
Have you tried to kill yourself so badly, and ended up failed?
I tried to kill myself when I was doing my PhD, this incident was not the first time, but it had given me some thoughts.
On that day...
I tried to hang myself using the scarf, but I broke the structure of the building, and fell flat onto the floor. The scarf was fine.
I then tried to kill myself by jumping off the window, but there were scaffoldings outside the hundred years old building at that time.
I tried to find some pills to swallow, but I only found vitamin supplements, which won't help me getting weak.
I tried to find a knife to cut myself, only to find that the knives were all rusty, cause I haven't been cooking for very long. It couldn't even penetrate my skin.
I eventually decided to die of starvation. But strangely enough, a friend of mine, whom I have not been contacting for quite some time, knocked at my door, and brought me some food to share. I was surprised why was he so free on that day, and he told me it was a public holiday. So, in a way, no one noticed my absence at work on that day.
I felt like the world's lousiest suicider that day.
Anyway, the reason I say this is because, I don't think any of the problem I am facing today is as difficult as those I have faced during my PhD, intellectually and emotionally. Nonetheless, I want to remind myself that I shouldn't walk back the same path, that I have neglected everything in my life, just to get stuck by the problem -- I had forgotten to take my supplements, forgotted to cook, forgotted that British were odd that they decided to do building maintenance work during winter, even forgotten what day it was that day.
There are problems in life that worth our pondering effort, but some of them, it's just not worth it. If I neglected everything in life to sort these problems, my world will be empty, and I will be depressed if my world is only to solve shitty problems.
I received some words of thoughts during my visit to Tzu Chi Melacca Charity Oroganisation on Sunday:
不简单的事 仍坚持去做 才是真本领
困难的事 能够去突破 才是真勇气
The direct translation roughly carries the meaning below:
Having the persistence to solve those not-so-easy things, it is considered smart.
Finding the breakthrough from difficult things, it is called bravery.
I tell myself that I should acquire for three things to make a complete life:
Bravery, Wisdom and Confidence.
How much Bravery do I need in order to level up?
How much Wisdom do I need in order to level up?
How much Confidence do I need in order to level up?
I feel like there are three bars above my head, gauging the levels of each elements. Just like those characters in the RPG games...
I wonder if there are any potions that can top up these elements in life?
My Confidence and Bravery is dropping real quick, and my Wisdom doesn't seem to grow fast enough... My daily encounter with all these nonsence in Project Departments have isolated me with my friends, and I am becoming like a nerdy nut.
I need to find a way out.
I tried to kill myself when I was doing my PhD, this incident was not the first time, but it had given me some thoughts.
On that day...
I tried to hang myself using the scarf, but I broke the structure of the building, and fell flat onto the floor. The scarf was fine.
I then tried to kill myself by jumping off the window, but there were scaffoldings outside the hundred years old building at that time.
I tried to find some pills to swallow, but I only found vitamin supplements, which won't help me getting weak.
I tried to find a knife to cut myself, only to find that the knives were all rusty, cause I haven't been cooking for very long. It couldn't even penetrate my skin.
I eventually decided to die of starvation. But strangely enough, a friend of mine, whom I have not been contacting for quite some time, knocked at my door, and brought me some food to share. I was surprised why was he so free on that day, and he told me it was a public holiday. So, in a way, no one noticed my absence at work on that day.
I felt like the world's lousiest suicider that day.
Anyway, the reason I say this is because, I don't think any of the problem I am facing today is as difficult as those I have faced during my PhD, intellectually and emotionally. Nonetheless, I want to remind myself that I shouldn't walk back the same path, that I have neglected everything in my life, just to get stuck by the problem -- I had forgotten to take my supplements, forgotted to cook, forgotted that British were odd that they decided to do building maintenance work during winter, even forgotten what day it was that day.
There are problems in life that worth our pondering effort, but some of them, it's just not worth it. If I neglected everything in life to sort these problems, my world will be empty, and I will be depressed if my world is only to solve shitty problems.
I received some words of thoughts during my visit to Tzu Chi Melacca Charity Oroganisation on Sunday:
不简单的事 仍坚持去做 才是真本领
困难的事 能够去突破 才是真勇气
The direct translation roughly carries the meaning below:
Having the persistence to solve those not-so-easy things, it is considered smart.
Finding the breakthrough from difficult things, it is called bravery.
I tell myself that I should acquire for three things to make a complete life:
Bravery, Wisdom and Confidence.
How much Bravery do I need in order to level up?
How much Wisdom do I need in order to level up?
How much Confidence do I need in order to level up?
I feel like there are three bars above my head, gauging the levels of each elements. Just like those characters in the RPG games...
I wonder if there are any potions that can top up these elements in life?
My Confidence and Bravery is dropping real quick, and my Wisdom doesn't seem to grow fast enough... My daily encounter with all these nonsence in Project Departments have isolated me with my friends, and I am becoming like a nerdy nut.
I need to find a way out.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Office News
Mr. Big has left the company Tuesday this week.
There have been a lot of dramas since the last time I talked about office stuffs. But I don't want to repeat those things here, cause it would drain all my EQ away.
Anyway, it is a good thing to see Mr. Big finally moving on. We are all suffering because of his lack of professional in work.
So our sales department is now left with miss YellowJade, who is pregnant, and will take her maternity leave at the end of the year. And Ir. Decamouth, who is now picking up Mr. Big's bad habit of happily disappearing from work.
I wonder how the company survives with so little staffs in the sales department...
Anyway, I guess volume doesn't matter, cause I am sick of closing all these lousy projects that were passed on to us by Mr. Big from sales department.
There have been a lot of dramas since the last time I talked about office stuffs. But I don't want to repeat those things here, cause it would drain all my EQ away.
Anyway, it is a good thing to see Mr. Big finally moving on. We are all suffering because of his lack of professional in work.
So our sales department is now left with miss YellowJade, who is pregnant, and will take her maternity leave at the end of the year. And Ir. Decamouth, who is now picking up Mr. Big's bad habit of happily disappearing from work.
I wonder how the company survives with so little staffs in the sales department...
Anyway, I guess volume doesn't matter, cause I am sick of closing all these lousy projects that were passed on to us by Mr. Big from sales department.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Photo from India part 02 of 02
Went to buy Sari with the Bridegroom's sister in law, when we came out of the shop, it was already evening, the street was filled with people. The distance between the people and the moving vehicles are intimately close.
Indian drivers are mad, they honk every 5 minutes, and they don't like to stop for you. Pedestrians aren't any better either, they don't care if the vehicles are coming or not, they walk their way, and won't give ways.
This is a view outside the hotel in Chedambaram. It was less than 100m from the temple of dancing god. This is the road leading to the temple. This is a typical morning on the street. You may be able to see cows pulling the wheels in the photo.
This is a typical wedding meal. This is the first course. There are usually five courses. First one is usually some roti, in this case, a fine grade chiapati. Followed by rice with sambah, then rice with assam, rice with yogurt and some sweet oats. They have sweets before and after the meal. The crackers are supplied throughout the meal. All the other smaller portions on the banana leaves will be served throughout as well.
This was the first Indian meal served after I landed, in the bridegroom's house. The bridegroom's mother made very delicious food. That includes the meal and snacks.
This is the second temple that was visited while in Thanjavur. It was closed to the dusk. This is the silhouette of the magnificent temple. Pardon my camera skill.
This is the entrace of the temple. I didn't take much photos here, cause there isn't much lights, and camera flash made it look odd.
This is how the Indian labour draw the lines on the highway. This is considered the best road in the whole of India I guess. Most of the roads are so bad in condition, you can't drive faster than 50 km/h. 
Some weird menu -- Dragon Chicken, Devil Chicken, Chicken Fry (American / Hydrabad) and Chicken 65 (Chukka / Pepper Fry).
Oh, another photo of the wedding stage decor. This is on the first day, which is less formal. But I prefer this one... All the flowers are real, and all chained up by hands! Amazing how much effort people put in decorating this.
Indian drivers are mad, they honk every 5 minutes, and they don't like to stop for you. Pedestrians aren't any better either, they don't care if the vehicles are coming or not, they walk their way, and won't give ways.
This is a view outside the hotel in Chedambaram. It was less than 100m from the temple of dancing god. This is the road leading to the temple. This is a typical morning on the street. You may be able to see cows pulling the wheels in the photo.
This is a typical wedding meal. This is the first course. There are usually five courses. First one is usually some roti, in this case, a fine grade chiapati. Followed by rice with sambah, then rice with assam, rice with yogurt and some sweet oats. They have sweets before and after the meal. The crackers are supplied throughout the meal. All the other smaller portions on the banana leaves will be served throughout as well.Indians eat very fast, while we were struggling to finish the first dish, they already served second round, and all the Indians are ready for second round. They all can finish 5 rounds, and I have to skip after the 2nd round.
This was the first Indian meal served after I landed, in the bridegroom's house. The bridegroom's mother made very delicious food. That includes the meal and snacks.
This is the second temple that was visited while in Thanjavur. It was closed to the dusk. This is the silhouette of the magnificent temple. Pardon my camera skill.
This is the entrace of the temple. I didn't take much photos here, cause there isn't much lights, and camera flash made it look odd.
This is how the Indian labour draw the lines on the highway. This is considered the best road in the whole of India I guess. Most of the roads are so bad in condition, you can't drive faster than 50 km/h.
Noticed the crooked lines on the left? There are lots of crooked highway lines..... just managed to snap this one, as the driver was driving really fast... and close to the other cars too.... damn scary.
Some weird menu -- Dragon Chicken, Devil Chicken, Chicken Fry (American / Hydrabad) and Chicken 65 (Chukka / Pepper Fry).
Oh, another photo of the wedding stage decor. This is on the first day, which is less formal. But I prefer this one... All the flowers are real, and all chained up by hands! Amazing how much effort people put in decorating this.
One thing I noticed in India, people like fresh flowers, and majority of the people are vegetarian. I only seen one shop that sells meat, which was in Chennai.
This reminded me so much of Prince of Persia... It is taken in the temple that I couldn't go in due to missing the last entrance time.
More Prince of Persia?
This is in Pondicherry, it was some French settlement last time, cause the road names were all "Rue de XXX". It is ironic to find a large difference just across the street. The French settlement area has huge roads, big buildings, less crowd, less noisy. One street away, you can hear all the huzzle buzzle of the town.
This is how organised the French were, even the map look so square...
That's all... hope you like these updates. I am sorry it took so long...
This reminded me so much of Prince of Persia... It is taken in the temple that I couldn't go in due to missing the last entrance time.
More Prince of Persia?
This is in Pondicherry, it was some French settlement last time, cause the road names were all "Rue de XXX". It is ironic to find a large difference just across the street. The French settlement area has huge roads, big buildings, less crowd, less noisy. One street away, you can hear all the huzzle buzzle of the town.
This is how organised the French were, even the map look so square...
That's all... hope you like these updates. I am sorry it took so long... Monday, June 29, 2009
India Trip Photo part 01 of 02
Here are some of the photos taken during my stay in India in June, without any orders.
There was this place in Thanjavur, where the Maratta Palace is located. It is actually a little museum that kept all the belongings of one of the king. I find this music scores rather interesting.
This is the outside of that Maratta Palace Museum.
During a boat trip in Chedambaram, Back Water. This is where the tsunami hitted India few years back, and the Mangrove trees have saved them by slowing down the impacts of the waves.
Some salt was found on the tree leaves during the Back Water boat trip. These were caused by the morning dew that condensated by the sun.
This is the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. There were supposed to be 5 temples there, but somehow only left this one. The carving was really amazing, and it puzzled me how did they have so much time and strength to decorate the place with such large stones.
This is another temple, but this is in Chedambaram, no photos allowed after this arc of the door, which shows many dancing steps of the god. The whole temple was about these dancing steps, and apparently someone did a PhD on these dancing carvings.
Some local delicacies in a typical sweet shop.
Live wedding band for the Indian wedding.
This is called the Krishnas Butter Ball. It is man-crafted, they somehow managed to find a centre of gravity of this strange rock, and placed it there...
1. My henna, yes again. I got it while visiting the culture village (Dakshina Chitra in Chennai). The culture village was really worth the visit. It showed a vast traditional rituals and housing architectures etc. And there was a few simple workshops, such as the making of the traditional music instruments, knit work, henna, pottery making, colour painting etc
This henna did not stayed vivid for long, it started to fade within a day. But the smell of it was really fresh, it doesn't have those artificial aromatic additives in there, there are even some hint of the bitterness from the crunched fresh leaves. The ingredients are more original.
This henna did not stayed vivid for long, it started to fade within a day. But the smell of it was really fresh, it doesn't have those artificial aromatic additives in there, there are even some hint of the bitterness from the crunched fresh leaves. The ingredients are more original.
But the trace of it lasted longer than any of the other henna I got previously. The henna on my hand now is more than a week already, it is not as vivid anymore, but the traces are still on the hand.
This picture was taken on the day it was drawn, after everything was peeled off.
There was this place in Thanjavur, where the Maratta Palace is located. It is actually a little museum that kept all the belongings of one of the king. I find this music scores rather interesting.
This is the outside of that Maratta Palace Museum.
During a boat trip in Chedambaram, Back Water. This is where the tsunami hitted India few years back, and the Mangrove trees have saved them by slowing down the impacts of the waves.
Some salt was found on the tree leaves during the Back Water boat trip. These were caused by the morning dew that condensated by the sun.
This is the shore temple in Mahabalipuram. There were supposed to be 5 temples there, but somehow only left this one. The carving was really amazing, and it puzzled me how did they have so much time and strength to decorate the place with such large stones.
This is another temple, but this is in Chedambaram, no photos allowed after this arc of the door, which shows many dancing steps of the god. The whole temple was about these dancing steps, and apparently someone did a PhD on these dancing carvings.
There was a tale that comes with this temple. Long long time ago, there was this male god who is very good in dancing. He has a female counterpart who is also a great dancer. She was unhappy that people only worship him and ignore her, so she challenged him with dance.
The competition was fierce, and eventually the god won the competition by lifting his leg to put on his ear ring. She was defeated, because in Indian culture, female cannot lift their legs like that.
So this temple was for that dancing god.
Some local delicacies in a typical sweet shop.
Live wedding band for the Indian wedding.
This is called the Krishnas Butter Ball. It is man-crafted, they somehow managed to find a centre of gravity of this strange rock, and placed it there...
There were three monkeys walking towards the camera in the picture below, and I saw two goats while hanging around there too.
This is the tree leaves that used for making the henna paste. This picture was taken while visiting the Dakshina Chitra.
This is one of the beautiful sand painting made at the wedding hall entrace. I only managed to take photo of this one, as others were having bad reflection from the sun, shining through the glass.
This is the Five Rathas in Mahabalipuram. There are five carving items in this area. All these are carved from the rock which was already in that place. It looks like some armeteur trying to practise their skills behind the master, went to the sea side, pick some large rocks, carving it day by day.....
This is one of the temple that was next to the Maratta Palace Museum. Couldn't get in cause the lousy tour guide spent too much time in the Museum, and missed the last entrance for this temple. So only can take some photos from the outside. It somehow reminded me of the game -- Prince of Persia... you will see later...
This is one of the beaches in Chennai, so crowded. Not many people played in the water, as the waves are really huge, and the shore seems to have a sudden drop, like a cliff underneath the sea.
This is a botanical garden in the heart of Chennai, it is actually a very nice area. Perhaps the heat in the summer has made it rather hot, and most of the plants are suffering from the dry and hot weather.
This is one of the oldest tree in the botanical garden, a Banyan tree. The main stem of the original plant has already rotten away, but branches of it, and the extension of it survives until today. It covers a huge area, can't remember the exact value and unit.
This is a metal chain, that disguised like a rope. It was so long lasting, it doesn't look damaged after witnessing so many generations.
Got confused by the sign -- Highly Inflammable. Checked my dictionary after returning home... it was actually correct. A quote from dictionary.com:
This is the tree leaves that used for making the henna paste. This picture was taken while visiting the Dakshina Chitra.
This is one of the beautiful sand painting made at the wedding hall entrace. I only managed to take photo of this one, as others were having bad reflection from the sun, shining through the glass.
This is the Five Rathas in Mahabalipuram. There are five carving items in this area. All these are carved from the rock which was already in that place. It looks like some armeteur trying to practise their skills behind the master, went to the sea side, pick some large rocks, carving it day by day.....
This is one of the temple that was next to the Maratta Palace Museum. Couldn't get in cause the lousy tour guide spent too much time in the Museum, and missed the last entrance for this temple. So only can take some photos from the outside. It somehow reminded me of the game -- Prince of Persia... you will see later...
This is one of the beaches in Chennai, so crowded. Not many people played in the water, as the waves are really huge, and the shore seems to have a sudden drop, like a cliff underneath the sea.
This is a botanical garden in the heart of Chennai, it is actually a very nice area. Perhaps the heat in the summer has made it rather hot, and most of the plants are suffering from the dry and hot weather. 
This is one of the oldest tree in the botanical garden, a Banyan tree. The main stem of the original plant has already rotten away, but branches of it, and the extension of it survives until today. It covers a huge area, can't remember the exact value and unit.
This is a metal chain, that disguised like a rope. It was so long lasting, it doesn't look damaged after witnessing so many generations.
Got confused by the sign -- Highly Inflammable. Checked my dictionary after returning home... it was actually correct. A quote from dictionary.com:
Usage note:Inflammable and flammable both mean “combustible.” Inflammable is the older by about 200 years. Flammable now has certain technical uses, particularly as a warning on vehicles carrying combustible materials, because of a belief that some might interpret the intensive prefix in- of inflammable as a negative prefix and thus think the word means “noncombustible.” Inflammable is the word more usually used in nontechnical and figurative contexts: The speaker ignited the inflammable emotions of the crowd.
Also, notice the Air Bus next to the lorry? I wonder how would Airbus felt?
Also, notice the Air Bus next to the lorry? I wonder how would Airbus felt?
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