Pengakuan seorang penyambung warisan yang terlampau

Sempena Hari Merdeka ni, semua orang tgh cakap betapa bangganya mereka menjadi seorang anak Malaysia dan ini membuatkan aku tertanya-tanya, hebat sangat ke Malaysia ni? Oleh itu, aku nak cuba bandingkan, mana lagi best? Tinggal di Malaysia ke tinggal di US, memandangkan US adalah satu-satunya negara yg aku pernah duduk selain dari Malaysia. Takkanla aku nak bandingkan dengan Kazakhstan ye tak?

Mari kita mulakan...

Kat sana boleh sewa video (masa aku duduk sana takde vcd/dvd lagi) cite baru2. Bandar kecik tempat aku duduk tu pun ada 3 kedai sewa video, semuanya dalam kejauhan berjalan (walking distance). Kat sini ada jugak kedai video sewa tapi cite Hindustan, drama cina, drama korea banyak la. Baru2 ni ada yang mula buat khidmat sewa DVD tapi sewanya mak datuk mehel...

Kat sana dulu macam2 cita aku boleh tengok. Bukan saja cite baru, cite lama pun ada. Aku dapat tengok 12 Angry Men dan To Kill a Mockingbird. Sampai sekarang aku masih mencari dvd nya. Kalau aku ada kat US dah lama dah boleh beli kat Amazon.com. Kalau kau nak cite2 lain pun ada seperti.... cite ehem ehem tu... kalau muka kau tebal la nak masuk bilik "For Adults Only". Selain daripada tu aku juga berpeluang melihat cite antarabangsa seperti Seven Samurai, Harakiri, Ran, Cinema Paradiso dan lain2 lagi. Aku dapat sewa pelbagai Anime termasuk la yang ber-rated 'R'.

CD music jangan cakap la. Nak beli CD terpakai pun boleh. harga pun lagi murah. Jimat kos. Kualiti masih bagus. Sama jugak dengan buku. Buku baru murah la jugak. Kalau pergi Wal-Mart dapat lagi murah, pergi kedai buku terpakai lagila murah.

Kat sana boleh beli buku dari Amazon.com. Kat sini tak boleh.

Kat sana ada Saturday Night Live, Jay leno, Conan O'Brien, South Park. Kat sini ada David Letterman je.

Malaysia - kerja part-time RM5-50 sejam (kadar lumayan jugak ni) ~~ Harga purata CD artis tempatan RM35 ~~ Harga purata novel PB tempatan RM25 ~~ Dengan pendapatan satu jam boleh makan McDonald, itupun kena tambah sikit.
US - kerja part-time US$5-15 sejam (lebih kurang sama dengan sini) ~~ Harga purata CD artis tempatan US$14 ~~ harga purata novel PB tempatan US$6.99 ~~ Dengan pendapat sejam boleh makan McDonald dan masih ada duit lebih.

Kat sana ada panggung wayang US$1. Walaupun cite lama kira ok la tu, takde la terasa ketinggalan zaman sangat.

Kat sana perpustakaan awam dia teramatla best. Buku dia banyak... yang terbaru pulak tu. Jangan cakap buku, CD lagu pun boleh pinjam. Kat sini perpustakaan awam dia

Kat sini harga minyak asyik naik je.

Kat sana concert best2. Aku dapat tengok Live dan Dave Matthews Band. Kat sini paling best pun Alanis Morisette itupun 10 tahun yang lalu. Nak dapatkan CD Dave Matthews Band pun susah. Tah apa kena tah.

Kat sana ada kedai 24 jam macam Wal-mart dan Kroger. Kat sini tak ada.

Kat sana susah betul nak jumpa tol. Sepanjang dua tahun aku duduk sana pernah jumpa tol sekali je. Kat sini jangan cakap la. Nak pergi rumah kakak aku yang sejauh 15 km tu pun dah kena tol sekali.

Sukan kat sana memang seronok. Universiti aku ada kumpulan bola keranjang yang paling best dalam NCAA. Dah berapa kali dah juara. Masa aku kat sana, sekali naib juara, lepas tu juara balik Aku dapat tengok negeri kediaman aku lawan hoki ais. Walaupun dia kalah dalam sesi mati tiba2 (sudden death) pada hari tu aku memang puas hati melihat aksi2 hebat dan pantas dari team aku. Aku juga belajar serba sedikit pasal American football, juga satu permainan yang menarik. Kat sini ada bola sepak, ada badminton. Itupun tah apa2 tah. Kejap best kejap tak best. Kejap menang tapi selalunya kalah je la.

Kat sana penapisan tak ketat sangat. Kat sini macam 'tut' je dia orang potong sana potong sini.

Kat sana aku kena bayar cukai. Kat sini tak payah.

Kat sana kicap mahal. Kat sini murah. Ayam pun mana2 boleh dapat. Kat sana kena beli kat masjid je.

Kat sana makan kena jaga. Kat sini boleh lantak apa2 je asalkan ada tanda halal.

Kat sana kalau nak bercuti mesti kena naik kapal terbang. Kat sini naik bas je dah cukup.

Kat sana ada ribut taufan, ribut salji dan gempa bumi. Kat sini paling teruk pun ada banjir. Tsunami tu aku rasa sekali dalam seribu tahun la kena. Kat sana tiap2 tahun ada je kes bencana alam.

Kat sana ada bangunan kena bom. Kat sini tak ada.

Kat sana ada Ku Klux Klan. Kat sini ada lebih dari 3 kaum tapi tak gaduh pun.

Itulah hakikatnya saudara saudari sekalian. Sehebat manapun sesuatu negara tu ada jugak kelemahannya. Aku lagi sanggup menghadap jerebu tiap2 hari kat sini daripada orang letupkan tempat kerja aku atau tengok budak2 umur baru 13 tahun dah kena pegang senapang.

Aku pernah jumpa orang Malaysia yang tak suka duduk kat sini. "Duduk kat (apa2 negara) lagi best la. Banyak kebebasan." Macam ni la... Kalau kau benci sangat duduk kat sini, anda dengan segala hormatnya dipersilakan migrate. Kita orang pun tak hingin orang macam awak tinggal kat negara ni.

Yang mengaku bangga jadi anak Malaysia tu pulak mesti ingat, negara kita ni masih ada banyak lagi ruang yang perlu dibaiki. Kalau nampak sesuatu yang korang tak suka, cuba ubahkan. Jangan la sikit2 harap kerajaan. Nak tunggu ada kempen, baru nak ada kesedaran. Dah buat iklan baru nak ikut contoh. Jangan pulak setahun sekali je nak tunjuk sayangkan negara.

Sekarang sudah masuk waktu 11:55 malam. Nampaknya saya berjaya berbelog dalam BM. Setinggi tahniah dan terima kasih saya ucapkan pada Sang Mata kerana menganjurkan kempen istimewa ini.

Mari kita laungkan bersama-sama...

Malaysia Boleh!
Keranamu Malaysia!
Sopan Santun Budaya Kita!
Katakan Tidak!
Berhati-hati di Jalan Raya!
Gadis Kampung Celup boleh!
Mawi Benci Dadah!

Alamak... lebih2 lak...

Saya yang menjalankan tugas,
Gadis Kampung Celup
yang bangga bergelar penyambung warisan

WOW!

Aku baru lepas tengok Rockstar: Inxs. Wow! Aku rasa inilah episode yang paling best. Sape2 yang masih belum tersangkut dengan rancangan ni cepat2 la sangkut pasal show ni memang best. Kalau ye pun korang tak nak undi takat tgk persembahan dia orang pun dah cukup dah. Aku pun bukan undi pun.

Antara persembahan hebat malam ini adalah dari Marty. Walaupun aku tak minat dia sangat tapi dia nyanyi lagu Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here memang best. Sungguh emotional dan ada feel. Mest dapat encore besok. Tapi yang paling best adalah Suzie apabila dia mengambil risiko yang amat besar dengan memilih lagu Bohemian Rhapsody oleh Queen. Aku takut jugak pasal dia ni macam minah sweet-sweet sikit, macam mana nak bawak lagu yang sangat gothic macam Bohemian Rhapsody tapi dia dapat melakukannya.

Aku memang minat dgn Suzie ni. Aku sokong dia seratus peratus. Suara dia memang kelas. Kalau dia menang memang aku beli CD Inxs yang baru ni.

Go Suzie! Go Suzie!

Merdeka!

Aduh!!!!!!!!! Akhirnya aku survive jugak kerja pada hari merdeka. Memang betul la kata2 senior aku, memang seperti mimpi ngeri.

Aku tak tau la apasal harini teramat la ramai orang datang kat kedai aku. Tengok kat luar orang berpusu-pusu jalan sana jalan sini, angkut segala datuk nenek, anak cucu, ipar duai semua ada. Diaorang ni tak reti ke duduk rumah diam2 macam Sang Mata. Cuti sehari je, duduk je la rumah tengok TV ke, dvd ke, tidur ke, kan best. Kalau la aku cuti harini memang aku akan buat benda2 yg aku baru sebut tadi.

Lagi satu yang aku pelik, kumpulan kali ini macam lagi ganas daripada crowd cuti sekolah haritu. Macam diaorang ni sume pikir yang cuti kali ni satu hari je, so mesti go all out dan meruntuhkan segala shopping mall dan kedai2 yang bukak masa hari cuti. Gila betul. Penat aku menyusun buku. Satu rak tu agaknya beribu2 kali aku nyusun. Pusing je dah terabur balik. Lutut dah menggeletar dah. Tak pernah sakit sampai macam ni.

Walau bagaimanapun aku masih hidup lagi. Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Aku berjaya drive balik ke rumah dalam masa 15 minit (satu rekod yang teramat susah nak pecah) dan sekarang aku dah boleh lepak2 kat rumah sambil berbelog. Tapi esok kena kerja jugak, dan esoknya dan esoknya lagi....


Aku cuba nak berbelog 100% BM tapi tak pandai la. Tu la... nama je melayu, ngaku budak kampung lak tu tapi bahasa sendiri pun tak boleh tulis. Akhirnya tercetus la Bahasa Melayu celup... Itu lah lumrahnya kehidupan di Malaysia ni. Sekurang-kurangnya aku boleh la bertutur dalam dua bahasa.

~~ Gadis Kampung Celup ~~

Should I care?

Like I mentioned before, I went out with a couple of friends from my old workplace. One of them still works in the same office as my ex-boyfriend who just got married recently. If you're a bit confused, yes I dated a guy from the same company but from a different department. She went to his wedding so of course I asked all the neceessary questions any jilted girlfriends would ask like who he's married to, how he met her, bla bla bla... and she (SS) was happy to provide the information.

And the first thing she said was...
"She's fat"
"Wait a minute. You mean fat fat or just chubby fat?"
"She's... fat. Totally not someone we thought he would end up with."

That conversation may not sound right but you have to know him to understand. For one thing he's short, for a guy, and when I was with him he works out a lot. He jogs, he goes to the company gym, he joined most of the sporting activities organized by the company. All in all, not a bad-looking dude. From what I heard from SS and from all the stories that he told me, he has his share of girls chasing around his skirt, or maybe I should say pants.

So it was quite a surprise for his friends, and me, that he end up marrying a girl like that. I mean, since he dropped me so easily I would have imagined him to hook up with some hot chick. But yet he didn't. Well, she could be pretty. I didn't ask SS whether she's pretty or not. Fat girls can be pretty. She could be succesful. She's a dentist for the government. Maybe that's why he's attracted to her. But then, SS thinks that he's not really in love with her. But that's only her point of view.

But then, another weird thing about this marriage is that his friends didn't know much about the girl. You know... if you have someone you would bring her/him to weddings, open houses, hanging out sessions, whatever. But it seems that his gang didn't see much of her before the wedding.

According to SS, they were introduced by a friend. They got together for about a year and got married some time in April. He's now living with her in Seremban where she works. Can you imagine, commuting Seremban-KL everyday? Well, I guess that's what you call love. The wife is relocating to Senawang, which is further than Seremban. So she doesn't know what will happen then.

SS told me that he had some pretty tough time. His mother passed away about 2 years ago and his father got married again. He was quite dejected by this. He wished his father could at least wait a little longer. He didn't, he remarried within the same year.

Hearing all this makes me feel really sorry for him. I feel sorry that we were not together when all this happened. I feel sad that we were not 'friends' like we were supposed to be. I hope that he didn't go through that alone. And I do hope that he married for love and not because at his age he thinks he's supposed to be married.

He's not that old anyway. He's 31 this year, which I think is still fine for a guy to be single. I'm afraid that with all his friends getting married one after another he didn't want to be left behind. I'm afraid that he would think since both his younger brothers are married, it would be funny that he's still not. And he is the kind of guy who could think that way. God forbids that he has a 'deadline'.

I don't know how I should feel about this. But then, why should I be concerned? He has made his choice and I wish him all the happiness in the world. I only heard the story from one point of view anyway. For all I know, he could be ecstatically happy right now.

But I'm okay. It's not like he was such a big loss for me. I didn't have any feelings for him anyway. All I remembered was that we went out a few times and all of a sudden he was talking about marriage. I said that I don't know him that well and he said okay... yadayadayada... went out a few more times... a bit quiet for a while ... and suddenly, I got this SMS saying he wants us to be friends "So what the hell have we been doing all this time?" I answered back, NOT in those exact words. Tried calling him didn't pick up, SMS him to meet he didn't want to. So I thought, what the hell. He can go $#%& himself if he thinks that way.

Anyway, SS got some photos from the wedding. I think I'll wait until I see the photos before I say anything more.

Happy Merdeka!!!!

(If you're wondering why I didn't blog in Malay since it's 31st August when you read this, I started this post at 11:27 on 30th so this one doesn't count. But... saya berikrar akan berbelog dalam BM pada malam ini. Tapi tak tau la nak cakap pasal apa... hari special kena la belog special sikit.)

Current update - 30/8/05

Why do I do this?

Read: Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling, Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire
Reading: Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens, The Haunted Dolls' House and other stories by M.R. James, Imajica by Clive Barker (I've decided to drop The Haunted Dolls' House - not so thrilling la...)
CD: None
Favorite song: Cool by Gwen Stefani
Playing: none
Watching: The Apprentice 3, Arrested Development, Rockstar: INXS, Desperate Housewives

*No. of times asked if I have a boyfriend: 6
*No. of times asked when I will get married: 15
*No. of times asked when I will have kids: 2
Note: * Since I started this blog of course. I've been getting these questions lots of times before but you can't honestly believe I would count them, right? I just thought of this lately. It's interesting to know the average number of times a single girl at a marriageable age get that million dollar question. I hope other single bloggers would do the same. Maybe we can write a thesis on it! I also change "ppl" to "times" since one person can ask all three questions.

Other news:
1) Met a lot of old friends this month. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT.... more than usual.
2) Saw J. Lo, Cheryl Samad and Yasmin Ahmad at my workplace

This just in!

First some breaking news...

Kampung Gal's stat shoots up to the hundreds last Sunday (actually it was just 107) without her blogging about a TV show, thus discredits her theory. She is still wondering why.

But then, most of the visitors only spent less than 5 seconds at my blog so it's either they expected something else or they're really, really fast readers. Either way I'm still happy.

And now to other news of the day...

Yesterday me and some friends way back from school finally get to meet. We all live in the same city (except for one who lives in Johor) but after, I don't know, eons and eons, we finally get to sit down and have a nice long chat (thank God we didn't talk about work). Most of the time we were talking about a recent event that happened to one of us, which I'm dying to talk about. But we are sworn to secrecy so I'd have to think about it again. Along has the gist of what it was about though, you'll get the idea. Next agenda - karaoke! Right gals?

After meeting them I went straight to the Times warehouse sale. And just for you desparil here are the details,

Date: 26th August - 31st Aug 2005
(26th August TPC cardmember's preview day)

Time: 10am - 7.00pm

Venue: No.4 (2nd Floor), Jalan 13/4, Section 13, Petaling Jaya (behind Colgate-Palmolive)

Contact No: 012-237 5631

Total damage: RM113 and I was being very discreet in my selections. They are,

• The Phenix and the Carpet - E. Nesbitt (RM3)
• The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton (RM5)
• Classic Horror Stories (RM5) This is an old publication but it has a lot of stories by great authors whom I never knew wrote horror stories like Robert Louis Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne and D.H. Lawrence.
• VCD "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Starring George Clooney (RM11)
  
• VCD "Elizabeth" starring Cate Blanchett in her Oscar nominated role (RM11)
• Winnie the Pooh box set (RM42). Normal price RM59-90. It is cheaper buying it now than buying it from my workplace even with the staff discount.
• Wild Swans - Jung Chang (RM25) I read the book before (borrowed from a friend). I really liked it. She was able to make me understand why the people of China can still support Communism and Mao even with all the hardships that they have to go through. Now I'm wondering if I should read her new book, Mao: The Unknown Story.

I was able to restrict myself from buying Sketches From Boz by Charles Dickens, Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotsons, a book written by a jury who was involved in a murder case and some horror classics VCDs like Daughter of Dracula with Bela Lugosi and Frankenstein with... I can't remember who but it was not Boris Karloff. Not worthing having... at least for now.(sigh) If only I have a bigger budget.

I also found Afdlin Shauki's blog last night.

Today I sent my car for service which is actually one month overdue. While waiting for them to finish with it, I went to a nearby shopping mall to kill time. Of course I ended up in Payless. Since I knew I have lots of time to kill i went and survey each and every shelf that interests me.

First, the children and young adult section with the intention of finding more books from the Oz series. I managed to find two of them, both from Payless for about RM25 each a few years back. They are the HC versions with color plates (pages with full color illustrations printed on special paper). Quite nice to add to my collection. So I was really hoping I can find more. No luck this time.

Instead I found an interesting find - Unforgettable Fire, U2's early biography (up to the year 1987). I know it's kind of old (and not that accurate judging from a review in Amazon) but if you check out the price of recent books on U2, you will get choked.

Afterwards I went straight to the next appointment, meeting my ex-colleagues from the bank. This is a different group of ex-colleagues. Not the ones that I talked about before who can't stop talking about work. Remember them? Well, these people are NOT them and thank God we didn't talk about work this time too.

Busy, busy week this time around and it has to happen on the eve of my first 5 days straight shift complete with a public holiday. That's life, right?

It is two days until "Belog Dalam BM" campaign and I still don't know what I'm going to talk about. What I do know is that I'll be known as Gadis Kampung Celup on that day since Gadis Kampung Dalam Bandar sounds so corny... Thanks to Eyeris for the idea.

Sorry PPS!

PPS server is so the very fast one. The moment you click 'Send' your ping will surely go through. No turning back. Clicking on the 'X' a mere second after clicking 'Send' won't work either. Only because you entered the wrong URL.

Damn this is second time I pinged PPS twice on the same post.

I'm really really sorry PPS


Please don't ban me...

Bookstore dos and don'ts

1) Don't come over the weekend if you expect excellent service
2) Don't come during school holidays and expect excellent service
3) Don't let your kids go off like chicken flying from the coup
4) Don't treat the bookstore like a playground.
5) Don't let your kids look through books unattended. They can be quite rough sometimes. I don't want to be the one to tell you, even your little cutesy chubby angel can be a monster at times.
6) Don't step, fold back, throw, take out the dust-jacket, tear, dog-ear or roll the books i.e. don't treat the books like library books
7) Don't open wrapped merchandise and leave it around. Please pass it to any of the staff. They won't scold you but they might give you the eye.
8) Don't cuddle up with boyfriend/girlfriend while browsing for books. You have your house to do that.
9) Don't dating in the bookstore
10) Don't hold any meetings at the bookstore
11) Don't open any merchandise that you bought from another store and starts playing with it.
12) Don't pretend you're treating the books nicely only when the staff are around. Treat the books nicely ALL THE TIME!

Phew!!! I just have to let that out my chest.

I never knew that working in a bookstore during school holidays could be so exhausting. We had busy days before especially on the weekends but this is ridiculous. It's like everyday is a weekend and I wish I can say that in a positive way.

The last rule is my favourite. I've noticed this lots of times. Just as I was walking around picking books up here and there I can see kids with a bunch of books strewn on the floor. The best thing is the parents/guardians are just right there with them. As soon as they see me they will immediately say things like...
"Don't take so many books out"
"Handle the books carefully aa"
"You better put everything back"
But of course, as soon as I'm gone they never do.

Just today I saw a kid about less than 2 years old, stepping on a book while the parent/guardian (two of them) just went on chit-chatting. As soon as they see me they immediately took hold of the child and picked up the book which proved that they did know what the child was doing before they see me.

I've seen babies 'reading' books that are obviously too old for them, unless they are genuises. I've seen kids peeling stickers off from a sticker book that they haven't paid for and sticking them on their legs. And today I found an activity sticker book with all the activities completed.

And another thing. I don't think maids are good watchers when you come to one of these stores. They would just sit there and do nothing. I don't know if it's because they're just lazy or maybe their employers specifically told them not to reprimand their kids if they're doing something wrong. I may be imagining this but I think the maids get a kick watching the staff picking up after them.

I think anyone who ever worked in the retail line will agree with me on this. Gweilos tend to be more civil compared to Asians. I'm not being prejudiced or picky here but it's true, we have to face the facts. If you're wondering why we tend to serve them nicer than anyone else, just observe how they speak to us. And then try to do the same. Of course, I'm not saying that ALL gweilos are nice and ALL Asians are rude but I do notice there is a general difference between the two when it comes to civility.

[from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Tenth Ed.]
Civil - adequate in courtesy and politeness. syn polite, courteous, gallant, chivalrous

Please, do be patient with us. I say this on behalf of all the bookstore staff in the world. I swear we are doing the best we can to help you find what you're looking for and keep you happy. Just remember that not all of us are as well-read as you and you cannot expect us to know each and every title we have in store.

And so I survived the school holidays. I'll be off from work the next two days.
I'm planning to meet up with some old friends and go to the Times warehouse sale tomorrow

Next up, Merdeka Day holiday. From what I heard from senior staff it can be quite a nightmare

and of course there's the end-of-year school holiday - one whole month of weekends

Let it go

Apparently everyone has problems at work. Everytime I meet up with some old friends that I haven't seen for a long time, the first topic of discussion is always problems at work: nonessential meetings, lazy managers, task overload, ass-kissing colleaques etc etc etc.

I just got back from a night out with some old friends from college. One of them currently works in USA and was in town for a visit. When I joined in they were talking about nonessential meetings. Last week I had lunch with my ex-colleagues from my banking days and they spent the whole 40 minutes talking about task overload and ass-kissing colleagues. All I can contribute to that conversation was, "Thank God I left when I did!" A few months ago I met up with some old classmates from school and most of the time they were talking about stress at work. Aiyooo.... can we talk about the good old times now?

So far I've worked for 4 companies, from direct selling company to a large local organization to a small business and now an international retail company. I must say there's a lot of room for bitterness and dissatisfaction but I can honestly say I don't hold a grudge with any of them. It's either I never had any problems working there or I'm just the forgiving type.

I was aware that while working for the bank, there was office gossip floating around but I was always the last to know or never know at all. I'm not sure if it was because people didn't bother telling me because the gossip didn't concern me or that I did heard it but never really cared to spread it around or because I was too blur to identify certain tidbits as gossip. I've had colleaques coming to me saying that they have problems with so and so because of this this this. But all I can do is listen because I didn't have this this this problem with that so and so. Even if I do have a problem with anyone I find that it was minuscule and thus didn't find the need to tell everyone about it.

The only thing that bugged me while working for the bank which leads to my change of department is the lack of recognition for my hard work. Among the clerical staff I was the second eldest and the only one who's way over-qualified since I have 4 years of university education. But I didn't mind that. I did my job, I got on well with the other staff and respected my senior who's 2 years younger than me. I did my work with the most minimum amount of mistake in a timely manner. I think you'll agree that this trait is very important for a clerk. But come appraisal time I always get 'Average' review which after some discreet investigation, is also what they (the appraisers) give to the rest of the clerks, whom I can see did not do the job as well as I did.

At one time my supervisor told me that other people in the department have a problem with me. I was so serious that they find it difficult to approach me to ask about anything. Okay I accepted that. I do admit that I'm pretty serious when it comes to work. I never realized that it affected other people that way. So I took note of it.

When the next appraisal came, they brought up the same issue. This time I rebutted and said that I find that the fellow clerical staff do come and asked for my help or to find out about something. But now they say that it was the officers who had a problem with me. Okay.... officers scared of a clerk. That's something new.

I couldn't understand that. I know the same thing that the rest of the staff knew, sometimes more. I know I finish all my work faster than the rest of the clerks and I have low amount of overtime. Isn't that all that matter for a clerk? The only think that I can think of which could lead to this observation is that I don't socialize as much with the officers more than I need to. I don't come over to their desk and chit chat with them, I don't jokingly slap or pinch them whenever they say something naughty, and I seldom join them for the afternoon teh tarik session. All I did was finish my tasks and made sure that I don't make stupid mistakes that can delay the officers' work. And I get 'Average' for that.

I was quite frustrated. I wanted to resign. But someone told me to consider transferring to another department first. If I still don't like it then consider resigning which was an acceptable option. I don't know what I wanted to do at that time anyway. When opportunity knocks I rushed to get the door.

It's just so happen around the same time the department organized a 'Bonding Programme' with the objective of making the people work with each other better and more effectively. Long story short I was quite the star in the programme. I represented my team to do a presentation and I was named one of the best participants (and all I got was a damn towel).

It was also during this programme that I was noticed by the Assistant General Manager. He knew me by name from that moment on. When he found out that I got approval to transfer to another department after a farewell buffet, he was shocked and expressed it quite openly in front of the whole unit which includes clerks, officers, senior officers, assistant managers, well you catch my drift. But it was too late. My transfer has been approved and the other department was expecting my arrival in two weeks time. So I just said...
and all the best to ya! Sorry you didn't see what you had before!

I also found out later on that he didn't stop expressing his dissatisfation that I left his department. He even voiced it to my new manager, which I must say gave quite a boost to my ego. Anyway, I was able to let it go and didn't hold any grudges for my old department. I just hope they learn something from this incident.

Today, everytime I meet up with my old friends and they started to talk about work problems, I would just listen and nod, gasp at the right places and laugh when I need to. I never really joined in because I cannot find any work-related problems that is much worse than what they have.

Is it because I'm so easily entertained that I could forget my problems just like that? Is it because I'm just too ignorant to know that I have a problem? Or is it because the higher your salary the more problems you'll get? I don't know. What I do know is I go to work when they expect me to and at the end of the month my salary is in my bank account like I expect it to. Even though I did have some minor glitches with my employers (another classic example is when my previous employer send me to do data entry for his brother), I never take it as a burden. I always think of it as a temporary thing and most of the time it is.

Anyway, the point of this post is we must not let our job dictate our life. Must our minds be filled with work-related problems that we must talk about it all the time? Even to our friends whom we haven't seen for ages. Do we need to bog them down with problems that they cannot help us with anyway?

However, I do agree that talking about it does help to relieve some of the stress. Just make sure that I'm not around to hear it. Hehehe I'm kidding. I'm a great listener. You can talk to me anytime. Really.

In the meantime, don't let your job define who you are. A job is just the thing that you do so that you can watch the latest movie at home, buy the cloth that covers your body (or not), get the daily caffeine jolt, take out your loved ones to a nice dinner or whatever it is that you like to do. So don't let your life revolves around your job.

Happy working!

Tak sesuai!

Me and traffic in KL clearly do not go together.

After 4 years of driving I find that whenever there is a massive jam anywhere in KL - I'll be right in the middle of it.

I tried doing the dodging thing. Taking another route when I see the tail of a possible traffic jam up ahead. But I'll just end up in another traffic jam that is even worse than the one I tried to dodge.

It doesn't help when all the radio stations are sooooo God-damn BORING...
I have 6 pre-programmed channels in my car and whenever I need it the most they would either talk about some boring topic, put on 27 ads back to back, play some stupid game, or put on a boring song that I just heard 15 minutes ago at another station. These boring topics range from would you spend RM35 for underwear to a 15-minute discussion of P Diddy changing his name to Diddy (like we care), from have you lied to your boss to God forbids, traffic courtesy among Malaysians. I swear to God at one time when I was station surfing, NO song was playing at any of the 6 stations I programmed. And let me name these 6 stations so you can see/hear for yourself what I have to put up with. They are, in order of the button from left to right...
Hitz.fm Mix fm Traxx ( formerly known as Radio 4) Red 104.9 Era Fly fm

I also got a question for you, has Hitz.fm caught a remix bug lately? Why do they like to do a remix to a perfectly good song?

Why!!!!!!!!!!

It's even worst if they remix a song that I already hate.

But recently we have 95.8 Fly fm added to our list of radio stations. They boast of playing 50 minutes of music every hour non-stop and have a wider range of music. But after a few weeks of listening I feel that they're just like the rest of them. And 'non-stop' is such an over-rated word. Of course there would be the occasional "95.8 Fly fm, we play 50 minutes of non-stop music."
Well, you're stopping now aren't you! Now play some God-damn decent music for a change!!!

But I did learn a lesson today - bring your CD player when you work in the morning shift.

Cover Me - The Not So Bad Versions

Hai.... Finally I have enough sense to continue something I've started way back in June, if only to appease those who do follow this series. Hehehe... that's the joke right? Like there is somebody out there who cares enough about cover songs to wait with abated breath for this measly writer wannabe to give her 2-cents worth.

Anyway I just want to finish it for my own sake. It would be good practice to finish what I started.

So here goes...

Below are a few songs that I feel are still good but yet I still prefer the originals.

1) Big Yellow Taxi by Counting Crows feat. Vanessa Carlton originally performed by Joni Mitchell
I love Counting Crows and I like Vanessa Carlton, sometimes. At first I like their cover of this classic Joni Mitchell. However, after a while I find that Adam Duritz's vocal sounds whiny and Vanessa Carlton's part become so insignificant. So I might as well go back to the original.

2) Human by Ning Baizura originally performed by Human League
This is one of my favorite song. Though I must admit that Ning did do a good job with it especially as a come back song after the little scandalous interview for a magazine she did. But I like the original vocals more because I feel it is more dramatic compared to Ning's high pitched version.

3) Under the Bridge by All Saints (Originally performed by Red Hot Chilli Peppers)
To all Red Hot die-hard fans this version is a sacrilege to their greatest song of all time. Well, I'm not a die-hard fan so I think that this version is not that bad actually. But then I still prefer the original.

4) She Bangs by Will Hung (Originally performed by Ricky Martin)
Hehehe... I'm not a fan of William either but I got to give him props. Check out the video, it bangs!!! At least in the William Hung kind of way.

5) Rindu Bayangan by Dayang Nurfaizah & Dino (Originally performed by Carefree)
have you heard the term "trying too hard"? Well that's what I feel from the Dayang version. It's still not bad but at the end of the day I'll take Carefree over them anytime.

I try to make the list into a nice round number of 10 but I guess it's a thin line between good covers and bad covers. So I find that these five songs (as far as I can remember) have their merits but I find that the originals are much more enjoyable and conveyed the feel of the song more effectively.

Stay tune for...
Cover Me - The Bad Versions
Cover Me - Don't Ever Try to Cover Versions
Cover Me - Ones That I Like to See Anyone Try to Cover

Still welcome feedbacks

Rock it baby yeah!

When I first saw the promo of Rock Star: INXS I thought, "Oh God! Not another reality show!". I even find the promo annoying and thought that INXS has become a sell-out. Why can't they find a new member at their own time? But noooo... they have to search throughout the globe and make a huge 15 week audition process out of it. You can call it The Apprentice: Rock Style. And of course they just have to drag Dave Navarro into it.

So with...

A little bit of old school to keep it real (INXS)
A dash of cute factor to draw in the girls (Dave Navarro)
A pinch of skin to draw in the guys (Brooke Burke's very short skirts), and
A whole pot of desperation (the 15 contestants and INXS trying to top Michael Hutchence's suicide),

we have the complete recipe of a perfect reality talent show and I didn't give it a second thought.

But I stumbled upon it one day and I was pulled by the great songs performed by these unknown performers. I may not be an expert in the rock scene. I may not know what's hot and what's not when it comes to evaluating rock music, but I'm always a sucker for live band performances and theirs were pretty good.

I was also curious as to how they're going to pull it off. Like other reality talent shows, they also rely on SMS voting to determine who's in and who's not. So what happens if INXS is stuck with someone they don't really like?

What they actually do is the voting will determine who are the people at the bottom three. And then out of the three INXS will kick one out (or two of they fell like it). The bottom three will have a last chance to proof themselves by performing an INXS song the band chose for them. Nice plan, a balance of public approval and professional recognition.

What the contestants sing every week is another ingenious plan. They get a limited number of songs, very limited. If there are 10 contestants left, they will get 10 songs to chose from. That's it. From my point of view this gives a lot of room for the contestants to sabotage each other. If they know that a competitor wants a particular song so bad, they could easily fight for the same song. Or they could innocently say that "You would be great doing this! I can totaly see you rockin' doing this song" knowing full well they would bomb. But so far I haven't really seen it played out openly.

The songs given to them to pick from are the best of the crop. They are songs from legendaries David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Beatles, and Nirvana to new school rock bands like The Killers, Tonic and Hoobastank; from slow rocker like Bryan Adams, Squeeze and Pat Benatar to non-rocker like Seal. INXS know what they want - diversity.

Another reason why I find this show interesting is that the voting always reflect the performance. The bottom three are always the people who gave the weakest performance. It doesn't matter if you gave the best shows that people had ever seen in the weeks before, if you bombed one night, you'll be on the INXS chopping block. A clear example happened with Ty. He is obviously INXS favourite and has given a lot of strong performances before. But he failed to shine when he did Foo Fighter's Everlong in week 4. So down to the bottom three he went but redeemed himself when he did INXS' Kick. Jessica however is not one of the strongest contestant and she's been at the bottom three twice. A great performance of Violent Femmes' Blister in the Sun saved her from the third strike.

After this morning, the show is left with 8 contestants and I can say there are no regrets. The ones who go are always the ones I won't miss. These 8 deserved to be there (except for Jessica, I hate her) and the show gets hotter every week with only the best left to continue the fight and belt out great songs with gusto.

While Jessica, Deanna and Marty are just biding their time before they go...


I like to see MiG, JD and Suzie survive till the end.


But my money is on Ty, Jordis and JD to be the final three. The rest is up to INXS.


And when I say 'my money', it's just a figure of speech. I never really voted. They're doing fine without me anyway.

If I've managed to get you interested or you don't know what to do in this current state of emergency, you can watch Ro.... wait wait wait let me put on my announcer voice first...

Catch Rock Star: INXS on Star World (Ch 70) at these times:
Reality Show and Performance Show Live on Wednesdays 9AM (Repeat at 9PM)
Result Show Live on Thursdays 9:30AM (Repeat at 9PM)

Or you can log on to rockstar.msn.com

ROCK IT BABY YEAH!!!

What have I done?

So I went and paid someone to...
and then I paid my bills and I'm off to the

I decided to see Fantastic 4 before it has run its course. At first I thought why can't I just wait for it to go on Astro? And then I saw the huge screen and the huge WB sign... ahhh... trailers....my favourite.

Being a weekday and considering that this is an old movie, the cinema was empty. I sat in the second last row just to see what it feels like since I never get to sit in those places before. There was a man and his two kids in front of me and I thought, how cute! I remember a time when I brought my nephews and nieces to the movies and it was fun especially when you do it voluntarily. But that emotion doesn't last.

10 minutes into the movie the kids started to bounce up and down and asking their father questions like they were in a concert i.e. very loudly.
"Bapak, apasal dia pengsan?" [Dad why is she unconscious?]
"Apasal dia buang bunga tu?" [Why did he throw away the flower?]
"Apasal dia gaduh?" [Why are they fighting?]
"Apasal dia pakai baju biru?" [Why are they wearing blue?]
"Siapa jahit baju diaorang? Nak tempah satu la." [Who made their clothes. I want one too]

Okay the last 2 questions were pigments of my pissed-off imagination. But still....

It doesn't help that at the same time the lady behind me answered her phone and has a nice little chat as if she was the only person inside the cinema i.e. very loudly.

Back to the dad and his 2 kids. At one time they stopped bouncing up and down but then they began to play CSI and inspected the seats, the carpeting, and the floor lights. Which is fine.They were quiet for a while. And then the questioning starts again and they also starts to discuss the movie.

They were so annoying and distracting and I swear to God the only time they will sit on their bottoms is when something is exploding or when someone's getting killed.

I don't blame the dad however. To give him props he did try to quieten them, many times. But they're just not the type, you know what I mean. It looks as if this is the first time they've been to a cinema. If it was, I can understand their behavior but if it wasn't, man that dad has a big problem. But honestly I think the dad would be better of paying RM5 for a VCD (hehe.. pirates...parents' best friend). What a waste of 10 bucks and the kids never really watched the movie. They never really heat up the seat either.

I survived the 2 hour ordeal and Fantastic 4 was quite enjoyable. But afterwards I thought, ehh I should have wait for Astro.

A word of advice for parents: do take your kids to movies once in a while, so that they won't be like a monkey with a flower (seperti monyet dengan bunga). Don't understand that? Look it up.

Ahhhh....

Stretch... stretch....stretch....

Today and tomorrow I'm off from work. What to do... what to do...

I could be a...
but there's nothing good on tv.

Or take a...
but I don't have a bathtub.

Or...
Nah... too boring.

Or...
In this haze? No way. I won't be able to see the kite!

Or I can...
or let someone else do it.

And then...
Wah!!! Now gas so expensive wo... cannot wo... anyway I don't have a convertible.

Maybe I can go...
but I don't have $$$

Or....
but everyone's working.

Or...
hehehe... me?

What to do? What to do?

..?..............?.......
..........?...............
.......?.................?



I can go to...

It's been a long time since I went there. And no haze can catch me in there, can it?

Go home and...
blog about it.

Then curl up with a good book and...


And then...
blog about that too.

That was not so hard, was it?

Oh well, sorry for wasting your time.

Now go back to work! Or study! Or whatever it is you are supposed to do.

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