Like a duck to water?

Yeah, that would be me driving in KL after 6 months: it’s as if I never left! No wonder while I was in the U.S: I felt soooo kekok the few times I drove... it probably wasn’t so much a matter of driving on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car, and more like knowing deep inside that if I actually RELAXED and drove like normal I’d be incurring the wrath of the other road users!

Then again: in a few more years I may just feel at home on the road there.. My impression is that the standard of driving seems to have dropped since my younger days there: at that time (10-15 yrs ago) I felt the drivers were almost too courteous. Now, well, it seems as if there is a drift towards the Malaysian way of driving.

But then again… it does seem like Malaysia is backsliding even more downhill… I have a distinct feeling of being less safe than before… after all, when not only are there more incidents of road rage, but also more and more cases resulting in the death of one of the drivers, one can’t expect to feel too safe anymore! So, while I drive as aggressively as the next person on the road (or perhaps a bit more, heehe) I try hard to make sure I don’t instigate any problems with the other idiots on the road…

Overall, I do think the traffic situation seems to have improved in KL... of course, I suppose it helps that I don’t have to struggle through traffic to get to the center of town by 8am every weekday!! But still… the road in front of the apartment seems to be fine, even at 8 or 9am… before it would be pretty backed up…

I did have my doubts about traffic last night, tho… heading back from KLCC, taking Tun Razak south, on the flyover past Bulatan Kg Pandan: it was moving so slowly at 930pm!! Mystery finally solved: a minor accident between two cars and a motorcycle had occurred on the flyover, essentially reducing the two lanes to just one, caused the crawl… once we were past that spot, it was smooth sailing :) thank goodness! I would hate to think the rush hour traffic had not yet receeded by that time!

Talking about flyovers: waaah finally the flyover linking Jln Kg Pandan with the road heading to Tmn Maluri/Pandan Jaya is open. I guess that will temporarily ease the traffic congention there (until the volume of cars on the road increases lah), tho the bulatan area is still a huge construction zone… I wonder how that underground route that is to also serve as a floodwater conduit is gonna look like…

And one more note on roads: narrowly avoided a divider that’s been extended waaaay past its original length 6 months ago @ TTDI area on the way to BU. So dangerous! I suppose it’s still relatively new, and the road lines haven’t been repainted to reflect the new position of the lanes? So what’s happening at the moment is that as you go round the curve, and you are in the middle lane, whoops there it is! It actually encroaches onto the middle lane, cutting it in half! I’m guessing there have been many accidents, and countless near-misses there, especially at night!! Sooooo dangerous…

Sigh… Malaysia Boleh….

coffee and surfing

It is SO weird to be doing this again after almost six months...

Here I am in Starbucks KLCC, equipped with a coffee and a laptop, surfing on a nice broadband connection.

I REALLY miss broadband!!!

In my previous life, I was a regular pseudo-techno-geek. My haunts would be either Coffee Bean here in KLCC and at Ampang Point. In fact, I had my favourite table(s) to choose from over at Ampang Point, and would be there almost daily! There I'd be with laptop, webcam, mic/earphone PLUS insect repellent spray to ward off the mosquitoes! Most of the time, I'd be there till they drew the shutters down!

Have yet to visit the KLCC venue, but have been to the Ampang Point one twice already :) The great thing about being a regular, even tho I have not been around for 6 months, is that the "regular" staff still recognised me! They even immediately fixed me my regular drink... I didn't have the heart to tell them I wanted something OTHER than an ice vanilla latte regular skim milk :p

Of course, now, since I'm on a budget, I'm not going to fork out the RM30+ to be able to surf at my beloved beanie... so instead, right now I'm just gonna have to put up with ickky coffee from starbux while I take advantage of their free broadband service :D

Haven't visited the YahooGames sites for such a long time... so NOT worth it on dialup! May just do that... once I'm done with the many updates! Thus laptop has not been online for six months... how many security updates do you think Zone Alarm, AVG and microsoft have issued since then??

ok... me off to surf surf surf... yippie!!

Update: week of April 11 - 15 2005

It’s Friday!! So, what have I been doing this past week?

Well, went to the nearby Employee’s Provident Fund (EPF) office to make sure they send statements to the apartment instead of to my ex-office address… and was kinda ‘scared’ by the fact that I could use the myKad (new Malaysian identity card equipped with a smart chip) to print out the current year statement! Just plug it in, scan yr thumb, and it spits out the statement! It didn’t seem to do anything beyond that, though… I’d like to get reprints of missing statements of a few years ago: guess I still need to go to the counter for that.

Good news: Got the ‘proof’ of 1995 deductions from my ex-employer yesterday. Drafted a cover letter, put together all my attachment, got it all copied, and made my way to LHDN to drop it all off this morning. Let’s hope that with this, both our records tally!! (On an aside: one of the cool things about having a sitemeter is you get to see how people got to this blog page. One visitor I had was someone who did a google search in Japan with the key words “kelana jaya tax office,” where my blog came up 3rd in the list, and this person checked it out. So cool, in so many ways!!)

Had a fun time at Ladies’ Nite on Wednesday with Baby Angel.
Also made contact with a long-lost pal, whom we may meet up with next Wednesday for another session, whoohoo! :)

My days are also filling up with lunch dates with my ex-colleagues. While I enjoy getting together with them, I must say that I’m paying thru the nose for parking! Wonder if I should just take the LRT into town, or drive in but park somewhere that charges a flat rate? It’s so much more convenient to park in KLCC itself, tho I guess part of it is habit too… after all, I had a season parking pass for *how* many years?

So far, I’ve ventured to the swimming pool of the apartment just once. I have never been a big fan of swimming, but I know it’s one of the best no-impact cardiovascular workouts one can get. I’m probably going to hunt for the styrofoam board thingy so I can isolate/concentrate on legs or arms. Didn’t wear my goggles, and kinda suffered for it: I seemed to be peering at everything through a grey film for a while afterwards! The swimming cap didn’t wanna stay on, so I’m gonna have to deal with chlorine-tainted hair too. Ugh.

Last night was my first tennis session in a long long time. Considering the lack of practice, the extra weight, and the use of a strange racquet (left mine in the u.s.), I must say I think I did very well :) Unfortunately I mis-stepped and terple’ot my ankle and was limping around most of last nite & this morning :( seems much better now, thank goodness!

In my visits to KLCC this week, I managed to bump into quite a few of my ex-colleagues and acquaintances (and avoid many more of them too, teehee!!). It was nice to catch up with them all… but I’m happy to say I continue to NOT miss being part of that scene. If anything, I miss some of the people and interactions, but NOT the work, and accompanying frustration!

And on a related note: I’ve been informed of a job opportunity, contract basis, for the position of “Learning Coach” affiliated to one of the management consultant firms here. It’s tempting because they seem to need people with the skills I know I have; While it seems to pay good money, I know it will be quite intensive, and I’m just not sure if I wanna get back into work, and into that line, so soon. After all, the idea of furthering my studies in a creative line like Mass Communications or Advertising is currently very appealing… Gotta look at the cost, though… :(

Nothing exciting planned for the weekend… Will start shopping around seriously for my flight outta here… that’s right, I ain’t staying for long in KL/M’sia… while I can still afford it, I will be ronda-ing around the world… target = have ticket booked by this time next week!

Cheers!

Example of inefficiency and lack of synergy

After two years, a toll-free number for motorists to call or sms with complaints about unscrupulous bus, lorry or taxi drivers has been scrapped.
(See NST small edition, main section Pg 10, 14th April 2005)

Why?

Because they are “unable to cope with the number of complaints,” said Baharom Mohamad, Chairman of the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board (CVLB / LPKP).

I’m confused: it’s being scrapped because it’s working too well?

Baharom seemed to justify it all by adding “Furthermore, most of the calls are related to the Road Transport Department (RTD / JPJ) and the traffic police.” In fact, it seems JPJ will be launching a new hotline soon.

hmmmmmmmmm....

I can understand the CVLB’s reluctance to play the role of ‘postman’ where they have to channel almost 80% of the calls to JPJ and the traffic police. It makes sense for JPJ to run such a service. However, instead of scrapping the line, why don’t they just transfer ownership of the line from the CVLB to JPJ?

I can understand that JPJ would need the call center to be located where it wants, so that is a cost that is going to be incurred anyway.

But I can anticipate the following unnecessary expenditures:
1. printing and distribution of new stickers to be stuck onto the backs of busses, lorries & taxis (assuming the focus of the hotline will still be these three vehicles)
2. a campaign on tv/radio to increase people’s awareness of the new number, including handouts etc with the new information
Do they realize that this is all unnecessary: if the 400 calls a day received (compared to CVLB’s expectation of 150) are any indication, awareness of the number and service is already high.

Surely having JPJ take over an existing service makes much more sense than having to create a totally new service?

Sigh....

On a related note... how much you wanna bet that no-one is going to ensure that the old stickers on all the busses, lorries and taxis are taken down, to help reduce chances of the general public calling/smsing the ‘old’ number?

A Gathering of Magic in KL !?

Was flipping thru today’s newspapers, and discovered that there must be a pretty large Magic: The Gathering community of gamers here in KL: not only is there a sealed deck tournament coming up soon (April 23rd), but there will also be a pre-release tournament for the Saviours of Kamigawa (SoK) set on May 21 & 22!

The April 23rd thing is at the Comic Corner Tournament Center II in Subang Jaya (have NO idea where that is: anyone with a clue please tell me!), while the SoK event will be at the Cititel @ Mid Valley.

Okay, so I pretty much banned myself from playing during my last few months in the U.S. because I got waaaaaay too upset at the cards and how the games happened to play out. But... I am curious just how a tournament is conducted… for RM50 I’d get a ChK tournament pack and 2 BoK booster packs from which to create a deck… very tempting!!

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about…

The premise is that you are a wizard doing battle with other wizards, in a variety of different worlds. The cards in your deck represent spells that you cast: some of these summon creatures to do your bidding, while others could be enchantments to enhance yourself/creatures/environment, or wreak havoc on your opponents. Your ability to cast these spells is dependant on the amount of land/manna you have, for as a wizard you draw energy from the land to cast the spells. Thus, composition of the deck is important, requiring sufficient land plus the right amount of spells for attack and defense.

Among the reasons I really like this game is there are a variety of ways to compose your deck, pretty much tailored to your personality. Not surprisingly, I have a great affinity for the black deck, that is filled with vampires, bats, zombies and spells like ‘Terror’ that totally kills your opponents creatures. The land type for black is the swamp.

Other colors:
Red is fire&earth-based, and needs mountains to cast spells. The red deck is infamous for its direct damage spells, where one could perhaps kill off an opponent in one shot, if you had enough manna to draw upon, of course. Creatures featured prominently are trolls, dwarves and goblins.
Forests are the land required for green; elves are the main group of creatures, plus some pretty awesome spiders, while snakes seem to be the backbone of the green Kamigawa cards.
White, nemesis of black, is my least favourite color. Knights and clerics are their main creatures, I think, while the land required are the vast plains.
Blue: this is a frustrating color to play against. Drawing upon the power of the sea, there are some immense creatures of the deep to play around with, but the main thrust of this color is the variety of powerful spells literally at your fingertips.

While I was taught to play using ‘pure’ one-color decks, many colors actually complement each other and a well-built ‘red/black with a splash of green’ may have devastating results on an opponent!

Oh wow, this is pretty sad that I can actually ramble on quite a bit about this game… Kosh, there’s hope for us to start playing again, once I’m back in town ; )

(For more info, you could check out MtG’s website here).

Aduuuuuuh, my feet hurt!!!!

Yesterday (Monday 11th April) was a pretty tame day, but got quite a few things crossed off my “To Do” list:

1. Talked to the person in payroll about LHDNM missing my early deductions, he said he should be able to get what I need copied and mailed by the end of the day! Wow, I’m impressed! Of course, it did not occur to me to tell him I’d willingly go pick it up, I’ll need to look out for it in the mail this week…

2. Visited BSN to solve the case of the mysterious RM13.60 charge: turned out to be the annual charge for ATM plus a new charge for sending me my monthly statements. Wish all my questions were as easily answered!

3. Picked up my watch from Mont Blanc – sent it in for a new battery: they also cleaned it up nicely – had quite a few years of crud accumulated on it, teehee!!

4. Found a decent photo album to continue my effort of transferring years’ worth of loose photos into albums. Last Saturday I did 1996-2003 and used up one album. Now I can tackle the one with most pix: 2004 had my Jan Oz trip, March u.s. trip, May visit to Singapore… I’ll feel so much better once that is done :)

Then, having time to kill if I wanted to time my arrival at the Tmn Jaya LRT station such that I could hitch a ride from mom, I decided to finally check out the reflexology place up in the top floor of KLCC. It would not be my first foot massage, but definitely my first reflexology session.

It was a pleasant 45mins, even though certain parts of my feet (supposedly correlating to the heart, colon, stomach, kidney) were quite painful! And in general, my right foot was in pain throughout compared to the left. The boy (from Bandung, Indon) was pleasant and softspoken, though I wonder how one can have such a job and not have it wreak havoc on your hands! I didn't know if tipping was expected, so I buat dunno aje lah... after all, RM50 for a 45 minute session is not cheap maaaaaaah!

Of course, whatever benefits from the entire session were minimized as I had to immediately make my way to the LRT, and proceed to stand for the 20mins or so of the journey to get to my stop! :p

After effects:
Some soreness got lah… but nothing bad… but upon getting out of bed this morning, which included of course putting full body weight onto my feet… ayoyo… very sore… but a nice kind of sore… after all, I *am* quite the sadist (or is it masochist? Both?), plus I know it’s good for me, so I will be going every week or so.

And for ‘homework,’ I am going to reacquaint myself with the reflexology walk over at Lake Gardens.

Here's to me doing stuff that I like, and feeling good about myself.

Peace.

Warning: this is a bitch and moan entry:

It gets really old really fast.

I know I’ve put on weight. In fact, I believe this is the heaviest I’ve ever been. What to do… I was pretty much house-bound for 6 months. It was cold. Prime hibernation weather. I enjoyed the food. I was in good company.

I’m well aware that I’ve put on weight, and I will be shedding the pounds while I’m here.

But whatever it is… why can’t people be just a little bit more considerate of my feelings?

I really did not need to have my father, when he first saw me after 6 months, had this disgusted look on his face and even as we were doing the stupid kiss cheek thing, say: “Mais, you’ve put on a lot of weight, eh? You better lose some of it, eh?” Yeah, really nice to see you too. All I did was smile with a bland look on my face… after all, it wouldn’t do to totally rip into him for being such an asshole, eh?

And what about when Allie joined me and my parents to say hi before kidnapping me for my first catch-up session, where my mother goes something like: “Well, here she is - all of her!” While Allie responded with “Wow, yeah, I can see that,” I know that she wouldn’t have said anything if not for the ‘opening’ provided by mommie dearest. Don’t dare say anything to my face, tapi nak cakap, so cari jalan cakap berlapis, eh?

Speaking about cakap berlapis - spare me the bloody euphemisms lah. One reason I refuse to go visit people at my ex-workplace is I know exactly what is going to happen. People who I don’t know well or even like anyway will want to come up to me and go “waaaaah, sihat nampak!” (literal translation: you look “healthy”). I already had to put up with such comments, and many more direct and blunt ones, during my last Managers Forum in September last year. Paps, you were with me at the time, I was upset but just had to grin and bear it, ingat tak? Do people not realize how hurtful such comments are? I would never ever do that to anyone because I know the effect of such comments on me. I wish most everyone else had half as much awareness and consideration of others’ feelings.

I’d already told my ex-officemates that “jgn terkejut, I dah bulat!”, so when I met up with S, L & M they were already ‘primed’, and those elbow-squeals conveyed the shock/surprise without offending (thanx, gurrrls!). Yesterday’s session with the tennis gang was also fine… after all, me and my ex-tennis partner had even exchanged ‘oink oink’ sms’es, and I’d said I desperately needed to start tennis up again…

But come on lah… takkan you need advance warning in order to be diplomatic? Takkan you tak boleh be considerate of people’s feelings at any given time?

Case in point: Today was another catch-up session, with a bunch of St Marians: and the person who should know better sees me walking thru the door and gasps: “Oh my god you’ve put on SO much weight!!!” When I ignored and pretended I didn’t hear, perhaps you thought you were being nicer by ‘covering up’ by using the stupid “waaah, you look happy” euphemism, but it only ended up being a double whammy.

You know what… if you can’t say anything nice, just say nothing at all (including body language!!). I really do not need you all bashing my sense of self-worth.

I’ll get myself healthier, fitter, trimmer, all at my own pace.

Get the hell out of my face.