Monday Eve

It's 10.45pm on a Sunday night. Earlier this evening, I spent about an hour reading, browsing through my whole blog, from the first post, back in 2005. Oh? Going through nearly 4 years of blogging in only an hour? That was short! And I thought I was taking too much time doing so earlier, sheesh. A song came to my head after all that. It's a rather old song lah, so you kids layaning Lady Gaga would most likely not know the song, or the band even. This is my favourite song from the band, Competition Smile, by Gin Blossoms.

This is not an Eid post

First stop, I would like to wish a Happy Raya Aidilfitri to all my Muslim friends and relatives. This year's Raya was just decent for me. At least this time I went to triple the number of houses I visited to last year. Yes you read that right! Triple! Last year's visiting statistic was more or less, two houses.

I feel that I have wasted my one week break. I have done nothing really productive or interesting, Raya visiting aside. Also, it's like I almost wanted to waste the week away by purpose. I think so. Perhaps I could have done the many things I wanted to do. Before the break, work's been really busy that I don't have the time to do certain things in my nonexistent to-do list. My break started last Friday, and I still haven't ticked any of the boxes in the to-do list. Maybe that's the problem, of having a to-do list, that doesn't exist, technically. So yeah, I guess there's a solution to this. For the next school break, all I need to do, is to create a to-do list, on paper, and stick it somewhere prominent. I'll just put this in my to-do list, the non existent one.

It's back to work on Monday. Tons of work waiting for me as well. Being the guru data, I've got to update the EMIS, SMM, STS, look into the ICTL and HRMIS. As a class teacher, I deal with RMT, SPBT, OMGIHAVEALOTOFWORK. It's all about dealing with acronyms. So much so that I don't feel like an English teacher anymore. I've got so much responsibilities on my hands that I've lost that something. Teaching it seems, have faded into something secondary. Students are bored during my classes, because I show little interest these days in the teaching & learning process. Can't really blame them. In fact, I feel for them. I want the class to be exciting, interesting, like how they were, earlier in the year. I'm really looking forward to next year's school year. I know I won't be a class teacher anymore, so that's like one third of administrative related duties gone.

Before that though, there's this trip that I really look forward to. A roadtrip with my man, Dennis. I think it should be cool, it's been years since we last hung out. So I suppose this trip would be nice, before either one of us ties the knot. And I know it ain't gonna be me man! LOL. Basically, it's going to be a 2 man team operation. Driving my own vehicle, we would be able to travel heavily equipped, you know, extra undies and all that. I just hope Big Daddy Najib would be giving out my bonus. For the sake of the 1Malaysia concept (whatever it really is), please lah, give us the bonus we deserve.


PS: My Mom's on Facebook, now she has found the joy of chatting with friends and relatives through the site. Go mom!

Birdie

Took this pic from my room's balcony, with my new lens of course :D. I was half a second too slow in capturing this, else bird would not be too far at the edge.

Wake me up when September ends

Not that I've been sleeping alot. On the contrary, my daily average sleeping hours is less than previous months so far. In the same month last year, I made a wish list for 2009. So since it has been almost a year, let's see how things have gone.

#1 New mobile phone
In March, I got myself a Sony Ericsson Xperia. Ownership was shortlived as I decided to sell it off to fund my dream of getting a DSLR. Verdict: Wish achieved.

#2 New multimedia player
Sold my Zen Vision a couple of months ago, also part of my plan to raise DSLR funds. Kinda miss it. A replacement has yet been acquired. Verdict: Wish not achieved

#3 New pair of shoes
Thought of replacing my stolen Adio with the same brand. But I got myself a sleek looking pair of Nikes. Very very light and comfortable. Verdict: Wish achieved

#4 New pair of working shoes
2 pairs within 6 months, enough said. Verdict: Wish achieved

#5 New G-Shock
Decided that a new watch is not really what I need or even want at the moment. So next year maybe. Verdict: Wish not achieved

#6 DSLR camera
WooHoo!! I got myself a Canon EOS 1000D last month. Finally, finally I have one. Soon, I'll have even more fun as my 55-250mm lens will arrive in a couple of days. YAY! Verdict: Wish achieved

#7 Car
I had guesstimated that the earliest I would be getting a car will be around Christmas. I got it much earlier than expected. Instead of being a Christmas gift, it turned out to be a birthday gift. Not exactly the car of my dream, but still, I really liked the Proton Persona even before it was released. When the Gen 2 first came out, I thought it would be really cool if they made a sedan version of it. A couple of years later, they did. So what if its a Proton. The most important thing is I got it with my own money. So you punks showing off in your Japanese sedans bought my your mamas can just kiss my ass. It's not perfect, but I truly enjoy driving it everyday and I'm glad to say it is definitely my pride and joy :).

SIALCOM

This is my 3rd month as a Celcom Broadband Advance Unlimited user, the RM 98 per month package thingy. While I never really buy all the penis size bragging that Celcom does about their broadband service, i thought if I can get just only 1/3 of the 3.6MBps speed offered, I would be happy enough. I was almost converted to Celcomism when I experienced awesome surfing and downloading speeds, so much better than our home's 512Kbps STreamyx connection.

But the good times ended after about 3 weeks as I exceeded the data cap. As stated in the T & C, or FAQ regarding the data cap / fair usage policy, I should be getting top speeds in the next cycle, like the menstrual cycle la. However, I never enjoyed the cool speeds, though it was still more than decent. But lately, it has been shit. The speeds or connection I am experiencing is absolutely ridiculous. For the Rm98 that they charge, it is like paying the price of a Toyota Camry for a Kancil!!! (No offense to Kancil owners).

Malaysia's No.1 mobile broadband? Nah kau! No.1 taik asuk la.
Just like the 1Malaysia concept...bollocks!

Being responsible for certain things in school that requires me to have convenient access to the internet, especially at work, I can still bear with this sh*t. But not at home. "Go get wireless streamyx connection la you lousy f**k!", you might say. Well screw you. Having a 512Kbps connection with 3 users, 2 of them heavy users, you are, the lousy twit. So earlier after school, I stopped by TM on my way home. The dude gave me good, bad news and the worst news. The good news is, there are no extra charges in the process of upgrading my package, I only need to get a wireless router. The bad news would be, the need to fill in forms. The worst news is, even if I managed to survive filling in the form, my area might not have the capability to serve me the 1mbps speed, with the 512kpbs package being the standard offered here.

I love my town, but these are the things I hate about being here. Politicians and corporations don't give a shit about providing the good stuff (I'm not talking about the cool shit that only major cities have okay???) to the nice people of Limbang, who have for years and decades showed them unwavering support . Maybe one day there will be a by-election here, and the government will definitely campaign by offering the stars and the moon. Then, I can hope that maybe, just maybe, TM will make available all its Streamyx packages.

Shrimp'd

Late lastnight, I saw KFC's ad on tv about their new dish, the shrimp thingy. It looked really tasty on screen. I am also a shrimp / prawn lover :p. So I decided I'll check it out for lunch the next day (today). There I was at the counter, saw the image of the meal, a set meal in fact, 2 sticks of the shrimp thingy with 2 pcs of chicken, mash potatoes, coleslaw and an air sirap. Not bad for Rm 12.80. In fact, the size of the shrimp sticks on the pictures really are attractive. Generous in its size, with the prawns showing if you take a bite off it.

Something else was going on as I had my order taken, the guy behind the counter was being 'timed' and evaluated by the supervisor. I noticed she had a stopwatch hung round her neck, and she was also putting ticks and crosses on a questionnaire-like sheet. So my order was done and dusted in 2 minutes and 5 seconds. Not bad. But it was the dude's last touch that screwed him up. He had punched in the wrong amount for the money that I gave him, therefore resulting in me getting the wrong change. Sucks for you man.

My verdict on the meal?

The main cast were a bit disappointing. They did not appear to look as nice and large as the ads had depicted. They were tiny, no fatter than my thumb, no longer than my index finger. I wanted to take a picture of the stick measured alongside my fingers, but that would make me look like a weirdo. While I would still give it good marks for taste, the size and looks made it almost a flop. They do not deserve the main role given, more appropriate as supporting casts to the chickens.