It’s been a really long time since I last visited KFC. I am not exactly a fan of fast food and will only go if my colleagues fancy it for lunch. However, when I do go for a meal there, gluttony tends to set in and I can whack quite a lot of chickens. Can't help it, I mean, I know it’s bad as deep fried stuff is fattening but those original recipe crispy skin (which is the most unhealthy part) is just too tempting. Dip that into nice chilly sauce… wow, absolutely yummylicious. So, do you fancy KFC?
Some friends of mine are really health conscious freaks and they will never touch fast food. Well, what they don’t know is that KFC is not any other fast food. KFC is ‘the’ fast food around in town! KFC not only give your taste bud orgasm… it can even make this happen. I am not sure if it’s true though, since you know, all bloggers are liars after all. So that could be a lie. Read with discernment.
Extracted from there:
“A woman told me she and her husband received RM100 each. Another Indian man said he will have KFC tonight.”
For those who are not didn’t go over to that blog to check what happened… basically, someone(dunno who la) was said to have given some money to some people in Machap so that those people in Machap will vote certain people (also dunno who la). And some fellas in Machap, the first thing that comes to their mind when they received money is… KFC!!!
Wow! See how influential KFC is? Next time you wish to get things done, just buy barrels and barrels of KFC, you might just get a lot of things working your way! So… are you a fan of “KFC”? Are you going to have KFC when the time comes?
You may have heard this story before but it’s good to hear it again….
A man was walking on the beach with his son. As they were walking, they stumbled upon a starfish which has been washed ashore by the strong waves. If let onshore, the starfish will most certainly die. The son, knowing that the starfish will die, picked it up and threw it back into the ocean. Witnessing this, the father said…
“Son, that’s a good deed. But why bother, hundreds or thousands starfish are washed ashore in any day, you can't be picking all of them up everyday”
“Dad, yes, I can't. I may not be able to save all of them. But I saved that starfish that I threw in the ocean today. To that starfish, I made a difference”
You’ve heard of the story before right? But… can you fully grasp what is the true meaning behind it?
Many of us have our own beliefs, our own ways of doing things. But I am sure almost all of us at some point of our lives, wanna make a difference. But after seeing the real world, we all tend to drown in the sea of reality, and it breaks us. Top this up with our infamous “tidak apa” attitude, there’s no more motivation for us to make a difference.
But really, the choice is yours. No one will is going to force a KFC and stuff it up your arse if you don’t like it. Nor will anyone point a gun at your head and ask you to throw starfish back at the ocean. But I have to tell you, if all of us throw a starfish back at the ocean… then it will make a difference.
Number 1:
I’ve registered under Advertlets in my second attempt to get paid through blogging. Help me complete the 4 questions at the side bar.
Number 2:
26 April 2007 is a bank holiday and since I work in the bank… I get a holiday! Don’t be jealous.
Number 3:
Finally found a date for my wedding dinner in a very nice hotel. Congratulate me la!!
Number 4:
The famous 5Xmom interviewed me and then… this happened. And if you agree with her, you can also vote for me at the sidebar here.
Number 5:Another riddle for you guys if you are up to it….
“What English word (not Manglish ok!) that is 9 letters long, and each time you remove a letter from it, that word will still remains as an English word… from 9 letters all the way down to a single remaining letter”. (One reader commented saying its too easy, just have to google it. Well, this is just for fun, not for heavy thinking, like the one last Friday)
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Much has been said about the toll concessionaire agreements, about how they have led to bias treatment of highway users. But if you think toll concessionaire agreements are very misleading, then you’re wrong! Not to say those documents are perfectly and wonderfully drafted but that’s not the notion today.
Do you know what is the most misleading document existing today? Friends, bloggers, readers… may I present you… the most misleading document ever exist…
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… Your employment letter!
It’s the document that grants you entrance into the slavery working world, the document that breaks your career virginity, it’s also the document that blatantly lies to you. I know a majority of my readers are still students, and still a career virgin, but before you get screwed… let me highlight some dick that may eventually screw you.
In the employment letter:
“Annual leave = X days”
In reality:
You will only allowed to take leave if you manage 
to clear all your assignments, or you are able to find a sucker to baby-sit your work while you’re away. If you somehow miraculously managed to finish your assignment, your leave is still subject to the approval of your boss. If you somehow need to take more than X days in a year, you will not be paid. But if you happen to take less than X days in a year, your leave may be burnt.
Some companies may allow you to carry forward your leave, but you will probably have to clear them by a certain deadline. Again, your application is subject to conditions mentioned above. Also, if you take (e.g.) 5 days off, rest assured you will have 5 days of work (or more) waiting for you when you return. This will most probably result in you having to do 10 days work in the next 5 days to make up for your “annual leave”.
In the employment letter:
“Working days = Monday to Friday”
In reality:
Mondays to Fridays are your official working days, but you are unofficially required to work officially on Saturdays and/or Sundays if you are unable to finish your official work on Fridays, particularly if your deadline falls on the following Monday (which is very often the case). After spending your first year working unofficially on Saturdays and/or Sundays, Saturdays and Sundays will unofficially become your official working days.
In the employment letter:
“Public holidays” 
In reality:
Public refers to the common community at large. Being an employee of the relevant company means you are now part of an elite group of people, which makes you special. In the eyes of your employer, you are officially separated from the “common” people. As such, when the need arises, your employer may consider you not part of the public during public holidays. I am sure you know what it means. But always remember, you are special.
In the employment letter:
“Working hours = X a.m. – Y p.m.”
In reality:
You are highly encouraged to arrive in the office before X a.m. If you do so, you’re just doing your job. But should you intend to leave your office at Y p.m., a valid reason is required. You are unofficially required to officially leave work at Y p.m. + 4 hours. And mind you, that is considered early.
In the employment letter:
“Over-time meal/transport allowance”
In reality:
Claiming over-time allowances may result in long ‘lecture’ by your superior. If you insist on claiming, your appraisal may be at stake. Also, if your colleagues of similar level are not claiming those allowances, you are unofficially disallowed to claim. In any case, please refer to “working hours” mentioned above… over-time?
In the employment letter:
“You will be paid performance bonus on xxx date”
In reality:
Performance here does not only mean your performance. Even if you work till Y p.m. + 10 hours, you don’t take your annual leave, you don’t claim your over-time allowances (naturally since you don’t have over-time), and your work is excellent, but if your company is not performing well (which is usually the case particularly near bonus paying time), your performance bonus is in jeopardy. But always remember, you are special because you are an employee of ‘that’ company.
Those are some of the ‘dicks’ in the employment letter that will screw you up in all work-masutra positions possible as soon as you pen your name. Sounds pretty sad isn’t it? Worry not; there’s one thing in the employment letter that is absolute truth. It is your…
Salary – you will be paid EXACTLY what is written on your employment letter.
On first day I returned to work after my compassionate leave, there were many people who came to talk to me and asked me how I was doing, so kind of them. One conversation that hit me was…
“Hey, how are you?”
“I guess I am ok, thanks.”
“Well, suddenly everything else is no longer a priority huh?”
… “Yeah, I think you’re right.”
Priority… what is priority? What is your priority? Is work, your priority?
Not too long ago, I’ve talked about how we employees are all nothing but slaves in the modern society. And it’s ironic, many of us are just so willing to enslave ourselves in this deadly system. Honestly speaking, how many us have told ourselves countless times that we should leave the rat race?
But let’s face the fact… we can't. We have gotten ourselves too deep into race, so much so that it is close to impossible to leave it. I mean, who is going to pay for the bills? And your car instalment… and to some, your house instalment. Indeed, we can't leave the rat race, we have to work. Even if you don’t have a car and a house, you will also need to feed yourself, to survive.
But what lies in our struggle to survive, is the hidden trap of letting work run our lives… letting work become the priority in our lives. When that happens, work supersedes everything else. What’s worse, we work so hard thinking that our lives will be better in the future, not knowing that work has already begun to wreck it. Many perceive that health is the cost in our search for wealth. That is true. But, health is not the only thing we will lose. We will lose so much more, we just don’t realise it.
So often I have let work take centre stage. It has cost me quite a lot. Did my health deteriorate? Well, my hair did drop quite a bit, my tummy did receive enough fertiliser from those late nights at the mamak before heading back to work. But generally, I think my health was and is still very much in control. But I lost so much more. When work was my priority, everything else was secondary. And those secondary things slowly but surely, departed from me, and I will never be able to recover those things anymore.
We are made to believe that when we finally make it in our career, we can then focus on enjoying life. The typical Chinese saying of…”when you’re rich, you’re gonna have all the girls (or guys) you can get, you’re gonna be able to buy your dream car, dream house”. Honestly speaking, that is true. I couldn’t agree more.
I don’t come from a rich family. I have always needed to share room with my brother. My mom told me that if I worked hard and able to buy my own place, I will be able to have my own room. But you know what? I will never be able to know how it feels to have my own room when I am say… 10 years old. I will never be able to know how it feels like to have a computer in my own room while I was a teenager.
Similarly, you may be able to buy your dream car and dream house when you make it in life, but you will never be able to know how it feels to have a decent car and a decent house at a younger age. Indeed, if we don’t work hard, we will never be able to get our dream car and dream house and dream girl (or guy). But how sure are you that by working hard, you will get be rewarded accordingly? Those who have been in the working world long enough will testify that not everyone is rewarded accordingly.
You may be showered with the magical word… “sacrifice”, that if you don’t sacrifice, you will never be rewarded. 3 questions you should ask yourself… 1) Are your sacrifices worth it?... 2) Are you sure… very sure your sacrifices will pay off?… 3) When will your sacrifices pay off?
I think I have deviated a little, because what I am trying to say is that we should never make work the priority in our lives. There are so many other more important things that should take precedent. It took my mom’s death to finally made me realised that. That conversation with my colleague made quite a big difference… indeed, suddenly, everything else is no longer a priority.
Have you ever been asked to prioritise your work in order to meet deadlines? But did you ask yourself… is work a priority to begin with?
Have you ever missed anything, perhaps a friend’s wedding, or someone’s birthday due to “work commitment”? Well… should work be a commitment?
In a book titled “First Thing First”, the very first sentence in that book reads something like…
“No man at his dying bed wishes he had spent a minute more at work”
How many hours have you spent at work when you should have done something else?
I’ve realised that I should live life by living, not working. Perhaps you should too.
It’s the time of the year, a lot of people are complaining of headache. The other certainty besides death is here… and it spells… T…A…X!
Most of my colleagues are having this headache. The guy who sits in front of me was having a real tough time because he is from UK and filling up the tax return form in BM is certainly a big challenge for him. My company is kind enough to invite some officers from the Inland Revenue Board to help its employees filling up their tax returns. But for this guy who hails from UK, he had some… communication problem with those officers.
Well, I was kind enough to offer my help… it took me… 5 minutes? Hehe…
Oh… someone sent me a link this morning. It’s a blog by a person who talks about how the e-filing system erroneously disclosed your personal information. Well, since all bloggers are liars, he could be lying. But! Check out the first 2 comments to that blog. The entry is here. You may wish to stick back to the good ‘ol manual filing.
By the way… you need any help in filling up the form? I can help… but maybe I will have to charge you… haha!!
On a totally unrelated note, a friend of mine highlighted me a video, it’s on youtube. After viewing it, I was contemplating on whether I should post it up here. Certain part of the video is a bit… err… direct… but it’s just too good not to be shared. It’s produced by the same fellas who put this up. Decided not to put it up and you can view the video here. By the way, if you don’t understand Mandarin or Cantonese, don’t fret… be patient you will understand the later part of it… Enjoy! Oh, if you wish to comment... wait till after the video ler ;P
P/S: Call it co-incidence, a butterfly appeared from no-where. Certainly a weird feeling after what I posted yesterday.
It’s exactly one month before my vege days are over, which means it has been 19 days since mom left us without any warning. Over the last 19 days, I have had more people asking me “how are you?” compared to my entire life, to which, I don’t really know how to answer. But thanks, really, I appreciate all your concern.
Over the last 19 days, I was severely hit with the “the-last-time” phenomenon… In my mind, the following thoughts kept hitting me…
The last time I went to work… mom was still alive. The last time I went to the gym… mom was still alive. The last time I went to the church… mom was still alive. The last time I played football… mom was still alive. The last time I played badminton… mom was still alive. The last time I spent a night at Jules… mom was still alive. The last time I went shopping… mom was still alive. Every single thing that I do, I just thought of the time when mom was still alive. It was killing me, but I tried my very best to hide it all.
The full wave of the fact that mom’s passing was a sudden one began to slowly sink in me; sometimes I just tear in silence. There will be more “the-last-time”, and I will have to face them all. It will be tough and I hope I will be able to find a smile amidst those tears.
Anyway… something happened in the first 7 days of mom’s passing that I really wanna share with all of you. It may be a lil… creepy…
On the night when mom was cremated, I was sitting right here blogging. To the right of me is mom’s temporary altar. It’s set up on a mahjong table and mom’s picture is on it. She is smiling at me right now as I type. This altar will stay for the 49 vege days before it’s being transferred to the altar table. Yeah, I am the only Christians in the family.
At about 11pm, I can suddenly smell a sweet fragrance, so sweet that it actually captured by attention and I started to locate the source of the smell. As I walked around the house frantically sniffing everywhere, I noticed my cousin was doing the same thing. Indeed, we were both captivated by the sudden appearance of this sweet fragrance. You know what is the best part? Only cousin and I could smell it, dad, brother and sister couldn’t smell it. Cousin said… “Ni de ma ma hui lai le” (mom is back).
That’s not the end of it yet. The 7th day after one’s passing is known as “wui wan yat” (the day when the spirit of the dead will return). On that day, all of us are not supposed to roam around the house past 10pm, and that everyone should sleep at 10pm. It’s silly really, if mom is back… I am more than happy to stay in the living room and wait for her. How I wish I could tell mom how much I love her.
Anyway, I was in my room downloading something and it was about 9.55pm when I shut down my computer and since it’s not 10pm yet, I decided to go to the toilet for one last time. As soon as I stepped out of my room… yeah, you guessed right… I could smell that sweet fragrance again. The fragrance was with me… all the way from the living room to the toilet. As I stepped out of the toilet… I paused… took a deep breath and said…
“Ma, lei hai mai fan jo lei?”
(Mom, are you back?)
As soon as I said that, I got goose bump on my entire body. It’s a strange feeling, but there was no fear. I cannot say for sure that I could sense mom, but something out of this realm happened that day.
“Ma, ah tuck weng yun do wui kam sek lei, weng yun do em wui mong kei lei”
(mom, I will always love you and always remember you)
As soon as I said that, my goose bump disappeared completely… I cried for a while before I returned to my room and called it day.
P/S: I have disclosed some of the solutions of the riddle in the comment page of that entry already. As for the solution given to me… it’s really ridiculous I am not sure if I should tell you all that. You might all laugh at me.
I got baptised today! Finally! A lot of my friends are actually very surprised about the fact that I am not a baptised Christian. Well, for a person who has been a believer for more than 15 years, who used to be very active in church activities and was involved in a few church musicals and plays… perhaps it is indeed a surprise. Well… I had my reasons.
Anyway, it was a good feeling. For such an old timer Christian, I thought it will just be another occasion where I will get my head wet… but as I kneel down for my baptism, my heart was actually pumping quite fast… like meeting a girl for the first time! I guess it does mean something. And it was also nice to be able to get baptised together with Jules.
Oh… my pastor told me that I am not the most famous blogger in my church. Someone who got baptised together with me is the most famous blogger in church. I suspected her to be a blogger… she is none other than minishorts! I bet she doesn’t even know me.
Ok… it’s getting really late and I just want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Belated Easter. May we remember His resurrection today!
P/S: I know you all wanna know the solution to the riddle… but let’s just keep that open a little longer…
It’s been a really long time since I last visited KFC. I am not exactly a fan of fast food and will only go if my colleagues fancy it for lunch. However, when I do go for a meal there, gluttony tends to set in and I can whack quite a lot of chickens. Can't help it, I mean, I know it’s bad as deep fried stuff is fattening but those original recipe crispy skin (which is the most unhealthy part) is just too tempting. Dip that into nice chilly sauce… wow, absolutely yummylicious. So, do you fancy KFC?
A man was walking on the beach with his son. As they were walking, they stumbled upon a starfish which has been washed ashore by the strong waves. If let onshore, the starfish will most certainly die. The son, knowing that the starfish will die, picked it up and threw it back into the ocean. Witnessing this, the father said…
