Confession of a brave soul

Ya’ know what? Sending e-mails to the boss after one has thrown in his or her resignation later is a hot trend nowadays. Like many readers here mentioned, people will only be able to pluck their courage after knowing that their future no longer lies in that particular slavery kingdom.

A friend forwarded me a mail and boy oh boy… what an exciting piece! It depicts a complaint made by a person who resigned and just as she was about to leave, she wrote a long e-mail to the biggest boss there is… to the CEO! After reading it, I think she must have been pushed to the limit already. And why I think it’s a she? Well, read it and you will know.

Only specific names have been removed so mind the English Manglish…

COMPLAINT TOWARDS TEAM LEADER OF XXX TEAM, MR. “THE HATED ONE” FROM XXX DEPARTMENT.

Refer to the above matter.

I would like to complaint towards my team leader, Mr. Hated One (zewt: his name was actually mentioned!! But I changed it la…)

Here are the complaint as below:-

A) From I experienced from him:-

-- He bias to who he like most.
-- Warning me not to approached to get solution of my job matters and chatting with colleagues but he always approached and chatting to the same person who he like most (address that person he like as Ms A because not convenience to perform in letter but can verbally ask from me) many times during BOSS not around in the office
-- Never ever concern any problems is facing among us except Ms A.
-- On last month (December 2006), he order us to bring him a long to appointment with customer at least once. But the most he only follow Ms A. I did ask him before, he said not free and ask other colleague to follow.
-- Said that I lack of product knowledge and will planned give some training but till now there are no training as mentioned from him.
-- Said that I’m not always at my workstation and seldom make outbound calls.
-- I’m the one need to do daily call log and monthly appraisal to him but others they are no need.
-- Everyone need to get his approval to use company car. I wonder why he can’t tell us directly instead instruct xxx to do so.
-- Xxx asked me to inform our sales team that who are after using the company car, must make sure the petrol is still available. So, iinformed him about it and then he straightly judged me the person always didn’t make sure the availability of petrol.
-- I did asked him to apply 2 days of unpaid leave for moving my house but he told me that those sign in contract are not allow to take unpaid leave. But what I had referred to Human Resrouce, said that contract staff can apply for unpaid leave.

B) From what I heard and know about him:-

-- All referral cases passed to him, supposed he need to distribute towards among his team but he only passed it to Ms A.
-- He did said before the referral cases only will passed to the senior which work more than few months but Ms A haven’t being a month can get referral cases and she became top sales of the month of November 2006.
-- All his sales team’s paid are totally different:- with working experience get low salary, with working experience less but is a degree holder get higher salary but there are staff with no working experience and is a degree holder get low salary, he will give higher salary to the staff he like most.
-- Gossip me in front one of my colleague and said that I won’t be so nice to give back the claim that on behalf of my colleague.
-- Heard that he distributed the name list among us but he give good list to Ms A only.
-- heard that one of the ex-colleague which already tendered her resignation, there are no paid give to her till now. Somemore he pretend himself is a Team Manager and create an excuse for the lateness of salary in. Said that during the Christmas time, he met an accident and need to stay in hospital for two weeks.

Thank you

If the writer of the above e-mail happened to drop by this blog… no offense but you seriously need to brush up a little on your English. Anyway, I must say it is a very brave act. The mail was brutally honest and I truly believe it was written straight from the heart. Of course, many of you will be thinking… what happened to the hated one in this situation? Hmmm… intriguing isn’t it?

What do you all think happened to him?

P/S: Oh, I managed to find out that Ms A is a former air stewardess who has also resigned.

We REALLY deserve it

I know you're probably bored with my modern slavery entries but I really have to say this... Last week, I talked about how a hero emerging from the crowd of modern slaves to bring the concerns of many to the right channel will probably have to stand on his one. And of course, it is not easy to find a hero amongst us. Furthermore, who is brave enough to be the hero? It’s an act akin to career suicide.

But lo and behold… a hero emerged amongst us… or should I say, someone was willing to be the hero. Why is someone brave enough to put his ass on the line? Well, the reason is plainly simple… he has already left this company.

One of my former slave who is now plying his slave-hood somewhere else wrote me an e-mail asking me if he should write a long e-mail to the big boss telling her about ‘the hate one’ and also to put forward our general concerns. I was absolutely thrilled of course! After a series of mail exchange, I suggested that perhaps it is also a good idea to ask the rest of the modern slaves in my department to see if they have any specific concerns which they intend to put forward. Since this brave soul is already going to do it, why not right?
Thus, he drafted an e-mail and sent it to a few of us, about 10 actually… ya’ know, those who always bitch during lunch. He asked if we have anything to add. You know what happen?

No one responded to his e-mail besides me. NOT… EVEN… A SINGLE… ONE… OF THEM!

So here we have someone who has left the company and is willing to burn his bridge with this company by writing a long (yeah, it’s damn long) e-mail to the department head. He is going to send this e-mail under his name and guess what? No one is even supportive enough to reply his mail and said “good”!

At the end of the day, I told the brave soul that it is not worth it for him to send the mail since no one even dares to put in a point or two behind the scene. I was thinking; if a briefing is called and the big boss asks whether all those points raised in the e-mail are valid, I wonder how many will actually put up their hands and say yes. The result will probably make the brave soul look very stupid.

There you have it… and this is not fabricated. It’s as zewt as it gets, it actually happened! To say that we probably deserve to be exploited is an understatement. We REALLY deserve it! All those unpaid over-time, all those un-approved leave, all those empty promises, all those bitching that we did… WE… REALLY… DESERVE… IT!

Why not then the brave soul put forward his points and mine and forgets about the rest? Well, let’s just say I already have a future plan…

P/S: A new poll is out… vote vote vote!

The sponge and dirty spoon

We had lunch in the pantry the other day. I “tah pau” (take-away) some stuff from a nearby store and we had a good time bitching about the company and bosses… what’s new. Anyway, there’s this colleague of mine who always pack lunch from her home. After our lunch cum bitching session, I went over to the sink to clean my cutleries and before me was this colleague who brings her lunch to work. I noticed that she doesn’t wash her container with the detergent made available to us.

“Why don’t you use that?”
“Ewwww… It’s so dirty. Dunno how many people used that before”

She was referring to the sponge. To my colleague, many people have used that sponge to clean their mugs, plates, containers, cutleries and thus, she thinks it’s dirty to use the same sponge to clean her container.

Do you find that……… relevant?
Let me also ask you something else… let’s say you have a spoon (we all have spoons right?) and there is this particular spoon which happened to fall into a pile of shit. Don’t ask how or why, it just fell. And it’s not just any shit… it’s a fresh pile of droppings and the texture is so tender that the spoon sunk into it as soon as it dropped in.

Then, someone then managed to pick up the spoon from this fresh pile of shit. The spoon is then sent for cleaning. The person probably soaked it in anti-septic for 1 week and then wash it over and over and over again with the best washing detergent around. Technically speaking, the spoon is clean. So clean that you might not even find a single germ on it if you put it under a microscope.

The question is…

Will you use the spoon to eat again? Why not? Something to think over the weekend perhaps…

Happy weekend!

P/S: Guess I shouldn’t stop blogging since someone wrote me this open letter. Thanks Hizecool.

I should stop blogging

Sigh… it’s very difficult to be a blogger these days. In anything and everything, bloggers are at fault in this country. Did you read the news? Well, I certainly feel threatened.

Extracted from there:

“… three laws could be used against the bloggers: The Internal Security Act (ISA), Sedition Act and Section 121b of the Penal Code”.

It appears that most, if not all of us are somewhat of a threat to national security. I really dunno what to write anymore since anything can be seditious these days. Maybe I should be some people out there… blog about some lame jokes… or maybe blog about so and so who pissed me off today... or blog about this guy who likes this girl and this girl who likes this guy but this guy like the first girl… hmmm… this could be a nice topic isn’t it?

Maybe I should just stop blogging altogether.

5xmom has this to say.

We probably deserve it

I am not sure whether this is the case everywhere but most, if not all of my fellow slaves in my department hate despise dislike one of the top management in the department. Let’s call that person ‘the hated one’. Many things have been said about the hated one… many bad things actually. But it’s a strange world indeed because in an upward evaluation done annually in my company, the hated one actually had the best score! Don’t ask me why, it’s absolutely beyond me.

The longer I work in this department, the more bad things I hear about the hated one. It has reached a stage where I personally think it is beyond ridiculous. Imagine depriving a staff of her meal which cost a mere RM7 in a company that has almost a billion in profit in the name of cost control. Don’t ask me for details, decipher it yourself.

“Why don’t you all do something? Voice it out!”

You’re probably asking that right now. Well trust me, we really want to. Just that it’s not as easy as you think. First, the big boss who runs the whole division carries a somewhat same mentality as the hated one. “Cut-cost-at-all-cost” and “make-the-slaves-work-like-dogs-no-matter-what”… then the big boss sees the hated one carrying out such acts, it gives the big boss much pleasure.

Are you in a somewhat similar situation? Or do you see situation of similar nature around you?

Surely, we all want someone who is willing to sacrifice himself and get his hands dirty to reveal the dark side of the hated one to the right channel. But are you prepared to be this brave soul? Honestly speaking, no one has the guts to do it. We only know how to bitch about it during lunches and curse behind the hated one’s back.

But…

Imagine… a guy has the guts to step out and “indirectly” represent the majority and voice out all the concerns. Imagine… a guy who is willing to sacrifice himself to come out and deliver what hidden in all our hearts to the right person. Hey… this guy might even do a rap music video and put it up in the company’s intranet and he raps nothing but the truth, the desire of your heart. Or this soul is daring enough to write a long mail to the CEO.

What happens then?

I wonder how many of my fellow slaves will stand beside him. I wonder how many of my fellow slaves will slowly raise their hands and say… “yeah, that is true”. I wonder…

But you know what? I have a strange feeling that many of my fellow slaves will say… “Oh, he shouldn’t have done that”…”Oh, his intention was right but what he did wasn’t so ethical, not very professional”… Would you agree with me?

Isn’t that ironic? We have so much suppressed inside us and we long to let it known. But when someone is willing to do that on behalf of us… when someone is willing to stand up against the hated one… we will probably just disappear into the background and be a silent observer from afar…

Such is life… the hypocrite in us. Guess we all deserve to be exploited… be it modern slaves, or other means.

More but less

“Roti kosong dua” (two plain pratta)
“Minum?” (drinks?)
“Ais kosong” (plain water)

Those were my regular lunch when I first entered the modern slavery kingdom. Such lunch will cost me RM1.40 and for dinner, I will usually eat at home. I remember having McD for lunch is somewhat a luxury. Very strange indeed because, kind of like a reversal of fortune because going to McD when I was still a student isn’t exactly a luxury. Then it hit me… those days when I can just stretch out my palm and ask for pocket money are gone. When I started working, I actually try to limit my McD lunches to twice a month.

Another thing which sort of irritates me is farewell. I was unfortunate enough to be dragged to a farewell lunch at a somewhat posh restaurant and not only the lunch was expensive; I had to chip in to pay for the meal of the resignee, whom I don’t really know. And consider that I still haven’t got my fist paycheque at that time, imagine my face when I had to pull out 50 bucks from my depleting wallet.

I started with RM1,800 (circa USD520) a month in a firm which ranked 2nd in the international auditing world. I was given the impression that I am fortunate to be recruited because amongst hundreds who applied, that firm only recruited 4. I was one of them, so I was told. With that salary, I have to pay for my car, pay some to my dad, gave some to my Mom with parking making up the autonomous consumption. On top of that, I was determined to save as much as I can, which explains why McD is a luxury and that RM1.40 meal is my all time favourite lunch.

How much I managed to save in my first year of being a modern slave? Approximately RM9,000 (USD2,300). Of course, the overtime claim which the firm paid in cash at that time helped quite a bit.

6 years plus into the modern slavery life, I don’t earn that kind of salary anymore, a little bit more of course. Naturally, I would have been able to save more. Do you think that is the case? Truth be told… I hardly save any. Not that I do not wish to save but somehow, money just finished without me knowing it.

Let’s pause and do a lunch habit comparison. Certainly, McD is no longer a luxury. I did some observation on myself lately and I noticed that I spend an average of RM12 per lunch. That is almost 9-times what I was paying when I was an infant modern slave. Now, the question is, did my salary increase 9-folds? OF COURSE NOT!

I think I am not alone when I say that the more we earn, the less money we seem to be left with in the bank at the end of the month. We are somewhat led to believe that with a little increase in our salary, we can afford so much more but in actual fact, we can't. If we are not careful, we may land ourselves in a 5 figure credit card bills and with your 4 figure salary, you are going to have a very tough time paying it off.

I know many of you will say that our employers are not paying enough and that we are made to work like dogs with a puny salary. That is true, it is a modern slavery world after all. but at the same time, we should also examine ourselves to see whether are we doing our lives any justice. To those who live on a earn-all-spend-all motto. Let me just tell you that you have not reached a point of your life where you are desperate for cash and … not having them.

We don’t need to alter our entire spending habit to make a big difference. Just keep a check on some minor things and it does make a big difference. I am going to start my not spending too lavishly during lunch. What about you?

P/S: My company just blocked our access to blogspot this week. KNNCCB!

Monday Mix

Many of you would have already seen a particular music video that has been circulating around in the virtual world lately. A very near piece of art I must say. I told some bloggers that I will not be commenting on it simply because it’s another case of “sam jiu”. Was it wrong to make fun of our national anthem? Definitely so… Were those rap lyrics depicting truth? Sam jiu ler… So long as I am stepping on mud and not greener grass, my comment will be… it-will-be-a-total-waste-of-talent-when-the-rapper-lands-himself-in-deep-shit.

Moving along, there is also another hot topic currently being debated by a certain quarter of domestic bloggers which I have also taken the I-dunwanna-blog-about-it approach. But as I was having lunch today, I over-heard the topic being talked about by the next table, comprising of 1 old uncle and 4 old aunties. They were very candid; with a lot of hand movements… they were talking about the sad state of our Malaysian football! Imagine… 4 old aunties!!

There seems to be a big revamp in FAM with a view to bring our football to its glory days. I remember the national team was totally disbanded when they put up a dismal display in one of the SEA Games. Did that move make any difference to their performance? Definitely… that time, they lost to Cambodia (I think), now… they got thrashed by China and Uzbekistan. It’s an improvement mind you.

I just want to say that I disagree with more money being pumped blindly into this sport. Someone said we need better infrastructure, more playing fields. Please note that kids in Argentina, Brazil and not to mention the poor African nations play on near-desert-like ground and some have to kick coconuts. Pumping more money WILL NOT improve the game. Last but not least (on this notion)… I refuse to believe that our Malaysian team can be so Malay-sianed.

The charming TingTitLei, whom I have the privilege to meet in the recent blogger booze tagged me on “what I will do if I have $1,000,000”. I know I said I never do tag but this is quite a common question we ask each other. My answer… assuming that it’s US$ that you’re talking about, I will not be buying anything. The very first thing I will do is to bloody resign from my job and get my ass out of the modern slavery world.

Finally, thank you Clare for awarding me my very first “Awesome Guy Blogger” award… thank you Confessing7girl and Rinnah for awarding me my first and second “Power of schmooze” award respectively and thank you Evelynholic for giving me my 5th “thinking blogger” award. Hell yeah… self gratification here… it’s Monday and I need some cheer!

P/S: Anyone not voted yet? Taking down the poll soon.

A locker tale

This week passed by in light speed. Really, without me knowing it, Friday is already here. Not that I am complaining but it’s really quick. It was also a week where I have been very discipline in going to the gym. And consider that I have not been a regular for the longest time; my whole body feels as though it’s falling apart due to all the weights.

Speaking of gym, I have been warned that my gym is notorious about having a high density of people who have lost a sense of direction. Ya’ know… those poles who like poles instead of holes. This friend of mine was telling me how he felt as though someone is always ready to pounce when you’re showering. Haha!!

One thing I wanna share with you all. You see, if you happen to take up a locker deep inside a particular row of lockers and when the gym is crowded, you practically have to squeeze through in order to reach your locker. The other day, I happened to take up such a locker. And just as when I was trying to get to my locker after my shower… this guy pulled down his pants (and underwear) and bent down… and he was freaking blocking my way!!!!

What’s worse is that I was just about to walk pass him! For a moment there, I almost landed myself in some very sticky situation. Suddenly, I came up with these 5 horrible things that could have happened to any guy in that situation…

Number 5…
As you walk passed him, one of your hand accidentally brushes his ass… OoooOOOOooo!!

Number 4…
He turns around to you and both of you have eye-contact… holy shit!

Number 3…
He smiles and begins to walk slowly to you…

Number 2…
He touches your ass!!! Shit!!

And the worst thing that can happen to you thereafter….

…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
…
...

...

...
...

...

...
...

...
…

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...
…
…
…
…
…
…
You actually like it….


Happy weekend everyone…

Don’t ground ’em… just crash ’em

It was not until I received a mail from one of my former classmates that I actually begin to follow the development of the incident. I was left wordless when I read that mail, sent to our class of 95 yahoo mail-group. The mail talks about the recently crashed landed Nuri helicopter… the pilot was our former classmate, Kapten Nor Azlan Termuzi.

As some of you may know, the military helicopter went missing last Friday 10 minutes after taking off and the wreckage was found mid of yesterday. There were 6 on-board the helicopter, none survived. Me and my former classmates lost a friend today.

The reason why I did not pay much attention to the missing helicopter until I know Azlan was piloting it was because Nuri helicopter crashes bear much resemblance to haze in this counter… they happen rather frequent, so frequent that it warrants a “huh, crash again?” reaction. We are either fed up with it, or just couldn’t be bothered as it doesn’t concern us. To me, it was both.

How frequent are the crashes if you may asked...

Well, inclusive of Azlan and his crew, 67 people have died in 11 crashes (I counted them from statistics shown in today’s Star newspaper). The first crash happened 1 year after the Nuri was introduced to the Malaysian Air Force, with 3 crashes and 2 emergency landings in the last 4 years alone.

Is there something seriously wrong with these helicopters? Of course not!! As reported in today’s news … “The Nuris have been properly maintained and are in good condition”. Hence, despite all these crashes, the Nuris will not be grounded. There will be an investigation done on this latest crash and then they will decide whether the Nuris will be grounded.

Wait a minute… shouldn’t they be grounding these helicopters until they are proven safe and not flying them until they are proven dangerous. Oh yeah, I forgot, this is just our way of doing things. Besides, all those who are dead are not some big shot VIP but just our regular soldiers. Also, the Nuris are just 40 years old and since we still got more than 20 of them… yeah, don’t ground ‘em… just crash ‘em… crash ‘em all…

To Azlan, I will always remember you as that guy who ran in the 5,000 metres race during the 1994 sports day and emerged second. And when I saw how tired you were, I asked how they hell are you going to run in the 100m and 400m sprint… you smiled and said “Jangan takut”.

Azlan emerged as champion in the 100m and 400m sprint.

May you rest in peace my friend.

Those auto messages

My boss was on leave today. Usually, she will activate her ‘out of office’ message for her e-mail but I think she forgot to do that for today. How I know? … Cause I copied her in some of my mails and didn’t get the prompt.

Oh, for those who don’t know what an ‘out of office’ message is… it is a function in our office mail where we modern slaves can activate should be we go on leave. When there is an in-coming mail, an automated message will be sent to the sender telling the sender that the recipient is on leave and will not be around to reply.

A typical ‘out of office’ message will go something like…

“I will be on leave from xxx to yyy and will not be around to reply your mail. Should you require any urgent assistance, please contact the sucker at 12345678”

Sounds very boring right? Well, someone sent me a list and allow me to share with you some interesting ones…

I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. But if I did, I just want you to know that you suck. – do this only when you’re very confident of your new job.

You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t receive anything at all. – I am sure many of you wanna put this one up, right?

Sorry to have missed you, but I am at the doctor’s having my brain removed so I can be promoted to our management team. – oooOOooo… how many agree this is important?

The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try again. – this will probably reveal how many idiots are out there.

Thank you for your e-mail. If I don’t reply you, it means you have just asked a stupid question. – how many of you modern slaves in the consulting world wanna put this up?

And here is the most interesting one…

I will be away for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as “Sharon” instead of “Steve”.

Do you have any version of your own?

And to sum it all up

Girls are generally money minded… rich guys are generally jerks… guys will generally go for younger hotter chicks… married men are generally horny… those topics have been hotly debated in AZAIG lately. For a while, I thought I have turned AZAIG into a forum or something. The initiating entry even breached the century comments count! Not that I am complaining. In fact, I am absolutely thrilled and long may it continue.

Anyway, I’ve said earlier that I like Helen’s comment best, but another comment came in later and I must say, blogger ‘me’ said it all in one simple phrase….

“… yes, women do it too… the statistic is just still not as many as the men”

She was referring to the how thrill and excitement of ‘something new’ will drive men into forgetting about his responsibility and plunging his head (the dick version) into some new “hole”. And she is right in admitting that women do it too, infidelity I mean, not plunging “head” into a certain “hole”. But of course, like she said, just that the statistics point more towards guys as being the perpetrators.

Being a member of the male species, I’ll admit that is true.

Similarly, the debate about all girls being money minded can be concluded in that manner. Some female readers have pointed out that men can be equally materialistic. I will not deny that but well, if I may borrow the phrase by ‘me’…

“… yes, men do it too… the statistic is just still not as many as the women”

Fair?

In life… we usually know what is wrong and what is right. Most of us are born with the instinct to do the right thing, ethical right things I mean. That is called knowledge, gained through our understanding about life. When being asked whether we will do the wrong thing, our knowledge will tell us to deny it… to say no. It’s our natural response.

With knowledge, we are then being put in situation whether we need to do the right or the wrong thing. This discerning knowledge allows us to know what to choose between wrong or right. This is called wisdom.

But… admitting that we have our weaknesses and limitations, that we are vulnerable to temptations, that we may land our ass in the dark side one day… admitting that wisdom may fail us despite having the right knowledge… that is called… maturity.

May you have a blue-less Monday.

Ponder and find the peculiar time

Have you heard of this over the radio lately?...

“Hey guys, where are going?”
“We’re going for a holiday.”
“That’s great. Where to?”
“Oh ya’ know… Phuket, Bali, Singapore, Thailand.”
“Hey… kam mon, this is we-shit mesia year 2007, we must all support we-shit mesia year!”
“Oh yeah man… let us all go to Ipoh, Penang instead”
“Yea yea… let us all we-shit mesia… let’s go to Subang!”

Something like that… heard of it? No disrespect to hitz-fm or the morning crew, Rudy and JJ but…

Now I know how our country is going to achieve the targeted 20 million visitors. Hey you… did you go to Ipoh lately? You just contributed to the number of tourist in this we-shit… I mean visit Malaysia year campaign. Oh… that nuffnang gathering in Penang which attracted quite a number of KL bloggers, you have all just contributed to visit Malaysia year 2007.

Ok ok … maybe I am being a bit too critical of it. But one thing I must ask is WHY… WHY… WHY each time a person is supposed to portray Malaysian in a radio advert, they will put on some broken manglish? WHY? Another typical example is the advert asking us to support our local football team. For goodness sake, it’s vi-sit Ma-lay-sia and not we-shit mesia.


I know some of you all are supporters of manglish, but really, is this how you want to be portrayed?

Oh well… it’s Friday after all, and we should all be happy. I am not actually, I have just finished my half year reporting to London and the tax filing is due so the modern slavery life is going to be worse than ever in the last 2 weeks.

And oh… just to tickle everyone’s thoughts a bit… time has always been a peculiar thing in this blog… can anyone tell why?

Updated: Oh, a very big word of thanks to AhPek from AhPek.com for featuring me in his blog. What an honour... !

Happy weekend!

P/S: Go vote now if you haven’t done so.

Very quickly

There is an infection to my right eye and it’s quite bad so this is going to be rather quick. 4 things I would like to share today.

First, remember this entry and this entry where people are dying from being a modern slave? Well, we are indeed dropping like flies. Check out the article below and pay attention to the last line. It’s just so true.
Secondly, Tunku Halim is organising a fun competition for his readers. For those who do not know, Tunku Halim is a reputable local author who has made a name for himself. He is currently organising a fun competition in relation to one of his book titled “44 Cemetery Road”. Details of the competition can be read here.

Thirdly, I have put up a new poll, go vote!! I am beginning to like this poll thingy. A total of 137 readers voted in the previous poll. A big word of thanks to you all.


So most of you like to think… hmmm… that’s really good. I must also applause many of you here whom I can call “thinking readers”. Your comments can sometimes be better than my blog entry itself. You know who you are... Kudos to you all and keep them coming!

Last but not least, anyone who would like to take up a role of an assistant instructor in a child learning centre teaching maths, drop me a comment leaving your mail. I will delete your comment after getting your mail if you do not wish to disclose it to the world. I will mail you the details. Oh… this job is in 1 Utama.

My eyes are hurting… need to rest. Goodnight everyone.

Debit affluence, credit conscience

Though I am in working in the accounting industry, I am not exactly a number person. But any accounting graduate; or even student will know the very basic of accounting. It’s called ‘double entry’. “Debit” usually means ‘inflow while “credit” usually means ‘outflow’.
One of the few things I still remember from my University days was this finance lecturer who said that the whole world functions like an account. What goes up, must come down, if there’s an input, there will be an output, when there’ a debit, there must be a credit. I find this notion very true, more apparent these days. Unless something falls from the sky, we cannot expect to gain something without losing something in return.

Looking at our society, we will all agree that we are progressing in almost all aspects as the years go by, generally speaking. People are getting more educated; we are more aware of our needs and… we have a much increased desire for luxury. As such, the motivation to succeed has been heighten tremendously. The competition to make it big and to be somebody, has reached a level no one has ever imagined before.

If the whole society is a company, we seem to be increasing our ‘revenue’; average income per capita for KL (the capital of Malaysia) folks have never been higher. We are certainly moving ahead with our way of life, just look at the amount of shopping malls and if you’re observant enough… look at the way we spend, it’s truly incredible. Also, the purchase of motor vehicle, once considered a luxury, has reached such a level where owning 1 car is already a necessity. Our society is indeed ‘debiting’ plenty of affluence.

But amidst our desire to increase our wealth… to debit our affluence, have we ever wondered what is it that we are giving away to gain what we want? Have we ever wondered what is it that we are ‘crediting’ in this big account?

Recent events reported in our local media indicate exactly what is it that we are ‘debiting’. Day after day our media reports cases of fraud, theft, robbery, murder, rape, exploitation, con-job, bribery and all sorts of other creative crime. Even cases of snatch theft resulted in death for some! And we Malaysians need not to be reminded of the gruesome murder of a little girl by her very own mother.

We may not be directly involved in such things, but can we say our hands are really clean? Just look at our daily lives, in our normal course of work, how many times have we, in the name of convenience, ignored our conscience? I don’t even dare to think about it myself. Just because our discreet deeds did not result in any lost of life (or money), doesn’t really mean we are not guilty. Perhaps guilty is a heavy word but, are we crediting our conscience to debit our affluence all in the name of convenience?

It will be a noble act for some of us to actually put our foot down and do the right thing. However, such individual will only be branded as stupid. Let’s face the fact, our hands are tied, we’ve all been hand cuffed to something we cannot live without. We all want to be affluent, and we will do almost anything to achieve that. In our quest to gain our 1st million, we don’t care if the million is going to come from a million people who probably need 1 to survive.

In debiting our affluence, have we lost of conscience? I think we are. And can we do anything about it? Looking at our history in the light of our foreseeable future, the account is definitely going to balance. As we continue to debit our affluence, we probably must continue to credit our conscience.

This affluent society is slowly losing its humanity. Robbers, murderers are rapists are no longer fearful. They seem to be having fun in their act. Just look at the news about how a break-in resulted in the son being forced to have sex with the mother and the countless rapes which happened here in Malaysia where the boyfriends were made to watch. Crime has reached a whole new level.

I once heard that conscience is the only thing that hurts when everything else feel so good. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I will admit my tolerance to his ‘pain’ has been increasing day by day and I am sure many of you will probably be developing this same immune system. So the account will continue to balance. As we continue to debit our affluence, we will continue to credit our conscience, perhaps in the name of convenience.

But I am terrified at the thought of the account running into overdraft. Or maybe, it already has.

P/S: This article has been posted by me in TheStar before. Been modified in the light of recent events.

Just so sick

My last entry gave my traffic a big boost, I guess sex and orgasm is the way to go. But while I was thinking of summarising my recent entries regarding girls and money vs men and orgasm, I read about the news that shocks the nation today.

Yeah, many would have read it by now. The morbid murder of this little girl is truly inhuman. Her mother reported her missing 3 days ago. The little girl was reported to have been burnt in a cemetery by the perpetrator. 2 suspects have been held captive. I am sure you all know the details. And yeah, news is coming from all quarters saying that the female suspect being reprimanded is… HER MOM!!!!!!!

I have always respected mothers but this woman has totally lost it. If she is really guilty, may God have mercy upon her soul. As for the little girl, may she rest in peace, save in God’s hands now.

Just to digress a little, if you received a forwarded mail in the past months about a man depicting how his son-in-law’s brand new Honda Accord got hijacked, well, let me tell you it’s true. The guy whose car got hijacked is my friend. The modus operandi is that a decent looking car driven by decently looking people will hit your car from behind and then volunteer to get down. When my friend got down to assess the damage and talk things out, a few cars appeared out from nowhere, a knife was pointed to his neck and like they said… the rest is history.

What’s interesting is that when he went to make his police report, a man was there at the police station making a report of the exact same nature… and the same car was hijacked! You know all those movies where the crooks are very well trained and professional… it’s happening in Malaysia.

A fellow blogger had a first hand experience in having his car hijacked. You can read all about it here. Worth a read, one must get to know how these hijackers work. Particularly if you intend to get a new car. Those with 4 wheels I mean.
Oh… we have heard about all the rapes happening around the country lately. But I read something even more sickening from this entry. 10 men force their entry into a woman’s apartment who then proceed to rape and sodomised the woman. Next… they force the 12 year old son to have sex with his mother at gun point!!!! According to the blogger, 2 of the assailants were aged 13 and 14. (Updated : Been told this wasn't in Malaysia... but it's still sick nonetheless!!!)

Anyway...WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THIS COUNTRY????????

So this is the country that some big shot claimed a few months ago of having one of the lowest crime rate around the region. If this is considered low, I can't possibly imagine how it would be like to have ‘normal crime rate’.

A few weeks back, I talked about how we are all stepping on muddy grounds. Now… I feel we are trampling on … SHIT!

Spare a minute of silence in remembrance of the little girl who innocently lost her life… have a heart.

P/S: Anyone not voted in the poll at the sidebar yet? Closing it by this week.

Orgasm comparison

It’s Monday and I was thinking whether I should put in a heavy entry. I reckon not. Besides, my brain is a bit cramped up due the fact that I had to work yesterday. Don’t ask.

As I was thinking about what to pen down today, my memory brought me back to the a few months back when I stumbled upon a blog entry which talks about orgasm. As the blogger wishes to remain anonymous, I shall not link there.

Some of you may have read it, that blogger was talking about men and orgasm. It talks about how orgasm is… an orgasm. Whether you’re making love to your wife… or to your girlfriend… or to a whore… or to that hot babe that you bumped into last night… it’s the same orgasm. That blogger was indirectly talking about infidelity.

Anyway, do you agree?

That blogger has a point. I don’t see much difference in the orgasm a man can have with his wife and the orgasm with another girl. Maybe the timing of the orgasm is a little different but at the end of the day, it’s the same feeling of having cum rushing out your dickhead just like how nature intended it to be. So cum rushing out from a man’s dickhead into his wife’s v-g-g or a young babe’s v-g-g is still… cum rushing out from a man’s dickhead.

So if it’s the same feeling or orgasm, why do men go looking somewhere?

Ok, imagine this… imagine the car you’ve been driving. Say you really maintain the car brilliantly and the condition is really good. Of course, there are things that are beyond your control such as the engine’s condition but the seats, the air-condition, the braking system, basically everything else are very well maintain.

Now, imagine 10 years driving that same car… someone comes along and said he would like to exchange his car with you. He will take your 10 years car away and give you a “brand new car of the exact same model”. Imaging you’re driving a Honda Civic 1997 model and a gives you a brand new Honda Civic 1997 model in exchange with your old one. EXACT-SAME-MODEL… but BRAND NEW. What say you?

Are you doing to at say “No… I’ll pass” or what? Men… do you think you can say ‘No’?

P/S: Zewt is in NO WAY condoning infidelity.
P/S/S: Having cum rushing out into a tissue paper or onto a certain type of magazine is a different issue altogether.

This entry is worth RM127

Many will know that I am not a person who will go tag. However, a person by the name of Idham has agreed to donate RM127 (approximately USD36) to the Darul Izzah Orphanage in Bangi for every blogger who complete this particular tag. I have read about his entry and I believe he is for real. Plus, the person who tagged me is of some credible background. You can check out who she is in the comments section of my previous entry.

The tag is completing a minimum 13 of the 27 phrases provided. Let’s see what I can conjure from those boring phrases.

1. A person is only as good as ...
2. Friendship is always ...
3. To love is to know that you have a chance to make love.
4. Money makes me wanna make more money.
5. I miss the time when I was bumming for 2 months without a job.
6. My way of saying I care is by scolding the shit out of you.
7. I try to spread love and happiness by making a lot of love and end it with a smile.
8. Pick the flowers when…
9. To love someone is to…
10. Beauty is when stupid people get what they deserve.
11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was my puberty experience.
12. When I was twenty one, I remember I miss my puberty days.
13. I am most happy when I don’t have to work!
14. Nothing makes me happier than completing this tag cause it’s getting boring.
15. If I can change one thing, I will change brain of some of some people in this country.
16. If smiles were…
17. Wouldn't it be nice if we could…
18. If you want to get the things you have not been getting, then you have to do the things you have not been doing.
19. Money is not everything but just that it can buy almost everything.
20. The most touching moment I have experienced is…
21. I smile when…
22. When I am happy, I...
23. If only I don't have to work but yet get paid then I will know that I am dreaming and do funny thngs in it.
24. The best thing I did yesterday was…
25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title ..."A 2nd chance with Mom"
26. One thing I must do before I die is (censored).
27. Doing this meme, I feel like I missed a chance to do my usual Friday Frolics… sigh...

That really took a while, those phrases were really boring. But I feel good that I have indirectly contributed RM127 to charity. Don’t ask me why RM127 cause I have no freaking idea.

I wish to tag… whoever feels charitable. If you do, drop a comment at Idham’s place.

To end it all… I have to say Transformers is not my favourite cartoon. Yeah, it’s called cartoon and not animation!!

This is all time favourite cartoon…


I just finished going through all the 80s cartoons intro of in YouTube... think I have having cartoons overdose! Those who missed the 80s… you missed one helluvan era!!!

Have a brilliant weekend…

KY (A+B+2C) + KY

I joined my current company full of hope and much expectation due to it being a reputable multi-national corporation. Unfortunately though, my hope was crushed didn’t turn out well and I certainly have to lower change my expectation. Have you experienced such thing before?

Joining the wrong company in your first job is a correctable mistake. Joining the wrong company in your second job may plunge one into quarter life crisis. Joining the wrong company in your third job may result in career suicide. Having been through 4 different companies, allow me to share some thoughts in choosing the master of your slavery life.

The first formula is KYA… Know your associate, and I mean your future colleagues. These are the people whom you will spend a minimum of 9 hours a day, a minimum of 5 days a week and as such… trust me, you need to know what kind of people they are. Being amongst people whom you can't even talk to, and yet have to work with them will result in much misery.

How the hell are you going to know the people you’re going to work with? Well… very simple… ASK! If you’re entering the slavery world for the first time, you will realise that ‘asking questions’ must form part of your life in order for you to survive. So ask around… your friends… your parents… your parents’ friends… ask the people within the industry. Very often, the so called ‘I-heard-the-people-there-are-weirdos’ can turn out to be pretty true.

Second on the list… KYB... know your boss. A quick word for graduates, do NOT akin bosses to your lecturers. Lecturers are indirectly paid by you, bosses on the other hand… I hope you know what I mean. Research has shown that bosses are the main reason why people resign without a job and generally, such resignation is an act of desperation. You wouldn’t want to be in such a situation.

Again… ask around… ask your friends… ask your flings… ask your enemies… or ask zewt. Nasty bosses often make a name for themselves in the industry. Trust me, students are not the only group of people in the world who bitch around, modern slaves bitch even more! The company may pay you well… but a nasty boss can give you hell and sometimes, it supersedes your pay.

Thirdly… KYC(1)… know your customer. Yeah yeah yeah… you’re not doing sales. But hey! Don’t think customers only apply to people doing sales. In the real world, everyone is doing sales. Your assignment… your work… that’s your product. Whoever you need to serve those products, they are your customers. It could be your boss, your colleague, people from other department or the actual clients of the company. Know their expectations. You will need to know what kind of expectations and how unreasonable these people can get.

And you will also need to KYC(2)… know your company. Those things that you read in the net, they are probably all lies. Just look at the state of our country and look at the things they publish in the newspaper… get the flow? Again, ask around. Best if you have friends already working in the company. Get to know the culture, the working hours and the level of politics that exist in the company. Yes, office politics, you can't run away from it. Anyone who tells you that there are no politics in his or her office is an idiot.

Last but now least… after knowing all of that above, you must KY… know yourself. A lot of people want to achieve this and achieve that. But just because you can hike doesn’t mean you can climb the mountain, just because you float doesn’t mean you can swim the ocean, just because you have a gun doesn’t mean you can kill the lion, just because you can fly doesn’t mean you can slay the dragon and… just because you got the qualification, doesn’t mean you can make it there.

This does not only apply to corporate people. It applies to very specialise industry too, doctor for example. Just because you can stand blood and all the gross stuff, doesn’t mean you will be able to make it. A story was told a brilliant young doctor never recover after one of the patient under his care died. He has the brain, has the hands, has the energy, has the guts… but doesn’t have a cold enough heart.

So get to know yourself… and choose wisely.

A dream comes true

Ya’ know, I am so into blogging that I am actually considering doing it full time. The whole experience has just been phenomenal. Of course, in order for me to do it full time, I should be able to make enough to make a decent living. Things like PayPerPost or Bloggerwave and other means such as sucking up to Nuffnang come to mind. But with my page rank level and not so great traffic plus Nuffnang now going on get-clicked-to-get-paid basis, I wonder if I will be able to make a decent living.

But alas!!! I read something in the comics newspaper yesterday and I was thrilled!
Isn’t it good news? Full time writers with the gomen as your employer! What can one ask for? Ok, they said writers but I think they meant bloggers since they say “cyber war”. It is “… among their key strategies in preparation for the elections”. Elections? I thought they said not so soon? Hmmmm……

Anyway, I wonder how much they will pay. Since the new increased pay scale just kicked in on 1 July 2007, I reckon the pay wouldn’t be that bad. And then… ya’ know… working with gomen! Means no overtime! Yay! Hmmm… I wonder if they will allow their writer to work from home.

I wonder when the application form will be out, cause I think I wanna apply for the job. Imagine get into office, read stuff on the cyber-world… read more stuff… do some analysis… make a report… do more analysis… write up an article wiith something subtle to counter all those ‘lies’ in the cyber-world.

Oh wait… I think that seems like the working requirement of the modern slavery world… working with gomen doesn’t carry a slavery culture… it will probably be something like…

Get into office… go for breakfast… come back read newspaper… go for tea… come back check mail… go for lunch… take a nap… call your bf or gf to tell them you’re sleepy… check mail… go afternoon tea… then really read some stuff of the net… and… issue a statement like “ALL BLOGGERS ARE LIARS!”… ahh… a job well done. Don’t you just love such job.

Any full-time-blogger wannabe wanna join me in applying for the job?

Transformers there... transforming here...

*This is not a spoiler*

It was drizzling and an old man was fishing by the harbour. His rod (the fishing version), caught something and he turned around to hallow to his friend that he caught something. As he struggles to control his catch, he turned around and shouted…”It’s a big one!” Soon, we can see the water level rising and wooden bridge by the harbour was uprooted, chaos was approaching. That’s when the word appeared in most of the viewers’ mind at that time… the word was “Godzilla”.

Having built up to much hype, Godzilla turned out to be one of the flop of the century.

The same kind of hype was tagging along with the current blockbusters, Transformers. But you know what happened? As I walked into the cinema last Friday, Jules told me she was feeling sleepy and she hoped she will not fall asleep. She came out telling me that she doesn’t mind watching it again.

It was like living the days of my childhood again and being the zewt that I am, I went and read up a lot about the film. Here are 7 things you may or may not know about the current blockbuster:

7……
It was G.I. Joe which was supposed to make the big screen. But the producer negotiated to have Transformers instead. Hmmm… I think G.I. Joe would be cool too… Cooooobraa!!!!

6……
Transfomers’ slogan “Their War, Our World” was actually the original slogan for Alien vs Predator. AVP changed it last minute to “Whoever wins… we lose”. Didn’t know Transformers is a copy-cat eh?

5……
Many have known this point… the voice of Optimus Prime is played by Peter Cullen, the original voice in the cartoon series. But Frank Welker, the original voice of Megatron, has aged too much to take on the role again. So Hugo Weaving a.k.a. Agent Smith from the Matrix trilogy took on Megatron’s voice.

4……
Michael Bay, the director originally turned down the offer to direct the movie branding it “a stupid toy movie”. What the… a stupid toy movie?????

3……
Many said that Bumblebee is supposed to be a beetle. The reason why Bumblebee appears as a Camaro instead of a Volkswagen Beetle is because the director wanted to avoid comparison with Herbie the Love Bug. What the… what Love bug????

2……
Megatron transforms into an “interstellar jet” instead of a gun for Starscream because the toyline distributor refuse to make gun for any of the characters. So yeah, the reason why Megatron didn’t transform into a gun is because a toy company said so. Oppss… did I just spoil the movie for you? Ok… no more spoilers ok? Promise!

And the number 1 thing you may or may not know about Transformers….

The sequel will be out in 2009 and will feature the planet-sized robot, Unicron. So start the countdown!

See, no spoilers right? Those are some facts which you will not get from watching the movie. Anyway, for those who have not watch the movie… don’t get your ass off the seat too soon… there are some scenes in between the credits. Don’t say I didn’t tell you…

Closer to home, the city of Kuala Lumpur also made some transformations yesterday. The clean air in KL has transformed into… hazy air once again. Yup… the haze is back and make a wild guess who is the culprit. Altogether now… IN…DO…NE…SIA!!!

Our neighbour who supply us with cheap construction worker, cheap maids, phantom voters migrants, criminals have again deliver its annual gift to us. Here begins the annual process of Malaysia-demand-apology-Indon-say-sorry-Malaysian-die-they-no-worry.

Grass anyone?... oh, I mean cleaner air, anyone?

The 6-months journey

6 months ago today, I pen down my first entry and voila… zewt gave birth to As Zewt As It Gets in the wonderful world of blogosphere. As some of you may know, starting a blog was my resolution for the year 2007 and it is the only resolution I have managed to keep in my life. Words cannot describe how incredible this journey in the blogosphere has been for me.

As AZAIG comes into 6 months of its existence, I would like to take a moment to specially pay tribute to all my blogofriends who rendered endless words of comfort to me during my mom’s passing. I am greatly touched and you all have helped me go through those difficult times. Some may claim that the virtual world can be very fake and some people may brand bloggers as liars, but during those times, you have proved that the human connection is very much alive in the virtual world. And of course, we bloggers are certainly not liars. A very big thank you to all of you!

Being in the blogosphere for 6 months also opened my eyes to a lot of things. For a start, the saying about blogging is a thing for the young and that most bloggers are young students is an absolute myth. I’ve learnt that there are a lot of older more matured bloggers who carry celebrity status in the blogosphere. I guess I should not put up some name, you all know who there are.

Secondly, I’ve noticed there are 2 famous terms which make up name of blogs. They are “rant(s)” and “rambling(s)”. Would you agree with me on this? Does your blog name have one of these famous 2?

On a more spiritual side, I’ve learnt that there are a lot of bloggers who are Christians, to me at least. They may not write in a manner a Christian should write, but they do have God in their heart. By the way, have you noticed that the F word has not appeared in my blog for quite some time already, at least not that regular anymore. Pastor, are you reading this?

Next, I’ve also learnt that there “most” bloggers despise do not really like not very happy with the govt. A blogger may blog about his or her cat, dog, housemate, school, work, food, husband, wife or even sex life, but one can always see a blogger’s dissatisfaction about the govt in those subtle entries which appear once in a while. Are you one of them?

Speaking about govt, I once stumbled upon a blog which specially states that AZAIG is boring because it talks about political and social stuff. But strangely enough, I’ve noticed that whenever I do blog about political stuff, my stats will hit the roof! And just to make things even more peculiar… while political entries attract most readers, such entries tend to have low amount of comments. Hmmm… wonder why…

Those are some of the things I’ve learnt in my last 6 months of my blogging life. I must say they are intriguing discoveries and I look forward to more.

Last but not least, a very big word of thank you to those who made AZAIG as your daily drug. I must say it’s too flattering. Thank you the 41,891 hits thus far. To know that some of you actually surf AZAIG before you check out the daily news in TheStar or Straits Times does indeed brings a great sense of satisfaction to me BUT… please do take heart that zewt is just a regular blogger like you. I will need all your help to keep my feet on the ground and I certainly do not want to be too big headed.

Again… thank you all for keeping AZAIG alive and kicking and by the way… have you voted at the poll yet?