You are the Sword of Gryffindor

You are the Sword of Gryffindor,
Fashioned with rubies and out from silver.
Your appearance remained humble yet it shines,
Coveted by the eyes of all mankind.
You appear at the time of need,
Transformed from nothing for the kid.
Stabbed the cobra with your sharp teeth,
Imbued with poison your bloods are.
Powerful have you become,
As you only absorb those make strong.
You are the Sword of Gryffindor,
That only appears at the time of need.

This post was thought and written and erased far weeks ago. I think that time I was just finished with the Harry Potter series and got into delusional thoughts. When you start to notice, the series tend to revolves around the Sword of Gryffindor and "the Sword of Gryffindor". Confused? Don't be!

When I said the Sword of Gryffindor, what I really meant is the Sword of Gryffindor. The one made from pure silver and fashioned with rubies and owned by Godric Gryffindor (the rightful owner of the sword). If you have been following the series as an avid fan, you'll know that the sword was used to destroy horcruxes after it has been used to stab the Basilisk and the rest is nuff said. 

On the other hand, what I meant with "the Sword of Gryffindor" is friends. Your friends. My friends. Our clique. Fashioned with rubies and out from silver, humble yet it shines. Who else that we cherish like silver and yet stays humble on our side? Friends are essential to human, thus coveted by the eyes of all mankind. You appear at the time of need, transformed from nothing for the kid. Before we were friends, we are strangers. Unknown and nothing between us. Yet, you appear when we needed a friend and a helping hand. 

Stabbed the cobra with your sharp teeth, imbued with poison your bloods are. We fought hardships together, and the scars and experience made us stronger. We do not become weak when we are united. We become powerful as we only absorb those that makes us strong. You are the sword of Gryffindor, you are my friend and I am yours whom will appear at the time of need. 

You are the Sword of Gryffindor and only a true Gryffindor could have pulled you out of the hat. 

#foodforthought

Life's but a walking shadows, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

What Does RON95/RON97 Stands For And What You Should Know About It

First of all, starting on 1st December 2014, the government will remove the subsidies on RON95 and diesel fuels. That would mean that instead of paying a subsidised price of RM2.30 per litre now at the time of writing, we will have to pay the full price which is RM2.43 per litre for RON95 and RM2.32 per litre for diesel. That will be an additional 13 cents per litre for the fuel that we use everyday! 

November 2014 petrol price.
Image from paultan.org

I don't want to complain about the subsidy anymore because it wouldn't make a difference anyway but since RON97 is just 12 cents short of the unsubsidized RON95 (RON97 priced at RM2.55 per litre now), should you pull the trigger and pump RON97 petrol into your car?

First let's take a look at what RON95/RON97 really means.

RON, the acronym for Research Octane Number, stands for the octane number in your fuel. Octanes are hydrocarbons that basically made up most of the petrol that you pump into your car every time you are at the petrol station (besides some other hydrocarbons and additives). That being said, RON95 means the octane number of your fuel is 95. Be mindful that RON95 does not means that the fuel is made out of 95% octane!

I believe that you can work out that RON97 has an octane number of 97, duh.

We often hear from our parents, friends and colleagues that using RON97 is better, and how the fuel will help to "protect" our engines, but do we really know how it works?

Do you even know what does those numbers behind RON stands for?

 Image by rakyattimes.com

A higher octane number means that the fuel has a higher compression ratio. The fuel will be able to withstand more compression from the piston before it ignites and burn perfectly to push the piston downwards again to generate movement. Technical aside, a lower octane number fuel cannot withstand a higher compression force from the piston and will ignite more easily (or explode!) which leads to pre-ignition and will usually cause engine knocking as well, and those two things don't do too good to your engine walls.

However, there are some cars that are only able to use RON97 fuel or any fuel that has higher octane number because 97 is their minimum octane number, just like how most of our cars have minimums too. We cannot pump lower than minimum octane number fuels into our engines or you have to pay for the consequences-lah. If you pump the obsolete RON92 into your car, you might hear some knocking noise coming from your engine. Each manufacturer has a different minimums, that being said, I am sure most of our cars have RON95 as the minimum.

But, if you have been using RON95 all the while and it does not causes any engine knocking, you really don't have any reason to change to RON97 at all. The main reason why people need to use RON97 is because their engines are knocking with the RON95. Why do you want to use a better fuel if the problem doesn't affects you? Maybe some speed? Apparently, RON97 fuel does not give you the extra power you need but if you change to a lower octane number fuel below the minimum standard set by your manufacturer, your power and speed will decrease dramatically (somehow caused by the engine knocking issue)!

Only those engines that are DESIGNED to work with high compression ratio fuels will be able to take advantage of the higher octane number fuels, leading to higher power output and speed. 

Yesterday my friend told me that we cannot mix RON95 and RON97 fuels together cause it is bad for the engine. I was unwilling to believe that because I myself have tried mixing them up and apparently my engine is still working just fine. I told my friend that I will do more research on it and here we are, the purpose of this post! Contrary to what my friend heard, we CAN mix them together. It will not cause any noticeable adverse effect to our engines and will also not cause any additional improvement as well (refer bolded words above).

Image by adrinis.com

So the next time you step into the petrol station, decide first which fuel is better for you and your engine (by you I mean your wallet-lah! HAHAHAHA).

TLDR version: If you pump RON95 your whole life, continue to pump it unless you got extra money for RON97 or your engine is producing knocking noise with the RON95. 

Discussion is welcome!

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating#RON
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_knocking
http://star-motoring.com/TipGuides/Your-RON-questions-answered.aspx
http://www.bmwclubmalaysia.com/forums/forum/the-bmw-range/-5-series/e60-e61/40456-ron-97-95
http://www.zerotohundred.com/newforums/car-talk/405494-mixing-ron95-with-ron97.html

How to Get Into an Accident!

After a few months of driving on a constant heavy traffic highway, I have came up with my very own methods on how to get into an accident! I am so thrilled to share this with you cause it seems like everyone is practicing it (well, maybe just 90% of them). It is apparent to me that my friends practice it too! They do seem pretty comfortable doing it. Anyway, here is a few ways on how to get into an accident. No, really, it is about how to get into an accident. 

Note: The numbering does not indicate the level of success rate of getting a car accident, only as a reference of the list. 

#1 Floor the pedal!

Floor the pedal means having to step your foot on the pedal and press it till it reaches the floor of your mat. What does that do? Well, that will increase the rate of fuel combustion, making your engine pistons to run in an extremely fast manner and increase the speed of your car. You shouldn't really care about the driving limit anyway, what can a board do to stop you? It's not like it will chase after you, really. And if an officer did caught you in action, there is always a way to settle. Oh right, do not mind the other drivers on road as well! They should be the one that gives you your way. After all, why should you care about others?

#2 Break the light indicator stalk!

It is not likely that you will be using it at all, so why put an extra weight to your car? Just break it off and tear it apart! Indicator sucks, boo!

#3 Troll others with your light indicator!

Doesn't matter if you are going to turn right, just keep your indicator blinking on the left! It is so fun to troll others sometimes and if they hit you, tell them you used the indicator. "I got use the indicator-leh" is the statement to win all statement. You win! Or or or, you can have your indicator blinking all the time and have others to guess which route you will actually turn while you were just gonna drive straight! Troll success!!!

#4 Drive with ego!

You are an egotistical person, and you gotta show it to others man. You are never wrong. Others are always at fault cause you are the man of the road! Show them a middle finger if they disagree. They can't step down of the vehicle and chase you anyway. If they did, just hit them-lah. Show them who is the boss. 

#5 Drive at the emergency lane!

I need to get back home early or my wife is gonna kill me. See? That is real emergency! I got to use the emergency lane and cut all of you off. What if an ambulance had to use the emergency lane? Oh it is alright, the patient is gonna die anyway. I am still very much alive and kicking and need to get back home to my scrumptious dinner! If the emergency lane is jammed, I will just cut back into the normal lanes by force and pretend nothing happen. Nope, I didn't use the emergency lane. No I did not, no no.

#6 Cut the Qcumber-lah (queue)!

Many of us do this. Everyone did this. Heck, I should do it too, right?! Why other people can do I cannot do? Where got fair, right or not? I am not killing anyone or setting people's house on fire, I am just cutting the queue-mah. Where got wrong? Give me chance-lah, tomorrow I promise I will follow the queue (fingers crossed). You don't give me cut, I force my way in-loh and make a poker face when you looked at me. My car Proton Wira 13 years old scrap declared by the government, yours is the new BMW 9-series. Who win? You don't give way then you die, I die, everybody die!

#7 Screw the double lines!

Got double lines? Screw them. I do not know what is the use of those lines anyway, I bought my ways in during the Undang test. Double lines means you may change to the other lanes, only slowly right? Broken white lines means you can just change to that line with your normal or top speed, right? Yes! If I'm wrong, refer #4.

#8 And yes, my father own the road!

"Your father's road ah?!?!" - Yes, this IS my father's road. You blow? I like to drive how then how-lah. Why should I even care about you or any other drivers. I drive gentle, people cut me. I drive rude, people still cut me. I gotta drive like its my father's road then only people start giving ways to me. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

If anyone still hadn't realise what I am trying to convey here, you are probably a good driver. Probably. Please drive with courtesy and employ the spirit of giving way. It is not always bad to stop and give way to others.  

All photos are not taken by me, so the credits go to their rightful owner. This post serves as a reminder to all the drivers out there and should never be used as a guide to really get into an accident. If you cannot detect the sarcasm, it is not my fault. 

Appreciate

This was the photo of one of the few stray dogs that came to my home last time. He was just a baby, probably about one or two months old and they were very playful. I remember he came to us with his another friend, a white dog who I think is actually his brother (or sister, to be honest I can't remember their gender already). They would always play together and sleep side by side under the rack outside. I only get to play with them a few times before heading back to my university to continue my semester as I was only having a short holiday.

I came back few weeks after and I never saw them again. 

Apparently my mom said someone took them away and gave them a real home (we only fed them whenever we had dinner leftovers, no real shelter). I don't really know how are they now but I hope that the owner would treat them with the best love. Really, that is all you can do sometimes; hoping. 

Appreciate everything that you have today. You will never know when things could be taken away from you. 

Thank you for everything. 

How I Led My Double Life

When I first wrote the draft of my double life post on Thursday, I couldn't write any further and had to put it on hold. It just seemed out of place and doesn't reflect what I wanted to convey to you. Sometimes I get a little bit off the track while writing. It's like my hands have a mind of its own and keep writing and writing and writing without asking what my mind is thinking. I often get derailed from the main points that I previously thought I want to write about. One of my major problem, I guess.

Anyway, according to Urban Dictionary, a double life means "Having two lives, one of which you do not want other's to know about." Your second life is supposed to be secret and not known to certain group of people, whether you have the intention of hiding it or not. I certainly don't (which is why this post even exists in the first place).

If you have been an avid reader of my blog, you would have already read my previous post about my current internship experience. I am working from 8.00 in the morning till 5.35 in the afternoon (before 6.00 pm, it's considered afternoon), Monday to Friday only. To many, that working hours may be a little to early but is still considered fine. However, my work do not end there, not just yet!

Daytime, I am just a final year Diploma in Mechanical Engineering student carrying out his internship job in a metal stamping company. Nighttime, I am a tuition teacher, teaching children/teenagers ranging from ten years old to fifteen years old. I teach Bahasa Malaysia, English and Science with Bahasa Malaysia being the main subject I am teaching (about four classes per week, including Karangan). Of course, Mathematics would be the best subject to teach for an engineering student but I am only requested to teach for the three mentioned subjects. 

Me, a teacher? Are you joking... 

My schedule starts from 8.00 in the morning and on some days it ends at 10.00 in the evening, non-stop. That means I don't get to go home and change and even eat dinner at home till 10pm. What a tiring day, right? Luckily I only have to do that like once or twice a week! 

However sometimes at the end of the day I do not feel all that tired at all. Sometimes I feel like I wanted to stay there a little bit longer to play mingle with the kids. Some of them are quite cute, some of them are naughty and some of them are just rather interesting. Each kid is different from the rest and each has their own pattern. Let's just face it, if you like kids, you just want to pinch their cute little cheeks and play with them. Period. 

In classes, I don't feel like I am a good teacher cause I really cannot explain the Bahasa terms to them quite effectively. Knowing the fact that most of them are originally from a Chinese primary school, I still try my best to explain to them in Mandarin. However, it is noteworthy that not all of them have the perseverance to learn. Some of them do not have the heart to learn at all. I am still working around on that part. 

On Mondays I get to spend only two hours at home (aside from sleeping) as I worked from 8am to 10pm. On Tuesdays, I get an additional of two hours at home as I end my work around 8pm. I only have one class on Tuesdays which is the pre-secondary English, for October. On Wednesdays my Karangan class is on alternate. If this week I teach Karangan then my sister will teach Essay the next week. Class ends at 10pm, with a stack of books to mark. Now I understand the eye-straining situation my Bahasa and English teacher once had. 

Terrible handwriting means the teacher have to constantly try to decrypt the "ancient civilization language". You know what I mean?

I do not have any classes on Thursdays so I get to relax a little bit. On Fridays, I have class till around 8pm, same as Tuesdays but I teach English for standard one, two and five. 

All in all, I still enjoy the work of a teacher. You get to educate the young ones and help them to gain knowledge. Although you are still getting paid for teaching, but the excitement does not come from the amount of money you made, it is from knowing that your students at least have gained something from your classes, whether it is a new Bahasa Malaysia peribahasa (proverbs) or it may just be some lessons from the stories that you shared to them and how these changed their lives. Teachers get motivated when they see their students succeed, whether it is educational or not. The money is just the plus part. I don't make much from teaching though. 

I am still holding on quite OK now. I remember that I lost control of my emotions two months ago when I started teaching but I am better now. After some thoughts I figure that this was my choice* and for better or worse I should just accept it and try my best to teach. 

*Actually the tuition centre lacked a Bahasa Malaysia teacher so the headmistress asked me to teach for a few months till she can find a proper one for next year's term. I agreed because she was quite in need of a teacher and I figure I have some spare time at night.

I think that is all for now, I am putting the puzzles together for the next post and it will probably be soon. I will take some time to write it this weekend. So, see yah!

Intern

It has been almost two months (8 weeks) since I started my internship in a metal stamping company. If I could put my 8 weeks of training in three words, it would be "challenging, mind-boggling and boring". 

First off, the first few weeks was devastating boring. Week one my boss (the Managing Director, yes the real boss) gave me a task which is to study the degreasing machine and present it to the staff in the weekly Monday meeting in week two. I was surprised and all but nonetheless I stayed at the degreasing machine the following day and consulted the staff in charge of the machine. I begun to study the manual book which was prepared by previous intern and setup my presentation slides. All that for a week, which means I have more than enough time actually. Too much time to be honest. After that I basically chatted with the other interns and walked around the production line.

Come week two, I was anxious and excited to present my topic but only to find that my turn was not up, or that the boss forgotten. I was a little happy inside, yet disappointed. I sat at the office throughout the week doing the same stuff, chatting and talking. Then my boss gave me another task which is to learn how to draw Quality Control List (QC List) of two Perodua items. I studied that with the existing intern, of which he finished his "training" yesterday, but we both have not been successful in drawing the part till date. It was too complicated.

I can't recall any special activities I did other than the two mentioned above until like week four, when my supervisor asked us (me and the other intern) what we were doing. 

What we were doing? Nothing. 

Of course I said I was doing the task boss asked me to do but it obviously wasn't enough to cover up cause the time frame did not match up. She wasn't angry, but gave us advice that we should be more proactive and ask the boss if we do not understand about certain things in engineering. Afterall, the boss is an engineer. I was all excited and energized again after hearing my supervisor's advice. 

My boss graduated from USA with Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering, cum laude. If my memory did not fail me, his alma mater was University of Washington. He has almost 30 years of metal stamping engineering experience on his belt and he is really good. Really good. He could identify the problem instantly by looking at the part. But I could say his judgement is sometimes blinded by his own ego. He just couldn't accept the opinion of his staffs, even when they are correct. 

The other intern and I jotted our doubts in a piece of paper and brought them to meet the boss. We were excited! However, that did not went well because we did not had the chance to ask our questions. He threw another task to us. We needed to verify all the *checking jigs of our assigned customer.

Finally, some real engineering task.

*A checking jig is used to determine whether the part manufactured is in-spec or out-spec by putting the part in the jig. If the part is in-spec, it will fit perfectly with the jig.  

Checking jig, source from http://www.stalco.com.my/

We then spent our weeks checking the jigs with height gauge, vernier caliper and micrometer to name a few. Some was pretty straight forward, measuring just distance while some jigs require the use of coordinate measuring machine (CMM) which can only be operated by assigned person-in-charge (PIC) to check the jig's parallelism and perpendicularity. However, the boss seems to have some kind of hatred towards the CMM. He did not allow the staff to use it unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes he would just ask us to use profile projector but my gut feeling says it wouldn't be as accurate though. We just suck it up anyway. Probably the maintenance of the machine was expensive. We don't know.

So far I am still checking the jigs, as there are like countless of them. He gave us till November to finish 30 jigs. I am still working on my 5th or 6th. Most of the time it's not because I am slow, it is because the boss's reluctance in using CMM that got the work seemed impossible, if not extremely slow. 

It has been a long post and just to update a little about my intern experience so far. 16 more weeks to go!

My Career Advancement?

I think by now there should be a few that noticed that I have been heavily tweeting and talking about planes lately. Even fewer that I told them I want to pursue the aviation industry. And its EVEN fewer that they know I want to become a pilot (now a few more knows...). 

Three stripes on an epaulette indicates First Officer (or co-pilot)

The interest isn't that noble like it was my childhood dream to become an airliner pilot. I have always been interested in engineering and technology and somehow planes have been part of it. I would find myself reading countless of Wikipedia pages or articles regarding certain model of planes from both Boeing and Airbus (even before the detection of wannabe-ing a pilot). 

Aircrafts are designed in a way that each steel in the frame has its own engineering purpose. Aeronautical engineers will make sure that every part of the plane has its own purpose or it will not be there at all. The aircraft is designed so carefully and so meticulously (all particular taken into account!) that you will not be to able recognize every function of every button you can find in the aircraft during your trip to Bali. Well this is what excites me. 

Boeing 747-8. It is the easiest aircraft to spot for its hump at the front. 

We won't know everything, agreed? You will never knew the real way of eating a Tic-Tac if you never seen it on 9GAG. Same goes with the little table on your pizza when you ordered it from home. I would like to unravel and uncover all the dirty little secrets the fixed-wing has (not primarily the reason though). 

Imagine you will be working everyday in different areas, flying through soft puffy clouds (or thundering black clouds, yikes!) and get to take people back home safely and meet their loved ones. That sound totally noble and righteous! 

And of course there are hundreds if not thousands of aspiring pilots in only Malaysia itself that has the same goal as I am. I dare not to compare myself to them as I believe most of them are probably the fan of the fixed-wing aircraft since small and it might probably be their life's ambition! But it doesn't matter because everyone deserves a chance to pursue their own ambition, given that they worked hard for it. 

Right now I am deciding to whether take up the Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (LAME) course in Shah Alam for 3 years or continue my Bachelor Degree in Mechanical Engineering at UMP. Going into LAME would means I will be attached to the aviation industry entirely and will be (maybe?) one step closer to becoming a pilot. However I think that is not quite a good option given that I need to use 75k and 3 years just to be an engineer that maintains the aircraft, but not flying them. I have to find another way to get into a pilot course. No good. I am having second thoughts on this path. On the other hand, getting my degree would proved to be much more viable as a degree definitely will score you more jobs than a professional certificate does (since its highly specialized). Not to mention it's probably 50k cheaper. But the downside is that I might be working my path far away from the aviation industry entirely. 

Days of gender inequality should be over. LAMEs approve the airworthiness of aircrafts while his/her technician does the work. Sometimes bit of both. 

I am relying on the AirAsia Cadet programme to get myself a chance to realize my own interest. I hate myself for not discovering this earlier as I could have joined it with my friend in the earlier months of this year. Anyhow, the last intake had passed and assessments are still ongoing. I have to wait for next intake and it's probably the last one according to my friend. Nevertheless, I believe that the pursue will only truly ends when you decided to give up. 

"Nevertheless, I believe that the pursue will only truly ends when you decided to give up."

I guess that I actually have an idea already what to choose but I simply need more time to determine which is the best for me and my interest. 

Facts About Buffets

Image courtesy of mydeals.com.my

Buffets should be no stranger to everyone by now. According to Wikipedia, buffet is a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners generally serve themselves. And to us it simply means free flow of foods; meats, sushi, oysters, seafood and endless of desserts (girls, enjoice). 

When I was young (I am still young, just... when I'm 15 or something), I like to eat buffets. I can eat whatever they have with the amount I want. Some buffet restaurants are considerably cheap but still provide tasty delicacies like lamb and seafood. It would be an eating spree for my family and I whenever we visit a buffet restaurant. However, as time passes, I have a different approach on buffets. I begin to realise that buffets aren't that healthy and most have practiced the wrong way of eating buffets. 

1. Excessive Eating

Eating excessively will lead to indigestion which actually damages your digestive system. Imagine all those wasted undigested food you ate and it will come right out your anus in a way that the nutrients are not absorbed into your body. You tend to eat as much as you can because you think that you have paid more than what you should to be there. Therefore you will want to stuff everything into your tiny stomach. 

2. Food Wastage

I believe that you had saw the sign where "every 100g wasted will be fined RM5" is stated. Oh boy, oh boy, that didn't stop people from wasting food. Some people who took the wrong food ,e.g. not the one they like, will simply mix those food up with leftovers like prawn shells, tissues and bones and treat it like garbage. This is from the customer side. What happens to the food that is unfinished? How do the shop handles if the food begin to rot? The answers should be found in the rubbish bin. If they do not throw it away, this brings us to #3.

3. Stale/Unfresh Foods

How often do you encounter stale oysters on the platter? Seafood, sushi and uncooked meats (for steamboat/BBQ buffets) can't keep for a long time so what happens when the business plummet? You can even bet that cooked foods cannot be left for too long (max one day, but would they serve customers overnight foods? Go figure, else refer back to #2). 

4. Expensive

Needless to say buffets are generally expensive. Probably RM10-20 more expensive than your usual meal outside. Averagely, a buffet meal for one person should cost RM40. How many sashimi or how many kg of meat you have to eat only you are able to hit the goal? Dreams on, baby! 

5. Diet

Since you are basically a wolf when it comes to buffet, no one would really care how much they eat till they weight themselves. You will gain few extra pounds/kilograms the day after you had your buffet. For some, that few extra is very significant. 

However, don't reject buffets entirely. Just remember to eat moderately and never you should stuff more than your stomach and intestine can handle. They are your companion for life, take care of it! Forget the price and try to enjoy the atmosphere with your family and friends. It is definitely fun to have a steamboat/BBQ buffet with your pals while chitchatting. 

Personally, I like to eat ice creams at buffets. They are the one that I crave the most. In my opinion, the restaurant which serves the best ice creams are the one that should deserve a thumbs up (I like mint chocolate). Breakfast buffets are something that I adore too. Croissants with a bowl of hot chicken porridge is simply amazing. I believe that breakfast buffets are definitely healthier than dinner buffets as breakfast aims to provide you energy to start up the day! Not that you can eat A LOT in the morning too. Plus its relatively cheaper too. 

This post only reflects my own opinion, and in a way to remind myself to do what I wrote in the posts. Shall you have opinion, be it concur to mine or not, do leave a comment. Let's have a healthy discussion.

Most Valuable & Marketable Skills

What makes you an asset to the company you are about to work for?

What makes you an important co-worker to your future colleague?

What makes you a great employee? 

The answer of those questions are of course, skills. 

To get a job in this century requires much more than a piece of degree certificate. You will need to equip yourself with valuable and essential skills. You won't do any good by having good cooking skills in a clerk job or vice versa. However, to prepare yourself to face the ever-changing world of workplace, I have come up with four necessary skills to match it up with. Skills that are necessary, skills that are marketable and skills that are important to encourage growth in your career.

1. Programming

Whether you are talking about Java, HTML or C++, programming skills are inevitable the most important skill that you will ever get in this century, probably in the next too. As technology grows, the hunger for programs grows too. Notice how ten years ago smartphones were basically an overpriced phone with little to none exciting features, and how did smartphones managed to get so far till this date? It is all courtesy of coders/programmers. They have developed apps for the phone in order to increase functionality of the smartphones. Heck, you can even get rich by developing a smartphone apps just like Flappy Bird and implement ads. If your apps is good enough for the public, your bank might just call you to sign up for a Centurion Card. 

I have learnt C programming for engineer during my first semester in university. It wasn't easy, but the more you code, the easier it becomes. Programming does make use of your brain too. You need to spin your brain in order to create a good program. You can head over to Codecademy and sign up for an account there. They have step by step tutorial to teach you how to code HTML, Javascripts and Python. Pretty interesting too! 

2. Designing

Designing requires creativity. Remember how we used to scribble all over on a piece of paper when we were a toddler? That is creativity. As we grew older, we start to be bounded by more and more works and eventually creativity starts to shrink. As designing governs a very big area, it is too vague to talk without specifying. Let's talk about Photoshop. The said software is not a stranger to any of us, especially designers. They enhance the looks of the project and can bring up better effects of the photo without losing the originality of the photo (depending on the designer). You would be immediately appreciated by your boss if your company happens to be needing a new advertisement poster for a new project and you happen to be the Pokemon Master of Photoshop. You might even get a new promotion and salary increase. 

Head on over to Photoshop Essentials or read this photoshop article on Mashable to learn some basics of Photoshop! Personally, I have played with Photoshop few years ago when my friend started playing with it. I must admit, there are so many buttons in that piece of software, you will end up using only some of it. I did not tried to learn much that time, as my interest was generally reserved for gaming only.

Nonetheless, you shouldn't just limit yourself with Photoshop only. You can go on with other designing softwares too. Web designing don't sound too bad.

3. Communication

You do know that communication is two way right? That is the purpose of communicating. It is supposed to be in two way. If the waiter brought a hedgehog goulash to your table when you think you ordered a bolognese spaghetti, how do you expect yourself to communicate well with your colleagues, or even your BOSS?! Communicating well is an indispensable skill that you will require in your workplace and daily life. You need to transfer the information you want to the one listening to you and you need to make sure they understand and receive your message well too! 

You can learn how to communicate well by communicating always. Learn from your past communication mistakes and do not repeat it. Use appropriate body language and do not interrupt others while they talk. Be a good listener and only speak once you thought it over but don't be afraid to speak up! 

4. Time Management

Time management is a crucial skill. You need to manage your time properly so that your work could be finished in time. Do you think that your manager would be glad if you hand in your task late every time? Definitely not! Do you think your wife would be happy if you have to work overtime every single day cause you can't manage your work time well enough? The answer is yet again, no! Managing your priorities is the key to a healthy time management. Work when you work. Be efficient and effective. Overtime would not be necessary if you can finish your work in time by 5pm. Only those who are not keen in time management will have to stay back and finish up the work. Your boss wouldn't want to pay your overtime as well.

Focus on planning your time. Make a to-do-lists if you have to. By cultivating a good time management, you will achieve balance between work and personal life. I have find this article pretty useful to those that want to learn on time management. 

I shall end the list with a quote.

"Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it, you can never get it back!"

I hope that both you and I learn something from this post. I would like to hear from you if you have any better ideas for valuable and marketable skills. On a side note, I must thank Bob Clary from Webucator for giving me an idea to write this post. Webucator is an online training company that also provides public and private classes onsite. They offer training in areas of web design to project management.  Webucator also offers ongoing free monthly self-paced Microsoft training courses as part of their way to help individuals prepare themselves for the workplace and make themselves more marketable to employers. If you want to look for their tutorials, check it out here!

The Adventure of Little Yeong

I was preparing to head back home on Friday. I had so slightly prepared my luggage for the things that will be brought back home. I was very excited and eager to go back, and then there was where things go awry. 

I'm not too sure where to begin but I will just start my story on Thursday. 

This incident happened between Thursday night to Friday night (12th June 2014 to 13th June 2014).

I was supposed to hand in my thesis on Friday of which I only received it via poslaju today. However, this is where the first problem come by. My supervisor messaged us via Facebook Messenger and told me that his wife is going to deliver their second baby and currently is at the hospital. And obviously he will not be at university on Friday as he will need to accompany his wife and of course the newborn. I don't blame him on this. I guess God just like to play a fool out of us (or actually in my story, the God wanted me to learn a valuable lesson, read on). So first plan failed. He asked me to contact him back tomorrow to check whether we can arrange a meeting at Kuantan to hand him the thesis. I agreed and didn't really want to disturb him any more cause his wife is delivering his second baby, that is some serious deal... right?

And so the next morning, I checked with him and he asked me to pass my thesis and project to one of my friend, Nazri who is also under his supervision for the final year project subject. Of course, I had to agree cause I don't really have any options in hand. Either way, I need to head to the university to check out my hostel, take the thesis submission form and pass my thesis to my friend. Now here comes the second problem. When I was about to go to the hostel office to submit the checkout form, the door was locked. Stunned for a while and then I saw there was a notice paper pasted on the door telling that the staffs have gone to the main campus for a meeting and only will resume work after 2.45pm. Just great! And so I have left with no options but to pass my set of key and form to my another friend, Edward. My friend and I then went to Nazri's room and passed him my thesis and project. Chatted a while and we're off. 

Another friend, Daren came and hand in his thesis to the faculty. He was going to fetch me to the terminal at Kuantan. But we stop by at McDonald's to grab our lunch. My wallet left RM21 at that time. After spending RM10 on my lunch, I only have RM11 left. No biggie. I thought that there will be ATM machines at the terminal or if there isn't any ATM machine, I could have just bought the tickets online through my phone. Hey, it's a smartphone after all isn't it? I was so wrong. 

My friend dropped me at the terminal and the first thing I did was to find the ATM machines. Unfortunately, there was none. And then I moved along to plan B, I took my phone out and check the tickets. I couldn't purchase any of the tickets, not a single one. Tickets need to be purchased online at least six hours before departure. I literally freaked out silently. I was lost, totally lost. I went up and down, left and right of the terminal thinking of a solution. I asked the counter to check whether they accept debit cards or not, but unfortunately they don't. I tried approaching the taxi stand and asked the driver where is the nearest ATM machine, they said its just nearby and the fare is RM20. I was bloody shocked and I asked him back, isn't it near you said? And he replied, "it's policy". Fuck policy, I'm out of here. You can cut my throat next time. I walked toward the entrance again, hoping to see other alternative. I tried looking for any person that I know, hopefully from UMP but no luck on that. I came up with another idea afterwards. I went to the road entrance of the terminal and tried to find other taxis that probably will use meter. One taxi drove into the terminal and I chased it. After he dropped his passengers, I asked him whether he can drive me to the nearest ATM. He asked me to wait him at the taxi stand, and that's when I know I will be cut throat for RM20 again. I didn't go back there. 

I knew that there was only one option that I can choose and it will be a hard one, which is to walk towards the nearby ATM machine at a Petronas fuel station. I took the first step out of the terminal and goes to Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) to inquire the guard if by any chance there is an ATM machine in the building. You might have guessed it, he said there was none and the nearest would be at Petronas. I thanked him for the information and continued walking with my humongous luggage bag, one messenger bag and a laptop bag. I stumbled across another Tamil school. I asked the guard and he was relatively friendly. He showed me the way to the ATM machine and he said I'm near already. Well, frankly speaking if I were driving a car it will be less than a minute's ride. But never mind. I thanked him and headed to the direction he showed me. There were uphill and downhill and I started to wear out. It was around 2pm and the sun showed no mercy. 

When I reached at the junction the second guard told me about, I was taken aback. There was no sign of any fuel station at the end of the right junction. I didn't continue down the road. Coincidently there was another school at the junction, so I went in to inquire the female guard. As I went in, there was a Kancil that stopped at the road. A lady opened her door and asked, "Dik, pergi mana?" (Where are you going?). I asked whether she was a Chinese and she said yes. I said I was going to the nearest ATM machine and she nodded and smiled. When I wanted to ask another question she had already closed her door. I then turned back toward the guard post and ask the female guard. She greeted me with a smile and I asked her where is the so called Petronas. She said just down the junction. I thanked her and then proceeded with going downhill of the right junction. The thing with going downhill is that, you will need to climb it back up later. Sucks. 

When I reached the end of the junction, there was two route. One to the left and one to the right. I I chose the right one and I saw a Fire Department. I was thinking, wow, won't it be great if they could provide me a lift. I mean, their name is "Bomba & Penyelamat" (Fireman and Resue? idk) right? They would really save me if they could provide me a ride with one of their vans... and that is when I saw the fuel station was actually on my LEFT! I knew this would happen but I just switched to the other side. I crossed the road with mild traffic. Finally, I reached the Petronas fuel station. I stopped outside of the shop and wiped my sweats with my shirt. There is a sense of achievement to this. I actually encouraged myself en route that if I want to go back, I need to do this. I keep telling myself to be strong. There is no one that will help you to get what you want. When there is no one to help you, there is only you. 

"There is no one that will help you to get what you want. When there is no one to help you, there is only you."

I went inside the shop and saw both Maybank and CIMB bank ATMs. I couldn't be bothered to even wait for the queue for Maybank ATM and I withdrew my cash at the CIMB ATM. Charged me RM1, but I couldn't care less for it. I am exhausted and time constrained. I want to take the bus at 330pm. I went out, wiped my sweats again and braced myself. I crossed the mild traffic road again and went uphill of the previous junction. It was hard, dragging the bloody luggage with at least 50-60kg in it. I managed to get through the uphill junction and passed the school with the female guard. I thanked her and continued to walk on. I walked a little bit more and then an Estima stopped beside me. I was saved and was as happy as a clam. A Malay man, probably in his late thirties with his songkok on, most likely just finished his Friday prayers asked me where I am going. I said I am going to the terminal and he offered me a ride. Of course, I immediately accepted. I put the luggage to the back of his car and sat at the front seat beside the driver. I talked about what happened and he was astonished as to the absence of ATM machines in the terminal. He said that his family was heading towards the terminal too. Within a minute, we reached.   

I thanked him few times as I couldn't appreciate more of what he did to me. I asked for his name and he was actually Mr Shukri (or so as it pronounces). I thanked him again with his name addressed and then walked toward the ticketing counter. I looked back and waved goodbye to him and he showed a thumbs up. So did I then. I couldn't feel more alive at that moment. Somehow I can already feel that someone will offer me a ride back to the terminal. After all, Kuantan people are relatively friendly and less materialistic compared to KL people. And to be very honest, I could have guessed that it will be a Malay that will offer me a ride. Not to show off my prediction skill but I have a good perception of Malays actually. Educated ones, of course. They are much more generous and focus more on giving than to expect a return. I think it is mostly due to the Islamic teachings that they have. 

I bought my tickets for 330pm bus back to KL and then I went downstairs to the waiting room. I was exhausted and thirsty so I went to a shop and bought a Revive soft drink. Even the boss can quickly see there was something unusual of my then current state. I was sweating all over and my shirt seemed like I was walking under a rain. He asked me what happened and offered me a box of tissue. "Take it all that you need, don't worry". I told him what happened and then I thanked him for the tissue and proceed to the waiting room. I sat down and finally it ended. So much trouble for the bus ticket. It wouldn't be like this if I hadn't be so stupid and dependent on the online ticket and ATM machine. But anyhow, I learned my lesson the hard way. I came back home safely. 

On a side note, it was Friday the 13th and I will remember this incident forever. 

Came back home, unpacked my luggage and unconsciously returned a bag of 50 cents coins to my mom of which she gave me last semester for the water vending machine. I went back to my room and then I came out later again and my mom asked me, "you never thought of using this money ah?" 

---------------------------------------------------------THE END----------------------------------------------------------

Career - Yours or your parent's?

Hi guys, its been a while now since I have posted an entry. Been busy in May working towards my final few weeks of my last semester. Right now I'm having my study week with approximately a week's worth of holiday. We're suppose to study (that's where the name study week literally means) but most of us or is it just me tend to postpone the study into the later days of the week. Anyhow, that's not the purpose here. 

Growing up, especially in a controlled environment, gives us too much comfort than we need. Don't get it? Think about when you are in primary and secondary school. You are in a controlled environment whereby you have no other goals other than scoring for the exams. You have a fixed number of things to achieve (or what the society/parents/teachers wants you to achieve); like scoring an A for your Mathematics . That is what we do when we are in the earlier days of school. We chase the useless grades because we are told to. True? 

Once we managed to grow out of the controlled environment, we start to get a bit lost. Where should I continue my studies? What should I study? What should I do with the rest of my life?

We are like birds flying with no destination all of a sudden. We need to make a firm decision on where and what to study, all in a few months period. It is not easy at all, considering our future, our parent's money and our families' future is in our hands. Most of our parents don't have few hundred thousand stashed for our tertiary education. I am certain that most of the students pay college/university bills by borrowing Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN) - and I'm pretty sure you didn't know what the abbreviation means if I didn't write it down, right? 

Then, in this lost period we can almost immediately, without any request, obtained advice from our parents/relative/friends' parents of what we should do. Not what we want to do. They will tell you that study business is good, bright future, too much money until can use RM50 bill to wipe the ass, be a CEO of a corporation or become a multimillionaire. Cool story bro, if so why don't you go and study yourself? I would like to see how you make the million come true. But - out of respect we would just smile it off. 

Another course that they often tell you to study is engineering and boy oh boy you have no idea how the word "engineer" is "overpriced" (forgot what word to use). I was in an engineering course for almost two years now - if you hadn't already knew. All I can say was, not many of the engineering students graduate as a real engineer. An engineer is, according to Wikipedia;

"...is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical, societal and commercial problems."

To DEVELOP SOLUTIONS. That one hits the spot right there. How many of the engineers we have actually develop solutions? "Sebenarnya engineer = kuli kasar"

If you are thinking "how about doctors, lawyers or even pilots?", don't think. It's a saturated field, unless you have the scholarship + dedication + determination + perseverance + love/dream on any of those three then by all means go ahead. You should not let anyone stop you doing what you want. In contrary, if you let someone influence you to do what you want, you will hate yourself waking up in the morning. 

So enough of the rant - what parents can do?

1. Listen to your kids

We tend to forget that listening is the most crucial and powerful part that anyone can do without doing anything. (anyone can do without doing anything... that's right). Don't jump into conclusion right away. Listen to what your kids have to say, after all, it is their future you are deciding and I am sure you want the best for them. We often mistaken "best" with "money". Most parents, in this superficial society, tends to think that the best career for the kids is the one that makes the most money. Throw that mindset away. If your kid wants to dance, let her be a dance instructor. I won't be surprise if a dance instructor can make as much money as a doctor, and less risk too, if he/she got "call li" (it simply means capability).

2. Advising is not ordering

When people ask for your advice, do you order them to do something? No right. It is merely an opinion that people required from you, usually out of respect or that you have more experience than them. So when your kid ask for your advice, they are not seeking for an order. They are just genuinely seeking for your opinion, since you will be the one sponsoring them after all. HAHA.

3. Remember that there is no "right path"

Life is a journey. You will never know what is ahead of you. We can only plan, and if things don't work out the way we plan, it is ok. Not the end of the world yet. You are still breathing, which means you are still living. There is still chance for you to rectify your life. Ask yourself, and your parents; what is the worst outcome if you fail to set your tertiary education properly? Do you really think that your future is destroyed? No, it doesn't. However, there will be some money lost in the process and usually money is all that we think. 

Failure is inevitable. We can never avoid falling down into the fail pit. But what we can do is to confront failure and make the best out of it. Do not let fear of failing affect your decision making process. 

"It’s impossible to have success without having some failure.

Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from going for what you want. You are doomed to fail… but you are also fated to succeed."

- JJ (The Native Champion)

Some moutes (movie quotes) - from Batman Begins.

Hope that you and I are able to do what we want and if we are lucky - we might just earn few bucks from it. 

This post only reflects my own opinion, and in a way to remind myself to do what I wrote in the posts. Shall you have opinion, be it concur to mine or not, do leave a comment. Let's have a healthy discussion.