Amos I

Friday, 5th June - I’ll be off work in half an hour from now. Can’t wait to head home and enjoy the weekends. Have not been having enough sleep past week. Average per day about 4 and half hours sleep only.

Tonight still have to attend Cell Group. Always looking forward to CG. Really thank Joanne for encouraging me back in 2007. Ever since then, I’ve been attending CG almost every week without failing.
Not too sure if I wanna join CG member for dinner at Paris Restaurant, SS2. Been eating out too much already this few weeks. Have to save money a bit. Expenses quite high these few months. Bought PS3, Desktop, iPhone, 2 pair nike shoes, what else? Probably just grab some quick mixed rice.

Yanked 2 cases in work today. See some of my seniors didn’t yank any case at all. Still left 2 cases in common bin. Can’t be bothered arleady. Reach my quota for this week. And I’m one of the most junior engineer here. :X

Back to blog after missing out 2 years. Enjoyed reading my past postings. At least I’ve a diary online which I could flash back my past.
That’s all from me today. Will try my best to update it once a while. Cheers!

Friday, 5th October - Two clubs or bars in one night. Really paradise… LOL… No thanks for next time. One of my UK HQ IT Systems Engineer, Andy Conolly was down in our Malaysia office to assist in server clustering and building new servers. It was his birthday today so our IT manager made it compulsory for all of us who are not working on shift after 5.30 PM to join in the party.

Left office around 6:15 PM. Was stuck in the slow crawling traffic jam at Jalan Sungai Besi. Even the SMART Tunnel wasn’t so smart after all. Exiting at Jalan Tun Razak was like parking in the car park, you could even walk faster then the car move.

First stop, Luna Bar located at the 34th floor of PAN Regency hotel. Just write opposite KL Tower, Bukit Nanas. The environment there was very classy. What more the price of drinks and food is also killer. Even hotel buffet don’t charge that expensive for normal bites food. There were basically 6 of us. We were calling junk food such as pizzas, some Italian bread, seafood platter, chicken wings and drinks such as fruit juices, cocktails. The bill came out 600+. Was there from 7.30 PM till 11:30 PM.

The scenery from Luna Bar was awesome. Words can’t describe it. Hahaha… Maybe my vocabulary is to shallow. More to IT terms than English literature terms. The view you could see KLCC, KL Tower and all the different colors of lights from almost the entire KL city. They even have a pool in the middle of the bar. Well basically this is used as the hotel’s swimming pool. A really nice relaxing place. We were joking that it’s also a good place to propose to your fiancee. Very romantic too.

My IT manager is damn smart. Hahaha… He was finding one of our vendor to sponsor the clubbing drinking session. Trying to save the approved budget for next outing to be even grander. He managed to get Max, our Cordoda ISP to bring us for clubbing session. Left Luna Bar at 11:30 PM. Arrive at Maison about 11:45 PM. Max is a real clubber and he has lots of contacts. We didn’t even have to make any reservations or queue up. Direct VIP entrance into Maison.

Okay, I’m not a kaki clubbing. The music inside there was freaking loud. My ear drums are still crying out now after one night’s sleep. Like any other people, FTC (follow the crowd). Even though I’m not a dancer, just shake your body and that’s it. LOL… My team lead was really a good dancer. He has all kind of dancing styles.

Drinks were sponsored. So we called lots of vodkas, martinis, beers. There was like 4 jugs of beer. I’m not a drinker. Too bad I didn’t enjoyed it. I only had half cup of vodka mixed with coke. One of my friend say I’m a lady man. LOL… Cause I don’t like bitter things. I only takes sweet stuffs.

Guess what? Didn’t expect this. I bumped into my high school classmate there. All my colleagues was like wow Amos, you found a chic there huh? Anyway it’s good to see someone I know there. Dance and drink till like 1:45 AM in the morning before leaving back for home.

There was even in house performance by professional bar dancers. The dancers sure have good figures. Okay this part is censored. Hahaha… Lotsa leng luis dancing there too. I see some of their boyfriends really like ah beng. Wonder why all the leng luis always stick with ah bengs. ROFLMAO.

Really a good experience. Was the second time I actually went to the club. First time was also a birthday celebration at Flam, Sunway. Ain’t going to do this very often. I’ll go deaf or get lungs cancer before I reach 30 I believe. Wonder how those frequent clubbers stand the music and smoking people.

Lastly, I forgot to mention that everything was free for food, drinks, entrance fee. As this is under company expenses. Except parking and fuel ownself have to come out with.

Tuesday, 25th September - Once again I’m back to normal Malaysian hours shift. This time it would last for 4 weeks. Praying hard that I won’t be changed down the road. The only constraint of being on normal hours is I don’t get to do my bankings and bill payments.

Yesterday was a really hectic tiring day for me. Had to work OT for 3 and half hours which made my stay in office slightly over 12 hours. A colleague of mine was on MC. Sigh… Damn suffering. 1 person absent, 2 persons has to suffer. Small department here for IT Helpdesk. Only 6 of us with 2 person on every 3 shifts per day.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival! To all the Chinese out there who are celebrating it. I want my moon cakes. Spend close to RM 100.00 on 2 boxes of Tai Thong moon cakes. Finished it all up within last 2 weeks. Have to get myself another 2 boxes. There’s always further discount during the day itself and even more after the day. That’s what I look forward every year when it comes to Mid Autumn Festival. Yummy moon cakes.

If you’ve any events for this entire month, don’t forget me out. I’ll be very very free during my nights. Yum cha, movie, etc… Hahaha…

English series season also just kicked start. Now with Prison Break, Desperate Housewives and Heroes. Need any of those series? Don’t hesitate to ask from me.

Today’s also pay day. Got my pay before going out for lunch. But kinda broke this month. I’ve like another 6 to 7k of credit card bill to settle. My monthly cash flow is very high. Last month was close to 40k this month should be about 30k. Hahaha… You’ll be wondering what big business I’m doing with my credit card. Well ask me when you see me. Keep it suspense a bit.

Wednesday, 19th September - Praise the Lord! I finally pass my CCNA examination. I scored 949/1000. The passing mark is 849/1000. Could have done better. Forgotten few switch commands in the testlet part.

Been revising for slightly more than a month for this day. Felt like a burden was just lifted off my heart.

Can start looking for new job le. Hahaha… Anyway, I still have 4 more Microsoft papers to go before I complete MCSE. Hope to end this ASAP so I’ll finally have my weekend life back once again.

Tuesday, September 18th - Ever experience where you lock your car steering lock and unable to open it? Well that’s what happened to me today. I was on my way out to grab my dinner during my dinner break. My car steering lock seems to be stucked, I place the key in normally like all the other times, but it just won’t let me turn it to unlock.

Tried for like 5 minutes and still no luck. Rang up my uncle. Wanted to ask him to grab my steering lock spare key from home. Well who knows if there’s problem with the key which I’m using now. I already panicked at that moment as I’ve no idea how to get it unlocked.

My uncle was wise enough. He asked me if I was locking it under hot sun. Yup I did left the steering lock under hot sun for like day 1 since I started using this. Well he is suspecting then the lock my bit rusty and suggested me to put some oil or lubricant inside to loosen it up.

Guess what? Right after I hang up on the phone with him the unlock opened up by itself. I did prayed earlier but it was still lock. I really have no idea whether was it the lock that malfunctioned or was this some kind of spiritual attack or God had his plans to stall me for a little while. It all ended after like 15 minutes.

Still remain as an X-file. Will be monitoring the lock for the next few days. Dare not lock my steering when I came back from dinner. Scare later when I’m off work at midnight I’ll have trouble opening it again.

I’ll be sitting for my CCNA examination tomorrow. A little tension now. My training consultant told me that the set of paper which I’ve gone through in pretest sessions would be similar. Hope this is true. Then it’ll be easy for me to pass. The passing marks is 85%. Can you imagine it? 85% in university time is like already 1A or A1. I can only afford 5 mistakes out of 50+ objectives question. There would also be a simulation question which I’ve to score 100% else I would fail this paper.

Dear Lord, help me to get through this that I would pass the paper on my first attempt. Amen!

Saturday, 15th September - Long pause since I last updated my blog. Decided to update it after sermon in chruch today regarding blogs. Hahaha…

What have I been up to lately? "Hunting" for dedicated servers to expand my torrent warez P2P online business. Been trying like servers from Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany. Seems like Germany is still the best with money versus value offer. I need huge bandwidth limit with super fast connection to Malaysia. Recently just closed 1 of my Atjeu US 3 TB Dual Xeon 2.4 GHz server as the bandwidth limit isn’t sufficient for bandwidth hungry Malaysians. That’s the main reason why TMnet throttle P2Ps. A single user on 1 Mbps line could download 300 to 400 Gb of warez a month. Imagine what if 1000 Streamyx users who are like that. Our Internet pipes to overseas will be like the office hours jam.

Netherlands on the other hand is offering 5 Tb bandwidth but UK seems much promising with 10 Tb bandwidth. But there’s setup fee involved and the price is in pound. Counting foreign exchange rates (FOREX) it’s like 7.4 times. Tough decision here to make. As I also don’t want to have all eggs in the same basket. Trying to look for different providers from different countries to provide redundancy and connection choice for my customers.

Sound like I’m doing some big business huh? Hahaha… Checking FOREX rates and researching overseas market. Well if you need full speed torrent download service, don’t forget to look for me.

Besides that, I’m preparing for my CCNA examinations. Just incase if you all don’t know what’s CCNA, it’s the acronym for Cisco Certified Network Associate. Cisco will be changing the exam syllabus in November. Tension la… Every week been going to class to do internal test to prepare for my exam. Unlike MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) paper where the objectives can just memorize answers. CCNA values will be changed and there’s also simulation which is my biggest concern. I’ve been slacking and lazy. Haven’t been practicing much on my routers and switches commands.

You know la work and study ain’t easy. Hahaha… Plus now I’m on UK shift for 4 weeks. Busiest working hour. Well just have to sacrifice for like another 2 to 3 weeks and this will be all over. Praying hard for wisdom and strength that I would pass the exam on first attempt. The passing marks is quite high, 85%. Need to put in extra effort don’t want to fail this paper. The examination fee is RM 550.00.

Well that’s all from me folks for this time. Will see when I’m hardworking again or got the mood to update my blog.

Thursday, 9th July - Money or working experience? Which would you choose? Hahaha… Today I came into a situation where I’ve to choose between these two things. Here’s the story…

My first phone interview with DHL was like 2 months ago. On Tuesday, I received a phone call that I was shortlisted for an interview at their office over at Cyberjaya. It was scheduled today at 11:00 AM.

Have to force myself up 9:00 AM. I usually sleep till like 11:00 AM or 12:00 PM when I’m UK shift. Sacrificed my sleeping hours for the interview. I was so positive before I went for the interview. As this was a network engineer graduate trainee program.

Well DHL does things a little bit the reversed way. Interview with department manager first than only HR. When the network engineer department manager saw my pay slip he was like wow. You are earning quite a lot even our CCNP holders here don’t get that high paid. CCNP stands for Cisco Certified Network Professional. A level higher than CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate).

I was a little disappointed when they told me the basic that I’ll be getting if I’m successful in obtaining this position was like 2.5k. Ouch… almost 40% pay cut from the existing 4.2k which I’m getting now.

Maybe networking isn’t my interest after all. He even wanted me to give up my MCSE weekend courses as he says once your into network you don’t deal with servers. I feel quite disappointed. Never felt so down after an interview. They are very keen to offer me the job and provide training for me. But this is a 18 months contract period. Even while I was at IBM call center, I was earning 2.6k monthly already.

Now with the increased toll rate and petrol price. It will cost me a fortune if I were to take up that position. After long thinking, I decided to stick with my current job first till I complete my MCSE (Microsoft Certified System Engineer). I’m happy with the pay but there’s no challenge at all in my job. I know most of the thing which I’m already doing and there’s nothing much for me to do most of the time. Just like taking "gaji buta". Hahaha…

Anyway leave all this to God. See what’s his planning or calling for me. I’m happy with my current pay. Definitely won’t got for something 10% lesser than what I’m getting now.

Monday, 6th August - Been quite some time since I last updated my blog. Not to say that I’m that busy. But I’m a little lazy.

Guess what? Today I checked my Maybank2u and noticed that my Visa card limit has been increased from 5k to 7k. Well I submitted in the upgrade limit request last 2 weeks for 10k. Was hoping to get 10k as I’m helping my family to pay insurance every month and all my card credit limit goes into swapping insurance fees already. Not much left for my own personal use.

8th month using my Visa and I already got close to 30k points. Hahaha… My mum will give me a check for paying the insurance and I use my card swipe to gain points. Smart huh? These treat points could be exchange for gifts later.

Weekend was busy for me as I’ve full day classes from 10 AM till 5 PM. Still haven’t got time to revise and sit for my CCNA exam. Completed the course like 2 months ago. A little bit afraid of CCNA exam as this really test my subnet calculations and router commands. Unlike MCSE module exams where the is all about memorizing the objective answers.

Must start revising from now onwards. God please take away my laziness. Give me a hardworking spirit. - Amen. Work and studying together isn’t an easy thing. Feel very tensed and pressured. Thank God only have another 4 months more to go. Then I’ll have all my weekends back.

Wednesday, 18th July - It has been raining continuously everyday for the past few days. Thank God for sending the rain to clear up the haze and hot weather. It was a relieve. The hot spell last week was really unbearable.

Just to update you everyone, I’m currently on normal Malaysian shift 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM for this week and the following week. Was raining cats and dogs yesterday after work. Got caught up in office for like 15 minutes. Waited for the shuttle van to bring me to the car park. We have this shuttle bus/ van service at TPM to carry us to the car park. As the car park is like 10 to 15 minutes walk away from our office building. Usually I won’t take the shuttle service unless only it’s raining. Forgotten to bring my umbrella also yesterday.

Had my most expensive mixed rice dinner at the hawker centre at SS2 (Wai Sek Kai). RM 10.00 for curry fish, choi sam vege, and lai liu ha. Was quite upset when I reached home as my Hardware Magazine was lying on the porch floor and it is already soaking wet. The entire magazine is like ruined. Still drying it till now.

Went to a different cell group last night. Located in Bangsar. It was a much older age group from my first impression. They are almost all single non married adults. More ladies than guys. Discussing and sharing was on what pastor’s sermon last week. We were asked to share about what we have on mind regarding 4 questions which the leader came up with. Cell ended about 11:00 PM. After that had fellowship or more like "gosip" until like 12:30 AM in the morning. This is the first time I’ve had such long chatting session with another brother and sister in christ.

Sent a sister home and I headed home. Upon arriving home I found out that my torrent server prudential.scyst.com is down. It went down since like 10:00 PM in the night. Sigh… Not sure is it hardware failure or OS is buggy as there was some issue earlier where other people who are using CentOS 5 also experiencing cooling error message. Logged a ticket with provider. Almost 45 minutes later only the server came up at like 1:30 AM.

Was really tired by then. Setup two shell customer’s account and headed to bed after that.

Saturday, 7th July - Guess what special date is today? It’s 07/07/2007. Only happends once in a life time. The number ‘7′ is considered as a good/ lucky number by Christians and most people world wide. As you can read from the papers recently, many people decided to choose this date as their wedding day. For Christians it would be like a double celebration. God made the Earth in 7 days and rested also on the 7th day.

To keep my promise, I will now give my review on Die Hard 4.0 which I’ve just watched earlier last night. The movie was really great. It involves the latest technology and computers. Such as hacking and cyber terrorist. How cyber terrorist could bring down an entire whole country. Ouch… Maggie Q was the bad girl. Was hoping for more action from her besides just kicking asses and exchanging punches with Bruce Wills.

You wouldn’t even dream that what a hacker with a computer could do towards a country. Are we prepared for such cyber threats? Now days everything is computerized and networked together. It could really come to a past. Just like the Y2K bug hu ha 7 years ago.

Well don’t want to give you too much information on it. If not you won’t be excited anymore when watching the movie. If you are a computer geek, you’ll definitely love this more than Transformers.