Saturday, August 28, 2010

Rezeki Murah

Iftar Hidayah Centre

Mongger invited us to attend the charity iftar. I banked in the donation quite late, soooo busy with the new factory job but at least I fulfilled my promise.

Meeting old friends

The rezeki murah I meant was meeting old Adelaideasn..Mongger, Cham,Kak Aini, Bang Din and Rezuan. Arip and Intan pun ade..always good to see these two familiar faces.

Mongger and Cham are fine and healthy. Cham gila kurus..dunnno what is his secret....Barney the Dinosaur is no more..hahaha.

After the iftar, Arep and I went and do Teraweh at the amazing Steel Mosuque or Masjid Tengku Mizan. There kebetulan met Abang Din.We also met Rezuan who had arranged to meet us there. It was good to see more ex-Adelaideans and see how they are going on in life. They seem to be doing fine. Bang Din is going into properties agressively and Rezuan has many plans ahead....a businee possibly...bile die nak kawen tatau..lepak dgn awek pandai.Haha. Arep went back around 11pm while Rezuan,Bang Din and I went pekena mamak at Bangi..hah..until 1am...borak2.

Anyway..semalam memang rezeki murah..jumpa ramai kenalan yg baik2..Alhamdulillah..maybe good things come with charity..will try to contribute more in the coming years.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Updates and a long weekend

Orang Gaji lari

Dah cakap dah..these are not stupid Indonesians. The agent will replace our housekeeper after Raya.Sabar..sabar.

Gaji setengah bulan






















Figure 1: The reality of companies mata duitan..especially cinapek company. Note Genting after decades robbing Malaysians are now ditching Malaysia for Singapore where they are expected to make SG$1 billion in 2010.And the DAP and Chinese are calling Malaysia stupid for failing to retain these cinapek company like Genting and Robert Kuok(the guy does not even live in Malaysia yet making billions out of Malaysia)...I say good riddance..leave this swamp and balmy weather and leave us in the jungle thank you.


Surprised...agak best la MEMEC bg gaji walau keje tak sampai seminggu sebab first days dok diri kat line ke. Blondal the Evil Polar Bear has not sent me the check they promised for the two weeks I worked with them..just shows what kind of fuck up cinapek company they are..I was right to leave them....expansion ke Indon konon..gila duit company...but MEMC also gila duit...

Keje





















Figure 2: Factory work..work2...'the factory is your life'.....says Hany Tamim,.the ang moh motivator of MEMC.Last year the Malay engineers were forced to work until the night shift of Raya..so they can only leave the line at 7am on Raya morning!!! The workers retaliated by taking multiple MC leave and taking replacement leaces..but the cinapek manager took Indon but still the same coz Indon is also brown like us.




MEMC despite being ang moh is run by cinapek..our manager..the guy who actually runs the company is an ah pek whose father has a food factory in Johor..so biasele..gila duit. They push2 us to work.....fed up that we brown natives go for hari raya hire Indon at cheap wages so that less brown natives work for them and the factory run 24 hours the whole year enabling MEMEc to gain US$1 billion profits per year...the ang moh not complaining but if this is the case in US I am sure MEMC is violating many work laws and human rights laws.

Reality bites..why I am complaining....I knew working in Malaysia will be like this.... tough and crazy..If Im not with MEMC I will be with an underperforming government agency or GLC and I'll be bored to death too.So syukurlahhhhhh...nak wat camne..kalau takde rezeki tak lepas probabation gi Jobstreet lagi!!!

At least I got this job on my own..takde cable2.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Stupid Day

Orang gaji berenti

Orang2 Indon ni skang kurang hajar. We paid RM4000 to the agent so that we can have someone take care of nenek since I am working. We went to and fro Putrajaya so that the stupid woman could work in Malaysia legally.This morning she quit.....buit the stupid woman has no one to go to..the agent do not want to take her..so we have a reluctant stupid maid in our house until Saturday. My mom was livid. We were nice to her. We let her watch TV, bilik air cond, she does not even have to coook,I don't even alllow her to make up my bed....boredom..maybe..I hope she gets to work in a Chinese household and wash their cars 4am every morning!!!!Hope she enjoys it or mayhaps she deliberately quits to work somewhre on the grace of the permit paid for her...

My nenek is hopeless, she is old...she can't even open the shower in the toilet..so a maid is a must,my mom is contemplating a Sri lankan..Indonesians are so fucking hopeless.

I wish Kak Sri is with us..she was with us for 16 years

Keje.Qualification Lot

We are getting a new batch of orders...so for each order, we are conducting a qualification lot as a benchmark for the following orders from each customer. We tested one batch from 3pm to 6.30pm..it was so difficult getting the right contour for the wafers so we will probably recommend a new wheel to grind the wafers to the customer.

Driving home

I may live quite far from my work place, but I actually enjoy the simple joys of driving to and fro work. Listening to the radio and watching the KL skyline whizz by while taking the DUKE highway.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Small reunion iftar at Putrajaya

When

















Figure 1: Venue of the iftar.Far far away from hectic KL.

I dunno..it just came out of my mind.Started sending out invites to several people and asked them to invite others last week. At first wanted to do it at the Putrajaya Lake Club, a buffet deal at a seemingly nice location.Booked last week for 20 people. Some began to complain the price is steep, so began searching for alternatives but still retaining the booking.Anyway, I chose Putrajaya because as a KLite I know for sure, breaking fast at KL or PJ would be hell. I live 15 minutes from the City Centre and already know that traffic is fucked up nearing iftar.

The iftar


















Figure 2: A reunion is not about numbers but about the commitment of friends to spare some time to meet each other.


Yesterday, finalized the venue at Taman Warisan Pertanian. 7 of us came, Intan,Aini,Acap,Apam,Syuk and Arip.Small crowd but it was good to see them. The place was very low profile and calm, just the right crowd. The food was OK for $33, as far as a buffet goes..the usual rice and lauks and some western grilled chicken and beef.Not bad, I was not expecting a fancy buffet and I skipped the rice and only ate the meat and chicken, you know, for my high blood pressure rice is bad. Through eating, we shared stories and our jobs, it was really good to see that we all moving along. We have our own lives.Since the place was not crowded, it seems we were lulled into almost 3 hours of talking. Eventually by 1030pm we all left with a fresh outlook on life.Alhamdulillah.

I dun wanna talked in details what we talked about...but it was a very intellectual conversation at some part especially where Aini and Syul is involved...so dapat isi otak dengan benda2 berfaedah. Whatever we talked about, it stays there, the gems of the reunion.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Moments of the week!!!!

Clean room experience

Yesterday, I was pushed around to find some scrap wafers from Julyn and August to solve some calibration fuck up thanks to thye QA department lousy methodology. Being a nooob, it was not my place to complain. Eventually, the Cleanroom PE, See Yen decided to help me.

Hence I entered the amazingly clean cleanroom...duhhh....

I had tow wear these santitation suit to avoid contamination of the wafers being etched in the cleanroom





















Figure 1: What to wear in a cleanroom

I had to wear a small suit which is very tight and GREEN....I noticed some of the operators giggling at me...did they see this?





















Figure 2: Teletubbies

Enough Said..huhuu..but it was a really good experience being in the cleanroom which is cleaner than an operating toom...kudos to the engineering experience!!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

MEMC job

Smiling Mat salleh=Smiling Hyena

The mat salleh boss was so nice on the first day...senyum2..gelak...welcome2 saya..tepuk2...time meeting...all the engineers got berated and reprimanded as if they are children for not making enough money out of sand and tax breaks courtesy of the Malaysian government. I know that smiles means 'If you fuck up and make this plant lose money I am gonna skin you alive' to me.

Overall nice guys la..but I know they hate Malaysia..who likes out sticky and balmy weather...yes I miss Adelaide..nak simpan duit beli umah kat sana..aaaa...don't need to be ag moh to want to leave Malaysia..if I kaya 7 keturunan lainla...sayang Malaysia sangat2..right now I am just an underpaid junior engineer who could not afford his own house and car with the current pay.

Fleeing engineer

Apparently I'll be replacing a process engineer,Mrt,Jayakumar, nice guy.He's only been around 6 months.The Malay engineers hinted that he may not get through the 6 months probation so he's ditching the company for another job to avoid the humiliation....but if he is that good(with 8 years wafer productioin experience) and being released..how about me????

Slave of the wafers

The oldest engineer is about 50 and worked 30 years at MEMC.Mr.Fuad Teoh...I think he's muallaf long tme convert, it's very typical seeing Chinese converted to Muslim because they marry Malay woman around PJ.He worked there for 30 years!! And I swear he spends more than 12 hours at work and his underling hinted he will never go home until his wife bising. He is quiet and I really hated it when he ignored me when i amsupposed to be mentored by him for a while when Jayakumar is busy...but I just endure it...I am sure he'll open up to me soon..he may have seen hundreds of noobs like me come and go and I am no different to the greasy rags lying around the factory floor.

Essence of the job

Yesterday and today I overtimed!!!! Doing almost nothing but have to do it as it was an order.One boring thing about this job is we do alot of monitoring. Everytime a new machine come, we watch the vendors install, test machine, we watch, operator measure stuff, we watch, they x-ray the wafers we watch..the operators and techs are virtually our robots and we just supervise!!! But we do get to do some 'House' like analysis when the wafers come out wrong. We have to dissect the data and trace which bloody machine made the fucked up wafers and call the surgeon(production engineer) to run a post mortem on the machine(usually he just disassemble and assemble). The factory is not big but it has alot of old but complicated machineries and being the oldest plant does not make it nice like the Freescale plant but in just three days I have seen whole machine being ripped open and whole processes gone fucked up that cause the engineers to scuttle in fear from the Managing Director's wrath although he'd transform into a benign coffee mug holding guy before the grilling morning meeting.Although I came back home late tonight,I was pretty satisfied that I managed to push myself to the limit..the fasting..opening fast at the greasy canteen and trying to know as many operators a spossible..memang kena sabar gila2....all those overtime is productive and the engineers and operators actually really appreciate of the new engineers are willing to overtime with them although you just wayang..hahaha.

Malay Engineers who love cars they can never afford

Malay engineers who work in a ang moh and chinese dominated factories are brilliant people,...if not they would not have survived the probabtion and annual reviews. I am not sure why they invited me for an outing, but it must be because I'm Malay..I guess I should appreciate it as they are looking out for me. Oh yeah..yes, Malays are a minority among the engineers who are mostly chinese and indians.So the five of us, ingat gi masjid rupanya gi NAZA showroom. One think about Malays men,esepcially the educated, they have lots of dreams, nak kete besar, nak jenjalan, but it seems all those manly dreams postphoned because of marriage..hahhaha...that's why I dun wanna marry early. These guys are probably earning close to RM10 000 or at least more than RM4000 but they all drool at the cars at NAZA and complain that houses are expensive and raising kids is difficult..hahah..but these guys are nicela...bringing me along talking about their cars of theri dreams..I am sure they working hard for the BMW of the Merc at the Naza showroom and I wish them luck. I hope to develop comraderie with them although they arte all 30s and 40s.Men will be men.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

1st day Ramadahan

Kerete Proton

















Figure 1: For years Proton cars humiliate their owners with fallen windscreens, broken power windows, jammed doors. Many people will always think twice buying another Proton due to bad experience with them.


The stupid Proton Waja made trouble, the driver's door cannot close and we had to cancelled the trip to Putrajaya to settle the maid's levy.Fucking stupi day.Mam went mad and averything and aku plak kene.

Tak nak to Proton.I'll have my Camry SV21 anytime.

Iftar




























Figure 2: Steel Mosque, the only pathetic physical legacy of the Slumberjack prime minister.Nce mosque though. Ramdan is a blessingm it brought me a good new job.



Having reopened my facebook and officially coming out of my anti social cocoon, I have ,along with some friends planning an iftar somewehere quiet and not 'jammed'. Possible iftar venue is at Putrajaya because I think it is a laid back place with big mosques where we can do terawih later.Will be discussing the details in two weeks. Oh..we plan to do it on a Saturday,21st August.

This plan is bulletproof..everytime i say this...it will surely jalan punye.

MAS trainee position rejected

Received the polite big NO from MAS.. Okla..didn't want it..I dunn wanna stuck being a manager....hahaha.Good...everything is settled as they should be.

Anyway,
MAS=Mesti Ada Saudara
Hahah....

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Lies of the MNC

On TV and the internet,MNCs tell you they make your laptops in these kind of places..














Figure 1: What an MNC manufacturing facility should loook like once they abide to stringent EU and US qualirt laws and god knows what regulations.

In reality, it is like this















Figure 2: But MNC are smarter and dodge all those developed world laws to make Ipods and laptops cheaply using poorly paid workersz(including engineers).

Stock options...hah..why the fuck should I trust my money to a corporation, rather send it to the terrorists to kick US in the financial balls while China sucks its economy dry.

Monday, August 09, 2010

Assabiyah

One of the horrible things in Adelaide, which, concerning the Malaysian student community there is Assabiyah.

Assabiyah is an illusion,It is created by them,us.

Assibiyah break friednships and cause whole households to split.

It sucksbut they are as usual doing IT gain..all of them

To the students in Adelaide...one ADVICE....

JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP AND JUST STUDY YOU FUCKING SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS..YOU ARE SENT THERE TO STUDY...NOT TO MAKE AN EMBARRASSEMENT TO PARTY TO GOLEK2 WITH GIRLS OR PRETEND YOU ARE GOING TO WRESTLE WITH ZIONIST SOLDIERS...ALL OF THOSE ARE MEANINGLESS AFTER YOU GARDUATE..YOU ARE JUST ONE LAME MICRO COMMUNITY..INSIGNIFICANT IN AUSTRALIA...WHO CARES THE FUCK WHETHER YOU ARE USRAH OR NOT..WHETHER YOU HAVE THE MOST PICTURES FUCKING YOUR OWN GIRLFRIENDS ON FACEBOOK ....JUST STUDY..GRADUATE AND GET THE FUCK OUT BEFORE YOU EMBARRASS YOURSELVES AND ENDED UP RUNNING A NASI LEMAK STALL IN AUSTRALIA..

Did it

Tendered my resignation.




















Figure 1: In life, we go our own separate ways, links are made and broken but not necessarily broken if we do the right things.


It was really depressing.Peter was obviously disappointed.From the past week I know he has been investing hope ib to bring his team to greater heights. He is a good man and a good leader.But I am young and have my own future to consider.

I am now wallowing at my cublicle, a burden lifted but unsettled.

I hope I am making the right decisions.My conviction will get me through.

MEMC called!!!

MEMC job

I got through!! MEMC just called and is offerring me a position as a Process Engineer!!

Alhamdulillah!!!

This is an multinational company that would hopefully catapult me through a better future career in this specialized industry. MEMC depite being a low profile player is major player in the semiconductor industry with plants in KL,Ipoh and Kuching.Hopefully I will be rotated around the country.

















Figure 1: I went through three gruelling interviews with MEMC. To skip this opportunity is to insult my effort in those three interviews.



MY first engineering work



Actually, I am kinda hoping they'd say no or offer me later.They want me to start next week!!!

I don't what to say to Peter..whatever it is, I have just finished the drawing for the Q-Cell central vacuum system!!


















Figure 2: An engineering system that will serve the solar wafer production line at Q-Cell.Designed by me..riak riak riak

I will be leaving the evil polar bear......I learned and saw so much from Peter and Nadia...I feel kinda bad griping about this company in this blog.But truthfully, I would not mind working at Blondal in the future.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Re-Facebook and a book review

Facebook













Figure 1: Faecesbook..not a typo..it is all about shit after all, the stupid statuses, dumb pictures, stupid games...but great for stalking people and your friends which no one could resist including me.Faecesbook book has been proven a good tool for stalkers to murder people as happened in Australia some time ago and I remember from OnDIt that some girl fell on love with some prettyface on Shitbook,worked her ass off to pay for a hotel in Melbourne only to find the guy a very expensive gigolo.



I deactivated Facebook for quite some time.Reasons

1.I stalk people.I just like to look at people's profile.I think this is rude and why I dislike Facebook. I began blocking some profiles.I dunno why.
2.Do we really need Facebooks for friends? I don't think so. Most of my FB 'friends' I barely know.Most of my good friends I get from having good times. For example, the Tasmanian trip buddies and I are planning a Taman Negara trip next year...no Facebook buddies among them?
3.Facebook is vanity.God knows why people bother putting pictires they are not supposed to put..keep the snuggling and embarassing stuff to your own thank you.I have stopped posting pictures after realizing copyright issues..fuck..now Facebook owns many of my pictures...I didn't even watermark.
4.Envy.Sometimes I envy some of the stuff people do at Facebook..especially those who got a job earlier than me.Ego...

I de-toxed from facebook by reading novels and other stuff. I finished the entire 'Philip Reeve' Mortal Engines quartet in just a month. Also tried reading newpapers, magazines and watch the news.Stuffing alot of reality and written fiction really helps.

I am doing a favor to wean myself off internet addiction. And I have done fairly well. If I do sufr,writing in this blog helps keep myself off facebook ,I also read people's blogs and SoPo blogs.Politics really gets blood pumping through your head.

But, Facebook failed to get out of my system. I miss some parts of facebook..the statuses...the smart ones that is. I myself like to bait people with my political statuses..hahahha.I actually am not sure why I reactivated my facebook..but yesterday after I reactivated my facebook..I look up to some of my good friends and dropped them a line and most of the replied..it was refreshing....truthfully, facebook is probably a good way to keep in touch with some good friends..the ones do not hurt you ad stab your back and then TWIST TWIST TWIST...




OUCH!!!! THAT HURTS.....


As most of my friends are either studying or working..hanging out or calling is not a good option...and I would like to keep in touch with more actively again since I already overcome the stress of finding a job..I am still stressed with a job but it is different now..much moreee better.

New Novel

Enough soul searching.



















Figure 2: The novel cover..elephants, futuristic spires and Thai temples....maybe I fell for the cover.


Yesterday my sis and I went to Mid valley to raid the MPH bookstore after her Freanch Class.Yes my sis is taking French..now she can speak Francais with her cousin in Switzerland.Believe or not we took the LRT and KTM..damn..so crowded even in the weekends..the KTM Komuter is even worse..I saw some tourists put off from boarding because of the huge crowd..but driving would be as bad....and I hate the MidValley parking..especially with a manual car.

The book is the 'Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is a steampunk novel , the same genre as the Mortal Engine series.I decided to buy another steampunk novel after I found a Steampunk blog which recommended this book and I like the synopsis, post apocalyptic world, bio-terrorism, Thai stuff and especially about the Malaysian Chinese who were almost exterminated by religious fanatics.....the DAP should read this book and scare the Malaysian Chinese in how they will end up soon...

So what is it about..like a good Steampunk..the world is misereable..petroleum is depleted and humanity downgraded their technological level and several wars occurred.Later, several hundreds later, with no cheap RON95, people take bicycles and rickshaw and people travel the world in giant airships powered by kink springs, sort of like engines which are wind up like toys.The major currency then is calories!! What is it. Apparently some companies, using biotechnology began introducing genetically mutated variants of crops and plants which wiped out the natural strains.Consequently, countries, that have no natural seedtock are forced to buy the GM seeds from the Western dominated food companies...so I guess companies like Nestle, Cadbury and Kraft run the world.So in the end, food is traded for commodities, for example, the Chinese trade disease resistant pineapples for whiskey.Not enough with that, the food companies even send spies to sabotage seedstocks around the world by espionage or launching political revolutions so that their scientists could attain the seedstocks and contaminate them so that the country's food source is totaly dependent on these companies.

The novel is set in Thailand, yes....Thailand......




probably the only nation with natural seedstcok after the raid on the Finnish seedstock. Because of the wisdom of the Chakri kings, Thailand was independent in terms of food source and its seed stock guarantees that it could supply its own food rather than buy from GM companies.Thailand as usual is free. So the plot centres upon an American who runs a kink spring company managed by a Malaysian Chinese who survived a holocaust in Malaysia. The American is in fact a spy for a food company who wants to find Thailand's seedstock after he noticed that extinct fruits such as the rambutan began to reappear. He knew that the Thai are now more bold in utilizing it legendary seedstcok instead of hiding it indefinitely.With its natural seedstock, the Thais could engineer their own strains of crops that are resistant to the diseases unleased by the food companies.Under the cover of a kink spring plant which supplies spring powered engines wound up by giant mutated elephants, the spy combs the thai underworld for the location of the seed stock which led him to the Windup girl.

The windup girl is a genetically modified human who is almost perfect except she cannot breed. The ageing Japanese, depopulated and still insular created these New Poeple as a source of labour inclusing servants,workers abd even soldier.The 'New People' can be freaks as some have ten arms or buffed up muscles eepending on their functions. Emiko was special, she was a rich man's toy abandoned in Bangkok as an abused whore, despised by the Thais as a unnatural soulless devil, her pores are so smal that her skin was so smooth but made her body hot as she cannot cool down via sweating in the tropical heat. What Emiko knows from a drunken Thai officer entertwines her with the spy which led to dangers,roamnce and the near destruction of the Thai kingdom and the only genetic source of natural plantlife left on Earth not to mention her freedom.

Some interestong facts about this post apocalyptic world
-As mentioned, Malaysia became a racist rabid state which butchered its Chinese populace. The survivors fled to Thailand.
-Calories aka food is the new currency. GM food ravaged the world, causing natural crops to fail. Genetically Modified seeds can only be bought from food companies and cannot be reproduced, so countries can only buy the seeds from these brutaly greedy companies.
-No electricty. Its back to walking,cycling and methane gas lamps.Even glow worms are used at strip clubs to emit green a light for the strip shows.
-Mechanical power is provided by springs which store kinetic energy. The springs are winded up by giant mutated elephants. The elephants are equivalent of a power plant in this world, their fuel is basically food, so their muscles is source odf mechanical power.The airships use the kink springs as propellers. Once the springs expire, they are resent to factories to be rewound.
-The oceans of the world rose due to the petroleum era. Bangkok is protected by a giant dyke which holds the ocean from swamping the city.Many cities like New York and Mumbai are flooded.
-Many skyscrapers are abandoned without electricity to work the elevators and air conditioning.Only rich people live off electricity using hydroelectric power but electricity is tighly rationed and traded expensively as a commodity for specialized industrial purposes.
-Biotechnology is an evil thing.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Lest We Forget: Hiroshima

It was WW2..The Japanese were not the good guys ..but they did not deserve this..





Let us remind ourselves of the horrible consequences of nuclear weapons.

Why I named it The Looking Blog

Duhhh...you're dumbasses to believe that I named this blog because I like to write things I see...I barely talked about things I see but more about my insane mind......

I named it so because I liked Lewis Carol's works.....Alice in Wonderland...Through the Loking Glass....yes..I have red through many classics more than you give my mundane appearance credit for...

















Figure 1: Alice and the Looking Glass. Sort of what I do with this blog, but I am not wearing a skirt and dreadlocks.


Hence The Looking Blog in honor of Throgh The Looking Glass...for this blog's case...it is probably a Looking Blog into my soul and emotional roller coaster..




















Figure 2: That's life, you go up and down and a great big loop at some point that leaves you naseous..permanently...in the heart.


Wait till I get a girlfriend ...you won't find pictures of us snuggling unashamedly in Facebook..it'd be personal but my ego will brag in this blog,...muagagaga..do not worry..I am not waiting...I can enjoy life on my own without depending on a soulmate to whom I will be stuck my whole life..I;ll enjoy bachelorhood while it still lasts...i am so lucky to be a guy....a man that is...you don't wanna know why.....

Note: Interstingly, a guys refers to both and man and woman..hehehhe

Just so happy that the week is over after working for Blondal the Evil Polar bear for a week....my ego and unsettled soul deserves three entries...

I will now officially stop bitching about MAS and MEMC at the next entries..tapi terasa gila tengok trainee2 MAS mase solat Jumaat kat Subang Airport....wei MAS>.aku ade degree in Aero la.......

Blondal is a evil polar bear














Figure 1: Polar Bear rule..reap the profits at a max., tell workers to work harder, and pay them peanuts.The Swedsih way....and they pride themselves in social benefits..how about us..the Asian slaves of the Polar Bear Empire!!!!

They made us sign a fucking form saying we agree to lose 1 day of our pathetic annual leave because we will be going back half an hour early during Puasa...



As peter said.....Chinaman and ang moh.....typical....

And I have learned that some Malaysian Chinese think all uneducated Malay men as sexual perverts based on a conversation at the office......

Pity no Indian in the offcie,, else I can stereotype them....but I got enough of that from the past 3 years and I have made my final conclusion about Indians.....

Supervision/Inspection Work























Figure 1: Engineers at work.

I can't seem to find a gaggle of Ah Pek engineers on Google.It would be interesting to record the pidgin Ah Pek BM engineers use when talking to me when they decided to think I cannot speak English. It seem I was just a Malay Engineer Monkey working for another Ah Pek Taiko to them.And these Ah Pek engineers are probably the proponent of Middle Malaysia.


Went to the Yamaha plant again.The customer wanted a PM10 air quality test.What's that, I dunno, some dangerous particle in the air. Yamaha apparently wants to fulfill some ISO thingy and trying to fulfill the minimum requirement. SInce the air quality is being maintained by Blondal's equipment, it was prerogative for Peter to be there.



We met 2 Production Engineers, 2 technicians from some company who will be doing the air quality test and some contractors who has been screwing their job at the plant.Discusssion were made in pidgin Ah Pek English and I pretended to understand by staring and cocking my head from time to time and following them. This handicap is not doing well for me and I can feel Peter's remorse for hiring me(my imagination). I am sure I am hired for some stupid race based quota.

Being a trained asshole...I managed to swipe all that away and concentrate on my ego.I survived the ching chong cheng meeting and got my assignment for the Yamaha Plant.I will be inspecting the plant after the contractors finish their touch up on their already crappy work and check Blondal's technician's work on the air filters next week. Peter is trying to cajol me to come to the plant on Saturday to supervise Blondal's technician....I am gonna say NO...why..I'll be back there in Monday anyway..and I need my life back..at least until I finish 'House' until Season 6.

So work is piling, I still can't do the drawing..no template.Nadia is absent..son is sick..she won't be much help If she's here anyway.So much challenges. I really hope either MEMC and MAS call me and say either yes or no so that I can move on......

I think I will be writing a plan for my supervision job next week..haiya...

It is amusing that some of the Malaysian Chinese, who thinks that I can't speak English will end up talking in rubbish ah pek BM to me.......so stupid.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Keje keje

Going to work

Wake up everydat at 630am, join the crazy morning rush hour for an hour driving through 3 highways, 2 tollbooths and listening to Mix fm.

First week of work

Okay.Visted two factories.

First factory

Hong Leong Yamaha

It was impressive.It was the first time I visited a semi automated motorcycle plant with robotic welding arms!!!.Although my first factory was the Holden plant in Adelaide,the Yamaha plant was just as impressive. The plant uses a smoke extraction system from Blondal which removes welding smog from the production line. Yamaha apparently was very picky about cost and chose a pollutant control system which is rather unsuitable in my opinion. That's how manufcaturers work, they only spend to comply to minimum requirement, never mind the workers will probably have cancer at the end of their life.

One thing I learn is that it is no use having fancy english. My supervisor and the Chinese Yamaha engineers spoke in pidgin type of English which is incomprehensible!!!! Seriously!! I can't imagine how I will speak If I am stucke here for seberal years. ALready my vocabulary capacity is dwindling!!...Need a new novel to pump up my Engrisshhhh...

We were just there to inspect some contractor's job who did the installation of Blondal's air pollutant system. It seems the factory was refurbished, hence the fabrication equipements were dismantled and reassembled. For 8 months some of the equipments were left oudoors and after reassembly, they are facing problems for some of the fabrication line and naturally, since they can't blame each other they decided to attack the conractors. Blondal's Sales Engineer, Peter inspected the affected equipments and will call another fabricator for a second opinion.It was a good insight on what a sales engineer does, solving customer's stupid problems.

Q.Cell Plant

The best moment of the week. A german solar cell plant whose construction was rejected in China and Indonesia due to environmental issued...guess Malaysia is willing to take all the shit for $.

Being a typical manufacturere, 99% of their workers is Indonesian....so in a way..we should congratulate Indonesia for having a solar cell plant? As usual, after building the plant as cheaply as possible and masquerading it as a colorful building, they are having dust problems and wanted a centralized vacuum system. Blondal was called to survey the manufacturing site.

We actually entered the manufacturing area and it was soooo COOOOLL..closest thing to a Star Trek environment. We had to cover our shoes in plastic and wear lab coats. The site consist of a large white area iwth yellow floors crammed with automated machineries, processing silicon wafers to be used in solar panels. Most of the processesare handled by robotic arms and a conveyor belt system which was really efficient.Everything works like flowing water..an engineering accomplishment!!! The human operators only monitor the machineries and pack the finished silicon wafers. The blue wafers are very thin and and some them break, strewning the floor with bits of blue dust and pieces.Q-Cell did not like this and asked as to design a central vacuum system to mop them up.Simply, they want a large central vacuum with extended tubes stretching along the site with vacuuming outlets. This makes things simpler as they do not have to carry around mobile and bulky vacuums, instead, they only plug in extractors to the vacuum outlets around the site. The problem is, there are not many space to place the vacuum tubes on the ceiling which is already full of other interconnecting wires and pipes. If they planned ahead, they could have built the vacuum tubes inside the floor which is what a smilar plant in Singapore does(according to Peter), but it is too late for them. A centralized system is possible but Peter was not willing to do the installlation and advised Q-Cell to find another installer.Apparenly Q-Cell agree and Blondal will provide a preliminary design. If Q-Cell accepts them, Blondal gets paid, I get 10% of it. Hence,this is my first project.

The problem is, Blondal lost a CD with all their drawing templates.Hence, I can't proceed with the engineering drawing and stuck with my preliminary hand drawn sketches with complete dimensions which I finished calculating.Hence I decided to write this blog out of boredom. Oh.the aircond here is so fucking cold..demit...

Is it ok?

It is OK..lahhh.But I still think it is an Ah Beng company.Not very organized.To tell the truth, Chinese Social Capital helps this kind of companies.The contractirs Chinese, fabrcators chinese..you get my idea.. I am am the only Malay male in their engineering department if you exclude the underpaid Malay techncians.I am not sure why they hire me.Maybe think I am a liberal Malay but Peter is a good man and he eats rice with hands..first time I saw a Malaysian Chinese do that..not to mention calling other Chinese 'Chinaman' which he refers to as greedy stingy Chinese companies who build factories as cheap a possible to reap max. profit..and these are the customers that Blondal is servicing!!! I guess there are good Chinese who see beyond racial superiority and chauvinism.. I appreciated the site visits but I am still unclear about what to do.I can't do my work because they coud not provide the templates and Nadia, my supervsior, is not very helpful when I asked for help. The first week has not given me a good impression of the team although I enjoyed the visits to the factories!!!Maybe it is just me with a very high expectation..

However,if MAS offers me the trainee position.I will take up the offer.Insya-Allah....it seems I have given up on MEMC....

Friday, July 30, 2010

Updates!!!

70 Posts(+1 today)

Wow..I never knew I wrote so much entries....I wrote 30+ pieces last year and just went through all of it since 2006..so much memories. I started this blog when I first arrived in Australia..!! The first entry was about the trip to Melbourne in 2006!! As I was a very lenghthy and inelegant writer, the first entry was so crammed with details that I conjurred vivid memories when I wrote them!!! My inelegant long 'essays' continued,mostly about my travelling in Australia,m such as the Morialta falls trip with Zaipul,Ajay and Zahied which confirmed that those three capitos were not my invisible friends back then before they warped into some other dimension for the next three years(never actually met them in 2009,saw them from afar but that's it). My 'essay' misadventure was proving exhausting after which I will hibernate this blog for several months...with entries being 4-6 months frome each other!!!

Blog=Alter Ego?

2009 changed. I became strangely active. When I red what i wrote, I feel I was reading the blog of a different Hijaz Hasnan. I felt that the Hijaz in 2009 was lonely, felt victimized and angry. To sum up..I was really emo and I think I was. From what I can see, I wrote entyries everytime I felst stressed, especially after project meeting or when my 'former' housemates make a douche of themselves and annoy me which is extremely rare(1 or 2 entries, so I managed to control my 'emo' and not lambast at some particular person). Reading these past entries was truly interesting and made me gratelful that I am alreade a Degree holder in Aerospace Engineering babe!!! The Hijaz in 2009 was striggling and hallucinaing about failures for every second in 2009!! But It is sad I ddin't write my NZ adventures, It would have been another long and inelegant 'essay' but would have contained so much details compared to the 10+GB of photos that I do not care to see again!!!

To sum up, I am glad I wrote those entries,lots of lessons from past years and plenty of beautiful memories.I will persevere to continue blogging...my alter ego...the memories embedded in the WWW.

Back to life

Picked up the offer letter on Thursday,quite late as I was pre-occupied with other worldly things.Drove to Subang>>>>DUKE>>>Federal Highway>>>>.Subang Airport Ramp>>>>Dhungy industrial building>>>>Blondal.

The offer letter was picked, Ms.Ding, the old elegant lady which interviewed me last week, has a bit of chat, telling me about salary issues which still do not comprehend and do not bother to explain here and what to expect of my job.Fine.I opened the letter later.

The offer letter

To tell you the truth.Terrible. 6 working days per week, 8 days leave per year until 2013(other companies my friends work in gave 20+ days!!!) and only RM3000 medical coverage.

I am not impressed and Ms.Ding was screwing me telling me how my 'commission will be several times my base salary, but I ain't see the commsion yet and for all I know the commission will probbably be dispensed after the project is finished which may be several month and several years!! At the end, it will not make much difference after spreading the commission over the months!!!!

I am really praying MEMC to give me that training job..Insya-Allah, but I will still work with Blondal..I may seem pessikistic but 'belum cuba belum tahu'..who knows Ms.Ding is not screwing me and I may get some good bonuses if we get good projects this year...despite the fact that Blondal's client, Nestle is relocating to Indonesia.

Plus, I am sick of staying home with the hamster....

SoPo stuff(Extremely inelegantly long)

Haha..since I have began a misadventure into the world of SoPo blogs, I would like to begin a long inelegant essay on a particular subject, the Malay rights.

As you may know, in exchange for the citizenship of non-Malays in 1957, the Malay or bumiputera rights was enshrined, where the federal government has the right to mobilize the nation;s resources skewed to the benefits of the bumiputeras which is alsonthe majority and make up the working class and low to low middle class of Malaysian society.

These privilieges cover many areas. Scholarships, housing and government jobs and many others such as Malay land titles etcetera.The right have been utilised for decades to uplift the economic status of the Malays.The most positive legacy of the bumi rights, manifested through the DEB and then the NEP is the provision of education to the Malays. My mom and uncle ate beneficiaries of the MARA overseas programme and I dare say they are successful products of the NEP.My mom is now a Master holder and Honors Degree holder in English Literature but now is an experienced Marketing Senior Manager at a Tier 6 University(really good university) while my uncle, who initially a Civil Engineer is now an IT specialist for a subsidiary of Swiss Bank which only allow very talented people to work with them.My uncle speaks French and German which are the spoken languages in Switzerland.

Other legacies include a largely Malay Civil Service which provided about 1 million stable jobs to Malays and government incentives and favours when it comes to business opportunties.As a consequent, GLCs are run mostly by Malays.There are successes and failured.Sime Darby and Petronas are successful Malay GLC ventures. Petronas in particular is the bastion of Malay professionalism for being one of the most successful oil companies in the world while oil companies such as Pertamina in Indonesia which handles more oil resources is cionstantly failing to meet expectations. Other companies such as Proton have mix successes but is currently doing well and has been successful in deleoping a local auto technology and MAS which despite having financial problems managed to carve a good reputation under Malay stewardship while companies like Renong went bust despite successfully built the North-South highway which is a massive engineering feat. Whether successful or failure, these ventures had created a new class of professional Malays ranging from academcians, Project Managers, and Engineers.

Despite government assistance, Malaysia's econoic landscape is dominatd by the minorities particularly the Chinese. Notice anything during CNY,Chap Goh Meh and even Wesak? All distribution of food and raw materials grinds to a halt. There will be sugar and cement shortages and everyone have problems!! The Chinese, dominate the economy end to end. The harvest the raw materials and process them to the finished products, hence, the private sector and the factories are dominated by the Chinese.This gave a them a leverage over the majority. Despite Chinese interest groups accusing the Malaysian government of being unfair to the brink of ethnic cleansing, the Chinese, through their dominance of the private sector causes more damage to the Malays. Malays, no matter how good their education backround, are routinely denied job opportunties. Why? Look at Chinese companies even MNC companies, the HR Manager will surely be a Chinese.Many tales I heard on how a Chinese from UTAR is given the engineer position over the Malay who went to the University of Melbourne. The Chinese will always give excuses that the Malay candidate have poor English proficiency and even have the audacity to to require Mandarin proficiceny, denying many professional private sector jobs to 65% of the population.In terms if business, Malay businesses can never beat the Chinaman companies as the Malays can never get the raw materials such as cement and timber as cheaply as other Chinaman to the extent that Malay companies have to hire Chinese consultants and pay them grossly just because they could talk Ah Pek to the Chinese supplier. The Chinses in Malaysia, have a strong Social Capital, waht does that means? Simply cronismes and nepotisme, favors for the same ethnicity built upon generations upon generations since the clan days. This is not racism and many Chinese are innocently unaware that they are probably the biggest practitioners of cronisme in Malaysia despite being self professed meritocracy society. As a cosnequent of their massive Social Capital, Chinese graduates, even at diploma level can get better higher paying jobs than a PhD Malay while and experience Malay can never get higher pay than a poorly experienced Chinama at his level.

Proof, my uncle and my aunties. My uncle once came back to work for the Mykad project.My uncle was one of the specialist working for a Chinese contracting IT company.Despite having decades of experiecne and being an expert programmer and willing to come back to Malaysia for lesser pay than what he earned in Zurich, my uncle was perplexed that his pay is lesser than the a fresh graduate who was attached to him.Reason? The chinaman was some long distant relative of the company's director or something and the chinaman newbie was rude to my uncle and was only an obstacle to him.That chinaman would probably now brag how the Zurich Malay is inferior to him and took all my uncle's credit. My uncle naturaly returned to Zurich after his ex-boss begged him to come back......my auntie, she works for ana devrtising company, Chinese owned.My auntie worked hard and aptly rewarded, but sadly, her pay will never be as high as her chinese counterpart, Her artner can't even speak proper English and her boss sold his Merc at cheap price to his Chinese employees, but he will never offer such discount to his Malay employees, and my Auntie is still stuck with her Kelisa while her gagap partner driver the boss' ex-Mercedes.

The Malays despite its 'crutches' are still margizanlized despite being educated. Many Malays are now at a level playing field as the Chinese and are proven to be as skilful. Many Malays such as myself, are educated and have self confidence and have skills to offer to the nation, but we will have hurdles in securing a professional job because of our skin color and our non Mandarin language handicap. AEven if we get jobs, our pay will be low and we will have to work very hard and get abused because the Chinese boss thinks we are a waste of taxpayer money, never mind that almost RM50 billion are in the hands of 40 Chinaman while Chinaman are very good at tax evasion with which they buy their Ah beng pimped Mercdes and BMW. Never mind that they are the ones that snap up the million dollar condos and villas around the country. Sure there are poor Chinaman, there will always be poor Chinaman, but opportunities are open to them far wider than the Malays(and Indians to a large extent), employment and even borrow money from Chinese companies and clans.

The government's requirement of having Malay partners in companies is to allow the Malays to penetrate the Chinese Social Capital and tap its resources, But the Chinaman are a jealous guardian and most of the malay partners they select are the incompetent lots.No Malays partner will ever be successful in a Chinese dominated company and will be regulated to a directorship doing nothing.

The Malays have balanced the Chinese economic dominance wthrough poltical power, But that has changed. The Malay votes has been split, thanks to the ego of a single convicted sodomite to become Prime Minister and the hatred of a self proclaimed Muslim Cleric who hates another group of Malays which he considefrs as bad as infidels but sleeing on the same bed as the pagan and jesuite Chines chauvinists. You know who they are.

Now, the government is being blackmailed by the minority whose weight in the democratic scale has increase significntly. The millions of RM foe Chinese schools that teach Chinaboys and Chinagirls in a language of a forein country and teaching false history(now Chin Peng is refarded as a freedom fighter by many Malaysian?) and demands for more scholarships despite 48% of the JPA scholarships being awarded to non Bumis...I bet they will not be hapy until no Malay are given any MARA loands even for a Certificate.

Last week, there are calls for the 7% bumi discount for >RM500l homes to be scrapped. To the Chinaman and blind Liberal and UMNO hater Malays, this may seem like a Robin Hood triumph over the UMNO nobleman. But try to see the big picture, hiw much does a terrace house cost? In Penang and KL? RM500k!!! My mom even had to share with my auntie to buy a terrace house in Shah Alam that is already RM500k...and that's only leasehold!!! 7% is alot,and makes a difference.I assure you many Malay buyers are working class, engineers, leacturers and manager who probably have to take 20-30 year loans buying a terarce house or an upscale condo(that could reach RM500k) where they can raise their children in a better environment..7% coul mean some extra thousand RM for their children education and some life's comfort..there are not many obsecenly rich Malays to hoarde on all the bumi allocated luxury homes and bleieve me, most bumi unist are eventually sold to non bumis or foreigners after a years if no bumi steps up and that happens alot.

Hence, I bring to you the question. Do we still need the NEP? Not just for yuu, but for the kampung folks, for the Malays who may not get straight A's like the Chinaman with 20As but could not speak proper Bahasa but have other talents or the Malay who is gifted in arts.Some months ago while on MARA carnival in Perak, we met a Malay boy who took a bus from Kelantan who arrived 6am at Ipoh and waited for hours at the MARA Perak office....we looked at his results..not straight As..his STPM cukup makan..but enough for a Degree programme.....did he deserve it? he came all the way from Kelantan...he has the determination and we registered him for a Degree programme in engineering.......will he get the opportunity without the NEP?

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The MAS Interview

Insomnia















Figure 1: Insomniac


I dunno why, but I can't damn sleep last night and ended up reading endless SoPo blogs that I got a really bad migrain.

Rain

Woke up quite late.It was raining in the morning and it was heaven sleeping in the cool and damp air,Woke up at 10am,slogged through the shower for quite a long time, cloth myself in office attire and the South Korean tie my mom bought in Seoul and departed to Subang airport.

Malaysia Hospitality,MH

Arrived there at 1.30pm exaclt, as the email from MAS syas they'll have a 'Case Study' before the intyerview by 1.30pm.The HR executive came half an hour late, opened the interview room and we received the Essay Question about the viability of a silly Local restaurant which offer 100 dishes at too many branches which is suffering from poor profit growth.Duhhhh..memangla..which dumbfuck franchise offer 100 dishes!!! Look at 'Chicken Rice Shop','Laksa Shack','Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa' and 'Mee Rebus Ramli'!!....see a pattern!!? I attacked the subject subtly.

This is MH at it best

The panels of intreviewers were in a meeting so important that they made us(four interwees including me) wait until 5pm!!!!!Between that I went to their greasy cafetaria and ate Kuey Teow and a glass of extremely sweet sirap bandung and went back to the spartan interview room with posters of destinations that the poorly networked MAS is no longer serving such as New Mexico and Ipoh.. I was so bored that I napped on the sofa after failing to take interest in the financially troubled Reader's Digest magazines.

Eventually, two interwees, who has been waiting since morning as they had to sit for the IQ and aptitude test asked for their leave ane requested another alternative session. The apologetic HR executive as accommodating and gave permission.Then the two interviewers came!!!! I went in first at around 4.45pm.

MH Interview

The interviewers were a man and a lady.Both Malays, so as usual, borak je banyak after the usual 'Talk about yourself' and 'What is your weakness?'. From what i see, they were quite surprised that the 100kg Malay boy with the horribly short crew cut hair in front them could speak coherent English. ..haaha..they took some interest in me and began asking stuff about my school, my university and what I did, like I said, borak borak, I was being cautious so I brag myself on how I like trying new things, diligent, can work in unsupervised environment bla bla bla and talking about places I've been to which made me miss Australia so much..demit. The borak2 cum intreview took about 30 minutes which ended with me questioning about the positions they are offering.

Management Trainee

Apparently MAS is 'compelled' to a hiring free to employ 64 staff which will be rotated through various departments in a year and evaluated before they are permamnently attached to their repsective departments. I am also happy to hear they are also finding people for their Engineering department. So there is a chance for me to become an engineer but the management may have other things for me in store, so I my end up fucked up in Marketing or HR..but hey.at least I would be working in an industry closely related to my degree!!!!

Overall, the interview went well, but I don't know, all my interviews before this went well and the decisions are still pending. Overall, MEMC still offers the best opportinuty to be an engineer cum slave at a hideous factory, Blondal' position is largely a sales type of engineering and I am not sure where MAS will throw me in their large pool of staff of 20 000 people!!! Like I said, I will just start with Blondal first and wait for offers from MAS and MEMC.No more interviews after this..tak larat faking my smile and talking proper English!!

All is well!!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Getting to the job place

The Office and where it is

My designated office will be at Blondal HQ in Batu Tiga, right smack in the midde of the federal highway.

Getting there

Of course..by car!! But I dislike the idea of using the horrible car infested Federal Highway not to mention the tolls amounting to RM7 per day by taking the Sprint Highway and then DUKE or RM13 by taking PLUS and DUKE. It will cost, by my estimate,RM350 on toll and fuel(estimating I use RM200 per mont) not to mention the RM250 per month for a second hand car(my estimate using a 2nd hand Atos as bench mark). All in all transport will consume close RM600 if I include miscellanoeius such as junk food I chew while being stuck in the Federal Highway!!! And my company will only provide RM300 transportation cost!!!

I could skip the tolls and get up really early like 5am and then brave the Federal Highway saving me RM150 per month f tolls. But that leaves me with less time a internet addict human being.

LRT>>>>>KTM>>>>>Blondal

There is a Batu Tiga KTM Komuter station, but it is on the other side of the federal Highway,DAMNIT, hence I will have to cross an underpass a km away and then walk another 2km to get to Blondal!!

I have walked from Norwood to Adelaide countless if times and it takes 5o miniutes of leisurely walk to cover 4km!!!

The KJ line+KTM trip will probably consume close to 1 hour.

So in the end I will spend close to 4 hours per day walking in the sticky climate and then packed like a sardine in the short and narrow KTM and KJ line coaches.

The cost:
KTM Komuter Monthly Pass: RM84
LRT Pass: RM100
Total:RM184

Thank you Malaysia for having a fucked up public transport system which is basically useless once you stepped outside the LRT and KTM station!!!

Maybe I will buy a foldable bike and cycle like a clown to Blondal!!!!!!Naaahh....my ego as a Malaysia will not allow me stoop low as the Indons and Banglas..gaspp..!!!!

Car it is then......I guess...oh MEMEC..please offer that fucking training post!!!