Friendship

I always consider myself as being open when it comes to picking friends
This is obvious considering the lack of qualities in my current lot of associates

To give example, I am the first to befriend the only chinese boy in my sekolah kebangsaan
This is big considering that he was the only chinese boy there and I am Penang!
We clicked because of our fascination of jets/plane and the english language.

I went to a secondary school of which majority of students are non Muslim.
When I was form 2 and 3, I am the only Muslim boy in the class.
I make good friends with the other, some I still keep till today

My university life is a bit mixed but not as bad as my form 4-5

My working life is as exiciting.
It is so exciting that I am grouped as "under represented minority"
I am challenged and I do challenge back, vice versa
I put tension in the environment through my honest input and feedback
I have friends that can take strong comment
My experience in office has resulted in this new term - my best <put your friend race here> friend
It works wonderfully
I am not saying it will resolve all our country ailment on race relation but it work for me and a few of my friends

In summary, friendship is build on trust, honesty and never on race, skin color and religion.
It will flourish as long as you can take each other banter - regardless how bad it is
Things I spoke to my friends are too blasphemous to be printed, so I will refrain my self from doing just that.

Wait

Wait is a verb
Waiting is the action explaining the verb
I am just making this up and hope what I deduced above is grammatically correct
If not, apologies to those that I have misled

FYI I am a part of a group that is waiting for examination result
The result has some bearing on my career path and to some in the group, would determine life and death (no , not really)
One guy in the group however seems to get one out of two part of the exam result
He passed , not with flying color as expected, but out of respect to others is containing his jubilation
This is an hard act to do due to his inborn nature of bragging
He obviously will be reading this post and will curse me for the next 4 weeks
To him I salute his accomplishment , albeit pedestrian.
The wait continues to for the rest of us
I am hoping for the best..... for all of us

End of Month

Today is 29th of October
November is just round the corner
Before you know it, its 1st Jan 2009
Time flies even faster as we grow older
Time lost cannot be regain

Feeling the blues

• Samad Of LeftHanded passed away yesterday - Al Fatihah
• Bo Diddley, the man who created his own name, his own guitar and his own signature tone has passed away last June. RIP

Here's feeling the blues..

Walking alone in the rain,water in my shoes.
all I can feel is this pain in my heart
and this Muddy Water Blues.
River weap for me,
nothing left to loose,
under the weeping willow tree
with these Muddy Water Blues.

Global Indian

Deepavali is a couple days away.
This year I made it a point to send a note our to my good friends that is celebrating Diwali.
The message goes around the globe as my friends is all over the planet
Which made me realise how geographically disperse my Indian friends are.
I would call this phenomenon as -self inflict diaspora.
At my current work place, Indian are the second largest ethnicity in our 80k strong employees based all around the globe.
If you scan through Fortune top 40 companies, you will find that many Indians are holding key positions in these companies.
This was not evident in the early 80s.
I am astounded by the rapid rate of their success.

Jimmy Carter : How to stay relevant?

The power of relevancy of President Carter is phenomenal
After almost 3 decades of leaving office, his thoughts and action still continue to create ripples on the world arena.
His 2007 work, Palestine Peace , Not Apartheid becomes the most controvesial book last year.
There is also a DVD on his book release and his other personal pursuit.
A quick intro on Carter would be here
If you are after an old school intellectual reflection , then there is no denying this man from plains.

Late Night Meeting

Since the world is not flat, we have to deal with time zone differences.
This differences wrecks havoc on cross continent communication.
Late night meeting in Malaysia is the available window for Asia, EMEA and Americas to seat down and talk to each other.

In such occassion, serious stability of broadband connection, home phone line and cell phone coverage (for back up) are required.
Late night meeting can be a nuisance, but you do what you have to do to put food on the table.

SICKO

Michael Moore is an American documentary/film maker.
A heavy fellow with a knack of spoofing American way of life.
He won an Oscar for a documentary called Bowling for Columbine.
Fahrenheit 9/11 was too critical of the Bush administration and the NRA
It was given an harsh treatment by the mainstream media.
His latest offering is Sicko and it dives deep into the American health care plan.
His narration and story telling is always spot on with details analysis and an abundance of comic relief. Try it and you will thanks me for it.

Strength Finder

We put too much focus on fixing our weaknesses.
It is an industry that rakes in billions of ringgit.
However, there is an approach that look at our existing strength and god given talent.
The method is call strength finder.
You can read the book and explore more on the Talent+Training=Strentgh equation.

Putting tension into the system

Putting tension into the system is a method to kick start a change
To use an office environment as an example, one can plant the idea for change through continuous communication at all level.
A bad example would be to throw the idea for change with too much conviction but then failing to deliver them.
This will create a continous tension that can turn into ugly.
So before you put tension into the system, plan your strategy carefully.

Sandia Peak

Sandia Peak is located in New Mexico, USA.

A quick ride on a cable car will take you to its peak

Best time to go is around 4pm local time as sun is setting

During fall, temperature is sub zero.

Elvis has left the building

I am a big Elvis fan

I owe that to my father who loves the King

His music transcend cultures

Through Disnye movies , my children are also enjoying Elvis music

The King is definitely still in the building!

The Best Busker in Town

The real deal.
Have lot of Alleycats and Pop yeh yeh hit in his set list.
Will take request but only do 60s, 70s and 80s hits.
The only blind musician in town armed with an electric guitar (it's a yamaha but from a far sure looks like a fender)
Loc; pasar malam around Butterworth.
Name; I forgot!

The Best Popia in Malaysia

The real deal

Family business ; been making popia since early 70s. It all started in Mengkuang Rd.

Loc; Pasar Malam around Butterworth.

The Best Burger Stand in Malaysia

This is the real deal

Price is out of this world (hotdog with full garnish is still at Rm1)

Quality is world class

Taste is heavenly

The brother has been making this stuff since 1982

I practically grew up eating his burgers

Loc: 'Rock' burger stand is at entrance into Jln Perwira, Robina Park, Teluk Air Tawar-Butterworth Penang

Community Work

Life feels much better when we share and help others

With that in mind, many of us would band together can contribute back to the community

Albeit in a small way, we should never stop from participating and giving our fair share

It was a fun day for me , accompanying school children from Kulim for a day outing at Penang bird park.

Vietnam

My visit to Ho Chin Minh was yet another splash and dash

Site visit, interview session, dinner with friends and then off I go

Seafood in HCM is fab!

A photo of the Saigon river , taken from hotel room.

One night in LA

It has been awhile since I stayed over night in LA

Somehow, LA is still highly over rated

Oil and Gas

Oil and Gas is a term widely use as reference to the , oil and gas industry obviously.
It is a huge industry that garner billion of ringgits.
Malaysia , being an oil and gas producer is a major stakeholder
While Malaysia is not an OPEC member, we do contribute significantly.
This industry requires support to sustains its operation.
Thus its generated multiple support business.
One good example of a local support company is Orogenic
A good friend of mine now runs Orogenic IT department.
The whole dynamic of the IT organization that support Orogenic is so much different from the IT that support a manufacturing outfit.
I wish him all the best as he revamp and rejuvenate Orogenic IT into a solid IT department that will keep Orogenic computing and communicating!

EidilFitri 2008 - Summarize

Loc: Bertam, Teluk Air Tawar, Bukit Mertajam, Seberang Jaya, Tmn M Amin, and Penang state in general

Timeline; 1st Syawal - 5th Syawal

Summary ; See photo

Hiatus

Hiatus is a Latin word.
Merriam Webster calls it an interruption in time
I call it, victim of priority
Nevertheless, my goal of updating my blog at a minimum once a month failed miserably
Ramadhan came and left
EidilFitri was great as usual
Ryder Cup saw a sulking American team winning after a multiple years hiatus (yes, it is that latin word again! Maybe not in the right context but what the hell)
My hiatus was ended when I change upon an old friend blog.
Jalan Rebung is reflective, accomodating, serene, punchy and fun all roll into one.