Deadeye's Lair

pyeong

I'm heading back Kulim tomorrow for the 2008 Penang Bridge marathon. It's an annual thing for us KulimKia to participate in this event, even though the numbers are getting less and less every year. There's only 3 of us this year as compared to 4 the previous year... Hahaha! To me, this event is just a measuring yard on my fitness. No preps going into the marathon and I just run as much as I can. After that, it's just walking to the finishing line. I think I finished about 5 hours last year... running about 10km along the way heading to Butterworth. See if you can still find the post about it. I remember writing about it after I finished then.

This year will be tough as I feel my stamina has dropped dramatically from last year. Moving to KL has limited my jogging and futsal isn't really a good way to depend on to increase your stamina. My plan this year again... similar to last year's, is to walk all the way up to the ramp going to the bridge and then start running from there. My aim is to see where I felt I've reached my limit and stop there. The goal here is to reach the Butterworth side of the bridge and maybe jog a little more. I'll say this is an ambitious goal right now so we'll see how it goes. Hehehe...

I've always enjoyed jogging in the wee hours. Shamefully, I used to do it when I was young (in my teens) and tried it again in the Uni-days. Somehow the idea of waking up so early just got the better of me and I stopped pretty fast. It's just of the things that thinking about doing it is harder than actually doing it. Err.... get it? Ah well...

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The job market does't look all that good right now. Yeah there are still openings everywhere but looks like there isn't much of what I'm looking for.

I'm not sure if I fit in here now. Already used to the fast pace of the Semicon feel, the relaxed environment here in the Telco business ... feels draggy. Yeah sure they say it's urgent matter but the way they go about doing something "urgent" here is VERY SLOW! Oh man...! Alot of my work depends on others doing their work. Once this guy finishes task A, I look through it, analysis the task and then decides the course if the next guy should proceed with B or C. Well, this doesn't really tell the whole picture but it's just a general description of my dilemma. The thing is... finishing task A seems to take ages around here!!! Argh!

Ok enough of work angst. I just blabbered without realising it.

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How are you guys affected by the financial crisis around the work?

Me... Not so much. I'm just sad looking at the AMD stocks nose-diving everyday. It's basically dropped to the USD$2 now. I still remember the days when it was USD$40. It will be a miracle when that day comes again. You will see me selling this stock faster than Usain Bolt running the 100m! Oh man, the amount of moolah gone into thin air.... So much hope went into buying it but it only brought ... well nothing right now. I still count myself lucky and look towards the brighter side that this is all I feel about the crisis around the world now. Maybe later we'll feel the shit from this global recession.

Man... You won't want to open a bank now!

Hey, you people must be pretty excited that from today onwards, AirAsia does not charge for fuel surcharge!  That's right, NO FUEL SURCHARGE.  I was waiting for this to happen after the sharp drop in oil price (From $150 to $60+, which is a drop of more than half).

But... knowing AirAsia, there must be something behind their strategy.  Let's take one example route.  Since I have been monitoring PG-KCH-PG route for my CNY balik kampung trip, let's use this.

Before (With Fuel Surcharge):

PG-KCH:  (Friday afternoon flight)

• Air Ticket:  Steady at RM360
• Fuel Surcharge:  RM50
• Admin Fee, etc: RM31.50

KCH-PG: (Monday nite flight)

• Air Ticket:  Around RM250
• Fuel Surcharge:  RM50
• Admin Fee, etc: RM31.50

Total:  RM773

After (Without Fuel Surcharge):

PG-KCH:  (Friday afternoon flight)

• Air Ticket:  Steady at RM430
• Fuel Surcharge:  RM0
• Admin Fee, etc: RM31.50

KCH-PG: (Monday nite flight)

• Air Ticket:  Around RM308
• Fuel Surcharge:  RM0
• Admin Fee, etc: RM31.50

Total:  RM801

So, you remove the fuel surcharge of RM50, but add RM60 to the air ticket!  Yeah, very clever of you to deceive the unknowing people to pay more instead!

pyeong

I'm still here. I don't think I will leave my journal writing just yet. Even more so when I just found weeks ago that my sister is also blogging! Hahaha, talk about jumping on the bandwagon. Everyone is blogging now in Malaysia. I seriously doubt my Dad will start though... Hahaha, that would be an even bigger shock than finding out my Brother is on Facebook!

Anyway, I was writing this long post about my latest job development yesterday (it was another long day in the office) but it got deleted when my boss paid an impromptu visit to me. I hastily closed Firefox and lost all the contents. Crap. Well, after the long day yesterday, I've basically finished my report then and I'm quite free'd up this morning to write a new post. Another thing to point out, I did my job after lunch in Starbucks yesterday. Changing the environment really helped. It was less stressful working off that coffeeshop area and the soothing music they play is really nice. I didn't suffer any of the usual headaches that I've been getting lately (since they put me in charge of the WHOLE Southern!). I would want to do it again today, if I have the time before the meeting.

Okay work aside...

I really need to find myself another room to rent. Staying with my uncle in Hartamas now is getting irritating. I mean the place is quite nicely-placed, seeing how I'm just 20 minutes away from my office and roughly 30 minutes away from my usual futsal haunt. Everyplace I go to alot, is quite nearby and the environment around the place... well, IT is Hartamas, so no complains there. Trying to find an affortable place to rent in KL is really a tough thing. Most of the locals I know around here, don't really know much about places for rent to intro around... while the out-of-the-towners are just staying WAY too far to introduce a nice place around KL. I was thinking I should apply leave and run around looking at the notices in convinience shops like 7-11 and apartments. Weekends should allocated to maximum relaxation and doing absolute nothing-ness. Hehehe... My budget is RM250 max. Any higher and I would bleed.

I gotta thank my blog-lurker Chin Siong for willing to take in my resume. Hahaha, and here I thought I had Kulim Kias as the majority of my blog lurkers...

Benitez's tactics are too passive.

1. Liverpool play for Champions' League.  They'd rest players during the EPL weekend so that those star can play midweek for CL.

2. Liverpool would play their A-game when they are trailing their opponents.  Case in point:

• Against AC Milan for Champions' League Final 3 years ago: From 3-0 to 3-3.
  
• Against MU this season: from 1-0 down to 2-1 up.
• Today against Atletico Madrid: from 1-0 down to snatch a last minute penalty to draw 1-1.
• There are many others this season.

3. When Liverpool are a goal up, they'd lay back.  This made Liverpool lose against Tottenham last weekend, and drew against Atletico Madrid 2 weeks back.  They could've gone for more, but Nooo... they decide 1-0 is enough, let's defend.  They take out the lone striker, and put a winger in his place.  Then take out an attacking midfielder and put a defensive midfielder.

4. Keane can't play as a lone striker.  He can't handle the pressuring role.  Torres fits best here.  I think Keane's best role is a supporting striker or a playmaker, which is Gerrard's role.
   

5. Kuyt is not a natural winger.  He's not good as a winger!  Why can't Benitez put Pennant there!

6. Lucas loses the ball way too much.  Why still play him?!
   

If you have a Hong Leong Bank credit card like me, you'd be notified of the "Swipe for Cash" promotion. 

These are the wordings for the promo you see everywhere, and on their website:

• RM1 Cash Back with every RM50 swipe
• Swipe anywhere, anytime on any purchase
• Plus extra cash back: 5% at Tesco, 1% at Parkson
  
• RM1 million cash back to be given away
  

Their hidden terms and conditions (small print) are not mailed to you.  You'd have to search for it online on their website, and quite hidden too.  Here is the link after much clicking and searching.

Below are the T&C number and my comments in the bullet point.

5. Qualifying swipe is defined as a minimum retail spend of RM50 in a single receipt.

• You have to swipe a minimum of RM50.  If you swipe RM1000, you still get only RM1 cash back.

6. Cash back is awarded for each block of 5x qualifying swipes, capped at a maximum of 20x qualifying swipes per month.

• This means you only get RM5 when you swiped for 5-9 times, RM10 for 10-14 swipes, and so on.  You do not get any cash back if you swiped only 4 times.
• You swipe more than 20 times (>RM1000) but you only get max of RM20 cash back.

7. Split transactions shall be strictly disqualified.  Cardmembers with multiple transactions of more than one (1) time on the same day, at the same card acceptance channel/ terminal/ merchant shall be disqualified.

• So you thought "hmm... today i am buying a total of RM160 from Giant, so I should split the goods to blocks of RM50 and perform three transactions".  You're wrong.  They will disqualify your swipe for the cash back reward.

12. To participate, Cardmembers are required to register with HLB via SMS once within the Campaign Period to 36600 and type HLE<space>16-digit Credit Card No.

• Each SMS you sent is charged normal SMS rates, but each SMS confirmation you receive is charged RM0.30!  Even if you SMS-ed the wrong code or cc number, you are still charged RM0.30!!  Happened to me when I sent HLB instead of HLE!! Why the heck do they choose HLE as the code when their bank is called HLB!!

3. Both Principal and Supplementary Cardmembers are entitled to participate on an independent basis and any attempt to combine or merge their transactions will be disqualified.

• You have to SMS, and your supp card holder also has to SMS!  What cheats!  For HSBC Padini promo, we only need to send one SMS for both cardmembers.
  

22. The cash back shall be credited into the Participant’s credit card account for which the credit card account shall be the card used by the Participant for SMS registration within ten (10) weeks after the end of each calendar month and shall be reflected in the Participant’s credit card statement, itemized under "Swipe For Cash (Oct08)".

• Wow, they pay us back only 2-3 months after we swiped!  What kiam siap ppl.  HSBC gives us the Padini vouchers so quickly.

27. It is Cardmembers’ responsibility to notify HLB Card Centre in writing no later than 31 March 2009 for non-receipt of cash back. Failing which, the Cardmembers are deemed to have had received and accepted the cash back from HLB and all unclaimed cash back after 31 March 2009 will be forfeited.

• wah... if we forget after 3 months (so long) and didn't inform you, u mar quiet quiet keep our money?
  

29. The Participant shall personally bear and be responsible for ALL incidental costs relating to accepting the cash back including but not limited to any applicable taxes, insurance payments, registration fees, processing fees, handling fees and all other personal expenses whenever applicable.

• I donno wat these incidental costs mean, but I don't like it when they say I have to personally bear it.
  

This one is the shocker:

16. No Reward Points will be issued for ALL retail spend from the month of successful SMS registration by the Participants until Campaign Period ends.

• WTH!  If you wanna reward ppl for cash back, and take away the reward points, you're like telling us "you work for us, and we will treat you to makan KFC/McD everyday, but we won't pay your gaji instead".

no wonder they can run this promotion for 4 months!  -_-

I only see this useful when you purchase RM50 per swipe and not more.  Or you use for petrol only (cos no reward points are given anyway).

pyeong

I've just started to look for a new job right now. The economic doesn't look good and I just wanna get a feel of the market, just in case I need a new job soon. There is going to be a change in management and if I don't get what I asked for by this year-end review, I'm planning to jump ship. Sounds pessimistic huh? I just wanna be careful...

The trip back to my hometown over the Raya holidays was great. The amount of time for rest and just plainly do nothing is amazing. Ultimately I was bored shitless. As we get older, I realise there isn't much activities we can do as a group anymore. The usual thing I see our KulimKias do as a group nowadays is the usual BBQ/steamboat session and the casual futsal/badminton sessions. Quite different from when we were younger (and with less couplings), where we just went out and just do stuff. Ah... getting older...

The trip back wasn't really a total bore. I had a fun time playing with my nephews. They are getting heavy nowadays and I can't pick up Khai Sen anymore! It's really nice seeing them play around with each other and discovering new things everyday. Khai Yik finally got into the swimming pool for the first time then, him being suited up in a girl's bathing suit (don't tell him!). Khai Sen is still learning how to swim though and his parents are thinking about getting someone to teach him how to play badminton properly. Can't complain really seeing how I went throught just about the same badminton training last time too.

I'm already thinking of the next time I get to go back. Looks like the next long holiday would be the Chinese New Year one. Deepavali holidays is a little short to go home. By the time I've arrived in Kulim, it would be nearly time to head back again. I usually prefer to drive back most of the time, seeing how I can judge my arrival time and also I can stop by Ipoh at my own timing to visit Ah Ho and his stacks of anime! The bad side to this is the expenditure to drive back is just to high for me to maintain the frequency; RM100 for fuel, to and from and roughly RM60 for toll charges.