Mr. Disaster

My postings have been getting a lot more fewer and so much more far between these days. And this time I can't even blame P1 ... LOL! My connection seems to be pretty good right now so much so that I'm getting pissed with the slow speeds of my office connection. We use Streamyx in the office by the way. I'm being unfair, it's not that slow really but it just so happens my house connection is by far leaps and bounds faster than this :D

What's been happening in my corner of the world? Hmmm, let's see, nothing much really. Work has been consuming quite a bit of my time and I hardly get the chance to blog in the office like I used too. But work pays the bills so I just have no choice in that matter.

Christmas is also peeking just around the corner. Decorations are popping up all over the place though I haven't got mine up yet. I've got a Christmas theme all running around in my mind for this year. It's going to take some work cos I have to hand make everything but I'm really looking forward to it. Last year we didn't have a theme at all for Christmas unlike the winter wonderland theme we had in 2007.

That year both wifey and me decided to go a little crazy and I ended up carving out a miniature winter village scene under my Christmas tree. It took quite a bit of work but both of us were pretty happy with the final results. This year I have something way different in mind and wifey, who is one my most difficult critics (LOL!) has given the green light for my Christmas concept.

I'm not going to use much of the ready made decorations we have so most of the theme will have to be produced manually and that's where the real hard work comes in. It's a good thing wifey is always ever willing to help me out and to also make sure I don't make a mess of the house or hurt myself in the process ... LOL! I have this nasty habit of never failing to either slice my fingers, smash it with a hammer or piercing it with a screwdriver or something whenever I do work at home.

Just a week or two back, I was doing some handy work in the boys room which required some double sided tape, a piece of urmmm, door trim cover (don't know how to describe it) and a saw, yes a saw, which is just the perfect ingredients for a disaster waiting to happen when it comes to me. There I was, with everything at the ready, and I position the saw on that piece of door trim flap ready to cut away.

I start sawing and then I feel this sharp piercing pain on my thumb and blood starts gushing out. I wince in pain. Apparently I was holding the saw upside down and was actually sawing my thumb instead of the door trim. Now, don't even bother asking me how I achieved that magnificently brilliant feat. Like I said, when it comes to doing handy work at home, I'm like a magnet for disaster.

In fact, just yesterday I sliced a nice long section of my left index finger while trying to fix some wire meshing to the back yard fence to keep some darned stray cats out of my house. They've been causing some really nasty damage. I'll write a post about this soon. So, there I was nicely working away trying to cut the wire mesh when I also sliced my finger in the process.

I thought I could keep quiet about it and not tell wifey cos she always gets upset when I'm careless but unfortunately my little boy was in the kitchen and saw me slice my finger and so helpfully shouted out,

'Mommy, he hurt his finger!'

Darn that boy (LOL!) cos the next thing I know I get this, 'not again, you careless doofus' look from wifey ... hehehe ... Pretty soon, I'll be banned from handling all my tools! Hopefully by the time I'm done with my Christmas theme production I'll still have all my fingers intact ... LOL! I'll post some pictures of my Christmas production along the way with the actual completed picture being posted on Christmas eve like what I did for 2007. Hopefully it turns out okay ...
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Zooming Again ...

I'm a person who complains quite a bit when things don't go my way. But I'm also a person who gives credit where credit is due.

Most of you know about the recent P1 WiMax connection problems that have been plaguing me for the past one month or so. I was so stressed out just trying to get them to solve it that I even bitched about it a while back over here.

It just so happened that one of their ... urrrmmm ... I don't know what you call them, but one of those people who monitor online complaints about P1 happened to read that particular post and got in touch with me to try to solve my problem.

Now, I wasn't expecting much to be resolved cos we've all had dealings with customer service people before and P1 has also been having some bad press lately. But I was proven wrong.

I would like to like to thank Timothy Chong, their web specialist who so patiently listened to my rants (and trust me, they weren't very nice rants) and assured me he will do his best to get my connection up to speed, if at all possible, and he kept his word. Yesterday, I had an outdoor CPE modem installed in my house and now I'm back to getting the speeds they promised me, which is all I really wanted anyway.

I think the powers that be at P1 should hire more people like Timothy who are actually problems solvers instead of giving silly excuses and reasons like the rest of the P1 customer support people do. In fact half the time, they make it sound like it's the customers fault. He kept every promise he made to me even though I was a pain in the ass most of the time when dealing with him. For that I thank you very much Timothy.

My connection is excellent right now but I'm not holding my breath just yet. I'll give this outdoor CPE modem a month or so to see if it really is stable but at least I know that if anything were to go wrong, there is one person in P1 that I can rely upon to get things done.

Now the only other problem that I have, which is no fault of P1 is to go get myself a router ... siggghhh ... and that means forking out some good hard earned cash for it. And until I do, wifey and me are just going to have to be sharing internet connection time. Well I suppose I could just get a couple of xbox games and play while waiting for my turn at the PC. Oh crap, wait a minute, first of all I'd need to get an Xbox! LOL!
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That Time Of Year Again ...

The school holidays are just around the corner and I know for a fact that my sarcastic little younger boy is going to go up to wifey and say in his most 'adorable' little voice,

'Mommy, what are we going to do for the school holidays? Oh wait, I know. Nothing!'

That boy can be really sarcastic when he wants to. So this time around, I told wifey way in advance that I'm going to be taking a couple of days off from work once the school holidays start and think of some places to take those two brats. I could do with a little time off myself anyway.

Speaking of school holidays and all, I remember when I was a kid, I would look forward to the 7 week year end school holidays. I would rejoice on the last day of school and the moment I got home, I would throw my bag in some misbegotten corner and start enjoying every moment of the 7 weeks to come. Of course, that would start right after my afternoon nap, most of you know how much I enjoy sleeping ... LOL!

Most of the holidays would be spent with my cousins and we'd most of the time be outdoors in the garden (we had a huge garden in my childhood) getting into all sorts of mischief. In the evenings we'd be playing football, badminton or even hockey in that garden, I did tell you the garden was huge :D Then there are days we'd get on our bikes and head out to some park far away from home to meet up with friends for more outdoorsy fun.

And if I wasn't outdoors with my cousins or friends, I'd either be reading or sleeping. Did I mention I love sleeping? LOL! Back then, we didn't have the luxury of having 24 hour programing on TV. We only had two miserable channels and even then, the programmes would only start from somewhere around 5pm on weekdays, ends at around midnight and late noon on weekends which ends round 1.00 am (I think).

Pathetic isn't it? Unlike today when you can switch on that idiot box anytime of the day and there will always be something to watch (whether it's good or not is besides the point), not forgetting the amount of channels we have now that sometimes I can't even remember what the channels are. With TV being what it was back then it's no wonder we spent most of our holidays outdoors.

One thing I've noticed about kids these days compared to kids those days is that these days they're more of the indoor kinda kids. They don't spend much time doing some of the old fashioned things like rolling around in mud outside, playing football, climbing some tree, exploring some monsoon drain, flying kites (hey, I made my own kites to fly when I was young) or things like that.

Most of the time it's spent in front of the TV all day or playing some electronic game, not forgetting pestering their parents to take them somewhere (LOL!). I guess the fact that the world has changed quite a bit since I was young has played an important part into how kids spend their time now. Parents are also more afraid to let their kids wander around all on their own outside, what with all the loonies out there waiting to prey on little children.

The world is not as safe as it once was. In fact, I'm also not too keen on knowing the boys are out on their own somewhere. Even when the older boy sometimes goes for an evening run on his own around the park near our place and if he's even a minute, late both wifey and me will start getting a little concerned. And I have two boys, imagine if I had girls, I'd probably lock the doors and not even let them outside the house on their own ... LOL!

Besides, with all the distraction kids have indoors these days, there really is nothing excitable for them outside. The last time I took my kids to a forest reserve park, they weren't too happy about it ... LOL! At least I know not to include a forest reserve park on my list of places to take them for the school holidays. I'll bet they would be happier if I took them to an amusement center, the kind that has those racing simulation games. They simply adore places like that.

I don't envy wifey though, she's got a whole 7 weeks of thinking how to keep two hyper active boys occupied ... LOL! Actually, I wish offices would also close during the year end for 7 weeks along with the school holidays. That would be super awesome and if you all vote me to become supreme ruler of the world, I'd make that a reality. Yes, I haven't given up on my quest to be supreme ruler of the world ... LOL!
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Women Are From Venus, Men Are From Mars And Female Dogs Are From ... ???

Pebbles is not on speaking terms with me. In fact she's even staying away from me. She decided to boycott me for today all because I scolded her! Darn, that dog sure knows how to sulk ... LOL!

Ever since she figured out how to climb the stairs at home (she doesn't know how to come down the stairs yet though), she'll always be running up the stairs with me every time I go up to the room to get something. This evening was no different.

After my run (yes, I started running again which I will post about in another post soon), I decided to go up and shave. As usual, the moment I walk up the stairs, she'll be running enthusiastically up the stairs alongside me.

So there I was in the bathroom shaving and there she was as usual running around the room and fighting with her favourite soft toy. All of a sudden, I see her through the reflection of the mirror and notice that she's come to the bathroom mat, starts smelling it and then start to go round and round, a sign that she wants to pee.

Now, right in front of this bathroom mat is her 'toilet', so to speak, which is a non slip rubberized mat that we placed in the bathroom which she always uses as her toilet. So before she can squat and start peeing on the bathroom mat outside, I quickly shout at her,

'Pebbles, that's not your toilet!', admittedly I was a little harsh sounding (but not something she isn't used to).

The next thing I know, she runs to the corner of the bed, puts her head down on the floor and gives me this totally hurt look on her face. Normally when she's in her sulking mood, all I have to do is go and play with her and she'll be back to her happy and enthusiastic self. But today, the moment I went next to her, she gave me this look and ran under the bed!

God! That was a first. So I try the next trick which is to invite her up the bed, which is something that she loves doing. But not today, in fact she even goes further under the bed. Well, I'm not out of tricks yet, I try my last trick which is to pretend to open the room door to go which would ALWAYS have her scurrying out to follow me but even that didn't work.

She doesn't even budge from under the bed and when I look down at her under the bed, she turns her head away from me with a hrrruummppphhh look! Can you believe that? She snubbed me! That's when I decide to use my secret weapon, which is to shout for wifey,

'Honey, Pebbles is 'merajuking' (sulking) with me!' I scream from upstairs.

The moment wifey comes up into the room, she rushes out from under the bed and jumps into her arms ... Wifey gives me this 'what did you do to her look' and I told her what happened. She laughs at me and says,

'Aiyaa, don't you know you can't scold her'

Even when wifey put her on the bed, she doesn't want to come anywhere near me and just stayed on wifey's lap ... That dog can really sulk. She acts just like a human being whose feelings have been hurt and totally ignored me after that. No amount of molly coddling her seemed to work. She must really be pissed at me.

She has changed so much since the day she first came to stay with us. These days she's so much more pampered that she has me or my older boy feeding her from our hands. Yes, really, I actually feed her her dog biscuits one by one cos she won't eat it from her doggy bowl if I'm home.

But she is an adorable little thing that sometimes you can't resist being her slave. Yes Anny, you're right when you say that they're the masters and we're their pets ... LOL! They've got us wrapped around their paws.

At least she has finally made peace with me or at least I think she has cos she's back to following me around everywhere, which in her terms means she's forgiven me for scolding her. She's snugged cozily sleeping at my feet on the floor while I'm typing this post :D Phew, for a while there I thought she was going to sulk the entire day.

Are all females like this, ah? LOL! Oh, the pix below is one of my favourite old photos of her when she first came to stay with us :D

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More Takes

Work has been keeping me too occupied to blog and by the time I get home, I'm too tired not to mention too lazy to think up of a post. I've got a lot of things running around in my mind (such as fat burners) that I would just love to put down in my blog but I can't seem to compile them into some ounce of order long enough to write them down. All I managed to do these days is to just blog hop around, then catch an hour or two of TV and head straight to bed.

In fact the moment I hit the pillows I'm out in a flash so much so that wifey has a new saying for me which goes along the lines of:

'You Maggi mee last night la.'

Which in both our terms means that I fell asleep instantly, just like a packet of instant noodles, you know cooks instantly, falls asleep instantly? Still don't get? Never mind ... LOL! Yes, yes, we do come up with all kinds of funny sayings and weird association to things. (Note to my foreign readers - Maggi Mee is a brand of instant noodles over here).

Seeing as how I don't have very much to say today, I'll just revert to one of my usual short takes posting.

Take One.

My internet connection is still hopeless at the moment. The problems I've been having with P1 Wimax hasn't been resolved yet. If anything it's gotten worse with the connection slowing down to a crawl in the early evening onwards that a snail would look like Usain Bolt in comparison. Siggghhh!

They did send over a technician to my place and after troubleshooting the issue admitted that the fault lies on their end though I don't know what is being done to rectify the issue. I think the connection has deteriorated even worse since then.

It takes ages just to open a simple page. Half the time, both wifey and me will be staring at each other while waiting for pages to load. Fastest wireless broadband indeed! I'm seriously contemplating finding other alternatives.

I think hooking up my old Motorola Lifestyles dial-up modem would probably be faster! Come on P1, I'm waiting for an answer here to how you're going to solve this problem!

And talking about P1, I heard on the radio that their radio and print 'sudah potong' (cut already) campaign is being scrutinized by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for using the word 'potong' (cut) repeatedly.

According to them, 'When we say 'potong' ... it is very vulgar. We understand (that it refers to cutting the Internet line and changing to broadband), but for most people, 'potong' hints at the act (of circumcision).

While I am at present not liking P1 very much but good god you people at MCMC, don't you have any creativity at all? Do you think people are so stupid as to think that P1 is asking everyone to get circumcised? I cannot believe the mentality of the people we have in the government!

Take Two

In my line of work I meet all kinds of people. I have clients from quite a few industries and sectors. But there's one thing in common with all of them. They all think that they're the only clients we have.

Take for instance, today we had this walk in client who needed something done really urgent (aren't they always urgent!). I've never heard of a client who walks in and says that they need something done but to take my own sweet time! Ok, I'm drifting away from the real subject here.

Anyways, this fellow comes in and says he need a bunting done. Fine, no big deal. I ask him when he wants it? Right now, he says. I tell him politely that we're already in the middle of a scheduled print run and it can only be ready tomorrow the earliest. You think he understood? Not in a million years.

'But you can print it now, right?' he says.

'No, we're already in the midst of a print run'. I tell him.

'But you can do it now, right? he asks again.

'No, we have other work to complete, your job will just have to wait in queue.' I tell him.

'But you can start now, right?' he asks again.

'No, I have another job to complete now! I tell him.

'But my job urgent, you can start now, right? he says.

At this point I start to ignore him. It was either that or I start to scream at him for being a stupid idiot who can't understand the word 'No'. Why do all clients think that we open a business to solely serve them, that we don't have any other clients and that we must drop every other job instantly to do theirs? Morons, that's what they are sometimes!

Take Three

Urmmm, there really isn't a take three cos I think I've written too much already for takes one and two. Short takes indeed, I really got to go get a dictionary and find out what the word short really means ... LOL!
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