Halt on my blog

I don't think I will be posting any more blogs for a long time to come. I'm just not the type to vent my frustrations or air my views online, not continuously anyway. At most I'd probably just update things intermittently. I think I will be sticking to my good ol' reliable personal website from now on.

I'd like to thank those of you who have been reading my blog. Stay cool.


Zyen's Webyrinth

Ain't Nothing Gonna Break My Stride!

Break My Stride
Matthew Wilder

Last night I had the strangest dream
I sailed away to China, in a little rowboat to find ya
And you said you had to get your laundry cleaned
Didn't want no one to hold you, what does that mean? And you said...

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no
I've got to keep on moving
Ain't nothing gonna break my stride
I'm running and I won't touch ground, oh no
I've got to keep on moving

You're on the road and now you pray at last
The road beyond was rocky
But now you're feeling cocky
You looked at me and you see your past
Is that the reason why you're running so fast? And she said...

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no
I've got to keep on moving
Ain't nothing gonna break my stride
I'm running and I won't touch ground, oh no
I've got to keep on moving

Never let another girl like you work me over
Never let another girl like you drag me under
If I meet another girl like you, I will tell her
Never want another girl like you, have to say - oh!

Ain't nothing gonna break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no
I've got to keep on moving
Ain't nothing gonna break my stride
I'm running and I won't touch ground, oh no
I've got to keep on moving

Vampires in our midst

I heard a new term yesterday. Actually it's been around for a while but I only heard it yesterday for the first time. I never knew that it existed, but it sure explains a lot of things.

EMOTIONAL VAMPIRES

I'm not a lexicographer so I'm not going to attempt to launch into a long, verbose description about its actual meaning. I think the term in itself is pretty clear. It's basically referring to people who latch on to other people (like a parasite) and feed off their emotions, mainly because they're weak or so insecure that they need someone else to boost their own feelings, emotions or esteem.

I've often wondered why sometimes I feel so drained, or sometimes depressed, after spending time with certain people. It makes me feel less inclined to spend more time with them. I mean, of course there are some people we don't just get along well with, with difference in wavelengths or interests or even language fluencies, and we don't really like to hang around them. But this is different. My spirits feel lower than it had been before spending time with them.

I was talking with some friends last night and somehow the topic of conversation came to this. I suddenly understood what I've been going through with certain people. I guess these kinds of vampiric friends aren't quite good for the soul. I don't need people feeding off my emotions, especially when I need a picker-upper myself sometimes.

I don't think I'm an emotional vampire (so far I think I'm pretty self-sustaining) and I certainly hope I never become one. And I'm definitely going to be spending less time with these modern-time vampires. I'd rather you suck my blood than suck my soul.

Nestle Line Dance Competition

The day started off not quite the way I liked it. I had to get up early and - of all things - go to work. No, my boss is not a slave driver. She's actually had to postpone this appointment which was supposed to be held last Saturday (that's right - on Bangi competition day) in view of my competition but she could postpone it no further. But she's very understanding, and in fact picked me up from my office to go to the appointment place; and after lunch she dropped me off directly in front of the venue of my competition that day, which is at Berjaya Times Square Hotel. She even wanted to buy me some egg tarts and it was all I could do, telling her it was not necessary.

I had already been exhausted from the past week, not having enough sleep, and my body not fully recovered from the Bangi competition. I tried pumping myself up with some ginseng and some vitamin B complex.

It is the Finals of the Nestle Dance For Your Heart Fest... I was in the finals for both my individual (youth) and team (youth) categories. I had to do my individuals first - 2 dances (Cool Whip, and Cobra) before my team event.

The agenda was as such:

1st Dance
- Senior (51 years and above)
- Junior (15 years and below)
- Youth (16 - 29 years)
- Adult (30 - 50 years)
2nd Dance
- Senior
- Junior
- Youth
- Adult
Team
- Senior
- Junior
- Youth
- Adult

I'm sad to say that... I screwed up my first dance terribly. I knew it myself and I know a lot of people think that too. The moment I stepped off the floor, my coach (who was one of the judges at the competition, although she did not judge my event as I was one of her students) asked me if I was ok, because I looked really dead on the floor. I flew off to pump myself with even more ginseng and vitamin B, and my teammates had to calm me down. Helen actually made me sit down and she hugged me and told me to relax and breathe slowly. I was nearly in tears given my horrible performance. Thank God for such a supportive team, I don't know what I would have done without them.

As I warmed myself up trying to get into the right frame of mind for the next dance, to my horror I found my muscles absolutely fatigued and not responding to what I want. So one of my teammates (who was not competing), Hui Koon took me out of the noisy hall into a waiting area outside so that I could get my mind relaxed. Thank goodness there was time between my first and second dance for me to recompose myself. I did much better in the second dance, although it was not as good as I had done in the Bangi competition.

I had given up hope on my individual category, but I was determined that I would not be the one to bring my team down. One of my teammates, Catherine, was really sweet; she tried to help me calm my nerves during our warm-up session. I think she could really see how frazzled I was.

My team did spectacularly, especially Catherine, who really went out. Catherine has always felt she was one of the weaker ones because the improvement in her dancing over the past year was not as marked as the rest of us, but my coach said that during our show, she really went all out and she was really wonderful, in spite of a slight mistake. My coach says that Catherine is the real star of the day. I'm really glad for her because I know that comment means so much to her, and she really deserves to be in the spotlight for a change.

Dinner was not a very memorable event. You'd have expected a whole lot more for RM70. It's not even worth mentioning here. I'm going to skip this whole bit.

However halfway eating a tiny fruit tart (after stuffing myself happily with the miserable selections) I heard my name and another girl's called out and something about a rematch. I remember that I just dropped the half-eaten fruit tart and ran over to the emcee console asking him to repeat his announcement. He explained that another girl and I had tied for a placing and that we needed to dance again to decide the new placing.

"What, NOW?!" I asked.

"Yes" was his reply.

"I can't dance now! I've just eaten!"

Fortunately right at that moment Bronya (my coach) came up and so did the other girl, Vivian Khoo. Vivian also said that she's just eaten her fill and there's no way she could dance immediately. Bronya then told the emcee that they had to give the two of us time to digest and get warmed up.

"Is 10 minutes ok?" he asked.

"Obviously not! They need half an hour at least."

"But the prize-giving is supposed to be in 15 minutes. Unless we delay the prize-giving..."

"Yes, you have no choice."

Thank goodness for such a strong voice like Bronya. Otherwise I might be in the hospital until today being treated for appendicitis.

So we were given a half-hour preparation time, which Bronya advised the both of us touched up my make-up and at Bronya's advice, changed back into my black jeans (I had worn all black for my individual, and all white for my team) although I stayed with the white top. I was frankly annoyed at having to dance again and wished I didn't eat so much, but Catherine kept saying, "Think of this as a positive thing. You can get a placing!!!" She's such a lovely, positive person.

Of course, for me, I was saying silly negative things. We didn't know what placing I was tied for, so I kept saying, "It's probably for third. I know I'm not good enough to get first" to which everyone shushed me. But hey, I know that I was not at my peak performance and I was only being realistic.

We danced for about two minutes, and I really went all out. Apparently I did better than in my actual dance; I was in a better frame of mind, and my moves were much sharper. And thank GOODNESS they picked Cobra for the rematch! If it were Cool Whip, I'd have just DIED!!!! Honestly though, Vivian was a really good dancer in her own right. I think it was really, really close. She kept losing her wall though; I know because I have heard the song so many times that I know exactly when to do what. I just don't know if the judges knew that, because some of the judges weren't line dance teachers.

Anyway, prize announcement.... when it came to my category, for 3rd placing, at first the emcee wanted to say my name, but then changed to Vivian. And as he was about to read out the 2nd placing, all of us who were there in a huddle were praying and almost holding our breath, and....

"HOO SZE YEN!!!"

I think we may have screamed the whole place down. I know it's only second placing but for me it was really unexpected, given the terrible performance I gave and the lack of energy I had in my dancing. It's hard for me to dissect later, because we weren't allowed any videocameras in and I could not review my dancing. I kept asking my coach who although agreed my dancing was not at its best, but she said that a lot of other things count other than energy levels; things like technique and footwork. I must have practised Cobra so many times that in spite of my lack of energy, the technique and footwork just carried me through.

Well, first placing went to someone no one else had noticed on the floor. But obviously she must have been noticed by the judges because she won.

When it came to the team announcements, we were in an even tighter huddle. We knew we deserved to win, but we hoped the results were not biased as the other team in our category (there were only 2 teams then; there were supposed to be 4 altogether but 2 pulled out) was trained by the advisor of the said competition. The moment the results were announced, our screams must have been the loudest ever the whole hall has heard. We got champions! We got champions! WE CHAMPED THE TEAM EVENT!!!

I think the whole hall must have recognised me by then. I've been on the floor more often than any of the dancers. In fact, before finals results announcement, they were giving out top performer prizes for semi-finals, and somehow I just KNEW that my team would win our category. And sure enough, we won that prize.

I'm still on a high. I really am. I'm proud of my team. And selfishly, I'm proud of my achievements. I was and still am totally shocked that I could even get a placing in the top 3. I was probably one of the oldest in that category, and there are plenty of young and very talented dancers in my category which I thought I could not even hope to match or touch. I'm surprised I beat them, what more with my completely dismal Cool Whip (which I hope never to dance again). The girl who got top performer for semi-finals in my category didn't get any placing, which must have been quite a blow for her. But hah! I don't care! I won! I won! It's 2nd placing, but I still won something!

After that, all of us (except Ellyn) went to Qba at Westin Hotel to party and dance ourselves silly. For the first time in my life I actually got drunk, although I was still clear-headed enough to remember what I was doing, and able to keep time with my feet when one of my friends tested me by singing "We Will Rock You". I just couldn't walk straight, Bronya had to walk me. I remember throwing up, luckily before I got into the car. Ugh! Fortunately I wasn't driving; Hui Koon drove me home. I just rolled myself into bed that night. What a horrible experience. I never want to go through that again. I don't understand how anyone could drink themselves silly and throw up and get hangovers and ... repeat this every weekend.

Thankfully I didn't get a hangover the next morning, probably because everything got thrown up. However, I did have a pleasant Sunday with Bronya and Helen, by going to get my hair properly done. For the first time in my life, my hair actually looks manageable. No one could recognise me from the back. That messy thing that used to sit on my head is not there anymore!

Wow. What a weekend. I seemed to be finding some 'fans', and finding long-lost friends among the audience. A lady I met at the Dance Option competition who had recognised me from my friendly competition in Sg Way last year was there in Bangi, and she was there again in Nestle and came over to me both times to congratulate me. One of my neighbours who used to send me to school when I was a child called my mom up on Sunday to find out if I was the one who won the Nestle competition. And this is not a fan, but one of the most talented dancers from Penang actually told me that I did a good job, although I told her I think it was horrible, but thank you (this was just after the first time I did Cobra, right before my team event). FYI few people would actually stop to make comments like this, unless they really meant it. And my 'rival' from Bangi was there to watch (she didn't participate), and she was most encouraging whenever I went on the floor. She kept flashing me the thumbs-up and was very supportive with her claps and cheers.

I am still on a high. I really am!

ONE DAY EQUATORIAL LINE DANCE CARNIVAL 2004

It's over! It's done! I have finished the competition I have been waiting this whole year! (Well, a condensed version of it, anyway)

This competition had invited a famous line dance group Masters In Line to judge the competition. The team consisted of 3 men and 1 woman; all very talented dancers and superb choreographers.

My category, Open Individual - Amateur, had a total of 6 participants. There were semis to go through, during which there are 2 heats per dance (3 persons per heat); and we have to dance the same dance twice. First time during our own heat, we danced the full song; second time everyone dances on the floor together for about 1 minute.

It was a real joy to hear that I made it to the finals! I had been soooooo dreading that I would be eliminated!

I gave it my all and everyone said I did really well. The results finally came out after dinner:

I got SECOND placing!!!!

Everyone was telling me that they expected me to get first though... my line dance teacher Teresa (who was furious that I didn't get first - she kept saying the judges were cock-eyed); my captain Mei Ling (who really thought I did the best on the floor); the girl who did get first was good, but even she herself said she thought I would get first. To be honest, I don't know what to think because I obviously did not watch her dance when I was dancing on the floor at the same time, so there's nothing for me to compare to. It was my second dance that impressed everyone; a dance called Cobra to the song Jumpin' by Liberty X (very funky). I think my first dance set me back - a dance called Country 2 Step to the song I Just Want My Baby Back by Jerry Kilgore (typical country music). Helen said my variations were too repetitive to the point of being monotonous. But my Cobra was apparently the best on the floor.

Anyway, second placing isn't so bad... I got a cash voucher of RM150, a free night's stay at Equatorial Bangi, and a food hamper!

A lot of people have also come up to me and said that I have improved tremendously since last year. Last year, I went into the Bangi comp alone and unguided; I made it to the finals, but I failed there of course, having no training and no foundation. This year, I surprised everyone by giving it a very hard fight to the top in an open category. I surprised even myself. Only the day before I was praying not to get fourth place (I thought there were only four competitors in my category then). Only that very morning I was struggling to complete a particular step in Cobra without teetering and falling over. And the whole day while hyperventilating, I was praying that I don't revert back to what coach calls my 'sotong' arms (which was a dominant problem in my dancing before this) under stress.

The most important thing to me is that my own coach Bronya said I deserved first place. That means more to me than the placing I actually got, because she's not an easy person to impress. During training, she is of course very encouraging but she's not the type to mince her words or give false flattery. She has gotten angry with the team before for screwing up, and she has told us off many times. Whenever I practise my individual dances, she yells often at me (unsurprisingly). But competition time, she is the most supportive person I could ever find. She won't give us false hopes, but if she thinks we deserve to win, then she'd say so.

All I'm praying now is that with all these flattery, I don't get too big for my dancing boots. Hehehe.

As for the team, the WILD WEST BABES got.... FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!

Which we obviously DESERVE!!!!!!!!! We beat the team that beat us in the Dance Option competition!!!!!!!

Other noteworthy winners: Yvonne from my team was the champion for her category , 45 years and above, whereas Bronya shared top placing in the Open Individual - Advanced and Professionals with another teacher. Yvonne is of course ecstatic, as we are for her. Bronya on the other hand, is not too happy with the placing. It does sound rather ridiculous to have tied placing in a competition like this. It seems as if the judges merely submitted the marks and the tally was used directly for placing, instead of deliberating on it for a while before deciding who the champions are. Personally, I think she deserves first placing on her own. She's a wonderful dancer, and the only problems she had was forgetting the steps (very common - in fact all the people in her category did, considering the stepsheet is not a very easy one to follow. Heck, I forgot my steps quite a often during Cobra in my semis although I managed to cover them up) but she managed to cover them up. No one else could touch her sharpness and fluidity.

Well, it was a great night... hope for another comp like this next year!

PS: Special thanks to Wai Seng for taking the trouble to travel all the way to Bangi to watch and support!

D-Day!

It's competition day! I know it's only a one-day carnival but still getting jittery about it. Odd. Usually I'm calm right until JUST before I go on the floor. But yesterday I dreamt about the competition which of course, was a pretty silly dream because it had infused both today's and next week's competition.

The carnival is having unnecessary semi-finals (with almost all categories having only 4 participants, what do you need semis for?!?!?!) and I really hope I don't get knocked out. The world won't come to an end if I do though. But even if I do make it to the finals, I have to dance so many times - 6 in total! 2 dances per individual category (semis + finals) and my team dances (2). Fortunately there are NO semis for the team category. Considering there are only two teams competing....

Wish me luck!!!

My major complaint

Finally, here's the major complaint I want to make:



As you can see in the voucher above, the deal seems to good to be true... 50% discount at Club Med Malaysia! Talk about a holiday that's sooo worth it!

Given the many events in my life, I was obviously not free for a holiday the past few months. After passing the half-year mark, I figured that I might as well use the voucher for a much-needed break and October/November seems like a good time. It would be monsoon season, but my friend assured me that Club Med would still be open then. They would just close the beach, and anyway Club Med has its own lagoon which would be calm in spite of the wild seas.

Although the voucher stated a 50% discount, when I checked the Hong Leong Bank MTV Visa card webpage, they only listed 10% discount for all Asian villages during normal season, so I decided to call up to confirm the discount, and maybe even make bookings if possible.

Here's what I found out during the phone conversation, with the girl who sounded rather snobbish:

No, your voucher is no longer valid. Club Med has an allotment of the number of vouchers redeemable and we have already achieved the limit. Your voucher is not guaranteed redeemable.

May I know what that number is?

That's P&C.

Well... then am I entitled to any other discount?

No.

The conversation ended after the customary polite Thank-yous.



Let's have a look at that voucher again, shall we?

Did they state there is a limit to the vouchers redeemable, or some kind of first-come-first-serve basis? No.

Did they refer to any other external terms & conditions? Not indicated.

When does the voucher expire? 31st December 2004.



I should've known better. A deal that seems to good to be true always is. And I'm not even entitled to the 10% discount!

The fact is, the voucher was grossly misleading. If they really only accept a certain number of redeemable vouchers, it should have been stated. As it is, there were no other T&C written. How can I read the fine print if there is none to begin with?

Even printing something as generic like "The management of Club Med reserve the right to reject the redemption of vouchers subject to terms and conditions" or some other similar nonsense would vindicate them. As it is, now it looks like a petty trick on their side to reduce the possible losses incurred from the number of people making use of the discount offered, especially with the refusal to disclose the number they claimed to have alloted. For all we know, no one's been allowed to use that 50% discount. Giving out discount vouchers like these and then refusing to honour them seems like false advertising, although technically it isn't advertising. I feel somewhat cheated.

I had been soooooo looking forward to a Club Med holiday. Now, I'm not sure if I'll ever want to go to Club Med Malaysia in the future. Maybe to one of their foreign clubs, but I have great reluctance in going to the local one. I have lost faith in their marketing team.

Line Dance Competitions

Just a quick post about my upcoming competitions:

ONE DAY EQUATORIAL LINE DANCE CARNIVAL 2004
Date: 14th August 2004
Time: 4pm onwards
Venue: Hotel Equatorial, Bangi
Ticket price: RM95 inclusive of dinner and dance party (I think there are some cheaper tickets allowing entry to competition venue, excluding the dinner and dance party, but I can't remember how much)
Categories I'm competing in: Team, Individual Open - Amateur

NESTLE DANCE FOR YOUR HEART FEST : FINALS
Date: 21st August 2004
Time: 4pm onwards
Venue:
Ticket price: RM70 inclusive of dinner and dance party (tickets running out quickly)
Categories I'm competing in: Team - Youth, Individual - Youth



Anyone interested to come support me??? I know the tickets are quite pricey though, and if you're not into line dance, the dance party might be rather boring for you. Anyway will update the outcome of the comps. Oddly the above two comps are not highlighted in their respective websites.

Mom & Dad are coming back!!!!

My parents are coming back tomorrow! They called home and said they will arrive in KL late evening. Finally. I was really worried about them.

I have to work this Saturday again :( This time going to Sg Besi. My boss is going though, so that means she'll be doing the driving... hehehe... then after that it's a full day. Meeting some of the others up at Midvalley for dinner and I have some plans before that, which means I won't be home at all so I'll be lugging my office laptop around the whole day. Sigh....

I have a major complaint to make but I'm way too tired to type it tonight... I slept at 3am last night and the whole day consisted of my trying to make it through.... a full night of practice again so I had no chance to nap. Thank goodness we had an early night! I'm hitting the sack now!

A dream home and a comic book

I went with Wai Seng today to check out some condos in Mutiara Damansara, possibly as investment properties. First we checked out the Ritze Perdana which had two kinds of units: a studio, and a one-bedroom unit. I didn't quite like the studio unit, mainly because the kitchen and bed area share the same room which means any fumes from the kitchen will travel all the way to the bed. The one-bedroom unit was perfect for a single person to stay. The only problem with it was.... it's a commercial property!!! Bad idea... the assessment would be so much higher, and we won't be protected by the house owner's laws. It's such a pity. If it were a residential property, I'd get one, even if not to rent out; I wouldn't mind staying there.

Then we had a look at the Armanee terrace, which is a duplex unit. It was so lovely!!! Each unit comes with a small garden outside the dining/living area. On the lower floor, there's a small wet & dry kitchen, with a tiny dryer area beyond the wet kitchen; a dining area; a room (which can be used as a maid's room or a storeroom) and a bathroom. Upstairs there's a master bedroom with attached bathroom; 2 bedrooms with connected bathroom; and a lounge. I was already imagining the functions of each room that I could use... the furnishings... the wonderful privacy it offers...

The problem, of course, was that I simply could not afford it. :'( As it is, I can't even afford to buy my own computer, how could I possibly buy such a posh condo? The maintenance fee itself would kill me!

Sigh...

Well, on a brighter note, I managed to buy another FoxTrot comic book. Yup... I'm a major FoxTrot fan. I'm trying to collect all the anthologies that have ever been published, which is quite difficult as there isn't much import of these comic books. I have yet to find someone else who's as major a fan as I am. Everyone else loves comics like Garfield (yech) and Peanuts (borrring) and Archie (eh???). I mean, I know there are some people who enjoy FoxTrot, but not as mad as I am enough to buy all the books and to subscribe to the online comics website just to get my daily dose of the comic... in fact, paying subscription to be able to get the archives! I suppose I'm just the weird one who's able to appreciate the comic...

Saturn in my Saturday

Saturn:- Ill health, much expenditure, trouble from public, complaints, bad luck, false accusations, litigations, loss of money find property, open enemies. Source: http://www.mypurohith.com/Astrology/Astrology12.asp

Today started with some SMSes from my sister. My parents were on the way to Heathrow airport when their passports were stolen. My sister informed me they were making a police report and she asked me to get the Malaysian embassy address & phone number in London. I called her to find out what happened... apparently my father didn't want to keep the passports in the briefcase in case it got stolen, so he put it in his coat pocket instead. And they had noticed a couple of Indians near them and during the train ride had actually bumped into them which they thought nothing of for it was rush hour, and the Indians got off the train before my parents did. But then they found the passports missing and they had even gone all the way back to my sister's residence to see if they had left them behind but even my sister said that she had seen for herself that my father had put the passports in his coat.

Of all the places to keep them - in a coat pocket! In London - where the pickpockets are professionals!

So naturally my parents' return had to be delayed, as they had to miss their flight home. It was night time when this happened, so my parents can only go to the embassy tomorrow morning but I'm afraid that they may not be open as it is weekend. Now they have to make some temporary travel documents and can only come back on Monday or Tuesday.

How wretched!!!! I'm really worried about them, but the important thing is that they didn't get hurt or anything like that.

To add to my misery... I had to work this morning, on a Saturday when I'm supposed to be resting, and recovering from my very taxing and stressful week. I was slapped with a parking fine as I had overshot the time on my ticket. I went to do a demonstration at a potential customer's office and they kept me so long and when I went back to my car there was a RM30 fine... :'( Sigh. Now I have to go appeal on Monday.

Wretched!

And then I had to read the front page of today's papers....



The fine that was slapped on my car


Horrifying front-page news!

Zunishu - Scam at my doorway

I was home early today, as my afternoon appointment had cancelled on me. I was all set to catch up on my tasks, when at about 5pm the doorbell rang.

There was a Chinese girl there who insisted that she was not doing sales and is merely doing a promotion on behalf of the company. So I went over to the gate (I didn't open it; it's an automatic gate) where she talked to me between the bars of the gate. The company was celebrating its 10th anniversary, and they were going to have an exhibition in Midvalley on 15th August. She said she's from Kelantan; mixed Chinese and Siamese blood; of Hakka dialect; studied in KL; can't speak English, only Mandarin and BM, and picked up Cantonese while here in KL. We were conversing in Mandarin and then BM (my Mandarin is extremely limited). Anyway then she showed me some envelopes given out by her company, and she said each house is entitled to two, and showed me some samples filled up by other people where some had just a "Thank You" which means they get nothing, and some had won things like a Milo tin or a Darlie toothpaste (which she claimed will be delivered to their doorstep). Anyway she said for every envelope opened, she gets RM2. Taking pity on her, I agreed to open for the heck of it, and I told her that if I win anything she can have it, which of course she said no, she can't take. Already I was wondering which stupid company would go around delivering practically worthless things like that directly to people's doorsteps.

My first envelope had a "Thank You" and then she insisted on my opening another envelope. That also had a "Thank You", but it was printed nicely in blue on glossy paper (as opposed to printer-printed normal coloured paper in the earlier samples) with a red stamp "Special Bonus" at the bottom. She seemed excited but said she didn't know what exactly it was and asked if she could come in to my house and make a call.

Red alert! There was no way I would let a stranger into my house - not after all those news stories I've heard over the past years! Instead, I took my handphone out and I made the call (FYI, number was 016-2800320). The guy I spoke to insisted that I passed my phone to the girl, so I reluctantly did, but I had my keys in hand ready to open the gate and grab her if she ran off with my phone.

Well, she didn't but here's what happened next. On the phone, the guy sounded excited as well, and told me to pass the phone to the girl so that he can tell her what to tell me. She spoke for a very short while (under a minute) before passing the phone back to me.

She was excited - too excited, in fact. Kept shaking my hand and said congrats again and again. Apparently I was now entitled to a lucky draw which I can win a Honda City. There are 5 prizes in all, ranging from a Jaguh motorcycle to the car. As she prattled on and on, I couldn't help thinking, she gleaned all this from a conversation of a few seconds on the phone?

Then she spotted her friend who was also doing the same rounds and shouted for her to come over, saying I had this special bonus ticket. As her friend came over, speaking in Mandarin/BM, she also appeared overexcited, and shaking my hand with congratulations, and the only words that came into my head was, "What well-planned act!" The problem was their execution. They were far more excited than I was. The second girl asked me why we weren't sitting inside talking comfortably, and all I did was just smile and said no.

They were going on and on... using psychological tactics like, "You could win RM12,000! Have you ever held RM12,000 in your hands??" and comparing other contests like KFC's scratch-and-win contest. Something about having my picture taken if I won the car and how I'd be in all the newspapers. Psychological tactics that have no effect on me; in fact they repel me. I wondered what trap they had set for me, and finally I cut them short and asked, "So what next?"

What next? Well, here's what they want me to do. They want me to go for the draw, but I must have RM2,800 in hand that must be paid no matter what prize I drew. So that's the trap. My hesitation (and lack of enthusiasm) must be obvious, as they kept saying things like how there are only 10 of these bonus tickets and I'm the second one to get it, and it's hard to get, etc etc etc etc. They showed me printouts of previous year's winners. They told me that any hesitation would cause someone else to win the grand prize. All I could think of was my PC in the house, which I was using to surf online before the rude interruption. So I backed away and said that I'm going to make a phone call to my father (I conveniently left out that they were not even in the country) and again the second girl implored me not to, quoting some supposed earlier case of a woman doing the same thing as I am and it so happened that her husband arrived home and chased off the reps, and one of their neighbours drew the winning prize instead and that unfortunate couple had an argument because of the lost prize (I wonder how they knew about that). As I reiterated my wish to call, she asked me, "Don't you have any power?" I said I had no money. As I made a move to go back into the house again, she implored me again not to call, at which I lost my patience and snapped at her. Before this, we had been conversing in Mandarin/BM but at this point, because of my anger, I switched into English and said in quite a hard voice, "Don't rush me."

Of course I didn't make a call to my father. I ran a quick search online and dug up a few nasty truths. I was not foolish enough to just rely on the company website; I have always made it a habit to research external sources.

I kept them waiting while I looked up some more articles, before I finally went back outside and told them I was not interested. That's when the girl said, "I told you not to call your father" and I retorted that I looked up on the Internet about something like this, and I said again I was not interested. So she helplessly said that then she can't say anything anymore, but I'm missing an opportunity of a lifetime, to which I said that I have no regrets. So thank you for your time, yadadadada... and finally the two girls walked off.

I'm not going to summarise what I feel about this scam. You readers are intelligent enough to know. Scams like these prey on greed and hope of getting something without paying for it, or paying only a nominal sum. Just like get-rich-quick schemes. I'm surprised that this company is getting away with it, every year.

The only trap I had fallen into was pity for the girl. I know that there are some genuine door-to-door promoters out there, and I feel sorry for these kinds of promoters because it's a tough job with little reward. I did sense a scam from the start, but I think it was curiosity which made me play along with their little game.

Here are some links you can read:

http://ad.contentzone.com/srv/view?site_id=28211
http://www.geocities.com/kafa25/zunishu.html

The company website did mention the contest:
www.zunishu.com.my/

My new office :þ

I don't like my new office.

 

No, I don't mean I don't like the company. I don't mean I don't like the people. I don't mean I don't like the work.

 

Ok, maybe it's not quite accurate to say I don't like my new office. In fact, the office is quite nice. It's quite small, but it's done up in a simple manner. There are four desks placed touching each other in the middle of the room where the staff sit facing opposite each other. The windows are covered with light blue curtains to give a very cool atmosphere (as opposed to my boss' room which is covered with beige curtains). I sit in the direct path of the air-cond which blows coldly at us. There is no Internet access, but I connect via dial-up from time to time to retrieve and send emails. Simple, but good enough.

 

What I don't like is the washroom!!!

 

The office resides in an office block opposite Plaza Pudu, and all the offices on the same floor (not very many, maybe 4-5) share the public washrooms which are locked and only the said offices hold the keys. The washrooms won't win any awards, but they're clean enough.

 

The problem is, THERE IS NO HOSE!!!

 

I won't go into details. But let me just say that I have to be very careful with what I eat here. All the pity, because there are plenty of good food around here. And with a stomach like mine which digests food within the hour, I can't afford to take any chances. Ugh... well, I guess it would be pretty much like in UK. They don't have hoses there too. They clog up the toilets with plenty of toilet paper.

 

I don't know how the people here can stand it!

Monday night ramblings

I thought that practice would be cancelled tonight as coach was taking a holiday on her birthday, but no, there was no escape. A dismal showing of 4 of us turned up. Sigh. I thought I could have the night off too.

I've been so tied up with work and practice that I've forgotten what it's like to have free time on my hands. I simply cannot remember what it's like to just stay at home and watch the idiot box. In fact, I have not watched TV for ages. I'm so used to being out of the house that throw me one night with nothing to do, I'll still won't be clicking the remote; I'd find a way to get out somehow.

My body clock has adjusted as such that I simply cannot fall asleep before 1-2am. I can put myself in bed but that doesn't mean I will get any shut-eye. Even when I was sick the past few days, I still didn't fall asleep until 1.30am. It's very unusual for me to be home on a weekday before midnight, which is why I'm up typing this odd entry for my blog, eating home-made yoghurt which I made last week.

At my feet I have boxes of soap and candle-making basics which are almost a year old, bought last year when I was heavily interested in these handicrafts. I still am but I never got around to trying my hand at candle-making. I used to buy soapbase from a craft shop but I never went there again after I was given a very sarcastic answer at a time I was purchasing more than RM1,000 worth at one go (I asked if I could get a 'bulk discount' and all I got in return was a sarcastic "No, our prices are already at their lowest"), and besides that their soapbase was not well done; all slimy and soft and gooey. My last attempt at making soap from scratch was a failure and I've never gotten around to trying it again. My excuse is that I'm waiting for my aunt to come back to KL so I can get more advice from her.

I can't remember a weekend when I actually have energy to practise these crafts. I'm looking at my calendar and I see competition after competition. If I'm not at a competition, it's a party. If it's not a party, then I'm out with my friends. The rare occasions I actually get to stay home, I just take the much-needed rest. Ever heard the phrase, "I'll catch up on all my sleep the first year I'm dead"?

I have a sadly neglected website which I update only every 6-12 months. I have my team website in planning stage and is half-built but I have yet to complete it even after 2 months. I have the ideas but not the energy or time to do them.

I have 3 medium-sized boxes full of items I brought home when I graduated 3 years ago, which are still under the staircase collecting dust. Every long weekend or long break I promise myself that I will actually sort the stuff out, but I never get around to it.

I have 3 tables full of my things that are now spilling on the floor, which I also promised to clean up every time there was an upcoming long weekend, but they suffer the same fate as the abovementioned boxes.

I have 2 wardrobes and a cupboard full of clothes which I wanted to sort out. I did reorganise them earlier this year, but it's surprising how quickly they fall into disarray again. I have already set aside a small pile of clothes to be given away at the bottom of one of the wardrobes, but I think there is more that need to be added to that pile. My friend told me that she read in a magazine that if there are clothes in your cupboard not worn for more than 6 months, then it's time to get rid of it. That probably means one entire wardrobe of mine has to be given away... since most of the clothes in there belong to my sister who is enjoying herself in UK and might not come back for years.

I have some repertoire which I badly need to run through on my electone but I have not found the time to do so. I have a software exercise to try before my demo on Wednesday but here I am postponing it by typing this darn blog!

And yet in spite of it all... let it be known that I would never change my lifestyle for anything!

What a weekend! :)

Friday was full of mixed events. I went for an appointment on Friday morning only to find that the person I was supposed to meet had already gone out for a meeting. Argh! It was a beautiful wet morning that would have been lovely to sleep in for a while! Instead I was forced to drive all the way to Bangsar and search for parking space AND pay for it. And have my brakes nearly fail me which almost gave me a heart attack.

I was appraching the traffic lights near the Bangsar Shopping Complex heading home when they turned yellow, so I slammed on the brakes. Under normal circumstances, they'd usually stop just in time but instead, what I got was a loud screeching noise and my car slid smack in the middle of the yellow box. How embarrassing! I quietly went into reverse and placed my car back behind the white stop line, and until the next light change, I seemed to find my fingernails quite interesting. I think the road was extra slippery there, because later when I tried the brakes again, they were working as usual.

I met up with Majidah for lunch which was really nice because I hadn't seen her for AGES. She's got this great job that she really likes and I'm really glad for her because in the last one she was not appreciated at all. Of course KL traffic is a bane to her but isn't it for all of us? ;)

Friday ended with a surprise dinner for my coach, Bronya whose birthday is on Monday and she was actually quite annoyed because she was having a dance party on Sunday (today) and she had a number of things to do that night, and now was delayed by our dinner party. Initially we had planned to get her to Modesto's in Hartamas where the entire team would be waiting, so Helen had told Bronya that she was arranging a dinner just between herself, Bronya, and me after our belly dancing class so it would come off as a real surprise for Bronya when she arrived at the restaurant. Instead Bronya had said she has only time for a quick dinner before she rushed off to do her chores so we got the team to meet us at the usual mamak place where we always had our dinner after class. In spite of her annoyance I think she was quite pleased, when the team brought out the cake and some of us gave her presents. Anyway after a while she had to run off to her studio to prepare the items for Sunday's party, and she refused any of our help. I planned to go there anyway to help her, and 2 other girls agreed to as well, but in the end I had to back out because I was really not feeling well and Bronya wouldn't hear of my staying up to help her. Anyway the other 2 girls did go so they managed to finish up by 3.30am instead of her initial projected 6am.

Saturday I felt better so I went to help Bronya shop for some more items for the party and ended with a late dinner. Also, for the first time in my life, I actually gargled with salt water. Ugh! What a horrible aftertaste! But it really does help relieve the sore throat. That's what I'm going to do from now on. And I was also forced to drink some herbal tea (which was actually quite nice), from a shop which had bowls ready for you to drink from, and Yvonne (a team member) gave me a packet of Ho Yan Hor tea as well. And I also drank one box of Marigold Vitamin-C enriched white grape juice by myself. I went to the washroom countless times that day.

Sunday was dance party day! It's actually a graduation party. Bronya choreographs all her dances and groups them into CD1, CD2, and CD3 and anyone who's completed learning all the dances in a particular CD will graduate into the next level. Personally, I think it's a great motivating factor especially for those who aren't very good dancers but they try so hard to master the dances. I'm not a regular class member, but I do attend some of her classes which are held just before our practices. It turned out I knew all the CD1 songs and on Saturday I had jokingly asked to graduate, and Bronya really printed a cert for me and actually handed it to me during the graduation ceremony which was really sweet of her. And each graduant gets a small gift too (which was what I was helping to shop for, and wrap later), which made it all the more generous. Well, of course, I did pay for the ticket to the party but it was my choice to do so in the first place, and I had paid for that ages ago. I was the one who took the longest time choosing the wrapped gift to take... because I knew what some of the items were! And what I wanted was not there!!!! :'( But what I got was quite nice too.

I also performed at the party, which admittedly was not quite up to mark as we didn't really have much time to practise beforehand. All in all it was quite enjoyable for me, mainly because most of the time I was on the floor dancing.

Great weekend! Spent on personal time, I mean. I was supposed to learn up on some of my work software.... and I hadn't! Now I have to chase time tomorrow!

And I'm recovering really fast, too. I don't remember ever getting over a severe sore throat this quickly, i.e. within 3 days. I've been pumping my body with Vitamin C every day. I think that's what I'll do from now on whenever I get sick. And saltwater for the inflamed throat!

Reliable Friends / Unreliable Friends

I woke up this morning with a severe sore throat that seemed to stretch all the way to my nose. I only had a mild sore throat last night and this morning's severity took me by surprise. Although I was awake, I simply couldn't get up and finally rolled out of bed at nearly 10am. A perfect ending to a night without electricity (my area was hit by a blackout. Bleargh!).

 

I SMSed my friend, Bronya, an aerobics instructor + nutritionist, who advised me on what to take... lots of water, fresh fruit juices, and plug myself with 3000mg of Vit C. Unfortunately I personally had only multivites so I dug into my mom's stores and among the many bottles came up with a full bottle of Vit C.... which expired exactly a year ago! I'm surprised it hadn't sprouted legs and run off when I opened it....

 

To cut a long story short, during lunch hour Bronya passed me some effervescent Vit C which my 'second mother' Helen had bought for me the moment she found out I needed some.

 

I've almost never had such reliable friends. I probably have only one or two others whom I could count on to help me like this, with or without me asking. I've always been independent all my life and I'm so used to doing things for myself that it seems quite unusual to me that people are actually willing to go out of their way to help me. Well, these two are of course among my best friends so of course that's a contributing factor. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to do the same for them too, and for my other best friends.

 

---

 

On another note, I received an SMS from another friend telling me to meet up on Saturday. When I asked the time/place, he simply replied by asking if I'm free on Saturday evening. I was already annoyed that he was telling me to meet up on Saturday, and I shot back by saying that I cannot reserve my entire evening hanging around waiting for a meeting and that I need to know the time/place to see if I'm free. Of course he got sarcastic with me in his next reply and gave a vague suggestion, to which I simply said that I will let him know later if I could make it.

 

I hate it when people simply assume that I'm free to meet up and that I'm dying to meet up with them! It's as if I have nothing better to do than to hang around on a Saturday night hoping to find some activity to relieve my social vacuum. It's as if they have no respect for my time.

 

People forget that I've filled up my time with all kinds of activities - although it's mostly with dance practice now, previously I had language classes, dance classes, gym; my friends make fun of me by saying they need to make appointments with me just to meet up with me. I've already tried to cut down and I generally keep my weekends to rest now. I used to fill up my weekends too but my schedule was slowly wearing me down, and I was advised by a well-meaning friend to reduce or I will get burnt out.

 

I suppose I was a bit short unnecessarily with my friend. But no, I don't regret it. I hate it when they make vague plans! It always happens with this bunch. They'll say, "Let's meet up this Saturday", and they get wishy-washy with where to go, and when they do finally agree, everyone else arrives 1-2 hours late. There was once where I was told that everyone was meeting up at A&W at 8pm, and so I went there only to wait... and wait.... and wait. Well, at least one other friend had also arrived early and was there to keep me company but by 9.30pm I had to leave and the others still hadn't arrived.

 

It's all very well to arrive fashionably late, but you know, I could do better things with my time than to hang around in an increasingly irritable mood. The least they could do was call.

Dance Option's competition on July 18th

Looks like I struck a nerve with some people with my last post! Sandra sweetie, thanks for your support about my line dance competition messes. Received some semi-good news. The Bangi comp which was supposed to be completely cancelled is on again with the proposed 1-day friendly event structure. I can't remember the proposed name for the event but I do know that it has the word 'carnival' in it. Somehow brings to mind circuses and trapeze acts. Anyway I guess our practice is not a total loss as we can still go into this comp to try to win the cash prize to recoup our finances. Hope we win, anyway. The bad news is that there will be no more competitions organised by Bangi in the future. A lot of people are sorely disappointed, I heard especially this talented dancer called Azira. The Bangi comp has only been held in the past 2 years, and for both years Azira won the amateur prize (only eligible to non-instructors, must participate in the maximum number of events in the comp, i.e. 4), and she needs to win the 3rd year running to take home the Equatorial cup. This year doesn't count as a comp, and without anymore competitions in the future, the poor girl cannot take the cup home. I can only imagine how she's feeling. It must be an incredible letdown after gearing herself up for this year. And now because of some screw-up that she's not in control of, she cannot take the cup home which she has been eyeing since the first year she won the amateur prize.

Anyway.... for those who didn't know, there was a latin/ballroom dancing competition on Sunday (July 18th) with a line dance category. My team entered the line dance group category.

The competition was pretty badly organised, with the programme released only on that day itself. We were told registration is from 9am onwards, so two of my teammates and I arrived by 9.20am, only to wait until 10am before a booth was finally set up. The events were split into the day and nighttime events... and our category was ONLY at night! A bit annoyed to find out that we had wasted our time. Deprived us of precious sleep...

So anyway we went home and zzz before coming back by 5pm only to wait around and wonder when our turn would be.

There are only 3 teams in our division (each team had to submit 2 dances). One of the teams had very cheerleader-like routines which would have been good if they had been more polished. Another team was from the PJ dance academy which had an interesting paso doble-style choreography for one dance and another was a dance they had done for last year's Bangi competition.

How did it go? Well... my team thought we did pretty well. We even had someone videotape us while we were dancing and when we watched it afterwards, we thought we looked quite good.
 
And.... we got 2nd placing.

Congrats, you say? Thank you very much!

No, I'm not boasting here. Actually my teammates and I were quite disappointed. To be honest, we thought we had put up a good show and we were aiming for the top prize. And truth be told... we were expecting to get first place. It didn't help that our conceit was fettered by others around us saying that they thought we were the best. To be fair, the winners were also good, but we thought we had given a fair fight.
 
As we went off for dinner afterwards (at 11pm) we talked about it and tried to understand what went wrong and only when our coach joined us later did we find out the truth. And the truth was, we reap what we sow... My coach was quite unhappy with our performance. She told us what we had done wrong, and she said that we deserved the placing that we got. She compared us constantly to the winners (who were from PJ dance academy). We had made no mistakes, no forgotten steps, nothing. Everything was on time. What went wrong was this: the music played was somehow a little slower than what we were used to, and she said that we lost our technique by allowing the music to control us, instead of the other way around. Yes, we were on time, and we followed the beat, but we had lost our sleekness and our sharpness that we had just 2 days ago by falling into the slower tempo of the music. That severely cost us our win.

We hadn't realised the trap we had allowed ourselves to fall into, and my coach was fair enough to accept that. We obviously had a lack of experience to respond to unfamiliar situations, and she told us to learn from this experience. Actually, we had the same problem with one of our earlier shows, and she was quite disappointed that we had not learnt from that experience. I guess we still have a long way more to go.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for all of us. We were on our own high horses, and we took a fall. My coach has never been one to sugar-coat her words, but I'm glad she gives it to us straight because otherwise, we would never learn. It was not a pleasant experience, but this is a good one to remind us our shortcomings and what we need to do to overcome them.

Well... hope for the best for Bangi!

(PS: My coach is having a dance party this Sunday. Anyone interested to come??? I'll be performing then. It's RM48 per head including food. Focus is on dancing though so bring your dancing shoes)

About the (lack of) gentlemen of today...

And while I'm still awake, I might as well keep writing... covers my entries for the next few days!
 
I've just realised that I've met the only gentleman up to this point in my life... this is the only man I know who will open doors and car doors for me; always picks up the tab; goes out of his way to make sure I'm comfortable; walks me to my car even in daylight; among others. Yes, I've known guys who have done the above but not all of the above. He's from Singapore - the place some people call kiasu-land! And yet I have failed to find a single Malaysian man who can match his chivalry.
 
It's extremely rare to come across men with such chivalry nowadays, especially in this generation. I discussed this with a friend (who is my mom's age) and she said that back when she was dating, almost all the men she knew were of this gentlemenly type. I told her that almost the guys that I know weren't. She accurately pointed out that many of the girls today brought it upon themselves; their insistence on being independent, to the point of being insulted when a guy offers assistance, have turned guys off from making such offers again.
 
I'm not that kind of feminist. I believe in feminine independence and equal rights, but I still enjoy being a woman. I don't mean that I will blatantly use my 'feminine wiles' to take advantage of people - those of you who know me know that I can never stoop to such a level! What I meant was by being paid attention with such care and concern. It doesn't mean that I'm so handicapped that I'm incapable of doing things on my own. It means that my comfort is being taken care of. There is a distinct difference between the two scenarios, and you can easily tell. It's silly to take offense when a man is showing sincere concern for your comfort and/or safety.
 
However, I don't believe that displays of feminism is the sole cause of slow death of gentlemanliness (is there such a word?!). I also believe that it's the way some guys were brought up. Many men are mollycoddled and spoilt by their mothers to the point where they believe the world revolves around them. I've seen men who refuse to give way to women when paths cross on the stairs/hall/streets; men who let their wives carry the heavy load while they swing by with nothing in their arms except the watch on their wrists; men who don't even help unload the bags from the car after a shopping trip.
 
The first time I had a car door opened specially for me (and I don't mean by a valet) made me feel special. I think it's because it shows that attention is being paid to me. And which woman doesn't want attention? It was especially memorable because no one else had ever done it for me. (Waiting by the car door with an umbrella while it's raining doesn't count. That is done because it has to be.) Opening plain doors are pretty normal; in fact, some girls open doors and the guys walk through. Talk about role reversal! Admittedly though, it's nothing now for us to just hold the door open for our friends, be it guy or girl.
 
I've had male colleagues who would just watch me struggle by with a heavy laptop/projector from my car all the way to the office without batting an eyelid. I've had male friends who never thought of walking me to my car at night, leaving me to get there alone. Hey, I've even had a male friend who once dumped me in front of my house at 3am in the morning and zoomed off immediately without even making sure I was safely in the house (and incidentally, I was locked out of both house and gate then). These aren't only obvious lack of gentlemanly courtesy, it's an obvious lack of thought and concern. I'm a girl, and yet I'll offer help to friends who have heavy loads; when I send someone home, be it a him or a her, I'll make sure he/she is safely locked behind the door before I go off especially when it's in the dead of the night.
 
I lament the slow death of the existence of gentlemen... looks like it's on the endangered list too.
 
(PS: In case, some of you sour grapes wanted to tear the aforementioned gentleman with catty remarks, let it be known that he is intelligent and successful. You guys have a long way to catch up.)

Autodesk!

Well... after those frustrations of the earlier post, here's a lighter note :þ

I finally met up again with a guy from Autodesk, Paul, whom I first met 2 years ago while I was still in my first job. (For those who didn't know, Autodesk is the software developer for AutoCAD and related products, and my first and current job are in reseller companies for the abovementioned products). I lost touch with him when I left my job, and have only just reestablished communication.

Back in my first job, I was the applications engineer for the civil engineering + mapping solutions, and although I didn't know it then, apparently a lot of people thought I was good. So much so that after I left (when I left, I hadn't kept in touch with anyone in that line), there had been a few vacancies in other companies and they were looking for me... but I was MIA and they couldn't get hold of me. Including Autodesk! Paul said there had been a vacancy and he thought I could fill it up but my ex-boss had refused to give him my phone number. But now it's already filled. Missed opportunities! Argh!!!!

And to think that at that very time (only a few months back), I wasn't doing so well in my second job, and I was miserable and doubting my self-worth and wondering whether my career was heading to and whether I would ever achieve anything in my life. And yet there were people trying to headhunt me and only didn't offer me a position because I could not be located. I had left my first job wanting to leave the CAD line for good, but it had been a serious career mistake because I was obviously good at it. Well, I don't regret going through that short miserable phase, because I learnt so much from there... like what it's like to work in a badly-managed company, to work under a hopeless manager, to have endless nonsensical meetings about unimportant matters, to be chased about a skirt-wearing policy, to have people saying that I have a lot of potential yet at the same time doubting my ability to achieve. It makes me appreciate my current job even more.

Well, at least all is not lost. I have still a long way more to go before I can really succeed in this industry, but at least this is a line I'm more confident in compared to the security products line I was in previously. When I talk to customers, I feel that I'm actually trying to help them instead of trying to push an unnecessary overpriced software which they're going to regret purchasing later. I understand what my customers are going through, and I try to help them, instead of looking at them blankly when they throw unfamiliar industry terminology. My manager wanted me to be a "security consultant".... which would have been a blatant lie to the customers since my company is merely a product-pusher, not a genuine IT consultant. And at any rate I had no interest at all in security products.

Talk about quarter-life crisis!

Damn those line dance competitions!!!

Argh!!!!! This is going to be my first bitchy complaint online!!!! The line dance competitions are so @#&*ing screwed up!!!!
 
In case you didn't know, let me give a brief overview. In August, there are 3 major line dance competitions... one is a Malaysian Open line dance competition (organised by Hotel Equatorial Bangi), Nestle line dance finals, and the UCWDC Asia Pacific line dance competition.
 
Now, I have already decided NOT to go into the UCWDC comp because to enter, every participant MUST purchase the A* Pass which costs RM498, which includes all the workshops, whether or not we attend them. And on top of that, there is an entry fee per event entered. It costs a bomb... and I'm so not ready for the comp this year which is why I have decided not to go in. And I lack the funds anyway. Many of my teammates are also unwilling to spend that kind of money, so the only ones going in are those who are going for their own individual categories.
 
So for team events, my team had our eyes set on the remaining two... let me talk about Nestle first. In one of my previous posts, I mentioned that my team had entered the finals, and I personally also made it to the individual category finals. Well, guess what I found out... tickets to the event costs RM70 per person, which includes the dinner and line dance party. All very well. But EVERY COMPETITOR has to buy a dinner ticket!
 
It's so ridiculous! It was not something that was made known to us earlier and I only found out because one of my teammates had gone to buy tickets for her friend only to be told that it was compulsory for the participants to buy tickets too. If we don't buy them, we're not allowed to compete. Apparently it was announced during semi-finals but many people I spoke to didn't hear it. Probably because the horrible sound system twisted all the words the emcee was mumbling...
 
At any rate it's really stupid to force the participants to cough up so much money! In the first place we had already paid entry fees when we submitted our registration form... why the hell do we have to pay AGAIN to enter the finals? Shouldn't the dinner + party be an option for us? Sounds to me like they're just trying to fill up seats and make money from us. (No wonder ALL teams made it to the finals....) I argued with the organiser but they kept saying that other organisers do the same thing too. I pointed out that it's different, because in other competitions, they make it CLEAR whether or not participants had to purchase a certain pass (in the example of the abovementioned UCWDC) in the registration form itself. For this one, there is no black-and-white at all! Just some rambling of an incoherent announcer!
 
I don't blame Nestle... it is the event management company at fault. A real pity since it's Nestle's name that's being dragged in mud. The name of the company is Ming KH & Associates if you want to know.... The whole competition was very poorly organised. There was not enough participation (probably due to the lack of A&P) so everyone went straight to semis. And they didn't keep their word in the semis. You see, there's supposed to be a cash prize for the top placings; but what happened was for the teams, since ALL teams made it, they split the cash prize between all the teams. Same happened for the 10 individuals per category that were chosen to enter the finals. And now suddenly they're throwing this compulsory ticket nonsense at us.
 
And the people who were organising it knew very little about line dancing. They had contracted a well-known line dance teacher as an advisor, and yet things were so screwed up. Before the semis, I had asked one of the organisers several relevant questions about the competition but all I got were extremely (and I mean, EXTREMELY!!!!) stupid replies. They had obviously not done their homework and they were basing everything on assumptions. And when grilled to the point of technicalities, they kept saying that had to get back to us as they had to check with the said teacher.
 
And by the way, it was only announced during the semi-finals (after the finalists were announced) some changes; i.e. for the team events, we were recommended to change our song + dance, and for the individual events, we had to dance TWO dances (instead of only ONE as we did in the semis). And it was very obvious that the abovementioned line dance teacher's students had prior access to this information as many of the teams were already in practice for their dance to be used in the finals, as were the individuals for their second dance. I was one of the unfortunate who was not a student of the said teacher and now my team had little more than one month to prepare another team dance, and I have yet to find out what my other dance for the individual category it, which the event management company has yet to mail to us (and refused to disclose over the phone... despite the fact that I know for certain that some of the other individuals already know the dance and are already in practice. And here I am still waiting for the mail.)
 
Screwed up! That's all I can say!!!!!!
 
No, I'm not done. Let me go on about the Bangi comp. This is the major event I have been looking forward to the whole year. This year, they have contracted four popular line dance choreographers and certified judges (who are in a team called Masters In Line) to judge this event. However because of the time (in the same month there are 2 other major comps) and the price of the workshops, the competition has been receiving rather poor response. So the organisers who were initially thinking of changing it from a 3-day event to a 1-day friendly event (with several categories significantly removed) are now planning to CANCEL the event.
 
I was miserable when I got the news! All the practice for nothing! Now I have nothing to look forward to next month (the f***ed-up Nestle comp does NOT count)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no guarantee that the comp will be held again next year, and even if it is, I am not entirely sure that I will be able to participate. Anything can happen in one year. And I'm not only talking about me, I'm talking about my teammates too.
 
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
:'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

Another senseless death

By the power of six-degrees, it turns out that Sonia Teh, mother of the deceased Kang Fong Heng, is my line dance teammate's friend's friend. The same way that I'm connected to Avril Lavigne via my brother's friend's sister's friend who is Avril's cousin. And that Sarah Marbeck who was involved in that David Beckham scandal, is the daughter of my friend's friend's boss. And that Noritta girl who was murdered lives in the next condo block to another of my teammates. No, I don't know the main people in question, but that's the beauty of six-degrees; I'm merely connected to them.

Six-degrees aside, it distresses me the way that human life is treated nowadays. We have progressed so far in technology, living now in what we call civilization, and yet we can still submit to the animal instincts that sticks around like cockroaches even after millions of years of evolution.

I know many people would say, "Hey, he did start it by confronting it." Yes, he should have walked away. Yes, he shouldn't have tried to confront 10-15 men. But no, he did not deserve it. No one deserves to be beaten to pulp, not for such a petty argument, much less be beaten to death. With 3 men from another car who are not even involved in the confrontation in the first place joining in!

I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. And yet there seems to be a lot of pretty stupid reasons flying around. Should people die merely for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? A innocent schoolteacher was shot and died merely because she happened to be in the same area as a gun-toting lunatic. A lady, who was a good mother and wife, went into a coma and never woke up when her head smashed into the kerb while her bag was being pulled by a snatch thief (incidentally, I had a friend who had been at that very place a mere 15 minutes before).

So what are these deaths supposed to represent? I'm still trying to figure that one out. A death caused by a snatch thief leads to.... an awareness campaign of snatch thieves? Hello???? It takes a DEATH to realise that? Shouldn't we have been trying to stem this crime ages ago? It was rampant then, as it is rampant now. It was a crime then, still a crime now. So why wait until someone dies for it?

I still haven't figured out the other deaths that have been filling the newspapers lately. Well... the beheading of the hostages were really very upsetting, but at least there was a "reason", even if I disagree wholeheartedly with such a "reason".

Maybe it's a cycle. Maybe it's nature's way of dealing with the human overpopulation. With an increase in the types of endangered species and declining numbers of all other animals, there aren't enough natural predators to go around, so let's have that species wipe each other out. Who knows, that would enable the Dodo bird to make a comeback.

That would mean there's no need for Armageddon. We just need a World War III.

Barney's in town

The purple dinosaur is here in town! Personally I think he should be IN ice not on ice. Just wanted to share a song my brother came across a few years ago; it's my absolute favourite!

(Sing to that infamous "I Love You" song the giant oaf loves to sing on the show)

I love you
You love me
Let's get together and kill Barney
With a shotgun, BANG! and Barney's on the floor
No more purple dinosaur

Now, that's what I call a classic!

25 years and counting...

First and foremost, thanks to everyone who remembered my birthday!!! Muaxes all around!!!

Having more fun this year than the previous years! My dance team took the Cancerian babies for dinner last week at TGIF, and it was really fun. They made us stand on chairs (as usual) during the TGIF birthday sequence and of course had to give speech as usual (and I went into my overly-dramatized Oscar-acceptance-like speech). Even on my birthday night, my team kinda poked fun by going through this extremely simple dance routine (extracted from our competitors' choreography) while singing Happy Birthday. It was so cute and totally unexpected!

My aunt took me for dinner on Wednesday, and one of my best friends took me out for lunch today. Another of my best friends gave me a very useful gift - aromatherapy diffuser (for use in a car). And it was really nice hearing the beeps of SMS wishes throughout the day!!!

I was supposed to go for a yacht cruise with a friend tomorrow, but due to constant recent bad weather she's decided to pull out of it :( .... however in place we're going to go for a nice dinner instead. AND I'm expecting a dinner this Sunday as well as next Saturday. Woo hoo! I've never felt so special. Certainly a far cry from my 21st birthday which I spent all alone in my room at college while doing Math homework......

There was no family celebration this year though... mainly because my parents aren't here :þ They went for my sister's graduation in UK (who sent me a card via snail mail) so the house is pretty quiet.

This year less people actually remembered though. Many of my supposedly close friends have not remembered. But hey, there's more activity this year. ;) And the
ones who mattered remembered! And the ones who remembered matter!

:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

I lost my poem book! :'(

Argh!!! I can't find my poetry book which I've been keeping all the original poems I've written over the years. Wanted to put some up in my other blog. Well I've put up one of my song lyrics. Wrote that years ago. I suppose my poetry book will turn up eventually....

By the way I did submit some poems to http://www.poetry.com. Look for Last Name HOO, First Name SZE YEN. I never got around to submitting more poems... too lazy :þ Besides, all I keep receiving from them are lots of solicitations for money to publish my poem, and to attend their conferences and what-nots....

It's raining! What a wonderfully cool night to sleep in!!!!

What a day!

Today was not one of my best days... started off fine with my going to the office. Afternoon was damn hectic though. I had to visit SEVEN different offices in KL to pass them some brochures as our resellers needed them to be included in a tender which ends tomorrow. I wore these new pair of shoes that were killing me. They seemed comfortable when I bought them but surprisingly they weren't made for walking! They're open-toed but I think the size was slightly too big and they kept cutting my little toes and I nearly twisted my ankles a few times. However I couldn't get a smaller size as they wouldn't fit. Sigh.... I spent a good deal of my time walking the first 2 hours to 3 different offices, which although were in the same vicinity, were not near one another, and there was really no point for me to drive and park again as parking fees cost a bomb in KL.

And then there was heavy rain and I got sloshed... of course I was smart enough to carry a small umbrella with me as preparation, but with those killer shoes and wrong addresses given by my colleague and offices hidden in 'secret' locations.... plus, I had to carry the office laptop around with me all the time as I daren't leave it in the car (although thankfully there was a backpack I could use instead of the normal sling bag).

And I was having stomach cramps which made me double up over the steering wheel the whole day....

The night went better, thankfully, with a nice dinner with my aunt and brother, and dance practice with my team. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

I won't have a laptop to use from tomorrow until Monday :'( My colleague as to borrow it for training on Saturday and she's taking it tomorrow as I'll only be seeing her then and won't see her on Friday.... so no broadband for me! All I have is Webbit and none of the other computers at home have a network card, except my bro's but that's already connected to Streamyx. Sigh.... I guess there will be other ways to fill up my time.

Current Job Situation and Previous Jobs Disillusion

For those who don't know, this is just an update.... I've changed jobs again! The lost little bird is trying to find her niche in this corporate jungle.

I'm back in the CAD line, doing sales... so it's something like a combination of my previous two jobs. I'm working in MLST (but the website isn't completed yet so don't visit it) where the lady boss is really nice and willing to teach me. I'm not allowing myself to be blinded by first impressions though; in my last job, the people looked really friendly but the ugly side began to rear its head after merely a few months. Thank goodness I didn't stay there long!

This job allows me a lot of flexibility; however it doesn't mean I get to slack off. There's a lot of pressure and definitely a lot of hard work needed; but as long as I get my results and get what is due it will be worth it. My boss lets me work from home and I don't need to report to the office every day. This is a far cry from my previous job at Dancom (don't visit this website either, it's hideous). The sales cycles were long and weary, no commission scheme in place (even though they have been distributing the products for years), a lot of tight monitoring and control (we have to clock in every morning before 9am before we go for appointments. With this policy in place, I certainly couldn't be bothered to clock out in the evenings after my appointments....), a lot of politics... in fact, the bosses wanted to make it a requirement for the women to wear skirts!!! I felt that it was a shot at me because I NEVER wear skirts to the office (if you see my legs, you'll understand why....). Initially I always thought it was a joke because my GM and the Corporate Services Director always told me to "wear a skirt" in a rather joking manner... but until the Human Resources Manager came up to me one day and asked me if I could consider wearing a skirt 2-3 days out of 5, so that she doesn't have to make it a policy (she apparently was being pressured by her boss, the CSD), I realised that it was serious. My dept was being targeted, but I felt most victimized, as among all the girls in my dept, only I and one other girl never wear skirts. And that one other girl (who is a close friend of mine) had never been approached on this subject. Although she is quite pretty, she is not very slim; and she feels this may be why they didn't ask her to adhere to such a dress code.

I feel it's extremely discriminating. In this day and age, pants are perfectly acceptable as business wear. I know that in previous generations only skirts were allowed but things have changed and we no longer live in the ice age (it would have been really cold though to wear skirts then! ;) ). The only plausible reason I heard from GM for such a request was that as a woman, I should make use of my feminity to meet sales clients.... granted that may work for some, those of you who know me know that I could never use such feminine wiles to get attention. But I don't see how a beautifully cut pair of pants that show off the gorgeous figure of a woman would not work any less.

Anyway from the day I started to my very last day of work, I never once wore a skirt to the office.

Don't get me wrong about my GM though. He's a really nice person, I just happen to disagree with some of his ideas.

Hmmm... I don't know how I got to start writing the above topic. I just wanted to talk about job disillusionments! :)

As for my first job, let me put it this way: it was a great stepping stone, but things went stagnant after a while. I felt that I was stuck in a rut, and the only thing I could do then was to break myself away from it. I was an applications engineer for CAD and civil engineering software, where I could marry both IT and civil engineering which seemed to be my dream job back then. Between here at Acad Systems (this website you can visit! I designed this website and they have not updated it since I left!!!!) and Dancom, this job was actually much better. It was kind of like from the pan to the fire but I have learned my lesson. I've received many job offers since I left Dancom but I was very careful in considering my options. It was bad enough that I took a paycut between my switch from Acad Systems to Dancom, but there were even some companies who wanted to offer me an even lower salary! (The reason I accepted a paycut was because I thought I could learn a lot more and that I'd receive my rewards in due time... only to find out from a colleague who was there for 3 years had never received an increment and whose pay was still exactly the same as mine)

I'm not writing this to vent my frustrations.... thought I'd just share with everyone some of my experiences. For you who are eagerly anticipating the working world, be careful about the companies you choose to go in. For you who are working a job you love in a great environment, good on you - you are one of the lucky few.

Nestle Line Dance Competition

Well... since I'm blogging, I might as well make my announcement here.

On the 3rd of July, I entered the Nestle Dance for Your Heart Fest line dance competition, where everyone went straight to semis (due to lack of participants). There were still quite a number of people though...

I joined both the team category and individual category in the youth division (ages 16-29)... and I made it to the finals for both!!! Wooo hoooo!!!!

Finals will be on August 21st in Berjaya Times Square. More details later!

Oh my! A blog!

I'd never thought I'd see this day. Not because I'm looking forward to it, but because I never thought I'd do it. I've always dismissed online journals as I'm not one of those kinds of people who'd like to share my private thoughts with the world.... but then again, I have my own website.

Anyway I've registered for a blog ages ago but never got around to putting it up. And since I have some spare time on my hands.... well, here it is!

However don't expect regular updates. It's bad enough I have to update my website (takes me between 6-12 months to update THAT!) and a few other websites. So I'll probably blogging only once a week....