When your Management Sucks big time!

I really have to get this off my chest so that I can enjoy my weekend without having irritating thoughts at the back of my mind.

This has everything to do with the management of the company that I am working in. The company started very many years ago and under the leadership of one man, the company has come a long way.. from a small group of individuals making up that company to a group of company with no less than 14 subsidiaries. We were all enjoying the good times until a couple of years when our group of companies was merged with another group of company. The man who led us to these great heights had to take a back seat after the merger.

That is when everything started to go downhill. The merged group of company is run by people who don't f**king (pardon me) know which end of our corporate ship is the front and they are practically running this ship to the ground.

It has been more than a year since the merger has concluded and more than half the original set of staff have left. And more are leaving and that includes some of my closest friends. And people are still leaving on an average of at least 2 a month.

It was raining pretty hard yesterday evening and one of my colleagues came over to chat with me just to wait out the traffic jam. She remarked "All those who have left have called her to ask her what she is waiting for...there is a better world outside waiting for her". I asked her "Are you happy to stay here?". Her reply was "I have been here for several years and of late, I have this feeling that the company is just waiting for the staff to resign. They load us with lots of work especially so as it is now the policy not to hire to replace staff who has resigned. I have worked longer hours and weekends handling at least 3 people's workload. When I get sick, not only am I not appreciated or encouraged to carry on, but I get reprimanded for not completing the work on time".

We both noticed that the situation has gotten to a stage where the only way to stay "well rewarded" here is to "tikam" people's back (back stabbing). As long as the staff is excellent at this and "tripods" the boss' balls (our “she” boss is known to have balls of steel), then that staff can virtually get away with anything.

I know my friends have left for very many reasons but the most common grounds for them to leave are:

1) Management has no direction. Each subsidiary has their bottom lines to meet and it does not matter what we sell or into whose territory we encroach .. as long as we make the numbers

2) We are left floundering with no leadership. The company is captained by a CEO who has no business acumen plus his henchwoman who drives the ship with pure accounting figures.

3) Our CEO has no charisma or presence. Most of our existing customers have no idea who he is. Our potential customers are not interested to know who he is. None of the financial analysts have seen or interviewed him. Without presence of the CEO, we as a group of company is virtually invisible on the corporate radar

I could go on and on.... but I think really, unless we practice what most public listed American run companies where the top people get axed when the corporation is floundering... this group of clowns are here to stay until we run aground or they are “pushing up daisies” (dead).

We concluded that there is only one solution left for my colleague and I..... to look for greener pastures and follow our ex-colleagues and friends to graze over the other side… where “ming tien ken how” - tomorrow will be better.

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Tarap Man

My friend MHKK sent me this invitation to watch "Tarap Man" next month at the Annexe Galeries, Pasar Seni/Central Market, KL. He mentioned it before and I was wondering what "Tarap" is. Actually it is a fruit that resembles the cempedak. It's scientific name is Artocarpus Odoratissimus: pungent fruit, indigenous to Borneo

Back to Tarap Man.



It is a journalistic thriller set in Sabah….
A newspaper reporter sets out to discover the truth about a boy,
born during the war, who may have committed a gruesome murder in 1952.
Could he still be in prison?

Directed by Zahim Albakri (award-winning director of Puteri Gunung Ledang The Musical, Spilt Gravy on Rice and more).

Written b y Ann Lee (co-writer of the New York International Fringe Festival critically-acclaimed show


From Table Mountain to Teluk Intan.)


With a murderously-talented cast led by Anne James, Cameronian Arts Award winner and
introducing Sabahan songbird, Mia Palencia in her first acting role.


DATE & TIME:

5th – 8th December 2007 @ 8.30pm
8th – 9th December 2007 @ 3.00pm

VENUE:

Annexe Galleries, Central Market Annexe/ Pasar Seni (Putra LRT),
Jalan Hang Kasturi, 50050, Kuala Lumpur.

BOOKINGS: 017- 651 2126

ADMISSION BY DONATION (minimum RM30, students discount available)

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the recipe which I used for the chocolate chip cookies and it is especially reproduced here for my friend Superhero S of A Tale of Two Superheroes. She so nicely asked for it so that she could bake some for her Superhero W...awww.. how sweet of her.



Ingredients
125 grams of butter
150 grams of brown sugar (may have to reduce this a bit as babe commented that the cookies were a mite too sweet.... which I agree)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (which I didn't add coz I didn't have any)
150 grams plain flour*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda*
15 grams of cocoa powder*
200 grams chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

* these are sifted together

Method
1. Cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy
2. Add egg and vanilla essence and mix well
3. Add the sifted dry ingredients in the mixture, followed with the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts
4. Mix all these until dough forms. Drop by teaspoon onto greased backing pan (this is to get the Famous Amos sized cookies. For me, I used the spoon we eat our dinner with... dinner spoon??)
5. Bake at 180 degress C for 15 minutes (but don't take my word for it coz it depends on the size of your cookie and the type of oven you have. I have the el cheepo type where you have to keep peeping into it to see if the cookies are done..else, you'll end up with CHARRED chocolate chip cookies)

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All I Want for Christmas is ......

I know, I know.. another 1 whole month to go before Christmas gets here. But no harm wishing out aloud ... maybe Santa is just around the corner.... (in my dreams lah). I was just telling JW yesterday during lunch time as we were walking past the phone shop that I am thinking of getting myself the Nokia n95 8G phone for Christmas...sigh..now, how to get RM2,999 is the problem.

This morning whilst looking at the In.Tech pages, I came across this Amazon e-book reader Kindle. Rather cool looking gadget. I love books and at the moment, believe it or not, i am trying the read my Guru H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche's Gurus for Hire, Enlightenment for Sale, Pearl S.Buck's Bible Stories, Rinpoche Pabongka's Stages to the Path, my Bazi notes, and a trash novel which name is not even worth mentioning and leaving it all over the house and in the car. Now, a gadget like the Kindle reader might just solve my problems of keeping track of all my reading materials.

Amazon's Kindle which is just launched this week is priced at US$399. I know that there are many who are not used to reading books off electronic medias like such. But I have gotten used to it since I read the entire Harry Potter's 7th book off my handphone even before the book was launched (shhhhh).

It was reported that the Amazon Kindle is to ebooks as the iPod is to digital music. Amazon has apparentely integrated a 3G cellular radio into the Kindle and uses its new Whispernet EvDO service to wirelessly transmit e-books to the Kindle. They claimed that it doesn'tt need a PC to make a purchase. All the reader needs to do is to browse the Kindle store and download the reading material. Notably, no service charges or contracts are involved--Amazon covers all of that in the background. But that is in the US. But what about us here in Malaysia leh??

I decided to go to Youtube and search for reviews on the Kindle and these are those which I thought were more interesting.


Here is the review for the Amazon Kindle. The Amazon Kindle is available on Amazon.com for $399.99 It uses the Sprint EVDO network to access data much like a cell phone without a wireless hotspot and most of all, it is free. It has 256 MB of internal storage and provides an SD memory card slot along with a USB mini slot, along with a headphone jack.


Benjamin Higginbotham of Technology Evangelist takes a look at the Amazon Kindle after 12 hours of use. More in-depth reviews as he uses it more and more will be coming.


Plenty more of these from Youtube... but now I am thinking.... phone or book reader..phone or book reader....(not that I can afford either at the moment.. but it's nice to imagine that one has options haha)

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Cookies for the Cookie Monsters :p

Last Friday, JW asked if I wanted to accompany her to Ikea on Sunday. I do like walking around Ikano, popping into Macy and browsing inside Ikea. But I was getting rather broke now that it is the end of the month. Didn't want to go window shopping and accidently end up buying something and bursting my credit card, which is very close to exploding already. So, I told JW that I will be making cookies instead.

So, when Sunday came, I didn't want to be called a liar when I went to work on Monday morning empty handed, I took out the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies. I added chopped walnuts to the recipe as I love that nutty bite in my cookies, muffins, ice-creams...anything.






The first batch I made were the size of the Famous Amos type. As I only have those smaller version ovens, I was thinking that this was going to take me the entire afternoon. I decided to make them bigger. Turned out that I had to make another 2 trays before I can call it a day.

I made the last clump for me, myself and I .... bigger and crunchier. Poured the remaining chopped walnuts into the dough before I stuffed it into the oven. When it came out, I waited for it to cool down just enough and plonked it into my mouth before anyone else saw it and cookie-napped it from me.

watching my cookie "grow"

my cookie

one bigger cookier to rule the smaller ones

Had about 12 small cookies and 18 bigger cookies when I was done. Took some for JW & her sister Jean. Babe stopped by and she tested one. Verdict : a bit too sweet. I have about 5 left in the cookie jar at home. The rest have been gobbled down by the cookie monsters ..... the largest cookie monster being my friend MHKK... he should know who he is when he reads this post :D

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Clever Inventions

I received a very interesting email from my friend PatK this morning. Necessity is really the mother of invention. Some of these are indeed very clever and very useful but I am not sure if any has been marketed yet :). Maybe no economies of scale?


CUP & COOKIES
Smart cup in which you can put 2-3 of your favourite cookies. You don't need extra plates. It's made for right handed and left handed.



BANANA GUARD - Protect Your Banana!
Are you fed up with bringing bananas to work or school only to find them bruised and squashed? Banana Guard allows you to safely transport and storage individual bananas letting you enjoy perfect bananas anytime, anywhere.



LOCK-CUP
Lock Cup - Anti-Theft Coffee Cup. Are you tired of others stealing your coffee cup? Well now there's a solution. The Lock - Cup has a hole which prevents most people from using it. Only the owner of the cup can use his/hers shaped key to close the hole.



PENGUIN TEA TIMER
Making tea, though easy to do, is also time consuming. Once you pour the hot water into the cup, you must patiently hover over it, waiting for the tea to steep. Well, the Penguin Tea Timer happily does the waiting for you.
Place your tea cup under the beak and set it to the desired time. As you turn the timer dial, the beak lowers the tea into the hot water. When time is up, a bell sounds and the penguin automatically lifts his beak, removing the tea bag from the water.



TRANSPARENT TOASTER
You love toast, but you always burn it? Than, this invention us for you.
This transparent toaster allows you to see the bread while it is toasting so you just have to take it out when the colour is right. This idea is based on a transparent heating glass technology.


BUTTER CUTTER
One Click Butter Cutter controls your portion as an important part of staying healthy. This ingenious butter cutter delivers one standard pat with each click of the handle.



GIANT REMOTE
Never lose your remote again!
With giant buttons, this extra-large remote is easy to use and impossible to lose. It's a 6-in-1 remote so you can use it to control your TV, VCR, DVD player, satellite, cable and auxiliary A/V device. It even features glow-in-the-dark buttons, so you can easily find the remote in the dark.



DAYCLOCK
What day is today? You don't know? Then you need a DayClock. It's uniquely designed to keep track of weekly events like your golf day, card night, movie night, and so much more. It's ideal for vacations and cruises when it's easy to lose track of the day.



CRIME SCENE TOWEL
Chalk outline crime scene beach towel - be the coolest person on the beach!



LASER SCISSORS
Laser ScissorsCutting a straight line has never been easier. Just aim the pin-point laser and follow the line. The scissor blades are stainless steel and cut very clean with a micro serrated edge.



ILUMINATING CAR SLIPPERS
Do you get up at night to drink water, go to the toilet...Do you wish you could see in the dark? Remarkably bright LED lights are triggered by your footsteps and light up the floor 30 feet in front of you; ultra-soft plush style are extra comfortable and cozy warm.



"THE THING" - INFANT PILLOW
The Zaky is an ergonomic infant pillow designed by a mom to mimic the size, weight, touch, and feel of her hand and forearm to help her baby with comfort, support, protection, and development. The Zaky can help calm your baby and help your baby sleep better through the night.



TRAVELER'S PHRASE BOOK T-SHIRT
If you are traveling a lot and don't always know the language of the country you are visiting, then this T-shirt is for you. It has a phrase book printed on it so just point a finger at the pictogram you need and then point it twice at the question mark, which means, "Where is it?" and in no time you have found what you were looking for... or not.



MODERN LADDER
Realy cool modern ladder.



LATEST DESIGN WAITER/WAITRESS TRAYS
Anatomic tray, for waiters. No more dropping trays. We just don't know is it comfortable.



WHEEL-MOVING BENCH
Whether you want to sit on the sun or in the shade, near the river or under the tree... now you have your movable bench, to sit wherever you like.

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What level of education is needed to understand your blog??

I was visiting my newest blog friend Codename: Dreams' blog when I saw that he did the blog readability test. I was really curious to find out how my blog rates and what level of education my readers will need in order to understand my blog, so I submitted my blog to the test. And I rated .... tada.....

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Haha..ok lah.. I am not writing rocket science stuff.

I know my friends are going to kill me but what the heck.. i know that this is just for a laugh lah....they'll understand...(or they won't)...

JW's blog is rated....

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Fishman's blog is rated....

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babe's blog is rated....

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twosuperheroes's blog is rated....

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dcky's blog is rated....

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Writer's Strike and it's impact on the faithful audiences :( like MUA!

"Johnny Depp movie hit by writer's strike" read the papers today. I was just having this conversation with JW yesterday regarding the possibility of not getting anymore of some of my favourite shows from DC by December if the strike by the Writers Guild of America is not settled soon. Christmas time will be reruns... what a horrible thought.

The Los Angeles Times published a list of shows that will be affected and I have extracted the partial list here which includes those which I like to watch. Surely at least one of them is your favourite too :(.




Daytime
"Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show" - DeGeneres has decided to go ahead with her show.

Late Nite
"Late Show with David Letterman" - In repeats
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" - In repeats

ABC
"Desperate Housewives" - Nine out of 22 episodes completed; production shut down. (awwwwhhh)
"Grey's Anatomy" - Eleven out of 22 episodes completed. Production shut down.
"Ugly Betty" - Will have 13 out of 24 episodes completed.
"Boston Legal" - Will have 14 of 22 episodes completed.
"Lost" - Expected to have eight out of 16 episodes ready. Scheduled to air in February.
"Private Practice" - Will have 10 of 22 episodes completed.
"Brothers & Sisters" - Will have 12 episodes completed.

CBS
"CSI" - Will have 11 or 12 out of 22 episodes completed. (bwahhhhhh)
"CSI: Miami" - Will have 13 out of 24 episodes completed. (bwahhhhhh)
"CSI: NY" - Will have 13 or 14 out of 22 episodes completed. (bwahhhhhh)
"Criminal Minds" - Will have 11 or 12 of 22 episodes completed.

NBC
"Heroes" - Production has been shut down. Will have 11 of 24 episodes completed (double bwahhhhhh)
"Scrubs" - Expected to have 12 of 18 episodes completed.

CW
"Smallville" - Will have 12 to 14 of 22 episodes completed.
"Supernatural" - Will have 12 to 14 of 22 episodes completed. (bwahhhhhh)
"One Tree Hill" - Returning in mid-season; will have 12 out of 13 episodes completed.
"America's Next Top Model" - Season finale is scheduled for Dec. 12. An additional 13-episode run scheduled for early next year.

FOX
"24" - Will have eight or nine out of 24 episodes completed. Originally scheduled for January, now premiere is delayed.
"House" - Will have 13 of 22 episodes completed. (bwahhhhhh)
"Bones" - Will have 12 of 22 episodes completed.
"Prison Break" - Will have 13 out of 22 episodes completed.
"Kitchen Nighmares" - Finale is scheduled to air in December.

FX
"Nip/Tuck" - Will have 14 of 14 episodes completed. PHEW!!
"The Shield" - Production on the series finale is underway. No air date set.

For the detail list, click here.

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A Tree Man

I was flipping through the papers today and chanced upon the article which read "Tree Man". The only Tree Man I know is Treebeard, from Lord of the Rings. The article in the local daily was rather brief and as this was definitely something categorized under unusual and unconventional, my interest was tickled.

Searching through the internet, I found that the original article probably came from The Telegraph UK. The Tree Man is actually a fisherman from Indonesia who has tree-like growths covering his body and what caught my attention was really his hands and his feet. These have turned into gnarled twisted tree trunks. His predicament started after an accident when he was in his teens.

The photos below are taken from the Telegraph.Co.Uk (Britain's No.1 quality newspaper website)







A dermatologist Dr Anthony Gaspari from the US, who is looking into this case, concluded that this affliction was due to a virus causes warts. But in Dede's case, due to his defective immune system, his body was not able to fight of this wart causing virus.


For a more detail report on this story, click here.

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Back to Macy....

Continuing from the previous post, after I left The Pet Safari, I went down to Macy to say hi to my favourite sales person from Macy... Mr Kalai (he is on the right, incase you are interested to know :) ). I realize that he was not only my favourite sales person as there were at least one couple who was waiting for him to serve them.

I was looking for another coffee table and finally decided on a short little bookshelf cum seat. Very useful piece of furniture and I decided not to use it as a seat for my own arse but to put photos of my precious Guru H.E. Tsem Tulku Rinpoche on it. All this while as I was ho humming and deciding on this purchase, the couple was very patiently waiting for Kalai to finish serving me before he could service them.... that goes to show how much patience one has when it is waiting for great service.




By the way, Macy's delivery personnel are also the best, compared to the delivery personnel from other places like Barang-Barang or even Ikea. They really give service beyond the call of duty. Don't believe me, ask JW or rather, read about them on her blog post.

Macy has won me as one of their life-time customers for sure, thanks to the excellent before and after sales service of their personnel. Keep up the high standards Macy...

PS.. if anyone from Macy is reading this blog... your DNS server is down today(Cannot find www.macyhomefurnishings.com)

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Strange looking pets

I have been looking around to getting a new “house” for my pet sugar glider Keenu for some time and as I happened to be around Ikano over the weekend, I decided to drop in at The Pet Safari to have a look. As I walked into Pet, I heard the voice of a woman squealing “Yikes… they are so repulsive”. That really perked up my curiosity as I knew that the voice came from the section where they house the fluffy rabbits. So, why should there be any repulsive pets housed in the rabbit section??

There were 3 ladies there and the one who did squealed was still telling her 2 friends that she would definitely not want to own such hideous looking pets. I could not quite see past these 3 ladies so I had no choice but to wait until they moved away.

Finally, they did so and when I turned to look into the glass case, I saw something that looked like a animal with a mutant bunny head (side profile but looks more like a mouse from the front) and body, crossed with feet that looked like a bird’s and a rather long tail with some fluff at the end. They are actually the size of a small bunny. I took a couple of shots of the 2 little animals for I have never seen them before.









The label read “Jerboa – RM250”. Geez.. the more I look at them, the cuter they looked. I would not go to the extent of calling them ugly or repellent. Yeah, takes a bit of getting used to as I could not really decide what category of animal it was.

Went home after that and did a bit of research on the Wikipedia and found out that they were actually classified under the Rodents family. I don’t think I will want to have them as pets coz I am really not a rodent type of person. Anyways, Keenu is more than enough for me. And I recently got a girl glider from my friend MK. Her name is Stripey and she is only about 3 months old. More about Keenu and Stripey once I get Keenu’s house assembled and ready for him to move in.

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Looking for a Partner........(not one in crime or in love thou)

Just came back not long ago from lunch with a friend (haha.. can you imagine after that yummy sinful nasi lemak breakfast this morning, I can still think let alone eat lunch?).

I have not seen Ming for more than 6 months and I just could not believe my eyes. Yeah.. he told me that he was on a diet over the phone and yada yada yada.. hey ain't tis the season to be round and jolly?

When I saw him... he was really looking good. His little round santa belly is now almost like a washboard. Geezz... if he was not married already with a kid.. I could fall for this guy's (body shape) :).

Seriously, I was rather doubtful as to the lasting power of all these fancy diets. But he has been on it for more than 60 days or so and the best thing for a glutton like me is when he tells me that he is having 3 main meals and no less than 3 snacks to a maximum of 9 snacks a day. Wow.. this really really my kinda diet.. a (see) food (and eat 'em) diet. He promises to send some reading materials over to me over the weekend. Of course there will be some supplements to take in order to keep the body energetic and in good shape. I reckon that most of us are taking some form of vitamins already, so that is not a big deal for me.

I can't wait for him to send me this 3 main meals and up to 9 snacks a day diet plan. Exercise (like 10,000 steps a day, no need for fancy gym membership) and sufficient sleep (hey.. that is one of my mostest favoritest hobby) is also important.

But one thing though, he advises that I should find myself a partner or some partners to do this diet with as it will be much more fun and effective, either as encouragement for each other or as a needle in the other's butts when they slack off. So.... where are my friends who want to give it ago?? I wanna start quick quick.. :)

My dream body shape is like this....

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