Friday, November 25, 2011

Excellent & Excellence Branding


"If you have excellent branding,
then even if your product is of average quality,
people would still be attracted to get it!"

"Excellent branding differentiates the ones that get sold and the ones that stays on the shelves!"

"Selling is all about excellence in branding!"

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Colour your life!


Colour your life!

Hahaha... I'm happy!
Today, I managed to finish up project number #1.
It's an art project, though not made from recycled materials.
But I had been wanting to try my hand at doing it since I first read about the idea.
I just love the play of colours and the simplicity of the doing it.
Mine turned out quite well, I would say.
I'm proud of myself for this!


Colour your life!
Project #1 will be packed off as a housewarming present to one of my friend.
Hope he likes it!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Sleep & Dreams


I've not been able to sleep well of late.

Yesterday I had dreams. I might have had more than two, but it's two that I remember. My memory is vague and details are hazy, but the gist of those two dreams are clear.

In one of the dream, a friend, who is due to get married end of this year, asked me to decorate a place where we were. I am not sure what that place is but the place was most likely in somewhere in Krung Thep, as the impression I got was there was flood around. Not sure why we needed to decorate the place, but we needed to and were in the midst of looking for ideas on how to carry out our task.

Another point that strongly suggested the setting was in Krung Thep was tuition. Not too sure why was tuition there, but seemed like 3 boys, who were rich enough, came over to have tuition there with us. And they were from our hometown. Both of us girls are from Melaka, by the way! They would fly all the way from Malaysia to Krung Thep, attend the classes then fly back! Now, that's a really wild dream! This point I remembered quite clearly as we were deliberating on how they could make it on time to class and back; or was this arrangement absolutely necessary and tiring as well in a tuk tuk or was it a taxi? Wild, wild!

The second dream, order not clear, was about me and my mother. Again, right now, I'm not too sure of the setting of the place, but I have a heavy feeling that it was in my maternal grandmother's place. It is not clear now why were we there in the first place, but I remembered having THAT talk with her, in the midst of another argument! And she refused to listen and accept what I said. It was quite a scene, with her crying and accusing me of being ungrateful or such. That all of us were ungrateful, selfish and not filial, somewhere along those lines. A little like the scene of a drama I saw last Sunday, where the daughter was accused of finding her mom a burden, by her own mother!

Again, I cannot recall which dream came first, but I felt exhausted this morning. Are they telling me something? If so, what are they trying to tell me?

Monday, November 21, 2011

:: JOB ::

::

:: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB :: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB :: JOB ::

:: JOB ::

::






please ....

Sunday, November 20, 2011

GUT


::Lost&Not Yet Found::


G U T


::Lost&Not Yet Found::


No cow-sense!


I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, there are still incredibly inconsiderate people on the most basic of things around me.

This week alone the entrance to my house had been blocked twice! Yes, the front gate, which opens to my porch where my car is parked, and to my front door. It's really difficult to understand why this happens as there is ample empty space around for them to park their cars properly without needing to inconvenient anyone.

The first was last Friday. We had gone out for an evening walk to a nearby stadium. Upon reaching our home, we saw a car parked in front of my house, which nothing new to us. As we got closer, however, we noticed that a good portion of the boot of the car was actually blocking our gate. Plain inconsideration! The owner of the car didn't even bother to apologize for her selfish and thoughtless action, instead leaving her boyfriend to do it. I failed to see why my father told the guy it was alright. Small thing to him, perhaps.

Today, once again, it happened. We had driven out for dinner. This time, even an idiot could see that one should not be blocking the gate, for we had left the gate wide opened, in anticipation of a heavy downpour. Our gate is not fixed with the auto-gate system. Another self-centered driver had, in full stupidity, just parked her car to block a portion of my gate! My father had to get down from the car, under the drizzle, to push open the gate further in order for me to be able to drive in the car, which in turn, defeated the main purpose of leaving the gate opened in the first place.

Twice in a week was too much for me. Once the car was parked properly, I got down, and went over next door. The driver was just about to come out. I gave her a piece of my mind, albeit the more polite and truncated version than the one raging in my head. She just acknowledged what I said, but didn't apologize. Either that, she was surprised with my outburst. Good thing was that she went out to re-park her car. According to my father, this time she didn't park stupidly.

The thing I could not understand was that why in the world did they think that it was alright to have their cars blocking my gate, even if for an inch when they didn't want to park in front of their boyfriends' house. If they could think that doing so might cause unnecessary hardship to their boyfriends, my neighbours, why couldn't they extend that thought to us, or any other house owner. Furthermore, it wasn't like my house is a holiday home. My parents live here. Which in other words, there are people constantly occupying the house. It's not a vacant or empty house! The weirdest part was most strangers who stopped by to get something from the shophouses opposite almost always made sure their cars weren't blocking any gates!

These incidences were not the first time I had witnessed my parents being put into this situation. And many a times, I had told them to just inform the boys, my neighbours, on the difficulty they faced with such selfish acts. My father, in his usual laidback way, would just brush it off as something minor, while my mother would just grumble under her breath. She had told me before, she had once left a note on the windscreen of one of the cars then blocking the gate. If that was the case, seemed like either they don't understand English, or they are just too arrogant and bold to understand the basic manners of living in a community.

However today, I just could not do nothing about it. Telling it to them nicely was the chosen path today. Unfortunately, if this problem still persists, I guess, I would just need to gate crash one of their motivational business talk session and give a long speech on this. After all, it's just plain courtesy and basic manners to not to block anyone's gate or entrance when you park. You never know when an emergency situation might arise where every few seconds is very precious!

Quoting my mother's phrase, they simply have "No cow-sense!"

Friday, November 18, 2011

Ransacked and found!


Ransacking my cupboard for something to write on, I found my old notebook. Ransacking my notebook for empty pages, I found my stories! Hahaha...Oh, well, at least a little of them!

I had forgotten I wrote during those years when I became one the many billions of labourers in the world. Entries were sporadic, really. But each start of a burst, there was always a pledge of intention to write, write and write! I laugh now!

Really, reading the things that I wrote just now, made me shake my head in disbelief. They are really funny and wildly scandalous. My embarrassing declarations of love all captured there, my desperate attempts of writing down phone messages that I wanted to keep, as those were still dark days of limited technology functions and memory space on mobiles, my list of expenditure during a trip and oh, classic, a few doodles!

Two things that I can attest that didn't change are myself and my bad handwriting. I was a very disoriented person, and still am now, if not worse. Although, as I was reading, I felt that I actually wrote slightly better and sounded more positive then. As for the handwriting, well, it was bad, and it is still bad. Perhaps, I am a lost cause. Hahaha...

Many of the pages are still bare. I doubt that I will filling up those empty lines with words for paragraphs, for I have here now. I might just use it to fill them up with my lousy attempts to sketch my ideas. Those fuzzy pictures laying dormant in the head need to be sharpened and the best way is to try to bring it to life. So far, it's like kiddy's work!

I will, I think, in the future, reread them again, I believe. Just to remind myself, what I kind of a person I was, with hollow aspirations and sporadic concentrations and ineloquent, new word learnt yesterday! And also, mostly, just to give myself a good laugh. Hahaha..

It's beginning to get to me


I want something
That's purer than the water
Like we were

It's not there now
Ineloquence and anger
Are all we have

Like Saturn's rings
An icy loop around me
Too hard to hold

Lash out first
At all the things we don't like
Or understand

And it's beginning to get to me
I know more of the stars and sea
Than I do of what's in your head
Barely touching in our cold bed

Are you beginning to get get my point?
They're always fighting with aching joints
It's doing nothing but tire us out
No one knows what this fight's about

The answer phone
The lonely sound of your voice
Frozen in time

I only need
The compass that you gave me
To guide me on

And it's beginning to get to me
That I know more of the stars and sea
Than I do of what's in your head
Barely touching in our cold bed

Are you beginning to get get my point?
They're always fighting with aching joints
It's doing nothing but tire us out
No one knows what this fight's about

It's so thrilling but also wrong
Don't have to prove that you are so strong
'Cause I can carry you on my back
After our enemies attack

I tried to tell you before I left
But I was screaming under my breath
You are the only thing that makes sense
Just ignore all this present tense

We need to feel breathless with love
And not collapsed under its weight
I'm gasping for the air to fill
My lungs with everything I've lost


~ Snow Patrol ~

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Bursting Inspiration

I'm inspired! I have so many things going through my head right now, I feel like bursting!!

I ran away from the large waters making stops in Krung Thep now and am now back at home sweet home of Melaka, lulling the day away. My lack of discipline has simply turned me to a fat gatherer and I waste tons and tons of god given neurons into oblivion. I know I will regret this as I regress further into stupidity. Each day is spend reading and surfing the net, both activities only wastes resources but neither generating any income for me.

But yesterday was wonderful! I was browsing again, just like the days before and saw an advertisement. I didn't think much of it except that seeing that rekindled my interest in an idea I had long before, which I had, lazily, pushed so far back into the queue of things to get done.
I started browsing and amazingly, found a whole new world of wonderful crafty things which I can do now that I have time in my hands. I even came across the more sophisticated version of my idea, complete with step by step instructions.

Last night was certainly an inspiring read. I definitely want to give it a try. And my target, I want to get my little idea done before the Chinese New Year celebration. Celebrate in style, MY home made style! My first project will be to start re-brewing my idea and then realize it. In between, mini projects to be done! Lots of ideas for me to carry out!

After escaping from nam tuan in Krung Thep, this is the first time I am feeling quite good for myself. I need this boost in spirit, mind and soul. Just reading about them had managed to give me an absolute lift in those areas, whatmore when I start working on these wonderful things! They might be not be easy but I'm sure they would be puzzles and stumbling blocks which I believe that I wouldn't mind slogging over, if they are. Just like my homemade mosquito nettings!

Now to collect the materials earnestly.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Not again, please


Once, quite a long time ago, long before I started this blog, I was heavily clouded with anger over an issue. I had never felt such fury towards anyone before, that was the first.

The cause of the unfortunate condition was my uncles had spoken cruelly of my mother to me. They didn't do it person, but instead they sent text messages to complaint of their resentment and dissatisfaction to her through my mobile. At that time, my parents had yet to own their mobiles.

Until today, when I think back about that incident, I really cannot fathom how could it even crossed their minds that I would be able to just be a postman and relayed the messages unaffected. The messages were strongly worded and uncensored. It was a situation that I believe, they as siblings should deal with face to face and not dragged any unnecessary person into. Would they have quietly become messengers of bearing harsh words of their mother, my grandmother, to her, from her brothers? I would think not.

I remembered that I got so mad, I replied another strongly worded text messages to them, to condemn them of their very childish, utterly selfish and impossibly unreasonable behaviours. I didn't get any reply or any more messages from them after that. And I felt good to had been able to give them a piece of my mind.

The three of them had had made their peace, soon after. I am glad. That incident made me realized that, if the situation arose, I would be there for my family, safe guard them no matter what. I really hope I don't have to be put in a similar situation once again.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Heat, Sweat, Damp, MAD


My body is damp. The pores on my skin are releasing the tiniest beads of sweat in this sweltering weather. My upper body is slightly better, being in the path of the breeze blown from the fan. It's the lower part that is feeling terribly damp, especially as I sit in front of the laptop. I can feel my pants getting wet!

No, contrary to the norm, my room isn't equipped with the luxury of an air-conditioning unit. So even the breeze from the fan is warm. Occasionally I have to get up and allow the fan to blow my bottoms dry. Not to sound disgusting but I really don't to risk boils or anything disgusting to grow on my bottoms, how imperfect they may be, as I think that this might be the best condition for disgusting things to thrive!

How maddeningly sweaty this heat is making me!

3 years ago, almost


In a little more than 2 weeks, I will mark the 3rd anniversary of the start to what is largely the third main phase of my life. How time flies!

When I looked back, it was as though yesterday that we were just plotting and planning to catch up and drink the night away. What was thought to be only an opportune meeting had indeed carved out a phase of my life right out from my fantasy into realization.

"from the day we were supposed to meet at IOI Mall at 830pm, with little bit of drizzle..1 waja and a mighty innova parking opposite of each other...that was the starting point of getting us back on track again, I believe..."

Was it my girlish fantasy working into overdrive, seeing what was clearly supposed to be seen, instead of going with an open mind and closed heart? Or should it be the other way round, closed mind and opened heart? It might seemed that fate brought us along that night, that the stars and planets secretly aligned to make what we both wished for to fall into place, and got on moving on track again. I would always remember that feeling.

"Such lengthy mail, yet seemed like not long enough for you to convey whatever that's brewing in your crazy smart head. But hey, in case you feel like leaving your shitty job, you may want to consider a job as a writer or article contributor, you can write too :D"
I shall miss the minutes of swinging in between crazy craps with you so easily, having lunches with you, getting pointers, and playing with n82's cam module, and of course, feeling uneasy kena stare!"

How easy it was to communicate with you then! Everything was free flow, expressive and needn't be run through multiple layers of muslin cloths. Words were exchanged unstintingly, expressions were shared lavishly, honest thoughts were so generously laid out in emails and brought to life by the emotions they conveyed so vividly. How sweet we both were. How gentle. I will always cherish those exchanges!

"yet, sometimes, i wonder, if you know, why do you insist in pushing, and really pushing for my answers, or affirmation?
"i'm exhausted, always when i think of you, because i cannot fathom how you cannot understand me."

3 years ago, almost. We cannot turn back the clock, to the times that we cherished and treasured, for then the history will be rewritten and we will not be as what we are now. But yet, at times, I really wish hard for a time machine to be at my disposal, so that I may visit these moments once again, when I am at my lowest ebb or living my life to the fullest, just to remind me how lucky I am.

Thank you so very much for the memories and for the courage.

"Further message truncated due to quota reached, ML "

Friday, November 11, 2011

KTM intercity service



The investigator is back, with some good news!

I went to the KTM website, http://www.ktmb.com.my/ and I wasn't disappointed! Yes, that's a good thing, for I had been let down by many times before by these service providers through their sites.

The site is quite good actually, if you take your time to navigate. Clicking on the available tabs one by one, reading the information given, I actually felt confident enough to try out the trip tomorrow (or later today, technically speaking!). The site offers the schedules, the types of train available, the various lines, services provided, among others, and best, it's bilingual. And the English is good!

I particularly found this link here https://intranet.ktmb.com.my/e-ticket/login.aspx , super useful for me! It certainly summarized all the information that I clearly. And it is simple enough to use. Basically, it follows a little like booking a plane ticket, only this is restricted to a one way journey per booking. You choose your station of origin, then your destination, and after that, your travelling date. Once you have done that, your train service options will be listed, also in the same page. You can then choose the option best suited to you, either by time or by the train service. Select it and you can at once see the seating style and the corresponding fare. Very easy and straightforward. Good for people like me.

Of course, I have not ventured so far as to ticket purchasing yet. Today's exercise was to gather as much information as I can on the KTM intercity service. I sure hope that part would be equally user and customer friendly, if not better. Now, I have faith! Awesome site!

Oh and also a couple of things KTM might want to consider to add to the site are,
1 : Adding information on the all stations along the intercity route, eg: current condition, amenities available, etc. Pictures help.
2 : Describe and promote the towns which these stations are located, even the small ones. I think it will appeal to locals especially, as we are able to learn about the towns and their people. Who knows, it might help spur domestic tourism.

Just my two sens worth! Cheers and thanks for the good information!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

And the search train rails on!


Right now, as I am checking out the train service in my country, I realized that I know very little of them. I don't know if they have any train line which stops at each train station in country.

Train service is not really popular among people that I know. The handful of people that I know had taken the train before, probably prefer driving to train taking now. It never crossed my mind to ask them about the service either then.

So right now, I'm left to conduct my own research. I really hope that I can get enough information from the internet without needing to call the train service provider tomorrow. If it gets to that, it would be a little disappointing to me considering that the government is really trying to promote tourism here.

My initial browsing so far has led me to some schedules of trains, express and non-express, I think. I am not sure about the latter, as the isn't any description on the name of the service. All the express train line names are preceded with the word 'ekpress' which cannot mean other than 'express'. I hope.

It is the non-express lines that I am interested in. I just want to try out the service first, so the idea I have in mind is to hop from the nearest station to my place to the next nearest station, and then back. That's the master plan.

I wonder too, how can I get to that train station, if I do not want to drive or take the taxi. I wonder if the is any public bus that goes that way. Or if I do drive, is there any parking lots available for the commuters.

And not forgetting the fare. I've to stumble across any guide to the fare for the non-express lines. Also, the amenities each train car provides. Toilet is very important!

And so, the search train rails on!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

I write?

I Write?

The start.
Writing is one of the four components in learning language. I had always been inclined to write. I guessed, my interest started when I was in my tween, although the term was coined then. Never an active girl, the only activity I indulged in was reading. Story books and newspapers became my companions. I guessed, it was the only natural step that I took to try writing my own stories, or more like compositions. Only few pages long and most of them were about my morbid fantasies of love and death. Puppy love, more like it.

Bold.
Writing allowed me to be bold. Yes, I was a timid girl. I still am, now, I think. With writing, I allowed my fantasies to come alive. I lived in them, sometimes. When I was young, in primary school, I was infatuated with a boy, who wasn't that friendly with me. I wrote our love stories, or wrote stories with characters based on him and his family, and sometimes me. I grew out of that after a while, luckily! When I was slightly older, I wrote about what I taught about my life, my family, my school teachers, friends, anything.

Diary.
I think it is safe to say almost every girls who could write, owned a diary at some point of their lives. I did, for a while. It was a thick hard cover, exercise book actually, my mother's, which she didn't use or got from school. My diary writing was weird. I wrote everywhere, anything. I didn't develop any system, not chronologically, topical, mood, nothing. The diary was a jumble of thoughts of anything and everyone or everything and no one. I had the perpetual fear of it getting discovered by my family members.

School.
I didn't write for school. Sadly. We didn't have a school magazine per se but we did have a biannual school magazine, where they would compile classes photos, groups photos, teachers, etc. For articles, teachers would select works from the students, real compositions written by students for classwork. During my last year, I was asked by my English teacher to write about my experience in school. I wrote what I felt, really, honestly, but she deemed it not fit for publication and so mine wasn't published. I didn't really enjoy my secondary school, in case you are wondering.

Dictionary.
Every writer would most likely have a favourite dictionary. I didn't. I could not be bothered to learn the meaning of new words or their spellings. Not sure why, though I did suspect that might be due to the fact that I didn't really learnt how to use the dictionary well at that time. I knew how to find words, but couldn't understand the pronunciation symbols (phonics, I found out later) and the word class. Maybe that's why my writing is a little stagnated, immature. Though, I use the available online dictionary and spell checks now.

When it matters most.
When it matters most, I wrote terribly. During exams, during tests, I would always be confronted with a case of writers' block. I wouldn't be able to write beautiful sentences, vivid stories or meaningful compositions. Nor could I bring in-depth analytically writing to sense. My writings always brought down my performances. I could get praises for classwork writings, though. Always.

Inconsistent handwriting.
In secondary school, my handwriting became inconsistent. I would start writing something in beautiful handwriting. As I went forth, it would slowly turn into scribbles. Once it was so bad that teacher actually cautioned me about it. I was most relief when I started typing. It saved me lots of embarrassment.

Now.
I try to write now, but only here. I was writing quite ferociously here quite a while back, but somewhat lost that fire. The quality of my writes also reflect that downhill pattern.

creative -> earn money

From a discussion about the latest creative idea we stumbled upon earlier today...


friend : creative -> earn money!!
me : no no
me : creative + daring (dare to realize it) == earn money
me : :D
me : i think we are all creative
me : the difference is whether we dare to realize our creative ideas


Is this thinking spot-on?

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Wait, Waiting, Waited!

I would wait, I had said to myself.
I was waiting, I told myself.
I waited and then I cooled myself down.

At first I was sitting in front of the screen, constantly checking out the push messages. After about three quarters of an hour had lapsed, I peeking at my screen while reading the newspaper, old style. The push messages kept on coming, but the counter remained the same. The hands of the clock continue to tick, the short hand inching nearer and nearer to 7pm.

I started walking away from the pc, but still allowing it to run. Zach had already finished his dinner. Once in a while I peeked at the screen, only to notice the list of the push messages growing. Seemed like time was the fertilizer for the push message list, growing longer and longer. Still, the counter stagnated at number #2. Frustrating!

Around 7pm, I decided to throw in the towel. The waiting was in vain, definitely! The service had reached its end for that day couple hours earlier, I suspected. What I couldn't understand was why didn't they just announce it, instead of letting their customers wait. Totally incomprehensible and unacceptable customer service!

What a let down! I just wonder how you had come to be awarded with the title you hold now, for past years. Definitely a letdown!

I would wait, I had said to myself.
I was waiting, I told myself.
I waited and then I cooled myself down.