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| Tuesday, 26-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Spring Cleaning...
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The front of my official Transcript
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The back
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How the marks relate to your degree clasification
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Today was the official spring cleaning day for my Group, the Petroleum Product Group (PPG). It's part of a 5S approach that represents 5 Japanese words that in a nutshell means something like throw away, tidy up, maintain the tidiness and make it a habbit. Something like that. Supposed to be a health and safety measure, esspecially in the labs. My workstation obviously didn't have much for cleaning but there were a few things left behind by the previous tenant. Other than that, it was more of other people's mess getting chucked out or recycled.
The rest of the day was spent reading this book on using VBA for MS Excel. I was assigned a task that would require me to develop an Excel based program using the VBA features in Excel. Abit of re-sharpening my programing skills that have not been sharpened since first year of uni. I reckon it should be ok. There will be lotsa frustrating moments I foresee as is always the case when i try to put my ideas into code... but i like the challenge 
Ah... recieved my Official transcript from my Uni today. Took a few weeks and about £17 (about RM120) for it to get here. Good thing I still have some money in my UK account. £17 feels alot less than RM120 for a piece of paper. Neeways... i needed it to register with the board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) and also to sign up with the Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) so that i might someday become a professional Engineer (Ir). Not that being an Ir is important for my line of work but it's sure a cool thing to have!! 
The transcript is as posted with this post. It shows all the subjects i took and the marks (which i have erased from public view!). It also shows how i got to my degree in my case i switched to a BEng course from an MEng course after my second year. It shows my degree classification and how the marks add up to the classification. Also, quite interesting is the US mark equivalent table. If this was true then by US standards I would've only had a few Bs and below. I also noticed how my marks actually fell on average every year. Seems that I was getting more fed up with exams as the years went by and probably I slept through more lectures every subsequent year!!
Well...an early morning tomorrow.. I've gotta join a teleconference with one of our technology partners which i don't know where the other party is gonna be? US, UK or Singapore... not that important really cos I'll prolly just end up listening...
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| Monday, 25-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Mondays...
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Monday... nothing to do at work.... not a bad thing actually. Managed to send out and reply the emails that were long overdue and managed to catch up on some reading!! Perfect! Sadly I can't blog from work as they block fotopages but funnily they don't block blogster or friendster.. 0)
after work i had to go to the bank in KL to send some stuff for my account application...Naturally i went via LRT (It's suicidal to drive into K.L during rush hour!) thank god i was going into KL when everyone was going out of KL!! I also noticed some LRT coaches during rush hour have their seats removed so that only the disabled and elderly can sit. I think that's a good idea. An idea they probably got from the Japanese... I also observed the K.L suburban skyline and notice that there are so many apartments and condominiums being erected! Is this the way KL life will be in the future? everyone living in multi story buildings? that reminds me of Singapore... and it's not nice...
I'm also thinking about the traffic problems this increase of population will cause... the public transport has to be upgraded to cope with this increase of population... I reckon we need to build a few more rail lines to spread the population density when commuting. Anyone who has taken the LRT during rush hour will agree with me
Neeways.. back to last week... i'll skim through the main details... where did we stop? lemme check.
Ah... the cubprix... probably the cheapest form of motor racing in Malaysia (yes, even cheaper than go-karting!  ) It was quite cool cos they were a university taking part in a professonal event.. kudos to the guys at BATC (Business & Advanced Technology Centre) of UTM in taking a bold step forward. Well... i'm actually biased as I totally encourage Unis to take part in motorsports because of my own experience in motorsports and of course... My dad works at UTM as well!! hahaha.. They all know him... the guys at the team... Back to the cubprix. The riders are all professional but the students themselves take on design projects on the bike itself similar to what I did on the Formula SAE car but at a smaller and less expensive scale. I did suggest them to start a FSAE team of their own and I'd be more than happy to help out! 
Ok... actually before the Cubprix thingy I 'crashed' a BBQ party for the Track Marshalls from Petronas for the recent Sepang F1 GP. One of our technicians is a marshall and we were going to the cubprix thingy so he decided to bring us along!! cool ey!! free food!! but mor importantly, they had the BBQ at the SPU (Special Project Unit) warehouse in Shah Alam. This is where they store all the Petronas' track Protons used for the F1 race. Some of them have been fitted with the Petronas' own engine! There I also met again that dude that I met at the Automekanika expo a few weeks back. They happened to be there too. The just got back from testing thier new go-kart featuring Petronas' own go-kart engine. It is more than 3 times more powerful than your 'garden variety' go-kart engine - has an overhead cam and dry sump lubrication which i feel are overkills that would raise the price tag of the engine when they want to sell it. But i was impressed...
Thursday was Maulidurrasul.. spent the whole day cleaning out my room and getting all nostalgic over som eof the photos i 'rediscovered'. Friday was a really short day. went for the fitness class at 4 and went to play tennis after that. Still can do a few moves for my tennis so I'm not completely out of practice. Might try to play again 2moro. the guys there are pretty good and the standards are quite high. I really enjoy playing with them.
Right.. bed time.. catch you guys later. Have a good week ahead everyone!!
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| Sunday, 24-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Quite a good week...
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The UTM bike - Flat black in colour
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The factory Yamaha Team also practised on that day
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This guys was freakin' fast!
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First day at work, back from terengganu was a mixed supprise day... First think i noticed when i got to my desk was that there was a envelope on my desk. I was plesantly supprised to find out that it was a Birthday Card from my CEO. It looked very computer generated bar the signature at the bottom of the page but hey, It's a nice touch. Thanks boss!
Then the reality of work life caught up with me when i tried to switch my pc.. the freakin thing wouldn't start, one of the boot files was missing! how could this happen when it has been switched off for the past week?! It turned out to be a virus and that meant I was going to have no Internet for 3 days! Bugger! My inbox was bound to be full with Orientation stuff emails and the work email is only 60MB big...Well that slight setback meant i was 'forced' to do more of the EPC Learning modules on my laptop.. glad to say that I finished the last of modules!
Tuesday was cool cos i was anticipating to go join the Universiti Technologi Malaysia's (UTM) professional Cubprix team for testing. They've been testing our lubes as part of our sponsorship program. It's good to see a local university actually enggaging the 'real' world as opposed to only teaching theory in the lecture theatres. Unfortunately, due to me having no internet, I didn't know that i had a project meeting that very day.. A meeting that lasted the whole day!!  so I didn't get to go for the cubprix testing...
All wasn't lost cos There was another test session was scheduled on Wednesday!!
oops.. gotta go.. off to My granny's place. We'll continue this when i get back...
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| Sunday, 17-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Back to work...
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Back from Terengganu on Friday. Public transport from where I live to the airport is quite good. First time that I can give the Malaysian public transport a good two thumbs up! Takes me about 1 hour to get to the airport via LRT and ERL though the ERL is quite pricy by Malaysian standards. Hung out with a few guys from Petrosains on the way back as i stopped by KLCC en-route home.
Terengganu was good. The place i stayed wasn't very nice indoors but the surroundings were ok i guess. They did have one of the biggest swimming pools in a resort that I've been to. Our place was right next to the beach so that was quite cool.
The course itself was really good. 3/4 of the course was on turbines, compressors and pumps so not much of it was relevant to my work but i did do those things at uni so it was like a more in-depth course on those subjects while the part on internal combustion engines was pretty much standard things. The place tha we had our course was called INSTEP (short for Petronas Institute of Petroleum) and the campus was HUGE!! our course was only held at the only building that had lecture rooms and probably air cond. The fascilitator we had was very good. he was very knowledgable and could answer everything that was thrown at him. Quite impressive i reckon.
One notable thing is that on the last night of our stay there was a legal drag race held nearby. Nights are normally dead in Terengganu so we decided to check what all the fuss was all about. Ironicly on the way back from INSTEP to our hotel, there was a fatal accident and that wasn't a good sign as we were about to watch a drag racing event later that evening. Tickets cost only RM2 and the place was reasonably well layed out. The cars were mediacore at best with lotsa souped up Kancils and Satrias but there were a few Honda Civics and even a Lancer EvoVIII. The smell of unburnt petrol brought back memories of me working on the Formula SAE car back in Leeds.. ah... those days... Nevertheless, the event was very poorly organised and things started at 11!! then it started to rain (Again!!) so we decided to call it a day. well... at least we know that village people can race!!
Got ma a new car stereo and a cool pair of speakers to go with it. It also plays MP3 cd's so now i can bring my music with me on my way to work!! It was quite a large investment but thinking that I spend quite a lot of time on the road i reckon it was quite justifiable. neeways, back to work tomorrow... I feel so lazy...
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| Sunday, 10-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Skill group training
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Going to embark on my first skill group training session tomorrow. Heading off to INSTEP (Petronas' technical training centre) later this evening but am quite worried cos they mis spelt my name on the flight tickets! hopefully it'll be fine. Opting to take the LRT and ERL to the airport thus putting my faith in the KL public transport!! But rail travel here should be better than the busses!
Will be back on Friday night insya allah. Good thing about going on skill group training:
1) One step closer to promotion! 
2) Get to stay in a resort for 5 days all claimable.
3) Get to earn points from my credit card company for paying for the hotel and stuff with my credit card!
4) Get a break from my usual routine in a different setting.
5) basically the whole week is paid for!!
6) Most importantly: should be fun!!
so as you might have gathered I'm looking forward to this!!
This week has been quite a good week job wise. I interected alot with my boss, shared alot of info and i've been given more tasks.. cool. At least we're going somewhere now. There are many projects going on for the Lubricant side of things at Petronas so it does mean more work for me and more chance to travel!!
Went to the bi-anual (i think that means every 2 years) Automekanica Asia exhibition at PWTC on Thursday. First time i had to officially use my business card! Had to use it for registration. To be honest the show was quite boring. all car part manufacturers were there with their little bits and pieces.. Some scantly clad ladies were at Sach's booth. there a few interesting booths that kept me entertained but the best one was the Petronas Booth! It was run by both motorsport, SPU (Special Projects Unit) and Dagangan. Got to talk about the future of Automotive engineering at Petronas, what went wrong with all our engine projects and what the situation now is... it's good to know there is a future in Petronas for guys like me but not at the moment. At the moment there aren't any vacancies but once the business comes they'll need more people. that's where i hope i can progress in the future within Petronas. Petrnas is coming out with a go-cart soon!! they're just looking for someone to manufacture the thing for them and i have to say that the pricing seems very attractive indeed! So anyone wanna start taking up carting?! lemme know kay. Would be cool to get some other beginer carters like me to start learning to cart with.
Anyways.. I only managed to take 2 pics from the exhibition, and I'll include some more pics from the previous F1 exhibition at the Galeri Petronas a few weeks back. Have a good week ahead everyone.
*********
I'm at the gate waiting to board the plane to KT. Waiting for 2 other guys from PRSS that are suposed to be on the same flight. The gate has opened but I'd rather be here surfing the net!! hehehe... The wonders of the internet!! Ok.. guys are here... Hopefully there'll be internet at the resort too. KT's not the most developed of places in Malaysia. I'm off.
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| Tuesday, 5-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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New Perodua Model
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Rumor had been circulating around the net for some time about this new model from Perodua. Seems to be quite good looking and being based on a Toyota/Daihatsu model, it should be well designed and built. Expected Launch is sometime in May. Unlike the other national car maker, Perodua usually sticks to it's product launch dates.
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| Monday, 4-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Business card
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A nice shot of the twin towers during the Tsunami aid concert
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Got my business card last week so i thought I'd let you guys who I can't physically give a card to have one anyway. For security reasons I've blanked out a digit from my mobile number. Business cards within Petronas group are similar but not the same. PRSS is an ISO 9001 certified company and is acredited by SIRIM, SAMM and the UKAS so we get those logos on the top left. Top right is the Operating Unit (OPU) name i.e in my case PRSS and all cards have the F1 logo since we spend so much sponsoring F1.
A guy from Germany is coming over tomorrow to fix a broken piece of equipment. It's costing us in up of 100,000 ringgits to get him to fix the machine so managment wants us to learn as much as possible from him while he's here. That means me and the other Lubricant Engineer will hafta keep the dude company while he's fixing the darn thing. But it should be a learning experience.
Days are getting shorter at work. I think it's because I'm feeling more at home now and not constantly looking at the watch counting the hours till going home time! It might be a good thing or it might be a sign that when I get proper work to do, I might end up staying back more often than not!!
Hmm.. didn't know magazines and books are tax deductable items!! man... i really should be reading more then...
Waking up early tomorrow so laters guys...
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| Sunday, 3-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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Wedding bells.. wait... ermm... kompangs!!
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Newly weds with their respective families
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Us ppl from Leeds with the newly weds
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Abg Zainal!
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Asmak and Jemer's wedding yesterday. Details were rather fuzzy as i didn't get a formal invitation, just a verbal invitation via MSN messenger!! I didn't know what time the wedding was until a few hours before the actual wedding! Went together with a few old friends from Leeds and it was a very good to finally get reaquainted with the rest and see how everyone was fairing with life after Uni.. We were rather late but didn't miss much i guess. The venue was first rate and very traditional (aristrocrat like) malay which i thought worked very well. Anyways, i've uploaded some pics so enjoy yeah. Ah.. we had this conversation at the wedding with another guest about 'money isn't everything'. As you all might be very well aware, the oil and gas business is the most lucrative in the world about 70% of the world's wealth is owned by oil and gass companies. But I have my doubts that i'll stay long in this industry. Yes this is where the money is. But Job satisfaction is more important right? Having enough money is good enough though if the job pays well, all the better right? It's a century old debate....
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| Friday, 1-Apr-2005 00:00 |
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JPEC Symposium continued
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Felt slightly depressed yesterday. Feeling alot better today thanks to the friends I spoke to last night!! Thanks again guys. Really appreciated! There is a special reason why it effected me so much. Normally i don't really care what people want to think of me. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, right. Fair enough. It's kinda wrong to blame Malays in general but it seems that most of the malays i meet tend to fit my version of malay. It might just be circumstances. The middle class in the UK is very different from the middle class of Malaysia. Firstly it's very much larger than the malaysian middle class so i guess so a great deal more things that would be perfectly normal in the UK would be considered boasting in Malaysia. A lot more things that one would own in the UK would be considered luxury items here i.e lead to one being labled a show off if one has a particular item or dressed in a particular way. Or maybe the population in general is less well read and what little free media we have over here does not give us a whole picture of what the world is really like so if one knows a little more about alot more things one is labeled a 'mr know it all'. U guys getting the picture? Jelously is a week point in the Malay society and because of our so called 'politeness' we never voice out our opinion infront of the people concerned but choose instead to talk behind their backs... *sigh*...
On a happier note, I managed to persuade my boss to let me go to the first of my skill group training sessions on the 11th till the 15th at INSTEP (petronas technical training centre) in terengganu! the training will be a good break from my daily not so routine at PRSS. I have to complete 8 Level 1 skill group training courses and another 8 level 2 skill group training before i can get promoted to the next salary grade. Most people only get 3 done in a year so we can all do the math and predict when i'll get promoted!!
Weekend starts tomorrow... loving the free time but i have so many things that i wanna do till i dunno where to start! At least there's a friend's wedding for me to look forward to tomorrow! Have a good weekend everyone!
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| Thursday, 31-Mar-2005 00:00 |
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Reminder
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Just got a subtle remainder today as to why my closest friends aren't malays. Also feeling that some things that i do or say (or rather how i do or say things) don't really quite fit into the typical malay society? I still can't be myself.... Maybe i should settle down abroad?
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join the club. boring exam, crap business papers! mummy ... duwan to be an engineer no more! 
tp apsal jadik 'a walk to remember ' lak nih? 
ke mmg dr dulu cenggitu tp aku jek yg tak perasan..
