2 Graveyards. Hangover. Still standing.

Friday, 13th 2006. Many would say its a sibeh suay day. But then again, its totally opposite for me.

Havent had this much fun for a very long time. And of all days; well......thats what's ironic about the whole thing. Hehe.

The CR department had its teambuilding yesterday. Everyone was in a joy joy mood seeing that we all only had to work half day yesterday to participate in the teambuilding. And of all places, it was held at the Settler's Inn at Holland V. Interesting huh?

Well, for those of you that haven't been to Settler's Inn; basically the places is like a cybercafe. Except, the PCs are replaced with......board games. I must admit it was a pretty cool place if you're in the mood for some board gaming fun with a couple of friends. And if you're feeling a lil bit hungry, the establishment do serve a variety of stuff....from finger food to chicken chop, fish and chips, etc. But..........then again whether the food is edible; different story.

After the teambuilding, a few of us decided to chill out at Wala-Wala. I'm sure I've mention this place in my blog before. Its a nice waterring hole for those people who just finished work and wanna crash somewhere. Though, the only gripe I have about the place is the customer service. It sucks.

Anyway, the night turned out to be quite fun. It came to a point everyone was drinking non-stop. And a few of us of cos hit a high-high-happy-happy-joy-joy mood. Unfortunately, I was one of them.

After having 2 pints of Kilkennys', I was sabo-ed into having another 2 Graveyards. Thank god I could still walk after that....

my second Graveyard...yeah baby!!

Like I said it in the beginning, it really has been a while I had this much fun. Chillin out with colleagues, making fun of each other and didnt had a care in the world.....

Damn, its true. When you have alcohol; everyone's your friend.

Corporate Buyout

Over night BILLIONAIRES. Thats what's on everbody's mind right now. Its not about being rich. Its not about the 7 digit figures anymore.

Its more like being...insanely rich.

Yup, I'm refering to Chad and Steve. Owners of YouTube. And seriously? If you havent heard of YouTube? Reality check. You've been living under a stone. Shoot yourself. In the head. Twice. Geez....why bother. I'd shoot you myself.

Anyway, these selft proclaimed Internet Video kings have made a pretty penny for themselves. And the reason.....Google. Just less than 48 hours ago, YouTube have been bought over by Google for a whopping US$ 1.6billion. Yeah...read me right, US$ 1.6 billion. With this move, I guess Google's in the run for one of the most versatile search engine yet.

The best part of the whole story is the price that Google paid for the acquisition. Just think about it.....YouTube has only been established for 2 years. Which means, in just merely 2 years.....this company has grown from a backyard video sharing project, to America's Fortune 500! Its totally unbelievable.

Trust me, 2 years ago.....no financier or investor in his right mind would ever predict how fast YouTube would grow. Of course, YouTube owes its growth to videos like these.....

Apparently this particular clip was the MOST viewed video in its server. With over 33 million views in just 6 months. Hehe....really alot of free people out there.

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On another note....well, I finally got my last pay cheque from my ex-employer. Thank God. Its been a seriously harrowing experience all together, and I'm really glad that I'm able to close this chapter in my life and move on. If you'd ask me....I have nothing to do with that company anymore.

I'm happy with where I am, and most importantly I'm with the company of good friends. So much so that we had a small dinner the other day that really brought back memories.

There used to be this particular stall in West Coast Road where it serves a mean dish of Koh Loh Yok and claypot noodles. Trust me, its really good. But just a few months ago, we heard the coffeeshop it was operating in closed down.

So, just when we thought that we had had our last Koh Loh Yok......we got wind that the stall had moved to Teban Gardens. Immeadiately 3 words came to mind....MAI THU LIAU!!!!!!

Man...most satisfying....slurp!!!

Sibeh Suay

So, I guess it was another nua weekend for me.

Hehe...friends have been complaining that I've just been sleeping thru the entire weekend. Which is true.

Other than going out for a drink and movie after work on Friday, been doing nothing but sleep, eat and watching series for Saturday and Sunday.

Oh ya, by the way. The movie I saw was World Trade Center. Must admit, its was kinda poignant in a way that it totally avoids the spin on terrorism. It wasnt about the attack on America. It wasnt about the Al-Qaeda. It didnt even had any political message or agenda.

It was only about the story of 2 port authority police officers who went thru 9/11. The movie told their story. And thats about it.

The part that hit me the most was the ending. There was this scene in the end that shows all the "missing persons" notices on a wall in a New York hospital. But if memory serves, I remember watching the enws 5 years ago that there were literally thousands of "missing persons" notices that were pasted all over New York. It was kinda toned down in the movie.

After some thought....then only I realised the rationale of editing out all the other notices. You see, the film makers wanna make you feel good in the end of the movie. It wasnt a movie aimed at making you feel sorrowful, sad or deppressed about 9/11. As a matter of fact, it wanted to make you feel good....make the Americans proud that they have survived 9/11. A celebration of survival of man kind.

So all in all, it was an average movie for me. The objective of the movie wasnt exactly in-line with my expectation of the movie. Cant fault a movie for that.

Anyway.....I guess by now.....why the title for this entry? Well, let me start.

Was lazing around at home today. So, around lunch time I thought of walking over to the nearest Maybank (about 10 mins walking distance) ATM to draw some cash. And guess what? When I got there.....the ATM was down. Second time this week.

Feeling abit pissed, I called up the Maybank hotline to give them my feedback. And then, I was told as an alternative, I could withdraw money from HSBC's ATM instead. So, thats all good and fine.

Later this evening....I made my way all the way to PS. And once I got to the HSBC ATM there......the friggin ATM jammed and my card got stuck!!!!!! Boy was I PISSED!!!

Immeadiately I called up Maybank and HSBC. Neither one of them could do anything. But I really gave it to the Maybank CSO (in a nice way of course). I talked to the guy about the whole issue starting with my first attempt at drawing cash from their ATM. To be honest, I wouldnt be so pissed if this is the first time their ATM failed on me.

Mulfuctioning twice in a week? I mean cmon! Do something about it already.

Anyway, I gave them my feedback and requested for a follow-up. The worst part.....is HSBC will be destroying my ATM card and I need to go down personally to one of Maybank's branches to collect it myself. I put it across to the Maybank CSO, "So, since I'm working 9am to 6pm from Mondays to Fridays; looks like I'll have to collect my card next Saturday? Where do you suggest I get money then?".

Though, I must admit I was pretty pissed at that time. I apologised to the CSO and told him he didnt have to answer my question.

Moving on to bigger things though......I am feeling like I'm wasting alot of my time away. Life is really passing me by and I'm not doing much. Started feeling like this when I heard one of my friends will be getting married soon.

Sigh.....I'm sure that time will come, the feeling of dejection when your peers are getting married; moving on with life. And conversely, I'm still stuck at this stage of life.....getting older, not any wiser.

And to top it all off.....my ex-employer still havent paid me my last month's salary!!!!! Talk about hypocrites!!! These people are always like that. When they need you....they do some of the things for you. But when you are of no use to them? They take their own sweet time. Heck...for all I know I might not even get paid at all. And they owe me about $1.5k!!!

And so far they have not been responding no any of the emails I've sent them. Soon, I'll be considering to seek assistance from MOM.

Friggin cheapos.

Thats why I said folks. Never work for a small time company who thinks they own the world. I rather work for a corrupt, western, bureaucratic, backstabbing organisation anytime.

Blurry by Puddle of Mudd

Everything's so blurry
and everyone's so fake
and everybody's empty
and everything is so messed up
pre-occupied without you
I cannot live at all
My whole world surrounds you
I stumble then I crawl

You could be my someone
you could be my scene
you know that i'll protect you
from all of the obscene
I wonder what your doing
imagine where you are
there's oceans in between us
but that's not very far

Can you take it all away
can you take it all away
well ya shoved it in my face
this pain you gave to me
Can you take it all away
can you take it all away
well ya shoved it my face

Everyone is changing
there's noone left that's real
to make up your ending
and let me know just how you feel
cause I am lost without you
I cannot live at all
my whole world surrounds you
I stumble then I crawl

You could be my someone
you could be my scene
you know that i will save you
from all of the unclean
I wonder what your doing
I wonder where you are
There's oceans in between us
but that's not very far

[Chorus]

Nobody told me what you thought
nobody told me what to say
everyone showed you where to turn
told you when to runaway
nobody told you where to hide
nobody told you what to say
everyone showed you where to turn
showed you when to runaway

[Chorus]

This pain you give to me

you take it all
you take it all away...
explain again to me
you take it all away
explain again to me
take it all away
explain again

I want my life back

Finally its the last weekend of my unemployment. And seems like I'm already getting busy even before I started work.

Last night Boss Alzari invited me to my old department's BBQ bash...... and boy, I enjoyed myself.

Its been a while since I'm in the company of so many good friends and people who support me. Initially I had my reservations about going back to M1 only after 3 months of my resignation. Gossip mongers spreading rumours is almost inevitable.

But then again....after last night, all my worries are laid to rest. I felt in a way, I was welcomed back in open arms and it really made me feel that I belonged there. Supportive colleagues, caring friends......in many ways thats what anyone could ever asked for.

Trust me, I know. Recently I've been seeing alot of things which really made me think about what makes a good or bad friend. For instance, I have a friend who's popular; goes clubbing every weekend, partying and such. But when it comes down to it.....when she gets drunk....everyone seems to just go by their own way and go home. The responsibility of a friend is not present at all.

True...when it comes down to it, its the people who sticks by you without prejudice during the lowest points in your life. With this in mind.....so far, I know I'm blessed to have good friends throughout my difficult times. I'm blessed to have gotten to know Donald, Ho, Alan and my boss, Alzari.

Lets just say life would be a much horrible ordeal to endure without them.

Nonetheless, I really enjoyed myself last night during the BBQ. One of the biggest highlights of the BBQ is even getting to see my "long lost sister" Cassie!!! No doubt she's not in M1 anymore, but she was invited as well. Man.......I do miss her alot. It was definately good to see her again.

Then of course, another highlight of the night was our regular drinking session after the BBQ. During this period, everyong just hangs back and enjoy the booze and talk-cock-sing-song. Really feels like the good old days =)

Haha....and man its been a while since I drank. We had multiple concoctions of Baileys, Absolut and wine. By the end of the night (and multiple shots) - about 2am, we were all in a few good mood....just chilling out.

After that, Ho, Alzari and me decided to prolong the night and went for the famous Boon Lay nasi lemak for supper. By the time I got home......5am.

I miss this life.