Monday, February 28, 2005

Ri membebel tentang kerja lagi...

I was on-call the whole of last week. It cannot be categorized as a busy week but it was by no means a walk in the park!

I received at least one call for every each day I was on-call and some of those calls irritated the hell out of me!

For example, a client called me up at around 5.45pm asking about her order. The order had been sent at 2.00pm and she was wondering why it still has not arrived at her place.

Since it was supposed to be a rather urgent order, I asked help from my night staff to check it out. After much hassle, we discovered that no such order had been prepared for that day and told the very unsatisfied client so.

It is only when I came in the next morning that we found out what actually happened. The so called order was sent but someone from the client’s office called soon after the order was received and requested that the preparation of the order be withheld until further notice. And they called not once, but TWICE! There were even two stick-it notes on the order form to prove it!

This is truly another Malaysian phenomenon, this inefficient passing over of duty between day staff and night staff so forth and so on at the client’s place that costed us no small amount of effort and time. Tsk, tsk! These Malaysian phenomenon are endless… I’m so damn sick of it!!!

Sunday, February 20, 2005

Cacamarba Budaya Kita

Barangkali aku le orang yang paling ‘hangin’ kalau memperkatakan tentang perkhidmatan IT support kat opis aku. Ntah bape banyak dah pahala aku terbang kat diorang dek umpatan dan kejian aku terhadap diorang selama ni.

Harap-harap dapat le cover balik dengan umpatan dan kejian diorang terhadap aku (hehehe…!) sebab aku ni memang banyak sangat songelnya bila minta bantuan diorang. Siapa yang dok menjawab panggilan kat helpdesk tu siap le apabila aku call… Pasti ada je la potpet aku yang terpaksa dilayannya. Kawan aku kata, semua techies kat IT support tu sampai dah kenal dah dengan aku. Ahaks!

Tapi aku rasa memang justified segala rungutan dan komplen aku tentang diorang ni. They don’t seem to be a very coordinated lot. When executing an exercise, it looks as if they have not sat down to discuss all the implications and possible problems that may arise from it.

Oleh itu, selalu le aku nampak diorang ni ke sana ke mari fire fighting. Belum habis penat kerja yang lepas dah kena buat lagi sebab kerja tu didapati incomplete atau mengandungi error dan sebagainya. Takde pulak aku nampak diorang bawak checklist yang berkemungkinan besar boleh membantu diorang untuk pastikan yang semua perkara yang perlu diaddress telah diselesaikan dengan sempurna.

Maybe aku ni terlalu cerewet sebab membandingkan cara kerja orang lain dengan cara aku kerja (Perhatian: Ini kemungkinan kes masuk bakul tekan butang lif semata-mata! Hampir tiada kena-mengena dengan hakikat yang sebenar… OK la… 80% kena, boleh? Ceeewaaahhh!!!), tapi sepatutnya sesuatu kerja itu tidak perlu dibuat dua tiga kali.

But then, when I reflect on it, it’s a very Malaysian phenomenon indeed. For instance, we still can occasionally see roads being dug up to lay out new electric cabling or water piping when it had just been beautifully repaved mere weeks before. Definitely, the resultant patches will have to be paved over again after the work is done. Can’t people see what a waste of resources that is? Not to mention inconvenient to the users? Are they unaware? Or aware but not willing to cooperate? Or aware but unable to make the time tables meet due to some constraint? I guess we’ll never know.

However, I do so hope that this Malaysian phenomenon will go the way of the dinosaurs to make way for a better phenomenon (hopefully, because I don’t think much of the world after mammals, especially the two legged and brainy kind, have taken over).

Friday, February 18, 2005

Firecrackers vs. Azan

Tiba je time Raya Cina, pasti terdengar rungutan pasal bunga api dan mercun, selalunya dari golongan Melayu (Muslim) kita ni lah. Memekak je time orang nak masuk tido- gitu le lebih kurang general opinion yang ada. Tapi kita kena akui, Raya Cina setahun sekali. Bising yang mengganggu tido tu pun biasanya hingga takat hari ke 15 Raya Cina aje.

Saya ingin highlightkan di sini satu perkara yang sering dilupai orang kita adalah time Aidilfitri pun ada gak main bunga api dan mercun (kadang-kadang Aidiladha sekali). Dan lagi satu perkara yang kita lupakan atau mungkin kita tak sedar ialah mengenai Azan, terutamanya time Subuh.

Saya sendiri pun tak perasan perkara ni kerana sebagai seorang Muslim, Azan tu sesuatu yang indah dan biasa. Langsung tiada perasaan terganggu ketika mendengarnya malah jiwa lebih tenang. Namun berdasarkan satu perbualan that I overheard among non-Muslims, diorang menganggapnya sebagai suatu gangguan, especially kalau rumah diorang kebetulan berdekatan surau atau masjid.

Pasti kita sebagai Muslim terasa tercabar dengan statement begini sebab Azan adalah hak kita dalam beragama, tapi cuba kita renung sejenak. Kalau mereka boleh tolerate Azan (terutamanya time Subuh yang sering mereka dakwa menyebabkan tido mereka terganggu) tiap-tiap hari, mengapa kita tak boleh tolerate bunyi bising keraian mereka yang datang sekali setahun itu? In fact, we should be able to accept it better than them sebab kita Muslim. Kita ada konsep sabar dan konsep menghormati jiran. Mengapa perlu merungut? Saya betul-betul kurang faham…

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Awang Vampiro


This sketch was inspired by Book II Chapter 8 of Nizam Zakaria's latest online novel 'Awang Vampiro'. It potrays Awang holding a secespita confronting his former companion Kasturi@Damak who is in the process of killing the blind vampire Tiresias. The image of Damak and Tiresias are reflected off the blade of Awang's secespita. Very shoddy sketch but it's my first after 2 years of hibernation..

Monday, February 07, 2005

Ri and the never ending projects...

My e-kawan Isman pointed out to me how outdated my blog is. This is an old problem with me. I have the ambition to write but lack the discipline to keep at it. How I envy all the other bloggers who’ve managed to keep their own sites (and even some other people's sites) alive with their thoughts and comments from time to time, ever current and always exciting.

In fact, this problem extends to almost every part of my life. Most of my personal projects are currently on hold, be it writing or creating artwork (I haven’t even made a single decent sketch for the past 2 years!!!) or learning (Anything! I actually have piano and guitar lessons as well as Japanese classes on the back burner), just because I simply can’t inspire myself to continue with whatever it is that needs doing.

You can imagine how bad this attitude is when you consider the state of my bedroom. It is in a perpetual state of being redecorated. Half of the room is almost immaculate, while the other half is still in boxes or in piles waiting to be rearranged in their proper places. This has gone on since May of 2002.

However, I promise myself that I shall find the will to continue with whatever I had planned and will plan because these are things that I truly love and enjoy. So wish me luck!