Author: Steve Ngai

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Uncategorized

Dr Douglas Jacoby is in town on 10 April 2008!

When I reached there, I saw Dr Douglas Jacoby. Have small talk with him, to welcome him and took the opportunity to take a picture with him. Since I forgot to bring my digital camera, I used my Treo 650 to snap this photo. And he is taller than me one head. 😀

with_douglas_jacoby

But you may ask, Who is he? It is too much for me to say here but you can check it out at http://www.douglasjacoby.com/about%20us.php. I have brought two of this books (Shinning like Stars and True & Reasonable) and they are well-written.

Last June 2007, he debated with Michael Shermer, president of the Skeptic Society. And you can watch the debat at youtube

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Uncategorized

California Fitness – Part 2

It has been two months plus being a member of California Fitness (CF). So, how am I doing so far? Let’s start with the month of January. In the month of January, if I go every Monday, Wednesday, Friday (if you are wonder, my membership only allow me to go on these days), in total there are 14 days. I went for 12 days and missed 2 days. I can’t remember the reason of the first miss but for the second one, it was due to dizziness. I have calculated, my attendance is 86%. For February, in total there are 13 days. I went for 12 days and missed 1 day (due to some reasons. Hehe … ). So, my attendance is 92%. I think if I manage to keep up my future monthly attendance of at least 80% is good enough already.

My average workout duration per visit is 30 minutes (This means it cost me RM10 for a 30 minutes of workout at CF). This is because I usually go during my lunch hour. Why lunch hour? My thought is if I have some exercise, I will feel more fresh in the afternoon, so that I can be more productive at work and less rely on caffein like coffee which is not too healthy. And, indeed it does. What exercise I do there usually? Usually, I will start out with 10 minutes of jogging using the treadmill machine. Then, I will spend the rest of my time for body building and streching. After I make a few rounds of weight lifting, example at the biseps, I will some stretching. Reason behind is when I stretch, I can rest the muscle at the same time. This is to save time. Remember, I just have around 30 minutes only to cover everything. 😀

Currently, my weight is 56.5 kg and my goal is 60 kg. This means I need another 3.5 kg. And this 3.5 kg will be either comes from fat or muscle. Of course, I want muscle, right? That’s what I am working at, to build this 3.5 kg of muscle and it is not easy. And a month of body-building like this, my weight is still the same. This mean that I gotta work harder and perhaps I also need to take those protein which is meant for body-building, instead of Amway’s protein. I think the protein from Amway is not for muscle building type.

Who do I usually go with? Most of the time I go alone. The reason is because I go during my lunch hour. I don’t know if there is anyone is a member of CF from my own department. But even there is, I think he / she most like won’t be joining me going to CF during lunch time.

What about my lunch? At the beginning, I just ‘ta pau’ something like bread to eat later of the day after the workout since I have used up my lunch time. After a while, I realize that I don’t have much appetite after the workout. So, I have a new diet for my lunch. Recently, I begin to drink this healthy drink which consists of a packet of Amway’s Positrim, mix with 1.5 scope of Amway’s protein. This drink was introduced by my mother. I tried it and it tastes good. If I have workout on that day, in the morning, I just need to bring a packet of Positrim, together with 1.5 scope of protein into a shaker and bring that shaker of course.

After my workout, I will buy a bottle of cold mineral water and one light food, example, bread. Then, when I reach office, I will take this one small bread and make my drink. First, I open up the Positrim and pour it inside the shaker. Then, I pour that cold mineral water into the shaker and shake it a few times. Then, I can drink it already while eating that small bread. The reason why I still eat that small bread because my thought is nutrien or vitamins will be no effect without combining with some food.

In summary, I think I’m doing pretty okay so far for January and February. But, the challenge is to maintain it and to make this exercise as my habit and my health lifestyle.

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Career

One month plus at Allianz

It has been one month plus working at Allianz. Thank God, it has been okay so far. The working environment here is much better than the previous one.

Basically my team consists of my manager and another three more. My manager is a lady and this is the first time I am under a lady manager. She is really a good manager, take good care of us, capable, relational, competent, humble and many other strengths. I can see that she has many friends there. And I respect her because of all these good qualities in her. The other three, one man and two ladies. They are nice people also. Really praise God for that. And praise God, I can initiate (man should initiate, right?) and have lunch with them, though usually every Monday, Wednesday and Friday I won’t due to my workout at California Fitness. During the lunch, we have talk and chat with one another and even crack some jokes at times.

My job functions are the same like my previous job, which is mainly related to software development and over here we use ASP.NET. One of the task I was assigned to do few weeks ago is a desktop application (not web-based). This is the first time I code for a desktop application. All these while, the applications I developed or maintain is web-based. Even though I am just enhancing from the existing system, this is a good experience for me. From the existing code, I learn a little how to read and exports the records from excel to PDF. And hey, I managed to do it. Of course, with some help from senior. Ya, this desktop application task also involve Crystal Report, which is new thing to me for me to learn too.

Another new thing I learn here is Reporting Service. This is the first time I heard about this. Thank God for me having the chance to make changes to existing code. The file type is .rdl. Thank God for my senior helping and explaining to me how to use this Reporting Service if I asked him.

I also improve in my knowledge about setting up, to use an existing ASP.NET project. I learn that if a folder was copied from the server to my local, I need to remove the reference keys and add them back again. This is because the reference keys path is different since the server and my pc stored the project file different location.

I also get a bit of idea on binding Visual Source Safe (VSS) thing.Another thing I notice here is security. Here, security is important. So by looking at the code, I learn a little some security principles and skills.

Thank God also for my past experiences and skill, because those past working experience, skills and knowledge help me to survive here. Without them, there are so much thing I need to learn by myself, example, implementation skill from Entellium Technologies helps. And ASP.NET, visual studio and MS SQL skill at MOL helps.

I was pretty blur in the beginning (I am still) because there are so much things for me to know, digest and remember. Example, the file structure, the policies and procedure, the database design and more and more and more. But, thank God, right now, I’m improving and know what is going on more.

Every Friday, we can wear casual but we need to wear company’s T-Shirt. Don’t feel sorry for me. Actually, I like wear it. Maybe because I’m now happy working here. Then, every month we will receive monthly magazine. I like that too. This company also has this thing called i2s. It means “idea to success”. It is a system whereby any staff can submit their idea and implemented idea will be rewarded. Isn’t that awesome? This shows that the company is open, for improvement always. That’s the way it should be.

My hope now is to be given more tasks to work on, as I have completed almost all my tasks right now. I have completed a quite a big task, right now I just need to implement it for testing. Secondly, I hope to get confirmed soon and thirdly I hope that I can stay long in this company.

Thanks for hearing me. Will update you more next time. 🙂

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Tips Macam-Macam

Monorail Station during Peak Hour

If you usually take monorail from Times Square to Hang Tuah or vice versa during peak hour, I advice you to walk instead. The reasons are:

  • During peak hour, the monorail will be usually pack. So, by the time you have waited for ten minutes, you can reach there by feet.
  • Walking there isn’t far. Maybe just take you less than five minutes, depending on how far you walk.
  • And last you can save up RM2.40 (to and fro) daily.
Categories
Career

Some Problems

These are some main problems which has made me dragging my feet to go work recently:

  • Working environment. The working environment here has been sickening me. Most of the colleagues around my area were into vulgarity include that four letter word openly and loudly. These kind of vulgarity is not much due to anger type but more on having fun of it. They also like to talk unwholesome/pervert talk or dirty jokes openly and loudly. I have mentioned this to the management but things still never changed.
  • Distraction by people passing by. My seat is located whereby more people will pass by in front of my desk. This create some distraction to me. Even though, my eyes are set on the monitor, it is still very distracting due to many people pass by in front of me. I feel this create lust temptatation to me. The working environment problem also creates distraction to me.
  • Almost no project management. It is difficult to stay focus and be productive when there is no strong ‘project manager’ to manage the project I’m working on. I wasn’t given any due date. I hope to have better project management for this project. I really need it. Entellium Technologies is good in this area.
  • Lunch time dilemma. The most fearful time for me is lunch time, mostly due to the first problem. The bible says that bad character corrups good character (1 Co 15: 33). But, if I totally don’t join them for lunch, this creates some problems also. What other colleagues will think about me if I don’t join others for lunch time every single day? They can think of me being proud or weird and no more asking me for join them for lunch like Entellium Technologies. But if I join them, I always feel uncomfortable with how they interact with each other, the type of dirty joke they joke about, the gossip. I also hated the killing carbon monoxide which come from their cigarattes. Some of them can really smoke a lot.

What should I do then?
Look for another job and quit? Just quit asap? What if the new job I got will have these same problems? Or that new job does not have these same problems but different problems. I think every company and every job has its own problems. Even if decide to work by myself as freelance, there will be problems too.

Conclusion
What what should I do then in this pressing situation? Thank God for speaking to me through his word and his people. Today, Stephen shared about how Jesus did the right thing in his most difficult times, which is submit to God by going to die on the cross. No matter I look for new job, got a new job or stay in my current job, I need to do the right thing. No matter how intense and pressing the situation turn to be, I need to be like Jesus, by doing the right thing and not to give in to situation, temptation and sickening environment.

Blessings, not to be forgotten.
Thank God to helping to solve many problems of this system. I got help from the same source, like I shared before. I got help from my senior and online forum. And, as usually, I have learnt many things from the problems I face in developing this system. I get a hang of ASP.NET more also.