MC Day
I woke up yesterday, very eager to work... (not exactly). However it is weird that I had those "taik mata" at my eye (I wonder what it's called in english..eye shit? hehe). Before any assumption arise, I do wash my face and bath every morning (I almost can hear the assumption building up).
I looked in the mirror. hm my left eye is reddish. (I have a sepet eye.. chinese almost always speak chinese with me) I thought maybe the eye got exposed to the dust while riding my motorcycle to work (Estate is like that.. when it's dry, we will have a layer of dust on our face - bedak asli). Hopefully the reddish color will be gone soon.
Working as usual, until lunch time, I go back home. (the mill and my house is just 1 km apart, so I can actually go home anytime of the day :) ) the color is still there. (Ait!!!) I tried sleeping during the 1 hour (overslept abit :p). There's no change in the color. (I think I "sakit mata") Went to see the manager, asking permission to go to clinic. (he doesn't even want to look at my face, maybe afraid that the disease spread to him)
- Continue -
Labels: Experience, Stories
Doctors 101
Summary - 2 Lessons from Med School
First-year students at Med School were receiving their first Anatomy class with a real dead human body. They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet.
The professor started the class by telling them: "In medicine, it is necessary to have 2 important qualities as a doctor. The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the human body."
For an example, the Professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the corpse, withdrew it and stuck his finger in his mouth.
"Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students.
The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead body and sucking on it. Each one tried his best not to puke.
When everyone had finished, the Professor looked at them and told them, "The second most important quality is observation. I stuck in my Middle finger and sucked on my Index finger. Now learn to pay attention."
/end story
This is a classic joke I received via email. I bet most of you had read it before. I guess that's just how important to pay attention when you're learning something. Or otherwise, eww! or worse
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
In 1995, I worked as a cashier in Sungai Petani, Kedah. Every night I had to rush myself to the bus station and usually boarded the last bus for the night home. If I miss that bus, I will have to take a taxi which will cost me RM30 (No Way).
One night, as usual I rushed to the bus station and luckily for me the bus already arrived and I got in. After a while, I noticed that the bus was heading the wrong way (Obviously it was the wrong bus). I immediately got off, and knew that I was 2 or 3 km away from the bus station.
Time was running short, I could even see the bus I was supposed to take coming. I had no choice but to hitch a ride with a motorcyclist. Luckily the motorcyclist stop, but he hesitated because he didn't have an extra helmet. What a perfect timing to start being a safe rider.. (He was not wearing any at the time he stopped)
Despite the delay of waiting for him to get a spare helmet from home, and the fact that my bus had already passed in front of me, I still able to make it to the bus station in time. Thanks to the motorcyclist.
Lesson learnt - Pay attention! :)
Labels: Experience, Joke, Lesson
Crime Scene Investigation... The Lesson
Summary - Ideas come first in a team, then comes the work.
Watched CSI yesterday on ntv7. Typical CSI series as always. By the way, love the series... hehe
Do excuse the entry if you're not a fan of the tv series. One thing I noticed from the show is that the CSI team always think out loud. When they see a small fiber, they will say it out loud.. "There's a fibre there, which shouldn't be there" or even when they are alone, they will speak up. highlighting this and that. Why ya? did they do that? The reason are maybe as follows -
1) They are acting.. and in real life, police may work quietly, But if they do the series quietly, it will be one dull series. Unfortunately.. I believe this is the actual reason why they speak up every piece of their mind.
2) Many heads are always better than one head. Usually with these guys, time are always against them, they need to solve the case ASAP. so by highlighting what they see to the rest of the team, all will be updated simulataneously and maybe some other guys have better insight on the things. So guys... this is actually how a team should be.
I remember when I was studying. For one of our subject, we were put into a group of 5. Our group consist of 4 Malays and one foreigner from Turkmenistan. And as always, our group tends to discuss everything in Malay. So he is very pissed everytime the meeting was held (I can't blame him). To cut things short.. the foreign student finally gave up and instead of supporting with his creative ideas, he just did all the work. Shame on us...
I guess we might have gotten better grade in that subject if we allowed his creativity and ideas to be discussed. He is one of the best student there.
The lesson I learnt from this is not from my proudest experience. But for the record, the foreign student was staying in the same block with me, and most of the time, after the meeting, I will describe to him what the meeting is all about. Most of the time... *Sigh
Conclusion - the reason teams are formed is to share the ideas, not to share the work. Work, anyone can do.. Ideas, can only surface if everyone support each other.
Anything else from the show that you might noticed?
Labels: Experience, Lesson, teamwork
Don't Worry Be Happy :)
Summary - Don't worry on things we cannot control
I have missed two days of posting. :) Sorry, well as the saying goes, we can always plan.. but in the end He will decide how everything will happen.
Does this mean that all our plan in our life is pointless? and that we might as well do nothing and let everything happen, since in the end He will decide for you?
Eheh even we know immediately right that this is wrong. Allah had never taken away our right to choose. Instead we decide everything for ourselves. It is only how things happen is decided by Him. We choose a road to travel, whether or not that road will suffer major traffic jam is never in our control. We decide to eat, however how our body react to it, digest it is totally beyond our control. But we still need to travel to go to somewhere. We will never get anywhere if we don't travel. We still need to eat, whether or not we will still feel hungry afterward is totally up to Him,
Now that we clear that up, why oh why should we be bothered by those we can't control. We are going to office, when suddenly it rains heavily and flood the whole area. we will not be able to go to work, and the boss might scream at us afterward. Think logically... what else we can do? Can we get to the office any other method? No? then call the boss, tell him what happen. Why do we spend the rest of day worrying about getting scold tomorrow... when we know for sure, there's nothing we can already do. Isn't it better if we spend the day off with the family happily. At least you are getting something out of this, a happier family.
My point is simple.... always try to control our wandering mind. Things go wrong, you have done everything humanely possible. And there's NOTHING else can be done. Why spend your energy worrying until it upset everything, your family suffered, your work quality deteriorated, your stress level increased.
Other application that I may think are as follows
- Traffic jam, there's nothing you can do about it, please don't cut queue through the emergency lane.. I will hate you for that :) so why curse and get angry. Do something else maybe rehearse for Akademi Fantasia audition by singing the song in the radio, or come up with idea for your blog.
- Your friend have a misunderstanding with you, and you had tried to reconcile by apologizing (eventhough it's totally not your fault) for for about 3 months already and still he don't want to talk to you. Why worry and blame yourself. You cannot control people's feeling. move on.
- etc
Don't you agree that we spend a lot of time doing basically nothing (worrying)?
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
Do you remember the time I mentioned to you that I made a terrible mistake in my line of work. I accidentally authorize the cutting of wrong tube in a boiler. The manager was furious. And for the first time, he screamed at me in front of other people. I was so stressed at the time. The only thing come up to my mind is me being sacked from the job. Seriously very stressful. Of course I had called up contractors to repair the damage, yet my mind is torturing me with all the negativity. For about 1 hour I feel like that when I think the last thing I could do is to write an apology letter. I admit my mistake and claim that I will take full responsibility.
He called me in the evening. And to my surprise instead of being sacked, he said that he had shown my letter to his superior (who was by the way there) and the superior was actually very impressed with me taking the responsibility. However he said that this is a very expensive lesson to be learnt and not to be repeated. I nodded appreciatively.. Fuuh lega! :)
Labels: Experience, Lesson, Mind
An Accident That Should Happen, But Didn't.. I Wonder Why
Have you had an accident that when you think back, you were actually the luckiest person in the world at the time. Any minor changes in the accident may resulted in you being ... well, dead.
Yesterday, there was an accident involving one of my tankers. Leaving the details out, I can say that the driver was very lucky. Any wrong action at the time, he will be dead for sure, plunging into a cliff nearby. The pictures above showed the trailer disconnected from the prime mover (the front part of a tanker). Alhamdulillah the driver was not hurt and all palm oil were recovered. Happy ending.
Back to the topic, I personally have had a lot of near (death) experience. Not that I am seeing the light or anything, like there's one time, I was driving back from Kedah to Johor. I am very sleepy at the time, suddenly I realised there's a lorry approximately 100 meter in front of me. I hit the brake immediately and manage to stop exactly behind the lorry. (the lorry was moving very slowly). Shocked, I headed to the nearest RnR and sleep for over two hour there. Apparently I'm down with fever, not any fever - the dengue itself. But that's another story.
In my opinion, there are two ways you can react to this.
- You will be braver, and eventually become those of Mat Rempit or Tokyo Drift material.
- or you can do this. Imagine that the near miss "fatal" accident is actually a warning given by the Almighty, probably it would sound like this - "If you doesn't change the way you drive or do things... that exactly what will happen in a day or two. Don't say I didn't warn you then."
Labels: accident, Experience, Islam
The Promise of a Malay
Assalamualaikum guys.. As you may be aware, I just returned from my "Balik Kampung" trip to Kedah. My bus was scheduled to arrive at 12.00 am. So, as always the mrs and I came a bit earlier at around 11.45pm. When I approached the counter, the attendant told me that there may be a bit delay to the bus arrival as the bus just arrived in Alor Setar. I fully understand that. It's very hard to organize such dynamic arrangements. So I asked her when would the bus arrived here. She told me very convincingly that by 12.45am, the bus will arrive. "That's fair" I thought to myself, so both of us help ourself with late supper and chat to kill the time.
By 1am, the bus was still no where to be seen. I again approached the counter and asked the whereabout. To my surprise, the girl just smile and said "Biasalah, janji melayu.. katanya tak jalan lagi dari alor setar" I was really shocked. My wife was so furious she claim want to kick the poor flower vase at the place. (which I doubt will break and will only hurt her leg heheh)
So what is this "Janji Melayu"? Yes, I'm familiar with the term. It is when we promise to do something at a specific time but almost very sure will not follow the time.
Why do "Melayu" associated with this type of attitude? Are we proud having this attitude? Where nobody will take our words seriously..Where our words actually is worthless.
For those who read this, Malay or Non-Malay, can I assume that you are at least have some interest in improving yourself? We need to change this term "Janji Melayu". Forget about everyone else. We are the one who must first change. When we promise something... Let us make sure that the promise is well kept.
If we say, tomorrow at 7am, we will wait at someplace, let the other person know that, that WILL SURELY HAPPEN. To change a culture is not an easy thing to do. But we can surely change our attitude. Once that changed, show other people the importance of that change. Don't aim to change the attitude of the whole company or university just yet. Aim small. Maybe with your friends.
It is my believe that we are given "akal" to guide the rest of our organs (~hands, leg, eye, and especially mouth) to do good. If our mouth utter words that is worthless. What's the difference between us and those without "akal"
--------------- Personal Note --------------------------
Do excuse today's entry which is a bit personal and emotional. Can you blame me? I fully understand that sometime the unexpected happens. And sometime, we can plan all we want but it is always up to Him in the end. I'm just very frustrated when promise now doesn't carry any value at all and they expect me to accept that. Oh ya, the bus arrived at 2.00 am
Labels: culture, Experience
Heroes - With power to look calm but damn nervous inside
This is a true story and it happened yesterday (20/6), I've had a new experience in my line of work. I was working as always when suddenly one worker came running to me saying that there is a drunk tractor driver chasing other workers with a "parang". I immediately called the security guard and believe it or not, he said he wouldn't dare to go to a drunk running amok with a "parang". I am quite angry at the time, because who will go and calm the person if the security doesn't dare. What if somebody got hurt?
I am not that brave also, but I take a deep breath and "tawakal" to Allah. I asked three of my other workers and we went to the driver's place. . There I saw him alone, no "parang" what so ever.
"Fuuh! lega!". Immediately after he saw us, he get upset and start cursing. I asked all those with me to remain quiet and just stand by if he attacked or anything. I slowly approached him and I tried my best to maintain that innocent look of not knowing what happened. I asked him to start from the beginning. After a lot of cursing and incoherent words... he explained to me what's the problem.
I guess his thought became more organized to properly explain to me and thus he started to calm down. I was agreeing with everything he said and promised him to settle his problem myself.
FYI - he is a contractual tractor driver taking the waste of the mill out. He is not employed by the mill but by nearby estates. And he was paid by amount of load he can do everyday. The more he can load out, the more money he get. To load the waste will require mill's shovel, which was not available at the tme. That's why he's angry.
Of course in order for me to help him, I insist he must surrender the "parang". Everything's settled. When I walked back I can see him laughing, maybe because he think I will now do what ever he wants. Obviously I then called his manager and banned him from entering the mill compound ever again. Oh ya, no one's was hurt fortunately.
Lesson learnt -
- My security need to sit down and come up with proper plan for all emergency. Luckily this is just a drunk case, where I can still reason with him. If it were a crazy person who just want to kill others, the workers will be all dead before police came.
- I need to sit down and come up with my proper plan for all emergency. The problem with emergency is that it usually happen when you lease expected and if you panic, things will only just get worse. Hm do you guys ever plan what to do in emergency? like your bus toppled or burglar inside the house? I think I should..
Labels: Experience, Organize
"Pasir" and Officer
There was a man at Bukit Kayu Hitam (The border of Thailand and Malaysia). We will call him Nasir (from "pasir"). He was seen to cross the border to and fro everyday riding a bicycle with two sacks of sands.
One day, a custom officer, who we will call Faisal (From "officer"), noticed Nasir carrying the sack from Thailand into Malaysia. He immediately stopped Nasir and asked him what's inside the sack. Nasir said, "it's just sand, sir." Faisal did not believe him. Who would waste time carrying in sands like that. There must be rice or illegal things inside. Faisal then smashed the sacks of sands onto the road and found that Nasir was telling him the truth. There were just sands. Nasir then slowly gathered what remains from the sands and filled it back into the smashed sacks.
The next day, Faisal, the immigration officer, stopped him again, and did the same thing, expecting he might soon catch Nasir smuggling rice, or drugs into Malaysia. But there were nothing else inside the sacks but sands. Faisal started to feel sorry for the old man. And Nasir continued bringing the sacks into Malaysia everyday for 2 years straight. Of course Faisal did spot check from time to time but to no avail.
After the two years, Nasir had stopped crossing the border. And one day during breakfast Faisal met his old friend, Nasir at the coffee shop looking quite wealthy and very different from two years back. After a long chit chat, Faisal asked Nasir.. "Now tell me the truth, why do you brought in sands from Thailand to here? What do you actually do for a living?"
Nasir said : "I smuggled bicycle"
(Source - Forwarded joke rewritten from memory)
Lesson learnt
- We often see the world expecting everything will be familiar and easily understandable. We prefer not to challenge our mind looking from another perspective. For example, we look at a thin man with red eye, immediately we label him as a drug addict. He might just be Bill Gates trying out contact lense. Who knows? :)
- Next time, we see anything. traffic jam, beloved parents, even jokes like the above, maybe we can try looking it from another point of view.
- "Gajah depan mata tak nampak, Kuman seberang laut nampak pulak"
I don't actually recall my first time riding a bicycle. But I remember exactly how my brother first learn to ride the bicycle. Our father forced him to learn, and in doing so, he injured himself falling. (Not to say injured, but fall down la :p). So one night, he actually took a knife to tear the bicycle tyre. I'm not so sure whether he succeeded or not, but the amazing thing is... the very next day was the day he finally able to ride the bicycle. :) So guys, how did you learn to ride bicycle?
Labels: Bicycle, Experience, Joke
Went to see the doctor.. (Guess what, the doctor also try to avoid any eye contact with me. Is it really that contagious?) and he gave me a 3 days MC (Yahooooo!). Went back to the mill and surrendered the MC to the manager (with the expression of pain and suffering but yahooing inside)
So with that, it is confirmed that I am down with "sakit mata" (I still don't know the english word for it. Eye ache?) Please pray for my recovery and hopefully the mrs will be fine.
Lesson learnt -