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It’s been a long time since I came in late to the office

// November 28th, 2008 // 15 Comments » // lament

Yea, last time was at my former workplace – when we had to travel the previous day. By late, I mean really late like 12pm onwards. Ganee would allow use to come in late usually because the travels practically took the whole day. Another reason was because we only got to be back home for a weekend or so before flying back to Brunei. He was letting us spending time with family I guess.

There was one time when we had to stay back for CIMB up until 2am or something. It was nice to see “You can come in by 10 tomorrow” on my phone that night. Also there was a time when I didn’t sleep for 3 days for some major bugs fixing/feature requests but still had to go to work. Of course I didn’t look so well that day and he noticed it. After making asking around the office, he found out why and let me go off early at 3pm.

Come to think about it, if I were to stay awake for some work at my current workplace I don’t think I would do it though. There’s no kind of that flexibility here so why would I want torture myself. Besides, being appreciative is not what they are – on the contrary, they like to take the credits away from you. Sadly, this is how the government works. Why would I lament on this I don’t know. It’s not going to change soon anyway no matter how much I talk about it.

A little appreciation goes a long long way. For me, if I know my work is being recognized I would happily volunteer if there’s a need to stay back. I knew Ganee was observant enough to know the effort I put in that time so I didn’t mind to spend more time on it to get it done. I knew it would be reflected in the bonus. They bought me cakes on my birthday, they treated us to TGI after projects had been completed, they got us to Redang for 3D/2N holiday, the pantry always stocked up with food and we had PS2 to relax in between stresses. 3 days with no sleep? I didn’t mind at all.

Hey I love my job, it’s really easy to make me go the extra mile – be flexible, give laptops/dual screens and treat me like a human being.

OSCC people are really cool, seriously. But MAMPU really is killing us. Usually we would come on top which I believe came from the strength we all share – we know what we do and we respect each other. Yes we have our flaws but let’s not be negative now. We have just won AIPA for MyMeeting, the mood should be happy – other than that, really don’t know what to say on this. I should be happy but then again, for something to win an AIPA, it should be something more. Anyway, they were so happy today that they took pictures among themselves with the trophies they forgot the team who developed it in the first place. I wonder where that RM10k money prize will go. It is definitely interesting to watch and I suspect it would make a good bitching post next time.

My steady companions

// October 22nd, 2008 // No Comments » // personal

My red bag

I love this bag so much. It has been with me wherever I go, be it travelling or shopping or sightseeing. I’ve had it since early this year and it still looks good! Great bag. I believe I’ll still be using it for the next 2, 3 years. I don’t have a lot of bags. At one time I have 3 that I can juggle just for the sake of refreshing the look from time to time.

My other loyal companion is my laptop. I can’t live without it. Enough said.

You know what, speaking of laptops, I remember the times when I was at Lava when all senior or on-site developers were given a laptop each. How convenient it was that I could work anytime from anywhere. Really, for those who already used to having their laptops around, imagine one day in the office without it. Or you’re using pc for one day instead. This is when you will really miss the mobility and the connectivity. Admit it, you’re not alive and ticking without your lappies. Heh. I wonder, with reasonable price of good laptops you can get these days, why on earth companies around the world still stand by the immobile pc. I understand there’s pros and cons but I remember enjoying coding on the sofa, dressed in jeans and cute blouse, legs crossed, because we had wifi around the office and I had my laptop. Whenever I felt like munching on something, there were always snacks, biscuits, maggi, chocolate bars in the pantry. Ok that doesn’t have anything to do with having laptops, but they sound great when paired together right?

Connectivity from anywhere is great. Of course there were countless staying back/on site hours but there was once this huge migration exercise that was done on weekends. Me, Janice and Ganee were involved. We didn’t go to the office, instead we did all the work from home. We didn’t sleep for 2 days and we communicated via Skype throughout. The point is I didn’t have to pick fight with my brothers to use the pc at home and I had all my resources right there in my laptop (as it should be). We didn’t want to go the office coz we knew it’s going to be long exercise, we had to eat, and shower and we prefer working in pyjamas in the comfort of our own homes on weekends ok.

Now I’m not saying if we have laptops we should all be working at home on weekends, or working extra hours. I’m saying in times like this, it’s good to have all this flexibility on your side, made possible by having a laptop. Some people like bringing their job back to home, or maybe at home they came up with an idea, what a bummer it is to have it saved in thumbdrive/cd only to forget bring it the next morning to work. Hey it happens.

Anyway, working extra hours is not healthy. No matter how much you love you job, you should get out and go to the beach or something. In my case, if I get excited over a task I don’t mind spending more time on it on my own. But if it’s like my case above, had to work on a weekend, it’s good if the bosses notice it and appreciate what you’ve done. After the migration, the next day we came to the office, there’s bouquet of flowers on my desk and Janice’s from Ganee with a card saying thanks. Simple but very effective.

Hey I veered off topic. Yea as I was saying, I love my bag and lappie.

Sesi lagha (ish ish ishhhh)

// December 4th, 2007 // No Comments » // work

Just got home. Went out for sesi-sesi sukaria bowling bersama rakan-rakan opis. Had a heck of a time. Walaupun tak biasa main (I played once with Otel, a million years ago), pegi je lah. Alah company sponsor, sapuuuuuuuuuu…. heheheheh tenkiu Ganee.

My right hand is not feeling steady right now. Tu lah, sampai je terus main, takde nak warm up ke streching2 ke ape ke. Hah amek. Stokin plak lupa nak bawak, nasib baik takde spotcek. Harap takde la kena kudis buta ke ape ke lepas ni.

Bola banyak kali masuk longkang, I feel like it’s actually how bowling should be played (saje nak kasi alasan). Much easier and less stressed wattt (menyokong alasan tadi). The rest of the gang pun, memang laluan longkang adalah laluan utama for all of us tonight (contoh untuk lebih menyokong alasan tadi). But at least I got 1 strike, purely by luck la of course but still I can brag about it later… lalalalala…

Pelbagai lagi alasan yang boleh diberikan seperti bola kena sumpah, lane tidak lurus, terlalu bising hingga hilang fokus, gangguan tidak bertempat dari rakan sepasukan, bola terlepas dari tangan ketika membuat balingan, kasut sewa yang tidak berkualiti, tidak tahu main, tempikan manja dari pasukan berhampiran, the list could go on and on and on… hahahahahahhaa!

In the end, mengah ok. Letih siut main bowling ni rupanya. 3 set je tapi macam buat marathon zaman sekolah dulu (marathon dulu selalu kat belakang ambik angin, but still). Adehhh….

Lepas ni diorang plan nak go bowling kat Mid Valley pulak, semata-mata sebab ada glow in the dark…. hahahahaha.. What’s so attractive about it, I’m never gonna get that. Funny people. Dah la gelap, bertambah la rekod longkang tu karang.

Yang tokey2 kamera ni tak bawak cam plak. Abes citer lah. Kalau tak mesti galak bergambar dengan pokok-pokok krismas (the girls la, usually dengan semangat bergambar dari Adda and Janice)… hohoho…

So just because we had pics taken with christmas trees the other day,…

Beautiful beautiful christmas tree, post TGI @ The Curve. Gantung ketupat ngan lemang ni best nih!

Anyway, terasa nak berlatina la plakkkk…. cewahhhh! Ape itu? Jeng jeng jengggg.

When everyone is here

// November 29th, 2007 // No Comments » // work

Aaahhh I like it when everyone is online – opis meriah. Kalau tak mesti banyak offline, kat site la ape la. And the Pandion would look soooo dull I can’t even describe how dull it is. Look at this, berwarna-warni I so the like ok. Hehehehheheheh… giler suker tengok sume colleagues ada!

Today we all went to TGI for lunch, Ganee said it’s to show LAVA appreciation for all our hardwork all year long. Aiyak, come to think of it, if I leave, year end bonus tak dapat kot. Uwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! All those work, all those late nights. Everytime I think about it, I feel so terrible.

During get together like this (which happens alot aka lunch break), they would talk endlessly about coming projects and big plans and this and that. I can’t take it any longer, feeling so out of place. Even though I’m still here but I feel like an outsider already. Ah so sad. Usually when this happens, I would always think of the rest of my colleagues – in so many different levels, their personality, their good jokes and bad ones, their professionalism and hardwork, they are just the greatest colleagues around.

I still owe Ajeed lasagna. Aiyak that reminds me of grocery shopping – bila plak nak pegi nih. Have to hurry before he goes to Terengganu for that big project. Weh Adda, nanti ada masuk opis sini tak before the 9th? Karang termiss la plak makang2.

Janice ada bawak camera tapi tak bagitau… cehhhh…. Rugi tak amik gambar time makan2.

Dozing off

// November 16th, 2007 // No Comments » // work

What a busy week. I haven’t slept well for over 3 days in a row now. All for that TN rebranding thing, migrating stuff and all. The thing is we have very tight deadlines. And since it involves lots of users during the day, we have to do it by night. And during the night we did it, all the way until wee hours in the morning. My back hurts. My head is spinning. My eyes are popping out.

Am I complaining? No, because there is not enough reasons to complaint about. It’s not everyday. In fact it is actually seasonal. Last time when I had this kind of work was when we were doing Mofaz. That was what, in March? February? Before that it was Sismi (hmmmppphh!).

I’ve accepted the nature of my job and I’ve said it many times before that I love my job. I talk about it alot (just like any other woman – you don’t have to understand what we really saying), but I get my job done. I sound like I’m complaining but actually it’s to get it off my chest. Ridiculously busy and hectic it may be, but I’m loving every minute of it. The best thing is, my managers are excellent. He allowed us to work from home. He gave me and Janice a day off today, since we’ve been working on it like all hell have broken loose. So thank you for being understanding. In fact I should be sleeping right now but I remember about the condition of my blog here (I recently moved to a new host). Somehow in the middle of it all I lost touch with the world around me. Luckily it was only for awhile.

Ok I’m going to hit the sack and fall in a deep deep deep sleeeeeep.

UPDATE: well well well we’ve received this email congratulating everyone for their parts in the project, only it is very sad to look at the mention on LAVA – a mere ‘Special mention to our partners Lava for assistance during migration works’. Excuse me, but an assistance?? We were not on standy, but we were working. Can you make out the difference between the two? We were working our asses off! As in constantly having headaches troubleshooting, skipping meals and not sleeping while at it. We never took our hands off the keyboard. Well excuse me for being so emotional but we did the most part of the work, if not same as your team. This is what happens when credits is not given when it’s due. Sucks big time. You should work more on your complimenting skills… isk panas panas…

And thank god for Ganee. Calms me down. Yeah give him a piece of your mind the next time you see him, that ungrateful over privileged Skali employee.