Don’t worry, I’ll be back some time soon.

Cheers!

The phone call, in loud speaker, was indeed an unofficial interview. My General Manager and Director were on the line too. Cuak, beb!

And last week, my CEO came personally for an official interview. Couldn’t really say no to this offer, as I could see that he’s keen to make sure that I accept this new position.

I’ve been thinking about this over and over again. I know that once I step into management, I will slowly lose the technical skills I have. I enjoy myself doing technical stuffs, hands-on work, and getting new advance knowledge in engineering field everyday. This management position will surely pull me away from all these.

I was torn between what I love doing and what I want to be doing. So yes, life is all about choices, darling. It’s a matter of how to choose.

Ayoyo!

My department managed to arrange a teambuilding activity and got it approved happily by the boss, thanks to the brilliant proposal which was made by the team ourselves. It was crazy, as we were short in time, and everything had to be done at the very last minute. But still, it was a great success, which made us believe even more that a teamwork will surely produce the results.

We started on Friday, having left from Kemaman at about 10oo hours and reached the magnificent Bukit Gambang Resort City around 1100 hours. Straight away, the instructors (Active Academy people) started the program with ice-breaking session. We were not ice at that time as we’re already getting along well with each other, but we had fun.

It’s still in my mind. “Tan & Hisham menang hadiah dari Proton. 4 tayar Dunlop, 10 minyak pelincir, 5 pasang speaker, 2 lampu hiasan dan wang tunai RM28888.00″. Haha.

After the quick ice-breaking session, we had lunch, which was pretty good. Then, we checked into our rooms, had a good rest and part of us went for Friday prayer. Surprisingly, there were suddenly many ‘musaffirs’. =)

The room was ok, though I still think that at almost RM400 (apartment for 4), it’s actually quite pricey. Oh well, shouldn’t be too demanding, should I? It’s completely free after all. Kompeni tanggung…

That weird looking uncooked mushrooms. I do not know whether it was for serving or not.

At about 3 o’clock in the evening, we were asked by the instructors to get ourselves back into the classroom. We were divided into 3 pre-created teams of 7, and had assignments of creating our own flag, team name as well as a war cry. I was in the third team, and we did a pretty good job in fulfilling the tasks, but I had to give credit to Team 2, with a brilliantly, unexpected war cry. Hilarious, guys!

Team 2 (top left), preparing their ritual war cry, based on the funny “Brrrrrrrr…” ads by Coca-cola. Perfect 10!

That wrapped up our classroom session. We had tea break, and proceeded to the Active Academy yard, for jungle trekking. We enjoyed ourselves so much with the trekking, abseiling, obstacles challenges and flying fox, though none of these activities have ever been my favorite.

Seriously, guys, it was energy consuming!

Ever seen a flying turtle? Here’s your chance! =D

None of these were easy enough for us, especially for Team 1.

And with the flying fox, we ended our day. Exhausted, but fun. Sweaty,but with smiles. No boss, no employee, just a group of friends having good times together. Can’t get any better than that, can we?

At night, we had poolside BBQ  dinner. I really thought that we gonna burn chicken and meat and fishes ’til they turned completely black, but to my surprise, there was already a cook to take care of that. A slight fun part was missing, but it was still ok. We had great dinner, and started our wet activities at about 2100 hours. Have you ever heard of a game called ‘Banana & Potato Polo’? Bet you haven’t, and will never at all. An impressively vulgar game that shouldn’t be played if you’re in a group with females around. The instructor asked for team leaders to do this, so I had no option but to go on with it, and felt stupid right after finishing it. Hahaha. Enjoy the pictures!

Notice the boss’ plate (bottom right). Bape ekor ayam tumbang tu, bang?

I just realized that you can actually see this one particular guy who likes to show more skin than the rest. Our own DEIC. Hahahahaha…..

This is the nasty game I was talking about! Dare not to explain further on how to play this, or this blog will be rated for adults. =) Enough with the images of bananas between the legs.

To be continued…

]]> http://beautifulmindlife.com/teambuilding-bgrc-day-1.html/feed 0 http://beautifulmindlife.com/hoses-i-suggest-wires.html http://beautifulmindlife.com/hoses-i-suggest-wires.html#comments Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:20:35 +0000 Mind http://beautifulmindlife.com/?p=675 I spent a bloody six hours today at work, just to get that bloody sensitive pressure sensor activates at the bloody 50 Pascal mark on the differential gauge. I guess we can’t expect easy things when it comes to conventional mechanical technologies, especially when pneumatic is involved.

Now, friends, let’s develop our technologies. Use wires. Use signals. Use voltages, alternating or direct, your choice. Use binary, so that all you have to set is a YES and NO command, in digital.

That will surely allow me to use that six hours for something else. Too bad, I always hate electrical and electronics during school days, because it was boring. You see wires, resistors, capacitors, batteries, IC, PLC blah..blah.., but you can’t actually see anything moving. Those voltages and currents and frequencies, are not visible to human eyes.

Now I genuinely regret that.

Sleepy, sleepy me. Kelas Bahasa Melayu kat koleq yang diajar oleh Penolong Kanan HEM pun aku belasah tido, apatah lagi training ni.

Anyway, we also had CPR training today, the only practical we did, for about half an hour. It was an excellent projection by the trainer. Now I know exactly what to do if a water accident happen.

Learning aid. Dummies, of course.

CPR. DRABC is the key!

Spooky, isn’t it?

This too. Spooooooookyyyyyyyy!!!!

Introduction and facility briefing received, we started the day with the pool. Same ‘ol, same ‘ol. It was good, but nowhere near fun. Training has never been fun for me, except the one I had in Phitsanulok, three years ago. Well, I guess it’s all depending on the trainer himself.

We wrapped up the day with fire fighting and smoke house escape. Again, same ‘ol same ‘ol. CO2, dry powder, water, bla bla bla. To add pepper on the rotten pizza, the shine of the bright evening sun was burning deep into the skin. Humid and hot day, with fire and smoke training? They shouldn’t get along together, should they?

Waiting for the shuttle. Look at the wall pewter art. Just brilliant.

The training barge. Yup, it’s all in the barge, except the fire fighting yard.

There’s no option but to have lunch in this silly restaurant. The food? Perhaps Royal Canine tastes better.

Fire fighting. Guess who’s the clown in bottom right picture. Answer’s below.

Yours truly. And the clown. Hahaha. No offense, dude!

Our coordinator has booked a villa in Tanjung Puteri Golf Resort, here in Pasir Gudang. As we arrived, I completely lost my sanity. This is, by far, the biggest resort I’ve ever been. It’s probably much bigger than KSB, the place where I go to work everyday, where hundreds of oil and gas companies are stationed. It’s so huge, with three 18-hole golf courses and a 52-bay driving range, as well as an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Tennis courts, futsal arena, horse riding field, and even a football field, are available too. How amazing.

We’ve checked ourselves in a villa called Mahligai. With 4 bedrooms, each with its own dedicated bathroom, this is luxurious, for me at least.

Enjoy the pictures!

PS: This is golfers’ heaven, surely. Family gathering is okay too, but nothing much to do here, as the villas are at the heart of the golf courses. Compared to this Tanjung Puteri Golf Resort, Awana Kijal is indeed, ‘cap ayam’. =)

Exterior views of Mahligai.

First floor, with exquisite view of the Plantation Course.

The rooms. Mine is the bottom left. See my jacket?

Ground floor. I personally like the split level dining/living.

Aah, couldn’t get a better Sunday could I?

So I thought that I have to slow things down. I looked left and right, looking for something else I could do. And yet, the only things I found were an 0.8 Artline and an Emerson notebook.

I left drawing for too long, I couldn’t even recall when. Oh whatever.

With ‘Believe’ by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus on my iTunes, I started to draw.

And here are the outcomes. Pretty good for an under-a-massive-pressure engineering employee, kan? =)

I saw this once in Ungu’s Cinta Dalam Hati’s video clip. Not entirely the same though.

This is me. Under pressure. Hahaha.