Plan B

Holy week. Hmm, perhaps it's a good idea if I do something holy?

Anyway, I'm still looking for work. This week I signed up at JobsMalaysia, that Labour Department website. And Jobstreet of course. I also have two other openings I heard about through the grapevine. One of them sounds good but unfortunately requires knowledge of Linux of which I have none at all. The other one is only available next month.

I've given up looking at the local papers. There's nothing good there.

I also registered at myEG just for the heck of it. Looks quite useful. You never know when you might need it.

While I've been doing this it dawned to me that perhaps my skills set might be a little too specific. Apparently there's a ton of positions available for systems analyst, programmers, application devs etc. Software stuff. No surprise. Software related work is NOT easy. Hence the talent pool might be a little on the short side.

There's almost none available for the humble hardware and support tech. Either support people are a dime a dozen these days or hardware and operating software have gotten so reliable support is no longer that important. I'm inclined to think it's the former.

Yes, things are looking a bit grim and I can't really shake this impending sense of doom. But I keep looking.

How about that offshore thing? Well, I've heard a lot of stories recently about oil and gas but the manpower demand has completely dried up (no pun intended) and now it's almost impossible for a newbie to get in. Everyone wants experienced people at sea and I don't really blame them actually.

Maybe it's got something to do with crude being at 40 bucks a barrel only these days. There's another reason why I'm thinking twice about going offshore but I can't really say much about that right now.

I owe the parents 5k. They said I don't have to pay it back but somehow it would be so very wrong if I didn't at least try to pay them back.

If nothing happens by the 1st week of May it'll be time for Plan C. Which means I need to leave home in search of work. Perhaps I'll be away for a long, long time.

Life is not so easy these days...

Pantas dan Garang Empat

Need for Speed The Movie Pt. 4 Fast & Furious 4. With the original cast. Surprisingly good!

500 Million and a New Stadium!!

Not..

It's April already. Time sure does fly these days...

Are You Bored?

Or did you find a foreign word you can't pronounce? Type it in here and here your computer speak.

It's a lot of fun..

There isn't anything new so this will have to count as an update. Oh yes, there is one thing. April is near. Time for Plan B.

Fast Times in the EPL

Just wow. First Man U self destructs at Fulham and get two more players sent off. Now Liverpool can't stop scoring. I think that's 13 goals in their last 3 games.

Only the week before that I think, we were hanging out at Jalan Song remembering the good ole days when Chelsea were actually good and Jose was giving Sir Alex a run for his money..

It's too bad I can't watch games at home now that we don't have the Astro Sports Package anymore. The next few weeks are going to be exciting for EPL fans.

Man U would probably still win the league though. They still have that one game in hand. It's hard to write them off as much as I'd like to see someone win for a change. I never like to see the same team win all the time. It gets boring and it gets even more annoying to meet more glory hunting Man U "fans"...

Anyway, if Liverpool win the title it would be great. They haven't won in decades. I also would like to see Villa get into the Champions League instead of Arsenal. Makes a refreshing change.

Talking about change, I downloaded Internet Explorer 8 two days ago. It's not bad. Doesn't feel as "heavy" as previous versions of IE. It's almost like Firefox in many ways. So far, I like it.. There are many new features that I haven't tried out yet. The private browsing option is a very, very good idea for security. The multicoloured tabs are a bit strange but might be useful.

I'll write about IE8 when I play around it more this week.

EDIT: I've detected a problem with IE8 already. It screws up my blogger post formatting by removing all the line breaks between the paragraphs. Damn. I had to log in via Firefox to correct it.

Some Miscellaneous Things

Well, no big update from me this week. Still not employed yet. Luckily for me, all my insurance policies matured right now so I actually have quite a bit of money right now. What a relief this is.

Anyway, I've been gaming a lot as usual. I got some news for FMers out there. I found a logo pack containing 35,000 logos! That includes logos for all competitions and clubs in 105 leagues. By the way for those who don't know what I'm going on about, not all clubs in Football Manager 09 have their logos included in the game. Only the licensed ones. Therefore, some very nice people actually took the trouble to create the graphics for the logos (as well as skins but I like the default skin so I don't bother with this). The logo pack comes from FMGLive. Unfortunately I don't have the actual link anymore but it's on there somewhere in the form of a torrent file.

Now my FM looks pretty and "official". I'm very pleased.

I don't spend ALL my time in front of the computer despite the gaming stuff that I like to talk about. I just came back from Happy Valley. They serve the best (non-halal unfortunately) barbequed stuff in town! I haven't gone in a long time. I love that place. It's across the road from Crown Square. Go and check it out. There's actually two venues, a cafe in the shophouse facing the road and a private house behind it. I prefer to go to the house. Nicer atmosphere.

I should have taken a photo...

Anywhere, right now I'm in front of the PC again and I'm playing around with the FM database to see what I can update.

See you next time.

An Update

My brother's band Ethnic Transmissions have their new single out on promo. Check it out at their Myspace page or down here.



Their new album should be out in the next few months so if you like local music please give your support. The boys are doing a really, really good thing here.

I hope you like the song.

Aside from this, I haven't been able to update more regularly... There isn't much happening right now and not much to write about. Which is a good thing I think.

I did have a good time last night though. One of my friends got married recently and last night was their wedding dinner. It was a lot of fun. I think of all the wedding dinners I've attended in the last few years, last night was the most fun. Usually I have some negative things to say about these occasions but last night was great. The food was great and the booze was non stop.

Except for that problem they had with the notebook and the faulty headphone jack which meant that the presentation they wanted to play would have no sound. In the end, I decided to convert the video file to VCD instead. It worked beautifully and no one was any wiser.

Anyway strangely enough despite all the drinking, I didn't really felt drunk at all. I still had energy to power up the PC and play some games until early morning.

Talking about games, I've finished most of the new ones already. I'm down with Dawn of War 2 and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, which was awesome by the way. Great story, ala Band of Brothers. I've got Empire Total War installed but I'm playing that one slowly.

The game is humongous now. The installation files alone are 13Gbs but when you see what the game is about it's not surprising at all. This time around the game takes place in the 18th century, the age of gents in powdered wigs, black powder muskets and exploration. Therefore, the game now includes areas like India and the Americas. I have a Great Britain save game and in it, I'm at war with Spain and France with all the fighting taking place exclusively in the North America and the Caribbean. Great fun.

Many changes have been made since Medieval 2 Total War and one of the biggest change of all is 3d naval battles. The graphic detail must be seen to be believed. The ships are so detailed, you can see crew and rigging and cannons and the like. When the fighting starts, you will see debris, sails being ripped and people falling overboard. That is if you can peer into the smoke. In this time period there is a lot of smoke on the battlefield from all them muskets and cannons.

Anyway, the game is very deep, very involved and very long. And also very fun, especially for history buffs like myself.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II...

... is too bloody awesome for words. So bloody awesome, it's taken all of my available free time. And being unemployed, I have lots of that.

Fans of RTS games, Company of Heroes and Warhammer 40K are going crazy over this awesome game I bet. The orginal Dawn of War was good but it doesn't compare to this new one. I'm midway through I think and I'm definitely replaying the single player campaign again.

Again, the story is about the Blood Ravens spacemarine chapter. This time they are dealing with a Tyranid problem. Orks and Eldar are involved as well. Even cooler than that is you can choose any of those sides in multiplayer and skirmish. Hmm Tyranids..

The only weakness the game has is its steep system requirements especially the graphics portion. But if you do have a good enough system, the game is gorgeous and a joy to behold.

I'm going to put off Football Manager for awhile until I finish the single player part.

Meanwhile...

I have nothing else to write about unfortunately. I've been spending all my time lounging around with friends and gaming. There's not much happening there.

I haven't found any work yet but then again I haven't really been looking to be honest. I have some leads and I'm waiting for those to develop. March is the window and if that passes by I'm going to plan B.

I did help Will set up his new Dell Studio 14 notebook yesterday. It's an awesome notebook. If I ever could afford a new one next time it'll probably be a Dell Studio. XPS is still kind of expensive for me.

Anyway, it felt great to be doing computer related stuff again. It's been awhile and I guess one can say it's my true calling really.

I'm going out to watch a movie in a moment. I'm going to try and update this blog more regularly this month.

The operative word here is "try"...

Damn Warhammer...

Busy

Yes, I've been busy. Playing games (GTA IV and FM2009) and catching up with friends. Not everyone knows I'm home yet though. I prefer it this way. It allows me to sink back in to real life at a slow, controlled pace.

I was at Will's place last Sunday. I nearly got lost getting there. It's been a while since I've driven up there. Heck, it's been a while since I've driven anywhere actually.

By the way, the boy has started blogging. It's here at www.rajalautoffshore.blogspot.com. For people who want to know what the life is like in the offshore oil and gas business, it's all there.

He also ordered a new notebook, a Dell Inspiron 1420. He's the 3rd person I know who's got or getting one. Myself and Gette are the other two. All different colours too. Will's is blue. He should receive it next week I think.

I'm looking for work at the moment. Rumour has it that offshore work will only open up in March, at the end of the monsoon season. I'm still wondering whether I should wait. I could wait and go offshore or I could go back to doing computers again. Both have pros and cons.

Too bad Dell doesn't have an operation here.

Anyway, I'm not going to be choosy. I need work and I need it fast. Hopefully something will turn up soon.

Apart from all this, things have been quiet. I no longer have to worry about any fallout from my Oz adventure. Let's just say that it's been taken care off...

Woohoo!

While I was out and about in rural Oz, I missed a whole lot of pop culture stuff. Such as the....



Revenge of the Fallen teaser trailer!

Woohoo!!

Laying Low

Oh how I wish I could go back to blogging about trivial, inconsequential things again.

I haven't blogged for awhile I know. There isn't much to write about. At least, there isn't much information I can release into the public domain at the moment. Things aren't really safe yet. I'm still feeling a little uneasy.

At least my immediate troubles are over and I can rest for awhile. Will more trouble appear over the horizon?

Anyway, I contacted my youngest bro last night via Facebook about offshore work. Hopefully I can get on an oil rig by March.

I have a lot of stuff to pay off. My credit card is almost maxed out and my car insurance is due end of next month.

Suffice to say my Oz trip cost me quite a lot.

The Final Stretch

The crazy heatwave here in Melbourne looks like it's coming to an end. What a relief... 40 degree heat is no fun. Especially at night. It's hard to sleep.

My business here in Oz is almost done. Hopefully, the business back home will work out just as well. I might be home as early as next week but since flights are hard to get right now I'll probably be home in 2 weeks. Maybe a bit more.

I'm looking forward to getting back to real life.

Heatwave

It's very hot this week. Very hot indeed.

I watched the Australia Day parade on Monday. It was ok. My mind was on other things so I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

I'll probably be home in one or two weeks time, depending on the availability of flights.

I hope we'll be safe once we're home.

I hope against hope that local authorities do something against people who cheat, lie and intimidate. Will they?

Grand Slam

Oh my God, there are huge crowds of people in Melbourne to watch teh tennis this week. It's a bit hard to have a nice stroll in the city with so many people around.

There was a huge fight yesterday I think, between Bosnian and Croat fans. It's a good thing we decided not to go to the place. I was contemplating going to watch a game but I guess if it gets that hot it might not be a good idea. Besides, the rest of the guys aren't really huge tennis fans. I don't really want to go alone.

We did go to Chinatown which was great. Next week we might go to another part of the city. Last week we walked along Lonsdale street. Lots of Greek shops and restaurants.

So far I'm having a good time here. Much better than being out in the bush.

Also it's Australia Day on the 26th. I might go to town and see what's going on.

Hot Summer Day

Hello everyone.

It's a hot day today. Yesterday I took a tram for a lark. It was fun. We went to visit some friends here in downtown Melbourne. We took the tram home.

We're very comfortable at the moment. We have new friends here. Very nice people. They're helping us out a lot. We're very grateful for them.

I'm slightly bored again today. Maybe I'll hop on another tram and see where it goes...

Odyssey

To those of you who left comments about me making a good choice coming here...

..I'm afraid not.

Something's happened. A few things happened actually. The whole thing's gone completely wrong.

This has been an epic journey. Epic. Bar none, this has been the most insane adventure I've been on. The stuff movies and books are made of. One thing for sure, I'll have one hell of a story to tell once this is over.

No worries though. We are safe and sound and the whole thing will settle down soon enough.

I can't really blog about this now but we've initiated the ejection sequence. Those who know what this means will know what I mean.

... and some people are "going away" for a long, long time...

I'll post more later.

God Bless the Relatives

Apparently, my family has some contacts here in Oz. That's freaking brilliant.

So far the farm work is ok but I'm together with these bunch of Nepalese lads who work soooo fast they make me look bad.

Therefore, I'm going to have to use my ace card sooner rather than later. Hopefully my contacts here can set me up with less... manual work. I'm already thinking about May onwards. That's winter and there will be less available work in the countryside.

By the way, I'm not working today. I'm working tomorrow. It rained the last 2 days so I only managed to work half a day. That's the other thing I'm concerned about. If I can work indoors I don't have to worry about weather.

I'm ok so far but unfortunately I can't say the same for the other lads. Some of them have a lot of trouble adjusting and my roomie does nothing but whine about working conditions and the uncertainty of living out of hotel rooms.

To think they all thought I was the one who would be in trouble...

Anyway, I'm still in survival mode and the escape plan is still in effect. So no worries.

Oz is a beautiful country especially now in the summer.

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Finally.... a PC with internet connection. I don't have much time. 15 minutes for 2 bucks.

Sounds expensive right? Actually not really.

I have a ton of things to say actually. But for now a status update.

I'm in Tumba Rumba, a small (think Serian) town not far from Sydney. Yeah, we travel a long way. That's the life of the contract farm worker. We go where the work is. For now it's apples in Batlow, another small town in the highlands. Nice place.

Over the last few days, I've been to places not many people see. It's gorgeous out here in the countryside. Not unlike living in a postcard.

We stayed at Wood Wood for a few days, not far from the place where out train from Melbourne stopped at Swan Hill. Two days ago, our super scored a deal with Batlow apples to do thinning. 2 bucks per tree. I've done 100+ over the last 2 days.

The heat? What heat? Cold we got plenty of that. A ton of people have been telling me to watch out for the hear but seriously, it's got nothing on the heat we get back home.

Anyway, I've lots more to tell actually. It's ok so far but there are some things I'm not very happy about. Nothing to do with Oz or anything like that. The guy who fixed us up in Kuching left out a lot of details about working in Oz. A LOT of details. Made adjusting very hard.

Still, I'm here and I'm going to try and update as much as possible

Until then please take care and have a good summer.

Cheers.

Reject

The people from the oil rig called just now.

In my entire life, I have never had to reject a job offer. I feel bad. I feel especially bad for that mate of mine who no doubt really wanted me to join him there. We had some good times in Sibu. I really, really hope I can see him again when my Oz thing is done.

Anyway, my bro has a job waiting for him now. I gave his phone number to the rig people and there are probably thrashing out a deal as we speak. Those guys need GOC, TBOSIET and computer literacy. No probs for my bro.

The job's right there for the taking. It's all up to him now whether he takes it or not.

I hope he does.

When it Rains it Pours,,

The date is set. I'm going off on the 6th. Everything's taken cared off and now I just need to pack my stuff. I'm going to miss my PC a lot since it's powerful and has lots of cool stuff in it. Well, not so much now since my graphics card overheated and died a few days ago...

It's as if it knew no one is going to game on this PC for the next year and a half.

At least I still have a notebook. I wonder if I can get wifi where I'm going.

Anyway, here's a story.

You know sometimes I think fate loves to mess with people. This morning I got a phone call from a mate I was with when I took my GOC course. Guess what? Yet another job offer for me on a rig.

All that time I was lounging about the last few months, nothing happened. Now that I'm about to go off and work, job offers come pouring in. This is the second one I got in the last month.

Talk about selection headache. Sometimes, I feel like going outside and curse the sky. Better not because when I come back from Oz I might still want to go offshore. I have the certs after all. This is assuming that my grand master plan of looking for better work in Oz doesn't work out.

If that's the case, then I hope job offers will still be available then. It's always good to have a backup.

It's not all bad though. When these people call me tomorrow to ask whether I want to take up the offer, I'll going to pass them my youngest brother's contact number. The boy just completed his safety course two weeks ago, all his papers are in order and he's all set to go. I hope they take him. That way the household need not worry about money anymore.

I just hope I'll do well when I go.