Day Trip

Last thursday has got to be one of the most happening days since I got to the states.

Made a trip downtown LA in Hollywood, then Santa Monica. The total travel time was

about nearly 6 hours with about one hour to Hollywood and about 2 hours to Santa
Monica from Hollywood. All of this include waiting for bus and train. Despite the tiring
travel involved, it was truly worth the trip as we really saw AMERICA. What I see here
in my area is a barren desert with nothing to offer.

For the day I only had one travel companion with me but I have no complaints. She was
punctual, considerate and good listener/talker. We headed out early in the morning to
catch the bus. After arriving at the central bus station we bumped into a colleague who
was nice enough to direct us to our destination. To be honest, we were both very lost at
first and was not sure of our heading. But all I had to do was ask around. From the bus
driver, the old man at the bus stop, the security guard at the train station to the punk
with a scateboard by the sidewalk. All were nice enough go give me correct directions.
Anyways, our first destination was Hollywood. The first thing me and Candy realized
was that the scene was totally different from our area. The buildings were taller, the
people were well dressed, there were more cars and even the sky was different. But
within 60 seconds my money was stolen. Dont worry, it was only a dollar. You see, there
are people in costumes hanging around Hollywood ready to take pictures. Some guy
dressed as zorro "seduced" Candy into taking a pic with here. He did it all with a
hispanic accent.

Madamme mossel eh, do you wanna takeh the pichah wither me ah?

After we took the pic. We were about to walk off when he suddenly told me in normal
American accent. "Dude, we take tips for pictures". I gave him a dollar and walked off.
Haha, serves him right. Even a dollar was too much. Being in Hollywood was nostalgic
as Ive been there once with my family. It was good to see the place again, nothing has
changed.

Candy looking into the horizon looking for HK

After spending about 2 hours in Hollywood, we headed off to Santa Monica Pier, as you
can see from the picture above. The place was somewhat not what I expected. It was
infact better. There was something about it that made it kinda special. The scenery
was very vibrant. From the sidewalk towards the pier, I can hear tribal drums being
played by street performers, loud techno music played from topless cars and the sound
of wind whispering through my ear. There was a mini themepark on the pier hence the
ferris wheel. Seagulls were flying about, and the sound of people muffling the sound of
the tide bringing in the waves. I guess it kinda reminded me abit of Penang :(

The trip ended well and there was hardly any difficulty in our trip. Going out again
next thursday. Will upload more photos. :)

Important messages

Sometimes you know something, you know you are doing something right,
but if you don't tell /don't tell properly, people wouldn't know /wouldn't get it.

You don't expect people to understand if you don't convey your message properly.
Next thing is, again, don't assume that people will understand...

If you don't follow these rules, whatever that is gonna happen, you don't put the blame on others.

One very simple example that happened to me today explains what am I gonna tell in this post.

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I always plan my time. "Sometimes" when I've got lot work to do, I wouldn't wanna waste time unnecessarily when I could settle tasks in a more efficient way.

Yesterday afternoon, dad told me to go his office today (morning) to help him with some of his work, as usual.

I promised.

I was thinking to myself. Since my car is already time to service and since there is a workshop nearby my dad's company, I could settle things one shot; where I could help my dad, at the same time fix my period-red myvi.

This morning, I managed to wake up early and I thought things could go well as what I've planned, but suddenly my fat sister told me she was going for slimming. Worse still, she told me she had to take my car because her car ran out of petrol.

Me being a kind brother, told her nicely that I wanted to go for car service, but I DIDN'T mention about helping my dad (that was my first mistake).

So my sister's reply was, "Aiyo, my car no petrol la, you go service tomorrow only lar.."

I was like, well, sounds OK.. anyway she was in a rush for the slimming appointment.

After she went off, I thought, since I can't bring my car to service today and since dad didn't remind me about helping him (I quietly ASSUMED the task was not really urgent), so I thought it's ok to go tomorrow then... I planned this all in my heart and I "pictured" myself telling dad about this and he was okay with it.

My second mistake was I sort of assumed that his work can be delayed as well and third mistake was I sort of expected dad to understand that I don't have a car when I didn't even tell him..

So later on when dad came back in the evening, he was a little unhappy and he said, "told you to come this morning, yet you didn't come..."

I did not have a good answer to explain myself and so I re-think and analyse the whole scenario which led to this ending..

Just because I didn't inform my dad earlier about the incident this morning, he already assumed that I've forgotten about going to his office... but I can't blame him for assuming because I didn't tell, I don't expect him to know.

I can easily put the blame on my sister by saying "neh, jie took my carrr larr"
but I didn't, because it's not entirely her fault, it was mine also because I didn't tell her I have to go office to help my dad. So I can't expect her to know..

So moral of the story is, tell people what you wanna do, if the thing that you gonna do, involves others, directly, or indirectly.. so that people know what exactly you're doing.

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Another story which also explains my words:

Happened also on yesterday night,

my sister is just like me, maybe that's how our family do things, because my dad has the same bad habit as well, that is, "sometimes" we do things and we don't bother explaining or telling others.

So yesterday, she got an interview at a childcare nursery. Apparently, she simply applied on jobstreet last summer and they called her up few days ago for an interview. She was not interested to get the job at all but she wanted to go anyway.

She went at 4pm.. and she had no idea what time the interview was gonna end.

So around 7 - 8 pm, my mum and I were wondering where did she go, mum was saying that interview cannot be so long and doesn't really make sense that childcare nursery open until so late. Then my mum started calling her, but she didn't pick up, called many times and no one picked up....

My mum got quite worried, and I could understand, because recently there are really lots of bad news regarding security in Malaysia, such as 8 years old girl got raped in the toilet, a man attempted to rape a lady on a bus, acid splasher and so on...

I asked her boyfriend and her boyfriend wasn't sure where was my sister and he couldn't reach her as well, so mum got more worried.

Since we "roughly" know where is the "childcare center" (as my sister also roughly told me the location), we decided to go and look for her, and in the end we managed to spot the period-red myvi and we stopped and looked for her.

Apparently, that so called "childcare center" is not really a childcare center but more of an English literature tuition center for kids. My sister was still in there and she said her interview ends on 8:30pm. She was kinda shocked and slightly pissed of our "surprise visit".

I think/"assume"

Her first mistake was, she didn't tell me exactly where she will be going when I asked her.

Her second mistake was, she didn't tell clearly that it was an English literature tuition center but she told me it was a childcare nursery instead. Why is this message important and should be conveyed properly? because with common sense, we know childcare nurseries normally don't open until so late, since childcare service is meant for busy working parents, and 7 - 8 pm ? who works until 7 - 8 pm? hahaha

Her third mistake was, she didn't at least text us saying she might be home late and she didn't text us despite my mum's limitless phone calls.. until one point I "assumed" she turned off her phone because at one point my mum couldn't reach her already..

That's how important to deliver right and accurate messages.
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As we also know, many aircraft crashes that caused many deaths happened due to failure in communication or due to failure in conveying proper message between pilots, co-pilots and flying crews.

Why, because if your message is improper which doesn't explain/tell the exact meaning or instruction, no one will know the seriousness of things... and the result will be... bomb... and crash...

So, I hope this post does bring out the meaning of what I wanna share. This is as a reminder for myself and for our readers to refer.

*Don't assume...

Lonely Desert

It has been about a week since I got here and everything is fine. I guess. Things
could be better but whatever I have now will just have to do. This place is not as
great as I anticipated as we are so far away from everything. The only attraction
here is my workplace. But I wish to be elsewhere. Anyways the job is good but
the hours are just simply not enough to cover the cost for this trip. I had intended
to pay my parents back but now I can at most pay them back mostly 50% of
the cost unless I find a second job. Well, enough of the complaining, things are not
too bad here as well.

As you can see, the above is the picture of my ID taken while my friends in the
background were trying to make me laugh. The officer in charge somehow did not
have the need to retake the photo *damnit*. On the first day I was given normal
kitchen duties such as preparing churros and pretzels. I found the job extremely
easy and picked it up within minutes. They did not trust me with customers yet
and I was not allowed to speak to them. On the second day however it was a
completely different story. I was thrown into frontlines and put behind a cash register.
I had to go through it after 2 hours of pointless computer training using "simulations"
of the cash register. The training had not help a single bit and I basically relearnt
it through my supervisor.

After screw ups with about 5 customers I was finally getting the hang of it. I was
making fewer mistakes and doing stuff alot faster. This job was slightly more
difficult as I had to make the transaction and prepare the food which is funnel
cakes. Dont know what it is? Google it. Seems delicious at first but I got so used to
looking at it, it lost its appeal after preparing it the whole day. I have not tasted it
before but I dont intend to. I was kinda scared of being put into registry at first
because of the customers. But I found out that people here in general are mostly
patient and very understanding. At first I thought that I would be afraid of the
customer, I realized that the customer is as confused as me. They arent sure of
what is in the menu, and they are not sure what they want either lol. But when
I make mistakes they are mostly forgiving. Thats all for tonight. Goodnight :)

My childhood dilemma

Flash back when I was around standard 5 or 6, I was just a boy.

I wasn't sure whether I was undergoing puberty at that time, but I remembered some friends used to say I sounded like a sissy.

Seriously, I was quite affected. In my heart I wished I could grow up faster and turn into a real man. Sometimes I listened to my own voice, I recorded my own voice and played it back..., then couldn't help but curse myself for sounding like a toad.

You know sometimes, when you speak, what you heard of what you speak is different from what others would hear (slightly different, I guess?). For me I think it sounds totally different.

Today while I was doing some house chores, I listened carefully to my voice as I speak. And I still think what I heard of my voice today is somewhat the same as what I heard last time when I was still a boy.

The only difference is, nowadays people say I have a deep voice, which I don't really agree, because that's not exactly what I heard...

I am unsure whether anyone has the same problem as me? haha

Anyway I think I have grown up, though definition of a "man" is quite subjective and I can't really be sure whether I could be regarded as one, but yeah at least I don't sound like a toad anymore...

So It Begins..

Hey guys! Looked what I managed to cook up on my 2nd day in the states. Not bad eh?
Well one advice about cooking bacon, keep your SHIRT on. Having your nipples burnt by
splattering bacon oil is not a pleasant feeling. Regardless the reward at the end was worth
it. Scrambled eggs are easy job. I cooked this up at 5am due to the horrible jet lag Im
currently suffering from. I have been sleeping for about 10 hours lately. I sleep from
5pm to 12am. Its dinner then 2am to 5am. Really abnormal hours I know, but have been
progressively better at adjusting.

Currently nothing much has happened. Just had job orientation today, getting tremendous
amounts of paperwork done and got to see abit of the park grounds. I only saw a fraction of
it, but it looks awesome. The rides look scary but nonetheless Im tempted to try them all.
As for the place Im currently staying in, its not too bad. The room is quite small though
considering Im living with two bears hahaha. But standard of living is not too bad. There
are many department stalls such as Walmart nearby(srsly alot better than the one in
china =.=). Food here is not exactly very cheap, but its certainly affordable. Only junk
food here is put on discount, and might I say at very diabetically low prices lol.

Been doing nothing much for the past few days. Been walking around alot exploring our
surroundings, but there is nothing much to see. This place is almost like the Semenyih
equivalent of the states. Kind of empty with no big malls in sight, but definitely alot better
than Semenyih lol. There are facilities such as gym and cinemas which I have yet to find.
Glad to meet nice people at orientation today. Made quite a few friends. Hope to make
more tomorrow. Will update again soon. =)