equivocal ramblings

I’ve been saying for years that I was going to get my drivers license. Well, I took the first step today and passed the highway code test (46/50, 1 point lost to colour-blindness section…) and what should happen the night before? Petrol prices increase from RM1.92 straight to RM2.70. In August we’ll see that increase again to market rates — about RM 3.50-4.

Oh well, at least I won’t be able to think back about the good old days of cheap petrol…

I was going to write an eloquent entry about how my life has changed in the past year, but after considering the changes I’ve been through, I can’t find the words. One thing is for sure though — change has been good to me.

Definitely one of the most interesting acts of vandalism I’ve seen in a while…

…and then just walked away
Originally uploaded by Michael Heilemann

I sent an email to the Malaysian Open Source mailing list about how I couldn’t seem to find any PHP programmers worth hiring and it generated quite a bit of buzz.

This morning though, something struck me. Despite this seeming desperation, you’ll not find programming jobs paying above average salaries. Interesting isn’t it? Perhaps there are programmers for hire, but they simply find it more lucrative to take jobs in other sectors? Combine that with the fact that not many would want a job that made thinking mandatory and it certainly seems to be a problem…

On ShenZhen

After what seems like forever, I’m back on Malaysian soil. It feels good to be back to say the least. A big shout out to Vivian, Michael, Joe, Yuko, Tina, Zhou Wei, Lenky, Cici, Jacky, Li Bao, and Lily. You guys rock. I didn’t feel out of place thanks to your efforts, and I know it must’ve been a challenge figuring out what the ignorant brown man was saying half the time :P Thanks.

To Loh and Foong, or rather to 小罗 and 小风, it was fun and thanks for all the translation work :P

On Malaysia

I love Malaysian weather and food, after visiting China. That is all.

P.S.: Tina, I’m busy compiling a full album to upload. I’ll let you know when it’s done :)

It’s half-past four in the morning… Our CEO is still singing his heart out. The rest of the group is either comatose or has been carried home (everyone lives within walking distance). The only ones still going at it are him and I. Apparently no one here can hold their liquor…

Ugh. Tomorrow is going to be a painful day.

P.S.: Note to self — when someone asks you something and you can’t hear what he’s saying, or it’s in a foreign language, don’t nod in the affirmative… I just managed to order us more alcohol courtesy of the CEO… @_@

The Morning Afternoon After

Well… No ill effects. In fact, I’m feeling remarkably good today. We all went out and had porridge for lunch today; nice stuff. Everyone is a little subdued, but I guess that would be expected after expending all their energy last night, and then sleeping only 5 hours :P

Water Doesn’t Fall From the Sky

I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the rain. I’ve been here 13 days, and it has yet to rain. It rains almost every day back home.

The air is also much drier, and there’s a fair bit of haze in the air — put those two variables together and you have me, standing around coughing my lungs out :( . The temperature is apparently between 21C and 25C, but when the wind picks up it feels more like 16C. I think I understand now why foreigners seem to love Malaysian weather (Till they get sweaty. Then they whinge.)

We’re Walking There? Again? Oh, And Back Too…

I’ve taken a taxi ride three times since getting here and I’ve taken the bus once. The rest of the time, we walk. We walk to work, we walk back. We walk to dinner, we walk to store. We walk to the bakery. I’ve never walked so much in my life. The one good thing about this is that I get to see a lot more of the city on foot than in a car… and it sure is cheaper. Steve would be proud of me.

Cross on Green

In China, green means, It might be safe to cross now. If the taxis don’t run you over as you’re cross the road, the bicycles will when you’re on sidewalk. If they miss, then you’ll be assaulted by very persistent beggars. Walking to work must be the equivalent of an hours jog in terms of cardiovascular workout :o

Something even more shocking is how nonchalant people are about stepping out in front of oncoming traffic — today two people stepped out in front of a bus as it was hurtling towards them … and proceeded to relaxedly cross the road. They walked. Leisurely.

Good thing the buses here have good brakes. One went from ~50 km/h to a full halt the other day. The driver actually managed to lock the wheels — No ABS apparently — which must’ve left some interesting marks on the road.

Fresh Meat

I think I’ve eaten more than my standard quota of pork for the year in these two weeks. This isn’t a bad thing of course, but still, it does feel weird when you have to say, Can we not eat pork today? The food is excellent though, but then again I am not exactly eating cheap either…

Booze

Beer is cheap. Really cheap. It’s 4.5元 (~RM 2.25) for a large bottle of Kingway beer. It doesn’t exactly win any prizes for taste or texture, but it’s not too bad. Well, it doesn’t taste too bad anymore.

There’s also the local rice wine, which smells somewhat like paint stripper — it’s ridiculously raw and strong stuff, sitting at a comfortable 45% vol. Yes, I do realise that a lot of liquor does match, or surpass that figure, but this just burns with the fury of a thousand suns on the way down. If you drop it on your skin, it feels exactly like paint thinner, really.

The Condo

Well, Vivian, moved out of our apartment to a place of her own, and two dudes from Shanghai moved in with us. We are now in permanent bachelor pad mode :-/ People here find it completely acceptable to smoke indoors, in air conditioned rooms. Sigh

Yesterday, I was rather disgusted to discover that the sun rises at 6.25am… I discovered this at precisely 6:35am, after which I was unable to sleep. The weather here is interesting — it’s dry, and cool (25C on average apparently) and it never seems to rain.

Apart from that, no real surprises. It really doesn’t feel all that different, except for the traffic. This still shocks me — people here seem to obey only one traffic rule: drive on the right side of the road. Most of the time.

I expected to see more bicycles here for some reason, but walking seems to be the trend — all my colleagues live within walking distance of the office, and they seem to spend most of their time there. The working hours here are 9am-8pm. 11 hours, and people actually stay and work late. Insanity I tell you. No one goes out for lunch either — they all order in, eat quickly and resume work.

I confirmed today that I do indeed live in the clubbing strip of the city. It’s somewhat hard to tell with all the signs being in Chinese, and there being very normal facades hiding the clubs…

Apart from food (dinner/lunch) I’ve only purchased one thing — a Heineken six-pack . This was at Foong’s suggestion — I said that I needed to get a cereal drink (like Nestum) that I could drink in the mornings, and in reply he proceeded to walk over to the alcohol section of the supermarket we were in. He will pay for this.

On Receipts

There are apparently two kinds of receipts here — official, and unofficial. You have to specifically request these official receipts, which are the only receipts recognised by offices. They come in predetermined values, and have to be acquired from an official source… Most quaint.

Last night I arrived in Shenzhen, China for work. This is as good a reason as any to start up my online journal again… so shrug here goes.

We took the 6:46pm flight out of Malaysia to Hong Kong. After that, it was a car ride across the border to China, and then to Shenzhen.

At every single immigration checkpoint I got stopped and checked… I think this is because I was the only ‘foreign’ looking one in our group — my two colleagues are Chinese.

Finally, after a crazy taxi ride (I counted three almost killed cyclist and pedestrians), we arrived outside our apartment building at about one in the morning. My boss (Loh) then declares that he must now run off and get the key from our office… So I end up standing around with luggage and my colleague, Foong. The upside to that was that it gave me plenty of time to look at the surrounding area . It appears that I live in the area where all the pubs/clubs are:

From Our Condo

Finally, he returned with the key and we went upstairs to the apartment — very strange layout, but I have my own room and hot water, so all is good. At about two in the morning we went out for dinner… and that pretty much sums up my first ‘night’ there.

I’ve just watched the second season of Jack Bauer 24, and all I can say is wow.

The man is tortured, beaten to a pulp, tortured, beaten some more, and yet is able to then run around and take down terrorists who are well rested, well armed and waiting for him to show up.

Oh, there’s also the fact that he can get from anywhere in Los Angeles to anywhere else in LA in a matter of minutes, no matter the time of day, except when someone is bleeding and it really matters. Then they have to wait for a chopper, and it doesn’t arrive in time.

Reality Distortion Field generators are definitely installed all over LA…

All in all though, I still wait for the next episode.

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