Cross Country

For those who read my earlier blogs, i mentioned about jogging with my colleague, but i did not mention it in detail. Therefore, to allow this blog entry to make sense, i guess i should further explain about jogging sessions with my colleague.

The Colleague
Well, my colleagues name is Joachim. He is one of the many consultants in TIM Consult's 3rd floor (Business Logistics). He's a tall and funny character, with less hair. If your wondering how he looks like, he looks like Dr. Greene in the series ER, but taller, yet his joke somehow reminds me of our Mr. Ngiam (one of my duper seniors). Anyway, as i mentioned earlier, he is incredibly fit. He can run 9.1km non-stop in just over 38 minutes.

The Venue
The venue is a recreational park along the Rhine river not far from our office. it consists of a range of different walking/jogging trails along the Rhine river and into the forest nearby. There are so many different trails that its easier to get lost there then in Tokyo's railway system. However which ever path you take you will somehow magically arrive back to the place you started at, only with some additional blisters on your feet from walking so far. its quite a peaceful place to be and at one point you might even forget that you are living in a city. Anyway, our selected path is a 9.1 KM long path that ranges from gravel tracks to muddy, narrow paths through the woods.

The Race
Yes, we decided to have a race. However, i tried to jog through the path the other day, and after only 1 KM i couldn't run anymore. My stamina has obviously been reduced to the level of an asthmatic patient. I realized that there is no way i can even compete with Joachim. I wasn't really a jogging person, I'm a Cycler! So i came up with this brilliant solution. Since im a cycler, and he is a runner, we decided to have a race. Of course you might think, im on a bike and he is running, NO fair!! So to make things fair for him, i have to do two rounds and he has to do only one round. That means i have to overlap him in order to win. So, this means he is doing 9.1km, and Ill be doing 18.2km of cross country cycling. Hmm...i think that maybe about the same distance from my house in Wangsa Melawati, KL to Bukit Bintang..i think...Only in this case its a cross country setting instead of a green house gas polluted city. He usualy averages 14-15km/h when he runs so i have to do an average speed of about 28-30km/h which is quite challenging due to the fact that im not the only one jogging there..many more people and their four legged animals are walking along the paths. Im sure it will be a real challenge and a fun one too. I'm up to it!!

The Test Run
We went on a try yesterday. That was the first time in a few months that i have cycled in a fast and furious manner. Well we started out OK till I took the wrong turn early into the race and I lost over 10 minutes as a result because i had to turn back and take the correct turn, so basically my race was over. But i did not stop there, i went on with full force. I did pass Joachim who was oblivious of my temporary loss of direction and thought i had overlap-ed him. I pushed myself to the limit to see how far i could go and how fast. In my attempt to break the land speed record, i temporary lost focus and fell from my bike (it was Joachim's bike actually) and cut my ankle, but nothing serious, i just got back on and continued cycling. Before long i was back at the starting point.

The Experience
It certainly was not a pleasant experience for the lungs. All the cold and humid air, a result of 3 days of rain, made my lungs freeze in coldness. And the funny thing was the "Dog" effect i experienced. What i mean is, i hardly sweat throughout the whole race, instead, i experienced an increased level of saliva building up in my mouth. It was as if all the moist from the air has condensed in my lungs and mouth causing me to constantly spit out whatever excess saliva from my mouth. However i didn't have much problem in the stamina side. I was able to maintain a steady speed throughout the whole race.

Towards the Future
We will have another race tomorrow, i hope i don't get lost again and i also hope there will not be so many people walking in the park. I think i will have a bet. whoever wins this race will treat the other for lunch. Not really a bet but a reward. The difference between a bet and a reward is, in the latter you are able to make an effort to change the outcome while in the former, it's all luck...

The Nintendo Wii

The Nintendo Wii. I'm not so sure if its on sale in Malaysia, but i had a chance to get my hands on one. Well, it's not mine. it belongs to one of my friends here in Germany which he bought for 200 euros. my first impression of it was "Wow, it looks so cool" and the controllers are nothing near conventional. Basically, its a wireless remote control that acts as a golf club, tennis racket or a baseball bat, depending on what game you play. Well, i got to a a chance to play tennis game against my friend and it was really fun. the best thing is you are actually doing some total body exercise instead of just the fingers doing all the sweating in a conventional video game console. the controllers are wireless and is operated by battery. They were surprisingly easy to use provided you have set up the receiver correctly. However i had only enough time to play one game because it was running late and i had a tram to catch (it was 12am at that time). If i have a chance to play again, i would comment more on it, but so far this i think its quite a fun game console to play with your family and friends. I do recommend it to anyone.

Tchuss

Hockey U16 Malaysia vs Germany

Today I went to watch the hockey match between Malaysia's under 13 team and Germany's under 16 team. Mild showers did not stop the game from proceeding in which it is part of an invitational tournament by Mannheim Hockey Club and teams from 3 other countries namely Netherlands, Belgium and Malaysia.I got to know about this match from my Malaysian student friends i met about a month ago on the way to Heidelberg. Honestly speaking it was obvious that our team was no match for the German team and lost 6 - 1. However, the Malaysian team did put up a fight and managed to score a goal through a penalty stroke in the first half. The second half was totally dominated by the German team with the Malaysian team occationaly cooking up some trouble for the German defense but only managed to trouble the defense, not the goalie. Looking tired, the Malaysian team accepted the loss with an opened mind.

An interview with the team manager revealed that food problem was one of the major problems faced by the under 16 team, where the team could not adjust to the European food arranged for them by the club. This is one of many problems faced by Malaysian sports teams when they get an invitation to play in a foreign country. The MSN (Majlis Sukan Negara) should see this problem seriously as it directly impacts the performance of the athletes. Its also not that impossible to bring along a professional cook along.

Tomorrow the Malaysian team will face Belgium for their last match of the tournament before going on a trip to Heidelberg later on Tuesday.

National Under 18 hockey team along with me and the Malaysian Students in Germany

Highlights : The German teams's 5th goal
(Malaysia in White, German in Red)

Recent happenings

Almost full recovered from the Herpes Zoster epidemic, thats one less thing to worry about. Here comes another problem....

It has been very hot lately, even hotter that when i first came here. It's Malaysian type of weather now and people are starting to dress just to cover up sensitive parts of their body...haha, just joking. But people are really starting to dress very "summer-ish". it so hot that i cant remember a time when Im not sweating....but its only 30 degrees at most. Maybe because the office has no air conditioning other than the windows. However, do not despair...there is still hope. And this hope is put upon our companies elite fleet of "Poor fans". I call them "Poor fans" because the brand of the fans are "Fakir" which means poor in Malay/Arabic. however Google defines fakir as an arabic word that means religious (Moslem) man living on charity....which i strongly disagree. To my understanding its just means a poor man, doesn't matter if he is religious or not. but never mind, lets focus on the topic at hand. Its a good thing that they had these fans. I can see in each room there is a fan turned on at full speed. not that its too hot, but i think i have forgotten how it feels like living in Malaysia's weather.

in other news. i listened to BBC world service yesterday and came across a rather bizzare news. It was said that McDonalds wants to sue oxford dictionary because in there official dictionary there is the word "Mcjob" which means a low paid, low skilled jobs only for uneducated people, which they find insulting to the McDonald brand....but i was laughing my ass of when i heard it."Mcjob"..whoever came up with that was a genius!! instead of "excuse me, can i have a McChicken?" one will be going, "do u have any Mcjobs around here?"..i laugh everytime i think about it.

Yesterday i wen jogging with one of my colleagues...well, i think its more like pace making..since i was on a bike and he was the one running. Anyway, it was a 9.1 km run and when i say run, i really mean run! this guy was running non stop at an average of 14-15km/h and finished the run in a record time of 38minutes 10 seconds. I was really astonished. how could he run so far without stopping? So today i tried jogging, for the first time in who knows how long. haha, to my dismay, my feet could only bring me 1 km before giving up and walking for the next 8km...haha..i guess i have a long way to go...:P

Finally, still thinking of going to Paris, i have to do a feasibility study first and see how i can do that:P But the one who reads this blog will be informed...stay tuned

Tchuse

Important to drivers : Beware of the problematic speed camera readings.

Road saftey ad

Explaination of the picture

I guess i was so excited about the trip i forgot to explain the picture. Well, as you can see im at the lower right hand side of the picture. Behind me is Liu Shu, the trainee from China that is working with me. Beside him is Kathrin Schmutz, the VPICX that matched me to Tim Consult. She is quite cute but a bit blur (as if im not blur myself) :-P haha but she is OK. Beside her is the VP Finance which i forgot her name..pai seh..Beside her is Jean. He is the trainee that is working in EvoBus. He's from Luxumberg and one of the coolest trainees here. Always the boss of partying (we have a lot of parties by the way). In front of him is Henrik Lies, the VP of reception team. One of the cool people of AIESEC Mannheim too. On the left we have 3 people. the one sitting is the LCP of AIESEC Mannheim, he is not wearing his glasses, else he will look like Peter Parker in Spiderman 1, 2 and 3. The girl is Bahar. she is from Turkey and working also in EvoBus. Although she is from Turkey, i think her English accent sounds east European . The other guy is an AIESEC member, but i don't remember his name..yeah, pai seh again....

so there u have it, AIESEC in Mannheim!!!!

Tchuss

Virus infection

I went to the doctor yesterday to check up a rash I had since Monday. I thought it wasn't anything serious but it turned out to be Herpes Zoster or otherwise known as shingles. It is cause by the same virus as chickenpox but i only infects people who have already gone through chicken pox. More information please surf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shingles . I knew this particular disease because it attacks people with AIDS. I watched a lot of AIDS awareness videos when i was in school. After chickenpox has subsided, the varicella zoster virus (VZV), the virus that causes chicken pox, remains dormant in ones body after suppressed by the immune system, but due to compromises in the immune system the virus will reactivate and cause Herpes zoster. What i mean by compromises is, from time to time, our immune system might get week because some reasons such as stress, weather etc. So there is a bigger chance to contract Herpes zoster at these times. Its not particularly dangerous but if left untreated it can effect the nerve system in a really bad way. But don't worry, i wont turn into a zombie, like Resident Evil. But it will hurt a lot since its related to the nerve system.

However the events that lead to the discovery of this virus infection were really interesting. Its like i was really destined to discover this virus and get treatment before it got bad. hmm, where do i begin...keep in mind i didnt think the rash was a serious problem

Tuesday night :

1. Liu Shu (AIESEC Trainee from China) took the adapter for the rice cooker to charge his mp4 player, so i could not cook rice

Wednesday :

2. I did could not cook rice to bring too work for lunch. So i went out for lunch with my colleagues. Lunch costs 5 euros so bringing rice from home really saves money. but im glad that day i went for lunch with my colleagues.

3. During lunch i asked Dominik about the rash i had and ask him how the procedure to go to the doctors and claim under insurance. I just casually asked in case i need to go to the doctors. he didn't know and told me to ask Mrs Hausdourfer (the office/HR manager). But since i didn't think it was urgent so i decided to ask her later in the evening, besides she was pretty busy most of the time.

4. Turns out that Dominik did tell Mrs Hausdourfer about what i said. Turns out that her son had the same infection not long ago. At first she also thought it was not serious, but after her son checked it out at the doctor, Mrs Housdourfer became more alert to the symptoms. She quickly came ad looked at my rash and said that we must go to the doctor.

5. Its good that Dominik told her right after lunch because

• i had only registered for insurance quite recently and have not received a medical card or any sort. So Mrs Hausdourfer had to call the insurance company and ask them to fax a letter to confirm my insurance. If she was informed later, there would not be enough time to take action, since the next day was a public holiday and i cant get the letter on a public holiday.
  
• All the clinics are closed on Wednesday evening (don't ask me why). So if Mrs Housdorfer was not informed i for sure couldn't know that there is an emergency clinic. Besides i wouldn't even know the procedure to begin with.

So, if either ONE of these events had not happen, I would be suffering for the rest of the week without medication... Seriously, if Mrs Housdourfer's son did not get the same infection, she wouldn't take my rash so seriously. If i cooked rice for lunch i wouldn't have gone for lunch and have the conversation with Dominik and he wouldn't have told Mrs Housdourfer. Everything is linked to each other....like a conspiracy.

Thats why, no matter how bad the events that happen to you are, don't despair, hang on, because it maybe meant to happen to allow a good result to happen, like what has happened here in my little ordeal ...think about it...

Tchuss

Trip to Evobus

Last Friday AIESEC Mannheim organized a visit to EvoBus factory in the outskirts of Mannheim. In case you don't know, EvoBus is the bus making division of Daimler-Chrysler And since Daimler has already sold Chrysler, its now known as Daimler.
We arrived there at around 9am and was given a short slide show of the history of EvoBus and Daimler-Benz. Did u know Karl Benz (the inventor of the automobile) drove his car for the first time from Mannheim to Stuttgart? I was first amazed at the factory that makes almost everything in house!! even to the small screws and metal parts. only stuff like seats and electronic and electric devices are made by other companies. in the slide show we were shown the map of the factory and different parts of the factory that made different parts of the bus. there is even a build in train station to transport the parts, such as engines to other factories, such as the truck factory in Ulm (which happens to be the place Mustafa is studying at).

As a note, all of the presentations and tour was in German. So i had my friend Jean translate as much as he can from what was been said by the guide. Pictures were not allowed to be taken within the compound of the factory.

After the slide show we were started the tour around the factory. The first area we were brought to was the training facility. here, the new apprentices were trained to use the equipment, troubleshoot problem, fix, and also do some engineering projects using the equipment available in the facility. The bus parts produced in the training will be also used in the real production of the buses and don't think the workers are trained like technicians. they are trained like engineers where they will have projects like creating an engine that is powered by compressed air. they are also been given the opportunity to fix the Mercedes of some clients as part of their training. they will spend a few years in the facility just for training, so i guess the graduates are really highly skilled.

Next, the engine factory, where we were shown the production of the 6 cylinder diesel engine used for the bus. If im not mistaken, the factory makes thousands of these engines a month for the buses they make and also the truck factory in Ulm. Its kind of cool watching the production line where there are a number of station, each assembling different parts of the engine. And if there is a custom component that has to be added to the engine, such as a turbocharger or fuel injection, the engine is taken out of the production line and later put back in after making the necessary modification. Usually clients will request some modifications to the engines according to their needs. Quality control it a top priority in the factory. The engines are tested before they are shipped out and once in a while an engine will be randomly picked and an intense test will be done on it to see if there are flaws in the way the engine is made and if there are problems, the engineers will discuss and see what they can do to improve the quality of the engines.

Next is the chassis and frame. The bus chassis and frames built in this factory are nothing but standard. Each and every bus is custom made to suit the clients needs. The chassis are built from a number of parts called elements. elements are kind of like skeletons that are welded together to form a bus chassis and frame. The number of elements differ according to the bus design, one story, 2 stories, city bus or travel bus. and as usual, after each production line there is a quality control. All the measurements and weldings are checked and ensured that there are no problems on them.

after the frames are done, it is transported by lorry, to the part of the factory where the frame submerged into an anti-rust solution (as the name would suggest) to protect the frame rust. After going through this process, the frame will weigh about 20 kg more than it was before.

Having taken care of the rust problems, the frame will be moved on to the factory that does all the body work, electrics and electronics, interior and engine installation. its really astonishing to see so many unfinished buses in one place. there are about 5-6 production lines with about 8 buses in each line. its kind of like an evolution where u can see an unfinished bus evolve into a ready product.. and all of this are done by hand!! no robots whatsoever.

After the buses are ready, they don't straight away deliver it to the customer, the do a road test. At first they will make a round in the EvoBus test track that is about 2KM (i think) and if nothing falls off, they will do on-the-road testing as far as 100KM, and if the wheels of bumpers don't fall off by, then it has passed the quality control thus it will be delivered to the customer.

I think the few things that impressed me the most about the working environment here are :

1. Each personal has the responsibility of reporting any problems or giving suggestions to improve the work protocol if they spot any weakness in it.

2. There is a performance chart for everyone that is made public to show the increase or decrease in work performance of the personnel.

3. Quality control. after each step there is a quality control instead of after the product is finished.

4. The large amount of effort put into training (technical as well as safety).

The trip to EvoBus was really a mind opening experience. Although the technology used in the factory could not compare to the facilities in Protons plant in Tanjung Malim, but the result of the emphasis on work discipline and protocols can be seen in the end product, u can see a lot of difference. Not to say Proton's quality is very bad, but .... you know.... :-) I have ridden on the buses, both in Turkey and in Germany, so i know :-)

So the tour ended just in time for lunch. Because the guide made us wait in the beginning of the tour, we got free lunch. And it was my lucky day because they had fish. I guess Friday is fish day!! But after the trip, i guess, it was back to work (i got a half day off for this trip)...

Tchuss

Very cool short film

I was browsing through youtube and found a few very cool video made by user Vancouver Film School. I guess it is someone from that school. They are about 10 mins, so it might take some time to load, but its worth it....The first one is a very cool dark comedy..one word of advice....love your country....

Lab Experiment 2

If you are exposed to world news, there was once a reality show, i think by the name "size me up". Basicaly, the was this guy who wanted to proove that eating McDonalds food was really unhealthy, so he did an experiment where he basicaly lived on McD food. Everyday he would eat only McD Burgers, fries, chicken or anything that has the McD chop on its package. In the end, he was really in bad shape. Cholestorol and blood sugar levels were sky high forcing him to abandon the experiment on the 28th day. But i only heard this from a friend...and some related websites. But i heard McD did make their food healthier after that program was broadcasted on TV.

Now, my 2nd experiment is simple. "Being a vegiterian for half a month". Besides doing it for fun, i just want to know is it so bad to be a vegiterian? will i be craving for meat through out the whole time. First, i should define what i can and cant eat. Well. i guess i will not eat any meat besides eggs. As simple as that.

this experiment is totaly unscientific, so the expected result of the experiment is just my general opinion of the whole experience. The experiment starts today and finishes on the 31st of May.

Good Luck to me...

Server down and Cancelation of lab Experiment 1

Yesterday the proxy sever for the internet at my hostel was down...again. Man, they should replace that old server. I suspect it hangs very ofter. That might be caused by many possibilities. maybe they should just change the server to new one, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. I wanted to call my mom as its mothers day today, now can´t aledi.

I decided to cancel the Lab Experiment 1 (the fasting experiment) due to some unforseen side effects that has nothing to do with hunger :

1) Sahur finishes at 3.30am, so as a logic person, i should sleep early in order to wake up early to eat sahur. But i cant really sleep early because i have to wait for Isyak that starts at around 11pm. Now, i dont have a problem waking up at 3am to have sahur, and wait 30min for subuh. but the effects will be felt the next morning.

I noticed during the fasting, i think because of the early morning session of sahur, i tend to feel very sleepy at work and since i cant drink coffee, theres not much hope to stop the sleepiness. Sometimes i find myself litterely passing out in front of the computer:P i do take some walks around the office to loose the sleepyness, but it just comes back.

2) I think im still not used to the cold, windy, rainy weather that has been occuring lately. When i feel cold i loose the urge to drink water and before i know it, i will be feeling dizzy i guess a side effect from dehydration. Its quite dangerous since im not aware its happening untill i fell the effects.

so as before :

Hypothesis 0 : Subject fasts a whole workday without much problem.
Hypothesis 1 : Subject fasts half way and cannot stand it , thus breaking fast.

Both hypothesis 0 is rejected because subject fast a whole workday, but with problems, and since he did not break fast, hypothesis 1 is also rejected.

Conclusion : get used to the weather first then only try to fast in a foreign country.

However, im going to start another lab experiment soon... stay tuned...

Trams

In many European cities, trams have been popular mode of transportation. Its much cheaper to build than subways or MRTs at the same time easy to access like buses. whats more you dont have to worry much about traffic jams or traffic lights for that matter. However i think its one of the most ridiculous ways to travel, because of the fare. You can pay up to 2.1euros just for a 5 min ride. if you are a student, u can buy a semester ticket for i think 90 or 100 euros per semester and you have unlimited rides with the tram for a semester. However for a person like me, im not really using it often, so it's just a waste of precious money. For people working at the outskirts of Mannheim and living in the city center, its worth while to buy it.

Anyway, regardless of my opinion of the tram service, a friend of mine once ask about how the trams work. I mean, the tracks are in the middle of the road, don't the pedestrians get knocked down or get run over and turned into minced meat? Those questions arise after looking at the picture below.
If you can see, the tram tracks run through the street, the same place cars drive through and people walk. Well, fear now more! the explanation will be presented here!!

The trams run on electricity supplied through the overhead cables as seen in the picture to the left. For entertainment purposes, the trams have drivers and since he is in the front of the tram, he might as well be given a set of controls so he can control the speed of the tram, slow it down and if necessary, give you a decent "ring!!!" (honk for cars) if you wonder blindly on the tracks.After all, it does have the acceleration of a Ferrari but the top speed of a bicycle. And the sound it produces is really cool. like a futuristic train. It sounds like an LRT but the sound engineers have tweaked the sound so it will sound cool and many people want to ride it. So, if you are in the mood for taking your own life, u can walk within the safety lines that are seen beside the tracks, but of course the driver has control over the tram and will stop the tram before it hits you. However he might ring/honk you to death after that. So for safety reasons, its a good idea to walk outside the safety lines.

If you are not in the mood to spend the night in the hospital or in a coffin for that matter, but you are interested to burn some money and have a ride on the tram, you can buy a ticket at the complicated, "Sprechen Englisch nicht"(dont speak english) ticket machine located at all tram stops. (Sorry, but i didn't have a decent picture of the tram stop, but this is the best i picture i have of the tram stops). However after learning how to use the ticket machine, you will find it quite easy to use. But like i said, its not worth paying 2.1euro just for a 5 minute trip that you can travel with a bicycle. The last tram runs from 6am till 12am everyday (i think). so if you are partying at night, please mind the time. You might end up walking home.

As a conclusion, the tram ride is only worth while if you are using is very often. you can buy 24hour unlimited tickets that is very cheap, but only if you plan to take more than 2 rides on the tram. otherwise its quite expensive for the student wallet. However its a relatively cheap form of infrastructure (in terms of cost to build) and it adds a coolness factor to your city. its also environmental friendly compared to diesel buses since its running on electricity (assuming the source of electricity is fro a renewable energy such as wind or solar). However im pretty sure it wont be built in Malaysia....

Tchuss

Rolling star

Its not a secret that I'm kindda a J-Pop fan. i probably know more Japanese songs than any other language songs. One of the singers i truly adore is Yui. besides being cute, she also has an unrealistically cute voice....maybe if u are a girl u might not think so...but guys shuld agree with me. Hear it for yourself. See how she handles a live performance in the 2nd video :

Top 10 List - ep. 4

Top 10 new things learnt :

1. The word "arubaito" used in Japanese meaning part time work, most probably came from the word "arbeite" (pronounced "arbaiter") meaning "to work"
2. Quite a lot of Germans like spicy food, unlike popular belief that westerners cant eat spicy food.
3. There are kebab shops opened till early morning unlike most shops that usually close at 8 pm.
4. A shop/bar needs a special license to open late at night and the price of the license goes up for every hour it open at night.
5. I will get motion sickness on spinning/twisting rides at the fun fair.
6. How to make Lasagna.
7. The company Bosch is a privately owned company, means it doesn't have shares in the share market and Bosch power tools, (popular in Malaysia) is the smallest division of Bosch.
8. German people spend 70 Billion euro per year for overweight related problems. e.g. Doctors advice, medicine, weight loss stuff etc.
9. Its a whole lot cheaper to travel by train in a group than to travel alone (of course its harder).
10. Pin numbers given to a person for their ATM bank cards cannot be changed.

.:: Top 10 List - Out every now and then ::.

What a small world...

Last Monday night i had a trainee dinner and country presentation with the AIESECers in Mannheim. Maybe i told before, maybe not, the aiesec office is almost like an apartment so there is a kitchen, stove, cooking tools and stuff, so we had the dinner in the AIESEC office. I cooked Tom Yam, for the second time in Germany. As you all know Tom Yam is spicy and when i was cooking they saw me cut up some chillies. The guys were like, "we want more chillies!" and the girls ere like "Please, enough, enough!" so i just put in 6 chillies which turned out not enough. Like, before, i told it was supposed to be eaten as a soup, despite that, it was not challenging enough for most of the guys. the girls faces were like all red and smoke coming out from their ears. haha. I should have put more chillies......

I also cooked a bit of Kurma ayam. this was not meant to be spicy so most of them really liked it. But sadly the rice finished too quickly since my Chinese colleague also was cooking and he finished first, so most of the rice was eaten with his cooking. yet, everybody couldn't have enough of it. they liked Malaysian food (even when its not the best cooking :P). Especially the LCPs GF Stefanie who had a traineeship in Indonesia and also went to Malaysia to travel and eat good food:) By the way the LCPs name is Florian, people call him Flo, but i like to call him Spiderman because at the first glance u will think he is Peter Parker (spiderman) hahaha.

The best part came during the country presentation. I was so not prepared, but its really a good thing that Tourism Malaysia have these video clips on their website so i used the with full efficiency. haha. I also had some pictures of Malaysia that a brought in my laptop and there was this picture of Eva in it and one of the AIESECers said "stop!! go back one step....is that Eva???" Wow!!! I didn't even see that coming...it turned out that one of the AIESECers had in internship with Eva in Ecuador for 10 months. They were teaching English in a school there. What a small world. What a pleasent suprise. later on we talked more about Eva. She told me Eva was now studying in Belgium for her masters. Belgium close to Germany...hmmmm...

For those who don't know who the heck I'm talking about, Eva was our CEEDer from Slovakia a couple of years ago. She's a tough, independent and outgoing girl and from my opinion, one of the most adventurous persons i have ever known.

Well, I wonder what other supprises await me around the corner.....

Tchuss

Lab : Experiment 1

I just got my payslip today. Because i started working on the 3rd week of April, it means i only get half a months of salary. My full salary is 650 euros so half of it is 325 euros, OK. On top of that i have to pay social security and insurance that amounts to 59.94 euros, round it up its 60 euros. so now I'm left with 265 euros. Then, I have to pay rent that amounts 203euros, which leaves me with 62 euros nett for the month!!! Luckily i have foreseen this, but i think i haven't been efficient enough in my last months budget so i was left with around 100 euros at the beginning of the month which quickly shrunk to 50 euros this week. hmm...which leaves me with 112 euros for the rest of the month.. :-P

I emailed Yukiko the other day and i mentioned about this matter to her and she came up with a brilliant solution that i really didn't expect coming from her. she told me to fast like the ramadan month. I can believe she remembers about Ramadan let alone how to spell Ramadan (BTW ramadan is actually spelled Ramadhan but its close enough). But there is one flaw in this plan. If u read my earlier post about prayer time, fasting begins from fajr (subuh) till Maghrib. If u have passed standard 1 math, and i assume u have, u will notice that this will mean a more than 17 hour fasting time compared to the normal 13 hour fasting time in Malaysia.

However, I'm determined to run this experiment for the rest of the week and if its feasible ill continue till the end of the month. My opinion is, if the locals can do it why not me? So the experiment will commence tomorrow. Experiment codename : Ramadhan.
The hypothesis for this experiment is as follows :

Hypothesis 0 : Subject fasts a whole workday without much problem.
Hypothesis 1 : Subject fasts half way and cannot stand it , thus breaking fast.

Observation will be noted after 13 hours of fasting each day and after break fast. Results will be published on Sunday.

Tchuss...

Are you a citizen of the world?

Since i didnt bring many songs here to listen, i started to listen to internet radio and with super fast internet, the response and connection is almost instantaneous. But the radio channel that really caught my attention was radioioWorld - world music. It plays world music from all over the world. Spain, Madagascar, africa, India, Malaysia, china, thailand, you just name the country, they got the songs. Its really interesting to listen to songs from all over the world, some in language so alien to me that i thought it was a Martian language. And its always fulfilling to hear Malaysian songs once in a while. Just now i heard Cindai by Siti Nurhaliza being played, I mean this is an international internet radio station. to have our songs being played here is quite an honor.

But i think not everybody will like to listen to world music. if you are a fan of Metallica, R&B and songs played on Hitz.fm, you wont really like world music. If u r a Mix.fm fan, there is a 50-50 chance u will like it. if ur a light&easy fm fan, the possibility u will like it is higher, maybe 80-20 percent chance u will like it. The thing is, world music is anything but mainstream. It is for people that like to listen to something different than the normal hits on radio because some of the songs might be a bit weird from a normal persons point of view. Which makes me not normal? well, i prefer eccentric...i guess...

Hopefully TMnet will upgrade its services so that Malaysians can have better internet and can listen to internet radio. If u have iTunes, u can tune into radioioWorld by going to the menu radio>intenational>radioioWorld.

"Welcome to music from planet earth"

Tchuss....

Welcome to NHK

When i was sick last week, i spent my time in my room watching this anime series called "Welcome to NHK". At first i was not really interesting in the title because in the title, i thought NHK was the Japanese TV company. But i decided to watch it anyway since it had the complete 24 episodes except for the 7th episode. I later found out it was an interesting series, although a bit slow in the introduction, but later on it will get really addictive. The story is about a college dropout, Satou who becomes a "hikikomori" after he dropped out of college, Hikikomori is a term given to people that only stay at home, dont work, dont go out, kindda like a couch potato. these people really have a psychological problem because they are afraid to go out and to socialize. All the bad stuff that happens to him and the reason he cannot improve is always blamed on the NHK (Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai) which pretty much means Japan Hikikomori Organization. He says this orrganization always creates conspiracies against him so that he cannot succeed. So, then he meets this girl that is trying hard to change him. So towards that end, Satou meet with many new experiences from online gaming to MLM which are really funny!!

Well the main thing i want to highlight is the moral of the story. Japan animators have a really good way to integrate moral values in their anime. Sometimes they give u a lesson that u didn't realize exist. As for this anime the girls gives tips on how Satou can overcome his fear of socializing, one of them are always to look down on the person that you are talking to. Means when you talk to a person, just think of him as inferior to you, that gives you more confidence to talk to people. If you look back into the real world, sometimes subconsciously, we tend to do that to people. Even if its hard to admit sometimes we do look down on people to make ourselves feel confident. Sometimes, knowing that you are the best, the strongest and the smartest, even when you are comparing to the worst people, gives you self confidence and makes you feel good. Of course, all of this happens subconsciously so you wont notice unless u really think about it. Well i don't think it's particularly a bad thing unless you go to far as to manifest this attitude in the form of egoistic words and cocky behavior.

But there is another, positive way to inter prate this behavior. Instead of looking down on people, be greatful of what you have. It might not be much, but it could be worse. You might not have what other people have but u also might have what other people don't and the "thing" that you have might just be what people are longing for. So, be greatful of what you have...

And at the end of the series, the girl turns out to be a problem child that went through a hard life when her dad died, her mom remarried to a violent husband and finally her mom took her own life. She was constantly beaten by her step father till she had a phobia of people. But now she is living with her uncle and aunte which are nice people, but she still had that phobia. She had gotten that far because she kindda looked down on Satou at the same time she loved him. But when Satou said she didn't love her, she decided to kill herself by jumping off a cliff. But what did Satou say to talk her out of it? well, he said all of the bad stuff that happened to her is not her fault, instead it was a conspiracy by the NHK to not let her to be happy. it was a dramatic scene ended in Satou wanted to jump himself..but when he jumped, it turned out that the government had installed a net at the cliff to stop people from jumping....memang potong stim..hahaha.. but it was really funny..

From here we can conclude that the NHK can also be described as [Fate]. Most of the time we can't always blame fate for not succeeding. If we keep on blaming fate, we will forever be where we are now or even worse. At the same time we are not in control of everything. Sometimes no matter how hard we try, it still doesn't turn out how we want it to. It's not completely your fault. Maybe its for the best. So its up to each individual how quickly he/she wants to accept fate as it is. Accept fate too quickly without even giving it a decent shot, well, thats really quite pathetic. whats more is despite that, they complain.....:-P

But i think the time it takes for one to give into fate mostly depends on how much one expects from life. How much he/she wants what he/she wants. There is a saying by a former Mafia member (who end up shot dead) : its important to keep a balance in life. Wanting too much from life, u might end up loosing everything u have and wanting to little from life, u might end up with nothing at all...

Tchuss.....

Waktu Sembahyang

***This blog entry is written specially for Fadli in response to his advice to me which was...."Jangan tinggal sembahyang", however everyone is invited to read on***

In Malaysia, even if you are not a muslim, u usually know that muslims pray 5 times a day and roughly u know the prayer times, once in the morning around 6am, then 1pm, then one more at around 4.30pm then 7pm once more and finally once around 8.30pm. Well in Germany, especially in Spring , near summer time, the prayer times are totaly different and odd , but nonetheless the timing is rather cool, i suppose. Below are the prayer time for Mannheim and kawasan-kawasan sewaktu dengannya (according to Islamicfinder.com) :

Fajr (subuh) : 3.44am

Sunrise(syuruk) : 6.03am

Dhuhur (zohor) : 1.24pm

Asr (asar) : 5.25pm

Maghrib : 8.45pm

Isha : 10.53pm

So, the praying times are so strategic that i think its much better than the prayer time in Malaysia. So, i usually don't have any problems with prayer, except zohor where the lunch time is at 12pm so the timing a bit "lari" there. But as i said...my working times are flexible, So everything can be discussed. so that problem is almost no problem.

The sembahyang Jumaat is really something too... I have to pray at a Turkish Mosque where they are not the same sect as Malaysian...if ur familliar with the sects in islam, the turkish are mostly Hanafi while malaysian are usually Shafie. so their sembahyang jumaat is a bit different then what is in Malaysia, but its no problem, its just a minor difference. We still pray to the same God and follow prophet Muhammad. Thats good enough..

hope everything is clear....Tchuss....

German Working Culture

Before I came to Germany I thought that working in Germany meant working long hours under pressure and struggling to meet deadlines. Some of my expectations were met but quite a lot were not as i expected. When you talk about Germans, the first few things that come on your mind are punctuality, accuracy and bad punishments on failure. However i was surprised on how things worked in my company.

For one thing, there are no punch cards, so you pretty much can come whenever you want. However you should fix a time that you want to come and stick to it. It all can be discussed, the most important thing is you are willing to discuss so that everybody is not wondering where you are. In other words, the working time is flexible. [Flexible] was not at all what i expected from Germans, especially when my dad gave advice on how "fixed" German people are, but I'm glad it turned out this way. I guess Germans are not "fixed", but rather "plan in advance and stick to the plan", meaning anything can be discussed and planed, but for crying out loud, don't change your mind like you change your clothes.

Another thing is about time limitations. Unlike most countries in Asia, and the US, everything is expected to be completed as soon as possible and everyone is rushing. here they adopt a concept of do things slowly but carefully and correctly. "Better safe than sorry" some say.... but please don't take too long. (at least thats how my company works).

Coffee breaks are important to refresh the mind once one starts to loose consciousness every 2 - 3 minutes. Its also a good opportunity for colleagues to meet up and discuss trivial matters such as the weather, current issue, the war against terror and the falling value of the US Dollar. The coffee corner is a place where friendships among colleagues are bonded together. And with a kick-a$$ coffee machine, everyone would want to come there on every chance they have (which are not many).

However some might think all this freedom will lead to lazy workers, but, on the contrary, it makes us work even more longer since there is not much pressure. This type of working environment is adopted by, SAP, a big multinational software company that originated from Germany. I was told that the working ours are totally flexible. nobody checks if your doing work or not, they don't really monitor what time you come to work, so, basically you choose your own work time. To make things more exciting, in the office there is a sports center, laundry area, resting area, free food(canteen) and many other facilities. Its "THE" place to work!! you probably think the workers are all useless and undisciplined. But NO, your wrong. The workers work even longer and harder, its just that they don't work in normal working hours . Some of them don't even go home because all the facilities are already given by the company. How wonderful if i could work there. I think if given the right motivation and freedom, people will work very hard. I think to a certain extent, my company is trying to adopt the same concept. Gosh i love this kindda working environment!!!

The thing about Germans, or people from 1st world countries is they know their responsibility in society and they don't really need much monitoring to keep things in order. This can be seen in everyday situations, for example, when you go on a train, its expected for one to get a ticket. However, the few times i have ridden on the train or bus, nobody came to check the tickets. So basically you can get away without buying a ticket. However, having a 1st world mindset, Germans will usually never attempt to do that because they are far sighted. If they make it a habit to take free rides, the result will be tighter security and that will mean more procedures and less freedom. Freedom and trust are not worth trading for a free ride on the train isn't it? This is first world thinking ladies and gentlemen.

A first world country is not only judged by how advance the technology possessed by a country, but also the level of thinking of its people, a culture of responsibility to society and respect to the law. I think this differentiates first world countries such as German from Singapore. Germany is safe because the people have sense of respect for the law, while in Singapore, the law is enforced with ultimate perfection. That why you can see Singapore plated cars speeding across the PLUS highway at over 160KMpH. Not that I'm anti-Singapore or what, i have relatives in Singapore, but relax lah sikit.... even the Germans i met say Singapore's law enforcement is too kiasu.

Well, i guess i made my points here. I'm sure this will take time to be digested. I'll save more for later.....

Tchuss....

Picture of the week

The Path of Light

What are your comments??

Bye bye to "Good idea and Bad idea"

I sadly announce that the segment "Good idea bad idea" has been discontinued due to the lack of good and bad ideas :-P However it will be replaced by a new segment called, "Picture of the week".

In other news....There is a new Travalism blog entry at mytravlism.blogspot.com and in case you don't know, it is my travel blog......

Tchuss!!