Earth Hour 2009

It was just last Saturday (28th March 2009) that most places of the world did something in unity, Earth Hour 2009, where lights were switched off at 8:30 pm. Of course the timing is different for all countries so we wont have everyone doing the same thing at the same time.

As for me, I was at my grandmother's place and at that time we were already done with dinner. The adults were watching a DVD video downstairs and the kids/young adults were upstairs playing games. As 8:30 approaches, my little cousins told everyone to switch off their lights, unfortunately the air con was on, which I think consumes more electricity. The adults didn't bother to participate, so downstairs was bright and upstairs of the house was dark. I was typing in the dark on my keyboard and often making spelling mistakes, haha.

We wanted the children to understand global warming but they don't really get it, they're just 7, 9 and 11 years old. Well my cousin brother who is 11 understands a bit but not the younger ones, they don't even know what causes global warming. They have enjoyed the air condition since they were babies, losing the air con would be a big deal for them, they'll sweat like mad. Back in the days when I was a child, I get a fan which is quite fortunate for me.

As I look out the window, I notice the neighbours did not bother with it anyway, I guess the message was not communicated with enough power to every nation. This event was to create awareness and I feel it is important and that it should be advertised more. What we need to address is to show how global warming happens, what impact it has on mother earth, how to help even if it's just a little.

Before we address going green, I feel the first thing we need to address is recycling, it is definitely not a popular thing to do yet because you still find many rubbish in the drains causing floods to Kuala Lumpur. People are just dumping rubbish everywhere and it pains mother earth. We need to tell children, teenagers, young adults the right message, the proper thing to do or else we all know deep down, earth will be lost soon, which is what the movie The day the earth stood still tried to tell us. We are killing earth everyday!

Because I was not in the city, I did not manage to see KLCC and KL Tower with its lights off. But I did manage to obtain some pictures for other countries' event. Visit the links below to see it's beauty even though it's in the dark.

Links:

1. http://www.earthhour.org/home/
2. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/earth_hour_2009.html
3. http://www.flickr.com/groups/earthhour2009global/

I still can't find any for Malaysia Landmarks, will edit this post once I do.

Cute Game

Playing games at this age brings back the child in you, where you'll do what it takes to win, not in a mean and evil way I mean. When you're stuck at a certain level, you'll just keep trying, yes at some point you'll give up, but you see children don't give up easily compared to adults. That's my own opinion, sometimes I wish I have the type of concentration I have while I play games as I have at other things. When it comes to doing something you like, a person puts in more effort, more passion, more concentration and more love.

There are some games that I play where I lose interest half way, give up and quit. But the following games are just too cute to quit :p.
Available for both Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS. I played it on my NDS, it was loads of fun, it has cute character designs, you pick how you want them to look like, what they wear, what furniture they have. In the game, your sim interact with other people in the town, you participate in festival game. Everytime you win a festival, you attract more people to live in your town. You earn simeleons from winning and you can spend it on anything you want. This game is much more fun if you play multiplayer. I played with my sister and she beat me in every minigame :(. Some screenshots below:

This cute game is only available for nintendo exclusively which is a good strategy as they are more nintendo wii and NDS owners, I have read from websites that it's still a hot demand everywhere. Good for nintendo for being so creative and coming out with the next gen of console.

Taxes!!

Nearing the month of April/May, it's time for taxes. This year is the first year that I'll be taxed but my salary is below 2500 so in the end I don't need to pay anything. I got my EA form from the company and my dad say I should open a tax file and do my filling even though I need not pay. Two options to get my tax file opened:

First method, go to the tax offices and do it manually. It's located in several places as I've heard but I really don't want to go through the trouble of driving there, finding a parking space and looking for the office. Therefore I proceed to option 2. :P

Second method is to do it online and the website is http://ekl.hasil.org.my/. I have to send in an application to open a tax file and get a pin number to do my filling online. The website is in Bahasa Malaysia and everything in the form is in malay. There were many options for how they should address you:

I wonder what will happen if I were to put Datin :p.

The funniest one was status:

I was wondering how the dead is able to send in an application , I know it can be done by family members but I didn't know the deceased still had to pay taxes >.<

In times like this....

Well another week went pass and I still have no project, but it's not too bad because it gave me the chance to continue my learning. Since I have been back I've been doing some Java online training provided from the company, it certainly refreshed my memory of Java. When I ran out of Java I started reading e book on C# 2008 as my knowledge in this subject is kinda minimal. I managed to learn quite a bit, still I have more to learn and more practices to do. C# is similar to Java because of it being OO but in syntax wise, it's totally different, still it's not too hard to pick up. I am looking forward to chapters that will teach me new stuff like WPF, ASP.Net, windows app and many more.

All this crisis really got me thinking a lot, especially in the area of self improvement. The march advancement program promotes were out few days ago and I wasn't included of course. I know why and I have a good grasp which area I need to improve on. One of the feedback that was given to me is related to professionalism and maturity. I have to admit at times I definitely did not act mature enough and sometime I did not communicate professionally. Communication and social skills is definitely important these days, I've seen many people do well in college because of their social skills, doing well in work also. These skills can help you get what you want sometimes, like a better discount or better deals. This is what I lack of and it's what I need to work on.

Thus in my process of improving I have gotten two books to help on this area, "How to talk to Anyone" and also "How to win friends and influence people". I have only started reading the 1st chapter for one of the books, and it's interesting to read what the writer obtained from all his research and analysing. I think the hard part would be executing, some people are born with it and I would be those who need to cultivate it. A good thing that ties to communication is judging people and reading body language because with those you will know what is the proper thing to say. But I think a person who is good at it can convince anyone without judging too much.

This is definitely the time for me to grow in areas of personality that I'm weak of and to further improve my IT skills. Time is embark on a journey of obtaining more knowledge.

Slowing down...

My work life has been slowing down so so much to the point where I'm practically useless in the company. I have been on the bench since January till today, all the while waiting for a new project being assigned to me. It's not like I'm picky choosing what projects I want, it's just that there are many more people sitting on the bench, I estimate more than 30. The office has been packed with people since I got back here. Things just keep getting worse I guess, two weeks ago there was a meeting with the HR and only selected people got the email as some of my colleagues were excluded.

That really made me worried, the email came on a Friday and the meeting was on the following Monday, imagine all the worrying on the weekends where you're suppose to rest and relax. Before the meeting started there have been rumours circulating here and there, some say those people were not good performers, some even thought of the words lay off. It really gave me the shivers. Finally the meeting came and it was addressing the current state of the company. Since there was too many people on the bench, the company's productivity went down, hence we're not doing so well. Those that were in the room are forced to clear their annual leaves till 0 days were left.

It sucks that I'm unlucky to be on the bench and having to clear 8 days of leave one shot. Even though I was on leave for the last two weeks, I was just slacking at home doing nothing, sigh :(. It's going to be my third month on the bench and I can't help but keep praying that I will have a new project soon.