5 minutes and never a title

3 months.

Sometimes it just amazes me how that simple origin of breastmilk (they came from breasts, if you're still wondering) can have so much nutrition that Safiyya seems to get heavier by the days. Subhanallah. I guess that why breastmilk is the best milk meant for them. And it's easy on the wallet too. Yeah. So no complaints in that department.

Every morning is a cheerful event to Safiyya. You can usually catch her at her best mood during the early morning after she wakes up. You can say just about anything - make any lame jokes - and she can make you feel that you're as talented as Russell Peters (or Afdlin Shauki - whichever is your preference).

Misc.

Insyaallah, I plan to relocate our little family to a place which is nearer to our families in Shah Alam. Hopefully we manage to work that plan out and become Shah Alam-ian in a couple of months. For now though, I guess I'll have to refrain myself from updating the status of the acquisition any further since it's not yet a done deal. The wheels have been set into motion though - so..yeah..that's that.

A couple of days back, probably last week - my boss called me in for a chat.

Tonight, will be my first night sleeping alone for quite some time now. My wife is currently in Port Dickson, dozing off at some hotel with her netball friends. These couple of days she's been going out for netball practice every evening at MIAT, which is good for her I should say - I do envy her at times. It's not everyday that you get a chance to break out a sweat nowadays.

So tonight I have the house all to myself. But it does get a bit dull - it's too damn quiet, nothing to spice up the atmosphere. Owh well.

In any case, lets just move on to other things (before I get all mushy and break a tear now..)

Life in Salak Tinggi is quite OK I guess, judging from what I've seen this couple of weeks. We've got the usual shops, some neat facilities (which includes a mini stadium nearby, and if I'm not mistaken there's also a pool at Putrajaya which is just a few clicks away), and mos importantly - no traffic jam. If only my office is relocated to Putrajaya, then that would've been awesome.

Sad thing is when your house is like a kajillion miles away from office is that now you can't go on waking up THAT late anymore. But kinda think of it, I still do wake up late. Hurm...I guess I don't have a point there. Hehe.

My house now looks more like a home. Took long enough.

the livingroom. i LOVE that couch!

the "study room",..if you can call it that..

the kitchen (courtesy of mom and dad :)

and my dinner, fish fillet prepared with italian herbs and olive oil,
with a little salad leaves on the side, and some thai sauce.
served with cool apple juice. a healthy diet i must say.

OK, so it's not much, but considering that we're still considered newlyweds and been in the workforce for less than a year, I guess it's not half bad eyh? Lucky even, if I kind of think of it. Well, from now onwards we're gonna have to be cut back on the spending and start on the savings - I do think that I've been slacking off this couple of months in that deparment.


Worklife
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Late last week I had the opportunity to join a training conducted at Kelana Jaya by Mikko Koskinen, a trainer from Upknowledge (some finnish company). The training was basically about an overview of the whole telecommunication network, intended to teach us "programmers" on how the telco world works and familiarize us with all the jargons and technologies currently available and those that are still under development.

I have to admit, coming from where I came from, I was really interested to hear what he has to preach - since I myself am quite curious to learn how it all was interconnected in the end.

SGSN is used in the packet switch core network, while MSC is used in the circuit switch core network. During the presentation, I find myself at times asking why in the world did join Comptel in the first place, thinking I might be much more happier working in the packet core network - putting my CCNA skills to the test. Actually, kind to think of it, I DO would like to jump should he opportunity presents itself - if only that job could match or be higher than my current salary.

But money is not all there is to it, is it now. Now that I'm married, job security has to considered as well.

I recall today's Friday prayer sermon, the khatib mentioned something about those who keeps asking for more money would never feel that he has enough money, but those who appreciate what he has, would always feel that he has enough (aka happier).

That one kinda hit the spot right there.

My manager meanwhile advices that it is better that I focus on doing what is at hand, and do it good; instead of busy thinking about what is to come and preparing for the future that much. She thinks that if you do your job good enough, you'll eventually be set for the future.

There is some truth there I guess.

These days I find myself not being up to par compared to what I was like a couple of months back (aka before the marriage). My work currently is almost all the time "just enough" and never "exceeding expectations", or at least it does not exceed my expectations. Talk about having low self esteem huh. Dang.

If only I got enough time in my hands.

Booyakasha!!

Damn I feel good today. Just got a new contract offer from my boss. A permanency and pay raise. Nice~

Just when an extra cash would come in handy. Perhaps I could get a bigger stone for my lady's ring eh?

Anywho, alhamdullillah. With the economic forecast looking gloom and uncertain, this new contract certainly feels so much sweeter.

7 months have passed - and I am still at Comptel and starting next year; a permanent staff there.

Right then when she(my boss)told me about it I was freaking glad! But my face tried to hide it as much as I can. Kontrol macho la kan. After getting to my cubicle, I was all grinning to myself - felt so good. Wish I had that 'cone of silence' they had in the movie 'Get Smart' - so that I could scream out loud how fucking glad I am. I still am actually. Hehe.

Told my parents about it. They seem pretty happy. Good, I thought to myself. At least now dad wouldn't be nagging me anymore about how I should've worked in the government or some GLC (read TNB). I was all too happy to show him the envelope containing the contract (I actually danced in front of him).

Gonna get the family together for a lunch-out this weekend. Good things are meant to be shared. :)

It's been about 6 month now since I've entered Comptel. It's been great - working and all that. Meeting new people, learning new things, jargons and languages (as in programming languages) and honing my english-speaking skills (one of the reasons I picked an MNC). Always wanted to be in the telco industry. The problem used to be from which angle should I enter - networking, RF, or programming. I guess my job now answers that question huh.

The early months was pretty laid back I suppose, with lots of training to attend to, and there was also this time when I was pretty much without work (in which as it turns out, my manager had thought that I was busy doing something - so she chose not to assign me with anything. Later on after we had a lil' chat, I explained my situation and later on some CRs came in my mailbox. Damn relieved to have some work to do).

So far my product knowledge goes only up to the Eventlink 4 and Eventlink 5/6. The two although quite similar in function, works quite differently. One relies much on S-Lang and shell scripts, while the other uses much C language and Perl. Frankly though I think I am starting to hate EL4, hehe~

And I've been getting the hang of reading Functional Specs nowadays. And those weird jargons and terminologies don't seem to scare me anymore. I used to worry a lot whenever I read those specs - actually I still worry now too but because of different reasons, haha. Back then it used to be about understanding what the terms meant and all and try to make sense of things. Now the problem is understanding how the program is suppose to flow and what exactly is the customer expecting to see.

These on-the-job training can be quite intimidating at first. I used to be able to use my "fresh-grad" status to buy myself some time in order for me to learn up some new things. It's like having a "Get-out of Jail Free Card" I suppose, where if you'd make a mistake or need some leniency, you can always get it. After some time though - you do not seem that "fresh" to them anymore. Buffer periods get shorter, works get tougher. And all of a sudden you might be thinking that extra cup of coffee might not be a bad idea after all. Owh, and don't forget the pizza delivery, it's gonna be a long night.

Coming from an electronic background, there were times where I question my decision to work here. Hell I could be doing RF or Networking if I'd want to. But I chose programming. Hurm~

Maybe it's one of those days where you wonder about the what-ifs stuff eh? What if I had done this...what if I hadn't apply that..all those unnecessary and useless question. There were times that this "self-questioning" thing became quite troublesome to me (especially in the head). But I guess this is just a phase that I'm gonna have to go through sooner or later.

Is there better opportunities out there? Should I jump while I'm still quite new in this programming thing and seek other jobs in a different field..you know..just try things out..see if it suits me or not.

I dunno. Life is full of stupid questions at times. I say it's stupid because most of the times you already know what the rational answer is, but you still keep on asking the darn question - and usually hope that someone might be able to read your thoughts and give you their second opinion, supportive or not.

Guess I'd just have to live with it for now. Been doing a lot of hard work lately (and sleeping rather late as well I might add). Working on stuff for FET, DiGi..and now Vodafone New Zealand.. man.. I need a break.

Or at least I think I do. It's that "hope" thing that keeps me going I suppose. That "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow kinda thing. Where you think that after this is all done you're gonna go wild and do all sorts of crazy things - but once done you get there, you realize you may not wanna enjoy yourself that much after all. It's that "hope" that gets you finishing that job earlier.

Owh, recent internal news says that Comptel has been voted as top OSS Vendor in Asia..err..or something like that. Great news I'd say. Better news should that mean I'll be getting a fat bonus at the end of this year.

Fat chance of that ever happening eh? But a man can dream. Owh you bet he can.

Here's an excerpt of what I just read on BBC News

Going to university, then choosing a mentally demanding job may help protect the brain from the devastating impact of Alzheimer's disease on memory.

Scientists found tissue damage was much quicker to lead to memory loss in the less intellectually stimulated.

They suggest mentally tough work, or genes which help people achieve such careers, may help the brain compensate for disease.

The Italian research was published in the journal Neurology.

Last Thursday us Comptelian went down to Bangi and had ourselves quite a feast. Berbuka puasa to be exact. It was quite nice actually to be able to break fast with all of them. There were me, Theenesh, Luqman, Shahril, John, Razali, Ida, Kari and the man of the hour - Rossi.

It was a break fast cum farewell party kinda thing. Rossi is gonna be leaving (already left by the time tis piece is written) Comptel to pursue his dream at IBM. Big company I'd say. Do I envy him? Perhaps. But I surely don't envy what he's doing. I'm not the sales-guy type if you catch my drift (in other words my communication skills sucks).

But anywho all the best to the guy. Everyone has a dream to pursue, a living to make, a hope to realize. Mine? I'm not sure...but I'm sure as hell won't be leaving Comptel anytime soon thats for sure.

I would post a few pics from the event if I had any; which I don't right now (obviously). Guess I'll be updating this post later on.

There goes one of my teh tarik crew...