Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Saviour-V teleports in...

These days, things have become rather boring, so the occasional word or two would be great. I mean, from my old friends, including a certain Dhora, and a few others.

That aside, yesterday evening saw me headed for a place called Batang Berjuntai, and yes, I am aware that it has something to do with things that swing (partial reference to an old Limp Bizkit song).

My old boss, Mr. Asir, brought me round to the new UNISEL (that's short for UNiversity Industri SELangor, or Selangor Industrial University, depending on your translation) campus there. A sort of graduation dinner for the students there, and a welcome dinner for the staff and lecturers.

Quite a large place, all one hundred acres of it. Enough space to run a few facilities if given enough time. Only regret was that I forgot to bring my camera...>_<

Still, it sure brought back a lot of familiar memories, some good, some bad...and then some. Worth a second trip, and maybe worth staying there for a brief spell.

In other news, I'm still trying to find my groove. Lost it after a brief relationship with someone, and then some. Still trying to get it back and fight properly. Pray that I do, because it's getting rougher these days.

Speaking of rough, by the way, Jeff Ooi, owner of the Screenshots blog, and Teresa Kok, one of our ministers, have been busy reporting about an MMS clip of a woman forced to do ear-squats in the nude, watched by the soulless eyes of a policewoman.

That clip's threatening to sour ties between Malaysia and China, if you check up on things at those two places, and we're trying to fix things. And then, there's a lot of other things that have come to light courtesy of this.

I really hope that this whole thing is resolved properly, and justice is served steaming hot. Lately, it's been quite the cold dish.

Saviour-V teleports out...

Thursday, November 17, 2005

GemWing teleports in and yells...

Riz, get into Combat Mode, FAST!

Last thing you need is to slacken and rust. Get off the chair and leg it through. If you do want your full potential to be realized, MOVE OUT FAST!


GemWing teleports out...

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Saviour-V teleports in...

Well, it's 13 days after that resignation. Being on pseudo-eternal holiday mode can get boring after a while. Especially since it's after Ramadhan, and some people are just getting back to normal after Eid-ul-Fitr.

Still, while I was working for FedEx Australia, I hardly felt Ramadhan's effects on me. Felt as if nothing unusual was going on.

Right now, I'm just waiting for the results of that resume I sent through my old boss. Once I get in, things should improve a bit.

In the meantime, I'm just checking up my MSN and Yahoo instant messaging programs for some contacts. Need someone to talk to.

Saviour-V crosses his hands momentarily..

GemWing's also gotten herself busy in the far recesses of my mind. She rarely comes out these days. Probably just to recover from one particularly rough episode. She should be OK just before this month ends. Hopefully. It's tough coping without an advisory in most situations.

Saviour-V teleports out...

Monday, November 07, 2005

Saviour-V teleports in...

It's been a long time, comrades...

Saviour-V glances around, noting the large amount of dust that his Sanctuary has gathered over the past 7 months...

So much has happened. But let's start with the more recent events.

For one thing, I'm no longer with FedEx Australia. I've finally severed that link. Except that I'll be getting a new affiliation soon. For an old friend's sake.

Handed in my resignation notice a week before the 31st of October this year. Forfeited some of my pay, but it was worth getting out of there. Kept feeling like a machine, telling Australian customers what they needed, and taking the abuse from quite a number of them.

Especially with the launch of the Australian Customs' Cargo Management Re-engineering system - Mein Gott, if you want a prime example of what happens when you steamroll operations on unprepared people, look no further. The result of that whole thing, circa Oct 12th 2005, was a MASSIVE backlog of uncleared packages, and we STILL get blamed for delays, even though everyone's suffering.

And then, there was Alan Blanar. Now, although this goes against my principle of withholding names of transgressors, I believe that he's earned the right - and my wrath - to get a place as a third-rate convict.

The first signs of trouble came up when he called late one evening, trying to get the status on his package. Although I tried reasoning with him, he just refused to listen, instead, he kept asking for a supervisor. Abusively, I might add. I will withhold his curses and insults here, but suffice to say, he overstepped the line. Even made one of our reps cry after putting up with such abuse, and she was trying her best to help me out.

The next day, he called again, expecting to get a package from Indonesia to Australia, but without enough security clearance. According to him, he forgot (rather conveniently) to include his FedEx account number to authorize things. And we ended up calling FedEx Indonesia to accommodate his whims.

Finally, the last straw came when he spoke to Colin, one of our top reps (almost like a supervisor, him) in that same abusive tone and language, all about his packages again. In fact, he had the AUDACITY (as Colin would later recount) to admit that he deliberately called Customer Service just to push us around, instead of dealing with the Australian managers of FedEx directly.

In fact, Colin added, "...ordinary people who get bad service would stop using us, but not THAT guy. He's just deliberately USING us to get his way."

If I ever obtain the opportunity, he will most certainly NOT escape judgement.

That aside, I've also been wondering about where things will go from here. I mean, whether or not I get the other job, will I be truly happy? I thought that leaving the job at FedEx would be a good thing, but thinking about it a bit, even though I'm free, there's still the issue of whether I'd get a decent challenge out of anything else I get. Even if it's working under an old mentor and friend once again.

I think it might be worth it, though. Something I love doing means much more than something I don't. Wish me luck, comrades!

Saviour-V teleports out...

Current Music: A Brinstar remix from Metroid Prime: Pinball, for the Nintendo DS. This is actually quite good, really. So go and pick up the game, or grab the audio from the following link:

Recorded by comrade aleen of GameFAQs.