How KFC meals used to taste ....

I havent had a KFC meal for more than six months. The last time i had was at one of the at Carrefour outlet, and it taste really bland and not nice at all. It took a lot of effort to force that piece of drumstick down my throat. What's more the meat near the bone are not well-cooked. Not crispy, not tasty and definitely not finger licking good.

I was reminiscing with my hubby on how tasty KFC used to taste. When I was young, my parents only bring me and my siblings to KFC if we get exceptionally good exam results. The drumstick taste so so crunchy, crispy and tasty. Its really finger licking good. After every meal, I look forward to the next one. Yummy .. yummy

Now, after every KFC meal, I swear that I would never touch it for another few more months. At least not until I forgotten how bad it taste, and have no choice of other food.

I did wonder if KFC meals really deteriorated or was it my tastebuds that deteriorate ?

I wonder how much longer KFC can survive with so many other competitors like Burger King, Nandos, Kenny Rogers around the block. Nandos taste much better, at least.

Does office politics spice up ur life ?

One day, my project manager.. call her as Ms J, came up to us and started whining about how the senior manager was being difficult.



" You know ah, that senior manager Mr X ... it seems he is buddy with the VP. So, all our proposals will go down the drain if I we do not have him on our side. Then the other lady manager Mrs Y personally knows the President. Mrs Y and Mr X cant see eye-to-eye most of the time. Thats why I had to pick sides... so hard to work in this office"



Office politics is part and parcel of life. Over the years, I have come to accept that as a fact of life. I dont particularly enjoy it, but rather tolerate it.



Ms J actually wanted to sound like she is complaining about how hard her job is to get everyone from different to agree. But her facial expression betrayed her. She was obviously very excited about all this. Office politics seems to spice up her life somehow - and provide adrenaline to her system.

So ... do you enjoy office politics ?

Birthday Wish for Malaysia

Today is Malaysia's 50th Merdeka - Happy Merdeka !

Its almost end of the Merdeka Day. This year's celebration has been just so-so, not as grand and impressive as I would have expected. But I guess, we should be more concern about the meaning of our country achieving 50 years of independence. It is only befitting that there is a birthday wish on a birthday. As a Malaysian, I wish that

• In years to come, Malaysia will be a place where everyone is treated equally and fairly. No more differentiating its citizens by race or religion or bumi/non-bumi. As such, our MyKad should not even store such information. I wish that there wont be a 'Bangsa' (Race) and 'Agama' (Religion) section in all the forms. Just 'Kewarganegaraan' ( Nationality ) - end of story.


• Politicians would not try to wave keris around, instilling lies and hatred, and thus hurting the feelings of its citizens in the process. I wish that there would be more politicians who are sincere in looking after the plight of the people instead of self-interest.


• There wont be anymore people left behind by development, and still live in absolute poverty.


• Malaysians would become less reliant on foreign-labour. It takes a little effort from everyone to support this.


• The streets of our cities or kampungs are safe to walk at night or day, so that we dont have be constantly alert for snatch thiefs, robbers, rapist, kidnappers, road bullies or Mat Rempit.


• I wish that there would be a time where there is freedom of speech, and stuff like news black-out does not occur. A time where we can believe what is being written on mainstream newpaper. No one would threaten to silence bloggers and that information flow honest and freely.

Hmmm.. that's quite a long list already actually. Is there a limit as to how many wish allow for birthdays ? I wonder....

Happy merdeka again ! ( before the clock strikes 12 )

Informatics with a new strategy

Last weekend, I was at Informatics Penang for the CUTE exam.

I was bored, waiting for my driver to come. The receptionist seemed bored too. So i kinda chat with her a bit. The used to be an Informatics center at the Taman Inderawasih at Seberang Jaya. The last time i passed by, was surprised to see it no longer there. Even the signboard has been removed. Later, rumors says that Informatics is going out-of-business soon. So I decided to ask the receptionist about this.

According to the lady, Informatics nowadays changed strategy - they will move away from offering courses for individuals. Rather, the penang branch will concentrate on providing corporate trainings courses. The courses for individual students will be all gradually transferred to KL branch and only available there.

Guess it was a smart move coz the margin is typically higher for corporate business as compared to individual business. For those which are HRDF claimable, it wont be surprising if it is priced even higher.

With so much competition around, colleges, institutes, learning center.... It seems to me that Informatics is struggling for survival. Glory days no longer.....

Not very smart ......

For someone from the entertainment industry, I would assume that he would know what to say, and what not to say. This actor turned businessman obviously made a big mistake to anger his customers. He should have known better than making such wrong, and arrogant statement.

The Star Online Tuesday May 22, 2007

HK actor’s baseless remarks upset restaurant owners

HONG Kong actor Mark Cheng has come under fire for making rude remarks about Malaysian steamboat, reported China Press.

Cheng, who owns nine steamboat restaurants in Malaysia, was reported to have said that most Malaysian steamboat was made from “rotten meat and carcass” during a recent interview with a Hong Kong magazine.

He further claimed that local steamboat restaurants used stale ingredients and a soup base made by boiling water with two slices of ginger and spring onions.

China Press received many calls from readers and steamboat restaurant operators, expressing their anger and dissatisfaction over Cheng's remarks, saying they were baseless and exaggerated.

A caller, identified only as Chew, said the actor's unfriendly remarks would tarnish the good image of Malaysian restaurants and affect the country's tourism.

“Why did Cheng set up his business in Malaysia and marry a Malaysian girl when he sees us as such a bad country?” she asked.

Yeah... the steamboat restaurants that he owns maybe a little classier than most, nicely air conditioned and all. But we do have many other good steamboats around too. It is definitely nothing like his description of Malaysia steamboats as made from “rotten meat and carcass”. Make us sound like cannibals devouring the carcass dripping with blood ! Yuckssss......... Serves him right if his customers decides to boycott his flame.

Level playing field .... ?

My cousin of mine recently graduated from local universities. Yeah... no big deal. And she has engaged me to help her in her job-hunting pursuit, and so she sent me her resume. Being a fresh graduate, she honestly listed out all her SPM results ... all the As, Bs, Cs, Ds, Es. My goodness, with so many C, D, E s also she can make her way to university ! Something must be wrong somewhere - that was my first thought.

Hey, i've got friends who have a nice list of As & Bs only but still cant squeeze into university, you know.

I was told she got in bcoz university need to meet "rural area quota". Since she is born and bred in a small kampung ( village ), there ... she got some advantage of being a rural folk. This is part of the effort to bring up the level of education in rural area, it seems

-----------------------

Her resume was disappointingly poor. Hadnt she learn anything from the 3 years in university ? Yeah... i admit i can be mean and demanding sometimes, but this is really too shocking....

• Personal particulars written at the end of the resume ?
• Multiple obvious and very eye-sore spelling mistakes all over the resume
• A sexy personal photo attached that look more suitable for "Malaysian Idol" contest ...
  
• Have your own uncle as the referee ...... what else can happen ? List your father, mother, granpa, granma as your referral ?
  

What did I do ? I made big red circles all over her resume !! .... kidding :)

i nicely told her to make changes, and after like three rounds editing, it finally look slightly presentable. I was grumbling all night over resume.

Someone : Come on, you gotta be more understanding, she doesnt have the advantage like the city folks.

Me : Sure or not ?? Surely she should have upgraded herself during the 3 year university education. If she fail to do that, she got no one to blame except herself.

Someone : We should exercise some leniency and be more forgiving on her flaws, given that she doesnt have the advantage of living in the city.

( Eh... this sounds like our NEP subsidy mentality )
( no no ... this sounds like those specific group of lawyers who needed favors from one of the GLC bank )

---------------------
My conclusion :
It seems that we not only dont have level playing field between bumis vs non-bumis.
We are also promoting a different level of playing field btwn rural vs city.

Intrusive questions....

I have been in job-hunting mode for about a month. And I got lots of intrusive questions from interviewers that quite baffles, annoy and IRRITATE me... ! Yeah... i am pretty irritated & upset at the way some people ask questions which have no relation whatsoever to the position I applied. I dunno why we allow these people to ask intrusive, rude & invading questions like that.

Number one irritant ... Are you married ?

• Why does one know if I am married or not, unless you are my secret admirer or plan to be my lover. Does being married or not married make me a better or lesser performer ? Why do I get the feeling i get is that married folks, especially ladies, have a lower value in the job market ? Or does employers stereotype folks who are single as potential workaholics that they want to hire ?
  

Number two irritant .... Do you have kids ?

• Does it matter at all ?? This is kinda pretty personal question to ask someone you met for the first time.To this question, i was pretty pissed off and retorted coldly with "Why do you need to know?". The interviewer meekly explained to me that they just wanted to know if I am able to do some light travelling. So should the question be changed to "Can you travel ?" instead of "Do you have kids? "
  

Number three irritant ... Spouse details

• This is usually one of the columns on the applications form you are required to fill up upon arrival at the interview venue. What the heck ? Tell me... are you hiring me or hiring my spouse ? Why do you care at all ? I am just so so very curious that I really would want to know who designed these forms and exactly what intention is behind this question. I tend to leave it blank, as I do with all those fields that I consider irrelevant such as Race, Religion etc. I am just tempted to put Religion as "Havent decided yet"
  

I am not sure if this is a norm in Malaysian job market, but I seriously think this should not be the way to recruit employees. Lots of company claim to have "equal employment opportunity" policy. Why bother to ask these questions then if you do not discriminate against gender, marital status or race/religion ?

Finally somebody stopped them ......

This news about Maybank's dumb decision to require law firms with bumiputera stake thing really stunt me. Maybank - one of the largest bank in Msia, blue chip company and had the best online services seemed like a very forward-looking bank to me. This makes me doubt what kind of management team that approves this kind of decision. In Malaysia, there is already a long list of unfair practices and they are happily trying to add one more to the list. What really prompt a profit-oriented organisation to mix politics into business ?

After a whole round of protests and fury, The Cabinet finally spoke !! End of the whole episode of hoo-haa .... However, damage may already been done. Some of its customers claimed that they will refuse to do business with this kind of bank.....

I hope there is lesson learnt from this episode....

Its a tough world for kids ....

Who says childhood days are innocent and carefree ? It is no longer true nowadays.... at least not from what i hear.

Their little world expands once parents start to place them with day-care centers or pre-school or kindergarten. They will be expose to teachers, bullies, and all the likes of them. Kids coming back from school with bruises on both body and heart are so common that it is scary.

How would you teach your kids ?

a) Would you tell them .... dont fight for toys with other kids, dont argue with the teacher, be a good timid child .... They'll grown up thinking that it is right to let circumstances control them, rather than taking control.

b) Would you teach them karate, judo, taekwondoe at a young age so that they can fend off bullies ? Would you approve and praise them for hitting back at other kids in self defense ?

A parent that I know teaches his 3-year old daughter this an-eye-for-an-eye policy
"Thou should not hit others first. But if they hit you first, you must hit them back"

Was that too drastic, or was that a necessity to teach our kids the survival skills ?

Nagging

I, for one, is a person who hates being nagged at. My tolerance are somewhat thinner than my siblings. My mom nags and even my father does too. So you can imagine how much nagging exposure i get.

Nagging, to me, is the act repeating the same message over and over again in someone's ear. Why on earth would someone do that ? Again... homo sapiens are curious species... sometimes they do it for no reason at all. So I started to engage in this secret pursuit to understand nagging. Some ppl claim to nag out of love for someone, sth like an act of caring. To me that is the same kind of crap as beating a child out of love.

When I was young, my parents were strongly influence by strong Confusionism or whatever, and try to brain-wash us by telling us that if your parents beat you, it is out of love. The more they beat you up, the more they love you. This is the kind of logic that doesnt make sense. After I grew up, then understood that beat a child is no more than a simple reason that someone has bad anger management. Simple as that.

Why nag then ? People nag when they feel that their message have not been heard or understood. So they became a recorder to replay their message over and over again. Unconsciously they are hoping that the higher number of times the message is replay, the higher chances it gets into the recipient mind. Too bad, there ain't any clear correlation between the two. Often times, the replayed message will go left ear in, right ear out.... hehehe ... Like TV ads, there is actually an optimal number of times you should bombard your consumers with the ads. If you over-do it, tv watchers just get sick of it and mute the ads when it appears - defeating its purpose.

As a anti-nag advocate, I remind myself of these few principles so that i dont turn myself into a nagging old frog someday. So I secretly experimented with my partner and i think it works quite nicely
1. Find the right time to say it - when the mood, environment etc is perfect.
2. Use strong words to make sure he knows you meant what you say
3. After that, say no more. .. ( this is the hardest part )
4. Use body language to reinforce the message...

Just for illustration ..

Me (frowning) : Dear... i have a headache
Him : How come ?
Me : I always get headache when i am upset. Sigh..
Him ( sit up and all alert now ) : Who made you upset ?
Me : I get upset when i hear ppl cursing and using vulgar language...
Him ( with a guilty look) : Do you need panadol ? i will get for you
Me ( plea) : Will you promise not to do that again ?
Him : Ok promise..

End of story ..