Take your best shot....

OK. Now that we're done with the niceties of the Johari Window, Here's your chance to tell me what you really think by putting it on my Nohari Window. Feel free to contribute anonymously if you think it's necessary so that you can be honest.

http://kevan.org/nohari?name=yinsern

My Johari Window

Always wanted to know what you didn't know about yourself?

Today, upon someone's suggestion, I decided to set up a Johari Window. What's a Johari Window? Well it's this little thingy that people contribute to by selecting 6 traits out of a list of 55 which best describe you.

If you'd like to contribute to mine, please go to http://kevan.org/johari?name=yinsern

Here's a snapshot as of 11pm, March 8 2007.

Arena (known to self and others) idealistic, intelligent, knowledgeable, logical, proud	Blind Spot (known only to others) able, adaptable, calm, caring, cheerful, clever, confident, dependable, extroverted, friendly, helpful, independent, mature, modest, observant, organised, patient, self-assertive, sensible, spontaneous, tense, trustworthy, witty
Façade (known only to self) quiet	Unknown (known to nobody) accepting, bold, brave, complex, dignified, energetic, giving, happy, ingenious, introverted, kind, loving, nervous, powerful, reflective, relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-conscious, sentimental, shy, silly, sympathetic, warm, wise

Dominant Traits

100% of people agree that yinsern is intelligent

All Percentages

able (21%) accepting (0%) adaptable (14%) bold (0%) brave (0%) calm (28%) caring (14%) cheerful (7%) clever (7%) complex (0%) confident (50%) dependable (21%) dignified (0%) energetic (0%) extroverted (7%) friendly (14%) giving (0%) happy (0%) helpful (35%) idealistic (7%) independent (28%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (100%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (42%) logical (21%) loving (0%) mature (21%) modest (35%) nervous (0%) observant (14%) organised (14%) patient (14%) powerful (0%) proud (7%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (0%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (14%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (7%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (0%) spontaneous (7%) sympathetic (0%) tense (7%) trustworthy (7%) warm (0%) wise (0%) witty (14%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 8.3.2007, using data from 14 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view yinsern's full data.

Road Work on the Information Superhighway

My family and I have been internet users with jaring and now tmnet ever since jaring first came on the scene. We have been streamyx users ever since its inception.

About a month ago, my connection failed and I have been unable to reconnect ever since. I have reported the issue to the streamyx helpline (report no: 3708934) and have called them for updates almost daily because no one has ever called back to say "it's fixed!". At first we were told that it was because we moved a year ago without telling them, but this is impossible as it was the tmnet technicians who transferred the connection to our new phone number and it had been working fine at our new place for 13 months. So they got a technician to check the "jumper" which apparently was already done for the phone number at our new place. Then they said it was the server not accepting our number which they had to escalate to the "expert team".

After many calls, and us insisting that they let us talk to someone who can DO something, someone from the "expert team" called about two weeks ago and said they were working on it. We never heard back from him, so we had to continue our one way tennis match with the call centre.

One day after constantly insisting we get to talk to a supervisor or someone with more authority, someone actually called back (apparently the supervisors and managers were all "out" our "in a meeting" previously) saying that they would get someone to do something about it. Again, we have not heard back since.

On the 3rd of February (a Saturday), I got a call in the evening saying that the connection should be fixed very soon, maybe even Monday. Come Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the connection is still not working. It has now been a week and a half since that call.

It has now come to a point where the call centre agent can only say that "I will escalate the issue to the correct department and put it in the report". Apparently our case is on the "priority list". It has been so for over a week. I get the feeling nothing at all is being done.

I understand that the call centre agent should not be an outlet for our frustrations and we have tried to be patient and understanding because they are really just doing their jobs. However, they have promised to e-mail me copies of their report many times (and I ask for it almost every time I call up) but I still have not received anything so it's not just the maintenance crews/"expert team" that doesn't seem to be doing their job. It also seems that no one I can speak to can actually DO anything to fix the problem.

As it is, I have been told that I have to go to the nearest TM shop to get a refund, but I am still required to pay my streamyx bill promptly. I understand systems have limitations but charging customers for non-existant services is unacceptable. Imagine going to the petrol kiosk and paying for fuel then being told "sorry, we're out of stock. Please go to PETRONAS twin towers to get your refund".

I understand that intermittent connections and connection speeds are commonplace and that there is a lot of frustration around the fact that customers are not getting what everything they're paying for. But here, they are leaving a loyal PAYING customer without an internet connection and practically no follow-up for one whole month.

In the meantime, my family and I have resorted to staying late at work and spending more time and money at cybercafes & wifi enabled coffee joints for personal internet use. We are quite dependent on technology as a family even though my parents both do not have technical backgrounds and are past retirement age (we use it for banking, research, stock trading, communicating with family members who are overseas etc.), so this has disrupted our lives quite a bit.

So here we are, living in the information age and having embraced technology as part of our lives... Unfortunately if you happen to be visiting, the sign at the end of my street says "road closure due to unplanned work - completion date unknown"

It's all gone pear shaped...

Situation:
1) It's New Year's Day (OK.. it's 2am on the 2nd of January, but it's still New Year's Day to me because I haven't gone to bed and woken up for the second time this year yet)
2) I have not blogged since May 2006
3) The last comment on my blog was from Julian and I quote: "It's been months, dude.... Time for an update"
4) Julian, Edwin and I are working on the Christmas DVD while keeping our day jobs on the side just in case this gig doesn't fly
5) I think I've put in about 12 good hours, assigning tracks and cleaning up noise from the recording track by track (Had a little giggle when I caught someone let out a barely audible "oh s***" in between scenes).

Complication:
My PC has decided to pack-up and crap out on me. I was in the middle of cutting "Joe! SHUAAA ZHAAA MAAANNN" when my machine started doing some really strange things. Now it won't start.

Key question:
Should I look forward a few years and start laughing now to save myself some grief?

In the voice of the narrator from "Word On The Street": "Have you ever felt like taking a sledgehammer to your favourite toys?"

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I've now spent the last half hour playing Mr. Computer Repairman rather than actually working on the DVD. It won't boot. I'm getting a "windows could not start because the following file(s) is missing or corrupt windows\system32\config\system"...

Now I'm not the greatest geek in the world, but I've narrowed it down to hardware because:
1) I can't start either of my Windows XP partitions (I have a separate Windows XP installation for my normal PC use and for my recording projects). It's unlikely that both registries would get fried in a day
2) I can't even install Windows or get the wonderful Windows XP installation process started using the Windows Installation CD
3) A lot of other people seem to be having this problem and saying that going away for 4-5 hours and then rebooting again seems to fix the problem, albeit temporarily.

Call me uptight/intolerant/a grouch/impatient/aggresive/manic, whatever, but this is just ridiculous. We're talking about a couple thousand smackers (quid/bucks/sacks of rice/bushels of potatoes... choose your currency) worth of machinery here. Why can't it just bleeding work!?!?!?

Grr... Anyway. I'm going to bed. We'll see if it's any better in the morning.

Happy New Year? Bleh.... This 2007 thing is over-rated

Labouring away on labour day

Finally had time to put up my "Off-the-wall" hangers on Monday. The walls here are made of brick and cement, so I had to do a bit of drilling and use wall-plugs (couldn't use any of the mounting hardware provided), but it was worth the slight bit of effort.

Judging by the amount they've prettied up my room, I'll have to get more of those hangers and bring the other guitars back from the studio!


As an aside, I spent the rest of the day cleaning... My room was a royal mess at the beginning of the day. I wonder how long it'll stay this neat....

Stuck in the airport at 6am

OK.. This is too early to be anywhere else but in bed. Had to get up at 4:30 to come out here... grrrr....

There aren't many things that you can do at the airport at 6am... Having breakfast is kinda ridiculous. It's RM6.90 for a cup of milo and RM3.90 for a bottle of water. Good thing there's free wi-fi.

If I get REALLY bored, maybe I'll go ride the escalators for a bit. Or run through passport control shouting "I can't turn it offf!!!!! It's gonna blow!!"

Right. This isn't working. My brain is still asleep.

Ubersize Me

This is a ridiculous way to spend the weekend...

http://ueba.com.br/html/THE-New-Biggest-Burger-Ever-060421

But then it's not quite as impressive as our largest roti canai/longest teh tarik/smelliest durian. You can only get media coverage and have your name published in a book of records for this kinda thing here in Malaysia.

Ach crivens!

For those who've been visiting this desert wasteland since the old days (last year la) and noticed my Catch:22 preview... Well.. I haven't finished it yet (August 2009 is still some time off). I think I went insane for awhile and had to start reading childrens' books to compensate. Having said that... Childrens' books aren't half bad.

I just finished reading "The Wee Free Men" about a month ago and I must say it was lots of fun! Not quite as dark or clever as the "normal" (as far as worlds being held on the backs of elephants standing on the back of a turtle that swims through space can be considered normal) Discworld stuff, but still worth a good few laughs.




Most of my favourite bits involve Feegles talking.. Here are some examples:
-"They can tak' oour lives but they cannae tak' oour troousers!"
-"Ach, stick it up yer trakkans!"
-"I could murder a kebab! "
-"Ach, here's a headful o' dandruff for ye, ye bogle"
-"Crivens! I kicked meself in ma ain heid!"

Interestingly, wikipedia lists their "see alsos" as Braveheart and the Smurfs (come to think about it now, the smurfs kinda freak me out... A happy community of little topless blue men with only one old fogey and one woman... Someone once suggested that they may be gay)

I'm to the second book now... "A Hatful of Sky". Will post something about it here if it's worth it and if I can be bothered.

Argh... Saturday's over already.. Tomorrow's MONDAY
As the Nac Mac Feegle would say: "Oh waily, waily, waily!"

Been awhile....

It's been some time since I last visited this place. Come to think about it, it's also been some time since I last picked up my guitar just for fun...

Funny how you can just stop doing the things you enjoy and not think about it at all.

Hmm... Makes me kinda wonder if I do this for myself or for the handful of people who actually stop by this dump and spare some time to read my random babblings. Probably a bit of both. And I'll probably require some motivation from both to keep me going.

So if you've stopped by here hoping to pick up some pearls of wisdom/to laugh at my stupidity/because you really have nothing better to do with your life... and found that there ACTUALLY IS a new post, then do post a little comment. We all need a bit of a push sometimes.