the invincible sword

yesterday I was given a news that I need to rearrange my life. I'm now need to be different and those people have expressed their confidence with me. today I get a headache. may be that sword is now hung on my head. really, suddenly I remember about the story when a friend of a king wanted to be a king. he was given the opportunity. and in one night he left the throne. he saw that sword: a sword which will fall unto the head whenever the king make a mistake.

who want the sword?

the ghost of the past

today I met with an old friend, very old. he's doing quite well, and I believe a little bit better than commoner like me. he still remember some bad old stories that I really wanted to erase. perhaps no one can ever left behind his old stories. never.

until you closed your eyes.

revolving world

it has been a week since I reported duty for this new job. this is my sixth work place but the environment is still the same. in any of this place, I can find a 'play-safe' personality, care-less, super self-motivated, want-to-be-leader-but-minus-accountability etc. all are the same. perhaps other people see me the same as I observed them. the world is certainly revolving. I just love to watch people!

money and the hotter earth

my mechanic complaint to me that everything is pricey today. I said I agreed and even rain is somehow reluctant to getting 'down'. it is hotter today than it was time. the mechanic then blamed on our hunger for cutting trees and develop. "they all thinking about money", he said. again and again I stumble upon human who demonised money. yet we still after it. and never feel enough of it.

people: decision making

I had a meeting today. there's one observation: there are people who like to change things arbitrarily. when confronted, they will said "this is my thinking...". sure enough that person is seemed to take responsibility on the decision, but is he? how about is you're the superior and ultimately you'll be responsible. why change when the current things is ok and there's no apparent reason to do that.

Japan, nuclear free nation

so the PM of Japan has finally spoken on the future of nuclear power plant. but does it translated into the government policy? I really want to see what this advanced nation has in store to replace one-third of her electricity energy source. energy efficiency society? natural energy resource?

according to Wikipedia, Japan is using 868 W/ person. that is less than Finland (almost 2000), Norway (almost 3000) and Iceland (slightly more than 3000) (of course cold countries). Japan's figure is lower than Qatar and Kuwait (more than 1700 and 1500 respectively) (ok, small, hot energy-hunger countries). and the figure lower than Singapore (947) but is slightly more than Brunei (801). other G7 countries electricity energy consumption stands as follows: France (851), German (822), Italy(603), UK(667), US (1460) , Canada (1910). Wow, Italy and UK are low at less than 700.

so Japan, show your colour.

heaven and hell

the story I'm going to tell you was told by one of end user of a large construction project I involved about ten years ago. he was a pious person and this Ph.D on his name. the story may be an old one. but at the time I heard it, it was my first time. and I've never heard that kind of story again after that.

"after a while, people in the heaven decided to pay a visit to their friends or relatives who had been thrown to the hell. but of course, they cannot cross into the hell. so they decided to built a bridge from heaven to hell and meet each other at the boundary of the two places. so they communicated this idea to the hell's inhabitants and they agreed to do it together. but after a while, the idea of having the bridge did not materialised fully. only bridge's on the hell part was finished. there was none from the heaven side. the reason: 'all contractors live in the hell, none of them live in heaven. so who are going to build the bridge for the heaven residents?'".

I was shocked when I heard the story particularly when it came from the mouth of such person. I don't know what his attention or whether he booked a place in the hell as well. but why can't he respect others?

greatness

“If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.”


-T Alan Amstrong


Who's the hell is T Alan Amstrong? just google it!


today I got one very miserable news and two great news. the bad news is I'm going to be without work, I'm going to bite the dust longer than I thought. I might as well finally fell into bottomless pit. this is very bad indeed.


today also I received the monthly magazine from my engineering society, the biggest of it kind in my country. the topic of the month is 'risk management in engineering'. my God, my believe in risk management exists in engineering field is once again proven to be correct. I hope three of people who laugh at me during my presentation on applying the risk management in then our engineering department can now bite their dust. they must. they get the same copy as I am because they belong to the same fraternity. but wait, they must be keep on laughing because they're clown.


late today my kids came back from home and told me about their mid-term result. they are so improved from last year when I was working very far away from home. I'm now ever believe that the decision to move back home is correct.


so I'm great. but I've no job that I don't know for how long more I can exist. I've already partially lost my car now, so what next will I have from the Pandora box? my life so far has already defies what ever Alan Armstrong feel.

environment IV

this picturesque small water fall is no place for picnic or swim. despite remotely located from the development of human being, the view is just sick. there were trash all long the banks of the river. it's very weird. the river originated deep in the forest located more than 50 km from cities. to reach there one need to drive a zig-zag trunk road, 1.5 km above sea level. yes, there are small town near to this place, may be 2 km away. but the town is so small that I believe that the population is small. I believe that the trash were transported here far from this place. I even found thrash neatly wrapped in plastic bags but left by the river bank.

environment III

this is a view from top of isolated mountain 1 km towards low land. two decades ago there were only a handful of buildings. but today I can see that they can't even stop the construction of buildings. perhaps they'll never do. I don't see the point of having barren or landscaped highland when my intention to go to such places is to see the nature in its 'natural' condition.

yes, I'm among those who support nuclear for electricity. but there must be places where we developed them and then places where we can have breath of fresh air. yet the people around this pristine areas longed for development (or in other words it is actually money). for thousands of years we have been plundering this earth for wealth. is it all that we need?

river

one of views in the capital city. the river with polluted water is very significant in the set up of the city. with the development of the city, the river becomes polluted. it's clearly the man-made pollution.

I hope that they can do something to clean the river. I hope one day I can travel to the city with my kids and see fished swimming in a crystal clear river. if Rhine and Thames river can be rehabilitated, I believe this smaller river should pose no big problem. however I realised that the most important factor is human behaviour. unless people starts to know their role, we will just simply pouring the money into the river. then those people will curse government of wasting their 'hard earned tax money', again.

what a paradox.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.02 kg

engineer, 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman

as a member of an engineer society, I receives a magazine on monthly basis. recently, there was an article by the title of 'trends in professional engineering practice'. inside the article, one of the interviewee said "we must be willing to admit that the profession is not where it should be ...". I believe one of the reasons of this admission is told earlier in the article by the same person "the problem arises when the original engineer chooses to sacrifice his professional integrity for the sake of job and the money that comes with it".

I've been in such a moment when, 3 or 4 years ago, my professionalism is at stake. at that time I declined to oversee a job which was 'wrongly' designed by party beyond my organisation. please be careful that the word 'wrongly' doesn't only mean 'wrong design' but also some other administrative meanings. I did complain but in returned I was labelled as 'negative person'. it was a complete surprised considering the person I that I complaint to was also a professional engineer. the irony was that the same person was the one who strongly urged me to go for professional title.

Three years ago I bought a book entitle 'The Existential Pleasure of Engineering, 2nd Edition' by Samuel C Florman. the author himself is an engineer. for me it was a heavy book, quite difficult to comprehend. in one of the chapters, the author noted that "it should be apparent that engineering's Golden Age ended abruptly about 1950, and that the profession, for all its continuing technical achievements, finds itself at the present time in a Dark Age of the spirit". so it was 1950... if the scenario was globally true, than in my country the engineering society has never been in a Golden Age!

in my country there was a joke: "here, a finished building collapsed, building during construction collapsed and even (old) building which is in the process of demolition collapsed". the joke burst when an old building under demolition collapsed, allegedly because of human mistake, and killed few persons.

I want to close this writing with a speech in 1902 by president of American Society of Civil Engineers.

"and in the future, even more that in the present, will the secrets of power be in his keeping, and more and more will he be a leader and benefactor of men. that his place in the esteem of his fellows and of the world will keep pace with growing capacity and widening achievement is as certain as that effect will follow cause"

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.14 kg

technology

above is the picture of one of the many communication towers in my country. this one is more than 500 feet high, towering a small capital city of one of the states. the tower has two elevators that will bring us to an observation deck. it is said that this tower is 19th highest telecommunication tower on earth. statistic.

with such achievement as the background, I had my mobile phone blocked 4 times: twice on 6 April last week and twice today. the culprit: I paid my bill through an agent counter. the agent made a mistake on the account number. it's funny to note that the agent is actually an outlet of the parent company of my mobile service provider. but I understand that they are separate entity.

what made me 'more' felt as a commoner was that I need to keep on calling several times to have my story heard by the 'customer' service personnel. the 'story' was also recorded 'for our improvement process', or so their answering machine claim. finally my wife, whose name is used as the registered owner of the number, asked the money whereabout. and as what we were expected, the money is now in the mobile provider company's pocket but they need a long time to do the correction MANUALLY! so much of their self claim "Customers are always on top of our priority list". to rub salt to the wound, they need to do it MANUALLY. remember the tower in the picture? it is owned by the parent company of the mobile service provider. what a joke. don't get me wrong. I'm not live in a troubled country such as Libya or Yemen. I'm a citizen of a country which GDP (nominal) is at the top 40 (statistic for 2010, IMF).


so what ever the numbers on the economic scales (GDP, per capita, what ever), once you are a commoner, you are doomed to be a commoner to the bunch of people who claim "customers are always on top of our PRIORITY list". good heaven.

partner, 'Partnering in Design and Construction', Kneeland A Godfrey Jr.

above is a picture of dinosaur sculptured by my son. I bought the kit so that my kids can practice their art skills. by the way, dinosaurs are prehistoric, extinct creatures. we know them only through bones.

I have a partner in a business. I have long suspected that my partner need me only because I have certain qualification so that we can register the business. but our company never carry out any business activity because my partner himself tied to other kind of business. recently he made friend with someone whose wife is going to get that certification. so got I side lined and I was even told that I can leave the company once the company is well registered. my partnership will be replaced by that woman. that partnership is broken now. what I'm afraid most is that a friendship will also be broken soon.

two years ago I read a book entitled 'Partnering in Design and Construction' by Kneeland A Godfrey Jr. it was a good book in about construction. it give a new meaning in working through people in construction industry. once (while I'm working in Project Management Organisation), I talked about this idea to my MD when he kept on talking about the need to get tough in construction industry. he replied "ok, you try first. I want to see it happen". of course I not dare to practice it. to practice the partnership I need to revise the working frame work within the company and may be also need to break certain clause in the existing Condition of Contract.

so is it safe for me to say that partnership in its pure definition is like a dinosaur. you can see and touch its teeth and bones but you will never see, touch, smell and feel its body and soul. we can only imagine to have all that only in movies.

lesson: how to get a good partner in business?

country life, 'The Third Wave', Alvin Toffler

this is my grand ma's barn. what you can see here is the wood logs and an old wood stove. she cooks certain dishes using this wood-fired kitchen. i loved to sit here to get the aroma of the food as well the smell of the burning wood. i wonder if this kitchen is less environmental-friendly compared to gas or electricity fired stove. i should do some research on this fact!

whenever there is a need to cook dishes on a larger scale, e.g. during festive, we will swarm this place. we need to get a hand in preparing the food. it used to be joyous, momentous and free from the outside world. but after my grand pa passed away few years ago, the event is not as joyous or momentous as before. there are less participation nowadays. in fact the conversation becomes more and more about work, car, house, technical, money and about people. the modern life has finally creep into this country life.

is country life style need to be defended? may be it is because i notice that more and more vacation planners promote this 'country life' getaway. i, myself, longed to live in this kind of life style. but according to Alvin Toffler in his book 'The Third Wave', the change is initiated by every one of us.

about a year ago i worked in a company overseeing massive development areas initiated by the government. one of the area is very close to a small town. one morning, i am having my breakfast alone in a traditional styled outlet when a local man, about 50 years old, came and shared the table with me. after learning where i'm working he expressed his eagerness to know about the development. but after that he expressed his concerned on what will happed to his sleepy town, traffic, to their villages and also the effect on the environment. immediately my mind struck back to the Alvin Toffler's book.

i believed i heard someone talking about 'the price of development' not long ago. but i couldn't remember the context of the conversation. may be i, myself, can fill in the context of such phrase. after all, i, is the one who initiate the change.

paradox

for two days i've been absent from the cyber world. reason? i got an acute tooth ache! i was just 'pampered' my self in a sofa watching what was going on in my country and around the world. up to this point of time, i think every one has already built their mind on the Japanese disastrous natural and man made events, and also foreign forces action in Libya. And back in my country, political events are becoming daily news menu. really i mean every day news feed.

then i have this feeling that any of us in this world is commoner! one day we're the master and the other day we roll down to the commoner level. Japanese may be a master of technology but nothing to the natural wrath. and know what, they are now racing against time to undo wreckage done on their own (nuclear) technology! we create weapon as means to protect humanity against tyranny and we are also the one who will destroy humanity with those weapons! what a paradox!

once i used the word 'paradox' to describe certain conflicting directions in my previous organisation to my boss. he agreed very much but he said we could do only this much. of course that statement dismayed me because as an organisation which stood on some sort of regulations, something must be done. justice must prevail! after all human being have 'perseverance' concept fixed in their soul. we live by that concept, i explained. then i realised that indeed what my boss said was true. we cannot beat our superior and i concluded that we are just commoner.

but is it? just imagine that i had to face the height of pain with my tooth ache, deterministic, and finally the feeling diminished. i took some time but i won. but in the other part of the time as a commoner i lose out. take into consideration the fact that i'm jobless now.

paradox?