public amenities

its has been a few days from my last posting. I was in capital city for an official business. the city has more than 1 million population in an area of less then 250 km square. I studied undergraduate there about 20 years ago. however during my visit few days ago I'm shocked.

the picture above is the pedestrian walkway for commoners. below it, on the right, is a major road. above is the line of light rail transit (LRT) and a major highway. you can see the LRT at the top, right hand side. this dark and dirty walkway connects the LRT station to the other side of the LRT lane and highway. it quite remote and I could see there was not a single bulb is installed along the pathway.

of course, at least there is a walkway for a commoner. at least ...

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

sports

this is the biggest stadium in my state. is has a seating capacity of 40,000. the stadium housed the football pitch as well as track. it is not as popular as Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge.

I still remember that in my younger years, sports was quite popular among commoners' kids. they played all sort of sports be it modern (football) or traditional. but now the situation is different. I noticed that my kids too are infested by the disease. yes they do play sports sometimes but now they have computer games as an alternative. I tried to justify by saying that this is the skill that they need in the future, but is it true. looking at the colourful but dead PC, communicate with the inanimate object and let time passes... is it a correct way? how about the content of the games? its scary.

so far I managed to have a control on the time spend by them on the PC but so for how long?

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

earth day

earth day... listen to earth song... for us and future

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: negligible

listening, '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them' by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs

above is a picture of a cassette player courtesy by getty image. once I had that kind of player. my friends and I love to listen to it. we listened to all sort of music from death metal to richard marx. we also listened to political and sports event broadcast by radio station. yea, we listened.

right now I'm reading a book by Kevin Hogan and Ron Stubbs, '8 Barriers to Communication & How to Overcome Them'. one of the chapters, 'the forgotten art of listening', they write about the different of 'listening' and 'hear' and about 'already always know' person: the person who always cut in while we're talking and they give their own version of OUR ideas/ stories.

frankly though I developed a love to read books for the past a decade or two, I never like to read about communication, psychology, motivational and the likes. not until recently. if only I read those books earlier... ok, back to the topic. 

we had this deputy director whose style of communication exactly resembles the 'already always know'. try give out ideas and all you get is "we've already think about it" before you can finish you words. at one time (during a discussion on legal electrical matters) I was so sick of his style I had to say "look, I'm a professional  electrical engineer and I'm also doing an exam in legal-related for electrical engineer. and if you don't trust me let me get a copy of the (Electrical) Act now". I felt disgusted. at the other point of time when he expressed his demoralise due to lack of participation from other meeting members, I stood up and said "it's only once and you feel to back down. we've been all the while have to talk to you with your ...... style of communicating". it's really bad. I wish I read books on communication earlier...

I read that World War I was a product of, among others, miscommunication! http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=524

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.2 kg

school, life

the picture above is the building where my dorm was more than two decades ago. it was a boarding school about 400 km from my home. I was in early teenage when I was sent there. the journey to the school was an epic one. we left home in the midnight at reached there early in the morning and didn't sleep. I was not only accompanied by my parent and siblings but also my grandparent. it was just an alien place for me: I've never been outside 200 km radius from my home.

I visited the school last two weeks with my kids. not much is changing. in fact the outside condition of the buildings were about the same when I left them: faded and not conducive. I suspect they lack of maintenance. I mean they do repaint the buildings but not as frequent. there are several new blocks but the I also noticed that the fence are very nice. I wonder why the fence, not the buildings.

I believe since it is a school, they government should make the school 'alive'. the kids who live there will spend five years living in such environment. during my last year at the school I was lucky to have a 'live' experience on what is democracy. the school was chosen as a polling station. I managed to see how people working day and night to put on their campaign banners. I also witnessed how the people taking turn to cast their vote. I slept less during the period.

so give the kids some 'life' to live in.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.117 kg

work II, 'I, Robot' by Isaac Asimov

today I went to an industry park to seek for a job opportunity. and guess what, I saw there were several others patrolling the place looking for a job. so much for the government announcement few days ago that job openings are larger in number than job seekers.

looking at those factories I remember about two decades ago I had a conversation with an old man in a train. it was a journey to the capital city where I did my undergraduate. the old man told me about his observation on the factories' workers. "the way the factories work produce a 'robot' workers", he said. "this is because with all the system in place, human being are no longer required to think but just follow". of course he referred  the 'workers' in his point is at the production level.

later I developed an interest in reading. one of the author who I like is Isaac Asimov. 'I, Robot' is one of his books. inside the book, one can find the famous 'three laws of robotics'. the laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

today I wonder whether that old man read the book and made the observation. I can see now the resemblance of the ideas he uttered to me and the writings by Isaac Asimov. perhaps the old man that I had the chance to converse to was not an ordinary 'old man'. it is only at this age I started to realised certain things that I've already faced in the past.


I hope that I can also can have that kind of power and accuracy of observation.


GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.2 kg

work

the picture above is very refreshing, isn't it?

story I
about 12 years ago, I was a junior electrical engineer. despite that, I was ordered to handle a procurement of 'furniture' at the tune of millions dollar. so being junior, I took the responsibility. with me to finish off the job was a clerk. and only him. I worked very hard. one day before I was forced to send the document to the headquarter, I worked very late. about at 5 a.m. the next morning I was already at the office. finally it was noon and I started my car and drove for a 200 km journey to the HQ. but less than 50 km, I got very tired and my hands were shocking. it was impossible for me to drive. I went back to my office, called HQ and continued to work. I drove to HQ that evening.

story II
six years I was again experience the same thing. this time it was a technical tender but still not in my field. and I'm still alone doing the job because my assistants weren't familiar with the scope. two days before I was supposed to send the tender document to finance department, I was told to prepare several copies. I believe the number was around 20. to save budget, I was told to go to HQ and get the documents printed. upon reached there I was told that their printers were out of toners. to procure the toners, a procurement officer must do that and that officer was on leave. what a mess. so I went back to my office and was told to get a printer to print it. I sent the document on the same evening. early in the next morning I went to the printer but the documents weren't ready. the very same morning I need to send my wife for a job interview but I need to wait for the documents. I finally got my documents later that day and sent them to the finance department at the HQ. my wife missed the interview.

story III
I was transferred to the HQ 8 years ago. within few months there was a big project scheduled to be handed over to us. one day we had a site meeting with all the technical consultants i.e. architect and engineers. I had a bad day that day and I refused to shake hand with any of them. I told them that I want the buildings to be perfect in safety, security and basic needs in addition to what ever the contract wants. and I got my lesson. few weeks after that, I went to the site just to found that buildings' fire panels were 'switch on' yet.

story IV
no job.

GREENHOUSE GAS RELEASED: 0.3 kg