An Engineer's Life

Few words: As luck would have it, a boxer trained his whole life just for a few minutes fame on stage. Boxer’s life is something admirable.


You see, when you’re young, I’m sure your parent will inject this into your brain. Be a professional when you grow up whether a doctor, lawyer or an engineer. And hence, we without doubt filled this three in our ambition list every year. Engineer is somehow one of the top three jobs where every parent wanted their children to be. I’m not so sure with doctor or lawyer but an engineer?

I doubt.

Dear Parents,

To be an engineer, you have to study another year than most of the course out there but what you can earn is the same or even less than the other course. Let’s take business for example; many billionaires out there are successful businessmen, seldom are engineers. When you’re in form 3 doing your PMR, do you still remember the threat given by most of the teachers? “Get a good result if you don't want yourself ended up in an Art class” and hence we do everything we can just to not be in an Art Class.

Let me tell you what, the earning of those from Art stream be it a business, marketing or management is higher than us, engineer. You say engineer is a professional, yes we are but in term of financial, we are far behind than those from Art stream. I don’t understand why the teachers equalize Art Class with low grade; I bet some of them purposely fall short in their PMR.

Sadly speaking, to put this in work ecosystem, business student study to be an employer while engineering student study to be their employee.

Then, there is this professionalism issue. No doubt in the eye of society, engineer is a respected profession. Nevertheless, that is many years ago maybe in the 1970’s or 1980’s when there is still not much engineers. In 2011, engineers are everywhere. Yes, no doubt the professionalism is still there; that is when we do not tell them our salary. Once they know our salary, respect is still there but not for the professionalism but for the admiration of spending four years to earn less than other profession. Till today I still strongly believe that money represent everything including respect, you may say I’m a materialistic, but won’t everyone is like that today?

I bet Art Class students are laughing at us now.

Upon landing my first step in the job industry, I realize that engineer is just a title. You may be called as an engineer but what you did is just like everyone else. Being an engineer not necessary being someone wearing safety helmet reading plan like what describe in our kindergarten dictionary.

Realistically, being an engineer is no different than a normal office worker; you sit in the office waiting for lunch time, clicking on your FB when your boss is not around and happily going off work like everyone else. It’s sad to say but it’s true, if I were to put you in an office, you can’t differentiate who is an engineer and who is not because they look just the same.

As I’m saying this, I’m not referring to all engineers out there; I mean there are of course some engineers that can earn a lot more than Art stream student but I’m only saying this for the majority of the engineers out there. It might be wrong but that is what I observed as fresh graduate engineer.

The only good side of being an engineer is when you’re meeting your parents in law, you can always brag a little about your job since engineer in the eye of older generation is a well respected profession. Just don’t tell them your salary, nevertheless :)

Yours Sincerely,
Humble Engineer

Deadline is Over

Few words: When we joke about not watching the previous movie of some film series, we usually take Spiderman, Pirates of Caribbean or maybe Harry Potter as an example. But I met someone telling me he missed Fantasic Three and he doesn’t seem like joking :(


Penang is truly a fascinating place.

For the past few days, I had been travelling back and forth from Perak to Perlis, well, that’s about 1,600 km journey. And just to kill some boredom out of this hellish 1.6k long ride, I decided to stop a day or two in Penang. Nevertheless due to limited budget, the only options left is either to spend my night at some petrol station or rang a friend of mine for a stay. Of course, I opt for the second choice; I don’t want some agua knocking on my car window pleading they can help me rest better.

Furthermore, I might as well consider this Penang stop as my celebration trip, since I’m officially free after my final presentation in Perlis. That is something to celebrate about right? No more deadlines or whatsoever.

There are many things in Penang that are truly fascinating. But among all these many things, the followings are beyond doubt worth blogging of:


1. Fascinating Frap


Frappucino or in short, frap is some famous ice blended beverage from Starbucks. To be frank, I was never a fan of Starbucks; most of the time, I went there just to leech their wifi. But recently, their half-priced frap promo is enough to start a propaganda, everyone urging me to get a cup.

Alright, since the last time I had my Starbucks is years ago, I might as well get a cup in Penang. The promo has just ended nonetheless; FML. Yet due to my strong curiosity and well, the girl at the counter is worth to stay a while for. Why not? I went in and ordered a full priced-no-promo frap. FML X2. But, what I don’t like in every Starbucks is their waitress has too many question to ask “Do you want this, sir? Do you want that, sir?” They even asked for your name.

I WANT EVERYTHING, JUST HAND ME THE FREAKING FRAP LA!!

I wanted to try it so much, once the waitress hand me over my cup of frap; I immediately take a big sips....to be real frank, the frap is good..

..without looking at the price though. But 18 MYR for a cup of ice blended coffee, that’s a bit overprice not? The formula is simple; 5 MYR for raw coffee and another 5 MYR for the milk, caramel, mocha chip, etc; which equivalent to another 8 MYR just for their branded plastic cup. Now I know why there is only one Starbucks in Ipoh. In the city of cheap coffee, Starbucks doesn’t even stand a chance.


2. Fascinating Foods

Debatable. When it comes to foods, people normally compare Penang foods with Ipoh foods. But since I’m eating good Ipoh foods for 23 years, it won’t hurt to praise Penang foods once in a while. Among all the foods, those that are really worth recalling are their duck meat kueh teow and fried oyster. Screw old school chicken kueh teow, I'm done and over with it, it’s time for duck meat kueh teow. Another real good Penang food is their fried oyster. The fried oyster is really something to shout about, although my friend claimed that there is better fried oyster stall in Penang; but that particular stall is enough for me to brag for three days three nights non-stop.

The foods there is surprisingly cheap too, I start to wonder how those hawkers manage to buy a house in Penang.


3. Freaking Expensive Houses

Call me a kampong boy, but the price of a house there is sohigh that only sohigh people will buy. The salary in Penang is a few hundred bucks more than in Ipoh, but the house there is few times more expensive than in Ipoh as well. Meaning you have to work double hard…no, you have to work double jobs to buy a smaller house. (Flame extinguisher: what I said is merely based on nothing but my simple mind; it's a joke)

But you can always cover back the expenses, because the foods there are amazingly cheap.


4. Fascinating Penang-lang

Although the people there speak in a different dialect, Hokkien but they are extremely friendly; is like there is a stamping on their forehead “Please talk to me, I will prove I’m friendly” because they talk alot once you greet them; even to strangers. After four years mixing with Penang-lang, they have built a stereotype of Penang-lang to me; simply speaking, they’re sibeh friendly and funny. During my visit to 1st avenue, I saw a prayer tree made especially for the Japan earthquake victims. Proven! Penang-lang is very friendly.

Randomly, I take a peek at their prayer. Again, proven! Penang-lang sibeh funny one.

P/S: Thanks mister loan shark and mister polobun for their hospitality throughout my two days stay in Penang. I had a great time during these two days. Thank you.

It Look Easy But It Ain’t

Few words: Nowadays many fine dining restaurants serving food in a spoon, kononnya for the ease of eating; I’m alright with the concept as long as they can add up the quantity. I even overheard the ahma from next table, “Boy, where is our food?”



Howdy readers.

Howdy readers.

Howdy readers.

To be frank, I’m thinking wickedly hard just to come up with a good opening but what I can come up with is just howdy readers. I think somewhat or somehow my blogging skill just drop out.

Howdy readers, since I haven’t updated my blog for four months or so, this post is going to be sinfully long. If you’re reading this at your workplace, please skip and read it only at your lunch break to avoid being caught slacking from work. If you’re looking for jokes, you will eventually find some randomly dispersed in the paragraphs below but I can’t guarantee laughter. Thank you.

“Squeeze time for blog, squeeze time for blog” that is actually what I had been telling myself all the time but apparently my time is milk-less. I had been losing readers, from hundred viewers per day to almost nothing per month. But I can’t blame the readers, I mean who will stay for a crappy blog; sincerely if I were you, I won’t even login at the first place. After a month or so not updating my blog, I thought it will make a big impact on my readers. Just to verify that, I login my email, I check my sms, my fb and even twitter with hope to see at least 5Gb of mails but no one seems to care. FML!

That is when the condition gets critical. Forcefully, I try whatever I could to blog. But the thing is when you force yourself too hard, you tend to give yourself excuses. “Later la” that is the words that destroy many bloggers and eventually I have delay my update for four months. When I first started MLMB, one of the reasons I did it is because I have shitload time on my hand needed to be kill. That is when my update rate is godlike. But when you’re in final year of your university life, like it or not, the only free time is used to eat, shit and sleep (aside from PSP though). It may look easy to write a blog, a lot of people don’t realize, even blogging need brainstorming and apart from that you need to be extremely careful with politics (I’m a patriot, don’t sue me) and grammars. Doing stuffs like that consume a lot of time and moreover it’s not like I’m getting paid for it and hence you drag your feet more. Next thing you know, four months passed and you hadn’t type a single words, this is what happen when you procrastinate.

Today, I finally free from my final year project and my last paper. Believe it or not, the only image across my head is British army marching out and Tunku Abdul Rahman shouting Merdeka when the exam is over. So hereby I’m daring to say that I’m officially an active blogger now, hurray, and hopefully someone will notice it this time.

Aside from happiness and the ultimate feeling of liberty, on my second thought, I have to bid farewell to the place where I once called paddle-field-all-around. Four years and just like that, it ends.

Many didn’t realize but this is the place I polish my mandarin. Back then, it took me hours crafting up a phase in mandarin just to order a food. But now I can even joke in mandarin. To be sent away from my family to a remote country like Perlis indeed had upset me; I have every reason to channel my hatred to UniMAP. Since my first step to UniMAP, I was displeased with everything there. To be frank, I just want to finish that four freaking years fast and get the hell out of Perlis. That is when you start to rebel, you violate the law, you lose interest in looking for friends and basically you defy everything. The gravity for it, you hated it even more.

The first year of my university life is nothing but grudge. But soon enough, I start accepting it and gradually everything is getting better each semester. That is when I gained a few friends and slowly but surely I started to enjoy my university life. The way of life of people from Penang, Kelantan, Johor, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan and so on; are indeed very different from my life. Some may look weird, some may look frightening but when you really start blending in, you too can find joy in the midst of weirdness.

The second year of my university life is brilliant. That is when I’m ready to uptake challenges; I try to change my whole perceptive of my university. That is also the year when I decided to start MLMB to share a thought or two to the others. Nonetheless, no one is paying attention. Screw it. Two years ago when I first started MLMB, the first post is about ‘Life’s a cup of coffee’ which also signifying my grudge toward life as well as acceptance. That’s the real beginning of fun and for the first time life isn’t all emo anymore. In second year too I have been assigned with juniors where I have to kononnya guide them but indirectly I have gained a few more friends. Come to think of it, I had never bossy them or use my seniority over them because they’re more like friends to me than juniors.

The third year of my university life is simply perfect. I meet a damn kepohchi friend. She may look like old aunty who wants to know about everything but her kindness is unmatched in the whole world. She has actually been my pillow talk partner for some time; undeniably she is a very good listener. Even till now, I sometimes still feel like calling her. In this year also, I undergo a six months internship in Texchem Polymers which is a real breakthrough in my study life where I develop new love in both polymers and research industry. In the process of developing new love, I meet a quite demanding supervisor and as demanding as she was, she did taught me a lot, and not to mention a handful of colleagues aka more friends.

The forth year is a year of chasing. Sad to say, but I got a ‘B’ in Dr.M paper; everything changed since then. In that year too, I have been struggling to rise up my pointer but somewhat I’m still in the state of chasing. In this year too, I meet numerous of wonderful people mainly the staff and lecturers of UniMAP. In the process of knowing them, believe it or not, I gained a few older friends. Come to think of it, I’ve never consult the lecturers in my university earlier years. I should have.

If I were to do that all over again, I would still go for paddle-field-all-around. If I don’t, I won’t know what I’ll be missing. Adios, paddle-field-all-around.