Adventur Cari Studio: Dari BBU ke Taman U

Semalam 3 orang lelaki tua bangka tak sedar diri pergi cari studio nak jamming. Bini aku pula sibuk nak tengok Nur Kasih.

Nampaknya perniagaan membuka studio jamming tak dapat menjamin masa depan yang gemilang atau mungkin kesilapan strategi marketing yang menyebabkan diorang lingkup. Lahanat betul. Studio besar-besar kat BBU semua dah tak buka lagi.

"Ni surat bersepah kat depan kedai, macam dah lama tak bukak," Alanzed bersuara macam Grissom.

Aku, Alanzed dan wak terus bergerak ke Taman U.

Nampaknya setelah semua student kena duduk kolej, Taman U rasa macam dah setengah mati. Kebanyakkan tempat makan kosong dan layu. Apa yang aku faham, pihak universiti nak menangani masalah sosial di kalangan student yang duduk luar kolej. Dulu bersepah student duduk kat rumah sewa, sekarang semua kena paksa duduk dalam kolej. Tokeh-tokeh kedai makan gigit jari jela. Berkorban sikit demi anak bangsa.

Studio pertama yang kitorang sampai ialah Fly Studio, nampaknya tokeh masih sama. Dia tersengih tengok kitorang. Dulu kitorang regular kat sini. Cekal betul brader ni berniaga. Rasanya dia buka studio ni tahun 2002. Aku perhatikan dressing dia pun maintain sama je. Baju collar neck putih dengan seluar khakis. Mungkin juga itu je baju yang dia ada. Berjimat demi nak maintain studio. Nampaknya studio fully booked sampai subuh. Info dari brader tu studio lain kat Taman U dah lingkup. Aiseh. Budak-budak sekarang ni tak Metallica langsung. Dulu ada 3 studio pun berebut. Sekarang tinggal satu je.

Kitorang buat satu round kat tempat-tempat studio lain. Memang betul. Semua dah lingkup. Ada satu studio tu, S.O.D. ke apakebende namanya dah jadi tempat rumah urut. Aku pun call abang aku tanya kat mana studio lain yang ada. Cruz Studio Sri Skudai. Banyak-banyak tempat aku tak sangka kat Sri Skudai ada studio.

"Ada satu studio kat Sri Skudai? Perghh, dulu masa student Sri Skudai port mat jiwang berdating makan nasi lemak dengan awek," selamba aku berkata-kata sesekali jeling kat Alanzed. Dia diam je. Mungkin tengah fokus bawak kereta. Tak tau la kalau dia terasa.

Malam tu memang rasa umur dah lanjut. Main 2-3 lagu berhenti sampai 10 minit. Hahaha. Tua. Penat disebabkan main 3 piece je. Sorang lagi cancel last minute sebab nak tengok Nur Kasih parents dia datang rumah. Semalam ada seleksi beberapa lagu Butterfingers termasuk lagu album Kembali. Melodik dan melankolik. Sesuai untuk orang tua.

Salam Ramadhan

Salam Ramadhan kepada semua umat Islam. Rasanya belum terlewat kat sini aku nak mintak maaf kalau ada ada terkasar bahasa atau terlanjur kata sempena bulan mulia ni. Terutama kepada fans Man U yang pantang kena kutuk, hati macam kertas.

p/s: Spurs memang kuat. Sebab tuh diorang jual orang macam Carrick kat Man u. HAHA. Sekali lagi maaf dipohon dan selamat berpuasa semua.

Barney yang menjadi fobia kepada fans Man u.

Muda Mura Muri

Aku memang tak boleh terima kalau kena buat kerja yang sama, tiap-tiap hari. Paling lama boleh tahan sebulan, sebelum aku resign atau jadi gila. Kerja-kerja rutin ni macam kerja operation. Operation macam production. Itu kerja gila. Hari-hari mau kejar output. Kualiti entah ke mana. Itu belum cerita budak-budak maintenance lagi, siang malam menghadap repair mesin. Lama-lama muka dah macam Awang Spanar.

Ni berkisar kat kerja aku yang hari-hari nak kena fikir pasal kaizen untuk eliminate 3M (Muda, Mura, Muri). Orait la jugak daripada buat kerja rutin. 3M ni adalah ungkapan Jepun.

Muda = waste
Mura = uneven
Muri = overburden

Kadang-kadang kaizen ni tak perlu approach yang saintifik atau high-tech pun. Bergantug pada keadaan dan case study. Yang penting research. Kalau takde research ke longkang la idea.

Seperti biasa, kalau buat improvement, banyak la masa kita 'luangkan' nak buat orang accept improvement. Tak semua orang boleh terima pembaharuan walaupun demi kebaikkan diorang. Sama juga macam kita beri pendapat, tak semua orang boleh accept. Manusia kan memang defensive sikit.

Tapi setelah bekerja bertahun-tahun, baru aku sedar orang Malaysia ni sebenarnya sangat sentimental (aku pun sama kot). Suka simpan benda buruk yang dah tentu tak guna sebab sentimental value. Macam tu jugak la dalam pekerjaan. Bila ada problem, tapi sayang pula nak eliminate sebab dah jadi sebahagian dari rutin kerja. Dah macam hantu cerita 'Shutter', terlekat atas bahu tak mahu turun.

Doing something that is wasteful efficiently. Cuba fikirkan tentang sesuatu kerja/proses yang in the first place yang payah buat, and they will invest some money/time into it to make it more efficient. Waste!

Contoh-contoh:
"Dah 15 tahun saya kerja encik, macam ni la saya buat..." - dah masa untuk berubah.

"Bang, dulu saya kerja kat kompeni Jerman macam ni la diorang ajar saya buat..." - Diorang ajar betul, kau yang buat salah.

"Kita patut beli kamera high-tech dan pasangkan kat production line untuk detect printing defect kat product carton." Apa agaknya part quality dept buat?

Macam cilakak kan?

*****

Aku ambil contoh cerita daripada 'sensei' aku. Situasi kat kilang simen. Seorang pekerja diambil semata-mata untuk membersihkan simen yang melimpah disebabkan overflow dari paip. Jadi 'sensei' aku pun tanya, apa susah-susah nak upah orang sodok simen kat seorang engineer kat situ. "Biasalah kan ni kilang lama. Kilang simen pula tu. Mesti la ada simen bersepah-sepah."

Kan best kalau aku pergi bank, orang-orang kerja bank cakap macam tu. "Ala biasalah ni kan bank. Mesti la duit bersepah-sepah." Ha ha ha.

Jadi 'sensei' bertanya balik "Kenapa agaknya diorang tak study flow rate simen tuh, atau study dust catcher yang dah tak berfungsi. Dah tentu pakcik tuh tak payah sodok simen, dah 8 tahun dia sodok simen!" Ini lah contoh "doing something that he's not suppose to do efficiently" atau yang dikatakan waste atau MUDA dan apa yang pakcik tu buat adalah MURI. Kerja takde faedah.

Kaizen, approachnya ambil step yang simple dulu. Kemudian barulah step yang lagi kompleks. Tak payah nak susah-susah nak ajar operator ilmu six sigma. Senang tak? Kalau susah, kenapa agaknya...

Recession

A friend just visited me hours ago. We were once in the same company. He is still with that company. 2 years ago, when I left that company, it already started to show bad signs. The moment American investor bought that company, I just thought nothing good will come out from that. Remember the yankees?

Anyway, because of the recession, that company almost crumble to the ground. They released 5 managers. 2 Directors. Countless engineers, technicians. All follow the same route. Some I know, some newly joined, loyal employee, etc.

My friend still hang on to his position until god knows for how long. Hearing what he told me, my feelings were mixed. Relief, sad, grateful, shock...all at the same time. For a moment, I just don't know how to respond except for words of encouragement of course. He told me there will be a second wave in the near future. More people will be released.

The company opted for retrenchment to cut down the operation cost. The bright side of it, they will pay the compensation. A month salary for a year service plus the notice period compensations as the company will have you leave the company on the spot. (yes...immediately & there will be guards escorting you to the door). Compared to VSS, you don't really have any choice. 1 year of service = 1 month salary. 10 years of service = 10 months salary. The downside of it, it's hard to get a job nowadays. More companies are struggling to stay afloat. Companies out there are cautious. Even companies that are doing fine stop hiring people. But more potential employees are expected to flood the market.

Retrenchment can be devastating for so many reasons. You loss your income, especially if u are the bread winner. Then there will be the fear about financial future. Often what is more frightening is the loss of 'self' which accompanies retrenchment. Those people just need more support from families & friends, I guess.

Me? I just feel more and more grateful. My life. My job. My wife, she's my rock.

There can be only one...ROBBIE

The league was on break due to international commitment. Yeah, qualifying. It's time to relax from the tantrum & drama. So let's go back to our buku sejarah Anfield & get a closer look to this Toxteth Hero. Robbie Fowler. His goal scoring stats need not to be stated here. Still holding the fastest hat-trick ever (4 mins and 33 seconds) against Arsengal. What else need to say. His hunger for football even drived him to sign pay-per-play contract for Blackburn. Let's navigate hiStory.

Schmeichel was a great keeper, but this guy make him look like a dud (more to Hassan Miskam). Look here.

the controversial sniffing act...Macca as the supporting actor... :) sniff, sniff

the famous plaster nose...trendy they say

Wak, nampak familiar tak?

Also played with Liverpool retirement home club (Manchester Shitty)

So it's very difficult for this ROBBIE to follow up...because there can be only one ROBBIE in Anfield

rafa: ko jgn sengih²...club bayar ko utk score bukan posing² sengih mcm kerang busuk.
keane: baik bos, rambut bos cantik ahh. Baru treatment perr..
rafa: jgn lebeh², nanti aku emo

My Hari Raya Gift: Man City vs Liverpool

Just as I arrived from Negeri Sembilan, SMS I received on 5th Oct nite from a well known football pundit.

wak: babat ada satu soalan kepada kau...
me: soalan?...teka-teki ke?
wak: ye....kenapa man city 1- liverpool 0
me: blum warm up
wak: dan javier garrido menjaringkan gol kedua....kata babat
me: ceh Kuyt hampeh ahhh

The 2nd half start & 45 minutes later,

me: dah warm up, berape resultnyer?
wak: bayar ref ke? tackle slow pun kene kad merah, tau la jersey merah...

7th Oct back to office...met up with Wak later at Osman Taman Johor. Our main discussion was about how the mighty Reds chewed up the Eastlander. Haha. Wak Zailan as usual with his prediction & pessimistic comments about the Reds. His so called statistic & analysis about football sometimes bother some people (huh! sapa agaknya tuh? Man Utd fan ke?). But I have to agree some of the points he told me. And he also have to agree that Torres is better than Berbatov.

Negativity?

Oh my...oh my....I receive 1 email from my friend working offshore. He was so concern that I put a lot of negativity thoughts in here. Huh?...negativity? Maybe what he really meant was all the harsh word I use on my posting (was there any different from real life?kehekehekeh).

Aku OK beb!

There are reasons why I posted all the 'negativity' thoughts all together. First, need to give 'brief' description of what I encounter on daily basis. Second, need to give 'brief' description the 'things' I encounter on daily basis. All from 8am-6pm. Bro, it's more humorous than cynical. Third, I seldom talk about my job. Maybe a few insight can give a reality check.

I admit my focus was a bit off this few weeks. But I know, my wife always manage to pull me back to where I belong. Like she always do... :) (see, positive vibe). And also, friends like you that always been so concern.

OK, that's it. Dah, dah pegi makan kuih raya kat laut sana.

A little bit of this....

Just another project have been transferred, a new task/project have been declared by the big boss. OK! Set the dateline by next March.

Now going through all the details, while browsing the net looking for some info (yelaa tu!). Then, I stumble with this website. Although not quite related to my job (i don't care), but quite interesting for those lazy or don't want to complicate your life with Photoshop. (Jentik dikecualikan daripada kategori ini...haha)

The web, Imagechef.com enable u to personalized the image. I have some good photos. hehe. Have some laugh. Jangan serius sangat, nanti cepat tua (as what my wife said).

my songs collection...

kereta racing Wak Zailan....

Babat's new hair cut...
a reminder to Mr. Jentik...
last but not least...a public secret...hehe

Diari Ramadan Azhan 2

Salam,

Akhirnya, Selasa lalu dapat juga singgah Pasar Ramadan Perling beli ikan bakar. Ikan Pari. Yeah. Sesungguhnya waktu berbuka adalah satu daripada waktu gembira yg dijanjikan Allah swt bagi orang yang berpuasa. :-) Seperti biasa (dan dijangka), ramai sungguh orang kat pasar Ramadan, ramai sungguh orang yang dikenali kat pasar Ramadan, banyak plak tangan nak kene salam. Bercerita pasal pasar Ramadan, pengunjung kat pasar Ramadan Perling memang hebat dan tergolong dalam banyak kategori. Mereka ni boleh dikatergorikan:

1. Pembeli setia - suami, isteri bekerjaya, orang bujang yang busy. Golongan ini yang memakmurkan ekonomi IKS. Yang bekeluarga biasanya beli makanan utk berbuka & sahur. Yang bujang pulak, beli makanan utk sahur, berbuka & juga sarapan pagi.
2. Jalan-jalan tengok orang - mengisi waktu sebelum berbuka. Kalau duduk rumah tengok muka bini & anak2 nanti hilang selera. Umur pertengahan.
3. Jalan-jalan tengok awek - budak2 underage. Diorang ni mesti jalan dalam group. Fesyen sejenis, aksesori sejenis, motor sejenis, topi sejenis. Handphone volume pada tahap maksima. Biasanya tak beli apa-apa.
   
4. Beli makanan sambil cari calon isteri/suami - workaholic yg tiada gf/bf, tiada masa utk relationship walaupun online dating. Sangat multi-tasking, jeling makanan, jeling orang.
5. Penanti setia - sentiasa tunggu bulan ramadan utk juadah yg hebat2 & yg rare. Tiada batasan umur, bangsa & keturunan.
6. Model-model - dapat dikenali dari jarak 30 hingga 50 meter (to be precised) melalui minyak wangi yang mereka guna. Aksesori tambahan, bulu mata palsu & kasut tinggi. Tangan sebelah kiri biasanya memegang PDA phone berjenama. Pembelian mereka terhad kepada 2 plastik kecil sahaja.
7. Group of anak dara - datang berkumpulan, bujang, tinggal di rumah sewa & sangat disukai peniaga (terutama abang2 jual air tebu, murtabak, etc). Berbincang sebelum membeli. Sepakat & unite. Jika giliran anda selepas mereka, lebih baik pergi ke tempat lain dulu. Aplikasi teknik brain storming. Topik menjurus kepada lauk kegemaran, rupa peniaga yang iras-iras pelakon siri Samarinda, etc. Lebih sesuai di konsert Jom Heboh.
   

Sesungguhnya di atas tuh hanya persepsi dan tanggapan aku sahaja. Mungkin sipi-sipi atau mungkin tak kena langsung. Kalau silap, ampun. Hehe.

The whole week, nothing interesting in the newspaper except, berita gempar sepanjang minggu (confirm bukan politik...), berkisar kes bunuh seorang isteri & ibu di Klang oleh perompak yg pecah masuk ke rumahnya. Gila apa! Kes ni melibatkan pendatang asing (halal + haram). Mesti ramai yang baca pasa berita nih. Macam mana kejadian camni bole terjadi, dahtu melibatkan pendatang asing plak. Aiseh...there must be something wrong with our system beb. Korang baca berita nih http://www.bharian.com.my/Current_News/BH/Wednesday/Nasional/20080910001048/Article/ . How come we cannot be safe even in our own home? And about the illegal immigrants....???

OK, move on.

Diari Ramadan Azhan (haha!)

Salam,

Ramadan sudah seminggu berlalu. This time around I am taking it slowly. Easy as it comes. Bayangkanlah, 3 tahun kebelakangan ni, aku beraya di 3 kompeni yang berlainan. Bole consider job hopper ke?

Tapi di sekitar tempat kerja tiada apa yang 'slow'. Perangai dan sikap orang memang 'macam2'. Kadang2 benda yg remeh-temeh pun boleh jadi isu besar. Entah la beb...

Di sekitar kawan2 pulak, 2 of my best buddy from Uni ---> wak & babat, dah nak kahwin. Both excited! (maybe sorang je nampak hectic sebab Wak memang manjang nampak relaks...haha...teringat aku malam final calculus!). Babat, everything must be tedious beb...hehe. Aritu melepak dgn diorang, just catching up the old days (macam gua tua sangat). Balik dari 'gathering' tuh, Wak posted his thoughts about relationship. Well to be fair, we might as well take something positive out of the post. Itu kisah hati. About relationship. Hubungan dua hala. Like he said, in a relationship, how hard it is to put trust & put your heart into someone's hand without knowing that he/she will crush it some day. From my point of view, you'll never know unless u try. Trust and respect. That's the keyword. Memang berbual dengan dua orang ni banyak pusing2 kat topik ni je untuk sekarang ni...memandangkan bulan mengambang. Haha. So Babat n Wak, it's trust n respect beb...

Di sekitar rumah, myHoney is busy with her home project. She really enjoy what she's doing now. Hope for your success dear!
Di sekitar Ramadan. Seperti biasa, pasar Ramadan Perling sentiasa sesak dengan orang. Tahun ni belum sempat jengah. Kalau pergi confirm beli ikan bakar. Balik dari kerja sempat jeling2 jek pasar Ramadan.

Di sekitar rumah mak, renovation almost complete. So mak will have her new kitchen for Raya 2008. Alhamdulillah.