DOODLES...Pancake & Elephant

Imperfect in many ways, but still proud enough for it to be shared with the world.

Copyright © 2011 Tan Jia Shiun. All rights reserved.

Untitled - III

Life is short.

Each day is too precious to be wasted on not doing things that you absolutely love to do.

Each day is too valuable to be spent doing things which at the end of it all, you can't say that you have lived a remarkable life.

WORLD OCEANS DAY - SEATRU at CHAGAR HUTANG

Today is World Oceans Day, and I figure it would be a suitable time to pen down my experiences with one of its oldest and most mysterious inhabitants, the sea turtles.

Being a participant stuck the endless corporate rat race, I was sold by the idea of being marooned for eight days, on a small quaint private beach named Chagar Hutang, Redang Island, sequestered from the outside world, with no cellular phone reception,  no daily newspapers, and no contact with anyone else other than my fellow volunteers, the research assistants, the two caretakers and our nightly guests who crawls up the sandy beaches to nest.

Our days were filled with performing chores around the research center, such as recording the position of the new nests in relation to the grids on the beach, patrolling for egg predators like ghost crabs or monitor lizard, and cleaning the beach. In between all this, we were able to lounge around the hammocks, and catching up on books that we meant to read but never had the time to (for the record, I devoured within a week, Freakanomics by by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and Animal Farm by George Orwell).

Things got interesting at night though, when the nesting hours begin.

We start recording data once the turtles land on the beach. We recorded the time that lapsed between her landing and the commencement of the body-pitting process, the depth of the nest once she starts laying her eggs, the length and width of its carapace (that's the top part of her shell, for the uninitiated) and mark the nest for further work the next morning.

If the nesting turtle has been previously tagged on its front fins, the tag numbers are also jotted down. If not, well, volunteers are also trained to perform tagging in the absence of the research assistants or the caretakers (A tip for future taggers, do not flinch just because the fins move, and neither should you blame those who were holding up the torch lights for you).

I remember the first night we spent on the beach. A comforting silence was shared among us while we laid on the mats placed upon the uneven sand, gazing at the billions of stars lighting up the clear heaven skies. It was truly a humbling experience. The cloudless skies even gave me a glimpse of a streaking shooting star, a sight rarely seen in the smog filled and light polluted city skies.

How many of us can truly say that we have fallen asleep beneath the twinkling stars, only to be softly woken up by falling raindrops or the sounds of sand gently displaced by the strong fins of a sea turtle crawling up the beach?

The sea turtles were another sight to behold. Large and weighing over 100 kilograms each, these ancient gentle giants returns every nesting season to the same beach on which they were hatched many years ago. I've had the priviledge of observing turtles both on land and in the sea. Early in 2011, I swam with a couple of sea turtles in Pulau Perhentian, trying to keep up while the turtles swam effortlessly right underneath me. While they may seem clumsy and slow on land, in the water, they glide gracefully from feeding at the bottom of the sea bed to the surface of the sea for air.

There were other experiences to be had at Chagar Hutang other than the turtles. We were given a guided hike up a hill for an aerial view of Turtle Rock, and on days when our feet yearns for a little pampering, we headed to the natural prawn spa, where baby prawns at a stream nibbles away at the dead skins around any part of your body that you dare dip in. Beware, it is intensely ticklish! 

On our final day, we were extremely lucky that one of the turtles decided to hang around till the morning sun dawned on us. This gave us the opportunity to quickly snap a photo of us with the turtle, without the burst of camera flashes which could potentially scare the little critter, especially in the dark covers of the night.

The good people of SEATRU ("Sea Turtles Research Unit") and UMT ("University Malaysia Terengganu") have been tireless in promoting the awareness of sea turtle conservation. They are one of the eco-warriors that we must recognise and applaud, more so on World Oceans Day.

So for what it is worth, go find out more about the various programs that SEATRU have for different folks from different age groups, and if you are willing to, sign up for the volunteer program and I can assure you that it will be an experience that you will treasure (and maybe even blog about...) for the rest of your life.

Please visit the following sites:

• SEATRU's official website: http://seatru.wordpress.com/
• My take on ocean conservation, sharks and their greatest enemy: http://wheretimeisnot.blogspot.com/2011/05/blue-is-new-green.html

FUI - Flying Under the Influence

Men + Alcohol + Hot Nubile Young Women = Incredible stupidity, flight delays, and risk of criminal conviction.

Making it's way around the Internet today is a piece of news coming from the land of the free and weird, America, where a man was charged with making threats against the passengers of an Atlanta-bound Delta flight, while airborne. The man, Bryan Sisco, 40, was alleged to have made these threats in a drunken attempt to flirt with 25 years old Danielle Valimont.

Bryan Sisco's mug shot - Van Damme lookalike

It was reported that Mr. Sisco's frenetic bragging was the result of being heavily under the influence of alcohol. This was later disputed by Ms. Valimont who claimed that there was no hint of alcohol in his breath and behaviour, just very very bad flirting.

A picture of Danielle Valimont - the one in white

Reading this reminded me of my flight back from Phuket, Thailand a couple of weeks back where there were two young Caucasian ladies sitting one row in front of me. One was very quiet and looked very "cool", while the other seemed a little chatty and louder than normal, and in her hand, a can of beer. I overheard the beer drinking lady apologizing to a young couple beside her, whom she have been trying to make small talk with, saying "Excuse me if I'm asking too many questions, I have been drinking the whole day". *hic...

When we landed, after the flight attendant had given her usual "thank you and hope you have enjoyed the flight" speech, Ms. "I've-been-drinking" quipped loudly, "well, we would have enjoyed it more if you had served alcohol during the flight!".

Tsk tsk. Drinking and flying - not advisable for either white supremacist looking bald headed gentlemen, nor attractive looking blond white young ladies.

For a full account of the Delta flight incident, please visit:

http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/05/28/bryan-sisco-delta-passenger-causes-flight-diversion-over-bizar/

And as re-told personally by Ms. Valimont, her blog:

http://dl2060.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/10-minutes/

Closeted Artist (One Can Dream, Right?)

Allow me to indulge in a little bit of reminiscing.

Back when I was in primary school, I made my first, an thus far only, sale of an original artwork. I wrote and drew a Doraemon story on a couple of A4 sized paper, made a few photocopies and sold it to my class mates for a few cents a copy.

This little episode dates back close to twenty years, and while I've taken the path well trodden and so familiar with many Asian lower-middle income children and went into a career in accountancy, the fondness for drawing stayed with me.

I drew on tables, by using my preferred medium for drawing, erasable (and eventually erased) pencils, both in secondary school and in college. I remember a drawing of a koala on the common study area in college gaining one or two fans whom I saw copying the drawing onto pieces of paper.

During my six year employment in a big 4 accounting firm, I was further presented with opportunities to satiate my inner artist.

The cover of the book

I was given the chance to assist in a Business Development Center of my firm in their efforts to produce a guidebook to be distributed to the regional firms partners.

One of the pages in "Ideas"

I was requested to produce approximately thirty illustrations, like this...


Put yourself in your clients' shoes


...and this...

Don't take things lightly

Then, in the middle of 2010, there was the launch of an audit improvement project, where there were balloons aplenty.





The people who made project balloons a success

 

The aim of that Saturday morning was to produce as many as possible, illustrated balloons within other illustrated balloons, so that when the outer balloon which represents a negative habit, is burst, it reveals the inner balloon which is decorated with positive messages.



Working hard on a Saturday morning

Finally, before I sign off this entry, the last drawing opportunity I had in the firm came via the 2010 Corporate Responsibility project, which introduced me to the world of digital coloring, turning this...

...to this...



Something about turtle migration...

...and this...

...to this...

Something about turtle loyalty...

..and this....

 

...to this...

Something about the sleeping patterns of turtles



and finally, this...

 

...to this...

Something about how turtles are mostly vegetarians..

Each of the above were used as posters and contained fun facts about sea turtles, and were posted at bulletin boards in many levels of the office building.

So, anyone willing to pay a few cents for photocopies of any of the above illustrations?

(Note: Balloons no longer available - we got cheap ones and they didn't last very long)

Office Romance: A Fatal Attraction?



No, these two aren't dancing. Think a little dirtier.


Having spent six years in a firm where a majority of its employees are aged between their early 20s and 30s, not married, and where a culture of working late into the night amongst a band of closely knitted team mates, bonded by their fight against oppressive deadlines and incomprehensible purported work documents, I have seen my fair share of office romances and scandals.

Even though, I am a firm believer that one's civil liberties to romance anyone their heart (or loins) desire should not be infringed upon by office policies, there are certain limitations and safeguards that should be in place. An office relationship, if done appropriately, need not be fatal to either the romance or one's careers.

For example, a relationship of supervisory-subordinate nature (also known as the "Hierarchical Workplace Romance") should be transparent, although affections should not be publicly displayed.

Upon the formation of on office relationship, higher management should be notified. If conflict of interest arises due to such relationship, either party of the relationship should be transferred to another department immediately to prevent accusations and perceptions among others of sexual favouritism or bias, especially in areas of salary increments, bonuses or promotions.

If a hierarchical workplace romance is kept hidden, and during the affair the lower ranked partner in the relationship was promoted or obtained a favourable performance appraisal, other colleagues may have sound basis to lodge complains to the company's ethical committee or a court of law, should the truth about the relationship surfaces, even if the promotion or appraisal was given based on actual successes of the employee.

A hopeless romantic will say that we cannot choose who we love, but we have the free will to determine who we tell about it. Do not be foolish to think that a workplace romance can be completely kept hidden from your colleagues or bosses infinitely. The consequences of concealment will be far more painful than being public about the relationship right from the get-go.

An article in International Journal Business Research analyses the various aspect of office romance:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/International-Journal-Business-Research/178900240.html

(Authors note: The above advice does not take into account extra-marital affair, in which case, shame on you!)

"LIKE" If You Have Been F**ked By Astro or Maxis!

No Copyright Infringement Intended.
Just to prove your service is as cold and mechanical as your corporate logo.

Dear Astro, Maxis and All Other Service Providers,

In case your respective marketing departments failed in their duty to remind you that the fastest growing segment of your customer base is the young working adults, allow me to volunteer my pro-bono consultative advice.

Briefly, the profile of this emerging segment of customers are as follows:

1. They have just recently joined the work force, and with competition among peers being how it is today, they have no choice but to work long hours in the office with minimal opportunities to take leave of absence from work.
2. They have just recently bought a house/apartment in a fringe part of the city, and yet spend very little time in their house/apartment since they have to work aforementioned long hours to support the crushing volume of debt & interest payment.
3. If they are co-habitating or married, chances are both parties are working full time jobs, and are rarely home.
4. As immigrants to the city, many young adults do not have immediate family members in close proximity who can chip in when it comes to running errands.

Understanding the above would then assist in crafting policies and practices governing customer service and interaction in a way that doesn't awaken your customer's Icarian instinct to fly out of the 9th floor of a high rise building.

Do not, for instance:

• Make your young adult customers wait on the phone for too long - Their bosses really hate it when employees are not seen to be typing furiously on their laptops but instead have a mobile phone sandwiched between their ears and palms, while in the office.
• Restrict the times your technicians can make house calls. Although I understand that there are security concerns that should be considered, many of your customers cannot take half a day off just to wait for the technician who agrees to come anytime between 1 p.m. and next year's Christmas. It would be great if we can welcome the technicians to our houses after official office working hours or during the weekends.
• Pass the customers' call to ten different departments. Your customers do not enjoy repeating his name, identification card number, mother's maiden name, mode of last bill payment, pet dog's birth date, etc for ten times just to pass the verification test.
• Promise to call back within 48 hours, and then don't call back within those said hours. Your average Malaysian, a product of a very successful national education policy, have been taught to count up to fifty, and since they can afford your grossly priced services, most can probably also afford a watch/clock to keep track of time lapse.
• Force your customers to pay a visit to your headquarters or your branches for services that could have easily been given over the phone. The effort to find an available parking bay is usually given up quickly and replaced by double parking and risk of traffic citations. Again, your customers do not like to utilise their annual leave just to spend it swapping his office for yours
• Charge your customers for service downtime that is not their fault, then make them jump through hoops for them to request (or more appropriately, demand) a waiver of said charges.

In my case, as a member of the young working adult segment, I have suffered all of the above throughout the years since I moved out from my parents' house, but my recent attempts to install Astro's satellite television service takes the cake.

I had registered for an Astro account more in early May.

After 2 weeks, the appointed Astro installer, an external agent of the company, failed to return my call to provide me with an update. I had to personally make the necessary calls to the Astro headquarters, one thing that the agent should have performed as part of his responsibilities.

His first attempt at installation was unsuccessful due to what he claimed was a faulty decoder. He did, however, succeed in detaching the cable hook from my one month old television set and mistakenly attach it to the wall (instead of the television) causing the paint on my wall to peel.

His second attempt came three days after the first, although he had promised to return with a new decoder the immediate following evening. This time, he did not even turn up personally, instead sending an obviously inexperienced worker to perform the installation. I was told, after I have paid the full installation cost, that the service would commence two hours after installation.

Well, two hours came and pass, and there were still no "How I Met Your Mother: Season Six" showing on my modestly sized television screen.

After wasting a considerable amount of time and phone expenses (which ironically, goes to Maxis, my mobile service provider, a company owned by the same people who owns Astro) with the said installer trying to troubleshoot the problem, he practically gave up and asked me to call Astro directly for technical assistance.

At that point I gave up on him too.

I promptly called Astro the following morning, and after being given the usual drivel of "we have raised a report and our Technical Department will contact you within forty-eight hours", I told myself that, well, at least the experts whose employment is paid for by Astro directly is now looking into my predicament.

I shouldn't have got my hopes artificially inflated.

Forty-eight hours later, there was still no call from Astro's technical department. Being the adult in this situation, I proceeded to call their hot line to gently remind them that I wasn't yet deceased.

The nice lady who answered my call informed me that my report have already been transferred to the Technical Department, and that a technician have been assigned to my case, and should be calling me shortly. I politely asked for the technician's direct phone number, and she was kind enough to acquiesce to my request.

It was the number of the same Astro installer who had failed twice in installing the service, the one who gave up and had me contacting Astro directly.

Really? No wonder he did not want to call me within those forty-eight hours.

This was how I looked after she gave me the mobile number.

In an ideal world where monopoly does not exist and competition among business enterprises drives service quality up and keep prices manageable for consumers, complaints like mine will not be as prevalent. However, such a reality is not available to us Malaysians, so we resort to raising our grievances to faceless soulless corporations owned by well-connected multi-billionaires who pays minimum wages for poor customer service officers to courageously face the angry disgruntled customers.

As for me, I would like to think that I've maintained my composure and courtesy thus far without compromising on assertiveness, so I'll continue waiting patiently but at the same time keep an eye on the clock while my monopolistic service provider behemoths try to sort my problem out.

Still, getting f**ked by huge corporations leaves me crying in pain and shame.