Anter Tey's Weblog | – Can you feel my heartbeat now?

Home Sweet Home

April 22, 2008

I reached home on 14 Apr around 1.30pm after 30 hours of traveling. As soon as I unpacked my luggage and took my bath, I went straight to bed. Earlier on I informed my sister that we will go out for dinner that night. I slept till 19.00 and my brother said should I didn’t wake up they will go by themselves. Guess what I had on my 1st night after 7 weeks of western life? TENG TENG TENG TENG – BAK KUT TEH! LOL.

I’m not quite rested at home. I was busy settling my bills, managing my bank accounts and MOST IMPORTANTLY – submit my income tax filling T_T

As I don’t have the monthly deduction anymore, I had to pay the total payable tax amount all in once – DAMN!
When I thought of that money will be simply spent – SHIT!
And when I thought of those hard earn money will in turn be in someone else pocket – F**K!

So, with this kind of mood, I wasn’t so relax at home for that week. 8 days later, I flew out to KL to start my first carry-to-field job.

Tags: Home Sweet Home
Posted in My Life, My Thoughts | 1 Comment »

P.S. I Love You

April 13, 2008

Source: Wikipedia

I don’t like movie that much. I like to watch drama rather than movie. Just to give you an idea of my level, I didn’t watch Harry Potter, Lord of The Ring, X-Men, and Transformer yet. My last cinema movie is Spider Man 3 😛

During my 21 hours flight from NY back to KL, I watched 1 movie. I have no idea how & what made me chosen this movie. Sorry to say I didn’t even hear about this movie before. But later on, I found out apparently this film is based on a very popular novel – P.S. I Love You.

I couldn’t stop laughing at the very beginning and couldn’t stop my tears later on. Glad that the cabin lights were off.

I recommend all my friends, who are currently or will be in a relationship and who are already or will get married to watch this movie with your love one. I’m sure you will appreciate him/her much more after this movie.

We have so used to take things for granted. We assume our love one will always be there. We assume our love one should always take better care of us. We assume we all deserved a better tomorrow. We never appreciate what we had in the past and feel grateful about what we are having today. Not until we lost it 1 day and will never have it again tomorrow.

I’m missing my mum again and my tears falling.

P.S. I Love You.

Tags: P.S. I Love You
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New York New York – Week 7: Finale

April 12, 2008

Finally, my New York adventure came to the end at week 7. My boss decided to send me home on 12th Apr, giving me a break before I go onsite.

This week was really busy, stress and tired. We received all the outstanding items, busy at integrating, testing, and troubleshooting. On the other hand, we had to finalize all the drawings, get everything ready for shipping. As usual, nothing is perfect, we had new problems, issues, challenges in between, and were running against the clock to get those sorted.

Last day is never being free and relax. At the end, I didn’t even have a chance to say thank you and goodbye to most of the people I worked with in the past 7 weeks. I wish they know how thankful and grateful I am towards their kindness, assistance and guidance over this period of time.

Besides, I’m sad to say goodbye to the 2 friends I made in Hampton Inn – shuttle men Ray & Nelson. Ray sent me to work in the morning and Nelson pick me up at work in the evening for 7 weeks. Nelson listened to Spanish song in the car, and he taught me simple Spanish like “muy cansado” (very tired) and “bonita senorita” (pretty lady). LOL.

And Ray, I can never forget his first class service. I just tell him once, and he automatically looks for me every morning, so I don’t need to inform the front desk day by day. One day he told me that he is not working on the next day. However, instead of just informing, he actually took down my room number and told his manager that someone else must be there for me. So, I wrote him a thank you note on my last day for his exceptional, proactive and personalize service.

For a home grown boy (anak kampung) like me, it was indeed a great experience to be able to go out and see the outside world. I enjoyed my time and I hope you have funs following my NY adventure too 🙂

Thank you note for Ray

NY -> KL -> KK

Tags: New York New York – Week 7: Finale
Posted in My Job, My Works, My Life, My Thoughts | Leave a Comment »

New York Yankees

April 9, 2008

Major League Baseball (MLB) is a big thing in America. There are 2 teams from New York, i.e. Mets & Yankees.

I’m a fan of Chien-Ming Wang, a Taiwanese pitcher who is now the No. 1 pitcher for NYY and Jared is a great fan of NYY. So, very often we talked about baseball and Yankees in MSN. Though, I’m just a beginner in baseball sports.

This was actually Jared’s idea. He wanted to bring me to watch Yankees at Yankees Stadium since me already in NY. As he said to me, how often you have a chance to watch a Yankees game. But due to my uncertain return schedule, I dropped the plan somehow. I told him that we probably should keep this plan open in our to-do list, so we have something to look forward to in future 🙂

However, when I confirmed that I’m not leaving by week 6, I reactivated the plan. He was a click away from getting the tickets and a “GO” from me made up our plan. GUESS WHAT? Chien-Ming Wang pitched for NYY on that game, 6th Apr vs Tampa Bay!!! I watched Wang pitched in front of me, OMG!

Tons of people, mostly equipped themselves well with NYY gears, regardless of gender, age, or race. I’m surprised to see people here took that as a family event. Parents, their parents and/or their kids, from very old to very young, all had fun and enjoyed themselves. You can get non-stop supplies of beers, peanuts, hotdogs, and candies without leaving your seat. They played music during the break and dance as you wish. However, you need to be “outstanding” enough to be shown on the big screen though 😛

Yankees lost their first 2 games to Tampa Bay badly before our game. But, with Wang pitched well that day, they beat Tampa 2-0. Also this will be the final season for “The Stadium”, it has hosted Yankees home games since 1923. So, Wang pitched, Yankees won, 76th last home game on The Stadium, everything just perfect for me and Jared.

On our way back, Jared insisted I should get a Wang shirt for myself. Check it out.

Wang!!!

Where is the head?

I love this shoot.

ACTION !!!

From here you know how cold that day was.

Countdown ceremony

Courtesy of Jared

A great fan of NYY, on his first Yankees home game.

He posted well, didn’t he?

Wang shirt!!!

Yo, I bought this for myself too at Penn Station. LOL.

Tags: New York Yankees
Posted in My Life, My Thoughts | 2 Comments »

New York New York – Week 6

April 5, 2008

To all my friends, I’m still in NY. Yes, extended again. I thought I will be leaving on the Saturday night of 5th Apr, but somehow things are not progress as how we want them to be.

This week was a good one. I spent most of my time in the production floor, got my hands and foot wet. I gained a lot of valuable hands-on experience from there. I always believe that the most effective way to learn is through hands-on, “Do It Yourself” approach.

Next week expected to be very tense. Hopefully, things go well here. Then, I will be able to leave on 12th Apr, the coming Saturday.

Weather forecast predicted an 80% chance of precipitation on Saturday. It was cloudy but no rain though. I stayed back in my room, listened to music, and browsed the Internet. I like the big window next to my table. I had the curtain opened and daylight filled up my room. From my window, I can see the beautiful little red flowers grow on the trees. Yeah, it is spring now. All the white gone and the color restored.

Once, I told Jared that trees in America have a busy life. They get bold in winter and grow back in spring. Unlike trees in Malaysia, they grow once and ready for retirement 😛

Tags: New York New York – Week 6
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The City Never Sleeps – Part III

March 31, 2008

With expectation of me leaving by the end of week 6, 29th & 30th Mar should be my last weekend in NY. So, I took the final chance to go down NYC again. I didn’t visit American Museum of Natural History nor catch a broadway show as I always wish to do. But I went to the place that I visited in 2005 – Ground Zero (World Trade Centre).

I had a special emotional touch that time in 2005. I was serious, tense and sorrow. I don’t know how to express my feeling, standing right there at the venue brought me back to the scene I watched from TV on Sep 11, 2001.

But this time is different, I felt much lighter and hopeful. As the re-construction works started, it marks a new page and gives people or rather myself a new hope to look forward to. We should never forget the tragedy in our history, but at the same time that shouldn’t stop us from moving forward and stay hopeful about our life.

From Ground Zero, I walked to the famous financial district – Wall Street. Then from there, I walked to see the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge.

In the end, 6 hours of walk, 200 shoots captured, I would like to show you the selected 30.

St. Paul’s Chapel

God Bless America

Trinity Root

Trinity Church

New York Stock Exchange

Federal Hall National Memorial

NYPD! I wonder any tourist will take photo with our PDRM.

FDNY in action!

The beautiful Brooklyn Bridge

Anyone knows what is this?

HOLY COW!!!

Tags: The City Never Sleeps – Part III
Posted in My Life, My Thoughts | 1 Comment »

New York New York – Week 4 & 5

March 30, 2008

Wow, 5 weeks already? I didn’t realize I have left Malaysia for that long, the longest ever in my life so far.

I’m having a good run on my work since week 4. It started with doing more engineering drawings, talking to vendors about system designs, also seeing how the drawing papers turned into actual systems.

On week 5, I spent a lot of time in the engineering/installation area for factory acceptance tests (FAT), testing equipment and verifying actual systems against drawing papers. That was just a warm-up lap. The storm will hit us by next week (week 6), when we running against the clock to get everything tested and shipped. I been told we normally have very tight turnaround window especially on those long lead items. I’m prepared and waiting for the moment, fighting mode activated 🙂

All my friends are now asking me when I will be back to Malaysia. My return date was 27th Mar originally. On the Thursday of week 4, I asked my boss after dinner whether I will go home as planned. He told me I have to finish my work before I can go, i.e. finish the FAT and pack the shipment. When they ship out the equipment, he will ship me too. So, as we are facing some delays in equipment delivery, 27th Mar is no way. On Monday of week 5, he said: your ticket is cancelled, you cannot go home already T_T

So currently I don’t know my return date yet, it depends on when we have the long lead items delivered, tested and shipped. Tentatively, I think it should be end of Week 6, I think.

On 29th Mar morning NY time, my friend Kiwi told me about Earth Hour, turn off the lights from 8.00pm – 9.00pm to lend voice to the worldwide call for action on climate change. He did his part. When I came back to my room at night, Google reminded me about that. So I did my part too. How about you?

Let’s start doing something to keep this world healthy

Tags: New York New York – Week 4 & 5
Posted in My Job, My Works, My Life, My Thoughts | Leave a Comment »

Farewell Note to the ACE

March 24, 2008

We posed on 07 Jan 2007 03:40am just before he leaves. – Photo courtesy Vino.

I first met this guy in Apr 2005 but we didn’t speak to each other. I was his customer. We started working together onsite Sep 2005 for a month then he went back. We weren’t so close that time, especially after I made him tested all the 14 HPA and generated a long punchlist for the M&C 😛 Since then, we worked in local/remote mode for months (I local and he remote) on troubleshooting/bug fix. Because we are 12 hours apart, I usually go in early and he stays back late so that we can both work together.

When we met second time in Nov 2006, I had tendered my resignation and in the middle of serving my notice period. We had a huge challenge that time to deliver a new and complex module that no one did it before. We end up extended our stay just to make sure we delivered it. We worked from 23 Dec 2006 till 07 Jan 2007 straight when everyone was clearing leaves, celebrating Christmas & New Year, and we worked 17 hours a day on the last 4 days!

Then in 2007, I got a chance to work as an independent contractor for his company, we became co-worker. But he got a new role and not doing integration anymore. However, we did work together once, one last time.

In end-Feb 2008, we finally met the third times. On Monday (17 Mar) evening, he insisted to send me back to my hotel. During the drive, he told me about his decision. We went for a drink and dinner, we talked about how we met, how we worked, all the ups & downs, all the laughs & swears 🙂

On his last day (21 Mar), he gave me a lift one last time. He was there in Malaysia when I about to leave my previous company and now I was the last person he met on his last day. What’s a coincidence?

Yesterday (22 Mar), we finally went for our long overdue Sushi dinner. That was something I promised him back in Dec 2006 in exchange of him accepting my change request. I’m so glad that we able to get this done, so he can now remove my face from his dart board :->

——————————————————————————————————–

Dear ACE:

As your customer (previously), I would like to thank you for all your commitment and hard work in delivering a good system to me.

As your co-worker (previously), I appreciate all the help and support you given to me all these while.

As your friend, it has been a pleasure knowing you and working with you the last few years. I have no doubt that you will be as successful as you wish to be. If there is anything that I can help you with, I’m just one call away. If you get rich, I’ll call you 🙂

Till we meet again, take care and I wish you all the very best.

Your friend,
Anter Tey

——————————————————————————————————–

He posed on 07 Jan 2007 01:05am, with the surprise from us– a Royal Selangor’s pewter beer mug. Cheers! – Photo courtesy Vino.

Tags: Farewell Note to the ACE
Posted in My Job, My Works, My Life, My Thoughts | 1 Comment »

The City Never Sleeps – Part II

March 18, 2008

I decided to skip New York New York – Week 3, there isn’t anything special to talk about, what a boring week.

Well, I went down to the city again on Saturday, 15 Mar. Initially I plan to visit the American Museum of Natural History , which my boss highly recommended and suggested me to visit during my stay here. But, things just not as how I wish to be. I’ve been pointed back and forth between 2 train stations (each runs different lines), which are 2 streets apart. After running back and forth 2 times, I decided to call off the plan. I end up walked across the street, entered the World’s Largest Store – Macy’s. Of course, there goes my hard earned Greenback, what a pricy decision.

After Macy’s, I walked down from 34th St. 7 Ave to Time Square, 46th St. Broadway. Times Square has been dubbed as the “Crossroads of the World.” You will find tons of colorful billboards, big TV screens and huge crowds everywhere in this area. From there, I crossed to 5 Ave and walked along the 5 Ave. Come on, how can you miss 5 Ave when you are in Manhattan. This is where all the most well-known brands have their flagship stores located. Well, I did my window shopping only. I didn’t even walk in to any of these, people should never made the same mistake twice, especially on the same day 🙂

Here, I also visited The Cathedral of Saint Patrick, which is 150 years old. This is my first visit to a church, not to mention such a historical one. I’m blessed.

At the end of that day, I was totally worn out. Say no more, here are the selected 30.

NYC’s famous NAKED COWBOY!

Just see how happy the lady was.

Moon walk?

Love at first sight?

Some shooting going on.

The Cathedral of Saint Patrick

Rockefeller Center Atlas Statue

You can see flags everywhere.

Tags: The City Never Sleeps – Part II
Posted in My Life, My Thoughts | 3 Comments »

The City Never Sleeps – Part I

March 12, 2008

On Sunday 09 Mar, I went to the city the first time since I am here. As the shuttle man didn’t turn up on work, the front desk got me a taxi. I’m so shock to see the taxi driver was actually a very very old lady. Set aside her age, she drove like any other taxi driver. Hmm, I salute you madam.

I took the train from Central Islip at 08.47am and arrived at Penn Station (where Madison Square Garden is) at 09.59am. The fare for round trip off peak is USD19.50.

I paid USD50 to get onto one of those Hop-On, Hop-Off Double Decker City Sights NY tours. There started my journey in NYC. The tour basically split into 2 routes: Downtown and Uptown. I didn’t get down at the stops but just follow through the routes. All I need is to know what is where, so I can do it myself next time. Therefore, 99% of the photos you going to see below are shoot from the Double Decker. Say no more, here are the selected 30.