My Rants

OK, remember I said I wanted to get the Cavision Rail Support for my DVX? Well it arrived yesterday morning and the shipping company had to charge me an Import Duty. They calculated it at 20% (CRAP!) so I ended up paying 1/5 of the product cost, which is substantial. Given that my previous shipment for my Letus was only charged at 5%, I decided to call the company. Turns outs, if your product is listed as a CINEMATOGRAPHY item on the shipping document, it costs 20%. If it is listed as CAMERA (as in digital stills) it is 5%-10%. So folks (and myself included), if you want to order something from overseas, tell whoever is sending you the stuff to list the items as items taxed at a lower bracket! 20% is a stupidly extortionist amount to pay.

Anyone who has worked long enough, or have done some management/business courses will know what a 'carrot and stick' approach to management is. As you most probably know, carrots and sticks help managers get people moving in the right direction in terms of achieving company goals. If you do well, you get a carrot (or tens of thousands of them depending on how lucky you are) or if you are an abject failure or performer, I suppose you perhaps do deserve a stick. However I have recently discovered a variation of this approach being utilised at work. This new approach, which I shall now affectionately call the 'carrot AS a stick' approach sees an organisation, in the guise of appraising its staff to reward and recognise them, actually use the performance appraisal to allocate rewards that instead of feeling like you've been fed a nice big carrot, you feel like you've been hit by a rock solid ten foot piece of carrot right in your gobsmackers between your legs (for the men that is).

To add insult to injury, they then try to justify it and clandestinely proceed to shove it up your.. *beep*.... I suppose if you're into that sort of thing, I am guessing having a carrot up your arse may not be too bad.. but I'm not keen on that sorta thing, so that carrot is giving me a mighty sore *beep*.. Maybe I'll submit my case study (plus picture of the aforementioned carrot up my butt) into the Journal of Carrot and Stick Management and maybe, JUST maybe, I could be referenced as the guy who coined the term CARROT AS A STICK approach to management.

Hello everyone,
I'm in KaoHsiung Taiwan! Second largest city in Taiwan, No. 1 being Taipei up north. City of scooters and pollution. It is a shipping port and has an interesting history. People from KaoHsiung are a little more homelier than the Taipeinese (without being too rude, KaoHsiungers are also probably a little more Kampung compared to their northern brothers and sisters - my wife always gives me the evil eye when I say this though - but they are also nicer cos you know what they say about city folks). This trip has become an annual migration for us and its one of those times of the year where we look forward to getting away for Brunei for a little while, letting our hair down and relaxing in the hot springs, spas, and enjoy all the sumptuous food in the night markets of Taiwan. I will most definitely be keeping my postings going, updating for those of my visitors who are interested in knowing Taiwan a little better (no, I don't think Taiwan should be part of China.. heh, I don't marry into a Taiwanese family without getting slightly influenced!). I will also post some pictures up when I can. My sister in law will be getting her hands on a new Nikon SLR tomorrow, so I will take that and stick my 50mm 1.4 on and give it a spin. Should be fun. So far the trip has been marred by one little incident. The fucking (and I curse at them cos its just not on) idiots at Kota Kinabalu Airport broke into our luggage, AGAIN. It happened to my Mother in Law - they cut her luggage's zipper, and last year it happened to us - my wife lost some gold jewelry, however until today we thought perhaps we misplaced it, but now we are pretty sure they fucking broke in and stole in. How do I know...? well I put padlocks on my luggage, one was missing, the other luggage I have two on, and they destroyed one of them and left it hanging there as evidence - some pics to show what they did on the way. So when I am on my way back, that little evidence will go straight into the police report I am putting through at KK airport. Fuckers... By the way if any of you readers have had this happen to you, let me know, we can all write in a petition to the Malaysian High Comm and let them have a piece of our mind. (p.s. you are probably thinking maybe its the Taiwanese side, but I doubt it. My parents in law fly in and out of Taiwan and KaoHsiung airport frequently and this NEVER happened to them but did so only on the KK route. And it is NOT BRUNEI, cos Bruneians are not as low as our neighbours and Brunei outbound passengers NEVR complain about these sort of thing). Hell will freeze over before I put my camcorder and ALL my equipment into the check in luggage now..

In any case, enough cussing! Here's the plan for me and my filming in Taiwan:

1) Shoot some scenes to show the daily lives of Taiwanese going about earning a living over here. Taiwanese have business in their blood and they work hard. Something I truly admire. While our Bruneian traffic jam going home from work starts around 5-530, their rush hour going home is around 7-8pm. So you get an idea of their working hours.

2) Shoot a mini doco tentatively called AN AUSSIE IN TAIWAN. My sister in law's friends will be coming to Taiwan and this will be their first ever trip. I will film them, amongst other things : a) trying out smelly tofus, b) trying out squat toilets, c) interacting with the local people, d) reactions of the local people to 'white people' trying to speak chinese to them! and e) anything that pops up.

3) Riding on a scooter in Taiwan Traffic: This is a VERY tricky one. I hope to be able to zoom around the streets of KaoHsiung with my DVX on me and record how fast we go around the streets, while only inches away from big buses and insane drivers. I say this is tricky because a) to be careful of the traffic and be in one piece, 2) making sure no one notices my expensive camcorder and comes riding towards us to snatch it - yes it can happen and it is potentially scary. So most likely no night rides, but in the middle of the day around areas we are more familiar with.

4) Shooting the Pinang girls - if you want to know more, just stay tuned.. they are skimpily dressed and are always interested to look at... :)

Well that's about it I guess, very unlikely I will do any edits while I am here so there won't be any video postings, but pictures will come along when I can get around to upload it on the computer.

Chai Chien (see you again in Mandarin).

p.s. something wrong with blogger, I can't seem to put paragraphs into my postings. Not easy on the eyes so apologies.

Top Management of any company usually have a script that they stick to in situations where their judgment and decision making is required. This is necessary for them as they have very little brain capacity left after having to think all day about how they can squeeze every last drop of work and effort from their underpaid and undervalued employee. Top Management also usually have a motto, and most times these motto turns out to be hypocritical rants. For example, most top management of organisations say they value feedback from their staff, that they should be vocal and challenge them so that they can become a better organisation. They also say nice things like we don't shoot the messenger. So in any case, I write to the top about something I thought they should REALLY know as it was a critical issue. I write in my email, I am only feeding back to them what others have said to me and my colleagues and EXPLICITLY wrote in my email, I am just the messenger, DO NOT SHOOT ME. 5 days after my email, I received a reprimand about me being unprofessional, that I should not send my email to top management, all the while accusing me of making them look bad... I just shook my head and laughed out a cynical laugh at the same time. You see, its funny because it happens in every organisation, and it's sort of become a big joke for employees. These mottos are all finely captured in Scott Adam's Dilbert books, and here in all its glory, are some of the things that Top Management spew out as if they're truths, but are actually lies:

Dilbert's Management Lies

1. "Employees are our most valuable asset."

2. "I have an open door policy."

3. "You could earn more money under the new plan."

4. "We're reorganizing to better serve our customers."

5. "The future is bright."

6. "We reward risk takers."

7. "Performance will be rewarded."

8. "We don't shoot the messenger."9

. "Training is a high priority."

10. "I haven't heard any rumors."

11. "We'll review your performance in six months."

12. "Our people are the best."

13. "Your input is important to us."

Thanks Dilbert, you're obviously much smarter than our Top Management

I finally captured the video I shot for my daughter's birthday party last week. I am now in the process of editing it and it is almost done. I should be able to post it on YouTube sometime this week. I like this clip I am working on as I think it is nicely sentimental and the missus agrees. Stay tuned and I hope you like the clip!

As some of you might know, I am currently in talks with Pusat Ehsan to shoot something for them to raise awareness of the centre and their activities. I have received another email from my friend saying that the centre is also interested to come up with an information booklet but she is hoping that maybe a photographer would be interested to help them out a little (voluntarily). If you are interested, please let me know or leave your contact details in the comments section and my friend will come along and get your details to contact you. Please do lend a helping hand, it's for a good cause. As for me, we will have our first discussion on what I can do for the centre this coming weekend so we'll see how it pans out. I am obviously excited at the prospects but also a little nervous as to how this will pan out. Hopefully we can work something good out that'll benefit the centre.

Yesterday was our daughter's 2nd birthday celebration. Everything was in place, bouncer all set up, barbecue lit, I'm off to Mum's Bakery to pick up the birthday cake, only to get a call on the way, my mom's dog Patty has eaten something and is now seizing uncontrollably and foaming at the mouth. By the time I got to my mom's place, Patty was gone.

As you all probably already know, dog owners of Brunei are CONSTANTLY living in the fear that our beloved dogs are poisoned by either our neighbours or the authorities who hunt for stray dogs by leaving poisoned bait. Patty is a normal dog, who did nothing but look after my parents' house. She does not bite in anyway, greet us everytime we come to my parents', and will only bark at strangers. She is gentle beyond any expectations of us about a dog, lying down when kids play with her, and getting on fine with everyone.

Now imagine Patty being the friendliest dog and then imagine what my wife, and my nieces and nephew who were at my mom's had to endure:

1) Patty lying down seizing uncontrollably, knocking her leg against a wooden beam so hard you could hear it from far away.

2) Patty unable to move or stand up and in obvious pain, with us helpless to do anything.

3) Patty starting to foam in her mouth and seeing the fear in her eyes and how she must be suffering.

4) Patty dying an undignified death because someone undescribably evil decided to kill dogs for fun, revenge or a sense of duty.

5) Patty being buried in our back yard by my mom who is 60 years old, who has fed Patty and taken care of her since she was a puppy.

It burns me deeply that elements within the Bruneian society (including civil and educated people) see it acceptable to poison dogs. A society's civility is judged not just by the way its citizens are treated but also its animal (its helpess citizens). Aren't we taught in school that ALL animals are creatures of God, and despite the fact that they maybe be dirty, they should be treated like one of God's creatures, with respect? I was not at home when it happened, but if I had been, I might have had to unwillingy and painfully take my camcorder out to film Patty's death, not out of some morbid fascination with a dog dying an undignified death, but to show all of us how PAINFUL it is to watch an animal die needlessly and to see how Patty suffered an immeasureably painful death. It would show to the global animal loving community how fundamentally wrong it is some of the values that are instilled in of our society. In some way I am glad I wasn't there because it would've pained me greatly to have filmed it and disrespecting the last moments of Patty.

As I write this, there is an undescribable level of anger towards those who have done this and those who will continue to do these evil acts. We may never catch these people and never bring justice in this world, but to these people who see fit to poison dogs, or cats or any pet that is part of a human family, I tell you this:

You may do what you do, and you may do it with pride. You may do it and get away with it and not have to answer to me, or anyone who have lost their pet to poisoning or being run over by your car. You may not have to answer to the dogs or cats you have killed intentionally, and you may not have to answer to the authorities. But some day, I promise you, whatever religion you are, YOU will have to answer to God. And when He turns to you and ask you:

'Why did you kill one of My creatures in the most undignified way?'

I hope you better have a good answer for Him. And I'm pretty sure, whatever your answer to Him is, He will send you where you deserve to spend an eternity.

Best of luck to all the 2006 Brunei Marathon runners.
Remember to train hard.. erm..maybe it's abit too late already
Anyway, remember to drink plenty and have a good race...

If you are like me and you are lucky (or perhaps unlucky) to be able to work in a big organisation, you would undoubtedly have to contend with the issue of office politics. Office politics usually put people in a quagmire. Should we engage in it? Should we get our hands dirty? I have been through various episodes in my work life where people throw office politics at me to either a) make me look bad so they look better, b) retribution for my lack of capitulation to their tune, or c) my overly argumentative nature which makes them uncomfortable. Invariably my response to these situation is this: I bite their head off... You see, I've come to realise that office politics is nothing more than bullying that we see day in and day out happening in schools. The strong pick on the weak and defenseless so that they can get their way. I come from a big family - 7 boys and 1 girl, and being the youngest, I was sometimes bullied in one way or another when I was growing up, sometimes by my brothers (only sometimes) but usually by my school mates. Again without fail, I always fight back despite my smallish stature when I was young. Headlocks were not uncommon between me and my bullies and when they have felt my fist rubbing on their forehead, they also usually stop bullying me.

The same can be said of office politickers. They are nothing more than grown up school bullies picking on those who either do not know how to defend themselves, or think that by defending themselves, they have dirtied their hands by playing politics. Sometimes however, in the face of being bullied, office politics is a necessary evil. 'Never wrestle with a pig if you're afraid to get dirty' is a favourite phrase of mine because when push comes to shove and someone tries to bully me in the office with their own brand of politics, I can become a real dirty pig, pissing and sh*tting mud down their throat. Ask my ex Head of Department. She's felt my kind of mud in her face before and I can tell you, she did not enjoy it one bit. I'm not saying that we should seek to engage in office politics. God knows I try to avoid it because it is a waste of time and achieves nothing. It is emotionally draining at best, and emotionally destructive at worst. But as Steven Seagal says, don't go looking for trouble, but trouble finds you, you bite its head off. Not defending yourself in the face of an onslaught of toxic politicking amounts to nothing more than you committing career harakiri.

I'm sure there are alot of people out there who disagree with me on this. After all, an eye for an eye is the real reason why we have unreconcileable wars. But for me, bullying is something that doesn't sit well with me, and I hate people who pick on other people because they can... and when it happens in the office and people's careers and livelihood are at stake, that's just asking for trouble... I guess that's why they say dragon birth signs have a fiery nature.. tickle my tail the wrong way and you'll hear me roar and then roast you!

I hear the different banks in Brunei are rife with office politics. Any bankers out there want to share their stories?

1) While driving home from work, I came across a REAL freaking idiot of a motorcyclist probably wishing a death wish. I am driving my SUV on the fast lane at around 110Km/hr just in front of Empire Hotel and suddenly I see this IDIOTAS zoom pass me.... between my SUV and the metal barriers on the right hand side.. Sometimes I really wonder what goes through the brains of these idiots when they drive so recklessly the way they do? Is he not able to use that complex human brain (as complex as an Idiot's brain can get, I guess) of his what might have happened to him if we had accidentally clip each other? He would probably do an impression of Superman before being mangled up on the tarmac.. I just don't understand why they do the things they do... I certainly do not want to have to deal with that in my conscience....

2) Yet another traffic related event: kids sticking their heads out of their parents' car and the dad doesn't even bother to get them to sit down and buckle up.... I don't know what to say and do about these people, so I don't bother.. As a young boy I distinctly remember a little girl of around 10 falling out of her vehicle when her dad turned her car at a traffic light cos I think somehow her door opened accidentally.. It was not a pretty sight.... but she was ok.. just in shock..

3) On a lighter note, over the week I've seen a rather nice white MX5 with full bodykit parked outside my office. Me being an avid MX5 fan have been admiring it and thinking to myself how wonderful it would be to own one, especially that one cos it looked good. Add two blue stripes running through the middle and you'd have a pretty cool roadster.. Yesterday while admiring it, I noticed though it had something stuck on the front bumper grill.... and what are the odds.. I see, yes, a dead bird... like the one I mentioned in my previous post.. stuck on this little roadster's bumper grill.. nice..

4) Today, we brought our daughter to her FIRST ever Movie at the cinema. My daughter has this fascination with Penguins and when she saw the big Happy Feet poster, you could see her face light up! I think she enjoyed the experience and I hope somehow she remembers it when she is all grown up. The first time to the movie was a magical moment for me and I still vividly remember my first ever trip to the cinema (Bolkiah) to watch a chinese film .. long long time ago..

5) The person who contacted me about Pusat Ehsan has turned out to be someone I know. She didn't know who I was until I told her and she was very surprised. I am waiting for Pusat Ehsan to call me for a meeting. Very eager to get going on this so I hope they contact me soon. Fingers crossed this pans out...

6) Dec 10th will be the Brunei Marathon. I will be out there this year, not running the marathon, but taking some footage of the event with my DVX+Letus35. I am sure there will be some inspiring moments and I hope to capture them as they unfold... oh wait..... just as I was writing this, I just remembered.. December 10th is my daughter's birthday... have plans for it already.. Bouncers and all....oh well we'll see how I can fit in the Marathon cos I'd much rather take videos of my daughter's birthday party....

7) My MacBook Pro did not go to sleep again when I closed the lid! This time I had already put it in the sleeve but left it in a cabinet in my office. Half an hour later I opened up my cabinet to hear the fan whirring away and the whole thing getting hot.... ! Something's up with the latest security update patch!..

8) I've realised after seeing a friend and colleague of mine working on Photoshop that I might be not so good at Titleing (or is that Titling? yeah it is titling). When I saw him work with Photoshop, and how he transformed a blank canvas into a work of art, I was amazed.. He's a true artist as he REALLY has the vision to create works of art.. He has kindly agreed to work on a new logo/avatar for me as well as working on titling for me for future projects (note: Photoshop PSD files can be transferred into Final Cut's timeline and rendered into the timeline as a clip. I have tried this before where I animated each individual layer of the PSD file individually). Not difficult but a fair bit of work and time consuming while waiting for it to render).

9) We caught a small monitor lizard in my colleague's office.. yes in his office. He was about to reach for a bag and there it was. We managed to get it out by trapping it in a bin, and when we released it, it tried to attack us .. it eventually walked off into the bushes...

10) It's almost the end of the year, and a few more training sessions to go and I will be pretty free apart form the odd projects to work on. Once I have more free time, it's back to Hobby Time and I hope to do something before jetting off to Taiwan for a well deserved holiday and opportunity to shoot a doco...

That's about it for now.. I've just brain dumped the whole week into this post. Tomorrow is a full day of errands but hopefully not a stressful day....

Until the next post...

Oh and if you have the time please visit this site and show our support for it.

p.s. I had a hlel of a tmie wtih bolsgopt's slpel cechk for tihs psot!! A firend of mnie snet me tihs tdoay and I tohuhgt I wulod try to witre a psot by jmbliung up my ltteers. it was thgouer tahn I tohuhgt. It was esay to raed but to tpye it was emetrlxey dffiulict!

...... when we are alone and there is nobody to tell us what fine fellows we are, we come sometimes upon a moment in which we wonder, not how much money we are earning, nor how famous we have become, but what good we are doing."

A.A. Milne

YouTube has just approved my Director status....

What does it really mean?

Absolutely no idea....

But I like the idea of being called ...

..DI-REC-TOOR...

I only read about this from AnakBrunei's and Ranoadidas' blogs this morning and it looks like Richard, the guy who was charged with murdering a couple and their little girl has been acquitted. Now Richard is someone who is within our family's circle of friends, and while I do not know him personally, my parents and my uncles do and work with him as well. He's lost 2 years of his life in jail for what the court has decided a crime he did not commit. While we may never know if he did do it as it seemed like the acquittal was based more on the technicality and shortcomings of the investigation process rather than outright evidence to show that he was indeed innocent, only the Man upstairs will know for sure. Whatever it is, I for one, and I am sure my parents and uncles wish him and his family well and that they can now move on from this episode.

So is the case closed then? I don't think so. There are more questions now than answers and some of them to say the least I think is highly politically sensitive. During the course of the case, it was evident from expert testimonials and many a part time CSI-Miami-New York die-hard fans that someone did not do a decent job of investigating the case. The three victims of this heinous and terrible crime have been let down by individual incompetence that has led to either of these 3 scenarios:

1) The acquittal of a guilty man,
2) A 2 year punishment dished out to an innocent party who just happen to be someone they thought would be easy to pin this crime on,
3) The wasted 2 years of investigation that I am sure the REAL guilty devils would be joyfully laughing and smiling everytime he/she/they see the case takes a twist to nail Richard while he/she/they are sitting comfortably and free in their homes.

In either case, let us not forget the victims. While I certainly hope they are now in a better place and whatever has since transpired, I feel that the families of the victims have been let down by at the very least a degree of incompetence that have failed to bring justice for them and the gallows for the true murderer(s).