Worms & kids

On a bit of a low now. Wifey has left for home for 3 days so I'm stuck home alone. Not to mention my xbox is still dead with E74 message. And it can't be fixed on Microsoft warranty because Malaysia has no Xbox service center. For some reason I just can't get into gaming on the Wii. No matter how good the game, it just don't seem to hook me. And now to make things worse. On the evening Wifey flew off I thought I'd cheer myself up by watching the new Batman film on my nice big Samaung series 3 HDTV via my reasonably new laptop. But as fate has it the film file had some sort of worm embedded in it. Which is now in my laptop.

I have no clue how to ID it so as to find a cure. Characteristics basically are when you boot up for around 2hrs everything is normal. Then its as thou somebody is holding down the keyboard's "P" key permanently. So if you are in a folder you keep cycling to any icon starting with P. Or if you are trying to write a document, the moment you set the cursor to type on the page all you get is a page full of P's and you haven't even touched the keyboard yet! which means you can't enter anything that requires a password cos you can't type anything cos the moment you try to the password box is filled with P's. Now if you reboot your comp locks up as the windows startup screen comes into view, plus lots of loud beeping. Now if you shut down and reboot and arrive on the windows login to windows page you can't cos the worm just keeps inputting P for you. So you have to shut down for around 30mins or so for it to reset to becoming dormant again.Also I realise the intuition of not having pets is a truth for me.

Just spent 2 days alone with Ayumi and already feeling it's far too much of a drain on my time, effort. She's all fuzzy and cute and at times funny. But as with puppies, they crave attention plus being at home all day with the exception of the odd walk, she gets bored so quick. With that in mind I can only imagine the horror of having kids. At least a dog only lasts 12 years tops. Even then you could re home if its becoming that much trouble for you. But with kids...Man... You've gotta pay they way for close on 20 years and even then you don't hear the end of it. Not to mention the cost of em, or the pooping, n puking, n screaming, etc, etc. Dunno how true it is but someone once told me keeping a kid till it's 18 will cost you around US$250,000. Why... why do people have em? What exactly is the incentive to reproduce?

The Godfather

Yet another chilled out night at the main maintenance base. Been working nights here for the past 4 days. Nice bit of OT. Usually just 1 or 2 tasks n then it was off home early. Excellent. Next week or 2 is gonna be a little hectic on the home front.

Firstly feeling rather disgruntled with the quality of housing we have been handed, we started to ask around. And true enough we have been taken for a ride price wise. Probably charged for 2x of what would be reasonable. So we are looking to move. But that is just 1 of several reasons. Another reason is that it may take at least 3 mths to get an Internet line. But it could take as long as 3 years as some guys from work have testified to.

Yet another reason is the bro of the person who set us up with housing. He has this habit of taking his sweet time to sort things out. Things like installing the air-con or fans. Or arranging for things like furniture or TV, etc. But when he finally gets round to sorting it out he expects you to be available when he pops round. Literally demanding you drop what you are doing so he can come round. All that aside thou is the more worrying side of her bro is this. The fact he likes to turn up on an unannounced social call and expecting you to fling open your doors and usher him in. Of cause normally I'd just tell someone like him to politely piss off but sadly he is well known in the area in having links to both the cops as well as the local mobsters. Last thing I need after work is a visit from Tony Soparano or a bunch of cops with planted narcotic evidence.

So we are on the house hunt. On the quiet thou. Lest Bro turn up on my door step in a foul mood. Also Wifey needs to fly home before her tourist VISA runs out. So most things will be on stand still till she gets back. When she is back thou her sis will be in tow for a short holiday. So even then she won't be at full admin capacity.

Man ain't looking forward to yet another stint without her around. Think this year is the year we spent with the most time apart. Must be close to 3 mths when you lump it together. Plus I gotta look after our dog and study for my exams. Gonna be seriously shattered if work springs OT on me. Great for the bank account, not so great for my energy levels.

Crack that whip

Thoroughly cheezed off last night while on shift. Plan was this. Finish up the work on the A330 we had in the hanger. Send it for ground runs at 23:00. Straighten out last minute snags and kick it out to the terminal, shiny and new at 02:00. As with all plans it never went according. But the thing that pissed me off was that in anyplace other than here it probably would have worked.

There was just so much dragging it out, mincing about and dicking around going on, nothing got done. The 1 that took the biscuit was 3 guys who were told at 20:00 to put in a new seal, secured by 30 screws. By 03:00 they were still at it. Sadly I was not in charge of them. I would like to say it would be different if that were the case. Blame primarily lies with those 3 guys but not all 100% of it as the task master needs to bear some of it too.

I only started showing interest when the clock hit 03:00 as the aircraft looked in a state ready for ground runs but we couldn't as 3 lazy bitches were hanging out of a man lifter fitting the last 15 screws. So I asked their task master what was the deal and proceeded to stand with him watching them. I watched them botch and fumble about breaking sweat with every movement, dropping screws all over. But what lit my fuse was when I watched them finish screwing in the last 15 screws only to move back to the start and start removing those screws and replacing them again. By now I had to say something. Despite the task master saying it would be useless as they did not regard us engineer white boys as their in charge. Thus would not even pay us any heed. But hey screw it, if anything if would make me feel SO much better by yelling at them.

So I kicked off shouting at yelling and yeah they did blank me but raising my voice and yelling at specific guys even thou I didn't know their names seemed to work. When asked what the hell they were doing, their reply was that they were replacing any old screws with the shiny new ones they had in their hands. That really set me off and I had to launch into them. Summing it up I told them to just make sure a screw was in every hole and was tight. Then to get down and get out of my sight. Was pretty obvious that they were not used to such persistant yelling at by a white boy.

Thank God that they did piss off out the way in under 2 mins. Must add thou that those 3 are the cream of the lazy mofo crop. But it still bugs me a bit that the guy in charge of them didn't make any effort to get them in line even when the mincing got out of hand.

Bodies everywhere

Walked into stores one day to ask why a certain item had not been delivered to me after a whole day of waiting. The guy at the desk politely enough punched in the part numbers and zipped thru a load of windows on his PC to find my missing bits. Then his phone goes. Picking it up, he yammers away in the local lingo then has a casual word with his colleague at the table opposite. His colleague turns around to the waist high cupboard behind his desk, opens it up, reaches in and rifles around a bit before turning around. Now I expected a folder or file, maybe a stapler... but no... he pulls out a guy! A full sized 5'6 bloke outta the cupboard. All bleary eyed, complete with bed head and newspaper print on his cheek. Stumbling to the phone the guy carry's on the conversation. And no one in the office bats an eyelid!

Again a few days ago I go into another office dept and being around 8 in the morning it is devoid of people. Now I just think it was empty because of the casual attitude that people here take to turning up to work. But upon closer inspection I noticed guys camouflaged in with the clutter under the desks. I mean proper sniper style camouflaged up. Some had packing foam over them others had on blankets that matched the floor tiling, some even disguised as newspaper stacks...

Hell later that afternoon I got into crew room and it was pitch black. You could not see a thing in the jet blackness. Flick on the lights and it was like a scene out of a bloodless slasher movie. Every available space was littered with bodies. Floor, chairs, tables, etc... All now looking rather annoyed that some berk had turned on the lights.

But those were just lowly minions. Hence the need for camouflage and hiding. In the offices with the higher ups I see guys collapsed at their tables, or heads hanging back in their chairs, mouths wider open, ejecting those Z's loud and clear for all to hear.

More sleeping gets done at work than work itself. Hell I think they sleep more at work than at home. Must be something in the air. Maybe someone is piping sleeping gas into the ventilation system. Lord knows. But it sure explains why the simplest task here like pumping up a tyre can take 5 men the best part of 6 hours to accomplish.

Fresh meat

So starts a new adventure. New country, new job, new suprises. Work ethic here is going to need getting used to. Where as back in the land of sand none of the locals did any work and were never actually expected to work. Out here you are made to work them but none of them do. And those that do, do it pretty poorly. An example is a 10 hour shift to put in 4 bolts and connect 2 pipes... Of cause there are those that are exceptions to the rule. But they are pretty rare.

At home its a bit of a mess. House is very bare. Hardly any furniature cos its not been delivered yet. Also no TV channels or phone line or internet connection. Hence the lack of blog updates. Hopefully that will be all settled in the next week or 2. Also my XBOX 360 is DEAD!!!!!!!!!!! ARRRRGGHHHHH! What am I gonna do??? E74 message. Could be a dead AV cable or as I suspect, a dead GFX card. Trying to get it fixed under warrenty by Microsoft out in Singapore but could be a problem as I don't have a reciept or know the shop I bought it from. As I got mine during a Tech expo. Gotta settle with Wifey's Wii for now. Got "No more heroes" pretty good Wii game, so thats keepin me busy for now. But then again I shouldn't be playing I got an air law exam on the 25th :( Oh yeah Wifey's got a dog out here now. But I'll leave blogging it to her.

All in all things are ok and as expected thou the local work ethic was a bit of a shock, LOL.