shuffling on by…

@!#$%*&!!!

Despite my efforts to stay In The Money till the end of the week, and with 10K+ on Tuesday, I am now down to 382 chips. (I’m talking Facebook’s Texas Holdem Poker Weekly Tournament.)

I was at a very conservative table. Raises were very low. I was hovering around 4000 chips. Last hand, I said. Had to pick up kids from tuition. I was dealt AA. I smiled. First 3 cards 3,9,A.

A triple! I kept cool. Diidnt want to scare people off this conservative table, where even a 60 chips raise make people fold. I raised 40. 2 folded, 1 called and 1 doubled. We followed. 3 players left.

Next card; 9. A FULL HOUSE in my hands!!! I raised 100. Guy #1 followed, Guy #2 doubled. I doubled and everyone followed.

Last card; 9. All hell broke loose. Raises went up the roof. In the end, the 2 guys were all in and I was left with 382 chips.

You know how in old western movies one cowboy was so confident he had won and he was about to swipe all the chips from the pot when another cowboy would say; “Hold on a minute there, pardner.”? I was that guy.

Guy #2 had 3,9 in hand. Four a kind 9.

I think my forehead still has imprints of my keyboard.

The other day I almost cracked this guy’s ass (get your head out of the gutter). He was reversing out of a parking spot and I didn’t realise that he was reversing. Why didn’t I realise he was reversing? Because this very clever moron had modified his rear light clusters. He had somehow figured out that carmakers worldwide have got it wrong when they make reverse lights in white. So he changed his car’s reverse lights to red. So now, when he is reversing, those very fortunate to be behind him and witness the product of his brilliance would think that he had pressed on his brakes instead.

Somebody give this moron a Nobel.

I have heard a lot of shoddy workmanship horror stories but this one takes the cake. A wall electrical socket had broken (literally) down, and I bought a new one to replace it. This socket was in the kitchen, the extended part of the kitchen. There I was with my Bosch cordless drill (hey, I hurt my wrist in our May 1st takraw tourney so I can’t be expected to unscrew the screws manually, right? Yeah, the hurt wrist is my left wrist but with all the extra work the right wrist is doing to cover up for the left, I can’t afford to hurt it too, right?), a test pen, the replacement socket. Out came the 2 screws and… WTF?? I can’t believe my eyes… The renovation contractor’s wireman (see that I refrained from calling him an electrician because a valid electrician would not have done what he had done) had so farked up the most basic electrical wiring connection that they even teach primary school kids in Kemahiran Hidup these days.

The dumbass wireman had somehow turned the wire meant for Earth (green) to Live and the wire meant for Live (blue) to Earth, which was not even connected to the socket. It was curled up nicely in the wall socket. Now, if the wall socket was meant specifically for some electrical appliances like radio, tv, hifi, etc. it’s alright to do so (not connecting the Earth wire). They come with 2-pin plugs anyway.

But this socket was in the kitchen. Where we daily use a lot of heavy stuff appliances like kettles, washing machines, microwave and convection ovens, toasters, etc. These appliances need to be grounded for obvious reasons. And it seems we have been using our washing machine without being properly grounded for the past 5+ years. I shudder to think if any other sockets were similarly connected. Heck… I wonder if the Earth wire, now the blue wire, was even properly grounded in the first place. That’s why, immediately after discovering this farkup, I called up a real electrician and set up an appointment to have him check all the sockets.

I have half the mind to give the renovation contractor a call and give him hell, but last I heard he has gone missing, running away from Ahlongs. Can’t say I’m sorry for him.

Addendum:
So my electrician (Mano) came, and confirmed that the blue wire, that’s now the Earth wire, was not connected to the Earth loop. Hence, if I had connected it to the Earth connection of the new socket, it would have been pointless. Mano traced it back to the other end, connected that to the Earth loop and solved the problem.

Rakyat this… rakyat that… hey, I’m a rakyat too. And I never said you could go ahead and form a pakatan on my behalf. And if I don’t agree with what you’re saying the rakyat is saying, does that make me any less a rakyat?

And Hakim Rakyat? I am a rakyat and I say he is guilty as hell. So there!

SMS chat with a friend:

Me: “AirAsia starts charging for checked in luggage. What next? Charge for onboard toilet use?”

dSaint: “I can imagine the stewardess sitting outside the can collecting money as passengers go in. Lol.”

Me: “And sells tissue.”

dSaint: “Worse, toilet roll.”

Me: “And the tap inside is coin-operated.”

dSaint: “And required to clean up after or face a fine.”

Me: “No. Coin operated flush. The doer won’t pay but the next person surely would. Lol.”

Jokes aside… really! At the moment, you pay for onboard food and drinks (acceptable), excess baggage (very acceptable) and to get special privillege of lining up in the express queue, previously reserved for free for the elderly, kids and pregnant ladies (Unacceptable.)

You start to wonder what AirA$ia would be charging next.

1300-88-9515 is the support line for TMnet Streamyx. I have come across numerous horror stories of customers’ bad encounters with this support line, and I have had a few myself but my latest encounter took the cake. I wanted to checkout Hotspot, Streamyx’s WiFi service. Searched online and came to this page, which is a table of their packages and charges. Since I am already on Streamyx Home Basic, I fall under the first category, but I was not clear what they meant by New and Standard. I searched for a number to call so that I can talk to a support person, and what do you know… it’s 1300-88-9515. Dread and gloom befell me. But I dialed nonetheless. Sadomasochistic, that’s me. The following is roughly my conversation with the lovely people at 1300-88-9515.

Woman: “Hello, may I help you sir?”

Me: “Yes, I’d like to find out more about Hotspot and I’ve looked at your website, but I can’t understand the charges table. What is New and what is Standard?

Woman: “Just a moment, sir”

And I find myself being bombarded by a recorded infomercials of TMnet’s products. After about 3-4 minutes…

Woman: “Thank you for holding, sir. Okay, from our records, you are already on Home Basic, so the charges are RM15 for New and RM18 for Standard.”

Me: “I know that. I can read. But what do you mean by New and Standard?”

Woman: “Uhhh… could you hold the line please..?”

Again… infomercials. Again, 3-4 minutes.

Woman: “Thank you for holding, sir. Okay, New is for 1 time when you sign up, and then it’s RM18 per month.”

Me: “You mean… I am going to be charged RM18 a month even if I don’t use the connection?”

Woman: “Uhhh… uhh.. could you..”

Me: “No.. no… no, don’t put me on hold again. What is this? Every time I asked you a question, you put me on hold. Don’t you even know about the products before sitting down at the help desk?”

Woman: “Uhh… I am sorry sir, but I am new and I have to confirm before I tell you..”

Me: “Then you get me someone who does know. No, forget that. Get me your supervisor.”

Infomercials time. Checked my watch. 4 minutes before someone got back to me. A man. All in all, it has been 16 minutes.

Man: “Hello, Mr. Rkaru. May I help you?”

Me: “Yes, I am trying, for the past 16 minutes, to find out about Hotspots’ charges.”

Man gave me the sales spiel, but on the spot this time, plus my alternative should I find paying monthly is not suitable.

Me: “Yes, that’s all I wanted to know.”

Man: “Anything else I can help you with sir?

Me: “Yes, next time you employ someone new, please train them up first before putting them live on the support line. At least, make them read your product brochures.”

Note: The lines in bold have been sanitised a lot to make them suitable for this blog post. My children read my blog.

Heh… am I starting a numerical post title trend? Taklah… just coincidence. Belum-belum dah digress. Okaylah… back to the post.

My electric bill for last month came up to RM315.01! How the heck can a normal household rack up such high electric usage? It’s not as if I’m running some secret diabolical experiments in my basement that needs jigowatts of electricity. I don’t even have a basement. And my RIST/C machine is gathering dust in the corner of that basement. Last time I used it was during the great Kommies BB6 saga. (Ed: Don’t worry if you don’t understand a single thing I’m saying. it’s just a Kommies thingy.) Bottomline: Basic household with a fridge, washing machine, 2 tv’s, a computer that’s on 24/7, 2 air-conds that are only in use at night. And we rack up a constant RM250 and above monthly on electric bills. Compare that to my neighbour who has 6 (or was it 8?) airconds, he gets average RM100 per month.

So I did what I do best. Complain. First one was more than a year ago. TNB technicians came. Checked my analog meter. Confirmed, it was going too fast compared to usage. They changed it to a digital meter. I felt vindicated. But not for long. The bills are still coming in too high. Complained again. Technicians came again. Checked again. Nope, they said, meter’s fine. Must be your usage they said. Could be my airconds sucking in too much juice, they said. Could be my old fridge sucking in too much juice, they said.

So we called in air-cond technicians to chemical-clean the airconds, as they say dirty aircond compressors will use more juice to run. And bought a new fridge (Yes, Dude… bought a new fridge and didn’t tell the whole world about it.). Waited a couple more months to monitor the bill.

And last month’s bill came at RM315.01! WTF!!!

So off I went again to TNB, and raised a ruckus… actually I just complained just a decibel more loudly. Do you know that, there at the counter the TNB staff could check how much your neighbours are paying for their electricity bills? So yes, they checked my 2 immediate neighbours’ bills and sure enough, their’s are much, much lower than mine. So TNB fixed another appointment for their technicians to check my meter again.

They came, checked the meter that they had certified as ‘OK’ previously, and certified that it’s running too fast compared to my usage. And changed the meter again.

My third meter so far. Let’s see how this one do. Will I keep donating to TNB surplus profit?

What is wrong with this society we live in?

We put up the national flags in our neighbourhood to celebrate our national day. Within 10 days all were gone. Stolen.

What is wrong with this society we live in?

A disabled man had his handphone snatched by a motorist pretending to offer help.

What is wrong with this society we live in?

What is wrong with this society we are living in, when a girl can get molested in a public toilet?

What is wrong with this society we are living in that a young girl can get snatched on her way home, raped, sodomised and stranggled to death? By a security guard, no less?

What is wrong with this society we live in?

What is wrong with this society we are living in when a girl can be abducted in public, in a very, very public place, held against her wishes for almost a month, tortured, abused horribly, only to end up dead, stuffed in a bag and dumped under a staircase like some unwanted old clothes?

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS SOCIETY WE ARE LIVING IN?

What is wrong with this society we live in when having to go through the agony of a missing daughter, the mother has had to endure prank calls and text messages from uncaring people?

What is wrong with this society we live in? What is so wrong?

Damn!

Rest in peace, Nurin.

As you can see, I have put up a Missing Child plea as my frontpage. As far as I am able, it will remain as my frontpage until Nurin is found.

I pray that you will be back with your loved ones soon, Nurin.

Child abductors should be castrated, thrown into a wood chipper and fed to animals. And I don’t mean just the castrated part.