My OnePlus One #4

For most people getting a smartphone or any other gadget, there will be a few stages

1. Seeing commercials of the gadget on billboards, television or at the shop.
2. Purchasing said gadget at the shop.
3. Using the gadget non-stop for a few hours.
4. Occasionally use it for a year or so.
5. Go back to step 1 for a new gadget.

OnePlus First Unofficial Gathering and Secret Santa Gathering with OnePlus Co-founder Carl Pei, OnePlus Head of SEA Business Development CP Lim, @Jevoly and OnePlus forum members and me!

However when it comes to OnePlus One in Malaysia, there is a totally different world out there to explore. First of all, the community behind the OnePlus in Malaysia is very active. I'm not saying other phones don't have active fan following, but the OPO community has not stopped moving since before the product was announced. Every few weeks, every few months, there will be something new and amazing users find out about this product. Exploring the device is like an experiment everytime, unleashing new potentially useful functions nobody has discovered before.

I think the most interesting progress the phone and its company has is the claim that Android Lollipop (then called Android L) was going to be released within 3 months of its official release. Of course by now we know that they could not fulfill their promise of releasing before February 2015. If you follow the progress of the company, you would know that OnePlus started to have strains with Cyanogen in India when Cyanogen decided to sign an exclusive deal with Micromax to release the YU Yureka phone with CyanogenMod 11 in December 2014. Micromax then turned around and sued OnePlus in Delhi High Court to ban the sales of OPO in India with CyanogenMod just after it was launched.

Long story short, the whole conflict resulted in production of a new OnePlus in-house make of Andriod Lollipop known as OxygenOS released on 4 April 2015 so that they would not need to rely on Cyanogen's ROM for its release in India and the rest of the world. This ROM was a huge leap for OnePlus in response to pressure from fans and critics of their broken promises time and time again. So now OPO users will have at least 3 options to proceed, flashing OxygenOS, wait for the OTA update of CM12S or retain the existing CM11S. Savvy OPO users might find and flash other ROMs online to their liking too.

Another milestone is happening 11 months after the official launch of the OnePlus One and 6 months since I got my hands on it. OnePlus is finally releasing it for sale officially in Malaysia on 22 April 2015. They have partnered with Malaysian telco Maxis to sell the Global edition OPO and is organizing an official fan gathering in Menara Maxis KLCC on 24 April 2015. Maxis's current marketing strategy uses OnePlus's existing good reviews from international tech websites and reviewers to boast the phone's reputation in order to increase awareness of this awesome product. It is surprising to me that OnePlus is releasing this phone with a carrier instead of the usual online off-contract route this time. Could it be possible that it is sold on contract similar to their other MaxisOne contracts? But these are just speculations, nothing is confirmed until then.

The OnePlus One and OnePlus as a company has gone a long way internationally and is finally coming to Malaysia. Hopefully one day when they release their follow up OnePlus 2 maybe later this year we will be able to get it in stores like any other phone instead of the crazy 6 steps that brought my phone around the world before reaching me. It would sound ridiculous 6 months ago, but it may be different now. We shall see where things are going from here...

***Update 26/4/15***

Good news! OnePlus has finally gone away with their invite system on 20 April 2015, so no more Tuesday specials and no more time-bomb invites to give away anymore. I am not sure whether it is in conjunction with their anniversary, but nevertheless it is what all us fan were waiting for.

Another good news is that they have launched the OPO in Malaysia already. As I expected, the OPO can be purchased off contract as well as with the typical Maxis carrier contract.

lalanandaFRY
19/4/15

My OnePlus One #3

The Malaysian OnePlus One Club is among the most active OnePlus communities in their forum. There are members from the forum who were there since even before the phone was officially release and are still active in distributing and moderating invites to other fellow Malaysian fans. I am truly amazed by their enthusiasm and I really wanted to meet up with them, especially the Boss @Jevoly. I guess it is very rare to see a group of people who support not just the phone company but the sense of community that I have only seen once with the Xiaomi Fan Club. OnePlus organized their first official Malaysian fan gathering on November 8, 2014 and I was happy to join, greet and thank he/she/them in person. *your secret is safe with me*

Malaysian Invite System (MIS) moderators and forum members at the Fan Gathering

Anyway, back to the steps:

4. Courier service

Here is where the OPO gets to travel around the world! When both boxes have arrived at the postal address and are ready to be shipped, I chose to ship via DHL. There is really nothing to do at this point other than spamming the tracking button until it breaks. My OPO took the standard route to Hong Kong and straight to Malaysia, but I have heard that some others took longer routes to Korea, Taiwan and even Singapore. Overall it takes roughly 3-5 days from day of shipping, to reach Malaysian customs.

5. Custom Clearance

This is when the parcel gets touchy, and by touchy I mean potentially getting the parcel stripped open for inspection. Some people at the forum mentioned that they avoided SIRIM and customs tax all together. However those are the minority, most of our OPO had to go through proper SIRIM checks and obtain permits, mine was no exception. Around a day before the parcel reached Malaysia, I received a call from DHL asking me to apply for customs clearance so that the parcel would not be delayed.

In this step, declaration of shipment is very important since it determines the amount of tax it would attract. Declaration of the OPO as a cellphone will have no duty tax while declaration as an electronic appliance might attract a 10% tax. Obviously I declared the OPO as a cellphone! For the SIRIM E-permit, please refer to this LINK, it is quite delicate since there are many forms to submit. The DHL officer who called me requested for my e-mail address so that she could send me certain documents that were needed for the application. Assuming everything goes well, the whole process will probably take less than 24 hours and cost RM100. I submitted all my documents at 5pm and it was ready at 11am the next day. So after I received my E-permit, I just forwarded it to DHL and it was done. Then all I can do is wait again.

6. Delivery in Malaysia

For most people staying in bigger cities or towns that has complete international courier coverage, this step does not concern you as DHL or whichever courier you chose could send it to your doorstep in 1-2 days after clearance. But since my place did not have DHL coverage, they transferred my parcel to Poslaju *to my annoyance*. If you noticed in the tracking note above, the final step says "Delivery arranged, no details expected", that's a sign that they have transferred to another courier. Nevertheless it took 4 days including the weekend to arrive at my doorstep, not too bad at all.

Voila! I was ready for my unboxing pleasure. The entire process from placing the order till getting it in my hand took around 2 weeks including weekends, not too long considering all that it has been through.

Trust me, when I first heard of this procedure I was totally flabbergasted too. I think the question for most people who read all the way up to this point would be "Why go through all the hassle?". As a OPO user who has been using it for over a month now, I have to say that it was totally worth it. It ticked all the points on my smartphone checklist and also introduced me to a community online. The most important thing to note before getting the phone is to get to know it well, if possible go to a shop to try out a Chinese edition. As the fellow forum members mentioned to me before, it was a totally new experience, to buy my first smartphone from overseas instead of a shop down the street.

lalanandaFRY
30/11/14

My OnePlus One #2

Before actually purchasing this phone or any other item that is not officially distributed in Malaysia, it's important to note that they will not send it to us directly. The OPO is currently only available officially in 17 countries and for now, Malaysia is not one of them yet. Of course there is the Chinese edition which comes slightly more expensive with Oppo's ColorOS instead of the standard Cyanogenmod 11S. If you want an easier way to purchase the OPO without all the steps listed below, there are a bunch of phone shops already stocked with AP China edition OPOs readily available right now.

What if I want to get the Global edition? Do I have to smuggle it in to Malaysia! Not exactly smuggle actually considering the import clearance fee I paid. I got mine legally and officially. Here are the steps I took for my Global edition OnePlus One:

1. Buy the OnePlus One

At this point, you should already have an invite and you are ready to purchase the device. As I mentioned earlier OnePlus does not send the phone to Malaysia, so if you have friends or family living in any of the 17 countries who can help to ship the phone back to you, you shouldn't need to continue reading this. All you need is to direct the delivery to their postal address, make payment and your phone will arrive at their address within a week. Then after that you will owe them a favour to send the phone to you anyway you want. But for people like me without a contact in those 17 countries, I hired a parcel forwarding service, which brings me to number 2.

2. Forwarding address

Before purchasing the OPO, I have not heard of a Parcel Forwarding Service at all. Now that I'm familiar with the system, let me describe it in simple words. These companies do exactly the same thing as your friends or family I described earlier. They receive your parcel and forward the parcel to you via whichever courier you choose. One important service they provide is allocating a physical postal address that is mandatory when directing the delivery. In my case, I registered an account with Comgateway which gave me a postal address. Then I made my payment at OnePlus US, directing the delivery to said address. My parcel was shipped by USPS from Rosemead, California and took 6 days from day of purchase, to arrive at my postal address at Portland, Oregon.

3. Forwarding service

As I mentioned before, the main service these companies provide is forwarding parcels via courier. However they do have additional services such as repacking that consolidates unnecessary bulk of certain parcels to save space and shipping fee. This is especially useful if you are purchasing other items from Amazon or EBay and are shipping together with the OPO to Malaysia. For me, it was just the OPO, which came in two boxes, one with the phone and another with the charger. It is important to note that sometimes those boxes don't get delivered in the same parcel, so it is better to check with the forwarding service before shipping. When the parcels arrived at my postal address, Comgateway immediately sent an e-mail to request for further instructions, repacking, continue waiting for other items to arrive or proceed with shipping.

Now that I'm looking back at the steps I took to get the phone, I feel totally overwhelmed. I am really amazed by the number of new things I have learnt along the way. There are a couple of steps to go, so stay tuned for the continuation.

lalanandaFRY
29/11/14

My OnePlus One #1

Question: What do you get when 1 + 1? 2? Wrong! *sorry, lame joke*

I think as of now, many people who are surveying smartphones have heard of this brand. Since Chinese brands are selling well these days, the competition might be bad for individual companies but fantastic for consumers who want to get the best value. Brands like Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo, Lenovo and Vivo are sold almost everywhere in Malaysia. But one brand is emerging from this cluttered saturated market, One... Plus? *pun intended*

With all the hype their flagship killer, OnePlus have been criticized a lot, not for the product itself, not for software. Some say they made "The best phone that nobody has" since it is almost impossible to purchase the phone when it was released back in April 2014. I totally agree that the invite system is not a very good way to sell a product no matter how good it actually is. It is really too bad since they probably lost many potential customers who were interested but couldn't get any invites. Most praises come from the specs: price ratio since this phone costs only $299 for the 16Gb and $349 for the 64Gb model.

OK, enough of the introduction. Let me start recollecting my journey to get this rare piece of art. It all started with MKBHD. I am a big fan and watched all his videos on Youtube. So when he praised this phone and went on about how great it is, I was interested in knowing more. Then I registered myself into the OnePlus forum to find that I was not alone, there was already a Malaysian OPO Fan Club there, now even has a regional forum despite not distributed officially.

I went on to read a bunch of reviews from other websites and also had fun chatting with a bunch of people at the fan club. Then one fine day, must have been my lucky day, I received a message at the forum offering an invite. I immediately got familiar with the procedures and purchased the item. Then comes the difficult part, getting the phone to my hands. If you are getting this phone the most important thing you must know by now is that it is not officially available in Malaysia, at least not yet. This means that in order to obtain the phone, the phone had to be flown half way around the world to me.

Stay tuned for the next post as I explain each step in detail.

lalanandaFRY
29/11/14

Happy Sweet 16, IMU Buddhist Society!

Many of you, even current IMU Buddhist Society members, probably do not know about this. IMU Buddhist Society is officially 16 years old!

Although it has only been 16 years, not much is known about the origin of the society. When I was in the committee, I got hold of some past documents that gave very little information that were vague. For one, the society was founded sometime around October 1998 by two medical students Tan Soon Kim(M1/97) and Chong Euming(M1/97), who should either be MOs, GPs or specialists by now. Back then IMU was still known as International Medical College and the Buddhist Society was known as Dharma Society. The person who might know more about this is Prof. Dr. Hla Yee Yee, who became the official advisor in September 1999 and is still the advisor until this day.

There is no doubt that IMU Buddhist Society has grown to be well established and isone of the most active societies in IMU. Throughout the years, more and more activities and programs were initiated such as regular Dharma talks/sharing sessions, meditation classes, educational trips and inter-religious forums. The blood and organ donation drive might be one of the most notable biannual events that was initiated by the society and since recent years has been jointly organized together with IMU SRC. Another activity would be the Friday Gathering, a concept conceived in 2009 that gathers members for short but meaningful activities together that fosters fellowship among all members.

the final printed newsletter published by IMUBS, September '09

My baby, the IMUBS blog is also turning 5 years old too. Not sure how many generations actually used it or whether it is still used today. I originally designed it as a medium to replace the monthly printed newsletter/bulletin. Back then as newsletter manager, I was tasked to generate monthly newsletters that was printed. There were only 2 other methods to publicize events and make announcements, SMS and the new social platform Facebook then. I ended up publishing only 2 printed issues and proceeded with multiple online-only newsletters accompanied with regular updates on the blog.

Committee members 09/10 and senior Ming Yi

It has been so many years since I last participated in an IMUBS activity and I really miss those precious moments. I sincerely hope IMUBS will continue to grow and continue to nurture more young aspiring healthcare professionals to achieve both intellectual and spiritual success in their future. May all be well and happy always.

Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!

lalanandaFRY

H&N: Bulan Kemerdekaan

Every year around late August and the first half of September we Malaysians will see a strange phenomena. Don't get me wrong, it is not strange to us, just observers who have no idea what is going on. There will be a bunch of drivers sticking one or more Jalur Gemilang (National flag) on their cars, Petronas and telcos come out with a variety of patriotic advertisements on the TV, Sudirman's voice singing the iconic Tanggal 31 Ogos song on the radio, TV and almost every departmental store! What in the world is going on?

Di sini lahirnya sebuah cinta
It's Bulan Kemerdekaan!!!

I am referring to roughly a month between 31 August (Merdeka day) and 16 September (Malaysia Day) every year. I personally am very excited and passionate about this month. Unfortunately after watching multiple videos and reading surveys online, I noticed there are still so many Malaysians who are... to put it bluntly, blind/deaf/disorientated (sorry for being insulting). It is actually very disappointing that there are many Malaysians out there who do not know the significance of Bulan Kemerdekaan.

I embrace this celebration as though it is my birthday. I have a little Malaysian flag at my desk, a row of flags at my pharmacy counter, sing Negaraku wholeheartedly during monthly assemblies and actually bother to remember all 6 Prime Ministers' full names. Anyway, why not try out the basic Namewee Merdeka quiz. These are questions that every Malaysian should be able to answer instinctively, even standard one students can. So if you cannot answer them, shame on you... hahaha... but seriously how can these REDpeople not get these right?

1. Which year did Malaysia/Malaya declare its independence?

2. Who is Malaysia's Father of Independence?

3. What is the capital city of Pahang?

4. What is the next sentence after "Raja Kita..." in Negaraku?

5. Which of the following famous people are not Malaysians?
P. Ramlee, David Arumugam, Muhammad Ali, Lim Lian Geok

On a lighter note, did you know that there are many Malaysians who made it big internationally and yet nobody seem to know that they are/were Malaysians? Some may surprise you, especially those of you who couldn't answer the questions above.

James Wan (top-left) is a Hollywood producer and director famous for directing Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring and Fast & Furious 7. Dato' Jimmy Choo (top-middle) and Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh (top-right) probably need no introduction as he is one of the most famous shoe designers in the world and she is a well known actress in both Hong Kong and Hollywood movies. Datuk Pua Khein Seng (bottom-left) may not be recognizable at first glance, but his invention of the USB flash drive has revolutionized the tech industry. Yuna (bottom-middle) is an up and coming singer who is currently making her name in MTV scene and had her album produced by Pharell Williams. Ling Tan (bottom-right) is arguably Malaysia's first supermodel, who made it big in international runway shows as the face of top designers around the world.

It has been very sad and unfortunate for Malaysia in the past year with the disappearance of MH370 and the tragedy of MH17. I hope Malaysians can continue to be strong and stay united to face challenges ahead. So before it is too late, remember to learn more about Malaysia, especially if you are Malaysian. Now is the best time to be patriotic and embrace the love for our country. Happy 57th Birthday Malaysia!

lalanandaFRY
13/9/2014

H&N: I'm a Loner

외톨이야 외톨이야 daridiridara du~
외톨이야 외톨이야 daridiridara du~

(oetoriya oetoriya daridiridara du~)

Sorry, I always wanted to put that at the beginning of a post, I like CN Blue very much! But seriously I read this article 23 Signs You're Secretly An Introvert and it got me thinking, should I be proud of it? To be honest, sometimes it feels much better being by myself... How do everyone blend in to working environment so easily? How do everyone mix with roommates so easily? How do everyone travel in big groups so comfortably? Some people say I have the "talk to me" face but it is only because I don't know what to say.

I work in an environment where I am the odd one, the underdog trying relentlessly to blend in, at least for now. I don't know whether my staff and colleagues agree because I always enjoy working alone. The good news is that being head of my little unit forces me to learn to work with people and make decisions together with my staff instead of doing everything by myself. For many this may be a piece of cake, unfortunately it takes time for me to adjust... I am still working on it.

Guess what? I set my camera on timer to take this picture.

I have a little confession to make. *my parents must be mad if they know this* When I was still studying in secondary school, I used to have long study sessions at my table where I stared blankly at my reference books with my earphones on, listening to the radio I hid under the table. Music is like a really bad study friend, I lost so many precious study hours just because I was out of this world then... It has been 7 years since and I still have my MP3 player and earphones on whenever I am alone. I had a couple of posts about my solo trips to several places and I always had this same set of accessories on.

One thing I find when travelling in groups is that things always never go as planned... and it pisses me off. When I plan a solo trip, I get meticulous about everything like ticket prices, timing and routes. So before I even start my journey I always try my best to anticipate. Unfortunately there is this guy Murphy and his law that screws everything up. Years ago I used to think that going for any trip in a group of more than three people will definitely end with a screw-up somehow. Obviously that is rubbish... things go wrong even when I go for solo trips, click this LINK to find out why.

Is there a way out of this situation? Please do tell me, I'm an loner who wants to break out of my shell! Be kind and friendly to me, teach me how to blend in.

lalanandaFRY
1/9/2014

H&N Flood #1

Oh wow! What a week of unforgettable memories. Hmm... I wonder where should I start?

It all started with rain on Sunday 1st December, then Monday and it didn't stop until Tuesday. As expected, water level rose slowly to around 1 foot at some places but I was barely affected besides preparing slippers to work. Then on Tuesday many roads were congested, it took a while before I reached home, even braving my car dangerously through big puddles of water.

After taking a nice bath, I got a message from my housemate telling me to look out the window. The large driveway across my house appeared to have a thin film of water over it. Within minutes, that film slowly rose up in front of my eyes and I told myself "it won't come to my house".

So 5 minutes later I heard some chattering at the living room and decided to take a look. It turns out the water has entered the porch. I continued to whisper to myself "it should stop there".

The moment water started entering the house was when I started to panic. My landlord has already started moving some of his electrical appliances to higher places and allowed his dog to climb on a chair. By that time, water had already covered half of my car's wheel and I thought to myself "it better stop there or my car is gone".

True enough, the water rose and covered the whole tyre . My car's electronics also went crazy when my headlights went on for some reason, so there goes my car battery... There was nothing I could do by that time, just go to sleep and hope it doesn't rise any higher. The fortunate thing was that water and electricity to the house was still ok at that point, so I quickly charged my phone to full before the supply eventually gets disconnected.

The next morning I was awoken by my working alarm. As usual, I walk to the window for some fresh air but this time it had the stench of river water mixed with rubbish. Guess what? Electricity went off immediately after I went to the toilet. Looks like it'll be a long long day....

lalanandaFRY
21/12/2013

H&N: Unsettling

Can't believe I haven't written about myself for so long. This 5 months had its ups and downs. For one I can say that I can finally feel my job, if that makes any sense. Before I started working, I always wondered how other working adults survive the harsh working environment everyday doing more or less the same thing until retirement. Wouldn't it be really boring? I used to see my parents go to work everyday and coming back talking about the same things they do at work everyday and it wasn't very appealing.

Now that I am in their shoes, working is like a reason to live if it is enjoyable. I am not saying that my job is smooth sailing all the time. On the contrary, I somehow look forward for the next day to come when I will continue to strive in a tough environment, enduring countless obstacles everyday and work together with a bunch of people I grow to like.

When new PRPs continue to join the hospital, I feel lacking in many ways. First of all, I am not exactly the friendly type, so if I don't welcome you with open arms, it is not because I don't like you, I just don't know how to express it. I am not far from finishing my PRP life and my knowledge of the job is still lagging at times. There were times when I curl up in my room feeling insecure with my working knowledge reconsider my choice to be a pharmacist, but then my confidence built up when I recount my enthusiasm to the job, how much I enjoy going to work.

I recently completed one of the toughest stations in PRP life, can't believe it is over. It was made even tougher taking place right at the Hari Raya period, making case clerking difficult without many patients in ward at that time. As usual, there were presentations every week but there was a 2 week break during the festive season, meaning that there was a delay in my presentation schedule. It was definitely a traumatizing experience to present clinical case every week, more so on the day I presented 2 cases. Although my marks weren't up to my expectations, I was glad it is over *I literally felt like flying after my final presentation*.

Now the next hurdle is to take all my oral tests and complete my log books. Wish me luck!

lalanandaFRY
9/9/13

P.S.: To my future self, whenever you feel down and depressed, just come back to this post to remind yourself of how awesome your life was when you were a PRP.

H&N: Tough Life

This afternoon during lunch, my friend told me something so apparent I fail to care... I have been a PRP for over 4 freaking months!!! I have one comment about this, working life is definitely not what I expected when during my university days.

May you rest in peace, my friend!

Last few weeks have been tough for some reason. It all started when my handphone just died for some reason. My cute little phone that I bought in Glasgow for £99 traveled with me wherever I went for the past 1.5 years. Looking at the "carcass" of my old friend brings back all those memories of my trips and how much I enjoyed a tiny gadget that doubles as my MP3 player and map. I mentioned before in my solo travelling post that my phone fed me with sweet Kpop compiled into a playlist which accompanied me throughout all my journeys, kept me sane at times and gave me strength to continue walking. I just bought a new phone which has a much bigger screen, better OS and smoother graphics, but things just aren't the same without my faithful friend.

Then I was greeted with "wonderful" news that we PRPs at the hospital had to do research despite protests (thanks to some complains from other hospitals). Initially it was definitely stressful but our group has many really enthusiastic members and good guidance from our preceptor, who is equally, if not more enthusiastic. Things were rough at the start as expected, we had to meet many times, gather and read a bunch of journals and complete a proposal in order to get approval of our plan. Based on our current progress, I would say we are on the right track thus far. Hopefully things will go smoothly throughout, I can't bear anymore troubles coming at me...

And yes, PRP life is tough as the title implies. My day goes by like Lego blocks, fixed up then bashed apart, then fixed up again to start the new day and the cycle goes on. Not sure whether you get that metaphor... In a way, it made me work harder to find out about my job, try my very best not to screw things up and make my day go by as swiftly as possible. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right? Yet I have the feeling that I am totally incompetent, maybe just not suitable to be working in an environment like this. Hopefully I find what I really enjoy doing.

lalanandaFRY
12/4/13

H&N: Exams

I wonder whether anyone out there love exams? We have to face it a couple of times in our life time and I don't think anyone can deny that it is stressful if we care about the results. Remember a time when we were kids and exams were like any other day of school? Those days are long gone...

It has been 6 years since I left school, 5 years since pre-U and almost 1 year since university days and I am still having the same fear of exams. I am sure you know how it feels. My random panic attacks, unsettling insomnia and lack of concentration is back!

As a PRP, we have to sit for a Forensic exam, or Peperiksaan Perundangan Farmasi during our provisional year to meet the requirements for registration as a pharmacist. In essence, the exam will assess our understanding of certain acts and regulations pertaining to our profession. For most PRPs who graduated from local universities, this exam would be a revision of laws previously lectured and tested in modules. On the contrary, the laws I studied during my 3rd and 4th year were from the MEP and Medicines Act 1968, a.k.a. UK legal system.

So this brings me back to the same situation I encountered during my first year in university. I was a double maths student during pre-U and did not study Biology since Form 5. My batchmates around me were mostly Biology students from either SAM or A-levels and were leaps ahead of me in terms of prior understanding of "basic" anatomy and bodily functions. I have to admit that I struggled quite a bit and barely made it to the next semester.

Why do I always have to be the underdog? Exam sucks, life sucks... face it!

lalanandaFRY

8/3/13

H&N February

Some say time flies when we are having fun. In just a blink of an eye, I have been a PRP for more than 50 days. One day I was that new dude who couldn't find my way to my work place in the huge hospital, then now I am getting my first paycheck and soon starting to have shifts and lunch calls.

How am I coping in this working environment? I wouldn't say I am the worst example, but I sometimes feel that getting used to certain departments can be slightly challenging with sharper learning curves. To be honest, I find outpatient pharmacy somewhat enjoyable. I don't know whether it is the job itself, the setting or the people I worked with there. Maybe it is the satisfaction that I get when I am actually assisting the patient in managing their illnesses.

I am currently new to the drug monitoring department and am still getting used to the working procedures. I must say that it has its own charm and pays off seeing patients get well when doctors who follow our recommendations. In a way, it is like saving the patient's life.

I think I am starting to understand the motivation in working people. It is not always about the money, but the contentment that we get whenever we are making a difference in someone else's life. A job is like a cup and life is the water it contains. The beauty of the cup does not change the water in it, but the satisfaction we get when sipping from a beautiful cup makes the water taste better than it actually is.

Unless you are looking for the holy grail *Indiana Jones reference*... lol

lalanandaFRY
28/2/13

H&N: Trek-hibition

*Disclaimer: Some of the pictures you are about to see were taken where photographs were not allowed by the organizers, so if you are offended by these things, do not proceed beyond the SPOILER ALERT.

The Chinese New Year holiday was a week ago. I took a weeks worth of leave and returned home to celebrate this wonderful event with my family. So as usual my uncle's family would come over to my house to have reunion dinner the day before CNY. So what does that have to do with this post? I'll come to that now...

During my family reunion dinner, my uncle and cousin mentioned about a Star Trek exhibition held at the Pusat Sains Negara (National Science Center) that they were going very soon. If you did not know already, I am a huge Star Trek fan. Without hesitation, I searched the web for all information about this exhibition and found that it was the first ever official Star Trek Exhibition ever held in Asia, practically at my door step! But the problem was that there wasn't any appropriate time to visit the exhibition .

The awesome thing was that my dad was also very interested in this event and we somehow squeezed some time during the "hectic" CNY visiting period towards the end of the holiday for a short visit before I traveled back to Kuantan for work. One thing I realized then was that I have never been to this science center before this, so I guess Star Trek give me reason to pursue "Science"...lol

Never expect to see "Selamat Datang" and Star Trek in the same photo.

If you are interested already, these are some details you might want to know:
Venue: Pusat Sains Negara, Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Opening Times: 9am - 5am Saturday - Thursday even during public holidays (Closed on Fridays)
Ticket Price: RM20 (Adult), RM10 (Children/18+ Students), RM5 (School Groups)

Anyway, back to the exhibition. Or I mean before entering it, because the Science Center itself was decorated with awesome Star Trek banners, stickers and posters. While walking towards the exhibition, you might notice many trivia questions printed on insignia shaped stickers guiding visitors to the venue. So if you haven't been doing your revision, those will start your hype again.

SPOILER ALERT!!!
When entering, the first thing we noticed was a small station dedicated to photograph souvenirs where visitors were allowed to get their photographs taken by the official photographers at 3 specific sets (TOS captain's chair, TNG Enterprise Bridge and Transporter from the 2009 Star Trek). Obviously they would cost a few bucks, but for fans, this is definitely a fantastic souvenir... in essence, I didn't get them.

Yup! That's the bridge I am talking about!

Before coming this exhibition, I have seen almost all the Star Trek episodes from every series and all 11 movies multiple times, so seeing it right in front of my eyes somehow makes it feel a little too real. Don't get me wrong, I love the feeling, just that sometimes fantasy worlds and sci-fi are just meant to be imaginary. If you are interested in props and models, check out the Beyond The Final Frontier documentary below.

The detail in many of the costumes on display were really beautiful and really invoke that nostalgia feeling of the movies and episodes. And after walking through the whole exhibition, the final room contains a detailed 7m enormous model of the original Enterprise as seen in the first 3 movies. I was in awe when I saw that model and comparing it with my crappy unfinished RM99 TOS Enterprise model at home.

To finish it off, at the end of the exhibition is a Star Trek store, if you can call it that. To most Star Trek fans who can afford fancy merchandise and souvenirs, the store would be the best place to purchase those uniforms, keychains and magnets. Believe it or not, this is the worst souvenir store I have ever seen in my life. There were hardly anything worth buying and the number of items are pitiful to say the least. So don't bother visiting if all you want is some souvenirs, you are better off getting them from Ebay. Come to think of it, the store may have got those from Ebay as well.

Wow... just wow!!!

Overall the exhibition was not spectacular in any way but still passable. If you are a Star Trek fan from this region, just drop by the science center before the end of March. You may regret passing this opportunity.

lalanandaFRY
23/2/13