Piaw's Blog » Life

Miracles in life.

Piaw — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 12:16:04 +0000

Just when you thought you’re in the worst possible moments, think of the different ways it would have unfolded and you’ll discover that miracles might have just happened unexpectedly. Think of them as God’s way to fix your flaws. Be thankful that God blesses those have done nothing to deserve the worst retributions.

Today is such a day. I’m not describing it out to keep some nosy mouths shut. What I can say is that it was the second time I’ve look Death in the eyes this year. By God’s will, we had avoided another worse disaster from happening through our own misfortune.

Another day to remember in my life.

Idiots in the internet.

Piaw — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:29:52 +0000

Let’s face it, the internet has allowed people to connect globally regardless of distance and time. You can meet people of different colours, culture and language. Of all the people that you can meet behind the veils of the computer monitors, there are the dreaded idiot, the ones I call the “fire starters” for their tendency to start flame war no matter what.

Browsing through the university forum as usual today, I came upon a thread on dissatisfaction in life. So I posted some statements that are rational and constructive. No harm done, life’s peaceful until that point. The thread starter replied quickly, much to my surprise. What I read next is something you would hear from an idiot. Even people with learning disability aren’t ought to be called idiots, because they never disrespect others! But this person, claiming to be an accounting student started finding faults, twisting words and flamed me for posting some intelligent sentences?! Guess this guy has really lots of dissatisfaction in life. I just rolled my eyes because I’ve met some these idiots once in a while.

Then I posted a reply with lots of “please” and other polite words. No, I don’t want to be like the person who disrespects. An eye for eye and the world goes blind. It would fun though to see how these idiots fare in parliamentary style debate. How nice is it to see them speaking unintelligible in front of the crowd. Back to topic, not surprisingly the idiot replied back almost immediately after my latest message. This time he sounded like a sore loser, reverting to more personal attacks against me. I feel really satisfied at this point. No use counter attacking as anyone can see that the idiot has lost.

When you’re in a public forum long enough, you’ll learn how to handle these idiots. Usually they’ll start a flame war then retreat to obscurity, never to be heard from again. I guess these people learn that the digital space doesn’t appreciate them as much as in real life. There are still certain rules to obey in the internet.

I do admit that I acted like an idiot sometimes, but only when someone went overboard with unintelligent and false statements to begin with. All of these conflicts ended nicely. I apologized and everyone’s happy. As a moderator had told me, emotional is what makes us human. But it is the ability to control emotion and admission to mistakes that makes us civilised!

Thus I end this post with the Vulcan motto, “Live long and prosper.”

Joseph & Piaw Go To JPJ Office

Piaw — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:51:13 +0000

Barely a week into school and I’m already into trouble. *smirk* On Wednesday afternoon, I went to The Spring after class to buy myself some treats. It was suppose to be a quick one: in and out under 5 minutes. So being a stingy person I am, I decided to take the risk to park on the yellow line (read illegal) instead of paying the RM1 parking fee or the free parking beside the complex which I didn’t know was still valid. So as if it was destined, there’s a JPJ summons at my windshield wiper after my 5-minute-errand.

I panicked, fearing it could take away my driving license. However, it was proven to be a minor offence once I checked my dusty driving textbook. At least there’s a use for it. According to the book, there’s no demerit points in the offence, just a hefty RM200 fine. Well, that’s one problem solved. Now, how am I going to go to the JPJ office in a place that I’m not familiar of? FYI the Kuching City JPJ office is located at Mile 12, on the way to Serian. Yes, that’s right. For some reason the government decided NOT to put it INSIDE the city, but far away in the countryside.

The next day, I pestered Joseph to accompany me. Initially we went to the nearby Central Police Station to try our luck. However, they don’t accept JPJ summon so it’s “field trip” time as I called it. Luckily Joseph’s sister was around the area to guide us to the JPJ office as both of us didn’t know the way there. Thus began our trip Harold-and-Kumar-style, minus (most of) the mayhem.

Surprisingly it’s a pretty straightforward trip though I can only remember the trip back (a straight 8 miles to Boulevard-Third Mile). A trip that was filled with dust and lorries. It was quite an “educational” trip as I finally knew where Kuching Sentral and Kuching City Mall are. New roads are being build and upgraded. The towns that we past through have spanking new shophouses. It’s different from I had seen years ago. Eye opening I could say.

We went through town after town. It wasn’t as remote as I hope it would be. Maybe Kuching is seriously developing. Anyway we got to the JPJ office which is located at the fringe of the countryside after 25 minutes drive. I paid my fine in about 10 minutes (almost no people in the summons area). Luckily the officers there were friendly (which eased me tremendously).

Fine paid and I was happy. So when I exited the JPJ compound I made a mistake of driving at the opposite direction of the road! Lucky again, Joseph spotted the mistake early and there was no traffic on the road at that time. Imagine what would happen if I was to be spotted by the JPJ officers, right beside their complex! Turned out that the road was a two-way in the old days. The old sign wasn’t rid off properly which caused the “near fatal” incident. Remember, it’s left-turn when exiting the JPJ complex, not right! There’s a U-turn further along the road which will take you the the main road.

So we head back to Kuching, straight all the way to Boulevard and exiting at the Third Mile roundabout. FYI we went to 12th Mile from Simpang Tiga which needed some turnings. Next time, if you got a summons from JPJ or license issues to deal with, just use the 4th Mile/Boulevard route and go STRAIGHT to 12th Mile. You’ll see a town sign with the huge 10th Mile words before reaching the destination. It’s the same route to reach Serian.

I paid RM80 for illegal parking offence, a far cry from the RM200 fine stated in the textbook. However the fine for speeding offence is still RM300, no change. Joseph’s relative got it so don’t take it with a pinch of salt.

Pardon me with the LONG post. This is a chapter in life not to be forgotten: my first “serious” traffic summons and the nice “educational field trip”. There are some helpful tips here too for the crucial just-in-case situations involving JPJ.