Scope creep

Many scope issues! I immediately realized that the project couldn’t be executed smoothly. My superior thought we should still try and proceed. I was very stressed out. The situation was beyond quick fix. I needed office’s decision whether to proceed or not. But we decided to move forward. As if sending an army to battle knowing that you’re going to lose. Aghast. But steadfast.

I’ll just be patient for now.

Working in the field gives you a much faster “growth”. I hope it would add a lot of value to my experience. We were at a satellite platform I nicknamed “Bravo“.

Begin Cave trip

I recovered. It didn’t feel itchy anymore. I was thinking of heading back, but in mind, I knew that this trip was to make way for Raya. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have a concrete reason to go, “But I’ve spent a significant amount of time in the field…” to justify for a break. In fact, the trip was pretty much a must also due to its scope of work and the number of parties involved in getting the results.

Another trip to “Cave”.

Food Allergy?

discovered early in the morning. I was all “bedang” as mom put it (is that an east-coast term?). The first allergic reaction that I know of. Never had one before as far as I could remember. I got on the fixed-wing anyway, traveled to Kerteh, postponed the chopper and headed towards the Rantau clinic. The doctor gave a jab… I dragged my feet over to Awana and crashed in drowsiness.

I also took a picture of my face, but I can’t show that to you. Imagine all those… on my face instead. You’ll have a nightmare. :p

Slightly after Iftar, dad called. He was on the way back to Bangi with 4 of his nieces, all of which skipped school for the trip. He said he was going to pass by Kijal in an hour, suggesting that all of us could grab a bite then. We ate nearby because all other places were closed. He wanted to see how I was doing. Thanks, dad.

OK. Maybe 1. My lips still a little out of shape.

I still couldn’t figure out the trigger of that allergy.

Another offshore project

A contract renewal under my custody didn’t happen yet. We missed out the Tender Committee meeting. I also happened to be overloaded with many tasks and their intermediates. Prepared for another offshore trip.

Muzani brought home friends from work for an iftar together. There were more food than table space, we had to eat on the floor.

I am normally the imam for Tarawikh at home, especially when Dad’s not around. Muzani at work. CB would have to step up when I’m away.

ZAN-WiFi back in business

Internet fixed. I thought so, the settings for Virtual Channel and Path Identifier were wrong. If you’re on Malaysian Streamyx, your VPI & VCI must be 0 and 35 respectively. When I spoke to the customer support about VPI & VCI, they had no idea what they were. They never seemed to weigh that as a potential problem either. It was always like, “Did you connect directly without the splitter?” or, “Was the light blinking or steady?” type of questions. As if I just started using DSL-Streamyx line yesterday.

After a few phone calls over the last 2 days, they finally passed me to a technician at the port who immediately provided me the settings and solved my problem. I understand that they couldn’t get as many able technicians as the customer support, but knowledge made a difference.

Internet-less

The internet is still down. Not a very productive day it seemed. I called up TMNet again. Doubted that would send a technician on Sunday. I asked about their VCI & VPI requirements but they didn’t seem to know much about it. They were going to reset the port for my connection, issuing a report number so they could track down the progress.

Dad counted on me on the fix. He’s IT savvy all right, but there’s a few things in communication that he wasn’t sure about. Maybe because the account’s on my name that he let me. I am accountable.

ADSL Modem kaput

Our modem down – the original one given by TMNet when we first started off with Streamyx access. We only suspected it at first and doubted the Streamyx’s reliability more. In fact, based on the announcement in between the hotline calls, I heard that they were fixing connection issues at Sg. Buloh, Serdang, etc. so I thought my port was just one of them.

However, I swapped the modem and bypassed the filter just to see if it would make the connection. It did. I straight away returned Zul’s modem and bought a new ADSL ethernet router.

The internet connection still failed. Maybe the setting’s just not right.

Kids Say…

My little bro was honest in his question, in fact, too frank that we were verily amused.

Mom, at night, Ramadhan goes to sleep, yes? And then we can eat? Ramadhan stays awake at daytime only, ya… hence we all fast during the day… isn’t it mom…

Smart little boy. Getting sharper and sharper every day. He’s quite amusing, although a little obdurate in his own way.

Working 2 weeks straight

Yeah… I didn’t have much weekend. I had planned to take a half-day off on Friday but the work escalated. Everyone seemed to be calling for all kinds of updates.

Yesterday I went back much later and lo and behold, the traffic was a lot less congested. Maybe I’d stick to this strategy for a little while.