Last Monday, I went for a meeting with my boss at the outskirt of KL City. After the meeting, we had a 3 hours gap before the next meeting. After taking lunch, my boss decided to check out the IT Heaven at Bukit Bintang namely, The Low Yatt Plaza. A junior colleague who tagged along never went to Low Yatt before so this was his first time there. He got overwhelmed by looking at so many IT products inside the mall.

Anyway, my boss owned an iPhone so he checked out The Mac store at the ground floor in Low Yatt Plaza. Inside the Mac store, I saw this:

MacBook Air Display at Mac Studio Sdn Bhd Low Yatt

Taking a closer look at the MacBook Air:

The MacBook Air

Testing the Mac was like the last time I tried using Ubuntu. Although it seems exciting and more fun to use Mac compared to Windows, I don’t think I’ll ever fit in being a Mac user. Here’s a list of why I will never use a Mac:

1. Change requires time to get used to, to learn new features, to utilize it to the max thus is can waste your productive time and lowers your output productivity
2. A lot of application I’m using is not built for Mac.
3. A Mac is just too flashy for me.
4. The current price for a MacBook Air is RM6229. I can get three lower end Core 2 Duo blank laptop for RM2,000 a piece.
5. I will never convert to a Mac

Now you have it, my 5 top reason why MacBook is not for me.

Last weekend, I went to The Curve. The best part of hanging out there is it is just 15 minutes drive from my house and the parking fees is literally free of charge (the trick is to buy something at Ikea). Besides that, there are 3 malls you can walk around if your leg and feet can handle it. I lost count of how many times I’ve visited The Curve Mutiara Damansara but I’ve never went to a place call the Big Apple Donuts. I’ve passed through in front of the shop so many times but I’ve been put off by the price I guess.

So last Sunday Afternoon, I decided to accompany LV for a treat at a Wi-Fi enabled shop and found out The Big Apple Donuts provide free Wi-Fi. So, after trying out a box of donuts worth RM9.50 per box, I think it’s worth the price I’m paying for:

Having a Treat at Big Apple Donuts The Curve Mutiara Damansara

The yummy donuts from Big Apple Donuts & Coffee

I guess I’ll be dropping there some other time soon.

In one of my previous job, I was a telemarketer selling a vacation club membership exclusively on through the phone. That was one of my most challenging job that I will never forget. That was also one of the most valuable exposures in the world of direct sales since I had to deal with rejections.

Earlier today, I mysteriously got a phone call by someone who didn’t even bother to introduce himself properly. I think one of the reasons he got my contact detail is because I recently collected my brand new CIMB Petronas Credit Card:

My Brand New Petronas CIMB Bank Credit Card

One of my reasons to apply the card was to enjoy the 2% rebate every time I pump my car with Petronas fuel. One thing that bugs me is I can’t apply my Kad Mesra to collect points at the machine itself. I wonder why? The other thing is, I suspect the credit card collection agent themselves is selling their database to these people. If not, how on earth did these people got my phone number, right? Anyway, back to my story.

The telemarketing guy then kept on talking and talking and talking and selling. I was very skeptical as always since I did this job before asked a few key questions. Since I was online that time, I did a quick search and found out about the company. They seem quite legitimate since at least they got a website eventhough the guy didn’t tell me their URL.

Sri Vacations Club

The most annoying part is, if you try to tell them that you’ll consider about it and get back to them later, they will always insist on the one time offer and you will not be eligible over the offered price later on. It would definitely scare someone who hasn’t been approached by these salespeople but it doesn’t scare me at all because I know that is just one of their persuading techniques.

Another part is they will always assume you are already sold so they keep on asking you to feed all the necessary information right up to your credit card number and ultimately, your 3 digit security number on the back of your credit card. I didn’t even bother to take my credit card out from my wallet and gave the guy a phony expiry number.

In the end, I got fed up with the guy who didn’t even gave me a chance to think for even one second and disconnected the call after almost half an hour on the line. I immediately switched off my handphone to prevent him from calling me back, at least temporarily. I’m sorry, I don’t think I am in need for a discount card or any holiday package which I have to pay RM488 upfront. If I am interested to buy, I’ll find and persuade one of you guys that I really like to give me the same price so that you can earn your commission. A trick I learned after becoming a telemarketer myself.

Update: My brother who holds a CIMB Credit Card earlier than me told me that he also received similar calls like I did twice. This is an indication that the bank themselves are selling leads for these direct sales company to gain more businesses.

As soon as I stepped into my office last Monday morning, my boss showed up inside my working area and asked for me to arrange to hurry up and get my passport prepared for the trip to Washington. I never had a Malaysian Passport before so I had to apply for one. I tried to applied for my passport last year at Putrajaya Immigration office but they don’t accept application over there. My brother applied for it last 2 years and it was done in a day so I guess this time it would be the same.

I borrowed RM300 (I’m still broke though) and I was on my way to the nearest Immigration Department of Malaysia which is located in Plaza Metro, Kajang. The parking there is just RM1 and I parked my car just outside of the entrance of the office (4th floor). That’s not so bad right? Here’s a photo of the place:

Pejabat Imigresen Kajang

After I bought the application form (RM1), I photocopied my Identity Card and attached my photographs along with my filled application form. The clerk at the counter checked my documents and found out that I didn’t include my birth certificate. I remembered reading that for MyKad holders, that is not necessary so I argued with her. Unfortunately, I found out that I’m not a MyKad holder. I’m just a regular IC holder since I was the early batch back then that has been changed into a new version of the IC.

I had to drive back home to get my original birth certificate, make a photocopy of it and then decided to try the Immigration Department in Kuala Lumpur instead. The office is located at Pusat Bandar Damansara, only 15 minutes drive from where I live.

Jabatan Imigresen Wilayah Persekutuan KL

The only thing I had to bare is the parking fees which is RM2.20 for the first hour and RM1.50 for the next subsequent hour. The place is definitely bigger than the one in Kajang and there’s larger crowd over there.

Instead of writing about my experience, this time I’ll just draw a diagram about it:

How I Got My Passport Process Flow

Application Form and Supporting Documents

Immigration Processing Counter

The whole process took me less than 4 hours and I was back at my office by 3pm. The parking fee that I had to pay was RM6.70 and now I have my first passport ever.

My Passport

My next step would now is to apply for the US Visa. I am now ready to fly anywhere in the world.