April 4, 2013

Dilemmas

Occasionally, I tend to get indecisive. Given a situation, balancing the pros and cons, good and bads, why and why nots, sometimes makes me take forever to come to a decision. It can be a simple small matter such as a gathering with friends, or something more significant like buying a phone. But whatever the scenario I sometimes tend to twist and curl my brain to just choose an option.





This most recent one however, was more significant than any other. But still probably not all that big an issue.



At the beginning of next month, I am due to be starting my 6 month internship at a workshop or service center. Yesterday the draft placements were announced and I was assigned to Honda's 3S center back home.

First impressions, its not a bad place at all. Much better looking than my first training at Kia last year. And it's Honda! Imagine all the shiny Accords, Civics and Citys I'll (maybe) get to work on. Not some caplang mekanik workshop that does a mix of old and not-so-new cars. I'd be an idiot to throw away an opportunity like this one.

On top of that, going back to Sitiawan means I get to cut costs on transport and food; more over I get to be with my mum which will be increasingly rare. Why not right?


But the thing is, It's been in my mind to have my internship in KL, where there are greater opportunities and with even bigger companies which arent found in Sitiawan, mainly European companies like Mercedes and BMW. 

A classmate of mine did his first year training at Mercedes in PJ and shared with me the great working life he had. Great not in the sense it's laid back, but he got to do and learn so many things and in a professional manner with high tech, sophisticated computer tools. When compared with the relatively mekanik-style training I had, I was completely sold on it. It's that kind of upper class technician jobs that I've always preferred.

As internship drew closer, he asked me and some other friends if they would be interested to join him. At that time however I had my sights on a third workshop, which eventually didnt materialise. As a result I missed the first chance to apply for a place with Mercedes.


So when the draft placement came out, I got stuck.


Going to Honda means saving costs, be with my mum, no traffic jams. And the place looks quite impressive already. My mum's friends say the technicians there are alright too. But my dad mentioned (many years ago) work life there was.... undesirable. And also the main language there is Mandarin, which, isnt my strong point. On a less concrete argument, pretty much all my friends have split up and left home, so it would be rather boring to just work and stay home for 6 months.


Going to Mercedes means having the chance to learn about the workings of a European make of car which are not only different to the Japanese, but more advanced. Such experiences are really, really valuable, and not everybody has the chance to lay their hands on Mercedes cars. Side note, it would look good on my resume too. However it means I'll (or rather, my dad) will still have to bear the costs of living in the city, probably traffic jams too. And I also kinda feel bad for not going to be with my mum.



In the end, I applied for a change of placement to Mercedes. However, should they not be available I would accept my initial placement at Honda as Plan B, if they are willing to take me in.



Well, lets see what happens next.

April 1, 2013

Cleaning out my laptop

No, no April Fools joke here. T_T

Its 11pm... Must wake up early for class.... This is gonna be my fastest post ever!!!


So, in recent days, weeks, months my laptop keyboard was, on some occasions, warmer than I felt it should be. And a lot of the time I can hear my cooling fan spinning at various speeds, ranging from "I can barely hear it, is it actually working?" to "Oh my god it's going to fly out from the casing".


So today, I took it upon myself to open up and tear apart my laptop with absolutely 0 knowledge and 0 experience with disassembling and cleaning it.

So for the first 30-45 minutes or so I went all caveman with my screw driver trying to pry it open (after taking out the screws obviously) but realising something wasn't right when one corner was still tightly sealed.

So then came the help of Uncle Google who gave me this and I was well on my way to successfully opening it.

And so, after about 40 baby screws and fingering with some ultra-delicate plastic bits...








I did it!!!! *Proud geek moment*





I then proceeded to dump out all the hair, dust, skin flakes and dead insects, as well as this great wall of dust which was blocking my cooling fan:





This is all it took to put my fan into constant, unnecessary over drive.



Now, after cleaning out much of my laptop organs, my fan has not made a single sound the whole day. Yes I can feel the air coming out so it is still working. So uh, if you have a laptop that needs cleaning...........




Hehee.