Mystifying Valley

No blogging in the coming week as I’ll be strapped down with Tech.Ed 2008. But you can follow me on Twitter where I’ll try to update as often as I can. http://twitter.com/stephchin

So glad I’m finally home now.

Never really been particularly fond of Genting Highland as a place to hang out and to my further dismay, this business trip really didn’t help much to change my impression towards it. Genting was extremely crowded with all sort of people, gamblers aplenty and also family with kids and we were constantly forced to walk behind those notorious "slow walkers" amidst the crowd. Only if you can imagine how frustrated that can be! 

Dinner at Torcelli in Genting Theme Park.

I was there for the Share Guide Association Malaysia 19th Annual Conference for 3 days 2 nights where Microsoft was the platinum sponsor.  We were given accommodation at First World Hotel which was totally crappy. The room amenities were too basic to mention and it didn’t look anything more than 2-3 star. Sound proof was bad, it was so noisy throughout we hardly slept well. Food was also nothing to shout about even though we were dining at some decent restaurants such as Torcelli.

My colleagues, Patrick and Poh Sze

Chilling out at the Theme Park on Sunday night around midnight

The only place to get internet access there is Starbucks. We were working there every night till the wee hours.

I guess it’s the exhaustion that I came home grumpy and sick. 

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But lodging and food aside, the conference was nonetheless a fruitful trip a I’ve gained some ICT knowledge from the partners and networking with some senior personnel in the FSI industry. Also met my ex-boss ( a great mentor) and some ex-clients there.  

Two Microsoft booths.

Left: Myself and the product manager of developer tools, Tang Siak Kwan

Right: Our windows Mobile partner from Excel Force

Poh Sze and I on the last day

Group pic before we tore down the place.

Received an unexpected SMS at 10pm from some MNC big shot just now which kinda thrown me off guard.

But what they say is  true:

God is fair, he will make it up to you for things that you’ve lost. 

I’m taking this very positively.

But on a well-being note, with my extremely hectic schedule in the past few weeks I’m now down with sore throat, mouth ulcer, chapped lips and a sprouting pimple.

Have to be at office tomorrow at 7.30am for yet again another enterprise event.

*yawn*

Good night pals.

It was yet again a great event yesterday.

Visual Studio 2008 Deep Dive at Multimedia University (MMU) in Cyberjaya.

 
  
Majority of the attendees are software developers from giant MNCs around the area and they took a day off to spend with us 

   
 Some were “awestruck” by our speakers showcase
   

    
Well, our speakers were indeed very very cool, look at Tyson!
    

   
Hoong Fai, Rohan, Poh Sze and Patrick
    

    
And whilst I was trying to clear some work when the event was still ongoing
    

    
Some struggled to stay awake

 
  

    

    
Ian, Siak Kwan and I looking relief, happy but exhausted after the event.
    

    
Bunch of Old skool kids from the crew.
 
 

If you are going to PC Fair this weekend, don’t forget to drop by the Microsoft Booth at Hall 4. Lots of great promos and amazing prizes! There is also a wind chamber for every Microsoft software purchaser!

Anabelle and I this afternoon checking out our booth.

3000 over heroes from all over Malaysia have rocked KL Convention Center on Tuesday! The crowd was overwhelming and the event was really successful. Glad to be part of the launch team this time again after last year’s WOW launch. Product launches have always been the most sweaty and yet the most satisfying experience in Microsoft.

 It’s just like giving birth, you would have forgotten all the pain and sweat the moment your newborn is placed in your arms…

Anyway, here are some of the photos taken on the Heroes Launch.

The night before launch day where we stayed till 1am for the dry run.
 
 

Had very minimal rest before launch day. Attendees started flocking in from 7.30am onwards.
  

The exhibition hall where activities were ongoing throughout the day
  

The diligent crew making sure everything was executed flawlessly.
  

Our inspirational MD up on stage.  
  

The heroes
  

 

The Opening Gambit
  

Hands On Lab
  

Ask The Expert
  

Press Conference
  

Kennedy and I
  

 
Going for the launch appreciation night at Scarlett later. Have a good weekend peeps!
  

Today is my boss official last day at the company after 13 years. I’ve only known her for 2 and I’m already missing her heaps, not sure how are the rest taking it but you know it’s like one of those farewell that’s so hard to bid…
I hate saying goodbyes.

The team did a memorabilia video for her which we broadcasted during her farewell lunch today. The last bit was done so last minute and more I was rushing to head off somewhere… my messy hair made me looked like a crazy woman. grrrrrr

last few words for Lisa

It’s 1am as I’m typing now and at the same time I’m still replying emails. *yawn*

Will be traveling to Penang for work on Wednesday. Just checked my itenerary details, the flight is at 7am! O_o I’ll get picked up at 4am, which means I’ll have to wake up at 3am! O_O!!!  

Just to rub salt into injury further, didn’t they just declare Wednesday a public holiday?

I’ve yet to bid a proper goodbye to 2007 before it left me. Can’t believe a year has came and gone, just like that. 2007 was a rather fruitful & eventful year for me on both personal & work levels. The good has definitely outweighed the bad and I must say, 2007 also marked the steepest learning curve in my career thus far. With hindsight, I’m pretty satisfied with every single moment that I’ve lived, thankfully.

Let’s rewind a few major events & incidents which happened last year.

-

Jan & Feb - Launch of Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007/ LOVE Launch

Biggest product launch in Microsoft history and I was so honored to be part of the core team in Malaysia. It was absolutely amazing, with more than 10,000 estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people turned up at Low Yat that weekend.

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March - Accomplished 2 virgin skits

• First time participated in a full scale treasure hunt from KL to Cherating (lasted for 8 hours!!) during a company offsite, organized by Time Out Solutions. Boy it was super fun!

• I’ve had many chances to join friends for paint-balling in the past but never really materialized in the end. During the company offsite at Cherating, I’ve had a helluva time at the paintball field which was right next to the beach!

• Winning the execution excellence award was definitely an encouragement to end first quarter of the year. 

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April

• I turned another year older. With the exception that I really felt the aging part this time and started feeling uncomfortable when people ask, ” So how old are you?” In a few years time I’ll be hitting the big three. Scary.

• On a drunken night out, my ex-boss told me that I’ve passed the intern review and that I will be moving into my second year. Good news.

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May

• “The Secret” came true. I knew it would happen but didn’t expect it to come so soon. A surprise trip to London for a week with the boyfriend during labor week. Trailed back my footprints where I left them.  Went to some of the nostalgic places I used to hang out including Cambridge.   

will elaborate more about the trip in my next few posts.

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June

The Business Agility event - vertical & industry focused which we haven’t done in a while. It was again another highlight.

to be continued.

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It’s been hell of 2 weeks and boy… my eye bags are almost on par with the size of a ballon. not mentioning the volcano breakouts.

Hey you look like shit woman”
Can you please go home now before you collapse right here?”
 Oh my what happened to you?”
I’m probably already immuned to remarks like these, which I usually reply with a wry smile.
I must detest. I am in fact, damn excited about my work.

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The short tale below illustrates a little more on one of the many dramas of late…

Say you’ve been working on a project, so hard that over weeks of sleepless nights to finally come up piece a proposal which you glee discreetly. Then you were waiting for that moment to share with your peers … …
But you’ve missed out a basic but crucial step.You forgot to backup.

That fateful morning, my laptop decided not to reboot itself. All it did was showed a brutal msg telling me ‘Hard disk error.’ The IT folks spent two hours to salvage but to no avail( the ITG did their best, they even put the disk into a freezer & foiled it). It was certified. Of all times it has chosen to lay rest at this moment. Now all your data’s lost. Everything that you’ve worked is gone. And I mean everything that I’ve been putting together in the past four months.

It was spectacular.  It’s worst than missing a very important flight. They gave me a new hdd with an extra 10gb capacity. So that’s a brownie point they claimed. Actually coming to think of it I didn’t even have the time to grieve over my lost data coz I had only a few hours to redo my deck of slides ( which includes retrieving all the data points that you’ve collected from hundred various sources in the past weekssss if not months).

At 6pm sharp, the management team arrived punctually. My supportive peers were giving me the supportive eye contacts. I did what I’ve got to do and two hours later, Viola!

Happy. Went home around 11pm to mourn my loss

Back up your data NOW!

I finally tendered my resignation letter a week plus ago and I’m currently serving my one month notice. It was one of the hardest decision to make these days.  I’m leaving my ever so supportive boss who is also my mentor and a whole bunch of wonderful colleagues and also earning those commissions that I’m humbly proud of; to a job that can give me connections and exposure that I will never be able to get without it. The package is not looking pretty at this point but I’m heading towards a career move.

I should be happy, shouldn’t I?