Life as a technician

Some stuff on my life as it is, and what's going on in my life.

Many people ask me how's work, and I don't know why I find that hard to answer. Maybe cos it's not that I'm really enjoying, nor am I really hating it. It's just like that. I wonder if it would be something like that for the rest of my life. heh.

Ok, to get this cleared, I'm just gonna briefly describe what I actually do at work. I'm under IC Line Maintanence unit. Everything that has to do with machines and tools going haywire or breaking down, we are the people to call for. Chuah and others are in different departments. He's in PCB assembly unit if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, there are plenty of machines at our line. Big ones. But not really huge ones if compared to other companies. So we're like firemen on hold, heh. Any obstacles, any jams or anything, the workers, or called 'operators' would come to our workshop, which is at one corner of the whole floor and call for 'backup'. Sounds like a SWAT team or something huh. haha.

Other than that, we have to run Preventive Maintanence, PM. It's basically routined rounds of going through machines, cleaning it and whatever other tasks to ensure that the machines are in top condition. Also, there are these metal tools in sizes and shapes to help in work called Jigs. All sorts of jigs. All these need to run PM too.

Documentation is also very important. My company works for other companies, there's why once in a while these companies would send an auditor to audit the system. When there's an audit coming up, every is double checked and make sure it's like real good. Something like our campus, when there's a VIP coming, you know what happens suddenly to our whole uni. :p

Our workshop is used to repair spoiled parts, and also our 'office'. Other people have comps to use with internet, all we have are screw drivers and nuts and spanar. hehe. When everything is done, and all machines are behaving real good, we really don have much to do. So we spent a lot of time talking, and here's where we meet the family of technicians.

There's a team of 5 techs. 4 work shifts. So you cannot possibly meet all of them at the same time.

First there's Mr A, our chief technician. He's been here like for ages. 12 years I think. He's real smart, and there's no problem he can't fix. you can almost classify him as an engineer, maybe. Saw him working on Visual Basic for whole one day before. The problem with him is, he's not really a people person. and he has mood swings. Sometimes he snaps at you, and if he talks to you for more than 10 sentences in a single time, it means he's in good mood. He mumbles, which makes it very hard to understand him the first few days I came in. And the worst thing is, he doesn't really care about my existence. I could be following him all day, and he wouldn't even cared to bother about me. oh yea, try saying 'selamat pagi' to him, all you get is a cold response.
Felt the lashing of his tongue last week when he accused me of stuff I didn't do. Don't get me started on that.

Then there's Mr M. Man, this is the joker of the team. Indian fella. He's the only fella that could get even Mr A cracking up. Talks a lot of crap, and teaching me a lot of bad things. He's the dude who asks me questions like 'Are you still a virgin' or why haven't I get laid and stuff like that. hehe. Got me real laughing everytime he's around. Oh yea, he keeps teaching me how to get a vietnamese operator out for dinner, rent a hotel room and 'socialise'. keke. Crazy fella. But all in all, he likes to explain how machines work and procedures. I learnt a lot from him. He likes to bring you on 'line tours', where he will explain the processes and how things run. Oh ya, he's the only person who really involves me in work. He will make me do the work, which gives me a lot of hands on stuff to do. Maybe he's lazy too. heh. I don't mind. I look forward to his shifts a lot.

Mr J. He's a 2 year old employee from sarawak. Has the nicest personality to mix with. And he regrets not studying more and coming out to work to early. Really interested about engineering and keen to learn. Really like to be around him. And I found out yesterday he's a Christian too!! yup. He's actually married with kids too. Orang Bidayuh. Nice fella.

Mr R. Before I met him, Mr M told us stories about how this fella has a 'jampi'. ( little ghost) He hasn't bought fish from the market for years. Rumor has it that this fella has a jampi to help him catch fish. he'll just go to the river and put his finger in, move it to create puddles. and fish would come swimming to him. He 'pantang' catching more than 9 to 10 fishes, saying the jampi won't help him anymore. Even our fellow techs don't really dare to come to his house.hehe. Was quite scared when I first met him. Dark fella, with the front teeth jutting out. A bit wary at first. But after a while with him, I try not to think about any jampi business and I learnt a lot from him. He's actually a nice guy. Humble and ready to explain stuff to you.

Finally, Mr Z. He's only a little older than me. And he came in like 2,3 weeks before I came in. So he's as new as me. He hasn't been put into shifts yet, cos he's under training. So, he works normal hours like me. We're like best buds-in-training. Oh he's a permanent worker btw. We do almost everything together. He's a quiet fella basically, and when he talks, he talks real fast. It's amazing how fast his tongue can work. keke. So sometimes I need to ask him to repeat a few times what's he saying. We had good talks sometimes, when the boss isn't around. :p And he started to share about problems at his kampung. And we talk about religion and cultures. Thing is, because he's in training, lots of work is given to him instead of me cos I'm oni a trainee. When he goes into shift next week, though I'll miss him, hopefully I get more hands on work compared to now.

Finally there's my real boss, my supervisor. He's in charge of all the technicians I mentioned above. He's a chinese fella. And we have good relations. I thank God that I have a good supervisor. He comes in once in a while when he's free and chats with me, and exposes me to an engineer's life. Learnt a lot from his experience, and from the way he handles his technicians. In fact, come to think of it, I'm probably absorbing more on how people handle people here than how to handle machines here sometimes. heh.

All right, I've blogged a lot. I wonder how are others doing.

Oh ya, just a lil fact and discussion I had with Esther that day.

Guys call girls to find out how they are.
Girls don't call guys.
Girls sometimes call girls too.
Guys usually don't call guys cos it's weird.

Then who calls the guys? Sometimes guys are not as macho and 'i-can-live-by-myself' as you think. One guy friend even said he might just die one day in his room, and nobody won't even notice it. What a sad statement.

Ciaoz.