Why Would I Write

  • Handling Fees

    So, the other day I received a letter from the customs department, telling me that I had a package with them and I needed to pay taxes for it before I could get it. Initially I responded to their letter, saying I was okay with Pos Malaysia handling it for me like they had in the past. All I would have to do was head to the local post office, pay them and collect my item. However, days went by and I didn’t get a call or email telling me to collect my package. I figured something was wrong, so I gave the customs department a call.

    At this point it had almost been a week since I had told them to go ahead with Pos Malaysia as my handler, so imagine my surprise when I learned that the package was still at the customs office in KLIA. I decided, fuck it – I’ll go pick up the package myself. I get to save on the RM50 handling fees, and bring it home with me on the same day.

    It’s been a while since my last drive to KLiA, and man that place is far as balls. Driving there was close to an hour, with tolls on the MEX highway. The hot weather didn’t make it any more pleasant. At least when I go there, parking was free and there was plenty of it.

    That made me think there weren’t many people that day. I was wrong. The waiting area was packed. It was going to be a long day.

    There were many steps involved in the whole process, here’s what I did:

    1. You sign in by showing your customs letter and giving your identity card to the guards at the entrance. They hand you a pass and tell you to enter the building and look for counter 1.
    2. At counter 1, you pass them the letter – they head to the back, dig out your package and pass it to you. They then tell you to proceed to counter 2.
    3. At counter 2, one of the staff will ask you to open up the package and you have to tell them how much it costs (show them an official receipt).
    4. They will then fill up some paperwork and ask you to bring it to counter 3, while you leave your parcel at counter 2.
    5. So on you head to counter 3, and pass your documents to the person behind the glass. They tell you to wait, so this part depends on on how many people were there before you.
    6. After a while, they’ll call your name and give you back the documents, which you have to bring to counter 2. At counter 2, you pass the documents to them, and they ask you to wait again. I’m not sure what goes on at this stage, but the end result is them giving you a document which states how much you have to pay for the item.
    7. You then head back to counter 3 and pass the documents to the person behind the glass. You wait again, until your name is called. You then go to the counter to pay the fee. You collect the documents and head back to counter 2.
    8. At counter 2, they verify that you’ve made the purchase, then give you the green light to leave with your parcel.
    9. You head to the guard house to return the pass and to collect your identity card again.
    10. Get in your car and drive home.

    The above process took me about 3 hours at the customs office alone. So if you factor in the traveling time, that was about 5 hours of my day gone. Just like that. A huge fucking waste of time.

    I probably should have paid the RM50 handling fees in the first place, but I guess now I know for sure. Also, they were being lazy and my parcel hadn’t moved in days. So I felt compelled to do something about it.

    TL;DR, is it worth paying handling fees? If you have an afternoon to spare, and you live close by to the customs office, sure. If not, just give Pos Malaysia the handling fees, it’s worth not going through the hassle.

  • Breaking a Streak/Gig #118

    Breaking a Streak/Gig #118

    No, this blog isn’t dead. Just been busy doing writing for work so I haven’t been keen on writing recently. But this is the first time in a while I haven’t done a weekly blog post.

    Last week I wrote a post about how to bring a dog overseas, but I’ll only publish that when I’ve successfully completed it. Yes, I am going to be bringing Snuggles with me to the US – or at least, I’ll be attempting to. Now I’m just waiting for the documentation process to be completed. Once I get them, everything should be smooth sailing. Hopefully.

    Not that I want to get rid of my dog. I’ll miss her dearly. But I think she’d have a better life in the US with my sister. Provided everything goes smoothly, and that she copes with the flight. I think there should be an option for pet owners to fly in the cargo section of the plane so they can keep them company throughout the long journey. I wonder why airlines haven’t implemented that yet. I’m pretty sure many passengers would choose that option if it was possible.

    One thing I had to do during the whole ordeal of finding out how to get Snuggles to the US was make a lot of phone calls. Which brings me to the topic of hotlines. I’ve had something stuck at Malaysian customs since last Thursday, and was told to get in touch with them about clearing the item. So I did – or at least I tried to. I called many times, no answer, left a message, nobody called me back, sent multiple emails – no reply except for a generic message this morning that requested for the same exact information that I had already sent to them in my initial emails. Do they have bots working at the offices? I’m not sure. My previous dealing with the customs office was straightforward and quick. This time has been terrible. It feels like I’ve been cursed to make stupid phone calls in 2019. Anyway, don’t want to rant anymore about it, onto something more positive:

    I’m playing a show at a new venue this week, should be real fun. Come drop by for some cool tunes and beer. I’ll be playing a long ass set (30 mins) compared to my usual 3-song sets at open mics. Details below:

    Open Mic by Lockerroom [Facebook Page]

    Time: 8 PM – 10:30 PM
    Date: 31st January 2019
    Venue: Lockerroom, DC Mall [Google Maps]

    The lineup hasn’t been finalized yet but I’ll be playing at 9pm. Hope to see you guys there!

  • Not giving up on ortho just yet

    Not giving up on ortho just yet

    When I got my Planck late last year, I ended up putting it aside most of the time due to my difficulty with using the ortholinear layout. I felt kinda bad about neglecting it so over the past two weeks I’ve been forcing myself to use the keyboard exclusively when working outside, and what a difference it’s been. I can actually type at decent speeds right now, and even though the bottom row is still a challenge to me, I think I can actually get used to it (I’m up to 76wpm now). Good thing humans are adaptable creatures.

    The main issue I face with this board was with QMK. I’m happy that the people working on it have been keeping it updated, and they’ve been very responsive on reddit and discord. Big shout out to them. For people who want to stick with the default layout, this won’t be an issue since you don’t need to mess around with keymaps and setting up build environments.

    In terms of build quality, you get what you pay for. I do have two screws that seem to unscrew themselves from time to time, I’m not sure why, but I’ll have to implement a fix in the future.

    For my layout, I haven’t changed much since my initial setup but yesterday I remapped it to be closer to my other 40% keyboards because I find myself going to the same hotkeys on this board, so I’ve got another retraining step to do. Having an arrow cluster is quite useful – when paired with the function key, I get a very intuitive page up/down, home/end key cluster.

    I have also replaced my BOX Royals with Gateron Greens because I find them more enjoyable to type on. BOX Royals do sound real nice in this case though. I’m still using the KBDFans XDA set I designed. May or may not replace them in the future, depending on how much I want to invest in the Planck. I’ll probably be on the lookout for a nicer case.

    Maybe I need a few more months with it, but I honestly don’t feel the benefits this keyboard has over my other 40% keyboards. 40% keyboards are already tiny, I have no issues hitting every key from the home row regardless of the stagger – the ortholinear layout only confuses my muscle memory. The best thing about the keyboard is its portability. It’s the lightest keyboard I currently own and I really enjoy traveling with it in my backpack.