Abyss of Mediocrity

But nay, nay! Do not allow thineself to plunge into the depths of the Abyss of Mediocrity!
~T. Dowd (kind of)

For the profound respect I have for my good buddy Kadian I decided to start this blog out with a quote.  The above was oft mentioned by an old Hilton High chemistry teacher to us industrious scholars.  It kept popping into my head in the past few weeks after I accepted the job with Jord so I thought it might be a fun little way to title the blog.  And imagine my luck, the name wasn't taken!  So welcome to the blog and I hope you enjoy my writings as I make my attempt to keep out of the Abyss.

Malaysian Ringgit = 0.3178 USD (rough calculation is to divide by three, estimates it on the high side)

So Malaysia...pretty cool so far.  Lots of excellent food, which is going to make it pretty difficult for me to keep my token trim figure.  In my first few days here I've had Malay, Thai, Chinese, Irish, Italian, Halal, Indian and even some American.  Everything has been tasty and prices are cheap.  A normal meal at a local place is about 10 Ringgit.  These restaurants are generally open faced with lots of ceiling fans and an eclectic mix of beat up old tables and chairs.  The nicer restaurants are often open faced, usually with air conditioning.  These are pretty clean, similar to a nice casual restaurant in the states.  Meals here are 30-50 Ringgit.

Booze and other white folk things (cigars, bottled water) tend to be more expensive.  Beer and liquor here are a good deal more expensive than in the states, but everything else is cheaper so I tend to not worry about it too much.

Brad Moody is my boss at Jord while I'm in Malaysia, he's been here for about 18 months (from Australia originally) and lives with his girlfriend Rhi. Both Brad and Rhi are cool people, they've introduced me to their group of friends here and we've gotten together outside of work just about everyday.  I'm benefiting greatly from all of their experience including where to eat and what to avoid (like utility caps on sidewalks, they tend to break or shift and allow your foot to plunge into a pool of muck.)  Hopefully Jord will put up a little extra cash to put me in the same building as Brad and Rhi.  Brad and I drive the 50 minutes to work together in the morning so it would make sense.  Their building is quite nice, couple infinity pools on the roof and a tennis court where I whooped Brad last night.

50 minute commute, yes it sucks.  But it did cut my old commute by more than half.  Brad will be working longer days than I will probably need to for awhile, but that gives me a chance to catch up with the western hemispherians electronically at the beginning and end of the day.  I'm also contemplating getting PADI dive certified which I could possibly do the first part of online.  The office area is attached to the workshop where they build the ACHE (air cooled heat exchangers).  The first floor of the office is being renovated now so everyone is packed into the second, it's a bit tight.  In a month or so it should be pretty comfortable.

Ok...enough of a start so far.  Hope all is well with everyone! I think it will be easier to use facebook for photos.  When I put them up there I'll attach a link in the blog too.