So this morning I got up extremely early (considering that I just slept at 2.30am) at 6.00am to go to the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (National Registration Department) main HQ in PJ State to apply for MyKad - the country’s latest national identity card that’s embedded with a smartchip for various “smart” applications.

Long posting ahead - click Continue reading below to see the rest of this post - wat to do - haven’t been blogging for a few days liao mar… no longer blog clogged smiley

Hearing some horror stories about how the centralized information can be easily misused (here’s a parody of such story, by TV Smith - The Naked Card), I still decide to go for the change… why?

It’s because I haven’t updated my IC ever since getting it at 12 years old… yeah, I’m a 22y.o. adult here carrying a 12y.o. kiddo IC (summore the pic no color - jealous of my sister’s one!!! smiley ).

Back then, before the Govt announced of free application of MyKad (in Budget 2003), the application queue was minimal and it’s faster than applying for the conventional IC. Now, it’s nightmarish! Hearing so much nightmare stories of queueing up and still getting a big number and wait for over 3-4 hours??? What the FUCK???!!

Anyway, having procrastinated for so long, I decided to get up extra early and hope to reach there before 7am - i did, clutching this morning’s The Star paper in hand - i joined the queue of what seems to be over 20 people already before me (yeah, got my number at 125, so I’m the 25th or 26th, depending on whether they started at 100 or 101….) Imagine this, on the 1st floor lift lobby, which is partially dark (coz 1/2 of the area got no lighting), well over 40 people was already queueing up before the door opens at 7.30am! It’s stuffy and all - why do we have to go thru this just to perform an obligation as a citizen to apply for an identity card?

It’s definitely not kiasuism to blame - heard that an average of 400 applications are served only in a day. It took me almost an hour to get mine done (being the 25th or 26th person) and it didn’t help that they didn’t open all the counters available (God knows why, it is Wednesday damnit! not Prayers Friday - it’s WEDNESDAY FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! WHERE ARE ALL THE STAFF? Gone to TGV/GSC to watch movie at 1/2 price ISSIT???!!!). So that’s only like 4 or 5 counters servicing the applications while 2 more counters were responsible for phototaking. So people are being forced to rush out in the early morn just to get the chance to apply for an ID card… heard from the people queueing, that if I had gone at 9am, I’ll probably not get it done until at least 3 or 4pm (that is, if I’m lucky to still get a number to get it done!)

After getting the IC application out of the way, I decided to reward myself with breakfast, something I haven’t had ever since coming home to KL… hehe it’s always brunch! smiley Went to McDonald’s in Section 14 PJ for the breakfast meal - tho I’d very much prefer some omelettes with lotsa bacon bits and melted cheese… smiley Hanged around there reading more news in the paper (did I mention that Jeff Ooi’s blog post about MIMOS being hit with Blaster virus was quoted in Page 12 of The Star newspaper! Wow, nowadays the press are turning to blogsites for news???) while sipping on my free refills of tea… tee hee… smiley

Then I left for Midvalley as I needed to cash a cheque from my dad. Walked around as it’s only 10am. Noticed that RHB Bank is launching a new credit card for the young and trendy age group there and was asking around camera shops for the tube adaptor and polarizer lens filter for my camera.. alas, none of them have any stock and if to order, it’s the original Olympus one that they can get (not cheap too! smiley ) The lens filters that they sell there isn’t exactly cheap either! smiley

Then I noticed a bunch of girls in the Lewre (did I get that name right?) shoe boutique and some reporter/photographers… on closer look, I think they’re the Dalian models who flew in from China for the KL Fashion Week, organized by The Star… some kinda promo lar must be… the girls all going crazy over the shoes in the shop - situation is like Stephen Chow and his Shaolin Soccer teammates crazy over the Adidas boots when they just got the sponsorship (okay perhaps that was exaggerated, bring down the craziness a notch or 2, and you’ll get what I mean) - what’s with girls and shoes anyway? (Another thing that we men will never understand, I suppose smiley )

After almost 1 hour, I walked past the shop again, and the girls were STILL THERE - geez… *shaking my head in disbelief* - And then I left for home since there’s pretty much nothing I wanted to buy (except some Tong Kee egg tarts (from the Jusco supermart’s non-halal section) for my mom & some pastries for myself)

All-in-all, it’s a good and productive start to my day… now, if you would excuse me, I’ll balance up my day with some sleep… tee hee smiley