The “Bad” numbers

I don’t consider myself a fan of superstition. However, growing and living in this part of the world that full of tales of superstitions, I rather be cautious than sorry. One thing that obsess me so much is to avoid the number that consider unlucky or bad luck. for Chinese, every number with 4 is consider bad since the pronunciation for 4 in Chinese (including most of the dialect) is close to the word “Dead”. Therefore, during celebration, number 4 is something that most of the people try to avoid.

On the other side, number 13 is consider unlucky in western culture. I don’t know the reason behind. My conscious mind tell me that these are baseless superstition belief  and therefore I should not pay any attention to but in the recently years, I started to notice that I’m in one way or another influnced so greatly by these 2  ”forbidden” numbers.

First of all, during my gym session, I try to avoid stopping at repetition 13 or 14, 24, etc. no matter how strenuousness it is, I try to finish my repetition at 10 or 15. While driving, my car’s audio volume will never stopped at 13 or 14 . I will turn the volume to the closest number like 12 or 15 to avoid having those uncomfortable feeling of an accident is around the corner.

Are these numbers really bring bad luck to us? I don’t think so but the subconscious mind of mine keeps telling me to avoid it. To make myself feel better, it’s better to be careful rather than sorry.

A Little Girl Incident in the Book Store

This evening while I was browsing books in a book store, I overhead a short conversation between a father and his littler unsatisfied daughter when they walked passed me to leave the book store. The father is walking in front while the little girl tailing him an kept complaining about them have to leave so soon.

Father: We go back now and will come again next time.
Little girl: Why leave so soon? I’m not done with the book yet.
Father: We can come back another day and you can continue your reading.
little girl: But then I will not remember which page I’ve stopped.

I didn’t turn back to look at them. I was still searching for my book while their conversation faded in the air. It was a rather amusing conversation. A simple and genuine comment from a girl.

I’m not sure why the father refuse to buy the book for his daughter.  He can have his own reasons. But shouldn’t we be glad if our children like to read? I’ll be more than happy to encourage them to read by bringing them to the book shop and help them to select some good books. It  is good to develop a reading habit while the kid is young.

I left the book store with some value buy John Grisham’s fictions and other non fiction book that will be enough to keep me busy for months. Tonight i’m going to do some reading while watching the TV.

A Country of Crimes

I’ve a thought that US is a country full of criminals. The best criminal are found from Las vegas to Miami to New York; From Washington to L.A. Why do I say so? Just look at your TV program, most of the series airing in FOX and AXN are in police/crime genre. These series introduce the most brilliant and thrilling  crimes that we can or cannot think of.

The success of these thrilling series are mainly the hard works of the creative TV crews and script writers. However, as an audience, we seldom doubt the origin of the crime. We in a way, believe most of the crime shown are real and it happened. So if most of the crime scenes are real, it means that those similar “crimes” did happen somewhere around America (maybe not all in America). So, my thought of America is a country full of crimes somehow has its base.

Let’s not discuss about the crime rate. This evening,  just like any other Sunday evening, I’m in fact going to spend time in front of the TV indulging in CSR: Trilogy (CSI Las Vegas, New York & Miami) that aired in AXN from 9pm to 12am.

Last Words

In one of the episode of the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother”, the main character – Marshall’s father had passed away and his father left a voice message to him before he died. The whole episode is about his father’s last words and of course, Marshall was really touched by his father’s last words. Also in this episode, everyone was asked what their father’s last words to them would be should their fathers die.

It was an entertaining episode but I guess nobody will put in much thought about it after the show end. But not for me. My mind kept wondering what was the last words from my late father to me before he passed away. I even tried to ask what would be the last words from the one I loves? especially from the elderly. The more I asked, the more worried I was to imagine that they can leave me anytime without I know it. However, this feeling of uncertainty did not last long. I continued to recall what my late father last words before he died. I tried without  success. I could not recall exactly what his last words was; but I still can recall my last words to him.

In life, how many of us actually remember the last words from the one we love? On the other hand, do we ever wonder what is the last word we will probably hear from the one we love or what was the last words from them? In reality, we can’t predict what’s would happen to us the next minute or to the people around us, therefore we won”t know which words should be or will be the last words. A routinely morning greeting or good bye, an argument end with harsh words, a phone conversation, a joke during a drinking session, an order to do something could possibly end up become the last words from us or the one we loves.

In Chinese tradition, we try to avoid thinking or discussing anything related to mortal. But in reality, everyone will have the chance to say his last words. Today, instead of avoiding the “Last words” topic, how about we try to pay more attention to the our conversation with the one we love? listen to them and answer them in a nice way instead of rude and cold one.

Picnic

Picnic set in the Garden

Picnic was a popular activity in this country, or at least it was a “kid” activity whether they ever participated or not. Most of the pupils have some “experience” associate with picnic. In the primary school, it’s common that pupils are being told to prepare a composition that associate with picnic. Those days during the 80′s, some of the “popular picnic spots” for pupils in the central Malaysia would be Lake Garden, Templer Park, Port Dickson, Morib and etc.

Today, I’m not sure if majority of the people here in Klang Valley are still into Picnic. I guess it’s less popular nowadays since I never heard it from the people around me organizing any picnic activity. It could be due to the hot weather and dusty air that made people opted for the shopping centre during the weekend for a cooler environment.

However, there is always this childhood image of picnic sit in my mind that long for a good and warm family picnic session. We prepare nice foods of sandwiches, burgers, sausages, salads, nasi lemak, potatoes chips, roasted groundnuts to serve with chilled soft drinks and beers. Everyone sit or lay on the grass, enjoying the foods, the nature and a relaxing weekend.

I came across this link with images of picnic from all around the world. Check to see if any of these picnic style fit to the ideal picnic in your mind.

Today’s Pictures: Memorial Day al Fresco – http://t.co/Lw5eSz6 via @MagnumPhotos

Song for Whoever – The Beautiful South

There are always songs you like them so much that the songs can arouse your emotion whenever you listen to them. This chemical between an individual and the songs is so strange that it’s like a relationship between 2 lovers. It’s hard to share the feeling with other even if you share the same song with others. The person you shared the song with might not like the song as much as you did. In short it’s very individual.

This evening while having a chat with my wife, we brought up a subject that suddenly made me sung a chorus part of a song to her. A song from a band which is my favorite of all time, an old song that aged so well and always keeps my heart young as a teen whenever I listen to it again. The title of the song is “Song for Whoever” by The Beautiful South. It’s the band’s first single Back in 1989.

The Beautiful South

I was 14 when I first heard of this song aired on the radio without knowing who the artist was and the title of this song. Those days when internet was not available (let alone YouTube) and there were only about 4 radio stations in Malaysia, it’s not as easy as today to access any song we like and to find out the detail of this song, I have to tuned to that one and only English station available whenever I can and paid my attention from time to time to the songs they played.

I tried to Google this song and checked out in Youtube. I also spent times listening to other songs by this group. It was a 80′s and 90′s  flashed back evening. The atmospheric, catchy melodies plus the clear and clean instrument arrangement of “Song for Whoever” will easily make everyone fall for it. The opening soft piano notes, the sexy and soft  first vocalist followed by the  the 2nd vocalist of higher pitch and yet magnetic voice during the chorus, the whole song is so stirring  and yet relaxing after listening to it. Although until now, I’m still not too sure about the meaning of the lyrics, it does not stop me from singing along with the chorus… “Jennifer, Alison, Philippa, Sue…”.

I’m sharing this song here, hope everyone like and enjoy the song too.

What can we verify over the Video Authenticity?

Everyone with some knowledges of using movie editing softwares such as MS Movie Maker and Adobe Premier is able to produce video that combine the objects with any backgrounds that shot at separate timing. Thanks to the feature that generally referred as layering.

So in the event if someone presented a video that claim that an UFO was found in the sky above the Eiffel Tower or someone was dancing with an elf, then we will have to verify the authenticity of this video by checking if it’s an original video shot or it’s an product of video editing using technique such as layering , Graphic, 3D animation, etc.

In another scenario, if someone presents a video that claim that a famous Hollywood celebrity driving a Ferrari out with a girl next to him, usually we will verify if the person in the video is the celebrity that they claimed to be or he is just a look alike. Verifying if there is any layering or other video editing technique being used does not serve much purpose in this scenario.

So, I’m confuse when I read that the authority announced that “Experts confirmed the authenticity of the “Datuk T” video. Are they confirmed that the video is a product of original shot or they have confirmed the person involved in the video is the person that the Datuk T claims? If the authenticity refers to the later, then it should be the end of this scandal. The police and the authority can start to take the necessary actions since the person in the video has been identified. However if the authenticity is merely confirm that the video is an original shot, then I wonder how much of this statement can help to identify the person in the video and what kind of breakthrough have they achieve?

I feel that it’s wise if the police department and the department in charge of this type of scandal can handle the case as low profile as possible. they don’t have to hold a press conference to announce such meaningless statement. After all, this kind of scandal is not a healthy news that should attract the attention of the nation especially for prolong period of time. Instead, the nation should be exposed to more info about the government policies, the social development and the current world affairs.

A small thing that we can learn from the Japanese

The north-east region of Japan was badly hit by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake followed by a tsunami that struck the region on 11 Mar 2011. It caused bad damages to the regions infrastructures and taken away thousand of life. The country is currently facing the worst nuclear disaster ever in this country when the earthquake and tsunami knocked out power to the Nuclear plant that causing the plant’s cooling system not functioning. The result was a overheating Nuclear reactor that could blow off if it could not be cool down in time.

From some of the news and photos, I learned that and also admired the spirits and discipline the Japan’s people displayed to the world. Even though running out of fuel at the petrol stations and foods in the supermarket, peoples were patiently queuing up for their turn to buy the foods and pump the petrol. In contrast, some countries during this bad period of time, some people were robing the shops and fighting for foods that delivered to them.

I could not image what will our people react if similar disaster happen in our country even in a much smaller scale. I still remember months ago, an accident involved a truck carried rice that tumbled to the road at the North-South highway. Motorist and residents were stopped by at the location. They were not given a helping hand but rushing and competing to collect the rice that spread on the road. this incident suggest that somehow, this could be what our people will react amidst of disaster.

This small incident showed that we still have a big rooms for improvement toward a nation of highly developed society and culture. The ethic and high discipline displayed by the Japanese do not change even in the bad time of the disaster. It looks small but we can learn from them.

The day I paid off my loan

Today was an not so ordinary day for me. It’s beginning of the month. As usual, I took long queue in front of the Cash Deposit Machine  (CDM) for my loan installment. It took me around 15mins to reached my turn but my payment was rejected by the machine. I went directly into the branch, took the queue number and again, another 15 mins passed wen the Queuing machine counted my turn and instructed me to proceed to counter 6 for my transaction.

At counter 6, I surrendered my installment  money together with the complete filled payment slip to the bank teller and minutes later, I was informed by the teller that he could not process my payment due to my loan account has been closed. I was advised that I have to go to my home branch for the detail. So, without much hesitation, I went directly to the my home branch which was not far from where I was.

There were not many possibilities that I can think of. Could it be my loan installment had been finally settled? but i well remembered there were another 5 to 6 months before my last payment. Maybe it has some technical problems with my account but what was that technical problem? Maybe my home branch has been closed resulted in my account being transfered. I was hoping that its the first possibility.

After about half an hour, I finally reached the branch and sat in front of the branch officer for the verification. Upon checking, the branch officer smiled at me and congratulated me while informing me that my last payment had been payoff on last month. My housing loan with the bank had been settled. I was finally free of loan.

I guess this is something everyone who is taking loan from bank wish to achieve as soon as possible, to payoff their loan. It took me a discipline 10 years to finally paid off my loan. It’s beyond words explanation how easy and relief I was after hearing the words from the bank officer. I’m a freeman now before my next home purchase that will need to engage another loan contract with the bank. Anyway, I should enjoy this loan free period. Take the chance to save the extra money I have.

This is  a day that worth a celebration. This is the day I paid off my loan.

My Reading list for 2010

I’m a slow reader. I read regularly but don’t finish it fast. In average, I finish a book in every 2 months. Besides reading books and magazines, I browse through mainly news and articles in the net. 2010 was a busy year for me but yet I managed to finish some books. Below are the list of some of the books (excluding magazines) I’ve read in 2010 including the last one which just finished yesterday (Pour Your Heart Into It)

Jim Giraffe by Daren King (fiction)

The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon (fiction)

The Chamber by John Grisham (fiction)

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (non-fiction, current affair)

The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell (non-fiction, current affair)

Pour Your heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz and Dori Jones Yang (non-fiction)

I enjoyed all of these books. If I were to choose my book of the year for 2010, I recommend “The curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon”. I like the writing style and the humorous of the story.

don’t talk to stanger

My office is around the Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). I’ve been working in this area for many years. When you are being long enough in one area, you tend to see the same faces everyday while on the way for lunch, to the banks, going to office and even when waiting for the train. I can recognize many familiar faces here in this area even though I don’t know them. I can tell that this lady is working in this building, that gentleman is the staff of that particular bank, this woman has put on weight over the years, this pretty lady got a boy friend now but not a handsome one, etc. I guess they can recognize me too but just like me, we treating each other as stranger. We don’t and never greet each other when passing by each other everyday.

Nevertheless, there is one gentleman that I always greet with a smile when we bump into each other on the road. He does the same way too.  For me, he is another total stanger to me, but a friendly one.  2 days ago while walking back to office from lunch, we bump into each other again, and this time both of us stopped and we politely greeting each other and introduce ourselve. His surname is Toh, Mr. Toh.

Most of us here in Malaysia grown up in a typical asian society, which we were told and warned by our parents and the elderly that not to talk to a stanger. We grown up with a mind set that a friendly stranger that come to you will always have some motives behind. This is true for some cases but not all. For this case, I was worried that maybe Mr. Toh is a direct marketing agent, an insurance agent or maybe a guy with specific intention but i guess my worries are somehow too much. He could be just a friendly stranger that wihout any other motives behind.

I wonder if there is a romance story could happen to me in the similar way that i know Mr. Toh, which I can finally get to know the pretty lady that i’ve been noticing for long time… One day, we finally stop to greet each other and introduce ourselve under the sun, with light breeze and fall leaves while other strangers passing by both of us…..

I enclosed herewith a song of the same title with this blog.  best of the 80′s

Mother’s Milk Ice Cream?

There is a special report in today’s evening news. This report is about PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in their products instead of cow’s milk. PETA telling the ice cream maker that cow’s milk is hazardous and milking cows for milk is cruel. This idea of course got a cool reception from the Ice CReam manufacturers and even the La Leche League International, the world’s oldest breast-feeding support group gave then a criticise response.

PETA concern for animals is good but this time, I personally felt that this request has gone a bit too far. Let’s set aside the debate whether milking a cow is cruel or not, the concern is how many moms we need to tap in order to be able to  provide enough supplies of milk for the ice cream industry. In addition, I just cannot imaging that i’m having a ice cream which is made from other women’s milk.  A mother’s milk is still best saved it for her baby.

Cha Cha Cha

I tuned to Lite FM (105.7) while driving home late tonight. Tonight, this radio station was playing quite a number of 80′s disco songs. Many of these songs played were quite familiar, but all the while i just didn’t know the title and the singer of the songs. Tonight, one of the song played had caught my attention and my curiousity drove me to find out more details about this song. Since i didn’t know the title of the song, i tried to memorize some parts of the lyric. The chorus part has these words – “I wanna dance do you like Cha Cha Cha”. I believe most of the peoples grown up as teenager during 1980′s had listened to this song and can be quite familiar with the rhythm and the beat. 

Upon reaching home, I turned on my notebook and started searching in Google. I typed in the part of the lyric i could recall as the search phrase. Thanks to Google for returning me with the result i want. The  title of the song is quite close to the chorus of the song. The title is “Cha Cha Cha” and performed by Finzi Kontini (1985). 

I enclosed herewith the link of this song in YouTube. Kindly let me know if you ever heard of this song and how do think of this song. 

Say No to Plastic Bags

I always feel that the environmental awareness in our Malaysian society is very low. We are not keen in environmental issue. We don’t conserve the usage of water and electricity, we don’t car pool, we prefer to drive to our destination even though the distant is short, we don’t recycle the paper and we use plastic bag for granted without putting much thought about how long it take for a plastic bag to fully decomposed. 

The plastic bags we use to carry groceries are convenient, free and seems like come with unlimited supply. The usage of plastic bags is especially heavy in the hypermarket.  Many years back, when many of the European countries had started to control the usage of plastic bag by introducing biodegradable plastic bags in the shop and charging the customer for each plastic bag used during purchase, our hypermarkets here (local and foreign) still giving out the plastic bags for free and no control. 

I didn’t see that our government nor the private sector are taking any significant steps to address this issue. However, until recent years, I started to notice that many hypermarkets had started to provide the cloth bags(with charges) at the counter for customer to have an alternatives way of carrying the items they purchased. Many companies too, had started to give out cloth bags as door gift. But due to our “culture” of preferring free and more convenient way, we chose not to pay for the cloth bags and still using the free plastic bags given when doing our shopping.

Recently, i’m glad to see that our hypermarkets had even gone one step further to encourage the customer to swtich to cloth bags. For instance, in Jusco convenient store, the customers can accumulate points for using the cloth bag instead of plastic bag (customer required for a one time purchase of the cloth bag from Jusco for RM4.99 each). The points accumultated can be redeemed as cash each time when they shop. In Tesco hypermarket, customer will received discount by reuse the plastic bags they used during their last shopped. When customer bring back these plastic bags and use it during their shopping, Tesco will give them either points or discount on the items that the customer purchases. 

In my opinion, these steps taken will gradually help to educate and encourage our shoppers to save the usage of plastic bags and switch to use cloth bag. I’m glad to see the changes. So, try to reduce the plastic bags usage. To save the earth for out next generation, this is the least we can do.

Little trick to get the ticket you want

Have you ever have the experience that you couldn’t get the ticket you want for a concert, movie or any event? The ticket counter personnel telling you that the ticket you want had been sold out and he/she can only offer you the ticket of the higher price. I guess most of us have this experience.

Me and a colleague of mine went to buy the tickets for a musical show – The Classic Busker. We were looking for the ticket of price RM15. The ticket counter salesperson told us that the ticket for RM15 had been sold out and she can only offer us the RM50 ticket. So, we decided to come back if we want. After back to the office, another colleague told us that parhap we can try again the next day at another counter. His reason is that most of the company encourage the salespersons to push the higher price tickets.

We went to the box office again the next day. As what we were hoping , the RM15 ticket still available, though it’s almost sold out.  Finally, We decided to buy 3 RM30′s tickets for the sunday show. Not bad huh

So, you may try this little trick if there is similar situation happen.

Flu

I like peanuts and I like beers. I even love to have roasted peanuts to go with my beer. However, today I have to say no to them. I have flu with sore throat and mild fever today. This afternoon while on my flight from Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Philippines, The flight attendants offered us the peanuts followed by beer. Due to my bad condition in this afternoon, I’ve have to say No. Instead of beer, I took aspirin, I took lots of water and I told myself I’m going to recover and will enjoy my beer when I landed to Manila. Manila is famous for it’s best beer San Miguel Pale Pilsen. You haven’t been to Manila if you never tried San Miguel and fried knuckles. However, my flu was not getting any better by the evening when I back to my hotel in Makati district. I will rest early and hoping by tomorrow, my body condition will get much better and i will have chance to taste some beers

 

Makati – Foods and Beers

Philippines beers cost so cheap that as a beer drinker, you do not want to miss the chance of drinking more beer here. A bottle of San miguel Pale Pilsen only cost about 20 Peso(RM1.50 or USD0.40) in the convenient store. The normal pub will cost about 50 peso. So cheap…especially for a Malaysian, since our beer cost about RM5.50 for a can of 325ml beer. Since the beers are cheap, you can see that people like to have beer after the office hour. Happily drinking and eating as like everday is a weekend.

Foods are not particularly cheap here as compared to Kuala Lumpur. Pinoy’s diet are very much influenced by American and Spanish due to the long period of colonial under these 2 countries. The foods mainly are fried and roasted stuffs. Meat consumptions are high in their diet.

Local and international fast food chains are all over the city. You can find all sorts of fried and roasted foods in these fast food restaurants. According to the local, Jollibee is the most popular fast food chain here. You will find Jollibee in every corner and most of the outlet are nearby to Mcdonald (Jollibee’s sell burgers and fried chickens). I like the roasted pork and chicken in Mang Inasal restaurant. Rufo’s 24 hours outlet sell good longaniza and tapa. 

I personally like to have crispy pata (Knuckles) to go with San Miguel Pale Pilsen. Before i forget, as like my previous trip, I had a good beer session with 2 of my pinoy colleagues. 5 buckets of San Mig… we were a step closer to heaven.

Tuan, Jalan Alor or Jalan Kejora?

The long debating street name change for Jalan Alor had came to a decision that the street will keep its old name – Jalan Alor. Kuala Lumpur City Hall had made a sudden changed on the Street name to Jalan Kejora weeks ago. Traders and residents of Jalan Alor embarked on a series of campaigns to protest against the change in the road name. This road change will cause them a lot of hassles in upating their business address, company letterheads, business cards, rubber stamps,etc.

Besides, Jalan Alor is a renowed street as a food center in Kuala Lumpur Bukit Bintang area. The variety of local foods had made it one of the tourist attraction when visiting Kuala Lumpur. A sudden name change will confuse the tourist, especially those backpack or individual tourists.

Jalan Alor Map from Google

This is not the first time that our Kuala Lumpur city hall making a sudden decision without proper planning and failed to listen to the pubic opinions. Early this year, the city hall changed the parking regulation to extend the roadside parking fee collection until evening hours and including weekend. This decision had once again been revised after the public making protest campaign. Many of these decisions looked like more of a unplanned decision than a prudent one.

I wonder how’s the internal decision making precedure of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall? It seems like they can always come out with “briliant’ idea overnight. Aren’t it good and important to always gather and listen to the public opinion before making a decison, especially those directly affecting the public. Furthermore, they should prudently study the feasibility while planning for the new policy. These professional attitudes is important to form the good reputation for the public to continue trusting and have confident for the Citi Hall.

The Classic Buskers

This afternoon, I went for a the Classic Buskers concert in Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra with 2 of my friends. This was our 1st time of attending concert in the Malaysian Philharmonic Hall situated in the Petronas Twin Towers. 

I was the one chose this concert as our 1st attempt to the classical. The reason mainly because it was described as “A great show for those who know a little about classical music”  In fact, this was a concert meant for family and children. It was a entertaining and delightful one. Everybody were entertained by the 2 buskers (Michael Copley and the funny Ian Moore). Michael played excellent woodwinds instruments during the concert (he can play some songs in incredible speed) accompanied by Ian with his wit way of playing accordion. Ian played the major role of entertaining the audiences with his funny voice and body motions( his performance style was similar to Mr.Bean’s. Perhaps this is the british way). 

A big hand must goes to the conductor Darrel Davison as well. Darrel Davison works regularly with The Classic Buskers. During the concert, his way of conducting the orchestra is so vivid and full of wit.  In most of the time, a background story was well narrated by him before the song was going to be played. In addition, this was an interactive concert in which the audiences were invited to join as part of the performance. We clapped our hands along with the tempo, made the gesture of riding the horse and we even shouted like cowboy during the performance. – “Yee Ha” !!!

This concert lasted for about an hour. I definitely will go for my 2nd , 3rd and so forth classical concerts in the future. 4 stars go to this performance.

 

The Classic Buskers and Conductor - Darrel Davison

Baby Full Moon

In chinese custome, we will celebrate the newborn’s first month. Usually we have prayer and give some gifts in food form to the relatives and friends.  I wonder why we must celebrate the full moon once the baby reached the 1st month, and not the 2nd or 3rd month. How about celebrate it durng the 1st week as ‘Full Week’ since the baby was borned?

I never asked my mom or the elders about this question. However, here i’ve my own way of explaining it (which i always have ). Let’s put aside the myth, I guess once it reached the 1st month, both mom and the baby conditions are better and the mother has recovered from the tireness of given birth. Unlike the 1st or 2nd week,  the baby maybe still too weak to expose to everyone due to the short period right after getting born. Even the mother can be weak too and look pale, which is not so nice to face so many people On the other hands, I guess that it’s a bit too long to wait till the 2nd or 3rd month since everyone’s excitement of the new born will reduce. Hence, I guess the best timing to celebrate the full moon is on the 1st month. 

Last Friday was my nephew – Cheng Xuan’s full moon day. We had prayer and gave away cakes and traditional biscuits as gifts to the close relatives and friends. We had family dinner to celebrate the occasion. Nobody ask this question of full moon. Anyway, I leave it to the expert and historian to explain the real custom and reason behind the full moon. Wish all the best for my nephew and stay a healthy baby.

Wedding

This friend of mine, Cyrus is inviting bunch of our old friends to his “Post” wedding dinner.  More of a small gathering than a wedding dinner since only 1 table of guests. He called me last week to inform me something that he claimed that will definitely surpise me; the surprise was, he had married a month ago with his current wife, whom was also one of our old college friend. Yes, I was a bit surprised by that announcement but not too excited. Maybe by the time I knew about this announcement, it was something that had past. Nevertheless, I felt happy for them and glad to hear the announcement. I meet up with Cyrus quite often and in fact, i met the new wed couple last month for drinks. I admired them for the determination of keeping the secret of their wedding for so long. 

Marriage is a life time commitment with the one you love and wedding is the occasion to celebrate this commitment. You take this opportunity to share the joy with people around you and to accept their best wishes. Some people likes to have a a grand and big one wheares some like it simple and yet cosy. it’s all up to the couple’s choice and preference. Some of my friends chose to annouce the wedding day a year ago prior to the actual day. Some may inform when the day is near but this time, Cyrus is totally keeping it as a secret and only felt comfortable to announce it after their big day. Perhaps he afraid that one of the friend among us will disagree with the marriage and give him trouble during his wedding day

However, this arrangement is an agreement between both of them. As a close friend, I give my best wishes to this new wed couple. Wish them an eternal and wonderful marriage.  I will definitely enjoy tonight’s gathering.

Working Overtime

Didn’t know what had happened to us, almost the entire office was busy since the past half month. Basically there were about 5 projects rushing for deadline (DeadLive)…either we “dead” or “alive”. We stayed late in the evening and work in the weekend. There were some night all of us stayed till the wee hours in the morning. Wonder if we were inefficient before this that caused us to suffer at this moment.

Tell me what had gone wrong? The project management? The programmer productivities? or the sales commited some fancy deadlines? The priority was not for investigating the cause and its meaningless to pointing fingers to each other.no matter what, the deadlines have to be met. 

With the team high cooperative spirits and the hard work through out the 2 weeks period, I finally saw everyone have time to chit chat and have short break in the office since the end of last week…the worst time had gone.  :) After more than 2 weeks of working under extreme pressure, I finally can reach home early with time to have proper dinner, newspaper, TV and update my blog.  Some amount of stress is healthy but not in prolong situation that require the staff to work under rushing and long hours. I strognly believe that we need to rethink the way we currently adopted for work. Together as a team, project management and the developer need to sit down to properly discuss about our project work flow and assignment deligation. Hopefully through this way, we can work out something to improve the project timeline managmenet. Yes we can

case of private pics on lost phone end up online again.Guys, be extra careful.

This is not the first time we heard about the news that somebody’s lost their phone that containing their nude pics that end up being posted online. I’m wondering why still so many people are not aware of this security issue that a mobile device is not a good place to store your VERY PRIVATE stuffs. Not even our personal laptop is considering a safe place to store those private stuffs and what make us believe that we can depend on this small cellphone to safeguard our staffs. Our cellphone has very high risk of being stolen or lost it somewhere.

This time, this incident is so hot that the victim is suing Mcdonald for $3 million in damages for suffering, embarrassment,etc. I guess this is the 1st of its kind case in this lawsuit category. The lawsuit was filed because of the assurance from the Mcdonald’s staff was not fulfilled. The staff assured that the phone will be safeguarded until the victim returns to take it.

There are tones of these ill ethic persons that take the advantage of exposing people privates stuffs to the public. We as the owner of our belonging need to take extra careful steps to safeguard it. The most important moral lesson of this story is don’t store photos on your cellphone that will bring you shame in the future. Those beautiful nude photos of yourself or your spouse are still better to keep it in your mind.

Love Me – Collin Raye

I was touched by the lyrics and the catchy melody when hearing the song “Love Me” for the first time. It was few months back when my friend – Jason sent this song to me through net.  He told me that this was a very popular song in Singapore back to about 3 years ago and he was surprised that i never heard of it. I started to browse through google for more info about this country singer – Collin Raye and “Love Me”. I ended up found out that this song was actually released in year 1991 and it was Collin Raye’s first number one hit. Even my friend in Singapore was more than 10 years later to get to know this song.

A romance and everlasting love story was portrayed behind it simple lyrics. Given the listener a space to imagine the love scene while listening to the melody.

i couldn’t resist to sing along with the song everytime it reached the chorus.

If you get there before I do, don’t give up on me.
I’ll meet you when my chores are through;
I don’t know how long I’ll be.
But I’m not gonna let you down, darling wait and see.
And between now and then, till I see you again,
I’ll be loving you. Love, me…

I am sharing this song in my Music Share Box.

Queuing up

I noticed that many people around us don’t have the habit of taking queue. Many times while I’m waiting for the train in the train station, I can see that many commuters rather stay away from the queue than queue up properly. When the train arrived, these people will quickly come before the train, cut in the queue in front of them and rush into the train to have a first chance to get a seat. Their act is so natural that they never feel ashame while doing it. Most of the people like us, whom queue up properly will look at them in silent , i guess each of us is hoping somebody will come out to stop this bunch of ill manner people. Too bad i don’t have the guts to give them a good lesson.

Queue for your turn is one of the most basic manner we learnt since primary. Surprisingly, the people around us didn’t pick up this habit once they had grown up. This ill manner group comprised of students, workers, housewives and even those corporate professionals.  I think the government or the community service group need to spend more efforts to educate these people.

I used to jump the queue occasionally when i was a teenager. I was lucky that me and my friends was stopped and scolded by other passengers when we were happily trying to cut in the queue to get into the bus. Most of us learnt the lesson since then and as a result, i turned to be a more considerate commuter now…

A Painted House

Had just finished John Grisham’s – A Painted House weeks ago. This is one of the worth recommended book I’ve read recently. Unlike the usual Grisham’s legal/thriller genre, this novel told a story happened around a seven year old boy throughout the summer of 1952. The story told through the eyes of this boy named Luke.  You will easily get pull into the world of little Luke. it brought back some of the similar childhood fantasy and memory of us when we were a small boys (especially for kid like me grown up in a small town). A weekend movie sessions, town community festive gathering/events, family weekend rides, small kid’s fantasy and his admiration of the beauty of an older teenage girl he knows, etc.

This is a very American novel that set back in 50′s. You will see rural Arkansas, Coca-Cola, Buick, Motorola TV, Cardinals, baseball, etc. There is no villian nor any hero in this novel but the characters in the story are so vividly portrait, that it remained in my mind even i had put down the book.  

A Painted House

There was a review stated that  ”you won’t want the book to end“… yes, in fact for most of the pages, I read more than once and I read slowly to appreciate each words in the book.  This is one of my “Book of the Year“.

Family

There was a Hong Kong production starring Alan Tam and Anita Yuen which I could only recall the Cantonese name – Ma Ma Fan Fan. There was this dialogue by the character which starred by Alan Tam -

“I used to think that my family needs me and can’t live without me. Now I feel that I need them more than they need me.”

A father works hard day and night because he needs to support his family. He tells himself that he needs to work hard because of the family that he needs to support. When a child grown up. He works hard too. He comes back home and He think that his old parents at home need him and he needs to take care of them. They seem can’t live without him.

What are the momentums that drive them to work hard? What if a father earns a million but the family is not with him? What is the meaning of life for him with the millions dollar he earns? When a father comes home with a tired body, he can still feel contented with the comfort and warm at home with his family. He can talk to his beloved wife. The family is indeed given him the support and the meaning of life to him, the responsibility as a father and a husband.

A son too, when comes home with a discouraging working day or encountered some problems in his career. When he hopelessly turns to no one for help; he will then realize that the old parent and the family member at home are the ons who willing to give him a helping hand and full support.

We might be the best student in the school, we may be the best employee in the company and we may even have the most successful career out there. But at home, we can be just a person who needs someone to talk to, to share our daily stories, and needed affection from the family. In contrary, we maybe just an average employee, a failed grade student or a businessman that going to file for bankruptcy. No matter how bad the people out there seeing you, you will have the endless support from your family.

Part of our joy of life is to be able to share our memorable moments with our family. We need them as much as they need us. We need them to give us the reason to live and our meaning of life.

Life is like a box of chocolate

My mother said  ”Life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you’re gonna get” …

Everytime when taking a chocolate, it reminds me of this quote by Forrest Gump. I totally agreed with it. Today, you might be blaming for your bad luck, your thin bank balance, the traffic jam, your problematic boss, your tense relationship with your partner or family and the assignments that seem impossible to complete on time… but then, you may not know what will going to happen next. Heaven knows those things you were complaning today might turn up to be good by tomorrow…of course, things can turn bad too on the other hand, but shall we look positively. 

Due to this, it always made me feeling a bit better after a piece of chocolate.

I have no chocolate today but a colleague of mine was dressed up like Forrest Gump (the famous chequered shirt with khakis pant). I joked with him and browsed through the net to show him the image of Mr.Gump.. and again, it reminded me of this quote..

Congrats to Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) Project

The long waited investigtion result of the controversial Port Klang FZ RM4.6 bil project had finally revealed by our Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat yesterday.The investigation result is as what I was expected all the while… excellent in all the aspect. 

First of all, the accusation that all the RM4.6 Bil had been spent on this project is wrong. It’s only RM1.3 bil was paid so far. Not only the money spent less, the zone has shown a 30% increase in proposed investments over the past six months. Furthermore, there was a growth of 6,668 TEUs (container units) and an increase of about 227,000 freight weight tonnes over the past six months. About 700 more jobs opportunities were created through this project. There are many more figures to explain the FACTs.

I always have CONFIDENT with our ministers. That’s why the nation don’t have to waste time accusing this and that, unless you have a strong evidence. You better spend your time wisely and productively on your works, studies and family (maybe karaoke or cinema) rather than making resultless accusations and questions that will only trouble the Government SERVANTs to spend more time for the investigations and PREPARING the REPORT.

The reports of the investigation PROVED that PKFZ is not a white elephant project or a “Ghost” town as accused by many people. It’s profitable and viable. But as what our Transport minister said, the minister don’t want to jump the gun until the PriceWaterhouse-Coopers (PWC) report is completed. Let’s cross our fingers for the final report.

i SINCERELY congratulate the minister for the reports. for the TRUTH they disclosed.  After all, the money spent will have to come out from our tax payer’s pockets. I wish and hope that the report is as credible as it was presented since it’s responsible to answer the tax payer.

yes…another “Malaysia boleh”.

Season Greetings

I dont’ check my personal email daily. I usually check it once a week and most of the time I ignore those forwarded mails from friends (sorry to say that, my friends. I know that you just like to share something nice with me). I selectively read some and deleted some without reading it. The rest I’ll leave it in the Inbox until I feel like reading it.

After years of working, the routine working life had made me started to being insensitive and lack of interest toward many things in life. I feel more like a factory machine now. I don’t write mails to friends, I don’t forward nice mails to share with them, I don’t reply mails or I’ll reply with as minimum words as possible. This year, I didn’t even send out any X’mas e-cards or greeting mails to my friends, which I used to practice it for years. I realized it when i was checking my mailbox the second day after the X’mas, saw that many friends had sent me their greetings. I suddenly felt bad for being such a ‘good’ friends to them.

I started to reply some of my mails. I replied the greetings, I read the forwarded mails to appreciate the message my friends were trying to share with me. I hope that next year I will still receive the same amount of warm season greetings from my friends…

For you who is reading this blog…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

celebrate Mouse 40 years

I’m a “Mouse” generation. I grown up with “Mickey and friends” and “Tom and Jerry cartoon” series; I like “An American Tail” and most importantly…I work with “Mouse”. I couldn’t work on my computer without a mouse. I’m not those DOS generation that is so familiar with the DOS commands that they can easily execute any computing commands in a black/monochrome screen.

Do you know that mouse had been introduced to the computing world for a period longer than we could imagine? It’s already 40 years since the first Mouse was introduced to the public on 9th Dec 1968 by Stanford Research Institute Scientist Douglas Engelbart. The first prototype mouse introduced is like the one shown on the picture (so BIG!!!). After that, Mouse technology had evolved rapidly and it’s became a standard and essential peripheral in a computer.

If I were to pick 10 greatest inventions of the 20th century, Mouse will definitely included in my list. I think that at that time, nobody could imagine that a little device invented will bring so many conveniences and benefits to the computer users. I came across a article about mouse 40 years.I shared the link here for you to know a little bit more about the Mouse you are using.

Mgt101 – Teamwork

What is the most expensive part of a car?you may say that it’s the car engine. And what is the cheapest part?Let say air, the free air that fill up your tyre. Can we say that the engine is playing the most important role in a car and air on the other hand is least?The answer is definitely NO.  Althought the air is free, but with a flat tyre, it doesn’t matter how efficient and how high capacity the engine is, the car can’t even move for 5KM.

This illustration give a good example about Teamwork. In a project or an organization, everyone is playing an important role. A project manager maybe good in reporting, documention and delivery planning. the system analyst maybe good in designing the best flow, the senior programmer maybe good in writing the backend logic that perform the automation task or maybe a precise calculation and you maybe assigned a task to build the user interface. You feel that developing a user interface is an unimportant task and  your role is insignificant. So, you decided to simply develop it without proper testing.  When the system is finally live under production environment(let say so LUCKY that it passed the user Acceptance Test) ,  the application may crash due to bad exception handling and poor  input validation. In this case, the best calculation logic and the best system flow won’t even have a chance to be used by the user…

Teamwork is so important in a project that everyone has it own role and responsibility. We shouldn’t judge the value of our role in a project by the quantity of work or the assignment type assigned. Even today you are a substitute player in a soccer game, the coach may want you to go to the field at 89 minutes and you must contribute your best to win the match. We should always contribute our best in a team, to work as a team to achieve the goal.

I was brainwashed by my MD days ago…

 

To Prove the Teamwork Spirit

    

To Prove the Teamwork Spirit

Chinese New Year

Just came back from a friend’s house where we had a small friend gathering of my primary school’s classmates.  Today is the first day of Chinese New Year, every year we took this opportunity to meet up. Recent years, due to each other busy lifestyle and different priority in life (family and career), bunch of our friends had not met up as often as we used to. It maybe once or twice a year… (too little huh). 

Even though we don’t meet up often, we enjoy the gathering session whenever we met up. We can chat and have fun. Conversation can be from jokes to serious topics.  This evening, most of our friends could not turn up. Only about 5 of us.  We chat and have light drinking session with peanut (my favourites ) A short meet up session and I’ve back home now. Kind of tired and sleepy tonight. I’m going to finish this blog and go to bed soon…

To my friends, my family and for who is reading this blog, Happy Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year Celebration

I always associated Chinese New Year with “Noise”. Yes,  we like noise. I always can feel the noise during Chinese New Year celebration. We started with the highly exciting Chinese New Year songs when the new year is around the corner. Chinese New Year  songs are usually full with joys and performed by singers with pleasant and energetic voice. The most important part that make a chinese new year song so different from other  is the drum. Usually you can tell by listening to the “doong doong chiang…” beat when the songs are played.

Apart from that, we welcome the new year with fire cracker. Those were the days when the neighbourhood were competing with each other for the longest and loudest fire crackers. If you think that fire cracker is loud enough to tell that it is new year,  then you are wrong. It is not a new year celebration withthout the goodwill greeting wishes.  The Chinese will start to greet with high tone once they meeting people. Usually nice wishes for healthy and preoperity. The higher and energetic the tone (with enough “chi”), the more prosperous you will be.

Besides, the favourite holiday pasttime for most of the family is playing Mahjong or any type of games (pokers, black jack,etc). The sounds of shuffling the Mahjong can be easily heard from the other end of the house.  When one corner of the house is playing mahjong, the rest at the other corner might be watching the TV programmes with musicals, dramas, or the New year special shows with as much entertainmet elements as possible they could think of.

If you think that you can have a nice rest during the new year days…then you will probelbly end up realize that you are actually more tire than your normal working day. Usually there is no good chance for you to have nice rest during the first few days but who cares, we are so happy and excited to indulge in the New year atmosphere. The “Noise” that make our chinese new year celebration so merry and pleasant.

Quote sharing – Make Everything simple

While working with my client, I saw this quote printed on the table calendar. I share it here.

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”

Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)

Exception Handling

In the programming world, to handle some exception cases or errors in the application, the programmer will have the error handling mechanism in the coding. By using exception handling logic, the system will direct the code execution to the error handling logic once an unexpected error occurs (execution will switch to a predefined handler ). Sometimes we refer this exception handling as throwing an exception. A good exception handling will prevent system from bursting and improper exiting the application. (I experienced this countless times in my application. too bad huh!)

We have exception handling in programming world, but how about a human daily routine? We experience different things every day. We have good moment, smooth time, relax time. However, things are not going to be smooth all the time. We tend to make mistake and bump into many uncertainty situations. We need proper exception handling too for daily life. For instance, who should you contact and where is your mechanic if your car break down?  If you have fever, how and where to find the doctor? Do you have the contact of your electrician if your house suddenly having current black out? All these proper planning and precautious measurements are important for us when emergency/exceptional case do happen.  So, remmeber to check your exception handling and plan it properly.

is it time to put down your pencils?

I came across this article in Good.is by a college professor that she disagreed with spending years of teaching the children to learn the handwriting. Her reason is that we cling to handwriting out of a romantic sense that script expresses identity and character. Furthermore, her son is having hard time learning to write in the school.  This is an interesting subject to debate.

It’s true that I don’t pick up a pen often as often as when I was in school, but it doesn’t mean that writing is not useful at all. Overthe years, writing tools  like Keyboard and voice regconition device had been invented to help us to write, these tools can assist us but not totally replacing our handwriting. Handwriting is not an old technology that has to be abandoned in school. It is a basic skill that we need to learn (lets put aside the “good” and “bad”  handwriting comment) and when in any times if we don’t have the access to these tools, we at least have the skill to write by using a pencil or pen.

Handwriting is not an old technology that has to be abandoned in school

Look at it in another way, there are advance calculator and computer there to assit us on calculation, but doesn’t mean that we should stop our children from learning the skill of basic calculation (hand or mind calculation). The calculation skill (at least the basic add and substract) is useful in life. Just like camera will not replace a man drawing, a music synthesizer will not make us think that we should stop learning the music instruments. It’s sad that people have the idea of giving up teaching of handwriting in school. This idea is absurd.

The Transformer on the road

 

Car on the road

 

 

Many car drivers are so strange, they are controlled by the car (their emotion and behavior). A suave person with polite manner can transform to be one with hot and impatient temper.  The moment a person started his car engine, he is a driver and the transformation started.

First, He always wants to make sure the road in front of him is clear. He blows the horn whenever he feels that the car in front of him is either driving too slow or blocking his way.  He feel frustrated when the the cars in front driving too slow that caused him to miss the green light.  He accelerates when the traffic light turn yellow and he even go through red light. In the highway. He speedy and cut through car by car as like all the cars are blocking his way. In the case of rushing, even the carpark and housing area can turn out to be his racing circuit. He tends to use vulgar words (a lot more than usually he will use) and scolding the other drivers as way of complaning their skills. However, all these symptoms will be over once he reached his destination and get out from the car.

Sometimes, i do act like those TRANSFORMER. NO, I’m in fact sometimes a Transformer on the road. The car while i’m driving it has  in fact indirectly controlling my emotion and my attitude without me aware of it… sigh…

Tips for Passport Renewal/ new application

Came across many  questions partaining to passport application. Many of my friends been asking each other many times about what documents should they bring along, how many days it takes for the passport to be ready, etc.

So, I decided to put a list here.

Document

1. Identity Card (IC)

2. Birth certificate

3. existing passport (If for renewal)

4. Photo (optional. there are digital photo service at the immigration office. Pay about RM5)

5. Applicaiton form (buy form the immigration office (RM1.00)

 

How long does it take for collection?

1. 2 hours for collection of renewed or new passport

Fee?

1. For 32 pages, RM300.00

Hope this will serve as a a simple guide for those want to renw or apply new passport.

Untruthful Craftmanship

I bought some handcraft pencils made of tree sticks during my Sabah trip. The craftmanship of the stick pencil was quite decent and the price was reasonable. Furthermore,  I like it natural looks. Today, I tried to sharpen one of the pencil.  I sharpen it for few minutes and end up realized that there was no graphite (or you called it lead) inside the “pencil”.  The graphite apparently only exist on the 2 ends of the pencil. What an insincere piece of souvenir sold in Sabah airport. 

The price of the pencil is not much of a matter but the way this people doing business that matter. They have no business ethic. It’s a piece of untruthful handicraft. Indirectly, I think that this act will in certain scale, have some negative impact on the image of the Sabah tourism.

Some of these pencils had been given to my friends as gift. I’ve to check with them to see if all of the pencil are same  :(

Misuse of Democracy

According to the explanation in wikipedia, there are two principles that any definition of democracy includes. The first principle is that all members of the society (citizens) have equal access to power and the second that all members (citizens) enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.

We have the freedom, the freedom to speak, the freedom to elect our government. That’s why we have election. The election serve as a channel for the voter to elect their represetative to assist them, to represent them in the parliment or congress,to speak their voice out and take care of their benefits.  Again taken from Wiki, The “majority rule” is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government it is possible for the rights of a minority to be abused by the “tyranny of the majority“.

The people representatives and the government that we as a voter elected, to put in high hope may sometimes disappointed us by misuse the convenience and authorities given to them. They look for the loophole in the legislation and law to do something for their own benefits.  They have forgotten their responsibilities and their job to SERVE the people that elected them.

Beginning of this year, Perak state in Malaysia had been in their political woes. A prolong one. The governing party and opposition party are fighting to take over the control of the state parliment.  All parties are focus in strategies to look for loopholes in the legislation to achieve their political aims.  The state parliment assembly had became a war of tangue. A fighting game to get the seat and microphone to sounds the voice, to change each other’s speaker, to look for way to insult the oppositions. They seems no interest to discuss about the state affairs, the strategies and plans to improve the state. They forgot that the people elected them to serve them.

 Please respect us as the voters. Please accept the result of the past election. We chose the representative that we want and we want them to server us. If you want to fight and get the chance to represent us, you can…but please do your part good before you will deserve your chance in the next election. You do your works and the voter will do their part… to review your works.

How about another election?

I was not surprised when I got to know the result of the court decision over Perak MB post. Yes, Barison Nasional’s Zambry Abdul Kadir is the legitimate Perak menteri besar.  I felt disappointed instead. I personal view is that the court decision does not reflect the will of Perak’s people. 

I don’t follow closely on the development of Perak MB crisis. But from the last 318 General election result, BN should have know that the people desire to give Pakatan a chance to serve the state. Ok, if you were to argue that the last General election result was a year back and it might not be the case now, then please refer to the recent by-elections results. The support for Pakatan is still strong and it’s directly reflected from the votes given to the Pakatan candidates.

To respect the voter and the democracy, please stop playing around with the law loopholes. How about another general election for the Perak people?

Credit Card Interest calculations you may not fully aware

I used credit card regularly. Mostly for my direct debit bill payments,  shoppings, dining and for my car pertrols occasionally. Those days when I was financially tight for some months, I will choose to pay a partial or a minimum payment on my credit card bills. The issueing bank will charge me a per annum of 18% interest on my outstanding balance (1.5 %per month) . I may gradually pay back in several months. and of course the accumulate interests were scaring.

Those were the days. Today, with the new credit card interest calculation scheme which , effective somewhere early last year,  i dare not try this tricks anymore. The interest we have to pay now is even higher. On the past, the bank will charge me interest on my Outstanding balance,  But today, the bank will impose interest on my total credit card bills PLUS those credit i have made until the day of my monthly statement closing. For instance, my March 2009 bill total is RM3,000. I make a partial payment of RM1,000. My outstanding balance now is RM2,000.  Let say my credit card account closing is on every 24th of a month. So, by 24th April 2009, I ‘ve made some extra credit card charges total of RM1,500. when i received my April 2009 statement by the end of April. My credit card interest will be calculated as following:-

A rough calculation based on today’s scheme:

(Bill total for March 2009 x 1.5/100)   + (New credit made  x 1.5/100)

(3000 x1.5/100) + (1500 x 1.5/100) = 45 + 22.5 = RM67.5

On the past, my interest calculation willbe as following:

(Outstanding balance for March 2009 x 1.5/100)

(2000 x1.5/100) = RM30.

Can you see the different? the total interest i’ve to pay is double now. Of course the new credit made calculation will be slightly different for the bank. Mine is a rough calculation.

but there is a way the bank give you back some interest cut. If you notice that in your bill, there always a statement inform you about your financial charge for this month: e.g: CURRENT MONTH FINANCE CHARGES RATE 13.50% .

This is some kind of encouragment or discount given to the card holder when they made prompt payment regularly. If we use this 13.5% rate to recalculate my outstnading on top, it will be as following:

13.5 % /12 month = 0.66667

(Bill total for March 2009 x 0.66667/100)   + (New credit made  x 0.66667/100)

(3000 x0.66667/100) + (1500 x 0.66667/100) = 20 + 10 = RM30.

See, the interest is drastically cut down. But you have to make regular prompt payment to enjoy this interest cut. and provided you new dredit make is not too much.  i guess this is one of the measure take by the banks to encourage prompt payment to reduce bad debt on credit card.

Can the requirements of your life partner be compromised?

This afternoon while on my way to get my car, I bumped into an old friend of mine. Ling is a typical career type lady in her early 30′s . She has a quite high position job and she works hard.  We updated each other about ourself and we came across topic on relationship.  She told me that she is thinking of settle down after all these years of working hard.  She is currently in a relationship now and is thinking of getting marry.  She had several relationships before which were not work out. According to her, she was young during those past relationships and she put priority on career over her relationships.  She did not drag long when each of this relationship went sour; whether in the quality of the partner or the time. But now since it’s an “ideal” age for marry, she feels that the requirements for the partner can be compromised.

Can the requirements of your life partner be compromised? Can you be choosy when you are younger and stop your choosiness when you are getting older? Does it mean we have lesser choices and we better not being too choosy about the requirements when we get older? we can get older but I don’t think that we shall simply marry someone if we don’t seriously think that the/she is suitable for us. The quality of your partner for life is important to ensure if he/she can walk together with you for the rest of your life. The personality and compatibility are especially important. Don’t just for the sake of getting marry, you start dating someone which is not really your cup of tea and end up marry to him/her. This is sad.

I hope Ling will think carefully before making any decision for marriage. I wish her all the best for her love life.

Dead Man?

While having drinks with 2 friends of mine, I heard them having the following conversation.

A: You are a dead man.

B: Why?

A: You don’t have Facebook account.

yes, this statement is funny but in some extend , it’s quite true to refect the popularity of Facebook.  Founded in year 2004 and within a short period of time, Facebook took the social networking website in storm. The website currently has over 200 million active users worldwide.  The network group in Facebook can range from office network, school, society to business network.

Everybody around us seems to have at least one Facebook account. People browsing Facebook to get to know new friends, stay in touch with friends, share files,photos, articles and even sharing the moment ot play game together. Whenever we meet friends  regardless of new or long old friends, in addition to ask for cellphone number, we ask to check around Facebook and add us in Facebook.

Facebook is more than just a social networking site now , it has became part of our life to stay in touch with friends and families, to promote our business and to serve as our personal CV.  At the recent, Iran riot, Facebook has served as a platform for Iranina both in and outside Iran to update each other and share the latest news and progress.  furthermore,  surprisingly that how much time people spend on Facebook each day, Facebook has became one of our favourite past time.

I personally not actively login on to my Facebook, but still i will logon once or twice a week to check messages and browsing through the long “Requests” list. i’m not active but at least i’m not a “Dead Man”

So, don’t forget to add me into you Facebook list

Happy Father’s Day

Parent’s Day these days has very high commercial value. Every business entity strives to make maximum profits out of Parent’s Day. In the month of May and June,  manufacturers and servicing industry such as Restaurant and spa will be bombarding the consumers through all the media possible exist including the printed media advertisements and radio/TV commercials. It makes the consumers feel guilty if they fail to buy at least something for their parents.

Through out the years, thanks to the advertisement, Father’s day has have more attention as compared to many years back.  The low attentions in the past may be due to the men ego that usually will not mentioning about the celebration in front of the family.  In additions, the reason can be partly due to the lower commercial value discovered by the business owner as compared to mother. The manufacturers and shops find that it’s easier to sell stuffs to mother rather than father. For instances, flowers, a mother’s day cake, a relaxing spa session, fragrances, beautiful dresses, etc.

However, both Father and Mother’s day are equally important and meaningful.  Sacrifies from both of our parents are same and the loves from them too, are same. Today is Father’s day. Lets give our father a hug and a best wishes to him. And for me, I will say a prayer for my fahter which had passed away years ago.

To my father, I love you

Remembering Michael Jackson

I ain’t big fan of Michael Jackson. but in certain extend, I would still consider myself a fan of him. I like his musics, I admire his talent in both as a stage performer and ssong composer. He is a true star. A professional artist and a pop icon.

On 25th June 2009, MJ was found without breath at home  and was pronounced dead later on. He was 50. MJ is a talented song composer and singer. He was so famous that even our grandmother can easily pronounce his name.  He left over mass collections of nice and everlasting musics and his trademark moonwalk.

However, over the years, people were more concern about his personal life than his music career. People talked about his plastic surgery, his health, his debt, the alleged child molestation. Gossip about how if his face will collapse and how he “thrown” his baby before the public. All these concern had overwhelmed his prefession as a talented and perfectionist performer.

Nevertheless, for most people especially to his fans, MJ will always be remembered as the King of Pop.

“When a legend dies, maybe he will get in death what he didn’t get in life in terms of credit.” - Michael Jackson

CSI: Kuala Lumpur

I’m a CSI Las Vegas fan. Having been followed and  indulged in the series for 9 seasons, it made me believe that it is almost no way that you can run away from the crime you have convicted.  Let take a look at the standard procedure the CSI crew will do once a criminal is reported.

Once a criminal is reported, the police department will seal the criminal scene, follow by the CSI crew arrive at the scene to start the investigation work. First of all, they search around for suspicious stuff, scratches, bullet, clothes fabric and sampling blood sample for DNA, and the not forgetting the most common and useful finger print. The CSI team strives to think of every possible way to find out the criminal and the way he/she commit the crime.

Every department in CSI is doing their part; the Lab will test the DNA samples taken from the criminal scene and the suspect. Everything possibly be the crime weapon found at the scene will not be missed from the lab test. Furthermore, throughout the 9 seasons, we witnessed the technology improvement of sampling the finger print from the criminal scene.

If there is a body is found in the Criminal scene, the lab part is the best. The chief Medical Examiner Dr. Albert is an experience doctor. With his experience, he can easily tell (not predict) and suggest how the victim was being killed. How long the victim had exhaled his last breath, how it was killed, the cause of the death and etc possible information he can found on the body. CSI series told me that a body is a good story teller; the body can suggest lots of clues about how the victim dies. By proper checking and scrutiny the body, the CSI crew can tell if the body was being moved, if the scene is the first scene and the most import…the cause of his death.

Perhaps I’m indulge too much in the CSI series, the fictions part of it, wrongly believing in some technologies which might not be practical in malaysia or don’t even exists,  those CSI investigate procedures and the skills that are never been pratical in our country here, Malaysia.  A body found died at the 5^th floor balcony of one of our government department’s building. But it has been a month, nothing useful findings and professional reports were being announced by the investigation unit. All the news and relevant information announced so far are useless. For most of the Malaysian, too many doubts in the case until now still remain unanswered. With this kind of invetigation progress, I doubt that this case can have any finding soon…or maybe until everyone has forgotten and lost interest on the reports, it will still remain AS IS.

Perhaps we need to recruit some good and experience prefessionl like those CSI crews we know in the CSI series to join our national investigation unit and forensic department in hope to solve those mystery and chanllenging cases.  But my concern is that how many Dr. Grissom and his crews do we need in order to speed up the investigation works? As a nation, all we need is to know the TRUTH and the how soon will the truth to be told.

1 Malaysia Myth

“1 Malaysia. Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan”.  You will not be a total stranger to this slogan if you are not totally isolated from the major media such as radio and TV or maybe the billboard along the roadsides.  If I could remember well, all the radio stations have been  playing the song – “Satu Malaysia” on air since the beginning of August to celebrate our 52^nd independent day, which is on August 31^st.

This year, the new prime minister office chose the slogan “Satu Malaysia”, which I guess is to tell the nation that even though we have different races and cultures, we will unite as one race, one nation. A slogan that sounds new in concept but I rather feel like it’s a rebranding of an old wine.

In certain extend, a society with multi racial will have its own issues pertaining to religion and culture matters. Eventually these conflicts can be overcome. After all, we’ve been living together for 52 years.

If the government feels that we are still having major problem in unite together after 52 years, I will doubt that what made our government feel that with 1 month of “Satu Malaysia” campaign that bombarding us and everyone singing the catchy lyrics to celebrate this national day will do much help on this matter to unite and lead the nation to move forward. The rebranding itself won’t work if the fundamental thinking of the government body and the way we administering the country has no major change.

Furthermore,

IF the reported cases with money over spent in government projects are still without answer to the public,

IF a brand new stadium collapsed for months without a single report disclose to public,

IF a death case happened in government office can be dragged with inquest that’s seems unlikely to reveal the truth soon.

IF government keep making decisions especially those serious education decision overnight and kept changing the definitions to the public.

IF the nation will be singing the song and see the beautiful firework on the national day and woke up on the next day with everything including government policies and the majority government body thinking are remained unchanged…

Then I personally feel that the rebranding itself has failed and we are just once again fooling ourselves. The saddest thing is the people are once again not being “Didahulukan” – keep in first place.

for artwork or for Leonardo?

Recently, researcher discovered that a portrait that initially thought to be a drawing of an unknown 19th century German artist is now being attributed to the Italian master Leonardo da Vinci. Researcher discovered by using a 500 year-old fingerprint on the drawing.

La Bella Principessa

This private own drawing called La Bella Principessa was bought  by a Swiss collector 2 years ago at the Ganz Gallery in New York for about $19,000. Experts now put the possible value of the artwork at $150 million. What a good investment if you are the one bought it years ago. ( it’s more that 7,000 times the original investment value).

I wonder if the expert now estimate the value of this artwork by the quality and the style of the painting or just for the reason that it’s by Leonardo Da Vinci? I guess the answer lies in the latter. Sooner, comments make by art scholars on this drawing will be overflowed the newspaper columns.

The commercial value of this drawing skyrocketed right after this discovery.  Apart from the changed of the artist (it was known as drawing by 19th century German), the artwork itself, the painting style and skills on the drawing, the artistic value of the drawing remain unchanged.  but the number of  scholars that “appreciate” this painting will increase with the positive comments on this drawing increase accordingly when it’s now tagged with “Lost work by Leonardo Da Vinci” . This again proven that a good branding is very important and it even works on artwork.

dormant Blog

There was a survey conducted recently on blogging. The survey result suggests that about 95% of the blogs in the net are inactive or has no activity for the past 90 days. furthermore, many blog sites have only few readers and some even never have visitor. There are numbers of reasons that behind why people quit blogging. This survey suggests that bloggers may be discouraged after found out that no reader is reading their blog, some learnt that their blog doesn’t earn them money which they was hoping when they started the blog, or they run out of topic to write and their passion for blog has long faded.

After listening to this news days ago from radio, I was feeling proud that my blog still active for the past 90 days and i’m not in the statistic of the inactive 95%.  I have to admit that my post is getting lesser recently that may due to my busy daily routines and lack of topic to start the post. Nevertheless, I have the reason to be proud of that i’m still continue blogging ever since my first blog posted on July last year. I would like to thanks those who had spent time reading some of my posts.

In banking, if an account had been inactive for long period. Banking term called it Dormant account. I wonder if we can refer those inactive blog site as Dormant Blog.

Pasar Malam Toy Seller

I woke up early at about 10 mins to 8 this morning. Consider a bit early for a Sunday morning. I had promised a friend to help him setting up his toy booth at The Curve weekend flea market. I went to the empty shopping complex to help him to display his toys at his booth. A simple booth ( i consider it a table rather then booth) without much space for us to put many things.

While helping out to decorate the booth, I opened and tested some of the toys. It reminds me of my childhood’s year, always standing and sometimes squatted near the Pasar Malam (night market) toy stall; watching the owner displaying his toys at his stall and hoping to find new and nice toys. Once spotted, usually ran back to mom for money to buy it. Years later, I’m like a toy seller today except there was no kids around my booth standing still and admiring my toys (it was a bit early at that time)

a BUS LANE for all vehicles???

Once again I was annoyed by those cars entering the bus lane hoping to save time. Bus lanes had been existed in Kuala Lumpur since year 1997. This continuous yellow lines on the left side of the road defined an area which is meant for Buses and Taxis only.  In KL, no private cars are allowed to enter this lane between 6am to 8pm during weekday.

Today, I still see many impatient drivers entering the bus lane and blocking the buses behind them. This act have defeated the purpose of this lane being implemented, which is expected to shorten the travel time of the public transport. If all types of vehicles are allowed to enter this lane, then why should we defined it as bus lane? The regulations and rules are defined for us to follow. When nobody follow the rules, then it’s basically serve as a useless guidelines only.

This is a small act but an annoyed and selfish act.

Geocities had closed

It seems like a bit late now to talk about Geocities closure. October 26, 2009 marked the last day of Geocities web-hosting service site serving the internet user. this site officially shut-down on the next day October 27.  Like millions of other users, I used to have a website hosted at Geocities. I started my website around year 1999 to 2000. Actively updated my webpage for about a year before I totally forgot about my own site. I was all the while thinking that Geocities had been closed since early 2000′s . I came to realize that it was still around until I heard about the news of Yahoo planning to end the service.

I personally feel that the reason behind Geocities closure was that the web-hosting service it provided lack of interactive service/activities for the web users. People may be keen to design and decorate their website but after awhile, a webpage of our own is just a webpage that, besides letting us to update and update our info, it has nothing much to offer. Unlike the Facebook that gained so much popularity nowadays, you would not be able to play games, chatting with other and share stuffs . No man is an island. Internet users prefer a social network site that allow them to communicate with others, looks for friends, share stuff by uploading photos or video link on the web, etc. a static webpage that serve for viewing purpose is not enough for them.

Nevertheless, Geocities had once was so popular and success that letting each of us to have a chance to build our own webpage.A page of our own in the net that we were so proud of. The closure of Geocities  marked the end  of personal webpage era in the internet history. Thank you Geocities.

music vs radio station

One day, a friend of mine  made a comment  while hearing an English song being played on a local Chinese radio station.

“Why they played English song on this Radio station? Isn’t it a Chinese radio?”

Yes, it’s actually not common to have English song in Chinese radio station especially in Malaysia. There are many radio stations that target a specific race. These stations  only use a specific language. For instance, a Chinese station will usually only broadcast and communicate in Mandarin. Same situation goes to other stations. It’s fine to have these language  stations since everyone has their preference on the language to listen to. But when come to music , do they need to really  categorize it by the language if the songs? English station play 99% English songs and 1 % other language song while Chinese station made up of 99 % Mandarin, Korean and Japanese songs.

Music should not have a border that separated them by the language it uses. A DJ can speak in Chinese while doing an American top 40 show.  A radio station should try to introduce more nice musics to it’s audience by playing broad range of musics. Not only the mainstream musics but also include those good one regardless of the language of the music. An open mind will let us enjoy more variety of musics.

Facebook Addiction

Facebook is more than  a popular social network site. It exists everywhere and it’s penetrating to every inch of our space and our life. I see people browsing Facebook in the cafe,  my colleagues playing Facebook games during office hour, friend greeting each other by inviting friends to add them in their Facebook. It has became everyone’s habit to on their Facebook or browsing the site from time to time. Browsing Facebook has became one of the favorite pastime.

People  like to share everything in Facebook. The party photos immediately available in Facebook for friends to view right after you reach home from the party. Every Video you watch, you share it here. You tag your friend and feel excited when photo of you being tagged. You can visit the sites for hours by just browsing through friend’s message and updates. and you multi task by switching from games to games. You indulge in another world of you and other friends provided by Facebook.

Don’t overlook this Facebook addiction. One day you will realize how emotionally  you are attached to Facebook when your feeling of uneasy and lost presence during the absence of Facebook for perhaps only one day.

COP15: What can it promise?

After 10 days of  conference,  we basically haven’t heard of any significant outcome from this 2 weeks climate change  summit in Copenhagen. With 2 days left, the world looks like cannot expect much promising agreements can be made between the delegates from both the developed and developing countries.

The world major carbon emission country has yet to made a greater pledge to prevent the climate change. So far, US promise to cut the carbon emission to 17% of 2005 level by 2020 followed by China promise to reduce carbon intensity  at least 40% by 2020 are still far from an acceptable level. Seems like everybody is waiting for somebody to make a promise and take on action to save the environment.

What can COP15 promise to the world? Each country has their own excuses and agendas that stopping them from acting toward climate change. When nobody making a promise,  no rules and treaty will be defined, no protocol will be  signed and  no action will be carried out , which resulting in the worsen of the climate change and many other pollutions. When the leader could not promise for the act, then we have no promises of a better future for our children.

However, with 2 days left for the summit, lets hope that there will be some significant agreements made by the delegates. Otherwise, this summit will end up as a summit that serve for no purpose other than meet up and dinning for the world top leaders.  climate change conference or can’t change conference?

A Malaysian F1 team that not so Malaysian

Until now i’m still not welcoming the plan of having our own Malaysian F1 team funded by the government.  It’s simply because that a F1 racing is neither a popular sport in Malaysia nor we have expertise in this sport game. A F1 team should be a professional organization that formed for one prime reason… to generate profit and it should be formed and run by the private company that will responsible for the profit and lose. But I don’t see it in this case.

A sport team that usually run by the private was initiated by the government for reason merely to boost our fame internationally. We need to ask ourselves that what is the actual benefits gain from having this racing team other than the name appear in some sports journals front page (I hope that there is any chance).  Now put aside the profit, imaging millions of money that need to pump in to build the base, to purchase the cars and it’s peripherals, to form the team and to hire the drivers which none of these areas we have expertise in. No knowledge and expertise means you have to just spend money and label it our Malaysian own team.  The serious situation now is, the money is not a one time investment, it’s a recurring type of investment that require millions of Ringgit yearly, a figure that enough to build hundred of school, upgrade the school and institution facilities as well as the expertise training that maybe a more feasible and direct way of helping the country growth.

To be frank, i don’t feel the excitement of having our own F1 team.  But now that this plan had been executed and there is no channel for Malaysian to voice out our opinions toward it. I just hope that this time it will not fail and ask for government bail out again.  After all, the fund is on the tax payers expenses…

My WordPress Theme change

I’ve been thinking of giving my WordPress site a theme change. Not for any reason but to put on a new cloth and give it a fresh look for this new year.  I tried out many themes available in WordPress but until now my theme still remain unchanged. I could be too picky or I would rather think that I’m indecisive.  A characteristic of mine that always causing me difficult to make choice for small thing.

I could survey for months yet could not make up my mind for a leather shoe. Wanting a long lasting shoe with good leather, top grade craftsmanship, nice design, reasonable price within budget, etc.  Deciding on what to take for lunch can sometimes giving me a heavy brain exercise.  Now when come to changing my theme, I’m looking for sexy designed theme with clear arrangement yet will retain all my existing features. I guess it will still take some times before I finally manage to decide on my new theme.

An attitude I think I need to change for this new year.

My WordPress Theme 2008 - Jan 2010

My brother’s Wedding

Last Weekend was my brother – BS’s wedding day. A major event for my family. We busied both before and on the wedding day for the preparation and serving our guests.  The wedding dinner was held on Sunday evening. An evening where our closed relatives and friends gathered.

It’s a trend nowadays that the wedding couple will put on a slides show while the dinner take place. Usually the studio wedding photos of the couple plus their younger days photos. Giving the guests a chronological view of their growing days and how they end up being together today. It was no exceptional for BS,  he took this opportunity to show a record longest slides show I ever seen, which was about 5 mins.  (How do I know? the slide show came with the background playback of  Canon in d- Pachelbel song which usually at least 4 to 5 mins)

To my surprised and little bit of embarrassing,  BS’s slideshow projected many of our old family photos. Too many which some of them I never wished to show my friends. Nevertheless, I’m fine with it.  among those photos, there are many photos we took together with my late father. For a moment, tears were in my eyes when those photos projected on the blind. I guess my father will be excited to see this day, to witness the ceremony.

This Saturday is my father passed away 4th anniversary.  Time flies so fast like I was just talked to him yesterday. Although some times he could be too hot temper and we may disagreed  in may ways, I still miss those days when he was around.

Wrong idea: A reusable bag to keep the plastic bags

Started from 1st Jan 2010, some states in Malaysia had started to implement “No Plastic Bag Day” on certain days of a week to encourage  the shoppers and the retailers to reduce the use of plastic bags.  The state where I’m living – Selangor  implement this “No Plastic Bag Day” on every Saturday. This is a good start to educate the people on the awareness of the consequence environment cost you have to pay by over use the plastic bags.

I went to the wet market on Sunday morning. I can see that there are many people carry reusable bags with them. A good sign I presume. Ironically, the retailer just provides the plastic bags for items that the customer purchased. Veggies, meat, dry stuffs, etc. Everyone  still happily using the plastic bags and these items wrapped with plastic bag will be put into the reusable bag that the shoppers carry. Imagine it actually ended up with one reusable bag having lots of plastic bags inside. This  is in fact against the purpose of “no Plastic day”.

Apparently Sunday is not a “No Plastic Bag Day” as awarded by the state government. However, this does not meant that we should use it without hesitation and consideration. Anyway, it’s matter of educating the public. The enforcing body should consider having more campaign and roadshow to raise the public awareness on this matter. After all,  we are doing this to save the environment for a greener earth to us and our future generation.

Google’s Logo Tribute to Norman Rockwell

One thing I like about Google is that you always found surprise in their logo. They always come out with different designed logos on their site to commemorate the holidays seasons, events,  tribute to someone, etc.  Yesterday, February 3, 2010, The Google’s logo featured a tribute to the American legendary painter and illustrator - Norman Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 9, 1978), who was born in this day 116 years ago.

Google's Logo Tribute to Norman Rockwell

I didn’t know who was Norman Rockwell until I clicked on this beautiful “painting” logo in the Google site. (That’s what i called it full of surprise and it always something interesting to learn from here) Apparently Norman Rockwell was the man behind the large numbers of great paintings that I’ve seen. I was not grown up in America but his art works are no stranger to me.  I saw his works in the old magazines and some children books. These paintings bring back beautiful childhood memories to me  and I feel like a kid again.  Also I enjoy spending time contemplate the vividly painted details in his art works.

I bet most of the people have seen his works without knowing that he was the artist behind these great works.  Today, His famous Christmas season painting are still using by Isetan Department Store in Malaysia for their Christmas paper bag.

Happy Birthday Mr. Norman Rockwell…

Santa Claus used in Isetan Malaysia Paper bag

Little Lovers in Bar

Goodbye Joey

Joey was my course mate during my college years. It was back in year 1996, We enrolled in the same English and Calculus  classes. It was my first year of college. We didn’t hang out often until the end of my 2nd year. We switched program along with bunch of other friends of mine. Thereafter, this group of friends of mine got to hung out together often and they were part and some best parts of my memories during my college years.

From those days until now, we liked to make fun of Joey. We teased him over his extra shinning bike helmet, his wallet that always looks brand new, those oil absorbent facial papers he carried in his bag. Made jokes about his unique way of eating crab and his super healthy diet. Laugh at his stinginess and those tricks we used to get him to treat us meals or drinks and etc. He was a closed and actives member in our group.

Weeks ago during Chinese New Year period, I received a phone call from his family that informed us about his passed away due to illness. It was a shocking phone call. Not all but most of the friends in our group included me attended his funeral to pay our last tribute to him. A friend gathering session but it was not a pleasant one.

Days ago, I browsed through my old photos collection that have some photos taken together with Joey.  I also visited his Facebook. Those old memories we had with Joey flashed back again in my mind.  Even though he had left us, he will always be remembered as one of our good friend and classmate. Goodbye my friend – Joey.

(* Joey was the groom in my blog with title ” Wedding “Singer” ”  posted on 13 Sep 2008.)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I read this book early in the January.  Attracted by the book cover, I picked it from my wife’s books collection in the bookshelves. At first I didn’t expect much from this book, but then I ended up having a nice reading experience while reading this book.

Told from a first-person perspective, the story surrounding a 15 year old boy by the name of Christopher Boone who is having Asperger Syndrome. A syndrome that caused a person having difficulty in socialize and communicate with people. (You may find out more from Wikipedia) One night, Christopher found that the poodle of his neighbor had died of murdered and he was determined to investigate the murder of Mrs Shears’ poodle. The story developed with him discovered some important family secrets during his investigations. The story plot is quit funny yet unpredictable.

Christopher as the main character in this fiction narrated the events and things around him with his own autistic way. He likes mathematic and he likes to explain things in a logical and mathematical way. He repeats explaining things with the way he perceives it.  I sometimes found it a bit annoyed by the way Christopher narrated the story in the beginning stage of reading this book. However, I started to enjoy it after awhile.  Anyway, I guess it’s just how a person with Asperger syndrome will normally think and perceive things in their mind . In fact, I can feel that the author – Mark Haddon had putting a lot of his thought in trying to display how an Asperger syndrome person acts and thinks.

This is a nice book for casual reading. You will know more about the prime number and some facts about Sherlock Holmes after reading this book.

An advert in the train

Days ago, I saw an advertisement that caught my attention in the train which I commute to work. An advert from a local bank, stated that “with xxx amount a month, you don’t have to borrow your parent’s car”. A not so outstanding tagline but I was amused by the objects shown in the Advert.

In one end, a young corporate lady in her early 20′s with a joyful smiling face. On the other end, a stack of music CDs and a car key. Those CDs were purposely enlarged to show the album name. CDs from the artists of renown such as UB40, Van Helen, U2, Smashing Pumpkins, Earl Klugh,….etc. Yes, none of the albums were released after 2000, the latest I guess would be the “Pop” by U2 which was released in 1997.  A music collections of last century which is very likely not belong to this young lady…to the parents instead.

I owe some of these CDs  also (especially from U2) and most of them are my favorites. While standing in the train and staring at the advert, I was in one moment had my memory flashed back to those years when these musics were so hits and popular. When I was in my secondary and college.

Today with the end of the peek of the CD era, when everyone now prefer to listen to MP3 with iPod and MP3 payers; buying and playback with CD seems like the activities of the late 80′s and 90′s. Today, which is also belong to the parent generation as this advert trying to tell. Without knowing it, I’m actually fit to categorize into this group. Now I’m wondering where do I keep most of my older CDs?

A typical Election Campaign Model

It seems that the government only started to take note of their constituency when there is an election. A promised fund for the Chinese cemetery, donation to the Chinese school, approval of long unapproved land title, compensation to the FELDA settler, installation of more street lamps, a promised of a long waited new post office, etc. Suddenly full attentions and aids are on the way to help these long forgotten group. Which of these items mentioned is not a basic facility and rights  a voter and  a tax payer deserve?

Now seems that we as a tax payer is begging the government to grant us our wishes… I went thru a by-election years back at my place too  (i’m just a voter). Those roads with terrible condition will be nicely paved and the long abandoned dark alleys are installed with the brightest street lamp in a short period of 2 campaign weeks. It even install some beautiful traffic lights for you with is sometimes a bit redundant. It’s good time for those schools or any local association to ask for approval of fund subsidies. More gimmick and promises will be given out when the election day is closed. It’s a typical election campaign model in this country. You will lost this privilege once the election day is past.

A constituency with by-election is always having more to gain then lost before the election day. You better grab the chance to ask for whatever you’ve been long waited. Once it’s being granted, don’t you forget to display a gratitude look before the media.

Economy Driving Tips

The high fuel price has made everyone so concern about their car’s fuel-efficiency. At one end, the car manufacturers strive to produce the car with maximum distance per gallon, at the other end, the car drivers are looking for better fuel economy while not giving up the performance.   Besides the technology used and the car design,  a driver’s driving skill and habit can also help to improve the fuel efficient.

I came across this article that provide some fuel saving tips with real test case. The strategies can be summarized as below.

The first is to reduce the engine revs, by changing up at 2,000rpm.

Secondly, it’s advised to remove the foot from the accelerator and coast in gear wherever possible, so the car is carried along by its momentum and not using fuel.

The third strategy is to accelerate gently. Acceleration uses a lot of fuel, so be light-footed

For those who is concerning about car fuel-efficient, you may try these tips.  Besides, It’s commonly know that accelerate often will increase the fuel consumption which is mentioned in tip no.3.

Let’s drive more economically. Besides saving the fuel, it helps to reduce the CO2 emission too.

For more details, you may go to the below link.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/green-motoring/7740297/Economy-driving-challenge.html

Control spending or simply a subsidy cut will help?

I’m always prudent with my spending and saving.  My after taxed salary ( see, I pay taxes) are divided into several portions. One for my monthly fixed payment such as my insurance, my car and house installments. The other one is for my necessities like monthly family spendings, bills, etc ( I pay taxes too which are included in my bills) . The next is my other expenses like entertainments and magazines (we’re all paying high entertainment taxes for cinema and dinning). The last portion will be my saving.

Sounds simple right? But it’s not easy to keep the spendings within the monthly budget. But my budget will be worse if I don’t follow my plan.  It’s same for everyone, we need to manage our spending. there is  no easy way to deal with money but to manage it.

Recently our government has been openly propose to review and reduce the current subsidy bill. This include the fuel subsidy, subsidies to the essential items such as cooking oil, flour, sugar, education, toll, healthcare and electricity. The implication of this subsidy reduction is the increase of price over these items.

Government warn that our budget deficits is getting worse and that the government debt is growing at 12% per year. If we continue the current subsidy scheme to the nation, our country would become bankrupt by 2019.

I personally agree that the current subsidy scheme need to be reviewed and rationalized especially on fuel. But when our government don’t review their current way of spending by hoping that simply a subsidy cut and imposing GST to the nation will help to save our country from debt, then I think this thinking is too simple and does not make sense.

According to prime minister office, our country will save RM103bil over the next five years if it slashes its subsidy bill now? But does it sound relevant to us? Will this RM103bil be used for better development?building better hardware infrastructure, better education system and healthcare for the nation? Years ago whenever we had the raised in fuel price, we heard that the subsidy that are saved will be used to upgrade our public transportation and road but it’s been for years we never seen any improvements besides the LRT system of upgrading the 2 coaches train to 4 coaches train. It always seems like a figure announced by government but we will never feel that or benefit much from that.

For the Government, it’s better to start to control their spending rather than keep thinking of sacrificing the nations benefits to compensate the government loss. They should review their current spending. Don’t over spend on the defense systems,  funding F1 dream team that don’t directly benefits the nations, spent multi millions to conquer the space (oops, I rather consider it’s a 4 days 3 nights trip to visit the outer space ), Government projects that several times over budget such as the infamous Port Klang PKFZ project, etc.

Just like us as an individual, we can’t blame others for influencing our spendings and keep asking the employer for increment just because we don’t control our spending. Government must first work out a realistic budget and follow the plan, control the spendings then consider imposing those plans of cutting the subsidy and impose GST to burden the nation. This will eventually solve the problem. On the other hand,  cutting the subsidies and collect more taxes from the nation while still practice current way of government spendings is only a temporary solution to the problem.

* to learn more about the government Subsidy cut plan, you may visit this site:  http://www.pemandu.gov.my/

Yes, we have new Plans. But how about the old plan?

In less than half a year, the Malaysian government had came out with so many plans for the country. Started with the introduction of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) on December 2009, then followed by the New Economic Model (NEM) 3 months later. Last week, they announced the 10 Malaysia Plan (10MP). As usual, all the plans promise a better government policies and implementation. This will help to transform the nation into a high-income and high-productivity economy while achieving our Vision 2020.

A development plan for the country is essential to drive the government body, the private sectors as well as the nation toward to the same direction. We have new plans but how about review those plans which has past as well as the existing plans? do we review the existing plans from time to time to ensure that it’s still work as it was planned? do we have a retrospect on those plans which had been ended? do we learn from our past experience (either success or fail)? and do we disclose and share with the nation the outcomes of the review?

Nobody seems to know what is really going on with all the government plans. Apart from learning some new name and acronyms of the plans which is going to be mentioned in the media for the next few years. The nation are no access to further details of the execution of the plan and the “real” outcomes. It’s good for the government to always review and study the outcomes of the previous plans such as 9 Malaysia Plan, share the experience and correct the mistakes for any unachievable areas (if any) rather than just come out with another new plans that include somethings that we are not sure how they are going to execute it and how feasible is it.

I believe  the nation always want to see a plan that is proper implemented and within budget. We hope these new plans are implemented as planned.

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Today, my wife planned to prepare dinner at home. So, we went to the hyper-mart for the ingredients in the afternoon. We dropped by at Borders bookstore before going to the hyper-mart, where she then picked up a book named – “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child. I was told that a French dinner will be served in the evening.

According to her, this book provides detail recipes and steps to guide the reader to prepare the course. In additions to the steps, it provides drawings to further illustrate the steps to help the reader. Tips to pick the ingredients such as meat and veggies are also included.

So, with such a good book as claimed by her, I should expect a decent meal.  She started to prepare the dinner once we reached home at about quarter past 8.  The  dinner was finally served after an hour. She prepared the Sauté Chicken for our dinner. It’s so delicious that every bite of the chicken breast with herbs was so juicy and tasteful. The chicken was served with salads and white wine as well.  It’s a superb dinner prepared with love. A very good start for her first try.

For those who would like to try the French cuisine, this could be the cook book you should try. I’m a happier husband now who can expect more delicious meals in the future. I think I would be the next person to try out the recipes.

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how to define a building heritage status? (Goodbye Pudu Jail)

The 115 Year-old former Pudu Prison building situated in the prime area of Kuala Lumpur city center had been finally demolished by the  developer on Mon, 21 June 2010. the statement from the government told that this building is not a heritage site and will not be preserve as one. In addition, it’s not something we can be proud of and there are many other things we can be proud of compared to a jail.

A statement given must always based on some facts or figures to support it. This is especially truth and important when it’s a statement to the public. If a building of over 100 years ( and it’s pre-World War 2) is not worthy of preservation, then how should we define a building or site is heritage and therefore need to be preserved? If I say that our education system is  too old and uncompetitive and therefore need to be replaced, I need to give my valid reasons, supporting facts and maybe comparison cases to support my argument. It’s same if i want to fire my employee. I need to provide valid reasons and facts. A statement without supporting facts will not be trusted and accepted by the people. This is what i see from the statement given out yesterday from the government regarding the demolition of the Pudu Prison.

It”s always a gray area here to define a building heritage status since we have no say in the government decisions and there is no guideline that we aware of to refer to. In fact I don’t have particular strong feeling toward Pudu Prison building but I think that there are always some historical values that make it worth to preserve part of it if not for the whole building. The preserved part  (a wall or front gate) can be promoted as a tourist attraction and a small museum building that witness the development of Kuala Lumpur. But if it’s really not worth to preserve, then please prove it.

There are lesser and lesser heritage buildings here in Kuala Lumpur due to negligent and unwillingness to preserve it. Now I hope the government can announce which OTHER buildings that worthy of preservation in the City and the preservation methods and steps they are going to take?

Freedom to Listen

We are living in a democratic country. By right we shall have the right of freedom to speak, to write, to listen and most importantly the right to information.

Days ago, one of the popular morning program belong to the local Chinese Radio station here (FM98.8) was warned by the government authority over their forum content which claimed that has touched the sensitive issues among races. The authority further stated that the radio station and the responsible employees could be charged  a penalty of jail or fine. Furthermore the radio station broadcast license could be hung. This result in the respective team members of the program including the DJs and the producer were ordered to take leave from their position.

This is not the first of its case that happen in Malaysia. In the past, the licenses of some of the local newspaper medias were removed with similar reason given. This act has violated the freedom of expression and the press freedom. This kind of relationship can be related as father and son. The father can stop the allowance  or even cancel the son’s holiday when the son does not obey to him. Indirectly it’s controlling and limiting the contents of the information to the public.

We are living in the information age that is impossible for the authority to filter or censor the information. Public have the rights to know and share the information.  We have the freedom of expression. However, we all must aware that we are responsible to whatever announcement and speech we make.

When talking about political news, we don’t want a media that gives us the wrong information or is always against the country policies. But neither we want a media that pro the government in power that keep broadcast the good news of the government and might hide some of the truths that we as a nation should know. We need to have the rights to listen and think for ourself.

The Alien Policy

This is a notice found in China Airport. I still prefer to use the word  ”foreigner” over “alien”.

Want to get sued by Facebook?

_book for facebook trademark

If you feel like getting sued by Facebook, try register your company name using the words Face or book. for example Facexxxxxx,  xxxbook, etc.  Facebook is currently trying to trademark the word “Face” hoping to stop the other company using this as the company name or even the product name. They are going after Techbook in court, an online book store that sell specialist books for using a similar name.  Some other company, which they also going after are site like Placebook, faceparty, etc.

This act of trying to exclusively using this particular word sounds a bit too much and ridiculous for a social network site.  It’s like they are trying to monopoly and control the cyber world by forcing people to related to them whenever the words “face and “book” appear in our brain.  I guess in the near future, all the preschool syllabus shall change the alphabet lesson to have A for apple, B for Book,…, F for Facebook

* “_book” image are downloaded from www.GOOD.is

blocked mind

I’ve not been active in blogging nowadays. I think the busy working routine seems to make my mind numb and block. I can’t think fast. I feel tire easily. I’m started to avoid most of the social activities such as attending friend’s gathering. I lost the interest of reading books, articles and find no inspiration to start my blog.

My mind is always filled with worrisomeness and fear of my work deliveries; regardless of weekday or weekend. Besides the already tight deadlines, I need to deal with those unplanned issues and activities. At home, I browse the internet from one site to the other. Wandering in the Cyber world aimlessly. I was not a creative person but nowadays the little creativity of mine is getting even lesser and lesser.  I can’t communicate well, lost the sense of humor, react and response slow to friend’s jokes and teasing.

I worry that this busy and fixed routine will gradually transform me to a walking flesh without the real soul. Life is too short to keep worrying and rushing for deadlines. So what should I do to get myself out of this situation? Some people suggest to take a short break from the work, a short vacation to rest,  some drinks  during the weekend to relax, pick up new habits like gardening or painting that can help to coup with stress. These tips may help but are only temporary solutions to ease the stress. I guess only through changes and adaptations can lead me out from my current situation. Therefore I think I need to face the problem,  rethink the way I handle the daily assignment as well as to improve my time management skills.

It’s fine to be busy sometimes but the prolong and seemingly never ending busy daily routine have risk of  ruining our health and mind.

Put up the Parking lot

The business districts around PJ area are always short of parking lot.  It’s sometimes frustrated when driving to these places especially during peak hours. First of all, from a planning point of view, the initial planning and allocation of parking lot for these business district are already insufficient. Furthermore, the attitude and act of some of the business owners in these area gives more trouble to the driver while finding a parking space.

These inconsiderate owner likes to block the parking lots in front of their shop from public access. They reserve these parking lot without the permit from the local authority. For them, the method and tool to reserve the space could be as simple as putting a stool in the middle of the parking lot. This stool directly notify the public that this particular parking lot is reserved and No Parking Here!!! It’s not unusual to see this happen in front of the car service dealer and the restaurant. This act seems like had been widely accepted by the society and nobody cares to check with the shop owner to try to correct them.

Days ago, I was so annoyed by one of the restaurant owner who instructed his workers to “reserve” more then 5 parking lots nearby his restaurant together with another restaurant next to it. They offer special parking service for their patrons by allowing the customer to park in front of their restaurant. It was raining and the worker did not allow me to park on any of the empty parking space nearby their restaurant. I had a short argument with them and at last, I came out from my car, removed the stool, parked my car on the parking lot and complained to the manager before walking away to another restaurant next door.

Other places in Klang Valley that’s facing car park shortage are  SS2, USJ Taipan, Kota Damansara and Damansara Uptown.

Library visit

When was the last time you visited a public library?

Recently in England,  many libraries are facing widespread cuts and closures following the government’s funding cut. It’s pretty predictable that, many librarians will loss their job and I wonder where and how will they keep the books.

We are lucky that so far we have not heard of any closure of libraries in Kuala Lumpur. Anyway, I doubt that there will be much noise arise if there is one going to close since library visit is not our culture here. From my observation, the low visiting rate it’s not due to the people lack of interest for reading. Most of the people here are choosing to visit the bookstore instead of the library. This can be easily tell by the high number of crowd in most of the major bookstores during the weekend.

So what is stopping the public from visiting the library? Could it be lack of the library? The location of the library that is inconvenient? Outdated or incomplete book collections? or it’s just merely because the bookstores can provide a better environment for reading?

My last visit to the library could be traced back to year 1999. I can’t remember that I’ve  visited any since then. Like most of the people here, I visit bookstore instead. After all, reading is an inexpensive way of spending your free time and visiting a library is almost free. Why not try to spend some quality time with friends or family to the nearby library during the weekend. At the same time, it might bring you back some old memories that belong to your student years.

Political or not political…

1 Malaysia concept as described by the government, the ruling party BN; is a concept  to foster the unity among the communities and races. A programme to move the country toward 1 Malaysian nation. A programme, which I think is important for the development and harmony of our multi-racial and multi-cultural nation.

However, it would be naive to think that 1 Malaysia is totally not a political tool. In one end, it was introduced to serve the above mentioned purpose. At the other end, it was also introduced as a political programme hoping to shape the positive image of the ruling party as well as promote the party’s popularity among the Malaysian nation. Similarly, every political party including the Pakatan (opposition) are in a way giving out promises and launching programmes hoping to raise their popularity too.

Since we knew that every moves these politician made have their own political agenda, it’s waste of time to argue if these moves  are political or not. What matter most is whether the programmes launched are properly planned and well executed according to the plan. Whether the programme will bring benefits to the nation and not only to a small group of people especially the party’s cronies.

In my opinion, 1 Malaysia programme is still too abstract to the nation that without much details disclosed. It’s sometimes confusing that I’ll have a second thought that it’s about selling household products.  It’s sad to see now a day that every advertisements whether it’s relevant or irrelevant, like to associate the products or services they sell with 1 Malaysia. This situation reminded me of a once very popular “Rakan Muda” programme during the early 90′s, where besides the slogans and attractive advertisements that bombarding the nation, this programme did not bring any benefits and changes to the nations’s lifestyle that promote the youth involvement in the sports activities.

I hope 1 Malaysia will not repeating the failure of “Rakan Muda” and many more other similar programme. The government should make it something that is proud for the nation by seriously carry out the plan and not just focusing on their political agenda.

New Year New Year

Another year past and now it’s the beginning of the new year. 2010 was a busy year for both of  my works as well as my personal life. In terms of work, the busyness I had did not return me profound achievement but consider had delivered good results.  As for my personal life, I had married my wife and had our wedding reception held at the end 2010. It was and its always one of my best achievement in life

Nobody should afford to leave their new year resolution, as for me, I personally hope that in this new year, I’ll have more time for my family and myself  as well as to enjoy more leisure time. More time to learn more stuffs and to improve my speaking skills as i’m always lack of confident when speaking.  Besides, I hope to be more organize and more efficient when doing things. At last, i’m trying to improve and level up my fitness. More time and determination for my exercise regime.

According to a research, most of the people will give up their new year resolution by February of the new year. I hope my resolution list mentioned above will not be given up so soon. At least the new year spirits will not be vanished as soon as the new year fireworks up in the sky.  New year, New year!