A Realm Of My Own

Testing

2011-05-23T03:05:00.001-07:00

Going Through It Over Again

2011-04-03T07:32:00.001-07:00

I've lost in the Division S International Speech Contest. I wasn't good enough and the other speakers were simply amazing. Participating in the contests was truly eye-opening for me. From the club level, to finally Division, the heart beat at a different rate. All the preparation was slightly different and expectation was too, elevated. This is a good lesson learnt in life, and the next time shall I try again, I'll do it from a different angle. I was indeed a noob.

What went wrong?

I over practiced. My frequent advice for novice speaker is "don't memorize your speech, develop the points and let it go freely". In this contest, I ate my own spat. Wanting to be perfect, I forgot the whole picture of my speech and did it out of pure memory word-by-word. It's like a song repeated in my head, even I was annoyed by it, how to convince the audience? The only way to win next time is, to do well on every speech from this point onwards and be natural champion, not a recording puppet.

No matter how much we plan and try, how the audience responded, none would carry any impact if we did not speak from the heart. I remember 8 years back when I was in form 5, in front of all the first years I held the trophy high and said "this cup is the heart and soul of generation of seniors. It's blood and sweat that has brought it here, protect it well, don't let any other school take it away". Then I broke down and cried, so did the first years. That was the most powerful speech I've ever said. It's short, it's concise and it carried the message from my heart…..to their heart. And it's impromptu.

My speech was full of discipline; Powerful opening, 3 clear cut points and an unforgettable conclusion. Those are great for exams but not competition. I have learnt that what matters is, have a good point and pound hard on it. Deliver it the best way and highest impact possible. Make 1 point unforgettable is easier for the audience than 3. People are lazy. Make it easy for them.

At the end, I was exposed to a higher level so much, I feel the difference within me. For every contest I went through, something inside me changed. For every contest lost, my ego crumpled and that made me a more receptive person for improvements; sometimes it's necessary for idiots like me. But still, losing is never a good feeling. Not even for an idiot. Honestly, when my friend pat onto me and said "it's ok, don't be disappointed", I nearly broke down. Who wouldn't? As time dilutes my agony, my experience stays…and that's what matters when we join toastmasters. It's not for the trophies (price is less than our membership fee), it's for something greater, it's called wisdom (priceless).

It’s a frustrating world

2011-02-18T03:44:00.001-08:00

It is very unfortunate for another of this kind of post to be published on my blog. The truth is, one of my customers has 2 types of contract with me. Let's name it service A and product B. Both are bounded with a minimum duration of at least 1 year. The reason for the contract to be that lengthy is so that I can spread the cost and make money in the long run. After about only 4 months, he decided to source for another brand of product B which has less features and lower price tag. So he called up and terminated mine. According to him, service A will be at stake if I insist to continue product B with him. If termination of any of the contracts occurs, I make losses.

So I find myself in a situation where I'm being arm twisted into the deal. After dealing with many many people, this is certainly the type that will force feed dung into people's life just to save a hundred bucks. So to all the businessmen/women out there;

Do whatever you feel comfortable but do remember words spread around.
What you do to us, will one day most probably come back to you.
There are only so many suppliers in the market and only a handful that is loyal and trustworthy.
A couple of hundred bucks could not save your business (in most cases) and what you portrait to the people around you, is priceless.
A gentleman agreement is what money cannot buy.

Don't forget, most of the time, our supplier is our loyal customer. Period.

What Trader Wish?

2011-01-21T07:24:00.001-08:00

It's always nice to see the trade that we entered is going in our direction. How I wish I can trade the Live account just like the Demo.

6%

2011-01-10T03:21:00.001-08:00

It's like a silent fart, 6% service tax is here. It is inauspicious yet deadly. An increase of 1% from 5% to 6% means, if one family spend RM100 a week at restaurant, the government makes RM1 extra. 10 000 families will pay RM10 000/week to the government in additional to the existing RM50 000 week. It means the government will have additional of RM520 000 in YEAR 2010 from the rakyat. The reality is, we go to restaurant more frequent than that, that are more than 10 000 families in Malaysia and restaurants are not the only place service tax is imposed. Details on the tax scheme is available here: http://www.nbc.com.my/malaysia-budget-2011-tax-proposals.html

Yes, there are some good news. Handphone no more tax…YAY… err wait, how often do we buy phone? People with household income less than RM3000 may buy 1^st house and borrow 100% loan. 100% loan means we pay more interest to the bank. In the long run, we are poorer. At the same time, we pay more for everything thing that we eat or use every day because service tax has increased. Brilliant!

I was damn shocked when recently I had to pay 6% service tax. All the while I thought the government dare not impose since many gruesome voices protesting this idea but since it's already reality, there's nothing I reckon we can do. All in all, at the whole big picture this is what happened in Malaysia: Despite the increasing inflation that is burdening the people, the government says "reduce tariff on stuff they buy once in awhile, only if they can afford hahahahahar….ahem….increase the tax on everything else". "And impose immediately!".

Dilema over Breakfast

2011-01-08T03:27:00.001-08:00

No idea why but feeling really pissed while having breakfast this morning and it with something petty. It all started from paying RM1 for Kopi "o" peng. I was really annoyed that I was charged RM1, not like I paid 99c yesterday or 50c suddenly it increases to RM1. It's been priced like that for quite a few months already. I was like "what the fuck? RM1 for this cup of shit?". Yeah, things are getting more and more expensive, …. It's gonna be like that from now on. Kopi "o" peng used to be 40c when I was little. A technician's wage in the factories was probably RM2k back then (I know, my father was one of them). They could afford a family, decent house, meals, in short, simple sufficient life. Today, a technician's salary is probably RM2.2k. And Kopi "o" peng is RM1. Inflation has won the race by leaps and bounds.

So I pulled out my crappy phone and went to calculator mode. The figures struck me that the amount of taxes I paid is almost equal with the amount of money I spent for food and entertainment (several movies and karaoke sessions) for the whole of last year! For fuck sakes it was hefty to pay. And what the fuck did I get in return. Nothing significant mentally tangible to me. After paying so much taxes, tomorrow I'll still be driving on such bumpy roads. Few months down the road I will still feel sore with some racist politicians uttering offensive words. And worse, his salary for being an MP comes from our taxes. And for that, we do not belong here and do not deserve the same like others. I'm not trying to dig muds and start throwing at any party but that's what I personally feel. I'm sure some do feel the same as me. Even though I work harder and pay more taxes and contributes to the EPF system, sugar prices rose, so was petrol, and situation can only be worse. If everyone stop paying taxes, will the reverse happen? Heck was I confident that EPF was a force saving system which money contributed will be invested smartly for the benefits of the shareholders (us) and nation. Instead, I heard rumors about the money spent of bailing out failing companies. Why would we want to save companies which don't contribute? Why didn't invest into those with more potential? One on the negative end and one on the positive end, and money was dump into the negative end. Do the math.

At the same time it occurred to me that we have to pay for electricity, water, internet and even rubbish collection. On top of that, all the bills are taxed. I'm quite sure some of the companies which we are paying bills made some money. Where the fuck did all the money go? I think it all went to salary and pockets of people which could deduce a person could die even though "he was not murdered" and "didn't committed suicide" and found dead due to fall impact. I thought creator of superman had good imagination but obviously not as good as him. Lol

Being lived here the whole life, I always think that this is the best nation in the world. If only certain sanction could be improved, I'm sure the whole country would propel at an insane speed. Where is the logic in limiting the economy? It's almost as if saying "I want to score only 75 in math". When the teacher award 76, start annoying him/her to get the marks deducted. Lol.

The saddest part is, besides continue paying taxes and feeling sore, there's nothing I can do without looking trouble for myself. The only sane thing I can do is to cast my angry vote when the time is due. I can only hope that my vote is significant enough.

That was breakfast.

Why trade Malaysian Stocks?

2011-01-06T07:59:00.001-08:00

Notice I say trading market but not market trading? Despite the mess and excruciating process we need to get through in setting up an account in a foreign country, many active traders still prefers the "gold rains"; from a Malay quote saying "Hujan Emas di Negara orang lain, hujan batu di Negara sendiri, baik di Negara sendiri. It's not the gold that everyone is after. Why trade stocks that we've never heard off? Why not local company which we know about what they do, how much is their worth and products of which we're buying everyday? There are several reasons;

Many governments apart from our own are having less restriction in their stock market hence it is more liquid. More "opportunities" and faster movements.
Paper trade is available elsewhere but not Malaysia.
Brokerage fee is damn cheap if we trade online. It is also damn cheap here but nobody is shouting about it so, it's unheard.
Less instruments or worse, less counters to trade.
Malaysian traders are more conservatives and some even sees technical analysis as bull.
Trading in currency superior than the ringgit is like having leverage. Currently there is no leverage in Malaysian stocks.
Overseas trading allows shorting before buy. It's prohibited in Malaysia.
Forex and Gold trading is prohibited in Malaysia. Common, hottest market but not allowed over here? Opportunity for more tax la. Do away with GST, legalize forex and tax heavily.
Educational courses are limited or expensive. There are limited local softwares to aid our trade.
Many parents do not encourage their young ones to trade. Too risky they say.

So these are only few which I could think of. Do the math, if there are 10% of the total M'sian population trading (about 2.6mil), and each of them trade about RM10 000 monthly (which awfully little), and 10% of them prefers to trade at foreign country, that's about RM2.6 billion outside Malaysia which is supposed to be in the KLSE. As of today total trade in the KLSE is RM3,141,797,088, let's imagine what RM2 600 000 000 per month can offer to the local market. Which that amount of money, companies will have extra funds to invest, which means more job, better products, advancement of technology, more tax for the government, more schools, more hospital so forth and so on. Of course the figure is only hypothetical.

Come back to the topic, why trade Malaysian stocks?

Because we know them.
…
…

Technical Analysis

2011-01-06T07:33:00.001-08:00

Trading using charts is so simple when you're out of the market. But when you're finally into it, hell seems close. How to see the market like a by-passer watching a cat fight? I think EQ is more important than ability to spot trends.

Ironic

2011-01-06T05:43:00.001-08:00

It's so easy to trade. All we have to do is to decide whether to buy or to sell. And yet 95% of the traders loss money. So when they say "it's as easy as ABC" I doubt they are really appreciating the meaning of the words….

Flying Again

2010-10-08T22:57:00.001-07:00

I know I still owe everyone the Cambodian post. Heck, life was mad since the trip. I can barely rest and when I rest I can barely breathe but don't worry. What I've promised, I will fulfill. Someday....hopefully :P

All right, back to the main topic. In 48 hours, I'll be up in the air again. This time….to Bali. I'll definitely post this trip. I promise….I swear….hahahaha

Blogging Using Word 2010

2010-10-08T04:45:00.001-07:00

Is it me or are there many out there like me? Apparently we can blog using Office 2010.

In An Organization

2010-05-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

In an organization;

everything is part of learning (which I quite agree at times).
discussions is just to listen to other people's idea and concept. Yours doesn't work.
you're a bullet proof vest for your downline.
your downline told you everything hastily and expect you to remember. When problem crops, they'll say I told him so, he's my superior, he forgets it's his mistake.
you're supposed to remember everything and register it in your brain forever. (If I can do this I'll be in MIT.)
everyone is for themselves and to win them, you have to learn to shut them up (often paperwork works).
the company coordinator is very busy "coordinating". She has to visit the rest rooms many many times, spend her rightful time enjoy her lunch, make phone calls for appointments and adjust slots for operation work.
you are very free, gulping down your food, stuck in traffic jam, skipping restroom breaks and hunt for one shall you need to.
giving a 4 hours presentation without having time for lunch, develop sore throat and lost your voice in the process to introduce the company to the process means nothing to the company. The operators may screw up and it's ok for the boss to "tell your client off".
clients and prospects are king, only certain people in the organization can scold them.
your superior imagination is the truth!
integrity is important, when trouble arises, it's not my fault, it's always his, hers, and the client being troublesome, hence problem solved!
do more, spend less and improve!
your clerk being unable to use and reluctant to learn computer is the computer's fault, the computer must buck up.
it is ok to skip lunch to work on a project so that you can sweat under the hot sun. It is ok to skip lunch again and bathe in the rain while protecting the contract with your body. When the deal is closed, there's no pat in the back, you have to follow the "terms and conditions" that is written here and here instead of "very good, well done, I'll treat this as special case and give you some special incentives. You must earn honestly and take what you deserve.
1st lesson, we cannot follow everything that is written. This is the real corporate world.
big project = big possible trouble.
the client always tries to take advantage.
other people always sick, on leave and have close relative pass away, while you wonder how come you life is "uninteresting".
"see what happened already...what you do? You did nothing", proof with paperwork.
more paperwork, more work, more productive. No paperwork, no work, did not work.
your boss management skill is at the best, you learn and listen.
black and white is a trump card to tell you that "I win, you lose".
it is difficult for the phone operators because they have to take calls from client. It is easy because you only meet the client face to face.
securing a RM13.5k business means you'll still get shout at for a RM13.5 case.
you'll learn to keep your mouth shut, listen and forget.
motivate yourself, no one else will.
everyone in the organization is just human, forgive and move on.

So, what is an organization to me? I'm afraid I'm not a complicated person. For me, it's something that is made up of a group of people rather than a bunch of papers. If everyone really cares for the group, considerate for others, there's less papers involved, much work shared to achieve a common goal. And that's defines the mission and vision.

Begining of Another Chapter in Life

2010-03-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

I was staring for 2 hours at this particular photo as if waiting for an answer in life. The past episode has made me really disappointed and frustrated simply because I have focused too much onto others. I care too much about how others think and feel. I have hoped and expected too much from others and forgotten all about myself. I forgot that sometimes the solution to a despair is to move on. Previously when things don't work out I said to myself "it's ok, this is a valuable lesson in life and I shall be stronger after this". It's foolish to keep repeating that countless times. Those lines were reasons for losers and are acts of cowardice. The line that I shall say from this day forth is "it's ok, just move on".

Nasi Lemak in Hong Kong

2010-03-11T03:51:00.000-08:00

Recently I just found out that Nasi Lemak and Roti Cannai originated from our home land, Malaysia. If you don't know what's a nasi lemak please check my previous post. Because the foods are damn good, it has spread like a disease to other countries. They're most welcome in places like Hong Kong. The Hongkies have problem pronouncing the term accurately so they call our nasi lemak = "lat sei lei ah ma". Check out the meaning from the cantonese.

1000th Visit

2010-03-10T08:07:00.001-08:00

howjun.blogspot.com celebrates 1000th visit! Thank to all readers.

Contrast In Life

2010-03-10T08:03:00.000-08:00

I have just came back from delivering a quotation to client. And before that I visited a friend who is a very hardworking real estate agent. Well, Lawrence one of the poor folk who's affected badly by the economy diarrhea. I heard he worked as cleaner in Hotels and now he's a security guard in an apartment which requires him to post from 7PM to 7AM. In the morning he'll be New Bob real estate agent and he's in his 60ties this year. As for me, I can regard myself as a sales man in the company. To generate sales for commission, I had to work my ass off the limited fats. Even though I'm in the verge of collapsing tonight, I just couldn't put myself to rest because a client wanted the quotation ASAP and he's only available at night, therefore I traveled the extra mile. But I consider myself lucky as compared to Lawrence. So the question is, does working hard means extra earning? Does working hard means better living and better income as compared to others? Sadly it's a "no no" in this case. Basically, to get commission and get paid in my company, this is what "we" ("" cause this statement doesn't apply to all sales person) have to conduct the following:

Create awareness in our given area.
Attend enquiry and survey.
Work out costing and quotation.
Deliver quotation.
Follow up on the quote status and negotiate with clients (attend meetings).
Deliver Contract and invoice.
Arrange treatment and supervise the job.
Follow up on treatment.
Collect payment (fuck the client on the face of he doesn't pay up and face the music at the same time).
Get paid! Yahoo...

All the 10 longwinded steps to make 5%. If the contract value is RM200, we'll get RM10. Surprisingly there's parasite who survive without going through the first 9 steps. Most of the time, there's only step 10. Salesman who are reading this post, tell me, is this even possible? If it's possible, I would gladly give away my right testicle in exchange. lol....is there fairness in this mad mad world? Why is Lawrence dogging himself earn nuts while there are bastard who makes brim knowing nuts? Finally I will close this post with a quote from my primary school english teacher; I got punished because my friend made mistake and this is what he told me.

"How Jun, there is no fairness in this world" Mr. Chin, 1997. A phrase that I remembered for 13 years and it still applies till today.

Pun Choi during ESLim Bday

2010-03-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

It's my boss birthday and we celebrate while took some break off the steam. As usual, we had cake but this is no ordinary cake, it's vegetarian cake! My god, what's the point of eating a vegetarian cake? Eating a vegetarian cake is as ridiculous as eating vegetarian KFC. Anyways we had vegetarian Pizza Hut to come with that, brilliant.

Apart from the awful lunch which I chose to skip, we had a "feast" for dinner. Around 7.30PM all of us gathered at a fancy restaurant around town for dinner with only 1 dish. Yes, there's nothing wrong with your eye(s), only 1 dish. But this is no ordinary dish. Behold.......what......we.......ate......was.............tang tang tang tang (imitating magic sound).......

Pun Choi if you translate it into english is "bucket vegetable" or "potty vegetable". It's supposed to be a dish cooked with left overs and shared by the whole village in China. But being Penangnite, we managed to being it to another level. The ingredient involved were not as simple as pig feed but what we had inside was....(see for yourself)...

Not one or two, but there were about 20 or 30 mussels in the bowl! Fuck the cholesterol, savvy the taste first.

Although the abalone was only as big as the cow testicles, it was deeply satisfying for me. Not like I manage to taste anything from it but, heck, how often do we get to chew abalone? It's not about the taste but more about the experience. The above 3 was the highlight of the dish but there were other ingredients which made the dish really worth trying. Truly taste-butt salvation for the night. all ritey, time to "oi oi" now. Oya sumi...Zzzzzz

What can be more Idiotic than PPPM?

2010-03-04T05:21:00.000-08:00

This is a post where I'll be very vulgar, so if you have problems with rude wording please shove off. Or else I won't give a fuck simply coz I'm angry now. What happened was, I was called by a client renting a bungalow from the PPPM. As the organization grew, the need more space hence the building next door is the best option. And that building belongs to PPPM too. As usual, we went in for termite survey. The building was locked despite we made appointment since yesterday saying that we'll come at 2PM today. It took them 1 whole bloody hour to arrive from KOMTAR (only about 5km away) but we waited anyhow. Knowing that it's PPPM, we will not get the deal but we stayed to give some advice and helped to inspect the place.

4 officers arrived with style;

Government car with driver.
Acted like big shot but couldn't give straight answer and couldn't make decision.
1 does the talking while the other watched doing nothing else.
Totally ignored us needless mention about asking our opinion.
Discussed about ghost haunting in Penang Hill properties and humid weather instead of the topic of interest there.

Here's the conclusion of the "discussions";

They'll only provide corrective soil treatment (drilling) though our client insists on termite baiting (more advance, cost less in the long term, more environmental friendly and less damage to the building).
They won't listen to new ideas of advice.
Only 25% or the of the PPPM organization are "functional" while the rest tag along to enjoy the ride.
They couldn't give a fuck about destroying state properties.
They couldn't give a damn about tax payers money.

There are several issues I simply cannot understand;

Corrective soil treatment will drill all along the building layout thus destroying the classic tiles of the building. If the government couldn't give a damn about the heritage buildings who would?
Why wouldn't the PPPM move on with new information and ideas while JKR can?
Even being informed about higher cost involved, they simply don't give a fuck. So people, this is your blood money goes, down the drain into the pockets of blood suckers whole couldn't care less about shit! When broke they'll just tax more. GST for instance.
How come any tom dick and harry who knows nuts about anything can be an officer?
Why is PPPM owning any building at all?
Why is the need for 4 jokers to come for a building rental discussion?
Why is PPPM people rode in car with driver while the hardworking tax payers are only riding on motor under the mercy of the weather?
To get government jobs, why do we need Certificate from Ministry of Finance, enroll into their contractor listing (different bodies different list)? Isn't Register of Companies good enough? If not then why bother registering?
Why register with ministry of finance needs to pay fee? Why pay tax?
Why don't they give a fuck when the citizens are angry?

Basically this is the sum of the questions that occurred to me during the 1 hour meeting. Finally, why are there so many weakness in the government bodies?

Pot Black

2010-03-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

People who know me would probably realized that I'm a snooker freak. Not to the extend that leave everything behind and live by the snooker table, but I do spend a lot of my time cueing. I savvy the process poking the balls, with a wooden cue of coarse. Snooker for me is like soccer to a lot of you, it's something I love that most of you find boring.

It is a very expensive sport in this country where the table rental is damn hefty. Average price in Penang is about RM12 for a well maintained table. Normally we'll share the fee so that it's more affordable.

After using the crappy cues provided by the shop for sometime, I bought my own. Although it's a second party cue but at least it's my own now right?

I have my own snooker chalk too and holder too (imported from Hong Kong).

My own opponent (imported from Hong Kong too).

There are many interests/hobbies that became less fascinating to me but potting the balls doesn't seem to grow cold. This is one of the game where it grew from boring to interesting as time passes. You may presume that this is something hooligans and jobless thwarts indulge into but rest assured you're wrong. It requires skill, stamina, concentration, practice and it makes you feel british.

Malaysian Attitude Towards Criticisms

2010-02-28T07:59:00.000-08:00

Before I actually begin my gibberish, lets watch the videos.

Above was two videos which I found after wandering pointlessly in youtube for the whole bloody night. While I find nothing in particular fascinating about the content of the clips, it's the comments column which actually magnetized me. I'm not trying to offend any party here for I feel that sometimes Malaysian has to accept criticism politely positive.
The Myvi that I own is not at all a bad car but try tackling Cangkat Jering with it you'll find that the miniature 1.3L engine under the bonnet will only bring you up to 80km/H while screaming all the way up. For me a Myvi is a at the top in the list of the basic car range but heck, all Malaysian cars are only basic even the spec may write bombastic lines. Personally I cannot blame the Top Gear folks for their awful views but Malaysian cars to them is like Tata Nano to us. Comment which comes after the price will be "take it up to 60km/H you'll probably need a technician to put everything together again". Nevertheless let's compare the the average salary in Malaysia and UK and the cars that we can afford.

1. Malaysia
Wage: RM3k
Car you can own: Perodua Myvi SE @ about RM53K

2. UK
Wage: 3k pound.
Car you can own: BMW 3 Series Coupe M3 @ about 52k pound.

And let's assume the BMW M3 is only RM350k here, you basically have extra about RM300k for lifetime petrol, road tax, tires, body kit, insurance and another Merc C200 perhaps if you buy the Myvi. With the kind of wage, do not forget you'll still need to feed your Myvi, not like it'll run on air alone. RM300k is enough money to fill 167k litres of Ron95 into your pathetic proud Myvi. With 6000 people opt for Myvi instead of Merc, the money saved is enough to fill Mengkuang Dam with Ron95 at the current price and with that we'll probably have enough petrol for the next decades. Of coarse europe is the manufacturer of Merc but heck, isn't Malaysia the manufacturer or Perodua? And owner of Petronas at the same time? Doesn't that give Malaysia an edge over automobil sales price? Probably who ever doing the math for pricing possibly uses his fingers which only limits up to 20 for calculation(21 if he's male).

What could be more wrong than paying almost half of our salary for the car, the other quarter for petrol and maintenance and another quarter to income tax? Wait doesn't that leave us with literally nothing? Damn, I guess that's why the city council left all the grasses spring; you know where to go when you're hungry.

Perfect Shitting Tool for a Gadget Freak!

2010-02-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Do you remember what was it like to doing business 10 years ago? The handphones were as big as brick and we couldn't play "Happy Tree: Friend Slap Happy" with it. The irony is the price which costed about RM2k for a stupid mobile brick. Yes, there were a lot of public phones around, for instance, my block has 5 public phones though only one working. Cause only one was working the coin was always full, and heck, they collect the coins only once a month so it's as good as none.

So we keep all the contact either in a diary or in the stuff between our ears. Then came this gadget:

Ladies and gentleman this is called ELECTRONIC ORGANIZER. Man, I had to save like 3 months to have enough for this piece of shit. Basically you can store contacts (maximum 50), does currency conversion and there's even a calculator! During that time, this is the most "in" product in the market and having none means you're barred from friendship. Everyone walks around pressing one of these. You may store your girl friend birthday in it but if you forget to read, it is as good as not storing at all. Amazing huh? But today we have this:

Well this one needs no introduction. Basically this piece of junk is capable of reminding you when to shit and where to shit properly. All you need to do is to download the apps from apple store. Oh ya, talking about shitting, I was cursing myself for not having a proper camera this morning when I was at Gurney Plaza. Guess what, one of my friend (Andy) actually selling bidet at the basement of a shopping mall. It is no ordinary bidet man....Introducing....The...Most....Advance.....Shitting MACHINE!

I had to use my camera phone, sad. What you can do with this toy is incredible, there are buttons to;

warm the seat before you do your shit.
wash your arsehole with rotating water sprinkle.
adjust the power of the sprinkle according to your favor. If your asshole is big you may need a bigger jet of water.
automated flushing system.
etc...
etc...
Hey Andy, can we cook instant noodle with it?

Well, I think we actually can as reported by epicuriousgirl . Or is this the latest technology where the bidet can convert our shit into baked cheese rice? My god!

First Time

2010-02-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

After merely 6 days from registration, Evanis has got her very first job already. Although the fee was almost pathetic we took it nevertheless. We feel that as a beginner, we should be too choosy about what we can eat. To grow healthily into a mature business, Evanis needs to consume what ever available to obtain sufficient amount of nutrient ($$ and experience). So her very first business order was a trolley ramp that measured 5.5 X 19 X 19.5 inches (0.5 = half inch). Price = secret!

The objective is to crease a ramp to push trolley from the corridor into the shop. The ramp has to be strong and light because we're using it to push trolley carrying 30 kg gas cylinders into the shop from the corridor. Since the user is a lady, metal ramp is not suitable. To withstand the weight and pressure, this ramp is made of solid wood instead of plywood.

The bottom of the ramp is reinforced with layers of beams to confirm the stability. I bet with this design, you can hump a camel on top of it and the pieces will still stay intact!

I must say that though it is not making a kitchen cabinet but the work is not easy. It requires a lot of brain juice and skills. Previously I thought making a cabinet is just a matter of getting the right measurements and right screws but it is definitely more than that. For a noob like me, no matter how accurate the measurements that we've cut, the rubbish that we've created will never be stable. Of course there are some hidden techniques which I'm yet to discover.

Do you know what's the size of the screws in the pictures? My bro could tell me that it's 1' and 1'2''. For me it's like looking at my dick and try to estimate the size. For me, I would focus on maximizing its usage. So know your size before screwing around.

We applied some decor at the sides after realizing how ugly it looks with nails all over.

After realizing how ugly the side looked with nails all over, we decided to decorate it up a bit. The cosmetic materials was scavenged from the used materials around the factory (rubbish la), so we did the environment some favor while doing business. I think we deserve a nobel price for that. lol

And finally, we realised that we cannot afford QC test from SIRIM, we decided to do our own evaluation. That's me jumping on the ramp and it managed to survive even after 10 stomp. I weigh 51Kg at least (ya, I know I'm think, comment for that is not welcomed!

Just like dogs left urine to mark their territory, we simply couldn't resist to leave ours. With this beginning, we hope it's a good start for us. Until the next job, jiane.

Evanis Ventures

2010-02-17T07:34:00.000-08:00

Finally after talking so much and did nothing we gathered the balls and got it registered. When I was there at ROC with my bro cum partner, we were quite nervous because apart from driving there, we prepared nothing. Had not even thought of a name for the company. To us, the most important thing is brain juice and hard work rather than fancy documents and flashy names. Anyways, we were scratching our head when suddenly this name came along and we just scribbled it down the application forms seconds before our turn to hand in the forms.

Basically this company handles Interior Design and carpentry works but we think we'll sapu anything that makes money. So guys, if you have anything at all to suggest or shall you need some revonation please drop it at evanisventures@gmail.com

This is a little something that we started and hope to grow into something that may canopy our family comfortably in the future. We're not sure whether it'll work or not but at least the first step in now taken, we should give it the best shot we can. Actually, it's my bro's company after all but heck, my name was in the form. Haha. That makes me a director now. But hey, don't call me boss, I don't get a single cent; signed the paper incase my bro needed aid. So in the future, there'll be more posts regarding the produce of our baby.

CNY = another year ol'er

2010-02-16T09:50:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but Chinese New Year to me has becoming more and more like ordinary days (apart from the traffic jam of course). Remember when I was small, fire works were "quite legal" so there were plenty of sparks and lights squirting during the season but recently due to the strict enforcement, the excitement was drastically reduced. Nevertheless, it's a good thing less houses got burnt down.
As usual, we had a family gathering at the eve at a fancy restaurant where often the waitresses were grumpy.

Thumbs up for this restaurant not because of the food but rather the hospitality provided. Despite missing reunion dinner, the owner and employees served us with a broad smile. Sometimes I feel bad for them, to make extra income, they had to sacrifice valuable time serving us which watching families feasting together right at their nose. Therefore I feel that I should promote for them a little...The restaurant is situated at Crystal Point Penang (the biggest roundabout in the island, you wouldn't miss it)

First dish is always Yu Shang. As for the history, this dish was started from Ipoh, Perak (not Hong Kong folks!) and slowly it's famed towards other parts of the world. We believe that by tossing high during mixing, we'll get good fortune in business for the years to come. Since my bro is starting his own business this year, he gets to mix first. It's actually quite disgusting to mix Yu Shang. We're actually mixing our saliva into the dishes. Imagine you're kissing your bald uncle. Damn.

I think if the sharks are extinct, Chinese should be held responsible for it. No matter what occasion, there is Shark Fin Soup. I felt a bit bad every time this dish was served but my crave for the fins quickly overwhelmed the guilt. Haha...Guess that why we're on top of the food chain.

Hey, I'm not exactly that greedy ok. There are some which I loafed. For example this Abalone with Mushroom and Broccoli (Shit, it's spelled with one L and 2 C), I wonder why would anyone like this dish since it tasted so plain and unattractive.

Overall, the food is only "so so" but I like the dessert. Winter Melon sorbet with Sago. Actually, it's not the food that matters, it's more like precious family bonding time.

My cousin brought along a bottle of red wine which tasted not bad. My parents didn't allow me to drink any liquor since young. Now I cannot drink at all. So if you have kids, train them. There's nothing wrong in drinking, just don't get drunk. My first drunk experience was at 9 years old. One of the family member brought back white wine from Australia and it tasted so damn good. I remember drinking 2 cups and apart from that, the next thing I knew was morning.

In the past, we would quickly went home to "hoi toi" (gamble) but since the family had shrunk so much, there no more kaki and we ended up gossiping away. My mom's side was almost like casino for all the 15 days. This year, it's just a few of us chatting away at the Hotel living room and me of course toying with my SLR. Here is one particular shot which I like best. Chinese New Year is so calm and serene. Feels like Christmas more than CNY.

Oh ya, this year my status is already upgraded to UNCLE. WTF I'm only 24. I remember his father used to run around shooting other kids with fire works but now he shoots his wife and resulted in this <<<<.Anyways, everyone meet Jayden. Cute right? Staring down at the little fellow made me really appreciate the process of aging.

There are some years went by when I looked only towards the front but definitely not this year. This year I looked back and there's countless fond memories I would smile for. How about you? After so many steps ahead, have you taken one step back? Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2010-02-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

I remember when I was small, Chinese New Year was an exciting event. By that I mean it's so breathtaking that I could sleep while waiting for its arrival. My mom had to pat me to sleep using a cane. Sigh... The main reason this celebration is so worth waiting is, I get to see all my relatives and especially cousins. Back then, I only get to see them several times a year and now it's getting less and less. Probably due to pressure from the society that we have to move on with our busy life hence less time for all nonsense. The huge family tree was thorn apart by lightning several year ago rendering the circle of the "official" family smaller. This year for what ever reasons, I couldn't wait to see everyone again. Anyways, Happy Chinese New Year folks. I wish you all a healthy and brimming prosperity year a head. This year I will add another phrase in the wish, I wish you all significant increase in Intellectual Capacity in the year ahead.

Since the economy is bad and I couldn't afford anything physical, this is a "Phong Kam" I'm sending. Hope you like it :)

Typical Eventful Day

2010-02-04T08:31:00.000-08:00

Warning! This is gonna be a long post!

Well, I cannot afford fancy holiday to Europe or even Singapore. Life for me is everyday xeroxing the day before. Therefore, I need to find inspiration to keep carry on passing time. So I think it's best to treat everyday as a holiday since I go different places and meet different people almost everyday.
My day starts with a simple "cheap" breakfast at some lane around Georgetown.

Accompanied by a pack of Nasi Lemak.

Actually the meal only cost RM1.80 normally but today 2 of my technician joined me for breakfast. At the end they assume that it's my duty to pay everything, so my simple breakfast turned into an expensive 5 start lorong breakfast (RM3.80). As usual, I went to the office to show my face to the bosses. Pretend to be busy and buzz around for awhile before I took off to Bangkok Lane. There I did some presentation to the Cheah Family. The whole presentation and questionnaire session ended after 2 long agonizing hours and we did some cam-whoring.

From left, Boobalan is the building manager for the family, middle is me and on my left is Jason Cheah. Well, Jason is...erm...a good boy. Ya...a good boy.

Since I was nearby, the next stop is Burma Lane where lay the tourist trap, Burmese Temple!. Photo time!

The architecture is simply amazing. Even after taking so many photos through these years at this place, I feel that the temples are still fascinating enough for a few more sessions.

There are countless figures for cam-whoring but I was there alone. So, there is no one to hold camera for me.

Apart from Buddha statues there are some animal carving. At some angle, they look alive.

Sleeping Buddha is the main attraction...It's about 40m long.

That reminds me about Thern's blog. Imagine you got a super poke from this guy.

The temple was literary carved from wood. Look at all the wooden structures.

At the entrance we were welcomed by hot angels. I would dare going near her. See her bf behind.

A must go place if you ever come to Penang. After snapping substantial amount of photos, it's time for lunch...finally. So I went to Seck Chuan Road for a light lunch. It's right beside Chulia Street but I kinda wondered, why is Seck Chuan a road when Chulia is only a street. Chulia is about 3X the size of Seck Chuan.

It's a part of Penang where building old fashioned. This is the centre of Penang where UNESCO announced as heritage site. Sadly rumor says that we'll soon lose the heritage status. At this area, we often see kuai lou roam around looking for cheap hotels. Basically you can find everything here; construction tools, vegetables, antiques, bak kua and even prostitutes. Let's talk about bak kua. Chinese New Year coming right? Everyone loves Bak Kua...ever wonder how they're made?

I found these sun bathing in the alley. Birds might add some flavoring while we did not noticed. Maybe that makes this taste better.

It's pretty humid in Penang, so for lunch an Iced-Herbal-Tea is a must to prevent sun stroke. There is a stall at Chulia Street selling good Wan Than Mee. For me, this is the best so far. If you think it's no good, I think probably your tongue needs some maintenance.

Look at the meat inside the skin. Unlike most Wan Than Mee, the Wan Than over here are generously packed with meat.

Dessert for me was some Java Apple. It cost me RM1.50 which I think is over priced. Nevertheless, this stall has been selling fruits for a few decades. It's fresh! You may want to take this to rehydrate after visiting prostitutes.

One this I don't understand is, why do we have to pay for parking in Penang?

We are already paying road taxes. This and that taxes. Not like anyone is there to care for our car. After paying it's still park at our own risk. If we're gone for long hours, it's very troublesome to keep on coming back to reload these hopeless machines. It's not properly maintained where sometimes when we insert coins, the time will not top up.

Parking tickets are even worse. After issuing the ticket, the parking attendant will conveniently gone missing. We're supposed to hunt for him or pay the fine after several days. I think this is bull shit!

Anyways, next I went to Kuantan road for some work. Nothing interesting there apart from the heat! Luckily my next stop was Gurney Plaza...hehe...air con...air con....

After completing all my works, on the way coming down to my car, there's some live drawing show. The artist was damn pro. so I didn't miss the chance to capture the moments. There's a sailor wannabe being drawn. It's so amazing how skillful the artist and that dude sat for hours.

As I wanted to capture a good shot, this bitch came along. Brainless motherfucker. It's not like she didn't aware there are some snapping photos but she couldn't give a damn. Wanted to ask her to "fuck off" in Japanese but I figured she wouldn't understand anyways.

These are his product for sale. One of the girls is Crystal Liu Yi Fei. There's Bruce Lee and Andy Lau too. Damn, he's good!

It rained on the way home....not unusual to rain but on a hot glaring day? The sun was still burning the ground while the hot rain poured mercilessly. Pity those bikerz.

On the way, my friend called and we chatted for 41min and 19 sex...oops...19sec. I think he's lonely.

After a quick dinner, I was off to Pu Xian temple for the opening ceremony of the Buddha Statues.

Walao, 3 temples in a day! I was there on time for the longwinded speech by Dato Seri Ong Ka Chuan. This is the first time I see a big shot arrived on time.

Why do they have to speak so long huh? The ceremony ended with lion dance and firework that attracted me to the event. Photo session!

That's basically 1 day for me. Thanks for reading, yawn...time to sleep.

Hornet Control Under The Bodhi Tree

2010-02-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

For those who called or sms me would probably wonder what I was doing just now hanging up your call so hastily. Well, this is what I did, or rather, we did, hornet control under the bodhi tree....

For those who don't know, Buddha reached enlightenment under a bodhi tree (also known as Bo). So this species of tree (Ficus religiosa) is well respected by the buddhist community. In fact, you can expect one of this tree planted at every buddhist temple. Maybe the monks wish to end their journey in this world like Buddha. Anyways, it's about the hornet control. This job was done in a Buddhist temple. In fact, it's the biggest buddhist temple in Penang i.e. Penang Buddhist Association.

We were well aware that under the roof of Buddha teaching "thou shall not kill" but hey, we're not gonna risk devoters getting stung comes wesak day! So I guess some one has to do the dirty job. Well, it's not me! But it's my operators who did it...and they're muslim...

Everyone meet Tajuddin and Kamaruzamman (remember my old header? The sunset photo? It's Kama's work...nice right?) Most of the time, Kama will prepare the prop and Tajuddin will do the climbing. They're damn good at this.

We did not forget the protective layers of coarse. It's hornet we're talking about.

Burning is one of the fastest and economical way of coarse.

This is how it looks like inside the Hive. The comb where all the larva is kept. If you have not seen a hornet before, don't ask me what is it. The picture is below.

My boss didn't really let the action dies without his participation. Haha, everyone was very agitated to be involved. Why huh? All I can say is, this is the most beautiful hornet control that I've been. Mind you, I have been to many. The job was done under a well decorated tree. I think I paid more attention in capturing photographs rather than catching bees. Lol

There as no cloud, so we could see all the stars in the sky. See orion in the photo? Don't bother to try photographing with your compact camera. Hehe.....

Working under a glittering sky with the shade of a colorfully lit canopy, what else can we ask for?

The group of sinners...

Photoshooting with a virgin Nikon D3000

2010-01-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

I was using this camera (Lumix LZ28) for about a year plus...

Then I think it's time that I should get myself a SLR. Been longing that for ages actually. Finally, I got myself a Nikon D3000. As compared to the compact, I feel that the SLR definitely offers more customization and the photos taken are more real as compared to the Lumix which feels like the photos are processed.

At the moment I have deprived my whole account for this bulky machine, I will have to make do with the kit lens (18-55mm). The angle is not as wide as the Lumix and aperture not as big. Never the less, the contour and colors appears more lively than the Lumix. So, as a new exited owner of a SLR, it's quite normal for me to snap everything that come into sight. From the view finder, everything looks great.

My 9 year old key board looks great.

The magazines on my table look great.

The STPM time table on the wall looks great. Lol, the exam was 6 years back. Kinda miss it now.

Even my old apartment looks great.

Everyone say Hi to my dog PIPI. Don't ask me why the silly name, it's given by my mom.

To test the camera further, I went to Air Itam Dam to snap some random photos. The dam is situated about 10 min drive from my house.

Not exactly a big dam but it supplies water to a big part of Penang and drains water from nearby joggers.

I remember when I was a kid, my parents sat me on the wall and I got fever for a whole week. The heat subsided when my aunt brought me to a medium. lol...

This is definitely a cool place for jogging. Apart from fresh air, the scenery is awesome. You could see whole of Georgetown from here but from this distance, KOMTAR appears like tooth pick.

It's some of the limited undisturbed forest available in Penang. Personally I like this photo very much, until now, I still couldn't believe this is the product of ME and my camera.

It was sunset and the light was too bright. So, I ended up taking over exposed photos. Nevertheless, before I went home, I tried some techniques that normal compact cameras are not capable of.

Cool eh? Maybe it's time you should get a SLR too. The results is definitely worth it but it cost a muscle to carry and a hefty price.

p/s: I took 284 photos and these are the best. I'm not really used to the camera yet, hopefully I'll improve soon enough for Angkor Wat. Hehe

I had a bad day!

2010-01-26T03:04:00.000-08:00

Maybe it is an old song but for me, this is the best song for the moment. Please click play when you're reading this.

There are some days when you feel you have already outsmarted all the living being in this world. There are days when you want to announce that you're far more superior than anyone else you've ever seen. There are days when you feel you have surpass the top of the world. But certainly this is not my day...

Today is a day where all guidance is redundant. Today is a day where you're on your own. Today is a day where no words could describe. Today is a day where hell is pleasant. Today is a day where you don't know what to say. And today the you world had hit a new low.

Basically what happened was a some refused to comprehend my explanation. Basically what happened was the person you dealt with couldn't be bothered with what's going on. Basically all the knowledge that you took pride from worth less than rubbish to someone out there. And basically this is the moment where you break down and cry.

What I want to do now is to move far far away and be gone from where I am now. What I want to do now is to forget everything that is done and wish that I can move on. What I really want to do is to get drunk by the beach and swing the bottle as far away as possible into the sea. What I don't really mind is the aftermath of the hang over.

Maybe this is part of being strong. Maybe this is the training I seek. Maybe tomorrow will dawn to a better day. Maybe after this I'm growing away from naiveness.

And I had a serious bad day!

I WON LOTTERY FIRST PRICE!!!!!!YAHOO

2010-01-25T07:21:00.000-08:00

When I refer to Pan Malaysia Website, I couldn't believe my eyes. There it is, the glittering lottery numbers shining back at me, telling to apply for leave and head towards KL. It's time to claim my price that Pan Malaysia owe me for a long long time. RM3 millions worth of warmth awaits me out there. The moment was so breathless it's like an avalanche forcefully crashing down on me...taking every single breathe away rendering me dumb founded and unabling all movements. When I was typing my resign letter on my handphone (ya, just sms to resign there is no need to be official cause I couldn't be bothered anymore about anything else) suddenly, "RINGG RINGG" (more of Imperial March from Starwars really)...pulling me from "reality" back into cruelty. My dream was shattered into countless pieces and I was back again into this pointless meaning less world.

Do you ever dream of winning a lottery? Do you even buy a lottery ticket? I find that many people tend to think winning lottery is a hard but I think other wise. See, to strike is not at all excessively tough because all we needed to do was to buy the ticket and wait to win. THATS ALL. All the rest will be handled by PMP itself. There is no need to be on diet for 7 months, there is no need to climb himalaya and pray to the lord (if HE does exists) and certainly there is no need to murder or steal. All we need is RM3 actually. So, I'm quite amazed how people think different over certain matter.

"There is no need to murder or steal, all we need is RM3"

The draw is about every 20 days so I think it's rather foolish not to buy. Imagine, only RM3 you may win yourself a price so high, you may retire at that instance. No estacy is capable of offering such pleasure and high. But, even every ticket we bought gives us a chance to Shangri La the chance is rather slim. The probability is 0.0000001 over 1 which mean, you're more likely to die in an asteroid impact in US than to win a lottery. Winning the jackpot has an equal chance of getting struck by lightning. lol...

Does that mean when you buy 2 tickets, you have better chance of winning? Yes, do the math....but for me 0.0000002 has no difference with 0.000001 and both is almost equal to nothing. Nevertheless never try never know. All I ever buy is one ticket for every draw.

Top THREE List that I want but even winning a lottery cannot get me:

Aston Martin Vanquish.
A huge bungalow with 10 000 sqft built up. .
A brain that will make me more money than winning a lottery.

P/S: This incident made me miss one of my friend Aeroplane Shiuan very much. Are you out there Shiuan? Are you reading my blog? How dare you if you're not! I remember back at the 2nd year of varsity where I tricked her into believing I won lottery, she even called up her sis and got me all the details from collecting the prices to which investment to make. How cute, but naive.....lol...ahhhh memories

Being a trainer

2010-01-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder what could be used as a measuring benchmark for our success. For example, people tell me that I'm still very young and there is no real need to rush for success. My client who owns more than 250 houses around Penang told me that he's poor. Some client owns a small business and have his nose lifted so high that I was practically talking to his nose all the time. So sometimes I feel that I'm being very useless and did not really put in enough effort into my own life. But sometimes I could really feel the respect from others which really made me feel really good and want to carry on even harder.
Perhaps my most successful achievement in the career was to introduce myself as a very knowledgeable "specialist" (that's what my boss will tell clients). After 1.5 years of working, I have given out total of 4 institutional training to date.

The first was at Ace Enclosure and it's about fumigation. I was only a 2 months old fumigator but my boss cruelly sent me out to face a major client. Of coarse he was with me that time.

I did all the subsequent presentations alone where my boss couldn't careless anymore.

Happened last year at PDC office where I was invited to talk about Termites and treatment. The crowd was much more bigger than this, some left half way. Little did I know, some of these are top guns of PDC.

Held this year in our very own office, the training was about a new product (we were not the supplier). The training was extended to other pest controllers from the north. Present was Swift Kill and PestGuard both from Ipoh. From Penang will be my own staffs and Popular Pest from Seberang Jaya.

The last training was given to IJM Land Penang. Present was all their managers but I forgot to take photos :( . In house training were countless so I disregard them in this post. At every training, I have this awkward feeling where almost all the time, I was the youngest in the room. This made me think, if I'm this good and experience in my field, what am I doing working for other people?

Streamyx has done it again!!!!

2010-01-21T05:14:00.000-08:00

Finally I made a call to streamyx after lousy connection since Sunday. Let me illustrate how lousy the connection was;

Loading into facebook took 15 min.
Loading into streamyx speedometer page: practically failed.
Messenger connection: failed.
Blogging: 6 hours to up load (max record).

And when I was updating the antivirus, this is the type of connection that I got, the speedometer test shows over 1.4Mb/s download but hung at the upload. My antivirus is downloading 0Kb/s at the very same moment. Look at the graph, there is no chart at all. Then I made a call to streamyx begging for help.

The operator asked me to restart the modem and did a lot of stuff which I feel was redundant. Aren't we supposed to get a stable connection? If the connection is not stable, aren't they supposed to do something at their side instead of ours?

So I got 2.2Mb/s connection apparently (from the speedometer) and she said I was given more than enough. Can you imagine? Connecting to facebook took 15 min and the speedometer showed a 2.2Mb/s download speed. Man, can't browse into google is more than enough for her. After she resetted the port, my connection went back to "normal" which after the call was hung, the connection went back to the real normal (slow like fuck!).

This was the following conversation

Me: If you know that your customer is having the same problem everymonth, why can't you all so some maintenance every month?

Operator: No sir, we can only trouble shoot every time you report sir.

Me: Is it your policy for the customer to call every month? I'm paying rental for the telephone line just for the sake of lodging complains.

And the rest of the conversation will be as bull shit as their services. In the end the conclusion that I can deduce is:

Streamyx doesn't do maintenance for the client.
Despite knowing a single client is facing trouble every month, their policy is to ignore the problem and pretend like nothing had happened.
The client is to inform them the problem and effort to improve the situation is not encouraged.
The speedometer is totally bullshit!
The CEO doesn't give a shit about the customers. Refer to this post. It is ok if the connection always fail. No need follow up.

Mi Shining Armour

2010-01-18T06:45:00.001-08:00

Can't believe it took me about 1.5 hour just to upload a photo to my blog. I'm timing this just to create a new threshold of internet service incompetence. Well, thanks to Streamyx this is possible. Anyways, the fuck with Streamyx this blog is not about that useless company but I'm incorporate some "friendly" criticism in this post though. Here it goes...

The car is easily one of our biggest possession and to have it, we're paying 10 long years of loan (ya, poor bastard like me have to drag the period as long as possible). So, it's most important that our vehicle doesn't break down, well as least not as frequent as Streamyx connection. Last saturday, I spent whole afternoon rejuvenating V (that's what I called my white Myvi). It's so shocking the substantial amount of dirt accumulated on the paint finish after only a year. Basically put, V was yellow, literally. Exactly one year ago, this was how V was like. This is a picture of sunset at my apartment.

And the reflection of the hill on V. Looking at the pictures makes me wonder, people burn churches but why wouldn't they burn streamyx?

But after a long year, V lost her grace. It's like forcing her to do all the dirty job without really caring her properly. She has carried me miles without a slightest complain. So, I thought it's time for me to restore her glory. My materials were quite simple, a few pieces of cloths, MeGuiars, Soft99, Rejex and Black & Decker orbital polishing machine, I did what had to be done. Perhaps I'll eleborate more on the steps involved in future posts huh? After 6 long hours, this is how V looks today.

She's even more brilliant at night. I will vote with all my thumbs and toes for rejex if I have to. The glaze is just perfect. I didn't regret having the bottle shipped all the way from US a year ago. Car lovers, this is definitely the wax to go... However, if you haven't been cleaning your car properly prior to applying Rejex wax, the dirt will stay for at least a couple of months. No point scrubbing, it won't come off.

Apart from back ache and a shining car, the package comes with deep satisfaction. I just saved paying car care centre RM350 by doing it myself, this is another way I can make sure only the best is given to V. People always say "Woman loves a man in uniform" and I always say "Man loves a car in shining armor".

P/S: Washing, polishing and waxing V took the same amount of time to publish this post. Am I quick? lol

Finding Spark In a Dull Life

2010-01-14T07:54:00.001-08:00

After working for 2 years, I feel that even the most interesting job will turn boring. I pity those who are working in a confine space for 8 hours/day. I think I rather kill meself before getting into such torment. My job requires me to visit many places and meet countless faces everyday but it’s getting more and more uninteresting as the day passes by. It feels like brushing teeth or bathing where it’s necessary but somehow it’s restless. So to overcome that, I think the only way out is to change myself since I can’t really change my job. Not yet at least.

These are the following the “intriguing happening” around me lately….
With the type of work I’m in, there are many places that I’m privileged to visit that most of you can’t. For example...the Governor or Chief Minister Residence. Hehe… Most frequent property type are the expensive ones, which make me sad sometimes.

Putra Marine is one of them…man I love that Condo. It’s so beautiful from the Top. I have access to the rooftop where even the owners doesn’t. But looking from the top made me realize that I belong way below…

Never mind, perhaps I’ll make it there one day and look down to say good bye. At least I promised myself that….
Not all the time I’m lucky to enter luxurious homes…sometimes I have to survey property as rundown as this… Don’t know what’s the point having pest management service there all the owner himself is a pest to his own house….

Visiting schools make me miss studying days. It’s so sweet. Chlidren posting ABC, recess, soccer with peers..these are the few of my favorite things…

Traffic jam has become part of my life. From my house, I’ll jam till work and from office again, I’ll in the participate the jam whole fucking day. By the way, I spotted this bastard littering all over the damn road while I was driving. Motherfucker from KL litter in Penang. Brainless oaf. Ur mama didn’t teach you hygiene?

Maybe I was cursing the KL guy too much, I got my ass kicked by a Proton Saga the following day. Not much damage done but my sensor was broken. You know what that bitch told me? “aiya not very bad la…little niama” she said the first thing got down from the car. So I answered “Yalo, you’re lucky you only need to pay me little nialo”. In the end she got her stud to repair my car.
Well…sometimes I’ll meet some extraordinary creatures and get to play with them a bit. This frog was stuck in my station.

I did what an animal lover would (release it to the wild) do but it pissed on my pants. Damn…

Sometimes animal really make my day. I was at my customer house the other day when his dog (Huskey man!!!!) jumping onto me and start licking all over my face! Damn cute lar.

Normally once a week I’ll shop for grocery. In Penang, from Monday till Wednesday supermarket will not provide plastic bags. And I had to carry all these stuff into my car without a basket or bags. Tesco will not allow us to bring the basket out of the store even I said I will personally return to the counter. Imagine how I managed to bring those stuff to my car…..Incredible?

Using a trolley lar…. But it’s rather awkward and inconvenient to use such a big trolley for so little stuffs. That’s why I don’t really like Penang government. Especially Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. See I don’t even let him stand beside me for photograph….”get at least 1 meter away from me” I said….lol

So that’s pretty much about me these days. Did you managed to spark your boring life?

My first day in school

2010-01-10T05:08:00.001-08:00

I heard so many people taking leaves at the beginning of January 2010, simply because they had to go to school. Wait, aren’t they working already? ya….it’s their children first day in school. So, the filial parents had to accompany their children to the first day (orientation). From what I heard, some had orientation for a few days and it lasted from morning to evening. Can you remember what was your first day in school like?

I remember my first day very well. My father taught me my first English words “Teacher, please may I go to toilet?” and he had me recite that for many many time. He fetched me there (St Xavier Primary School at Jalan La Salle) at 7.30AM, dropped me there and bye bye. He told me, I shouldn’t cry and I didn’t. The only motivation got me walked into the school was there were many “friends” of my age. And the very first friend I made was Choong Choon Hau.

My family was poor and still is though…sigh. So I had no pocket money till standard 3 where I was given allowance of 50cents. There was no raise till form 1. How much was 50cents back then? It’s at much as a canteen fried rice and nothing more. How much is kids getting nowadays? I think it’s a PS3 every quarter year. Kids these days are damn rich.

In standard 3, we were fortunate enough to visit KL for my first holiday out of Penang. Therefore, I saved my 50cents for 100 days so that I have 50 bucks to spend. But ended up0 I didn’t spend a single of my RM50.

In summary, I can say that I’m one of the poor kid who went to school empty pocket. But I’m not the only one. I think the fortunate ones had only RM1 in their pockets. How was your primary schooling years?

Some post I wrote on another blog ages ago....

2010-01-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

Below is a post which I wrote on 20th april 2009. Ya I know it was stone age already but somehow I love this post more than any others that I have published. Lol...time really flies...and I no longer write like that anymore. Reading it again, I can't believe I wrote this stuff, it's so offensive. lol

Vista, Live Vs Mac

Please do not blame me for the ugly blog layout. It's all because of the stupid Windows Writer Crashed and the stupid HTML formatting that this site provide. I guess a laksa Apek will have fewer problems with diarrhea than with blogging in this site. It'll all be settled soon when I have my Mac. There goes all the routine OS crashing, hang, viral attack, spy bots and a big chunk of my money. Anyways, I have just saved 50 cents so there is a long way to sulk. In fact, Vista has so many bugs that I think we have less problem with the Hemiptera family. For those who cannot comprehend what is Hemiptera, don't bother. Just like me not giving a damn what is HTML formatting while typing this blog. Am I stupid?Am I? Well take a look at the layout of this blog and you’ll probably lose interest and click away. Is that my problem? Well NO. Big fat bloody NO. As usual, I will not say that I have a problem, but Windows Live has problems. Live Writer doesn’t work. Nor can it be easily deleted. Blogging is made tough when we have to do it the HTML way, if imagine you have shit the HTML way. When there is no obvious way we can change to non-HTML and I don’t really bother, that’s the time we learn to live with whatever bull shit we were given. Do you think I have the time to shift+, p shift+. Shift+, end shift+. everytime I wanna write something? That’s like wearing an underwear with a coded lock and every time we wanna shit, we need to wind the dail to unlock and when we forgot the password we’ll shit in our pants. Well that sounds layman to me. And I’m a lay man. I only have one word to describe about Windows Vista, "stupid". And I’m even dumber for buying it. I have not owned a Mac before so I can't really say that it's more superior compared to a PC. But I do know this, even Laksa apek will love a MAc simply because of the layout and design. The system is easier to operate than a toilet flush. For those who do not agree probably doesn't flush the toilet. PC is like a toilet. People like me who doesn't know how to flush a "PC" toilet probably will think that a PC stinks. Not that I refuse to flush but it's simply getting more and more complicated to operate. When a PC shows an error, I can't even comprehend what is it about. What "error code: 0003625"? That is bull shit to me. Why can they just tell us that there is not enough graphic to support? A linguist will probably find that a PC language is harder than greek combined with Korean. And a linguist will probably love Mac because the layout alone offers more orgasm when we jerk off while watching porn with it. The older version of Macbook even colored a bit spermy. Anyways, my point is PC sux and currently to me, Mac Rock. That's only my personal view. Feel free to criticize my writing disagree with me. I don't give damn. When you have a PC that crashed so many time like I had, you'll probably don’t give a damn like me.

New Year Resolution

2010-01-03T07:54:00.001-08:00

Actually, when we turn on the radio (no matter which station) around New Year Eve, it’ll be all the same content. That is “what did you do on the past 355 days and what is your new year resolution?”. All the DJ will be focusing on the same thing whole day and sometimes I find it quite annoying. Nevertheless, I would thank them for their reminders.

Flash back what happened in 2009 made me sad and happy for the same time. I did not achieve much which I can only summarize on 4 quarters of the year;

1st quarter. Took my AFAS and passed smoothly. To date, I have Malaysia Fumigation License, Australian Fumigation License and Pesticide Applicator License. That practically make me one of the youngest in the country to have the licenses and fumigator internationally. Apart from that, I obtained my NIOSH and CIDB license too. Basically put, I passed all the licenses that I need in ONE year. Yah00!
2nd Quarter. Got really involved into sales and met a lot of people. I spent 3 full months building my rapport with customers and learning about the “real” world. Apart from that, nothing much really.
3rd Quarter. The busiest days of my life. I was running everywhere giving trainings and talks to clients. Basically, you can deduce that I’m involving a lot in my work for the whole year. After half year into marketing, i finally grasped the kick of selling. Also, I achieve Competent Communicator and be Treasurer of Farlim Toastmasters Club.
Final Quarter. Celebrated my own birthday, my GF birthday and our first anniversary as well. I’m really glad to be with her, the most important woman of my life (apart from my mom of coarse). To date, I achieve more than RM200 000 sales for the company (for a newbie, I think it’s acceptable). At the very end of the year, I finally registered M.Sc. in USM for termite management. Went to Hatyai for the first time for holiday on my own after soooooo many years of non stop sprinting.

So, this year, I’m gonna blog about my “to do” list so that after announcing to everyone, I have to achieve them. Also, it’s like keeping a record for future reference.

Priority. Publish at least one scientific paper in an international journal.
Accumulate enough money for investment. Must work towards the ultimate goal: financial freedom.
Manage my blog well. Publish more “yau yii si” posts. hehe…Gonna visit Angkor Wat soon!!!Can’t wait.
Prepare for the 6th goal.
*secret* if I tell you I have to kill you! joking joking….
Love my GF more and more…
Go for another holiday with my GF at year end.
Achieve all the above.

Unfortunately goal no 5 and 6 I can’t really elaborate on them because it’s quite sensitive. So do me a favor, don’t ask. When time is ripe, I’ll tell. I hope I can really achieve them all. How about you? Do you have any resolution?

Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare II

2010-01-03T06:36:00.001-08:00

So, what did I do on the first few days of the new decade? Finally I decided that my computer is way too slow and I needed much more room. So on Saturday (2nd Jan 2010), I went to Prangin Mall and obtain myself another 2 Gb Ram and 320Gb hard disk. After that I realized that my com doesn’t have enough power cord for my new disk “kanneh” I had to drive all the way down town to get another one. After reformatting the PC, I decided to test the speed with games (as usual) and I installed this one….Call Of Duty Modern Warfare II.

The game is so addictive, I stressed myself to complete the game twice in a day at regular difficulty. I’m not a hard core gamer but it’s just too hard to let the game go. After passing the first round using approximately 4 hours, the 2nd round followed immediately with the same intensity of fun. Here are some highlight which I liked about the game (Modern Warfare overall).

The graphic is damn realistic; the smoke, blood splashing and the gesture of the enemy dying just seem so real.
Missions may seem tough but it manageable. The story line follows some plot which made me want to know about the ending curiously.
There are plenty of killing available. Hehe
A huge range of weapons are available and we may even pick the weapon for the enemy when we run out of ammo. Personally I like the sniper rifle best.
Great sound effect. I’m not sure whether is it my Altec Lansing headphone or the game it’s just GREAT!

This is the first version which I completed 5 times. 3 times with regular difficulty and twice with the toughest setting.

I know my little cousin is dying to get his hands on my computer when he saw me playing but I ain’t letting him touch…hehe…Maybe I’m going for another round tomorrow.

Conclusion

Modern Warfare rocks and my com runs faster than ever….and that’s how I started my new year.. Happy 2010 to all.

Hatyai Trip part III

2009-12-28T05:26:00.000-08:00

Glow in the dark ice cream.

People who know me are probably fed up listening to these words but I'm gonna say it anyways, "good food are harmful to our health but are good for our soul" I call it "salvation". LOL. One of the main attraction in Hatyai is the food! These are some of the food I tried or noticed over there,

Coconut, unlike what we have here, this one is damn sweet and refreshing after a long shopping. Cost: 25 baht

Forgot what it's called, you can find it in Lee Garden first floor. Worth a try. Cost: 15 baht each!

Piglet...

Lok Lok the Thai style...

If you don't mind the dust, the sausages will make you salivate. At least I did!

Barbeque squid, it's available in Malaysia too but somehow it smells better there.

You may think it's eggs but it's not. Just the shell but inside is potato. Based on the presentation alone is worth something. But you must catch him cause he roams around the city.

Pork burger in Mc Donald, two tumbs down. I tried it for the sake of memory.

And I highly recommend these if you're in serious need of protein...

No. 1: Fried larva

No.2: Fried water scorpion

No.3: Fried crickets

Apart from food, I noticed that the Thai government did not really restrict the cultural growth in the city. Throughout the tourist attraction area, we could see loads on pirated products on sale. The clothes are damn cheap. This is the amount of money you need for a shirt...

Some are even cheaper...Cost: 50 baht or RM5 or approximately less than $2.

Some of us bought undergarment even it's too small/unsuitable for her...

The shops are lined next to each other, so it's time for a real bargain and heaven for girls....

Somehow, everything seem very nice and convenient there. There people are friendlier. There is a significant pool of culture which makes us believe it has existed for many many years. Even old Mc Donald is more courteous there....

Even thailand is not a petroleum producing country for merely 10 baht, this "taxi" will bring us wherever we wanna go. It costs RM2 for a ride in Penang buses. I went to KL last week, the taxi charged us RM30 to travel from Pudu to Cheras. Malaysia boleh.

It's for sale, but if you find it cute...you may stand and watch for hours. Free puppet show...

Money transfer is available in shopping mall. There's even seat for the customer. I feel ashamed of Malaysian shopping mall.

Sometimes, I find that they over did their facilities...this is found inside the male toilet. Or perhaps men in Hatyai need it...lol

Shrines are available at almost every corner of the street. And every shrine is brightly lighted up at night. They really love their god.

Pictures of their kings are erected at everywhere our eyes can reach. They are idolizing their king like god. Or is their king already god like?

Their handicraft are ever available for us to witness. It's like showing off their skills...

Crafting crystal glass...

Shoe design...cheap version...

They're even capable of massively turning man into wo-man.

There is a "Floating market" in Hatyai, don't get tempted, we'll never get to ride boats but rather buy from the boats at the sidewalk. For me, that's good enough...

The coconut water cost 20 baht and comes with a clay cup (vase).

Somehow this lady (with yellow scarf) can't seem stop smiling to me. I took 10 shots with her and she's still smiling to me....

Right before we came home, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of their parade right outside our hotel.... Oh when the saints come marching in....

So we snap photos and of coarse the idiot who came into our photo knowing we're posing are Malaysians. Again, Malaysia Boleh...

Children in cute dresses...

My friends grabbing sweets from the kids....bastards...

Santa or Grinch? lol

Overall, it's a superb trip given the cost involved. The city efficiently bled my wallet dry before letting me home...sob sob...it has grown into a tourist trap where everything worked out to lure more and more visitors. At least the people there kept their mind that way. I don't see Penangites mentality ever developing close to Hatyai in another millennium. The only strategy we're using here is, there's tourist, raise the price. It's kinda sad.

Many of my friends and colleagues kept on asking me the same question "did you watch tiger show?" "NO" I replied and they threw me a disapproving look. Even my father said this "why the hell you went to Hatyai if you didn't watch the bloody tiger show?" And my mom laughed.... sweat. Really really sweat...

Hatyai Trip part II

2009-12-26T09:31:00.000-08:00

When we got landed in Hatyai, the very first thing I noticed was the "Tut Tut car". Thailand is very famous for that but we never get to feel the cuteness of the vehicle until it's right in front of us. Imagine a miniature nissan nevette with no hind door and with seats on the back....Having hard time imagining? See the photo lar.... This one is pretty high class with shaded side. Most tut tut has the back portion quite open, and when it rains, it's water splash festival for us.

For just 10 baht, it will take us wherever we wanna go. Beware tho, ask the price before you board the taxi!

Then we went to Lee Garden, one of the top hotel in Hatyai to have our lunch (or rather brunch). It was the the 33rd floor or the hotel.

Riding up to the tower was as if going to UK, where we had to exchange flights in Hong Kong. The elevator will only reach 10th floor and we have to exchange elevator twice to reach the top. We found ourself waiting for half hour before lunch was served. Actually it's all ready but they decided to let all of use wait *grrrr*. In the mean while, we snap some photos around the circular dining area overlooking the whole city. Kinda like revolving restaurant in City Baview.

For only 149 baht, I found that the food is more than acceptable. Have a look at some of the dishes...

We set up our own buffet on the long table. Man, I even had a tummy after that meal....It was sooooooooooo good!!!!

Haiyai Trip part I

2009-12-21T07:21:00.000-08:00

We stayed in Regency Hotel that's located right in the middle of Hatyai. So it's pretty convenient for us to travel everywhere plus all the "public transportation" available vastly in the city. What do I mean by "public transportation"? I'll tell you in a short while. Now let's talk about the hotel 1st. I can't help but to notice that everything over there was decorated. Perhaps it's a tourist spot that's why they wanna make it as attractive as possible.

I had difficulties locating the button for the elevator. Guess where is it? Yes, it's at the fish mouth.

Even the stray outside of the hotel was not spared!

We were stupid enough to visit the tourist packed destination during peak season plus Christmas is just around the corner. So, instead of getting classy hotel, we landed in Regency for a hefty rent of RM175/night for a double bedded room. So this is how our room looked like...

There's a "window" (more like a super sized glass panel) big enough overlooking the whole city. I think for safety sake, the management has locked the window plane. Look at the messy room after just one night, lol. The best thing about staying in hotel is, we never need to clean the room unless we're stupid enough. There's rooms service.

But was RM175/night worth it? There's no breakfast included, no newspaper. Apart from a complimentary sky juice, there's nothing else. I think the water was recycled from some drain or septic hole cause it tasted so salty, it might as well be water plus Sodium chloride. That's why it's complimentary I reckon. The bottle was glass by the way, which is rarely seen these days.

There were this tiny little insects (Psocids; lice) all over the way showing a sign of poor house keeping. Don't keep your mouth open when sleeping!

No matter how I try, I can never turn the tap off. There was mold growing on the bathtub and there is no way to adjust the temperature of the water....some how, it'll be either over heated of blizzardingx cold.

But in the end I decided, "the heck with it", we're not going to stay in the room for long. It's just for the night isn't it? Tips for future visitors, book your room damn early to secure a better accommodation. For RM175, we're sure to get better rooms if we're early enough!

The gang of Foreigners in Hatyai. See the fat guy on the left? Bring him along if you're going. He's a bargaining machine! lol

Leaving Malaysia, going into Thailand

2009-12-20T08:05:00.000-08:00

This was my first time leaving my homeland going into other people's place. Yes, after 24 years of life, the journey begun at 4.00AM from home heading towards Butterworth where the van we catered will fetch 8 of us into Hatyai, Songkhla, Thailand. Surprisingly, the route from my house to Inderawasih was shorter than usual, which took only 15 min.

The van drove around 2 1/2 hours from Butterworth to Bukit Kayu Hitam, the border of Malaysia-Thailand. I was accompanied by Sam and Dean Winchester in Ipod touch all the way. There was a long queue of busses and vans (about 1KM queue) all waiting to cross the border.

I think anyone passing through the immigration of Malaysia will agree with me, they suck big time.

There was hardly any working toilet available. When we were there, the male toilet wasn't working. We had to bring our urine all the way to deposit at Thailand. Seem like excretes are not welcome in this country.
The officers in charge of controlling the crowds were not at all courteous. We didn't know the procedure as many of us were first timer leaving the country. There was not sign or direction at all. And to make things worse, the "officers" were showing their best service by shouting at us. I guess this is the way the government is treating the tax payers. And this is the way to promote tourism. And I have to deduce that those policy makers do not go on holiday. All they do is stroke their fat ass at home after corrupted enough. Anyways, this is 1Malaysia I guess...Well done!

Read the notice carefully. "Any person who fall to comply..." can be comprehended as "anyone who comply while falling...." or "anyone who falls when comply..." will be prosecuted! I think the board is there for some time and there's no one competent enough to notice the mistake in the department. Or maybe it's a joke to lighten up the visitors? lol. Anyways, leaving Malaysia was pretty "delightful"!

Stay tune for the next post...it shall be about Thailand more than Malaysia.

First Holiday After so Many Years

2009-12-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

This blog shall be idle until the week is passed for I'm going to Hatyai, Thailand. Although it's nothing much but it's my very first holiday trip since many years had passed. Since secondary school, it's either work or study all the while. After graduation, all my traveling was done for the purpose of my job. I'm in a serious need of break away before blowing off to another season of hard work.

Actually, I have long since went to Hatyai and lost memory of everything there apart from the famous chicken rice that I think sucked. lol. Anyways, I'll update when I'm back. Hope it's as fun as I anticipated.

Don't Blow Your Nose Too Hard!!!!

2009-12-14T06:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a few weeks since I feel uncomfortable with my ears. It feels like I went up to 62nd floor too quickly and have an ear block. Hearing is perfect but the pressure is there. Sometimes when I'm tired, it feels like the ear drum's gonna break. So what's happening?
According to the physician, I'm having a flu. Apparently, the virus got into my middle ear. Normally, the virus will start or rather concentrate on the nasal cavity and slowly travel to other part of the body like our lungs (pneumonia). The question is, how these damn flu virus went to my ear? Here's the answer...
During the flu infection, our nose will produce mucus causing nose congestion as battle to the virus (quarantine). Due to breathing discomfort we'll blow the nose. Sometimes we blow too hard, forcing the virus to enter our middle ear. The middle ear is somewhere in between the eardrum and cochlea. Anyways, don't bother that...

As a result, our body balancing organ is disturbed. Yes, some part of the ear function as balancing organ. So, next time, when you have a nose block, don't blow...try using a vacuum. LOL

Storm Warrior 2 review

2009-12-14T04:11:00.000-08:00

Went for the movie yesterday at 7.30PM, surprisingly at the first sunday of the premier the tickets are easily available. Anyways, here are the details...

Simple synopsis:

A japanese warlord trying to take over china. Whispering Wind(Fung) and Striding Cloud(Wan) in attempt to overpower the bad guy, looked for means to increase their power...Fung turned himself evil. More fighting...Finally they killed the warloard, Fung went crazy and Wan tried to bring him back to sanity. The story ends with Wan fell off the cliff.

Casting:

Ekin Cheng - Whispering Wind
Aaron Kwok - Striding Cloud
Simon Yam - Lord Godless
Charlene Choi - Second Dream (Er Mong)
Nicholas Tze - Heart (warlord son)

What I think about this movie?

All right, storm warrior movie fan, read no further. For anyone who likes to watch action movie, this is definitely the one to go. There is very little conversation in the movie (if there is, it's lame conversation mostly). Actions are good and beyond imagination. The graphics are almost perfect with sharp sound effects. The moves are smooth with the effects making it almost vivid.

As for folks who are like me, this movie sucks. The story went on chronologically without any twist at all. Most of the conversation are inessential or lame. For example, Nameless told Wan that he has only 10% of his power left, and he wishes to pass his learning and power to Wan. I feel that he's kinda contradicting to himself. The editing are not done properly and the scene jumps surprising here and there leaving us puzzled.

Some scene are made comical like. People expect movies to be close to the books or comics. We want to see how to directors turn the comic into a live scene. Take Lord Of the Ring for example. The director turned the book into a real Middle Earth. Which is impressive. At some point of the movie, I feel that I might as well read the comic if the scene continues to be drawing background.

The fight with Lord Godless ended very shortly after it begins. In contrast, the fight between Fung and Wan lasted 0.5 hour which is tiring for the audience. Overall, the movie is only good for the actions but sucked as a whole. I'll only give 2 star out of ten.

EC4U New Office!!!!!

2009-12-06T07:39:00.000-08:00

I have decided, the next thing I hate most next to waiting for elevator, waiting at traffic lights and eating bread with wasabi is...moving house or office. Yesterday was a big day for the company I worked at because we moved from the rented office to our own building. Actually it's only a double story shop lot but my bosses prefer to call it "our own building".

I woke up damn early yesterday, probably like 6AM to make sure I have ample time to catch some breakfast, else I'll collapse half way lifting stuff. My breakfast was teh tarik (RM0.80) with Nasi Lemak (RM1), but there were breakfast waiting for me in the office....damn!!

That morning, we transfered everything from the old to the new office which are only 684m apart but it felt as if we moved from Penang to Songkla by feet. Anyways, this is the new office...

There a lot of things and rubbish accumulated over the 10 years establishment of this company, the junk alone sold RM172. Lol...

The joker behind the fridge was Tarmizi. He caught me shooting photo, so he forced a smile even the freezer was freaking heavy. Everyone was very involved in moving and unpacking except 1 motherfucker who did scarcely anything. All he did was followed us in and out, grab two files and stood there in the middle of the path blocking the way. Whenever the boss is looking he's doing something; lifting the lightest thing nearby and put it back to the original position. Total idiot. The admin department did helped out too although barely. Ya, I understand that they're "busy" with administrative business when there's no desk or files in the office left. Anyways, this post is not about them, so fuck it...

In the mist of shifting, we managed to grab a few laughters. This is our marketing manager, not a joker but I feel that he's too nice to everyone.

The party ended with everyone headed towards the nearest Nasi Kandar shop desperately for lunch. Some of us went back to unpack the boxes T_T. Nevertheless, that was an important experience where I learnt that moving needs thorough planning.

SImple Meal From The Night Market

2009-12-06T06:57:00.000-08:00

Totally out of idea what to have for dinner tonight, so I put on my alligator sandals and walked out of my house scouting for food. Wondering what an alligator sandals is? You won't get that style anywhere you search, it's not a brand...

The first destination that came to my mind was the Pasar Malam beside my house. It's been there operating every sunday night forever but this is my first time shopping. Actually my house is very near to Kek Lok Si as you can see from the photo...

For those not residing in Malaysia, the Pasar Malam looks extremely beautiful from the top. There are rolls of stalls offering various merchandise and food. You can probably find Nike for 10% of the retail price (you know that I mean)...

So, my first serving is Char Koey Kak (RM 2.50) with duck egg (my favorite). I have been having this ever since I can remember anything. It's made of carrot cake and bean sprout. The banana leaf came with the packet but since I don't eat banana leaf, I threw it away .My dog went frenzy over the smell.

Cheese cake (RM 2) came next. With that price, I didn't expect much. The sponge cake layer was about 3/4 of the whole piece. I was too lazy to wash an extra plate, so the same plate and fork was used. It's called recycling, Lim Guan Eng will love this. By the way, I stopped asking for plastic bags every time I went for grocery shopping. How about you?

And finally I had Jambu (hokkien) with table salt, for appetizer. Try that, it actually taste a whole lot better!!!

So, that was my dinner for tonight. Simple right?

Zipcar

2009-12-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

Came across this website recently as I was browsing free apps for my ipod touch; apps are like sex, never pay for it.

The webpage was simple yet it struck me like thunderbolt. Maybe living in this country has limited my imagination, I never would think service like this exists.This is the coolest service I ever know. Basically, when you join this zipcar service, we'll need to pay a $50 annual fee plus $25 application fee and we can drive their cars for the rate of $7 per hour or $69 daily. There are various car models available on the road for us to choose, from truck, SUV, wagon, sedan.....all the way to convertibles. Members will have a card activates the car by scanning onto the windscreen. No more waiting for buses, we may search the nearest zipcars in the net and locate them easily. So, it's more or less like step out side of the house and you can drive any car you like...wicked!

Imagine the service is available in Malaysia....We'll be able to drive this...

Or this...

Even this...

That are parking on the street without owning them...

The beautiful part is, with the card, we may pump petrol without needing to pay anymore, no more car maintenance headache, no more insurance policies and there are even special parking lots allocated on the streets for these cars (Penang drivers would love this). They even built an Iphone app for this...

Using the Iphone, we may lock/unlock or make the car sound the honk. Cool eh? Imagine we just pull our handphone out of the pocket and touch the screen, the car chirps while unlock. Very Bond-like indeed.

It'll be even worthier if these cars are available...

Quite common on the road? How about this?

This is what exactly they called "chick magnet"...lol

I certainly don't mind paying RM500/hour to drive this car...

This vehicle is good when we're feeling a little funky....

But knowing the people here too well, I'm afraid the zipcar will become this...

After the first service...unquestionably Malaysia is not a suitable country for this service. But if I'm in America, I would certainly like to try the service. If there is anyone of you who'll be traveling to the states and worry about transportation problem, you may want to check out their service at http://www.zipcar.com/ .

Reconnected

2009-12-05T01:24:00.000-08:00

Got a few calls from streamyx this morning. The 1st call was from from TM Penang technician asking me whether did I check my connection this morning. Second call was from KL asking the status of my connection. Normally this doesn't happen. The caller said he received a call from his CEO and forwarded my letter. I didn't bother to ask who he is, but I did told him all I want is my internet connection back.
True enough, they fixed my line and I can surf the net again. The first thing I did was tested the band width. From the usual speed of D/L: ±400Kb and U/L: ±200Kb, now my bandwidth is D/L: ±2000Kb and U/L: ±400Kb. Obviously it's fast. Previously I had to wait awhile for the babypips page to load but now it appear like a bolt of lightning. I wonder how long will it last.

CFD trading

2009-12-04T05:21:00.000-08:00

If you're a newbie who had just entered into the trading world, you may be strucked with many hi-fi terms that made you dizzy and probable go bald if you try to understand all of them. One of them are CFDs. Many traders maybe good at anticipating the ups and downs of the market without really understanding the real entity that they're trading or invest their hard earned money into. So, what the heck is a CFD?

CFD, also "contract for difference" are products that are offered by brokers. For example, we can trade the Citibank stock or the Citibank CFD. The difference is we can only long the Citibank stock and sell it later by paying the full amount of money that the stock is worth while, in the CFD contact, we pay only a fraction of it. That means we are trading CFD with leverage. For example, to buy 1000 shares of $9.60 ABC stock we need to pay $9600. In the CFD contact of the ABC, we need to pay perhaps only $960 (if required margin is 10%) to trade the stock. And in CFDs, we can either long(buy) or short(sell) the stock to make money. It also mean, we can profit or loss in the market is the stock is going up or down. So why trade the stock if we can trade the CFD? Why the heck is it so complicated?

The answer is quite simple actually; online game players will find this a child's play theory. A CFD market is a virtual market created by the brokers using live market data feed. The price of the stock follows the actual price but the market is regulated by the broker but not the government. Stocks in the other hand is regulated by government body. For instance stocks in Malaysia are regulated by Bursa Saham Malaysia.In my opinion, trading the CFD has not much difference with playing an online game. By buying the CFD we are not the actual share holder of the company. If the company announces dividen yield, the broker will pay us if we're in a long position and we'll pay the broker if we're in a short position.

There'll be another trader to buy or sell the contracts from us shall we make the trade. Say you're buying 100 shares of ABC in a CFD contract and there are short position of 200 shares, the broker simply buy 100 shares of the actual stock to hedge the market. If you make too much money, the broker deserves the right to close your trade. In another word, the broker will never lose. So what does he gain for providing all these complicated trades? That will be your trading commission. It also means, it's literally impossible for the broker to lose. Trading in CFD has scarce difference from gambling big and small in Las Vegas. Both has only 2 options for us to choose.

In summary, the broker created a market out of nothing but a computer and license. It is almost like cheating. In this market, it is like playing online game where the game master is invincible. I will gladly give away my testicle to obtain a license like that. Tell me, who wouldn't?

p/s: this is simplified version for the sake of the noobs. Actually I'm also a noob! lol

Letter to TM

2009-12-04T04:46:00.000-08:00

Hi, Below is the letter I sent to TM Malaysia (tmonline@tmnet.com.my, help@tm.com.my, ceo@tmnet.com.my, laihk@telekom.com.my ). I wrote the letter in the simplest english possible so that they can understand. In fact I pay RM2 in the internet cafe just to write this letter.

Dear Sir/Madam/Dato'/Datin/Dr

This letter is not going to be friendly. I'm not even sure whether would you bother to read this, but I'm writing this to express my great disappointment over the streamyx service that I have signed up one year plus ago. I used to surf at the internet cafe and the main reason I signed up for streamyx is to have a stable and convenient connection at home. But here I am now surfing miserably in the internet cafe again paying for internet services despite having signed up for streamyx. I have lost count of the number of time I have to visit the internet cafe since signing up your "service". Is it very challenging in providing a stable connection?

Please check my record for calling tmnet to file complains. My very first complain was the 3rd day after started surcribing to your service. Ever since, I'm making complains almost monthly. I'm getting very fed up of calling 100 for complains. I signed up streamyx together with my phone line which I never use, and I'm keeping it just for my convenient of dialling 100 for complains. In fact, I can recite my username using country names as initials so fast that the operator couldn't catch my words properly. I have had that much practises! Almost everytime, my calls were followed by a series of longwinded diagnosis to find no problem with my computer. The result often ends with me having no internet connection for the evening. I'm sick of coming home after a tiring working day to find that I cannot connect to the internet and be disappointed. Please tell me, the exact date or day of the month I wont be able to use the internet so that I can visit the internet cafe on a fixed schedule. Please let me know which day I should make the 100 calls so that I can anticipate for the worse instead of having surprises. I'm currently having a 1Mb contract but never could i recall having such fast connection. My bill covers for 24 hours service but the technical support is only available during office hour. That is totally not fair for the users. How do you justify the charges?

I remember meeting with the General Manager of TM in City Baview Penang last year for the promotion on the toll free and SME package. He bragged on the marvelous technical support and fast internet line provided by streamyx. My advice to company leaders is, do not boast if the performance is not up to par. To end this letter, I would like to ask, Sir/Madam/Dato'/Datin/Dr, do you use streamyx at home? How much do you need it? How do you feel about your own service? Can you understand people like me who pays a fraction of our limited salary for internet connection and to find it useless?

I do hope that you look seriously into improving your services and make our money a little bit worth paying. Thank you very much if you ever finish reading this letter.

Frustrated Streamyx User.

How Jun, Wong

Welcome to Mylife - Simple Plan

2009-11-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

Never could appreciate this song until recently. I have always thought that this group couldn't properly sing apart from making loud noise and banging their drum set annoyingly. But recent occasion made me realize that they're being real. Or perhaps did I mature very late. I'm so tired that I'm very reluctant to elaborate more on this issue. Anyways, my point is, I couldn't agree with them more.

Trapping Termites

2009-11-26T05:06:00.000-08:00

Many had asked the same question and I repeated my answers many times...so the next one who ask I'll ask him/her refer to this blog. My study is subject is termites. Very simple, capture them, count them and kill them. Let me show you some illustrations.

Few months ago, I inserted some wooden stakes into the ground. All the stakes are inserted approximately 1m apart and close to the building known for being attacked by termites. This is one of my selected location.

Periodically I'll unplug the stakes to check for termite activities. If there is, that's a suitable place for an in-ground station. Picture on the right shows the wooden stake eaten by termites.

Then I'll dig a hole, to fit the station. The feeling is exactly like digging my own grave except the size is smaller. The hole was dug in the middle of the location where the infested wooden stake was.

Of course, the whole point of digging the hole is to fit the coffin, that's the box and wooden block was placed in the middle as food for the termites. Wood used: Jelutong, Dyera costulata one of the termite most preferred wood (Ngee et al. 2004).

What I did next was dampened the wood and soil around. That is to draw termites into the station and feed on the yummy wood, it is believe that certain level of moisture tend to promote termite activity (Su et al. 2003). Anyways, don't bother to understand.

And finally the easiest part was to cover the station to minimize possible disturbance. I'll update when there is result, hopefully there is.

References:
Peng-Soon, Ngee, Ai Tashiro, Tsuyoshi Yoshimura, Zairi Jaal & Chow-Yang, Lee. 2004. Wood Preference of Selected Malaysian Subterranean Termites (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae, Termitidae). Sociobiology Vol. 43, No. 3, 535-550pp
Nan-Yao, Su, Helena Puche. 2003. Tunneling Activity of Subterranean Termites (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) in Sand with Moisture Gradients. Journals of Economic Entomology 96(1): 88-93pp

Me work is out there facing the world!!!!

2009-11-25T07:57:00.000-08:00

Though I can hardly lift my eye lids to the extend of seeing things properly, I feel that there is a need to at least update this blog a bit. It has been a few days I recommended some songs or even publish a fresh post. Anyways, I'm quite happy today after finding my research done was presented in conferences.

The first presentation was about termite and was presented in USA by my current supervisor Dr. Lee Chow Yang. It is about termite distribution mainly. I did sent him the data and graphs but I have no absolute idea whether were they presented. I certainly hope he did. The second presentation was done by my B. Sc final year supervisor Dr. Zary Shariman Yahaya. It was about worms in the American cockroaches. Look at page no9 of this website. Even though the presentation was not done by me, but these two great man owe my deepest gratitude for revealing my findings.

It is a nice feeling to have our hard work made known to the scientific society and mankind. It feels like contribution to the advancement of the human civilization. Maybe the impact is not that huge, but certainly it has changed my views towards research and publication. In the near future, I would like to make my own presentation and have papers publish under my name.

Displine

2009-11-23T06:13:00.000-08:00

Ever since I was small, my parents bred me to sleep at 9.30 and wake at 5.30. Eat on time and watch tv on time. Nothing less nothing more. For a kid, I feel like being imprison for a long long time.

Source: http://whyisthispopular.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/discipline-1.jpg

Actually, it's not that bad. I just made it sound pathetic so that can grab your attention :P. But my point is, whatever we do, discipline is there, future is there. This afternoon I have just attended the talk by USM bioschool saying the importance of alot of craps regarding survivalship in doing a post graduate studies. All those longwinded stuff can be summarized into 2 words; determination and discipline.

At trading, the work I come across most after "long" and "short" is DISCIPLINE. I wonder, to which extend do we need to be "disclipline".

Education System

2009-11-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the education path of a human being should be like this:

Primary School

I think there's nothing more important than teaching children more basic lessons and skills that requires plenty of time to practice and improve on. Things that should be concentrated are skills that will only develop through time. The subjects should be like this:
Communication skills (languages plus the way to use them)
Math (most important subject)
Human values (instead of morals, we should learn about being a human rather than memorizing words)
Logic 1 (learn about what is outcome of certain action and best solution to certain problems...problem solving), in another word, learn about common sense lar.
Gaming (let them feel the importance of being competitive)
Money management

Secondary School

Science (this is the best time as thinking is more matured and brain is more developed).
Math (no replacement for this subject)
Logic 2 (learn about historical human act and their outcome, learn from it but not memorize it)
Research (telling them about why apple falls from a tree is spoon feeding, it is important they should find out by themselves. There are libraries and internet)
Communication (soft skills, persuasive skill, presentation and speaking appropriately)
Gaming (bring it to another level, away from computers and console like in sports or organizing big events)
Survival skills (who cares about plotting graphs and reading charts? We read them only a couple of times a day but we need to survive every seconds of the day right?)
Investment and economy (this field is needed by everyone, and it's most crucial)

Pre-U

Throw them out in the working society for 2 years. Let them explore which field is best for them. Let them mix with the cruel society.

University (10 years)

Specialization in the line of work. This is the best time to teach them about science, the art of law, building and etc. Intensify the lesson on politics and trading. At this age, everyone should have know about managing their money, investing the correct stocks or commodity no matter you're an engineer, doctor, artist or even a professional swindler.

Exams will all be in the form of practical. No stupid essay or multiple choices. Those only test memory and ability or operate the pencils. Example of university exam would be, a student have to access the current economy and does his own investment. A 80% and above return will get an A. Deficit will results in a failure. Practicality of a lesson is always more important than theory. Of coarse, all these are hyphothetical.

Dinner @ SOHO

2009-11-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

Had my dinner at this place yesterday...It is SOHO at Autocity, Penang.

The entrance alone sure look impressive.

Once we stepped inside, the renovated restaurant (or pub) looked totally irish to me. To the left is the bar with traditional layout. Seating are available in the middle and to the platform on the right, and at the very end of the middle is where the live band would sing.

First look when we were in there...

My gf highly recommend this place. So, if it's good food, how can I miss right? The pricing on the main course menu looked reasonable enough to me, so I ordered Roasted Herb Chicken and my gf ordered Homemade Burger.

With only RM7.80 this was what we got...

The burger was huge and soft. Look carefully at the fork poking the bread, not at all like KFC. The chicken came with mash potato bedding the massive drumstick. For a slightly less than RM8 dinner (excluding gov and service tax), the portion definitely justified the price. However, when we browse the drink menu, I was shocked by the price...

What the fuck? The oranges were planted in Mars (RM9)? They shouldn't call that sky juice, it should be heavenly juice. I'll pay max RM2 for sky juice.I guess they want their customer get drunk because the beer is relatively cheap. Anyways, this was how my plate looked after 15min...

To the right is the RM9 Mars-Planted-Orange juice. Every sip is worth at least 50 cents. I drank it as if it is red wine. Anyways, the food is good, the environment was conducive and romantic. I only paid RM24++ for the dinner and returned with a full and satisfying stomach...ok lar.

Why do you trade?

2009-11-17T05:37:00.000-08:00

I used to put all my hope into trading. I believed that trading will make me rich. When I finally have an account and start losing money, it feels like the world has crashed. All hopes were gone and my life was over. So, this is my advice to every trader out there, if you jump into the trading pool thinking wanna grab a bunch, you'll only find yourself getting drown.

Then I took a break from the market and diverted my mind off to somewhere else. After a couple of months, I dip myself into the water again. This time, I do it with passion. Making money doesn't really matter. What matter most to me is to find out whether can I beat the market. Every night I trade the market just to see test my analysis skills. Just like Fred Tam said, the market is made of hundreds of experts. To beat them, I have to be at least equal or better than them.

Making money and being rich has no longer register its meaning to me anymore. Now it's the passion of trading. It's a feeling I cannot explain.

It'll always be my fault

2009-11-16T04:01:00.000-08:00

I guess it's the Malaysian custom to blame someone when ever a problem arises. It's almost a ritual to follow whenever something happens, some one aught to be scolded. At least that happens in the company I work at. I received a call from office saying that one of my subordinate did a mistake. And the message continue with "investigate who did that and scold him". Why did scolding has to be associated with problem solving? I simply cannot see the logic behind. In the end I managed to solve the problem without even knowing who did the mistake. Or rather, I solved my problem without bothering to know who did that.

The way I see things are simple, I always look at the bigger picture. It's always true that we have to take care the bigger problem before solving the little ones. So, I did a simple psychology experiment. I asked the coordinator (the person who makes the appointment and arrange the operation schedule) to make the first appointment which usually she's quite reluctant to do. As predicted, she refused just like the way I predicted. So I blew up the case and made it looked like a big issue. The following day, the boss arranged a special meeting with the whole department and told us why we should not ask her to call the client for the first treatment.

For me, it's the matter of a simple appointment. What is the use of a coordinator when she can't coordinate? The biggest issue is, the employer is giving reasons on behalf of the employee's incompetence in front of the managers. That's like hitting your wife in front of your child. It's so wrong.

I think solving problem is a simple matter of setting the appropriate mentality and priority. It's is not about making anyone feel bad. Neither is it about punishing anyone. It is about improving the situation.

Market Emotion

2009-11-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

After trading for sometime, I have concluded that the forex, stock or futures market is the best place to grind our emotional strength. Trading the market is like playing with the snakes. Our objective is to control the snake but first, we need to over come the fear. It moves is such a way, we're often whipped and squeeze out of profit burning what ever we have previously made. The price may soar sky high make a sharp u-turn to scare us shitless before continue the trend. Anyone without any balls will be trapped in this emotional swing.

Despite the spikes and thorns in the market, we are tempted like drugged due to the volatility. We believe, with persistence and determination, we'll make it to the scarce cream group of successful trader. Little did we know, without rock hard discipline and proper ice cold analysis our losses often continue to streak. So I guess it's not as simple as buy or sell only.

Which Millionaire?

2009-11-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

Grab a stone and throw it on the street. Most probably the one you hit is a millionaire. Which mean, very likely you'll get sued for that. lol. Anyways, my point is, there are far too many millionaires out there. Their species has grown, from scarce o dense. Just like graduates. Stab anyone with a knife and most probably you've killed a graduate. So, just how much is one million?

During the 80's, you could basically buy Langkawi with that amount of money a probably import some prostitutes from china for business. With one million you can basically own anything other than the nation. Back then, money was small. Only millionaires own car, and if you parked your car at a double line, the traffic officer would probably to awe to write you a summon ticket. But today, cars are abundant than hookers on the streets. In another words, we have insufficient prostitutes to go round. We see BMW more than police cars on the road and the people that are driving the BMWs' are getting more and more ruthless (assholes!!!). If millionaires are so common, do we still wanna be millionaire? Why not be billionaire?

Last week, I was with this annoying client, no doubt filthy rich and filthy arrogant. Save the how insolent part, that's not what I'm trying to discuss here...this is what he said to me " young man, make sure after I signed this deal, I don't want to see even 1 ant. When your phone rings and it's my number, you better be here". And this is what I replied "unless you're the devil, when we sign this deal you don't own my soul". A serious awkward long pause follows.

I deduced that that there are 2 types of rich bastards. The A grade bastards inherited their wealth from the parents and are too ignorant to care about how other would feel. B grade bastards worked their ass to wealthy and appreciate our every effort to survive. When we call the A bastards and they're not answering the phone, they're fucking a hooker and having a erectile disfunction problem. When we call the B grade bastards and they're not picking up, they're also most probably fucking the hookers. But they return call when they're done. Anyways, both A and B are bastards simply because they're millionaires and I'm not. If I have a million, I don't mind being a bastard. If you get to choose, which bastard would you want to be? A or Be?

Automated Trading

2009-11-09T06:12:00.000-08:00

Is there such thing as money coming into our account without the need of effort? Recently there are so much debate over automated trading in Forex and stocks. The technology of trading has developed from shouting over the counters, to clicking the mouse at home. To enhance the situation, robots are developed to "trade" for us.

Initially we'll make money from the market. Oh man, the blood rush, the adrenaline. I'm sure any F1 driver would find this more exciting. then come the first losing trade. And another, and another. And.....we have no more losing trade because there ain't any left in the account. We're in hell. The night is long and sleeping seem more difficult than constipation. Why did recession comes to us way before the experts predicted it?

And comes a friend telling us about robots, we roam around the web for robot with the most probable winnings. Then just like god sent, a few robots are available for us at a small price to pay ($97-$149). All of them have great review from many folks reputed to be great traders who's name we have not even heard before, the heck with it, who cares who they are? They're making money. They're rich. The statement displayed shows win after win with almost insignificant losses. That's when we believe we have found, the Holy Grail. Small losses, good review plus cheap price...we asked ourself "what the fuck am I waiting for?". Hence, we pulled out our credit card and enter the digit into the computer. Viola!!! The download link is sent almost immediately. Professional is indeed completely different!. When we order a Honda, there's a waiting list, but over here, there isn't. We put all the hope along with the limited money we have in the account and wait for riches to find us. We imagine, seeing our account fatten as we wake from our sleep. As we work, it continues to grow just like a colony of termites. The robot knows no rest. Easy life was just around the corner.

Imagine yourself going to a book store, grab the thickest book in the medical section about neurosurgery. Read the whole book and can you call yourself a surgeon? Would you leave your brain to someone like that? Similarly would you leave your money in the hands of people whom you have never met? Most robot developers will not disclose their trading strategies to you. Their so-called profitable robot will ended up trading less frequently as said, less probable as stated and we started to mail them asking silly questions.

Ya...I admit, I'm one of the millions out there who wish desperately to change my life. But I've learnt the hard way that, no Holy Grail is out for sale. If there is, it won't be cheap. I feel that every novice trader should read this, trading requires constant learning, improvising and most important of all discipline. To be profitable in trading, we must respect the market. There is no gain without sufficient effort right? To be a real trader, we need to analyze the market constantly, aware of any updates and strike at the precise moment with the highest possible accuracy. There's no room for emotion! So, being a trader is just like being a doctor. Every market condition is different, that's what makes trading fun. It's the joy every time we make the right decision and profit. It's about the disappointment every time we make the right decision and the market tricked us. And it's about how hard we want to win. Above all, it's the journey where we try to defy the overall losing population.

So, is there such thing as easy money? Unfortunately for me, that a No-No. Ultimately, at an overall picture, trading isn't hard at all. All we need to decide is whether to buy or sell. When to get out will be decided itself (only a true trader will understand this sentence).

Happy trading! Luck is not required.

Tears and Rain

2009-11-09T03:30:00.000-08:00

How I wish I could surrender my soul;
Shed the clothes that become my skin;
See the liar that burns within my needing.
How I wish I'd chosen darkness from cold.
How I wish I had screamed out loud,
Instead I've found no meaning.

I guess it's time I run far, far away; find comfort in pain,
All pleasure's the same: it just keeps me from trouble.
Hides my true shape, like Dorian Gray.
I've heard what they say, but I'm not here for trouble.
It's more than just words: it's just tears and rain.

How I wish I could walk through the doors of my mind;
Hold memory close at hand,
Help me understand the years.
How I wish I could choose between Heaven and Hell.
How I wish I would save my soul.
I'm so cold from fear.

I guess it's time I run far, far away; find comfort in pain,
All pleasure's the same: it just keeps me from trouble.
Hides my true shape, like Dorian Gray.
I've heard what they say, but I'm not here for trouble.
Far, far away; find comfort in pain.
All pleasure's the same: it just keeps me from trouble.
It's more than just words: it's just tears and rain.

Toy Museum

2009-11-09T00:54:00.000-08:00

It was my girlfriend's birthday yesterday, when I have finally decided to bring her to Toy Museum after never ending nagging from her. Apparently there are 10 million toys displayed in that place. We were so excited, we forgo shopping in gurney just to make sure we had enough time to feast our eyes onto the toys before our dinner in E&O.

As I walked into the museum after paying a hefty RM10 fee, I realized, we made a terrible mistake coming to this place. The racks are roughly placed, the toys are not properly organized and they're all in aquariums (at least, that's how it looked). We found "fung wan" cramping together with "Victor" from Corpse Bride. "Apparently" Tim Burton wrote both stories according to the museum director. The path was like a maze, except in a maze, you could walk properly and in this museum, you concentrate on not to trip on the uneven floor rather than enjoy the toys. The only toys available there are all cartoons or movies characters. I was kind of hoping to see classical cars, control vehicles, guns, rifle, gundams etc...etc...and etc which are all not there. I bet we find better arrangement and toys in the supermarket departmental store.

There were indeed almost 10 million toys but I rather see 10 thousand specially selected toys than all the millions stuffed together unorganized. We saw a live sized Alien, which is beheaded left lying on the stage, kissing the floor with the sponges bursting out. Arragon looks like he's kicked on the balls and Lara Croft in the museum went through a tits reduction treatment. The live sized Darth Vader was holding a broken lightsaber. If I were him, I would say to the manager "Now your failure is COMPLETE!" with american accent and style.

   I'll be very straight in this, UNLESS YOU WANT DISAPPOINTMENT, DON"T GO! I'm a photo addict but it sucked so much, that I don't bother to even post any photo at all! (forgot to bring camera actually). The most interesting thing about the museum is the free toilet where we can pee into the belly of the egyptian sculpture.

   So, if I were the owner of the museum, what sort of arrangement I would have? That's very basic, what people want to see is what they did not expect to see or happen. Have a live sized Freddy Kruger and Jason greeting behind as the door open is a good idea. The element of surprise is very important if we want to create massive impact; remember pearl harbor? And I'll have guns, planes and model control cars for rent at an expensive fee. Destroy them and you pay double the price. All the Aliens would crawling on the walls of the museum but only visible as we see them from the second floor. They'll appear as if they're attacking the visitors on the first floor.

   Entering the T-Rex mouth we'll go into Jurassic Park, everything is for sale. From dinosaur eggs to the mammoth testicles. What's the point if the museum is not making any money? After all, it's a giant toy shop. The most important toys are displayed in the toilet; sex toys. I think they're the best sellers.

Syphon Coffee

2009-11-09T00:07:00.000-08:00

"What would you tell the waiter when you want a cup of decent coffee?" asked Terry Beh, the owner of Coffee Lane at his newly opened shop. "Kopi cit poey" some said. "Or Peng" I said. And many others answered in various local slang which only Penang folks understand. But according to Terry, if you are a coffee lover, or if you tell that to the foreigners, the Japanese would say "baka", you'll make the Italian laughed to tears and our unique way of ordering coffee certainly raise a few eye brows in France.

In Terry's Shop, or rather Coffee Lane, the coffee served are guaranteed to be freshly brewed. It's so fresh, the coffee beans were crushed at the very moment you order a cup or else, it would have lost it's freshness. So, what's syphon coffee anyways? It is a coffee brewing technique pandemic to Japan.

One brew may serve only 5 small cups taking heavy consideration about water amount, bean weight and also water temperature (90°).

It's almost standard where the first step is, boiling the water. After almost reaching boiling temperature, the upper funnel containing the coffee powder of the set is inserted into the water. Of course, high grade coffee was used in this process (from Italy hehe). The pressure resulted from boiling will push the water from the lower bulb into the upper funnel. Upon hugging the coffee powder, the aroma was diffused into the almost boiling water, giving us none other than temptation. Using what he called as Magic Cloth (which I hope is clean), Terry bewitched the brewed coffee into the lower bulb again. And the last action left was to pour it into cups.

We can tell the freshness by looking at the bubbles; just like urine, bubbles in the cup means fresh!

What happened next was, us, grabbing free cups of coffee and pretend to appreciate it....We were "adviced" to gulp them without sugar!!!!

Terry Beh's expression was as if he had won a million in the coffee competition.

So, what's syphon coffee to me anyways, for me, it's a longwinded way of making a cup of coffee. But for Terry, every cup means effort, perfection and passion. For his customer, it's satisfaction, warmth and nevertheless, money. lol

Ya, I know, there are many coffee addicts out there dying to know where you can find this place. See below (lazy to describe, many say I bring madness to anyone asking me for route).

Name: Coffee Lane

Add: 10B King Street 10200 Penang, Malaysia

Tel: 04-2610625

(click on the photo to enlarger)

Ok, this is about as much I'll say about his coffee. Anyone needs more information, you may click here.

Oh ya, he serve every customer personally. You may find him charming but unfortunately, he's not available.

Stranger on the Shore

2009-11-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

Originally played by Acker Bilks in the Bb Clarinet and now Kenny G made it sexy on the Soprano. I have lost count on the number of times listening to this piece since the beginning of the millennium. Ignore the annoying comment and enjoy.

Simple yet Beautiful

2009-11-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

Anything can be beautiful. Provided we look at it at the right angle. This was proven by my technician who owns a D80. With the power of an DSLR with the proper technique, I believe we can turn a cock into a peacock. Initially I couldn't accept the fact that a technician who salary is 1/3 of mine, can afford something I can't. Besides owning the SLR, he mastered it quite well. The heading photo for example, was his produce. Let me share some of his creation that I like;

The Original of the Header

After got inspired, I made my 1st two attempt. What do you think?

Taken from Nautilus Bay

Taken from a worn out park in Midlands Drive. The park looks pathetic and lack of the maintenance it deserved.

Free Hand Artist

2009-11-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

It was by birthday when I finally appreciate paintings, colors on papers have always bore me. As we were walking past various stores in Batu Ferringhi, crowds of viewers was concentrating on this particular kiosk on the pavement. Although I have no idea whether his painting are running out of his stall or not, but definitely we witness a flawless drawing performed using the free hand style.

His wife helping him on the arrangement

May look complicated but this was drawn within seconds

How fascinating these people actually make a living using only their hand and some simple tools. I think my bosses were inspired by my photographs and they decided to paint the shutter door of the new office instead of printing the ad.

Drawing a mosquito without reference, using only 1 brush with different color

Unlike many artists I have met, these two artist are not gay.

Mona Lisa Of Business

2009-11-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

Let’s forget about studying management and all the bombastic courses, through interview and meeting a lot of successful business during the downturn of the economy I have the privilege to rendezvous with countless bosses and managers. And also after working in several organizations, I couldn’t help but to notice no matter which industry it is the company can be segmented into 4 general departments;

1. The Management: brain of the organization.

2. The Marketing: mouth of the organization.

3. The Operation: not the muscle but the limbs.

4. The admin: the body that connects all.

Let me write briefly about each and every section. The management of course is the most important of all for setting the goals, making sure every department head towards it and also takes care of the big show. The marketing is as written above, the mouth that brings in food (money) to make sure there is sufficient fuel to run the company. The department is the most hardworking mainly because the pocket of the members are directly affected by the stream of activities of the department. Fuel consumed will be channeled to the limbs to perform. Therefore, the operation department is basically the company itself. It’s all talk until we see the operation perform, there’s no deny to that. And the least important is the admin that connects everything together but yet, they are necessary. The job of the admin department is to make sure everything is organized especially when the tax consultants are here for audit.

These are simple truth that many bosses failed to see. A business that runs smooth needs to be as simple as possible. A boss that runs the business needs to look view the company as an overall picture. Just like looking into Mona Lisa, we grab the feel and message Da Vinci was trying to tell us by ignoring the detail and mistakes he made. If we scan the painting brush by brush, we are not enjoying, we are scrutinizing. Yes, we need to be critical to our own set up and ideas but to observe every detail is a big mistake. Handling business is just like trading the market; we follow the market trend by looking at the overall picture. Looking at every single tick often brings us nothing but losses. It is very important as owner of the company to define the responsibility of each department. For anyone stupid enough not to know let me simplify for you;

1. Management (including the boss(es): scheming

2. Marketing: get more business

3. Operation: serve, product, whatever

4. Admin: Paperwork

Let’s imagine you’re a restaurant owner. Do this; ask your chef to serve the customer, ask for their opinion does everything other than cooking. Let your cashier do the cooking and ask your waiters to send fliers. What will happen? Your kitchen got burnt, client got slapped and god knows where your waiters are. I cannot stress more on the idea of simplicity and the importance of looking at the overall big picture. They are who they are simply because they are who they are.

Serious Aid Needed

2009-11-03T07:39:00.000-08:00

It's rather pathetic that my very first post on this blog is begging for help on the setting. But seriously guys. I need help. There are several issues that I wish to restructure on the layout. My blog width is very narrow as you can see. Any way to stretch it? How to use a photo as the background? Your help is very much appreciated. Thanks