dateline, deadline

I've never checked what's the difference between these two words. Not much difference, I persuaded myself. It's just an unduly bug on the last day of the year. A rough one, I reckon.

Watching Justin (Nah... not the HK shortie singer that takes singing as shrieking) serving so hard while Amelie (the male commentator seems biased for Mauresmo...Oh no Amelie, No Amelie, That's not a good sign for Amelie, She deserves all the credits and the set.. bla bla bla... well, I am very fine with that :D) desparately finding the correct tune (which she did at last) in my dust-free hometown wasn't really a luxury. Having seabass for dinner though, from the newly opened Malaysian-owned leading chain restaurant at my hometown (imagine that!) , a little luxurious,revealed that the recipe isn't secret anyway. It's the same everywhere else!

I had my annual xmas gathering in KL and back to Penang for a few days of work before another four days of holidays back home. The dinner was as old as it was, as warm as it was, as many laughters as it was.


The only picture that we managed to ask one of the seemingly ever-and-over-occupied waiters/resses in the new chilis in one u to snap. Better than none, that's it!



We spent 4 to 5 hours in the restaurant (I think the captain disliked us for that!) playing games, swapping and swapping the gifts (it came back to everyone first choice! fate.) and getting penalties like this.


Which one do you want?

It's lovely enough for a new year. Happy New Year to all!

Attn: Catch these three movies next year!
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/children_of_men
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pans_labyrinth
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/notes_on_a_scandal/

Road to Changlun

I took this gloomy picture, sitting behind in a car, after visiting a fast-recovering friend staying adjacent to the Siamese border. It does not lead you to any state of melancholia though. It was a peaceful evening on the familiar long straight highway back to the hometown with your old faithful buddies.

so long

so long since my last post. nothing much, just a different job function, a new boss, a new cubical in a new building, a new shopping mall, a new pair of jeans, a new long-sleeve shirt for weddings, and probably a rejuvenation of views towards life and its components.

xmas is coming. and i will tell you a joke.

a colleague forwarded me a hilarious mail. let me quote part of it

" I learned that if the date code ends with an even number, it is manufactured in Santa Claus. If it ends with an odd number, it is manufactured in Germany. Then later every part is manufactured in Santa Claus. May I know when does this occur?
Those parts with date code ended with odd number that had moved to Santa Claus, does the design change applied on these parts also?"

it was supposed to be santa clara. exhilaration over xmas was too overwhelming i perhap.


do not laugh. do not laugh. do not laugh.


just highlight.

HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Greeting, ah Boy!

I bet you must have experienced before stall owners greet you Leng Cai or Leng Lui when you were buying goods from them.

And guess what! There is one stall owner that I always buy breakfast for weekly breakfast session in the office greet me "Ah Boy" !

Either she is having too many kids or her benevolence extended to me, nah, who cares! Probably it's coming from the skies that I should start my November's new role in new department in full happiness.

Ha! ha! ha!

Check out this blog of a friend of mine. They are too busy complaining my English. I need some practice for something important dudes!

Cheapest city, not so cheap engineers!

Latest release, 2006 report of UBS Prices and Earning Reports

UBS conducted standardized Prices and Earnings survey in 71 cities throughout the world between February andApril 2006. In each city, surveys were conducted independently.


It's cheapest to live in KL!


I don't know how to inteprete this, but we are away from the crowd...?



Net hourly pay. Quite low for us?


Wage level for we Malaysians seem moderate low. Purchasing power is above average due to cheap goods and services.



33 minutes for a big Mac. How about McCrispy? I dont take beef.

Engineers are paid almost the same for KL folks as to counterparts in Bangkok, Mexico, Moscow, Bogota, Caracas, Prague, and Lima. 50% higher than engineers in Beijing and Shanghai and 100% higher than in the Indian capital. Think about it again? Anyway I still wish to work in Luxembourg! hehe


Summary for KL: cheapest to live, moderate wage and purchasing power. Nothing to be so proud about except getting to savour a plate of delicious chicken rice with USD1.

Click at the above link for more. We work too long hours indeed as complained.

KL and KL

The sun didn’t penetrate through the silky costly curtain tailor-made for Miss Teo’s new apartment in Villa Oversea Union Garden, as she loathes rays of light piercing and harassing her peaceful sleep, I guess. I woke up just after dawn rushing to pick Miss Tan up and met up with WCK at the silhouetting double city centers’ basement, getting ready to ascent to the connecting piece of concrete in between.

Alas, it was inaudibly closed. I regard this as an embarrassment for a premier tourist spot to close for 5 days though it was holidays. Almost certainly we thought it was due to the charge-free entrance and lift, for we made our lengthy walk to the neighbouring aquarium that remained open and still charged 28 bucks on the second day of Aidilfitri.

The modestly advertised Aquaria was not a downer nonetheless not too enthralling. Yet my baffling obsession towards deep sea creatures was satisfied though a little. Miss Tan led us in a fine time looking for an obvious angler fish that was tagged as good in camouflage but all we discovered is a piece of 4-legged charcoal with barely noticeable moving gills resting just next to a standing red coral. Her mama must have told her that the most dangerous position is in fact the safest one.


Magnificent movements in every direction


Come baby come, it's time to eat.


Something fishy in the aquarium!


We stopped by the famous-only-to-foreign-tourists palace's front gate.


Acting class I - Frightened yet desperately excited countenance


Acting Class II - Petrified Body

A few fine days later, after multiple shopping sprees in the abound shopping malls in the metropolis and a visit each to the car workshop and the university, Miss Teo insisted to pursue her first visit to the skybridge after a failed first attempt. That very misty morning we headed to the city center once more and this time Kim has replaced Miss Tan who was apparently fed up with the suppose-to-be-in-disguise black angler fish.

It was a few minutes past 8 am in the morning as my bone-jingling wira ran past a saga with passengers who were obviously heading to the same destination as ours. Contentedly we walked up the car park to the tickets distribution counter thinking that we will get tickets at ease. See this picture and you will know how awful the big O our mouths would be at the crime spot.

After a 5-day closure, it was definitely not a good day for us to jointly grasp the tickets and agitate the already-disturbed planned trip of the many foreign travelers that we believed had stayed back a few days just to pay a visit to the icon. But well, it’s Miss Teo’s, my accommodation provider, maiden visit. We were not going to give up, taking turn to line up for nearly 2 hours and ended up seized four four-hour-later tickets.


The twins, as unforgiving as it has always been.


Patient WCK among the impatient hundreds of flockers. Check out the crowd, it's already after the officers requested only one to line up for a group. They are too slow in distributing the tickets!


From the top of the bridge


Another one


The bridge itself


Lightning strikes on KLCC


The group that managed to get a pass to the bridge!


The group that didn't make it to the bridge


After nearly a week in the capital, I drove back to Penang with Mr Tee and Miss Lai, with packs of hard-earned-money-turn-into fabrics and price tags. (Miss Lai too!) Mr Tee’s 9-month service exchange in the States left me and him much to catch up that the long arduous journey felt short.

Reached Penang soon after lunch time. Unpacked, napped, dined, and desserted, that was a pretty and lazy Sunday before November looms.

Maiden win for Chinese girls in Gymnastic History

*pictures from sina


I have always been thinking that Gymnastics is the cruelest and most mentally and physcially grueling competitive sports.

Congratulations! And the boys won too!
ESPN
Yahoo Sports
Sina Sports

Nerina Pallot

www.nerinapallot.com

Look for Entertainment. It's hard for me to recommend any of the songs to you coz they are all simply fantastic. But the hits are Sophia and Everybody's Gone to War.

中秋

苏轼 『水调歌头 明月几时有』

明月几时有？把酒问清天。不知天上宫阙，今夕是何年。我欲乘风归去。惟恐琼楼玉宇，高处不胜寒，起舞弄清影，何似在人间。

转朱阁，低绮户，照无眠。不应有恨，何事长向别时圆？人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。但愿人长久，千里共婵娟。



Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all!

Cambodia

People in the office were talking about Cambodia, asking why is this beautiful country lagging behind the locomotive of development. Check this out from CIA. It has actually achieved indepedance ahead of us.

Most Cambodians consider themselves to be Khmers, descendants of the Angkor Empire that extended over much of Southeast Asia and reached its zenith between the 10th and 13th centuries.

Attacks by the Thai and Cham (from present-day Vietnam) weakened the empire ushering in a long period of decline. The king placed the country under French protection in 1863. Cambodia became part of French Indochina in 1887.

Following Japanese occupation in World War II, Cambodia gained full independence from France in 1953.

In April 1975, after a five-year struggle, Communist Khmer Rouge forces captured Phnom Penh and evacuated all cities and towns. At least 1.5 million Cambodians died from execution, forced hardships, or starvation during the Khmer Rouge regime under POL POT.




Skull stupa that will stay to remind the Cambodians their murky pages of past.


This smile just couldn't stop you from thinking what was his ideology.


A December 1978 Vietnamese invasion drove the Khmer Rouge into the countryside, began a 10-year Vietnamese occupation, and touched off almost 13 years of civil war.

The 1991 Paris Peace Accords mandated democratic elections and a ceasefire, which was not fully respected by the Khmer Rouge. UN-sponsored elections in 1993 helped restore some semblance of normalcy under a coalition government.

Factional fighting in 1997 ended the first coalition government, but a second round of national elections in 1998 led to the formation of another coalition government and renewed political stability. The remaining elements of the Khmer Rouge surrendered in early 1999.

Some of the remaining leaders are awaiting trial by a UN-sponsored tribunal for crimes against humanity. Elections in July 2003 were relatively peaceful, but it took one year of negotiations between contending political parties before a coalition government was formed.


Do you know why now? Don't frolic around and take what we are savouring now for granted.

Races' race?

cartoons from Zunar


Lately there have been numerous issues pertaining the multiracial elements of our beloved country. Things are going wild. All the many words about perpaduan and how we should take full pride of the harmony admist the divergence that we have been reading and being instilled in our KBSR/KBSM system, seems to be pretty bloviating.

I do not have any comment, but disheartened? Yeah... All the chaos, unwillingness to accept the words of sorry from Mr Lee, and keeping mum of Khairy in a clarification press conference that uses Hishamudin's lips to sort of clarify (not even a word of sorry and intention to apologize here) to people that we'd MISUNDERSTOOD what he has stirred up, is nothing but just a cruel reflection of how our education system has faltered.

I couldn't gather much videos or news on the above matters. Below are just some.
Isn't Mr Lee was right then?

No new school for SRK(C) and (T)
*Should we cry foul or cry over spilt milk?
What Chinese of PRC think about Mr Lee's comments...
*harsh
Mr Lim on this "ask for SORRY, decline to say one" and Chinese Education issue
* u know, last time I dont quite like him...
Read About Khairy on Wikipedia.
* Last three paragraphs are interesting. Was him trying to get some political credits by creating the uproar?

Terrible

Two weeks with fever, stomach upset, Maxolon allergic reaction, loss of appetite and dehydration shredded 5kgs of me.

Terrible.

Oh in one of the eat-nothing-much days I was watching this 8pm news and heard a top politician from UMNO Youth referring the Chief Minister of Penang as “Dia” while requesting the minister to carry out a meeting with UMNO Youth to solve the deficient development chances to the Bumiputera in Penang (phuh, chances are teeming to be grabbed right?)

But my point is, Dia? "Terpulanglah kepada dia sama ada dia mahu mengadakan mesyuarat tersebut"?

Terrible.

Third. Anyone heard and saw our MIC head looking down on and off (do you think it's a piece of paper with three or four lines of our national anthem lyrics down there?) when singing Negaraku on TV?

Terrible. Terribly funny.

Banner

I am not really a lampoonist towards those who have genuine compassions to fix the faults and blunders of the society. But dont you need to get your intention unmistakenly spelt out first?

My Ixus II

How long does a Canon Ixus II last, to technically serve as an operating apparatus for locking the present you and what you experience before brewing them into memories for you to reminisce, joyously or sorrowfully?

Mine lasted two years. I don’t know about yours. But I bet the images and memories they brought into being are just undying.

My little companion I bought just before I made my maiden (well, second is probably still way away) trip to the US, dated back to May 2004, was showing symptoms of fatigue when I brought it along to Cambodia. Who wouldn’t be so weary? Making three visits to Las Vegas, three visits to Anaheim’s Disneyland, and three visits to Universal Studio? These, not to mention those 6-flag Marine Park visits, Grand Canyon visits, San Franscisco visits, Yosemite visits, Rohnert Park now-closed Agilent site and Vintage Pointe visits and ONE Death Valley visit (this is the only significant place it went only ONCE in US! J), are definitely a marathon and harsh environmental tests for my beloved photo-capturing buddy!

But it still does goods in some short trips to KL and around Penang. So I don’t think I am going to repair it. I just love it as it is. Although I will be getting a new one, I don’t mind using it yet spending a little extra time warming it up before hand.

It’s just like your memories. The only difference is that you don’t have an option to thrash the latter if they’re so excruciating.


Sometimes something just becomes so a part of yourself that even without looking at them you know how to use them properly.

Superman return online game

I got this site from a friend last week. The first time I played I scored 80 plus... the second time I played it's about 130 something. (I was actually a little doubtful then)

Ok, that's how the story goes. I was trying to check if I was really getting 130 something. So I clicked, clicked and clicked but it wouldn't even get near to 130. On and off I tried for the week and when I was going to give up, either blaming my eyes for sending the wrong pulses of signal (ie 130 something) to my brain, or blaming the miss-time as I always encounter in my life, I scored 148 all out of a sudden.

Then I realized that this game teaches you a lot about "timing". Be it at work, in life, and well, you know what it is.

check your impromptu-ness quotient

monday night shopping

It’s not Chinese New Year. No declaration of emergency. Sunshine was not having its sales. No freebies. The fridge wasn’t really that empty.

Just an eleventh hour grocery shopping with housemates and another Relau new “flock”er and… doom! we were back with plastic bags that might last us for a month as garbage bags. (as if all of us having unlimited sunshine vouchers)

Heheehehehee….I miss the tv show Supermarket Sweep! That non-reality-tv show!









ps: I've gotten myself a /7\ new water tumbler for the broken one. Look, my cubical mate said it must be at least /7\ for above that number the polymer that dissolves into the water is still safe. :O (check the bottom of your bottle!)

Two crazy weekends

Since working motivation is rather vague and daily life is rather dreamy, it’s definitely more sensible for me to take every weekend off for some laid-back activities. Yet another one last week, for a 3-day makan-makan trip to Ipoh, as well as paying a visit to the Lost World in Tambun to make the most out of the pitiable remaining bits of my childhood reverie. Well, if they were still there for me at this age.

Food consumed

Bean Sprout Chicken + Pork Meatball (Luckily got the bean sprout and the pork; eating white chicken is so not me :P!
Meng Kok Dim Sum (Delicate and small yet delicious, can eat different types without feeling too full!)
Tambun Lost World Café Fried Chicken. (Not bad not bad!)
Kopitiam Toast (Not bad not bad!)
Man Chong Restaurant (Yin Yong Fish is just outstanding, imagine one side is fried while another side is steamed!)


I think they steamed it first. No?

Chu Cheong Fan and toasts from the jam-packed authentic Ipoh Old Town White Coffee kopitiam (erm, it’s a branch :P)
Bee Yuk Restaurant (Sliced Pork Meat with Yam is one of the best I have taken so far)

This curry from that Bee Yuk Restaurant is just a class above the others.

And... Biscuit Sat Kei Ma! (ma ma ma ma ma... echoing....)

I was searching for the one which is very sweet, very oily, very soft... erm... only the cheapest is near!

Activities

I took 6 slides with SQ till the guard said : “Wah cepatnya you two datang!” for the fourth time and “Wah, datang lagi!” for the fifth time. The slides are much better compared to Sunway’s. The distance is longer and more thrilling yet you don’t need to climb up so high up probably because they made the sliders sway sideway much more.

Captain ball in the pool with artificial waves. It was damn fun.

Category 5 not to be missed.

Hahahahahaha!

Too lazy (sang too much and too loud??) to write on MY's BD, some pictures here in Irene's blog.

So Long Leatherback

'Leatherback turtles not extinct in Malaysia'

Kuala Lumpur, Aug 10 : The endangered leatherback turtle population has declined drastically but the turtle is not exinct in Malaysia, the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre (Tumec) said here, refuting a UN environment Programme report which said the species was effectively exinct in this country.

The leatherback turtles could still be seen landing and nesting on the shores of Malaysia's coastal Terengganu area, Kamaruddin Ibrahim, who heads Tumec said adding that "It is correct when one says the population of the leatherback has declined drastically... But the turtle has not become exinct," Bernama news agency quoted him as saying.

The UNEP report from Bangkok had said that the leatherback was effectively exinct in Malaysia where it used to nest in thousands a few years ago. Consumption of turtle eggs by humans and fishing nets in the turtle's nesting areas were blamed for decrease in turtle population in Terengganu.

Kamaruddin said in 2003, 14 leatherback nesting places with 1083 eggs were detected. In 2004, five nesting places with 295 eggs were found and last year one nesting place with 90 eggs was seen.

"This year, we found five nesting places with 336 eggs of two leatherback turtles," he said adding that this proved the leatherback was not exinct in Malaysia.

Tumec is planning to conduct patrols along the coast and sea including ensuring that the turtles are not trapped in the fishing nets. The Terengganu state governement had indicated its commitment to ensure the survival of leatherback with a 200,000 ringet allocation to Tumec this year for conservation of tutles in Terengganu.


Source from kerela.com



Gloomy news, with bluntly shocking numbers of decline. Must be a tragic downturn in Malaysians' conservation effort.

And, it says “Tumec is planning to conduct patrols along the coast and sea including ensuring that the turtles are not trapped in the fishing nets.”

Huh? Now? (Next week izzit?)

Don't you feel that we are useless?

7 Types of drivers that I hate most.

7 It’s-my-grandpa’s-road motorbikers

Venue: A road. Commonly observed in a single-lane country road.
Selfishness: “Quite lor I think”
Conscience: Don’t want to say so much. Too many of them on the road.
Allegation: As the theme suggests, he was fantasizing that his grandpa built the road.
Potential/Typical Convicts: Honda Cup
Cure: Memorize this and say sarcastically 1000 times to yourself. “You 500cc ar?”


The biker on top might be trying to overtake another one in front of him. (But he didn't do that till the next traffic light stop, trust me)


6 Turtle-turner

Venue: Left-turning corner
Selfishness: Nil
Conscience: Not known
Direction: Left-turning
Allegation: Nearly stop before turning at the junction
Potential/Typical Convicts: Inept driver
Cure: Go watch Initial D for at least 1000 times and learn 1% of the “float-shifting” skill.

5 Fast lane Leisurer

Venue: Spacious or Multiple-Lane Highway
Selfishness: Serious
Conscience: Acceptable if unconscious, Terrible if conscious
Direction: As others, on the same chunk of lanes.
Allegation: Drive at fast lane at 10km/h below speed limit for more than 10 seconds with apparent chances to move into slow lane.
Potential/Typical Convicts: Ladies that drive so cautiously, desperately holding the steering, and ignorant of what’s behind. Or pakcik-pakcik that drive at 60km/h and thought they are driving at 120km/h
Cure: Bear in mind that the fast lane is not for you. Keep left unless overtaking a 10km/h 10-wheel truck.

4 Indecisive Fence Sitter

Venue: Multiple-Lane road
Selfishness: Serious
Conscience: Below average
Direction: As others on the same chunk of lanes.
Allegation: Driving indecisively for >5 seconds with confused mind undergoing state of uncompromising difficulty to decide which lane to take. OR
Bizarrely stop at the lane dividers without any blockage at the front or urge from behind.
Potential/Typical Convicts: Bewildered as in life?
Cure: Papa says: Time to change your spectacles if you can’t distinguish the lanes properly.


We were trailing this car at a distance of at least 15 meters for a distance of at least 15 meters before he stopped at the middle of two lanes.
Was he trying to cut queue at the very front before decided to give up after sixth-sensing (is your crystal ball not working well that it take him too long?) that there is a traffic police in front?

3 Hump-ohobia

Venue: Over a bum
Selfishness: Nil, probably a little excessive obsession over new toys.
Conscience: Ok
Direction: Ascending and descending a bum
Allegation: Everybody behind is waiting for what seems like an eternity for him/her to get over the bum. It’s as if the driver had made uncountable brakes all the way up and down the bum.
Potential/Typical Convicts: New car owners.
Cure: Time. For the car to age.

2 “I-like-u-like” park-eholic

Venue: In front of shop-houses with side parking lots opposite them.
Selfishness: Much above average
Conscience: Need conscienceherapy class
Allegation: Simply park the car (ie owner had fled somewhere) making the side-parking on the other side so hard and most of the time impossible.
Potential/Typical Convicts: “Car can go through what” cult follower
Cure: Memorize this and say sarcastically 2000 times to yourself. “Brother, you think I can be like Stephan Chow pushing the car in from the side of the lot ar?”


Two of them here. Although it’s difficult for you to find a parking lot, it’s even more grueling for me to spot a parking lot yet can’t go in!

1 Obtuse Road Blocker

Venue: Narrow junction
Selfishness: Critical
Conscience: Miserable
Direction: Turning right, stop at red light
Allegation: Stuff own vehicle into the front left of the queue in pursuit of the very next green light, blocking all others from turning left.
Potential/Typical Convict: Mentally challenged self obsessive drivers.
Cure: Nil. We do not offer chronic conscience or ethics predicament related treatment.


This Kancil was trying to cut queue (and BLOCK others) when everyone was trying to turn left. The Saga was forced into the porch of the house beside the road. Oh, the left-turning queue is supposed to be a single queue as the road they are turning into is extremely narrow even for a single car.


************
Which one is your "favorite"? Come join the party to vote!




ps: I start to suspect that I am a traffic system complaining fanatic.