Scratch Post

[Work] Weird Stats For PaidTV

2011-08-23T22:34:00.002+08:00

Working on a damn gila messy but interesting project related to Paid TV.

An engineer from US was telling me that dirty reels in US costed easily 14.95 USD per pop. And it was the pay-per view type meaning it was time bound (eg: lasts for x time period).

And he also told me that from industrial stats, the average view time of those who bought the dirty reels was 3 minutes only.

"Whoa!", I exclaimed .... "That really is per pop!!"

[Work] ReOrg烦恼中

2010-07-15T01:42:00.002+08:00

哎呀！前些阵子有点稍微渺小之可能性溜去日本一趟。但，现在完完全全地煲汤啦！

算了吧，再次期待吧。。。。现在转向祖国为下个目标，可以去北京都还不错！只要不是被逼扣留@KL 可以了！！

[Work] 25% QoS "IF" Lucky

2010-06-22T04:25:00.003+08:00

Hot, sweaty, and tired. Cutover is not going as well as planned. Crapball this is. And am just sitting at customer site doing 'marketing' and providing moral support. There is a degree of eunuch-ism here which is getting to me.... *&^%$#@! .. the real work is happenin offsite 20km away from where I am. Long story but ain't gonna be told here today.

Back to guys doing offsite marketing purely for customer relations .... On my left is a dude who is monitoring the network realtime, and ELS dude who is cool is sitting opposite me involved in some troubleshooting. Crazy PLM folks suka-suka release Emergency Patches that seem to create more freaking emergencies than solve them!!! If I am lucky, we get to rollout 50% of the planned QoS features. Which is actually 25% of the features from a 2x2 architecture perspective.

Have the Windows Media Player set on low volume, was listening a while back to Foo Fighters' "Walking After You" which I remember hearing in 1998 (I think) which was featured in an MTV that came along some taped episodes of South Park from USA in VHS (yeah VHS) format - it was still not known in Msia yet but only geeks like me and Kth knew about it.

Now I have Franz Ferdinand on, the guy who was assassinated leading to the breakout of WW1. Find me a matinee indeed!!!

[Self] Worst Massage Ever vs Weirdest Massage Ever

2010-06-15T23:07:00.006+08:00

I trace my fondness for massage from the time I worked in this CRM company that sent me to Thailand for some months, where having a massage is as normal as yamcha. Since then, I enjoy a massage where ever I go to, and you tend to notice the differences based on the culture / philosophy of massage based on the country you go to.

For example - massage in Thailand is focused more on soothing the muscles and relaxation thru kneading; while massage by mainlanders are focused on the 'kin' (nerves) and they don't hesitate to dispense a dose (or two) of pain as they plough through the toxins and clear up your 'chi' in the nerves.

Usually a good session allows you to leave invigorated and you wash away the weariness of the day. But you also get the bad ones. Of which, there have been 2 noteworthy.

Let's start with the weirdest massage ever: The Saudi Massage by a Filipino Dude.

Working in Saudi was stressful in very different ways and for a variety of reasons. With ultratight shoulders and being dead tired, I one day stumbled into a gym near the E/// MUKSA office that offered massages. So I go in there, a guy (from Morocco) talks to me in a mixture of Arabic and English and through sign language and rapid hand gestures mainly I know I am supposed to go into some room.

And I open the door and lie down on some platform thing. Then, a Filipino dude comes up. He speaks English. I feel relieved at least someone does speak the same language. Filipino dude instructs me to lie on my stomach, and I do so. Then, he takes a glove from this box, and begins the massage. At first I go ... "huh a glove??", and wonder what the hell is going on. And as the latex makes contact with my back it just felt so weird I was paralyzed with surprise (or maybe some latex allergy reaction). The paralysis gave way to some pathetic rationalization - Ah well I am in Saudi after all so maybe that’s the standard here … but still it felt damn weird after 50 mins.

So imagine this weird layer of latex, being consistently applied to your body in a weird motion (the massage was bad by the way), and the occasional massage oil is clumsily rubbed over the body. …. I guess the closest analogy I can give is I now know what it feels like being "Hong Kong - Chee Cheong Fun" (this is that flat noodle thing that is steamed and the hawker uses some paintbrush to dab some oil on it, and then uses some metallic piece to scrap the flat noodle off a cloth).

For having 5 fingers wrapped in latex rubbed on me once in a while, it cost me 80 Riyals (approx 80 Ringgit) and was totally not worth it! Weird, damn damn damn weird and not worth it!! This experience alone gave me massage phobia in Saudi for the rest of my duration of stay there for many many months.

And now, for the Worst Massage Ever: 1 Month ago in Jakarta @Jalan Mahakam

Massage in Indo (Jakarta) is overall OK and cheaper than KL. There’s this weird thing about using deck chairs but it is still decent.

So far it has been good, but I do regret ever having this instance of massage one “fine” day when I returned from work feeling exhausted, so I decided to try out this place barely 100m from the hotel.

It’s a weird place that combines a bakery, a Japanese restaurant and a massage place in the same building. Anyway, over here in Jakarta you are clothed, and the masseur dude will start with the legs. The leg was decent and took the longest time I guess it’s a good way to run the clock down.

Then came the back massage. It started with the dude standing on his legs but he has to bend as he exerts pressure from the neck down thru the spine and down to the bottom à that’s still OK no issue.

Then came the part where the dude climbs onto the deckchair, and squats over you as another kind of back massage style is applied. This is quite normal and in most circumstances, a guy like me would have no issue. EXCEPT there were these factors that combined together:

- Dude was wearing some kind of standard uniform where the shorts are of the loose type

- It was a dude, not a woman

So the dude is squatting over me, and I feel something. Then a few seconds later, I feel something again, and again. And a few more seconds again! Massage patterns are iterative and then to my regret came round 2. If round 1 I was caught completely unaware, in round 2 I was trying to avoid contact by wriggling around to avoid contact with the dude’s balls (yes, it was balls). I even contemplated running out screaming like a madman.

I was exhausted when I went into the massage place, and I was violated, shaken and deeply disturbed as I stumbled out of the place. The exhaustion was completed drained out of me, as was any other kind of feeling & emotion. Deeply scarred I was for several days after!!

[Work] Program Mgmt

2010-05-05T00:53:00.002+08:00

Bloody hell, managing PMs and a portfolio is damn hard!!

RVI is not with me so cannot login, I think I left it in office somewhere better find it else it is gonna be a major hassle. Too tired to even grumble now.

Let's hope the printouts of QoS profiles, and some trace findings in GGSN work out tmrw.....

[Work] The Crazy Saudi Escape

2010-02-17T13:09:00.000+08:00

When people ask me about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I give a balanced 1-line summary "Same Planet, Different World".

When people who have actually been to KSA hear this, they nod in total agreement; while people who have not, knit their brows, and with a befuddled look ask you to explain ...to which you do try to, but it's one of those things you need to personally experience to really get it.

As in all countries and cultures there is the good and bad. But I'm just gonna share a personal story relating to the Saudi Visa ... one of the weirdest and stress inducing things in the world.

Getting a Saudi Visa is something like Calvinball where the rules keep on changing. And so is the process of getting the extension.

My Visa Start Date = 30Sept2009

My Entry Into KSA = 11Oct2009

Validity = 3 months

So there are 2 dates to consider, is my visa expiry date on

- 30Dec2009 (based on visa start date)

- 11Jan2010 (based on entry date)

But this being KSA, you always err on the side of caution, hence when I re-entered KSA on 18Dec09, I talked to the visa officer from my company to extend my visa by 2 weeks for me (did it many times before never was a problem). He told me to come back on 26Dec09.

Which I did, and he told me to come back on 30Dec09 to pick it up. I just didn't trust the bugger, so I came back on 29Dec09 to get it. He tells me it was rejected by the gov officials and shows me the paper. But he follows up and tells me it is 100% no problem he just needs to appeal and get the record straight for me. I don't trust him but have no choice.

Then I come back on 30Dec09 to get my extension. He sees me approaching and starts to panic. He talks to an Arab guy who is a in-between runner for the company and the authorities. They speak in Arabic for 5 mins in hushed tones but with spikes of "oh shit ... errm now what' (you can get that from the intonation don't need to know the language).

So they settle down after ignoring me. Arrogant visa officer from my company tells me it is too bad I have to fly off today. I am really pissed off and barks back at him. He then chats in Arabic again, and now the Arab guy takes the paper, whips out a red pen and scribbles something on it (see text in the the red box) which is actually a date in Arabic.

Here you go - they tell me and hand back the form to me. It is extended.

I am.... huh???? wtf??? since when do you simply extend something that the authorities rejected?!! The advice I get is as below:

- Oh no problem, we shall photocopy it for you so they cannot see the red ink. Here you go (photocopy is handed to me).

- Why don't you try to pass thru the immigration at the airport first.

- If you pass no problem. If you don't pass show them this paper.

- Remember, keep the paper in your pocket first. Don't show to them unless you have to.

- Don't worry.

- Don't worry. Seriously.

- OK OK we'll give you a backup number to call if you face problems.

- Remember, keep the paper in your pocket first. Don't show to immigration unless you have to.

I had to arrange to next reasonable flight out, and was lucky enough to escape without any complications! If I did not, I could have been looking at several of the possible choices below:

- Fine of 10k-20k Riyals (approx 10k-20k Ringgit)

- Deportation which would be recorded in my travel documents

- Fine by airline co. to cancel trip

- Lots of bureaucratic hassles

- Prison

There were lots of vaseline jokes made during my waiting period btw 30th of Dec to the 4th of Jan, when I finally flew off. Seriously, the visa thing was really scary as hell!!! Not something you'd want to repeat anytime soon.

[Self] Coffee from Oracle

2010-02-04T11:47:00.004+08:00

Although it was known that Oracle had finally taken over Sun, the full impact just did not hit me until I had to download a new plug in from the Sun site.

The blue has been replaced with the Oracle red, and has a nice Oracle logo on the bottom of each webpage for branding purposes.... :)

[Self] Achoooo!!

2009-12-19T00:03:00.002+08:00

Sniffles for past 3 days already. From just a running nose to a sore throat now.

Not fully adapted to the weather here. Usually it wouldn't be a prob but per my friend Jittos' corny jokes lately .... yeah maybe coz there ain't no Radiance here :)

Gotta get some lozengers and throat stuff later. And becoz there is no car for use, gotta walk out in the desert climate (cold in winter time) which may make it worse.

[Self] El-Alamein

2009-11-01T04:35:00.010+08:00

I have a semi-proposal to work on, but I thought I'd complete this entry before I forgot about the details.

El-Alamein, to be honest I only heard of this great battlefield only when I started blasting up my friends in BattleField 1942 many years ago when there were less grey hairs ... El-Alamein was a map with lots of tanks blasting tanks. And later on I read more on Rommel, and read more on WWII that I knew more about it.

For a really cool overview check out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/launch_ani_el_alamein.shtml

So when I had a chance to be at Alexandria, I decided to dedicate 1 full day to the place which was at least 80 mins drive out (each way). And it was worth it. My friend Fredrik came along for the long haul.

We first arrived at the German Memorial. It was grand, stoic, proud and so very .... German. And this is the place where Rommel's forces blitzkrieged across Africa and supported the Italians, till he was stopped by Monty's overwhelming Allied forces.

At the German Memorial, I was touristy and marveled at the place, the history and took lots of pics. A sweeping romanticism swept across me as I imagined how it must have been like some 60odd years ago....

And then ... we got our driver (courtesy of Karim's relative) to take us to another spot some 20 km away to the Allied Forces' Memorial. This was a very different memorial, more traditional in the sense it was tombstones lined up. The memorial was very well kept. And I strolled across line and lines of the graves.

At first, it was me marvelling at how many had fallen, how many nationalities were involved, how young they were, which regiment and/or part of the military they came from ... It was strongly sunny the entire day, and it was so as I walked on.

But then after going through the many columns of the fallen, a sense of sorrow began to descend on me..... thick grey clouds swarmed to block the sun, the sky darkened and a cold wind swept past. I could not shake off the chills as the war-bravado and heroics didn't make sense anymore. And as the clouds parted and the sunshine swept to illuminate the memorial again, I saw the battle in a different light for the human tragedy it meant. I did tear up, but held it back, and walked off with a very heavy heart.

Memorial #3 was the Italian Memorial. Oddly it was "near" the German Memorial, so we did a large u-turn. From afar, the Italian Memorial didn't really stand out but it was the only structure visible in a vast landscape of sand, so we arrived there based on an educated guess and a badly placed roadsign.

The front gate was at the roadside, but the memorial was a long walk in with very well kept garden (the butterflies were hell-scary though). The walk in required one to wade through a path of sand with scattered chunks of gravel and stones. I walked in with draggy feet so I could enjoy the sound of the small stones crunching into the ground as they frictioned against themselves...

And the Italian Memorial was elegant and simple. It was well structured and nicely thought out in design. Once again, a different culture and a different way of expressing honour to the dead, built into every detail of the building.

In the centre, the Virgin Mary looked over an altar there was a sense of tranquility that swept across the memorial centre and the 2 wings that housed names of the fallen Italian soldiers, inclusive some of the unidentified too.

An old Egyptian caretaker who spoke Italian sold me cards, and I made a small donation as thanks.

There is supposed to be a Tunisian Memorial, but we weren't sure where it was and decided to go back due to time constraints. El-Alamein was tiring but a very soul fulfilling trip.

[Self] Sweden 09!

2009-10-25T04:46:00.018+08:00

Stockholm: Roasted Elk

Stockholm: IconMediaLab memories!

Stockholm: Pizza place - very good stuff. By 2nd Generation Italians staying in Sweden.

Stockholm: Girl making ... Viking Bread

Gothenburg: One of the streets near Central St.

Gothenburg: Fall and crunchy autumn leaves ... wonderful!

Gothenburg: I think this was some city hall place, I forgot. Too little time due to issues at work to really unwind there.

Stockholm: Love that ancient Nordic design feeling!

Stockholm: Met some famous Swedish actor dude .... Tomas Norstrom.

Stockholm: Yeah the Swedes used to fight in wars too! There goes that image of super peaceful and tolerant people!

Stockholm: Ice hockey - physical and tough sport

Been talking about it forever, and finally a chance for me to go to Sweden came along.

Gothenburg was cool, but lots of work at night admist seminars at day. Nice city and very windy. Seminar was really worth it the horizons of telco was expanded, and howthe technology we have beyond telco was really interesting!

Gothenburg: Fish Church

Gothenburg: Dinner with the worldwide colleagues

Gothenburg: Very nice skies, very nice port area.

Then 3 days later, I took an overnight bus to Stockholm, and wow it is a very beautiful place with lots of history. I always thought of Sweden as a place of vikings, and then fast forward we have the people who created Volvo, Ikea, Electrolux and Ericsson [great place to work in BTW ;)] ... but in reality the history in Sweden is more complex and more tied to European history than I ever thought.

Stockholm: One of the King Gustavs, and his war horse

Stockholm: Random chat with a hot dog vendor, who came from Iraq just 17 months ago; and his brother did vetenarian studies in Malaysia and is now in Canada.

In Stockholm, bunked in with Mattias and family, and it was really good to catch up again. And also see the typical Swedish family lifestyle instead of being couped up in a hotel. Matty has the cutest kids.

Stockholm: Swedish hotdogs @ the ice hockey stadium, cool!

Stockholm: With Matty, post game (his team SKK lost though).

Cool stuff most definitely in Sweden, but had to skip Birka the Viking Village as they are closed in fall and winter; just like how my underground sewer trip in Gothenburg was canceled for the same reasons.

Ah well! It just means I have to come back to this cool place in summer!!!

[Self] Miami #3

2009-10-05T01:13:00.002+08:00

Maybe it was Dwayne Wade's Miami Heat jersey my brother got for me (dumb kid still owes me a T300), or maybe my right knee tendon decided to behave a bit more today, but had flashes of dexterity and forced layups during the better (ahem ... younger) days. Felt good and the knee managed to last longer with less pain today.

Managed to win 4/7 games today - for the 3 games lost, two were close calls but the last game was quite disgraceful lost in clean sweep 7-0. Probably a bit of "old uncle" syndrom there....

[Work] tracert

2009-09-03T20:58:00.002+08:00

Tech talk during some troubleshoot / investigation.... It is something new learnt today though :)

Keeno: Dude i got a tech question u can help??
Tech Dude: shure
Keeno: 1) I am in E// office and hence in E// network
Keeno: 2) I am doing a tracert test to URL removed
Tech Dude: yup
Keeno: 3) What do these results mean?
Keeno: Tracing route to URL removed [ip removed]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 43 ms 2 ms 2 ms ip removed
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms ip removed
3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms ip removed
4 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms ip removed
5 136 ms 145 ms 138 ms ip removed
6 134 ms 135 ms 137 ms ip removed
7 136 ms 135 ms 140 ms URL removed [ip removed]
8 144 ms 141 ms 136 ms URL removed [ip removed]
9 139 ms 138 ms 137 ms URL removed [ip removed]
10 140 ms 141 ms 152 ms URL removed [ip removed]
11 138 ms 137 ms 139 ms URL removed [ip removed]
12 143 ms 318 ms 214 ms URL removed [ip removed]
13 289 ms 290 ms 288 ms ip removed
14 294 ms 286 ms 285 ms URL removed [ip removed]
15 342 ms 299 ms 292 ms URL removed [ip removed]
16 278 ms 281 ms 281 ms URL removed [ip removed]
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
Keeno: The question is what is happening btw hops 16 and 17
Keeno: coz it says time out, but on the front end, my web portal stuff is still loading...
Tech Dude: URL removed [ip removed] <--- This
Tech Dude: means that there is no reply from the next node
Keeno: if time out, i expect notihng to load at all
Keeno: but i still get page loads
Tech Dude: sometimes, the next node might disable its ICMP replies
Tech Dude: that's why you're not getting anything... but you still can get to the destination
Keeno: so nodes 17 to 28 disabled their replies
Tech Dude: nope
Tech Dude: only node 17
Keeno: and I can safely say I jumped 28 node?
Tech Dude: nope...
Keeno: Coz of node 17, the rest of nodes cannot reply properly?
Tech Dude: yup
Keeno: OK I am a dumbass, educate pls :)
Tech Dude: the chain is broken
Keeno: Ah
Tech Dude: even if 1 link is broken
Keeno: so u won't know if u did jump to the end at Node 17 or theoretically up to Node 30
Tech Dude: well, we are sure that it arrives at node 17 because you get the page loaded
Tech Dude: tracert uses ICMP
Tech Dude: which is different from the typical tcp/ip protocol used by http
Keeno: i mean it stll registers nodes, but does it mean page loads at node 17, or there could be more jumpts we are not aware of (eg: Node 30 could be the real node where the page load actually happens)
Tech Dude: yes...there might be more nodes
Keeno: aha OK
Keeno: so I know the MINUMUM, not the MAXIMUM (which is what I am trying to prove...)
Tech Dude: because tracert dies at #30 if there are no replies
Tech Dude: yup
Keeno: yup tracert is limtied to 30 only
Keeno: is there any other more reliable trace function then?
Keeno: something easy that bodoh punya PM can use?
Tech Dude: hmm... there are applications out there that can be downloaded
Tech Dude: but i've never tried any of em
Keeno: aiya malas and too much trouble :D
Tech Dude: hahaha
Keeno: OK so I will live with tracert then ... thx dude
Tech Dude: sure no probs
Keeno: oh a bit more Q
Keeno: which of the columns do I use to add up showing there is network latency??
Keeno: Eg:
Keeno: 43 ms 2 ms 2 ms ip removed
Keeno: is it 43, 2 or 2?
Tech Dude: those are the replies of 3 separate packets
Tech Dude: the first reply took 43 ms
Tech Dude: the second took 2ms
Tech Dude: the 3rd took 2ms
Tech Dude: a tracert command sends 3 packets for every stop
Tech Dude: it's thus safe to say that the MAXIMUM latency for that IP is 43ms
Tech Dude: this might help a lil...if you're into reading geek stuff - http://www.exit109.com/~jeremy/news/providers/traceroute.html
Keeno: OK so I will add all the items in the first column then
Tech Dude: just use one of the entries...
Tech Dude: it's easier
Tech Dude: i mean...
Tech Dude: tracert does not tell the whole story
Tech Dude: because tracert sends out ICMP
Tech Dude: which is heavy
Tech Dude: compared to HTTP
Tech Dude: http might take less time
Keeno: OK thx
Tech Dude: sure no probs

[Work] Oh By The Way ....

2009-09-02T18:28:00.003+08:00

User registration - provisioning for old users not working
Package purchases API not working
Confirm temporary option 2 for purchase and deduction logic
Security access for Hatem
Change consumption and resource type ID 2612 and 2613
Deploy reports
Revise MDT time
Cookies mgmt - Load Balancer fault or what to change?
Consumption of Platinum logic email
OnNet + OffNet for packages -- add this to EMM logic flow
Traffic impact projection
M3COM Code review
CDRs naming based on generation location (MSDP, EMM, Sub Manager)
Option 3b's FIFO md estimation
Operator manual
Migration to the current JawalNet structure
How does current version sync up with upcoming Platform 3.1?
Handover planning
Respond to the permutations and deduction scenarios

[Msia] Twits :D

2009-08-13T07:12:00.006+08:00

Malaysian twits - results as per 13Aug09, taken after doing a People Finder on Twitter.

While I admit I am an Ah Pek checking out what's great about Twitter, these guys below are 'leaders', with political secretaries and helpers that in theory can help them out. Some try hard to connect with users, some in fact want to ban and censor the web so badly its pathetic, while some go to ICT seminars and talk about the great information age without even knowing buying many many computers under the notion of MSC doesn't mean much without hubs of infectious creativity + knowhow.

But on the funside, let's see how they fared: It is quite easy to judge visually. Reverse alphabetical order of names were displayed to enforce a sense of fairness.

Mixed results

- Anwar and Najib got a long list. Didn't click to see if the people were legit or not.

- Lim Kit Siang had 1 entry only, but it was a legit link with the most followers.

- Samy Vellu didn't get anything! Does nobody love him anymore? Do remember the man is a national treasure!

- Mahathir didn't get much on Twitter, probably his blog is the outstanding one not his Twitter persona.

- Rais Yatim got bad results. Probably we should check what's so "in" about this "in"ternet....

[Self] Ikea@Riyadh

2009-08-13T05:42:00.007+08:00

A few weeks ago, some guys floated the idea of going to Ikea for lunch, which was a spinoff somewhere from Khurais Road at exit 16.

"Eh?? / Blah~ / Hrrrmphhh!!", I said and swat the idea with the (real) excuse that I didn't know how to get there, plus I was really sceptical about driving 30 mins out a for lunch (if I don't do it most of the time in KL, def not likely to do that in the 45C sun ); plus I usually avoid lunching in Ikea as its perpetually crowded.

But then today Test Plant 2 crashed for over 2 hours (Oracle cluster that was supposed to affect Test Plant 1 only in the end killed everything else), more crap happened, and a furry of strong exchanges with the customer occurred, and an impact analysis went to hell. So, with a "wtf let's just go out" attitude, I drove to Ikea with some chaps.

Now, the minute I stepped in after the rotating door, there was a really weird, real calming serenity that set in upon entering Ikea. Was it the harmless but universal cookie cutter feel that sparked a sense of hominess & familiarity, or just how damn good the Swedish are at artistic home decor?

Pic: Shawarma wrap (not the hot dog) - localization

I really don't know. But here for the first time ever, as I went thru the cafe menu and food, I just felt much happier and better.

Munching on a tortilla wrap, I talked to the guys, who felt a bit of the same too..... "Maybe it's the detachment", I said as I marveled at the tasty canteen interior & just-right-Goldilocks lighting, "You somehow get a feeling that you are totally not in KSA at all".

The chaps agreed with nods, and perhaps a follow up remark.

Pic: Familiar look, only its in Arabic

I think in many ways, it was a temporary oasis for a bunch of guys who were a bit homesick, and have been marooned too long, and too caught up with the desert terrain and unique customer headaches :)

[wtH] 嫦娥's Time Zone

2009-08-08T07:46:00.001+08:00

路遥万里@沙城，怀乡盈月望夜空

.....突来个古怪妙想：
嫦娥 Time Zone 该是根据 GMT+8 吧？
反在阿拉伯半夜时，早跟兔而们睡了吗？

PS: 老是过于沉入项目中，不知不觉 ~~~ 中秋快降临了
33天 .... 继续倒数中！

[wtH] Drifiting in K of SA !!

2009-07-30T16:21:00.005+08:00

Wed night, TAIW! I hop on a friend's car*.

He's going to drop me off somewhere in the city, and for the heck of it he gives me my first experience in drifitng.

Drift 1 is on the highway, in a short distance maybe 100-200m, we go from 0 to 100 (at least) and he drifts. It is INTOXICATING!!

Drift 2 is a similar one on a long stretch of road, and it feels bloody good too.

Then a more dangerous Drift 3 where he zig zags in and out of cars without the slightest effort and the car purrs like a satisfied, mellow lioness. My friends in another car behind us later tell us other cars screeched their brakes and were vey pissed off. Normally I'd empathize and be one of 'em folks cursing the 'young punks' but this time? Nah ... sorry, you suckers!!

This above is Drift 5 I think where it was done around a curve. Bloody hell it seems slow on the video, but when we came to the curve and drifted, it was DAMN EXHILIRATING! Swung to the right, the left, the right again with extreme vigour, and then twists and turns that I couldn't really figure out what the trajectory was, and were the heck we were swinging towards. It ended in seconds, and boy it felt long and great.

Now, I need to find more habibis with crazy drifting habits!

*Which I later on find out is a BMW 650 coupe, fitted with a 4.8-liter, 360-horsepower V-8 engine.

[Self] Carpoot! (Pun Intended)

2009-07-09T01:20:00.010+08:00

I know a certain friend will be laughing about this one, but here it goes!

Place: Putrajaya > Puchong > Section 3 > Home

Time: About 1 month ago, when I was still in Msia

Took the Hyundai Coupe out from the service centre on Tues, drove it to work on Wed. Had a late conf call, and sped back home around 2300hrs.

Now, somewhere around Putrajaya-Puchong, I detected a faint burning rubber smell. Checked the handbrake, it was down so no probo; then (I admit) I smirked a bit as I saw a car pumping out clouds of thick black exhaust fumes. "Poor fella", I thought as I whisked past the car, thinking he was the one emitting the burnt rubber smell.

I wound down my window to get rid of the smell, but thought it weird as I spiraled down a connecting loop that the burnt smell didn't seem to dissapate depsite the sheer amount of wind volume that was ventilating through the car.

"Whatever lah", said I as I hit hard on the pedal as the road straightened and hit 120km/h.... And I zipped past the Puchong toll and started to go towards the LDP stretch featuring the old Motorola building.

And then a van behind started to horn me. "Bloody bugger, what's your problem?" I cursed. Then, seconds later the car started to stall and slowed down to a sheer 60km/h. Weird, I floored the pedal - watched the RPM meter sprint up but the speedometer stayed the same. The van horned me a second time and I cursed him again "Gimme a break man, my engine's got a problem!".

And then, the burnt smell returned in stronger whiffs, and the van continued to horn me with greater urgency. I was at the peak of the Motorola flyover then.

Then came the "Oh shit, I'm the burning rubber smell" Revelation.

And the van, having felt he had done his job to warn me, went past me as the speedometer stalled at a pathetic 40km/h. A dude on a motorbike came to my side and started yelling "Lei ge cher, chow foh zhor!" (your car is on fire).

Well, panicking, I managed to steer the car into a road at the abandoned Panasonic factory. The rear left wheel was glowing with a glaring orange hue illuminating the dark road as it was as bright as a Jack O'Lantern.

Fearing the worst and not able to find water, Motorbike Dude (who stopped by) and me started to throw sand at the wheel to stop any flames from errupting. In reality it didn't really help, and in retrospect it was like 2 dudes in some cheap horror story where they sprinkle doses of holy water at the looming dark figure, but it simply does not stop the demon from coming to connect them to their doom.

Anyway, the car didn't explode, and it didn't burn either. And then the rear tire scarred by the heat, charred but not entirely burnt up (in fact it was still intact), finally gave way. A sickening, moaning wheeze lasted for a good 2 mins as the air oozed out reluctantly.

After all the drama, I dialed the Kurnia Insurance service that provided an towing excellent service (1st tow truck came in 20 mins but didn't cut it, and a 2nd one of the carrier type came from downtown in about 30 mins later).

After that, came several long and painful days of getting the coupe back to the damn workshop and I had to sink into the tasks of spareparts searching, badgering some useless bums from the Hyundai workshop to provide me an official explanation (still waiting for it), and getting very exhausted and pissed off during the entire process.

But yeah, weird and interesting experience.

[Self] MTP is so much less MTP

2009-07-01T01:32:00.003+08:00

Time flies, and I caught news of the 1st anniversary of Tim Russert's death. I'd tuned off from MTP since his sudden death and Tom Brokaw took over as temp host. Tom Brokaw covered it until the 2008 elections was over, but watching him was laborious at best.

I've tried to watch MTP (Meet The Press) again recently.

Now its chaired by a David Gregory but it is really boring. He tries, but it is a stark reminder that MTP is simply not MTP without Tim Russert. Tim Russert could really grill politicians with an intellect and vigour, and direct honesty that made politicians (and their press secretarys / PR consultants) stir uneasily with a straight question.

David Gregory tries but is a pale shadow. In fact, he had David Axelrod (Obama's senior advisor in the White House, also his Chief Strategist during the campaign trail) talk all over him. As I type, I can hear him interject another 2 more guests that came on - Lindsey Graham and Mitt Romney, but he lacks that authoritative politico halo that Tim Russert commanded. Dammit MTP is really so much less MTP these days...

[Work] Mind Games

2009-06-29T15:14:00.002+08:00

Stuck at customer site, being targeted for mind games it's quite interesting will tell the story someday...
In some sense doesn't really affect me coz partially i'm an asshole myself, and i've been brought up in racially topsy turvy msia :)

[Self] Boring Friday Weekend

2009-06-27T01:30:00.003+08:00

Just when the Friday weekend couldn't possibly get any more boring (or hot as per June weather)... the entire of Al-Hamrah compound suffered from a full blown power failure. I managed to confirm that via IM thru a few of my colleagues staying in the other wings & other units who were probably as bored as I was thus resorting to the Net to kill time.

Well fine, I thought, maybe the highlight of the day would be a terrorist attack on Al-Hamrah. It's been 6 years plus since the last bombing?

But no, no blasts or gunshots or screams 10 mins after that. So heck I called up a mate and we went out for dinner instead (Hummus + Zaitun Salad + Grilled Chicken).

[Work] Handholding the Client (literally)

2009-06-17T11:52:00.005+08:00

...... I could see that he appreciated my point and effort, and that was when my client counterpart reached out and ...... held my hand

And that's when I had to, in a split second -- repress the 30-odd years of cultural upbringing. It was hard, damn hard. If something like this happened in KL (or anywhere else in the world), I'd definitely recoil and yell "Oooi apa buat brudder?!"; but there in the client's office in Riyadh, I didn't.

In fact, I was oddly cool. There was a weird calm despite the dichotomy inside.
- On one end, my psychological and physiological being had to quickly come to terms with the local Saudi culture of expressing friendship within the brotherhood at lightspeed.
- On the other end, let me illustrate via this example from Prison Break (Season 1): Ever seen the parts where T-Bag would reverse-flip his pocket to a fresh inmate he fancied? Well, I felt like the freshie.

So back to my first time .... I felt time had slown down to a trickle. Our handholding lasted about 2 whole minutes plus plus, but it felt like an eternity. The closest I can get the reader to understand would be like this:

---- ---- Incident Begins ---- ----

1038am: Errr ... what the heck?!?!
1038am (parallel to "what the heck" feeling): Calm down, calm down its the Saudi custom.
1038am (a few seconds later): Its really "eeewwww", but on the plus side it means that I've managed to gain trust after the few weeks here.
1038am (more seconds later): It is still weirdly gross though....
1038am (more seconds later): Still gross. And weird.
1038am (more seconds later): Really, really weird. Weird experience indeed.
1038am (many more seconds later): If I pull away though, it'd be rude. I don't wanna be rude. Respect the local customs I say....
1038am (agitating seconds later): How long did we hold hands already? Oh wait, there's that MS clock on the bottom right of the screen.
1038am (seconds pass): Hey, its 1038... Did we start handholding at the start of 1038 or at the middle or end of 1038?
1038am (an eternity seems to have passed): I guess it must have been the start of 1038.
1039am (a revelation): Whoa!! It's been maybe 1 full minute already??
1039am (a new disturbing revelation, some moments later): Hey, is it hot in here?
1039am (the disturbing revelation unwinds): Someone's got sweaty palms ... which dude is it? I cannot check my own nor can I check his... crap!!
1039am (sweaty moments are forever): OK this is not cool man ... what to do???
1039am (panicky sweat seconds pass): I could pull out, but it's weird right? Can I? I don't wanna piss off the client counterpart ... dammit!
1039am (more panicky sweat seconds pass): Aha, well maybe if I just reposition my palm just a little bit via a bit of body movement to cover up this palm positioning effort? It could just work ...
1039am (time slows down dramatically): OK, I'm straightening up and moving my hand and elbow a bit ... easy does it ...
1039am (time suddenly speeds up again): Mission Success!! Ohmygosh the small pockets of air between our palms are allowing ventilation to gush through the previously sweaty bits!! Bloody hell its so refreshing!!
1040am (time decides to slow down again): Hey its 2 minutes plus dah! Apa cerita its really been a while ... What's the standard average of handholding btw dudes in KSA?
1040am (time is a blur but sometime during the period defined as 1040am, the client releases the hand): I'm freeeeeee!! Wow that's been a really long time paradox I experienced there.

---- ---- Incident Ends ---- ----

Since that episode, some friends have asked me have there been more incidences? I reply very humbly (with a slight whimper) ... 'yes". But let me declare too that we've always kept it professional, and never even came close to 1st base.

[Self] Babes & Swords

2009-06-15T22:19:00.005+08:00

After my first trip from Saudi, I was going through some DVDs in KL and came across Chanbara. The cover promised a kickass (double) sword-weilding babe in bikini plus a cowboy hat, roaming across the remnants of Japan killing zombies while looking for her lost sister.

Touching storyline right? Not to mention Chanbara was supposed to have some other companions too. 1 was a biker chick with a shotgun and 1 more was some chick with some weapon too (sorry -memory blurred out).

With all that juicy action, the deprived soul that I was should have soaked it all up right? Well no actually, I couldn't finish it despite having loaded the DVD 5 times separately.

The effects were so bad and the acting was grotatious that I've not managed to finish the simple 80~90 minute affair. I really couldn't continue on and stopped where Chanbara faces her sister gone evil and biker chick dies (I think, like I said - forget the memory blurred out).

Despite this, I do hope to finish Chanbara sometime in the future ... maybe attempt #10 should do the job.

And then, 2 weeks back from my second Saudi trip - I went to watch Blood. Cool poster I thought, a morbidly pissed off looking vampire chick with murderous cold eyes and an equally frosty blade to hack, slice and dice the vampires and monsters that dared stray into her violent path.....

Now, I was told it would be better as it starred that Korean girl from My Sassy Girl in it, and it after all had the credits from the people who did Hero + Crouching Tiger.

I really hoped it would restore my faith in the movies of the genre of "Babes with Swords". But no, Blood was just damn bad!!

The lighting was crappy, the effects were crappy, the American dialogue and American actors were crappy, the action was clumsy (and crappy), the storyline if it existed would even be lucky to be called crappy!! Blood was in fact far worse than Chanbara.

Chanbara was low budget and crappy, but it was honest and tried to do its best. But Blood obviously has money pumped into it and still came out (drum roll) ... CRAPPY!! I dozed off in the 15th minute, woke up30-40 mins later, dozed off again, and then staggered out of the cinema with my 2 other brothers. 3 guys and we couldn't stomach the (drum roll) ... CRAPPINESS !!!

"Gosh No!", you say ... "Does it mean all movies with babes & swords are just bad?"

Answer: Nope, there's a rare gem that will always stand out.

Partially coz Uma's in it, and yep Kill Bill is the lone standard of this genre that excels. The only other I can think that comes close would be Milla in the red dress killing zombies in Resident Evil 1 (but no sword so we have to sadly disqualify her).

[wtH] Skate & Drift, Habibi

2009-04-16T15:33:00.004+08:00

My jaw dropped when I saw these 2 clips.

The skating thing - I still cannot phanthom it. Freakin Amazing!! The Saudi guys really put our Mat Rempits to shame. C'mon UMNO Youth do something to upgrade their skills! We can't lose out jatuh muka la... pls start some campaign like "1RempitUp"or something (include a song too pls).

For the drifting shit ... wow I really wanna go see it. But its all hush hush. So now just have to to hope one of the local dudes to give me a call when they know where the next crazy drifting races are gonna be held. Fast & Furious 5 probably can't be held in Saudi (F&F needs scantily clad babes as part of the success formula), but they should feature some Saudi character with outtatheworld drifting skills.

[Self] Pondering About Rain

2009-04-10T20:13:00.002+08:00

Coming from Msia that rains quite frequently, I never really did think H2O falling out from the sky until reaching Riyadh.

In Msia, rain is relatively frequent and relatively heavy. A reinvigorated freshness hangs in the air especially after a heavy downpour. UNLESS its one of those light rains in a hot afternoon that only serves to release more heat into the air, resulting in a more humid effect, which results in a more stickier & smellier cram-like-hell epsiode on the LRT.

In Msia, rain is also the a great reminder that the Malaysian Smart Tunnel is actually dumb as hell (it closes down everytime there's rain resulting in a massive jam); rain is also the time when the LRT management people call up their PR reps to create writeups in anticipation of a LRT failure (especially the underground links).

Rain in countries blessed by 4 seasons, especially during winter (incl early spring + late autumn) are the nicest. I have particularly a great fondness for sniffing the crispiness that lingers in the air after a shower, and enjoy the simple pleasure of deep inhalations that have a nice chilly taste*.

*Although deeply inhaling in CQ thinking that the smog was actually mist and vapor was a major mistake.

But all those feelings are so much more distincitve in Riyadh. Rain is rare here, and for the times that it has rained, rain has actually a foul, putrid, smell. The best I can try to describe the smell of rain here is as below:
- Get a hairdryer and an old carpet (must be dirty, dusty lots).
- Select an area 1m x1m and blowdry it for a few hours. Take a sniff and remember that smell.
- Keep the area of the old carpet blowdried and hot, then quickly sprinkle a few drops of water (not pour, sprinkle).
- Now, in that split second where extreme dryness comes into contact water, you get this weird moment of smell where moisture is 'corrupted' by the smell of extreme dryness. Imagine via some CG effect of water droplets on a molecular level being enveloping by sand & dust from the atmospheric dryness ... and that poor molecule releases a vapour of protest in the form of that foul, putrid smell....

Pic: This is part of tree. There's so much sand that the rain washed it down and they settled in the leaves.

The only time this was different was last weekend where there was essential a storm Thursday night, followed by drizzles the entire Friday. For that weekend, yeah the air smelt great; but by Saturday it was gone. What remained were pools of stagnant water on roads, roadsides etc as there aren't really drains in Riyadh - mainly because you don't need drains in the middle of a dessert anyway.

Pics below: Stagnating pools of water that eventually took a few days to clear up (it's not blasting summer yet)

[Self] Hearts And Souls

2009-04-09T20:28:00.003+08:00

Am working on a Saudi weekend, and watching via cable TV this really old show starring the young Robert Downy Jr that has 4 spirits with him that sing "Walk Like A Man".

I think I last saw this show with Wee Yan 17years ago on VHS video tape, and its still a pretty good show up to now. I think the show is called "Hearts And Souls".

[Work] Crazy Italians :)

2009-04-01T07:08:00.005+08:00

Am working with a bunch of Italians, and there's some cool cultural gaps that can be sometimes funny.

For example: Italian curses sound really nice (make sure you put in the accent)
- Checazzo (Key-Kahz-Zo) !!
- Chepalle (Key-Pahl-Leh) !!
- Vafakuloh (Waa-Fah-Koo-Loh) !!

And a rather weird conversation happened in the project room earlier today, it was about the Italian team's dinner the night before, here goes:

Carlo: ....... Yes, the chicken there was better than MamaNoura's 1
Keen: Where is that?
Leandro: (Mentions same name I cannot remember)
Andrea: Yeso, that Leandro, he had a f*ck 2
Keen: (Turns around in surprise to Andrea) Huh? What?! And how do you know anyway that Leandro had a f*ck last night? 3
Andrea: It's just a f*ck .....

Now, let's put in some clarifications to make the reader understand and put things in perspective:
1 - MamaNoura is a nice restaurant in Riyadh. It serves the freshest and sweetest of made on demand juice; it also serves kebab, roasted chicken, humus, fresh bread etc. Everyone loves MamaNoura!
2 - F*ck as per Italian pronounciation wasn't the act of sexual intercourse. It was "fork". In Saudi, most restaurants provide plastic spoons and they don't use forks at all. I'm still puzzled about this one.
3 - Considering the total Male-Female segragation here, chances of an unmarried person doing anything with the opposite sex is like getting drenched by a thunderstorm in Riyadh. Plus I was thinking in my head ... did Andrea know about Leandro's "fork" coz he was the one jolly romping with Leandro?

Of course, when this was clarified further into the conversation, we all had a goodo laugho. What the fork indeed!

[wtH] Driving In Riyadh

2009-03-28T17:39:00.001+08:00

When you drive in KL, Msia, you bitch about the jams and nutcase drivers. You are constantly embroiled and it is amazing that people don't just errupt into a mass amok of road rage at the bottlenecks in Jln Ampang, Jln Sultan Ismail, Jln Tun Razak, SS2, LDP (heck everywhere lah with the crap infra we have these days)...

When you are in Bangkok, Thailand, you bitch about how much worse they are than Msian drivers. Personally I'd say 25% crazier.

When you are in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, you bitch in amazement at the flurry of bikes (well at least back in 2002) and the lack of any coherent organization of traffic. But somehow it works (imagine an ocean with schools of fish just twirling around but not smashing into each other*).
*not that often

When you are in China (all cities) ... hohoho .... you just don't get it as all sorts of vehicles go through red lights, go up into ramps and drive through the pedestrian areas. And if you are crossing a street, remember to pray as the green man just means you look out for traffic more vigorously as now you have to cross the street.

I thought I'd seen it all, but Riyadh traffic takes the cake and is the mother of all traffic craziness. There aren't major jams here. But when you drive, you drive in sheer terror of your life.

No bloody kidding. In just 5 days of driving, I have nearly got owned by a huge assed GMC 4 wheel drives twice, and I saw a guy nearly creamed by a car by just a few inches some weeks before.

Riyadh, as a desert is very spread out and you are forced to travel by car. Forget about walking there is no way that would work. You could try, but you'd probably die of dehydration before you reach the destination (well, if a Saudi car doesn't ram into you in the first place).

Being oil rich, there are many wide roads but the roads here don't have that well tarred gravel feel. In fact, the roads here are quite slippery maybe it is because of the composition of the roads or the sand that coats it permenantly.

And when you get onto the non-highway roads, they are usually wide too but they are riddled with ocassional holes, speed bumps that appear out of nowhere (you get into a mini flying "Dukes of Hazzard" moment). It is rare to find lanes defined by white stripes on the road, in the highways you may have cats eyes, and on the non-highway roads there are non.

As what you hear from people who have been in Saudi, cars are huge and damn cheap. Even after being here for 1 month and speaking to people about their cars (conversations eventually drift there or about work or about sand sports or shopping at Carrefour .... coz you don't have the luxury of talking about the latest movies in town - maybe it has to do with the fact there are no cinemas here).

Oh yeah back to the car prices - even after being here for a while, my jaw still drops when I hear that huge assed gas guzzling cars are sold at a dime. Eventually after the jaw bone goes numb, and when the jaw musces ache, I remember to nudge it back to position. And yes - Proton can go to hell.

When driving in Saudi, you have to practice 3 extremes of driving:
- Defensive driving 100%. It's like being a jet fighter in a dogfight where you have to angle 360 and move you head left and right nonstop to make sure no ghosts are trailing and no crazy missles are heading towards you.
- Faith. This usually happens at roundabouts where you just let go, and let your constant speed be the only constant, and let the Saudi drivers use that constant value to navigate around you. You have a moment of peace admist the danger. It's a bit like Star Wars 4 where Luke's letting The Force come to him before he unleashes the photon canons into the Death Star.
- Crazy Taxi. Tap into you inner Saudi driver, you know its in you, and drive like a maniac!!

What else can you do? It's like the desert folks one day woke up and found their camels were replaced by cars one day, and they just go around as if nothing changed. This translates to driving behavior such as:
- Making u turns everywhere, even when there are no roads, even when they are going against oncoming traffic (I've done that too - I'm becoming a Saudi driver)
- Driving into 1 single point of the road that houses about 6 converging different flows, and making a 70 degree (clockwise) turn then immediately making a 90 degree turn (anti clockwise)
- Skipping the roundabout by simply taking the car off the road, down into the desert sand, then going up a hump of sand, and cutting into the road and going across - instead of waiting for a while to go 12 o'clock at the roundabout
- Going to the roundabout, making a "to hell with incoming traffic" u turn to make a 360 degree turn, instead of going round the roundabout to make a 360 degree turn (think I'll be doing that someday to bring out the Saudi in me)
-More ... lots lots more

And unlike Msia where people beep and horn, then drive parallel to you to curse you, the people here take it as a given that everyone drives like a maniac. Everyone horns each other, steers wildly just in front of each other, cut into the lines and then cut off .. but its OK, coz it's not personal, it's simply cultural :)

[Self] Keith v Bill-O

2009-03-27T10:13:00.003+08:00

One of the things that are somewhat entertaining would be Countdown with Keith Olbermann which I get from video podcasts. I just don't get his obsession with Bill-O (Bill O'Reily).

And while Keith Olbermann (and Rachel Maddow) come from MSNBC which is all leftie programming;
I've access to Foxnews which is nothing but a newschannel for the right. So yeah Bill-O is a radical, but so is Keith Olbermann. And while both of their shows are entertaining, I wouldn't call either a news programme.

So my guess is that people choose the channels they already want to tune into based on their own biases and pre-suppositions.

Just like what I guess Msian media is like. The religious from the Northern states probably read Harakah religiously; the UMNOputera types read BH and Utusan and believe it; the middle professional urban types read The Star; the cinapeks read the Chinese papers; and the jaded and anti establishment types read Malaysiakini.

So in the end, the real issues and dialogue don't get thru, it just gets warped into the media it is reported in, in the kind of color that is churned out, and merely reinforces the existing bias.

One thing really weird about Fox I noticed though (after some weeks of channel surfing), I'm not sure what they have about blond white lady presenters - haven't really seen other ethnicities, nor brunnettes nor redheads.

[Self] Sandstormy Day

2009-03-10T21:14:00.004+08:00

Sandstorm struck late this morning just before lunchtime. 2 pics and some fella managed to catch it on video as a cloud swept in..... cool the whole atmosphere was filled with a brim dark orange hue, dusty like heck and visibility severely impaired ...

[Self] Saudi Notes 2

2009-03-07T04:24:00.013+08:00

Phototaking is still a haphazard, touch-n-explode thing here. But I've encountered some locals in a less contraversial place ie: restaurants in the "singles section".

Every time before I even dare take a snapshot, I gesture with the camera and hands to show "kuh-lick", and ask for permission at least twice, very loudy and slowly in English (although I am sure that the places with Saudis only [no Indian or Filipina workers] don't even understand the language at all).

Pic: Me a colleague Amr (system architect from Egypt) at a madly expensive Jap/French/Arab restaurant at Tahlia Street in downtown Riyadh. Whereby the food was cooked by a Filipino dude. Quite teruk jugak the taste but oh well ...

Pic: Thank goodness for Starbucks' existance in the great Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The local barista here was cool and really took pains to make sure I understood how to use the french-press and how to time the coffee making. But I did walk away dissapointed that the SB here does not sell KSA mugs, they had Lebanon, Kuwait, and Oman mugs but no KSA mugs!!! :(

Also, today I had camel meat for the first time ever. Camel meat's texture is essentially like beef, but tastes bland without the 'beefly' smell and taste. I don't think I'd ever eat it again; but I were ever presented a chance to do what Bear Sterns did with a camel carcass to get some fluids, yes I would engage in that grossful act too....

Pic: Larry and me at the "dirty shop" which serves a wicked hummus. This is also where the kebabs are great.

Pic: Die!!! Camel !!!!

Now, a story for the 3 pics below:

After attending a pre-production test for 5 hours, I had lunch at around 1530hrs. Not used to the road back so I stopped at random at a restaurant run only by Saudis. I managed to order food by pointing and sign language. And went to the 'eat-in' section. Only to find out that you sit down and eat in. Well, cool experience I think. Until the meal comes and I need to eat it.

Eating like the Saudis on the floor is an acrobatic feat. You sit cross legged and have to stoop over and get the rice, then you have to use the upper body muscles to sit up again as the hand scooping the rice swings into a semi circular motion such that the fingers + palm + rice + food goes into the mouth.

The first pic shows me in the correct stance. But I was finding Stance 1A hard to balance so I tried at least 2 other stances (as far as I can remember). So I changed to Stance 2 whereby I had my legs straightened out perpendicular to the food but it was really weird.

Now, imagine a dumb Msian guy tilting North > East > SouthWest (for counterbalance); then tilting North > (whoa!) West > NorthEast like a crazy drunkard 不倒翁 , you get the idea of what I was doing..... And then I evolved into Stance 1B whereby I sat crossed legged and sat perpendicular to the food, it it kindof worked out for the rest of the meal.

After makaning, I ask a waiter to take a pic for me (hand gestures), then I invite him to take a pic with me, then he tells the other workers to take pics with me, and the manager and some other workers all cram into the small eating area to take pics with me. Fun, but getting weird by now.

And then the camera battery dies and the frenzy cools off. As I go out of the exit by the backdoor (prayer time so they close down), the waiters excitedly gesture back to me to come again next time :)

[Self] Saudi Notes 1

2009-03-04T02:55:00.009+08:00

Enjoy them brands I found and bought!

Finally!! I have more permanent way to get Internet access, so here's a quick and dirty dump of some Saudi brands I managed to find.

Yeap, I know it ain't cool coz there's nothing about the society and weird pics of me doing weird stuff, but I've found myself in a place where taking pictures of a coffee stand is illegal, and it is mystical in the strangest conservative way ....

So rather than get myself onto Chop Chop Square less than 2 weeks being here, gotta be safe .... for now ;)

Pic: Pepper and spices ... origins of trade routes and wars.

Pic: Tea, pretty much also tied to Brits and colonialism.

Note: Now that I look back I realize I got spices and tea in my first trip to Carrefour, gosh how the ppl from ancient civilization must have yearned for it.

Pic: Aquafina Water (Pepsi Brand). Needed a lot of that when I first came over. Could not get use to the climate.

Pic: Yes, I have to get over my manly high horse, and admit that I have to use face cream and lotion. Coming from a humid place, you don't know what is a "DRY" climate until you've breathed the air and felt you skin slowly crackle dry. Unlike previous visits to dry places, I am not dropping in for a bit but rather staying for several weeks/months. Come to think of it, maybe I need some extra moisturizer and some facial scrub thinggy too. Would a night mask make sense? :D

Pic: 2 of 3 mobile operators here. My client is STC while the others are Mobily and Zain.

Pic: Mee Goreng!! :) And the nice kind, not the crap from home which is getting worse and worse with its smaller dimensions and pathetic douses of bumbu and chilli :(

Pic: Plenty of ermm ... virgins here .... BAD JOKE I cannot help it :P

[Self] Calligraphy 17Jan09

2009-01-21T23:09:00.010+08:00

Another small calligraphy display in Cempaka Buddhist Lodge. I was there on Saturday afternoon just taking a look wasn't that impressive. And as I was just leaving an old man (organizer I think) asked me to stay for the opening ceremony.

I didn't want to but he asked me to help him make up the numbers. OK, so a small favor for an old man in a temple then .... And then PJ Utara MP Tony Pua dropped by for a short officiation. I cringed thinking there goes 1 hour (have been stuck some ceremonies like this before and goodness dammit those politicians go on and on about everything except real issues).

But nope. The man gave a short one mainly to thank the artists and committee for organizing the event and talked about his appreciation for art ... in 5 minutes!! All in all, everything was done in less than 15 mins (inclusive short speeches by 2 older foggies and the ribbon cutting).

The man didn't even talk politics at all ... which seemed too good to be true, and too uncharacteristic of politicians. Could Tony Pua be employing a double to get these minor officiating work off his back? ;)

[wtH] Lord Of The Aman !!

2009-01-21T21:48:00.010+08:00

Spring cleaning time ...... and my brother found this really teruk brochure (aka junk mail) we received sometime in 2006. It was so bad he actually kept it for memories sake.

Introducing .... THE LORD OF THE AMAN !!!

What a way to advertise to sell off houses man. You have to simply admire Mah Sing management's devotion to the original LOTR though to have summoned a campaign such as this! The "coolest" is that they have taken pains to put in some cinapek faces over Legolas, Aragon and Gimli :D

Imagine the decision making process if you will ...
Marketing Guy: I want to be Aragon.
Head Honcho: Gon lei geh tou, ngoh gam leng chai, han ding hai Aragon la!! Sei Chai Pau!!
Marketing Guy: OK OK, gam si hai ... dai lou ...
QS Guy: Like that ahhhh ... I wanna be Legolas.
Marketing Guy: You pokai la, MCH ... I be la. U so yong sui, be Golem la !!
Head Honcho: Hahahahaha
Marketing Guy: Hahahahaha
QS Guy: Errr, hehe , hehe , hahahahaha
Driver: Then I be the short one la, can boss?
Head Honcho: Dun need to say also, see you so short already, sure be like that shorty la!!
ALL: Wahahahaha

Head Honco feels good about himself and the campaign being a pure success, and whips out a bottle of Remy Martin from his desk for the guys....

Now, the question unanswered is ..... if you do go to Aman, would you see a peaceful Hobbiton full of happy hobbits; or would it be instead full of some advanced breed of uruk-hai nasties prancing around instead?

[Self] Calligraphy Exhibition Jan 09

2009-01-12T10:35:00.009+08:00

Sunday afternoon was spent looking at some calligraphy pieces in the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall (which is actually in KL somewhere at the end of Chinatown).

Although I was dissapointed at the extremely small scale of the entire display and also the creativity (in the poetics and writing style), there were a few pieces worth capturing on the camera phone.

My fav was: 未受天磨非好汉, 不遭人忌是庸才。

A bad translation would be: If you haven't endured the challenges from The Heavens, you aren't a man; if you haven't aroused jealousy & ire from people, (that's because) you merely lack talent.

[Self] Sunday 04Jan2009

2009-01-04T19:06:00.003+08:00

Basketball session with some mates back from CHHS.

Unlike the past few sessions, this time:
- I lost every single half court game I played in
- Scored only 2 darn buckets
- Got rejected 1 time
- Got bitten accidently on the head by some tall fella I was marking when jostling for a loose ball (yeap, it was teeth digging into my scalp)
- Twisted my right ankle mid game, walked it off after 15 mins
- Played another game, and twisted the left ankle hard this time

But weirdly, it felt good. Sounds crazy but getting injured from Bball makes me feel alive :D

And discomfortingly alive I may add, the simultaneous injuries on both ankles makes walking a tad too much a reminder of me age and how I have become one of those old uncles who still insist on playing Bball.

[Self] China 2009

2008-12-15T17:02:00.010+08:00

Did my second tour of China. Quick thoughts:

- Northeast: The trip to NorthEast was worth it. Got deep freezed by piercing blasts of chilling wind, and saw some unique sights.

- ShenYang: Good for 2 days. The 2 historical sights were worth it (故宫 + 北陵). But the city itself was quite boring it lacked character as there was a lot of concrete but all were square or rectangular blocks in unison. Perhaps 1 or 2 city structures were different, but they seemed out of place admist the vast uninspiring concrete structures instead of being uniquely outstanding.

- DanDong: Has potential but is not properly marketed nor is the infra for tourism really developed. It's a key battleground in the Korean War, and it also is where the Eastern Great Wall originates. Had hoped to have more access to North Korean authentic food but nope it was somewhat a letdown. There's a Feng Huang Shan in the outskirts but I skipped it figuring they were not really prepared for winter tourism.

The Eastern Great Wall was 2 tough and dangerous climbs. 1st on the way up and down actually taking on the great wall. 2nd when you are at the end of the 1st climb, and need to go through a series of really dangerous steps that were hammered into the mountain walls (a fall would have definitely resulted in injury).

No recourse you had to either do the 2nd climb, or double back through the 1st climb. BUT hey, that's China for you, and that's part of the fun (as long as you don't die or cripple yourself) :D

- DaLian: At first glance it is like a Singapore in the making. There's a feeling in the city that says - we can become hyperefficient and have lots of rules but make life worth living in the next 10~20years! There are sections of the city that have a more historical feel to it, but after that it feels like more of a work in progress so it was hard to label.

But I have to say the underground malls are madly vast and a labyrinth that is hard to navigate. It's a place to shop like crazy. The nicer parts of DaLian I guess should be the docks and the seaside (which didn't have much activity as it was wintertime). I did really like the Tigers though, very majestic.

[Msia] Najip on Aljazeera

2008-12-01T22:27:00.004+08:00

Am watching Najip with Riz Khan on Aljazeera right now, and gosh he's either
- Totally unprepared for the interview (whichever aide was responsible should be fired)
- That uncharismatic (whichever aide didn't make him learn to be more so should be fired)

Couldn't really answer the questions; and pushed some issues aside with that so overused "let's study and discuss" tactic. I guess the locals have heard it so much that we simply shrug it off, but this is for an international audience for goodness sake! Also, at times I felt he struggled to articulate and move his thoughts to speech.

Not to say that Badawi's better .... and from what I recall - he's not.

Man, I miss The Doc. Strong willed fella, you may have disagreed with him on things, but he never lacked leadership.

[Self] China Plans .. So Far

2008-11-13T10:06:00.004+08:00

Unfortunately, not much time ... so the tentative plan would be:

ShangHai
The NorthEast: ShenYang > DaLian > DanDong (maybe, not likely)
ShangHai

What to do:
- See some friends in SH
- Look for historical places that are related to the origins of the Manchurian powers, and search very very hard for some of the battlesites.
- Look for some wooly underwear if the weather is too cold
- Look for the lesser known Great Wall portion on the far eastern side (DanDong .. not likely though)
- Take a dump in one of those yucky rudimentary toilets (I regret not doing it last year)
- Check out the DaLian babes
- Make a grey suit ~ the dull John Major type
- Norah Jones concert (if there is time)

[Self] Shanghai 2

2008-11-02T19:40:00.003+08:00

Going back to Shanghai again in Dec!

Thinking of a SH - DaLian- SH (maybe short 1 day outskirt) thing coz of the short time allocated this time round; or would a SH + nearby province route be better (AnHui, ZheJiang, JiangSu).

Another 4 weeks to think about it :D

[Self] Did It Finally!

2008-10-07T17:10:00.001+08:00

PMP ! :)

[wtH] Subservient Chicken

2008-09-30T22:28:00.004+08:00

I think it had to do with bumping into my old boss back in the days I used to do interactive, but I just suddenly had to check out if The Subservient Chicken was still online or not.

This IMHO is still one of the most original ideas in integrating technical capability (not high end, just focusing on the capability) and being able to put such a creative spin on it. Still stands out as one of the best interactive campaigns ever although it is perhaps close to 5 years old already.

http://www.subservientchicken.com/

[Self] Hear Me Gripe

2008-09-23T19:01:00.003+08:00

A good friend commented that he had not hear me gripe for a while. Been too busy for a while so all the griping was in my mind but not onto new media / paper. But here goes:

((&*@#@ELFMDSF !!!!!!!
)_(I)#IRJE@L
_{}":< ?>

OK! Now I feel much better!

[Msia] 2 More Hours

2008-09-15T21:54:00.005+08:00

It's about 2200hrs now, and another 2 more hours to 16Sept2008 which is "D-Day" for the so called mass defection of politicos from BN to Pakatan. I'm just gonna put down some fiction on what I imagine the players are up to right now ...

>>> FICTION ONLY OK <<<

Pak Lah:
There he sits in the Putrajaya HQ office. He glances out through a window, although he knows night has fallen and it is dark with a cold stilliness. But he finds the darkness a form of solemnity, it envelopes Putrajaya to match the emptiness he feels inside. He was the nice guy who tried to do things right but it just didn't seem to work out.

He feels another wave of self pittance and allows himself to soak in a few minutes of self doubt. Since the ISA fiasco and all that UMNO turmoil, there's been no end to the attacks on his good self. He only meant the best of intentions but how did it get so out of control?

He sighs and tries to focus on the paperwork on his desk, may as well continue to do some of the outstanding work after all. He picks up a pen to sign some documents, and make some footnotes on some document with the watermark "Sulit"; but before he does so, he stares out at the window again ...

Anwar Ibrahim:
Backstage at Stadium Kelana Jaya, the speeches of his surrogates echo beyond the stadium. The crowd roars in approval at every synonym of "change" the Pakatan reps can think of... It's not his turn to step out yet - no way, he can't let them see him yet, the anxiety and thirst to see him stand up on stage to make some declaration has to build itself up, the momentum is just starting.

But that's not the only reason why he is making them wait. "Dammit", he thinks but doesn't mutter, as he checks at his cellphone to make sure the "connection bar" is still at full, "Why haven't the runners called to confirm the defections yet". He wants to be able to declare the switch during his speaking slot if possible in just a few moments, despite him knowing he can play the media like the silly insignifcant fiddles they all are.

"Was there some last minute change?!". He worries and a frown forms across his face. But he notices some aides looking at him and he is conscious of the need to project optimism & that sense of charismatic leadership. He forces a chuckle and gives the aides a deflective explanation .. "Just a bit tired lah, brudda." and smiles. The aides are relieved and smile back, then they go about their business backstage.

Anwar clasps his hands together and exhales into them. He has rolled his dice, and he's played his last card. "Will they, or will they not?", he wonders deeply.

[Msia] No. 3

2008-09-13T00:22:00.003+08:00

Caught some disturbing news on state sanctioned national news.

Bad, very bad.

[Msia] Truly Asia ....

2008-09-12T19:34:00.005+08:00

Read about the many disturbing news of what's happened today, and then there came this TV ad about Msia and some golden celebration where a bunch of kids were singing some overcoated sugary song about Msia being "Truly Asia".

Gimme a break lah!

[Msia] How would this be reported

2008-08-28T16:58:00.004+08:00

I think I've beat the news cycle by a few hours - now just wondering how this incident would be spun later tonight during primetime news.

Around lunchtime, MCA building had a small crowd in the front. NTV7's camera crew was there and another station I think - it was to record some mini demo / declaration of some sort by somebody (presumably MCA or MCA sanctioned since it was done right at the front porch). Some fella in a suit was making a statement, whilst 2 other lackies were holding up badly made placards protesting something about how the Chinese community was part of Msia too.

Now, the message isn't the issue - but it was really done in such a makeshift and hasty manner, and so badly done. A few coffee tables were joined together, and someone took a marker pen and wrote something on 2 manila cardboards, and held it around; and some guy gave some statements - that was it.

I just felt it was just to exploit the news cycle either to add pressure to the BN's UMNO to sort of the issue of treating other minorities better, OR in the total exact opposite to create maximize an issue's coverage and thereby taking away some newstime away from Anwar's swearing in today.

But I wonder maybe it was done for both objectives? Having cake and eating it too - you have to love politicos for the slimeballs they are :)

Update 28Aug08,2030hrs:

- The guy in the suit was Wee Kia Siong from the Youth Wing

- It was apparently a 2 hour plus event, some other politicians were there to shout, wave, show face

- Judging by what TV2 Mandarin News showed, it was 3 manila cards not 2; and there was also an indoor politico-reporters conference

- BUT it still doesn't change my original line of thought - plus I think the MCA event was only shown on the Mandarin news - I switched around but the other channels did not seem to have shown it. So in addition to my original thoughts - it was perhaps specifically shown only on the Mandarin News to placate the cinapeks.

[Self] Conf Call

2008-08-26T20:16:00.002+08:00

Another 40 mins to a conf call - sitting & waiting .....

[Msia] News To Depress 20-21Aug08

2008-08-21T20:42:00.007+08:00

Depressing News: 20~21Aug08.

Parliament is leaking .... again. I have lost count as to how many times it has happened over the past few years.

Unfortunately, Uncle Samy has gone into stealth mode, and I guess he won't be climbing up ladders to fix buildings any more. Sigh! A great era is over!! Whoever shall we get to announce the next toll hikes BUT they surely will not be able to match the flair of Uncle Samy :(

Najip making some 'equal treatment' statement (From Malaysiakini):
"If you go to other places in the region, the Chinese had to change their names and couldn’t go to Chinese schools. But here, we let everyone practise their culture. The name Lee Chong Wei is still Lee Chong Wei. This is BN’s policy until today," he said at the ceremony to hand over a cheque for RM300,000 to the Beijing Olympics silver medalist.

Wow, makes me well proud to be Malaysian that a basic right such as defining one's own naming standards could be tossed into the political fray. Plus, poor Lee Chong Wei probably could not say anything against that racial-divisive-remark else he could kiss that RM 300,000 payout adios.

But thanks a lot Najip for the reminder - I shall never, never, never ever take the name "Chan Keen Soon" for granted ever again!

Dr. Koh vs Guan Eng
Interesting to see the 2nd debate. Dr. Koh was definitely the chap who had more finesse and was also obviously more prepared than Guan Eng. Guan Eng was still stuck in an opposition mentality if he and the rest cannot get out of that psychological state - they may as well hand over the reins of government to the BN next election.

I wonder why Guan Eng was not well prepared - perhaps a bit of cockiness and overconfidence? But I have a bit of newfound respect for Dr. Koh, he apparently isn't the absolute pushover I thought he was. Dr. Koh if you pronounce is slowly and delibrately, does have a twang that sounds menacing (think Dr. Eeeeeee-whellll).

Whatever it is all the best to Penang - long live Ghee Hiang "Tau Sar Pneagh"!

PUTRA LRT
Damn KJ Station didn't function at all on 20Aug08 around 0820hrs. Stood around like an idiot with the rest of the swelling crowd, and by 0840 nothing had changed. Don't know when it got 'fixed' decided to opt out for the day.

Heard it was the 2nd time in 1 month. For an automated mass transportation system where the tolerance of failure is usually ZERO, this is a national disgrace. There should be a class action suit launched against the idiots running Putra LRT.

Summary: Well hope you read it, know how teruk life can get, and you can smile a bit knowing you aren't that worse off than you originally thought. Now gimme a smile .... :)

[Self] The Avengers (Original!)

2008-08-16T15:35:00.009+08:00

Call it the curse of SG's shopping culture, but I was smiling happily when I plonked down a hundred plus SGD for 3 boxsets of The Avengers (the Steed + Mrs. Peel period).

FYI - I caught The Avengers in my high school years on Friday afternoons on TV3, and loved the wry, deadpan, weirdness of each episode.

Mrs. Emma Peel was a total hottie and she had gracefully kicked arse (being a redhead didn't hurt either); while Steed "set the standard for civility and refinement while killing enemies".

Where else could you get stories where:
- Cats are activated into mauling monsters with a simple radio trigger? (The Hidden Tiger)

- A nutjob directer, an actor and actress trying to reclaim their former glory plots a snuff film "The Death of Mrs. Peel"? (Epic)

- An army hides in an underground city ... waiting to take over Great Britain when the time is right? (The Living Dead)
- A department store in the middle of London was taken over by a bunch of terrorists who planted a nuclear bomb in the basement ~ that would detonate when somebody bought a washing machine? (Death At Bargain Prices)

As the boxset said .... "whimsical yet deadly serious". Couldn't agree more. I still need to find the other Emma Peel season boxsets though.

Additional ramblings:

- I did notice that Mrs. Peel seemed to wear a lot of leather in the 65 season, and later on the style drifted into a softer fabric (mostly jumpsuit) tone.

- The last revisionism in 1998 by Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, and Sean Connery was terrible. It just did not translate the essence of The Avengers properly onto the big screen - bad writing probably done it in, but I also suspect that like some great classics its greatness should be sealed forever in its time (eg: try doing a revisionist movie for Casablanca or My Fair Lady and it would be destined for failure).

- The Avengers was best defined by the Steed + Emma Peel years. I did not see the one before, and think the Tara King years lacked the dynamic and weird relationship tension btw Steed and Mrs. Peel.

[Msia] Full Refund

2008-08-09T23:04:00.003+08:00

An incompetent government - to the extent you can chart out their devolution since the 1980s, which in turn is hurting Msian society economically, culturally and intellectually.

A dysfunctional opposition - 3 of them still grappling with baby teeth probs; but 1 of them is surprisingly already an expert with knives and has mastered the art of backstabbing before knowing how to walk.

Fundamentalists from all walks of life who appear on TV, and in turn stroking the emotions of otherwise nice people into irrational angry nutcases into the streets.

Infrastructure that is certified ok to fail coz it is still under warranty. Given the way the gov sweep things under the carpet let's rename that stupid stretch of 1.7km worth of highway with a marketing spin....
Before: MRR2
Now: MRR v2.1! (can we ciplak the Yahoo! yodel as part of the rebranding)

And yes, a cheap assed transportation system that is so poorly maintained. Every time I think I cannot feel more pissed off with the LRT and KLRapid system - they managed to surprise me somehow with something new. Can we get these people to drill oil instead they keep on hitting new low ground there is obviously a skill-industry mismatch.

And if this were a movie, we just started 10 minutes into the starting. The acting & direction sucks, the popcorn already masuk angin, and some fella nearby cannot stop farting. Can I get a full refund?

[Self] Bella

2008-07-30T11:32:00.003+08:00

I've been listening to lesser known track on one of Jack Johnson's previous releases (cannot remember which one) which is beautiful. It is named "Bella", and lasts only about 1:30 minutes. 5 of song's only 7 lines are not English, so you use your imagination as to what the words could mean as the melody flows along.

Oi lienda
Bella che fa?
Bonita, bonita que tal?
But belle
Je ne comprends pas francais
So you´ll have to speak to me
Some other way

Yeah I know I could use bablefish to get it translated but some things are nice as they are and do not need to be perfected anymore! :)

[Msia] Anwar vs Shabery Debate

2008-07-16T00:15:00.003+08:00

Interesting stuff I managed to catch it on TV3 at 2300hrs - Siaran Tunggakan tell called it. It was refreshing to see an open debate where conflicting views were presented. But the government's rep Shabery was obviously disadvantaged in 3 key factors:

1- He wasn't well prepared
Which was obvious in the way he had several "pre-prepared" stories / lines that he threw in once in a while. I can recall some points which were obviously the results of some poorly organized roundtable prep session in Angkasapuri eg: Anwar & 1974, Petronas's contributions being the result of government support, critiques of Anwar when Anwar was in government. It just felt that the timing and contexts that he used these points were mostly "off".

2- He wasn't nimble enough
He threw some questions to Anwar, which were rather OK; but when the curveballs were thrown back to him either by Anwar or the panel members - Shabery just couldn't answer them properly most of the time, and went off tangent rather frequently - falling back on his pre-prepared texts.

3- Anwar is an entertainer
Yes Anwar is an opportunistic politico. But you cannot deny his entertainment value. Back as DPM he was known for his oratory skills and the press frequently gaggled at his sophisticated vocab (I know coz I actually subscribed to Utusan for a few years to beef up my BM). And tonight the entertainment value gap was clearly visible.

There are 2 other things noteworthy.
One - The old man on the panel was planted - cute touch there by the gov - devious desperation I feel. But the old man really could kutuk and was a tough fella. His question to Anwar was tough, and then his "question" to Shabery was a total giveaway for Shabery to whack Anwar.

Two - I was seriously distracted by Shabery's foaming. The more the guy talked, the more he foamed from the sides. I caught him using his tongue to tuck in the foam a few times! I have to admit I sometimes didn't even listen to what the guy was saying coz of that! Bloody hell, it was really so irritating I felt like wiping his mouth through the TV!!

Say what you may of Badawi - you have to admit the media has opened up a bit under him. Now if only we could get more politico talkshows and pundit-roundtable talks....

[Msia] Just plain .... weird

2008-07-03T20:01:00.004+08:00

So, like any Msian as of this evening and most likely tomorrow, I'm reading up about that big case involving a murdered Mongolian woman.

The Star had something on http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/7/3/nation/20080703193519&sec=nation, and Malaysiakini of course had more details (you can actually sense The Star trying to wriggle and put out more but they simply cannot).

But as I readup, I just find a few things that are just plain .... weird ....

1) What the hell is it with Malaysian politicians and anal sex?!
- From the oppo leader being accused of that, and now the DPM being said to have done it ~~ it's come full circle, or should I say end-to-end? (bun intended)

2) The physics of evidence hiding
- It's morbid, but wouldn't (in terms of the laws of physics) it be easier to get rid of evidence if its in 1 piece; rather than blow it apart into a gazillion pieces?
Eg: If I were to get rid of rubbish, I'd pack it up into a plastic bag; not load it with C4s and scatter it around a 10mile radius.

3) Not So Subtle TIPTOES
- This is for The Star. It's online text mentioned a story btw a "senior politician" and a Mongolian woman, not daring to even mention the DPM's name. But in a weirder twist if you click in the name Najip appears quite frequently.
- For The Star again .... in the past few weeks in relation to the Justice Chin revelation, it mentioned about a "Former Prime Minister". Now given that we've only had 5 PMs in Msia - 3 of which have passed on, 1 is serving, hrmmm it didn't take too long for most of us to figure that remaining 1 "Former PM" toughie out.

I was originally going to bitch about the crap LRT system again but this was more interesting.

[Self] 3 Residen

2008-06-30T23:26:00.010+08:00

It was a rather fast purchase motivated partially by cinapek profit mentality and also strongly influenced by a personal weakness for cool concepts.

The cinapek side - prices were expected to go up due to revisions and materials cost hikes lately. Crossed referenced that against other developers around town.

The conceptual weakness side - what can I say there is a TRANSFORMABLE door / unit thing going on* ;) ... And it is called 3 Residen coz it was supposed to celebrate Negara Properties' 33rd anniversary (short lived they were swallowed by Sime Darby), each block has a cool 3 sided triangular concept, and is built on 3.33 hectres of land. My unit is supposed to face Bukit Tabur (as of now limited future construction only bungalows allowed) so I hope it will be windy which I really like.

Of course, my cash flow is totally whacked now. But hell I've rolled the dice. Now I've got to figure how to make my place look nicer than this, or have more TRANSFORMABLE parts :D

*A living room can transform into a small study / makeshift bedroom.

[Self] RIP George Carlin

2008-06-23T23:47:00.003+08:00

Another great star - George Carlin has passed away, just after Tim Russert passed on a week ago :(

Feels like one of those things you need to get used to as you age ....

RIP George Carlin, you were a comedy genius, and I'll need to get the two Bill & Ted movies sometime soon....

[Self] RIP - Tim Russert

2008-06-15T22:41:00.003+08:00

I first came across Tim Russert back when I started working & finally had some money to subscribe to satelite TV. Being a political junkie, I was blown away by his toughness in grilling guests on Meet The Press.

And over the years, I became a loyal viewer. There was a lot of cool stuff - baiting, catch & reeling. As much as his guests would like to evade the question, he usually caught them with the cold hard facts.

Last week, I got the podcast (video version) where he hosted a long moderation session with his "Dream Political Team". And just now I was flipping around and thinking of what would come on MTP later as I suddenly saw a snippet on CNBC that said - Tim Russert (1950-2008).

Checked that online, and found out Tim Russert had passed away. It will be really hard finding someone who can grill politicos the way he does. The closest to that was the old chap from BBC's Hardtalk who seemed to have passed the baton so its kindof tame now.

Anyway, RIP Tim Russert.

[wtH] Finally ! Game Over !!

2008-06-15T17:15:00.003+08:00

他妈的! 打了好几天...... (虽然历史程序完全不对劲) 终于利用了魏延大将打败了孙坚集团一伙！

[Self] Basket Talking

2008-06-13T17:01:00.005+08:00

I love BBall, and even the monotone in me gets emotional when I realize with age comes diminshing abilities to rebound or drive to the hoop; or when I shoot exceptional well one day, and then exceptional shitty the next.

It is NBA Finals time again. And yes I am still bewildered (and in denial) at how can a crummy Euro football tournament esclipse the NBA Finals - but this is not the topic today.

I do however have a bone to pick with the NBA and the media. As of today, it is Celtics 3 - Lakers 1. And every article or commentary keeps on rehashing about how the 2 clubs have some outstanding history of rivalry in the NBA since forevermore.

In sports - rivalries is synonymous to chest thumping, trash talk, testosteronish male bonding, and of course high TV ratings. Back in the golden age of MJ & the Bulls, it was them vs the Pistons, and later on the Knicks (and later on arguably the Jazz). Now ... that was a tradition of hostility, extreme competitiveness leading to "in your face dunks", kneeing, hard fouls.

BUT the Celtics and Lakers of 2008 are nothing like the Celtics and Lakers of the 1980s! Those 2 teams did have a history, but the current batch was basically just established after the trades earlier this year. Most of the key folks (aside from Pierce and Bryant et el) were in the clubs as a result of trades made!! It's just so much hype on the NBA's side to spruce up ratings following the many years of rating slumps partially due to the Spurs dominance and publicity lackluster in a way.

And I still say Suns next year! What Steve Kerr should do is just let Shaq sit on the bench and slowly fade away.

[Msia] Sexy School Uniforms

2008-05-22T23:14:00.007+08:00

In some countries, summer is known as the "silly season". Since we folks in equatorial Msia have summer all year round, I guess we are blessed with the bestest of silliness full time & full blown.

Now, since the 08March08 election results, let's fast forward a bit to today:
- MIC's Uncle Samy has gone into some corner hiding (and we do miss his antics although toll hikes seem to have not occurred for a while....)
- UMNO is facing some crisis of sorts (again)
- MCA leaders have been accused of doing mightly saucily naughtily thingilies

There's been a lack of silliness lately as our bureaucrats are somewhat occupied. So, we thank a Munirah Bahari for filling in the void, she declared that school uniforms in Msia are too sexy!

Disclaimer From Serious Research: I typed in "sexy school uniform" in Google Images and found this first image. I know I've left the education system for many years, but I could have sworn this is not what the Msian school kids are wearing these days.

Now this sounds trivial, but Munirah Bahari must have done some serious number crunching to establish some linkage. So sexy school uniforms lead to social ills, which in turn leads to mass moral decay in holy Msian society, which blah blah blahs, and in return yadda yadda yaddas .... and when you square root that, and apply some alpha factorial coefficient - the result is the destruction of Msia and everything else good on earth!!

I say burn those sexy school uniforms!! BURN and get them out of our superficially purist society!!! But uh, what do the kids wear after that la?

[Self] Bad Pics May 2008

2008-05-17T21:22:00.008+08:00

Some random pics taken - can't get the full effects I hoped maybe it is finally time to talk myself into a DSLR ...

A whole bunch of kerenggas swarming around, and there was the moon being exemplary bright on an early evening.

Been darn humid & hot.

[Self] I Shudda Gone See KT Tunstall

2008-05-12T23:49:00.004+08:00

... sometime in late March or early April 2008 when she was in SG. Listening to some of her songs again, I think she would've been kickass in person. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

[Self] Overspending

2008-05-11T22:31:00.003+08:00

Every time I step out of a bookstore, I lament that there's a lot of stuff I haven't even finished yet. As fast as I try to finish em, I have developed this horrible habit of buying new titles when I am not done with the old ones.

So, I shall weakly attempt to vow not to buy anymore new ones* until I have at least completed 75% of the below:
- PMP Exam Guide
- PMI Magazines (about 6 months worth)
- China History Comics x 5 (Song Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Historical Figures from Ancient China, Ming Dynasty's 李志成 , and the Revolutionary Period)
- 封神演义
- New Malaysian Essays
- Some book by Henry Porter
- Some collection of books by Ian Rankin
- Some book on taking better pics
- How the 3rd Reich Lost
- Some book on WW1
- The full set of all HHGTTG books (Read it many years ago when the British Council had a properly run library but not anymore. Anyway I finally bought it so I need to read it)
- Book 3 of The Furies

* Erm, I still need to find book 1&2 of The Furies series. I bought book 3 today so I can bend the rules based on a lame technicality here...

[Self] Ramblings on History Lessons

2008-05-02T20:15:00.005+08:00

Been shelled up past week taking in huge doses of Ancient China history. Finished the last disc for the RO3K lecture series, and then something about the foundings of the Han Dynasty (Liu Bang vs Xiang Hu, plus a whole of other issues too), and also stopped at the how Han Wu Ti ascended to the throne despite being no. 10 in line. These were history lessons and perspectives by some Chinese lecturers.

Also, just in the processof downloading the latest episode of of the Napoleon 101 Podcast, and I remember I still haven't done any reading about Talleyrand, Metternich, nor Fouche despite wanting to late last year. The podcast is done by a cool guy who is a retired teacher.

But one very interesting thing - when the (mainland) Chinese lecture, they at least are more devoted into the multiple aspects of what could have actually transpired and why. The Westerners still tend to have their opinions tempered by a weil of political correctness which makes it less interesting, more bland and less based on reality.

Now .... it is time for less of history, and time to catch up on The West Wing Season 5 ...

[Msia] Space

2008-04-15T14:00:00.002+08:00

Read from somewhere that the Msian "Space Program" is still to go on although we have already sent an "astronaut" aka space tourist as an event to be ticked off from the Malaysia Boleh checklist.

It is a total waste of money - what is the logic behind sending another person into space to perhaps make kopi tarik this time? I'd rather propose the following cheaper alternatives to substitute the Msian "Space Program" instead:
- Download Google Earth (which deceptively has a Google Space component too).
- Buy either Star Trek (original series) or Battlestar Galactica - it'll give the cadet(s) an idea of how vast and diverse space is; plus all the interstellar conflicts that go along with it.
- Take the lifts up to the Twin Tower's top floor.

The only exception that I can think can apply is that if we substitute the 2nd space cadet for some useless politician*. However, we blast the politico into space, let him/her take some pics, do a video conf call, wave the flag, and yes we'll do a kopi tarik experiment; but after that, we'll switch off the video conferencing facilities and that'll be the end of that.... who ever mentioned about a return trip anyway? ;)

* there are too many to choose from - we'd have to do a lottery

[Self] Consultant Case Study

2008-04-07T00:01:00.006+08:00

The Issue: Played basketball on Saturday morning.

The Process: Played 6 half court games. Barely 45 mins of real game time.

The Result: Lost 3 Games, Won 3 Games. A "0.5" Result.

The REAL Result: See the pic below. Used it for the first time, and realized how much value it brings.

[wtH] Bad Shows - Can I Have 4 Refunds?

2008-03-24T00:58:00.004+08:00

An unlucky streak recently - went thru several bad shows that were really crap. I knew I should have gotten WWE's Royal Rumble instead there was probably more storylines and believable acting in it.

Year Of The Dog -- Molly Shannon plays a middle aged woman who after her beagle dies, goes thru some kind of depression and ends up as some animal rights activist. If the intention of the show was to actually highlight the benefits of being vegan and bring to light the issue of "animal rights" - this show did a swell job to belittle them, and certifies that only cuckoos become vegetarians and/or believe that cruelty should not be applied to animals.

Balls Of Fury -- Great trailer, but trash movie. It goes to show that Maggie Q still has absolutely no acting talent, and Hollywood actors are like politicians - they all have a price and willingly get into cheap theatrics.

All The King's Men -- If they couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again, neither could a somewhat "solid" cast of Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Jude Law who couldn't much to mend a terribly boring movie.

No Reservations -- Katherine Z. Jones, Aaron Eckhart - expect instead an undercooked storyline with overcooked dramatics that has nothing to do with romance. If you are looking for lots of sizzling - cooking & romance, kitchen humour then I think that TV series called Kitchen Confidential is much better (main star is that guy who used to be on Alias as a analyst / sidekick). There is 1 single redeeming point - "No Reservations" is a romance comedy produce still marginally better than that Growing Jane show by Kate Hudson.

Any other crap movies that the general public have to be warned of?

[Msia] Elections 08: T + 6

2008-03-14T08:58:00.003+08:00

Heard an interesting quote today - "When you're in a hole ... keep digging".

Msian politicians:
- BN yes keep on harking back on policies that the colonial masters invented, you have absolutely no zeal or a creative thought on how to make Msian society better; you should be attracting talent and reform not hoarding zombies!
- Oppo parties the clock is ticking, start learning how to dance you are making unimportant squabbles, if you have a limited bank account for mis-steps - use them wisely for some governance implementation issues that are genuine!

Msians:
- Monitor those on top closely always it doesn't matter which party is in charge of the administration it is always a matter of implementation. What are they implementing and how well?
- The country has to progress beyond race politicking, be pragmatic and realize class issues + economic competitiveness should be the 2 main drivers to upgrade Msia.

[Msia] Elections 08: T+2

2008-03-09T13:02:00.008+08:00

It is a fascinating time for Malaysian society. The way the opposition parties made gains in state and Parliamentary seats is to say the least - stunning. While the first shock has passed (that the BN did that badly), the after tremours have really yet to be felt. My own wonderings:

- It is weird (and this applies only in the Malaysian sense due to history) that the BN "lost" - it is truly a perception game. Getting the 2/3 majority is probably a rarity in other democratic countries. I suspect that getting the 2/3 majority will be hard to ever achieve again.
- There is not enough credit being given to the police and all parties (BN and opposition parties) that there were no riots. And Malaysia still functioned as a peaceful country the next day.
- Although there was a lack in the cohesion of the BN spin after the results were final. They seemed to want to attribute the losses to the dismal performance of the MCA and MIC. On the surface, it may seem right. However, one notes that UMNO which was supposed to carry the Malay vote had to also have had to perform badly else it would not have been that bad.
- How will the state governments that are formed under the opposition work? Realistically they only shared 1 temporary common goal during the campaigning period. But in the longer term, how do the fragmented and competing interests converge?
- While there could be some common ground for DAP and Keadilan to work on, how does PAS come into the picture? I cannot see this as being some reflexion point where a strong 2nd Opposition slowly emerges. More likely I feel is where West Coast politics are concerned - that Northern states will form a more "detached" identity from its Central + Southern brethren.
- I do wonder how will the opposition parties manage their respective wins. Now that they are not barking from the outside and will be forced to work from within - how will they really perform is probably how well they get elected / kicked out in the next election. As the saying goes - be careful for what you wish for ... you might just get it :)
- I can only imagine what is going on in the BN right now. Hot wok + ants = a lot of scrambling. I only wish this gives them plenty of fodder for reflection. Is 2-4 weeks enough time to know if Badawi survives or not?

If this recent election somehow releases new streams of sociall dynamism in Malaysian society -- be it from the opposition parties (via their new policies and experimentations at governance) or BN (in it's quest to remain relevant and reinvent itself properly this time), I can only pray that this somehow leads to the overall betterment of Malaysian society.

[Msia] Elections 08: T-1

2008-03-07T13:05:00.004+08:00

Flipped thru The Sun newspaper today, election fever really burning up. Some notes:
- Every other page had a BN ad. Except for 1 DAP ad somewhere at the end of the paper. I think the editor must have made a mistake and accidently published it there.
- MCA seems to be begging for votes to continue its relevancy. Had a pic of Ong Ka Ting.
- MIC ads quite aplenty too but they are doing a lot of hard selling. No pic of Uncle Samy - is his face considered a liability? (MCA after all didn't have a prob with printing the MCA President's face)
- UMNO ads - couldn't recall seeing any. Maybe I'll buy Utusan later.
- BN ads - a lot of hard selling also they need better copywriters too. I dunnow, but I feel some of the themes they are trying to put out are inferenced from US politics ... maybe some of the people in there watch stuff like CNN politics, Meet The Press, Tucker, Hardball, The MacLaughlin Group.

And took some taxi rides recently, the best info, analysis and punditry you get from the taxi drivers ... NOT from those smug, smarty-pants wannabes on TV with weird accents.

[Msia] Election 08: T-4

2008-03-05T00:28:00.003+08:00

Touched down earlier tonight, and then had a canai, not a prata*. Came home - channel surfed, saw some really professional MCA ad with a lame-o tagline (totally weak message and terrible positioning).

Then went out - and actually managed to go out a catch 15 mins worth of a ceramah. Interesting stuff the politicos are in a frenzy baying, yelping any kind of promise and retheoric they can come up with (truths, half-truths, close to falsehood "conventional wisdom" etc).

On my way back, my dad actually told me that a bridge linking the SS22 zone to the SS21 zone was recently under works over the past week or so. The foundation is there and they have been "ting-ting-tong-tong"ing every night.

Now, this bridge in current works was in fact a promise made by the MP several years ago replace a smelly underground pass. And now in the final days before the election, they are toiling away like mad to get it up. It is comicseque to say the least - I can imagine a scene where the MP hammering away like Wile. E. Coyote with some iron bars and a box of Acme screws.

Gosh this is cool stuff, I wish we had elections every 2 years instead!

* It's a Msian food vs SFE issue.
** Of course, there is always a risk that if the MP is not re-elected we'll be left with slabs of concrete on both sides of the expressway.

[Work] Garlic Bomb

2008-03-04T13:45:00.003+08:00

Had 1.5 loaves of garlic bread just now.

God I stinketh even I can't stand my own breath.

[Msia] Of Condoms, Dildos and Msian Politicians

2008-03-02T22:42:00.004+08:00

I hoped onto SBS #10 yesterday, and on the mobile TV there was some Msian news.

Election fever time even Channel 5 was carrying more Msian news then usual - Badawi was talking about some corridor (we've got so many of them lately but I am very dissapointed nowbody came out with any goofy government song yet - very unbecoming of our bureaucrats @ bawah tempurungs indeed!)

And then the next news flash came in and I saw some politicians enthusiastically waving .... a bunch of red condoms. I sat up straight with a bemused look thinking - "WTH? What kindof weird ass cheap retail campaigning is this?"

But nope, I was wrong - it wasn't a cheap tactic, nor was it somehow that Msian society enlightened overnight during my short stay in SG & embraced the need to promote reproductive education. It was just a terrible terrible design flaw gone awry - it was actually the DAP politicians waving some rocket toy / action figure.

Here - I managed to find this online somewhere:

Come to think of it, upon second thought - it actually looks like a red dildo....

[Work] Whack A Mole

2008-03-01T01:55:00.005+08:00

There used to be this whack a mole game in the Old Jusco (Taman Tun) on the 3rd floor. Slot in 50 cents I think (felt a hell lot of expensive then) and you'd have about 2-3 minutes to whack moles that randomly popped up.*

20 over years later, I find myself in the landofcrapfood (guess where?) whacking SDLC moles. Whack one, and another mole pops out. And I'm not playing 1 set, but 2 sets!

*Of course back then, I tried to figure out the logic or sequence of this randomness but couldn't. That is why I can only admire programmers but survive on "soft skills". In typical PM fashion even as a kid then, I focused on whacking a few, and assigned my brother to take care of the others. His charge out rate then? Innocent fun with his big bro ;)

[wtH] Sunset

2008-02-21T23:22:00.003+08:00

Sonova !!! Why did they trade Shaq in ?!

ARRRRGGGHHHHH !!!!!

There is no hope anymore, just no hope.

[Self] Persepolis

2008-02-17T23:16:00.007+08:00

Although SG is pretty much a shopping paradise (yeah yeah - yours truly has to ramble again about how SG is basically 1 huge shopping mall), one thing I have learnt to appreciate is its "liberal" approach to allowing film screenings with minimal sensorship.

Hence, I managed to come across Persepolis which I knew I would never get from my increasingly rigido-paranoido-multifacatedphobico country of origin. I had high expectations after reading it from MSNBC and it did not disappoint.

Persepolis centers around the life of a young Iranian girl growing up in Iran (and abroad for a while) from the time of the Shah's downfall to recent times. It is not preachy and just sets the historical condition of Iran "as is", and uses that to touchingly tell a very human story.

Top marks for art direction and even more so for originality. The fact that that it was done via a cartoon only made the whole film more effective. Not the conventional cartoon one is accustomed from Japan (anime), USA TV cartoons (TV series), or USA animated movies (the Walt Disney-Pixar, Dreamworks type).

Only serves to prove a debate I once had with a friend of mine that sometimes cartoons can be more real than real life movies. I think Persepolis is up against Ratatouille*for the Academy Awards this year - and I'd say Persepolis is much more groundbreaking anytime.

*For some reason, Ratatouille seems to have received critical acclaim by Hollywood critics, but I still find it falling short from Monsters.

[Work] Lunch is Dinner is Breakfast is Lunch

2008-02-14T23:14:00.003+08:00

Luckily a colleague of mine bought me lunch around 3pm-ish today. coz I managed to devour that as my dinner around 10pm just now.

[Self] 2 Test Results

2008-02-13T21:10:00.008+08:00

Did 2 "personality" tests.

If I were an Autobot
- I'd be Tracks. Weird I always thought myself of somewhere in between WheelJack and Grimlock.

If I were one of the Lost characters
- I'd be Ben. Now that was probably very accurate I'm such an evil thing.

[Work] Delivery Boy ala Professional Babysitter

2008-02-03T22:28:00.001+08:00

Gone past the point where the PM has any usefulness, and is being a nuisance asking for updates every few hours.

So here I am 2235hrs in office on a Sunday, watchdog that does babysitting & food delivery services; and sitting in my corner projecting an aura of moral support. And if I did manage to do that masseuse course in Wat Po, I'd also be massaging the project team FOC already.

If I ever need to change jobs, I know I would be the most in-demand professional services consultant for Dominos Pizza's Delivery on Friday and Saturday nights. Who else can do delivery in 30mins and then take on a babysitting project with total ease?

[Whoa!] Sales Ninja!! The Sequel!!

2008-02-02T11:56:00.001+08:00

It's been a long time since I last received spam from Hanzo the Sales Ninja. I thought the Sales Shoguns and Sales Sumarais wiped him out from the Feudal Sales Wars last year.

So imagine my surprise when I received mail that not only was Hanzo doing well, but has in fact managed to recruit more people into his army!! Some guy called Jeevan is now the spokes-sales-ninja for Hanzo. Well it is good to know the Ninjas are doing well!!

Now, the spam email below that I received is loooong. But worth a reading. After all, how many times do you get a cold call / cold mail from a Ninja?

-------------------- START --------------------
From: "Jeevan (Sales Ninja)" <salesworkshop@gmail.com> Add Mobile Alert
To: REMOVED
Subject: Your Competitors Are "Snatching" Your Ang Pows Everyday!
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 02:00:28 +0800

Chinese New Year is coming so I've got a quick question for you...
Since your competitors are snatching your Ang Pows {business} everyday.
Would you like to stop that from happening? Or better still...Would you like to "snatch" their Ang Pows???

But how? Well...

By using the {Greatest Selling Technique} ever created of course. But...The *secret* is - the technique is currently closely-guardedby the global multi-nationals!
... Have you ever wondered, what selling system does the Global Companies'sales team use to grow their business so huge, small-medium companieshave a tough time catching up?

These companies actually made the "discovery of the century" -- a breakthroughselling system that is so powerful they actually [force] their sales team to sign a non-disclosure to forbid them to share it to anyone outside their company...

But we have one brave sales trainer comes forward to break the silenceand tell the world about this amazing selling system.

More questions, are you currently:
- Facing tough competition from bigger players?- Find it harder to differentiate your product/service?
- Don’t have a strategic selling system?- Feeling powerless against tough objections?
- Unable to negotiate a better deal
– always discounting to get the deal?
Then, this 3 days sales workshop will work very well for you...

==> A short testimonial from a participant who attended this program:
"It was a fantastic program! It helped me prevent all those killer words thatwill kill my sale and stop my prospects from using 'dirty tricks' on me. Theprogram gave me a new mindset to overcome my negative thinking& helped me found a new direction. Thanks!"
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Come join us in Sales Ninja's public workshop coming March 2008 and you'llbe brought up to date and be prepared for 2008 with all the latest andmost powerful business-building secrets that are working in themarketplace right now. Over 600 people have attended this amazing workshop.

==> Video testimonial from our participant who attended our Dec 07 program:
Cyril Jossy Fernandez, General Manager Export, Malaysian Mosaics Bhd.For your knowledge, Malaysian Mosaics made RM 1.1 'B'illion in year 2007!Link: http://tinyurl.com/2rs4ks

Here are some of the things you will be learning at the phenomenal 3 full mind-provoking days == The Black Belt Sales Ninja workshop:
~~ You will discover the closely guarded mindset secrets of top sales performersthat are driving them to close more deals and earn crazily more moneythan anyone else!
~~ You will see the huge difference between the Cavemen selling modelVS the Sales Ninja selling model and why most small-medium companiesare *waiting to extinct* by still using their Cavemen selling model!(hope you are not one of them!)
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It is done for you.(this is the fastest and smartest way to build your own sales system!)

Note: This are the same dangerous sales weapons world class companiesuse designed to put you out of business!

~~ You will be exposed to virtually all kinds of objections sales professionalsface and be given secret weapons to kill them all using provenSales Ninja’s Objection Self Defense System! (These are Mega-Hot!)
~~ You will learn to recognize the most common (but very effective)negotiation strategies your prospects use on you and how to strategicallycounter them. Once you learn this, your prospects won’t be able toambush you anymore!
~~ And dozens of other most ruthless Sales strategies ever invented...What happens when these philosophies, strategies & tactics are embraced?

“I got to close 3 deals worth RM 10 Million within a week.And it all happened after I went to Sales Ninja's training!"-- Mike Wong, Customer Relationship Manager, RHB
And weeks after...

"Since I completed the Sales Ninja course and actively apply what I havelearnt, I have improved my sales bottom line and increased it by morethan 300% in just 3 months!"-- Moonshi Mohsenruddin, Founder & CEO, CommGate Inc

As you will see and hear at the workshop, these 77 amazing strategies~ individually or collectively ~ apply to ANY and EVERY business,small or large, old or new. Whether you are the C.E.O. of a good-sizedbusiness or a hard working person struggling to make the next sale,the strategies that will be shared at the workshop ARE FOR YOU.
Training Event: The Black Belt Sales Ninja Training Program Training Date: March 4 - 6 2008 Training Day: Tuesday - Thursday Training Duration: 3 Full Days Training Time: 9 am - 6.15 pm Training Place: PJ Hilton, PJ Training Fees: RM 2,588.00, early bird RM 2188 only! Training Seats: 9 left only Government Secret: HRDF SBL Scheme Claimable[Special]: Remember to ask for our special Ang Pows ok!

NOTE: We are so confident in the program that it comes with a 100% money back guarantee if you find the program not useful to yourcareer.

This program is conducted by Mr Hanzo Ng, Chief Trainer of The SalesNinja Group, Asia's #1 Unconventional Sales Training company. Hanzo holds the top sales record as a salesman and then proceed to winning the best manager of the year award when promoted. Currently an author, a consultant, a speaker, a writer and also an award winning entrepreneur. Hanzo speaks and trains thousands of business and sales professionals all across Asia annually.

A few kind words from our participants:
“Hanzo is the most influential trainer of all seminars I've ever attended!"-- Erica Thien, Sales Coordinator, Versatile Paper Boxes Sdn Bhd

And one more from the thousands...
“Hanzo has wide experience. His streets smart approach can relate toanyone and any situation. Sales Ninja Training has concise,direct-to-the-point, effective methods. It is definitely worth your money and time!”-- Nasharuddin M. Nash, General Manager, Mardec Bhd

Things To Do Right Now:
1) Call Jeevan at 603 - 7880 2121 (9am-6pm) (Mon-Friday) to obtain the complete program details.
2) Pray this email doesn't end up in your brutal competitor's inbox.
3) Prepare yourself for your first exposure to the selling system global companies use.

I look forward to talk to you immediately...
Unconventionally,Jeevan
Programme Consultant------------------------------:: The Sales Ninja GroupSales Ninja Training Sdn BhdSales Ninja Events Sdn BhdNexus Training & Consulting Sdn BhdAsia Sales Congress Sdn Bhd------------------------------(t) 603 - 7880 2121(f) 603 - 7880 1221
==> Transforming sales people into sales professionals - Unconventionally!
------------The Sales Ninja Group506, Block A, Kelana Business Centre,47301 PJ, Selangor, Malaysia.Phone: 603 - 7880 2121
For complete removal from our database (you will be off all publication lists from all of our websites) - Send a request to unsubsalesninja@gmail.com withthe subject line Unsubscribe
-------------------- END --------------------

I feel like I need to call Hanzo up and let him know I should charge him for this advertised posting I've just done for him. But maybe I'll just settle for some Sales Ninja Shurikens and we'll call it even.

[Msia] Elections '08

2008-01-31T22:26:00.001+08:00

There's been that trail of Iowa-New Hampshire - Michigan - Nevada - South Carolina - Florida, and Super Tuesday (I heard it as Tsunami Tuesday last time wonder why they changed it) is coming up. There's a lot of debate, spinning and mud slinging- and it's damn fun to watch politics in the US of A.

And yeah .... back home it's election time too, BUT unfortunately, we are reduced to choosing between:
a) Monkeys
b) Orange Utans

SIGH!!! .... Banana anyone?

[wtH] KOF 2007

2008-01-25T16:09:00.001+08:00

Just a few months before 2007 ended, I started playing KOF casually, and found I sucked tremendously in it!

Now, to my credit, I have tried to play it before ... ONE whole decade back then when it first came out ;) ..... when it was simply known as KOF. And before that, I did have serious NeoGeo sessions with my brother playing Fatal Fury and Fatal Fury 2. Fairly decent then using Mai and sucked using Andy Bogart (absent in KOF 07 what happened!?) but that was it.

And now, games are so bloody complex with all these weird arrow systems. Orang tua mana tahu buat such complex moves punya lah!!

斩影拳！！

[Whoa!] Shoot 'Em Up

2008-01-16T21:53:00.000+08:00

It's a movie to enjoy in guilt due to the absurd recklessness of ... well as the title says .. shoot 'em up.

Paul Giamatti was pretty good, I think he snuck in a line about sideways somewhere in the middle; and wowzers those crazy Americans and their 2nd Amendment!! (Although Clive Owen's character was a Brit)

[Whoa!] Jazz Styles

2008-01-15T23:40:00.000+08:00

Managed to catch snippets of Utah in action against Phoenix last week.

Although I'm rooting for Phoenix, man Jerry Sloan's style shows.

Not sure how, but the same gameplay that I enjoyed from Malone-Stockton-Hornacek kindof manifested somehow in Boozer and some of the younger players there. Too bad that Russian dude Kerilinko was out of action he's an amazing shotblocker.

And I just realized I've posted 2 entries about Jazz on the same night, albeit with very different meanings :)

[Msia] Jazz Selecta

2008-01-15T23:33:00.000+08:00

Was doing work from home at around 2315. Did a bit of radio surfing and came across a contemporary snazzy rendition of "I'm In Heaven" (think it was originally by Fred Astaire?).

Hey not bad I thought, "What's this radio station?" as the song ends and fades off.

And then that lousy jinggle of a "Trax FM" destroys the magic, but they make it up with some more good tunes. Well, at least they make an effort; but they were much better (at least I recall) when they were known as Radio 4 and even earlier The Blue Network.

[wtH] Naruto Deprived

2008-01-14T23:59:00.000+08:00

It's been 2 weeks and no new Naruto strips yet..... and worse still its the only manga I bother to follow these days.

Rasengan !!

Ooooi !!!

Hayaku !!!

[wtH] Stagnant

2008-01-10T15:47:00.000+08:00

Synonyms1:
brackish, dead, dirty, dormant, filthy, foul, idle, immobile, inactive, inert, lifeless, listless, passive, putrid, quiet, sluggish, stale, standing, static, stationary, still, unmoving

Synonyms2:
anesthetized, apathetic, asleep, boring, callous, cold, deadened, dull, flat, frigid, glassy, glazed, inert, insensitive, insipid, lukewarm, numb, numbed, paralyzed, senseless, spiritless, stagnant, stale, still, tasteless, torpid, unfeeling, unresponsive, vapid, wooden

Synonyms3:
accustomed, apathetic, blank, boring, callous, colorless, dead, depressed, empty, even, flat, heavy, impassible, inactive, indifferent, inert, insensible, jejune, languid, lifeless, listless, lumpy, monotonous, passionless, placid, quiet, regular, routine, slack, slow, sluggish, spiritless, stagnant, still, stolid, torpid, unexciting, unresponsive, unsympathetic, usual, vacuous

[Msia] Politicians on Facebook

2008-01-02T21:33:00.000+08:00

It's another 2 days to the Iowa caucus, and American politics is dazzling & confounding at the same time.

Anyway, back home - I did a quick search on facebook for the 4 main politicos I could think of. Here are the results as of 02Jan08.

Note: I do admit I first keyed in another politician's name to see if there were any proud and mighty Labis bits but nada.

1) Abdullah Badawi - no sign of the PM.

2) Ong Ka Ting - If that single entry is really the MCA Chief - he should fire his publicist. But at least he generated a BN profile somehow.

3) Samy Vellu - There's a Dato listed but doesn't seem to be good ol' Uncle Samy ...

4) Lim Kit Siang - now he was the only guy who had an actual complete profile!

[wtH] Giggles

2008-01-01T23:47:00.000+08:00

giggle, giggle, giggly-giggs ;)

Maybe the previous Chua will make a comeback (the one with a moustache and glasses) ... OR .... Yoda (Ah Ting)?? :D

[wtH] Vegan Confessions

2007-12-24T20:04:00.000+08:00

For those who may not know yet - I made this pseudo-religious attempt to become a full time vegan. Here are some horrid confessions:

- I relapse on average once a week. Yes I am weak!

- The greatest temptation I faced ever was during Lai's wedding (my cousin) whereby there was a huge stack of "siew yoke" looking sublime. I slurped back all the drool that was dripping out before a small stream of saliva flowed out of the door, took a deep breath, and took huge strides out of the main door.... Only to find one seduce-a-rama of a roasted swine right at the entrance!! Happy to say, I remained steadfast, righteous, holy, and celibate that day.

- When I ignore (pseudo) religious guidelines, and do sink my teeth into flesh, I relish the tenderness ~ the soft slightest hint of resistance, that eventually succumbs to my powerful jaws ... a slight tug as the meat tears up obediently, and the master revels in the sweet the juiciness of sinful meat*.

- The lines between "tofu" and "them corn bred, outback raised, proudly BBQ'ed prime ribs" are slowly blurring away.

- Having watched "Resident Evil 3" and "I am Legend" recently, and having whimpfully stayed true as a vegan in 2 Japanese restaurants in 2 days a row - something was just building inside me but I couldn't put my finger to it..... UNTIL I was passing by this place selling cheap salmon skin & salmon bones. And I nearly errupted into this frenzy borne of a deep carnal bloodlust to rip out the salmon pieces and devour them on the spot. Zombies .... I emphatize, I do understand how you feel ;)

* I still am referring to actual meat. No symbolism applied.

[Self] Historical devils in the details

2007-12-11T01:12:00.000+08:00

Been listening to contemporary intepretions of historical battles recently and boy-oh-boy do the historical "facts" (with historians' perspectives) take out the romanticism of epic battles.

Battle of Chi Bi
- It could have occured but not in the scale as mentioned in Romance of The 3 Kingdoms (RO3K). Instead of the 800,000 army raised by Cao Cao, it could have been just merely around 100,000~200,000 which was a mix of troops, cavalry (5,000) and Liu Biao's army that surrendered. Hence
- And what the heck! A lot of R03K tales which were mini-archlines in the Battle of Chi Bi supposedly did not happen at all! >_<
For example: Zhuge Liang's "loaning" the East Wind*, Jiang Gan getting tricked by Zhou Yu, Zhuge Liang using a boatfull of scarecrows to get arrows from Cao Cao. All great fables but just ... fables.

*The historian I listened to mentioned there was an actual change in wind direction but not due to Zhuge Liang's antics. BUT this is totally contradictory to this slab of stone I saw at Chibi itself - the Chibi museum had these fragments which were supposedly part of the alter which Zhuge Liang used to call forth the East Wind.

Waterloo
- Napoleon's surge to attack the 7th Coaltion Army first nearly worked. Due to a bungle, one of his generals did not decimate the Prussian army (The Frenchies defeated them but did not obliterate them). The Prussian army later regrouped and joined forces with Wellington's and became a key reason for his defeat.
- Wellington actually did not have much of an idea what the heck Napoleon was up to (supposedly). In fact Wellington attended a dance, and a cricket game several days before the great battle.

So the "real" details are interesting, sometimes they do shatter that element of valor in mighty tales, and sometimes they make you just ponder and scratch your head.