I might not be able to blog starting tomorrow as I will be in Shangri-La Komtar for a week's course. I was told that this course will stuff the participants with food and food and food and loads and loads of work, where the participants will have to work from 7am to 10pm... It is a management course and it is very intensive... I for one is not really looking forward for it... well.. if I mange to catch some time, I will blog about it..  

Chinese Proverb

"It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness."
...Chinese Proverb

Roof Decor! 

Antz in Car

I have notice since morning there are a couple of ants loitering over at my car dashboard… I was just curious where they come from and secondly, if my car has any food droppings that attracted them.  I could not recall I ate in the car lately.  Maybe the antz came from where I park my car, I kinda notice that there are ants at the tree that I park today… must be from there…

More Spidey Action

More Spidey Action

Spidey Action

There was a MBF Card promo at Gurney Plaza last weekend and there were loads of prizes to be won. For this particular stunt, 5 people were asked to do some SpiderMan action. The reward was a limited Edition SpiderMan Watch. To win the prize, the participants will have to loose some of their dignity and pride to perform inform of the crowd some of the spiderman action. They have to tumble on the floor, jump, squat, and then stick on the way, and finally strike a spidey pose. One old man Chicken out and there were only 4 participants. No one else dare to replace the old man. All 4 participants won the watches.

Gurney Plaza

G.Plaza

Urban Legend:Fried Baby Onions

There is this rumor that the Fried Baby Onions, that goes well with “Chee Chong Fun”, “Koey Teow Th’ng”, and other Chinese & Local hawker food, has been said to have plastic in them.  The legend says that the people who make these Fried Baby Onions in bulk add plastic straws into the boiling oil and when the baby onions are fried in them, the plastic will coat the onions and hence form an air tight and crunchy surface.  This is the ‘trick’ that they use to keep the Fried Baby Onions crunchy for hours. 

This rumor was so widespread that everywhere I go, I can hear people requesting not to include Friend Baby Onions in the hawker food that they order. 

True? No data to support this.  False? Also no data to support.

And so, it will remain as an Urban Legend. 

Chinese Junk vs European Vessels

An Animation to show the size of the Chinese Treasure Junk vs the European Vessels at its time….

Nampak Macam SuperCarrier Saje…

Chinese Treasure Junk

Radiance

Notice the Radiance around Mithi's Head.. wonder where it comes from... maybe Mithi has special powers?

Happy B'day 

PhotoFriday - Cool

This week’s photofriday noteworthy – Cool

My fav is Round Here..

Round Here
soholinda
Sabby
Wood | Stone
caitriona.net
Jeremy Wright

My Entry  - Sweet & Sour

Mystery at work

One of my boss has been MIA for a few days.  No one know where he is or what happen to him.  His manager doesn’t know and all the people under him also doesn’t know.  His phone is not on, and there is no Out Of Office setting done in his outlook.  He has mysteriously disappeared….. hymmm… wonder if he has been kidnap by aliens….

Mac Mod

I am still enjoying my mac mod... the only down side is that the system is running a little slower, but it's alrite...

House Ready!

I received a call from the house developer today that they have completed the house and they are ready to give me the keys and I am required to pay the remaining sum to the house. (this is when the bank release the remaining sum and the loan starts to service) the developer said that they have completed all the nessary paperwork and have submitted application for CF. the authorities have 2 weeks to give the CF. If they find any problem with the developers application this process could take a long time. Anyhow, when I receive this news I was estatic.

A few hours later, and after talking with one of my colleague, I was totally down. After delivering the keys, and obtain the final payment, the developer is no more under any obligation by law. It is up to the local authorities to give the CF. My colleague waited 1 year for his first appartment CF, and recently, he purchase a new townhouse and he waited for 3 months for the CF.

I guess I will have to pay the remaining sum and hope that the CF process goes smoothly.

Useless without CF

No CFs until houses fully completed: Ong - 26/04/04
Check Houses Are Ready Before Accepting CF Applications, Says Ong - 25/04/04

Dashboard 

Tesco Penang

Yeah... Tesco is coming to Penang. The building is almost complete and now they are hiring. Hope there are some interesting position available as ML is looking for a new job. The Open interview is located at Taman Bukit Dumbar, and we will try to look for it tomorrow. Hope there are some interesting position available. I remember Tesco as one of the cheapest(next to Asda) Grocery hypermart in UK. The Tesco Brand Bake Bean was only 7 pence a can. It is sold here a Ringgit something. They do make money on this. Even after the Pound - Ringgit Conversion, they still make a profit.

Going into KL 

Bon Ordori

There is the Bon Ordori Festival at Esplanade this weekend...

Best Mac Mod Yet

I have been a fan on the Mac OSX for quite some time.  This is mainly because it looks so much nicer, with glassy feel, 3D look and smooth round end shape.  This is by far much nicer than the regular boxy windows.  There has been a lot of mod in the market.  The one that has been around for a while is www.windowblinds.net , but for this software is not free, and if want to use free, there is a nagging window.  There are a few tool in the market that also help to mod the look of windows, but they are also not free.  I have tried a few of them, but after some time, I got bored.  Mainly because the skins for those softwares are not nicely done.  There are always gap somewhere either the font was not right, etc… and this deter me from using them for long. 

I learnt of this Flyakite mod from a series of blogs and found that this has been the best Mac Mod yet for Windows.  Not only it mod the look and feel, it even mod all the system applications.  From the about windows to display properties, and even all the system icons.  Here is a screenshot on how they look.

News Travel Fast

I only called a few people yesterday to invite for my wedding, and I was about to call the rest, when I called a few again today, it is like they all know about the wedding liau.. and all the details… news do travel fast…

Meeting in the Past

My colleague is at it again.  It just cracks me up… she was trying to book a conference meeting, and when she tried to do it on the web, she got an error message saying that the meeting was too early.  As usual, not know what to do next, she asked my another colleague and found out that the meeting date that she was trying to set was in the past.  That is why the error comes up… hehe.. setting meeting in the past…

Goreng Pisang

I just found out from my cubicle friend that the key ingredient to make the goreng pisang crisp is actually ENO. Apparently, by mixing Eno into the Goreng Pisang dough and fry it, the ingredient could keep the Goreng Pisang crisp over a period of time. She has tired it before and it is not just a roumer. Now, the question is "is it safe to fry Eno?"....hymmm....

Malaysia something something something

My colleague is at it again, asking funny question..

"Kew, AK ask me to present in this Malaysia Something something something forum, do you know what forum this is?"

I was like... eh... Malaysia something something something... there could be a million and one forum that starts with Malaysia... hehe.. it is like errr, what is the town name that is T something something something... it could be teluk intan, taiping, termeloh.. hehe...

Red Egg 

Midnight Oil

I only had an hour of sleep last night as I was up all night working with my Costa Rica boss over the phone on some risk assessment for the new product. I am a walking zombie now.. another hour to go, till this presentation is done, then I can go and have a good sleep... zzzz...

Shadowing Windows

This is an impressive add on to enhance the look and feel of windows. An application named Y's Shadow, not sure why it was named Y'z but the shadow that it creates makes the window looks more cool and a little 3D like. This little application also gives transparency effect to the menu bars, including any pop up menu, drop down menus and the Windows start menu. The transparency level can be set to your liking.

Mail to Blog Down Again!

My favourite feature is down again.. as usual... man... when will they ever get this right?

Mall in Az 

Climbing Equipment

I used to indulge into Rock Climbing.  I had my rope (Some American Brand), crab (lucky), blayer device (Riverso – Petzl), my harness (Petzl), my chalk bag (Jansport) and Chalks (Petzl).  I used them for like 10 times, and now they are neatly tucked away in the closet.  There are little passion for me to get back to this sport.  My muscles are shrinking… and my weight are growing by the week.  I could not hold my weight anymore with my hands.  It is also shameful to see some fat dude trying to climb the wall that may just collapse on top of him.  Shame is also the factor… as time goes, shyness grows as well.  I was bold last time, not caring what people would say, I would just climb and climb, try and try… I was much younger and lighter then.  However, I still have some attachment to my equipment.  These equipment who I trust to keep my life save, have etched itself into my heart.  This is why, after 3 long years, I have not climb, the equipment is still with me.  But not for long.  ML father just asked me if he could have the equipment as he would like to teach the Rescue 911 volunteers on how to abseil down from a hill.  Guess this would put the equipment to good use.  I don’t believe I would ever climb again, long gone the zest.. With an heavy heart, I agreed to ML father's proposal. I still have strong attachment to my equipments, I guess it is time to say goodbye. As nothing in this world last forever, and so, I have to just have to release my attachments.. My heart is still heavy... … 

Laksa Lim

Had a good night sleep last night after a long drive from Penang.  For B’fast we went to a shop close to bukit cina that sells Curry Mee, the Malaccans call it Laksa.  It is actually lemak style of curry.  This particular shop is called Laksa Lim and it is one of May Lin’s fav B’fast location.  Today, however the curry was not that Kaw and we seamily enjoyed the B’fast.  We also ordered “roti Kawin”, basically two piece of toasted Bengali bread, one side with Margerine and the other side with local made kaya, when both combined, “kawin”, served in pairs.  We took some photos of the Curry mee and roti… ML will post it in her blog later… time to go out for errand now…

Easy Drive

I was rather worried about the jam on the highway as it is a long holiday weekend for Png and many people would head south.  However, when we hit the highway, the road was clear.  Hardly any jam and the traffic was not heavy at all.  It was a pleasant drive to KL and then from KL to M’cca.  We manage to stop for Satay Kajang in KL before continuing out journey.  KL skyline was especially clear and as we were coming into KL the country landmark, KLCC was very clear and beautiful.  It just make me wish I have the time to take a few nice shots of KL skyline.  I must make a trip down to KL for some night shots of the city and putrajaya.  Am sure some of my friends in Png & KL is with me on this… well.. another plan goes into the book…

The strength of our mind

"Our minds are tumultuous because it is not strong enough. Hence, it is like a grass who always sways according to the winds."

Venerable Master Cheng Yen

Boss Belanja

Boss ask me to organize a lunch for the group as she is back for a few weeks. What I forgot to do is ask if this is she sponsoring the lunch or we are sponsoring ourselves.  Then in the car just now, she asked where we are going.  I have not planned at all where to go, I was initially hoping that she has somewhere in mind already.  She said “ Well Kew, you are the organizer, where are we going ?” I immediately replied.. eeemmm.. what is the budget boss? The she exclaim.. “the budget is up to you guys”, I was like oook uuuhh… I believe I have just imposed on here that she is to belanja… and se we decided to go to this new Chinese restaurant in Crystal Point called Jade Blossom.  A typical Chinese restaurant name.. We first ordered 4 dishes, then when they start to come one by one, the portion was so small that my boss ordered another dish.  We have clay pot toufu, assam fish (siakap), lemon chicken, boiled kang kung and the yam ring, the last dish.  The food was average only, and only the yam ring worth mentioning.  But we chat a lot and it was fun… Then the bill came, and it was RM11x.  ooo… quite expensive for 4 people…. The boss pick up the bill and asked for a receipt.  Then we headed back to office and when my colleague drop off our boss, my colleague said thanks for the lunch and the boss was just quiet only.. hehehe… ops again… so now, is the meal just now for everyone to pay or she is forking the bill… hymmm….. anyway, I had fun and now very full…

Royale Theme

I got to know about the WinXP Royale Theme (from CheeAun), a new WinXP theme that was suppose to be released with WinXP SP2, but it was somehow leaked out of Microsoft. The new theme looked nicer than the current boring Blue, Green & Luna Theme. It looks like a combination of the silver Luna theme and the Blue theme, with a touch of glass buttons look. This new theme has not much changes to it, it look quite a like of the current blue theme. But I do like it..

WinXP Royale Theme

Road Trip

Road Trip starts this evening... from Penang to M'cca... Will be taking ML's car this time. The only drawback of her car is that it does not have a CD player... and so, we will be at the mercy of the Radio DJ's to entertain us... hymmm... I think the next trip back to Tpg, I will have to find my CD to Car adapter, so that we can bring our Diskman along next time...

Going to Work Together! 

Baby Full Moon

This weekend will be filled with Baby photo taking. Ryan, will be fully one month old by this weekend, and the family will be celebrating it with a bash... Ryan's grandma will be busy with the cooking and everyone else will be busy giving Ryan the King's attention. Cant wait to get more shots of ryan... hopefully this time is much better.. Current photos is located at http://ryancheong.uni.cc, and they are not very sharp...

Amazing Race 5

Yeh… Amazing Race, my fav reality show is back… This time with more adrenalin pump action and fun filled characters… I am cheering for Charla & Mirna…

 

http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race5/

 

How to reduce Petrol Price

Interesting mail in my inbox this morning… may be another chain mail….

 

 

Apparently we are going to  hit close to Rm1.50  for a litre by next year. Want petrol prices to come down?  We need to take some intelligent, united action. If Petrol price increase  many items will start increase the price due to transportation and tol. So  we shall do something to stop it! Philip Hollsworth, offered this good idea.  This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy petrol on a certain  "day"campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil  companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to  "hurt ourselves" by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience  to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has  come up with a plan that can really work. Please read it and join  in!

 

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned  us to think that the cost of a litre is CHEAP at 89 / .95 cents, we need to  take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace not  sellers. With the price of petrol going up more each day, we  consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price  of petrol come down is if we hit someone in the pocket by not purchasing  their Petrol! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.

 

Here's the  idea:

For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY petrol from the THREE  BIG OIL COMPANY (which now are one ESSO, SHELL AND PROJET) If they are not  selling any petrol, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they  reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to  have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of ESSO, SHELL AND  PROJET petrol buyers. It's really simple to do!! Now, don't whimp out on me  at this point...keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach  millions of people!! I am sending this note to a; lot of people. If each of  you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300)... and those 300 send it  to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000) .. and so on, by the time the  message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over  THREE MILLION consumers! Again,all You have to do is send this to 10 people.  That's all. (and not buy at ESSO, SHELL AND PROJET) How long would all that  take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day  of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the  next 8 days!!! I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential,  did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to  you, please pass this message on.

 

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER  THEIR PRICES TO THE    80cents a LITRE RANGE.

 

It's easy to make this  happen. Just forward this email, and buy your petrol at Petronas, Caltex,  g.a.s. or Mobil,Gulf Outlets and drive by ESSO, SHELL AND PROJET  Stations.

Blogger Problems

Blogger.com is plague with problems lately, not sure
if it is only me or all other bloggers as well.

Photo Friday - Macro

Check these photos out.. truely amazing... Very much better than my submission... truely noteworthy...

PhotoFriday Noteworthy - Macro
Exposing Myself
john | orbit1
mi4ko
Bird Watcher
djn1
|:meewolfie:|

And this is my submission
Sweet & Sour

Far from the above photos..

Road Trip This Weekend

It is a long weekend for Penang State, thanks to our governor for celebrating his birthday and giving us a holiday Anyway, it is M'cca weekend for us and we will start our journey Friday right after work. I am expecting a jam, first on the bridge, as loads of people will be leaving to their homes in Prai and also like us, leaving the island for the weekend. Then, Juru Tol, usually, this tol is really efficient and have good traffic flow control, hardly a jam here. The next bottle neck is at Jelapang Tol, and finally, Entering into KL, the last few kilometer stretch. Then, after KL, the 3 Seremban Tol area always have heavy jam...Looking forward to the trip, but not the jam

Why Seat Belt is important

I was browsing through the video archive at WWW.flixvault.org and found this under the "shocking" folder and would like to share. This video shows how important it is to wear seatbelt, even for backseaters. In malaysia, it is not a requirement to wear seatbelt for people sitting at the backseat. But for some countries, it is in the law. For the US, the law differs by states. Nevertheless, have a look at this video... wear seat belt all the time, it will save lives...

File is 1.6meg huge...

Path to Liberation 

Early Morning Nuts Again

Again, got a 6am meeting, log in, and found out that the other person is out of office due to the 4^th of july long holiday weekend… man… I am going back to sleep now… huuuuaaaaahhhhh.. !!!!!

Waja is not Safe

After so much R&D with Lotus Technology & F1 Engineers, the Waja is still a Tin Milo. Even the Ford Fiesta performs better than Waja in a head on crash. I received this from a friend, and it just adds on the stigma that I have for proton cars. I hope the new Gen 2 performs better, in terms of safety. The other day, the Proton CEO was on tele and he said that what people can see, people will pay money for, and lots of it, what people cannot see, they wont pay. So, the places to cut cost lies at places that the eyes cannot see. When I heard that, I was like.. hym... Tin Milo... memang pun.. from top management he policy already like this... and then a week later, I receive a mail with this clip... memang Tin Milo...

Clip is 3.5 Meg huge..worth watching...



Proton Impian (waja) 1.6 ~ 9,995 pounds
Toyota Avensis ~ 14,595 pounds
Ford Fiesta ~ 8,495 pounds

Art of Living

"A Master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of Excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always seems to be doing both."--Anonymous

B'fast at McDonalds

I was over at McD Sunshine Square for B'fast yesterday morning. I was so surprise when I first walk in. Is this McD? Wow... nice B'fast setting..  

Birdy 

Bata it is

Finally, bought my shoe... a Bata... sub Rm60 shoe... comfy, and look ok. Sorry Anand... Budget this month is very tight.. will have to settle for a Bata.. Anyway, I also wanted to test out how good of a quality Bata is, other than the school shoe...

On the Nature of Hell

I received this through mail and through of sharing it...

The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so "profound" that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law: (gas cool when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following:

"First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave, therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.

Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:
1) If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2) If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over . . . So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, " . . . it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you," and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having an affair with her, then #2 above cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze over."

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY "A."

Buy Shoe

Today is the dateline to get a black shoe for photo session tomorrow.. I have been shopping around and have not decided on how much to spend on the shoe yet.  Am split between Hush Puppies and Bata… hehe.. will decide later today… have to get it today… or else… kepala kena pancung… I think I will get the Hush Puppies and be done with it…

Reduced Haze

I was driving down to KL last weekend after a series of rain started Thursday/Friday and the haze has been cleared significantly. Comparatively to the photo below, this is much healthier air...

Maxis Online

I went over to Maxis to get my latest bills printed and wanted to find out why my one week roaming was RM1.6K, unfortunately, the system was down, and they could not print my latest bill for me.  Then I enquire if I could check my bills online and the lady said yes.  I got back and manage to sign in.  I tried to sign in when I was in US, but could not, if I have done so, I would have known the cost and would not have let the bill went up so high.. I also wanted to change my current 238 plan to regular post paid plan as I no longer uses the phone that often.  The lady advice that the best time to change packages is a day after the billing date.  She said this way, one can maximized the month’s rebate, that will be given at the billing date.  I did not enquire more on this as I was pressing for time to get back to the office.  It is something interesting and I would like to understand more…

 

I am still depress and “kek sim” on the RM1.6K setback…

Haze

This was how hazy before the recent wet spell. I took this photo on my way to Kulim on the BKE (Butterworth - Kulim Expressway). It was June 23. After the nice weekend rain, the haze has cleared quite significantly..