Facebook.....

Eversince my last post in this blog somewhere end of Sept, 2008, I accidently came across FACEBOOK webpage. The very first account I viewed belongs to Eric Phang aka Heroes. I wasn't impressed in the first place due to unfamiliarity (most probably Eric has too many stuffs placed in!!! Sorry!). As I ploughed along, I discovered my liking and I started to create my account.

From liking to loving and now hooked up. I am amazed by its networking technology. Very powerful indeed and I really have to thank its creator, Mark Zuckerberg! But watch out because of it's nakedness in privacy...I mean comments you said can be seen by all your 'friends'.

I found my long lost buddy, Eleutherius Liew who is now based in S'pore! I made friends from people round the world! Tech brings down the world curtain!

So after 2 months of hovering at facebook, I'm back to blogging...charting my life history once again. So folks, my apology for MIA and may you continue to visit my blog and most of all enjoy reading it.

World's Shortest Essay

This is a story of a 16 year old boy from New Hampshire , England who won the World's shortest essay competition. He was awarded a scholarship at the University of Harvard for his imagination and
humour ...

Here's an example of absolute brilliance....Shortest Essay:
An English university creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing the following elements:

1) Religion 2) Royalty 3) Sex 4) Mystery
The prize-winner wrote:
'My God,' said the Queen, 'I'm pregnant. I wonder who the father is'.

Social security in Kuching

I haven't been reading Sarawak based newspaper for the past months due to super 'attraction' to local politics movement which I normally view online.

Just happened that i picked up today's Eastern Times and basically there are 2 groups of news making local headline: Local political scene, Robbery and road accidents. Let me just summarise the robbery cases reported:

COMMON CASE: House break-in (under the sun light or under the moon light who cares!!!), snatching
NEW SCENARIO: A group of friends having meal at Open Market was robbed by 3 guys at knife point!!! KNN, just imagine you are robbed (and you are not alone!!!) while having meal at the most open and frequented by people.

Just happened that a friend of mine today shared this recent news in Kuching that protection money is being demanded from a local pub and upon friendly gestures of the pub manager who offered free drinks to the gangster instead of money, the poor fellow was beaten up and landed in ICU. This has been headlined in local chinese newspaper.

Where is social security nowadays?

My darling used to say, 'Honey, who are you going to have drinks tonight?' 'Friends lah, of course!', I replied. 'Don't stay up too late yah, many bad guys nowadays.', she said. 'Aiya I'm with friends mah. Where got alone? Why worry when I'm not alone? Go to Open market eat beef noodle and drink soya bean only', I lamented.

I think I'm having second thoughts now whenever I want to go out nowadays especially at night. It's very sad because Kuching, once a peaceful city is now a dungeon of robbers and gangsters. BTW, I felt sick after reading all these negative news. No wonder my buddies migrate to overseas one by one.

Are our authorities doing enough or have the crime rate increased exponentially? Are the punishment severe enough in order to deter the convicts committing the same case again?

Psychological effect

If you are always lamented as 'STUPID', 'STUPID' and 'STUPID' for any mistake that you have done, you are actually going through the process of accepting the psychological effect that you are STUPID which in actual fact that none of us are born stupid unless you think you are.

Our country is going through the process of changing the country premier and he has been pressured to hand over his job earlier than planned. Everywhere he goes he would be asked whether he would hand over his job earlier so in the end he is actually psychologically effected to hand over the job earlier though he initially stick to his plan consistently. Poor fella.

Paul Potts at Britain's Got Talent

Must Watch, Truly truly fantastic......

Watch this link and watch the judges faces. This is a story about a guy, a guy like most of us, common, questioning his existences, measuring himself to others, never believing in his abilities or his worth. Then one day, his passion outgrew his fears as he stepped onto a stage, a stage that took him to a place beyond his self imposed prison. Watch the faces of the judges as this guy walks out on the stage. You can almost see what they're thinking as they pre-judge this guy based on his looks and the fact that he's a cell phone salesman. Maybe this guy stopped believing in what people told him for so many years and ultimately started listening to his passion .

http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html

Proof of global warming

you see you see.... ha, this is the proof :

bitTorrent

It is either sign of age catching up or what cuz after dozing off for 2 hours, here I am blogging cuz can't continue my sleep.

Anyway after checking my download, am glad cuz finally it is running at 40kB/s+. You just have to enable Encryption which can be done if you see a red or yellow triangle symbol at the bottom of the program page.

Got some latest movies Scorpion King 2 and Batman-Dark Knight being downloaded......thanks to aXXo for his kind contribution. Thanks to bitTorrent for the excellent P2P program. Gosh, if I have discovered this guy earlier, I would have saved a lot of money! A rough count of my movie DVD collection....almost 100. Average at RM8 for DVD = RM800 (or RM5k if original version). The only thing is I have yet burn the downloaded movies under DVD and I do hope it does have good sound track or else I will revert to the RM8 DVD cuz the sound effect is just as important for me apart from good picture quality.

Malaysia Today blocked! Order from Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC)

From Malaysia Kini news (check out Bahasa version for full FREE story)

This is surely worst then day light robbery.

The person who instructed that is insane.

The person who follow the instruction is 'gu gon'.

The person who follow this issue will say 'kanasai'.

To locate Malaysia-today.net, just ype 202.75.62.114 at the address bar of your web browser.

Foochow dialect crash course...

Capitol Hotel, KL

Went to KL recently for MII (Malaysia Insurance Institute) and stayed at Capitol Hotel.

Room No: 1807 (front facing: posterior site of Sungei Wang Plaza)
Price per night: RM240+ (deluxe room)
Location: behind Sungei Wang Plaza (KL golden triangle area)
Room facility: Standard
Cleaniness: Good
Comments: A nice hotel with very basic facility (cafe and wifi).
-ve: No swimming pool nor gym. Check-in hall could have been better designed with proper seating for guests. A bit cramp.
+ve: But a nice basic hotel if shopping is your aim. Low Yat, Pavillion, Starhill, Bukit Bintang, Sungei Wang are all within walking distance. A pity I didn't bring my camera for some scene shooting. Very cooling air-cond.

Accountability

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/7/13/lifefocus/1575681&sec=lifefocus

My mind of politic accountability has been spoken by above article which is a good read.

I personally think a politician should uphold the accountability as their priority in their work, in their capacity as RAKYAT representative.

I remembered I read a headline news in NZ whereby a minister's daughter has driven her mother's official ministry car for a night out and she was caught with 2 charges:

1) High level of alcohol;
2) Driving a minister official car

The minister was asked to explain why she allowed her daughter to use the official car, to the Parliment in the very next meeting.

Addiction

My addictions have been squash, pc games, console games just to name a few. But those have been the past or rather 'part time' addiction now.

My current addiction are web surfing and mobile phone.

(1) Laptop
Bugger, I have been out of laptop for 2 weeks and has been such a pain in the a##. I have my personal and official data which I carry with it everyday. When it was down with corrupted registry (don't ask how I got it, obviously some viruses), only I realised I have depended/relied too much on it. But is there any way that can make my work nor personal life as 'normal' without it? I can't. I spend at least 2 hrs per day in front of the computer screen.

The funny thing is human has invented computers to assist in their daily work or lifestyle. Read carefully, 'to assist' but for me is rather to live with it!!!!

(2) Mobile phone
I only started using mobile phone in 2002. Got it as my bday gift. Six yrs have passed. I can definitely live without it but it definitely makes my life a hell lot easier.

Technology makes our life easier but at the same time makes us less useful in some ways.

I used to be able to remember at least 100 phone nos. Probably, my dear Joe Sia can be my witness if he still can recall our memory challenge when we stayed in Miri back in 1990. But now, I can hardly recall up to 30 at one time while my mobile phone has 400+ nos of mine.

No 9 Blacksmith Road, Sibu

I was born at Hospital Sibu and lived on the First Floor, No 9 Blacksmith Road, Sibu for 13 years eversince my first day light.

(1) Lido Cinema - fire
So many happy and sad moments happened. I recalled the night (I was in late primary school) when Lido Cinema was burnt. Awakened by fire burning screaming by neighbours, I went to our room window and saw this huge fiery fire, seemed like englutting the terrace shops adjacent to it. It was 2-4am in the morning and my youngest uncle, Joe (who came back from Canada for holiday) had just tucked comfortably in bed was one of the very first among our family members to alert everybody. Two amazing things observed. I ran with my dad to Lido to assess the situation and only to be scared off by the explosion of the boiler on the cinema roof. That just signalled to us to move out our belonging as quickly and as much as possible. The only thing for me were my books. Ran home and packed all my books, as many as I could carry. My dad was busy grabbing all documents (birth cert etc). My two younger brothers were too young to assist. Hurrying out from our home with those stuffs, we figured there could be time to grab clothing since there were another block of shops un-torched by the fire!!! So off we went again and this time down with clothing. I think we repeated until we almost moved everything possible except for furnitures. Our floor occupied not just my family but also our grandparents, Uncle Kuok and family and our youngest aunty, Penny. There were this amazing energy to move all our stuffs out without feeling tired at all. I guess the anxiety produced extra energy for us to be superhuman because when the fire was gone, the pile of stuffs were all scattered on the Blacksmith Road and we were not the only families having that. The atmosphere was more like a garage sale for Blacksmith Road occupants!!!The second observation: there was this woman dressed oddly who suddenly appeared and kneeled down and waved her both hands in the air waving and chanted some unknown words. Pretty scary ya! That time the fire at Lido was at the peak. Co-incidently or not, the fire was under controlled after the lady chating. None of us from Blacksmith Road knew who this lady was.

(2) Dream
When we all moved out from No 9, none of us (among cousins) actually shared that in fact we all have had the same dream REPEATEDLY when we were in our childhood. The truth was only revealed when we (myself, Simon, Jeff, Shirley, Sophia, Emily) had a gathering few years later at Uncle Kuok residence at Rejang Park after moving out from No 9. I started by saying I used to have dreams of (a) jumping down from No 9 balcony, sometimes landed on the road or car roof; (b) jumping from balcony to balcony (beighbour); (c) climbing down from the balcony beam. I could see my cousins jaw dropped when I said that because their delayed response were: "I also have those dreams EXACTLY like you described"

Any logical explanation for the lady appearance and her act and also our SAME childhood dreams?

MOTHER'S EMPTY CHAIR

A woman's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her sick mother. When the minister arrived, he found the woman lying in bed with her head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside her bed. The minister assumed that the woman had been informed of his visit. 'I guess you were expecting me, he said.' No, who are you?' said the mother. The minister told her his name and then remarked, 'I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up.' 'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden woman. 'Would you mind closing the door?' Puzzled, the minister shut the door. 'I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,' said the woman. 'But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head.' I abandoned any attempt at prayer,' the woman continued, 'until one day four years ago; my best friend said to me, 'Betty, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest. 'Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because he promised, 'I will be with you always'. 'Then just s peak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now.' 'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day.I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.' The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the woman to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with her, anointed her with oil, and returned to the church. Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her mother had died that afternoon. Did she die in peace?' he asked.Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock , she called me over to her bedside, told me she loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found her. But there was something strange about her death. Apparently, just before Mother died, She leaned over and rested her head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?' The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, 'I wish we could all go like that.'


Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive.
I asked God for water, He gave me an ocean.*
I asked God for a flower, He gave me garden.*
I asked God for a friend, He gave me all of YOU...

If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God
Painful moments, trust God.

Every moment, thank God.

Politic and Business

Our country has been a laughing stock these few days over the issue of the Mongolian lady, DPM and Bala's SD.

I'm just speechless reading all the reports abt Bala retracting his 1st SD. Don't talk abt politic, economic or social responsibility. Just where is sanity? If you are following the issue progress, you might as well go and read Harry Potter.

Speechless totally speechless. This event is CLEARING showing the struggle and hunger for and to be in POWER and SUPREMACY to 'RULE' .

$ is the pushign factor for all these happenings. They lie without face colour changing. None of the Bollywood nor Hollywood stars can compete with them in terms of their acting skill. Any nomination for this category?

+ve and -ve chi in office

I have discovered something today and I think I have to share it.

The whole of last week till today was like hell to me in office. I dreaded getting up from my cosy bed and dragging myself to work. What to do? It's the $ sign that keeps me going.

I have been part time life insurance agent for 6 mths now and I have always look forward to the weekly meeting on Tue night. This is despite having a full day of work and still able to sing and shake a bit when they play motivational songs. Not bad. Try it yourself. It relaxes your mind and body. Actually this is my 2nd phase of being life ins agent. During the 1st phase, I wasn't looking forward to attend. Always trying to find excuses to 'miss' the weekly meeting. But this time round is totally opposite. I have discovered, having a +ve working atmosphere not only RELAXES the workers mind but INCREASE productivity.

Productivity drops when -ve atmosphere presents. -ve atmospshere can be:
1) Office set up
2) Difficult superior

A good leader must be critical enough to watch closely the above 2 factors in order for other lower rank staffs to perform.

Let's have a test in my office for this mth, July '08 and will report the result in Aug '08. adios!

STRESS

I attended a weekly insurance meeting last night and was surrounded by a few colleagues asking how much is my own life insurance coverage? Hinting me to top it up.

I shrudded to think....ok ok....life ins agent always talk about your life worth when you walked out of your life one day. How much cash or debts (loans??) that you left behind for your loved one to enjoy or suffer?

There are just too many stories (actually life story) telling during each session that makes you appreciate life even more. Well, back to my early story, my colleagues have been hovering around that issue probably due to my crew cut hair style and that have partially exposed my 'baldness' at the frontage. Due to that, I have decided not to use gel when going to work today. Ah...felt younger. Just have to remind the barber not to go for No 2 next time.

But indeed, lately there has been termendous pressure at work. When I stress out, I normally turn to exercise or watching TV...just to shut off my brain from thinking office work.

'You turn OFF your brain when you're watching TV but you turn ON your brain when you're surfing the net', Steve Jobs of Apple Computers.

Re-visiting own yard

All these while ie since my last post in Dec 2007 (oops...took me 6 mths!), I have been contemplating the issue of blogging (despite keeping a mild blogging activities in a few of my favourite blogs). I have also been sceptical of posting photos.

The key question: Where is the boundary? You can say anything and upload any picture but the chances is you may ended up behind bars if said the wrong thing.

Having thought all that, I have finally decided to have a revamp of my own blog and why worry so much about all those stuff as long as I post my own issue and lifestyle for sharing.

So here I come......