Peace

is...

when u listen to jazz.

Eye on KLCC

Eye on Malaysia with National Art Gallery as the background. The night was put to rest early but the ferris wheel is still brightened up with dazzling lights.

F5.6; 1 sec; ISO 100

Petronas Twin Tower, Menara Maxis and unknown under construction building under a dim sky. It was drizzling when the large digital clock on Menara Maxis hit 3.00pm.
F5.0; 1/1000 sec; ISO 100

I splurge again

I've finally bought something that I've wanted for years. Yah, other than a PSP, a new laptop, a new car, a new everything. Hehehehe...

It's a Digital SLR.... I've always wanted to buy it when it was first introduced in the market but the price was like toys for rich kids, which I was and am not.

Finally, after so many years of waiting, the price has been made affordable to me. :P










Here it is...

Canon EOS 350D and 75-300mm Zoom Lense

It's not the latest in the market. Actually it's almost obselete already, but for an amatuer like me, the function is more than enough.

I haven't got the chance to go for photo-snapping outings, but here's 2 pictures that I took at home with my sweetie's collections.

Shuttle speed: 2Secs; F5; ISO100; 75.0 mm

Shutter Speed 15Secs; F32; ISO100; 100.0 mm

Updates

Ok, it took me more than a month to update this blog again. Just finish watching a DVD, which I haven't been doing for a long time since I have my PSP, and couldn't get to sleep. Yup, life's pretty much all about work and PSP. Ok, let's break it down and go thru 1 at a time.

Work
Things has been crazy. We have finally got what we have wanted for all these years, that is the recognition on the work that we had done. Hence, this brings a lot of important projects into our plate. Fortunately, this is not a 1 boss and 2 employee department anymore. We are 1 boss, 1 PA and 5 employees department now. I guess there's always good and bad for all things. As we are able to manage our projects more efficiently now, the relationship were not as close as it was as well. Anyway, what do I expect? When the crowd grows, the control over it is definitely harder. And of course, the rush of going work suddenly disappear. It's even more sad to go to work than staying at home alone, coz it doesn't makes a different. Am still lonely as it is at work, except it's more pressuring at the office when people surrounding you gives you that creep. Hopefully, I can last thru for another 17 months, that's when my boss' contract would end.

Helee, I'm sorry that we don't have the chance to work together this time. I guess things are not the same as it was anymore. Hopefully we will cross each other's path again. So, don't be a shy cat and buzz me as and when you can. Will be glad to hear from you again.

Studies
Yup, Jasmine was asking me on how this goes. I thought I've pen this down somewhere in my blog, but I guess I've miss it. Ok, this is what happen. I've my an offer for MBA in Sheffield. But I think I need to replan my finance and in the mean time, since my boss is back into the game and the department is ready to roll again, I thought I can stay with my boss for a while continue to absorb as much as I can from her while I can. In the meantime, I shall plan thru my financial plan for furthering my study.

Personal Note
Bought a new laptop on Friday. I have to depart with my 4-year relationship Twinhead since it starting to show symptom of dying. Then a friend of mine advised me to sell it while I still can eventhough it's for a few hundred bucks is better than nothing. So, I grab a new one and pass my twinhead to him for sale.

Has been working some crazy hours a few weeks ago, which left my shoulder and neck stiff and excruciating painful. Anyhow, found a good "Tit Tar" and got it very much relieved now. Then it's about my mum who's applying to go to New Zealand to pack fruits. I didn't stop, but I didn't encourage her as well I know she must has been sad about my "silent" discouragement. I really don't mind her to go adventuring even at the age of 55. I'm just worried about my dad being alone at home. The nearest of his next to kin will be about 3.5 hours away from him if there's something happen to him (choy!!! touch wood!!!). Anyway, my mum has us best at heart that is why she's trying not to rely on her children. But there's a lot of math to it with the worries that we have for our far far away dad (phone bills, more frequent travel cost, etc). But who am I to tell me my what to do and what not to do. After all, I inhereted my sense of adventure from her.


Alrity, this is all that I have to say for now. There are a lot more, but those are all details and if I were to write them all in, it will take me days to write it, and I'm sure half-way thru it, I've forgotten what I wanted to write. Hehehehe... Anyhow, let's just hope things works out for the better... that is all that I can hope for. Afterall, there are so many things in this world that are beyond our control (Su Chin, if you are look at this entry, this is what you should keep in your mind... hehehe).

It's been a while

Haven't been updating my blog for quite a while. Since the last blog, a lot has been happening. I've got my PSP, that explains my laziness in updating my blog while I am at home... Hehehe... Then it's the work. Been really busy with work in the office and what am I working on was to get Su Chin back and Mei into the department. Yup, my lovely colleague that went to Shanghai is back. After all the dramatic endless farewell dinner, she's back in Malaysia and back as (probably) my boss. Hehehe... glad to have her back today into the office.

Another busy stuff that was occupying my working life is the move. I'm no longer a Cyberjayan. I've officially moved to KL today. Yup, office has moved, not the whole office, juz my department. It's great to finally being able to work in the town. As usual, there's always pros and cons. Pay extra for the fuel and car park, but save an hour everyday from travelling. And I finally got a desk where there's windows nearby, actually it's everywhere.

Now, my department is a team of 5. And few more to come. It's going to be different from it used to be, but there are always pros and cons to everything. So, I am eager to see what's installed for the future.

Then it was my Hong Kong vacation on Aug 8-12. Was really nice, except it's a group of friends which stands at 11 people includes me and sweetie. It was a bit chaotic. Nonetheless, everyone went shopping crazy. The sales and stuff is irresistable.

Anyhow, that's the quick update... Had watched a lot of movies, almost complete my 8+1 movies to watch this summer. Will update on that in a bit. Now, back to my PSP. Hehehe...

Transformers

My Rating: 9/10

Highest ever in my rating. Extremely cool. New Heroes in town guys!!! I'm not a good critic in movie, but so far I guess my recommendation is not bad huh. So trust me, this is the movie that you can watch 3 or more times and don't get bored with it.

Watched this last Friday. 1 thing that I don't like about the movie is how difficult it is to identify each individual robots. They all look so identical due to the silver chromed color(except the few obvious lead robots like Optimus Prime and BumbleBee).

This is what 1 of the bros from my hood says, "I'm not gonna support any pirated DVD on this movie, instead I'm gonna buy an original one and keep it for my future son to watch, and my son's son....".

So, don't you miss this movie. So far I have not heard any bad review on it. Although it's not perfect, but it's close to it.

Dentist again

Almost after a year, I back to my dentist's office for help again. This time, I have to extract the tooth that I had treatment last year. And it requires surgery to extract it. Another hole in my pocket. Hopefully after this, I will not have to go to the dentist again for a long long time. :(

Here's the advise you get when you have a boss who used to be a Harvard graduated dentist:

Make sure you have your breakfast before you go for the extraction. After breakfast, swallow 800mg of Ibuprofen, it helps to reduce the pain a little. Make sure you eat it 1 hour before the procedure. Here take a few black tea bag. If the blood does not stop, use a used tea bag on the extraction area and apply pressure on it (basically, bite on it!!!). Since you can't eat for the whole day, you can go get a milk shake from McD, the nutrition suplement should be enough for a while.
Remember, when you drink, don't use a straw. Suction will cause you to bleed even when it stopped. Try not to eat or drink hot stuff, coz it will melt the clot that builds up. The clot will help to stop the bleeding and heal faster.

Anyhow, to reward my own courage, I've decided to go buy myself a Sony PSP after the dental appointment. Buahahaha.... I am good at pampering myself aren't I?

A doctor's blog

http://doctorslife.blogspot.com

I've been reading this blog for a while now. It takes me a long time to read all the archive, but trust me, I've finish 95% of the archive. This means it's an interesting blog to read about. The blogger is a doctor originated from Malaysia but working in the US 2nd best hospital, Mayo Clinic.

So, if you have the time, go read about it.

Ocean 13

My Rating: 8/10

It's the kinda of movie that a lot of thoughts has been put into it. A lot of action, a lot of clever thinking and even more on the details of every plot and plan. I'm glad that I didn't miss the movie because of the packed "summer-to-watch list". It's really nice. Another recommendation from me. If you think my recommendation didn't disappoint you so far, then don't miss this one.

p/s: Be forewarned, this is the kinda movie meant for people who can't think out of the box or solve a jigsaw puzzle. Also, there's no need for any prior experience with the earlier 2 sequels. Anyone can watch and understand it.

8+1 Movies to watch out this Summer

1. Spiderman 3
2. Shrek the Third
3. Pirates of the Carrebean 3: At Worlds End
4. Transformer
5. Harry Porter & The Order of the Pheonix
6. Fantastic Four 2: The Rise of the Silver Surfer
7. Ocean Thirteen
8. The Bourne Ultimatum
9. Simpsons The Movie

26

Yup, I'm official 26 year-old today. It's a coincident that it falls on "duan wu jie" as well. So, not only I have cake for my birthday, I have "bak chang" too. Thank you Erin, Xia and sweetie for the cake. It's really nice of you all.

My birthday is almost over now... But still it's not too late for me to write down my wishlist. So, here it is:

1. Honda Jazz
2. Nintendo Wii
3. iPod 30Gb
4. Apple MacBook/Any New Laptop
5. Sony PSP

Hehehe... Yup that's all luxury stuff. Actually my real wish for my family and love ones to stay healthy all the time. And me got extra pay or a promotion, so that I can afford the above. Muahaha...

I have got quite some birthday smses today. Thank you all of ya. The one that's especially appealing to me is the one from Adrian all the way from Singapore.

26 years ago on this very day a child started to see light and held his head high to face the world today. He's bright he's chubby and he's smart. He likes to drink and he vomited too. He's 1 of my best friend and he starts to play Mahjong. That 'he' is you. Happy Birthday mate :)

Thank you everyone. Thank you Angeline, Jessica and Dianne for having to go to HR just to confirm that I'm not lying to you that it is my birthday today and the surprise brownie that you guys got for me with a candle in the office today.

The Rise of The Silver Surfer

My Rating: 7/10

Quite a good movie. Action-packed all way thru the almost 2 hours movie. They even invited Stan Lee (the original writer of Fantastic Four comic). Don't which one he is? Look carefully for the uninvited guest to the wedding, it's really funny. Choo and I were laughing when we saw that scene.

As usual Jessica Alba is extremely sexy. Hilarious movie as well. Go watch it!


8+1 Movies to watch out this Summer

1. Spiderman 3
2. Shrek the Third
3. Pirates of the Carrebean 3: At Worlds End
4. Transformer
5. Harry Porter & The Order of the Pheonix
6. Fantastic Four 2: The Rise of the Silver Surfer
7. Ocean Thirteen
8. The Bourne Ultimatum
9. Simpsons The Movie

Friday night movie

Yeah!!! Am going to watch Fantastic 4 later at 2355 hour. Yup, it's a midnite show. Talking about F4, here's a joke that happen today in the office.

Me : Hey, tell you all a joke.

A & J : Ok.

Me : I told my friend that I'm going to watch Fantastic Four and ask if she wanna watch it. And do you know what she replied?

A & J : What is it?

Me : Is it ok for me to watch Fantastic Four without watching Fantastic One, Two and Three?

A & J : Hahahaha... Huhuhuhu....

(A with her entertaining laugh thinking as if this a cold joke and said)
A : Tell her it's ok ler. I also haven't watch Fantastic One, Two and Three....

Me and J laughed our heart out on this...

A Disgrace

After I've wrote about the site that I've found on "Freedom of Faith in Malaysia", today I have yet again stumble upon another article about Malaysia being a hypocrite Muslim country.

Here's some quote:

So if Malaysia’s UMNO like Singapore’s PAP were to profess democracy and practice the authoritarian rule and encourage the Burmese dictators they should do it covertly. Perhaps Muslims will be better construe by the international community if Muslim Malaysia were to harbor a little heart of sympathy and stop acting like hypocrites.

You can read the article here, "Is Malaysia a Muslim Example?"

School Holiday Season Dilemma

Schooling years (past)
School holidays is what I was always looking forward to. That meant vacation. Either at the Haadyai or some island off the west coast. It's always has been the time I was waiting for during those 11 years.

College years (past)
Doesn't make much different. Semester break is different from the national school holiday.

Working years (current)
School holidays means smooth traffic to and from work. I can wake up 1 hour later than I normally have to, for work. Still, Friday evening after work mean horrendous traffic. Weekends are the worst of all. Even going out for lunch can keep you in the traffic for an hour. Queueing up for movie 2 hour before the show still guarantee you won't get the tickets. Reading alone at Starbucks means prepare to be asked by people to share your table. What the heck!!!

Parenthood years (future)
Months before school holiday means booking and planning for vacation during the children's school holidays. Then comes the time to think of how much to spend for a vacation and where to go for the whole family. Then it's weekend movies and picnic. Zoo visits. Malacca visits. Shopping and blah blah blah blah blah.....

Senior age years (future)
All the children leaves home for studies, work and their own family life. School holiday means stay at home and watch tv.


And the cycle goes on and on with the children, then the children's children...

Ironic

This is what I saw in today's The Star newspaper.

Flash floods hit areas in KL

Then comes the latest news from our Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu...

RM2 toll for SMART tunnel use

For those who don't know, SMART stands for Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel which act as a underground expressway and "when the KL city is flooded by rain water, it suppose to drain the water out" from the city that is surrounded by higher grounds like a ravine.

Freedom of Faith in Malaysia

I've come across these article about the freedom of faith in Malaysia. I shall not discuss about my point of view here, and let the article address the experience every non-Muslim Malaysians feel.

According to Reuters, the country's Shariah courts generally do not allow Muslims to formally renounce Islam, preferring to send what they consider to be apostates for counseling. They even fine or jail them.
Fundamental right denied

Joy is not alone in her problems. Last year BBC radio broadcast a report on the problems faced by Christian converts in Malaysia. According to a report on the program published by the BBC last Nov. 15, many converts are obliged to lead a secret, double life. "If people know that I've converted to Christianity, they might take the law into their own hands. If they are not broadminded, they might take a stone and throw it at me," said Maria, one of the converts interviewed by the BBC.

I personally know a friend who was born into this religion instead of embracing it out of her own choice. She doesn't have a choice of following her faith, but rather has to follow one of the parents' choice. Hence the whole family is into this religion, because one of the parents has faith in it though the rest of the siblings and their mum does not.

However, Malaysia's government will not change the law, since the ruling UMNO party fears the political power of the Islamic PAS party and for years has been playing to Islamist sentiments. Emigration is the only safe alternative, one often taken by converts. Indeed, after the judicial decision, Joy said she might leave her country. For the judges denied her the "simple but important fundamental right that exists in all persons: Namely, the right to believe in the religion of one's choice."

Thus, in Malaysia today religion is a matter of ethnicity, fixed for all time. Sharia courts do not allow people to abandon Islam. But the decision puts all non-Muslims at risk. "It casts a large shadow on civil liberties and the constitutional rights of Malaysians," complains opposition politician Lim Kit Siang. The decision was a "very regressive interpretation of the constitution," said S. Sharmila, secretary-general of the National Human Rights Society.

Here's the two articles published in Assyrian International News Agency:

1. http://www.aina.org/news/20070610124628.htm
2. http://www.aina.org/news/20070610181207.htm

OK... It's Freaking me out now

I don't know what happen, my blogs visitors has been increasing in a rather peculiar way and droping slowly again.

See? A sudden increase on last Wednesday and a steadily decrease after that. I have so many visitors now from USA and Europe.

2 from Oceania (Austrasia), 3 from Africa, 38 visitors from Europe, 82 visitors from USA and 124 from Asia. Africa???!!!

Anyway, after some investigation I found out it's mostly referral from Blogspot's "navigation bar" which you can see on the very top of my blog. Whenever you click on "Next Blog>>" you will be brought to a random (I think) blog. It seems like either someone in Blogspot really like me, or someone actually pay the blogspot's guys a lot of money that put my blog at such a "random" allocation that a lot of people were referred to my blog.

Hahaha... I don't think either one is the case. So, the graph will continue to go down.

8+1 Movies to watch out this Summer

In my last post (8 Movies to watch out this Summer), I have listed the 8 movies that I would very much watch it no matter what. Now, I would like to add 1 more movie to the list after I've seen the preview. Here it goes.

1. Spiderman 3
2. Shrek the Third
3. Pirates of the Carrebean 3: At Worlds End
4. Transformer
5. Harry Porter & The Order of the Pheonix
6. Fantastic Four 2: The Rise of the Silver Surfer
7. Ocean Thirteen
8. The Bourne Ultimatum
9. Simpsons The Movie

Got 2 items checked on Friday and Saturday. Crazy???!!!. Yah, I am. It's summer!!! What do you expect. Buahahahaha!!! (Though it's summer in Malaysia all year round).

Pirate of the Carribean 3

My Rating: 7/10

Good movie. A lot of cool Computer Graphic (CG). The only thing I don't like bout this movie is somehow I find the storyline a little too elaborated and not somehow the order of the story is quite confusing.

Anyhow, it's a good movie. Although I gave it a 7/10, I must say that I have a very high expectation out of movies. My view might be quite different from others that I've seen, but I must say, it's always subjective when comes to movies review. :P

So, go watch this movie. Remember not to walk away until the list of cast finish. There's another few minutes clip at the back.

Shrek 3

My Rating: 6/10

Humorous and entertaining. But, just like the curse of sequals of all movies, I would say this one sucks the most out of the 3 sequals. The story wasn't interesting enough. No surprises. Boring a little.

Still, it's worth watching. Gave it a 6 for it's humour (just like the other 2 sequals) and beautiful movements of the characters in the movie.

Weekend

Saturday
Wanted to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3 at CineLeisure with "Spiky hair Mei". Damn, the tickets were selling like hotcakes. Even though I arrived 2 hours before the show, the tickets were sold out. Arghh... Frustrated. No choice have to let go of the plan. Fortunately I'm smart enuff to bring a long a book to read while sipping on the great Banana Java Chips at Starbucks, while waiting for Mei. After 2 hours of reading and 2 occasions of people sharing table with me (since I was hogging a table by myself and the school holiday crowd was terrible), I stood up and walk to Borders, where I ended up buying another book. Then met up with Mei and had dinner at the marvelous Paddington House of Pancakes. Then went to Puchong for the ex-teammate's belated birthday celebration.

Sunday
Woke up almost noon. Did some laundry. Off to lunch with sweetie and her cousin. Then proceed to Starbucks near my place. Sat and read for 3 hours. At night, belanja my ex-housemate and bros from da hood to a "yong tau hu" dinner, coz it's his birthday. Yah, I know... a lot of ppl's birthday is in June. Came home watch tv and now blogging.


p/s: I'm not gonna give up on you.... Disney. I swear I will try my best to go watch those guys with eye patches on the eyes next week. This week I will give DreamWorks a chance by watching that green guy first.

Puzzled

I've blog-visitors from Italy and Chile. Puzzled???!!!

I'm becoming famous.... yah in my dream. Probably stumble upon my blog when they were googling for porno. :P Hehehe...

Me and Books

Never would I have imagine I would be one day intoxicated enough to pick up or even like reading. Anyway, actually I just wanted to say, I spent almost RM200 within a week to buy the following books. I'm not a good critic on books. I just buy what I think I would like to read. So, here you go.

Heard of Blue Ocean Strategy almost a year ago. Has been wanting to buy it but it cost quite a lot, until recently during the Bookfest@Malaysia that I saw the book is selling at RM79.90 as compared to the retail price of RM118.90. Being the Malaysian who is influenced by the Singaporean kiasu-ism culture, of course I gasak ler.


Since I've exercised my kiasu-ism during the Bookfest, I thought to myself, I might as well exercise it to the max. So when I saw Winning, by Jack and Suzy Welch my hands were itchy and right away I took the book and throw it into the basket without 2nd thought.
Ok, for The Perfect Store, by Adam Cohen, I didn't buy it for using the kiasu-ism excuse. I've actually been wanting to buy this book since 2003. It was recommended by a lecturer of mine who recommended me some nice books. So I've been looking for this book since, until the day Borders open up in Malaysia that I saw it's available, then it took a year until the book which was suppose to be "in store" (as stated in the computer database) to appear "on the shelf". Then it came time when it was end-of-month-window-shopping which is obvious, empty pocket when I saw the book on the shelf. Then when I've got the money, the book which is still "in store" disappeared from the shelf again. Until I found it again last Sat in Borders over at The Curve. This time, though I have a half-empty pocket, I still decided to get it with the plastic card.

Long forgetten family

Went to a (kinda) reunion with my ex-teammates. It was Jack's belated birthday and so he took the effort and excuse to finally get everyone out. It's a damn good excuse I must say. If he don't do that, we can only see attendance rate of on 40%. But this time, we can see a 70% attendance, remaining 30% got some emergency or pre-set appointment.

Here's the pics.

Suresh, Jeet's husband.

The birthday boy is lighting up his own cake.

Birthday boy singing his own birthday song.

Lina (setting up her camera), Renne (setting up his camera TOO), Jaime and Selve (setting up for me to take their pics).

Overall, it's great to be able to see everyone sitting together and talk about the past and habits again. Gonna remember this external family forever.

I'VE GOT IT! I'VE GOT IT!!!

My reply for my MBA application is back and "I'M BEING ACCEPTED"!!! Now, with item no. 1 in the checklist checked, it's item no. 2. What's no. 2? To get my funding. :(

Have been searching frantically online for whatever kinda loan and scholarship. Found a good site for all these for Malaysia who wanna continue studies. I think anyone who's thinking of furthering his/her study, should bookmark this website, extremely helpful.
http://malaysia-scholarship.net/

p/s: There's actually no checklist. I just made that up, maybe I should prepare a checklist. :P

Random Pictures

Angeline and Agnes. My colleagues. Someone was saying that Angline looks really pretty that day, hence I forced her to take a picture. Somehow, a phone camera is still a phone camera. The lighting part really spoilt the quality (prettiness) on Angeline's face.

Dusk at Cyberjaya. Taken while driving... dangerous I know but I can't control myself looking at such beautiful scenery.

A grandfather who was sitting at a taxi stand with his grandson waiting for minutes but still couldn't get a taxi. After this picture, they walked away and back home. I could remember my childhood with the same scene with my Ah Kong.



Su Chin's farewell in Alexis Bangsar. She's filling up the Exit Questionnaire which she was suppose to fill up before she leave.

Su Chin's little precious daughter. Cute and pretty isn't she? Yah, my camera sux.

Was having lunch with this 2 fella over the weekend. We started talking about our time in UK. Spent hours chatting about it until sweetie and Keong's gf must have feel bored, since they don't understand a single thing. This is the poster I created with Eric which struck our mind when we saw this 2 poser taking a "Internal Affair" (cantonese: mou gan tou) position during our trip in Blackpool. Yuky did the marketing (by mass-printing it in color and distribute it out to all the classmates).

Bookfest @ Malaysia

http://www.bookfestmalaysia.com/
Date: 26 May - June 3
Venue: Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre
Time: 10am - 10pm
Fees: RM2 (Age 18 and above only)


Went there on Saturday. It's huge. Got so much of books, some of them is really really cheap. Sweetie and I each spent bout RM150. Don't get the wrong idea, a lot of people think this is a chinese book fest, but actually it is a mixture. There's a lot of English books (fiction, business, etc).

By the way, for Japanese and Korean drama fanatic, you might wanna pay a visit there. Original DVDs and VCDs are so cheap.

Emotional Ride

Thought I escaped from the office after giving Su Chin a hug and goodbye. But the ride home in the bus was rather like a ride thru time and uncontrollably, my eyes is filled with... you know what. I could remember the day we started off in the department when we were still strangers. Then the 2 weeks of intensive learning curve and overtime where Hele was the first to leave us and bring a sense of missing an important piece.

Later on, it's the lunch at Nasi Ayam Malaysia in the Street Mall, a lot of chats. Later on it's the listening and singing to Jay Chou's songs. And come the hard time when she has to jump into the project that I'm doing to help me out. The confrontations with those defensive bastards. The late nights and extremely early morning (6am leaving the office together). The part when you have to encourage each others to keep our eyes open even if it's 3am and we are still in the office.

And recently the almost neverending farewell dinner for Su Chin. And finally today...

Leaving on a jet plane...

Today is Su Chin's last day in the office. It's really sad. Even her last day in the office, she will have to do overtime. Has been seeing a lot of people leaving, but the most saddening is still Su Chin's departure.

We had been working together for almost 2 years now. She has been like a big sister to me. Offering career advise, discussion our personal relationship of our own families, gossiping, having lunch together and trying hard to forecast our boss' weather everyday.

Now, she's leaving for a better future. But no matter what, she will be missed by everyone. Yesterday, when all the Senior Managers drop by our place, everyone was so thrilled to meet her, some for the first time. Then I thought to myself and agree, people like her who has made a different in the work she has done, there's no doubt she will be missed when she leaves the company. However, people like me... that's a different kind of story. No relation with any of the big shots in the company. No one can even remember me by name. So, when the day I decided to leave the office, the only person that will notice is the colleague who's sitting beside me whom I disturb everyday.

Anyway, I don't know what I'm writing, but it's just sad to see this day has finally arrive. Su Chin, good luck in your new environment in Shanghai. I'm sure with your capability and good relationship management skills, you will be high in the corporate environment one day. Please remember the iPod 30Gb that you had promised. :P
Take care my big sister... :~~( Hope that our path will cross again some day and we shall be working together with the synergy that we have had when we were working together. All the best.

Application

Finally got my MBA application out last Saturday. Checking on the airway bill, it has arrived this morning in Sheffield. Yup, it's my old University in Sheffield, UK. Nope it's not Sheffield University. It's Sheffield Hallam University.

It might not be the best University to provide MBA, but it's the most affordable and quite reliable to me. This is all because of the experience I had there. I think they are teaching the students or more like to prepare to student to face the real harsh world. Instead most uni like Sheffield U. focus on academic.

Anyhow, thinking back. It was more than 2 months ago when one of the company's SMTs (Senior Management Team) talked to me about my plan of furthering my studies in MBA. I've talked to her bout it when I was attending the training with her in the same class in Hong Kong last year. Little would I know, I have sent my application just lesser than 3 months since that conversation. It's not her that really convince me to go for it. It's just that a lot has been happening lately that change how I look at things. Since I'm working in an environment that see changes every 1 or 2 weeks, my mind has to adapt to it shouldn't I.

I think it the combination of the changes of my work environment, opportunities, timing and all other personal stuff that has been happening that prompt me to think of this option. Anyhow, now I'm so much more determined in getting myself a MBA. There's possibility that my application would be rejected, but even so I'm prepared to try it again for the next intake which will be on Jan 08. Touchwood, even this time fail, I can actually get myself a few more months to prepare for GMAT.

Anyhow, will have to see what's installed for me. Just pray hard.

Cloud Nine

Hahaha... Am on Cloud 9 today. Have an early night yesterday... Am so energetic today. I've always known that it would feel really refreshing if I can sleep early and well actually I've always been waking up early... just that I don't sleep early.

This is why, since I spend 2 hours everyday on my journey to/fro office, I tend to arrange my sleeping time at home for 6 hours. Then sleep through my journey to/fro office, which still makes up for 7/8 hours of sleep.

But, I think this proves my calculation wrong... Coz I don't get slumber sleep in the bus during my journey. Anyway, just feel like babbling...

8 Movies to watch out this Summer

1. Spiderman 3
2. Shrek the Third
3. Pirates of the Carrebean 3: At Worlds End
4. Transformer
5. Harry Porter & The Order of the Pheonix
6. Fantastic Four 2: The Rise of the Silver Surfer
7. Ocean Thirteen
8. The Bourne Ultimatum

Spiderman 3

My Rating: 7/10

Not a bad movie, but not a great one either. At some point, it's boring to the stage where I feel like sleeping. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type that only like action-packed movie, it's just some part of the talking is pure crap. *yawn*

However, I think the part I like most about the movie is the last 45 mins starting from the cool black spidey sitting alone on top of the roof of a gothic church. The bad guy good guy gang up part is great as well. That's more like it as you see some morale teachings behind all those part. Anyway, shouldn't go further, go catch the movie yourself. It's definitely a good start for a series of 2007 summer movie marathon.

Weekend of ....

FOOD!!!
Friday - Went for a hearty but fun dinner with 2 colleagues that's leaving the company (Su Chin & Agnes) and 1 colleague that had left the company, Mei. We had our dinner in Champs, Centre Point, Bandar Utama. It was great. Had some really nice pork ribs with Heineken. The dinner lasted from 8pm - 12am.
Saturday - Since it's less than a month for Su Chin and her fondness to bring people to places with good food, our whole group from Friday night were out again, but this time, it includes my boss. We had our lunch at SOHO in One Utama. It was fabulous. The Shanghainese dim sum is mouth-watering. So, that's the weekend full of food.


p/s: It's sad to lose you all, Su Chin and Agnes. But am sure all of you will be in a better place. All the best!!!

Weekend + Good Company = Drunk + Knock Myself

Last weekend was great. In the afternoon, went to my MD's house warming in Country Height at Kajang. The house is humungous. First time saw my MD in his super casual Timberland t-shirt, shorts and Japanese slippers.

Then it was at night. Was drinking with 2 of my mates from Sheffield Hallam time. I was dead drunk. So does the rest. Drank a lot of vodka and in the end, puke even more. The most embarassing thing, I knock my right eye against the edge of the door not even knowing it until the 2 days later when sweetie teringat what happen.

Here's a picture of how I looked like. Damn, couldn't even hide it by wearing cap to work. It was so bruised that everyone saw it once they look at my face. Anyway, that's how my last weekend looked like. Another new weekend coming.

Tien Hou Temple

Picture was taken at Tien Hou Temple. It was a hot Sunday. Crowded over at the temple. A great sanctuary in a fast pace and busy city like KL. Always like this place.

Mum was here over the weekend. Brought her around KL for shopping, was tiring but very fulfilling. After all what could be more contempt than being around with our own parents.

Went to Sunway College to do some survey on the Manchester Business School's MBA that is provided there as well. Overall, the weekend passed really soon.

Do you notice

Thing that we normally would not take notice sometimes looks good in pictures.

Bamboo Walk

This is the "Bamboo Walk" at Alamanda Putrajaya. A nice breezy place for an afternoon stroll. Was there for lunch this afternoon.

Wondering

Went back to BP this last weekend. Was in a chinese temple and took this shot with my new Nokia E65. Quite nice quality with fun black and white tweaking.I also have some time to think about my decision to leave work and go back to study. Should I get a module on Financial Modeling? Or should I take the costly MBA that I had been thinking for a while.

Answer

Answer about tangible stuff will definitely be there, and constant or stagnant. But answer for stuff in life with hundreds and millions of variables is so hard to find. I think that's why human seek the wisdom of the other dimension sometimes, fortune telling, medium and horoscope. It's a mysteries world all beyond our imagination. Guess that's why the drama, Heroes is such a hit.

E65 or 7390

Updates: Bought E65 for RM1730.

My current O2 Mini is giving me a lot of problem lately. No choice but to sell it away. So, after some surveying of prices finally came to 2 finalists.

And they are Nokia E65 and Nokia 7390.

My preference is E65, but since it's fairly new and some said it's not Beng/Seng kinda phone, the market still does not have AP price for it. Hence it's quite expensive, costing somewhere RM1680-RM1750. 7390 pulak cost bout RM1240 for AP model. Headache!!!

Anybody.... your thoughts... please....

300

My Rating: 7/10

A great movie!!! Not suitable for children though, as the amount of violence is unbelievable. Touching, exciting and most of all interesting. Even centuries before, human has learnt what teamwork can do. There are so many morals behind the story to be learnt. Enjoy the movie. The Computer Graphic (CG) might be a little too much for some.

Kudos to the Spiderman from France

Picture adopted from The Star Gallery.

Oh my God!!! This guy is simply superb. I have to give him the due respect he deserves. The Twin Tower management people should give him the permission to do it officially.



I dug up some sites on Alain Robert's profile and his craze to climb most of the world's tallest building. Look below.
The Star news report
Alain Robert's Official Website
Wikipedia on Alain Robert

Frustrated with work

Recently I have been offered with a few opportunities for advanvement in career. And these are really good ones. Though things seems to work out perfectly for me, it just don't seems to go as smooth as I would like it to be.

There have been a few offers coming my way, but unless I finish with the project on hand right now, I can't move on. One would say, then just finish your project quickly and move on. If only things were that easy. I've been bumping into so many roadblocks on the project that I'm almost at the verge of giving up. But I can't. I can't let the people like my boss and the MD (who has been so supportive in sending me for the training to complete this project) down. Most important of all, I'm not willing to let those that looked down on me and think that I'm not capable of finishing this project look down on me.

And hence, I'm stuck in between.

Pursuit of Happyness

My Rating: 8/10

Inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner, this movie is a truly inspirational one. I've always like movie starring Will Smith, but didn't know that this movie also starred by his own son (Jaden Smith) is so good.

Didn't wanna spoil the content and tell you bout the content of the movie. But it's a must-watch movie. Although it's based on the story written in the book by Chris Gardner with the same name, quite some of the content were different in the movie. So, after watching the movie go wiki bout him.

TGIF

Thank God It's Friday!!!!

Haven't been updating my blog in the office for a long time already. Hahaha... So excited, coz boss not around and everyone sitting around me is on leave. Muahahaha... Free like a bird, for a day.

Yeah!!! It's Friday!

p/s: Yeah, this blog entry is an expression of how excited I'm about the fact that today is Friday. Muahahaha...

After almost a month...

Haven't been updating the blog for a while. Has been really down and confused lately that I didn't know how to type-down. But everything is better now and the sunlight has shed a little more and make the path more visible now. Alright, let's go thru everything 1 by 1.

First of all, about the career/life changing thingy I mentioned here. Since it has almost come to an end of it, I think I can write about openly in my blog. More than a month ago, I was informed by my boss that her boss was looking for someone to go for a 12-18 months assignment to the UK. And he asked whether I am willing to do that. Of course I was delighted. But that is all about it on the details. Nothing was metioned on the terms, compensation, benefits, what I'm going to do there and who am I going to report to. Another factor was and still is that I'm still working on my project with the current centre I'm in. It's quite politically incorrect to just leave my project and go away. After much discussion and arguements, these top people finally decided that I should stay and finish my current project. It might sound quite disappointing, but I take it as a positive news. At least I don't have to go to somewhere that I don't know the situation and what's my role would be. And so, I have the headache that has been bugging me for about a month gone.

That's the confused and pressured part.

Now, it's about my Chinese New Year. Went back to BP. My sweetie too. She has to follow me because the flight ticket back to her home is too expensive this time and monetarily, it's not worth going home. Anyway, it's quite a boring CNY for her, since all we do were gamble, yamcha, boozing, gamble, yamcha, yamcha, yamcha and more yamcha. Maybe I didn't feel it's something bored, coz it's been like that all these years. The only different this year is that I didn't really got to see a lot of those friends that normally I can only get to see once in a year (which is CNY). It's so sad to finally realise that all those highschool friends are drifting apart from each other from year to year. I'm considered lucky that I still have the normal bros-frm-da-hood gang that we keep in touch all the time in KL.

Anyway, that's pretty much for that I have to type. Will try to update more frequently.

Protege

My Rating: 6/10

You wouldn't believe it, it's a Singapore Raintree Production. It's quite good. Andy Lau's acts and Daniel Wu's seriousness in the movie. It's a can-watch movie. It's also a Cantonese movie that I don't feel wasting movie to watch after a long long time.

The Holiday

My Rating: 7/10

Watched this movie almost a month ago.

Anyway, this is a really good movie. Hilarious. Typical happily-ever-after movie. But it's always great to take time off from the reality and indulge yourself in happy movies like this.

Though, I don't Cameron Diaz is suitable for this kinda movie. Her wilful character and all... just don't suit.

Country with the weirdest rules

I still can't believe it, now they want to ban Pan-Asian (caucasian look-alike) Malaysian from the TV and Ads. What else they want ban just to get their own race on the spotlight???

Read here.

Truly Malaysian

Heard of a distance friend's creative composition has been posted on YouTube, hence went and searched for it. Although the MV looks a little cipelak... but the song is really nice and creative. Even got fellow Malays in the rap. Kudo Silent Keat!!! Kudos DJ Hou!!!

Happiness don't last

It's funny how life works out. For the past few days, had been off from work to help prepare for my best friend's wedding. Since last Thursday I was in Batu Pahat hangout with friends, all coming back from either KL or Singapore.

We spent most of the time drinking, yamcha and gambling. It was tired as hell till the wedding day. But it feels like all of us are back to the good old highschool days. Sitting around doing nothing meaningful and chat and booze all the way till late at night.

After the wedding dinner on Saturday nite, we proceeded to the karaoke and sang our throat out till 5am. It was tiring but a great day. All of us barely slept for 3 hours the previous nite. When comes Sunday, most of the bro from da hood left and headed towards their home, either Singapore or BP. It feels kinda sad having to part with friends. And I guess like the old chinese sayings, "There's no one banquet in the world that does not end". Which also means no happiness last forever...

All in a long long time

Have not been blogging for sometime, though I wanted to. It's not that I don't have the time. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about. It's just that there's so much of things that I can't blog about.

Some of these things are about the company, becoz it's kinda confidential. Some of these things are about it. I can't blog about it becoz it's politically incorrect and it might upset people.

So, what am I going to blog about now? Hmmm... maybe the general view of how I past thru my life these few un-blogging weeks. First of all, it's pressurizing. Has been project managing a project since I finish my Six Sigma Black Belt training in Hong Kong. It has not been an easy time. Had so much to project manage. People (really high-up), timeline (really getting late) and politics (really dark especially when India is involved). I had been so worried about the progress of this project that I can't sleep well, I went to work with fear, fear of failure is the biggest. It's just in my nature not wanting to fail and lose... though I have to learn to fail. But I will at least fight the very last breath before it fail.

Then during all these time... things change course. I'm not sure whether it's for the better or worse. All I can say is it's going to impact my career. Maybe for the better. But in life, maybe not so. So, here you go, another headache for me.

It's not actually headache, it's juz something that I need a lot of time thinking about it....

p/s: Can't really say bout what's the career/life changing thing I described till it's confirmed. Somehow it's still politically incorrect or actually it's a p&c thingy involving the company. Hm....

Weekend full of...

MAHJONG

Didn't have much to do over the weekend. Work has been so hectic and pressurizing lately, doing nothing and play a few rounds of mahjong is great!!! So, played on Sat night and Sun afternoon. Lose some money. Accepted a new protege (Andrew). Then the new protege paid his due as a token of tuition fees. Hahaha... Anyhow, nothing to say... Just got so tired of work, wanna find any time to stop my brain from thinking about it... Mahjong is the best tool.

Learn how to play Malaysian 3-player mahjong:

http://home.comcast.net/~t.sloper/mahjongg/malaysian.html

Free Trip to Hong Kong

Well... actually it's not totally free. It's Air Asia's yearly 1 million free tickets promotion again.

Kudos to low-cost carrier!!!

If u can see the lowest part of the ad above, only members are alerted to get the free seats 24 hours ahead of others. I'm one of them. Actually got tip off by a Adrian and AhGer. Cost we have been planning to go to Hong Kong this year. Yah yah, I've been there for a few times alredy, but that was all about training and staying in the hotel. This trip, gonna save a lot of $$ to go shopping.

So, 12 of us got ourselves 12 tickets to/fro Macau which cost RM250 only (fuel charges and airport tax). And I helped my mum and her friends to get them tickets to Bali for RM175 each only. Hahahaha!!!

Btw, you are wondering how come Macau got to do with Hong Kong rite? We will take a ferry from Macau to Hong Kong. Cost direct flight from KL-HK cost at least RM2.4k. See the difference? Yeahh!!! Go book your flights now!!!

Eye on Malaysia

Copycat.

The Malaysian government has recently built a ferris wheel in 3 week with the size half of the "London Eye". Errmm... doesn't it sound almost the same? Damn, if you wanna copy other ppl's idea then don't copy the name ler... Shameless.

Anyway, this 400 tonne ferris wheel is built in just 3 weeks and is located by Tasik Titiwangsa overlooking the KL view. This wheel is portable, which means if you can put it up in 3 weeks, you can take it down in lesser time. This is built in conjunction with the Visit Malaysia Year 2007. It cost RM30 million and the government still haven't decide whether this will be a permanent monument or just temporary for 2007. (WTF!!! spending the rakyat's duit like that).

There's a lot of noises about this huge wheel that is put up in just 3 weeks on its safety. As you know, how the government would compromise for the sake of glamour. Even though The Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) has inspect and approved on the safety, still have some doubt. Here's are some grumbles on the safety; click here and here.

By the way, this eye takes 12 minutes for a ride. Considerably faster as compared to the London Eye which takes 45 minutes for 1 full round. And it cost RM15 for adult and RM8 for children.

Opening ceremony of this national monument will be Jan 6, 2007 at 8.30pm. Tasik Titiwangsa is the venue.

Read all the news about Eye of Malaysia in Google News.

Here's the photos of 2 big eyes of the world

Eye of Malaysia (photo taken by Paul Choo, adopted from LensaMalaysia)

London Eye (photo taken by me in London 2003)

Vote for The New 7 Wonders

Some time ago, I stumble upon news and communication about this New 7 Wonders campaign. It's a worldwide campaign in the effort to name the new 7 Wonders of the world. Coz out of the 7 old wonders, The Great Pyramid is the only left. I think a lot of ppl are like me, don't know much about the ancient 7 wonders and how does these came about. Want to know more about the ancient 7 wonders, click here and here.

And after several thousand years, someone by the name Bernard Weber came to the idea of naming the new 7 wonders in the world, since there's no official 7 wonders. Some say it's the Great Wall of China, other say it's Eiffel Tower. But all these were not official. Hence, Bernard Weber came out with the idea in 2001 to utilise the power of internet to get the mass population of the world to vote for the New 7 Wonders.

I have already put my vote it, feel free to vote for your 7 Wonders of the world. Let's make the people's choice, the official choice. Click here to vote. Alternatively click the pix below.

I start to sound like a saleman already didn't I. Hahaha... It's all for the sake of next generation. Have a look, it's interesting. Alright, leave you have a look at the site. I'm going to put up a link by the sidebar. So vote for your 7 Wonders.

Asian Internet Downtime to Continue

The Asian internet slow response rate will continue as reported by Bloomberg. So, all of us will have to bear with the slow internet and lost packet (something load halfway only). Here's an excerpt from Bloomberg;

Repair of all cables is expected to be finished by the end of January, the Hong Kong authority said, reiterating a timeline given by Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan's biggest phone company.

Damn, we pay for the bandwidth TMNet has promised in their service level agreement. Now we have to still pay the same amount of payment every month and still get crappy internet connection speed.

Night at the Museum

My Rating: 7/10

Watched this movie by Ben Stiller over the weekend. It's a hilarious movie casted by Robin Williams and Owen Wilson. As usual, Ben Stiller did it again with the homey and funny movie. A very suitable movie for everyone in the family. A must watch.