This is What THEY Should Focus On

These few days there were many lies flying around especially when we see those delegates giving speeches or commenting in the media during the General Assembly. This time all of them were united in bashing only a particular party, and not that person.

Anyway, as a lay man who reads a lot of Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider, I felt that the bashing was really tasteless, and I wonder if they would be any form of reprimand or censorship. It can never happen at other times, but very appropriate when they were the ones who talk. Suddenly May 13 is more important than Aug 31 or Feb 14 or Jan 1. Then there were words that we usually talk in close circle gossips such as pondan and bapuk appearing so prominently in the media.

If their people is clever enough, they should demand them to look into such mess and not bash other people unnecessarily. All these stuff happened because of incompetence, inexperience, mismanagement and ego. You can see that there were many before and will have many more of these arising in the future. They don't think it's a disgrace, in fact they thought it's their right to make such mess.

Another thing that is glaring and always repeated by these people was running away from the original plan and went for the grand stuff, and ended up busted.

Stories That I Agree With : 30 Nov 2011

This is one of the rare moments and it usually appears rarely. In fact, I have some respect for this Deputy Education Minister who speaks what the minorities think. At least he isn't like those other people who speaks for themselves but expect others to accept what they have said.

I think what he suggested can surely bring some positive impact to the support for the Government, but things won't change so drastically. This is only a small item and they are much bigger problem that the Government needs to solve before people start to swing their support back to them.

Stories That I Don't Agree With : 29 Nov 2011

It's the time of the year, and more so this year, we will hear lots and lots of these stories uttered by our politicians to their own people. As I belong to the "other" people, I will always disagree with their claim, sob stories or slogan. 2 of the stories that I disagree with came out yesterday; the first by this Information chief and the second from our DPM.

It was good feeling for the person who said it, but definitely tasteless for those "other" people who were reading. The thing that came to my mind was, why are there so many literate people in this country still believe what these politicians said. It was as if the people who chose to believe it really thought that it will come true.

Barclays Premier League : Malaysian Companies Boleh!

What can be done if a Malaysian don't get to feature in the world famous Barclays Premier League (English soccer league), but still want to bring the fame to Malaysia?

Putting Malaysia or Malaysian companies name on the soccer jersey lo.. This is almost the same principle as 'if you can't beat them, join them'. In Malaysian term, 'if you can't be in them, be on their shirt'.

Malaysia Boleh!

Only Hard Work Can Bring Result

I am confident that I will have a tablet very soon, either iPad 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I can sense that I will own one the hard way and this is why I am busy researching for contest that gives the tablet as the prize. The main reason is because I can't afford it, and the other reason is because getting it from contest is more meaningful. Somehow, I haven't have enough luck to win without effort. 99% of my winnings came from hard work, unfortunately. Therefore, I don't put much hope in winning it through swiping my Citibank credit card.

If you ask why do I want one, frankly I don't have a concrete answer. Might end up under utilizing it whereby it will be left idle for most of the days. Possible reasons such as no connection, no time due to work commitment or difficult to use as compared to laptop.

But as someone who is always thinking, I don't easily let those reasons kill my enthusiasm. Now, I have few counter proposal why I should own one, such as learning on the go even during traffic jam, polishing my writing skill with more blogging opportunities as I'm always connected, and hoping to find my blue ocean strategy via ebay.


My motto: Only hard work can bring good result.

Today's 1Joke : 17 Sep 2011

I was curious initially when I read the headline of this news, but my instinct told me that it must be related the movie by Namewee "Nasi Lemak 2.0". Upon reading further, it came out to be true, and I thought it was a piece of crap news.

The article mentioned that our Home Minister advised the general public who is hurt (tersinggung) or not satisfied with Namewee can complain to him. Having said that, I wonder if it is really his scope of work to handle such a thing.

Sometimes, the Malaysian media can be perceived as a sub-standard organization. The way they are doing things now, it only paint a very bad picture of the Malaysian media because readers are fed with trivial stuff such as this. Supposedly, they report more on what our Minister does to help improve the country's economy, stamping the FDI outflow, upgrading our Third World mentality to First World, or brainwashing Mat Rempit to be useful group of people.

I think this is very much related and depended on how the media works. If they choose to keep on reporting such news, people will soon see that our Government is not doing what they are voted to do. Besides, sometimes it is the people who is giving the Government a bad name by going to the media for such a trivial stuff. 

Savings From Straight Talk Straight Into My Pocket

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Are we able to live without a phone nowadays? I don't think anyone will, even a 100 years old uncle. With inflation inflating and salary decreasing, it is time that people needs to find ways to save, and there is no better ways to start with one of the most essential thing in life; our handphone.

Everything you need

Straight Talk is now offering the plan that is too good to be true, where I can be richer each month by cutting my phone bill by half. The amount save can let me have another cup of coffee, or spend buying the new IPO on offered.

Rest assured that all the hassle has been thought of by Straight Talk, and they are offering some for everyone, minus the worries with their “All You Need Plan”. There are no contracts, no surprise bills and no credit checks, and most importantly, free from activation, reactivation, or termination fees. Besides, they only use trusted phone manufacturers like LG, Motorola, Kyocera, Nokia and Samsung.

Hook, line and sinker

Heavy phone users, like me with a big appetite of logging for at least 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 30 MB of web data will definitely like this plan. 411 calls are also included at no extra charge. By paying only $45 monthly, I can make unlimited calls, text, picture messaging, and web surfing at my convenience. What's more, I only need to pay for $499 .00 a year!

Calling my relatives and friends who are overseas is possible with Straight Talk International Long Distance Service. This service is a flexible prepaid calling service that enables international calls from home, office phone or handphone at low rates.

Call a friend

Straight Talk is offering 2 options of phone selection; reconditioned phones from $10.00 with camera, mp3 player, mobile web access, and blue-tooth capability aiming at young and novice users, and smart phones with touch screen phones, and app capable phones with features like voice navigation, camera, video recorder, music player, instant messaging, and Bluetooth® for the working class and tech savvy users.

Check out more about Straight Talk's offer with Android from the video in the link below:

Now this is what I call "value for money, free of worry".

Saving Money - Logical Tips

I'm picking up some points from "No Dumb Ways to Save: 7 Super Easy Ways to Stash Away More Money" article to be shared around. The following are 2 tips that are quite logical and reasonable, and I think they are workable for me.

MASTER THE GROCERY CHECKOUT
"At the grocery store, I organize the food on the conveyor belt at the register by price, with the most expensive items at the back. That way, I can keep an eye on the total and easily pluck the pricier stuff off if I'm nearing my budget,"
>> This requires practice and patience. The more you do it, the cleverer and richer you will become. This has some similarities with the "Sleep On It" tip, whereby the delay is practised during shopping. You have to think slow and thorough, but act fast while you are queuing in the line.

SLEEP ON IT
Institute a 24-hour wait period before purchasing anything on your "want" list. "It's amazing what a day can do to your desire level!" says REDBOOK's money expert, Beth Kobliner. "This rule has saved me thousands in what would have been regretted splurges over the years."

>> This is a very effective one. I would say most of the dream items in my mind are not essential, and the purchase can be delayed. Once I am allowed to think over it again, the sudden urge to buy will die off eventually. One of the example is iPad 2; looks good, feels good, but if I lied to myself to wait for another day, I will still have the good feeling because of the money saved. RM1,500 is not a small sum to many, but it is to me...

Knowing Yourself

It is important to know if you are personality signifies a Worker or a Breaker. You may be blamed or teased inappropriately all because your personality is different from your complainant.

This is how I differentiate them.

Worker:
> Someone who will lie down mid of working and wake up returning to his work.
> Working is their priority, and taking a rest in the middle of working is important for them to recharge and continue doing their job.
> A Worker can sleep early and wake up early, not feeling guilty.
> Their usual complaint are "There are too many things to do" and "I cannot finish in time".

Breaker:
> Someone who will work until he's satisfied before taking the break.
> To them, resting is more important. It doesn't mean they are not hardworking, but the priority is different from a Worker. Their ultimate goal is to get that rest, that is why their mind is programmed to complete the task no matter how late it is.
> A Breaker usually sleeps late, and wake up late after feeling satisfied of their work previously.
> Their usual complaint is "I don't have enough sleep".

Yesterday's 1Joke : 10 Sep 2011

Wonder why are there so many funny stories coming up in our country. I think I can soon compile a list of the jokes since the 8 Mar 2008 tsunami. More significant ones were happening in the past 2 years.

I just read another that I do not know will cause any change in the history text books or Muzium Negara exhibits or not. Now only we knew that our country was not ruled at all by British before!! This was informed to us proudly by Prof Zainal Kling that I saw in Malaysiakini.

Picking up a line from those commentator in the Malaysiakini website (which sounded very much true), then why are we celebrating Merdeka?? If we are not sick, we don't go to see doctor. If we are all this while independent, then why need to celebrate Independence le??

Another thing, he mentioned that our history books are wrong and need to be corrected. Then my question is, why only now this was voiced out when he should have known it for a long time? Is it because there is this controversial discussion happening lately? Or because this is a scam to further change our history? How come this was not announced by our famous Prof Khoo since he's a historian?

Does this also mean that Malaysia has been joining the Commonwealth Games and CHOGM meetings illegally?  

Relief

What an encouraging and motivating piece of news for a jaded person like me. This should be the pushing factor to rethink and re-strategize. At the moment, I should discard fear, and dream of tasting the grass outside the compound.

This should also be the relief to the grief that was voiced out in the previous post.

New slogan to tag onto the heart: "I Am Not An Important Person, But What I Do Is Important". Ganbatte kudasai!

Difficult Times

It has been a difficult one year for me, work wise. Felt like I've lost and continue losing lots of things in life. Gone are the days when jogging, exercising, blogging, joining contest, researching and writing articles, and traveling are part of my life. It is now limited to work stuff. Still figuring out how to stay away or leave this threadmill. Would rather suffer similar difficulties but on my own treadmill. At least if there is bonus after each run, it belongs to me wholly.

Stockholm Beauty

Some sharing of the beautiful Stockholm cityscape during the winter and what makes Swedish design so good to own. Hope there's another chance to go back there next year.

> Stockholm city view from top of the bridge at Slussen

> Reputed to be the most interesting shopping centre: NK

> Creatively decorated metro stations at Hornstull

Morby Centrum

T-Centralen 

 

> Swedish design products

 

 

> 7-Eleven

> The shop that we missed: Nordiska Galleriet

> Made in Stockholm product: Absolut Vodka

Felt Sad For Japan

Before the big magnitude 9.0 earthquake happened in Japan on 11 March, there was a quite big one that occurred on 9 March that scaled at magnitude 7.2. Considering all the events that turned up from 9 March till today (17 days time), this ranked as the worse event of the year.

Normally, we only heard about earthquake, and at most with tsunami coming in after that. But this time in Japan, particularly Sendai and Fukushima area, they had 2 big earthquakes, followed by tsunami, knocked-out nuclear plant, radioactive exposure, regulated electricity supply, limited clean food and water supply, and cold weather. Translated into human form, it means getting cold, fever, cough, measles, sore throat, back ache, and stomach ache one after another. Until today, the fear on radioactive exposure is still present and no one can answer when the problem will be solved.

My wife was one of them who got to experience the earthquake, though not during the first tremor. She had seen how cars can swerve on the road, how chaotic the traffic was after the earthquake, how inconvenient not to have phone to use, how scary to feel 16 times of tremor at 8th floor of the hostel, and how discipline, organized and calm the Japanese responded and reacted after the earthquake.

She was considered lucky because when the main tremor started, she was far away on the south western side of Tokyo. She and her group of colleagues reached the hostel in Tokyo safely and managed to miss the heavy traffic jam and road blocks that happened soon after. They eventually got out of Tokyo via Narita airport after stranded for 2 days. After she got back, more bad news about the explosion and nuclear radiation leakage came out and affecting the livelihood of the Japanese. It was also fortunate that her overseas course was planned for 2 weeks, and the disasters happened on the last few days. Imagine if they had another week to complete the course, and all they can do is to stay indoor with limited electricity, risk of another earthquake, further exposure to the radiation and potentially dangerous food supply.

Today's 1Joke : 23 March 2011

This was the news of the day yesterday, and another that involved DS Anwar Ibrahim. I just do not understand the Malaysian law because no action is or will be taken to someone or a group of people who played porno video clips to the general public, for confessing of having possession of porno video clips, and openly said they are involved in filming someone in private (or voyeuring).

It seems like politics is above everything because people are allowed to do such things when you are on the "right" side. Remember Gary Ng, who was caught and put behind the bars for filming his own "adventures" and possessing porno video clips, and the HK guy who was caught for releasing Edison Chen's photos.

Kita memang Boleh!

Back From Cold Winter

Got back from another once in a lifetime experience trip to Stockholm. It was the 2nd time going there on business trip during winter, but I do hope the 3rd time would happen in summer or spring time. Going there in winter was a big challenge for us, Malaysians especially when we were exposed to the chilling wind and winter temperature of between -5 and -10 degrees. On our last day there, the temperature dipped to -18 degrees. Even Stockholmers thought we were tough and surprised that our winter clothes can keep us warm.

We took the cheapest way to go to city centre from Arlanda Airport, that was by Swebus that only cost SEK89. It is advisable to either purchase the ticket online or from the counter because buying from the driver cost an unbelievable SEK110. The place to stop is Central Station, which consists of train and bus station, and metro on the opposite.

We had only few days in Stockholm, and covering Gamla Stan (Old Town) and visiting design-related shops were our other targets. Of course, first priority was to finish off our work and do what we were assigned to do. This time, I didn't find Gamla Stan as interesting as the first trip. We reached early, but found almost all the shops were not opened until 10am.

The things in Stockholm were extremely expensive, and I think our high paid executives will also feel the pinch. This made us think that shopping in Malaysia is still not too bad, but better still if it was done in Thailand. This was also why Swedish likes to go to Thailand (other than the other reason best known to them).

Some interesting facts were learned this time.
1) There is only 1 company licensed to sell liquor, and Absolut Vodka originated from Stockholm Reimersholme area. However, it was cheaper elsewhere in the world (Thailand airport and Malaysia) than in Stockholm.
2) The things were expensive in Stockholm not because of the taxes imposed on the goods, but because Stockholmers can afford to pay the high prices.
3) Stockholmers seldom eat Swedish food when dining outside, but like Thai, Chinese and Japanese food a lot. Food prices were comparable to those in Hong Kong.
4) You can still find many people using Sony Ericsson handphones, besides iPhone. iPhone is called iFynd in Swedish.


I found 2 reasons why I should visit Stockholm again, and hopefully in next year with my cool colleague. It would be good if we could extend my visit to cover Copenhagen or Oslo.
1) To visit Nordiska Galleriet- a design-themed shop
2) To visit Skansen- an open air museum (not advisable on winter)

Eve of Holiday Is Always the Best

Started my holiday break a week earlier, but it felt like CNY has already started from the first day of my break. I usually worked until the eve of CNY, and when this break came early, the festive mood came early too. As usual everyone was eager, energetic and the festive mood had set in, though the actual day was another 5 days to go. This year, I spent my CNY at Sarikei, and tomorrow it is time to continue celebrating back in my hometown in PJ.

It's true that when New Year comes, you will get to eat stuff that you hardly has chance to taste throughout the year. This year, to me, the main course is the Sarawak layer cake. You can see it in almost all the house, and it is a must have like pineapple tart, prawn keropok or kuih kapit to Klang Valley folks.

Many people may have seen the famous Indonesia layer cake and thought that the Sarawak version looks the same. But they didn't know that Sarawakian are a creative lot, with many unthinkable colors added into the cake such as blue, pink and black. For them, rainbow consists of not only 7 colors. The only downside is the taste, as different colored cakes may end up giving the same taste.

In Klang Valley, green cake is 99% pandan flavour. But in Sarawak, it could also mean peppermint or just plain natural.