History in the Making?

Sometimes we are a bit confused, now we are at a junction; it leads to a few roads. Which road shall we take? Do you want to be part of the history or just a mere bystander? To support or not support, one more voice means an inch nearer to the objective. To support a cause that you believe in, they must decide and we shall be the witness.

*Update on 26/03/2006 with more pictures & Video above and below*

Higher Living Cost

Nowadays the more I read the news, the more I get agitated. Now there is a “warning” issue by one minister that if we would to say anything which is deem offensive we will get caught under ISA. You look at Thailand, there are open demo which criticize the Prime Minister and government in the number of 100,000 people weekly and they are still around. Some will say, it’s lawless but I say its freedom of speech at its best.

Today when my sis bought her normal duck rice with grilled pork she was surprise to know the price is now Rm5.50 increase from Rm4.50 one year ago. You know why? Due to petrol price increase lor. Below is a picture of a RM5.50 rice.

When petrol price increased we were told that ours is the cheapest around the region. But someone has nevertheless forgot that we have others related items like car prices which is still a lot more than our neighbours even after the just announce decrease. Our road tax is higher as compare with our neighbours. This means although their petrol price is higher but it was compensated with the lower price of others. What about us? A better transportation system with more tolls or higher fares? For my breakfast today I ate a very basic vegetarian fried mee hoon with just Choy Sum which cost RM2.50.

Just for the fun a calculation of an average spender, just the basic things to eat, use for a month.

Breakfast
Rm2.50 (Vegetarian mee hoon) + Rm1 (Mineral water)
Rm1.20 (Newspaper)

Lunch
Rm5.50 (rice) + Rm1.50 (Kopi O)

Dinner
Rm5.50 (rice) + Rm1.50 (Kopi O)

In total = Rm18.7, so multiply by 31 to get the cost for a month. It comes up to Rm579.70.
This does not include petrol cost for daily travel, parking, monthly haircut, beauty care, car loans, house loans, eletricity, water, household items and etc.

Can survive? I remember my first job actually pays me Rm180 per month, which was around 20 years ago…..now I guess you need at least Rm1500 net per month to lives "ok"ly.

Real Estate Babes

In racing there are always girls carrying umbrella shielding the drivers from the sun before the start of a race. When I saw these beautiful girls, I felt kinda of funny as I am not sure why but its something nice to see. Same like in Motor show, you could see girls accompanying the cars or maybe the cars accompanying the girls. It could that the pretty girls are there to “beautify” things up. Or it’s to portray the beauty and the beast concept, the girls as the beauty and the car as the beast. Or its just boil down to one thing “Sex” sells.

This idea seems to branch out to another area, selling real estate. The worse thing is these girls are just wearing nothing on top and a thong only. Maybe let me be more precise in my description before the guys starts “bleeding from the nose” or saliva dripping down from their mouth. The girls have some “art” on her upper body. So what is the rationale of having this girls parading around. I did not see many ladies around, just some guys with their phone camera snapping away. Maybe the husband tells their wife that they will go and “look see” first.

It could be that the target audience or customer is mainly male hence using “girls” in sexy attire or with no attire is a way to attract them. Will this work? Just imagine talking about real estate with a girl “dress” in such way, where you should look? Look at her eyes? She will say you are flirting. Look at her “painting”? She will say you are “Hum Sap” or “sex pervert”. You also cannot be looking somewhere else when you are talking to her right, hahaha……..what will it be next? Selling hot dog on the street wearing nothing…..?

Below is the direct screen capture from the site that capture this interesting article and here is the link. ..so those he is in shanghai, grab your phone (with camera) and go and buy some real estate....

Bigfoot or Bigkaki

How many of us believe there is such thing as a tall, big, strong (maybe) human with a lot of hairs running around in a forest? I remember seeing the famous video of BigFoot walking across a field captured by someone when I was quite young. Since that day I got hooked on it but I have seldom seen news on it until the recent one. The “Sightings” in our own soil back here in Johor. Could it be that it was just a joke that someone play? Or someone is having a costume party and got drunk until they got lost in the forest.

Or could it be that, Bigfoot really exists? They might be our “ancestor” who has left out of the civilisation, who was behind us when we made our “leap” from living in tree tops to living in condominiums. Is that possible that they are some who was left behind, after which they continue with their carefree way of living their life instead of becoming one of the “sardine” on a crowded bus who wear ties to work? Who would in their sound mind trade a life of looking up into the star at night with facing the computer night and day?

Or is it possible that Bigfoot is the result of some experiment that went wrong, hence a normal human has started to grow hair, lengthen of the arms and so forth. Or could it be that a human has actually mate with a gorilla and the genes has got mixed up thus producing half human half ape type species who roams the forest leaving foot prints. If they knew that us human is so curious, they could probably start having their footprints encase in cements and start a souvenir shop, most likely using a human as the seller and sell it to us.

Will the truth be found and told within my life time? Lets hope it will.....click this link.

Four Face Buddha Destroyed....

Just heard the news that the famous four face buddha in Bangkok was destroyed. Click on this link. Below is some photos that I took of it last month.

Some says that this is a bad omen; a sign of some bad things is about to happen to Thailand and its people. I believe the demonstration that has been on going will gather some speed this weekend as the election is 2 weeks away. I hope it will end in peace.

*Updates on 25th March 2006 with screen capture on 2Bangkok.com *

In Life there is no second take.

Yesterday I watch a show acted by Andy Lau called “Wait till you’re older”. I cried at the end of the show, I looked over to my sister and she was also sobbing. Not sure why nowadays I am a bit emotional. I read somewhere that the show is a remake of an English Movie call “Big” starred by Tom Hanks. I have not seen it but I am not sure will it have the same effect on me as the Cantonese version. Hence credits should still be given to the makers of the movie as it manages to find a path to my heart and manages to open up my tear ducts. The show starts with the story line concentrated on Kwong a young boy whose biological mum committed suicide and is living with his “Step” mum.

The fun starts when he drank an aging portion. He woke up as an adult and he enjoys his new found freedom and has some adventure. Along the way he “befriends” his lady teacher and his dad. From chats with his dad as an adult friend he managed to look at issues such as his relationship with his “Step” mom and his father love towards him in a different perspective.

As he grows older day by day he finally forgives his dad and “Step” mom after finding out who is really the 3rd party. He wants to return back to his young self and continue his life hoping to live happily ever after with his dad and his family. Thats where the old uncle (who invented the aging portion) says “Life has no second take”, once you pass it you are unable to go back.

Some say time can mend a broken heart but when something is broken it will forever stay broken. It could be glued up together but it will never be the same. We should do our best to ensure that its remains unbroken, scratch a bit here and there is still alright. Have you ever hold on to buying that particular blouse or shirt that was on displayed hoping for a better bargain later and finally its out of stock and the sense of regret sank it wishing that you should have bought it there and then. I have and I am still doing it…..still have not learnt my lesson….

Volvo S80

I know this will be forever just a dream but as human we need dreams to move us forward. The all new Volvo S80 has been launched and it looks like I am getting more drawn into it. Why we love to own something which is out of reach? What part of our brains always does this little trick? To put something that is so far ahead of us that each steps we take, the item will take a steps backward. The distance will be forever the same.
The “curves” beckon me to touch it, feel it and put it into the correct position, it will then moan and purr like a “dragon” flying through the road as though as I am the master and it the servant. It is so smooth that you feel like you are sitting in a first class cabin of an aircraft. Of course there are occasion up and downs due to "pot holes" but in general its all fun.

Oh dear! What I need to do to get you? You shinning little machinery, you beast. Do I really need to sell my ass in order to obtain you? If so I could not as I still need it for my boss to kick…Oh My! Oh My! There will be a time my ass will be free and then it will sit on your lap and together we ride into the sunset…..

The above picture is taken from here. I guess too much work is no good for you after all......

Billionaires in the world.

A list of billionaires in the world were published by Forbes and below is the Top Ten.

The Top Ten

1. William Gates
2. Warren Buffett
3. Carlos Slim Helú
4. Ingvar Kamprad
5. Lakshmi Mittal
6. Paul Allen
7. Bernard Arnault
8. Prince Alwaleed
9. Kenneth Thomson
10. Li Ka-shing

And this is the links to the full list and as you can see Bill Gates still remains on top with 50 billions. If you are as rich as him, what will you do? Stop Working? Or continue to work? There are times I heard a lot of working class people like me that is in the top millions of the thousandaire list, who says “I will stop working if I got my first million”. There are some who always thought that this billionaire have made it as they are in the right place at the right time.

I believe otherwise. They have great vision; they were the first in their “field”. I believe along the way, they sacrifice a lot, to be where they are now. What spurs them on to continue to strive for more? When I wake up and go to work in the morning, I know that I work to survive. I treat work as business, something for me to get $$$ for my daily expenses. I believe these billionaires wakes up and they know that they are going to do something they love.

I do have a question for the ladies out there. Have you ever look at list like that and set your mind in fishing one of these eligible bachelors? Or if you are more mature will you groom your daughter for the task? In movies I have seen stories plot such as this but in real life, so far I have not really come across one. Are there parents out there who planned such thing, treating their daughters as commodities?

Anti Virus for us human?

We live in a world whereby we need protection. In the olden days when you conduct business you will need physical protection, hence there are times you need to pay “protection” money. Now in the modern days, you might also need to pay “protection” money but it could be given to different parties, probably on the other side of scales. Now as we moved from papers & pens to monitor & keyboards, we needs our computer to be equipped with at least the basic software like office to allow documentation & presentation, email & messenger to communicate efficiently and antivirus software to protect it from being attacked by hackers.

What about humans? Do we have protection from illness? Air filters to filter harmful virus, water filter to filter bacteria. I have a colleague who has just given birth and she spends about 40,000 baht or Rm4k to have her baby boy stem cells kept in Singapore. Each year she still needs to give about Rm400 to maintain it. This is all for something in the future in which she believes that the stem cells technology could be developed into possible cures for chronics illness that if the baby boy develops it. Will there be a day whereby a dying patient is medically induced to sleep until a cure comes by? Or one day there is a super Anti-Virus jab that could be injected into our bodies to protect us like Anti-Virus for Computers, with yearly updates of new viruses…….

My 30 cents worth.

So how is the feel of pumping petrol and see the number spinning non-stops, crossing the RM100 mark. My “Gold Fish” has been drinking petrol but normally it will not go across RM100, which is before the announcement of the increase. I went to feed my “Gold Fish” a day after and I saw for the first time, the amount counter speeding past RM100. FYI, I used Shell Vpower which hovers at Rm2.15/liter.

My heart almost burst out and my wallet feels lighter as the figures speed and turns, 90.00, 96.00, 100.03 and finally rest at 103.33. This amount that I pumped is when the indicator pointing at the last level on the petrol display on the dashboard. There are 4 levels, this means if I would to pump petrol only when it reaches the “E”mpty level then it will cost around RM130 plus. Well what to do as we were told that the increase will also benefit the public with better transportation system.

Eeh? So what, where and how does the government uses our Road Tax? Isn’t it supposed to channel towards maintaining the Transportation system? Wow I believe with this reduce in subsidy of petrol which will put an extra Rm4 billion plus into the government “wallet” plus the road tax collections, I believe we are expecting some Asian Class if not world class transport system in the near future. I hope our transportation system will finally match those of Japan.

Our current transportation system is not that bad it’s just that it is serving some weird routes. For example the recent announcement of Rapid KL, looks and sounds pretty good, RM2 to travel for the whole day. I believe it has been introduced more than 2 months already however you just look at the busses, its almost empty. Why? Where is the patron gone to? As I travel daily to work I could see some other Air Cond Buses, which is so packed, if you view it from the back you could see head, legs and something files hold by the passenger tangling dangerously outside the door. Something is really wrong, one bus is packed like sardine and the other is empty like graveyard?

Same goes with the LRT/MRT system. I believe if there is a LRT/MRT system that serves the Cheras Area, the long queue of cars with the driver and passenger that looks like they are parking their car from “Loke Yew” until Cheras 11 miles would be resolved. I guess the government could have done some kind of survey before and found that most of the Cheras residence is rich hence public transport is not needed. Honestly the infamous Cheras traffic jam has existed even when I am still wearing my secondary school uniform.

Lets hope the amount save from the subsidy of petrol will be well spent and not thrown or given to someone as pocket money. Talking about that, it reminds me that we do have a big company who have monopolized certain industry for years needs help. Only a few years of punching out with a new competitor within Malaysia it once declares that they are in the Red again. It has been “saved” before and now it looks like it needs help again. One company who loves art but despise profit. For goodness sake do not treat us taxpayers as ATM and do wake up and admit failure and do something about it and not just the same “Talk”.

I guess its boil down to one thing, give tons of money to some Ah Cow, you could see only Ah Cow feeding its Cow with very good feed and in the end you see a lot of steak being produce and be eaten for a year in Ah Cow house. Gives a bit of money to Ah Pig, you could see Ah Pig feeding its Cow with good feed plus ensuring its Cow mate and have more small Cow and then big Cow. You could never see an end as 1 Cow becomes many Cow and then finally the Cow can be eaten in many houses all over the world. You get what I mean? No? Anyway its just my 30 cents worth only mah, I guess since I bought a big car I need to pay a bit more, when you eat Salty Fish be prepare to drink more water....

The Pre and Post Me.

For this past month I am back in the office. In another “project”, “new” set of staff and “new” environment. Every time when I joined a new project, especially when I am leading it, I would feel like I am in another company. The reason being is that I will be surrounded by colleagues that I do not know or have not worked with before. As a lead it’s quite difficult sometimes, as I believe for you to deliver a piece of work on such short time, you will really need to know the strength and weakness of your staff. Hence there are always 2 “mountains” to climb, the project dateline and tweaking & getting the best out of somebody you hardly know.

In my company, I have seen new faces come and go. There was this particular incidence which actually makes me laugh, which happens last week. I was sitting in my place which is actually in a big room share with >10 others when someone that I have actually worked with in a previous project walks in. I believe she was “on loans” from another project to help out in quality assurance of another. When she walks in, I greet her, “How are you?”, she replied, “Who are you? I do not know you leh…”. Guess what she knew me when I was still a “Panda”, after 4 years of blissful marriage and now I am back at my pre wedding days or shall I say the “courting” period of my wife.

An "illustration" to tell you why she did not recognise me, a picture of me a year before I was diagnose with Kidney Cancer and a picture of me a year and half after my operation.

Wedding Annivesary.

Guess What? Today is my 8th Wedding Anniversary; it feels like it was just last year. How time flies. I remember I was cracking my head to write the invitation to my wedding held in Bangkok. As those who know me well, I am not that type of guy who will write something down for the sake of writing especially for my own wedding invitation.

Hence I actually open the radio, to listen to some music to inspire me, took out a piece of paper and start cracking my brain and try to write something memorable for all to remember and also for my wife and me to look back and feel happy when we are old sitting around the living area and looking back to our life that is fill with ups and downs. That’s when a song was played which eventually gives me the inspiration to write this down (click for a bigger picture). Happy Anniversary my love…..thank you for your MMS today. Guess what song is that....