Bye Bye Modem

After 4 years of serving me faithfully, my ADSL modem went kaput on me. To be honest, last night, I made a call to Streamyx's customer service and spoke to their technician on why wasn't my modem being able to pick up a line. He did some checks and said that they would send a technician over.
Being extremely skeptical, I thought that I might as well fix the problem myself when just a hour ago, I got a call from my dad at home telling me that a TM Net technician is at the house ready to check my phone line and modem.

So after some checks, my guess was just as correct. The modem is dead! Anyway its a bout time we changed the modem as well as change the line splitter. Kudos to Streamyx for quick service. Now if only they might just increase the bandwidth and uncap those lines.

1957 Album

After just celebrating our nation's 50th year of independence a week ago, I chanced upon a photo album which contains pictures taken in the year 1957. That means photos taken without the use of DSLRs and everything is in black and white.


Looking through some of these photos really makes me feel that the nation has grown so much and yet the troubles we face right now, thanks to certain individuals, just makes the whole idea of a huge celebration going up in flames.

Image by Tan Swee Lian

There is much bickering in this land and with an ever increasing population who has access to knowledge and a generation that may not necessarily be blinded by false pretense and lies, there is also much to look forward to.

How so can we as citizens of this country attempt to make this country one that is just, fair, technologically advanced and achieve our dream to be a developed nation by the year 2020? Do we still maintain our own pride of "Malaysia Boleh" when that might just be a phrase which has no actual weight in our everyday lives. Or perhaps we are just waiting for this country to fall down flat on its face and then we stand by and say the ever common phrase, "Didn't I tell you so?".

Who knows but do check out the Flickr 1957 Photo Album to browse through this blast from the past.

Image Source: Flickr

Marketing Gimmick?

I was at Lowyat over the Merdeka weekend browsing through some camera shops as well as trying to find a good deal on DVD+R discs when I chanced upon this store which thought that their marketing gimmick might just attract more customers.


Well, judge this for yourself. Personally, I think this photo eventually made me never want to bring my business to this store again. If you are so curious as to guess which store this is, just look around Lowyat and you will find it yourself. Don't worry, its not hard to find. Just look for the most empty looking store.

Also, their lenses there aren't cheap but they do have a fair range and selection of Tamron and Sigma lenses. If you were in the area looking to buy a camera especially in the DSLR range, I would recommend you either head over to Sungai Wang and look for this store called Boeing. Else, take a drive to Pudu Plaza and search for YL Camera.

Starbucks Revamped?

My favourite shop has been changed, my usual coffee fix and free wi-fi service has been removed completely. Now the place has become the haven of what used to be a haunt of many things you want forgotten.

I know this image is probably doctored or photoshopped but what if it were true?? I guess I have to stick to my Nescafe 3-in-1 then.

When all planning fails

Trying to surprise someone on their actual birthday is never an easy thing to do without any proper prior planning. Even if it is just to go over to their house and surprise the birthday girl with a nice piece of ice cream cake from Baskins at night.

The rain was really pouring last night and after crawling home from Cyberjaya and getting stuck numerous times on the LDP thanks to heavy traffic and rain, I finally reached home and prepared to head out to surprise the birthday girl.

There we were, all gathering at our meeting point at Centrepoint Bandar Utama and then we get a call.

"I can't get her to stay at home"

"Why not?"

"I told her that I didn't allow her to go out but she insisted"

"Oh darn it, looks like we can't surprise her after all"

"Guys, tonight's plan is canceled, let's have dinner instead"

So here we were sitting at Cagayan's (a nice Filipino restaurant) eating pork like nobody's business (ok, I am rather pork deprived in Cyberjaya). Well I guess pretty much that Jon went back home and ate the ice cream cake.

Birthday plan surprise, postponed till Wednesday.

p.s. Eventually we found out that the birthday girl went out on a date. I guess we could have been mean and crashed in on her birthday date but we are gentle souls after all.

Dating Wooden Chicks?

Now I just don't know if the name of the shop is hilarious or bamboo and wooden chicks really takes the cake. Call me dense or stupid but what in the world are wooden and bamboo chicks? I think it has something related to this. Maybe not, or it could just be some random item.

Maybe a Google might solve the answer. Anyone out there wants to explain this to me?

Completely torn up

Recently I have been bogged down by thoughts of whether I should move towards a Mac OS platform and work on my photo editing there or should I stick with the all familiar Windows. I was convinced at one point to actually purchase a MacBook but after this incident, I thought maybe I should be sticking with Windows.

Of course before actually making the final decision, there are two upcoming events which I am eagerly awaiting from both sides of the camp.

Firstly, on the Apple side, the eminent launch of Leopard is due in October and rumours have it that a new MacBook is also due at the end of the year with Santa Rosa.

Secondly, Vista is eagerly awaiting it's first Service Pack which offers vast improvements over it's current state of bugs and problematic driver issues.

What makes Vista appealing is that I don't have to spend a bomb on it and I get a better system. For example, the current price of the MacBook is RM4,999 which is pricey for a small laptop which offers meager performance. For RM3,500, I could actually get a Quad Core desktop system ever since Intel has released the latest pricing for the Q6600 processor which costs RM985.

The question now returns to me, mobility versus desktop processing. With a desktop, you can definitely get better and faster components for a cheaper price and the Apple equivalent of a portable powerhouse comes in the form of the MacBook Pro which is offered at RM7,299 for the lower end model.

Then again the whole idea of being able to work with a Mac, a machine and OS which has proven itself to be strong in the areas of visual and stunning performance and runs with the tag line, "It just works" is something which is of interest to me. I guess it could be because of the whole new environment which I am eager to try out.

At the moment, time can only tell as I continue to do a little bit more research between the two platforms and figure out what are the benefits and pitfalls.

Machines offer zombie service?

Every single day you would have read in the papers about complaints of poor service by counter staff, sales clerks or while waiting in a queue. Snobbish, rude or completely useless are the usual types of comments you might receive. Well to me, in the past, I haven't been one to really complain about service, usually shaking each bad experience with the phrase, "Ah, its just Malaysian service la".

Up till the end of last year, when I started work and was working in the area of a service provider (being completely on the other side of the fence), I realised the importance of why providing quality service really matters. It became critical in my job that the quality of service is to always ensure that the customer should always be happy and no matter how bad of a day you might be having, the customer should never get the brunt end of your emotions.

So now, whenever I do walk into shops, I really notice the really nitty gritty details of how poor each store's service is especially when it comes to sales people and dealing with customers. One of these shops I would love to highlight is the Apple Premium Service Provider, Machines located in KLCC.

Launched at the beginning of this month, I opted to drop in to check out the store. Boasting two huge 30" Apple Cinema Displays, the store looked incredible and it was packed with sales staff. Notice, that I bolded "sales staff" because the store was filled with a couple of other customers. To be frank, I was extremely tempted to buy a spanking new MacBook and I checking them out which were on display.

I did my homework on the internet, checking on the pitfalls and downfalls of the MacBook but it just looks incredibly sexy and too irresistible to resist. So I stood next to the MacBook and looked around for a sales staff. One saw me, and instead of coming over to me and being cheerful, he seemed to be frowning as though his Pokemon died on him!

So, he might have had a day. I didn't mind that and smiled at him. Gesturing towards him, he came over with the face of a living zombie and the stance of a slouching chimpanzee. I asked him how much would it cost to bump the MacBook from 1Gb to 2Gb and his only answer was to not say anything but to grab a calculator. He started punching out some numbers and then after much consideration, he showed me the price, RM6,299.

The original price of the MacBook (White & 2.16GHz) is RM4,999 and the extra 1Gb would cost more than a thousand ringgit extra. Hoping to strike a conversation with him or maybe find out why did it cost so much, all he could do was shrug his shoulders and say, "yeahlor, that is the price". After that, he just left and went on to ignore me while giving me the 'you cannot afford that' look since I asked him why was it so expensive (that really took the cake!).

Wow, I thought that the Apple store which boasts superb design (it did look great) and friendly staff would have been a great experience. I guess this is only exclusive for Apple Stores as Machines is just an Apple Premium Reseller. I wonder how they managed to get their Premium status.

Ok, maybe I was having a bad day that day. No, I went to the Machines store at Mid Valley over the weekend and was faced with the same problem. Well, same in terms of getting poor quality of service. Not a single staff attended to me, I guess they were busy entertaining some rich looking dude.

I guess I would probably take my service to MacAsia.

Other experiences on the Apple Store:

• Machines
• Macsimum News
• Seth's Blog
• Brad Baldwin

I've been tagged, again..

I was busy minding my own business and then I came across this site telling me that I was tagged. Oh wow, another tag. Well, if it weren't for these tags, you all wouldn't have known me any better right?

[one] what is your natural hair color?
honestly:- Black

[two] where was your default picture taken?
honestly:- Unfortunately, I do not have a default picture

[three] what's your middle name?
honestly:- Cheng Phang, no wait, does that even count as a middle name?

[four] your current relationship status?
honestly:- Attached :)

[five] does your crush like you back?
honestly:- I sure hope so

[six] what is your current mood?
honestly:- Feeling a little sleepy but thirsty

[eight] What makes you happy?
honestly:- Being a little more carefree and less pressured

[ten] if you could go back in time and change something, what you would change?
honestly:- Nothing, everything happens in God's perfect plan for me. How can we improve on something that is already perfect?

[eleven] if you must be an animal for one day, what would you be?
honestly:- I would love to be an eagle to enjoy what it means to fly about naked

[twelve] ever had a near death experience?
honestly:- Well, considering there are plenty of near death experiences like the world almost exploded. That counts right?

[thirteen] something you do a lot?
honestly:- Surf the web, watch TV series, relax and work

[fourteen] the song stuck in your head?
honestly:- Hey Hey You You, I don't like your PM

[fifteen] who did you copy and paste this from?
honestly:- James

[sixteen] name someone with the same birthday as you?
honestly:- No one I know

[seventeen] when was the last time you cried?
honestly:- Can't remember when exactly la. Also I don't want to sound like a girl online

[Eighteen] have you ever sung in front of a large audience?
honestly:- yes of course, just in March 2007 in front of my drunk colleagues. Thank God they were drunk to listen to my horrid voice!

[nineteen] if you could have one super power what would it be?
honestly:- Shape shifter

[twenty] what's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
honestly:- Their face, usually the eyes first and then see what comes out of her mouth.

[twenty-one] what do you usually order from starbucks?
honestly:- My two favourites, mocha latte (hot) or a mocha frappucino

[twenty-two] what's your biggest secret?
honestly:- I have a secret, that is my secret.

[twenty-three] favorite color?
honestly:- Blue, see the theme of this blog?

[twenty-four] when was the last time you lied?
honestly:- I think I lied too many times to even remember. Now I did say that I liked nasi lemak but in fact I like chicken rice more.

[twenty-five] do you still watch kiddy movies or tv shows?
honestly:- Well, only if there isn't anything showing on the telly.

[twenty-six] what are you eating or drinking at the moment?
honestly:- Drinking 100 plus

[twenty-seven] do you want to learn to speak any other language? if so, what?
honestly:- First up is to learn my native tongue, mandarin. Second, another chinese dialect (hainanese). Other than that, maybe some Italian, Dutch or French

[twenty-eight] what's your favourite smell?
honestly:- Would you believe if I said my own fart? Nah, its McDonald's banana pie!

[twenty-nine] if you could describe your life in ONE word what would it be?
honestly:- Random

[thirty] when was the last time you gave/received a hug?
honestly:- Less than an hour ago

[thirty-one] have you ever been kissed in the rain?
honestly:- No, unless if it is raining and I am indoors.

[thirty-two] what are you thinking about right now?
honestly:- How many more questions I have to answer

[thirty-three] what should you be doing?
honestly:- Sleeping I guess or chilling out since I have an early day ahead tomorrow.

[thirty-four] what was the last thing that made you upset/angry?
honestly:- Some stupid argument

[thirty-five] how often do you pray?
honestly:- Every day and whenever I am desperate and in need. Sounds awful right?

[thirty-six] do you like working in the yard?
honestly:- I don't have a yard

[thirty-seven] if you could have any last name in the world, what would you want?
honestly:- Leo is pretty special already to me

[thirty-eight] do you act differently around your crush?
honestly:- I try to be more patient and loving.

[thirty-nine] name one song that reminds you of an ex?
honestly:- That Japanese song which was sung at JVC. It reminds me of my ex company :S

Anyway, I won't tag anyone but if you feel like writing something about yourself, feel free to post it up on your blog. Now, back to my own personal reading time online.

How do you react in an Emergency?

When facing an emergency situation, the first reaction one might do is look around for a phone or pull out your hand phone. The next thing one might do is then dial the wrong number! Apparently I find this article a little weird.

A customer at the shop said the old man had just called out to one of the workers in the shop for a cup of coffee and suddenly went limp before falling on the floor.

A police team from the Muar police station was rushed to the shop to investigate the incident before taking the body to the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital for a post-mortem.

If you see a man falling on the floor and being completely limp, would you call the police or call the ambulance? Looks like the people in the coffee shop did the former.

Either that, the people in the coffee shop must have thought that the old man was trying to make a run without paying his tab.

Read the full article here.

8 Things About Me - I've been tagged

If you noticed in my previous post, Gracey has tagged me with a title called, "8 Things About Me". Well there are rules to it and I would have to tag 8 other people, etc, etc, I've decided just to write 8 things about myself and tag the other people next time.

• I've recently found a passion in photography but am seriously trying not let my over addictive impulsive nature to control me and buy so many equipment such as a new camera body, lenses and other items. I need to learn how to master with what I have at the moment first before buying more stuff. Favourite subjects are nature/landscapes and street photography.
  
• I'm currently lost between wanting to upgrade my old PC or getting a MacBook or MacBook Pro altogether. I know that I would only use a computer to watch movies and TV series as well as practice my post processing with Photoshop and Lightroom.
  
• I just renewed my bet with Seng to see if I can lose weight till I reach 77kg by next year January 2008.
• I've just signed up to run for the Mizuno Wave Run (10km) in September, and I need to submit my form for the Subang Jaya 10km run at the end of August (26th).
• I love to eat "char siew & siew yuk" rice at the chicken rice shop in Sri Kembangan.
• I play the guitar once in a while now depending on how much time I have. I have quite a number of guitars at home but my favourite one would be my acoustic guitar.
  
• I am a rather techy kind of guy, not too detailed on programming stuff and web based stuff but more on a higher level scale.
  
• I love to drink coffee, mainly from Starbucks. My favourite coffee from Starbucks would either be the Banana Frappuccino on a hot day or a nice hot Mocha Latte on a cold day.
  

Well now you know a little bit more about me.

When the Thought of Fear Grips You!

Sometimes we have a fixed image or mindset which send forth a feeling of fear. For example, when we think of prison or a nightmare which we may have, this thought causes us to fear things and this feeling of fear can grip a person and cause intense emotional stress. So how do we overcome it?

Let this video below do the teaching for you!


With this in mind, we don't have to fear anything!

Fun at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2007?

From my past two posts it is rather obvious that I was at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2007 held at the Cultural Village in Sarawak, which is about a 30 minute drive from Kuching.

The crowd was mad!

Of course as expected, I am sure there will be plenty of people blogging about it but here is another person's account of the festival. Me and my friends took a night flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching Sarawak aboard our trusty low cost carrier airlines, Air Asia. The flight was on time and thank God it wasn't delayed.

By the time we touched down in Kuching, we took a cab straight to our Inn where we quickly dumped our stuff and headed out to a nearby "makan" area to grab some supper. We ended up eating by the waterfront which was pretty cooling but of course, the food wasn't that superb.

Everyone was hungry!

The food was rather interesting because they served something called "Nasi Lemak Goreng" which I thought was some concoction thought up by one of my friend back in PJ.

But enough about food, let's get back to the Rainforest Music Festival. Arriving at 11am at the Cultural Village (yes, our good friend Andrew thought that the workshops started at 9.00am), I was extremely surprised to see the place entirely empty!

No crowd at all?

People were setting things up around the place, and it was pretty clear that we were there too early! On the bright side, this allowed us to actually tour around the cultural village itself to take a look at the traditional homes and enjoy the peace and quietness.

Well after 10 minutes of doing so, I got a little bored with that and was feeling quite tired from all the walking and heat. It isn't too fun walking about lugging a huge bag filled with mineral water and my camera.

How Ulu was this?

The workshops only started at 2.00pm and there was plenty of time to kill. By the time the workshops started, I decided to attend the one which was located in a super packed theater with minimal air conditioning which made the entire place so stuffy that I nodded off a couple of times.

Guitar workshop

The only workshop I enjoyed was about guitars and stringed instruments, well, they were mainly guitars there. It was truly refreshing to see the various styles and music from different cultures, it really broadened my view of how the guitar is played in different continents!

Now when you decide to go to a event way too early, this is what you find, an empty stage.

After a couple more hours, more people start to arrive at the place.
And of course, by the time the concert starts, the place is extremely packed!

Till the next post, more pictures and stories to come!

Related posts:
- Kuching, Sarawak - Part 2
- Kuching, Sarawak

Check out the entire photo collection here.

Malaysians and Our Manners

Every single day we hear about incidents of road rage, rude counter staff, unhelpful people and poor quality of service. We pry our noses in, give some comment and complain about the "state" we are in but in evident, are we doing anything about it or are we just going to sit back and watch our nation continue this rut while we again give our "criticism"?

Tackling the problem at its root is always the method one might approach but how sure are we really tackling it at its root or could it be another branch in disguise? Two colleagues of mine, one from the land where men wear skirts and one from a small town, said that they take the highway instead of the ever congested LDP to travel to work everyday.

Why is that? Well the reasoning that both of them gave was that, on the highway, traffic is clear, they can drive as fast as they can (within the speed limit of course) without the worry of an impending traffic jam. Because of that they felt less stressed out when they arrived at work and seem to be in a more cheerful mood.

So why isn't everyone taking the clearer route? Well as usual, the clearer and faster route comes with an expensive price to pay. The travel distance is longer and the toll charges are crazy. The normal route on the LDP would cost RM6.40 for two ways but on the highway, it costs RM10.80 and not to forget the extra petrol charges as well. Is this a money issue now?

On a day to day basis, it is quite pricey to fork out RM10.80 on toll charges a day for the usual paper pusher sitting in an office located so far away from his/her home. So, they travel through the usual traffic and hopes to get in to the office in time before their bosses starts shouting at them for being late.

The freedom to choose how we live one's life is truly ours, whether we want it to be one of that is less stressful and less complicated. People tend to show their bad sides when they are physically and mentally stressed out or worn out. The entire working culture here causes many people to endure a lot of stress causing a breed of workers who are easily getting burnt out and how do they release their stress and tensions? On the road? Who knows?

Even with the emergence of our local public transportation system, traffic jams are unavoidable. We can complain and complain wondering why buses take so long to arrive and when they do, they usually come in groups of three, but ever consider that the fact that the drivers are constantly plagued by shoddy equipment and trying to get through traffic jams while being under the pressure of keeping to schedule?

How can one stay relaxed and stress free? I think if that is the case, we live in a dream world. But what we can do is make choices for ourselves that leads us to a better life, one that is less stressful but of course that comes with a price. We got to truly ask ourselves what is it that we want out of life? Is the stress, pain and suffering worth it? Have we ever sat down and thought of that?

What is your Transformers name?

With such a huge and growing success, Transformers the movie was superb and two weeks after the official launch, cinemas remain to be packed and even GSC Gold Class tickets were fully sold out. So much for a movie which impacted the lives of those who were kids in the 80s and 90s.

Of course that is not the end of it, I've even heard of collectibles being sold at a high price on eBay with the old Optimus Prime toy going for quite a hefty sum. Well, being as broke as I can be, I would just have to resort to some freebie offering on the web with any sort of relation to the famous Transformers brand itself.

After scouring through the web (to be really frank I stumbled upon this), I found my Transformers name. Sounds interesting right? So here I go inserting names and being the cheeky little bolehland kid, I decided to try out more than just my name.

Mark = Electrostreak (Autobot)

It seems that I am destined to be a goody goody guy. But I think Electrostreak sounds weird, I wonder what are my special abilities though.

Leo = Battlebolt (Decepticon)

It seems that my family name is way cooler! I wonder if this shows my true evil nature? Haha, who knows about that.

Since GMC were the car sponsors for Transformers the movie, I wonder how would it fair with our national cars.

Proton (our wonderful national car maker) = Magnoburst (Decepticon)

Sounds just about right, driving a Proton is rather scary as it might burst into flames when you crash!

Perodua = Magnoblast (Decepticon)

Wow, a great match as Perodua has been kicking Proton around in the local car market by capturing significant market share.

The kid inside of me tempted me to type even more funny words so I decided to try with the word "butt" and the results are......

butt = Cyberquake

I guess this refers to someone whose butt is as huge as an asteroid...

If you want to have some laughs yourself, check out this link here.

Drowning

Currently drowning with too much work. Need time to relax. Blog on hold at the moment, migration could be in progress...

Of Sales and Quality times

I had an awesome weekend and in the words of Barney from the CBS TV series, How I Met Your Mother, it was "Legen....no wait for it....dary!". It all started out with me crawling out of bed at an insanely hour on Saturday morning after spending the night chatting on the phone. Of course a wonderful wake up call did the trick and I sped off to KLCC where I had a meeting there at my office.

Climbing up Tower 2 of KLCC was not an easy task going through the usual security check, figuring out why the stupid express lift wouldn't shut the doors and figuring out from the 41st floor why doesn't the lift register odd-numbered floors. So I had to climb down a floor and took the lift which only went to even-numbered floors, took a lift to a floor below my intended destination and then stepped out of the lift and pressed the up button so that it would enable the so-called even-numbered lift to travel to odd-numbered floors as well.

Entering my office, I dashed towards the pantry where the coffee machine was located only to see that the machine was down for maintenance. There goes my plan for a dose of caffeine until my eye spied a couple of tins of coffee mixture. "Manual mixture this time" went through my mind as I happily stirred sugar, cream and coffee into a coffee cup.

Sipping on coffee, the meeting went by pretty quickly and by the time the shops at the mall below were open, I was there at Isetan with munZ, browsing through the items which were on sale. The sale was pretty good and I managed to buy three items for work, a shirt and a set of cuff lings. Next on the list was Marks and Spencer where I spied a couple of nice shirts and ties but there wasn't any sale going on at the moment.

A quick lunch break at Madam Kwan's was good, ate Nasi Lemak over there but I realised that the nasi lemak served at Old Town Kopitiam tasted slightly nicer. The problem with Madam Kwan's nasi lemak was that it missed a fundamental ingredient which was the deep friend "ikan bilis" and peanuts.

Taking photos at KLCC park is not an easy task because I was using my point and shoot camera this time and I couldn't fit the entire twin towers into the view unless I stood super far away. Also its not easy to take pictures of me and munZ whilst holding the camera as well. Lets just say I got shaky hands.

A quick walk through the park and I arrived at the outdoor car park which was where I parked my car in the morning. Next on my agenda, my cell member's surprise birthday party which started at night and I had to buy ice for them. Trying to carry 5 bags of ice in the rain wasn't the easiest thing to do and I got soaked in the process.

The party was quite well planned out with caterers, decorations and a blue theme which I totally forgot about but thank goodness I was already wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans. Food was aplenty and the card/poster was pretty cool. The concept was to actually take pictures of the guests who were there, print out the photos and stick them on a huge decorated cardboard and everyone writes the message in there.

By night time I was totally wiped out and I really was looking forward to getting a good night's rest. Sunday was going to be awesome as well but right now, I am just too tired to blog about it.

Till then...

p.s. All images shown on this post was not taken by me and I "borrowed" some of them from images.google.com

Something interesting about me

I got this survey over at GooGurl's page and so I decided to fill it up and blog about it.

1) Name one person who made you smile last night.
Oooh....that's a secret ;)

2)What were you doing at 8:00 this morning?
I was still sleeping in bed reading an sms. Yes I can read in my sleep :P

3) What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
I was sitting at my desk in the office.

4) What was something that happened to you in 2006?
I changed companies. Finally left that God forsaken place in Shah Alam, JVC!

5)What is the last thing you said aloud?
"I need an XS sized shirt, I love body hugging jerseys!" - (said this while lining up to collect my sports jersey at the pantry 20 minutes ago)

6) How many different things did you drink today?
Water, Nescafe White Coffee, Old Town KopiTiam white coffee and more water.

7) What color is your hairbrush?
I don't own a hairbrush, I got short hair.

8) What was the last thing you paid for?
Lunch at Old Town Kopitiam, Cyberjaya.

9) Where were you last night?
Sitting at home, watching Greys Anatomy and chatting on the phone.

10) What color is your front door?
Dark brown.

11) Where do you keep your change?
At home, in a box which sits on top of my bedside table.

12) What is the weather like today?
Good, not too hot and not too cloudy.

13) What is the best ice cream flavor?
Chocolate Strawberry.

14) What is something you are excited about?
Everything!

15) Do you want to cut your hair?
Maybe in 2-3 weeks time.

16) Are you over the age of 25?
Nopes, I am exactly 25 ahhaha.

17) Do you talk a lot?
Yeah, my faculty at CAS said that I was full of crap. In my defense, I thought I had very "interesting points" to put forward. Note the air quotes :P

18) Do you watch The O.C.?
Nopes, only when they show it on tele and I have absolutely nothing else to watch. Longest view time, 15minutes.

19) Do you know anyone named Steven?
Yes I do in fact.

20) Do you make up your own words?
Not really, do I sound like Willy Wonka to you?

21) Are you typically a jealous person?
Yes, I can be insanely jealous sometimes.

22) Name a friend whose name starts with the letter “A”
Adeboyega. I am not kidding you!

23) Name a friend whose name starts with the letter “K”
Katherine Keta Kones

24) Who’s the 1st person on your received calls list?
Oooh....that's a secret ;)

25) What did the last text message you received say?
Something about someone being 3 months pregnant :P

26) Do you chew on your straws?
Yes, I do that when I am bored.

27) Do you have curly hair?
Nopes, not interested!

28) Where is the next place you’re going?
To the gym downstairs.

29) Who is the rudest person in your life?
Rudeness cannot be measured. Usually if they are rude, I just slap some sense into them.

30) What is the last thing you ate?
Kaya and butter toast and two half boiled eggs for lunch.

31) Is marriage in your future?
Of course

32) What is the best movie you’ve seen in the past two weeks?
Shrek 3, but it was a tough choice choosing between that, Oceans 13 and Pirates of the Carribean.

33) Is there anyone you like right now?
Yeah of course. All my friends!

34) When was the last time you did the dishes?
If dishes meaning my coffee cup and water tumbler then just now when I got my coffee refill in the pantry.

35) Are you currently depressed?
Not at all.

36) Did you cry today?
Nopes, can't think of when was the last time I cried. (please don't kick my in the groin to prove a point!)

37) Why did you answer and post this?
I haven't done a survey in a while already.

38) Tag 5 people who would do this survey.
Whoever reads this and blogs.

Of Traffic Jams and Impatientness

When I read in the newspapers that they were going to widen the highway stretches and the project should be completed by next year, it reminded me of the crawl I faced on Friday night and Saturday. Friday night was when I left PJ at 9.30pm towards Teluk Batik and it took me 5 hours to get there.

As soon as I hit the NKVE and went pass Sungai Buloh, the jam started there and it crawled on all the way to Bidor. I was glad that once after exiting the highway, driving towards Teluk Intan and Sitiawan was so much better. By the time I arrived at Marina Cove, it was already 2.30am. By the time I got to bed, it was 3.30am.

On Sunday, the traffic was worse. It took me approximately 8 hours from Teluk Batik to reach back to PJ. Crawling through the ultra congested NKVE, I could only wish that the road expansion would have been completed earlier.

Right now, I am just too tired to edit the photos which I took during the trip.

Bah, traffic jams, give me a bullet train anytime...

Early Morning Frustrations

Just when I thought that losing 5 games in a row at badminton on Tuesday night was frustrating enough, watching Liverpool play AC Milan was much worse. Why? Because I sacrificed sleep to watch the match in the wee hours of the morning only to be welcomed by a disappointing and lackluster performance by Liverpool.

I could say that Liverpool seemed to look like the better side with more shots at goal but their accuracy was a totally different subject. Wasted efforts and wide shots seemed to be the life long mission for Liverpool's players.

Without the emergence of a black sheep that is Steven Gerrard within the ranks of the Liverpool team, the team seemed lost and mistake after mistake emerged as they try to bring the ball past Dida. Zenden should have been removed earlier as I thought he played horrendously while Gerrard was pretty much quiet most of the time.

I can only rant and rant about this team but if Benitez does not do anything about Liverpool and their players (I am hoping that the new owners are willing to spend on quality players), we can only see Liverpool fighting for a 3rd spot again next season as Man Utd and Chelsea continue to rampage the Premier League.

On another note, I read an article on the web that Proton Dealers are having a tough time because apparently the implementation of the National Automotive Policy early last year, in addition to the tightening of hire purchase loan approvals by Bank Negara, had further affected sales.

My take is that we are moving towards a globalism and fighting on near-fair grounds against competing car makers, Proton falls extremely short in almost every segment except for price here in Malaysia. But that has already been shot at by the emergence of Perodua.

To no end will we see the decline for Proton Dealers unless Proton itself starts to bolster its already sorry line-up of cars and start to manufacture quality cars to compete in an ever competitive market.