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.

Its Raining in the Forest??

Life for me has become increasingly busy and stressing at times but I am making do with all of that especially with a huge super milestone for the project I am coordinating occurring next week on the 18th of July. At the mean time, I will be trying to rush through quite a bit of work so that I can complete them before I fly off to Kuching, Sarawak tomorrow night (yes I will be attending the Sarawak Rain Forest Music Festival!!). With any luck, I can complete my work by then and ensure that I have everything ready to go forward.

I have been looking forward for this trip which we planned out since the Charge Up! Conference which I attend sometime back in March. Unfortunately my project Go-Live was then set to the 18th of July which is next week thus causing me to be a little stressed out at the moment. As they always said, work will be work but I can't help it thinking of all the issues and problems that always seem to come up at the very last moment.

On another totally unrelated matter, I won't be migrating my blog. The features found on Wordpress was rather lacking and it frustrated me quite a bit. I like to have a chat box on my blog but unfortunately it isn't available or maybe I am just too daft to set it up there. Until then, any sort of blog migration will be kept on hold.

Anyhow, I managed to finally upload the photos I took at the CYZ Leaders Retreat at MBS, you can view the photos here.

Drowning

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

Of Marmalade and Quality Times

Last week, I really couldn't wait for Sunday to arrive. Keeping my bubbling enthusiasm inside within myself, I was actually waiting for a surprise someone special promised me. Of course being the manly man I am (haha flabby man more like it :P), I kept my excitement hidden and at the same time, looked pretty cool about it.

Anyhow, Sunday came and it started pretty early in the morning with a ZL meeting at 9am, followed by service at church and then lunch! Wondering where I will be heading for lunch, I finally got a clue that it would be at Bangsar Village 2. After a quick drive over to Bangsar, I stepped out of my car in excitement and when the lift opened, I was quickly amazed by this new place which I've never been to, Marmalade.

Chicken Stew

A quick look at the menu and I decided to try out the Lamb Shank with brown rice while munZ took the chicken stew (picture above). Both dishes looked great and scrumptious and it tasted as good as it looked good. I tried taking more pictures from a different angle but the lighting and my IXUS 70 camera couldn't just cut it . Now where was my D40 when I needed it.

Lamb Shank with Brown Rice

The lamb shank with brown rice was extremely filling and it was great. I've had some wonderful lamb shank in the past (back in the days when I was in the UK) and this tasted pretty good. For a more comprehensive review about the food over there, you can head over to "a whiff of lemongrass" and "masak-masak" which are two dedicated food bloggers. I'm not much of a food critic and can't tell the difference between marinara sauce and seafood sauce.

The surprise really made me happy and I was filling full and contented and extremely happy and joyous. Activities after helped me settle my stomach especially after such a heavy meal like that. The shops in Bangsar Village 2 are way better than the original Bangsar Village.

After lunch, I went and watched Music and Lyrics which was a good movie and might probably write a short review on it. Had a lot of fun watching the movie too. Sunday ended with a good family dinner at Chilli's to celebrate Father's Day , the place wasn't too crowded and we managed to get seats pretty quickly as well.

All in all, last weekend was a blast!

My Favourite Chicken Rice Stall

If there is one place I frequent the most, it would definitely not be McDonalds or Starbucks. Actually it is one of my favourite stalls near my workplace. It is my favourite chicken rice stall. Well I don't usually eat just chicken of course, pork is a definite yes to my ever saddening diet because Cyberjaya is such a lousy place for good food.

Located in Sri Kembangan, near Jusco

If you asked me why do I love that place so much, I really can't tell you why. The food is excellent because there is also a mixed rice stall in there where I can still get some dosage of vegetables and fried egg and more fried pork!

I frequent the place quite often, well at least once a week that the chicken rice lady knows me pretty well. All I have to do is tell her how many people are in my group that day and she would just bring the food to us.

Super chicken rice lady in the middle

I really have to salute the chicken rice lady as she recently gave birth to her baby (I should ask her what sex her baby was), and previously while she was pregnant, she would still go about and serving chicken rice. Really, she always looked as if her baby was too heavy but she would go about serving people.

Now if you are wondering why there aren't any photos of the food here, lets just say that it is that nice that my colleagues can't wait to dig into the food. If you ever want directions I would be more than happy to give them to you. If you are ever stuck in Cyberjaya and you are craving for some chicken rice or good food for that matter, drop me a message and I will definitely guide you to this wonderful stall.

My colleagues think that there are drugs in the chilli because I consume so much of it and every time when we drive back, I seem a little "high". But then again, I think its because I had just fulfilled my pork cravings.