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I just learned that if you flash your Jusco card in Starbucks, you get 10% off! Wow, this is news to me but I've already finished all my Berjaya sponsored coupons :( -- Sent from iPhone

My early Christmas/New Year gift from a friend is........... (( drum roll....................... )) Woooo hooooooo! My friend helped me to get this by pulling string with another friend who works in Microsoft who is able to get this at an employee store at employee price. I am not sure how close they were but it was still a big favour. I understand that asking favour is not an easy and nice thing to do, so I really appreciate this and is indebted to my friend. The Windows 7 packaging is cheap. It consist of a plastic box (and it's the cheap plastic type, not the hard clear case that Windows Vista came with). This cheap plastic box is covered by a paper box that you see above. If it weren't for the hologram disc, I could have mistaken this to a made-in-China-bootleg copy. I can't wait to go home and upgrade my PC! YAY YAY YAY! The manual and the two installation disc - one is for 32-bit, the other is for 64-bit. A pictorial view of the cheap plastic. Note the "Microso...

My wallet and credit card is doomed! I have already said that I don't have time to play games. But I have this OCD to collect games, in the hope that one fine day I will have the time to play. So I kept on collecting stuff from Steam Sales. And now, they are having their annual store wide sales. HELP!!!!!!! (I feel as helpless as a woman when they see a sale... gosh!)

In the previous post, I posted a photo. I took it during a wedding dinner in a restaurant in Kepong. What amused me was the fact that the dishes are brought into the dining hall in a trolley. So one waiter will serve about 8-9 tables at the same time. This is a first for me, in a wedding dinner. I have seen this in a dim sum restaurant but not in a wedding dinner. I thought it was damn efficient! We finished the dinner in about 1.5 hours :)

Guess where am I?

Meeting up Bahija and Dragon Queen in The Curve for lunch today. He he. Bosses are away so the mice starts to play. Here's a photo of Christmas deco in the Curve. Why am I blogging so much today? Don't know. Bored I guess.

Gosh - I have developed a new OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. When I see games on sale in Steam , I want to buy it.. even though I know I don't have the time to play them. Steam is a digital distributor/online games store. Whenever you buy a game, your account is tagged with that game. You can download the game from any PC and play it. It's also a social network platform. My friends will see me in a game. They can chat with me when I am in a game (or technically, since they know I am in-game, they shouldn't disturb me :P ) They will also know what games I own and can join me in a multiplayer game if we both own the same game. And Steam knows about my OCD, which explains the reason it has weekend sale, mid-week sale and holiday sale. Essentially, I am paying US$5 or US$10 per game, every week, so that I can have the game listed in my account. Someone said it more eloquently than I could and I quote that person: "I realized I'm giving Valve money to put game tit...

This morning I waltz into my favourite fish ball noodle stall only to hear the helper, an Indonesian maid, screaming "saya perempuan!" She said this twice and then the owner, who was staring at her, banged the table and scream "perempuan apa besar!". He almost hit her. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at the two of them. I backed off from ordering. I didn't think it would be appropriate to interupt and say "mai fan noodle please!" This incident reaffirm my thoughts that maids bring out the worse in someone . This fishball noodle man is very polite, soft and always smiling when he takes my order. Sometimes we had some slight chit chat and he's a really nice person. I cannot imagine him smacking a fly, much less a maid. Something must have happened to cause him to bang table and screamed at the maid. I'm not implying the maid is right or wrong - it's the fact that having the power to lord over another human being bring out the worse in ...

I am at a cross road now. I managed a technical team in my job today. My boss wants to change the composition of a purely technical team to include sales, marketing and technical without additional headcount. This has a few implications: 1. I will have to redeploy some people to other areas i.e. help them find another job . To backfill them, I have to look for sales and marketing people instead 2. our existing services to our customers will be affected because I will have less technical people to do the work 3. my role will change from a technical manager to a sales/marketing manager. My boss doesn't seem to care about the technical services we have rendered thus far, which explained why he could just change the set up of the team, just like that. In fact, during this change, we both agreed that I am not the right person for the new role he envisioned it to be. However, he told me he appreciated my contributions and would like me to take on a regional technical leadership role tha...

Bahija and I had lunch in a coffee shop. The cina coffee shop type that has no a/c. Bahija came first and she could not find a table so she share a table with a man. This man looks like a blue collar worker. When I came, he was chatting with Bahija.. very friendly guy. What surprised me was that he kept on commenting and interjected our conversations. He commented about food in this coffee shop, said it's nice.. and then started asking me personal questions like what do I do, where do I stay, am I married, how many kids and at the end he even asked me for my telephone number so that he can one day asked me out for yum char and consult me on PC related matters. On the other hand, we also learned what he do for a living (he sells spare parts), where he stays, the reason he's in this neighbourhood, etc. The whole thing is kinda weird. How could one stranger asked so many things.. and he seems harmless but yet, why asked for telephone number. I have a suspicious that he's inter...

In the past couple of weeks, I had a couple of gatherings with friends and their immediate families. Bahija and I talked about this earlier this year, after one gathering during CNY, but I felt it more this time around. Somehow, I felt that these big gatherings (big is defined as more than 3 couples i.e. 6 people and kids) is kinda pointless - the crowd is too big to have proper and intimate conversations. And with the kids running about and seeking the parents attention, including my own baby, I wished that the dinner would end faster so that I could run back home to my quiet cave. The dinner felt more like a 'work' than an enjoyment. The environment was not relaxing at all! So perhaps we can ditch the families when friends need to gather. That's the way I see it. Let the wife and baby stay at home (in fact, I am sure they would appreciate it too) and let us friends just hang out in a cafe or some nicer eateries so we can chit chat and catch up. That's the whole point ...

I wouldn't call myself a big fan of MJ but I do like his songs. When he came to KL for a concert, it's like a once in a lifetime event and despite not being able to afford the concert ticket (I just started working) I bit the bullet, use the cc and bought the ticket. I have no regrets. His stage presence is amazing. I felt like I was hit by an unending electrical storm during the concert. And I remembered joining the crowd screaming his name in hysteric. Yeah... me doing that! LOL. I know that This Is It is taken from shots during rehearsal. So I am not expecting it to be the full concert. It's not even a full dress rehearsal. After I have seen the movie, I thought that this concert, should it happened, is going to be amazing. Much better than the one I saw in Malaysia. There are so much technology, eye candy, thoughts, quality, production value put into the show. No wonder it was a sell out! But I also saw something - I saw that MJ is not really putting a lot of dance move...

I'm on leave today. Lots of games to play. But I think I'll go see Michael Jackson's This Is It after reading recommendation from Kiasu Ching. Will post impression later. -- Sent from iPhone

You know how you sometimes see a movie and if it was an awesome movie, you knew you just had one of your finest movie moments? I could think of many fine movie moments - Matrix, Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Rings, Titanic (cough!), Braveheart, Savings Private Ryan, Heat, etc. I had my finest gaming moment yesterday. It's not something I experienced lately because I don't have much time to game - actually, in reality, there aren't that many quality games that captivated me. I missed these experience. Sometimes I wish I could be 'young and naive' and be surprised by this new game. Anyway, I had that experience again yesterday when I took leave to play two games: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Braid. Both are very different game. And both blew my mind away! One with a unexpected twist in the plot while the latter with its sheer ingenuity in gameplay design (although, storywise, I am still lost and baffled)! If you are interested in gaming, do give both a t...

I'm on leave today. On an unrelated news, I read about a Singaporean pouring boiling water onto her maid's genital and extracting her two front teeth with pliers. Such cruelty and inhuman act. Just yesterday, a friend proclaimed that she want to kill her maid. I believe that maids bring out the worst behaviour out of someone. We forget our humanity when we have complete power to lord over someone. My friend is the nicest lady I know and yet her maid could turn her into a monster. That is also one of the reasons I'm not using a maid. To save myself and also to discourage these negative learning by little sen. -- Sent from iPhone

Our dog, Harry , was attacked and killed this morning by a neighbour dog. It's sad. He was minding his own business, going for his morning walk, on a leash, with my father when the neighbour dog attacked. My father tried to push the dogs apart, fortunately, they didn't bite him, but the evil dog leapt and lunged at Harry. He bled a lot and after 3 or 4 vicious bites at the back and thigh, he lied motionless by the roadside. My father thought he's still breathing and rushed him to the vet. At 7am in the morning, no vets were opened so they went to the 24-hour vet hospital in Jalan Ipoh, near Pekeliling. By the time they reached the hospital, Harry's eyes and tongue turned black and he passed away. The doctor said that if he were much younger, he would have survived the bites but because Harry's so old, it's impossible for him to sustain the injury. The neighbour was very sorry - not their fault, actually - she was reversing her car and had her autogate open at th...

It's not going to have any of the problems Vista had. Trust me!

Read this in my email this morning: (one of my readers need this .. hope she will read it and reflect) This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an Honorary PhD.. "I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will be the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul. People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much ...

There are games that changed how you play games. Ultima 4 changed the way role playing games are built and design. In Ultima 4, winning is not killing the big bad boss but winning is improving your own virtues of Honesty, Compassion, Spirituality, Valor, Honor, Sacrifice, Justice and Humility. Grand Theft Auto 3 changed the open world gaming concept. It created Liberty City as a world so alive and full with happenings that other gaming worlds looked mundane and boring and repetitive in comparison. The sheer amount of things to do, the faction wars among the gangs all contributed in a living and breathing world. Red Faction: Guerilla , the current game that I am hooked at, introduced destruction and mass explosion to the virtual world. In this game, you can destroy every building and man-made structure. You could chip the base away with your sledgehammer and the building would collapse on its own weight or you could plan denotation and blow the whole thing away. You could just drive a...

Didn't realize my fans are also fish ball noodle fans. wsl - you remember Lai Fong ah? We go there before Economics tuition. Here's the direction to Lai Fong in KL. It's very near Bangkok Bank, opposite Chinatown Entrance: View Larger Map As for the equivalent fish ball noodle soup, it's in Aman Suria, near my house. Follow the road to Tropicana and before the underground pass, turn left to go to Dataran Prima. The restaurant is before Dataran Prima, called Suncity and it faces NKVE. View Larger Map

Not a bad Raya weekend for games :) Despite having a stomach and head ache and visitors, I manage to sneak in a few hours of games! Thanks to little sen for behaving, wifey for her understanding and parents in law for dropping by to help out!

I love fish ball noodle. When we were younger, ZipD and I would take 2 buses from Kepong to DJ every week just to play a video game called Crackdown. We would stop in KL and frequent this restaurant called Lai Foong. It's beside Bangkok Bank. I always ordered to fish ball noodle there. Something about Lai Foong's fishball is really addictive. I specifically love the 'flying saucer'. These days you can't really find a good fishball stall. The Teo Chew fishball chain just didn't do it. Until one day I found a fishball stall in a restaurant near my house. It's exactly like the one they served in Lai Foong! Taste the same. I think I must have eat this almost twice a week. I just can't get bored of it. If you like fishball, let me know and I can show you the way...

A blog about beautiful photos taken using iPhone! http://iphonephoto.us/

Typical day: 6.00pm - left office for home 6.20pm - reach babysitter's house to pick up little sen 6.30pm - back home with little sen. Played and talked to her for a while.. 6.50pm - go out to tar pau dinner. Anne will probably be expressing milk or cleaning up bottles, boil water - doing baby stuff 7.20pm - I come back.. hopefully sen is still quiet and enjoying herself... I'll start eating dinner while watching her and Anne would go bathe.. or it could be the other way round - I bathe and she eats dinner... or.................. sen starts to cry for milk and dinner or bathe has to be put on hold. Normally, one of us would feed her, the other will have to take a quick bite or quickly go shower. Her feeding is about 15 minutes and the burping is an additional 10-15 minutes. If she feeds, she would poo.. and it's changing diapers time.. add 10 minutes. 8.00 - 8.30pm - Anne's turn for dinner.. my turn for shower. 8.30pm - We do our evening prayers - gongyo and daimoku. Th...

Look what came into my mailbox.. a brand new copy of "Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tips - Confessions of a Cynical Waiter". Yup, I finally bought the book! Readers of this website would know that I am a big fan of waiterrant.net , a blog by a waiter on, waiting business. The author is a funny writer and I often find myself LOL-ing when reading his blog. I have been following his blog for years and while he had always been anonymous, he decided one day to write a book. Since then, his cover was blown and we all know him as Mr Steve Dublanica. I even put his ad on the right side of my blog. Click on that and you can read the first 20 pages of the book. Ever since he released the book, I have been meaning to get my hands on one. But it's just too expensive. The hardcover copy cost RM96! So, I waited patiently and last month, the paperback version is out. Retail price was about RM59. No problemo. I just have to wait till it come to Malaysia. Then last week, while browsing mp...

Saw this in my post box. From real estate agent trying to get houseowner to sell their properties. What caught my eyes are the table that recorded recent sales. Doesn't look like the economy downturn is affecting properties in Bandar Utama.

Rose Cottage, Tanah Rata, Cameron Highlands. This is our favourite escapade. Although we have not done it for many years, I do yearn to have an escapade back to Rose Cottage in Cameron Highlands. What do we do there? We lugged our PCs and set up a LAN and play PC games ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT LONG.. and we ate Maggie Mee, junk food, drink Coca Cola, Nescafe, make our own Western Breakfast (luncheon meat, sausages, hard boiled eggs, red beans). Don't you think it's fun? It's not a cheap cottage.. About RM500/night. But it's nice, spacious, cozy and more importantly, it's very private and quiet.. so we can scream expletives all day too! :) Those were the days!

Someone asked me to take a photo of my hand and little sen's every month. They say I'll be amazed how fast she will grow. Here's a photo I took last week. She's 9 weeks old.

Nice ah? Even though it is a 2.0mp camera, I bet you that the photos are much better than many other camera phones.. And the best things are that there are many apps available that you can download to spruce up your photos. Put some filters and special effects.. and your photos will turn out differently - just like what I have done here. So, what's not to like? :)

Unbelievable! A friend who was house hunting told me that over the past 3 months, prices in BU, and Taman Tun have been going up like crazy! A basic house in BU12 is now selling for 560K! Just less than a year ago , my neighbour told me that she bought her place, fully renovated, at 580K. Today, a basic house is already 560K! My friend told me he saw, with his own eyes, the asking price going up month after month! He regretted that he missed the boat when it was 520K just a couple of months back! He's now wondering if he should bite the bullet.

I'm sure you have heard of this idiom but have you ever wondered why they used milk and not other form of liquid? Why not water or soup or Coca Cola? Last weekend, we knew why. Anne was expressing milk from her breasts when it happened. Expressing milk is hard work. Lots of energy needed to press the pockets of cells/ducts around the breast to squeeze milk into the tits to assist the Avent pump she was using. Typically a session to express 6 oz of milk from both breasts take about 30 minutes. So, you can imagine the blood chilling wail that she produced when she spilled the container as she reached for the cover. All 6 oz and half hour of hard work gone! Nothing can be done. I have to mop the mess while she still 'cry'. No point crying over spilled milk, indeed!

This is in the dining area. Total damages RM5.3K. Ouch.

This was what happenened this week. New set of kitchen cabinets. Nyatoh solid wood (doors only). Am very happy with it. Now my kitchen is more presentable.

Anti-Ringgit, the frequent flyer, is not observing self quarantine despite travelling to Australia and Philippines. My staff, Laila, asked me yesterday if she should self quarantined by working from home, because she's meeting her friend who just came back from Australia. One is indifference, one seemed to want to take advantage of the situation. Such is life.

I'm resting now, after 3 hours of sweeping, mopping and installing the baby cot. Sen and mother are coming back to BU. We are very excited about this because it will be us, our small family, on our own now. No in laws or parents about. Everytime I do things for sen, be it installing a cot or cleaning the room for her or rocking her to sleep for 2 hours in the wee hours of the morning or changing her dirty diapers, I can't help but think that I'm not alone in this. All fathers would do the same. And I think that my father must have done the same for me. When I was cleaning every inch of the newly installed cot, rubbing each rung meticulously with Dettol to kill germs (it's a hands me down cot, btw), I was damn sure that my father would have gone through the same ordeal for me. As I was checking my bills and shaking my head over how expensive that jab was (it was rm270 for a jab and there's more to come!) or how much it has cost us thus far (just that 2 nights in ...

iTunes Top 10 Albums dated 27 June 2009

Wow. I went to iTunes Top 10 album today and 9 out of 10 are MJ's album. Black Eye Pea's The End occupied number 10. That means people were buying MJ albums non stop!!! -- Sent from iPhone

7 early 8 early I received an SMS from anti-Ringgit. It said "Michael Jackson died at 50. Cardiac arrest." I stopped and reread the SMS. Unbelievable. MJ. The King of Pop. Dead. At 50, such a young age! Why is it that people are dying young these days? Later, when I read the NY Times website about this story, I found out that he is planning 50 comeback concerts in London. They were all sold out, btw. The first one is supposed to start July 8th but he postponed it to July 12th. At that time, there were concerns of his health - turned out to be true! I wonder if he pushed himself too hard during rehearsal or preparation for the concert. After all, he's well known to be a person who wants perfection on stage. He was a great showmanship. I am glad I went to his concert in Stadium Merdeka. I still remember that it was expensive - but it was also an MJ concert.. and I just had to go. I went with AR and Julian. It totally blew me away! We joined the crowd in screaming his name l...

After using the iPhone for 2 months, I can't imagine myself using any other phone.. and can't comprehend why people don't want to use an iPhone. It's like I am from Mars and they are from Venus or something like that. If you have not played with the iPhone, now is the time. Edit: based on WSL's comment, I thought I should enlighten my reader on what I mean: The iPhone strength is in two areas: 1. Internet browsing and capabilities - eg blogging, email, surfing 2. Applications! With over 50,000 applications, it's just mind blowing. Don't believe me - watch all the videos here. They have an application just for anything! http://www.apple.com/iphone/gallery/ads/

This evening, little sen went to her grandma's house for dinner. She met her cousin brother who is three weeks older. We put them together for some photo sessions and look, they are holding hands! Awwwwwwww...

I told you about Fei Kei Chai , my mother-in-law's term for mosquitoes. It sounds endearing until one day when I announced out loud that I will "ta fei kei chai". In Canto it means, beat mosquitoes but the perverted mind will read it as "beat aeroplane" which is a slang for masturbate. Gosh!

One of my favourite authors, Michael Crichton passed away some time late last year (or was it early this year?) Today, I read news that another author, David Eddings, passed away at the age of 77. Mr Eddings wrote the Belgariad series - I still remember that it was my friend Siham who introduced me to this series. Have been hooked to it ever since and even managed to influence ZipD to read.

Due to King's birthday on Saturday, I'm on replacement leave on Monday. The morning was spent at the in-laws, spending quality time with the wife and baby. Afternoon, I came back home. I need to get the house sweep and mop. Have not been doing that for the past four weeks! Ewwwwww! I know. I'm now taking a break from the chores. Drinking a cold drink and wanted to pen down a couple of thoughts. First one is about house. Last month I had a visitor from America. He made two observations that was interesting to me. He said that houses in US has centralized a/c and heater. That means even if you are in the living room, your bedroom, toilet, kitchen are all cooled by the a/ c. He thinks it's a waste of energy and money but that is how houses are designed in the States. These are rules by the government. My friend said that the expense is therefore very high and that's how it is in the States. You may earn a lot but you spent a lot. That's what makes the e...

Tomorrow is Anne's birthday and one day before little sen's turned one month. So, it's kinda double celebration. What should I get for them? PANIC alert!

So this was what happened yesterday. Laila and Mohammad (not their real names) are two of my staff. Laila is a junior staff. Mohammad is senior. Mohammad is the jaded, experienced, I know best, I don't listen, I am above you - type of person. Maybe it is due to age. Anyway, he has some problems - everyone knows it. All the other managers who manages him gave up. But I did not. I try not to. Everyone has a chance and everyone has good intentions. And Mohammad does have good intentions. His customers loves him. He gets things done. He's self driven, aggressive.. his problems is just in people relationship. Recently, there was a bout of complains about Mohammad from the team and from people in the company. In a spirit of improving him, I fed back to him. As per his usual self, he was self defensive. He asked me for some examples and I gave him. With Mohammad, if you try to be tactful and generalize, he doesn't get it. It's difficult to penetrate to him because he refused t...

That's the term my mother in law used for those pesky mosquitoes. It literally means little air planes. An endearing term for something so deadly. One of the things that a new father has to master is to 'shoot' down these fei kei chai. Kinda makes you feel like you are in the Air Force except that you don't pilot another plane and dog fight them to death. Instead I have to use a electric swatter, something like a badminton raquet, to do the job. So,the feeling is like being King Kong instead. Ha ha. Have to have keen eye sight, fast reflex, accuracy and merciless. These are the skills requirement for being a new father. Sent from my iPhone

This is a test. I captured a picture and sending it as an email to blogger. In theory it should appear as a blog post. If it works, another good reason for an iPhone. This restaurant in Sg Buloh serves very good curry mee. One of my favourite hang out place whenever I'm at my in-laws. Great environment, superb teh ping and reasonable price. What's not to like?

Photos from actual site. Work has already started. Concept arts and photo, courtesy of JTan from BU11. The new Bandar Utama police station will be built beside McDonald's at Center Point. Here's hoping that the presence of a police station will reduce the crime rate but I am not hopeful. SS2 has one of the highest crime rate and there is this huge police station in SS2. In fact, I recently heard of a case where someone was robbed outside Maybank in SS2. And opposite Maybank is the police station. Don't you think it was a joke? The robbers must be mocking the police. They must be shoving a finger up their collective ass for robbing the guy right under their noses. I am afraid that would be what's going to happen to this Bandar Utama police station - an empty shell of an empty instituition...

Ringgit has added AdSense to his blog. He needs $ for the family. Please click on the ad! (ha ha .. I wonder if it really works!)

Bahija requested I take a picture of the Mother Day's card that little sen (daughter of Ringgit) sent to her mother on Mother's Day. See the pinkish card above.

Well, I was in Ho Chi Minh City on a business trip and guess what I found out? There are no McDonald's in Vietnam! Not a single one. Asking the locals confirmed it but he doesn't know why. There's only one or two KFC in the city. I saw one KFC and was tempted to try it but I was in a taxi and just finished lunch and could not ask the cab to stop. But goodness.. no McDonald's! Is it because of anti-American sentiment or just that Vietnamese don't like burgers? I have no idea. Coincidentally DroolMan is in HCMC too and he will be here for two weeks. What's bizarre is that we both stay in the same hotel! We didn't know about our trips and yet we stay in the same hotel. How about that for coincidence! I found out that he's going to HCMC from his FB status. We met up for breakfast every morning and if time permits and I am not too burnt out, we meet up for coffee at night. It's like the old times - mamak - but in a 5-star hotel under the comfort of air co...

The iPhone is both a blessings and curse during the labour and after the baby was born. Blessings: 1. When baby and mommy are sleeping, it's good to keep daddy occupied.. get to FB, surf Net, send emails, etc 2. Instant photo taking and sorting - granted, other phones could do this but nothing beats the experience of flicking and pinching your photos to zoom. And instant sending of photos as emails. 3. SMS was fun - it's so cool to see SMS as conversation threads. Makes the experience surreal. Curse: 1. people expect minute by minute updates. Very stressful le :P especially when wife is in pain - I can't be tapping on the phone 2. The phone RANG! while Anne was pushing the baby up! I took good care to make sure it was shut off but it rang - because of the morning alarm! Alarm will ring regardless! Imagine the shock! LOL! Ok ok.. I really cannot ramble. This post was put up due to peer pressure to write something! HA HA!

Wow.. last weekend, my baby girl was born.. and the missus and my life turned upside down. They say you will have sleepless nights. They say you will have joy and fear. They say you will have frustrations and helplessness. All very true. But in the end, it's all worth it. Anne gets to celebrate her first ever Mother's Day last Sunday. I bought a card. Quite cute card. The cover says "To my mommy from her little girl". I was surprised to see such a card. It's like it's made for her! So in the card, I represent the little one and wrote to her mother - thanking her for the 9 months of carrying and taking care of her health; thanking her for the pain she has to go through during her 10 hour labour. Thanking her for being patient when she (baby) was demanding and unreasonable. Thanking her for chanting hours of daimoku for her safety and happiness. I thought that was a nice touch. So today I am back to work. We only have a measley 3 day paternity leave. My friend s...

I learned this morning that the swine flu is not the same as the JE virus outbreak that happened in Malaysia a few years ago. The JE virus originated from pig farms too but it's a different type of virus. Swine flu is flu - fever, coughm sore throat. JE virus caused brain damage and possible paralysis. Anyway, I found this Google Map Mashup that tracks the spread of swine flu. It's pretty wide. Very worrying. I pray that it doesn't come to Asia - Asia has so many people (China and India has billions in population) and our healthcare/screening are not as sophisticated. If it ever happens here, the spread of the virus would be unprecedented. Thank goodness Asians don't go Mexico for vacation... Use the "+" and "-" sign at the top left to zoom out and see the complete world map. Pink markers are suspect Purple markers are confirmed Deaths lack a dot in marker Yellow markers are negative View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

Rotitelur - I am not sure how consistent you would update your blog but nevertheles, I am advertising your blog here: http://rotitelur-tehtarik.blogspot.com/

Lookie - look what I pulled out from my jeans: "MY PRECIOUSSSSSSSSSSSSS" Yes, it's an iPhone 3G.. white back.. which automatically signifies a 16GB version - the best! Apple has two iPhone 3G models: the 8GB which comes only in black and the 16GB which has two colour: black and white. So, if you have a 16GB, it only makes sense to get a white - it's more exclusive.. and it is reminisence of an iPod - which originally made its debut in white. And typical of Apple, the black iPhone comes in a black box. The white one came in a white box (I didn't expect this, actually)... Inside this handsome package is an iPhone, a USB cable for charging, a 3 way plug for wall charging, a stereo headphone with mic - so it doubles as a headset, instructions manual, Apple logo to be stick to cars/computers and a soft cloth for wiping the phone. I really like the wall charger as it means I don't need to charge ths iPhone from a PC.I didn't get any casing for the iPhone. Lookin...

This morning, Anne's colleague called her in a state of panic. She noticed that she has bloody discharge. This colleague was 1 month pregnant. She woke up this morning with blood - she described it as "like having period". Anne asked her to stay calm but go immediately to a hospital/clinic. 40 minutes later, she called to say she had a miscarriage. We are saddened by the news. It's not easy to conceive.. so it must be a blow to her. Her husband is outstation. I can't imagine the pain she has to go through. When she first conceived, it was not very stable. She saw a doctor who gave her medicine and adviced her to rest a lot. Unfortunately, work demands her to work very later hours. She's also very stressed up with her job. We think this could be the main reason for her miscarriage. At times I wonder.. is it really worth it? The job I mean? Back to my earlier post on Beauty, Good and Gain ... there's no beauty in a job that would cause a miscarriage! Sometim...

So lately I am having motivational issues regarding work. I start to have negative thoughts about it. I wonder if this is the right job for me? What is a right job? Do I have to go through this every day? I tried very hard to lift my spirit and have positive thinking - it's working some what but certain days when the shit hits, it's all down the drain again and I have to start picking myself up. Even an iPhone, which finally arrived, didn't help.. In fact, I was selected by a renowned petroluem company for a first interview. I don't know if I was successful - but I am seriously considering changing job/company. I remember someone told me about the type of jobs we should look for. The job should give you 3 qualities: beauty, gain and good. Gain is money. We work for a living. Every job must pay well. My current job does. So it has gain. Good is where what you do is not bad to the society. Extreme examples are you are not selling drugs or you are not working in a company ...

I first heard about this show from my friend - about this mobile phone salesman singing opera and winning this "American Idol-like" show. His name was Paul Potts and he was amazing. Go to YouTube and search for his name. Today, I read about this: LONDON, April 16 — Susan Boyle, who admits she has never been kissed, astonished the judges at the auditions for ITV1 show with her rendition of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ from “Les Miserables” . The clip of her audition has been viewed 2,485,245 times in 72 hours. The 48-year-old charity worker from West Lothian announced from the stage that her dream was to emulate West End star Elaine Paige. Actually, when I saw today, her YouTube video was seen 15 million times! I think that's the highest YouTube view EVER! And it was simply amazing. I had teary eye! Please click to view - you'll not regret it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Ok, we still have not figure out a name.. there's some characters we have narrowed down to but we couldn't combo them to make it sound nice: jin - for glittering eg glittering stars ann - as in gratitude si - as in poetry It's hard thinking of a good name!

Woo hooooo! Thanks to Bahija, Ringgit has pestered ING to reduce his interest rate from 6.15% to 5.35% and now to 5% (pending their management approval)... that's a savings of about 12K of interest! And if I upped my monthly repayment by RM800, I can repay the BU house in 7 years time! I had to threaten them that I will refinance, show them an offer from PBB and only then do they agree to reduce. Lots of emails and faxes but hey, it's a lot of savings le! Wow.. 7 years later and I am half a millionaire (if I sell my house, that is.. LOL) Still.. I would urge all of you to write to your banks and get a reduction in interest rate. HUGE SAVINGS!

I finished World of Goo (last Saturday) and Fallout 3 (a couple of week ago). I still have GTA4 to go.  But I am already dreaming of new games I wanna play: Braid is one of them. Then there's The Path (although I have some reservation because it is a horror game).  I still have Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect and Stalker to play. These are heavy duty stuff that probably needed more time investment .. but Braid and The Path would be pretty simple and fun.  Let's wait for the Steam Sales. At the moment, my attention is on GTA4.

So, yesterday I went for an interview. It was with faith leaders on my appointment to take on slightly bigger responsibilities. Bahija would relate. So I said that I am not ready yet. This guy told me something which I thought makes sense - he said, there are two type of person:  The first being looking for the right time, waiting for the right feel, and then taking up the responsibility. It may take some time.. a couple of years, maybe five.. During this time, there will be a lot of excuses and reason that would prevent this person from searching - maybe a new job, new role in the family, new crisis to resolve.. or maybe.. it was a smooth, comfortable life in the next five years - no reasons to even step out of the comfort zone. As time past, the heart of the person grows smaller instead of expanding - the tendency of arrogance and selfishness easily come in... what are the chances of taking up the responsibility? The second type of person could be someone who has the mind set of ...

I still have no iPhone! The number one Apple fan.. the guy who pre ordered even before they launched on March 20th.. the guy who called maxis Customer Service numerous time.. has.not.received.his.iPhone ! They came to my office for a roadshow. That's where I could officially signed up and continued my corporate plan status. They said I will get the phone in one or two weeks time. Today is the second week. NO NEWS OF THE PHONE! When I emailed the account manager, she promised me this Friday. I have no confidence in her statement. Maxis - you suck!

Busy with work.. can't think of anything to blog about. I wonder how some people do it? How can they blog just about anything? Malaysia has a new PM. I also wonder how could a person who are accused of a murder - whether true or not - it does not matter but the fact that he was implicated in the crime which showed that there must be some hanky panky going on... and yet, somehow, this guy is now our PM... gosh.. our leader! I feel so ashamed - wtf!

Like our Malaysia PM, my adventure with iPhone and maxis is a flip flop adventure. Yesterday I received a call from maxis to say that they now allow people in Corporate Plan to buy iPhone. And all I need to do is sign an addedum to the agreement. No penalty for me. The only caveat? I can't get it in KLCC during the launch time which starts tomorrow and ends Sunday. I can only get it on the 26th and from an assigned 3rd party vendor. I do hope that the vendor is based in PJ.. preferably the one in One Utama. The best thing is.. I still get to call my co-workers for free! (here's hoping there's no flip flopping on this one)

Sometimes conversation between Anne and I are funny: "Have you eaten mah tai (a type of fruit) before?" she would asked one evening while peeling the skin off the fruit. "Yes, I have" "When was it?" "Um, let's see.. 254 days ago.." ==== "So, did you go toilet this morning?" she would ask. I have constipation problems. "Yes" "How much?" "Huge shit load!" "Really?" "Yeah.. if you don't believe, I will take a picture in the future as proof!" "EWWWWWW!"

I am disappointed.. I am not getting the iPhone, not because I don't want to but because maxis refused to let me to. This morning, ZipD told me that he received sms and email confirmation for the iPhone. I wondered about mine. We submitted at about the same time.. ok maybe 20 minutes later for me.. but I didn't hear anything. I called 123 to find out why and was told that I am currently on a corporate plan. I remember this plan. I signed up because it gives a free phone (for my mother).. and the best thing about this plan is that I can call all my coworkers for free! And what's more, Anne could call her sister (who works in the same company as I do) for free. She used my phone a lot for that. So I am already on this plan for 20 months. It expires in June. According to the iPhone FAQ, when you are signed up to a plan and you have met min 20 months criteria, you can change to the iPhone plan. I reminded the Customer Care lady about this clause and she said "ya hor.. you ...

He he he ... I went online and placed my order. Am waiting for a confirmation SMS to say that my order is confirmed. It's been 20 hours.. no SMS. Maxis sucks! But, they were well prepared for the onslaught of enquiries. If you dial 123 to call maxis, there is a Option 6 just for iPhone enquiries.. cool... Am I having buyer's remorse? Slightly .. not sure why - 10 years ago, I would not have blink much for getting a 1K phone. Now.. things were different. Maybe I am more stingy!

It will be under MAXIS! There's definitely a plan/contract you have to sign up.. one that includes data plan. WOW! I WANT ONE! NOW! I have waited for 2 years! It's FINALLY here! There will be an official launch in KL Convention Center on 20th March. I will not miss my current monochrome Nokia. But I will miss my ringgit.. Click here for the rate plan: http://www.maxis.com.my/iphone/rateplan1.asp Update: no iPhone for me because maxis rejected my application!

This wonderful game is on sale in Steam for US$5 after a 75% discount. I have been waiting for this sale for a long time. It's finally here and I am a happy camper! World of Goo Trailer 2 Director's Cut by 2dboy

I really like how games designers find new ways to do things. Take, for instance, GTA 4. Usually you get from one destination to the other through the in-built car GPS. That's nice, but what other ways could one innovate? For one, in a more expensive car, they have audio GPS - you know, the woman voice-over which would tell you how many yards/mile before your next turn. Last night, in one particular mission, I picked up a guy and he instructed me how to get to the destination. That was refreshing. It's almost life like - he was unsure of his instruction, asked you to slow down so he could get his bearing better and would even make mistakes. That's innovation, IMO. I wish there were more of these innovations. There was a couple of innovations in the game that I appreciate but it slipped my mind at the moment. I'll be updating this when I remember them. Edit: the other innovation is one mission where someone would send me a MMS to my handphone. The MMS would have picture...

This post brings back good memories.. http://miloflamingo.blogspot.com/2009/03/circumnavigation.html

We saw Benjamin Button two weeks ago and then Slumdog Millionaire yesterday evening. I must say that between these two Academy Award Best Picture nominated movies, I enjoyed Slumdog more. It's not a feel good movie that Anti-Ringgit claimed it was but it is entertaining and exciting. Button was just too slow for my taste and too, how do you say, arty-farty. These days, not many people likes arty-farty show anymore.. I guess that's the reason why it only win 3 Oscars (out of 13 it was nominated)... If you have not seen Slumdog, I highly recommend it. Go see it in the movies.. the score was an excellent piece that moves and complemented the movie. Tonight - I am going to watch Platoon - a war movie which won Oscar for Best Picture in 1986. I have not seen this movie before, so it will be a trip down memory lane... Update: saw this in oscar.org : These are the Best Picture winners... bold red are those I have seen.. 2008 - “Slumdog Millionaire” 2007 - “No Country for Old Men” 200...

Our baby girl is growing very fast in the tummy.. She's in her third trimesters and people are saying that in this 3 months, her weight will grow double or triple! It's like lightning speed! Anyway, her movement are more pronounced - yesterday night she decided to stick her buttocks out and you could see an odd shape protruding out of her mother's tummy.. and when she decide to do some kung fu moves, you could also see a bulge here or there. Now I know why pregnant lady can't wear tights - it would be odd to see bulges everywhere. On a side note, still have not thought of a name for her. Any suggestions? Our plan is not to give an ang moh name but to have the Chinese first name that sounds like ang moh name.. Some popular choices which we are not considering are Kai Li for Kylie .. or Li Lian for Lilian - but you get the idea.

So I wanted to watch Slumdog Millionaire last weekend. I go to Google and type "cathay cineleisure".. the first entry came up and I clicked Buy Ticket.. somehow - and I think I was dead tired or blind - I just Page Down to the Slumdog entry and tried to buy the ticket. Fortunately the process failed - their servers down or something .. I then realized I was entering my credit card into Cathay Singapore!!! Wow... the danger of Internet booking! I almost kena charged SGD$20 for a movie I can't go see! PHEWWWW!