ringgit.me

.. a ThinkPad USB desktop keyboard! This is something I have been wanting to buy for a long, long time. I think the 'lust' started about 4-5 years ago but I didn't act on it until 2 months ago when my friend, Mr Fly, asked me about this and convinced me to buy together. It's not easy to buy this baby in Malaysia. I had to call Lenovo, who gave me a number so I can call their Malaysia reseller ThunderMatch. They asked for payment in advance and then would load the order. We had to wait TWO (2) months for it to arrive.. I received it yesterday! Just in time for CNY! I have been using a ThinkPad* for 13 years! And the feel of the keyboard is unmatched by any other keyboard or notebooks. Of course, the TrackPoint (the red 'nipple' pointer) is second to none. So don't you think that I should be getting a ThinkPad keyboard for my home desktop? The convenience of the TrackPoint and the feel of the excellent keyboard is worth the more expensive price that I am payin...

I am very sad.. only 1 Follower in my blog! Where are my readers???

Ringgit went back to EPF today. This time he had all the forms and supporting documents done. He got a number and was attended to in about 5 minutes of waiting. As the officer went through all his document, another lady came over. She looks like the supervisor. She kept on asking the officer if the documentations are complete. The officer nodded yes. She asked again .. can approve? The officer said yes.. Satisfied, the supervisor hand over a survey form to Ringgit to fill - to feedback on the quality of service. Ringgit asked - is it for THIS officer or for KWSP in general because his experience with KWSP YESTERDAY was not very pleasant. Oh.. the supervisor smiled sheepishly, "it's supposed to be for this officer but if you want to feedback about KWSP also can." Ringgit looked at the form and all the questions are about this officer! He wonders why no one gave him a form yesterday. What's the point of giving a form to a 'successful applicant'? On a side note, ...

Ringgit is angry! He went to EPF today to process on EPF account 2 withdrawal for the house. He came prepared with the right documentation - he even called EPF hotline to confirm. But he didn't tell them this is a joint name house - he just assumed they knew because he withdrew before. This is a second withdrawal after all and he didn't need much documentation when he did his first withdrawal. When it was his turn, he showed them the documentation and form and the lady informed him that he has to show that he's related to the two people in the joint name - as in, must show birth cert of everyone listed in the S&P. It's a new policy since Oct 08 - because of many fraud cases, they wanted proof that you are related to the person in the joint name a/c! Ringgit argues that he withdrew before and that they didn't tell him when he called. They said too bad - it's a new policy. Ringgit is pissed!

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I blogged about me asking a friend to help me buy GTA4 . Below is a short email exchange between us: Kittie Kat: I take it this is a pc game that (wife) does not approve off ;) Ringgit: It's not that she doesn't approve of this game.. she doesn't approve of me gaming :P Kittie Kat: I feel her pain...but then tell her at least you will be at home and not at the golf course or drinking in a pub..... well i hope you are at home! :) The exchange leads to me blogging today about this particular topic. There are men who spent lots of time outside of home, especially the older generations - be it golfing with buddies, mamak with friends, drinking with colleagues or customers, going to arcade centers for video games/bowling (olden days), going to spa/massage centers and lots of other activities. Men are not known to be at home - they usually escape from the house because they just want to be out. I bet you the wives of these men with interest such as above would complained that the...

I am not sure if I need to update this in Ringgit Places as the blog is dead. I'll just update here and cross reference from there. We just came back from Teluk Intan - we visited Anne's 3rd uncle who gave a house warming party. It was a short family trip - my whole in-laws went. We drove two cars. 3rd uncle is my favourite uncle in law. He's loud, he's expressive, he's direct - but he's also fun, he been through life a lot and he shares wonderful stories. I enjoy talking to him. So, I was looking forward to this trip - and I tried the famouse Teluk Intan chee cheong fun.. it was as good as people claimed. The texture was smooth and the 'har mai' was crunchy and delicious. Yum. 3rd Uncle booked us a house for the night. This row of semi-Ds, which is a stone's throw away from his new house was designed as a lodging place. On the ground floor, it has 3 rooms, each with it's own bath. Upstairs are 4 rooms with attached bath. It's very clean an...

In April 2008, Anne and I started our resolution to chant 1 million daimoku in one year. It's already Jan - and I am only one-third of the way. I really need to WORK HARDER - coz I made another 1 million resolution from Jan - Dec 2009. The chart you see on the right of this post is a chart that we put beside our butsudan. It tracked our chanting progress. Every 20 minute, we coloured one box. Mine is the one on top, Anne's at the bottom - you can see that she made much better progress than me! Hmmm.. come to think of it, I am not even at one third!! --- Edit 22 March 2009: Thanks to Google, a couple of friends in faith found this post and they want to know how many hours of chanting is required to achieve one million diamoku. Here it is. Based on our publication in Malaysia, 20 minutes of chanting is equivalent to 1,000 daimoku. So, one hour is 3,000 daimoku. 1 million would take about 333 hours. --- Edit 8 April 2018: Checking my blogger stats, this post is pretty hig...

I suprised Anne with 3 red roses on 30th Dec. One year ago, on the same day and month, I gave her a hand-bouquet of 30 roses and married her into the Ringgit family. One year later - a symbolic 3 roses - should be ok, right? Look how they bloomed :) It's a surprised because I already gave her a card and a 'dinner for 2 @ anywhere she chose' self-made-voucher on our 1st anniversary .

Everyone's making a list so Anne and I sat down after our midnight gongyo and daimoku (*) and make a list. Our resolution: 1. Create a harmonious family every single day 2. Chant 2 million daimoku in 2009 (*) 3. Have 20 encouraging conversations with people in a month. This is in line with the Soka Gakkai's 2009 mission of having 1-1 conversation with people about Buddhism. 4. Read 2 New Human Revolution books per month - one each. 5. Achieve one Gohonzon enshrinement per year - helped one person take up faith in Buddhism - there are people who chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo but they don't have a Gohonzon at home. So, our resolution is to have one person enshrine the Gohonzon in his/her home. 6. Be on time to all Buddhist meetings :) Ultimately, the point of these resolutions is to strengthen our faith, The core of our faith is happiness for oneself and for others - so strengthene our faith also means bringing ultimate happiness to self and others. Also, not an easy task. * gong...