simple page for 2006

With 2005 drawing to close. Many of us make resolutions. We have the opportunity to evaluate our accomplishments and sift through our less successful life in an effort to move in the right direction next year.

However, we often make the resolutions bulky with very much thought as to what is overloaded in our lives. Something like a year's to-do-list which has incorporated some unrealistic things. As a result, the resolutions usually achieve incompleteness. Instead of making long-listed resolutions that are almost boundless, why not try a new simple approach? Why not just making the resolutions simple enough to be targeted only for a few major wishes, such as "buy a car for RM50k-RM70k; strive for additional income of RM10k etc." It's important to articulate and justify through your beliefs when making resolutions.

I have a friend who has just started a small business but he has made his new year resolutions to include a BMW & a bungalow that's far beyond his financial ability. I assumed that he has been making his 10 years' resolution, may be.

Do consider what is working in our lives and shall be improved rather than hopping for a big leap. Don't make your already busy life more complex by compounding too many major commitments. Putting all those small things as you come across life into perspective that has to be taken for betterment and bringing them to execution by using a daily to-do-list. In such a way, you'll gradually change your life in a positive way without hassle and without procrastination.

Streamlining can be the way you can change your life. It's a simple process based on a three-point plan.

1. Systemize your attitude - create effective systems to help you functions better on a daily basis, and be willing to change your attitude to handle your daily obligations. Time management and problems solving manner are the essence;

2. Reasoning by elimination - don't clutter your life with a cache of possessions and bad relationships. Limit the things you allow to accumulate in your life. Decide to eliminate bad relationships and decide to trash worthless things;

3. Organize - get yourself, your things, your family and your business be organized. Then keep it that way everyday.

Well, I hereby wish you farewells for the 2006 and having a more meaningful way of life!

a man and a pen

A for apple; m for man; p for pen; and a men and a pen. these were the part of pioneer English lessons I'd been taught at standard vi. I was acquainted with the phase "a man and a pen" coz during that time, man has already been symbolized to pocket a pen which is clipping onto the sleeve of shirt's pocket. In such appearance as a dude, men were fond to carry a pen.

It was nothing crucial with the usefulness of the pen, it was basically used to flash proudly for the pen. A man with a pen didn't necessarily denoted that he could pen with good writing but he would be reckoned as a gentleman who has pocketed with pen. My first pen during that time was a $2.50 Hero, a China makes. It was a fountain pen equipped with a very strong nip and was tough enough that could even be used as a dart shoot-able onto a wooden table. This particular action had became our favorite game to challenge for the strongest amongst our pens during secondary school days. We were loving pen so much and were used to polish it almost everyday in order to give it a shine.

At the end of 1960s, Parker was first being introduced into here and it had fast been recognized as a renowned pen. Those students who had the chance to pin a Parker at their pocket were so regarded as rich kids who were purportedly having a wealthy family to live with. Hero pen users were therefore been categorized as the lower groups peoples.

It is all about a man and a pen in our childhood time. Now some of us, the Hero pen users, have already gone to sell salted eggs (died). This article was penned in memory of our many late schoolmates. My blessing!

the evolution of Santa

Malaysian of my age were astonished to experience Santa & Santarina as we know them today. Santa's life has diversified into more complex with commercial missions, and is not merely giving out presents to children as St. Nicholas did in the 4th century.

Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence during 1950. This commercial success has led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world. Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wearing the now familiar red suit. He appeared in magazines, in papers, on billboards, shop counters, and even at sex sites promoting businesses. I've seen many contrivances of this evolution. Santa is about to sell coca cola drinks; to promote Citibank cards by presenting you a bunch of money [today's ad at TheStar]; to sell Apple's Ipod [today's ad at TheStar].

Nevertheless, Santa's life is gleeful, he has today discarded his reindeer and accompanied by beautiful santarinas commercially [pic of holiday promotion at Everland, South Korea, as shown in TheStar today]. And many santarinas are going nude there [sorry no offend no link here]! He embodies holiday cheer, happiness, fun, and gifts-warm happy aspects of the commercial Christmas season.

Anyway, in our matured eyes, there is nothing fulsome and rowdy associated with Christmas ads. These have appealed to our better side at Christmas. They are designated to sell a product and destined to create festive environment as well. They do so by appealing to something in our souls that comes alive in a special manner during this season, displaying something nature, pure, generous and human concerned, something Christmas....

You know, today is the day Chinese celebrate "dong zhi" or the "thang yuan" festival, which rendering "the arrival of winter" meaning. And my family is enjoying our thang yuan besides the Christmas tree and under the environment of Christmas musics. Ya, we got the sensation of winter during which dong zhi and Christmas are coming together. Is that odd? Otherwise I'll call this as 2 in 1 merry Christmas Dong Zhi!

Happy Christmas Dong Zhi to you!

gold or share, take my count

Nine years ago, I bought 5k MBFcap shares at RM0.88 per share for the sum of RM4,400. If during that time, I acquired gold at about RM44 per gram rather than MBFcap, I would have 100 grams of gold in hand.

The present value of my 5k MBFcap shares (being converted to 125 MBFcorp) is RM7.50; and the present value of 100 grams of gold is RM6,177. Relatively I had rugi RM6,169.50!

Nine years backs, you needed 100 grams of gold to buy 5,000 MBFcap shares. Now you only need 0.12 grams of gold to buy 5,000 MBFcap equivalent shares.

Huk! to buy share or to buy gold, my experience tells.

I think the future trend of investment is for gold coz the production quantity of gold is become lesser. On the other hand, shares will be issued more and more for the purposes of corporate funding for working capital since most of the corporations now are needing fund to roll.

Renmin Bi also becomes a favourite. It is polishing RM bimonthly in term of exchange. If I were allowed to place a further 10k of investment, I would definitely choose to kunci (lock up) 10k of Gold or Renmin Bi rather than Malaysian shares. Would you follow pace?

Seasons greetings

Christmas is upon us, new year is coming closed and the Chinese New Year is fast approaching. Like them or loathe them, the temptation of purging your wallet is the order of the day! But don't ever tucker out your saving!

For bloggers, now is a good time to "bing and leap outdoor greatly" (blog). Those of you who aren't obliged to burn the midnight oil should try to get out and about and feel the emotion of the Santa and the god of finance.

But for me, instead of eating, drinking and making merry, I prefer to jalan jalan, see the flowers, see the people, feel the nature.

By the way, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous new year.

back to Palm for Christmas!

Just got my new classic Palm TX, my out-of-pocket Christmas present! Simultaneously gave my Dell Axim to my son for his Christmas present too. Yeah! I'm the Santa!

I've been using many palms for many years. From Palm Tungsten T; Zire72 to Tungsten T3. I decided to return to Palm for ease of use or otherwise I'd been feeling distaste on Window pocket PC OS which had bewildered me for TL reactivation of its Outlook system, and also on its incapable memory handling.

I was very impressed with the color screen and the sexy profile. Palm TX seemed faster to me since the Palm OS5 is less taxing on the processor and the simplicity of applications graced my heart. The combination of that gorgeous screen, one-touch to landscape mode and ability of font size adjustment on the move, along with superb handling of wifi, made this the most painless ever-ready PDA I've seen yet!

Palm TX video player is much better than the PPC due to its higher resolution display, better support for file (divx, xvid, mpeg1 & mpeg2, etc.) formats, and much better power management.

Pocket Tunes is just a bliss to sing out good sound for MP3 sound tracks and amazingly it'll be kept running at the background after a few seconds with complete off screen. An Ipod alike!

EReader is having the clarity and freshness of immediate experience with ebooks reading and the association of MSDict (Oxford reference suite) make reading be referential on the go.

Versamail works like a champ. Jogged the GET icon got everything rapidly! The Tasks for to-do-list and HandyShopper for purchase list have served to organize my day-to-day events more easy.

Overall, this was an excellent return to Palm. If I had to grumble, I'd say that Palm's distribution is not stringent. You know, I'd found my default Hotsync username be automatically allocated as "chalie" after the completion of desktop installation. That means the package I'd purchased was not a virgin one! I think the seller who sold the packet to me is going to harm the reputation of Palm!

Let me conclude my commentary on my return to Palm by saying that It's really cool PDA with a classy professional look; nice compact size; tactile buttons; solid; fast; extremely convenient and intuitive interface. It's really the faculty through which my Christmas will be apprehended!

Dunce buying jewelry

My old partner has reminded me to buy a Christmas gift for our granddaughter in order to celebrate her full-moon day aka Christmas eve. Since I already have a nice jade gems in hand which was bought from China not long ago, so I've decided to buy a white gold necklace to pair with it.

At Megamall this evening, I was examining the shop windows and browsing for a preference to any other. The stupid idea was actually I totally didn't know how to make a good selection. By looking me eying in vain of desirability, a sale girl then approached me and said: "Sir, what are you looking for, may I help you?". I therefore told her that I am looking for a white gold necklace for my little grandchild.

"O, you're coming at a right place, we have plenty of selections, come, I show them to you." she said while leading me to their counter.

"nah, this one is perfect and inexpensive." she said while showing me a pick.

"OK! how much is this?" I asked.

"You see, the price is RM510 on its tag. But you're lucky coz gum gum today we have a promotion, now I can give you a special price at only RM388 net." she convinced.

"Wah! so tiny so expensive, I think I better have a price comparison first then I'll get back to you." I responded with an intention to move away.

"Come lah sir, I calculate another special discount exclusively for you," she said and then was making a tit tit tak tak on the calculator and lastly added: "OK! this is the bottom price - RM288, I guarantee you wouldn't find this price at other shop."

"But I still feel inappropriate for the price over such a small necklace, probably I need to feel out a prior cognition about that!" I replied implausibly.

"OK lah! less RM20 again come to RM268 as the last offer in order to compliment your grandchild, OK?" she reconciled.

Eventually I was having a conviction over her many times of discount and therefore made the purchase. Whether it's cheap or expensive, frankly, I'm blur! Anyway It's a good time to be a Santa by giving out the gift.

Bank Negara foreign reserves declining

Malaysia's foreign exchange reserves dropped 3.4% in the two weeks ended Nov 30.

The international reserves of Bank Negara Malaysia amounted to RM275.3 billion or equivalent to USD73.1 billion as at 30 November 2005. During the period, there was a large external loan repayment by the Federal Government. The reserves position is sufficient to finance 8 months of retained imports and is 5.8 times the short-term external debt. Reported BNM.

They have declined 9.1% from a record US80.4bil on Aug 15, according to central bank data.

GST, what's that?

One of my clients came across an article about the GST (Goods and Services Tax) that has published by the Oriental Daily News of Dec 05 and he was not fully comprehended with the illustration as shown above.

After seeing the illustration, I showed him a humorous remark and pointed out that there were 2 printing mistakes on the illustration. The last field of "tax on output" should be written as RM5 instead of RM2; the total GST collected by the government for RM5 should be placed under the last column of "net tax payable" instead of "tax on input" column.

FYI, the simple calculation base on the corrected illustration can be determined as:
Raw M'rial Supplier charges Manufacturer RM0.50 and pay it to Government;
Manufacturer charges Wholesaler RM2.50 and pay Government RM2.50-RM0.50(input tax);
Wholesaler charges Retailer RM3.50 and pay Government RM3.50-RM2.50(input tax);
Retailer charges Consumer RM5.00 and pay Government RM5.00-RM3.5(input tax);
at the end, the selling price to Consumer becomes RM100+RM5 sales tax.

Malaysian GST is expected to be implemented sometime in March or April 2007. With a broader base for goods and services being subject to GST, the revenue for the government is expected to be higher and the consumers are the final taxpayers.

Because of the GST, the inflation rate is likely to be heightened sometime in the 3rd quarter of 2006. It is due to the preexistence of GST rehearsal, importers and traders are likely to pre-align prices of their goods for the advance advantage.

when few old chaps meet

Last Wednesday, few of us, old chaps, met and dined at Chameleon restaurant of Air Itam, Penang with great delight. It has been nearly 30 years we hadn`t met in such a way.

We're of an age now, no longer young yet not entirely "chi cheong fun" (faded out), moving slower and eating less than we did. We had the past in common, were once schoolmates of Chung Ling high school who ate a lot and played boisterously. I remembered them at school, they were minded boys who would study amusingly at class, played games naughtily after school, ventured for sight seeing on weekends and usually tensed up just before examination. One of us, Ah Loong, a cheerful, sandy-haired man of about 280 pounds, was fair being designated to continue as our monitor since the school days of yesteryear. By far, he was the biggest in size and the richest in noesis than most of us.

We touched upon the subjects of sex, health, shares and business but more on health since it was gula that we had always concerned. I wondered why people were only seriously taking good health cares when they had become old chaps. And by no surprise, 4 out of 6 dishes we had consumed that night were vegetables.

When deliberated about the vigra, my introduction of "liap liap cheir", an imitation of vigra which would make man last for few hours as claimed, made them vigorously grasping and shaking their hands to disagree on contrast. Perhaps it was too good for an old chap!

One of us, Ah Saw, queried on how to determine a sounded company by judging on its annual reports. Shit! all the financial reports were man-made, you would not even know the accruals and relays of some crucial items. So I just recommended him to simply weight on the appearance of the reports, thick meant good and thin meant bad. It was that simple!

Another chap, Ah Kiet, was compounding on doing the business of bread maker. According to his imagination, bread would eventually became the major food when the scientists had alas declared that bird flu be transmittable within human. But none of us knew how to bake roti. I think it is time for us to learn making dough from flour before we got flu.

We invariably ended up talking about pain and soul, a spin-off of menopause. Women usually found their menopause when their menstrual cycle ended. Surprisingly we too found our menopause when the "juice of spirit" became lower in quantity and the power of spitting (ejaculation) became nearer in distance. That was how we had chewed out from our talking on this topic. I think this is most probably the general definition of man's menopause, am I right!

By the way of further variation as to rendezvous, Ah Loong suggested that our old chaps' meeting would be made often these days probably before the Chinese new year. See you old chaps!

goose flesh all over

Not long ago, it was "ehh, Malaysia ini negara Islam, you tidak suka, you keluar dari Malaysia." Haji Bahruddin bin Amilrudin, mp for Jerai, 051028.

This time, it's "If foreigners think that Malaysia police are brutal, please go back to their own countries and not to stay here," Noh Omar, Deputy Internal Security Minister, 051129.

The PM's Office was said to have called up all newspapers yesterday evening requesting the story be shrouded.

The owner of DIS, PM Pah Lah has pointed out that his deputy's statement is totally against Govt's policy on visitors. In fact it is against the whole world's nationalities, not only China.

PM Pah Lah is now become a goalie to play the defensive position on DIS department who stands in front of the goal and tries to prevent another scoring of goal after his fullback has scored an own goal.

When the time Mahatir was steering the vehicle of Malaysia, none of his kaki tangan defied to made him "no facesi"

I wonder whether PM Pah lah is steering the vehicle of Malaysia merely with a single hand, loosing grip to the controlling of power that is designed to be held in order to move it....

p/s my blog's value

My blog is worth $1,693.62.
How much is your blog worth?

Germination, enervation

Following a sweet moment not long ago that had irrigated my inner peace , me and my wife were celebrating becoming a grandpa and grandma after our youngest daughter gave birth to a baby girl. It's a fine germination after 27 years!

The baby was born on Thus Nov 24 at Gleneagle Penang, weighing in at a healthy 3.51kg. She is gorgeous, healthy and is suggested to be named as Carmen. We're celebrating every moment with our beautiful grandchild these few days.

The birth of my grandchild is also signalizing that it's the moment I'm climbing down the hill of man's life-cycle. However I'm gaining momentum for every moment to be contemporaneous with her growth albeit the feebleness.

By the time someone is calling you uncle, it's significant that you life is supposed to be anchored. Coming at the last quarterly milestone of life, in fact it's amazing! Inextricably you would find yourself be fancy-free and fascinated with values of association not only to people but to things also. And the power of endurance to physical pains becomes greater. I'm wondering! Perhaps it's rightful that "the meaning of life would be eventually derivable from the understanding of its machanics" which was assumed by scientists and philosophers when converging on the quest of meaning of life.

"I dreamt, and I, so singular, saw myself as plural." -- Lenine

be the curtailment imitated

General Motors has desperately taken a bid to shed 30,000 jobs by 2008 in order to cut overheads by US17b annually and stave off bankruptcy. Reported The Australian. GM's huge wage, health care and pension costs have seen it struggle against mean and lean Asia competitors such as Toyota, and it's products have failed to keep capturing the imagination of consumers.

GM's Chairman Rick Wagoner said that the slashing billions of dollars in costs is necessary to save the company, and bring it back to profitability. But he admitted it will be difficult for suppliers, employees, and the towns where they work.

The quality and cost of a product are determined largely by the effectiveness and efficiency of the production system. When a business has become sour, most probably the cost of business operating is taken in blames. So a layman's tramp such as cost cutting will be the priority footstep to think about.

In the 1980s, cost-cutting efforts by US companies have typically relied on such approaches as plants closing, downsizing operation, laying off production workers, and selling off problem child units. Experts argue that American firm focus on capital investment as a mean of reducing labor costs rather than improving quality, reducing inventories, and tapping the potentials of good labor force.

As R.Wayne Mondy et al [isbn:0-205-12700-2] cited in the Management Concepts, Practices, And Skills p576, that Basically American managers have been underutilizing their human capital - pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into equipment and technological advancements rather than keeping and retraining valuable employees and gearing their efforts to improve the relationship between work and productivity.

What have made the tendency of layoff workers to become the primary implementation in US? Perhaps it lies on the culture and salutary of workers. Analysts say GM's highly paid workers are well-protected by ample and glamorous benefits, and this cost makes GM cars more expensive than those from foreign competitors.

This tendency becomes much more significant if you take a comparison between US and Japan of the behavior of work force. Japanese companies typically have a group-oriented culture in which workers are taking concern to help in finding and solving problems for company; they love their company with one accord with everybody agreeing. While American teamwork involves group members in one management activity rating other group's performance; they protect their own unit's standing rather than the company as a whole. In such a situation, the cost of human resources formed as the major portion of total costing.

Traditional Chinese-oriented and Japanese-oriented workers have their beautiful side, these workers are not only hardworking but patriotic to their own company. They tend to work as crews with boss on a same boat and treat company as a family. Perhaps the less cumbersome workmen regulations and welfares make them be rational. Naturally the quality and cost of product are determined by this scenario.

Let assume you've hired several workers who are skivvies and are just looking for paid-leave and bonus. They are cleverly doing a simple job by group with whistling. What would you do when your net profit is written in broad reded figures? Certainly you'll follow suit of what GM was doing. Is that Right?

What if the MAS's situation was just like the above phenomenon, could the curtailment performed by GM be imitated?

Why tax comes after you?

Self assessment system (SAS) for partnership and individuals is with us and indeed has been with us since 2004. The objective is to infuse a practice of voluntary compliance by taxpayers while at the same time reducing the workload of the Inland Revenue Board (IRB). In the accountancy world, accountants were anticipating the change with some excitement and impact.

This has the consequential effect of shifting the responsibility of determining the taxpayer's tax liability from the IRB to the taxpayer. Hence tax audits which would be a routine activity of the IRB, have become a feature of SAS.

Together with tax audits, comes penalty of almost 60% on top of payable tax for understatement or escape of income if discovered during an audit.

For those who get chosen for an audit, possible penalties may just be one expense. Accountancy cost for the redresses or remedies will not come cheap if they are likely to develop into a protracted detailed investigation.

During this two years, there have been cases of tax audits. Being selected for an audit does not in any way indicate that you have committed an offence. But in most cases, it has eventually turned into a probe.

We may well be wondering how we coped with our previous archaic and imbalance system. In the meantime, the changeover will probably be painful for the majority of taxpayers.

Why a taxpayer is picked for investigation? This could be involved with insufficient record keeping or due to one or more of the following reasons:-

• Charge out of expenses which is not related to the business.
• The obvious fluctuation of stock figures in the balance sheet.
• The margin of the gross profit is significantly fluctuated.
• Some items of expenses appear too huge to be factual.
• The conspicuous absence of expenses distinguished from the conventional items.
• Creditors appear to be too large in amount to be true.
• There is an outstanding substantial amount of amount owing to directors.
• The amount of equity is overturned.
• Drawings account is insubstantial in amount to be supported the taxpayer's financial commitments.
• There is a blazing purchase of expensive cars and houses.
• There is an extensive and expensive renovation to residential house.
• Personal's total net worth is not sustainable by the total apparent income over a period of time.
• A taxpayer with a very high public profiles.
• A company suddenly goes listing with bad tax background.
• A particular trade is to be investigated and the taxpayer happens to belong to that trade.
• Informer's report to IRB.

Reacting to these abnormal entries could present a boring test for the accountancy profession.

Felt for self-interested

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender. ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

The idea that people act to promote their self-interest is not surprising, but what is remarkable are Malaysia Parliament's deliberations that the actions of these representatives, driven by the desire to make themselves better off with media exposure, result in nonsense welfare.

"MPs slam ad as mocking monarchy" and "DAP's rocket symbol sparks off war of words" reported by TheStar today, has proved to be a remarkably coffee shop convention, forming an unsavory characteristic of Malaysian Parliament. Yet still cannot shake off that nagging shit patent!

Some of them have turned our House into a chi-chat hall. We can't make the nation strong when it is held together with self-interest and folderol. Too often they think that democracy is only in terms of getting one's right. There are a lot of social and economic issues holding back for resolutions. But instead, many oddly issues such as public toilet, tudong, college ranking, English teaching etc ... have become hot topics. I wonder can't it be productively put on resolutions towards social illness, financial order and nation's living standard.

Keep on blogging!

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EFF's goal is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.

To that end, they have created the Legal Guide for Bloggers, a collection of blogger-specific FAQs addressing everything from fair use to defamation law to workplace whistle-blowing.

Other ways they're fighting for your rights:

• Bloggers can be journalists (and journalists can be bloggers);
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• Bloggers have the right to stay anonymous;
• Bloggers have freedom from liability for hosting speech the same way other web hosts do.

In debt to pleasure

Credit card has made it easier for people to make themselves insolvents or even bankrupt. Malaysian, especially young consumers are just can't resist the lure of plastic. Over the past few years, personal debt has soared to a high level.

The household lending has expanded at an average rate of 14.3% yearly, according to BNM. Before we even think about loans and mortgages, the average Malaysian householder debts have also increased tremendously. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that personal bankruptcies are increasing.

Issues surrounding consumer debt is not new to the media in Malaysia. There have been reports of soaring bankruptcy rate; the blames on card issuers; the blames on Loan Sharks etc. The phenomenon is that it's easier to obtain credit then it has ever been and free credit cards have flooded the local market.

Politicians and policy makers, and consumers protection groups who feel that consumers need protection from easily went bankrupted. And the amendment of the Bankruptcy Act 1967 came into force on Oct'03 to amend one of its sections as - an increase in the minimum debt which enables a person to be declared bankrupt from RM10,000 to RM30,000. Also the establishment of the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency by BNM, who undertakes credit counseling and loan restructuring for individuals, is scheduled to commence operations in 2006.

What lies beneath the problems of bankruptcy? A common trait is that consumers are vulnerable to persuasive advertising and marketing campaigns promoting credit cards and luxury life styles, thus putting them at risk of accumulating more and more debts that would eventually become unmanageable. Actually the perpetrator is the government's policy to pocket more revenue from public spendings; since because of exports souring, the time has come to boost domestic demand, and one way to do that is to promote the use of credit card.

"Pleasure first, suffered later" is seemed a "debt culture" that has rooted into the minds of teenagers. Chasing after the 5C (car, card, condo, cash & club) and stylish personal image, is now being a Malaysian phenomenon. Although some of the 5C have become essentials but the question is to what degree do they pursue them? For example, some aspire for platinum card or BMW as a status symbol. "Enjoys first, pay later" is also one of the factors of "debt culture". For example, car purchasing without down payment and free interests.

Many young entrepreneurs are doing their live like doing "ah pong" pastry business (typically cooked by using several pots with fewer covers). They just have many debt's holes to be covered perpetually, and the rotating use of credit card and personal loan has become the vehicle of the coverage. At last these financial tools have become rolling bigger and bigger like a rolling snow leading to disaster.

School children are tended to have a "debt culture" behavior too. For example, they opt for new high end notebook rather than usable one. Stylish ma! a reason was given by a schooling child of my client: a 2nd handed P3 notebook bought by the father, produced grumbling about outdated, ineffective and unpresentable; a new expensive notebook paid by instalments later on brought to the child's joyfulness. Oh, the poor father!

Malaysia private consumption continued to drive domestic demand, contributing significantly to economic growth of 6.7% (Q4'04). And is expected to grow by 10.1% increment next year thanks to the people who are taking pleasure first and be suffered later.

Anyway, card holders must take pride in being a responsible credit card user and must make sure that you never overspended. You must avoid using cash-advance privileges to live well materially in advance.

Onerous parents!

One of my clients asked me this morning about children's education. He has 2 children who are supposed to complete Form v and Form vi simultaneously. He is much worrying of the coming happenings of his children's academic excellency; which future college (oversea or local) be they attended; how much fund be adequate to support the education etc.

He is considered as one of the contemporary anxious parents who has bound with onerous duty. Most typical contemporary anxious parents are contaminated with ideological "tuition syndrome" and "chasing paper syndrome"!

Parents who have striven to keep their progenies' minds open to every possibility and opportunity automatically assigned themselves with commitment to set aside enough education money for each of their children to go to colleges. Most of their worries anchor to assumptions and expectations rather than facts.

They are just eager to make their children be graduated with U degrees as an entry level before their children could make a first footstep into the work-places. They also sacrifice their time a long way to guide and observe their children as a priority in their life. Some are even struggling more for not only keeping their offsprings be facilitated with good tuition money. They also have to support aging parents financially. Hence allow themselves to live at subsistence way.

It's really amazing how voguish ideas about life planning have become.

Most of my clients don't think about whether their commitments make sense. They think these are expected of them, and they're worried that they haven't yet been able to accomplish them. By the time they turn fifty five; the time that above and beyond retirement. Often they're found astounded with empty saving box! Worst even their children are still due to be graduated!

I accent the foolishness of trying to do more than is possible, and the attribution of comparing yourself to others. At some point in your life you must accept the fact that you are not hero and must come to terms with your own limitations. Unless you're lucky enough to become a successor of a golden hill!

Come on parents, you should set aside the question of whether or not you should give whatever resources to your children for higher education. The simple truth is you probably won't be able to do that. And the answer isn't to give up; it's to do the best you can financially if you have weighed the pros and cons and have justified with your retirement plan.

Proletariat

I'm not belong to a member of any political party. I'm bore to take concern on who is who is in the authorities. I'm only concern on how to sustain enough bread and butter in today's economic and ecological niche. Therefore please don't bark me for not showing a happy concern, okeh!

Having passed through decades of life here, experience and notion has taught me on how to perceive and accustom gradually to attitude of living under some circumstances of limitation/custom. So I have had smelt the smoke!

In society many things are said and sometimes what is said is perceived to be a statement made by a crow-kind person to people. More so when these are social and not domicile matters.

Crow-kind people are incertitude and have a changeable stand withal. You kinda have to be prudent to point out real or perceived flows against his points. But don't ever tease the dog with a stick!

If we could examine his real aspect to a complete degree, would recognize his infamous act, whatever large pick apart could then be diluted with the way of "cool management"; "don like to comment" or "dump it with a smile". Probably it will make a big issue to become a small issue and gradually become a null issue.

And because it is of his designing bug and damage. A third party will easily read through his slippery device. A feeling of public antipathy would eventually be emerged because audience is not all poor fishes.

Once upon a time, there was a story of a father and a son riding a donkey into a town. At first they were walking and leading the donkey, after that they were taking turn to ride the donkey. Susceptibly they kept riding up and down upon the donkey.

No matter how they acted, people would always have a say.

If they unloaded the donkey, they would be laughed stupid by not making use of the donkey; If the father took the ride, he would be accused of child abusing; If the son took the ride, he would be teased with no respect to the old; And if they fully loaded the donkey, they would be grumbled of animal torturing. At the end, they were still inextricably finding no clue for the best way to act upon.

From this story, can you find out which is the best fit?

Actually, if a man is doing thing rightly in accordance with his own principle and humanity, what causes him trouble from being criticized?

blogs and the laws

Keeping online journals that detailed their experiences combined with their personal introspective and eyewitness accounts in these blogs drew a number of readers. That's the idea of blogs.

Looking at the floor of the Malaysian blogs, It's a scene of life depicting from the society. You'll find a variety of contents and styles. From rigid to indulgent and fame has posted a major trend.

Be it absurd, begrime, virulent, indignity or playfulness, nothing wrongs with them all except the boundary.

The boundary of "Reporters without boundary" which is in some manner still arguably dim in Malaysia. Certainly it's dimensional. For example, the sensitiveness of racial issue will post a big menace. And don't forget, Malaysia is an Islamic country!

"Malaysia is an illiberal democracy. We have freedom of speech, but no freedom after speech. We have freedom of movement, but no freedom of assembly. We have a plethora of publications, but no press freedom," said Steven Gan, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Malaysian on-line news distributor Malayskini.com. Gan received the 2001 IPI Free Media Pioneer Award at the IPI World Congress in India in January 2001. [source www.freemedia.at]

Arguably is the fingered instance of tracing IP addresses for Police, a fright of the threat? Perhaps Sec 53 & 54 of the Evidence Act is a part of the answers.

Further more the Sec 3(3) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 which reads "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as permitting the censorship of the Internet" would inevitably be nullified by the existing legislation, including the ISA, the Sedition Act, the Societies Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act.

There had been a case of 4 people being arrested and prosecuted by the Home Minister for spreading rumors of disturbances in KL on the Internet in August 1998.

The recent formation of blogsmalaysia.com is quite uncertain under the Multimedia Act. Otherwise it would be cautioned under Sec 41 of the Societies Act.

In a nutshell, Malaysia’s cyberlaw has stated prominently that the Online environment is not a legal vacuum. In general, if something is illegal "off-line", it will also be illegal "on-line". In this matter, the relevant existing laws apply.

Unless you dare to take a challenge to stay as anonymous by proxies. Otherwise a self regulatory principle is the system to blog wisely.

Compulsive road risk taker

Putrajaya Nov 01: Road safety campaigns are now sending out positive messages about courtesy and good habits on the road, instead of showing gory images of dead scenes.

It is irreligious. Because the tendency to 'race to win' and assume unnecessary risks is a basic human trait. Entertainment and ego appear to be some of the motivations for such tendency.

Road users' decisions are often affected by irrelevant trait of greediness. They just want to be ahead the others or they simply want to bid for a wining pleasure. When their brains get framed, they often take mental shortcuts resulting to their greedy or fun acts.

Body, threat, price of life and regret show that road risk takers often face serious conflict of 'to overtake' or 'not to overtake'. They also face cognitive bias and cultural bias.

Actually road travelers are risk takers. The risk here is theorized bases on the Malaysian boleh No. 1 fatal accident rate. It means that we got to take risk when using the road. Elements such as poor transport system, road condition, vehicle condition, weather condition, mental desire and enforcement propel the risk.

Therefore teaching on how to take risk on the road is fundamental. For example, a message of "knows your car's performance, knows your physical condition, knows your situation, before you negotiate to overtake" is more practical.

Moral or ethics teaching is insignificantly perceivable. It should be prompted into the mental compartments starting from the young age. Caretaker is tended to be responsible. A better prompted child will know how to cross the road better. This serves as a starting point.

It's most immoral for a caretaker sharing his/her joy with children for his/her dangerous driving experiences. Inevitably, thousand words of persuasion would not deter these children when they've grown up. I have seen with my own eyes, a car of family members were so cheerful that when their father (driver) had successfully zoomed (jumped) the queue at a terminal.

If the said elements of risk are set to improve for the minimization of risk. Then the disjunction effect on the tendency for people doesn’t want to wait patiently to make decision will be gentle.

Things are not always 100% right. For those people who tend to place their life to bid for a short moment of joy. The only lessen which can be taught to them is experience. "by not seeing coffin, no tears" is the kind.

There is a human tendency to feel the pain of regret at having made errors. Until one day, he got to "kicks himself" at having done something foolish, then he may alter his behavior. But sometimes it is too late to be experienced. Perhaps it serves as a lesson to others.

Internet Kongfu

I remember. Few years back, I was introduced by my college professor to speak on how to initiate our project paper. I was chosen because I was one of the only three grandfather grade students in the class.

So I stepped up to the podium with little embarrassed and said, "Ladies & gentlemen, I'm sorry. I've been using keyboard rather then pen for decades. What I know is Internet Kongfu of which is a search then cut & paste act."

As all of the class laughed I continued, "But my topic of 'Does the CDTP introduced by SSM Malaysia increase the value of corporate governance?' is unfortunately found with zero search as my project is a first ever survey of the kind I think, therefore I can't demonstrate my Internet Kongfu!" The professor laughed with touching head and noted me 'idiot'.

At the end, I got less marks then those who'd used Internet Kongfu to write their projects. Because the stupid matsaleh examiner didn't understand the culture of Malaysian.

For the rest of you, the demonstration of Internet Kongfu is trying out hereof.

According to a poll conducted by Taiwan UDN Daily today, 91% of Taipei's students process PC, out of which 82% are connected to Internet.

There was a standard V pupil called Teoh Siau Mei who has 2 PCs at home. One of which is her specified PC. During this summer holiday, she was assigned with several homework, including which has a title of "Sending e-mail to schoolmate"; "Which flowers are blossoming in July?" and "Study the July's horoscope".

Her first reaction was "It's so easy!". She had a Yahoo as well as her school e-mail accounts. She used to MSN with schoolmates for pastime. Nevertheless, her finished projects had come out with fine wordings accomplished with graphics thanked to her parent's newly bought color printer.

The survey finding indicates that many students are more expert in Internet kongfu then teachers!

The world's rating of Internet usage for Taiwan is pretty high. The survey shows that 67% of children aged below 12 have had experienced with PC; 63% being to net; 62% almost connected to net daily.

You see! Teachers, you may be left behind those kids who know Internet Kongfu!

Closing one eye

Sometimes, closing one eye is better then opening both eyes to perceive the situation when looking at things. Occasionally, "mou gan thai" (closing both eyes) even provides better general state of things.

"Closing one eye" does have 2 conveyances. One is by closing one eye to look at thing, you'll definitely get a sharper focus and special emphasis attached to it. Just like the moment, when an aged person is supposed to pass a thread through the needle's hole; a shooter is aiming towards an object. Usually, they would close one eye to perform the job.

Another one is, appearing to be perceived with a fussy situation by closing one eye to look at thing. So that one may simply take a well chosen answer with "I don't know" when being asked for that particular thing. It does also have an implication of corruption when the term is used in political compositions.

The act of "closing one eye" is now largely exercised by many people as well as caretakers upon social services. Regardless of others, I am finding myself to be fond of closing one eye too!

It was a Monday blue this morning. Having been waken up early in the morning by the body clock, I could only manage to open one eye (in sleepy eyed) to throw a glance at the clock. Yet it was so reluctant to jump out from the bed....

A quick taking on the Guang Ming Daily enlightened me that 54% of Taiwanese didn't believe Ah Pian's "obscure" claim over the burgeoning corruption scandal. The scandal involving the Kaohsiung MRT project, according to an opinion poll made by UDN news in Taiwan. Otherwise stated that Ah Pian was all the while "closing one eye" on the issue. It provoked me to leer at the headline by using one eye (dubiously)!

When I supposed to bank, I found that it was a chaotic noon at Sbg. Jaya as where the order of parking had turned awry. And curiously, the seasoning blue-shirted summoners were not visible. My immediate assumption was that they might be "closing one eye" in favor of coming festivals. So I also "closed one eye" (regardlessly) parked my car elsewhere.

Bulging from the office, I was flopping with sleepiness and a sudden yawning had irritated one of my eyes with tear secretion that caused me unable to open my both eyes.

Back at home, Ping Pang Ping Pang, there was another "closing one eye" even for the availability of firecrackers.

Perhaps, It was an out of the blue "closing one eye" day!

Hutan Lipur Sungai Sedim

I was having a trek with my old partner this morning with good grace at Hutan Lipur Sungai Sedim.

A 40 minute driving from Kulim High Tech Park, heading north to Mahang, then turning left to Sedim took me to the destination.

It is a rustic recreation park covers over hundred of acres. The natural forest and stream remains unscarred. It is a thriving tourist destination, especially for family picnickers, hikers and back-packers, where visitors will be charmed by the natural body of running water flowing on and on; and the natural jungle.

Ideal for camping or just eating alfresco beside the stream offer complete exaggerated feeling of well-being amid the fore landscape. Desire of watery is just a foot way. Shady trees that shelter the park make it an idyllic spot for couple.

For an activity of exerting yourself, there are many small mountains for you to trek on. On top of that, night safari is also available for expedition too.

Pic 1 - my car parked at the core area (car park) of the recreation park.

Pic 2 - the "tree top walk" high ways offers a “jalan kaki" in the air.

Pic 3 - one of the spots of flowing water.

Pic 4 - one of the campsites.

We had sweat and senang-senang until sunset. Then in between the returning journey, we stopped at Hutan Lipur Ulu Paip (just located near Kg Karangan) where there is a lakeview seafood restaurant, we took our seafood dinner there. One deep fried fresh water fish + a plate of vagi + a plate of steam cooked fresh water tortoise = RM35.50 inclusive rice & drinks. Seronok!

Li Ao's another notation

This morning I met a writer, Mr Wong Hoey Yeam, the former Youth Secretary General of the Malaysian Federation of Chinese Assembly Halls, who is now a regular columnist for Nanyang Press.

We had a very good exchange of views on cultures, politics, peoples and renowned writers. I learnt that he used to read an average of 4 to 5 books a month, the ability of which is my inept at reading.

We were uttering from west to east and finally we'd descended our foci onto Li Ao.

Ong having acquainted with Li Ao since his social visits to Li Ao during the last Chinese Eighth Moon festival. Ong is also a devoted reader of Li Ao and has collected over 90 books of Li Ao.

Base on Ong's descriptions, I'd gained the diorama of Li Ao and had come to know more about the another aspect of Li Ao as follow:-

Li Ao (born April 25, 1935), who is a writer, social commentator, politician in Taiwan, satirist, scholar, former political prisoner, and is also a member of Taiwan's legislature.

He’s just returned from China for his 10-day cultural trip on Sep 19, 2005. Li Ao strongly supports the idea of "one country, two systems" proposed by Deng Siaoping. He believes that the unification of China would bring more beneficial for Taiwan.

Most people consider Li Ao as a writer of ladida, solitary, horse-shitted, goofy and lofty. But he hasn't regarded himself as a writer because his name is not listed into the 900 over pages of Taiwanese Writers Records Book which has been registered with 706 writers so far. Therefore he opts to become a social commentator cum actor.

Li Ao's life is full of fluctuations between hope and despair. He seldom weeps over his own unhappiness but he'll weep for the misfortunes of friend and love affairs.

During 2003 & 2004, he suffered a great dismay. First was the departure of his beloved mother that had stimulated his feelings of being old shaped and had influenced him to retire from the screening of "Li Ao Tai Ko Tai" TV programs. But somehow he'd later on resumed his TV show as a host of "Li Ao has word to say".

Another incident was his operation of prostate cancer. Being a historian, his first astonishment was a self questioning of "shall I purportedly become the second Sima Qian?" (1st major Chinese historian who was castrated and jailed by Emperor Han Wudi. At the mere sight of his underlings he was seized with terror...).

His political inclinations are more controversial; he is an outspoken Pan-Blue supporter given much media exposure thanks to his popularity as a writer. Todays, he has found his own political dissidents from being a famous TV speaker.

Li Ao is interestingly known for generally appearing in public wearing a Fred Rogers-like cardigan sweater.

Li Ao also has a habitual usage of affixing his talks with numeral quotes such as Gandhi's "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others"; Vladimir Lenin's "An unfaithful friend, is an enemy"; and one of his own quotes "Everyone does have weak point cum good point, my weak point is - I like to tell the truth; my bad point is - I'm becoming more joyful upon my weak point".

My abstract: His bitterly speeches against other Ah-Bian's followers has received much international attention and accolade from the papers as well as the peoples of China. Although Li is a dissident writer and popular cultural figure equipped with historical talent, he's inevitably not a good husband!

An effective "vul-glish"

Companies must be equipped with suitable people in order to function his/her jobs effectively.

What if an enquiry was putting into a dilemma of - Please hold on ... music ... hallows, please hold on ... music ... Mr Chin is not in ... hold on ... don't know where he's going ... hold on ... Mr Yong also not in ... hold on ... also don't know where he's going ... I've no idea on your case. In such a case, certainly the inquirer will be encountered with jagged teeth.

This happened to me this morning when I was calling a developer (whose logo is embossed with "Superbrands") in order to get my property be transferred quickly from procrastination.

After being juggled around, my anger was suddenly erupted. I then told the girl that although you're the innocent one but I still have to censure out my accusation.

I told her that since you all people didn't understand polite English, I'd no choice but to speak "vul-glish" (vulgar English) with you.

So I blurt out: "you pukima had to wait and see to tell whether your manager was in or not, what's the hell you all people are doing, go ask your motherfucking manager to call me back".

Few minutes later. The "vul-glish" was successfully comprehended with a fast returned call from the said manager.

Once I picked up the call and before he could make any answer, I immediately threw him another "vul-lish": "kanlineh, you wrote to my lawyer that the transfer couldn't be effective without any supportive reason. As far as what I knew, Strata Title had been given out many years ago yet you're defaulting Strata Title Acts, some more you'd collected consent fees from me, you thought you're a crocodile hak!"

"Sorry Mr Tan, because .......", he eventually explained.

Perhaps, that's the Malaysian ways of corporate (where white rats are reared) answering system.

Conception on Ba Jin's death

Ba Jin (Li Feiren), who born in Nov 25 1904 in Chengdu, China, has died on 19-10-05 at the age of 101.

He was honored as "the conscience of the Chinese people in the 20th Century" by The Sichuan Daily of Chengdu.

Ba Jin, was quoted as a writer who had engaged in a crusade for justice, freedom and quality as reflected in his masterly works "Family", "Spring" and "Autumn" and his "The Trilogy of Love" which were set against the background of oppressive feudalism.

The philosophy of his seeking neither money nor fame in his lifetime is what I'm looking up to. Together with Lu Zun (1881-1936), whose philosophizes about the study of the nature and meaning of existence, reality, knowledge, goodness and literary criticism etc., are profoundly delighted and grateful.

Lu Xun chose to begin writing the way people talk. Any scholar worth his salt would have written in this literary style. I'd read Lu Zun's The "True Story of Ah Q" sometimes 35 years ago and we, schoolmates, at that time, were almost practicing the spirits of Ah Q.

One of the spirits is "don't afraid of no-money, if you just have a justifiable heart". But this remark is not longer applicable in today's society. Now is - no money no talk world, where if you don't have money, you better walk into a side street. If you're still reckoning on "you're right-human right", you might be subsequently treated as a dog! Or else a chauffeur would simply run over you!

Another one is "once people spits on your face, never-mine, just rub it off and pretend that nothing has happened". I don't think now I have this kind of "small people" (belittled) Ah Q spirit. I would certainly fucking back for my self-regard against those shammed assaults.

The most reality one, is one of the revolutionary theories of Mao Zedong (1893-1976, former chair of Communist Party of China). It was quoted as “fills your stomach first, then talk about revolution".

So what? Find the salt to feed your stomach first before you could do anything!

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error. - Andrew Jackson

Reduce tension at home

"I admired PM Badawi's (who has lost his beloved wife yesterday) 40 year's marriage. And how you organize your marriage for 30 over years?" One of my clients asked me.

After a moment of informal conversation, I read from his eyes that he must be having some family problems resided. He finally told me that he had been cooped with "cold war" with his wife for many years.

For the sake of helping him, I shared him some tactics of how to reduce tension at home.

Couples who have great marriages aren't lucky, they were dedicated. It's a partnership of hard-work in common believe fabricated at the mercy of understandings.

First and foremost, I condemned him as an idiot of the total gross. Why? Because I know him well of his "bull" character (no talebearing).

Well, actually what's the cause of a high percentage of home tension? Miscommunication and lack of tolerance.

Soul mates are created over the course of day-to-day living. How to communicate well is a big lesson. Simple rule is first to evaluate each other's character, then use the "acid test" method to create a besting way of talking.

For example, if your partnership is just like a chicken and duck relation, you've to use a straight forwarding method to talk, in addition with body language. If your partnership is like a pair of professor and junior student, a theoretical way of talking will not do.

Don't completely believe what love guru's says and don't just take other's case as a blueprint. You've to approach communication completely different ways. The ways that’s applicable for your partnership relation.

A simple phase of requesting something - "pass me that thing" can be refined into hundred ways of expression. Do try yourself by attaching few affixes onto the space of prefix or suffix. Or using passive voices. The sensations will totally be different!

Chinese proverb said, "if you respect me 3 marks, I'll repay you with 4 marks of respects." It's a basic of courteous regard for people's feelings. If you use "please" then you'll get a return of "Ho" (okay), a human character of natural responding.

The next is tolerant. Anger is very real in all of us. A life without anger is unrealistic. Man used to @!&$% and woman used to gag with tear and blowing nose.

Quite often that I used @!&$ as a prefix into my talking with friends and I gained back a courtesy of another $&!@. And curiously friendship became closer. But the application of same way into your partnership life will only bring you a Vietnam war or Berlin wall.

Anyway, “self-control” is the keyword of good remedy.

Disagreements or conflicts wouldn't 100% be resolved with win-win situations. Otherwise there would be no Iraq war. When come to a dead-lock situation (where x+y=0), the healing way is one party should have to dissolve or absorb or taking a reverse gear (if x=0). Since it's of lady first, man gonna to take the loser's end! (therefore y=0)

Chinese depicting it as "zhik hwang lean“ (eating yellow lotus seed - takes it) of which is good for man's health! Why not, man, thinks it over!

When angry, count 3; when very angry, swear; when very very angry, go elsewhere; after angry, bring back some ware; finish angry, love affair. - put3put4.

Longlife learning

The main agenda of MCA nowadays is longlife learning. But most of its fronts are old folks. They want to learn something new, most probably the IT, Isn't it? I guessed.

The trope is "Can you teach an old bird to sing?" By rights you can. I tell you the possibleness within the metaphors.

It reflects the widely held stereotype that older people have difficulties in adapting to new methods and techniques.

Studies consistently demonstrate that older employees are preceived as being relatively inflexible, resistant to change, and less trainable than their younger counterparts, particularly with respect to information technology skills.1

But this metaphor is wrong.

The evidence indicates that older workers (typically defined as people aged 50 and above) want to learn and are just as capable of learning as any other employee group.

Older workers do seem to be somewhat less efficient in acquiring complex or demanding skills. That is, they may take longer to train. But once trained, they perform at comparable levels to younger workers.2

However, the ability to acquire the skills, knowledge, or behavior necessary to perform a job at a given level - that is, trainability - has been the subject of much research.

And the evidence indicates that there are differences between people in their trainability. A number of individual difference factors (such as ability, motivational level, and personality) have been found to significantly influence learning and training outcomes.3

Age, however, has not been found to influence these outcomes. Only they may take longer to learn.

1. L. Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957)
2. A.W.Wicker, “Attitude versus Action: The Relationship of Verbal and Overt Behavioral Responses to Attitude Objects,” Journal of Social Issues, Autumn 1969
3. Ibid., p.65

An inner peace

[This picture was taken on 19-07-85. The day when we were celebrating our youngest daughter's 6th birthday]

Life is an admixture and experiment of sour, sweet, bitter & chilly moments as the Chinese sages define it.

But there's always something that can bring a happy moment into our life in a way. Remembering and referring back to those moments will nevertheless help us get through the down times.

On a Saturday night I was in my little library (a very small corner in my room) making my family album in motioned VCD for the purpose of distributing to my grown children as a memento.

The job was interesting but was a bit tedium. A sequence process of scan-crop-resize-despeckle-view-save.

It was a rainy night, I was drinking while doing my work, and suddenly noted the night had turned very cold.

I supposed to heighten the degree of air-cond but on the spur of that moment (as I turned over) I noticed my wife was sleeping so deeply, revealing a peaceful but slight wrinkly face. A face of symbolical sacrifice - of whom had (suffered) married me at little 16. Ah, my indebtedness!

I then made a cat-walk to add on another sweater and went on to continue my work. Picture by picture to scan in, and suddenly I came across the picture (as shown), I held it and relished from it for quite a long moment. The picture figured in one of my happy moments, a happy moment that only a shilyshallying father can fully appreciate. My goodness.

It was 2 at the late-night. The sweet moment had eventually postponed my work.

"Being happy and making others feel happy is the most providential thing." I thought.

"The moment of that kiss contained every happy moment I had ever lived."
(Paulo Coelho quotes, Mystical author, one of Brazil's most successful novelist).

It's a #$%! man's domain!

Abstract: This is a digest of hearsays that has been taken heed from a coffeeshop arena (an unintentional dictation from whom an exchange of gossips between A (a Chinese) & B (a Malay) happened).

Warning: This article contains absurd wordings. The blogger is wary of the vulgarity and has tried to plugin as close meaning as possible to make it becomes sensible.

The chitchat starts:

A: "Pu#%ma sekarang apa tu orang pun boleh buat, u tengguh tu bom di Bali, bunuh tu orang tak'berdosa saja." (what's the hell all these people possibly could do any harm, u see the case of Bali bombings where only those innocent people are killed.)

B: "Banyak bahaya sekarang, fasal Itulah dendam yang tak akan henti serupanya yang mana ada tuhan, mana ada hantu." (very dangerous nowadays, because their revenges will never stop as if where there is god, there will be an evil exited.)

A: "Na, lu tengguh paper hari ini, pu#%ma tu orang buang batu-bata ke atas kereta yang jalan. lama lama dia orang buang bom pula." (U see today's paper, there is brick-throwing incident, in such a likelihood they'll throwing bomb in future.)

B: "Hey! ini cuma kerjadian nakal saja, tak sama dengan itu terrorist." (Hey! it's merely a juvenile delinquency and not the same with those terrorists.)

A: "Lu ingat c%b# kerja ni boleh selesai kah?" (do you think that this kind of thing could be solved?)

B: "Tak mungkinlah fasal itu orang sudah hilang akai." (that's impossible because these ppl have losing their brains.)

A: "Wah! sekarang ha tu nyamuk boleh mati orang loh." (wah! nowadays mosquito can kill people.)

B: "Ceh! bukan mati orang, orang boleh mati kalau dijankiti dengan kuman dengue" (by no means of killing people, It's it could infect deadly dengue bacteria to people.)

A: "Dengue belum habis, mai tu sakit ayam lagi" (dengue is not yet finished, now bird flu is coming again.)

B: "Itulah virus-virus berbangkit macam virus komputer" (it's like computer viruses which are rising up.)

A: "Lu tengguh tu perumpuan besi bolehkah menangis lagi dalam kabinet lepas dicucuk belakang oleh tauka DAP?" (what do you think the iron lady could have crying again at the cabinet after the boss of DAP tapped on her?)

B: "Hang penah tengguh wayang kulit kah? Itulah kita cuma dibayangkan dengan cumbu-cumbunya, apa kita boleh tauh." (have U seen the skin show? we're just being shown by its endearments only, how can we get to know from the inside out?)

A: "Lu tengguh sekarang tu lanch@$u syer boleh belikah?" (what do u think that silly share can be purchased now?)

B: "Aku takut dibakar tanggan fasal yang ada syer-syer sekarang mungkin boleh dijatuh sampai bawah, hanya tertinggal beberapa sen saja." (I'm afraid of getting my hands burnt because some of the shares now could even fall down to a mere few cents.)

A: "Eh wa ada satu kawan, lulu dia beli 6 ribu biji tu Mxx, sekarang ha hanya tinggal lebih kurang RM125 saja loh!" (I got one friend, his previously purchased 6 thousands units of Mxx, now only left with a value of about RM125!)

B: "Itu biasalah" (It's very common.)

A: "Er sekarang ah apa barang pun naik harga, orang kuli kerajaan dapat gaji tambah, ada lu dapat?" (now it seems that all prices of goods are going up, government servants are getting pay-rise, how about you?)

B: "Tadaklah, apa kita boleh buat. Hari-hari U mahu makan. Orang miskin sebagai kita mampus saja." (Not at all, how can we do about it. We need to eat everyday. Poor ppl like us are suffering only.)

A: "Rokok pun naik, wa ingat mau tukar itu bangkali rakok loh." (price of cigarette have also increased, I'm considering to change to a cheaper one.)

B: "Ha! Ha!, nasib baik, ini bukan akunya fasal kerana aku ta'hisap" (haha! it's none of my business cos I'm not smoking.)

A: "Lanch@$u, U ta'hisap u adalah untung jimatkah?" (shit! have u save up some money from being a non-smoker?)

B: "Kosong, duit macam air, sini tak pergi, sana pergi pula." (none, money is like water, it has its own way to flow to.)

A: "Wah! cakap cakap sudah pukul 9, kita kena zoom loh, nanti tauka kan sama kita." (wah! time has flown fast on charting, it's now nearly 9 o'clock, we got to move now otherwise our boss will blame us later.)

B: "Zoom, zoom cepat" (move, move quickly.)

The free and brassy radio end. It is a #S%! man's domain!

Hardly live without bogus

Yesterday, one of my clients pinned the blame on my network scripts that has given to him the other day. In his phone conversation he complained, "Rob, LP lah! your scripts was a bogus one, it hung my network only." I explained to him that it was my production and was not a bogus one, it was non-functional due to typical error. But he argued that whatever thing that is producing mistake is bogus!

I was not pretty sure on his statement, since my rusty mental lexicon could have just only translated it into "fake" or "fraud". However I was not compromised.

In order to screen out the fact, so I immediately fired my Firefox, threw my inquiry "what's the meaning of bogus" to Answers.com and popped! Briefly were the definitions flashed. I explored into it. Bellyful humph! I cognized that I've been all the while living in a bogus world that's full of bogies!

Be it amboguous (having multiple bogus interpretations); bogotissimo (in a gloriously bogus manner); and bogotophile (one who is pathologically fascinated by the bogus), is extant and is inevitably happened in this globe.

Then it is non-functional; useless; false; incorrect; unbelievable; silly; fraudulent; fake; sham; fraud; pretender; and phony. That's in either way could has been just lived through by us.

Oh my god! That means I'm a bogus human and so you are too! Just because we're same living in a bogus world! On top of that, we do carry many bogus things in the course of human events and activities, perhaps.

OK, OK! let me think and count how many bogus things I have ... (by non-idiomatic words)

I've one bogoBolton degree (sorry Bolton! I meant here); I've another bogoFPNA award (sorry NIA! here only); I've one bogofila shoe; I've one bogoumbrella shirt; I've one bogopc (without bland); I've ... Aiyo! many leh!

In our society, I'm sure that we've came across many bogus things, such as credit card, currency, policeman, datoship, doctor, accountant, saleman, cds, software, helmet reported today and .... countless.

Contrastingly, bogus thing can be a good one also. For example, lies to kid to prevent his juvenile delinquency; bring dishonor upon oneself's financial inability against borrower; telling unsubstantial story to subsist being late at work; orientated bluffing to prevent conflict between couple and .... is also countless.

Oh yes, may be my says have just triggered your bogometer! But by chance you could have some too!

Anyway, who dare to confess that he has no bogus thing or bogosity (bad or good one) in his life? Maybe an alien from the other planet!

Going Nowhere

Everyone has visions in his life. But many of us go through life not clear about which direction we want to go.

The visions for our life come in various degrees of intensity and timing. Visions often shift and change with systems in our lifetime, and with movement from one stage of life to another.

What we want in our life can be planed and organized into agenda. So that we could have a life of excitement and fun and knowledge. But the philosophy of planing ahead of what we want in our life sometimes went futile. The fruitless plan is something somehow exclaimed as "Faith" by those forks who have had a failing life and those who believe in allegory.

One bankrup said, if you could predict and get to know who would be you youself in future, then there would be no beggars in this world. But quite often a wealthy people would acclaimed that his successful status was because of his prior good planning.

Hero makes the phenomena of society OR the society makes hero? The inexactitude makes it difficult to be answered aright.

If you scoure through this reality world. The unjust fortune set the scene for another worldiness. There are rich people scattering money on big houses and luxury cars. At the other end, there are poor people scavenging for food. In between, there are bourgeoisie working like a hell just for surviving. Is it the decent willing of god?

As children, most of us truly believed we'd grow up to become a rich people and do unique things. The trial and error of growing up never quite fulfills our ambitious. Although some call it a faith, yet ambitious or visions ignite many of us and rekindle our spirit of aliveness.

When I was 17, all adults I knew seemed to teach, "Young man, work harder and one day your head will breakthrough the sky liner." At that time I was dreaming of futuristic events of having a comfortable house, a nice car and a beautiful girl. So I worked like a donkey in believing the silly axiom.

After 13 years, no augmentative income. I found myself was still thirty nothing. Then I begun to realize that life is not a "saving box", of which is end-rewardable. I asked myself: was I living the life I'd wanted to live or was I the victim of the society? Living a life of "thirty nothing" requires a very tough kind of self-questioning.

Decades of donkey's life has passed. Now only I see the fruit, akin a pumpkin of small size but not like the one weights 557kg auctioned at the annual Safeway World Championship Pumpkin which has shown in today's Star paper. And now only I've learnt to realize where shall I go next!

Did I went through the early part of my life with plans? No really. Although I had plans, I had dreams and I had visions but they just couldn't be favored with right outcomes. As if I'd been sailing a boat in the ocean and luckily found a shore at the end.

I've considered myself as "lucky" because most of my friends were used to sent me a kudos: "Wah! Rob, You have a good faith to live like that" but none of them would express: "Wah! Rob, You're smart to plan your life like that".

Chinese proverb cited that, "life is given by 3 marks depend on god; 4 marks reckon on hardworking". Could we control our life? Could we go beyond that 4 marks?

Perhaps, between health and whelth, there is a difficult tradeoff as yet to be made.

Crazy Wheel of Man's Life

In this world, most men were prompted crazy from time to time during their life's cycle (historical period). The realization of balancing in life comes only when they are getting old. And me is not the exceptional.

The elements that caused to interrupt the wheel of man's lifecycle are inevitably the behavioral inclination of somethings that people have been repeating to us over the years.

These included; Games, gamblings, womanizings, reputations, cars, alcohols money, actions & ....

Believe it or not, read on the following conversations between me and one of my friends, who is a grandfather of 4 sons, hereafter refferred to as Fang:

Me: "Congrat, old Fang, now you've got a good life. Got many sons and many grandchildren. No worries lah."

Fang: "Lampah (shit) lah! 4 sons 4 patterns, one is gambling ghost, one is mad with women, one is alcohol ghost, last one is a bookworm. You see, sooisiau (unlucky) or not!"

Me: "Aiya! don't bother about them lah, later on they will automatically change to good lah."

Fang: "I hope so. they changed now and then. Like the eldest one, formerly he was fond of womanizing, after marriaged, now became gambling ghost pula."

Me: "How about the 2nd one?"

Fang: "This one ah, don't talk lah, last time very crazy in doing business, after having some money, playing cars and playing women, lulu siausiau! (hanky-panky). You talk, he won't listen."

Me: "Take it easy lah, naturally he'll retire from womanizing soon. How about the 3rd one?"

Fang: "Aiyo! this one champ (worse) loh! drink from morning until night. Almost every midnight he has to be carried home by people. But he holiau (is good), he could go to open shop early in the morning."

Me: "Mai hiam bey phai (no bad) ah, at least he's caring his business."

Fang: "Yongest one leh, whole day reading. Sampai (even) his mother called him to eat, he also don't think of eating. Everyday he's playing computer. Don't know he is whether truly studying or looking at charbor (porn). I afraid one day he could become mad from reading."

Me: "Is good wah, at least he got learning to deal with. Is better then those who are doing notting but sucking white powder only."

Fang: "You see, all no 3 no 4 (unevenness), but luckily none of them was mixing with bad people and went for robbing."

Me: "Aiya! mai haim bey phai (pretty good) lah! The most important thing is, do they give you money for eating kuih (money for living)?"

Fang: "Hengchai (luckily)! ka ka kiam kiam (some) lah. Eh! how about your children?"

Me: "Not like you got so many watertaps. My 2 daughters have already let other people to feed. My eldest son, almost same with yours lah, he is loving his business and car."

Fang: "hi! men are all like that one. Don't talk about them, last time we were also same sama like that. Ha ha ha!"

Me: "Don't be tortoise laugh at turtle lah! This is called an [innate man's world]."

disclaimer: views expressed are not necessarily of the blogger.

Fresh Maxims

New set of maxims will slow me down but will make me more purposeful.

I do indeed lose some short-term memory as I getting old. This natural decrease in memory function causes me to slow things down particularly in remembering to do things and keep vocabulary.

Typing and looking at the computer screen is now tending to produce a negative result. Both of my index fingers are employed frequently instead of using all fingers on keyboard. Notepad's font is set at 14 points to please my undiscerning eyes. Spelling becomes loose. Sometime even a simple word such as "film" has to be rely on querying "f???" from the e-dictionary. Anyhow I don't think that my ability for abstract thinking or concept information is now compromised.

So far, I've been believing that the most insatiable killer is not heart disease, smoking, or alcohol it's "Inner Kill". This is the art of dying without knowing it. It's when routine living seems to have dulled your emotions. It's feeling like you're coping without being fully alive.

I know I gonna to find a new set of maxims to fertilize future redos such as keep reading & learning new skills, keep exercising my memory. Stale work is gonna to be renewed by fresh play. And most importantly the power of my self-esteem is to be recharged. That's why I choose to keep my blogs writing to help prevent memory loss.

As a reminder, a new PDA is now engaged to jog down instantly of thing-to-do and thing-to-buy. Important memos are encoded into *.pdb (palm's file extension) and loaded together with plenty of ebooks for slow digestion. And of course few mp3 songs for refreshing. Outing now become more purposeful.

Routine time table is changed to have less commitments with broadened time-gap. So that I can have long enough time during the day to collect my thoughts, calm my mind, and regain perspective.

In order to put me into a singular vision of learning rather than multiple tracks, I've hived away those daunting and bittering law books off-site, and displaying only those interested IT books on-site.

It is a grace to cut-off Astro to regain times (concurrently save money) for husband and wife togetherness and for running horse & seeing flower (sight seeing). It's now the "just the two of us" world! I'd said this to my wife.

Opting for fund writing is now become crucial. Less writing on those articles which must be accommodated with deadening references of Acts & regulations. But more on blog's forum. The replacement of which is joyful and the liberty for correctness is there to be much flexible. I have been to the jungle of blogs and enjoyed many blogs which were amazingly blog with much muses.

I'm not gonna to strive to achieve perfection which is now tended to be ultimately counterproductive. I gonna to remind myself that achieving excellence, rather than perfection, is the nobler goal.

Screen people. It may be necessary to reevaluate my relationships, so I can spend less time with the people who don't really matter and more time with the people who do.

Eating less and selectively (to prevent the excessiveness of urine acid) and resume cycling; an added maxim from my doctor.

And of course, I gonna to balance myself into these maxims. Balancing, as individuals, each of us is a system unto ourselves. In the course of day-to-day living, we interact with many other systems. If any interaction becomes dysfunctional, problems are inevitable.

These are all an effective fresh maxims to help me function better on a daily basis.

And lastly, my exhortation "Yeah! I am alive!"

She Is The One

Upon receiving my car's insurance renewal notice, I went to Ambank of Bagan Luar branch this afternoon.

Having wasted my time and money (toll+parking+petrol) to go there. Instead of getting my insurance and road tax renewed, the episode came out in this way:

When I reached the bank, the guard asked me to clik for a queue-ticket, so I clicked and having a number of 2451. I then sat at the waiting place awaiting for my turn. About 15 minutes later, the number was called, so I proceeded to the counter.

I said: "Cik, can u please calculate and renew my car's insurance for 60k and renew road tax for me?"

The lady: "Do you have your policy?"

I said: "It has been a year your agent haven't sent it to me, BTW here it is the renewal notice I've received"

The lady referred my question to another lady and came back to me yet couldn't give the answer immediately but was keeping her keyboard busy.

I couldn't wait anymore so I interrupted: "Can I paid by card?"

She said: "No, cash or cheque only."

I then asked her: "U see, at the back of the renewal there is an availability for card's payment"

But she still said: "No, cash or cheque only"

I was starting getting hot, so I asked back the renewal notice and said: "In this way forget about it." Then I made a move unhappily.

Back to my office. I called another insurance co to serve me. They promptly faxed me a sample authorized letter in order to redeem my Grant from Ambank and they said they would provide a one-stop service by sending their man over as soon as I've finished my letter.

While I was preparing the letter, I was keeping to ask myself "Ambank is so big, shouldn't its service be so bad."

By having a feeling of no compromise. I went through the renewal notice again. There I found a telephone number of Penang's office and so I called.

"Good afternoon, is it Ambank?" I initiated the phone conversation.

"Yes sir, how can I help u?" a Malay lady replied.

"Oh I want to renew my insurance and my car's number is ...." I said.

"In this case, please hold on, I'll pass u to Shidah" she responded.

"Yes, Mr. Tan, good afternoon, u can fax over your completed renewal to us for renewal." said by Shidah who has taken over the line.

"Actually my problem is your people in Bagan Luar branch don't want to accept my card payment ... and I supposed to change another ins co......." I complained.

"No, Mr. Tan, u shouldn't do that. My apology, actually there don't have card machine, or can I pass u to another branch to make the renewal? or I fax u the quote, u confirm later and give your card's details, then I'll do the rest for you and I'll ask our man to deliver the whole thing to u sir." She nicely explained.

In the meantime, she has asked my office location detail and tel numbers.

"OK cik Shidah, thank you very much for your service" I answered gracefully.

All of all, she is the one who has actually endowed with experience to feed her place.

BECAUSE HE LIVES

I first heard these words, shortly after the loss of my dear youngest brother-in-law, Brother Albert Mah Choong San. The gentleman who used to call me "Khuan Brother" I got shook.

During the funeral, I attended this morning [6 Oct], I kept asking myself "Why did he have to die so young?" Ah! Probably he has found a home in a peaceful land. Resting all the things. All is well and will be all well.

I hereby extend my sympathy & condolence to console the pains that Alice (sister), Joyce (niece) and Kah Yong (nephew) have suffered. Especially Joyce, I see you one day to become a lawyer.

CHORUS:
And because He Lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He Lives, all fear is gone.
And because I know, I know He holds the future,
and life is worth the LIVING,
Just because HE LIVES.

WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS:
Have we trials and temptation?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

At the rising of the sun and at its going down,
Brother Albert Mah, We remember you.

Go Get Gang Rape For Wealth?

"If you think of making money and traveling abroad, just go to get a gang-rape" a remark purportedly made by Pakistan's President, Musharraf not long ago after his assuming presidency. The remark was made against Mukhtar Mai, a woman who went public about having been gang-raped few years ago.

His remarks have been outraged with utter words of protest wisely by the society. Mai's bravery in her fight against women's humanity in Pakistan and in other parts of the world should be appraised. And not only that, she has so far using her case's financial gain to build 2 schools in her village.

Instinctively, this guy may have something wrong with his mind and his mouth. He was once narrowly served with a roasted-pig alike treat - a narrow escape from an off-targeted bomb attack few years ago.

Came across another dark headline: "Girl, 16, endures incest to save her younger sisters" Star reported dd 04, Oct.

I am distressed upon the upside-down mankind. The one who have done this kind of acts is a soul of evil.

What can I say; !@#$% nah!

Remark: Chinese characters shown hereof [headlined by Oriental Daily News (www.orientaldaily.com.my) dd 03,Oct]