Eschew for a moment

"Long time no see. Where have you been"? This was greeted by a familiar fish seller as I was entered the market for a regular weekly stock-up day before. I returned the greeting by telling him that I was busying in putting money into doctors' pockets for the last few weeks.

I was suffering from flu intermittently. The virus was so stubborn like a hateful spams that has refused to go away. Heeling software didn't work. It has remained its attack in between me and my wife periodically, prompting us to keep on changing doctor. Meanwhile, doctors' prescriptions didn't cure us but instead made us in a sleepy manner all the time. Probably the antibiotic-resistent bacteria had evolved, which makes tweaking our immune systems very difficult.

Most of yesterday's yesterdays and today I attempted to clear off all sort of backlogs. Now am feeling better despite few coughs persisted and at least I'm able to regain my mode to write again in this blogs-sphere.

It's been quite sometimes I was just keeping sneezing and seldom kept my eyes on what were happening within the society of these days. I wouldn't really recognize has someone was making troubles! Has someone was asking bloggers to register before you can blog?

Don't bend (distort) the history!

We found ourselves too tired or else too lazy to cook our dinner last evening. So we had "ta pau" 2 packets of our favorite - "Tiong Kok Sharkfin" (fried meehoon naming in an accredited way by Hokkianese) to fill our stomaches as dinner.

Usually the package's covering is an old newspaper pieced with an inner layer of plastic paper in which this kind of food is wrapped. And it has been my habit to read the wrapping paper simultaneously while taking my Tiong Kok Sharkfin.

Although the news are outdated, sometimes they're just quite entertaining. And this evening was not the exceptional. Hence I found this piece of news dated 02/10/06 fanciful and interested - The story about the critique made by Dato Cheah of Penang Kheh Association against the DCM of Penang, Dato Haji Abdul Rashid bin Abdullah, over the issue of bending the history of Penang.


According to the critique, Abdul Rashid had has in one occasion days before cited irrespectively that the founder of Penang was not the Captain Francis Light (1740-1794), but it was Dato Kanaden (name is assumed as it's since I don't know "mat sooi" he is) who had come to Penang earlier than Light. Cheah uncompromisingly argued that if the perspective of who-is-who the first comer would be entitled as the founder, were to be taken into consideration. Then how about his 3 named ancestors, who had been landed into Penang 4 years prior to the arrival of Kanaden!

"Kanasai!" My noesis of history which was learnt some 40 years ago, has been tought back to teacher already. But what is still I can remember is, Penang was found by Light. Right? And also I can remember there are Light Street, Beach Street, Pitt Street & Chulia Street in Penang.

Perhaps one day, Light Street will be called as Kanaden Street!

Actually, it's none of my business of whether the founder of Penang was Kanaden, Kanasai, Brown or Black. Therefore as usual, as soon as I've had finished enjoying the reading, my delicious Tiong Kok Sharkfin do finish simultaneously. So it has energized me for the enthusiasm to bring up this little news to share with you!

Harmonious cattle of different colors

I took this picture while I was taking a short puff at the corridor outside my workplace this noon. My first glimpse on this scene was blissful. These three different colors of cattle were getting together in perfect harmony with a common objective of "cari makan" freely at the large green green grass of field.

Resource for living is their most important goal. There is no social malaise inside their circle; protectionism which is sometimes necessary in trade, is not required to be practical between them; no brutal attacks or arguments. So, do they require apologies?

Yeah! I'm No. 1 of TM's Merdeka Plan customer

I signed up the so called Merdeka Plan with TM on 16-09-05 when I received a brochure of invitation.

Yesterday, I was much surprised to receive a greeting postcard from the TM, saying that I was the No. 1 of their Merdeka Plan customer.

Wait a minute, Hat Chew! It sounds like they're trying to say that I was one of their No. 1 Merdeka Plan customers in the first sentence. But the third sentence then emphasized that being their "top customer" (singular). I think I'm No. 1 kuah!

The greeting message came together with a reward as follow - "Greetings! Thank you for being our number one Medeka Plan customer. We hope that you've enjoyed its benefits and will continue to do so. As our top customer, we believe that you deserve only the best from us. That's why, we've added more value to your Merdeka Plan and are pleased to announce that it now comes with extra talk-time minutes. FREE! Your new Merdeka Plan: 580 local call minutes + 120 national call minutes = 700 talk-time minutes. It's our own way of saying THANK YOU for you continued loyalty. So until our next reward, enjoy and happy talking! Warm regards from TM."

It has been a great job done by TM's customer relation department and is much encouraging.

Thank you TM for the reward! It certainly was nice to be remembered and especially nice to receive more talk-time during this 49th Merdeka!

I see Beijing 2

We stepped onto the Tiananmen Square to celebrate our 31 marriage anniversary.

The remains of the 589-year-old original solid-tiles flooring which is covering a very large area, is still there inside the Forbidden City.

The 2nd gate of the Forbidden City.

One of the many brass urns found inside the Forbidden City. It measured about 8 feet in diameter and was supposed to be utilized as a reservoir for fire fighting purpose for the Palace.

A large ancient 'time measuring instrument' (clock) made of solid rock of about 5' in diameter which is placed on-top of a wall inside the Forbidden City.

I see Beijing 1

As I stepped out from the Beijing Capital International Airport, I felt like I was revisiting a brand-new China. Newly retouched airport, new cars on the roads and new highways, were the catches of my first glimpse. The welcoming coach is new and so the female tour guide, is modernly dressed. But most of the vehicles passing by were found to be heavily dusted. This probably could be due to recently hasty constructions, such as new airport, new stadiums, arenas, buildings, roads etc.; for a face lifting for 2008 Olympic!

Not only China's people have changed their social infrastructure, they've changed their lifestyle too. They are now having the opportunity to work five-days-week. They enjoy both a week of holidays for Labor Day and National Day, and months of Winter Holidays. Curiously, many peoples of whom I have had encountered could basically speak Standard English. Some were intonated but are listen-able. Cellphone have become part of their needs like what we have been getting used to. The price of foods has inflated in line with their modernistic lifestyles.

Mountain-people-mountain-sea can be described at many tourist destinations, such as Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City. Throngs of local people were also found at Summer Palace. According to locals peoples. Habitual daily exercises at the immense park of the Summer Palace has had become a healthy activity in their lives.

The public toilet, the place where I used to visit frequently, is unbelievably revolutionized! Most of them are equipped with auto sensors in taps, squirt hand soap, dryers and flush toilets. But most of them are aromatic with heavy ammonium flavor as hydrated urine from the large poor shooters over the floor courses the smelly environment. Perhaps, it is due to the heavy trafficking of visitors. Although they have a first class functionality but the mentality of cleanliness is yet to be improved. Anyhow, it is far better than ours!

The word 'queuing' is seemed not presented inside their mental vocabulary. Taking many times of buffet breakfast together with local guests who had brought disorder to the buffet like "hungry ghosts" for fear of unable-to-eat, were the bad experiences. Also, it is quite common that you would get a shoulder-one's-way manner at any entrance, payment counter, ticket counter and etc.

One thing for sure, it is a smokers' heaven. Almost everywhere is smoker free! Not like the one happened in the Hongkong Airport's smoking lounge, where usually 30 to 40 peoples would be packed like Sardine into a 5x15 cabinet in order to blow the cloud. Although it is free to smoke in public unwisely but significantly the number of public smoker has reduced. Even at the crowded Wang Fu Jin Walking Street, a famous night market, there were only a few smokers I'd seen. Was education had played a vital roll for this change, I didn't know.

During my visit to Tiananmen Square, I noticed a unique thing. There was a Malaysian tour was flagging a banner of "halal tour." But I really didn't understand!

At Great Wall, one must keeps right on the stairway in the same direction as how their vehicles run on the road when climbing up and down the wall. For this occasion, the principle is really worked to order!

I was much fascinated with the Underground City, a war protective tunnel which was built by President Mao in 1969 during the time of disagreement with Russia. The passage have 2 tiers. The 2nd tier is built by 18 meters dipper after the 1st tier, which could contain hundred-of-thousand of people. Unfortunately there were only few passages were allowed to be opened for visitors. Luckily, I was be able to manage for a few shots inside the tunnel!

At the Ya Xiu Shi Chang, a shopping mall, I had learned the way of bargaining purchase. My first experience was a poor bargain; a kid's silk suit which is priced at 260RB, was bid for 60RB after a bit-by-bit bargain, whereas my friend got the same suit for only 30RB! My second bargain over a vest of originally priced 380RB was later smartly obtained at 80RB. A quick check on the listed price of a 512MB SD card had caused my stretched-tongue surprise. It was deliberately tagged at 580RB by the average traders, what a whopping of about 600% marginal pricing!

Perhaps, from the perspectives of their cultural change, their living standard, property hike as well as the booming economic, It's a boon for the people of China!

In fact, there are many more to tell. In view of shortening my post, lets some of my shots in the next post (since photos.blogger.com is dead at this moment) to tell in short.

Break

This evening I came across one of my collections of excerpt, titled "Don't Just Do Something, Sit There." from the World Executive's Digest 1995. The writer Richard Eyre cited about the need of fresh maxims to slow us down and make us more purposeful - that the nature of work and play has changed. Work used to be physical and tiring in this work-oriented world, so play was often passive. Often that work leaves us mentally tired and physically unused.

While looking back over the weeks and months but not see much of "up-colored" in my life. I was like sawing the trunk with a dull saw. I kept doing something and busying myself, never taking time to just sit there and sharpen my saw.

Well and so forth, I'll take a China vacation from tomorrow till the middle of this month, just to collect my thoughts, calm my mind, and regain my perspective.

Happy blogging!

Shall I be impressive?

During the last few weeks, with the advent of my casual days - post-retirement, there has been a tendency to relax myself as well as my wearing style. However, I found that it's sometime not my preference to wear as I like when outing.

At one afternoon, I went to shop with my wife with the maintenance of my domesticated outfit; frayed collar T shirt, nap rised short and a pair of 2 dollars saddle. I felt the delight and casualness for being at such loose apparel at the shopping mall. I was enjoyingly perceiving my sight seeing while smiling to people who had had eyes-contacted with me.

Within a moment, I strangely felt like something was going wrong. I'd noticed that most of the people who be coming from the opposite direction be throwing a glance at me as if I was so special that day. I could not figure out the odd straightaway since my heart had been soak into a happy-go-lucky enjoyment.

So I asked my wife, "Yong, am I looked handsome today, if not why so many people were used to look at me?" "Of course lah! you're wearing like a boh-thuck-cair-eh-lang (illiterate person) and no wonder people may thing of you as a snatcher, a popular skeptical icon these days." She added, "if there were anything to be happened here, you are likely to be picked amongst the first batch for questioning via cctv."

Her word was later on proved to be literal when I was supposing to make a luggage purchase. That silly salesgirl who had been keeping her closed paces to me, was having her both eyes static at me all the time, as if I was not a genuine buyer! Alamak! what 'dog's eyes see people shorter' (dogmatic) manner it was!

This has proved that it can take only moments for people to pass judgement on you with these initial impressions largely based on visual image. What I'm thinking is clothe may not necessarily 'make' the man or woman. Men with proper tied on may not necessarily having money inside his pocket. But the reality is because image talks with this advanced society, and what our image communicates can dictate the quality of the response.

For the reassessment of my thought of whether should I be impressive, I've found an answer. As professional image consultant, Sharon Moore of Image & Moore Pty Ltd once said "There're only two types of people who don't have to worry about their appearance - the very rich, and the very silly. For the rest of us, it's about managing the impact we make on others."

I think I kinder find my old man style that would probably fit the range of what's appropriated for all occasions. And it's perhaps the Charles Bronson's!

A good resume

I am fusty on the way of writing a modern resume. Look! here is a typical one that has found in my inbox.

Let's don't muss too hard upon the enjoinment of silence upon bloggers; the enormity of robbers; the unrest of society; an engrossing college story. And enjoy this particular resume!

Remarked that the copyright of the content of this resume is enigmatical.

Here it's:

SECRETARY'S RESUME:
Deer Sir,
I waunt to apply for the secritary job what I saw in the paper. I can taip real quik wit one finggar and do sum a counting. I think I am good on the phone and no I am a pepole person, Pepole really seam to respond to me belly well. I´m lookin for a Jobb as a secritary but it musent be to complicaited. I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety. My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth, I can start imeditely. Thank you in advanse fore yore anser. . hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr.
Sinseerly,
Peggy May Starlings
PS : Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me taken at my last jobb.

Employer's reply:...... Dear Peggy,
It's OK honey, we've got spell check..... Welcome onboard!!!

D-Link DNS300

I'm annoying with my printing jobs over my home networking shared-printer. Everytime it took me the hassle to fire up my dedicated PC (server) in order to get my document be printed.

I have been considering to get rids of such annoyance by employing a printer server or by using a NAS (Network Attached Storage) which has a built-in print server. After weighing this-and-that, here-and-there, I finally committed with this baby - D-Link DNS300.

Installation of this baby is a breeze. Open up the device's casing, I plug in a harddisk; then I connect it to my wireless router (in case any hub or switch will do) via an ethernet port; and then I hook up my printer to one of the 2 USB ports available at the back of this device.

With the power on, I fire my Firefox (browser) and issue 192.168.0.101, the default IP address of the device. There the interface for configuration is well designed yet elementarily simple. The Quick Start page finds the drive on the network and prompts me to format the harddisk to a recognizable Ext2 format. It is very fast to get my 80g hdd be formatted. Thereafter I can easily create shared folders with configurable rights, define users, assign access privileges. And interestingly, a default no-security public share folder is presented thereof.

This NAS operates as a standalone network file server with good handling of its integrated Linux Samba server talking to and listening from the Windows's environments.

Another interesting feature is I can hook up an external USB drive to another USB port of the device. And I can get my 80g mobile drive be quickly formatted into Fat32 format which I can't be able to do that under WinXP. I think this is an useful function for getting large capacity harddisk to be formatted into Fat32 format without the fuss of breaking into several partitions.

My Canon LBP1210 laser printer unfortunately fails to cooperate remotely and I guess it could be of printer's memory issue, since this Canon printer does not have its own Ram inside. Changing over to my another Canon Pixma 4200 printer is therefore functionable but sluggish. As a reminder, I think my next purchase of printer would be the HP's rammed one.

One annoyance with this baby is it buzzes so intensively (a high db of humming noise) that I have pondered to remove its tiny exhaust fan located at her backside.

Another annoyance is I have to figure out myself on how to switch off the unit. Nothing I could find a single clue from its accompanied documentations as well as from D-Link's website. Oh yes! finally by holding on its power button until its power led is blinking, is the answer. By then I'm not sure whether it is a conventional way.

Anyway, the throughput of files throwing in-and-out within this device is inspiring and is running at a satisfactory condition.
---------------

The good: Choice of desiring space; easy setup; USB ports for printers and USB drives attachment; Samba works fine.

The bad: Headache with its humming sound; lack of documentations; not a solid built.

The bottom line: It prices fairly, at RM550+-; it turns out to become my wireless server as well as print server when connected to my wireless router; a good choice for the average user.

I'm back

After nearly a month of being away, I finally made my way back to this "lu-kong wa-kong" (bloging) circle. Sorry man! my readers (although it's small in number) Truly being away from the blog wasn't by choice. It was because I've been welcomed to "Gout land", an atmosphere of being suffered from gout.

At there, I've to take a new leaf of life. Diet has to be disciplined. I've to say no to foods that are considered high in purine content such as shellfish, red meats, organ meats, beef, beans and nuts etc. Especially the limitation of wine intake, that is the most heart-cutting option. Gout is not only discriminating me but my wife too. As she'd have to follow me to diet in such a way I did since it's now only "just the 2 of us."

Basically I took Goutnil (painkiller), Indomethacin (anti inflammation agent) and Allopurinol (uric acid reducer) daily that are obtaining over the counter. I've done a broad research on gout and getting to know that the best medicine was regular exercise.

I've also suffered from insomnia occasionally because of gout. Sometimes it felt like an owl - active in the night and sleepy in the day. No matter how I rolled and flipped on bed, it sometimes just couldn't get sleep.

It's all about the culprit, the excessiveness of uric acid resulting to gout!

This morning, I read about the intro of a book called "The Right to Write" by Julia Cameron in the Startwo column. The intro has never the less given me some encouragements to share my experiences with you, that's how "I'm back" be written.

Pressure released

Ah! Finally it was a pleasure upshot - a release of last minute pressure - after months of harsh working pressure. Eventually I got my office's taxation jobs completed ahead of schedule before June 30. When I saw happy faces of my colleagues who were collectively enjoying the contentment of "mission possible" by beating the job's deadline, I was happy too this evening thanks to the full cooperation of all colleagues.

We had our works this year procrastinated for some reasons: some because we had failed to call upon clients to get task systematically at hand; some because some of our colleagues were still fresh to get idea to start; others because of the "World Cup 2006" heat that makes the whole system to slow down. That certainly included my frequent escapes from "dull and unpleasant tasks" to reserve for watching football!

A darker day

Today marks the darker day in the life of consumers. Electricity tariff in the peninsula goes up by 12% from today.

TNB said the increase will not affect the low to medium income group which uses less than 200kWh of electricity per month as the existing rate of 21.8 sen per kWh remains unchanged. Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said those unaffected by the tariff increase made up 60% or 3.036 million of the 5.1million households in the peninsula.

Many poor consumers who are delighted that their watt consumption is falling below the marginal hiking point, are happy of being good fortune. As they have believed that the government is having the people in mind before allowing the increase by TNB. So they have expressed comfortably that they are not affected. In fact, it's so stupid for not understand simply the cost accounting implication that "wool is coming from the body of sheep".

Commodities from what you eat to what you use in daily life is mostly produced under a cost of electricity. Since the electricity hike will likely affect business circles in all sectors, certainly the burden would be passed on to consumers. And at the end, it is only those people in the low to medium income group to suffer from inflation.

Inflation and deflation play a vital role in the frugality of economy. Let see how people could stand getting balance within the degree of wealth (income) and comfort (spending) in everyday life! May I exclaim Malaysia boleh?

Pricey dumpling

Today marks the annual "five month, five day" (colloquial for the fifth day of the fifth lunar month)Dumpling Festival. So my wife likes to eat dumpling.

She bought several her favorite alkalic dumplings home this morning. Although I also like this kind of dumpling but when I came to know the price of this dumpling, I "phewed" as if we were having some kind of golden dumplings. The brutal truth is this kind of tiny dumpling, sized slightly larger then a 50c coin, excessively cost RM0.60 each!

It is unavoidably that sometime we do sacrifice for the beguiling inflation rather than demandpull or costpush inflation.

Pulau Perhentian

A 3D2N trip to Pulau Perhentian from 12/05/06 to 15/05/06 with a group of church members have given me many captured memories. We have fun there and I really love the sea, the beach, the resort and the little nemo held during a temporary catch .....

Snorkeling around many islands gave me a true and exciting experiences. The resultant white sand beaches combined with a very relaxed atmosphere make this a "get away" feeling.

And ... a quick mistaken jump from a speedboat while making a snorkeling gave me a pain of both ankles' sprain .......recovered just by today. Anyhow it's a great remembrance!

Here are some of my shots ......

The Inaugural NIA Malaysian Conference

Accountants are facing a big challenge to stay in the forefront of the ever changing commercial environment.

The importance of maintaining professional knowledge has never been greater than today. Not only is there the need to keep up to date on tax, compliance and International Accounting Standards, there is also the need to broaden their knowledge on the impact of globalization on business.

National Institute of Accountants (NIA), Australia have had its inaugural conference together with its conference dinner successfully held in Malaysia on April 26 at Carlton Conference Centre of JW Marriott Hotel, KL. The conference was titled as "Managing change maintaining excellence - challenges facing the Professional Accountant" and was officiated by Y.Bhg Tan Sri Ambrin Buang, the Auditor General of Malaysia.

The conference was designed to introduce to its Malaysian members and accounting people an international seminar which is covering the topics such as Malaysian Accounting Standards Update; Corporate Governance; International Financial Reporting Standards; and Tax Reform - GST Implementation

Showcases such as Singapore's GST scenario and Australia's success IFR implementation, were also presented as a helpful example for the audience.

There was a large audience and me as a Fellow Professional National Accountant member was not the exceptional.

The NIA is now actively promoting recognition of its members, their specialized skills and the accounting profession in general. It is one of the three recognized accountancy bodies in Australia and is also a full member of the International Federation of Accountants.

Those who need further information regarding to the NIA, could contact the NIA Malaysian Branch Office for Mr T.K. Lee at Suite D03-01, Plaza Mont Kiara, No 2 Jalan Kiara, 50480 KL. Lee can also be reached by e-mailing tklee@maxis.net.my.

Cherishing memories

There're people having their own opinions or reasons to blog.

Few days ago, my wife had just nagged me, "Why are you blogging for nothing?" I simply countered her "Didn't you noticed that I'd lost my writing power on Chinese?

Frankly speaking, I've found myself these days tended to loss memory. But I'm not panicking at all as I'm very clear that I'm losing memory, not my mind. My cognitive function is still working enough for me to carry on blogging!

It's natural that you do indeed lose some slippage in memory as you grow older. But I believe that the natural decrease in memory function that may start at third age is not a sign of senility or of serious dementia like alzheimer's.

"In fact, people between the ages of 65 and 75 are actually better at certain kinds of memory than young adults," says Dr Adams-Price, associate professor of psychology and chairman of the interdisciplinary gerontology program at Mississipi. "Particularly in remembering to do things and keep appointments."

Feeding your head is the art of cherishing memories. If you keep reading and keep learning new skills, the ongoing stimulation of your cognitive functions can minimize memory loss. A pretty consistent line of research says that.

At first, I also thought of giving up blog writing or simply let it be fallen into 'coma' like what Lydia Teh's blog was suffering now. Because my mind just isn't on the ball all the time when writing a blog. Worst than I've to use a classic solution - "slow down," "pause for certain minutes to mentally form my intentions."

But after I've had balanced my learning time and ought-to-do-things time with pretty much respected to function. I've suddenly realized that anything that I can do to make myself pay more attention especially hobbies that require thinking - such as blogging, actually helps to cherish my rusty memories.

Oh yes, besides this and Ginkgo, there is compelling evidence that a habit of exercise can also helps to control memory loss!

OMG the moralities of luxury

When I was growing up in the lower class of the 1950s, luxury objects were lightly tainted with demean. My mother had always reminded me to live on enough-to-have lifestyle. Luxury or have-in-order-to-show-off objects was the indication of rich people.

After floating in the material world for decades, I had realized that the older culture, my mom's culture, the limited production capacity of the economy sharply reduced aspirations to material comfort, was no longer having relevance. In the modern world, my culture, much greater material satisfactions lie within the reach of marketplace of modest means. Thus a luxury culture which was seemed as an indulgence before has become a consumer culture. Deluxe now is not a goal; for many it is a necessity.

Reckoning that my living is sustained by hard-earned income, I've used to chase after the ever changing modern society. But I've always stuck to the style of off-limits moralities of consumption. I'm happy with what I have now but just a little bit being outdated.

If you want to understand the present material culture, you must understand the overwhelming importance of unnecessary material. If you are looking for the one univocal result of modern capitalism, of the industrial revolution, and of economic betterment, here it is the example.

The multi-millions built MPSP building. I sight with 'wow' impression when I was there to get my business license yesterday. The information counter alone is so luxury that none of many hotels I have had visited could touch with it. The business administrative area is also ostentatiously lofty in style. Air conditioning is of great coolness. Needless to say, the building by itself, is telling of what a luxury construction it be.

Frankly speaking, I was indulged with the atmosphere. I was thinking of staying a bit longer time for relaxation under such impulsion. Unfortunately my license was getting done within minutes as there were more counter staffs than the customers.

In a way, this luxury building is considered as one of the ineluctable results of the national economy and a Malaysian political system. And I must admit the ugly truth that we, the citizens are and will paying for it toward the moralities of consumption! Be it necessary in today's material world, you say.

Rainbow

While I was reconditioning my DIY little fish pond during the last evening, I saw this rainbow in the sky. It was charming and initially came up with 4 colors. But I was be able to photo down with 3 colors only with few seconds' delay in grabbing a digicam.

It has been years I didn't notice a rainbow. In Chinese mythology, the rainbow was a slit in the sky sealed by Goddess Nuwa using stones of five different colors. Shall it portray an arc of colored light as a remark of fortune or just an illusory hope to me?

An poem of William Wordsworth from 1802, "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold The Rainbow", begins with:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!…

Perhaps, the rainbow was cheering me for a successful finishing of my little fish pond! Here you could see, there were newly purchased 'koi' fishes were enjoying their new home.

I took a few puffs in the garden while witnessing my finished job. I was thinking, since I'm still be able to 'do' things at this milestone and next, what's the coming project ........

Revisit Penang Hill after 28 years

Since it's my wife's birthday today, I have just found myself wanting to make a plea for suggestions on where to take her for a meaningful outing. We have thought of going to a place of highland like Bukit Larut of Taiping, Gunong Jerai of Kedah, Betong of Gerik and Penang Hill. Finally we selected PH in order to see its latest sharp.

Penang Hill was always a special place, in the fall of 1970 it became my frequent destination for hiking from Botanical Garden.

I have such wonderful memories of my last time at Penang Hill sometime ago in 1978. It was a grace to spend full time at the hilltop while parenting our 3 kids with my wife. I loved the excitement of panoramic views over the Georgetown and the Channel.

When reaching at the foothill, I couldn't find a parking place amongst the 10 over available parking lots. To my surprise, it was unexpected that one of the symbolic tourist destinations of Penang, has only such a tiny parking area!

As seeing I was maneuvering around, a "cari makan" touter was suddenly presented himself to offer for a parking place. He then led us for several turns before entering into a nearby residential area to where I'd imagined in the first place should be a private car park.

But my imagination had eventually turned out to be another surprise as I was directed to park my car at the five-foot-way just in front of a residence and ultimately was asked for RM3. I paid in order not to displeasure her birthday sensation although I'd felt like being rifled to foray people's territory. It was indeed a bad experience.

I took a moment to look around at the hill entrance. Wow! It had completely changed to a new face by not seeing it for 28 years. At least I'd seen an establishment recognized as a special structure. I'd no word to articulate disparagingly about it.

On paying RM4 each for an adult, we were boarding the cable-car, yet another symbol of Penang. I reckoned that nothing was outstanding as compared generally to my last embarkation. It's still the same old day's flavor.

The only thing that had caused to my attention was the ventilation fans inside the cable-car. It could be classified as a stupid DIY job. Several tabletype ventilation fans (similar to the cheaper one that you could find at the Makro) were simply employed as the alternatives and getting screwed awfully at the ceiling. Yikes! an outstanding impression for tourists to remember PH's cable-car. Not a bad idea!

There was a happening of reconcilement during the cable-car journey - I'd reconciled myself to stand up by offering my seat to a foreign aunty, whereas many local chaps whom I found were loath to follow my example. The disgusted Penangists!

On reaching the destination - Penang Hill top, I was fast fascinated with disappointment. I discovered that it's still a place with not much difference since my last visit. It's still a "fishball" area where there are not many places to be rambled about. I'd sensationally talked to myself "was it suffered from any limitation for further development within this 28-years's time!"

With just a little while there, I suddenly realized that this journey was quickly closing to the end. We finally shared the common feeling as what I could hear my wife mumbled "Char chai (idyllically) we should go to Bukit Larut!"

Anyway, it is still regarded as a good tradeoff to spend just RM4 perhead for a cable-car drive. You won't find a similar drive cheaper than that elsewhere in the world. Pou chong (take good care of yourself) and goodbye Penang Hill!

How efficient the Tmnet is

On Thursday, my Streamyx connection coughed (off-and-on) violently. As I picked up my phone, I could clearly hear the distortions sound kept coming louder than tone sounds.

So, being a humble technical man, I immediately reckoned that this matter would probably be settled under my cognizance. The easiest and most basic way (without the employment of any circuit tester) is simply by using a home-phone to tap on its lines directly onto the primary points of the incoming phone line. Finally I got the same wispy result as what I had received earlier. That meant, I got to call Telekom for help.

Moment later, I called 103 and surprisingly received the answer of "we have received many similar complaints, it's due to the thunder storm, please make your complaint to 400." Yet another corporate style of phone answering behavior. I sighed with &$##!.

Then, I did a web complaint and graciously got the immediate answer. Here they are the communications:

060406, 08:21 - Dear Tan, Thank you for submitting your complaint, our customer support team will attend to your complaint as soon as possible.

060406, 08:22 - Dear Valued Customer, We have received your e-mail and will revert to you the soonest.

060407, 06:50 - Dear Mr Tan, Thank you for your e-mail to TMNet.
Referring to your e-mail, please provide us with the details as follows in order to clarify the problem occurred.
- Contact person
- Contact number (mobile preferred)
- Streamyx telephone number
- Account Number
- Username
- DSL light on the modem blinking or stable
- Error Messages
- Modem brand
- Operating System (Win 98/ Win XP)
- Description of the problem
Mr Tan, please be assured that we will provide you with assistance upon receiving your mail.

060407, 10:23 - I replied - Sirs, I had made my complaint to Telekom (013) regarding to a noisy line and what they had responded was "we have received many similar complaints, it's due to the thunder storm, please make your complaint to 400." Shit! In fact, I'm very sure that it is nothing concerns with my infrastructures, Streamyx or the Streamyx congestion but is merely a LINE NOISY.

060409, 12:35 - Dear Mr. Tan,
Thank you for your e-mail to TMNet.
Mr. Tan, we are glad that the issue has been addressed, please be informed that we would like to advise you to refer to TM Point or call (100) regarding the interruption on your telephone line. Should you require any further assistance or would like to submit any enquiry/feedback, kindly visit www.tm.net.my and click on Customer Support. Mr. Tan, we thank you for taking the time to write to us and look forward to serve you better.

Actually the making of web complaint to Streamyx.com is quite effective in answering. Whereas the actual action is somehow questionable. After several days, they eventually asked me to call (100). Is that LP PL?

At this moment, I can still get the "chi cha chi cha" sound over my phone line. Hopefully thing would be getting proper.

a contemptible 40-30-20-10 game

Most men are not contented with marriage.

40% of the time:-
He is blissfully happy;
He thinks about his spouse constantly;
He marvels at how lucky he's to have found his wife;
He lives in perfect harmony because he is communicating well;
He is able to laugh even without pocket money;
He whispered words, shared secrets, and sexes are all sweeter because of the discovery of his "true love";
He thinks that all Saturday will be a "fevered" day;
He took all failures belong to his responsibilities.

30% of the time:-
He lets life just goes along;
He focuses on soccer games, 4 digits, gambling, (one or many) and daily works more often then home affairs;
He has somehow let the marriage to be driven by autopilot;
He tends to reduce communication, sharing, or making love; but
He is content and comfortable with the partnership share.

20% of the time:
He is tempestuous;
He thought that his spouse doesn't care about his feelings, and isn't helping with his share of the work;
He took most of all failures return to his spouse's share.

10% of the time:-
He takes on arguing of what are the fairs and gives a portion of what is considered to be his spouse's share.

None of the above is bad. Life is full of peaks and valleys. One is needed to appreciate the other playing through the game. Look, here is a good testimony from http://city.udn.com/v1/forum/article.jsp?no=344&aid=1626321

The Church I went last night

It's called Kulim Grace Community Centre located at a hilltop and the address are A27, Kampung Tunku Putra, Kelang Lama, 09000 Kulim. It's one of the branches of Grace Church Bukit Mertajam. The centre was dedicated in Oct 97.

Weekly services on Wednesday nights enable people who have to work on Sunday in Kedah state to enjoy worship, fellowships, communion and the Word. Special tuition classes are also provided to help students prepare for their examinations.

I was lucky to have the opportunity in enjoying their cell's comedy shows as well as having an “eating luck" to take their buffet dinner.

Dr Khoo, who's supposed to be my sponsor inquired about my previous absences. I told him "You see! if there is food, big chance you'll find me there". He broke into a laugh.

Killing geese for early eggs

"Chinese paid the biggest sum in tax revenue, their tax contributions had have enabled the country to become prosperity and progressive." said the former PM Dr Mahathir as reported by Guang Ming Daily on March 26.

As reported, he added "If it were solely depending on the Malays' tax contributions, the country was impossible to achieve the status of today."

The acknowledgment of such realness of which is a doctrinaire hiccough of most of the Chinese leaders at large, is very much pleasing the hearts of Chinese tax payers.

However, what is the taxpayer of thought of most Chinese? I believe most of the Chinese tax payers do have the exclamation "bo pian" with the passion of as if they have been all the while high-handed with tax penalties, especially when it comes to tax investigation.

Many people put the blame on tax's public rulings, which dictate too narrow gap on business related expenses.

The Ruling is undoubtedly a factor, but it may not be the main reason. Maybe the Chinese taxpayers' weak sense of social responsibility is the main factor. Or perhaps it's a real hassle upon the overacting of excisemen.

No doubt that paying tax is a part of social responsibilities but a hasty taxation will certainly make the financial circle impeded.

If I were a farmer, I would prefer to let those geese lay more future eggs in line with long-term strategy. However it does not prevent me to eat up those attractive fat-geese!

As you can see, there're always stupid private business people to develop an unhealthy attitude towards wealth. They have more interest in demonstrating a luxurious life than observing their responsibility to society. For those of them, "kai si"!

All for free parking in Butterworth

"All parking at public parking lots in Butterworth are free because no parking coupons are available for sale." a grocery shop dealer told me this morning when I wished to buy a parking coupon.

Under curiosity so I went to another outlet hopefully could get the coupons but was told again that "never mind, just parks your car without coupon, since they (council) don't have the stock of coupon, how can they catch you this time?".

When asked how long the situation of the "out of stock of parking coupons" would last. "O, it has been happened since Monday and don't know when the supply will be resumed." a coupon seller answered.

The two same stories had nevertheless strengthened my belief into this silly management fault of the Butterworth Municipal Council.

Ahem, if this is true, as a consumer, I wish that this incident would prolong for a longer period so that I could park my car for free. At the same time, let the “blue uniformed” servants have a chance to enjoy buta gaji for a period. I've no idea whether it is a "win-win" or "lose-lose" situation!

Who are accountants these days?

Will Finance Ministry license uncertified accountants? This question was raised during 1988 when the Malaysia Institute of Accountants (not the government) conducted raids on those “bogus” accountants by means of Accountants Act 1967 of which they had or exploited a monopoly on a common noun “accountant” as their own brand.

The right of such execution under the Act was somehow jeopardized and was put to a halt by political and public forces.

During that time, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Loke Yuen Yow was desirous of licensing those “bogus” accountants. As published in The Star on 21 April 1992, he said “The ministry was looking into the possibility of amending the Accountants Act 1967 to accommodate them. We are looking into aspects on how to license them”; he also said “We do not want to be seen as victimising anybody by coming down hard on these accountants”.

After some time, the attempt to amend the Accountants Act by the ministry became sleeveless. The whole issue was then prematurely being submerged and the words of ministry were also being damped into the conner of a drawer.

Maybe the Ministry had aroused to a sense of control or called to a state of preparedness, the Section 153 of the Income Tax Act 1967 was therefore amended by Act 451 of 1991 s23(c), by substituting for the word “accountant” wherever they appear in its subsections with the words “tax agent” on the 14 December 1990.

The amendment means that other then advocates, one must has to obtain a tax agent licence from the Minister if he/she is going to act as a tax agent, a tax consultant or a tax adviser.

MIA was then not to be able to shout again upon the “bugus tax agent”. Even MIA members, irrespective of auditor holders, will have to do so under Section 153(4) of the Income Tax Act 1967. The amendment also deviates the meanings of “tax agent” and “accountant”. A tax agent is therefore unnecessarily be an accountant or vice versa.

Meanwhile the government had successfully taking control of Company's Secretary licences and Tax Agent licences under section 139 of the Companies Act 1965 and section 153 of the Income Tax Act 1967 respectively.

These had nevertheless helped to regulate properly the relevant industries in line with the prospective growth of the economy of country. These had also helped to allow those qualified people especially bumiputra in the opinion of Minister to serve the nation. On top of that, the double or treble standards on the definition of accountants would than be properly relegated and thus eliminating a pride from one particular end.

Did you see many bumiputra accountants and secretaries in public service 15 years ago when these trades were the near preserving trades of Chinese? Today I can find many Malay tax agents and secretaries in my neighborhood.

Although the question of will Finance Ministry license uncertified accountants has not directly been answered but it has indirectly been responded partly because of the amendment of section 153 of the Income Tax Act 1967, section 139(A) of the Companies Act 1965......., and one day, maybe new legislations for auditors will also bear.

Taking into consideration of the harmonization of national accounting profession, the moves are much encoraging. And the indirect re-regulatory job that's propeling by the government is receiving.

It is not my style to engage in personal attacks and Christianity forbids Christian to hurt the feeling of others. I felt pity and sad over a senior citizen at the age of 61 in Ipoh who was charged not long ago because of providing tax agency services without a valid licence. He was charged under the Income Tax Act but not the Accountants Act. Accuses such as bad services, helping clients to evade tax etc. putting on them is rather hypercritical.

What he or she lacks is just a piece of paper and on top of that it is illogical to judge that all the so called uncertified accountants are incapable or unethical.

There is always not an ultimate judgment that qualified accountants are good enough on their works and their own clienteles' taxes are of complete integrity without evasion. A statistical research of this kind has yet to be established and thus it is remained unknown, therefore there is no point to say in such a radical way. Maybe the Income Tax Department can tell the ratio reflecting from the numbers of investigation cases.

I personally welcome the move of Lawatan Audit to be performed by the Tax Authority so that tax payers can be educated to well keep on public rulings and be learned to perform their own tax assessment under STS system and of course leniency and transparency are one of the critical factors to the successful implementation.

Deregulations such as simplified reporting tax return in Hong Kong and other countries where dependency on tax service provider is least possible; An easy and understandable on-line tax filing in US; An Australian Taxation Office (ATO) draft taxation determination allows a person who is not a registered tax agent to give tax advice if it is “part of” another service, are of good values to take into consideration.

As for the case of unlicensed tax agents, the government should in good faith looks into the scenario of how do these unlicensed people exist within the market midst and possibly puts them under the government's supervision or else allows them a grace period to exit from the market or upgrade themselves.

Citizen and Government is just like a son and a father whereas continuous punishing on the son due to his passed mistakes is not a constructive worshiping.

Solutions such as warning and education, plays a vital role in harmonization as well as improvement. I hope the honour Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government is approaching to this kind of “son & father” government.

As for MIA now, nothing they can shout again about “bugus accountants” and “bugus tax agents”, as they've been eating their own words. Perhaps one day, they might descend their pace onto the niche of book-keeping and shout again upon“bugus book-keepers”, who knows?

Are they bribable?

Few days ago, I saw this advertisement (as pix) published in the Guang Ming Daily. It was supposed to be advertised by a consulting firm.

At first sight, there were nothing wrongs with the public promotion of their services as mentioned but if you have taken a closer look at the bottom line, there was a proclamation of "supported by" several government agencies. And several logos of such government agencies, such as SSM, LHDN, CIDB etc. were had been shown alongside.

The outward appearance of this advertisement has nevertheless given me a misleading thinking. Not talking about whether the advertiser is fully authorized to use the government agencies' logos. My immediate doubt is - is there any connection linked between those named as "supported by" agencies and the advertizer, are they, those agencies, bribable in the sense to allow their logotype identities be cockered? If not, how are they be designated to support a private entity's business.

Tell me if you know the intense or profound reason!

Beaten by a bamboo shell

If someone tells you that you have been beaten by bamboo shell (in Hokkian) over a certain purchase of goods. That means you have been unreasonably overcharged.

This is a story about my Dell Inspiron 710m purchase. The experience of my third time purchase as a returning customer.

On Mar 3, I logged on to Dell's online purchase portal in order to customize my new order with an additional 512 ram. When I supposed to reach the finishing line, I noticed that the offering section of "free upgrade to 80G HDD" within the customization page was not dedicated. I therefore could not make a check out for such order.

So I immediately phoned Dell and reported the above incident to a sale person called Stanley Ng who was attending my call. At first he was not believing my say but after his own trial error attempt, he lastly acknowledged with apology for the misapprehension of Dell's webpages.

He then helpfully provided me a fax quotation which is shown with a lump sum total price of RM4,464/-. I was quite busy at that time and inattentively confirmed the order.

Three days later, I received the goods in satisfactory condition. But one disappointment was that an invoice is not included in the package. It has been my intention to find out the item by item price so as to determine that I was buying the goods at the right price - the emotion that has all the while annoyed me since the purchase.

On the following day, I phoned up Stanley again to ask for a breakdown figure regarding to my purchase. Surprisingly he was unable to fulfill my request instantly over our phone conversation. He had therefore requested for an off-line moment to enable him to resource the calculation.

Before he could answer, I was thinking whether I am having the legal standing to return the goods under the Malaysian Trade Description Act, 1972? Also, would Dell, which is an international entity, give me a good answer?

Anyway, it is a good lessen for me to be attentive when making future purchase.

By the time I'd finished this writing, Stanley had called me to notify that Dell will refund me for the amount overcharged.

Is headmaster a corrupt master?

Oriental Daily reported: SJK (C) Chin Woo board of directors chairman Ong Koh Hou, who had advertised notice of rewards almost everyday recently, had announced RM500,000 for the rewards to those who could provide solid evidence that could bring corrupt headmasters to court.

He welcomed feedback and evidence regarding to the matter of corruption made by headmasters. "Many had come forward to give their feedback." Ong said. "However, their information is not strong enough to bring the headmasters to court," he added.

The issue of corrupt headmasters has become a hot topic amongst Mandarin School community.

It is astonished to hear that headmasters are lacking in integrity and have been suspected of playing the game of "flipping two sided images between valet and ghost". In Hokkian, it means "lang si ee, kuei pun si ee". Are headmasters nowadays belonged to gentleman's gentlemen?

We all know that headmasters are usually acting as purchasing head, we also know that suppliers are usually giving away discount/commission to maintain their path as contractors.

One question is - whether the discount given is in kind of benefits such as CASH BACK token or in term of direct trade discount?

Another question is - since headmasters are in the profession of educational business, are they obligated and entitled to pocket discount/commission?

No good days after petrol hike

The price of petrol has increased by 30 cents a liter this morning, and the upshot was a new surge of financial hardship to consumers.

The Prime Minister's department said that the savings from the price increase would be used for development projects and improving the public transport system for the benefit of all people. It sounds like the funding will be utilized wisely, but then who will assure that the function be going proper? What if the revenue - administration - corruptions - contractors = deficit? Would the saving from petrol subsidy "fly" to plane the bewildered books of MAS?

The simple reason for the petrol increment is justified by giving back the consumers with better public transport system. On the surface, it is a reasonable trade-off. But in depth, how about the ongoing inflation induced by the petrol price increment! The wave of added cost of living is now trigger on. I'm sure at least you'll pay for a higher transport fare!

Consumers in Malaysia have already burdened with taxes such as income tax, service tax, sales tax and import duties. Not only they have to pay for utility bills, also they have to face red-tapes in order to comply as tax payers. Just imagines, they have to fork out more money and more time to sustain their livings.

Salaries are crippled; businesses are going neither good or better; shares market is dour; and the social security is infirm - the poor income resources. Some more the policemen are out to catch the summon debtors; the tax men are out to catch the tax defaulters; city council people are also out to catch the parking offenders - the never ending mouse and cat businesses. For the above, who cares?

My feeling is that the government is like a retired old man who has lost his earning power and is merely relying on monetary support from his poor children. The old man grins while the children lame. By and large, how could the development for a better next generation be yielded?

No time!

God, it's been so long since I posted something. Truth is, there was either nothing to post or no time to do something to post about. Spring break did not mean as much free time as I expected since I decided not to take too much break from my job commitment. :)

I was not in good physical health for several days during the last two weeks. The worst thing was not the physical discomfort or pain, it was the invasion of the fucking spyware into my home intranet.

The so called VX2 of new variant spyware refused to go away and it hijacked my browser forcibly by malicious web sites such as match.com. No matter how often I changed back the registry settings, they were changed again the next time my system restarted. I'd "caught no ball", therefore had taken the last step - formatting harddisk - of my three network clients. And you know lah, it was a time depleting process to rebuild several systems at once. No wonder some people have said: "A virus can ruin your computer. Spyware can ruin your life".

Americans hijacked my computer akin as their planes being hijacked by terrorists, I've confused who are actually the terrorists?

happy Chinese New Year!

The year of the Dog is around the corner. I would like to wish you all a happy and prosperous CNY holidays! May this dog's year bring lots of happiness, good health and luck to your family. Gong Xi Fa Cai, Ban Soo Lu Ee!

Now before we usher in the New Year, a little slicking up is needed to be getting in order. Usually in conventional ways, Chinese will perform a spring-cleaning, prepare some cookies, do house decoration with lanterns and red displays, buy new clothes, stock up Mandarin oranges and soft drinks, and will do many other NY related activities such as giving out gifts and the preparation of "ang pow" ....

I reckon this as an obligation rather then convention for parents. Doing the CNY preparation job has other meanings beside traditional means. In fact, this is the best time to get together in perfect harmony for family members and by chance this is the happiest moment that you can find from the happy faces of your children. You are obliged to bond your families by creating the CNY mode in line with the preparation works. Actually, you don't need to have a conceptual thinking or a big deal to prepare for the CNY, just follow some conventional ways to suit your style and situation will do.

I've been doing these for over 30 years. Today I've savoured the fruit. Children have cooperatively come together and have done the CNY preparation works for me. That's why I always acclimate to the mode of CNY!

being tagged!

I was tagged by Cmos who has "see me up"! The so called 10 words determined essay similar as what the charming girl, yvy who has done a fine meme job.

It seems that there are 4 golden rules which the tagged person must abides to or else he/she would be castrated mercilessly like some Dynasty Ching eunuch according to Cmos. But what has surprised me is that how female could be castrated? Sealing up in a particular way? This one you have to consult Cmos!

The rules:

1) write an entry of between 100-200 words, with the words hereof must be mentioned once only in the entry:

- I
- me
- blowjob
- grapes
- random
- power
- loneliness
- water
- robot
- blue

2) Out of the 10 words, you can only change 2 words.
[I adhere to the order]

3) Your essay must make some kind of sense. if it's not cool, then it won't be getting published…
[if it's a nonsense, also be published]

4) Send to 5 people.

My tags go to any 5 volunteers.

OK lah, hereunder it's mine which is composed into one strikingly unconventional para --

Some things that I have seen and some flicks that people have shown me long long time ago, are completely not different from what are available these days. It is still the same old day's damp-things including the styles of blowjob; the beautiful kinds of grapes shows; the typical ways of random strokes; the traditional power play; the exhibition of motion in loneliness for sharing the feelings; the motion characteristic of spiritual water; the employment of robotics equipments; and many other colorful creatures playing the same old day's sandwich game. These are all the things that nothing special which could be found at some sites that are full of blue birds and red swans flying at that particulars skies! The only big different is the faster speed you get to refresh your eyes thanks to the modern infrastructures. The arts of beauty lie only with real men who know how to perceive. But generally people's smile belied their real feelings of discomfort when coming across these things. If chickenhearted! beg your pardon please!

food shoplifting

In the public eyes, food shoplifting is quite common and can easily be seen at supermarkets here. Perhaps it is an eccentric behavior; it is an addiction; it is a job; it is a characteristic of barbarian; or perhaps it is a symptom of herpes simplex encephalitis.

Last Saturday, when I was shopping at the Jesco of Bayan Lepas, I was surprising to see many shapeshifters although fetching with children were getting around a counter which was stuffed with offered grapes. They were accessibly swallow the grapes right there. As if they were enjoying a free eating at a free fruit-fair!

At first, I loathed these freebooters but as I saw them made no scruple to perform the shoplifting and without concerning that it was a scurvy trick, I had condoned them. Assuming that they were just a group of people who were simply the first timer to town and who were the misfortune people of this scrubby society. On the other hand, the supermarket authority was not taking any action for such food shoplifting act. Do you hate this kind of food shoplifters?

Too many people regard this as a minor issue. Perhaps many have done it themselves at some point in their life. I think it's worth to spell out the conclusion "Food shoplifting by parents in the presence of children is a shameful act and is frequently a 'gateway' to more serious future offences by children."

the good, the bad & the ugly for 2006

2006, a year as yet unstained by human deviation, corruption and natural destruction -- a year, too, of new discoveries and achievements waiting to be made. Will the Malaysia prosper? And on the economic side, what will impact our people? What do local soothsayers predict for the new year? natural disasters extent, petrol price surges, electricity rate raises, interest rate rises, share prices sour, intro of GST, inflation and the health concerns for chicken make this 2006 to be a challenging year!

The good things -- political stability is what we are going to enjoy as no election will happen in this year; more income tax reliefs for personal such as increased child refief and lenient estimating tax payable will make taxpayers less burdened; returning of foreign investment is likely to take the hike with the attractiveness of increased interest rate and brassy shares; 50% discount on stamp duty for SMEs borrowing will give SMEs more oats; national saving of about RM16 billion to RM18 billion upon subsidy on petroleum products will drive the budgetary deficit to a lower point of GDP from 3.8% of 2005; much lower import duty on household commodities such as clothing and electrical goods will increase consumption spending and is economically beneficial; and the conservative government steering by Pak Lah who is a non spendthrift alike is likely to save something for the nation.

The bad things -- petrol price will go up due to less subsidy; relatively the cost of living would be increased in term of inflation and probably you would see the increment of electricity rate, toll charges, food prices etc. which would be a big belt for retirees; educational cost would never be justified with cheaper college fee although the gorvernment will give out the investment tax allowances of 100% on qualifing capital expenditures to higher learning institutions; overspending is supposed to spring up as young consumers are vulnerable to persuasive life such as credit cards, telephonic goods and cars that promoting consumer debts, thus putting them at risk of deficits; Medical bill will not be lighten as public hospital is going to collect charges.

The ugly things -- corruption is seemed an unfinished story; social disorder is seemed an inexorable episode; education policy continues to deliberate between mother languages and English, and social services which were all the time lacking societal governance strive to demonstrate with no outstanding manner.

Either good or bad, it is certainly hoping for happier life then the retrospective year. The budget 2006 made last year was aiming to reduce the burden of the tax paying public brought about by the increase in petrol price, improve the quality of life of Malaysians and at the same time accelerate economic activity. May Malaysian enjoy a better living? May the public outlays be scrutinized with more meanings? Inestimably I hope so.