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 I'm happy with what I have now but just a little bit being outdated.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