Archive for November, 2006

30
Nov

battle of the sexes

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: conversation

“I don’t know. They are all the same.” exclaimed Maria.

“No, they are not the same!” I said back defensively. Maria looked at me, and said, “Well, they all have wheels, and they take you to your destinations. So they are all the same.”

We were on a journey and somehow, our conversation went from normal stuff to cars, and I was telling her about my plan to buy a lot of cars. But she doesn’t understand the difference between a BMW M5, a Lamborghini, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and a Porcshe Cayenne. Naturally I was telling her how the M5 can go from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds, and how the Lancer Evo IX can do the same in 5.3 seconds, and other various performance difference between those cars.She looked indifferently at me, and said, “Yeah, they can go from 0 to 100 km/h in one second different. Great, but in Kuala Lumpur, there’s traffic congestion everywhere, everyday. So you will still get stuck in the traffic with all the Protons and Peroduas. By the way, why need so many cars?”

“Well, when I need to go for fishing trip, I will need to go offroad, so Cayenne will be the choice. And during working days, I can drive the M5 which is comfortable, and Lamborghini is when we have a function to attend!” I said more defensively.

“Again, how many times a year you go offroad? Once?” Maria smiled cheerfully. She knew she was winning on this conversation.

“Well, I don’t understand why you need more than 50 handbags and 50 pair of shoes. I have just one wallet, and 4 pairs of shoes. All those bags are the same, to me at least.” I said, hoping to counter the points she made earlier.

She looked at me with big eyes, and slowly and carefully, she said, “Oh no! You are very wrong. No two bags are the same.”

“Yeah? How so? They all look the same to me.”

“There are bags that I bring to work, to party, to a dinner, and during weekends. So they are serving different purposes. Same goes to shoes.” She explained briefly.

“Yup! Same thing here. I will need different cars for different occasions.” I exclaimed happily.

“But your one Lancer Evo can buy me close to 60 handbags. So mine is cheaper.” She gave me a smile.

“Uhm….”

I know this is a battle that I cannot win.

29
Nov

stupid law targeting at the wrong people

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: Complaints and common sense

On the Star today, the front page cover the story of our Prime Minister Abdullah Bawadi’s vow to change the law that is wrong, outdated and not suitable for current time. He said, “It’s time to look at laws and start changing them if they are an obstacle and hindrance.”

On the same newspaper, there is another news titled “Tenants face brunt of owners’ mistakes“, there is a law that states that if the landlord of the property does not clear the assessment bills, the authority body will seize the property and remove all the movable assets to recover part of those unpaid assessment bill.

Yesterday, Darul Ehsan Restaurant in Section 9, became the first premises to face such a consequence after enforcement officers took away a 129cm television and a chiller from the outlet. The landlord allegedly failed to settle RM86,413 in accumulated assessment charges since 2001.

Now let’s look at the situation very carefully.

First of all, how can the tenants ensure that the landlord will pay the assessment bills? How is it in the tenants’ right to force the landlord to do anything? Furthermore, the tenancy agreement has a stated duration of the tenancy so the tenants cannot just move out like that, otherwise they will be penalized by the landlord.

Secondly, it was the landlord who defaulted those assessment bills, so why should the tenants bear the screw-ups that the landlord do? If the assessment bill is under the landlord, they should go to his house, seize the cars, the TVs, and any moveable assets to recover part of those unpaid assessment bills. That way the landlords will take note of it and move their ass to pay up all those unpaid assessment bills. But under law like this, and if I were the landlord, I will say, “So what? They are not seizing my stuff. Let them be and I will not do anything about it.”

Good luck if the City Councils want to recover all those unpaid assessment bills. The only victim in this case are the tenants who have to bear losses because of a stupid law.

Oh! And comparing the news running on the front page, it is hilarious because basically they are contradicting themselves, and I do like to see people slapping themselves.

28
Nov

its time for picnic

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: friends

Today I was spending time at my friend’s office, and he was generous enough to let me sit in the conference room to do some work and we were having some meeting on some issues.

In the middle of the conference table, there were a lot of food and drinks; Just Juice Orange Juice, Si Manis Kacang Menglembu, D’licious cookies, Sunbon Jelly, Sunflower seed (Kuaci), Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Seasons chrisanthemum tea, Tongkat Ali Orang Asli 5-in-1 coffee mix, and etc. While having discussion and stuff, I opened one of the Si Manis Kacang Menglembu (Groundnut) and both of us started to munch on the groundnuts (Nitrogen packed for better freshness, anyone?)

Those stuff were from an idiot who sent a hamper to my friend 3 weeks after Hari Raya.

After the groundnut, we started to munch on the sunflower seeds and drank the Seasons chrysanthemum drinks. When we finished the sunflower seeds, we were digging through the stuff that laid on the table. The meeting turned out to be a picnic session, and we were talking about many things in life; non-business related discussion.

Well, both of us skipped lunch and we ended up munching lots of junkfood. No wonder both of us are gaining weight like nobody’s business.

27
Nov

new interest

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: about me

I have taken new interest, or so-called hobby: watch appreciation and collection.

I have my eyes on Jaeger-LeCoultre and Patek Philippe nowadays, and I am trying to learn how to appreciate the watches, history and all that. After looking at those watches, I understand that it is extremely fine and beautiful, but after checking on the pricetag, they almost made me wet my pants.

Jaeger-LeCoultre is as expensive as a car, and the most expensive one can definitely buy you a bungalow. Patek Philippe is fine as well, and it can reach up to a bungalow or two.

I remember the days when I was in Europe, there were lots and lots of antique shops that sell antique watches. In Malaysia, its not easy to find this kind of antique shop so sometimes we will have to resort to buying from overseas. Too bad I didn’t know how to appreciate a watch back then, or else I would have bought a few watches during my trip.

Man, now I regret of cultivating this hobby. It is one hell of an expensive hobby.

24
Nov

fitness

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: observation

I used to join a large chain fitness center, hoping to shape my biceps, trim up my tummy, and firm up my already very sexy bum. But I have stopped the membership months ago, not only because of my jetsetting lifestyle which I couldn’t stop by the fitness center, but also because I was attracting too many attention like flies attracted by shit bees attracted by honey.

I have been travelling a lot so most of the time, I am not even remotely near a fitness center to utilize their facilities. Furthermore, during the time when I was back, I got shitload of things to do, namely visitation report, monthly report, sales report, and all the mind-numbling paperwork. So by the time I got off work, it was always after 8pm, at the earliest. The fitness center close at 10pm, so by the time I got there, it was already half closed at 9pm. Furthermore, I was dead tired after one long day of sales visit and doing the paperwork, so normally I opted for some rest instead of sweating out.

But the biggest reason why I stopped the membership was because I felt ultra uncomfortable when working out. When I was working out, or in the changing room, I had the feeling that I was closely watched by many people. I don’t mind the ladies checking me out when I am show-casing my charming smile, or my sexy but flabby biceps, or my round and perky bum, and I do admit I am checking out the ladies from time to time. Unfortunately, the ladies at the gym are those normally need a serious workout, and the people that were checking me out were, most time than not, guys. I don’t mind people looking at me, and I am very comfortable with that, but not when they are really checking me out.

Imagine the comfort level under these circumstances:-

  • In the locker room, you saw few guys taking out their boxers or underwears and asked others opinions if those boxers or underwears were cute, and they will normally launched into discussion on where they bought those boxers, or underwears.
  • During their discussion about their inner wears, they sometimes will throw glances at your very own boxers or underwears that you were wearing, and most of the time their vision will be darted towards your private part.
  • In the locker room again, you can hear them discussing about the cute guys outside working out, and the hit rate for the word “cute” and “sexy” is at around 72.4%.
  • In the sauna room, a lot of those guys will sit in front of you, throwing you the friendly smiles and “unintentionally” glanced under your towel. Hell, there was once that this guy was sitting next to me and he tried to talk to me, and put his hand on my thigh. I almost bitch-slapped him when he put his hand on my thigh. Can you imagine that? It was already so hot in the sauna room and I almost suffocated, yet he managed to talk. What a deep throat he got.
  • In the gym, when you are concentrating so hard and holding the breath to lift the maximum weight you could manage, suddenly you noticed a guy sitting in front of you, watching you closely and smiled. Your concentration and the breath that you were holding would be like a punctured tyre, leaking out instantly.

Yup, in a sense, I was being harrassed. But another way to look at it was … Wait. There was no other way to look at it.

When I told my girlfriend about it, she laughed so hard and said something like “because you are worth checking out for!” or something like that.

23
Nov

malaysia boleh

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: common sense and rants and raves

While browsing the web, I came across this article that was running in Australia, and I find it extremely interesting and it has touched my heart. Below is the copy of the article.

——————————————————————————

While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry

Michael Backman
November 15, 2006
The Age, Australia

MALAYSIA’S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races — the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It’s an argument that’s been running for 40 years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it’s time Malaysia grew up.

It’s a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it.

The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese.

“Malaysia boleh!” is Malaysia’s national catch cry. It translates to “Malaysia can!” and Malaysia certainly can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds up against the wall.

This all happens in the context of Malaysia’s grossly inflated sense of its place in the world.

Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is thanks to Malaysia’s tame media and the bravado of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map much less name its prime minister or capital city.

As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features a newsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn’t pronounce the city’s name and so made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland.

Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly when compared to the disaster that passes for a national oil company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia’s problem. The very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.

The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It includes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world when they were built, which was their point.

It certainly wasn’t that there was an office shortage in Kuala Lumpur — there wasn’t.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.

They don’t even run the shopping centre that’s beneath them. That’s handled by Australia’s Westfield.

Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket — the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There’s no indication of what the Americans will charge for this, assuming there’s even a chance that they will consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are “boleh”. The trouble is, they’re not. It’s not their space program.

Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and “get used to cold weather”.

But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex’s real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre’s construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a clue.

Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city — Petronas has paid for them all. It’s been an orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.

Why? Because Malaysia’s oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that’s just five years away.

So it’s in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.

It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia’s inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.

That’s not Malaysia “boleh”, that’s Malaysia “bodoh” (stupid).

——————————————————————————

Now I wonder why it takes an Aussie located so darm far away to see the picture so clearly.

PS: The author, Michael Backman, has written a note to all Malaysians reader here. I have also found a few blogs that featured this same article, namely Lim Kit Siang and others as well. Sorry for being so out-of-date on the news part.

21
Nov

airport terror

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: friends

“FREEZE!” shouted the LAX airport security officer, gun pointed at the suspect.

“Put the bags on the floor slowly, and walk away from the bags with your hands in the air!” shouted another officer, and the K-9 German Shepard was barking frantically at the suspect.

After the suspect put down his luggages on the floor slowly and raising his hands into the air, another airport security officer shouted, “Now back off, slowly, and get on your knees!”

When the suspect complied, one of the seven airport security officers got near and handcuffed the suspect. Two of the officers got down to the luggages, and opened the luggages as slowly as possible for the fear of explosive or other dangerous materials. The two K-9 dogs were still barking frantically until the officers gave them the command to be quiet.

“WHAT THE….” exclaimed one of the officers after opening the luggage.

* * *

About two months before the incident, a Malaysian student in the University (the name of university will remain anonymous) in the States announced that he was going back home for vacation. A native Penang kid, he was friendly and very accomodating to all his friends. Since its a tradition that we all bring a little of something from back home, mainly food-related stuff (because it was difficult to get some of the ingredients in USA), he was asking his friends if they wanted something.

We compiled a short list for him because there was something which we wanted, and he took the list and flew off happily because it was such a long time since he last went home to see his family. All went well until 1 day before the incident.

The day before, he went on to the market to buy some of the stuff. While he was at the market, one of the merchant packed a package, and added something in powder form, into the package. Without realizing it, the guy put the whole package into the basket and continued shopping for the items in the list.

* * *

In the luggage, the airport security officer found few packages that got the K-9 dogs barking, and also the list:

Item 1, Penang Asam Laksa, is a spicy noodle. Item 2, Durian, is a fruit. Durian, by nature, has an extremely strong ordor.

No wonder our friend got guns pointed at him and almost got arrested at the LAX airport.

Note:
This is based on a true story which was witnessed by a friend who accompanied the guy back to the university. Also, we wrote the list as a joke. But he showed that he was a true friend by buying those items.

17
Nov

the romantic outing

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: friends

Many years back when I was in colleage, a close friend of mine decided to woo this cute girl. He wanted to ensure they had plenty of romantic moment together, so they decided to see sunrise at Genting, the City of Entertainment.

ME: “Going to Genting to watch sunrise? You gotta be fucking with me.”
WL: “No, I am not joking.”
ME: “Dude! Don’t you know you can’t see sunrise at Genting? Its too foggy!”
WL: “Well, its on top of hill so how can it be that you can’t see sunrise?”
ME: “Seriously!”
WL: “But I want to spend some romantic moment with my girl!”
ME: “Okay okay! Good luck!”
WL: “Thanks! Now can you drive me there?”
ME: “What the fuck?”
WL: “I don’t know the way. Please?”
MEL: “Wait, so you mean I drive you guys up there? I don’t have a girlfriend!”
WL: “How about we ask JG to join you so you don’t feel so boring?”
ME: “Er… okay.”

We went to pick up JG, and he invited his girlfriend to join. At the end, I was accompanied by two couples who romanticized each other the whole trip while I was driving.

We were driving a red Daihatsu Charade and when we reached Genting, they went on their separate ways to romantize themselves while I found a trusted bench in the gaming room and slept my way through the so-called romantic trip.

Half way through the sleep like homeless guy, I was awaken by a stiff neck and back pain. My friends, who was kind enough to involve me in their trip, woke me up to join them to watch the sunrise. I took a pass but they won’t let me. I guess they felt too guilty to isolate me further so they wanted me to join them, or they wanted to make me feel jealous that they are in couple where I was still single. Anyway, after much aggressive invitation, I joined them.

And I laughed at them.

I mean, come on! Sunrise at Genting? It was so foggy that anyone will be lucky enough to see their way through the street. So they were starring at the fog while I made joke about them. But they were so much in love with each other that they found it romantic. After much fuss, they decided to go back, and I was the designated driver because I knew the way home.

During the trip, they were hugging each other to sleep while I drove.

After that, I vowed to myself that I will not join couples to go to a trip anymore.

16
Nov

technology convergence

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: observation

We are definitely spoiled by choice. There are thousands of electronic devices to help us to work better, communicate better, or just simply provide us with entertainment. I dare to admit that I love technology and I embrace them, and I love to try them out when they are newly launched.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find the perfect handphone for my taste.

Current Handphone: Nokia E61.

Dream Handphone: None.

I like the new Dopod 838 Pro, even thought it is running on Windows Mobile 5.0, but I find the design of the phone is functional and the sliding keypad/keyboard is a very nice touch. Yes, it can appear sluggish but it has 3G (with HSPDA), WiFi, Quad-Band, so it means I can use the phone wherever I go, except maybe Japan and Korea. Furthermore, it works extremely well with Microsoft Windows and Office products. Unfortunately, that’s exactly how it works; working best with Microsoft products but you will have tough luck to get it to work with non-Microsoft products.

I am using a MacBook so I won’t have any software available to ensure that I can synchronize my MacBook with Windows Mobile 5.0 products. Not to mention the most important feature at all: push e-mail. I am currently using Blackberry and I just can’t imagine how I can survive without push email anymore. The beauty of Blackberry is that you can use any POP3 email or IMAP mail, and it will work. You don’t need to pay that extra to change your mail server, unless you want to upgrade your server with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Unfortunately, the same thing cannot be said on Microsoft Direct Push solution. You will need to implement the Microsoft Exchange Server, which will empty your wallet and you might need to hang on to bread and water for months.

How about some of the very nice phones that you see but do not come with WiFi? The reason behind this is that those phone manufacturers had mutual understanding with your local telco to push you, as their valued consumer, to spend more on their data. WiFi can be free on hotspots, so who doesn’t want to earn more revenue from you?

I understand the agenda of this and the companies just wanted to protect and promote their own products, but life is already filled with choices, and now this kind of choices are simply making our life more difficult. Why can’t someone just draft out a standard on how those device should work? Why can’t I synchronize a Windows Mobile 5.0 phone with my Macbook? Does that mean if I were to buy a Windows Mobile 5.0 phone, I shall change my laptop as well, and also upgrade my mailserver in order to use the Direct Push mail application? I don’t think that’s worth the money to simply switch to Windows Mobile 5.0 phones. Its too darn expensive.

I just wish someone could design something that will suit my taste and requirements, and the requirements are:-

  • Small form factor - Must not be bulky. I don’t want to give the ladies the wrong impression when I put the phone in my pants pocket.
  • Fast - I hate to wait for minutes, if not for hours, for an application to launch. It will be great if they have a 1GHz processor for phone.
  • Blackberry - It must have blackberry (or other cheaper push email application)
  • Connectivity - WiFi, 3G, EDGE, quad-band, and Bluetooth. It will be a god-send if it can do fax as well.
  • Office Suit - It must be able to work on documents, be it word or excel.
  • Personal Digital Assistant (or Personal Information Manager) - Yes, it must have good calendar, to-do list, appointments, etc, and it MUST be able to remind me of my mother-in-law’s birthday or else I’ll be cooked.
  • Battery Life - It must have long battery life. I hate it when my phone died on me during mid-day, especially during an important call.

Camera is not that important to me, unless it has ultra high quality camera built-in that can totally replace my digital camera.

Currently Nokia E61 has a few shortcomings:-

  1. Form Factor - it is on a big-bone structure, so long conversation can strain your hand.
  2. Slow - Sometimes it can be a tad slow, especially when sending SMS and MMS.
  3. Personal Digital Assistant / Personal Information Manager - The PIM function of the phone left a lot to be desired.
  4. Handsfree - For some unknown reasons, when you are using Bluetooth headset, the Call Waiting just refuse to give you any form of alert, so I have shitloads of missed-calls whenever I am on the phone.

But it has fantastic connectivity (WiFi, 3G, EDGE, Bluetooth, etc), and it has Blackberry which works flawlessly. The best part is of course the battery life, which could last me at least 2 days without recharging and I am a heavy user.

Now I just wish somoene could read the above and come up with something that will fulfill my dreams.

15
Nov

the beginning

By Adrian 0 Comments
Categories: common sense

For those who has known me for years will know that I don’t really watch TV shows, and even if I got the time to watch, I will most probably buy some pDVDs to indulge my cravings to watch those newly launched movies, instead of old movies from those broadcasting channels.

Unfortunately, lately I came across a dude selling pDVD whom is not honest. He sold me The Marine, starring John Cena, a WWF wrestling champion. He has biceps that is larger than my head (or his own head, to be honest) and he certainly looked like a marine. Unfortunately, the pDVD was those recorded in cinema and for the first few minutes, the camera was aiming at the fucking cinema ceiling rather than the screen. So yes, I have my fair share of frustration towards pDVD.

Last night, I stumbled upon NTV 7, and they were showing The Beginning, a Chinese drama series about (and I quote) “Friendship, romance, power, hatred, revenge, and murder.” Sounds very interesting, isn’t it? Furthermore, it was touted as “the big-budget production with a production team that consists of 60 Malaysians and Singaporeans” [read more here]. Certainly, from all the promotion going around and the good words, this is certainly the Chinese drama series to-die-for.

Truth to be told, this Chinese drama series is really to-die-for. I was almost dead laughing at it last night because it was such a great comedy. Okay, maybe I am an ass for laughing at those dramatic scenes but its a great comedy nonetheless. Why was I laughing?

1. When the lead actor was in jail and his girlfriend visiting him, he was confined in a huge room with bars, seperating him with his girlfriend. And the room is HUGE! And it has no chair and no table. Shit! Is the government so darn poor until they cannot afford tables and chairs? They looked so tired standing there and talking to each other in the visitors room.

2. The lead actor was going to face a trial for charges against him for murdering one of the dudes, and in the show, it appeared that the trial only lasted for about one day. What kind of trial is that? Its a fucking laughing stock and it never showed any trial scenes to make the show more interesting. One day trial and he was convicted for manslaughter. Now that’s a joke.

3. After the so-called trial, the lead actor was escorted to the police van. Now, he was escorted by just one police man, and they came out from the front of the court house. After that, they went into a white van, normal van, not even armored.

Big budget production? Maybe, but all the money wasted! They should at least do some research on how things were done instead of insulting our (Okay, my) inteligence. I was laughing so loud that I decided to switch channel. Or watch those cinema ceiling in the pDVDs.

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