July 31, 2007

Diverted Attention?

I was wondering about the difference between "divert" and "digress".

Looked up dictionary.com and got the following:

Digress (verb)
- to deviate or wander away from the main topic or purpose in speaking or writing; depart from the principal line of argument, plot, study, etc.

Divert (verb)
1.
to turn aside or from a path or course; deflect.
2.British. to route (traffic) on a detour.
3.to draw off to a different course, purpose, etc.
4.to distract from serious occupation; entertain or amuse.

Hence, I chose the title accordingly since I felt that I was being distracted from work. (^ ^)

Anyway, found this little quiz about being either a Mac or PC at Blogthings.

This is my result...




You Are a Mac



You are creative, stylish, and super trendy.

You demand the best - even if it costs an arm and a leg.

July 30, 2007

300 Ab Crunches???

Hmmm... Am feeling very guilty at this moment since I did not go to the gym today as planned. -___-

I was supposed to go for an early session at 6pm but got to work late, had many things to do, hence have to cancel my appointment. -___-

When 7pm came around, I was so freakin' hungry and realized that I forgot to take something at 4pm so that I can go exercise at 7pm. -___-

Anyway, I just had an awful dinner at Genki Sushi, KLCC. I don't think I can ever eat there again.. yuck! -___-

My stomach is acting up for I don't know what freakin' reason. -___-

Yes.. I'm guilty and pissed now.

Anyway, my B2 (Basic 2) training on Saturday evening was pretty ok. I learned a few more techniques on doing some abdominal crunches, a.k.a Ab Crunches. With the right technique, I felt the pull on my abdominal muscles and managed to do 100 reps. My trainer tells me that she had a client who can do 300.

I went... (0____O)

I said, "I think I'm a little bit far from that for now." **smirk**

Trainer: **No response**

Aiya!! *slaps forehead*

Oh well, at least Alvin gave some encouragement about me working out in the gym. Thanks!!

Meanwhile, I'll have to organize my photos a little bit before I post something about my latest trip to Thailand to meet a client last Friday. It should be a little fun.

I missed out on the latest Blogathon but managed to pledge some $$$ to Kelwin before time ran out. We still have 48 hours to pledge. ;-) Do your bit for charity!!!!

Anyway, for more info, visit 5xMom's site. :P

July 23, 2007

Angie Joins The Gym!!

Finally, I had my first session at the gym.

How do I feel??

GREEEEATTTTTT!!!!!!! (Macam Tony the Tiger from Kellogg's Frosties) My arms feel like it wants to fall out of its sockets and my legs are like jello.

All in all, it was gooodddd.....

Despite being very tired and told a lot of scary things about my health, I'm glad that I took the first step to regaining my health back.

Just to prove that I have joined a gym, I got my card's photo here...

Front-view

Back-view

So, I get to go to all Celebrity Fitness clubs, which is quite cool since I may want to do other stuff after my work-out at the shopping mall. I don't mean just eat, but shop as well.

What are the other benefits besides getting a good work-out? I get some discounts of course! My favourite one which I will utilize a lot would be O'Briens which has a lot of yummy sandwiches!

I've worked out at some other gyms before but they were short-lived as it was far from my home/workplace and it was free, i.e. not many machines to go around. Anyway, the gym was packed and looks like everyone is working out these days.

Anyway, I've been known to start stuff but not complete it. Well, it is time for me to at least achieve 1/2 of my 2007 New Year's Resolutions, right?

To all of you out there who is trying to lose weight and get in shape, there is no shortcut. The only way is to eat right and exercise hard. Good luck! Gambate!!!

July 22, 2007

Sunday Evening...

My favourite song from Maroon 5 happens to be "Sunday Morning". It is just one of those songs you like to listen to when you're driving on a traffic-free highway on a Sunday morning.

Anyway, I had a number of plans which didn't quite materialize over the weekend and rightfully so, on a Sunday Evening, I feel kind of empty and somewhat guilty.

Hmmmm... I'm a confirmed procrastinator. No matter what plans I may make during the week or night before, if something does come up, I immediately "transform" into a procrastinator. (Kekeke get it? I'm a "procrastinatron".. Ahhh.. too much Transformers lately.. LOL!!)

Anyway, here's the breakdown of my plan for Saturday:

8:00 am - Snoopy comes to bark at my door
8:02 am - Buka mata (open eyes)
8:03 am - Try to sit up and stretch
8:05 am - Slump back to bed
8:15 am - Snoopy comes to bark at my door again
8:16 am - Buka mata ... again
8:17 am - Slump back to bed... again
8:30 am - Snoopy barks frantically at my door
...
...
9:00 am - Wake up & cuci muka, gosok gigi.. etc.. Other hygiene-related stuff
9:30 am - Arrive at Subang Parade to start 1st gym exercise
11:30 am - Finish gym, come home to have shower
12:30 pm - Go out and have lunch with mom at 1U - shopping
3:00 pm - Come back and take a nap.

However, what transpired was....

9:30 am - Wake up
9:31 am - WTF!!!!! I OVERSLEPT!!! SHHHIITTTT!! I'VE GOT A FXXKING HEADACHE!!!
9:32 am - !@#@!$#@!$#!#@!##
10:30 am - Breakfast
10:31 am - Mom asks, "What time you want to go to the gym?"
I answer, "11 something-la.."
11:00 am - Feeding Snoopy
11:30 am - Mom asks, "Aren't you going to the gym?"
I answer, "Let's wait for Dad to come home at 3pm."
"OK"
....
3:00 pm - Raining... Fxxking Raining Heavily...
3:01 pm - "How-la?? Now raining? Want to go or not"
I answer, "Errrr....."
....

10:00 pm - Mom asks, "So, are you going to the gym tomorrow?"
"We'll see"

Anyway, Sunday morning came and we all overslept for the first mass time at 8:30am. I was playing around with my laptop and blog, while my parents went Ga-Ga over the "exciting" British Open Tournament (Golf) on Astro ESPN. Yes, it was so exciting that they were watching the channel in their sleep.

We managed to go for the 11:30am mass and I was very annoyed with a little boy sitting in front of me as he kept eating pretzels and playing with his toys. *Sigh*.. kids these days. He's old enough to read, surely he must be old enough to understand that during the Holy Hour at God's House, one must be quiet? Anyway, I don't blame the kid, I just blame the parents. ** roll eyes **

After mass, we decided to go down to PJ for some yong tau foo but there was a stupid jam on the Federal Highway on a Sunday morning. WTF.

To top it off, it started to rain heavily too!! Yep, thanks to human-induced Global Warming.

Mom asked again, "So, are you going to the gym later?"
I answer, "Yes, when the rain stops."

We got home and decided to wait out the rain a bit. The cool weather had a strange effect on all of us and immediately, we transformed into "sleepatrons"... ZZZZZzzzz....

Even my dog got into the act.

But then again, she's a natural sleep artist. She makes sleeping look so good!

3:00 pm passed. Then 4:00pm... Mom finally woke up and said, "You're not going to gym at all today, right?"

** Silence **

She got me there. I've transformed into the procrastinator that I am. *Sigh*...

All I can say about this weekend was, I managed to get a lot of rest to make up for the late nights which I endured during the normal work week. I hope that it won't be repeated in the following week.

But things just get so crazy living life gets hard to do
Sunday morning rain is falling and I’m calling out to you
Singing someday it’ll bring me back to you

Find a way to bring myself home to you
- Maroon 5, "Sunday Morning"

Have a productive week everyone!!

July 21, 2007

Food Porn!!! (Ingredients For A Good Sarawak Laksa)

This is a delayed photo post as I had been so busy over the past couple of weeks.

Anyway, last weekend, my family got together to have some good Sarawak laksa for lunch. My mom was busy with getting the soup ready, made from good chicken and prawn stock, mixed together with the laksa "oil" which my good friend EV got for me whenever she came down to KL for a torture visit.

So, for a good laksa, you need to have great ingredients ---> Why do I sound like Jamie Oliver wanna-be???

Luscious Prawns...

So, now that you've got great prawns which are poached in stock, peeled and halved, what's next?

Very flavourful shredded chicken

So, the basis of the laksa is made of prawns, shredded chicken, bean sprouts and shredded egg.

The shredded chicken was made by steaming the chicken (with a little bit of salt) and just shredding the meat off the bone. Of course, the leftover bones could be used to boil the stock but my mom was a little rushed for time and so, we didn't put that in.

This time round, we didn't fry any eggs as we felt that we had enough ingredients to go around. However, I beg to differ, having the eggs in my laksa is nice. (^ ^)

To top all of this off, we need a little bit of mint so that it gives a little bit of oomph for the laksa soup.

Minty!! Raw material for chewing gum or mint sweets

Some other laksa stalls in Sarawak would use coriander but Mom decided that mint would be something different.

Of course, no laksa is complete without a squeeze of lime...

Zesty!!

I wish I had taken a picture of what the completed laksa looks like as my camera's battery gave out at the last minute! (~.~)

Anyway, I had a previous post about laksa at another blog site. So, have a look there... ;-)

Meanwhile, I'm just salivating about my next trip to Kuching (God-knows-wehn...) as I miss the food there. *Sigh*.... I've got to take a break from work!!!!!

July 20, 2007

0207 20.07.2007

Hahaaha.. I'm cutting it close. It is Friday morning, officially and I'm still working at this freakin' hour...

Anyway, thought of putting something up for the 20th of July, 2007 at 2:07am.

Noooo... I did not stay up especially for this, just thought that it would be fun since I'm working my @ss off at this hour.

Oh well, I've had it!! I'm going to catch some Zzzzzzz... Got to stay alert tomorrow for the document review meeting.

Community Service Ads...

It's another late night for me. The "joys" of being a somewhat senior executive in an IT project. (-.^)

Anyway, heard this ad on the radio before?

"Hi, I'm bla bla from the movie bla bla"
"I want to tell you about being kind to animals..."
"bla bla bla.."
"Please be kind to animals and don't wear fur..."

I was like WTF?? WEAR FUR???? IN THIS FREAKIN' "COLD" WEATHER???

Since when is M'sia so "cooollldddd" that we have to wear fur?

Oh yea... I do wear "fur"... Kekeke, if you're referring to my body hair. LOL!!! Hence, am I an animal??

If so, please be kind to me. **bat eyelids**

Frankly, who's the fxxking idiot who wrote that piece of garbage about being kind to animals and fur business as a community message??

If it was that "celebrity" who thought of it on-the-fly, it just goes to show how fxxking "fly-sized" some celebrities brains are. (Oh yea, if you're wondering, I was one of the few sane people who advocated for poor little Paris to spend a few weeks in jail. I can't stand bodoh celebrities)

At least mention helping out the local animal shelter or something... Or, tell kids not to kick the poor dog or cat-la... WTF...

Anyway, this little ad from that radio station irritates the sh*t out of me everytime it is aired.

Another radio ad which irritates the hell out of me is the "We-Shit Visit Malaysia Year" ad which Zewt brought up. Hehehe...

It is coming up to 1:50am. I'm contemplating if I should ditch reviewing the docs which my colleague sent me and just wait until 0207am to post something.

July 18, 2007

EV's Better Now.. Many Thanks!

I just got an SMS from EV today, informing me that she's better now.

She just got discharged from the hospital yesterday afternoon. If you're wondering if she was in the government hospital, she wasn't. She was in a private hospital, where the doctors did not inform her when she could be discharged until she insisted on going home after spending a week there.

After the incident, I believe she's very happy to have had the good care at the hospital especially when I found out that she had 2nd degree burns.. (o_____o)

Hope you're recuperating well!

Our prayers are for your speedy recovery!!!

July 15, 2007

Late Night/Early Morning Blog??

This is a very late or early blog post.

My brain is frozen now with tiredness and sleepiness. I may be blogging in my sleep. (^^)

Anyway, this is something I've not done in a long time. Staying up late to finish up documents and work. It has been a while.

So, just wondering, what keeps you awake, other than the stress of having to complete your work and submit it on time?

I've tried many techniques, from the time I had to cram for exams back in school, right up to uni.

What is the most effective one so far?

Of late, I've found that classical music works for me. Especially those coming from the Baroque and Classical periods to be pretty effective. So, I've been listening to a lot of Bach and Mozart lately. Classical music from the Romantic period does not cut it for me. I just fall right to sleep. So, sorry, my Chopin CD got to go in the drawer.

Heheh.. Don't even try to suggest opera to me. The high-pitch screams will affect Snoopy and besides, that puts me to sleep straight away. Hehehehe...

Oh yea, don't try to recommend loud music from Linkin Park, et. al as that puts me to sleep too. Kekeekke...

Hmmm.. Besides music, what else? Drinking lots of water so that you have to pee?

Caffeine may not work well with me, since I'm prone to migraines now. I used to take heck of a lot of caffeine back in my uni days. So much so that I probably hug a Coke bottle to sleep too. (^ ^)

**Yawn**.. Time to sleep. It is exactly 3:00am. Hohohoh...

July 11, 2007

It Was A Quiet Weekend... Some Food Porn Included...

It certainly was a rather quiet weekend since there was nothing much on. My brain was trying to work overtime in trying to complete some technical documents due for discussion on Tuesday.

Progress was a little slow though...

Anyway, I took some time out over the weekend to take some photos, mainly of the lilies growing in my garden. The flowers bloomed and it looked so beautiful. The lilies grew over my dog, Oofy's grave. She was a sweet little dog and I miss her dearly.


Lillies At Night

Since I had nothing to do on a Saturday night, I decided to try those instant-pasta thingies. I had bought one some time back but didn't have the time to try it out. Besides, the recipe called for some low-fat milk which always seem to run out rather quickly at home. (^ ^)


In the end, since I was too lazy to venture out to cari makan with my dog, I decided to cook the San Remo's Alfredo instant pasta with some nice trimmed back bacon fried in olive oil.


Looks yummy ain't it??

Anyway, aside from the fact that I had to work over the weekend, it was pretty good as the weather cleared up and we had a bit of rain to cool the environment.

Lovely...

I decided to also take a close-up shot of the lily in full bloom before it dies a couple of days later in our hot weather.

In Full Bloom...

Hmmmm... I should make it a point to finish my blogs sooner. I'm posting this on a Thursday night when it should have been completed by Monday... LOL!!!


July 10, 2007

Brain Drained or Brains Going Down The Drain??

It is just one of those nights when I'm up late working on something and I'm distracted to read Screenshots.

This article caught my eye in particular.... The article linked back to articles in The Star and that piqued my interest as well.

I'm going to talk about two issues which are related, hence my title.
  • Malaysia's Brain Drain
  • Malaysia's Brains Going Down The Drain
First of all, I've "lost" a number of friends to other countries when they decided to leave the country for good. Some of them never came back to Malaysia after completing their studies as they felt they could earn a decent buck there. Why not? When the GBP, SGD, USD, AUD.. are all 2x, 3x, 4x, or 7x more than the MYR?? So, its economic reasons. You can call them greedy but they're only looking out for their family and future generations.

Another reason, they feel that they won't be able to make it through fairly in our "aided meritocacy corporate ladder". I can't blame them because in the first place, they could not get a spot in our local universities and hence, have to take up private or father scholarships to study overseas. So, fearing the same situation in public or private sector, they chose to stay away and work for foreigners in a foreign land.

Besides that, after reading such horrific news of the crime wave hitting our nation like a tsunami, they choose not to come back. They fear that the country may spiral down into a chaotic blackhole of crime and despair. You can call them for being wimps for fearing crime since crime is everywhere. Not so, some people I've known have worked in crime-infested cities like New York, who find that it is more safer to work in New York than in KL. ;-)

That's just one problem - getting our brains to come back home. Sure, there are programmes like making Malaysia My 2nd Home. How effective is it? I have a friend, who married my other friend, a S'porean who's a qualified tax accountant some years back. After studying, living and working in Sydney, Australia, the couple decided to go back to Malaysia to make it their home. They settled in nicely and soon enough, my S'porean friend wanted to work as an accountant. She is not only CPA-qualified but also had overseas working experience in an MNC audit company. However, she was denied a working permit despite being married to a Malaysian (who held a doctorate in Engineering) and being a professional as well.

She did try to enlist the help of an agent but after finding out how much it costs to get her working permit, she just gave up.

After several years of frustration, the couple decided to go south to S'pore to settle down for good. Both are very happy since the S'porean government provided housing and also other supports when they decide to have children in the future.

So, where's the beef?? Malaysia lost two brains that day when they moved down to S'pore.

Sure, we can also try to "import" some brains but let's face it - Malaysia is just a stepping stone for some of these people. They are looking to go elsewhere after Malaysia. So, how much are they able to contribute?

Not only that, these professional foreign workers are paid much higher than our locals, i.e. bought for our skills. Hence, due to such unfair remuneration practices, many opt to leave for foreign lands as professionals as well. Hehehe.. I shall not delve into the current local practice of paying top $$$ for sh*tty work done by a certain group of foreigners - I shall not get into **JP bashing. (^^)

Now, the second issue - Malaysian Brains Going Down The Drain; this relates to our antiquated education system. I will not go into details but time and time again, a lot has been said about the quality of our education system. I believe that the study Maths and Sciences in English will slightly improve the quality of English of our future workers but then, this change must be propogated to the higher institutes of learning as well.

Today, we are churning out graduates who can't speak a decent sentence of English. I have met interview candidates who wish that the interview be conducted in a language other than English. I have sent them packing, despite my bosses' objections. I am not asking for frehies to speak in an anglo-slang, but at least try to say/write a decent sentence in English. Of course, in our globalized and very flat world, it is good to pick up another language too like Mandarin or Tamil. However, the global business language is still primarily English. The Chinese in China are picking up English too.

Besides that, most of our freshly minted graduates these days tend to be mindless zombies. There are many freshies whom I have encountered who are so spoonfed that they don't know what to do with themselves on the first day at work. Some, don't even know how to open their mouth to ask "Where is the toilet" and they sit there, suffering the entire day. What am I ranting about? They lack a critical mind. They do not know how to ask questions. Some are smarter, they know how to ask questions but in actual fact, they are asking to be spoonfed.

So, how are we able to address the current shortage of highly skilled workers when our education system is churning out zombies?

Of course, I can't say that all local graduates are zombies, just that most of them appear that way. There are a few bright sparks but once they realized that their intelligence or brain is not appreciated here, they leave for better pastures. Notice the vicious cycle? Kekeke

Frankly, my friends and relatives overseas are constantly pestering me to come over. They lure me by telling me that your effort over there is well appreciated. Some friends back here in Malaysia are asking me to stay because they say that when you go over to orang asing's land, you'll be treated as second-class citizen.

Yep, I agree with these friends, but at least I'll be a second-class citizen with rights. Hehehe... I'm reminded by the quote, "You tak suka Malaysia, you boleh keluar dari Malaysia!!"

My best friend has been bugging me about moving down to Australia. She is a classic case of Malaysia losing a brain. At a tender age of 17, she moved to Australia for a better future and got it. She was a reasonably good student here, but when she got to Australia, she flourished. She got top marks for the VCE (Form-6) and was immediately offered two things - 1) Australian citizenship and 2) University scholarship. She eventually graduated with 1st Class Honours and worked for the RBA (Reserve Bank Of Australia = same like our Bank Negara).

I often wonder, what would have happened to her if she stayed on in Malaysia to pursue a local university education. Would she have gotten her course of choice, in the first place? Would she have been able to enjoy a very fulfilling career here?

I'm still happily working here in Malaysia, taking care of my parents and etc. However, I must seriously evaluate if Malaysia is the place for me? I still call Melbourne my 2nd home, since I've been there for a while during my younger days. Will I call Melbourne my 1st home? I'm not sure. I'm still deciding...

So, for now, Malaysia still has a reasonably good brain sticking around.... Hehehe...

July 07, 2007

Hope You Feel Better...

Just got news that EV scalded her right thigh and hands this morning while making coffee for breakfast... (o___0)

She just spent quite some time at the hospital to get the ointment and medicine after first being told by her doctor at her panel clinic that they didn't have it. (-___-)

Shouldn't the normal clinics be ready to treat for such cases??? Imagine a parent bringing a child in to the clinic for an emergency and being told that they have to go to the hospital because they can't treat it. Shouldn't they at least try to give some first aid?

Looks like some clinics in Malaysia these days are more for profit rather than curing. So much for the Hippocratic Oath. Maybe should it be renamed Hypocritic Oath?

I've seen some clinics turning away some patients because they are on the panel doctor scheme, given by some companies because they can't seem to earn much compared to a walk-in patient. I've seen some doctors at these clinics give me generic medicines when I go in with my insurance card. (-___-)

Anyway, hope that you feel better, ok?

07.07.07

What's so significant about today??

Other than it is Live Earth Day?

2nd Year Anniversary of the London Bombings? God bless those innocent souls lost on that tragic day. (-.-)

Just nice numbers?

The fact that it is the 1st Saturday for the month of July?

You take your pick.

Kekekekeekkee... I'm just being an idiot today. Can't seem to collect my thoughts for a particular post.

I'm just wondering what to say when it reaches 20.07.2007. (^ ^)

July 04, 2007

Transformers-ar??

Are you a kid of the 80's?

Do you remember a really fantastic show called "Transformers"????

If you haven't... Go wikipedia and search. Those born after the 80's... Too bad for you. **MUAHAHAHAHA**

Anyway, I remembered devoting several hours of my week to Transformers. We all wished that we could be as brave and valiant as Optimus Prime and have a cool friend like Bumblebee.

Some of us more sinister people loved Megatron to bits. Others, thought that the silence and monotonous voice of Soundwave was cool as well.

I did recall a few friends saying that they wanted to beat the crap out of Starscream because he had such an irritating voice.

Anyway, we all used to sit around and talk about who would be able to beat whom in what situation. The conversation went like this... (waaaayyyy back in 1986)

Friend #1: Megatron can beat the crap out of Optimus Prime anytime!!
Me: No way!!! Optimus Prime will beat the crap out of Megatron! He's a truck, Megatron's just a gun. Have to ask Starscream to shoot pulak!
Friend #1: Hahaahha!! No-la!! Megatron is stronger!

... comes in another friend...

Me: Eh!! Why your eyes so red?
Friend #2: *sigh*.. Don't want to talk about it.

Friend #1: Your mom whack you esit? Come, come.. let's compare scars!

Friend #2: No-la!!

Me: Then, what happened??

Friend #2: I just got this video... Transformers movie...
Me & Friend #1: WAAAHHHH!!!! LUCKY-LA YOU!!!

Me: And then...??


...

Friend #2: Prime died.


................................ STONE COLD SILENCE......................................

Me & Friend #1: ARE YOU SURE????
Friend #2: *Sniff* *Nods head*
Me & Friend #1: Waaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!

For those in the know.... If you're a big fan of Transformers, you'll know that Optimus' "nickname" was Prime. We affectionately called him that. :P Hehehe.. At that young age, we swore allegiance to him and the Autobots.

Despite having a friend who liked Megatron for some odd reason. It was very certain that when news got out that Optimus Prime had died, it sent "shockwaves" throughout the community.

** Fast-foward 21 years **


Colleague 1: Eh!! Want to watch Transformers or not?

Me: No need to ask. Default is YES!

Colleague 1: Ok! We make arrangements.. (^^)

Me: Brings back memories man.... Do you remember the Transformers Movie cartoon?

Colleague 1: Yeah? What about?

Me: Do you remember how Optimus Prime died?

Colleague 1: Yeah yeah!!! Man....
Me: I just watched The Transformers Movie cartoon and nearly cried my eyes out when I saw Optimus Prime really died... Still affects me, after 20 years.

Colleague 1: Haahah! Oh yea! Definitely. It is one of the few decent cartoons we had when we were kids.


For many purists out there, the original Transformers as done by Hasbro is still the best. I've watched the other spin-offs like Beast Wars and Headmasters but it lacked the "oomph" of the original Transformers.

I just realized that in most of the Transformers cartoon, save for a few episodes, you hardly saw any female robots. I did remember seeing one, i.e. Prime's girlfriend but duty called and he left her at Cybertron. Not that it was sexist or anything but I'd guess Transformers were targeted at boys at those politically-incorrect days.

Anyway, about 5yrs ago, I managed to get hold of an Optimus Prime toy. Here's the pic. Kekekeke...

He's a little short but then, still has most of Prime's features. (^^)

Yes, he really transforms!!!!

Oh well... I think I shall start going back in time to look at some other great cartoons of the 80's like G.I.Joe and Macross/Robotech. Hehehehehe... NO.. I shall NOT talk about a show called Jem.

OMG... I feel farkin old now... (=____=)
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