A(H1N1) flu arrived on Malaysian shores

Kinda ironic that after my first posting related to the A(H1N1) flu Malaysia reports its first confirmed case of the virus, quickly followed up with a second confirmed case. Both were students, returning to Malaysian shores from New York, arriving on Wednesday morning on a Malaysia Airlines flight. The second student took a second flight a few hours later, on Air Asia, up north to Penang. A few things of note about this story.

• Both cases were the result of primary infections from an international location, and not a spread of the virus through domestic infection. That’s somewhat reassuring.


• The Malaysia Airlines flight had a stopover in Stockholm, Sweden. Some passengers may have disembarked there. So have the Swedes been informed, and do they have any infections there now as a result?


• Both students from NY, who know each other, were infected. Is the situation in the Big Apple that bad? Or did they pick up the infection from a high-risk individual, maybe someone who had recently been to a hot-bed of H1N1 infections? Or is their school the source?


• How many persons from the original MAS flight have made secondary flights? That’s how the infection spreads, jumping from locale to locale. Hopefully they’ve already identified all the passengers, and the only ones traveling onwards were the ones going to Sarawak, and the one confirmed case in Penang.

This first week, until Wednesday, is probably the most high-risk time for a spread of the infection. It’s quite alarming to note that Japan now has 90+ confirmed cases of the virus, with the majority of those being domestic infections. From four persons bringing the virus from abroad, they’re now trying to contain a much larger outbreak centered on two prefectures.

Time to be careful. Wash your hands frequently. Carry one of those antibacterial handwash gels in the small bottles. By all means, wear a face mask (more especially if you feel you may be infected, cos at least you’re keeping from spreading it). And if you feel feverish or have any other symptoms of the flu get yourself checked out.

Dyson – a neat little game, by independent game designers

I discovered this gem of a title from a Malaysian gaming blog, which has a section for free games. Being a rather poor gamer (sob, sob), with old hardware (sob, sob), I’m always on the lookout for good, free options to quench my gaming thirst.

Dyson was developed by Alex May and Rudolf Kremers, and was entered in this year’s Independent Games Festival. The 26.4Mb installer is downloadable from www.Dyson-game.com. It doesn’t require much in terms of computing resources, and, although there’s some delay on loading the game, it runs fine on basic hardware even when there are hundreds of little units flying around.

The premise of the game is simple enough. It most closely resembles an RTS in gameplay mechanics. The game map is a mix of different-sized asteroids, each with different levels in three attributes. Your units are “seeds” that fly around, orbiting asteroids or flying from one to another. But you don’t directly control the seeds. You can only give them instructions to fly from one asteroid to another within range, or to plant trees (two types: unit producing, or defensive) to colonize asteroids. The seeds behave according to pre-set mechanics, and have the attributes of their originating asteroids.

The minimalist design, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetics, is very pleasing and engaging. There are currently only 6 levels, and no multiplayer (not even planned), but it still promises a challenging experience. The developers promise that they still have further plans for the game, expanding the possibilities and improving on the AI. Even as it is, though, it still offers up a fun gaming experience, and I’m sure even after you complete the game you can still come back to Dyson for an occasional rush. After all, watching hundreds of seeds asteroid-hopping and crushing all resistance is fun!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to figure out how to beat level 5. You can check out a review of Dyson here.

Idol 8: To the home stretch!

Wow. So Paula was only half right. Was this a shocker? Hmm. I’ve already blogged that I felt Kris has been getting stronger and stronger as the weeks went by. So, even though I’m a big fan of Danny, I’m gonna say that I’m still pleased with this result. There was no escaping Adam making it to the final, what with all the love he’s been getting from the judges week after week. Heck, even Katy Perry had his name stenciled on her cape (what’s with that?).

Kris is a good singer, and he’s quite versatile. What I like most about him is his ability to interpret a song, and put a new spin on it. He’s done that time and time again. I think that’s what he’s being rewarded for. There’s no doubt that Danny’s got skill. His final performance on Idol showed us the range of his ability. And I’m sure there’s a future in the business for him, so it’s not the end of the road. Not by a longshot.

Could Kris mount a challenge to Adam? Interesting that he was the first one saved.

We’re finally at the home stretch! (So, Lin, you gonna vote for Kris next week?)

Preventing the spread of H1N1

Do you call it swine flu? That’s apparently a misnomer, since Influenza A (H1N1) is actually a combination of swine flu, bird flu, and human flu. What about Mexican/North American flu? Or is that too discriminatory? In Malaysia, people are referring to it by its full name or shortened to H1N1, so I’ll go with that.

Now, even though H1N1 isn’t headlining the news the way it did a few weeks ago, we’re still getting updates on the progress of this flu epidemic (pandemic yet?). Confirmed cases are cropping up in more and more countries around the world as the virus spreads from human host to human host. (No, you can’t get it from eating pork. I wonder if that silly fear has died away yet.)

When the virus first grabbed the world’s attention in a big way, one of the first things a lot of people did was don face masks. It was a common sight in Asia a few years back during the SARS scare, and lots of people fell back on a “tried and tested” control mechanism. But does it really help?

Slate’s Explainer examined whether surgical masks are effective at protecting against the flu virus. Quick take-away: The masks can’t filter out the viruses, since the viruses are too small. (Although, the masks would still filter larger carrier molecules, so there could be some benefit.)

So what’s the best advice? Well, it turns out that the best advice is both simple and harder to carry out. Harder, because it’s not as simple as slipping on a face mask, even though it is a simple enough thing to do: wash your hands frequently.

Sounds easy enough, right? Hold on! Did you know there’s a method to it? Yup, there’s the right way to wash your hands, and then there’s the “quick n easy” method. You know what I’m talking about. Turn on the tap, rinse your hands for a couple of secs, turn off the tap, wring your hands out.

So here’s the lowdown on how to wash your hands properly, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. And if you need to get through to kids, try sending the teens here.

So if you see me humming Happy Birthday to myself, I’m probably washing my hands at the sink.

Idol 8: Top three

First off, yes, this is an amazing top three. Never mind that all the judges basically said to Adam, “We’ll see you in the finals!” Maybe it is just a matter of who shares the stage with him in the final, before his anointment as the next American Idol. I’m less certain about Kris’ billing as “the darkhorse”. I think he showed his chops tonight.

Ok, wait, let’s rewind for a bit.

The judges’ song choices for the Idol hopefuls were actually kinda appropriate. But their personal picks were spot on! It was more noticeable for Danny and Kris though, which kinda says something about Adam. Kris doing an acoustic version of Kanye West’s Heartless? Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! My fave performance of the night. Danny’s “vocal masterclass” performance of You Are So Beautiful comes a close second. I won’t comment on Adam’s performances, since I’m not a huge Aerosmith fan, although his rendition of U2’s One was good.

So, the judges all loved Adam, no surprise, but Simon reminded everyone not to assume that he’ll make it to the finals. He basically reminded everyone to vote for him, so that he gets the chance to prove himself in the final.

Let’s just come right out and say it then. Who’s gonna accompany Adam to the final then?

Idol 8: Top five

There’s only five left, and three more weeks before the final. We’re at the point where the bottom three shouldn’t be about skill, or slipups, or song choice. It’s straight up popularity with the voting audience now.

I didn’t liveblog this eppy, since there are too many breaks now. Hehe.

I thought Kris showed off what an accomplished artist/singer he is. Once again, he played nicely with the arrangement, and showed off some good vocal skills. Not sure about Simon’s negativity.

Allison just proved that she has a soft and very emotional side. Hmm. Paula actually made a decent comment when she said that Allison showed off a tender side. And maybe Simon has a point about her belief in herself, but I’m not sure it makes a difference. She was still good, despite.

Ok, is there gonna be a positive Simon-“brilliant”-effect for Matt? I thought he was alright, but not sure about brilliant.

I felt that Danny showed off more power than Matt. That’s the kind of power and range you needed to show off in Rat Pack week. Loved how he ended the song. Amazing vocals, and very nice control. More confidence and swagger than Allison? Yes, definitely. Better than previous weeks? Maybe. Does it make a difference? In the end, gotta remember what Randy said: this is a singing competition. And man, can he sing!

There is, of course, no one in the competition who has more confidence in their own ability than Adam. He knows he can sing. He knows he’s a consummate performer. It’s just a question of whether America likes his style. Even Jamie Foxx knows how skilled Adam is.

Overall, I think Jamie was a good mentor for this week, and I loved the songs this week. They all managed to carry them well too, putting on their own individual spin to their performances. Can’t imagine who has to leave the show tomorrow.

GeoCities Thrives, Yahoo! Buys, Yahoo! GeoCities Dies (finally)

A bit of news has been getting a fair amount of mention lately. Yahoo! has decided to close GeoCities. I remember signing up in my uni days, and putting up a personal page. I even remember scouring the GeoCities neighbourhoods looking for a nice address. By the time Yahoo! bought it though, I had already lost interest in staking out a position on the net.

And now, after being left behind in relative obscurity due to the meteoric rise of social networking sites and their ilk, the once popular free web-hosting site is being put down. Yahoo!’s not sharing much in the way of details right now, instead telling customers to “wait until the summer”.

The only details really of any interest right now are how to save a copy of your website, or how to migrate it to their paid hosting service. There are no further details to be had. GeoCities is shutting down. For good. They’ve already stopped accepting new registrations. By the end of this year there won’t be any more sites at geocities.com. Interestingly though, if you have a geocities.com email address, that will survive the closure.

I’ve already deleted my (woefully neglected, embarrassingly amateurish) GeoCities site. Now it only exists (partly) in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine opening soon

The latest X-Men movie is opening soon. I need to see this. On the big screen.

That’s it really. Just had to note this. :-)

By the way, better stay til the end of the credits. Definitely don’t want to miss any hidden scenes!

Idol 8: Down to five

So we have our top five. Anoop had to go home, just so Allison could go on a little further. It was amazing that David Archuleta just spoke with them, and said that you don’t have to go all the way to have all sorts of doors open for you. I think that’ll apply to anyone from this group, including, most likely, the two who didn’t get enough votes tonight.

Idol 8: Two going home

First out was Lil. I’m not disappointed with that result. Nothing against her. She can sing, but I just got tired of it after awhile. It was the same thing, again and again.

Safe:
Kris – Yes. No doubt there.
Adam – No surprise, at all.
Danny – Does he lack starpower? Is it the moves, or apparent lack thereof? Is that what Simon means by awkward? He definitely has the voice.
Matt – Hmm. I did like him – certain weeks.

Anoop goes to the other side. That’s iffy. I really think he’s showed how he’s been getting better and better.

Allison joins Anoop. Sigh. I really liked her, cos she brings a nice originality. A rock spin to her songs.

Let it not be said that Australians don’t respect Muslims’ needs

Yesterday, while liveblogging American Idol, I linked to the official Tourism Australia site. They’ve rolled out an ad campaign that’s featured quite heavily on Astro at the moment (it’s a nice spot too).

One thing that immediately struck me when I visited their website was an item on the front page. Right there, under the Special Features column, there’s a download link for their Muslim Visitors’ Directory to Australia, which is described as “your handy pocket-size directory listing restaurants that caters to the dining requirements of Muslim visitors, as well as locations to mosques”. Now, I haven’t downloaded the directory, so I don’t know how helpful or comprehensive it is, but it’s amazing just to find it there on the front page in the first place.

How many other tourism sites for non-Muslim countries have something similar? I think it’s a great move, and is a huge sign of respect to the sensitivities of Muslims. Most places would leave it to the Muslim traveler to find out where to find places of worship, and halal eateries. Maybe there would be special tourist agencies to cater to that market. Or maybe you’d have to rely on your own embassy to aid you with that information. But to have it right there on the country’s official tourism site is just very convenient.

Now, despite the conventional wisdom about greater Middle Eastern/Muslim tourist arrivals in the area, I don’t think it’s necessarily about grabbing that market. Granted, it probably plays some role, but delving into the tourist arrival statistics (available here) shows that it’s not really that huge a market share.

If you consider only arrivals from the Middle East, 2007 figures for total inbound market value (tourist dollar spend) show a ~2.2% market share. Projections for 2009 show this increasing to 3.0%. If you add in figures from Indonesia and Malaysia (not all, obviously), this can double, but it’s still less than 10% of the total. So it’s not entirely a numbers game. Being in the neighbourhood of the largest Muslim nation in the world probably plays a part though, so it’s a smart move, no matter the motivation.

Kudos to Tourism Australia.

Idol 8: Top seven – Pt 6

Definitely back from the last break now. Only one left to go.

You know, maybe that Walkabout spot is just getting a bit too much exposure. I’d like them to mix it up a bit. There’s gotta be more to Australia, so why not showcase it?

Anoop – Starts off showing off his vocal range already. That’s good. Ended a bit rough, but still was good. I’ll agree with Kara, loved how he switched up and hit a variety of notes.

So there we have it. Which two are going home tomorrow? Wow. That’s gonna be interesting. My favourites of the night were Kris and Danny, and that’s the only easy part. Not gonna try predicting who gets kicked off.

Idol 8: Top seven – Pt 5

Back from the last (?) break.

Matt – How appropriate to pick “Staying Alive”. Perfect for the puns. Hmm. Undecided on whether that was actually a good choice tho. Even after the judges’ comments, I’m not sure.

Oh wait. They’re milking this show for all it’s worth. Why not? One more break then.

Idol 8: Top seven – Pt 4

Back from the third break.

Adam – Definitely looking sharp, if that helps (and it might). Well, that certainly was brave and original. It’s true, he does show off his range, by doing something different each week. And I’ll give it to him this week: he showed emotion. At least he’s always original, you gotta give him that.

This should be the last break.

Idol 8: Top seven – Pt 3

Back from the second break.

Incidentally, anyone have the urge to go Walkabout?

Danny – Oh yeah. Nice and high energy. Hit the right notes, and did work it out. Paula: “I’ll still see you in the finals!” Yeah, sure hope so.

Allison – She’s really rocking it. I liked how she started it, and worked it up to the quick pace. “Hot stuff”, all right.

Another break.

Idol 8: Top seven – Pt 2

Back from the first break.

Kris – Ooh. Acoustic. Nice. Low-key. Love the arrangement. This guy has consistently improved week by week. The judges got it right, it was fantastically original.

Another break so soon? Sigh.

Idol 8: Top seven (again)

Well, the stakes are higher this time around. Two are guaranteed to go home tomorrow. Let’s see who brings their A game today.

Lil – Ok, high energy. The judges were disappointed, but that’s not really a surprise. Gonna have to agree with Simon: I didn’t see the originality. Still think there’s gonna be a sizable “sympathy” vote for her tho. They love to vote for the underdog, and who else is the underdog in this group? They’ve been telling her week after week that they think she’s in trouble, and yet she survives for another week. We’ll see.

First commercial break.

The mental calisthenics of avoiding paying taxes

It’s tax season. Responsible citizens everywhere are getting headaches figuring out how to file their tax returns. It’s an onerous task, what with all the different regulations and exceptions in the different tax codes. That’s why they have professionals to assist the regular Joe figure it all out. There’s a whole industry out there related to taxes, and it’s not just for firms, but individuals too.

As we grow older we come to the realization that “nothing is certain but death and taxes”, but it’s only the latter that vexes us on a predictable annual schedule.

But maybe we should focus on how I opened this post. Responsible citizens are the ones braving the tedium of filing their tax returns and actually paying their taxes. Yes, not everyone is a responsible citizen. I’m sure we all know those who couldn’t be bothered, thinking that it’s a low priority offense and no one gets hurt in the process. Or maybe they think that it’s too much of a hassle. Or maybe they object to the principle of the matter. Or maybe there’s a political angle to it.

And that’s where things start to get ridiculous. Not paying taxes because you don’t support the current government? What nonsense! Would you propose to forgo all public services in the meantime? And how should we identify you if you did? Will you proudly showcase your political affiliation on your sleeve, so that you may be excluded from receiving public services that others support with their taxes?

Or did you think there are some things provided free of charge? Those doctors in the government hospitals aren’t doing their duty purely out of the goodness of their hearts. They still need to bring paychecks home. How do they get paid? Out of the government’s coffers, of course. And where do the funds come from? Why, 43% of the Federal Government’s budget is financed through income tax. (Look it up yourself. Try using the government websites, maintained using public funds by the way.)

Don’t go to government hospitals, you say? Or send your kids to public schools?

Fine then. Don’t expect the police to help you when you’re a victim of crime then. Or the fire department to put out the fire burning down your mansion. They’ll help your neighbour who pays taxes though, while you stand outside moaning. Maybe you can hire private contractors to put out the fire. After all, you don’t trust the current government to use your tax dollars (ringgit, whatever) responsibly. So you’re on your own. Just the way you like it.

How about the next argument? We’re taxed too heavily! It’s a burden! Too much of our money is going to the government, and being wasted on all those wasteful and unnecessary and wrong “study trips”!

I’ve got news for you too. Let’s look at KPMG’s survey. They’re a reputable enough consultancy firm, so you don’t have to judge based on my credentials. For 2008, the highest tax rate on personal income in Malaysia was 28%. That’s a marginal tax rate, by the way, so it’s not 28% of your total income. But 28% on the upper portion of your taxable income. The global average was 28.8%. But let’s look closer to home, shall we? Let’s focus on ASEAN countries. There’s data on 6 of them (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). The average was 32%, with the lowest in Singapore (20% - no surprise there really), and the highest in Vietnam (40%). So we’re lower than the average.

Then there’s the level at which that highest marginal tax rate kicks in (there’s no such thing as a flat tax). For Malaysia it was RM250,000. Converting all the other ASEAN countries’ currencies to RM (at prevailing rates), we find that the average was RM272,716.07. The Singaporeans are lucky, cos you’d you have to be pretty damn rich (RM771,328) before you get hit by their highest tax rate. The Vietnamese, however, are doubly unlucky. If you make less than half a Malaysian (at RM100,302), you’re already hit by that highest rate, which was already the highest in the region.

Think we have it bad? Think again.

My take on all this hand-wringing? It’s just a lazy mentality. “I want it free!” Bah! Suck it up, I say. Do your duty. Pay your taxes.

Idol 8: They used the save to keep it at seven!

Wow. Well, I’m actually a bit surprised. Idol history tonight. You know what this means though, right? Two people are going home next week. That could be nail-biting.

Overall, it was a good evening. The opening number was my fave so far. And the two artists (Jennifer Hudson and Miley Cirus – yes, I know!) were actually good.

So next week is disco week, huh? Hehe. That should be fun.

Idol 8: Top seven bottom three

Do we need the judge’s save tonight?

[Wait a minute.]

Yes! Ok, no we may not need it after all. :-)

Was that an Idol challenger I heard?

Sorry, Randy, I’m gonna have to disagree with you on that assessment of Kris. I thought that was actually pretty good. One of the highlights of the night, for me at least.

At the end of the night, I’m undecided about the bottom three. Hmm. Will there be a need for the judge’s save tomorrow?

American Idol Season 8 is now a race for second place

I mean, seriously, can there be any doubt that Adam Lambert won’t win the competition? The voice control, the stage presence, the theatrics. He’s on a whole ’nother level. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the others at this stage too. Shoutouts to Danny, Allison, Kris, Anoop, and Matt. Sorry, Lil, you don’t really excite me at this point. But Adam’s in a league of his own. I suppose there’s stilll the odd chance that it’s not to Americans’ tastes, but it sure is looking less likely from where I’m sitting.

A’isyah’s school trip to the zoo

A’isyah’s going on her first school trip today. She’s been excited about this visit to the zoo since last week, when we found out about it. Good thing her cold/runny nose cleared up in time (thanks Actifed!), so it wouldn’t be too much of a bother today. I still packed some tissues in her bag, just in case. At the last minute I gave her a cap to wear, but the skies were overcast this morning, so she’ll probably not need the protection from the hot sun.

This isn’t her first visit to the National Zoo, so I’m sure she’ll have a good time. She just loves looking at animals, and I always enjoy taking her to places with animals. I think it’s important for kids to get a chance to know the natural world and the many different lifeforms around us. The many charms of nature are probably a universal fascination for children, so it’s just up to the adults to ensure that future generations have the opportunity to satisfy that curiosity.


On A’isyah’s first visit last year just after her third birthday, I think we got tired before she did. Hehe.

I’ve just found out a little bit more about Zoo Negara; for example, 2009 is Visit Zoo Negara Year. No matter what critics may say about our National Zoo, it plays an important role, so I sure hope more of us support the Malaysian Zoological Society and visit the zoo.

Decided on those blog aggregators

Well, seems I’ve made up my mind on which blog aggregator to visit regularly. I find myself drawn to blogged.my and Negaraku, with an occasional visit to SARAwho. Those sites are responsive and offer a good choice of blogs to discover, with interesting posts that I’d actually click through to read.

Opinion and truth

When does one’s opinion become the truth?

What if someone believed “something”? What if some other people (second parties) confirmed the first party’s belief in that “something”? Can we consider it truth? Verifiable? What if that “something” concerned another party’s motives? What if there is perceived motive to deceive the first party? Should we bother to consider the assertions of the third party? To another group, the fourth party, what is the truth? Would that not rely on their allegiances, if any, to the other parties?

For how do you verify motives, when they deal with the subject of emotions?

Look to their actions then.

Change isn’t easy

Sometimes you can’t avoid it. Sometimes you don’t want to avoid it. That doesn’t mean it’s gonna be easy. It just prepares you for change.

And yet, you can’t always be fully ready for the change, when it comes.

Sometimes change happens to you, and sometimes you are the instigator. Both roles are still just as affected.

Is there a point in assigning blame? Maybe. If only to avoid it in future, if at all possible.

I remain, cryptically, awaiting change. Because some of it has already happened. And more is around the corner.

Considering alternative blog aggregators

An anonymous commenter on my previous post pointed me out to several alternative blog aggregator sites. I’d already discovered one of them, and heard about another of them, but two were completely new to me. So I decided to try them all out and compare them. My first impressions below.

blogged.my

The site loads up fast for me, including the different ways of viewing the site. They do have one interesting feature in the “most popular” section, akin to a mini digg section. Here you can view the top ten pings in the last 24 hours, week, month, or year. Their pings are listed as short blurbs. It’s paginated, so you can view previous pings as well. You can navigate by browsing tags, the most popular pings, and even by popular tags via the tag cloud at the bottom. They also have a search box on the sidebar near the top.

SARAwho

I found out about this one at the same time that I discovered blogged.my. It’s supposed to be for Southeast Asian blogs, even though it seems to be pretty much dominated by the Malaysians right now. I’m not sure if that’s a function of the prolific writings of Malaysian bloggers, or the level of outreach for the site. Judging from the number of updates, I’d guess it’s due to the latter reason.

SARAwho has a few feeds on the right sidebar, and you can view the pings from the last 4 hours, 8 hours (default view), 16 hours, 1 day, or 1 week.

Beras Padu

I’d heard of Beras Padu before, from other blog posts, but I’ve never visited the site. This is laid out in similar style to SARAwho, although I’m not sure which site copied which. There are certainly more malay bloggers pinging here, and overall it gets a lot of pings.

The site loads up pretty quickly. Beras Padu has a “reader community” and the right sidebar has links to selected blog posts. You can view the pings from the last 12 hours (default view), 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week. There’s even an RSS feed for Beras Padu, although you’ll have to click through to the owner’s site to grab the link.

Planet Malaysia

This one is new to me. Planet Malaysia started as a small portal for Malaysian bloggers, and it seems to have grown in time.

The site takes awhile to load up for me, probably because it doesn’t just list links to other blogs. I’m not sure how their members ping the site, since the site has more than just links to blogs. The individual entries seem to be in custom formats, with text, formatting, and pics. The way it’s done, you may never need to click through to the original blog.

The site isn’t paginated, and there’s no way to filter posts. On the right sidebar you’ll find links to archives, a blog roll, and links to recent posts.

Negaraku

Another new one for me. They have a Facebook Group, and member profiles. Their banner, however, doesn’t display correctly on this system and looks quite bad.

The site loads up pretty quickly. Arranged at the top are Category links. The posts seem to be “rated” for buzz, and you can view those popular posts. The right sidebar has links to the popular posts of the day, the previous day, the week, the month, and the year. They also have a tag cloud. The post listings have short blurbs, and some even come with full-size photos. The site is paginated, so you can browse the pings in batches.


I don’t think there’s a clear “winner” in this list. They’ll all appeal to different people of course. For myself, I haven’t decided yet which one(s) I’ll visit regularly.

Setting records in by-election nominations

Ok, this is certainly interesting. One of the three scheduled by-elections for next month in three far-flung constituencies has just seen 15 candidates qualify the nomination round! This, for a constituency with 5,140 registered voters (as per The Star’s reporting). Let’s assume a 70% voter turnout. At that rate, each of the thirteen independent candidates only needs to guarantee about 240 votes to make it interesting for the two main political parties vying for the seat. Seems doable for an independent.

PPS no more

Boy, am I glad I stopped pinging PPS some time back. (Leave aside the fact that I don’t have many posts in the first place. Hehe.) I just visited PPS recently, and have discovered that it has a new owner. I figured there was change, what with the addition and re-arrangement of ads on the site. And I don’t think I like the new direction the site will be headed. So, I’ve started my search of alternatives. First up is blogged.my, which seems decent. I’m not gonna start pinging again, but I’ll “vote” with my clicks. I’ll be visiting that aggregator instead, for updates on the Malaysian blogosphere.

Milestone: A’isyah on the slide!

The 100th post is usually regarded as some sort of milestone. And though this post is the 100th post on my blog, I’m not really trying to commemorate it. Besides, this post makes 100 by virtue of my merging my other blog with this one, bringing in a few posts when I wasn’t actively blogging.

Rather, I want to celebrate a much more fun milestone! Although, I’m about three weeks late in celebrating it. Hehe.

A’isyah’s always been a bit wary of heights. She doesn’t mind climbing, that’s for sure. She’s always climbing on the back of the sofa for example. She’s even gone up slides before. It’s just coming down the slides that’s been a problem for her. For some reason, she’s always been afraid to take the plunge and just ended up going down the stairs again.

Although Nany said that A’isyah’s been ok with slides for a couple of months now, whenever I take her out, she was still reluctant to go down any slides.


That is, until we went out to Nando’s at Bangsar Village. They have a small play area, and there were two little girls playing there. So A’isyah decided to join them, and didn’t hesitate to take the slide down. Yay! Maybe all she needed was company. Whatever it was, the floodgates have been opened! Now she just loves to go on the slides.

This, I think, is a serious milestone. It really opens up playground explorations, which is good for confidence, strength, and curiosity (amongst other useful traits).

So here’s to milestones!

Pulling in visitors from around the world

Well, I guess I should send a shout-out to Sgt. Al Thompson. My post on that Iraq gold scam certainly has brought in a lot of visitors from around the globe. Sure testament to the reach of that particular scam email.

And it seems myth-busting in general draws in visits. No surprise there really, since there’s not much reason for random visitors to find my blog. This here is just a personal blog. So here’s a shout-out to Nichole Dishuk (RIP), and kids ball pits!

The only other posts that have received random visits are a tech advice piece on ntrights, a clarification on the difference between dateline and deadline, and my post(s) on colgate toothpaste.

I’m probably gonna continue getting visitors on those topics from around the world, and may even capture random visits on future posts. It’s a bit strange for a non-specialist blog tho, I think.

No matter tho, since I’ll just keep on doing my own thing. As Eek the Cat says, “It never hurts to help!” :-)

Pulling updates out of draft-limbo

Sometime back I had written that I was going to update my blog with some old posts. But then things went quiet. I didn’t update in a long while. And when I finally did update, I’d forgotten about my earlier promise. So I went back and checked the drafts, and decided to flesh out two that deserved a spot on this blog. And so, just to be completist, I’ve published those posts here and here.

Colgate haram Google search

Odd.

So I wrote earlier about my blog post on the halal status of Colgate toothpaste showing up (kinda) high in Google search results. At least, I thought so. I mean, that’s what I got when I did a Google search with the same search terms as my intrepid visitor.

When I related the story to someone else though, their results varied. Not sure whether that’s because of a localized version (I’m currently defaulted to www.google.com.my), or some other customization due to IP address location or something else. I’ve never really paused to ponder how Google throws its search results together. They’ve served me well enough over the years.

It’s just odd that a search for the same terms, at the same time, gives different results, with my blog post showing up in one, but not another. And just so no one thinks it was some vainglorious self-promoting ego-trip, I snapped a pic of my search results.



If the above looks suspicious, just keep in mind it’s a crop from a pdf print of the search results page.

Ah well. Someone else managed to find my blog post via Google, so it doesn’t matter how that happened. Just hope it helped someone.

An activist is born!

So much for staying private. :-) I’ve just started a “movement” blog to save A’isyah’s pre-school from being evicted. I’ll be pinging that blog to PPS, and that opens up a path to this blog, although convoluted.

I’m a newbie to the whole activist scene. I’m not even active on the current Gaza War issue, beyond announcing my views in my FB status and having discussions with some friends and colleagues. That’s the hot-button issue here right now, of course. Hotter even than the recent Kuala Terengganu by-elections where BN lost.

So here, I am, fumbling through an issue more personal to me.

Save the Al Hidayah Islamic Pre-School!

419 scam: Want a share of some millions “found” in Baghdad during the war?

Oh my. My blog is turning into some myth-busting site. Hehe.

I received an email this afternoon, forwarded to me by a colleague. Alarm bells went ringing as soon as I saw the header. An email from someone within the US Army? Can’t be.

And then I read the email. My mind was pretty much made up by then that this was some kind of scam.

Here’s the email that was forwarded. Take note of the From: field.

From: Sgt.Al Thompson [mailto:thompson@usarmy.com]
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 10:24 AM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Matter Of Interest.

Matter Of Interest.

My name is Sgt.Al Thompson, a member of the U.S. ARMY USARPAC Medical Team, which was deployed to Iraq in the beginning of the Iraq’s war. I will like to share some highly classified information about my personal experience and role which I played in the pursuit of my career serving under the U.S ARMY.

Though, I would like to hold back some certain information for security reasons for now until you have find the time to visit the BBC website stated below to enable you have insight as to what I'm intending to share with you, believing that it would be of your desired interest one-way or the other. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

Please get back to me after visiting the above website to enable us discuss more. I'm not comfortable sending this message to you without knowing fully well if you are indeed with me or you may decides to go public.

Please reply me via my personal email:sgt.althompsonus@gmail.com confirming you have visited the site and that you have understood my intentions.
Thanks,
Best Regards,
Sgt.Al Thompson

Let’s just try to ignore the bad grammar, shall we? ;-) It didn’t take much to unravel this scam that I wonder if anyone’s been taken in by it.

My “Internet sleuth” quick response below:

Dear All,

Beware! This is a variation on the (419) Nigerian email scams on the internet. The way it works is, the scammers offer a share in huge sums of money, but you need to pay them some advance fees first (for “processing”, etc.).

Please see:
Phishbucket article

Break The Chain forum post

This one capitalizes on a real event, which was reported by the BBC (hence the legitimate link in the email). The gist: A stash of money was found in some containers in Baghdad, but there are some questions as to where the money came from and even whether all the money found has been accounted for.

Don’t fall for this scam!

I don’t usually use the Importance: High flag in email, but I did with my response above. Just wanted to make sure no one had already tried contacting the scammers. They can be quite persuasive apparently.

On another note, these scammers aren’t very imaginative when it comes to the fake names, eh?

Dangers of birth control pills?

Another entry in the “Internet sleuth” series, from an email I researched this morning.

This time, I’ll include the quoted email that was forwarded to me:

Menstrual cycle - very important send to all your friends.

I am sure most of you have a daughter, a granddaughter, a niece, a friend or a friend's daughter... this might be worth checking out. PASS THIS ON EVEN IF YOU DON'T USE IT!!

Recently, this past week, my cousin Nicole Dishuk (age 31... a newly graduated student with a doctoral degree about to start her new career as a Doctor...) was flown into a nearby hospital, because she passed out. They found a blood clot in her neck, and immediately took her by helicopter to the ER to operate. By the time they removed the right half of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain, the clot had spread to her brain causing severe damage. Since last Wednesday night, she was fighting for her life. They induced her into a coma to stop the blood flow and then operated 3 times.

Finally, they said there was nothing left that they could do. Multiple clots in the left side of her brain were found, the swelling wouldn't stop and she was on the life support. She died at 4:30 that day. She leaves behind her husband, a 2-year old, Brandon and a 4-year old, Justin.

The CAUSE of DEATH they found was a birth control she was taking that allows you to only have your period 3 times a year. Doctors said it interrupts life's menstrual cycle, and although it is FDA approved... it shouldn't be. So to the women in my address book, I ask you to boycott this product and deal with your periods once a month, so you can live the rest of the months that life has in store for you.

Please send this to every woman you know - you may save someone's life. Remember you have a cycle for a reason.

FYI: The name of this new birth control is Lybrel. If you go to Lybrel.com you will find a least 26 pages of information regarding this drug. The second birth control is Seasonique. If you go to Seasonique.com you will find at least 43 pages of information regarding this drug. The warning and side effects regarding both pills are horrible.

Please forward this to as many daughters AND sons, co-workers, friends and relatives. Several lives have already been changed.

God bless!

And the response I sent out, after my research:

Hi All!

Another one to investigate. This one I took on mainly because I personally know women who have trouble with their normal menstrual cycles and have opted to use medication to control certain aspects of it.

First check reveals that it appears to be a mixed bag. There’s info debunking the urban legend of Nicole Dishuk:
Snopes page on Dishuk

Interesting to note that the original “warning” didn’t include info on particular brands of birth control pills. That info was apparently added on in later cycles of the email forward.

But, yes, there is a real case of a woman named Nicole Dishuk, PhD in psychology, married and mother of two young boys, who died of a stroke. From here on out, however, it gets murky. There is no definitive proof that the cause of death was the birth control pills she was taking, even though there is a news report (here: ABCLocal site) saying her husband was told that the doctors identified the birth control pills as the only risk factor for Nicole to suffer a stroke (blood clot to the brain). Whether this was established as the cause of death is unknown, because the private medical records are not available. Note also that there is no indication she even took either of the two brands identified in the “warning” below.

And here one has to note that all medication comes with risks, and contraindications are noted precisely to highlight potential risks.

So this is where we get controversial. A good jumping off point for different points of view on this topic can be found here:
About.com site on Contraception

Some say we should go au naturel, and avoid all medicines entirely, because they interrupt with the “normal” body functions. See the “warning” that was just forwarded below. Or some comments posted under the About.com post above:
“Anything that interupts (sic) a life cycle has to be dangerous.”
“Nutrition feeds the cells which in turn communicate with our 600 trillion cells helping the body to heal itself. … Put synthetic drugs in a human body and take the consequences.”

Some take the opposing stand, noting that a lot of medicines do a lot of good to people who may not have the same “normal” experiences as the majority.
There’s the case of someone who “started getting (her) period at the age of 11, when (she) first started getting (her) period (her) cycle was 35 days long and (her) actual period was 8 days long.” This person went on birth control pills at 17 and no longer suffers such terrible PMS symptoms or cramps. And there are other cases such as hers.

Some say that anyone taking medication should be responsible over their own bodies and be informed about any risks they may face.

There are many opinions on the matter, but in the end, ladies, it’s your prerogative. Stay informed.

Conclusion: Not all birth control pills are suitable for all women; you have to be aware of any potential risk factors. However, it is unfair to depict them as dangerous and having no benefit whatsoever.

It’s easy enough to sympathize with the origins of this particular myth. But there’s a danger to perpetuating misinformation, in that it could scare women off potentially useful information regarding contraceptives. All in all, a thorny subject, but still, better to spread knowledge than ignorance!

A’isyah at school

It was A’isyah’s second day of pre-school today, and she was just as excited about school today as she was yesterday. This morning, however, she was prepped with her crocs, which prompted her to ask about her black shoes. She was just told that she can wear her black shoes another time. Hehe. Not sure how long that will keep up.



Since I haven’t mentioned it yet, the school is Al Hidayah in Damansara Heights, pictured above. Three of my sister’s kids went there, and the youngest just graduated from Al Hidayah to enter Standard 1 in SKBD, which is just nearby. They have a good number of teachers/caregivers, and a pretty diverse program, plus instruction in both Malay and English. Quite a few yuppy Malays out there with kids who aren’t so fluent in Malay apparently.



Two days straight, and A’isyah is still very enthusiastic about the whole experience. I think she’s glad that she has others her age group to interact with. For me, I just hope that she gains more confidence in interacting with others.

News from Dubai starting to hit home

Big news today. Just found out from the local paper (NST) that Meydan have cancelled the construction contract for WCT and Arabtec to build the world’s largest horse racecourse. It’s all over the Gulf news. A sampling can be found here and here.

Interesting to note that the reason given was “because of non-adherence to the agreed time schedule for construction”, as mentioned in Meydan’s statement.

Hmm. No further comment from me.

Dropping off A’isyah at school

I just dropped off A’isyah at her pre-school, for her first day of school. She was so excited this morning, dressed up in her uniform and wearing her favourite black shoes, with her backpack on her shoulders. Decided to change her shoes though, after seeing the other kids wearing sneakers or crocs even. Maybe for the time being she can wear her crocs. It’d be easier to take off and put back on as she goes in and out of the school building.

First impressions were ok. A’isyah seemed alright, and was curiously watching all the other kids. She met one new girl who was there the day we registered A’isyah. And there was this new boy who was crying the whole time after his parents left, just as he was on the day we registered. Feeling better about A’isyah being able to cope now. At least she wasn’t bawling her eyes out. Hehe.

So this whole morning I’ll probably be wondering if she’s doing alright on her first day of school.

Halal status of Colgate toothpaste

I was browsing my Statcounter logs earlier and found an interesting search engine entry into my blog. One of my earliest posts was about a halal scandal involving Colgate toothpaste, and apparently it’s now a popular enough reference on the topic. I’ve actually seen a few Google searches on “Colgate” and “halal” leading into my blog before, but I never bothered to check it out much.

This latest search was for the phrase “is Colgate haram”, and interestingly, my blog post appears on page 3 of the Google results (as of this writing).

I figure it’s only appropriate I update that post with the latest info, which is to say that the issue has been settled (at least, for now). I can’t say about other locales, but the Colgate toothpaste sold in Malaysia is now certified halal. You can check out Colgate Malaysia’s statement, which specifically states that:

“The calcium in Colgate toothpaste is sourced from minerals.
The glycerin in Colgate toothpaste is sourced from plants.”

I hope this puts to rest the question of whether Colgate toothpaste is haram.

The other question that remains unresolved is whether the original “flyer” was indeed a misinformation marketing tactic, or was created for genuine reasons. I suppose it’s irrelevant, because in the end, Colgate sat up, took notice, and went ahead with the halal certification process to prove its credentials.

Merging PriceWatch

I had another blog, which I set up to track prices of stuff in Dubai. It was just for reference purposes, but I didn't use it that much. I'm not in Dubai right now, of course, but I think the idea behind PriceWatch might still be useful.

Anyway, I've merged that blog to here, and deleted that blog, since it won't be (just) Dubai prices I'll track.

Itching to game

It’s been ages since I played a game. Starting to feel the “itch”. I never got my fill of Dawn of War or even Supreme Commander (which I came to very late). Problem is, I’m running outdated hardware, so the latest games are out of reach anyway. Even some of the games on Jumboplay are not playable on my old laptop. I should probably just cancel that service.

The last game I gave any time to was TrackMania Nations, which didn’t quite scratch the same itch as (the original) Re-Volt. Incidently, Re-Volt was the game that finally prompted me to get a video card for my old Gateway PC. There’s really nothing else out there (racing game-wise) that I’ve encountered that captures the same sense of fun as Re-Volt. Still, TrackMania Nations is decent fun. Too bad I can’t play it on my current laptop.

Probably time to plug in the ol’ XBox, since I’m not getting a new laptop anytime soon. Or any new games either, for that matter.

Weekend in Dubai – Day 3

On our last day, we only had half a day. Our flight was in the early evening, so we took it pretty easy. Unlike Day 2, or even Day 1, we took part in the group outing. At least, A’isyah and I did, since there was a visit to Ski Dubai in the program. After breakfast in the room again, I sent Nany to our old place where she was meeting someone at the spa, and then A’isyah and I went to MoE. We were there early, since the group was late to breakfast and late to depart the hotel. While waiting, A’isyah and I walked around and took pictures at the x-mas display in the centre court.


Finally the group arrived and we got our tickets. Half were going for ski lessons, while the other half were just going to the Snow Park. I bought A’isyah a pair of mitts, and then we got suited up. A’isyah was excited about the visit, since the memory of her previous (and first) visit a few months earlier was still fresh in the mind. She was looking forward to gathering up snow and throwing it around again. We spent a good hour inside, and then came back out to meet up with Nany and have lunch.

The rest of the group had to rush for a visit to old Dubai (the Creek and the old souks), while we took our time with a nice lunch at Chilis. After lunch we walked around for a bit, and then took off for the airport. I returned the rental car, and then we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. After getting our tickets, we went ahead and checked-in, and then processed through immigration and went straight to our departure gate.

When we boarded the plane, we had to re-sort ourselves, since we had gotten three seats in separate locations during check-in. Two seats in the same row, and another a few rows back. So we had to switch around with the rest of the group, and there was quite a bit of confusion as we switched seats around so couples/families could sit together. We finally got three seats together in the middle aisle, and settled in for the return flight. Once again, we all rested all the way through, not even bothering with any in-flight entertainment.

We touched down on time around 6am, and took the ERL (KLIA Express) to KL Sentral. Headed home, got ready for work, and was in the office by 10am. Back to the grind.

Overall, for such a short trip (back) to Dubai, it was alright, though it could have been better. At least, A’isyah had a fun vacation.

Weekend in Dubai – Day 2

Day 1 was mostly about the Annual Dinner. Day 2 was free reign. At least, for me. The rest of the group had a sight-seeing tour around new Dubai, and a desert safari in the afternoon.

So the morning of Day 2, after breakfast in the room (mini-croissants and cupcakes bought the previous day), I sent Nany and A’isyah to the Umm Suquem Spinneys while I headed out to the site office. I had some files on a thumbdrive to pass to someone, but when I got there, there was no one around. The security guards told me that people would only start coming in after 1pm, since there was a dinner the night previous. Odd, I thought.

I went back to pick up Nany and A’isyah, then we headed over to the Dubai Mall. On the way there I received a call from the office. They needed someone to direct the tour group to the site office and give them a tour before lunch. After checking the timing, I agreed to meet up with the group at Souk Madinat Jumeirah around noon. That gave us an hour plus at Dubai Mall.

And that turns out to be more than enough time. Dubai Mall is open, but it’s not quite ready. The first thing you notice when entering from the parking lot (besides all the construction workers around) is the paint smell. Lots of spaces are still under construction, so all the sounds and smells are still there. There are some shops already operating, but I can’t imagine there’s much foot traffic yet.



We only came over to check out the big tank at the centre, to compare with the one at Atlantis that we had seen the previous day. I’m not certain which aquarium is larger, or which one has more fish. It doesn’t really matter. Both aquariums have something to offer the visitor. The one at Atlantis has a unique setting, while the one at Dubai Mall has a larger viewing area. I never went “inside” either area, so I can’t comment on the paid areas, except to note that the aquarium at Dubai Mall is cheaper than the aquarium at Atlantis.


The only other thing worthy of comment at the Dubai Mall is their touch screen navigational aids. After experiencing (read: playing around with) the touch screen map at the Gardens Mall in KL, I can’t help but to compare to the better implemented aid. The touch screen map at the Dubai Mall isn’t good for much more than listing the stores at the mall. Finding your way around on it, and finding the location of the stores is pretty much a hopeless task. Since there’s going to be a lot of stores at the Dubai Mall once it’s fully operational, I hope they improve on that. The other quibble I have is that they don’t have a static map displayed, unlike at the Gardens. So if someone is playing around with the map (which I’ve seen people do at the Gardens), anyone else wanting to find a shop will just have to stand around waiting their turn.

After Dubai Mall, we headed out to Souk Madinat Jumeirah. This ranks (a distant) third amongst the malls we like to visit, after Mall of the Emirates, and Mercato. While waiting for the group to arrive, we went to Seattle’s Best Coffee for a light lunch of sandwiches, cake, and coffee. After that, we collected our car from the parking lot and waited just outside, right before the junction. The group arrived late, and I heard later that they just rushed through the souk to take photos. We were an hour later than the schedule leaving the souk. The bus driver knew the way to the Nad Al Sheba Racecourse, so I only had to show the entrance to our site office from the construction entrance.

Once at the site office, I gave the group a tour of the two office buildings, and gave them a briefing on the project. At the second office, they went off to the canteen for their lunch (nasi lemak, I was told later), while we left. I sent Nany back to the Spinneys where she was going to be picked up by friends for a gathering. Then I headed back to the site office to hand over the files and check in with some old friends. After a while, I went to the HQ for some official business and to check in with yet more friends. And then I went to pick up Nany and A’isyah back from the Spinneys.

We headed back to the hotel, where we cleaned up, and then, together with a colleague, we took off for Global Village. It was my first time driving there, and thankfully we didn’t have too much trouble finding the place. Global Village has changed since last we visited, and it didn’t seem as crowded, although we didn’t go to the amusement park area. Still, the parking lots didn’t seem as full. Maybe it was still early in the season.

We ate (overpriced) briyani, and then walked around, visiting some of the pavilions. Eventually we got tired, so we went back to the car, and waited there for my colleague to finish her shopping. Driving back to the hotel my colleague showed the route their bus driver had taken earlier. It was shorter than my earlier attempts, but we had to go over some rough patches since we cut across on a back lane.

We arrived back at the hotel around midnight, and went straight to sleep.

Dateline vs deadline

I was working on minutes earlier today, and was just reminded of a pet peeve of mine.

I’ve created templates for minutes before, and once, someone used my template but went and changed one of the column headings. Said person thought they were correcting my spelling. Then when I came back to the KL office, I was passed a set of minutes that had the same error. When preparing the very next minutes, I corrected the error, but was queried on it. So I explained the difference, and below I’m sharing that critical explanation.

Dateline is mainly used in the newspaper business.  You’d see it at the top of stories, together with a byline.  The dateline identifies the time and place for a story; the byline identifies the reporter.
Click here for definitions.

Deadline, on the other hand, is the point in time when something is due.  Quite a few people erroneously write “dateline” to connote when something is due, when they actually mean “deadline”.
Click here for definitions.

I suspect I will continue to encounter this. At least next time I have the explanation all ready to be shared.

Dangers of kids' ball pit play areas

Ok, another myth. Received one in the mail this morning. Actually, two copies of the same email. Of course, me being me, I decided to investigate a little.

I'm just going to copy over my whole email response.

Hi All!

Back on the job. This one’s a tough one to handle, so I’ll be as careful as possible.

First off, we should all note that any environment, if not properly managed, is potentially dangerous.

The warning circulated below is an old one, dating from the late 1990’s. However, it’s been given a new lease on life several times over the years, doubtless when someone just encounters the tale, or digs it up to share it with someone after some conversation on safety. It happens. In this case, the Word document was last saved by Colleen & Trevor Bellman, using Microsoft Word 10.0 (that’s old software), on 16 May 2008. This suggests that the alert originates in North America (I know, judgement call there), and is most likely more applicable to that area. Nevertheless, some things apply everywhere, so this still bears investigating.

So here’s the deal on the warning: It’s false. At least, the warnings about the deaths. No verifiable incidents as those described in the warning have ever happened. Follow through to Snopes for more info:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/snakes/ballpit.asp

Another source of info is at BreakTheChain.org, and this one matches the text in the “Alert.doc” forwarded below more closely:
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/ballpit.html

And finally, for an unraveling of the syringe aspect of the story, back to Snopes:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/parental/archer.asp

Synopsis: No evidence of any snake-related deaths or syringe-related deaths from children’s ball pits.

Now, here’s where it gets slightly tricky. All the sources above do concede that ball pits are not the cleanest of areas, with some questionable items occasionally found in them, of the kind mentioned in the “alert”. However, most businesses spot clean the play areas daily, with a more thorough cleaning at least once a week. At least, that should be the policy. So, the smart thing to do would be to check with the management of any place that has these kinds of play areas on their cleaning policy. If you want to be extra careful, ask to see the cleaning log to know when was the last time they cleaned the pit and the individual balls.

I say this to protect the franchise owners, because they also suffer from the spread of these rumours. So, if you are a franchise owner, or know one, maybe you should ensure that the cleaning policy suggested above is implemented, enforced, and transparently reviewable.

In the end though, what this “alert” is really trying to get everyone to do is to be more vigilant about the safety of our children.

Conclusion: Dismiss the reports of deaths; be alert for cleanliness.

Your Internet sleuth,

Already I’ve gotten a response saying, “why take the risk?” Which is a valid response. But it misses the point. The point is, any environment, if not properly managed, is potentially dangerous.

And, yes, I sign off these kinds of emails as the “Internet sleuth”, since I rely on the Internet as my source. That opens up a whole 'nother discussion on reliability of sources, which I'm not going to go into here.

Weekend in Dubai – Day 1

A continuation of my weekend in Dubai updates. Previous post was just the day of departure.

Arrived in Dubai at 3am on Friday. I slept throughout the flight. Didn’t even watch any movies. Luckily, so did A’isyah.

I rented a car since I didn’t want to be tied down to the “official” program. Most of the group hadn’t been to Dubai before, so they had arranged a full program for sight-seeing. Since I’ve already lived in Dubai for almost two years, I wanted to do my own thing.

I was supposed to bunk with some officemates at their apartment, which was a place I had stayed at before. But on the plane, I was informed that the company had re-assigned my living arrangements, so I was to go to the main hotel (Arabian Park Hotel). Of course, I had no idea where this hotel was.

Thankfully, the rental car was delivered to right where the chartered bus was waiting. So when I picked up the car, the rest of the group was boarding the bus. I followed behind the bus to the hotel, which is really out in the middle of nowhere.

Rested for a bit after checking in, and then went down for breakfast around 8am. There was only one other couple from our group down at the restaurant at the time, and they were well into their breakfast already. Now, we had been informed that breakfast was included, but all of a sudden, one of the waiters comes over to their table and asks for a credit card or something for the payment. Vincent’s wife sure was surprised! And since we were sitting one table away, so was I when I overheard this. Turns out that the booking was only for the rooms, and no breakfast included. We told the staff to check the booking again, since we had been informed it was included. They did, and came back with the same info.


I was already halfway through my breakfast, so there was no backing out. So at the end, I said to Vincent that we’ll cover it first and sort it out with Joanne, the admin staff who was supposed to be in charge. So when we were done with breakfast, I asked for the bills for both our tables and charged it to my credit card. It was AED 70.00 a head! Eeks! And not even the best of breakfasts!

Vincent (or his wife, dunno who) managed to get a hold of Joanna in her room after this, and then Joanne calls our room saying that she just found out that morning that when the Dubai office made the bookings, somehow breakfast did not get included. So she said that we were on our own for the first day, and that she would try to sort it out afterwards. Of course, I gave her a piece of my mind about misinformation, and said that I would claim back the charge. She told me to give it a try.

Found out later that the rest of the group encountered the same problem later that morning, but they found out before going in. This put some people off breakfast. (Of course! Who wants to pay AED 70 for breakfast?) But Teik Lee or Chor Wah or someone made some kind of arrangement and most of them ate with the hotel charging the breakfasts to the room. Too late for us though.

After breakfast, Nany, A’isyah, Vincent and his wife, and myself went off to drive around. I decided to go to the Atlantis on the Palm Jumeirah, since that had opened already. So we went there, took a look around and took some pics.

Then we headed to Mall of the Emirates. I left the rest of them there while I went to the mosque nearby (close to the Jumeirah resort), then met up for lunch. After lunch, we headed back to the hotel to rest.

When the rest of the group had come back from their outing for that day, Vincent, Khairina, and myself went to the Jumeirah Beach Resort to check out the venue for the dinner. We wanted to recce the stage and see what we had to work with for our performance.

Coming back to the hotel we got lost. As a matter of fact, it took me several tries before finding a decent route to the hotel. Hehe. I kept taking a long way around. One route had me crossing Garhoud bridge and then re-crossing the Creek at the Business Bay Crossing. Another had me crossing Business Bay, making a u-turn at Festival City, and crossing back.

Terrible, I know. Apparently, the best route is on Oud Metha Road, passing Al Wasl Hospital, and turning at the Emarat gas station, which takes you on a back-road to the hotel.

So, we ended up arriving back at the hotel just before 6pm, and the bus was supposed to leave at 6pm. Not a problem for me, but it would be for the other two. Got ready in half an hour, then went back down. Luckily for the other two, the bus was late and it was still there, or they would have had to squeeze into the car with me.


I must say, the venue was done up nicely, with banners outside. The bagful of door gifts was pretty nice too.

We went back to a buffet dinner, after last year’s (almost unanimously voted) disastrous sit-down ala carte dinner. The food, what little of it I sampled, was alright. Nothing really to shout about, but at least decent.

For entertainment, besides our “Idol” performances (five in total), we had a Malaysian Idol in the house. Jaclyn Victor performed in between our own performances, in what was meant to be the highlight of the evening I’ll bet. I didn’t get to see most of her show, since my group was getting ready for our performance.

And speaking of our performance, we were a little “off”. I mixed up the placement for one of the lines in our haka, and there were a few coordination issues. The worse was the face makeup. Our stage makeup went missing, so we had to get last minute replacements, consisting of liquid foundation and eyeliner pencils. It didn’t really have as big of an impact, and together with the lighting problems, it wasn’t as good as our taped video performance we handed in as part of the audition stage. In the end, we were one of two teams that won consolation prizes. I’m not surprised about the winning team though, after having watched their audition video.

Of course, the lucky draw was something most looked forward to, but this year they only had 30 draws, unlike previous years where everyone won something (if only the smallest gift). The other change was that there were no trips in the prize list this time around.

The official program ended shortly after 11pm, and we headed straight back to the hotel afterwards.

Weekend in Dubai – Day 0

That title sounds a lot more glamorous than it really is. Our company sponsored the KL branch to fly out to Dubai for the Annual Dinner. And this year’s Annual Dinner was also the occasion for the 15th Year Anniversary of the company, so it was to be a grand to-do.

I’m splitting up my entries for the weekend, just to keep each entry short.

Day 0 was the day we left. We flew off on Thursday. By 6pm, practically everyone had left the office, since we had to be at the airport before 9pm. There were still a couple of stragglers, printing off and arranging some drawings on linen to lug over to Dubai for signing.

By 10pm we were checked in, but our seats were scattered throughout, splitting up families. It was a mess we had to sort out on the plane.

We boarded before midnight, and off we went.

The rest of the updates coming up.

Back in KL and the office is empty

Well, we’re back in KL after a weekend in Dubai. We were celebrating the company’s Annual Dinner, and 15th Anniversary. More on that later.

Touched down just after six this morning, and everyone headed home. Some of us didn’t opt to take leave today; we already had to take leave on Friday just to attend the dinner (can you believe the gall of that?) and some of us have run out of leave days. That includes me. Hehe.

So here I am at the office. And it’s mostly empty. No admin staff even. Courier came by at 9.50 this morning, and there was no one to answer the door. So they left the notice hanging on the front door. When I came in about 10 mins later, I found it hanging there.

Slow day in the office then. :-)

Going (semi-) private

I’m taking my blog semi-private. That only means that I’m not going to ping PPS. But I’m not unlisting this blog, or making it private access only. So people can still find me, and those who already visit this blog anonymously (I’m talking to you, person who lives in Klang and works in KL) or not, can continue to do so.

But I’m rediscovering the reason why I started this in the first place. It’s just a place for me to record my musings. Not quite a journal or diary, but some sort of record.

Because someday I will want to share this with someone. And it’ll all be here.

Could we get a fact check please?

Sigh. Another one. Fact check, please!

I received a forwarded email today. One of those that tries to be helpful, by informing you about the latest threat facing single ladies/unwary movie-theatre-goers/what-have-you. Seriously, doesn't anyone check the claims in these emails before forwarding them onwards? I suppose it's too much trouble.

I mean, first you have to employ a little critical thinking to extract key words from the email. Then you have to Google a combination of those key words. After which, you should be able to find a discussion on that topic as one of the top 10 results, leading you to something like this: Coke+Ajinomoto

Go on, try it out! Try searching for "Coke and Ajinomoto". You'll find the text of the email I got (and no, I'm not going to reproduce it here).

Only one difference in the email that I received earlier today. Someone added in a sender:
Hishamuddin Alias (ASP) Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Berat IPK Kuala Lumpur

Now, I don't know if this is someone's idea to lend some weight to the email, or there really was an ASP Hishamuddin who forwarded this email onwards, and people kept his sign-off in subsequent forwards. I sure hope it was someone's idea of adding authenticity to the email, and not really a member of the Malaysian police force who forwarded the email onwards. If it was a member of the Serious Crimes Investigative Department, then I bemoan the (lack of) inquisitive and thorough minds employed there, and fervently hope I never have the misfortune of having to rely on them.

Report on NaNoWriMo 2008

Well, it’s over. And I am (slightly) ashamed to report that, once again, I did not reach the 50,000 word target. Hehe. At least I did better than last year, where I barely scraped past the 10% mark. I know where the problem lies. I still have to “free” myself; I'm too concerned about “getting it right”. Plus, I keep putting it off. I have my days, where the words come flowing, and then I have days where nothing comes to me. I just have to keep pushing myself, I know.

So, I’m setting myself a target before next year’s NaNoWriMo. I’ll at least finish up my two NaNoWriMo projects, before the next one rolls around.

Tired of being me

There are times when I just get tired of being me. Tired of being the way that I am. With the way that I think and feel. It just gets to be too much. Sometimes. I guess this is one of those “sometimes”.

Actually, we can enter “hate” territory now. I hate knowing that I have caused someone-I-used-to-care-for to turn into a hateful person. And there's no doubting that. Either that there's hate in this person's heart. Or that it was my doing.

What's worse is that I feel this. I can actually understand what is going on. I get it. But that doesn't mean that I will make it “right”. Unlike how I have been exhorted to, by countless many. They say it's easy; just make a conscious decision to change your mind, and you will. You just have to want it.

And that's the crux of the matter, isn't it? You have to want it. So what happens if you don't?

This part I get too. I have been branded heartless. Selfish. Short-sighted. Any number of names, none of which are quite what one would consider encouraging. Now, apparently, I'm also defying God. Eternal damnation awaits me, because I'm not afraid enough.

Oh, to be ignorant! Woe is me, to have a mind that ponders these things, instead of just sweeping it all under the proverbial rug.

Can't I truly be heartless? Wouldn't it be easier not to care?

Why must this hurt me?

And last, why am I even sharing this? It's not like I'm going to win converts to my “cause”. Am I seeking understanding? Sympathy?

I'm not sure. I just have this need to share. Because, maybe... maybe someday this will be necessary. Maybe someday this will be worth something.

For now, maybe it's time to scream.

Gordon Freeman to be put in charge of security at LHC

Life imitates art, or, how games have made a huge impact on popular culture/the modern psyche.

Anyone daring to call themselves a gamer knows about Half-Life, arguably one of the most influential games of the modern era. Even if you've never played it (putting you in the minority of gamers), you've heard of it. Even if you're not a gamer, I'd hazard a guess that you've heard of it.

Heck, even the scientists at theLarge Hadron Collider, which is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, have heard of it. Of course, being geeks, it's really no surprise that they have. (Seriously, people: Scientists -> Geeks -> Gamers. We're talking almost totally inclusive sets, although the reciprocal isn't true.)

For evidence of the above phenomenon, take the jump (below) to see the new security training regimen at the LHC, which has scientists practicing with a crowbar. Serious stuff people. Could save the world, and what-not.

Video calls come to GMail

Google has introduced video calling to their chat application - but only in the GMail client. They haven't rolled this out to their GTalk app yet. One wonders if that's in the pipeline.

This lets them join the ranks of the other IM apps that offer video calls. The ones that I've used are YM, MSN, and Skype. For some time now though, YM hasn't offered good connections, although they're still the only option for group vid-chat, afaik. MSN quality is on and off, and Skype is mostly spot on for quality.

If the GMail vid-chat app doesn't support Opera, I'm not going to bother even trying it. If it makes it to the GTalk app, I'll probably give it a try, though the quality on GTalk's voice-chat isn't the best.

Browser share stats

Well, it seems there's controversies over how to properly count browser stats. My earlier post still stands; Chrome is making inroads in the browser market. For more detailed stats, tho, have a search. A good jumping-off point is at Wikipedia's entry for usage share of web browsers. And that's where I'm leaving it.

Chrome makes an appearance

I was just browsing my site stats, and have noticed my first visit from a Chrome user. Said user came over for a short visit just before midnight on 31 Oct 2008, attracted by my mention of NaNoWriMo.

The Chrome browser was just recently released, but already it's made quite an impact on the browser market. Says something about the influence of Google, doesn't it?

BTW, I use StatCounter for site stats, and Opera as my browser. StatCounter is free, and quite detailed. Opera is just cool.

So, anyway, welcome to the game, Chrome! :-)

Election 2008 – and The Age of Holograms!

My sis called me up this morning at around quarter past eight, and told me to switch on the TV and turn it to CNN. I was wondering whether it was a surprise election result. Maybe a swing state went to the Republicans, or maybe a traditional red state went over to the Democrats. But no, she wanted me to check out the hologram they were using! They had one of their correspondents ‘beamed’ over to the studio as a 3-dimensional hologram. I’m not talking get-out-your-3D-glasses kind; I’m talking Princess-Leia’s-message-to-Obi-wan-via-R2D2 kind! Definitely cool.

They used 35 cameras to capture views of the correspondent so they get an all-around view. But I’m more intrigued about the projection system. Still pondering…

Incidently, we’re getting close to an official win for the Democrats.

NaNoWriMo 2008!

So I've decided to participate in this year's NaNoWriMo. Short version: it's a group writing exercise, where every participant attempts to write a 50,000 word "novel" within a 1 month timeframe. I found out about it last year through a friend, and gave it a shot. I barely managed to get to 10% of the target word count. Hehe. Quite miserable, I know. But I've decided to give it another go, to try to write freely, and not be so hung up on constructing everything so "perfectly". Wish me luck! :-)

Service with a smile – in Singapore

We – meaning Malaysians – have a long way to go.

I just came back from a week-long trip down to Singapore, and I have to say, I’m impressed. It’s been absolute ages since I’ve been down there, and I can’t really remember much of my previous visit, so I don’t have much to compare to. With nothing to compare progress to, it still bears noting the level of development they have achieved. The bizarre road-markings aside, downtown Singapore looks like any other developed city should. But it’s not the physical development that I’m most impressed with; it’s the human development.

I’m not sure where they picked it up. Maybe it’s part of their school curriculum, or part of their military service training, or their regular government announcements/indoctrination (seriously, look at all the signs, and even the announcements in the MRT!), but wherever they get it from, they’ve mastered the “service with a smile” attitude. At least, they manage a very decent job of projecting it to all tourists.

From the cab drivers, to the MRT staff, to store clerks, to the guys at the foreign exchange counters, to the hotel staff, everyone seems to put on a welcoming face and provide good, friendly service.

One anecdote I’d like to share was an experience at the lobby restaurant at the Hotel Re! (brand new chic hotel, opened just 6-months ago). We knew the hotel was new, cos even the (very friendly!) cab driver didn’t know about it, and we were curious how new it was. So we asked the wait staff, but he didn’t know. So he went to his supervisor, who then came over to our table, and then shared with us the brief history of the hotel (converted from an old school). That’s what I call friendly and helpful service! (Interesting aside: the wait staff was this young Chinese guy, young enough to be a student, and the supervisor was a not-as-young Malay guy, both speaking good English – no surprise – and interacting like normal in a work environment, which, frankly, you don’t see enough of in similarly multicultural Malaysia.)

Even Dubai can’t match this level of service, which seems to permeate every level of society. I don’t have to be some white-guy staying in 5+ star accommodations to get good, friendly service. Imagine that!

Friends...?

A random thought came to me, and it made me pause.

All of a sudden, I’m wondering about friendship. Specifically, about when the last time I could actually – comfortably – say that I had friends. Not someone else’s friends. Not acquaintances. Not co-workers. My own genuine friends. People who wanted to spend time with me, for me, and actually did. People I could talk to about shared interests.

I’m not ungrateful enough to think I’ve never had friends. Of course I have. I remember the times. But I was much younger then. The “world” was smaller.

And maybe I do now. Yet… I’m hard-pressed to think so. I mean, truly believe that I do.

This random thought reminded me of that quote:

”No man is an island.”

Which led me to think of the movie ”About a Boy” (no, it wasn’t Jon Bon Jovi who said that; it was John Donne). And that made me smile.

So not a pointless random thought after all. At least it didn’t leave me completely depressed.

Sneaky cybersquatting (of sorts)

In my earlier post on Azafia's art, I had mistakenly identified the website of the organizer. I had gotten this, instead of the real Expat website. Kinda sneaky.

Azafia's art

I just got back from Expat Expo 2008, an expo organized by Expat, where Azafia and a few of her friends from GIS were doing some paintings. They worked on it all day, from around 10am til around 6pm, and the artwork is supposed to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to charity.

Not bad. There were 4 collaborative pieces from the GIS students.

Convene the Council so I can get you kicked off the island

In some alternate universe...

DSAI: You have to get the group together. Call a special council.

AAB: Why?

DSAI: Well, I want to call for a vote to kick you off the island, and since you're the only one who can call a Tribal Council, I need you to get the group together.

AAB: Oh.

DSAI: And do it soon.

AAB: Uh... no?

DSAI: This just proves that you're scared to get kicked off the island.

AAB: Sure. Whatever you say. Why don't you just wait for the Tribal Council scheduled in a couple of weeks?

DSAI: No no. It has to happen on my terms. I've already got all the votes I need to get you kicked off the island anyway. It'll just be a formality. So, are you going to call the Tribal Council or not?

I wanna scream!

This is going to be cryptic...

I wanna scream. Scream, scream, scream!

I hate myself for hating my life. Because I know, I have nothing to hate about my life. Not really. Not if I were to be 'rational' about things. I mean, what more can I ask for? What more do I have the right to ask for? What more do I deserve?

Why is it that I'm so selfish? That's what it comes down to, isn't it? That I'm selfish, because I only think about what I want. About what makes me feel good.

Why is it that I can't make sacrifices, for others' sakes?

Why is it that I don't want to change myself?

Why is it that I don't want to adjust to my 'responsibilities'?

Even now, I have to use quotes around that word. I'm trying to distance myself from that word.

Why is it that I can't 'grow up'?

And even that phrase, I put in quotes.

Can I just go and scream now?