Who still sends Hari Raya cards?

I have received one greeting card this year, and that’s a standard issue card that KLCC Property Holdings Bhd provides to all its directors. One such director then gave cards out to all the Muslims at our office.

The last time I gave out cards was 5 or 6 years ago. Actually went out to buy some cards, and then addressed them to a small group of close friends. I actually remember one year getting cards, addressing them, and then forgetting to deliver them! Not all, but some. That was probably the catalyst that got me to join the crowd with SMS greetings instead. They were instant, you could be sure the recipient got them in time, and it was easy to make sure you sent a greeting to everyone. I’ve always found ASCII art captivating, the way simple, repetitive icons can combine to paint a picture. I sometimes re-sent some of the more interesting SMS’ that I received.

The advent of social networking gives us the latest iteration in the evolution of the Hari Raya greeting. You have a few options. You could tweet a greeting to all your followers; or set a new Facebook status message; or for something more flashy, post a picture of a greeting card and tag all your friends. Heck, with this last method you could even segregate your greetings. One picture per group of friends!

I’ll admit that this year, as usual, I don’t have any cards to give out. It’s not that I don’t care; I have a much smaller circle now anyway. But I’m afraid of being thought gauche for sending out SMS greetings, although that would still reach (slightly) more people than an FB status greeting.

I’ll settle for a multi-pronged approach. To those who really matter, you’ll hear it from my lips. To others, you’ll read my words. The thought remains the same. May Allah accept your honest fast. Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

And drive safely on the roads.

Pet peeve: Inconsiderate boors who park on main roads and hamper traffic

That was a long one, but deserving of a long title to describe this bane of road users. You know the type. Those people who only consider their own convenience, other road users be damned! They like to park closest to building entrances, not minding if they take up most of a lane which should be used for moving vehicles, i.e. a traffic lane and not a parking spot. It used to be that the front entrance of Bangsar Shopping Centre was a showcase of such boors. These people would park at the curb, blocking traffic so that those cars crossing the traffic light from the Damansara Heights direction would have to squeeze into one lane. It was a constant menace and no doubt contributed to the long lines crawling up the hill to the intersection in front of BSC.

Well, sometime back, BSC decided to be responsible and put up no parking signs, complete with chains, alongside the curb on Jalan Maarof, to remind motorists that they should not park there. Unfortunately, some people can’t for the life of them imagine why they should be barred from parking there. After all, it’s so convenient to park your car there and pop in to BSC for a bit of shopping or a nice two hour steak lunch, say. Moreover, it’s such a hassle to actually have to go into the underground parking, which is so crowded anyway.

I figure that must be their thought process.


Take this example, spotted just yesterday by yours truly while waiting in traffic on the opposite side. He parks his BMW by the curb, gets out, and starts to make his way into BSC. A security guy comes up to him, obviously indicating that he can’t park there. He doesn’t pay much heed to the security guard. Another security guard joins the first, and the two proceed to remind our motorist that he can’t very well leave his car by the road-side. Our BMW-driver seems upset, and gestures dismissively to the two security guards, turns his back to them, and goes his merry way.

I managed to get a snap of his car too.



Then my light turns green, so I don’t get to see the finale for this little show. Somehow I suspect it was a muted denouement. After all, what could the management of BSC do? Call for the car to be towed away? Perish the thought!

Ending self-imposed exile

It’s been close to a year since I took my blog private, by stopping to ping PPS. Since then, I’ve ceased to utilize PPS altogether. I even checked out other blog aggregators to continue finding interesting posts to read. Now that I’ve decided to come out of the woodwork again (so to speak), I signed up at blogged.my and will start pinging there. It seems to be a fair bit easier to ping there than PPS used to be, although it would be much easier if I were using Wordpress.

So why am I ending my self-imposed exile now? Probably for the same reasons I started pinging PPS: just to share my voice.

Hello, world. Again. :-)

Massively multiplayer...Monopoly!

Eh?

I just found out that Hasbro has been working on a massively multiplayer online game version of Monopoly. And here’s the cool bit: it’s based off Google Maps, so you’re dealing with real streets in real cities, all over the world! And for additional oomph there will be SketchUp buildings that can be used in the “game”.

The game is called Monopoly City Streets, and there’s a blog at Blogger here. It’s unclear whether this is an official collaboration with Google, or Hasbro is just utilizing all Google tools for this game.

At the moment, this game will run for four months only, ending in January 2010. This promises to be fun!

When you’re driving, pay attention to those traffic lights

This is a timely public service announcement. As the Malaysians Unite For Road Safety Day approaches (090909), I’d like to share a tip: no matter what, always pay attention to the traffic lights. It seems simple enough, but not enough people obey them.

And then there’s the case of two traffic lights in succession on a stretch of road, too close to each other. That can lead to the situation I found myself in last weekend. On the way back from a Ramadan bazaar in Bangsar, I stopped at a red light at the corner of Jalan Maarof and Jalan Bangkung. I was there a couple of seconds before I noticed a car approaching in my rear-view mirror. It was moving far too fast, and I thought it was your typical Malaysian driver who would stop dramatically right behind the car in front of them. He was coming too fast though, so I pressed down on the car horn, but it was too late. He rammed into me.



No one in our car was hurt, even though it was quite a knock. When I got out of the car, the young driver also came out, looking quite sheepish. I’ll admit I was babbling at him, admonishing him for not noticing the red light, and then switching to asking if everyone in his car was alright. We pulled over to the side road to talk through things.

His car:



Our car, from the rear:



And from the side:



As you can see, it wasn’t so bad. The bumper dropped, and the rear door was jammed shut.

Of course, the front of his car was totaled:



This is what happens when you don’t pay attention to the road. If I had been in the outside lane, I may have moved to the side. But I can’t be certain, because it all happened just too fast to react.

I noticed in that second before the impact that he wasn’t looking in front. His face was turned and he was chatting with his girlfriend in the front passenger seat. Since the traffic light just before had been green, he must have assumed the next one would be green too. It could have been worse though. I'm not sure if everyone in his car was wearing seatbelts, because I noticed a crack in his windsheild. His girlfriend may have knocked her head there, but there was no obvious injury. The girl in the back though (his sister?) had her kneed jammed into the back of the driver’s seat, and said it hurt. I advised them to get everything checked out.

Good thing we bought food at the bazaar. We got back home in time to break fast, although rice had to be cooked at the last minute. As for them – well, I noticed there was a lot of spilled McDonald’s food in the car which they had to dump. And I’m not sure they made it home in time, because when we parted it was already almost 7pm. On the phone, I don’t think he shared with his dad just how bad the damage was, since his dad told him to drive the car home...

52nd Merdeka

Malaysia will be celebrating its 52nd year of independence on 31 August 2009. That’s 52 years of self-rule, free of the colonial overlords.

I have to stop and think about that for a moment. As someone born, if not in, at least as a citizen of, an already free nation, I take that freedom for granted. We are the masters of our own fate, but who exactly is this “we”? Who are the ones in charge now? Who do we look to for leadership? Where do we get our direction from?

More importantly, who is responsible? We have to stop thinking “someone else”, and start accepting “us” as the answer. What do we want the country to look like? We need to decide, and we need to speak up, and we need to act. We shouldn’t take things for granted. And we need to remember that “we” includes many peoples from many backgrounds. The challenge is taking these differences, allowing for these differences, while still forging ahead as one.

Here’s hoping that we can all be reasonable, be responsible, and move together as one.

1 Ramadhan, 1430H

That’s tomorrow’s date in the hijri calendar, and it marks the start of the fasting month for Muslims. Now since the hijri calendar is (sorta) a lunar calendar, and the start of Ramadhan coincides with the observation of the new moon, the fasting month begins on different days depending on which country you’re in. Some have actually started today, and some won’t start til Sunday.

Ramadhan is the holiest month in the Muslim calendar, promising rewards for the devout Muslim. I won’t go into all that, as I’m hardly the best tutor for the subject. Here in Malaysia, though, Ramadhan also coincides with the most amazing culinary delights of the year. It’s not uncommon for people to feel that you get the best foods during this time of year. From the street bazaars offering the (seemingly) unique Ramadhan and Aidilfitri fare, to the buka puasa buffets in all the top restaurants and hotels, all the best foods Malaysia has to offer make their appearance during this month. Seriously, when else are you going to find lemang in the streets? And that’s just one example.

I definitely go to the pasar Ramadhan whenever I can, to stock up on foods for the breaking of fast, or for sahur the next morning. As for the buffet treats, I haven’t tried many of them. Not that that’s necessarily because I’m at the mosque performing tarawih. Sometimes it’s just too much bother. You definitely have to book for those buka puasa dinners, cos the seats go quickly. And finding a surau for maghrib prayers can sometimes be troublesome.

That’s ok though. I figure I’m not really missing out. I shouldn’t be gorging myself on delicious foods for an hour after a full day of fasting anyway. It’s not healthy. Everything in moderation.

Here we go then. One month – 30 days – of testing your discipline, reflecting on your worthiness, appreciating all that you have, and enriching yourself.

Ramadhan Kareem! Selamat berpuasa!

I read, I write

And I share too! :-) I just started a new blog here, where I'll be sharing some of my writings.

Praise for District 9

I watched District 9 over the weekend. For an opening weekend, it didn’t seem well-anticipated. It was even playing in one of the smaller halls at GSC 1 Utama. I’m not sure if the Malaysian public had much awareness about this movie because of the low level of promotion, but I know buzz will grow through word of mouth.

To describe District 9 simply is to call it both Believable and Brilliant. A lot of people will classify this movie as a “sci-fi” movie, but I’d like to qualify that by adding “serious” as a prefix to that descriptor. Special effects are necessary for this movie, but they play a role in allowing the telling of the story, instead of being the focus for the movie. This is the first Star Wars trilogy, not the second (prequel) trilogy, if you get my meaning.

The story of District 9 is original and intriguing. Imagine if an alien ship arrived on Earth, and came to a stop hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. Now imagine a million aliens on that ship, leaderless, directionless, and suffering like boat-people washed ashore on foreign lands. How would our Governments react?

Fast forward twenty years, and the aliens are now living in a slum outside Johannesburg named – you guessed it! – District 9. There are some blanks to be filled in, and it all makes a sickening kind of sense. You can believe it happening.

Which brings me to my first word to describe the movie: Believable. The movie is presented as a mix of documentary-style footage, complete with interviews of key persons and specialists, and standard-fare footage. So viewers approach District both as a movie, and as a faux documentary. It’s done very well, with smooth edits, and everything is believable. You can see yourself watching a documentary about the aliens that came to Earth, and the controversies that followed. The acting is all of the best standards, including first-time lead actor Sharlto Copley.

This leads to my second word to describe the movie: Brilliant. This truly is a brilliant film, with an original storyline, realistic characters and amazing portrayals, both real and imagined. And lest I forget, the special effects were amazing. The alien tech is on par with the best sci-fi fare out there, and the creature effects were eerily realistic.

Like any good serious sci-fi story, District 9 holds up a mirror to our own nature and forces us to examine our mores, our beliefs, our society. It is easy to feel discouraged by the depravity and shallowness depicted in District 9. And yet, in the end, we are – thankfully – redeemed. Love survives the most horrible circumstances. Respect transcends all boundaries.

I have the greatest respect for this film, and its makers. And though there could be a sequel – District 10 – I hope they don’t make it. I hope they don’t twist this story around.

Tagging photos

Back in the day, before digital cameras, most people would whip out cameras only at special events or while on holiday. That made it easy to remember when and why pictures were taken, since you usually got them in batches of about 30 prints.

And then came the digital camera, which ushered in a whole new culture of photography. With instant results, and no need for expensive developing unless you wanted to, there was no “wastage” factor to consider when snapping a photo. There wasn’t any film to “save” for those special moments. Any moment could be a special moment.

In the beginning, of course, the one thing you were limited by was memory space. But with the ability to instantly review your photo, you could keep on snapping and delete those pictures that didn’t turn out well, ensuring that you had enough memory for the next picture. Now even that limitation is gone, with huge memory cards filling our digital cameras.

Has that led to a deterioration of standards? Maybe.

Has that opened the door to tons of photos you can’t even place any more? Probably.

Take the following picture, taken three years ago. A’isyah’s having fun. I have no idea where we are. Hehe. Just perfect.



I guess I should start tagging my photos.

Time to migrate my Friendster info

When I joined Friendster on a friend’s invite, I thought it would be a neat way to reconnect with old friends. I shared lots of personal info there in my profile info, such as all the schools I’ve been to over the years. I even shared lists of my favourite music, movies, and books. All these items are actually searchable within Friendster, allowing people to search for others who filled in the same information in their profiles. It promises one the ability to connect with others who went to the same schools as you, and who have the same interests as you.

Unfortunately for me, that promise was never fulfilled. Maybe I wasn’t active enough in Friendster. Whatever the case, when an old high school friend sent me an invite to join Facebook in 2007, I was pleasantly surprised that he managed to locate my contact after all those years. And when I joined Facebook, the most amazing thing happened. What I had been hoping for from Friendster, happened on Facebook!

Ever since then, I’ve been using Facebook and have neglected my Friendster account. And I’m not the only one. I even know someone who deleted their Friendster account to focus exclusively on Facebook.

I now value Facebook as a means to keep up-to-date with the goings on of far-flung family and friends. And it helps to maintain a (tenuous, at best) connection with all those people.

So now I’ve decided I might as well bring over all that personal info from Friendster into Facebook. I shared it before, so why not again?

A’isyah’s first experience with snow

Don’t you just love the joy of new discovery, best seen in a child’s first experience with something enjoyable? It was a year ago today that A’isyah first experienced snow.


I was browsing through my old photo archives and found that I have pictures taken exactly one year ago today, on 31 July 2008. It was on an outing to Mall of the Emirates, and we had decided to (finally!) enter Ski Dubai, the indoor snow park and ski slope. It took a while to get suited up, mainly because A’isyah refused to put on her helmet. I wasn’t about to let it slide, so we struggled to get her to put it on. Once inside though, she was quickly mesmerized by the sight of the white snow. She was too skitterish to try tobogganing and was just content to walk around, but she was fascinated by all the activity.

Four months later, on a return visit to Dubai, we went to Ski Dubai again. This second time A’isyah was more active, trying to throw snowballs and just playing around with the snow.



I can’t say I remember my first experience with snow, since I was a baby at the time, but the first time that I do remember was my family’s first winter in Sweden. I remember after the first snowfall my sis and I tried our hands at making a snowman out near the porch. It was a dismal failure. I think we managed something a few inches tall, because we underestimated the effort required to make one of those things. That, and the snow probably wasn’t right for making snowmen.

A’isyah had her snow experience at a pretty young age, but I have a feeling she’ll remember it. And it’s not just because of the pictures I think. Just a few weeks ago, she said to me that she wants to go to Mall of the Emirates, to play with snow. I told her that it’s very far away, and we can’t go there now. To which she responded with that favourite of kids everywhere: “Why?”

Maybe one day.

Tips from The Happiness Project for turning around a Bad Day

My last post was about a bad good day, so I guess it’s appropriate that the follow-up post is about a good bad day. Everyone has bad days. Maybe you had an argument with someone and that fouled your mood for the rest of the day. Maybe something didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to. A lot of times you can’t change the outcome of those events, no matter what you try.

What you can change, however, is how you let those events affect you.

Today I read a post at The Happiness Project blog about a good bad day. The author presents a total of nine tips to deal with bad days and how to turn them around to be good bad days. It’s all about how to make sure that the bad day doesn’t get you down too much.

Two tips that stand out for me are: “do something nice for someone else” and “act the way (you) want to feel”. I really do believe that kindness is its own reward. Don’t do good expecting to be rewarded for it, or even recognized for it. That’s when you get the real reward: feeling good. And when you act happy, smile, mix with other people, share light-hearted moments with others, you’ll start to feel happy. It just rubs off on you.

Go here to read the full list of 9 tips. I’d also recommend following the blog, cos it’s a fountain of good advice to manage happiness.

Here’s to happiness! May we all have more of it.

A bad good day

What the heck is a bad good day, you ask? Look at it this way: your experience of a day depends on your expectations for that day. So your assessment of whether it was a good day or a bad day depends on how the events of the day meet your expectations. Two persons experiencing the same events on the same day will very likely have different reactions to those events, and hence judge the day as good or bad depending on their point of view.

That’s the first part. Then there’s also the fact that two persons could have wildly different experiences on the same day, so their memory of that day depends on their own personal experience. That’s all too common. Just because you had a good day, doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t have had a bad day. That only makes sense. But sometimes we forget that.

Sometimes, we’re thrilled about our day, and overlook that our friend may have just had a bad day. So maybe we become insensitive. And what if we were in their shoes? What if we had a bad day, and our friend had a great day, and they’re sharing their joy with us? Would we want them to stuff it? Would we resent them their good day? A good friend shouldn’t dampen their friend’s happiness, even if they can’t share in it.

So what if we’re sensitive to the other party’s feelings? What if we know that our friend had a bad day? Maybe we feel bad about having a good day. Maybe we feel a little guilt at being happy.

And maybe we can’t bring ourselves to being happy.

That is a bad good day.

The King of Pop has passed on

Just over two hours ago, Michael Jackson passed away apparently due to cardiac arrest. Heard it on CNN this morning as I was leaving the house, and Mix FM carried the news too. It’s gonna be tribute weekend, for sure.

So many memories linked to him and his music. Set aside the controversies surrounding him for a moment, and you’ll remember he was a good performer.

He practically pioneered the music video as mini-movie. The release of his Thriller video was an event of note. I even remember when the Bad music video was released.

He may have belonged to a particular era, especially when he couldn’t stage any meaningful comeback in the past decade. But his music will live on.

A’isyah’s first assessment

Two weeks ago Nany and I met up with A’isyah’s teacher, after receiving her first report card. I had been pleased with the report card, even though Nany was hoping for better performance from A’isyah. I still am pleased with her results. However, there’s more to your child’s progress than just their report card.

And that’s where the discussion with A’isyah’s teacher came in. Turns out that A’isyah’s a bit of a handful at school. Hehe. She can be rebellious, or stubborn, about doing as the teacher asks. She will sometimes come up with excuses for not responding to the teacher’s queries, or talks in class. She does like to talk, and seems to enjoy talking to her friends, even during lesson time. It doesn’t help that half the class will back her up and entertain her. Guess she’s the friendly type.

But this may become a problem. We don’t want her monopolizing the teacher’s time, and neither do we want A’isyah to be a distraction to the other students. We explained to her teacher that we don’t mind her being firm with A’isyah. We also explained that A’isyah has a tendency to not try something until she’s comfortable that she’ll succeed at it. She’s always been that way. Even when she started walking, she didn’t spend too much time practicing, falling down and so on. She waited until she was confident in herself, then got up and starting walking from one piece of furniture to another. Soon she was walking without aid.

So, yeah, A’isyah will wait until she knows that she can do something before trying to do it. And she is a willful little girl. Hehe. I just hope she turns around. We’re doing what we can at home, and I hope that she gets more positive examples from school as well.

Yeah, right, Bill Gates is gonna donate (part of) his fortune to me

Did you not know? You haven’t had any friends spread the wealth around to you? You mean, you haven’t gotten this email yet:

Dear Friends,

Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune. If you ignore this you will repent later. [You won’t just regret it; you’ll repent for your sin of not grabbing a share of that huge pie!] Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test. [Must be that damn Firefox competition that’s gotten Microsoft so scared. Kinda odd though, since Microsoft is a software company. What the heck is an “Internet” company anyway? Oh well. Nice of AOL to extend this e-mail beta test (e-mail’s still in beta?) to those outside the US.]

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period. [Good thing I’m not gonna forward this email from my Mac or Linux box. Hmm… do the Gmail servers run on Linux?]

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you send it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. Within 2 weeks!, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a cheque.

Wow. Serious? I’m surprised Bill Gates isn’t bankrupt yet. It’s not that USD 245.00 per person you forward to, or even the USD 243.00 for each of those persons who also forwards it on. It’s the USD 241.00 that you’ll get for every third person who receives it that’s really gonna start putting a strain on his massive fortune.

Sigh.

So I got the above e-mail, and did the only responsible thing. I replied with this:

Wow. This is still going around?

<text from previous email on something similar>

Dear All,

Please don’t take this the wrong way, I’m just trying to share some knowledge.

The message that was recently forwarded to you is an email hoax (try a Google search on “email hoaxes”). To make it a little simpler for you, check out the following two links:

Snopes entry on Microsoft and AOL email hoax

Entry at Truthorfiction.com

I’ve seen a version of this hoax before (and lots of other kinds too), so I know what to look out for. Besides, I also know enough about how the Internet works. Key feature: it’s decentralized. There is no central tracking system for email, so there’s no way for a private enterprise (even Microsoft) to track who you forward email to. It’s especially difficult to try to track forwarding of one specific email.

(Nod to victims of hackers/trojans/keyloggers/etc: Ok, so yes, the above is possible, but only if your PC has already been infected.)
(Nod to conspiracy theorists: Yes, of course the NSA has their supersecret supercomputers tracking all global communications, but no, it’s not being commissioned by Bill Gates for philanthropy. ;-) )
(Nod to MS bungling: Yes, Microsoft did once issue an automated update for their XP OS that secretly contact their servers with information on your machine, specifically your OS. They were doing that to check piracy. However, this was quickly found out by the security companies (heck, anyone with a decent firewall would have noticed it), and that update was retracted. No one wants their computer to secretly contact anyone, even the supplier of their OS. But that would be one way to track your emails...)

So, sorry, but you won’t be getting any nice big cheques from Bill Gates anytime soon.

</end text>

I’ll admit, this is the first time I’ve encountered this with testimonials in BM. It’s still false. It doesn’t work. It cannot work.

Interestingly, notice how the m.o. seems to change? They’re supposed to contact you for your address and then send you a cheque. And yet, some people mysteriously receive cheques from goodness-knows-where, and some have direct deposits to their bank accounts. Strange, and somewhat alarming…

Btw, to those who think, “what’s the harm in trying?”, forwarding junk emails actually has an impact. Bandwidth still isn’t free, even if it is “unlimited”. As always, there’s a cost involved.

So why am I replying to everyone? Because I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, people will learn to use readily available resources and educate themselves about this sort of thing. After all, a little bit of knowledge doesn’t hurt you, right?


Cheers!


Your Internet sleuth,

So there you have it. Hopes dashed. No cheque for thousands of dollars on your way. Please stop sharing Bill Gates’ wealth with me. Thank you very much.

Extra scenes in Terminator 2

A couple of nights ago I (re-)watched Terminator 2: Judgement Day with Azafia. It was part of her preparations to watch Terminator: Salvation, the fourth movie in the franchise. We’d caught the first movie on Astro a few nights previous, and since she had never watched the previous Terminator movies, except for parts of the third, she decided to watch the whole set in order. I had told her that it wasn’t really necessary for you to enjoy the latest Terminator movie, which I had just seen at the cinema. Still, having watched the previous movies gives you additional insights into the background story, and allowed you to catch all the references that have made their way into the pop-culture. Who doesn’t remember the phrase, “I’ll be back”, which is uttered in each of the Terminator movies?

Anyway, while watching Terminator 2, I noticed several scenes that I could not recall from my previous screenings of the movie. And I know that movie quite well, since it was one of the few movies we had on laserdisc back in the day. Now I guess this is a decade late, but I’ve just found out about it, so it’s new to me. Hehe. Turns out there was a Special Edition, with some additional scenes. I found synopses of the additional scenes, culled from a Terminator FAQ here.

The scenes added to characterization as well as story, and I finally know what Miles Dyson was holding over the detonator!

Feeling so alone

Sometimes all you need is someone to listen to you, and sympathize. Or at least, simulate sympathy. Sometimes, that’s not to be found. Because sometimes, you need to act. And that’s where I’m not performing. It still doesn’t do anything about feelings of loneliness. Of being pushed back into a corner. I swear I’m gonna crack one of these days.

A’isyah’s first report card

Another milestone! :-)

A’isyah received her first ever report card yesterday, from her pre-school, Tadika Al-Hidayah. The report comes in a nice big blue booklet, with sections covering topics such as Social Development, Islamic Personality, Art & Craft, Writing, and others. Some topics aren’t applicable for A’isyah, so they’re not filled in. The school marks the students’ performance in basic “units”, such as cooperation,, use of art materials, participation in physical activities, recognizing numbers, and so on. The grading scale goes from 1 to 4, being Very Good, Good, Average, and Needs Improvement.

<proud parent mode: on>

A’isyah’s overall performance was Good, with only a few areas marked Average. Her teacher’s comment was:

“Alhamdulillah she is an intelligent and confident girl. She enjoys learning and is good at maths.”

<proud parent mode: off>

Hehe. I’m not really that kiasu, but this is a good result in my books.

Tomorrow is the meeting with her teacher to discuss the report and A’isyah’s progress. That would make it my first parent-teacher meeting.

Idol 8: We have a winner!

Rousing opening number with the top 13? Check.
Plugging good social causes? Check.
Mock awards ceremony? Check.
Performances from popular artists and Idol also-rans? Check.
Big, surprise result? Check!

Wait, what?

Yes, to practically everyone’s surprise, it was a come-from-behind win for Kris. I can say with confidence that the judges must have been surprised when they found out, since they’d practically crowned Adam last week. Simon’s even made predictions about Adam weeks previous to that, culminating in last night’s pronouncement that the purpose of a show like American Idol was to discover talent like Adam.

Which begs the question: did Kris deserve the win? Was it just a case of underdog votes, and complacency on the side of Adam’s fans? Did the majority of Danny’s fans move over to Kris? Maybe America just didn’t like the “screaming”? Was there a (gasp!) homophobia element to the voting?

Just shy of 100 million votes for the final show. Let’s take a moment to absorb that number shall we? [Waits a moment.] Ok, moving on.

I think most people agree that Kris represented the dark-horse of the top three, and then the final two. There’s no denying Adam’s vocal skill, and he is quite a performer. The judges summarized it nicely last night though. Kris has grown tremendously over the period of the competition, and has revealed a confident ability to put an original spin to different types of songs. And throughout, he hasn’t strayed far from his soft-rock vocal sound. His popularity has been steadily increasing, coming from behind and quietly overtaking other popular choices.

Yes, he deserved the win. Congratulations to Kris Allen on winning the eighth season of American Idol!

And before we say good night, how ’bout some highlights from the finale (all with a grin – just different kinds): encore performance from Norman Gentle; Black Eyed Peas!; the new and “improved” Bikini Girl; Kara’s wardrobe malfunction; Danny Gokey and Lionel Ritchie!; the masterful stylings of Carlos Santana; Kris’ surprise and humility.

Ok. It was a good show. Good night! :-)

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.