Hong Yi, 26 is a Sabahan who’s working as an architect for an Australian company in Shanghai.

On 10th January 2012, she uploaded to youtube a time-lapse video of her painting basketball superstar Yao Ming onto a canvas using only a basketball and red paint.

Then she casually mentioned it on her Facebook page the next day.

After that, the viral power of the internet took over, earning her attention from the likes of Yahoo!, NBC, Huffington Post and Gizmodo.

Apparently first mentioned at Gizmodo on 24th January: that’s when the view numbers really picked up, the site has since generated more than 50,000 views.

3 weeks later, it now has more than 443,000 views, with the following milestones:

01/26/12 First embedded on – tabonito.pt 26,396
01/25/12 First embedded on – cnn.com 13,752
01/25/12 First embedded on – blic.rs 11,739
01/25/12 First embedded on – 10minutesaperdre.fr 7,860
01/24/12 First embedded on – gizmodo.com 37,629
01/24/12 First embedded on – thedailywh.at 12,071
01/11/12 First view from a mobile device 41,564
01/11/12 First embedded on – facebook.com 24,804
01/11/12 First referral from – facebook.com 10,206

Click here to view the embedded video.

She could be the first Sabahan to be a true worldwide internet celebrity.

Source

It’s usually held on the evening of the second day of CNY, which this year fell on the 24th of January.

The announced time was 9.45pm, the actual show started 10 minutes later.

We were very lucky to get a table next to the road where the show was held.

There were 2 unicorns, 3 lions, a “normal-sized” dragon and a giant dragon.

Highlights include Salim tossing roti canai in the air while the 3 lions attempt to catch them with their mouths.

Then Salim and family posing with the giant dragon after putting on it some kind of headgear.

Later, Salim himself took hold of the giant dragon’s head, then ran a few rounds chasing after the “sun”.

The Star revealed that the winner is a retiree in his 70s, who worked out the winning combination by “diligently studying all the numbers that had been drawn before to find out the trend, then creating number combinations to bet on.”

So there’s a tip for you there.

The paper also revealed that another Sabahan won big recently, RM7.1 million in the Toto 4D Jackpot on 15th January 2012.

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20 Jan 2012 – blogged on the evening of 19th, timed to be published 7.16am

The Supreme Toto 6/58 jackpot has finally been won in the 3644/12 draw on 18th January 2012 at an outlet with address: 6, Medan Hujan Rahmat, Taman Overseas Union, 58200 Kuala Lumpur.

The winning combination:

2 12 24 25 32 33

Apparently only one ticket was bought, so he/she has the RM57,180,496 all to him/herself, unless of course if the ticket was shared with others, which it likely was.

This must be the biggest ever lottery payout in Malaysia’s history. The previous record was RM47.97 million back in April 2011.

This must be the perfect Chinese New Year gift for him/her.

[Photo credit: WikiSabah]

[Photo credit: Rooney Biusing]

In looking for a solution, for a while I seriously considered going for those expensive anti bird spikes.

But later on I stumbled upon a very cheap and very effective solution.

The Vinyl Crow costs only RM5 at Daiso.

Just blow some air into it and hang it near your windows. I’ve been using them for months and my windowsills are still spotless. Before that we had to clean them daily.

I call the following letter the 3-in-1 letter because the person to whom it’s addressed resides in Kota Kinabalu, the address mentions “Bangunan MPT” which I think refers to the Town Council Building in Tawau, while the letter itself arrived in Keningau.

At first glance it could be misinterpreted as either Sabah not open to any visitors on that day, or everything’s closed on that day.

Everybody I knew in Sabah called it Ninja Turtle, reportedly due to:

(i) the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then, of which comics and TV series made their debuts in 1984 and 1987 respectively;

(ii) its roundness makes it look like a turtle’s shell, and some say its headlights look like a Ninja Turtle’s eyes.

Even local newspapers started naming these vehicles Ninja Turtles in their reports.

When higher-end later models were announced, for example the Land Cruiser 100 series, which was also identified with other names like Lexus and Cygnus, people simply called them Ninja Kings.

In fact, I’ve heard people calling higher-end variations of other models as simply the model’s name plus “king”, example: Unser King.

More than 20 years later, this practice is alive and well in this part of the world, but it seems that it never caught on in other parts of Malaysia, let alone the rest of the world.

Libya’s 1 dinar banknote, issued in the 1980s, with Muammar Gaddafi on the obverse. Apart from this, the other banknote featuring Gaddafi is the 50 dinar bill. After the 2011 revolution with overthrew him, Libya’s Central Bank Governor is redesigning new banknotes that will likely replace Gaddafi-emblazoned bills. On 20th October 2011, Gaddafi was captured alive, beaten and killed by NLA fighters:

Iraq’s 25 dinar banknote, issued in 1986, with Saddam Hussein on the obverse. Apart from this, there are many other banknotes featuring him. After the deposition of Saddam in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance issued new notes, understandably none of which featured Saddam. He was captured in December 2003, and was hanged on 30th December 2006:

In one of the worst cases of hyperinflation the world has ever seen, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced trillion-denominated notes on 16th January 2009, including the incredible Z$100 trillion banknote. In mid-January 2009, Z$1 trillion was equivalent to USD1. Forbes Magazine reportedly mentioned that by December 2008, inflation was estimated at 6.5 quindecillion novemdecillion percent (65 followed by 107 zeros):

North Korea’s 100 won banknote, issued in 1992, with Kim Il-Sung on the obverse. Apart from this, the other banknote featuring Kim is the 1,000 and 5,000 won bill:

Hungary went through the worst case of hyperinflation in history between the end of 1945 and July 1946. In 1944, the highest denomination was 1,000 pengo. By mid-1946 the highest denomination was 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 pengo. At its worst, prices doubled every 15 hours. In Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, prices doubled every 24 hours. The banknote I have below is that of a 1 billion pengo (10 to the power of 9 pengo), issued in May 1946 and withdrawn a mere 2 months later. This is not the biggest ever Hungarian banknote of that period: that’s the 10 to the power of 20 and 21 b-pengos. I am still looking for reasonably priced banknotes of those:

In no time, the tree’s up, and with the usual things underneath, each kid had to take a vow not to even think about touching them until Christmas Day:

15th December 2011

Gaya Street Christmas Carnival was on for 4 days starting on the 12th of December, brought the family there after on the last day after coming back from an outstation trip.

The life-size nativity scene, complete with soap-bubble-blowing machine:

… and an early encounter with Santa:

Christmas Eve

After the monthly primary grocery shopping, had time to sneak in quite possibly the last Cooper Test run before rushing off to mass at St Thomas Kepayan, but the visit to the crib has to wait another day because everybody’s starving by the end of it.

Christmas Day

Another yearly ritual is to share the Christmas cheer with neighbouring Indonesian workers’ kids:

Afterwards, attended 2 open houses in Tamparuli. Spent some time with my mum.

26th December 2011

Visited 1Borneo, the mall with the perhaps the best Christmas decorations in the state (Fanta-Sea).

27th December 2011

Finally fixed the car aircon (which cost a small fortune) and did some back-to-school shopping.

28th December 2011

The car aircon acted up again (fixed – loose compressor connection), did more back-to-school shopping, attended a wedding reception one hour’s drive away, and still managed to catch a movie with the kids in the evening.

29th December 2011

Attended daughter’s briefing / school equipments distribution in the morning, then rushed off to possibly the last official engagement of the year at Promenade Hotel, an appreciation event cum handing over of duties of a departmental body of which I was the secretary, followed by sumptuous buffet lunch, then in the evening attended a church fundraising dinner.

30th December 2011

In the afternoon, more shopping and entertaining the kids.

In the evening, a wedding reception’s afterparty at a popular nightspot in Tamparuli.

New Year’s Eve

The annual NYE family bash at home.

HERE’S TO A BLESSED CHRISTMAS AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.