Anything Goes!

When The Cat's Away, The Mice Will Play ...

2009-07-16T22:39:00.000+08:00

Where has the time gone? I've been so busy with work, which is a good thing really, that means there's more money coming in, that I didn't realize its been almost a week that I last wrote a post. Geez, I gotta start getting back into the groove of posting daily or at least a little more consistently otherwise I'm going to lose all my readers. You all won't abandon me now would you? LOL!

Anyways, nothing really much has been happening around these parts except that I've been up to my neck with office work. The worst part is I haven't even completed half of it and more keeps coming. This must be payback for the day off I took last two weeks ago. Remind me never to take holidays again.

Speaking of holidays and all that, my boss has gone overseas for a short break himself and left me in charge of the office. Not that there is anything much for me to be responsible for seeing as how the adage 'when the cat's away, the mice will play' seems pretty apt for me right now cos everyone just decided not to come in to work today seeing as how the boss isn't around! Damn them all to hell.

Because of that I'm left with having to do all their blooming work on top of my own. There's going to be some big time hell to pay when I see them next week! So utterly irresponsible of them. But at least my boss left me with this cute little assistant. She just loves running around all over me and longingly sits and stares at me while I work. And the best part is even wifey likes this cute little new assistant of mine :D Check out my other blog for pictures of this pretty gal :D

That aside, I've got a lot of catching to do on your blogs. I just checked my Google reader and almost fainted at the amount of new postings from you guys that I haven't read yet. It's going to take me all night and at least the better half of the morning catching up but catch up I will.

Before I start blog hopping, I must add this little bit of not very good news that I read about today. The government has decided to increase the fares for public transport over here. Well, fine and dandy, if the transport service here was decent to begin with. With the kinds of service they provide, I wonder what justification those 'learned' ministers in our government based their decision on?

In the first place, the people who rely on public transport are people who don't have their own transportation and the elderly and how is this going to affect them financially? I'm thankful that I don't have to rely on our public transportation which is next to useless!

And the Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Abd Aziz said public transport companies were also expected to improve the level of their service in line with the raise in fares. Is that so? You think they will, ah? What makes you think that just because you've given them the option to increase their prices that will in turn make them improve their service? If you believe that Datuk Seri, I have a bridge in Uganda I'd like to sell to you.

Oh well, I suppose I shouldn't be so darned skeptical and maybe give these public transportation guys a chance to prove themselves first right? But then, I've seen and heard this crap so many times I'm so confident that we'll still get the same old crappy public transport service but with an increase in price. Now, you tell me who really benefits from all this? It's definitely not the public.

Ok there, I've got that off my chest, now I can go visit your blogs with a clear mind :D
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Take Two

2009-07-10T23:08:00.004+08:00

Gee, these days my posting frequency are getting too few and very far in between. Gone are the days when I wrote a post practically everyday! Work has been keeping me pretty busy and just finding the time to get online and write something is already an effort. Even finding the time to get to catch up with your blogs is getting to be so darned difficult.

I'm just glad it's Friday cos I really need the break. I've been working my butt off all week and the weekend is much welcomed. Now that I have the time to blog I'm just too drained to sit here for too long to write one of my infamous long winded posts so I'll just do two short takes. I can hear you guys breathing a huge sigh of relief ... LOL!

Take One

On the 26th of June, I wrote a post about the passing of Michael Jackson, well, the whole world practically wrote a post about him. And I received a comment from someone called Anonymous. It went like this.

Anonymous said...

I like how you discolored the MJ pics so as to lessen his horrific self-bleaching of the past 20 years.

You wouldn't have left your kids alone with this freakazoid in a thousand years, and you know it.

Give me a break.

Now, I'm all for constructive criticism and I gladly accept when people are bluntly honest with me. Now I wouldn't trust my kids with anyone let alone Michael Jackson but I did that post to honour the man's huge and undisputed talent, not his personal life. His personal life no matter how weird it was is his business.

We all have our quirkiness and failings, lets not argue about that but unfortunately we're nowhere near being as talented as MJ was in his particular industry and naturally when one is popular, every bit of your failings is amplified a hundred fold.

While I don't even have an issue with this, Mister or Miss Anonymous, you could at least have the guts (a more vulgar word came to mind but this is a family blog anyway) to put your real name instead of hiding behind a screen of anonymity.

If you're going to be sarcastic, criticize or leave biting comments like that, then be a man or even a woman and have the decency to leave your real name. If not, don't even bother leaving a comment.

I take issue with this cos I'm a huge fan of Michael Jackson and no matter what his failings and weaknesses were, we cannot deny the impact he made on the music industry and what a legend the man was, music wise! And no, Anonymous, I didn't discolor the pix to hide his horrific self-bleaching as you put it, I did it to give it a feel of nostalgia.

Take Two

On the 28th of February, I wrote about the how teachers in this country were complaining of 'going mad' as they cannot handle teaching Mathematics and Science in English. It was a huge issue and many quarters were calling for the teaching of Math and Science to be abolished and reverted back to out national language.

But there were also many quarters who argued that by doing that we would be taking our education system ten steps back in the wrong direction and the future geniuses we produce wouldn't be able to compete out there internationally, especially in the fields of Science seeing as how all scientific jargon and terminology is in English to begin with. I was one of them.

The government created all kinds of committees to look into this problem, which to me was pretty obvious what the answer was and deliberated for months on end. Then a couple of days ago, they made a decision that they're going to revert the teachings of Math and Science back to our national language.

I was appalled. I'm not even going to bother with the stupid reasons they came up with to base their decisions on but all I can say is I fear for the fate of the future generations of this country which would include my children.

Why oh why can't we vote for our own Prime Minister like what the REAL democratic countries do instead of having him forced down our throats. Maybe then we could get some much more intelligent people running this country instead of 'geniuses' like these ... siggghhh ...
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A Mini Getaway ...

2009-07-06T20:13:00.006+08:00

I've been away from my blog for quite sometime. The last post I had was way back on the 29th of June which is like an eternity for someone like me. It's not because I don't want to post or don't have any ideas about what to post. I do have loads of things running around in this crazy mind of mine but I just don't have the time. A lot of things are happening at the same time and trying to squeeze in a round of blogging is getting more difficult these days.

Anyways, all is well in this here parts. I even managed to go for a mini vacation with wifey and the family. My best buddy, Adrian who by the way started blogging again called me last week and invited me along for a short beach vacation. Although it was a really short notice, more like 2 days I simply couldn't pass up the offer.

We went to Port Dickson, a popular seaside town about an hour's drive or so from our place. We spent the night at this cool apartment called Sri Pena. We would have preferred a longer stay but unfortunately the place was booked solid the next day and seeing as how the trip was planned in such a short time, other places of accommodation simply could not be arranged.

I haven't been to Port Dickson in ages though I used to live in this lovely laidback seaside town a very long time ago. The place has changed so much that I hardly recognized it anymore. I couldn't even locate the place I used to live. I'm not even sure if it exists anymore. It sure would be nice to visit the old house again.

I must say I enjoyed myself to the max, of course having my best buddy, his wife and daughter along with wifey and the boys made doubly sure it was fun, fun, fun and more fun :D Most of the day was spent lounging around in the pool. The best part was we had the place practically to ourselves cos we went before the weekend peak time. There was only about one or two other families in the entire apartment complex which made it fine by us.

The only thing I have to complain about is the old body not being able to take the strain of all the fun. By the time we reached home the next day, I was aching all over from all the time we spent swimming in the pool. Well, I can't swim so it was more like floating around in the pool all day pretending to swim ... LOL!

Before going I was boasting to wifey that I was going to stay up all night long and chit chat with my good buddy but by the time the clock struck midnight I was almost dead tired and eventually gave up the fight and went to bed. Sorry buddy, I know you wanted to stay up longer, but age has caught up with me.

But overall, I had a blast that I can't wait for our next holiday together. There is nothing like going for a holiday with the family and your best friend's family cos you know you'll be assured of a great time. And a great time it was indeed. Though I do need another holiday right now just to recover from the recent one ... LOL!

Here are some pictures of the recent trip. Nothing great, too lazy and too busy to really edit it at all, so just enjoy the raw format ... hehehe ...

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The Chicken Run ...

2009-06-29T13:10:00.000+08:00

Today is a Monday and for once I'm pretty happy. No, I didn't win the lottery though I wish I did. That would make my Monday even more awesome. But alas, when it comes to winning things, I'm the most unluckiest person in the world. Even trying to win a packet of chips is way beyond me ... LOL!

For some of you, especially the long time readers of this blog know that I've had loads of issues with the Hartz Chicken all-you-can-eat restaurant. I used to love frequenting that place and being a chicken lover, what else could be more appealing and exciting than an all-you-can eat chicken diner, right?

Well, both wifey and and me had some pretty nasty encounters with the staff there at two of their outlets on more than 3 occasions, twice in Summit and the other in Sunway Pyramid. And both of those occasions left a bitter taste in my mouth. Enough was enough and suffice to say, we decided to give that place a permanent miss. Even sending a complaint email to their management bore no response with them not even having the courtesy to reply or acknowledge my email.

Well anyway, this weekend I was wondering around Summit with wifey and discovered that they had closed down. Both wifey and me hooted for joy at the empty site that was formerly Hartz Chicken restaurant ... LOL! That's what you get when you employ staff who just don't practice good customer service. As much as I enjoyed dining at that place, I'm glad that they've closed down.

It goes to show that when you employ people with no tack or commitment whatsoever you tend to drive away genuine customers from visiting your establishment and without the support of your customers, you're bound to suffer in the long run! As much as I'll miss that all-you-can-eat chicken joint, I'm bloody ecstatic that it has closed it's doors. Now to pray for the closure of the Sunway outlet too ... hahaha!
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The Man In The Mirror

2009-06-26T09:29:00.006+08:00

Today is Friday which is normally a day I would rejoice seeing as how I live for weekends but not this Friday though. I woke up this morning to the sad news of Michael Jackson's death.

The moment I got out of bed, wifey looked at me with this sad face and said,

'Sayang, Michael Jackson died la!'

To say I was shocked is putting it mildly. I rushed over to the PC and read the news she was pointing out to me, I was in a daze for a while. I grew up to the tunes of the man.

I danced to his music and spent countless hours perfecting his moonwalk with my cousin just so I could show off that I could pull off one MJ's dance moves.

The man was a legend. The King of Pop they called him. It's so sad to know he's no longer going to be around. But that's life. At least his music will still live on forever.

Rest in peace, MJ.

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A Mother's Tale

2009-06-24T19:53:00.004+08:00

It's been almost a week since I last wrote a post. And it's not because I don't have anything to post. I've just been swamped with work and my back is still acting up on and off so much so that I can't sit in front of the computer for too long. I've gotten some strong pain killers for it so that helps a little.

Anyways, that really isn't what I wanted to talk about today. I didn't really want to get online today cos the pain in my back is a little extra painful today but I just had to get online and rant a little.

I'm a person who takes great care with my stuff. It doesn't matter what it is but I'll take great pains to keep my things as clean and as new as I possibly can. In fact I'm so particular about things to the point of being obsessive at times. It bugs the heck out of wifey sometimes. But then she's like me too at times. We're both very particular and passionate about our things.

Take for instance my laptop. I'm so fussy with it that I'm forever cleaning it and warning the boys to stay as far away from it as possible. I'll always keep an eye on them whenever they get anywhere near it. The same goes for the desktop that wifey uses. I'm always telling the boys to stay away from it. And I'm forever cleaning it and dusting it.

The same goes for the stuff we have in the kitchen. The microwave we bought is as new as the day it came out from the shop. Whenever it's used, I'll always give it a complete head to toe wipe down. The thermal pot looks as new as the day it came from the shop. And everyday, I'll wipe it down after refilling it. That's how obsessive I am with things.

Even the kitchen sink faucet is still shiny and gleaming like as if we bought it only yesterday. Wifey and me ALWAYS clean everything we use immediately after using it. Even the boys get pissed off at us from all the times we scream at them to keep the place clean and to be careful when using things.

We believe if you take care of something it'll last very much longer. We value all our stuff cos we worked hard to buy them all. But what do you do when someone in the house doesn't give two hoots about the things you take great pains to maintain and keep properly. And what do you do when that someone happens to be your own mother.

Before I go on, let me say that I have every respect for my mom as the woman who brought me up and all that but that doesn't mean I have to tolerate or accept all the negative things that she does that irks me. I'm a very vocal person these days and don't hesitate to speak out when something bothers or annoys me. I used to be a quiet and shy person but not anymore.

Imagine coming back home to find the entire kitchen floor covered in oil that Petronas or Shell would be more than happy to pay me for drilling rights. Or imagine, when you're about to have dinner, you grab a spoon or fork and find it covered in food or oil that hasn't been washed off. Or plates that still have food remnants on them. And it's not like it's the first time these things have happened.

Then imagine opening the lid of the washing machine to find powdered detergent smeared and stuck all around and on the machine. Not to mention all over the floor. Or imagine opening the microwave oven, the very same one you spent loads of time keeping as clean and new as possible, only to find the insides splashed with curry stains or whatever that was recently microwaved. What about looking at the stove all covered with whatnot's that you can tell just by looking at the dirt remnants what was cooked recently.

Then there is the cigarette (yes, my mom smokes) burns marks on cabinets and cushion covers and ashes strewn here and there (sometimes even inside the fridge or microwave oven and on the washing machine) which in itself poses a fire hazard. I'm not even going to go into the part about the dents, scratches and chips that I find on stuff like the washing machine, microwave, fridge, etc, etc, etc. It pains the heart to see stuff you painstakingly maintain get damaged like as if it didn't cost money. Hard earned money at that!

I'm not being picky or fussy mind you but it does get to me. Awww come on Nick, she's your mom, you might say. She's old and maybe cannot see properly to clean up well enough, you might say. Just for info, she isn't all that old or frail or whatever. She's an active member of the neighbourhood church community. She's capable of going out on her own and she's active around the neighbourhood so what I cannot fathom is why she can't be a little more careful with things and stuff around the house.

I've tried talking to her nicely and respectfully on so many occasions. To be truthful I've even raised my voice at her on a few occasions (hey, I'm only human) I try to be very tactful with the way I tell her things cos she can be pretty sensitive and say things like I'm picking on her all the time when in true fact I keep quiet most of the time.

In fact, both wifey and me let her do what she wants at home but when you come back and see all the stuff she does, it drives us up the wall. There have been occasions that we end up arguing with each other because of keeping everything inside (yes, as surprising as it may seem, wifey and me do have arguments too).

Imagine coming home tired after work and having to clean up the place again even though it was just cleaned by wifey in the morning. God, sometimes I feel like screaming my lungs out! I just had to vent here cos if I keep it inside too much it's going to drive me insane. Besides my back hurts like hell today and coming home to find the washing machine caked with laundry detergent didn't help my mood all that much.

Do you think I'm going overboard with this? Am I just being a grouch and too darn fussy about things? All that said and done, she's still my mother but that doesn't mean I have to keep quiet about things I feel strongly about. As wifey would always say, if we don't speak up, people will think that we're okay with everything they do and step all over us. I agree with her 100%! I hope when I grow old, I don't get on my kids nerves like this.

Ok, I better log off now cos wifey actually banned me from sitting here too long because of my aching back.
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Oh, The Pain!

2009-06-17T15:18:00.002+08:00

It's been such a painful day at work today and I mean that literally. Every step I take sends jolts of pain shooting up my back. I have this terrible, well not really terrible to the point of paralysis or anything like that but it's still a darn painful back ache. And the worse part is about this back ache is I didn't even do any hard or laborious work to deserve this pain.

I woke up this morning with this shooting pain down my lower back. I put it down to the usual early morning aches I always feel. The signs of old age creeping up on you. I thought maybe once I have my bath and warm up a little the pain will slowly ease away like it normally does.

Then I got caught in a traffic jam this morning (which is a rare case these days) and since I drive a manual car, I had to keep on depressing the clutch and changing gears constantly. It was then that I realized the pain was still there. Every press of the clucth and changing of the gears brought about some kind of pain from the lower back. Ok, this is not my normal early morning aches anymore.

The pain just kept on getting getting worse as the day wore on that it went from an irritating and annoying throb to a more constant pain. Every step I took elicited a groan, every press of the keyboard brought about a grunt, every turn of my body made my face grimace. Damn, I hope this pain goes away soon and not get any worse.

I don't even remember what I did that could have made my back hurt like this. All I did last night before sleeping was to blog for a bit, then read my book in bed and finally called it a day. I suppose I may have twisted my back or something while sleeping. I do tend to sleep in weird kinds of positions that defy logic at times ... LOL!

I guess I'm not going to be able to help wifey out with the removal of those patio furniture covers this evening when I get home. She's probably going to have to do it all by herself. In fact, she's probably going to be having to do most of the work in the house, at least until my back heals which might just take months you know honey ... LOL! At least this back pain gives me a pretty good excuse to laze around more ... hahaha!

I think I'd better log off now and go sit down quietly somewhere cos sitting in front of the PC and blogging is not helping my back at all.
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A Really Short Post!

2009-06-16T23:09:00.002+08:00

This evening I was complaining to wifey that I have tons of posts like this that need to be done by a certain time but that I'm just too tired to actually complete them.

Having no choice but to do them, I told wifey that I'll just do a short 60 word post, after all that's the minimum number of words that are required for this particular post. She looked at me, laughed her head off and said,

'Honey, you don't know the meaning of a short post!'

The cheek of the woman! LOL! But you know, she's actually absolutely right. On days when I just don't know what to post, I'll still end up with some long winded post about me not having anything to write. And even if I wanted to try to write something real short, I'll still end up with a pretty long post.

Take for instance this post. I'm supossed to write something on cheap term life online which I wanted to just limit to a maximum of 100 words and no more but even then I'm already at 188 words already!

It's only with this blog that I can't seem to keep the posts short. The other three blogs that I have, this problem doesn't happen. In those 3 blogs, the posts are all pretty short and I'm never out of ideas for what to write.

I don't know why but this blog seems to just make me wanna write, write and keep on writing all day long! In fact if I don't force myself to stop, I'll just keep blabbering on and on and on and on like now! And to think I hated doing essays back when I was in school.

Really, I hated essays. I couldn't write anything over 50 words and even that was struggle. If only they had blogs back then I would have aced all my essays tests ... LOL! Ok, ok, I really think it's time to stop or soon I'm going to start telling you all about my childhood and that'll keep you guys up all night!
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My Son Is A Genius!

2009-06-16T13:56:00.003+08:00

I was listening to my regular favourite radio station on the way to work this morning. There was this call in discussion going on about parents who force their kids for tuition and whether it was good or bad or whatever. Some of the response were pretty thought provoking which in turn got me thinking (which doesn't happen very much, mind you ... LOL!).

Why do we really send our children for tuition? Is it because they really need it? Is it because they want to go? Or is it because WE don't want them to embarrass us? There was this one caller who called in and I totally agree with what he had to say. People these days are so obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses that they force a lot of things upon their children. They don't want to be embarrassed if they're kids are not up to par with others.

I know of people who send their kids for all kinds of tuition classes and then force them to attend all kinds of courses even during the school holidays and all because they don't want to be embarrassed cos their kids are not straight 'A' students. I'm not generalizing anyone but I'm speaking from my own personal experience here and if I offend anyone, my apologies.

That caller was right, these days people are so obsessed with academic qualifications that no one works on the life aspect of things. If my child doesn't at least get 7 straight A's then it's time to force the useless bum to attend tuition classes so he can start getting straight A's and not embarrass me when my friends talk about how smart their child is. Well, I'm not like that and I never will be.

My kids don't go for tuition not because I can't afford it but simply because the decision will be up to them. If they feel they want to go for tuition after school to better themselves, then by all mean, I'll send them but I won't force it upon them. They're children for goodness sake. They need to play, get into trouble, cause mischief and stuff like that.

My younger boy badly needs to work on his mathematics and English (yes, English!) and I could just force him to go for tuition after school and even during the holidays but then when does he get to be a kid? I want him to experience life and learn things the hard way to prepare him for the real world out there. As long as he can read, write and understand what he is thought at in school, I think he'll do fine. Doing well in ones studies is a good thing but doing well in life is way more important.

These days people make it sound like not going to tuition or even not oing to university after you finish school would turn you into a failure later in life. I know of some people who frown on me when I say that I don't send my kids for tuition. They look at me with a shocked look and say things like,

'What? How is your son going to learn like that?'

or

'Aiyoo cannot, you must send your son for tuition, if not he cannot succeed!'

or

'You must make sure your son goes off to University after he finishes school.'

Well, I've got news for you. I've seen your kids and while they may be a heck of a lot smarter than my boys academically but I'll bet you every cent I have that my kids will be more resourceful out there in the real world than your kids ever will. That's why we get so many people these days who can't think outside the box. It's parents with attitude like these are the cause. There has to be a balance.

Of course I would love for my kids to be geniuses and become some rocket scientist with a computer memory like mind or something but they have to want to do it for themselves and not because I want them to and especially not because I want to keep up with the Joneses!

I'll be happy if they just grew up to be respectful and decent adults and not some pampered little twerp who couldn't fend for him/herself out there in the real world. I never went or was even forced to go for tuition classes when I was a child and I'm not really the brightest person on the block but I think I turned out alright :D Anyway, that's my two cents on what I think about parents who force their children to attend tuition classes. I do apologize if I've offended anyone though.
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Traffic Accidents And Busy Bodies!

2009-06-15T19:09:00.003+08:00

My Monday just flew by like the wind. I don't even remember what transpired at all. All I know is I had a heck of a lot of appointments to go to and the next thing I know, I'm home. Just where did the day go? Not that I'm complaining mind you. I'm not particularly fond of Monday so I'm pretty glad that it's almost over.

And the best thing of all, I didn't get the usual Monday crap thrown my way. Well, maybe a little. I have this one question to ask. Why is it whenever there is some kind of accident, some people, the extremely busy body ones on the opposite side of the road tend to slow their freaking cars down just to have a look at the accident causing the rest of the traffic to move at a snails pace?

It's not like they're stopping to help out or anything. I freaking hate it when this happens. Imagine getting stuck in a kilometre long traffic snarl, inching your way in the blazing hot noon day sun, with the air conditioning fighting to keep you cool. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind is there's an accident up ahead. Well, when you get to the source of the traffic slow down, true enough, there is an accident but it's on the freaking opposite side of the road!

The cars on this side of the road should be moving smoothly but no, some moronic busy bodies practically slows their car to a stand still just to catch a glimpse of the action on the other side of the road causing a chain reaction of slow moving cars. And the worse thing is the accident is just a minor little fender bender! It's not like there's an rv camping on that side of the road or anything.

I can understand if it was like a scene out of Hollywood, but a teeny weeny little fender bender and you morons have to slow down your cars to look? Why are you guys such busy bodies? Not that it involves you one bit or it'll make your lives any better. All you're doing is creating a backlog of cars on the side of the road that isn't even involved in the accident! And some of you even stop your cars to watch. Why not get some freaking popcorn while you're at it? Maybe a can of soda as well? Idiots!

I've been caught in these kinds of jams so many times that trying to understand why people do this is like trying to comprehend quantum physics! Actually understanding quantum physics would probably be much easier than trying to figure out the minds of busy bodies! I wasted nearly an hour of driving on a road that would normally take 15 or so minutes to negotiate through.

Have you ever done this before? You see an accident on the opposite side of the road and slow your car down to look causing a chain reaction traffic snarl? Come on, admit it already, I promise I won't curse you too much! And if you are one of these kind of busy bodies, well, that guy with his fist out the window shouting obscenities at you will be me ... LOL!
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A Grave Situation!

2009-06-14T14:10:00.005+08:00

It's been a totally lazy, hazy Sunday. The boys don't have Sunday school today so we didn't go out. Our grocery shopping was done yesterday and strangely enough, I'm not sleepy enough yet to go nap. So what do you so when you're bored and can't sleep? Well, you go online and find silly things to talk about.

Well, while I was aimlessly cruising around the virtual super highways of the world. I came across this strange looking grave and thought it deserve mention here. Urmmm, credit goes to whomever the image belongs to cos I forgot to take note of the site. Please don't sue me, ok :D

Anyways, this weird and strange grave got me thinking that one day when I bite the dust, I want to be buried in a grave with a concept like this. Maybe get the undertakers to make a nice concrete full size image of me lying on the grave that's shaped like a bed with me napping on it ... LOL! That would capture my essence very well.

Now, wouldn't that be something. It would be so much nicer than your regular marble slab grave that is so boring and characterless. Besides, maybe someone will be silly enough to take a picture of it and feature my grave in their blog or flicker or whatever they have in the future ... hahaha!

Wait a minute, maybe I could make a business out of this. Anyone want me to design your grave site for the future ... hahaha ... why be buried in some boring looking plot when you can have your grave custom made with your very own character for all eternity? I wonder if 'Grave Situations Sdn Bhd' would sound like a nice company name ... LOL!
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Weekend, Weekend, Where Forth Art Thou?

2009-06-14T09:52:00.004+08:00

I think weekends have this fast forward button built into so much so that one minute it was Friday evening and the weekend was just starting, the next thing you know, it's Sunday morning and tomorrow is the dreaded Monday! Where did my Saturday go?

I really think we should have a 5 day weekend, minimum! That way I can get the rest I need and wake up fresh for work tomorrow. Weekends are meant as a time for rest and recreation but I just realized that both wifey and my weekends are actually more tiring than the weekdays sometimes.

Weekends is when we normally do all our household chores, grocery shopping, look for computer memory upgrades and all that kind of stuff that by the time we're through it's late evening and that doesn't leave us much time to really enjoy the day. We're both beat by then already.

Sometimes I wish I was a kid again. No worries, no responsibilities, just play all day long, not forgetting to at least get on your parent's nerves at least 3 times a day, minimum! LOL! I remember my childhood well. I wish I could turn back time and be that little fellow again. But then all I ever did back then was sleep all day ... LOL!

The school session starts tomorrow after a 2 week break and for wifey she'll at least have a couple of hours solitude till the boys come home and all hell breaks loose. My younger boy is one of those animated kinda boys that I think you probably can hear the ruckus he creates from 5 blocks away ... LOL!

So if any of you guys see things my way and want a nice long 5 day weekend, I've got a proposition for you. Sign a petition to make me supreme ruler on this planet and I promise I'll give you guys a 5 day weekend. Come on you can trust me, I'm not like those sleazy politicians who promise you the world and don't deliver, well at least not yet anyway ... hahaha!

Enjoy the weekend, what's left of it anyway.
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The Sun Always Shines On TV ...

2009-06-10T19:43:00.003+08:00

I wasn't intending to post anything today. Work has been crazy from this morning and I've been running around like some busy bee trying to sort out all my work. I'm practically exhausted and if it wasn't because tonight is CSI night, I'd just hit the sack right this very minute.

But then I received an email today that I have to post about. Unfortunately I can't post the email proper cos I deleted it by accident. I promise, this won't be one of those long post telling you about Mesothelioma cancer or why do cows eat grass or why does the sun always shine on TV or something like that. Hah! See I told you I was exhausted, I'm beginning to ramble nonsense already.

Ok, straight to the point. About a month ago, I bought wifey a new cell phone. But then she saw a new model last week and it only cost an additional RM150. So we decided to sell her phone on Mudah.com, a local site for selling your old stuff. I put up an ad there and received loads of responses.

There were loads of interested buyers offering all kinds of prices and I managed to sell the phone within 3 days and only lost out RM18 from the original price. Not a bad deal I must say. Some of the emails I received were pretty hilarious with people asking me all kinds of silly questions about the phone (Even though I put up a very detailed specification list of the phone) and offering all kinds of prices for it.

But this one email from some guy named Annuar took the cake. He must have thought I was one of those gullible people cos his email went something like this (translated from Bahasa Malaysia):

'Dear Sir, I'm very interested to buy your phone. Could you please send the phone to me by courier and when I get the phone, I'll bank in the cash. Don't worry, you can trust me. Just send the phone first and I'll bank in money later.'

He even had the cheek to leave his address! So, in response to you Mr. Annuar, the phone is already on the way to your house. While waiting for it, why don't you bank in money in my account and I'm sure you'll get the phone sooner or later. Don't worry, you can trust me too :D Gee, who did he think I was? Some stupid moron? Did he really expect me to send him the phone and believe that he'll bank in the money later?

I'm really kicking myself for deleting his email cos I so wanted to post his address and cell phone number here. You guys know how I like highlighting morons on this blog of mine :D And I cleared my trash box so I definitely can't retrieve the email.

Oh well, that's all I wanted to say. I'm off for a shower and then gonna lie down for a bit while waiting for CSI to start later. Hopefully I don't fall completely off to sleep. It's been known to happen at times ... hehehe ...
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Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

2009-06-09T17:41:00.005+08:00

I came home this evening and wifey had some exciting news for me. No, no, we're not having another baby and neither did we win a million bucks, although I wish we did. This news was much less dramatic but exciting all the same.

Remember my mango tree? The one I posted about on two occasions? Yes, the very same one that my neanderthal neighbour was giving me hell about and was forever complaining that the leaves were being blown into his compound (like as if I was some kind of weather God and could control the direction of the wind) and that the tree might topple into his precious little house.

Because of his incessant complaining I decided on two occasions to chop off the branches with the latest being last year. I practically got the branches cut off completely that it was totally barren of leaves whatsoever. Well, its grown back into the beautiful shady tree that it once was. You can see the difference in the picture below and how it's grown back :D

This time, both wifey and me decided to not entertain anymore of his rantings and we're going to keep the tree as shady as it's meant to be. To hell with leaves being blown into his yard. He can take it up with the wind God if he has any issues with that.

Ok, now back to the main reason for this post. That mango tree has only produce fruits once in its entire existence and that was the first time we cut the tree. It was like revenge of the mango tree. It produced so many fruits that I started giving them away to anyone who wanted it, the grass cutters, the post man, the municipal people who passed by, anyone.

But that was it. After that period of about a few months, the tree stop producing fruits and has been like that for years. And I started missing having mangoes to eat. I love mangoes, especially the green ones that are not fully ripened yet. I would pluck them off the tree while they're still young, cut them and eat them with salt. Heavenly ... darn, I can feel my mouth salivating already!

That was when I wished the tree would bear fruits again. No amount of pleading, cursing or molly coddling make that tree produced even one single fruit. I had to resort to buying unripened mangoes to get my mango fix ... LOL!

But then today, I came home and wifey excitedly grabbed me and pointed to the tree.

'look, what do you see?' she said.

I looked at where she was pointing but for the life of me couldn't see anything at all.

'What am am I looking for?' I asked her.

'There, over there, do you see that mango fruit?' She said.

Even then, I still couldn't see it but after squinting and looking at the tree from all kinds of weird angles, I spotted a tiny little mango fruit hiding between the leaves. Heavens be praised! The tree is fruiting again. I was ecstatic! I was jumping up and down like a little boy. You can see how tiny the fruit is in the picture below.

I scanned the tree for more signs of fruits but that was the only one. But I needn't worry cos I also spotted more than enough ... urrmmm ... flowers or seeds or whatever you call it (see picture below) that would in turn become full grown mouth watering saliva inducing mangoes! My jaws are tightening up already from imagining the sourness of it :D

Oh god, I can't wait for it to sprout more fruits. I hope they don't keep me waiting too long. I don't think I'm going to need any Outer Banks vacation cos I'm going be sitting under my mango tree patiently waiting for it to bear some fruits. This time I'm not going to share or give my mangoes with anyone. Well, maybe I'll save some for you LP, just get that husband of yours to drive you to my house to pick them up before I swallow every single one of them ... LOL!
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Price Watch

2009-06-08T14:39:00.005+08:00

I have a bone to pick with Tesco! Yes, Tesco, the place I do my weekly shopping. I'm really a loyal customer of Tesco and I never go anywhere else cos for one thing the Tesco in-house products are of pretty good quality and cheap to boot. And secondly most of their products are reasonably priced.

As you all know from my previous posts that I do my weekly shopping there every weekend without fail. Both wifey and me are such regulars there that we know where all the products are located better than some of their own staff do.

We're such loyal customers that even if we do run short of groceries at home, we'll try our best to not go out to the nearby shops to buy stuff and will wait it out till the weekend. Doesn't always work out though cos the boys eat like there's no tomorrow and sometimes we have to go and get groceries from the nearby shop but you see what I mean about us being as loyal to them as we can.

And they've rewarded us by sending us discount vouchers and cash rebates for our continued support through their loyalty card programme. But there is one thing that really pisses me off about them and it's their price tags or rather the updating of their price tags.

Now, wifey and me practically know how much the cost of the usual things we buy are priced and whenever we see a promotion on any of those products, we'll grab a whole load of them cos the price gets really cheap (yes, you can call us hoarders ... LOL!). But more often than not, when we hit the cashier counters and they scan the goods for payment, it'll show the usual old price which is higher.

Then we'll have to go through the hassle of explaining to the cashier that the price displayed says it's cheaper than what is being shown on your display. This in turn will lead to the cashiers trying to locate a supervisor who in turn will have to go back to the isle to verify the displayed price (which they will normally honour) but the whole process will slow up everything.

If this was an isolated incident, then I wouldn't mind but it happens every god dammed week that it's beginning to piss me off big time. And it's not just one or two products. Wifey and me will always scan the items at the price checking machines to be sure of the price and it gets on my nerves when the cashier counters have different prices. Like I said, normally I'll always get the cheaper price in the end as it's their policy to honour what's stated on the price displays. We always check our receipts before we leave the store as well.

But what about those people who don't check the price and just pay whatever is shown on the cash register and don't bother checking their receipts. They would have ended up paying regular pricing for promotional goods and think how much money Tesco would make because of this. Now, I'm not saying Tesco does this intentionally but can't they at least update all their price list to be in sync with their promotional prices?

Not everyone is like wifey and me who scrutinize every detail of the bill and price check any product that we deem to be suspect, price wise. I'm not talking about 10 or 20 cents difference, sometimes it's a ringgit or two which is a heck of a lot if it happens to everyone. Imagine if everyone bought some of the best diet pills products that were on promotion and ended up paying the regular prices without even knowing it. It would in a way be a form of cheating, right?

This happens to us every week with the latest being yesterday. When I queried them, this guy had the cheek to say that I have to follow the price coding on the packaging and not the price that was displayed! That set me off, he got an earful from me with the end result being me demanding loudly to see his supervisor who in turn told me they would honour the cheaper price. Like as if I could read a bar code and know how much the price was, idiots!

Come on you guys at Tesco, please get your act together. I love shopping at your store. You have some great in-house products but the hassle of not knowing if the price displayed is the same as the price on the bar coding of the products can be a real pain and in the long run a source of losing out on your promotions if I'm not careful enough to price check each and everyone of your products before I head for the cashier counter. And please also hire some much more informed personnel who won't ask me to decipher those numbers and lines on your bar code to figure out the price!
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One With Nature ...

2009-06-07T14:17:00.024+08:00

*Long post & pictorial ahead, get some coffee and instant noodles before reading*

I took some time off from work this Friday seeing as how it was the school holidays and the boys were getting cranky staying at home all week. Besides I could do with some time off anyway.

Then came the dilemma of where to take them. I wasn't up to driving anywhere out of town but I was keen to go somewhere outdoors and be one with nature. Trying to find some place to be with nature when you're living in the city can be kinda difficult.

After some searching around online, I decided to take the boys and wifey to this place called Bukit Cahaya which is located in Shah Alam, a mere 20 minute drive from where I lived. It's touted to be the world's first agro-forestry park around. A place to be with nature not too far away, how could I not go.

So, early Friday morning, wifey and me woke the boys up. They didn't know we were planning an outing for them. But kids being kids, they got really excited once they found out we were going out. When we reached there, I was kinda surprised to see that the place wasn't all that crowded, which was all the better for me.

The boys weren't all that happy when we got there cos they thought we were going shopping to some mall which would have suited them just fine. They're not into these forest and nature kinda stuff but both wifey and me thought it would be good for them.

Well, let me tell you that I think the Bukit Cahaya, agro-forestry park is a great place but unfortunately not much is being done to promote the place to attract more people to come and enjoy nature. There were only a smattering of crowd around to take in the beauty of the place. I think with a better marketing and promotion strategy, they could do wonders for the visitor turnout rate. Can't help it, that's the advertising person in me speaking ... LOL!

All in all, I had a blast. I was like a kid in a toy shop. The moment I reached there, I was livid with excitement which had the boys all looking at me as if I was crazy ... hehehe ... I live in a busy part of the city and the sounds of crickets and the chirping of wild birds and animals (I think they were animals) was a welcome change to blaring honking and cacophony of traffic noises I hear all day. There was not a single sound of cars, well except for the free in house buses that took you from one spot to another.

I wanted to walk to every attraction spot but wifey and the kids weren't up to it, which was actually a blessing in disguise cos the park was huge and we would have ended up hiking all day from one place to another. So we took the bus to the ends of the park and stopped halfway on the way back and decided to walk all the way from there. Tiring as it was, I had a blast enjoying the tranquility of the place.

Some of the attractions that we stopped by were the four seasons house which were currently exhibiting the summer season. We were reluctant to go in at first cos we have like summer all year round but decided to anyway and we were more than thrilled to bask in the feel of a European summer complete with its cottage house and waterwheel (for want of a better name). We plan to come here again in December when it's winter :D

After the four season house, we hiked all the way past a beautiful lake through a dense forested path and ended up face to face with some active monkeys that wanted to follow us thinking we had food. We were a little worried that they might just attack us ... LOL! Next on our trek was the rabbit house which by the way was very disappointing cos the only rabbit I saw was the huge statue of a rabbit. This is where I must bring up a rant cos they had a lot of attractions where the upkeep was horribly bad and mostly abandoned attractions. Such a waste.

Anyways, we finally came to the animal park where there was a couple of animals such as a parrot, some porcupines and a field of mouse deers and deers. Wifey thought I was crazy cos I was kept talking to the parrot telling it that Captain Jack Sparrow sends his regards and then I was arguing with the mouse deers cause they didn't want to sit still which I was photographing them ... LOL! But I did manage to get a shot or two.

Next, I got all excited when we came to the padi fields cos a city boy like me has never really seen a real padi field before which got wifey all amused. There I was taking pictures and touching the young padi stalks like they were some rare plant ... hahaha ... There were a lot more places that we went to but you'd probably get bored if I listed them all here.

Suffice to say I had a blast though my body and legs ached all over after that. At one point of time we even rented bicycles to roam the place and I haven't cycled in ages which contributed to my aches. I'm sure a few more hours there and I wouldn't be needing any sort of best diet pills to help me reduce my weight ... hehehe ...

I am even planning another visit there, this time to stay overnight cos they have chalets and camping facilities. I can already imagine how quiet and tranquil the nights are going to be. I'll be sure to pack loads of mosquito repellent though cos I saw mosquitoes the size of small planes flying around! Oh and speaking of mosquitoes, the amount of weird insects I saw was enough to give me the heebee geebees!

Now to convince the boys that staying there for a few days would be a great idea. They'd rather have a round of shopping in some mall that has one of the gaming and entertainment centers any time! But I really hope that they would do something about the upkeep of the place and promote it more cos it's a treasure trove right smack in the middle of the city of Shah Alam and it would be a shame to see it go to waste.

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Multiple Personalities

2009-06-05T20:11:00.002+08:00

Some of you would know that I have four, yes four blogs. And I do try to give each and every one of these blogs a personality of its own. Those of you who frequently visit my Spiff, The Spaceman blog would know I'm totally a different person there and those of you who visit my Dream-Themes blog would probably see how differently I write over there. And as for my rant blog, well that one has a 'hot' personality of its own too.

And sometimes I find it really hard figuring out who I am in my blogs that I end up having these multiple personalities follow me into my real life which is I why I found it really appropriate to do this tag from Marzie.

She hasn't tagged me in ages and I was kinda hoping against hope that she had forgotten her pack that she made in blood to tag me with meme's for the rest of her entire life ... LOL! Which is a good thing, she could have put a hex on me and turned me into a fatty and I would have ended up taking ephedra for the rest of my life! LOL!

I think a lot of you know how much love I have for tags but Marzie was the first person who made my life difficult eons ago by tagging me with the world's hardest tag and because of that we have this tag war going on (LOL!). Which by the way reminds me that I haven't sent a tag her way in ages too. Just you wait Marzie, I'll get you for this ... hahaha ...

Anyways, like I was saying, I thought this tag was appropriate so I decided to not keep it in the closet for too long and to get this done tonight :D There Marzie, don't say I never do your tags ... LOL! It's a simple tag where I'm required to take a personality (not that I have any to begin with) test that will define my personality so I can get to know myself better. Scary Thought! Hahaha!

I'm supposed to log on to Quizbox and take the test there and post the answers here for you guys to have a great chuckle with disbelief! Well, here goes ...

Your view on yourself:
You are down-to-earth (I am?) and people like you because you are so straightforward (Do they now?). You are an efficient problem solver because you will listen to both sides of an argument before making a decision that usually appeals to both parties. (This is the only way to shut them up ... LOL!)

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes. (It does?)

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship. (Ooooo, so true!)

The seriousness of your love:
You like to flirt and behave seductively. (Honey, this is so NOT true ... hahaha!) The opposite sex finds this very attractive, and that's why you'll always have admirers hanging off your arms (Hahaha! makes me sound Hugh Jackman!). But how serious are you about choosing someone to be in a relationship with?

Your views on education
Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can. (ROTFL! This is so NOT true, I was the laziest bum in school!)

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life. (Really, ah?)

How do you view success:
You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. (Well, I did wanna be a break dancer ... LOL!) Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous. (Looks like I still have a chance to be a break dancer! LOL!)

What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of things that you cannot control. Sometimes you show your anger to cover up how you feel. (Probably true)

Who is your true self:
You are mature (LOL!), reasonable (Hahaha!), honest (???) and give good advice (ROFTL!). People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

Well, there you have it. I don't think any of it is true but it was fun trying out. Since it's the weekend I'll be a nice fellow and only tag Bem with this ... LOL! Sorry buddy, I couldn't resist it la!
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Where's My Change?

2009-06-03T19:20:00.006+08:00

The school holidays are here and for wifey it's the same old 'how to keep the boys entertained' dilemma. Those two are pretty active and the younger fellow especially has an uncanny ability to set her off ... LOL! He does it without even trying hard.

And with the holidays also comes another problem of keeping them fed all the time. My younger boy has another uncanny ability of being hungry all the time when he's home and he tends to finish everything in the fridge in a matter of moments. He reminds me of myself when I was young. I could never stop eating ... LOL!

Anyways, we ran out of bread this morning. Normally wifey would just call me and ask me to buy a loaf on the way home and I'll grab one from the sundry shop near my office. But today was a little different cos the boys were complaining of having nothing to eat, this was just after their breakfast.

Since I couldn't do anything about it until I get home, wifey decided to send them to the 7-11 just across the road from our place. I must say that it's the first time we've ever let them go out to the 7-11 across the road on their own. Normally the furthest we let them go on their own is when they walk to school which is also just across the road, much nearer than the 7-11 is located or when the go to the park in the evenings. In this day and age you can't be too careful.

So this morning the little fellow was as usual complaining there was nothing to eat and at the risk of hearing his non-stop grumbling wifey gave both of them money and told them to go to the 7-11 and get a loaf of bread and then head right back home with the change. And there should have been lots of change but according to her when they came back, all they had was just 65 cents!

I laughed and told her you should never give money to a kid to buy something and expect any change back ... LOL! She was lucky to even get 65 cents worth of change. Those two little fellows decided to go on a nice shopping spree at 7-11 and came home with huge Slurpee's and whatnots. I found it amusing cos I would have done the very same thing ... hahaha.

I mean how can you as a kid resist the goodies of a 7-11 and not having anyone to supervise you at that. Like I said, it's a good thing they even brought back 65 cents. I would have had no change left. I used to do the same thing too when I was a kid.

We used to live right across a sundry shop and my mom would ask me to buy stuff like sugar, bread and best weight loss pills for her from the shop and to bring back the change but she'd be lucky if I even used the money to buy the stuff she asked for let alone bring back change. Most of the time, I'd be happily coming home with and ice-cream or two in my hands and when she asked for her change, I'd give her this what change look? Can't you see the goodies I bought for myself? Surely you don't think they'd be change now did you? LOL!

Little boys, a shop full of goodies and money don't mix very well, especially when no one is there to stop you from having a shopping fest :D The next time she ever asks them to go buy something I'm sure she'll give them exact change ... LOL! But I must say I'm proud of them for actually going out on their own that far to buy stuff. The first signs of independence in the making.
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You Have A New Text Message

2009-06-02T13:37:00.003+08:00

According to a text message I had yesterday, I won a cool RM15,000. There I was minding my own business when I get a text message saying,

Congratulations! Nombor telepon anda telah b'jaya mendptkan hadiah utama, wang RM15,000 dari Power Root Sdn Bhd. Sila tel: 012-810 6237. Terima Kasih.

Loosely translated to English for my foreign blog buddies, it means,

Congratulations! Your phone number has won the grand prize of RM15,000 from Power Root Sdn Bhd. Please call tel: 012-810 6237. Thank you.

Gosh, I'm so happy to win the grand prize. Imagine the things I could buy with that kind of money. The places I could go. But then again, what has my cell phone number got to do with winning a grand prize and in some no existent contest that I never took part in.

Come on whomever you are, you don't really think I'm that gullible now? If it was so easy to win good money like that without even taking part in any contest, life would be swell, wouldn't it? I was actually laughing my head off when I got the message and even showed it to my boss.

But then I got down to thinking about it and the laughter turned to anger. Now how in heavens name did they even get my cell phone number. Obviously this message never came from Power Root Sdn Bhd (which is a reputable company) and obviously someone is out to scam some poor unsuspecting and gullible fool out there.

But how did this scammer even get my cell phone number to begin with. Worse still, wifey got the exact same message on her cell with the only difference being that she won the grand prize of RM10,000 and that girl was fuming that I won more scam money than her ... LOL! I have a nasty suspicion that both our cell numbers were sold by someone, and my suspicion is someone from the telco that I'm using cos her cell is registered under my account.

I suppose they could get my cell number from countless other avenues since I do work in the client servicing line and hand out my business card to countless people but not wifey's cell? She's very secretive with her cell number and only very few people have it. So I'm placing my bets that someone from the telco sold our numbers.

This isn't the first time I've received text messages like these. I've had all kinds of stuff sent to my phone ranging from 'banks' telling me something is wrong with my account and to text them my password, great promotional offers on breeches right up to activating my 'free' account to a world of naked women!

Come on already, we all know banks never ask for passwords through the phone and if I wanted to view pictures of naked women, why would I wanna view it on such a tiny little cell phone screen when I can use my huge flat screen monitor for a much better and bigger (LOL!) view? Ridiculous I tell you.

I suppose it must be pretty profitable selling these scammers people's cell phone numbers cos these cell phone scams just keep on getting more and more each passing day. And the worst thing is there really are a few gullible (or desperate) people out there who will fall for something like this.

I suppose these people get away with stuff like these cos no one actually bothers complaining to the proper authorities about these scams. I know I for one am going to send that text message to my telco and also Power Root Sdn Bhd themselves right after this post and make a complain about this. I don't know know if it'll amount to much but at least I did my best in taking steps to eradicate these swines!

I wonder what my next text message will be? Maybe I'd win an all expense paid vacation for a month with Jennifer Garner? LOL! Dream on, Nicky boy, dream on!
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The Invasion!

2009-05-31T14:35:00.003+08:00

I've been invaded by that dreaded colony of wood eating vermins, Termites! Yes, I have termites trying to eat the house down. I've heard of people with termite problems and never for one minute did I suspect that it would happen to me.

I woke up yesterday and was about to start my usual household chores with wifey like we always to on a Saturday. I head into the tiny little storeroom under the stairs to grab a pair of slippers and my grass trimmer. As I'm heading to the back of the house with the slippers, I see some small white things moving under the slipper.

Being the cowardly creature that I am of all creepy crawly like things, I throw the slippers out the back door and scream for wifey. She comes running thinking I'd fallen down or something and I tell her there's creepy crawlies on the slippers. She looks at it and says,

'Houston, we have a problem. Those are termites, Honey!'

Termites? I thought termites only ate wood and not rubber slippers. So we both head back to the storeroom and discover a nice long mud tunnel a long the side of the wall. Tracing that tunnel, it leads to the carom board and without even turning it around, I knew it was a screwed. My fears were proven right cos the back of the board was being eaten away by those wood chompers!

Darn, there goes one nice hardly used carom board! That wasn't all the damage they did. We have a few boxes on the floor which I placed over a thin piece of fibre board and upon lifting the boxes, the ones on the bottom especially, showed signs of termites eating through it. But the worse thing was, half the fibre board (which was roughly 3 feet by 2 feet) was completely eaten away!

I didn't want to even look under the balance of that fibre board and no way was I going to touch it. I do the next best and manly thing. I scream for wifey to lift that board ... LOL! She's the brave one in the family when it comes to creepy crawly stuff. When she lifts the board, we see hundreds if not thousands of termites happily having a feast there.

I grab the insect repellent and spray the crap out of them, which does a magnificent job of killing them. Then we had to go through all the boxes and discovered half of them had to be disposed of and loads of stuff that contained wood such as books and Christmas decorations were all ruined! And yeah buddy, that Christmas wreath you gave me bought it too :(

After isolating all the ruined stuff and throwing everything as far away from the house as I could, I got down to destroying those tunnels they use to get around, scraping every last bit of it off and trailing it back to the source which I discovered is in this corner way back in the storeroom where it was dark and moist, just right for them to thrive. I suppose the main nest is somewhere underground or even in the neighbors house or something.

Those critters managed to find a nice tiny hole through the concrete and decided to invade my place and have been there for god knows how long. I would say I'm a little lucky cos the boxes and some wooden stuff were there for them to feast on before they could attack the storeroom door frames, otherwise the damage would have been worse. They had ample supply of wood based food for them to thrive on in those boxes.

After clearing up the place, I went online and did a thorough research on termites and I'm going to try to starve them for now and see if they go away. I've taken away all their source of food supplies and the storeroom is made of concrete which they can't eat. They did try to rebuild their mud tunnel highway last night cos this morning I saw a new small trail of tunnels making its way back to where the boxes were before.

They work on the same principle of ants following their food trail even though you've taken away the source of their food. I destroyed their tunnel highway again and place some termite repellent at the source of the tiny hole in the concrete to see if they'll try building their mud path again. And if they don't, then I'm going to seal that hole though I don't know how I'm gonna fit myself in there cos the place is so tight!

I know I should call the exterminators for a more thorough and professional job but the thing is the house I'm currently staying in is a rented one seeing as how the construction of the condo I bought a few years back is currently stalled. And until that project gets back on track I'm going to have to be renting this place.

I'm going to call the landlord tomorrow and let him know. I'm definitely not going to bear the cost to call the exterminators cos it's not my house and besides it's in the tenancy agreement for him to take care of the problem.

The good thing is, it's isolated in the storeroom which I've now completely cleared out and have changed the environment in there so that it's not desirable for then to want to stay. I'll be keeping and eye on that room to see if they do indeed try to build their mud path again. I hope not though otherwise I'm probably going to have to look for some wholesale lots to live in . Maybe they would make my day and head over to my neanderthal neighbors house instead! LOL!

But one thing those darn termites succeeded in doing was to ruin my entire Saturday morning! I even had nightmares about them all night.
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Forever Friends!

2009-05-29T11:23:00.003+08:00

In business, there are some people you should never do business with. Your friends and your family! Yes, sometimes friends and family can give you a heck of a lot more headache than clients who are practically strangers to begin with.

About a two months ago, a friend of mine, well more like an ex-colleague asked me to do some work for him. We were both working together about 7 years ago when I was in this event company. He was the marketing manager and I was the key account manager. We got a long pretty well both as friends and as colleagues.

After a couple of years, he left the company and a year or so later I followed suit. We stayed in touch and met up for those 'teh tarik' (drink) sessions from time to time to just catch up on old times. Then he opened up his own business doing premiums and stuff. At that time I was working in my previous company.

Being a close friend, I'd call him up first before any other supplier whenever I had clients who needed premium items and when he had clients that needed advertising or design work done, he'd call me. It was a mutual win-win thing for both of us.

As I was saying, about two months ago, he wanted me to do some work for him for one of his clients. As per the usual, a quote was given and being a friend, I didn't squeeze him too much on the quote like I do to my normal clients (LOL!). Everything was agreed upon before proceeding, the production and delivery time line and also payment terms.

The project was for a fridge magnet. We started work on the job and that's where things got dicey. First he asked ridiculously impossible things like wanting a sample on the spot. In the first place, he agreed before hand that he doesn't need a sample. When I told him that they would be additional charges for the sample and that it most definitely wouldn't be ready on the spot, he started making a big fuss.

He started harping about him being a friend and giving me business in these hard economic times and all that crap. I was stunned. First of all, I didn't beg him for the job, he came to me. Secondly I have other clients of my own. Thirdly, the project is so small that it really is not worth doing but as a friend I agreed. My boss wasn't too keen to take the project in the first place but because I vouched for this guy, he agreed.

To cut a long story short, this friend of mine gave us grieve throughout the production of this fridge magnet with demands like wanting partial delivery and all that nonsense before our agreed upon delivery date. After we finally got the job completed, my boss and me both breathe a huge sigh of relieve! But that wasn't the end of our problems.

When it came time for payment, I called him up and he started berating me about chasing him for payment and that the job was not done to his satisfaction, etc, etc, etc. Chasing him for payment? This was my first time calling him and even then it's one week plus after the payment terms date.

And if I did such an unsatisfactory job, why hasn't the client rejected the darn magnets? I was appalled. If this was my usual client, I wouldn't have been bothered cos I expect them to do stuff like these. But this guy was a friend! Someone I knew and worked with before and now he's treating me like some loan shark chasing him for payment!

After about 2 weeks, he finally called me up and in the harshest tone he could muster, yelled at me and told me to meet him in a shopping mall in the busiest part of town to collect my cheque saying he doesn't have time to come to my office cos it's in a secluded area! He said if I'm so desperate for the cheque then I'll have to just drive up and see him.

I felt so cheap, really I did. If it was up to me, I'd have told him to stuff that cheque so far up his behind that it would come out his mouth. But I kept my cool and said, ok I'll come over after lunch. Then just as I was about to leave after lunch to see him, he called and said he's not free to see me cos he's got more important things to do and that he will fix a new time next week when he's free!

That was when my fuse ran out! I screamed at him and told him in no uncertain terms what a fraud he is with such colorful language and a few remarks about bodily harm, it would have made Mike Tyson or Eddie Murphy blush! Then not just stopping there, I went up to the office and even wrote him a nice long email to cement my colorful phrases which I uttered to him over the phone.

That actually worked cos he's never known to see me loose my cool that badly. The very next day, he called me and in the nicest of tones said if I could meet him in another shopping mall and he'll have my payment ready. LOL!

Almost a month and a half late with loads of stress, shame and anger thrown in but I eventually did get my payment. As for my friendship with him, let's just say that if I see if walking on the road somewhere, I'll run him down! Hahaha!

The moral of the story is to NEVER do work for your friends and your family members. I've had a bad experience with doing work for family members before too but that's a post for another day.
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Now I know My A, B, C's ...

2009-05-27T08:07:00.005+08:00

I'm actually in a pretty happy mood today. My P1 modem with wifi capabilities arrived yesterday at the office. Seeing as how we also sell those P1 modems ourselves, getting it activated was a breeze :D

So, last night both wifey and me could surf together at the same time for once without having to 'one, two, zoom' about who was going to be able to use the connection first ... hehehe ... And we were surfing at a much faster rate than what our previous ISP was giving us.

And setting up the connection was even breezier. In fact there really was nothing to set up, it really was plug and play. The only thing I had to do was secure my wireless connection so my darned neighbors wouldn't be able to piggy back my connection. Well, I'm not really sure if I did manage to secure it properly or not but I can always check with the P1 technical guy who hangs around my office almost daily.

And because I am so happy about this, I am actually going to do something really stupid. Ok, ok, I know I constantly do a lot of stupid things, but this one is worse. I'm going to a tag! LOL! You all know how I hate doing this memes or tags so actually voluntarily doing one must make me seem insane. But hey, I'm happy and when I'm happy I do insane things like tags or even go hunting for the best weight loss pill in the market!

Anyways, this tag is from Foong, another fellow I know who don't like tags but was crazy enough to create a tag of his own, now that's what I would call insane ... hahaha ... He calls it the 'My A-Z Favourites List' tag and you're suppose to list your favourite word with all the alphabets starting from A-Z. For instance, under the alphabet A, you can list your favourite Actor, Anthem, favourite Action or whatever as long as it starts with A.

And don't look at me like that Bem, Nessa, Anny and Mei Teng, I didn't make the rules for this tag, go stare at Foong. Yes, that means you've been tagged! LOL! Anyways, for a more comprehensive explanation on this, go check out Foong's blog.

So, not to waste anymore time, here are My Favourite:

Action - Sleep, what else? I adore sleeping and I can fall asleep anywhere and in any weather :D
Book - Just too many to really mention. I love reading and I cannot name one particular book cos all the books I read are my favourites ... ok, that's the easy way of saying I don't know ... LOL!
Cake - Pure Chocolate of course. I go weak for chocolate cakes!
Dog - An English bulldog. I just love the fact that it's so ugly and slobbers like crazy! LOL!
Exercise - Urmm, let's not even go there, ya ... hahaha ...
Four Letter Word - Urmmm, also starts with the letter 'F' ... hahaha ...
Girl - Who else but my adorable wife :D (okay honey, you can keep that hammer away already ... LOL!)
Hypermarket - Now this one is easy, Tesco la ... hahaha ... And no Anny, I won't be in my black striped T-shirt ... LOL!
Ice-Cream - Chocolate of course. Didn't I already mention this?
Job - Be supreme ruler of the world!
Kroissant - Damn, that starts with 'C'!
Lingerie - Anything that wifey has on :P
Movie - The Shawshank Redemption.
Number - The number 6 and don't even bother asking me why!
Occupation - Supreme Ruler of The World! How many times do I have to tell you?
Politician - One that's 6 feet underground!
Quote - You freaking moron!
Router - My new P1 wifi router, of course ... hehehe ...
Sound - The pitter patter of rain drops. Yes, yes, I have a soft side too :D
Time - Anytime I'm home with wifey :D
Underwear - My rocket ship underpants. Wait a minute, that belongs to Spiffy ... LOL!
Vehicle - Anything that moves.
Weather - A nice cool rainy morning.
X - What kind of favourites can you find with 'X' la, Foong?
Year - The year I was born and brought peace and happiness to mankind! LOL!
Zoo - Definitely not the ones in this country!

Ok, there I'm done. I better post this fast before I actually realize I'm insane for even doing this ... LOL!

*Stares at Foong!*
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A Bank, An ATM Machine And A Bunch Of Morons!

2009-05-26T10:48:00.005+08:00

This is a bitch post. If any of you don't want your day spoiled, then stop reading right now.

I'm going to talk about banks today, a subject I've spoken on before. The banks of today just don't know how to treat their customers. They think that we, the public should be so thankful and grateful to them for actually offering us with banking services where half the time we have to pay all kinds of stupid interests and service charges to use OUR own money.

And the way they sometimes treat their customers with their over the counter services is utterly atrocious. An unsmiling and oftentimes rude teller dishing out shoddy substandard services. I mean I'm not expecting them to jump over the counter and give me a nice big good morning hug or something, but a little hello and a smile can sometimes work wonders.

Most of the time when I'm done with whatever transactions I have to do at the bank, I end up leaving in a worse mood than when I entered the banking hall. Which is why I tend to do almost all my banking transactions online (where you don't have to put up with those unfriendly faces) but there are times when you just have no choice but to actually have to step foot inside a bank, like when you run out of cash and need to use the ATM machines.

Yes, these days even their ATM machines piss me off. I'm being unfair, it's not the fault of the ATM, more like the morons tending to it. I had an encounter with their moronic staff and their ATM's yesterday that has left me thinking whether I should withdraw whatever little money I have in the bank, put it in a coconut shell and hide it under my bed.

I needed to withdraw some money from the ATM machine yesterday so I went to the nearby bank. It was already way past their opening time but the moment I reached the place, I saw a huge crowd standing outside the ATM facilities which was unusual.

Then I saw the reason why. They were in the midst of taking out all those money containers or whatever it's called and also replacing all the transaction slip rolls and there was a guard who locked the doors to prevent anyone from entering.

Now, I know they have to do this on a daily basis and the doors are locked for security reasons but the two morons that were inside doing all this was busily laughing and chatting away taking their own freaking time while a huge sum of people with some of them being the elderly standing outside and baking in the frigging morning sun (yes, the morning sun these days are really, really hot!).

I was already starting to sweat profusely and probably wouldn't need those diet pills I was planning to buy. I think I was standing there close to 25 minute freaking minutes waiting for them to take their own sweet time to do what they need to do! And it's not like they couldn't see us all suffering in the heat outside through the glass doors, you know.

My question to them is why couldn't they do this before the banking hours proper started? Couldn't they have come in a little earlier and start the process of changing the money containers and replacing the rolls and all that instead of waiting till the bank opens and working hours to start, just when people need to actually use the machines? An ATM machine is supposed to make your life easier not get you all worked up so early in the morning!

I suppose they couldn't do that a little earlier cos that would eat into their breakfast time. God forbid us lowly customers from having to make them forgo their breakfast! Like I said, we should be thankful to them for giving us banking facilities to keep OUR money.

There was another incident where my boss went and opened a new account and wanted to get a debit card and he had to wait for an hour or so cos the officer who had the key to the debit cards storage went out for breakfast, can you believe it? And during banking hours too. The customer has to wait for him, imagine that! I suppose we should all just suffer and follow their whims and fancies.

Anyways, there was this old gentlemen who was also suffering in the heat with all of us who rapped on the glass door and asked them politely how long they were going to be. Instead of at least coming to the door and saying something like 'it won't take too long', this officer (I presumed) gave this gentleman an irritated look and just said wait! I was appalled by her behavior.

That's our banks for you. The customer is always secondary to the profit they need to make. Bunch of morons! Maybe we should all just take our money out from these banks and see whether they can stay in business without the support of their customers. Maybe I should open my own bank! LOL!

Ok, that's all I have to bitch about for today. Have a nice rest of the day :D
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That Lady Called Fate ...

2009-05-24T15:12:00.004+08:00

Do you believe in fate? Do you believe that sometimes certain things happen that has a bearing on your future? I never did, well at least not until this morning.

I've been wanting to get myself a wireless router for ages. Wifey and me always fight for 'online' time at home cos we have two systems, a desktop and a laptop but with one modem. I've been looking around for a nice wireless router for quite some time now and the thing that was putting me off was the price. A good wireless router isn't really cheap, you know.

But after searching around, I came across this decent Belkin wireless router at Tesco. It was pretty cheap and I said I'll come back for it in a couple of days time. But as fate would have it, when I went back to get it, the darn thing ran out of stock! Never mind, I said, maybe they'd re-stock next week.

But every time I went there, which is practically every Sunday cos we do out groceries there the router remained out of stock. I know I could go elsewhere but that particular router was being sold at a bargain. Everywhere else was selling it at least twice the price. But I persisted and waited patiently for it to be re-stocked but to an avail.

I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to get it elsewhere for a much higher price. But then, P1 Wimax (which my company sells for extra income) recently launched their new modem that comes with built in router and a Wifi adapter. And they're giving away the new modem free of charge if I sign up for the 2 year contract.

This actually came at just the right time cos my current internet service provider has been acting up on me the past couple of weeks and has been making it hard for me to do my Lipofuze reviews. Trying to get their customer service people to understand my problem was like trying to squeeze water from a rock! I think they're currently staffed by a bunch of morons!

Anyways, since I know for a fact that P1 is so much faster in terms of speed than our current ISP, wifey suggested we sign up with P1, so I can get the new modem with the wireless router and that would solve my router blues.

I thought that was a brilliant idea and I wouldn't have to fork out a huge sum of money for a wireless router now since the new modem is free of charge. So, I'm terminating my current ISP next week and signing up with P1 and now both wifey and me won't have to flip a coin as to who gets to use the internet first ... LOL!

Ok, what has all this got to do with fate, you might ask. Well, first of all I'm a long winded fellow, my long time readers would know this fact and it takes me ages to get to the point ... LOL! But this is where I think fate had played a part in making me wait till P1 launched their new modem. Like I mentioned earlier, I wanted to get that router from Tesco but it was constantly out of stock.

The thing is it wasn't out of stock at all. They actually moved their router display to another aisle which I never ever noticed at all today and they had tons of it in stock. I go to Tesco every Sunday, and I went over to this section every time we were there. It was in plain sight but somehow something shielded it from my eyes.

Now, the moment I decided to switch to to P1, which was last night, I actually see tons of that Belkin router being displayed there this morning. It's like fate was hiding the routers from me and not letting me waste my money to get that Belkin router cos something cheaper was in the making! I know it sounds corny and all but that's the way I see it.

How would I otherwise explain that it was there all the while and I never saw it? And I go to that particular aisle every time I'm there. Maybe I could have it missed it once or twice but for two whole months? I think not. I think I was fated not to buy that router. I even asked the sales person if the stock was there all the while and she said it was! Now if that isn't fate playing her hand I don't know what it is.

Come on, haven't something like this happen to you? You've wanted something so bad, you go to the ends of the earth trying to find it with no luck but then you find something even better and cheaper that what you wanted. You're ecstatic, you buy it and then the very next day you see tons of the original thing you were looking for. It's like fate didn't want you to buy it cos something better was in the works for you. You might call it a coincidence but I call it fate :D

All I know is, I'm getting a new broadband modem with a built in router and a Wifi adapter at half the cost of the Belkin wireless router that I had initially set my eyes upon and that's a great deal as far as I'm concerned. I can actually surf from anywhere now since that P1 modem is also mobile :D So sometimes when you want something so bad but can never seem to find it no matter how hard you look for it, maybe fate has better plans for you :D

Oh and don't forget, if you wanna sign up with P1 or know more, drop me an email. Hey, I can't help myself from advertising about P1 here la ... hehehe ...
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Little Old Ladies That Go Bump In The Night!

2009-05-23T00:05:00.005+08:00

It's a Friday night, urmmm, more like Saturday morning to be exact since the clock just struck 12.00am. Here I am sitting at my blog and not partying away. But then again, I wasn't the kind who loved to party anyway. Maybe in my teens yes, but not anymore.

I'm glad the start of the weekend is here cos I've had a terrible week, work wise that is. I'm going to sit back and enjoy the weekend doing absolutely nothing. And since I'm still awake trying to find some term life insurance online quote's, I thought I might as well blog hop a little. But looks like luck is not on my side cos no one has any new postings yet.

And since I'm still wide awake and it is the witching hour after all, I thought I'd relate a supernatural story for today. I've had some of my own previous encounters with the supernatural which I've posted quite some time back which you can all read over here, here and here. But this story I'm about to tell you was related to me by a good buddy.

My good buddy had this friend who used to rent a room somewhere in PJ. I can't remember where already. The room he rented was at the back of the house on the top floor and it was facing the back of another house. This guy works in advertising as well and happens to come back late at night from work.

Normally when he gets back, he'll just chill a bit listening to some music or read just to wind down before sleeping. He'll have his curtains open (you all know how stuffy the weather can get over here without air conditioning). One day when he got back late as usual he looked out his window and saw this old lady in the room at the opposite house. She was just sitting there on a chair looking out the window at him.

Thinking that she couldn't sleep since she was still awake at such a late hour, he waved at her and smiled. She just nodded her head. He didn't think anymore of it and went to sleep. The next day, the same scene of the old lady greeted him and he waved and smiled again as usual.

This soon became a norm with him. Every night he always saw her sitting there looking out the window at him. Never once did he suspect anything amiss. And every time he smiled and waved at her, all she did was give him an unsmiling small nod of her head.

Then after a month or so, he noticed that the old lady was no longer there at the window. He thought maybe she was already asleep or something. I mean, it was such a late hour anyway and maybe those nights he saw her, she just couldn't sleep. But then whole month went by and he never saw her again.

One day while he was at the back of the house drying his clothes after doing the laundry, he happened to see the opposite neighbour. He casually started a conversation and it led to him asking what happened to the lady who lived upstairs in the back room. The neighbour stopped what she was doing, stared at him and asked him what lady?

So he described the old lady to her and she said that was her mother. But her mother had passed away a year ago and the room has been vacant ever since! Then who the heck was he waving too all this while? Even the neighbour had a scared and shock look on her face after he related his waving and smiling at the old lady he used to see sitting there. Damn, I'm getting goosebumps just writing this and don't dare look out my window.

He was actually waving and smiling at a woman who had been dead for over a year! From that night onwards, he had his curtains drawn all day and eventually moved out of that place. I would have done the same thing. I mean, imagine waving and smiling to a lady in the dead of the night and then finding out she was already dead for a year. I would have died on the spot! Like I've said many times, I am the world's biggest coward when it comes to the supernatural.

I absolutely believe this to be a true story cos it comes from a reliable source. But one thing I know, I won't be as stupid as this fellow to wave to strange women sitting in a room at the back of the house, even if it was Jennifer Garner in a bikini!