Are the people fearful? Yes. Are the people concerned? Maybe. Are the people taking the right steps to stop the spread? 50-50 chance. Are people being responsible about it? Hell no.

This rant comes after several irresponsible comments by the family of those infected with the influenza. My heart goes out to those who have been irresponsibly exposed to this virus through no fault of theirs. I’m not talking about those who came back from the virus infested hotspots. Those can rot in hell. Let me correct myself. Those that should rot in hell are those who did not impose on themselves self quarantine after coming back from those places. And saying that they are victims too.

Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/25/nation/4188481&sec=nation

Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/21/ah1n1flu/4164576&sec=ah1n1flu

And the government supports those who spreads the virus without apology?

Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/26/nation/4198775&sec=nation

Such shame and disgrace. If you did a mistake, have some balls and say sorry. You go off holidaying in Melbourne, a hotbed for the virus, come back and say it’s not your fault? I spit out of a balcony and it lands on your head and say it’s not my fault? Why not say sorry? If the public won’t accept the apology, THEN the government should step in to quell the disquiet. One of the articles in the Opinion section sums it up pretty well, although I was not sure where was he heading to with that column in the beginning of the article.

Look at it this way: How would you feel if someone broke quarantine and passed on the disease to someone you loved, maybe one of your children, and your child later ends up as a “death” statistic.

Hardly a cause for celebration is it?

Re: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/26/focus/4196459&sec=focus

Statistics don’t lie, although most statistics have heaps of assumptions. This statistic however, holds no assumption as it is based on hard cold facts.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/20/ah1n1flu/4161391&sec=ah1n1flu

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/25/ah1n1flu/4190287&sec=ah1n1flu

Note that most of the ’start of transmission’ cases occur from ‘coming back from xx country with known cases’.

I fully support the idea where employees coming back home from holiday and have to face quarantine should be given unpaid leave, whereas those coming back home due to work and facing quarantine should be given paid leave. Can you blame employers for this decision? Whose fault is it in the first place to go off holidaying in hotspots? Don’t give us the bullshit saying that you bought the tickets before the outbreak. You could opt NOT to go at all! Life > Money? Or Money > Life? You would rather die and kill others than waste the few hundred or thousand ringgit?

Utter disgrace. You guys who show no sense of responsibility should be shot for causing unnecessary worry and unrest. Reflect upon this as your actions start to cause a chain reaction of deaths. Hope you get nightmares every night.

KW

Anyway, hopefully I should be able to start again on my blog. Should be a good outlet if I wanna bash something. :)

KW

The statements above was what hit me after I met him face to face. Then I catch myself, “Hmm, he’s a blogger. A famous one, one of my favourites, but still a blogger. Since when have bloggers gained celebrity status?”

Disclaimer: If anyone who knows Kenny, or if Kenny himself reads this, PLEASE DON’T TAKE THIS POST THE WRONG WAY. I respect those who blog, have no grudge against them, and am just writing this on an emotion / chord that struck me in an odd way.

I was walking out of the MCA 9-Point Party Platform after the last session I intended to attend, when I bumped into Kenny. Before that, I passed an area which was roped off for a ‘blog meeting’ (or something along that line). I was asking what was going on in that area, kinda guessing it was a bloggers meeting (I saw Nicole there), and was asked back if I was a blogger. I told her I blog, but only once in a blue moon, and she asked me again if I was a member of N-something (no, I can’t remember the name). No, I told her, and I was regretfully told that it was a bloggers only thing for those who joined that society. Huh? What? Wow… Bloggers now have celebrity status and have this kinda meetings? Wow… I wanna be a pro-blogger too…

Then the ‘I bumped into Kenny’ happened, and in the midst of that, I actually catch myself in thinking of them with a celebrity tag. Hey, another disclaimer here, I love Kenny (not in a homosexual way), his blogs are extremely entertaining and his travelogues have given me insight on what I should do if I do decide to take a trip to some-remote-area-backpacking-with-chicks-wanting-to-hop-along :) . But to put him on a celebrity status… kinda… wrong… in quite a number of levels (SORRY KENNY, DON’T EAT ME PLS).

What I feel, tagging a ‘celebrity tag’ to them will most unfortunately, bloat some egos. And for those who say ‘nay’, I’m sorry, but look at history. Man repeats history unless it becomes fatal. Then he (or she)’s not alive to repeat it. Putting on such a tag might destroy the core of a blogging society. We feel nice reading others’ blogs because we can ‘click’ with the topic, with views from the blogger coming from someone who is human, who isn’t scripted. Someone who’s in touch and in tune with the community will always interest us compared to those ‘up there’.

Blogging has been an interesting way to advertise something, with some big brands cashing into something that is made ‘by the people, for the people’. Those who reads blogs expect the blogger to give honest opinions on a product, as viewed by the blogger, not some trumped up marketing scheme to boost sales. In saying this, can bloggers keep to being impartial and be truthful on something? With sponsorship and advertisement time, bloggers might then take the route of THE advertisement space to be, and bloggers will the be put into a limelight which were formerly reserved for models, actors/actresses, etc (aka, celebs) 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when a new celeb class has emerged (the bloggerz… oooOOOoooo), can we look into the mirror and tell ourselves it’s us who gave them such a status? And can the regular bloggers actually look upon themselves and say “I blog for myself, with no editting and no scripting” and not “I blog for my fans / sponsors”? Think about it.

Maybe I felt left out, being a ‘once-in-a-blue-moon’ blogger and not in the loop. Maybe I felt jealous of the people there. Maybe, just maybe, I can see a bigger picture and feel that the road that fate twists will lead to pain and frustration in the future. Maybe?

A step further.
KW

Friday (18/01/08):

Business Funding 5c’s Strategy – useful, highlighting on the criteria as seen by banks and financial institutions on loan approval
Debt Management – not bad, highlights the need for financial management, but is targetting the people in debt and promoting the government institution AKPK
Memory Power: Forget No More – good course, trying to apply what I’ve learnt

Saturday (19/01/08):

Making Money and Adding Value Via The Internet – not bad, quite good advice, won a shirt (speaker was from google)
Money Works@Wealth Management – =/ Not as good as I hoped, nevertheless, there’s always something to be learnt, this guy was promoting himself and his company a lot more than teaching
Painting with your Brain: Mind Mapping & Creativity – not bad, but like the earlier one, is promoting himself and his business more than teaching the methods
Knowing What you Want and Getting What you Want – urgh. if i’m not motivated, then it might do me some good. but since i am motivated, bleh.
Legal Talk: Intellectual Property – Devolved into a mostly Q&A session, but I managed to learn a LOT from this session.

Sunday (20/01/08):

Entrepreneur Group Coaching: Turning Dreams into Deals – a change of speaker, and like some sessions, more of promoting company services
Striving towards Job Excellence – great talk, something that every EMPLOYEE should learn, with conflicting ideas with what I’m taught as my dad is grooming me to have more of an employer mindset
Managing Difficult People – good talk by the same guy as the job excellence one. good impression with great ideas on how to manage people, regardless of in the office or with customers.

Took notes on the seminars I attended, close friends who want to know what was said, I can send a copy of my notes (please pardon the messiness, it’s hopefully legible :P ) to you. In the course of the seminar, I met some people and of course, networked as much as I can.

A particular thing to note, while the MCA 9-Point Party Platform Exhibition was something that was of immense use to youths (things that everyone who faces real life has to learn), it was massively overshadowed by the Youth ‘08 convention that was going on. I noted that most of the youths around preferred to hang out at the ‘cool places’ there like the stage that took up most of the middle area on that floor, with people yelling, singing, and doing youth stuff. The whole of the lower floor was also reserved for youths, with things like shuffling competition and graffiti art going on down there. Kinda makes me sad to see the lack of enthusiasm from youths on what could be a great boon to their future being neglected. Heh me speaking like an old man? The sad thing is, I see most of the attendees to the seminars being held were old people (mid 30s++?) and of course, parents bringing their reluctant kids (less than 14 yo by my estimate). Where are the youths? Where are the people whom this exhibition was aimed at? Financial management, debt management, entrepreneurship… these are the topics that shape a youth’s future, and yet it’s something that they neglect?

Well, if partying and enjoying oneself is something that defines being a youth, then me, being a 24 yo guy (year 2008) would like to find the ‘youth counter’ so I can return my membership on a category that I find ‘not progressive’ to my future. Does anyone of you know where the ‘challenging young people’ counter are? I would really like to sign up.

A step further.
KW

Phone number here in Malaysia is 016-2122826. For those who know me well, this is an office phone number so I’ll be returning it when I go back to Australia. I should be getting a fixed line of my own when I get back for good!

Not very busy nowadays, so hopefully I’m able to post a bit more on this blog with reviews on stuff I bought and places I’m going to visit :)

Till next time…

KW

Not the first case too. Lately, I find myself wandering off, chasing butterflies would be an apt term. When I was in high school and stuff, I loved Sherlock Holmes and took quite a few tips while reading his stories. At that time, I can follow a conversation and mentally pick up a lot of details on a person. You COULD say mentally undressing someone, but that’s rude, isn’t it? Lol. So yes, I mentally pick up a lot of detail on a person. In a 5 minute conversation, I can see if a person has had his / her clothes ironed, if there were any indication of food on the clothes, if a person has had a walk through a park or has been sitting a lot… that kinda thing. I’m the guy who tells you your zipper is not all the way closed or if you tucked your pants into your sock (or your skirt into your panties? Haven’t happened before though.)

Things are different now. I can’t focus. Having a 5 minute conversation means my brain picks itself up and walks away within 2 minutes. I catch my own eyes glazing and I mentally blank out from the conversation. Bloody irritating especially in lectures. I must admit though, it does not happen to all conversations (almost all lectures though, I’m sick of it). I’m bored of the topic? Maybe. But that line of reasoning points to me being increasingly selfish, yes?

Hmm… The last post prompted a lot of emotions and deep thoughts. I have to admit and correct the previous post, my girlfriend did a lot for me. Of all the people that I have talked to, I know I can open up fully to her. Well, going through 5 years of being together does give an inordinate amount of trust, and I know my days have been brightened being with her. In a way, this post is sort of like an apology to her; I know the previous post hurt her a lot. Therefore, I would like to say:

“Dear, I love you. I’m happy that you accept me for who I am, for what I may be and for helping me melt the ice around my soul. I’m sorry for hurting you with that post, and I’m silly for not realising how important you are to me. I know we already made up, but please accept this as a sincere public apology for a comment I made publicly. Much love.”

:) Well… after my exams I might drop by the bookstore again and hunt for more Murakami books. And John Grisham. The next posts will probably be a bit more book reviews, hopefully without spoilers. (Mim, if you see the title, go read it first if you don’t want me to spoil it for you.)

Editted: Took that emo post off :P Hindsight = 20/20 and it’s not a pretty picture.

Walking back home, we mused on a lot of things. Heck, we often talk about everything and anything that comes to mind. Even with his limited vocabulary, we are able to develop many interesting topics, with me trying to help him on his English. I’m constantly amazed by his tenacity on approaching the language. I, on the other hand, would love to learn Mandarin and Japanese. But unlike him, the need to master those languages is still far from needed, therefore the urge isn’t there. Que sera sera I guess… Will just need a good push in the right direction to actually get down learning them. After all, my girlfriend is pretty good in Mandarin, and I have a solid friend like him who knows both Mandarin and Japanese. The situation then will probably be reversed, with me asking him on advice and him bringing me around to procure good books to read :P Ah well, time will tell I guess.

Kah Wai

Maybe my blog should be melodramatic. With a touch of emo-ism. An outlet for frustrations, instead of crying myself to sleep, or getting so hurt that i gotta rush to the toilet and slash my wrists just to find a reprieve from the horrible horrible world. o______O I really doubt I’m that kinda guy. I really hope I’m not that kinda guy. Emotional, yes… Probably more ‘touchy’ and more ’sensitive’ than other guys. *Shrug* Friends like Mimi and Sheryl who have been great emotional crutches during those high school days will probably know what I’m talking about. It’s not very different now though, just that I have a girlfriend to let loose those pent up frustrations (please get sex out of your head; grow up), someone to talk to just to mentally refresh myself.

Maybe I should. It seems refreshing while I’m typing this. I’m not extremely good in the language, but I believe my choice of words are tacky enough. A hint of sarcasm, a note of awe, a bit of bullshit… Hmm… Sounds like I’m high on something. Been there, done that.

Gah ok… My thought process is all over the place right now. Reasserting: I’m not high on anything. Just confused on what should I muse about. Some things should be kept private, y’know? Among friends I can talk stuff and confess about things, but on a blog, well, it’s not private. Some random just drops by and looks through my feelings, looks at my life.

Now I catch myself rambling. I sound like an old grandfather telling his war stories / time of glory again and again and again and AGAIN to helpless grandchildren seated around him. I’d better stop now before I actually HAVE glorious times to ramble on.

KW

• Intel Duo Core 1.6GH, 2MB Cache, 533 MHz FSB
• Integrated Stereo Sound
• 2048MB (2 X 1024MB) 533 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
• GENUINE Windows Vista(TM) Business with AERO experience (Had to upgrade, it was cheap – This will be the topic of discussion later after the boasting)
• 120GB SATA Hard Disk Drive
• Internal 8X DVD +/- RW Combi Drive wuth dual layer write capabilities
• 15.4″ Wide Screen XGA TFT Display with Truelife(TM): 1280 X 800
• 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7300 TurboCache

Ok enough with the boasting. On to the topic. Wonder… errr… Windows Vista.

Honestly, when I first saw it I was very impressed. The AERO experience with the shadow backdrops and the ‘fogged glass’ appearance for the borders of any window open that wasn’t maximised, was genuinely beautiful. Even the taskbar had that feature, which was semi-transparent when there wasn’t any maximised window open. Microsoft outdid itself by adding a ‘widget bar’, the stuff you can get from Yahoo or Google widgets if you’re the type that heavily modifies the desktop appearance just to look good. The widgets also give good functionality and flexibility, making your desktop a true DESKTOP, complete with a clock, sticky notes, weather, calendar… I can keep going. The drawback for that was (for earlier Window versions) the amount of memory that the widgets eat into while running in the background. Trust me, anything that has a ‘3rd party’ tag to it will definitely be screwing up with memory. This time, the widgets are integrated into Vista, making the startup times bearable with all the antivirus, instant messenger, anti-spyware, firewall… blah blah blah going on in the background.

I digress. The topic that I would like to touch on is the bloody administrator / user status of bloody ‘wonderful’ Vista. It’s a veritable pain in the nether region. In addition to programs being incompatible to Vista, (as to be expected, remember the start of XP? Same shit, different day) Microsoft had to be very anal about programs accessing the system files. Granted, with today’s hackers, crackers, spyware, adware and all those warez you see on the internet, one cannot be too careful about what program and who is accessing your information, much less writing stuff into your system files. Therefore, Microsoft came up with the brilliant idea of, “Hey, why not make the administrator, who is SUPPOSED to have total control over everything, start off as a normal user status?” Now you’re thinking, hmm, the idea sounds good since I might screw up stuff that I don’t know about if I have admin status. BUT! The trouble starts.

Updating programs manually have always been a norm for programs that update themselves once in a blue moon. This contrasts a lot with anti-virus programs, which always update themselves at the wrong bloody time of the day, when you’re rushing up an assignment, or trying to access a program that eats into memory like a glutton. Nevertheless, the manual updates happen when the program finally ’sees’ an update on the developer server, and prompts you to install it else it’ll blow up in your face. In Windows XP, you happily press the update button, not caring if the update is really an update, or just your mom checking if you’re still alive. Windows Vista however will complain. It’s not the fact of it complaining or not, it’s WHEN it complains. Usually a file is downloaded onto your computer before any ‘patching’ or ‘updating’ is done. After the download, it proceeds to execute the file. Here is where the problem starts. At the end (sometimes beginning) the program gives an error message saying, “Hey, get lost and get the manager to come see me. You don’t have any privileges to do crap shit with this computer.” And there you are wondering, “Hmm, I’m the manager, what the hell is it complaining about?” Ahah. THIS is the problem I’m talking about when Vista ‘demotes’ someone down to user status when executing programs. Couple that with the frustration of waiting out the long tedious update just for it to screw up on the last percent.

A workaround? Yeap, Microsoft decided to be generous about it (after finding out they screwed up) and gave a ‘Run program as administrator’ option to users. Once a program is run as an administrator, any file patches or updates can be run without it complaining. Bottom line: If you run a program and it says, “Hey check it out, a new patch / update is available and it’s extremely important I get it”, click NO, and close the program. Right click on the program shortcut to obtain this:

Click on that, click on YES for any following irritating confirmation messages that crop up (DISCLAIMER: please check the messages first!!), program starts, and here comes Mr. Message saying that there is an update (again). NOW, you can click on “Go ahead, infect my computer with what not and let me get on with whatever I’m supposed to do.” The program should then update itself peacefully without interruptions.

Another weird quirk with Vista is the incapability of users to save any files (through programs) into the program folder. For example, if you work in Matlab (a mathematical software), the default work folder will be under the Matlab folder itself. Saving into that folder will give error messages saying you cannot save onto that folder. Picky isn’t it? This is an encouragement to use the ‘Documents’ folder (similar to ‘My documents’ for XP). I can’t say this is a bad thing, since it centralises all your information, therefore reducing the headache of remembering which folder did you save it to. Of course, you can compartmentalise your data in the Documents folder by creating subfolders in it and saving into them. Vista isn’t THAT anal to prevent you doing that. When you save files, you will be prompted for the location to save to as well as the file name. Example shown below. (NOTE: The example used PROBABLY wasn’t very good as it was defaulted to save in ‘My Pictures’ folder, which is default writable to, but this can be extended to any programs whose default folder isn’t ‘Documents’ or any subfolder in it)

By using “Browse Folders” you can search for the ‘Document’ folder faster:

Well, another roundabout way is to run the program as administrator (you can set that to permanent status by right clicking on the shortcut and fiddling with the properties) but you will get all those irritating confirmation windows that you may as well save yourself the aggravation and use my way instead.

Well, that’s Windows Vista for you. Seriously, I’ll wait for the first major patch that ultimately kills all these little annoyances before getting it for your system. By that time, quite a lot of programs will then be Windows Vista compatible that shifting over from Windows XP (or older) should not bring you too much grief.

KW