Telur Mistake?

What do you think of the title? Is it a chicken accidentally laying a goose egg? I've no idea myself but I read it on a restaurant menu here where I had lunch (before the fasting month!!)
Well, actually the kang kong (king kong?) belanca is also a grammatical + spelling mistake.

On another note, I'm getting a Gen2 CPS. Manual of course. I'd have to change gears a lot in town but I'd have the option of zoom zooming when I drive out of town. As I said to the sales guy, I'd get an auto Gen2 only if Proton comes up with a model with paddle shifts haha.

So anyways here's my lovely old car sandwiched between 2 younger (newer) siblings.

It's still a good car (with some rattles, clanks and holes). One thing I love about this car is the power. The thing I hate is fuel consumption. I'd roughly halve my petrol bills (hey company doesn't pay I still for balik kampung or jalan2 cari makan!) since the gen2 should have something around 6.5l-7.5l/100km whereas the volvo uses 12l - 18l/100km.

Oh, I'd have to change my driving style. Right now I depend on power surges to overtake and shift lanes. My out of town driving is also a rear wheel drive style which really doesn't suit a front wheel drive car. I know this from driving my bro's Gen2 before this and also my dad's Perdana. Normally I half drift my car through fast corners since the volvo really doesn't take corners that well. I've to learn how to take corners fast with fwd car now.

So okay. Back to work now. I'm driving to meet clients~

New Car?

A new blog entry after how many months? Well, I've moved somewhere near KL and working in KL (thankfully not in the city centre). So anyway now I'm thinking of a new car for various reasons. The two main ones are simply maintenance and petrol.

Actually my boss also told me to get a smaller car since this company actually pays all my petrol bills except weekend fill-ups of course. A 1989 Volvo 740 Turbo isn't exactly a petrol sipper by any means. It's a gulper especially when I drive to the city to meet with clients. Traffic jams = thirsty volvo.

Right now I've two cars shortlisted. There were three but the Bestari 206 (Peugot 206) got crossed off the list courtesy of the small space for rear passengers. The two contenders are the updated Proton Gen2 Hi-line and Suzuki Swift 1.5. Both cars are in different price ranges and handle differently. I'm only test driving the Gen2 this afternoon. I know Gen2s have excellent control and balance but what I want to know now is whether the new Campro CPS engine has the power to match. The old Gen2 is simply a terrible low rev car. I keep stalling the engine in traffic jams. It only turns alive once you push it beyond 150km/h. Ridiculous but that's how the old campro engine works. Power only after 4500 rpm.

Well anyway, if the Gen2 doesn't deliver, I'd get the Swift which is also an excellent car. Only one reason is putting me off the swift for now. The price. I could afford to get it but I won't have much spending money if I get it.

Going to the car dealer now for a test drive~~

Father's Day!!

I forgot it was Father's Day yesterday.. Anyway Here's an interesting tidbit from www.apples4theteacher.com.

In the USA, Fathers' Day is celebrated on the 3rd Sunday in June since being made a national holiday in 1966. In Australia and New Zealand, fathers are honored the first Sunday in September. Other countries celebrate fathers throughout the year.

Nice aye? ^__^ By the way Father's Day in Malaysia is also on the 3rd Sunday of June.

Procrastination

Hmm... a topic that is indeed close to my heart. Well, I feel somethign akin to a dull stab everytime someone says this word so it is figuratively correct. Anyway a psychotherapist who also practices EFT, Gloria Arensen has written a book called Procrastination-Nation. I've yet to find it here and a search on Kinokuniya's website shows it's not yet available and not just here in Malaysia; It turned out completely blank which means Kinokuniya haven't had a whiff of it yet. Anyway head out to Gloria Arensen's website to learn more of this interesting book. Her blog is procrastination blog isn't updated much tho, she was more into writing the book than blogging. It still has great information in it so definitely worth a check.

Exp books?

Well, it has come to my attention that the book with the offending price tag was from a publisher that the author herself is unhappy with. So let's hope it's just the publisher that caused the price increase rather than a general book price hike. Anyway it'll take some more months since bookstores generally raise the price of newer books when a price increase happens. At least that was how it was when our currency depreciated massively last time.

Oh the publisher is HarperCollinsUK and the RM50+ paperback is The Spirit Stone, Book Two of the Silver Wyrm or as HarperCollinsUK printed on the cover that I have here, Book 5 of the Dragon Mage which is most definitely wrong. Can't say I'm fond of this publisher right now.

Malaysian Book Lovers Shafted!

Oh man, it's been so long since I last updated. This I have to write. Book lovers in Malaysia. Mourn the easy days. I just got a message from an avid book reader that new mass paperback books are now RM50++.

I'll be buying everything online then it seems. A few books plus bulk postage... It'll be cheaper. I can't believe this is happening. Am dreading my next trip to a bookstore. If it's true then no more bookstores for me. Say NO to unfair prices. Don't let whoever it is responsible extort you. We have alternatives! Books are for life~~~

Sadly,Post Options
A book lover

Ayam Besar

I just remembered an amusing thing some kids said at a friend's wedding. It was already night then so the family's settling down after a busy day.

A little boy, about 5 or 6 years old, came out of the kitchen area carrying a big bowl of sup tulang. Let's call him Boy A. It was kerbau by the way so just had a polite sampling. Didn't like it much, prefer beef over buffalo meat. Anyways this kid sat down and began heartily slurping the soup, nibbling on some bits of bone and gristle. I was just talking to my friend, the groom, who was a little bit giddy though he was really pale and sweating. I missed the wedding vows so didn't know whether he fumbled or not... So anyway back to the boy.

As he was enjoying his meal, a few other boys about his age came and asked him whether he's enjoying his soup. He smiled and said yes it's tasty. One of the other boys, I'll call him boy B, then admired the large piece of bone in the soup and said, "Waaah, besarnya tulang ayam kamu. Patutla sedap sup tu". The conversation then went as such...

Boy A, "Bukanlah ni sup kerbau, bukan sup ayam."

Boy B "Ayam tu, bukan kerbau. Besar ayam kau dapat."

Boy A "Eh, mak aku cakap sup kerbau, macam mana pulak jadi ayam."

Boy B, "Kau silap tu. Memang tulang ayam. Betul tak korang?', asking the other boys in his group.

Boys B, C and D, "Ha'ah la. Memang tulang ayam tu."

The first boy then just stared at his soup and after a while carried the bowl back to the kitchen.

Okay, for those who don't read Malay... Here's an approximate translation..

Boy B first said, "Wooow, that's a big chicken bone you have there... No wonder the soup's nice"

Boy A, "What? It's not chicken, it's buffalo... How could it turn into chicken..."

Boy B, "You got it wrong. I'm sure it's chicken bone. Isn't that right guys?"

Boys B, C and D, " Yea, that's chicken bone for sure."


Welp. Twas a really really weird and surreal conversation. I didn't even believe I was hearing it right at the time ^__^

Blogged with Flock

Energy

Been having less energy these few weeks. I suspect an herb has something extra to do with this tiredness. I had been taking this particular herb on and off for close to a year as it's supposed to help my liver. Oh, I do have some liver problems and that affects me to a certain extent. Anyway my doctor insisted that I try to take it regularly for once because I admitted to taking it half dose once a day. Why did I do that? Because whenever I take it full dose twice a day I'd feel really really bad after just 4 days. Anyway I this time I tried to keep to the program as is rather than improvising as I see best. The herb is supposed to have a really obvious effect after just a month of regular consumption. The research and feedback shows marked improvement in many cases.

Well, after about a month and a half taking the herb I must say it really has a significant effect on me. I got really really really tired, felt throbbing pain around my liver area, intermittently at first but almost all the time by the end of the period, felt very weak and had trouble sleeping, waking and generally doing anything because I lack energy. It didn't seem good so I just stopped cold turkey and informed the doctor that I'm not taking the herb anymore. I don't know what effect it had but I really hope no permanent damage was done to my liver as I still have less than 30% of the energy I had before this even after a month of stopping the herb and sleeping at home most of the time... Ironic isn't it, a liver helping herb actually having the opposite effect. Well, I can't really say opposite effect as I haven't done any blood tests to check my liver's current condition. Well, I'll go and get the test done soon to check what effect it had. Maybe it improved my liver and the tiredness and energy loss are just incidental side effects?

Smoking Gun

Am wathcing a documentary right now. The narrator said "Until today, there's still no smoking gun...." Okay, am not quoting verbatim, the important part is the phrase smoking gun. The Malay subtitles said "tiada senapang asap" which literally means there are no smoke guns. Long live literal translations. Gives me plenty of laughs. You can't believe what how they translate... The funniest I know is when they translated 101 dalmations into "seratus satu bintik" which means one hundred and one spots!!!. It's not even remotely right in any way ^__^

A Tribute to Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan, one of the greatest fantasy authors of the modern day. I started reading his book a few years ago, in 2002 if I'm not mistaken. I love his books and love the world he created. I type today with great sadness. This author that inspired millions died on the 16th of September 2007 around 2.45 pm. His fans would already know this but I write here not to inform anyone. I write in honour of his name. The legacy that he created.

My deepest condolences to his family and friends. May God be with him.

Ahmad Hilmi Jaafar
17th September 2007 6.50pm (GMT +0800)

Afraid of Water?

will the sticker be afraid of water? like spills or whatever...

I read this question in a forum I frequent. The person wants to know whether the said sticker is water proof or not. Technically.... if the sticker is 'afraid' of water, that means it's hydrophobic right? Which makes it waterproof :D The guy answering it helpfully related how he rubbed water on the sticker and it simply rolled of the sticker. I noticed he avoided answering whether the sticker's afraid or not :D

At last.... The book....

The book.... The book's here at last. No I don't mean Harry Potter, I finished that off a few weeks ago and it was an amusing read.. Not bad but not great either. There I said it. Just a simple observation of mine no flaming please. I still like the story.

Anyways I got meself 2 new books. One I finished reading 2 weeks ago, the new Robin Hobb book, Renegade's Magic, the third book in her excellent Soldier Son Trilogy. This series of her started slow but it built momentum really well and the last book is the most excellent (that also makes it the strangest book :D). I'm not going to spoil anyone who might go and read the trilogy, let's just say it's unrelated to her other books and it has very different ideas and concepts...

The book that caused me to feel giddy isn't Hobb's book though. It's Steven Erikson's latest Malazan Book of The Fallen, Reaper's Gale. Oh I do love the Malazan series. It's excellent. Confusing as hell and excellent. I'll be re-reading the books again after I finish this latest book. He writes in such a way that I only understand a certain comment from book one in the 3rd or 4th book. Tis crazy but really really addictive.

Ah, actually I got a delicious morsel to nibble on before I got these books. George R. R. Martin's The Hedge Knight, a graphic novel. It's a juicy tidbit, not enough to satisfy my Song of Ice and Fire craving but enough to tide me by.

Okay, I'll be offline reading Reaper's Gale. Signing off....

Insanity

I'm embracing insanity rather than trying to reason out everything. Things fall into place very much as they will no matter how I plan and so I'll simply do what I can according to the moment I'm in. The future? Well, I carefully create things I really need such as the presentation slides for our company's upcoming event and I'll practice as much as I feel necessary. Other minor things I will deal with as they come...

Anyway speaking of the event. We have 2 events coming in August. One is a seminar by Dr. Alan Godlas, a sufi event. The title is "Spiritual Transformation in Daily Life by means of Remembrance Gratitude and Love". Find out more at the spiritual transformation info page in Holistic Leader's website. Direct linky to the seminar info page~~

The other event is a Light of Healing emotional freedom seminar titled "Dunia di Sebalik Emosi" - Beyond Emotions - The World Awaits You...
I know the Malay title sucks and that's after my sister revised the title. It doesn't exactly have the profound tone of the English title.

Oh here's the seminar advert as will be published in the August edition of Jelita magazine. It's fully in Malay though~

Which OS Are You?

I found this gem of a quiz. Well, I think it's interesting and I guess anyone with a twinge of geekiness would do so too. How about you mah little sisters, Hana & Aimi? Find this quiz interestin?

Which OS are You?

Carcass

Welp, I woke up early today and had meself a bit of leisure surfing before doing anything else. When I went out of me room to take a bath.. Lo and behold, my car was missing... Tis the saddest thing yet this week as I've been looking forward to drive my own car yesterday morn and yet it was taken from me because of a minor problem with starting the ever ailing merc. Turns out the merc's battery was flat so a simple battery change solved the problem. Oh but that was yesterday... Why was my car missing again today????

I took the merc's key and opened it's door. Immediately obvious was the auto-gear in D position. Oh god don't tell me they took my car just because they couldn't see that the car wasn't in neutral or parking.. I reset the gear position to P, tried the ignition and sure enough the merc starts easily.

After that I actually wasted more than an hour tuning the merc's audio system. It's amplifier and subwoofers weren't properly tuned after my dad installed replacement units some time ago so I did what I could. Now CDs and high-Q MP3s sound great while the FM radio works fine as long as reception is good. Any interference and you'd hear every single pop and crackle. Well, that shows the audio upgrade was worth it... Everything's crystal clear.... Oh low quality MP3s sound really bad with this audio system. I tried an MP3 CD that was in the glove compartment and my ears almost bled. Thankfully I rip my own CDs most of the time and the rare cases I actually get an album through the net it would be because it isn't selling in stores anymore so the online rips would also be high quality...

Di3Va

This is the least interesting live concert I've seen on tv. The only thing that I could see for sure is that they have great stamina. Continuous singing till a commercial... Other than that there's nothing spectacular. Their voices aren't that great and the songs don't sound as they do on the radio... I'm not comparing this show to their CDs. I'm comparing them to radio broadcasts. Well the fans seem to love it. Maybe it sounds better live or they're all loyal fans.

Oh I actually do like some parts of the show. The orchestra :D They play lovely music

Work - Qwiz

A quick pre-trip quiz ahaha~

Your Career Personality: Original, Devoted, and Service Oriented

Your Ideal Careers: Art director Book editor College professor Composer Film director Graphic designer Novelist Stage actor Psychiatrist Writer

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

Welp

Hmm... Am feeling better today... No I didn't get any physical disease. I was just having an extended out of body experience. No flying souls or transparent self, just mind displacement :D

Dragon!

All ye who love fantasy novels would surely love this quiz. I post here the result I acquired.

My inner dragon is the true draconic magic-user. Deep down I am very wise, somewhat shy, and I have a rather short fuse. But don't worry, tans prefer to spend their time counting their enormous treasure, so pass quietly and you'll stay out of danger. Click the image to try the Inner Dragon Online Quiz for yourself.

More on Tans:

Your Inner Dragon is the true draconic magic-user. Tans have been all but forgotten in popular literature, but that suits them just fine. They're slightly shy and spend most of their time in impassable mountain valleys. When feeling brave or adventurous, Tans use their shape-shifting ability to blend in with society. Given a choice, however, Tans still much prefer to be left to their own devices.

You like to spend time devising new and interesting spells and potions, and counting and hoarding your gigantic treasure. Your favorable attributes are longevity, security, magic, and reverence for life. To top it off, your breath weapon is a curious mix of Fire and Air. Just tell folks to watch out, as a Tan you've got a seriously short temper!

Try the Dragon Quiz Yerself!

Merdeka

I notice that there's this merdeka fever this year. Merdeka is independence day. There's so many promotions and offers, so many contests.... though I've yet to participate in any. It's the big 50 for Malaysia... Technically it's 50 years independence for Malaya but that's just a small technicality right?

Anyway I went to the historical part of Melaka, the part where we have the Portuguese ruins and Dutch buildings... It was the town centre back in the old days I guess. As usual I didn't take any pictures of anything~

The last time I went to this area was in 1997 and that's a long long while ago... I notice the Sound & Light auditorium is still there... Something good that. I hear that it's something really spectacular though I've never gone to see it and it is something started in 1989 so I don't know whether it's still good. The Sound & Light show is actually a re-enactment of history with still and moving image projections coupled with narrative, music and sound effects. Umm... that sounds like a multimedia presentation. Well, it was unparalleled in 1989 and the 90s I guess. I still want to see it as this is one thing that Melaka has that I've never experienced. Make that two things.. The other is going to Pulau Melaka (Melaka Island).

Okay just next to the Sound & Light open auditorium there's the philatelic museum, a place I've gone to once when I was still too small to appreciate anything in there. I moved past the museum towards the park that I knew was there to enjoy the shade and ambience. I'm really glad that I did go because it's so calming... The trees are each marked with a big sign that reads "DO NOT DAMAGE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - The Melaka City council". They're all in capital letters with red background and white lettering... It's a necessity here in Malaysia where development is usually seen to be more important than history. I promise to take a camera and snap some pics. The trees are lovely as quite a few of the larger trees are actually two trees intertwined together and they support a lot of smaller climbing and saprofitic plants...

I envision the trees symbolise the true vision of Malaysia as this small park is actually officially launched by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman in 20th February 1957. It was launched together with his proclamation that Malaya is to gain independence in 31st August that year. There's a Proclamation of Independence Memorial near the small park but I'm really surprised to read the plaque stating the park is also connected to the proclamation because I've never read or heard of it from anywhere. I'll write some more after I've taken pictures of the park and trees.