"Treat people the way that you will like them to treat you"

"Treat people the way that you will like other people to treat you" is a golden advice that I have learned for the pass few years. There are times people treated others in a good manner and they were treated in the same way in return. Of course, there are many exceptional cases. However, I remember my father told we should always treat people in a good and fair manner. I guess with the principle of "margin of safety", there is nothing bad about treating people well without thinking about how people will treat us in return.

The reason why I brought up this phrase is because I am currently witnessing some family matters that involves the application of the phrase. Well, let's say it was somewhat of a tragedy to see things happened this way and I am lucky to say that I will be able to learn from what I have witnessed. Anyways, in this family tragedy, a cousin of mine was forced to have a divorce with his wife due to financial constraints and, as a result, his only child will have to live with his mother for the rest of his life. At this moment, the only advice that I can give to this little nephew of mine is to grow up "strong" since he represents the forth generation of my maternal grandfather's family. Sometimes, I feel that kids who are involved in a divorce are the most unfortunate people in the world. These kids may have lost the family love that most people fail to realize how lucky they were to be brought up by their mom and dads. However, as long as these kids are able to grow up strong and to learn from the realities behind their parents' failed marriage, they will be able to cherish their marriage life more dearly than others.

The fruits of my labor

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Rediscovering my Asian History Interest

Recently, I have been reading heavily on Word War II History materials. Well, at first, I was trying to reread "Hirohito:The making of modern Japan" but I found another good book which is "Bankrupting the Enemy" that is written by Edward Miller off Amazon.com .

Anyways, after reading this book about the financial wars between the USA and the Japanese Government. I have discovered a number of details that I have never thought about the in these two great participant in the second World War. For example, there was this act in the US after World War I that was created to restrict the US from the directly involving herself in a foreign war. The rationale for the creation of this act is to prevent the US from getting herself in war because some of her greatest financiers like Jp Morgan etc. had provided vital loans to the warring nations and the financiers begged for the US government's involvement in the war because their financial interests was in stake. This little example makes me think about the many financial interests that the US government takes into account before they involve themselves in a war which seems to disregard their position as the "Good Guy" in a war.

In addition, the book gives a good picture on the economical analysis of Japan by the US government. The economical analysis was carried the calculate the the economy of Japan at the time and the impact of the potential financial embargo of the US on Japan which aims to bring "Japan on its knees" for her aggression on China. I find it fascinating for the research of the US government because it was able to try to learn about their enemy before they go straight into a financial war that may eventually lead to war with Japan. I wonder if the Chinese government of today may have the same profiles of the many countries of the world. The Chinese government seems to resemble the US on the early 20th century because they were both the largest market of the world of their time. It is definitely not be a good to be the bad side of China today because a potential embargo by China on a country that is heavily dependent on its export to China will definitely "bring the country to its knees".

Anyways, I am looking forward to re-reading this book because it seems to provide a good insight on how governments used their financial weapons in a war against their enemy.

Year 24, the second 12 year cycle of a human life

In the Chinese Zodiac, there are 12 different animals that represent each individual year. My Chinese Zodiac happens to be the 12th animal which is the boar. By looking back the past 12 years, many things have happened. In these past 12 years, I was able to finish most of my education which includes my elementary education, secondary education and my college education. In the process, I believed that I was able to go through many changes in my personal life that I think not many people will be able to experience in their lifetime. Although it was sad to see many good things comes to an end, I am sure that I will be able to take these many bitter and sweet experiences that I have gained over the past 12 years and I am confident that better things are on their way for me in my next 12 year human life cycle.

"Chew in the Good, and Spit out the bad"

This phrase has been used on my MSN personal message for a while. I really admire this phrase because it really reflects the really essence of human evolution.

A few years ago, I have read "Taiko" by Eiji Yoshikawa that talks about Toyotomi Hideyoshi who was the second great man in the Sengoku period in Japan. In this great book, it talks about the many foreign influence that Japan has encountered during Oda Nobunaga's era(Tensho period).

At the time, the Japanese merchants were concerned about the impact of the influxes of foreign goods and foreign cultures into the Japanese society. In the book, it talks about a conversation in between Oda Nobunaga and a well known Japanese Merchant. In the conversation, Nobunaga was amazed by sugar which was brought in by the "Gaijins" to Japan. When Nobunaga was enjoying some desert made with sugar, the merchant points out that the sweetness of a dessert has been greatly increased with the application of sugar and there maybe some harmful effects on the human body if the dessert was to be consumed in a long period of time.

After listening to the merchant's observation, Nobunaga used the phrase "Chew in the Good, and Spit out the bad" to describes the Japanese should hold when they accept foreign influence into their traditional cultures and values. In other words, the Japanese needs to learn from the west, to adapt the best from their foreign business partners and then innovate from what they have learned.

YesAsia Sucks for their response time!!

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Nuclear power in Malaysia

With the incoming energy crisis, many countries like Malaysia are planning to tap into alternative energy in order to hedge against the high oil prices that may hit up to $100++ in the coming years. However, I have a little skeptic about the proposal to tap into nuclear power to generate the require energy to replace fossil fuel in Malaysia.

First of all, the cost of building a Nuclear plant is definitely not cheap. It can cost up to a couple of billions of dollars to build up the plant and a commitment on maintenance should always be kept in order to avoid a radioactive leakage like the one that happened in the states in the early 90s.

Secondly, in order to produce Nuclear power, the country will have to seek out nuclear power source such as Uranium. However, with the popularity of Nuclear power in first world countries, the price of Uranium has sky-rocketed in the recent years. In addition, Uranium is definitely not a renewable power resource. It is hard to imagine the feasibility of the plan to establish a Nuclear Power Plant if the source of Uranium is not secured.

Thirdly, although hydroelectricity may not be as efficient as Nuclear power, I think the Malaysian people should really consider evaluating the many ways to use their available energy resources efficiently. Well, with the Bakun Dam, I believe that cheaper electricity should be made available to the people and the Malaysians should really look at what they have before jumping ahead and commit to a huge project like building a Nuclear plant.

Lastly, like many third world countries in the world, Malaysia may not receive any positive remarks for building a new Nuclear Power plant in this world. With Iran as a good example, I am sure Malaysia may receive the same negative treatment that Iran is receiving today. Of course, I am not saying that by establishing a Nuclear Plant, a country will go on and develop their own weapons of mass destruction. However, Malaysians should really consider the potential of new trade barriers to first world countries and the pull out of multi national corporations in order to protest against the construction of the power plant in Malaysia. The effects should not be undermined since it will not only damage Malaysia's image but it will also seriously affect Malaysia's economy which is heavily dependent on the export of their industrial products.

In my opinion, other energy resources should be chosen ahead of Nuclear power. With Malaysia's geographical location on the equator, I believe that solar energy and maybe potential energy from rain should be harvested in order to supply the growing energy demand for the Malaysian economy. Although solar panels have not reached the level of efficiency to produce a massive appeal to the public, I am sure, with a healthy allocation of r & D resources and the expertise of the world scientific experts, Malaysia may become a pioneer and the world's leader in developing solar energy.

"Theodore Rex", a book about the adulthood and the prime of a Great Man

After getting this book on Monday, I can't stop reading it. Mainly because I was eagerly waiting it to arrive after I have read the first book like a week ago. Anyways, I was able to finish it today and I must say that this book actually paints a good picture about a man who has done many great things as the leader of the New World.

Well, first off, he was able to kick start the navy built up for the US Navy.

Next, T.R has started the construction of the Panama Canal despite the many obstructions like the resentment of the Colombians to honor their pre-agreement with the Roosevelt administration that the U.S has received .

Then, T.R has started his plans to accept the African Americans who are qualified to work in the administration as a Federal worker for the US. government. Although many southerners cannot accept the "love" that the president showed to one of their colored friends, T.R was willing to take a chance on his political capital to maintain his stand on his policies.

Another thing that T.R did was he started to pull the public attention the many Trusts like the Beef Trusts, Railroad Trusts that was dominating the US economy at the time. The Trusts were actually a combination of the many major and smaller similar companies to formed up a corporation that will allocate a number of shares that will entitled the dividend of profits based on the size of the companies. In other words, the trusts were controlled by the major corporations like Standard Oil and others. As long as the big corporations were able to control the major entities like oil supply and railroads in America, the people were at times held at ransom when the trusts were free to charge at their will. During his administration, T.R fought hard to establish the anti-rebate bill and many other departments to administer the activities of the Trusts.

Lastly, T.R has started his natural resources conservation program in the US right before the end of his presidency. In his opinion, the conservation and the correct utilization of the rich natural resources of the American soil is vital for the future generations of Americans which I find quite resounding to the lack of such a program in many countries today.

"Fast Food Nation" and "The Jungle"

While I was reading Theodore Rex, I started to recall this book "The Jungle" that talks about the unsanitary conditions of the meat packing plants in America in the early 20th century. Although some people say that the novel is a political driven novel, I seemed to see some similarity in "The Jungle" and "Fast Food Nation". In "Fast Food Nation", it talks about the fast food industries in America and it also talks about the many inhumane treatment of the fast food industry on their employees. I believe that "Fast Food Nation" is similar to "The Jungle" in a way to raise the publics consciousness on the "wage slavery" phenomenon in a market economy. Personally, I feel that "wage slavery" has been an issue that not many people is willing to discuss and to talk about in an open air debate. Many people today are forced to follow their employees' order in order to make their end's meet.

Theodore Rex, finally!!

After waiting for 2 weeks, I have received my copy of "Theodore Rex" from Amazon. Theodore Rex is the second volume of the three book Theodore Roosevelt Biography series by Edmund Morris. Anyways, after I was done with the first book last week, I can't wait to read this second book the describes the presidency while T.R was the president. After reading 100 pages, I found out that the chapters for this second book seemed to be shorter and more concise than the first book. The book started where the first book left off when President William McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist at Buffalo. As a result, T.R, the vice president at the time, was sworn in as the leader of the world. Actually, the book title carries a simple description about the main thesis for this book. The word "Rex" actually means "rule" in Latin and hence the book will try to paint a picture on how T.R rule when he was the President. Anyways, I can't wait to finish this book since it is always great to know more about this unique historical personality that most people in the world may or may not know .

Wavebird is good for GC games for now

Backward compatibility has been a key attraction for many products today especially for game consoles. It will not only help push the games and game accessories of the previous consoles, it will also help prolonged the life of the compatible console. Wii, Nintendo's latest console, is able to play gamecube games and the one and only way to play gc games on a wii is with a gamecube controller. In Malaysia, it is so hard to find gc stuff. I guess people are used to playing their ps2 and they are not willing to pay or to try out other game consoles out there. Anyhoo, I got a 3rd party gc controller in the city. However, the controller was not working fine. In many occasions, the controller stick will be set to a random position in a game. I tried to work with the controller until last week and I have decided to get a wavebird for myself.



The wavebird is a wireless gc controller made by Nintendo. I am sure if I am going to make things work right, I might as well buy it from Nintendo. As a result, I ordered the controller thru play-asia and it arrived today. I was able to try it on my gc games today and I am quite satisfied with the experience. Now, I just need to wait until smash brothers brawl is out and it will be a hella a party!!

Incoming Hyperinflation which requires serious attention

As a citizen of this world, I would seriously urge the world governments to pay serious attention to the incoming inflation that maybe caused by the skyrocketing prices of oil. It may feel like $86/barrel today but, in the long run, nothing can stop oil supply to reach $200/barrel. Governments should really encourage their brightest scientists in their country to help develop a new source of energy that is either renewable and sustainable for a long period of time.

Like the Tsunami that hit South East Asia in year 2005, the people were ill prepared with countermeasures that will enable them to avoid the tragedy which have killed many thousands of civilians. But this time, it will not only affect part of the world, it will be a global crisis that we all will have to face.

Not many people seemed to realize that oil supply is a not renewable energy resource and hence it is illogical to think that cheap access to oil will always be there to support the ever enhancing economic growth of our world economy. Although we may have not reach a level which requires the world to put an eye on oil supply control today, but we certainly reaching for that level in a few years from now.

There are a few thoughts that I have but there are some shortcomings that comes along with these alternatives.
a) Improvement and prepare for the massive increase of the use of public transportation
- With the price of gas increasing over the years, households may not be able to drive to work
in order to pay more for gasoline. Workers will have to depend on public transportation to travel to work and the government will have to foot the bill to maintain and to increase the number of routes for the number of travelers that will commute to work on a daily basis.
b) Rely on some renewable energy that is currently available but may not be not feasible in the long run
- Many people were arguing that biodiesel is the alternative energy supply that we can use to replace gasoline. However, I doubt that this is the best alternative that we can rely on in the long run. In order to produce biodiesel, we will have to reserve a number of bio-sources such as palm oil to produce the biodiesel. In order to meet the number of the reserves, we will have to reserve a number of lands that will serve as the plantations for these bio-sources and hence it will slow down the development for these areas. In addition, many of these bio-sources may need to serve more purposes besides the main ingredients that makes bio-diesel. For example, palm oil is normally refined as cooking oil in Asian countries and the
demand for palm oil is growing in a fast pace. If we were to rely on palm oil for the production of our bio diesel, it may be affordable in the short run but we will need to consider other alternative resources for the long run.

Great, I am done with Volume One.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. , a controversial man in American history. He plays a lot of roles in the course of history. The following describes the course of his life,

From his early days as an Assembly man in New York state Assembly ->Commissioner of the Civil Service Commission-> Police Commissioner of New York->Assistant Secretary of the US Navy->Lieutenant Colonel of the "Rough Riders"-> Governor of New York State-> Vice President of the United States-> President of the United States.

"The rise of T.R" is definitely a good book that gives a good description on the late 19th century politics in America. It paints a picture about the working of the many political machines and their influences in the American political system. For example, in order to get nominated, a candidate should secure their nomination by their Party Bosses. If they did get nominated, the candidates were controlled by the Party Bosses like stringed puppets to select the many candidates that the Bosses prefer in the many essential government bureaucratic bodies which essentially supports the "Spoil system" that is heavily rooted after the election of Andrew Jackson as the president of the U.S.A. Of course, by looking at The U.S from the 21st century, we can't deny the fact that this spoil system may still exist in this great nation but I am sure a great control has been put in place to restrict the power of these political machineries.

Other than a good picture of the late 19th century politics, I was able to read about T.R, a man who grew up as one who could imagine may not live past his fourth birthday, to his time before he was called upon as the next President of the United States when his president, William McKinley was assassinated by an Anarchist. The book gives many small details about the interesting characteristics of T.R that the reader like me may grow to love and to hate. Well, it definitely gives a different feel to me since I have yet to read an biography since last year.

However, I do encourage people to read this book since it gives us a thought about this great man who may be the first and the strongest candidate to represent Americanism. Although this book is the first book out of a three book series by Edmund Morris, a Kenyan writer who wrote not only about T.R but Ronald Reagan and Beethoven, this books really gives us a good picture about the early life of T.R as a child until he became the president of the United States.

"Chew, devour the Good , and the spit out the bad"

I have been reading "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" lately and I have been enjoying the book so far. I have a few more pages to go before I finish up this first book before the second book arrive. There is thought that I have in mind and I wish to share it online.

After staying in Malaysia for more than a year, I noticed that Asian people are less interested in studying foreign history other than their Asian history while they were amazed by the many "out of the world" accomplishments of the West today. This is not a diss but I am sure the some Asian know this Chinese proverb, "知己知彼，百战百胜" which stands for "if you know your enemies well, you will never lose a fight".

History is a good source of information to discover the development of a culture and to understand some of the crucial elements that defines a culture's success or a complete failure by looking at the many crucial events that happened in the course of their history. Of course, we can't deny that "His-story" could be made up by the many writes that was hired by rich folks to glorify their own family agendas. However, we can't deny the importance of foreign history if the Asians were to be able to compete with their western counterparts in this new millennium. As we all know, "competition drives innovation", if the Asians could put more effort in studying western history like their western counterpart did, I am sure it will not only make a more knowledgeable global citizens out of the Asians, it will also help to provide more capable competitors like the Japanese that West respects and fear in this new millennium.

In sum, I am just urging Asians(I am an Asian myself) to put some resources to encourage their next generation to study foreign history in depth since it will not only allow our children to learn and to grow in a more different path than their forefathers, I am sure they will be able to recreate themselves by establishing themselves as a more capable competitors of the West.

Theodore Roosevelt, a rough rider

After reading parts of the Wealth of Nation by Adam Smith, I have decided to switch my readings to fictional historical writings about Theodore Roosevelt. Not many people in countries outside of the U.S know about this great person but I am happy that I get to learn a little a bout him while I was taking my history class. To give a picture about this great man, his head sculpture was actually being sculptured along with three more Presidents of the United States on Mountain Rushmore in Mt. Rushmore National Park. Think about it, besides the Egyptians, I can't think of another country that is so bold to carve the face of their leaders on a mountain. The whole sculpturing project was started in the early 1920's and it is now one of the landmarks of America. Like Benjamin Franklin on the 100 dollar bill, this four presidents must have done something significant to the nation in order to get their faces put on a mountain. Now, Theodore happens to be third head sculpture from the left on that great mountain. As of now, I am still reading the first volume of Edmund Morris' book about T.R, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. I will post an afterthought about this book once I am done with it.

I saw "metal slime" today again!!

Well, since my folks are out of town for their vacation, I went to the gym at 2pm to kill my time. However, I got to see a girl aka "metal slim" because she shows up at gym in a very low frequency in my perspective. Well, maybe she did go to the gym when I am taking a break. Who knows!! Anyways, I took the rpm class and body jam class in a roll and it was definitely tiring , by considering that I had a very light lunch. After my work out, I went to Bangsar Village to get my dinner at Mizu. As usual, I got my Oolong tea at the supermarket before I head back home.

Irresponsible Developers with the backing of the city hall

While I was working at home today, the developers has started to dispose off the dried weeds and grasses that they have been clearing for all these weeks. Like many irresponsible developers in third nation countries, they have decided to take the easy way out by burning these pile of dried after-products. It is sad to see Malaysian government, who are often a hard critic on their Indonesian neighbors for burning the forest in Indonesia to make way for more plantation lands, does not take a bold stand against these "developers". I hope the developers should be aware that the residents of the local resident area has the right to pursue legal actions against them since their action may cause potential air pollution that may help contribute to the deterioration of the health problem of the residents in the long run.

I finally found they store the annual reports

I am so happy that get to access the annual reports of the listed companies in Malaysia. Now, I will be able to do some research on my own to determine the value of a company regardless of the media's judgment. However, I still stand by my previous comment that the SC should really setup a form where the companies are required to fill up. Although many of the annual reports may have fulfilled the requirements to disclose a company's structure, board of directors and etc. , some investors may want to review the basic operations of a company without going through the various presentation that is often present in a financial statement.

Malaysia needs a central depository for companay's financial statements

As the title, Malaysia really needs to have a central depository for online statements. I am not sure that the SC is doing anything "E" about the financial situation of a company but I think the listed companies should provide their financial statements online in order to attract the interests of foreign investors who are interested in their financial standings. However, after doing some Google search and checking out the Bursa Malaysia's website, I can hardly find a place that allows people to find an archive of Malaysian public listed companies' annual report. This is crucial for an investor who does not wish to speculate or to invest with his so called "sixth sense" who wished to do some thorough analysis on their financial statements. Maybe Malaysia should start something like the Form 10K that the SEC in America is doing right now whereby all public listed companies are required to fill up the Form 10K every year to provide a snapshot on their business to the American public and the world. I believe that in order for Malaysia's financial market to move up the next level, they should really consider implementing a system that requires the companies to submit their information to a central department where the public will be able to gain access to these information.

Survival of the Fittest

We have seen many examples in the past. During the rural ages, we had artisans who pride themselves by making chairs with their own unique skillsets. However, when there is an Industrial revolution, many artisans were forced to become employee 2001 in the many factories that has made the artisan's work as part of a huge production line. I have a vision. I believe the same thing may apply to IT services or programming. If one's work does not improve or innovate in a way, it will fall into the same path as the artisans in the 18th century-19th century. In one of the business 2.0 magazines, it mentions that intelligent soft is developing a smart software that is able to recreate software on its own. In another words, the software is trying to remove the error prone human element from software programming itself. I believe this is a possibility and this is bound to happen. If programmers are not able to figure out how to make themselves as unique as possible, they will really need to prepare themselves before it is too late for them and they will have to become the employee number 2001 to feed their family.

Step class at Fitness First

The youtube video above is just to give you a few on what step is like. Well, today, I went on to try out the intermediate step class at my gym. It was certainly a different feel after watching a number of classes over the past two months. It is something like the first time one person step on the stage to do something. The feeling was definitely unique because the group exercise gym was actually transparent.

Anyways, I went in and it was definitely one of the funnest moment in my life. Well, first of all, I have no idea about step before I take the class, I just went in the class to checkout what the class is all about and it definitely involves a good coordination of steps. Everyone was required to grab a piece of aerobic board and he/she are required to perform step moves on or around that board.

For my first try, I feel like I was Napoleon when he was getting his ass kicked by the Russians at Russia or by the Brits at Waterloo. I was definitely out of step and I am definitely not up to the speed of the instructor.
After the class, I think i only get one of the "Double D" move that the teacher showed us before we tried to combine everything at the end of the class. All I can say is, I definitely want to try the class out again to see if I can become better although I am sure that dancing with good and eye coordination is definitely not my thing.

Abbreviation can be interepreted in many ways!!

An Abbreviation is a way that people would rather use the first letter of a number of words to represent an organization or an item. However, I came across a few abbreviation recently in the news and I think these abbreviation can actually lead to multiple meanings it definitely needs to be reviewed by the many experts in the world:

For example:

K-economy- should be known as Knowledge economy but coincidentally it can also be used for Korridor Economy because of the first letter K.

U.S.A- widely accepted as the United States of America can also be used to represent the United States of Africa if the Africans do one day united and decided to combine the many divided African nations into one big country.

I joined Facebook

I am not a big user of social websites because I don't really get what they do. People have been saying that it allows user to create their personal profile online and they will be able to meet up with more new people. Honestly, I think there is still more room for improvements for a social website. For example, sometimes I have this feeling that the interface can be organized in a more user friendly way. Anyways, since I am now a facebook user, I will try to checkout what is on and what can be improved at the moment.

A question about the standard of Annual Reports in Malaysia

After reading a number of Annual reports, I have observed a few shortcomings and I hope the sc can do something to recommend some changes on these important financial statements since it is the one and only one source of financial information that the investor received from their investment directly.

Firstly, I hope they will be able to list the properties or give some description on the properties that is owned as an asset to the company. Of course, a company may argue that they may owned a list of properties that may or may not fit on a book. However, with the soft copies available, I am sure the investors have the right to know more about these assets that may contribute to the companies actual book value.

Secondly, I am sure the investors will be more than happy to know more about the director's renumeration allocation to each individual directors. The investors have the right to know more about the compensation that has been awarded to each director since it is hard to justify the possible huge payments for a managing director if the company if performing badly.

Thirdly, the annual statements of a company should really give a clear description of a company/ a group's overall operation since it is so hard to know what a company is doing by reading its confusing annual statement. With a clear knowledge of a company's operation, investors will have a clear picture on the various business operations that a company do.

Fourthly, the sc should really require a company to submit a soft copy of their annual statements to a central archive. It will certainly benefit the company and the market in the long run since investors, both local and foreign, will be able to locate the annual report from one central source.

An overcrowded gym class and Some good work for the KL city council

Firstly, some good words should be put on for the Kuala Lumpur city council for their decision to raise the fines for drivers who parked their car in the restricted areas or double parked in Kuala Lumpur. This is, by far, one of the most efficient way to discourage people from parking their car regardless of other fellow drivers. A good thing is that they raised the fines to a level that people are going to pay attention since their previous fines were way below the worries of these irresponsible drivers. Now, business owners should really pay attention to the location of their business premises because people are going to think twice before parking their car on the yellow line. They should really rethink the viability of setting up a business in a commercial area without sufficient amount of parking spaces. In addition, I hope that future developers should really have a good blueprint on their future projects which includes an ample supply of public parking spaces.

Secondly, with no relations to the parking issue, I went to gym today. We always had like a body combat class at around 6:50 ish at Fitness First that I have yet to join. Many pretty ladies are actually a big fan of the class but something has yet to allow me to join this only session for the day and this is the limited amounted of floorspace that is dedicated to the people who are joining the session. Imagine that people in the session are trying to simulate a kick in a limited amount of space. I am sure it will be so funny to watch people got kicked on the one side and in return they kicked another fellow gym member with their powerful karate kick on the other side. It will be like a huge domino which everyone in the class except the instructor will get hurt. I am sure that will a good "body combat". The gym should really do a better job at restricting the amount of people in a class. Anyways, I will wait until the number of people falls before I join in that class.

Oil prices are heads up but never comes down

Like many optimists out is the market, they believe that the now surging oil prices will eventually adjust to its reasonable price at $60-$70 a barrel. However, I hope we better have a good backup plan because I am sure if the adjustment do happen, it will be a mirage adjustment before a higher surge in gas prices. Gas is a limited resources that we have been depending on for decades and it has allow us human beings to live our daily lives to the fullest. However, unlike the many claims that we have billions of barrels of gasoline lying under the earth's crust/ seabed waiting for oil companies to to explore, we are definitely heading towards an energy disaster. Like for example, in the 1970's, we have this great oil crisis in the U.S and after the great Iraqi war, we were able to get ample supply of gas to fund our luxury life. In the new century, we were thrown into the same situation before the U.S step into the middle east to establish "new democracy". I will like to take this opportunity to encourage big oil companies to put more of their budgets into developing new sources of energy because if they are able to develop a new source of energy that the world community will accept, they will not only control now, they will be able to expand their wealth in a great way in the future!!

"优柔寡断"==Indecisive

The four chinese words that mean Indecisive in English seems to define my personality for the past 4 years. It seems that I have been indecisive on my life, my future and my personal relationship.

Take my life for example, I was able to pursue a college education in the states but I was indecisive at the end of my college education. I tried hard to stay back in the US in order to escape from my own family matters but unfortunately it didn't work out that well.

For my future, I thought that working as an IT guy will eventually lead me to where I want to be one day but it does not seemed to be possible to stick on this route like many investor said we all need to diversify in order to minimize the risk. I guess this is what I am planning to do right now. I am trying to learn more about investment because it may not lead me "billion dollar" dream but it will eventually help me reach the level of financial security that many employers fail to provide today.

Lastly, my relationship. I was fortunate to meet with a few beautiful and great ladies while I was in college. Firstly, I was able to meet this floor leader, Kylie, in the dorms but I was not able to talk to her and get to know her better since I didn't have the gut by then. I hope I got her name right. Then, I met up with this Japanese friend of mine. She really made me learned a lot of things about how to pursue a relationship. For example, I tried my best to help her out in college but when I think about it today, I should all really do it since we are all International students and International students are suppose to help one another. Maybe I am just a guy who is just too easy to have a crush on someone. Thirdly, I had another crush on a Japanese schoolmate of mine. Until today, I still feel for her. She was the first girl that I really asked out for dinner mano o mano. I am not sure if I can still call it a date but I really like her both as an individual and as a unique person. I guess there are many things that happened when there was a lack of communication. I haven't talked to her since I last called on March 07. Finally, there was this great Starbucks girl, Tifanny who was a great barista since I really enjoyed the unsweetened black tea lemonade that she made for me when I got my drink off Starbucks at Stonestown. Let's say that I got a priority line when I normally gott a drink from Starbucks then. I could have asked her out but I guess I was too focus on Kyoko then. Tifanny was definitely a great girl and I am sure she is one of the cheerful human beings that you can find on this earth.

Like Steve Jobs said in his podcast, you won't be able connect the dots ahead of you. When you look back at the dots behind you, you will certainly be able to connect them in someways. Although I have many regrets in my life, but I have certainly grew a lot from my stay in America. I got to know some people who are really my buddies. Last but not least, I really get to know my family members who have supported me over the few years.

A quick review on "Reunion" Chinese Restaurant

Today, we were planning to go to Hideki for their weekend/holiday Japanese buffet lunch. However, the restaurant was closed down for renovation. As a result, we went to Bangsar Village to look for some other options. As a result, we went to try out this new Chinese restaurant called "Reunion" at Bangsar Village II. The place is new. I think they opened it like a few days ago. When we first went in to the place, it gave a fancy restaurant impression on me. Well, we all know that Bangsar is a special place and people are always looking for that extra bit on their eatery. Well, back to the story. The furnishing of the restaurant was simple and great. I guess "Simple" is the thing for interior designers today. It was certainly a different feel especially when you are an Asian walking into a Chinese restaurant. After we got our table, we ordered our food. My mom got a Roast duck rice while I got an XO sauce seafood fried rice. In addition, we got a fried white fish for a side dish. With all the great simple interior design, the food that we got cannot match the ones that you can get here in Asia. Come on, we are not in a foreign land. We are in Malaysia. The roast duck rice and the seafood fried rice was good but the side dish was overcooked. The waiter was kind enough to ask the chef to make us another plate of the side dish when we told him that it was overdone. However, I guess it takes more than twice to make it eatable. There are two words that I can give to this new restaurant, "Food Improvement" or else. In order to make it into the food business in this world, food business providers will all need to be able to provide a high quality food for their customers. Without this basic requirement, I doubt they will be able to last any longer even if they are in Malaysia.

A Happy belated Birthday to my cousin Elizabeth

Sorry, Elizabeth for forgetting your birthday on September 9th. I will to wish you a Happy Birthday and I hope I can see you again before leaving for Australia in February 08.

Wii Sports is cool

Man, I sure wish my old pal Jeremy was here. I would have kicked his ass on Wii sports. (Just Kidding, Jeremy) Anyways, Wii sports is a wii game title that includes tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. The wii remote is used as the only input device for these games. Just imagine, you are using the remote as a baseball bat while you are playing the batter in the baseball section. Get the picture? There is one word that I can say about this title, "Engaging". It will definitely be fun if you are playing this game with a party of friends. The game is included with the US Wii console while you need to purchase it separately if you happen to purchase your wii from outside of America.

Hatsdown to Nintendo

My mom got me a Nintendo wii from Hong Kong. I will like take this opportunity to thank my Hong Kong cousins for helping me to get the console since the Nintendo Wii is not officially launched in Hong Kong yet and one really needs to know his/her way to get himself/herself a wii in Hong Kong. Anyhow, I did a quick testing on Nintendo's latest offering. Like many consoles in the past, you need to plug in a AV cable and power cable into the console before turning it on. However, for the wii, there is one more thing that you will need to plug in before you begin your wii experience and that, my friend, is the sensor remote. The sensor remote is the device that console pick up the position of the wireless wii remote controller. The unique thing about the wii remote is the is able to pick up the user's wii remote in a certain radius and hence it allows the software designers to create games that allows the user to really get involve in a game. For example, Wii sport is a game compilation of simple sports game like Tennis, Baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. In the Baseball section of Wii sport, the user can play the batter or the pitcher. While the user is playing as the batter, the user is asked to hold the wiimote like a regular baseball bat and they are asked to swing at the right time in order to send a "barry-bond" out the stadium. Anyways, this is definitely fun but tiring at the same time. However, Nintendo has really done something new this time because I am feeling kinda sick of the similar sequels that is released by many game publishers on many consoles and the pc. I hope they can look at Nintendo as an example and look at improving the gamer's experience as a priority instead of making the same old thing once more.

We should use podcasts to its fullest

Podcasts are mp3 files which are tagged with a RSS feed in order to help the user's music download manager update the latest iteration of a podcast series at an appropriate time. Like many other great nations in the world, Malaysia has yet to fully make use of podcasts when it is out for like 3-4 years. Many great schools in the world is now providing free online lectures to people in the world and young people in Malaysia should take advantage of these free podcasts and get a snippet on how a lecture is conducted in a world class schools.

Tech stocks and their real value

Tech stocks are like pharmaceutical stocks, they require a lot of R & D expenses before it will be able to produce a product that may or may not suit the needs of th market. As a result, speculation seems to be one of the way that these companies used to fund their research. However, I seemed to see a similar trend in property developer stocks. Many of these companies prefer to hype up their holdings in order to gain the attention of the stockholders in order to encourage the ignorant shareholders to speculate their stocks without doing more intelligent thinking and deeper study on a company.

A not so special Apple Ipod release event

In 2006, I have been waiting for the touch wheel interface Ipod. Today, Apple has officially released the Ipod touch. However, it is just a stripped down version of the Iphone. Well, maybe you can still use voip services unless the mic has been removed from the the new ipod too. Anyways, like many other reviews, I think the 8 gb/ 16 gb capacity for the Ipod Touch is definitely not enough for me after I was spoiled by my one year old 60 gb Video Ipod. I guess the price of the 32gb/64gb nanoflash memory is still pricey for Apple to include it into their sexy Ipod Touch. I guess we will have to wait for the next Apple Announcement.

Transmile-A potential opportunity for bargain hunters

This is a not a recommendation to buy but it is a well worth opportunity to do a case study on a current blue chip company that is out of favor. Unfortunately, my expertise is not enough for me to analyze the business behind transmile's operatives. Currently, the only thing that I know about their business is that they are a serious logistics carrier that owns a potential profitable line from Shanghai to LA and if they are able to secure enough contracts with major clients such as manufacturers in China, they will be able to make a profit. At the moment, I knew that DHL has signed up for their services until a certain future date. This route could be the hidden gem behind this out of favor company. However, I am still trying to understand the financial statements that they are revising after their admitted their loss in 2005. It is yet to know what caused the loss to this company. The cost mainly comes from the operating expenses and we will have to look deep into their financial statements to find out what really went wrong before jumping right into this boat!!

Basically the main risks of a logistics companies are fuel prices and the number of contracts that they are able to secure in a timely manner. In addition, they will have to be able to secure a profitable flight route which happened to serve the right booming economy at the right time. For example routes from Vietnam, China to consumer countries like North America and Europe are said to be profitable. Last but not least, they will need to have a reasonable maintainance crew to help upkeep their fleet. As long as they are good at doing these few things right, they will be able to maintain and to grow as in this competitive logistics business.

I think we should learn to think with integrity instead of being a drone

Today, I went for an interview at one of the Big Fours. I talked to one of the high level personnel. As usual, we went through some boring conversation. At the end of the interview, I shot this question about the role and the responsibility of an Audit firm in preparing the financial statement of a public listed company. I was eager to ask this question because I have been reading some basic investing books and, in these books, they stress that the financial statement is one of the most important documents that shows the financial status of the company at one point. My interviewer gave an interesting explanation of the audit firm role to me and he was giving a shot that I was having too much time to think about these issues. I have a feel that this certain personnel is not really taking this problem that seriously. In his explanation, he was saying that there are a lot of complications that someone will have to take into account for the many accounting scandals in this world and we will have to rely on the good people that has good business integrity and business social responsibility to keep the business world to work properly and efficiently. I can't help to think this is more of a general observation but it does not provide a solution to what we can do to stop and to make it harder for these evil doers from making a profit by making a fool out of their shareholders. Before we talk about the solution, we should first look at the potential cons of the discovery of a corrupted company in a country. If a company was to be reported and proved to be committing an accounting fraud, it will create a huge backlash to the economy of a country by affecting the confidence of potential investors into the country's economy. In order to solve this problem, we should really have tougher rules and regulations for the listing companies because they are basically owned by the public. Currently, the punishment is not really fitting the white collar crimes in Malaysia. I believe the system should be overhauled partially. Different important watchdog organizations should really keep a close eye on the activity of the listed companies.

女人唔易做 review

I just finished watching this TVB drama over the weekend. This drama is actually not that bad. It talks about the many frustrations that working women in Hong Kong faced today. In addition, it also talks about issues such as "age is not a main concern in a relationship" in the story. Well, while watching the drama, the main female character definitely reminded me about the girl that I like in college. She was always kind but funny at all times. I hope she is currently doing well with her life in Osaka. Anyways, I have included a trailer of the drama below. Check it out and your will definitely love it.

La Femme Desperado - 女人唔易做 (Trailer)

Monkey Majik again

"Monkey Majik" is a Japanese group that I am currently playing on my Ipod. Although I don' t understand what they are singing, but their music is cool. It sounds great. I have included a couple music videos below. These two videos are two of my favorite songs from their latest album.

MONKEY MAJIK+SEAMO - 卒業、そして未来へ。

MONKEY MAJIK + m-flo - Picture Perfect

Done with MGS2

Man, this game is definitely insane. It makes you feel like you are playing a game within a game. Well, it is like close to the end of the story, this character that you play "Raiden", was said to be manipulated by some sort of an advance AI program. At that point of the time, the AI program was corrupted and as a result, the program started to throw random "Game Over" screens on me.
I must say, Hideo Kojima put a lot of his tricks in this game. Although I played this game in 2007 and the game was actually produced in 2001-2002. I must say this series is definitely one of the unique series in games these days.

Great Game for a poor gamer

Well, I have been playing an old time PS2 classic Metal Gear Solid 2. I have never been a big fan of the metal gear solid series. Firstly, I was done playing with Metal Gear Solid 3. Honestly, I will not be able to finish the game without a guide. The game was fantastic and it definitely has a lot of depth. However, I guess I am more of a casual gamer. In other words, I am not a big shoot'em up fan. Like its prequel game, Metal Gear Solid 2 definitely has one deep story. Its graphics although dated, it is still one of its class in the market. No one will be able to reproduce such a game except Hideo Kojima, the producer of the series. I definitely admire the Japanese such as Kojima and Shigeru Miyamoto for their creativity and their willingness to try create a product that involves the characters that has a western cultural background. Well, this is definitely not an easy feet to achieve because I have yet to see similar characteristics in other Asian people. This is not a diss to other Asian people since I am Asian and my ethnicity is Chinese. I just hope that people in Asia will take the opportunity to learn and to adopt from the best in the world in order to achieve not only the same but better result than their Japanese brethren.

This, too, shall pass

I was planning to write thing down yesterday but I didn't because I was tired from my workout plus there was a blackout in my area. Anyways, back to the story, "This, too, shall pass" is a phrase that i picked up from Ben Graham's Intelligent Investor. He used this phrase as an advice to the investors who were burned in the Dot Com boom in year 2001. To deeply understand the meaning of this phrase, let me give a potential source of the phrase to you. BTW, I got this from wikipedia. It all started when King Solomon the wise was feeling good one day and he was planning to play a prank on one of his senior advisers. He asked this adviser to look for a ring that "when a happy people look at the ring, he will lose his happiness at an instance and when a sad person look at the ring, it will put a smile on his/her face". However knowing that this ring does not exist, King Solomon can't wait to see his advisor's disappointing return. At first, the adviser was sad because this sounds like one of the many challenges that his King likes to play on his loyal subject. When this adviser was out in the city to look for this magic ring, he saw this Golden ring that was lying on the ground. He looked in the ring and there was this phrase "This, too, shall pass" inscribed in Hebrew on the ring. The adviser was so happy that he immediately report to the King with this ring. As expected, the King's face turned sad when he saw the phrase on the ring. The King realized that this phrase actually makes him know that for all the wealth and power that the King commands today is finite and it will not last forever.

"Jesus is black, So was Cleopatra, Know your history"

Paul Mooney is definitely the bomb. I got introduced to Paul Mooney when he was acting as Negrodamus in the Dave Chappelle show. Regrettably, I wasn't able to attend one of his stand up comedy in San Fran before I came back to Malaysia. Like many Black stand up comedians, Paul Mooney picks on the racial issues that African Americans face in America. He is definitely one of a kind and his jokes are his jokes. You can't really find another "Paul Mooney" in America. This is why you love America, you can always find one of a kind personalities in this country!! This is a short clip of the show that was posted on youtube.

Halloween at the Gym

Well, as usual I went to Fitness First to work out and something unusual happened. People of the gym are in their Malaysian National Day craze and they are dressing up in their traditional dress to work. I don't mean to rude but I felt kinda weird to see people dressing up and asking people to work out at the same time. Imagine this, it is Halloween, your fitness trainer dressed up as "the Governator" or someone special, like, Dracula at your local gym. How would you feel when you are working out with your dressed up work out buddy? I mean it is not wrong but it is weird. Maybe this is the uniqueness of the Malaysians who can't wait to celebrate their 50th National Day this coming Friday!!

People skill is important for HR personnels

In my short stint in looking for a job in Malaysia, I have notice a lot of interesting observation with the HR people in this country. Some of them are well trained for the job and they are able to convince people with patients and it really gives a feel of "we want you" to the potential future employees to the organizations. However, in some cases, I was able to talk to a few people who are not able to determine where I really live. For example, there were times that they think that I am from some other states in Malaysia. I believe that there should be an address column and there should a field in many application forms that requires the employee to enter their city of residence.
Although this is a small thing and it really shows how anal I am about how people from an organization interact with other people in the world, I hope many hr personnels can try to improve their communication skills with other people and try to learn from people who have these skills. One should know that when the first time when people who wish to be a part of an organization will have to first talk to a hr personnel. In other words, Hr people represents the first glimpse of the organization to talented people who wished to join the company. This show how important a HR professional is to a successful organization.
This not to criticize HR people but I think if they were to have a chance to attract the top talented people for the organization, they should really revised their training program for their HR services.

Banks and Double Parking

After staying in Malaysia for one year plus, I notice a common practice among fellow Malaysians. We all enjoy parking our cars as close as we can to a bank regardless of the traffic rules when we are trying to use a bank facility. I am not sure if this is helping the society as a whole but I am sure this is not helping the city traffic in Kuala Lumpur. In many places outside of Malaysia, banks like other businesses will have to make sure that their business is not causing any general traffic problems to the public. Some of them are required to move to a business center that provides adequate parking spaces or they may have to leave one or two reserve parking spaces for their quick banking customers. I am sure the city council has been looking into this problem and I believe that they are fighting hard to pull out an effective solution for this problem. Besides the city council, I believe that the traffic police forces can do a better job at fining people who parks without considering their fellow drivers. I understand that maybe our traffic police division is understaffed right now but if they can assign a few people to patrol the bank areas which does not have enough parking spaces, they will be able to help us solve part of the traffic problems in parts of the city.

Rare Fillet mignon in Malaysia

I just came back from the curve. One of the reason why I went there is to look for a pair of all white air force one sneakers. However, the shoes seemed to be sold out in Nike stores in Malaysia. It is really sad to say but sometimes it is hard to find a common pair of air force ones in Malaysia. Anyways, I went to TGI Fridays for lunch and I got myself a fillet mignon meal. I am a big red meat guy. As usual, I asked for the medium rare Fillet mignon. After finishing up the meal, I have some comments about this meal though. Sometimes, it is hard to find a good steak meal in Malaysia and it is definitely hard to find a medium rare steak meal overhere. The meat was good but it is a little too "rare". I hope they can do a better job in making a better medium rare steak.

Looking for a pair of white force ones in Malaysia

Recently, I have been thinking about getting a pair of size 10.5 white air force ones for myself. As a result, I gave a call to the nike retailers in a few of the major malls around the Kuala Lumpur area. However, they told me that they don't really carry it anymore. I was wondering where can I get a pair of these shoes. Should I try my luck online?

Some thoughts after watching Warren Buffet's video clip

Youtube is definitely one of the best tools that people can currently use online. I have been reading this book "Intelligent Investor" by Ben Graham. Honestly, I never thought about reading this book before getting to know about him in the wiki that talks about Warren Buffet on wikipedia. This is afternoon, I was watching some of his Q and A's with a bunch of MBA second year students at U of Florida. He was definitely a character to watch. You never know who he is, unless you really keep track of the "Oracle of Omaha". In the videos, he was definitely preaching about what we all know so far about his ways of investing which is value investing. He was talking about his proud acquisition of Coca Cola and the reason why he bought into the company. There was this one question that he suggests that we all ask before planning to buy any shares of a company. We should all have a concrete reason behind our stock acquisition of a company. His words sounds so differently that the words that I normally heard from the Malaysian "so-called" investors. Maybe there are investors in Malaysia, but I believe the majority of the shareholders in not only Malaysia but in the world are speculators. Not many of them take into account the story behind the stocks that they bought. With a rough view on Malaysia's market, it is definitely gonna take a lot of work to discover a real value buy in this market because many companies in Malaysia hardly expand in a great pace like many great corporations in the world. For example, there is Genting who maybe the sole casino in Malaysia, however, 10 years down the line, Genting may not have a huge growth in their profit because there are so many new casinos in the Asian region. Well, in "the Intelligent Investor", Graham believe that people will be able to discover the so-called "cigarette butt" shares as long as they are willing to invest their time and effort to study the business of a company before buying a part of the business. I am really interested to find out whether my No 2 did enough homework on studying about the businesses of a company before he acquired them in the late 90's.

Revisitng many old memories.

For this quiet Sunday, I have been doing a lot of things to recap what I've previously done outside of Malaysia. Firstly, I am currently replaying Dragon Quest VIII which is a wonderful RPG game. I have beaten the Japanese version and I am now trying to finish up the North American version. I must say that this is game is definitely a classic. For you who have a ps2/ps3 who haven't played the game, go get it. It is definitely worth your every single penny. Besides DQ8, I have been watching a lot of youtube. Partly because of that Malaysian who made a fuss out of the Malaysian anthem. Well, I have been watching a lot of stand up comedies by Paul Mooney, Eddie Murphy, Conan O'Brien, David Letterman and Jay Leno. Man, I do miss American TV. I miss the freedom of expression on American TV although in reality, there are certain censorship for tv channels in America. However, I miss the American humor that people are all willing to make and they are able to laugh at themselves for their own weaknesses. I am sure not many people in this world except many Americans who are able to do so. I believe this is one way that people encourage other people to be brave and do something new. I surely hope that Malaysians will be able to embrace these positive attitude and try to learn from their shortcomings and make Malaysia the number One place in Asia.

PC fair? Is it really that big of a deal?

Remember the farmer's market that people usually have during the weekends? Picture this but replace it with vendors from different computer merchants from Kuala Lumpur. There you have it, PC fair. I am still curious about the purpose of the fair. I really hope that there is an exhibition that encourages people to display or to sell what they have developed to the public but not to try and sell what we can find in anywhere else. It is hard to say but I feel that Malaysia should encourage their people to be more adventurous and to be more creative in a way. Come on, I am sure Malaysians have learned a lot of things in their work, in their studies or in their travel experiences. Like the previous PM, we should learn from the Japanese. We should not try to stick and to depend on other people. We should try to emulate and to adapt what is best for this country. I am sure this is crucial for Malaysia to be successful before Year 2020.

After reading "The Coming Economic Collapse", I think we should really do something about this upcoming energy Armageddon. Well, we all know that we have to rely on Gasoline to run our daily lives and gasoline is definitely not unlimited. From Malaysia's National Car's web site, it has mentioned that it has developed a Hybrid car engine with their Lotus team. However, I was kinda disappointed that we were not able to use that technology for this newly released national car in Malaysia. I am sure it is a good thing to start to let Malaysian people know that Hybrid cars do exist in this world. It is hard to say this out loud but I understand that Malaysia is one of the OPEC members. However, as an observer, we should really try to emulate what the Singaporeans has done so far. The Singaporeans buy crude oil and refine it into the gasoline and other oil by-product. However, the Singaporeans only use 30% of their refinery output but they resell the rest of their output product to another country for further income. I believe that in order for Malaysia to prepare itself for this coming oil crisis, they should really come up with a plan and they should really show their dedication on making this backup plan. We should really start to look into alternative energy that is suitable for the country. Since we are located close to the equator, why don't we start and harvest more solar energy(Solar energy Panels are not that efficient so far) ? I am sure the sun will not run out before the world oil supply is sucked dry. This is a really good opportunity for us to actually achieve something that not many country has done so far.

The minds of an investor

I have been reading these two books, The Coming Economic Collapse and The Intelligent Investor, lately and I am trying to keep myself up to the latest financial happenings around me in Malaysia and America. It is kinda sad to say that it is hard to get the latest news about a country's financial status or its latest stock index because information often takes time to relay to an ordinary investor. In a rough analysis about Malaysian' Stock exchange, I think the KLSE attracts more speculators than investors since many minor and major sharesholders hardly knows what the definition of a stock is in their mind. Many of them look at their shares as a game of risks. Many of them hardly use their effort to analyze a company before buying their shares because they believe the many rumors and the many "analysis" that is provided by the media themselves. Although like the KLSE, there are many uninformed investors in America too. However, I believe that there are also many investors who are willing to spend time to study a stock before they put their hands on one of them. I really hope that Malaysian high authorities will be able to educate its people with more knowledge about the stock market. I think the basic need of a stock exchange is to allow companies to accumulate more capitals in order to expand their businesses.

Put my mind down on paper

Well, I have been reading this book about the next Economy collapse which states the main culprit of this foreseeable crisis is the end of our oil supply. For years, I have been thinking about the price of Gas in S.F which is always one of the priciest in the States. We often hear reports about big oil company making a lot of money from the price hike in the price of crude oil in the market. Many people were calling for the increase of taxation in these companies but I was wondering why shouldn't the people call for this company to invest in the development in alternative energy. Like many social issues, we try to not solve the trickiest part of a problem before we are in the worst situation. I think like social security, health care, people in this world should really consider about finding the next source of energy that is renewable and that is dependable. Time is running out. Man, I do sound like the the madman who shouts "The end of the world is near", but consider this, what should we do if we are going to pay $500 for a gallon of gas. Well, although hybrid vehicles is a step towards the right direction, we should should really take another step forward. I am sure we can do better. This is my personal view though, for a dollar that we spend today may affect the coming generations on this planet.

A not-so-quiet weekend

Yesterday, I was able to meet up with some of my high school friends who I have never met for like 5 years or more. It is hard to say but it seems like we all still look the same. However, I am glad they are all still pursuing the things that they want to achieve in life and I wish them well. Another thing that happened this weekend is that I realized there are actually many things that we can do to improve in Malaysia or even greater, in this world. First of all, I have been a streamyx user for a year and I am glad to say that we may have found another alternative for the co-axial cable that TM use to deliver their broadband services to the Malaysian household. This alternative is to enhance our electric power to act as a way to transmit data between the server and the user's machine. From my knowledge, one of the problems that we faced in delivering broadband to a normal household is we will need a good fiber optic network that connects to every household that will allow the ISP to provide higher speed broadband to its customers. However, I believe that we will need to dedicate a lot of capital in order to lay down fiber optic network in this old city since we may faced some unforeseen obstacles while we install such a network. Of course, these are also some doubts over the broadband over power line alternative. Many people all over the world mentioned that the BPL may help pollute the airwaves because it needs some special devices to be installed on the powerline in order to prevent the loss of data during its travel along the nation's powerline. The potential air pollution that BPL may bring is it requires a certain frequencies in our airwaves to strengthen the data transmission in our power line. As a result, it may cause interference with many of our communication devices such as our aircraft communicating controls, our cellular network etc. Of course, this maybe a hefty price to pay in order to achieve something. However, I feel that this is a solution we can use our existing infrastructure to its fullest. In addition, it will also strengthened our country's broadband infrastructure and hence allow its people to learn and to create more broadband services that not only the country needs but it will also create new services for other nations in the world as well. Besides the BPL, I have another observation that I will like to make. Russia, the old soviet union seemed to share some similar geographical nature with the resourceful Canada. For example, their oil deposit, their high minerals etc. The only thing that makes this two great nations different is their culture and their people. Although they have rich resources, both of these great nations have not been able to utilize their potential to their fullest. They still require a lot of effort to collect their hidden resources in their mountainous terrains. However, with the coming oil crisis, I think every nation in the world should seriously consider in helping these two nations develop an efficient way to extract their wealth of resources. In the mean time, I can see that although we are still lucky that we have access to our oil supply, we definitely need to learn and to adapt to the many renewable energy resources in this planet.

Monkey Majiik, Monkey Madness

"空はまるで" is definitely playing on "repeat one" mode on my ipod when I worked out int the gym. Although I don't quite get what the song is talking about, the melody is definitely sweet though. I have embedded a music video for the song.



Other than Monkey Majiik, I have used some of my remaining itunes credit on the preorder for Kanye's upcoming album, "Graduation". I believe that this album is definitely worth my investment. Since the release date for the album is on September 11th, I listen to more Monkey Majiik while I wait for "Graduation".

"Sicko" again

Well, I just saw "sicko" again and it really lets me think about the right Medicare for people in the US. On one hand, you have the top of the world Medicare research facilities that allows the development of new drugs that can cure diseases that no human kind has yet to be able to cure. On the other, you will have to allow your people to work hard to afford your own and your families' Medicare. I think it is really a hard problem to solve but it really depends on the will of the people and the type of Medicare that they desire. I guess Sicko gave us a lot of information about the cons of the US Medicare systems that does not provide many help to the low or middle class families and the many wonderful benefits about the Medicare systems in the world. However, people will really have to make their own decision to think about what they should do next since we all know that the Medicare system not only affects the current generation of Americans but it will also affect the lives of the American children.

Went to gym for 5 days in a week

Man! Working out in the gym for 5 days a week is not really a good thing for me. Well, it has to help somehow if not I would not have joined the club at all. Today, I brought my uncle with the free guess pass that I received when I first joined the club to the gym. I wonder the definition of guess passes that these health clubs hold for today. In my knowledge, people are suppose to bring their own guest at their own desire to a health club as long as they have a guess pass with them. However, my health club wants to have a membership consultant to talk to my uncle when he tries to work out in the club for the first time. I wonder if this is what we called "aggressive marketing". Somehow, I don't think that everyone likes to be consulted if they were invited as a guess to a particular place to work out or to have fun. Well, I guess they believe if they try to consult everyone who had their first visit to the club, they may have a higher chance to recruit a new member. It is somehow similar to the economics theory that I used to learn in college. the Adam Smith's "Invisible hand" VS the Keynes' school of economics. On one hand, Adam Smith believes in the free will on the economy to adjust itself to the correct position at a given time. It may also apply to the case of the marketing strategy of a health club which they may let their potential customers to access and to decide on their own will if they will like to join the club. On the other hand, Keynes believe that if someone were to apply some financial measurements such as raising the overnight rates, it will be able to help boost or to help cool down the current state of economy. It may apply to the case of my club's membership recruitment campaign which try to recruit people at any time. I guess not many people believe in the free will of the consumer today!!

Before moving on to my next TVB drama...

Over a month, I have been watching this half an hour per episode TVB drama "高朋满座". This is definitely one of the most entertaining series that you can find among the TVB drama. It involves a family dealing with their family matters and their ways of dealing current issues in Hong Kong at the time. In addition to the main family, it also talks about the external social network of the family. Like its predecessor, "皆大欢喜“， it has more than 200 episodes. Well, this is definitely worth a try if you happen to grab it for rental in Chinatown!!

Simpsonized "me"

Today, I went to check out engadget, one of my favorite tech blogs and I found this special site that lets people simpson-ized themselves. As a result, I have decided to give it a try. The results were posted before the original image. I guess they must have done a good job in recognizing the color of my shirt. Anyways, check out the site for a simpson-ization of yourself!!

The Simpsons Movie was great!!

Yesterday, I finally went to watch the Simpsons movie on the big screen at Midvalley. It is definitely one of the winner for this summer. From the start till the end, I guess the animation movie was well executed. Although there are some sites that mentioned this movie has many similar plots as their regular tv shows, but heck, they are the simpsons. If it is not broken, don't fix it. Anyways, if you have not watch it, go watch it. I am sure it is a better movie than the many sequels out there in this summer!!

Finally, I am done applying for one of my scholarships

Woh, the process of applying for a scholarship in a short time is definitely not a good thing to do. Well, I got this information from one of these schools that has accepted me to apply for a scholarship called the endeavor awards by the Australian Government. However, the deadline was actually a month away from the time I received that information. I gave it a try and I tried to get my documents certified and scanned in order to attach it for my online application. In addition, I received support from my professors, my friends/peers and my previous co-workers for my referee report. Well, there is no free lunch in this world. Applying for a scholarship is definitely not easy. Off with the scholarship, another major thing that happened yesterday is KG is actually moving to Boston. What a surprise!! It is hard to imagine KG playing along with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce in a team. There have been a lot of teams that got their NBA championship rings by acquiring superstars from other teams for example the Lakers in 1999-2000 by acquiring Glen Rice from the Hornets etc. On the other hand, many teams failed because their new star acquisition disrupted the team chemistry that used to work for example, the Portland Trailblazers since 1998-1999. However, at this point of time, it is still hard to see the celtics become the new eastern conference champ since we have the Detroit Pistons, the maturing Cleveland Cavs and the Diesel-powered Miami Heats playing in the east. The good news for the NBA now is the Eastern Conference is getting more exciting since MJ last played in Chicago. Well, all the best to KG, who used to be called "Da-Kid", aka "Da Big Ticket"!!

Have you tried googling yourself?

We have read a lot of history text and many of us think that history let's people understand more about their predecessors and their country in the good old days. Anyways, I have done something that I have been doing for a while. I am trying to use Google to search for the people that I know and fortunately, I was able to get some results that reflects things about someone in the family that I did not know. I guess there are many things that happened in history that I can really use as a guide. By looking at what really happened to the people that I know and from the various sources from the family members of that particular guy, I am sure that I will not repeat the same steps as he did. I believe that although I may not be a wealthy guy right now, I may be one of the luckiest guys on this earth because I have a family and my family members are still close to one another. However, I believe that I will do my best to provide the best for this family in the future.

Reading some Mozilla development and some thoughts about the Malaysian Broadband Industry

After a 3 hour workout yesterday, I have read some part of Mozilla's development involvement process. I heard the pod cast by Mitchell Baker, the CEO of Mozilla, and it really makes me want to try out their open source development that produces firefox, thunderbird and etc. I have read the development site and I have decided to see what I can do help them to do some bug verifications and some documentation since that is normally where "development on any software 101" normally starts. Anyways, I have setup an account on Bugzilla and I will read more on it by tomorrow. Besides Mozilla, I have read on something about WiMAX and I am curious to know what is it all about since it was said to be the next big thing in wireless Internet for Malaysia. Well, in Malaysia, the largest broadband ISP provider happens to be Telekom Malaysia. Like many state owned corporation, Telekom Malaysia is able to become the largest broadband ISP because they were able to provide the Malaysia people with affordable broadband. However, the quality of their broadband services is not as good as what they advertised. I guess , with the lack of competition, there may be a strong incentive for Telekom to make a strong move to improve upon its broadband services. Another advantage that Telekom current hold is they own the "Last mile" connection point to all homes in Malaysia. Unlike many countries in this world which people get the option to connect to their ISP through Cable, the only option that we have in Malaysia is the phone jacks that is basically connected to Telekom. As a result, it is almost impossible for another company to sell a better broadband service since they have to get the rights from Telekom before they start their services. As a result of the monopoly of Telekom, many people started to turn to wireless ISP providers. After reading some Intro about "Last Mile" on wikipedia, I went on to look for WiMAX. There were only four companies in Malaysia that is allowed to provide WiMAX. Hence, I went to checkout GreenPacket bhd, one of the four companies that owns the right to provide WiMax in Malaysia. I will definitely read more about the company before posting more information about it later this weekend.

I have finally joined a gym

It takes so long to upload files on streamyx. I surely missed the days of ADSL2+ in OZ. Anyways, I finally joined a gym and man, at least, I think this is a justifiable expense for me. Well, I have put on quite a number of weight and this is the time for me to work my ass up in order to get back in shape for "mian bao si shi". Well, at least, that is a carrot for an ass!! Hahaha. Anyways, I have signed my self up for a 3 month commitment home membership plan. It will cost me around rm175(around 45-50 dollars per month). The picture shows the freebies that you join the club although I don't really need those things at the moment. Well, I am currently looking to set my workout days on every Tue, Thurs and Saturday before I get my temp job before heading for grad school.