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.

Day 3 after my trip to OZ

Day 3 after returning to Malaysia from Oz, I reformatted my laptop. I need to reformat my machine bacause the "Generic Host process for Win32" often shut down in 10min -1 hour after I started my machine. When you receive such error message, you will normally be forced to dc from your ISP. Besides reformatting my machine, I went to the Fitness First club for their 1 day free trial. Yes, I have decided to join a gym however I am new to the gym scene. When I first walked into the gym. The membership consultant was trying to sign me up for a membership. One thing that I am concerned bout the gym membership is that most of these clubs may have hidden clauses in their contracts. I am not quite happy about how they let people try out their facilities before making a decision to sign up for a membership. Yesterday, after a survey and a tour around the facility, the membership consultant tried to get my credit card number. After I refused to give him my cc number, he asked me to put down some money(rm 60) as a deposit. I am confused because I was wondering if they understand why I was there in the first place. I am supposed to be there to try out their facilities, Fitness First people. I will be happy to sign up for a membership if I am really happy with my experience at the gym. After I refused to put down the deposit( well the money is not really the issue, but I am not happy about the whole deposit concept), the membership consultant asked me for my identity card. I guess that is reasonable and hence they made a copy of my I.C. I guess the facilities were good and I was able to try out a lot of new gadgets that my previous company did not have in their gym. Although I may have a positive feedback for the place, I was told that their fees are a little high. However, I will try to make a decision after making a few calls to the gym franchises around the city. In sum, I hope health clubs should take a more straight forward approach since they are selling memberships and not insurance policies. When people understand the health clubs' membership obligations clearly, I am sure they will be happy to join the club. Like there is this line " Happy cows produce Happy Milk", I guess " Happy Potential Customers produce More Memberships".

Some after thoughts before leaving from Australia

Well, tonight will be my final night after staying in Australia for a month. There are some good and bad experiences that I have faced in this short one month stay in the great outback. Firstly, the good things. I am happy that I get to enjoy a lot of good food and I get to enjoy some real freedom that I have never felt in Malaysia. Another thing that I have observed in Oz is that there are actually a lot of beautiful girls in Australia. Maybe studying and then working in Australia may not be that bad of an idea after all. However, there were still some bad experiences that I have faced during my stay over here. Firstly, I am getting some "Asian-discrimination" feel in some part of the country. Like an episode of Seinfeld, Seinfeld's Uncle Leo always say that people are "anti-semite" when they are doing something that is against his will. I think I may have the same feeling since sometimes things didn't turn out as I wanted it to be. I hope I am sensitive in the but if this is for real, maybe the study and then work idea may turn out to be a nightmare in the long run. Yikes!! Another sad thing is that I ran into the same situation when I am to shy to talk to a girl that I am interested in. Well, there is this bakery place at Toowong village. There is this Asian girl who I think looks cute works at this bakery. Although I am not a big fan of bread, I have to try to get myself a loaf or two just to try to talk to her. Anyways, today, I tried to go and try to do the same thing one last time but I can't get to decide which bread I am going to get next. As a result, I turn back and get myself something from Coles before heading back to my sisters' apartment. It was the same feeling when I last met Tiffany, the girl who works at Starbucks in Stonestown in San Francisco. Although Tiffany looks more younger and more energetic, but this Asian girl looks more matured. It seems that I am more attracted to Asian girls who were born in a foreign land. Let's hope that I won't blow my next chance when I get to meet another attractive foreign Asian girl

桜 course- A pricey but a filling meal

Today, we went to South Bank, Brisbane to check out the South Bank Park since my mom is a big fan of plants and flowers. After our visit to the park, we went to Sakura Japanese Restaurant for dinner. We got to know this place from my younger sister who had her dinner once at the place. However, from her experience, this place is kinda pricey if one would go for the so-called course meal dinner at the restaurant. At the restaurant, I have decided to go and try out one of their course dinner which is the 桜 course. The course dinner includes an entre( Appetizer), a main course and a dessert. The meal cost us $48 per person and there is a two people minimum in order to have the course meal. For a more detailed description on the 桜 course, these are the things that we had during the dinner,

For Appetizer

1. Assorted Sashimi
2. Tempura
   
3. Grilled Fish
   

For Main Course

1. Miso soup
2. Sukiyaki Beef
3. Rice

For Dessert

1. vanilla ice-cream with chocolate syrup

This was the first time that I had Sukiyaki but after trying it out tonight, I don't think I will try it again since I don't really like it at all. When the server asked me about what I felt about the meal, I told her that I am not that happy about the dinner. Although, I didn't fully enjoy the dinner, I must say that they have one of the best servers that most Australian restaurants don't have. The thing that I am trying to say is their servers are quite professional. In the US, servers have to work hard to make their customers happy because most of what they earn came from their customers' tips. However, here in Australia, people don't really pay tips since Government Service Tax(GST) is included in all restaurant meals in the country. From what I have read in a wiki, once your meal is served in an Australian restaurant, it is quite hard to find a server before you ask for the check. The waitress that served us was always in our sight at all times and she even got burned when she helped us refill our green tea( I hope she is alright ). Well, I guess maybe she is a Japanese and therefore she is still able to provide us a more friendly Japanese restaurant environment. Anyways, if you are interested and if you do plan to try out this joint, the place opens at 6pm-10.30pm daily except Sundays and Public Holidays.

Back online at last!!

I finally got to post a new posting on this blog like after 2 weeks. Well, in this two short weeks, I went to Sydney and Melbourne for school visiting trip. I will post more later tonight but I am starting to feel that Australia may not be that bad of a place after all!!