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!!