Selamat Hari Raya!!

Hey...

How is everyone?.. i just got back from Melaka. was there since Friday for Hari Raya (the rest of the world calls it 'Eid', but i prefer the Malaysianised version). Had lots to eat since day 1. For those unfamiliar with Hari Raya, it's basically a celebration after a long month of fasting during ramadhan. i think.

anyway, this is the time of the year where you get to see different types of biscuits, family get-togethers, colourful clothes, and ridiculous amounts of people at shopping malls. For descriptions on what people do during raya, google it. shall not bore you with what other people can type better.

what i look forward to every year during raya is the food (surprise, surprise). My grandma makes the best chicken rendang, urap (some dried coconut thingy) and fish sambal.. delicious to have during the first day of raya with ketupat...yummmy...

growing up, i've noticed that most people (well, my relatives anyway) will have a standard menu that they prepare throughout the raya weekend. the first day everyone would definitely have the rendang, ketupat and just some slight variation / signature dishes. i've got an aunt who makes the best beef cooked with coconut sauce.. hehe..

then on the second day, people cut down on the rendang and ketupat combo and switch to something that's easier to prepare.. most notably fried mee. My aunts / and mum calls it Mee Berderap which i think means fried noodles. hehe.. anyway, every household that i visit somehow just coincidentally fries noodles on the second day.

come the third day, it's back to usual malay dishes. these would cover rice with whatever dish they feel compelled to cook on that day.. For this particular year, my grandma managed to top everyone else by cooking a dish which i really love... Masak Lemak Ikan.. its this yellowy spicy dish thats just excellent (sorry, my vocab in describing food ain't that extended). pair this with clam sambal and fried fish..mmmmmmmm... well, i actually had 4 (yes, you read that correctly) servings of it.. and this was 4 in the afternoon!! hahaha.. it's one of those dishes where you just don't wanna stop.

so basically, every year i fast during ramadhan and lose some weight (very very little) and gain it all back and some during raya. i guess fasting during ramadhan kinda builds up the appetite for raya as well. ahaha..

now i'm back in KL and will be on holiday for the rest of the week... to re'adjust' my tummy. first step to this was futsal!! the rendang kinda took a toll on my running though, everyone around me seemed to be moving abit faster than me. oh well.

i guess that's how my raya went.. as you can see, the highlight of the trip was basically the food (there were some relative visiting sessions, but they provide food as well). Here's a list of the things i ate over the weekend:

List not in any particular order, just whatever comes to mind. i may have left things out..

• Asam pedas (one of grandma's specialty..mmmm)
  
• Fried fish (there's something about eating kampung styled fried fish)
  
• Ketupat
• Lemang
• ChickenRendang
• Nasi Lemak (breakfast)
  
• Roti Canai (breakfast)
  
• Roti John (went to the same restaurant 2 nights in a row. haha)
  
• Roasted chicken (went out with relatives, ordered 3 whole chickens)
• clam sambal
• Masak Lemak
  
• Beef rendang
• Beef with coconut sauce
• Urap (coconut thingy. i only see it during raya at my grandma's place.. eat it with sambal and ketupat)
• Fried noodles
• Fried rice (breakfast)
• a few types of cookies (this year, i kinda cut down on the cookies, trying to watch my figure! hahahahaha)
• KFC (had some people over at our house.. this was OUR specialty!!)

guess that's all i can think of.

have a good week guys! and Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir dan Batin to those celebrating raya!!!..

take care!

f

my condolences..

hey..

havent blogged in a while.. been quite busy at work and stuff.. anyway, just found out that my friend's grandma just passed away a few days ago. my condolences.

i've never been able to handle death well. i guess i just can't take the fact that a particular person can just not be part of your life forever.. and there's nothing you can do about it.

throughout my life, i can remember a few deaths that have close ties with me. As i was growing up, i remembered my grandma's funeral.. this was probably the earliest encounter with that part of living that i can remember. i was really young, so it didnt really hit me.

i had a school friend who passed away just after high school.. he sat next to me in class that final year. the last time i saw him, he was doing a drift move with his car. a few months later, i got a phone call early in the morning saying that he was involved in an accident...

most recently, was the passing of my aunt. This hit me quite bad... As i was growing up, she was one of the few relatives who was really concern about education. she had a daughter my age, and she would make sure that both of us get the proper education that we need. i remembered going to the same tuition as my cousin, my aunt calling my mum asking how my results were after exams (provided they were never really good).. and making sure that we choose the right path in life. About a year and a half ago, she fell ill. even the doctors couldnt figure out what happened to her. she was just lying helpless on the hospital bed.. i actually shed a tear when i went to visit her once.

it was extremely sad seeing someone you know, looking very helpless just lying there unable to do much... well, a few months later she passed away..

i guess when you think about death it makes you look at things differently in life, how short it could be and how immediate it can just go away.

anyway, hope you're doing okay J.. take care!

f

Freddie The Roach Slayer!

hey,

just found out something today. Freddie has an alter ego!!!.. (if you dont know who freddie is, he's my cat).

for the past few days, i've noticed an increase in the number of dead cockroaches in front of my house. i didnt really think much of it, until one night..

as i drove back from office one late night, i saw freddie sitting high on the gate wall.. he had that 'look' on his face, like he was on a mission. normally, seeing me he'll jump down and start meowing and asking me to rub his belly.. well, this time it was different. he just sat there and was staring into something in the dark.

Then all of a sudden, in two strides he jumped to the lower part of the wall and jumped into the darkness.. i didnt know what he was doing until i came closer. he attacked a cockroach that was making its way from the drain to god knows where..

now i know why there are a few dead cockroaches around!.. and given the fact that cockroaches are the one thing that i hate the most, i am extremely happy i 'adopted' freddie!!.. now my house will be a roach free zone, as i will be protected by..

Freddie, The Roach Slayer..

..hope everyone had a good weekend!

f

p/s - told my mum about him slaying the roaches. her response - ''probably you're not feeding him enough and he's hungry''

...

hey..

hows everyone? am not really in the mood to be typing anything much.

gf's off on a holiday in Paris, Rome, Florence.. so my whole week's been a bit off. i guess when someone close to you goes away for awhile it kinda makes you realise how much you love that person. (i've always loved you baby, but its a different scale when you're not around. haha)

oh well, one things for sure, i havent managed to wake up early at all this week.. on normal days (pre-gf on holiday), i would hear my gf's voice early in the morning.. she'd call me at around 7.45 to wake me up.. even though i still 'snooze' her everyday, she still never gives up calling me.. every day. so imagine this week when no one wakes me up. hahaha.. i've been waking up at 8.30 every morning!!!!.. i'm running out of excuses to tell my boss why i'm late. i even told my boss one day that 'my gf's not around to wake me up, so i overslept'. .haha

even the evenings are getting abit quiet.. normally, she'd be the first person i'd meet up for dinner (unless its Tuesdays, you know why... or if i have plans with my friends).. so now i just try to find what i can take away and eat at home... or meet up with friends who try to keep me company! (thanks guys! you know who you are!).

anyway, have a good weekend everyone.

f

Izinkan

hey all,

was quite bored, and luckily i found this on my friend's blog. try it and you'll be amazed how creepy it is.

RULES:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, Winamp, etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS.
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name. <- if you feel like it.(from http://aivana.vox.com)

• If someone says "is this okay?" you say,
Kaulah Segalanya - Ruth Sahanaya (haha)

• How would you describe yourself?
Where i End and You Begin - Radiohead (That's quite funny)

• What do you like in a guy/girl?
This charming man - The Smiths (this is creepy)

• How do you feel today?
Still Waiting - Sum 41 (another creepy one)


• What is your life's purpose?
Pedalpusher - Sterephonics (hahahahhaa)


• What is your motto?
Spend my life with you - Eric Bennet (this thing is really creeping me out)

• What do your friends think of you?
Gravedigger - Dave Matthews (ahahhahhahahahahhahahhahahaha)

• What do you think of your parents?
Believe me Natalie - The Killers (umm...?)

• What do you think about very often?
Pain for Pleasure - Sum 41 (hahahhahhahahhhahahahhahhahaha)

• What is 2 + 2?
Heal The World - M.Jackson

• What do you think of your best friend?
Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt (ummm... extremely creepy)

• What do you think of the person you like?
Freak - Silverchair (hahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahaha, i'm actually laughing here)

• What is your life story?
Talk - Coldplay (interesting, talk too much i guess)

• What do you want to be when you grow up?
Captain Dread - Dreadzone (very fitting, creepily)

• What do you think of when you see the person you like?
I want to know what love is - Foreigner (scary)

• What will you dance to at your wedding?
How do i live - Trisha Yearwood (i think my ipod knows what i'm doing)

• What will they play at your funeral?
From the inside - Linkin Park (is that how i'm gonna die?)

• What is your hobby/interest?
No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley (hahaha)

• What is your biggest fear?
Fake - Brand New Heavies (well said)

• What is your biggest secret?
Eleutheria - Lenny Kravitz (i think it means 'liberty')

• What do you think of your friends?
Authority - Goldfinger (hmmmm)

• What will you post this as?
Izinkan - V.E (cool title i guess)

creepy.

have a good day people!

f

short working week. woohoo

hey,

hope everyone's having a good week.

it's gonna be a public holiday in malaysia on friday!.. woohoo.. we're celebrating our 50th independence day.. amazing.

what have i got planned?.. nothing. yet.

i just feel like sleeping in and just slowly let the day sink in.. thinking back on how life was pre-1957.. hehehe.. plus, it'll be too crowded in shopping malls. Paddington pancakaes breakfast sounds like a good plan.. yumm..

well.. i guess we'll see what i do when the weekend comes.

updates from me - nothing new. work's been the usual SSDD. umm...besides that, theres nothing much going on actually.

... i'll post again when there's actual things to talk about. ciao!

f

p/s - typing this at 1.20am after futsal.. so, excuse the boring post.

Frederick von Meowmeow

hey,

there's been this stray cat around my neighbourhood for the past month or so. my neighbour always gives him food (friskies i think) which makes him wanna hangout around here all the time.

well, today as i got home from work, the cat was just sitting (more like licking his b*lls) in my driveway. me being the nice person, goes over and start rubbing the cat's head. the cat was just extremely happy that i did that. it actually didnt want me to stop. everytime i let go of my hand and start to walk in, he'll start meowing (is that even a word?)..

so, i basically had to play with the cat for the next 10 - 15 mins. Finally, when it got too warm inside i decided to go inside and in my head was thinking 'if the cat's gonna follow me in, too bad'.. and sure enough, the cat followed me in.

magically i had some catfood in the kitchen and decided to give this cute little cat sometihng to munch on. he was extremely happy and finished it extremely quick!.. guess he was just hungry. haha..

anyway, i've decided to 'adopt' this cat. i'm gonna provide him food and a belly rub everytime i see him. i'm not gonna keep him in the house as he may leave bodily fluids and sh*t everywhere. and since i'm adopting the cat, i need a name.. yes, you've guessed it.. i'm gonna name the cat FREDERICK Von MEOWMEOW... hahahha..

dont you think that's such a cool name?.. freddie for short by theway. reason for picking the name - nothing specific, but i wanted something that had a mixture of seriousness and cute in it. the 'von' kinda makes him abit more sophisticated, dont you think?. hahaha..

well, after dinner i didnt really see freddie.. guess he must be prowling the streets looking for umm.. female cats.

thats it for me today!.. hope everyone's week turning out okay!!

f

p/s - did you know that people with pets apparently live longer and are generally happier???

m*laysia book of what??..

hey, morning people..

was reading my daily news at www.thestar.com.my today and saw this article -

Malaysia Book of Records

The daily also reported that a private school principal made it into the Malaysia Book of Records for giving 50 hours of non-stop tuition lessons.

Dr Alan Diva, a 44-year-old from Kluang, Johor, started the lessons on Aug 17 before completing the rare feat on Aug 19.

More than 1,200 students were part of the record. They were divided into 17 groups, each attending a three-hour lesson.

After the lessons, Dr Alan, who looked exhausted, was found to be fit by the medical doctor on stand-by.

During the feat, he had 10-minute food and toilet breaks after teaching for six hours.

...

seriously, we're starting to put ridiculous items in the malaysian book of records. dont get me wrong, i think the book is amazing that it captures Malaysians' amazing feats.. climb mount everest, swim across french channel, first malaysian to win noble prize.. these are all amazing things and i salute those who have the guts and talent to achieve these.

but then you get articles like the one above.. record for giving 50 hour non-stop tuition???>. you call that a record??. he probably did it just so he'd earn alot of money.

and you got all these records on longest / largest / biggest.. food!!!.. we've got the longest sandwich, longest pulut kuning, longest keropok lekor!!.. i mean seriously, its getting a bit ridiculous.

i remember a few years back where a singer got indicted (if you can say that) into the book of records for being the FIRST ARTISTE TO SING AT THE REVOLVING RESTAURANT IN KL TOWER!!!!.. wow, that's just amazing..ly stupid.

i'm surfing the book of records website now to see if there is actually anything worthy of a book of record entry.. (15 minutes later.. i dont have that much research time)... they've divided them into categories and this is what i found..

category - Outstanding achievers.. (there must be something amazing here)

items within it:

1. The highest can stacking record.
2. the biggest dinner gathering.
3. first malaysian solo sailor around the world (worthy entry)
4. world's longest coin line
5. longest malaysian flag displayed on the great wall of china (worthy entry)
6. the most number of trees planted in one minute (what the???)
7. the biggest teh tarik event (due to number of participants. wow.)
8. first malaysians to walk the 'Last Degree' to the North pole (definite worthy entry)

from this category alone you can see how umm.. ridiculous this thing has become. Like i said before, its amazing how some of these entries are achieved (read 'worthy entries'). it takes extra human resilience to do what they've done and i think that is important as a main criteria for entries.

the fact that some people can enter for the 'biggest dinner gathering' is just because these people have nothing better to do than to just be in the book!!.. everyone else in Malaysia are not trying this because unlike some, we would rather do other things than obtain cheap publicity.

i'm not gonna waste my (and yours) time in listing down all the other categories and the entries. however, i did have a quick glance and like i said, there are a number of things which are amazing and are definite worthy entries in the book. .. (first satelite, tallest building, etc).. but then majority of the entries make the book rather childish and dumb. theres even an award for 'FIRST LRT TREASURE HUNT'.. i mean come on!!.. that can't seriously be a worthy entry.

oh well, i guess i'm just bitter that i'm not in the book. wonder if i can create a new entry that i can be first / longest / biggest / largest at.. hmm.. how bout the 'FIRST PERSON TO COMDEMN THE MALAYSIAN BOOK OF RECORDS'???. hahaha.. or the first person to create the word 'carmouflage'.. hmmm.. probably not. oh, how bout 'LONGEST LINE IN A BANK'

anyway, shall not bore you further with my rantings. haha.. i guess what i'm trying to say is that there should be some proper standards for an entry into the Malaysian Book of Records!!.. we are very talented people and i'm sure we can do much better than just 'largest dinner gathering'. how about 'highest number of malaysians enrolled into Harvard'? 'FIrst malaysian to win Noble prize'

having said that, i need to restate the fact (just so that you dont report me to the Ministry of Domestic Affairs or seomthing) that i am extremely proud to be Malaysian and i'm sure we'll do spectacular things for the country!!.. i guess while waiting for that moment to arrive, we have to make do with 'LONGEST STAY WITH SNAKES'..

well, here's wishing everyone a Happy 50th Merdeka!!!..

f

p/s - for the 'longest hours providing tuition', i wonder how much did the students actually learn???.. isnt that the whole point of the tuition??

so long firhanfikri.multiply.com.. may you rest in peace.

hey..

decided today that i'd remove my 'multiply' site. kinda realised that i dont use it and the URL doesnt really give me anonimity.. (yes, i know posting this here doesnt help either).

plus, it was kinda boring using that anyway!. .haha..

anyway, guess now you have to check out my updates from here!!. woohoo..

had a bad day at work today.. but shall not bore you with the details. lets just say i need a break. haha..

currently hooked on my psp. managed to install a number of games a few weeks back and i'm currently addicted to Hot Shots Golf. this game is amazingly addictive that i play this while i watch tv, before i sleep, while i'm on the pc chatting with people and while i'm in my ummm.. 'library'.. (yea, you know what i'm talking about)..

so currently its a dogfight between my ipod and my psp as my most used gadget!. ahaha..

wonder what gadget to buy next.. hmmm.. my next phone would probably be a sony ericsson P1i. (google it, i'm too lazy to insert a link).

on a different note, my birthday is in OCTOBER!!! do have a look at the wish list on the left side of the screen.. that may give you some shopping ideas. hahaha..

hope you guys have a good week ahead!!..

f

the problem that is child labour.

hey guys,

Thought i'd use this opportunity to create an awareness on child labour.

Wikipedia defines it as 'the employment of children under an age determined by law or custom. This practice is considered exploitative by many countries and international organizations.'...

apparently, child labour dated back to the 17th century, hence the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.

Was doing some research and never thought this would ever happen to Malaysian kids. How wrong was i when i stumbled upon this video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWScbBlhP6Y

Hope you have a strong stomach before you watch this.

f

get well soon..

hey,

hope everyone had a good weekend. Visited an aunt at a hospital today.. she had a stroke last week..

Felt very sad when i saw her just lying there, helpless. As i recall, this is the second time i've seen her in that state. She had a tumor removed from her skull some years back (probably about 10 years ago). Ever since then, she wasn't really the same. she can't really remember things nowadays. everytime she sees me, she'll ask 'who are you?'.. or 'are you married?'.. we do laugh whenever she does that, but i feel extremely sad knowing that she actually can't remember me.. come to think of it, i can't really recall a time when she actually had her full memory..

well, about 4 days ago while traveling with her husband in Madinah (look it up), she had a stroke.. they arrived back in kl and was immediately taken to hospital. doctor diagnosed her as having a stroke and she's now in 'recovery' mode. As of now, she can only slightly move her left hand and leg.. Her right side is slowly coming back, but it definitely requires long sessions of physiotherapy... The sad thing is that she can't even talk yet.. someone was saying that they now need to make the brain start working again so that she can restart her speech and thought process..

Hope she gets well soon.. i never enjoy (don't think anyone does) seeing someone you know just lying there in the hospital bed, unable to speak, move or laugh and smile with you..

well, thats it from me today... pray for my aunt's speedy recovery!.

f

update continued... and the wonders of irony.

hey,

when i start typing, i can't stop!. hahaha.. forgot to update you on certain significant items..

Sister - my sister had her engagement a few weeks ago!.. was a tiring but satisfying weekend. she seemed very happy and i'm always happy when she's happy.. kakngah, wishing you all the best!!..luv ya sis!!!

Weird book launch - was talking to a friend of mine who recently went to a book launch. she was commenting how stupid the book launch was. imagine this... the book was about 'HOW TO RAISE KIDS'..or something... well, the author was wearing a SKIMPY RED DRESS!!!..with lacy heels.. (or something)..and a huge ribbon on her ass apparently.. and kept on promoting that she was Miss Malaysia 1990 or someting..

on top of that, the sponsors for the show - Davidoff Cigars... and a LINGERIE brand!!!!..what the.... so they actually had a fashion show to strutt off the lingerie items.!!..

is it just me or there's something awfully wrong with that!!.. seriously, here you've got this book trying to teach parents how to raise kids and the only sponsors they could think of is a cigar and a lingerie brand!!.. what happend to Toy's R Us ???.. i just find that extremely ironic!!...

imagine if the author didnt really have a kid!! (i think she does, but i dont wanna know how he / she's being raised)...

so the lesson learned from "HOW TO RAISE KIDS'" book launch would be:

1. It's okay to smoke.
2. It's okay for guys to ogle at ladies dressed in undergarments.
3. It's okay for girls to dream of growing up and strutting themselves in undergarments (some people may think this is okay.. up to you.)
4. It's okay to dress like a cough*prostitute*cough when launching a book on "HOW TO RAISE KIDS"

...i wonder what's actually in the book.

f

ICT Consultancy Services - Status Report as of 20 July 2007

hey everyone...

just realised i havent updated for the past 2 months... nothing much has happened, but i'll try to summarise below..

work - sucks as usual.. see the main title??.. that's basically what my main job is nowadays.. to do bloody status reports!!.. its extremely annoyingly ridiculously boring!!!! dont get me wrong, i'm as excited as the next person when it comes to 'gaji buta'.. but then again, my brain needs to function once in awhile.!.. hahah..

love life - couldn't be better!.. nuff said. 8)

Sports - well, i got myself injured again.. surprise surprise.. kinda hurt my wrist a few weeks ago playing futsal. never knew a ball could cause so much damage (no porn jokes here k).. well, i had huge bruise on my right wrist and had to basically wear a bandage for a week or so.. i'm back to playing futsal now though... someone gave me one word to describe me.... stubborn.

holiday - went for a trip to penang about a month ago with a bunch of friends. had a very good time!!.. met up with our penang buddy (how you chris??) and basically just had lots to eat. for more details on the trip, please refer to the following site: http://chrissie-tina.blogspot.com (i'm providing free ads to you chris)

Movies - watched transformers... brilliant movie. for some thoughts on it, log on to: http://let-it-rayn.blogspot.com (i'm providing free ads for you too may!!!). also managed to watch Borat on dvd.. ridiculously stupidly funny!.. hahaha.. a 'must watch'.

Other updates - my shoe got stolen today.. yea, my working shoe. was going for friday prayers and some idiot just snatched my shoes... i cant believe someone would actually go to a mosque (where normal people need to behave at their best) and start stealing shoes!!.. that's definitely a one way ticket to h*ll!!!>.. oh well. i kinda liked that shoe as well..

guess that's my update for now.. will try to update a bit more when i have the time!.. just that nowadays my daily activities have been rather routine...

anyway, hope you guys will have a good weekend!.. i'm playing bowling tomorow.. i think. depends on how well my wrist holds up!>...

ciao..

f

sick.

hey,

How's everyone?. just realised that i havent blogged for the past 2 weeks. been quite busy at work (yea right). am currently down with a cold. been sick since last week, so decided to stay home and rest today. Went to the clinic today, but wasnt sick enough to get an MC (Medical Certificate(??)), but got some medicine. So, i'm technically typing this under drug influence. hhaha

Nothing much to update on my side. Don't really like being sick. I tend to be abit edgy when i'm sick. Get annoyed really fast with whatever. Those around me would know what i'm talking about. Even my dad managed to annoy me this morning (haha), and he was just being concerned. oh well.

work's been like its usual self. full of crap. Had a few redundant meetings here and there (will save that for another day) but mostly just sit around look busy.

Managed to hang out with my nephew and niece over the weekend (love them to bits!!!). There was one part where i thought was sweet.. i was lying down on the bed with my niece (2 months old) and the brother came over (2 years) and gave her a peck on the cheek, and kinda just brushed her hair with his hand. thought that was cute. hahaha..

besides that, didnt do anything much over the weekend. just rested and watched tv.

well, gonna head off for a nap.. drugs are kicking in. yaaawwwn...

gnite!

f

tired.

Hey,

how's everyone? i had a very tiring weekend. had to help out at my cousin's wedding over the weekend. i was the cameraman, driver for some relatives, the guy who puts up the signboards and overall errand boy. Very tiring but was a good wedding ceremony.

anyway, besides the weekend, last week was quite a good week. had a friend come down from penang (miss you already C). Originally she was suposed to stay for a few days only in KL.. but we kinda managed to 'convince' her to skip her flight back and just stay till the weekend. ahahha.
she even had to make a false letter to her boss saying she got food poisoning or something.

since she was around for the week, everyone kinda just adjusted their times to be with her. mostly spent the time eating (we also managed to go karaoke on one of the days).

was abit sad when we had to send her back at the busstop on Sunday. next time we'll see each other will probably be in August. oh well... (sob sob)

All in all, it was a great week. hope everyone else's week went okay!

f

p/s - shall stop here for tonight. it's monday and i don't really feel like typing about anything!!

belly-filled weekend

hey people,

how's everyone's weekend coming along? mine's kinda okay actually. didnt really do anything much. spent most of the time eating good food. had some great choices of food this weekend and feel really stuffed. guess i'm just trying to enjoy the weekend as much as i can. hehe.

holiday's over, so everyone's back to work. fortunately, the previous week was only a 2-day week. hmm.. just realised that i've blogged before (on my other blog) about having 2-day weeks.. wait let me look for it.. k got it. instead of linking you people to the site.. i'll just extract it.. easier to read. enjoy.. (some of you might have read this before.. oh well) -

"If i was king, i would change the working days. We DONT need five days to work. seriously, if i total up the amount of work i do within a week, it would be about 2 days. dont believe me, just time yourself. The fact that you're reading this kinda kills off about 15 / 20 minutes of your time. Imagine doing actual work within that same time... now take that to a bigger scale of let's say.. hmm.. a week.. and you get my point.

so imagine a week where its only 2 working days. We need the country to keep on moving, so i would suggest a rotational policy rather than everyone taking off on the same days. (see? forward thinking). in the line of work that i'm doing, that would fit just nice!.. we've got about 30 people doing the same thing, so having one person off on one day wont really make a difference to productivity.

Which leads me to my next point - unemployment. Take my previous point of having more than one person handling a particular position. So companies just need to hire extra staff for those positions with only one person in it... and when that happens at a national level, imagine what it would do to Unemployment Levels.. exactly!!

Well, i guess the next thing that people would be asking is 'what about salary?'. It's simple economics!.. the reason why they cant pay employees high (or employ new staff) is because companies dont have enough income. Companies dont have enough income because the public arent buying enough! Therefore, the simplest (therefore the best) solution to this is to hire new staff or increase salary (wait, it'll make sense.. just read on)..

When you hire new staff, ur technically giving him / her a buying power by providing them with a consistent salary. This salary would then be used to purchase things. When zoomed out to a larger scale, you can see that everyone wins!!!.. people will have more income to spend, they will spend on companies, and companies will have more revenue to pay the employees!!!.. and to add to the brilliance of this, now that people only work 2 days a week, they've got more than enough time to spend on products!!!..

There are other benefits of having a 2day week. I'll just sum it up below:

• Less backstabbing in the office, you wont have a chance to meet most of your colleagues.
• Office space would be cleaner
• Companies can really implement the 'shared' cubicle concept
• Countries can cut down on public holidays (hence reducing overtime pay costs)
• Employees (including bosses) would have more time with families

Well, those are the ones that i can think of from the top of my head. But i'm sure if more time and effort is put into it, the list would be slightly longer!!

As you can see, the 2-day working week concept is just brilliant in any way you look at it. Tell it to someone, if that person argues with you (which i highly doubt it) he's just dumb. Who in the world would argue with a movement that would lead to everyone having to work less days and getting paid for it!.. ""

...well, i guess my wish did come true, even for one week out of a year. Unfortunately its back to 5-day weeks starting monday. the next public holiday's gonna be in August. crap.

gonna be sunday soon.. wonder what's on the menu for tomorow. what i ate for the past few days:

• Friday Lunch - Thai food - Tom Yam, Pineapple fried rice, spaghetti with basil and seafood.
• Friday dinner - Pizza Uno (italian, duh) - beef bacon caesar salad, deep fried mushrooms, fetuccine with meatballs. yumm.
• Saturday brunch - Paddington's House of Pancakes - had this thing called 'Full Monty', which consists of.. ready for it... mashed potatoes, beef bacon strips, sunny side up, baked beans, chicken sausage, mozarella cheese, and served on some pancakes.
• Saturday dinner - maggi goreng with fried chicken, and some of my gf's tosay masala (extremely good).

well, hope everyone's gonna have a good sunday!.. take care!

f

worst imitation chocolate.. ever.

hey..


how's everyone coming along?. hope everyone's been having a good week!!.. i've been on holiday since last thursday and ending tomorow (today). didnt do anything much, just kinda lazed around. managed to do my taxes, watch a movie (spirit of the victim), play some pool, futsal, and watch season 1 of 'bones' for 13 / 14 hours straight. hhaha..


you guys should check out 'bones'!!.. amazingly addictive show.


anyway, last week during work, a colleague of mine brought in some chocolate. said that someone gave it to her. well, at first glance it looked like 'toblerone'.. (if you have no idea what toblerone is, google it)..but upon closer inspection, it was actually called 'VOBLERONE'.. here's a pic of the chocolate bar -

well, as you can see from the picture, it bears a high resemblance to a certain swiss-made chocolate, down to the triangular-tube shape. hmm.. this chocolate was probably made in china. we tried to look for any indication showing where its made in..but to no avail. the closest thing was at the front part which says 'voblerone of switzerland'.. yea, i'm sure that's true. haha.

due to our curiosity, we decided to give the chocolate a try.. we thought to ourselves 'how bad can imitation chocolate be?'.. ... we regretted asking ourselves that. here's a pic of how the actual 'chocolate' looks like -

as you can see, it doesnt exactly look like what you'd expect from a toblerone ripoff. you would've thought they'd try to imitate the actual shape of it. anyway, we all took a bite from the chocolate.. bad mistake. it was basically the worst chocolate i've ever tasted!!!.. i cant even call it chocolate!!.. it basically had no chocolate taste at all.. tasted more like powdered milk (cheap powdered milk) constructed to look like a chocolate bar and 1% cocoa powder sprinkled in it.

needless to say i spat the weird stuff out immediately and had to wash off the taste with some water, tea, mints and actual chocolate. (had to buy some from the cafe). worst chocolate... ever.

well, as disgusting as the chocolate tastes, you cant argue the effectiveness of it's immitation!. the company actually managed to fool some idiot (not giving out names) into buying without even looking at the actual label. the imitation kinda creates a perceived image in the buyer's head (sucker!!!!) and manages to make a buck out of it.

anyway, all my life i've seen a few other cheap imitation of well known products (sorry, no pictures.. yet).. some examples:

• ASADI - sells sports stuff, has two slanting lines as the logo. sound familiar?
• SONKYO (really, i've seen this) - sells electronic stuff, radios, 'walkmans'.. hehe.
• JACKER - chocolate coated wafer, if you not sure what this imitates, check out LOACKER.
• PENSONIC - electronic stuff, seriously the name kinda just gives it away. read it 5 times in quick succession and you get the original brand

can't think of anything else, but i'm sure there are dozens out there just waiting for suckers to buy them!. hehehe.. its amazing how these companies have managed to aim at a niche market in targeting customers. suckers who can't figure out the actual brands.

are these imitation items any good?.. hmm.. based on the 'voblerone' test, nope. but hey, who knows.. if they've managed to imitate properly, they might be on to something..

have a good week ahead guys!

f

7 out of 7 coin flips! that has to be a sign!!

hey everyone,

hope everyone's doing okay. haven't been blogging in awhile, been quite busy with work.

anyway, i'm in a bit of a dilemma. i've basically got a job offer today, but i have no idea what to do. been in a pros and cons mode the whole day and i still cant decide what i wanna do.

i definitely wanna leave my current place now, but whether i should take this offer or should i wait for something better??? the only thing that's technically holding me back now is the salary offer. its about a few hundred ringgit higher than what i'm currently getting. i'm not being greedy, but i feel that i'm probably worth a bit more than that!!.

due to this, i'm weighing all the other things surrounding the pay.. benefits, working conditions, etc etc... and the conclusion is.. i'm more confused than i was before. i guess long term it's definitely better for me to go there.. hmm.. i dont know.

well, i had a drink session with a good friend of mine today and was just talking about it as well. looking at the good and the bad things. it even came to the point of flipping a coin to make a decision. the scary thing was, out of 7 times we flipped the coin, all 7 came out in favour of the move.. thats extremely creepy. is that a sign???.hmm...

anyway, its 1am here now and i still don't know what to do. i guess what i'll do next is to talk to my career consultant, my dad. he always seems to know what's right.

i bid everyone a good nite and shall update you guys on what happens (if anything) to the offer!!.. wish me luck!.. and tell me what you guys think i should do!??

f

where have all the cowboys gone???

hey,

have you guys ever felt extremely lonely once in awhile? like you're just all alone going through your day and feel very pathetic? (no??) well, today was one of those days for me. nothing specific happened, but it's just a combination of everything.

my gf's not around for a few days, so that's probably one of the major thing that's bugging me (i miss you too dear). on top of that, close friends are either out of town or kinda busy today. and didnt wanna disturb some ot them as well. It was futsal night tonite and even my futsal buddies are outstation. so, no yumcha session after the game. (yea, i dont have that many friends, i know)

had dinner by myself at home tonite. bought nasi briyani on the way back from work and just ate while watching 'heroes'. don't get me wrong, i do enjoy the relaxing nature of just being by myself but i dont think i can stand that (or anyone can stand that).

kinda makes me realise how much my friends mean to me. (no, i'm not gonna cry!!!).

I dont really like the whole loneliness feeling though. can't imagine someone going through their lives not having good friends around. someone to just laugh at your stupid jokes (seriously, i make alot of those) and just naturally nice to hang around with. i dont even go to the cinemas by myself!!

well, me heading to bed now. i know today's post seems abit down and boring. but that was actually how my day was. didnt have enough interaction with people!. played good during futsal though!. ahah.

so, i bid you all good night and pray for a brighter day tomorrow. (or today, depending on the time you read this).

theme song for today - 'Someday We'll Know' by the New Radicals

chiow people!

f

wish i was there

hey.. took this picture when i was back in perth. it always keeps me calm. hope you like it!

f

hate sunday afternoons.

Hey,

Its sunday night (well, monday early early morning) and i always dread this moment. where it hits your mind that the weekend's over and a new week of work's just a few hours away. This is the moment where you question yourself whether you've done enough over the weekend to last you through the week.

have i done enough??.. hmm, i'm not sure about that. I bought a printer yesterday for rm300 (HP F380) and got myself a free thumbdrive, a compressed towel (no idea what that is) and a rm10 voucher for parkson.
had McDs breakfast with my gf this morning.. then spent the whole day at my parents, hanging out with my nephew and niece.

so, all in all, a rather pleasant weekend. quite relaxing.

hope the week's gonna turn out nice for everyone!.. take care!

f

let's see if this works

hello everyone!..

thought of starting a blog (another one) while slightly maintaining my anonimity. Will try to post stuff on here as often as i can. or i'll probably just use the same material i post on my main blog!

well, hope this keeps you guys entertained.

take care!

f