A reminder

Exactly 1 month ago, we witnessed the exit of 2007 and welcomed the 2008 with wine and fireworks. Along with that comes a long list of resolutions and goals.

Are you still on track? Or do you still remember what you have promised yourself a month ago?

Today is 31st January 2008. Only 11 months more left. Time is ticking away.

Greeting Cards

I took these photos as my CNY e-card. Still thinking which is the right one to use. After that, all I need is to Photoshop some auspicious words onto it.

Inflation vs Increment

I had a Head of Department meeting yesterday and naturally, the topic of increment and bonus cropped up. Chinese New Year is due in 2 weeks time and there's still no news about the bonus.

The good:
The CEO said that the company will adjust our salary to combat the crazy sky-rocket prices of general goods.

The bad:
The increment will be based on official inflation rate.

The ugly:
Stupid government official inflation is only about 3.5% to 3.7%.

The official rate is totally bullshit. Ask any man on the street and they will tell you it's more than that. Essential food items like flour, oil, sugar and cooking gas had increased. Utilities like electricity, water and Astro had increased. Transportation costs like petrol, toll rate and tyre had increased. Even the char kay teow, wantan mee and teh tarik had increased. And the inflation is only 3.5%????

And to rub it in, senior management has not decide on the bonus quantum yet due to a screw up in the new KPI assessment method. Unlikely to get it finalised by Chinese New Year.

Anyone got the Ah Long's number?

Greener Pastures

I knew another friend who is packing her bag and leaving on a jet plane.

She's going to try her luck in a far, promising land; all alone amidst strangers . Hoping to challenge herself to a greater height and seek better fortune, she will risks it all, leaving behind friends and families.

Hazel, I wish you luck and pray you will find success.

One does not discover new lands if dare not to loose sight of the shore - Anonymous.

Wind and Water

Without fail, Dad will get hold a copy of "feng shui" booklet every year. It ditates every do and don't for the coming year, and how each of the zodiac will fare in the coming year. While I am not entire superstitious, it's good to know some bit and parcel on how the new year will affect me.

I have received this email, purportedly from Lilian Too that sums up my fortune in 2008, the year of Rat. Fine, no harm reading what's in store for me and I scrolled down to look for my zodiac. Here is the entire paragraph for those under the Snake sign.

The Snake comes out from under the shadow of the Tai Sui with improved health and energy. Obstacles faced in 2007 dissolve in 2008, with the Snake gaining strength and luck from March onwards. There is good improvement on the career front. Recognition luck is greater than wealth, which means most of your gains come in the form of your bosses realizing your worth rather than in material gains. To enhance for promotion luck, display a Monkey on an Elephant or a Ru Yi on your work desk. While there is money luck indicated, you are prone to getting robbed/cheated. Carry the Four Heavenly King Protection Amulet as a remedy. Protect your home by displaying figurines of the Door Guardians near to your main door. Keep your money in a Nine Dragon Wallet for empowerment. If you run your own business or are in sales, display the Pak Choy in the Southeast of your living room to bring plenty of sales or customers. To ensure smoothness in all that you do, wear the 10-eyed Dzi . There is great promise of romance for single Snakes. To enhance relationships, carry or wear the Infinity or Mystic Knot Symbol.

What the heck?? Apart from the first 4 lines, the remaining paragraph is actually advertisement spam! You could actually summarise the whole year prediction into a single sentence-

To get lucky, buy pendant/charm/stuff from me.

Done. Don't need to crack your head and write some generic stuff about the 12 zodiacs. Direct and effective. Short and simple. Fortune telling my foot!

On a different note, I've received my first CNY greeting from Melyssa yesterday. Hahaha, she's so kiasu.

Tragic but funny

Heard of Darwin Awards? No?

Perhaps you have read some of the award winners in forwarded emails before.

Here's a sample.

Wrong Time, Wrong Place 1990 Darwin Award Nominee
3 February 1990, Washington

The following mind-boggling attempt at a crime spree appeared to be the robber's first, due to his lack of a previous record of violence, and his terminally stupid choices:

1. His target was H&J Leather & Firearms. A gun shop.
2. The shop was full of customers - firearms customers.
3. To enter the shop, the robber had to step around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door.
4. A uniformed officer was standing at the counter, having coffee before work.

Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a holdup, and fired a few wild shots. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, covered by several customers who also drew their guns, thereby removing the confused criminal from the gene pool.
No one else was hurt.

The Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives: by eliminating themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chance of long-term survival. In other words, they are cautionary tales about people who kill themselves in really stupid ways, and in doing so, significantly improve the gene pool by eliminating themselves from the human race.

These individuals carry out disastrous plans that any average pre-teen knows are the result of a really bad idea. The single-minded purpose and self-sacrifice of the winners, and the spectacular means by which they snuff themselves, make them candidates for the honor of winning a Darwin Award. The terrorist who mails a letter bomb with insufficient postage deserves to win a Darwin Award when he blows himself up opening the returned package. As does the fisherman who throws a lit stick of dynamite for his faithful golden retriever to fetch and return to him. As do the surfers who celebrate a hurricane by throwing a beachfront party and getting washed out to sea.

Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards represent examples of evolution in action by showing what happens to people who are unable to cope with the basic dangers of the modern world. These ironic tales of fatal misadventure illustrate some of life's most important lessons.

Click here to access the latest 2007 Darwin award winners. And let us rejoice we have one less idiot roaming on this planet.

via Darwin Awards

Korea photos

I still got loads of photo yet to be uploaded.

Cool


Taboggan ala Calvin and Hobbes


Snow flakes


More to come. Stay tune

Is it P1 or P2?

This is going to be an embarassing post.

I always think that it would only happen to the aunties and I always snicker at their bewildered and lost expression. But on that faithful day, I too, joined their ranks as a "Disoreintated Parking Member".

It all started when Mrs Banana, her sister and I decided to go to Ikea on a public holiday. Bad move. The parking lot was packed and it was clear that we were not going to get a space at all, so I crawled towards the exit. When all hope seemed to be lost, a car zipped out of a parking space just in front of us! Horray!!! Without wasting a second, we parked our car and laughed at our luck.

I'll skip the shopping part, suffice to say that I had contributed enough to boost our economy on that faithful day. The problem started when we were in the lift. Hmmm.... where did we park our car? Was it at P1 or P2. Normally, I would look at the level and aisle number, but because of the euphoria of getting a parking space earlier, none of us took the trouble to remember. Oh, never mind, I think it's at P2.

We walked, with heavy shopping bags, towards the exit direction. (that was where we park our car, right?) But aisle after aisle, we couldn't find our car. It was very hot in the parking lot and with the loads, I was sweating all over. It should be just over the next aisle. But still we couldn't find our car.

By then, I knew we were in trouble. I told Mrs Banana and her sister to wait at the elevator area with our prized huntings, while I whizzed through the parking lots again. This time, I pulled out the car alarm control, and pressed the panic button frantically, hoping to hear the alarm. But I still couldn't find my car.

By now, other drivers were trailing me, just like those vultures circling the dying a zebra. "Hey brother, where's your car?" some smartass asked. He was not amuse when I told him I don't know. Probably he was thinking I was making fun of him.

By now, I had covered many aisle already. Should I go up to P1? Maybe. Or perhaps it is just a few row in further up? Or someone had stolen my car? So many decisions, so confused, so baffled.

Then something caught my eye. I remembered we saw a poster of baby chair on sale. The same poster was right in front of me. I turned to my right, whizzed through the horde of idling cars (and their annoyed drivers) and voila, I found it!

I pressed the alarm button to disarm my car, but nothing happened. I pressed again. Nothing. Turned out the alarm battery had ran out due to my frantic pressings earlier. Never mind, I'll just use the key to unlock the door. But the moment I open the door, the deafening siren roared like a hungry hyena. Shit.

I tried to start the engine (the alarm was still on, mind you), but the engine was immobilised. Great, just what I needed. What was the override pin code I set 3 years earlier? Or did I even set the pin code? Oh, let's try the factory setting, 1234. I entered the pin code and it beeped once. The siren was still blasting away. Strike one. Two more tries and the system will lock down. Ok, let's try this one, ****. As soon as I entered the last digit, the siren stopped. By now, the driver of the silver kenari waiting for my lot must be wondering whether I was the righful owner of this car or a car thief who had just disabled the car security system.

Was it the end it? No. The entire ordeal lasted more than 15 minutes. When we paid the parking ticket, we were to exit the car park within 15 minutes. Luckily my sister in law remembered, and ran to the parking machine to validate the ticket again. Or else, we would be stucked at the exit barrier. So much for a lucky day.

The moral of the story? Don't laugh at other people's agony, you could be one of them when you least expected.

When time runs out

I have received an email from Jackie, whom I met during my recent Korea trip. It's a forwarded email, with an interesting title: Very touching and meaningful Thai advertisement. I clicked on the link and watched the video.

Indeed, it was very touching and thought-provoking. Almost immediately, I am compelled to share the link with you. It makes you to re-evaluate what is really important to you, in this hectic and crazy world. There are countless occasions that we have taken for granted the loves and sacrifices by our family members. We always think that there's always tomorrow, and do nothing about it today. Well, think again.

Click on the link here to view the video. A word of warning though, get your tissue ready to wipe your tears.

AdSense - When It Doesn't Make Sense

Do you know what is Google AdSense?

Essentially, it's an advertising medium through websites where the website owner get paid once people click on the ads on the website. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"Google AdSense, commonly just AdSense, is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis."

AdSense is very common in blogs, free webmails and other websites.

Normally you would not expect to see AdSense in multinational companies, or corporate website of well known products due to their branding strategy. Even if these companies are to advertise, the advertisment would definitely on their own products or services. Common sense will tell you it's a no-no to advertise for others in your corporate website.

But then again, in the spirit of Malaysia Boleh, TM Net just did exactly what I have said! While surfing for its promotions, I found out TM Net site has advertisement link to 5 other commercial ventures! Don't believe me? Here's the screenshot.




















Well, all I can say is this Government Linked Company is creating an impression that it is having trouble in achieving its financial KPI. Or maybe the income from the AdSense goes directly to someone's pocket?

I'm speechless.

2008

Yup, this is the first posting of the year. Hope you had a blast from the new year eve countdown parties and recovered from the intoxication induced by the limitless cocktails.

Initially, I wanted to post a reminiscence/reflection entry, to take stock of what happened to me (and Mrs Banana, of course) in 2007. But when my trusty but rusty 5 years old PC decided to take a break from work on 30th December, I spent my both the eve and new year days fixing and formatting my PC.

I had made a couple of resolutions for 2008 and strangely they all look very familiar. Ah.... right, these are the same resolutions I made in 2007 and in 2006, 2005 and many many years before. You know, the standard resolutions like to do more exercise, save more $$$, keep in touch with friends, read more books etc. All sounds too familiar? Can all these be achieved? Most likely not, judging from past precedents. Not to worry, after all, resolutions are made to be broken.

So to all my friends, may 2008 brings the best out of us!