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Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Wedding update 1

To be honest, till right now, I still don't know if I have got all the things ready for the wedding. Yes, in case there are a few of you regular visitors who some how missed out on this... I am getting married.

So far, the cards are already printed and currently being distributed. We've also reserved the tables at the restaurant for the big day. Vegetarian dinner. Kinda disappointed with myself for not taking up the whole place when we first reserved the tables. We took up only about 2/3 of the place and now we can't invite all the people we had wanted to. So my advice to couples planning to get married soon... Think about who you want to invite, make a list and then only do you look for a place. For our case, the restaurant already 'gave' the 1/3 to another couple.

The photos came out quite nice. I guess our worries were unfounded. We were quite nervous about how the photos would turn out since there were some minor issues with the studio. I guess they lived up to their reputation and I will be more than happy to recommend any of my friends to them. I will write more about them later on.

Hmmm... What else is there to do, anyway...? Oh well... I might as well share this one studio photo.

Can you honestly say I don't look good? ;)

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

A turn into memory highway

The long Deepavali and Raya weekend was a good time for me to catch up with a few friends from Singapore and also to continue cleaning up my room.

Since the new bedroom set will only come early November (second delay which I am glad), I still had ample time to s-l-o-w-l-y go through my stuffs. It is always nice to look back at stuffs from long, long time ago. So from Memory Avenue, we move onto Memory Highway. And one of the stuffs I found happens to be the grand-daddy to Pokemon and Magic: The Gathering card games.

Some of you might recall having played these cards long, long time ago. I still have mine. In mint condition! Think these are too macho? What about...

"Hello. Is son of Dr. Dose in the house? May I have the son of Dr. Dose? Thank you"
Before card games became complicated, expensive but highly collectible (with re-sale value), all we had were these rm1 card games (55 sen, if you bought them from outside Selangor - I got mine in Penang). You do NOT need to customise the deck. Just deal one deck equally among the players.

Next out of my treasure chest were cards again. This time, they are the 20 sen cards that honestly, I don't really know what they are for. Anyone?


For me, I used to play these with a few guys. We would wager cards, put them on a stack and then using quick hand motion to generate 'wind' that will overturn the cards. You get to keep cards that you overturned. There are variations to this game. But the idea is that you keep the overturned cards. At least that's how I play it.

My wife says she used to play with these cards as well. She and her siblings used the back of the cards as your normal playing cards. But I wonder... 1 'set' is usually made up of 21 cards (three rows of seven cards. I wonder how many sets she needed or had. :)

But sometimes, I keep the sets 'intact' just to keep them in a set. One set usually consist of pictures from a movie or cartoon. Any of the movie scenes and cartoons look familiar? Hmmm... I see... Automan. Thundercats. M.A.S.K. Conan. A-Team. V (the TV series about mice-eating aliens). Transformers. Star Trek. Rambo.

Besides cards, I also found some really interesting books.

One of Ian Livingstone's gamebook together with a book from the "Be An Interplanetary Spy" series
These are what I call grand-daddys to Computer Role Playing Games (CRPG). Back in those days, Role Playing Games (RPG) were quite hard to find. Even if you managed to get the books, starting a campaign may not be easy. So these gamebooks were simply heaven-sent!

The more complicated ones required the roll of dice. The simpler ones just resorted to optical illusions and puzzle solving. There were even a few of these adventure books based on The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries (anyone remember them?).

As we become more advanced and computers become more affordable, these books, unfortunately, have become 'extinct'. I don't think I can find these books in bookshops anymore. So sad... Then again, who wants to read these black & white books when they can have everything 'told' in full motion and coloured animation?

Oh well... It's back to cleaning my room again. I still have lots of things to clear and this weekend seems like it's going to be another weekend where I travel back in time...

I wonder how much all these are worth on eBay?

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Friday, October 20, 2006

Hero

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I wonder...
The authorities will not hesitate to confiscate or tear down a illegally setup 'mamak' stall. The authorities will not think twice about demolishing illegally renovated or extended houses.
What will the authorities do if they find out about a four storey house (more like a palace) built without permit (illegal la)?

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We live in a place and time where brutality and greed is a norm. We read in the papers everyday of deaths, kidnappings, murders, war, mass shooting. You name an evil and I am very sure it is reported in the papers somewhere...

So it is always a nice change, especially for me, when I get to read in the papers about heroes. Yesterday was one of those days. But unfortunately, it was a story without a happy ending.

The hero was non other than a Labrador Retriever and German Shepherd mix. From the newspaper reports, it seems that Jesse, the hero, had pulled her handicapped owner to safety. Before that, she had brought her owner's artificial leg and phone to allow her owner to escape and call for rescue. Jesse had already pulled her owner to safety when she heard her owner's cat cry from inside the burning home. Jesse then rushed back in to try and rescue the cat. However, shortly after going back in, the owner heard Jesse whine. Jesse never came out.


At a time when we read in papers of passerbys not lifting a finger to help snatch theft victims, it is truly wonderful (but sad) to be able to find such heroic act still existing.

I can only imagine the pain the owner had to go through at that time when she heard Jesse whine. I have a pet dog as well and sometimes when I play with her, I may accidentally step on her leg. She would let out a short cry. Or when she feels lonely, she would also whine and cry for attention... They can be really sad sounds.

Jesse was selfless and did not even care about her own safety when she went back to safe a cat. Jesse did not care that the cat was not one of its 'kind'. Jesse only knew that to help others was a good thing.

Princeton University defines humanity as having the quality of being humane (pertaining to or concerned with humanities). I would assume that both 'humanity' and 'humane' comes from the word 'human', which means something really 'good'.

Yet we see more humans behaving like one. We read of parents abandoning their newborn babies, torturing their child to death, etc... We hear of threats to wage war on one another. We see the polution we cause to the world.

But where is the human hero...?

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Video game console

I have always enjoyed console games. I believe this is mainly because I am a huge fan of Role Playing Games (RPGs) and there are many of these on the video game consoles. I used to have a PlayStation 1. And last year, I got myself the slim version of PS2. However, much as I like console games, I suck at it.

Close friends who have played with me, watched me play or even played against me will know that while I enjoy console games, I have practically no hand-and-eye co-ordination. That is why I never play fighter games. I can never master moves that require me to press UP --> LEFT --> BOTTOM (in 'circular' motion) followed by [SQUARE]+[CIRCLE] then [TRIANGLE].

And I can't drive cars on those PS2 controls. I can drive. With steering wheels. Call me cheapskate, but I just can't bring myself to part with rm100+ for a PS2 steering wheel.

I still recall one time when I was playing God of War on the PS2. There was a section in the game that required the hero to walk on a very tight wooden platform. Try as hard as I could (more than 5 hours of gaming spent on that section), I could not master and complete that section. I had to actually get 25kid to help me out. I stopped playing God of War after that.

So it came as a wonderful surprise when Nintendo announced late last year that they will be launching a revolutionary video game console next month (November 2006). What is unique about this new console from Nintendo is it's controller. The controller will be using motion sensors to control the game actions. Quoting Nintendo website on their new controller:
In a tennis game, it serves as your racket you swing with your arm. In a driving game, it serves as your steering wheel. For first-person shooters, the remote acts as your weapon that you point at an enemy. The list of potential uses goes on and on.

Wow! I am beginning to think this may be the video game console I want to get. With its expected price tag of USD250 (about rm1k), I guess it is still within my reach (hint: It will also make a nice wedding, Christmas or even birthday present).

Oh wait, I just remembered... I suck at racquet games too. I still can't drive with a remote control shaped controller. And I've never tried hacking a goblin to death with a remote.

But at least with Wii, I'm guessing that playing console games will also be considered 'exercising'. You no longer sit down and just work the fingers. You work you arm (or arms?!) as well...

For more information on this new console from Nintendo called Wii (I wonder why they renamed it Wii since it was originally known as Revolution) and images of the soon-to-be-release video game console, check out Wii's official websites:
http://wii.nintendo.com/
http://wii.com/

For juicy Wii news and games, you should check out these sites:
http://wii.ign.com/
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/index.html

I'm sure most of us in Malaysia will probably be waiting for the mod version. :)

This is one interesting site on the Wii modchips. I'd stay clear of the mod since it looks like some website from the future... It is written as though Wii has already been around for a long, long time... Yikes!
WAS?! December 2006 is still 2 months away. And PREVIOUSLY? Wii is not even out yet, so what do they mean by 'previously'?

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Monday, October 16, 2006

Cruising along memory avenue

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I wonder...
I have a pair of shoes - left and right. But how come the shoelace on the left side gets un-tied so many times in a week? The right side seems to just stay... tied. Can't be that I walk more on the left side. Maybe smaller left leg? And to think I always tie the left side extra tight.
And yes... I use the lazyman's way when I take off or put on my shoes (no need to untie the shoe laces, just squeeze through la).
Why?

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Getting ready of the wedding includes cleaning up my room (for the new bed and cupboard). My room is a total wreck. Everytime I see news footage of bombings or hurricanes, I am reminded of my room. Yes, it is that messy. Heck, I won't be surprised if the National Geographic team discovers a new species of mold or spider in my room. Not that I'm that proud of my messy room.

The thing is, I keep lots of stuffs. I still have stickers from primary school. I keep toys that I no longer play. Yes, I still hold on to the notes my secondary school clasmates pass around in class. I think there is a medical condition to describe what I do. But to me, the past is what makes me the me that you know today.

Anyway, over the weekend, I took time out to try and clear out some of the stuffs in my room. First thing to go into the trash was my colleague reference books.

I don't know why I kept them since I never used them after my college days

I still keep them. But I realised that after my college, I have never actually taken out the books or even looked at them. So conclusion - waste of space. Can't really donate the books since some of them were on PASCAL and BASIC. Yes, I'm that old. I dun think PASCAL or BASIC is still around anyway. Next best thing - recycle. Yup, they will go to the 'old newspaper' man.

But the books were not the thing that brought back memories. It was the scribbling I did when the lecturer was going on and on about one thing or another. It was also the little notes and test papers that I had 'filed' between the pages. Yes, that's how I do my filing back then - put the relevant papers between the pages of the book (same subject, of course). Didn't realise I answered some business papers that good. In fact, if I had not seen in between my pages, I would have thought it was written by some business guru. OK, it's not THAT good but still good.

Next were the CDs and DVDs. Hmmm... They are all still good. So they are NOT going to the garbage bin. The problem? The jewel case (CD casing) is there. But where's the CD? Then there's the other problem. The DVD is NOT in the right case. Then there's another problem - DVD is the sleeves when I am vert sure it used to have a jewel case. Luckily my wife (we are after all, legally married) has offered to help me sort it out.
Thank you so much, darling...

Hmmm... What is in this box? What the...?

This is my jotter book... I jot, I scribble and I doodle. But I am no Leonardo Da Vinci.
Needless to say, I spent the next hour taking a ride in this time machine.

That is the gaming tips I got from classmates for the classic PC game - Ultima IV
And a few weeks back, I wrote about some cartoons I used to watch back in my school days. One of them was Visionaries. I still remember copying down the 'words of power' (not sure what they are called) and sharing it with friends in school.

I am no poet either...
Those were the days.

I called the furniture guys earlier this afternoon and they said that since this weekend is a holiday, there will be no delivery. My new bed will only come in month end. I'm ok with that. It gives me more time to go through the rest of my treasures.

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Friday, October 06, 2006

Pets

Having pets can be fun. Pets like dogs can really make my day. I always look forward to coming home everyday because my pet dog, Gerger, will be waiting for me at the gate (maybe I perasan case... Maybe she is just waiting for her boyfriend gua?!).

Gerger, the lovely mongrel I adopted a year ago

This is Gerger when I first adopted her...

Aiyah! How come so different wan?!

Gerger will jump up and down and run back and forth while waiting for me to walk towards the gate (I normally park outside the house). Even when it is raining... I guess she must enjoy it even more when it rains because she just loves water! Everytime when I wash the porch, she would cry if she is chained. When she is not, she would just run in front of the hose and get sprayed with water.

About two weeks ago, I had a scare when Gerger started to vomit and purge. As it was already quite late, I was not able to take her to the vet. Luckily Eu Jin's sister is a vet. Managed to get hold of Eu Jin and he was then able to advice me on what to do. Could not really sleep well that night.

Before going to bed that night, I checked on her. She looked so weak. She was just lying down on the floor. It is just not her. She will never lie down on the floor when I'm around, unless she wants me to scratch her.

I remember waking up two more times that night. Once at around 2am. That time, she started to be able to move and walk about when I called her. So I told myself it is a good sign. At abour 4am, I checked on her again. This time, she was able to run. I knew then that she is getting much better... And I was able to sleep better after that.

My wife was of course not too happy when I told her about me waking up twice to check on Gerger. She claims I am not even that concerned when she was not feeling well...
Darling, where got la...?! I am very caring wan... When you are sick, must rest more ma. So never call lor... heh heh...

Many thanks to Eu Jin and his sister, Ai Lin.

I see lots of pets on websites as well. Every now and then, I will find bloggers who have got virtual pets. I like to play with these pets too. Play in an evil way...

Wah... This one looks like Baby just jumped off the window


So sad... Can see the food but cannot eat it cause I poured it outside
I don't do that to my pets la... OK? And my apologies to Shin and aNgeLic JuLiA for making fun of their pets. What to do...? So happen I was passing by your site when I saw the pets. Anyway, relax-lah... It's Friday!

Besides Gerger, I also have a few hamsters. The winter gold hamsters started off with just one pair and now I have eight of them. These are the latest three. They are over six months old now.

They have no names and they always hang out together


We're hamsters! We're NOT rats!

And they are all part of my family... I love my family!!!

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Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Malaysian prison

About one year ago, I wrote about how easy it was to enter the Malaysian prison...

'Klik untuk masuk' means click to enter. You only need to click to enter our prison
I revisited the Malaysian Prison website recently just to see if there have been changes to the website. As most of us would know, most of the time, govertment and corporate sites seldom get a facelift (or even updates). A pleasant surpise was in store for me when I checked them out...

You still only need one click to enter but at least the site looks nicer now
Wah... Nice design!! But wait... I know it is really nice to support our government efforts such as Visit Malaysia 2007. But seriously, I wonder who is the target audience when it comes to the prison websites? Would the audience be even interested in Visit Malaysia 2007? Hmmm... Where did they get the Visit Malaysia 2007 logo? I wanna have one on my site!

Anyway, on my last trip to this website, I did not actually bother to check out what was in this site. So this time around, I decided to poke around and be a busy body...

Some interesting facts and figures (based on 2004 statistics). Did you know...

• we have quite a number of prisons all over the country? And all this time, I've only heard of Pudu Jail.
  
• more than half of the convicted prisoners (remember that this is based on 2004 statistics) are foreigners? What?!? Let's think about this a bit. Assuming that each prisoner is given 5 meals a day (human rights thingy, perhaps?) - breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and supper. And assuming the 2 main meals will cost rm3 (they can't be eating better than our policemen, right? Click here to read about the underpaid policemen) and the rest will cost rm2 per meal. That adds up to rm12 per day per prisoner. Or rm4380 per year (at the moment USD1 = rm3.7). In 2004, there were more than 30000 convicted foreign prisoners, meaning we spent about rm144million just for their food alone! We have NOT even taken into account medication, water and electricity usage, etc...
  
• there are 59 death row prisoners.
  
• 26 convicted prisoners earn rm3000 and above per month (wah, they earn more than our policemen?!?). Of this figure, 6 are convicted foreign prisoners. No wonder we have so many foreign workers coming to Malaysia and then commit crimes. They can earn better and decent money in the prison!
  
• the prisoners make some really nice products like tables, CD racks, etc...

This reminds me of an interesting news article I read in the papers just last week. The prison authorities will be launching an in-house brand for goods designed and produced by the prisoners. I think that is a good idea. Really! Maybe our next national campaign will sound like this "Beli barangan buatan penjara Malaysia".

Also featured recently in the papers was the case of a deathrow inmate who is still waiting for his 'day'. The inmate is taking court action to set aside his death sentence, imposed for drug trafficking and substitute it with life imprisonment instead. The prisoner claims that the delay in executing his execution (pun intended) is unconstitutional.

Huh? Just when you thought people try to avoid being executed, this one wants to be executed. But I guess we can understand the mental torture he is going through.

From what I have read, death row inmates will only be informed of their execution day on the night before. I guess going through your life daily and not knowing when you will be executed can be a real torture.

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Monday, October 02, 2006

The underpaid heroes

Everyday, they risk losing their lives while performing their duty. Their job is 'to serve and to protect'. Yet, it has been revealed in a news report recently that some of them are only paid about rm650 per month. They are the Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM) or the Royal Malaysia Police.
Note: A quick check on PDRM website shows that a Konstabel starts with a minimum pay of rm530.46 and they get elaun khidmat of rm65, insentif PDRM of rm100 and elaun perumahan semenanjung of rm230. I am not too sure what 'insentif PDRM' on the website means. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Considering that an average lunch will cost rm3 per day, a 2-piece chicken meal at KFC costs rm5.30 (excluding tax), the cheapest McValue meal costing rm6.95 (again, excluding tax) at McDonalds (where else la?!), a frappuccino at Starbucks is about rm10 each and renting a 3 room mid-cost apartment will set you back by about rm450, I truly respect our selfless heroes who put the security and safety of the country and its citizens before anything else.

It is therefore quite sad to hear that the government had recently decided NOT to look into the salary review of these heroes (and the other civil servants). The reason is that a salary review will affect not only the police but all other civil servants and such an exercise will be a huge burden to our budget.

Perhaps I can offer a suggestion...

Have an incentive scheme for the police. Plough back a percentage of the summons collected by PDRM back into development programs, system upgrades, bonuses, etc... I know this will probably seem unfair to the other civil servants, but we have to look at it this way - how often do we need to risk our lives when performing our duties?

Every policeman (I will use this to mean the men and women) is given a set of KPIs or quotas (depending on the nature of the job). For example, field officers must achieve a minimum of 365 summons a year (about 1 summons a day -- very little considering that I'm able to spot at least 3 traffic offences when I drive to work and back) while deskbound officers will have to complete all reports, summons follow-up, etc within 72 hours. Failure to achieve these KPIs or quotas would mean no incentive or even salary review. Five successive bad marks and 'You're fired'. But achieve them, and you get a sum of say rm500 extra per month. I am sure the incentive can be more! Each round of Ops Warta, there is always a few hundred thousand ringgit collected (with many more summons not issued due to 'duit kopi').

I believe that with such a scheme, it can also help fight the 'duit kopi' disease. After all, the policemen have families too. They too want to provide the best education for their kids. At rm650 per month, can they even afford to start a family?

When the policemen have to issue more summons and make their case hold in court (can also be part of their KPI), they will perform their duties even better. The policemen will need to be very professional and well-versed in what they uphold - the law. They must back up each summons with evidence (and not just say I am 'Tuan Polis').

When the public realise they cannot bribe their way through anymore, there will be a tendency to be more careful and obedient. We will have less of expired roadtax, beating the red lights, speeding, etc...

The PDRM will also attract many more people to join too! Then we can have more policemen patrolling and keeping the country safer.

The above is not so easy as it seems, of course. If it is, I would probably be a minister or some big shot business guru by now. There are many issues to iron out... Issues like incentive payout for those involved in criminal cases, etc... But I believe that nothing is impossible. There is a solution to everything - It is just that we've not thought of it yet.

Actually, this can be done in other government departments as well. I am sure that if this is implemented, productivity will improve.

Sometimes change is required. Maybe it is time the government start to re-examine their policies and operations. Everyone knows that the goverment does not terminate the services of their civil servants. And everyone knows that in the civil service, regardless of whether you do extra or not, your pay and your increment is still the same (and guaranteed too!).

Perhaps it is time that this is changed. Not overnight but definitely over time.

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