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Friday, December 29, 2006

Taiwan earthquake

The recent earthquake off the coast of Taiwan actually had me thinking...

#1. Did anyone even bothered about the earthquake that measured 6.7 on the Richter scale when it was first struck on 27th Dec?

I don't think anyone outside of Taiwan actually thought much about it, except maybe for the brief moment when a Tsunami alert was reportedly triggered (and subsequently lifted). Nobody cared about the extent of damage the earthquake caused or if anyone was injured or killed in the earthquake.

But there were lots of noise and interest when people realised that their internet connection was affected. Even the news headlines focussed on how internet came to a crawl, how the damaged undersea cables are affecting businesses across Asia and how long it would take to restore the cables...

#2. How we are now so dependant on cables. Yes, if you think about it, businesses are now so dependant on fibre optics that almost everything can come to an almost standstill because the cables were damaged. If they were really severed beyond repair, I wonder what kind of effects it would have on a country's economy...

But strange and illogical when you think about it, no? If it is a city burning or destroyed, I can understand. But cables...?!?

Yes, I guess economy is no longer just about moving tangible products. It is about communication, information and much more...

In case you are still wondering, the Taiwan earthquake did not cause any major damage. That's probably why there was not much coverage on it.

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Monday, December 25, 2006

Learning from disasters

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I wonder...

If the city councillors actually drive around the city? Never have I seen a much worse road than those in PJ and KL. Potholes, sinking roads, uneven patches. It is NO wonder that my car needs a major service every 3 months! Can I claim from MBPJ the damage done to my car while driving on their roads? H3ck, can anyone even tell me a road in PJ and KL (even if its just a small housing road) that is smooth, even and has no potholes, humps or sinkholes? Yes, that's how bad the roads are these days...

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The floods at several states recently is not the first disaster to strike our country. We have had other disasters (man-made or otherwise) as well in recent times but flood seems to be a frequent problem for Malaysia, with the last one in 2005 affecting about 30 000 people. There was also the 2004 Tsunami. We also had man-made disasters, with the most memorable one for me being the national blackout back in 1996. The whole country was in darkness...

During these disasters, as usual, reaction from the authorities were slow. OFFICIAL news was difficult to obtain. And at the end of it all, there were the usual promises - the promise to investigate, the promise to take action, the promise to punish those responsible, etc...

Did we learn from all these?

Today's headline reads "TNB will take months to restore supply to flood-hit areas". I guess we have not.

There were reports that people died while waiting for emergency services. Some were left stranded for hours waiting for rescuers.

Why is it that till today, we have yet to learn from the past? Why are we still not prepared for all these? They may be natural disasters, but I am sure a bit of common sense would have better prepared us. When it rains heavily for hours, won't anyone start to worry?

Every time AFTER a disaster strikes, we spend millions rebuilding. When there is no crisis, we do not seem to take the time and prepare ourselves for such an event. We pay taxes, assessments, maintenance fees, rental fees, etc... But how come I don't see any backup plans? Why is there still power outages or even the small scale floods such as the one on NKVE near TTDI Jaya, Shah Alam?

The point is... Why are we always fire-fighting when we should have been more prepared and organised when it comes to facing disasters? We have aspiration to be a fully developed country. We want to have the best of everything. We want to build super cities and mega IT hubs. It would be a waste to see it all washed away in a blink of an eye or because we are still, as Tenaga Nasional Berhad puts it - "ill-prepared".

Back to today's headline... Can we still afford to have states with NO power supply for a few months (or even for a week)? Johor was one of the states affected by the flood. I wonder if (potential) investors would still want to invest in the South Johor Economic Region after such a disaster? Yes, our reputation is at stake when we do not handle things properly.

To be fair, there were also government bodies and private organisations that were quick to react and provided assistance. Many Malaysians also offered to help by donating money, clothes and even volunteering to help out at the affected areas. I also saw in the papers about a man saving two pet dogs who had been left behind by their owners.

But there were also the few Malaysians who showed the ugly side by looting and plundering from the abandoned shops, cars and houses. I used to tell myself that the looting will not happen in Malaysia, only in other countries. I guess I was wrong again.

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Sunday, December 24, 2006

Wedding Photos #2

Yup, the second album is out... You can view them at photo.adriantai.com

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Friday, December 22, 2006

Senseless world

What have our world turned into?

I read an article last night in The Star's Metro section titled Dog loses jaw after cruel beating with this picture...

Joy, a little black dog, was found by a good samaritan with his lower jaw and tongue dangling. It seems he was beaten by a group of foreign workers for being 'haram'. It makes me wonder to what extend people are willing to go with their mis-guided beliefs. Misguided because according to a lecturer in Quran and Sunnah studies at the International Islamic University, he said that the Quran does not support violence against animals.

I guess sometimes little knowledge can be dangerous. No wonder there is a saying that ignorance is bliss. I have to agree, much better not to know than to half know and be mis-guided.

You can read more about Joy at remembersheena.blogspot.com and here as well. Anyway, Joy is getting better now. There is also a writeup about Joy at Care2.

Also this week, I received a forwarded email from a colleague warning me about a senseless motorcyclist going around bashing people's head with objects such as stones and bottles. As usual, before I forward the email to my friends, I always check to ensure that what is in the email is accurate. Since there was an email address, I decided to write to the author who is also a victim of the senseless attack.

She replied confirming that the email is not a hoax and she is recovering. She was bashed on the head recently with a huge stone but surprisingly, she was not robbed. The motorcyclist was not robbing her. And it seems the motorcyclist has been suspected of attacking several others in a similar manner all over Kuala Lumpur.

According to Sentul police chief Assistant Commissioner K. Kumaran, police cannot
see any motive for the attacks. "He doesn't rob them. He just likes to hit them and watch them fall."

You can read about this senseless attack here.

Do we have to start walking around wearing crash helmet? I guess logic is not something we can use when dealing with people these days...

But for Joy's case, we can all start to be more loving not just one another, but to animals as well. And hopefully the employer of the foreign workers can look into helping Joy and also to educate its employees.

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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Post about nothing

There are so many things to write, I just don't know where to start.

Wanted to talk about the flood that's affecting the southern states, but just so much of information and my 'wild imagination' that I just don't know where to start. I mean, looking at the tv footages got me thinking... What is our sea levels rise to such a level that part of our country is under water (or in knee depth)? This seems to be something out of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" but I seriously think its possible since our North Pole is melting away.

But of course I have yet to read and gather all the information, stats, etc... But some links so far:
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2006/12/05/sea-level-rise-not-from-antarctic-melting/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6171053.stm
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2006/2006-10-04-02.asp
http://subs.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10401578
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2006-03-23-sea-level-rise_x.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-03/uoa-pmm031506.php
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=1678441&page=1
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=106798&org=NSF
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11975255/
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1673

I also want to share about the new food pyramid and how we should start to seriously look at the things we eat. I feel strongly about this subject since I believe very much in eating healthy and eat only to live (as opposed to live to eat).

Some interesting sites I have visited so far includes:
http://www.mypyramid.gov/
http://sparkpeople.com/resource/nutrition_articles.asp?id=425
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A693-2005Apr19.html

Again, so much of information to gather, absorb and share... I'm still compiling...

Then, there's also the plan to share some computing tips (since I'm in the industry), talk about Google, write about searching on the internet, etc...

Aiyah... Where to begin? When...? So little time.

I think I'm thinking too much... I think I'll just take a break... :)

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Saturday, December 16, 2006

Wedding Photos

Just completed the first wedding album and it is now available at photo.adriantai.com. For now, I have settled for manually writing each and every webpage. Trust me, it is no easy task. Will look into the options available (such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver, etc) later on.

There are over 500 photos for the reception alone. Then there's another 300 from the tea ceremony. And that's not including the other photos from my guests such as Dean.

Anyway, I have split the wedding photos into a few albums and will slowly add them to my Photo Album. Expecting to put up an album a week for the next 2 months or so.

Here are some of the photos in the first album called Wedding 01 (you can tell I'm not that creative, huh?)... They are all photos from the wedding reception.

OK... Now I truly call it a week and enjoy what's left of my weekend.

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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Busy

Currently trying to rush out the photo album by this weekend. Have decided that at least for the time being, the albums will be hard-coded. This means I have to manually write each and every page.

What else? Oh... Been looking at a few things lately...

Mobile Phones.
Thinking of getting new ones sometime in the next 3-5 months time. Phone needs to have at least a 1.3megapixel camera, either Infrared or Bluetooth, true speaker phone function, alarm, calendar, ability to store lots of phone numbers (my current Siemens CX65 can store up to 1000 names), drag and drop synchronisation with PC, dictaphone (can do voice recording). Budget is below rm800. So far, was told Samsung X700 fits the description. Any one else can suggest something better? One more thing... NO Nokia.

2006.
Work on the Friends of Sek Men Seaport template. I wonder how much is my bonus this year?!? ;)

2007.
How to maximise time? How to make the world a better place. OK, I'm better off thinking of how to improve myself... My honeymoon in January (yes, again). Sign up for CISSP?!? Do field trip to the other states. Take up a Masters programme?!? Try to complete Okami. Take up qigong?!

Yup. It's that time of the year... Two short holiday breaks. New resolutions. And I have to say this again... Where did 2006 go?

Oh ya... Next year will be the first time I'm giving out angpows! :)

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Friday, December 08, 2006

A few updates

Some quick updates:

1. Dean beat me to it by being the first to publish photos from my wedding. You can check them out at his blog. I'll be posting the photos on my sites soon enough (read #2 & #3).

2. I will be (hopefully) moving to a new host this weekend (9th & 10th Dec 2006). There will be some service interruption. For adriantai.blogspot.com, this means the image links will be broken. But everything should be up and running again latest by Monday, 11th Dec 2006.

3. My new host has got a wide selection of free tools I can use. I will be testing them out and hopefully find a friendly and easy to use software for the wedding album. I plan to have the wedding photos posted here (and my website: www.adriantai.com) from 22nd Dec 2006 onwards.

4. Blogger has just 'invited' me to migrate this blog to Blogger in Beta. I know a few blogger friends are now on Blogger in Beta. Can any of you let me know if you faced any problems with site layout after you migrated? It took me such a long time to have this template and I hate to see it go to waste (assuming I have to start from scratch again). So, anyone who's using blogger, modified the layout and then moved to Blogger in Beta, I would love to hear from you. Please leave your comments!

5. Merry Christmas!!! It is never too early to wish Merry Christmas to family and friends... So here's to a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2007! Yup, it's snowing here at adriantai.blogspot.com!!! And blinding colour scheme too... Just bear with it la, ya?

Wah, did 2006 just zoom past?!?

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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Politicians and leaders

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I wonder...

Recently, there was a suggestion to register all bloggers, like what is being done for prepaid mobile phone users. As it is, we can't even get our voters' list right (so many claims of phantom voters) and we want to try registering bloggers?

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Not all politicians are good leaders (h3ck, some are more like Yesman than anything else). In Malaysia, some of them come off to me as gangsters rather than leaders (I mean no offence and insult to the gangsters).

If these politicians were also leaders, we would be followers who:
- build houses without approval
- avoid paying assessments
- are one-eyed (having to close one eye all the time to so many issues)
- break the law and claim the law we broke is a 'minor' one
- does not know how to be humble and instead, show arrogance and issue 'subtle' threats

Click for full newspaper clipping
A few months ago, when a former Prime Minister was actively criticizing the present leadership, one minister actually volunteered to be a 'pendekar' (Malay for warrior) and challenged the former Prime Minister to quit the party so they could have a 'fight'. That is so rash and I can see why we have road bullies now...

Road Bully overtakes a car and slightly scrapes the car he overtook. Driver in the car that was scrapped sounds his car horn. Road Bully stops his car (and the car he overtook), opens the door and walks over the driver and says "You got problem with my driving? You got problem, is it...? You want to fight, is it? Come out and fight like a jantan la...". Jantan is Malay for 'male'. Driver gets scared and apologises to the bully. Road bully is still not happy and continues "Don't think this is over you know. Just because you don't see me does not mean I cannot make your life miserable. I know your boss, I know your boss's boss. And I know this MP... I even know your neighbour's wife. So don't play-play with me!"

These politicians represent us. Are these the values we want them to represent? Are these the people we believe can best represent us and be role models and leaders for all of us?

Some of these politicians are a laugh. They never fail to amuse me when I watch them on TV. News clipping of these politicians banging their hands on the table, losing their temper, calling people names... They make me laugh. But they also make me wonder... Thugs or leaders?

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Sunday, December 03, 2006

Coffee with my brother

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I wonder...

What do we get out of sending Malaysians into space anyway? It is not like we're going doing any special research in space. And what's this I read about making 'teh tarik' and playing 'batu seremban' in Zero-G?

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I guess one of the main highlights of my week long holiday is probably towards the end of the week when my brother suggested we have a cup of coffee... In Genting.

We were never really close when we were young boys then, so these days, I would not hesitate to say 'Yes' to the opportunity to spend time with him.

So I said 'Yes' to him. Weird... I just said Yes to my wife one week ago (hint: my wedding la...). One hour later, we were circling Genting for a parking spot. It was a cold but lovely night with no rain in sight. Did I mention we arrived shortly after midnight?! :)

But it was packed. I guess mainly due to the fact it is the school holidays and it is also the weekend. Still, it was fun to spend time with my brother.

Me, Xiao Fen, Eric and Kristy
Sometimes, we only begin to realise the importance of the people around us - our family, relatives and friends. We sometimes tend to forget them or worse, we neglect them. We sometimes take our family for granted. How often is it that we say 'Thank you' to them? We seem to think that because we are so close, we think there is no need to say 'Thanks'.

They will understand and know we appreciate the help. How wrong it is to think this way. Should we not take care of the feelings of the people closest to us? Should we not be putting them first instead of strangers whom we may never meet again? Yet, why is it that so many of us say 'Sorry' or 'Thank you' so easily to strangers but not to family and friends?

Anyway, that night... The coffee is one of the best I have ever tasted. Not because the beans are of good quality but because of the people I was with when I had the coffee.

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Saturday, December 02, 2006

Port Dickson

Port Dickson... Here we come!!!
This was our honeymoon destination. For me, it has been years since I last visited the Port Dickson beach. I have heard of many 'stories' about how dirty Port Dickson (PD) beach is, etc... In my mind, I could see oil sludge, dead carcasses, plastic bags, paper and what-not strewn all over the place.

I was wrong... Which is a very good thing for me. :)

There were many hotels to choose from. Among the ones we considered were Guoman, Avillion, Seri Malaysia and a few more that was listed in MariMari.com. But we finally settled for the Corus Paradise Resort.

This is what greeted us when we walked into the place. Wow... Looks quite posh.

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Even the beach looks really nice from the hotel...

Click to view high-res image
After checking in, we took a drive along the seaside. About 5 minutes drive heading South, we arrived at this beautiful place called Pantai Cahaya Negeri. It is a very lovely place, with trees, a playground and even a small bridge connecting to a... errr... very tiny 'island'.

Photo taken from the bridge

The bridge
There was a temple nearby which we visited as well. We passed by an Ostrich Farm but did not stop to go in. That will be for our next trip.

We saw lots of seafood restaurants along the beach. But both of us were vegetarians, so we did not stop to try the food. Anyway, we just wanted a place to relax and be alone. *ahem*

Unlike Gurney Road, the items sold in the shops along the beach is reasonable priced. Mineral water still cost about rm1.50 per 1.5l bottle. I was expecting it to cost something like rm3. Maggi Mee is about rm0.60. So if you decide to drop by PD for a short break, you don't really need pack any instant food and be worried that the food here will cost a bomb! During our drive around PD, we also saw KFC, Pizza Hut and even 7-11. But we didn't find any McDonald's though.

We decide we had enough sight-seeing around the area and went back to the hotel. We could not really walk on the beach since the hotel did not really have one (Errr, dunno how to really explain it -- I believe a recent ad on TV used this place).

I guess now I know why it's called Corus Paradise Resort and NOT 'Beach Resort'
From our hotel room (all the rooms are 'seaview' rooms), the view is really nice.

I like that white patch of light on the sea
We waited for the sunset. Romantic ma...

Sunset is always romantic
Unfortunately, that was the closest we got to a sunset that night. Sat down from 1730hrs onwards and waited for the sun to set. But dunno why we didn't get to catch it. One minute it was still there, the next minute... The sun was no longer there. Our trip to Langkawi last year was better. We got to see sunset on a yatch.

The next morning... We took a stroll along the 'beach' since it was low tide. Wah, we saw so many...

Crabs...!!!
We had a good time there, even though it was just for one day and it didn't involve the use of our passport. I guess it is who you are with that matters the most.

The newly wed couple

For me, the first thing I always do when I check into a hotel room is to take a look at what they provide for the bathroom.

Not bad... They even provide toothbrushes and lotion!

You can usually tell what to expect from the hotel by just looking at what kind of soap and shampoo they provide. I still remember one hotel I stayed in a few years ago. They didn't provide me with a toothbrush. When I requested for one, they charged me rm5 for it. And they had bought it from the shop next door!

Although Corus is rated four stars in Marimari.com, I have noticed that the room was not too big. And it was not as clean as I would have expected the room to be, considering that at rm180 per night, I could easily get a nice, clean and quite big room in KL.

Excuse me but there's a fly on the floor and noodle on my (toilet) bowl
But still... IWe enjoyed our honeymoon.

To get to Port Dickson from Kuala Lumpur, just take the North-South Highway and head South. Take the PD exit and follow the signboards to PD. The signboards should lead you to the PD highway. Here's something that I learnt from this trip. At the end of the PD highway, you will arrive at a crossroad with a set of traffic lights. Signboards will tell you to turn RIGHT to go to PD. Straight will take you to Telok Kemang.

My advice is to GO STRAIGHT to Telok Kemang as it is easier and faster to get to the beach (and most of the hotels). We took the right turn and it took us through the PD town (with lots of confusing roads).

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