My neighbourhood will on the 1st of July be officially classified as a gated community. And I have bittersweet feelings about it. For the benefits of my international visitors, I live in a place called USJ Subang Jaya which are divided into various sections from USJ 1 up to USJ god knows how many (twenty plus in all I would think) ... LOL!
And almost all of these sections have their own neighbourhood community associations that look into the well being of their own neighbourhood. It's all voluntary mind you and if funds are needed, the hat will be passed around to all the residents of the neighbourhood community.
When I first moved in here, the place was a nice and decent place and it is still is. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else and I even bought a condo here, which unfortunately construction is stalled at the moment. But as of a couple of years ago, the crime rate has gone up considerably (the same as everywhere else in this country) and there were quite a lot of break ins in my neighbourhood.
And these robbers were bold, they actually break into people's houses in the afternoon when some of them are at work. I've had both my left and right neighbours houses broken into and we didn't even know anything about it even though, my mom was home. We only knew about it when the Police dropped by in the evening after the neighbours came back and found their house a mess.
In fact, once I think they even tried to break into my place when no one was in. But it was a failed attempt cos my place is covered with an alarm system and it triggered and I was informed about the attempted break in by the alarm company who called me and the Police who came and checked out my house and found the back door tempered with. I guess the alarm must have frightened them off.
And that wasn't all, one of the residents just a few house away from me was slashed in the arm and robbed of her car in the middle of the afternoon as she was opening her gate to get into her house. After all these incidents, the residents community decided to hire some security guards to patrol the streets all day long. It was really sad that we had come to a point in life where security guards were needed in your own backyard, but it was all for the best. I felt a little safer sleeping at nights knowing that there were guards patrolling the place outside.
Now, back then, the guards just patrolled the area and just about anyone was allowed to drive in, out and around the neighbourhood. The section I live in is a pretty small and cozy section and has about five entrances and exits into it. So you could drive in from one entrance and drive out any of the others and vice versa. And the guards couldn't do all that much to check who came in and out of the neighbourhood.
Even with the guards, the crime didn't stop. It decreased a little but there were still spates of break ins every now and then cos just about anyone could drive through the area. Then a little over four months ago, a petition by the residents community to the local council to allow the neighbourhood to put up barricades and guard houses at all five entrances and exits were put in motion. And finally after a long 'battle' with the council, approval was given and the barricades were built.
And come July 1st, the barricades would officially be active with all the gates being closed from 11pm to 6am in the morning. All residents here were issued with car stickers to allow them to come in after the gates were down and those without stickers who wanted to come in after 11pm would not be allowed in unless they were cleared by any of the residents here. Even if you wanted to drive through in the afternoons with the gate open, you still had to sign in at the guard houses before you were allowed in. That made the neighbourhood all that much safer.
Now, while I'm really happy with these cos at least now no Tom, Dick or Harry with bad intentions on his mind were allowed into the neighbourhood at nights or at least were monitored in the day time, it still left me with a bittersweet feeling. On one hand I'm so much more at ease knowing wifey, the kids and mom are 'protected' at home while I'm at work, I feel a little sad that a regular road user who pays for his/her road tax is denied the right to use a common road.
And it brings me to this question. Is the world really becoming so bad that we have to fence up our neighbourhoods and not allow someone from another neighbourhood access to enter? Is this the sign of what's to come in the future? Are we all going to be so disconnected from everyone that we end up being isolated in our little corner of the world? No, maybe I'm going a little too deep with this. It isn't as bad as I make it out to be. But it sure looks like it's heading in that direction. A lot of places are being gated up and denying access to 'outsiders' from coming in.
I don't blame them in the least. In fact I embrace the idea. What with all the craziness that is happening in this world today. I am so much more at ease knowing that even as I type this post there are security guards on their bikes patrolling out there. I am so much more at ease knowing that when my kids go to the nearby park, there is someone out there looking out for them but I can't shake this feeling that somehow this is all wrong. Somehow, some genuine person out there who may just want to drive through the neighbourhood just to look at houses (which I myself do at times) or even take a short cut, will be denied access just cos he's not a resident here.
But then, I suppose I'd rather be safe than sorry and as much as it does bug me that this gated community thing will one day isolate all of us from each other, I cannot think of a better solution to deter crime. While the crime rate may not completely stop here cos if someone up to no good wanted to steal all your possessions and sinks (ok, maybe not your sinks la... LOL) and no matter how much of security you may have, he'll probably still find a way to do it. But at least it does make anyone with bad intentions think twice before they even do anything.
So, I do apologize to any of you outsiders who happen to come to my neighbourhood and are denied access just cos you're not 'one of us' but you could always tell the guards you've come to visit me and I'll gladly tell them to let you in ... LOL! I know I would be pissed if I were to drive to some other neighbourhood and be denied access to it just cos I'm an outsider so to speak. Well, at least now you know why I have bittersweet feelings about all this.
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Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Swamped With Work!
I've been so busy today that I haven't even blog hopped at all today. My reader is showing a lot of you have some new posts and it's probably going to take me all day to go to all your sites and check our your postings but I will :D Just give me some time to head there and read your posts.
As I said, I was pretty busy this morning and it's not cause of any office work at all. All my work has already been completed. And you wanna know what I've been busy with? With assignments la, what else ... LOL! I checked my inbox today and I saw a whole load of them waiting to be completed and that was what I was doing all morning ... LOL!
It wasn't easy doing them in the office mind you but I managed! LOL! I know I shouldn't be doing these assignments in the office but I was free and they're pretty good offers and with my car going to have to visit the mechanic again soon, any extra income is indeed welcome. You all know la how much things cost nowadays, right?
The problem with these assignments is that when they come, they practically come in a whole bunch and some don't give you all that much time to work on them. I didn't have any to do the past 3 days or so but I have enough right now to last me all weekend ... hehehe ... Some of these assignment are pretty good money so I'd be silly to refuse any of them.
If anyone had told me back then that I could make some money by blogging, I'd have said they were crazy. It didn't really appeal to me. Not because I didn't want to make money but because I was ignorant of the fact to making money online. It took a while before I actually went a little more active, alright, alright, a lot more active into it ... LOL!
Back when I first started blogging I refused to sign up with anyone. I wanted an ad free blog. I didn't want to put up all kinds of money making widgets on my blog (I still don't have any of them). Wifey was at that time experimenting with making money through her blog and she was encouraging me to join. I was adamant about staying away from stuff like these.
But then, after she made some money (and a good sum at that) I got interested a lot more. Who wouldn't, ya? By that time I was hooked and addicted to blogging and getting paid for doing something you like couldn't be all that bad. So, I jumped on the band wagon and haven't looked back since. But I still do try my best to maintain this blog in particular to be a more personal blog.
No matter what assignments I'm given I do try to infuse as much personal experiences into it. I don't want my readers coming her and just reading about some product, game, service or things like that. With whatever assignment I get I try to dig back into some personal experience (and I do have loads of experiences in my lifetime) and write my post around the assignments given. I blog mainly for personal and fun reasons and I wouldn't want to bore any of my readers ... hehehe ...
I'm glad I did decide to jump on the bandwagon. After 304 postings (I only realized that today), I must say I've made a decent sum of cash with both my blogs. And it's actually come at the right time to have some extra income seeing as how the cost of everything is going up. At least this way I can use my cards lesser and not incur too much of interest on the outstanding amount.
In fact I'm trying to completely pay back all my outstanding debts and not use my cards anymore. The more cards I have the more I spend and the more I spend the more I owe. But if you're looking for a new card or even thinking of getting one, then I'd recommend you check out Freecreditscoreonline.com and get them to calculate your credit score to see if you're eligible for a card or not.
With them, you'll get all kinds of answers to any of your questions concerning the types of credit available and if you're eligible for them. I'd say give them a try if you still think plastic is king :D As for me, I'm going to stick with cash for now, unless of course I'm buying something online, that is. And with that said, this assignment just made me a little bit richer ... hehehe ...
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As I said, I was pretty busy this morning and it's not cause of any office work at all. All my work has already been completed. And you wanna know what I've been busy with? With assignments la, what else ... LOL! I checked my inbox today and I saw a whole load of them waiting to be completed and that was what I was doing all morning ... LOL!
It wasn't easy doing them in the office mind you but I managed! LOL! I know I shouldn't be doing these assignments in the office but I was free and they're pretty good offers and with my car going to have to visit the mechanic again soon, any extra income is indeed welcome. You all know la how much things cost nowadays, right?
The problem with these assignments is that when they come, they practically come in a whole bunch and some don't give you all that much time to work on them. I didn't have any to do the past 3 days or so but I have enough right now to last me all weekend ... hehehe ... Some of these assignment are pretty good money so I'd be silly to refuse any of them.
If anyone had told me back then that I could make some money by blogging, I'd have said they were crazy. It didn't really appeal to me. Not because I didn't want to make money but because I was ignorant of the fact to making money online. It took a while before I actually went a little more active, alright, alright, a lot more active into it ... LOL!
Back when I first started blogging I refused to sign up with anyone. I wanted an ad free blog. I didn't want to put up all kinds of money making widgets on my blog (I still don't have any of them). Wifey was at that time experimenting with making money through her blog and she was encouraging me to join. I was adamant about staying away from stuff like these.
But then, after she made some money (and a good sum at that) I got interested a lot more. Who wouldn't, ya? By that time I was hooked and addicted to blogging and getting paid for doing something you like couldn't be all that bad. So, I jumped on the band wagon and haven't looked back since. But I still do try my best to maintain this blog in particular to be a more personal blog.
No matter what assignments I'm given I do try to infuse as much personal experiences into it. I don't want my readers coming her and just reading about some product, game, service or things like that. With whatever assignment I get I try to dig back into some personal experience (and I do have loads of experiences in my lifetime) and write my post around the assignments given. I blog mainly for personal and fun reasons and I wouldn't want to bore any of my readers ... hehehe ...
I'm glad I did decide to jump on the bandwagon. After 304 postings (I only realized that today), I must say I've made a decent sum of cash with both my blogs. And it's actually come at the right time to have some extra income seeing as how the cost of everything is going up. At least this way I can use my cards lesser and not incur too much of interest on the outstanding amount.
In fact I'm trying to completely pay back all my outstanding debts and not use my cards anymore. The more cards I have the more I spend and the more I spend the more I owe. But if you're looking for a new card or even thinking of getting one, then I'd recommend you check out Freecreditscoreonline.com and get them to calculate your credit score to see if you're eligible for a card or not.
With them, you'll get all kinds of answers to any of your questions concerning the types of credit available and if you're eligible for them. I'd say give them a try if you still think plastic is king :D As for me, I'm going to stick with cash for now, unless of course I'm buying something online, that is. And with that said, this assignment just made me a little bit richer ... hehehe ...
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Me? A Chef?
Oh god, I am so hungry right now I could eat two cows and three elephants and have room left over for three dinosaurs as dessert! That's how hungry I am. And it doesn't help much when I blog hop and ended up on blogs that have pictures of mouth watering food!
You know who you are, you sadistic little people ... LOL! The reason I'm hungry is cos I didn't really have anything for lunch today. I normally don't take lunch anyway but I do eat some light stuff during lunch and that would normally last me till dinner but today I didn't feel like eating anything at lunch and now I'm regretting that decision considerably.
We'll be going out for dinner tonight cos wifey didn't cook for the boys and I'm too hungry and lazy to cook my dinner. Yes, I cook my own dinner these days and it's not cos wifey doesn't want to cook for me or anything like that. In fact, I'm the one who has suddenly started to enjoy cooking. I even cook for wifey sometimes, that is, on days when she's brave and adventurous enough to try my cooking ... LOL!
All this actually started when both wifey and me decided to start dieting. And just for your information, I am still on my diet and it's been a little over two months now. This is the longest I've gone on any diets in my entire life. And I'm happy to say that I feel way healthier than I ever did. Ok, back to the cooking.
Ever since we started our diet, I've cut back on rice considerably (in fact in the last 2 months I've only eaten rice 9 times) and started eating stuff like salads, chicken or corned beef sandwiches, chicken soups, etc, etc. And I decided to actually make all my own ingredients and stuff. If I wanted to eat a chicken sandwich for dinner, I'd either stir fry the chicken or boil it and then shred it and make my own sandwich.
And I got wifey to teach me how to actually cook them. She was more than happy with teaching me and though it took a few failed attempts, but I got the recipe down perfectly the way I wanted it. And ever since then I've started to like cooking my own dinner. I won't even let wifey cook for me cos I want it prepared just the way I like it. And I must say that I can make a mean blue cheese chicken sandwich that is way better than what Tony Roma's can do ... LOL!
I know my buddy Adrian is probably shaking his head in disbelief that I'm actually interested in cooking these days. I mean, I'm the guy who could ruin boiling water even and now I just love cooking. Ok, granted I don't really know how to cook all that many dishes but I'm learning and I've just recently mastered making my own chicken soup :D I like experimenting when I cook. I'll try all kinds of things and there has been many a ruined attempt but I'll get them right eventually.
I don't know but I guess the diet thingy must have stirred up some secret desire I have for cooking that's been locked up inside me or something. I've even started to enjoy cooking shows on TV and would be telling wifey excitedly that I wanna try and cook that and that and also that. And she'll be giving me this 'urrmmm, ok sayang, sure sayang, anything you say sayang' look ... LOL! Just you wait honey, I'll whip you up something fancy one of this days, if I don't burn the house down, that is ... :D
With that said and done, I'm even hungrier right now especially after talking about food! I can't wait to go home, pick wifey and the boys up and head out to get dinner. The only thing about eating out is finding something that will satisfy my diet kinda food and also keeping the boys happy with the kind of food they want.
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You know who you are, you sadistic little people ... LOL! The reason I'm hungry is cos I didn't really have anything for lunch today. I normally don't take lunch anyway but I do eat some light stuff during lunch and that would normally last me till dinner but today I didn't feel like eating anything at lunch and now I'm regretting that decision considerably.
We'll be going out for dinner tonight cos wifey didn't cook for the boys and I'm too hungry and lazy to cook my dinner. Yes, I cook my own dinner these days and it's not cos wifey doesn't want to cook for me or anything like that. In fact, I'm the one who has suddenly started to enjoy cooking. I even cook for wifey sometimes, that is, on days when she's brave and adventurous enough to try my cooking ... LOL!
All this actually started when both wifey and me decided to start dieting. And just for your information, I am still on my diet and it's been a little over two months now. This is the longest I've gone on any diets in my entire life. And I'm happy to say that I feel way healthier than I ever did. Ok, back to the cooking.
Ever since we started our diet, I've cut back on rice considerably (in fact in the last 2 months I've only eaten rice 9 times) and started eating stuff like salads, chicken or corned beef sandwiches, chicken soups, etc, etc. And I decided to actually make all my own ingredients and stuff. If I wanted to eat a chicken sandwich for dinner, I'd either stir fry the chicken or boil it and then shred it and make my own sandwich.
And I got wifey to teach me how to actually cook them. She was more than happy with teaching me and though it took a few failed attempts, but I got the recipe down perfectly the way I wanted it. And ever since then I've started to like cooking my own dinner. I won't even let wifey cook for me cos I want it prepared just the way I like it. And I must say that I can make a mean blue cheese chicken sandwich that is way better than what Tony Roma's can do ... LOL!
I know my buddy Adrian is probably shaking his head in disbelief that I'm actually interested in cooking these days. I mean, I'm the guy who could ruin boiling water even and now I just love cooking. Ok, granted I don't really know how to cook all that many dishes but I'm learning and I've just recently mastered making my own chicken soup :D I like experimenting when I cook. I'll try all kinds of things and there has been many a ruined attempt but I'll get them right eventually.
I don't know but I guess the diet thingy must have stirred up some secret desire I have for cooking that's been locked up inside me or something. I've even started to enjoy cooking shows on TV and would be telling wifey excitedly that I wanna try and cook that and that and also that. And she'll be giving me this 'urrmmm, ok sayang, sure sayang, anything you say sayang' look ... LOL! Just you wait honey, I'll whip you up something fancy one of this days, if I don't burn the house down, that is ... :D
With that said and done, I'm even hungrier right now especially after talking about food! I can't wait to go home, pick wifey and the boys up and head out to get dinner. The only thing about eating out is finding something that will satisfy my diet kinda food and also keeping the boys happy with the kind of food they want.
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Monday, June 23, 2008
Vroom, Vroom, I'm A Brainless Motorcyclist!
I think when you decide to buy a motorcycle over here, your are required to leave your brains behind at the shop where you bought your motorcycle from cos as far as I'm concerned, I think almost all motorcyclist are a brainless, inconsiderate bunch of people. And I say almost all cos there are a few law abiding motorcyclist out there but they're a rare bunch of people.
This afternoon, on the way back to the office after lunch at home. I stopped at the traffic lights cos it was red (duh!). There was this motorcyclist guy who decided to ignore the lights and went through and almost got himself killed by narrowly avoiding a car that was on the right side of the traffic lights.
Trust me, if that car hadn't stopped in time, which in turn nearly got him rear ended by another car behind, that motorcyclist would have lost his stupid life. And to top things off, he had the cheek to show the driver of the car his middle finger! He went through a red light. The car with the right of way, screeched to a halt and nearly got rear ended by the car behind and the poor fellow was shown the middle finger. Can you beat that?
I've seen this happen so many times. The motorcyclists here are just a bunch of brainless terrors on the roads. They really have no regards for rules and regulations. They squeeze through you at traffic lights, sometimes scraping your car, hitting your side mirrors without even bothering to stop. They go through red lights like as if the roads belongs to them. They weave in and out on the highways without a care in the world. They don't bother using the special lanes allocated for them. They park anywhere they like. The list goes on and on and on ...
Do they even worry about their own safety? Do they they even care? Do they even have brains to care? I've had my fair share of close encounters with these motorcyclist in my lifetime and half the time I felt like just running over them! As it is, it's already stressful enough driving on the roads here with those mad lorry drivers, psychopathic bus drivers and the occasional Michael Schumacher wannabes, we also have to look out for these motorcyclist who weave in and out, using the highways pretending to be Valentino Rossi's. They not only endanger their own lives but the lives of the rest of the road users.
Some of them even ride without crash helmets, carry five or even six (I've seen this with my own eyes) people on their bikes. Not only that, I've seen some that carry all kinds of stuff with them like mattresses, generators, pipes, cupboards (yes, I've seen this too!) and all sorts of other things that are not at all suited for a vehicle with two thin wheels. Don't ask me how the heck they actually balance themselves though.
And with almost all the fatal accidents involving motorcyclists in the papers everyday, they're still not concerned about safety. They probably think it won't happen to them. Well, Mr. Motorcycle guy, when it does happen to you, then it'll just be too late, wouldn't it? You'll just be another statistic on the road! So, please, for gods sake, toe the line when it comes to safety on the roads. Green mean go, Amber means get ready to slow down to a stop and red means STOP!
And what I hate even more is after coming out of an appointment to find my car surrounded with motor bikes that I can't even get into my car. They just park wherever they like and go about doing whatever it is they do, not bothering if they're inconveniencing anyone else. It's not like there isn't a motorbike parking nearby. At times like these I just feel reversing and running over their bikes. Well, to be honest once I did. not run over their bikes but actually push their bikes into a drain ... hahaha ...
A colleague and me went for an appointment and came out to see bikes parked on either side of us, blocking both driver and passenger doors. And we couldn't move the bikes cos one or two of them had tire locks on it. So we did the next best thing, we pushed it all down the drain and quickly got into the car and drove like crazy out of there ... LOL! Trust me, it felt good seeing all the bikes fall into the drain like dominoes ... hahaha ... Ok, I know it was a bad thing to do, but they deserved it!
That's why I think motorcyclist are a bunch of stupid morons who leave their brains behind when they buy their bikes. But I must stress that there are a lot of pretty decent motorcyclist around who follow the rules and take their safety and others into utmost consideration. And I salute you guys for that. It's just that other brainless bunch of motorcyclist that give you guys a bad name. Then again, there are some pretty moronic car drivers too ...
.
This afternoon, on the way back to the office after lunch at home. I stopped at the traffic lights cos it was red (duh!). There was this motorcyclist guy who decided to ignore the lights and went through and almost got himself killed by narrowly avoiding a car that was on the right side of the traffic lights.
Trust me, if that car hadn't stopped in time, which in turn nearly got him rear ended by another car behind, that motorcyclist would have lost his stupid life. And to top things off, he had the cheek to show the driver of the car his middle finger! He went through a red light. The car with the right of way, screeched to a halt and nearly got rear ended by the car behind and the poor fellow was shown the middle finger. Can you beat that?
I've seen this happen so many times. The motorcyclists here are just a bunch of brainless terrors on the roads. They really have no regards for rules and regulations. They squeeze through you at traffic lights, sometimes scraping your car, hitting your side mirrors without even bothering to stop. They go through red lights like as if the roads belongs to them. They weave in and out on the highways without a care in the world. They don't bother using the special lanes allocated for them. They park anywhere they like. The list goes on and on and on ...
Do they even worry about their own safety? Do they they even care? Do they even have brains to care? I've had my fair share of close encounters with these motorcyclist in my lifetime and half the time I felt like just running over them! As it is, it's already stressful enough driving on the roads here with those mad lorry drivers, psychopathic bus drivers and the occasional Michael Schumacher wannabes, we also have to look out for these motorcyclist who weave in and out, using the highways pretending to be Valentino Rossi's. They not only endanger their own lives but the lives of the rest of the road users.
Some of them even ride without crash helmets, carry five or even six (I've seen this with my own eyes) people on their bikes. Not only that, I've seen some that carry all kinds of stuff with them like mattresses, generators, pipes, cupboards (yes, I've seen this too!) and all sorts of other things that are not at all suited for a vehicle with two thin wheels. Don't ask me how the heck they actually balance themselves though.
And with almost all the fatal accidents involving motorcyclists in the papers everyday, they're still not concerned about safety. They probably think it won't happen to them. Well, Mr. Motorcycle guy, when it does happen to you, then it'll just be too late, wouldn't it? You'll just be another statistic on the road! So, please, for gods sake, toe the line when it comes to safety on the roads. Green mean go, Amber means get ready to slow down to a stop and red means STOP!
And what I hate even more is after coming out of an appointment to find my car surrounded with motor bikes that I can't even get into my car. They just park wherever they like and go about doing whatever it is they do, not bothering if they're inconveniencing anyone else. It's not like there isn't a motorbike parking nearby. At times like these I just feel reversing and running over their bikes. Well, to be honest once I did. not run over their bikes but actually push their bikes into a drain ... hahaha ...
A colleague and me went for an appointment and came out to see bikes parked on either side of us, blocking both driver and passenger doors. And we couldn't move the bikes cos one or two of them had tire locks on it. So we did the next best thing, we pushed it all down the drain and quickly got into the car and drove like crazy out of there ... LOL! Trust me, it felt good seeing all the bikes fall into the drain like dominoes ... hahaha ... Ok, I know it was a bad thing to do, but they deserved it!
That's why I think motorcyclist are a bunch of stupid morons who leave their brains behind when they buy their bikes. But I must stress that there are a lot of pretty decent motorcyclist around who follow the rules and take their safety and others into utmost consideration. And I salute you guys for that. It's just that other brainless bunch of motorcyclist that give you guys a bad name. Then again, there are some pretty moronic car drivers too ...
.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Cheated Left, Right And Centre!
For those of you who don't want to ruin your weekend by hearing me bitch, then I'd suggest you don't read on. I know it's the weekend and I should be happy and all that. To be honest, I am happy and glad for the weekend. I live for weekends. But I just have to get this off my chest so I can enjoy the remaining Sunday much better.
I do complain quite a bit in my blog but hey, that's what my blog is all about anyway. Why do you think it's named Anything Goes! in the first place? When I complain about something, I'm normally very general about my complains. I don't specifically target or name anyone, well politicians are a different story entirely. But sometimes I really cannot help myself when people really piss me off, especially when they rip me off!
I am by nature a very patient and accommodating person. I'm friendly with everyone I meet, from the garbage man right up to presidents of corporations. I don't judge anyone and and treat everyone the same. But what I cannot stand is when someone you think is a decent person plays you out.
Now most of you know I've had some problems with my car being in and out the mechanics on a regular basis since last December. And partly it's my fault for not really taking care of that car. I'm more attentive to it's needs these days and it's serving me well. At least until about 10 days ago (that's how long I've kept this inside me). About 10 days or so ago, the car was veering off quite a bit to the left for no apparent reasons when I was driving it. I thought nothing of it and that it's probably just the alignment.
So off I went to my mechanic. Before I go further, let me explain that I have 3 different mechanics. One is just opposite my house at the Shell station. This is the mechanic I trust the most and would rely on when I need some complicated repairs done to my car. I've known him for ages and he's a decent guy. Unfortunately, he's not the cheapest in the market but that's understandable cos he does a good quality job.
The second mechanic is a couple of blocks away from my place. I'd go to him when I need simple mechanical jobs done that require the car to be left over night cos he provides me with a spare car. The third mechanic is a couple of doors away from my office. I use him when I need some quick and fast repairs done cos I can leave the car and walk to my office while he works on it.
Now, in December I sent my car for a major repair job to mechanic number two. I've also known this mechanic for years and have even recommended some of my friends to go over there. The repair job cost me close to an arm and two legs and I was happy with the work. But then, I had to send the car back to him a few times cos there were some things that were not fixed properly which led to more repairs and I should have suspected something amiss then but I didn't.
Now, with the car veering off to the left so much, I took it to mechanic number three, the one near my office to get the alignment fixed. And he instantly told me it's not the alignment. It's probably the absorbers. I gave him this blur look and told him, I just changed 2 new brand new absorbers about six months ago. And I know for a fact that absorbers have a much longer life span than 6 months.
So he jacked the car up and checked it and true enough, he called me over to look at the 'supposedly' new absorbers. And it didn't look new at all. Apparently mechanic number two had cheated me about really changing the absorbers and now it's led to a few other problems besides the car veering to the left that is going to cost me quite a bit to rectify! I was fuming mad! I wanted to scream but that wouldn't have accomplished anything.
How can anyone be so unscrupulous? What did I ever do to that mechanic for him to use inferior or perhaps even second hand parts and tell me that it's brand new? I'm not rich and spending that much money to fix the car back in December hurt like hell, especially with it being Christmas and all that.
I've even recommended my friends to go and use his services and this is how he treats me? By cheating me? It's not like I'm driving a luxury car or anything. I'm driving a beat up old Nissan and he just cons me like that? Go cheat someone who's driving a beemer or something la!
Now, because of his unscrupulousness I'm going to have to fork out some more hard earned cash just to get it fixed again. And I know taking the car back to him and complaining wouldn't do any good. He'd probably insist that it was new parts and that I screwed it up myself. I'm really disappointed and sad with the attitude of people like this.
I know everyone needs to make money but by cheating people? Is that the way to get rich? Obviously for some people it is. And I also found out that my air conditioning compressor which he also 'supposedly' replaced with a new one wasn't all that new after all, since that is also giving me problems right now.
Now, I never bad mouthed anyone here in my blog by revealing their names and such but today I'll make an exception. If anyone of you live in USJ or Subang, then I'd advise you NOT to use this mechanic called Subang Car Care Centre in SS19 Subang. If you like being cheated, then by all means go there.
And if you, Mr. Lim, the owner of the place happen to read blogs and come across my blog, then I'd like to say a big thank you to you for the 'great service' you given me! You've just succeeded in making me miserable and a lot more poorer for the month!
And if you guys actually read through this whole bitching post, I'm sorry if it ruined your day or anything but I'm glad to get it off my chest. It's been bugging me for quite a while now. I feel so much better :D I'm a generally nice person and can take a lot but even I do lose my temper once in a while. At least now I can get down to working on my mesothelioma assignment with a clear mind.
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I do complain quite a bit in my blog but hey, that's what my blog is all about anyway. Why do you think it's named Anything Goes! in the first place? When I complain about something, I'm normally very general about my complains. I don't specifically target or name anyone, well politicians are a different story entirely. But sometimes I really cannot help myself when people really piss me off, especially when they rip me off!
I am by nature a very patient and accommodating person. I'm friendly with everyone I meet, from the garbage man right up to presidents of corporations. I don't judge anyone and and treat everyone the same. But what I cannot stand is when someone you think is a decent person plays you out.
Now most of you know I've had some problems with my car being in and out the mechanics on a regular basis since last December. And partly it's my fault for not really taking care of that car. I'm more attentive to it's needs these days and it's serving me well. At least until about 10 days ago (that's how long I've kept this inside me). About 10 days or so ago, the car was veering off quite a bit to the left for no apparent reasons when I was driving it. I thought nothing of it and that it's probably just the alignment.
So off I went to my mechanic. Before I go further, let me explain that I have 3 different mechanics. One is just opposite my house at the Shell station. This is the mechanic I trust the most and would rely on when I need some complicated repairs done to my car. I've known him for ages and he's a decent guy. Unfortunately, he's not the cheapest in the market but that's understandable cos he does a good quality job.
The second mechanic is a couple of blocks away from my place. I'd go to him when I need simple mechanical jobs done that require the car to be left over night cos he provides me with a spare car. The third mechanic is a couple of doors away from my office. I use him when I need some quick and fast repairs done cos I can leave the car and walk to my office while he works on it.
Now, in December I sent my car for a major repair job to mechanic number two. I've also known this mechanic for years and have even recommended some of my friends to go over there. The repair job cost me close to an arm and two legs and I was happy with the work. But then, I had to send the car back to him a few times cos there were some things that were not fixed properly which led to more repairs and I should have suspected something amiss then but I didn't.
Now, with the car veering off to the left so much, I took it to mechanic number three, the one near my office to get the alignment fixed. And he instantly told me it's not the alignment. It's probably the absorbers. I gave him this blur look and told him, I just changed 2 new brand new absorbers about six months ago. And I know for a fact that absorbers have a much longer life span than 6 months.
So he jacked the car up and checked it and true enough, he called me over to look at the 'supposedly' new absorbers. And it didn't look new at all. Apparently mechanic number two had cheated me about really changing the absorbers and now it's led to a few other problems besides the car veering to the left that is going to cost me quite a bit to rectify! I was fuming mad! I wanted to scream but that wouldn't have accomplished anything.
How can anyone be so unscrupulous? What did I ever do to that mechanic for him to use inferior or perhaps even second hand parts and tell me that it's brand new? I'm not rich and spending that much money to fix the car back in December hurt like hell, especially with it being Christmas and all that.
I've even recommended my friends to go and use his services and this is how he treats me? By cheating me? It's not like I'm driving a luxury car or anything. I'm driving a beat up old Nissan and he just cons me like that? Go cheat someone who's driving a beemer or something la!
Now, because of his unscrupulousness I'm going to have to fork out some more hard earned cash just to get it fixed again. And I know taking the car back to him and complaining wouldn't do any good. He'd probably insist that it was new parts and that I screwed it up myself. I'm really disappointed and sad with the attitude of people like this.
I know everyone needs to make money but by cheating people? Is that the way to get rich? Obviously for some people it is. And I also found out that my air conditioning compressor which he also 'supposedly' replaced with a new one wasn't all that new after all, since that is also giving me problems right now.
Now, I never bad mouthed anyone here in my blog by revealing their names and such but today I'll make an exception. If anyone of you live in USJ or Subang, then I'd advise you NOT to use this mechanic called Subang Car Care Centre in SS19 Subang. If you like being cheated, then by all means go there.
And if you, Mr. Lim, the owner of the place happen to read blogs and come across my blog, then I'd like to say a big thank you to you for the 'great service' you given me! You've just succeeded in making me miserable and a lot more poorer for the month!
And if you guys actually read through this whole bitching post, I'm sorry if it ruined your day or anything but I'm glad to get it off my chest. It's been bugging me for quite a while now. I feel so much better :D I'm a generally nice person and can take a lot but even I do lose my temper once in a while. At least now I can get down to working on my mesothelioma assignment with a clear mind.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
The Buffet Dilemma
Sometimes I think the stupidity and ignorance I had as a child never really went away. I'm sure if you ask my two best buddies, they'd probably tell you I am still as daft as I was when I was a child. Not that you should believe them mind you cos they do tend to exaggerate quite a bit when it comes to me ... LOL!
Anyways, my cousin called me yesterday and asked me and the family to come over to her place after work for dinner. She said she just bought this lovely dining room buffet cabinet and would like for us to come look at it. I was a little perplexed by it.
'Dining room buffets? You mean it's like one of those all you can eat thingy's? And you actually bought cabinets for it?' I asked her.
She replied, 'Oh you silly person, It's not that kind of buffet cabinet. Don't you even know what a buffet cabinet is?'
Well, all my life I thought buffets was that place you went and ate to your hearts content everything they had on offer. And buffet cabinets were probably the place they placed all that food on. No? Well, that's what I thought anyway.
I could 'see' her rolling her eyes on the other side of the phone. She just said come over for dinner anyway and I'll explain to you in detail what a buffet cabinet is. Now I felt totally like a fool by then. But I was also intrigued at that point.
So, after work, I went over with the family for dinner at her place and also find out just exactly what a buffet cabinet is. I was expecting like this long cabinet and they'd be loads of food decked out upon it but when I walked it, there was nothing of that sort at all.
So I asked her where's the buffet spread and that cabinet she bought? She looked at me with this 'god, you are so dumb' look and pointed to an antique looking wooden finish cabinet in the corner and said,
'Now isn't that a beauty?'
Urmmm, that looks like a normal cabinet, nothing at all like something to do with buffets!', I said.
And that was when she went into this really long explanation about what a buffet cabinet really is. And that was when I found out something new in my life. LOL! To cut her long story short, buffet cabinets, according to her were cabinets that have drawers and are perfect for storing all your fine china and any other kind of dining room accessories that you normally use when serving a meal in your dining room.
Now there you have it. I'm sure all of you already knew that. Well, even wifey knew that and I seriously was left looking like a doofus. How in heavens name was I to know they had special names for places where they store fine china and all that stuff in a dining room. I always thought it was called just cabinets and shelfs and for me anything associated with the words buffet was something to do with all you can eat!
I mean take a look at the picture below. Does that look like anything that would involve the words buffet to you? To me it looks just like any other antique cabinet with drawers out there. Now just how was I to know it was called a Pecan finished buffet cabinet. Oh and by the way, this is exactly the same one my cousin bought. She got it at one of those discount dining room buffet offers from ebuffet.com or something.
All this talk about buffets has got me craving to go for one tonight. In fact the last time I went to a buffet was ages ago and even then it was ruined by a nasty staff of the place. I wonder if wifey is up to a buffet for dinner tonight, someplace where a buffet cabinet is meant for the buffet spread. Not something that complicates the life out of me and ends up making me look silly ... LOL! I'll bet you guys are probably laughing at my stupidity too right now ... hehehe ...
.
Anyways, my cousin called me yesterday and asked me and the family to come over to her place after work for dinner. She said she just bought this lovely dining room buffet cabinet and would like for us to come look at it. I was a little perplexed by it.
'Dining room buffets? You mean it's like one of those all you can eat thingy's? And you actually bought cabinets for it?' I asked her.
She replied, 'Oh you silly person, It's not that kind of buffet cabinet. Don't you even know what a buffet cabinet is?'
Well, all my life I thought buffets was that place you went and ate to your hearts content everything they had on offer. And buffet cabinets were probably the place they placed all that food on. No? Well, that's what I thought anyway.
I could 'see' her rolling her eyes on the other side of the phone. She just said come over for dinner anyway and I'll explain to you in detail what a buffet cabinet is. Now I felt totally like a fool by then. But I was also intrigued at that point.
So, after work, I went over with the family for dinner at her place and also find out just exactly what a buffet cabinet is. I was expecting like this long cabinet and they'd be loads of food decked out upon it but when I walked it, there was nothing of that sort at all.
So I asked her where's the buffet spread and that cabinet she bought? She looked at me with this 'god, you are so dumb' look and pointed to an antique looking wooden finish cabinet in the corner and said,
'Now isn't that a beauty?'
Urmmm, that looks like a normal cabinet, nothing at all like something to do with buffets!', I said.
And that was when she went into this really long explanation about what a buffet cabinet really is. And that was when I found out something new in my life. LOL! To cut her long story short, buffet cabinets, according to her were cabinets that have drawers and are perfect for storing all your fine china and any other kind of dining room accessories that you normally use when serving a meal in your dining room.
Now there you have it. I'm sure all of you already knew that. Well, even wifey knew that and I seriously was left looking like a doofus. How in heavens name was I to know they had special names for places where they store fine china and all that stuff in a dining room. I always thought it was called just cabinets and shelfs and for me anything associated with the words buffet was something to do with all you can eat!
I mean take a look at the picture below. Does that look like anything that would involve the words buffet to you? To me it looks just like any other antique cabinet with drawers out there. Now just how was I to know it was called a Pecan finished buffet cabinet. Oh and by the way, this is exactly the same one my cousin bought. She got it at one of those discount dining room buffet offers from ebuffet.com or something.
All this talk about buffets has got me craving to go for one tonight. In fact the last time I went to a buffet was ages ago and even then it was ruined by a nasty staff of the place. I wonder if wifey is up to a buffet for dinner tonight, someplace where a buffet cabinet is meant for the buffet spread. Not something that complicates the life out of me and ends up making me look silly ... LOL! I'll bet you guys are probably laughing at my stupidity too right now ... hehehe ...
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Thursday, June 19, 2008
My Castle In The Sky
A couple of years ago, I invested in a condo not very far from where I currently live. I used up almost all my savings just to be able to put a down payment and all that for the place. It was and still is in a pretty good location. I was pretty excited back then when I first purchased it.
The place was a sell out, with all the units being snapped up pretty fast. I even convinced my best buddy to buy a place there and he did indeed buy one, about a couple of floors above me. We didn't want to be seen as staying too near to each other ... LOL!
The facilities that came with the place was pretty good too. You know, the usual swimming pools, tennis courts, a mini theater, laundry services and better yet, they were planning to have a hypermarket on the ground level.
Now that would have made shopping so much easier, no need to drive out through jams looking for parkings and all that. All I had to do was just take the elevator down and viola, the hypermarket! But unfortunately all that came to a disappointment. The condo was supposed to be ready a few years back, but unfortunately, the darn developers abandoned the project. They took everyone's hard earned money and just ran!
And the excuse they gave was that the material cost had gone up and that they didn't have any foreign workers. I mean, come on, didn't they take into account the cost of material for the next couple of years. And no foreign workers? What kind of excuse is that? Hire some new ones for gods sake! And further more, for them to even start work, the banks would have already released some amount of funds from the loans everyone took to buy the place.
Don't these people have any conscience at all? They worst thing is, the condo I bought falls under the commercial category or something like that and there really isn't any laws protecting buyers like me who invested everything they have in buying the place. The most painful thing is seeing the place half built rotting away everyday on my way to work and not knowing if anything is being done to revive the project. They did try to revive it once with new developers taking over but even that failed eventually.
That project abandonment played a huge impact in my life financially. It took a huge toll on my finance cos I had to pay the current house rent on top of the interest for the bank loan on the condo, which was not cheap mind you. I suffered quite a bit at one time just trying to sort the darn thing out. And it's still not really sorted out yet. In fact I don't really have any confidence that it will ever be sorted out.
I wish there was some kind of laws that could help me get my money back or something like what they have in the US where they have this construction attorneys to safeguard the rights by filling out conditional lien release forms. At least they do have some kind of protection. Unlike me where I seriously don't know where to turn to either get the condo project revived or atleast get some of my money back.
I know for a fact that if they do eventually revive the project, I'm going to sell the place and buy something somewhere else. I don't think I'd wanna stay there now after all the bad karma that's been associated with the place. But until then I'm going to be paying the bank interest for a non existent place! Sighhh and as if life isn't difficult enough!
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The place was a sell out, with all the units being snapped up pretty fast. I even convinced my best buddy to buy a place there and he did indeed buy one, about a couple of floors above me. We didn't want to be seen as staying too near to each other ... LOL!
The facilities that came with the place was pretty good too. You know, the usual swimming pools, tennis courts, a mini theater, laundry services and better yet, they were planning to have a hypermarket on the ground level.
Now that would have made shopping so much easier, no need to drive out through jams looking for parkings and all that. All I had to do was just take the elevator down and viola, the hypermarket! But unfortunately all that came to a disappointment. The condo was supposed to be ready a few years back, but unfortunately, the darn developers abandoned the project. They took everyone's hard earned money and just ran!
And the excuse they gave was that the material cost had gone up and that they didn't have any foreign workers. I mean, come on, didn't they take into account the cost of material for the next couple of years. And no foreign workers? What kind of excuse is that? Hire some new ones for gods sake! And further more, for them to even start work, the banks would have already released some amount of funds from the loans everyone took to buy the place.
Don't these people have any conscience at all? They worst thing is, the condo I bought falls under the commercial category or something like that and there really isn't any laws protecting buyers like me who invested everything they have in buying the place. The most painful thing is seeing the place half built rotting away everyday on my way to work and not knowing if anything is being done to revive the project. They did try to revive it once with new developers taking over but even that failed eventually.
That project abandonment played a huge impact in my life financially. It took a huge toll on my finance cos I had to pay the current house rent on top of the interest for the bank loan on the condo, which was not cheap mind you. I suffered quite a bit at one time just trying to sort the darn thing out. And it's still not really sorted out yet. In fact I don't really have any confidence that it will ever be sorted out.
I wish there was some kind of laws that could help me get my money back or something like what they have in the US where they have this construction attorneys to safeguard the rights by filling out conditional lien release forms. At least they do have some kind of protection. Unlike me where I seriously don't know where to turn to either get the condo project revived or atleast get some of my money back.
I know for a fact that if they do eventually revive the project, I'm going to sell the place and buy something somewhere else. I don't think I'd wanna stay there now after all the bad karma that's been associated with the place. But until then I'm going to be paying the bank interest for a non existent place! Sighhh and as if life isn't difficult enough!
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I Fell In Love With The DJ ...
This may sound a little embarrassing but when I was in my teens and in college I had this desire to be a disc jockey! Yes, really I did. That was on top of a few other ambitions I had like being a Policeman, a break dancer, a spy and of course, supreme ruler of the world ... LOL!
But seriously, there was a time in the late eighties when I was in college with my buddies, I had this cravings to be a hip DJ. This was during the time of those house party trends where it was the in thing to throw a dance party in your house with all the disco lights, a mobile DJ unit, loads of beers, women and all that ... hehehe ...
I used to attend quite a bit of these house parties, even gate crashed a few cos it was even more cool to attend when you were not invited. And the first thing I'd check out at these parties wouldn't be the girls (and no, not the boys either!), it would be who manned the mobile DJ consoles and who was DJ for the night. I've always wanted to be a DJ at one of these parties.
So one day, me, a cousin of mine and two other friends (one of them was my other best buddy Sean) decided to form our own mobile Disc Jockey unit and rent out our services for anyone wanting to organize house parties. We didn't have much money to buy any equipment so we had to rent our equipment. We even had a nice name, courtesy of Sean which was 'Echo Chamber - Acoustics, Sound & Lights'.
We were so excited about it at that time and we even had some 'gigs'. I can't remember how many, it wasn't much though and I can't even remember who they were for. I think one was for a wedding reception and two others that were for house parties. We didn't last very long though cos we were really not that good ... hahaha ... but I did get to achieve my dream of being a super cool Disc Jockey though :D
It was great fun those days with the house party thingy's and having our own mobile DJ setup for rent. Even though we didn't make much money, the satisfaction was there. I can still remember setting up the equipment before the party started, then heading home to dress up and get the hair done ... yes, we guys did fuss about our hairs back in those days ... hehehe ... I mean, they were girls there and we had to be looking our best, besides I heard women had a thing for DJ's. LOL!
Well, the house party trend has died off here and these days it's more the clubbing scene where you got much more professional DJ's spinning records. I suppose it's easier to just go to a club than organize a house party with all the sound, music and lights. I would love to attend one or maybe even organize one for old times sake. I wonder if anyone would attend? In fact I wonder if I can still find someone offering mobile DJ services these days.
I know if I was in San Diego, I'd be able to find some san diego djs that could probably do the job for me. In fact, out of curiosity, I checked out the Precise DJs website and they do offer such services for all type of events. And they've got over a decade of experience in the music business so you can be confident that they'll do a good job for you. And their music genre list ranges from oldies to hip-hop and even right down to Spanish music, so I'm sure they'll have some pretty good song selections for 'oldies' like me ... hehehe ...
Unfortunately they're based in San Diego and I don't think they'd be willing to come all the way here just to help me organize a house party from the 80's. And even if I did organize one, we'd all look pretty silly, imagine a bunch of old fogeys from the eighties trying to dance and shake to the tunes of Shakin' Stevens, Wham, Culture Club and all that. I think my neighbours would call the Police ... LOL!
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But seriously, there was a time in the late eighties when I was in college with my buddies, I had this cravings to be a hip DJ. This was during the time of those house party trends where it was the in thing to throw a dance party in your house with all the disco lights, a mobile DJ unit, loads of beers, women and all that ... hehehe ...
I used to attend quite a bit of these house parties, even gate crashed a few cos it was even more cool to attend when you were not invited. And the first thing I'd check out at these parties wouldn't be the girls (and no, not the boys either!), it would be who manned the mobile DJ consoles and who was DJ for the night. I've always wanted to be a DJ at one of these parties.
So one day, me, a cousin of mine and two other friends (one of them was my other best buddy Sean) decided to form our own mobile Disc Jockey unit and rent out our services for anyone wanting to organize house parties. We didn't have much money to buy any equipment so we had to rent our equipment. We even had a nice name, courtesy of Sean which was 'Echo Chamber - Acoustics, Sound & Lights'.
We were so excited about it at that time and we even had some 'gigs'. I can't remember how many, it wasn't much though and I can't even remember who they were for. I think one was for a wedding reception and two others that were for house parties. We didn't last very long though cos we were really not that good ... hahaha ... but I did get to achieve my dream of being a super cool Disc Jockey though :D
It was great fun those days with the house party thingy's and having our own mobile DJ setup for rent. Even though we didn't make much money, the satisfaction was there. I can still remember setting up the equipment before the party started, then heading home to dress up and get the hair done ... yes, we guys did fuss about our hairs back in those days ... hehehe ... I mean, they were girls there and we had to be looking our best, besides I heard women had a thing for DJ's. LOL!
Well, the house party trend has died off here and these days it's more the clubbing scene where you got much more professional DJ's spinning records. I suppose it's easier to just go to a club than organize a house party with all the sound, music and lights. I would love to attend one or maybe even organize one for old times sake. I wonder if anyone would attend? In fact I wonder if I can still find someone offering mobile DJ services these days.
I know if I was in San Diego, I'd be able to find some san diego djs that could probably do the job for me. In fact, out of curiosity, I checked out the Precise DJs website and they do offer such services for all type of events. And they've got over a decade of experience in the music business so you can be confident that they'll do a good job for you. And their music genre list ranges from oldies to hip-hop and even right down to Spanish music, so I'm sure they'll have some pretty good song selections for 'oldies' like me ... hehehe ...
Unfortunately they're based in San Diego and I don't think they'd be willing to come all the way here just to help me organize a house party from the 80's. And even if I did organize one, we'd all look pretty silly, imagine a bunch of old fogeys from the eighties trying to dance and shake to the tunes of Shakin' Stevens, Wham, Culture Club and all that. I think my neighbours would call the Police ... LOL!
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Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Bonds Of Love ...
Today is spooky Tuesday and I'm going to post something spooky over here. So, for all those of you who are afraid of ghost stories (you know who you are) and all that, don't read this at night! LOL! Well, actually it isn't really spooky la. It's just a follow up to one of my earlier posts. Remember the one where I wrote about how daft I was as a kid and that I used to stay in front of a cemetery? I did mention that I'd post some of the weird goings on that I experienced over there.
I'm actually not really in such a great mood to post anything but I don't want to ruin anyone's day by being such a grump! I know my best buddy is already complaining that I complain too much in my blog ... LOL! So anyway, back to the story. A little recap here for the benefit of those who didn't read that earlier posting I wrote. Or you could go here and read the whole post about how stupid I was when I was young.
When I was about 3 or so years old, I lived in this little seaside town called Port Dickson in a government quarters cos my dad was attached to the National Electricity Board back then. These small clump of quarters were kinda isolated in this sort of jungle area with only about 8 families living here. And to get into the area, one had to pass four different cemeteries belonging to four different religions, the Christians, the Muslims, the Hindus and the Chinese ones along this jungle covered road.
Our quarters happen to be right smack in front of the Chinese one. For us back then it was no big deal cos we're so used to it and nobody was really scared of anything even though the place became dead (pun intended) quiet at night. There were no other houses around with the nearest being quite a long distance away. Even though, no one was really bothered about all these cemeteries, they was a rule about not playing outside after 6-7pm cos old folks back then believed spirits would follow you home.
I've always thought that cemeteries though scary looking at nights were really a safe place to be in. I mean, ghosts normally haunt the places they died and no one has ever really died in a cemetery right? They're all just buried there, so it should be safe. Well, far from it. Now, what I'm going to tell you is true. I've seen it with my own eyes and all the families who lived in this quarters have seen it.
There was this Chinese couple on the way to their wedding who happened to meet with a tragic accident on the way to their ceremony. Both the bride and bridegroom didn't make it. They died together in the smashed up car. So they were buried in the Chinese cemetery right opposite our place. No one really bothered cos we've seen funerals there so many times.
But one day, after exactly one year since that couple's death, one of the families living there started screaming for everyone to come out. I was about 4 years old back then. And what we saw was a sight that made everyone's hair stand on end! I was too young to really feel the significance of it but it still did give me the shivers. There coming out from the very grave they couple was buried was this ghostly white apparition of the couple walking hand in hand out from the cemetery and heading down the road into nothingness!
And believe me, I am not making this up. I can get my mom to verify this. It was widely speculated that the couple were going back to the scene of their accident. For what, I don't know. No one ever followed them out. The first time everyone saw it, we were all stunned into silence with some families saying prayers so loud, it could have woken the dead. And it wasn't a one off thing. This happened every year on the same date. And soon it became like a little event for all of us.
We'd all gather on that particular date at the veranda of the quarters around 8pm onwards and it would be like a scene of some outdoor movie, cos everyone would have drinks and food and wait for the couple to appear from their grave and they did not disappoint us. They would without fail come out every year and head down the road and we'd all sit quietly and watch them. Unfortunately we were all not rich back then so none of us had any cameras or such to actually document the thing.
And even until I left the place to come live in the city in KL, around the time I was 7 years old, they were still walking hand in hand every year. It was such a sad sight but atleast they died together and are with each other for all eternity. Though why they needed to go to the place of the accident sure beats the hell out of me. Maybe their souls were not at peace yet. Maybe they were stuck in limbo over here for not fulfilling their marriage vows or something. I really don't know. But I seriously hope they're at peace now.
The strange thing is back then I wasn't really such a big coward unlike now. Maybe it was things like these that shaped me into becoming a coward when it comes to all things supernatural. I think if I saw something like that now, I'd freak out and faint right away ... LOL! Anyways, I still have another story about the cemeteries which I will save for another day. But in the meantime, for those of you who need some help with wrinkles, now, I'm not saying that you do have wrinkle, but if you do, the check out this top wrinkle cream, it just might be the cream for you :D
.
I'm actually not really in such a great mood to post anything but I don't want to ruin anyone's day by being such a grump! I know my best buddy is already complaining that I complain too much in my blog ... LOL! So anyway, back to the story. A little recap here for the benefit of those who didn't read that earlier posting I wrote. Or you could go here and read the whole post about how stupid I was when I was young.
When I was about 3 or so years old, I lived in this little seaside town called Port Dickson in a government quarters cos my dad was attached to the National Electricity Board back then. These small clump of quarters were kinda isolated in this sort of jungle area with only about 8 families living here. And to get into the area, one had to pass four different cemeteries belonging to four different religions, the Christians, the Muslims, the Hindus and the Chinese ones along this jungle covered road.
Our quarters happen to be right smack in front of the Chinese one. For us back then it was no big deal cos we're so used to it and nobody was really scared of anything even though the place became dead (pun intended) quiet at night. There were no other houses around with the nearest being quite a long distance away. Even though, no one was really bothered about all these cemeteries, they was a rule about not playing outside after 6-7pm cos old folks back then believed spirits would follow you home.
I've always thought that cemeteries though scary looking at nights were really a safe place to be in. I mean, ghosts normally haunt the places they died and no one has ever really died in a cemetery right? They're all just buried there, so it should be safe. Well, far from it. Now, what I'm going to tell you is true. I've seen it with my own eyes and all the families who lived in this quarters have seen it.
There was this Chinese couple on the way to their wedding who happened to meet with a tragic accident on the way to their ceremony. Both the bride and bridegroom didn't make it. They died together in the smashed up car. So they were buried in the Chinese cemetery right opposite our place. No one really bothered cos we've seen funerals there so many times.
But one day, after exactly one year since that couple's death, one of the families living there started screaming for everyone to come out. I was about 4 years old back then. And what we saw was a sight that made everyone's hair stand on end! I was too young to really feel the significance of it but it still did give me the shivers. There coming out from the very grave they couple was buried was this ghostly white apparition of the couple walking hand in hand out from the cemetery and heading down the road into nothingness!
And believe me, I am not making this up. I can get my mom to verify this. It was widely speculated that the couple were going back to the scene of their accident. For what, I don't know. No one ever followed them out. The first time everyone saw it, we were all stunned into silence with some families saying prayers so loud, it could have woken the dead. And it wasn't a one off thing. This happened every year on the same date. And soon it became like a little event for all of us.
We'd all gather on that particular date at the veranda of the quarters around 8pm onwards and it would be like a scene of some outdoor movie, cos everyone would have drinks and food and wait for the couple to appear from their grave and they did not disappoint us. They would without fail come out every year and head down the road and we'd all sit quietly and watch them. Unfortunately we were all not rich back then so none of us had any cameras or such to actually document the thing.
And even until I left the place to come live in the city in KL, around the time I was 7 years old, they were still walking hand in hand every year. It was such a sad sight but atleast they died together and are with each other for all eternity. Though why they needed to go to the place of the accident sure beats the hell out of me. Maybe their souls were not at peace yet. Maybe they were stuck in limbo over here for not fulfilling their marriage vows or something. I really don't know. But I seriously hope they're at peace now.
The strange thing is back then I wasn't really such a big coward unlike now. Maybe it was things like these that shaped me into becoming a coward when it comes to all things supernatural. I think if I saw something like that now, I'd freak out and faint right away ... LOL! Anyways, I still have another story about the cemeteries which I will save for another day. But in the meantime, for those of you who need some help with wrinkles, now, I'm not saying that you do have wrinkle, but if you do, the check out this top wrinkle cream, it just might be the cream for you :D
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Saturday, June 14, 2008
The Inheritance ...
Sometimes I wish I was rich, filthy rich or something. I'm sure we all wish that for ourselves right? I know I shouldn't be complaining so much. After all, I have a roof over my head, food in the cupboards and all the comforts of a decent home. But even then, it takes a lot of hard work and struggle just to manage all that these days.
The money I have doesn't last as long as it used to. It's become stretched so thin that I'm always eagerly looking forward to month end for pay day. And that is not really a good sign actually. If by the middle of the month you're already eagerly waiting for pay day, then you know something is terribly wrong.
The price of things have gone up so much that this afternoon I took the family out for lunch, well, a late breakfast really and noticed that most of the stalls at our regular Chinese restaurant across the road has increased its prices already. And those that didn't have taken to cutting down their portions of food that even a new born baby wouldn't be full with the amount they give.
I had a shock when I ordered my drink today. Whenever I eat at Chinese restaurants, I'd always order cold Chinese tea. When the waiter, who is basically my friend as well, since I dine there quite often anyway, brought the drink and I asked him how much. He replied, 50 cents bro. What? 50 cents for iced Chinese tea now? Darn, it used to be 30 cents. In fact, when I first started drinking Chinese tea, it was 20 cents. And now it's 50 cents! I think I should just bring my own drinks next time.
Eating out is going to cost at least 50-60% more than before that wifey and me have decided to eat in more from now on. It's just not worth it at times to eat out these days. The times are getting harder and I foresee it to get even worse in the near future. People are probably going to be more prudent with how they spend their money and a lot of business are going to be affected.
And the hardest part for me right now is making do with the same amount of salary I've been getting for the past god knows how many years. I don't think my pay packet is going to last as long as before. I really think it's time for me to go and have a nice heart to heart talk with my boss about an increase in my salary soon. I mean, with all the things going up and with the amount of work I put in for her, the least she could do is at least consider a raise. But somehow, I seriously doubt it. She's really very stingy with her money.
These are times when I wished my dearly departed dad has left me some inheritance or something. At least I could use that to get to maybe get an inheritance advance loan or something and start my own business. I know such companies like InheritanceFunding.com do offer loans like these to help out. It's actually not a loan with an interest rate but rather something akin to a flat fee assignment that is paid back when the inheritance is distributed from probate.
There are no monthly payments for you to make because the loan advance is calculated on your inheritance. Details like poor credit and your employment status isn't really an issue at all. You can get an advance anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 and it's all usually done within seven business days. You can always find out more from any of their friendly funding officers and it's totally with no obligations at all.
But I suppose since I don't have any inheritance to fall back on, starting my own business might just be a dream for now, unless of course I have some rich relative out there who has my name in one of their wills. And whomever you may be, my surname is spelled with a double 'L', ok? Make sure you get that right! Don't want to be missing out on any possible inheritance I may have all because of a spelling mistake ... LOL!
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The money I have doesn't last as long as it used to. It's become stretched so thin that I'm always eagerly looking forward to month end for pay day. And that is not really a good sign actually. If by the middle of the month you're already eagerly waiting for pay day, then you know something is terribly wrong.
The price of things have gone up so much that this afternoon I took the family out for lunch, well, a late breakfast really and noticed that most of the stalls at our regular Chinese restaurant across the road has increased its prices already. And those that didn't have taken to cutting down their portions of food that even a new born baby wouldn't be full with the amount they give.
I had a shock when I ordered my drink today. Whenever I eat at Chinese restaurants, I'd always order cold Chinese tea. When the waiter, who is basically my friend as well, since I dine there quite often anyway, brought the drink and I asked him how much. He replied, 50 cents bro. What? 50 cents for iced Chinese tea now? Darn, it used to be 30 cents. In fact, when I first started drinking Chinese tea, it was 20 cents. And now it's 50 cents! I think I should just bring my own drinks next time.
Eating out is going to cost at least 50-60% more than before that wifey and me have decided to eat in more from now on. It's just not worth it at times to eat out these days. The times are getting harder and I foresee it to get even worse in the near future. People are probably going to be more prudent with how they spend their money and a lot of business are going to be affected.
And the hardest part for me right now is making do with the same amount of salary I've been getting for the past god knows how many years. I don't think my pay packet is going to last as long as before. I really think it's time for me to go and have a nice heart to heart talk with my boss about an increase in my salary soon. I mean, with all the things going up and with the amount of work I put in for her, the least she could do is at least consider a raise. But somehow, I seriously doubt it. She's really very stingy with her money.
These are times when I wished my dearly departed dad has left me some inheritance or something. At least I could use that to get to maybe get an inheritance advance loan or something and start my own business. I know such companies like InheritanceFunding.com do offer loans like these to help out. It's actually not a loan with an interest rate but rather something akin to a flat fee assignment that is paid back when the inheritance is distributed from probate.
There are no monthly payments for you to make because the loan advance is calculated on your inheritance. Details like poor credit and your employment status isn't really an issue at all. You can get an advance anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 and it's all usually done within seven business days. You can always find out more from any of their friendly funding officers and it's totally with no obligations at all.
But I suppose since I don't have any inheritance to fall back on, starting my own business might just be a dream for now, unless of course I have some rich relative out there who has my name in one of their wills. And whomever you may be, my surname is spelled with a double 'L', ok? Make sure you get that right! Don't want to be missing out on any possible inheritance I may have all because of a spelling mistake ... LOL!
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Friday, June 13, 2008
The Full Time Blogger
I've been blogging for close to a year and a half now. When I first started blogging I didn't know what the hell it was about. In fact it was just as an experiment back then. I thought blogging was something silly people did. Honest, that's what I thought back then. And since then I've eaten every single alphabet back. Right now if anyone said blogging is for for silly people, I'd give them a nice huge black eye ... hehehe ...
It took a while for me to warm up to it, but blogging has taken over a huge part of my life and time and I never thought I'd be spilling out my life story here for the world to read. And it's become so addictive that I don't think I could go a day without a little peek at my blog. And little did I know that I could even make some decent money from doing something I like.
I was and I still am an amateur blogger. There is still a whole lot of things that I really don't know about blogging even up to this day. I learned the hard way when it came to blogging. I started out using one of those standard templates blogger gave you and slowly learned a little html's and evolved my blog to what it is today.
My first couple of postings were so short back then that I even surprise myself these days with some of those infamous long winded posts I do. I didn't know I had so much of rubbish to write and complain about ... LOL! In fact my first ever post had only 25 words in it!
I really never intended to last this long in blogging or to make any money with my blog. In fact, back then I didn't even know one could make money with their blogs. But recently, Monica said in one of her comments to me that maybe I should become a full time blogger. That got me thinking.
Just what is a full time blogger? Can I actually be a full time blogger and make enough money for me to quit my current job? That would be an awesome scenario though. Do I even want to be a full time blogger? It does sound exciting but on the other hand, I have no knowledge how to make a decent living as a full time blogger.
I've read about some bloggers who earn tons of money just by blogging. I wonder how they do it. They talk about Search Engine Optimization and how you need to be at the top of a search engine to get the targeted traffic in and all that. They talk about how you have to diligently keep on doing it so you don't lose the traffic. How you would need the services of SEO companies such as San Diego Seo to help you be the best among the best. It's all really foreign to me.
I've tried to understand all that SEO talk but it's still way beyond my comprehension. I wouldn't know what to do with it even if it came and bit me on the nose! And it brought me back to this question. Why do I blog in the first place? Is it to make money? Well, yes and no.
I mean, I would of course jump at the chance to make some money doing something I like. But my main reason for blogging is cos I like blogging. I like telling the world what a stinking coward I am when it comes to ghosts and the stories of what I did in my childhood, I like boasting about my beloved wife and family, I like having a place where I can speak my mind about anything at all under the sun.
I guess if I could actually make a ton of money from blogging, it would be fun to quit my job and stay home and blog the whole day long. But somehow, I don't feel that's the right thing to do (for me anyway). Blogging is something fun for me. I may even go as far as calling it a passion at times but it definitely will not be my bread and butter. I don't think I have it in me to go to that extent with this blog (not that I'm able to even if I did).
Right now, I think I'm happy making a little money on the side with the assignments I get. I honestly didn't think I'd even go this far with my blog. My best buddy would tell you I'm the kind of person who loses interest in things very fast so with almost 295 postings here and another 279 in Spiff, I think I've even surprised myself by staying with this for so long. And thank you all for always taking the time to stop by and leaving a few words :D
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It took a while for me to warm up to it, but blogging has taken over a huge part of my life and time and I never thought I'd be spilling out my life story here for the world to read. And it's become so addictive that I don't think I could go a day without a little peek at my blog. And little did I know that I could even make some decent money from doing something I like.
I was and I still am an amateur blogger. There is still a whole lot of things that I really don't know about blogging even up to this day. I learned the hard way when it came to blogging. I started out using one of those standard templates blogger gave you and slowly learned a little html's and evolved my blog to what it is today.
My first couple of postings were so short back then that I even surprise myself these days with some of those infamous long winded posts I do. I didn't know I had so much of rubbish to write and complain about ... LOL! In fact my first ever post had only 25 words in it!
I really never intended to last this long in blogging or to make any money with my blog. In fact, back then I didn't even know one could make money with their blogs. But recently, Monica said in one of her comments to me that maybe I should become a full time blogger. That got me thinking.
Just what is a full time blogger? Can I actually be a full time blogger and make enough money for me to quit my current job? That would be an awesome scenario though. Do I even want to be a full time blogger? It does sound exciting but on the other hand, I have no knowledge how to make a decent living as a full time blogger.
I've read about some bloggers who earn tons of money just by blogging. I wonder how they do it. They talk about Search Engine Optimization and how you need to be at the top of a search engine to get the targeted traffic in and all that. They talk about how you have to diligently keep on doing it so you don't lose the traffic. How you would need the services of SEO companies such as San Diego Seo to help you be the best among the best. It's all really foreign to me.
I've tried to understand all that SEO talk but it's still way beyond my comprehension. I wouldn't know what to do with it even if it came and bit me on the nose! And it brought me back to this question. Why do I blog in the first place? Is it to make money? Well, yes and no.
I mean, I would of course jump at the chance to make some money doing something I like. But my main reason for blogging is cos I like blogging. I like telling the world what a stinking coward I am when it comes to ghosts and the stories of what I did in my childhood, I like boasting about my beloved wife and family, I like having a place where I can speak my mind about anything at all under the sun.
I guess if I could actually make a ton of money from blogging, it would be fun to quit my job and stay home and blog the whole day long. But somehow, I don't feel that's the right thing to do (for me anyway). Blogging is something fun for me. I may even go as far as calling it a passion at times but it definitely will not be my bread and butter. I don't think I have it in me to go to that extent with this blog (not that I'm able to even if I did).
Right now, I think I'm happy making a little money on the side with the assignments I get. I honestly didn't think I'd even go this far with my blog. My best buddy would tell you I'm the kind of person who loses interest in things very fast so with almost 295 postings here and another 279 in Spiff, I think I've even surprised myself by staying with this for so long. And thank you all for always taking the time to stop by and leaving a few words :D
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Thursday, June 12, 2008
I Can't Feel My Hands!
The past couple of days I've been spending a little too much time in front of my computer. I have quite a bit of office work that needs to be completed and not forgetting all my blog assignments that I've been getting of late. There's quite a few of them that's waiting to be completed and I'm going slightly crazy trying to slot them all in.
And all that typing has made my hands and wrist hurt like crazy. I know I need to take a break instead of churning out post after post but hey, with the current increase of every single essential product out there, I definitely could do with the added income. And the more assignments, the merrier it is for me.
I mean, take for instance today in the local papers, I read that they were going to raise the parking rates in the city. And this coming right after the very recent fuel hikes. How insensitive can the darn Mayor be? It's not like we're not already suffering trying to make ends meet at the moment. I travel a lot to the city for my work and I guess I'm going to be forking out a lot more for parking as well ... siggghhh ...
I wonder what else they're planning on raising. One thing I can be sure of is it ain't going to be my salary, that's for sure! So, get ready for a nice round of some marathon postings from me in the next few days :D I do have to finish all my assignments afterall. I'm only hoping I don't paralyze my wrists or something from all the typing I'm going to be doing on this very uncomfortable keyboard.
Maybe I should invest in one of those computer keyboard tray thingy's I saw online. It's actually great for anyone working for extended periods of time on the computer. It's supposed to protect and support your hands while you type so you wouldn't run the risk of getting disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome or stuff like that. I know I wouldn't want such a disorder to befall me so I think I just might actually get one for myself :D
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And all that typing has made my hands and wrist hurt like crazy. I know I need to take a break instead of churning out post after post but hey, with the current increase of every single essential product out there, I definitely could do with the added income. And the more assignments, the merrier it is for me.
I mean, take for instance today in the local papers, I read that they were going to raise the parking rates in the city. And this coming right after the very recent fuel hikes. How insensitive can the darn Mayor be? It's not like we're not already suffering trying to make ends meet at the moment. I travel a lot to the city for my work and I guess I'm going to be forking out a lot more for parking as well ... siggghhh ...
I wonder what else they're planning on raising. One thing I can be sure of is it ain't going to be my salary, that's for sure! So, get ready for a nice round of some marathon postings from me in the next few days :D I do have to finish all my assignments afterall. I'm only hoping I don't paralyze my wrists or something from all the typing I'm going to be doing on this very uncomfortable keyboard.
Maybe I should invest in one of those computer keyboard tray thingy's I saw online. It's actually great for anyone working for extended periods of time on the computer. It's supposed to protect and support your hands while you type so you wouldn't run the risk of getting disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome or stuff like that. I know I wouldn't want such a disorder to befall me so I think I just might actually get one for myself :D.
Those Annoying Sales People
I had an early appointment this morning. It was a long drive to a place called Klang so I left early cos I don't like being late for appointments. I don't like having to make my clients wait for me. I rather be the one waiting. But sometimes they can be such inconsiderate people and take advantage of that.
There I was nice and early waiting when the receptionist comes to me and says that the guy I'm meeting will be late by at least about an hour an a half! Ok, it's the first thing in the morning, so he couldn't have any other appointments scheduled before me and he knows about our appointment cos I called to confirm the evening before.
I knew he was just taking advantage of me. He knows I'll wait for him no matter what. And it's a good thing I didn't have any other appointments. Darn, what am I going to do for at least two whole hours? So I decide maybe I'll head to the mall nearby (there was one just a walking distance away). At least that would be better than sitting there and staring at his grumpy secretary. I wonder what her problem was. Must have got up on the wrong side of the bed.
So I head to the mall to pass two hours away. When I'm in a mall browsing I don't like people interrupting me with some annoying sales pitch. I think you know the ones I mean, ya? Those people that set up stalls or booths and start pushing leaflets in your face asking you to try this, buy that, subscribe to this. Yeah, those kinds of people. And they don't really take 'no, I'm not interested' for an answer. They annoy you even more by following you and blabbering non stop.
The best way to avoid these kind of people is to not make eye contact with them. But today I made the mistake of looking at this sales person and she instantly saw the words 'sucker' flash all over my forehead cos before I knew it she was harassing me and trying to get me to sign up for a new credit card.
I politely told her no, I'm not at all interested. But do you think that dissuaded her? No, it only prompted her lecture me on the best credit card rates they have. And no matter how many times I told her I wasn't interested, she kept on her sales pitch about low interest rate credit cards, instant approval, balance transfers, no annual fees and all that. About how good her cards were compared to the rest. I finally got so fed up of being polite that I stopped in my tracks and asked her:
Me: 'If I choose your card and use it, would I have to pay back at the end of the month?'
Annoying sales person: 'urrmmm, yes sir, of course you would!'
Me: 'Then please explain to me what is SO GOOD about your card?'
Annoying sales person: 'Ahhhhhhhh ............'
Me: 'Now will you stop bugging me and get lost?'
And with that she just left ... hahaha ... I was so happy. I've always wanted to tell them off but have always refrained from doing so cos I know they're only trying to make a living but sometimes they just don't know when to back off. I'm always polite to everyone but sometimes even I have my limits.
If I really wanted to get a new card, I could just log on to Low-Interest-Rate-Visa-Credit-Cards.com and choose a Discover credit card or something. I mean they easily have one of the most current and up-to-date information about credit card offers. They're pretty extensive in their information and I can find just about anything I need to know on credit cards in my own time without being harassed in public.
I seriously think some of these banks and people who promote things should learn some proper sales etiquette instead of just harassing some poor shopper who just wants to be left alone. If people were really interested in their product, they would stop and ask questions. You wouldn't need to practically shove leaflets and sales pitches right into their faces!
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There I was nice and early waiting when the receptionist comes to me and says that the guy I'm meeting will be late by at least about an hour an a half! Ok, it's the first thing in the morning, so he couldn't have any other appointments scheduled before me and he knows about our appointment cos I called to confirm the evening before.
I knew he was just taking advantage of me. He knows I'll wait for him no matter what. And it's a good thing I didn't have any other appointments. Darn, what am I going to do for at least two whole hours? So I decide maybe I'll head to the mall nearby (there was one just a walking distance away). At least that would be better than sitting there and staring at his grumpy secretary. I wonder what her problem was. Must have got up on the wrong side of the bed.
So I head to the mall to pass two hours away. When I'm in a mall browsing I don't like people interrupting me with some annoying sales pitch. I think you know the ones I mean, ya? Those people that set up stalls or booths and start pushing leaflets in your face asking you to try this, buy that, subscribe to this. Yeah, those kinds of people. And they don't really take 'no, I'm not interested' for an answer. They annoy you even more by following you and blabbering non stop.
The best way to avoid these kind of people is to not make eye contact with them. But today I made the mistake of looking at this sales person and she instantly saw the words 'sucker' flash all over my forehead cos before I knew it she was harassing me and trying to get me to sign up for a new credit card.
I politely told her no, I'm not at all interested. But do you think that dissuaded her? No, it only prompted her lecture me on the best credit card rates they have. And no matter how many times I told her I wasn't interested, she kept on her sales pitch about low interest rate credit cards, instant approval, balance transfers, no annual fees and all that. About how good her cards were compared to the rest. I finally got so fed up of being polite that I stopped in my tracks and asked her:
Me: 'If I choose your card and use it, would I have to pay back at the end of the month?'
Annoying sales person: 'urrmmm, yes sir, of course you would!'
Me: 'Then please explain to me what is SO GOOD about your card?'
Annoying sales person: 'Ahhhhhhhh ............'
Me: 'Now will you stop bugging me and get lost?'
And with that she just left ... hahaha ... I was so happy. I've always wanted to tell them off but have always refrained from doing so cos I know they're only trying to make a living but sometimes they just don't know when to back off. I'm always polite to everyone but sometimes even I have my limits.
If I really wanted to get a new card, I could just log on to Low-Interest-Rate-Visa-Credit-Cards.com and choose a Discover credit card or something. I mean they easily have one of the most current and up-to-date information about credit card offers. They're pretty extensive in their information and I can find just about anything I need to know on credit cards in my own time without being harassed in public.
I seriously think some of these banks and people who promote things should learn some proper sales etiquette instead of just harassing some poor shopper who just wants to be left alone. If people were really interested in their product, they would stop and ask questions. You wouldn't need to practically shove leaflets and sales pitches right into their faces!
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Nick, The Thief
I'm a conniving thief. Nessa awarded this tag to that annoying Spiff fellow a while back. And I'm actually stealing it from him to do it over here! Muahahahahaha!!! Well, that bum sat on it for too long and I do DESPERATELY need some in-between posts right now.
Sorry Nessa, I just had to steal it from Spiff ... hehehe ... Besides it looks like a nice tag. How come you give me all the hard tags and give that Spiff bum the easy ones? Well, let's get straight to it then before the blog police come and arrest me for stealing people's tags! LOL!
This tag is about answering 15 questions and since 15 is my favourite and not to mention lucky number (if you believe in those sort of things that is), I'm going to enjoy doing this. I'm not going to bother with explaining the rules cos if you don't know the rules by now, then you're a doofus just like me!
The Questions
When you buy a greeting card, are the words or the picture more important to you?
Urmmm, the price la! LOL!
What's your favorite kind of cake?
I don't really like cake except for one which is Chocolate cake
Do you ever make gifts for people, if so what, or do you buy them?
Well, I did make my own card for my good buddy's baby's baptism, does that count?
What's your favorite holiday?
Any holiday is my favourite holiday
Are you going on holiday this year? If so, where?
Well, if I managed to strike oil in my backyard, then yes!
What was the best party you've ever been to?
Haven't been to a party in years, so I can't really remember
If you are married, describe your wedding. If not, what would your ideal wedding be like?
Something where I wouldn't have to spend a single cent! LOL!
What's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to you?
Receiving a Casio G-shock out of the blue from my girlfriend - now wife :D (which I'm still using to this day)
What's your favorite girl's name?
Laura Ashley
What's your favorite boy's name?
Calvin and Hobbes (He's a boy tiger, ok!)
Which celebrity would you like a dream date with?
Jennifer Garner
Which female celebrity do you find beautiful?
Jennifer Garner
Which male celebrity do you think is attractive?
Nicholas Phillips (Hahaha)
What is your best character trait?
Work best under stress
What is your worst habit?
I'm a cleanliness freak (can that be constituted as a worst trait?)
And there you have it. I'm not going to tag anyone with this. I'll just let that Spiff fellow figure out who to tag. I mean I did steal this and all, right? LOL!
The Master’s List: 1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.Little Peanut 4. Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6. 6. A Life in Bloom 7. Because Life is a Blessing 8. Nita’s Random Thoughts 9. Nita’s Corner 10. Nita’s Ramblings 11. Thomas Web Links 12. Thomas Travel Tales 13. Great Finds and Deals 14. Make Money Online 15. Recipe Collections 16. My Wandering Thoughts 17. Filipino Online Community 18. Famous Lyrics Collections 19. Thomas Digital Services 20. Bohol Paradise 21. PRC Board Exam Results 22. My Paperless Writings 23. As The World Turns 24. My BIG Picture 25. When Silence Speaks 26. Felicity’s Vision 27. Bienvenue `a la Noryfel 28. Inday’s Kitchen 30. My Life 31. My Life in this Wonderful World! 32.Me,Myself+2 33.Fun|Fierce|Fabulous 34. Supermodel Wannabe 35. kathycot dot com 36. buhaymisis.com 37. Mind Juice In Full Throttle 38. Petty Ramblings of a Petty Queen 39. The Real Deal 40. MUMBLINGS 41. Anything Goes! 42. Add your blog!
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Sorry Nessa, I just had to steal it from Spiff ... hehehe ... Besides it looks like a nice tag. How come you give me all the hard tags and give that Spiff bum the easy ones? Well, let's get straight to it then before the blog police come and arrest me for stealing people's tags! LOL!
This tag is about answering 15 questions and since 15 is my favourite and not to mention lucky number (if you believe in those sort of things that is), I'm going to enjoy doing this. I'm not going to bother with explaining the rules cos if you don't know the rules by now, then you're a doofus just like me!
The Questions
When you buy a greeting card, are the words or the picture more important to you?
Urmmm, the price la! LOL!
What's your favorite kind of cake?
I don't really like cake except for one which is Chocolate cake
Do you ever make gifts for people, if so what, or do you buy them?
Well, I did make my own card for my good buddy's baby's baptism, does that count?
What's your favorite holiday?
Any holiday is my favourite holiday
Are you going on holiday this year? If so, where?
Well, if I managed to strike oil in my backyard, then yes!
What was the best party you've ever been to?
Haven't been to a party in years, so I can't really remember
If you are married, describe your wedding. If not, what would your ideal wedding be like?
Something where I wouldn't have to spend a single cent! LOL!
What's the most romantic thing that's ever happened to you?
Receiving a Casio G-shock out of the blue from my girlfriend - now wife :D (which I'm still using to this day)
What's your favorite girl's name?
Laura Ashley
What's your favorite boy's name?
Calvin and Hobbes (He's a boy tiger, ok!)
Which celebrity would you like a dream date with?
Jennifer Garner
Which female celebrity do you find beautiful?
Jennifer Garner
Which male celebrity do you think is attractive?
Nicholas Phillips (Hahaha)
What is your best character trait?
Work best under stress
What is your worst habit?
I'm a cleanliness freak (can that be constituted as a worst trait?)
And there you have it. I'm not going to tag anyone with this. I'll just let that Spiff fellow figure out who to tag. I mean I did steal this and all, right? LOL!
The Master’s List: 1. Me and Mine 2.Creative In Me 3.Little Peanut 4. Pea in a Pod 5. Sugar Magnolias 6. 6. A Life in Bloom 7. Because Life is a Blessing 8. Nita’s Random Thoughts 9. Nita’s Corner 10. Nita’s Ramblings 11. Thomas Web Links 12. Thomas Travel Tales 13. Great Finds and Deals 14. Make Money Online 15. Recipe Collections 16. My Wandering Thoughts 17. Filipino Online Community 18. Famous Lyrics Collections 19. Thomas Digital Services 20. Bohol Paradise 21. PRC Board Exam Results 22. My Paperless Writings 23. As The World Turns 24. My BIG Picture 25. When Silence Speaks 26. Felicity’s Vision 27. Bienvenue `a la Noryfel 28. Inday’s Kitchen 30. My Life 31. My Life in this Wonderful World! 32.Me,Myself+2 33.Fun|Fierce|Fabulous 34. Supermodel Wannabe 35. kathycot dot com 36. buhaymisis.com 37. Mind Juice In Full Throttle 38. Petty Ramblings of a Petty Queen 39. The Real Deal 40. MUMBLINGS 41. Anything Goes! 42. Add your blog!
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Here Mutsy, Here Boy ...
You know I never thought I'd live to see the day my best buddy Sean would be pushing a baby stroller but I'm glad I did :D We been friends for as long as I can remember and throughout that friendship, he never struck me as the marrying kind or even the baby kind. But I was proven wrong and he did get married (which I made a bet in black and white that I would eat my shoe when he does, which he so kindly holds me to ... LOL) and now he even has a little baby boy of his own :D
And last Saturday was the first time I saw him pushing a baby stroller (during the baptism) and I was so excited that I practically ran in front of him (much to his amusement) and took a picture of him with the stroller ... LOL! And Seansy, I'm so happy for you that you proved me wrong and I'll gladly eat my shoes one of these days like I promised. Yes, Adrian, you were there when I made the bet, so you're welcome to see my eat leather shoes! :D In future I've seriously got to think properly before making silly bets with people!
And speaking of strollers and all that, I seriously don't remember if I had one when I was a little kid. Back in those days (yes, I am that old!), strollers were not really as popular as today. These days you can find all kinds of cool looking baby strollers in the market. I've seen some that resemble Formula one cars ... LOL! But then nothing really beats a stroller from Barebabies.com.
They offer some of the most stylish, functional and innovative baby strollers around. Take the Mutsy Slider below for instance. Isn't that just a cool and hip looking stroller. Makes me wanna be a baby again ... LOL! It's compact, lightweight with the entire upper portion being able to detach from the frame so that it folds up very small. Makes it easier to store it.
I'm sure you mommies out there are just gonna love this lightweight, stylish and easy to handle new stroller offering from Mutsy. You won't need to go ask the hubby any help at all. Not that they would be a big help in the first place ... LOL! I remember when I met Sean at the church, he was taking out his stroller from the car booth and it took him a while before he finally managed to assemble his. Not that I was of any help, mind you ... LOL! Some of these things sure are complicated.
That's why a Mutsy Slider is so easy to use and not forgetting that it will make your baby look chic at the same time. And right now, Barebabies.com would like to offer any of you intending to get a Mutsy, a 10% discount for any order you make (don't forget the code mutsy10off). Better yet, go test drive one at the nearest local Mutsy retailer before you buy it. I'm sure you won't come away disappointed :)
Honey, you think we should go make a new baby tonight so I can go get me one of those strollers? Please, please, pretty please ... LOL!
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And last Saturday was the first time I saw him pushing a baby stroller (during the baptism) and I was so excited that I practically ran in front of him (much to his amusement) and took a picture of him with the stroller ... LOL! And Seansy, I'm so happy for you that you proved me wrong and I'll gladly eat my shoes one of these days like I promised. Yes, Adrian, you were there when I made the bet, so you're welcome to see my eat leather shoes! :D In future I've seriously got to think properly before making silly bets with people!
And speaking of strollers and all that, I seriously don't remember if I had one when I was a little kid. Back in those days (yes, I am that old!), strollers were not really as popular as today. These days you can find all kinds of cool looking baby strollers in the market. I've seen some that resemble Formula one cars ... LOL! But then nothing really beats a stroller from Barebabies.com.
They offer some of the most stylish, functional and innovative baby strollers around. Take the Mutsy Slider below for instance. Isn't that just a cool and hip looking stroller. Makes me wanna be a baby again ... LOL! It's compact, lightweight with the entire upper portion being able to detach from the frame so that it folds up very small. Makes it easier to store it.
I'm sure you mommies out there are just gonna love this lightweight, stylish and easy to handle new stroller offering from Mutsy. You won't need to go ask the hubby any help at all. Not that they would be a big help in the first place ... LOL! I remember when I met Sean at the church, he was taking out his stroller from the car booth and it took him a while before he finally managed to assemble his. Not that I was of any help, mind you ... LOL! Some of these things sure are complicated.
That's why a Mutsy Slider is so easy to use and not forgetting that it will make your baby look chic at the same time. And right now, Barebabies.com would like to offer any of you intending to get a Mutsy, a 10% discount for any order you make (don't forget the code mutsy10off). Better yet, go test drive one at the nearest local Mutsy retailer before you buy it. I'm sure you won't come away disappointed :)
Honey, you think we should go make a new baby tonight so I can go get me one of those strollers? Please, please, pretty please ... LOL!
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Me, Extraordinary?
I love awards. I mean who doesn't right? You'd be crazy if someone gave you an award and you actually refused it. So, that's why I'm proudly showing off, urrmm, I mean displaying this award I got from Rozella a while back. I actually wanted to post it much earlier but was keeping it for a nice rainy day when I would need an in between post. Like today for instance :D
There I was having a slight confusing day, well in my own mind anyway. I finished all my assignments and had none outstanding at all. But then, just as I was about to log out I see this new assignment waiting to be taken. I sat there contemplating on whether to take it or not for close to a whole 2 seconds (LOL) and thought, what the heck. It's good money anyway. And it's only one assignment so I took it. After all, I do have this award that I can squeeze in as an in between post.
But I was totally off the mark cos the moment I took the assignment, I got an email telling me I have more assignments waiting. Oh darn! Now I'm going have to find more tags and awards to fill in the blanks after completing all my assignments. Urmmm, anyone has a tag or two to spare? LOL!
Anyway, I'd like to thank Rozella for this Extraordinary Blogger Award, though I don't know what's so extraordinary about my blog. Long winded maybe, but extraordinary? Nah ... hehehe ... But I'm always happy to get awards anyway. Who'd ever thought that by just blogging I can make money and even get lots of awards. Not to mention all the cool blogging friends I've made. And yes, that's you, you and you over there :D
Ok, I'd better post this now and go dig into some of your blogs going through old postings to see if there are any tags or meme's or awards that you guys have given me that I can use for my next in between post ... hehehe ...
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There I was having a slight confusing day, well in my own mind anyway. I finished all my assignments and had none outstanding at all. But then, just as I was about to log out I see this new assignment waiting to be taken. I sat there contemplating on whether to take it or not for close to a whole 2 seconds (LOL) and thought, what the heck. It's good money anyway. And it's only one assignment so I took it. After all, I do have this award that I can squeeze in as an in between post.
But I was totally off the mark cos the moment I took the assignment, I got an email telling me I have more assignments waiting. Oh darn! Now I'm going have to find more tags and awards to fill in the blanks after completing all my assignments. Urmmm, anyone has a tag or two to spare? LOL!
Anyway, I'd like to thank Rozella for this Extraordinary Blogger Award, though I don't know what's so extraordinary about my blog. Long winded maybe, but extraordinary? Nah ... hehehe ... But I'm always happy to get awards anyway. Who'd ever thought that by just blogging I can make money and even get lots of awards. Not to mention all the cool blogging friends I've made. And yes, that's you, you and you over there :D
Ok, I'd better post this now and go dig into some of your blogs going through old postings to see if there are any tags or meme's or awards that you guys have given me that I can use for my next in between post ... hehehe ...
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Garbled Thoughts ...
I can't seem to really concentrate much on things for the better half of the day. I don't really know why. There's a lot of things running around in my mind bugging me and I can't seem to make them stop. And the worse thing is I don't really know what exactly is bugging me!
Have you guys ever experienced something like that? The feeling that you know somethings bugging you but you can't quite put your finger on it. That little niggling sensation you feel right at the back of your brain? And no matter how hard you try to figure it out, you just can't seem to identify what it is ... sighhhh ... I hate this feeling. I hate not being able to do something about it.
I'm not much of the worrying kind. My policy is why worry about something that hasn't happened yet but when I start feeling like this, then it worries me. And when things worry me, I tend to get distracted with everything else around me. And it does affect my work.
What would normally take me 10 minutes to do takes me a whole hour. I seriously got to figure out what it is that's bugging me or I'm not going to be able to function properly.
It could be nothing at all. There are times when I feel this way for no apparent reason, you know, you get up form bed and just feel moody all day? Well, this isn't one of those reasons. I woke up feeling fine but the moment I stepped into work was when I started feeling this way.
Maybe it's cos wifey is feeling pretty sick at the moment. She's gone from bad to worse since the weekend. She down with some serious flu, fever and cough and it's at it's peak right now. The poor girl is huddled up in bed right now and I wish I was home to look after her.
She's such a perky little girl that seeing her lie in bed when I went home this afternoon sure didn't help my mood one bit. My moods are affected a lot by her moods too. If she's down, sad or moody, then I'm down, sad and moody too.
I hope she gets well soon cos I hate seeing her sick and it's all cos of me. I'm the one who passed my flu, fever and cough to her. I know that can't be helped cos we share the same bed and stuff but I still feel bad. I'm so sorry honey. I'll make it up to you when you get better, I promise.
In fact my elder boy also is down with fever and has missed school for 2 days now. Maybe next time if I fall sick, I'll just isolate myself from everyone else at home. Thank god the younger fellow has much stronger genes ... LOL!
Anyways, I hope things will be better soon and whatever is bugging me (or trying to bug me) goes away soon. I've got a few assignments that need to be completed on top of my own office work and I can't concentrate enough to get them done. But then again, I don't really know much about Orovo detox to even write a decent post about it ... hehehe ... Well, I'll just leave you guys with another short little post for now.
Something must really be wrong with me to write two consecutive short posts ... LOL!
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Have you guys ever experienced something like that? The feeling that you know somethings bugging you but you can't quite put your finger on it. That little niggling sensation you feel right at the back of your brain? And no matter how hard you try to figure it out, you just can't seem to identify what it is ... sighhhh ... I hate this feeling. I hate not being able to do something about it.
I'm not much of the worrying kind. My policy is why worry about something that hasn't happened yet but when I start feeling like this, then it worries me. And when things worry me, I tend to get distracted with everything else around me. And it does affect my work.
What would normally take me 10 minutes to do takes me a whole hour. I seriously got to figure out what it is that's bugging me or I'm not going to be able to function properly.
It could be nothing at all. There are times when I feel this way for no apparent reason, you know, you get up form bed and just feel moody all day? Well, this isn't one of those reasons. I woke up feeling fine but the moment I stepped into work was when I started feeling this way.
Maybe it's cos wifey is feeling pretty sick at the moment. She's gone from bad to worse since the weekend. She down with some serious flu, fever and cough and it's at it's peak right now. The poor girl is huddled up in bed right now and I wish I was home to look after her.
She's such a perky little girl that seeing her lie in bed when I went home this afternoon sure didn't help my mood one bit. My moods are affected a lot by her moods too. If she's down, sad or moody, then I'm down, sad and moody too.
I hope she gets well soon cos I hate seeing her sick and it's all cos of me. I'm the one who passed my flu, fever and cough to her. I know that can't be helped cos we share the same bed and stuff but I still feel bad. I'm so sorry honey. I'll make it up to you when you get better, I promise.
In fact my elder boy also is down with fever and has missed school for 2 days now. Maybe next time if I fall sick, I'll just isolate myself from everyone else at home. Thank god the younger fellow has much stronger genes ... LOL!
Anyways, I hope things will be better soon and whatever is bugging me (or trying to bug me) goes away soon. I've got a few assignments that need to be completed on top of my own office work and I can't concentrate enough to get them done. But then again, I don't really know much about Orovo detox to even write a decent post about it ... hehehe ... Well, I'll just leave you guys with another short little post for now.
Something must really be wrong with me to write two consecutive short posts ... LOL!
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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Torn Between Two Shows ...
This is going to be a short post. I wasn't intending to write anything today but this nice little assignment on lcd tv just came up and I couldn't resist doing it :D Besides they only gave me one day to do it. But hey, it's good money you know, especially now when the price of everything but my salary is going up. Any little extra I make will definitely go a long way. Besides, it's about TV's, how hard can that be to write, right? LOL!
And since we're on the subject of TV's and all that, one of my eagerly anticipated TV series is back tonight (or at least I think it's tonight). And it's none other than the latest season of CSI: New York :D The only thing is it's going to clash with this other new series called Pushing Daisies. It looks like a pretty decent show and I know I'm going to be switching between the two shows during the ads.
I'm a self confessed CSI fan, well maybe not so much for the Miami franchise of the series though. Horatio Caine is just a tad bit too much to take with his corny one liners and not forgetting that trademark sunglasses of his with his sidewards tilt of the head ... It so pisses me off big time! I don't think I've ever seen him talk to any of his suspects without tilting his head that way. Of all 3 of the CSI Franchise, I would rate CSI: New York as my favourite followed by CSI: Vegas and coming it at number 3 would be CSI: Miami.
Anyways, I'm hoping New York is on tonight though. But if it isn't then I'll at least get to watch Pushing Daisies without interruption. But thank god Ugly Betty has ended the season or I'd be hard pressed to choose between Betty or New York! At least that's one decision in life I won't have to be making anytime soon ... LOL!
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And since we're on the subject of TV's and all that, one of my eagerly anticipated TV series is back tonight (or at least I think it's tonight). And it's none other than the latest season of CSI: New York :D The only thing is it's going to clash with this other new series called Pushing Daisies. It looks like a pretty decent show and I know I'm going to be switching between the two shows during the ads.
I'm a self confessed CSI fan, well maybe not so much for the Miami franchise of the series though. Horatio Caine is just a tad bit too much to take with his corny one liners and not forgetting that trademark sunglasses of his with his sidewards tilt of the head ... It so pisses me off big time! I don't think I've ever seen him talk to any of his suspects without tilting his head that way. Of all 3 of the CSI Franchise, I would rate CSI: New York as my favourite followed by CSI: Vegas and coming it at number 3 would be CSI: Miami.
Anyways, I'm hoping New York is on tonight though. But if it isn't then I'll at least get to watch Pushing Daisies without interruption. But thank god Ugly Betty has ended the season or I'd be hard pressed to choose between Betty or New York! At least that's one decision in life I won't have to be making anytime soon ... LOL!
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Monday, June 9, 2008
The Christening ...
The school holidays are over and poor wifey has to wake up early to get the boys ready for school again. And on top of that she's not feeling all that well. I think I passed on my sickness to her. Bad me! I hope she gets well soon cos I don't like seeing her fall sick. And she's as stubborn as I am when it comes to going to the doctors. Well, if she gets any worse by the time I head home, I'm going to drag her to the clinic.
The weekend was kinda bitters sweet for some personal reasons that I'm not going to publish for the world to read ... hehehe ... Let's just say that I'm glad the weekend is over. And that's an absolutely strange statement to be coming from one who adores the weekends. Well, I'm looking forward to next weekend though ... LOL!
My other best buddy, Sean had his baby's baptism celebration on Saturday. It was a pretty last minute thing for me cos my good old buddy only informed me the Wednesday before that the baptism would be on Saturday. That brought about the task of looking for a suitable gift. To be honest, I've never bought anyone baptism gifts before so I was lost as to what to get.
I was thinking about getting a playstation 3 for the little fellow but then he's a wee bit too young to be playing console games just yet ... hehehe ... In the end, after searching a few complexes over the next three days, wifey and me finally found something we thought would be suitable and even then it was late on Friday night. By the time we got home, we were too tired to wrap the gift so we left it for the next morning.
And as usual, Saturday's were meant for sleeping in a little late but the baptism was at 12.00pm followed by a Chinese lunch in a hotel in the capital. So, there we were in the morning scrambling to wrap the gift with me trying to figure out how to make a baptism card in an hour or so. Worse still, my printer at home was on the blink and I had to resort to actually making a card the old fashioned way, by hand!
I had to quietly go and borrow my younger boys crayons, color pencils, glue sticks, scissors, whatnots and then start my 'masterpiece'. Boy, was it tough. I may work in advertising and am fully qualified and trained to come up with mock ups and stuff at work but that was with the help of a computer and printer not forgetting my trusty illustrator and photoshop softwares to back me up. While I have both the softwares at home, without a working printer, it would be pointless.
So, I had to resort to the traditional method of making the card. I haven't worked 'manually' on any designs in a really long time and it took me quite a while to finally come up with something that could pass off as a card! And it look pretty decent if I do say so myself ... hehehe ... As tedious as it was making the card from scratch, it was actually such fun working in 'free hand' mode though I'd gladly stick to my trusty old illustrator and photoshop anytime ... LOL!
The baptism and lunch went well, though my buddy Adrian and me were not fully satisfied with the food. Don't get me wrong, the food was great. Our buddy Sean pick a great place for the lunch. It was a sit down Chinese lunch with a variety of dishes and when I say variety, I mean about 150 variations with an all you could eat theme thrown into it. Now, of cos both Adrian and me didn't know that when we sat down to eat.
The initial set of food came in pretty small portions and I was kinda surprised cos we have 15 people to a table and my first impressions were that the food would not be enough. So, everyone was kind wary about taking too much and being labeled as gluttons. But 40 minutes later, we find out it's an all you can eat Chinese lunch and they have 150 different dishes we could order from. Darn, now they tell us. LOL! No wonder the portions were small cos we could order as much as we liked.
Everyone at the table breathe a sign of relief and that was when the lunch picked up five notches with everyone ordering this and that till the waiters came and told us to stop ordering for a bit cos of a backlog of orders. Apparently they couldn't cope with our orders ... hahaha ... Well, the restaurant starts its lunch offering at 12.00pm and closes at 2.30pm but we only arrived there around 1.20pm after the baptism and the fact that we found out about the all you can eat thing a little too late made it all the more difficult to try many more dishes. Maybe next time.
Yes, we plan to go there again soon ... hehehe ... and this time I intend to try at least 100 dishes just for myself and I'll even go early ... LOL! But all in all, we all had fun and that's the thing that matters most. I don't have much pictures of the event cos I was too busy eating but here's a little pix of the cute baby in question :D
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The weekend was kinda bitters sweet for some personal reasons that I'm not going to publish for the world to read ... hehehe ... Let's just say that I'm glad the weekend is over. And that's an absolutely strange statement to be coming from one who adores the weekends. Well, I'm looking forward to next weekend though ... LOL!
My other best buddy, Sean had his baby's baptism celebration on Saturday. It was a pretty last minute thing for me cos my good old buddy only informed me the Wednesday before that the baptism would be on Saturday. That brought about the task of looking for a suitable gift. To be honest, I've never bought anyone baptism gifts before so I was lost as to what to get.
I was thinking about getting a playstation 3 for the little fellow but then he's a wee bit too young to be playing console games just yet ... hehehe ... In the end, after searching a few complexes over the next three days, wifey and me finally found something we thought would be suitable and even then it was late on Friday night. By the time we got home, we were too tired to wrap the gift so we left it for the next morning.
And as usual, Saturday's were meant for sleeping in a little late but the baptism was at 12.00pm followed by a Chinese lunch in a hotel in the capital. So, there we were in the morning scrambling to wrap the gift with me trying to figure out how to make a baptism card in an hour or so. Worse still, my printer at home was on the blink and I had to resort to actually making a card the old fashioned way, by hand!
I had to quietly go and borrow my younger boys crayons, color pencils, glue sticks, scissors, whatnots and then start my 'masterpiece'. Boy, was it tough. I may work in advertising and am fully qualified and trained to come up with mock ups and stuff at work but that was with the help of a computer and printer not forgetting my trusty illustrator and photoshop softwares to back me up. While I have both the softwares at home, without a working printer, it would be pointless.
So, I had to resort to the traditional method of making the card. I haven't worked 'manually' on any designs in a really long time and it took me quite a while to finally come up with something that could pass off as a card! And it look pretty decent if I do say so myself ... hehehe ... As tedious as it was making the card from scratch, it was actually such fun working in 'free hand' mode though I'd gladly stick to my trusty old illustrator and photoshop anytime ... LOL!
The baptism and lunch went well, though my buddy Adrian and me were not fully satisfied with the food. Don't get me wrong, the food was great. Our buddy Sean pick a great place for the lunch. It was a sit down Chinese lunch with a variety of dishes and when I say variety, I mean about 150 variations with an all you could eat theme thrown into it. Now, of cos both Adrian and me didn't know that when we sat down to eat.
The initial set of food came in pretty small portions and I was kinda surprised cos we have 15 people to a table and my first impressions were that the food would not be enough. So, everyone was kind wary about taking too much and being labeled as gluttons. But 40 minutes later, we find out it's an all you can eat Chinese lunch and they have 150 different dishes we could order from. Darn, now they tell us. LOL! No wonder the portions were small cos we could order as much as we liked.
Everyone at the table breathe a sign of relief and that was when the lunch picked up five notches with everyone ordering this and that till the waiters came and told us to stop ordering for a bit cos of a backlog of orders. Apparently they couldn't cope with our orders ... hahaha ... Well, the restaurant starts its lunch offering at 12.00pm and closes at 2.30pm but we only arrived there around 1.20pm after the baptism and the fact that we found out about the all you can eat thing a little too late made it all the more difficult to try many more dishes. Maybe next time.
Yes, we plan to go there again soon ... hehehe ... and this time I intend to try at least 100 dishes just for myself and I'll even go early ... LOL! But all in all, we all had fun and that's the thing that matters most. I don't have much pictures of the event cos I was too busy eating but here's a little pix of the cute baby in question :D
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Thursday, June 5, 2008
Those Silly Boyhood Days ...
There are times when I wish I was a kid again. Those were such fun times with no cares in the world. And right now, I'd give anything to be a kid again.
The price of petrol just increased by a huge margin here today as of 12.01am and it's one of the biggest jumps in prices for as long as I can remember. Worse yet, the price will be reviewed monthly based on the current world petrol prices or something, which in simple English means we're going to have a few more fuel price increases ... siggghhhh ...
Anyway, when I heard the news on the radio on the way back from work yesterday, I knew that there would be a mad scramble to fill up before the 12.00am deadline at the petrol stations here and I wasn't wrong. Unfortunately my tank was almost full and it would be pointless for me to queue up just to top it off. So I went home and picked wifey and the boys up and went out for dinner.
While on the way, both wifey and me were discussing about the price increase and contemplating the domino effect this is going to bring on the cost of other goods out there, my younger boy butts his head in between and us says, what's all the big fuss and why are the petrol stations choked with cars (which was really causing a traffic snarl) and that he was hungry and could we drive faster.
Ahhhhh, the innocence of youth. No worries, no responsibilities or cares in the world. All he could think of was his food and that he was hungry. And that's when I wanted SO MUCH to be kid again and not have to shoulder the responsibilities that I have right now. Responsibilities such as worrying how to put food on the table. To make sure I can provide for the family on my miserable salary (boss, if you're reading this, that's a HUGE hint about me needing a pay rise!).
And speaking of being a kid again, I must admit I was a pretty daft and naive kid when I was growing up ... LOL! And if you ask my two best buddies, they would probably tell you that I'm still as daft and naive as I was in my youth! And don't you two going denying it. I know the two of you too well already ... hehehe ...
When I was really young, somewhere around the ages of 3-5 years old, I used to live in this seaside town called Port Dickson. Since my dad was working in the then National Electricity Board, we were assigned government quarters to stay in. There was about a block of eight of these quarters side by side in this quiet area surrounded by trees and jungle. There were no other houses nearby and to get in to the neighbourhood, one had to pass a narrow road which had four different cemeteries belonging to four different religions.
You have to pass the Christian one, then the Muslim one followed by the Hindu one (which was the scariest of the lot) and finally the Chinese one which was located right in front of the quarters just across the road. Remind me to tell you guys about some spooky happening about these cemeteries one day. Now, back then I wasn't all that afraid of spooky things and I used to play around in the Chinese cemetery with this boy who was about 5 years my senior named Appu. He was a nice Indian fellow who's father owned the fruit plantation not too far away.
We hung out and he became sort of a big brother to me. We'd play hide and seek, football and do all sorts of things in the cemetery. But me being a daft kid and all that also kinda listened to everything this Appu fellow told me. Hey, I was only 4 years old or so at that time, ok! Now, during the Chinese all souls day (I forgot what the actual name for it is), the place would be a hive of activity and they'd leave all kinds of offering such as cakes, food, drinks and stuff behind for the deceased.
One day, after one of these all souls day thingy, Appu came to me and offered me a drink. I asked him what it was. He said it was some tea that he made himself especially for me. I was thrilled. So I took it and drank it down. It tasted kinda bitter and cold and by the time I swallowed very drop, he was laughing his head off. I asked him what was so funny and he said, he took the bottle from one of the offerings at the grave just now. It was actually Chinese tea meant for the deceased! OHMYGOD!
You should have seen the look of fright I had on my face. I was almost in tears as I rushed in my house, ran into the kitchen screaming and grabbing the dish washing detergent from the sink and start washing my mouth off with it. My mom looked at me like as if I was crazy and I don't blame her. There I was, a 4 year old, washing my mouth with dish washing detergent, I'll bet I look like a loony bin to her. She grabbed the detergent away from me and ask me what in heavens name compelled me to do such a stupid thing.
I sobbingly told her what Appu did to me and instead of feeling sorry for me, she burst out laughing and said I deserved it for being so stupid. Man, I was scared to my bones all night thinking that the deceased would come get me for drinking his Chinese tea offering. And that wasn't the only time Appu conned me. There were many more times but I just can't remember them. I know he made me a sandwich with sand in it once and told me it was peanut butter and I ate that too. See I told you I was daft ... LOL!
I sometimes just cannot believe how silly I was when I was growing up. I even thought that cars stopped at traffic lights cos there was this invisible barrier when the lights were red. That's why they didn't dare move. And I was 6 or 7 years old at that time! LOL! There was a time when my cousin conned me that I could power a 12V car cassette player right of the mains in the house and I actually stupidly tried it and blew up my uncle's cassette player not to mention blowing a few fuses in the process and almost killing myself. They all knew how to amuse themselves with my stupidity back then.
Siggghhh ... daft I may have been back then but how I long for those times again. It was such fun times, though half the time it was at my expense. But I never did have a care in the world. Nothing to be responsible for. I always knew food would be on the table, there would be a roof over my head and all that. All I had to worry about was getting more time to play and watch TV. It sure sucks being an adult at times!
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The price of petrol just increased by a huge margin here today as of 12.01am and it's one of the biggest jumps in prices for as long as I can remember. Worse yet, the price will be reviewed monthly based on the current world petrol prices or something, which in simple English means we're going to have a few more fuel price increases ... siggghhhh ...
Anyway, when I heard the news on the radio on the way back from work yesterday, I knew that there would be a mad scramble to fill up before the 12.00am deadline at the petrol stations here and I wasn't wrong. Unfortunately my tank was almost full and it would be pointless for me to queue up just to top it off. So I went home and picked wifey and the boys up and went out for dinner.
While on the way, both wifey and me were discussing about the price increase and contemplating the domino effect this is going to bring on the cost of other goods out there, my younger boy butts his head in between and us says, what's all the big fuss and why are the petrol stations choked with cars (which was really causing a traffic snarl) and that he was hungry and could we drive faster.
Ahhhhh, the innocence of youth. No worries, no responsibilities or cares in the world. All he could think of was his food and that he was hungry. And that's when I wanted SO MUCH to be kid again and not have to shoulder the responsibilities that I have right now. Responsibilities such as worrying how to put food on the table. To make sure I can provide for the family on my miserable salary (boss, if you're reading this, that's a HUGE hint about me needing a pay rise!).
And speaking of being a kid again, I must admit I was a pretty daft and naive kid when I was growing up ... LOL! And if you ask my two best buddies, they would probably tell you that I'm still as daft and naive as I was in my youth! And don't you two going denying it. I know the two of you too well already ... hehehe ...
When I was really young, somewhere around the ages of 3-5 years old, I used to live in this seaside town called Port Dickson. Since my dad was working in the then National Electricity Board, we were assigned government quarters to stay in. There was about a block of eight of these quarters side by side in this quiet area surrounded by trees and jungle. There were no other houses nearby and to get in to the neighbourhood, one had to pass a narrow road which had four different cemeteries belonging to four different religions.
You have to pass the Christian one, then the Muslim one followed by the Hindu one (which was the scariest of the lot) and finally the Chinese one which was located right in front of the quarters just across the road. Remind me to tell you guys about some spooky happening about these cemeteries one day. Now, back then I wasn't all that afraid of spooky things and I used to play around in the Chinese cemetery with this boy who was about 5 years my senior named Appu. He was a nice Indian fellow who's father owned the fruit plantation not too far away.
We hung out and he became sort of a big brother to me. We'd play hide and seek, football and do all sorts of things in the cemetery. But me being a daft kid and all that also kinda listened to everything this Appu fellow told me. Hey, I was only 4 years old or so at that time, ok! Now, during the Chinese all souls day (I forgot what the actual name for it is), the place would be a hive of activity and they'd leave all kinds of offering such as cakes, food, drinks and stuff behind for the deceased.
One day, after one of these all souls day thingy, Appu came to me and offered me a drink. I asked him what it was. He said it was some tea that he made himself especially for me. I was thrilled. So I took it and drank it down. It tasted kinda bitter and cold and by the time I swallowed very drop, he was laughing his head off. I asked him what was so funny and he said, he took the bottle from one of the offerings at the grave just now. It was actually Chinese tea meant for the deceased! OHMYGOD!
You should have seen the look of fright I had on my face. I was almost in tears as I rushed in my house, ran into the kitchen screaming and grabbing the dish washing detergent from the sink and start washing my mouth off with it. My mom looked at me like as if I was crazy and I don't blame her. There I was, a 4 year old, washing my mouth with dish washing detergent, I'll bet I look like a loony bin to her. She grabbed the detergent away from me and ask me what in heavens name compelled me to do such a stupid thing.
I sobbingly told her what Appu did to me and instead of feeling sorry for me, she burst out laughing and said I deserved it for being so stupid. Man, I was scared to my bones all night thinking that the deceased would come get me for drinking his Chinese tea offering. And that wasn't the only time Appu conned me. There were many more times but I just can't remember them. I know he made me a sandwich with sand in it once and told me it was peanut butter and I ate that too. See I told you I was daft ... LOL!
I sometimes just cannot believe how silly I was when I was growing up. I even thought that cars stopped at traffic lights cos there was this invisible barrier when the lights were red. That's why they didn't dare move. And I was 6 or 7 years old at that time! LOL! There was a time when my cousin conned me that I could power a 12V car cassette player right of the mains in the house and I actually stupidly tried it and blew up my uncle's cassette player not to mention blowing a few fuses in the process and almost killing myself. They all knew how to amuse themselves with my stupidity back then.
Siggghhh ... daft I may have been back then but how I long for those times again. It was such fun times, though half the time it was at my expense. But I never did have a care in the world. Nothing to be responsible for. I always knew food would be on the table, there would be a roof over my head and all that. All I had to worry about was getting more time to play and watch TV. It sure sucks being an adult at times!
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Save A Breast Or Two ...
I'm feeling a little, well a lot under the weather really. I'm feverish and coughing away and really shouldn't be at work today. I should be in bed snugly tucked under the blankets and pampered by wifey instead of sitting in the office. What's that honey? I'm way too big to be pampered? Sigghhhh ...
Anyways, since I am here in the office and can't resist blogging, sick or not, I thought I'd do this tag Rozella sent my way. I'm normally not that fast in doing my tags but this one is for a good cause so it gets a little priority in my long list of tags.
This tag is about breast cancer, something which I have absolutely zero knowledge on. It actually came about cos doctors found six lumps on the right breast of her dad's younger sister. And one of them turned out to be cancerous! Luckily it was detected early cos she does regular mammograms and I suppose there are treatments for it, right Rozella?
But the thing is, lots of women out there don't really have any health insurance and can't even afford to get tested. This is why the fatality rate for it is pretty high. Most women find out too late to get help. Sad isn't it? But you can play your part in helping save some lives by telling people about The Breast Cancer Site and clicking the pink button below as many times as you can.
If The Breast Cancer Site receives 8 million clicks on that little pink button above in the month of June, then their premier sponsor, Bare Necessities, will donate $10,000 for a lot more free mammograms that could possibly be saving the lives of someone's mother, wife, daughter, sister or even friend. So, what are you sitting around gawking at this post. Click that pink button and save a life already!
And please don't sit on this tag for too long, ya? There's only slightly more than 3 weeks to get 8 million clicks. So, help out, do your part. It's not a lot to ask to save a life is it? I'm going to tag everyone in my blogroll for this tag. And those who are not in it are free to join as well. Just drop a word to me that you're joining so I can thank you for helping out :D
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Anyways, since I am here in the office and can't resist blogging, sick or not, I thought I'd do this tag Rozella sent my way. I'm normally not that fast in doing my tags but this one is for a good cause so it gets a little priority in my long list of tags.
This tag is about breast cancer, something which I have absolutely zero knowledge on. It actually came about cos doctors found six lumps on the right breast of her dad's younger sister. And one of them turned out to be cancerous! Luckily it was detected early cos she does regular mammograms and I suppose there are treatments for it, right Rozella?
But the thing is, lots of women out there don't really have any health insurance and can't even afford to get tested. This is why the fatality rate for it is pretty high. Most women find out too late to get help. Sad isn't it? But you can play your part in helping save some lives by telling people about The Breast Cancer Site and clicking the pink button below as many times as you can.
If The Breast Cancer Site receives 8 million clicks on that little pink button above in the month of June, then their premier sponsor, Bare Necessities, will donate $10,000 for a lot more free mammograms that could possibly be saving the lives of someone's mother, wife, daughter, sister or even friend. So, what are you sitting around gawking at this post. Click that pink button and save a life already!
And please don't sit on this tag for too long, ya? There's only slightly more than 3 weeks to get 8 million clicks. So, help out, do your part. It's not a lot to ask to save a life is it? I'm going to tag everyone in my blogroll for this tag. And those who are not in it are free to join as well. Just drop a word to me that you're joining so I can thank you for helping out :D
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
A Book Worth Digesting ...
I was going through my old magazines and books last night. And I have quite a few of them mind you. Wifey has been bugging me for ages to get rid of some of them. I really can't bring myself to throw away any of my old mags and books. I already have an overflowing bookshelf in my room (which holds all my precious books that I will NEVER ever consider getting rid off!) Then there's the batch that I have in the living room downstairs. That's also overflowing with old books and magazines.
Those I could probably, and I use the term probably very strongly here, get rid off. I make no promises honey but I just don't have the heart to thrown any of them away. They're like family to me. Some of those books are so old I'm afraid they'll crumble to dust in my hands if I open them ... hehehe ...
In fact I came across some Reader's Digest books (or do you call them magazines?) that I have that are dated way back to 1976. Yes, really 1976! And it's still in pretty good condition. I wonder if they're worth anything now? Anyone wanna offer me a million dollars for it? I'll gladly part with it :D:D:D Ok, I'll part with it for half a million and not a cent lower ... LOL!
I'm not sure if you younger kids out even know what Reader's Digest is? Heck, do any of you kids even bother to read books these days? I used to love reading this stuff back in my younger days. I'm a bookworm and these Reader's Digest books kept me company (besides my comics and all those Enid Blyton books) on many a cold afternoon. Hey, the afternoons in those days weren't as hot as today.
And my favourites were the 'Laughter, The Best Medicine, All In A Days Work & Drama in real life' sections. My mom use to bring them back from work those days (she worked in MPH, a local bookstore here) and I always fought with my cousins over who got to read them first. Of course being the spoilt brat that I was, I always won hands down :D
But in recent years, I haven't been reading them all that much. In fact I can't even remember the last time I actually picked up a Reader Digest. I have no idea why though, probably due to the fact that I'm most of the time online and surfing the net for things to read.
The other contributing factor would be a lack of time to read these days. So, can you imagine my surprise when I read in Nessa's blog that they now have Reader's Digest online? My eyes grew wide with excitement. How cool is that! I seriously had no idea that they have an online version, but in this day age, I shouldn't be too surprised.
And I immediately headed over to their site and was happily indulging myself in some of the wonderful and interesting articles, tips and stories that they have. Having a family and being parent now, checking out the RD.com - Parenting and RD.com - Family Life sections were an obvious choice.
And if you're a parent with kids and want to keep your kids entertained during the current school holidays but don't really want to spend too much (especially for a cheapskate like me ... hehehe ...) then I recommend you read the article on 'Family fun on a budget' cos they've got some pretty good tips there :D
Oh and they also have a section called laughs and it's already become a favourite of mine. I've even bookmarked the site on my office PC to keep me entertained when I feel like bumming off, urrrmmm, I mean when I have no work to do ... LOL! Gosh just writing about Reader's Digest has brought back so many memories.
Well, I know that once I really go through all my old magazines and books again tonight, those Reader's Digest books will definitely NOT be on the list of books to dispose off. And knowing me, I probably won't have a single book listed on that list at all ... LOL!
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Those I could probably, and I use the term probably very strongly here, get rid off. I make no promises honey but I just don't have the heart to thrown any of them away. They're like family to me. Some of those books are so old I'm afraid they'll crumble to dust in my hands if I open them ... hehehe ...
In fact I came across some Reader's Digest books (or do you call them magazines?) that I have that are dated way back to 1976. Yes, really 1976! And it's still in pretty good condition. I wonder if they're worth anything now? Anyone wanna offer me a million dollars for it? I'll gladly part with it :D:D:D Ok, I'll part with it for half a million and not a cent lower ... LOL!
I'm not sure if you younger kids out even know what Reader's Digest is? Heck, do any of you kids even bother to read books these days? I used to love reading this stuff back in my younger days. I'm a bookworm and these Reader's Digest books kept me company (besides my comics and all those Enid Blyton books) on many a cold afternoon. Hey, the afternoons in those days weren't as hot as today.
And my favourites were the 'Laughter, The Best Medicine, All In A Days Work & Drama in real life' sections. My mom use to bring them back from work those days (she worked in MPH, a local bookstore here) and I always fought with my cousins over who got to read them first. Of course being the spoilt brat that I was, I always won hands down :D
But in recent years, I haven't been reading them all that much. In fact I can't even remember the last time I actually picked up a Reader Digest. I have no idea why though, probably due to the fact that I'm most of the time online and surfing the net for things to read.
The other contributing factor would be a lack of time to read these days. So, can you imagine my surprise when I read in Nessa's blog that they now have Reader's Digest online? My eyes grew wide with excitement. How cool is that! I seriously had no idea that they have an online version, but in this day age, I shouldn't be too surprised.
And I immediately headed over to their site and was happily indulging myself in some of the wonderful and interesting articles, tips and stories that they have. Having a family and being parent now, checking out the RD.com - Parenting and RD.com - Family Life sections were an obvious choice.
And if you're a parent with kids and want to keep your kids entertained during the current school holidays but don't really want to spend too much (especially for a cheapskate like me ... hehehe ...) then I recommend you read the article on 'Family fun on a budget' cos they've got some pretty good tips there :D
Oh and they also have a section called laughs and it's already become a favourite of mine. I've even bookmarked the site on my office PC to keep me entertained when I feel like bumming off, urrrmmm, I mean when I have no work to do ... LOL! Gosh just writing about Reader's Digest has brought back so many memories.
Well, I know that once I really go through all my old magazines and books again tonight, those Reader's Digest books will definitely NOT be on the list of books to dispose off. And knowing me, I probably won't have a single book listed on that list at all ... LOL!
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