Happy New Year!

5 more hours to a brand new year.

Have you done your self assessment? What have you changed (both good and bad) throughout the year of 2009, or in the year of Ox? What's your new resolution for the coming year? Nevertheless, life still goes on, whatever resolution you had and you have now for the new year, let's look forward and change ourselves to be better.

No matter what grand plan or wawasan you have for year of 2010, 1 thing you must change before anything else changes (sound like my potong post huh?), that is...

The calendar!

Every year at this time I receive few calendars, desk calendars, wall calendars and so forth. It's even more during my dad's era, many of my dad's friends are businessmen and print their own calendar. Each calendar has its own theme, some to deliver messages such as environmental issue to care about marine life...

Some print out images to bring out the corporate image such as developer to build quality house for home...

Some share meaningful quotes to inspire your life...

There are also some full with useful info especially to cover calendar for all races/religions...

So have you changed your calendar to the new one? The very first thing you must do to welcome the new year and to kick start your new resolution.

Holiday is not over yet in BullehLand after the New Year, another countdown to Chinese New Year...

It should be lesser days now to the year of Tiger in Chinese zodiac and Lunar Calendar. I took the photo on the last work week.

Enjoy your holiday while you can. Wish you a "happy ending" (of year 2009) and happy starting of 2010.

Happy New Year!

Sudah Potong Kah?

Look at the title of the post, many of you would immediately relate to this infamous and debatable ads...

No no no. I am not asking you to potong (cut), neither am I potong myself and switch to WiMax. But, there is 1 thing you must potong as soon as possible and likely today is the last day for you to potong!

Wah lau eh! So urgent meh?!

Yeah, as urgent as you needed it yesterday! Else, you defintely will regret! This is what you must potong now...

Your credit cardsss!

If you are holding Bulleh Land banks issued credit cards, you will be charged RM50 per card effective 1 Jan 2010. Thanks to our "beloved PM". As far as I learned from 2 bank employees from different banks, RM50 will be charged according to the card anniversary. For instance, the card expires on March 2010, and you will need to pay for the annual fee (if any) plus RM50. But as usual that I had a tough (or was it too simple??) question that both of them gave different answers: if I have a card expires on March 2010 and I cancel the card on Feb 2010, will I still be charged RM50 since I have used the card for 2 months in 2010? Both answers contra each other, I guess the right answer should be no though. Well, I canceled all my spare cards to be safe.

So it's gonna be inconvenient to me whenever I travel especially on business trip. I usually don't exchange currency (or exchange a hundred or two) of visiting country if the country is sorta a developed country like US. All I bring is my credit cards from different banks, full range of Master, Visa and Amex. This practice has gained me not only convenience, but safety as well since I don't have to carry much cash with me during travel, and most important is I don't lose to the exchange rate as you know our Bulleh RM is so much low value and not all forex shops accept it. I even traveled to Singapore without a single cent of Singapore Dollar with me. Hehe...

Look at some of the cards I have had...

All expired cards since I started to work till now and I have 2 boxes of them in the business card boxes...

And tell you, I never pay a single cent of annual fee to all the cards I own ever since my very first credit card! Not even to compensate with the reward points! So now who causes me inconvenience and to pay extra RM50 is gonna pay the price soon, another 1 or 2 year to come.

Our country merdeka for more than 50 years, so 1card RM50, and 1Malaysia how much already? So how many cards you have and how much you want to contribute to 1Malaysia?

Today is the last day of 2009, you better act fast, potong cepat-cepat! Just turn to the back of the card, there should be a customer service hotline for you to call...

Tell the tele-rep you want to potong but please be specific what thing you want to potong. Hehe... And depend on the bank, your bank may give you some troubles discouraging you to cancel the card(s). So my last good luck to you in 2009!

Touch N Go 3rd Rebate

I give up.

No more "cheong hei" (long winded) analysis like my previous posts on 1st rebate and 2nd rebate. In short, my experience tells that you will never get the full rebate you are entitled. Never ever.

Look at this summary table I posted earlier...

click to enlarge

So by simple summation RM23.74 + RM4.92 + RM28.04 + RM47.08, I should have enjoyed a total rebate of RM103.78 from September till November 2009. Now look at all the rebates I have redeemed...

The 1st (Sep 09), 2nd (Oct 09) and 3rd (Nov 09) from top to bottom. Add them up and I get RM95, this is the real cash rebate I've got so far. And RM103.78 - RM95 = RM8.78, the remaining amount of rebate that I should have enjoyed is gone to somewhere else. You know what I mean.

Anyway, perhaps I should be thankful than being petty. Perhaps this rebate should have gone to someone's pocket entirely and now someone is so generous to share the pie with me and others, so why am I making noise here? Right?

Be warned to be thankful is the survival key to be a Malaysian.

Or enjoy the full song here...

Mega Project #2

3 months ago I paid a site visit to my mega project.

3 months down the road, I made another visit. And wow, it progresses so fast! Check out the photos...

The row on one of the sides of the road is almost done whereas there's some minor works on the other side of the road...

Move to the backstreet, one side is done whereas the other has some minor works too...

Overall, I guess the whole project left only some paint works, concrete works at the road side, landscaping and finally tar the road...

I went to check my unit and found some defects...

Some crack outside and the gate is not level. May be this would be rectified before they pass the key to me. The door is locked so I can't intrude into the unit. Perhaps another time when I see any worker there.

Kinda excited, kinda stressed as well 'cause I am gonna be a slave to the licensed Ah Long (bank) soon, paying the loan. :(

By the way, you may be able to check the site progress at the developer site.

A Starry X'mas

I had a starry X'mas. It's full with stars, somethimg like this...

source

'Cause I needed to make stars!

First, take a string of ribbon paper (or whatever color paper cut into that shape)...

Fold it into a pentagon shape like this...

Keep on folding until you finish the long paper...

Now, use your finger nail to poke right at the middle of 2 edges. Poke on all 5 middle points...

Done! Only for 1 star! Now repeat the cycle until this jar is filled...

Here come my starry look again...

Easy? You try it you will know.

My guide of course is not detailed enough, check this site for a thorough step-by-step (now only I know it's called Origami star). Depending on who you want to gift, the payback to your effort may be rewarding at the end. So why not? Hehe...

Merry X'mas! Though a belated one.

My New Gadget, & My Mom's New Gadget Too!

I got my new gadget!

My mom got her new gadget too!

See what we got...

My notebook and my mom's sewing machine! They were all new gadget to both of us, err... 15 years ago if I recall the year correctly.

More than a decade ago before the Millennium, I got my first ever notebook, at the same time my mom got her dreamed sewing machine, not new though but inherited from my granny. I remember both of us were darn excited upon receiving the gadgets. Hehe... This old baby of mine is a Pentium based notebook with 40MB RAM. Hey, don't play play, small size = premium (young chaps, no netbook yet in 90s!), it's a 12" portable and it was one of the "Lexus" if not "Ferrari" in notebook segment that time. Despite the size, this tiny oldie has all the connectivity options including wireless 802.11b but no USB and Bluetooth as both technologies only came in a year or two later.

Unlike current kopitiam or mamak stall (cafe like Starbucks was not common yet), you don't easily get to see a notebook on the table top that time. I was like a celebrity walking on the red carpet into the mamak stall with all attention on me. Power it on with volume loud enough to share the endearing Windows 9x start up tune to everyone in the stall. You might already think what an arrogant fellow I was, to show off the notebook when none of the mamak stalls provide wifi in that decade?! Generation Y may not figure out what I'm blogging below but to the rest, do you recall your first mobile phone, the colorless screen and monotone ringtone? Did you change the operator logo to something else instead of the boring Maxis, DiGi text? Did you compete among your clique for the latest ringtone? Did you send flash sms expressing your love to your dream girl? Naughty you! :P Yeah, connecting my phone via infrared to this shabby notebook installed with a ringtone manager software, I helped my gang to stay at the front line in the trend with all trendy ringtones and fancy operator logos. Plus, this was the trick to attract more girls too! :")

Those were the days. Enough walk in the memory lane, I am looking forward for a new notebook now. It would be a joke of the century if I were to sit in KLCC's Starbucks with this machine, so any sponsor for a new lappy? :) Lenovo Malaysia is having a Breakthrough Contest. I found out the contest when I was browsing Lenovo site for my next potential notebook. Let's see if they are kind enough to give me one. Hurry up if you are interested to join too.

Check out more photos below if you are interested to see my old toy before I send it to museum. Mom's gadget? Nay, I ain't a "sewing geek" to blog about its functionality. Hehe...

Intel inside? iCore? Designed for Windows 95? What about W7? Hehe...

One thing to praise, the keyboard was well designed that maximizes the full size of the chasis, no space wastage. Perhaps new netbooks should inspire from here.

All the connectivity options, floppy, audio I/O, IR, battery, parallel port, serial, PS/2, VGA D-sub, docking, 2 x PCMCIA with 10/100Mbps, the hard disk...

This notebook has an extra feature that you can never find in other notebooks even the latest notebooks nowadays...

It comes with a crystal ball. Without it, you will not be able to use the notebook. Insert it and power on...

Hehe... It's the trackball. I lost the lock ring therefore the trackball can easily fall apart from the notebook, it's still operational though.

Ah, antivirus is outdated. Not sure if Symantec still support this dated version.

Lastly, this beast is still working flawlessly. Any potential buyer? LOL.

Lan Je

What do you relate when you read the title?

It must be missing an 'I' during registration. It's the direct translation of 兰姐 to Lan Je, it should be Lan Jie right? Anyway, as long as it's not the infamous Chinese's vulgar word Lan Jxxx. Here's the board...

If you manage to read the blurry Chinese words, you should already knew what's this restaurant selling as its signature dish...

The steamed Talapia fish 清蒸非洲鱼.

I was introduced to this restaurant located in Kota Damansara long ago. Well, this wasn't the first time I visited Lan Je but I guess it was 10 years ago I had my first steamed Talapia by Lan Je at its HQ in Rawang.

So how's the benchmark for the new branch? Honestly it wouldn't be fair to compare with the HQ in Rawang as it was so long ago, somehow I personally reckoned the dish wasn't as impressive as I experienced 10 years ago in Rawang. I think I could easily get comparable dish in Klang too. Could it be I lost the taste memory or my tongue has been spoiled throughout the years? Irregardless, don't get me wrong, this restaurant is still worth a visit if you have not tried before or if you happen to hangout nearby.

Not limited to only fish, the restaurant also has other varieties...

(Digital zoom). Reasonable price in Damansara area. I also had a vege and bean curd dish...

Taste OK at affordable price.

Here is the location...

Look for Restoran Lan Je in MFM or N3 09.868 E101 34.459 or Jalan Teknologi 3/9. The feeder road has no name, so you have to go around to find it if you route there by road above.