兑换率

今天回到Guest House准备进去房间时，柜台经理走过来，喊了一声我的名字，我问他什么事，他从钱包里面讨出30钱人民币，问我这三十快钱如果换成卢比，可以换多少钱？向来数学不是太强的我，用心算从人民币换成马币，再由马币换成卢比。心算到一半时，我又从口袋拿出我的手机，准备做一个换算。大约过了半分钟，他有点不耐烦，索性问我要不他把这三十快钱人民币跟我换五十卢比。我当时还迟疑了几秒，说我考虑一下吧，然后进房间，放下东西，立即大电话问我同事值不值得？因为实在懒得思考，昨晚四点早上才睡觉，头脑已经有点慢了。
同事告诉我值得一换，后来我自己也算了一下，我用三快多马币换取十五快钱，很值得呀！我于是打开房门，跟他说了一声“Deal！”，把五十卢比给他，然后收下他的三十人民币。（应该不会是假钞吧）我问他怎么会有人民币，他告诉我说是之前那两位中国房客因为卢比不够，给了他人民币。这两位中国房客我也见过，因为之前他们上不了网，前台叫我去帮他们弄电脑，之前由于也帮一位日本房客弄过，所以前台每次都找上我了。
有时像这种那么好的东西（三块换十五块），还是多些提防比较好。很多时候就是因为许多人贪小便宜，所以因小失大。曾经看过一部电影，叫做“创业玩家”，许冠文主演的，戏里面有句话令我印象深刻，主角说：“当非常美好的东西和事情降落到你头上时，首先你要问自己，如果有那么好的东西，它到底会不会轮到你呢？”凭着这句话思考，就不容易受骗了。经常很多无名短信，电邮说你中奖了，或者又有什么灵丹治百病的，有或者什么迅速致富的东西，其实很多都是不现实的，但往往还有很多贪小便宜的笨蛋往里面踩，又笨又贪的时候，肯定中招了。所以有时候促销员要“送”或者免费东西给我时，我还懒得收就是这个缘故，世上哪里有白吃的午餐啊？

男人的爱只有一次你珍惜了吗

摘自网上：

人们长说痴男怨女，古人已经解释的很清楚了，痴男，男人对爱的痴情，对感情的专一也只有男人自己才知道。女人一辈子可爱上多个男人,而男人却可以同时爱上多个女人,可女人却不知道其实男人一辈子只爱过一个!
　　男人真正纯洁的爱只有一次的，当那次爱来了，他会不顾一切，当那次爱死了，也就不会再有了，那次爱的太深,然而痛的也太深。
　　所以那次之后男人的爱也就麻木了。男人以后也会爱上别的女孩，只是那种爱却已不再纯洁，包含了欲望，包含了同情，包含了怜惜……
　　女人的心都是水做的，然而最毒也妇人心，所以受伤最多的是女人，伤人最深的也是女人。女人的爱可以有很多次，而男人却永远只有一次的，男人遇到那个最爱的女孩之后把所有的爱都给了她，可有多少女孩懂的珍惜。
　　于是男人哭了，男人流泪了，伤心至极而绝望的泪水，慢慢的男人开始亲手去埋葬自己那唯一的爱，把它尘封在自己心底最深处的某个深渊。
　　可当夜深人静的时候，他会疯狂的跳进那个深渊，妄图去寻找那次爱的痕迹，哪怕是一丝丝一点点，可结果却跟以往一样的一无所获，只留下自己独自缩在黑暗的角落孤独的一根根抽着寂寞的烟，孤独的流着伤心的泪水。
　　当然女人埋怨着男人的花心的时候是否曾想过，男人最珍贵的东西也正是被你们无情的毁灭，当男人羞涩的说着我爱你的时候你珍惜了吗？当男人为你流泪的时候你帮他擦拭了吗？当男人乞求你别离开的时候你回头了吗？
　　都说男人花心，可女人何曾知道，男人的花心是因为痴心，爱极而痴，痴极而痛，痛极而死。这次爱灰飞烟灭后男人对爱的心就死了，男人再也不会对女人真心的付出真正的好了，没有了心劲，没有了激情，不再相信真正的爱情，对爱总带着点玩世不恭，有些事，一辈子只有一次。
　　当男人全心爱过一个人之后,该付出的付出了，全心努力的去把握过，曾试图给她想要的一切，曾试图为她而死，但回报却是无动于衷，于是在一次次寂寞的等待中，心血一点一滴的滴干了，最后心血全无，心灰意冷，当爱情失去信仰，当感情失去忠一的港湾后，对于男人来说,爱情是什么这一切就都显的无所谓了！男人的心冷了，就再也难以热起来，因为爱过一次之后已经让他失去了爱的能力。
　　男人最爱的真的只有一个，男人心里最清楚，如果你是你能感觉到的吗,，感觉到了，请你珍惜好吗？

是有创意？还是没文化？

最近在网上看见一则新闻，主题内容：“张柏芝要把她和谢霆锋的小孩命名为“谢皇上”，是有创意？还是没文化？”
我倒是觉得是没文化多点，这种名字，小孩长大以后不给人笑死才怪，拜托取一个像样一点的名字吧，以免小孩恨父母一辈子！

无聊的长假期

本来放个两天假是不错的，但是也没去什么地方，每天睡到自然醒才起床，吃吃早餐，上上网再睡个午觉又一天过去了。基本上能上的网站也都上了，论坛里面回的贴，还没有我看得快。竟然到Wikipedia查一些以前小时候看过的卡通，查查它们的由来。例如，Smurf，原来是来自比利时的，只是后来被一个美国人带到美国制成卡通外销。这几天真是把电充得很足！

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每天有时候也只是吃一餐，那就是晚餐，早餐不算，因为不需要付费的。所带来的钱早已经花光，目前还跟同事借了250美金过日。原来睡觉还可以省钱，哈哈。当身体进入冬眠状态，就变成了低耗状态，没有那么快肚子饿了。现在到外面吃饭买东西都刷卡，最后两餐还是女同事付帐，等明天把向她借来的50USD换掉，就可以请回她吃饭了。目前现金非常短缺，连一张250卢比的电话卡恐怕也要讨空整个钱包才买得起。

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伊斯兰堡真是可以称为“乌鸦之城”，半夜两点多是还可以听见乌鸦在呱呱叫，真的很吵。除此之外，就是回教堂每天祈祷五次的连环轰炸，由于Guest house靠近回教堂，所以声音比较大。不过，还是觉得乌鸦叫声更加烦，曾有人这么说，多亏这些乌鸦，它们可以帮忙处理四周的垃圾。但是我觉得真的是太多了，应该像以前巴生港口那样，政府给每位打下一只乌鸦的人付50仙，从此以后，乌鸦数量减少了，从此洗脱乌鸦之城的恶名。现在倒是燕子比较多，因为居民在养燕收集燕窝。

The Flight Attendant vs Air Stewardess

“These girls should be more beautiful than the normal girls due to their special occupation.” Quote from my friend that a Stewardess should be more beautiful than a usual girl when they take up their job, and their beauty is the first impression that they can give to the passengers instead of their personality, if they posses both traits, it will be perfect.

I am going to put out my thoughts about Flight Attendant and Air Stewardess.
I still remember the first flight that I travel in life is back on August 7, 1996, Singapore Airline, from Subang Airport to San Francisco, at that time, KLIA does not exist yet. I heard from a friend that traveled more than me, he discussed with another friend of mine which flight's air stewardess is prettier than the others. Well, at least I thought that Singapore Airline's air stewardess is not bad. While I met this friend in LA, I also remember he said that the US domestic flight's air stewardess is old and ugly. Well, I experienced it during my first flight from San Francisco to LA and then from LA to Salt Lake City, I forgot which plane that I took, but I am sure that I travel with Southwest, Delta Airlines, Continental before, I can say that I hardly remember any beautiful air stewardess during my flight, but one thing I never forgot, in most cases, they greeted me with smiles and also I can tell some air stewardesses are very cheerful in personality, despite they might be a bit old( in their forties or fifties )or might not be the one you seen in the Hollywood movie.

Once in a long while I do wonder why the “quality” of the air stewardess in Asia is different than those in US. I finally understand why when I took my Employment Law class. I do enjoy the class because we did a lot of case study about affirmative action, sexual harassment, discrimination against national origin, sex, race, etc. I think the main reason that we have the good looking and the not-so-good looking in both domestic and international western airline is due to they cannot discriminate a person on his or her look as long as he or she can perform the task as a flight attendant. Note that I am using the word “flight attendant” now; this is because people does not use the word like “Policeman” and “Stewardess” for more than ten years, and this is due to sexual discrimination, that’s why they are changing the pronunciation to “Police Officer” and “Flight Attendant”.
Since then, I really have no objection if the Asia International Airline is having a not-so-good-looking flight attendant in the sky, and I also feel great if the attendants are beautiful, as a guy, who will resist that? I think the most important thing for a flight attendant is the friendliness and personality. If a fifty years old auntie who is physically fit on lifting a 8kg luggage, can balance herself while walking on the narrow aisle, off course, provided she also possess a wonderful smile to all the passengers, I really can't see that she is not capable for the job given the same pay with the younger staff. I think the only thing that concern the airline company is the health benefits for the elder cost more than the younger one. Believe me, they tried to avoid this but they can’t, if all the flight attendant are young, they might get sued for Age discrimination.
Is it necessary to hire a young and beautiful flight attendant? I think the Asian airline is a bit shallow on this, if you really need to hire a young and beautiful candidates for your company, then you better run a whore-house, when you need your staff to be pretty, friendly and can provide good service to the customer, because this is necessary to run such business, it became a job requirement, this is the point where great service won't sell if my employees are as ugly as hell. As for modeling company, they can shelter under the discrimination law, in my humble opinion is due to one of their requirement is able to perform a catwalk which is very subjective, and the fashion which target on the specific audience. For example, if you are selling your fashion to obese people, then the model that you select in usual case shall be obese candidate; nobody will question you why you are not using the skinny model and question the agency by yelling at them, “Are you discriminating me just because I am skinny?”

Everybody knows that flight attendant command good pay in Asia, a lot of girls wanted to be the flight attendant because of high pay, 20 days work in a month, and also you get to travel around the world, who knows if you get lucky, you get to know the rich bachelor sitting in the first class cabin. Unfortunately, their job did not bring them much respect that they suppose to get. One thing that came up from a Asian mind about flight attendant in Asian airline is they won't be too ugly, almost quality assured. Secondly, the flight attendant is treated as the “Attendant from the sky”, or “Air Waitress”, after 4-5 years flying around, people don’t view that as a proper job experience. Thus, they faced some problem on getting another job if they want to get away from airline service field. Off course, unless she married to a rich guy that she get to know on the plane which rarely happens nowadays. Why? Air ticket has become cheaper, it is more affordable than before, it is not like many years ago, only rich people gets to fly.
Lastly, I think that being a flight attendant is not an easy job, no matter the flight attendant is old or young, pretty or ugly, it is just another occupation that I saw from my point of view. However, the job function is more on service oriented; thus, I think as a professional flight attendant, they should treat all the passengers with smile and politeness, after all, when we reached our destination after a long journey, all we want is “have a pleasant flight with xxx airline”.

GOLF 101

昨天早上跟同事去打高尔夫球，主要想参观一下伊斯兰堡的高尔夫球场。本身对高尔夫球没有多大的兴趣，记得在大学期间和一位朋友玩过了一下，当时的印象就是，杆一挥，偶尔还不知道球飞去了哪里，然后冒着热烈的太阳底下四处找球去，感觉好像很无聊似的。而另一个主要原因不喜欢打高尔夫球是因为以前曾经阅读过了一篇文章，它描述了高尔夫球场破坏大自然环境。一些人认为高尔夫球场环境优美，可以感觉到大自然的气息，其实是不正确的。要开辟一个高尔夫球场，首先要求的土地还比一个足球场大，多少课树林需要铲平才可以建一个球场。为了确保土地能够长出绿油油的草坪，经常都要放一些化肥，而这种化肥也会促使污染，或许经过多年改良，会比较好一些。一些人觉得打高尔夫球场是一种高尚又“时尚”的运动，因为一般上收费比较贵的缘故，觉得自己很有品味，很“高级”似的，可以认识一些富商，可以在高尔夫球场谈生意，纯粹不是因为了去运动，或者热爱这个运动。
也幸好，不是每个人都喜欢这个玩意，要不然，不知道多少棵树又要被Bulldozer推倒，开辟成一个又一个的高尔夫球场。人类大部分都是自私的，只要有些钱，哪怕什么东西买不到，狐皮，虎皮，象牙；可以天天吃鱼翅，哪怕鲨鱼要被人吃到绝种（反正“我”吃得起）；海中的渔产供应还应付不了人类的需求，来不及长大就被抓起上座去了。之前有一位同事在非洲买了象牙，被海关逮住，不知道后来是罚了款，还是被判坐牢，我一点也不同情他，只想跟他说活该，明知这些是受保护的动物，就是因为有人买，才有人卖，没人买时，杀截停止，这些稀有动物才可幸存。为了避免离题，还是回到高尔夫球场。。。
把车开到球场以后，就有一大批球童虎视耽耽地看着我们，有一个迫不及待的走到车厢后面准备帮我们拿球杆。我的那位同事觉得很讨厌，都不想给他拿，叫他走开。进去以后，我们主要的时间花在开球动作，我当然也参与了。这是我打高尔夫最久的一次，手心都磨损了一点点，如果不带手套，肯定更严重。这里打球还不会太贵，入场费，小费，球费加起来大约二十多马币吧。
不过这次也没激起我下次还想再来，我们在那里逗留了差不多两个小时半就离开了。。。

Feedback from MAS Leader

"Thank you for your feedback, We will be forwarding the details below to our service quality dept as well as our F&B unit for their knowledge as well as to allow the appropriate response to your end. Pls allow some time for this to happen, and please be rest assured that this matter is being dealt with accordingly."
Best rgds,Farzleen F. Khan for leaders@mas.com.my

I got an anonymous feedback of hiring pretty girls as the flight attendant. My feedback will be:
For me, I really don't need the flight attendant to be young and pretty. The most important thing is, the personality, even though the flight attendant isn't that outstanding in looks, but when she got a friendly million dollar smile and great personality, I believe she can create a happy flight experience to the passengers. May be ten years ago I will said that I prefer the young and pretty, right now as I am turning older, I go for the better service, a young and pretty chick that doesn't offer a great smile and great personality won't get higher credit then a "ok-looking" chick. :)

Suicide Bomber Attack in Marriot Hotel, Islamabad

Yesterday I overheard the news about suicide bomber attack outside Marriot hotel, two persons were killed which include the bomber himself.
Marriot hotel is just less than ten minutes drive from office, I never been there before but I heard from my colleague that the supplier brought them there for dinner before, it is one of the most expensive restaurant in Islamabad. I also had one supplier that ask us out for a drink or dinner before, but we rejected her.
This morning I picked up the newspaper and confirmed the news, but off course, you won't see it in CNN, because it is a small news, no big deal though, unless 20 people died in the incident.

"The Extremist" Debate

While me and another colleague were waiting for our driver, I had a conversation with my two suppliers, one is the designer who is around mid 30s (Name is Saeed) and another old folk who is 57 (name is Khurshid), we talked about the government (Chinese, Pakistani, Malaysian), economics, social, and politics. It came to a point that we talked about Muslim Extremist when I said that Pakistan is one of the breeding bed for terrorist besides Afganistan. We began on this topic when my colleague wrote his email, "JiaYingBin", and Khurshid told me "bin" in Arab means "Son". I gave a classical example, "'Osama Bin Laden", Bin is son, laden is the family name, Osama is the name.
Mr. Khurshid is a very sincere Muslim believer, he tried to pray on time every day, I bet he didn't miss more than 3 prayers everyday. After two months dealing with him, I felt that he is really a good example of True Muslim, he is honest and sincere; he gained respect from a lot of people who knew him, he also worked as a social worker during his free time. He commented that there is no such thing as "Muslim Extremist", he commented that it is some sort of propaganda that US used it against the Muslim world. So the conversation just began to heat up, I asked him what is his view point on September 11 where as the two planes crashed to the Word Trade Center and kill thousands.

The answer that the elder gave me was surprising...

Mr. Khurshid commented that the plane crash was just a conspiracy that was done by US government themselves, he told me that on that day, none of the Jews went to work because they know the plane is going to crash into the building (off course I disagree with him). He also mentioned that it is impossible that the plane will make the building collapse, I argue with him, from what I saw in the discovery channel, it is because the full tank of fuel that fired up, the heat is so intense and it melted the steel of the structure. Why in the hell that the government wanted to do this, what is the motive? The action had done a lot of lost which I don't think even there is benefits behind the conspiracy, the benifits will not offset the damage that the incident had brought to the people.
He also mentioned that there was a TV show about two Americans debating about this, one of the debater said that 9/11 was something that is created by the government for the sake of controlling the world, the oil, etc... (Mr. Saeed nod his head with support). He said the building was about to expired, that's why they have to collapse it just like they always did on demolishing old buildings, because it is cheaper to demolish it with explosives. I find it totally rediculous and I think it is the Muslim World that create such a propaganda against the United States (off course, I didn't tell him directly about this).
In some way, I do believe that in some case, the US government did creates hatred among the people and the local government which is not Pro-America, but I strongly believe the US government will not command the commercial planes to hit the World Trade Center, this is something that is pointless and non-benificial to the country! Khurshid argue that how come the flight is on the sky for four hours and they can't do something about it. I explained that this is because nobody ever imagined that the big plane has targeted to crash into the World Trade Center.I asked him back while the plane United 93 was hijacked, there were people on the plane that actually made a phone call to their family, telling them what it going on inside the plane, the person who hijacked the plane is the Muslim from Arab, not American Pilot, not a government servants. That is the act of the "Extremist"! I haven't got a chance to talk about extremist on Southern Thailand that beheaded some Buddist by creating socal unrest in the past two years, I want to tell him that most Thai people are peace loving people, only a Muslim extremist can invoke such a great hatred in them and do such a brutal thing to infidels. If these people are not fanatics or extremist, who are they?!
Well, we don't' have any hard feelings with our arguement, but I do hope that we look on both sides of the story and think about the issue with a fair judgement. However, I don't think his standpoint is strong enough to overthrow the "facts" that we learned from the media. Like I mentioned, there is no motive for the US government to have such act on its' home country. No point on doing such things.
During my dinner time with my female colleagues, I mentioned to her on how powerful that the media control how the public think on certain things, luckily we had internet nowadays and we can always get some "second opinion" or some "facts" that are not reported on mainstream media. That's why, I tell her, I am reading three different sources when it came to news, one is the mainstream paper, second is a non-government related/Opposition website, third is the news from freelance reporter or blogger.
On today' s conversation, it is really an eye opener for me, at least I get to listen from other side of the story and what the people see and think on certain thing and issue.

Worst Orange Juice from MAS

I just dropped another email to customer care and this time, leaders@mas.com.my to complain about the lousy orange juice they are serving up there, if I still didn't get their reply, perhaps one day I will walk to their HQ and yell at the relevant department.
here is what I wrote:
Dear leaders of MAS:
I just drop another mail to customer care and I wondered if they really care because I never get any feedback from them. So I am write a letter to you guys and hope as a senior management member, this letter can brought to your attention. I wondered when is your last time flying with MAS economy class where most of the passengers and sales come from economy class. If the answer is yes, I wondered if you have tried the orange juice?
My mainland chinese colleague and I flew from KL to Islamabad two months ago, and both of us commented the orange juice that was served on the plane taste HORRIBLE!! I can tell you, even Indian and Pakistan local flight serve better quality orange juice than MAS. I am a frequent flyer and believe me, I never tried any orange juice which is worst than MAS, as I recalled, it is not like that before. My friend who came to Malaysia first time, also commented the orange juice taste horrible in her blog. I understand that MAS have to undergo some cost cutting, not to mention the quality of the meal is so so. However, I think the orange juice is a simple thing that will make a difference. Sooner or later, more and more people will commented MAS offer third class orange juice, and I can tell you, do not underestimate the power of "word of mouth".
As a Malaysian, I felt ashamed that our only international flight that represent the country offer such a inferior product to foreigners. if you are reading this and you never had a sip of the orange juice, please do feel free to help youself and try some. Off course, as a economy class passenger, we don't expect the flight attendant serve us Perrier mineral water or 100% Orange Juice, but at least, can you get something that is benchmarked to other airline? I think it is better you don't serve orange juice at all if you are giving the passengers this kind of low quality product. I hope as the senior leaders of MAS, you guys can seriously address this issue to relevant department. Thank you!


Choong

Bed Bug Attack!

I woke up last week and found out there is an insect died next to me, I was unable to identify what kind of insect is it, so I log onto wikipedia.com and hopefully I can find some pictures to confirm on what I am guessing - Yes, I am right! A blardy bed bug. A day or two before I spotted the lood suckers, I thought my arm was bitten by some Pakistan poisonous mosquitoes, it start to swell a bit and it feels a bit itchy if you try to scratch it. The night before I sneezed like 30 times and have a running nose. I walked to the pharmicist which is very close to my guest house, "60 second walk" and asked if the pharmicist have any ointment that I can treat the swelling mosquito bite, he was tell me that I had an "allergy", I double confirm and finally got the pills from him. The bed bugs will cause allergy reaction as per stated in wikipedia.
After I took the pills, the next day the swell started to went off... just two days ago, I was bitten again, three little bumps this time, I started to fill a little bit pissed and complain to the guest house manager that we have a "bug problem" with the room that I moved in three weeks ago. He told me that they will spray, but I didn't see the situation improve, I want to move upstairs and they always give me the reason that there is no space upstairs. If I found a nice guesthouse by any chance, I will moved out for sure if I find a good place to move with my other colleague, even though I felt that this house was a lot better compare to the previous one.
Besides bed bugs, let me tell you, while I was surfing on my bed, I saw little roached crawl up to my bed a few times, it just happened few days ago, within one hour's time, one baby cockroach crawl to my bed on the left and another from the right, off course, they never seen the daylight again after I saw them. Luckily those cockroaches that I encountered are not the big one, or else it will really scare the shit out of me if they crawl to my bed!