A starving millionaire

Today I read an interesting article, I can't wait to share it, it is based on a true story, the article is in chinese, so I will try to translate it into English from what the author has written on the newspaper with minor modification...

"In the modern city like Singapore, it is almost impossible to find a millionaire that will die out of hunger, well, it did happened during my lifetime, and I have seen one...
We used to go to this open compound in group to work on our Taichi and our exercises together in the evening. Most of the time, there will be a dog that come near to us and bark loudly on us, the sound is indeed annoying but the dog never attack us.
One of the group members can't stand the barking, he complained to the millionaire who stood next to him on how annoying is the noise. The millionaire told the group member, 'I have an idea to get rid of it, give me two days and I will solve the problem for you.' When the group member asked the millionaire what is his solution? The millionaire refused to reveal his plan, he gave him a tigerish grin.
Two days later, when there are having their exercise together just like usual, the dog came again. The millionaire went to his Merz and take out a bag of meat and throw it to the dog. The dog quickly ran to the meat and bite it without hesitation. In less than few seconds, the dog barks even louder! But then, the sounds has become more like a weep than bark, it ran off to a direction and slowly, the group of people can't hear any noise from the dog. The dog never come back...
After the exercise session, one of the group members ask the millionaire what did he do to the dog? He proudly told the group members, he had used a piece of cooked pork meat and stuffed it with sewing needles. So when the dog swallow the meat, the needles will poke at its' throat and force the dog to silence itself. Among the group members, some listen and keeps quiet, some criticized him, said that he is too cruel to the dog. As expected, someone found the carcass of the dog somewhere around the park.
It was very weird, for not too long, the millionaire didn't show up for his exercise session. Everyone was curious where did he go? We don't know what happen to him until someone started to talk about him after nearly a year. Finally, I found out from others that not long ago after the dog incident, the millionaire was diagnosed by the doctor that he got throat cancer. I didn't see him until one year after the 'dog incident'.
When I saw him, I was shocked because he looks so skinny and I almost can't recognize him. Heard that his throat is so pain and even swallowing his own saliva through his throat caused so much pain to himself. So he can't eat any solid food at all, so the nurses fed him with liquid food to sustain his life. According to his family, the doctor has refused to do a operation on him as he said that he won't lived for too long. From his face, I can tell that he is very hungry and would like to eat some food, but he just can't swallow at all. I think that is the last time I have seen him...
I am a buddhist myself, through this incident, I can foresee that the millionaire will walk 'the path of hungry ghost' when he passed away..."

My first rehab service

I went for my first rehab service today, (I have a hard time pronouncing the word 'Rehabilitative', so I just call it 'Rehab')... some people call it 'physical therapy'. Let me share with you how was it like....

Basically, the moment you step into the re-ha-bi-li-ta-tive service center, to me, is like a mini 'Fitness First', there are some gym equipment there. I ask the nurse there how much they are charging? She told me first time hundred something, second time and so forth is seventy something. In short, 'NOT CHEAP!'. Well, the doctor gave me the slip which also include some other things like infra sound therapy.

Here is what I did in a rehab center, first of all, a nurse or may be a young Malay lady doctor, around her late twenties, show me how to do some exercise to improve my back muscles, there are several ways to do it for instance having your knee stick to your chest, also, she thought me how to do a proper doggie style to regain my pelvic strength... seriously, I never thought some act of making love can 'rehabilitatize' me. Hmmm.... interesting...

Then, after the physical training part... I lie down on bed again, another nurse perform some infra sound treatment on the affected area. The last one is stick some wires on my back and use some electronic device to vibrate my back... it is quite comfortable till I fell asleep and started to snore lightly.

The whole session I think it takes 45 minutes, shorter than the time I spent on waiting. Will have to go there again tomorrow...

After finish this blog, I will have to start working on the exercises that I have learned. Of course, the doggie style part I have to do it alone... hahahha, just kidding la!

I love this game!

That day I was playing basketball after work, try to do a side jump shoot, after I landed, I think I injured myself from the back, after a few minutes, I can't jump at all and I have to walk out from the game because the pain from my back is getting worse.

Worst part is, after I reach home, my back pain become very serious and I have to walk in slow motion, like a 80-years-old Ah Pek.. I immediately went to see some Chinese "Teet Da" (not so nice to call it 'Tit Da' right?) so that the 'sifu' can perform some 'first aid' on my injury.

The next day, the pain on my back is still there, I have a hard time getting in and out of my car, when I reach out my right hand to pay toll, my back hurts too. It is hard to describe how pain it is, but let me give you an example, the pain is like, if someone going to rob you, I think you will ask the robber not to touch you, and then hand out your wallet slowly and obediently, this is how vulnerable you become.

I went to see specialist after lunch that day, the specialist told me that it was a muscle spasm that caused the pain, he gave me some pain killers, some pills and patches to ease my muscle. He also told me that I have to attend at least 3 days of rehabilitative service to help me recover from the injury. In addition to that, NO GAMES for three weeks!! Urghhh~....! Sian lah!!!

Well, after this injury, I think my basketball days had moved from 'semi retire' to 'almost retire'...

唐僧取经 2009

唐僧师徒一行经历九九八十一难终于见到了如来佛求取真经
如来问：“你们带U盘了么？”
唐僧师徒。。。。
如来又问：“移动硬盘呢？”。。。。。
如来继续问：“IPOD也可以哇”
悟空挖起耳朵来
如来叹了口气：“那只有网上发给你们了，你们就原路回去吧回去后唐僧打开QQ，
发现如来没有传过来于是Q如来：是不是我们网络太差传不过来？
如来说：那你再来一次吧，带上U盘

于是唐僧师徒带上U盘一行再次经历九九八十一难终于见到了如来佛
如来问：“带U盘了？”
唐僧师徒：“带了”如来继续问：“多大的？”
唐僧师徒：“2G”
如来深深叹气：“真经太大，U盘太小，回去带个 4G的”。。。。。。。。。。

于是唐僧师徒回去之后又带上了移动硬盘，还是 1000G的
想：他妈的这次有多少经都给你带回去一行再次经历九九八十一难终于见到了如来佛
如来问：“你们怎么又来了？”
唐僧师徒：“你不是说让我们带大点的U盘过来吗？我们带了个 1000G的硬盘”
如来继续问：“你们回去没有开QQ吗？”
唐僧师徒：“我们回去之后就直接买了硬盘就过来了啊”
如来深深叹气：“靠，一群傻X，我给你们在QQ里留了言，经书已经放在我的服务器里了，你们随便下载！”。。。。。。。。。。
唐僧师徒回去后打开如来的服务器下载，发现服务器中了木马，不能下载于是带上 1000G的硬盘继续了上路，想：早知道这样，他妈的就烤回来，这次无论如何得烤回来
经过九九八十一难终于见到了如来如来问：“带纸了没？”。。。。。
如来继续：“哎，这次服务器中了木马，电子版的经书全毁了，我看你们还是手抄一份吧！”。。。。。。。
再接着之前的续一个唐僧师徒这次学乖了，买好纸，带上硬盘一上路了；之前还用QQ给如来发了个信息确认经过九九八十一难又见到了如来为防有变，
唐僧先说话了：“木马破解了没？”
如来：“没”
唐僧：“那我们可以抄了吧？”
如来：“可以”

唐僧师徒花了10年的时间终于把经书抄好了，准备去跟如来告别唐僧：“我们花了10年时间把经书抄好了，现在跟佛祖告别回大唐了”
如来“。。。。。”，“一群傻X，有复印机干嘛不用？”。。。。。。

'Modern Slavery'

Ref: http://www.merdekareview.com/news/n/10004.html
Recently there are some news about Indonesia government plan to cut off the supply of Indon maid to Malaysia due to several cases of maid abuse in Malaysia.
Our Minister of HR & Labor had proposed that all indon maid shall be given one day off every week to offload their stress. However, 95% of the family who had a Indon maid at home opposed such an idea. For me, I supported it even though I understand that most families concern that if the maid went out and get to know some illegal workers, they might end up coming home pregnant or worse, open the door for others to come into the house and rob the whole family.

My family used to have a Indon maid at home, she had been with us for 4 years, she went home once or twice for a 1-month holiday during the past 4 years and we sponsored the tickets for her. A friend used to tease me that I treated my maid 'too good'. The reason is because there is one day he came to my house around 8pm and he saw our maid is watching TV together with us. Well, I told him directly, she had work the whole day and I think she deserve some rest! Our maid usually went to bed around 9-930pm, sometimes when nobody is around the living room, I just hand her the TV remote, tell her to switch to whatever channel she like to watch. And there is one time I saw her reading books with the little table light, I ask her to switch on the lights and don't save the electricity for me, because it might damage your eyes if you read in insufficient lights condition. On Sunday, my maid only do some light duty work, despite she broke some of our stuff, we never make her pay for it, of course, we will scold her for her carelessness, so that she won't repeat the same mistake or try to be more careful next time. We never go beyond that, like some cruel boss who beats their maid.

On the other hand, my friend's maid is not so lucky working for his family. What I see is exploitation! One day when I visited his home, I saw the maid was massaging his mom at 11:30pm! So I ask him what time his maid wake up. He told me 5am! I was like, WTF?! Aren't she getting enough sleep working for your family all they long!? To add some salt on the wound, his family made the maid paid for the lost because one day her maid went to toilet due to stomach ache, she forgot to shut off the gas and the fire burn the pan. I think they make her pay for her half month's salary because the fire has burned a hole on the pan just to penalize her. I know this may end up a big disaster if the fire burn down the house. But couldn't be that she is so forgetful because she got lack of sleep and rest? I really pity her maid, her face looks so unhappy whenever I saw her.

Yesterday when we were having dinner, my mom told me that my cousin's mother in law also treated her maid badly, she fed her maid with leftover/overnight food; so does the neighbor behind my house that always scolded her maid stupid, more like a mental torture to me. Let say same thing to us, if we go to work every morning and our boss treated us such a way without any respect, you will feel very angry or sad right?

From time to time we heard maid got abused, or maid gone crazy, like recently a maid slaughtered her boss by cutting off her stomach in Hong Kong. I think these kind of things happened because the maid just mentally explode like a volcano after they piled up all their stress and anger from day to day until they can't take it anymore.

The above examples that I saw, I can see that some people think that they want to make full use of the peanuts which they have paid! Come on, if you are just paying RM500-600 per month and you want to fully utilize a person like a machine? Or treat them like a dog? To me, it is no difference than enslaving others? Well, or course, it is still better than the slavery of the old days because in modern days you won't whip someone. So I can only say that this is 'modern slavery'. It is simply not right to make a person work 24/7 without any off days, it is simply ;inhumane' to do so, that is why I support the idea having one single off day on everyweek. I will also suggest that the agency shall visit the maid from time to time just to find out how's things going on. Opening agency is a good business as I know a lot of them are political connected, if they want to collect high commission, then they should at least do their work!

Before my maid went back to her country, she shared with us when she first started to work here, she feel very pressure, because she was only 19 and far away from home, she told us that she feel like going crazy. But luckily we didn't treat her badly so after some time, she managed to adjust herself and she is ok and able to cope with it. What I think is, we need to treat people with respect and with a sincere heart, when we do so, in return, we will get the same treatment back from others. Of course, there are some exceptions, but still, I believe most of the time you get treated by how you treat others.

There goes my iPhone

Here is what happen to the Iphone when it fell from 6 feet high with the screen facing down... I was quoted Rm800 to repair the screen. That leave me no choice but to buy a new phone. :(

So I am using a my ne Nokia N85 now. 'Saudi Arabia edition', aka AP set. The keypad comes with both arabic numbers and characters. :)

C'est la vie

Ever wonder what does it mean in French on the song, 'C'est la vie' that was sang by Fish Leong? My friend asked me what is the meaning of "Au Revoir" during the concert. While I am looking for the answer, I accidentally found the translation of the narration as well. :)

Here is the translation:

歌曲：c'est la vie (这就是人生）

歌手：梁静茹

专辑：崇拜

ne laisse pas le temps te décevoirll ne peut être conquisdans la tristesse dans la douleuraujourd'hui, demainau fil du temps le temps c'est la vie

别因为时间而感到沮丧,它是永远无法被征服的.

不管是在悲伤里在痛苦中,今天,明天,年复一年时间.

它头也不回地往前走,它就是人生。

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也许我会再遇见你

像恋人般重逢美丽

看你满脸胡渣的笑意爽朗一如往昔

c'est la viec'est la viec'est la vie

走一个城市的陌生走到了曙光

无知无觉的黎明一路微笑的满天繁星消失在日出里

c'est la viec'est la viec'est la vieoh

塞纳河的水 是心的眼泪

流过了 你笑的 每个样子我会在你的记忆 看到我自己看到了结局

爱在错过后更珍惜

都将走向新的旅途 au revoir (it means good bye)说好不为彼此停留看车窗外的你沈默不语

我不再哭泣c'est la viec'est la viec'est la vie

oh 塞纳河的水 是心的眼泪 流过了 漂泊的 人生风景

愿我们各自都有美好的一生美好的憧憬

爱在遗憾里更清晰

oh 塞纳河的水 是心的眼泪 流过了

一直不回我会在你的记忆 看到我自己看到了结局

爱在错过后更珍惜

oh 塞纳河的水 是心的眼泪 流过了

漂泊的人生风景愿我们各自都有美好的一生美好的憧憬

爱在遗憾里更清晰

也许我会再遇见你像恋人般重逢美丽c'est la viec'est la viec'est la vie

Fish Leong's concert 14/06/2009

The Stage and the crowd before the concert start, basically, you can see it is a full house show.

Fish Leong and her friends. Until today only I know that 张智成 is Fish Leong's cousin.

I like this new song from Fish Leong - 情歌:

习惯是琥珀泪一滴滴被反锁

情书在不朽淹没成沙漏

青春的上游白云飞走藏够雨还有

闪过的念头潺潺地流走

命运好幽默让爱的人都沉默

一整个宇宙换一颗红豆

回忆如困兽寂寞太久 而渐渐温柔

放开了拳头反而更自由

慢动作千卷胶卷重播默片定格

一瞬间我们在告别的演唱会说好不再见

你写给我我的第一首歌

你和我十指紧扣默协前奏

可是呢然后呢

还好我又握着一首情歌

轻轻地轻轻哼着哭着笑着 我的天长地久 命运好幽默让爱的人都沉默

一整个宇宙换一颗红豆

回忆如困兽寂寞太久 而渐渐温柔

放开了拳头反而更自由

长镜头越来越远越来越远时隔好几年

我们在怀念的演唱会礼貌地吻别

你写给我我的第一首歌

你和我十指紧扣 默协前奏

可是呢然后呢

还好我又握着一首情歌 轻轻地轻轻哼着

哭着笑着我的天长地久

陪我唱歌清唱你的情歌 舍不得短短副歌

心还热着也该告一段落

还好我又握下一首情歌

是你宛如轻轻的像涌的河永远天长地久。。。

The King of Soya Sauce

To the ladies and gentlemen who cook/ plan to cook / going to cook/ currently learning to cook...

Just want to share with you that Lee Kum Kee has come out with a new product, probably it ain't new but I just notice it today. When all the soya sauce, be it regular or special grade, are selling around Rm6-8 for 500ml. This soya sauce that packed like a red wine is selling for RM12+.

Well, Aquarius are always curious. I couldn't resist but to buy it. I want to find out why the hell they sell it for such a high price when I could have bought two bottles of soya sauce. Will give it try on this 'King of Soya Sauce'. Of course, please don't expect me to do a 'white rice mixed with soya sauce' trial, I am no kid anymore. :)

Handling upgrade

I used to slam those 'ah bengs'/'ricers' that modify their cars till it makes it look so silly. Now I think I am becoming half of them. Well, I didn't do much cosmetic change though besides changing it to a set of lighter rims. Here is what I did to improve the handling and a little on performance.Trade in my original set of rims for RM250, replace it with Taiwanese SSW wheels for RM1080. With the lighter wheels, I manage to cut down about 3-4kg per wheel.

Upgrade from a stock 12" anti roll bar to a Ultra Racing 16" anti roll bar, that really help minimize the body roll coming from the rear. The bar cost RM298 without installation, could have got it in another shop for cheaper price (RM260).

Before going to work on yesterday, I have the shop install the front strut bar for RM150. I figure out it can provide some sort of impact resistence, and further improve the handling. so it is worth 'investing'. Note that both bar linked to the top of the front absorbers. The boss in the shop was telling me this, "Last time I thought only those "La La boy" will install such a thing to their car, but then, the supplier offer me a low price to put it on my Toyota Wish, so I tried it out, I notice it really feel difference to my car when I drive it! So after that, I also start selling these kind of bars."

Well, after installing these kind of stuff on it, I really feel like I am driving a different car, hehehehee, the wheel seems to spin faster due to lighter rims, and the cornering ability improve which makes the car more sticky to the road. I feel that there is still some room for improvement. :)

Harlem Basketball

Went to this poorly organized event from Telekom Malaysia (TM), not much advertisement on the local media and I am not aware about this event at all. My friend sponsored me the tickets, to be frank, when he asked me if I am interested to go for the event, I thought it the 'Harlem' from Taiwan. Later on he explain to me that it is some basketball show played by those retired NBA players. With not much enthusiasm, I went with him and other friends.

He booked the ticket online though which is suppose to be more convenience than you buy tickets on the spot. But the thing is, we have to line up for 45 minutes to get the tickets printed out where those who buy on the spot can enjoy further discount and can walk into the stadium immediately.

You can expect how slow is our streamyx service if you see how TM run the event. It is very inefficient!! They can survive because in telco industry because it is a almost-monopoly business to them, especially on fixed line business. Besides the ticketing management, the whole event is poorly organized too. I can't catch what the basketball players said at all due to the poor sound systems in the court. I think the players thought that Malaysians can't understand English. Well, the black english is already hard to understand, when they throw in those inferior speakers, it make things even worse! If you ask me if I want to go again? I think even if the ticket is Rm10, I would have to reconsider, a disappointing show!

Part time job?

A friend was telling me about his 'interesting encounter' when he try to look for some part time job. He told me that he asked a well-known job agency whether they can refer some part time job to him.

The agent came back with some interesting job offers, she replied, "Yeah, we have jobs like cashier, accountant, auditors, factory workers, interior designer and escorts, which one are you interested?"

My friend think that the agent is doing some side work for herself. So he replied, "I am interested on the 'interior designer' and escort, do you have any contact?"

Well, the agent immediately understands what he wanted, so the agent replied, "Our client is very high profile, for escorts, the rate is Rm200 per hour, you need to be 1. Handsome/Good looking; 2. Knowledgeable and 3. Humorous, if you are interested, please send me your photos and CVs. You will be contacted if you fit into our requirement.

My friend submitted a few photos to the agency.... Hahahahaha.. anyway, RM200/hr is a good money too. Easily the part time job can become full time if everyday you got business.