KL Rat Race 2006

The Kuala Lumpur Rat Race is back for the seventh
year! Once again, The Edge and Bursa Malaysia would like to invite your
organisation to forget about the rat race we are in, just for a day, and take
part in a rat race of a different kind.

~A quote from the invitation letter.

My workplace being a regular contributor (donation reaching tooo….shhh) and participant would surely join in this year’s race. Previously the administration and logistics (runners & supporters) are handled by a department well known for its corporate relations. However this year, that job scope is now been transferred to my department and is kind of new to us. The best part is that I am handling it, a person who has just transferred to a new department about two months ago.

Being a person who is still new to his department’s workload plus a new job scope surely can make you go bonkers at a certain time. The handover and preparation for the race was not that smooth at all. I just don’t want to talk much about it but there was a time I have to actually ‘turun padang’ just to make sure everything was alright. In this case, when you depend on someone to help you (being a newbie), that someone ask another person to do it, later on nothing happens, so you yourself have to do it from scratch….sigh

Anyway past is past, I already have the required runners and supporters for the coming race. So far things that I need to complete now are transportation, t-shirts and some clearances from specific supervisors.

I have mix feelings at the moment with excitement and worries circulating around my thoughts. Have to remind myself to be positive and everything will be fine.

Maybe I should bring the department’s digital camera to take some interesting shots….hmmm

One Morning

I was about to leave for work when my aunt called and wishes to speak with me. Before we begin to start our conversation she told me not to tell my mother about this phone call. Curious I was but never thought of asking why.

She was asking for some help and I honestly said yes without knowing the type of assistance that she needed. Again she ask and this time she sad “Can I borrow RM200 from you and I promise to pay you back afterwards.”.

With an instant I said yes but I also inform her that I could only lend it after my payday. So I gave her my hand phone number and asked for the account number to be sent to me via sms. She sound worried and speaks again “You don’t mind all this?”. “Yeah I don’t and don’t worry about it. Anyway I got to go to work now. SMS me if there is anything. Bye.”

~

My aunt’s family consists of six members, her husband, three daughters and a boy. My uncle is a bus driver whereas my aunt works as support staff in a company. Unfortunately among her children, she has a down-syndrome child which is one of the girls. Due to income of parents, the family is never in the category of rich nor middle class. Previous Hari Raya’s, the family seldom came back to my grandparent’s house and I can understand why.

Imagine if you are poor, being Hari Raya, all the small kids will certainly ask from you an angpau, how would you feel that time? My other uncles and aunties have tried to explain to their children but somehow they are not mature enough to understand.

Nevertheless we are not that cruel, my aunt’s children still do get their Hari Raya angpau but through my mom or my other aunt who stays in KL. On the way back to my own hometown, we would have a side trip to her house and give the angpaus to the kids. Sometimes we even gave her some sort of contribution such as cash, clothes, rice and etc.

~

Alright, RM200 sounds a bit small to some but being the current family supporter at a rate of 70%, it does mean something to me. However being the eldest among cousins, a sacrifice has to be made and my mom shall never know of all this.

Believe it or not

I found out a link from a friend in OB forum and tried it out. Here are the results.....

Tarot Card(Equivalent of "11/6/1979")

The Lovers: A caring and trusting relationship. Beauty and inner harmony. A decision calling for emotional control and faithfulness to spiritual values.

Rune(Equivalent of "my full name")

Inguz is the rune of completion and fertility. The presence of this rune suggests that tasks which have been initiated will come to fruition. This rune is associated with Ing and Frey, it is this connection that explains its connotations of both fertility and sexuality. The variant of this rune shown here is reminiscent of the twin strands of life, and of the challenge and rewards of bringing together things complimentary.

Birth Mates(Equivalents of "11/6/1979")

Andy Warhol, Ashton Kutcher, Chow Yun Fat, Freddie Prinze Jr., Hugh Grant, Jerry Seinfeld, Jesse James, Jim Henson, John F. Kennedy, Julia Roberts, Leon Trotsky, Mel Brooks, Natalie Portman, Peter Sellers, Rose McGowan, Saddam Hussein, Wyatt Earp

Public Role(Equivalents of "my calling name in public")

Words that embody the people or things that you interact with are "Affair, Alien, Camera, Coin, Demand, Dream, Duke, Globe, Home, Joke, Key, King, Lock".

Words that embody things that you may be a part of are "Civilization, Conquest, Destruction, Domination, Executive, History, Illumination, Inspiration, Isolation, Linguistics, Numerology, Philosophy, Psychology, Purgatory, Sensuality, Serendipity, Submission".

Words that embody the effects of your actions are "Ancestor, Blues, Brother, Butcher, Champagne, Concubine, Council, Dragon, Engineer, Entertainment, Fantasy, Finger, Gazelle, Glory, Grotto, Halloween, Island, Joker, Language, Martyr, Mouth, Mustang, Neptune, Passage, Player, Power, Pyramid, Republic, Rook, Scream, Shackle, Slave, Stars, Symbol, Theater, Tiger, Triangle, Tunnel, Unholy, Velvet, Virtue, Warning".

Words that embody people or things in your periphery are "Adversary, Anticipation, Apocalypse, Celebration, Consort, Devotion, Invention, Jubilation, Monster, Moonlight, Rapport, Resistance, Surrender, Synergy, Trumpet, Typhoon, Universe, Vortex".

Private Persona(Equivalents of "Saintvamp")

Words that embody your presence are "Kaleidoscope, Strategy".

Words that embody people or things in your periphery are "Ballet, Bliss, Cage, Community, Devil, Door, Earth, Ebony, Elegance, Fame, Fertility, Finance, Flood, Funk, Gem, Giraffe, Heart, Immunity, Infinity, Ingenuity, Linguistics, Magenta, Misadventure, Mist, Monolith, Pearl, Platinum, Pope, Pride, Profanity, Pursuit, Puzzle, Rabbit, Retribution, Riddle, Rum, Sculptor, Sea, Ship, Staff, Stage, Steel, Technology, Temptation, Trance, Ugliness, Virility, Voyeur".

Thanks Kuni for the link.

Tanggal tiga puluh satu, bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh.....

Browsing through one of my friends' blog, an interesting post caught my eye and decided to try out the quiz. And the results are.....


Yikes! Am I truly a Malaysian or a foreigner from an unknown land...hehehe. Answered all questions with me being myself and it clearly shows my true nature. I'm guessing that to obtain a higher score, I have to think like a Malaysian which answers leads to a...err...how we say...more negative attitude. So I tried it out again with that Malaysia Boleh mindset....


I wasn't that surprise because I knew the score would go higher base on my assumption. Anyway quizzes are made for us to enjoy our daily life and let's accept it with an open mind and perception. =)

Here's the link if you want to try it out yourself.

If people ask, do you know our Merdeka date and the exact time (as in ke berapa), for surely I can answer it accurately and thanks to our late Sudirman song...a legend amongst the Malaysian legends.

*Hmmm..could the max score be 40 or 50...hmmmm

Tok Ngah

Saturday, 12 August 2006, I and siblings still lying on our beds not wanting to wake up when dad came in the room to inform us the bad news. Tok Ngah has passed away that morning and we are going back Teluk Intan, Perak to pay our last respects. Woke up with a splitting headache (slept late), took my bath, wore proper clothes, ate McEgg (mmm McD's) and off we go to my dad's hometown.The journey was suppose to be less than two hours but the big lorries and trucks plus uneven roads made it longer.

Arrived at our destination an hour before lunch time and was greeted by Tok Ngah's son-in-law, Uncle Law who directed us to his house where Tok Ngah lies peacefully on his bed with relatives surrounded him. Mom consoled Tok Ngah's daughter while me and my siblings sat and read the Yaasin quietly.

It was a very hot day for Teluk Intan with no clouds in the sky and continuous consumption of bottled mineral water which was kindly provided by Uncle Law and family. As time passed by, more and more relatives came and paid their last respects from the Kushairi Clan, Yang Clan, Tok Ngah's children & grand kids,Tok Ngah's siblings & friends and lastly those who knew him well.

Heard that Tok Ngah will be buried after Asar prayers, time was around 2.45 pm, so me and my family went to a famous food stall (for its mee rebus) for lunch. The stall was offering limited food (I can only see rojak, mee rebus and chicken rice) and served made drinks (no bottled or even boxed drinks). Ordered a plate of chicken rice (mmmm favourite), ABC (Air Batu Campur) and a glass of cold water. Being sooo hungry (hey McEgg ain't enough for me), ate chicken rice just with my bare hands (of course I washed it first) and found it quite tasty. So with no shame, I ordered another plate and indulged myself a delicious meal with the chicken served quite bigger than the previous plate. Knowing my taste in identifying a good chicken rice, mom brought ten packs to be taken away and be put in Tok Ngah's house incase anyone had not eaten lunch.

An hour after I had my lunch, Tok Ngah's body was given a proper cleansing before he is covered in white cloth (kain kapan). All this while I thought a proper cleansing suppose to be in a secluded area however it happened in an opposite way that day. Yes the body and those who were involved was shielded with white cloths acting as a temporary wall at every side but somehow there are those who insisted to take a peek. I figured it will stop there but even during the wrapping process was done quite openly. Hopefully the decision made by Tok Ngah's family was agreeable by all of its members.

Afterwards the body was placed in a casket to be brought to the nearby mosque for solat jenazah after Asar. The prayer style was totally different than the five times per day method with everyone standing close following the imam's actions. When everyone was reading the doa, an old man (Tok Ngah's family friend) gave everyone who prayed for Tok Ngah an angpau which I did not accept and do not how much was in it. The body later on was driven to the familiar graveyard where my late grandfather & grandmother rest in peace.

I helped everyone to carry out the casket from the van to the burial hole and Tok Ngah's grandkids (the boys) helped to do the rest.While the graveyard keeper does the final touches, everyone sat down under the afternoon sunlight and read the necessary doa for the deceased. Tok Ngah was safely buried and all of us went back to his house to prepare ourselves for Tahlil that night.

Tahlil ended quite fast and those who came were given an angpau again but this time it is from Uncle Law. To show no disrespect, I accepted it openly with a smile. Everyone had the same meal for dinner with sirap and mineral water for drinks.

Me and my family salamz with everyone and bid farewell before we return back to PJ. On the way back home, I remembered advises given by him on how important is education since his previous occupation was a teacher.

I'm sure going to miss him =(


"May Allah forgive his sins, widens his resting place like the gardens in Heaven and be placed among those who are piety in the eyes of Allah when akhirat comes. Amin."

New Addiction

Two days ago I felt kind of bored while waiting for my downloads to complete and not like the days when online chatting is such a normal routine. I rarely online chat till some of my friends would be surprise if my MSN or Yahoo messenger activated. So what I did was browsing through regularly visited websites and replied e-mail/posts.

I remembered an MMOG (Mass Multiplayer Online Game) which I used to play but stopped due to the certain priorities. Travian was the name and I totally forgotten my username, password and server number. Yet something else caught my attention and it was the banner that states words and pictures in a sequence:-

1. Free Online Collectible Card Game
2. FIGHT
3. TRADE
4. Urban Rivals

My naughty hands clicked on it and that’s where my addiction begins………

It felt like playing Magic: The Gathering but in a different style and manner. You could be a card trader, duellist or both at the same time. There are 14 clans with 158 character cards each representing their personal or team-up skills. Everyone is entitled to their own choice of deck style from aspects of strength, skill, damage, evolution level, clan mixture and so forth. Create or join available guilds that could make you famous or weird.

My favourite clan is the Pussycats , and I intend to complete the card list before I pursue for other clans. Being a guy liking gurls is a normal thing especially if they are sexy and adorable. Lemme show you what I mean….


I still need four out of thirteen more before a reaching a full set of the clan. Did I mention, every time a card gains a level, the character looks evolves besides the stats. Here’s a sample…
Level 1 Level 4

Can’t wait for the tournaments…go Pussycats go!

*Images taken from the official website itself.

Newbie Merchant

While sorting out my DVDs and Mangas, I notice that I lack sufficient space to keep my other stuff as my collection grows every month.

Currently I’m staying with my parents and two other siblings in a terrace type house with three rooms on the top floor. The main room is of course my parents whereas the other two rooms which are smaller are made for study room and sleeping room. My computer is located in the study room plus other belongings of my siblings and parents. The sleeping room is shared by us three brothers with of course the tall cupboards to fit our daily clothes and other stuffs.

My collections are kept in both rooms at their specific places according to their different functions…(hehehe). Knowing that space is essential, I decided to sell back all my original DVDs even thought I’m going to miss them a lot especially the anime genre. Yes I do buy original anime most of the time and don’t ask the reason why since most of us prefer to obtain it from other resources. I did inform to certain people that my collections are recorded in an excel spreadsheet as for some it may sound weird.

Therefore once I sold the anime DVDs, the list maintains with its title but under the category ‘seen and sold’..sob sob. So if people enquire whether do I collect animes, my answer would be “Maybe since I’m collecting and selling at the same time unless you’re definition of collect is in a different manner”….complicated indeed eyyy. Nevertheless I will still continue to buy original anime till I broke or bored with it.

Let me see….we got Amazon, EBay and Lelong, are there any other services that I missed out? I’ve already own an account in PayPal which is beneficial if used with EBay but need to upgrade it first to the next level. Since I’m still new with all this and it the midst of reading the FAQS and Help Guides, hopefully a decent individual or group could help me in making mone…err…I mean being a an online merchant.

Here’s a favourite music video of mine during the ‘jiwang’ days….

Duran Duran - Ordinary World