Mr. Haxa Does The Blogs

Goodbye October 2003; Goodbye Tun Dr. Mahathir Muhammad; Welcome Pak Lah!

It is almost midnight here. Late noon today, Pak Lah had sworn in as the fifth Prime Minister of our nation, Dr. Mahathir and the fourth first lady, Dr. Siti Hasmah were awarded the title Tun, and at circa 5pm, I saw it on TV that PM 'punch-carded' his last day in the office.

As far I could remember, I spotted Dr. M three times in close vicinity. Once was when I was doing grocery shopping at the Isetan KLCC - and he was at the vege & fruits section; the next one when I saw him driving his 4WD along the Bukit Bintang road on a lovely Sunday evening; and recently, few days back, he visited my office, and upon waving, he uttered the word 'terima kasih' from the back of his new Perdana (plate number: 2020).

Nevertheless, during his 22 years in office, we have seen lots of his policies in place particularly of infrastructure and capacity building at the time when we witnessed two important landmarks of economic transitions; i.e. industrial (manufacturing-based) and the ever complex effort policies formulation to leapfrog the nation into a post-industrial-knowledge-based-economy.

Through his fiscal and monetary policies that are at times controversial, he had almost balanced out (18% vs. 30%) the economic participation among the people. And as a result, there are more and more middle class (near to upper) living prosperously in this country today. Although, I think that we could have been much better off given the wealth are equally distributed!

I only wish that lots had been introduced on social and welfare as much as what had Tun Abdul Razak did. Although Dr. M managed to reduce the poverty line from about 45% (? or was it 55%) when he started in the early 80's to about 5% today, most of them are continuation policies from his predecessor. Wonder whether those same policies are sustainable and effective in the long run.

Let's see what Pak Lah can formulate out of this. Let's also see what will Pak Lah do with the USD$40 billions of reserve as well as his promise of policy continuation. It will be an exciting period to witness and critically analyze on how will Pak Lah lead the nation as we grow towards becoming a virtue-based society (Read: National IT Agenda) in the forthcoming years.

What I admired the most about Dr. M is his ability to explain his visions in easy terms (albeit the ubiquitious propaganda vehicles - but tell me which leader isn't leveraging on that?) that he wrote most of his speeches, his ability to ask the right questions, (an important traits as a leader; this was told to me by someone who had the chance explaining to him issues in the country's learning technology; and recently the InfoSys chairman wrote this same observation in a featured section of Far Eastern Economic Review on Dr. M farewell), and most importantly, that he had built the Putrajaya.

I admired the last achievement simply because Dataran Merdeka and the downtown of Kuala Lumpur are full of colonial buildings and landmarks, that only made me loathe and detest seeing all those nostalgic from of colonialism infrastructure; but what the heck, tourists love them! Today, the administration center is a magnificent manifestation of his vision to rebuild our fallen Malacca. I won't mind my tax paying money going there. And if you mind about it, then it is simply your choice!

And by his virtue, the word proxy has new connotation to me. Apart of those proxy IPs we sometimes use to bypass certain restrictions on the Net, Mahathir has given a new feeling to that word from the most quoted part of his controversial speech few weeks back! And I won't go far discussing that in here.

[Picture: BAZUKI MUHAMMAD/REUTERS]

Cojunctivitis

The conjunctivas of both of my eyes are infected. And it is contagious, because it is not due of allergic. The information on this infection are taken from the St. Luke's Cataract & Laser Institute.

Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye) - Overview

Conjunctivitis, commonly known as pink eye, is an infection of the conjunctiva (the outer-most layer of the eye that covers the sclera). The three most common types of conjunctivitis are: viral, allergic, and bacterial. Each requires different treatments. With the exception of the allergic type, conjunctivitis is typically contagious.

The viral type is often associated with an upper respiratory tract infection, cold, or sore throat. The allergic type occurs more frequently among those with allergic conditions. When related to allergies, the symptoms are often seasonal. Allergic conjunctivitis may also be caused by intolerance to substances such as cosmetics, perfume, or drugs. Bacterial conjunctivitis is often caused by bacteria such as staphylococcus and streptococcus. The severity of the infection depends on the type of bacteria involved.

More information on symptoms and diagnosis on the St. Luke's Cataract & Laser Institute website.

The JW Marriott Hotel, Kuala Lumpur Ramadhan Buffet

Rushing back to where we were going stay overnight on the second eve of the Ramadan, we had to quickly hunt out for the best place to break the fast. Upon arriving at the central station, we bought six pieces of kuih in case it’ll be too late due to the nasty traffic; that we paid a ripping off price of RM0.95 for each piece of kuih we bought. 2 corn pudding, 2 seri muka, and 2 cucur badak at one of the café that I think has the most hideously designed logo ever seen.

Luckily the taxi ride was smooth that we managed to arrive at about 10 minutes to Maghrib. Apparently, we were heading in the opposite direction of the Kuala Lumpur nasty trafic.

Being in the vicinity of Bukit Bintang, there were plenty of eating places nearby. The Garden which was just beside the black Keck Seng building served mostly Western as we saw on the big menu and it cost RM38 for a person-all-he/she-can eat! The Westin Ramadan buffet was outrageously priced at RM80, so we decided to try out at some stalls. But upon passing J.W. Marriott we thought that it will be worth to check out the offering and plus 6.59pm was just another 10 minutes away.

After found out that it only cost us RM43 per person buffet, we straight away rushed to the sixth floor, where the buffet area surrounded the serene swimming pool that when it was about dusk, it reflected the beautiful transition of the day and night that metaphorically symbolizes the beautiful gastronomic choices that we were about to endeavor.

Since we were walk-in guests, we were seated indoor, which was okay. It’s too humid out there. Upon seated, we already looked around the positions of food outside. I started out with the dates, yes, two pieces, few brownies, and a piece of cheese cake.

When it got to the main course, I picked a little bit of briyani rice, with a grilled ikan kembung, some fried squids, and soaked it all with the sambal belacan to harmonize the entire selection. I then singled out the grilled lamb for try outs.

After putting down the food selected, I hurried to the other section of the buffet area where there were the salad bars, friend noodles, rojak buah, and the pickled and salted section nicely positioned in the middle. I skipped those and filled up the glasses with sugarcane juice that we just talked about on our way earlier.

My dad told me this that circa 70’s, some Sarawakians would pay their friends or acquaintances to give them a tour of Kuala Lumpur. And when my dad guided this particular tour, this one fellow was so happy to drink the sugarcane juice that he had like three full glasses. When asked, it was said that the sugar cane juice was (and still is) rare in Sarawak; that it was just too expensive. Evidently, according to a friend who works there, all you can get there are the bottled and canned sugar cane juices.

At 6.59pm, we heard the azan and the hotel staff quickly hit the gong three times indicating that it was time to break the fast. After finishing the food that we took earlier, we went out for the satay; 10 pieces of chicken and 10 of beef, yummy! Before I got in, I stopped at the Ais Batu Campur ‘mini’ stall to get one that was sinfully sweetening and creamy with the gula melaka, syrups, peanuts, corn, and red beans.

Our next round of food is the rojak buah for dessert. The varieties of fruits with the awesome rojak paste made it a wonderful rojak ever tasted in fasting month. It was so good that we took a second plate of it. In between, we opted for apple juice after two glasses of sugarcane.

The waitress when saw us finishing asked us whether we wanted the tea or coffee. I simply said “Hi yo, we feel like nak mati already here”. And she just smiled and we headed back to our room with a full stomach.

And gone were my determination to lose out some weight during this Ramadan after a ‘sinful’ buffet session! Nevertheless, for RM43, it was worth a treat. Besides, I haven’t had any buffet for quite a long time. And I just found out today that Shangri-La buffet is priced somewhere around RM83!

Reading List [Will be Updated]

1. Abdul Hamid, Abdul Halim, Mohd Nordin, Norizaton Azmin, “A Study on Islamic Banking Education and Strategy for the New Millennium – Malaysian Experience”, International Journal of Islamic Financial Services, Vol. 2 No. 4
2. Anonymous, “Highlights of the Malaysian Banking & Financial Services Summit 2002”, Economic Research Services of Bumiputra Commerce, Vol: 1/2002, 2002
3. Aziz, Zeti Akhtar, “The Malaysian Banking Industry – Gearing Up for Excellence”, Bank Negara Malaysia, 2002
4. Aziz, Zeti Akhtar, “Scaling New Heights After the Banking Consolidation”, Bank Negara Malaysia, 2001
5. Bank Negara Malaysia, “The Central Bank and the Financial System in Malaysia – A Decade of Change: 1989-1999”, Bank Negara Malaysia, First Edition, 1999
6. Bank Negara Malaysia, “Central Banking In An Era of Change – Landmark Speeches: 1959-1988”, Bank Negara Malaysia, 1989
7. Miller, Roger L., Vanhoose, David, “Money, Banking, & Financial Markets”, South-Western Thomson Learning, 2001
8. Obiyathulla Ismath Bacha, “Financial Derivatives – Markets and Applications in Malaysia”, Penerbit Universiti Putra Malaysia, 2001
9. Oh, Soo-Nam, “Towards a Sustainable Banking Sector – Malaysia”, 1998
10. Saunders, Anthony, Cornett, Marcia M., “Financial Markets and Institutions – A Modern Perspective”, McGraw Hill, Second Edition, International Edition, 2003
11. Sloman, John, “Economics”, Financial Times – Prentice Hall, Fourth Edition, 2000
12. Stanley G., Mishkin, Frederic S. Eakins, “Financial Markets and Institutions, Third Edition”, Addison Wesley Longman, 2000

SONY N760C Travel Charger PEGA-TK500; Thank you, Lillian & Alex

After my CLIE travel charger broke down, I couldn’t push my handheld usage to the max, had to be careful with the battery status most of the time. Luckily I bought the BRANDO USB charger-cum-hot-sync before it went malfunction that I have been carrying it around looking for USB port to suck up power.

Nevertheless, I have to be careful not to drain the battery, or else the applications and data on my RAM are gone and I would have to restore everything from the Memory Stick. But it happened a few times though, and doing it all over again can be quite annoying sometimes. Despite that, flushing the RAM and flash memory using the JackFlash, with the bunny (the software mascot) can be enjoyable!

I made a few visits as well as written to the BRANDO workshop in Hong Kong requesting the availability of the AC travel charger for N-series. To my dismay they were out of stock. The next best alternative was to purchase it from Sony Singapore because the N-series was already a discontinued model and it is almost impossible to get here in KL.

So, I asked an ex-colleague who is now working in the metropolitan city of Singapore to help me out with the purchase of Pega-TK500 after finding out that Sony Singapore doesn’t ship out to foreign land.

And she agreed. But the delivery will have to be made via his brother-in-law who works here in KL. And after the bro-in-law received it quite some time ago, I only got hold to the PEGA-TK500 Travel Charger and made my payment in Sing Dollar to him after numbers of cancelled appointment to meet up. He’ll be visiting the brother and sister-in-law this weekend.

So I would like to thank you Lillian and Alex for taking the time and effort to help me out in this. I appreciate it so much.

Last night my CLIE N760C was fully charged and powered up for maximum usage!

And talk about max use, I am all out for renewing my mp3 collection. Does anyone have the Michael Bubble mp3 collection? I'd love to have some songs, esp. 'The Way You Look Tonight'!

Belasungkawa [Eulogy]: Johan Ismail, Part I

A good friend, an inspiring writer, and a source of knowledge and wisdom particularly in the area of learning technologies to me; and a respected figure among us bloggers in the Malaysian community had passed away early this morning.

After receiving a phone call from a friend whom we just met yesterday informing about the demise of Johan; this morning we observed a moment of silence at an event of which Johan was supposedly to speak after I personally invited him to deliver a speech; as a respect to Johan.

After decided that we would be attending the funeral, a couple of friends and I changed plan. Instead of staying for the rest of the event, we rushed to Johan's family residence. After paid our last tribute reading the Yassin verse and multiple recitations of Al-Fatihah; we extended our condolonces to his father.

It is indeed a sad day for this community of ours.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rohnya di kalangan orang-orang beriman. Al-Fatihah.

Life is Beautiful, and So is Engineering!

Engineering concept is beautiful. In an event that I will be actively co-organizing later this week, the work of engineering the mechanism of pushing certain agendas and highlighting issues are borne out of matching an open system with negative feedback. The beauty lies in the work devising the flows inside the black box. You can’t see what is inside, yet you can program it. And it is programming using the most natural language you can ever imagined.

The actors gather from time to time to discuss on how the black box functions, the inputs fed into it, and the output that it produced. It is amazing how some actors wanted to control some of the black boxes but taken aback in operation, putting the lead actor’s set of functions in jeopardy.

I once learnt while being a rapporteur at the World Economic Forum last year that the likes of WEF organization such as World Bank, the UN, and the IMF, that you have to be very attentive to the preset agenda of the conferences or seminars or workshops that they organize. Once you can capture that, you know whether the issues or agenda you are trying to address will be noted or just getting your airtime and wasting your travel expenses and loads of work you have done. Therefore, gone are all the characteristics and functions that you have programmed into the black box, and only to have other black box getting through.

And for me to have control into most of the parameters, variables, and constants in the programming of some of the black boxes at this event is a wonderful experience in a lifetime.

Have you been feeling this way lately? Too bad I have not feeling well for the last couple of days. Otherwise, I could have pushed myself to the limit!

The Evening That Was ...

It has been a wonderful evening. A celebration of classical musics, liters of coffee and tea, and priceless conversation with friends who have now turned from 'idealist to pessimist realist ;-)'; it was one of the great outings I have had recently. Kuala Lumpur hasn't got much to offer me now. This city has became one of those places that I have to get off from temporarily, live in another place, and then move on before it becomes too mean or it has got to a point where it spoils me.

In the quest for self-actualization, you can't just look around those close and dear to you. Complacency kills everything off because life will never get to its fullest potential when you are just too good in your domain and fail to comprehend all the frameworks there are to our mortal lives. Reflect yourself from time to time whether your life in these five years span has changed, whether you are now much more knowledgable then you were previously, or whatever you have achieved all those goals you have set for yourself. See whether your enabler objectives fulfills your terminals. Then only you have all the answers.

In our quest for self-fulfilment, we often tumble and at points we move ahead, or probably leaves everything according to centrus paribus, or just let the changes take place for the better or worse.

And as the Letterman show displays its credit lines, I better log off now and get myself to rest for another hectic day tomorrow.

My 'Ghost' Encounter - Part One [Day One]

Interestingly someone asked me earlier whether I believe in ghost after I forwarded him a CNN travel article on “Malaysia: A glimpse at Kuala Lumpur's surreal side” What started as merely a question of whether I believe in it or not, it turned out to be one long conversation where I told him my creepy personal experience of dealing with other ‘creatures’ whom took possession of a girl's body for a three-day period, intermittently.

It was circa 1995’s Hari Raya Haji at my grandpa’s place. It was festive season and everyone gathered for celebration. An aunt of ours operated a canteen business in town and the girl working for her at the canteen is close to her family. That Raya, she was celebrating it with our family. And we had a BBQ session a night before Eid-Adha.

It was after Isyak prayer time; it was dark, with only two bulbs shone over the back of grandpa’s place. That place where we had the BBQ was at that time surrounded by rubber trees and it was a deserted around it. The girl whom my aunt brought to celebrate the Raya with us is very fair, longhaired, and gaunt-sunken faced; suddenly look left and right eerily ... and started to complain that she's in pain. The women in the family brought her inside and laid her down in bed, while she was struggling of pain ... after few hours she went to sleep.

The next day, the girl's body is in the possession of a very old Indonesian witch.

She was somebody new when she woke up. She spoke in Bahasa Jawa, which was very strange of the girl, and she even behaved like the old lady, that was particularly obvious when she ate the mango that she requested. She was eating it with her lips, as if the girl didn’t have any teeth.

We were freaked out of all these change ... and luckily grandpa's place full with everyone “balik kampung” that time to take care of this.

Soon, we start questioning her ... kinda fun, but at times spooky. Apparently the first question anyone would ask was who did all these, and when asked, she told us that it was the girl's boyfriend who had created this mess because the girl recently played hard to get with him.

The old lady’s according to her, was in her 80’s, a widow, she married a Dutch man, and later in her life, she mastered ‘silat’ and black magic with a guru in a cave back in Java Island. The master according to her will get into the girl's body at nighttime.

And when asked for solutions to end the mess, she suggested few ways. First one, if it were to be performed, would have her and the boyfriend die. It was one f those rituals that we have to perform using seven colors of thread. I’d forgotten the ritual, but we didn’t like the idea.

The second option was that to find the bomoh who went to study with the same master as the old lady. According to her, they are very hard to find and locate. And we finally decided to call a witch doctor to perform certain rituals to get rid of these ‘spirit’s so that the girl can be cured.

At like 5pm during teatime we talked with her at the place where I mentioned we had the BBQ. Apparently, there was some humor side with the old lady. That evening, she was in a very good mood that she sang some dangdut Amelina songs hehe ... and soon some of the younger ones ask her about the SPM exam that my brother will soon be taking, she said 'enggak ambil lagi, mahu tanya, ya!' And she even said that one of the cousins is seeing a guy from her neighborhood, only to have the girl blushed, because her parents were around!

When I asked her, “Where did the girl's soul go to?”

This was her answer 'Rohnya ada dalam kubur ini anak kecil mati dibunuh, ada nun di Sitiawan, and we was like in Ipoh! Scary!

She then warned us that she'll leave by Maghrib time, and that the master (the old man) spirit will possess the girl’s body at nighttime. And just before the Maghrib azan, the old lady spirit left, and the girl was back! And poor her, she was weak, didn't know what had happened, and kept telling us that she is in pain.

And we were also told that there's something is outside the gate of my grandpa’s house that keep calling her. According to her it was like a flying candle flying around in attempt to get her attention to the boyfriend. One of my aunt saw this!

Luckily my grandpa's house was 'berpagar' (according to Malay belief, ‘berpagar’ means that you have kept the place safe from certain evil spirit to enter the house).

And after Isyak prayer time, the transformation took place, and the master was in! And she became strong with all the silat and she even spoke in certain Siam dialect fluently. We had to close all the glasses at the door because she kept looking out and they all (my dad and uncles) had to contain her at a part of the living room so that she won't do harm to others. She even kicked some of my uncles!

My uncles kept ‘him’ and talked to dig out some stories. That time I was at home ... and my place wasn’t that far... and they called to me to come over and do something. When I got there, they already and put on Yassin verse on radio loudly. But nothing happen and at one time she came to the hi-fi to turned it off.

Then I started to reading out the verse of Kursi loudly and asked all the younger ones, my mom, and aunts to follow me reciting. When I started, she gave me this very eerie look, and yelled at me that I am the bad guy, the evil one! With that look of her gaunt face and that long black hair it all looked so spooky. And I kept reading.

Initially she followed recitation of the verse, but at one part she couldn't. Her body started to get weak, and after few repetitions of the verse, she became so much weaker that my aunt sympathize her, telling us to stop for a while, turned off the hi-fi and let her rest

By this time she was lying down, and as soon as we stopped, she woke up in a jerky movement, and started to laugh in a pitch like the vampire. Everyone was panicked, and shocked that we quickly started to read again. That night the witch doctor couldn't make it because he got other engagement.

And after we all started reading again ... she became so weak, that finally she threw up. And according to my uncle her vomit contained some of the things that have gotten into her ... like some powdery-shredded-metallic stuff, ... coz it looked quite shiny.

After this was over, the girl's spirit got back into her body! And just like before she kept saying that she's in pain and that she wanted to sleep. BUT, before leaving, the spirit earlier told us told old lady will probably be back at 3 or 4 in the morning!

That night my cousin and I decided that we would stay up late, and read up the Yassin verse from time to time, while others went to sleep. It was creepy. At about 2 am we quickly went to the bathroom for ablution and began reading the verses from Quran.

Around 3am, we heard like sounds of bells ... 'cling' cling' around the house, and we ignore them. Probably those things that are calling hee. And out of the sudden, she woke up ... just like the movie scene where the dead body woke up from rest in those quick movements

She was looking at us … gave us that creepy look. We kept on reading, and after few minutes, she went back to sleep.

To be continued … Part II

The Sunday City Excursion at the Berjaya Time Square, Kuala Lumpur

For a long time, I have to forgo my Sundays of fun and relaxation for classes, but this weekend, I have it to my own and city excursion has been quite fun. Right before I left home, a friend from college messaged me to have lunch, well; sure!

And we had lunch at a new rennovated shopping mall, that have it upgraded to middle-class status. I had the paprik fried rice, and over meals, we talked about how it all gonna end soon, how the businesses surrounding the area has to changed focus, i.e. from being theme-based to generic. My thought is that the area is a transit location. People transit there on their way back home from office, transit upon arrival from other cities; thus, general taste and preferences rule out, although some have captured the travellers' market. And we also had some thoughts on future, that it is now the best time to cut expenses because of uncertainty in the coming future. We then changed subject on our career and what would we be doing after graduation.

I then made my move to the newly opened mall, the Berjaya Time Square. The monorail ride from Bukit Bintang to the Imbi station at RM1.20 was a totally new experience. Too bad there were just too many people in it to have it as an exciting first ride. The area has certainly changed in many ways. Finally, after about a minute, I got down from the train for a first visit to the new 'big and large' mall. I guess for retail business, it is not race to the bottom, but race to be the biggest, and the largest. And it was full with mostly families with children at this first weekend opening.

There are in all 10 floors. And its fifth and seventh floor are where all the thrills and funs for kids and adults to enjoy. I think that kids in Malaysia generally could just forget the Hong Kong's Disney, although they probably offer different experiences, this one has got a lot to offer, plus Hong Kong is too expensive. There are variety of rides at the Cosmo's World theme park, and I am sort of dissapointed at the lack of creativity around the ideas of park. The cosmo theme didn't stand out.

Probably chasing for early opening, and for the PM to officiate it before retirement, I think the launching date was too early for few exciting tenants and businesses to open up. The 9 screen cinemas are soon to be opened, the 3D IMAX theatres are yet to start their operation, and so do the Debenhams department store, the Shasta Shopping Mall, the food court, and the bowling arena. Nevertheless, there are already two Starbucks cafe here, one at the ground floor and the other one on the third floor. Wi-fi anyone?

As I didn't have any urge to shop for anything, I left the place, heading for the tech marketplace. And I got to try out the new T|3 and the T|E. The Palm T|3 sliding version was an exciting first Palm model with Virtual Graffitti. Ony drawback is that there aren't that many programs supporting it. And the T|E is surprising priced at RM788 here. It's a one great competitive pricing for this model that has got a feel like Palm Vx, only that it is so shiny with it's metal casing that trap too much fingerprint marks. Hmm ... let's just wait for Brando to come out with solution to this and capture the market for anti fingerprints marks on PDAs.

I stop for now to enjoy some great my evening coffee at any nearby Starbucks around here. I can't wait for a productive week ahead starting tomorrow!