Little David

This picture was taken last week with his mom.
He's very close to his mom. So close that sometimes we found that it's quite impossible to be alone. Man, I don't know how long we haven't had our own romantic moment.
Well, there's a give and take, I guess. We are blessed to have this intelligent but sometime quite temperantal little devil. I do not regret to have him though at the beginning I wasn't sure if I was ready to be a father. Anyway, just look at him, a two and the half year old kid. Pretty soon he's gonna be a little young man. I do hope by the time I will be ready to give him the best!

Rude Malaysian

Oh yeah, just wanna share with you this from the same newspaper that I mentioned in my last blog.

You may find some of the scenes very familiar. It took me a while to get used to it after living a number of years overseas. Take the way we drive for example, I have seen countless people cutting queue, changing lanes without putting on indicator, road hogging, using high beam at well lit road etc. I used to give those who cut queue a middle finger when I first came back. It is quite annoying yet people see it as a norm. Being polite or show courtesy to the fairer sex can sometimes be intepreted as we might want to take advantage of them. Have you ever been shown a face when you open a door for a woman in public place? I have and since then I stop doing it! Sometimes it's good for being chivalry. But I think I have to be careful now...;)

No wonder the current PM laments about first world infrastructure but with third world midset!

Anyway, here it is. Enjoy!

http://thestar.com.my/mmedia/video/rudemalaysian.asp

Heat wave in NY

Just opened my favorite Star newspaper, when I flipped over to the World section I saw this head line, "Rains brings brief respite from blistering heatwave".

It reminds me during my time in New York. The summer over there is no child. I used to snared at people when they said candle could melt under the intense heat of summer sunlight. How could that be? I always ask myself. Malaysia is a country that lies in the tropica region. Sure the summer in New York would not be as hot as the afternoon over here. Well, I was dead wrong, and I did see candle melted under the hat of the summer heat wave!

So next time if you plan to visit NY, just bear in mind that Summer over there can even be hotter than what we have here!

The BM Public Library

It is a surprise for me to heard that this library has shifted from its original location in Bukit Kechil to somewhere else. I just got to know about it when I decided to pay it a visit.
I was sending one of my workers to the bus station in BM. When I drop her off, I saw motorbikes parking along the mini tarmac that led to the library. So I decided to check it out since my last visit to the library was 20 years ago.
To my surprise, when I reached the place that was supposed to be a library it was a vacant land with a cobble stone for reflexology thinggy. I asked around and was told it had not been there for quite some time and given a "Hello, where have you been?" kind of look. Worst still, when I approached one of the lady hikers, I was treated like I was about to take advantages from her. Yeah, I look like I am so desperate that I have this printed on my forehead, "God you are so gorgeous. I am going to screw your brain out!". Give me a break!
Ok, back to the topic. Finally I got this friendly uncle to answer my question. So it's being shifted for quite some time already. No he doesn't know where the present location is, and this place has become a hiker haven. Hmm...
Oh yeah, you'll be dissappointed that the road that leads to the peak isn't worth a MTB visit. Too short. My GPS recorded less than 1km. Of course lah, never leave home without my toys!

Another stay back till midnight

It was the second consecutive day that I stayed back in the office till midnight. Thanks to my itchy hands, I accidently deleted the system files when I was using a computer house keeping program called EasyCleaner to "clean" the pc hard drives. Panic man! It got worst that it was not one, but two of the pcs that I am using facing the same fate! I managed to save one of them, but the other one needs a clean installation. That means I would have to install the OS and the application softwares again. Man, this is a major job. If I get it done in computer shop, they're gonna charge me RM40(minimum). Anyway, I think I am gonna do it tommorow. I haven't seen my Little David for two days already. I am kinda miss him!
Oh yeah, someone asked me about riding in Gunung Inas. Sorry lah, I haven't been there before. But a few searches on the Net reveals few interesting info about it:
http://pwp.maxis.net.my/kotrt/journals/shamoon_inas.htm
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=oc6i5yj.5zpl049j&x=1&y=-ot5e3r
http://www.ghoststudy.com/monthly/oct01/malaysia.html
http://www.impressions.com.my/Raft/raft_sedim.htm
http://sea.unep-wcmc.org/sites/pa/0452v.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/trek/mofam/Mountain%20Info/gunung_inas.htm

So friend, enjoy! Just remember to bring the talisman that your mom gave you when you were a kid to the ride too ok???

ADSL auto login

I was estatic to see that I "managed" to make it autodial last night. But it was a short live joy. It dials alright. But when it comes to accessing websites outside Malaysia, it just won't connect. Same thing happens to my e-mail access. So as of moment I revert back to DUN again. Just soke to one of my computer geek friends about the problem. He suggested me I to upgrade to the latest version of IE or check security setting of the browser I'm using. Hmm...Somehow my gut feeling tells me that I screw up the router setting. Look like I will have to pay the setup of the modem settings again. Gosh, don't tell me that I would have to stay till midnight to fix this again!

My ADSL Router

Ok I manage to change the modem into a router. That means in future I don't have to log in using username and password again! Just plug and play! Ok, now if I could make it better for eMule....:)

A thought

Yeah it's 10.15pm, and I am still in the office;)


I decided to stay back to further test the broadband that I recent signed up. First few days were an affair of frequent disconnections until I found what happened. It wasn't caused by bad lines or bad hardware. It was caused by the dragged DUN. Once I unchecked the disconnected if stay idle feature, the problem solved! It seems so simple yet for someone who are not used to probing around the computer and the software that runs, it seens like a miracle that just a few clicks I would to solve this bugging problem! To tell you the truth, I was totally clueless for first few days. I even went further by looking at the modem setup, which is an unadvisable move. But no risk no fun. It just like mountain biking. You know the slope is steep, and there is 50-50 chance that you would end up fly over your bike and the bikewould land on you and you would end lying on bed in hospital for weeks with broken arms and legs. Still, you want to do it. No risk no fun mah. If you want clean and save rides, go join Fitness First! Ok come back to this. So after dissected the setting of the modem, I was still puzzled why it hung up itself after half an hour or so. It's quite annoying when I was in the middle of sending catalogs to my clients. Then I started to realize that since it also used DUN, maybe there was something in DUN that caused this frequent disconnect thinggy. Viola, or shoud I say Eureka! I found it. Uncheck it and today I am online since this morning!
Am I happy now? Well, lets see if I could get this eMule thinggy working...hehe.

Broadband

I finally give in and subscribe a broadband account. I have been resisting the temptation of getting one since speed and convenience can be very addictive! Well, here I am, finally hop on the bandwagon and surf the net at warp speed!
It is just a basic package with 512kbps down/256kbps up. I got it activated two days ago, and since then I have been playing around with it. The challenging part is how to configure the modem to its fullest potential.
Anyway, so far so good. At least I manage to resolve the frequent disconnections that has plagued other broadband users using the same modem and ISP. It's actually a simple uncheck disconnect if stay idle on the modem's DUN, that's all!
Am I happy with the speed? The speed test says the connection reaches almost 90% of the published to speed, watch online live TV no problem and download/upload e-mails with huge attachments with ease. Complain? How come there isn't a news server for Streamyx users? Don't they use it? Well, life ain't perfect, ain't it?
Btw, I still haven't found what 's the name of that creature I saw during my last MTB ride. Anyone?

Worm!

I have been trying to figure out what it is since I first saw it in Mt. Erskine few years ago. It looks like a worm but with a flat and spear like head. Does anyone have any idea what is it? This picture was taken when me and the Sungai Ara Wrecking Crews recce-ed a trail that we believed it would lead us the Sungai Ara Farmer Trail system. The trail went to to somewhere but halfway it was blocked by orchard owner. I was quite dissapointed. But on the way down to where we started was one hell of downhill ride!
Of course no rides will be completed without pictures taken! So here it is:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=oc6i5yj.9p137v43&x=1&y=u5oea2

My brother's blog

Just received an email from my younger brother, who is now a working physician in UK, that he too created his own blog. He just got a baby girl from his lovely wife, Jasmine. God bless them all. He named his princess Helena. Brother, if you read this, remember Melissa and Serena are the names I reserve for my future daughter ok?
We were not very close when we were small. It's probably I felt threatened or was jealous of his existence as he got full attention from our mom. But frankly speaking I didn't hate him for his coming to the family. It was just a plain jealousy. So much that you can say he received terrible treatments from his big brother. I remember one time he accidently bumped into me when I was about to enter the kitchen. He quickly said sorry but I still wanted to smack him. It was terrible. I felt bad years after the incident. I still do.
He turns out to be a bright kid. Scored SRP and SPM with flying colors and decided to attend boarding school in Scotland for his "A" level. At that time I was already in US pursuing my dream to be an aerospace engineer. We kept in touch after he obtained my e-mail(or I gave him mine. I don't remember). We said a lot of things in e-mail. Our corrspondence covers topics like our lives, our girl friends(The Tan brothers become bad kids when it comes to girl thing!), how we feel about family matters and about what we are going to do after we graduated. We even had heated arguements on e-mails when we don't disgree to each about each approaches to our lives. Imagine what would happen if we met physically since both of us are very hot tempered(Same gene mah).
Like I say in the first place, he is a bright kid. He graduated from Glasgow with honors in Medical science. Currently he is working there as physician and at the same pursuing his dream to become a specialist.

I wish him luck!

Oh btw, here's his blog, http://lifeinfarrye.blogspot.com/

The MalSing map

There are discussions about free maps being used by other for their own online commercial benefit without giving credits to the malsingmaps.com forum. The moderator was trying to contact the guy who did that. Their request has been fallen into deaf ears.
Frankly speaking, it's quite discouraging. It's very unfair to those who spend hours to get the map done. The maps posted are meant for non-commercial uses only, which it is clearly stated on the front page of the forum itself. Still, there are still some unscrupulous trader decided to claim the maps downloaded from there as their own. I used to contribute the build up of the electronic map of Penang state quite often. Thanks to other GPS users from Penang, we manage to provide almost daily update to the map and it becomes better from time to time(to the stage that it is even better than the one provided by Garmin). Because of this exploitation, I decided to slow down my updates less frequently. Of course, some of forum members pleaded me not to do that. I think for the better of myself, it is a wise decision.
I don't ask for any monetary returns for what I have done on this mapping thinggy. I want creditability. Is a simple line that says "Maps courtesy of malsing.com" too difficult to write in their webpages? We don't creat the Penang map from scratch. We took what USM guys have done and improve it. If you open up the map, you will see the name of the originator is mentioned on the top left of map. We don't simply take his work for granted. We give him the due creditibility.
This is a daylight robbery of intellectual property. I think it is very discouraging!

Toys

There are three things that I would never leave without for my cycling trips; my Suunto wrist computer, my antique Nokia 6250 aka the crab beater and my Nikon 3200 digicam. Now add to the family my newly acquired Garmin Vista GPS unit. So there are four. I use the watch to tell me time and direction when I am lost, the cell phone to call help if there's any emergency(providing there is a coverage of course), my digicam to catch the the unforgetable moments during the trip, i.e, I managed to snap a rare scene during the recent felowship that one of the riders I know to be quite capable of experienced cramps, and my GPS to record the track so that when I am back I can use it to map out the trail I visit. It also saved my butt when I was lost in the middle of jungle somewhere in Balik Pulau. Yeah no matter where I go I am still on the island. But this gadget helps me and my riding partners to come out in one piece and able to be home for lunch. Without it I wouldn't know if we were able to catch the late night show on that day!
People nowadays are so blessed that they have all these electronic gadgets to help them in their daily routines. I wonder one day if there are no more cellphones, GPS, computers, multispeed MTB and other rigs that we take for granted now, will we be able to function as normal? You know, back to the basic. Can we survive? Hmm...I wonder! Ok enough of toking kok. Time for dinner. See ya!

Little David

It is very hard for me to imagine little David is already 2 and the half years old. How time flies. What further amaze me is how healthy he grows. Can you imagine that he's wearing 4 year old wear now? This picture was taken when we went to my in-law's birthday dinner.

The Cats and The Rain

It was raining quite heavily last night. By the time I got home, it was already close to 8pm.
I saw this bunch of cats on top of my washing machine when I went to the back to check out the green lawn. Four of them clutched together. It must be the rain that made them go to the higher place for comfort. Or maybe they were waiting for the rain to stop so that they could go home. Speaking of cats, there are so many of them here. It's probably because this is a Malay dominated area. I think there are only less than 10 families staying at the same taman, ok lah, same housing estate that are not Malays. So instead of dog problems, we've got cat problems...;)
Well, today is Saturday. For those who are still single or can still afford to go fooling around, have fun man!

Screens on the Penang Bridge

Lately I have been reading comments about the screens that recently put up on the Penang Bridge. Some say it is a right move to do so and some say it is a bad idea. Reason? By putting up the screens drivers and passengers alike will not be able to enjoy the view. Ok this is my "dua sen"(ok lah it means two cents). You are driving on the bridge at 80 to 120kph(Yup, the speed limit is 80kph on the bridge but it seems like no one cares), and you want to "enjoy the beauty of nature while on the bridge"? Aren't you supposed to pay full attention on the road than doing so? I strongly believe that those buggers who make such comments are not the frequent Penang Bridge users. The purpose of the putting up of screen is to stop people from staring when there is an accident on the opposite side of the road. It is very inconvenient to other road users because of their curiosity(or should I say stupidity, inconsidertion, arrogants etc etc), cars slow down(sometimes to a crawling pace). When other drivers get impatient and floor the accelerator, another accident happen. I get very agitated when I see car in front of me slows down just to take a peek at the accident. I normally honk thier brains off, and when overtake them I show them my middle finger. It's none of your fucking business ok? Let authority cleans the mess. We drivers should stay out of the scene as soon as possible. I remember once I asked a friend of mine why they slow down or stop since the people involved were not thier relaives or someone they know. This is the reply I got, "We stop because we want to jolt down the vehicle registration numbers so that can we go bet on 4D/6D/Toto."! Well, I don't gamble so I don't know what are the odds of winning the numbers taken from the accidents. What I know it is really really annoying!

Teak Furniture

I was on my way to meet my teak wood furniture supplier when I took this picture. It was quite a heavy traffic on the way. So I found a way to secure my GPS on the dashboard. Thought took a picture to show how I did it...;)

Lawn at my backyard

Who can imagine this piece of lush, green lawn was covered with "lalang" (or elephant grass in English) three months ago? It was not only an eyesore but also a hot bed for mosquito breeding. Luckily neighbors didn't call up the health deparment, or I would be in deep shit. I have been trying to plant the grass by getting fertilizer and the seeds from Carrefour, but it has not been been successful. After the fifth trial and hundreds of ringgits wasted on seeds and fertilizer, I finally gave in and went to the landspace shop nearby to buy the grown grass, cut them into pieces and put them on. Surprisingly they grow, and they grow healthly. It is the third month right now. The land is ninety over percents covered. I can happily say that I have managed to have a piece of green lung at my house backyard. Of course, during the period of these three months I put some effort on them. I water them twice a day and get rid of the unwanted vegetations. But I guess what make them grow so healthily is the attention and the love I pay for them. It's just like the people you love; you pay them attention, you sow them your love and you tell them how much you care. They will sense it, and they will always know there's always someone out there who's willing to protect them, listen to them and give them a huge bear hug when they need it. They will live their lives happily.
But sometimes someone in your life may not appreciate it. When they want to go away, they just go without telling you. It hurts at the beginning. But when time goes by, you will realize that's life. Ce le vie. We cannot expect others to think like us, no matter how compatible we think we are. Compatible is the keyword. Not 100% but close enough. So there're still tiny whinny differences, and that tiny whinny differences make us homo sapien sapien unique to each other. For me when it happens? Few rounds of Guiness Stout(chilled ones please. not the warm ones like average John Doe drinks), play my favorite Hole, STP or NIN albums and a nice mountainbiking outing will be enough to reboot me back to my early self..:) Life what, what to do right?

Customer Satisfaction Index my ass

As expected, I receive no reply from my complain to that MNC about the treatment I was given two days ago. Not even an e-mail of acknowledgement! All the talks about CSI and supplier-customer relationship are just cocks and bulls. It reminds me of another incidence. I helped created a corporate website for my family business and got a web hoster to host the homepage. So in order to get good service, I was thinking maybe a public listed company would do better than the mum and pop shop. So I picked this mainboard listed company. Yeah before they got my money, they promised to the galaxy. Even in their homepage they talk about customer always comes first lah shit like that. A pretty standard ISO9000 quality standard statement. Then, things happen. When I e-mailed their customer service for help, nothing reply. They don't even bother to reply me to acknowledge that they have received my e-mail and are looking into my concerns/requests. We are talking about a public listed MSC company you know? And this is the service they provide to their customer. No wonder the current PM laments about first world infrastructure but with third world mentality. I think in Mandarin it is called "bao fa hu" mentality. Don't get what I mean? Check your pinyin dictionary...;) Ok lah, it is actually like, you are on hands to mouths situation for your first half of your life and all the sudden you hit a jackpot. What are you gonna do with you sudden wealth? Of course you go and buy the stuffs that you think rich people should have, i.e., the big small eye(Merz E-Class lah), Versace T-Shirt(even Char Koay Teow hawker at Gurney Drive also wears one), CD sun glasses(they are the ugliest sunglesses I have ever seen), Channel Fahrenheit perfume(yeap, guys use Fahrenheit. It makes me puke. Why don't they use Tuscany or sotmething?) and of course gold necklace that as thick as the chain for the anchoring. Oh yeah not to forget the latest smartphone in the market. I used to think having a smartphone was cool. After seeing those buggers showing off in the coffeeshop, suddenly my antique Nokia 6510 doesn't look so bad anymore! It is a total waste of money and waste of resource that smartphone in their hand. It's like you stick a rose on a cow dung. Arghhh...
Anyway, lets give them another day or two to see if they reply...;)

The Ipoh Fellowship Ride Photos Uploaded

Ok the photo album, http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=oc6i5yj.5t31ahyj&x=1&y=uor58y

Enjoy!

P.S: The attached is the trail profile that I created on spreadsheet program using data collected from my GPS. Look nice isn't it? Wait till you go there and ride with me on mountainbike. I am going to see how long your tongue is going to drop from your mouth!!

Done on the Ipoh Fellowship Ride 2005 photos

Just done editting the photos. Will update them to my photo album tonight. The posted picture was taken at the first regroup point.

The Interview

It was the worst experience I have had since I came out from college and worked. A person who claimed he was someone from a US based major electronic company called me last week to arrange for an interview for a possiton of IQA engineer. I was buffled since I didn't apply for that position. It must be my friend who works there helped me to get the interview arranged. Btw, thanks buddy for all your help. You have done enough. Anyway, a time was arranged and I told that a**hole that I would be there on time.
So I went yesterday. Approached the security guard of the front and told him I came for an interview. He gave me a look, like, are you nuts or something. I sensed something not right but anyway I was already at the front gate. The guard told me it was a replacement leave that day. My reaction was not very good because I felt like I was treated like a fool. Then he helped me by calling the HR. Luckily here were still people working on tat day. Guess what? The HR wasn't aware of this interview and no requests for hiring the so-called IQA engineer had been made by the department!
This is a total screw up and unbelieveable mistake made by a reputed multinational company. I can't believe that their staff can be so irresponsible and having no sense of professionalism. At the end they managed to find who was making this arrangement and called him. He even had a gut to tell me to come for another day. Feeling that they were no sincere in this interview, I decided to file a complain. Their HR encouraged me to do so too. Before I left I managed to get few names, including the names of the supervisor of that bugger. So what I am goin to do now is to write a long letter to their HR and screw them upside down. It is going to cost my carrer opportunity with that company but I don't really care now.

I am really really pissed!

Ipoh Fellowship Ride 2005

Just came back from the Ipoh Fellowship Ride 2005. It was an awesome ride! I have taken quite a lot of pictures. I am currently working on them now and will post the link to view my photos in this blog once I am done. Stay tuned!

GPS and the map

Just finished updated on Penang Map. When I first got my hand on GPS, I thought I was going to use it mainly for my mountain biking activity. You know, a picture speaks thousands words. Show them the map is better than put it in writing. Furthermore, I don't speak and write English well(compare to the native speaker lah). Then KH Leng, one of the members from the SGA group showed me the forum for local Garmin GPS users, Garmin GPS Maps of Malaysia/Singapore, and I was introduced into this making map for Garmin GPSr thinggy. Man am I hooked! Since then, I always go out with my GPSr. One eye on the road and one scanning for places to be recorded. I am taking care of Penang. At first it was just the island. And then members of the forum got ambitious, they want me to do the mainland as well. I said no I can't do it because mainland is much larger coverage than the island. So I resisted the temptation of doing it. But itchy hand lah. I started collect track logs, logging way points etc etc...It's addictive! So what happen to my initial intention of recording trails for my MTB rides? Yeah I am still doing it. So far, Sungai Ara Farmer Trail, Bukit Gambier Hiking Trail and Batu Kawan MTB Trail are on the map. Is it fun? Hmm, don't know lah. But I think I've got the satisfaction to know that I am one of the few who this neat gadget not only in Penang, but in Malaysia as well. Typical Penangite mah, what to do???...:)

Woke up this morning feeling like shit

Woke up at 9am today. Pounding head. Felt like shit.

My Garmin Vista

Aiya the click stick of my Garmin GPS acts up again. Take a mental note: Little David can't touch my GPS.