Be Thankful!

Be thankful, life could be worst.

Petronas Twin Towers Missing?

Sorry if I misled you but the Petronas Twin Towers were covered by the low lying clouds due to the early morning rain last week. I couldnt see the towers until the clouds went by.

Kuala Lumpur: Big City - Small Town

These pictures were taken from Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur. Kampung Baru is probably the only place in the city where you can find old, village styled houses.

I was there visiting my wife's friend who just gave birth to the tallest little girl I have ever seen. Parking on the road side's were safe - car didn't get any ticket or got towed away other places in town where you'll either get a ticket within 10 minutes or find your car missing, been towed away to Jinjang.

It's still nice to see the old village type of houses within KL. They add some color to the monotonous brick and mortar layout that KL seems to have.

St. Francis Xavier Church Sports New Altar

Went to St. Francis Xavier Church (SFX) this morning for mass and was pleasantly surprised to see their new altar. The altar reminds me of a Gothic century church altar, just like those in Canada although I don't know what the white piece of structure on the roof is supposed to symbolise?

But the interior of the church was warm, despite the multitude of fans blowing away. I guess air-conditioning the church just like the Jesus Caritas church in Kepong Baru wasnt part of their renovation plan or someone overlooked it. I know of some SFX parishioners who were complaining about why a little parish like Jesus Caritas can be air-conditioned while SFX could not. Well, SFX is a huge church. Getting the air temperature in such a big space down to 24C within an hour is certainly not possible. Jesus Caritas is such a small church comparatively.

Anyway, on the way out I saw a brand new Prius in front of me. Way to go hybrid car.

Quote by Erwin Schrodinger

If you cannot, in the long run, tell everyone what you have been doing, your doing has been worthless.
- Erwin Schrodinger

Á Wife's Mystery...

Disclaimer :  Issued in the public interest of all the "bachelors" and any coincidence to a real life "married" situation is purely accidental &  unintentional!     

The Wisdom & Joy of Making Haste Slowly

by Philip Humbert

Remember the saying, "haste makes waste?" We live with constant change and tremendous impatience. We want solutions and we want them "NOW!" We want relief, we want success, we want the future to arrive easily, cheaply and soon!

And, at the same time, we want peace of mind, simplicity, and release from the stress of moderne life. My friend, George Dubie, says, "hurry is the devil" and he's right. I love the quote from Gandhi that "there is more to life than increasing its speed."

This week, I watched Steve Jobs offer a free case to "fix" the new iPhone's antenna problems. In their rush to market, apparently they over-looked something and now they've got egg on their face. How sad!

I think nature is constantly trying to tell us this. Recently, I saw a National Geographic on how change takes place in nature and while this was not their major lesson, here's what I got:

1. Rapid change is often marked by chaos, confusion, pain, suffering and sometimes disaster.

2. Slow change is marked by growth, beauty, evolution and astonishing complexity.

Now, obviously those rules don't always apply, but here are my thoughts. Rapid change comes from things like volcanoes and earthquakes and hurricanes and floods. Yes, change is quick and powerful and awesome. And, yes, there is beauty in Mother Nature's power, but the results are unpredictable and filled with unintended consequences.

On the other hand, slow change created the Grand Canyon, Giant Redwoods, and the rich soil of the Great Plains. Slow, methodical human labor created the great pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal. In his biography of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Fred Howard makes the point that they were successful precisely because of their methodical experiments, careful notes, exhaustive research and willingness to learn from others. They took their time and learned to fly!

We know that fad diets and rapid weight-loss often lead to gaining the weight back within a few months. A better way is to change lifestyle, burn more calories than you consume and slowly, methodically (and safely) achieve your desired outcome.

In the quest for "instant wealth," how many have fallen for "get rich quick schemes?" In our "need for speed," how many of us have run aground, taken the wrong turn or rushed impatiently down the wrong path?

There is wisdom in the story of the tortoise and the hare. Remember their race? The rabbit jumps off to a dramatic, frenzied start while the poor lumbering tortoise doesn't seem to have a chance, but I'm sure you remember how the story ends!

Sure, I want to reach my goals as quickly as possible. Sure, I like going fast! Of course I prefer my high speed internet connection! Who doesn't?

When it comes to reaching our most important goals—peace, prosperity, loving families, personal satisfaction and the joy of living well, Mother Nature seems to know something. She moves slowly and methodically. She does her work in small increments, day by day, always moving forward, taking her time and doing her work with exquisite beauty. We can learn from that.

Guess What This Is?

Guess What This Is....

     

Hint: picture was  taken in 1956...

Answer  below...

Yes – it is a Pan American Airline - Plane

And NO – it is not a Toilet

It's a hard disk drive  back in 1956... with 5 MB of storage.  

In September 1956 IBM launched the 305 RAMAC,

the  first 'SUPER' computer with a hard disk drive (HDD).

The HDD  weighed over a ton and stored a 'whopping' 5  MB of data.  

   

Do you appreciate your  8 GB memory stick a little more now?

 

Is This The Future of the Hard Core Poor People of the World?

Is this the future of the poor people in the world - caged like animals?

Romantic?

A husband comes home from a family seminar. He greets his wife and lifts her up. He then carried her around the house. The wife was so surprised and she asked, "Did the lecturer preach about being romantic?"
The husband said "No he said we must carry our burdens and sorrows"

Which Part of Malaysia is Safe? Or UnSafe?

Ever wondered how safe your neighbourhood in Malaysia is? Well, wonder no more. Kegan Gan has developed a website called Malaysia Crime that keeps a track of the crime rate in Malaysia. There is also an extension for the iPhone.

I dont know how long this website will remain as the statistics will go against what the Malaysian government is trying hard to hide, which is the crime rate is increasing and not decreasing as what the government says.

Let's see what happens...

Lunch at the newly opened G-Tower.

G-Tower, the so-called exclusive self-contained and integrated corporate office, hotel and club at the heart of the Kuala Lumpur (intersection of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Tun Razak), was our venue for lunch today as a colleague mentioned that the tea served in the cafe was immaculate. So we went, all 6 of us, hungrily.

The cafe waitress ushered us to a table large enough to fit 5 thin men and 1 hefty one. And so we ordered. Sandwich sets, which came with local tea, were RM15, which I considered reasonable for a high class establishment until I realized that the sandwich cost RM7.50 and the local tea made up the balance RM7.50. Pretty expensive for a plain old teh tarik, inst it? Seeing my hesitation, my colleague offered to share his tea with me since the tea was served in a pot, enough for one or two cups.

I was severely disappointed when the sandwich arrived 30 minutes later. First of all, I was terribly hungry. The sandwich arrived so late and then the bread was tiny. Aaaahhhhh. For RM15, cant they serve something decently sized? But then again, my luck wasn't as bad as my lanky colleague's as he waited for close to 50 minutes before getting his sandwich. They ran out of salmons and the waitress over promised him, so she had to make good on her promise and ran away for some time before coming back with a nice salmon sandwich for him. By then he was fuming mad. I offered him a portion of my sandwich for a trip to McDonald's later for seconds but being a Penangnite, he respectfully declined.

Then came the bill. We had a hard time getting the bill - first, we couldn't get their attention to call for the bill although the were standing there doing nothing. Second, after we got their attention, getting the bill took another 10 minutes. I thought they were calculating the bill by hand.

The other thing that got us fuming was people coming in later than us had their food earlier than we did. At first we thought they had pre-ordered the food until the waitress said no pre-orders were allowed. Hmm, so why did they get their food quicker than us? Expats? Hmmm....

But on the plus side, we had a wonderful waitress. She was immaculately dressed, very polite and served us well. She even went out of her way to get the extra salmon sandwich that she over promised to my lanky, hungry colleague.

All in all, RM15 for a sandwich, tea, the ambiance and the elegant waitress, yes, I would go again.

When Does Your Malaysian Driving License Expire? Check Online...

If you're too lazy to pat your butt and pull out your driving license to check its expiry date, then head over to JPJ's website to check its expiry date.

What to do with your Children's Lego?

Dont know what to do with your child's old Lego sets? Well, worry no longer. Use the Lego pieces to rebuild your crumbling wall.

 

Shortest Speech by the CEO of Coca Cola.

Disclaimer: I dont know if this is really the CEO of Coca Cola as he looks to thin, but the message is clear enough. Life is too short to be spent at work. There is a balance for everything and I am making a move to find it.

How to Look Like a Hero

by Miles Burke

We've all heard that old adage, 'Under-promise and over-deliver', but how often do you make promises that you end up not sticking to, or -- worse -- end up spending more time or money on the project than the client expects?

There's nothing worse than being told you'll get that report by Friday, to then have to chase it up the following week. It leaves you disgruntled and annoyed. The reason for that is simple: your expectations weren't well managed.

Managing expectations is a large part of what we should all be doing, yet that often seems to be ignored. There's a very good chance that your clients don't know how busy you are, don't know how long a task should actually take, and aren't sure when they should expect a deliverable.

It's up to you, then, to embrace the idea of under-promising.

Say a client asks you to provide some new design concepts. Let them know you'll do some initial rough sketches and that you'll provide two alternatives. Then, you spend that time crafting more polished concepts than they were expecting, and three alternatives in the same time that you've quoted.

You can imagine how the client will feel; you've gone beyond the call of duty here, and provided better quality deliverables than what they were expecting.

The key here is to set the right expectation. Perhaps you always provide three concepts, for all of your projects. This new client doesn't know this -- they expected less from you. But you've given them more, and now they're excited, not just satisfied.

The same advice applies to budgets and timelines. If you believe a job will take 25 hours, suggest it will take 30. You've been smart in adding some buffer time, since you may actually require it, but if you do manage to do the work in just 25 hours, the client will be very happy.

Take our printers, for example. Recently, we sent them a printing job that they said should take only five to six business days to complete. We expected to hear from them in a week or so, but you can imagine our delight when they called three days later to say the job was ready to be picked up!

The printers likely knew, based on their schedules, that they could get the job to us in four or five days. However, urgent jobs come in, and unexpected events happen, so they erred on the side of caution with their five-to-six day estimate.

They likely didn't work any harder to turn the job around faster; all they did was manage our expectations well. I literally told our contact at the printers he was our hero when we picked up the job.

How easy is it for you to be the hero in your clients' eyes, just by managing expectations better?

IPAD Stand

Although the iPAD is not officially available in Malaysia yet, its always good to get its accessories first when the price is cheap.

UFO in Malaysia?

Apparently UFO's were recently sighted in Malaysia. The video clip below shows a brigth light hovering above some high rise buildings.



The original story was picked up from a post by Michael Cohen.

When Cars Got Too Quiet?

First we wanted quiet cars.

But then cars became too quiet that they posed a danger to us.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/7/6/business/20100706091428&sec=business

Carrefour Losing to Jusco in Malaysia & Closing Shop?

Only yesterday my wife was commenting on how silly Carrefour's point system is where every purchase of RM50 entitles you to a stamp but you're only allowed 3 stamps per day. So anything above RM150 is wasted. We bought groceries worth RM250 and was entitled for 5 stamps but we only came away with 3 stamps. Wife mentioned something about Carrefour losing out to Jaya Jusco's and lo and behold, we find this interesting article on the Wall Street Journal about Carrefour wanting to sell of its South East Asia stores. I guess their really losing money, arent they?

Platinum Movie Seats

 In Dubai, normal cinema tickets were the equivalent of RM30 while the Platinum seats were around RM100. So we were pleasantly surprised to find the Cathay cinema Platinum seats at the Curve to be RM40; more than double the price of the usual tickets of RM12 but what the heck, once in a lifetime experience. (In Lagos, I came across a naive or more probably ignorant female colleague who couldn't comprehend that other countries can have superior cinema's at a much lower cost than in the UK or the US.)

There were only two shows showing in the Platinum screens. We watched Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Knight & Day. 


Being a Platinum ticket holder allows you to wait in the Platinum lounge before the movie begins, where there's a free flow of soft drinks, free Wi-Fi and 4 Ogawa massage chairs. Wife and I spent an hour on those chairs. Pictures below show the interior of the lounge.

Initially I thought the Platinum seats were just above the usual audience. Little did I realize that the Platinum screens were on their own, 16 seats to a cinema. The chairs were fully adjustable. You could even lie flat and watch the movie. The seats were so comfortable and very spacious. Each person had an intercom which you could use to call the butler to get whatever it is that you need, like drinks or a blanket and pillow. Blankets and pillow could be rented for RM5 just in case it gets cold, which it really was. I think it was their way of getting an extra RM5 from most people unless of course, you're my size, then you wouldn't need a blanket. 

All in all, it was a good experience at the Cathay Platinum cinema at the curve. Although our butler never arrived when we called for him because apparently the front desk was full, but the luxurious comfort of watching the movie was worth it.


It's back to my RM12 cinema after this.