Year of Weddings

I have attended countless of wedding this year. Its been a year of marriages. My cousin is getting married on Christmas day as well. I have been the "unofficial" photographer for at least 6-8 occasions and been requested personally about 4 times. I seriously gotta start making money out of this. Ohh btw, I become the PM and Emcee for one of those weddings as well. Should I venture into wedding planner business?

My friend's wedding has just concluded and he is now in Hawaii for honeymoon. Of course the unique thing about his wedding is his wedding card which I forgot to mention. How often do you get a wedding card with your name printed on it? No, not the empty dotted line to invite you but a special piece of card just to thank you. Unfortunately my friend, you spelled my name wrongly. Its OK, I forgive you. Make sure you get me something nice from Hawaii.

Russell Peters

This is freaking hilarious comedy. I was trying to embed it here from Google Video, but I can't seem to get it to work for some reason. Stupid Google.

Here is the link anyway. Check it out. You will not regret it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4604360870333886926&q=rusell+peters

Update @ 3rd Dec
Rusell is coming to KL in March 2007! I must get the tickets at all cost! I must! I must!

Food & BMW & Wedding

Food

Just to get your brain all fired up with the title, actually its 3 separate issue I would like to speak about. Firstly, about Nasi Kandar Penang.

I am a big fan of Nasi Kandar ever since my work in Penang started about 2 years ago. Since then I have been on a hunt for Nasi Kandar in Penang and KL. Last week I took an opportunity to have lunch at Original Kayu Nasi Kandar at Aman Suria. The reason simply because I wanted to go by Egonutrition and pick up a supplement. I will come back to this.

Picture courtesy of pasankia.blogspot.com

Surprise! Surprise! When they say original, they really meant it. It was simply fabulous. It had such an originality on the taste. Never have I tasted such even though in Penang. The chicken was nice and big and I had a huge mountain rice. The price - RM 6. Total reasonable. I was full and satisfied. Service was good. The waiters were nice and prompt. The best part, my bill was RM 16.28, I paid RM 20. They cashier didn't have 2 cents, so he gave me 5 cents back. Now that is what I call real honest business! 5 stars from me! This is going to be my favourite place for many years to come.

EGO

Now Egonutrition - I can't find your freaking place. I pusing pusing 2 big round, can't find. I didn't have the map or the phone number. No sign board. I gave up.

BMW

BMW? Ever seen the BMW advert in Astro. With one nerdy looking guy and 3 girls? And they went about "Testing testing, BMW?" - So bloody irritating. I never understood the advert till today. For goodness sake, it look like the production team was made up with bunch of high school morons.

Wedding

I attended my boss's wedding couple of weeks back. Very nice wedding and I volunteered myself to be the unofficial photographer. 2 thing struck to me on that day.

1. Boss will be a boss. You can see my boss my walking around nervously and scolding the hotel managers. Take charge in every situation.
2. When I arrived at my table, I had a nice little surprise waiting. My name on a card. It was actually to indicated where am I suppose to sit. This is my first time seeing such arrangement. I thought it was very nice and thoughtful. You get the personalize service feeling. He got my name spelled right!

All the best and happy married life!

PS - Dude, your screwed. :)

A Month's Update

I have been missing for a while now. I attribute this to my busy schedule and lack of new and interesting development to blog.

I have been officially hired to be a photographer for my friend's engagement. Well, its actually a candid cameraman position. No pay, but loads of learning to do. The engagement was like a wedding. I can't imagine how the wedding would be like. The pictures turned out well and I am glad my friend is happy. More to learn, more to do.

After 3 months of self imposed solitude from gym, I am back in action. I really can't say whether its my sheer motivation and determination or the NO kicked in, I was like a Energizer bunny yesterday in the gym. I couldn't stop working out and waiting between sets was a chore. A real kick ass workout.

Over and out....

Secret Recipe secretly cheating?

Update @ 14th Nov 2006
I have tried several Secret Recipe shops and all of them does have this defect. So on one occasion, I had to ask. The reply was simply, "The machine rounds up the number. Would you like your change?". This proves that SC's staff are aware, and in order to get your 2 cents back, you NEED to ASK!

Now the best part.... almost a month now.. no action from KPDNHEP. Why do I even bother?



Btw, same thing happen today at KLCC foodcourt - Bengal's corner. 2 cent was not return again. Why does this happen to me?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I decide to buka puasa with my favourite Secret Recipe cake last week. However I come out with 2 slices of cakes and alot of questions. Have a look at the receipt below. Do a bit of math, and can you tell me where did my 2 cents go?




I know my maths is weak... so can anyone explain this? Btw, I didn't get my 2 cents back as I paid RM 50, and the cashier return RM 40 back. I have filed a complain with http://e-aduan.kpdnhep.gov.my. Lets see how its goes.

Open Source Symposium 2006

I attended a 2 days event on Open Source held at Ritz-Carlton Hotel. I took the monorel for the first time. Not bad.

Clearly evident was the numbers of participants. This could be due to TechEd event going on simultaneously in KL. The numbers for TechEd estimated over 1000 while Open Source had less than 300 participants. On the second day, most sessions was attended no more than 50 people.

But the food was good. They really spend money to feed everyone. I don't think you can get that at TechEd.

I found the content of the symposium to be interesting to a certain extend however the selection of title and the quality of speakers was poor. There were only a few select exceptional speakers such as Shane Owenby - Red Hat APAC, Dinesh Nair - QubeConnect, Dr. Yusseri Yusoff - former Consulting Project Director for MAMPU and few others.

I can't comment on the rest of the talks which I didn't attend. Most speakers do not speak in passion about the technology nor offer new insight although everyone was knowledgeable. The talks was mostly catered for experienced Red Hat users or developers. No afford was taken to introduce the basics of Red Hat. I hope there will be more improvement in the following year.

The 2 days events had a tagline which was notable in every talk - TOC (Total Ownership Cost) and Vendor Lock In. Very Anti-Mircosoft atmosphere. The cool part was the presentation was done using a Linux OS notebook using OpenOffice (or was it Star Office?).

I am not a Open Source or Microsoft evangelist. To me, what is important is what technology that can deliver the requirements that I have in a productive, fast and efficient manner. If I have to pay for a software, then I will if it really helps my productivity. If Open Source can provide the same solution and helps my productivity, then by all means I will use it.

Fitness First Review : IOI Mall Puchong

Located within IOI Mall Puchong. You can't miss it if you are heading to KL using the LDP.

• Parking is RM 1 for the 1st 4 hours. Then subsequent is either 50 sen or RM 1. I would imagine getting a parking here during weekends will be a nightmare.
• The entry point is ground floor. So you can park at the open car park and walk across. I got fooled because I saw the signboard way up and I thought it was on the upper levels. Took an unnecessary journey to park on the roof and walk all the way down.
• First impression. There is sure alot of cardio equipment here.
• Single level concept.. thank God.
• Receptionist, nothing to shout about.
• The men's locker room seems big, but don't be fool. Strategic placed mirror makes the room look big. But its all new and clean. Locker seems smaller compare to others place.
• Free weight area abit smaller compared to FF Curve. They have about 5-6 work bench. The rest pretty much the same as DU.
• Juice area, quite small.
• Somehow, I feel the PTs here are unfriendly.  Just me...
• Machine, the usual. Didn't really pay attention to them.
• Plus point, all the equipments are spanking new. Even the dumbbells looks virgins.

Ratings? 


Check out for more reviews below
FF Menara Axis
FF The Curve
FF DU
FF Consplant

Back from Cherating

I just got back from a much needed vacation. This time around, the destination is Cherating. This is my second time to Cherating and to the same hotel - Impiana Cherating. This hotel with its rustic and ala Malay traditional architecture capture my attention and mesmerized me on my first visit. But what really made me return is the placement of the rooms close to the sea, where you can hear the sounds of the thundering yet soothing waves from your room.

This is where I laid back and enjoyed the breeze and sounds of the waves.

The main purpose of this journey was not to enjoy or to take a break, but rather to have a quite environment for me to reexamine my purpose in life. I have achieve half of the objectives I set out to do here. The rest, time will tell.

The beach... regret not spending more time here...

In Cherating or Kuantan, life moves in a much slower pace. I felt I was moving much faster than time and the cruel reason is because I have been obsessed and influenced with KL's ruthless lifestyle.

Here, you are able to relax and wind down. I could really feel the difference. People are nicer and life is much more simpler. There is nothing to rush for or to compete with.

The moment I got onto Karak-KL highway, I saw the ugly side of these Ws plat numbers. Sigh... I wish I could stay longer.

I bid farewell to the sea... liken to the ebb and tide, my life is such.


I hope a day will come when I can rejoice my success in life with a dwelling near the sea. Put away the hatreds and disappointments and embrace life the way it should. We all can learn a thing or two from nature.

This entry was published using Windows Live Writer. Pretty cool software. Sadly blogger.com does not support image publishing.

A new year to begin

95% emotionally recovered and feeling great. Been starting to hit the gym, although I feel like a beginner. Couldn't care less about what has happen in the past. Everything happens for a reason. So "life", here the deal.. I ain't giving up, so keep trying, loser.

25th July, my birthday. Started the celebration with my wife and a nice cake from secret recipe. My staff threw me a surprise party. It was kindda touching as I didn't expect them to go to such extend. I guess ppl show their respect and affection in a different manner.

My friends threw me a party as well. For the first time in my life, I celebrated a birthday party with friends. I know its pathetic, not everyone is popular, ok? It was great buffet dinner and its nice to know you have friends who care (finally, i am not alone in this world). Lucikly, no one threw me a party in the gym.

It made me realise that I have so many ppl around me that actually took the effort to rejoice a celebration for me. I gotta cherish this ppl and make more effort to acknowledge them. Life is not bad after all, yah?

Recovering

I have been out of action for 2 months now. The hand injury is getting better, but emotionally I am healing as well. Cryptic? Simply put, the past month, I had endured some painful setback in life. It's one of those event that really changes your life as you know it. You are paralyze emotionally and you need to step back and re-look at your life.

I am not good a dealing with emotional breakdowns, as usual my life breaks down together. Finally after a month plus, I have pieced up my life together, although some part of it is still missing (eventually I'll find it).

As of present time, my body is back to where it was 6 months back. I need to refocus on my gym and nutrition again (been feeding on pizza, ice-creams, chocolates like nobody's business). I need to refocus on my career and family again. Lets put this way, its Ganee 2.0 booting up soon.