Merdeka Eve

If for some odd reason you arrived here to this blog and you are not from my country, 'Merdeka' also means 'independance Day'. You can search for this information elsewhere.

Here's my version of Merdeka. This picture was taken just ouitside of my office window and edited just before this entry were written. You can see a Putra LRT train passing by.



A friend of mine, Hyrza told in her blog to blog in Bahasa Malaysia (BM). I don't want to blog in BM as I speak BM most of my time in a day. I only speak English in special cases or in a meeting so I think I would rather blog in English as my practice.

In celebrating the celebration, there will be major gatherings in popular places. I am not a fan of crowded places, I'll go into a crowd of people if it is necessary or I just got bored of not meeting anyone. However, tonight I don't think I would be interested in attending these gatherings. Some people go there just to watch the beautiful and noisy firework. I simply see these firework from outside of my bedroom window a couple of times a year from a few chinese festivals every single year.

In the end, its your choice to whether or not go out there and have fun with your friends. Happy Merdeka Guys!

Wedding Day

In Malay term, we call the guy on his wedding day 'The One Day King' or 'Raja Sehari'. I will one day be in that position and hopefully it'll be soon..haha..dream on. Anyway, my neighbour had her day of her life, so a few feets away from my house, the canopy were up standing and musics were heard very loud. Its like a festival just in front of my house.

Lets just take a look at the pics I took just in front of my door house:



My house is situated on a corner lot, the thing about my housing area is, there's not enough parking spaces for cars. My house alone got 3 cars. Some neighbours have 4, but the average is 2. When I moved out sooner, I'm going to find a place with ample parking space. Enough about parking problems, the bridegroom arrived at the scene. It's 2pm in the afternoon and its hot as ever.



The bride went to greet the bridegroom arrival. The make up of the bride is so thick, it looks like a living doll. Its a good thing that being a guy, you don't need to wear all those make-up..haha..



The couple went in for their 'bersanding' ceremony. I can see that its unpleasantly uncomfortable for both parties. Can't imagine I am going to be when I get married. By the way, our royal colour is yellow. Nice choice of colours by both of the married couple.

I just realized that it'll take at least 20 min for me to write an entry in my blog. Sometimes it takes more than 30 min to finish off an entry. That is a long time if you ask me. What about you? How long does it takes to write your blog entry? Give me a shout, ok?

New Car vs 2nd Hand Car

This morning, together with my brother and my father, we went for 'Car Shopping'. Its about time me and my brother trade-in our old and torn down cars. My car for instance is park in front of my house for weeks untouched. Pity to see my old trustworthy car becoming junk, I decided to sell it off. A peek of what my car used to look like, click here.

Anyway, we were just 'window shopping' for a practical car. Sometimes, the salesperson can be quite persuasive to resist the temptation of buying a car. Still, if you are decisive, you can overcome that. Let's see what we've found:



This was the 1st car that attracted my attention. I know that a Proton car is often known for its quality, still I'm just looking for a practical car to move around, not showing off or somewhat. This car is a 1995 built, so its cheaper but the downpayment is kind of higher than a newer one. The displacement (cc) is 1.6 litre which made the road tax somehow more expensive. Furthermore, someone had already booked the car. So, we moved on.



Now this is a good car. Formerly owned by a lady driver, its RM32K with a 1.3cc engine capacity. The car is in immaculate condition and my brother and I was looking forward to it. The advice the salesman told me was, if I put a high downpayment, my monthly installment would be less. Still, I'd be owing the bank for a few years and making the bank richer with the interest they charged.



Since I studied Automotive Engineering back in University, I could rectify which part is still good or bad with my knowledge I've acquaired. I hadn't got the chance to drive it since we were unable to make a decision yet. The best part about this Proton Wira Aeroback is the engine is a 1.3cc with Fuel Injection. In Malaysia, there air pollution law is not as stringent as in some countries so carburettored engine cars is still running around making the air less healthy to breath. I'm not saying that Fuel Injection is environmentally friendly, at least it consumes less fuel than the carburettor.



So we went hunting other cars on the next lot. BTW, I live in Jalan Ipoh, KL. The area is known to be an automotive hub (at least in my area though). The entire road on the strecth is full of 2nd hand car dealers. On the next lot, I saw this baby, a Mazda..err..I don't really know the name of the model. Its an old car but still, its a beauty. Not too practical for me since the spare parts need a bit of work to find.

Earlier, I was reading this page about whether to run your car with the Air-Conditioning or not to save fuel. You can check it out by clicking here. I noticed from my statcounter, there are people from outside of my country who also visited my blog. If you would like to search for cheap cars, you can go here.

That's enough for now. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I didn't buy a new car yet. Still waiting for my friend to find a buyer to dispose my current car 1st. Give me some comment on whether I should go for a new car or a 2nd hand one? Have a happy Weekend everyone.

The Truth Hurts

I had high anticipation yesterday, I gather up all my courage and asked my boss for a new salary. Since we had just moved and we are now at a new place, so I thought I can have a new salary also. I was completely wrong and I was very devastated. I work my butt out to work everyday doing all sort of stuff to help the company and my effort of keeping the company alive is not very well appreciated. Then I was told by my boss all sort of crap that the company has a huge debt that it needs to recover but my concern is, why doesn't the company invest in what can bring the company more money which is quite frankly, the people in the company?

Lucky for me, last night I went to a 'Making Money' Seminar in KL. I've been a creating wealth seminar junkies before but my motivation went back to my old self after a few weeks. So, it was a revitalizing thing to do and it did changed back my mindset. The thing that I've learned last night is if you want to be successful, you got to have a 'successful mindset'. I think my boss mindset is screwed and I'm planning to leave the company once I've gotten myself some handsome paycheque elsewhere..(I'm evil Muahaha...).



So, I got a CD free last night and it's an Audio CD. I remembered last time when I was in network marketing, I constantly listen to these motivational stuff. Still I wasn't going anywhere since I'm more interested in other stuff. BTW, if you are interested in these type of seminars, a great program you can try is this one. Visit this website.

We are all crazy about money don't we? At least I am. Hope you all could think of what's best for your future. Cheers..

Office Scenary

The new place where I work is now fully functional with all the setup and networks being done by me and my team yesterday. Practically, I was the one in charge of doing the external setup for the Wireless Broadband Internet connection for our new office. The best part is, whenever I feel stressed out doing my work, I can go to the window and look at this scenary:



It's a marvelous thing to oversee the entire KL City from afar. I can even see Genting Highland if there is no haze around.

Well, that's all for now. Give me some comments and I'll come to your blog or website and give you mine. Until now..

I was reading and devouring my countless of e-zines I've subscribed. I like free information but it has been like a hobby to me and its getting nowhere. So here's an article I like and it tells you about our most favourite topic of all time, "MONEY"!! ;-) Here goes:

"Do You Want Money?" by Gary Simpson

Let me ask you a very simple question. Do you want money? Of course you do!

Everybody wants money. You might think my next question is even sillier, but I'll ask it anyway. Do you really want money?

You see what I am asking you, by adding the word "really," is do you actually want the money itself or do you want the freedom it can buy you? Ahh. Now you see what I am getting at. What you really want is the freedom that the money represents. What you really want is freedom.

Lots of money = lots of freedom.

What would be the point of being a millionaire or even a billionaire if you were serving a prison sentence for the rest of your life? Your loss of freedom would render your prime use for that money next to useless.

So, how do we get money? There are many ways. We can work for it, receive commissions, receive royalties and we can accrue it from things like interest and investments. We can even steal it, much as I dislike even mentioning such an option.

In reality there are only two basic ways of accumulating money:

1 - we can work for it ourselves by exchanging time and effort,
2 - our existing money can be put to work to replicate itself.

For most people, it is not how much they earn, it is how much they are able to keep. That is the single most important difference between becoming wealthy and staying poor. Spending more than we earn is the recipe to certain financial disaster. Yet most people do just that.

The answer to becoming wealthy is financial education and discipline.

There are many ways to educate yourself better in the ways of handling money. However, by far, the easiest is to gather the knowledge through the wisdom contained in appropriate books. In my opinion, there is no better general resource than George Classon's timeless classic, "The Richest Man in Babylon". I highly recommend it.

I know from experience that those who desperately need the knowledge this excellent book contains will never read it - even if it were placed in front of them every day for a month. That is why they are poor. They think poor and do nothing to change it. What is in their wallet or purse is a direct result of what is in their head, or, more correctly, what is not in their head.

The poorest people are the people who spend the greatest amount of money on trash. They would never think to buy knowledge or invest in their greatest asset - their brain!

There is another very powerful thing that you can do to prepare yourself to handle money wisely. If you want to have money, I suggest a good place to start is with your own discipline. This is another area where poor people fall well short.

If you want to elevate your self esteem and improve your discipline both at the same time, try the following:

Go to your bank. Withdraw the biggest single denominational note you can (say $100). Put the note in your wallet or purse then, and here comes the most important part, DO NOT SPEND IT!

Nothing will give you greater self esteem and nothing will build financial discipline stronger than doing this.

I have been walking around with three $100 notes in my wallet now for over a month. I refuse to spend them. I go into shops, I look at things I want, I think, "Gee, I'd really like that!" then I turn around and walk out. How much money do you think I have saved by not giving in to impulse buying?

My $300 gives me a great lift. It gives me tremendous self esteem to know that I can afford to buy lots of things if I want. I am in control of that money. It is not controlling me. I am exercising my discipline not to spend it.

I have other money in my wallet. It's just that the $300 is what I call my "quarantine money." The other money is my budget money.

If you want money you need to learn how to control it. You need to improve your financial education and build your discipline. I have just revealed to you how you can do both. Now that you know, will you do anything about it? Hmm.

About the author: Gary Simpson is the author of eight books covering a diverse range of subjects such as self esteem, affirmations, self defense, finance and much more. His articles appear all over the web. Gary's email address is budo@iinet.net.au. Click here to go to his Motivation & Self Esteem for Success website.

My comment: I loved the part about the "quarantine money". I reserved about RM100 in my pocket each time I go anywhere. It requires a lot of hard work not to spend it. In conclusion, you are even more hardworking when you're not spending money ;-D hehe..Have an amazing day..

Tips for a Weekend Holiday

One of the things we always look forward to, to travel somewhere else other home. I just got back from a place and boy I'm exhausted. It's kind of a budget travel but I had fun doing such thing. It challenges your ability to manage your budget and to adhere to what has been plan.



Travelling by bus is the cheapest and practical method of travelling. This picture was taken when I went to Butterworth, Seberang Perai, Pulau Pinang last July 2005.

Here a list of tips on going on a budget travel:

1. Do your research first. Determine the place, the fares of going there, the name of places, buy maps, get as many information as you can.

2. Ask around. If you get lost, don't be shy to ask people for directions.

3. Be brave but be cool. Don't show off when you're in other people's place. Be polite and be careful.

4. Don't overspend. Think first before spending on anything you may encounter.

5. Be patience. Travelling requires a great amount of patience, be cool.

It maybe fun to travel, however travelling with the one you love is more fun than traveling alone. Just travel and enjoy your life to the fullest.

Domain??

When I first heard that word, I have no idea what it is. In the internet world, it's a place where a website is located in, also abbreviated as URL. English can be rather confusing even for a pure Englishmen themselves.

Anyway, let's move on. I've always wanted to have a dot com domain. I don't have one yet because I'm not sure what 'name' to buy yet. Still I've purchased a few for my company and a few clients. At first, I thought I can these domains only by using a credit card, however I've found a way to buy them without a use of a credit card. The key is to find the right people and contact them. The tools are there in front of us, the only thing you need to do is find it harder.

I have this fear of afraid to meet other people just because of some odd bad experience and lame old stories our folk used to tell us. I'm not going to inherit that feeling to my kids (when I have one of course) because its not the right thing to do. I've gotten sidetrack, I'm a big fan of personal development kind of stuff.

Okay..let's take a look on the transaction made to have one of my client's domain name active:



By the way, registering a domain is quite cheap..only if you know where these cheap stuff are selling. It's like going shopping, you need to know where there is a sale or not. For below RM50 (USD14..there's an even cheaper option and I can show you where if you are interested, if I'm not mistaken below USD6), you can buy one of these dot com domain. You may wondering if I'm a cheapscale, well I would like to see it this way, "The more you can save, the more you profit"..get it??

It doesn't matter if it's cheap or expensive, what is more important is, "Is it practical for use?" and "Are you happy with it?". Have a pleasant weekend.

P/S: I'm going to Penang for a special date..hehe..give you an update when I get back.. ;-)

Transmit Your Blog Into Space



When I first encounter this website, I think it's a ridiculous thing to do. I'm not a strong believer of alien but I'm open to suggestion of it. I love watching Alien movies or stories though. Still, I've submitted my blog for this project. Hopefully after I die, the transmission is complete after lightyears of "Energize" (I'm a Star Trek fan too). You may not know what will happen...

Today, I received an e-mail from one of my blog reader. Surprisingly, the person was searching for information about Clickbank and used Yahoo Search with the keyword "Clickbank cheque". My blog was on top of that keyword, take a look below:


(Click to enlarge)

What puzzled me is that I've change my blog to what it is now but still my old blog looks the same as it was before. Maybe Blogspot had archived it someway, I'm not really sure. Still, it's a nice feeling for being able to share an interesting topic with someone and getting response out of it. Just try it if you don't believe me..Cheers..

My Work Place

If you've read my previous post, I showed you my place that I'm going to be placed in my new office next week. Now I'm going to show you my place where I do all my work and stuff for the past 3 months. BTW, I'm using my office hour to write this blog (which I shouldn't), so I hope that my boss doesn't caught me of writing this (My boss is not as internet savvy as me...hehe). So here goes:



The left computer is my computer. Cluttered with all sort of stuff, it's not really a conducive place to be doing a good job but I think if you are a versatile type, you can do anything anywhere.



This is from a different angle of the office. It's just a small shophouse lot if you're wondering. Nothing interesting except for the mamak you downstairs. If anytime I needed a teh tarik, I just go downstairs and have it anytime I want.



Most of our clients don't know that the company is actually run by 3 young guys with no experience whatsoever in the business world. That is of course with the exception of my boss who is in business when the two guys in the picture weren't even born. Oh well, a company is just an entity in a piece of paper under the government regulation. Even I can build you can have your own company if you want to.

Yesterday, I went to a bi-monthly project meeting at a project management company in Kelana Jaya. I don't really like going for a meeting unless it's a nice, short and brief and full of useful information. I now have to study a lot of stuff to make the project a success. Who said when you've graduated from university you're finished studying. It's definitely a myth. Anyway, I have a blog for that project on my company's website. Click here
I'm going to my new office to coordinate some stuff there. I'll be blogging around, don't worry about me. See ya later..

My 1st X-Fresh Blog Anniversary

Believe it or not, tomorrow 14th of August 2005 will mark my 1st anniversary of my beloved blog. Pheww..how time flies. Last year, I started blogging when X-Fresh announced a contest called Blogathon. I wonder why there's no blogathon this year. Maybe the competition is too stiff or too many bloggers are now in X-Fresh.

Eitherway, I'll be writing a long blog to cover the weeks I haven't update this blog. I love doing a photoblog instead of some article writing typos. So, here we go:



Last Sunday, I went to KLCC. The haze wasn't so bad and the place is really crowded with people maybe because of the PC Fair happening at KLCC Convention Centre. Look at the picture below:



I don't really like hanging out at KLCC. I find it a strain to my eyes seeing all kind of people and stuffs. I would rather stay at home doing something but hey, that's me, you can't blame me of it. Well, let's move on..



If I'm not mistaken, last month. A portion of an unfinished flyover fell to the grown injuring a few foreign workers and some cars. It's kind of scarry to see these flyover hanging on top of a very busy traffic. This was taken at my normal route to work at the Segambut roundabout. I hope that Ahmad Zaki Resources Berhad (AZRB) a very well known constuction company, could speed up their work as the jam there is getting worse.



By the way, in my last 2 years of being in the employment world. I've moved office for 3 times already. This week, I'm moving again to a new place at level 15, Amcorp Mall Tower. So, for you guys who happen to be at Amcorp, just ring me if you need any company ;-P My office view is awesome, I oversee the lake and also the Federal Highway. I haven't shown you my last place where I used to work, I'll show it to you later.



The hazy days a back and it's even worse than I thought. This is a day before the 'Darurat' was announced at two places in Selangor.



Taken from the Federal Highway, the Menara Axis was nowhere to be seen more than 500m.



Last Wednesday, I went to The Document Content Management Expo & Conference at KLCC Convention Centre. It was something good as I got to learn a few new knowledge.



What grabs my attention the most is it was hosted by Jojo Struys. I'm a big fan of hers and I'm not ashamed to tell you that I love watching Pillow Talk..haha..I think all the guys would love Jojo for her looks, charm and also her beauty. by the way, the picture above was edited using a special software I've just learned to use called Snag It. Quite impressive, isn't it??hehe..If you want to see an Mpeg version of Jojo doing her Tap Dance, contact me and I'll send you some of it.



This picture was taken outside the KLCC Convention Centre. It was the worst hazy time I think at the time.



While queing at Maxis counter to upgrade my simcard (I used a 2000 Timecel simcard) to a hotlink one. I bumped into my aunt who is an executive secretary at one of the office in Maxis building. She then brought me for lunch at Level 24 at a place called the Hot Spot. I've never heard of it before but the food there is superb. I don't really like Fine Dining but it's okay once in a while. I can't a see a thing from the window.



Some leftovers from the food I ate..hehe..Now that we are full. It's time to go to bed. So, happy blogging..

Does Anyone Here Loves Meeting?

I just came back from a meeting with a few project managers for a pilot project in a very well known public university. I wasn't supposed to go to the meeting but last week, my boss insist of me going. So I went there one hour late (thanks to my boss frankly) and I had no clue whatsoever of the meeting was about. Lucky my brother who went to the previous meeting had some notes with him. So, what I did was just pretended to be confident and it all went well. Traded a few business cards and that's it. Now I need to prepare for the next meeting in another 2 weeks.

So, my responsibility has now been increased. My boss handed me his responsibility to me and that is the beauty of being a boss. Like everybody else, I hate my boss but sometimes I do like him. I hate him because he doesn't give me a payraise yet. I love him for giving me a lot of business exposure, experience, knowledge and a promotion. Still I think money is somehow important to me these days.

Frankly, I don't really like going for a meeting but its fun when you go to one, once in while. Don't forget, as a human we need to expand our horizon, our knowledge and our vision so that we could grow stronger and properous. Until next time..Have a nice meeting everyone..