Relaxing Sunday

Today I had another much relaxed Sunday which was totally different from those busy drama weekends. By 12pm plus, we were out of church already. Went to Sri Petaling to have our Ipoh Chicken rice with. Quite costly for 3 families - RM87.

By 2.30pm I was back home and went to sleep around 3pm ........ hehe. Woke up around 9am in the morning and went to sleep 6 hours later. That's life!

Woke up at 5.30pm and then out for dinner at the nearby food court.
Tags: Relax, Sri Petaling, Ipoh Chicken Rice

Catching Up With Good Life

Saturday, 29 Dec 2007 - a really good rest day for me. Had been missing this sort of Saturday since the month of Oct 2007 owing to the Christmas dramas. Enjoyed those busy days too and today was a deserved Saturday for me.

Woke up at 10.00am and walked out to a mamak restaurant for my breakfast after a good time of procrastination, ding dong here and there and finally arrived at the restaurant around 11.00am. Ordered a roti telur with a teh tarik and sat down there reading the Star newspaper till 1.30pm. In between, took another cup of teh tarik.

Afternoon - more resting period ........... hehe till I'm so lazy to go to gym.

In the evening, went for dinner at a nearby restaurant with 3 other families. No time for photos as we were catching up on lost time with one another. Even though all of them were involved but then they were in different dramas thus missed this kind of get-together.

Tomorrow night will be New Year's Eve and the nearest big event to me will be held at The Boulevard, Mid Valley. The big event is called the Mid Zone Countdown 2008.

Where would you be on New Year's Eve?
Tags: Resting, Mamak, Roti Telur, Teh Tarik, Mid Valley, The Boulevard, New Year's Eve, Mid Zone Countdown 2008

Broadband Service in Malaysia

All this while I'm only using a dial-up service while at home. The service is just nice for me even I though I blog a lot. Only one issue, it's too costly maintaining a dial-up service with my long usage.

I'm interested to sign up for a broadband service but not too sure on which service provider should I go for. Following options:-

* Celcom Broadband
* Maxis Broadband
* tmnet Streamyx
* Izzi
* Netlynx (limited area coverage)

While still deciding on which service provider, I read about the comparison between the service providers in the following websites:-
* Celcom Broadband vs. Maxis Broadband
* Celcom Broadband: RM68 Broadband In Malaysia

Tags: Broadband, Celcom Broadband, Maxis Broadband, Streamyx, Izzi, Netlynx

Top Jokes Around the World

Top Joke in Northern Ireland
A doctor says to his patient, 'I have bad news and worse news'. 'Oh dear, what's the bad news ?' asked the patient. The doctor replied, 'You only have 24 hours to live'. 'That's terrible', said the patient. 'How can the news possibly be worse?' The doctor replied, 'I've been trying to contact you since yesterday'.

Top Joke in Scotland
I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like his passengers.

Top Joke in England
Two weasels are sitting on a bar stool. One starts to insult the other one. He screams, "I slept with your mother!" The bar gets quiet as everyone listens to see what the other weasel will do. The first again yells, "I SLEPT WITH YOUR MOTHER !" The other says, "Go home dad you're drunk."

Top Joke in Wales
A turtle was walking down an alley in Wales when he was mugged by a gang of snails. A police detective came to investigate and asked the turtle if he could explain what happened. The turtle looked at the detective with a confused look on his face and replied "I don't know, it all happened so fast."

Top Joke in UK
A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh !" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me !" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off, go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you.

Top Joke in USA
A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. One of the guys is about to chip onto the green when he sees a long funeral procession on the road next to the course. He stops in mid-swing, takes off his golf cap, closes his eyes, and bows down in prayer. His friend says: "Wow, that is the most thoughtful and touching thing I have ever seen. You truly are a kind man. The man then replies : "Yeah, well we were married for 35 years."

Top Joke in Canada
When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300C. The Russians used a pencil.

Top Joke in Australia
This woman rushed to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off: "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's WRONG with me, Doctor?" The doctor looks her over for a couple of minutes, then calmly says: Well, I can tell you that there ain't nothing wrong with your eyesight ..."

SECOND PLACE
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson go on a camping trip. After a good dinner and a bottle of wine, they retire for the night, and go to sleep. Some hours later, Holmes wakes up and nudges his faithful friend. "Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see." "I see millions and millions of stars, Holmes" replies Watson. "And what do you deduce from that ?"

Watson ponders for a minute. "Well, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful, and that we are a small and insignificant part of the universe.

What does it tell you, Holmes ?" Holmes is silent for a moment. "Watson, you idiot !" he says. "Someone has stolen our tent!"

THE WINNING JOKE
A couple of New Jersey hunters are out in the woods when one of them falls to the ground. He doesn't seem to be breathing, his eyes are rolled back in his head. The other guy whips out his cell phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?"

The operator, in a calm soothing voice says: "Just take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a shot is heard. The guy's voice comes back on the line. He says: "OK, now what ?"
Tags: Top Jokes, Funny, Humour, Doctor, Golf, Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson

Story of an Eagle

A very meaningful way to learn of life - only parts of it.

-The eagle has the longest life-span of its' species.
-It can live up to 70 years
-But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard decision
-In its' 40's, its' long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey which serves as food
-Its' long and sharp beak becomes bent
-Its' old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its' chest and make it difficult to fly
-Then, the eagle is left with only two options: die or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days.
-The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on its' nest
-There the eagle knocks its' beak against a rock until it plucks it out
-After plucking it out, the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck out its' talons
-When its' new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its' old-aged feathers
-And after five months, the eagle takes its' famous flight of rebirth and lives for ... 30 more years.
Tags: Inspiration, Eagle

Football Referee Pulls Out Gun

I was quite shocked with the five red cards being shown in nine English Premier League matches that played on Boxing Day, 26 Dec 2007 especially the Chelsea vs. Aston Villa match that contributed three red cards.

But then it can never topple the incident in Batu Pahat, a district in the state of Johore, Malaysia. A referee had red carded a player from the Kampung Bumiputera FC just 5 minutes into the second half in a match against Rejosari for the Rengit State Assembly Open Cup. The players from Kampung Bumiputera and their fans were not happy with the red card stomped their way to the front of the referee.

Fearing for his life, the referee ran and they chased. Upon reaching his car, mind you a police car, he reached for his gun and fired into the air. This is to show that he, as the referee, is in control and his decision is final .................... haha. He's a certified football referee by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) but I guess not anymore.

But it's not that funny anymore for five players from Kampung Bumiputera who have been detained under Section 148 of the Penal Code for rioting. The policeman, attached to the traffic division, has also been detained under Section 39 of the Firearms Act 1960. Usually, an off-duty policeman doesn't carry a gun around.
Tags: Policeman, Football Referee, Batu Pahat, Johore, Malaysia, Red Card, Kampung Bumiputera FC, Rejosari, Rengit State Assembly Open Cup, Football Association of Malaysia, FAM, Penal Code, Firearms Act 1960

Antique Copyright Law in Egypt

Remembered seeing this head somewhere before? Yeah, it's the sphinx located in Egypt.

Recently, the Egyptian government has cleverly thought of a money generating source of income. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities will be passing a copyright law in the country that would made all copies of the ancient sphinx or pyramid illegal. In a way, pay up before you can use the replica of such.

There is a relief somehow whereby if your design is not the same as those found in Egypt, you don't need to pay up. As long as it's a same replica and it's being used for commercial purpose, you have to pay royalties. And if you wanted a replica in your large garden, a permission is required from the Egyptian government first.

Soon, this copyright law would be applied throughout the whole world. Does Malaysia has any of these replicas???? Can't think of any now. The only place that I could think of is the Las Vegas tourism area.

A good example is the Luxor Hotel and Casino itself.
Reading: Egypt 'to copyright antiquities' - BBC News/Africa

Tags: Egypt, Egyptian, Sphinx, Pyramid, Supreme Council of Antiquities, Antique, Copyright, Las Vegas, Luxor Hotel and Casino

Christmas Day 2007

Our Christmas service started at 10am with a children's fast dance. Unable to capture photo as I was preparing my stuff. Next thing was the praise & worship session where Kok Yen was the songleader.
The hall was packed with lots of visitors.
Towards the end of the service, our senior pastor encouraged the congregation to cross the bridge to signify us giving our life to God. How useful was that bridge after all. It brought great significance as the bridge represented Jesus that bridged between earth and God.
Well, that's the end of the The Bridge series and it was a tough path to walk from the birth of the drama ideas till Christmas Day but no doubt, it was worth the journey. Lots of good memories indeed. It's back to normal life for me after hectic months in preparation for the five dramas.
Tags: Christmas Day 2007, Christmas Drama, Christmas, Bridge Finale

Seven Great Medical Myths

Rachel Vreeman of the Indiana University School of Medicine and Aaron Carroll of the Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, wrote in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal, that the following medical myths have been heard in many generations but medical evidence didn't proof anything correct but neither has it been proven wrong:-

Drink at least eight glasses of water a day
This advice derives from a 1945 recommendation that adults should consume 2.5 litres of the stuff daily, or one millilitre for every calorie consumed. The crucial part of the recommendation – "most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods" – is often ignored. Drinking too much water can be dangerous.

My comments - That's what my mom has been telling since I was young.

Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
It causes eye strain, difficulty in focusing and dries the eyes because of reduced blinking while squinting but there is no evidence it causes lasting damage.

My comments - Same thing I have hearing from my mom and many other concerned adults. Is this one of the main reasons that caused countless of people wearing glasses today?

We only use 10 per cent of our brains
Studies of patients with brain damage suggest damage to any area of the brain has lasting effects. Brain imaging studies have shown no area of the brain is completely inactive and despite "detailed probing" the non-functioning 90 per cent has not been located.

My comments - I agree on this for certain people that I meet in my path of life.

Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
They don't. It is an illusion caused by the dehydration of the body which results in the skin retracting. This gives the appearance of increased length to the hair and nails – actual growth requires hormonal regulation which is not sustained after death.

My comments - That's what the Hong Kong movies potray especially on those ghost movies where the vampires (geong si) came to life with long fingernails jumping around the town looking for blood.

Shaving causes hair to grow back faster or coarser
Shaved hair lacks the finer taper seen at the end of unshaved hair. It has also not been lightened by the sun, so it appears darker.

My comments - Couldn't care, just shave only when I think it's required. I think the ladies will worry more on this.

Mobile phones are dangerous in hospitals
Many hospitals still ban them, despite the lack of evidence that they interfere with electronic equipment, except in rare instances and at close quarters. Technological improvements have reduced the risk further.

My comments - Hospitals in Malaysia do put up this sign where mobile phones are prohibited to be switched on especially at Intensive Care Units ("ICU") area. I do switch it off just in case it caused malfunction on equipments. Imagine you were the one lying inside the ICU. If this was a myth, on what medical basis did our hospital relied on?

Eating turkey makes people drowsy
This myth is based on the assertion that turkey contains high amounts of tryptophan, an amino acid involved in sleep. But turkey contains no more than chicken or beef. Its sleep-inducing effects are due to the quantities eaten.

My comments - Seldom eat turkey so unable to comment on this.
Tags: Health, Medical Myths, Medical Evidence

Malaysian Drafs

A truly Malaysian joke!

Hindraf has awakened other races in Malaysia. Now 4 more new action fronts are being formed. Maldraf for malays, Chindraf for chinese and for other races, Dandraf (dandruff).
But a majority of Malaysian drinkers have appealed to be represented as Beerdraft. Cheers!

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S!
Tags: Christmas, Merry Christmas, Hindraf, Chindraf, Dandraf, Beerdraft, Funny, Humour

Bridge Finale

Tomorrow is the finale for the Christmas season's dramas. Got the best of the best of the actors/actresses for this drama. They are the drama veterans in my church and hopefully this comedy drama would make everyone laugh.

This drama is set in the contemporary time and the story is still there where Joseph & Mary reaches the town of Bethlehem. They tried to check into a hotel but it was fully occupied but was offered elsewhere - the luggage room ...... hehe.

Then the wisemen scene appeared (where the video was shot in Hotel Maya) followed by the shepherds who were businessmen dealing with sheep products. All in modern settings.

The Bridge Finale drama will be followed by a dance finale to cap a fine month of dramas. This dance will see the participation of the actors/actresses, props team and stage decoration team.

That's my abode up in the balcony where I usually gave commands on the lightings, sound and videos.

The singers and the songleader (sitting down with a guitar) practising their songs for the opening of the Christmas service.
Two of the ladies trying to translate the english song into mandarin language. The Christmas service tomorrow morning will be bilingual (English/Mandarin) as our chinese church will be combining with the english church.
This is the group that was practising for the dance finale. The leader, Esther Wong (in black, on stage) was our dance choreographer.
It was an easy song to follow and it required two practise sessions only (those who usually don't dance found it hard to follow the steps but they tried really hard to follow).
Resting time as this practise was done right after service, the children's dance and song practise and just before lunch .............. hehehe

Tags: Christmas Drama, Christmas, Bridge Finale, Dance Finale, Dance Choreographer, Christmas Service

Travelling to South Africa

I remembered when I travelled to Japan for holidays, I saw the word "Aliens" at the Japanese immigration counters upon disembarking from the plane.

I tiptoed to look out for the Aliens or Predators (those found in the Aliens vs. Predators movie) going to those immigration counters to have their passports (as if they needed one) but saw none but lots of human beings lining up there too. Found out that the Japanese people addressed all foreigners as aliens.

When you fly into South Africa's Johannesburg city, there will be welcoming messages on the electronics board. How nice of them. But on one not so nice day, the electronics board was showing 'Welcome to SA. F*** You'. Oops! What happened?

Read more
Tags: Japan, Japanese Immigration, Aliens, South Africa, Johannesburg

Feel Good, Feel Bad Is On

The main actress, Niki Ng, a teenage girl thinking that her parents were to strict on her and went on telling small white lies. It came to a day where she followed her best friends becoming a guest relation officer at a karaoke lounge.

One thing led to another which went beyond her comprehension of the situation.

She definitely felt good about what's going on with her friends but will she feel bad later on.











This drama will start with a contemporary dance with slick moves.
Tried capturing different dancing moves that came with different lighting colours.
The guy who is handling the lightings is Eugene Poh, who has just finished his PMR exams (a government examination for secondary school students) lately.
Personally, was satisfied with the lightings.

The dancing scene was followed by a classroom scene where the same notorious bunch was not paying attention in their class.

At the end of this drama, me and Lud (co-producer) have decided to change the script last minute and killed off someone's character and made it a crying scene owing to that. Acting the last scene which will be a sad moment with "First Love by Utada Hikaru" playing at the background will certainly make everyone cry. Yesssssssss!!! FYI, I was touched as well, no tears but felt the sad feelings being acted out. Bravo! Bravo!
Tags: Christmas Drama, Christmas, Feel Good, Feel Bad, First Love, Utada Hikaru

Christmas Trees in Shopping Centres

First World Hotel, the world's biggest hotel, had put up a Christmas tree for people to hang their wishes (for people who have bought some stuff above RM50, which I did).







This tall Christmas tree was found at Berjaya Times Square.















The Curve did a magnificent job too in conjunction with the festive season.










Pavilion, being the latest shopping centre, was not left behind with their white christmas decor.














One Utama did an astounding decor. Find it really different from the usual ones.










Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) put up a gigantic Christmas tree right in the centre of the shopping centre.














Mid Valley's decor could be judged the best with the fairy tales' theme.










The Gurney Plaza in Penang tried to liven up the atmosphere by decorating with leafless wooden trees. Ran out of budget?














My own words "Where on earth did Queensbay Mall in Penang hire the interior decorator(s) from?"

Where did he/she learn that a Christmas tree is hung that way?? What was he/she trying to prove there? This is not creativity.
Tags: Christmas Tree, Christmas, Shopping Centre, First World Hotel, Berjaya Times Square, The Curve, Pavilion, One Utama, Kuala Lumpur City Centre, KLCC, Mid Valley, Gurney Plaza, Queensbay Mall, Interior Designer, Interior Decorator

Dinner at Shangri-La Hotel

Was at Lemon Garden Cafe, Shangri-La Hotel on Wednesday night celebrating my mom's birthday and found that it was fully packed with customers.

Just when you thought that being the most expensive buffet dinner (at RM112.70 - did this enter Malaysia's Book of Records?) in Malaysia and a weekday itself, it would not be packed. Good thing I did make a reservation a day earlier.

The left picture was taken at 7.30pm but by 8.00pm, it was filled.

Shangri-La did put up a Christmas tree made up of bottles right at their lounge.

Three Filipino ladies were belting out English songs. Their stage was located up above the lounge's bar counter.

Saw this nice orchid flowers at the lift area.

A nicely decorated lobby area of the hotel which contributed to the Christmas atmosphere.

Not only the hotel but Jalan Bukit Bintang was decorated to liven up the end of the year festive season. I took this road just to see how nice the place was and at 11.00pm, the traffic jam was still there.

Tags: Buffet Dinner, Lemon Garden Cafe, Shangri-La Hotel, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Christmas, Christmas Tree

China's Anti-Corruption Website

The China government has set-up a website where the China citizens could lodge corruption complaints/cases against government officials. That's a good step for China to fight against corruption.

An agency by the name of National Bureau of Corruption Prevention was given the green light to proceed with the new website. On the first day of operation, Monday - 17 December 2007, the website crashed tragically. Did the website crash because of virus?

The reason - the website traffic was sooooooo heavy that the server was unable to handle the traffic and it crashed. In other words, the citizens have at last found an avenue to lodge complaints and therefore, tons of complaints were submitted. The website - jubao.gov.cn (in chinese language). Not surprised to hear that as I have heard about corruptions in China from friends who are conducting business there.

I bet that the same would happen in Malaysia if an online submission was opened to the Malaysian public. Maybe unable to revive that server altogether.

Reading: Anti-Corruption Website Unveiled In China - China CSR
Tags: Corruption, China, National Bureau of Corruption Prevention, Jubao

Frightening Rides?

How frightening can these amusement park's rides be?

Tags: Amusement Park

The Tea Has Infection

A Hangzhou (in China) reporter used tea as his urine sample and asked 10 hospitals to analyze it. Six of the hospitals determined that he had an infection, and four of them prescribed medicine worth about 1,300 yuan in total. The Sanjia Hospital later determined that 90% of the tests on tea should be false positive and this supposedly showed that the problem was not with the hospitals. Ministry of Health spokesperson Mao Junan criticized the media for violation of the journalistic professional code of conduct.

That's funny ...... hehehe. I wonder what will Malaysian hospitals do. Could be even worse.

Reading: Medical Ethics Vs. Journalistic Ethics - Beijing Review
Tags: Tea, Infection, Hangzhou, China, Sanjia Hospital, Medical Ethics, Journalistic Ethics

Video Shoot at Hotel Premise

Our video shoot ventures have now taken us into a hotel premise, i.e. Hotel Maya at Jalan Ampang, located just right across the towering Petronas Twin Towers. We were there on Sunday night.
We had to write officially to them and was required to meet seven conditions prior to being allowed to do a video shoot.

One of the major ones being not allowed to show this video other than in the church premise on 25 Dec 2007 and cannot use it for commercial purpose. So, if you are interested to see what we have done, you have to visit my church on 25 Dec to view it.

We were given the group registration reception area for our video shoot.

Another condition was - video shooting to be done between 10.30pm and 3.00am. Ok, shouldn't be a problem. We were there by 11.15pm and finished the shooting by 2.00am. The bad news for this team that was there - we missed the two giant English Premier League matches on that same night. All we get was sms messages informing us of the results. There were 3 Liverpool fans, 1 Chelsea fan, 1 Arsenal fan and me being a Man Utd fan. You should have seen the 3 Liverpool fans' face when the sms messages came into our mobile phones.......hehehe

Nice bamboo trees just outside its window panes.
Saw this restaurant's table/chairs located just right beside an interior watch catchment area which is very shallow. Wondering whether any children had ran into the area????
The hotel was nicely decorated for the festive season.
As usual, they were anxious on the end results. Just can't wait to see how was their performance.
See that T-shirt which has our The Bridge logo worn by our video cameraman? Yeah, our video cameraman cum multimedia guy designed it and it was ordered by the whole drama team.

In this picture, it was a scene where the three wisemen were discussing about the direction in looking for the the newborn king.


Why were they in modern costumes? Well, I depicted this whole drama in a modern era.

With this video shoot done, we have one tiny weeny video scene left now. Phew! At last!
Tags: Christmas Drama, Christmas, Hotel Maya, The Bridge, Wisemen

Vegetarian Dishes

Went to a vegetarian restaurant by the name of Fan Cai Xiang at Taman Danau Desa during weekend with the family's older folks. It was packed with only one table left when we arrived. Given a choice I won't come to a vegetarian restaurant lah.
This was a buttered fried mushroom. Crunchy and tasty. Forget about whether it will give you high cholesterol due to the butter. It's superb.
This is char siew! Vegetarian style of course. Not bad though the taste is far from the actual char siew of course.








Now this is the ginger fish. Forgot the fish's name. Nice dish but definitely not fishy taste at all. It was partly beancurd.

I paid for the dinner. With seven main dishes, it cost us RM190 for 8 adults and 2 kids.

Always find vegetarian restaurants charge way too high for food that resembled the real thing. I could find a restaurant that cooks the real food at a cheaper price instead.
Tags: Vegetarian Dishes, Vegetarian Food, Fan Cai Xiang Vegetarian Restaurant, Taman Danau Desa