Bloggers Invited By Federal Government

Received an invitation from the Ministry of Federal Territories last week to be present for the Blog4FT campaign which was to be held at Pavilion KL on Monday.

I did question the person who invited me as I was wondering how did he obtain my email address and how did he get to know that I was a blogger. You know what I mean when you receive an email from the Federal Government people.

Found out that he was the Special Officer to the Minister too. A small world indeed when my colleague told me he knew this guy after reading the email invitation for this event.

Took leave on Monday and ran around to settle some stuff for the new house and rushed back to shower prior to departing for Pavilion KL. Quite a jam along Jalan Sultan Ismail after exiting Smart Tunnel. Arrived at the centre of Pavilion and saw that it was filled with chairs in view of the launching of the Blog4FT campaign.

The shopping centre was beautifully decorated with Kolam designs in anticipation of the forthcoming Deepavali festival on 17 Oct 2009.

Back to the campaign. What's the campaign about?

The Ministry is engaging bloggers and traditional media to write about stuff / happenings in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan.

Browse through the dedicated website for this event itself, Blog4FT. Are you game for it? A blogging competition is being held and the Ministry actually encourages you to blog positively and promote FT indirectly.

It's opened to anyone divided into four categories, namely:-
* Malaysian Public - This category is open to all Malaysian citizens except those that fall under the Malaysian Media or the Junior Categories.

* Junior - This category is open only to Malaysian citizens below the age of 18 as at 31 December 2009.

* Malaysian Media - This category is open to employees of Malaysian Media Companies registered with the Malaysian Government.

* International - This category is open to non-Malaysian citizens.

I found that this is a good move indeed as this Ministry is trying to build good rapport with the bloggers instead of threatening bloggers as done by another ministry (which do not deserve my mention).

Registered my goodself upon arrival and was told that the event may begin around 3.15pm. My guess was correct. The little delay to the start of the event attended by big shots was expected.

Don't know how many bloggers were invited but felt privileged to be one of the bloggers.

While waiting for the event to begin, I dropped by at Dome cafe which was located just besides the event area. Made full use of the RM5 voucher (part of the door gift) and ordered a Tiramisu cake (a blogger has forgotten to take picture of his food?!?!??!). After deducting the RM5, the cake cost me RM9.95.

The arrival of the special guests was welcomed by a group of drum instruments performers. Can't take a picture as they were seated on the other end of the stage. You get to see different races playing their own drums (must learn the names of those drums) and they were able to rhyme it beautifully.

The Minister, YB Dato' Raja Nong Chik, gave a short speech telling us that he just got the hang of the internet and high technology era because of pressures from his kids.

After much persuasion from his kids (not those in kindergarten mind you but teens), he caught up with it really fast and is now known as the Facebook Minister in the Cabinet for having a thriving Facebook account.

Sadly and maybe unfortunately, the Ministry of Federal Territories' website is not updated and bearing in mind that the event was organised by the same ministry, they should have taken more responsibility in updating the name of the Minister. It's still showing the previous Minister's name and the previous organisation chart ......... tsk tsk tsk.

C'mon, please update your website.

At the end of the speech, a number of guests were called to the stage to press a button I supposed and it initiated a "biometric scanner". That's what it says at the screen behind them.

Thereafter, a short skit was presented by five individuals depicting how they were brought up in FT since young and what FT was to them.

At the closing of the event, representatives from the Ministry, organiser, sponsors stood at stage for a photo session.

The event (especially the blogging competition's prizes) was sponsored by some large Malaysian companies.









Walked up to the 4th floor to take this picture of the event area.















Could see a better effect of the Kolam design from up there.
Tags: Blog4FT, Ministry of Federal Territories, Pavilion KL, Kolam Design, Deepavali, Raja Nong Chik

Earthquake Shook My Office Building

Last Wednesday's late afternoon, around 6.15pm, I was still in my office trying to touch up some loose end for a document before going off. I was leaning towards my work area and looking at the laptop closely.

My boss came out from his room asking a general question "Did you feel it?". "Feel what" was my response.

He said that the building could be moving. At that of time, I relaxed and leaned onto my chair. Then I felt the chair swaying left to right and vice versa.

I said "I felt it now!"

Straightaway, I moved to the pantry area and looked at the construction site for "The Intermark", an on-going development that is taking place where once the Yow Chuan Plaza stood.

Noticed no work is being carried out and thus, the building wasn't affected by the construction activities. Wasted no time and shut down laptop, moved out as fast as possible. I took the second lift that stopped at our floor. No time to think of running down the steps from 31st floor.

The idea of an earthquake struck me but with the construction activities just adjacent to our 58 storey Vista Tower (formerly known as Empire Tower), we doubted the safety of the building.

Upon reaching ground floor, the security personnel requested us to run instead of walking. Maannnnnnnnnnnnn, what tension!

Upon reaching outside, lots of people were already gathered. Security personnel moved us further away standing just next to the busy Jalan Tun Razak.








One thing I noticed, there wasn't any alarm at all to warn us. It was all phone calls that got us down.

Later on, another colleague from another floor did mention that alarm was sounded but when he got down, so many people had evacuated the building long before him.









As I walked further away, I noticed that the construction workers actually evacuated the whole area much faster than we had evacuated our building.

Two of my colleagues (in this pict) still have time to pose for this shot.

What happened to the alarm and the PA system?


We heard from someone that a person who came down earlier saw our office building swaying.

That's ridiculous. If that had happened, the building would have collapsed. That person ought to go for eye check-up. Or was actually too frightened from the swaying effect.










A colleague of mine who stayed back most of the days felt very relieved. He said that he won't feel guilty in leaving for home at 6.30pm hahahaha. Off he went.

Some colleagues can't go home at all. Reason - their cars are still in the office building.

Well, I parked far far away ....... just next to the BMW showroom. When I walked till the BMW showroom, I noticed the workers at this 4 storey building had also ran down in wake of the strong shake ................... confirmed it was an earthquake.

Reached home and a colleague updated me that an earthquake tragedy struck Padang, Indonesia with a richter scale of 7.6. That's awfully high.
Tags: Earthquake, Richter Scale, Padang, Earthquake In Indonesia, Vista Tower, Intermark, Jalan Tun Razak

Higher Calling

A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?

The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, and even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound; a sound like no other that he has ever heard. The next morn in g, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, We can't tell you. You're not a monk.

The man is disappointed but thanks them anyway and goes about his merry way. Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the same monastery. The monks again accept him, feed him, and even fix his car.

That night, he hears the same strange mesmerizing sound that he had heard years earlier.The next morning, he asks what the sound was, but the monks reply,We can't tell you. You're not a monk.

The man says, All right, all right. I'm dying to know.If the only way I can find out what that sound was, is to become a monk, how do I become a monk?

The monks reply, you must travel the earth and tell us how many blades of grass there are and the exact number of sand pebbles. When you find these numbers, you will become a monk.

The man sets about his task. Some forty-five years later, he returns and knocks on the door of the monastery. He says, I have travelled the earth and devoted my life to the task demanded and have found what you had asked for. There are 371,145,236,284,232 blades of grass and 231,281,219,999,129,382 sand pebbles on the earth.

The monks reply, congratulations, you are correct and now you are a monk.

We shall now show you the way to the sound. The monks lead the man to a wooden door, where the head monk says, the sound is behind that door. The man reaches for the knob, but the door is locked. He asks, May I have the key?

The monks give him the key, and he opens the door.

Behind the wooden door is another door made of stone. The man requests the key to the stone door.

The monks give him the key, and he opens it, only to find a door made of ruby. He demands another key from the monks, who provide it. Behind that door is another door, this one made of sapphire. And so it went until the man had gone through doors of emerald,

...... silver, topaz, and amethyst.

Finally, the monks say, this is the key to the last door. The man is relieved to no end. He unlocks the door, turns the knob, and behind that door he is astonished to find the source of that strange sound. It is truly an amazing and unbelievable sight.

. .. . But I can't tell you what it is because you're not a monk.

Tags: Monk, Monastery, Blades Of Grass, Sand Pebbles, Humour, Funny

To Report Child Abuse?

Parents nowadays really have hard time to take care of their kids. If they can't afford a maid (an Indonesian maid may cost you RM800 per month in time to come), the unfortunate parents may just have to drag their kids to do some shopping.

Kids being kids, when they want to sleep they will just sleep wherever they are.

That three cushions in which the child was sleeping on were items from the shelves. How convenient and considerate of the hypermarket to provide trolleys (the right size) and the cushions.

Well, you can't push a trolley and a pram at the same time, right?

What option do you have left?

Do you consider these actions as child abuse? Hehe
Tags: Child Abuse, Sleepy Child, Hypermarket

A Need for Digital TV?

Having a new house coming up, I got tempted into looking at the slim LCD or Plasma TVs whenever I'm at the shopping centres.

Been reading all this while on such TV technologies and have seen its technology being improved every year. To me, I know I can't catch up with whatever new technology the TV manufacturers will put into the next TV model. Same goes for the computers.

Currently having a Sony 25" thick TV haha ...... after seeing those 1" to 2" thick TV, my TV really looks like a dinosaur. But it has served me well for the last eleven years albeit some small hiccups only. Repairs for such small hiccups were not more than RM1,000 all these years, much lesser if not mistaken.

Today, the Star newspapers deputy news editor called for a quicker change of digital technology from our TV broadcasters as he can't wait till 2015. Which means to say that all current non high definition ready TVs will be obsolete by year 2015?

That will be catastrophic considering the damage to the environment that could be caused by the disposal of hundreds of millions of TV.

I did read somewhere that Malaysia's TV broadcasters may start digital broadcast from year 2012 or 2013 onwards before the full swing in 2015. I also read that even though the TV (like the one that I'm having right now) is not digital ready, there will be a converter gadget to be used to convert the analog signal to digital signal.

I'm sure by that time the converter gadget would be highly expensive because you must have it or else no TV programmes for you till you get one. See the bad point of it? If you are smart or having the contacts to start sourcing for such gadget, you'll be laughing all your way to the bank.

Why need to laugh when only going to the bank? I would be laughing wherever I go if it was me hehe.

British government has started their change of technology way back in 1998 and would switched off the analog transmission in year 2012. Such a developed country took fourteen years. Malaysia intend to create a record by shortening it to three years.

In USA, the full digital transmission should have begun in June 2009 and USA TV broadcasters believed that up to 3 million TV viewers may only get to see "snow falling" on their TV screens by now.

I'm at a lost of which TV to aim for if I decided to get one. I saw the beautiful Pioneer Kuro model. It's colour and clarity is the undisputed champion. Price wise - out of reach haha. Pioneer will stop manufacturing plasma TVs from next year onwards. That will even deter me from thinking about Pioneer Kuro fearing about the spare parts later on. Also heard that it may not be a problem as Pioneer obtains the main component materials from Panasonic, being the OEM supplier.

So, the Panasonic full HD plasma TV caught my attention now and it's much more economical compared to Pioneer Kuro model.

When I was in Harvey Norman, Ikano recently, the sales person recommended me take Samsung full HD plasma TV instead. He said that the reason why Pioneer Kuro's colour is so fantastic was due to its dark black screen (when switched off). Samsung's plasma TV is almost similar but Panasonic's black screen looked dark silver to me.

Now, I'm confused!

Reading: Digital TV – the sooner the better for the country - Star
Reading: Millions Still Unprepared for — Gulp — Tomorrow’s DTV Transition - Wired
Tags: LCD TV, Plasma TV, TV Manufacturers, TV Broadcasters, Sony TV, High Definition TV, Pioneer Kuro, Panasonic Full HD Plasma TV, Samsung Full HD Plasma TV, Analog Transmission, Digital Transmission

First Day of Hari Raya

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all my muslim friends!

On the first day of Hari Raya, the muslim bethrens' new year celebration, I was invited by an office colleague to be at her parents' house for lunch. Privileged to be invited and right after Sunday morning's church service, I drove over to Taman Dato' Senu, Sentul to feed my stomach. First time being in this area and the house was not too hard to find.

Upon chit chatting with her dad, pakcik told me that he was from Kelantan. He did mention that in Kelantan, the Hari Raya atmosphere is really good. Neighbours from all races will drop by anytime of the day to wish each other. It was not to be in the city area where you have to extend your invitations before people from other races will come to their house.

He said that there's no such thing that Hari Raya is only for the muslims. At the Kelantan towns, all races will come together and people will eat and celebrate together without any barriers. This is because of no interruptions from the politicians.

The family was glad to see a chinese dropping by on the first day of Hari Raya and of course, was served with ayam masak merah, beef rendang, ketupat, cookies etc.

The politicians have made and are still making a mess of the racial situation in Malaysia and hence, the need to have all those 1Malaysia promotions and the call for unity after fifty two years of independence from the British.

On Monday noon, another invitation to a Malay colleague's house. Food! Food! ..... of course, it's more than food. It's the relationship.

Go down to the normal Malaysians' life and you get to see people living in harmony. Preference is to see a peaceful nation too irregardless of race. The mainstream media is often doing the unjust part by playing the dirty racial game. And you may be wondereing at who's instruction. Totally irresponsible.

May Malaysia see a quicker economy recovery after the Hari Raya festival.
Tags: Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Muslim, Malay, Taman Dato' Senu, Sentul

One Cream Cures All

Found a cream that cures all .... Aire Disinfector. Of course it acts as a disinfector as mentioned by its name. Besides that, it's also a miracle cream that can kill spermatozoom (& whatever that is closely related to it, hehe).

It can destroy HIV ...... all the researches done thus far are obsolete. Medical experts will be queueing up to grab tons of this products, re-brand it and sell as if it was their new discovery.

It can act as a lubricate ........ it kills and allows you to enjoy at the same time????? It even shrink cunt??!?!?!??!?!?!??!? Price? RMB50 only.

Those pharmaceutical companies will definitely close shop when this product is marketed worldwide. And the general rule for buyers - caveat emptor!

Tags: Aier Disinfector, Miracle Cream, Spermatozoom, HIV, Disinfector, Lubricate, Shrink Cunt