Life's Happenings

Thursday, August 31, 2006

High Profile Bloggers in Indonesia & Iran

Priyadi Iman Nurcahyo - Defence Minister of Indonesia
* Update - the real Defence Minister of Indonesia is Juwono Sudarsono. Priyadi himself updated me on this.

Mahmood Ahmadinejad - The President of Iran (wow!! available in 4 languages - Parsi, Arabic, English & French.

The above blogs are real but the best of all pranks made is a Friendster website for - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - The President of Indonesia.
Tags: Priyadi Iman Nurcahyo, Juwono Sudarsono, Defence Minister of Indonesia, Mahmood Ahmadinejad, President of Iran, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia, Bloggers

31 Aug - International Blogging Day

Co-incidentally, 31 Aug is also known as the International Blogging Day.

Blogs that I browse through often:-
Jeff Ooi - A renowned Malaysian blogger who brings up "in-depth" Malaysian news with dozens of blog commenters leaving behind their opinions.

Lim Kit Siang - Reprensenting all the Opposition Parties in the Parliament as the Opposition Leader. Brings out controversial news on his blog.

Sarah - based in Darfur of Sudan, will write about her daily happenings with photos in her blog entitled "Pretty One Day?".

RockyBru - a journalist, somewhere between veteran and retired. Last post held in mainstream media was Executive Editor. A fellow blogger who is straightforward with their words on certain true scenarios happening in Malaysia.

Aisehman - fellow blogger who will highlight or just want readers to know what's actually happening ("behind the scene") around Malaysia.

James Wong Wing On - a former member of the 8th Parliament, former senior and award-winning journalist, writer, author & strategic analyst - being a journalist himself you will find lots of interesting write-up on various issues.
Tags: Blog, Blog Day 2006, International Blogging Day, Jeff Ooi, Lim Kit Siang, RockyBru, Aisehman, James Wong Wing On

Malaysia - 49th Independence Day

TODAY, my country of Malaysia is celebrating her 49th birthday.

A website under the name of Road to Nationhood related the milestones in achieving the Independence Day on 31 August 1957.

Everyone that I knew in Malaysia is having a public holiday but I'm stucked in my office here in Khartoum, Sudan. Well, tonight itself, staff of Malaysian companies based in Khartoum will gather at a Malaysian-owned restaurant together with the Malaysian Ambassador to Sudan to commenmorate the Independence Day. Meantime, back to work.
Tags: Malaysia, Independence Day, Road To Nationhood

Annual Tomatina Festival

People throw tomatoes at each other during the "Tomatina" festival that takes place on the last Wednesday of August in Bunol, near Valencia. Some 40,000 Spaniards (including thousands of mainly British, French and German tourists) gathered at this year annual event hurling some 100 000 kilograms (220,000 pounds) of tomatoes, one of the world's messiest festivals.

This event was believed to have begun as an argument between two carnival participants in 1945. So popular is the event, the Spanish authorities have recognised it as a "festival of international tourist interest".

Tags: Tomatina, Festival, Valencia, Spain, Tour, Travel, Carnival, Tomatoes

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

UK Sports Academy

Well, this Sports Academy (proposed to be constructed in UK) thingy is springing up again and it seems that the Ministry of Youth & Sports will respond/update, by end September, upon the completion of an in-depth study. In-depth study? The project is definitely not viable so why still need to carry out an in-depth study. Many people have voiced out that this project will be a "white elephant" once constructed.

RM490 million (approx. US$132.4 million) could be better utilised if it was used to upgrade existing sports centre in Malaysia. Otherwise, it could be used to build more sports complex (smaller scale) to be used by sportsmen/women participating in the bi-annual SUKMA event.

Or the fund could be used to send elite/proven sportsmen/women to Australia (having the best Sports Institute in the world) for further improvement.

Alternatively, the fund could be used to finance elite/proven sportsmen/women to participate in certain sports event that could benefit them.

Otherwise, the fund could be used to build more sporting facilities for the public's usage and rental of such facilities could be obtained too.

By building such a big facilities overseas, who will manage the sports complex? what's the maintenance cost like as UK pound is high on the currency exchange rate? what's the usage rate going to be? Reason given was that the new sports complex could be used as a base for sportsmen/women in preparation for sporting events to be held in similar kind of weather conditions. Who could that be as majority of the M'sian (not looking down on them) do not qualify for the major sporting events. Even sporting giants (referring countries) only send their sportsmen/women to the host country few weeks prior to the event for acclimatisation purposes. And M'sia is trying to do one better - by having a costly underused overseas base.

The current batch of squash and badminton players (who have excelled in their events) do not such costly overseas base and they still succeed. It's all in their minds. But I'm wondering what's in the mind of those government officials who are so adamant to have this sports complex.
Tags: Politics, Sports Academy, UK

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Glass Bridge Skywalk at Grand Canyon

It was stated, via an email being circulated, that a Glass Bridge Skywalk is being constructed at the Grand Canyon National Park's visitors' area. I have sent an email to a person listed in the linked website but todate no reply. Is the construction of it true?