The end of those sleepless nights..

Italy Are 2006 World Champion!

But the question on everyone mind is.. Why Zidane? Why..?? It's your last game ever..!
Apakah carutan Materazzi kepada Zidane sampai Zidane tiba2 naik sawan kambing gurun?
It's a damn shame..


Forza Italia!

Penang Stories..

Phew.. just got back from Penang. Outstation yg sangat memenatkan physically and mentally. Almost a week aku berada di Penang tapi only the last day sempat pegi jalan-jalan. Penang bagi aku adalah sebuah tempat nostalgik, banyak kenangan bersama family dan kawan-kawan aku di Penang. It was sort of like home, sbb penang adalah jiran negeri kelahiran aku.

Outstation aku kali ni memang mengundang banyak masalah. Kebiasaannya bila aku keluar outstation aku terpaksa deal dengan orang awam dan aku terpaksa melayan beribu-ribu karenah manusia. Ditambah pula dengan masalah scheduling dan miscommunication, aku boleh labelkan outstation kali ni the worst ever. Tapi aku sedikit beruntung kerana musim world cup sedang melanda. Jadi adalah source of excitement. Dan of course di Penang mmg tak sah kalau tak tengok live football matches di.. kedai nasi kandar..!! Mmg happening gila, dh mcm kat stadium. First semi-final match aku terpaksa tgk the first-half sambil berdiri sbb kedai Kayu Nasi Kandar terlalu pack hinggakan cashier pun terpaksa sacrifice kerusi dia pada customer. Hehe. Anyway it was fun.. and oh yeah, Forza Italia! Haha..

Bercakap pasal nasi kandar, aku sempat melawat kedai nasi kandar favourite aku seperti dalam gambar di atas. Restoran Kassim Mustafa, the pioneers of nasi kandar, the origins of 'kuah taruh atas' clan. I could still remember, arwah ayah aku mesti takkan lupa utk bawa kami sekeluarga makan di kedai ni everytime we went to Penang. Aku tak boleh describe kesyahduan di saat aku menjamah nasi kandar Kassim ini untuk kesekian kali. Akibatnya, 2 pinggan nasi kandar Kassim aku jamah. Memang nahas kalau aku terus tinggal di Penang. Alamatnya makin buncit la perut buncit aku ni. Kalau pergi Penang, jgn lupa singgah Kassim.

Satu lagi tempat yang perlu disinggahi is of course, Bazaar Chowrasta Road. Bagi aku Bazaar ni adalah tempat paling masam di dalam dunia. Bukan sebab baunya, tetapi di sebalik bazaar usang ini adalah syurga menjual pelbagai jenis asam, jeruk dan yang sejenisnya. Kalau tak tahu nak beli apa untuk souvenir, datang aja sini.. beli asam jeruk sekilo dua bawak balik KL.

Kalau ke Penang rasanya tak sah kalau tak ke Padang Kota. A place just to chill around, menikmati udara segar, mengamati ombak laut. Cuma satu yg aku perasan, Fort Conwalis sekarang dah tertutup dan ada admission fee. Hmm.. Aku juga tak lupa pekena sotong kangkung dan pasembor dekat medan selera Padang Kota. Mmg out of this world. Only in Penang.

Seperkara yg menarik, semasa perjalanan pulang dari pantai Batu Feringghi, kami singgah untuk solat Asar di sebuah masjid yg masih belum sepenuhnya siap. Apa yg menarik adalah masjid ini merupakan masjid terapung dan mempunyai rekabentuk luaran dan dalaman yang sangat indah. Sempat juga aku mencapai kamera aku untuk snap 1,2 gambar.


So that was Penang. FYI, bulan Julai adalah bulan yang paling sibuk dan mencabar dalam organisasi tempat aku bekerja. So this coming 2 weeks.. I'll be spending most of my time, night or day, rain or shine in the office. In fact the time now is 6.00 am, aku baru aja habis keja. 8.30 am masuk kerja semula.. Harap2 sempat aku update blog pasal world cup finale (..yg aku sure akan aku tonton beramai-ramai di pejabat).

Phew! Here we go..

Reality? Only in Malaysia

One night on a very popular reality tv show...

"..Jangan hisap ganja. Jangan hisap dadah. Amalkan hidup sihat... (audience gasp in shock)."

Another night on the same reality tv show...

"..kita dapat saksikan pelbagai jenis persembahan malam ini. Ada yang berpakaian seperti nigger, bukan awak tapi rambut awak la, haha.. (audience laughing hysterically)."


Guess which statement is wrong, rude, inappropriate and needed a written and live telecast apology..?


Nigger is a term used to refer to black people. When used by non-blacks, it is considered extremely derogatory. The word traditionally has been associated with an often casual contempt, a racist assumption of black inherent inferiority, even of bestiality, making it extremely pejorative.
- www.wikipedia.com

I'm not trying to cause a stir, defend or attack anybody. Just merely making a point how ignorant and nescient some people could be.

Nathalie Kelley

Went to see Fast & Furious : Tokyo Drift last night.
Lame storyline.
Crap acting.
Nice racing/drifting scene.
If there's no reason for you to go and watch it.. I'll give you one.

Two words : Nathalie Kelley.

pics taken from www.damnimcute.com

We, Rude?

Malaysia objects to capital's "third-rudest" status


KUALA LUMPUR, June 21, 2006 (AFP) - Malaysia on Wednesday hotly disputed a global survey that found its capital Kuala Lumpur was the third rudest in the world, saying it was renowned for its friendly people.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the widely publicised Reader's Digest magazine survey of politeness levels in 35 cities could create a negative impression of Malaysia.

"We can question the tests used in the survey because I understand one of our attractions to foreign tourists is the friendliness of our people," he told the official Bernama news agency.

Reader's Digest used three tests in the surveyed cities: dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help; checking how often shop assistants said "thank you", and counting how often someone held a door open.

The rudest cities in general were in Asia, where eight out of nine cities tested finished in the bottom 11.

Mumbai in India came off worst while New York was rated the most courteous.

Tourism is Malaysia's second-largest foreign exchange earner, but it has struggled to create a service culture to rival neighbours like Thailand and Singapore.

- from Lanka Business Online website

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Kuala Lumpur is the third rudest city in the whole freakin' world? We are even ruder than, what, the people of Togo or Angola..? (..not saying that they are rude). And the most courteous city in the world is New York? Are u serious..?

We, rude? This is absurd!


Or are we really are...*gulp* rude?


Well.. let's see. This morning while driving to work I was :-

• shown the finger once by an old chinese guy on motorcycle
  
• my que is being cut about 10 times mostly by lady drivers and I had to step on the emergency break every single time
• the parking attendance at my office blew his whistle angrily at me because I was 0.0021 seconds slow for not moving my car forward
• bumped into a colleague inside the elevator, gave a smile, he doesn't care
• scolded by another colleague screaming '..cepat la!!' because I asked her to hold the door for me.

And it's only 9.30 am.

KL people rude..? Hmm.. Malaysia Boleh!

New entertainment centre in town!

What better way to celebrate the completion of my thesis than... go watch a movie! Me and my girlfriend went to Cineleisure in Damansara to watch Cars, the latest animation movie by Pixar. Well the movie was of course very entertaining (..it's Pixar!). I really enjoyed the racing scenes in the movie although it was animated. Watching Cars, you tend to forget that there is no human character in the movie, because the filmmakers managed to create humanlike characters through those talking cars. Somehow it's believable. Go watch it.. and don't forget to watch the cameo of a very famous Formula One driver towards the end of the movie. It's damn funny..

Enough about the movie, what I really wanted to write about is the new cinema in town, Cathay Cineplex at Cineleisure, Damansara. I first heard about it last month, and I just had to check it out. The building is owned by Cathay organization and it promises to be a complete entertainment centre. Well, by the look of it, it is far from complete but the cinema halls are excellent and so far the best in the country, in my opinion. The concourse area is well-designed and quite spacious. The tickets counters are cleverly placed at the centre complete with monitors on every counters so that cinema patrons can easily picked their seats. The concession area sells everything from the usual popcorn and coke and even kacang puteh. Cathay definitely wanted the patrons to reminisce those early days of cinema with kacang puteh and asam boi. Thank god there's no kuaci though.

There's 10 cinema halls that come equipped with DOLBY DIGITAL SURROUND, DTS and SRD. The sound system for me is excellent. It really justifies the ambience of the cinema hall. While watching Cars, the sound of the car engines roars from the front and side speakers and you could feel the crisp quality digital sound. Full marks for the audio department. The widescreen is very large and the picture quality is very good. What I really, really like about the cinema hall is the seats. It is very ergonomic and plush. The distance between your seat and the front seat is 1.1 metre, that means more legroom and comfort. My constant problem of numb, dead legs while sitting through a 2 and a half hour movie is now finally gone. It certainly makes movie watching a more comfortable experience.

The online booking system is excellent (..I tried) and you could book your ticket 21 days in advance. Now that's good. There's also this little hall called The Picture House that shows independent award winning movie, and you can host a little movie party there complete with food and beverages at the Preview Lounge. And I read somewhere they even broadcast World Cup matches inside the cinema halls but I don't know if that's true.. Awesome.

There's still a lot of empty floors and shoplots inside Cineleisure and although the place is yet to be completed, I expect Cineleisure to be a favourite place for moviegoers to hang out in the near future. In the Cineleisure website the 'coming soon' attractions include retail outlets, fast food chain, service outlets, bowling and the biggest, most sophisticated gaming facility with over 150 PCs and gaming consoles in a place called E2MAX where you can fight one-on-one on the big screen where the whole mall can see you battling it out with your friends. Can't wait for that one!

Go catch a movie there and tell me what you think..

Links :

• Cathay Cineplex website
• Cineleisure website
• Singapore's E2MAX
  

What? No night classes anymore?!

Finally...

After almost a month of not enough sleep, constant headache and a really sore back... A month of overdosing on caffeine, nicotine, Black Forest chocolate, chewing gum's sugar and potato chip's MSG... I managed to submit my final year thesis last week. Woohoo..!

During the completion of my thesis, I had to thank my friends for their help and support. The lecturers and supervisors for their guidance (..or lack thereof). My girlfriend for helping me out with the DFD chart (thanks babe). And also to this little known place called MyMart in Jln Peel that provided us with 24 hours of FREE wireless internet service complete with power sockets and extensions. If you're wondering what MyMart is, it is a convenient store similar to 7-Eleven but they provide tables, chairs, TV, radio, cooling fans, free internet and cheaper goods (.. RM4.70 for a pack of Marlboro 14s? Thank god.). During the last two weeks, we definitely treated MyMart as our home. So, thanks guys..

It's over… Finish… My sacrifice has finally paid off. 3 years of juggling time between work, study and life in general. 3 years of hard work and determination. I have to admit, part time studying is hard, especially if you work in an office where the term 'office hours' doesn't really end at 5 PM. And I had to steal, borrow and beg literally, to pay for my studies (nearly 20K to be exact.. there goes my wedding reception!). But at the end of the day, it's all worth it.. The satisfaction is priceless.

..counting the days to the convocation. :)