PR Vs BN: A case of Lampa-Palan?

Published August 27, 2008 in Malaysia oh Malaysia. 0 Comments

So, DS Anwar Ibrahim won the Permatang Pauh by-election. I am sure the result does not surprise many. However, I was quite surprised that he still managed to win with a bigger majority compared to what his wife achieved on March 8th. Considering all the effort by the BN camp but still fail to make a single dent to the result is simply amazing to say the least.

Monkey drawings on a bananaIt was only a few days back when KJ (I think) confidently declared they are out to bury Anwar’s political career. Later, it was DPM DS Najib Tun Razak or the BN candidate (what is his name again?) that said they are confident of winning with 500 or 5000 majority. I am sure that they knew then that they didn’t stand a chance against Anwar. Their goal probably wasn’t to defeat him but just to reduce his winning majority. Despite all that, they still failed.

So now that Anwar has won the by-election, what is next?

Firstly, he is definitely on his way into Parliament and staying put for many years to come lest he ends up behind bars. Next, he may pull some tricks out of his magic bag ala David Copperfield style for the September 16th deadline. Then, maybe a few more cents reduced from the current petrol price together with other promises he made in the past.

The comments I have read and heard for the past few months have been mostly of supportive nature towards the PR camp. Call me a skeptic but I am in the group of people who doesn’t think BN or PR will make any much difference.

As I view it, politics is just another form of business. Politicians are the business owners, the people are the consumers and there are other shareholders/stakeholders.

A bunch of bananasOne company (A) has been monopolizing the market for over 50 years now. Then three smaller companies merged into one company (B). Their mission is to break the former company’s monopoly in the market and to try to monopolize it for the next 50 years or so.

You see, it really doesn’t matter who controls the market — company A or B. Company B may claim that they provide better service and quality products. At the end of the day, they are still businessmen. If there is only one thing in a businessman’s mind, it has got to be making money.

I don’t blame them. Like I said, politics is just like business. Unless and until politicians behave like they are running a nonprofit organization instead of a business, PR or BN makes no difference. PR or BN…will it become another case of lampa-palan?

Monkey eating banana pationately

Wait a minute. If politics become “nonprofit”, just who on earth would want to be in politics? Who am I kidding? Even a kid wouldn’t fall for that.

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Not Too Afraid On Hungry Ghost Festival Day

Published August 14, 2008 in Personal and Thoughts. 3 Comments

It’s quite strange to go off for dinner and to return into an empty office at 8.30pm. Usually, there will be at least a handful of people still hanging around doing their thing.

Then, I chuckled.

When I was out for dinner a while ago, I saw a banner hung out on the first story window with Chinese words written all over it. There were only two things that I understood – “14/8/2008 to 15/8/2008” and “hungry ghost festival”.

Hot and sexy ghost in whiteI guess everyone must have gone back home early because of this. Either that or they are rushing home to watch the Olympics. In fact, my girlfriend warned me and told me not to go home too late tonight. “Before 12 midnight!” was her order.

I don’t know much about the hungry ghost festival but I know that this is when it is believed that the gates of hell opens and the dead will walk with the living. I remember some Chinese shows I used to watch when I was much younger. Those movies used to scare the shit out of me.

There will also be these performances held to entertain both the living and the dead. If I am not mistaken, the front row seats are always “vacant”. Well, at least to us humans of course. I wonder if anyone has ever seen an occupied front row before. Have you?

Then, there is the big question — “Aren’t you afraid of ghosts?”

Hell yeah I am afraid of ghosts. Who said Christians aren’t afraid of ghosts? Since young, if you were always scared and threatened with ghosts or little “invisible beings” (by friends, elders or television), do you think that has no affect on one’s mind when they grow up?

So am I shivering in my pants now? Not really.

Sexy ghost in white costumeWhy should I be any more afraid than what I already am of these two days when the gates of hell opens and all the ghosts are let loose? What can they do? Appear out of a sudden beside me with their 4 feet long hair covering their head? Climb out of the television set while I am watching the Olympics? (5 rings. Get the joke?) Knock on my window on their motorbike asking me directions to the nearest hospital when I am living on the 10th floor?

I am not making fun of anyone/anything. Those that have moved on onto another life deserve the utmost respect. Individuals’ believe deserves as much. The thing is that we are living in a world 24/7/365 where some deem to be far worse than hell. I have been literally living in fear for the past few months. Although the intensity of fear changes as each event evolves. What are these two days compared to that?

I believe I don’t need to elaborate on that point.

Happy Hungry Ghost Festival!

* Note: I couldn’t find any suitable photos on flickr with the ghost theme. Those two are what I found searching for “ghost”. Anyway, ghosts shouldn’t always be portrayed as bad looking and ugly. We have enough of those smoking cigars dressed up in suits.

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Malaysia Today Website Hacked?

Published July 31, 2008 in . 3 Comments

It was a little strange to visit the Malaysia Today website moments ago only to find it going absolutely berserk. That is, the blog kept refreshing itself thus it was unable to display the content.

A quick check on the source code reveals the evil behind it all.

Malaysia Today website Hacked? 31/07/2008

<META http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://malaysia-today.net/2008/">

One line of code that did some minor harm (considering that it only happened for a couple of minutes).

What the code does:
When you load the Malaysia Today website, the code tells the browser to open up the link http://malaysia-today.net/2008/ in 0 seconds — which literally means immediately. When you reach the above link, which is the same Malaysia Today website, the same code appears thus calling the browser to constantly refresh itself.

That was the cause of the website refreshing itself madly as if it was having mad cow disease. Here is a link to Wikipedia on Meta Refresh.

I wonder if someone managed to tamper with the website’s files or someone within the MT-TEAM screwed up badly.

I am not sure what could have happened to the website if this were to happen for a longer period of time. During the election period back in March, the Malaysiakini website was inaccessible (through the domain name) because the DNS servers blocked requests to Malaysiakini.com after receiving an enormous amount of request in such a short period of time. The same thing could or could not have happened to MT.

**********

Ah, just when I was about to publish this post, the Malaysia Today website is doing the mad cow dance again.

Someone screwed up or someone is being screwed?

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Free 1 Month True Fitness Membership For RM30

Published July 22, 2008 in Personal. 1 Comment

A few months ago when I started working in PJ, I had a strong urge to go to the gym. My body is really out of shape (was it ever in shape anyway?) and I really had to do something about it. I must have looked like I am a couple of months pregnant with my belly sticking out. I need a solution quick before my “water breaks”.

True Fitness lounge area looked amazingThe True Fitness center at Jaya 33 Petaling Jaya is nearby where I work and the place looked really amazing from the outside. I was very much tempted to have a peak at the inside. One day after work, I drop by the fitness centre to have a look at their facilities and what packages they have to offer. The place is truly amazing. They even have an open air swimming pool on the forth floor. There is also a spa there. However, Homo sapiens with scrotums are not allowed in it. Damn it.

After the tour, I sat down together with the counselor and discussed about the packages. I was offered quite an affordable deal but I still wasn’t sure if I really needed/wanted it. I do not want to tie myself down with a contract and end up not fully utilizing the gym. I told him I will think about it and left.

A few weeks later, I was fortunate enough to be able to get my hands on a coupon with a 1 month “free” full-membership access trial. I bought it from a friend for RM30. I wonder why they call it FREE. KNN.

Moving on…

I packed my bag and headed to the gym happily knowing that I will be able to try it out for one month before signing anything. Little did I know what was waiting for me.

I was served by a different counselor this time. After showing me around the fitness centre (again — it is their procedure), I told her I did not want to sign up yet and wanted to try it out for a month before deciding. She excused herself and went into the office, only to return with a more senior employee. That was when I started feeling extremely uncomfortable — very much like having something stuck up in my arse.

True Fitness made me feel very uneasy up in the butt

This guy was very pushy. “Shooting” me with all the sales talk he must have learnt from the “Sales Talk Boot Camp”. Even after 10 to 15 minutes of saying NO, I was still getting no where with my membership trial. It felt very much like being cheated into thinking I was getting a free shag but only to be told to sign a commitment letter while having to pay for the service monthly. Well, at least I am guaranteed of several humping sessions per week for the next 12 months, right? F…

True Fitness sales talk extremely pushyAfter deep consideration between tearing the free 1 month True Fitness membership coupon and signing up for a 12 months package, I decided on the latter. I really needed and wanted to workout. The bitterness I felt was simply due to how I was coaxed into signing up.

After getting home, I didn’t feel any better after finding out numerous complaints about True Fitness over the Internet. I felt miserable. I then called one of my best butt friends whom have been a gym-goer for the past 3 years or so. I told him about my experience at True Fitness and this was (more or less) what he said.

The tactics used by the sales people is common. They will try their best to push their customers to sign up. Since you had a 1 month free pass, they will be multiple times more pushy on you.

The tsunami feeling I had in me suddenly disappeared. I was enlightened. “No wonder that fella was so damn blardy pushy lah!”, I told him. After that conversation, I no longer have the bitterness I had earlier on.

It is now over one and a half months since I started working out at True Fitness. I have to say that apart from not being able to save a little more each month, I have no regrets in joining this fitness centre. There aren’t any hard feelings between me and the “pushy guy”. In fact, he is a pretty nice guy whom I have had a few good chats with in the past few weeks. I even thanked him for being pushy on me.

Working out at True Fitness to lose weight and stay healthy

I wouldn’t completely write off the complaints targeted at True Fitness though. When there is smoke, there must be fire. To be fair to them, I am sure other fitness centers such as Fitness First, California Fitness etc do have their critics and complaints as well.

Some of the things I learnt from this experience include, read and understand the damn contract before signing it, never tell them that you have a credit card (if you do not want to sign up) and just be thick skin and tell them straight in the face that you are just there for the free trial, nothing more.

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Survived My First Business Presentation

Published July 18, 2008 in Personal. 5 Comments

I did my very first business presentation yesterday. Before I was assigned this task together with several other colleagues, I was asked the million dollar question — “Have you ever done a presentation before?”

I sheepishly replied, “Errr…yes…back in my university days”.

Naturally, that wasn’t a very comforting reply. Nevertheless, I was given the chance to shoulder the responsibility and was given between 10 to 15 minutes to finish my part of the presentation.

All these while, I have only been involved in the development process behind the scenes and meeting up existing clients for support and further enhancements. Therefore, this is a totally new experience for me. Needless to say, I was very nervous.

Man conducting business presentation with large audienceI only had a couple of days to rehearse my slides. Since most of the slides weren’t prepared by me, I needed to do some research on the things mentioned in the slides. The last thing I want is to get caught with my pants down not prepared during the Q&A session.

I started rehearsing my slides only on the night before the presentation. I did a few more rehearsals with my colleagues a few hours before it and that has helped me in preparing a lot.

My presentation went O-K. Well, there were one or two minor hiccups in between but very much acceptable to me. I have learnt a lot by observing how others conduct their presentations. Maybe I should have searched for some tips on how to conduct a successful business presentation first to better prepare myself. Oh well, maybe next time.

At least I know that I survived my first business presentation.

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