The most mundane and dreaded is all done

With that kind of title... you must be wondering what the heck I'm talking about.

Quite simple, really. THREE words: Income Tax Submission.

Have you done yours yet? If you haven't done so yet... are you waiting until it hits 11:59:59 on 30 April 2007?

One word of advice: Get it done early and you might just avoid the probability of a server crash of sorts due to the pressure of heavy traffic experienced by the servers on that very last day.

You know it... I know it... we all love to procrastinate over things we don't usually like to do.

So, after all said and done... you should know that the e-hasil web submission module on the LHDN website is really easy to use and it took me just about 5 minutes to get all the information keyed in.

Believe it or not... that is probably like 5 times faster than the time it took me to find all my 2006 income tax related information (documents and receipts for filing) and to draw out the relevant numbers.

F1 GP 2007: Sepang , Malaysia

The race has just ended and it was a fantastic one to watch. The McLaren team led by Ron Dennis had put in a tremendous amount of effort to bring their cars up to be on par with the Ferraris (winner of the Melbourne race just three weekends ago)... and it had really paid off for them with 2-time defending world champion Fernando Alonso coming in 1st and rookie Lewis Hamilton in 2nd.

I also see that Hamilton will be a big player in F1 in the years to come after seeing how he expertly edged his way from 4th on the grid to be ahead of both Raikkonen (3rd on grid) and Massa (pole on grid)... and subsequently defended his provisional 2nd place spot in the race while allowing his teammate Alonso to widen his time gap with the Ferraris prior to the first round of pit stops.

It also seemed that the Ferrari team was caught speechless with the tide being in favor or McLaren. Massa who ended in 5th too didn't make it any better for the team. He seemed to have lost the spirit to earn back the 3rd place spot that he lost after losing control of his car in an attempt to overtake Hamilton (a few laps before the first pit stops) coming out of a turn and ended up driving over the curb and some grass.

The next few paragraphs... comes in spurts and may not connect with one another.

Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber (probably the longest serving driver in the Petronas sponsored team) - he did a good job finishing in 4th for the second race in a row.

Nico Rosberg had once again become a victim to the Williams' car unreliability that he is now rather familiar with. That's really unfortunate since things were really looking good for him. He could have earned some points if the car hadn't died in the last leg of the race.

Ever notice that world champions have a tradition after winning a race? The legendary Michael Schumacher will jump and punch the air on the podium. Fernando Alonso has a more amusing quirk - he does a silly little jig (and it is a different jig for each race won) on top of his car after he climbs out of the cockpit in the parking area next to the designated podium area.

Did anyone notice that there are a lot of British drivers in the line up this year followed by the Germans?

One last thing... it is beginning to look a lot like we are going back into the days of Ferrari vs McLaren. A neck and neck fight to the end - or will it? As Murray Walker once said - The opposite of F1 is "if".

p/s: If you want to look for a laugh... google up Murray Walker quotes and read them... he is famous for spitting out words with enthusiasm and quite often stating the obvious or plain old goofing things up.

F1 GP 2007: The Iceman Cometh?

I wanted to say this for some time... this could very likely be Kimi Raikkonen's year in F1. He finally has a very decent car to drive - a smoldering red FERRARI. When he was a wild card rookie for Sauber Petronas in 2001... he did pretty good tremendously well during his time driving in a mid-range car. That's why I believe that he will one day be a world champion in F1 racing.

However, I do wonder if Alonso will still be able to defend and retain his title in the somewhat more unreliable (historically speaking) McLaren in the past few F1 racing years? He had a good start coming in second in Melbourne but will destiny continue to smile brightly for this young gun?

Relatively speaking, his understanding on how to get the best out of the car he is driving could be compared to that of Michael Schumacher. How else can you explain why Fisichella who is put into an almost always similarly set up Renault in 2005 and 2006 cannot deliver the results that Alonso showcased? Whatever it is, I'd still like to see Alonso in the top 5 at the very least... and to spice it up, a close fight between Alonso and Raikkonen would be spiff-spanking purrrfect.

Hmm... what about new drivers like Nico Rosberg? I hope to see if he can continue to bring out the sparks of brilliance he demonstrated in 2006. He showed much promise in some of the qualifying rounds and in laps before car reliability issues poked its ugly head out to kill any hope of raking in points for the Williams-Cosworth team.

And in case any of you haven't quite figured it out yet... I'm a fan of F1 and not strictly supporting a particular team. I truly enjoy watching how the drivers dish out their skills against all odds on-the-track (including team strategies that turn out awfully horrific in nightmarish proportions)... and occasionally... it's just nice to find out if the BMW Sauber team (as it is known today) is making any headway into fighting it all out with the big kahunas.

Oh yeah... that goes for the the Toyota team too since they are a relatively young team in F1 - having entered the fray only in 2002 with high expectations of making it into the top team in something like 5 years. That's pretty ambitious and we know they didn't really make it as a top team yet. They are aiming to win in their 6th season (tsk, tsk, lofty, lofty, but to be successful you need to aim high - real high).

Here's a quick look at how Toyota has fared over the years:
<key> 'team position at end of season'/'total number of teams' in season or year
10/11 in 2002 (ho-hum... the back-marker days)
8/10 in 2003 (still in the back-marker days)
8/10 in 2004 (yup... still in their back-marker days)
4/10 in 2005 (whoa, nelly! now that is a huge improvement!)
6/11 in 2006 (oops, a drop! back to the drawing board to crank it way up...)

Phew... I'm done FOR NOW!

You'll see more of my F1 ramblings as the season rolls on until the end of the year... haha!

Feast for your eyes

Is there a theme to this? Maybe and maybe not.
I just like how they look together as a collage.

A penny for your thoughts?

A short trip to Singapore

Yup... that's right. I was on a short trip to Singapore mainly for one Cheryl Tang's wedding dinner... but on the side, I've met up with some people - both planned an unplanned.

It all started on Saturday morning at the Penang airport where I bumped into Lay2 and found out that she was on the same flight to Singapore - but she's on transit for a direct flight to L.A. from Changi for her holiday. Then landing in Changi, there was Geraldine coming out of the same flight. G is also on transit to L.A. but she is on a business trip and has an indirect route to L.A. from Changi.

After some small talk, I introduced the two gals to one another... whom btw works in the same MNC but did not know each other 'til now. Then it was off for some light lunch and more chatting in one of the makan joints within Changi airport.

At about 1:30pm, it was time for me to say goodbye and make my way into town to meet up with my dear old friend Pinky! It was really good to see her again after such a long time. More chatting (but of course!) before I go off to check into the hotel and get ready for the wedding dinner.

Pinky and moi (in all my travel gear looking like I've hiked for miles)

Having checked into the hotel - I had to quickly get my things together, take a shower, dress up and make sure that the ang pau is in my dinner bag.

Arriving at the Four Seasons Hotel at just about 7:00pm, I rushed up to the ballroom only to find out that I was early. Chinese wedding dinners in Singapore are no better than the ones we have in Malaysia - it also starts roughly one to one-and-a-half hours after the time stated on your wedding invite.

Oh well! So much for that. Being early has its upside though... I get to catch up with a bunch of my ex-colleagues-cum-friends who are based in Singapore.

A word about the hotel and the food... a really grand place (think E&O but a notch better) with really good food.

And now a word about the bride. For once... Cheryl is looking demure and very lady like in a DRESS. Yes, a dress. No pants and no crazy hairdo. It's something all of us get to appreciate for once in a life time only.

After the dinner, I got a ride back from the ever adorable Lynn. I guess she doesn't drive in the city often since she had to refer to a Singapore street atlas.

On Sunday, I checked out early and walked to the nearest MRT station to make my way to my cousin's place. It had started to rain lightly and luckily for me... I had a small umbrella with me. Yay! I met Renu at the Simei station and had breakfast at some place round the corner. She had baby Ethan with her... her 6-month old little cutie. Basically after that, we took a walk to her home and I spent my time there until it was time to leave for my flight in the afternoon.

That's me with Ethan... he's just started teething so he's the King of Biting for now

Erm... yeah...

Did anyone read about the "Anti V-Day" thing?

It's outrageous! It's VILE!! V-day is already heavily commercialized and now... the commercialism engines are also trying to lasso the market consisting of people-who-are-not-into-the-crass-commercialism-of-V-day? It's more than VILE!!!

p/s: Oh yeah, oh yeah! More than 1 post in Feb.

pp/s: Hmm... EVIL is an anagram of VILE...

EDIT: One more thing... Happy Chinese New Year and happy holidays. Image (right): Copyright 2000-2007 Neopets, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used With Permission.

Randomly... Trinity Blood

Just because. There's really nothing much to write about. People know that I don't blog often because I no longer feel the burning need to plug in a post as often as when I first started doing this. Call me smug. I just don't feel it in my fingers... not when I've been doing this for what? 5 years now? Oh yea.. that new swanky archive list is telling on me. It has some statistical information.

Anyway, I can't begin to gush how much I appreciate DVDs nowadays. I've watched Trinity Blood like say... at least THREE times now. The early episodes at least once via the screenings on NTV7. Then I got pissed off at the normally not very great transmission and occasional non-existence of subtitles.

So what did I do? Go get the Trinity Blood, Ep. 1-24 (End) from a shop like Tower Records. Didn't manage to find the DVD set so I settled for the VCD. So I watched it all and listed down the 2 reasons why I should go get an exchange for a better set... there were FIVE annoying video blackouts in Ep. 9 and the audio in Ep. 18 did not sync to the video. So back to the shop I went and talked to the girl there. She said I was lucky that I didn't come a day earlier. The stock just came in. Would I like to exchange it for the DVD set that comes with the soundtrack too? Hell yeah I would.

Btw, did I mention that the DVD set was cheaper by RM 9? That meant that I had to seek out some cheap DVD and VCD to make up the RM 9 difference... shop policy, no cash refund. But I wasn't going to complain coz it is giving me a chance to get a reasonably priced original DVD (found one I wanted).

And so anyway, back to watching Trinity Blood but on the DVD this time round. Finished Ep. 11 as of last night. I am extremely glad that I exchanged that darn VCD set for the beautiful DVDs. The colours are jumping out instead of the pixelation thing that is a known disease for anything put into VCDs. I know I am babbling. But I can't help myself when I can appreciate the beautiful artwork in its entirety.

And so people... this I present to you as my posting for the month of February (and it might be the only one).

2006 as I would remember it (a delayed post)

On a personal front, 2006 is the year that

my love of reading (and hence purchasing of books) had been ultimately rekindled beyond the point of no return; anime DVDs started to make an appearance in my stack of precious DVDs and VCDs; I seriously under-rate myself and am not as invisible as I think I am at times; has tormented tested me mentally; I finally took a long break from the working world; I kissed goodbye to an amount of cash that was enough to pay for a tour to Europe since I was careless enough to lose a credit card and not notice it gone until almost 4 days later; I also lost my dear Sony Erisson T610 along with a hefty amount of contacts with it... but managed to get a free replacement in the form of a Sony Ericsson K510i since dad decided to coin it as a Christmas present... and besides, he got it cheap during his working trip to the US of A *muchos gracias dad*; and some of my closest friends got married and a few became (or will be becoming) parents.

In the world of sports, 2006 is the year that

the World Cup took place in Germany, the Italians won the coveted cup despite the high-profile Serie A corruption scandal taking center-stage back home, while Zinedine Zizou Zidane (in his retirement year and match) did the most unfathomable thing by butting Materazzi with his head during the finals match; Andre Agassi took a bow out from the world of tennis; the legendary Michael Schumacher, seven-time winner of the F1 GP driver's championship, announced his decision to retire from racing... while Alonso proved his mettle by winning the driver's championship for the second year in a row.

And as for other things in general, 2006 is the year that witnessed

a continued occurence of suicide bombings in various places around the world, as the fight against terrorism rallies on; the ousting of Thaksin Sinawatra as Prime Minister from our neighbouring country of Thailand; the worst flooding in a century in the southern regions of West Malaysia; Asia being literally cut out from the rest of the Internet world when two major cables in the sea (linking Asia to US and hence the world since there is no major direct link going through Europe) were damaged due to a post-Christmas earthquake in Taiwan; a circus of a court trial against Saddam Hussein in Iraq which resulted in his hanging *it was a matter of time, a highly inevitable event* on the eve of Aidiladha (Dec 30)... bringing about the divided reactions from leaders and civilians around the world.

Looking back, heading forward

It's been almost 2 months since I quit my job and I'm most certain that it had been the best decision I have ever made in my life. I've made it a point that my personal health (physical, mental, spiritual, etc.) will always come first.

It had taken me a long time to pin-point that enough was enough. I knew I was hitting a brick wall as thick and long as the Great Wall of China - I was putting in everything that I could to cover the immediate and apparent needs (a vast amount of it too) yet there was always another few things niggling at the back of my mind for the long term that needed detailed planning and analysis.

Honestly, I began to think that I should have three heads, six hands and three computers to work it all out... erm... huh? I don't want to become a super mutant workaholic. I just want to be a normal tween with a decent job that doesn't suck my soul into an endless pit.

Life should essentially be in a balanced equilibrium where your mind can go home with you to focus on all else that is important (e.g. family or friends or leisure) when you leave the office without having work being at the forefront of your mind (even when you are on holiday).

So now that I had time to think and all... it's time to housekeep and update my resume. All I need to do now is to crack my brain over what stays, what goes, and what gets added into that itty-bitty piece of information sheet that can help me gain some interviews and a new job sometime in the near future.

Until then... I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

"Cinta" by Kabir Bhatia: A Notable Local Movie

If you have been piqued by the trailers of Cinta on our local telly, have seen and loved watching Love Actually - this is one movie that you should not miss!

I've always waited for the day that Malaysians will be proud of a local movie and it is finally here!

In a nutshell, this movie unfolds five unique love stories - the most poignant story being about Cikgu Elyas (Dato' Rahim Razali) who has Alzeimer's and a kind shopkeeper Cik Rubiah (Fatimah Abu Bakar). You can read a little more about the movie from CinemaOnline.

Most importantly, the movie didn't feel like it was nearly 2 hours long. It was well-cut, not draggy (i.e. portions of Puteri Gunung Ledang and Rain Dogs), light-hearted, and easy to relate too. The cinematography is comendable but something could be done about the colour... at times the lighting appeared slightly poor and the actors looked like they are behind shadows.

Verdict: I love this movie and strongly recommend movie buffs in Malaysia to go watch this. You won't regret it unless you live only on action films!

ps: if Dato' Rahim Razali seems like a familiar name and face... that's because he was one of our foremost and probably the nation's best sports-caster. He is now retired from sports reporting and dedicated to the theatre and arts scene.

Robosapien v2 commercial

OMG.... hahaha...!!! This is really cute, funny, and entertaining.

You guys ought to go watch the Robosapien v2 commercial. A toy robot with an attitude indeed. *cracks up*

The Two Weddings... and a handphone

Mich C. finally said her vows and had her whole wedding do yesterday - a year after her whirlwind romance that led to a proposal within two months of her relationship with Paul.

Oh, and she's the second of my friends who decided to get married on her birthday.

Okay... that's one. Later on the same day, I was to meet up with project JD team (aka Dan's wedding planning sub-team consisting of ex-student councillors)... and because I texted the groom-to-be to confirm the venue... and conveniently forgot that I left my handphone on my lap before leaving from Mich's lunch do...

I lost my trusty old Sony Ericsson T610. Darn it! How careless of me...

So in other words, if I happen to ask who you are when you call me on my replacement (oh! it's still the same number - I just barred the missing SIM card)... you now know why :P

Goodbye braces, hello retainers!

This morning... my orthodontist took out my braces. It feels really good to feel the smooth front of my teeth again after 2.5 years!

Anyhow, I shall keep it in mind to wear my retainers once I get them this Wednesday. It would be a waste of cash to have my teeth moving back to it's all crooked-glory after spending a fair amount of $, time, and a little suffering.

How did the frog get into the house?

Seriously, I have no idea. This was what happened a few nights ago.

Mum: Girl, open the door. I need to take the frog out.
Me: ??? Frog? How did it get in in the first place?
Mum: <gives some theory about how it may have followed my grandpa in>
Me: <thinks mum made up that theory... it's crap>

Then mum came out from the back with a little brown frog in the dustpan... and we left it on the pavement just outside the gate... where it sat around for a while... before it hopped away into the night.

It's small enough to sit on your palm

Pseudo-spooked

As I was getting into my car to drive it into the house compound, it suddenly hit me that there were shadows in the night and candle lights floating in the air. What the...?????

Puzzled and startled for a second there but not freaked out to kingdom-come... I quickly figured it out. It was actually some neighbour with their family members (and a Taoist monk) coming down from up the road through the thick cloud of haze *yes! we are getting a second major dose of it this year*... and basically, they were just doing something to celebrate the Mid-autumn Festival

...and the floating lights? Those were just lanterns.

Mad About Mooncakes

Huwahahahaha!!! Stocked for the season I am.

Regardless of the moody bouts of rain, dad and I have managed to get to our usual joint to get a whole assortment of mooncakes... enough to last us for the next 2 weeks (I think...)

One thing about buying from a local joint - they don't put english labels on the individual packaging of these mooncakes... and basically... everyone in my house is not what we would call chinese literate...

Yet of course, having attempted to have learnt some chinese during my high school days, I could make out what each of these delicacies contain. Not mum or dad though... (I get the honour of labelling the cakes to tell them what they would be stomaching)

Anyway, I had a mighty good laugh when mum said that she always thought that whatever patterns and characters on the cakes were purely decorative. At least dad knew about the characters - he just couldn't tell what they mean.

Mist-no-more!

Oh yes! I'm finally able to breath in my own car and see where I am driving to during the night!

Having a busted air-conditioning system is not a good thing - ESPECIALLY when it is now more or less the rainy season.

You can easily wind down the window and get some air during clear blue skies but when it's raining, you won't want to wind down the window (even if you need the fresh air) because you and your car interior will get really wet... and whether you wind down the window or not, your windscreen will get misted over.

So, people... make sure you check your and service your car aircon periodically.

I scream. You scream. Everybody Scream!

It's finally done. THE letter has been sent out... and I am tying up the loose ends.

Aside from that, things are starting to roll in the "JD project"... where the old student council gang will once again be part of an event management project... except this time it is more personal - Dan's wedding.

So what's my role in this? It's very much along what I did best back in college... deco. So yeah - I'm once again the deco lead.

And so... that's my once in a blue moon serious update for now... and until then... check out the books & shows that I've been feeding on.

On the Entertainment front:

• The most recent movies I've watched at the cinema are both comedies... namely The Break Up starring Jennifer Aniston & Vince Vaughn; and Click starring Adam Sandler & Kate Beckinsale. Although both movies had messages that are easy to relate to... the latter was something that definitely speaks loud and clear to me.

  Imagine waking up one day realizing that life has gone by and you have nothing that is personally enriching... scary!

• and not to forget... there's also the Japanese animated feature length movies Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and Pom Poko.

  p/s: I still have like another 10 of these movies to go... there was a really good deal at CD-Rama for a box set of it.

• The bookworm in me had been taking in a couple of books by Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

  If you are looking for general knowledge, a new view regarding how news travels and how "intuition" works... look no further. Read these!

Turning Point or...?

The one question that plays on my mind now is am I truly at a turning point or is it just because I'm way overworked?

Anyway, I know some of you may already know that I'm considering to change jobs... but before that... to take a few months off to chillout from the stresses of being in the corporate world.

I really do look forward to having a nice long break... and who knows? Maybe I'll find myself a minimal-wage kind of job for a few months. Maybe a place like Starbucks? I'm just thrilled at the idea of this.

---

Most Recently Watched Movie
~ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Most Recently Read Book
~ Everyone Worth Knowing, Lauren Weisberger

World Cup 2006 Finals Looms Ahead

GERMANY 3:1 PORTUGAL
read more from the official website

With the spectacular 3rd-4th placing game over and Germany having claimed the Bronze, it's now on to the moment that everyone has been waiting for... THE FINALS between Italy & France.

Contrary to Italy's (legendary forward) Del Piero's believe that France will win the cup because France has less pressure against them (i.e. Italy has the shadow cast on them over the alleged match-fixing scandal within the Serie A) - I believe that those same pressure points expressed by Del Piero may actually be the factor that drives them to go on to win the 2006 WC.

But then who knows? The world thought the finals could have been Germany vs. Brazil (but that didn't happen)... I had predicted that the Germans would get to the last 4 (and somehow didn't seem to think they could be in the last 2)... and so... to quote my mum... "The ball is round". So let's all wait and see!