Breakthroughs

I am still here

2010-01-21T12:40:00.003+08:00

I've decided to check out my own blog and realised that my last posting was more than 4 years ago!

How time flies.

My last posting was at the time that I took up a new job at a US based IT multinational company - it was IBM actually.

Coincidentally I have just left IBM for another job in October 2009.

Baby O is now 9 years old and in Standard 2 now.

Mummy O is still is an IT project manager but in a different company. She's didn't change her job though, the company got acquired!

"All good things ...

2005-11-19T22:34:00.000+08:00

…must come to an end.”
- An ancient proverb that dates back as far as 1374.

My Dear Friends

It’s been 5 years and 6 months. It’s been quite a ride. But my journey with this company ends here and today (18 Nov 2005).

In all of those years, I’ve been through many ups and downs and this, is by far the most difficult thing to do – saying “goodbye”.

I wish to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for your support, teamwork and friendship.

A very special thanks to our Group CEO for the opportunity to start up this business.

You can still reach me at my mobile or you email me at xxx@yyyy.com.

Do keep in touch and I wish all of you good health and god speed.

Yours truly,

---

With the above email, I have officially left the company I co-founded more than 5 years ago.

Thus begins a new chapter in my life ...

Time Trek - Part II

2005-10-06T13:02:00.000+08:00

If you have never bought salted fish, you have never visited Kuantan.

In all my years there as a kid, everytime a family friend comes to visit us, they will undoubtedly leave with at least one or two salted fish. So, on our last day in Kuantan, all of us went shopping for you-know-what. Grandpa O really knows how to choose salted fish and it was good to have him around. According to Grandpa O, back in his days (read: the 1940s and 50s), the salted fish used to have worms in them - that's becuase the flies used to lay their eggs when the fish are being dried in the sun. He could still remember my uncle having dinner while little worms were creeping out at side of his mouth! Nowadays, they put some pepper in the fishes to prevent this and they will dry them out on a boat in the middle of the ocean - no flies over there!

We left Kuantan at about 1:00pm and made a detour to visit Grandma O's hometown of Mentakab. It is exactly half way between Kuantan and KL. When we used to live in Kuantan, we'd go back to Mentakab every Chinese New Year and spend at least 3 days with my Grandpa i.e. GreatGranpa O. His wooden house is right on top the the hill and next to the water tower. All our aunts, uncles and cousins would congregate for the dinner, it was a great time, my brother and I had many wonderful times there playing with our cousins and the neighbours. There were more than 25 people in that small house at the time and by night fall, all of us would cram in to 4 rooms to sleep. My grandma used to have all chickens, ducks and turkeys in her back yard. Cooking was a challenging task then - they were using wood fire instead of gas. There were no fridge in the house. Mind you - that was in the late 1970s! The place is now deserted and the house is barely standing. Even the neighbours are different now, none of them knew who we were.

We left Mentakab feeling nostalgic which Mrs. O and Little O have very little idea of what we were really chatting about ....

Time Trek - Part I

2005-10-03T14:15:00.000+08:00

I had an exciting weekend. I went back in time - some 30 years back. Actually it was more like a trip to a small town that I once lived and grew up - Kuantan. It was still very small when I left it back in 1976. I was barely 8 or 9 years old. The best part is not only Mrs O and Little O, but grandpa and grandma O came along too!

We spent 3 days 2 nights at the Hyatt Kuantan. It was wonderful, the Teluk Cempedak beach was just as I remember it. I almost drowned there! With Little O around I made sure that she stays close to the shore! That beach has been know for its strong under currents. Grandma O used to be a teacher in Chung Ching School and one of her students drowned there.

We went to visit our old house - No. 586 Jalan Kemunting. Grandpa O used to be in the civil service and that was one of the government quarters provided when Grandpa O was transferred to Kuantan from KL. I can still remember our first ever telephone and the number - it was 22616, yes it's was only 5 digits back then. The shops I used to buy stuff from was demolished but the telecoms tower behind the house is still there. Back then our little bungalow was the only house in the large and open field, no gates, no fences. Grandma O used to be terrified to be alone at home, especially at night, it sooooo quiet. Our home got burgled not once but twice. The crooks wiped us clean - they took Grandpa O shirts, shoes, undies - everything! Including my piggy bank!

Goodness, why Daniel ?

2005-09-27T09:27:00.000+08:00

That's was Mrs O repsonse when the Malaysian Idol results was aired.

Nita is clearly the better qualified in terms of skills and capability, I guess Daniel was what the young school girls wanted to be their Idol.

Come to think of it, it should not come as a surprise since Daniel has had a strong fan base all along.

Comparing this year's Idol with last year - I would prefer last year's anytime.

Jac is clearly the most talented, experience besides the point but last years' voting atmosphere was also different. The message we got was that Jac is suppose to represent Malaysia for World Idol, and of course the whole nation wanted somebody capable to represent the country.

But this time around - no World Idol bid. So the cute looks and all takes a higher priority. That goes the same for Akademi Fantasia, while I did not follow that show but I am told that Mawi can't sing for nuts and yet he still wins.

This phenomenon reflects that Malaysia is very much a young nation, moreover people who watch these types of show and actually vote are the younger people. Generation X and Y people are definately for tech saavy compared to their parents.

So that's why Daniel won - my 2 cents.

Hornets

2005-09-12T16:43:00.000+08:00

It was 9:46pm Saturday night, Mr. O was reading his book in the master bedroom and upon seeing her daddy reading, Little O went downstairs to pick up her book to join her Papa.

It was when she walked into the room, she started screaming and when Mr. O looked up, a HUGE hornet had just landed right on her chest. Mr. O leapt out of his bed and swept the hornet off the terrified Little O with his bare hands, it fell to the floor and Mr. O smacked the 2 inch long insect with him book. Paralyzed, it laid motionless.

But it was already too late - the hornet had stung Little O on her hip and she crying or rather screaming on top of her lungs. Mr. O checked for the sac of venom left behind by the hornet but it was not there. Papa O gave her a firm hug and tells her it's OK and hornet has gone away. At that moment Mrs. O dashed into the room. Little O kept on crying - the pain and the shock is really getting to her. She started asking for mummy.

20 minutes @ 150kph later we were all at the emergency room Subang Jaya Medical Center. Little O cried all the way there. I made it a point to put the comatose hornet is a plastic bag and showed the doctor and she confirmed that it is a hornet and a very big one.

Our Little O keeps saying "pain pain!!", "ouch ouch!!" and was at the verge of crying. To make matters worse, there was this little boy right next to our corner at the room crying his lungs out for whatever reasons. The curtains were drawn so we could not see what was happening. Upon hearing such painful wails, Little O started to panic and cry again. It was unbearable.

15 more minutes passed and finally the doctor gave her an injection (probably tetanus jab) on the other side of her hip. She laying face down and was not expecting the jab. She jolted and that made it all the more painful. She must be thinking "hornet stung me and it is so painful but when I go to see doctor I get another sting."

The doctor prescribed antibiotics (liquid form) and 2 more medication. We were advised to watch for allergic reactions such as breathing difficulties, people have known to die from allergic reactions from a bee sting. All of that cost Papa O RM122. But Little O was still complaining about the pain (both the sting and jab) all the way home, crying off and on.

At home, she couldn't even lie down on her back and had to sleep face down. We have to keep distracting her from the pain and she finally fell asleep at about 2am.

Poor thing.

Pussy – it’s name of a place.

2005-09-07T20:39:00.000+08:00

Yes it is and it’s not where you think.

It’s a small village in France actually.

For the uninitiated, “pussy” is also an English slang for the human female genitalia.

The name of the place was derived from the word “Pusiacum”, a Gallo-Roman name. But if you read between the lines, it becomes “Pusia-cum”. The root word is “pusus” meaning “little boy”. As an English speaking fellow, this IS the part that I don’t get – “pussy” = “little boy cum”?

As with most European towns, this place has been around for hundreds of years – in 1561 it had 1455 people, in 1776 548 people and in 1979 only 276. Why is everyone leaving Pussy?

In recent yeats it got so small that Pussy and a few other small villages were merged into the La Léchère commune for administrative purposes in 1972.

Now that we’re done with Pussy, we’re off to Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

More Fucking

2005-09-05T12:10:00.000+08:00

Since we were on the topic of Fucking, I took the opportunity to dig deeper more on the Internet. Please note that I was not swearing, the word is spelled with a capital “F”, it is a name of a small town in Austria. If you are not sure what I’m talking about, please read this and this for context.

Apparently, Fucking is a small town of about 150 people, it is part of municipality of Tarsdorf, in the Innviertel region of western Upper Austria, near Salzburg. It's been around since 1070. For those of you who want to get there with a GPS – it’s at 48°02′59″ N 12°50′59″ E . You can even buy Fucking t-shirts when you are there.

I know, it looks inviting ... the t-shirt I mean.

By the way, it is pronounced as "Fooking", please be sure to get it right when you are there and PLEASE say it with a straight face (I know it's HARD) otherwise you may get hurt - "I got injured at Fucking".

Innocently enough, the town was named after a 6th century guy by the name of Focko. And the “-Ing” is supposedly a Germanic suffix to mean “people”; so Fucking means “the place of Focko’s people”. The residents voted to change the name of their hometown in 2004 but finally decided not to. I wonder why …

Our next stop, Pussy and it’s in France.

Zombied

2005-09-04T21:39:00.000+08:00

2 days, 16 tables, 20 pages, 27 slides, 42 forms, 6500 words and it's finally done. I've finished the writing project at 3.42pm, September 4th 2005.

I've slept only 8 hours in the past 2 days and I am such a zombie! I used to be able to go 2 days without sleep and still get back to work. But that was 10 years ago.

I promised Little O that I'd take her out tonight. Mrs. O was also looking forward to visit the latest Tesco at Shah Alam.

So now we're back from the shopping and Mr. O is now writing his blog. Mrs. O and Little O are very happy now and it makes it all worthwhile!

But right now uuggh! I feel very numb all over, and the worst part is that I still have to get up and go to work tomorrow ...

Fucking, Austria

2005-08-30T00:06:00.000+08:00

No, I am NOT swearing. Seriously. This is the name of the place in Austria. It's a small town of 30 odd households.

The biggest problem in this quiet little town is that the sign board get stolen once too often by English speaking tourist! Fucking's mayor, one Mr. Siegfried Hauppl has had new theft-proof road signs installed to stop tourists stealing any more. The new signs are bolted and welded to steel posts. "It would take all night to steal one," says Hauppl. And he's f***ing right. In case your don't know the meaning of the word, read this for context.

The best part of living in this town is you have the license to swear! Luckily this town is NOT in an English speaking country. If it is :

Husband : "Honey I'm going Fucking."
Wife : "And just who are you f***ing?!"
Husband : "No, I meant I'm going to town."
Wife : "OK then, just make sure that you pick up my sister from Fucking."

Or this :

Son/Daughter : "Hi Mom! I just came back from Fucking, look what I've got you!".

And here's some of the things that you shouldn't do when you are in or around this town :

1. Call your wife and she asks you where in the world are you.
2. Yell "I'm coming!" in English.
3. Get lost on your way to Fucking and ask people for directions as in asking a pretty gal : "Hi Miss, can you show me the way to Fucking?".
4. Catch a cab and tell 'em you want to go Fucking - and the driver takes you to a red light district.

Now if you'd excuse me, I have to go get myself a ticket to Fucking.

It never rains but it pours

2005-08-29T15:57:00.000+08:00

It's 3:57pm and I find myself at another Starbucks again. This time, it's the one at the Amcorp Mall, PJ.

At the rate I'm going, I should find the list of all Starbucks in KL and cover each and everyone! That will be an interesting achievement. I have been the following Starbucks so far :

1. Evergreen Hotel, Penang (the one behind it, next to MPH)
2. The Summit, Subang Jaya
3. Amcorp Mall, PJ
4. KLCC, downtown KL
5. Jaya Supermarket, PJ
6. KL Plaza, downtown KL
7. Carrefour, Subang Jaya
8. Ikano Power Center, Damansara
9. 1Utama (new wing)
10. Damansara Uptown
11. Mont Kiara
12. Borders@Berjaya Times square

The are 16 branches in Selangor and 30 branches in KL. That makes 46 and I have only covered 12 out of 46. Maybe we should have a Starbukcs Blogathon! Anyone care to join me? Or do you want to guess which Starbucks I'm going to be at next ?

Now back to the topic of the blog - It's pouring in, the work I mean. I have 4 assignments and 2 proposals due this week and a half. The due dates - 30 Aug, 1 Sept, 3 Sept and two on 5 Sept and 6 sept. But I will definitely try my best to blogs in between breaks!

Speaking of work - Little O was crying all the way to school this morning, after 1 week of holidays, she seemed to have forgotten that schools still exist. Here we go again ...

Happy Merdeka Day!

I'm back ...

2005-08-27T14:11:00.000+08:00

It's 2:11pm, I am back in Penang again. Blogging away at the very same Starbucks except this time the air conditioner has broken down and the technician is fixing it right now. It's raining out there but hot and humid in here. I am sitting right at the main door, trying to catch the cool breeze rushing through. I came all the way from my in-laws' house to escape the heat and now this ... that's life, "coz you'll never know what you're gonna get" so says Mr. Gump.

Speaking of life, it's been a tough 2005. Business is not going well, revenues are down, the company cutting expenses like there's no tomorrow. So much for 5 years of toil.

Personally it's even tougher, making ends meet is becoming a real challenge. While doing part time writing does help somewhat, but I'm still miles away from recovery. That's becuase I've just moved into a new house and renovation expenses has been higher than expected, but that's fine provided I receive the sales commission which was promised. But that didn't happen. Some I'm stuck with a mother load of debts. Some of it from the banks, some from relatives. It totals to 8 to 9 months of my full salary. Right now my salary is half of what it used to be, it's been like this for 4 months already. Keeping up will get even more difficult. Lucky for me Mrs O and Little O have been very kind and loving. Being home alone for the past week made me realise just how much I depend on them.

One thing I've learnt in all this - is that when you start up a business with a few other people, you're never in full control. You can do well on your side but something else happens on the other side, we'll all screwed. It's not that I want to blame others but I feel that I'm not in full control of my destiny.

Next time, I'll be sure start up something on my own.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel ? I sure hope so. I just hope it is not the light of an oncoming train.

In the meantime, I've got some interesting plans going ....

Writing for a living.

2005-08-21T13:08:00.000+08:00

It’s 12:43pm and I am in Penang. At Starbucks to be precise, the one right behind Evergreen Hotel. So what am I doing 365 kilometres from home? I am at my in-laws place, my other half’s home town. While the grandparents are cuddling their little O, Big O here has the chance to slip away and do some work here. Yes, work on a Sunday. But it’s not work really, not when you enjoy it.

Remember my blog on being a writer ? "Pen for hire". I’ve been on the ball for the past 6 weeks, written more than 15,000 words. I’ve never in my life written so much in such a short time. I’ve also made more than RM5,000 and that has been very encouraging, especially for a guy who’s had some serious pay cuts due to the employers’ financial difficulties, not to mention the rising oil prices.

What have I written ? Several articles for a telecommunications magazine, two white papers for MNCs and one advertorial to name a few. I have more coming my way and it is getting to be rather overwhelming. I had to stay up all night last Thursday to finish a white paper to be submitted by the client the next morning, it was the fastest RM1,000 I’ve ever made. It’s tough work, considering the fact that I have to go back to my real work the next morning, looking fresh and all. I was a zombie by noon.

I'm getting good feedback for my work too. I've even bought a few good books on the craft of writing e.g. "On Writing Well" by Willian Zinsser. Great book, a definate must read for aspiring writers.

At the rate that the assignments are coming in, I might as well quit my day job and do this full time! Heck, the income can be much higher than my full time job even! But I’m hesitant, because I do have my financial commitments and being a freelancer means that the income is not that stable. Guess I will have to carry on status quo until or if the freelance income becomes more stable.

Let's wait and see.

How good is your English ? Part I

2005-08-14T21:49:00.000+08:00

There are many pairs of words in English that sound alike but have different meanings.

Can you tell the difference between :

1. Affect and Effect
2. Access and Excess
3. Accept and Except
4. Beside and Besides
5. Compliment and Complement

Hit comment and try to answer it WITHOUT referring to the dictionary.

More tomorrow ....

It's like changing your under wear ...

2005-08-12T10:32:00.000+08:00

Last month 2 of my colleagues bought the new Nokia 3230. One of them had a Sony Ericsson K700i before and only had it for less that one year. The Nokia 3230 was going for about RM1,200.

For me, I still have my Sony Ericsson T610, which I won from the company entry in an industry award sponsored by Ericsson back in 2003 and it’s just over 2 years old. Before that I had a Nokia. 8210.

Someone I know bought a Vertu 4 months ago and it boasts a sapphire scratch proof screen cover with titanium buttons and all, the price? RM25,000. And the data cable connector to the PC costs more than RM500. Talk about being excessive, I can get a 60 inch Sony LCD TV with that kind of money!

Would you spend RM25,000 on this ?

Practically all of the people whom I know do NOT own a mobile phone for more than 18 months. But no one I know has upgraded their TV set for the past umpteenth years, a spanking new 29 inch Sony TV costs less than some of the higher end phones!

Here’s some of their excuses :

1. Left the phone in the back of a taxi

2. Mobile operator is sponsoring the new phone

3. The phone fell into the toilet - believe it or not, I’ve encountered no less than 3 cases! And you definitely don’t want to put that THANG on your face even if you manage to fish it out of the toilet. This happens a lot when you put your phone in your hip pocket and when you drop your pants to do your business .... or worse, it happens right after you finished your business! And what's more, it's not the usual semi solid stuff because you had nasi lemak with lots of sambal belacan the night before. You'll have to think really hard whether you should flush the toilet or not.

4. The phone went wonky after was accidentally dropped and don’t feel like repairing it.

5. The dog ate the phone – just kidding … but there is an urban legend going around those lines.

6. This one happened to a friend of mine in the UK – he was driving with the windows down and he left the phone of the dashboard in front of him, he then made a quick right turn and the phone flew out the window and was run over by a truck! Poor phone, but he managed to salvage the SIM card from the wreck.

7. The vibrator stopped working.

So what’s your reason for changing mobile phones ?

Mobile phones are not really phones these days. It’s with you for at least 8 hours a day. Some people sleep with their phone … I mean use it as an alarm clock. Heck, a mobile phone IS a statement of your lifestyle. It’s your fashion statement, you don’t so much carry your phone, your wear it. It a toy, you play with it. You want to be seen with the latest phone. And Nokia has made a big business out of that. In fact people have described that they "feel naked" without their mobile phone.

Do you know that there is an estimated 14 million mobile phone users in Malaysia? That’s double the Internet users. And Malaysians send/receive more than 2 billion SMS per year. There are 800 million mobile phones on this planet and if the “less that 2 year replacement” rate goes, that’s whopping 400 million replacement unit market a year! No wonder people like Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola, Samsung are pushing new phones like there is no tomorrow!

The Haze, API and Air Purifiers

2005-08-11T21:21:00.000+08:00

The air pollution index or API system that you have been hearing in the news normally includes the major air pollutants which could cause potential harm to human health should they reach unsafe levels. the API system closely follows the PSI system of the United States.

The air pollutants included in Malaysia's API are ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (N02), sulphur dioxide (S02) and suspended particulate matter less than 10 microns in size. FYI, one micron is one millionth of a meter or 0.000001 meter or 0.0001cm.

The index is categorised into various easily understandable range of values,

API DESCRIPTOR
0-50 good
51-100 moderate
101-200 unhealthy
201-300 very unhealthy
>300 hazardous

I stay in Shah Alam, one of the worst hit areas. My last check at the Department of Environment web site shows API reading at 430, up from 371 at 11am. Mrs. O called and said that it is the worst she’s ever seen. So I excused myself from work at about 4:00pm today and shopped around for an air purifier. There aren’t many choices – I ended up with Sharp Ion Plasmacluster FU-440E.

The Sharp Air Purifier is a portable floor standing unit, it measures 41.5cm wide x 58.5cm high and operates very quietly. It even has an air purity indicator – green, amber and red. The FU-440E is suitable for a room of up to 31 square metres.It has 3 layers of filtration, the dust filter, the activated charcoal filter (washable) and the HEPA filter. HEPA stands for High Efficiency Particulate Air filter. It is an extended surface mechanical filter having a minimum particle removal efficiency of 99.97% for all particles of 0.3 micron diameter, it will filter out tobacco smoke, pollen and most types of bacteria. My brother is an industrial engineer and he said HEPA is the stuff they use for the “clean rooms” at the wafer fabrication plants – where they manufacture microchips like Intel and AMD. The fliter can last up to 5 years under “normal operating conditions”. It’s got a Quick Clean function as well. The replacement for the 2 filters will cost approximate RM200, the HEPA filter does cost quite a fair bit. Unfortunately it does not filter out carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.

The price ? Cost me a whopping RM1,499 and it was 5:00pm already, I was coughing and started having burning sensation in my eyes. The guy at the shop said that these units are moving real quick, they sold 8 units in the past 2 days! I loooooked suspiciously at him and asked whether is he artificially inflating the price or not! And of course he said no. Heck we don't expect him to say otherwise, right? Time was not on my side, so I took a deep breath and swiped my Alliance Bank card for a 12 month easy payment scheme, which works out to be RM125 per month. This thing looks good too. It has a very nice and sleek design, it looks high tech.

I was home by about 5:30pm, I took it straight into the master bedroom and set it up immediately. When the purifier starts up, it takes the first 30 seconds to check the air purity levels. The indicator was on amber and after operating for about 30 minutes, it turned green. As I walked in and out the room after that, the air smells different, the burning smell is no longer in the room. I then logged on to the web and checked around for prices - the thing retails in the US from about USD300 to USD499. So RM1,499 is just about right, I'll let him live.

By the way, the purifier also removes odours throught its activated charcoal filter. You will need to wash the filter with water once in a while.

Disclaimer – I do not work at Sharp nor do I sell any of their stuff.

Hope you’ll find this useful.

Get ready for Triple Play

2005-08-07T14:26:00.000+08:00

Triple what ?

Triple play is a term used by telecommunication people for a service that combines video, voice (VoIP) and high speed Internet in one pipe. So what's the big deal? We have all 3 already, right ? We have TMnet Streamyx or rather Screamyx for high speed access, Astro for video/TV services and Telekom Malaysia for voice. I pay RM88 a month for high speed Internet, RM100 for Astro and about RM50 to RM100 for phone calls. That makes 88+100+100 = RM288 a month.

How about having all 3 for RM150 or less? One flat rate, unlimited calls, downloads and 500 channels to choose from. One service provider, better still, one bill.

Telephone operators that used to offer ADSL to homes are now piping video over the same infrastructure. Reason ? They need another source of revenue because voice call revenues are falling under intense competition from people like REDtone or VoIP providers.

New technologies like ADSL2 and ADSL2+ can now go from 6 Mbps to 20Mbps, enough bandwidth for high quality video to be streamed to your home. MiTV is said be using IPTV technology for their service of 50 channels, though the launch date keeps changing. Timedotcom is doing their trials for netTV. If these people get their act right, you will be able to select which TV program you want to watch and when.
So no more fighting over which channels with you family members and you can watch it on your PC even! Pretty soon you can say goodbye to "service temporarily not availble" messages on your Astro screen when it rains. This thing is real and it is happening in the US and Western Europe.

Now there is a an even better trend - industry experts are thinking of combining 3G mobile networks with Triple Play and what do we get ?

Four Play.

Now that is REAL fun.

Oil Peg

2005-08-04T12:22:00.000+08:00

When they announced that the peg is going to a managed float mode, I was very happy. My initia thought was that the appreciating Ringgit would take the pressure off the increasing oil prices. But much to my disappointment - oil prices went up again and this time it's 10 cents! This is the biggest increase so far.

I have a 2 litre car - which used to do RM0.11 per kilometre, up until last week, it was doing RM0.145 per kilometre. With this new increase, it'll probably do RM0.16 per kilometre. Making a road trip to my in laws place in Penang via the North South Expressway used to cost about RM200, now it's going to cost from RM220 to RM240. I hope they woouldn't increase the toll anytime soon, but electricity will be the next to go up. Cost of living is going up - but salary seldom go up as fast.

May be I should buy a scooter and ride on to work! Install solar panels for water heating and solar cells to power the air conditioner.

Better still - may be I should start up a business to market solar cells for houses and buildings. Care to join me ?

Little O

2005-07-29T21:26:00.000+08:00

Two photos of my little O, taken at the age of 3.

Backside

2005-07-27T07:22:00.000+08:00

Mrs. O was wearing tight shorts and washing dishes after dinner.

Little O runs into the kitchen, then slap mummy's rear end and giggles non stop.

Mrs. O : "Wei Shan, why did you hit mummy's backside ??? Where did you learn how to do that ?? "

Little O : *Looking cute and giggle*

Mr. O walks into the kitchen

Mr. O : "Wei Shan, children CANNOT hit mummy's backside one OK ... "
"... only papa has the right to hit mummy's backside."

Mrs. O : " Oi !!! " * flings water and foam at Mr. O *

Both Mr. O & Little O running for cover, launghing and giggling.

Mr. O still doesn't know how or where Little O picked that one up.

And I was very very sure that Little O was fast asleep that night ...

Interviewees from Hell

2005-07-26T07:17:00.000+08:00

There used to be a time when people were just grateful when some one made them a job offer.

There used to be a time when finding a job was very challenging and one would put so much of effort in wanting to win a job.

Gone are those days.

Back in those days, 1990 to be precise, I persistently called up a local IT company (it is listed on the KLSE Main Board today) wanting to speak to the marketing manager about possible vacancy in that business unit. He was never around or perhaps has not the time to return my call. My persistence caught the attention of the systems engineering manager and I was call in for an interview and subsequently hired as systems engineer. I was there for 9 years. 9 years in an IT firm in the 1990s was like 900 years there, that’s because people were changing jobs like crazy. Ex-colleagues used to call me up and said, “Eh? You are still in XXXXX ah ? Just make sure that you don’t become part of the furniture.”. The facts is that the pay was reasonably good, I get promoted once in a while and there are lots of things to learn.

Fast forward to 2005 : One of my managers interviewed an experienced candidate (3 years) that day and I had a look at the resume and OK it. But on the first day of work, before signing his letter of appointment he told us that he expected his salary to be RM4,000 instead of RM3,500 as we agreed earlier. And I told him that making such changes requires the finance department approval etc. and I said that our best offer on the table was what we agreed at RM3,500 per month.

He walked out of the deal.

Unbelievable.

Ungrateful.

Utterly disgusted I was.

He’s lucky I don’t have a Walter PPK in my drawer.

Some how people have come to expect that having a job is a God given right. Having a degree seem to mean that one should “demand” to be offered a job, on their terms. THEIR terms!

Am I on the wrong planet ?

That’s not all.

There were so many other cases I have encountered personally. Most common one is not showing up for the agreed interview and didn’t even bother to call in and inform us.

There were some who turn up. But their language and communications skills are non-existent. Their tenses are wrong, their vocabulary limited – they have Malay words in between English ones, so much so I can’t quite figure out whether the conversation is now in English or Malay. And the list goes on … care to add some ?

Now I know how the judges of Malaysian Idol feel.

First in a C class OR last in an A class? Part II

2005-07-25T10:01:00.000+08:00

OK folks, here’s the conclusion to “Last in A Class or First in C Class?”.

Being the last in A class :

Good when you can rub shoulders with the best and you can (hopefully) learn from them. But child may end up having a self esteem problem when the pressure to perform builds up or the child may feel that she/he is not making progress. This factor depends on the parents as well - Do the parent(s) put undue pressure on the child is the question. May need a lot of attention and encouragement.

Being the first in a C class :

Builds self esteem but the downside is that the child may be mixing with the “bad hats” and pick up the wrong habits. We can only hope that our child end up influencing the rest rather than the other way around.

Which option to go for really depends on this child. If she/he is matured enough and able to handle competition or perhaps even exhibit a competitive spirit then being in an A class would do no harm.

I was in A class in primary, B class in most of my secondary years but I ended up being top 10 in university. I got thrown into a C class once when I was tranferred to a school in K.L. but I climbed up from there but never quite got the the A class. I excelled in that C class and it does feel good to be on top of that hill, for once!

I was a slow learner or a late developer, may be because I’ve always been a playful child! I’ve got the taste of real success during my years in university, scoring a distinction average in my final year has spurred me on to want to excel in my career and later in my MBA.

I think Jean did bring up a good point – peer influence carries higher weighting in the child/teenager’s mind. Therefore parent should get to know what sort of people the children are mixing with. A good idea would be to throw a party and see who he/she/they invite.

But all of this … to what end ? That is the question.

Everyone agrees that we want the best for our children, but seldom do we agree on what constitutes the best. And too bad we will only know these answers in retrospect.

As parents, we’d like to see our off spring doing well in life, in whatever they choose to do. But most of the time, parents have a tendency (intentional or otherwise) to steer the children to some where they want to succeed i.e. live their lives through their children e.g. “I have always wanted to be a doctor, I am sending my son to medical school.” I have heard this story so many times and I pray that I will not become like that.

My busiest 10 days of the year.

2005-07-24T16:56:00.000+08:00

I have been so extremely busy with work for the past 10 days of so.

On top of my regular full time work, I have been on 2 writing assignments. Doing the research work has been very exhausting indeed. I have been staying up until 2 to 3 am everyday, read no less than 50 articles in my preparation to write a white paper for a client. This industry, technology and policy analysis article is expected to be no more than 25 pages. And it is not finished yet! Well, the first draft is already out, ready to be reviewed by the editor. There will be some "polishing" needed for the next 2 days to make the essay more fluid and coherent in its arguments. It's due on 26 July, Tuesday.

But that is not the end of it! Another article, approximately 1200-1500 works is going to be due on 31 July!

Hmmmm ... I did blog about "Pen for Hire" and right after that, all these things happened. I'm not complaining, in fact I am getting well paid for the work, it was more than what I expected but not as much as what I get paid for my full time work .... yet.

Just be careful what you wish for ... it might just come true.

Sorry to have left you folks without a word for more than 10 days. I ahve very much alive and I have every intention of fulfilling my promise of concluding the "Last in A class or First in C Class" blog.

Stay tuned.

Be the first in a C class OR last in an A class?

2005-07-12T22:59:00.000+08:00

Where would you rather be in school ? Or more precisely, where would you rather have your children? Be the top student in an average class or come in the last in the top class?

What are your thoughts? What are your experiences?

I’ll be collecting your feedback and blog my views.

Hit comment OR

if you wish to be anonymous, email me at alpha.orinis@gmail.com

When junior refuses to go to school.

2005-07-12T14:02:00.000+08:00

Wei Shan started her kindergarten in mid May this year. She'll be 4 this September. For the first week or so, she was practically crying everyday I dropped her off. On the third week, things seemed to have improved. She cried less. Then came the school holidays and she was off school for 2 whole weeks and she had a good time not going to school, so did I.

It has been tough on her. We speak to her in Mandarin at home but in school, they only speak English. So the communication was a bit of a barrier already and she could hardly understand what the teachers and school mates say, let alone follow the instructions. But at least she knows what to say when she wants to go to the washroom.

This will be the 4th week since school restarted and she still cries every morning when she wakes up, knowing that I will take her to school. She’ll say “Papa, don’t want school!” or “Mama, don’t want school! No school today!”. On two occasions, the teacher literally had to tear her away from me as she was holding on to me so tightly – much to the shock and horror of the other children and their parents.

We’ve tried explaining why she needs to go to school. We gave her encouragements, hugs, kisses and sometimes we got tired and frustrated with her constant whining we, scolded her. Poor thing.

Somehow she seemed to think that going to school is some sort of punishment. We used to send her to the baby sitter’s but she only cried occasionally. We even checked with the teachers on whether she was being bullied at school, fortunately that didn’t happen.

The dilemma – should I continue sending her there and she is forced to adapt? Or spare her the pain and send her elsewhere?

Pen for Hire

2005-07-09T10:57:00.000+08:00

or rather "keyboard for hire" may be more appropriate.

Why? Oil prices are going up and so are the prices of everything else. Last month, the CPI overtook the fixed deposit rate. Scary! And making ends meet will get more and more difficult. Just when you think that you have enough to get going for the month, some thing unexpected comes along and you end up being short of “vitamin M”.

Having thought thru it for the past 3 weeks, I have decided to become a part time writer. Primarily because writing is something I do enjoy; in fact I feel that I can express myself better in writing than in speech.

FYI I've tried applying for some part time jobs and did went to some interviews but they are not my cup o'tea. There is one job that requires me to calculate things. How ? They give you a stack of photocopied receipts and you are to add up the numbers. Each A4 sheet has 8 receipts and you are given 50 sheets per week. The pay ? RM60 per stack. Sounds OK ... until they tell you can you can only do 1 stack per week and if you make any mistakes, they will reject the batch. I didn't even bother to ask whether I will get if it is rejected. I was out of there.

Another one is entering email addresses - they will pay you RM0.02 per email. Do 2500 of it, you get RM50. Let's see, if I can do 1 email every 5 seconds, that 12 per minute, 720 per hour. To hit 2500, that will be 3.5 hours. That translates to RM14.30 per hour. Hmmm ... quite a lot of work for little $$$.

It was then I decided that I'd like a job that makes use of my intellect rather than just my hands. Writing is definitely it.

So what’s my specialty, you ask? They are analysis/research papers, white papers, magazine articles, business proposals and presentations. What subject or topic ? The information & communications technology (ICT) industry, that includes the electronic commerce and mobile industry as well. I’ve also got close to 15 years on work and entrepreneurial experience in this area.

I completed my master in business administration in 1999 and it does help when it comes to combining technology and business writings, especially when on “how technology will affect the markets and business strategies”. I have also been invited to speak at several conferences in the above areas.

Another area of specialty is executive development – I have written some articles for online magazines on the area of work life and MBA. I used to organize a web site on MBA and I was advising people on how to choose which MBA program. I even compiled a whole list of MBA courses available in Malaysia.

Not to forget …. I do write about my favorite topic and hobby too – Astronomy.

And I’d be more than happy to work with a team of writers on specific projects.

I am still very new when it comes to writing as a profession, your feedback, guidance and advice are most welcome.

And if anyone of you out there needs a paper or an article done, please feel free to email your request to alpha.orinis@gmail.com

My favourite nocturnal activity

2005-07-07T21:26:00.000+08:00

After 2 weeks of cloudy nights, I finally got a break. Last Friday night was superbly clear and I hauled my telescope and started my favorite nocturnal activity ... wait a minute ... I mean : my second favorite nocturnal activity.

The setup took about 20 minutes and once I powered up the telescope, I headed straight for the biggest planet of our solar system, at 300x, this is what I saw :

Note : The 4 white little dots are Jupiter's 4 brightest moons.

And then I went for this :

It is called the Butterfly Cluster or M6, also known as NGC 6405, it can be found in the constellation Scorpius, it spans about 20 light-years and lies about 2,000 light years from earth. It is almost directly overhead at 11pm every night for this month.

What’s a light year ? One light year is the distance traveled by light over a period of 1 year i.e.

186,000 miles x 60 sec x 60 min x 24 hours x 365 days = 1,091,019,456,000,000 miles.

So M6 is 2,000 x 1,091,019,456,000,000 miles from here or 2,182,038,912,000,000,000 miles.

These numbers are ASTRONOMICAL.

Now you know how small we all are …

FYI, our galaxy is about 100,000 light years across.

There are billions of galaxies out there.

Names and Nicknames.

2005-06-29T21:52:00.000+08:00

When my Little O came to this world, I’ve had a hard time choosing the right name for her. And I have to be extremely careful not to pick a name that can end up being the butt of all jokes in school. Oh! I remember my school days and the fun we had calling people names.

One of the names I experimented with was Khai Yeeng. My surname is Chang. We almost picked that name because in Mandarin, it is a beautiful name. So we end up with Chang Khai Yeeng. But if you were Caontonese …. Oh my God! What a name – with this very same pronunciation it means “fierce b***h”.

We ended up picking a safer name – Wei Shan and my mother even asked a “sifu” to verify it and it turned out OK. There is a belief that the number of strokes in the Chinese character of your name matters a lot. So this one is prefect for the year her was born. And the result, I ended up paying a small fine for being late in registering her name at the national registry.

Some of the more interesting names I have encountered (and these are REAL people mind you) :

1. Thong Sam Fah
2. Wong Tai Hai
3. Tai Lang Koon (prefers to be called LK)
4. Richard Head (one of the lecturers in my university)
5. Wong Tit Meng (as an American, you’d call him Tit because his full name will be written as “Tit Meng Wong”, e.g. phone rings, a female receptionist picks up “Yes, you’re look for Tit??? We've got 2 here, Tit Meng and Tit Beng...”)
6. Koh Keng Choon (initials KKC)
7. Teh Soo Lang (often been called Sui Lang, but really is a nice person)
8. Dino Tan (named after the Flintstones pet ?)
9. Lee Tuk Fat

So now you know what NOT to name your children.

But these 2 really takes the cake :

1. John Woodcock but his nick name is “Splinter Hand” and

2. Rumour has it that Bentong Kali (the notorious criminal) had a girlfriend who’s a prostitute, her nick name was “Banyak Kali”.

So if you know any funny ones, email me or hit the comment link below.

"What? I'm gay ?!"

2005-06-28T20:48:00.000+08:00

… no, not me.

But here’s the story :

At the Ikano Power center car park, level P2. Mr. Orion driving around, looking for a place to park. Mrs. O and Little O at the back of the car.

Mrs O : “Dear, dear! Loooook!”

Mr. O : “What? what ?”

Mrs. O : “There, there, that man over there.”

Mr. O : “Uh-huh, he’s bald, wears glasses and he's macho, so ?”

Mrs. O : “But look at the kind of clothes he’s wearing.”

Mr. O : “It’s a body tight, black ¾ sleeve shirt, and … why? you fancy him?”

Mrs. O : “He’s gay isn’t he ?”

Mr. O : “Honey, it not possible to tell someone’s sexual orientation by what they wear or how they look. You can’t even tell by looking at their genitals.”

Mrs O : “But he’s got a ear ring on his left ear … “

Mr. O : “I didn’t notice.”

Just finished parking the car. Mr, Mrs and Little O all got out of the car.

Mr. O walks towards the man.

Mrs. O, sounding anxious : “Dear, where are you going ?”

Mr. O : “I am going to say hello to that bald man over there and confirm whether he’s gay.”

Mrs. O grabs Mr. O arm, trying to pull him back.

“What ???? And just how are you going to do that ????” Mrs O says, dying of curiosity and holding on tighter still, making sure Mr. O does not escape.

“I am going to walk over there and say :

“Hello Mr., can I have a few moments of your time ? Do you see that pretty lady over there ? That one there (point, point). That is my wife and she’d like to know whether you are gay and I'm here to find out.””

Mrs O : “Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Don’t go! Don’t go! I don’t want to end up being a widow!”

... the bald man, 10 meters away, turned around at looked at the O family, wondering what just happened.

Little O puzzled with the “what is Mommy and Daddy doing?” look.

Little O was spared from this ordeal. That’s because we speak Mandarin to Little O at home. The entire conversation above was in English.

The fact is Mr. and Mrs O do have some very good friends who happen to be gay. The ones whom we know happen to fit the above description.

Why is she a leftie ?

2005-06-27T20:57:00.000+08:00

I use my right hand when I write. I even pick my nose with my right index finger.

So does my wife .... I mean writing. Not sure about picking the nose ...

But my 4 year old instinctively uses her LEFT hand to write or draw.

None of my family member is a leftie.

None of my wife’s family members is a leftie.

Is there a scientific explanation to this ?

Or did we pick up the WRONG baby from the hospital ?!

But she’ soooooooo cute ….

Swearing for Dummies

2005-06-26T18:29:00.000+08:00

WARNING : This POSTING is strictly an INTELLECTUAL exercise.

In many languages and cultures there are words that are considered dangerous and shocking. For instance, for some African tribes, the names of dead chiefs are not to be said. These are swear words or Taboo words as it is formally known.

Taboo words are shocking and should only to used in situations when people want to express powerful emotions through “strong” language. This act is known as swearing. When people swear, taboo words change their meaning completely. For example, the word "fuck" means to “have sexual intercourse with” … whoever or whatever. “Fuck off” is the mean and violent way to telling some one to “go away”. In fact the word “fuck” is of 17th century European origin, it used to mean “to strike” or “to penetrate”.

To know how to swear is to know the exact strength of these expressions and most of all to know what kind of people are shocked by them and under what type of circumstances.

Unfortunately, we learn most of our swear words from either relatives (accidental or otherwise) or most likely friends, or worse – the Internet.

It is best to AVOID SWEARING, especially in public places or in front of other people, simply because it is considered rude and socially not acceptable. And it can be hazardous to your health.

But the controversy here is whether is a BLOG a “private place” or a “public domain”? (Let’s debate on this another day, yes?).

But if you HAVE TO swear, do it properly, don’t confine yourself one word, there are many to choose from depending on the situation! To help increase your vocabulary, below are the list of English words with their “relative strength”, indicated by asterisks (*). The more *, means the stronger :

In most circumstances, in Malaysia at least, the F word is considered more powerful than "screw".

The F word is definitely worth a special mention. It is by far the most flexible and versatile word in the dictionary. It can be used in any possible way and still be grammatically correct. It's practically idiot proof. The first time I encountered it was in the movie "The Beverly Hills Cop" with Axle Foley (played by Eddie Murphy) belching out that word every now and then.

Some examples :

1. “Fuck the fucking fuckers.”
2. "I’m fucked."
3. "That was a good fuck."
4. "I can't fucking believe she's fucking him! Un-fucking-believable"

That’s why the F word is commonly used across many cultures and race. Not a very good sign is it?

Combined with other words, it can be even more powerful e.g. “motherfucker” implies incest and very strong indeed, I think it deserves a six star (******) rating. Using it in the wrong context can get you killed.

So there you have it, the list of English swear words and how to use 'em.

Oh yes, "crap" and "bullshit" are also a swear words, it originates from the US, they mean nonsense.

But this DOES NOT mean I condone to or encourage swearing. Everyone have his/her preferences in life.

I choose not to swear at all (I’m still trying) .... and no, I am NOT going to show my 4 year old daughter THIS page, until I feel that she is ready to be responsible for it.

I hope you’ve learnt something today, choose your words wisely and now say it, with EMOTION and STYLE.

To swear or not to swear on your blog …

2005-06-26T10:56:00.000+08:00

… that is the question to ask.

Bloging and bloggers are getting more publicity these days and the inevitable happens. Last week it was Singapore and this week, Malaysia.

Before you read any further – allow me to state my position. I am new to blogging but I am not new to the Internet. In fact, I have organized online communities before and that was during the dotcom boom years. I’ve seen the best and worst of people, online wise. What I am about to share here, is based on my personal experiences and opinions drawn from these observations.

Here goes :

Your blog is your space and you can say and do whatever you want with it. I agree.

Your room is your place, you can say and do whatever you want in it. That, I agree.

But if your room can be visited by just about anyone on this planet, will you say and do whatever you want in it still ?

I probably won’t, but that’s my opinion.

If you are going to be totally yourself, without any inhibitions whatsoever in expressing yourself, then it MAY be better if you remain anonymous. Protect yourself and your sanity.

If you are going to be known – publishing your photos and your real life actual name and all, be prepared to take the good and the bad side of publicity with it.

Like it or not, you may become a public figure without even knowing it. Once that happens, you become public property a.k.a. the center of controversy. Everybody will have their own opinion on what you can or cannot, should or should not do. All concerns and opinions are “correct” in their own way and worse, there is no stopping them.

Worse still, you simply cannot please everybody!

I try hard *NOT* to swear at all, because I want to be respectable person and set a good example for my 4 year old.

But I already did that in my last posting, didn’t I? Yikes!

So, do I want my 4 year old to read my blog ?

Hmmmm ….

It cannot be undone.

2005-06-25T10:13:00.000+08:00

A word of caution to all parents with toddlers.

One week ago …. I was driving on the highway with my wife and 4 year old daughter at the back, doing 100 km/h, on the way to Ikano Power Center.

It was drizzling.

“Mommy, mommy, rainbow!” my 4 year old cried.

“Wow! It’s beautiful!” my wife said.

Suddenly and without warning, the BMW which was no more than 20 feet ahead decided to cut into my lane. I jammed the brakes hard and lucky both of them had their seat belts on at the rear.

I blurted “SH*T !!!” in the process.

Guess what ? Nowadays whenever I hit the brakes, no matter how mild, my little one will say “SH*T”.

How in the world am I going to undo this ?!

SHIT.

Only once in every 76 years ...

2005-06-24T22:20:00.000+08:00

It appeared in the sky in 1066 AD, the year of the Norman conquest. In the ancient days these things were considered to be an omen, Harold II of England died at the Battle of Hastings that very same year.

The first record of it dates as far back as 249 B.C., documented by the Chinese as "a broom star".

Perhaps the most famous of all comets, Halley's Comet was named after the Sir Edmund Halley (October 29, 1656 – January 14, 1742) he was the English astronomer who "discovered" that it is the very same comet that comes back every 76 years, i.e. it orbits our sun every 76 years. Unfortunately, Halley died in 1742, never lived to see his prediction come true when the comet returned on Christmas Eve 1758.

The 1986 appearance of the comet was a much anticipated event for a lot of astronomers. The 1910 appearence was well documented and photographed (yes, photography was at its infancy then), but the 1986 return marks its first return in modern times. The European Space Agency (ESA) even sent a satellite (named Giotto) to go after it.

1986 was a memorable year for me as well - it was the year my dad gave me my very first telescope. It was a Meade Starfinder 826 telescope, a Newtonian reflector, 8 inch apature with focal ratio of f/6 i.e. the focal length of the parabolic mirror is 48 inch or 1,220mm (8 x 6 = 48). It has a useful magnification of up to 400x. The tube was slightly over 4 ft long. Believe it or not, I still have it and it still works, after almost 19 years!!

With it, I witnessed the "once in a lifetime" event up close at the age of 18. Unfortunately I did not have a camera to photograph it! If you're wondering what it looked like, check out this photo :

This photograph was taken on 1986 March 22 by Jerry Lodriguss. It is a 7-minute exposure using a 35mm f/2 Nikkor lens. The comet is obviously in the lower left of the photo, with its tail extending towards one of the brightest regions in the Milky Way located in Sagittarius. (More photographs can be found at http://www.astropix.com)

Beautiful, isn't it ? That is one of the most fascinating thing about astronomy and astro-photopgraphy that has got me hooked for the past 24 years.

It's next apperance will be in the year 2062, I will be 94 years old.

My early years in astronomy

2005-06-06T22:27:00.000+08:00

Back in the early 1980s, when I was a newbie in astronomy, one of my very first books on the topic were :

1. "The Hamlyn Guide to Astronomy", David Baker, Hamlyn Publishing Group (1981)
2. "Skyguide - A field guide for amateur astronomers", Mark R. Chartrand III, Golder Press NY 1982.
3. "A Field Guide to the Star & Planets", Donald H. Menzel, Collins Publishing, 1964 (1980 reprint).

Books on astronomy was a bit hard to come by in those days - that's before Amazon.com and mega book stores like MPH, Kinokuniya and Borders. Back then the Internet was not that accessible either, so resources on this subject area were very scarce. "Skyguide" was perhaps one of the most useful books on this topic, the illustrations were very helpful for the beginners and I would recommend this to any one who'd like to get started in this hobby. The Hamlyn guide was a bit more technical.

Since then, I have collected more books in astronomy and space science, some of my favorites :

1. "The Guinness Book of Astronomy", Patrick Moore, Patrick More & Guinness Publishing, 1983.
2. "Amateur Astronomy - a comprehensive and practical survey", Colin Ronan, Hamlyn Publishing, 1984.
3. "Astronomy - the evolving universe", Michael Zielik, Harper & Row Publishers, 1982 NY.

My most recent acquisition is "Voyage through the Universe" by Fraknoi et al, Thomson Publishing. It was RM152.90 and I found it at the MPH bookstore at the Subang Parade. It is a colorful book with very good illustrations. It even comes with the student edition of TheSky software.

And of course, if you are an avid astronomer you can't miss the ASTRONOMY magazine. I still have my October 1987 copy, and back then it was only US$2.95. In Malaysia, it was going for RM13.60 at the news stand. Lucky for me, my mother owns a stationery shop and it sells magazines! I would be the first get my hands on the latest copy and go from cover to cover, reading the articles and ogling at the size of the equipment Â the 16 inch ones were enormous ... the telescopes I mean.

Star charts i.e. the map of the night sky, an astronomer will not be complete without one. Back then I couldn't find any in the school library, so I went to the British Council Library looking for one, and there is was - the famous Norton's Star Atlas! But much to my disappointment, it was labelled as a reference book and could not be loaned. That was until I saw the photocopier and it could take A3 size pages. At RM0.20 per copy, with 16 pages that would be RM3.20.

Equipment - My very first was a Binox 7x50 Binoculars I bought with RM135 (approx USD45)the"Ang Pow" money that I collected during Chinese New Year. It was a great piece ofequipmentt, it was MILES better than those toys I used to have! And almost every night, I would be lying on the see saw at the playing field right in front of our house scanning the night sky and amazed at the colors of the stars.

Those were the early years of my adventures until Halley's Comet came along in 1986 ... now that is one amazing story.

A long time ago ...

2005-06-06T15:36:00.000+08:00

in a glalaxy not that far away … in fact it was on this very same planet, a 14 year old boy stumbled upon a page in his Encyclopedia Britannica entitiled"Astronomy!".

That was the defining moment almost 23 years ago. My father had just purchased his whole new set of the hard covered, golden colored, 24 volume, Encyclopedia Britannica, the best part of the deal was a bonus set of 12 volumes of maroon colored Children's Encyclopedia - that was for me and my younger brother. My dad taught me how to use it as a reference for any topic you can think of (well, just about).

Although he was not an engineer or scientist, my father has always been fascinated by science and technology. Every now and then he will tell us all about what he's read and about the wonders of science in our everyday lives. Inspired by his vast knowledge in that area, I then decided to go thru the encyclopedia from cover to cover, going thru all the possible topics in a effort to "learn all things possible" - unfortunately that effort ended at the Astronomy chapter when I decided further explore by finding other references on this topic to quench my intense curiosity and fascination for the night sky ...

September 15, 2001

2005-06-06T14:48:00.000+08:00

... is an important date in my life. It was 4 days after Sept 11, the day 2 767s crash into the World Trade Center in NY, the day the world changed.

Sept 15 2001 is the day my daughter was born. My wife laboured for more than 11 hours from 9pm the night before, without any pain killers - no epidurals. She is one stromg mama! My little one came to this world slightly after 10am. My first word to her was "hello" and she grinned from ear to ear, as if she already knew me. That was the second MOST wonderful moment in my life. (The first being the day of my wedding).

I was happy and concerned as the same time - what kind of world have we brought her into ? I can still recall vivid images of the 767 crashing into the buildings. It was played over and over again on CNN, I have been watching it for the past 3 days and until today, I still wonder - has this world gone mad ? What kind of world will my daughter and grand children live in ? Tough questions, no answers.

My daugther will be 4 years old this September. Is this world getting better ? I sure hope so becuase I am doing everything I can to make her world a better one.

I hope to show her what loves really means and how hatred and greed can destroy us all.

I hope to set her in the right path so that she may find happiness and fulfillment in her life.

I hope to cherish every moment we all have to gether as a family becuase we will all only walk down this path ONCE.

Why ? you asked ....

2005-06-05T00:03:00.000+08:00

"Breakthroughs" is not just about making progress, it is about making quantum leaps, learning something new everyday, applying it, gaining insights, acquiring wisdom and sharing it with your fellow man. Yes, sharing it. Why ? Becuase it makes it all so meaningful.

There are 3 areas of my journey of learning which I intend to blog :

1. Family and parenthood

2. Career and work life

3. Hobby and passion for Astronomy!

Now you know why the term "outer space" is in this blog's header. For your information, please do not confuse "Astronomy" with "Astrology". The definition according to dictionary.com :

as·tron·o·my :
1. The scientific study of matter in outer space, especially the positions, dimensions, distribution, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial bodies and phenomena.
2. A system of knowledge or beliefs about celestial phenomena: the various astronomies of ancient civilizations.

as·trol·o·gy :
The study of the positions and aspects of celestial bodies in the belief that they have an influence on the course of natural earthly occurrences and human affairs.

Therefore, please do not ask me to predict how your love life is going turn out, because I am not an astrologer. I do know some astrologers and will gladly introduce you to them.