Baby Hannah

Baby Hannah

I had promised to put up pictures of my baby niece a couple of months ago when she was born. What with my limited knowledge of uploading pictures on the net, and my own lack of a camera to take pictures with, I've been unable to do so. Until today that is.

Since then, my brother has taught me the whole new world of uploading pictures into my blog. I guess some of you would have noticed the sudden bloom of pictures available in here recently. It's a development you could associate with my jakunnes. Hehe... and then recently I've taken the liberty to buy myself a thumb drive, perhaps the most significant step I've taken in my quest to be a more IT literate person. A pittance of an investment to some, but a huge step in IT investment for me. I'm learning something new everyday. But then, I seem to digress...

Here's a series of some of Hannah's pictures, since the first few days she was born, until today. I tell you, she's been a bundle of joy in the house for everyone. Though she might not be the only one for long now. Someone else is on the way I hear you ask? Well, that's another story for another time I guess... ;-).

For now, introducing my cute niece to the world!

"Whatcha looking at?!" On her 2nd day. Showing her attitude look only my sister could do better.


"Hi mama!" This kid knows how to look adorable.


"Is this for the latest issue of Babies Times Pak Ngah?" Her features resembles many of my brother in law's. Future Daddy's girl I see.


"Come ere you. I'll give you a gentle head butt!!".


"Enough with the modelling Pak Ngah. I'm sleepyyy.....zzzzzzzzzzzz...". When sleeping however, she looks like a small copy of my sister.

Hope you ohh-ed and ahh-ad as much as we have. :-).

A Hair Raising Experience

A Hair Raising Experience

We use ten per cent of our brains. Imagine how much we could accomplish if we used the other 60 per cent.

Ellen Degeneres, The Beginning

Been spending the whole weekend preparing myself for my ACCA exams in a week’s time. I tell you, it’s a struggle. After a long week of grueling work at the office, your mind does not really fancy another grueling weekend hitting the books. To be honest, I am beginning to feel that studying probably takes more hard work than your usual routine work at the office. While office work can become routine after a while, and with routine comes comfort at the regularity, studying means having to know and understand something new. And of course not to mention, the classic dreadful feeling of having to be examined on them.

Einstein once said that the average human being only utilise up to ten per cent of their brain capabilities. Maybe there is some truth in that. In pushing myself to do as much revision as possible these past weekends, my body metabolism was so high that I think my body lost as much water revising over 6 hours as I would jogging for an hour. Even after drinking jug after jug of water, I wasn’t making as many trips to the loo as I would usually do under normal circumstances. It felt like I was risking overheating my brain as I attempted to go over the average brain speed norm of ten per cent. I think I must have hit 10.5% max.

I once heard that after Einstein passed away, his brain was retained for research, to find out what the brain of someone of his genius is made of. What they found out was the mucus (or something that separates the cortex of our brains, I’m not sure of the right term used to describe it. My science has always been a bit hazy) that separates his right and left brain was almost non existent, that it practically enabled Einstein to use the functions associated with the respective hemispheres of his brain to the fullest. Electric signals could be transmitted faster between the 2 cortex of his brains, which is not just essential for quick thinking and decision making, but also made him a very creative person. His brain was therefore a sizzling data processing machine, which probably explains the electric-charged hair-do he is usually spotted with in his famous pictures.

That electric-charged hair-do is probably due to brain overheating

My hair’s still down, so I guess I’ve not done enough revision as I’m supposed to. Until the day of my exams next week, it is going to be a loooong and hair-raising journey for me.

The Case of The Missing Comments...

The Case of The Missing Comments...

My enetation comment has somehow mysteriously disappeared. When I first noticed it on Tuesday, I had dismissed it to the ocassional glitch that enetation usually offers you. But when it kept on disappearing till today, I was beginning to feel a bit exasperated. Something felt missing in the The One's blog make-up, and it was just like missing a set of old good furniture in the house.

So I contacted my blog guru and got her help to check the problem. I had suspected that maybe I had accidentally tampered with the template over last weekend, and as a result screwed up the comment template. My guru however informed me that this wasn't the case. The enetation comment just didn't want to appear. Maybe blogger felt it was about time people having blogs with them started using their own comment engine. So good ol' Sarini helped me put up the blogger's comment. It's ok I guess, but it just feels different. Just like getting a new set of furniture, the eyes just have to get used to the new look.

Enetation, you will be missed. Tsskkk...

Way To Success

Way To Success

The real thing that people learn at management school.

Tadaa!!

Tadaa!!

Guess what? See the 'users online' count on the left side of this screen? I've made another leap (by my standards laa..) in improving this blog. Been wanting put the user tracker on my blog for some time now, but I've neither had the time nor the know-how to do it. Been doing some blog hopping and learning to do it by viewing the source of other people's blogs. Don't worry, I wasn't copying anyone's layouts or ideas, I was just learning how some people put up some stuffs and applications on their blogs to make them look interactive. Hopefully I won't get sued for infringement of copyright rules. :p

I've always wondered if there's anyone out there apart from myself that comes by this blog at any one time. It's hard to say, but judging from the lack of comments and tags that I'm getting, the possibility seems to point at none. With this user tracker now, I would at least be able to know for sure. Hehe..

To anyone out there dropping by, would love it if you could leave your footprints here in some way. It would go some way to making the place merrier. ;-)

Night night.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith



No, no... this is not a movie review. I think I could leave that part to a lot of other websites on the internet dedicated to the movie. I am not that good at doing reviews anyway, and I might just end up spoiling the story for you given my lack of story telling skills. But just to be on the safe side, there might just be accidental spoilers ahead. So those who have yet to watch the movie, you've been warned.

My general feeling about the movie: it was great, and much better than the first 2 instalments. As I have yet to watch the last 3 episodes of the Star Wars series, I would stop short from saying that this 3rd instalment was the best of em all. Most of you Star Wars fans out there would have figured it out anyway that the 3 prequels were made to tell the story of the making of Darth Vader. So most of the people flocking to the cinema to watch Revenge of The Sith would be anticipating how Anakin finally succumbed to the darkside. Which probably explains why the first 2 intsalments were relative bores. It seems to me like George Lucas might have come up with the story for Revenge first and struggled to make up stories for the first 2 movies to come to the climax. The plot was more purposeful, and the storyline more solid. And the light sabre fighting scenes were awesome.

I could sense how much awaited the Revenge was when the movie started rolling, everyone in the cinema was applauding it. Hehe... to be quiet honest, I actually felt like applauding myself. Before the movie started, I could see some people talking to strangers sitting next to them discussing the movie. It felt like a Star Wars convention of sort, and it was going to be the last. Unless George Lucas comes with more sequels or prequels after this one. Personally, I was thinking it would be rather fun if prequels were made of the making of Yoda. Hehe... just a passing thought.

Possible spoilers ahead. All in all, the movie ended giving me a feel of melancholy. The thought of someone succumbing to the darkside through sacrifice and love for someone does make a great story line for a tragic love story. History have shown in the past how good people have turned bad through sacrifice for loved ones, confusion, and other bad elements taking advantage of other's helplesness. But it does make a great story line. And for that, I think George Lucas have done a great job in making this latest and probably last instalment of Star Wars a very watchable one.

Go and see it!

Of Competitions and Beauty Pageants

Of Winning Competitions and Beauty Pageants

I can't work. I can't even begin to focus myself to get down to serious work this morning. I feel more like surfing the net in the office (big offense ooo..), or just sit down and do nothing. And the fact that 60% of my colleagues are on leave today probably doesn't help either. And goodness no one has been looking for me yet this morning. It feels kinda tranquil at the moment, though I suspect it's just another calm before the storm. That typifies the job in accounts and finance where our task is pretty much cyclical. Middle of the month, especially the early months of the financial year is whe I'm relatively idle, and it's the perfect time for me to start tidying up my ever-untidy cubicle. When I feel like it...

I guess I know why I find it so hard to focus today. Been a bit side tracked since yesterday when I found out that I am one of the lucky winners of 2 tickets to watch the 3rd part of the Star Wars Trilogy: Revenge of The Sith at KLCC TGV cinema tonight. There was a competition to come up with captions for a picture of Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker slugging it out with their light sabres. Since they were giving away 100 tickets, I just thought, what the heck... I'll just send an entry. They are giving out a 100 tickets, so there's always a good chance of winning anyway. Sent my entry like 2 minutes before the dateline, and wallaa... today I'm one of the lucky winners to the show tonight. Had I have to buy the ticket myself, I would have waited at least 2 weeks after the movie opens in Malaysia before I go and watch it. You know la what the queue is like when a movie of Star Wars' following opens in Malaysia...

Another interesting matter that came to my attention recently which has a slight relation to the subject of winning competitions is the subject of Malaysia's Miss Malaysia / Universe 2004, Ms Andrea Fonseka. I've never been a follower of beauty pageant show, and when they do show it on tv, I would usually catch the end of the show to see who's won it. Since Miss Malaysia in the past (with exception of a few, I think) has rarely managed to progress anywhere beyond the first round, I never got to know how our Miss Malaysia look like. So when I received pictures of her yesterday in my mailbox, I almost thought the picture was a spoof. My first response was, this can't be real. So I made some sleuthing work this morning and surfed the net a bit to find out more about her. My, my... could this really be the most beautiful woman in Malaysia last year?

Malaysia's Most Beautiful Woman in 2004?

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that she's ugly. On any other stage, any male could easily warm up to her typical oriental good looks. However, her physique is not one you would imagine to be strutting on the Miss Universe stage. Some harsh comments have been made about her in the media, and you could also find some bloggers having a field day writing about her. Makes you feel pity for the lass. But come on la, would I ever enrol myself in Mr Malaysia, if I already know so well the only thing that protrudes about me is not even a muscle but some flabby fat hanging above my abdomen? You'd know the answer to that already...

That raises the question whether she knew what she was getting herself into. Or perhaps the more popular question, how did she ever become Miss Malaysia that year? Stories are rife about her connections with the organisers of the Miss Malaysia contest, and that the supposed most beautiful woman of the contest did not win. It's either that, or the standards of the women participating in the contest that year had plummetted to a historical low. The good thing about it though, is that it must have made anybody who is anybody feels like even they could become Miss Malaysia. But on a negative note, imagine the impression that the world audience gets from the globally televised Miss Universe, which is advertised as where The World's Most Beautiful People meet, and find that we're represented by Ms Fonseka. Again, I have nothing against her. I would say again that I think she is an attractive lady in her own right, but a Miss Universe material? Hmmm...

Ramble.. ramble..

Ramble.. ramble..

Unlike in the past couple of weeks, I've not had many ideas to write of late. Is this what aspiring writers usually call the writer's block? Maybe.. I don't know. I would love to owe part of it to my demanding work schedule, but strangely of late work has not been hounding me as bad. I have to say, April 2005 marks the most entry I've made in a month. Perhaps I should be proud of that.

This last weekend I finally managed to drag myself to do some revision for my ACCA exam this June. Reading the first few pages of my revision notes and book, I could almost hear the chinks of old machinery in my head, as I awoke my brain once again to the art of studying and revision. To be honest, I had never been that great in the art. My days in pre-university and university days were more marked for my escape acts, where I would somehow miraculously made it through my exams unscathed with minimal, close to nil, revision. And to be honest, the results weren't that great either la. I am fortunate however that I will be taking the exam with my wife this time, who has been an excellent motivator-cum-disciplinarian to me. Love you dear... ;-).

Among the highlights of last week which I wished to write about is the end of The Amazing Race Season 7. Feeling a bit sad that the season has come to an end. I guess the winning couple Uchenna and Joyce deserved it. I have to respect Uchenna for his gentlemanly ways. I felt that he never lost his values throughout the race and managed to keep Joyce's spirits high despite of all the obstacles they had to go through. Rob and Amber were also a favourite of mine. Rob was brushing everyone's feathers in the show. There was one episode when they were in India, and they had to push this heavy elephant statue along a busy Indian road. Rob was pulling out Indian kids from the sides of the road and made them push the elephant with him and Amber like no one's business, and then slyly remarked 'it is tough organising Indian labour'. I tell you, the fella is so selamba. Though it was easy to hate him, you can't help thinking that Amber and him were very good and probably were the best to win the race anyway. And who could forget the golden couple, Meredith and Gretchen. I was rooting for them until they got eliminated. They went as far as they could, and it was nice while they were still in it. Mind you, not bad for a couple their age to be in the last four.

Ok la. Back to work!

Exploding Toads

Exploding Toads

Get this. Taken from the UK daily The Independent Online on 8th May 2005.

Stone the crows! Exploding toad case solved
By Ruth Elkins in Berlin
08 May 2005
After weeks of flummoxing scientists, Germany's great exploding toads mystery has been solved. They were gruesomely murdered by crows with a taste for foie gras.
Health officials in Hamburg started to panic after some 1,000 toads puffed up and exploded last month, their entrails splattering an area of up to a square metre. The tabloid press went into overdrive, dubbing the carnage site in Hamburg's Altona district the "Pond of Death" and warning children and dogs to stay away. Theories ran wild that toads were committing suicide or were croaking because of a virus spread by South American race horses. But now one of Germany's top experts on amphibians says he's cracked the case. Frank Mutschmann, who examined both dead and living Hamburg specimens at his Berlin research centre, found all had identical circular incisions on their backs, small enough to be the work of a bird's beak. Then he found something strange: their livers were missing. "There were no bite or scratch marks, so we knew the toads weren't being attacked by a raccoon or rat, which would have also eaten the entire toad," he said. "It was clearly the work of crows, which are clever enough to know the toad's skin is toxic and realise the liver is the only part worth eating.
"Only once the liver is gone does the toad realise it's been attacked. It puffs itself up as a natural defence mechanism. But since it doesn't have a diaphragm or ribs, without the liver there is nothing to hold the rest of its organs in. The lungs stretch out of all proportion and rip; the rest of the organs simply expel themselves."
The toads' grisly deaths are, in fact, a well-documented phenomenon. First recorded in Germany in 1968, exploding toads have been reported in the country, as well as in Belgium, Denmark and America. Hamburg's toads started to explode during their week-long mating season. Dr Mutschmann believes the crows went in for the kill when the toads were too busy enjoying the heights of sexual excitement. "They would have noticed something as the crow pecked at them, but it wouldn't have been particularly painful," he said.
The riddle solved, the question now is whether to exact revenge on the crows. Toads, much-loved in Germany, are a protected species. But so are crows. "I've had several angry emails," said Dr Mutschmann. "But there's no reason to worry. It's just a part of nature."

How gruesome. Death in the midst of the ultimate excitement. Hehe...

I miss reading the UK papers.

For the original source, go here...

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=636520

Feeling Good

Feeling Good

I am feeling good this morning. Yesterday was a public holiday, given that May Day fell on a Sunday. I am not sure what you think, but I feel the good thing about public holiday falling on a Monday sort of reduces the blues of having to come back to work. Strange tho it might sound, but having to start work today doesn't come with the normal blues and the Ray Charles music in my head as it does had it been Monday. Weird... Had a very well rested labour day yesterday. Slept on the couch for almost 4 hours yesterday afternoon. I guess that probably explains the good mood today. Ntah la..

Alright lah, need to get back to work. Need to accomplish a couple of things. Have so many things to write about this last weekend. Maybe I'll keep that for later today once I get home.

Have a good week y'all.