mY beLoVed CaR

mY beLoVed CaR
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I am SORRY. First of all, SORRY to MySelf for not having the determination and disciple to keep blogging on frequent basis. SORRY again to Readers of this blog (as if there is...) for not updating. Ideas are just hard to come by these days, as I do not know what to sketch and write about. My mind is just blank for the past few weeks...myabe becoz of the hectic work schedule, and also...hmm...there is no more excuse for me. I have to admit! I am lazy! Alright?!

So, I got this nice idea spinning in my mind that day after I got my car's road tax renewed. The car has been with me since the day I landed myself on my first job which was a few years back. Bought a "second-hand" or "used" car instead of new one coz not enuf money lor. No oil reserve underneath my house mah, or anything near to that...if not, it will be Ferrari I tell you! OK. Enough of bullshitting.

15 years old. Happy birthday to YouUUU...

So the "used" car I bought that time was damn old. It was manufactured in my own country in the year of 1993. Which means it is already (2008 - 1993 = 15) fifteen years old. A check at the car's permit showed that this 'new' car of mine has already served 3 gentlemen previously. Well, for a 18k RM (USD 6k) during that period of time, it's considered a good deal. I know, I know. For this kind of price, I could had easily got myself an old BMW in the States or Canada, but SAD to say, this is Malaysia. People who could afford a Honda Accord Sedan here could easily afford a Porsche in the US. Why is it like that, you may ask. All I have to say is the stupid tax structure here. Purposely designed to make you feel envious of other countries. T.N.S.!

Let's talk about the car's specifications. This is the interesting part. Engine capacity = 1.5 Litre with a *superb* acceleration of 0-60mph time that is almost equivalent to infinity. A 12 Valve Single Overhead Cam (SOHC) which translates to Stone Age engine technology, an automatic gearbox that only has a max limit of 3 gears. Yes! 3 only. So few...Sigh. Best of all, this car model is known to be the worst in terms of suspension. The feeling is like riding on a rock. No suspension at all! Sigh....

The SpeC is damn "Good"!

But I don't really care much back then. All I need is a just form of transport for me to get to work and back to my hometown. Some more, with my limited budget, there isn't much choices left for me.

Having a 2nd hand car also means you gonna spend some money into the repair bills. Well, I am ready for that coz I've set aside some buffer for the initial repairs. But over the years, the repair bills just got bigger and bigger. Obviously, my car is getting older by the day, and many parts tend to fail due to wear and tear. The most serious one so far is the gearbox...yeah, changed the whole unit! Damn! Really burned a deep-deep hole in my pocket. Summing it all up, I would roughly estimate that the total repair cost till now shouldn't be anything less than 7k. Hopefully, nothing big is coming up in the near future. But I can 'FEEL' it's coming very soon...coz that day I saw some white smoke billowing out from the exhaust!

Repair Repair Repair...

I wouldn't really blame the car or anything else, since it has been my companion through many of the places throughout Malaysia over the few years. Together, we have traveled to almost 90% of the Peninsular, had crossed countless borders, scaled up mountains like Genting Highlands and Cameron Highlands more than the fingers can count, I mean..., what more do you expect? I am satisfied, considering the happy moments that my car has brought me to all this while.

Genting Highlands!

Whatever it is, I still consider my car as my BMW, though of coz it is not. To have a real BMW is everyone's dream (including mine), but until that one become a reality, all that I have now is that old junk I am driving. It's either to cherish it or to treat it as a garbage. I choose to see it the better way.

And another thing I had come to notice through my experience is that, you can always find people driving luxurious cars, only to see them alone in the car, and the expression on their face is something you wouldn't want to see on yourself. On the other hand, I have seen a whole family packed like sardines in a small old junk, but still showing their sincerest smiles and happily enjoying each other's companion. Don't get me wrong. I ain't saying that you can't be happy if you're rich. It is just that...luxurious car won't make you happy, it's WHO SITS BESIDE YOU that makes you happy. It's the only thing that MATTERS. You get what I mean?

Happy Face VS Sad Face

It's WHO sits beside you that MaTTers

Oh...it's late already, I gotta sleep, or I'll be late for work. And a few hours later, I'll be driving my "BMW" liao... :)

kara’okE, yO!

kara'okE, yO!
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Yo! Kara'oke! Wanted to share with you all what I have been through for the last 2 weeks!. The "S-H-O-R-T" assignment back in Penang Island is finally over! And in the final days of staying over there, my colleagues suggested going to a nearby karaoke in the downtown area. It's a BoX painted with RED, so you should be able to guess which one I am referring to, right? Initially, I wanted to turn down their offer, coz that day was damn tiring after a whole day work. But since my colleagues are so persuasive, and thinking that I may never get see them after returning back to KL, I agreed to joined them finally.

So, once we reached there, we were greeted by the nice foods (coz we pay them NICE also) and we were seated in a pretty compact room with the karao'ke set in front. My colleagues and I started to queue for the buffet dinner and shortly after our meal, they began...and I still haven't finished with the ice cream. So, I just sit aside near the speaker at the end of a corner and hear them sing.

Since the singing of my first collegue is not that "acceptable" to the ears, I try to "divert" my attention to the surroundings. Then I see the karaoke set. 1st question that came to my mind was, "Who the hell in this world invented this?" He must be a damn genius! The karao'ke set seems to be quite simple, one microphone which amplifies the voice signals over the amplifier, which then channeled to the speakers. And of course there is this TV set with synchronized lyrics, and a computer with pre-installed software with a remote control. It's such a simple idea, yet no one has thought about it previously.

the INVENTION

My google searches found that the person responsible for this awesome invention is actually a Japanese guy by the name of Daisuke Inoue in the early 1980s. And the sad thing is, this so-hai never bothered to get his invention patented, so businessmen just used his idea and earn big buck$$$, with NO royalty fees paid to him! Sad...The world is just a unfair right? But though he is a sohai, deep in my heart I still salute this person 100% coz he has brought a lot of happiness and entertainment to the world through his invention. (BTW,so-hai is a Canto word, and it's quite vulgar, but i still prefer to use it...hehe...coz no other word can best describe it, so apologies from me if it offended you...)

the so-hai

So, half an hour has passed, I was forced to sing a song for them. I told them, you'll regret later. So I just simply choose a song, and at that time I choose an oldie, Hotel California by The Eagles. It is good to hear the original version, but not my version. Normally, I don't go to kara'oke for a reason. As far as I could recall, I think should be less than 10 times. So, now you know why i rejected their offer initially? The key are so hard to reach for me, and my voice range is just too narrow. If you wanna compare, this chart below shows where I stand. Among all, I am the WORST!

Voice Range Chart Comparison

If there is a better word to describe my singing, it would be "Pulling the Cow up the Tree" a.k.a 拉牛上树 in Chinese. Try to imagine the MOOOing sound of the cow! In the end, that is the only song I sang. By the way, I found out that most of the songs my colleagues sang are more or less from the standard few list of singers, mostly HK Pop and MandoPop songs. The one I could remember was Gary Chaw, Leo Ku, Guang Liang, Eason Chan, and Beyond. Talking of Beyond, one of my colleagues (Friend no. 1) could sing "Boundless Oceans Vast Skies" a.k.a. 海闊天空 [4th song on disc 1 for those who don't know] so well that he sounds nearly perfect. All of us in the room just went quiet and listen to him singing...I consider myself lucky to have him with us that night. So far, he is the best I came across.

Pulling the Cow up the Tree" a.k.a 拉牛上树 [MooOOOOO!...]

The way I see it, kara'oke is not just for us to show off your great singing skills, but somehow it has got more than that. It serves a place where you get to 'shout away' all your worries, pressure, and troubles, well, at least for a while. Then, when you're happy of sad, there is always a gang of buddies around to share it.

Shout off all your PRESSURES!

And one great thing about kara'oke is, it's role of search of new talent, and a training ground for those who wanna make singing their career. Ask any contestant of the Idol series, One Million Star or China Supergirl, I can be sure that they are super fans of 'kara'oke. At least I know Joey Yung, the current HK Singing Queen, is one of the super-patron of kara'oke during her schooling years.

Have any idea who she is?

So, kara'oke lovers out there, just dream BIG, and you may stand a chance of becoming someone BIG, but in any case you've got the singing talent like MINE, then I suggest you just...errhh...sit aside and enjoy the singing instead...

Make good use of your TIME

Make good use of your TIME
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Two week before this, I have been assigned by the company I am working to this very "S-H-O-R-T" assignment in Penang island, a very beautiful island here in Malaysia. Initially, I was promised by my direct boss which sounds like "It's gotta be ONLY 2 weeks job! Confirm! No more than that." (I rejected in the first place coz the pay there is even less than peanuts. And being away from home unnecessarily is just a no-no for me). And by now the assignment has already reached the span of nearly a month...and that man who say "Confirm 2 weeks!" is nowhere to be seen. T.N.S.!

Being so lonely and bored to death, I decided to go and check one of my best buddy university mate, who coincidentally is also living in Penang. Haven't seen him for years but we do keep in touch over the phone and MSN. So we have a long chat that night about the goods and bads we went through after 4 years graduating. And in the middle of the conversation, he suddenly asked me this..."Sam, can you roughly estimate how many days were there in your life?"

So, I began to calculate in my mind...365 days/year x 70 years assuming the rate of a normal person. Halfway through the calculation, he stopped me. "Stop it. No need calculation. "You just have 3 days in your life. YESTERDAY, TODAY and TOMORROW". Then only, I know what he meant. "Yesterday is past tense, you can't chase it back. All you have is TODAY. And TOMORROW may never exist.

Past tense, Present tense, and Future tense

That moment on, I feel that I really need to cherish TIME more. All the while I have been wasting a lot of time, watching stupid TV programmes, surfing the internet aimlessly, and sleeping more than needed, procrastinate everything that is possible...the list goes on and on. Conclusion - I have very very bad time management. And I want to change this. I don't wanna regret not using my time to the fullest when I died. No! No! No!

24 hours only...

Have you ever heard about this phrase? "Everybody has the same 24 hours a day. Nobody gets more or less". Bill Gates don't have any hours more than you or me, but he managed to fully utilize his time to become what he is today. And I remember Andy Lau (HK Superstar) have spoken in an interview that he sleep roughly 5 to 6 hours only daily. When asked why, he replied "You can have plenty of time to sleep after you have died." At the time I heard this, I just had a good laugh. Now I truly know the true meaning.

Take Andy Lau's advice. But don't overdo it.

Now I am going to make a promise to myself to fully utilize every moment that I have. Mark my words! By he end of this Christmas, I am gonna write a post to check on myself, whether or not I do what I say. Hahaha!

My promise to myself...

You have got one whole day to plan and use your time...

Bill gates, you and ME!

Have you found your pUrpoSE?

What is your purpose...
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I was working quite late on that night,and soon after back from work, I got myself bathed, and straight away, I headed to my comfortable bed. In my mind...I kept asking myself this 3 questions...over and over again...yet the question seemed so difficult, even harder than the hardest paper I have ever sat.

1. What is my purpose?
2. Why am I unhappy?
3. How can I be rich?

And later of the night, I just figured out that I had read on a book not long ago titled "Being Happy" mentioning about finding your purpose in life. I believe in the author. I believe that all the 3 questions will be answered if I can find my purpose. But the problem is...I haven't found my purpose on this earth yet! That is so embarrassing!

I am stuck here...heLP!!!

My life right now, is exactly like the one in the picture above...stumbled upon a dead end with so many signboards showing you to nowhere. After all those years of hard work at school and at work, I feel like I am just a rat running in circles, getting pushed around by other people and circumstances. It just makes me feel down sometimes. Do I really have to go through all these in order for me to reach my DESTINY?

In English, there is one idiom that says "Every roads leads to Rome", but in my opinion, there are some faster and smarter roads. Lucky people got a better head start sometimes, the even more luckier ones may have the straight highway for them to use from the day they were born. The normal and the unfortunate ones may have to go through the longest, steepest and winding road in order to reach ROME. Some may not even make it...and that is something that I feel sad for. It is partly due to them already wasted so much of their time and energy in the beginning, until they were just too tired in the middle of the road.

Every road leads to ROME, but there is a highway for those LucKy ones.

Whatever it is, I do believe that we can always TRY to change for the better. You can blame on your humble beginnings and environment, but that can never change anything. Instead, it only drags you down, and people just see you as not fun at all.

For me, if you can make the best of whatever you have got, then you are already very good. Somebody once told me, we just don't enjoy when we have reached our destination, but the best enjoyment came from going through the journey with people you cared about. That is true, I believe.

It's a matter of CHOICE...

For those who is lucky to have a straight road ahead of them, congratulations. You can now concentrate fully on what really matters to you. Saves you a lot of time. But if in any case you came across people on the other side of the road, don't bully them. Share your wisdom and moments with them, maybe in the end, you may be the one getting some better advice from...

Oil oil oil, rise rise rise!

Oil Power...
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I do not know whether you are having the problem of escalating fuel prices in your place, just in case you are living in oil producing nation that is kind enough to subsidize you. Well, I am living in a nation with some oil, but not as much as in Iraq or Middle East countries. And the people sitting on top just announced that the oil subsidy be reduced dramatically, hence we end up having to pay 40% more for fuel, and 60% more for diesel. The best part is, the announcement was made too suddenly, no warning at all...hence the condition you see in the picture below. And I am one of them stuck in the jam created by people queuing up to fill their tank. I tell you, the feeling is not good at all. You feel like being robbed, but the thing is, you have to queue up one by one...waiting to be robbed...just feels stupid!

Damn it!...I was one of them.

Oil companies have been making lots of money these few years, and today I even came across this news:

"BAGHDAD - Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat." - link to nytimes.com

The 'black gold' extraction from the sea

Just to stress here that oil is a lucrative business here, and the big oil companies are not going to let anything block their way of earning $$$, not until all the oilfield in this world has dried up. Don't care about pollution, don't care about the fish dying, don't care about the poor people, just make sure we make $$$!. That should be the thinking of any CEO of Shell, Exxon Mobil, etc. Well, that is what I personally think, no offense.

Let's hope that some Einstein out there can invent something better to replace fuel, so we can save this world.

It breaks my heart when I saw them…

Wish everyone could help!
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...the Sichuan earthquake, quake that has killed thousands and left millions homeless...The pain that these people have to go through, we just can't understand. I just can't stand watching the photos in the newspaper or in the yahoo news section...If you are a person with feeling, you will know what to do. Just remember that you are one damn lucky guy or gal not being one of them. For those of you who wants to know where to donate, here are the links.

redcross.org.cn
mercycorps.org
american.redcross.org
redcross.org.uk

For people in MALAYSIA, you can send cheques to:

Buddhist Tzu Chi Merit Society
Address : Office at 316, Jalan Macalister, 10460 Penang

or

Direct Online Bank TT to :
Maybank account 507013126489
Public Bank account 3102212517

Or Bank In cheques to:
Maybank account 507013126489 at 9, Union Street
Public Bank account 3102212517 at 87, Lebuh Bishop.


FOR YAYASAN SIN CHEW, send/Direct Bank In cheques to:
YAYASAN SIN CHEW
2-12479-00043019 (RHB Bank)
or send to 星洲日报总社义款部 19, Jalan Semagat, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

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