Merry Xmas Everyone!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! And an even better New Year!

Height of Blurness

It’s hilarious how blur one can get. Especially in mornings. I rushed out of bed, did my usual – shower, brush teeth, moisturise, comb hair, get dressed (the really private stuff like ball and butt-scratching has been left out thankfully). Got out of the door with bag slung over the shoulder then got into the car.

I crank it up as I usually do, to warm up the cold engine. As I sat there listening to Hitz.fm, I glanced down and noticed my twinkly toes. What the hell? I was in my Quicksilver thongs (Japanese slippers to some)!

Hahahah. I was amused, confused and felt totally stupid all at once.

Left the engine on and went back upstairs to grab my slip-on Adidas. Damn, that was dumb. And you know what? When I got to the office I realised I had left my mobile on the shoe rack back home.

Doh.

Just one of those darn days. Had to drive all the way back after lunch to retrieve my phone. 3 missed calls. Dang it.

I Visit Illegal Websites, Apparently

Not enough that we get told that we need a harder erection, and that our credit card bill could be magically settled, and that I’ve won a gazillion bucks worth of African horseshit only that I have to pay USD30,000 upfront first for taxes, I’m accused of surfing illegal websites.

Dear Sir/Madam,

we have logged your IP-address on more than
30 illegal Websites.

Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.

Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison

*** Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
*** 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3220
*** Washington, DC 20535
*** phone: (202) 324-3000

I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. A letter from the FBI. HAHAHAHAHAHAH. And is there really a point in sending out spam like this? I mean, it’s not even attempting to sell me something useful like a penis pump, or some Schmiagra pill to enhance my undersheetexercise or something useful. This is ridiculous. Shame on you spambot.

Manners. And The Lack Of.

I was just pondering this afternoon during breakfast in the office with my mates. Ok, it wasn’t pondering. More like ticked off over someone’s behaviour. The happy breakfast that eventually wasn’t. It’s a small matter really, but ticked me off in any case. Call it immaturity.

So I choose to blog about this. About manners. Just simple, basic manners. No nuclear science kind of manners. Just elementary manners. Manners a nine- or ten-year old would have learned, known and practiced.

And yet, the world disappoints me. For today, the world showed to me, yet again, its ugly head. That bad manners still exists, in however small a way. It chose to show to me (and I chose to see no doubt) that some people have not learned, nor progressed.

It is one thing to be young and naive. It is one thing to be a ten-year old spoilt twat. But even some spoilt ten-year old twats have basic manners. You know, a little ‘thank you’, ‘excuse me’, ‘please’? Key words you learn as a child. Heck, even a five-year old knows the basic concept of right and wrong, goddammit.

Let me give you the gist of it. I offered to buy some kaya-butter fusion sandwiches (typical Malaysian Chinese breakfast thing) for two of my mates at the office this morning. I brought it up and we started to enjoy them. Out of the blue, my boss’s annoying ten-year old son comes and reaches his hand into the bag that contained one of my sandwiches. Grabs it and eats it.

No, he didn’t ask permission.

I gave my colleague Jase a look. He wasn’t impressed either. There was a final half of my toasted sandwich (I bought 2 for myself) on my table. The slut reaches for the bag again. I pre-empted and grabbed the sandwich first in which he replied casually, “Oh, you can have it”. I had wanted to give him my secret Jet-Li-No-Shadow-Kick triple somersault flying kick I learned from StreetFighter there and then, but my insane mind remained sane for once. I snapped back, “Of course I’ll have it, it’s mine!”. Fool.

Slightly childish, I know. Perhaps a tad immature. But it’s just me being intolerant to spoiled brats. And bad manners. Funny how much a kid can get on your nerves.

It reminds me of the bad manners I encounter everyday. You know, the people whom you gave way on the road to and do not acknowledge you after. Or ones who run into you but don’t apologise. Or the dicks who grab a chair from your table without asking. Or queue jumpers. Or spitters. Or the SMS-ing, whispering asses in cinemas.

Those.

Sigh.

Rich Dad, Poor Son

Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The book that changed my life at 25. It forever changed my perspective of money, how to manage money. I learned about assets and liabilities, of doodads and minding my own business. Robert Kiyosaki was at that point (and still is) my idol and mentor. He taught me, through his books (I have almost all in his collection – Cashflow Quadrant, Rich Dad’s Guide To Investing, the works) about how to make money work for me, so I don’t have to work hard.

Fast forward 5 years. Ok, six.

I’m stuck. In a rut which I pretty much got out of 5 years ago when I was younger, a-travelling, accumulating assets. What happened? I think, I got lost. I forgot the very words that Kiyosaki instilled in my stubborn veins – “doodads”, “assets”, “liabilities”. Credit card debt is up. Expenses are up. I earn a good amount, from both my fulltime job and freelancing. But never, never enough. Barely making ends meet.

Did I forget? Or did I chose to not see?

After reading “Rich Dad’s Guide to Becoming Rich…Without Cutting Up Your Credit Cards” recently, my wiser innerself has started to question and analyse all over again. Just like 5 years ago (ok, six). And from a little test I took a FIQ or Financial IQ, as Kiyosaki calls it, I know that I really have not ‘forgotten’.

Is the 91% really my FIQ or is it just because I’ve read so many of his books that I know the answers?

The ultimate question, I feel is – How in hell did I get myself into this rut, again? Aaargh. Whether through complacency, ignorance, laziness or stupidity, the damage is deep and serious. I’m digging deep, that’s for sure, for a way out. This vicious cycle of debt, lack of money, time.

I promise myself to get out, fast. It may take some time to recover, but I will. Change the mindset, the habits.

Damn you, Rat. I want out. Forever.

Happy Birthday, brother!

Big huggies to my bro, Brian who turned 21 yesterday! We didn’t give him a key coz he had his key of freedom a long time ago, just like every one of his brothers.

Wishing you all success in love, career and life, dood!

Peace and love.

XXX00XXX

Sing It To Me, Baby!

If there’s one thing great about Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, it’s the introduction of Dashboard and Widgets. Mini-applications, some completely useless but fascinating, that help spice up your desktop. My boo introduced me to one useful one – Sing that iTune!

This widget displays lyrics for the iTunes track currently playing, along with its artwork, where available. There’s even an option to save lyrics in music files is also available. Fantastic! I’ve tested with some tracks downloaded from the web, and also ripped (legally) from my personal CD collection. Works like a charm. Highly recommended, this!

Some features at a glance:
- Multi-lingual (English, Japanese and Chinese)
- Handles radio streaming titles.
- Retry or search Google when the lyrics is not found.
- You can edit the lyrics right on the widget.
- iTunes controller. (Click the artwork to show.)

The Diva Is A-Bloggin’!

Hey, what do you know? The great Edwin Sumun decides to set-up a blog! Watch him get personal on DIVA.