Tanggal 31

On this day:

1803 - Lewis & Clark (not to be confused with Lois & Clark) started their famous expedition to the Pacific Coast.

1888 - 1st known victim of Jack the Ripper was murdered.

1957 - Malaysia gained its independence from the United Kingdom, though until today our spirit & mindset were still not fully free.

1997 - Princess Diana & Dodi Al-Fayed were killed in a car accident & mourned by many, including Malaysians who got nothing to do with her (We called ourselves independence?).

Politicians & academicians still debate whether we are fully independence from the westerners occupation, personally I think in reality, we can't get everything we want,

the most important thing is that we should never stop improving ourselves,

never get bitten by the same snake twice,

however we got another bite from the same old snake again today

Price of RON 95 at RM1.80 from Tuesday (Update)

By NURBAITI HAMDAN and TEH ENG HOCK

KUALA LUMPUR: The newly introduced RON 95 fuel is now priced at RM1.80 - five sen higher than the previous RM1.75.

Meanwhile, RON 97 is upgraded as a premium product and has gone up to RM2.05 from RM1.80.

Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the new prices were decided based on the current method of Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM).

“Although the price is now 5 sen higher, the Government is still subsidising 33.81 sen per litre (of RON 95) which is equivalent to RM304mil monthly,” he told reporters after the launch of Primax 95 by Petronas here on Monday.

(from The Star Online)

WTF...

Merdeka!!!

An Idiot's Guide to Ramadhan!

Here's a funny Q&A on Ramadhan from BBC:

Ramadan, What does this mean?

Ramadan is the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. It's when Muslims all over the world spend 30 days observing fast and bettering themselves in principles of faith.

Observing fast? Is that something to do with running, then?

No.

Oh, what is it then?

Observing fast, or fasting, is when a person abstains (or keeps away) from eating and drinking.

What, you don't eat or drink anything? Don't you get hungry? I know I would.

Yes, that's the idea. We fast for 30 consecutive days during the month of Ramadan.

30 days? No one can go 30 days without food and drink-or can they?

No, that's right, which is why Muslims only fast during daylight hours. Once the fast for each day ends, they are allowed to eat again.

Then, what's the point of fasting?

Click here for more of the Q&A!

al-Fatihah: Prof Dr Abdul Halim Mat Diah

This is perhaps the most 'emo' entry so far - dedicated to a person very close to me & my family.

We affectionately call him 'Cakelar' - after my late grandfather failed attempt to pronounce & refer him as 'the Chancellor' for his job in UM long before I can regain my childhood memories.

He has known my parents even before I was born, perhaps even before my mum & dad were married to each other since his kampung located just in the same district as ours.

He also went to further his study in Indonesia as my parents were to the extent his late parents requested my father to bring along some budu for their son. However my father secretly refused since 'secupak' budu was no small volume & might cause international security issue...

Since then, Indonesia has a special place in his heart.

Back in Malaysia, he lectured in Academy for Islamic Studies (API), UM. Even in distance our family still maintain the close relationship (my family's in KB), his house in Sg Buloh is our shelter whenever we have things to do in KL.

He motivated me to study in UM, perhaps the best U (usually...) in Malaysia. Now I'm doing my Masters in Engineering, also in UM.

He helped me went through the bureaucratic SKR during my 1st registration for Foundation (Asasi).

Then without hesitation I invited him for a lecture during a spiritual event at 11th Residential College - my 1st co-curricular campus activity.

Upon graduation he invited me to become his Research Assistant with a salary of RM950 permonth, unofficially he was my 1st employer.

For 4 decades, we maintained our close family relationship.

Last week, on 17th Aug - the Independence Day of Indonesia, his favourite foreign country - he passed away due to heart problem, unexpectedly.

15th August 2009, 2 days before his departure.

My family was only aware a day later - much to our upset & I was in UM that day.

While my parents were still upset for not able to attend his funeral, I took it positively: Perhaps God didn't want us to be sad watching his lifeless body since for years we knew him, not a single moment he didn't burst with laughter & made us laugh together...

Thank you & al-Fatihah to Almarhum 'Cakelar' - Professor Dr. Abdul Halim bin Mat Diah for the wonderful moments. May Allah place you with His selected servants by His side. Amin.
P/S: All pictures courtesy of his family members & http://niesnoraliena.blogspot.com/2009/08/belasungkawa-prof-dr-abdul-halim-bin.html

Mask of a Joker

A mask usually refers to an article worn on the face, either for protection

identity concealment, performance, or simply for amusement.

Of coz talking about mask, we cant stop thinking about

and

What interesting is one of the possible etymology of the word 'mask' is from Arabic word 'maskharah' meaning the jester aka the joker aka the fool.

According to Shakespearean account the fools are usually clever peasants or commoners that use their wits to outdo people of higher social standing.

Once a while we meet fools in our life masked in a face of someone we knew & trusted - talk like Shakespeare & about integrity as their way of life.

Slowly but surely we were clouded with their sweet speeches & in the end we entrusted them with our investment.

Where the investment meeting took place

Turn out they're big assholes, robbing our investment & most importantly... our trust away.

For this kind of people, pity you for having financial troubles...

but most importantly pity you for officially losing my trust on you.

P/S: Pity me for blindly trusted you. F**k!

Ipoh's Meister of Wheel Allignment & Balancing

One afternoon at a petrol station in Ipoh...

See the cars lining up to the pasar malam umbrella?

They are on q to meet the only living Meister of Wheel Allignment & Balancing!

Dont play-play with this Meister, he do those 2 jobs online i.e without taking out your car tires & even turning off your car engine.

If you send your car to normal tire shops, they will use the laser equipped computerized sensor & the spinning machine wtf machine for allignment & balancing works.

This meister however simply give a big 'F**k You' the the hi-tec equipments & simply use these own-fabricated tools for allignment

& this I-dont-know-what-this-is piece of equipment for balancing

Watch this sequential pictures:

He simply jack up your car, ask you to sit with engine on, gear in & press the pedal while he handsomely monitor the tire rotation & feel the suspension.

Then stick some tape to the rim, watch the tape's rotation

& finally stick the wheel weight where appropriate to balance your wheel

For allignment, he put the tool with mirror on your right wheel

put the other pair (with some measurement markings) on the left wheel & monitor the reflections of the wheels & judge either the allignment is OK or not.

Honestly I don't know how he allign the wheel coz 2 times I went there I never saw how he did it.

As a real meister, size of vehicles does not matter.

I wouldn't surprise if he can service lorry or bus...

The meister is actually the 3rd generation of his family to provide the service here, unfortunately looks like there won't be any 4th coz people claim his children are not interested to continue their family tradition. It's a great loss...

In the end he charge RM5 per tire for balancing & RM7 per tire for allignment. Compare that to the proce charged by wheel shops.

However his service only limited to front wheels only.

So if you ever come to Ipoh & need some quick works on your tire, just visit the Meister in Shell Petrol Station, Jalan Datoh near Shen Jai School and you wont be dissapointed.

Weird posture of eating

There is a restaurant in Kota Damansara with a name of lemongrass (translate & figure it out).

Me & my friends went there couple of weeks ago for dinner.

When our ordered foods arrived, they were served in a mini-frying pans on stove instead of normal plates.

It's quite unique come to think of it.

However, being a soon-to-be safety practitioner I quickly noticed that it was an ergonomics nightmare of eating posture.

After dealing with some strain in my arms, I managed to finish my Nasi Goreng...

This is how my friends & I looked like after the dinner:

P/S: After finishing this post, I realized why the hell didn't I use the plates provided along with the mini pans???

Tebaabo!!!

On 0815 hrs 6th August 1945, under the order of US President Harry Truman the nuclear bomb "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.

The plane was B-29 'Enola Gay' piloted & commandeered by Colonel Paul Tibbets.

140,000 people were killed by the bomb, half of them were killed directly by the explosion - most of them were civilians - including 2 Malaysians. Over 90% of doctors & 93% of nurses were killed & injured.

Although the United States had dropped leaflets warning civilians of air raids on twelve other Japanese cities in advance, the residents of Hiroshima were given no notice of the atomic bomb.

3 days later, the city of Nagasaki shared the same fate...

It's always hard to debate whether the Japanese deserved the Atomic Bombs or not. But 1 ultimate thing for sure the innocent civilians never deserved them. That's the ugly face of war.

Come to think of it if not for the bombings, the Japanese might not reach their current super-advanced technological & manufacturing status and we here in Malaysia might currently speak Japanese, sing Japanese Anthem, trading using duit cap pokok pisang, etc...

All summarized, this picture makes me want to cry like him...

Bad Restaurant Name!

There's a restaurant in Batu Gajah Ferdana, Ferak Darul Ridzuan:

Quite punny name por certain feofle like me!