Dark Ages

If there is any disadvantage in staying in Sabah at all, I'd say its the constant power cuts that spoils its utopian charm. Sabah's electricity woes are so legendary that Lim Kit Siang has hit out at SESB (Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd) in his book 'The Cries of Sabah'.

“Talking about power supply in my hometown, on average in a month, we will be in total darkness for at least 72 hours; the highest record was no power supply for 8 hours a day for 1 whole week!! If there is no power disruption in Sabah, then it’s not Sabah, SESB confirms to this, where SESB stands for SABAH EVERYDAY SURE BLACKOUT. If there were no power supply for half an hour in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, tomorrow it will be the top news in the media, but for us Sabahans on the other side of Malaysia, being drenched in total darkness for few others, causing traffics to go haywire, no one even bothered about us.”

- “The cries of Sabahan”

I can assure you readers from West Malaysia that, YES, its that bad. Everytime there is a power cut, it will undoubtedly affect my workplace - how else can I key in sales transactions when the monitors are all blank right? So we have to rely on manual written transactions that will be entered into the POS once the power comes back on.

This is really bothersome, especially if you have multiple customers waiting and you are copying down all the barcodes, prices, items and whatnot furiously while trying to counsel them at the same time.

Looking through all of last year's transactions, I've counted a total of 42 power cuts during office hours. Thats like almost one every week! Mind you, this is not including power cuts at odd hours of the night that wakes us up in a pool of sweat, only to get back to sleep by losing consciousness through extreme heat exhaustion.

As much as I hate power disruptions, there are times when I long for it. Oh say when the telly is showing Sir Alex like this...

Sir Alex's nasal follicles are longer than my beard!

Having nasal hair that shows is a greater sin than having inappropriate relations with your pet dog. I find it difficult talking to people who have such a substantial volume of hair in the nose that wave to you everytime they exhale. What's worse is that they seem to be proud of it. I've always believed that it takes a great deal of apathy towards personal hygiene and grooming for it to ever reach such a level.

Speaking of apathy, that's the general feeling towards power cuts now in Sabah. Talk to any man on the street and yes he will be pissed at SESB but the conversation will always end with 'What to do? Don't get electricity from them, who else can you get from?' We've all learnt to adjust and live our lives around this terrible inconvenience. Apathy has become acceptance in a way.

Maybe I should start getting used to nasal hair as plan B in case I can never grow a moustache.

Book of the Year 2009

Looking back at my past choices for my personal Book of the Year(BOTY), I realized that they are all non-fiction. If there is ever going to be a fiction book up for that title, 2009 will be the year.

I'll always remember 2009 as the year I became a fan of Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series (Yea I know...what took me so long?). Ironically, I started picking up his books when I read an article about Terry Pratchett being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Moist von Lipwig was the first character I grew attached to.

Admittedly, reading Making Money first before Going Postal was like putting underarm deodorant after a heavy gym session...then going for a shower. However even if you read the series out of sequence, you will still be guaranteed a laugh out loud experience. Terry's wit and humor, especially in wordplays, fills his books with many classic quotes. There are times when I look forward to coming home after a 13 hour work shift and just really soak in the brilliance.

I love every single Discworld book I have read so far (and I'm sure the same goes for those I have yet to read) and therefore it cannot be considered for the BOTY honors. Including it for consideration will mean Terry winning the BOTY for the next few years at least.

There is one other book that I have enjoyed reading and will not hesitate to recommend to anyone.

I bought this book early 2009 to prepare myself for my marriage. This is not a 'how to' self help book that teaches you techniques but rather it is a very well written book that urges its reader to grasp how and why our emotions can make us or break us. The book starts off with an anatomy lesson - specifically discussing the cortex and the limbic systems in our brains that are responsible for rational thinking and emotional processing. The first part can be boring and I suggest you skip this part if you hate reading all those medical terms.

The book then goes on to touch on a variety of topics, gender specific emotional expressions, emotions in marital life, relationship between emotions and our health, conflict resolution, teaching children to control their emotions and so on.

We have a culture that glorifies grades above all else. How else can we explain local newspapers giving front page coverage to students with impossible number of As? Don't get me wrong, grades are important. If my children come home with Ds on their report card then of course their career options will be limited...unless they want to be the President of the US.

Parents will surely be happy when their kids get good grades. Rather, good grades and skills are like bullets in a handgun while your emotional intelligence allows you to read the situation and decide when to fire.

So there, the most memorable book that I've read in 2009 is Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence. As for this year, I'm trying to read more fiction. Anyone can suggest some good fiction novels? There will be lots of Discworld novels too this year to read ...heheh.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As 2009 comes to an end - and what a year it has been for me - I came to realize that despite all the challenges, every year has always been better than the last. There's always just so much to be thankful for that all grievances are insignificant. And I do hope that it I'll always have this mentality for the many years I still have left.

A very Merry Christmas to all of you and a very Happy 2010 ahead!

Wire-gra™

My tomato plants were growing up very well on its own until it started doing this.

Before Wire-gra™

Normally a male will be well beyond his fifties before something like this happens. I guess in tomato years, my plant is an old man.

After doing some research and discovering that tomato plants need support, I decided to build something to help it. I also made a mistake when I sowed the seeds, shouldn't have dumped it all in one place. It may look fine now but it will hinder the growth of the plant eventually.

The tricky bit was separating them. The saplings are really fragile and flaccid. Half of them died in the transplantation.

Tomato on Wire-gra™

Ta-daaa! I admit it looks hideous now but I'll do something about it once it grows more substantially.

Kena Tipu -.-"

Two weekends ago at my in-law's place, I noticed on their coffee table a DVD for the movie 2012. Having heard a lot of positive reviews from everyone regarding this blockbuster, my wife and I decided to borrow it.

Now I didn't do much reading up or research on the movie because I was told there was a surprise of some sort. All I knew was that the world was supposed to meet its end soon. So minutes into the movie and encountering some very mediocre CG, we were very accomodating initially (the barber that cut my hair a few days before told me that some of the special effects were quite fake. So..er...this must be the fake parts he was talking about).

Then we started noticing the horrendous acting abilities of the actors. More fake visual effects. Visible studio equipment. I guess the final straw was during a rapture scene.

After some checking, we realized that we'd been duped! Its not the movie we had in mind! Sure, it was still titled 2012 but with an additional 'doomsday' at its back. It seems we were not the only people to have suffered through this movie according to the reviews.

The very offending movie

I guess from now I will check every single movie or read it up before I watch. At least if I had been aware of the director's name this could be avoided in the future.

This feeling of being cheated is worse because it does not involve money. More importantly, that was 1 hour plus of my life totally wasted watching such a terrible movie. My time would have been put to better use had I spent that 1 hour being repeatedly kicked in the nuts by every single member of the New Zealand All Blacks.

Oh it hurts so good

I've learnt my lesson... You know I really wonder which version of the movie my barber watched.

Not Quite Right

Appeton is phasing out their boy mascot... If you walk into any pharmacies you should be able to see a new picture instead of this one.

About time I say... I can't really put my finger on it but I think there's something not quite right with the position of his nipples. Hmm...

Kimchi!

Those who know me will know that I am not a big fan of kimchi. Its like Cristiano Ronaldo - you either love or hate him. Fortunately during our Korea trip, we were sent for some brain washing sessions.

The KimChi School

Different varieties of kimchi

We were told that kimchi had just been named as one of the Top 5 World's Healthiest Foods. Well we never take anything our guide says at face value so we made a note to check it out when we came back. She was right!

My wife, always the good student

Making the kimchi

The result - after 3 weeks of fermentation in our fridge. Kimchi on right, seaweed left.

The kimchi sat in our fridge in an airtight box for 3 weeks and when we had it for dinner last week, it really tastes like we were back in a restaurant in Seoul. There is no doubt that kimchi is very healthy. However there are reports that the overconsumption of certain types of kimchi was a possible link to cancer, possibly due to the high sodium content and nitrates produced during fermentation in certain types of kimchi. South Korea has the highest rates of gastric cancer in the world after all.

Well that should not stop you from appreciating this dish once in a while. A little of everything in moderation always benefits you. Oh, and I like kimchi now. Heheh.