Parents visiting

Since I hadn't visited them for quite sometime, my parents decided to come over to my place to visit me all the way from Kota Bahru, Kelantan. Its not that I didn't want to see them or anything but somehow whenever I had some days off, I would be rushing over to KL to see my babies. They were sad that they could not see Rahil but we decided that she was too young to take such a long journey. However, I would be going over to Kota Bharu during the Chinese New Year with my wife and Rahil. The minute they opened the door to my small house, my mum started fussing over the place - cleaning and rearranging things. I guess all mums are like that. Of course the place is messy. I used to cook when I was a bachelor in KL but decided that its not worth it now. Just go out and have a bite - no messy plates to clean and no greasy aroma in the house. At the most I make tea or coffee and sometimes Maggi. I am married but still living like a bachelor and whenever I am free - I am in KL. I mostly use the place for sleeping and waching TV. Last night watched Juara Lagu before sleeping. Not as lucky as Jolliekins. Quite interesting and the great new talent. Don't you agree? But I still like the old timers - Ella, Noraniza Idris and of course Siti. Oops sorry - they are all still young.

Long Break and the Mozart Effect

I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas. Had a long nice break this week. I guess I really deserved it and it was nice to spend some time with my wife and baby daughter without work on my mind. However, it’s back to work again. Rahil is growing fast and she is getting prettier and prettier. Initially everyone kept mistaking her for a boy but her eyelashes are getting longer and she also has a dimple when she smiles. I had been hearing a lot about the "Mozart Effect" and decided to do some research on it. According to this theory, music (especially classical compositions by Mozart) can enhance the intellect of a developing child. We didn't see any harm in it and decided to invest a bit of money in some Classical music CDs. We were really surprised when we found out that there are specific titles out there in the market targeted at parents. We bought Mozart Effect CDs vol. 3 and 4 but I couldn't get my hands on vols. 1 and 2 which were out of stock. Is it just my imagination or is Rahil smiling a lot more after listening to the CDs for only 2 days?

Peace in the future?

There were some good International news this week with signs of improving bilateral relations between traditional enemies India and Pakistan. Libya announced that they were ready to sign additional protocols of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which will mean tougher UN checks. Libya's leader Col Muammar Gaddafi also announced that they were stopping their banned weapons programme- including chemical, biological and nuclear. Iran had already signed the additional protocol recently. Now Israel is the only middle east country with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Talking about Israel, a group of soldiers from the elite Sayerat Matkal commando unit have refused to take part in operations in occupied territories saying that they no longer wanted to join in a "rule of opression". Just 3 months ago 25 pilots were grounded for refusing to take part in bombings in Palestinian areas. This is a part of the growing refusenik movement in Israel. Read the Personal Testimony of an Israeli Refusenik By Asaf Oron.

PAS and Jews

OK! So all of us who don't agree with PAS's vision of an Islamic state are all Jews.
If you have been the observant and inquisitive type you would have come across these following issues raised up/ statements made by PAS leaders (so called ulama) in the past:
- No lipstick for working women. Beware of all these male devils in the office.
- Tudung for all working women women and girls
- Women should stay at home
- Seperate rows for women and men in payment counters
- Lights on in the Cinema halls to prevent kids from acting like sotong
- All UMNO supporters are infidels
- Thumbs up to "Shit". Nice intellectual book what?
- Its OK to work with the devil to defeat your enemies. DAP = devil? UMNO = enemy?
- God is a greater samseng (gangster)
- Ulama can use foul language
- Ban on dancing by women in public occasions
- Ban Siti Nurhaliza
- Stop watching Hindi films

Some were not bad and I support some of them. However, one thing you will notice is the number of issues/ statements related to women. ????

They also have an answer to everything?

Poverty?
- Forget about this dunia. Think about the Akhirat, or
The central govt. takes away all our money, or
We were made poor by the past UMNO leaders who stole our money, or
the most popular - The central govt. doesn't give us any funds.

Number of single women in the state?
- Encourage polygamy to decrease the number of single women and help them earn a living (from the man)

Rape?
- Wear tudung.

Drug addiction, development and trade, international relations, other races in Govt.?
- We will deal with these issues when we come into power in the centre.

Its OK when it is the uneducated simple kampung folk listening to the Ulama at ceramahs but it is scary when it is the foreign educated, working professionals who nod their head "Yes"with every issue/statement.

Last but not the least. "No we were misquoted by the press." "Its Govt. propaganda."
Solution - ban NST, TV3 etc. etc. and read only Harakah.

PC fair

Visited the PC fair at PWTC yesterday with my father-in-law who is another IT enthusiast (I don't like the word freak) and a relative back from Australia. Man the place was really packed. We were looking for some memory cards, a lap top hard disk and of course just to look around. There were some good bargains. An Imation CD writer which I bought a few days back for RM165, was on sale for RM130 there. My father-in-law met an accquaintance (one of his suppliers) which provided an interesting piece of information. He told us to wait until the end of the Fair for prices of some components to go down. It seems that law of demand works here. The demand for certain PC components like memory cards go up during the fair and go down afterwards. Strange because I thought that they were supposed to have bargain prices at the fair. In the end we didn't buy any thing there and just ordered the goods from that guy. He promised us lower prices and a "take back" gurantee if the the products were not compatible. Thats sounded good with us.
It great to have links.

Talk about Customisation from the Factrory

Just visited the Mazda web site just to look at their new models. This piece of information caught my eye. What was interesting was the news about their web-tuned@Roadster (Web-tuned Roadster), an internet-exclusive model where customers can have their cars custom build (well almost). Customers can select specifications after selecting the vehicle of their choice with up to approximately 700 possible customizations for Axela and 12 million for their Roadster.


Mazda Axela Sport 23S (equipped with S-package)

Also customers receive estimates, schedule appointments with sales representatives and place orders online. You can choose the colour, engine, etc. After making their selections, customers can preview their customized vehicles on the web. A dealer will then after authorization, register the vehicle and make a delivery appointment. Talk about great customer service. When can we have such as service in Malaysia?

Compare their site with Proton's and Perodua's.

Gore and stylish violence in Kill Bill

Saddam has been caught by the US occupation forces in Iraq. Hope the violence will end and that the Iraqis can get on with their normal lives.
Just watched Kill Bill, the latest movie by Quentin Tarantino and starring Uma Thurman as the heroine. I know I am a bit late. Most of you have seen this movie. Hell I haven't even watched Matrix revolutions. Well remember that I am new father with a baby to take care of. Like all Tarantino movies, this movies starts in the end of the story and goes back to the beginning. If you don't get what I mean, see the movie for yourself. Just one warning, its pretty bloody. Lot of stylish fight scenes and I couldn't help but think that it reminded me of something. I realised that it had some similarities to the old Bruce Lee movies but much more stylish and the use of samuri swords instead of Kung fu and fists. The fight scenes are terrific and if you can stand limbs and heads flying and blood everywhere, than this movie is a must see. Another interesting concept is the incorporation of a short anime clip. I must say that the best fight in the movie was that between the heroine and the Japanese girl Go-Go Yubari played by Chiaki Kuriyama. For those who didn't know, it's another movie with a sequel and you don't even get to see the face of Bill, her former boss and the guy whom she is after. Well have to wait for the 2nd volume/ sequel to come out.