I'm not even going to ask you whether you've tried dieting.

Because somewhere along the way, you'd have known someone who did, and thus would be able to relate to the 'dieting experience'.

If I were to ask you how many people you know who are successful dieters, meaning they have shed some pounds through the process of dieting (the use of the words 'I'm on diet' being the key identifier here) and have kept it that way since, for long term; my hallucination is that you couldn't even name one.

My argument is, the concept that denotes conventional dieting does not work.



Why the concept of 'Dieting' don't work.

What do you think of when you think of dieting?



I think of ........

Christy Chung

Andrea Fonseka

Bernice Liu

Naturally, I think of girls with 'to die for' bodies. But that's just me being sexist ;P

Ok, that was simply a lame excuse to put some chick photos in my blog, to increase readership.... :)


Anyway, let me prove to you that diet don't work, not because we're not capable of controlling our body weight if we want to, but because the concept of dieting as we have come to know it, is counter productive. That's why we often see dieters face the problem of weight rebound.

The reason almost all dieting fails is this (pay attention, this is a biggie):

We attach a time frame to dieting

Yes, it is as simple as that. It is more complicated when we dissect the psychological impact of attaching a time frame to dieting ,whether we do it consciously or subconsciously.

To understand further, we need to know what dieting means to most people.
Ask yourself these questions:

What is the purpose of dieting to you? What is your target weight? What happens when you reach your target weight?
Dieting normally means sticking to a particular regime (meals, exercise, sleep, activities) for a period of time until you reach your target weight.

Normally, nobody tells you what happens when you succeed. Therein lies the problem. More often than not, we are 'forced' to go back to our daily habits before dieting. That is, we live a 'normal' life again.

If you ever start a dieting regime without answering all the three questions above, you're in for failure.
If you think dieting is a method of getting to your target weight and only that, you're in for failure.

Here's the bottom line:

If you do anything short of changing your lifestyle permanently to sustain a healthy weight, you're in for failure.

So many people are afraid of these words: change your lifestyle, permanently. Yet it is the only effective means of achieving and keeping your ideal or healthy weight.

In fact, it is the only means of achieving and keeping anything permanently in life.


Remember this: Change is a conditioning process.

Change is not a switch you flip and get the results for good. Here's a good story by Tony Robbins to illustrate my point:


Tony owns a grand piano he doesn't play, cause he doesn't know how to. He has just got the bucks to buy whatever he fancies even though he doesn't need them, simply because it's cool to be able to own things you don't need. If you know what I mean. What blissful lifestyle ;)

Anyway, one fateful day, he calls a piano tuner-technician to calibrate his piano. You know, a person who come and adjust the strings in a piano to make them sound good again. After the technician worked his magic, when he was about to leave, he told Tony that he'll be coming back the next week. Tony asked him why, and he explained that because the strings were stretched in a certain way for a long period of time, he needs to condition it back to keep it working.

He explained further that even after the second tuning, he would have to come back every month, then every 3 months and after that every 6 months just to keep it working the way it is.
Tony uses this story to explain his brand of change technology, which moves from NLP (Neuro Linguistic programming) to NAC (Neuro Associative Conditioning).



As an expert in personal change, Tony clearly understands that change do not last if not conditioned into our daily life by taking on new habits. Be it bad habits like smoking or unhealthy diets to larger patterns of behavior like financial success, relationship success, peak performance; all needs new habits to calibrate and tune our behaviors to make it consistent. Daily rituals, to keep conditioning our mind, to make it stick.


I repeat, if you ever start a diet regime thinking: "I'm going to stay off deserts/supper/chocolate or I'm hitting the gym 4 times a week....until I get to my ideal weight. Then I can have my deserts/ supper etc, as reward. You are heading for failure.


What to do?

So you see, there is no other way. Those people who you see who succeeded in dieting and kept it that way, have all taken on new habits and behavior to support their weight change. They've changed their lifestyle, in some ways. They are using a conditioning mindset.

If you are going to start dieting, think about what is it that you can change permanently in your life in order to support your new healthy target weight. Think about what new habits you can build into your daily routines like fixed meal time, avoiding junk foods, exercise 3 times a week etc, etc.

You don't even have to do everything at once. Start with a few simple steps and build it from there. It will not just be good for your weight problems, it will be good for your life. You'll have more positive energy and your self esteem will go up for successfully making positive changes of habits.

Remember, you need to change your mindset to change you life. Hit and run diets programmes will not work in the long run, in fact, statistics shows that dieters often put on more weight and becomes heavier than they were after a diet programme! The same is true with hit-and-run mentaility of dieting until you reach a certain weight and then rewarding yourself.



Stop kidding yourself, because you deserve a better lifestyle.

Crap, I'm in THE rat race.

I was driving home the other day, thinking about my new work environment and suddenly realized I'm in a position I swear I would not get myself into: the rat race.

&%^&$%@**&!!

This is an accident. I'm not going to be here long.

Damn.

My fellow Malaysians, I'm doing this on behalf of the Malaysian Government.

I'm sick and tired of you guys complaining about the increase in oil price. Here's what I want to ask you:

You don't read the bloody newspaper one issit?

Cannot see in the news oil prices increase like hell meh?


Why you all so stupid!!!


Oil prices, as of now, is $147 per barrel!!

You know that is how many percent increase from last year or not?!! Last year, it was $68 per barrel.
Increase 53%, you know or not?!!!

So you know how much subsidy the gorv is giving you for the oil you use to send your children to school, go mamak stall for supper, go convenience store buy roti....etc, etc.

Very easy calculation, stupid!

So don't complain anymore, can or not?! (Damn, you people force me to use so many exclamation mark in one post!)

STUPID!

You see, the gorv ministers always try to explain to us (Malaysians) the mechanics of crude oil pricing and gorv subsidy calculations. Only that we are too stupid to understand it, cause our maths sucks because of our Malaysian education system. Understand onot?

Very simple only. Crude oil price increase, gorv spend more money to buy oil, therefore increases subsidy for rakyat. Then then then.. gorv cannot tahan anymore cause oil prices gone too high, so not enough money to subsidize us, so have to increase oil prices loh, stupid!


But, but, but then hor......



I saw this listing in Fortune magazine's issue of Fortune's Global 500, which list the 500 top companies in the world in terms of revenue and profits.

Which makes me remember, I studied in school last time that Malaysia is ALSO an oil producing country. I don't know since when I forgot about this fact. It probably got lost in the huge amount of crap, lies and propagandas our beloved gorv tries to shove into our........*....... day in and day out.

Do yourself a favor, stupid, and read this article.


Petronas is ranked 95 of the top 500 companies in the world in terms of revenue.

Petronas is ranked 8 of the top 500 companies in the world in terms of profit.
( ahead of companies like War-Mart [largest company in the world], Toyota, ING Group, General Electric, Citigroup, Berkshire Hathaway, Honda, Hewlett-Packard, ArcelorMittal, Bank of America Corp. , Pfizer, Sony, Nokia....... and the rest of the 400+ top companies in the world).

So, remember this: Petronas makes more money per year than the company of the plasma TV you're watching, the car you're driving, the phone you're using, the computer you're looking at now, the underwear you're wearing...etc. etc.

They made more than US$18 billions last year, and definitely more this year.

Profits grew 40% in 2007 because oil prices went up 11.2% from the previous year.




So, if oil prices go up 53% more, then profits can grow how much leh?

If Petronas is making so much more money, then where has all the money gone?




Stupid, stupid, stupid. I tell myself. The calculations must be too complicated for a normal Malaysian to understand. Only Malaysian gorv politicians know how to calculate such complicated maths. So forget about calculating where the Petronas money has gone, because you, like me, a normal Malaysian citizen, would not be able to understand.


The options for me is simple. It's either I remain stupid or I do something about it.
Ah....I instantly felt a lot more cleverer once I made a decision in my head of a certain box to cross in the future, and doing something to let the people around me know that they suck at maths.


I am writing this post because of how stupid I felt after reading the Fortune issue today. I'm sure you'll feel the same way after reading it too.
Thanks for listening, STUPID!

Scam one

First, I was awoken to an sms that reads:

Selamat! (selamat what? It was not mentioned. Learn your bahasa, scammer!) Anda memenangi cabutan bertuah RM10,000.00. Info, sila dail 0128171732 Pengirim: PETRONAS

I got the sms from the no: 0128421334.

So watch out for this fucker of a scammer, k.

I was too curious, and though I can smell the rottenness of the whole thing, I still called the number to make sure I don't miss the probably o.ooooo1% chance of me actually winning ten grand.

A person speaking Indonesian answered the phone. I was expecting him to congratulate me once he picked up the phone, but he doesn't seem to know the reason I called so I have to explain to him I'm calling regarding the sms I recieved. It's either they are operating more than one scam or this is a number he actually use to make calls. Weird.

Then after all the congratulatory bullshits and craps, I tried to ask more questions to hear him speak more just to be certain he's speaking Indonesian. After a while, I was convinced that this is a scam. I tried really hard to think of some witty and stupid questions to ask him to fuck him up, but can't, cause just woke up from sleep. I'm such a failure... ;P

Apparently, this scam have been going on for a very long time, according to blogs like this one and this one. The only difference, they have changed the sms content and the number is from Malaysia.

Also read from Petronas HERE.




Scam two

Then, there was this thing I found out about Richard Bandler today. This is the most depressing news for me today cause I'm such a big fan of him.

I've been listening to his CDs these few days again and again and even thought of making it a habit to listen to it every once in a while cause it's such good stuffs. But when you start to doubt a person's character, you don't feel like taking his advice, even though it sounds like it's the best advice you've ever heard.

I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that he's involved (either directly or indirectly) in a murder. I think he's brilliant in coming up with NLP and helping people make changes with hypnosis and there's still so much I want to learn about NLP and hypnosis, but I can't help but have this feeling of being cheated. I guess that's the thing about trust, once you lose it, it's probably not coming back.

So, I've decided to turn to John Grinder (the other co-founder of NLP) instead to get deeper into NLP.




Scam Three

I was out with a friend tonight and sent him to an ATM machine. I was waiting inside the car when a malay guy (with two other, aged around 15-16) approached my car and tried to hand me a pamphlet. I have a weakness for surprises and is too curious most of the time so I winded down my window to see what this guy (who smell very much like a scammer btw) has to offer.

He gave me a folded pamphlet taped at the side and told me it's a contest for a shop that is due to open in a shopping centre near my house. I opened the phamplet and and have to endure 5 minutes of fake surprise reactions from my three new friends. They seriously need acting class.

I can't help but say, this is as bad as it gets.

I mean, three skinny 15 year olds waiting around an ATM machine to hand out phamplets for a contest that offers gifts thousands of Ringgit? Come on. Be serious. If you run a scam, do it properly, like the Petronas sms thing.

I was to told to go to their office which is also near the place I live and contact a certain manager. I said no, I can't go now, I've got things to do (like come back home to blog about this). I told them I'd pay a visit to their office only tomorrow, and ask him to tell me exactly where it is. He gave me some directions and wrote down the company name of Nabinco Network.

He also wrote his name down as Black. Yes, you read that right: Black.

WTF!! What kind of name is that?! It fucking spells S.C.A.M to me!

The pamphlet I received.

Eh, boss of Nabinco, pls hire better looking and trained staffs to scam people. You're digging your own graves here. Don't say I didn't give you tips. When I googled Nabinco Network, I found this interesting bit of news HERE.


Well, well, well, if it aint bloody SCAM ME DAY today.

Pls tell more people about this. There are those who still falls for these kind of shit. I seriously can't figure out why.

Take this advice from me, the next time you feel like putting down money for contest for free prizes of cash: If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

I imagine I'll have this in my future home:

Yum yum!! The ladder, ohh...sexy...

This post is not really a 'how to' on building a home library. It's about how to prepare for one though.


Take two simple steps:
1) Make lots of money to buy a big house that have space for a home library.
2) Buy lots of book to fill the racks.

I'm starting with the second step first.

I've developed a habit of buying too many books at one time and not having enough time to finish reading them. I'm drawn to the bookstores every time I visit the mall. It's like a mental preprogramming, or a post-hypnotic suggestion.

And every time I'm in a bookstore, I couldn't help myself noticing some new bestsellers or more intriguing books I'd really like to read. I've had fantasies of one day buying the whole bookstore. Now, wouldn't that be a scene?!


Me walking towards the book store counter.

Me: Excuse me (see, I'm polite. People who loves to read are polite ;p)

Bookstore staff: Hi, how can I help you?

Me: I'd like to buy all your books, please.

Bookstore staff: Excuse me?!

Me: All your books........please. How much?

Bookstores staff:............

Then, the staff would call the cops on me.

Haha... no, that's not how it ends. I will end up buying the whole store and live happily ever after....WTF!



Anyway.....

As a result, I've successfully flooded my room, my car and my living room with books I'm reading. I try to tuck a book or two everywhere around the house so it is within reach everytime I feel like reading, which is like, all the time. So I end up having dozen of books I've read half way.


I'm producing this list to remind myself of the books I'm currently reading and should finish reading soon.


Books I'm reading (percentage of the book I've read up until now in red):

1) The Female Brain (Louann Brizendine) - 0%, would be so interesting to understand how a women thinks. As impossible as this task may seem, worth trying.......gua. Haha

2) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)- 20%, Been wanting to read this for a long time.

3) SubContact (Robert K. Benson) - 40%, Anything to do with the subconcious mind, I dig.

4) Mind Set! (John Naisbitt) -0%, From the author of Megatrends, the master of future predictions. Can't wait to read this. Then I'll be more accurate than Nostradamus in predicting the trends of the world ;p

5) The Audacity of Hope (Barack Obama) - 15%, calling myself a big fan of Obama, yet have never read his books to understand his motivations and policies. Shame, shame.

6) My Life: Bill Clinton (Bill Clinton)- 25%, I don't think I'd be able to finish reading this one like, ever! I can finish Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela's aotubio. Both are equally thick. But this one is filled with so much details of personal nature that the only thing it missed out are when Bill go to the loo to do no.1 or no.2.

7) Instant Confidance (Paul McKenna) - 90%, very engaging book. Bought last week. Almost finishing.

8) Small Giants (Bo Burlingham) -30%, It really made a shift of my thinking about how big a business can be or should be.

9) Secrets of Millionaire Investors (Adam Khoo, Conrad Alvin Lim) -40%, since I'm such a fan of Adam, it's only natural that I would want to get financial advice on investing from him.

10) Self-Esteem (Mathew McKay, Patrick Fanning) -40%, Supposedly the best-selling book on self esteem. The similarities with NLP concepts are interesting.

11) Free Prize inside! (Seth Godin) - 50%, Seth Godin is THE contemporary marketing guru. This guy is so brilliant.

12) How to remember anything (Dean Vaughn) -0%, I've read this system before, there was a file I used to keep about this memory system, but I lost it. So I bought this book to try to relearn it.

13) Purple cow, The Big Moo (two books in one) (Seth Godin) - 50%, Finished reading The Purple Cow. Seth Godin. Remarkable :p

14) Social Intelligence (Daniel Goldman) - 25%, This book will be a much better read if it's not too technical. I'm very interested in the concepts, but the way this book is written makes it so...boring. Will finish it eventually.

15) Jack: Straight From the Gut (Jack Welch) - 5%, I usually don't like hardcover versions. Bought it because it was on sale, 70% leh! Read a few pages, it's really interesting. I dig autobios.


I wish I have more time to read, or can read a bit faster.

It is the hardest thing to do.

I see people holding on when they shouldn't in so many areas in life.

The other day, I had a discussion with 2 friends about parenting.

Let me tell you, I'm not married. I don't have any kids. In case you're wondering.

Btw, me and the other friend who's also not married are the ones giving out parenting advice to this poor parent of two kids. Haha..

You see, my reasoning is that because I don't have any kids, that's why I'm qualified to give out parenting advice.

O_o (always wanted to type this icon ;p)

Now you must be thinking I'm drunk behind this monitor.

I don't drink and type. You shouldn't too.

But seriously, my logic is that if you're a parent, you'd already have the emotional burden of a parent. Sometimes, you need a different perspective.

So parents, sit your ass down and get ready to receive some sagely wisdom from mua.

What I'm talking about is parents being overprotective. You should learn the ability to let your children decide even when you don't totally agree with them. The ability to let your child experience life and make mistakes on their own. Now I'm going to skip the discussion of what age should your children be when you should do that, cause that will take like, forever. Just exactly how much control should they have on important decisions at what age? I found a workable formula at this blog though.




Think about this:

Do you follow your kids everywhere including their schools field trips? (I know of some who follows their children secretly!). I feel I can't blame them for this one cause of the current safety concerns. I don't feel safe myself. I also know someone who will be with their kids the whole time during their teakwondo lessons, to watch over them, scared they'll get hurt.

Do you also stick to your kids like a piece of plaster when they go to the:

a) Playground
b) Sports lessons
c) Extra curriculum activities.




What's more important?

The greatest skill your child can develop is the ability to make good decisions. If you decide everything for your child, you stunt their growth in decision making. However immature or inexperienced you think they are, you need to include them when deciding things concerning them.

Also, your child needs to learn to cope with emotional setbacks. You can't do this for them, and you can't protect them from it forever. They need to learn to handle the emotional aspect of everyday problems themselves. The earlier you start them on the journey of emotional mastery, the better set they are for life and it's challenges.



Why it's bad.

Overprotective parents are producing a generation of wimps. Kids that do not even have skinned knees are missing out a lot on physical bonding that our generation went through. There are dire consequences of holding on to your kids, trying to steer them from harms way. They should be doing that themselves. The trick is to educate and prepare them, NOT preventing them from making mistakes, because mistakes WILL BE MADE ANYWAY. How you prepare your child to handle problems when they messed up is the important thing.

Things can be worse. Psychologists reports that overprotective parents causes anxiety disorders later in adulthood. How? Scared or not?



Really meh? All parents that bad meh?

I hope you realize I'm overgeneralizing here. Of course there are great parents that understand the means of motivating and protecting a child without being too controlling. Salute to all those great individuals, and hope I can be one of them in the future.

But if you're still using the excuse of : "You don't understand lah, you don't have kids. Once you have your own kids, you'll also want to protect them like that la", I just want to say:

Just because I've not died before, doesn't mean I don't know dying is very painful one, ok.

I don't quite understand why every blog I read is going goo goo and gaa gaa about 'The Malaysian Dreamgirl.'

Seriously, every single one of them! Well, every single female blog that is.

I mean, we've seen all that need to be seen and salivated upon on 'American's Next Top Model' already. Yes, we have. All the boobs that needed to be gawked at. All bimbotic bitching to prove to the world the female species can be the most vicious creature on earth, we have already witnessed too.


Photo taken from ShaolinTiger.


Every single one of this blog has a bitchy post about the one (or more!!) contestant they don't like. Gosh, girls are so typical. The two most used description:

'She's so fake!'
'She's a bitch!'

Yes. Yes. We know. Don't you know these are the two universal qualities that any female human being can produce from their inner soul and show to the world when the need arises?

Never mind the fact that I haven't watch a single episode.

Eh, thanks for listening.

I just need to get this over with before I start to watch the whole series from episode 1. I need to catch up and find out what the show is all about. The are effing 66 Youtube videos to be watched. Shit. I'm so outdated.

I think I've lost my spark in blogging funny stuffs.

*What funny? You were never funny!*

I was, ok. At least I think I was. Well, at least I'm funny to myself.

*Whateverrrr....*

You know. Once I get rid of these voices in my head, I'm sure I'll be back to normal.

*Phuuuuuuleeeezz.......*

I'm thinking. I actually like to write about philosophies. It'd be nice if I can inject some humour into it .

*hmm....*

Niameh. Don't believe me. I show you!

*........waiting...........*

Eh, maybe in the next post.

Can't get anything out of my head.

Niameh.

p.s. Remember to come back another blardy day.

The second part of the self-belief paradox:

"Don't believe in yourself too much."

How can we live with such conflicting rules in life?

The reason we face so many challenges in life is because we have conflicting needs that need to be fulfilled at the same time. To be able to have a healthy self esteem ,we need to cultivate a certain amount of self-belief. At the same time, you should not believe in yourself too much to the point of being egoistic.

So while you need to believe in yourself, you also need to be able to take advice and suggestions from others, even when it is against what you believe in.

Doubting yourself sometimes is not a sign of weakness. It shows maturity. Only a person who truly believes in his own self worth is able to take criticism from others and look at himself critically, without hurting his own self image.

Mistakes is as much a part of life as everything else. As they say, to err is to be human. Being critical at oneself can be a great asset. We should strive to constantly improve every area of our life, and mistakes (or failures) serves the purpose of letting us know the area we should improve on.

Therefore, making mistakes should not hurt your self esteem. Our mistakes are not us. Our behavior is not us. I know this can be hard to accept, because we’re often judged by what we do. I believe that it holds true to other people, that we are our actions. But for ourself, we should not be constrained by our past actions (yet another paradox, but too lengthy to discuss in this post). What we can't do in the past does not mean we can't do in the future. Whatever mistakes we made yesterday do not mean we're going to repeat it again tomorrow. We often define ourselves as a certain type of person. Which can be a huge mistake!. Don't trap yourself with your past actions!

So you see. It's ok that you're not perfect, and its ok that someone notice and points it out to you. Don't be too confident about yourself until you're arrogant to the opinions of others.

The other problem is, not everyone can be truly truthful to themselves. We have a built in self protective mechanism for our inner ego. It is hard to admit a mistake to other people, it is even harder to admit it to ourselves.

So here comes the part where seeking the balance becomes very important in the paradox of self belief. Believe in your self worth but also know that you're not perfect. Life is about striking the balance. It's yin and yang, baby.

One thing striking about a person who are able to follow these two rules at the same time is that they are extremely confident and comfortable under their own skin. I immediately think of Simon Cowell, the American Idol judge.

Learn from him. Better yet, read his autobio titled: 'I don't mean to be rude, but...'

I think, a person truly able to grasp the meaning of the paradox of self-belief has these qualities:

1) Able to love yourself unconditionally, therefore also able to love others the same way.
2) Comfortable under your own skin, unafraid to speak your mind.
3) Able to take criticism in a positive way. Taking it as an honest opinion, rather than a personal attack.
4) Able to accept and love someone with a different opinion and beliefs.
5) Willing to admit your own mistakes and make amends if need be.
6) Willing to learn.



Let me know what you think.

According to scientific research, happier people follows these two advice:

1) Believe in yourself.

2) Don't believe in yourself too much.

That's the thing about life. It's complicated.

"Everything worth knowing in life comes in a paradox."
- unknown

The wise will tell you that life is about searching for balance. Everything you think is important in life has two sides. You can't just take care of one side and forget the other. In other words, you can't be too extreme and be at only one end of the spectrum. The other end is important too. Consider this other quote:

"The opposite of a profound truth is often another profound truth"
- unknown

Your head is probably throbbing by now. I can be really abstract sometimes. But abstract ideas can only be explained in abstract ways. Or maybe that's the only way I know of explaining things ;P

To make things simpler, let's look at an example.

The question of self-belief is probably the most important element pertaining to the success of a person. Simply, you need to believe in yourself and your abilities to be able to function at an exceptional level that people will consider you a success. People with intact self-belief or high self-esteem are generally able to achieve more in life simply because they take more action. Their self-belief provides a basis for a more positive outlook in life and therefore motivates them to do more.

By now, you should realize that self-belief is without doubt an important arsenal to have in the pursue of success in life. So you should have absolute self-belief. Actually, only in certain context.

Just how important are self-beliefs? It makes or breaks you. It defines your life. You should have absolute self-beliefs in these areas:



1) Your self worth.

You are here for a reason. You should know by now you're not some kind of alien experiment or you're not a byproduct (or side effect) of your parent's naughtiness :p
Your self worth is the single most important thing that shapes your life. You must understand that for the single reason that you're born into this earth, your life is worth living, you are a worthy human being, regardless of your current achievement and past experiences.

You're not an accident, the events that have to take place for you to be born is almost impossible. Consider the long line of ancestors that dates back to the beginning of life itself. Each one of your ancestor will have to meet and mate successfully.

That means there are probably hundreds of thousands of people that have to mate with an exact person and not anyone else to be able to lead to the production of you! Of the millions of sperms that was out there, that single sperm that carries half your genetic material have to be the first to reach and fertilize the particular egg that carries the other half to successfully bring you to life. You think that's coincidence?

Believe it!! You're a miracle!

So whatever you encounter in life, you should never doubt your own worthiness. You should love yourself unconditionally. Only then can you love others the same way.



2) Your ability to lead a happy life.


Let's face it, life's tough. You will meet with all sorts of challenges but there is no doubt that if you make an effort and are willing to learn, you will be able to live your life happily. If you're constantly not happy with your life's circumstances or your own achievement in life, you're being too tough on yourself!

If you've changed everything that need to be changed and are still not happy, change your perspective.

This is life's guaranty: There will be difficult times. There will be times so tough you'd wished you've not come out of the womb. Life is about choices that you make, and happiness, like everything else, IS A CHOICE. You can choose to be happy. No matter what. No one can take that decision from you.

Make the most of what you have. This is the best advice anyone can give you about being happy: Be Happy!


End of part one.

Stay tuned for the next part: Don't believe in yourself too much.

This may be the best advice you can get in the area of self development. I'm not kidding.

I'm telling you this because that's what I just did.

Let me get this straight: I'm not teaching you to be a rebel. You're doing fine the way you are already, I know you are. Anyway, I'm way past that 'rebellious age' when everything my parents say seems like the worst advice in the world, where everything seems like just tricks to exert control over me. We're all born good rebels.

What I mean is don't listen to your parents all the time. I assume you have a fair judgment on when your parents are giving REALLY good advice, like we they tell you don't jump in front of that on coming truck. Other than that, it's really up to you, because it's your god damn life, and as long as you're willing and are mature enough to take responsibility for whatever happens, you're entitled to act on your own free will.

Come to think of it, it's ok even if you don't listen to them when they tell you you'll die if you're hit by that truck. You should do it anyway, if you want, cause it's really YOUR god damn life. I'm not the one who goes to hell as a consequence of that. So go ahead. Yes, you just realized it, didn't you? Don't listen to anyone, NOT EVEN ME. Actually, ESPECIALLY me.

Our parents can really become the greatest source of encouragement and motivation for us or the greatest obstacle, can't they? You see, your parents will always try to 'protect' you. They will try to show you the best course of living your life based on their experience. It's all good, if you want to life a life exactly like theirs.

I personally believe we can be so much more than our parents. I'm not being arrogant or disrespectful. I'd like to think that I'm a filial son. A lot of people say I am ;P

The thing is, however successful your parents are, you can always strive to do better. You can take whatever great life experiences of your parents and learn from it. You can also learn from all their mistakes, and then you can learn to do better than them. Our parents are our greatest teacher. They are willing to teach and most of the time WILL FORCE YOU TO LEARN FROM THEM.

You know they do it for your own good (in their opinion). But what they think is good is not always the best for you, right. They have their limiting beliefs. What you should do is identify what those are and be able to make your own decisions.

In conclusion:

1) Identify some of your parents limiting beliefs that prevents them from achieving much more than they should have. (Yes, even people like Lim Goh Tong has them, I believe, and Lim Kok Thay should know them, to be more successful than his dad.)

2) You don't have to start a shouting match to make your point. Well, nothing wrong with that if the occasion calls for it, but there are always more positive ways to get your point across.

I believe standing up to your parents is not really an issue to a lot of you reading this. Especially the younger generation nowadays. I guess the trick is to do it in a way that do not drive them up the wall and yet, you get your way. Yes, it is possible. If you can't seem be able to do it yet, it means you have much much more to learn. Actually, don't we all?

Have you watched the winning videos of YouTube Video Awards 2007 yet? It's kinda like the Oscars for YouTube.

Apparently, it's a biggie to a lot of people. Even CNN mentioned the awards. YouTube has really become so much more influential than we care to admit. I mean, if you think about how often people upload videos to YouTube, coupled with how easy it is to record a video clip on your handphone nowadays, you get a little scared. I know I do.



It makes you feel like you're under surveillance almost 100% of the time once you're out of the house.
It means that everything you do or say has a possibility of being recorded by someone who owns a camera phone, which is practically everyone! So be mindful of the stupid things you say or do when you're in public places lest it becomes entertainment for millions of people one day.

Of course, this doesn't stop people from acting crazy in public (unfortunately). But I've always wondered just how much it will affect you in how you carry yourself in public? Do you notice that sometimes, when there is a car accident, there will be scores of handphones pointing towards the scene to capture or record whatever it is so interesting about the accident. Some to get the car number involved for TOTO or Magnum maybe ;P

What do you think? Do you think about this when you're about to engage in an argument with someone on your way to work on the subway?




Anyway, one particular YouTube award winning video caught my attention. It's titled "Stop the clash of civilization".



The political situation in the our country is not so different from everywhere else in the world or even on a global scale, where race and religion takes center stage in the clash of idealism and the way different people think the world should be run. It's funny when you consider that wars are fought just because we think differently. I mean, aren't we supposed to be different? What starts wars is when one party feel the need to impose their opinion on how things should be to another group of people, who normally are in a situation and context very different from the initial party. Opinions can be a powerful thing.

One particular experience struck my mind on this issue. On Christmas last year, I was stuck in Dubai Airport for a 10 hours transit to come back to Malaysia from an oversea trip. Spending 10 hours in Dubai airport is a unique experience.

Just walking around the airport, I'm surrounded by so many people of so diverse origins. The thing is I don't really feel any different from these people. Really, when you look past the face, color of the skin, even with different religious and cultural background, you can see that we don't act and behave that differently. We all can be courteous to each other (most of the time, anyway). We have the same basic needs, we can learn pretty much to behave the same way like most other people do. All men go in the loo with the "male" sign and we pee standing up, next to each other. We're like the most adaptable beings on earth, and yet sometimes we find it hard to live with each other. I mean, we can learn so complicated a maneuver as peeing at the right place, the correct position and with correct manners and hygienic habit to wash our hands (most of us, anyway) afterwards, yet we feel the need to bomb each other into pieces occasionally.

Just when will we realize that despite having different opinions, we're not so different from each other. Sometimes, it made me think that we're born with an innate need to argue and be in conflict.

I stopped subscribing to Astro a few months ago, as a protest to their constant price increases and unfair business policies towards customers.

Generally, they find ways to charge you more constantly, justifying it by manipulating channel packages so you end up 'forced' to take on more channels with each upgrade, and of course also paying more as a consequence.

These constant 'upgrading' of their services is forced upon all subscribers, by the grouping of certain channels together (chinese channels, sports channels...etc, etc.). Popular channels are priced higher and are sometimes split in different packages so you would have to sign up for a whole new package even if you're interested in just one particular channel.

Do you also realize that Astro charges you RM10 for each downgrade and there are no charges for upgrades? Also, you will be charged a fee if you cancel your subscription but there will be no charges if you reconnect. All means to 'motivate' you to put more money into their pocket and punish you for giving them less business.

I've read a nice article on to how to protest against their unfair practice.

If you can't bear the thought of living without Astro, the article suggest that you downgrade and cancel one or two less watched package as a protest to Astro.

I think we as consumers should exert our power to punish unfair treatments by big corporations. I mean, if we can do it to the gorv, by voting them out in the election when they're not treating us well, we can also do it to Astro.

I've another option for those who have broadband internet access (which I presume all readers of this this post would have).



How to watch the latest movies and tv series on your LCD TV for free.

My system comprises of the following:

1) LCD TV (or a digital to analogue converter/adapter for your normal TV which costs around RM200).

2) Broadband internet access (necessary for streaming sites).

3) VGA cable (or whatever kind of cable you need for connecting your PC to your LCD TV, eg. DVI to HDMI cable....etc).

4) A PC (my PC is too far away from my TV and somehow the 10 meters VGA cable I bought is not working, some told me the cable is too long for the data transfer, I can't confirm it, but be cautious with this option of connecting your TV-PC with a long cable), but preferably a laptop so you can easily connect it to the TV.

5) Wireless router (Make it easier still for internet access anywhere in the house).

6) Audio cable (audio signals can be connected to your TV through the red-white audio jacks or to your amplifier/reciever.


Here's what you do:

Connect your laptop with wireless internet access to your LCD TV using VGA cable and audio cable. Enter streaming movies website like www.tom365.com to instantly watch the latest movies (English and Chinese) and also TV series (Korean, Hong Kong, Japanese, English...practically all lah!).

THAT’S IT! You’re watching free TV!

Forget pay-per-view on Astro, there are latest series currently airing in Hong Kong at these sites!

There are lots of other streaming sites available, but you've to do some homework and search for it yourself. I can't do everything for you lah, ok. However, if you need my service or consultation to setup for you, you can contact me but I will charge you an appropriate amount ;)

And you know what the best part is? You can stop paying Astro's monthly fees (what I thought you is FREE) so you can buy more shoes, handbags (for ladies) and maybe use that money to subscribe to a porn channel on the internet instead (for guys, not that I do.. ;P).



The Quality?

The quality of the videos in these streaming sites is a lot like your normal TV. Some shows even looks better than your normal TV. The speed of your internet connection (which depends on which area you live in) would also be a factor. I have no problems watching a whole movie, episode from start to finish at normal speed 80% of the time. Our broadband service being yet another monopoly issue which we should be doing something about.




Sorry for the noises of baby crying, not part of the movie, it's my nephew ;P

Why should we do it?

The most important message I'm trying to get across for doing all this: Let's take back power as a consumer and refuse to be bullied by a big corporation who has a monopoly.

The news at 8pm reported that the federal gorv is canceling all mega projects planned for Penang.

Hmm...wise move. All these future projects that's supposedly for the development of Penang is awarded to BN cronies and will sooner or later be either scraped or be awarded to new developers based on an honest tender system by Penang CM Lim Guan Eng anyway.

So, since they are going to lose these opportunities to suck more money from the poor and make themselves rich anyway, may as well use this opportunity to punish the people of Penang for voting the opposition, right?

So clever, don't you think?

Now, I have no idea who the guy was who made the announcement, but what he said was along the line of 'We (BN) wanted to develope the Penang state, but obviously the Penang people did not want developement, so we cancelled all the mega projects planned for Penang'....

Wow.....Is that clear, or is that CLEAR?


This guy is certainly not one who beat around the bush and says it as it is. It practically says:


''We (BN) are big bullies, if you don't vote for us, that means you don't want developement and we will make sure you suffer for the next 4 years so in the next election, you'd be forced to vote for us again.' (Bullying at it's best. Threatening is the most awesome arsenal of bullies. Your kids should learn this from our beloved BN leaders so that they can also excel at being bullies at school!)


How I wish the next election is tomorrow so we can get rid of ALL these idiots once and for all. Don't you realize already? WE (the people) ARE THE BOSS! We pay your salaries! You still don't know why you lost, do you? You still think by threatening us, we'll turn into little submissive mice and take all kinds of crap you constantly throw at us?


Haiz.....You make me angry, and angry makes me old.


It might just be me, but if you've also watched the news on NTV7 at 8pm, did you saw the facial expressions of the newscaster when she was reading the news about this. Especially when she's reading the part right after they air the clip of the BN guy's announcement, that says according to the federal gorv, this decision is not a punishment for not voting BN. I saw a hint of a sly smile on her face. Serious! I think she sense the idiotic sarcasm as well. So funny.

Did you know this? I didn't until today. Apparently Toshiba has announced the death of it's HD DVD format by pulling out of the HD DVD business last month.

That means in the war of the next generation high-definition video format, Sony's BluRay has claimed victory, and will be the ONLY High Definition DVD format for the near future, until someone come up with Higher Definition (H-er DVD ;P) format, that is.


It also means early adopters who tripped over themselves to grab a HD DVD player a year ago are now cursing like there's no tomorrow. Whatever precious HD DVD collections they own are now probably more valuable (as collectibles) since there will be no more new HD DVD movie releases!

Oh ,by the way, if you've just purchased a HD DVD player yesterday, you'll feel like kicking yourself in the nuts. My advice is ask someone to do it for you, especially one of your friends on the opposite camp who supported Blu-Ray right from the beginning. They'll do a better job ;P


This came about after Toshiba (the creator of the format) lost support from major players in the war. Namely, Samsung (DVD player maker) and Time Warner (Movie studio).

On the other hand, the Blu-Ray backers will be so happy they'll be singing even when they're in the loo. All new HD movies will be in Blu-Ray!!
This is an extremely good news for those who're torn between the 2 formats and are thinking of either buying both or buying a hybrid player (Damn expensive, k)....like ME!! So happy!

Now I can buy a PS3 and use it for all future HD movies!! (btw, PS3 is the cheapest Blu-Ray player available currently.)

That's the thing about being the early adopters, risk-takers, who're always ahead of the pack. It's a big risk. But the thrill of innovations are just too much to resist for some people sometimes. And a lot of new technologies require the service of early adopters in testing out the market and spreading the technology to the masses (go read some business textbooks or something to understand more).

As for laggards such as us, we can enjoy cheaper products (by the time we buy, market competition would have made these products significantly cheaper), and more peace of mind that what we buy would be stable products (tested and a safer choice). Whatever it is, we wins!

Two year of battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray: a retrospective