Planned and unplanned : Trip to the City

Last week, I had a two in one trip to KL, it was planned a week before that I need to attend the Prime Minister Hibiscus Award award receiving ceremony for my company at the Crown Plaza Hotel. Btw, I was just one of the company representative, not the one who went on stage to receive the award. But I was the one who had the opportunity to take good photos of the event, with the Deputy Prime Minister as the guest of honour. So coincidently, it was a school holiday (though my kids are both still in pre-school). My wife decided to join me for the two in one trip , work and vacation. I had initially planned my travel, with every single details , where to go, where to stay, where to eat and even what to buy. It was an almost perfect planning. I put everything on a white board in my SOHO (small office home office) and then translated them onto Excell File, laminated them on a piece of paper. Calibrated with my wife on the itinerary, she was quite ok with the plan, with some minor changes of course.

Day 1 :

1. We planned to depart early in the morning , 6.30am , but ended up departed at 9.30 am. Had our breakfast at the nearby stall - so we were bit off track the schedule, but still within the recovery time.

2. Stopped by at Bukit Merah R&R - just to buy some tidbits, took some shots but over exposed I may say. Still learning my new gadget. Nikon D90 18-200.

3. Stopped again at Sg Perak R&R. Took some shots, better this time. Met an old man who is also DSLR lover. He carried with him Nikon D60. I took the shot of the newly constructed tower. He was eager to see the shot in my DSLR view screen. I gave him my call card. Met him again later at Tapah R&R.

4. Moved on to the next Pitt Stop, my boss called me up when I was driving. He was surprised to know that I already left Kulim. Settled couple of things with him through the phone, and I continued my journey to Tapah R&R. Upon reaching Tapah, had a good lunch there. My wife took the Patin Masak Tempoyak , I would say, "superb" taste. I had that dish before but not as superb as the one at the Tapah R&R. Thumbs up Ikan Patin !! (though I dont really like Durian, but the taste of Durian has been very mild, just nice for a starving man on the move)

5. We reached KL in the afternoon, around 1.30pm. I didnt plan for any hotel for the night. The initial plan was to overnight at one of the budget hotel in Kepong. It should be convenient to us as it is located just 15 mins away from KL, and there are few shopping centres nearby. We had lodged there early of this year. Not bad for a low price hotel. But my wife prefer to stay in KL. So she called up Bintang Warisan Hotel, recommended earlier by my friend , and there was a room vacant for that night. We straight away headed to Bukit Bintang, heavy traffic , we got stucked and I missed out the junction at Jalan IMBI, need to make another round turn. Waste of time. Garmin GPS confused me by a small overlapping junction. But it is still a good gadget for a person like me who seldom travel to KL. We reached Bintang Warisan Hotel shortly, but looking at the surrounding , I felt that it was not a good idea to park my car at that area. Very very unsafe as their basement parking was under construction. I cancelled the plan of staying there. Plan B, called up Cititel Midvalley, and I got a room with twin bed. We checked in as soon as i secured the booking. Room was considerably nice biut small. View was nice. The ammenities were greats. Very convenient for family spree. After 2 hours of recuperating in the hotel room, we straight away went for a stroll down the Mall. Had our dinner at The Chicken Rice Shop . The original schedule was to go to Pertama Complex for my DSLR stuffs, but it had to be changed as it was not a good time to drive between 5pm to 7.30pm , we would definitely stucked in the traffic jam.

6. We spent the night at the midvalley area. Bought few stuffs for kids at the Toys R Us. Spent the night taking shots inside the room with both my Nikon D60 and D90. Output = craps !!!

Day 2 :

1. Had a good breakfast at Cititel. Then moved to Jalan Masjid India. My wife and kids had a strolled around that area. I escaped myself to Pertama Complex and SOGO. Bought a neck tie at the Reject Shop and only to find bunch of them on sales just across the street at SOGO. Bought a Nikon shutter remote at the Foto Selangor outlet. Grabbed 2 Shirts and a Smalto Belt for the award dinner ceremony.


2. Took my kids to KLCC though they look pretty sleepy and tired. Visited the Petronas Science Centre. Value for money I would say, but I only have 2 hours to spend there. We missed the Go Kart simulator and the Helicopter Simulator. My kids really enjoyed the visit there. Compared to Aquaria, I would still prefer the Petronas Science Centre. It has 2 sections, the first one is called Muzika where you can enjoy the sounds technology and also live show about musical stuffs. The second is the Petronas Science Arcade. First stage was the moving gondola taking us to visit the gigantic screens with superb sound system. Next was the practical science stuffs area. You need to spend at least an hour and a half inside there. Outside the ticket counter is the souvenir shops selling educational and science toys & games. Took me 20 minutes to find where I parked my car. My sense of direction was off tune. We reached Cititel nearly 4.30pm.

3. Departed from Cititel at 5.30pm to Crown Plaza Mutiara. The GPS again played its trick on me. I had made tripple round , around the Cititel. Only to reach 15 mins before 7pm.

4. I didnt bring my laptop due to security reason ( somebody might break into my car if they detect laptop inside with intel inside, it is always a burden to carry your company laptop in public, so I left it at home). Without reading e-mail, I was the only one wearing lounge suit where the other 5 guys were wearing Batik. Gulps..!! a little off tune. But who cares , that was the 5th time I wore the suit. And I dont have a good looking batik to wear as well.

5. The dinner went well , took couple of good photos and bad photos. I had overlooked on the exposure compensation, setted as negative 0.3. So some photos appeared to be dark. The shutter remote I bought this morning went perfectly well. Impressed some of the people. I was the only one bringing my Benroe tripod on stage. Overcame other photographers who only parked their tripod below the stage.

6. Reached Cititel at 11.30pm . As per plan. Had a good night sleep.

Day 3 :

1. Breakfast at Cititel again. This time I really walloped the Nasi Lemak. And some other stuffs. We had a last kopek walk around Midvalley. I visited two Guitar Shops. Too exclusive for a grunge alley player like me. We checked out sharp at 12pm.

2. We straight away moved to our pre-planned destination, Plaza GM. It didnt appear in my Nokia GPS but it did appear in the Garmin Malaysia Map. So we went there to scout for the area. We were told by friends about that place, the wholesale for small traders. The place is closed to Lorong Haji Taib. I know what is Lorong Haji Taib signature for. I stayed in my car with my two kids and my wive went alone to scout for the area. I was not comfortable to leave my car around that area. There are too many drug addicts loitering around.

3 . Nearly 3pm, we moved to our next accomodation, which was the Air Asia Tune Hotel . Had our lunch at the foodcourt below. Food was not that great, but to find another place would be time consuming. That was my first visit to Tune Hotel. Not bad for the price it offers. It meets my expectation. I planned to take a nap for 30 mins but turned out to be 4 hours. But it was a good sleep. As usual, my wife and kids already knew the expectation on my sleeping mode and style.

4. We went to SOGO as I accidently noticed that it was just nearby our Hotel. My wife bought a sales handbag and a wallet. We moved on after 30 mins.

5. Time for dinner, the initial plan was to go to Damansara Uptown for Satay Kajang, but I have deviated the plan again. Also cancelled the plan to Ikea as I dont feel like decorating my home. So I decided to take them to Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa. I typed in the GPS, more than 10 places of Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa. Then I select the food menu, there it was, only one selection of Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kg Baru. So we went.

6. Park my car at the roadside, nearby the stall. I could see the KLCC nicely placed at the background of the stall. Quickly grabbed my DSLR and started shooting. Went inside the area, saw a Baskers singing M. Nasir and Ebiet G Ade song - Berita Buat Kawan. I loved the environment, having accoustic sound while taking my dinner. Again, took my DSLR and started shooting the Nasi Lemak and Otak-otak. I somehow do not feel comfortable during the time. I felt like going back to my car to check for something. I quicly finished the dinner, paid at the counter and went back to my car. The first thing to check was the car window. It looked perfectly good , so my car was safe. It was just my precautious thought. I opened up the car boot and took the camera tripod. Started shooting the KLCC night silhoutte. I intended to go neared after this. My kids came after me. I put them inside the car. As usual, they will complain no air-cond, very hot etc. So opened up the front door and blink..blink...what the crap !!! The passenger window had been smashed , glass scattered all over the front seat. Surprissing I was not surprissed as it was actually pre-programmed earlier. Something triggered me upfront that my car window will be smashed. The culprit took the Sony PSP and a brand new handbag that my wife bought at SOGO earlier. All gone...gone...gone... 7. Plan B triggered in my mind, so the KL trip has came to the end. I could not stay there any longer with a broken window. Luckily nearby, there was still a car wash with some workers inside. They helped me to vacuum all the shattered glass. Plan B - went back to Tune Hotel, my wife packed all the stuffs and we checked out at 11.30pm. At least I had a four hours sleep earlier.

8. Pressing the "Go Home" button on the GPS - again, an unplanned tripped back to Kulim in the middle of the night. Next day is Raya Haji. I have never had experience going using highway to Balik Kampung as all the while I stayed in Kedah. But then, it was a good experience to experience the unplanned heavy traffic along the highway, with a broken window. We stopped by at Sg Buloh R&R to refill the tank.

9. I went to the restroom with my son, upon walking back to my car. Two foriegners believed to be Arabs , on a Satria Car, greeted me with "assalamualaikum". The two folk asked me aout Muslim food. I told them to go back to the R&R area just before the Petrol station. The asked whether KFC is Halal. I started to feel one kind already. He told me that he doesnt have Malaysian Ringgit and dont even know what Malaysia money looks like. He asked me to show my money. Not again, I just had a bad time with my car windows and now these two men were trying to conn me with some Jedi Mind Tricks. I knew that he was expecting me to open up my wally to show him the Malaysian money. In order to be polite to the tourist, I told him to wait and I secured my son to the car. I came back to him bringing a one ringgit bill. Who knows, probably he was really speaking for the truth. So I told him that Malaysian note has a King face at one of the side. He nodded and moved away.

10. Every single R&R were fulled with vehicles. I stopped by at few areas for Biological Break. We exited at Ipoh. I stopped at the 24 hours MacDonald. Had a burger at 5.30am. My son also walloped one. My wife kind of tired and stayed inside the car with my daughter.

11. Reached the last toll exit around 6.45am. Safely arrived home with a DIY window kit from recycle plastic bag . Though 20% of the event was unplanned, but it somehow ruined the plan of celebrating Raya Haji at my sisters house in KL. Approximate lost , RM1,500. I told my wife that we were still lucky as there are some other stuffs inside the car that are still secured. Probably the person who broke into our car really in need of money. Probably there is no other possible way to survive other than stealing. Anyhow I forgive him theoritically but what he/she did can hurt my family if it happened when we were inside the car, that would be a point for me not to forgive him without any punishment.

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Key Learnings :

Low-Lite :

1. It is always better to leave home early in the morning so that we can have sufficient time for

the unplanned hiccups.

2. My D90 just too heavy to be carried around & not practical for family outing photos. And the

risk of snatch-theft. Contemplating to buy the Point Shoot Nikon S1000PJ.

3. Benro Ball Head tripod is also heavy - reduced 38% of my energy. Utilization = 5%

4. My Lowepro Bag is also not practical for family travelling - made me lazy to take out the

camera. Would still prefer the old Jenova with side zip.

5. Bintang Warisan Hotel is not suitable for family but surely convenience for a single traveller.

6. Always carry along double sided tape & duct tape - you'll never know when your car window

will break.

7. Carrying two DSLR is a waste of energy, my wife dont really bother to take photos of me.
8. Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kg Bahru has marked the most expensive Nasi Lemak I ever ate in my life . RM1519 with Otak-otak as supplementary dish.

Break down of loses :- (RM1519)

a. PSP = 899.00

b. Memory Card = 120.00

c. Leather Handbag = 180.00

d. Women's Wallet = 10.00

e. Window Change = 120.00

f. Paid Bangla to polish the residues = 20.00

g. Paid an Indon workers to vacuum my car = 10.00

h. Cancelled the Tune Hotel stay = 125.00

i . Cancelled the Parking Fees = 8.00

Intangible loses : ( 80 points lost)

a. Time lost = 18 hours cancellation time in KL ( -50 points)

b. 3 hours = unnecessary time settling the window issue ( -15 points)

c. 3 days = cannot open the window waiting for the adhesive to thoroughly dry ( - 10 points)

d. Lost of wonderful time playing my favourite PSP Game "Winning Eleven" - the only game

that I play ( - 5 points)

Breakdown of gains (or cost avoidance) : (RM3,300.00)

1. Save 500.00 as we moved out from KL that night , else we would definitely go to Ikea and

Ikano the next dat - and surely bought some nice to have but not necessary needed stuffs.

2. I would have bought the 1000.00 accoustic guitar at Damansara Uptown area

3. Probably stop by at Digital Mall PJ to grab a laptop 1,900.00.

4. As usual my kids would nag for Toys 200.00

5. I would probably grab secondary flash - SB600 for 790.00

Intangible gain : ( + 200 points)

a. Experience the traffic jam on the PLUS Highway - else I would never experience that ( + 5 points)

b. Finally I dont have to nag to my wife and kids about the PSP - honestly I somehow felt happy

losing the PSP. Eversince I bought that game, my two kids always quarrel to play with it. My

wife spend most of her time winning the quarrel with my kids to play her favourite Pyramid

Game. Honestly they are not ready to take care such a hi-tech gadget. Scratches every where

and they never take care of that stuff. Broke the cover and broke the memory cards as well.

So thank the thieve for taking away the headache from me. Thanks Pal...I ,mean it. ( + 20

points)

c. It has proven that what MacGyver said is right, always carry with you a swiss army and a

duct tape. Thanks MacGyver, I always have faith in you !! ( + 5 points)

d. My wife actually admitted her carelessness that caused the incident. What a breakthrough !!

Thanks again Mr Thieve. ( + 50 points)

e. Probably if the car breaking incident did not happen, I would have gone to have a stroll at the

Chow Kit Flea Market - and probably the whole car got stolen or someone would have robbed

or snatch my Nikon or hurt my kids. ( + 80 points)

f. We finally "Raya" in Kedah - and I got the chance to Raya at my parents house and had my

mom's delicious Ketupat Rendang - no comparison of taste. ( + 20 points)

g. I also had the change to meet my old friend Zaidi that Raya whose parent house just across

the blocks. ( + 5 points)

h. Better preparation for the next day photo event & the event turned out to be great, though

tiring & dehydrating. ( + 15 points)

Hi -Lite :

1. Tune Hotel not bad - must go again with RM15 per night. The shower very cool - wide

diameter round shape rain hose.

2. Cititel a good choice to leave your family with at least a window shopping activities and good

food.

3. Tapah R&R = Patin Masak Tempoyak is a must. The rest area has always been my favourite

pitt stop. Love the surroundings.

4. Petronas Science Centre = must go again to detail the tour. I heard they make regular

changes.

5. Garmin GPS has done it again !! Thank You Abang Anis for giving it to me for free.

6. Plaza GM is cool for traders.

Conclusions :

Monetory Gain / Cost avoidance = RM3300.00 - RM1519.00 = RM 1781.00

Intangible Gain = 200 points - 80 points = 120 points

Note : I know I am good in Maths ....

The Town of Chronological Event

Salam 1Malaysia,

Today, I have again visited my beloved hometown, Sg Petani (aka SP).Btw, it is just 45 mins away from where I live. To me, SP has gone through an unconcious gradual changes, physically and spiritually. The most obvious change or transformation of Sg Petani is of course the rapid growth of the shopping complex and the latest landmark is the second TESCO building located near the Bakar Arang Industrial area (south exit of PLUS highway) . SP is also famous for her massive / variety of residential areas or "Taman" which I could hardly count . I was told that one of the the first Taman in Sg Petani is Taman Bunga Raya (sorry if I am wrong) , located next to my ex school , Ibrahim School. I was born in Taman Bunga Raya, house no 17, behind the railway track. Than we moved to Sg Layar, also house no 17 and then to Johor Bahru, Taman Sri Tebrau, ironically, also no 17.

Back in the 70's, I could vividly remember the glowing sign of the neon light displaying the supermarket logo called CITY. My mother used to teach me to spell C.I.T.Y each time we passed by the supermarket through the SP Bridge. (Just like I remember she taught me to spell the famous petrol station in SP , E.S.S.O though I am currently loyal to P.E.T.R.O.N.A.S). The CITY (also known as Sri Kota back in 80's) building was caught on fire several years ago, but the remaining structure still exist , located next to the SP Bus Terminal. It is one of the landmark most Sg Petanian would remember. Shopping spots in SP now are, Parkson ,Giant, Tesco (south highway exit), Central Square (centre of SP as its name appear), Billion (far at the Pekan Baru), SP Plaza (near the clock Tower), Village Mall and Tesco (north highway exit).

Back in the 70's, I remember there was a place called Garden, located at the heart of SP Town. A food stall famous for it's Satay & other delicacies. The place was a bit gothic. (In fact , SP was a Gothic City back in the 70's). But now the place has been turned into a shopping complex- SP Plaza and government office. Now food courts are everywhere. The famous food courts now are the Taman Ria Food Court, The Taman Ria Jaya Food Court, the Taman Sejati Food Court and the Clock Tower Food Court.

My favourite landmark, the SP Clock Tower has always been the logo of my existence as a Sg Petanian. Probably because the weekly Friday Pasar Malam back in the 70's and 80s was located next to the clock tower. The clock is like a monument that stands and observes the changes around her, years after years. There were some modification done a decade ago to her appearance, adding some golden plate to its main structure and peak, but its spirits remains the same. Few months back I took my family to visit the Clock Tower. Truly "lepak" there for an hour. Snap couple of photos. The clock saw me I guess. She possed for me with a photogenic look. The clock hold many secrets of mine. And I believe she has a secret on her own too.

I would have to admit that the people or the community in SP do change a lot. 20 years back you can walk around the SP town and will surely meet with at least one people you know. Today you can spend the whole day in the town from South to North, without finding anyone you know. I guess this kind of evolution applies to the other fast growing towns in Malaysia as well. There are so many outsiders(immigrants I may say), be it from neighbouring states or foreign countries that came to reside in SP. That made SP an international town of its own. Its not just 1Malaysia, but 1small world. And ironically those originally from SP have migrated to other parts of the world or town. I have friends who now live in Egypt, UK, Australia etc. Quite a number settled down in Kuala Lumpur.

Until the next Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Sungai Petani will be a town of its own generation. And I will be dropping by routinely, visiting my parents, relatives and friends. Till we meet again.

Rich, Ambition and Reality

I first recalled the word ambition in 1981. I was in standard 1. I have never enrolled for kindergarten before that. Primary school was the first forum where I learned about education and ambition. It was never taught in school how the working environment looks like or feels like. I even posted a question to my dad how the office environment was. IN school, during that time, whoever commits mistake will be punished by teachers. Either to stand in front of the class, stand on the chair or a good slap or cane by the teacher. I can vividly remember my father smiling face when I posted that question to him. I asked him whether he got canned by his boss upon commiting mistakes at work. He joked that it was the same practice as in school. I kept quiet and imagine to my self that the world of obediency and punishment carry on forever in life. Even after school. Even after death.

I had a friend named Ahmad Rithaudeen in 1981. His father was a jetfighter pilot. On the first day of school, his mom and dad accompanied him until the dismissal bell rang. During break time, his mother spoon fed him the breakfast. He told me proudly about his father being a jetfighter pilot . Somehow rather his story influenced my ambition. I told my mom that my ambition is to become a jetfighter pilot. But the ambition has never come with action plans. So ambition is just a fill in the blank statement. When I think back, the reason I put pilot as an ambition was because I have never had a better career examples other than Rithaudeen's story. On the other hand, frankly, I viewed my father's career as a boring one. He was a government servant. A land surveyor technician to be exact. And I didnt even know what was that all about. In 1991, when I was filling up the form to further my studies, I came across a course offering about land surveying. Again, I asked my father whether I should try something related to what he had done before. Ironically he gave a discouraging response. Probably he knew my characteristic and abilities.
My eldest brother told me that he has already had a clear vision to become a lawyer when he was in form one. To support his ambition, he stressed more on public speakings and participated in the school elocution contests. On contrary, I have a flip flop kind of ambition after becoming a pilot was no more in my wish list. When I was in form 4, I was positioned in the best science class in school. I slightly screwed up my maths and science subjects, not getting distinction. That blew up my road map to further my study to MARA junior college. I got offered by other boarding schools but I have made up my mind to stay in the same school for the next two years. With a minimal guidance I may say, I have switched the streams from pure science to the social science stream. Short term planning was to become a businessman. That was my ambition. So I took accounting/commerce class instead of pure science. I just hate add maths. It was not a bad decision though my results for accounting subjects for SPM was terrible. After the SPM result was announced, I still managed to position my overall results as not so bad but not distinctively to be proud about. Again, another big decision. Whether I should continue doing form six or apply for Matriculation Programs. At that moment, as I mentioned earlier, my ambition to become a businessman subsided as I got frustrated with accounting subject. My favourite subjects were shifted to Geography and History. I did well in both subjects. At first, I decided to proceed with form six as there were no geography or history course available for pre-university courses. But inputs from family members and friends have significantly changed my decision. At that moment, I was so fond of becoming a geologist or archaelogist. Why ? Indiana Jones was one of the factor. The other factor was I could not imagine myself working in the office environment. I always imagine myself doing field works or outdoor stuffs. And I still do now.
As I filled up the UPU form (form to apply for Matriculation study), I knew that I hadnt got much choices without the Add Math subject. So business study is the only bright future for me to carry on. I got the offer then, to further my studies in Universiti Utara Malaysia Matriculation Program. Half hearted, I went through the years there. I graduated in Business Administration with major in Marketing. One thing I remember, the words of wisdom from the vice chancellor. He said, " Being in university doesnt promise a job in the outer market once you graduated. Years spent over here is to make you a better person if not a well prepared person. Not just academically but mentally and socially. You may wish a job that related to your study but you may or may not get one. A scholar should be able to position oneself in the dynamic world. One should be able to create jobs. Not to wish for someone to give him job."
I admitted that there were many opportunities that I didnt grab or utilize during my varsity time. There were many courses available that I should have enrolled. There were so many social associations that I should have joined. Again, it was the flip flop in ambition that made me in inconsistent even during the varisty time. But I did gain lot of experience, from lectures and friends. Especially good friends and room mate. I thank God that I was given good and reliable friends during my time at the university, from all races and backgrounds. And I will never forget them, too many to be named.

Leaving schools and entering the world of career was like the third phase of my life roadmaps. No doubt that working environment has the similarities like those days in schools or college. But this is more on proving what you have learned and showing or delivering results. And most importantly sharing results with the team or organization. During school time, screwing up means screwing mainly yourself but in the working environment, screwing up could mean screwing up your whole team or company. And more challenges arise when you have a family on your own to be fed. I always told my team that working is like a continous process of learning. The different here is that you are paid to learn and deliver. Sounds better right. So my first ambition of becoming a pilot, and then businessman to becoming a geologist didnt really end up to be that way. But the essence of the scholarship are then ingredients to pursuing your career, whatever it is. Luckily there are not many segments in my current job that require Add Maths. But in future it may, who knows. I have never known my plus point until I was told by others. Who told me ? My family, friends, colleagues, some who are with me and of course, some who are againts me. God is Great. Human beings are created with their own specialties and capabilities. That's explain why we need different kind of people to produce great results. A company cant be great by only having good managers. A company cant be great by having only good engineers, accountants, secreatary, operators or architects. It must have a good mix of people that synergize their effort to achieving great results, with clear goals amongst the team members. Same application and formula for a country to be successful. The rich need the poor and the poor need the rich. The poor set a benchmark for the rich to measure their success, and the rich set the benchmark for the poor to climb the ladder up to becoming rich person. This is just example of a social system, rich and wealth are not solely the gist of a great nation. Love, spiritual, happiness, integrity, respects, virtues are many more elements that made up a good nation. Rich and wealth are easier to be measured than the later elements. And we do need money to build schools, mosques, buy religious books, help the needies etc. Being rich enable solutions. Being rich can also enable destructions. For those with the appetite for destructions.
Some time ago, I was one of the volunteer in the community service program organized by the company I work for. I was suppose to do housekeeping and clean-up jobs. But end up being a facilitator to a group of school children instead . I was one of the speaker to give a spontaneous talk on motivation subject. I was not prepared at all. I had no clue what to talk about. I even dressed up not to the standard of a motivational speaker in deed, wearing only a round neck T-Shirts and a baseball cap. I felt so out of tune that morning. But looking at the children faces, I put aside all the discomfortness and inferiority of my dress code. Their faces were like mine years ago. Blur and flip flops I may say. I started off the session by asking them about their ambitions. There were about 30 of them in the class room. Majority of them wanted to become a policeman or teachers. One boy claimed to becoming an astronaut. I reserved my comment until the last person talk. They ranged from form one until form five, so the mentality and maturity level have some slight difference. They reminded me of myself when I first having ambition of becoming a jetfighter pilot. As I mentioned, it was from my friend Rithaudeen. Probably these boys heard or read more about police and teachers. Probably they like to watch the Yusoff Haslam Gerak Khas series. Probably they like uniforms and heroism. Probably the envy their teachers well being. Probably the boy who wanted to become the astronaut admired Datuk Sheikh Muzaffar Shukor, Malaysian first astronaut. I do not have the answer for all that, but one thing for sure, I could sense that majority of them were not firm with their ambition. They just voiced it out because everyone has to say something in that forum. When I got back home, I asked my 5 years old daughter what she would like to be when she grow up. She simply mentioned that she wanted to work with the company I am working with. Probably because that was the only source she could think of, probably because she likes the logo very much. Probably she just want to please me. One think for sure, I will try my best to make her to be firm with what she wants to be. But influentally, I wanted her to become self employed, do business, become rich much faster, and do good things when she is rich.

Digital Games : Now and Then , and what's next

I still remember my first digital game. It was back in 1981 where I first got the Nintendo Game and Watch. The first set was the Parachute Games followed by the Octopus. Our family stayed in Johor Bahru and my parents bought it in Singapore. It was a family games. Even my mother played the games. But most of the time concured by me and my elder brother. 2 years after that we moved to Kedah. Nintendo Game and Watch was still the market leader until the released of new digital games like the CASIO Western Bar and the Kung Fu Games. It has much better sound compared to the Nintendo Game and Watch. I can still imagine the sound until today. That killing sound distracted almost every single kids to put it in their wish list.I was hoping to get one too but I guess my father refused to buy one because my sister just bought me a computer game called Vectrex. It was like a small TV with joystick. Better sound system and required cartridges to change from one game to another. It has no color but with colored plastic filter for every single game. Not bad for video games in the early 80's. My sister was so generous to purchase another video game called the Tomy Alien Chase. Its smaller but has good sound too. The only thing was , it has only same game. Capturing the alien and place them into the cage. Pretty boring but better something than nothing. I can still remember the sound of that game until today. Probably video games sound have been embedded in my brain, and it is hard to get rid of them.

Being a teenagers during the boost of electronic games has really caused headaches to parents.The video games arcade has been my second home after school. Video arcade emerged so rapidly in our town. The famous games during the time were the 1942, Raiden, Street Fighters and those car racing games. On contrary, my parents were not so conservative about it. Probably they knew that stopping kids from going to video games equals stopping giving food to them. There is always a limit in liking something. Its how you discipline yourself or your kids to be liking it efficiently and positively. This is way to subjective to be discussed.

That was 25 years ago. Kids nowadays are facing a bigger cyber world madness with games that can link to almost every parts of the world. My kids who are 5 and 6 are yet to join the bandwagon. But in 3 to 5 years time I guess they will too. Their first digital game was the Game Boy SP. It was the only game that last long in their posessions. It's durable too. I would rather invest those kind of games rather than Barbie Dolls or Ben 10 Omnitrix which only last few days before they landed everywhere on the floor. Something that ignite mumbling manuscripts from my wife. My wife, on the other hand also enjoys the digital game. But she only likes Tetris or puzzle kind of games. That motivated me to get another digital game which is the Sony PSP. Now almost everyday PSP becomes the soulmate of our family members. My daughter loves the puzzle games just like her mother. My son loves the action Games like Ultraman, Transformers , Ben 10 and car racing games. My favourites are the Soccer game and the RPG : Star Wars : Force Unleashed.

On the other perspective, Cyber Cafe business is also doing good even in a small time where I live. If 25 years ago parents having problems to find their kids in video arcades , now I can see parents having headaches to find their kids in cyber cafes. A friend of mine approached recently on acquiring a cyber cafe for business. It was a good proposals though I dont really feel like doing it at the moment. Though you like something, doesnt mean you like to manage that something. Probably it is a sunset business as it has been there more than 10 years already. What's next ? Anyone can guess ?

The Diamond Story

The first time I watched "Blood Diamond" was at a restaurant while having supper. It was an intermittent attention as I was with friends who could tell you story better than Steven Speilberg. Since I could sense the movie quite interesting, I bought a DVD and watched the movie at home.

On the other hand, I bought a motivational book at Popular Book Store on the way of getting rich. It came with an audio CD which I appreciated very much. Though I like knowledge, I have to admit that I prefer listening much more than reading. It can goes parallel in deed. Driving and gaining knowledge. The story is about diamond mining in Africa. It was narrated by a deep voice man. Something like Sean Connery's voice. So when you listen to the story, you could actually imagine the guy is so serious on telling you this. Since I already watched the De Caprio movie , Blood Diamond, more or less this story has the similarities in terms of the challenge and pursuit for weath in the midst of the social turmoils.

Its quite interesting to know that my friend Master Mary uses this story as his ice-breaking story whenever he does his marketing, brain-wash or conduct classes. I do not know whether this is a true story or not, but it is worth for mind digestion.

The story goes like this : (Again, the introduction of this story sounds like Blood Diamond or Revenge of the Sith movie, but trust me, it is not)

Long long time ago, far far a way in a galaxy, in Africa, people were crazy about diamond mining business. They migrated from one place to another just to find diamonds. They killed each other because of diamonds (you can see this scenario in De Caprio movie Blood Diamond). In their village, there were nothing much to do other than finding diamonds, breeding livestocks . But being in Africa doing the livestocks breeding business was pretty challenging. Food and water were scarce.

I cant really remember the name of the main character of this story, let say I name him as "Drogba". Sound familiar ? Ok, so this Drogba was a father of 3 kids (you dont have to remember how many kids he has, because this is not related at all to the main theme of this story).

Drogba too heard about the diamond mining business. Everyday he kept on hearing people getting rich and make a big leap in their life. Drogba lived in a small village in Africa One day Drogba decided to sell off everything that he had, the piece of land inherited from his family, the small hut and a Harley Davidson he won in the Nescafe Contest (dont get de-focus of this additional information, keep on reading, you almost get to the climax of the story). So, Drogba moved out from the village and sold the land to his cousin named Usin Bolt (well, this name came to my mind in 9.69 seconds). Usin is a middle class man who dont have big dreams in the diamond business, so he doesn't really mind raising cows and goats for living.

Drogba and his family moved to another place knowned as Unggalagala (pronounce as UNG-GALA-GALA) , 500km from the Kalahari Dessert (where they shot the movie God Must be Crazy Part II) where he heard about the Diamond mine. He set up a small hut just enough for his family to live, but he does have a home theatre set with a build in WIFI (based on the original story that almost corrupted, but please continue reading, the climax is there, be optimistic). Drogba was very hardworking, day and night he went for diamond mining. Came to the extend where he had to use scuba set to explore the underwater treasures. Years went by and Drogba still could not find the big bang he was looking for. One day, Drogba was mining at one of the well and suddenly there was an earthquake, the land slid. Drogba was belived to have died, buried underwater from the rock debris. No one found his body. Leaving only his swiss army knife as the evident. He engraved " Diamonds are Forever" on his swiss army knife. You can find it on E-Bay for your collection if you may.

Remember Usin Bolt , Drogba's cousin ? The man who bought Drogba's land. He was still doing the livestock breeding business. Well, he was doing quite ok.Usin heard about Drogba's demised . He was so relief that he did not follow his cousin's foot step searching for diamonds. One day, while Usin was preparring to go back , one of the goat went missing (just like P Ramlee story, Ahmad Albab...). So Usin went searching for the goat, with only one mini Maglite in his hand. The land that he bought from Drogba's was quite big, about the size of 5 Wembley Stadium . So walking across the land was time consuming, but what to do, he doesnt have any vehicle. The day was almost dawn, Usin still couldnt find his goat. His GPS had turned to night mode. The missing goat was no where in the radar screen. Frustated and exhausted, he stopped by a stream located on his land to get some fresh water. Praying to God for his goat to be found, Usin sat down and sighed. Looking into the flowing water. The place was calm, peace and tranquility. Only the sound of the running water and the rhythm of the wind. Out of sudden Usin saw something fishy in the water. Its not the fish, but some glowing lights you may call. Glowing big rock (hint : almost the climax but not yet..). Usin took his maglite and shot the ray into the water. He stood up, walked slowly towards the water. He tried to pick up the rock but it was pretty heavy. Being an athelete (he was a school soccer player), Usin put his fullest effort and picked up the rock. Its about a size of a tool box. Thinking to substitute the rock with the missing goat, Usin was hoping his wife would be happy to see that. Usin went back to his house with the shiny rock, without his goat of course. Upon reaching home, his wife stood anxiously at the door. Usin handed over the rock and told her about the missing goat. She was so angry and upset that he lost the goat and brought back the useless rock. His wife kept on mumbling all night about the missing goat, and the rock that looks like a bonsai tree.

The next morning, Usin went to town and told his friends about his missing goat. And he also told them about the strange looking rock. A beautiful rock indeed. None of his friends was interested to hear his story. Most of them were busy playing games, updating Facebook and Youtubing at the internet cafe. Usin felt upset upon his friends response. So he decided to post the photo of the stone in his own blogspot. Usin also decided to throw the rock back into the river as he could not stand his wife mumbling about the missing goat day in and day out. Days passed by without any breaking news. Usin has never talked about that story neither to his friends nor his wife eversince.

One day, a guy name Atkinson came to town. He was so eager to find Usin. He asked around the town and finally got to find Usin at the Cyber Cafe. Usin was playing PC games when Atkinson greeted him. Usin was very surprised to see Atkinson, who dressed up like Indiana Jones, came in the middle of nowhere. Atkinson told Usin that he saw the photo of the rock in the internet posted by Usin few weeks ago. Usin was poked by that snippet. Finally someone at least pay attention on his story. Usin immediately took Atkinson to the river where he threw the rock. The rock was still there and they both picked it up. Atkinson was so amazed and surprised upon seeing the rock with his own eyes. "This is unbelieveable", said Atkinson astonishingly. " Holly Cow !!". You are the lucky one....". Usin was kind of bewildered with Atkinson's remark. "Who are you, sir ?, Usin started to put his interest. Atkinson explained that he is actually a diamond specialist from England and the rock found by Usin is believed to be the largest diamond ever found in the world. (hint = this is supposed to be the climax of the story, so hope you hold on for a while). Usin still could not believe what he has just heard. Surprisingly, within 2 hours, the press crews from Al-Jazeera , CNN, Bloomberg and RTM2 of course, came to the scene. Usin became a multi-billionaire in split seconds. One tycoon by the name of Kiyosaki had made an offer live on TV asking Usin to trade the diamond for 10 billion dollars. Usin gasped for awhile. How much is that ? 10 billion . He has never had a calculator that can calculate that amount of money. He asked the TV crew whether this is really live telecast or some sort of bloopers program. The crew nodded seriously. Usin took a deep breath, looking straight towards the camera and told Mr Kiyosaki right on his face (just like those dudes in WWF) " Listen Mr. ......I love my wife..., I love my kids..., I love my life....YOU.....COMPLETE ME....(read like Tom Cruise in Jerry MacGuire).But YOU DONT HAVE TO SHOW ME THE MONEY !!!!...., I am not stupid. My wife will kill me if she knew I bring back 10 billion instead of that darn missing goat !!. Usin grabbed the microphone from the man and said "...if anyone of you can find me that darn goat, this stone is yours....and I really mean it..."

That afternoon Usin went back to his house with his missing goat. Not one goat, but 300 of them. Upon reaching the house Usin yelled at the door " Honey...we are rich !! we are rich !! But his wife is no where to be found. Suddenly his little kid came from the kitchen and said " mommy watched daddy on live TV just now...mommy said that she is leaving this village for good. Before she becomes a murderer..". Oops, forgot to mention, the wife name is Rihanna. She moved to the United States to open up a shop selling umbrella.

The morale of the Story :

Lesson # 1 : Diamond is actually inside you, you just have to find it and it will shine. Dont really have to go far to find the diamond.
Lesson # 2 : You may be poor now but one day who knows , luck might come to you, be patient.
Lesson # 3 : A good husband can make a bad mistake if he listens to a good wife that make a bad decision without knowing why he should be listening at the first place. Capish ?
Lesson # 4 : Dont always post everything on the internet, save some for your wife and kids.
Lesson # 5 : Drogba should have invested in Money Mastery Program or read Rich Dad Poor Dad , so that he could sell his land at a higher price to Usin.
Lesson # 6 : Usin should have bought a Sony Playstation or PSP so that his wife will not be seeing him on TV. And none of this could have happened.
Lesson # 7 : Light travels faster than sound, that is why sometime you think a person is bright until you hear them speak.
Lesson # 8 : Attitude is important, bad attitude may turn up to be your liability in future.

The Birth of Ignite Revolution

2009 is the Birth of my first company , Ignite Revolutiuon. I got this name spontaneously at the Registrar office. Well, not really spontaneously, I had the term Ignite in my mind two days before that while I was doing a Business Update meeting at my current company. "Ignite" based on the dictionary definition means to cause or to start to burn or lite something,and revolution on the other hand means big change in terms of social, technology or achievement. That is what i concluded when I chose the name. It has always been my dream to ignite something big and I am very sure I will achieve that. With some effort, focus and help from friends and family. I still hold the motto of Scholarship, Virtue and Service for my company undertakings, which I uphold from UUM motto of " Ilmu, Budi, Bakti". I was engineereed there, at least I should be carrying some values to the community. I guess the motto make much sense now. The other motto is "Finis Coronut Opus" - my secondary school motto that means "Effort is the stairways to success". Make sense huh ? I have not specified the core business of company as year 2009 is an experimental year. I have tried out property management and service marketing, its quite challenging. It requires knowledge, creativity, problem solving, follow up and perserverence. But I learnt a lot from my father when it comes to property management. I learnt some from the books of Mr Kiyosaki and Mr Trump. Though it's not apple to apple comparison but the concept somehow leads to the right direction. Some people say that involving in Malaysia business equals to involving with politics and government, well to certain extend they are right but not necessary all the cases. Probably that is why I have invested some time understanding the political turmoils nowadays. And I have tried to involve my self with political movement. And am still trying to adapt my mind to it. You may say politic is dirty but I cant figure out yet what is not in today's world when it comes to human interaction and money.

Apart from property , I am also trying to link my company portfolios with servicing business. Why servicing ? Because this requires a minimal amount of money for start up. and i dont have much to spend around. That's where I found a friend who is so keen of doing servicing job. He introduced me to the world of business arts. We kicked off our first project teaching the communities doing Fruit and Vegetables Carving. We partnered with Kulim Community College as they have the facilities that we need. Though I love arts very much, this kind of art requires more than skills, it has to do with passions and imagination. But I still want to continue doing this as part of my business experiment. My friend whom I called Cikgu Mary Think Big. He wants to make a giant leap of this art to the world level. And it is part of our plan to explore more of this skills at our neighbouring country, Thailand, where the art is believed to have been originated 700 years ago. My friend somehow has the interest on Feng Shui too . He told me that one Chinese Sifu told him that he will success in food industry. And he sees fruit carving as the baseline of his success. On contrary, I see this as an opportunity to bring the servicing business with almost zero capital to move ahead. Lets see what will happen next. Hope the income tax folks wont be chasing after me as the profit is not really significant. Only the knowledge is priceless.

Another portfolio that I am looking forward to expand is photography. Photography has always been my interest since I was a kid. I still remember that I wish my sister to buy me a camera as a birthday gift back in the 80's. In 1981, my father bought a classic SLR Camera. But I was very hot hot chicken shit as it was hard to use that camera, I was 7 then. Anyhow , photography continue to part of my interest. With the new DSLR technology, photography is made so easy. That's why I dont mind involving this as my part time income. I like video shooting too but it requires lot of time and research to master the skills and to process and edit. There are courses available but having too many things to do at the same time is really a challenge. Laziness is no doubt the biggest constraint that put me in mediocrity in the photo business. Like any other business, photography can be a big boom business too. There should be a way how to break the code to get rich in this business. Something Donald Trump migth not recommend but it is worth doing something that you like and getting some bucks into your wallet. So I this is a keeper of my Ignite Revolution portfolio.

Ignite Revolution and my wife :
I have never known after 9 years of marriage that my wife has the talent in doing sales. I have always underestimated her in doing sales based on her introvert characteristic . But in 2009, I decided to give it a try in small retailing business. I started off with the handicraft business. I have 3 partners by then. This is also an experimental business. Its a Labu Sayong business, or described in Wikipedia as earthenware, gourd-shaped jars for keeping drinking water cool. It was just a small capital start up. This is where I saw the talent of my wife doing sales. In just 3 months, she really sold the goods and become the champion of the sales force (at least we got break even in 3 months) . This business is not to say very successful or very failure, but what I learned is that product knowledge, marketing strategies , consumer behaviour, costing and follow up is the key element to success. Though we stopped the activity after 5 months, I was thinking to KIV this business for Ignite Revolution. I learned a great deal of doing the research, dealing with people and solving business issues. With the initial talent shown by my wife in doing sales and book keeping, I have moved another step to getting another business that is more suitable for her. The ladies accessories , clothing or women apparels. She is doing great. And I can see her passions in doing this kind of business. Arguments is almost inevitable in starting up a business with her. Decisions making make it worst sometimes. Not to add financial issues. But we made it somehow until the business runs quite smooth. Again, the profit is not really big but as a green man in this field, I would rate the business as Exceeding Expectation. Surprisingly my wife can have her own network of people to run the business for her. She started off with immediate family members, colleagues and now outsiders started to approach her. Its still long way to go. She needs to adapt more style in doing a bigger scale business. And this is definetely one of the core business under my wife supervision. Hopefully she can have her own shop to run this business soon. My daughther who is turning 7 next year shall be her right hand to run the business. Yes, I am brainswashing her to run business, so that she will be getting rich 20 years faster than me. Though you have seen so many time I use the term "rich", rich is not everything of course. There is a reason why I want to be rich. I will story that in the next note. On the other hand , my son (5), has not shown any interest in money making business at the moment, he likes expenses indeed. I will train him slowly not be a liability. I hope that he will continue my business in future. Lets see how it goes.

My Wifee just foundee Outee !!!

....that I have a blog....come on...just registered few hours ago..so what?? Her first remark.."well..you have plenty of time to do all these and less time on the chores ??...

my respond was ...."...I'm venturing into the world of business, technologies and challenges...so I do need one...I will create one for you my dear...

The Rules of 3 bucks : Story of Master Mary

I have a friend whom I called "Cikgu Mary", because of a joke he told me about a lady name Mary and a smart rich guy who used to date Mary. I dont think I want to share the story of Mary as it was just meant for fun and 18sx in nature. But Cikgu Mary has a point, he always has some thing to ponder about.

My friend Master Mary told me a theory about some people or groups that lack motivation to work and perform lower than what they should. He calls it " Because of 3 bucks salary.." or the Rules of 3 bucks.

It goes like this ...according to Master Mary, some people in the non-profit organization apply this theory to their working nature. Let's say that the salary of the month is 10 bucks, but in actual fact they will only perform the job of the 3 bucks value and save the 7 bucks for big event ( i dont know what kind of event is that). Why ? According to Master Mary, those who think they already have a secured job hold the principle of "there is always a work for me tomorrow" and no matter hard I work, my salary remains at 10 bucks. So why bother working harder. I will always get the 10 bucks at the end of the day. That is why when you have to make a deal with them, you have to top up another 7 bucks to catch up with the work standard that you expect them to do. I'm not talking about bribery or kickbacks but more on doing extra follow up, extra homework and some sorts of efforts that they themselves should have done it.

On the other hand, those who work with the Private sector is generally underpaid with the effort that they need to put it. The same theory applies, let say your pay is 10 bucks, but your boss will squeeze you for at least 50 bucks work value. Logically it should be that way. Private company is a profit organization. They must make money, if you as a workers just perform a 10 bucks job, then the company just break-even and may be forced to close down. So the extra 40 bucks is for the overhead, stakeholders margin, taxes and all sort of expenses before they give you the actual amount of salary, bonuses and probably some stock exchange or stock participation program. Make sense now?

And lastly, if you are running your own business or Business owner, than at the early stage you must work for the value of at least 70 bucks, slightly higher than working for private sector. Why ? Because you need extra money to roll onto new business opportunities plus the expenses you need to bare. So a word of advise from Master Mary, be prepared to work longer hours in the early stage of business ventures in order to succeed. And he really does.

This is only a myth of the non profit organization , but today one can see a drastic changes in the level of service in that sector. No doubt that some of them performs much better than those in private or business owner. Why ? It's actually more towards the individual motivation and sense of responsibility. Having a secured job doesnt mean you have reached the perfect life. In fact, no job is secured in todays dynamic world. Anything can happen and one should better be prepared for the worse.

So Master Mary's story make sense huh ??? Think and think about it...

Welcome to my Blog : Extended Kidz on the Blog

dear friends and readers,

It has been many attempts by me to do blogging business, but it turns out to be mist under the sun. Forgotten and never revisited. It has now come to my attention to say it out load the spirits of the unspoken and the journey towards perfection (borrow this phrase fr my boss). I have always admired few individuals who have successfully said it out load to the world. In their own way. One of them is Jerry MacGuire. And now Tun Dr Mahathir and son, Mukhriz Mahathir. What do they have to do with me and my blog? Though nothing much but something for sure.

I have always dream to transform myself to be the man of many characters. Nothing like Optimus Prime, nothing like Ben Tennyson. Non of them meets my expectation. Always like to think of myself as the sole wanderers of this globe and century, and yet to find the glory I am wandering about. Rover, wanderer , nomad , vegabond , call me what you will...(borrow from Hetfield). Note: To those who are not familiar, Hetfield is not a psychologist, motivational speaker , scientist, capitalist, communist or thinker, he's just the lead singer of Metallica...hehe...hey , why not, love the lyrics and melody...they bring memories of the old days, with circle of friends whom I trusted, and grew up with.

Till we meet again ..