Thursday, January 31, 2008

Recent News

Kenya – Post Election Riot

The post election riot erupted in Kenya has turned out to be a threatening ethic cleansing act on the minority Kikuyu tribe where the incumbent President Mwaki Kibaki belongs. He won the election in narrow margin last month. Kikuyu tribe is resented for dominating the politic and economy in the country. Hope this would not cause food shortage and eventually turning to the safari to source supply.


US – Election

The Democratic presidential candidate US Senator Hillary Clinton was interviewed recently on TV. It is obvious she is playing women card. As expected, she was asked about her opinion on Lewinsky's case. She said she has forgiven her husband, and weeping. What a show… cheap trick!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Cloverfield

Enticed by the trailer distributed on the net, I paid the hefty Euro3.5 to watch this monster yesterday… What the heck, the whole movie was shot with handy cam. The whole screen is so shaky THROUGH OUT the movie! (worse when you're in front of the big screen). It is nauseating. The movie terminated unexpectedly after 1 hr without ending? What about the monster -- killed or kept rampaging Manhattan? I have no idea how the monster looks like???

Sunday, January 27, 2008

State of Fear – Michael Crichton

Have just finished reading the 675 pages novel of Michael Crichton, State of Fear, telling a story of global warming threat. This novel has many scientific research footnotes, probably he meant to convince the readers with them. It has drawn strong criticism from climate scientists of his fact distortion intention, and misleading the readers. He said the ice in Antarctica is not thinning but thickening; the increasing Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is not the culprit of global warming etc…. counter attack the "ordinary" statements we used to absorb. I'm really confused who should I believe now.

After all, the novel has only 1 thrilling climax that keeps the page turning, he can really setup an intense pace. But the debates and preaching on global warming are quite boring. The worst part is the end of the story that he involved the unnecessary cannibals in Solomon Island.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Hair Stylist


This is my masterpiece – experiment done on my nephew.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Time To Step In?

The US recession fear has initiated domino effect worldwide. Stock market indexes in Europe fell as much as 7%… reckon the bear will run for the next days. I did plan to sell off the funds on hand in the next days, but just a step too slow to sell it at all time high.

Checking the markets in Europe, financial stocks like Barclays, Citibank, Merrill Lynch have dropped to a very attractive level. Am planning to buy some for mid long term investment. Can't make up my mind should I step in now.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Back to Work

After spending the torturing 11.5 hrs on the narrow seat of economy class from Bangkok to Vienna, my legs could hardly be stretched. Why Austrian Airlines do not place 9 seats per row instead of 10 in this class like Thai Airways do? I should be lucky not having a giant size passenger beside me whose shoulder would have invaded half of my seat.

Worse, I had 8 hrs transit in Vienna Airport. I don’t like this airport, it does not provide free wireless internet access; no TV / movies for the passengers; foods and drinks are ridiculously expensive… the airport is simply not 'humanitarian'.

At last, back to work again, after 4 weeks lazy vacation. As usual, clean up the works piled up in a month.

Tough Life

The only thing observed in KL is that more high-end shopping malls are popping up in the past year. Is the consumption power of Malaysians so high that luxurious market is so ample and profitable? I doubt it… probably this is driven by the illusion of bullish stock market and the election ahead.

Newspapers are reporting the inflation on almost every basic commodity, everyone is complaining the salary is barely sufficient to fulfill their needs. The fuel cost is expecting to soar, government excused themselves that the subsidy of petrol is draining national income. This would definitely trigger domino effect on everything. I reckon the government's long proposed Value Added Tax would be implemented after the election. I really hope a great rally would sparkle to overthrow this blood sucking idea.

Value of money is decreasing, and the life is getting tougher!

Krabi



After visiting National Park, I bought a ticket to Krabi (Thailand) for sun and beach. I made a dive near Phi Phi Island (am trying to dive at least once a year to refresh and practice diving skill), was so glad that I could manage myself fairly well in the water. It was truly amazing to be surrounded by school of fishes. Sadly quite a large extent of corals is dead, leaving the dull grayish dead corals lying on the seabed - the consequence of tourism exploitation.

Compare to Phuket, Krabi is no doubt having nicer beach, but smaller, more expensive, night life is dull, less choice of night entertainment (ahem… whatever means…) I was planning to try rock climbing, but the lousy agent failed to organize without informing me in advance. It left me a reason to return to Thailand again next time.

After spending a couple of days under the sun, I'm satisfied with the tan reddish (lightly sunburned) skin colour. I enjoyed this trip greatly!