OneBigBone

I guess you guys might be interested in checking out some pictures of Greenville South Carolina. 

It snowed for the first time for the season this year, right about 2 weeks before winter is suppose to end. 

Tempreture yesterday was around 1 celsius, and now it’s like -2. 

Wind chill is at a whopping -8 celsius and feels like -7! No wonder i was shivering on my way back to the hotel room. 

-7 celsius! thats the coldest temp I have experience. 

Everything is dead white. 

Leave a comment!

Happymah!~

It’s been a week since i left Malaysia. 

I was in Fort Lauderdale - Miami one week ago, and i did some quick shopping for my winter clothing there. I must say i did not regret that i decided to buy winter clothing here in US rather than in Sunway. 

The beauty about being on a business trip is that the company pays for your trip, hotel and gives you some petty cash for your meals and laundry. And along the way of taking care your company’s interest, you find pockets of time to check out the environment and surroundings.

However it’s regrettable that in Miami,  i couldn’t find time to visit Miami’s biggest attraction! I was travelling in a group and I just couldn’t find time to go to the beach! My boss emailed me few days back before i left Miami, telling me that I must visit the beach. I guess he is going to laugh at me for not going to the beach. Damit! 

I managed to go to Sawgrass mill though. 

Sawgrass Mill is Florida’s largest factory outlet store. 

And when you go places like that, you just couldn’t resist to spend your money. 

And spending i did. 

Just yesterday, i reached Greenville, South Carolina.

And there is where I am now.

For me, Greenville is like a small town, something like Muar if you would scale down to Malaysian standards. 

People here are even more friendly. 

Almost everyone that you meet, will greet you in a very friendly manner. 

All types of “How are you” is being said around. And they say Malaysian is one of the most friendly people. 

You walk in a store, surely there will be someone there greeting you and would ask if he may be at your service. 

It makes you feel good. 

Sometimes I do find it annoying though.  Each time someone greets you with a “How are you” you would have to smile and answer them each time, or else you will be quite rude. 

The first few things i noticed when i reach US, is that everything seems HUGE. The roads, cars, chairs, people, doors, boobs, burgers…. And the biggest joke was that when I was in Sawgrass Mill, the US people are quite realistic, they had mannequins with the “standard” big breast size standing in front of their display window. 

Talking about ladies, i kind of have a statistic - out of 20 ladies, 18 of them have what we asians call LARGE breast, just like having implants. And of of these 18, 15 of them are fat or plum.

My friend that managed to went to the beach says the beach is a total disappointment. Apart from the nice beach, he told me that CSI Miami is a scam. 

You can’t find those beautiful girls in bikini walking here and there, sun tanning or even hanging around at the seaside restaurants. 

The ladies are all at least double the size of what you see on TV. 

Double! 

Today is one of my happiest day in US. 

It’s because i manage experience something i dream of - snow. 

After some wondering around downtown Greenville, on the way back, as predicted by the weather man, it started to snow!

I was smiling away! I’m just so excited that i get to touch and experience a snow fall. 

And few moments ago, i managed to throw my first snowball! 

how cool is that? 

Happymah!~

It’s has always been a mystery of why I always have a better sleep when I’m in penang.

I do sleep till late hours at times in KL yet somehow I’m just not satisfied with the sleep of the past night.

My dad says that it’s probably the essence of home and the bed that you’re accustom of while giving a grinning smile, indicating I can always come back more often for the sleep.

And yet he is always the one who wake me up from my deep sleep.

Ironic.

I just came back from chit tiao loh bansan (the 7^th street market) for my mum to do some grocery shopping for some fresh vegetables and eggs.

Though slightly dirty and hot in the afternoon, chit tiao loh bansan has always been a nice place to do some marketing. And I’ve been visiting there quite often during my younger days.

The wet market is always packed with people, especially those of the older age.

It is like their “1- Utama” for the house wife, where you can buy all your household commodities under one roof.

Literally, one roof.

Since the past, the market never fails to amaze me with its daily antics of drama and conversation of the people there.

During my visit in the afternoon, a vegetable stall caught my attention.

We were walking towards that stall and the scene of two little kids accompanying their mother manning the stalls.

My mum was holding and inspecting oh wah chai, obviously it will be on tonight’s dinner menu.

“oh wah chai kui lui?”

(“how much is the oh wah chai?”)

The elder brother, about 7 years of age shouted back in the noisy market while packing 1 kilo of huan jio kia (cili padi) just like any other seasoned seller for an aunty beside us.

“oh wah chai ji kilo si koh”

(“RM4 per kilo for oh wah chai”)

I was surprised by how fluent this young boy is with the nature of the business. On top of that he was having small talks with the aunty he was selling the chili to.

All these happened while his mother stood at the other end of the stall cutting off damaged vegetables that will be put back for sale shortly.

With the typical penang spirit, my mum then proceeded to the next stall repeating her question again while complaining that prices are expensive.

I stood my ground, amazed with the kid business capabilities, I continued to observed how this young man do business with people 5 to 8 times his age.

“ang huan jio uh boh?” asked a customer.

(“do you have red chili?”)

“boh, kia jit boh ang huan jio. Huan jio kia ai mai?” he replied while summing up the payment of another customer.

(“nope, today we don’t have red chili, how bout chili padi instead?”)

Making math calculations on the fly on how much change needs to be given back to the customer while walking to the wooden cash deposit behind his mum and cheekily checking towards the sky to see if it’s a fake RM50 note.

The concentration, maths and the speed of calculation that this young man exhibited truly surprised me as I’m quite sure that his classmates or even his seniors at the school are still getting used to the basics of those entire math.

And not only this kid is doing business, he is also making sure his customer gets the satisfaction by recommending alternatives to the customer.

Every now and then he would get a little praise from his customers and the proud mum would draw a little smile across her face.

After spending a few moments observing the young kid, I proceed off with my mum after she managed to get oh wah chai for RM3/kilo, she probably saved about 50cents for that few steps.

Even on my journey back from the market, my mind was really replaying the scene of the little kid doing business while the mother had her full trust on the young man.

Even though I opinioned that he should be spending his childhood years having fun, however, reality as usual is harsh and unforgiving, even at that age, he is not spared from giving a helping hand to his mother.

Given the circumstances, that kid has my respect for his spirit and capabilities. There are many people at my age that still can’t count fast enough or find it tedious to count and would require a calculator when calculating discounted items in the mall.

That kid beat you guys hands down.

Happy New Year.

Happymah!~

Again, it’s been a while.

Well, actually not, although I did not update my blog since some time ago did not mean that i did not write.

I did actually wrote some stuff during my off days and it was when i was in Penang during hari raya. So i hope it’s not months late to wish again?

Following post is the first part of the 2 i wrote in Penang.

Selamat Hari Raya.

Just yesterday – the first day of raya, I started my journey back to the island I once spent my days growing up.

It’s been about 8 months or so since my last journey back to penang, and many of the times I get the “when are you coming back” questions pointed at me by my parents.

Regretfully, it was only a 4 hours journey that I did not take up often, and any excuses of being busy and occupied isn’t much of and excuse when your parents misses you.

So now I’m back, and what welcome me is more than I anticipated of penang since the last Chinese new year when I was back here.

The moment I crossed the iconic penang bridge which is going through some heavy upgrades, I was greeted with reminiscences of the penang spirit and feel that linger in me.

I see more motorbikes’ zigzagging along the traffic lines of cars, and you realize you’re moving at 30km/h rather than the usual 90 km/h speed on a KL highway yet you don’t get impatient or mad at the driver in front of you.

Just somehow the calmness and slow and easy moods of the traffic naturally just slows the hectic-fast paced KL soul down and some how allows a home coming penangite to feel peace and at home.

On the roads also, I see the usual heavy traffic that I always experience each time I’m back, where other “off shore” penangites like me who make used of the long holidays to come back for their char koay teow.

However, upon a closer look, I noticed all these cars that are pilling up the streets are not the usual home coming folks, but instead I see that these cars with penang registered plates which are not even half a year old flooding the little streets of penang.

So it seems that people here are doing well more than I expected.

It’s good sign at least.

Also expected were the changes of the newly elected state government. People on the streets seem happy on what has happened since the young government took over in early march.

I stopped my car for the red light at the Gothlib Road cross junction with Burmah Road, and I couldn’t help but noticed the big gigantic rocket logo of the Democratic Alliance Party hanging big on the corner building of the intersection, making their presence felt.

I make a left turn, heading back home. And along the way, the pleasant sight of big old green trees replaces the white concrete walls of the KL city.

It’s good to be home.

Happymah!~

jumpstart: The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.   - Ralph W. Sockman

I’ve been busy with work lately and it’s has practically taken a toll on me. So it has hit me hard with sickness, sorry for the no updates period.

Our world now has a heavy reliance on Information Technology, and because of that most of us are computer illiterate.

ENIAC. World first digital computer.

I’m not sure i should say that i’m fortunate enough on this, but i did Informasi Teknologi as one of my subjects for SPM. Me and my classmates were the first bunch of white mice for the education ministry on this subject.

Well, it indeed gave me a headstart in the IT education system after i entered my university, but thats all to it.

Being the BolehLand, our educationist seems still to be living in the caves with Parameswara hiding under a banana tree.

You see, the Bolehland is striving for vision 2020, and to achive this, Bolehland needs lots and lots of knowledge workers to help boost this vision of reaching a developed country by that year.

And our educationist, some how got the wind to introduce Informasi Teknologi as a subject.

I applauded for our educationist for recognizing the importance of IT.

Then i spit.

The IT that i took for 2 years in my secondary school days are in Bahasa Malaysia.

WTF.

Huge potong stim man~

I have no understanding of what those cave man are trying to achieve while the whole world of IT will be in the international language of english.

I sincerely have no ill feelings towards Bahasa Malaysia and i do respect that it’s the mother touge of the Malays.

Bolehland windows98

But this is just plain ignorance and making fun out of it.

And i’m bloody sure they hired who ever that translate doreamon into Bahasa Malaysia to translate all the English IT jargon into Bahasa Malaysia.

Mother Board = papan induk
keyboard = papan kekunci
mouse = tetikus
server = pelayan
client = pelayar
network = rangkaian
joy stick = kayu ria
light pen = pen cahaya
hard disk = cakera keras
Random Access Memory (RAM) = Memori Capaian Rawak (MCR)
software = perisian

Now, try to read the above again like how doreamon’s voice is, and how he would whisk out his gadgets from his bottomless pouch.

You will laugh.

Encik Bill Banyak Pintu

Luckily, those cave men never write to Encik Bill Banyak Pintu (Mr. Bill Gates) to change Windows98 to Tingkap98.

Imagine if that would to happened and try to understand this:

If we would to muat turun perisian lanun from the Internet, there is a possibility that the aplikasi has virus (read: ve-ru-es) or barang pengintai that can occupy your memori capaian rawak.

(if we would to download pirated softwares from the Internet, there is a possibility that the application has virus or spyware that can occupy your RAM)

Then we would have to press kawal-gilir-hapus whenever we encounter a tabir biru kematian to bangkit semula our tingkap98.

(Then we would have to press ctrl-alt-del whenever we encounter a blue screen of death to boot up our windows98)

Happymah!~