WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP!

By SS

ISFJs are traditional, loyal, quiet and kind. They are very sensitive to other
people's needs because they are very observant. They have rich inner thoughts
and emotions. They value stability and cultural norms. They are very adept at
giving attention to detail. They do not seek positions of authority.

Visited the blog of bestselling author of Honk! If You're Malaysian Lydia Teh and stumbled upon a link to this personality quiz. My personality type is ISFJ (Defender, Protector). Full details are available at the website. Quite interesting to read the details and found out a lot of useful information about my self and my personality. Why don't you take the test as well? Click here.

WHERE TO EAT WHEN YOU'RE WITH FRIENDS

The question is "Where to eat when we are with friends?" Well, the answer is "It depends on many considerations". Usually when we are alone, we tend to eat simple and cheap food such as McD, Burger King, nasi goreng from Malay shop, or roti canai from an Indian shop. Many will tend to eat at home or eat home-cooked food. Where to eat when you have company or companions?





For myself, it is sometimes difficult to find out where and what to eat with normal friends, office colleagues, or close friends. Sometimes, the question of 'budget' comes about when deciding where and what to eat simply because it seems to be a major factor. Usually, when being answered "Anywhere la" or "Whatever la", it seems to be a harder decision because you dont know whether to eat simple food or eat something of higher class. As for myself, I have eaten at all areas in KL in all types of classes from road-side food to mamak to McD to Pizza Hut to cafes to Madam Kwan to TGIF and Chilis.





What type of food, how much time available, and location plays an important factor too. For example, if we are working and have 1 hour lunch break, then usually I will tend to go to McD or some mamak shop. If I am on off days, then it depends on who I am going out with, I tend to choose and think. With close friends, I tend not to go for junk food restaurants and to eat better class foods. If I am with normal friends, then I usually let the person to decide because for me, naturally, I dont know what and where to eat because different people have different considerations.

If I were to choose what and where to eat, I tend to choose those that some may not like to eat or locations too far or the type of food is not suitable, or too pricy, etc. I like all types of food but sometimes, you just dont know whether the person likes to eat chinese, asian, or western foods. Different people means different lifestyle and different perception of where and what to eat.

HOT FROM THE OVEN

By SS

Since we have not used the oven since we moved in, I decided to start a baking project right after I completed my high school, which was around four years ago. I was still in China, just a few months from returning back to Malaysia. I was lazying around the house, without doing anything productive.

I am such a brownies junkie. I love brownies, complete with chocolate fudge. When you live in China, the only time you can have a bite of those delicious brownies was during the International Day. Of course hotels around China serve brownies, but it is not 'authentic'. It does not have that extra 'kick'. I love the brownies baked by those American expat.

I have no idea how to bake brownies from scratch. I then decided to go to Oliver's (which is a supermarket which sells imported goods!) a box of Betty Crocker's Brownies. I must admit, it's cheating to bake something from the box. All I needed to add was some water, eggs, oil, put it in the oven for a while and voila, I'm done! I did pretty well on my first try. Delicious and tasty. Even my maid was amazed at my baking talent. Friends of my mum would come to the house and my mum would force me to serve my brownies. Even they had no clue at all.

It's been a while since I last bake some brownies. Considering that you can practically get everything in Kuala Lumpur, I decided to put my baking talent on hold. Delicious brownies can easily be found in most western restuarants. It may be pricey and they are simply irresistable.

Mum has been following The Martha Stewart Show on Ntv7 and I have been following The Apprentice: Martha Stewart on 8TV (the winner was announced recently! It's Dawna, publisher of Her Sports magazine!). I decided to go to http://www.marthastewart.com/ and try out one of her cupcake recipes.

My mum and I bought all of the ingredients for the vanilla cupcake at a store called Bagus. We just wanted to try the recipe and it was for our own consumption. I may get Ken to try the cupcake considering that we might meet tomorrow.

I did not play an important role in the kitchen. Mum prepared all of the ingredients. I was there to mix the ingredients using the mixer and I thought it was an easy task. I used the hand mixer and boy can it be tiring! The cupcakes are a bit sweet but I think it was good enough on our first try.

Baking can be fun! (Except for the cleaning-up bit!!). Perhaps I should try chocolate cake next.

EFFECTS OF RAIN

What happens when heavy rain comes? Well, there are a few detrimental effects which affects everyone.

1) Car Accidents: When heavy rain comes, it causes blurred and dark visions and car lights needed to be turned on. Speed also need to be reduced as sight of your surroundings are vague. However, there are still many crazy drivers that speeds through the highway, putting up double signals for no reason, and zig-zagging around car corners. What does this lead to? Accidents of course!!! Who to blame? Not the heavy rain but those irresponsible stupid drivers.

2) Traffic Jams: As everyone know, traffic jams are very common everywhere in this country. What happens when it rains? Traffic jams incidents are doubled and longer and expands to much longer distances. Causes are those drivers that "curi ayam" (cutting lanes), accidents, on-lookers, etc.

3) Faulty traffic lights: It is very common that traffic lights go faulty when heavy rain comes. Not sure what causes it - could be lightning, system down, electricity fused, or simply no maintenance being done properly. What this easily causes are long lines of stuck-ups and piles of cars unable to go anywhere within minutes. These Malaysian drivers simply cant learn about courtesy, 'give way', or proper signaling. Is it that hard? Or is it much easier for all the drivers to cause accidents and traffic jams?

4) Pot holes accidents: Ok, enough of car drivers. Lets turn to motorcycle bikers. Even these two-wheelers have accidents also. Pot holes are those holes on roads that are either not fixed properly, not maintained, or not being filled up as required to. What happens when it rains? These pot holes becomes not visible and when the bikers run through them, they tumble and fall down causing havoc and a whole big jam.

5) Floods: When non-stop heavy rain comes, floods happen so easily anywhere. The water pathways are blocked, irrigation water systems are dirtied and blocked, river water levels raised to above street levels, basement carparks are filled up with water, cars are filled up with water, etc, etc... Flood waters have no where to go and slowly causing major floods all around the cities.

What else is new? Its just heavy rain and causes so many havocs and disturbances all around. In others countries, when heavy rain comes, I dont see such problems happening. Why here, why everyday.

MOBILE PHONES

By: Veni

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the appearance of mobile phone services. The first customers appeared in 1979 and I can still recall the phone models back then. You practically had to carry around the whole base station! It was large, like a mid-sized suitcase and many installed it in their cars. Only the rich could afford one back then. I remember my first, it was in 2001, the Ericsson phone - I thought it looked totally cool but realized today what a bulky piece of equipment it was.

Times have changed, the mobile phone makers are churning out phones slimmer than ever and the mobile penetration rate has increased tremendously. As of June 2007, it was reported that there are now close to 3 billion mobile subscribers the world over! Most of us reading this would likely contribute to that population. I can’t imagine living without one, here is how I noticed our lives have changed with the introduction of the mobile phone:

1)People stand you up on dates more often and very last minute. The mobile phone allows us to call off appointments at the very last minute. Reminiscing I realized that pre-mobile phones, I would be there at the appointed place and time even though I was tired or changed my mind about going out last minute. My friends never had to wonder where I was or run to a pay phone to call my house looking for me. We would all just converge at the given place and time.

2)We sms to keep in touch. This and poking people on Facebook has become the normal way for people nowadays to keep in touch instead of calling each other. With out highly mobile busy lives, what better and less intrusive manner to let someone know you’re thinking of them.

3)Less people install fixed lines at home since no one is there to pick it up. My mobile phone is truly with me at all times and I personally don’t see a need for a fixed line at home.

4)Parents now give their teenagers a mobile phone with a subscription instead of a second fixed line to their room.

5)It facilitates dating! It helps to have sms, you can be more open without having to “say it”. Of course there is also the case where the man divorced his wife via sms - what a pussy!

Love it or hate it, the mobile phone is here to stay. Despite it being only 25 years young, it has made an impact that has changed our lives and it will be here to stay. I’d love to hear from the person who has yet to commit to a mobile phone or stories of how the mobile phone has changed your life.

AUTHORS OF THIS BLOG

I would like to take a few moments here to welcome a few of my blog contributor writers.

Everyone, please welcome my first contributor Syafique Shuib. He has been a friend of mine since high school in China and is currently pursuing a job either as a writer in magazine companies or production in media companies. Syafique has a bachelor degree in Mass Communication in Monash, KL and is currently working in Astro.

Next, I would like to warmly greet an ex-colleague of mine from my current company. Her name is Veni. She has helped me a lot during my days while working in the company as customer service. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in APIIT and is currently working in IBM.

Please put your hands together for these 2 writers!!! Do stop by here to either comment or put your entries and continue on with the flow. Take care everyone.

THANK YOU, FRIENDS!

By SS

Yesterday, a handful of my University friends and also the owner of this blog, Ken, went to hangout at Sunway Pyramid. I have never been to the new wings, so I guess it was about time that I checked out the place, especially since that place used to be one of my hangout places. Felt like a stranger as I stepped into the new Wing, Everything was so new.

We first went for lunch. The conversation revolves around work, some television station, clubbing, exams, people, me, me caught in a love triangle (that was damn funny! Me, in a love triangle?). And yes, as usual I was the last person to finish my food. I do not have the skills to talk and eat at the same time and that is why I am such a slow eater. When I saw the bill I was shocked to see that the government tax and the service charge comes to around RM 10. Whoa, that's a lot.

Later on, we played bowling. Ken showed his skills right at the end of the first game with four straight strikes. I repeat: FOUR STRAIGHT STRIKES! He needed some time to warm up. As for me, no comment. But I did score a strike. More importantly, my team won (Argh, I wish. LOL!). The game of bowling was fun, but we might play a game of pool or futsal next.

After bowling, Ken and I decided to walk around the new wing. It has always been a tradition of ours to walk around the mall, just like what we did in Suria KLCC, and afterwards, I will be complaining about how much my legs hurt and how I needed some massage.

We actually had a serious conversation about working and how to adapt to our new working environment. I really needed that conversation and Ken really has a lot to say and he gave so many tips and advice, which was extremely helpful. It was really nice to be able to talk to someone that understands what I am going through right now.

Before I end this post, I would also like to thank my uni friends for the togetherness. It was great to see familiar faces again. The last time I saw some of them was during the Prom, but we did not talk a lot. We shared lots of stories and laughters. It was a great way to celebrate the third day of Hari Raya!

HOW TO CROSS THE ROAD

Everyone should know how to cross a road.
Everyone is taught of how to cross roads safely.
Everyone must know what to do to cross a road.
So, what to do?

"First look right, look left, then look right again. If and only if CLEAR, then CROSS THE ROAD carefully and safely."

- Do not run
- Do not SMS on the mobile phone
- Do not laugh and walk slowly with friends
- Do not play
- Do not ignore road signs and traffic lights

Ok, many of you will think, why am I repeating all these steps? Its easy!!!... Well, there are still so many people out there that dont know how to cross a road! Especially students and adults. Everyday when I am driving, I always notice so many of them dont know how to cross roads. Many are SMSing on their phones, playing and running on the middle of the roads, and many more dangerous acts. Is this what we have to witness everyday? Its like no one cares about them being hit by cars and on-coming traffic.

Radio announcements and tv advertisements are posted out publicly but yet no positive results shown so far. Well, lets see how it goes and time will only tell...

VANDALISM OF PROPERTY

Definition of Vandalism is: Destroying or damaging, or attempting to destroy or damage, the property of another without the owner’s consent, or public property.

Why does vandalism occurs in this city? Is it because the public is too free, or the public having too many itchy hands, or simply for the fun sake of it. Well, as a matter of fact, its all of the mentioned.

Everyday when I go out, I always see and witness vandalism on public properties such as train seats, train stations, phones, phone booths, or anything that can be damaged easily with force. Why do these people do such things? Have anyone of them being caught red-handed? No. There are so many out there still causing damages for fun. Sometimes, it is hard to catch them also as their actions are at night when there are less eyes to spot them.
Many will say such people like "Mat Rempits" will do such things. I will agree on this also. These motorbikers are too free and have nothing to do and only like to destroy public properties. I have witnessed them before. Well, the way they handle their motorbikes are crazy and dangerous also. It is not surprising not to make them as suspects.

Well, hope something can be done and at least some fruitful results will be shown in the near future. This is all I can say for now.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA

It's not too early to wish all of you a Selamat Hari Raya, right?

Well, there is something different about this year's Hari Raya. I cannot believe how time really flies. Last year's Hari Raya is only a distant memory. I celebrated last year's Raya with my brother Kushairi and my mum's friend, Patricia. We all gathered at my cousin's place in Shah Alam. It was like a house warming event because my cousin and her family had just moved into the house. So the family decided to gather at her place.

This year's Raya will be totally different. For one, I am no longer a student. I am a working person now. There really is something different between being a student anda working person. Last year, I had to worry about one final assignment and an exam. This year, I no longer have to worry about any assignments, just the fact that I have to go back to office on Wednesday.

I will also not celebrate Raya with my brother, as he currently is in New York.

I am also adjusting myself to my new working environment. Even as I am writing this post, I still feel unfamiliar with the people and environment. I have been working at my new place for a week and I do hope to call my new working place my "second home." I used to consider my former university my "second home" but the campus is only a part of my past now. I wonder if I can ever consider my working place my "second home."

You can say I might have a transition problem at my new place. But I had that same problem when I entered University. It was only a matter of time before I got accustomed to university life and I am hoping, sooner or later, I will adjust well at the office.

Anyways, for this Hari Raya, I am putting my worries aside as I want to enjoy the celebration with my family and friends. Worrying will only make matters worse, right? Tomorrow is the last day of fasting and Saturday is celebration day. Lots of delicious food, cookies, and cakes.

I want to wish all KEN THE BLOG readers a Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin. Forgive me if I have committed any mistakes. If I have written anything that has offended anyone on my former blog CURIOUSSYAF, forgive me too.

Enjoy.