nicholastjs's Xanga

Should race be included in official forms?

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:22:47 GMT

Why are people in Malaysia wasting time debating if race should be included in official forms? Does it make any difference?

Even if you exclude that from official form, do you think you can avoid the government or any agency dealing with your form from knowing what race you are?

When you fill Muhammad Ali bin Abu as your name, of course you are a Malay. When you fill Chong Ah Beng, of course you are a Chinese and when you fill Samivellu a/l Saravanan, of course you are an Indian! So why bother wasting time over that stupid subject?!?!?!

home sweet home...

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:19:13 GMT

possibly my new home in two more months...

front view...

angle view...

rear view, i mean the house, not the lady in the picture... haha

the side of the house... dont know why i took this picture though...

the porch...

greeted by two-storey foyer upon entering the main door...

living room on the right, which will be definitely be painted to more lively color...

stairs on the left hand side...

kitchen and dining room...

family room, with vaulted ceiling...

view of 2nd floor from family room...

laundry room...

sink and dishwasher, dont know why i take this either....

the basement, unfinished....

master bedroom...

right door leads to master bathroom, left door to walk in closet...

soaking tub in the master bath... will be changed to jacuzzi....

seperate shower.... nice lighting features on the sink...

walk in closet...

second bedroom...

view of family room from 2nd floor...

third bedroom, it's bigger than the second one...

second bathroom...

view of the main entrance from second floor...

garage....

coming to visit me?? :P

random stuff...

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 05:28:33 GMT

i was watching a pretty old tvb drama and i heard a story which i find pretty meaningful...

one day, a puppy ask his mom, "where can i find happiness?" his mom answered, "happiness is right at the tip of your tail." the puppy try to get happiness, so it keeps running after his tail, but can never get it... and hence he complain to his mom... the mommy dog told him, "try not to go after it. you just need to keep walking forward, and happiness will follow..."

i find it really meaningful....

Steamed Korean??

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:31:03 GMT

I went grocery shopping at H-Mart, a Korean owned Asian supermarket. They sell a big variety of Asian food.

They have Steam Corn...

Sweet and Sour Chicken...

Pan-fried tofu...

Pan-fried Seafood....

Everything looks normal until I see

Steamed Korean?? Is their business so bad that they need to sell their brothers and sisters?? LOL~~

Oh, watch your hand... Steamed Korean bites.... hahahaha....

Can you read this?

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:33:30 GMT

I was trying to download something and when you download from megaupload.com, they will make you enter the code shown on screen, to make sure that you are sane I guess.

Anyway, I never have any problem figuring out the 4 alpha-numeric code even though some are a little complicated, not until I see this....

Can anyone figure out what that is? Or is it just my eyes that's aging and getting worse?

Well I did figure that out a while later, it took more more than half minute, where normally it took me less than 1 second (or 2 for those more complicated one). So, guess what that is...

The actual code is......

is.........................

is....................................

is................................................................

XXK3

photos not loaded?

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:05:12 GMT

my friend told me a lot of my photos failed to load. recently i don't know what's wrong with xanga, but even when i check my own page, some of the photos failed to load too. one way to solve this is go right click on whichever photo that doesn't load, click on "show photo". hope that helps...

Six Mile Creek Whitewater Rafting and Homer

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:18:44 GMT

Back to Alaska trip... 4 months have passed and I'm still struggling to finish blogging about that trip. Anyway, after the Prince William Sound cruise in Whittier, I continued the journey to the famous Kenai Peninsular.

Along the Seward Highway, you are rewarded with beautiful view at every mile of the highway...

I have booked a whitewater rafting trip the next morning at the Six Mile Creek. That night, I found a campground near the put-in point of the rafting trip.

Look at my campground again. That's what I get for a $10 campground, surrounded by beautiful wilderness. How much you have to pay to get a view like this elsewhere?

The next morning, I went for the whitewater rafting trip at the Six Mile Creek. If you ever go to Alaska, I would higly recommend this whitewater rafting trip. There're two choices - the shorter one which includes Canyon 1 & 2 and the longer one which includes Canyon 1 & 2 & 3. Choose the longer trip, it cost about $135, and it's well worth the price. Canyon 3 is the most exciting one, which includes a few Class 5 rapids. Six Mile Creek is a glacier fed creek, which means icy cold water! It's not that bad because they provide dry suit, so you can keep your body perfectly dry even after taking a dip in the creek.

I have been to a few Class 5 whitewater rafting, and I would say this is the best and one of the most exciting one. At some point of the creek, the creek become so narrow that it's just big enough for a raft to pass by and at both sides are big boulders or tall canyon wall. One of the biggest rapid was a 4-5ft height falls with big boulders on its sides.

We started the trip with a short 200ft swimming in the creek, to prepare us better with the cold water and to familiarize us with rescue instruction should someone fall into the water. There's no way I can take pictures while rafting, I decided to take video with the camera attached to the inside of my life jacket. Below are screenshots of some action during the trip.

Getting into a class 5 rapid...

The front of the raft dive into it...

The front rafter went missing...

The next moment, I'm diving into the water as well....

Successfuly conquered one of the many rapids, a hi-5, rafters style...

This rafting trip is not only challenging, but also rewarded us with beautiful scenery at every turn...

If you are lucky enough to get a good guide like mine, he will test us with a few fun stuff. For example, he had us crashed into a canyon wall on purpose.. he also made us raft into a rapid and had us trapped under the falls and being pounded by cold water with the raft slanted at a close to 45 degree angle and everyone felt like falling off the raft. it was heart pounding, but lotsa fun...

After the rafting trip, I continue my journey to Homer through Sterling Highway...

The first view of the Kachemak Bay where Homer is located at.

Some magnificent glacier on the other side of Kachemak Bay...

If you observe this photo closely, you can see a narrow but long piece of land extending from the main land. That's the Homer Spit where all the fishing activities start...

Welcome to Homer, the Halibut Fishing Capital of he World.

The following photos explain why...

There's Homer Ocean Charters...

There's Rainbow Tours...

There's Halibut King Adventures...

There's Across Alaska Adventures....

There's North Country Charters..

Those people just come back from a halibut fishing trip...

These halibuts might look big to you, but they are among the smallest being fished. Halibut can weight up to hundreds of pounds...

I went to get price quote for a fishing trip in every charters company, but all of them charge $200++ for a day trip of fishing, which I think is a little too expensive.

Finally I found the Central Charters, which I went with. It's $105 for half day fishing tour, which is also the cheapest... The difference between half day and full day is just two hours. Also, the sports fishing license only allow us to keep two halibuts, so there's no real reason to pay more for full day tour...

After making reservation, I took a stroll along the Homer Spit.

a gift shop on the spit...

Feel like living in this dumpster? lol...

The most unique RV I have evern seen...

It's getting dark, so it's time to look for a campground. And I found a $5 campground by the beach. Yes, you heard it right, camping by the beach.

My tent...

My campground...

The beautiful scenery around it...

View of the Kachemak Bay from the inside of my tent early in the morning... It was 4am when I woke up that day, preparing for the fishing trip...

The harbor....

The sun shine through the thick clouds....

The most interesting boat tha I foun on this harbor! What does it look like? LOL...

My boarding pass and Alaska fishing license...

The boat I'm going out fishing with, the Spirit...

The only sealife that we saw that day is the sea otter. Kachemak Bay is not that popular for wildlife seeing and this is not the reason for me to take this trip anyway...

Some beautiful view before we get to the fishing spot...

The fishing rods being prepared...

The baits...

Then the fishing episode starts. Of course no picture for the fishing action as everyone is busy fishing...

Within 3 hours, everyone has two to their limit of two halibuts per person. There're 25 people in the boat, that means 50 halibuts in total. Isn't that awesome? I think we just found the right spot.

Some rockfish that I got before I got my 2 halibuts....

This is another species of rock fish, it's mine too...

And my two halibuts...

Another rock fish, someone else's...

The crew fillet the fish right there and then after the fishing episode... He must have done it thousands of times he made it seems so easy...

A cut in the middle...

Fillet half of it...

Fillet the other half... Isn't that easy? haha... It took him less than 2 mins to fillet one fish, both sides...

He threw the bones into the sea, and that attracts lotsa seagulls...

Elegance flying pose...

"I'm going to get you..."

The one on the left has its beak wide open waiting for the bones...

Flying like an eagle...

I wanted to take the fillet back home but the only way I can do that is to have it freezed and vacuum packed and shipped home because I still have two weeks to go on my trip. However, that is going to cost me $150. I decided that I can get a lot of fish with that money, so I just give those fish away with someone I met on the trip.

Happy Happy Day!!!

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:48:43 GMT

I just got a new computer at my workplace. It's officially the best computer that I have ever used, or most people have ever used...

The picture tells all!

Whittier and Prince William Sound...

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:41:41 GMT

Yeah, I know I have not blogged for a long time. It seems like everytime I post a new entry, I will have to say this. That means it always take me a long time to create a new post. :P A lot of things have happened for the past few weeks. I wish I can handle everything better. People got hurt because of me, but others are very happy because of me. All I can do is try to make ppl happy, but you, you and you know that it's impossible to make everyone happy.

Back to my Alaska trip. From the rate it's going, I thnk I might give up posting before I reach the end of my trip, just like what happened to my Europe trip 3 years ago (and I still haven't finished blogging about it).

Ok, after visiting Spencer Glacier and Portage Glacier, my next destination is Whittier, a small port town where I took a day cruise to Prince William Sounds. It boasts the most dramatic scenery and highest concentration of tide water glacier in the whole Alaska.

This is the Anton Anderson Tunnel, which I might or might not have talked about in my previous post. It's a one lane tunnel, shared by the traffic to Whittier, the traffic from Whittier, and the train. So basically the cars are driving on the railway.

The small harbor of Whittier.

Basically if you look east, you see the harbor, if you look west, you see the mountains. You basically can see the whole town no matter where you stand in this town. If you can see that "sky scrapper" in the following picture, there's where 90% of the population live.

The only interesting building in Whittier. After all, Whittier is not famous for its town. It's famous as the departure point for most cruise to Prince William Sounds.

It was cloudy when we left the port. Everything look so gloomy and sad. The first glacier seen on the cruise. By the way, we were supposed to see 26 glaciers on the cruise, so it's understandable that I don't remember any of the names, and I'm too lazy to do any research on the names of the glacier. Hehe.

I guess you can feel how fast the catamaran is cruising. If the water weren't that cold, it's not a bad idea to do some water skiing.

Another big tidewater glacier...

This is the most popular glacier of this cruise. It's called the Harvard Glacier, the second largest in the sound after Columbia Glacier. This glacier is so huge and active that the cruise can't get closer than few miles from it. So we can only see it from far.

Since it's really far away, and together with the unstable boat, windy condition, low light, and my cold shaking hand, it's really hard to set the camera still to get better picture. Nevertheless, I think those pics can give you an idea on how " " (don't think anyword can describe it) the scenery is.

More smaller glaciers next to Harvard Glacier.

We saw a large group of sea otters. Never seen this many in a group before. They are really cute! They were like getting together and pose for us when we cruise by.

And when we were leaving, we can feel like they are waving bye bye...

More and more awing scenery...

Before the cruise, we were old that we will keep getting surprise on this cruise, which is really true. Every turn the cruise made, and at the back of each hidden corner, there's something magnificent, beautiful, and surprising waiting for you! Out of nowhere, a huge ass glacier, or a beautiful snowy mountain can just poped out right in front of you.

I think this is the Barry Glacier, one of the biggest in the area that we can get close to.

The blue face of glacier...

I met a professional photographer on the cruise, who instead of paying to get on the cruise, he got paid for taking photos around Alaska. And being paid really well, according to him. All he need to do is take great photos of beautiful subjects.

And that seems to include me... Lol.... No you see how windy it is there...

More blue glacier ice...

I know it's getting redundant, but I just don't get bored by the glaciers... There are many of them, but each of them are unique and attractive in a different way.

Some blue sky finally...

The next is the surprise glacier. The reason it's called the surprise glacier is that you won't see it until you get really close to it. It's hidden behind the mountain.

A smaller unnamed glacier right next to the Surprise Glacier.

Approaching the Surprise Glacier...

The blue ice of glacier. We were waiting for some glacier calving activity, but it's pretty passive that day, except for some small calving.

And at the end of the cruise, we were brought to a place where there are tens of thousands of kittiwakes resting on the cliff...

And we saw a botak eagle...

Waterfall...

Last pic before I leave Whittier...

Hang on for more... Next will be about my white water rafting on Six Mile Creek and Halibut fishing in Homer...

Some interesting stuff about my idol, Tun Dr. Mahathir...

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:50:42 GMT

The following article is copied from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BJT/is_/ai_86230847.

Malaysia and Mahathir proving critics wrong; Malaysia was supposed to become the basket case of Asia after implementing capital controls in response to the 1997 crisis. In 2002, the country is far from being a no-hoper - Eye On Malaysia - Brief Article

Business Asia, May, 2002

Politicians love few things more than seeing their enemies proven wrong. It's a feeling with which Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is in touch these days as some former nemeses are giving him his due.

Take financier George Soros, who just four years ago was calling Mahathir a "menace to his own economy". Mahathir had just implemented capital controls to halt outflows that sent his currency, the ringgit, into freefall. Nowadays, however, Soros is reportedly putting some money into Malaysian sovereign bonds.

Then there's the US, which demonised Mahathir's economic policies during the Asian crisis. At the time, Treasury officials claimed that Mahathir, by removing Malaysia from the global economy, would send his nation into poverty and chaos.

Yet last month, senior US State Department official James Kelly heralded Malaysia as a beacon of stability.

Malaysia's reversal of fortune has much to do with its economy's performance. As many Asian economies limp along, Malaysia is riding high thanks to robust consumer spending, strong foreign investment and a revitalised banking system. The nation also is well positioned to benefit from the ongoing rebound in global growth, especially in the US. Some analysts see Malaysia growing six per cent this year.

No credit

"Malaysia is doing remarkably well, yet no one wants to admit it because they don't want to give Mahathir the credit," Simon Ogus, chief executive at DSG Asia Ltd in Hong Kong, said.

Mahathir, after all, is an undisputed firebrand of the global economy, and has made his share of headlines over the years condemning Western-style capitalism and economic globalisation.

What Mahathir does deserve credit for is improving corporate governance and cleaning up Malaysia's banking system. He's marshalled through plans to force banks to write down bad loans, and he's had remarkable success.

But a reality check is in order.

For all its strengths, Malaysia is facing the same daunting challenge as its neighbours.

Mahathir has kept the ringgit pegged at 3.8 to the US dollar since September 1998, ignoring pressure from some investors to let the currency trade freely. The currency peg may reduce volatility in the economy, but it's hurting competitiveness.

Malaysia's situation "has highlighted the problems associated with over-reliance on export-led growth", the Asian Development Bank said in a recent report. The nation also has further to go to convince investors that its capital markets will remain open if things get dicey.

Mahathir's recent proposal of a world tax on wealthy nations to help poorer ones was but one reminder that Malaysian-style capitalism differs considerably from western ideals.

Workers' shortage

Beyond that, Malaysia is facing other impediments to rapid growth, including a shortage of skilled workers and overcapacity in its property markets.

Still, Malaysia has succeeded where many in Asia continue to fail. Tokyo has dragged its feet for over 10 years now on its own non-performing loan problem. Mahathir took his cues from investors who fled his economy in 1997 and 1998 and got actively involved in fixing the corporate and financial sectors. Rather than leaving the private sector to find a solution, Mahathir pushed institutions to sell bad loans to a new government agency, which then disposed of them.

By September, PK Basu, a Kuala Lumpur-based economist at Credit Suisse First Boston, predicts all major debt restructurings will be completed. With the worst of the forces that caused the Asian crisis now behind Malaysia, Basu says, bank lending and corporate bond issuance should grow at double-digit paces this year.

It's this progress that has ratings agencies mulling upgrades of Malaysian debt.

Malaysia also is getting high marks for stability since the 11 September terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. In the months that followed, investors worried about trends in a nation that's 60 per cent Muslim and one in which anti-US sentiment gets lots of attention.

The nation's leading think tank, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, thinks the stock market will gain 27 per cent this year. Analysts at CLSA Emerging Markets registered their vote of confidence last month with a report titled "Malaysia in Vogue".

Bloomberg