24 (and a week): Pictures

These are some pictures from last week, when my colleagues celebrated my birthday at the office.

It helps to have a colleague who as a big photography skill and a bigger camera to take the shots.


Me confronting the birthday cake. It's the second cake i got, since Julius 'got' me one! And the cutie with my camera is Diana, currently interning with the company.



Me cutting the cake, with Masry zooming in. He knows his stuff around angles!


Look, i even earned a new surname on my birthday!


On Friday, Melissa D took me out to Gurney Plaza to watch Get Smart and late lunch at Chilli's. But technically, i drove my car, and i suggested Chilli's. So, i'm in the limbo of who brought who out. But that aside, it was all good!



These are presents i splurged on myself this year. A Sony Ericsson W380i Walkman phone (left) and the NWD-B105F Walkman MP3 player. Costed me RM1,000 and a hole in my wallet (literally) to purchase these early presents. And i might do a small review about them one of these days.

And they're names are BlackCell and WhiteNote, respectively. No points for guessing who's who.

Another 358 days to enjoy till i hit a quarter century old!

Love & Peace!~

BC?

Enlightment.

I found this interesting story on my friend's blog, which came original appeared as a forwarded email.

Here's the how story goes:

One day I decided to quit...
I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality... I wanted to quit my life.
I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
"God", I asked, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"
His answer surprised me...
"Look around", He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes", I replied.
"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I t ook very good care of them.
I gave them light.
I gave them water.
The fern quickly grew from the earth.
Its brilliant green covered the floor.
Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful.
And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo. He said.
"In year three there was still nothing from the bamboo seed.
But I would not quit.
In year four, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. I would
not quit." He said.
"Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared
to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant...But just 6
months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall.
It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.
I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
He asked me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots".
"I would not quit on the bamboo.
I will never quit on you."
"Don't compare yourself to others."
He said.
"The bamboo had a different Purpose than the fern.
Yet they both make the forest beautiful."
"Your time will come", God said to me.
"You will rise high"
"How high should I rise?"
I asked.
"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.
"As high as it can?" I questioned.
"Yes." He said, "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and brought back this story.
I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.
Never, Never, Never Give up.
For the Prayer is not an option but an opportunity.
Don't tell the Lord how big the problem is,
tell the problem how Great the Lord is!

P/S I'm just darned tired now... but i'll be meeting some friends from the university who i have not met for a long time later.

Love & Peace!~

BC?

24

Today, BlurChu? turns another year older. He personally feels that he's getting too old, and wish he could stay young forever. Immortal. But as much as he would like stay young forever, like Joey of Friends making a pact with God to not pass 30, it's not possible!

For the first time, the author is celebrating his birthday away from home, on an island.

As much as he's away from family and friends, at least he thinks this beats spending the birthday with a broken arm, like what he did last year.

Receiving two cakes (one in a form of text message!), a lunch treat, two tea time treats, many SMSes, an MMS, comments on friendster and calls, he's glad that he has this group of people around who support and care for him. Since there are too many people to thank, BlurChu? has decided not to put their names down so that those he has unintentionally left out wouldn't feel hurt.

However, he don't expect much, thus he don't feel disappointed... much. Rather, he feels somewhat... content, he hopes.

But nevertheless, he is glad and blessed to be alive and kicking. Praise the Lord!


Chase: Why does everybody need to know my business?

House: People like talking about people. Makes us feel superior. Makes us feel in control. And sometimes, for some people, knowing some things makes them care.

Chase: I tell you my dad left, my mum drank herself to death, you gonna care about me more?

House: Cameron would. Me, I just like knowing stuff. I know you hate your dad, but I'm gonna tell you something...

Chase: I don't hate him. I loved him until I figured out it hurts a lot less to just not care. You don't expect him to turn up to your football match? No disappointments. You don't expect a call on your birthday, don't expect to see him for months? No disappointments. You want us to go make up? Drink a few beers together, nice family hug? I've given him enough hugs. He's given me enough disappointments.

House: Okay.

Chase: That's it?

House: That's it.

Taken from House, Episode 13: Cursed

Love & Peace!~

BC?

A mouse in the between the lines

In this day and age, everyone would have at least one handphone number, if not just a landline to be contacted. But with the introduction of the World Wide Web, everyone would have at least one email. Unless of course, you're Amish and deny computers from your life.

It wasn't until in 1999, when my friend Silas, who introduced me to the wonders of WWW and the cybercafe that i got myself an email address.

Being an email virgin then, i didn't know what to put. Silas then gave me a few tips on getting an email, like putting in your own name or nickname and throw in some digits into the address.

The first attempt was a flop, as someone had the email address "bernard84(at)*******.com". I choose the other choices they gave, which i totally forgot, as it somewhat incorporated my chinese name in it. Thus, i tried the second one.

I followed this formula:

Putting my name in it - bernard
Adding in digits - 84 (the year i was born)
And to make it a little special, i put it the term 'pika' behind it.

Hence, it became 'bernard84pika(at)*******.com'.

Why pika you asked? It was then i too darn engrossed with Pokemon (yes, the names of the 151 pokemons are still stuck somewhere in my head)!

Pikachu, the main character was one of the interesting pokemon, and decided to use 'pika' in my email address.


Pikachu from Pokemon.


And it stated like that for years, even after i applied for two other email addresses.

It wasn't until recently, when my colleague here pointed out about the abnormality in my email address, and asked why i put a 'rat' in my email address.

Puzzled about why she thought it was a (real) rodent, i told her how the email address came about. And to her surprise, she explained that pika is indeed a type of mouse.

After googling it up, i found it, and it was true. This is an extract from answers.com;

"A short-haired mammal related to rabbits and hares, also called mouse hare and rock rabbit. Pikas live above the timber line in the mountains of N Asia and W North America. The pika differs from the rabbit in that its body is smaller and the ears on its blunt head are shorter; also unlike the rabbit, the fore and hind limbs are about equal in length. The pika moves with a scampering gait. Its fur varies from red to gray and covers the soles of its feet. Pikas generally shelter in communities beneath rocks, although some Asian species burrow. Their diet consists primarily of green plants. Because food is difficult to obtain in winter in the harsh tundra environment, pikas cut, sun-dry, and store vegetation for winter use. Pikas are classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Lagomorpha, family Ochotonidae."

Click HERE for more information.


A real McCoy


Then, it smacked me, it was some kind of 'fate', for the lack of better term, as i was born in the year of the mouse as well!

I just laughed finding out such revelation. What are the odds?

Everyday, you learn something new, yeah?

Love & Peace!~

BC?

You Like Stories About Subsidies?

My colleague on the island got this from another colleague in KL. This caught my attention, and i decided to put it here. Kudos to whoever wrote this forward in the first place:

In Malaysia’s case, we are in the Petrolum farm. Follow the good reasoning:-

The story about “subsidy”…

A man called Maha owns a farm which can produce 10 apples every day.

He has 5 workers to operate the farm.

Each of them eats 1 apple daily and it is enough to keep them operating the farm normally.

The remaining 4 apples, the landlord sells them at RM10 each and he earns RM40.

He uses the RM25 to improve the farm operation and facilities.

He gives RM2.00 to each of his workers and he keeps the remaining RM5.00 as profit.

Day by day, the farm is well developed and all of the 5 workers are happy with the money they can save.

When Maha passed away and there is a new landlord, Abdul comes to continue the farm operation.

He says to the workers: “We need to improve the farm quality and redefine our way of thinking.

From now on all of you only need to pay RM1.00 for each apple you eat. It is very cheap as the price is RM10 each outside the farm.”

The workers have no choice but to pay RM1.00 for the apple they eat daily.

Their earning decrease from RM2.00 to RM1.00 per person.

As usual, Abdul sells the 4 apples and he gets RM40.

He uses RM25 for farm improvement and pays RM10 to his 5 workers.

He gets RM5.00 as profit. On top of that, he gets another RM5.00 from the apples that he sells to his workers.

In total, he gets RM10 as profit every day.

Soon, the apple price increases to RM20 each.

The new landlord gets a higher profit as he gets RM80 for the 4 apples he sells daily.

Then, he decides to give the farming improvement contract to one of his close friend, Samy.

Samy says:”Apple cost naik, improvement cost also misti naik.”

So, the farm improvement cost increases from RM25 to RM50.

In actual, the improvement only cost RM30.

The remaining RM20, Abdul and Samy share evenly among themselves.

Let’s calculate how much Abdul gets daily:

RM10 (from farm improvement cost)
RM20 (Net profit by selling 4 apples: [Gross profit, RM80] – [Improvement cost, RM50] – [Wages RM10] = RM20)
RM5 (from selling apples to his workers)

In total, Abdul gets RM35 daily compare to RM10 initially when he takes over the farm from Maha.

His profit increases RM25 and the workers are still getting RM1.00 daily per person.

The greedy Abdul does not want to stop there.

One day, he says to his fellow workers:” You see ah, the current market price for one apple is RM20 and you are only paying RM1.

See how lucky you are! I have to SUBSIDISE you RM19.00 for each of the apple you buy and total I need to SUBSIDISE RM95.00.

This will greatly burden the farm and we might get bankrupt if we continue like this.

In order to avoid bankruptcy, I need to increase the apple price that you buy from RM1.00 to RM1.50 and I will bare the remaining RM18.50 per apple as my subsidy to you all. ”

So, greedy Abdul adds RM2.50 to his current profit and the number becomes RM37.50.

After you have read the story, I am sure you have already understood the meaning of “SUBSIDY” given by the BN government.

The RM95 subsidy was never existed in the first place and so was the RM52 billion fuel subsidy generously “given” by the BN government.

Cutting fuel subsidy is actually just a reason to steal money from your pocket.
Are you gonna stand there and let them rob you?

I'm just too tired to think. Mind's overloaded with entries, but body doesn't permit blog. *sigh*

Love & Peace!~

BC?

Think about it....

I got the message below from a forwarded email from a former collegemate of mine, who i've not spoken to for a long time. Maybe i should chat with her the next time i see her online?

Maybe you have read this before. Maybe you have not. I don't believe in forwarding stuff, since i have too large a contact list... and i'm too darn Garfield-like lazy to do so. And if i were to believe in the years of bad luck in life and love i were to receive for not forwarding, i would have enough to last me for the next three lifetimes.

Anyway, here's the content of the Lotus Thoughts, from this forward entitled, 'Mental Feng Shui', which apparently have been circulated ten times around the world (?!) from the Anthony Robbins organization(?!):

ONE: Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO: Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE: Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have , or sleep all you want.

FOUR: When you say, 'I love you', mean it.

FIVE: When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.

SIX: Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN: Believe in love at first sight.

EIGHT: Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.

NINE: Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely.

TEN: In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.

ELEVEN: Don't judge people by their relatives.

TWELVE: Talk slowly but think quickly.

THIRTEEN: When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?'

FOURTEEN: Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

FIFTEEN: Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze.

SIXTEEN: When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

SEVENTEEN: Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.

EIGHTEEN: Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

NINETEEN: When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

TWENTY: Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.

TWENTY ONE: Spend some time alone.

Have a great weekend, readers.

Love & Peace!~

BC?

Up and up and not going down

It was a sad and shocking, but nonetheless sad day for many citizens of the multiracial and multi-religious country of Malaysia when its Prime Minister announced the hike of price of fuel and diesel.

Pandemonium attacked the hearts of the citizens, pushing them to hop into their cars, and heading down to the nearest petrol kiosk before they were slapped with the new price of RM2.70/litre of petroleum (and RM1 hike for diesel).

Whlist many citizens were stuck in traffic, either returning to their comfortable homes or eager to fill up, the storyteller comfortable sat witin the walls of GSC to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which he enjoyed and dinner later, which he enjoyed it too.

On the way back home, before the clock striked 12, he discovered that the chaos was still taking its toll on the people.


Seeing through the eyes of the storyteller, vehicles of various shapes and sizes queuing and crowding at the petrol station on this island.

After seeing the sorry sight, he travelled on to discover an vacant petol station. But he also discover, after talking to the diligent and patient attendant that petrol was flat before it showed ten on the clock. The storyteller sighed, headed home and wonder what would be the next best thing to do in such circumstance.

Carpool? Maybe.
Cycle? Possible.
Fly? One day.

The storyteller invites the story readers to Click HERE and HERE for the more news.

If Malaysian story readers have heard nothing of this, you're either ignorant, or a lonely, sorry bumpkin who has no idea what the newspaper is, what more a new mobile phone or the Internet.

Love & Peace!~

BC?

Show Me The Money

If you know anyone who told you that blogging brings no benefits at all, you can prove them wrong. I believe pays to write; it helps me tell my readers about what's going on around me and inside of my head, and also helps with my writing (in some way)

And recently, i discovered a third reason to prove them wrong - it PAYS to write (pun not intended)!

I have to give credit to Jenn for putting it up in her blog (Yeah, i'll add you on my link soon!) when i discovered about PayPerPost (PPP).

After asking my colleague on its validity and did a little research on it, i decided to sign up for it. And i heard people can earn up to four figure per month doing this! So, this is the first entry under this PPP. I wonder how much i would get by the end of the month for doing this.

In a nutshell, PPP is a website which helps bloggers or podcasters find advertisers willing to sponsor specific content. The advertisers create opportunities that describe the content they are looking for, then choose opportunities in their area of interest.Once an entry as posted online, PPP will then review the post against its terms and requirements before paying the blogger.

I guess what i'm doing now is blog advertising, beside just jotting down my normal musings and stuff? Let see how this will work out for me, as a secondary income. If you're interested in hoping on the bandwagon, be my guess.

Who says blogging would earn you money? And if you have any input about this, do let me know, okay?

Love & Peace!~

BC?