Cameron Highland Trip

We had traveled back to Tanah Merah, Kelantan for the long weekend. On our way home, we detour to Cemeron Highland for a day trip. It had been many years since I last visited the place. I am very in fond of this place, if not because of the bumper-to-bumper traffics due to the heavy tourists season. The Highway linking Gua Musang and Cameron Highland is quite wide, it's also a feast to the eye, for the blue sky and greenery along the way. Too bad I'm driving and do not have the chance to take the photo.

There is this farm which plant all the organics vegetables. I had taken some photo of them. I remembered a old school friend, whom was told already settled in Cameron Highland. I think it must be very nice staying there and lead a simple life.

It's also an exciting route descending the hill at night time. The route is pretty winding, and I am lucky to able to follow the back of some fast driving cars, which I feel is the easiest way to drive in dark.

Paypal is finally "work" in Malaysia

I am recently approached by a Singapore company, WuTravel.com to join their advertising affiliate program. In return, they paid me a small amount as token for the sign-up. I'm quite happy with that as this is something quite unexpected for myself. At least someone do enjoy reading my trivia blog.

Anyway, this is not the main point. The point is they are paying in Paypal. And as far as i recalled, Paypal seems not money-withdrawable for the Malaysian (how sad!). Then i do a quick Google and notice it seems no longer the way. Malaysian now has a way to withdraw money from Paypal. This link is as follows:
Paypal withdrawal for Malaysian

Just some funny additional notes, I even found someone from internet try selling the method of "How Malaysian withdraw money from Paypal" (which cost around USD18)... I really wonder how much did he make... :)

Intel SSD revolutionize storage landscape

This following post shown Intel had did a good job in launching X25-M SSD:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3403

I am someone always never feel satisfied by the application performance in my laptop. After using the laptop for awhile, it always felt like took ages to load an application, especially for people like me who regularly opened multiple application at the same time. I really hope I can get hold one of those SSD a day.

I am particularly amazed by the below:

Sheer Poverty

Tonight, I follow my auntie to her tenants' flat to collect the rent. The tenant had owe her two month's of the rental, thus she was thinking to stop renting the house. It's a low cost flat unit, the rent was only RM 350+.

After we reach the place, the door gate is closed and the light is off. We thought the tenant might not be at home, anyway we knocked the door to try our luck. A woman answered our call and opened the door. The woman was carrying a baby, we found out that she is his wife. The husband had not yet come back from work. So my wife called his phone to find out when he would be back, he responded should be within 20 minutes.

So, we decided to go in the house and waits for him. Apparently the light was turned off previously to save utility bill. Inside the house, we have a casual chat with his wife, meanwhile scanning around the house. The dining room doesn't have even one single piece of furniture, this is best described by the Chinese proverb - 家徒四壁 (The house with only 4 walls). My auntie and my mother entered their bedroom too, and notice there is no bed, only a sofa, and yes, no mattress too. Only the cradle for the baby.

A short while later, the husband reached home. He gave this month rental to my auntie and ask for more grace period for the remaining debt. He said he just changed job (working as a crane operator), and can't earn more overtime because of the raining season. The couple are bumiputera came from Sabah state. He told us that his grandma is ailing sick, and only "tunggu hari saja" (waiting for the days only). He is now also fretting over how to get the money to buy the air ticket back.

As you can expect, nothing much we can do, and my auntie just urged him try his best to pay punctually next time. Well, it's not as if my auntie is so unsympathetic, but she herself was amputated because of cancer last time, not leading an abundant life too.

It's quite sad to know all this. Our country is really sick after 51 years of independence due to corruption, wastefulness and squandering. While I saw some people are being filthy rich, spending RM100K+ on a watch without blinking an eye, some are worrying their infant's next meal (As my wife told me, she didn't see any milk powder in the tenant's house). This has nothing to do with race, as I myself was once become the tuition teachers to the kids of a wealthy Malay banker. And I also know some Bumiputera Datuk, who are very well-to-do.

I urge the politician be honest to your own conscience, do something right for the people, and not only filling up your own greediness. Really, you can and you should make a difference in the history, and if you are religious, the mighty one will judge you at the other world too.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea 崖の上のポニョ

I had watched the DVD 2 days ago.



This is the Hayao Miyazaki's version of "The Little Mermaid", with a happy ending. I'm quite entertained with the simple thematic elements and its visual scheme. Something good to spend your time over the weekend afternoon.

Google Webmaster Tools

Google Webmaster Tools is a handy utility to find out how you fare in the Google ranking. However, it's not clear how to verify you are the webmaster if you are using Blogger site. Below is great link for you to verify your site and how to add your sitemap:

http://linuxlore.blogspot.com/2006/10/google-webmaster-tools-and-howto.html