Movie Review : Next

Last weekend, went to watch Next.. the one with Nicholas Cage. At best,, I can only give it 2.5 star rating.... pretty boring story line, especially for those who have watched Deja Vu earlier.

Movie wasn't fast pace enough for an action movie. It was not interesting enough to be sci-fi either. It's just those kind of so-so movie for movie-goers who wanna see Nicholas Cage. I used to like Nicholas Cage's movie, especially the City of Angels. But after this, i think i dont feel like wanna see his face for a long, long time.

Songs can hurt...

" I listen to classical music and church music mostly nowadays. Stay away from songs these days "

My friend, JP, told me one day.

" How's that ? You dont like pop songs or oldies or love songs "

I queried. After a while, she answered

"It gets to my emotions too much."

I understood. Songs can hurt.

JP was still hurting, still recovering from the wounds of her last relationship which made her lost faith in men.

For a moment, I was transported back to my past, reliving that kind of emotional pain. I was very depressed then. When I happen to hear songs broadcast over radio, it kind of touches a raw central nerve and you feel pain rippling from your heart. Tears will begin to flow uncontrollably.

It was a time when many song lyrics could wreak havoc on my emotions. It was like raw wounds expose to the air - no skin to protect it. The slightest breeze can hurts.

Maybe it happened for a reason, I had this thought. It made me able to emphatised with other people's pain now. Else I wouldn't have understood how songs can hurt..... if I hadnt experienced it myself.

Like Meredith said in Grey's Anatomy, many of us are emotionally battered and damaged in some way.

Informatics with a new strategy

Last weekend, I was at Informatics Penang for the CUTE exam.

I was bored, waiting for my driver to come. The receptionist seemed bored too. So i kinda chat with her a bit. The used to be an Informatics center at the Taman Inderawasih at Seberang Jaya. The last time i passed by, was surprised to see it no longer there. Even the signboard has been removed. Later, rumors says that Informatics is going out-of-business soon. So I decided to ask the receptionist about this.

According to the lady, Informatics nowadays changed strategy - they will move away from offering courses for individuals. Rather, the penang branch will concentrate on providing corporate trainings courses. The courses for individual students will be all gradually transferred to KL branch and only available there.

Guess it was a smart move coz the margin is typically higher for corporate business as compared to individual business. For those which are HRDF claimable, it wont be surprising if it is priced even higher.

With so much competition around, colleges, institutes, learning center.... It seems to me that Informatics is struggling for survival. Glory days no longer.....

Make money on internet ... not as easy

Make money on internet ... not as easy as I thought . I have recently been trying my hands on those "how to make money on internet" stuff.... and keep banging myself on the wall. Sigh.... anyone out there wanna give me guidance ?

Clickbank problems, Paypal problem.... and no US bank account problem ... whole laundry list of them. I bumped into an ebook named ChapterM - which claims to be help resolve all these woes. Well... i just bought it today, and can't wait to see what great tips it has inside. I'll update once i finish reading.

Just can't understand why Singapore is on the list, and Malaysia is not on the list for Paypal or Clickbank. I saw names of many other countries which does not necessarily a more developed nation than Malaysia, but they got into the list ?? Wonder how they came up with the country list....jeeezzzz......

Piece of advice for local graduates ...

Today i hear a friend complaining about the quality of our local graduates. She happen to be doing some interviewing. Complaining is rather an understatement actually .......

A few year back, i gave my two-cents to a junior who was happily gained admittance to the university

• For those of you still studying in local university, if you decide to waste 3 years of the university days to just "get by" .... and think you would get hired after that. Think again. And by the way, its taxpayers hard-earned money.


• Nobody will hire a person who lack even the most basic communication skills. So brush up your English, especially. If you are not able to converse during interview, chances are ... you better pack your bags.

Today, i know that she probably didnt get my message at all.

Now, she is on her own to survive in the job market. I hope she will manage to stay afloat amongst all the competition out there. If she dont, she only have herself and our education system to blame.

Its still never too late to learn, if she is willing to learn.

Not very smart ......

For someone from the entertainment industry, I would assume that he would know what to say, and what not to say. This actor turned businessman obviously made a big mistake to anger his customers. He should have known better than making such wrong, and arrogant statement.

The Star Online Tuesday May 22, 2007

HK actor’s baseless remarks upset restaurant owners

HONG Kong actor Mark Cheng has come under fire for making rude remarks about Malaysian steamboat, reported China Press.

Cheng, who owns nine steamboat restaurants in Malaysia, was reported to have said that most Malaysian steamboat was made from “rotten meat and carcass” during a recent interview with a Hong Kong magazine.

He further claimed that local steamboat restaurants used stale ingredients and a soup base made by boiling water with two slices of ginger and spring onions.

China Press received many calls from readers and steamboat restaurant operators, expressing their anger and dissatisfaction over Cheng's remarks, saying they were baseless and exaggerated.

A caller, identified only as Chew, said the actor's unfriendly remarks would tarnish the good image of Malaysian restaurants and affect the country's tourism.

“Why did Cheng set up his business in Malaysia and marry a Malaysian girl when he sees us as such a bad country?” she asked.

Yeah... the steamboat restaurants that he owns maybe a little classier than most, nicely air conditioned and all. But we do have many other good steamboats around too. It is definitely nothing like his description of Malaysia steamboats as made from “rotten meat and carcass”. Make us sound like cannibals devouring the carcass dripping with blood ! Yuckssss......... Serves him right if his customers decides to boycott his flame.

Level playing field .... ?

My cousin of mine recently graduated from local universities. Yeah... no big deal. And she has engaged me to help her in her job-hunting pursuit, and so she sent me her resume. Being a fresh graduate, she honestly listed out all her SPM results ... all the As, Bs, Cs, Ds, Es. My goodness, with so many C, D, E s also she can make her way to university ! Something must be wrong somewhere - that was my first thought.

Hey, i've got friends who have a nice list of As & Bs only but still cant squeeze into university, you know.

I was told she got in bcoz university need to meet "rural area quota". Since she is born and bred in a small kampung ( village ), there ... she got some advantage of being a rural folk. This is part of the effort to bring up the level of education in rural area, it seems

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Her resume was disappointingly poor. Hadnt she learn anything from the 3 years in university ? Yeah... i admit i can be mean and demanding sometimes, but this is really too shocking....

• Personal particulars written at the end of the resume ?
• Multiple obvious and very eye-sore spelling mistakes all over the resume
• A sexy personal photo attached that look more suitable for "Malaysian Idol" contest ...
  
• Have your own uncle as the referee ...... what else can happen ? List your father, mother, granpa, granma as your referral ?
  

What did I do ? I made big red circles all over her resume !! .... kidding :)

i nicely told her to make changes, and after like three rounds editing, it finally look slightly presentable. I was grumbling all night over resume.

Someone : Come on, you gotta be more understanding, she doesnt have the advantage like the city folks.

Me : Sure or not ?? Surely she should have upgraded herself during the 3 year university education. If she fail to do that, she got no one to blame except herself.

Someone : We should exercise some leniency and be more forgiving on her flaws, given that she doesnt have the advantage of living in the city.

( Eh... this sounds like our NEP subsidy mentality )
( no no ... this sounds like those specific group of lawyers who needed favors from one of the GLC bank )

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My conclusion :
It seems that we not only dont have level playing field between bumis vs non-bumis.
We are also promoting a different level of playing field btwn rural vs city.

No time to rest & enjoy .... ??

I like watching movies and drama series. So long as they meet up to certain standards level, I am okay. So, one night I was watching Hong Kong drama series with my mom & dad. At the end of the one-hour, my dad let out a guilty sigh and complained.... " Sigh... i wasted one hour watching this crap. I could have done so many other things.. "

I gave him a side-way glare ... and was tempted to make a not-so-nice remark at him. But I held my tongue. He is now retired, got plenty of time on his hand, and yet he made this kind of comments. Makes me think maybe he had some obsessive compulsion thingy. He feels that he has to fully utilise every second and every minute of his life. Entertainment, like tv, radio, or cinema, dont fall under his list of "positive meaningful activities". He is compelled to slog himself on-and-on-and-on. In the process, he make others who are standing still trying to catch their breath looks like lazy bumps.

Let us all not forget that we need to rest, so that we regain energy to travel down the long journey ahead. So the chinese saying goes.

Intrusive questions....

I have been in job-hunting mode for about a month. And I got lots of intrusive questions from interviewers that quite baffles, annoy and IRRITATE me... ! Yeah... i am pretty irritated & upset at the way some people ask questions which have no relation whatsoever to the position I applied. I dunno why we allow these people to ask intrusive, rude & invading questions like that.

Number one irritant ... Are you married ?

• Why does one know if I am married or not, unless you are my secret admirer or plan to be my lover. Does being married or not married make me a better or lesser performer ? Why do I get the feeling i get is that married folks, especially ladies, have a lower value in the job market ? Or does employers stereotype folks who are single as potential workaholics that they want to hire ?
  

Number two irritant .... Do you have kids ?

• Does it matter at all ?? This is kinda pretty personal question to ask someone you met for the first time.To this question, i was pretty pissed off and retorted coldly with "Why do you need to know?". The interviewer meekly explained to me that they just wanted to know if I am able to do some light travelling. So should the question be changed to "Can you travel ?" instead of "Do you have kids? "
  

Number three irritant ... Spouse details

• This is usually one of the columns on the applications form you are required to fill up upon arrival at the interview venue. What the heck ? Tell me... are you hiring me or hiring my spouse ? Why do you care at all ? I am just so so very curious that I really would want to know who designed these forms and exactly what intention is behind this question. I tend to leave it blank, as I do with all those fields that I consider irrelevant such as Race, Religion etc. I am just tempted to put Religion as "Havent decided yet"
  

I am not sure if this is a norm in Malaysian job market, but I seriously think this should not be the way to recruit employees. Lots of company claim to have "equal employment opportunity" policy. Why bother to ask these questions then if you do not discriminate against gender, marital status or race/religion ?

Finally somebody stopped them ......

This news about Maybank's dumb decision to require law firms with bumiputera stake thing really stunt me. Maybank - one of the largest bank in Msia, blue chip company and had the best online services seemed like a very forward-looking bank to me. This makes me doubt what kind of management team that approves this kind of decision. In Malaysia, there is already a long list of unfair practices and they are happily trying to add one more to the list. What really prompt a profit-oriented organisation to mix politics into business ?

After a whole round of protests and fury, The Cabinet finally spoke !! End of the whole episode of hoo-haa .... However, damage may already been done. Some of its customers claimed that they will refuse to do business with this kind of bank.....

I hope there is lesson learnt from this episode....

On cough remedy ...

Cough remedy .. anyone ? This was from one of the junk mails sent ... anyone tried and verify if it works ?

It works 100% of the time although the scientists at the Canada Research council (who discovered it) aren't sure why. To stop nighttime coughing in a child (or adult as we found out personally), put Vicks Vaporub generously on the bottom of the feet at bedtime, then> cover with socks. Even persistent, heavy, deep coughing will stop in about 5 minutes and stay stopped for many, many hours of relief. Works 100% of the time and is more effective in children than even very strong prescription cough medicines. In addition it is extremely soothing and comforting and they will sleep soundly.

It was a surprising finding and found to be more effective than prescribed medicines for children at bedtime, in addition to have a soothing and> calming effect on sick children who then went on to sleep soundly.

An adult friend tried it on herself when she had a very deep constant and persistent cough a few weeks ago and it worked 100%! She said that it felt> like a warm blanket had enveloped her, coughing stopped in a few minutes and believe me, this was a deep, ( incredibly annoying!) every few seconds uncontrollable cough, and she slept cough-free for hours every night that she used it.So, if you have kids/grandchildren, pass it on. If you end up sick, try yourself and you will be
absolutely amazed.

I havent tried the Vicks remedy, but my mom had a lot of traditional remedy which works

1. Orange

Cut off the top of the orange, and place a few sugar rocks inside the orange. Put the orange cover back. Steam the orange for half and hour. Then eat the meat of the orange and the juice inside.

2. Bird's nest

This is usually the last resort coz it is pretty expensive. But it works too.

3. Cordyceps

Boil cordyceps with red dates and water. Drink the water.