Short Post

1. I am going for a short trip offshore. Finally, I got the chance to ride the chopper and be on the platform for the first time. Weeeee!!! Wil be back on Wednesday or Thursday. Wish me luck guys!!

2. Boss said I might get the chance to go to Lumut for a half year assignment. Couldn't be happier to accept the job. Yipppeee!! Will be looking after the fabrication works of a few process modules for a FPSO project. The fabrication works will be at my sister company's yard. Let's hope my boss will indeed stick to his decision and send me there.

3. Yesterday's choir performance sucks hard time. Never felt so conned in my life. Sorry to the 5 friends of mine who went together. My bad my bad.. :/

Il Mare and Elizabethtown

A story that is emotional provoking and shows love that transcend time. Makes one wonder whether life do really exist in a bi-dimensional world separated by a different timeline. Both the main characters had liven up the storyline and carried their role well as they slowly unfold the tale. Excellent story line and superb scenery. It's simply a beautiful.

This one definitely makes it to one of my favourite movies of all time.

Big thanks to Ho Sang for recommending this to me. :)

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Managed to catch only the last 15 minutes of this movie on Astro HBO channel yesterday night. I was hooked to the screen throughout the duration and every moment of the finalé created a strong impact. Can't wait to buy the DVD from shop downstairs of my office.

Finally, the barbarians came to their senses (for a moment) and scrapped their evil plot of mass canine genocide.- The Star, 15th Sept 2007

Let's see what is their next plan that will crop up in their pea-size-brain.

Mass Genocide and ToyoL

In another development concerning the canine genocide which was planned out by the heinous local council of Majlis Perbandaran Selayang, it was reported in the paper today that the head of the state (Menteri Besar Khir Toyol) condemned the barbaric local council after mass protest from the concerning citizens and animal lovers in the country.

Phew, I thought that at least there is indeed a good leader who knows how to differentiate between the good and the bad. At last, someone who indeed stands out to correct the wrong. Someone who shows the capability of a true leader and think before action.

And this was what reported in the paper today.

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The state government has ordered the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) to take another look at its controversial dog-catching competition.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo said the reward amount was unreasonable and too high.

"We understand that MPS organised the competition in good faith as it hoped to attract the locals’ attention in solving the stray dogs problem.

"However, the prize money is too high and we want them to take another look at the competition."


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??~~?~??~?~?~?~~?~

What the fuck?


This man, a Menteri Besar himself, didn't speak of banning the competition after mass protest from the public and media, but instead, he came out with a stupid and toyol remark stating that the prize money is too freaking high? Can't he see the bloody issue here is not about the prize money? Its about the ethics and moral of holding such contest and the implication of the contest on the society, and also to the poor dogs, for goodness sake!!!

Well, this perhaps shows that he is one total brainless, heartless, heinous and murderer Menteri Besar we have here in this state. And he dares to proclaim that he is the leader of a developed state. Yeah right, first class infrastructure, bottom class mentality.

Speechless.... .. . .. . . . .

Khir ToyoL, don't be so bloody stupid and toyol can or not? Pleeeeeeze! (copied from here)

Tessellation and Fantasy

Convex and Convaves - 1953

Intriguing. Painting that shows impossible structures, yet captivates the mind and soul. It has been said that there are people who spent hours in the museum multiple times just to enjoy his creation. And it was said that no matter how many times one sees the artwork, one still wont be able to see them all.

That is the work of the famous Maurits Cornelius Escher, or MC Escher. I only knew about his existence when I was watching Il Mare the other day, and I digged further to know more about him.

In his earlier works, he experimented with tessellation (the regular division of the plane, or tiling), which can be shown in the two paintings below. He toyed around with boundlessness with repeated objects and the result was infinite symetrical geometry. His art was mostly flat or 2 dimensional plane at first (see Horsemen), but he progressively ventured into spherical shapes (see Circle Limit IV) while staying to the infinite geometrical concepts.

Horsemen
Notice the repeated black and white horses facing each other in the opposite direction

Escher potraying tessellation in circular pattern in this masterpiece - Circle Limit IV

Later in his life, he started experimenting with transformation, or metamorphing. He practically changes a group of object into another object gradually through a series of slight changes (see below) For the first artwork, his touch of work has basically transformed a fish into a goose. And the second one sees the transformation from bees into fishes (and birds??). Really a brilliant work from the genius himself. It was during this time that he was involved with mathematicians and I believe that these must have influenced part of his designs.

And evolving from the same theme, he created a new theme called "Image Stories". One of his artwork, Encounter, was based on this idea. This piece was completed in 1944.

Encounter - 1944

"... on a gray wall, these human figures increase their mutual contrast toward the center ... each kind detaches themselves from the wall surface and walks into space ... Thus going round they can't help meeting in the foreground ... the black pessimist keeps his finger raised in a gesture of warning, but the white optimist cheerfully comes to his encounter, and so they finally shake hands." - excerpt from here.

Noticed how the black and white figure (element of tessellation) coming out from the rear wall, and going round, each in opposite direction and eventually uniting at the centre.

The later stage of his life sees his fascination with space and infinity . We eventually sees him developing pieces which depict structures in a seemingly impossible time and space. These structures are impossible to be built in real life, and the examples below will explain why it is so.

Belvedere - 1958

Relativity - 1953

Up and Down

It was said that there is element of loneliness which showed in Convex and Concave as the people were not aware of each other's existence even though they are living in the same place.

As for Relativity, I find a similarity between this art and the movie, Il Mare. The people are unaware of each other presense (just like Convex and Concave). I would say Escher is trying to convey the message that these men exist in the real world, but they living in a different time and another dimension, just like the movie. Therefore, the characters are totally unaware of each other's presence. Hmm.. Made me wonder if this are for real, or fantasy.

Fantasy or not, I still say his works are truly genius and brilliant!!

I Feel Screwed!

Thanks to anonymous (Mr Ke**e T*n) for this information.

Don't you feel something is S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y. not right? This I say, is a legal fraud and open corruption. And Auditor-General is not doing anything other than putting up remarks. As usual, no action will be taken against the culprit.

(source : The Star Online - 9th Sept 2007)

Paying through the nose for tools

By ROYCE CHEAH, ELIZABETH LOOI and MANJIT KAUR

PETALING JAYA: Would you pay RM224 for a set of four screwdrivers?

Probably not, but that was what the Government paid to supply tools for students at the eight National Youth Skills Institutes (IKBN) around the country, according to the Auditor-General’s (AG) report.

The Star shopped around and found this set of Stanley screwdrivers. They cost RM32.80. For the RM224.94 set.

The AG said the screwdrivers had a market price of RM40 and according to pictures in the report, resembled the average Philips screwdrivers you could buy in any hardware shop.

And it does not stop there – the AG went a step further by examining the prices paid for 12 other tools and equipment bought for the IKBN project, comparing it with market prices when the procurement was done in late 2002.

Among these were technical books consisting 10 titles that had a price tag of RM10,700 and a 3.1 megapixel digital camera that was bought for RM8,254.

For the 13 items that the report highlighted, the Government paid RM8.39mil more than the market price at that time.

According to the report, consultants for the Youth and Sports Ministry had reached an estimated price tag of RM399.67mil for the equipment for the IKBN project which later ballooned to RM767.98mil after two appeals by the ministry for additional allocations.

“The ministry said more money was needed in anticipation of a bigger student population and that getting equipment from the same supplier meant prices would remain the same.

“But there was no proof that market research was done to identify the prices of the items and equipment because minutes for the negotiation meetings were not prepared,” the report said.

It said without the minutes, the auditing team was unable to find out if efforts were made to reduce prices.

The AG also said that the ministry’s secretary-general (KSU) had signed off 11 contracts worth between RM7.99mil and RM74.2mil that were related to the IKBN project, on behalf of the Government.

“The KSU only has the authority to sign contracts worth less than RM5mil. Anything larger should be signed by the minister or someone to whom the authority has been given.

“However, during the audit, no such letter giving the authority to the KSU presented itself,” the report said.

The report said there were also discrepancies such as one supplier being paid more than the other for exactly the same equipment.

One example the AG highlighted showed one supplier getting RM1.24mil more than the other for identical engineering equipment.

First Class Parliament, First Class Mentality

First, they used almost RM90 million to renovate our 45 years old Parliament building. But the contract only included interior renovation and rewiring works. But then, it leaked right after the renovation work was done and the public were then informed that the contract does not include any repair work on the roof top. Our brainy Work Minister further said the leakage was due to the poor roof condition. (source from here).

Fine. So, they said that they have to carry out the roof repair work and the repair cost was estimated to be around RM 13 million (source from here). And our brainy Work Minister further explained on top of his earlier response that the reason the roof leaked was due to :-
1. The building is very old.
2. The existing waterproofing at the roof was in a very poor condition.
3. Massive changes in the weather pattern contributed to the leakage (source from here)

And now ladies and gents, our brainy Work Minister has found out the root cause for all the leakage problem.

“The water proofing was sufficient, but it became dirty because of the garbage and all kinds of construction materials like pieces of wood and cement left behind on the roof and this caused the water proofing to be damaged and the roof to leak” (sourced from here and here).

Who in the fucking world would have access to our Parliament rooftop, and what the fuck in the world would he/she want to throw those bloody rubbish there??!??!?!??~?~?~

This is way beyond my comprehension, and I can't seem to understand this. Perhaps you guys can explain this to me.

Then I read in the The Sun newspaper yesterday (7th Sept 2007) that a few brainy Parliament members (of coz, they were none other than Barisan Nasional's) were suggesting to construct a new Parliament building. After all, they said that its time for a change as the current one is already too old. And another smart ass (also from BN) seconded the decision and this smart ass said something to this extent.

"The new building should be a first class building. After all, our Parliament has a first class mentality and a first class Ministers. So, it is imperative that the new Parliament building should be a first class building to reflect the true first class Ministers".

And another brainy guy (suprise suprise, he is also from BN) proposed that the new site should be in Putrajaya, but it was rejected by others (also BN). They explained that the Parliament should be located far away from the administrative area (Putrajaya, in this case) to reflect the separation of power between the law-making-body and the adminstrative.

A new building eh?

W.H.A.T A B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T I.D.E.A !!!!

Well, from the highly intellectual level of debates in the Parliament (live telecast of the debate can be found here, here, here, here and here), I think I may have found a very suitable place to suit our Barisan Nasional Parliament member's intellectual level.

Located just beside of MRR2 in between Batu Caves and Kepong, I found this area to be the most suitable place as it is definitely far away from Putrajaya. And this place would be good to reflect our Parliament Minister's "intellectual" level. Yeah, they can do some reclaim work on this land. Its quite an engineering challenge to construct a building on a used sanitary landfill u know? The environmental issue is difficult to tackle (due to the existing leechate) and the soft ground condition. Its pretty challenging feat, and if our Work Minister can succcessfully build one, I am very sure it would enter into the Malaysian Book of Records. And we would be very proud to claim that this is our brand new first class Parliament to the whole world.

Don't you just feel proud to be a Malaysian?

Near Miss? Not This Time.

Just barely less than one week since my last posting on the near-miss incident, my beloved lil' petite Kelisa is now officially scarred.

No one to blame other than myself for not paying attention while reversing into an illegal car-park area when I was at The Curve basement car park. The rear right side door and mudguards has a few lines of scratches about 4 to 5 inches long, no thanks to my driving skill which got my car touching a column/pillar. No amount of car polish would be able to conceal these scratches.

Poor poor me!! :(

Mass Genocide

We have a bunch of brainless barbarians acting in disguise as our local council representatives. And they are planning to wipe out the whole dog population in Selayang area. But they are not committing this canine genocide with their own bare hands. Instead, they shall offer the reward to whoever that can execute this plan and bring the highest number of dogheads to the council.

And this is their masterplan.