Friday 27 February 2009

Down Memory Lane.....Old Penang... My Hometown!!

Admittedly the pix here are way older than me & I'm surprised by them too - how different Penang looked 40-50yrs ago - like old Shang Hai! So, I can't possibly claim that it brings me down MY memory lane. I'm sure though, this brings back fond memories to my mum & dad (albeit they may be only in their teens & probably still in Sungai Petani / Alor Star & not seen Penang yet at tht time); and many other Penangites who've stayed there through that period.

Vernicular Railway - Penang Hill 60's

Penang Hill - vernicular top station

Vernicular Reaching the Summit Station

Odeon Theatre! - This must be Penang Road
Ferry - The exact same version being used today!

Penang Hill Police Station

Lover's Isle, Batu Feringghi - I didn't know that!?!?
On board the Famous Penang Ferry
(definitely the 60's. The people here all looked like they stepped out of a LAT comic strip!) ;-P

Esplanade Clock tower

E&O Hotel - Farquhar St. 1966
(Happy that they re-opened last year / 2, to re-live the glory days of old Penang)

Trishaw! Trishaw! Keep them Alive in Penang!!

Double Decker Bus on Penang Road
(notice it's powered by electric cable? see Penangites are environmentally conscious even then!)

Cathay Penang Road in the 1960's

Masjid Kapitan Kling, Pitt Street

Boston Bar!!! I remembered having really nice ice-cream sundae there!

Botanic Garden
(The place where we had many happy family picnics there - until the monkeys start to join in...)

Sigh..... Nostalgic

Honeymoon Pix

Pix from my honeymoon... Though it was 4.5yrs ago, I think it was among the best vacation I took in a long-long while...








Always check your child's homework

This is so adorable. Goes to show how an innocent expression from a child can be misinterpreted by "dirty" minded adults.


Apparently this lady's daughter has to draw out what she wants to be when she grows up & this is the drawing:

Upon receiving a letter from the teacher commenting on the above picture, the mother respondedto the letter as follows:


Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.

I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it.

Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.

From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith

Thursday 26 February 2009

Sorethroat + Cough + Fever + Headache = Macy Gray's voice

My illness gets from bad to worse! Even developed fever & everytime I cough, it feels like my brain banged against my skull & it's so painful!

Now, after many bouts of coughing, my voice is like Macy Gray's.

So tired..... & sleepy.....

But still got some stuff I need to complete at work before I rest...
No MC... Guess d Dr tot I'm faking it... sigh....

Monday 23 February 2009

Legal Issue on Contract Law in Malaysia

Don't take my word for it because I also receive this info from someone else. However, if it is true, we can in fact take action for many poorly made 'Made In China' products (no offence. I admit there are many high quality Made in China products - I have a China branded DVD player tht lasted me for 6 years vs. a Sony tht lasted half of tht! But there are those tht were really poorly made).

This is something I like to share with you from one of my seminar recently. If you find this informative, pls circulate. It was conducted by A/P Catherine Tay on Legal issues in E-commerce.

One important thing on contract law with regards to any purchases: Notice that most of the time, the receipt/invoice you received from the merchant carries this exclusion clause or similarly worded statement: "Goods sold are not returnable" or "No refund once sold"

The thing that I have learnt from her is that : "As long as your goods is purchased for home use and not for business (ie.to be resold), the above exclusion clause is VOID. That means, as long as the good is defective, regardless of what is worded, you CAN get back all your money spent.

You do not have to accept a repair on the goods or an exchange. You CAN ask for a refund. AND you are LEGALLY right and entitled to. "What a relevation!! And most of the time the merchant will refuse to return you your money. Her advice? From her own experience (and no less than 7 and all successful!), she will threaten the merchant with four words: "SEE YOU IN COURT!" The court here refers to the Small Claims Tribunal Court. However, you don't have to tell them what court! All you have to pay is $10 admin fee and the loser (the merchant) will have to refund you the money PLUS the admin fee!

She shared this with us because she felt that even educated people are cowed by such unfair wordings (which include her jaded friends who are not lawyers).

Pls try not to let the merchant fleece you the next time you have a defective goods.

Wonder if I dare to say this or not... Nowadays, even when you tell people "See You In Court" they're not afraid... I had a remark once "If people can get away with murder, wht is this small matter - curi ayam (i.e. small) case lar...."

What It Takes to Impress a Woman vs a Man

I was laughing reading the following... Seem to fit hubby's behaviour...

HOW TO IMPRESS A WOMAN ( ISN'T THIS THE TRUTH ? )
* Wine her,
* Dine her,
* Call her,* Hug her,
* Support her,
* Hold her,
* Surprise her,
* Compliment her,
* Smile at her,
* Listen to her,
* Laugh with her,
* Cry with her,
* Romance her,
* Encourage her,
* Believe in her,
* Pray with her,
* Pray for her,
* Cuddle with her,
* Shop with her,
* Give her jewelry,
* Buy her flowers,
* Hold her hand,
* Write love letters to her,
* Go to the end of the Earth and back again for her.

HOW TO IMPRESS A MAN
* Show up naked... Bring food... Don't block the TV.

Upgrade from Boyfriend to Husband

Oh this is too good not to post on my Blog....

Dear IT Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slow down in the overall performance, particularly in the flower, gifts and jewellery applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, but installed undesirable programs such as Formula One 5.0, NBA 3.0 and World Cup 2.0.

And now Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,
Desperate Housewife


Reply:
Dear Desperate Housewife,
First keep in mind:
Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Try entering the command C:\ I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME and download Tears 6.2 to install Guilt 3.0. If all works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0 or Late Night Teh Tarik 6.1.

Late Night 6.1 is a very bad program that will create SnoringLoudly.wav files.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-Law 1.0 or reinstall anotherBoyfriend program. These are not supported applications and will crash Husband 1.0. In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have a limitedmemory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
You might consider additional software to improve memory and performance. I personally recommend Hot Tasty Food 3.0 and Tongkat Ali 6.9.

Good Luck,
IT Support

Friday 20 February 2009

Part II : Why Are There No Sitcoms on Accountants?!?

Auditor
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia.

Auditor, noun: an accountant with a grudge.

Contents
1 Life Cycle of an Auditor
2 Evolution of Auditors
3 Characteristics of Auditors
4 Auditors and Reproduction
5 Becoming an Auditor

1 Life Cycle of an Auditor
Auditors are a species of nomadic mammals, who came to Earth from the planet Debitor in the1960s. Auditors are paperivores, and hunt in packs, known as audit teams. Each audit team is part of a bigger tribe. There is much tribal rivalry and situations are subject to change as large tribesseek to exterminate one another, but at the time of going to press, the ruling tribe in the audit world was PWC (Pricks with Calculators).

An audit team typically changes its hunting ground every couple of weeks. Hunting grounds normally take the form of offices, but may also include factories, shops, schools and hyperspace. Any place of work is a potential source of nourishment to the paper-hungry auditor. All audit teams have a leader, who runs ahead of the pack in search of an audit trail. Should he find something suspicious, for example a file that has not been organized in alphabetical order, he will begin baying to attract the attention of the rest of the pack. Once the pack has a sniff of the scent, they are released upon the unsuspecting company, and tear around the offices of the internal accounts department, hunting out similar transgressions. When they find another offending item, they will let out a characteristic whoop of delight, and fall upon the filing cabinet, tearing the paperwork to shreds with their bare teeth in their eagerness to devour it.

Audit packs have their own dens, known as home offices. The pack visits the office on average once a month, in order to refuel on stationery. Auditors can survive several days and nights without water, sex or sunlight but are liable to fall seriously ill if deprived of paper clips and yellow post-its. These, along with Tippex, are considered special delicacies. Tippex is particularly high in nutrients,and swallowing a small bottle of correction fluid before breakfast is widely believed to have beneficial effects on an auditor's digestive system.

2 Evolution of Auditors
Among laypeople there is a common perception that auditors and accountants are the same thing. Until 4 January 1972, this may or may not have been true. Before this time accountants and auditorshad rested secure in the knowledge that debit was the side nearest the window. This is the firstcommandment of auditing, as given by Journalus Creditus and is believed by all auditors with adeep religious devotion. On this fateful day, however, Pricks with Calculators opened a brand spanking new den in the centre of London. Due to a tragic misunderstanding with the architect, a terrible mistake occurred; namely, that the building was constructed on a corner. The result was that the office now had windows on two walls. The accounting world was thrown into a dark and terrible confusion and a dreadful schism occurred. One group believed debit was the side nearest the window overlooking the high street, whilst the other could not be shaken from the conviction that it was the window overlooking the multi storey carpark. The matter was referred to an independent government committee, who eventually ruled that it was indeed the high street facing window. Those accountants who had believed in the multi-storey carpark were distraught and flew into a violent frenzy with much wailing and shredding of papers. They felt so embittered that they vowed never to perform any constructive book-keeping tasks again. Instead they swore to roam the earth in search of other people’s book-keeping mistakes, in an attempt to dull the pain of their own unforgivable error.

Initially they were content just to detail the errors in Audit Reports. The recession of the 1980s, however, meant times soon became lean and it was then that the custom of consuming erroneous paperwork was born.

3 Characteristics of Auditors
Whilst auditors come in both genders, males outnumber females in a ratio of 2:1. There is a good evolutional reason for this since the first thing a trainee auditor must master is the art of double entry. It is customary for large tribes of auditors such as Pricks With Calculators to send their new recruits on month-long residential courses to practice this useful skill. For obvious reasons of practicality, only one female auditor is required for every two men.

In general, the best time to spot an auditor is during the so-called Audit Season which runs from January to April. Auditors with their distinctive pin-stripe plumage will be present in large numbers in all major offices, factories and places of work. If you think you have seen an auditor, approach with caution. Avoid making eye contact, as this may be viewed as antagonistic. Should the auditor begin to behave aggressively towards you, asking what proportion of your contingent liabilities you consider probable, the best advice is to shout "Enron!" and run very fast in the opposite direction. This will make the auditor in question shrivel up and die.

4 Auditors and Reproduction
Stocktaking is a strange version of foreplay peculiar to auditors. The audit pack will arrive at an industrial site at 6am in the morning and demand to know how many widgets they have. The auditors will then spend many happy hours counting the widgets and comparing their results to the figures on the company stock system. The more unexpected discrepancies that they find, the more sexually aroused they become. If at the end of the day they conclude that the company has been overstating their widgets, they will spontaneously orgasm en masse and begin to practice their double-entry by way of celebration. It doesn’t have to be widgets; it could be grains of sand. So long as its something which there is absolutely no value in counting, it will do the trick.

5 Becoming an Auditor
In order to become an auditor, it is necessary to pass the initiation rites of the ICAEW. There is a common misconception amongst lay people that these initials stand for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. In fact, they represent the Institute of Calculator Addicts and Excel Worshippers. Trainee auditors spend many years at auditing colleges, where they study diverse subjects including BF (Better Filing), BM (Being Miserable) and FR (Finding Romance). In order to become officially qualified it is necessary to achieve a high pass in BF and BM combined with a bad fail in FR.

If reading this article has made you feel you would like to become an auditor, you are advised toseek immediate psychiatric help.

Retrieved from "http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Auditor"

Why Are There No Sitcoms on Accountants?!?

Outrage of all outrage! I have complaint & raved with Storm many an occassion that Accountants are really a bunch of sad fellows lar... We're even beaten by Housewives in the Sitcom race...

What am I ranting about? Well have you noticed that we've got sitcoms / serials on almost all the characters on earth, such as:
1. Friends
2. Lawyers
3. Police Officers / other types of law enforcers (FBI / CSI / CIA etc-etc)
4. Doctors
5. Housewives
6. Footballer's wives!?!?
7. Army wives
8. the Nanny!?!?
Even a Serial involving "NUMB3RS" are revolving around Mathematician.

Goes to show how low the status of an Accountant.... Yea... right below the Nanny / Footballer's wives! Everyone says accountants are boring... hey... look at Storm... Road Bully... Gangsta Mama...

Anyways, then I come across this article as a joke (be warned, it's going to be long....). On second thoughts, I think I'll post in a separate post. Then you can decide whether you want to read it or not.

p/s: Accountants / Finance professionals... It's a very sad definition indeed. Read at your own risk... :-p

This Is What We Do When We're Stressed...

Old story, but I was unable to locate the picture & now tht I found it, I can finally tell my story.

Last September, we receive an e-mail with the following adorable picture in conjunction with National Girlfriends Day. Coincidentally we have just watched the movie "Don't Mess With the Zohan" tht has scenes where Adam Sandler gives "special treatment" to all the old ladies in town after each shampoo session at the Saloon where he works. Thus, I started by commenting :

Fern: Does this pix reminds u of something..... (hint = FOC "extra" service after shampooing)



Storm: Hahahaha!! That's exactly what I thought when I saw this pic earlier.....
Don't make fun of them, Fern, this could be us in the future....THE THREE OLD HAGS!!!

Road Bully: This is definitely the 3 of us la. I'm the sane looking one in the middle, Fern is the kindly looking one on the right...and ML is the psycho looking one with the evil glint in her eye, on the left....


Storm: HAHHAHAHHAAHA!!!!!
OMG, u seriously sent Fern and I into fits of CLM laughter!!!
Hey the middle one doesn't look so good either k!!....just tht she has a quiet simmering insane look, while mine is an outright blatant demented look.
Ur quite spot on with the Fern hag though, she looks really kindly..... =p

Road Bully: ok la..so we agree that both of us are the psycho ones who'd go for movies called "4bhia", and "midnite meat cleaver", while Fern is there to keep us in check...

So Storm, I hold you to your words that you are blatantly demented ok.... So don't bother defending your actions lar... Beyond recovery.... Hahahaha.....

Thursday 19 February 2009

Actual Meaning

Someone sent me the following & I had a good laugh... Quite a way to de-stress... :-)
Enjoy....

School: A place where Papa pays and Son plays.
Life Insurance: A contract that keeps you poor all your life so that you can die Rich.
Nurse: A person who wakes U up to give you sleeping pills.
Marriage: It's an agreement in which a man loses his bachelor degree and a woman gains her masters.
Divorce: Future tense of Marriage.
Tears: The hydraulic force by which masculine willpower is defeated by feminine waterpower.
Lecture: An art of transferring information from the notes of the Lecturer to the notes of the students without passing through "the minds of either"
Conference: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.
Compromise: The art of dividing a cake in such a way that everybody believes he got the biggest piece.
Dictionary: A place where success comes before work.
Conference Room: A place where everybody talks, nobody listens & everybody disagrees later
Father: A banker provided by nature.
Criminal: A guy no different from the rest....except that he got caught.
Boss: Someone who is early when you are late and late when you are early.
Politician: One who shakes your hand before elections and your Confidence after.
Doctor: A person who kills your ills by pills, and kills you by bills.
Classic: Books, which people praise, but do not read.
Smile: A curve that can set a lot of things straight.
Office: A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life.
Yawn: The only time some married men ever get to open their mouth..
Etc.: A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.
Committee : Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.
Experience: The name men give to their mistakes.
Atom Bomb: An invention to end all inventions.
Philosopher: A fool who torments himself during life, to be spoken of when dead.

Pix @ IKEA - my Labrador was "adopted"

Both of us gals went to IKEA in search of the infamous IKEA snake for our Away Day themed dinner "Jungle Night". Sadly, was told by an IKEA staff that the snake is no longer being sold beginning 2009. Sigh...

We bump into another colleague (not in pix cos' he's the camera man). Surprise... Surprise... He was also there in search of the IKEA snake. So I guess we're not tht "original" in our jungle theme after all... :-p

Though we left without any jungle themed material, I was captivated by an adorable stuffed-toy Labrador. So that was how my Labrador was "adopted"... Here's me holding it. Any suggestions on the name to call it? I won't ask Storm cos' her dog's name is really spooky.....

Top 10 Disasters in 2009

Let's count down the Top 10 Disasters in 2009 - Year of the Ox (& it's only Feb! Yikes!) :

10. I fell sick on the eve of CNY

9. Hubby fell sick on 1st Day of CNY

8. My water container that was faithfully in service for the past 5-yrs cracked & spilt water all over the dining area

7. I had a massive / terrible back ache (but my fault, have not got proper typist chairs for working at home)

6. The kitchen sink was leaking water & can't be used for 2 whole weeks

5. The pipe of the apartment block tht converged at the ground floor was blocked because someone with no civic conscience threw plastics, wafer wrappers & tissue covers into the pipe! So when the cleaners in the apartment above us were cleaning & huge amount of water went through the blocked pipe, it all decided to "spew" out through the kitchen sink & semi flooded the hse (thank goodness it didn't flow into my bedroom / the study room where I work), but the smell was foul!

4. My laptop seem to develop some extra-sensory capabilities to know exactly when to crash / hang / not respond / drop connection / just plain slow.... When it's time to deliver something to my boss on the day I work fr home! (It NEVER happens in office)

3. Hubby dearest develop a sore-throat (poor thing....)

2. I develop another flu / cough / sore-throat (& all tht w/out even touching mandarine oranges / indulge in CNY cookies!) - must be from hubby not-so-dearest germs ;-)

1. I'm still not pregnant!!!!

Killing Me Softly.....

Strumming my pain with VPN....
Wringing my life with its sluggishness....
Killing me softly with Excel....
Killing me softly.....
With it's curse.....
Tearing my whole life....
With its pace...
Killing me softly...............
When it hangs.....

I felt all flushed with fever
All stressed up from the wait
I felt it sapped my spirits
& made me curse out loud....

I prayed tht it would start-up...
But it just kept right on.....

Strumming my pain with VPN.... Wringing my life with its sluggishness.... Killing me softly with Excel.... Killing me softly..... With it's curse.....
Tearing my whole life....
With its pace...
Killing me softly...............
When it hangs.....

Sigh.... crazy? I know... childish? sort of... but wht am I to do as I wait for my to retrieve my excel from the network? vent out lar... Not therapeautic, but who else can I vent to? My poor labrador (& a stuffed-toy 1 too)?

It's So Stressful When Everthing Seem To Go Wrong!

Arrrggghhhhh!!!!!!!! I think the Ox Year is really a baaad.... baaaad year for the Ram / Goat year folks like me (& my hubby)...

It's been 2 weeks that I had to endure all the system issues & laptop crashes at the moment when I absolutely had to get something out SUPER URGENTLY. Today it happened again... My excel just refuses to open & I can't seem to get any work done! It's already 3+ freaking pm! Waaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Venting....
Venting....