Inspired by Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, “Nero Wolfe detective series” by Rex Stout.
Note : all stories are merely imaginations of the author, and any resemblance to real person(s) and/or events are purely coincidental.
Part 1 : On a Thursday evening
On a Thursday evening. I was lying back on the armchair, legs crossed on table, arms folded behind my head, staring at the ceiling, and trying to figure things out. The rent is due next week, and my car needs repairing. And the fat lady upstairs wont stop singing. This and all some petty matters is driving me nuts.
“Ding – dong”, goes the doorbell. Muttering a silent curse, i got the door open, wondering which creditor is after me at this hour.
“Monsieur Sticky? I'm baroness Flauntine....” i opened the door to a elegantly dressed lady, draped with a fur of some dead animal, with a feather on her flamboyant hat. Her thick eye lashes seemed like they can talk.
“Ah..yes, at your service, madame” i managed to bring my senses back to normal, and stammered something of intelligence.
“Pray take a seat, and tell me how i can be of help. Brandy of whiskey?” i ushered her in, and seated her at my best sofa.
“Oh, tres bien, i'll have whisky on the rocks, sil vous plait.”she sat herself graciously, minding not to cress her dress, and not forgetting to sweep her fur with an air. Ah, these damsels in distress...
I poured her her drink, and waited for her to began.
“My most precious, the fabled ruby, known as The Tear of Nile, has gone missing during my party last night....” she began.
“Madame, this is not....” I began to protest weakly, wringing my hand in despair, as searching for lost trinkets is not my cup of tea.
“I'll offer you 5,000 pounds, exclusive of all your expenses”she interrupted forcefully.
“...a problem. Pray tell me the details.”Reality got the better of me. There's the rent to pay, right?
To be continued..if you are still interested :-)
note : tres bien = very good
sil vous plait = if you please/ if it pleases you
dang, now i;m flaunting my tiny weeny bit of french, haha.. :P
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
deaf culture
Sign language teacher smsed me for a special test today. Seems that i'm short of 4 more marks to pass level 1. went for the test, and only managed to get 3 marks, bringing the total to 69.95...well...que sera, sera. Had a short talk with her on deaf culture, and the following are excerpts (in sign, but translated) :
me : i realised something about the deaf people ...
she : what is it?
Me : you all are wary of the hearing (people), and do not trust them. It takes a lot of time and patience to gain the trust of you all.
She : ya.
Me : i believe it is the constant fear of not being able to hear what we are saying whenever we are talking, and that breeds unnecessary fear and mistrust.
She : (nods) but there are exceptions...what is (another teacher) were to tell you that she likes you?
Me : (shaking head) then i will have to tell her that it is very difficult. As i believe communications is important in any relation, and given my poor sign skills, i wont be able to understand her most of the time, and vice versa. This will create weariness.
She : ya, and your parents will not be able to accept it too.
Me : well...ya, cos they also don't know sign language, and its going to be difficult for them to communicate with each other, and also other friends and relatives.
She : agree.
Me : so, you gotta have more trust in your bf. And remember, patience (fancy that coming from me ! A table banging swearing two-tongue good for nothing !) is also important.
She : (nodding) ya.
Me : but now times have changed, with the internet and handphone, the hearing(people) and deaf can still be friends can communicate like normal. Even most of my friends also i rarely call or meet them, only contact thru sms, email or chat.
She : ya, but for a relation, still need face to face interaction.
Me : ya, true also.
She : anyway, hope you will continue to learn and improve your sign language, and make more friends with the deaf, and also introduce more friends to them.
Me : ya, i will :-)
as such, the deaf are also normal, just that they need more time to build their trust in others, as they've been living in their silent world since birth, all alone, with few friends.
Hope this will prompt you to learn about sign language ;-)
me : i realised something about the deaf people ...
she : what is it?
Me : you all are wary of the hearing (people), and do not trust them. It takes a lot of time and patience to gain the trust of you all.
She : ya.
Me : i believe it is the constant fear of not being able to hear what we are saying whenever we are talking, and that breeds unnecessary fear and mistrust.
She : (nods) but there are exceptions...what is (another teacher) were to tell you that she likes you?
Me : (shaking head) then i will have to tell her that it is very difficult. As i believe communications is important in any relation, and given my poor sign skills, i wont be able to understand her most of the time, and vice versa. This will create weariness.
She : ya, and your parents will not be able to accept it too.
Me : well...ya, cos they also don't know sign language, and its going to be difficult for them to communicate with each other, and also other friends and relatives.
She : agree.
Me : so, you gotta have more trust in your bf. And remember, patience (fancy that coming from me ! A table banging swearing two-tongue good for nothing !) is also important.
She : (nodding) ya.
Me : but now times have changed, with the internet and handphone, the hearing(people) and deaf can still be friends can communicate like normal. Even most of my friends also i rarely call or meet them, only contact thru sms, email or chat.
She : ya, but for a relation, still need face to face interaction.
Me : ya, true also.
She : anyway, hope you will continue to learn and improve your sign language, and make more friends with the deaf, and also introduce more friends to them.
Me : ya, i will :-)
as such, the deaf are also normal, just that they need more time to build their trust in others, as they've been living in their silent world since birth, all alone, with few friends.
Hope this will prompt you to learn about sign language ;-)
Monday, September 15, 2008
realization
Something dawned on me today.
I realized that :
1.by saying that i'm lazy, by not knowing more about my job, being ignorant and doing nothing about it, is irresponsible. I've gotta learn to take care of myself(eg learn to fry egg), and dun let parents worry about me.
2.By being childish, and making people angry with my words, and continuously apologizing, and repeating the same mistakes over and over again, is truly childish. I gotta grow up.
3.Using sweet talk to court gals just wont work(from my experience), i need to improve myself and love myself first, before i can love others.
4.And telling gals that i like them before i know them is not considered as honesty, but stupidity and flirtious, insincere.
Finally, i would like to quote the lyrics from “better man” by robbie williams :
Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain
Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel I'm getting old
Before my time
As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man
yeah, i want to become a better man.
I realized that :
1.by saying that i'm lazy, by not knowing more about my job, being ignorant and doing nothing about it, is irresponsible. I've gotta learn to take care of myself(eg learn to fry egg), and dun let parents worry about me.
2.By being childish, and making people angry with my words, and continuously apologizing, and repeating the same mistakes over and over again, is truly childish. I gotta grow up.
3.Using sweet talk to court gals just wont work(from my experience), i need to improve myself and love myself first, before i can love others.
4.And telling gals that i like them before i know them is not considered as honesty, but stupidity and flirtious, insincere.
Finally, i would like to quote the lyrics from “better man” by robbie williams :
Send someone to love me
I need to rest in arms
Keep me safe from harm
In pouring rain
Give me endless summer
Lord I fear the cold
Feel I'm getting old
Before my time
As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man
yeah, i want to become a better man.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Brand (new) Story
Had and enlightening talk on “Brand Awareness” today, and cant help thinking of goddess of patience when the speaker mentioned that passion and “patience” are required in order to succeed in any endeavour. Haha.
This also coincides with “pointers” qy gave me to chase after cm, so, the following is the synopsis of the talk :
Brand dimensions can be divided into 2 :
1.Product Dimension – such as benefits(what's the benefit of being someone's bf/gf), performance (the job performance of that particular promising candidate), packaging (their personal grooming), ingredients(their skills and talents). Man, this can really be related to searching for a soul mate ! :P
2.Brand equity dimension – such as heritage(family background), personality(eg fun).
A strong brand always delivers its promise, or more than it promised. Now, doesn't that sound familiar?
The reasons for branding includes :
1.more competitive environment – with people competing for limited span of attention(purple gal will attest to this ;-) ), escalating costs of communications (my personal experience with tomato), accelerated change (of hearts (is it under a field of study, yt? :P) ).
2.Strong brands are preferred and trusted.
We build a strong brand thru AIDA – (creating)Awareness, (rousing)Interest, (instilling)Desire, (prompting)Action.
A brand message is effectively delivered when the same story is presented in different ways, eg using some dose of humor, exaggeration and a spoonful of good sense.
That's all for today. Hope it is beneficial for all. :)
This also coincides with “pointers” qy gave me to chase after cm, so, the following is the synopsis of the talk :
Brand dimensions can be divided into 2 :
1.Product Dimension – such as benefits(what's the benefit of being someone's bf/gf), performance (the job performance of that particular promising candidate), packaging (their personal grooming), ingredients(their skills and talents). Man, this can really be related to searching for a soul mate ! :P
2.Brand equity dimension – such as heritage(family background), personality(eg fun).
A strong brand always delivers its promise, or more than it promised. Now, doesn't that sound familiar?
The reasons for branding includes :
1.more competitive environment – with people competing for limited span of attention(purple gal will attest to this ;-) ), escalating costs of communications (my personal experience with tomato), accelerated change (of hearts (is it under a field of study, yt? :P) ).
2.Strong brands are preferred and trusted.
We build a strong brand thru AIDA – (creating)Awareness, (rousing)Interest, (instilling)Desire, (prompting)Action.
A brand message is effectively delivered when the same story is presented in different ways, eg using some dose of humor, exaggeration and a spoonful of good sense.
That's all for today. Hope it is beneficial for all. :)
Monday, August 4, 2008
Coconut Tales
This was told to me by my father, and i shall use his first party narration .
“I grew up in tanjung karang, a small town near kuala selangor. My father used to loan small coconut plantation from some farmers, and arranged for workers to harvest, peel off and carry out the coconuts.
The collection workers will come early in the morning, and by 10am, they will be back with the first lot of peeled coconuts.
To peel off the coconuts, they will first poke a spike into the ground. Then, they will wrap a thick guni sack around their waist, like a cowboy jeans.
After that, they will poke the coconut onto the spike, and twist and turn the coconut to remove its husk. They will also use their waist (protected by the guni sack), to stop the spike from turning.
An expert can remove the husk in 5 seconds, but it is hard job. The pay is 2 dollars per 100 peeled coconuts.
Carting out the coconuts is hard work. They will pile up the coconuts, sometimes 200 to 300 of it, on their bicycles. Then push the bicycle out from the plantation to our house. When the path is muddy, they will help each other to push the bicycle thru the hard spots. But they have to be careful, as once they lost balance, all the coconuts will come crashing down, and they have to repile it again.
Rainy season is the best for me, as the irrigation canals between the coconut trees will be filled with shallow water, and the workers will use my father's sampan to bring out the coconuts.
My elder brother and i will wait for the workers to come out, pulling their sampan, and then both of us will jump into the sampan, and the workers will tow us along, and we get to enjoy our free ride.
The collected coconuts need to be processed, and it is done on a big barbeque stove in front of our house. The stove is divided into 3 sections.
The first section is used to dry the collected coconuts, which had been cut into halves. My brother and i will stack the coconuts, flesh side facing down. We must make sure we don't stack simply, and stack in such a way that the heat will be able to go into the flesh, to dry up the coconuts. This is done every evening after the day's collection is done.
The next morning, the workers will come around 5am, and they will start to remove the flesh from the coconuts in section 1. It will take them 1 to 2 hours to remove the flesh. After that, they will go off to the plantation.
My brother and i will then stack the coconuts again in section 2, as some of the flesh are still stuck in the shell.
We will also arrange the flesh in section 3, to be dried. Dried flesh are called “salai”, and sold by the guni sacks to middlemen, who will in turn sell it to factories.
“salai” are used to make coconut oil and other products. “
there, that's all i can remember, from what dad told me. Hope it is correct mostly, and feel free to correct me :-)
“I grew up in tanjung karang, a small town near kuala selangor. My father used to loan small coconut plantation from some farmers, and arranged for workers to harvest, peel off and carry out the coconuts.
The collection workers will come early in the morning, and by 10am, they will be back with the first lot of peeled coconuts.
To peel off the coconuts, they will first poke a spike into the ground. Then, they will wrap a thick guni sack around their waist, like a cowboy jeans.
After that, they will poke the coconut onto the spike, and twist and turn the coconut to remove its husk. They will also use their waist (protected by the guni sack), to stop the spike from turning.
An expert can remove the husk in 5 seconds, but it is hard job. The pay is 2 dollars per 100 peeled coconuts.
Carting out the coconuts is hard work. They will pile up the coconuts, sometimes 200 to 300 of it, on their bicycles. Then push the bicycle out from the plantation to our house. When the path is muddy, they will help each other to push the bicycle thru the hard spots. But they have to be careful, as once they lost balance, all the coconuts will come crashing down, and they have to repile it again.
Rainy season is the best for me, as the irrigation canals between the coconut trees will be filled with shallow water, and the workers will use my father's sampan to bring out the coconuts.
My elder brother and i will wait for the workers to come out, pulling their sampan, and then both of us will jump into the sampan, and the workers will tow us along, and we get to enjoy our free ride.
The collected coconuts need to be processed, and it is done on a big barbeque stove in front of our house. The stove is divided into 3 sections.
The first section is used to dry the collected coconuts, which had been cut into halves. My brother and i will stack the coconuts, flesh side facing down. We must make sure we don't stack simply, and stack in such a way that the heat will be able to go into the flesh, to dry up the coconuts. This is done every evening after the day's collection is done.
The next morning, the workers will come around 5am, and they will start to remove the flesh from the coconuts in section 1. It will take them 1 to 2 hours to remove the flesh. After that, they will go off to the plantation.
My brother and i will then stack the coconuts again in section 2, as some of the flesh are still stuck in the shell.
We will also arrange the flesh in section 3, to be dried. Dried flesh are called “salai”, and sold by the guni sacks to middlemen, who will in turn sell it to factories.
“salai” are used to make coconut oil and other products. “
there, that's all i can remember, from what dad told me. Hope it is correct mostly, and feel free to correct me :-)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
back
wow..back again since nov....
actually i forgot how to log in, and hence no post...
but actually was too lazy to write anything also, haha...
tonite got the inspiration from tomato, as she also posted her blog recently, haha..
well, nuff air talking ...will think of more meaningful stuff to write next time, cheers :)
actually i forgot how to log in, and hence no post...
but actually was too lazy to write anything also, haha...
tonite got the inspiration from tomato, as she also posted her blog recently, haha..
well, nuff air talking ...will think of more meaningful stuff to write next time, cheers :)
Education
Education cannot be overstressed. Confucius once said “(teaching’s) Responsibility is heavy, and the path long. With moral as one’s own responsibility, isn’t it heavy? Till death does one stop, isn’t the path long? “
I think its time the country tighten its grip on quality of graduates, and only allows those who really made the mark to pass, and not simply pass them just to fulfill some so called “quotas”.
By stressing the importance of skill, and communications(in english especially), we can move towards a better educated population, and hence, more competitiveness.
For example, the government may post an early warning that in 5 years time, they will only employ those capable of communicating in English, regardless of race or religion. Of course, this must be done in a gradual manner, with much planning in advance, and not just any other “plans” that are sprouted out from the mouth at the spur of the moment.
Skills training will also be provided. For example, those who studied for medicine, and still cannot pass within 5 or 6 years, will have to retrain for other skills, eg pharmacy or nursing. As some courses may be too tough for a person to follow through.
Such plans will take about 20 to 25 years to execute, with periodical review and changes every 5 years. But the changes should not be too drastic, else the whole plan will be in ruins again.
Having said that, I’m not the PM or education minister, but just doing my part as a citizen to voice out my exasperation. Really wonder what the top guys are doing…
I think its time the country tighten its grip on quality of graduates, and only allows those who really made the mark to pass, and not simply pass them just to fulfill some so called “quotas”.
By stressing the importance of skill, and communications(in english especially), we can move towards a better educated population, and hence, more competitiveness.
For example, the government may post an early warning that in 5 years time, they will only employ those capable of communicating in English, regardless of race or religion. Of course, this must be done in a gradual manner, with much planning in advance, and not just any other “plans” that are sprouted out from the mouth at the spur of the moment.
Skills training will also be provided. For example, those who studied for medicine, and still cannot pass within 5 or 6 years, will have to retrain for other skills, eg pharmacy or nursing. As some courses may be too tough for a person to follow through.
Such plans will take about 20 to 25 years to execute, with periodical review and changes every 5 years. But the changes should not be too drastic, else the whole plan will be in ruins again.
Having said that, I’m not the PM or education minister, but just doing my part as a citizen to voice out my exasperation. Really wonder what the top guys are doing…
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