Cod Liver Oil
I am having running nose.
Someone asked me whether I have taken cod liver oil. He suggested this to me few weeks back when I had a bout of running nose.
I told him, yes I do.
He asked again, how many tablets. He suggested that I should take 2 tablets instead of 1.
I told him, I took 2 every day.
Then, he suggested to me to take more tablets every day since I’m still sick.
Maybe next time, I should take 10 tablets everyday.
The Birthday Present
This year, I have a very nice present from my friends. Cast iron pan. Maybe it’s unromantic but I surely love this present. I have been longing to have this cast-iron for very long. Come to think of it.
What other present that can last for a lifetime? It’s cast-iron.
What other present that is very practical and useful? It’s cast-iron.
What other present that is cool? It’s cast-iron. (Because it’s made of iron).
Okay, never mind about the last one. But if you google around, you will find cast-iron as one of top must-have for kitchen essentials. This cast-iron is the first step for my future minimalist kitchen setup.
Now, what’s should be the maiden dish for this skillet. A nice breakfast or a juicy steak. Hmm … tough choice.
Astro Boy
Last weekend, wifey and I managed to catch astro boy @ filmgarde. Although only after I booked the tix, wifey mentioned that she had a change of mind and wanted to watch This is it.
I have nothing against MJ and I actually quite like some of his songs. I even played a video game of him in Sega last time. But his last movie is more like one of the last moves to milk the died cow.
Anyway, Astro boy was quite enjoyable. Maybe the manner we didn’t set any expectation does help. The movie is simple and nice as it’s aimed for younger demographics. Though, I felt they are compelled to make a nice story and nice ending. Oh yeah, the political agenda is definitely there as the main plot.
On side note, I like Naoki Urasawa’s potrayal of Astro Boy/Atom in Pluto.
Good Service from M1
This is not an advertorial. But when a company did something well, it should be commended. We should encourage good services.
Handphone bills are notorious of being overly complex.Maybe it’s one of ways and tricks to cheat you for your money.
So, it’s pretty refreshing to get my M1 bill that is easy to decipher. Last month, they even up the ante by redesign the bill and make it even easier. It’s one kudo.
This morning I called the customer service to cancel some of the VAS under my account. And I was surprised to reach a human in 10 seconds. I don’t have to go through hoops of machine voices just to talk to human. Excellent. Double kudos.
I hope the rest of the companies can follow this kind of standard.
Travel Smart #1
These are the miscellaneous tips to travel smart from my own experiences.
1. If you are traveling without your spouse/husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/kids, leave a international calling card so they can call you at your hotel or your overseas local number (see number #2) at cheaper rate.
2. Buy overseas local number for cheaper sms and for people to call you (see number #1).
3. If you’re going to stay for long, bring some washing detergent from home. Unless, you want to buy a big detergent packet from local minimart. Bonus point if you can request it from the hotel you’re staying
4. Wash your clothes when you shower at night. Don’t wait for few days. Your hotel room probably is small and doesn’t have much space to hang your clothes (like mine).
5. If you’re not staying in high-class hotel, be prepared to bring your own toothbrush and toothpaste. Usually, I bring my own body soap and shampoo as I’m more used to my own.
What equates of Goodness
We value good items. We want to have nice clothes, powerful gadgets, eat delicious food and many others. The difficulty lies on how to measure goodness of the items?
If you’re a geek, you could find specs, reviews and untangle the main relevant points of the review. If you’re a chef, you could decide whether certain dish is delicious or not (although subjective preference would play part).
However, for most of the times, we use other metrics to measure goodness. Price and brand have become the rule of thumb for this.
But as the definition of rule of thumb, it’s still rule of thumb. There are exceptions. And sometimes, they are many until you would question the rule of thumb again.
You would be forgiven if you think Toyota would have thought through every single things in the Lexus design. The price it commands and the fame would surely guarantee that a Lexus car is a very good car. But, after this case, we should think through, is that really a guarantee?
Loss of lives from something as silly as floor mat is very sad and sorry.
Maybe in life, we can never be too sure. And we would be better off if we use more of our gray cells.
The IT Manager
An interesting conversation.
** Phone rings **
Caller (C): Hi, I am from Microsoft. May I speak to the IT Manager please?
The employee realize that there’s no IT manager and no one else to answer the phone but himself. He also wants to hang up the call asap.
Employee (E): Speaking.
C: I am calling because we want … bla bla bla bla. May I know your name?
E: My name is tra la la la.
C: Your email address?
E: My email is tri li li li
C: Thank you very much.
For 5 minutes, the employee has appointed himself to be an IT Manager.
Hooraaay … Finally An Update
I finally manage to get rid of my laziness/procrastination and update this poor lonely blog again.
There are so many things happen since April. Let’s see there’s this marathon (or should I should say run + long walk), my short work trip to some cities like Jakarta and Hanoi.
But I would like to mention the marathon for now.
I participated the Adidas Sundown Marathon 09. I was considering to forfeit the race because towards the last few weeks of the race, I almost practically didn’t train at all. Works have been hectic and maybe laziness also seeps in. I was thinking what the point was to join a Marathon half-hearted without proper preparation.
In the end, I just went for the Marathon with the worst preparation ever. I still had to work in the afternoon and only reached back at 7 pm to take a 1 hr nap before going to the race. I forgot to eat some energy bar before the race. And I was already tired before I even started the first step.
I just ran with my own pace and ignored the people who were keep over-taking. I somehow managed to run consistently 1.5 hrs/10km for the first 30 km.
After the 30 km mark, I started to follow run-walk-run-walk pattern until the 35 km mark. From the 35km mark, I broke down and could only walk all the way to the finish line. I guess, I could still run but I don’t have enough mental strength to hold on and ignore the pain.
I crossed the finish line after 42 km after 7 hrs 24 mins. However, I didn’t feel like I completed the marathon at all. The time taken to complete is way too long and it’s very ridiculous.
Time to start my gear again for Singapore Marathon 2009.
ps: wifey, sorry that I might have to go for another round of intense running session. I hope you can join me for those long running session. really.
The New Toy
My office just bought a new gadget for us to try. Behold the G1 Developer Edition.
G1 Developer Edition
I quite like this phone. In overall, it’s a good phone although I don’t think this phone is for everyone. G1 is positioned as smart-phone and at the same time it has more geeky flavour than business.
Battery Life definitely can be better. Currently, I have to charge it everyday. Maybe it’s got to do that I always turn-on the WiFi. But nevertheless, it’ll be great if it can last for around 2-3 days (with the WiFi on).
The Google Reader with the handset browser definitelly need some serious bug fixings. Actions like marking items to be read or making all items to be read do not work most of the time. It will be great if there’s an offline reader. I know that there’s an application that can do that but it also has its own share of problems
Initially, I thought the phone is kinda stupid because I have to go to hoops and loops of Settings to just turn off the WiFi. Luckily, I found a great Android App Useful Switchers. It’s a must have application for G1. In 1 single page, you can modify the common settings of the phone like WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and Brightness.
Another side effect by having this phone is that I tend to totally shut off myself from my surroundings when I am commuting. I keep myself busy by reading my Google Reader and at the same time I am missing everything. Missing the sunset. Missing how crowded the train is. It makes me not being here. It is something that I can control and I should change.
In overall, if you’re a geek, get a G1. Although it is not as polished as iPhone but I like this one more.
Miscelannous Good Articles
As I and wifey are on the frame of buying a house, this is a useful link for us: Why We Chose 30 Years Mortgage, Is Owning or Renting Best?.
On investing when we decide to do so in future: The Index Fund Wins Again, Buy Index Funds Not Stocks.
On selling(or buying) Cars: Never Sell a Used Car.