Malaysia National Day

Tomorrow, August 31, Malaysia celebrates 49 years of independence.

To all Malaysians reading this, Happy Merdeka Day!

Escort Service, anyone?

Last Saturday, I received an SMS extending congratulations that my SIM card won me a prize money of RM9000 (read nine thousand Ringgit) and that I should call a number to claim the prize. What? You think I am nuts? I did not make that call.

That string of numbers looked suspicious alright. It's got a '00' preceding it. '00' is the country code we dial to connect overseas. I wonder how many people got duped.

Talk about being duped, I read this interesting incident in the papers the other day. Looks like lots of opportunities out there.

Two gigolo wannabes come clean with story

KUALA LUMPUR: Two men who were promised lucrative jobs as gigolos by an “escort service company” ended up being duped of their cash.

The victims, who only wanted to be known as Martin and Alan, said they answered an advertisement in a Chinese newspaper last month which said it was looking for young and handsome men.

“When we contacted the company, we were promised a monthly salary of US$10,000 (RM37,000) if we did more than just escorting women.

“But the catch was that we had to deposit RM1,000 to an account belonging to the company,” said Martin, 22.

He was informed that the RM1,000 was a fee to become a member of the company.

Alan, 28, said to convince them, the company assured that their clients were all young and wealthy foreigners.

They took the bait and were later instructed to wait for clients at a five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur. They realised they were duped when they tried to contact the company and discovered that its handphone number was terminated.

“I worked out in a gym to make sure I looked good and was strong for my clients. I even drank lots of essence of chicken,” lamented Martin.

“I actually walked up to several foreigners and asked them if they were my clients. I was nearly slapped by two women,” Alan chipped in.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said there were probably many others who were duped but were too embarrassed to come forward.

Source...The Star...Two gigolo wannabes come clean with story

Letter to the Boss

Would you dare pull a stunt like this?


A Boss looking through his Mail Box was astonished to see a mail from an Employee who was supposed to be busy working at Client side on a critical project. It had the subject - "TaTa - Bye Bye". With the worst premonition he opened the mail and read the content with trembling hands:-


Dear Sir,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you, but I'm leaving the job. The offer was too lucritive and attractive for me to turn down. I had to abscond because I wanted to avoid a scene with the HR and you. I am sorry but I had no choice.

The project is working fine. There are only 108 issues pending, out of which only 38% issues are High Priority. Hence I am sure there is no need to worry about. The next Phase of major enhancements I have been working upon, have been completed halfway. I am sure the new person who would replace me would not understand what all I had done so far. Hence, for his and your convenience, I have taken care to remove all the work that I had been doing this far for nearly 3 months now. I am sure you will appreciate my insight and "big heart".

I am of course retaining the Originals that I had retrieved for the purpose of Passport verification with me, considering it as a parting gift from you. Ofcourse, I will not pay the bond amount that I owe the compnay (since I am breaking the bond). But I will consider this as a parting gift from our Dear company. I moving out of town since the new company is situated in another City.

Also, I have changed my contact number. So you will not be able to get in touch with me, to congratulate me. But I know your blessings are always with me.

Last but not the least. I also have the 7000 Rs entrusted to me by our company's cultural events group, for the upcoming movie event. I am sure you would have wanted me to keep it with myself as an added bonus from our company. I respect you very much, hence your wish is my command.

I thank you for that in advance, and assure you that I will surely invest them wisely (but not in your company's stocks of course).

Don't worry sir. I am 2 years experienced now, learning so much from your company. So I will surely use this knowledge to write better programs for the new company.
Someday I'm sure we will meet sometime in the future. If you wish, I will surely be glad to give my employee reference for you to apply for a job in the new company which I am joining.


Your faithful employee,

S. W. Engineer


At the bottom of the page were the letters "PS". Hands still trembling, the Boss read:

PS: Dearest Boss, none of the above is true. I'm am still busy working at client side. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my "Request to reconsider my Salary Appraisal" attached with this mail. Please approve it and call when it is safe for me to come to our Office to discuss this. My respect and Best Regards to you!


At the same time, you may also want to stick this at your place to let your boss know that you have character:



And at the end of the day, polish your boss's apple with this:

























All's well that ends well.

A Ferrari Maranello, A BMW Z8,....

Sitting alone in a restaurant were a man and a woman. The man decided to be bold & send a bottle of Merlot to the beautiful young woman.

The waiter took the Merlot to the woman and said:

"This is from the gentleman seated over there." Indicating the sender. She regarded the wine coolly for a second without looking over at the man,and decided to send a reply note.

The waiter, who was lingering for a response, took the note from her and conveyed it to the gentleman. The note read:

"For me to accept this bottle, you need to have a Mercedes in your garage, a million dollars in the bank and 7 inches in your pants."

After reading the note, the man decided to compose one of his own in return. He folded his note, handed it to the waiter and instructed him to return this to the woman.

It read:
"For your information, I have a Ferrari Maranello, a BMW Z8, a Mercedes CL600 and a Porsche Turbo in my garage. There is over twenty million dollars in my bank account. However, not even for a woman as beautiful as you would I cut off three inches. Just send the bottle back."

Reading More and Dusting Less

This is a forwarded email and it is such a beautiful story I wish I know the author to give credit to. It's a little long but really worth the read.


A Story To Live By

My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. This, he said, is not a slip. This is lingerie. He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite; silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached. Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion. Well, I guess this is the occasion. He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me. Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you're alive is a special
occasion.

I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the Midwestern town where my sister's family lives. I thought about all the things that she hadn't seen or heard or done. I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special.

I'm still thinking about his words, and they've changed my life. I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting on the deck and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings.

Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savor, not endure. I'm trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them. I'm not saving anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event-such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market if I like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries without wincing. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends. Someday and one of these days are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now.

I'm not sure what my sister would've done had she known that she wouldn't be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted. I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food. I'm guessing - I'll never know.

It's those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with - someday. Angry because I hadn't written certain letters that I intended to write - one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn't tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.

I'm trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that it is special.

Every day, every minute, every breath truly is... a gift from God.

If you've received this it is because someone cares for you. If you're too busy to take the few minutes that it would take right now to forward this to people, would it be the first time you didn't do that little thing that would make a difference in your relationships? I can tell you it certainly won't be the last. Take a few minutes to send this to a few people you care about, just to let them know that you're thinking of them.

May love litter your life with blessings!

You've got to dance like nobody's watching, and love like it's never going to hurt.

People say true friends must always hold hands, but true friends don't need to hold hands because they know the other hand will always be there.

Hello Earthling!

Nothing beats visual impact.




Source: Unknown


Interesting analogy here:
If we were to reduce the population of the Earth to a small town with 100 people and keep the proportions, it will look something like this:



70 coloured-skins
30 caucasians

6 people would own 59% of the whole world wealth and all of them will be from the United States of America

80 would have bad living conditions

70 will be uneducated

50 will be underfed

1 would die

2 would be born

1 will have a computer

1 (only one) will have higher education

If you look at the world from this point of view, you will see how there is a big need of solidarity, understanding, patience and education.

Also think about the following:

If this morning you've woke up healthy, you are happier then 1 million people that will not survive next week.

If you never suffered a war, the loneliness of the jail cell, the agony of torture,
or hunger, you are happier than 500 million people in the world.

If you can enter into a church (mosque) without fear of jail or death, you are happier than 3 million people in the world.

If there is a food in your fridge, you have shoes and clothes, you have bed and a roof, you are richer than 75% of the people in the world.

If you have bank account, money in your wallet and some coins in the money-box,
you belong to the 8% of the people on the world, which are well-to-do.

If you read this you are three times more blessed because:

1. somebody just thought of you.

2. you don't belong to the 200 million people that cannot read.

3. and... you have a computer!

As somebody once said:

- work as if you don't need money,

- love as if nobody never ever hurt you,

- dance, as if nobody can see you,

- sing, as if nobody can hear you,

- live, as if the Earth was a heaven."



While we are on planet-talk, I am sure you might have received an email informing that Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.

The email said that

It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will culminate on August 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth.

Be sure to watch the sky on August 27 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has two moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY
will ever see it again.

With the haze hovering around us, the sun is hardly visible let alone the moon but I'll try and hey it's this Sunday.

Like Magic

Now you see it, now you don't - it's like magic. This can be applied to the Kuala Lumpur skyline. Take a look at the two pictures below. The picture on the left was taken some two weeks ago while the one on the right was taken yesterday. See the contrast? Left, blue skies and all; right, grey and blur. Thanks to the haze.

In the morning, the sun is like a faded orange ball in the sky darting in and out of the clouds or is it the smog build-up? Luckily, West Malaysia is separated by the Straits of Malacca - far enough that the ashes from the burning in Sumatra are not falling on us, unlike in Kuching (as mentioned by FH2o).

I don't know about other parts of the country but in KL, it's hot and humid. It feels like being in a pressure cooker - the air is still and warm. Thank goodness for the comfort of the air-cond though this is detrimental to the environment or the ozone layer to be exact (but that's a different story).



So, on hot days a dunk tank would be welcome - but with these occupants...I don't know.......
















An alternative would be to go around half-naked
















And stay hydrated...

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All you've to do is go to the site and click. But you're only allowed ONE click per day. So spread the word to others and help make a positive difference.

>>>>>> http://www.thehungersite.com














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It is estimated that one billion people in the world suffer from hunger and malnutrition. That's roughly 100 times as many as those who actually die from these causes each year.

About 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes. This is down from 35,000 ten years ago, and 41,000 twenty years ago. Three-fourths of the deaths are children under the age of five.

Famine and wars cause about 10% of hunger deaths, although these tend to be the ones you hear about most often. The majority of hunger deaths are caused by chronic malnutrition. Families facing extreme poverty are simply unable to get enough food to eat.

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