Happy New Year 2010

It’s going to be a new year in a couple of hours, not just a new year but a new decade. It’s been a trying year for me in 2009, mix with good and bad experiences, but most importantly is the lessons learned that brought us here into the new decade. I always said don’t give up on something that you believe that you can do it successfully, the harder the challenges the sweeter the rewards at the end of the tunnel. Someone once said “if you wanted something so bad, the whole universe will help you to get it”. I decided to celebrate the new year by staying at home watching the TV and fireworks from my balcony. It know it’s sound just plain lame but it’s too congested at these hours to watch fireworks outside. Well i wish all of you, friends and comrades a happy new year, hopefully there will be something wonderful for each for us next year. I am just looking forward to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next summer.

Malakoff 12 km run

I woke up at 4.50 am this morning, had sleepless night, this is usually me when expecting a big day. I felt excited and nervous at the same time waiting for this day to come. This morning, i will run and compete with about 2,500 other runners in the 2nd edition of 12km Malakoff run in Bukit Kiara resort.

This time around the missus and my son would not be there to support me as my wife is too tired to move around as she’s into the final trimester of our 2nd son. I decided to use my scooter instead of Exora as i anticipated a large crowd and cars, it would not be enough parking space in the race area. Among the suggested parking areas for the race was Security Commission car park, i arrived at around 5.45 am and found out that the car park still have a lot of vacant spaces (it can accommodate 80 cars maximum). It’s still dark when i arrived at Start/Finish line in Bukit Kiara car park, later i went around searching for a surau to perform my subuh prayer and found it at the sport complex building.

By 6.30 am more runners came and the place becoming too crowded, well what do you expect with about 2,000 runners jam-pack the place. The race started with 12km runners flag-off at 7.00 am sharp, the steep hill after leaving Bukit Kiara car park into Jalan Beringin, Bukit Damansara was killing me! I stopped and walked near the top of the first hill, a clear sign that i am not fit for hill climb race, i sense this big problem and decided to conserve my energy for downhill and flat runs, and that’s what exactly the strategy i used throughout this race. Walk up for the big hill and then compensate by passing other runners at downhill run, this is a bad run for me, but i am not just gonna give up, it’s all about mental strength and for me i am racing with myself, it's all about completing the race which was after all my big objective for entering this race. In the end, I completed the 12km race with 79 minutes (unofficial record-the organizer will update official records in their website after all runners return the timing chips).

My 1st Medal

Malakoff’s Race Kit

Earlier today, I collected the Malakoff 12km race kit at Kiwi Xpress Bistro Garden in Desa Sri Hartamas. Compared to Dukethon’s race kit, this ones only has the bare necessities, a vest (i usually wear L size, but this vest is little too big for me), runners bib – A0240 and a timing chip (only for 12km runners). The Malakoff run on Sunday are open for 12km and 6 km (later adjusted to 7km), i opted for 12km run as i already completely done with 5km run (Dukethon), i need new challenge to keep me fresh.

We will see tomorrow if my training paid off, which i really doubt after surveying the route for tomorrow’s run. The running route for 12km has about 6 slopes and it’s a hilly run which i did not train, i’m going in for hell of a day tomorrow.

ICOSH 2009

I was busy attending the ICOSH 2009 Conference in UKM these past two days. ICOSH is an acronym for “International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities”, truthfully, this is the first time  i attended an academic conference and was really excited about this event. I even did not get much sleep the night before the conference, as if i were suppose to present a paper in the morning. Sigh!..imagine if i were.

Initially, I wanted to support a friend of mine who presenting a paper during the conference, but end up supporting two friends after bumping into Azrul on the morning of the first day. It was a pleasant surprise, i have not seen Azrul since February this year in London, to be exact our last meeting was at the Eye on London. He was just arrived from Lancaster University a day before the conference begin and had to endure his jetlag throughout his presentation on the topic of “Multiculturalism, Ethnicity and Nation Building in Malaysia”.

About 198 presenters, from local and overseas institutions were schedule to present their papers during the two days conference via multiple parallel sessions. By the end of the 2nd day, I found out almost half of the scheduled presenters did not turn up for the conference. The papers was presented through the medium of English and Bahasa Melayu, which are fitting as UKM was established to preserve the heritage of our national language. I found out that only one paper was really on my research subject, the rest of the papers presented was quite interesting (some of them). Well it was a learning experiences and gave me some confidence to present my papers as early as next year. Wish me luck y’all…

Today's paper

What a surprise when i read the Star today, somehow i made the news. Watch the red arrow!

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/23/nation/5163546&sec=nation

Dukethon 2009 (E33 Highway)

I woke up very early this morning, the alarm went off at 5.15 am. The missus already woken up and that leave boboy still sleeping. After a quick shower, subuh prayer and light breakfast we were on our way to DUKE highway. Boboy was awake the entire journey from Kelana Jaya, he must be excited by our commotion this morning. We arrived at DUKE highway at around 6.30 a.m. (still dark – no sun yet) and from the look of things; we must be the early birds as not many cars arrived at the parking area around that time. I registered to run for Men Open (A) 5 km run, at first i registered Hisham bowling for this run earlier, but at last minutes he chicken out (found out later he went for Golfton@Bt.Kiara – he claimed).

Still dark sky when we arrived at 6.30 a.m.

 

More cars arrived much later.

Around 7.30 a.m. the runner are required to registered at starting point, Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor, Ministers of Energy, Water & Communication flag off the runners at 8.00 a.m. I found out later, around 2,000 runners registered for this Dukethon. I already warm up a little bit before that but the runs was extremely uncomfortable as i only can slow jog, i reserve my energy for the finish. My goal is to complete the run not to compete with other pro-runners, which we can differentiate by the singlet the wore (the amateurs like me, wore the t-shirt given by DUKE). I completed the 5 km run with the time of 30 minutes 44 seconds, too damn slow for a race or I'm getting too old this...don’t think so, age is just a number! Maybe i could better next year.

Arrived at the finish line.

Celebrating the completion of the run with boboy.

Dr. Jeong-Bae Son’s lecture

The flyer that i received stated “Postgraduate Colloquium”, but personally it’s really just a lecture. Today i attended Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jeong-Bae Son lecture on Research Design in UKM. It’s been a while, coz I've been doing my research at AEI and at home these past months. Dr. Jeong-Bae Son is from Korea but currently attach with the University of Southern Queensland in Australia.

For me it’s a refresher course, to remind me of the nitty gritty details of research process and design all over again, i need to see the small picture now and again coz I've been staring the big picture for much too long for my own good, it’s time to refresh and get back to the 1st step.

I enjoyed thoroughly the lecture, it started in the morning with the subjects of “Planning, Conducting and Reporting research”. Dr. Jeong-Bae Son gave us some useful exercise in the morning session, especially on how to formulate “Research Question(s)”, how to collect, analyse and interpret data and finally on how to write a research report. He also shared online resources and software to help us in our research, which is very useful for both Qualitative and Quantitative researchers.

The afternoon sessions was more on “Writing Academic English”, he shared with us the common mistakes that NNES (Non-native English Speaker) made in the thesis writings. The Academic English is so much different from the other English English..do you understand me Johnny English?

I wrote an email to Dr. Jeong-Bae Son for the slides presentations, if and when i do get them, I'll post it here for some of you (the interested ones).

5,000 km

I made an appointment for my 2nd service@Proton 3S Mutiara Damansara for Monday morning at 9.00 am, unfortunately on Sunday the missus received a sad call informing that one of her close relative had gone to see the maker. Innalillah..so i missed my service appointment as i only arrived in KL on Monday night. Next morning (Tuesday), i called all the major Proton service centre in Klang Valley; all are fully booked for service slots and they reminded me to book at least a day before…damn! This is like Europe, we have to make appointment for everything..we are losing our Malaysian ways..slowly.

Then i remembered to try the small but authorised Proton service shop. The nearest was at Sea Park (PJ), i called them up and I'm in luck as there were not many cars in the shop for servicing. The owner was waiting for me when i arrived at the small shop, although it is small but it’s been more than 20 years in the business. They took about 30-45 minutes to service my Exora and i was given free complimentary car wash at the end of the session. Well that’s it!! no more calling for appointment!, no more waiting for hours!, this is the shop for my Exora if i needed a minor service fix in the future.

Details and location:-

PJ Volcar Service Centre Sdn Bhd

No. 6, Jalan 21/19, Sea Park Shopping Complex, PJ.

Tel- 03.7877.6194

5,000km service cost

1. Engine oil – Petronas Syntium 800 4 Litre = RM97.00

2. Oil filter = RM12.22

3. Oil sum nut washer = RM2.52

4. Labour = FREE

5. TOTAL = RM111.74

Prepare to be amazed by Proton Exora as the cost of the maintenance is dirt cheap.

Garmin’s Malaysia Map

 

I bought a Garmin Nuvi 255W A-GPS (assisted GPS) unit early this year in Eire, it has a complete maps of all European countries, including United Kingdom. But when I'm back in Malaysia, i really do need a Malaysian map to get around and make use of the GPS unit.

Presently, Garmin have appointed Malsingmaps community as an official partner to update the latest maps for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. The good news is you can download these maps for free, provided you have the Garmin A-GPS unit. Just follow these simple steps (taken from malsingmaps forum):-

1. Download the zip files below (gmapprom1.img and gmapprom1.unl). Current version is MSM NT 2009.5. (2009.3 is now outdated)

2. Backup all existing map files in your unit. We are not responsible if you delete any of the files that came with your unit. Please be careful. Unzip the 2 files: (i) gmapprom1.img and (ii) gmapprom1.unl

3. Go to Garmin Singapore website to get your unl code. For Nuvi's you can find your GPSID under Tools - Settings - System - About. Other unit varies but you should be able to find it.

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/sg/home/CommunityMapUnlock

4. Double click the gmapprom1.unl file. It will ask you what program do you wish to use to open the file. Select "Notepad". Paste the 25-digit unlock code generated from Garmin website into the .unl file, then "Save". Some OS allow you to right click the unl file and edit the file. Same results either way.

5. Connect your GPS to the PC and browse its internal memory. There is a "Garmin". Copy over gmapprom1.img and gmapprom1.unl into that folder. Do not save it into the "Garmin" folder of your SD card. This map is referred throughout this site as MSM NT2009.XX General Release version.

6. You're done.

NT 2009.5 map

gmapprom1unl.zip [149 Bytes]

gmapprom1_2009.5.zip [13.36 MiB]

(download these two first)

Latest version NT 2009.30 maps (img format)

gmapprom1_2009.30.zip [14.16 MiB]

Happy 2nd Birthday Ameer @ Boboy

Today is my son 2nd birthday, times flies so fast nowadays, just remembered celebrating his 1st birthday just like yesterday. Anyway decided to celebrate his birthday by going up to Genting Highland and spend a night there. I think we wanted recreate our cold Irish weather experiences.

It was my first ride going to GH with my brand new Exora, the experience was a pleasant one. We had no problem going up to GH my Exora, i just stick to D (automatic gear) all the way, no need to play with number 3 or L gear, but you need the skills to use the D because i was going up to GH quite fast for an MPV.

We arrived around 2 p.m. and there was a thick fog welcoming us to GH, the temperature was around 15 degree Celsius, not that cold for me. We check-in to 1st world hotel and then stroll around GH, just spend the whole day inside the indoor theme park, coz it was raining outside later on in the afternoon. Well happy birthday Ameer, hopefully you remembered all these events when you’re older.

Heavy fog in Genting Highland that day

Handwritten

Mee Banjir Udang @ Kuala Sepetang

Yesterday, i took the family for a treat at Kuala Sepetang, Taiping. My brother and his family also joined our quest for the famous Mee Udang Banjir. We went for Mak Jah’s Mee Udang instead of others like Mak Teh, Kak Nor etc. Mak Jah’s place is just opened about four months but it does not disappoint us in terms of taste. Mak Teh’s Mee Udang is much established as it open years before, the Mak Jah’s Mee Udang place is located about 10 km from Simpang intersection going towards Kuala Sepetang road in Kampung Menteri Kuala Sepetang, it’s about 1 or 2 km after Mak Teh’s on the left side of the road. In addition, if you have a GPS gadget, just put this coordinate into your GPS 4.838866, 100.63804 and just follow the instructions.

 
Direction from Taiping to Mee Udang Mak Jah. View Mee Udang Mak Jah in a larger map.

We ordered the Mee Udang Biasa (RM7.00) and a jug of water melon juice, Mak Jah also serves Kue Teow and Fried Rice with Mee Udang. Our Mee Udang had about 10 normal size prawns and its delicious, next visit we pledge to try the Mee Udang Special (RM11.00) and other items in the menu. It’s worth a visit next time you visit Taiping the Heritage Town.

1,000 km

 

My Exora reached 1,000 km milestones when we went back from the TT Iftar with Exorian @ BSLN last Sunday. So it's time for her 1st service and I pre-emptively made an appointment a week ago for today service. I reached Proton Edar 3S, Mutiara Damansara @ 9.00 am, passed my service booklet at the service counter, the Proton staff asked me to sit down at the sofa and waited to be call later.

 

5 minutes later, an SA emerged and called out my name at the customer lounge. I directed the SA to my car and passed over my car key to him, he wrote something in his worksheet and passed a copy to me, and ask me to wait for SMS instruction before collecting my car, only after they completed servicing my Exora. Headed back to the customer lounge and pick up a spot for a nice morning nap, awaken later just before 11.oo am and a minute later received an SMS from Proton iCare, informing me to collect my car and pay for the service cost.

Details:
1. Oil change - MACH 5 SL 10W/30 - 1 LTR = RM18.00
2. Oil chnage -MACH 5 SL 10W/30 - 3 LTR = RM49.00
3. OIL FILTER = RM 12.22
4. GASKET PLUG - OIL DRAIN = RM2.52
5. SCREEN WASH = RM5.20
6. LABOUR = FREE
7. TOTAL COST 1st service 1,000 km= RM86.95

Exora needed 4 litres of Oil, that's the reason for two entry in my bill, quite a shock coz it's only cost me RM86.95 for the first service for an MPV, much more cheaper than other type of Saloon car - i.e. Naza Bistari 206..

I also complained about three things related to Exora.

1. "Kluk" and "Kluk" sound, everytime my car passed a bumper.

Action - SA informed me that SC do not have stocks and have requested for the parts, these spare parts will be install later to my front absorber to overcome this issue. SA suggest i do this for the 5,000 km service.

2. The air-con was not functioning correctly, somehow it's not cool now, compared when i first took delivery of the car.
Action - SC cleaned the air-con filter, solved the problem.

3. The LED for AFC, DTE indicators was not functioning, even after i pressed the button more than 5 seconds.
Action - SC reset the issue, back at home i retry this function, same problem persisted, damn gotta go back and complaints to iCare.

New Ride

Finally after almost three weeks of patience, my new ride have arrived and i can pick it up from the showroom in Proton Edar Mutiara Damansara today....yahooo!! I could not sleep well these past few days, excited to own new MPV. This morning at 10 am i registered the new MPV at JPJ Padang Jawa and later around 2 pm, i took the new car from my SA. Shiny new toys....mmmm

Yes i booked the latest model from Proton, the crown Jewel of Proton's 26 years of experiences producing Malaysian national car, the first MPV from Proton.

Specifications of my chosen model, its 1.6 Auto with M-Line Pyrite Brown colour (Proton Exora Automatic comes with Medium-Line and High-Line, differences of RM6,000). My SA told me that some of his customers booked the H-Line for this specific colour would have to wait for 3-4 months..lucky me. It cost me RM69,998 OTR, for H-Line model, you would be given a GPS, semi leather seats, an on-board DVD player, fog lamps and spoiler, pre-tinted windows. I already own a GPS (Garmin Nuvi 255W - bought in Eire, last Christmas) and i do not need DVD as it would make my new car a target for those drug-addict thief!

There are a lots of skeptics out there claiming to be Malaysian but condemn everything that associated with Proton. My views is simple, you work hard for your money and as a consumer you would prefer choosing the best quality in products, that's fine with me. If you choose foreign MPV, it would cost your around and maybe more than RM100,000...good luck that, that's your choice. But for me and other Malaysian that choose to support in buying Protons, we are not only buying our own brands and products made by Malaysian hands, we also empowering ourselves in building our economy by stopping our cash outflow to Japan, Korea and Europe. Constructive comments towards Proton are encourage as it will make Proton to evaluate its efforts and strategy. There is no such things as the perfect product, even with strict R & D routines, we might encounter some faulty products. Damaging comments from so called Malaysian Proton bashers is puzzling as it would make them look like moron complaining that their own shit smells (seperti meludah ke langit!).

Its time to enjoy my ride, well i really believe i deserved this as i been using my legs, my scooter and public transportation to get around these past 6 months...only god know what i've gone through.

Ramadan Greetings

My favourite month of the year is here again, Ramadan Al Mubarak is upon us. Malaysia will start fasting tomorrow (Saturday) as confirmed by the Keeper of the Royal Seal (Malaysia) - Tan Sri Engku Ibrahim Engku Ngah. Alhamdulilah, we are given another chance to enjoy and redeem ourselves in holy month of Ramadan. I would like to wish all Muslims a peaceful Ramadan, especially to all my friends, Muhad, Shuib, Izwan, Aqida and the rest of MyPsi group in Eireaan (Ireland start fasting early one day - Friday, and its still summer, a very long day and iftar is at around 9 pm, good luck guys, glad not gonna experience that!), Ipin, Idaham, Norli, Engku Nasrun and all the PERBARA and grup Kembara UUM members (are we gonna have PERBARA Iftar this year?), all my Customs friends, especially to my mate Rosslan Mohamed (how is the fasting month in Bangkok?), Anuar Ibrahim in Scranton, USA. Hopefully this will not be our last Ramadan together.

250 km : Distance Club

Today, i finally reached my goal - the 250km, the exclusive "distance running club", after more than 2 years of sweats, perseverance and two pairs of running shoes. I first started running and recording my runs with Nike iPod in 2007, i finally notched up this level today. Next target 1,000km...anyone care to join me :-)

Approved!

It's Friday and i am very happy today when i opened mailbox this morning, finally my application to write my theses in English at UKM was approved. Alhamdulillah! when i registered for my Ph.D course in UKM, i did not comprehend that UKM was established in 1970 to uphold the sovereignty of national language as medium for knowledge. Only foreign students are allowed to write theses in English at UKM, Malaysian student need to apply and justify their intention to UKM before they can write their papers in English, which are approved to very few students. In my case, i have no intention to downgrade my beloved Bahasa Melayu/Bahasa Malaysia, no offense but my research area is in International Relations and most of the important references are in English language; furthermore, most pioneer Universities in the world in the field of International Relations uses English language. Another barrier passed in my quest for Ph.D marathon, now it would be much easier for me as i already started compiling my research journals in English, imagine had to translate it all...phew

R.I.P. Michael Jackson

I am very sad today when i heard the news of Michael Jackson sudden death, although MJ and the United States of America was thousand miles away, his music touch deeply at our hearts here in Malaysia, especially my generation which had significant MJ's music influence in the 1980's. I am sad because MJ was part of me, part of teenage life, part of who i am today, part of my growing up years, part of my story and history, his music entertained me, made me happy and inspired my creativity. It is hard to imagine growing up without MJ's music, he surely was King of Pop, an icon and surely impossible to be replaced.

With MJ @ Madame Tussauds London

I remembered when "Thriller" album was out in 1982, i was about 10 years old, me and my two brothers aged 8 and 6 respectively, was crazy about MJ songs, especially "Beat it" and the video was frequently aired over the television and all we ever wanted is what MJ had in the video...the cool red jacket!! To be cool in those days, you need to be MJ, in order to be MJ, you need similar jacket that he wore in his music video. The Pasar Malam (Night Market) in Jalan Rejang, Setapak Jaya was raided by us the next Saturday, Abah end up with less cash when the three of us got our version of MJ Jacket from the bundle stall that night. That Jacket was magical to us, it made us feels like MJ..cool! We felt invincible! the best feeling in the world, for that thank you MJ....you made my childhood magical. Rest in peace Michael and may we also be at peace after this. You are definitely gone now, but your music will forever live...King of Pop.

Yuna EP

When I got back from ASEAN DG meeting this morning, i was greeted by a poslaju envelope in my mailbox.

 

I guess since i was not around for almost one week, the postman just put the envelope into the mailbox. Mmmmm..what could it be..yep my guess was right on the money!! It's the long awaited Yuna EP CD...yippi, now time enjoy the songs..i ordered online more than a week ago and i bought this through Yuna Myspace, cost RM18 plus RM5 for postage, which bring to a total of RM23...but its worth every cents.

 

Only one comment, what? no "Rocket" song? It should be in the full album!! period! But to soften my disappointment, Yuna autograph my CD as requested..well now that's priceless...(to me).

 

I just can't wait for the full album to be release, heard that Yuna and the band are busy in studio recording their full album. For all of you stalkers out there, i would recommend this songs by Yuna..won't be dissapointed, gotta go now to enjoy my new CD.

Thanks Yuna for the autograph

List of songs in the EP

18th ASEAN Customs DG Meeting

The Royal Malaysian Customs was chosen to be the host for this year prestigious ASEAN Customs Director-General Meeting.

 

This 18th Meeting of ADGM was held for three days, from 9-11 June 2009 and was officiated by Finance Minister II, Dato' Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah. This meeting was attended by all ten ASEAN Customs DG and delegates, i was attending this meeting as an observer for my research paper "Decision-Making in ASEAN Customs Fora".

 

The annual ASEAN DG Meeting is the highest platform of Decision-Making within ASEAN Customs community, which will report their outcomes to the ASEAN Economic Ministers (AEM) and in turn report to Heads of Nation in the ASEAN Summit.

The annual ASEAN DG Meeting is held to discuss outcomes to the recommendations made by Customs Coordinating Comittee (CCC), which also responsible for ASEAN Customs Working Groups, these includes Customs Capacity Building Working Group (CCBWG), Customs Enforcement & Compliance Working Group (CECWG) and Customs Procedures & Trade Facilitation Working Group (CPTFWG) plus ASEAN Single Window Steering Comittee (ASWSC). Apart from the common ASEAN DG Meeting to thrash out outstanding issues relating with Customs, this meeting also held Bilaterals with several parties, among them are - ASEAN Customs-Japan Customs, ASEAN Customs -China Customs, ASEAN Customs - Rep. of Korea Customs and ASEAN Customs - US Business Council.

Program Book

RMC DG, Finance Minister II & ASEAN DDG

With Hisham (DG Special Officer) & Jainon (Customs Attache Jakarta)

With Haizam (MC extraordinaire)