The 4 Associates

Just realized that some of my friends are realizing their dreams already. Which leaves me in their wakes! ARGH!

Anyway, that's no reason why I shouldn't promote them.

Http://www.4associate.com. A website that was co-built (I think) by my 2 mates, Nazri and Wan Amrul. These blokes have been in the forefront of creativity since they were born I guess. I knew Nazri since he was a kid, and he's been drawing and doodling quite nice stuff ever since. And now he's starting to show his talent with his Canon camera... and keeps buggin me to buy an SLR. LOL!

Wan... ok, this guy came a bit later (wayy later) and bothered my life by being one of the part-time lecturers at University Putra Malaysia (teaching Intro. To Multimedia). Never knew him personally until a few months ago.

Anywayz, just to inform that if anyone is interested to get photographers for your event (weddings, dinners or what ever), these are the guys... and gal :) Cuz there's also one talented firl in their group. They boast quite impressive portfolios, and by personally knowing them, I can personally vouch for them (am I using the vouch word correctly here...).

But their services are... domestic I guess. Domestic meaning, in Malaysia (both East and West)and also Brunei. To know more about them, you can simply fo to http://www.4associate.com. Not exactly a complete website (yet), but for information or queries, you can just email info@4associate.com.

Photography with passion uh guyz? :)

My poor daughter

For the past two day and a half, my daughter has been suffering from fever and diarrhea. It's quite challenging actually, when you have to consider the delicate condition that she's in. Being a baby at 7-months old, I and my wife have to be very2 careful and gentle when lifting her up, giving her medicine, and also when sponge bathing her.

It all started two nites back, at about 3 am in the morning, when she started to poo in her diapers. Not the usual one at six am... but we weren't that worried. Just washed her up, changed her diaper and went back to bed. The next morning, at about 12pm, when I came home from work to get some lunch, her conditioned worsened where blisters started to develop. This was painful for her because when washed, she cried so loudly that it made my heart fall :(

This was followed by fever and also some more diarrhea.

Upon advice, I and my wife decided to go a general practinioner doctor. There, we received not so convincing advice. Plus, the doctor didn't even bother to take her temperature. But I'm not blaming or lambasting him or anything. It's just that he thought the child had a normal fever... and that probably he could tell based on experience.... So we went home with two bottles of medicine... one for the fever (an orangy type liquid medicine) and also one for the diarrhea.

That nite, she her stool had some blood in it. It was like 2 o'clock in the morning. This was rather worrying for first time parents like us, so we went straight to Putrajaya Hospital's Emergency clinic. There were no paediatricians, so again we had to settle for a GP. The doctor (about the same age as us according to my wife) again gave a diagnosis almost similar to the first GP that we saw. But this time, she included a cough medicine.... Ok... Now what's that about :(

The next day, my baby's temperature was not getting any better. This prompted me to go straight to a specialist... which now I know... is the first thing I should have done. We went there and got a diagnosis that was different. My daughter was suffering from Tonsilitis! Her tonsils were all swollen!!! Plus, the doctor (whom if I might add was SUPER NICE!!!) gave some tips and views about a child at 7-months age.... We ended up with some antibiotics and also with a sample of lactose free milk.

From this experience... I will know that GO STRAIGHT TO A SPECIALIST!
Of course the fee would be a bit higher (it was RM77... but it was worth the piece of mind) but it's my child's well being here... :)

Oh... and the irony was... if you wanna call it ironic.... (dont quite know how to use the word fully)...

My child turned 7-months old yesterday on the dot. And both of us (I an d my wife) were born in 1977.... the bill from the doctor was also the two nice numbers of 7 and 7.
LOL!... :) I just found that a bit amusing :) And coincidental...

But hey... all's well now I hope. My daughter's recovering, and hopefully recover fully by today or tomorrow :)

Ok. Now back to work for me :)

Cheerios!

Transformation - I need to look at this pic EVERYDAY!

Been doing my weght-loss program for the past week. And have to say that things are going quite well. Even though not 100% to the tee, at least I'm still going to the gym, doing my cardio (not at full intensity though) and also TRYING to eat sensibly. Heck, I just bought 2 kilos of chicken breast for Ringgit Malaysia 16.00 at a Hyper-Runcit shop :P 8 bucks per kilo... Now I think that's quite a good deal, compared to the chicken breasts you get at Carrefoure... The last time I saw, it was on "offer" at RM12++ per kilo. gulp...

Anyway, the main post today is regarding the picture below. The transformation from FLAB to FAB! (Flabby or FAT to FABULOUS!). Again I'm refering to this Jeremy Likness guy, because most of his experiences, during his FAT-TO-FIT-TO-FAT_again years, are very-very similar to mine. They only difference is that he's already achieved his dream... his goal of life time fitness!


He started out at the left-most part, where he was 65 pounds overweight. Then after 3 months, he lost all the unwanted kilos. But!!! As life progressed, the guy gained back some (if not all) of the weight. That's when he decided to Become The Journey. Instead of just viewing weightloss as a process (or a 12 week program as many would), Jeremy decided to make it his lifestyle. A lifestyle of being fit and happy! A lifestyle of enjoying healthy food, healthy activities, and overall... well... a healthy lifestyle :)

He's now got his own company at Natural Physiques.com and he's teaching people just this in his audio program as well as his book.

Anyway, I myself see this as inspirational... Plus, the fact that he went from FAT to FIT... and then back to FAT again... and REdiscovering himself to get back to FIT... is really really really inspirational. Plus I can RELATE to that quite strongly. For that's what I went through when I went from 83 kilograms to 74. Then back to 76... down to 68. And now back at 78. I now know that I need a change of THINKING. Instead of viewing this whole weight thing as a process... or as a mere program... I might as well view it as a change of lifestyle. One that would change my habits and also thinking towards life... excercise and fitness... and most importantly... food :P But most importantly... I want to change my mindset. That's the number one thing I reckon. If I stay with the old mindset, if I get lucky, I'd be back to FIT in no time. But then, after two months or so, I'd be back on the train to flabbiness... No way JOSE!!!

Anywayz....

For kemaruk's sake (hehehe), I'll just put that pic again down here. Mana la tau, in case any of you get the urge to follow in his footsteps... :)

And... Oh... for those of you who are afraid of bulking up... Dont worry. It's not like when you go to the gym and lift weights, you get them muscles stragith away. NO!!!

You can go and lift all you want, but without proper training and diet, those muscles wont come out :) Plus, you can control how much muscle you build. So dont worry about getting to big... or Ber Ketul Ketul.

It's the same thing as getting FAT. You can determine how fat you wanna get.... But with fat, its usually the food that does the convincing. LOL!

Cheers!

Body For Life (BFL) - FOR WOMEN

Ok. Now I didn't know about this. BFL For Women? I guess the one developed by Bill Phillips wasn't universal enough! LOL! :P But heck, it sure did help lots and lost of fat and thin souls. Plus, this BFL for women book must target some other areas us men don't know.

Anyway, just to point anyone who's interested in the right direction. BFL For Women can be found here at Amazon.com.

I can comment about Body For Life for Men... even though it was not stated that the program was meant for men only, the program mainly focuses one 2 things.

1) How to eat properly,
2) How to excercise properly (Weights and Cardio / Aerobics).

That's basically what you need in order to lose that gut haning over your tummy :) Men or Woman. But I have to say, if you wanna lose weight, this program will deliver (if followed to the tee!). But if its muscle that you're looking for (without supplements and steroid), other programs perform better such as MuscleNow and also Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle.

Anywayz, for you girls out there :) The BFL For Women might just be the ticket you've been looking for. Give it a try and tell me how it goes. Only then can I give an honest review :)

Cheerios!!!

Journey Towards My Dreams - Bill, Francesco and Jeremy... but most important ... ALPYAN!!!

Ok. The main dream that's been eluding me for the past few years (if not all my life) is to obtain a muscular body. Some have seen me lose weight, and those very same people have also seen me gain it back (whether they realize it or not). But the fact remains that, I have grown back into the pathetic physical being I once was. A 78-kg piece of lump, waiting to reach 79 (and after that 80, 81, 82, God Forbid 83!!! and so on and so on).

The thing is.... :(

I already know HOW to lose this weight. What to do in terms of training and choosing the right food. But still, I fall into the chasm again and again and again. It's been three attempts as I can remember....

FIRST SUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT - THE BODY FOR LIFE CHALLENGE

The first came back way in late 2000. I stood at 83 kilos, feeling absolutely sluggish and ... heavy of course. Not at all in the form of my dreams. But hey, those were the days where most people started to put on a few pounds. After university, get a job and START GETTIN' HEAVYYYYY!!!!
Anywayz... I managed to conjure up some courage to go on the Body For Life programme. Long story short, I brought my weight down to around 74 I guess. BRAVO! Almost 10 kilos! That's SATU GUNI BERAS already! Was getting lots of compliments from friends and family who haven't seen me in a long time, and also felt absolutely GREAT in jeans and pants with waist measurements of 33 to 34 inches. (I was 37 before that).... That certainly was a lovely feeling, after years and years struggling to get my weight down and trying to fit into my high-school outfits. LOL!

But the came the "demise"... From 73-74 kilos, I managed to climb the ladder, almost al the way to 76 or 77 I guess. I was losing sight. I was losing the way... Not to say thet Body For Life was a failure... More to say that I was failing.... and falling. But the thing was... I wasn't falling DOWN! I was falling UP! Up the weight scale!!!

SECOND ATTEMPT - MUSCLENOW (1)

Actually, I had this programme before Body For Life. But I didn't follow it for I thought it was too strict. Kind'a dumb considering the price I paid for it. Anyway... After 'failing' at BFL, I was sent to do my Masters at Monash University Australia. There, I thought I'd start out new, and with another program just for variety's sake. So, I decided to try out my MuscleNow programme. Whoa!!! Was I in for the greatest surprise of my life for procrastinating on such an EXPLOSIVE PROGRAMME! I went from 74-75 kilos, all the way down to 68 kilos! I mean... that's like 7 kilograms. It did take me a few months though... but the duration was alsmost the same as BFL.

But... yes... again I succumbed to worldly temptations... and fell off the fitness-horse. And it was gonna be quite a while after that for me to get back up! Went back to 76 kilos.

THIRD ATTEMPT - MUSCLENOW (2)

Same programme, same routine. I did this after almost 3 months of the horse. It's actually not that common to go all the way back up to 76 kilos from 68! I mean... yeah... I was OVER INDULGING in food! I was eating like a horse + pig + musk rat + hyeina + lion all combined! But fortunately, due to the training I received through MuscleNow, my body reacted quite differently than before, whereby some of the food actually turned into muscle! LOL! I can't explain this. It just happened.

Anyway, again, after two months on the programme, and after achieving some muslce growth... again I took a "rest". I was down to 73 kilos, with quite some muscle and low bodyfat. But... like I said... I took a "rest". Now... this one was longer.

Since the fitness-horse was getting leaner and bigger (as I increased in size as well as reduced bodyfat), I found it hard to get back up.... Argh!!! The agony of climbing back onto a tall horse! :( ... This, was to be the closest-to-death experience I've ever had (fitness wise that is).

Up till now, (21st Dec 2005), I am finding it hard to get back on that horse. Every day I try to push. But still, other tempations take over. The horse is slowly walking away, leaving me behind without a ride. And I'm just scared that one day, the horse might vanish forever... leaving me with a flabby-physique... and also a fat tummy to keep me company.

From LAST WEEK onwards - FOURTH ATTEMPT!!! I'm Sticking my Neck Out By Posting This You Know...

ARGH!!! I WILL BE FAT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE????? I WILL BE FLABBY UNTIL THE DAY I SEE THE THE TWO 'EXAMINERS' OF THE GRAVE? WILL IT JUST SUFFICE BY BEING 'NORMAL???'

NO WAY!!!

THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! FOR I WILL PREVAIL! AND GOD WILL BE MY PRIMARY WITNESS AND OF COURSE, INSYA-ALLAH...WISH-GRANTER! FOR I SHALL SHOW TO MYSELF (and the world if you guyz are interested. LOL!), THAT I TOO CAN BE LIKE BILL PHILLIPS, FRANCESCO CASTANO and JEREMY LIKNESS (ok, I didn't write about his guy here, but here's his link anyway).

And... wish me luck oso ya my family and frens :) hehehehe. I lub U all.

Okie :) Whoa. Long post jugak iye?

Liverpool (0) - Sao Paolo (1)

Last night, at around 8++ pm (or so I think it was), I turned on ASTRO channel 81 (or wa it 82). Anyway, it was the Sports channel, and I was hoping to see a victorious Liverpool.
First of all, I didn't know the name of the CUP final they were playing in, but I do know from a friend that it's something about being the best club in the world?

Anyway... first and foremost, I'd like to congratulate Liverpool, the club I've been supporting since the era of John Barnes, Peter Beardsly, Ian Rush, Steve Mc Mahon and also Bruce Grobellar. It's been an up and down journey for the past few months, and it seems that they've gotten their act together by reaching this cup final (against Sao Paolo of Brazil).

Ok, back to the turning on of the TV ... :) What I saw was quite devastating. For the scoreline depicted 1-0 against Liverpool And it was already the 89th minute. Darn! Another loss... :( And indeed the score remained till the end. Liverpool had lost.... again... Liverpool, the club I support... had lost :( It was kind of frustrating.... But then i remembered that... I shouldn't just judge the cover by the book.... So I waited around to see the match highlights.

Whao! It seemed that my team did quite a lot of attacking. Quite a few nice chances and also a few good saves made by the Sao Paolo keeper (whoever his name is). And after looking at the football match statistics, it showed that Sao Paolo only had 2 shots on target (1 obviously went in... there goes Reina's clean sheet. LOL!). Whereas Liverpool had like... more than 10 I think?
Shots on goal... I remember clearly that Sao Paolo had only 4! Liverpool had like... 24 or 27? But none of those went in. :( Sad story... but hey, that's football... and life.... and netball.... and also basketball... and also badminton and every other sport... am I making sense here?)

Again I'd like to stress that I did nort see the match. But based on the stats... I would imagine that Liverpool went down with a fight. An unfair fight that is. Dominated by them, but takdir had it that the ball ended up in their net. Not a familiar feeling for Pepe Reina I'd imagine, since before this he went 10 games without seeing his net shatter.

Anywayz, I'd like to congratulate Liverpool fottball club for going this far. Yes... this trophy has slipped from our grasps... but like they say... There's always next year.... mmmm... is there? I mean, this cup, is it an annual thinggy? Hehehehehe.

Ok Liverpool... YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!

Liverpool - Still Winners

Protein Powder - Saje nak story. Tak tau apa nak pos!!! :(

Ok. I've been looking at this one protein powder brand that I bought a couple of months ago. The brand is EAS 100% WHEY PROTEIN!

What it states on the packaging of the big botol is:

• 23 grams of HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN
• only 2 GRAMS of carbohydrates
• High concentration of BCAAs

Whey Protein is... what aa... Hold on. I'll go and look for what it really is. Dont want to give false information. :)

======================

Whey Protein:

• The first step in making cheese is to curdle the milk. The whey is the watery liquid that separates from the curds. In the nursery rhyme, little Ms. Muffet was scared by a spider as she sat "eating her curds and whey", in other words, cottage cheese. Whey is a waste-product of cheese making. When dried and powdered, it is considered a good source of protein - www.muellercenter.rpi.edu/Glossary.asp

• This nutrient is a high quality source of protein, which contains large amounts of amino acids and supports the immune system and healthy muscle tissue. - www.nutribest.com/glossary.html

• Whey protein is the name for a collection of globular proteins that can be isolated from whey, a by-product of cheese manufacture from cow's milk. It is a mixture of beta-lactoglobulin (~65%), alpha-lactalbumin (~25%), and serum albumin (~8%), which are soluble in their native forms, independent of pH - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whey_protein

Whey Protein Isolate:

• Is when the whey protein is filtered to remove any LACTOSE and any FAT, plus what little carbohydrate is in the original protein.
  www.alacarb.com/glossary.html

======================

Ok... now that's cleared up... Let me just rethink what I wanted to post in the first place....

AH!

Ok... :)

I've been looking at people who're beginning to go to the gym. Doesn't matter if it's to lose weight or to gain mass. The first thing that MOST do is go to GNC and look for fat burners and protein powders. These have been like the MAGICAL DUST, that when you consume it, makes your fat melt away (for fat burners) and also make you as big as HULK (for the protein powder).

But the thing is... from what I've experienced... fat burners are rip-offs (and sometimes hazardous to health), and protein-powders are just the powdery representative of natural protein sources such as meat, dairy and soy :)

Ok, let's focus on protein powder here since I don't have concrete facts to bash fat burners :)

Protein powders do not have the magical properties to make people get bigger. That's the greatest myth in body building. Of course to build muscle, you'd need to consume protein. But what protein powders provide, despite the extraordinary claims, is basically the same of what natural sources provide :) The only advantage of this powdery supplement is that they are EXTREMELY convenient to prepare and carry around :) That's basically it! Other than that... other claims pertaining to increased muscular development and increased metabolism are absolutely crap! If indeed they can provide those effects... then that's not protein powder...
that's STEROIDS! ... Now, you won't wanna become a DURG abuser would you.

(Steroids however are allowed to a certain extent in Wrestling and also Pro Body Building)

Anywayz...

Just in case anyone decides on switching from chicken to protein powder.... this post might be useful :)

Cheers!

PS:- This guy is a totally natural bodybuilder. You might also wanna check his comments regarding protein powders as well :) Cheers!

Takaful on Google

I looked for the definition of Takaful on GOOGLE.

Got this:

"“The basic fundamentals underlying the Takaful concept are very similar to cooperative and mutual principles, to the extent that the cooperative and mutual model is one that is accepted under Islamic Law."

Betul la tu kan?

Terel aa Google ni.

hehehehe.

Better Bad Choices - The Jeremy Likness Philosophy

This morning I had a wake up call... AFTER I ACTUALLY WOKE UP!

I was dressing up for work, when I felt something was not right. I felt as though I was being squeezed to the bone... ok... maybe not the bone... but an uncomfortable squeezing sensation in my hip (close to tummy) area. Then I saw the bad news.

I was GETTING BACK TO WHERE I STARTED!
My waist is slowly going back towards 36"-37”. Argh! This was my waist in 1998! I thought I got rid of it.

Dang....

But... I know that the one to blame is I :) This is a direct result of a few "synergistic" factors...:

1) Over-eating (Or eating the wrong types of foods)
2) Not-exercising (Or exercising just once and then leaving it all up to hope)
3) Persistence of indiscipline (An interesting combination of words...)

Add all of that up... what d'ya get???

A LAZY FAT ASS whose gonna become one of the 'normal' people! The 'normal' people who in their teens are in the best shapes of their lives... and after that go to college or university and start to deteriorate slowly... and after that get fat when they start working... and after marriage!!! Can't even see yer toes becuz of the bulging bulk of blob (which is another way to explain pot-belly).

ARGH! I am getting fatter! No excuse there. Ironically... I'm also getting better at giving people advice on how to get thinner. HAHAHAHA!!! Darn... I'm also turning into the 'normal' people who dont walk-the-walk...don't talk-the-talk. :(

Hmmmmmm....

Anyway... I think you all know that the above is OLD STORY :)
Hehehehe.

What I want to push here is the fact that I listened to a free CD from Jeremy Likness, and it sort’ a put my life into perspective. Jeremy Likness by the way is an acclaimed author; fitness expert and coach and also creator of the revolutionary course LOSE FAT NOT FAITH!

At first, I thought this would be like any other motivational CD I've listened to. All the wonderful advice... but how the hell to implement I also don no lah!

But it turned out to be really really relevant to my life. I mean... the fact that I had to change my eating habits is of course very very true. But Jeremy shared his experience of how he converted from a McDonalds Super-Size Value Meal freak... to a raw-veggie healthy food master! (... Ok. I dont expect you to understand what I meant by the latter)... :P

He also shared about choosing what he says are... better-bad-choices. Hmmm.... That sounds a bit confusing yet interesting you must say. But hey... when I think of it... it's absolutely 100% true.... Let me explain...

LIFE is gonna happen no matter what. And with LIFE comes challenges :) When you embark on your weight loss or probably muscle-gain journey, you will be faced with 'challenges'... And the thing is... if these challenges are not dealt with, you are BOUND to fail.

This is where better-bad-choices comes in.

Let's say you're on a program that promotes healthy eating and exercise. And let's say that, one night, you get invited to a friend's house for his birthday party. Naturally, you won't get any healthy food there :) It's gonna be high-sugar-high-fat galore!

Now you are faced with a dilemma. What do you eat? And since you're on a tight regime, what do you do? The normal case would be ...

Hmmm... I'm on this diet. And if I eat that cake and that pizza, I'm straying away from it. Hmmmm... Oh well... it's just one night. Might as well just stuff myself with whatever's around and start afresh tomorrow... Yeah! I'll do just that :)

This actually happened to me once. The sad thing is... it BROKE the discipline that I built along the months. After the first meal I cheated again... and then again... and the again. I just made the wrong choice!... the BADdest-choice :(

But I learnt from Jeremy that it's OK to make bad choices... just make them better :)
Since you're in a situation where healthy food is not available... just take in as few 'bad' food as you can. Instead of eating the whole pizza, just take one slice. Instead of binging on that chocolate cake, eat just a small part of it. And if you can't resist the other stuff like Jelly, Nuggets, Sausages etc... Try taking small bits of each. That way, you can be assured that you've tried everything :) Thus you won't feel that you missed out! PLUS! When you get home, you won't have that stuffed feeling when you over eat :)

Anyway... that's among some of the things I learnt through Jeremy's CD. It is FREE in a sense you don't have to pay for it. But there's still the delivery fee. :P and that doesn't go to Jeremy. It goes to the postal people. Hence the term FREE :)

Ok. That's all I wanna write about today.

As for my hips and stomach... it's gonna get smaller. And I can assure you readers who know me personally... by January, the size ain't gonna be 36 or 37. Please expect me to be in my low 30s :) HAR!

I WILL!!!

And I have started! :)

Just wait to see the results!

BETTER BAD CHOICES! That's one philosophy I will ALWAYS keep in mind.

Always made the BADDEST CHOICE! Now all I have to do is make them better :)
hehehehe.

(For more information on Jeremy Likness, simply click here)

I was in the toilet, and when everything finished....

Ok. I was really really in the toilet.
And when I finished... something amazing happenned.

My handphone rang, and I was talking to...

a MAYBANK representative!!!

I firstly want to apologize to that particular staff... Bala if I'm not mistaken :)
It was actually me who picked up the phone in the first place. When I saw "Private Number" displayed on the screen, I thought you were one of my friends who were promoting their MLM companies. So, I disguised my voice a bit :) It was actually me all along :) Just to get things cleared up.

Anyway, Bala told me that Maybank took the matter seriously. And how did they find out about my Maybank2U issue? ... Well, it seems that, according to Bala, he read my blog? Whoa! Got Maybank customer satisfaction people surfing the net aa? Very2 good lorrr... :)

Anyway, Bala apologized for the whole incident. He told me that the matter was very seriuos for them, and assured me that it was being dealt with. Bala also confirmed to me that action has been taken against the first lazy-good-for-something-but-i-dont-know-what support staff , and that the helpful one has been complemented.

I would like to applaud Bala, as well as Maybank and Maybank2U for really2 taking care of their public relations as well as customer satsifaction. Getting back after just a few of hours after the blog post is mighty efficient! And also not to mention very-very tremendously surprisingly wonderful!!! :) (Am I over-Englishing here? hehehehehe)

Maybank certainly has a way with customers, and I understand now that this is probably one of the reasons why its one of the top banks in Malaysia :) And also in Asia.
(I saw the statistics in one of the talks held at the Kem Biro Tata Negara).

Two thumbs up for Maybank :) This is what I call.... "FIRST CLASS MENTALITY that delivers FIRST CLASS SERVICE AND FACILITIES!"

Cheers and Assalamualaikum WBT

BIRO TATA NEGARA (Ba-Thee-Nun)

Assalamualaikum :)

From the 8th to 12th December 2005, me and my wife were "forced" to attend a course by Malaysia's Biro Tata Negara (Country's Biro of ... Tata?). 8th to 12th???!!! Darn... That's a long 5 days and 4 nights! ... I was simply NOT looking forward to it. So to was my wife... But who were we to object. It's a requirement for those who want to pursue their degree's overseas...

Anyway, this course was designed for Masters and PHD students before they 'flied' abroad. It didn't matter if you're going to China, German, New Zealand, Australia, England, Netherlands or even Jordan,... if you wanna leave the country... then you have to attend the course.

I was expecting... Early morning wake up calls... I mean like 5 am latest! Late nite Roll Calls... Army like 'kawad'... Pissed off ex-commandos as trainers.... and smart-ass fascilitators!!! Arghhhh!!! This was not a fun thing to even imagine....

So, I and my lovely wife packed our separate bags, and drove of tu KEM ULU SEPRI, REMBAU, NEGERI SEMBILAN...

-------------------

THE ARRIVAL

We started off early to avoid any unnecessary traffic congestions. It took us around 1 hour ++ to reach the place.

Chaitz... below 91 km. Cannot jamak qasar la like this. Hueh hueh hueh

Reached the camp at around 8:30 am. We were one of the earliest. There were a few people before us. The camp was a very secluded area. Surrounded by high-reaching trees, the environment was very very cool and relaxing. It was even a good place to build a resort I thought. LOL!

But I wasn't about to let my guard down. ARGH!

EXPECT THE WORST SOLDIER! YOU'RE IN A BTN COURSE!!!

Thus I prepared my mental to expect the worst.

At the receptionist desk, we were greeted by an ex-commando (we found out about the commando thing later in the day). He was extremely polite :) More polite than the Maybank2U Telephone Support Staff... LOL! He gave us each bed sheets, pilow cases and blankets.Looked very-very comfi.

In my mind...

A good intro before the torture begins. Har har di har har har, SAYZ I!!!

After that, me and my wife went separate ways. I went to dorm 4A1, and she went to 5A1... boys and girls must separate :)

-------------------

THE INTRODUCTION

After a few hours, the camp was filled with fellow BTN'er. Most were academcians, but there were also Medical Doctors, Vets and also one very-very 'distinguished' Tenaga Nasional Berhad engineer... mmm... a lady she was :) An AMOI to be more speficic. :)

Everyone was dressed in white with dark blue or black trousers/long skirts. Like SCHOOL KIDS some more. There we sat... in the hall... waiting for the torture to begin....

I can only remember during my school days when the Kem Bina Negara was held. Not my favourite days of college I'd say. :P

Then it started!!!!!

The HEAD FASCILITATOR came forth and.... started speaking....

More to mumbling at timesss.... Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

-------------------
to be continued... :)

Maybank2U Support ... My story :)

I would like to share an experience that was rather... enlightening as well as initially frustrating.

It all happened on the 25th of November, around 7:31 pm. I was a bit feeverish, but I had to stay back at the office because of the I.S.O. thinggy, as well as other admin stuff. At the end of the day, the feever was getting worse, and my wife (who was with me at the time) advised me to call it a day. I agreed,... but had to do some online banking before we head back.

So, I paid some credit card bills, checked my balances and thought of buying prepaid for Celcom. But the prepaid minimum limit for Celcom is RM200... Ther're no more RM50 coupons. Yikes... Can't buy that, for I might risk having a near zero balance at the end of the month. So decided to call it quits... and drive back home.

Suddenly, it occurred to me that I had more balance than previous months (due to the government bonus). So I decided to transfer some extra cash to Lembaga Tabung Haji... Yeps, you can do that thru Maybank2U nowadays... the magic of online banking. But of course there's a charge... in all its RM1.50.. kot? Anyway, it makes life a WHOLE LOT easier!!! :)

....A bit drowsy from the paracetamol, I went thru the menus one by one...

Online Bill Payment
Registered Payments
... etc etc etc

After all that, I was under the impression that I was doing a TABUNG HAJI transaction.
The letters that I saw for the payee were T and A. So, I concluded it was Tabung Haji. Need to remember, I was feeverish and groggy at the time... so at least I have an excuse! LOL! :P
So, wihout looking... I confirmed the RM380 transfer.... Yeps... Up until CONFIRMATION!!!

Then I realized....

MOTHER GRANDFATHER!!!! (Mak Datuk)...

Tabung Haji? ... Isn't the payee name supposed to start with the letter L for Lembaga Tabung Haji?

It turned out to be that, I did a transaction to Takaful Nasional.... which by the way, was no longer active. I had changed to Takaful Ikhlas.

Argh!!! What to do. I called my agent... but he was Takaful Ikhlas. I called Khairul Fitri, but he couldn't do anything depsite being a Takaful National agent.

End result (which should have been my first).... I decided to call Maybank2U customer support line.

And it was then, after going through the menus, that I managed to get a Bahasa Melayu support staff. He sounded ok, but not the normal user-friendly voice you might wanna hear from telephone customer support.

I explained to him my scenario... and his reply was something like this...

Alamak... Macam mana boleh macam tu Encik. Kalau dah CONFIRM, kami memang dah tak boleh nak buat apa. Encik kena deal dengan Takaful Nasional. Internet transaction ni, tak boleh nak reverse. Sebab Encik sendiri dah confirm. Lain kali slow-slow sikit buat tu...

With myself being feeverish, reluctantly I said OK and put down the phone. Thinking of calling Takaful Nasional in the morning. But I was still a bit dazed and light frustrated by his comments of telling me to slow down while doing the transaction.

When driving home, it occurred to me...

Darn! Nothing they could do? Could it be that my RM380 is doomed in the Takaful Account that I am no longer using? (I havent cancelled it though, becuz I lost some of the important coduments. Will cancel it later).

The drive home was quiet. Me and my wife, were puzzled by the support staff's answer.
In our heads... we thought... how could this be. Takkan la Maybank tak buleh buat apa apa kot?

After reaching home... I prepared myself for bed, as I knew that I had to rest to get the feever off... and to sweat myself to good health :)

SUDDENLY! I remembered that the next day was gonna be Saturday. All banks and private isntitutions are gonna be closed!

Darn!!!

I decided to call Maybank2U support one more time. This time, I was gonna select the English support option. Cuz from my experience, all of them are very2 nice :) Plus, I sort of implemented Forst Gump's philosophy...

Life is like a box of chocolate. You never know what you're gonna get.
Who knows? I might get someone who could help?

GOD willing, I got an Indian guy. I told him about my predicament. I did not tell him about the previous support staff, just went along and told him my problem.

SURPRISINGLY and THANKFULLY!!! He told me not to worry, and said that he was gonna lodge a report for me. He also waited almost 10 to 15 minutes for me to get the details of the transaction... (It took me that long becaue I had to power up my laptop + wait for my wireless network to connect properly).
And even though it seemed like infinity... the guy NEVER complained. I apologized a few times for the delays, but he kept his cool and continued filling in the details for his report. (Well, at least that's what I think he was doing cuz I heard the keyboardtapping)

Another thing also, he was also very assuring... saying that everything WILL be resolved, and that I need not to worry...
But indeed I was, becuz I kept recalling what the Malay language support guy told me.
.
.
.
After a few chits and chats :) I was reassured that Maybank will do the dirty work for me. The guy lodged the completed report... and told me it would take some time before my issue would be resolved...All I had to do was wait.

Now... this was a 180 degree turn from what the previous support staff mentioned. I mean... was he too damn lazy to even lift a finger to help me?
He told me that it was almost impossible to get my money back... but when in reality, I could!

Man...

This means that some people really2 suck at their job. They treat it as a runaway job for them by which they just sit down and take calls without solving them.
I wish I remembered the name of that guy so that I could sue the living daylights out of him.

Today, even thinking of it makes me wanna squeeze his brains out.

...
..
.

Anyway,,,, today I got my cheque for RM380, and it was a Takaful cheque. :)
I am happy. I am thankful for the support staff who took me step by step on how to solve my problem. I thank him for the report he submitted. My friend, your salary is well earned. And I wish you all the best! May life hold the BEST for you! And I am sure, you will be rewarded by GOD one way or another. What goes around, comes around. You're support made me get my money back. And I am indeed very very very thankful. FOUR THUMBS UPfor you my friend. (I am including all my thumbs here as you can imagine... LOL!)
Even though it's only RM380... that's still money well earned. 380 as a matter of fact is quite a hefty sum for me.

I am thankful firstly to ALLAH for giving the permission to slove this issue through the Maybank2U support.

Now for that other guy... you can continue to eat your non-berkat gaji. You are indeed a lazy mother toot-er. I don't know what went through your mind that night, but you almost made me lose trust in Maybank. Thankfully, the English support made things better.

I also wish that you wake up after smelling the shit oozing from your arse... for its a smell of eating un-berkat food from your haram money.

Ok... now that was harsh. hehehe. Sorry.
Anywayz... may U insaf and contohi the other support staff who did a MARVELOUS job.
The world is a better place with him around.

Ok... I know these two Maybank people might not even read this post. But... just to share a story... in a dramatic manner.

hueh hueh hueh :)

Bubbaiii

ARGH!!!

DArn!!!

I had a great idea of what to write about just now after looking at
Mary's website

Suddenly buleh TERLUPA

Gosh

Me memory is getting bad la now :(

I will come back when I remeber

Else, I'll post about the BTN I attended :)
I enjoyed it btw :P

LOL!

Congratulations Khairul Fitri

Alhamdulillah.

Khairul Fitri, all-time Liverpool suporter, avid rugby player, very-very slow eater.... (hehehe)
has been blessed by god with a baby boy (I've been told)

I wish to extend my congratulations to Fitri for he has now become a father!
And Ju (his wife) a mother :) Welcome to the world of parenting my friends. I too am a new parent,
and I and my wife am finding the whole thing quite a joyous experience.

Our baby, Nadiah Farhanah Alfian is a handfull, and I can just imagine what my parents (her grandma and granddad) go through when we're at work.

Anyway... Again, welcome to the Wonderful World of Parenting Fitri and Juriah.

AKU NAK NENGOK ANAK KAU MAMATTT!!!!
Letak la gambo kat blog. hehehehe :)

Targeted Google Ads at PIPOT

Just to review one of my friend's websites.

He's done a very2 good job at attracting traffic. Cuz I think today, there's like a few thousand hits per day. And all if this done out of passion.

Darn!!! Good on you Wawa.

Even the ads that he posts are very very targeted. All relating to mountain bikes, endurance training, triathlon related and other stuff.

For a taste of a triathlete's life, and also to see very2 targeted google adsense, goto http://www.pipot.com :)

Have fun!

Football at a glance

Last nite was wonderful.

Liverpool 3 - Wigan 0

Liverpool played quite brilliantly. Passing the ball with confidence. Good overall control of the match. Took chances when presented.

Peter Crouch... man, I was thinking about him making the hattrick. It was in my mind when Shebby Singh said that Liverpool and Wigan would draw 0-0 (or did he not mention the scoreline?). Anywayz, the tall man scored, and that made my day.

The first goal was kinda scrappy. Pity the goal keeper,... was wearing a one-size-bigger glove I guess. Well, at least they lost 3-0. So no one's gonna blame the loss on the keeper. hehehehe.

Garcia... at the right place at the right time. Can't say I love his skills that much. Morientes deserved a goal better than anyone... but alas, it was not his nite.

Not that much of a football critique, so I guess this lame post is all that I have to give.

For a better version, please visist... http://princessren.blogspot.com.
The lovely and lively Mary Ann Michael will blow you to bits with a mouthwatering review :)

kekekekeke.




Goto http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/4473084.stm for more details :)

ASUS W3 LAPTOP

Pic of my brother's LAPTOP

More expensive ASUS W5. Crazy expensive one. I put dent a bit. Sorry brother :P




















My ASUS W3. Very2 less expensive compared to the ASUS W5. Nicer cuz got pic of the cutest amoi in the world, my daughter Nadiah Farhanah binti Alfian. kekekekeke....




















People ask me... why so sepet one. I have no idea. Allah gave her to me that way. I am just thankful! :) Alhamdulillah a million X infinity times. (Cuz I can't say thanks to GOD that much times, writing it down compensates for it I guess. hehehe. Insya-Allah)

Bridging the Semantic Gap through Feature-to-Semantic Mapping

This is the literature survey cum short proposal (if it qualifies to become one) that I wrote... Just wondering... can I make public stuff like this?

Anywayz...

==========================

Bridging the Semantic Gap through Feature-to-Semantic Mapping

Content-based Video Retrieval (CBVR) deals with extraction of relevant video data based on specific queries relating to video content. Early CBVR approaches solely extend Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) techniques, namely low-level feature extraction. A number of examples are provided in [3]. This however would not make for effective video retrieval because video itself has properties that are more complex than still images.

CBIR queries exclusively based on low-level features alone are unsuitable for video. This is because people prefer to look for meaningful events rather than making sense of visual features in a particular video. For example, a soccer fan might look for a bicycle-kick goal scored in a match between Liverpool against Arsenal. Features such as ball color or the player’s body shape are of no concern, since the utmost interest is in the bicycle-kick event itself. Moreover, low-level features provide very little semantic relationship with events, which makes it a weak reference for retrieval.

It is however undeniable that low-level feature extraction, which is prevalent in CBIR, is crucial in making sense of video data. Used alone however, it cannot suffice for effective retrieval. There is thus a need to automatically bridge the semantic gap between the low-level features of video, and the high-level semantic concepts that describe it.

A worth mentioning literature, which adopts machine learning, attempts automatic labeling of broadcast video content with relevant semantic concepts [2]. Manual annotation of a video sample is initially performed to serve as training data. During training, multi-modal machine learning techniques assisted by minimal human interaction are applied to 1-5% of the video data to build semantic models. Based on these models, the remaining 95-99% is then fully automatically annotated. Besides lowering the cost of manual annotation, impressive semantic concept detection results were reported.

Another alternative suggests a four layer video data model [Petkovich]. The first layer, containing raw data such as frame rate, color depth, video format, etc., serves as the basis for automatically extracting domain-independent features (both static and dynamic) into the second layer. These features are then assigned to regions. The object (third) layer assigns one or more of these regions to logical concepts, which in turn are interpreted as a meaningful object-type, based on established object grammar. Finally, the event layer, which describes object interactions in the spatio-temporal manner, uses event grammar that makes use of object-type with audio and spatio-temporal data, along with real-world relations of the domain knowledge. This approach provides a framework for automatic mapping from features to semantic concept.

Other approaches that are showing promising results are also experimented with. A text-retrieval approach [1] and semantic classification based on motion-descriptors [4] are just to name a few.

Bridging the semantic gap can prove very crucial. Many of the literature focus on mapping semantics to low-level features, which shows that this field has great potential. Areas that might benefit are security surveillance, news, sports and many others. The success would provide a natural way of querying video data, whether from the point of view of the novice user or experts alike.

References

[1] J. Sivic, and A. Zisserman, “Video Google: A Text Retrieval Approach to Object Matching in Videos”, Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision, 2003.
http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/~vgg/publications/html/sivic03-abstract.html

[2] J.R. Smith, M. Campbell, M. Naphade, A. Natsev, J. Tesic, “Learning and Classification of Semantic Concepts in Broadcast Video”, https://analysis.mitre.org/proceedings/Final_Papers_Files/362

_Camera_Ready_Paper.pdf.

[3] M. Petkovic, “Content-based video retrieval”, EDBT PhD Workshop, http://www.edbt2000.uni-konstanz.de/phd-workshop/papers/Petkovic.pdf.

[4] Y.F. Ma and H.J. Zhang, “Motion Pattern based Video Classification and Retrieval”, EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing 2003:2, 199–208.

About the PowerBook G4

hehehehe

To Sadry and oso Mary Ann and also K.A.

No, the PowerBook is not mine. Itu Wan Amrul yang punya. This mamat is very2 Apple Macintosh person one.
hehehehe

I am using a PowerBook G4

I am in awe...

Even while typing this entry... I am in awe

For I am using the PowerBook G4. With such a widescreen, it simply takes my breath away!
LOL!

RM12,000 when the owner bought it (not me...)
Darn... seems to be worth every penny.

Even though everything is grey in color... I feel like I'm holding one hell of a powerhouse here.

ok.

thats all.

darn u studio traffic. LOL!

Studio Traffic

The Autosurfing World. Filled with SHAKRS and LEECHES!

Studio Traffic seems to be joining that group now. It was actually already evident in previous months, but many people were keeping a positive mind!

But now it seems like it TOO has gone into the SCAM category. Why? Because almost ALL high-earning (or I can say ALL high-earning) account in Malaysia has been suspended for some mysterious reason.

That means, no one can surf for $$$, no one can withdraw, and no one can upgrade their accounts. The reason?

A friend told me, the owner. Mr John Fucking Horan, found out that somebody was making 4000 accounts, and surfing all of them for $$$. This would be illegal according to ST's terms and conditions. But... I think, for someone to create 4000 account would be too damn stupid! I mean.... its sooo detectible!

Now, John says that, since this fellow has done this thing... he can only freeze all accounts to investigate the matter. What a bunch of COW DUNG!
That's soo soo unprofessional. What the F!

Anyway, I will be cool even though I am also affected. Was planning to get all my $$$ out this month. But ST seems to be ahead of me on that.

Hmmmmmmm.

Anyway, please goto these site to find out more...

1) http://st-critic.blogspot.com
2) http://www.studiotraffic.name

Have a nice day! :)