wutevala ope..

Contradicting policies

2009-07-17T08:21:00.004+08:00

Our government is good at contradicting itself.

Exhibit 1: The Transport Ministry is taking measures to have 40% of the people use public transportation by 2012.

Exhibit 2: 20pc toll rebate to take effect Sept 1

Exhibit 3: Bus, taxi fares up 30%

So, you want more people to take public transport, but at the same time you are making it cheaper for people to drive, and much more expensive for people to take buses and taxis.

Hmphh... Where's the logic?

Champions League 2009 Final

2009-05-27T19:31:00.000+08:00

Later tonight, Barcelona will play Manchester United for the European Cup.

I'm hoping for Barcelona to win the game, as I don't want to endure a day of gloating by Manchester United's fans on Facebook.

Come Messi and Iniesta, make Ronaldo cry!

Giro d'Italia!

2009-05-27T02:47:00.002+08:00

It's a new season in the Grand Tours! For the past two weeks, I've been following the Giro closely, through the live telecast on Eurosports.

This year's Giro is particularly interesting as it is Lance Armstrong's first major race since coming back from retirement.

While the strong Italian contingent (Di Luca, Cunego, Garzelli) turn up for their home race, some of the big names are missing. Among them are Contador (the defending champion) and Valverde.

As the race enter its 18th stage tomorrow, Armstrong looks far from his best. He has been struggling in the mountains, while his time trial performances are average.

His Astana teammates have not been helping him as much as he would like them to. People like Leipheimer and Popovych are not controlling the race as how they did under the Discovery Channel / US Postal Service team.

Armstrong needs to improve a lot more if he is going to challenge for the yellow jersey in France. In fact, his job might complicate further as there are doubts on whether Armstrong will continue as the team leader once Contador joins the team for the Tour de France.

Carlos Sastre, last year's Tour de France winner was having a quiet Giro until he attacked the two race leaders, Menchov and Di Luca on the last climb in the 17th stage.

However, it might be too late for him to catch the two leaders in general classification as they currently have about two minutes advantage on him.

Meanwhile, riders from Team Columbia High Road looks certain to win most of the sprints in the remaining two Grand Tours. Their tactics have been spot on during this Giro, with Mark Cavendish coming out winners in three sprints so far.

Their intention for Tour de France is laid out in the open when they pull Cavendish out of the Giro straight after his third stage win. While the rest of his competitors are struggling on Italian Alps, Cavendish is already preparing for the 'Big Tour'.

As for now, all eyes are focussed on the Giro's finale. There are another two mountain top finishes before the racers head into a time trial in Rome.

Menchov, with his 40 seconds advantage over Di Luca, remains as the favourite to win this year's Giro.

However, I am not writing off Sastre's chance. If he could narrow the gap between him and Menchov to under one minute before the race go into Rome, it could be his second Grand Tour win in two years!

Time to go in?

2009-04-17T12:24:00.000+08:00

I'm attending a market outlook presentation by one of the local brokerage company.

The presenter pointed out: "Even though the recent data are pointing towards a gloomy picture, the general sentiment is positive. A lot of the uncertainties are gone."

He believes that the market is already at its low point. He advised, "Buy stocks that have value rather than focussing on certain sector."

In short, it is the start of a bull run!!

Hmm... Should I go directly into the market? Or should i buy into a fund?

Time goes by..

2009-04-16T07:32:00.001+08:00

Another 52 days to the CFA exam. I felt as if it was yesterday that I had another 100 days to go.

Today is the 106th day of the year 2009. Almost a third of the year is gone. I'm nowhere near in fulfilling my KPI.

On a brighter note, I'm already into my 33rd month with the company. Slowly, I'm edging my way towards finishing my 96-month contract with them.

Oo.. Blogging through the phone!

2009-04-15T18:39:00.001+08:00

I'm excited! There have been times when I wanted to post my thoughts on this blog, but I couldn't because I was not connected to the internet.

Surprise surprise! Now, even my 'phone buruk' Nokia N70 can be used to update my blog. So, do visit this page from time to time, because I'll be blogging on the move.

From Singapore... I heard.

2009-04-09T11:18:00.002+08:00

The LRT expansion project is finally taking off!

KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — The first upgrade of Kuala Lumpur's urban transport network is set to take off, with two firms hired to come up with designs to extend the city's two light rail systems by 16km.

The government has set the firms an August deadline, after which construction work is expected to begin.

Sources said that two months ago, Syarikat Prasarana Negara, a government agency that oversees national urban transport, awarded design contracts to HSS Integrated and Minconsult, two of Malaysia's largest civil engineering consultancies.

The management side of the project is said to have been awarded to Opus, a state owned company in the United Engineers group.

The contracts will kick-start Malaysia's largest infrastructure project in recent years - a RM6 billion job that should help reflate the country's shrinking economy.

In addition, another RM1 billion will be needed to buy additional rolling stock from Bombardier of France.The funds are not part of the recently announced stimulus package — they are expected to be raised through a bond offer by Syarikat Prasarana.

The project stops short of an original plan that called for a new 40km line connecting the new suburb of Kota Damansara with Cheras, one of KL's oldest and most populated suburbs.Sources said that this was probably due to budget constraints, as the new line was estimated to cost RM11-12 billion.

Each extension will, instead, cost about RM3 billion.HSS Integrated will do the design work on extending the Star line, which runs from Sentul in downturn KL to Desa Petaling to the south.

The extension will enlarge the network almost to Puchong, west of the city, where it will meet the Putra line, the extension of which is being designed by Minconsult.

Putra runs from Ampang in KL to Petaling Jaya to the west. The extension will take it to Subang Jaya and then around to Puchong. Each extension is expected to benefit more than a million people. — Business Times Singapore

McDonald's are suffering.

2009-02-05T07:51:00.002+08:00

They wouldn't lower their McValue meals' prices if they are not suffering.

On page 7 of today's The Sun:

"Drop by McDonald's for the best value lunch deal in town.
From now on, every weekday 12noon - 3 pm, your favorite
McChicken, Double Cheeseburger, Chicken McNuggets and
Fillet-O-Fish McValue Meals are just RM 5.96!
Why wait? Make a lunch date with McDonald's"

The boycott is working? Or is it the worsening economic condition?

It may be both.

20081216

2008-12-16T17:46:00.003+08:00

2008 is coming to an end. There are a lot more things that I haven't done.

Things like to learn Spanish, to workout consistently throughout the year, and to read more.

No excuse here.... All I can is that I've been lazy. I have the Spanish books on my shelves, at home and at work. I have the gym clothes readily available in the office, waiting for me to take the ride up to the gym on the 40th floor. And I have bought a lot of books, and yet, I didn't finish almost all of them.

erm... Kick me, please. Discipline: that's what I need!

More books...

2008-07-14T20:50:00.009+08:00

I'm in the habit of buying new books...

I don't know whether I will finish all of them, but I like having a shelf full of new books at home. Haha...

That was how I started buying original DVDs.... I still like the feeling of having a few shelves of DVDs in my room. Even though I haven't been buying any new DVDs lately, I intend to continue buying DVDs until I can fill the whole cabinet, from top to bottom.

These are the two books that I bought today:-

I bought Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama's first book, because I've been reading Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream for the past few days, and I find that he is a good writer. He gives clarity into the sometimes confusing world of politics. Furthermore, he looks like he is going to win the Presidential election in November, so there is no harm in knowing more about the man who is going to be most powerful in the world.

I came across The Last Tycoon: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. two weeks ago, when I was browsing in Kinokuniya. I enjoyed reading Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success last year, so I thought another book similar to this would be a good reading. After all, these success stories will further fuel my ambition of becoming somebody great one day, which is not a bad thing considering the lull that I'm going through now.

It's time to take a hike!

2008-06-05T00:32:00.003+08:00

Petrol prices have gone up to RM 2.70, from RM 1.92. That is a 40.625% increase in one go. I don't drive to work, but I'm still spending around RM 250-350 on petrol every month. With this hike (ceteris paribus), I will spend at least another RM 100 on petrol. The amount is quite significant considering the size of my monthly take home income.

Whatever it is, I will survive, for now. For someone like me, who doesn't really have any mouth to feed other than myself, I can easily cover that increase by cutting a few excesses. There will be less Subway, Pizza Hut and McDonald's for me. I got to cut my intake of fast food anyway. My waistline is growing as fast as the petrol price. Haha..

While the increase in petrol price came with a cash rebate, I believe the government need to pursue a long term solution to this issue. One way to make petrol price increments less painful is to make people less dependent on petrol. We, Malaysians have become too dependent on our cars and motorcycles. This is proven by the way Malaysians went to fill up their tanks after the price increase announcement by the Prime Minister. The queues at the stations near my house can be estimated at around 30 cars per petrol pump for the whole night.

Government need to boost the public transportation system, especially in the urban areas. More lines of LRT and monorail need to be built urgently. There should be more buses on the road, and the buses should serve all routes, regardless the demand. One important thing is not to privatise the public transportation system. The current system under RapidKL should be expanded rather than be torn apart.

The government need to maintain public transportation directly under their watch because a number of reasons. First, not many private enterprises can run public transportation system profitably. The collapse of Intrakota, Star and Putra are the prime examples. Secondly, the government need to prove their commitment in improving the transportation system to the public, and the best way to prove their commitment is by putting money where their mouths are. Then only they can gain the public's trust on the transportation system.

In the meantime, we all have just got to adapt to the situation. In economy, there good and bad times. We are in a bad time. Let's just hope that the good times will come sooner rather than later.

The problems of the credit market in the US in a nutshell

2008-03-12T11:34:00.003+08:00

The value of mortgage-backed securities are falling due to the default by subprime borrowers. The banks who own the bulk of these securities have to write-down the value of the securities. The losses from these write-downs are making big impacts their balance sheets. Their capital bases smaller because the losses are eating into shareholders' funds. For that reason, they have a lower ability to lend out money to consumers. This pushes up the prime rate (the equivalent of Bank Lending Rate (BLR) in Malaysia). The economy then becomes stagnant as firms postpone their capital expenditure. This leads to recession, which result in a higher unemployment, lower consumption by consumers and lower capital expenditure by firms.

So, the Fed decided to intervene in the market by providing cheap money. First, they lowered the Fed Funds rate (they have done this 5 times since September 8). The Fed Funds rate is basically the rate all banks lends to each other. By lowering the Fed Funds rate, they hope that the banks can provide more credit (i.e. lend more money) to the consumers, thus averting recession.

However, the Fed realised that the market is not reacting as much as they expected. Hence, last Friday they provided a new line of credit for the banks and big financial institutions. $200 billion cash loans were released to the banks. They hoped that this move would ease the credit shortage in the market, but it did not. Wall Street did not react much. In fact, the Dow Jones Index, the bellwether of US economy, fell heavily.

Finally yesterday, the Fed provided a new initiative. They offered to lend the banks up to $200 billion of Treasury securities (the most secured type of security available in the market) in exchange for mortgage-backed securities as collateral. Effectively, the Fed are taking the mortgage-backed securities off the hands of the banks, keep them in storage somewhere until their values are restored, while giving the banks the chance to strengthen their balance sheet.

Early response from the market shows that this measure is working. Dow Jones Index had its biggest one-day hike in five years on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Index might fall again in the near term, but Fed has stated their intention to provide more liquidity to the market, if necessary.

Here is an article from the New York Times regarding the latest move from the Fed. Enjoy!

What's on the front seat??

2008-03-07T00:03:00.006+08:00

Guess what..... Liverpool is taking a back seat in my life at the moment.

Life used to be work, work, work and Liverpool in the weekend. But life has changed significantly in the past month or so. Haha... Those who are updated will definitely know what I am talking about.

Anyway, while I'm accumulating interesting books to read, I haven't got the time to 'properly' read them. What I meant by properly is to read a book from the start till the end, without reading any other books in between. Currently, I'm book-hopping. I read whatever I feel like reading. Last Monday, I read Jim Rogers' A Bull On China. On Tuesday I read Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope. Yesterday I read How I Became A Quant, and today I'm reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

The good thing is I'm reading. The bad things are: I don't really have much feel on the books that I read because my book-hopping habit doesn't allow me to become 'attached' to the books, and my progress on those readings is really really slow because of the time I spent recollecting the chapters that I have read before.

Election fever? Yes!

Barack Obama for President!!

What a random ending to this entry. Haha

The Political Animal by Jeremy Paxman

2008-01-04T22:01:00.000+08:00

I'm half way through this book, but I got to admit that this book is good!

Ok.. Good is arbitrary. I should be rating this book by comparing it relative to others. But, each writer have their own style; I can't say Paxman writes better than Grisham, vice versa. Another way for me to rate this book is by comparing it with other books by Paxman, which is something that I could not do at this moment as this is my first time reading Paxman's work.

If I could read this book at 7 in the morning after being up for almost the whole night, this book must be good. You just have to take my word on this matter.

Paxman's style of casual writing makes it bearable for me to read it even on a stressful afternoon. While giving us insight of British politics, it is also coloured with a variety of adjectives describing the politicians.

Can't wait to finish the other half.

Liverpool 1 Wigan 1

2008-01-03T06:05:00.000+08:00

Oh man... This is frustrating. Drawing at home to Wigan??

That was crap. To see the Worst-Ever-Premier-League-Defender Titus Bramble score was like having a girl kicking at my groin over and over again.

We are now twelve points behind Arsenal, with one game in hand. At this rate, we won't be contenders for the title. We might even struggle to secure the fourth place!!

To the Liverpool fans out there; abandon your hopes. There are better things to do on your weekends and Wednesday nights. Just accept the fact that Liverpool are not going to win the Premier League this year.

Inflation

2008-01-02T20:17:00.000+08:00

Prices are going up.

Examples:

My routine early morning drink; Seasons Ice Lemon Tea - June 2007: RM 1.50, Jan 2008: RM 1.60 = 6.7% increase

LRT monthly travelcard - June 2007: RM 90, Nov 2007: RM 100 = 11.1% increase

Unless our salaries adjust accordingly, we will all feel the pinch.

What will I do?

Bite the bullet. Reduce spendings on unnecessary things, until my real income goes back to its old level.

J.CO Donuts & Coffee

2008-01-01T18:11:00.000+08:00

So there I was queueing for donuts at J.CO Sunway Pyramid. For those not in the know, this Indonesian-based donut chain is the current craze in Kuala Lumpur. So far, they have two outlets, one in Sunway Pyramid and another in Pavilion. Never before I realised how much Malaysians like donuts. The only donuts that we ever had were Dunkin' Donuts, and they were not really that good.

The queues at J.CO are crazy! People are queueing for half an hour just for a dozen of donuts. I am one who always ridicule people doing such thing, but today I joined the queue. It took me 20 minutes to get to the front of the queue, and another 5 to pay. That can be considered as quick. Two weekends ago, my sister stood in the queue at Pavilion for 45 minutes.

I think the slow service actually helps them to attract people to buy their donuts. Passers-by will be wondering, "Why are these people willing to queue for so long just to buy donuts?". These passers-by, being normal Malaysians, will then decide to join the queue because they don't want to be left out. This will then lead to more people joining the queue and so on.

Crazy, but true.

However, I think, once the novelty of J.CO wears off, it will only be an overpriced donut chain.

Crazy plan!

2007-11-05T22:18:00.000+08:00

This is a crazy plan!!

I am planning for a solo overland trip to Angkor Wat, Cambodia in 9 days time.

Why?

PNB has a policy of making it compulsory for all employees to take 5 to 7 consecutive days off work every year. I'm taking mine starting next Thursday, 15th of November, for one straight week. I thought of just lazing around at home for a week, but that idea seems to be pretty dull.

I have always had the idea of travelling north on a train, but I never thought about it seriously, until this morning. While browsing the net looking for ideas, the memories of taking a train to Singapore few months ago came to me. I thought "I've been down south to Singapore on a train, why don't I go somewhere north now?".

What is the plan?

So, after work today, I browsed through some website, and devised three plans.

Take a train to Bangkok from KL. Stay a night or two in Bangkok, then take the train back to KL.

Take a train to Bangkok from KL. Stay a night in Bangkok, then take another train to explore the Kanchanburi area, infamous for its World War II 'death railway'. Stay a night there, and then head back to KL through Bangkok on another train.

Take a train to Bangkok from KL. Stay a night in Bangkok, then take another train to Aranyaprathet, 15 km from Thailand - Cambodia border. Cross the border at Poiphet on foot, and take a bus or a cab to Siam Reap, where Angkor Wat is situated. After a day or two there, take a flight back to KL.

After much thinking, I decided to choose the Angkor Wat plan, because the other two sounds a bit too easy and straight forward. And I think Angkor Wat is a place worthy of a visit. Currently, I know nuts about Thailand, Cambodia and Angkor Wat, but I'll make sure that I know everything that I need to know about those places before proceeding with my plans.

At the moment, I'm doing some background research on the viability of the plan. So far, I don't foresee any problems for the trip to go ahead, except the followings:

Mum won't allow me to travel alone in Asia.

I don't have a credit card. It might be risky for me travel with cash in my pockets. I've been wanting to apply for one since last year, but I never got to it. I don't think the banks will approve one within the next 9 days.

Haha...

The musical

2007-11-01T02:09:00.000+08:00

I went to P. Ramlee The Musical on Wednesday. It was the in thing to do for the past three weeks. Almost everybody that I know went to watch it.

I think Sean Ghazi is really good, for Malaysian standard. I've heard his song Ku Impikan Bintang being played at PNB events. Heard that the Chairman is a fan of his music, so everyone started to play that song to curry favour. Personally, I do like his type of music. For someone like me who has never ever bought an album before, to actually consider buying Sean Ghazi's album is a big thing. His music is quite relaxing, justifying the album's description in wikipedia, 'jazzed up versions of Malay classics'.

Interestingly, the first time I saw the album was at KLCC's San Francisco Coffee. It was being sold there, next to the coffee counter. This unconventional, but brilliant marketing gave him an access to the untapped high-end Malay market. Professionals who wouldn't venture to the Malay section at the music shop might come across his album at the coffee shop and buy it.

Anyway, saw Tiara Jacquelina after the musical. She's hot!! I was browsing through The Edge a few weeks ago. They were doing a write up on this musical, and there was a photo of Tiara next to it. She doesn't look a day beyond 30!! In fact, she was the hottest person that I saw in the newspapers that week (I know this for a fact because my department rate the photos of celebrities published in the daily newspapers... Haha).

In-ger-land!!

2007-10-21T21:01:00.000+08:00

Damp Squib Number 1:

Lost in Russia. Euro 2008 without In-ger-land??

Damp Squib Number 2:

Arise Sir Jonny?? World Champion? Not this year.

Damp Squib Number 3 in the making??

So Lewis, have you passed your driving test?

Interesting read!

2007-10-17T18:13:00.000+08:00

Ok. This is about two interesting posts on a forum/blog somewhere, writtten by two New Yorkers. The woman asked direct questions, and she got direct answers from the guy.

THE QUESTION

What am I doing wrong?

Okay, I’m tired of beating around the bush. I’m a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I’m articulate and classy.

I’m not from New York . I’m looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don’t think I’m overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that’s where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won’t get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she’s not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?
Here are my questions specifically:

-Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars, restaurants, gyms
-What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won’t hurt my feelings
-Is there an age range I should be targeting (I’m 25)?
-Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side so plain? I’ve seen really ‘plain jane’ boring types who have nothing to offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I’ve seen drop dead gorgeous girls in singles bars in the east village. What’s the story there?
-Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker, doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where do the hedge fund guys hang out?
-How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE ONLY

Please hold your insults - I’m putting myself out there in an honest way. Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I’m being up front about it. I wouldn’t be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn’t able to match them - in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a nice home and hearth.

it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 432279810

THE ANSWER

Dear Pers-431649184:
I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.

Firstly, I’m not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here’s how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity…in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!
So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you’re 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!

So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold…hence the rub…marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to "buy you" (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.

Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets. So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful" as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K hasn’t found you, if not only for a tryout.

By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then we wouldn’t need to have this difficult conversation.

With all that said, I must say you’re going about it the right way.
Classic "pump and dump."

I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of lease, let me know.

First brought to my attention at WSJ's blog.

2007 Nobel Prize winners

2007-10-16T08:57:00.000+08:00

I'm not a regular commentator on the Nobel Prize winners, but this year's results have led to a number of discussions that I came across on the net.

This year's Nobel Peace Prize goes to Al Gore and United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".

This is fine by me. But some of Al Gore's detractors have been saying that he doesn't deserve his prize. Their argument: IPCC have been doing all the ground work since early nineties, and Al Gore has just came into the picture recently. His involvement does give the campaign a significant boost in terms of publicity, but that is something you would expect from a man who nearly became the President of the United States.

In his defence, he can be seen to go a little further than other former leaders in terms of fighting for the good cause. Most notably, he made a documentary on global warming and even won an Oscar for it (but a judge in England has ruled that this documentary promotes "partisan political views", but still allows it to be shown to students in schools).

The Nobel Prize in Economics also gave a surprise for the regular commentators. The winners, Leonid Hurwicz, Eric S. Maskin and Roger B. Myerson, are relatively unknown compared with their competition (even though there is no official list published, some were rumoured as the frontrunners). Furthermore, their work is in a fairly obscure field of mechanism design theory, which is thought to be more theoretical in nature and not really applicable in the real world.

So, do you think they deserve their prizes??

Post Liverpool vs Spurs verdict

2007-10-07T23:55:00.000+08:00

Liverpool is not going to win the Premier League this year.

Liverpool vs Marseille

2007-10-04T04:39:00.000+08:00

I woke up at 3 a.m. this morning, hoping for a reprieve in the middle of a hectic week. It's Champions League night. But I was short changed.

Liverpool played badly. Losing to a team like Marseille should definitely be taken seriously by Rafa Benitez. The team looked disjointed throughout. The anti-rotation advocates amongst Liverpool fans must be having a field day after tonight's display. Instead of sticking to his best team, Benitez picked Crouch and Leto ahead of Kuyt, Riise or even Babel. His selection backfired when these players did not perform up to the standard of play required at this club.

Tactically, Marseille were really good. They suffocated Liverpool's midfield by pressing further up the field. Their goal, the first one to be conceded by Reina in open play this season, came from a loose ball after Sissoko lost possession in front of the penalty area. Liverpool could have avoided playing into Marseille's hands by putting men wide and pushing the fullbacks up and down the line. However, deficiencies on players such as Crouch and Leto made Liverpool struggle to even control possession. These players are losing the ball too often, causing the team to backtrack most of the time they ventured forward.

I was a huge fan of Crouch, but I think, at the moment, he is losing his edge a little bit. It can be due to the rotation system. But this is my take after watching tonight's game: He should be thankful to the rotation system, because without it, he wouldn't even be playing a game.

Champions League is back!! (and me too..)

2007-09-19T07:40:00.000+08:00

Liverpool started their 2007/08 European campaign earlier this morning. They played Porto in Portugal. The game ended 1-1, with the Reds playing with 10 men for a third of the game, after Pennant needlessly got himself booked for the second time in the match.

I'm not going to criticise the way Liverpool played last night. Everyone is entitled to off-days, Liverpool had theirs in this game. The team managed to scrap a draw off a game that they should have lost.

I got a feeling that Gerrard is going to lift the Big Ears again in May 2008.

p.s. Have a look at www.tengkuzafrul.com. A Liverpool fan, and also the CEO of Tune Money. And if you want an insight into the happenings of US financial industry, visit blogs.wsj.com. Some interesting stuff they got over there, even though it is quite US-centric.

Make Up Your Own Mind

2007-06-24T17:14:00.000+08:00

McDonald's UK have set up a website where they answer questions from consumers. Have a look at the questions. Some of them are ridiculously stupid!! Haha...

Examples:

Q: Is there any milk in your milkshakes?
A: Yes. Each McDonald's milkshake will have slightly different ingredients depending on its flavour, but all milkshakes are made up of around 75 percent of milk, which comes from the British isles.

Q: Are your milkshakes made from dogs' lips?
A: No. Each milkshake will have slightly different ingredients depending on its flavour but all milkshakes are made up of around 75 percent of milk, which comes from the British isles. The full ingredients of the milkshake base (before specific flavouring) are: Milk, skimmed milk, cream, sugar, skimmed milk powder, glucose. Stabilisers: E412 guar gum, E452 sodium phosphate, E407 carrageenan, E466 carboxymethylcellulose. Vanilla flavour.

http://www.makeupyourownmind.co.uk/

What have I been watching?

2007-06-09T20:30:00.001+08:00

Ocean's 13: Forget Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, or even Transformers. This movie, together with The Bourne Ultimatum, are the ones that I've been eagerly waiting for since the start of the year. In my opinion, Thirteen is better than Twelve, but Eleven remains the best in the series. Let's see whether they will continue with a Fourteen.

Shooter: One of the best movie I've seen this year. Fast paced, and full of action. Mark Wahlberg played the character really well. I didn't really expect the movie to be so good.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Too elaborate. They were trying to cramp everything into this one movie. I've never really liked Pirates of the Caribbean movies before this, and it looks like the status-quo remain unchanged.

Spider-Man 3: Nothing much in this one. Never really like Spider-Man movies. I only went to watch this one because everyone else wanted to. Slept over some parts of the movie.

Next: A surprisingly good movie. Really enjoyed watching this one. The idea of being able to see the future really got me going. I was imagining myself having that power, haha... There was a big twist towards the end, which was not expected by most people watching it.

La Tourneuse De Pages (Turning Pages): A very good French movie. Revenge 'a la Francaise'. And the lead actress is hot!!

The Number 23

2007-05-01T21:52:00.000+08:00

After my 12 days in Kuantan, I decided to let off some steam by going to the movies. It was a last minute decision for me, as I was much more distracted with the football match coming later in the night.

Like my other last minute outings, I went alone. Reached One Utama just after 1.30 p.m. The parking was full to the brim, and the queue was really long, but luckily I knew of a new entrance through the Plaza IBM (the parking there charge by the hour instead of the normal One Utama RM 1 flat rate).

Of all the movies that were shown today at TGV, only three interest me. Wild Hogs, Spiderman 3 and The Number 23. I've watched Wild Hogs at Kuantan (it was hilarious!!), and I'm planning to watch Spidey with my colleagues. So choosing The Number 23 wasn't a tough decision. After all, the trailer looked interesting.

Jim Carrey stars the movie, alongside Virginia Madsen (She was in Sideways. I have the DVD; one of my worst purchase). It was a heavy movie from the start till the end. For some part, I couldn't really concentrate as I was wondering whether I've missed the important points early on. The censorship board made things worse by cutting off some of the important scenes.

Jim Carrey was dramatic as ever, although some of his character's jokes seem out of place. The movie's twisted end made the confusing early part sensible. Nevertheless, I think the movie could have been simpler and yet be as entertaining as it is. It is just too elaborate. It's ok to keep the audience on their toes for some parts of the movie, but to concentrate for the whole 1 hour 3o minutes is tiring.

I expected more from this movie. I was looking for an entertainment, but ended up exhausted.

Boring boring

2007-02-11T22:10:00.000+08:00

Oh well... It's already 10 p.m. on Sunday evening, but my weekend is just reaching the halfway point. I'm off work for these coming two days. With the long Chinese New Year weekend coming next week, that's two long weekends in a row!!

This weekend has been good, except for Liverpool's defeat at Newcastle. I was pretty down after last night's game. That was one of the games that Liverpool should have won. Two defensive slip-ups gave away three points to an average team.

Life is pretty dull at the moment. Nothing much to update lah!! Maybe I should watch TV instead of blogging. Ciao

Chance meetings

2007-02-07T22:10:00.000+08:00

When things happened repeatedly, I tend to remember the details. Today I had four chance meetings with people that I seldom talk to, all happened during my journey back from office.

The first meeting was with a manager at the office's car park. I knew him personally through my brother. Even though we didn't really talk much before this, he started the conversation. We talked for quite a while. He even offered me (maybe jokingly... but I can't tell the difference) a place at his department.

After excusing myself, I walked off. Just outside the building, I came across another person that I knew from the office. In fact, he is one of the VP from my division. He was walking towards the LRT station, on his way to his home in Nilai, by ERL. On any other day, I would have sped off, without acknowledging the him. But not today. I turned around and walked with him. We talked until he got off at KL Sentral. Before this conversation, I never really liked him. Now I realise that he is actually a good boss. He may seems cocky at times, but that is just his style.

Chance meetings appeared continuously today. One off the train, came another one. I know this girl from UK, even though I didn't recall her name at first (she didn't too). We have common friends, but I don't know whether we've been introduced before. Nevertheless, she was friendly enough to initiate a conversation. She's now working at Bank Negara, in the Financial Supervision department. When she got off at Taman Paramount, I realised that today is a weird day..... Because I've been talking to people that I wouldn't be talking to in normal situation.

When I thought that was the end of it, came another encounter. This was a short one, at a place where I wouldn't expect to come across people that I know. On the walk home from Taman Bahagia station, I chanced upon the brother of a very close friend. He was crossing the road towards myself, while I was going over to his side. We changed pleasantries by shouting into the rush hour traffic. He was in the area to buy some paint, but the shop was closed. Without saying goodbye, each of us crossed the road, and went our own ways.

Random play...

2007-02-05T23:31:00.000+08:00

First of all, apologies to those whom I haven't been in touch for quite a while (especially Adlan). We are all busy, but I think we should meet up soon, before any news become non-news.
My LRT-reading for the past two weeks has been The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It is a very good book. However, I've misplaced the book a few days ago. I might have dropped it somewhere, either in office or at home. Since then, I have been sleeping my way to Ampang Park. Haha...
My throat is still suffering from last week's fever. My appetite hasn't really recovered. At the moment, I'm just eating for the sake of eating. I should have finish up my antibiotics!!
For the past few weeks, I have been spending way beyond my budgeted allocation!!
I can now trade on Bursa Malaysia. I have gotten myself a CDS account. But the market is going crazy!! KLCI closed the day at 1225!! If I go in now, I might catch the market at the top. Risky!!
My career dilemma is almost solved. I think I can roughly guess which department I'll be in the next year or so. And I'm happy with it.

That's all for now. Ciao.

Talking about movies...

2007-02-05T22:16:00.000+08:00

I had the chance to watch two movies last weekend, The Holiday and Stranger Than Fiction. Both are great movies. Interestingly, I watched The Holiday with another two guys (Ariff and Azizi). I can say that all three of us like the movie. At least it was better than the last chick flick that we watched, Lovewrecked. Haha... I've turned my friends into chick flick lovers!!

People are comparing The Holiday with Love Actually. Honestly, I don't think the former is in the same league as the latter. The Holiday's storyline was ok, but maybe it was too straight forward for me. At some part of the story, I felt that it was a bit draggy. I have never been a Cameron Diaz fan before, but I think she played her character very well. I expected Jude Law's character to be 'naughtier', but overall he was just ok while Jack Black seems a little out of place with his 'mushy mushy' character. He can't seem to shed the School Of Rock aura.

Stranger Than Fiction is a weird story, even though not the weirdest that I've ever seen (this accolade goes to Napoleon Dynamite!!). I am actually not a fan of illogical stories (I don't really like sci-fi, futuristic movies, or even something like LOTR), so it is quite suprising that I ended up liking this movie.

Will Ferrell can be quite annoying at times, but I can't see anyone else playing the lead character better than him. Maggie Gylenhaal was superb. I suppose, if I were looking for a girlfriend, someone like her fits the role perfectly.

Even after watching these two movies over two consecutive days, I'm still not done yet. Next on the list is Babel.

I want...

2007-01-20T21:22:00.000+08:00

This

and this. I was at The Curve/Cineleisure this afternoon when I saw these two jerseys. Adidas is making the classic Liverpool Candy jersey again, while Malaysia have just signed up Nike as one of their sponsor.

I used to have a green Liverpool Candy jersey (the same design as the one wore by Sweden at the 1994 World Cup), but I'm not sure whether I still have it now. Maybe my mum has passed it on to one of my cousins.

The new Malaysia jersey looks quite good. Instead of the usual Jalur Gemilang, they have put the FAM crest on the chest. However, being Malaysians, we are not use to changes. Someone wrote to the newspapers complaining the lack of patriotic-ness of this change. In my opinion, this a fresh change for Malaysian football. Even though this might not change the way the team plays on the field, at least Malaysian football is now more visible amongst Malaysian.

Walk pass any of the Nike shops at the shopping mall, you can see Malaysia jersey on the display rack. This visibility might lead to more people interested in Malaysian football, and bigger following might lead to more quality players coming through the system. I got a lot to talk about on Malaysian football, but I shall leave that for another entry.

The prices:

Malaysia jersey - RM 269
Liverpool candy jersey - RM 229 (I think..)

Ouch.. That's expensive. Remind me to write something on inflation soon!!

p.s. Liverpool have just beaten Chelsea 2-0. Haha....

What's up with the new Internet Explorer?

2007-01-16T23:18:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I updated my Internet Explorer because Microsoft Windows has been bugging me with pop-ups for updates everytime I switch on my computer.

The new Explorer looks ok.

But, I can't get to a lot of sites. Whenever I wanted to go to google, the browser redirected me to MSN search engine. Cheeky!!

Africa

2007-01-14T23:01:00.000+08:00

Is Africa really that bad??

The last two films that I've watched depict just that. Never believe everything that you watch in the movies, but the images that came out of these films are hard to ignore. People are getting killed by bandits, corrupt government officers are everywhere, and everyone's life revolves around trying to survive the day.

I saw Blood Diamond today, together with few others. Leonardo Di Caprio is in it, alongside two previously not-so-famous actors. One is Jennifer Connelly. She's kinda hot, even though at times she looks a bit like a guy. Haha... Another one is Djimon Hounsou. When I watched him in this movie, I knew I've seen him somewhere before. A quick check at imdb.com gave me the answer. He was in Gladiator, as the black guy who was close to Russell Crowe's character.

Anyway, back to the main point. This story, together with The Constant Gardener (which I have just seen last weekend, even though I have bought the DVD in June), are bringing the world's attention to the plight of millions of Africans. One shows how diamonds are mined in Africa using slave labour and child soldiers, while another demonstrates how uninformed Africans are used as lab rats by the global pharmaceutical companies.

I'm not sure the truthness of the story behind The Constant Gardener. However, the same cannot be said for the other story. These diamond stories have been going around for ages in the media, so it must be true, isn't it?? Unless there are proof that the Western medias are trying to manipulate the stories (which is not an uncommon argument coming from people with anti-American view), I believe these are happening.

So, after watching those movies, what should we do? I doubt people will stop buying diamond rings for weddings, or stop consuming drugs manufactured by the big pharmaceutical companies. Maybe some will ask questions before purchasing those items. I bet only a few will get their answers. In the end, most will walk away with the rings or the drugs, no matter how concern they are on the situation in Africa.

It comes down to one simple point. They need them. People can't get married without rings, and no one would ever risk their life by not taking the drugs that have been prescribed by their doctors.

Migrating

2007-01-11T14:06:00.000+08:00

Yo...

I'm leaving blogdrive to join blogger.com. My old posts will still be there.

Why?

Blogdrive is not reliable. Some of my posts were lost in the delivery (when i clicked "Publish", the posts didn't come out).
I just want a fresh new look.
It is hard to look for my previous posts. The archiving is not as good as blogger's.

So, that's about it.
Ciao