Swordie Bloggie

The recent Population and Housing Census of Malaysia 2010 from 6 July to 22 August 2010 was the fifth census conducted since the formation of Malaysia in 1963. I think this is the second or third census I gone through.

Basically what this census do is conduct an interview with the house occupants… asking about their name, age, job, education, salary, car and so on. Their objective is to get a comprehensive statistic information about the country’s population and housing.

Usually they come during the night… coz if they come during the day, there will be no one at home… most of the people will be at the job place. I wonder how many houses each of their officer can cover a night base on the address signs given to them. Previously, after they conduct the interview, they usually stick a piece of card on the outside all next to the main door of the house… something like an address plaque which contain the house number and address. But this time… none 😛 I wish they could have given each house an address plaques and numbers!…

Anyways, not sure how successful is the census this time coz there were many incidents like some of the census officers were attacked by dog (some on purpose), chased away coz they were thought as salesman or political enemy and so on… we just have to wait for the result after they tabulate their census… not sure how long it going to take them to do that and how useful it going to be… 😛

Today is the national day… in any country around the world, national day or independence day is celebrated with a big celebration… fireworks, concerts, air show, marching… just anything to display the country’s achievement since its independence… after all its the country’s birthday… anniversary… 😀

But this year, for a month, the atmosphere is just not there… it’s hardly to see anyone flying the flag… you can count the number of cars displaying the flag with your fingers… I’m not alone, others in other parts of the country are also saying the same thing… what is going on? Izzit more worth to buy a 25th anniversary gifts for parents compared to buying a flag?…

Can’t really blame the people… two incidents during the Merdeka’s month have greatly affected the patriotism atmospheres… how could the leadership said it’s just a minor thingy when two principles of two national schools… one at north and one at south of semenanjung express their racist remarks to the students and teachers openly seem to be off the hook?!!!… Teachers just can’t do to that… Teachers can’t preach racism!!!… But here we have two school principles doing and preaching racism to the nation’s new generation… to the nation’s future leaders!!! Should we blame the people for losing their senses?… I don’t think so… the authority should have swing into action and punish the two immediately!!!… if they have done that, I’m sure the sense of patriotism will be very high…

Now days, schools are not a safe place… not just by bully amongst the students… but danger are lurking from the very trusted authority… the teacher. And this teacher is not the normal teacher… it is the discipline teacher!!!

Last week, a father was shocked after reading the brochure… or pamphlet… or leaflet… or whatever you call it… brought by his son from school. The brochure was given to the students by the school’s discipline teacher. But what is wrong with the teacher giving the students brochure?… it could be about anti drugs, anti smoking… or anything about improving discipline in  the school.

But  hell… this is no ordinary brochure… it’s very kinky… more kinky than sexy costumes brochure… this is brochure about is about sex stimulant drugs and pills… to make you last longer when making love!!! The teacher was promoting the products coz he is selling them and was encouraging the kids to try them!!! A check on the website printed on the brochure, the teacher face was clearly displayed on the website… his website promoting and selling the goods online 😛 This is getting insane… the Education Department must look into this seriously… including the racist stunt by some of the teachers and principals in the public schools!!!

Since last year… or was it since two years ago, every staff of the civil service must wear batik once a week… that is on every Thursday. And I really don’t like this arrangement… coz every time someone goes up or every time the leadership changed, the new comer will introduce something new and sometimes silly.. but for this case I will say it is silly… but lucky it was not made compulsory like at the federal level 😛 You can’t force everyone to buy batik coz batik is quite expensive… and if the reason you doing this is to make your ‘business’ prosper, that is so bad… that is taking advantage on the poor people!

Another one is batik neck tie. Wearing neck tie is already a nuisance to some… you can’t wear neck tie when your job functions don’t permit you to wear it… like technicians… I pity watching computer technicians with long sleeves and neck tie going under the table, climbing the wall into the ceiling to do troubleshooting 😛 Of course I’m not suggesting them to wear batik bow ties 😛 but dressing must be suitable according to job function… just like sometimes ago, doctors was suggesting that medical staff should not wear neck tie coz it is unhygienic… which I somehow agree with.

errrrr… have to spend some more money this month… received a reminder for my car insurance renewal recently… 😛 The auto insurance quotes says, it’s gonna be RM400++ after the 55% NCD… No Claim Discount… 😛

Last month I just spent almost RM900 for the car service and air-con service… where to get money now?… The RM500 bonus for this month by the federal government seems to be no where… coz the state government have not announced if they going to do the same or not… If they give the bonus, then I can use it to pay my car insurance premium… just nice… just enough to pay for the insurance premium and road tax… but still not enough to pay my 7 more speeding tickets… the bloody ‘saman ekor’ or speed trap or speed camera… amounting to RM1800… 😛

Will be taking a day leave tomorrow… the last leave I took was in May 😛 and that was for the paintball event in KL. This time, I’m taking leave just to relax… I think I have been spending too much time sitting in the office… 😆 and sitting too much is not good for health… especially the back and butt… now I’m trying not to sit too long… I’m worried my back get injured again. Luckily the acupuncture I took last month solved my back pain problem.

But tomorrow I also want to visit the acupuncture sifu again… I want to ask what else the acupuncture can do… and maybe I will ask the sifu to acupuncture my leg… so that I can walk faster and further… I hope too much acupuncture will not void my NC health insurance 😆 But the insurance company should be happy to those who go for acupuncture coz it is much effective than the modern medicine and cheaper… in fact they should allow their client to claim for the acupuncture bills… just like the physiotherapy bills.

The Federal Government today announced that all civil servants and government pensioners will be getting a special payment of RM500 each before the Hari Raya… which most likely to fall on 10 September 2010.

Of course this is good news to all the almost 2 million civil servants and the more than half million of government pensioners… getting extra RM500 after they receive their coming August salary or pension will sure make them smile.

But the question is, would that be enough??? RM500 is too small for today’s economic spending power… even a laptop briefcase can cost more than RM500… 😛

So what can you get with extra RM500 money???… well, for me that will be almost enough to pay my two months internet broadband and mobile phone bills… but not enough to pay my one month car loan 😛

Anyways, I’m sure everyone appreciate the extra monies… but hopefully this is not part of our annual bonus… 😛 who knows we end-up being short-change (again) for our end of year bonus… 😛

The gym I’m frequenting is getting bad… I did not go to the gym for more than a week. A friend did told me about the bad ventilation in the gym last week, but never expected it was that bad. The air-con system in the gym is not running at full capacity… it is faulty… maybe only less than 10% of the air-con capacity is working.

After scanning my membership card and exchanging it with a towel at the counter, I went to the locker room… I have to go through the weightlifring area… and the place is like sauna!!! It was a bit crowded… people doing their weightlifting, pull up bars, pumping iron and so on… the air is so bad… so hard to breath… the air-con just can’t beat the heat generated by all the people… it was so unhealthy… imagine if one of them is sick, all the others can get infected easily!!! no ventilation… windows closed tightly… no air-con… damm…

In locker room, it was a bit better… cooler… after locking my bag, I went to the thread-mill area… it is at different floor. Although there is not many people there, it still very warm… I did my exercise slowly and only went to the weightlifting area after some of the people went home… but it was still like sauna… I hope the management can fix the ventilation as soon as possible, else I will write an official complain!!!

One of the best costumes during the recent Sabah International Folklore Festival dance competition is from  Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan dance troupe is represented by a group of young girls… I think the youngest is like 10 years old or younger…

I really like their costume during their first night performance… it’s very epic… 😛 there is some kind of scary elements but at the same time their performance is very enjoyable. With all the little kids in their costume… I believe it represents wolf… and more like infant halloween costumes… they dance with great lighting on the stage.

Epic coz it’s like I’m watching one of the scene in The 13th Warrior (1999) movie… where a nomadic civilization known as Wendol… a mix of man and bear… man wearing bear hides or costumes to confuse and instill fear into their enemies… who are roaming during the night and sleeping inside the cave during the day… anyway, here are the photos of the Kazakhstan dance troupe… 😀

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Most of the roads in town are decorated with colorful lights now days… neon, led, spot lights, etc… they are decorating the lampposts, trees and buildings with all kind of colorful lighting… with the mini led christmas lights decorated on the trees, trees looks like Christmas tree 😀

Well, they are decorating it for the coming 31st August celebration… national day… but people is Sabah and Sarawak is not fond to celebrate it I think… they only enjoy it for the public holiday. They prefer to celebrate the 16th September for Malaysia Day… coz this is the day Malaysia was born… 31st August is for the Malaya only… but a lot of people are confused with the Malaysia’s age… some will count it from 31st August 1957. But Malaysia is born on 16th September 1963!!! There is no Malaysia in 1957 or before 16th September 1963. So Malaysia is only 47 years old and not 53 years old this year!!!

Anyways, let’s just hope the peace amongst all the people of Malaysia will continue forever… so let’s celebrate with colorful fireworks and colorful lights… 😆