Swordie Bloggie

The 13th Malaysian Equity Week or Minggu Amanah Saham Malaysia or in short MSAM which I pronounce MASAM set a new record in Sabah by having more than 260K visitors.  The event was held from 20th to 28th April 2012 at the Likas Sports Complex with last year theme at Perak, ‘Investment For 1Malaysia’. Let’s look at all the 13 years attendance records…

2000 – PWTC, Kuala Lumpur – 60,000
2001 – Kota Bharu, Kelantan – 190,000
2002 – Alor Star, Kedah    - 160,000
2003 – Merdeka Stadium, Kuala Lumpur – 85,000
2004 – Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang – 200,000
2005 – Seremban, Negeri Sembilan – 155,000
2006 – Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu – 250,000
2007 – Kuantan, Pahang – 202,000
2008 – Ayer Keroh, Melaka – 249,000
2009 – Johor Bahru, Johor – 156,000
2010 – Kuching, Sarawak – 187,000
2011 – Ipoh, Perak – 177,000
2012 – Kota Kinabalu, Sabah – 268,787

The organizer, Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) was credited for the success of MSAM and for giving the opportunity to the people with many types of investment from many trusted financial institution who participated in the one week event.

I went to MSAM around 10.30 am on the first day… and I consider it was the best time since there were not many visitors yet except for many schools kids. It turned super crowded after lunch time where the PM was opening the event at 3 PM.

I did not invest anything although there are many types of investment opportunity available. From savings, shares, properties, loans and many more which I can’t recall… probably there is even title loans Texas offered by any of the participating investment… which includes shipping business opportunity.

I guess the main reason people are attracted with the event was the daily lucky draw. Every day they are giving away prizes like bike, bicycle, ipad, galaxy tab, dvd players and many more. During the opening, one unit of Toyota Hilux Vigo 2.5 was the main prize… during the closing was Ford Fiesta with Perodua MyVi as the grand prize… lucky and congratulations to all the lucky winners… I wish I won something, but I just don’t have luck…

I have not talk about Grand Prix Formula One for a very long time. I was an F1 fans before until they started changing the rules. Before they change the rules, even the practice session was exciting. Time trial session was like a race day… everyone especially Michael Schumacher will wait to the very last minute before exiting the paddock to give the final push for pole position the next day.

Michael Schumacher is a great driver till today, but I was not a fan of Ferrari… I usually don’t look at the driver… I’m more into the team… my favourite team till today is McLaren… and Mercedes… and of course Toyota when they were still there before quitting the F1.

The rules changes almost kills the sports… lucky they started improving it again… and for the past two years, it’s getting exciting again… so this year I started watching F1 again… but not all… but at least I read its news update again.

During the weekend, 20-22 April 2012, the FORMULA 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir circuit in Manama went on despite anti-government protests around the country. Security was high around the circuit to prevent protesters from getting near and disrupting the race. The grand prix completed the whole 57 laps without disruption where Red Bull Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany took the checked flag. Photo shows race winner Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing Team Principal, Christian Horner, celebrates their achievement with their trophies.

The 5th circuit this year will be on 11 – 13 May at Formula 1 Gran Premio De Espana Santander, Catalunya. Hope to watch the whole race this time…

Over here, we don’t have RV or motorhome… but we do have big trucks pulling trailer carrying goods container or logs. Four wheel drives are everywhere… pick-up or cabin type. The 4WD pick-up like Toyota Hilux sometimes can be seen pulling small trailer carrying boat, jet-ski or ATV.

When we see these pick-ups or trucks pulling their trailer, we never thought of anything about safety. That’s probably because most of the times we see them near town on flat roads and looks harmless. But how about those climbing hills with winding roads like Tambunan Road and Kimanis Road?… It does look scary… especially when they are speeding. Then there are trucks in the interior and east coast roads like Keningau, Sook, Tawau and Lahad Datu… they are speeding while carrying logs or palm oil fruits… which looks overload!

Do you know that there is only one device fastening the truck and trailer together?… Yes, only one device called trailer hitches put the truck and trailer together. This device is very critical… if it fail while the truck and trailer are on the move with loads, it’s gonna be big trouble and that’s what exactly happen in Gulf coast state of Veracruz Mexico today. A trailer broke loose from the cargo truck and slammed into a passenger bus killing at least 43 people.

So, if you plan to install trailer hitches onto your truck or pick-up, make sure it is rated with high safety standard coz you don’t want your trailer to break loose from you.

Tonight had some heavy stuff for dinner… beef soup. Usually those who know the side effect of this type of soup will definitely avoid it… to avoid from getting the painful joints especially on the leg which we call it gout.

Gout is something those middle age and older people worried… usually it is related to meaty food. But meaty foods like the beef soup I had usually very tasty… hard to resist. I’m thankful that I don’t have serious problem when eating meaty stuff… and I like meaty food a lot… if I don’t eat meat or hard stuff, I will never get full… For instant, even if I eat two packets of instant noodles at once, I will never get full coz it doesn’t have those hard foods like meat… I call that food as hollow foods.

So usually I eat a lot… I like eating… eating is an obligation to me… people around me knows I eat a lot… but lucky I don’t grow so much for eating a lot… probably I take safe diet pills that work… actually I don’t… I just take 1000mg Vitamin C everyday… and go to the gym once a while… ok, need to rest, coz need to go to gym tomorrow… to burn all those meat I ate during dinner…

Found something interesting today… it’s about puzzles. But before we go into it, let’s talk something related with it first.

If you are born in the eighties or earlier, I’m sure you have piggy bank or similar when you were a kid. We have all types of piggy bank… some looks like piglet… some like rooster… some just a simple metal box with small opening for inserting coins… or if you are living in the kampong, they are more creative… they have bamboo piggy bank… a real bamboo.

With the piggy bank, we put coins into it… every time we have extra coins, we put some into it till the piggy bank full with coins. And when it is full, we simple break it and deposit the coins into the commercial bank. But there are times when we need to get some coins from the piggy bank… you know when times are hard, so we need to ‘withdraw’ some… how to withdraw?… We usually put the piggy bank up-side-down where the small opening is and shake it till the coin drops… that’s how we withdraw coins from it.

But at the same time, the piggy bank coins can be stolen the same way we withdraw from it… and this is what this posting about. I found this cool video about money maze… it’s a bank-notes bank, not coins… you deposit bank-notes into it. To withdraw the money, you need to solve a challenging puzzle by maneuvering a steel ball through the maze… watch the video…

If you are hard rock or metal music fan, then you sure have seen some futuristic guitars. Artists like Kerry King of Slayer, Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch (FFDP), Pat O’Brien of Cannibal Corpse, Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium and Marc Rizzo of Soulfly & Cavalera Conspiracy are all using B.C. Rich Guitars.

B.C. Rich Guitars has been building quality guitar and basses since 1969. Their guitar craftsman and designer are very talented, that’s why their guitars are unique. If you are good with guitar, you should get B.C. Rich Guitars… I wish I know how to play guitar, then I will surely buy this guitar… they all looks amazing… more like legendary swords… yea, swords, one of my favorite stuff.

I’m not good in music or anything with it… I just enjoy listening music or watching musical performances. How do I appreciate songs? Well, I usually don’t care who is the singer or type of songs… I just go by the tune… music and lyrics. If it nice to hear, then I will like it…

When I was small, I wanted to play drums but I guess I just can’t make tunes from the beating I make… can’t even do the ‘tung tung chang’…  You don’t know what is ‘tung tung chang’?… That’s how we kids refer to the lion dance during Chinese New Year… it’s the sound of the lion dance music. Then I started liking keyboards or synthesizer… coz it looks easier and futuristic… just like the computer keyboard. But still I can’t play or make proper tunes with it.

And today, I started liking drums again… and probably it’s easier to learn nowadays… coz I can download the electronic drum sets applications from the Google’s Play Store into my smart phone or tablet… in fact there are many drums apps in the Google’s Play Store… So I tried playing with the apps… emmm… looks like I just don’t have the skills at anything with musical… And becoz I get bored easily especially when I can’t get what I want, I tend to put it aside…

Last year, I ordered an aquarium thru a friend who went to China… I guess he went there for business trip. Buying stuff from China can save you some money… not little but a lot sometimes… probably you only have to pay a third of what you have to pay here.

After a couple of months, the aquarium arrived, but I did not pick it right away, so it was kept in their store until last week. I wanted to collect it a few times, but most of the time our timing was not right… furthermore the aquarium is quite big… a three feet aquarium, which needed a bigger transport like a van.

At last I manage to bring it home last week. I was looking forward to assemble the aquarium… it came with a cabinet which need to be assemble. It’s quite easy to assemble the cabinet… I did the same with my previous aquarium. The cabinet is a DIY kind of design… you won’t make mistake coz all are measured to fit accordingly. My nephews were eager to help to assemble the aquarium and I told them we are going to do it on Saturday… which was yesterday.

Early morning of Saturday, they already calling me about the aquarium… at first I was lazy to do it and was planning to go to the gym that morning. But since they were eager to help, I decided to do it. I text my friend to inform that I’m not going to the gym that morning…

So, my two nephews helped me to remove the aquarium box. There are two boxes… one holding the cabinet and another holding the aquarium. The cabinet box is very heavy… the cabinet’s woods must be very strong, that’s why it’s heavy. The aquarium box is lighter…

We started with the aquarium box coz we want to see the aquarium before we start assembling the cabinet. Removing the aquarium box was quite easy…first remove the wood cage… then tear the paper box… after tearing and removing some of the paper box… the shocking sight appears!… OH NO!!!… The aquarium is broken!!! At many parts…

Oh craps… waited for it for so long, and now we can’t use it at all… if it was purchased with kmart promotions for the whole family from the local aquarium mart, then I won’t be so disappointed coz I’m sure I can ask for a replacement… but this is a one off purchase from thousands miles away mart…

I can’t do much… we can’t do anything… so we pack it back… donno what I’m going to do with it… if there is acrylic aquarium maker around, I might be able to ask them to build one with the same design so that I can use back the frame and cabinet… or if anyone know if it possible to fix an acrylic aquarium or know a place I can fix it here, please let me know… I will appreciate it very much…

Some more photos… . . . Continue Reading »

I actually spend quite a lot the previous and this month… basically they all went to my car. Well, I’m not really complaining… spending on my car is very important… coz if I don’t spend on my car then I will not have any transport… and when I don’t have transport, I can’t go to work… and when I can’t go to work, I can’t have money…

So, spending wisely and where necessary is a good habit… some people likes to spend on unnecessary things… well, I do that sometimes… yea, in fact I did that last week… I bought something which I don’t really use… but lucky I’m still in control of my spending… else I will end up fixing bad credit every month…

So now, I need to start saving again to replenish what I’ve spent the last two months… coz in couple of months, I’m gonna need a lot of it for my two trips… Philippines and Korea… emmm… hope I can save enough so that I don’t have to worry when enjoying myself there… else I will have to use my credit card or cards… which still have some unpaid balance… but like I said, I’m still in control on my spending…

SL1M… spelt like SLIM…well that’s the name of the new composite Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder by Faidhi Holdings Sdn Bhd. and launched by the PM on 21 March 2012. This new composite cylinder is 100 per cent explosion-proof!… sound unimaginable…

According to the facts, the composite cylinder will not explode when put into high temperature like fire while it is full with LPG. Rather than keeping the LPG inside the cylinder when exposed into high temperature, the cylinder’s inner-gas tight PET (polyethylene terephthalate) liner will melts within minutes. Once the PET liner melted, the LPG will rush out slowly and burn till the cylinder is emptied. This will prevent the LPG trapped inside the cylinder from boiling and break the cylinder which will most likely cause an explosion.

Other than explosion proof, the composite cylinder is also very light… much lighter than the existing steel cylinder we currently use. But I and many other out there have some concern about this new composite cylinder. My concern is its durability and lifespan.

You see, usually the LPG steel cylinders we currently use are exposed to heavy abuse… the cylinder consistently receive loads of shocks like being dropped on the hard ground or even knock each other while being transported… under the hot sun or cold rain and snow. I will not agree if they start enforcing it to replace the existing steel cylinder before it receive any safety standard certification from the major petroleum companies like Shell and Esso.
Usually composite are very strong, but it can rot… it will rot after being exposed to sun, water, chemicals, etc… and with the heavy abuse, it will get hairline cracks… compared to steel cylinder which will only dent when knocked.

So the best place for this cylinder before it gets its safety certification from all the major petroleum companies is laboratory. Yes, laboratory coz it will get less abuse there and it’s suitable to be paired with the laboratory furnaces.

The new cylinders design are cool… they looks much futuristic compared to the old steel cylinder… but I still trust the old steel cylinder…