Swordie Bloggie

Time really fly… it seems like it was just a few days ago we celebrated new year… and today it is 1st May… am I happy with this?… Frankly no… coz I have loads of works behind schedule… I don’t even dare to count and think all about it…

1st May is Labour Day, so today is public holiday… I guess many people were resting today. For me, I slept almost half day… or maybe almost 12 hours… 😛 I slept around 1 AM and woke up just before  8 AM. I was still very sleepy… I went to pee and continue sleeping… and I woke up the second time around 12 PM… I was enjoying my sleep as if I was relaxing on wicker swings and wanted to sleep more… I was still very sleepy but hungry… so I forced myself to wake up.

I had my breakfast… yes breakfast although it was already 12 PM… after that, I continued relaxing in front of the TV while surfing on the tablet. I wanted to do some work which were worrying me… but I didn’t… instead I continue surfing in front of the TV. I read loads of news and articles… world news, national news, local news, technology news etc… I was just lazy to do anything.

After a couple of hours, I went outside and walk around the house… I wanted to wake up my brain and muscles… but I was still feeling lazy and sleepy… so I decided to go out… I feel that if I drive, my brain will wake up… called friend to have a drink… and indeed my brain and muscles did wake up… feel fresher… went back home and continue watching TV… 😛 had dinner and now in front of my computer writing this piece… once I finish this piece, I’m going to do my office work which I need to submit tomorrow… 😛

Early this morning, around 3.33am, there was a major blackout… spanning almost the whole Sabah and Labuan. I did not know about it… it was reported in the electronic news which I read in the office. I woke up as usual and there was no blackout.

According to the report, the blackout affected some 500,000 consumers and caused traffic jams at certain location in the city… I did not encounter any traffic jam this morning and the one traffic light I have cross to office was functioning as usual.

The report said, the blackout was caused by an explosion at the main power distribution station at Jalan Bundusan, about 3 km from my house… Immediately Sabah Electricity SDN BHD (SESB) scrambled to repair the fault and gradually restored the power to most major town from 7am.

I guess SESB service has improved since I did not feel the blackout… even at the office. If their service in restoring the power was slow, I guess a lot of people will be unable to make it to the office on time this morning… and a lot will complain with the heat. Actually my office was a bit warm but it was not that so bad… and the water supply is normal… meaning the air-conds and water pumps are still working… probably not at 100% but OK for it to make the people inside the office building comfortable.

Photo copied from Facebook shows the parts exploded at the Jalan Bundusan SESB Distribution Station.

Are you bored with the lampposts along the roads or around the parks?… Depending at the post design, some are unique and some are just plain… well, lamppost was used to light up the streets since many decades ago…

It all started as the boring log pole with lantern hang on top of it, and that concept of a pole with lamp hang on top of the pole survived until today. But that might change very soon. Recently a group of people including city planners and architects put a challenge to Dutch electronics company Philips to design a new concept for outdoor lighting system… all because they feels that the streets are cluttered. They want to get rid with the lamppost.

So Phillips decided it is best to remove the vertical streetlight poles and turn the street as FreeStreet by replacing it with horizontal lighting system. They did it by hanging clusters of horizontally-strung cables with leds lights built into it. What makes this design interesting is the lighting system looks invisible during the day. With that design they won the 2011 Dutch Design Award… and it will be available for use in Europe this month… 😀

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… 😛