frostier.net

Returning to Malaysia, I miss traveling even with the 2 Ah Bengs – Wingz and Thomas involved. It is just that I wanted to see the world. As the saying goes, the world is my oyster. Just right on time, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) cooked up with the stimulus travel package. Without any need to push further, I already so stims wanting to go to Hong Kong if not going back to Bangkok

Click here if you need further info.

At this time of the year, there wil be a huge traffic going to the e-Filling website. Most Malaysians are good at procrastinate and doing the last minute submission. I seems to walk among them too. Subject to the concern, I have yet to submit it as I blog about it. In fact, I feel like blogging rather than walk over to the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) to do my tax return.

I noted that the system is pretty effective. Perhaps the government only source of income come from the amount of tax collected from the civilians. In fact, this year I am eligible to be taxed by the Malaysia government. So being the last minute thing, i did my part last night and this morning make the payment back to the government via Maybank2u. At least I got that portion fixed. Next is when I going to walk to the LHDN just situated opposite my office.

In the next 48 hour, the LHDN website – for e-Filing will definitely congested. More and more will be doing e-Filing as it is more convenient. By the way, just for your information do take note on the url when doing the e-Filing which is suppose to be https://e.hasil.gov.my

The difference between doing the e-Filing and normal filing is that you need to prepare a lot of the documentation to attached along. I just found out that I need to attach a photocopy of EA Form along with the BE form submission. Wonder if I could just attach the EA form by itself.

Speaking about the Income Tax return submission, 30th April will be the last date to submit the form as well as making payment. If late, there will be a penalty charges of RM200. Talk about money involved.

Note. Yesterday I could not help it but to drop by the MPH Distributor Warehouse Sale that started from 28th Apr till 3rd May. I wanted to shoot myself for buying less a title or two. With the amount up to RM175, additional RM25 I could have get a special goodies bag free PLUS I am also a DiGi subscriber and MPH Readers’ Circle member. This will entitled me to receive a pair of exclusive shotglass free. Just shoot me okay?

Look at the bright side. I got home with few titles that caught my eyes. The Tempest. Catcher in the rye. Man and Boy. I cannot remember the rest of the titles I bought though. I guess I will spend longer hour at the bed reading before fast asleep. Guess there goes my sleep.

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OMFGWTFBBQ1!!!

this is not the thing I wanted to put up on the blog for. This morning waking up to a sms from a friend. Another friend’s father just passed away. Work piling up. In the midst as Wingz mentioned in his post, I am now trying to close another “dai char fan”. Along the way, I still drafting the Thailand post where we took the sky train to embark on the journey to discover Thailand grand palace through the view of the tourist guide. Yes. We got a tourist guide to drown us in his English.

27th April. 3 more days before the end of income tax submission. I been procrastinate about it. Have to face it now. Cannot even leave the office early this evening. Having internal kick off again.

Work piled and in a mess. Promised another friend that I have to work on his company website design. Something is getting rusty in me – yeap, design and web development.

Working on the early May plan. A plan.

Guess with this going on, other things can wait. Some other things can. Waste not. Haste not.

Will be back….

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It took me longer than usual to complete a book. In this case, it is more of a mixture of comic strips and the explanation that comes along.

When one person life happened to resolved in the IT world is so mundane, and yes thanks to Wingz claimed that I have secured a million dollar deal, I would like to hope the latter does applied on to me.

Anyway, I begin to read this book in search of a meaning in workplace. What I liked about this book is that Scott Adams the author himself was a very good observant in his workplace. What happened to me is that what he managed to write about. The entire chapter about the sales topic was very good. Same goes to the marketing as I am currently encounter the same situation as in but different department. Wait… there is consultant chapter that was mentioned inside the book. Ehm…

Some of the excerpt:-

The Dilbert Principle Illustrated

Humiliation

Employee morale is a risky thing. Happy employees will work harder without asking for extra pay. But if they get too happy, endorphins kick in, egos expand, and everybody starts whining about the fact that with their current pay they’ll have to live in a dumpster after retirement.

The best balance of morale for employee productivity can be described this way: happy, but with low self-esteem.

You can test your own level of employee happiness with this test. If you laugh out loud at any of the “office witticisms” shown here, then you are happy in exactly the right amount to be productive:

Happiness Productivity Test

Below are several witticisms encountered in your office every day. How many do you find irresistibly funny?

1. “Are you working hard or hardly working?”

2. “Are you holding up the wall?”

3. “You look different today!” (said to someone at a borrowed desk)

4. “It’s not my day to watch Bob.”

5. “Not bad for a Wednesday!”

If you laughed at any of the five witticisms, you have the proper Dopey-from-the-Seven-Dwarfs kind of happy that spells productivity. But if during this test you suddenly got a mental image of a co-worker you’d like to bludgeon with a speakerphone, then you might have too much self-esteem to be productive.

The Solution: Humiliation

Over the years, businesses have developed a broad range of techniques that bring employees’ self-esteem back into the “productive zone” without sacrificing happiness. This chapter discusses the most important humiliation techniques.

* Cubicles

* Hoteling

* Furniture

* Dress clothes

* Employee Recognition Programs

* Undervaluing employee contributions

* Making them wait

I think my boss applied one of those humiliation strategy when he did the company kick off last year.

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… from the company dinner. It is more of a group of companies dinner just to mark the end of last year financial year and the beginning of the new financial year. Held in the Sime Darby Convention Center, I can summarize in these few words.

Food sucks. Event sucks. Overall sucks.

Luckily got silly crowd that manage to find ways to get wasted. I do not freaking care anymore. At least one thing that pleased me was that I came home RM150 richer. It seems that this year, the way they (as in the organizing committee) do was to have 3 types of lucky draw. First type was the colour draw, company draw and major draw. Note: everyone can only win once.

So halfway through the event, they started the colour draw. Everyone was to get a colour ribbon in the beginning. When I was to choose among the 7 colours or so in the beginning, I opted for orange. Just because there was this Orange Moon song by Khalil Fong? I just feel like going with orange. During that colour draw, the MC announced the batch winner for the colour draw was yellow. There is no yellow ribbon at the beginning and everyone thought it was sort of yellowish green. After the clarification, it was actually the peach/orange colour ribbon that is eligible for the draw.

I grinned ear to ear that I was one of the lucky one to get RM150. Apart from that, there is no other reason to stay longer expect for a drink or two while waiting for my company team to perform. Being the last time to perform, we gave them a round of big cheering. By the time I left the function, I am not sure whether did they win the contest or not. Could not be bothered by then.

During that function, I was talking to one of my colleague. She told me that she read my blog and commented that she like the way I blog things. She like it me being blunt and yet she think the theme sucks. I do agree on the theme part whereby it is not actually SEO friendly. I could not really gain much from this theme. Just so lazy to do anything about it and rather to leave it as it is until that particular one day, I might change it.

A little quiet here. It is a little awkward. Morbid I felt it. Perhaps.

Silent Bleed Night
the warm night
want to sleep
then good night

clock ticking one
hello Mr. Carlsberg
one two three

seconds making cycle
total in five
still yet restless

came down Scottish
name Mr. Chivas
joining the silence

gone in sixty
nothing but rock
filled to brim

feel the burning
heart still aching
tears start dropping

now like puking
keep on exhaling
head is spinning

time for dreaming
for better seeming
life just taking

the heart bleeding
in this feeling
above all smiling

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Off for the company dinner. If register later than 7pm will not eligible for lucky draw. Sigh*
On the side track, hopefully my guys win tonight.

Note : What will tonight outcome be is the only thing running in my mind now. That is capable of got me to concern… 902?

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Being drowsy and sleepy, I was half open my eyes when I read the sms around 8ish in the morning. My head was spinning when I saw a sms:-

My father passed away this morning

Since I was informed, I straight without thinking straight decided to forward the news to everyone that know Linpeh. I typed the sms …

and ended up with numerous phone calls from Wingz, Ah Nel, Nyonya Penang, Angel, and many more bloggers. Someone told me that she saw the post from Wingz blog and ended up have a good laugh out of it.

What else I can do when I was not myself that morning. I managed to pay the respect in the night. I informed Linpeh about the post and he went to check it. He shake his head and was speechless in the end. Perhaps he was too tired to fark me upside down. He knew it is unintentional.

Oh well…

Big apologize to those I got them into seizure or heart attack mode.

memorial park - funeral

Note: anyone wanted to go to see the freelance chanting this Saturday, I heard there will be 100 people dropping by for the chanting session. These people are doing it for free in return for God merits. Let me know… seats are limited.

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The first question that I was being throw at was, “Is Dale gay?” from Thomas to Wingz. He was afraid to sleep in the same room with me when we are in Bangkok. Taking precaution. Heck hell that he was doing the ground arrangement for our accommodation in Bangkok. He opted for the high class hotel in order for us to pamper ourselves. In this case, I think he pampered himself more. Note: remember the fella sleeping like a prawn cuddled himself up in a robe? that is the one. *lol*

Courtyard Marriott

Thomas told us that he decided that we should stayed in Courtyard by Marriott in Bangkok as it was the best location as it is central of Bangkok. The heart of the town. Furthermore it is near to the BTS SkyTrain System, Erawan Shrine, CentralWorldPlaza and much more, which I have no idea what the heck Thomas was talking about until I was there witnessing it. Found out that the hotel we stayed is rated as 5-stars hotel.

Reception Counter at Courtyard Marriott

The moment I stepped down from the limousine, I do not even feel like leaving the hotel anymore. The place is so nice with the openness design. It looked so spacious and the next thing I knew, Wingz and I were trigger happy. Shooting non-stop while waiting for our friend, Thomas to check in. Effective support and services from the receptionist – Mr. Toto.

Reception

As I loiter around, I notice that the hotel do provide facilities such as safe room and business center. Speaking about the safe room, the in-room that we stayed comes with a safe that can fit 3 notebooks, 4 handphone and a couple stash of cash from Wingz. Ehm. We checked in before going on the hotel tour guided by the Courtyard Bangkok General Manager, Mr. Nicholas Tse. He was friendly and kind to show us around the hotel.

Entrance - waiting area

We were shown around the places…

Courtyard Business Center

Wingz wanted to trying out the the gym

Fitness Center

and the open food counter at the function rooms’ alley. …

Open Food Counter

Function Rooms

We ended up lost Thomas because he was too obsesses with the ladies sunbathing at the swimming pool area.

Courtyard Bangkok Swimming Pool

Courtyard Bangkok Swimming Pool

We checked in to the room

Room Access Cards

and everyone start taking the photo of the room… including me

Dale Camwhoring

Camwhoring at bath tub

I’ll leave the suspense of the room to Wingz and Thomas. I am kinda sad because Wingz disapprove me from posting his sleeping pics. ^^!

By the way, the damage we incurred for the hotel accommodation for 3 days and 2 nights thanks to our mr. tour consultant – thomas! Staying in a 5-stars hotel and

THB 4499 per night
THB 4799 per night with breakfast

The booking can be done through one of the KL top tour consultant, mr.thomas. He can he contacted at yapthomas(at)gmail(dot)com

Note:

Below are the links:-

Courtyard Rack Brochure
Courtyard Bangkok Meeting Planner
Courtyard Airport Limo Service

Courtyard Bangkok Map - Thai

Courtyard Map - English

coming up next…
discovery of thai – we walk the street of the thai, from the Grand Palace to Wat Pho with the help of the non-stop talking tourist guide. Almost got drowned by him.

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At the age of 27, being the first time traveling oversea is really something I not sure whether I should be proud of or not. In fact, I would not have the opportunity until the other day when one of the Ah Beng decided that we should go for Bangkok. I thought they were just joking when suddenly I was being informed that the flight and hotel arrangement was done.

Web Check-in

I was taken aback and due to the earlier commitment, I eventually had to go to get my passport up in order to travel to Thailand. Thomas told me that all of us will be traveling via Malaysia Airlines. Being excited with the travel, I was over packed for the trip. Thus, it actually clogging the luggage bag from getting more stuff back from Bangkok. On top of that, I also regret bringing small luggage which I should be able to fit 20kg check-in luggage. Otherwise I could bring the entire Bangkok back.

On Departure

On the final round before we meet up for the departure, we were instant messaging each other while I was trying to confirm the stuff need to bring. What to do, it was my first time traveling this far. Anyway, been an eager beaver I checked in earlier than Wingz and Thomas. I tried out the web-based check-in. It was easy piece of cake to get myself check-in. Apparently I need to check in in between 24 to 1 hours before the check-in time. If there is less than 1 hour before check-in time, one is required to use the counter check-in. The rojaks ended up queuing up.

Entrance Gate G6

Our flight to Bangkok was on the 737 at G6. It was an enjoyable ride as we mess around with the stewardesses for items such as blankets and pillows. As we take off, the cabin crew run a demo on how to put on safety belt and stuff like that. I did not paying attention as I was busy taking photos.

MAS Free Meal

Not to forget the constant smile from the sweet Agnes Soh, she became the subject of my camera till touchdown. Along the path, the next thing that caught my attention was the food. I had a full meal from the serving and kept the Ferrero Rocher for later savoring.

Agnes Soh

Once we landed, I was like totally disbelief this is happening to me. I have finally touched my feet on the other ground. The other land. Felt like it was a huge step for me. Especially to be in Bangkok. We walked toward the immigration area to get the clearance and my devil mind started its actions. What if I could not get through? What if I were being suspected to be part of Thaksin group that on my way to Bangkok and causing riots? and the list goes on…

Immigration

Eventually I manage to get through the clearance and finally, I could see the smile. The land of smile. Spa, massage, shopping and tomyam here i come. *ps: i got my first stamp on the passport

Bangkok

Next stop, the wonderful courtyard…
*note : this traveling took place on 10th April to 12th April 2009

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Judging from the daylight outside, I was taken aback. I could not even barely make a move out from my bed. Lying there. Staying there. Wishing things did not change.

Last night, the pitch black dark sky was lighten by the sheer lightning behind. I was simply wished for the rain and thunderstorm to come by. The whole Sunday ended up hot and yet, I felt it was gloomy. Nothing much particular.

Gloomy Sunday

Will it rain tonight? Let it rain, let it rain.

“There’s a difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense.”

The International (2009)
Wilhelm Wexler(Armin Mueller-Stahl)

I know I do not make sense most of the time. Sometimes, it might be too good to be true. Why not give a chance to the other and take it for what it is? It might not be smooth ride all the way. Some said that you never get any luck along the way because you have been saving it for the big thing.

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Denote as Fung Wan II (2009), I would say it is a long anticipated movie of the year. I has always been the fan of the comic since my early years and have been following the story since.

The Storm Riders 2 - The Storm Warriors

After the 1998 movie “The Storm Riders” starring Aaron Kwok and Ekin Cheng, the movie was a hit. It was consider one of the advance computer generated effect for the Hong Kong films. 10 years down the road, when I heard they are going to do a sequel out of it, I could not hold from showing the excitement out of it.

What would be even cool is that the movie will have the effect similar to 300, the American film.

Some details :-

Title: 風雲II
English title: The Storm Warriors
Other Title: The Storm Riders 2 | Fung Wan 2
Genre: Wuxia | Action | Adventure | Fantasy
Release date(s): December 2009
Country: Hong Kong (production in Bangkok, Thailand)
Language: Cantonese/Mandarin
Budget: $100,000,000 HKD
Producer: Pang Brothers
Director: Danny Pang 彭發 & Oxide Pang 彭順
Art Director: Yee Chung-Man 奚仲文
Action Choreographer: Ma Yuk Sing
Screenwriter: Wing-Shing Ma (story) (comic-book)
Special Effects: Fat Face Production Ltd
Distributed by: Universe Films Distribution Co. Ltd.
Related Movie(s): The Storm Riders

Based on the synopsis, wondering if there will be some slight difference from the comic or loosely based on the comic. If it is based on the comic, definitely the ending will be as expected except that I would want to look at the perception from the directors of the film itself.

Japanese evil warlord Lord Godless ( Simon Yam ) desired to conquer China. He imprisoned a large number of martial artists and tried to make them subjugate. Among the prisoners were Cloud ( Aaron Kwok ) and the martial arts elder statesman Nameless ( Kenny Ho ). Wind ( Ekin Cheng ) came to the rescue. The trio was badly wounded by Lord Godless’s evil martial arts attack. Chu Chu ( Tang Yan )was also knocked out when she blocked Cloud from Lord Godless’s strike. The remaining martial artists sacrificed their lives to save the trio, in the hope that the trio would beat Lord Godless one day and save the country.

Chu Chu was badly wounded and stayed unconscious. Cloud was filled with remorse and vowed to take revenge. Wind chose to take the evil way to quickly boost up his martial arts skills, so that he could protect the people. During his training, he met the girl who changed his life, Dream ( Charlene Choi ). Meanwhile, the troop of Lord Godless came to attack. Wind’s training was interrupted when he tried to save Dream from Lord Godless’s assault. After some killings, Wind ran away and disappeared….

Lord Godless took The Emperor ( Patrick Tam ) in captivity and stationed his troops in Heaven Cave. Cloud arrived alone and started a combat with Lord Godless. Lord Godless had the upper hand. In the meantime, the half-evil Wind appeared and joined the battle. During the fight, they inadvertently discovered the secret of the sovereign. The real intention of Lord Godless’s invasion was related to an ancient tomb, a forbidden ground buried with the Royal family’s secret. The truth was finally revealed. At last, how would the battle end? Who would eventually rule over the country?

Who I should hurt in order to get the special screening ? How about the grand screening in HK?

Links:-
1. Official Site
2. Official Site (Malaysia)
3. English Wikipedia
4. The Storm Warriors Fan Site

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