Jan Leow's Blog Page

Showing posts with label blogs about life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogs about life. Show all posts

I got Covid-19, oh, no!

I guess it is a matter of time before we all get infected. Despite all the precautions of sanitizing the stuff we bring outside and wearing face masks when going out. The government has a fine balance between keeping the infection rate low while keeping the businesses open to keep the economy going.

This time round, my entire household was infected, starting with my wife, then spread to me and her mom. Eventually her sister caught it too. I suspected we got it while making a trip to Kuantan during the Chinese New Year. Thus the year of the rabbit made the Covid-19 jump fast and hard!

Goodbye Madam Calico Cat

Dealing with loss (Goodbye Madam Calico Cat)

It did not matter whether your dearest was a person or a pet friend, their passing always strikes a blow in your heart. Loosing them creates a hole in your life and it takes some time before you let it go and get your life moving again. Such grieving is normal I suppose. You poured out your heart but only to be wrenched out like a dentist pulling out your teeth!



Still, a remembrance is good for the healing process.

Malaysian GST has come

Malaysia GST has come! The build up to this great government custom taxation is now implemented and there is no way the man in the street will now escape from paying more tax. The flat GST tax rate of 6% will affect all population in Malaysia, but more so to the lower and middle income earners.

No doubt 90% of the world countries has adopted GST (government sales tax) or VAT (value added tax) in order to improved their confers. The way Malaysia has gone about it was more like a force throat approach. From discussion with friends abroad, I get to know that the initial amount collected was something like 2-3% and then gradually increased. So the effect of GST was not too sudden and the people could get used to the consumption tax. But it was said by the men in the street, Malaysia government don’t have enough money, thus the 6% jump, and using the neighbouring countries as an excuse, “we are still lower”, but only by 1%. Terrible way of explaining to the public acceptance.

Galaxy Hotel in Shanghai, and the surrounding area

Galaxy Hotel in Shanghai is quite a nice hotel for business stay. It's quite pricey at RMB¥689, which is far more expensive then PJ Hilton with our company's corporate rate. It is located next to Rainbow Hotel which I've stay once during one my holiday tour to Shanghai.

Flight from KL to Shanghai was rather smooth despite me getting a mild cold. The last many days running around in the hot humid weather of Kuala Lumpur really wore me down. So the 28°C was a nice change. It wasn't too warm and neither was it cold.

The check in counter was located on the second floor so when I arrived I was a little lost as to where to check in! This was the first time coming to Shanghai not on a tour group so many things have do on my own. I was told to take either a taxi or bus, taxi would be quicker but costly at about RMB¥200 while the bus ride cost RMB¥24. Walking around the Pudong Airport I somehow ended up at the bus stop rather then the taxi stand.

Eulogy for Abraham Kenny Seow

It is always sad and much heartache when a loved one has to depart from the earthly home to a heavenly one. But that is life and we shall all go on that journey someday. It is just that some will go through it sooner than others.

Abraham Kenny Seow had good prolonged life considering that he was diagnosed with a terminal nasal / brain cancer four years ago. It was a fight that truly transformed him and strengthened his faith to the Lord.

As an elder brother-in-law, he has done some deeds that grieved family members, but eventually he has redeemed himself throughout the ordeal. And of course God sent him a good wife who stood by him for better and worse, who loved him and help him to turnaround his life.

Unexpected Road Change in Damansara Perdana

This is one of those days where you get caught with your pants down. The morning rush hour was under way with the rain the heavy rush hour traffic would be bad. But I never expected it to be worse as I made my way to the usual road interchange at Damansara Perdana Penchala Link for the U turn to head back out to Petaling Jaya via the LDP congested highway.

Damansara Perdana Penachala Link interchange was changed

Surprise, surprise! The road was blocked due to modification of the road with the entrance pushed backed earlier at IPC/Curve shopping mall rather than below the underpass.

I believed many were caught unaware too as there was no way to make any U turn except to head out all the way, pay the road toll, to Sri Damansara Kepong and U turn from there.

Back to Work after so Many Holidays

It is back to work as usual after a string of public holidays in succession. Not just for the day job but also for my various websites. It is indeed very difficult to move to high gear having slowed down for awhile. This was not to say I took leaved, I still went to work, but the mood was not there to push for more sales. Besides the wretching cough and sniffling flu made it difficult. I'm still trying to recover from it, in fact it became worst the last few days with me losing my voice! Argh!

No choice now but to see the doctor again for a course of antibiotics and other anti-inflammatory medicine. According to doctor, if the flu and cough persisted for so long, it is no longer a product of virus as that would usually clear after a week or so. Most likely it would be suspected bacterial infection. Since it has cause inflammation, some anti-inflammatory medicine should help ease the transition for full recovery. Well I hope so, I have tried many traditional remedy and it didn't help, so looks like it was back to Western medicine.

This year, work would be a new challenge both for my day job and part-time. Since my pay is mostly stagnated and the cost of high inflation (no thanks to the current Government who is more interested on their own agenda than the rakyat) has pushed up the cost of living, supplemental income would become more important. No thanks to Google 2011 Panda Update and many other Google algorithm tweaks, my various website traffic has been reduced significantly.

Device failure one after another! Must be Murphy's Law

Just my luck, I got several electronic device failure one after another. Must be Murphy's Law at work here! First after a battery change, my wife Toyota Wish car remote control didn't work. The Toyota service people should have known better than to change the car remote batteries. Now it needs to be reset in order to work.

That's probably minor compared to my car remote when I accidentaly shorted my Toyota Altis car remote while changing the broken casing. Should not have used a screwdriver to pry out the electronics. Now it doesn't work anymore.

Next was the old HP fax printer, the modem was strucked by lightning long time ago but still could be used for printing and scanning. While trying to print some documents, the roller was making a ruckus, and finally I got ink cartridge error. I could try buying a new ink cartridge since the current one was already very low on ink anyway. After giving it some thought better not. It could be more than just a faulty cartride because the roller was making such awful noise. Besides ink catridge are expensive and I would have wasted money if the HP printer would not print. So that' the end of life for this HP printer.

My good old Intel D915 GEV motherboard with Pentium 4 - 3 GHz system. Was passed to the church but now it won't boot! I wonder if reset the BIOS would make it work again.

And finally the church PC which I was attempting to reinstall Windows XP. Well some people weren't too keen on using Ubuntu Linux though it would be far more virus resistant than Microsoft Windows. So I got down planning to dual boot it. The partitoning went fine without a hitch. Installing Windows XP was a different story. First round I got boot error. Strange, tried reinstalling a second time and the PC just hung after the initial booting diagnostic start up screen. Tried several reboot still got the same "hanging there not going anywhere" leaving me scratching my head. It could be the BIOS going crazy on me. For now the PC is not working. If the BIOS goes, the motherboard is just another dead wood. Schucks! And this good old Pentium 4 Intel 3GHz with an Intel 915GEV motherboard is a rather good piece of hardware. I should know, I picked the parts myself when I bought it in 2005. But now it no longer works. Argh!

Looks like I will need some replacement hardware starting with a new printer like this Epson Stylus T13. Oh, well.



[update 15/11/11]

Fixing my Intel D915 GEV computer system



Spend the better part of my late nights fixing up the good old Intel D915 GEV motherboard PC. Apparently the hard drive died causing the whole system to freeze up. Hard drive kaput means just change the dead drive without having to purchase the entire PC system, because if the motherboard died, it would be a major replacement. Unfortunately due to the flooding in Bangkok, Western Digital plant is underwater, and that plant account for 50% of the world's hard drive supply.

Which means there is a shortage of hard drive in the market driving up the prices 100% or more! When last I check some vendors are selling at double and some at triple the price! And in All IT Digital Mall section 14 PJ, much to my indignation the sales guy didn't even want to sell to me and was reluctant to give me any price indication!

I'm not going to spend that money yet until Bangkok recovers and Western Digital production is back online. Fortunately I still got an old 40GB PATA IDE WD 7200rpm drive. Well it won't be as fast as a SATA drive, but it will have to do for now.

Working on public holiday

Should have checked my calendar before saying yes. So now I will have to do some work on a public holiday, today. Anyway, it could still be a good point and show willingness to work on off day. I do get a replacement leave for it which was not too bad. However, my timing with wife and son would be a little skewed for matching.

Anyway looking forward to another family time together next round. For now, show some work enthusiasm, hopefully would get into the good books of eccentric boss.

Bible always says work not unto man for they will have a tendency to let you down but instead, work as unto a worship to Lord and build your treasure in heaven.

For now, just be thabkful that I have a job, though it has poor direction, but I still able to sustain through all its misgivings and live through it to tell the tale and get an income from it!

Time for car wash! At Esso near Damansara toll

Looking through my car windshield while having my car wash at Esso near Damansara toll

Yeeach! Shouldn't have parked under the tree, it was splattered with bird droppings! So time for car wash!

When will city hall organise a crow shooting coz the population is increasing and now my car is very beautifully decorated!

Anyway it has been a long while since my last car wash however being a holiday weekend, most car wash centre around my house has packed for the weekend. Fortunately manage to find one at the Esso station just after the Damansara toll exit.

Fortunately the queue wasn't too long as many people has gone for some holiday somewhere or balik kampung to see their family. Usually car wash centers are packed during weekends but this time round was rather short.

My car washed and after back home applied the Rain-X for rain repellent. Most likely as luck would have it (in my experience) it always rains after you have washed your car! Haha!

Cheers!

MPSJ 10km Run 2011 Route Map and Event

Time to go for MPSJ 10km Run. Got the form and now signing up for it. It's been awhile since I last ran for 10km after laying off from running. Initially I went for 7km for the last two races, and this time round the race for my category is 10km. So it would be good to see if I can stretch to 10km this time round.

MPSJ 10km Run 2011 route map

As usual the race will start from the MPSJ grounds and go around the Subang Jaya area and then back to MPSJ. I'm not a fast running so I would most likely take about >1 hour to complete the race.

The run will be on:
Sunday, 4th December 2011
Flagging off at 7am in the morning
Starting point: Kompleks Sukan Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (MPSJ)

Might be a little tough for me though I hope I would be able to complete the race within the allotted time frame!

Baby 17 Months Old

My baby is 17 months old! And according to Baby Centre, "you may notice baby ability to do things by himself such as undressing herself, brushing her teeth without your help and tenderly nursing her dolls and stuffed animals. She's learning how to take care of herself, and others and she'll refine this ability as she gets older."

Well, he still a long way off for that. But I did notice he is asserting himself and wants things his way or he will throw a tantrum or fake cries. Can't be giving in to whatever baby wants as that is a sure way to spoil him. Loving him is sometimes requires doing some tough love, as he would need discipline. Because in future, a disciplined person would be able to take care of himself as well as others.

Super heavy rain, super traffic jam!

The heavy rain brought about a very massive Friday traffic jam! Took me double the time to get pass rush hour traffic. On top of that, almost had near collision with another car when the car ahead stop suddenly. Fortunately my brand new tires plus my quick reaction avoided knocking the car in front of me. Had to move away from the lane as the two lady drivers negotiate on their compensation. From my quick glance there was hardly any dent.

Anyway the slow stop and go traffic made me rather sleepy and tired. And many parts of the road was catching the running waters slowing down traffic further. A flooded road was not so easy to drive.

Eventually arrived home in one piece! Phew! Tired but at least home sweet home for now.

Chartis Insurance Failure to Pay Reimbursement and many others

Insurance companies are not as trustworthy as before. They take our money easily but fail to reimburse when it comes to claims giving excuses such as non-failure to comply to some obscure terms or information or on a technicality. Chartis, MAA, IHM (now dead), and what other insurance companies? And yet, when Obama bailed out AIA, they have the gall to pay large hefty bonuses to themselves giving excuses that it was in their contract!

I have seen the failure of payment by these money leeching insurance company who find ways and means not to fulfill their obligation. It was so easy for them to say if you sign up for this policy or that policy they will reimburse you when something happens to you just so they can close the deal. But when it comes to actual claim, they will say you didn't disclose this/that, or the illness you mentioned occur on a different date stated or some other technicality. Simply put, they will wriggle themselves out from fulfilling their obligation.

Baby Fall Down From Cot

Oh, dear! Baby fell down from the baby cot! Don't how he managed to climb out from it. Cry like mad of course! Will have to observe him as the height was quite high. Wife said it is time to use playpen where the side walls are higher and the distance from ground much less.

---[update 11/10/11]---

@klroadblock roadworks at entry to section 17 PJ from former rothman circle

What they doing? Blocking everybody

Streamyx is absolutely bad today!

It's been a week long and Streamyx is still trying to fix its server or junction box or whatever. The connection is intermittent and if I do connect, is absolutely horrendously slow!



Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android



[update 13/10/11]

How is one suppose to work if streamyx slows down to a crawl every few days? And this is definitely got nothing to do with the damaged undersea cable to the USA. Even accessing local website and data is so, so, so slow! Thumbs down yet again for streamyx. I think there is too many problems with streamyx for the month of October.

Streamyx down again due to Sg Way exchange problem

And yet again, my office streamyx was down again. Just last week we couldn't connect for more than 24 hours due to streamyx server problem. And now due to an exchange junction in Sungai Way the internet was down since 6am this morning.

Couldn't do any work until they fix it. So no choice but to wait for a few more hours. I requested to boss to switch to UNIFI. Perhaps that would resolve some of the frequent downtime of streamyx. The cost will double and there is no guarantee it will have more uptime since it is under the telecom company namely TM.

I have a friend who was complaining like mad about his poor download speed from UNIFI. Never getting the 80-90% of the stated speed. But basically UNIFI should be working according to as much as the stated figure.

Anyway never know until try. But once in will have to use it for the contract period.

Meanwhile my recent upgrade to windows 7 has left my dial-up modem dead. There is no drivers for it. So I can't even use the old slow dial-up to access internet.

Only a quick tap here using my mobile phone to kvetch a little!



---[update 11/10/11] ---

Taking a break at Papa Rich the Curve

It was a weekend out for baby and family. Decided to take a coffee break at Papa Rich at The Curve KL shopping mall.

Baby was having a gala time roaming about Metrojaya despite the disapproval from mom. I tried to carry him but boys will be boys, especially inquisitive active boys! At 16 months old, he has a very curious mind. And yes he loves exploring!

As papa, will have to shadow him as he goes about pointing out interesting things and make sure he didn't mess up the displays and go where he was not suppose to go.

After an hours of following him, I needed a break! Mom and grandma came around after their little shopping. They needed to go back as the weekend cleaners would be at the house soon.

Anyway, I decided to take a break here at Papa Rich, Curve shopping mall. The house wasn't that far and I'll just walk back once I'm done.

Service here is a little poor as the waiters and waitresses seem to just ignore me. They are either tired or poorly trained. Anyway, i got my little cuppa. Once I'm done with this little blogging, I'm outa here!

Heiyah! As my little boy would exclaim! Ciao!

Streamyx down yet again!

It seems like every few months, my office streamyx broadband will be down. No idea why the service like. I will have to dial tm 100 help line to sort it out.

They will usually go through the process like finding out whether your modem kaput lah or you messed with the IP or something. But since I never touched any of those things it usually end up that they need to reset their servers to get it going again.

Sheesh, Malaysia internet access still got ways to go before they can be as good as other countries world class internet service providers.