Just Report Spam

Alright.

Let's begin by saying "What is wrong with the people in this world?"

What has happened to Courtesy? To Decorum?

It's odd when random stupid people whom I don't know decide to annoy the hell out of me, they tend to form some pact and do it consecutively in waves.

It began with those usual 'wrong number' calls. TWO different numbers this time, mind you. They call and then they hang up before I could answer. And when I do, they demand for some person whom I don't know, in some language which I don't understand. If I ask them to repeat themselves or ask them who they are, they will proceed to rudely yell at me for some godforsaken reason. If I tell them it's the wrong number, they will hang up abruptly (no apologies mind you) and then continue calling me over and over again.

Maybe they are blind, so they can't see the same ol' number displayed on their cellphones' screens. Or maybe they are as dumb as potatoes that they can't tell it's the same ol' number they are dialling.

I think if potatoes could talk, they would at least apologise. And what is it with these people who call the wrong number and then yell at the person on the other end as if it's their fault?


And then there's these bunch of people, interns from KPMG (insert sarcastic "ooohhh prestigious Big Four company") , who somehow by mistake have me in their private message-conversation on Facebook. I don't even know how did that happen because I don't know any of them. So after a few messages from these unknown people stating their phone numbers and current location and workplaces, I decided to inform them that they have made a mistake so if they could either remove me from the list (or if they are smart enough, seeing as they are Auditors in KPMG so I thought they are -- but apparently not -- to start a new message chain or whatever it is they are doing).

I was even nice enough to tell them that they wouldn't really want strangers to be privy of their personal information.

But as far as dumb goes, they continued with more contact numbers and then there was this conversation about "I think the *insert name* you tagged is also the wrong one" and "Oh no, not again! I tagged wrong people!".

AGAIN. Means not first time. Duh.

I think the point which took the cake was that they actually had a conversation about having wrong people in the conversation, as if the "wrong people" wouldn't be able to see that, and had absolutely no sense of courtesy to apologise for their mistake.

I didn't know the Recession affected the price of Apologies.

And since they continued to flood my inbox, I guess that qualifies as Spam. So...REPORT SPAM I did.

Maybe I should sell their personal details to telemarketers.

Or send those rude potatoes in Scenario 1 the phone numbers of the rude potatoes in Scenario 2 so that they could have a hashbrown party.

I mean come on, stop annoying people you don't know, and if it's a mistake, just apologise. What's so difficult about that?


p/s: I apologise to all potatoes for inadvertantly insulting them by calling these rude people "potatoes". Oh, and calling potatoes 'dumb'.

Condolences

It's been a rather sad week so before I blog about certain rants, I thought I'd dedicate this entry to a dear friend of mine whose father has passed on. With all due respect, let's all have a moment of silence.

We are deeply saddened by your loss and we are with you during this time of grief. 

May the peace which comes from the memories of love shared, comfort you now and in the days ahead.

* * *

Love always,

Winter Solstice

Brigitte with her eyes so bright,

Looks toward heaven at midnight,

On the longest night of year,

That's the one she holds most dear.

~ Brigitte's Ballad

Bruma, or the Winter's Solstice, marks the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter in most temperate countries. I wonder if it will get dark any earlier here today, being so close to the equator and all...

Being Chinese, it also means it's time for tangyuan (湯圓) -- glutinous rice balls! I know that according to tradition, all these were done to bring about family togetherness, reunion, etc. However, for me, I reckon it is also an excuse to play with dough :) Last year I made a tortoise and a hare out of dough.

This year, I thought I'd make the whole thing from scratch and opted for au naturel colouring. Green from Pandanus amaryllifolius and red from beetroot. Unfortunately, the pandan plant in the backyard isn't really big so I did not had a lot of leaves to work with. After much pounding and some hot water, I only managed to extract a very small bit of green colour and it was rather diluted.

The beetroot however, was easy. The aftermath was like a massacre.

Thus, green dough wasn't as green, just a tinge...almost like white (background):

This year's balls, apart from the usual round ones with gula melaka (palm sugar) in them, and some marshmallow-shaped ones which my housemate made, I made one white elephant, and pink hearts.

Go figure.

For the sweet soup, pandanus, ginger slices, and I added some gula melaka (which explains the different coloured liquid) which were from the hacking of the large chunk of palm sugar for the rice balls.

Note: always boil the glutinous rice balls separately from the sweet soup. You don't want an ugly murky coloured dessert later.

My dough crafts for 2010 :)

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Winter Solstice Festival!

冬至节快乐!

'Tis The Season For Giving

...and receiving gifts :)

Sometimes, I think that with the creation of e-mails, instant messaging services, and the likes of that, we miss out on the good old-fashion post. I'm not complaining...who isn't grateful for e-mail on the days when you need to get a document to someone, on some other side of the world a.s.a.p.? And the next best thing you can do with someone really far away is to IM them, because that is almost like being there together.

However, the post. Ah, the good ol' post. Of the days when I used to have pen-pals and we would mail each other letters documenting our so-called interesting lives, photos, and small gifts. I know the Post Office has rules regarding how a standard letter should be like, but I remember how we used to make envelopes out of posters from magazines. And the sneaky ways of saving up on stamps (by applying a layer of glue on top of the affixed stamps...they can be reused by the other party after soaking the stamps in water and drying them).

But the best of it all is the feeling you get when you check the mail box and find something in it addressed to you :)

I got a gift via courier today...which was totally absolutely awesome! (thank You!)

- ♥ -

Speaking about gifts, I got this really cool X'mas gift from Francoise (thank you!):

Introducing the Envirosax! Hello Mikado #3 :)

The Envirosax is "the original designer reusable bag", so now not only can I go around being green, declining plastic bags while shopping like I always do, I can do that with style (and join the ranks of celebs using it pfft) THANK YOU FRANCOISE!

Oh, and I saw a woodpecker today. In the tree outside my room...the tree which somehow has its roots wired to some temperate system. It decided to go all bare because it's winter up in the northern hemisphere.

Cheers,

Reusing is Recycling

Like printing on not only both sides of the paper, but also over the previous stuff (especially when it involves drafts of graphs), I like to think that I have put a piece of paper to its full use before transferring it to the recycle pile.

So, remember I have this totally awesome field notebook (photo here) which was in this irreversible disgusting condition since the day I got soaked in the rain in Batu Putih last year during one of my sampling escapades? It has deteriorated since, what with more notes and thumbing through its pages to refer to the data. About a month ago, its back cover fell off, and it had to be held together by a flimsy piece of tape. Recently, part of the book came off its cover.

*sigh*

Although I do rather take pride of its state of deconstruction, I knew I had to do something before I start losing vital pieces of information. And then I had this brilliant idea with an old Starbucks paper bag I found wedged between some books in the shelf!

Voila! Good as new!

My green answer to "What else can I do with a Starbucks paper bag?" :)

And I didn't need to ply myself with drinks to collect stamps for a "Starbucks organiser".

Childhood Treasures: MLP Sunny Daze

Apparently it's "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, 2010, there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign for children's rights and violence against children."

Confession: the word "Childhood" in this post is a little inaccurate because Sunny Daze is a Generation 3 pony (circa 2004). She's one of the newer ponies (not as new as those weird things they are selling now that look like miniature figurines with small bodies and big heads) and I got her just for the sake of nostalgia.

After my first three Generation 1 ponies from the 80s, I have not seen MLP on toy shelves for a long time (and even I changed to a different toy which I practically grew up on). So when they first reintroduced MLP in the early 2000s, I was intrigued and just couldn't resist buying one and compare her with the older ones.

Twenty years after its debut, MLP was reintroduced into the market with their first few ponies, and Sunny Daze was one of them Rainbow Celebration Ponies.

Sunny Daze has a white body and her symbol is a sun with a dark pink & yellow face, orange rays, and purple-outlined wind & cloud. Her mane is five vertical streaks in gold, dark pink, coral, dark pink again, and purple while her tail is a mixture of only dark pink and purple. Her eyes are purple with a lighter purple highlight and orange heart and there is a small orange heart on her hoof.

The ponies have a new packaging, and Sunny Daze came with a white brush (with a raised bow design on the back), a translucent w/ silver glitter pony charm on a white iridescent 'friendship ribbon'.

So that's my Pony collection, not a lot actually, because they were pretty rare in the market during my growing up years. I actually was more partial to the other 80s toy which is absolutely adorable (but potentially a choking hazard) which I may write about one day when I am all nostalgic again :)

I don't know how effective the "Facebook campaign" actually is, but this trip down memory lane has been nice.

And violence against children is one of the saddest things around. It makes one think, how evil a person has to be to commit violence towards the young who are unable to defend themselves. Worse, the perpetrators are usually the people whom the children look to for love and protection.

Childhood Treasures: MLP Windy

Apparently it's "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, 2010, there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign for children's rights and violence against children."

To continue with this series of nostalgia, I shall introduce my final Generation 1 (produced and in the market from 1982 to 1995): Windy -- the Magic Message Earth Pony (circa 1987-1988).

Windy had streak on her mane, the symbol of a tree on her haunches and a ribbon icon at the bottom of her right eye. She came with a yellow flower comb.

Being an Earth Pony means she practically looks like a normal horse, but being a Magic Message Pony, she has a cool feature -- the trees on her haunches are heat sensitive: rubbing them would reveal different pictures. I remember one side reveal apples on the tree, and the other side has a kite in the tree. However, after twenty years or so, the 'special effect' wore off so now both of her symbols look like faded apple/with kite trees. Still cool, though :)

I don't remember seeing Windy in any of the cartoons though.

Those were the days...

Shall end this run with one last pony tomorrow!

Childhood Treasures: MLP Whizzer

Apparently it's "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, 2010, there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign for children's rights and violence against children."

Right.

Based on the above excuse, I shall continue with my trip down memory lane. Meet my second pony: Whizzer -- a Twinkle-Eyed pegasus from circa 1985-1986.

Whizzer has symbols of beanies on her haunch and being a Twinkle-Eyed pony, she has 'jewels' for eyes (which made it very quaint to me when I was a kid). Her mane and tail were also of two colours and she is bigger than Morning Glory. Whizzer came with a purple (I know the picture shows pink but, yea, mine was purple) Shooting Star comb:

In the cartoons, Whizzer had a more colourful mane and tail, and honestly, I reckon she was pretty annoying. Living up to her namesake, Whizzer moves about and speaks really fast, usually stringing her sentences together. And usually saying everything in one breath.

Generation 1 ponies...good stuff :)

Childhood Treasures: MLP Morning Glory

There's this thing going round Facebook today: "Change your Facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until Monday, December 6, 2010, there should be no human faces on Facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is a campaign for children's rights and violence against children."

Fad or not, I thought it'd be fun to showcase some My Little Pony (it's been a long while) and whilst doing that, I got a little nostalgic. And it being a Friday and all, I thought, "What the heck, Fridays are for corny entries." So here goes:

My very first My Little Pony (MLP) was a Flutter Pony named Morning Glory. And it being a product of 1985 made it even more cool.

You can see her namesake are marked on her sides :)

Flutter Ponies differ from the other Ponies in regard of their size (they're slightly smaller) and they have longer legs. Their wings are of the iridescent variety (and the toy-version breaks easily -- they're removable and when you stick them into their slots on the pony's back, there's this button which you press makes them wings go up and down LOL). I remember Morning Glory came with this pink flower comb:

What I remember too was that when I was a kid, I watched a lot of MLP cartoons. They used to have them over the weekend mornings, and I had some of them on VHS tapes too. I think there was one which they called the MLP Movie where Ponyville was attacked by some purple goo which made creatures that came into contact with it hostile and unfriendly. The Ponies seeked the help of the Flutter Ponies (and their magical wings) and I remember this was how Morning Glory looked like in the cartoon:

What amused me was that I used to watch the cartoons with the dolls. And if I see them in the cartoon, I would say to my dolls "Look! That's you!" :) Also, as with all little girls and dolls that come with comb-able hair, I used to bathe them ponies and shampoo their manes.

Kids.

Ahh...the good ol' days *hums MLP theme song*

Easy Rat-ta-too-ey

I came across this recipe here and it seemed pretty simple (otherwise the "easy" part of the recipe's name would be a lie) so I thought I'd try it out. The first time around, it looked a tad too mushy and dull of colour for my liking, so I tweaked it and I think it was better the second time.

Easy Ratatouille

Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients:
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 onions, slivered
• 3 bell peppers, cut into one inch squares (try different colors)
• 2 eggplants, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 4 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
• 2 pounds tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1. Heat olive oil in a heavy soup pot on medium heat. Sliver onions and add to oil.
2. While the onions cook, chop the bell peppers and add them to the pot, stirring well.
3. Chop the eggplants and add to the pot, stirring well to coat theeggplant with oil. At this point all the olive oil will have soaked into the eggplant, so you need to stir often to keep things from burning until they soften some.
4. Chop the zucchini and stir it in once the eggplant has softened a bit.
5. Chop the garlic and add to the vegetables, stirring well.
6. Chop the tomatoes and add them.
7. Mince the thyme and add it along with salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and cook two minutes.
8. Turn down heat and cover the pot. Simmer until everything is soft and well blended - about 40 minutes.
9. Stir in basil and remove from heat.

4 to 6 servings

* * *

What I did was I cut everything first, then only started cooking, adding each vegetable starting with those that take longer to cook. Slicing reduces cooking time so I won't end up with uncooked vegetables later (seeing as I didn't let stuff cook in accordance to my cutting time -- which is a bit slow). By doing so, I end up with a prettier dish as the vegetables don't get overcooked and become all yellow and olive green and gross.

By the way, it is not nicely arranged as per those pictures of true ratatouille dishes because I couldn't possibly do that with a pot on a stove. Things at the bottom of the pot would start burning if not stirred :)

Good luck!

Hello My Darlings

On the last day of Adidas' Refresh Your Gear campaign, I finally got my new pair of running shoes which look like a cross-between Superman and Thomas the Tank Engine.

ClimaCool Modulate

Will rave/rant about them after I've put in several miles.

I know, so flashy, right?

Dearest Yen Chiew

This entry is especially for you:

Fifteen years ago, when I first moved to the 'city' from another town, my mom made me attend this extra class at night so that I could be a little bit more literate in the Chinese language. After a series of mishaps (i.e. I went to this horrigible tuition class which the teacher is a dragon), I wasn't really looking forward to this new class. That night I was apprehensive.

That night, I also became friends with this little girl whom, at that time I didn't know, would be one of my best friends for life.

For the next two years in primary school, we were in the same class, we were made school prefects, and being kids, we had a genuine uncomplicated friendship.

At 12, we went on our first school fieldtrip to Cameron Highlands :)

Somehow or other, we were never fated to be in the same class ever again for the next five years of high school. Always the 'class next door', but the friendship never wavered.

At 17, we threw a surprise party for Jin on her birthday :)

Fate switched course the following two years, making both of us classmates and seated us together to overcome the challenging Sixth Form years. The awesome, yet incredibly tough years, the fear of a certain subject teacher, the class projects, the laughter and the tears.

Can you believe it, we've been friends for NINE years!

After that we parted ways and went really far across the country. You went all the way up north in West Malaysia, and I flew across the South China Sea to attend tertiary studies in the Land Below The Wind. We still call each other, or talk to each other online. I picked a fight with you in 2005 (which I am still extremely sorry and embarassed for--that was stupidly dumb).

In 2007, you shared with me this little piece of exciting news about a certain boy who cycled all the way to your place to see you and gave you coffee because you said you were out of it (you coffee-addict, you).

In 2008, during Chinese New Year, you came to my place with this jock in a chinese shirt, whom we bullied shamelessly :)

Early this year, you shared with us one of the best piece of news ever when you informed us about certain special dates, and all of us oh-so-far-away got all hyped looking for flight tickets and applying for leaves.

And last night, you, the beautiful, bee-yoo-ti-ful bride! Both of you make such a gorgeous couple!

Did you know we were so touched with your speech, we almost cried? (Shireen did :P) Did you know how proud and happy we are for you? (Very immensely indeed.) Does your husband know that we meant every word of the threats we made in the tiny changing room behind some storage closet? (Because we seriously will kick his @$$ if he mistreats you.)

Fifteen years, my dear. Fifteen years and counting. Now I'm going to tear up typing this.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish you and Boon Tatt all the best and lots of happiness. ♥

Yours sincerely,

P/S: You know what Yen Chiew? You were right. Friendship IS forever, especially when it comes to special people like you :)

Maturity

25.

Twenty-five.

I always think the number 5 is like a cross-roads of sorts. It's kind of like a mid point of things.

When you were 5, you weren't as juvenile as when you were born, you have been around the playground a bit. You have been to nursery school for awhile, and in a few short years you will be 'officially' entering the education system.

At 15, you were in the midst of your teenage years. Still not very wise, but at least you do have slight realisations of stuff. Most probably you've had your first crush, first away-from-home trip, first etc.

Twenty-five. Another set of cross-roads.

To some it marks the exit from the education system. To some it means a decision to learn some more. Most have already entered the other system - the job market. Some are green, some are already veterans. Some have already set up their new family units, some are still discovering themselves.

A close friend is getting married soon. Another friend just had her first child. Several acquaintances are engaged.

Some may say that getting married at 25 is too young. But what exactly is too young? Is too young synonymous to being immature? Thus, is age a measuring scale for maturity?

I believe that maturity does not come with age.

Maturity comes with awareness, with experiences, and how we perceive and internalise the things we have learnt and been through. It comes with the acceptance of responsibility, to be accounted for every thing we do. The only factor age plays in this is that the older we are, the more time we have for experiences. And more time to reflect on them.

It's just like a research. The more time you have, the more data you collect, the more accurate your results will be.

That is, if you analyse your data at all. Some people just don't.

I think it is not very accurate of people to say that someone getting married at 25 is "too young". It is a social stigma, yes, it is a stereotyped perception, but I believe that such opinions are unjust because it is subjected to many other factors. I believe that if two twenty-five-year-olds are mature enough, are responsible and in a stable relationship (financially, emotionally, etc.ly) and they both made a sound decision to commit to each other, why not? I know a hell lot more older people who are less mature and are making a mess of things, so go figure.

Twenty-five. It's just another number.

Go PINK!

"Ignorance is bliss", so they said. Which may some times be true if you really don't want to know anything about anything at all.

But remember, just because you are ignoring its existence doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

In conjunction with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, let's talk about the silent killer.

Worldwide, breast cancer comprises 10.4% of all cancer incidence among women, making it the most common type of non-skin cancer in women and the fifth most common cause of cancer death. In 2004, breast cancer caused 519,000 deaths worldwide (7% of cancer deaths; almost 1% of all deaths).

In the world,

Every 3 minutes, one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer (USA).
Every 11 minutes, one woman dies from breast cancer (USA).
Every year, 30,000 women and 200 men are diagnosed with breast cancer (UK).

The incidence (number of new cancers) is steadily increasing. The statistics are more frightening in countries like the USA where about 184,000 new cases of breast cancer are detected annually. The National Cancer Institute estimates that by age 50, one out of every 50 women will develop breast cancer. By age 80, it will rise to one in 10. If this risk is calculated over their lifetime, one in 8 women will suffer from breast cancer. One in 28 will die of the disease. One in 3,000 women develop breast cancer during pregnancy and pregnant women tend to develop them usually in their 30s.

In countries where rates have been low, especially in Asia, the rate of increase has been the greatest with steep increases in the incidence as well as death rate.

In Malaysia,

Breast cancer was the most common overall cancer as well as the most common cancer in women amongst all races from the age of 20 years for 2003 to 2005.
Breast cancer is most common in the Chinese, followed by the Indians and then, Malays.
A woman in Malaysia has a 1 in 20 chance of getting breast cancer in her lifetime.
The cumulative life time risk of developing breast cancer for Chinese women, Indian women and Malay women were 1 in 16, 1 in 17 and 1 in 28 respectively.

(Radiology Malaysia, 2008)

A ONE in 20 chance. Are you aware of that? Banish the ignorance, because fear always springs from ignorance. Learn about it, read about it. Remember, convincing yourself that "It won't happen to me" doesn't change the statistics.

Click HERE for a guide on BSE.

Thank YOU for the ducky and the picture :)

Turn PINK for October.

I am turning pink to support all the strong women out there who are battling the silent killer with their every being; in honour of all the brave ones who have fought and have lost; and in celebration for all the survivors who have fought hard and won.

Why are you turning pink?

The Fine Thin Line

I came across a question the other day that asked me to complete the sentence "Facebook is..." and the first thing that came to mind was "...making stalking easier."

Stalking. Which is also roughly equivalent to feeding the attention-whore monster in the other party (the stalkee?) Sometimes it's weird as to how some people would later complain that they're being stalked, or people are nosy, when in the first place they plaster all their personal problems on public domain.

courtesy of Natalie Dee

In retrospect, it is a fine thin line between Concern and Obsession. Crossing that line would be intruding the invisible wall of Personal Space. And I don't know about the general public, but me, that is like one of the ultimate pet peeves. It tempts me to say "Excuse me, I would like a restriction order.."

courtesy of Natalie Dee

A fine thin line indeed.

How would you know then?

Answers.com says:

"They (the obsessed) will constantly try to be in contact with you when they are not around you, always want to be around you, always question you about all things, possibly get angry or a temper arises if you are not talking to them enough. You will see a very apparent neediness as well as become overbearing in a variety of ways."

But I reckon that paragraph is just to reconfirm your own hunches because if you don't suspect it, then there is a high possibility that it is not an obsession.

Said William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice: "The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom." but Jimmy Durante may have put it more apt by saying "Why doesn't everybody leave everybody else the hell alone?"

Concern bordering on Obsession. The Fine Thin Line. Crossing it would result in Dislike, Stifling, Annoyance.

Hostility.

Fear.

Paranoia is soooo not hot.

A Slice of Heaven

Absolutely Awesome Carrot Cake:

Ingredients
4 eggs
3/4 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups grated carrots (use larger grater...like for cheese)

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.
• In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, brown sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in walnuts. Pour into prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (reduce for less sweet)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

Recipe from Allrecipes.com with modifications. Thanks Françoise for the awesomeness :)

Have a great upcoming MALAYSIA DAY!