Thursday, March 29, 2007

Kawan Aku Gila

Malay for "My friend is mad."

See why?


WOT?!

WOOT?!

WOOOOOOTT??!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

They Replied!!!!

In my previous post I was lamenting about my email that didn't get through. This morning when I woke up, I had a pleasant surprise! This was what came through the mail:

Dear Mr. Daniel Lee,


Thank you for sharing your valuable feedback with us.

Currently, we have the following information display in the information panel on each bus stop

(a) The single bus route number that is stopping

(b) The list of bus stops

(c) The bus operating time i.e. the first and the last bus together with the types of day fares available

(d) The map showing the routes that are stopping together with the City shuttle map (shuttles that are going to the Central Business District)

Nevertheless, we will also look into your other suggestion on the approximate time of journey taken from each stop so that we can provide better service to our commuters. We thank you for bringing up your valuable feedback to our attention.

Manager

Customer Relationship Management

Corporate Communication Division

Rangkaian Pengangkutan Integrasi Deras Sdn Bhd

No 1 Jalan PJU 1A/46

Off Jalan Lapangan Terbang Subang

47301 Petaling Jaya

Toll free: 1-800-388-228

www.rapidkl.com.my



Aiyak. Paiseh only. I didnt know they had the information panel up also. Didn't notice any when I was back home in the summer.

Oh well :P


Lallalalala DEE da!!

On other fronts, my supervisor has given my FYP an all clear. So effectively I'm done with it. HURRAHHH!!!

*jiggle jiggle wiggle wiggle*

Aerosmith - Dude (Looks Like A Lady)

And this ladies and gentlement, is why we all love Aerosmith. Beat that jiggle man. Beat that.

Aiyoohhh

Last Monday, this particular report in The Star Newspaper caught my eye. It was about RapidKL, the company that is in charge of the public transport system in Kuala Lumpur, wanting to make upgrades to the existing system. More specifically, to quote the report;

".....Mohd Ali is also inviting the public to provide feedback on what they expect from the bus company in order to convert car users to bus users.

“If you compare the network from what it was before we took over, there has been a lot of improvement. There is certainty in getting a bus now, with a 30-minute waiting time being terrible.

“So the question is, what are the public's expectations of a bus company in KL considering we are limited by certain factors,” he added. ..."


So being the nice and kind soul that I am, and wanting to do my bit to provide feedback on what they expect from the bus company in order to convert car users to bus users, I spent my Monday morning typing an email to the company, rapidKL; which went like this:

Dear Sir,

With regards to your comments reported in the Star Newspaper on Monday 26th March concerning suggestions for the Rapid KL Bus Network.

My name is Daniel Lee, and I am a Malaysian doing my final year of studies in London.

I was working in KL last year on an internship attachment and was a daily user of the public transport system to get to work and back each day. While I did not use the Rapid KL bus line extensively (mainly the Metrobus) as I lived in SS13 in Subang and traveled to downtown KL to work, I did use the Rapid KL service on a number of occasions, especially from Subang to the Kelana Jaya LRT station.

Being a frequent user of London's bus and tube network, I would like to highlight some observations and suggestions that hopefully can contribute towards the betterment of Rapid KL's services.

Most people are reluctant to use the bus service as there is not enough information to inform them where each bus is going, whether if they will need a connecting bus to take them to where they go, how long will they have to wait etc. If Rapid KL can provide some sort of notice board at each bus stop, which states:

1. The bus number
2. The route taken (if possible with each stop listed on the route) for that particular bus
3. Bus operating times, for eg. first bus begins at say 6am, and then every 8 mins approx. per bus, and last bus at 1am.
4. The approximate time of journey taken from each stop.
5. An overall chart showing all the buses routes that will be stopping at that stop.

So using the bus from the Kelana Jaya LRT towards Subang as an example:

Bus No. X

KJ LRT
| 15 mins
|
Giant Hypermarket
| 20 mins
|
Sunway Pyramid
| 5 mins
|
Subang Parade
| N mins
|
etc

Bus Operating Times:
Monday to Friday
6am - 8am
600am, 615am, 630am, 645am etc

8am till 11pm
Every 10 mins per bus

11pm onwards
1120pm, 1140pm, 1200am, 1215am (Last Bus)

And so on and so forth

And also the obvious of having frequent and relatively reliable and punctual buses during peak hours will help encourage more users.

Another thing to note is that sometimes, when buses are overcrowded the driver still continues to allow people in, until it terribly packed. A simple bus ride from KL to anywhere at around 5-6pm will show this. It would be good if drivers can be instructed to not take in any more passengers when the bus is already full (which of course, to placate those being left behind, having buses that are coming swiftly and punctually will go a long way).

Generally I've nothing but good words to say about the improvements that have been made over the recent year(s). Keep up the good work, and I sincerely hope that these suggestions will be able to contribute towards the improvement of the system.

Regards,

Daniel Lee


Satisfied and happy with what I wrote, I proceeded to email them.

A couple of hours later, I got a reply:

Your message

To: suggest@rapidkl.com.my
Subject: Attn: The CEO, En. Mohd. Ali Mohd. Nor
Sent: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 17:51:28 +0800

did not reach the following recipient(s):

Katherine on Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:27:45 +0800
The recipient was unavailable to take delivery of the message
MSEXCH:MSExchangeMTA:PUTRALRT
:MAILSERVER


Undeterred, I tried again, checking I got the email correct. Not too long later, I got another reply, this time from Google:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipient has been delayed:

suggest@rapidkl.com.my

Message will be retried for 2 more day(s)

Technical details of temporary failure:
TEMP_FAILURE: Could not initiate SMTP conversation with any hosts:
[xmaildata.rapidkl.com.my. (0): Connection timed out]


Like WOOOT man!! WOOOOOOOTTTT!!!!!
Aiyoh, please lah, after spending my morning writing that email they could've at least ensured that the email address was working.
Please, don't let me write that for no reason.

Or maybe i'll just snail mail them.


If I ever bump into their webmaster on the street, somebody's gonna get some ass kicking.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

*happy sigh*

Aih. I love being a kor-kor =)

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Negaraku

Reading YB Lim Kit Siang's blog over the last few errr... months has certainly evoked some emotions on my part. I never intended to blog on such issues, and as I'm writing this, a part of me still wonders about the point (or futility) of blogging about this. But anyways.

Reading his blog, makes for depressing stuff, especially if you're Malaysian and you care. I generally regard Mr. Lim's blog a more credible source than that of certain blogs/sites, where there's lots of smoke instead of fire. Generally each time I read an article on his blog, a part of me screams out and says that it can't be that bad. That we are still OK.

What makes it more disheartening is usually the comments made by other readers of the blog. In my perception, they appear to be most, err, lets say cynical and critical. And if you continue to read the comments on other sites such as say, MalaysiaToday, its even worst. How people's minds are so easily manipulated according to what the writer writes. Condemnation after condemnation of our country ensues by the very same people who make their living in there. But since I'm writing this from the comfort (which is not much, its bleeding cold) of my room in London, I guess I'm in no position to judge.

Anyways, back to the issue. Many people I know, mainly Chinese Malaysians, complain about the existence of discrimination back home. Saying that this doesn't exist, would be denying the truth at hand. Hence, most of them come to the conclusion that it's no point going back to Malaysia, we'll live better overseas, better pay, we appreciated more etc. I once read on a friend's blog a statement that said, "Our forefathers left their own country in search of a better life. And its only natural if we do the same." Which is true. But not the whole truth.

When I consider my position, I am indeed relatively blessed. With my education sponsored, a job waiting for me back home, I am very well off compared to some of my peers. Hence I do sympathize with them, as they are people who are generally much more intelligent, talented and capable that I am, not getting the opportunities that their abilities would "deserve". Better phrased, not getting the same opportunities back home as those that they would get elsewhere.

But yet at the same time, we non-bumis have this terrible siege mentality mindset. While there are hundreds and thousands of endless arguments to support that statement that will go on till the end of time, the truth is, most of us never felt a proper sense of belonging for our home, neither have we made the effort to do that (of which you may beg to differ, but this is my perception). We never say anything good about our country, we blame everybody else for everything, and we diss our own country at generally every opportunity.

More importantly, what now?

I believe that most of us have to come to terms that Malaysia will only get better if and only if we make the effort to make it better. Of course, relatively there are better opportunities elsewhere, there will always be. But if we don't fight for what we love and all that is good, then who will? The faults, the hypocrisy, all the bad things are there, but within those constraints, let's fix it, let's make it what we know it can be.

Bak kata pepatah Melayu,

Hujan batu di negeri sendiri, hujan emas di negeri orang; lebih baik di negeri sendiri.

Maybe I'm naive, or haven't-eaten-enough-salt, but home is where the heart is, and home is where we belong, and home is what we fight for.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Itu Kamu!

That's you!

Bryan showed me this video clip of a local Malaysian band, Estranged, with their hit song Itu Kamu. They have a blog too which you can check out here.

Estranged with their hit song, Itu Kamu.




I must say I'm superbly impressed with what I saw. These guys are quality. Credit to the video director as well for the great idea and amazing quality.

So guys and girls, support our local artistes instead of BitTorrent. Yes. Don't pretend. I know you know that we know that everybody knows that the norm is to errr....acquire music through less costly measures.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Anyways, theres this new link on the right called VMY2007, (this link is a wee bit different from the other one as you can personalize it your own country, but they all end up in the same place eventually) which basically stands for Visit Malaysia Year 2007. It was voted one of the best websites for tourism (I forgot under what category/competition) but do check it out. Its really amazing. I didn't even know there were so many places to visit in my own hometown till I saw the website. Its very very well done.

*skip skip hop hop*

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot the important bit -_-"

Come visit Malaysia!!!!

*hop hop skip skip*

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Daniel's CD Wishlist Update

After spending a good part of my morning reading about multiple decrement models, I've came up with a list of CDs that I wish to possess in the near future. So to all you readers out there, yes you, are privilledge to share in this knowledge. *HINT HINT*

Man I'm shameless.

Anyways. CD wishlist:

1. Venus Isle - Eric Johnson
2. Seven Worlds - Eric Johnson

Reasoning: If you play guitar, you need to hear Eric Johnson. He's an extremely unique player and there's no other player like him.

3. Open All Hours - The Hamsters

Reasoning: One of the most unheard of bands, but one of the best ever I've heard. Blues rock for the win.

4. A Little South Side of Sanity - Aerosmith

Reasoning: You have to buy this for the classic songs, Janie's got a gun, Dude Looks Like a Lady, Sweet Emotion, Love in an Elevator etc. We all love Joe Perry and Steven Tyler.

5. Contraband - Velvet Revolver

Reason: Buy this specially for Fall to Pieces and Slither

6. No More Tears - Ozzy Osbourne

Reason: None whatsoever. Saja.

7. Hell Freeze Over - The Eagles

Reason: Dessspeeradoooo....

8. Appetite For Destruction - Guns n' Roses

Reason: The classic Rock and Roll album. MUST HAVE!!!

9. The Skies Above, The Black Mages - The Black Mages

Reason: Final Fantasy sountracks. Period.


So to you folks out there, tau-tau lah.

*grin*

Friday, March 16, 2007

Reviews, reviews

It's time for a review.

Simply because I say so =p

Term 1 Review
Jan exam results came back recently(they sure took about 300 years to mark it) , and overall I did OK I think. I felt errr... nothing when my results got back. Usually i'll be jumping for joy or wallowing in despair (generally the latter), but this time, I didn't feel much. In fact all I felt was sleepy. I think its a process called aging. Oh well, screw exams. But on the other hand, 3 MORE PAPERS TO GO AND I GRADUATE!!! WAKAKAKAKAKAKAKA! *points finger at medical students and ...* *cough* Just realized that I could jinx myself if I'm not careful here.

Term 2 review
Its like week 8 of the term (out of 11), and I've already declared myself graduated as far as classes are concerned, which in my case means I intend to ponteng lectures for the rest of the term (oops did I say that out loud?). But seriously, this term so far has been absolute PWNAGE. I mean like, ABSOLUTE. Those babi fellas decided to condense the most most most (3x for extra emphasis) difficult modules of the course in the final term. And I've 3 courseworks sitting on my table while I wait for one of my friends to finish them so I can rephrase them in my own words.

Not to mention an FYP that is still pending my supervisor's approval ><

Food Review
After 2 1/2 years in London, I finally found a place that serves food that I would say is decent enough to be called Malaysian (and no, no matter what you insist, C n R just doesn't quite cut it). It's this place called Hare and Tortoise in Brunswick Court near the Russell Square tube station. The curry mee I had today was just...amazing. I downed the whole gigantic bowl of curry soup. *happiness* Must make it a weekly visit from now on.

Movie Review
I caught the sneak preview(early preview, early release whatever you call it) of the movie 300 today as well. It's a movie based around Frank Miller's graphic novel (as least that's what I've heard from the trailers), and the entire movie (or almost all of it) is CGI rendered. Which is amazingly cool. Which also at the same time, led to a ridiculous amount of slow motion scenes, facial shots for example, where animators are keen to show that now they've managed to make human faces more realistic (instead of settling of polygonal shapes for faces that can only look good in shows like toy story). The movement of the hair, the twitch of the eye, the changes in the facial expressions, sweat droplets dripping down, all very impressive. But at the same time having no point to the story at all. Not to mention a few ridiculous sex/nude scenes (which again has no bearing to the story whatsoever, but I get the feeling that those guys were trying to show err...different positions that 2 people can errr... share some intimacy). AND TEH BLOOD. ZOMG TEH BLOOOOODDDDD. It was everywhere. Every thrust of the sword/spear/shield brought out blood droplets flying in the air in slow motion, splattering here and there. Almost poetic....NOT.

But anyways, this movie should be a age 21 rating -18 is actually ok but I just wanna rub it in to the teenagers. And the newly 20 year olds :D

-----------------------------------------------------------
Turning to other matters,

GOOGLE AND YOUTUBE I DEMAND YOU GIVE ME BACK MY WEEK!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, don't forget to check out the Ah Long Bukit Beruntung link, and also the Tommy Emmanuel ones. Go for the full DVD one if you have a relatively decent internet connection and 2 hours to kill. It's so good, I watched it TWICE in a row.

YOUTUBE I WANT MY LIFE BACKKKKKKKKK!!!

Monday, March 05, 2007

Pain

Pain is good. Pain tells you a lot of things, and teaches you a lot of things.

There are a few forms of them, physical, mental, emotional, so on and so forth.

I've been in quite a bit of physical pain recently, due to a certain 3 hour badminton session that I had last friday. It's monday now, but I still feel it's effects everytime I get up from a chair or lift my arm to scratch my back.

It tells me that:
Daniel, you're ridiculously unfit - the last time I did any running of sorts was way back in November.
Daniel, you're getting old - It's been an entire weekend and your body still hasn't recovered
Daniel, you need to start exercising more.

Another form of pain occurred over the weekend as well, when I was working on my Final Year Project. Due to some shortsightedness (i.e. lazy), I bungled up some stuff that I had been working on. Well I didn't really bungle it per say, just that I didn't take a sample large enough, and when I got the results they made no sense whatsoever and I had to REDO THE ENTIRE BLEEDING THING. *cough* Pardon me.

That, in short, was painful - you know it's painful when you're a rockstar wannabe but you've spend your entire saturday and sunday staring at Microsoft Excel.

Again it tells me:
Daniel, always think long term. Long term! Short term gratification - i.e. laziness - never pays!!!
Daniel, ALWAYS SAVE the work you're doing even when you're halfway through it.
Daniel, do things do properly. Or else have to do again. ( My dad has been trying to drill this point into me since I was 4. Now I'm going to be 23. Some people just have to learn the hard way.)
Daniel, get a life.

Pain lah pain i tell you. PAINFULLLLLLLLL!!!!

*ouch*