A few weeks ago, Maybank called me up and asked me if I wanted a credit card. I didn’t have to fill up an application form or show any proof of income. How would they know that I would be able to handle another credit card? Oh, I forget. Banks target those with poor credit. LOL

They literally forced one upon me. When I requested to read their terms and conditions first, the lady told me that there are no terms and conditions at all. I did not have to pay an annual fee and neither is there a minimum spending per month to qualify for the free card.

I was told that I could choose to activate the card, or not, when they courier it to me. So I said fine. Send it over and I will decide. Little did I know that they would include this credit card in my Maybank2u account and the card came activated already. Anyway, I accepted it since it’s free and I don’t lose anything if I settle my credit card balance at the end of the month.

When I told my friend that Maybank called me up, he cautioned that it may be a phishing call and that I may have leaked out my personal or financial information through the phone. Geee, gave me a scare only But now that the card is here, it confirms that the phone call I received from Maybankard was legitimate.

Still, I think it is bad business practice for them to access my internet banking account to include this credit card in the account. So, who wants to go shopping?

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Quite a number of people asked if I have plans to keep a new dog knowing what an animal lover I am. Well, sad to say that I no longer want a new pet. Snoopy is what I have right now and I have no intention to open my home to another pet; dog or otherwise.

pet medics

Keeping a pet is still relatively cheap here in Ipoh but it is not a matter of cost but a matter of suffering emotionally when the pets are ill. Through the years, I had the opportunity to come into contact with almost all the vets here in Ipoh and I don’t have good things to say about them.

I have been keeping dogs since I was in kindergarten, and we also had a bat, a rooster, chickens, ducks, birds, fish, rabbits and a host of other smaller animals. Dogs are, of course, the best because they could interact so well with humans. However, I hope I will not lose my heart to another puppy!

I went to Kinta City and came across a stall called Rainbow something [I don't remember anymore] where they sold these framed miniature decorative items.

baby room

These are seriously lovely but it is unfortunate that I could not capture their delicate beauty on camera. Firstly, there was not enough light and secondly, these were placed at an awkward height and I was not tall enough. All my shots were out of alignment and I hate it!

fruit cart

As you probably noticed, I cropped out all the frames from these miniatures on the photos because they just make the slant more pronounced. Anyway, I’d really love to get a couple of these to display at home but I can hardly keep away the dust so I will have to forget about these! SIGH!

wine shop

This month is seriously bad luck for me. Last evening, lightning struck my home and killed my telephone line. Well, I could still make and receive phone calls but there’s a lot of static and I could no longer connect to Streamyx.

Also, my two computers were switched on during that time so my two network cards were fried. My modem, however, survived the hit but my wi-fi router is burnt. SIGH. My area here is in the “line of fire” and I am not surprised that my poor Dino totally freaked out each time there was a thunderstorm.

Right now, I am waiting for the TM technician to come and repair my phone line and I hope that my Streamyx connection will be restored as soon as possible. I’m using my Celcom 3G connection now, which I feel is not as stable as or as fast as Streamyx.

Oh yes, I don’t have wi-fi now so I would not be playing with my iPhone. I NEED 3G iPhone! Anyway, hope things will be back in order sonnest. Really no mood!

I went to Ipoh Parade a few evenings ago, I don’t even remember when exactly. Anyway, there was a car fair or something and car dealers were displaying their cars from Suzuki Swift to Honda Accent to Jaguar XF. There were a few sports cars as well but those were crowded with people that I didn’t want to wait around for them to clear so that I could take some decent shots.

I took some shots of this black Jaguar XF instead. It is not always that we get to see a Jaguar on the road. Yes, there ARE Jaguars here in Ipoh but of very old models. My father’s friend has a Jaguar, the classic model, and you know what? His road tax is more than MYR4000 a year! Let’s not forget that it’s a fuel guzzler as well!

I don’t even know why these car dealers even bother displaying their cars in Ipoh. It’s not as if the majority of the Ipoh folks could afford it and it is not even possible to fish for corporate clients unlike in Kuala Lumpur.

There was a red hot Toyota Celica as well that requires MYR5000 down payment and a monthly installment of MYR1,300. It does not really sound extremely expensive but with the rising fuel prices and the domino effect that has on basic necessities, one wonders if driving such a luxurious car is worth it.

Oh yes, and don’t forget, if one could afford such a car as the Jaguar XF, he would have to get a uniformed driver as well. Well, I think these dealers are just wasting their time and rental coming to Ipoh!

Friends wanted to know why I write so many blogs. Well, I write just for fun to express myself since working for myself, I hardly have the chance to interact with real people. Besides, I do not need to spend a fortune hosting my own blogs. I just need to renew my domain names and pay an annual low-priced hosting plan.

However, for people who want to seriously go into blogging or to make money from blogs, they should check out Upstart Blogger, especially their 25 Steps to Launching Your Blog and Making $100+ A Month in 30 Days. I wrote about this back in January, 2008.

Upstart Blogger has a wealth of information on how to make money blogging, beginning from how to set up a blog. Personally, I find the theme of Upstart Blogger extremely confusing so I cannot imagine what people who are not as web-savvy, people who are in my parents’ generation, would feel navigating through Upstart Blogger. These are the people who most need the knowledge in setting up a blog from scratch and making a success out of it and it would be more helpful if Upstart Blogger is more user-friendly.

I went to Tesco Extra last night and there was an exhibition on prisoners’ craftwork and carpentry. These were for sale too. There were posters on display on life in prison, to scare us so that we will not land in prison ourselves, and there was this hangman’s noose, or tali gantung in Malay, on display.

I have actually seen this exhibition quite a few times in various malls since the prison department is trying to sell the work of the prisoners. Furniture and other household items are sold but I will never buy them. Besides the fact that they look crude, I cannot imagine myself using something that was made by a person who was serving his prison term for whatever crime he committed. And it is not as if these were sold cheaper than other factory manufactured items. But then don’t be surprise to see a big “SOLD” tag on these items!

When I was taking a photo of this hangman’s noose, by the way, I hate to take pictures of glass panels as I will always be reflected in it, a shopper stopped in front of this display, and you can see his reflection as well, and asked incredulously, “TALI GANTUNG??? TALI GANTUNG??? Who wants to hang? Wah… very dangerous to keep in the house!”

This guy thought that this hangman’s noose was for sale as well. But I didn’t correct him. In fact, I didn’t even talk to him. I don’t talk to strangers unless they walk right in front of me and I could not escape.

I am still in shock that you left so suddenly on 6th June, 2008, Dino. You may already be 13.5 years old and I should have expected your demise but it does not make it anymore easier to accept when it did happen.

I certainly did not expect it to happen on 6th June, 2008. The weather was so fine but my sister consoled that perhaps you chose a “good day” to leave so that we could give you a proper farewell.

I reminded you that Snoopy is home waiting for you to play. There’s your favourite dinner that you have yet to take and I have more time to spend with you but you did not wait. Truly, nobody can defy fate and like I feared, your fits finally claimed you.

Photo credit: A Swarm Of Angels

I told my friend that I am afraid that nobody will care for you now but he said that the angels will. I hope it is true. I hope that you are receiving the prayers that would help you gain rebirth in the shortest time possible.

I know that you are now released from your earthly fears and sufferings. Still, it is not easy to accept that you are no longer with me. Taking care of you since you were three weeks old, you make a huge part of my life. I so want to pet you now, play with you and catch your kutu. I keep looking out for you but you are not here anymore. I miss your stomping of feet when you were geram, banging my bathroom door when you wanted me to come out, scratching your feeding bowl when you could not wait for your food and your silliness in thinking that Snoopy is female ….

If caring for you meant that I had to witness fifty fits attacks, 17 of them singles and 13 clusters, then I guess I had no choice but to accept you as a “package”. Each time, though, I suffered along with you and I believe my lifespan has been shortened because of all these unfortunate episodes.

Sometimes, I feel like we have failed you; the incompetent vets that messed up your “motherboard”, the diet that was of lower quality than what you perhaps required and all the other things that would have given you a better life but there is no way we can turn back the clock.

I hope that no matter where you are, you are safe and guided by angels. Let me know in my dreams. I miss you so much … may you rest in peace.

The impending hike in petroleum which was speculated to happen this August has been moved forward to tomorrow. I think that our ministers have also failed their Math like I did. Don’t they know how to calculate the percentage of increment from RM1.92 to RM2.70?

Our family car runs on diesel and the fact that it is a diesel car means that it is a “working” car. There is no luxury in driving a diesel powered car like many people believed.

I tell you, owning a diesel car, although diesel is said to be heavily subsidised as well, our road tax goes up to over a thousand Ringgit a year. Is there savings at all? Of course, road tax is lower for green engines but how many people could afford that?

I was told that as an owner of a 2400cc car, we will not be getting a compensation of RM625 per year. Is there any logic that driving a bigger capacity car means that we are wealthy and would not require subsidy? I guess they have not heard of the “urban poor”.

bullock cart

Car owners should demand that road tax be scrapped. After all, we are also paying toll. Ministers know nuts about the financial hardships that ordinary folks go through. After all, they get everything FREE. All their bills are paid for by our taxes!

I dare not imagine the impact this will have on our pockets. Next on the list of tariff hike is rumoured to be our electricity. Perhaps everyone should live in the dark now too.

Seriously, aren’t we all sick already hearing about our rates that are forever lowest in the region? Who cares what our neighbours are paying? Our salaries are also lowest in the region!

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was heavily into shortwave radio listening. I actually discovered shortwave very early on, in primary school, but only had time to indulge and invest some money into the hobby in the late 1990s.

I was fascinated with the ability to receive international broadcasts over my radio and I guess, for shortwave radio hobbyists, even with access to the internet, the fascination is still there, especially when we discover a signal from a faraway broadcaster.

I no longer have time to tune into the stations anymore, mainly because the computer conflicts with radio airwaves but I know that when I retire, I will still go back to shortwave radio listening and by then it would be time to invest into new receivers. Right now, all I have left from my hobby are only three shortwave radio receivers and a large box of QSL verification cards.

The other day when I was clearing out my drawers, I found this piece of paper which was my entry into a Homepage Designing Contest held by Radio Taipei International. RTI was one of the stations that I tuned into the most and in fact, was a reception monitor for them for a year and a half. When I started tuning in to them, they were known as Voice of Asia but subsequently underwent a revamp and emerged with a new name, image and brand.

It amuses me no end even today that this homepage designing effort of mine managed to win a prize, though I cannot remember what prize it was anymore, except that it was not the first prize. Anyway, back then, I only had dial-up internet access and was exposed to only a handful of websites.

I decided to scan this for keepsake. I get a kick out of winning contests especially those that require creativity. Those who know me personally know that I am not creative at all even though there’s the creative gene in the family! Some of my cousins and cousins don’t-know-how-many-times removed make a living through art! GGggrrr makes me geram that I don’t have any creativity!