Oxymoron In The Tropics

One of my friends got two shocks recently. Shock Number One She found out that by end of December 2011, she would only be allowed to hold two credit cards. The extras have to be cancelled. She would only be given two years to settle the outstanding debts from the cancelled credit cards. Shock Number Two She was informed that her maximum credit limit for her remaining two credit cards could only be 2x her monthly income. In her particular case, she has six credit cards.  When she cancels four of them, she has a combined debt of RM20,000.  But her remaining two credit cards have high credit limits... and she has to settle RM4000 to comply with the new credit limit. So now she is dizzy thinking of those debts... yes, she is given two years to settle them... but RM24,000 on top of her other debts is a very very heavy burden to pay.  While I pity her, I also think that this is something that Bank Negara Malaysia should have done earlier. These rules a...

One day, I flipped open my PDA and tried to read one of the ebooks in it.  After ten minutes, I gave up.  Age had taken a toll on my eyes.  I used to smile indulgently at those people who used big-screen e-readers and pat myself on the back for using a small PDA to read books.  Well, Time has a way of getting back at people like me.  Sigh. I tried increasing the font size on my PDA.  Have you ever tried to read a book on a screen that displayed only ten words a a time?  Go, go give it a try.  If only to laugh at me.  So I began my search for a big-screen replacement. The Amazon Kindle kept coming up in the course of my quest.  I didn't want an LCD screen with a backlight because they tire my eyes out pretty fast.  'Pretty fast' means four or five hours of reading.  Sometimes I like to go on ebook reading marathons.  People kept telling me that Amazon doesn't ship Kindles to Malaysia.  Amazon doesn't sell Kindle eb...

The work I do involves sending documents of various formats and extensions (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .pps, .txt, just to name a few).  Within upgrades of the same software, there may also be multiple formats not compatible with each other.  Sometimes I waste a whole morning just saving documents in different formats to be sent a second or a third time.  Naturally, I searched for a solution.  And it was a no-brainer.  PDF was the answer to my problem.  With documents in PDF, everyone would be able to view them. For those less in the know, PDF stands for Portable Document Format.  However, the ubiquitous (and free!) Adobe Acrobat Reader only reads docs.  I needed to be able to create them. At first I used a pirate version of Adobe Acrobat but through multiple upgrades and through the hassle of dealing with cancelling requests for connections to the Adobe website, I gave up on it.  Besides, I was busy teaching others about the evils of piracy....

Last year, I began having problems with my old notebook (Dell 700m Inspiron).  The old Faithful has served me for about six years and is STILL serving me but it just won't display pictures anymore.  I blame this on the gazillion-MB pictures produced by the new cameras.  HOWEVER, as I was expected to deal with pictures in the course of my work, this posed a huge problem for me.  At first, it was only the screen that refused to show me the pictures (they would print out fine).  But after a while, the pictures wouldn't even print out.  So I decided to walk through the shiny electronics-awash halls of Karamunsing Complex Third Floor.  The specs of notebooks and desktops flabbergasted me.  320GB hard disks, 4GB RAM etc etc.  I checked old Faithful's specs... 60GB hard disk memory... 256MB RAM... ohhh, no wonder the poor thing couldn't cope.  I upgraded the RAM to 1GB.  Pictures still refused to show themselves.  So I bit the bullet and bought myself an Acer. At first, I ...

A few days ago, I had a sudden realization... sometimes a good thing isn't always a good thing. Let me elaborate.  About two years ago, I applied for a post.  I'd already given up on it when 'something' happened.  To summarize, I was given the opportunity to have the opportunity of joining a certain organization.  LOL... that sounds complicated, doesn't it?  The catch would be that I'd probably have to pack my bags and move someplace far.  If you ask me how far, then I'd say, a bit beyond Labuan. Perhaps in younger days, I would've started planning what I'd want to pack the very same day.  But now, I've gone through quite a number of experiences that has taught me that money and promotions aren't everything.  If I could, I would and all that jazz.  But in this case, I 'couldn't'.  And that was my epiphany.  I weighed my career prospects against family and family won hands down big time.  A decade ago, things would've been di...

This blog sure has been neglected... but that is due to other more pressing demands on my time.  Beginning October, the preparations and courses and briefings for the new Primary 1 curriculum kept me hopping from meeting to course to report.  I was supposed to organise Maths and Science courses at the end of November but from past experience with the PPSMI programmes, I didn't want to take the risk of not meeting my target participants.  I knew very well that many teachers had already booked their tickets home and for Sabah, many teachers are from other districts.  What many people in Malaysia just don't get, distances in Sabah aren't as easily navigated as distances in Peninsular Malaysia.  First, Sabah can easily fit in seven of the smaller states in Peninsular Malaysia.  Second, the rainy weather we'd been experiencing (and still are!) created so many problems, such as landslides, floods and high tide.  Third, in Kota Kinabalu, we have schools on islands and in pla...

I'm such a terrible flibbertigibbet... at least when it comes to doing my PhD.  But then it isn't a choice to be lightly made. Over the weekend, I sat for hours and thought hard.  I had three other projects on my plate... could I handle a fourth?  Especially one as big as a PhD course?  Worse, it was to be done on a part-time basis. In the end, I realised that I was being too greedy, wanting everything.  But like an over-ambitious juggler, if I try to have too many balls flying up in the air, I may end up with all of them falling on the ground. Well, it isn't as if the PhD has an expiry date.  So back on the shelf those dreams go.  Again.   But, guys, I still want my books back.  I still want to do some research.