I hv been very fortunate to hv been able to travel to the US a lot...thx to Microsoft. Hence I was very lucky to land in my fav US city SF a lot as well. Just elaborate on some other happenings while i was there. Thr was one year whr we ran for charity. For every Microsofties that registered for the run, MS paid the charity USD1K. So Alex and I signed up to run in a cool, breezy Mediterranean weather type of SF. Little did we know the run was the length of the Golden Gate Bridge and at 5am in the morning...or was it 6?? At that blinking hour, its all the same to me.
I just remembered we had to wake up at 4.30am or something fantastically ridiculous like dat and then board a bus to the bridge. The temp was about 8 degrees or so and windy...it was by the bay for goodness sake!! So here we were freezing our testicles off, waiting for the run to start. We warmed up and off we went. Of coz being in the athletic shape that we were in, we took something like twice the time to get across the bridge. We were so athletic, our goal was NOT to finish last. Wat a low-expectation-having pair of aerodynamic marathon wannabes. Well it was for a good cause and we finished way above expectations, somewhere in the middle. Just to show dat geeks will always be geeks.
We also had seafood clam chowder in sourdough bread together with steamed crabs by the side of the Fisherman's wharf by the street. The world's crooked street, Lombard street was also a novelty and it would be best drive through in a kancil!! But SF's attractions were not only in the city. From SF, I manage to visit 2 superbly beautiful places. The 17-mile drive and Yosemite National Park.
The 17-mile drive is along the Pacific Coast and it takes us through the coastal cities like South Beach, Monterrey and Carmel-at-sea (Clint Eastwood was mayor here once). It also took us through Pebble Beach Golf Club where some of the US masters were played. The view is gorgeous. The city of Carmel was my favourite. Things were expensive since the rich tend to retire there but the town was so quaint with houses that looked like toys. The colour of everything was bright and vibrant. Flowers were bright red or yellow or blue. Buildings all looked it was just painted. Nothing was faded in Carmel. South Beach and Monterrey were bigger and seafood there was just to die for. You may also see seals by the beach though I wouldnt advise going near them.
Yosemite was about a day drive from SF and dat drive was boring! We went through truck stops, biker bars and stretches of wheat fields!!! It was just flat, yellow and BORING! The trip to Yosemite though was super worth it. To get a feel of Yosemite, go watch the movie "Maverick" starring Mel Gibson. There was a part where he was fooling around with his Red Indian friends on a bicycle. That was filmed at Yosemite. I could not even begin to describe in words that will do it justice. For one, the whole place looked like it was painted and arrange by God. Everthing look so unreal to this city slicker. The rivers were crystal clear and cool and the waterfalls simply majestic. Everything was placed just right for it to work. You get the feeling that this was how God intended the world to be when he started out. Deep eh?!!
Another interesting aspect of Southern California is that it is vastly populated by people of Hispanic descent. Now I said I look Malay but to be more precise, I look 3rd world country. I will be mistaken for a local in any ASEAN country. But I was also mistaken for a hispanic guy in SF and LA. People were talking to me in Spanish (I think it is Spanish) very fast and to avoid any arguments, I just almost always nodd and walk away quickly. To make matters worse, I use to travel with another Chindian buddy called Patrick and we look like the Cisco Kid and ...erm....geez I don't freaking remember his sidekick's name @#$%^&. Whatever la.
Next part I will tell you a funny story about Chinatown in SF. There were also more happenings like I took up sky diving. Whoa wat a rush!!! But that's for another day....Comprende amigo?!?!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
To plug or not to plug....
Some years ago when i was still committed to lose weight, i experimented with a drug called Xenical. It was a safe drug that combined with a low fat diet can help with weight lost. The operative word here is diet....and low and fat. Ok its 3 words. While i was trying it, I did manage to lose 5kg in 6 weeks. However with all good things, it came with a price. Actually it came with a superbly embarassing gross leakage. If you google xenical, there is a FDA website that list these side effects of xenical.
What are some possible side effects of Xenical? (This is NOT a complete list of side effects reported with Xenical. Your health care provider can discuss with you a more complete list of side effects.)
You may think that these are just a list they put up to cover all bases and that it's not really what will happen. Well, you will be right because, what really happens is a heck LOT MORE!!! For one thing you have this uncontrollable oily discharge that just seeps out of your ass like a beautiful red oily lava waterfall that will flow down your leg, turning everything red, oily, sticky and it won't stop until it turns your underwear, pants, socks and face red!
If only I found an oil well that was dat accommodating, I will be an overnight billionaire. Instead I get an oil spill that will rival Exxon Valdez. Just check out the last 2 statements. Inrease number of bowel movements AND inability to control them. Isn't that like a combination from hell??? You betcha, Johnny!!!!! It says spotting....only if de spots are the size of the Caspian Sea.
Then my resolve to lose weight was very strong so I had to find a way to stop these...err...anal leakages. To do that I had to resort to some of the most humiliating dress combinations a guy could go through. First option was to look into adult diapers. However, these diapers are big and not only does it make a noise when you walk, it make your ass look like its trying to smuggle a family of Indonesians into the country. So we moved on to panty liners. It was more practical but boy does it make you feel so very conscious with this sensation of something threatening to crawl up the crack of your ass and INTO...well...you know. It is NOT a happy feeling boys n girls!!!!
I was NOT going to try tampons as NOTHING IS GOING UP THIS WAZZU!!! Sanitary pads are out. I have not reached the cross dressing part of my personality yet. Also it is so difficult to decide between wings, normal, heavy, etc. The stool is also an interesting phenomenon. The term interesting is similar to when you are inspecting the insides of sewer treatment plant....BEFORE the treatment. Actually i have a very good similie to the way your stool will look. It looks like the soup of the "Har-Meen" or prawn mee in any KL hawker center. Happy eating!
Anyway, I am feeling really strongly about giving it another shot. I still have not figured out anal leakage or uncontrollable bowel movements but I think I will look into some thongs and G-strings with thin sanitary pads. It will look good, pretty much like how it would look if a rhino would wear a thong while having its period. Hope I didnt put too many images in your head. Sweet dreams!! Anyway after all dat girly dressing, I am going to order a large portion of steak with beer and holler at some sluts down at the local saloon.
What are some possible side effects of Xenical? (This is NOT a complete list of side effects reported with Xenical. Your health care provider can discuss with you a more complete list of side effects.)
Oily spotting
Gas with discharge
Urgent need to have a bowel movement
Oily or fatty stools
Oily discharge
Increased number of bowel movements
Inability to control bowel movements
You may think that these are just a list they put up to cover all bases and that it's not really what will happen. Well, you will be right because, what really happens is a heck LOT MORE!!! For one thing you have this uncontrollable oily discharge that just seeps out of your ass like a beautiful red oily lava waterfall that will flow down your leg, turning everything red, oily, sticky and it won't stop until it turns your underwear, pants, socks and face red!
If only I found an oil well that was dat accommodating, I will be an overnight billionaire. Instead I get an oil spill that will rival Exxon Valdez. Just check out the last 2 statements. Inrease number of bowel movements AND inability to control them. Isn't that like a combination from hell??? You betcha, Johnny!!!!! It says spotting....only if de spots are the size of the Caspian Sea.
Then my resolve to lose weight was very strong so I had to find a way to stop these...err...anal leakages. To do that I had to resort to some of the most humiliating dress combinations a guy could go through. First option was to look into adult diapers. However, these diapers are big and not only does it make a noise when you walk, it make your ass look like its trying to smuggle a family of Indonesians into the country. So we moved on to panty liners. It was more practical but boy does it make you feel so very conscious with this sensation of something threatening to crawl up the crack of your ass and INTO...well...you know. It is NOT a happy feeling boys n girls!!!!
I was NOT going to try tampons as NOTHING IS GOING UP THIS WAZZU!!! Sanitary pads are out. I have not reached the cross dressing part of my personality yet. Also it is so difficult to decide between wings, normal, heavy, etc. The stool is also an interesting phenomenon. The term interesting is similar to when you are inspecting the insides of sewer treatment plant....BEFORE the treatment. Actually i have a very good similie to the way your stool will look. It looks like the soup of the "Har-Meen" or prawn mee in any KL hawker center. Happy eating!
Anyway, I am feeling really strongly about giving it another shot. I still have not figured out anal leakage or uncontrollable bowel movements but I think I will look into some thongs and G-strings with thin sanitary pads. It will look good, pretty much like how it would look if a rhino would wear a thong while having its period. Hope I didnt put too many images in your head. Sweet dreams!! Anyway after all dat girly dressing, I am going to order a large portion of steak with beer and holler at some sluts down at the local saloon.
Extend your family - even if its de Addams family
My last blog got me thinking about family and I tot I would mention them a bit. There are only 4 of us in the family. My bro is 5 years younger and rite now he looks like an Elm tree trunk! He is about 6' 1'' and very wide!! My Dad was really cool, he reads a lot and is very philosophical. He loves his siblings very much...too much i think that they tend to take him for granted and not appreciate him much sometimes. Dis doesnt seem to affect my Dad much. He always believed that if you took care of other people's children, God will take care of yours. Well dat was also de reason why we were poor as church mice. Mom is a great but she tend to nag a lot and is a typical 70's mom meaning she will beat your ass. I love them dearly.
I don't take too much to my dad's side of de family becoz of dat. Too many drama queens. I am closer to my mom's side since they have always looked out for us and were always there for us. Since I am the eldest, the closest thing I had to an elder brother was my cousin called KLY. He is a year older and we used to hang out all the time when we were kids. We lived quite near each other. It was a good 45 min walk but only 5 mins by bus and only cost 15 cents.
I moved to PJ when I was 8 and we started coming to each other's houses and hanging out a lot. He thought me chess, roller skating, how to take a bus and all kinds of board games. Sometimes we will invent really silly games like drawing a line of the sand and running around it trying to catch each other. You cannot jump over the line or reach over. Or we will have those plastic soldiers like those in Toy Story and we will hide them at various places in our living room. We will then enact a war using the military's best secret weapon...you ready for this?.....a rubber band. Sometimes we run out of soldiers and we will draft cowboys and indians to fight those nasty....err...nasty...KLY-ian soldiers.
KLY has 3 sisters, 2 older and 1 younger. We fell out of touch once we hit out teenage years and drifted apart throughout our adolescent years. We still see each other every year during Chinese New Year or other celebrations. We attended the birth of our kids and also the parties. One day, as I was looking at my current house, I found out that KLY family stayed at the same road of the house i was checking out. I damn near bought the house immediately.
My other cousins, KLY's 2 sisters also stayed on the same road. It was then that we started to connect again. We found A LOT of things that happened behind the scenes. Things that would put the Addams family to shame! I won't write it here to protect the innocent........yet! Anyway, we all hang out every weekend, do kids stuff like going to the zoo, park, cycling, badminton, swimming, etc. I mean we do with our kids la, not just the adults...sheesh!
So I am just super duper lucky that my cousins stay near me and that our families get along so well. It is truly a blessing I will cherish and I hope to maintain always. Next family blog I will talk about my cousin in SG. He is a triathelete and he is flawed...by his own words. Also I better write something gross next. All this mushy stuff is making me soft.
I don't take too much to my dad's side of de family becoz of dat. Too many drama queens. I am closer to my mom's side since they have always looked out for us and were always there for us. Since I am the eldest, the closest thing I had to an elder brother was my cousin called KLY. He is a year older and we used to hang out all the time when we were kids. We lived quite near each other. It was a good 45 min walk but only 5 mins by bus and only cost 15 cents.
I moved to PJ when I was 8 and we started coming to each other's houses and hanging out a lot. He thought me chess, roller skating, how to take a bus and all kinds of board games. Sometimes we will invent really silly games like drawing a line of the sand and running around it trying to catch each other. You cannot jump over the line or reach over. Or we will have those plastic soldiers like those in Toy Story and we will hide them at various places in our living room. We will then enact a war using the military's best secret weapon...you ready for this?.....a rubber band. Sometimes we run out of soldiers and we will draft cowboys and indians to fight those nasty....err...nasty...KLY-ian soldiers.
KLY has 3 sisters, 2 older and 1 younger. We fell out of touch once we hit out teenage years and drifted apart throughout our adolescent years. We still see each other every year during Chinese New Year or other celebrations. We attended the birth of our kids and also the parties. One day, as I was looking at my current house, I found out that KLY family stayed at the same road of the house i was checking out. I damn near bought the house immediately.
My other cousins, KLY's 2 sisters also stayed on the same road. It was then that we started to connect again. We found A LOT of things that happened behind the scenes. Things that would put the Addams family to shame! I won't write it here to protect the innocent........yet! Anyway, we all hang out every weekend, do kids stuff like going to the zoo, park, cycling, badminton, swimming, etc. I mean we do with our kids la, not just the adults...sheesh!
So I am just super duper lucky that my cousins stay near me and that our families get along so well. It is truly a blessing I will cherish and I hope to maintain always. Next family blog I will talk about my cousin in SG. He is a triathelete and he is flawed...by his own words. Also I better write something gross next. All this mushy stuff is making me soft.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
God brothers - is there such a thing and who cares?
I wasn't blessed with a large immediate family. It was just my bro and me and of coz our parents. We were a tight knit family. My Dad was a very strong family man. He always ensured we had enough to eat or wear or just well taken care of. I was very close to my friends from school or work (yes you can have life long friends from work!). One of such friend from work became my very good friend that even our families were also close.
I met Alex Fong at Microsoft where I first joined back in 95-96. I entered my new office on 1 April (how apt dat it was April Fool's Day) dressed in a new white shirt and tie. I went to my place and realized that I didnt have my notebook with me. However, next to my station was a PC connected to a Microsoft Joystick and a game called "Mech Warrior" loaded. So in my cleanest white shirt and tie, i sat down and started to play. In walked a guy with a mini mullet, rocker T-shirt, torn jeans with a look that says he just woke up and he gave me this coldest stare. I realized afterwards that I was sitting at his place but at dat point my MechWarrior was chasing down this renegade Mech and I didnt have time to care about some sleepy head rocker punk. So I carried on playing for another hour or so. Alex sat down next to me and in an hour, just turned to me and asked "Who the hell are you?". It was our first words!!
Alex offered to take me out to lunch on my first day. It was pretty cool to have your colleague do that. So I followed him to the swankiest and most elegant.....McDonald's in Jalan Raja Chulan at Menara Weld. We ordered at the counter (in case you were frozen since the ice age and havent been to a McD's) and in a macho, cool, deep drawl he turned over to me and said "Eh, you got money ah? I left my wallet at home la!". So i paid for our lunch.
Alex got married after a while to Sharon, who happens to be the sister of one of my school friends. We later found out that our ages were the same. Alex and I were born in the same year as were our wives. We then started hanging out together by going out on weekends and then on a holiday to Langkawi. The coolest thing about our friendship was not about the adults but about our sons. Mike (my son) and Share were born 4 days apart and these boys just started clicking and hanging out as early as I can remember.
Since Alex and I were first borns and we were married early (let that be a lesson to you), we didnt have anyone who could make suitable God Parents for our kids and becoz de boys were 4 days apart, we decided that we would be God Parents to the other's son. So Shane became our God son and Mike was theirs. Not only did both boys never fought, they always seem to have a great time together.
When the boys were one, we took them to Cameron and stayed in this old chalet with a fire place. The boys just learned to run and Mike ran past Shane without touching him....poor Shane just dropped on his butt. The wind from hurricane Mike must have taken him out. Mike came back to help his friend up but both just fell back down. When the boys were about 2+, they were playing in a playground and a bigger girl came and pushed Shane but Mike stood in front of Shane and told the girl not to mess with them.
Shane moved to Seattle about 5 years ago when Alex got a great opportunity at Microsoft Corp and the boys were very sad at the airport. Mike actually teared. They do write each other sometimes, send birthday gifts and now will IM via a webcam. They will play games online and just kinda hang out but the time difference is a bit of a challenge. Both Shane and Mike take up Tae Kwan Do but Mike looks like one of those stick characters that we use to draw in kindergarten and Shane has grown to be a really cool, good looking and well built kid. Looks like he can kick some ass and protect Mike.
Everytime Shane gets back, they pick up from where they left off. It's like they were never apart. They have only seen each other twice and I know Shane wants us to go to Seattle but its not like driving to Kepong la!! For those of you who dont follow world events, Kepong is a 20min drive from our place.
I too miss my friends dearly and I do hope that our sons will continue to be friends and in this case God Brothers even across the miles. So is there such thing as a God Brother? Officially no but where love is present, it doesnt matter.
I met Alex Fong at Microsoft where I first joined back in 95-96. I entered my new office on 1 April (how apt dat it was April Fool's Day) dressed in a new white shirt and tie. I went to my place and realized that I didnt have my notebook with me. However, next to my station was a PC connected to a Microsoft Joystick and a game called "Mech Warrior" loaded. So in my cleanest white shirt and tie, i sat down and started to play. In walked a guy with a mini mullet, rocker T-shirt, torn jeans with a look that says he just woke up and he gave me this coldest stare. I realized afterwards that I was sitting at his place but at dat point my MechWarrior was chasing down this renegade Mech and I didnt have time to care about some sleepy head rocker punk. So I carried on playing for another hour or so. Alex sat down next to me and in an hour, just turned to me and asked "Who the hell are you?". It was our first words!!
Alex offered to take me out to lunch on my first day. It was pretty cool to have your colleague do that. So I followed him to the swankiest and most elegant.....McDonald's in Jalan Raja Chulan at Menara Weld. We ordered at the counter (in case you were frozen since the ice age and havent been to a McD's) and in a macho, cool, deep drawl he turned over to me and said "Eh, you got money ah? I left my wallet at home la!". So i paid for our lunch.
Alex got married after a while to Sharon, who happens to be the sister of one of my school friends. We later found out that our ages were the same. Alex and I were born in the same year as were our wives. We then started hanging out together by going out on weekends and then on a holiday to Langkawi. The coolest thing about our friendship was not about the adults but about our sons. Mike (my son) and Share were born 4 days apart and these boys just started clicking and hanging out as early as I can remember.
Since Alex and I were first borns and we were married early (let that be a lesson to you), we didnt have anyone who could make suitable God Parents for our kids and becoz de boys were 4 days apart, we decided that we would be God Parents to the other's son. So Shane became our God son and Mike was theirs. Not only did both boys never fought, they always seem to have a great time together.
When the boys were one, we took them to Cameron and stayed in this old chalet with a fire place. The boys just learned to run and Mike ran past Shane without touching him....poor Shane just dropped on his butt. The wind from hurricane Mike must have taken him out. Mike came back to help his friend up but both just fell back down. When the boys were about 2+, they were playing in a playground and a bigger girl came and pushed Shane but Mike stood in front of Shane and told the girl not to mess with them.
Shane moved to Seattle about 5 years ago when Alex got a great opportunity at Microsoft Corp and the boys were very sad at the airport. Mike actually teared. They do write each other sometimes, send birthday gifts and now will IM via a webcam. They will play games online and just kinda hang out but the time difference is a bit of a challenge. Both Shane and Mike take up Tae Kwan Do but Mike looks like one of those stick characters that we use to draw in kindergarten and Shane has grown to be a really cool, good looking and well built kid. Looks like he can kick some ass and protect Mike.
Everytime Shane gets back, they pick up from where they left off. It's like they were never apart. They have only seen each other twice and I know Shane wants us to go to Seattle but its not like driving to Kepong la!! For those of you who dont follow world events, Kepong is a 20min drive from our place.
I too miss my friends dearly and I do hope that our sons will continue to be friends and in this case God Brothers even across the miles. So is there such thing as a God Brother? Officially no but where love is present, it doesnt matter.
Funny Friends Part 2
Another funny story just happened to come to mind is the story if a friend who got so drunk at Beach Club one year. She was so stoned that she was just dead weight. One of my buddies tried to carry her and she barf all over her hand. And this was after she ate....very heavily....for goodness sake!!! Remnants of corn, minced chicken, flour, chips were all poured out elegantly into my poor buddy's hand. We almost took up a collection to get him to surgically remove at least the skin off his hand.
We were supposed to leave Ms Deadwood there but if no one claims her, she will spend a night in jail so some of us decided to take her to a hotel. Now if you know Beach Club, it is situated on the most expensive commercial real estate in KL, which is the prime area of Jln Sultan Ismail. So here was an interestingly disturbing sight. 4 guys carrying a lady...though at this point, there wasn't much lady likeness in her..along Sultan Ismail. She was wearing a skirt which of course was God's amusement for the night.
They carried her stretcher like to Concorde. Of course being superbly dead weight and my friends not exactly The Incredible Hulk, they had to stop at Prudential Building sending a scout to the hotel. Unfortunately it was fully occupied....another God's humour. So my scrawny friends had to take Ms Dugong across Sultan Ismail to the Shangri-La. 4 scrawny dudes literaaly dragging this lady who looks dead or at least drugged. It's 12am and the road is packed with party folks and you see this scene right out some vampire movie.
So u would think that by going to the Shang, things will get better now. Well, you obviously weren't paying attention to God's little humour tonight. If you know the Shang, it is a steep recline to the lobby that you have to negotiate. So up the steep recline with the lying Buddha and just as heavy. Half way up, wheezing and panting, everyone was on the verge of a cardiac arrest. So a bell hop trolley was brought down and she was plonked into it. We pushed her up and carried her into the wheel chair. As soon as her feet touched the wheel chair's feet platform, it broked. Thunder feet strikes!!!!
So she was taken to the room and putting her to bed was really a super human effort. Don't forget she was wearing a skirt. So the poor souls who had to carry her legs and move her up the bed, dragging her skirt up and then needing to maintain a certain sanity in the room, dragged her skit back down faster than a speeding bullet, had to poke their eyes out with rusted forks. Calling her husband and telling him that 4 guys carried his TOTALLY stoned wife to a hotel room was also a very rewarding experience for all involved. I bet the husband wanted to dig a hole all the way to Alaska and change his name to Iniwwiwi while polishing walrus tusk as a job.
The best part was, our lady friend only woke twice to empty the alcohol in her system and was totally oblivious of the situation. These times everyone steered clear of the acidic that was a remider of the creature from Aliens' acidic, metal melting blood. It even has de same colour.
Of course it took us a long time to look at her without flinching or wanting to perform amateur eyeball surgery on her but we passed it. Today we look back and laugh about it. And I am writing about it in my blog!!! I wonder if she will know its her.....
We were supposed to leave Ms Deadwood there but if no one claims her, she will spend a night in jail so some of us decided to take her to a hotel. Now if you know Beach Club, it is situated on the most expensive commercial real estate in KL, which is the prime area of Jln Sultan Ismail. So here was an interestingly disturbing sight. 4 guys carrying a lady...though at this point, there wasn't much lady likeness in her..along Sultan Ismail. She was wearing a skirt which of course was God's amusement for the night.
They carried her stretcher like to Concorde. Of course being superbly dead weight and my friends not exactly The Incredible Hulk, they had to stop at Prudential Building sending a scout to the hotel. Unfortunately it was fully occupied....another God's humour. So my scrawny friends had to take Ms Dugong across Sultan Ismail to the Shangri-La. 4 scrawny dudes literaaly dragging this lady who looks dead or at least drugged. It's 12am and the road is packed with party folks and you see this scene right out some vampire movie.
So u would think that by going to the Shang, things will get better now. Well, you obviously weren't paying attention to God's little humour tonight. If you know the Shang, it is a steep recline to the lobby that you have to negotiate. So up the steep recline with the lying Buddha and just as heavy. Half way up, wheezing and panting, everyone was on the verge of a cardiac arrest. So a bell hop trolley was brought down and she was plonked into it. We pushed her up and carried her into the wheel chair. As soon as her feet touched the wheel chair's feet platform, it broked. Thunder feet strikes!!!!
So she was taken to the room and putting her to bed was really a super human effort. Don't forget she was wearing a skirt. So the poor souls who had to carry her legs and move her up the bed, dragging her skirt up and then needing to maintain a certain sanity in the room, dragged her skit back down faster than a speeding bullet, had to poke their eyes out with rusted forks. Calling her husband and telling him that 4 guys carried his TOTALLY stoned wife to a hotel room was also a very rewarding experience for all involved. I bet the husband wanted to dig a hole all the way to Alaska and change his name to Iniwwiwi while polishing walrus tusk as a job.
The best part was, our lady friend only woke twice to empty the alcohol in her system and was totally oblivious of the situation. These times everyone steered clear of the acidic that was a remider of the creature from Aliens' acidic, metal melting blood. It even has de same colour.
Of course it took us a long time to look at her without flinching or wanting to perform amateur eyeball surgery on her but we passed it. Today we look back and laugh about it. And I am writing about it in my blog!!! I wonder if she will know its her.....
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
I Left my Heart in San Francisco
San Francisco was definitely my favourite US city. When I was in Microsoft, we used to go to de US twice every year. We always choose to land in Frisco or SF. I first went to the US in 1995 and SF was the first city i landed it. I remembered de first impression i had of SF was dat it was so like Subang airport! There were tons of Indians, Chinese and Malays (Hispanics and Latinos) at the airport. It was so difficult to find white people. I thought we just kinda circled around Subang for 18 hours and landed again. Of cos it was a hell of a nicer looking airport.
I was also very interested in airport security who were all armed with very impressive hand guns. Not like the "chotta" our security guys carry. These guys were huge as well not like de nasi lemak, half asleep, waiting for govt handouts kinds that you get back home. These days we have foreigners being our security personel at our airport. So secure!! After all they have all the incentive to protect foreigners right?!!?!
SF had a weather that was cool all year round. It was about 18-20 degress Celcius in the mornings and about 13-15 at night. It was like air-conditioned all year round. The sky is always blue and the sea dark blue. My favourite place was Fisherman's Wharf where you could eat boiled fresh Alaskan Crabs by the street and have Sourdough Clam Chowder. Overlooking the bay, you could see Alcatraz and all those tourist lining up to get there. I went there but thought it was highly depressing.
I also enjoy downtown, Chinatown, St Peter and Paul, The Meteoron (or something like dat), Coit Tower, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge and the Aquarium. My best place to hang out was actually Gilroy...the biggest producer of garlic in the world....or so the brochures says. But the attraction is the some 200 factory outlets there. I think there are more...it certainly seemed like it. All the major brands were there. At one time, we spent the whole dat at Polo. We were still there as they were pulling the shades down. When we got back to our hotel room, my friends and I started comparing de stuff we bought. The result was that we wanted to go back to get some more. So there we were at 10am waiting for the shop to open. when they saw us, he said "Hey, you are back! I will get the pizza and Coke!"
Everytime I am there, I buy tons of stuff. There are lots more adventure to share. I will bring it up again in the next article. Stay tuned.
I was also very interested in airport security who were all armed with very impressive hand guns. Not like the "chotta" our security guys carry. These guys were huge as well not like de nasi lemak, half asleep, waiting for govt handouts kinds that you get back home. These days we have foreigners being our security personel at our airport. So secure!! After all they have all the incentive to protect foreigners right?!!?!
SF had a weather that was cool all year round. It was about 18-20 degress Celcius in the mornings and about 13-15 at night. It was like air-conditioned all year round. The sky is always blue and the sea dark blue. My favourite place was Fisherman's Wharf where you could eat boiled fresh Alaskan Crabs by the street and have Sourdough Clam Chowder. Overlooking the bay, you could see Alcatraz and all those tourist lining up to get there. I went there but thought it was highly depressing.
I also enjoy downtown, Chinatown, St Peter and Paul, The Meteoron (or something like dat), Coit Tower, Lombard Street, Golden Gate Bridge and the Aquarium. My best place to hang out was actually Gilroy...the biggest producer of garlic in the world....or so the brochures says. But the attraction is the some 200 factory outlets there. I think there are more...it certainly seemed like it. All the major brands were there. At one time, we spent the whole dat at Polo. We were still there as they were pulling the shades down. When we got back to our hotel room, my friends and I started comparing de stuff we bought. The result was that we wanted to go back to get some more. So there we were at 10am waiting for the shop to open. when they saw us, he said "Hey, you are back! I will get the pizza and Coke!"
Everytime I am there, I buy tons of stuff. There are lots more adventure to share. I will bring it up again in the next article. Stay tuned.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Goodbye Bill....Thanks for era!
Some weeks back, Bill Gates or BillG (dats his e-mail add in MS) decided to leave MS for good, meaning he is leaving the operations of MS for good. He is still part of some of the projects and he will be a part time Chairman and BOD member. However, he is leaving nonetheless. There has been a lot of press out on Bill in de past and he has been labeled a genius by loyalist and anything from the evil one to the anti-Christ by cult people. People who can't compete with him or MS.
I for one mourned his leaving MS for 2 reasons. For those of us who were with MS during the trying years where we competed with everything on the IT market, he was simply inspirational. He refused to let us be berated, lose focus and be de-moralized. For those of us too young to remember or just to IT-phobia, pre-Win95 was scary. MS Office had only 33% market share compared to WordPerfect. Windows NT was only 25% to Novel's NetWare. Exchange was almost non-existent as WordPerfect Mail and Lotus slugged it out. IE was hardly 10% compared to Netscape's huge 90%. SQL Server was another non-entity.
Coming to work was like going to war but Bill and team and all our managers, made it fun, inspirational and most of all, pretty darn fist pumping to see our actions and activities through. To go to battle with someone like Bill and come out not only unscathe and alive but totally victorious and successful is an experience you cannot compare or put in words. This feeling is not shared by everyone in MS. Only those of us who went through those formative years. I contacted by god-brother in Seattle who works for MS at Corp HQ, and he feels the same. Not everyone can share your sentiment. Its like losing your meat pattie when you ordered a Big Mac and you are ready to sink your teeth into some juicy burger when you realize the lose. But seriously, its like losing a limb and losing that inspiration.
The other reason is that anyone worth their salt in IT, can understand that it is an end to an era. He started the PC revolution which really turned things around. He has left us where we can only dream of. The PC era created millions and millions of jobs around the world. It created jobs for those cretins who criticize him and his so called unfair business practices. A genius is never fully appreciated in his time but I think Bill got his fair share. He is now working full time on his philanthropy work ensuring children get the right education and health benefits.
I had my best years in Microsoft which I will never forget and I will take with me. Much of it goes to my co-workers and managers but there will never be another Bill Gates. Goodbye Bill, thanks for the memories, for the era.
I for one mourned his leaving MS for 2 reasons. For those of us who were with MS during the trying years where we competed with everything on the IT market, he was simply inspirational. He refused to let us be berated, lose focus and be de-moralized. For those of us too young to remember or just to IT-phobia, pre-Win95 was scary. MS Office had only 33% market share compared to WordPerfect. Windows NT was only 25% to Novel's NetWare. Exchange was almost non-existent as WordPerfect Mail and Lotus slugged it out. IE was hardly 10% compared to Netscape's huge 90%. SQL Server was another non-entity.
Coming to work was like going to war but Bill and team and all our managers, made it fun, inspirational and most of all, pretty darn fist pumping to see our actions and activities through. To go to battle with someone like Bill and come out not only unscathe and alive but totally victorious and successful is an experience you cannot compare or put in words. This feeling is not shared by everyone in MS. Only those of us who went through those formative years. I contacted by god-brother in Seattle who works for MS at Corp HQ, and he feels the same. Not everyone can share your sentiment. Its like losing your meat pattie when you ordered a Big Mac and you are ready to sink your teeth into some juicy burger when you realize the lose. But seriously, its like losing a limb and losing that inspiration.
The other reason is that anyone worth their salt in IT, can understand that it is an end to an era. He started the PC revolution which really turned things around. He has left us where we can only dream of. The PC era created millions and millions of jobs around the world. It created jobs for those cretins who criticize him and his so called unfair business practices. A genius is never fully appreciated in his time but I think Bill got his fair share. He is now working full time on his philanthropy work ensuring children get the right education and health benefits.
I had my best years in Microsoft which I will never forget and I will take with me. Much of it goes to my co-workers and managers but there will never be another Bill Gates. Goodbye Bill, thanks for the memories, for the era.
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