The super cars

I was thinking today, wouldn’t it be nice to drive a Ferrari just for a day.

Then the next weekend switch to a Lamborghini?

And why not a Bentley the following week?

Yes, I’m dreaming, but I came across this club/company which brings a dream like this to reality. www.clubsportiva.com. For a year’s membership of $12,495 USD, you get 21 weekend days of drive time. You could be driving a Ferrari almost every other weekend for one day a week. How sweet would that be?

Unfortunately it is not available in Malaysia, so looks like buying is the only way. So, imagine pulling up to the local hawker stall in a Ferrari. Or driving around town with the top down and cruising…the coastal highway. I guess driving in Penang isn't all that cool, but all the same, I'd still lurve the opportunity.

Now, dreams aside, is it worth buying in the first place, assuming of course, you had the money? I think it would. Although it would depreciate like mad, and in that sense wouldn't be worth it; it’s the concept of owning one that is priceless.

How often to people get to own one of these super cars? Even in the “richer” western countries, the answer is not so often. The average person will never get to own, let alone drive one.

And then, there is what I call, “the drool factor”. People see these cars and drool. The car could be 10, even 15 years old, and they would still have trouble finding the strength to pull up their lower lip. And as much as I hate to admit, I think I would get a kick out of all the attention, assuming I owned one. I'm not going to kid myself. I would defnitely prefer “OMG that’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen” or “OMG a Mother #@#$ Ferrari in Mother #@#$# Penang” to something like "oh that’s a really nice looking civic/bmw/benz you’ve got.”

And finally, 10-15 years after the car has been sold off, repossessed, or scrapped; would I have any regrets? Heaven forbid if it is scrapped because I think I would cry. So, back to the initial thought, I seriously doubt it unless my finances are wrecked. I just would lurve one of these babies.

Excuse me Ms. Angelina Jolie

Every now and then, I like to read up on latest gossip and news in the entertainment news. And for those that are a familiar with recent events in Hollywood, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are a juicy topic. So, I read up on the latest gossip on them both.

I about fell off my chair while reading the entry. Angelina Jolie recently confessed that she requested a “female server only” at a restaurant recently. Her reasoning behind this? She’s tired of being gawked at by men.

I know, I know… it’s so tiresome to be beautiful. I often find myself complaining, “Why can’t men just get over my amazingly svelte body? Why do my lips have to be perfectly pouty? And these perky breasts, they’re such a curse! A curse, I tell you!”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not laughing at that she seems full of herself. She’s very hot. In fact, to no end, I’m sure she gets stared at. At the same time, it’s nothing out of the ordinary that guys look at hot girls all the time. That’s life for a hot chick. It’s both curse and a blessing.

Who am I kidding? The benefits definitely outweigh the costs. What girl wouldn’t want to be as hot as Angelina Jolie or other hot babes such as Jessica Alba or Kate Beckinsdale? I just had to add those two in. Grin.

So what if a few people stare? It sure beats being ugly, correct? Beautiful people get all the advantages in life. They get the favorable first impressions, they get the fantastic social life, and they get the benefit of the doubt. Sure they might get stalker or two and might feel a tad weird when people gawk, but what’s that compared to having life easy and all the things that come with being a hot girl?

Girls if you are beautiful and you know it, stand out and be checked out proudly. Don’t cover up and hide yourself. Be seen out and about. Wear the hottest and skimpiest clothing; make it easy for the world to know. Not everyone gets to be as beautiful as you. If nothing else, do it to convince Angelina Jolie to eat her words and see that beauty is a blessing and not a curse.

I’m totally serioussssss.

Screwing a VP with style

Usually stuff at work is pretty boring, not even worth a blog entry. But a few weeks ago, I received this mail forwarded by a colleague which was written by a customer.

In the corporate world, the heads of companies are very tactful in their language. So instead of saying “You are doing a poor assed job,” they’ll say something like “Please see me to discuss how we can improve your handling of my business”.

So, here we go, a proper tactful screwing from one corporate head to another. Note the strategic use of bold and underlined statements.

Dear Mr. Vice President,

We had our conference call last night, and I must say we are disappointed that neither you nor Mr. Program Manager (our company’s customer liase) were part of the call. We really need your company upper management support. I would like to have a discussion with you tomorrow morning my time please. I can call you or you can call me, please let me know which works for you.

ROHS PRODUCTION ORDERS

Mr. VP, we are very concerned about our production orders. The po request dates listed “SHIPMENT PLAN" are real dates that I need the boards on my dock. While we realize that at this time we must get past the prototype build and testing, we are expecting your company to be expediting materials to meet our po request dates, which is over 7000 ROHS Mother Boards from now through January, and over 2600 ROHS Video boards from now through January.

At this point, your company doesn't have commit dates that support getting Us the 2000 piece pull-in, yet we're striving for 2900 pieces. Also, the schedule says you are shipping about 200/day, with the next shipment 9/12/06. We need to increase that quantity and pull-in the dates. Per my discussion with your company personnel yesterday, it appears that the facility supplying you with fabs is really a problem. Are you personally involved by discussing with their management MR. VP?

Lastly, Bill and I both offered to pay your company premium for overtime, including weekends. Is your company working OT? Looking at the production schedule, it doesn't look that way to me.

After the next 2900 pieces we need this month, we have another 1000 due in October and 1500 due in November. Is your company working to those dates?

Mr. VP, In summary, We need your help. We have had a very good relationship over the past few years, however we feel we've lost something along the way and would like you to visit our company (located in the US) by the end of this month. Then we can understand each other's needs and hopefully rebuild our relationship.

Regards,

One Pissed Off customer

Men's Health Magazine

Today I was at MPH bookstore buying some books so I could better educate myself in the ways of life. Ok, that’s a lie. I went in to buy some books to learn how to write better because someone told me I needed to improve my writing. Hmmmmph….So I go to the counter and bring a few books with me.

The total came to RM192…..ouch! It really, really hurts. Though probably not as much as the Photoshop purchase by Timothy.

Anyways, the cashier told me that I needed to spend a bit more so I could qualify for a free MPH card. So I left and about 10 seconds later, I decided to get a copy of this month’s edition of Men’s Health Magazine.

Now it’s been a while since I bought one, probably around 6 months. But I used to be a faithful monthly reader. So I thought back and wondered why this particular publication appealed to me; more so than other than the other “men” magazines.

One thing that’s different is that when I look at Men’s Health versus something like FHM magazine, there is a ripped guy on the cover whereas usually there is a hot girl on FHM magazine. What am I thinking? I’m passing up a hot girl and spending my hard earned money on a magazine with a guy on the cover?

Ok true, most guys would say I am whacked or messed up in the brain.

Let’s go on, usually there is an interview with that same hot girl in the FHM and Stuff magazines. Along with that, there are more pictures of that hot girl. Further more, it has other guy things such as news on the latest gadgets. How could I pass up that? Ok, I can’t explain that either. I like my gadgets and girls just as much as the next guy.

I had some thinking to do.

After a while, I decided in the end, that Men’s Health has good articles. It’s well researched and has things that would be hard to find elsewhere. It is also interesting.

Definitely, magazines like FHM or Stuff don’t have the kind of in-depth research that is found it Men’s Health. So, I’ll give it up to Men’s Health magazine for producing such splendid publications, even though I hardly buy it any more.

Long live Men’s Health magazine!

Damn Sin Taxes...

Without a doubt, the big news over the weekend is the new budget. New budgets usually come with good and bad news. I’m interested in the ‘Sin’ taxes…yes, I’m a sinner. So what are the sin taxes this year?

1. RM5 increase for 40% content alcohol per litre..(Doesn’t Malaysia only allow 750 ml?)
2. 1 sen per cigarette stick plus 20% increase from last year.

Granted, I’m not a smoker, the cigarette tax doesn’t really affect me. From what I've been reading though, it seems quite reasonable. It goes the same for alcohol.

The fear is that a lot of prices will get marked up. That's true if there is little competition for selling the product. If there is a lot of competition, it’s hard to mark up prices. There are a lot of cigarette retailers out there and prices are pretty much all standardized.

For alcohol, if I were a person who likes to drink at home, it wouldn’t affect me much either. It’s hard to mark up as there are lots of retailers out there. What’s an extra RM5 added to a RM100 bottle of whiskey?

Seems reasonable enough this year, what’s the catch? Here’s the catch. The ability to mark up. What places have the ability to mark up their drinks and cigarettes? Clubs, bars, pubs, etc. Any drinks that these places serve will likely see a large price increase. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the price increase to RM15 or RM20 per bottle. It could easily be more.

Cigarette smokers can still bring in outside cigarettes to these places, so they are unaffected for the most part. The only time when smokers have to pay marked up rates is when they run out of cigarettes in a club, bar, or pub and need to buy it there.

Looks like clubbers get the shaft for this year. Sigh…… do they want us to be bored or what? What else is there to do late at night? Mamak? It’s a mamak conspiracy. Mark my words….Malaysia will have the first mamak food cartel.