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.

Fashion

One thing about this new industry I’m going into, I’ll have to be soliciting business owners to let me take photos of their places to publish. People are naturally suspicious. They’ve got to be convinced somehow that what I’m doing is a good thing. What the hell? I’m giving free publicity here and they need convincing?

OK…..convincing……..hmm so how should I do it? It all starts with fashion! I know most of you are thinking what the….? What happened to talking up a good sales pitch, highlighting what this publicity can do, and it’s in their best interest to let me do what I want? Those are all great points, but first come fashion. *smile*

Let me illustrate from the owner’s perspective. If I saw someone walk into my business with jeans, a casual shirt, and sandals. Then proceed to give me a speech about the need to take photos, I’d probably tell them to get out. I’ve got no time for pranks.

OK, I admit, if it was Jessica Alba, I wouldn’t care what she was wearing. She could be muddy and dirty and I’d still listen to her. But in all seriousness, jeans and casual shirts don’t project a very business-like image.

So, what kind of attire should I get? Hmm…for a fashion makeover, I looked at a movie called Alfie. For those men that have not watched it, shaaaaame on you. It is the essential “modern man movie.” There are lots of hot girls, lots of fashion, and lots of educational insights.

I also looked on the internet about ways to dress. The internet is fabulous. People put up exactly how to dress step by step. They show you what matches with what, how to mix up patterns, what is in season, collars that go with facial structure, etc. Fantastic!

Granted Penang is not exactly New York, knowing how to dress goes a long way in standing out. For instance in Penang, most sales people dress reasonably well, but they don’t really stand out. Knowing how to dress means mix and matching to stand out from the crowd even when most of them are well dressed. And it’s easily doable because most men don’t really take the time to find out how to do these things. I know I didn’t for the longest time.

For ladies, It’s a bit tougher as ladies are more fashion sensitive than guys. But take a look around and a lot of girls don’t know how to dress either.

So, back to the topic, People tend to take well-dressed people seriously. It’s great to dress well, but better to know how to dress. Then standing out is easy. Now I can pitch the speech about letting me do what I want at their place. Of course if Jessica Alba was doing it for me, I wouldn’t care what she dressed like.

So......anyone for a Tiger beer?

Resigning

Last week, I’ve had a pretty big emergency and was unable to do any writing. Hence, I would like to state for the record that this blog will be updated regularly at least twice per week. I’ll do my best to stick to it.

Anyways, I’ve had to do some thinking, and realized that I wanted this blog to be a mix of entertainment with things going on in my own life. So if you are still interested, keep reading *smile*.

On to the next subject…..Resigning.

Imaginary person at company HR: So Leon, you are resigning?

Me: Yeah I’ve come to the point where me and the company have to go different directions. It’s a bit difficult, but I've got to move on.

Imaginary person at company HR: But why? I thought you were happy?

Me: Oh nothing is terribly wrong. I am looking to pursue my own interests with another job.

Imaginary person at company HR: What? Another job? So you were busy looking for another company? Go away we don’t need you. How could you leave us? Didn’t you ever think of us? Why why why……….sobbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb.

Me: Errrr………. (me inching towards the door) Hey! Isn’t that Siti Nurhaliza and Datuk K over there?

Imaginary person at company HR: ………Huh? Where?

That’s the last they saw of me…….ducking out of the room.

I’ve got to open up with a bit of humor as saying goodbyes is never fun.

By now it’s pretty clear that I’m resigning from my current job.

So what will I do? Well I was a test engineer at an electronics manufacturing company. Now I’ll be doing something tourism/media related. Interesting? Haha….I didn’t think so. Once in a while I’ll stick a serious post on here.

I’ve got to point out that one of the sad things about resigning is that I’ll be leaving some old friends behind. It’s a bit painful.

On the flip side, I probably won’t miss the politics, hassles of the job, and some of the managers. Also, I won’t be traveling as much which is something I look forward to.

Let me end by saying ‘resigning….it’s nothing new’. Everyone at some time in their life has resigned from their job. Although for me and others I’m sure, the first long term job resignation is tough. One day, I’ll reminisce back to this blog entry. I’ll be able to say this is one of the major decisions in my life. And it will definitely be exciting where the next few years will take me.

One more thing………..check out the cartoon below……

That’s resigning with style!

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

I’m pretty new and curious about the blog world. What do people blog about? Sometimes people will blog about personal feelings. Maybe they’ll blog about food. Perhaps they might blog about things going on in life around them.

Although blogs generally are written like an article, I’ve always found the most interesting blogs with pictures. Sure the topic and writing matters, but pictures somehow give that extra dimension.

Lets face it, we live in a world of TV and visual spectacles. We like to go see events. We like to go see movies. We like to go see hot girls.

We like to go see good-looking guys…….. such as myself (I can see people rolling their eyes).

Ok ok…. Brad Pitt will do.

Also, we like to see cute animals.

Our brains are laaaazy….Reading a blog without pictures is like reading a book. We have to translate the book to images in our brain. And who wants to bother with thinking?

We’re reading someone’s blog! All we want to do is be kaepo about his or her life! Screw thinking!

Ok, let me confess the purpose of this writing. Basically I’m trying to not sound so conceited when I had this urge to do some camwhoring and post it on my blog.

Professional camwhorers, please bear with me.

Kaypo-ness

One thing that amazes me about Malaysians is their “kaypo-ness.” For those that don’t know, it means to be a busybody. And yes I also admit to being one of them.

We’ve all seen it before. For example, an accident on ONE side of the road causes BOTH sides to jam up.

Next exhibit is a popular Penang website Kaypocorner.

At first blush, it defies logic that a site as Kaypocorner could be so successful. No one likes to be called “Kaypo.” Then I realize yes, Malaysians probably want to know everything about their sister’s friend’s classmate. Even if it is likely we’ll never meet them in a million years.

Ah, but usually these sites are quite small. Kaypocorner is considered relatively small. Surely this is not representative of the nation? Now let me introduce you to a site which really shows “Malaysia boleh” on being kaypo.

Yes, our very own Star Newspaper. Giving credit where it’s due, the majority of The Star Online has lots of articles and does not really emphasize much on “kaypo” subjects. In the print version, these articles are usually reserved a small section on the newspaper page. Ah, but Malaysians lurvve these subjects. If it’s there they will find it.

The following is the top 10 list of articles most viewed on The Star Online website.

Yes…..where there is a will, there is a way!

Into Blog Space and Beyond!

That’s right folks, this is my first blog entry. I am fresh meat to the world of blogs. As I sit here I can’t help but think. Why haven’t I started one sooner? Am I too lazy? Am I too cool? Am I too afraid to expose myself?

Ok, ok, I won't scare anyone like that…..All those are excuses. In the end for me, it takes a shift in thinking. The lightbulb in the head. One sudden "Ah hah" moment. One of those things that only happens after procrastinating for such a long time.

So without further suspense, here is my fantastic "Ah hah moment", my "lightbulb in the head."

5 minutes later.........................

>.<

So onwards! And welcome to Life’s Like That. A journey into the unknown.