Dealers' Strike Prevented

Today I got a holler telling me the news at 1:30pm stated that Datuk Shahrir Samad (domestic trade and consumer affairs minister) agreed to increase the dealer's commission by 12%++. I'm not sure about this because I don't even have a TV to begin with, and I doubt the commentary is going to be put on YouTube anytime soon.

Bottom line is there will be no strike (yes, slightly disappointed, this could've been a turning point in Malaysia's history). The national newspapers are informing people that the strike is a hoax while some just bluntly warn the free people that they will be executed prosecuted if they spread more rumors about it (like this Bernama post). A couple of things are still being conspired in the head;

1. Is it true the ministry's agreement prevented the strike
2. The media helps cover up the mess by telling people it's a hoax
3. The strike was to divert attention from Sabah's BN break-up
4. The rumor was sparked to increase the expensive fuel sales
5. There was no strike at all

Since there's so many parties telling different stories and the government's lack of transparency (seriously are we doing good or bad?), those things above will linger around for a while, until another 'rumor' starts to spread and panics the people nationwide. Just another thing to keep you awake at night besides thinking about finals results.

Last words to end the post:
Malaysian politics, racial apartheid[?] and feudalistic ideologies[?] are hurting the country's growth. We are already decades behind Japan... and the government owes me something from their One Home One PC campaign[?] in 2004...

The Kiosk Dealers Strike Back

Publish Post

Haih, barely a month and 5 posts ago since the government decided to increase the petrol price, e-mails telling people petrol stations are closing down for 3 days spread like wildfire again today.

The kiosk dealers, or more generally the Petrol Dealers Association, is really pissed off with the price hike and want to get an increased commission from sales and decided to go on strike for 3 days just to show how serious they are with the matter. Fortunately, the official news (click here) states that it is just rumors and people should avoid panic buying but it failed to calm down another panic mob driving to petrol stations to get their tanks filled before the stations close down.

But is it a rumor? The thing is there were "noises" of the dealers who wanna go on strike right after the government supers-sized the fuel price. Consumers tend to think when price go up the kiosk dealers earn a bonanza of RMRMRM, but in reality they suffer as well since the margin of commission remained the same, meaning the profit they earned after the price increment is slashed down by a few hundred to thousands of RM (depending on their sales).

It was planned to be on the 26th, but sadly the Sabahan stations threaten to close earlier today on 24th, and like wildfire SMSes, e-mails, calls and blogs went blazing around the nation warning other Malaysians of the impending doom.

But again, it was rumored that this rumor is just a rumor. This very evening the Petrol Dealers Association and the ministry were rumored to have a meeting to avoid the strike. No one credible was around to verify this claim.

For now let's just wait till tomorrow and see what happens. For now you guys can just go around reading other relevant blogs and news network and see how things develop:

A KK Blogger's first hand experience
Bernama.com
Bernama.com - Updated 25th June
Lowyat.NET

Or just Google petrol station strike or kiosk dealer strike (anywhere around 24th June) and you'll find more follow ups. Things are getting more and more exciting in Boleh Land...

Me Kill More Zombies: The Last Stand 2

Finally the sequel to the overwhelmingly uber-fun zombie-blasting game is here! (ok so I might played it a bit late)

Anyways The Last Stand 2 picks up where we left in the first game. After being rescued by the aerial army evacuation force we meet our hero/survivor safe in the helicopter, until sh*t hits the fan...

The helicopter crashed and you are again the survivor. You crash landed far away from Fort Tran, your original evacuation point. However you heard over the radio that the new evacuation point is Union City, way far far far from where you are. And thus begins your journey surviving and traveling to the city before the last boat leaves in 40 days...

The gameplay of the game remains the same; you kill zombies before they can breach your barricade and devour your delicious coleslaw brains. The concept of using the 6 hours before night fall (something like points, each hour can be spent either on looking for guns or survivors) remains the same as well, except with slight change; more hours. And not only you must spend the hours looking for guns, survivors and repair the barricade, but now you must find enough supplies for you to travel to the next town.

Yes you can now travel from town to town until you reach Union City. You have 40 days and it's basically a race against time for you to find supplies, travel to the next town and gather more supplies. There are 6 locations in the game (excluding Union City) but you will only need to travel through 4 of them (you can, with spare days, visit the other towns).

Another feature that one can note is the town map. When you arrive in a town you will be given a map like the above, something ala Will Smith's "I Am Legend". In the new location, you have various hotspots to search for e.g. houses, apartments, police station etc. You will need to spend your limited hours wisely to search them all for supplies, guns and survivors. Sometimes you get nothing, sometimes you'll get the RPG Launcher like in the first picture (my favorite weapon, it has uber AoE!).

Once you find too many weapons you can let the other survivors to use your unused guns. Early games it's fun to see you and your gang blasting them undead away with 9mm, magnum and Uzi, But later you'll have the fun of your life blasting the zombies away with AK-47, machine gun, sawn-off shotgun and more. Oh let's not forget the traps that you can obtain from searching the town; bear traps, mines and gas cylinders. Set them up wisely and you'll have a bloody battlefield :D

The storyline is simple to understand but good for a simple yet fun game. You can play the Last Stand 2 for free here at Let's Get Gaming (click here). Or if you want to follow the story and play the first Last Stand, you can go here. Check out other fun flash games while you're there.

WARNING!: The game contains extreme gore and violence

End of First Year

Owh yeah! Officially completed my first year on 19th June with my last paper on HRM 200. Alas, after 4 semesters and 4 finals, I don't really go all hyped-out again because the feeling is gone I suppose (a Marketing term called wear-off effect).

But my job here is not done yet. I got a training to help out with and Kampua Town have to wait. For now I got 1 week plus to kill until I return to home soil in July. Cheers and happy holidays to fellow colleagues and comrades, spend the 6 week semester break wisely!

One last group pic of the h3666 rezidenz [ELITE] to mark the end of our first year degree

Our Very Own Sarawakian Bigfoot

It was another day off until the next paper and I was going to raid some stalls for food, when this head line caught my interest:

Cool, didn't thought this kinda news would hit the headlines of local papers. Sure is a good distractor from finals and the goods price hike. And here's a snapshot from Borneo Post online if you guys wanna read more about the news. Click here.

So the footprint was found on Monday 9th June, near some offerings of food and drinks in the village. The bomoh (medicineman) of the village told the villagers to do so after the air around the village was 'unclean' a few months back. And 'bigfoot' who caused the 'uncleanliness' (did you shampoo those furs dude?) apparently showed up for the food.

I'm a believer but I'm slightly skeptical, because for one the indent and the size of the footprint doesn't match. Have you guys visited a zoo and checked out their footprints? Well, they did mention it is hard ground (but then again it looks muddy ground from the picture, hmm?)

Then the fruits look fresh and untouched (the news did not mention the villagers stocked up new fruits/cleaned the mess left behind). Unless 'bigfoot' ate the bananas whole then that explains a lot.

Well, apart from that I'll support the conservation of Bigfoot and its habitat if the government would stop their political squabble and price increment and focus on checking out the country's Easter Eggs. I just hope they won't put them in zoos cause I'll form an angry mob and bust him out.

For those interested to do some research on Bigfoot, you guys can start here at Cryptozoology.com. I liked this site back when I was doing some hobby-research on cryptids.

Finals Sem 1 2008

Finals finally here for Degree (and Foundation next next week). Wishing everyone to do their best, good luck and good skill.

As for me, I got my own devil to deal with. And it's a slow, grueling test of patience. You know la, first time having finals with big big BIG gap between them. One paper today then another one next 3 days then another one next 4 days etc. The wait for the next paper is literally killing me softly.

Oh well, going to finish everything by next Thursday. Only by then can h3666 recommence its LAN party weeeee!!!

*RM3 for the crates of drinks we're going to drink for the LAN parties

Stolen Besi and Sushi

With life ain't getting any easier in Boleh Land, the common folks here uses their heads our of desperation to find a way to feed themselves and/or their families. With their given creativity, many of them find the metal covers, metal grates, GATES (yeah the big steel main gate in front of most houses today) and water meters to be an invaluable source of income.

We do mind you guys stealing parts of government and private properties. I mean like the sewage hole here, at night a wee lil' toddler can just drop in and die from all the raw sex-crazed uber-roach-infested rotting sewage contamination (just like the dude who had a self-accident in town years ago and fell into the thick black drain, he died not because of the accident injuries but because of immediate bacterial infection, yuck what a way to die).

On a less disgusting note, found a new sushi shop on 5th floor of Sanyan. All orangy, but too bad i didn't have the time to try it out. I forgot the name (not catchy), but you can't miss it because it's the only orange sushi shop there. I'll either just wait for my semester break on July or wait for someone to send in their review on the new joint.

Petrol Soar, People Roar

Remember the good old days when petrol costed RM1.91 per litre? For me it was still ok, spent roughly RM78-80++ for a full tank (for my 2005 1.3 Hyundai Getz). Well good news people, wake up and smell the petrol because:

PETROL RM2.69
DIESEL RM2.58
(as of 5th June 2008)

Die.

There you go. The price skyrocketed too fast and too much. The 6pm news about the uber 60% price increase spread faster than a typical spamming MSN worm. Within a time period of 6.30pm-12am the whole Sibu folks with vehicles panicked and rushed to the nearest petrol station to fuel up before the price increase the next day.

The situation was no different from the new year's night last December. Last year the government told their beloved people that the price will increase next year (2008). Some was gullible and thought it was effective immediately on 1st January 2008, so the person spammed the whole town telling them about the theory.

Now the suggestion from one of the newspaper telling us to use bikes and trishaw to save up some money for other living costs starts to sound relevant. Soon enough, with the petrol price hikes ever more often ceteris paribus, we will have to go gradually go back to basics as how our forefathers lived.

Slowly our cars and motorbikes will transform into bicycles and trishaw (and a 4 seater bike for family), With the price of other goods is affected and increased by the petrol price increment, we will also have to de-evolve all our goods and services consumption. A rice now is roughly RM60, a big family might need 3 packs (RM180 per month) so we have to remove the staple food out of our diet for good. We must plant and eat horseradish as what our grandparents did during the WWII/Communist era. Then to conserve energy (due to excess wastage of power generation, oh and of course global warming) we replace all our light bulbs with candles, even in the toilet (remember, don't fart).

After a long while everyone will be downsized to one single size of S or M due to malnutrition. This is good not only for healthy living, but also conserve the cotton/silk/etc supply. Then after a while a stone house with no more air-con is a hot house during drought, so it must be downgraded into wooden house. To help replenish the soil for the horseradish, we must rear livestocks e.g. chickens, ducks, cows etc. This means we have to turn the beautifully well-maintained garden and lawn into a farm.

Soon people will be busy attending to the livestock and more time traveling on bicycles, hence cutting the need for entertainment such as TV, ASTRO, PC etc. These hardwares must be sold off since it has outlived their usefulness, making the wooden house more spacious and bringing in better feng shui. The same applies to those wacky exercise equipments which can be sold as scraps.

By the end of the day you'll have a lovely, cool, spacious house with nothing but a happy and healthy family. Money would no longer be a pain in the arse, and thus crime rate decreases, causing a happier community. When everyones happy they will practice give and take, slowly eliminating the use and rat race for money. Everything will be for free or on goodwill in the end, making the country less stressful and actually living in harmony with each other.

There, I bullshitted a lot there. Reason: I'm tired of mocking, swearing at, cursing the price increase, waste of a good tantrum. No one's gonna listen anyways.

Going Further South: Kuching

Went to Kuching with family, not long after I was called back to return to Kampua Town for the study week. Still tired from the trip back home, I managed to pull myself together for another trip further down south to KCH.

Not much, just a short visit to my late grandma's grave to pay homage, then went off seeing the rest of KCH . Seriously nothing changed, the last time I've been to KCH was 2 years ago and the only thing that I noticed is that the traffic jam has improved well. The roads are now even more winding and confusing for out-of-towners, and the jam near the Brook port <-> old market deserved an astounding two middle fingers up.

Then since it's Gawai (oh happy Gawai), most shops are closed. We raided our typical food court, Top Spot, near Somerset to get some uber KCH dinner. Alas, shops closed and we had to eat at Ling Loong Seafood instead of out typical ABC Seafood. I honestly say, for the sake of my friends' stomach and patience, that the service at Ling Loong Seafood sucked big time. I mean, we arrived at around 8.45pm, and we got our food at 10pm. We Asians might just swear and bear with it, but I pity the ang moes at the next table who waited as long as we did, and just left after a 30 minutes patience test (without paying for the drinks definitely).

Top Spot food court, KCH

My :3 face before dinner. Only to have it changed to 3: an hour later

Then the next day we dropped by the new Spring Mall. Just like the Delta Mall hype back home in Kampua Town, there's nothing there. Sure it's 6 times bigger than Delta, but alas nothing is there except for typical Sony/Samsung et. al. shop, Cindy clone shops, bookshop etc. (100% like Sanyan).

But the only thing that make it nice was the Big Apple donut shop and Starbucks. In this mall one can see how the ang moes are invading our country with the marketing campaign of their outlandish foodstuff, and one can conclude the Kuchingites and other out-of-towners were 110% terpedaya by the campaigns (proven by the long queue of people trying to get their donuts at Big Apple). Then we went home after noon.

Big Apple, Spring, KCH

A young padawan waving his lightsaber goodbye. Kota Padawan straight up!

Now the going home part is the hardest part. What supposed to be a short 5 hours trip home, turned into a long cingkolongbukangnien drive. Departed at 2pm and expected to arrive at 7.30pm (including pit stops) we cruised home happily until we hit a sudden long queue somewhere near Lachau (yeah, that's the name of the place). It was a typical accident-caused jam, and the saddest thing is curious passer-by who was sakai about the accident got himself peng-ed as well, causing more traffic jam. Sienz. Delayed by and hour. We managed to snail through the damage and encountered many more accidents along the way in Lachau (change the place's name dude!)

This War of the World's Tripod piloted by a drunken alien contributed to the jam as well

Turned turtle, but the driver survived

Then at Sarikei, got pulled over by Ops Sikap cops. Reason: No rear reg. number light. They can't see the car's number from the back. More cars were pulled over and saman-ed as well because of the same reason and we were delayed by another 30 minutes. In the end we reached home at 9.00pm. Super sienz, what a vacation...

Kaya & Toast

Separated this from the KCH post since I wanted to do a proper review on Kaya & Toast. So here goes;

Went to Kaya & Toast for breakfast, and I liked it. For those familiar to the places in Oil Town, this place is ala Toasthouse in Senadin where they serve toasts, drinks and other heavier meals. The food there is great, and the price is reasonable, so I recommend this place to those who might drop by in Kuching.

Food:

Apart from the breakfast, the other time-of-the-day food is commendable
Value/Margin:

Price is reasonable with the quantity
Environment:

It has a brown 'good ol days' theme, clean and open-air indoor eating space

Promoting Sibu for the Semester Break

The other day one of my buds was eating lunch with his spouse and he expressed his interest in going to Kampua Town for the semester break in July. So automatically I told him everything about Sibu from my 19 years of experience there;

1. In Sibu, food is abundant; try the town's specialty; kampua & kompia

2. In Sibu, the industry thrived on timber; used to anyways decades ago but no worries we still have trees around. The closest shore is 200KM++ away, so no beach FYI.

3. In Sibu, we have a lot of gardens in town; but they eat up the parking space so expect to pak to on a garden bench between a parked Ninja King and a Kancil in front of the 4D Magnum

4. In Sibu, we have our very own national reserve park, Junaco Park; apart from the sheeps, crocodiles, rare birds etc. you will find NS trainees as well in the nature reserve

5. In Sibu, we have the highest point in Sarawak's central region, the Bukit Aup; nice place to jog, feed the fish (I think there's still fish in the lake) and you might be rewarded with photos of otherworldly 'fauna' if you snap pictures randomly around the place

6. In Sibu, we have the tallest building in Sarawak, Wisma Sanyan; inside got places for you guys to eat, shop, pak to etc. plus the open Sibu Town Square in front of the building is where the Borneo Cultural Festival is held every mid-year (this years it's 27th June to 5th July). Like the name says, BCF is an uber Malaysian cultural fest, you can get an authentic tribal tattoo from authentic native tattooer. And then there's the Borneo Food Fair across the BCF (same time)... mmm food....

7. In Sibu, you can't believe how ridiculously cheap the food are; used to anyways. The latest oil price hike has pushed the normal kampua to RM3.00 (RM1.70 5 years ago). But still the cheapest price in these parts of Sarawak nonetheless. Oh and yeah Sibu is the town with the most coffee shops in Malaysia, so no worries it's hard for you to starve to death here

8. In Sibu, people of various walks of life can be found here; yeah, being the center point in the region, the town has somewhat become a melting pot for various people, various ethnicities and various subcultures. We have Foochows, Ibans, S'wkianized Indians, Melanaus, Ang Moes (yeah, we do have few ang moes living here), Western & S'wkian Malay, Africans (walking around selling watches, wonder what happened to him), ah bengs, punks, emos, skinheads, pencuri besi buruk et. al.

9. In Sibu, we wake up early and sleep early; it's a simple life here. Everyone wakes up at 6am and sleeps at 10pm. Good news for those looking for authentic early Sibu breakfast (unlike in KCH or KL where they open at 10am++). With the town folks sleeping early, you guys can go to the Rejang Esplanade to pak to, talk shit and what not in a unique peace and serenity environment

10. In Sibu, we do have deConnexion; and no don't worry. Like the rest of the Sarawakians in the state we don't live on trees, we chop 'em down and use our money magic to turn them into stone dwellings. We don't wear togas or leaves, but do expect some super low cuts, mini skirts, zhnged cars and colorful hairs. We're fully covered by Celcom, Maxis and DiGi, ASTRO and yeah, we have Internet.

Well, that's all I can boast about Sibu. Not much of an attraction, it would be a nice place to spend for 1 day 1 night. Just have to go here and there tasting all the food and checking out the typical Sarawakian town. I'll tell our mayor Mr. Robert Lau to build Disney Land here later, then maybe a Sibu Sydney Harbor or two.

Death Number

So the 'death call' was a hoax after all. After all those SMSing telling people to be careful when they receive a calling number that is long and red in color. And here's the article rebutting the viral SMS spam (yeah even my phone was spammed by my contacts -__-). Click here.

The story sparked off somewhere in mid May telling people that a band of black magic practitioners are going hi-tech by casting their death spells by calling their hand phones. They operate after 11pm and call their victims in their sleep, hence increasing their chances to cast their spell on the poor half conscious saps. After answering the victim will die on the spot with cool mouth-foaming action. During the 1 week panic attack 8 people (including 1 Kampua Townie) have died in the country.

For those who just want to give it a try, you guys can try calling one of the cursed number. Supposedly the black magic dudes can't scam Malaysians with long international number, so they decided to buy one local SIM card with this number: 014-8577930

DISCLAIMER: I'm not in any way liable for anything that will happen to you after dialing the number. Call at your own risk. There, now you guys can't sue me.