HCFoo's Blogyard

I had a tough day working yesterday because of eye infection/stress. I couldn't even eat since yesterday because I was too distress by the situation.

I thought long hours of sleep last night would help but it didn't. Believe it or not, I could barely open my eyes because its muscles were so weak.

This morning I was taken to the nearest clinic. Even the doctor didn't want to stare long into my eyes. He gave me an eye drop, medicines to relax eye muscles and to relieve pain and itchiness and asked me to take 2 days off.
After taken the medicines and sleep for the whole day, now I'm fresh and my eyes are okay again. I'm not sensitive to light anymore. I can even blog right now. So I'm going back to work tomorrow. Miss my work.

So guys, don't concentrate too much on your work or in front of your computer for long hours. Always remember to take a break in between work. I have no problem when I was younger but I guess age is catching up.

You think Blake's Lewis beatbox is cool?

Wait till you hear from Joseph at the Nouvelle Star audition, a French reality television show based on Pop Idol. My friend send it to me and I thought I want to share it with you guys who have not seen this before.

It seems that The Star did not mentioned about Nadal playing in Shah Alam this coming November. However, the news in New Straits Times (NST) reported otherwise, that Nadal is going to play against a mystery opponent.

I wonder why the news are not consistent. Well, I want to believe NST because I don't really trust anything reported (or not reported) by The Star. The most popular local English newspaper has the tendency not to report certain news to protect their personal interest. Well, of course I also want to believe that Nadal is coming to town.

Meanwhile, my sister might be able to get free passes for me to watch Fedex and Pistol Pete in action. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.


Anyway, tomorrow will be the first day of the French Open. It's my favourite Grand Slam since Michael Chang won the championship in 1989. I'm sure if you remember, that was one of the proudest and memorable moment for all Asian and Chinese people around the world.

Okay, no more mentioning about Nadal now. Will save it for his first round match.

I believe the election is coming soon.

No, it's not about the pay rise for civil servants that our generous government announced earlier this week. I'm talking about potholes!

This morning, while on my way to work, the potholes were still there as usual along the road from Damansara Jaya to Kayu Ara, through the Sony HQ until Kota Damansara. Well, potholes are basically everywhere here in Petaling Jaya.

Then in the late evening on my way back from work, all the potholes were gone! Wow! The people at the Works Ministry must have finally woke up from their sleep. By the way, let me share something with you. The last time I saw our Mr Works Minister taking his nap (no joke!) was during my school's rombongan trip to the Parliament when I was in Form 5.

So the potholes were gone but they will be back. Yes, the potholes will most likely be back in two or three weeks from now. I think the Works Ministry should check on the formula and technique they used to patch the potholes. The quality of the patching job is really bad and requires lots of rework. For example, they keep patching the same pothole in front of SK Damansara Utama and the one on the way to Seapark from SS2.

So Nadal did not win at Hamburg Masters. He was beaten by Roger Federer 6-2, 2-6, 0-6 in the final and loses his winning streak of 81 matches on clay just before the French Open.

I've just watched the live telecast on ESPN moment ago. Surprisingly, I'm okay with the lose because it seems that Nadal did not put too much effort into winning this championship.

I'm not sure if it's a strategy from Nadal's camp or what but without the pressure to maintain the winning streak throughout the French Open is definitely going to help Nadal concentrate on winning his third Grand Slam at Roland Garros. And losing to Federer is a smart way to lose the winning streak because after all, you are losing to the world number one.

I was flipping through Star Weekend (yes, I still buy the paper for the sake of the 50th anniversary contest) today and I find this picture on the world news rather hilarious.

Adelaine Chin, Miss Malaysia 2007; Maria Jeffery, Miss Belize 2007, and Anna Theresa Licaros, Miss Philippines 2007, pose during the Nextel Event in Mexico City, on May 17th, 2007. The 56th annual Miss Universe competition will be held on May 28th, 2007.

I don't mean to make fun of Ms Philippines but you know what? At first I thought that was her leg. I was thinking, oh my god, see how she sit? Then I look again, oh, that's actually Miss Belize's leg. Sometimes pictures can be so deceiving.

It's been a long time since I write something on education.

I was chatting with my boss how time flies and her kids actually grow up and studying in primary level now. Like any other modern parents, my boss is ready to spend huge sum of money just for their education which includes tuition fees. Being a private tutor for so many years, I'm not surprised by the amount that she forked out. What surprises me was, my boss actually gave permission to her private tutor to punish her son if he doesn't listen or do his work.

I know it's perfectly normal for parents to do that for the good sake of their children. Even my parents asked my teachers to punish or beat me when I was small. But to me it won't work. It will only create fear in their children. Once kids get used to the punishment, they will be immunized and will not give a damn anymore.

What is the best solution? Get a tutor who knows how to motivate your children. Yes, it's easy to say than done (or find). Your children should have a tutor who gives attention to your children not only academically but as well as other things like co-curriculum, interests, etc. In the end, all your children need is not another commander to force them to sit down and study. They need a compassionate tutor who is willing to sit down together and accompany them through the process of learning in a tuition class.

To all the tutors out there, please don't teach if you think you enjoy punishing kids (like asking them to ketuk ketampi hundred times or hit them with rotan until lebam). Please don't teach if you think you are more superior than the kids. Please don't teach if your students hate you or intimidated by you.

To all the parents out there, spend more time with your kids. There are more than life than getting As or earning money. Find balance between your career and your family. Show love and concern to your kids as much as you can. Ask them about their homework and learning in school and get them to open up to you as much as possible. Motivates them. Sometimes, you don't need to motivate your kids by using materials. Motivation can be free of charge.

Am I dreaming or what? Slap me. Pinch me. Omigod! Can you believe it? Can you actually believe that Federer and Nadal are going to play in Malaysia? And my tennis hero of all time, Pete Sampras whom I watched playing on television since I was a kid is going to join those top players as well in Shah Alam.

I googled for Nadal's latest updates at Hamburg Open and to my surprise, I came across this news from The News Straits Times online.

I'm already planning a trip to Bangkok Open this September when I know that Nadal is going to be there. But having my favourite clay court specialist in my homeland is something I can't imagine of! Oh my, am I still dreaming?

Despite all the things our Tourism Minister said about bloggers, I'm going to love him for one second because he's going to officially announce the exhibition match this Wednesday. I just hope the tickets are not going to cost a fortune or I'll just go to Bangkok instead. And I'm not sure if it's going to be easy to get a ticket. Anyone running the event, please contact me about the details on ticketing (if you are interested to find volunteers, you can drop me a line too).

It's Visit Malaysia Year and there's no better way to promote our country than to have these top players playing in our country.

Okay, it's true this is not my first, second or third time sleeping while watching a movie at the cinema. Most of the time it happened at the cinema in Genting.

Just now I went to catch the movie, Blades of Glory (BOG) at GSC 1 Utama. I'm a fan of Will Farrell but man, this movie is not that hilarious. Even Wild Hogs was 5 times better than this one. There are some entertaining and funny moments but BOG is just as disappointed as Mr Bean's Holiday.



I was already having headache (real headache and it's not caused by Paypal) since morning and working until 9.30 p.m. By the time I was in the cinema for the 11.20 p.m. show I was already tired. before even half of the show, I fell asleep until the show was over.

I must admit that this Paypal is giving me lots of headache already. Few days ago my account went into limited status. So I decided to pay a small fee to expand the usage. But I did not fax enough document i.e. utility bill or bank statement for them and hence it's still put on hold.

But the good news is I'm able to accept my PayPerPost payments after reading Daryl's post this morning. However, please be warn that it's kinda risky as the bank account is fake! I dare not touch the 'confirm' bank account button and hopefully there will be no problem until I replace it with the new bank account through VMI card purchase.

Paypal really suck! I wish there will be other alternative than using PayPal to get my payment for paid posts.

Vamos Rafa!

Nadal did it again at Rome Open winning his third consecutive titles in a row, which nobody has ever done it before! This also means that his winning streak on clay is now at 77 matches. Unbelievable!

Since I'm going to sleep soon and won't be able to catch the delay telecast @ 2 a.m., I followed up with the live score on the official Rome Open website.

It was an easy win for Nadal which I couldn't believe it since Fernando Gonzalez, the finalist, is quite a smart player and had a good year so far especially when he made it into the final at the Australian Open.

Nadal who had a rough day yesterday playing Davydenko, easily beaten Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2 in just 1 hour 24 minutes. I guess Nadal has recovered from dizziness and stomach pain which resulted in his poor game yesterday.

With his perfect game on clay so far, it's definitely a positive campaign for the upcoming French Open at Roland Garros. But before that, Nadal will be heading to Hamburg Open, which he and Federer missed last year, in preparation for the Grand Slam Open.

I assume that the problem with Paypal is going to be permanent. They should have at least send us a notification email for those who doesn't have an US bank account before implement this new regulation.

Anyway, I have tried sending out another email to Paypal asking for updates about the acceptance of payment without a US bank account again.

However, after reading the post by Weirdoux today, I've decided to get a VMI ATM card asap. The complete procedure can be found at HongKiat's blog.

Hopefully there will be no problem sending out fund via Paypal to complete the application. Anyone have any clue?

Just spent 3 hours 36 minutes watching Nadal vs Davydenko in their semifinal match at the Rome Open. It's not my favourite match especially seeing Nadal making so many repeated errors. I must say that Davydenko could be the biggest threat to Nadal especially in the upcoming French Open.

Nadal won the first set 7-6 showing that he has an extra edge especially when playing tie breaker. Then when it comes to the second set, Davydenko had a sweet revenge by winning 7-6. By the time when they were playing the third set, Nadal got back his touch and won 6-4.

So Nadal will play Fernando Gonzalez in the final tomorrow (watch the delay telecast (not again!) on Star Sports Astro Channel 82 @ 2 a.m.). The last time they met, Gonzalez beat Nadal but that wasn't on clay. I believe Nadal will have his 77 winning streak on clay and his 3rd consecutive Rome Open championship. He is unbeatable. Vamos Rafa!

I don't really have much time and energy to blog ever since I started a job contract last week. Coming back from work, it's already 9 p.m. and I have other freelance projects which needs to be done as well. Talking about my 'temporary' workplace, I really love it here because of the nice and cozy environment, friendly colleagues and tonnes of projects waiting for me to get it done (which is good as time flies so fast).

Yesterday while enjoying my favourite mint chocolate chip ice cream at Baskin Robbins, I received a call from Nokia asking me to go for audition (Nokia Wireless Challenge) at Westin Hotel this Saturday at 4.10 p.m. I submitted an application in April teaming up with my sis. Apparently my sis have to work this Saturday because there's going to be live show on Astro. Hope she can get a colleague to help out so that we can attend the audition. Well... I don't have any idea on how my team can impress the interviewers. I don't think talking alone will work in this audition. I'm thinking of either be ourselves and hope for nothing or do something to show our enthusiasm like chewing a live worm or something. And I can do juggling too. Haha...what do you think?

My sis bought me the book, The Secret, few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or what. I read the book and try to 'practise' it, you know, sending signal / frequency through visualization to the universe and guess what? I received a cheque in my postbox (which I have waited for so long) yesterday. This explain why I celebrated it with a mint chocolate chip ice cream :) Some people might not believe it, but it works for me. Well, at least once.

I'm not sure if it's only Anthraxxxx and me (thanks man for letting me know I'm not alone).

I've just got some funds transfered into my Paypal account and as usual I'll accept the payment ASAP. But unlike normal days, today I'm having a BIG problem accepting the funds. Instead of accepting the fund at ease, I was prompted to the next page that required me to add in my US bank account, which of course I don't have.

I've sent an email to them asking them why is that happening. Hope to get a reply asap and of course to accept my hard earned money soon.

Updates: Received an email from Paypal. They asked us to retry again. This is what they said:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. I am
happy to assist you further.

I'm sorry, the problem may started by our system maintenance, our
relevant department is working on it, please retry later.

We apologize for the inconvenience have caused and much appreciate for
your understanding.

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing PayPal.

Sincerely,
Amy
PayPal, an eBay Company

I don't feel like blogging on weekend but I'm just so crazy about this song called Rewind sung by Paolo Nutini I want to share it with you guys. You can listen to the song which is on the side bar too. Paolo Nutini is a newcomer in the UK, gaining popularity in the Europe and now making his wave in the US.

Yes, this is another song about ex. But this is as good and as teary as James Blunt's You're Beautiful. This song is taken from his album, These Streets. I haven't heard about this song on the local radio yet but I'm sure Paolo Nutini is going to be the next big thing. Don't say I didn't warn you.




Updates: I just went to Victoria Music Station at Atria Shopping Complex and managed to get a copy of Paolo Nutini's album, These Street. So, his CD is available in Malaysia already.

I went to buy The Star just now and I didn't know they are increasing the price today from RM1.20 to RM1.50. I thought they said will start this weekend. Oh yeah, Saturday is weekend too.

I don't know why The Star have to increase price on weekend since they are making the most money on Saturday's advertisements.

Guess I have reason to stop reading The Star now. To be honest, I gain more information through reading blogs and online news than reading The Star's shit.

Thanks to FL Sam for letting me know about the bizarre battle of the tennis court surfaces. I missed the sports news and of course no sports channel show the exhibition match between the clay court king, Rafael Nadal and grass court master, Roger Federer.

It doesn't matter who wins in this match. The players sure have fun playing in this court while ready for the next clay court championships in Rome in a couple of day. Nadal who beaten Fedex last year will defend his title to win three times in a role.

Today is my first day going back to normal working hours due to a 3-month job contract.

It's been more than two years working on my own, alone. Sometimes I do miss working with a group of colleagues, going lunch together, chit-chatting during working hours, etc.

And today it feels a little bit weird because I have to wake up early in the morning and beating through the jam. In fact I couldn't sleep last night thinking how today will be.

So here I am today, blogging through my lunch hour. The staff here are nice but sad thing is the admin people never do a proper orientation or at least introduce me to the staff. Perhaps it's because I'm a contractor here.

Hopefully during this 3 months, I'll save up enough money and start travelling in September to Yogyakarta and Bangkok. I've already booked air tickets and accommodation to take a tour to Borobodur and Prambanan. After that I'm planning to watch tennis games at Bangkok Open by the end of September because Rafael Nadal is playing along with Andy Roddick, Marcos Baghdatis and many other professional players.

Happy Wesak Day to all Buddhists!

Since I'm back in hometown I have the opportunity to write a blog based on piece of writing by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, who is also better known as Khyentse Norbu in the filming industry for his work on The Cup and Travellers and Magicians. Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche is the first Rinpoche I met when I was just a small kid and he is the reason my family take refuge to become Buddhist followers.

This piece of writing was written by Rinpoche in 1984 in Sydney, Australia. Here it goes:

Your Own Wisdom Is Your Own Best Teacher

It is important to know how precious our human life is for now we have the chance to choose the correct path. We should not waste time - time goes while you wait. We must make sure that we do not fall into the trap of samsara in the next life. Karma rules our life - our incarnation - and all. Karma will follow you as a shadow wherever you go and wherever you are reborn. It does not matter which sect you follow, you must know who you are whatever you are doing. Buddhism teaches you the essence reality of yourself and the reality of phenomena. The reality of phenomena is never dualistic. There is no effort or difficulty to abandon or adopt - our ignorance obscures this. We ourselves create our own difficulties. We fight and waste much time and energy for nothing. We gamble our life - our own life - for nothing. If you know reality everything is pure and equal - there is no I and you. There will be no suspecting or fighting each other for appearance. Enjoy your appearance and don't criticize others. Fish don't blame us for not seeing the water as their home and we don't worry about what fish think of water. There is no dualism truly existing outside - it is just a creation of your mind.