I attended my first Property Auction at PISA today as a viewer rather than a bidder. It was jointly organized by Bumiputera-Commerce Bank along with Palma Housing and MNP.

Being familiar with how ebay works, the auction terms and proceedings were roughly the same. However, there were lawyers sitting on one side and bankers on the other side. The moment there was a property successfully auctioned out; officials will escort the winner to sign the necessary paperwork.

The highlight of the event was about the hottest property which was a three storey commercial shop house that has 9 bidders registered with the reserve price of RM405,000. According to the chairperson of the auction, properties that have more than two interested bidders will have a start bid price of the reserve price plus one bid increment. Bid increments were set at RM10,000 based on the property price meaning the effective start price will be RM415,000. It created a stir among the interested bidders as previous bid increments were only RM1,000 and one particular bidder was so unsatisfied, he went on to tear the mini brochure that lists all the property up for bids in front of the whole crowd. Eight of the bidders decided to withdraw their bids and one bidder was left which went on to get the property at the reserve price of RM405,000. She was no doubt the smartest investor and got the property at the lowest possible price. I am pretty sure that majority of the bidders that withdraw earlier reacted by emotion or following others. If either one of them stayed firm and decided to proceed with the bidding, he or she would have the possibility of securing the property at a much lower price as well. The lesson I would say is that to always stay firm and never be influenced by emotions or others.

I also learnt that non-bumiputera individuals may not represent a bumiputera in bidding for a bumiputera property. If you are puzzled, there is dual class citizenship in Malaysia. Bumiputera citizens are considered to be original inhabitants of the country where else non-Bumiputera are the opposite. The government has allocated a number of properties and land that can be purchased only by Bumiputeras. This lesson came out when two non-bumiputera bidders were registered to bid for a Bumiputera property.

We went to Equatorial Hotel that evening for buffet dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day. What did you do for Mother’s Day?

Well, I hope you have learnt something from my experience at the auction.

Take care,

Benny Ong

Greetings everyone,

Well, look at what I did on my spare time, I created a Pong game.

For those unaware of what the game is about, here is a brief history courtesy of wikipedia:

“PONG is a video game based on ping-pong, released by Atari on November 29, 1972. It is the first video game to win widespread popularity, in both its arcade and home console versions.

Its creators were the first to recognize that technology had evolved sufficiently to make such a game possible. Displaying graphics on a video screen and reacting immediately to user input required more computer power than 1960s consumer products could afford. Even in 1970, the computing power of a modern cell phone would have required a mainframe computer the size of a small apartment.

However, by drawing only two lines for paddles, a line for the net and a square for the ball, Pong was playable as a graphical game on the primitive technology of the early 1970s. It unleashed a torrent of innovation and creativity that represented the first generation of video game development.�

The version I created can be played directly from your desktop and the screenshot of the game is below:

Feel free to redistribute the version I created as it is freeware. Don’t worry, I did not put any spy ware on the program and it has been scanned for virus. However, I can’t confirm the compatibility of the game with system configurations but if you have Windows XP, it should work fine.

The file is just a single executable file and no installation is required. It can be stored nicely in your thumb drive as it is just a mere 433KB.

Click here to download it now for Free. Please remember to send me your feedback.

Take care.

Benny Ong

Your Passport to London that gives you FREE entry to over 50 Favourite Attractions as well as option for travel on public transport on buses, tubes and trains. The London Pass offers not only great value and convenience, but also enables you to beat the queues at selected attractions.

When I was visiting tourist spots in London as a student, people tend to ask me how I could afford it because all the entry prices were so expensive and even student rates could not help us unfortunate skint students. Mind you, I was not spending my parent’s money.

Although I spent most of my free time in Tate Modern, British Museum, Imperial War Museum and The National Gallery because they were free, no experience in London can be complete without visiting key places such as St Paul’s Cathedral (£9.00), Tower Bridge Exhibition (£5.50), London Aquarium (£11.75) and Shakespeare’s Globe (£9.00).

If I would personally just go to three of this places and buying tickets for them separately, it would have cost me a whooping £35.25. I would enjoy a savings of £6.25 if I visited these three areas with a one day London Pass and £7.45 if I got the London Pass that includes a travel.

London Pass is your Passport to London that gives you FREE entry to over 50 Favorite Attractions as well as option for travel on public transport on buses, tubes and trains.

The London Pass not only gets you into this tourist spots but also allows you to jump the queue in often crowded tourist spots such as the Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral. When I was at Tower of London, I did not have to queue to get my tickets and just went through the express lanes that made me and my mates feel like VIPs.

You don’t simply just get a card but also a mini guidebook with a map that highlights all the museums and exhibitions you may enter for free with the pass. The guidebook also comes with free vouchers that entitle you to free gifts and discounts on famous food and beverages outlets.

You can get two types of London Pass with or without travel at adult or child rates. I would recommend that you get the one with travel because it comes with a Zone 1-6 Travelcard that is worth £12.40 during peak hours that you may use for unlimited travel the whole day on Buses and the Underground.

If you do get the London Pass, get the one that includes travel to enjoy extra savings since you are going to need transport anyway and my recommendation for your journey would be as below. This is the exact trail I made with my first London Pass and it might be a rush for some but well worth it for me.

Start of early and enter St Paul’s Cathedral (£9.00) at 8.30 a.m., make your way down to Tower of London (£15.00) and then The Tower Bridge Experience (£5.50) followed by the HMS Belfast (£8.50), Britain At War Experience (£9.50), wine tasting at Vinopolis (£15.00), Shakespeare’s Globe (£9.00), London Aquarium (£11.75) and end the day with a game of bowling at the Namco Station at London County Hall with £3.00 worth of token free just next to where the Aquarium is. This whole trip would have cost £86.25 just on admissions and £92.45 with a peak one day travelcard. I saved a total of £58.45 just by being smart and using a London Pass for my visits.

The whole adventure took us about 12 hours during summer weekday and we took self guided tours in each location. We recommend you to spend time at places you like most and feel free to skip some of the places above if it does not interest you. Remember to enjoy the trip and not rush. We had lunch while walking on the South Bank which saved us some time.

Please note that the prices used for individual tourist attractions in this post are adult and correct at time of this post was made as obtained from its respective official website and are all of the highest possible value and not considering off peak rates or concessions that may be available.

My Tip:

To make your trip a memorable one, plan ahead and check for the opening and closing times. Operating times may differ according to daylight savings. Check Transport For London’s official website for details about possible suspension of certain tube lines or busses. Tube lines are often suspended during weekends for engineering works.

Other places you may also visit with your London Pass:

London Zoo (£14.80)
Kensington Palace (£11.50)
Kew Gardens (£11.75)
Windsor Castle (Includes Free Transport from Paddington if bought with Travel) (£13.50)
Hampton Court Palace (£12.30)

Click here for more information and to get your the London Pass.

Well, thats all, share your experiences with me when you are done with your trip and try to beat my record at the amount of savings I made.

Take care.

Benny Ong XXX

I was at Beach Street today with my sister attending an event to showcase the progress of the ARTS-ED program which is an arts education program for young people jointly organized by USM-PECC and sponsored by Digi.

The performances by the participants were indeed amazing. The great thing was the youths were embracing culture and learning more about Penang’s rich heritage from arts. If I am not mistaken, it is a four months program and the kids still have two months to go before their big performance.

The first four videos are of performances using traditional instruments.

This last video is just some dance moves choreograph from looking at movements of hawkers and traders in Chulia Street, Penang.

How I wish I would have got involved in events such as this when I was younger. My kids will definitely be attending such sessions. Below are some of the videos from the mini showcase and the main event will be on July 15th. Please check local press for details.

In the meantime, I am still organizing pictures of my travel to be posted on this blog. Stay tune for that.

Benny Ong

A company called Shai that sell clothing decided to use porn as their catalogs. Their catalog for their summer 2006 collection are in three videos and each feature one of the three possible combinations of sexual partners from men and women entitled One, Two and Three Reasons to be Shai. I would very much like to post their videos here but if I do so, my site would get into trouble as it is not hosted on an adult content permitted server.

Well, I guess the company decided to use Porn to create an instant buzz for their clothes but they will in the end pay a heavy price in terms of image for their company. Don’t you think so? Would you feel comfortable wearing FCUK or TopShop clothes if they are associated with sexual acts? I might be wrong on this.

I am just wondering if they are actually airing the video on national TV. Not Malaysia obviously but somewhere else.

Curious on how the video looks like? All three videos are available on their website. Do a quick search for the terms “Shai Clothing� and you can quickly find the mentioned site. Forget about that, I have been getting tons of hits recently about this and as an incentive to my visitors, here are the links to the videos but be warn that it may take a while to load.

Shai Catalogue Women – Women

Shai Catalogue Men – Women

Shai Catalogue Men-Men

Tell me what you think.

That’s all folks…

Benny Ong

So, what is the hype lately about these numbers? For starters, those will represent an exact time and date on earth. Yup, those numbers can be translated into 01:02:03 04/05/06 with the first three numbers representing the time and the remaining ones representing the date and is exactly when this post is being posted through the scheduling tool. (Thank you wordpress!)

This arrangement of numbers would not happen again for another 100 years in 2106. A lifetime I would say. So, what should a person do to commemorate such an occasion or is it just not worth celebrating at all? You tell me. (I personally find it a good excuse to get drunk) Although, I believe most people will be asleep at that time, it is good for us who are awake to just vision what the world will be in the exact sequence of time and date a 100 years from that exact second.

I somehow saw Microsoft still being in existence and comfortably the market leader. Ouch…! Not a good vision is it.

Well, that’s about it really. I just believe that this something worth sharing and taking a note of.

To the next 100 years!

Benny Ong XXX