The Personal Blog of Benny Ong – bennyong.com » General
Oct 23
If you ever dreamt about working or living in the states, make it happen by submitting your application for the Diversity Visa Program. This allows minority migrants to apply to get a Green Card that will allow you to stay and live there. The official site is http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/. It is free to enter and the submission for 2009 entry are closing on December. Uncle Sam has restrictions on certain nations but Malaysia is cool.
Did you know that there are scam sites that charge for such services? They will compile your submission and charge you a fee to submit it to the above link. Well, might be a business idea for you but why make this type of living when there is so much else to do.
Enter now and good luck!
Oct 15
Ice Cream CakeI am totally spoiled for this weekend with a non stop celebration of over 4 days for my birthday. I am sure it will all end today though. However, I woke up this morning (check out my messy yet stylish hair) to blow out candles of an ice cream cake that we got off from Baskin & Robbins in 1-Utama. The cake tasted marvelous and was very rich.
Later in the day, I went to Cheras for lunch and was back home to start installing my wireless router that I bought yesterday from the digital mall. I first setup my UPS whereby my cables still needs some tidying.
The wireless router from Net Gear certainly had better installation guides than Aztech. The installation took less than 20 minutes and now my whole house is finally covered with wi-fi. A final end to my struggle of getting the wireless connection up (due to my procrastination as well :)).
Can’t believe the long weekend is now over and can’t wait for what is in store for the week.
Benny Ong
Oct 14
My modem went dead after the heavy rain and I remain puzzled to what has happened as everything was connected through a power surge protector. I later realized that the source could have been through my phone line instead. It was no harm as I wanted to replace my faulty wireless modem and router from Aztech anyways.
It was already in the pipeline to drop by the Digital Mall in PJ SS14 to get new hard disks and getting some additional gadgets should be no harm.
The Digital Mall in SS14
The place itself was no different from Low Yat Plaza and the drive there was certainly more pleasant. There were countless of floors with techie goods and my all time favourite IT Hypermart All I.T was situated on the top floor. I am always impress by the amount of stock they keep and it being displayed openly instead of asking someone over the counter like many other computer shops do. This outlet is definately a blessing as I hate driving all the way to Low Yat in the city center where it was the first All I.T I visited.
Just in case you need a map to get there which I extracted from their official website:
The only thing I disagree with the whole mall is the shops that charges consumers an additional 2% for paying with credit cards. I believe the sellers should take on the costs and not the consumers. I know there are certain merchant costs involved but if I were to run a business, I would calculate it in a way whereby I would absorb the costs and not my customers. I agree that there are rooms for arguments here but aren’t we moving towards a cashless environment whereby transactions through card should exceed spending cash like many advance countries?
Well, enough said before I get to deep into my views. I can’t wait to install my newly acquired purchases.
Benny Ong
Oct 13
What would be a better plan than Melaka to kick start the long weekend. I had mixed feelings on how the traffic would be like because of the holidays but braving it turned out to be well worth it because it was smooth sailing all the way. The traffic reports of it being jammed packed in the wee hours might have resulted the roads to be clear on the first day of the Hari Raya celebrations.
The drive to Melaka took about just under two hours whereby I finally saw MMU after hearing so much about it. I picked up Song Yia’s brother and friend before heading to the city center for A Famosa. There were not much additions since I was last here about 4 years ago but the only difference was I am now behind the wheels guided by a local.
On Top of St Paul’s Hill
A Famosa Fort: The Most Photographed Landmark in Melaka
Check Out My Big Cannon
It is also worth mentioning the newly discovered wall of the old fort which is just a stone throw away. There are plans to reconstruct the whole wall to it’s original setting. Let’s see how long that will take.
The Site of The Old Wall
The weather which was perfect for walking did not last long and we had to seek shelter in McDonalds opposite Melaka Zoo. Looking at the rain which did not showed any signs of slowing down, we gave up and headed back to our newly made friend’s house to watch Apocalypto directed by Mel Gibson.
After a short nap and refreshing shower, it was time for dinner. We headed to the Portuguese Settlement for food along the beach front stalls. The food was of decent quality and price. After dinner, we hanged out at Wings Music Café before making our drive home to KL.
All and all, it was another day well spent!
Benny Ong
Oct 12
I arrived in the office to be greeted by decorations on my desk with my pictures imposed on different characters. (Thanks to my dearest Song Yia for all the hard work). It was certainly a great start to a very eventful day. Soon before noon, we all gathered at the pantry for the birthday cake. It was a cheese cake which tasted very light which was perfect for the stomach before lunchtime.
Birthday Cake @ The Pantry
Posing With Fellow BTAs
We headed to our usual place in Kuchai Lama called Big Tree because where the eating place was under. We all feasted on a variety of dishes. It was surely very heart warming to see the whole bunch of amazing friends there and what a privellege it is to be working together with them. I always live by the principle of friends work better which is definately a bonus especially in the organization that I am in. It was back in the office later whereby all my presentations and conference calls went on well.
We soon headed to Daorae in Puchong for Korean BBQ. It is my second time but I am glad that JC came along as she finally made sense on how to dine. My family and I were at the same restaurant but the Taipan outlet and were clueless on what we were doing there. Regardless, the service we received was of unmatchable and the staff genuinely seemed polite and happy.
Korean BBQ for Dinner
Looking back at the day, it is scary that 1 year has passed and I can proudly say that it was a good year spent. No regrets! Just for fun, this post was what it was like a year ago.
Once again, it was all thanks to Song Yia for all the effort put in. 
Benny Ong
Oct 11
I heard the door bell and there it was the rider for the parcel company, GDex. He mentioned my name and I nod as acknowledgement.
There it was on his hands, a parcel with my name on it. I instantly knew it was a prize from Astro looking at the address of its origin. I quickly ran in the house to open it up and there it came, Amy Winehouse’s album Back To Black (Malaysian Edition) worth RM 29.90 from Universal.
I was trying to recall which competition that I have participated as I haven’t been that active in the arena lately. The only ones I know of are from radio sites whereby lead me to discover the following page on Mix.fm website.
Although the value of the prize is small, it did cheered up my day. It is like an early birthday gift. It has been ages since I won any contests and I believe this is a start to the many more amazing competitions that I am going to win.
Take care all.
Benny Ong
Oct 10
My friends at the office was talking about this over lunch sometime back. I also had the chance to see their blog post on the topic which attracted me.
The website made to promote the upcoming movie The Golden Compass due to be released in Dec is using a smart way to reinforce it’s campaign. They are having a some sort of personality test that will apparently generate your daemon that matches to your answers.
Funnily enough, I did it the last time and the results matched the second time although I believe there were varations in my responses. They ask you a string of 20 questions and there are logical calculations behind that will determine your daemon.
Try it for yourself and let me know what are your daemons and honestly, it makes a great blog post I would say
– Benny Ong –
Oct 07
My PC has been making a strong and fairly loud noise lately. Well, to be honest for about more than a year since I was living in the apartments in Bukit Jalil. It never use to bother me because the PC was left out in the hall and no one sleeps there.
Since moving to USJ, the PC has been setup in my room and the noise was becoming a nuisance. Although I tolerated it and was able to sleep, my mum somewhat believed that it did affected me in some ways. It is really uncanny but I think it did affected me to some extent.
Oh well, my room got repainted recently because of some wet spots and everything in my room have to be moved out. Although not favourable as I have to resort bunking in with my sis, it brought to me more benefits than ever. I took it as an opportunity to tidy my room and solve the long due problem of the mysterious noise originating from my PC.
As I open it up to search for the source of the noise, I realize it was from the processor cooling system. The fan that was covering the processor was practically clogged up with dusts and it reminded me of how my snort used to look like after travelling in the London undergound. A quick swab with a damp cotton bud solved the issue. Now, I am typing this blog post without having to tolerate the noisy fan that was overworking itself previously. I also get to enjoy my music freely without having to turn the speaker out loud to mask the noise. 
Ooo well, that’s all from me today and goodnite!
Sep 30
This type of things seem to be quite addictive. Look at what the results of my personality test is. A bit of a loner they mentioned.
| Your Personality Profile |
 You are happy, driven, and status conscious. You want everyone to know how successful you are. Very logical, you see life as a game of strategy. A bit of a loner, you prefer to depend on yourself. You always keep your cool and your composure. You are a born leader and business person. |
The World’s Shortest Personality Test
Sep 29
After hearing about my friend’s trip to Gopeng for caving and rafting, I was all excited and organized a day trip with some of my peers from the office. We started the day early by leaving Sungai Buloh at 7.15 p.m. The 200KM drive to the destination took about 2 hours whereby we arrived a little bit earlier than required.
Main Entrance of Gua Tempurung
The guides from Riverbug arrived on time and we they introduced themselves as Max and King. Both of them are Sabah natives. Once we geared up, we started our journey climbing over 900 steps from the mouth of the cave and ventured in deeper and deeper. Throughout the journey, we saw magnificent sites of historic markings of the communist that took shelter there and also from the miners. The natural stalegtites and stalegmites also took shapes of amazing creatures such as elephants and the mystical dragon. I tried to take load of pictures but due to the amount of light exposure, it did not turned out fairly well. I had to hand in my camera to the guide for safekeeping in a water proof bag.
A Convoy of Cars and a Clock Drawn by Communists
Some Chinese Words Left By The Miners
We reached a dead end of the cave with a steep slope that leads to darkness. We were told to slide down and as more and more of us when down, our head lamps brighten up the area. We were soon gathered around this small hole whereby we were told that we needed to squeeze ourselves in. At first, I thought it was just the guides messing around with us but apparently not! I can’t help it but keep the movie “The Descent” playting in my head over and over again. The route that we took required us to commando crawl on the water and submerged ourselves to nearly head deep. We survive the whole route of about 2 hours.
The Exit of Gua Tempurung
Before I forget, if you are planning to go caving anytime soon, get head lamps as it saves you the hassle of carrying a torch light while you are crawling and avoiding obstacles. It was soon lunch time whereby we were served with Chinese food cooked in Kampung style at My Gopeng Resort where our base camp is for our whitewater rafting activity.
Lunch Time at My Gopeng Resort
Once filled up, we were given a quick safety briefing which I found very helpful. They demonstrated how we should handle ourselves if we go overboard and some body rafting tips. We then carried our rafts to the river where our journey was about to begin.
The water level of the river was low and they mentioned it was on rating of 1-2 instead of its usual 2-3/3-4 in November. Since it was my first time, I did not mind. Here are some sequence shots from one of the drops in the rapids.
Surviving One Of The Rapids
The whole rafting journey lasted for two hours covering about 7 kilometers.
The Final Group Photo
As a conclusion, it was indeed a different way to spend the weekend and my next return there will be to jungle trek to Cameron Highlands.
That’s all for now!