The Personal Blog of Benny Ong – bennyong.com » 2006 » July
Jul 31
Greetings Peeps,
Yesterday when I was at Mid Valley, I just had to try the toy vending machines at Toy R Us. It was brought in by the well known toy distributor known as Litt Tak and apparently after reading about it from the papers, I was curious on trying it out.
To use the vending machines, you will need tokens that cost Rm 4.00 each. The shape of the tokens are different as well for security reasons to prevent fraud. As so, no regular coins can be slotted in.
Most toys require 2 tokens minimum but there were some which cost more. The dragon ball characters costs about 3 tokens.
Looked at what cost me RM8.00.
Take care….
Benny Ong XXX
Jul 30
Today, I was at Holiday Villa Subang for the 50th Wedding Anniversary and 80th Birthday of P.S Nair, a long known family friend. My mum came down this weekend for this special occasion.
The celebration started close to 12 noon when the couple walked into the Victorian Ballroom to a strong cheering crowd of over 200 family and friends. I can’t help it but recall the times when I was in Liberia, Africa when they use to buy toys for me during Christmas.
The thing that triggered me most is when we met up in Penang earlier this year and Auntie Uma, (PS. Nair’s Wife) can remember my exact birth date. It is an amazing thing for people that we have not met for years to remember such things and it does take an effort. This are the ones that I will keep close to my heart.
My Mum & MeUncle Nair was my Dad’s colleague when he served in Uniroyal Liberia. Mr. Nair spent about 20 years there and it is where he made his fortune. He can get all the respect from me as he has no Degree or proper qualifications. An amazing achievement I would say.
He is 80 years old but do not look anywhere near such age. I believe that he is one of the oldest people there but he certainly did not look that way.
The event was organized by their daughter Priya and her husband Keith. The program from the day included a speech from their grandson, performances by family members and renewing their wedding vows.
There was a short skit which showed how the couple first met in the days before Malaysia achieve independence and was under the British. Mr Nair was from Malaysia and Aunt Uma was from India.
Both of them are now jetsetters, spending their days in India, Malaysia, USA and Japan. The couple will be leaving for the States on August 18 and hopefully I will be arranging a meet up before they leave.
Looking at them inspires me and I envy the life he has lived. He can proudly look back and say that it was an amazing 80 years spent. From now on, I will look up to him as an idol.
Signing off….
Benny Ong
Jul 29
Today is my Department partner, JC’s birthday.
Early at work, most of us sitting in a row were already in partying mood with some of us already dressed to do so. I decided to warm up the morning by playing some RnB tunes but was later told that I can’t do so as it interrupts others. I off course defended myself by saying that it was still early and not much people were around. I considerately put on my headphones at nine when work started to get serious.
However, everyone of us were chatting away using the in house messenger about the celebration afterwards.
I spent the rest of the day practically trying to stop thinking about partying and concentrating on finishing up my work. I left at about 5.30 on Song Yia’s ride to get back and get ready before heading to TGI Fridays at 1-Utama for the celebration.
Arriving early there, we waited for the others. I decided to take up the fountain drink with unlimited refills of Cola Lights which makes me feel less guilty as it mentions zero calories on the can. The funny thing is that, they will open up a can every time I requested for a refill. This made it easier for me to count how much round of cokes have I drank. To make up for the amount that I have paid for, I would need to drink at least 7 cans but that never happened.
For the meal wise, I decided to share the 39.99 set which consists of an Appetizer, Main Course and Dessert. I could not enjoy the Appetizer and Dessert because I was having sore throat. I must remember to take enough fluid!
We had fun the whole night and took loads of pictures. Some sneaks of the night are as below:
The birthday girl, JC was required to give a speech when approached by the team of waiters but refused to. Although my main objective was to get her in her birthday suit, I would settle for a speech which we later manage to force out of her. She was presented with a birthday cake which we all assume was part of the complimentary service.
As we were towards the end of our time at Fridays, a waiter came and apologize and explained that the cake was meant for another table and there were a misunderstanding. We of course gave up the cake but I can’t help wondering how would the other table feel after we have blow out their birthday cake.
The party continued on at Laundry in the Curve just opposite the new GSC’s Cineleisure. I got home at about 3 in the morning the next day to see my mum and sis asleep.
Well, that’s all for now and till next time, take care.
Benny Ong XXX
Jul 28
Party Bunch, originally uploaded by bennyong.
It saves time and I get to organize my pictures. However, the only downside is that I have a 20MB bandwidth limit on my uploads monthly.
Whatever it is, I’ll be using flickr to post any picture related posts on my blog. You should do it too.
I am still strugling on getting my gallery to work with my blog. Happy “flickring” if you are going to start using it with your blog.
Added on 31st July 2006: Just to compliment the existing picture post above, I decided to give you bunch a bonus video. I am also looking for a plugin that will automatically let me add in my Youtube video collections.
Take care….!
Benny Ong XXX
Jul 27
Buenos Tardes,
That was good afternoon in Spanish. Today, I have decided to search the internet to recover some digital pictures that I have lost from my corrupted storage, misplacing them and etc. I manage to come up with a decent amount from the search and have updated my flickr account with them. However, I have yet to organize them in albums.
For a change, I have also integrated the flickr gallery into my blog using a wordpress plugin but there seems to be some layout problems that I have yet to solve. Take a sneak peak of the gallery here. Just as an additional info, you can just simply access my flickr page straight away to look at the pics.
So, Angie, if you are reading this, I hope those pics will satisfy you.
Well, keep you all updated shortly.
Adios….
Benny XXX
Jul 26
Another e-mail from ages ago that I dug out .
A pastor entered his donkey in a race and it won.
The pastor was so pleased with the donkey that he entered it in the race again, and it won again. The local newspaper read:
PASTOR’S ASS OUT FRONT.
The Bishop was so upset with this kind of publicity that he ordered the pastor not to enter the donkey in another race.The next day, the local newspaper headline read:
BISHOP SCRATCHES PASTOR’S ASS.
This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the pastor to get rid of the donkey. The pastor decided to give it to a nun in a nearby convent. The local paper, hearing of the news, posted the following headline the next day:
NUN HAS BEST ASS IN TOWN.
The Bishop fainted. He informed the nun that she would have to get rid of the donkey, so she sold it to a farmer for $10. The next day the paper read:
NUN SELLS ASS FOR $10.
This was too much for the Bishop, so he ordered the nun to buy back the donkey and lead it to the plains where it could run wild. The next day the headlines read:
NUN ANNOUNCES… HER ASS IS WILD AND FREE.
The Bishop was buried the next day….
The moral of the story is…. Being concerned about public opinion can bring you much grief and misery… and even shorten your life.
So be yourself and enjoy life….. You’ll be a lot happier and live longer!
Enjoy… good news is that it is mid week and two more days to struggle before the weekend….
Benny XXX
Jul 25
Mr. or Mrs. Computer
Is your computer male or female? As you are aware, ships have long been characterized as being female (e.g., “Steady as she goes”, or “She’s listing to starboard, Captain!”). Recently, a group of computer scientists (all males) announced that computers should also be referred to as being female. Their reasons for drawing this conclusion follow:
1. No one but the Creator understands their internal logic.
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.
3. The message “Bad command or file name” is about as informative as, “If you don’t know why I’m mad at you, then I’m certainly not going totell you”.
4. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.
5. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.
However, another group of computer scientists (all female) think that computers should be referred to as if they were male. Their reasonsfollow:
1. They have a lot of data, but are still clueless.
2. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem.
3. As soon as you commit to one you realize that, if you had waited a little longer, you could have obtained a better model.
4. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.
5. Big power surges knock them out for the rest of the night.
Well, you come up with your own judgement. My computer is bi-sexual because it has both characteristics.
Benny Ong XXX
Jul 24
My department partner and me or better known as the DC duo at work are going to Singapore next week. Our proposal was approve and we will be visiting BAT Singapore and things like that.
We will be sorting out our transport and accommodation so that it fits the proposed budget.
I never thought that I will be returning to Singapore this year after my trip there earlier this year. This teaches me to never say never.
Well, I need to get back to work. I’ll catch you later.
Wohoo!
Benny Ong XXX
Jul 23
Today, was a relaxing day for me.
I stayed at home for a change after two late nights. I manage to catch up with some housekeeping of my desktop and updating my blog. Besides that, one of my sweetest and most adorable friends, ANGIE has loaned me her collection of CDs for me to rip. (To those watchdogs out there: I am ripping music for my own personal use)
This time around, I use the built in rip function of Windows Media Player. To ensure maximum compatibility of your music, please rip them as Mp3s. Here is how to make sure that you are going to get them as mp3s:
Tools>Options>Rip Music and select MP3 under Rip settings as your format of choice.
I use to use a good freeware program called CDex. It gets the job done. I found it while browsing for freewares at download.com.
Besides ripping music, I watched Zathura. This is the movie from the makers of Jumanji and is a modern version of the previous I would say. Give this movie a skip as there was nothing worth watching it for.
That’s all for me now and I am dreading to go to work tomorrow. Sigh*
Benny Ong XXX
Jul 22
Once again, I woke up from my mobile ringing feeling a little bit hung over from last night at Karma. I was told that my ride was coming in half an hour’s time. I got ready and at 11.00, there I was in Alison, Sri Petaling having my breakfast with Arnold. I was trying to get tips from a veteran player for the paintball game later.
I have played once at Bukit Jalil but am excited of the different maps in store. The place is called TAG at Taman Desa Waterpark. The building is practically an abandoned parking lot of about 4 split floors and a basement. There were fields next to the building were apparently there were another three maps.
The first two games we played indoor were called total annihilation. My team, Green won twice. I manage to survive the whole first round and eliminated the last player standing of the opposing team. The second round, I face a player which was not sporting. I have managed to shoot him directly on the mask but he still continues on playing and ran towards me and fired at close range. This act is very dangerous although I believe he was doing it out of excitement and unintentionally.
The next game played was called President. In this match, the bodyguards which will have unlimited life have to escort and bring an appointed President to the checkpoint safely. The rest of the remaining players will be terrorists and have to kill the president. I believe to win this game; you will have to hide and just save your bullets for the president and not fire on the bodyguards. My major mistake during this game was to fire at the bodyguards which revealed the place I was hiding.
The last two matches were carried out outdoors on a muddy forest like atmosphere. We were almost eaten alive by the mosquitoes in there. The played map was called Island and the objective was to capture the flag. There was only one flag and one team is supposed to protect it and the opposing team trying to get hold of it. It is usually the team guarding the flag that wins because of the way the map is. Visibility was poor because of the colder surroundings after the rain. Although it was not the safest location to play in at that time, we had tons of fun.
Here are some tips to share if you are playing paintball:
1) Wear long sleeve T-shirts 2) Wear Long Pants 3) Wear A Cap or Scarf
4) Bring Insect Repellent
And if you have a question about which Paintball location I prefer, it would definitely be Tag at Desa Waterpark.
Hopefully, today will be a good practice that will get me ready for the upcoming match that I will be having with the Management Team next time they are around in Malaysia.
Well, that’s all for now and take care…..
Benny Ong