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Showing posts from April, 2007

Who moved my cheese?

This is an interesting story found on the same title of the book. The book is less than hundred pages but it teaches some crucial principles in dealing with change. There are 4 characters in the story. There are 2 mice ( Sniff and Scurry ) and 2 little people ( Hem and Haw ). It tells about their goal to find the cheese in the maze. Cheese is the metaphor in our life. It could be wealth, career, health, relationship, possession, spiritual etc. It happens that each of them found the same cheese. As life goes on, they travel to the cheese spot from home for the supply everyday. The mice are using their usual route and arrive early. But the little people are gradually waking up late and coming late as they are living in comfort zone. One day, someone has moved the cheese. The mice arrived early as usual and found no cheese. They knew the cheese would be gone sooner or later as they noticed it has been moved a bit day by day. So what should they do? Sniff sniffed around for new cheese w

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This is the number of steps you need to climb in Batu Caves. We had a "simulation" exercise here in preparation of Mount Kinabalu climbing. Did 4 rounds this time. The first time was 3 rounds. Saw lots of people exercising here; all seems like preparing for Mount Kinabalu climb too. Oh, the Amazing Race was here too recently.

Bali and the temples

It is no doubt that every corner of Bali has temples ( pura in local dialect). I’m not quite sure if it is the same in western Bali as it was noted with high percentage of Christians. Nevertheless, each temple bears almost similar design and structure – multi-tier roof, wide compound and parallel gate column. Of course the temples are not as marvelous as those in Angkor Wat and Borobudur . SY and I had visited few famous temples in the island. There are some temples which you can give them a miss as they're nothing special (in terms of attraction and architecture). Places like Alas Kedaton and Taman Ayun might not be a great itinerary for the trip. Alas Kedaton is just a sanctuary for monkeys (we have aplenty in Malaysia though) while Taman Ayun is no more than recreation park. Tanah Lot promises a worthy visit as the temple is on the sea. Well, it’s not actually in the middle of the sea. It is just situated a distance from the mainland. Sadly, visitors are not allowe

Graduation or Vacation

While I was delighted to have completed my master, I was informed that the graduation day will be on the first week of Sept. Coincidently, I have a trip to the Philippines that week. Now it's choosing time. Which one should I opt for? Life is full of choices, you never know what you will end up to. Think will opt for the latter one....

Lesson from the sampling plan of potato chips

I attended a short course on quality sampling plan recently. The course was about how to design a sampling plan for a process. Why we need to do sampling? If not, the producers will need to do 100% inspection on their products. This will incur additional cost to the production. Ultimately, the cost will be absorbed by the consumer, which is us. During the course, there was a short sharing on how sampling plan activities take place in producing potato chips. The company is one of the renowned potato chips maker – Lays. A packet of Lays’ potato chips will cost you RM8. Maybe because it’s cost USD2 in the States (it’s cheap in US though). The quality activities start right from the vendor. Vendor will deliver a truck full of potatoes. But first, the company will take sampling to justify the quality of the potatoes before accepting the whole truck. Firstly, the worker will take samples from few points in the truck by placing a bucket. Then the worker will randomly load some potatoes into t

The Pursuit of Happyness

The word happiness was spelled wrongly in this movie with purpose. The movie tells about the struggle of a father to earn a living and keep life going. He was homeless at one point as life is always on the go. One interesting quote from the movie, which was quoted from the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson (3rd President of the U.S.): We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. How did he know pursuing happiness is our right?

Bali and the dances

People say every visitor to Bali should at least see one Balinese dance. There are few notable dances performed in Bali. Among them are Kecak dance and Barong dance. SY and I took the opportunity to see Kecak and Fire dance in Uluwatu. The setting was on the cliff with sunset (as the venue was facing west). Kecak and Fire dance is a tale dance of the story of Ramayana and Sita. Throughout the performance, the performers will chant and sing in rhythmic. This was very interesting and it could be the best dances of the island. Note that all the performers are men except the few dancers. The story started with Sita encountering a golden deer. She pleaded Rama to catch the deer for her. Rama then left her with his brother, Laksamana. Shortly after Rama’s departure, there was a loud scream. Fearful to his husband safety, Sita sent Laksamana to investigate. Rhawana appeared before Sita and attempted to seize her. However, Sita was protected by a magic cycle. Rhawana disappeared and came back