Interloper View

The following are photos taken from Chin Wee Temple in Genting Highlands. It consist of 24 stories reflecting filial virtue. The stories also can be found in the following site : http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~asia/24ParagonsFilialPiety.html The following is the set of photos taken of the carvings: Story Number 24: Cleaning Parent's toilet bucket personally Story # 23: Cried for Bamboo shoots Story # 22: Carry wooden statues of parents for worshipping purposes Story # 21: Crying at mother's grave over thunderstorm

Pyramid Parking Originally uploaded by strovek Just visited Sunway Pyramid this weekend. I found that the new parking lot for the convention center is fantastic. The following is a photo taken from the Star web site. Notice the light at the top of the parking lot. If it is not occupied, it will be green. Once occupied, it will turn red. This makes it much easier to find vacant parking lots. I also found the parking lots to be very spacious and well lit. Bravo!!

When looking for credit card, I look at how I can get money back, so far I found two ways: Redeem the points for Vouchers. Money back. The following are the credit cards in Malaysia I have reviewed and thought I will share them with you: Hong Leong Bank Supplementary card fee - RM 40/- Uses points (1 point for RM1/-) - Accumulate points that can be redeemed for vouchers. Redeeming for KFC Voucher the rate is 0.42%. You can get additional points from other bank services such as loan. Citibank Malaysia Cash Back card Annual Fee: RM 90/year Supplementary card: RM 60/year 0.2% on the expenses. -- Shell Card Annual Fee: RM 90/year Supplementary card: RM 60/year Fuel Rebate of 1.5% - only from Shell (non Fuel purchase 0.5%) Public Bank Annual Fee: RM 75/year Supplementary: RM 45/year Rate of return: Total Monthly Retail Purchase Tier % Up to RM3000 0.3 Up to RM10,000 0.5 RM 10,001 and above 0.6 AmBank Annual Fee: RM75/year Suppleme...

In the previous post, I described the approach used to win the bet to reach 62 kg. The approach works but was not maintainable. It is just too tedious to keep track of all the calories consumed on a daily basis. Also, it was very important to fluctuate the calorie intake to the body does not adapt and adjust the BMR to the new calorie intake. As a result, I have gained back 10 kgs I lost. A few things I discovered along the way were: Low fat does not mean low calorie (you find a lot of low fat food filled with sugar - so high in calories). It is possible to continue to enjoy your food by swapping with lower calorie equivalent (which taste almost as good). We are consuming a lot more calories than we actually need. I am starting the process to towards my ideal weight again but starting a new approach. Will post the progress and explain the process at a later post.

The first step was to identify my current calorie consumption. Even though there was a formula to calculate the BMR, it only serves as a guideline. A more accurate way is to find out the actual consumption. This was done by taking note of everything I ate for one week. I did that with the following worksheet: Date Calorie usage Alt Exercise Calorie Consumption Day 6-Sep-04 3268 Monday 7-Sep-04 1699 Tuesday 8-Sep-04 1873 Wednesday 9-Sep-04 2036 Thursday 10-Sep-04 1787 Friday 11-Sep-04 2561 Saturday 12-Sep-04 3135 Sunday 13-Sep-04 2090 Monday 14-Sep-04 1559 Tuesday 15-Sep-04 1193 Wednesday 16-Sep-04 2559 Thursday 17-Sep-04 1543 Friday 18-Sep-04 3822 Saturday 19-Sep-04 2286 Sunday 20-Sep-04 ...

The Challenge Back then I was 80 kg (175 lbs). Based on BMI, my ideal weight should be 62 kg (136 lbs). With this in mind, I set out to bring myself to my ideal weight. I was determined but I knew that it would be hard. So I used the following approach. Make a bet with a friend, I will reach the weight in one year. If I succeeded, she will give me $100/-, otherwise, I will have to give her a treat. I started telling everyone in the office about my "bet". Shedding the first couple of kgs was relatively easy - by slightly reducing food portion and started going to the gym. Then it happened - my weight plateaued after only 1 month into the bet. Luckily, another friend of mine heard about the bet and sat me down and told me that weight gain an loss can be reduced to a very easy equation: Input - output. If you consume more than you expend, you will lose weight. The same with the reverse. It all boils down to calorie intake and calorie use. To lose 1 kg of weight, it wa...

As parents we try to instill good values to our children. However, how we do it makes a lot of difference. Parents tell their children, behave and be polite but then they turn around and shout and grumble when they are kept in the line. Parents ask their children to obey the law but turn around and jump the red light. litter. Parents ask their children to respect their elders but turn around and start scolding their own parents. Remember children do what they see not what their are told. So a reminder make sure to walk the talk for the sake of the next generation :)

With the increasing concern for the environment, more and more countries are promoting the need to recycle. To a certain degree, this has been successful because we see more and more people are more aware of such need. In fact quite a few are doing it to help their favorite charity and churches. However, it is not easy to be a good citizen. We know paper can be recycled. So we start buying soft drink and milk in TetraPak boxes but when we try to send this for recycling it is rejected. Next they tell us that glass bottles are also not recyclable. Then we go shopping and start bringing our own bags. But when we reach the checkout counter, the lady at the counter insist on using their plastic bags - I guess it is probably to promote their store since the logo is printed on it. While individual families/homes start recycling, we see businesses mixing all those recyclable tin cans (from soft drink) with dumping it with all the non-recyclable stuff. The amount of recyclable it...