Interloper View

I just went through the 20 minutes video of The Story of Stuff. The video was very entertaining and informative how our consumption is affecting the world. I found the video from the following blog . This is a quote from the site on the video: The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever. I complete agree with the above.

With the deadline for the income tax coming to a close, there is pressure to complete by April 30. So submitting the return online helps - eFiling . However, that is only part of the equation, the other portion is to pay any excess tax. I found this good article on the web which shows a step by step process.

Botanical is the first garden established in Malaysia in 1796. The history can be found here . I love jogging there surrounded with beautiful flowers and trees. I thought I'll share of the beauty here: There is also a stream right through the garden: This is just outside Botanical Garden a site usually used by scouts for camping:

NURIN JAZLIN MURDERED. 9 YEARS OLD. WHY? ARE WE HUMAN? . TO AVOID SUCH A TRAGEDY HAPPENING AGAIN, AND FOR THE SALVATION OF OUR CHILDREN, WE ARE DOING A WORLDWIDE CAMPAIGN, DISPLAYING THE IMAGE OF NURIN JAZLIN JAZIMIN IN BLOGS ALL OVER THE WORLD ON 25TH APRIL 2008. LET'S NOT FORGET NURIN JAZLIN . UNTUK MENGELAK TRAGEDI SAMA BERULANG KEMBALI, DAN DEMI KESELAMATAN ANAK-ANAK KITA, KAMI SEDANG MENGANJURKAN KEMPEN KE SELURUH DUNIA, MEMAPARKAN GAMBAR NURIN JAZLIN JAZIMIN DI BLOG-BLOG DI SELURUH DUNIA PADA 25 APRIL 2008. JANGANLAH KITA MELUPAKAN NURIN JAZLIN .

I recently received this from a friend. I do not know who compiled it but the logic looks sound so decided to post it here. 26 Tax-Saving Moves They are legal and permitted by Inland Revenue Board ( IRB ) 1. Save for your Child’s Education Since 2007 , any amount that is deposited into a savings account for your child under national Education Savinds Scheme ( Skim Simpanan Pendidikan Nasional ) allows you to claim tax deductions. There is a limit of RM 3000 for this deduction but spouse who file separate tax returns can each claim this amount. Tax Deduction : RM 3000 per individual For Mr A : As he falls in the 24% tax bracket , this deduction translates to a tax saving of RM 720 ( RM 3000@24%) 2. File Separate tax returns A separate assessment allow each spouse to claim personal tax relief of RM 8000 while a joint tax return allows one spouse to claim a wife or husband relief of RM 3000 Tax Deduction : Each spouse earning Taxable income can claim personal tax relief of RM 8000 by fil...

I am currently reading the book A Mind at a Time (actually more listening since it is an audio book). I found this to be a very interesting book in helping understand myself and my children. A couple of things I took from the book are: Some people are visual thinkers - for these people, it is difficult for them to absorb if you provide too many words to them. We have three types of memory, short term (works only for 2 seconds), middle term and long term. For cases where the short term is faulty, it may sometimes cause the person not to be able to grasp input that is too fast. Sometimes, our memory is selective, so some people have very good recollection in certain subjects but not in others (I believe I fall into this category). Our long term memory is potentially unlimited but sometimes the way we store it may cause them to be unretrievable. Many times due to certain mental development dysfunction, people misunderstood. For example, a person may be very intelligent but because of prob...

Living with a flat foot all my life, I was unaware that there are treatments out there. However, recently when two of my colleagues were injured during the running sessions. They went to for physio-therapy. It was then I found out that there are more "flat footers" around me. They were each sold some insoles for support together with the therapy. I decided to visit the therapist to "check it out" and was also sold the insoles - one for walking and one for sports. The one used for walking is 3/4 length and the sports one is full length. The one for walking works in reducing pain in my bunions but the sports one gave me blister instead (but only in one leg). A few things I read from the leaflet from the insoles. Flat foot causes some of the following problems - (also listed here ): Bunions Callous Other pains So lesson learned was: Just because you are suffering this all your life doesn't mean that there is no relieve out there. Your problems is not unique. ...

I thought I would write about the origin of Interloper and Strovek. Interloper is the character I used to play in the AD and D (Advanced Dungeon and Dragon) role-playing board game in college. Interloper is an elf specialized as a Rogue. Rogues are well known for the stealth, speed and good and finding traps. However, since this was the first time in such a game, I tried to look for traps. This frustrated my fellow players to no end. It was later that I realized that looking for traps is not a matter of scanning but a very tedious process of checking which delays the whole game. Strovek is a Vulcan from another Role Playing board game - Star Trek . For those of you unfamiliar with Star Trek, Vulcan is a alien race that is responsible to help us (humans) start star exploration and was also key in the formation of the Federation. At the time (when I played this game), we had a very keen following to Star Trek: The Next Generation . We had characters everybody hated and charact...

I have been debating which is a better model to manage expenses. The following are two which I have been trying: JIT - Just in Time purchasing. Which means only purchase items only when we need it. BH - Bargain Stocking/Hunting. Which is to stock up items when they are on sale. To help better explain the model, let us go through some scenarios: Junk Food For those with children, one of the things we usually buy are ice cream and candies. In the case of JIT, you will only buy the individual ice cream cone or bar when they request. So you will go to places like 7-Eleven, McDonalds etc. Same with lolly pop and candies. In the case of BH, you will purchase the tub of ice cream or even the multi pack from the supermarket. In the case of lolly pop and candies, you will buy party packs. Pro for JIT: From experience this actually reduces the consumption of the ice cream and candies since they will only request when the urge strikes or when they see other consuming it. The candy and ...

Staying on the island, we sometimes forget about the beach. Luckily for me, my children sometimes remind us. Here is a view of some who get to enjoy the beach every day - they stay on the beach. The view: You could be in the apartments like this: or a house like this. There is a hotel in the background.

Reflexology is getting very popular in Malaysia. In Penang, most of the major shopping centers around the country have shops providing such services. The cost is also pretty reasonable - RM30/- for 45 minutes. This compared to Genting Highlands which is RM 60/- for 40 minutes. You have to be very careful, not all the of them are equal. If you are lucky and get one who is experienced and knowledgeable, s/he will be able to tell you what you are suffering from. Most of these shops provide foot reflexology but some will also provide hand reflexology too. For those of you who are interested in knowing more about reflexology, click here . The following was taken from the website. This is the best I have seen. Click the pictures below to access interactive reflexology charts. Alternatively, you can purchase massage machines from Ogawa and Osim. Only word of caution, for those who have not done this before it can be very painful. So far, I found...

IMG415 Originally uploaded by strovek There are various groups performing Qi Gong in various parks in Penang and around Malaysia. This is a picture of the group that does it on Sunday from 8 am to 9 am. The group is very popular and normally break into subgroups during the weekday adjourning at various spots on the island.

I thought I would share with your some beautiful bamboo trees I saw near the Botanical Garden in Penang. These are the green ones: These are the yellow ones: Bamboos are used in a lot of Chinese arts and Feng Shui to ward off evil spirits. You can get some information here .

I was thinking the other day the following sentences: A bear carrying baby. A bear-carrying baby. In the first statement, the bear is carrying the baby and in the second statement the baby is carrying the bear. However, when you say both sentences, the sound almost the same. So the question is how do you differentiate the two. Any suggestions? Or is my thinking flawed?

Back when I was studying in the U.S., the cans from our can drinks can be returned to the convenience store and the stores will pay you a nickel (5 cents) for it. I know it is not much but this encouraged people to save the cans for recycling. Even if the person actually drinking does not bother to return the can, somebody will. We can use this concept to encourage more recycling.

Imagine if you will that all the drivers were to follow the rules? Keeping to their lane, signaling when they want to turn and moving to the right lane. I often wonder, how much better our traffic situation will be if this happens. It would be a nice experiment to conduct because in reality most of the traffic jam which we encounter are due to people jumping queues, slowing down due to curiosity, jumping red lights, speeding and moving too slowly. All road users have a role to play - pedestrians, drivers (of all vehicles). Let us try to make our roads smoother and safer :)

Today I was introduced to an excellent site to help children learn. The URL is as follows: http://www.bbc.co.uk/children/ It looks like an excellent site to help learn English, Maths and Science.

This is the third year for e-Filing for Malaysia's Income Tax and I have to say that the process has improved dramatically. In the first year, it was necessary to download the PDF for each person you want to file it for. There was also problems and teething issues in submitting the form. On the second year, due to the above problem, the whole process completed ported to web based instead of dependent on Acrobat Reader. This made the filing much simpler but the printing was terrible. The pages did not align properly. Also with the electronic certificate, if you made a mistake and tried to get a new certificate, you had problem with Windows and had to create another account to redo the certificate. The other issue was since the certificate was embedded into your PC, you could not change the computer without losing the certificate (or for that matter lost it if you had to reinstall Windows). This is the third year, it looks like the certificate is now stored on the server. The...

There are a lot of carps in the Out Door Theme Park at Genting Highlands. In fact, some have witness truck loads being loaded in the pond. I took several photos here for those who have not been there to enjoy. See the waterfall just behind the fish pond: Recently, they have started selling fish food for visitors to feed them. Notice the carps are very hungry, so much so some of they will swim on top of each other to get at the food. For those who are interested in the significance of carp, more information can be found here .