Interloper View

Recent speech I delivered for Toastmasters: New Year is around the corner, there is a tradition that is common across the world. Do you know what is that tradition? It is to make New Year’s resolution. Babylonians make promises to their gods to return borrowed objects and pay their debts. Romans make promises to the god Janus for whom January is named after. At the end of the Great Depression about a quarter of American adults form New Year’s resolutions. At the start of 21st century 40% did (according to statistic brain). Did you know that in a 2017 survey 45% of their respondents would like to lose weight. You can look it up in The Statistics Portal . Why would anyone want to lose something? Isn’t it better to gain something? When it comes to Law of Attraction, we need to say things using positive phrases. That is why this speech title is on Gaining Fitness and not Losing Weight. Losing Weight is easy, if you are very sick, you will automatically lose weight. However, is

Started to participate in Toastmasters again. One of the notes for me to keep in mind are the various ways to organize speeches. This is what was provided in one of the Pathway speech guides: Chronological Chronologically organized speeches follows a sequence of events. Topical A topical structure organizes speeches by topics and subtopics. Break your speech into sections that explain major concepts related to your topic, followed by smaller and smaller subtopics.   Spatial A spatial structure organizes a speech by geography or the physical structure of the topic. Construct a speech that discusses the impact of your topic upon a region or the world. Spatial also refers to content that covers the physical landscape of a specific location. For example, if you are giving a speech about Germany, you may organize your presentation in a way that implies movement across the country. Your content could begin in the south at the Alps and then travel northward towards the Baltic Sea.   C

When I tried to redeem my UOB Smart$ points today, I was told that GSC has stopped doing that from midnight on Jun 19, 2018. They will continue to let us earn UOB Smart$ points until Jun 30, 2018. I guess the number of Merchants supporting UOB Smart$ points is shrinking. The first was BHPetrol on Jun 25, 2017. Looks like UOB card is getting less attractive now.

I thought of letting the ink go off by itself but it too too long. It started peeling. Finally, I was told that it could be removed using bleach. Bleaches available these days are rather mild, so I did not feel anything when I soaked my finger in it. My wife was more sensitive so she felt some heat when she soaked her finger. This was how my fingered appears immediately after voting. After dipping into the bleach, the ink was removed except for some on my nail.   This was the bleach I used.

General Election 14 has started. It is a bit different this year, the road is not cordoned off as it was in previous general election. My family and I arrived around 8:15 am but the crowd has already started to build up. The following are some photos taken. The indelible ink is light but turns dark once it comes in contact with water.

I expected a lot of people wanted to see this movie but was still surprised when I tried to book the ticket online one week before the movie started in our local theaters. Half the seats were already taken. Had I waited until Thursday, I would not be able to get any good seat. The movie continued from the post credit scene of Thor: Ragnarok where the ship carrying the survivors of Asgard encountered Thanos’ ship. From then, it was action all the way. Since most of the Marvel movies were building up to this story, majority of the characters also appeared here. The few missing were Hawkeye and Antman. The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy were powerful but no match to Thanos and his lieutenants. From previous movies, Marvel were willing to kill off major characters such as Odin, Quicksilver. However, the number of characters killed off in this movie was still surprising. The carnage and destruction surpassed the two earlier Avengers movies. However, I was still surprised that t

I obtained six months free subscription for this service from my membership with TheStar website. Selection Dim Sum only provide Asian contents - Shanghai, Korean, Thai. Selection include movies, series and documentaries. So far I have seen a few Thai movies. The movies are quite innovative. Download Download for offline viewing are available for both movies and series. Downloads expire after 14 days. We cannot specific the resolution of the download but will prompt for language selection if there is more than one available (usually Mandarin or Cantonese). Mobile Data protection This is one area lacking in the Dim Sum application. When I tried downloading two movies, it ended up consuming 3 GB of my quota. I later found that a setting to restrict the use of mobile data in the setting. It is strange that this is not the default option. Tracking view progress View progress is tracked across devices similar to iFlix and YouTube. Price The subscription is RM15 per month. I did not find a

I was reluctant to subscribe to any streaming service but since it was offered free, I decided to try it out. This is my impression of the service. iFlix Logo Selection IFlix provides a combination of Korean and English movies and television series. There is a collection of Marvel movies, of which Guardians of the Galaxy is the latest. Series includes shows from TLC, ABC, Nickelodeon, and ABC. The Korean selections are from O!k and tvN. There are also some Malay movies and Malay series as well as Malaysian Football. I found some great Korean movies and series which I would not have found without this service. Only one of two series are up to date - The Flash and Britannia. The variety is enough to keep me occupied. Download Download for offline viewing is only available for series. Downloads are disabled for movies. Downloads expire after seven days. When downloading, we are prompted for the resolution to download, so that we know how much storage will be consumed by the dow

Telekoms has been pushing the Unifi branding on all its products. The latest product to use this branding is a mobile prepaid service called mobile@unifi. During the three months promotion period, the sim card is given free (list price is RM10/-). Each person is allowed to request up to 5 sims. The first one million sims come with 20GB data, 10 minutes talk time and 10 sms. To me it looks like a great deal. An excellent opportunity to test the dual sim feature on my new phone. However, using dual sim significantly reduces the the battery life due to the use both antennas. Initial experience was good in terms of coverage, probably because I was with the city limits. When I first started using the sim, it was H+ but turned to 4G when I went for lunch. While using for the past 3 weeks, I had only had two occasions where the 4G signal was on but I could not browse the internet. However, when I tested the speed, it was disappointing; even though 4G was indicated but the download speed was o

Finally purchased Samsung A8 Plus on the launch weekend on Jan 21, 2018 after getting frustrated with the need to keep rebooting my OnePlus One. As part of the launch, it was bundled with a 10,000 mAh power bank (which allows me to have two micro USB to USB-C adapter - one from the power bank and one that comes in the box) and 64 GB memory card. I planned to purchase A8 initially but bought the A8+ instead because of the additional memory (6 GB vs 4 GB) and storage. Difference between the two models are as follow: A8 A8+ Battery 3000 mAh 3500 mAh Weight 172g 191g Screen 142.0mm (5.6" full rectangle) / 140.2mm (5.5" rounded corners) 153.6mm (6.0" full rectangle) / 151.8mm (6.0" rounded corners) RAM 4GB 6GB Storage 32GB 64GB Price RM1799 RM2499 Performance Performance is great, I did not feel any lag even with after launching multiple applications. There a Device Maintenance options that allows m

I received this as book as part of a Samsung for Kindle offer in February but finally got around to reading it. The book centers around one of the characters from Oliver Twist, the Artful Dodger. In the first part of the book the author, Peter David kept criticizing Charles Dickens on the development of Oliver Twist and the focus of the story and how weak Oliver was. It was kind of irritating for the author criticized the very work that he was going to use for the book.   Other than the criticism, the story development was well done; introducing the characters and linking the various characters together. Starting by showing Jack Dawkins by escaping (which explains why he has the nickname Artful Dodger) from his expulsion to Australia. The vampire conspiracy and how it resulted in the two other main characters, the princess and also son of Van Helsing was well done and believable. Once the main story started, transition between the events and also sprinkle of some background

I was tempted to buy a new phone with One Plus 5 was announced. A few things had driven my initial decision to select One Plus: There was the Screen Overlay Issue , which I finally resolved. Then there was the ability to create multiple user , but the reason disappeared after I learned about work profile (also known as Android for Work ). Another driving factor was the thought of better camera (previously affected by the Screen Overlay Issue). However, One Plus One still provide great photos. Low light photos are still a problem but that is still true with One Plus Five. The other factor I look for in Android phones are the upgrades provided but it seems the maximum number of years for most phones are still two years - One Plus One appears to be among one of the exceptions. So for now, I will continue to stay with One Plus One for at least another year. The following are some of the photos I took with my phone.