Wikipedia, Google Going Black

I was searching some info using Wikipedia and when the page loaded, saw this (below) and surprised me.

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First thing that came to my mind is what in the world is SOPA and PIPA? Luckily there is a "Learn More" tab at the bottom right side of the banner to ease my search for these 2 acronyms.

Okay, so on the 16^th of January, 2012, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, 18^th of January, 2012. Such decision is an effort to protest against the proposed legislation to stop Internet piracy by the United States Congress.

SOPA, short for Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) if pass would allow the Justice Department to seek a court order requiring U.S. search engines to scrub certain results from the sites as one of its antipiracy measures see this and this. 

Gosh! Imagine the horror if both of these bills are passed.

How many times Wikipedia and other online websites have saved your life by helping you in finishing off your assignments? How many times our most errant, absurd, obscure questions are answered with minimal keystrokes on Google?

I don’t know you but I do often wiki and google. Couldn’t imagine what would happen should the bills are passed... It would be devastating to the free and open web!  

This protest will also be joined by Google, the giant search engine (though they didn’t shut down their site but instead covered most of the logo on its U.S. homepage with a black box, and added a link asking users to tell the U.S. Congress “please don’t censor the web”), and thousands of other, mostly smaller websites.  

Two hours later I checked Wikipedia...

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And Google USA site...

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It is for real... ...

Mandarins & Ang Pow from Boss

This is a random post that I just can't resist from writing it. My big boss just went around and distributed 2 mandarins and an Ang Pow to everyone in the marketing operations department.

How kind and cute of him. :) He is not even a Chinese, but a Pakistani.

This man definitely knows how to make his subordinates happy working for him.

Beer Factory/ Happy Birthday KC

It is KC’s birthday and as usual, he had chosen a place that involves drinking and dancing and sight-seeing chicks. Hahaha.

We didn’t join for the dinner session because babe and I were having another karaoke session with my angels. But we did turn up for the second round instead – Beer Factory.

With the birthday boy - KC

The greatest couple of all times.. Muahaha!

One of my angels and her bf. Sweet sweet couple.

Oh well, Beer Factory is a GAB solus and hence you can only choose to drink from a range of brands that GAB is carrying such as Tiger, Heineken, Guinness and some other imported brands like Paulaner and Strongbow. I think we ordered and drank like 5 towers of Heineken and a tower of Long Island, which is a mixture of some liquor and some fruit juice. Heart Long Island much <3!

Not really a nice piece of pic I know.. Duhh..

Still sober

After finishing all the 6 towers, we moved on to Movida because KC still have some liquors saved there. So we headed over there to finish it. It's the second second-round. And we had a few round of ice war.. Must have been very messy and people may thought we were nuts. Lol.. it was fun though.

Trying to stay sober

Goshh.. Shuen looks better with his glasses on, and I looked nerdy

Awesome level: 4 ½ stars 

3am.. a night of fun ended. Happy birthday KC! :)

Story Telling

So this is what we did last Friday when office hours get boring...

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I never knew that we can have so much of "creative juices" when we are bored.

New Year Resolution

Two. Zero. One. Two.

It's a whole new year and that means it's time to spell out a whole new resolution!

I've done it... writing down everything that I would like to achieve by the end of 2012. Hope this would lead me to live a more meaningful year and enjoy my day to the fullest!

A snapshot of what I've written down.

Well, my new year resolution is somewhat directed towards personal development. Career wise, not so much. Maybe because I'm still in this Management Associate Program (of a beverage company), of which will only end by December. So, there's nothing much I could do for career progression as it's pretty much fixed. Or perhaps, I've no enthusiasm in what I'm doing slash the company. It's pretty bad and I'm a messed-up, I know. So, to fix this, I turn towards looking for my interest. Seriously, I don't have any specific interest that I can potentially turn into some kind of big project or career to work on. So, this year, I'll focus on finding that interest.

In case you didn't notice, I've also included the punishment if I were to fail to accomplish everything that I've written down, at least those with the due date of 31st Dec 2012. Try to hunt it in the photo posted above. Gee... It's actually quite scary. Couldn't imagine myself with, or should I say, without it, which is of utmost important to a girl/lady/woman. I've said it and there is no turning back. Well, it's also somewhat a good way to motivate myself to move forward.

Hmmm... would very much like to shift my mindset into thinking positively. So, instead of using a punishment to push myself to move forward, I should be eyeing on a reward to motivate myself to gear forward right? But I couldn't think of a satisfying reward for myself should I manage to accomplish everything, well, again, at least those with the due date by the end of this year. What should be the reward?

Vacation at some exotic place? - oh well, I am already scheduled to go somewhere this year.
Shop more? - as if I don't already do that...
Dine at some really nice restaurant and indulge in some really good food? - that would defeat my resolution right... and I'm not quite the person who fancy food that much though...

What else than?

Can't really think of it so if you have any idea on how to reward myself, do let me know. Or, share with me on how you have rewarded yourself in the past?

Perhaps, the ability to accomplish the new year resolution is already the reward itself! The process of achieving those is pretty much rewarding as well. So, maybe I should just focus on harnessing my energy towards achieving them. Real rewards, can come later.

Great!

Uncle Duck Fishball Noodle

So I went to shop for some new clothes for Chinese New Year, third time already for the same reason. Gosh!

My third destination – Times Square. I used to hate shopping at Times Square because, let’s face it, there is always jam at KL, parking is an issue, and most important of all, Times Square is just like a big pasar malam (night market) that is covered with roof and real outlets instead of stalls. I hate having to ‘fight’ to get something I want. Also the very reason I hate walking into a MNG outlet when there is sales.

Hahaha! A really scaring thing to bump into!

But now, not anymore!

Used to have a friend who always wore nice pieces of clothing and curiosity got me asking where did she bought them. You knew the answer! Times Square. And at very cheap prices that I wouldn’t believe my ears when I first heard of the prices that she mentioned. For those who have been to Times Square, you know the pricing of clothes over there. Almost all outlets put up banners that spell “All at RM20”, etc. Well, you really can get your hand on some really nice piece of clothes if you look carefully.

RM25 – RM40. That’s the range of prices I got for all the 5 nice pieces of clothes I bought from Times Square tonight. Walking out from Time Square feeling rather accomplished! Well... As for what I’ve bought, will be posting them only during the festive yeah!

Okay back to the topic, as titled, that I wanted to write about initially. Gosh… shopping does get me talking non-stop. *Squint*

So we were driving back home. We were talking about what to have for a late dinner, because it’s really late, like 10:30pm, oh we should be having “supper” instead of dinner. But none of us have any idea of what to have. To make growling stomach even worse, we were in amidst of losing our way because of a wrong turning.

Then babe spotted a restaurant that his dad used to brought him. In split second we decided that this is where we will have our dinner, sorry, supper - Uncle Duck's Fishball Noodle.

What we saw from our car, almost passing it by.

Don't know where is the exact place but

it's located near Jalan Pasar, KL.

The inside of it.

Now you can see "Uncle Duck, Hong Kong Restaurant".

Yup the interior was designed to look really much like a Hong Kong restaurant.

Finally! Food is here!!

The fishball vermicelli noodle is really good. They have spicy red chillies and this home-made prawns paste, which is a little bit spicy, for you to go with your dishes. Really yummy that I can go for a second bowl. But for the sake of not overeating, I stopped. After all, the restaurant is only operating till 11pm and hence we kind of need to rush to finish our food actually. 

Well, a wrong turning brought us to some really good food. So, lesson learnt that sometimes when something goes wrong, don't be frustrated over it because, something good might be just around the corner waiting for you to stumble upon it. Yay!

The First Party of The Year

Five… Four… Three… Two… One! Happy New Year!

Wishing for a great year ahead for two zero one two and may everyone always be in the pink of health.

I did not go for any countdown. Was asked to go for a drink at IOI Boulevard and countdown with fireworks but turned it down as I was too lazy to do so. Guess because babe was not here with me, he was working as an emcee for a friend’s wedding, and my dear family is too far away. When your love ones are not by your side to celebrate a special moment, it ain’t a special moment at all… Sad right. Moreover, I don’t wanna be celebrating the end of something, but instead to rejoice for the start of something new. I guess probably because 2011 was not really a good year for me. I wanna pump up the kicks in 2012! Rawrrr…

And so, we started the New Year with a BBQ party. It was initially intended to be a small and warm gathering of close friends. But 17 of us turned up instead. Anyhow, the more the merrier, so we welcome everyone with open arms.

Hot hot hot dogs

But first and foremost really need to thank Edmund for allowing us to use his house as our party's venue. A big and magnificent house, just nice for house partying. Not forgetting his mom, who as I heard, prepared the beehun and curry, and spaghetti. Other than that also need to thank Nicholas's mom for marinating the chicken wings. These are all nice foods that are essential for a BBQ party. And certainly need to thank Kelvin for organising everything and making this happen.

My sis and I.

See I bought the same clothing for both me and my new iPhone =)

The one who barbecued everything for me
Thanks sis! XD

Kelvin and I beside the fiery barbecue pit

Babe testing out the front's camera of his new iPhone 4S

Honestly, as much as it pains me to say, the quality sucks

But them both are funny ^.^

My bunch of friends and a special guest =)

After a 3-hour of non-stop barbecuing (ok I did not barbecued anything, my sis and bf did it for me), and eating, and chatting, and eating, we finally went up to the third floor for karaoke. Yes, Edmund's new house has a karaoke room. How cool is that!

Where we sang our lungs out!

But how come everyone chose only emo songs! It's the new year peeps!

Oh wait... Forgot about something. We toasted! Yeap... we did the traditional chinese's Yummmmmmmmm Seng! Toast to a great year ahead!

Coming up - surprise surprise! It's one of our friend's birthday. 

So sorry I cut into pieces before you can take a picture of it.

Anyhow, happy birthday Mok! =)

Group pictures are a must too!

What a 'big family' we have here =)

Two hours of singing is just enough. Instead of having free flow soft drinks, we had free flow hard liquors. Lol. How can we not have some booze to celebrate the new year?! Thanks again to Kelvin, Edmund and Tim for sponsoring some of their 'collections'! =)

We played some card games

with the intention of finishing every bottles we had here! Gosh... Guys!

Funny Hong... Who said he was "thirsty"

but then the first who rested on the sofa after a few "hirst quenching drinks"

These are not the only ones we finished!

We had Cointreau and Black Label finished as well!

*Party rocks*

 The effect...

A GG'ed friend xD

*Giggles* It was really a great party! I will always remember this in mind. Looking forward to having more. Need to sleep now... Signing off! Oh wait... one word before I go to sleep. Drink sensibly. ^.^

The Smarter Phone

Finally it’s here! My iPhone 4S!

Strange I got one. Because I was never a big Apple’s fan. Note the was. It is not until Steve Jobs passed away, that I fall in love in Apple’s products, because I fall in love with the great man’s vision. Period.

I’m not always the first mover for IT stuff. Perhaps never even a laggard. Because the dough that went into buying all the so-called piece of arts for IT geeks, I would definitely rather spend on my wardrobe. But this time, I made an exception, though I’m not the one paying for it. Jobs is no doubt one of the greatest marketers of all time. Selling his vision instead of the product(s), and successfully persuaded ME to into getting an iPhone that cost my babe a large chunk of $$$!

For those out there who aspire to become a better marketer, clicking on the video attached below is a MUST!

Now you know why some brands became the best-selling products in the world. Now you know why all those peeps out there queued up since morning in front of the telecommunication stores/ Machines, and even camped for the night, as I heard happened in some others countries, just to get their hands on iPhones.

Simple trick is to sell your “why”, aka your vision. People buy a product because of what it represents. Not how many or what godlike functions it have.

Hereby would like give a big big hug and thanks to my babe! Thank you so much for this gift. I may not be able to reciprocate in the same way but I’ll do my best. And I just want to let you know that I appreciated i

Now you know why some brands became the bestselling products in the world. Now you know why all t and you, especially. XOXO ♥♥♥