Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy New Year!

2008 has been a tough year. but i guess all of us have learnt some lessons along the way...


anyway, 2009 has to be better! haha Happy New Year everyone!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

NeighbourFOOD inc.

sometimes it's good to be persistent... sometimes it's good to be adventurous.

started a cybershop on cafepress awhile ago. design aside, i reckon that the US$ price tag actually stop some Asian buyers to buy.

now, there's a revolutionary change. a new shop has been set up, closer to home at

click me!
watch this space. more to come ;)

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Once upon a time...

在1997年那年, "同在屋檐下朋友会"诞生了.

还记得吗? 朋友会之所以诞生的缘故是什么?

当时,毕业在即, 总会对那段将青春挥泼的淋漓尽致的日子感到不舍.

无奈的是,人,总得长大,总得向前看,向前走.

所以我们也义无反顾地朝向梦想前进. 但,我们想有些属于我们特有的回忆,一些对青春的羁绊.

一个小圈子.

一个, 属于我们的原点.

有时,人忙起来,总会有一些迷失. 在这个时候, 我想, 最好的办法,就是回到最初的原点.
去寻找当初的感动, 最初的自己.

若干年后,我们也将实体的朋友会(当初我们可是有朋友会会员通讯簿的)移架到网上.

一直以来,我们都是在msn group上混. 聊聊近况或胡扯一番.

后来的后来, 大家也渐渐忙起来了,在msn group上打混的日子也少了.

还记得吗?纵然 我们少了上网聚聚, 可是也会定期地活跃起来(虽然也只是一下下而已)

那就是在msn group要将不活跃的group关掉的那时候.当时,我们会不期然地再上一上去,re- activate他. 好让我们的朋友会得以延续下去.

如此这般,我们也反反复复地弄了好多回.

直到…




这么办?还延续或不?

Monday, November 10, 2008

signing off...

November 10, 9.48am

Got a bloomberg chat message from one of my closest chat buddy during work time.

he told me, he got axed.

he's signing off, once again, from bloomberg (without a job = without bloomberg access, unless you can afford to pay for the terminal service yourself...)

looking through my speed dial book, alot of my mates are "unavailable" most of the time.

Today, i am adding another guy on that list.

Probably the most severe financial crisis of the century, i must agree. the worst is, this is not the end yet (or anywhere near it...)

signing off... gosh... this space is getting lonelier and lonelier as days gone by...

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

business venture

since primary school days, "business man" has always been my top choice of career.

during my high school days it has "evolved" from "business man" to a more canggih word "entrepreneur".

from a dreamer, to a student, to an analyst to a banker, the desire to run my own business has never really subside.

in fact, it has gone bigger and larger.

a couple of years ago, it would be great if i can start an online business, but i am glad i didn't because, the very reason of not starting it at the first place was the "sustainability" issue.

doing an online business is just like writing a blog:

"You gotta give your customer (reader) a darn good reason to keep coming back"

it was a good idea as it involves almost zero* cost (*terms and conditions apply) maintaining it and pretty much, with a well-known brand name, sales revenue will almost equate 80-90% of the net profit.

with that sort of profit margin, it enables you to control cost more efficiently and increase your flexibility for capex and advertising, which are key for survival.

but again, in the internet world, customers are more demanding. instead of one, they want you to give them multiple reasons to keep coming back.

firstly, a nice and smooth layout of the webpage, aka the Interface. no one would like to surf a lousy website using only html programming (for xxx website, maybe... but i doubt so too...)

secondly, an attraction or a Reason. for instance, cheap goods? nice graphics? informative? entertaining? and for whatever reason it is, it has to be on a marginal and comparative basis.

it must be cheaper than other website, it must be nicer, less bias and more entertaining. if not, there will be a huge question about the sustainability of the website. That's because the Opportunity cost for an online customer to "switch" is very low, about the usage of million nano micro joule of energy to click away from your website.

Both Obama and McCain have 11months to campaign, while your website only has 1 sec to sell.

thirdly, professionalism. your website must give the impression that the website is not an empty shell nor a hoax. it must be real or appear to be real. the act to instil confidence in viewers' mindset could be one of the most difficult thing to do. But good word-of-mouth can help.

what else. oh ya, low barrier-of-entry equates to High Competition. so, in order to sustain, you must have a solid fundamental.
it's hard to survive in this business world if your e-business relies solely on "internet activities".

The sustainability of an online business can be enhanced if 1) internet is just a mean of marketing tool and 2) the underlying "goods" or "services" which you are selling has a secondary market other than virtual world. ;)

my two cents worth... so time to brainstorm for what to sell now!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

黑Girl<女生>

当看到人们为了梦想,挥泼泪水,努力不懈,认真的态度,总会让人看到非常感动。

追逐梦想,迈向朝阳奔跑。。。那是我们也曾有过的青春。你还记得吗?

为你介绍,黑Girl<女生>


Thursday, October 23, 2008

new low

that's right. Hang Seng Index hit new low today.

13,760.49 pts. Down 3.55% on Oct 23rd.

oh well, life moves on. let's see how the Dow and S&P500 do tonight.

As we speak, FTSE100 rose by 0.03% while DAX fell by 0.56%... hm... seems like Uncle FEAR is dominating the market...

guess no one would dare to say (today) that "Hey! market has bottomed!"

Currently the Hang Seng Index is at 7.0 - 8.0x PE. some say it will bottom when it hit 5.0x PE. Hahaha... not funny. ;(

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Cajon

Cajon is an interesting music instrument.

According to wikipedia, it is a kind of box drum played by slapping the front face with the hands.

and the effect? excellent. Combining with a nice accoustic guitar, you can have a very nice and wonderful performance like this




and this



first saw this Cajon at the east exit of Shinjuku station, Japan, where a live band were performing using Cajon. Surprisingly though, it combines well with J-rock too.

gotta love this.

New MV: Jay Chou's 稻香

very good mv by jay chou. nice songs, soothing melody and meaningful lyrics.

great song for a bad times like now;)

enjoy

Monday, October 20, 2008

Buy, I shall... or would I?

The day after September 15, 2008, people were asking

"how many more banks will fail after Lehman?"

then you have the fannie, freddie, AIG stories...

You see DJIA, S&P500 and hang seng index all breaking all-time low...one by one...

"Hang Seng should be able to hold at 18,000pts. man, can't go lower than that lah!"

"...suppport, definitely a support level, 17,000pts, if it goes lower..."

"No way we can go below 16,000pts! no way!!!"

ahem.

on 10 Oct, it reaches 14,398.54 pts. lowest point in about 3-years... out of a sudden, the word "Support Level" was like kinda disappear...

then, central banks around the world started to work OT over the weekends trying to save the global economy, then you heard news that democrats and republicans had agreed in principle to pass the US$700 bilion bill but then was later voted down and then they approved it again...

not long after, global central banks started pumping money into the system, but banks were still not lending, then you have news saying that Iceland's on the brink of bankruptcy, banks being nationalised, stocks tumbled ...

credit spreads continued to widen, trading parties' credits were, at one time, worse than the risky commodities they traded in...

then, over last few weeks, people started to believe in "Cash is King" and "Return OF capital is more important than return ON capital"... market liquidity dries up, stocks' valuations look tremedously cheap based on historical standards...

then, when you think this is the end of the world... people started asking..."is it time to buy?"

"are we there yet? i mean bottom lah!"

"buy buy buy! even uncle warren says buy..."

"nah, i rather keep my cash under my pillow, but, which currency should i hold ar?"

and it goes on and on. interestingly, this was the market over the last one month.

well, oh well.

So, just chill mate, just laugh your way through this. Don't give up as yet, as we still need you to make money when the bull markets come... keke

Last word-of-wisdom from Mr. Market

"you could never time the market, so don't bother bottom-picking"

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

yesterday-today-tomorrow

Yesterday...

when we're younger. we used to play alot of football. Believe it or not, the team above, aka MCH United, has a really good track record.

1W 1D 0L.

Awesome. We won against the best football team in our school at that time (1997) "Team Bulan Sabit Merah" and we still brag about that till today ;) It was not fluke, we're darn good at that time. But of course, we have turned down every single one of their rematch request after that just to maintain our fantastic track record.

We used to have our own Jersey as well. But it was so small in size (was ok back then...dunno why it shrank over the years....) and so ugly, we only wore it for a couple of times. But it was cool.

oh ya, those jerseys was dark blue in colour, have a nice long sleeves and a crest on the chest.

We're young, but we're a bunch of kids with dreams and passion.

Captain Teddy once said "when i am rich, i want to build a stadium so that we can play football whenever we want"

"on top of that, i want to build a hospital and school too. Just to help those in need ;)"

Those were the days where you don't think forking out millions to build a stadium is impossible.
Those days, everything is possible.

even feel like we can conquer the world.

Today ...

miles apart i am from my mates. most of them are still sticking together in KL, some in SG and i am the lone ranger in HK.

this is the path i chose, so no regrets, but it would be fantastic if we still can meet up as often as before, to yumcha, to talk coc, and to drink Snow Flower Beer...

Paul came to HK twice this year. it's always nice to see old buddy in foreign place. Apparently ZC is coming sometime this year too. Excellent. Time to talk more coc.

Don't get me wrong, this is an exciting place, and i'm loving this place ;) On average, we have 1 visitors from Msia or Sng or Australia per month. so that's a very good statistics to be proud of.

Anyway, my friends. come visit us when you have time. It's always good to meet up, to chill and totalk coc. ;)

Being at where i am was like a dream comes true. I am at one of the most dynamic financial city in the world, but also.

The frontline of current credit crisis. Nice. I'm witnessing history.

Tomorrow...

Where will i be? Can i finally retire by 40?
Will i be able to own a cafe next to the beach, or a huge farm in Australia?

or will i be able to do what i always wanted to do?

only god knows. oh well, we'll know when the time comes.

Till then, live life like there's no tomorrow.

ta.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

农夫<愛似林一峰>

<旧歌重温>

这就是现实.林子祥没有骗你.

无论爱情故事多浪漫,生活还是得过.

"你无车无楼无番狗做乜要拖我手
女人最忌无品男人最忌无银"

"所以话我爱你唔驶理够唔够match
我爱你系睇你够唔够cash
我爱你唔介意落雨担下遮
最紧要行多两步你会揸架车
你咪叫我爱你看你有冇诚意
你若然爱我咪叫我与你逼巴士"

enjoy

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

一个字

好久都没用中文写布落格了.
无他, 只因一个字

懒.

懒归懒, 但别人一问我, "你最近在干嘛?"
我总会答

忙.

忙与盲之间,总能挤出一点时间来八一八天下大事
结果看到的是一个字

乱.

乱的,不止是疯狂的金融市场,还有戏剧性比溏心风暴更戏剧性的政治闹剧
偶尔的闹剧还好,但一旦看多了就会

腻.

腻的感觉,以前好像只会在吃太多后才出现的
但最近感觉总比较容易腻,可能是我已

老.

老朋友们都陆续结婚了.看着照片时,心情总有点复杂,充斥着开心,兴奋与失落
失落的是因为我都因工作而没能出席,但开心的是看到朋友们都能聚在一块.

来.

来得快,去的也快. 我说的是珍贵的周末时光.
星期五总会为周末编排节目,但周末一到,却只想当宅男. 只因我

懒.

懒是因为我太忙了.我忙因为这世间太乱了.
乱是因为某人腻了现状,腻却是因为东西老了.
老是因为时间来的太快,去的也快...原来,我的时间被懒掉了...

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Bye bye Lehman...

What a difference a day makes...

Good bye good ol lehman brothers. 158-years old bank and tanked in a day (some argue over a couple of months...)

we're definitely witnessing a very significant era in Human history here.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

刘翔

This is an entry about Liu Xiang...

正想在网上找些关于刘翔的新闻,没想到竟然让我发现刘翔的部落格.

http://liuxiang.sports.cn/biography/

细心阅读刘翔的自传后, 从而更为了解刘翔的心情,及身为一名缔造历史伟大运动员背后的点滴滴...

感动,是有的. 骄傲,也是有的. 他不仅让中国人骄傲, 他, 更在书中带出许多宝贵的人生道理,一些我们可能已经渐渐遗忘的热诚及对梦想的执着.

在此,从新认识刘翔吧!


在自传的第一章...

我叫刘翔,大家都知道,可为什么我叫刘翔,知道的人可能就不多了。现在大家都觉得我这名字起得真有讲究,人如其名,飞翔在雅典,可我小时候差点就不叫刘翔了。

小时候,围绕给我的取名,我家曾展开过一场“大讨论”。   

当时普遍流行的一种取名方法是取单名姓随父亲,再在名字里添上一个母亲的姓。

我父亲叫刘学根,我母亲叫吉粉花。按照这样的道理,我原本应该叫“刘吉”。显然,这个看似吉利的名字,因为与“留级”发音完全一样,被望我成龙的众亲戚一致否决。   

于是,大家开始试图让我的名字影响我的性格,“刘强”这个名字很快被提了出来。这是个比较普通的名字,也比较朴实,提出这个名字的叔叔、姑父希望我身体强壮些。但我妈妈很快又发表了不同的声音。因为那时候我家有个邻居的小孩名叫“强强”,用上海话说起来有点犟头犟脑的意思,还是个皮大王,所以我妈妈对这个名字印象不是太好,更不愿意以后同样用“强强”来称呼我,于是,“刘强”也夭折了。   

给小孩子取名永远是一个纷繁复杂的过程,从这个角度来看,我的取名还算进行得顺利。在第三次征集意见的时候,“刘翔”被我姑父提了出来。“翔”和“强”在上海话里读音差不多,而“翔”字还有“飞翔”、“吉祥”的意思,怎么听都顺耳,于是我爸爸一拍桌子:“好!”...

Restecp (Respect it is... if you haven't noticed)

R.E.S.T.E.C.P. Restecp(a), once-popular-now-kinda-outdated word used in the Ali G movie, which was actually stands for respect but Mr. G there was retardedly got the spelling wrong...

anyway, this is not an entry dedicated to the Mr. G, but it is a short tribute to

1) Mr. Liu Xiang

carrying the hopes of 1.3 billion Chinese + plus a few hundred million more from other part of the world, we know that you have tried your very best, even just to step out to the track field in Birdnest.

Even though it's a pity that it has to end this way, yet, we know that this is not the end.

So, take care, and come back stronger and faster!

2) Mr. Lee Chong Wei

Though it would be great if you can win the first gold medal for Malaysia, making us feel good and proud to be a Malaysian.

Though it might be really really good that for once Malaysian can shout across the strait and say "hey, you guys only got a silver but we've got a Gold!" and have a good laugh about it...

Though it might just be a wishful thinking, but guess most Malaysians would actually hope that we can win a gold medal to re-unite the nation again. irregardless of race, religion and background, we all can celebrate together as a nation, like what we have done back in 1992 after we lifted the Thomas Cup...

But we know that it's not easy to play against, let alone beat Lin Dan, in front of a chinese-packed stadium in China. We know that it is hard, both mentally and physically, but that's why it's worthwhile to fight hard for it.

Do not give up, fellow sportsmen and women of Malaysia, as we Malaysian has never ever gave up hope on you guys to make us, and the nation, proud again.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

typhoon, yes? no?

Hong Kong Weather Observatory hoisted STRONG WIND SIGNAL No.3 today.

Typhoon Feng Sheng is fast approaching HKG and perhaps, maybe, by tonight midnight, Mr. Feng Sheng will have a direct hit on HKG before diverting its route to China then Taiwan.

the problem is that, in HKG, once its Typhoon no.8 or above, everyone, stay at home and no one goes out.

i.e. if it's no. 8 tomorrow. gosh. Don't have to come to work...

The thought of it is tempting...but come to think of it..

people's house's roof might get blown off by strong wind, people got no where to hide when window broken.... accidents, people stucked at somewhere and can't go home....

all the sufferings, and all i am thinking of is to have another couple hours of sleep?

gosh, Typhoon, Yes? No?

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Uniqlock



Great Stuff

Rain Rain Rain...

feeling sleepy again today, probably it's the weather.

Been raining for weeks here in Hong Kong. Once in a while HK Weather Observatory will issue a Amber Storm Warning. but to malaysia standard, this "storm" is no where near the daily "rain" we have...(the rain which caused the flood in Shah Alam probably will be classified as Black Storm here...)

anyway, the biggest difference is that i used to drive around, who give a dang about raining, office car park is covered, home is covered. safe and dry.

Over here, i walk to work and sometimes commute back. Rain, it's a killer.

i got myself about 30% wet today when i walked to work today in Amber Storm's rain. gosh. even my socks are wet... guess office gotta be stink for the whole day...

Monday, May 12, 2008

To The Top of The World!

Manchester United won 2007/2008 English Premier League


Olympic Flame Reached The Top of The World!

Bravo!

Thursday, May 08, 2008

We're going to Moscow!

Mark this day
May 21st 2008

UEFA Champions League Final - Man Utd vs Chelsea



We're going to Moscow!

Go Man Utd Go!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The love of Tan Hong Ming

This is an award winning TV commercial ad, conceptualised and directed by Yasmin Ahmad

The kids understand it, why don't we?

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Creative Art - Business Venture

Once upon a time, a bunch of friends gathered, and decided to start up a website to display their art works.

Hence, we have created soitees.

things have slowed significantly after that, perhaps, passion was not that great as before...

a great creative art, leads to a great art work. From a business perspective, that leads to a great business venture.

guess it's time to put things together again. will come back with more. promiso

Saturday, April 05, 2008

A night to remember...

It has been a while...

that we managed to meet so many friends on line to have a group chat

under the same roof. indeed ;)

it's 5th of April, 2008.

a night to be remember...
Guess aging has drove us from late night mamak... to online chat.. guess it's healthier anyway..
here's the attendees..
It's a fun night. Thanks Pals. Good Ol' Day..

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

南翔饅頭店 Nan Xiang Restaurant

market is sooo quiet over the holy week, although it’s painful that the financial market has been hit so hard by the subprime woes in the US, but it’s been good for junior analyst like us… finally we get some time to breathe… (hopefully this won’t be too long of a “break” if not, literally, we can go on “a very long break”).

Ha anyway, saw the tight window of opportunity and took advantage of it. During the quiet and long Easter weekend, we went to Shanghai for a nice and short holiday. Overall, it’s a nice and easy trip.

Beside the usual Bund, I strongly suggest that everyone should go to the Shanghai Old Street (上海老街) near Yu Garden (豫园). These places are nice, and when you walk down the road, it’s like back in the old Shanghai days and you thought you’ve gone back in times to the war time in early 20th Century… Anyhow, there’s a very interesting place call Nan Xiang Restaurant (南翔饅頭店)

interesting, because their xiao long bun is soooo good and juicy, it’s “cheap”, (I mean, it's cheap, but there’s a twist to it), super duperly famous and has been around for about 100years… So as a tourist, we went to the restaurant on a rainy Saturday and suddenly we found that there’s a super long queue.. probably there’s about 50 people queuing up for…take away.

Nice.

We’re not taking away, and I think eating in house during a rainy day is much nicer anyway… so we went up one floor.

Stunned.

Super long queue. So... we gave up. There’s no way we can beat the locals in fighting for table.

That night itself, one of our shanghainese friend told us the secret of eating in Nan Xiang.

“The higher you go up (floors in the restaurant), the price will go up by 20%. Don’t give up after you see the queue in first floor…” source: A shanghai-based Malaysian dude.

Interesting. The next day, we decided to splash our cash to eat a bun (not that we're that rich...所谓"出来玩早就料到会花钱" - spending is predicted while travelling), and went to Nan Xiang again.

Nice, the queue is 2 times longer, well, it’s a sunny Sunday, it’s kinda predictable. So we went up to 1st floor, haha, long queue, no worries! 2nd floor. Darn, long queue too! I grabbed a waiter and asked “how many floors do you have?”

“Two.”

Only two? That’s weird… He looked at me, and asked “ we have Ya Zhuo (雅座) if you want…”

“???!!!” Ya Zhuo? What’s that? (literally it means nice seat)

The waiter said “well, you can get a seat straight away, but, you must spent at least RMB150 each.”

Stunned.

I grabbed the menu and found that 6 buns cost about RMB 33 – 50… meaning that we have to eat at least 18 buns per person?

I asked him, “do you think we can eat RMB150 per person?”

Without a doubt, he said “sure, I guarantee”

Crazy and desperate enough, we took the seat.

We walked up a small flight of stairs, and another one after about a 20-steps walk, and realized that we have reached a floor which is about 20cms higher than the 1st floor. (ha! another floor!)

The decorations are different, I mean, much nicer and the it’s so much quieter. Well, I was telling Lindy, hey, think we’re over paying for this… but then we realized that there are a few “floors” to go… In the end, we took the package which cost us RMB150 each (to meet the quota) but, it’s totally worth it! Nice, juicy, and we went to Heaven and back. Haha. (for pictures, you would need to go to my facebook. Haha)
okok. this is the picture of the place. and trust me, the bun is worth your money, time and patience ;)

Check out the craziness here. watch this video

after that, we flew back to Hong Kong, and realised that.... there's a branch in Hong Kong too...oh well, nothing beats eathing shanghai xiao long bun at shanghai authentic old restaurant on a nice shanghai chilly sunny day... perfecto.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

On the weekend, my name is "宅男"

blame it on the weather.

blame it on the hassle of changing from my comfy 'pjyamas' to jeans and sport shoes...

blame it on the heavy weekdays that i have...

blame it on...nah, don't blame laziness, he has got nothing to do with this.

During the weekend, my name is "宅男"

well, popularised by taiwanese and japanese, the term 宅男 literally means a dude who likes to stay at home, doing nothing but indulging himself in the cyberworld, comics, manga, toys and.... those sort of stuff.

for the last two days, the first thing after i woke up was to switch on the TV, channel crawling on my limited-options pay-tv (because i don't want and i can't afford to pay for so many channels...although some dude did recommend me to add fashion tv. wonder why...) and then, slowly crawl out from my couch and turn on the laptop. hook on to internet, and wah lah.

gmail. login.
hotmail. checked.
facebook. no one bought me these days and yeah, i still kick arse in dopewars.
addictinggames. played those games before.
mousebreaker. played too.
msn. no one bother to chat... oh well. login off...

then will then hook up my wii.... but after one tennis game and a bowling game, my short attention span will then divert to the Simpsons Season 1-18 DVD pack...

and that was how my weekend ended.

note: i have taken out the fact that i HAVE to work on weekends, which is the only excuse to make me step out from my house during weekends... ;)

Saturday, February 16, 2008

1st blog of 2008

finally decided to shift fully from xanga to this blogspot of mine.

it has been 9 days since chinese new years, 4 days since i am back in hk, revert back to ab-normality of working life. HK hasn't changed much beside the fact that the weather has gone crazily cold here. thanks to la nina effect, apparently.

thought i will be flooded with work, despite having a serious "post-holiday-lag" syndrome.. but blessing in disguise, market has been crapping out, so these days been going home quite early (comparing to my 2007 standard)

met up with old buddies during CNY, which is always the most wonderful thing to do. it's a tradition that every year we will be having our hardcore annual "CNY marathon", i.e. party everyday till late and just sleep for 4-5 hrs before the hardcore events resume.. but guess we're getting old, alot of them chicken out these year, some with very very poor attendance record (including the organiser ah long himself). oh well, like what they all said, we have grown up, and guess in a year or two, the 'marathon' will become a short 10m sprint... haha

it's quite a remarkable CNY this year as i got to meet up with mr. Jay Chou and mr. Kenny Sia


Special thanks to mr. Pierre pang.
and on my flight back to hk, guess who's sharing the same flight as me?
Ipoh-born international first-chinese bond girl Dato' Michelle Yeoh!
two (some said three) celebrities in a CNY?! wow. you must be kidding me... but this is how my year of rat begins ;)
Gong xi Fa cai!