price hike for The Star's weekend papers

I went to buy The Star just now and I didn't know they are increasing the price today from RM1.20 to RM1.50. I thought they said will start this weekend. Oh yeah, Saturday is weekend too.

I don't know why The Star have to increase price on weekend since they are making the most money on Saturday's advertisements.

Guess I have reason to stop reading The Star now. To be honest, I gain more information through reading blogs and online news than reading The Star's shit.

Nadal vs Federer: bizarre battle on mixed surfaces

Thanks to FL Sam for letting me know about the bizarre battle of the tennis court surfaces. I missed the sports news and of course no sports channel show the exhibition match between the clay court king, Rafael Nadal and grass court master, Roger Federer.

It doesn't matter who wins in this match. The players sure have fun playing in this court while ready for the next clay court championships in Rome in a couple of day. Nadal who beaten Fedex last year will defend his title to win three times in a role.

3-month job contract

Today is my first day going back to normal working hours due to a 3-month job contract.

It's been more than two years working on my own, alone. Sometimes I do miss working with a group of colleagues, going lunch together, chit-chatting during working hours, etc.

And today it feels a little bit weird because I have to wake up early in the morning and beating through the jam. In fact I couldn't sleep last night thinking how today will be.

So here I am today, blogging through my lunch hour. The staff here are nice but sad thing is the admin people never do a proper orientation or at least introduce me to the staff. Perhaps it's because I'm a contractor here.

Hopefully during this 3 months, I'll save up enough money and start travelling in September to Yogyakarta and Bangkok. I've already booked air tickets and accommodation to take a tour to Borobodur and Prambanan. After that I'm planning to watch tennis games at Bangkok Open by the end of September because Rafael Nadal is playing along with Andy Roddick, Marcos Baghdatis and many other professional players.

Happy Wesak Day - words of wisdom by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

Happy Wesak Day to all Buddhists!

Since I'm back in hometown I have the opportunity to write a blog based on piece of writing by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, who is also better known as Khyentse Norbu in the filming industry for his work on The Cup and Travellers and Magicians. Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche is the first Rinpoche I met when I was just a small kid and he is the reason my family take refuge to become Buddhist followers.

This piece of writing was written by Rinpoche in 1984 in Sydney, Australia. Here it goes:

Your Own Wisdom Is Your Own Best Teacher

It is important to know how precious our human life is for now we have the chance to choose the correct path. We should not waste time - time goes while you wait. We must make sure that we do not fall into the trap of samsara in the next life. Karma rules our life - our incarnation - and all. Karma will follow you as a shadow wherever you go and wherever you are reborn. It does not matter which sect you follow, you must know who you are whatever you are doing. Buddhism teaches you the essence reality of yourself and the reality of phenomena. The reality of phenomena is never dualistic. There is no effort or difficulty to abandon or adopt - our ignorance obscures this. We ourselves create our own difficulties. We fight and waste much time and energy for nothing. We gamble our life - our own life - for nothing. If you know reality everything is pure and equal - there is no I and you. There will be no suspecting or fighting each other for appearance. Enjoy your appearance and don't criticize others. Fish don't blame us for not seeing the water as their home and we don't worry about what fish think of water. There is no dualism truly existing outside - it is just a creation of your mind.

@ the set of Deal Or No Deal

Today has been a pretty exciting day. My friend Chia Chia had a called from NTV7 asking her to 'audition' for the show Deal or No Deal (English version). She invited me and another 3 friends to come along and join the recording of the show at 4.30 p.m.

We reached there on time and were asked to sit at the waiting area watching together with a bunch of teenagers (whom we later found out were the contestants of Star Idol) and friends of the Deal and No Deal contestants. We had to wait until about 5.30 p.m. before we were asked to go into the studio. During the waiting period, we were provided food and watched the American version of the show from a small TV.

Well, I don't have any photos to show because I have no camera phone and I was too chicken to use my digital camera. This is my first time watching a live recording from a studio and I thought it will be against the rules if I use it.

The recording started immediately after a briefing to the audience. I never watch the show before so I have no clue how the game show works. It has been ages since I watch any NTV7 shows and besides the timing of the show isn't right for me (at 7 p.m. every Monday and Tuesday).

The host is Goh Wee Ping (according to Michael Pang, he's actually Non the ex DJ of MixFM) and it's amazing how thick his foundation and make up is. During the preliminary round, we were introduced to 6 contestants. The first person who got 2 correct answers will move on to the next round, which is the most exciting part of the show. The questions were very simple and in the form of multiple choice:

For example (the questions sort of sound like this):
1. What is the name of the transport that move on land and sea ? Answer: hovercraft
2. Which of the following is not wind instrument? Answer: xylophone
3. SpongeBob has a best friend. What animal is he? Answer: starfish

One of the contestant was able to answer question 1 and 3 correctly and he automatically moved on to the next round.

During the recording, we had many breaks in between the show. After the first break and changing the setting, it was time for the 26 Revlon girls to walk out to the stage with their briefcases with numbers 1-26 on them. These girls are really hot and definitely the highlight of the show.

I'm not going to tell you how this game show works since you can read it from Wikipedia or watch the game show yourself. It was pretty exciting to watch the show live because you get to participate by yelling the number of the briefcase trying to convince the contestant which one has the lowest amount of money.

Guess what? We had to sit through the entire show from 5.30 - 8.30 p.m. So we were there for 3 hours and but never felt bored at all. In the end, the contestant walked away richer by RM3000. Well, I did not get anything except a bottle of mineral water, some sweets in my stomach and a fun weekend.

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