BookFest KLCC 24 May to 1 June 2008

Last Friday, I went to the BookFest held in KLCC. This is the 2nd time I went to the book fest. My first experience was not a good one as I find out the book there is no more cheaper than the normal book store. (Naturally when there's a book fest, one will naturally presume that the books there will be much cheaper.)

However, I have a much improved experience this time around. I actually bought 4 books there and it just costs me around MYR50. It's definitely a bargain. Furthermore, I get my self lucky with incredible freebies when I sign up to be a Malaysian Blogger at the STAR booth.

Yeah...

Everyone get this when they pay for the entrance fee of MYR2
Close up on freebies...yea...proud to be a Malaysian!

Think this is a good book to read...though haven't have the time to read carefully...all Malaysian drive should have this...haha

Narnia Craze...actually not a bad movie at all...I like Peter...he's boyishly handsome and a King at his age...wow...

Yea...gonna watch this at Genting...have to book a hotel room first...coz it starts quite late...

4 books I bought under MYR50...not bad at all!

MBA vs MSc Part 2

Ok, it's official. I am going to tender my resignation this coming Monday.
Will have to serve 3 months notice though, so the earliest I will be able to leave the company tentatively will be early September.

Have decided to post it here just to give me an extra boost of confidence when I do it tomorrow. I could have picked a better day like Friday to do it but my immediate boss is not around and out of respect, I have decided to wait for her to come back from her trip to Europe.

Hope everything will turn out right tomorrow. This has been my 3rd resignation since my graduation. I am going to further my postgraduate study oversea this coming September. I have been blessed and have been awarded a scholarship oversea. There are 19 scholars all over the world and really, it has been a shocking event for me when I learnt that I am 1 of the 19. Words can not measure how grateful I am.

I believe and sincerely hope that this will be a great journey for me. Heard that the program is quite rigorous as we are required to take 66 credits over the space of 1 year instead of 2 years. Nevertheless, I am happy with this new challenge and looking forward to it. Hopefully will come back with hairs intact and a more knowledgeable and wiser person.

The next 3 months will be quite crucial as I have to make sure that all my pre-enrollment assignments are done in time and give my best on it while trying to make sure that I perform in my work and make sure the knowledge transfer is smooth among my colleagues...Time to clean up pending assignments, messy excel spreadsheet (hope there are none), process manual and documentation to be done and hopefully when the internal, external or regulator auditors come, I will be able to handle them...Fingers cross, hope I survive this!!!

To my future school...I am looking forward and hopefully will be my best when I meet you on September!

Trip to Singapore

It has been a great pleasure working in a multinational company, this enable me to travel to other country even though it is not too frequently.

For my 1 year tenure in OCBC (M) Bank Berhad,I have been given the privilege to travel to Singapore, once for work purposes and once for leisure cum work. It has been an enjoyable time there.

I really like the way they beautify their building...nice...

Check out the name of this shop...it's actually a book shop.
Even though I am not a disco chick...this pub successfully prick my interest with it's interesting neon ad...

Hope I will have more opportunities to visit Singapore in the future, business and leisure wise.

Duan Wu Jie (Rice Dumpling Festival) and Qu Yuan

Dunno why, but feel like blogging today even though there are some other things which is on my mind and plate now...

Oh, before that, happy Dumpling festival!

Duan Wu Jie (Rice Dumpling Festival) and Qu Yuan

Duan Wu Jie is a widely celebrated festival amongst the Chinese, to pay respect to the patriotic poet, Qu Yuan (pronounced as Chue Yuan). The legend involves a really long and complicated throne-fighting war and political history. But to make a long story short: Qu Yuan was an important minister back in Chu Kingdom in ancient China. He had been known for his loyalty for the emperor of Chu, and loved his country greatly. However, His Majesty had not taken Qu Yuan's advice seriously, and he eventually got himself trapped and captured in a foreign land by his enemies, which then lead to his own death.

Sad and angry at the corrupted, dying Kingdom, Qu Yuan tied himself to a big rock and threw himself into the River of Puo Luo. The people then made rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river. They believed this would stop the fish from eating Qu Yuan's body. Some would even row down stream in a boat, beating drums and shouting out loud in the hope to scare the fish away (it was believed that it is how the Dragon Boat event is related to the festival.

Since then, the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese calendar has been set as Duan Wu Festival to remember the incident. Although there were versions of legends and stories that indicate Duan Wu has existed way before Qu Yuan's death, the tradition still carries on.

The rice dumplings (ZongZi) are glutinous rice (or sticky rice in some countries like Thailand and Hong Kong) wrapped in bamboo leaves, or other large leaves (lotus is one of the more commonly used leaves). You can find all sorts of different fillings in the rice: pork, roast pork, chestnut, egg, salted egg, mushroom, red bean, or just simply without filling. They could be just white rice dumpling (not pre-fried), or brown (pre-fried with soya sauce).

Nowadays, you can buy Zongzi almost everyday of the year, in restaurants or hawker stores in most oriental countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, and other Asian countries where large amount of Chinese reside.

My trip to Cambodia...

I am going to Cambodia on the coming week of June. Contrary to being a responsible tourist, I have been delaying checking out the details of my trip there right until now, 2 weeks before departure. What I found really amaze me, especially the beautiful scenery and photos taken.

Here's something that I find out from the Tourism Center of Cambodia, it contains a lot of details, hence I just extract a few paragraph out.

Cambodian History

No one knows for certain how long people have lived in what is now Cambodia, as studies of its prehistory are undeveloped. A carbon-l4 dating from a cave in northwestern Cambodia suggests that people using stone tools lived in the cave as early as 4000 bc, and rice has been grown on Cambodian soil since well before the 1st century ad. The first Cambodians likely arrived long before either of these dates. They probably migrated from the north, although nothing is known about their language or their way of life. By the beginning of the 1st century ad, Chinese traders began to report the existence of inland and coastal kingdoms in Cambodia. These kingdoms already owed much to Indian culture, which provided alphabets, art forms, architectural styles, religions (Hinduism and Buddhism), and a stratified class system. Local beliefs that stressed the importance of ancestral spirits coexisted with the Indian religions and remain powerful today. Cambodia's modem-day culture has its roots in the 1st to 6th centuries in a state referred to as Funan, known as the oldest Indianized state in Southeast Asia. It is from this period that evolved Cambodia's language, part of the Mon-Khmer family, which contains elements of Sanskrit, its ancient religion of Hinduism and Buddhism. Historians have noted, for example, that Cambodians can be distinguished from their neighbors by their clothing - checkered scarves known as Kramas are worn instead of straw hats. Funan gave way to the Angkor Empire with the rise to power of King Jayavarman II in 802. The following 600 years saw powerful Khmer kings dominate much of present day Southeast Asia, from the borders of Myanmar east to the South China Sea and north to Laos. It was during this period that Khmer kings built the most extensive concentration of religious temples in the world - the Angkor temple complex. The most successful of Angkor's kings, Jayavarman II, Indravarman I, Suryavarman II and Jayavarman VII, also devised a masterpiece of ancient engineering: a sophisticated irrigation system that includes barays (gigantic man-made lakes) and canals that ensured as many as three rice crops a year. Part of this system is still in use today.

Looking forward to the trip, take nice picture and eat nice food....hahaha...

Diet? U kidding me?

My...ow...my...look at those yummy food, who could have resisted the temptation of savoring them?

I don't know about you, but dieting has been the main topic among the girls, be it if you are a teen in your 10's or a working adult in your 20's or 30's. Admit it, girls/women are vain , we will do anything just to look good and feel good. No denying that the guys nowadays may face the same issue and need some help in loosing a few flab of fat or beer belly...

Here's how! Introducing the DAY OFF Diet...deng deng deng....haha...now " The Day Off Diet uses a unique and easy to follow "Green Light," "Yellow Light," & "Red Light" system so you'll know exactly which foods you can chow down on and which foods you need to avoid to lose weight like you've never done before. All "Green Light" foods can be eaten until you are satisfied which means you never have to go hungry on The Day Off Diet!"

Sounds good? I bet cha it's good! Look at this!
Ok, it looks good isn't it...To tell you the truth, nothing is easy in this world. To have something, you must be willing to pay the price. So if you REALLY want to lose weight, PLEASE DO STICK WITH YOUR DIET PLAN...only perseverance and dedication win the day...it's the same principle to be applied in other area of our life.

MBA vs MSc

So, after years of working life, you might be getting sick and tired of working and am considering going back to school for further education, just to get away from the work or to experience living/studying oversea, climb the corporate ladder, change field, etc...

Irregardless of the reason for you wanting to continue your education, the ultimate question is do you know what you want to study? MBA or MSc? Recently I was having this dilemma, and has been browsing the net and asking seniors/seasons professional friends and relatives of mine for more information. Here are something that I think might be useful if you are experiencing the same query as I do.

MBA vs MSc

MBA is a general degree; most successful MBA use it for 3 things:
(1) To start their own business
(2) To make a lateral move - e.g. engineers use their technical knowledge to enter the marketing/finance department or become a consultant
(3) To make a vertical move - e.g. IT support becomes IT manager

MSc are specialized in the field and area that you intended to stay on

Personal Money

#82, June 2008
pg62, "In today's market, employers prefer candidates with specialized or niche postgraduate programmes but also insist on postgraduate managements courses, as this is vital for every senior managerial position. "

Conclusion? It all depends on you, what you want in life...If there are other constraints such as monetary, then obviously, that will be a deciding factor for you too...

Anyway, this is something I am still trying to find out more about. Appreciate if you would like to share your opinion on this.